Bofors chargesheet scrutiny deferred by court till today

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: The scrutiny of Bofors chargesheet against.....more

One kg of hair removed
from girl’s intestines

AHMEDABAD, Nov 3: Doctors here performed a rare surgical feat by .....more

Mr Pawan Chamling
Mr Pawan Chamling

Sikkim Govt for infrastructural development in tourism sector

GANGTOK, Nov 3: With thousands of tourists from across the....more

Harkishan Singh Surjeet
Harkishan Singh Surjeet

Surjeet donates family
property share to CPI-M

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Harkishan Singh Surjeet was inspired by the ......more

Kushabhau Thakre
Kushabhau Thakre

Prepare people for hard
decisions, says Thakre

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: BJP president Kushabhau Thakre today asked party.......more

Mr Jagmohan
Mr Jagmohan

Centre to study civic
problems of Varanasi

VARANASI, Nov 3: The Central Government has decided to set up a....more

Contentious issues
Westerners voice support
to saffron brigade’s stand

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Even as the Sangh Parivar is under under attack...more

Hindi-speaking villages
not to be transferred
to Haryana: Badal

FEROZEPORE, Nov 3: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said....more

Bofors chargesheet scrutiny deferred by court till today

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: The scrutiny of Bofors chargesheet against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, Dubai-based former Bofors agent Win Chadha, former Defence Secretary S K Bhatnagar and others in the Rs 64 crore payoffs case was deferred till tomorrow as the special court here today asked CBI to bring originals of documents supporting the chargesheet.

Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke, in a packed court room at Tis Hazari Court complex, said he wanted to peruse originals of the 213 documents filed in support of the chargesheet and directed CBI to bring them to the court tomorrow.

CBI counsel N Natrajan said the agency did not bring the original papers concerning the case due to security reasons. he, however, did not elaborate as to what were the security risks in bringing the documents to the court.

Earlier, the Judge perused certain documents brought by CBI for almost an hour and then asked the agency to bring the originals to the court tomorrow.

Natrajan, who has been made the special public prosecutor in the case, along with other CBI officials was closetted with the Special Judge in the latter’s chamber for half-an-hour.

Natrajan later told reporters the court takes cognisance of a chargesheet only after perusing the original documents and there is nothing unusual about it.

CBI has alleged that Quattrocchi and Chadha received huge amounts as kickbacks for getting the Rs 1437 crore gun deal to the Swedish company A B Bofors and also named former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in coloumn two of the chargesheet saying accused not sent for trial as he was no more.

Several mediapersons including TV crew waited outside the court since morning for today’s news event but the case was rescheduled for the post lunch session.

CBI has also named the Swedish company A B Bofors and its then chief Martin Ardbo as accused in the case.

The investigating agency alleged that Quattrocchi’s A E Services received 7.3 million dollars while Chadha’s Swenska got 27 million dollars as kickback from A B Bofors for helping the latter in getting the contract in March 1986.

It had said that investigations were on to ascertain the role of Quattrocchi’s wife Maria, Win Chadha’s son Harsh Chadha and three of Hinduja brothers in the 155mm howitzer gun deal in which the company allegedly paid Rs 64 crore as bribe to clinch the contract despite clear warnings from the Indian Government that there would be no middlemen in deal.

The CBI said it was also probing the role of Hinduja brothers - G P Hinduja, Prakas Hinduja and Srichand Hinduja and others, and had sent letters rogatory to Switzerland, Sweden, Panama, Luxembourg, Bahama, Jordan, Liechtenstein and Austria in this regard.

The accused had been charged with criminal conspiracy (section 120-b IPC), cheating (420 IPC) and various other provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI said investigation conducted in India and abroad showed that the accused were party to a criminal conspiracy with some others during 1985-87, the object of which was to get the 400 field guns contract awarded to AB Bofors by the Indian Government. (PTI)

One kg of hair removed from girl’s intestines

AHMEDABAD, Nov 3: Doctors here performed a rare surgical feat by removing one kilogram of hair from the intestines of an 18-year-old girl yesterday.

The girl had become addicted to consuming her own hair after her father died ten years ago, sources at Government-run V S Hospital, where operation was performed, said today.

The surgery was performed by a team of doctors led by Ajay Munshi, the sources said adding the condition of the girl was stable. (PTI)

Sikkim Govt for infrastructural development
in tourism sector

GANGTOK, Nov 3: With thousands of tourists from across the country pouring into this Himalayan state, the Sikkim Government has decided to give a much-needed fillip to the infrastructural development in the tourism sector in the state.

The Pawan Chamling-led Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) Government will construct seven additional "helipads" in the state to cater to the holidaymakers. At a high-level meeting, the Chief Minister here on Monday said the Government decided to construct helipads in Dodak (Soreng) and Pelling, Ravangla and Yuskum on the trail to the famed Kanchendzonga base camp in West Sikkim.

This apart, the Government has decided to connect the popular tourist resort of Yungtang in tribal-dominated North Sikkim, which over the years has become a much sought-after resort with its exquisite topogrephy.

