No question of arresting or harassing Mamata: Buddhadeb

KOLKATA - West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today ruled out arrest or harassment of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjeee before the upcoming Assembly elections in connection with a 17-year-old case.India News

"There is no question of arresting or harassing Mamata Banerjee before the Assembly elections," Bhattacharjee told a press conference here.

The CPI-M had yesterday asked the Election Commission to execute all non-bailable warrants, including those issued in connection with violent incidents at Barasat in 1994 in which the police had registered FIRs against Banerjee, among others.

In a memorandum to Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi, who led a team on a two-day review of poll preparedness in the state, the CPI-M referred to the 17-year-old incident at Kacharimore in Barasat in which police had carried out a lathicharge. Then DIG (PR) Rachpal Singh was injured in the violence.

"The police had then registered an FIR against Mamata Banerjee," the CPI-M memorandum had said while referring to the incident in North 24-Parganas district.

Rachpal Singh, now a retired IPS officer, incidentally is now a Trinamool Congress candidate from Tarakeswar seat.

Reacting to the CPI-M memorandum, Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy had yesterday wondered as to what had prevented the police from taking any action in the last 17 years.Indian Politics

Wiki - Radiation reaches BJP camp

NEW DELHI - BJP was today engulfed by Wikileaks expose with US diplomatic cables stating that the party leadership had told them that its criticism of the US in public was to score "easy political points" against UPA and when in power, it would not harm the Indo-US nuclear deal.India News

The expose, published by 'The Hindu', drew immediate strong reaction from ruling Congress which asked BJP to apply to itself the same standards it adopted for the government when it was needlessly disrupting Parliament for the last few days.

The BJP, however, denied there was any doublespeak and maintained that because of its strong position, the government had to come with 16 amendments to the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill.

Seshadri Chari, BJP National Executive member and RSS pointsman in the party figured in the diplomatic cables as having told an US embassy official in Delhi in December 2005 "not to read too much into the foreign policy resolution especially the parts relating to the US", which had attacked the UPA's "subservience" to Washington.

"Chari dismissed the statement (resolution) as standard practice aimed at scoring easy political points against the UPA. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar echoed these statements, saying that the BJP was not really upset about the US-India relationship, but merely wanted the Government of India and US government to be more forthcoming about any deal on nuclear policy," the cable said.

In another cable, the embassy's then Charge d'affaires Peter Burleigh wrote after a meeting with L K Advani in May 2009, just before the Lok Sabha poll results were out, the BJP veteran "downplayed" any move by his party to reopen the nuclear deal noting that BJP "does not take international agreements lightly".

Advani acknowledged that the BJP's public position in July 2008 was that the deal constrained the country's strategic autonomy and that the party would reexamine if it returned to power but connected that stance to "domestic political developments" then at play in India.

The BJP leader, the diplomat wrote, was clear that there would be "no imminent BJP move to reopen the (nuclear) deal. In his view, the government is a continuity, particularly in matters of foreign policy and international agreements cannot be taken lightly."

Asked about the diplomatic cables quoting him, Chari declined to comment saying he has not seen the report. He said he did not remember if he had talked to Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Blake in December 2005.

"I don't remember the name. I don't remember the names. I don't remember whom I met in 2005," Chari said, adding the party will officially comment if required. 

Javadekar said there are "no contradictions" in their stand. "We have made our position clear both in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and through are press statements that we value strategic relations with the US and that all sources of energy should be tapped," he said.

But, he said, when the government brought the Nuclear Liability Bill, the party raised certain objections and the government had to make 16 amendments to the Bill at its insistence. "We keep national interest foremost...there is no double speak," Javadekar said.

But Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari would not buy the BJP's defence. He said, "for the BJP, chickens have come home to roost and they have come rather soon."

He said BJP had made Wikileaks "the Holy Grail of their political philosophy" even when Congress had warned them not to give credence to hearsay.

"Now the shoe is on the other foot. It is for the BJP to explain to the nation whether they will apply same standards to themselves as they attempted to apply to the government by needlessly disrupting Parliament for the last few days," Tewari said.Online News

WikiLeaks confirms ‘cash for vote’ scam of 2008

NEW DELHI - The WikiLeaks India cables have revealed some more shocking information. The latest one is on the purchase of votes by the Congress before the crucial vote of confidence in Lok Sabha in theyear 2008.

 

Five days before the UPA government faced a crucial vote of confidence on the Indo-U.S.nuclear deal in 2008, Nachiketa Kapur, a political aide to Congress leader Satish Sharma showeda U.S. Embassy employee “two chests containing cash” he said was part of a bigger fund of Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 60 crore that the party had assembled to purchase the support of MPs. He also claimed the four MPs belonging to Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal had already been paid Rs. 10 crore each to ensure they voted the right way on the floor of the Lok Sabha.Indian Top Stories

 

In a cable, dated July 17, 2008, sent to the State Department (162458: secret), accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, U.S. Charge d'Affaires Steven White wrote about a visit the Embassy's Political Counselor paid to Satish Sharma, who is described as “a Congress Party MP in the Rajya Sabha and a close associate of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi considered to be a very close family friend of Sonia Gandhi.”

 

Mr. Steven White reveals, “Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur mentioned to an Embassy staff member in an aside on July 16 that Ajit Singh's RLD had been paid Rupees 10 crore (about $2.5 million) for each of their four MPs to support the government. Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government.”

