Home   Contact Us                                                                   Dateline New Delhi, Thursday, June 16, 2005

 

 


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North India still waiting for monsoon

     Bhubaneswar/Panaji: The monsoon has advanced over north-eastern parts of the country but it is still static in the western region after reaching Goa more than a week ago, weather officials said today. Farmers in Orissa lament as their crops are destroyed due to delayed monsoons. The arrival of the monsoon, the lifeblood of country's agriculture sector, is keenly watched as two-thirds of the country's population earns a living from the sector, which generates about a quarter of gross domestic product. Thousands of farmers across Orissa sow seeds in the second week of June, after the pre-monsoon showers, but this year the fields across the state are parched.

Fate of trapped miners remains unknown (Go To Top)

     Hazaribagh (Jharkhand): Even after one day of the mine tragedy, the fate of the 14 miners trapped inside Central Saunda colliery of Central Coalfields remained unknown. As till Thursday morning, despite strong efforts, no contact could be established with them. Replying to a question about the possibility of the trapped workers' survival, Hazaribagh sub-divisional officer, Dadan Choubey said that five pumps have been installed to dewater over 25 lakh gallons of water. The operation might take two to three days.

Hurriyat leaders return, backs Musharraf's Kashmir formula (Go To Top)
by Ashok Dixit

     Srinagar: Leaders of the moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) crossed Kashmir's Kaman Post near Srinagar on Thursday afternoon after a historic fortnight-long visit to Pakistan, and gave a tacit backing to Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's "autonomous Kashmir" formula. Musharraf, who is currently on a visit to Australia, was quoted by the local media as saying that it was his earnest desire to see the creation of an autonomous Kashmir through a consensus. He also said that complete independence for Kashmir was not an option acceptable to either Pakistan or India. The visit of the APHC leaders to Pakistan will be a subject of controversy both in India and Pakistan. The former Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has already written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that the Government of India has allowed the initiative to slip into Pakistan's hands. Reaching the Kaman Post at 2.15 p.m. in a bus travelling from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar amidst tight security, the Hurriyat leaders said that Musharraf had a right to his own views on Kashmir, and if there was a consensus, they had no problem in going along with it, as their objective was to end bloodshed and suffering in Kashmir. They also said that they expected Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to extend an invitation to them to get a first-hand account of their landmark visit to Pakistan.

      In all, 53 passengers, including 30 Pakistan-administered Kashmir residents, travelled the 120-km distance between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar and, they were accorded a warm welcome on their return. The nine-member APHC team had gone to Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Islamabad and Karachi on June 2 on the invitation of the Government of Pakistan. The focus of the visit was to get a Pakistani perspective on ways to resolve the over five-decade-old Kashmiris right to self-determination.

Hurriyat visit has held country to mockery: Vajpayee (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Strongly criticisng the UPA Government's handling of the Hurriyat visit to Pakistan, Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said that the Indo-Pak peace process has taken some disturbing turns and "all this has held our country to mockery." In a letter written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vajpayee has said that without talking to the Prime Minister or the Union Home Minister, the Hurriyat leaders "go to Pakistan, repeat every statement made by General Musharraf, and then condescend to say that they would go to Delhi as well!" "The growing demand for trilateral talks, internatioal guarantee for settlement and including Hurriyat as a representative of the people of Kashmir, seem to be undoing the laboured achievements of the past few years," he adds. Vajpayee feels that the distinction, which existed a year ago, between the moderates and the hard-liners in the State, has vanished. The moderates have now become totally pro-Pakistan, he points out. The NDA Chairperson has also raised question mark over the Government's decision to allow Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan without passports and visas.

CPI(M) to rope in UPA partners for anti-Congress stir  (Go To Top)
by Gautam Ghosh

     Kolkata: The CPI(M) has initiated a move to rope in major UPA partners as well as other anti-BJP outfits in its proposed stir against the Congress' "anti-people policies" with an eye on the Assembly elections in West Bengal, Kerala and Assam scheduled for early next year. The Marxists believe they will be in a better position to put pressure on the Congress high command to change its economic policy once other UPA partners begin to support them on various contentious issues. The CPI(M) regards this change in its political strategy as the only option left to it since the party can not afford to withdraw support to the Congress-led government at the Centre at this juncture. As per the new strategy, the Marxists have started wooing major UPA partners like the RJD and the NCP to keep the Congress under a leash. The NCP leaders recently backed the left parties in their persistent opposition to the Centre's move to hike the prices of petroleum products. As far as the RJD is concerned, the CPI(M) wants to supplement its political entente with the party with a mutual understanding on economic issues.

     The Marxists also intend to keep their options open in Andhra Pradesh and Assam and do not rule out an electoral understanding with anti-Congress outfits like Telugu Desham and Assam Gana Parishad. As far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned, the CPI(M) seems more interested in joining hands with the Samajwadi party led by chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav than with the Congress which has failed to improve its position even after one year of the installation of the UPA government at the Centre. According to informed sources, the Congress' refusal to make suitable changes in its economic agenda as desired by the CPI(M) and other left parties has created considerable resentment among the rank and file of the two communist parties. Party workers at the grassroots level have started wondering if their leadership is in a position "to bite instead of barking." Particularly the CITU and the AITUC, labour wings of the CPI(M) and the CPI, feel enough is enough and time has come "to call a spade a spade." This gradual hardening in the attitude of the two communist parties is evident from their decision to permit the trade union bodies to organise a 24-hour "Bharat bandh" in September to highlight their differences with the Congress on crucial economic issues like ;FDI, disinvestment of the public sector units, the Pension Bill and bank reforms. In fact, the CPI(M) has already threatened to vote against the Pension Bill in the Parliament if the Congress insists on its adoption in the present form.

      A section of CPI(M) leaders here feels there may a need for the formation of a Third Front of anti-BJP and anti-Congress outfits if the BJP-led NDA becomes more and more politically weak. "A weak BJP will naturally prompt us to have second thoughts on our present stand vis-a-vis the Congress. We may then think about a Third Front as an alternative to the UPA," said a central committee member of the party. The central committee leader, known as a CPI(M) hard-liner, however, feels this will depend on the Congress' attitude and its readiness to accommodate the leftists' demands. The CPI(M) believes that the picture will become clear only after the Bihar polls as the NDA has been making a last-ditch bid to capture power in the RJD stronghold. The Marxists' attempts to bring about a rapprochment between Yadav and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan have so far been proved abortive with the latter sticking to his anti-RJD stand. Political leaders believe that the CPI(M) will have to rethink its strategy if the Congress and other UPA partners fail to form a "secular government" in Bihar after the next round of elections.

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