Incidentally after the State Tourism Department and the Army decided to open the famous Nathula border pass on the Indo-Tibet border situated at some 16,000 feet earlier last month, hundreds of holidaymakers had visited the rarified reaches of the Nathula. The State Government has build the necessary tourism infrastructure around the seven new helipads providing basic amenities. The state was connected by air to Bagdogra in neighbouring West Bengal by introducing a chopper service last year.

There were three existing helipads in the state - at Gangtok in East Sikkim, Namchi in South and Gazying in West Sikkim. Stressing on the need for developing and promoting tourism in Sikkim which possessed immense potential, Mr Chamling had instructed all such departments having "guest houses" in various parts of the state to hand over them to the Tourism Department.

The Department in turn would convert these guest houses and other old buildings into "heritage" buildings to be used for tourists.

Mr Chamling also said the State Tourism Department should ensure that these additional assets were fruitfully utilised to help the Department generate more revenue and employment for the fund-starved Himalayan state and solve its growing unemployment problems.

With more and more hitherto "restricted" areas opening up to the tourism sector, the industry could look forward for a tourism bonanza in the state, said travel and tour operators in the Himalayan state. (UNI)

Surjeet donates family property share to CPI-M

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Harkishan Singh Surjeet was inspired by the step taken by communist leaders who donated all their property to the party way back in the 1930s, but at that time he had no property of his own.

Seven decades later the Marxist leader fulfilled that dream. He has given up all the proceeds from his share of family property to his party, the CPI-M.

The amount works out to Rs 20 lakh, of which Rs 10 lakh has been given to the Central Committee and another Rs 10 lakh to Sohan Singh Bakhna Memorial Trust in Punjab. The Trust is constructing a memorial for all martyrs of the struggle for independence from Punjab.

The CPI-M general secretary has also decided to draw a single wholetimers wage and handover the rest of his Rajya Sabha MP pension as levy to the party.

In a letter to the polit bureau, Surjeet said he was inspired by communist leaders EMS Namboodiripad, P Sundarayya, M Basavapunniah and C Rajeshwara Rao who had donated their entire properties to the party in the late 1930s.

At that time he had virtually no property in his name but was later left some landed property by his father which was being cultivated by his family. He took the decision to donate all his property after consulting his family members.

Surjeet also said he chose the 50th anniversary of the Chinese revolution to take this step as several leaders of the revolution had also been a big source of inspiration. (PTI)

Prepare people for hard decisions, says Thakre

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: BJP president Kushabhau Thakre today asked party cadres to prepare the people for hard decisions which the Government would be taking to face the challenges of the new century.

No doubt popular expectations are extremely high from this Government. But given the objective situation that prevails, Government may have to take some tough decisions as mere sloganeering cannot deliver good governance, he said in his opening remarks at the national executive which began its two-day meeting here.

He said the party can achieve the objective of providing good governance if we stand united and do not allow petty thoughts to come in the way. Our unity and our discipline are our party’s assets. Let us make full use of them and build upon the goodwill and trust that have been vested in us.

In the first meeting of the national executive after the formation of the new Government, he said if we fail in this endeavour, then we will have only ourselves to blame. In this context, there are lessons to be learnt from our experience in the states where our performance in this election had not been upto our expectations.

While asking the people to be responsive to all sections of society irrespective of their caste, religion, gender or language, he said decades of cynical abuse of power by Congress has greatly weakened institutions that act as pillars of democracy.

Thakre said with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) getting a positive mandate, the Congress has lost relevance as also the left.

He said while the BJP between 1996-99 had grown from strength to strength, the parliamentary strength of the Congress has declined to an all-time low of 112 seats and There is no reason to believe that the Congress will be able to check this slide.

Referring to the left, he said their historical blunder was to become the Palanquin-bearers of the Congress. In the event, the left has been reduced to a mere footnote in history.

The BJP president said what had emerged from the recent elections was a bipolar polity where the BJP was the dominant pole and the other pole was the Congress.

He said the mandate of 1999 is also a rejection of the politics of negativism and destabilisation in which the party’s opponents had indulged in in the hope of short-circuiting the democratic path to power.

Thus, this year’s verdict is a reward for our performance and a punishment for those who strove hard to undo that performance, he said.

Thakre said it was to the credit of Atal Behari Vajpayee that he is the only Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to secure a third mandate.

He said the elections had also seen the laying to rest of the politics of untouchability that had been used by opponents to their advantage all these decades.

The forging of the NDA and its victory in the polls is a testimony to our pursuing the path of righteousness in the face of hostile propoganda, he said.

He said it was important to bear in mind that the mandate of 1999 was a covenant of trust between the people and party and nothing should be done to damage this trust. On the contrary, we should build upon it and consolidate our gains, he said.

Listing the challenges that lay ahead, he said faulty economic policies and populist economics had undermined the national economy as huge sums of money had been squandered in the name of social welfare with nearly a third of the population living below the poverty line.

