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Advani- A perfect NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Credited with rejuvenating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 1990’s, seventy two-year old Lal Krishna Advani is a perfect foil . ....more Lahore-Delhi bus service NEW DELHI, Oct 13: The Lahore-Delhi bus service operated today......more NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Following is the list of Council of Ministers. ....more
Indian forces on NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Air Chief Marshal A Y Tipnis today said the ...more |
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Hegde, Bakht dropped NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Senior Janata Dal (United)....more
Jagmohan set to begin NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Making his second innings......more History will judge JALANDHAR, Oct 13: Sarv Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD)...more Situation tense, KANNUR, Oct 13: An uneasy calm prevailed at....more |
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Advani- A perfect foil to Vajpayee NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Credited with rejuvenating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 1990’s, seventy two-year old Lal Krishna Advani is a perfect foil to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While Vajpayee is poetic and persuasive, Advani is a forceful speaker with cold logic shorn of any sentiments. Celebrated for his controversial Rath Yatra of 1990, Advani faced slings and arrows of his opponents who charged him with whipping up communal frenzy, while the moderate Vajpayee largely remained untouched by the row. A one time journalist, Advani was Information and Broadcasting Minister in the 1977 Janata Government and had assiduously pushed for the autonomy of the mass media. A free mass media was a cause close to the heart of the former newsman whose entry into politics as a 14-year old in Karachi, now in Pakistan, was a sheer accident. After that 1942 accident when a friend interrupted a game of tennis to take him to a RSS Shakha, Advani, the politician has never looked back. Immediately after partition, he left Karachi — still his most favourite city where he was born on November eight, 1927 — to start a life of politics on eastern side of the then newly-created border, which has taken him to newer heights with each passing moment. Advani, joined the RSS in 1942 and became its Karachi branch secretary in 1947. After partition, for four years he organised the RSS network in Rajasthan before joining the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) at its formation in 1951. He went on to become the party’s Delhi unit secretary during 1958-63, vice-president during 1965-67 and president during 1970-72. He was made a member of the BJS central executive in 1966. Advani, who was elected chairman of the Delhi Metropolitan Council in 1967, entered Parliament for the first time in 1970 as a Rajya Sabha member. Married, with a son and a daughter, he became BJS president in 1973 and held the post for three consecutive terms. Arrested during emergency, Advani became the Janata Party general secretary when it came into being in 1977, and was Information and Broadcasting Minister in Morarji Desai’s first non-Congress Government since independence. Advani, who did not contest the 1996 polls as he was not cleared of the Hawala charges, first took over as the party president in 1986 from Vajpayee. Later cleared of the Hawala case, Advani contested and won the 1998 Lok Sabha poll from Gandhinagar. He has now retained the seat, defeating former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan. His stewardship came at a crucial stage when he was faced with the arduous task of rebuilding a demoralised BJP all but wiped out by the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress in the 1984 polls. The incisive mind working behind the tall physique of Advani has come into focus many a time during Parliament debates. Desai, in a foreword to the BJP leader’s book, complimented his honesty and dedication towards his task. The diary (Advani’s book) reveals a person of singular honesty and dedication, culture and equanimity, Desai had commented. (PTI) |
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Lahore-Delhi bus service operates without hitch NEW DELHI, Oct 13: The Lahore-Delhi bus service operated today without any interruption despite the military coup in Pakistan yesterday, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) officials said. The DTC, which operates the Indian end of the service, said a Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation bus left Delhi as scheduled at 0600 hrs this morning. There were 38 passengers and two crew on board. A DTC bus from Lahore also crossed into India at the Wagah border in Punjab this morning, the officials said. The officials said they did not anticipate any disruption in the service, which had continued uninterrupted even at the height of the recent Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, all Karachi-bound flights from India have been cancelled following the military takeover. Justifying the sacking of the Sharif Government, Mr Hafiz Rashid from Lahore said that under Mr Nawaz Sharif, prices of essential commodities had gone up, there was all round economic ‘instability’ and ‘corruption’ had been legalised. "We are going around with a begging bowl in our hand asking other countries to save us", Mr Rashid said. Mr Rashid also justified Mr Sharif’s sacking on the ground that he as Prime Minister was responsible for the Kargil misadventure. "Look at the honour you gave your Kargil martyrs but in our