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Political Notes

	May 21, 2007

RS elections : Manmohan elected unopposed from Assam



Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been elected uncontested to the Rajya Sabha as an age row erupted between two Opposition candidates, one of whom ended up withdrawing his nomination. Also declared elected was Kumar Dipak Das of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). The result comes a week ahead of the scheduled date of polling.



While this is the fourth straight term for Singh from Assam, Das will be making his parliamentary debut. Elections to two of the seven Rajya Sabha seats from Assam were necessitated with the current term of Singh and the BJP’s Indramani Bora ending on June 14.



The withdrawal of nomination by Asom United Democratic Front candidate Matang Singh - a former Union Minister who was expelled by the Congress some time back, facilitated the declaration of results. The nomination of a fourth candidate - record-breaking election loser K. Padmarajan from Mettur, in Tamil Nadu, was rejected on technical grounds.





Gujarat fake encounters : Apex court rejects plea for CBI probe



The Supreme Court has rejected the plea for a CBI probe into the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a Madhya Pradesh criminal, in a fake encounter in Gujarat in 2005. A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P.K. Balasubramanyam, however, asked the investigating team headed by IG (CID), Geetha Johri, not to report to the state director general of police, but to submit its repot directly to the apex court. It also directed the DGP P.C. Pandey not to interfere with the probe.



Attorney General Milon K. Banerjee had demanded a CBI probe on the ground that the inquiry required investigations in three states. The court directed senior police officials of Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan to cooperate with the probe. The court directed Gujarat to submit the final report on the probe by July 3.



The bench said, “After examining the interim reports as well as the Action Taken Reports filed by the State, it is difficult for us to come to a conclusion at this stage that the investigations are not proceeding in the correct direction.”



It pointed out that the Gujarat government had stated that a charge sheet would be filed in 4-6 weeks. “In this view of the matter, we are of the view that at this stage we do not find any reason to hand over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation.”



On the reported death of Kausarbi, the Bench said that under the law, only if the body was found or the person concerned was not found for seven years, could the said person be presumed dead. “Till today no proof of the death of Kausarbi has been brought on record. We will take up this issue at the next hearing when the reports as directed shall be placed before us. Let this matter be listed for July 16.”





Sonia wants Centre to act



Apprehending a rise in communal tensions and passions in the BJP-ruled Gujarat in the run-up to the Assembly elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has mounted a bristling attack on the Modi government on the issue of fake encounter killings.



Amid the controversy over fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin, the Congress president, speaking on the issue for the first time, told a Congress Parliamentary Party meeting on May 16 that the nation is witnessing shocking revelations on the manner in which sections of the Gujarat police have been allowed to kill innocent people in the garb of fighting terrorism.”



Referring to the communal designs of the BJP-ruled states against the minorities, Sonia Gandhi asked the Central Government to take “serious note of these dangerous trends.”



Women groups and women’s right activists across the country have urged the Supreme Court to ensure that investigations unearth what happened to Kausarbi, wife of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Ishrat Jahan, another victim of a fake encounter in the state.





OBC quota case sent to larger Bench



A two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta has referred to a larger bench the petitions challenging the 93rd Constitution Amendment and the quota law enacted thereafter. The Bench said that considering the importance of the issues involved and their likely impact on the country’s social life and the complexities of the question, it is appropriate that a larger bench should hear the matter.



The records will be placed before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate orders.



There are reports that the Government may go to the Chief Justice of India for early hearing of the case.





Most Sachar Panel recommendations accepted



The Government has accepted nearly all recommendations of the Sachar Panel that had studied socio-economic backwardness among the Muslims. A meeting of the Union Cabinet on May 17 approved identification of 90 minority concentration districts and asked all Ministries to initiate implementation of the Sachar Committee recommendations.



Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said the educational backwardness of the community would be addressed through a multi-pronged strategy that would focus on improving access to education of girls. The Ministry of Minority Affairs would implement three scholarship schemes in addition to a coaching scheme. An inter-ministerial group is being set up to plan and monitor the implementation of a comprehensive programme for developing entrepreneurship among the Muslims. Dasmunsi emphasised the importance of increasing the flow of bank credit to Muslims as a large proportion of this community is engaged in self-employment activities.



In follow-up action on the Sachar report, the Centre constituted a high-level committee to review the Delimitation Act and the concerns expressed by the Sachar Committee regarding anomalies in the representation of Muslims in the political sphere.





New Cabinet Secretary



K.M Chandrasekhar, an IAS officer of the 1970 batch, will be the next Cabinet Secretary, with effect from June 14, 2007. He will succeeded B.K. Chaturvedi, who will be retiring after a three-year long innings.



As per the existing rules, Chandrasekhar should have a tenure of two years. He is currently Revenue Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry.



PM’s Principal Secretary gets extension



In another move, the Government has accorded extension to Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary, T.K.A. Nair, till further orders. The decision, which puts an end to speculation and uncertainty whether retiring Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi would replace Nair, was taken the day after a new Cabinet Secretary was named. Nair was the first official to join Dr. Manmohan Singh’s prime-ministerial staff in May 2004.