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Naidu
describes HYDERABAD, Oct 22: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu ....more Benazir
lambasts Taliban role against Afghan women
BJP happy over filing of chargesheet in Bofors case NEW DELHI, Oct 22: BJP today expressed happiness over ..more JD(U) to continue alliance with BJP, in Karnataka BANGALORE, Oct 22: Karnataka Lok Shakti president ......more |
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Govt proposing to make rape punishable by death NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Government is proposing to bring a legislation in the ...more
Nayanar announces distribution of ‘Pattayams’ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 22: Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar ....more No political instability, uncertainty in UP: Rajnath LUCKNOW, Oct 22: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Uttar Pradesh unit ...more ‘IPU can not take NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The newly-elected Chairperson of the Inter....more |
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Naidu describes Cabinet as "balanced" HYDERABAD, Oct 22: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu described his Cabinet, which he expanded today by inducting 28 Ministers, as "balanced" and said priority was accorded to women and new faces in the present expansion. The 37 member Cabinet consisted of Ministers belonging to all sections, social groups and regions with priority to women and new faces, Naidu told reporters after the expansion of his nine-member Cabinet at Raj Bhavan here. The size of the present Cabinet was more or less same as the previous but the highlight of the present Cabinet after today’s expansion was that it has 19 new faces, including five women. Asked if there would be another expansion in the near future the Chief Minister merely quipped "later". Naidu also parried a query on the omission of three former Ministers and senior party leaders including K Sivaprasad in the present Ministry saying that he had merely reshuffled the Cabinet and did not drop anybody. He said that a decision on holding the next Assembly session, the first after today’s expansion would be taken at the Cabinet meeting scheduled later this evening. The unfinished agenda and other policies and programmes which could not be implemented in the last four and half years would also come up for discussions at the meeting, he added. (PTI) |
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Benazir
lambasts Taliban role against Afghan women NEW DELHI Oct 22: Portraying a dismal picture about the continuing attempts by the Taliban to physically take control of the lives of unwilling people of Afghanistan, Ms Benazir Bhutto has, in a significant move, launched a blistering attack on the Taliban for their drive against the Afghan women. Ms Bhutto, who is reported to be on the hit-list of Taliban terrorists, has placed herself on record to say that the worst hit of the totalitarian outlook of the Taliban are the Afghan women. Pakistan’s leading English daily, Dawn, has quoted the PPP chairperson and former Prime Minister as saying about the Afghan women: "They have had the right of individual choice usurped from them at the point of a gun. They are individually chained to their homes, not free to work or even to choose the clothes they might like to wear". Islam, according to Ms Benazir Bhutto, came to give women rights and to free women from being treated like chattel, property akin to the goats and cows that ancient shepherds owned. However, in Afghanistan, the wheel of history has turned once again. Ms Bhutto noted: "Women, in Islamic history, fought wars, gave sermons from mosques, wrote literature and did business. In fact, the Holy Prophet Mohammed himself married a working woman". She regretted: "In Afghanistan, that is forgotten". Where did the Taliban come from ? Ms Benazir Bhutto recalled in her write-up carried by the Dawn: "Twenty years earlier, their families, often moderate, fled the Soviet occupation. While they fought the jihad, their sons studied in madrassas (schools) set up to recruit and train warriors in the battle against communism. An accident of fate ensured that they would be brainwashed into robots by imparting to them the teachings of extremists. The followers of this school of thought are limited in number. In Pakistan they have never won en election. Nor do they believe in elections. They believe in seizing power through extra-constitutional means". Ms Benazir Bhutto’s woes against Gen. Zia-ul-Haq have also found a forceful expression. She says: "When the Soviets were in Kabul, a diehard follower of the extremist and orthodox school of thought was sitting in Islamabad. General Zia-ul-Haq, the former chief martial law administrator, came from the same orthodox background as Maulana Maudoodi’s. Their fathers were friends. When Zia became the Chief of the Army Staff, he began distributing orthodox literature amongst the armed forces". Pakistan’s former Premier that her father, Mr ZA Bhutto, when in power,sought to have a professional Army and stopped its conversion on religious-political grounds. However, in 1977, Gen Zia seized power. Orthodoxy became the high priest of the Zia era. According to Ms Bhutto, Maulana Maudoodi, in his days, had opposed the creation of Pakistan. He opposed partitition, seeking to restore the prestine glorious days of Muslim rule in New Delhi through preaching of his school of thought, conversion and force. An international religious movement was their aim. This, according to Ms Bhutto, is also the aim of the Taliban, the political heirs of the Zia and orthodox legacies in Afghanistan. Her verdict: "It is an unrealistic dream ignoring the difference between the temporal and spiritual world. While the faithful turn to God for religion, they turn to their rulers for providing a framework in the material world where citizens can survive and prosper". Yet another finding of Ms Bhutto: The Taliban control Kabul by force but political control and recognition has proved elusive. The Taliban do have a power base in Kandahar. However, by overreaching themselves they have made many enemies. Finding number three: The friends they made in high places during the heyday of General Zia are now dead, tired or old. Their influence within Pakistan’s establishment is waning. Ms Bhutto’s finding number four: The Taliban make naïve attempts at attracting investment in the country. They dream of controlling a portion of the strategic flow of fuel respources to East Asia and Japan in the 21st century. But they are living in isolation and seclusion. Ms Bhuttos’s warning: The Talibans’ grandiose vision of building pipelines will remain a mirage as long as international finance remains suspicious of their brand of politics. Housing Osama Bin Laden, cultivating poppy despite assertions to the contrary and denying exporting revolution as extremism rises in the countries neighbouring them is not the recipe to build confidence. She has also warned that so long as Afghanistan bristles with Kalashnikovs, its markets will remain dormant and its rulers will grow increasingly short of revenues. Her advice to the Taliban: They could begin a dialogue with their own sworn enemies and create a broad-based Government. They would have to give up some territory and power but they would win stability and legitimacy. According to Ms Bhutto, the Taliban will be increasingly marginalised, if they chose to pursue the path of extremism and fanaticism. |
