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CPI(M) to foray in caste politics to increase vote base NEW DELHI, Jan 22: In an obvious attempt to make a foray into the Hindi heartland for expanding its vote base, the CPI(M) has given a call for building ...more Congress promises to end crime, boost development PATNA, Jan 22: Promising to take initiative to establish social harmony and give a fresh thrust to development, the Congress today pledged to rid Bihar of crime. ...more School children protest Kislay’s kidnap PATNA, Jan 22: In a novel way to protest the kidnapping of their fellow pupil Kislay Komal, hundreds of school children across the state capital today ....more Bihar non-gazetted employees strike ends PATNA, Jan 22: The 43-day-long strike by over three lakh non-gazetted employees across ...more |
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Success of "bold"movies indicates society’s choice: Ashutosh VARANASI, Jan 22: Bollywood actor Ashutosh Rana feels that the recent good run at the box office of "films offering an .....more No Tsunami blues for foreign tourists in Goa PALOLEM BEACH (GOA), Jan 22: Despite the recent Tsunami which struck coastlines across south India, foreign tourists have not been deterred from ......more Goondas
Act invoked against Raghu, KANCHEEPURAM, Jan 22: The Special Investigating Team probing the Sankararaman murder case today detained .......more Chander
Mohan looking KALKA (HARYANA), Jan 22: Considered to be a strong Congress bastion, Kalka..more |
CPI(M) to foray in caste politics to increase vote base NEW DELHI, Jan 22: In an obvious attempt to make a foray into the Hindi heartland for expanding its vote base, the CPI(M) has given a call for building a mass movement involving the socially and economically oppressed sections of society, including the Dalits. As if taking a leaf out of the book of the ultra left campaign, which denied the party a toe hold in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, and was eroding its base in West Bengal and Tripura, the CPI(M) has proposed to tread on a hitherto uncharted territory by giving a call for building up the mass movement involving the Dalits, the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and Adivasis. Adding a significant dimension to its political agenda that seems to be moving towards expanding the party’s mass base in the country in the coming days, the CPI(M) has said in its draft political resolution for the forthcoming 18th party Congress that the party must "identify with the aspirations and assertions of all the socially and economically oppressed sections" and link the left movement to champion their causes. While the party’s 17th Congress had made customary observations on caste-based politics, the CPI(M) this time has devoted full five paragraphs to the "serious danger to the left" in the face of caste appeal and the task ahead to strengthen the organisation by overcoming it. "Casteism is prevalent not only in Bihar, but it exists in many parts of the country," CPI(M) politburo member Prakash Karat said. Observing that Dalits were suffering from both social oppression and class exploitation, the resolution said a struggle should be launched against the denial of human rights keeping caste oppression and eradication of untouchability in the forefront. "This struggle has to be combined with the struggle to end the landlord dominated order which consigns the Dalit rural masses to bondage," it said, pointing out that the issues of land, wages and employment must be the binding factor for the unity of different sections of working people. In a call for expanding its base in areas where the "class struggle" of the Marxists was at the receiving end due to caste-based politics, the party said steps should be taken to work out "concrete tactics" taking into account the caste and class configuration. "The intensification of the caste appeal and fragmentation of the working people on caste lines is a serious danger to the left and the democratic movement. Taking up caste oppression, forging the common movement of the oppressed of all castes and taking up class issues of common concern must be combined with a bold campaign to highlight the pernicious effects of caste-based politics," the draft resolution said. CPI(M) sources said the party, unable to make a dent in the Hindi heartland since its inception, had long ago identified casteism as the main hinderance, but could not find a way out. "But we have to chalk out a proper strategy to gain entry," they said. It was caste-based politics which had so far hampered the party’s entry in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and some other areas and forced it to remain content with regional presence, they pointed out. Perhaps as the first step to initiate the process of getting close to these sections, the party has demanded reservation in the private sector for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Though