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Political Notes |
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Chhattisgarh : CM Jogi in fresh soup over tribal status
The controversy over the real status of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi refuses to die down. Ever since he was selected by the Congress High Command to head the State, Jogi has been mired in statements doubting his status as a tribal. His opponents have been gunning for him, questioning his claims and demanding that he should make way for a genuine person. Now, a new twist has been added to the row by the Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Dileep Singh Bhuria, who has said Ajit Jogi cannot contest from an ST constituency merely by claiming a tribal status. “Jogi is a Satnami Scheduled Caste and he had embraced Christianity in 1967 to get some benefit,” Bhuria said. “But embracing Christianity by a Dalit does not give him the licence to contest from an Assembly seat reserved strictly for Scheduled Tribes”, he said referring to Jogi’s election from Marwahi (ST) constituency in the state.
Asked if he demanded Jogi’s resignation from the Chief Ministership, Bhuria said the matter had become sub judice as the Chhattisgarh High Court has stayed the order about Jogi’s caste status and ruled that no action would be taken consequent to the commission ruling until further order.
Tamil Nadu: Forest brigand Veerappan ready to surrender
While the US-led coalition is busy hunting for Osama bin Laden, the elusive sandalwood smuggler Veerappan has hit the headlines again. This time he has offered to surrender and named the editor of a Tamil magazine as his emissary to hold talks with the Tamil Nadu Government. The offer was recently sent by the outlaw to A S Mani, editor of Netrikkan, in an audio cassette. The editor sent a telegram to Chief Minister O Panneerselvam conveying Veerappan’s offer. In the cassette message, the poacher-turned smuggler, however, demanded the withdrawal of special task force personnel involved in operations to nab him, as a condition for his surrender. Veerappan said Mani should bring along a person of his choice for holding talks to formalise the surrender. He asked Mani to play the tape before AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, before deciding on the name of the second emissary. The poacher said he had earlier trusted Nakkeeran editor Gopal and his reporter, Sivasubramaniam, but both of them “had turned betrayers”. “I have no faith in them any more”, he said. The Special Task Force has been combing the forests in the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border areas for Veerappan. The outlaw last year kidnapped Kannada film actor Rajkumar, but later released him, after lot of negotiations and a ransom of undisclosed amount.
Bihar : Congress on warpath against Laloo Yadav
The Congress is all set for a confrontation with RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav. Within ten days of sending a letter to Laloo blaming him for alienating the Congress from minorities, BPCC chief Shakeel Ahmed has shot off a second letter, this time to party chief Sonia Gandhi, apprising her of it.
The BPCC chief charged Laloo with conspiring to malign the image of the Congress in the eyes of minorities and not allowing the party the right opportunity for interacting with them. “Laloo is trying to project the RJD as the sole saviour of minorities”, he said. Shakeel cited the recent formation of district-level minority welfare committees without Congress representation as an instance of this. In the minority welfare committees that were recently constituted in the districts not a single Muslim had been inducted. Laloo did not even take pains to inform the BPCC about his decision to constitute the committees. Shakeel, who has taken it as an affront to the State Congress, said that the letter had been sent to the CWC as well. He admitted the party may not take any decision based on this letter about Congress-RJD ties, but said it would certainly be helpful in coming to a conclusive decision in the future.
The fodder scam case involving Laloo is gathering momentum and with the hearings scheduled in Ranchi in Jharkhand, the RJD leader is bound to face a tough future. The Congress has come to the conclusion that no useful purpose is being served in its ties with the RJD. Congress leaders feel it is time for the party to venture on its own in Bihar and not rely on the RJD, which has only eclipsed the Congress. The morale of Congressmen in Bihar is low. Though they resent the party’s backing for Laloo, they are bound by the High Command’s directive on the matter. Unless the Congress is able to revive itself in a strong way and get a sufficient number of Assembly seats in the most populous UP and Bihar, there is little chance of the party ever getting enough seats to emerge as the largest single party in the next Lok Sabha poll for heading a new coalition. Though the Congress has many States in its pockets, especially in the South, unless it improves its tally in the North, it cannot hope to achieve its dream of replacing the BJP-led NDA at the Centre.
Bofors case: CBI hopeful of Quattrocchi’s extradition
The CBI is hopeful that the Bofors kickbacks accused Quattrocchi’s extradition from Malaysia to India will be expedited now that the Malaysian Government has impleaded India as a “separate party” in the case. The CBI has filed an affidavit countering the affidavits of journalist Prem Shankhar Jha and retired Chief Justice of the Patna High Court S. A. H. Abidi in favour of Quattrocchi.
“Earlier we were assisting the Malaysian Government in their case against Quattrocchi. But we also have been appealing to the courts to make us an independent party. Finally, we have been allowed to join the legal process on our own. We have hired an imminent lawyer of Kuala Lampur, Cyrus Das, who will represent the agency and the Government of India,” a CBI official disclosed. The Malaysian Government is being represented by a prosecutor from the Public Prosecutor General’s Office.
CBI sources said the affidavits filed in favour of Quattrocchi by Jha and Abidi neither had any “substance” nor any “legal weight”. “Jha is no authority on Bofors that he should have gone to a Malaysian court to say that Quattrocchi will not get a fair deal in India and the case against him is politically motivated,” the CBI official said. He noted that the agency has been pursuing this case for over a decade during which several governments have come and gone but none interfered with the CBI working.
In its counter-affidavit in the Malaysian High Court, the CBI recounted the progress of the investigation and the filing of chargesheets in the Bofors case. The agency explained clearly that it was purely a legal case in which a Delhi court has taken cognizance of the chargesheet against Quattrocchi and also issued a non-bailable warrant against him. The CBI has explained that following the legal proceedings in India, an extradition process was initiated in Kuala Lampur and Quattrocchi was even arrested and subsequently released on bail.
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