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Political Notes |
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Anxious moments on Constitution amendment
Reports say that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has given his assent to the Constitution 104th Amendment Bill, 2005, ending two days of intense anxiety for the Manmohan Singh Government. According to authoritative sources, the President came very close to withholding his assent to the Bill. The proposed constitutional change seeks to insert a new clause - Clause 5 - to Article 15. This enables the enactment of laws, making special provisions for the socially and educationally backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in educational institutions, except in minority institutions.
Before the Presidential assent was communicated to the Law Ministry on Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a trip to Rashtrapati Bhavan to satisfy the President on a number of queries Kalam had raised about the proposed amendment.
Kalam’s doubts had the political and governmental leadership on tenterhooks as the UPA dispensation wants to showcase the legislation as a major achievement of its secular agenda.
Pre-poll scenario in West Bengal
The Congress appears to have given up all its reservations about Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee if she ends the alliance with the BJP. PCC president and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata on Jan. 16 that the PCC working committee had agreed to go in for a Mahajot (Grand Alliance) to confront the Left Front in the Assembly elections later this year. He said we are all set to project Mamata Banerjee as our choice for the Chief Minister during the election campaign. But he said that there is just one rider that she has to quit her alliance with the BJP.
Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner B.B. Tandon has said that elections in West Bengal will be held before the expiry of the present Assembly’s term on June 30. Speaking in Kolkata on Jan. 19, he said there is no question of the Election Commission delaying the polls.
Lashkar terrorists get 10-year jail term
A Delhi court has sentenced two Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba militants and three others to 10 years rigorous imprisonment in connection with a series of bomb blasts in north Indian cities in 1997. Seventeen persons were killed in the bomb blasts. Two others were given five year imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abdullah Bahi aka Abu Huzefa, said to be the mastermind behind the 29/10 Delhi blasts was killed in a fierce gun battle with security forces at Pattan in Jammu and Kashmir on Jan. 16. Another militant, however, managed to escape.
Abu Huzefa, who is believed to have plotted the Delhi blasts along with his Pakistan-based colleague Abu al-Qama, was gunned down in Khore in Pattan.
First conviction for stamp paper scam kingpin
A sessions court in Mumbai has sentenced stamp paper scam kingpin, Abdul Karim Telgi, to 10 years rigorous imprisonment, his first conviction after 11 years of registration of the case. Telgi is alleged to have defrauded the exchequer of hundreds of crores by counterfeiting government stamps and cheating. Though this was the first case against Telgi, there were several cases registered against him since 1995. He shot to limelight only when the multi-crore stamp paper scam in Pune came into light.
CBI to reopen cases against Sajjan Kumar
The CBI has moved the trial court in New Delhi to reopen the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases against Congress MP Sajjan Kumar. In an affidavit before a Metropolitan Magistrate, the CBI said despite statements by witnesses indicating Sajjan Kumar’s involvement, no chargesheets were filed against him and cases were terminated as untraced. The CBI’s move is a fallout of the promise made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament.
The CBI is acting on the Centre’s directive to reopen cases against Sajjan Kumar, former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler and some other leaders against whom the Nanavati Commission found “credible evidence” of involvement in the riots which broke out following assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
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