stating that reservation was "no panacea" for the problem of caste and class exploitation, it was of the view that such a measure would provide some relief within the existing order. While dealing with the issues concerning tribals, the draft resolution said the UPA Government had not scrapped the "objectionable" tribal policy document of the NDA, nor the eviction orders of tribals from forests. "The party must take up the issues of land, access to forests, wages and development of the tribal areas...." It observed that the BJP rule had seen a "deep penetration by RSS affiliated organisations in tribal areas with efforts to communalise the Adivasis and pit them against Christians and Muslims". In order to associate the party with the causes of these sections, the draft resolution called upon the party to champion the causes of the Dalits and the struggle of the tribals people and spearhead all social causes "which will help fight obscuntarism, socially regressive customs and patriarchal and feudal practices". (UNI) |
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Congress promises to end crime, boost development PATNA, Jan 22: Promising to take initiative to establish social harmony and give a fresh thrust to development, the Congress today pledged to rid Bihar of crime. In the 23-page manifesto for Bihar Assembly elections, the Congress committed itself to making determined efforts for securing job reservations for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and the minorities in the private sector. The manifesto, jointly released by BPCC president Ramjata Sinha and AICC in-charge of Bihar Affairs Harikesh Bahadur, underscored the need for political empowerment of women and creating equal opportunities for jobs and education for the weaker sections and religious and linguistic minorities. The document promised to work for improving and strengthening electricity, railways, roads and other infrastructure facilities, besides encouraging private and government investment in the infrastructure sector. The manifesto said the party would also work for implementation of an employment guarantee programme for the poor, modernisation of rural industries, strict enforcement of the mimimum wages act and raising the Government expenditure o education to six per cent of the state’s GDP. The party also pledged to give a fillip to industrial development by encouraging setting up a chain of agro-based industries. Later addressing the media, Sinha and Bahadur admitted that law and order posed a serious threat to the state and said if Congress MLAs got elected in large numbers they would be in a position to play a decisive role in Government formation and thus the party would be able to put pressure on the Government to strictly tackle crime. When asked about what the Congress, which shared power with the RJD during the last five years, had done to improve the law and order situation, Bahadur said, "being in the Rabri Devi Government was our political compulsion. But we kept on raising our voice against growing crime and I feel we were reasonably successful in making the Government take steps to control it". Bahadur parried a question on the possibility of the Congress forming a Government with the RJD after the polls but said his party would work for installation of a secular Government in the state. He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi would campaign for party candidates, but refused to give any direct reply to questions about whether she would also stump for the RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, the two UPA constituent with whom the party is having a "half-baked" alliance. (PTI) |
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School children protest Kislay’s kidnap PATNA, Jan 22: In a novel way to protest the kidnapping of their fellow pupil Kislay Komal, hundreds of school children across the state capital today went without their tiffin and held demonstrations in front of their institutions seeking his immediate release. "Hundreds of tiny tots are hungry as they have not brought their tiffins to express solidarity with their fellow student Kislay," Vinod Singh, who runs an NGO involved in students welfare programmes and is coordinating the protest against Kislay’s abduction told PTI. "Hamara Kislay Wapas Karo" (give us back our Kislay), "Bachchon Ka Apharan Bandh Karo" (stop the kidnapping of children), chanted the students holding demonstration in front of the DAV Public School at Walmi, on the outskirts of the capital. Many children had written to President A P J Abdul Kalam to visit Patna to give them moral support, Singh said. "Kalam is more of a children’s President than a man of science and the students want him to be with them in their hour of crisis," he added. Meanwhile, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who had cold shouldered a group of DPS students who had tried to seek an audience with him yesterday, today met the parents