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Political Notes

	December 20, 2004

Sonia hosts dinner for UPA partners



Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi hosted a dinner for the

constituents of the Alliance and supporting parties on Thursday, December 16. The dinner was part of an exercise to mark the completion of six months of the Congress-led UPA Government. Prominent among those who attended the dinner were Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi, Chief Minister of Bihar and Union Steel Minister Rambilas Paswan. Others who attended the dinner included Union Ministers, Dayanidhi Maran, Anbumani Ramadoss and Sharad Pawar.

Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jairam Ramesh, represented the Congress. The Left leaders present were CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, his CPI counterpart, A.B. Bardhan, all India Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas, and the Central Committee Member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, Abani Roy. The CPI(M) politburo member Sitraram Yechury was also present.



Although the dinners hosted by Sonia Gandhi were basically social occasions, these were not without political overtones. With Sonia Gandhi playing the gracious hostess, the idea was to dispel any notions about a rift within the ruling coalition and also to present a united front. This is especially so in view of the recent public spat between Lalu Prasad Yadav and Paswan and the tensions between the Congress and its breakaway faction, NCP after the Maharashtra elections.



With the festive season just round the corner, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur has also decided to do her bit. She is hosting a dinner on December 20 for the spouses of party MPs as well as the women MPs and Ministers. “The special women night out is essentially Gursharan Kaur’s idea...even the Prime Minister is unlikely to be present on the occasion”, commented a Congress Minister.



Manmohan in total command : Resignation reports denied



The Prime Minister’s Office has dismissed as completely fabricated and without any truth reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was under pressure and had offered to resign on four occasions. Minister of State in the PMO Prithvi Raj Chauhan said the Prime Minister is completely in command and the resignation reports are completely fabricated. He said the Government was functioning very effectively as could be judged by any economic parameter and the speed with which it is fulfilling its commitments made to the nation in the Common Minimum Programme.



In a related development, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh debunked speculation of his socalled efforts to upstage the Prime Minister. He told the Lok Sabha on December 16 that they are members of a disciplined party, and are totally committed to the leadership of the Prime Minister.

Though his assertion came in the course of his reply to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Bill to constitute a National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, the remarks are being seen as an attempt on his part to deny speculation on some kind of rift developing between him and the Prime Minister.

Arjun Singh’s remarks came in response to the charge made by BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi that the motive behind bringing in the Bill was to upstage the Prime Minister and to signal to the minorities that he was taking the lead on issues concerning them.



Half the Lok Sabha members yet to submit details of assets



Over fifty per cent of the Members of the Lok Sabha including leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani are yet to furnish information on their assets and liabilities to the Lok Sabha Secretariat. To do so is mandatory under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Others who have not submitted the information include the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal and Union Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and cinestar of yesteryears Sunil Dutt.

Parliament sources said that as many as 277 Lok Sabha members out of 543, including all the eight Shiromani Akali Dal members, Atwal, former Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, former Punjab Chief Minister’s son Sukhbir Singh Badal are yet to submit information about their assets and liabilities to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.



Every elected member of the Lok Sabha is required to furnish information regarding assets and liabilities within 90 days from the date of making and subscribing an oath or affirmation for taking his seat.



A maximum of 83 members belonging to the BJP are yet to furnish the information. They include, Advani, Chief Whip of the party in the Lok Sabha Sushil Kumar Modi, Karuna Shukla, niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, party general secretary Shivraj Singh, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s brother Lakshman Singh, former Union Minister Ananth Kumar and Hamirpur MP Suresh Chandel.



Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her Son Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Ministers, Vajpayee and Chandrashekhar, Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Vijay Kumar Malhotra were among those who submitted their assets and liabilities information well within time, the sources said.



As to the ruling Congress, 51 Members out of 146 are yet to furnish the details. Those who are yet to submit the information include former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, Union Minister Sunil Dutt and former Delhi Minister Krishna Tirath, the sources said.



Significantly, the CPI(M), which is giving outside support to the Congress-led UPA government, had recorded the highest compliance. Out of its 43 members, 41 have already submitted the information to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.