Thakre said for years national security imperatives had been ignored and leniency shown to separatist elements.

Those guilty of crimes have been allowed to escape and cases allowed to fester in courts of law, he said.

He said there was a need for expanding the party base in various areas and draw towards it all sections of society. These should figure high on our agenda.

On the Orissa cyclone, he said the rehabilitation of the victims called for national participation and asked partymen to mobilise funds for this effort. (PTI)

Centre to study civic problems of Varanasi

VARANASI, Nov 3: The Central Government has decided to set up a ‘think tank’ to study the civic problems of this world’s oldest living city and suggest ways to rejuvenate its modern and ancient aspects.

The Centre has chosen Varanasi to launch a nation-wide urban development project to revive the cultural aspects of historical cities and provide them with modern and efficient civic amenities, he told reporters here yesterday.

Union Urban Development Minister Jagmohan undertook a tour of the interior areas of the Varanasi city on foot yesterday to acquaint himself with the problems faced by the city-dwellers and its visitors.

Mr Jagmohan visited the river front, Ganga Ghats and area surrounding the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple and said sanitation and sewerage system needed attention. The Government would constitute an expert committee to study the alternative plan submitted by an NGO Sankat Mochan Foundation before embarking on the second phase of the Ganga action plan, he assured.

The proposed think tank for the city would comprise experts on city management.

Mr Jagmohan said the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust should spend some money from its income on maintaining the areas around the temple to make it clean and comfortable for Indian and foreign tourists.

The Union Ninister stressed the need for preserving the historical and ancient monuments of the city and said population concentration in the old city should be lessened by developing new residential areas.

He also called upon NGOs to cooperate with the Central and State Governments to make the country’s cities beautiful and well-managed. (UNI)

Contentious issues
Westerners voice support to saffron brigade’s stand

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Even as the Sangh Parivar is under under attack from several quarters in the country for its opposition to the Papal visit and conversions, many Western Christian journalists and scholars have voiced support to the saffron brigade’s stand on the contentious issues.

These writers have not only acknowledged the atrocities committed on Indians during Portuguese rule in Goa and other parts of the country in the 16th century, but also say the Sangh Parivar’s concerns too need to be heard, both within India and the Christian world.

It is clear that the Christian community of India has over-reacted in the past 16 months, because Christianity has often alienated Indian Christians from the mainstream, Francois Gautier, South Asia Correspondent of ‘Le Figaro’, France’s largest circulated newspaper wrote recently.

According to American scholar Dr David Frawley, missionaries are pumping in millions of dollars and sending trained workers to exterminate Hinduism and Hindus need not hesitate in criticisng the missionaries.

In an article ‘Christian provocation’ in a recent issue of ‘The spectator’, Jon Stock, India correspondent of the daily ‘Telegraph’ says, there is little doubt that the current communal tension in India would not be so serious if foreign-funded missionaries had been content with giving Indians the choice of Christianity and left it at that. Gautier too echoes the same sentiment in a recent article, where he says, if only the Pope could tell his missionaries just to do service in remote areas and leave the tribals to their indigenous practices, there would not be any problems.

Many Christians, says stock, have declared war against Hinduism to convert the nation to Christianity. It is this that has so piqued the Hindu militants.

What seems to have been ignored by Western Governments and their missions in New Delhi, as they bleat about India’s growing intolerance, is the extreme intolerance of the evangelical, mostly American, missionaries who are now working in India, he says.

Criticising the role of media, Frawley says, the murder of a foreign missionary in India (Graham Staines) is played up to the hilt and an orchestrated campaign has been launched as though Hindus are on a Christian killing spree.

On the issue of alleged atrocities on Hindus during Portuguese rule in Goa and other places, raised by the Sangh Parivar, Gautier says, of all the European colonisers, the Portuguese seem to symbolise best the total disregard, ill-will and destructive spirit of Christianity towards Hindu India.

Summing up, Jon Stock says in ‘The spectator’, those who say the more extreme members of the Sangh Parivar have little to do with genuine Hinduism have a point, but then it could be equally argued that America’s evangelical missionaries have little to do with religious tolerance. (PTI)

Hindi-speaking villages not to be transferred
to Haryana: Badal

FEROZEPORE, Nov 3: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that Hindi-speaking villages in Abohar and Fazilka would not be transferred to Haryana at any cost as the areas were an integral part of Punjab.

Badal told reporters here that Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala perhaps does not know that the fate of these villages had been decided a few years ago.

He said that during the regime of Surjit Singh Barnala in the State a census was conducted in one such village - Kandukhera- and residents had refused to go to Haryana.

Therefore, Badal said, Haryana’s claim on 107 Hindi-speaking villages was not based on facts.

On the political situation in Punjab, he said a majority of the Akali MLAs were with the SAD(B) and they had full faith in his leadership. BJP MLAs were also with the Dal.

He accused the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD) chief G S Tohra of being an agent of the Congress. (PTI)

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