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Explosion caused by scooter bomb
Powerful blast rocks NC Hqrs; 5 injured

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Nov 23: Five persons, including a National Conference (NC) block president, were injured when a bomb hidden in a scooter exploded outside the heavily-guarded headquarters of the ruling party here today.

The two-wheeler packed with powerful explosives, parked by suspected militants in front of Nawai Subh complex housing the central office of NC, exploded at around 1130 hours when more than 20 leaders and activists of the party were inside the building, official sources said.

Block president Mohammad Anwar Shangloo, three policemen and an auto driver were injured in the explosion. Four parked light vehicles and a motor-cycle were damaged and windscreens of adjoining buildings were smashed under the impact of the blast, the sources said.

However, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Gopal Sharma, said four persons including two policemen were injured adding militants were behind the incident.

Police has started investigation into the incident and the culprits will be nabbed soon, he said, adding patrolling had been intensified and ‘Nakas’ had been laid in the city and the outskirts.

Security forces sealed off the entire area but none was arrested in connection with the blast, the sources said.

No militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the explosion so far.

The injured, who included Head Constable Mohan Lal, Constables Ghulam Hassan, Riyaz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad (auto-driver) were shifted to hospital, where Riyaz was discharged after first aid, the sources said.

Ghulam Nabi Shaheen, provincial president of National Conference, Kashmir said he and other leaders of the party were in the headquarters when the blast rocked the area.

This is the first time that the party headquarters had been targeted by militants after NC came to power in 1996. Extremists had bombed the party headquarters in downtown Srinagar in the early stages of militancy following which the central office was shifted to Nawai Subh complex.

The scooter bomb attack is the latest in a series of militant attacks in the last few months. Ultras launched grenade attacks on Civil Secretariat twice and stormed the Army headquarters in separate attacks since September.

Meanwhile, a top militant of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen and a security jawan were killed and two injured while security forces arrested a Pakistan-trained ultra in Kashmir since last evening.

Police assisted by Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead a self-styled battalion commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen in an encounter at village Haigam in Sopore area of Baramulla district in north Kashmir today, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Gopal Sharma, said today.

The militant, identified as Bashir Ahmad Mir, was wanted in a number of insurgency-related incidents and his death is considered a ‘major blow’ to militancy in north Kashmir, Sharma said.

A pistol and a wireless set were recovered from the slain militant, he said.

In another operation, BSF and the state police arrested a Pakistan-trained militant Javid Ahmad Najar alias Javid Kachroo alias Maqbool, accused of three murders and four grenade explosions, from Tankipora area of downtown Srinagar today.

The ultra, affiliated with the ‘Al-Badre’ outfit, was allegedly involved in the killing of two National Conference leaders, Abdul Rehman Tramboo and Mohammad Shafi Sofi, and another person.

He was also alleged to be behind the grenades attacks at Nawakadal, Dalal Mohalla, Urdu Bazaar and police station Maharajgunj, the Police Chief said.

A wireless set, a grenade and some documents were recovered from the captured militant who is being questioned, he added.

In another incident, militants hurled a grenade at a security picket near Victory Crossing in Khanyar area of downtown Srinagar today.

The grenade fell short of the target and exploded on the road, wounding a pedestrian, he said.

He said militants also shot at and injured a shopkeeper at Chinkral Mohalla in Srinagar last evening. The victim was rushed to hospital where he was operated upon, the spokesman said adding his condition was stated to be ‘stable’.

Sonia asked to change ideology

NEW DELHI, Nov 23: In the wake of its worst electoral debacle, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been asked to emulate Britain’s Labour Party leader Tony Blair who made dramatic changes in the party ideology and strategy to spectacularly ride back to power in 1997 after four consecutive defeats.

The suggestion has been made by senior Congress leader, V N Gadgil in a note presented to Gandhi stressing the need for modernising, remodelling and redefining Congress ideology as was done by the Labour Party after 1987 in view of changed perceptions about Hindutva and secularism among the people.

Harsh introspection was made by the Labour Party in a similar situation, when it lost four consecutive parliamentary elections and was kept out of power for 18 years, Gadgil said adding that Congress must learn from this British experience.

Gadgil emphasised that the Congress must realise that 70 per cent of the voters in the last four Lok Sabha elections had not accepted certain aspects of the party ideology and policy.

In this regard, he wanted the party to cultivate the middle class which is the real opinion maker. He also stressed the need to revise the party’s perception of the BJP which was no longer a Brahmin and Baniya Party.

We must also analyse why a party (BJP) which got only two Lok Sabha seats 14 years back has now got 182 seats. The political reality is that Hindutva does appeal to a large number of Hindus.

Asserting that this reality must be accepted before devising any strategy for revival of Congress party, Gadgil also underlined that BJP had won majority of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes seats of Lok Sabha.

Besides, it has also brought about deliberate changes accommodating many Backward Castes in the party structure and leadership, he said adding that they had mobilised about 30,000 Dalits at the time of Kar Sewa at Ayodhya.

We cannot judge RSS or BJP of today by what they were 50 years back. If we call them communal and fascist, it hardly makes any impact on the majority of voters, who belong to the age group of 18 to 35. To them, fascism or communalism does not convey anything sinister, he said.

Turning to the party’s basic policies, he said secularism was the most controversial part of the Congress ideology. The best source of basic ideology of a party is, of course, its constitution....It mentions that the object of the Indian National Congress is to establish a socialist state based on parliamentary system of Government, but it does not mention a word about secularism.

He noted that the party constitution was revised after independence by no less a person than Pandit Nehru.

Besides, the words socialism and secularism have acquired a peculiar connotation in India in the last 50 years, he said.

Gadgil said to most people, socialism means statism and nationalisation of everything. Similarly, secularism for a very large number of Hindus means anti-hinduism and solitude for Muslims.

He said it would be better to use the phrases of mixed economy and plural society instead of socialism and secularism.

Listing democracy, socialism, planning, self-reliance, non-alignment and secularism a six basic concepts of Congress ideology, Gadgil, who is a permanent invitee to the party working committee, said all these concepts needed to be re-debated.

In my view, time has come to examine whether 70 per cent of the voters have consistently voted against the Congress because they no longer approve the Congress ideology and policies, he said adding the party had lost four consecutive Lok Sabha elections and its vote share had come down to less than 30 per cent.

Elaborating on the need to cultivate the middle class, he said India today had the biggest middle class in the world and its strength is around 25 crores.

Stating that a lot of people were attracted to the Congress as a result of Indira Gandhi’s programme of Garibi Hatao in 1971, he said a large number of these people entered the lower middle class in the last 25 years mainly due to the party’s policies.

It is this very class which has now gone against the Congress and is attracted by cultural nationalism of BJP. (PTI)