of kislay, a student of the Delhi Public School who was abducted by unidentified gunmen Wednesday morning. Kislay’s father K K Gupta, an assistant Sales Tax Commissioner, and his wife met Prasad and Chief Minister Rabri Devi at their one Anne Marg residence. Emerging from the meeting, Gupta said he was assured by the duo that police were leaving no stone unturned to recover the boy. "Our only hopes rest on Laluji and the Chief Minister. We want our son to return home safe," Gupta, still to recover from the shock, said. (PTI) Bihar non-gazetted employees strike ends PATNA, Jan 22: The 43-day-long strike by over three lakh non-gazetted employees across Bihar was today called off with the State Government agreeing to fulfil the demands of the unions, including raising the retirement age limit, merger of 50 per cent DA in basic salary and providing conveyance allowance. State personnel secretary Ravikant confirmed that the nge withdrew their strike from today after their representatives reached an agreement with the Government at a marathon meeting chaired by Chief Secretary K A H Subramanian which lasted for ten hours yesterday. The employees have started resuming their duties at the block, district headquarters and the State Secretariat here, Ravikant claimed. When contacted, ‘Bihar Rajya Arajpatrit Karmchari Sangh’ general secretary Manjul Kumar Das told PTI that the State Government had signed a draft agreement with the leader of the striking unions on a 31-point charter of demands and the draft has been sent to the Election Commission for its approval as the Model Code of Conduct is in force. He said under the draft agreement, the State Government has agreed to raise the retirement age limit from 58 to 60 years through an official notification by March, merge 50 per cent DA with basic salary on the pattern of Central Government employees, leave encashment of upto 300 days and conveyance allowance to all NGEs. Over three lakh nges owing allegiance to three major unions-‘Bihar Rajya Arajpatrit Karmachari Sangh’, ‘Bihar Sachivalaya Seva Sangh’ and ‘Bihar Rajya Sarkari, Ardh-Sarkari Seva Morcha’ were on indefinite strike since December 10 which he claimed had badly affected the functioning of Government offices. Das said even the work for holding Assembly elections next month had suffered due to the stir. He urged the employees to report for duty immediately and join the poll-related jobs being assigned to them. Das termed as "honourable and amicable" the agreement they had reached with the State Government paving the way for withdrawal of the strike. (PTI) |
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Chander Mohan looking to make it four in a row KALKA (HARYANA), Jan 22: Considered to be a strong Congress bastion, Kalka Assembly seat in Haryana located at the foothills of Shiwaliks will witness a keen triangular contest, but odds appear to favour three-time MLA and former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s son Chander Mohan who hopes to ride on anti-incumbency feelings against the INLD Government. "If people have been electing me from 1993 onwards, it means they have trust that I deliver results, especially when non-Congress Governments have been in power in Haryana for the past ten years or so," the low-profile politician says. Kalka Assembly constituency which comprises of Kalka, Panchkula, Barwala and Raipur Rani as key segments will have INLD’s Pradeep Chaudhary and BJP’s Shyam Lal Bansal in fray and both of them are hoping to wrest the seat from Mohan against whom they have tasted defeat on earlier occasions. Addressing various poll meetings and making last-ditch efforts to reach out to as many voters before the polling day on February 3, Chaudhary plays the development card by highlighting the works carried out by the Om Prakash Chautala Government during the past five years. "In my constituency alone, we have got a girls’ college sanctioned in sector 14, Panchkula and the building of regional office of the state education board besides a CBSE office will also come up soon at Panchkula," he said adding, "we also got a national-level stadium built besides undertaking several projects to beautify the parks." Chaudhary, who lost to Mohan in 1993 when bypolls to Kalka seat were held and then again in 1996, claims that Chief Minister Chautala had never discriminated against the constituency in terms of carrying out developmental work despite being represented by the Congress. He says people had seen the performances of successive Congress Governments in the past and now at the Centre, accusing it of burdening common people with sharp price rise. BJP, which had fought the previous polls in alliance with the INLD which had left the seat for them, is promising employment, setting up of schools and rehabilitation of the 7000-odd slum dwellers, a crucial vote bank in the area. "We will provide alternative dwelling units and rehabilitate those living in the slums as they constantly