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BJP happy over filing of chargesheet in Bofors case NEW DELHI, Oct 22: BJP today expressed happiness over the filing of chargesheet in the Bofors kickback case and asserted the guilty must be punished. The law is taking its own course and there is no political interference whatsover in the case, party general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here. We are happy that during our party’s rule, the case is being taken to its logical conclusion, Naidu added. (PTI) |
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JD(U) to continue alliance with BJP, in Karnataka BANGALORE, Oct 22: Karnataka Lok Shakti president Dr Jeevaraj Alva today added to the reigning confusion in Janata Parivar saying Janata Dal (U) would continue its alliance with BJP in the state, contradicting former Chief Minister J H Patel’s statement. Patel had announced the JD (U) had decided to snap its ties with BJP in Karnataka and but would continue this at the national level after the combine’s rout in the recent polls, which the BJP leaders had welcomed as a good riddance. Alva told reporters that the Janata Parivar’s alliance with BJP struck at the national level could not be annulled unilaterlly by Patel in the state. Alva, who was also humbled from Jayamahal Assembly constituency here, said the modalities for the merger of Lok Shakti and Samata with Janata Dal (U) would be finalised soon, adding confusion to his party’s supremo Ramakrishna Hegde’s statement on whether to go ahead with the merger or to retain the identity of Lok Shakti. Alva criticised the hike in diesel prices. He also flayed the Karnataka Government for unveiling a Rs 3300 crore special package for Bellary. (PTI) |
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No political instability, uncertainty in UP: Rajnath LUCKNOW, Oct 22: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Uttar Pradesh unit president Rajnath Singh today said there was no question of a change in leadership of the State Government. "I do not think a change in state leadership is needed at the moment," he said while talking to reporters at the party headquarters here, he also refused to admit there was any political instability and uncertainty in the state "the Government is running smoothly," he added. He said the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in the state would be anlaysed and it should not be linked to the change of leadership. "I have already owned the responsibility of the party’s drubbing (in the elections) and I am waiting for the decision of the party high command." He said the party’s state election committee would meet tomorrow to decide the date of the next meeting to review election results. The review exercise would be completed before November 15 next, he added. The state BJP chief also refused to comment on the reported statement of Chief Minister Kalyan Singh that if anti-incumbency factor was applied to the Government, it applied to the candidates as well indicating some shortcomings in ticket distribution. "I am not aware of any such statement from the Chief Minister," he said. When asked if the Chief Minister had asked for changing about 20 candidates, Mr Singh said the final decision taken by the central election committee and it was acceptable to all. In reply to another question, he said the proceedings of the central election committee were confidential and it would be violative of the party’s constitution if anything was revealed. Mr Singh, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, feigned ignorance about the statements of various leaders of its allies who had sought to be consulted before making any change in the leadership in the state. He said there was no note of any discord in the state and the issue of UP was not likely to be even discussed in the meeting of the BJP national executive on November 3 and 4 next in Delhi. (UNI) |
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‘IPU can not take decision on Pak’ NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The newly-elected Chairperson of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Dr Najma Heptulla today said the IPU could not take a decision on Pakistan because its Parliament had not been dissolved though the Government was overthrown by a military coup. Participating in a meet the press programme at the Press Club of India, Dr Heptullah said it was ironic that there should have been a coup in Pakistan even as the 140-member IPU was admitting back Nigeria into the organisation. The IPU is open only for the nations who have democratically elected Governments. The IPU, she said, had passed a resolution seeking restoration of democracy in Pakistan. The European Union had also adopted a strong resoultion to this effect. The IPU could not take any action to suspend Pakistan because Parliament in that country remained suspended and not dissolved. She said the IPU would work for strengthening democracy and people’s participation around the globe when the majority of the developing countries seemed to be tied down by debt and their servicing. Their economies should be made stronger, she added. She said India was getting the presidentship after a gap of 26 years in the 110-year-old IPU and her hardwork and determination had carried her to this coveted post. She said she would urge Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi to evolve a permanent system where a group of interested MPs would be able to specialise in international affairs. Asked if the IPU would support Women’s Reservation Will, Dr Heptulla said there were arguments that she was able to make it to the top post of the IPU without reservation. The women do need opportunity to prove themselves and they needed a level playing field. In India, the women’s cause was fought by men which was a good sign and all the Prime Ministers were for the bill but their good gestures will have to be backed by political parties too, she added. (UNI) |
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