Confusion over EPF interest rate



There are reports that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) interest rate will be increased from the present 8.5 per cent. The reports gained currency after CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told newspersons after meeting the Prime Minister that Dr. Manmohan Singh had agreed to increase the interest rate to 9.5 per cent. The CPI leader expected it to be done before the next Budget. The Prime Minister’s Office, however, clarified that no such assurance was given and the Prime Minister was just sympathetic to the AITUC demand for a higher EPF rate.

Manmohan Singh later said the Government would consider the demand for hiking the interest rate of EPF. “I have not said anything... (about increasing the EPF rate),” he told reporters when asked about Dasgupta’s statement. “I said we will consider it. When Parliament is in session, I cannot make any announcement (outside),” the PM said. Even Dasgupta had not been entirely categorical. He had prefaced his assertion with the clause, “as far as I have understood the PM.”



Delhi court rejects ‘godman’ Chandraswami’s plea to travel abroad

A Delhi court has rejected the application of Nemi Chand Jain alias Chandraswami for permission to travel abroad. The court was hearing a case in which the self-styled godman has been charged with violating the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. Both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate opposed his application. The CBI told the court that it has collected lots of evidence of Chandraswami’s role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that cannot be revealed at present. The CBI representative handed over a box of documents in this regard to the Magistrate.



Chandraswami was recently acquitted in the St. Kitts forgery case in which he was alleged to have played a role in forging documents to show that former Prime Minister V.P. Singh was the beneficiary of a bank account in his son’s name in the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. He had earlier been discharged in the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case.



A national newspaper has reported that the key to the mystery behind Chandraswami’s alleged role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi lies with “KP” (or Kumaran Pathmanathan), one of the main financiers of the Sri Lanka-based LTTE. The Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) set up under the CBI to probe the conspiracy aspect of the assassination, has established a close link between self-styled godman Chandraswami and KP.

According to official sources, the CBI has evidence which pinpoints their alleged common business interests across the globe. A fresh effort, has therefore, now begun to trace Kumaran Pathmanathan, alias Dharmalingam Shanmugham, colloquially known as KP in order to get to the bottom of the conspiracy aspect of the assassination case.



The countries to which the MDMA has traced KP’s business interests include Switzerland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, South Africa and New Zealand. KP, the MDMA said, is in regular touch with LTTE supremo V. Prabhakaran, one of the main accused in Rajiv Gandhi’s murder.



Best Bakery Case : Zahira Sheikh’s mother turns hostile



It is now the turn of Zahira Sheikh’s mother, Sehrunissa to turn hostile in the Best Bakery riot case in which nearly 20 people were burnt to death by rioters. During her testimony, she said, she did not see any of the rioters who had set fire to the Best Bakery on March 1, 2002.



At the retrial of the case in Mumbai, she told the court that when the fire broke out that night, there was a lot of commotion and rioters were shouting “jalao, maro, kato.” She said she did not see anything. There was complete darkness all around and she could not look down from the terrace where she and her family were hiding as there was a fire raging. She said that she did not know anyone in the mob. She also said that the rioters could not be from her locality as the people there were friendly.



She said that she was not sad that one of her daughters had died in the fire, though she was really sorry about her husband’s death. She said that her daughter anyway was “paraya dhan” (someone else’s property).



She admitted that she had three brothers of which one was Kauser Ali, whose whereabouts are not known to her It is the prosecution’s case that Kauser died in the fire.



Judge gets threats, security beefed up



The security at the Mazagaon court has been beefed up following threat emails received by Special Judge A.M. Thipasy, who is conducting the retrial of the Best Bakery case. Thipsay has received over 100 emails, most of which threatened him with “dire consequences if the judgement goes against the accused”, highly placed sources claimed.



In a related development, the Gujarat Government has requested the Justice G.T. Nanavati-Justice K.G. Shah riots commission not to hand over to anyone the CDs containing cellphone records of the worst days of the post-Godhra riots. In its defence, the state government said it was checking their uthenticity. “The CDs reportedly contain information that could be misused, abused, copied, and could violate the right to privacy of those who have nothing to do with the riot cases,” the government argued.



Drawing on these cellphone records, The Indian Express had published a series of investigative reports that showed how senior government functionaries and the top police brass, including the Commissioner, were in touch with several of the riot-accused and senior VHP leaders while the city was on fire.



