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Political Notes

	July 25, 2005

Bihar elections : Paswan refuses to relent



Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, incharge of the party’s campaign in the coming Assembly elections in Bihar, had a meeting with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader and Steel Minister Ram Bilas Paswan in New Delhi on July 21 in a bid to persuade him to set aside his differences with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and join the secular front. But the hour-long talks did not yield anything substantive as both nearly restated their known positions. Paswan is reported to have said that he will not have any understanding with the RJD and will prefer to go it alone, if it comes to that. Digvijay Singh asked him to reconsider his decision as a division in the secular vote may lead to the formation an NDA Government in the State. He said later that efforts will continue to bring Lalu Prasad Yadav and Paswan together.

On the NDA side, one of the BJP co-incharges for the Bihar election, firebrand leader Uma Bharati, had a meeting with alliance convener and Janata Dal United Chief George Fernandes to discuss a coordinated action plan with the objective of routing the RJD in the State.



Asked by reporters after her 45-minute meeting wth Fernandes about BJP-JDU action plan to dislodge RJD in the state, she said : “Our action plan is ready. We are making preparations so that we win the maximum number of seats.”

The BJP-JDU combine is targeting to win at least 75 seats in the 241 assembly on its own. It hopes to later garner another 45 odd seats to be able to form the Government. The NDA combine has decided to change some of its earlier candidates to ensure victory in some identified seats where either the BJP or the JDU lost by slim margins.



Tamil Nadu : Sops for Government employees



A few months before Assembly elections are due in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has announced concessions amounting to Rs. 201 crore for Government employees and pensioners. The State Government has withdrawn the ban on strikes imposed under the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act which had been used to crush the July 2003 strike by Government employees.

The Chief Minister decided that the strike period of over six months would be treated as a duty period on the Government employees log books.

“I have decided that there is no further need to keep reminding Government employees and teachers through a punitive provision of their bounden duty to serve the public without any disruption whatsoever,” Jayalalitha said in a statement.



Punjab : SGPC chief sacked



In a decision with far reaching implications, the Sikh Gurudwara Judicial Commission has ordered the removal of Bibi Jagir Kaur as president of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee. In a decision announced in Amritsar on July 19, the Commission held her guilty of arbitrarily sanctioning fee concessions for children of influential politicians at a medical institute run by the SGPC. The panel barred her from contesting SGPC elections for five years. A fine of Rs. 2.55 crore has been imposed on her by the Commission.

Hearing a petition filed by Narinderpal Singh, the three-member bench expressed surprise over the way Kaur sanctioned fee concessions for seven students at Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences.

“The students who benefited from Bibi’s largesse were children of former Akali Ministers, MLAs and SGPC members,” the order said.



In the case filed three years ago, the petitioner had alleged that some students who were admitted to the SGPC-run medical college under the NRI quota belonged to rich families, but their fee of Rs. 35 lakh each had been waived by the Bibi during her previous stint as SGPC chief.



Bibi Jagir Kaur has decided to challenge the Commission’s order in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.



Al Qaeda man sentenced to 7 years in jail



Self-confessed Al Qaeda operative Mohd. Afroze has been found guilty of conspiring to commit terrorist acts on territories of nations at peace with India and of forgery by a POTA court in Mumbai. The court sentenced him to seven years rigorous imprisonment under the Indian Penal Code for forgery and conspiring to cause acts of terror and destruction in friendly countries such as Britain and Australia.



On December 18, 2001, Afroze had allegedly confessed to having agreed to his uncle’s suggestion to join the Al Qaeda, taken pilot training and joined a suicide squad whose target was Westminster in London.



However, the judge acquitted Afroze of the in charge of “waging war” against the state and the Government of India.



Afroze had forged his HSC marksheet to undergo pilot training, allegedly to crash a plane into the House of Commons, a charge Afroze was held guilty of.



Centre orders CBI probe into Centaur hotel sale



The Centre has ordered a CBI probe into the sale of the Centaur hotel in Mumbai during the NDA rule. The allegation is that the hotel was sold at a price much lower than its value. The person who purchased the hotel later resold it at a much higher price.



BJP leader Arun Shourie, who was Disinvestment Minister at the time of the sale, said that he would “cooperate” with the inquiry The BJP ascribed the probe to the Government’s anxiety to keep the Left in good humour at a time when they were boycotting the coordination committee and making noises about recently signed defence and nuclear agreements with the US.



“This so-called inquiry is just a morsel that the Government has thrown at the Left to appease it,” the party said in a statement.



Former RBI Governor passes away



Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Director of the London School of Economics I.G. Patel, died in a hospital in New York last week. He was 81.

Patel was a well known economist and had occupied some of the highest positions in economic policy making, both in India and abroad.

At the age of 25, in 1949, Patel became the Principal of Baroda College. He was appointed RBI Governor on December 1, 1977, and his five-year tenure witnessed “demonetisation” of high denomination notes as well as “gold auctions, conducted by the RBI on behalf of the Government.



CR Irani dead



C.R. Irani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Statesman Ltd. and Editor-in-Chief of the Statesman, died in Kolkata on July 23. He was 74.

Irani was admitted to the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute for Cardiac Sciences in Kolkata following indisposition. He remained in the ICCU for 18 days fighting an uphill battle for his life, but could not survive.

Irani was at the helm of affairs in The Statesman during tumultuous times. He is best remembered for his role during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi when The Statesman newspaper was happy to be part of a minuscule minority that resisted assault on the freedom of the Press.