face problems from floods and lack of schools in their area. As promised in our poll manifesto, we will give free power to the small and marginal farmers," says Bansal. He also pledged to speed up the process of setting up units in this industrially backward constituency, which has lost the race to adjoining Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and Derabassi on the Punjab side. "We will give tax holidays and ensure that youths get jobs. Several industrial units are in a bad shape and we will revive them," he adds. Mohan attributes the reason for the poor industrial growth to the periphery act, which he says will be scrapped if Congress comes to power in Haryana. He says the projects he will take up on priority if elected will be setting up of an engineering college, establishing schools in the area where there are none and addressing the drinking water shortage faced by rural people. (PTI) RANCHI, Jan 22: Surviving a series of blows by party veterans, who deserted it, the Janata Dal (U) has finally got on track in Jharkhand with the help of BJP, which unlike during general elections, agreed to concede to it 18 seats of the 81-member State Assembly, going to polls in February. The party appeared to be in shreds when the national leadership late last year asked state unit president Goutam Sagar Rana to step down in favour of Inder Singh Namdhari. Sparks flew following the decision. Senior leaders and former ministers Lalchand Mahto, Madhu Singh, Ramchandra Kesri Baccha Singh and Ramesh Singh Munda, besides Rana himself, raised a hue and cry. When George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav put their foot down, all but Munda defected to the RJD. Articulately managing the party, Namdhari not only withered the storm but also suceeded in forcing senior NDA partner, the BJP, to accept his demand during seat adjustment. "Still, we fell short of two constituencies," bemoaned Namdhari, who twice resigned from the Speaker’s post. Promising in the party’s manifesto to root out corruption among other points if voted to power, Namdhari said "the party is much better now." He was apparently referring to the bribery charges against Madhu Singh, which led to his dismissal from the Arjun Munda Government. Madhu Singh is contesting from Panki as an independent after RJD supremo Lalu Prasad allotted ticket to his arch Riva Bidesh Singh. Bidesh Singh’s case in connection with the 2000 Assembly elections against Madhu Singh is still pending in the Supreme Court. He had challenged Madhu Singh’s 39-vote win over him. The JD(U), out of the 18 seats the JD(U) is contesting in the three-phase Assembly elections, is fighting in nine in the first phase — six of which fall in the Palamu division where it would face strong challenge from the RJD. Daltonganj, Garhwa, Chhattarpur, Panki, Latehar and Hussainabad in the Palamu division while Bagodar, Mandu and Dumri are under north Chotanagpur division, all going for the first phase polls. Sitting MLAs Namdhari and Baijnath Ram are seeking re-election from Daltonganj and Latehar respectively, while Namdhari faces RJD’s Gyanchand Pandey and the Congress candidate K M Tripathy, Baijnath Ram encounters RJD’s Prakash Ram and JMM’s Ramdeo Ganjhu. Radha Krishna Kishore, who lost the recent Lok Sabha elections to RJD’s Manoj Bhuyan from Palamu, is facing Bhuyan’s wife Pushpa Devi (RJD) from Chhatarpur seat. Former BJP MLA Dashrath Singh, who has joined the JD(U), is contesting against sitting RJD MLA Sanjay Kumar Yadav and Congress MP Chandrashekhar Dubey’s son, Ajay, from Hussainabad. The party has fielded Khadakdari Singh from Bagodar where he confronts with Vinod Kumar, the son of slain CPI (ML-liberation) MLA Mahendra Prasad Singh. Former RJD leader Ramdeo Yadav is contesting on the JD(U) ticket from Panki where he faces Madhu Singh (Ind) and Bidesh Singh (RJD). The party which held Dumri before Lal Chand Mahto’s defection to the RJD has put up Damodar Mahto to challenge the former. As the polls seem to be heading towards triangle or multi-cornered contests due to UPA’s failure to put up common candidates, the JD(U) expects division among the UPA partners which would prove beneficial to the party. (PTI) |
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EC to deploy 50,000 securitymen in Haryana polling CHANDIGARH, Jan 22: As many as 50,000 security personnel will be deployed to ensure free and fair polling for the Assembly elections in Haryana on February three. Chief Electoral Officer Urvashi Gulati today said the Election Commission had made all arrangements for the single-phase polling in all the 90 constituencies in the state wherein 983 candidates were contesting. To maintain law and order and infuse a sense of security among the voters, 70 companies of central security forces, 27,000 personnel of the state police and about 14,000 home guards would be deployed in the state, she said. As many as 12,636 polling booths had been set up in the 90 