 

Later Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had managed to get 275 votes in favour with 256 againstand 10 abstentions. Just before the confidence vote, Members of Parliament belonging to BJP had produced cash on the floor of the House and alleged that this was the money the government had used to buy the support of MPs. Investigations followed by were left high and dry. Now, the revelations of secret U.S. Embassy cable is likely to reignite Opposition allegations that bribes were paid on a massive scale to ensure the UPA won the 2008 vote of confidence. 

However, Ajit Singh who didn't vote for the UPA during the trust vote has slammed the expose.

Source : http://www.newzfirst.com/web/guest

Outrage in Kashmir over denial of justice: CPI-M

NEW DELHI - Advising the government to stop behaving as if it is "occupying" power in Jammu and Kashmir, CPI-M member Brinda Karat today said people whose children were killed in police firing are outraged over "denial of justice".

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, she said 117 people were killed in these incidents last year but not even a single constable has been punished.

She said the government should "stop behaving like occupying people."

Four MPs including Karat had recently gone to Srinagar to attend a women's conference where the problems faced by the people of the state were narrated to them.

The conference was organised by the Centre-appointed interlocutors, she said.

She said there was "outrage" among people who said justice was not given to them.

Karat said of the 117 cases, only 37 FIRs have been registered and no independent inquiry was conducted in a time bound manner.

"Even today, young people are being called to police stations and threatened... women say that every time they enter universities, they are asked to show their identity cards. They are asking is it not their own country", she said adding that it was "militarisation of the entire Valley".National Headlines

First convention on RTI from tomorrow

SHILONG - Inclusion of foreign funding to NGOs within the RTI ambit, the question of prosecution of erring officials after RTI revelations, protection of RTI activists and implementation of act in toto will come up for discussion during the third national convention of Right to Information Act  the first after enactment of the RTI  that begins here tomorrow.

About 1000 activists, including imminent personalities from across the country, are expected to take part in the meet organised by the Meghalaya Right to Information Movement.

Nikhil Dey, convener of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, said the convention assumes significance from the fact that it is the first convention after the enactment of the act.

Ex CJI JS Verma, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court A L Shah, former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh, activists Aruna Roy and noted RTI activists from across the country would attend the convention themed 'Reclaiming Democracy'.

Selection of information commissioners and piling up RTI applications in some states and the Centre would also be discussed during the convention which will conclude with a set of resolutions ? to be called the 'Shillong Declaration'.

Meghalaya Right to Information Movement activist Angela Rangad said, "The objective of the RTI Act in empowering the people with a law to enable each citizen to know on what the government does is incomplete because those known for being guilty are not taken into task as per the law".

"In order to achieve total accountability and transparency, laws that prescribe legal action against the guilty is imperative because it will be a deterrent tool for others," stated Rangad.

The RTI activist added that the convention will also try to find out ways to force the government to include private bodies and foreign funding agencies under the ambit of the RTI.


Source : Indian Top Stories

Largest prospering sector in India is inequality : P.Sainath

BANGALORE -  “The subject of Farmers suicide is just a part of crisis, Infact it is a manifestation of greater crisis which can be seen in larger framework of inequality.” These views were expressed by P Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu and 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award. He was in Bangalore for post screening talk on the documentary film made by Deep Bhatia. 

The film Nero’s Guest was screened in IISC, organized by VIKALP BENGALURU in association with Maraa and CONCERN. The film attempts to find the cause of problem behind the suicide of farmers focusing Vidharbha region of Maharashtra.

The film tries to reflect the prevailing agrarian crisis in India and the growing inequality seen through the work of P Sainath.

Inequality has been India’s fastest growing sector; its grown faster than at any time in our history since the British Raj. Nearly 2 lakh farmers have committed suicide in India over the last 14 years, driven by distress caused not by famine or drought, but debt. NERO’S GUESTS is a journal of this distress.

The trajectory of the documentary spans five or six years, from Sainath’s initial tours into the villages to research the agrarian crisis to the later visits of politicians and bureaucrats who couldn’t escape the responsibility any more The film takes one into the homes of the helpless farmers and to overflowing lecture halls. Sainath makes us confront the India we don’t want to see, and provokes us to think about who Nero’s Guests are in today’s world.

Reacting to the questions and concerns raised by the audience after the screening, P.Sainath criticized the Indian government’s policy and attitude towards the agriculture sector.

He said almost over 2,16,500 farmers have done suicide in last 10-15 years. Their situation is pathetic and beyond our sense of imagination. Giving an example of a post graduate in Marathi farmer, Hargovind Harae , Sainath said he was in a such a pathetic and poor condition that he took pesticide on loan to commit suicide.

In his impeccable tone P.Sainath said that largest growing sectior in India is inequality. He said that apathy of people of India is unmatched in the world. Their situation is worse than Sub-Saharan countries. P.sainath also criticized the government definition of poverty line and stated it as fraud.

Sainath made the point that government deliberately vacating the agrarian space for corporate. The corporates are given more and more waiver and taxes are written off for them while government is cutting the subsidy in agriculture sector.

He said that Daily net per capita food availability is on decline, it is 436 gm per day while it was 510 gm in 1991. Although the population rate has gone down but food availability is still an issue. He holds government’s neglection policy responsible for these entire crises.

He came heavily on corporate, Sainath was vocal and said that corporate are deciding the fate of this country. Referring to Radia tape he said it’s very apparent and self declaring that who is running and deciding the fate of this country.

He said am posing three demands for a long time. He reiterated them and said that Agriculture must be declared as public sector. He demanded that one full fledge session of parliament should be dedicated to discuss agrarian crisis and agriculture in India. He said that parliamentary discussion will decide how to take up the issue and address the crisis. He also demanded for implementation of National farmer’s commission report.

Source : http://www.newzfirst.com/web/guest