country no one bothered about them so much so that we refused to take back the bodies of our dead soldiers", he lamented. Another passenger Mohammed Arif from Sialkot while agreeing with Mr Rashid, however was quick to add that after settling down Army Chief Parvez Musharraf should make efforts for the restoration of a civil Government."The Army Chief can, for the time being install an interim civil Government and, when there is a degree of economic stability, hold general elections", Mr Arif added. Another Lahore resident was of the view that the seizure of power by the Army would not in any way pose a threat to India. The Pakistan Army cannot afford a war with India and efforts should be made to improve relations which touched an all-time low after the Kargil conflict for which Mr Nawaz Sharif was responsible, he said. The passengers said that following the coup there was no tension in Lahore though the military did stage flag marches last night in parts of the city. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Following is the list of Council of Ministers. Prime Minister: Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Cabinet Ministers: 1. L K Advani 2. Ananth Kumar 3. T R Ballu 4. Ms Mamata Banerjee 5. George Fernandes 6. Jagmohan 7. Dr Satyanarain Jaitya 8. Ram Jethamalani 9. Manohar Gajanan Joshi 10. Dr Murli Manohar Joshi 11. P R Kumaramangalam 12. Pramod Mahajan 13. Murosoli Maran 14. Ram Naik 15. Nitish Kumar 16 Juel Oram 17. Ram Vilas Paswan 18. Naveen Patnaik 19. Sunderlal Patwa 20. Suresh Prabhu 21. Kashiram Rana 22. Shanta Kumar 23. Jaswant Singh 24. Yashwant Sinha 25. Sharad Yadav Minister of State (independent): 1. Maneka Gandhi 2. Arun Jatiley 3. M Kannapam 4. Dalip Ray 5. Ms Vasundhara Raje 6. N T Shanmugham 7. Ms Uma Bharati Minister of State: 1. Ramesh Bais 2. Bijoya Chakravarty 3. Shriram Chauhan 4. Bandaru Dattatraya 5. Jaisingh Rao Patil 6. Santash Gangwar 7. Chaman Lal Gupta 8 Dr Vallabhnhai Kathiriya 9. Faggan Singh Kulaste 10. V Dhananjay Kumar 11. Bangaru Laxman 12. Sumitra Mahajan 13. Subhash Maharia 14. Babulal Marandi 15. Ms Jayawanti Mehta 16. Munni Lal 17. Omer Farooq Abdullah 18. Ajit Kumar Panja 19. Hiran Pathak 20. Devendra Pradhan 21. E Punnuswami 22. A Raja 23. O Rajgopal 24. Dr Raman 25. N Ginjee Ramachandran 26. Vidaya Sagar Rao 27. Sbppk Satyanarayanan Rao 28. Bachi Singh Rawat 29. Syed Shahnawaz Hussain 30. Tapan Sikdar 31. Digvijay Singh 32. T H Chaoba Singh 33. V Sreenivasa Prasad 34. I D Swami 35. Dr (Ms) Rita Verma 36. E V Alias Balasaheb Vikhe Patil 37. Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav. (UNI) |
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Indian forces on alert: Tipnis NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Air Chief Marshal A Y Tipnis today said the armed forces were keeping a watch on the developments in Pakistan and there was no cause for concern over the country’s security. "We are on the watch. There is nothing to worry about," the Air Chief said before attending a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at South Block here. The CCS was scheduled to meet after a meeting of the newly appointed Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee. Army Chief Gen V P Malik, who was also to attend the CCS meeting, said "the Army is vigilant." The armed forces had been issued a high alert last night following the Army’s take over of the administration in Pakistan. Vigilance has been strengthened on the border and all air and naval bases. (UNI) |
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History will judge Gen Vaidya’s killers: Tohra JALANDHAR, Oct 13: Sarv Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD) chief G S Tohra today said it should be left to history to judge whether killers of General A S Vaidya were martyrs or murderers. You should not even touch such issues. This is a very, very sensitive issue. Only history can judge such issues as to whether they were martyrs or killers, he told reporters here when asked about Akal Takht Jathedar Puran Singh honouring the families of Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Harjinder Singh Jinda, killers of the former Indian Army Chief, and terming the duo as qoumi shaheed (community’s martyrs). Asked about his own absence from the October 9 function at a village in Amritsar where newly-elected Lok Sabha MP Simranjit Singh Mann and Puran Singh heaped praises on Sukha and Jinda, Tohra said, it is not that I did not want to go there. I had other programmes that day. He said Mann wanted to go there and I have no objection. (PTI) |
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Situation tense, but under control in Kannur KANNUR, Oct 13: An uneasy calm prevailed at Ayithara, the scene of yesterday’s bomb attacks on RSS-BJP workers allegedly by CPI(M) activists, and other areas in Kerala’s Kannur district, even as police maintained a strict vigil to counter further outbreak of violence. Police said the situation in the region continued to remain tense following yesterday’s incidents, in which a BJP worker was killed and two seriously injured, with people preferring to remain indoors, fearing further retaliatory attacks by both groups. Police continued to conduct raids at several sensitive places in the area to unearth explosives, reported to be hidden by hardcore elements. Additional police forces had been drawn from neighbouring districts to strengthen security at Ayithara, the sources said, adding patrol parties had also been pressed into service. As many as 23 CPI(M) workers had so far been taken into custody in connection with the bomb-throwing incidents. Prohibitory orders were in force in the area, the sources added. (PTI) |
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