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Political Notes

	March 07, 2005

Madhya Pradesh : 100 MLAs want Uma Bharati to be Chief Minister

One hundred of the 172 BJP MLAs in Madhya Pradesh have requested former Chief Minister Uma Bharti to again take over the state leadership. The MLAs called on her at her residence in Bhopal and requested her to take over the leadership from Chief Minister Babu Lal Gaur. This is the first time since she was suspended from the party in November last year that such a large number of MLAs including 19 ministers had met her. The MLAs asked her to call a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party for her election as its leader.



Uttar Pradesh : Mulayam says no mid-term polls

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh

Yadav has said that there are no plans to dissolve the state Assembly and hold mid-term polls. He made the announcement on March 1, after the BJP, the BSP and the Congress questioned his logic behind bringing the Confidence Motion on the floor of the House. On February 25, Mulayam Singh Yadav surprised the opposition parties by bringing a Confidence Motion simultaneously with the Motion of Thanks on the Governor’s address. The motion was passed by a voice vote.



Andhra Pradesh : Naxalite violence

CPI Maoists struck in a big way in Andhra

Pradesh last week, killing eight farmers

in Kurnool district on March 1. The extremists lured 28 important persons of a village into a carefully laid trap on the pretext of peace negotiations. The extremists are believed to have committed the massacre to avenge the killing of nine of their sympathisers in the village seven years back. After carrying out the massacre, the extremists ordered the villagers not to move until they escaped into the forests.

Angry residents of the village shouted slogans against the State Government’s failure to curb Naxalite violence when Home Minister K. Jana Reddy visited the place.



Punjab : Mian Mir’s descendants denied recognition at Golden Temple

The SGPC, the apex body controlling the

Sikh temples, has denied recognition to

the 19th descendants of Mian Mir, the Muslim saint who laid the foundation stone of the Golden Temple. They were also denied Siropa, Robe of Honour, by the SGPC during their visit to the shrine.

The descendants of Nabi Khan Gani Khan, who had once saved the life of tenth Guru Gobind Singh, were denied the honour by SGPC Chief Jagir Kaur on the pretext that the committee is yet to establish whether they were the actual descendants of the saint. She said, the SGPC would also try to establish the authenticity of the relics brought by the descendants of Nabi Khan Gani Khan from Pakistan.

The descendant of Mian Mir expressed anguish that he was not invited to Quadri Centennial Celebrations of the installation of Guru Granth Sahib. He said, it is shocking that the descendants of Mian Mir have been ignored by the SGPC.

A delegation claimed that the handwritten Hukum Nama written by Guru Gobind Singh with blood was handed over to the family of Gani Khan and Nabi Khan. The two were responsible for ensuring a safe passage for the Guru by disguising him as Uccha Pir or High Priest at Machhivara when he was surrounded by enemies.



PM writes to Rajasthan Chief Minister on tiger crisis

The Prime Minister has written to Rajasthan

Chief Minister Vasundara Raje Scindia to

take immediate action for averting the crisis faced by Project Tiger in the state. Dr. Manmohan Singh wrote the letter after a newspaper reported that tigers had virtually disappeared from Sariska Wild Life Park in the state. He has asked the Chief Minister to order a high level independent inquiry to identify the cause for the disappearance of the tigers and fix responsibility for the same. He has also directed that plying of diesel vehicles within the park should be stopped immediately. The Prime Minister said that a system of postmortem and inquiry should be instituted for any death of a tiger in a national park or reserve forest by a group of outside experts.



Karnataka: Illicit cultivation of poppy detected

Police and Excise staff have detected

widespread illicit cultivation of poppy in

Karnataka. The value of the illicit cultivation is estimated at Rs.500/- crore. The Vienna based International Narcotics Control Board has expressed serious concern over the proliferation of the cultivation of poppy in Karnataka. Poppy cultivation has been detected in several places in Kolar district, not very far from the capital Bangalore. Reports say that the illicit cultivation of poppy is not confined to areas around Bangalore, but spans across the state. To mislead public and the police, the poppy crop was concealed amidst sunflower crops.