constituencies in the state. Of these, 2,322 were sensitive and 2,526 hyper sensitive. Apart from deployment of the Central Security Forces, the officials of the Central Government would also be deployed at sensitive polling booths for the security of the electors. As many as 1,157 polling booths had been specially set up for members belonging to the weaker sections of the society so that they could cast their vote without any fear, Ms Gulati said. The state had a total of 1,27,35,067 voters, including 77,090 service voters. There were 69,03,254 male voters and 58,31,813 female. About 60,000 Government officers and officials would be put on election duty on the polling day. They included 14,000 returning officers, 42,000 polling officers, 1400 supervisors and about 1000 sector magistrates. Ms Gulati said polling would be held through Electronic Voting Machines in the entire state, as in case of the Lok Sabha elections last year. "Although most of the voters now know how to use these machines, all district returning officers have been directed to educate the people about the functioning of these machines," she said. The voters would have to bring along their Photo Identity Cards to cast their vote as a proof of their identity. More than 91 per cent electors have already been provided Photo Identity Cards in the state. "Those who cannot bring Photo Identity Cards can bring other documents enlisted by the Election Commission like passport, driving licence, identity cards issued by public sectors undertakings, local bodies or public limited company or Government or State Government to their employees, Kisan Pass Book or Ration Card issued on or before December 31, 2004, she added. A help line would be available in all the districts to facilitate the voters in getting election related information like publication of their name and number in the voter list and location of the polling booths. This information could also be obtained from the website of the election department (http://ceoharyana.Eci.Gov.In). Besides a special observer in the state, she said, observers had been appointed in all Assembly constituencies to ensure that the elections were held without any fear and in a fair manner. The observers had also been appointed at all district headquarters to ensure that the candidates did not spend more than the prescribed amount on their respective campaigns. The officers and officials, she said, had been directed to discharge their duty in a fair manner. The electors could bring to the notice of the observer any incident of the violation of Model Code of Conduct. Ms Gulati urged all voters to exercise their right to vote on the day of polling as this would ensure their participation in the Government formation "such a participation provides strength to the democracy," she added. She also urged political parties and candidates contesting the election not to make any such assertion which might create differences among the people belonging to different communities. (UNI) Rahul Gandhi visits Tsunami-hit villages PONDICHERRY, Jan 22: Congress leader and member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi today visited the Tsunami-affected Periyakalapet village near here. Spending nearly 45 minutes in the village, Gandhi left for Chennai by road. During his visit to several houses in the village, the young MP, representing Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, gave a patient hearing to the grievances of the fishermen and their families. Immediately after alighting from the car he moved towards a group of villagers who were waiting for his arrival. Chief Minister N Rangasamy, his cabinet colleagues, Pondicherry PCC chief V Narayanasamy and PMK leader M Ramadoss, MP, were among those who accompanied Gandhi during his visit to the village. A number of villagers narrated their experiences of December 26 when the killer waves hit the southern coastal India. Narayanasamy and PMK leader Ramadoss acted as interpretors to him. While proceeding on the east coast road, Gandhi alighted at one point to listen to the grievances of a large number of women, who were waiting on the main road. Police and security personnel had a tough time controlling the surging crowd. He voluntarily approached a section of villagers on the main road as they wanted to shake hands with him to express their thanks for his visit. While proceeding on the east coast road, Gandhi alighted at one point to listen to the grievances of a large number of women, who were waiting on the main road. Police and security personnel had a tough time controlling the surging crowd. He voluntarily approached a section of villagers on the main road as they wanted to shake hands with him to express their thanks for his visit. Gandhi, who came here yesterday, also held discussions with the authorities of privately managed aravind eye hospital for setting up a similar hospital at Amethi. (PTI) |
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