Babri mosque demolition case : Advani as guilty, says CBI



The CBI has told the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court that former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani’s complicity in the Babri masjid demolition case was the same as that of the other seven co-accused. The CBI counsel said that there are adequate reasons to prosecute the BJP leaders, former H.R.D. Minister M.M. Joshi, Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Ritambhra as they had instigated lakhs of kar sevaks (volunteers) to demolish the mosque. The CBI has moved the High Court against the decision of a Rai Barelli court on September 19, 2003 to clear Advani. Counsels of the other BJP leaders told the High Court that they should also be discharged in the case like Advani. Their clients had not instigated the kar sevaks to demolish the mosque, they argued.



Supreme Court wants RJD MP Pappu Yadav to be shifted



The Supreme Court has asked the CBI as to where RJD MP Pappu Yadav can be shifted from Beur jail in Patna to end his illegal activities. An angry Bench of the apex court transferred to itself the Patna High Court proceedings in which cellphone companies were directed to provide the court with details of calls made by Pappu Yadav to various Ministers and officials from jail. The court asked all concerned to respond to the notice by January 3. Pappu Yadav is in jail in connection with a murder case.



Income Tax Department not to proceed against Lalu



The Central Board of Direct Taxes has informed the Supreme Court that it would not file an appeal against an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order quashing tax demands of Rs. 40 lakhs against Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife and Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi.



In an affidavit filed before a Bench of Justice S.N. Variava and Justice H.K. Sema, the CBDT said the tribunal at Patna had not committed any irregularity in quashing the tax demand on Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi.

Acting on a petition filed by Sushil Modi, BJP MP and Rajiv Ranjan Singh JD(U) MP, the court had issued notice to Lalu and his wife to show cause as to why their bail in the Rs. 900 crore fodder scam and disproportionate assets cases should not be cancelled since Lalu had been allegedly interfering in the trial ever since he became the Railways Minister. Notice was also issued to CBDT.



Maoist-Andhra Pradesh Govt. ceasefire ends



The six-month long ceasefire between the Andhra Pradesh Government and Maoist

rebels expired on Thursday, December 16. The Government has not come out with its mind on whether it is going to extend the ceasefire any further. Even as several representations were made for extension of the ceasefire, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhra Reddy and Home Minister K. Janna Reddy gave the impression that the Government was not in a hurry on the issue.



“We have not given any thought at all to this issue”, the Home Minister said, adding “We are ready to face any challenge that is thrown by the Naxalites.” In fact, Wednesday evening’s landmine blast in Vishakhapatnam, in which four policemen were injured seems to have come in handy for the Government.

“With or without the ceasefire it is the same for the Naxalites as they are acting as per their whims and fancies, extorting money from the poor and helpless and blasting the landmines. See what happened in Vishakhapatnam last evening when Naxalites blasted the landmine in which four policemen were injured”, Jana Reddy told newsmen in Hyderabad.



Karnataka Ministry expanded



The Karnataka Council of Ministers has been expanded with the inclusion of 18 Cabinet and two Ministers of State, ending the uncertainty over the issue. Nine of them belong to the Congress and eleven to its coalition partner, the Janata Dal (Secular). Hours after the expansion, the resentment in the Congress over the exercise came to the fore with supporters of two senior leaders picketing the party headquarters in Bangalore. Pradesh Congress president B. Janaradhna Poojari tried to pacify the agitating partymen by assuring them that he would take up the issue with Chief Minister Dharam Singh.



Kanchi Shankaracharya denied interim bail



The Supreme Court has declined to grant interim bail to the Shankracharya of Kanchipuram, Sri Jaynendra Saraswati who has been arrested in a murder case. A three-Judge bench of the court said no interim bail would be possible, but issued notice to the Tamil Nadu Government to produce all records of the case in the court on January 6.



Live telecast of Parliament proceedings



India has joined the select group of countries that telecast live proceedings in their Parliaments. Two Doordarshan satellite channels were launched last week for the coverage of business in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The channels were dedicated to the nation by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Addressing a gathering on the occasion, the Prime Minister said he hopes that the live telecast would improve the quality of debates in Parliament and encourage more members to be actively engaged in its proceedings.