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Karunanidhi helped in Baroda dynamite plan: Fernandes
by Kestur Vasuki

      Bangalore: NDA Convener and former socialist George Fernandes today (June 27) claimed that DMK leader M. Karunanidhi helped him in organizing the Baroda dynamite attack during emergency with moral and material support. "Karunanidhi helped in more ways than one way," said Fernandes in an exclusive television interview with ANI. "He (Karunanidhi) gave some areas, showed some areas where I could teach how to dynamite and two, he gave the youth, his youth, his people also to learn how to dynamite. And three, I was bankrupt. I had no money in my pocket. So whatever little money I could meet, he saw to it that it is made available, the money," said the socialist leader, who was detained for what came to be known as Baroda Dynamite Case during Indira Gandhi's emergency. Seven months into the emergency, Indira Gandhi dismissed Karunanidhi's government on January 31, 1976, almost two months ahead of its scheduled tenure. Fernandes did not specify whether Karunanidhi helped him during his tenure as state chief or after being sacked. Fernandes, who smuggled dynamite to blow up government establishments in protest against emergency, was jailed, but later the charges were dropped when the Morarji Desai government took over, in which he was the Railway Minister. Admitting his role in the blasts, Fernandes said his aim was to register protest against the emergency and not to kill anyone. "We blasted a whole lot of things but there was one direction to everyone, that our action should never take a life nor hurt a life and I can say with great pride that we never hurt anyone nor killed anyone," he said. Former Karnataka Chief Minister J.H. Patel was one of his associates in the attacks against Indira Gandhi's emergency, said Fernandes. Fernandes, who is a bitter critic of Indira Gandhi, took exception to a recent glowing remarks of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh chief K S Sudarshan describing it as an 'endorsement of dictatorship'.

Himachal's flood-hit Kinnaur cut off  (Go To Top)

     Shimla: Parts of Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur District have been cut off from the rest of the country after a breach in Tibet's Parchu Lake washed away nine bridges and a major portion of the National Highway No 22 on Sunday. The 3500-metre-long 800-metre wide and 15 metre-deep lake in Tibet is close to the Indian border. It was formed last year behind a landslide blocking the Parchu river, a tributary of the Satluj river that flows into India from Tibet, always posing a geological threat to India. The flood was first noticed when ITBP men manning the Lapcha post in the district noticed an unusual discharge of water from the Chinese side of the lake at around 10 a.m.on Sunday morning. The flood has now affected other parts of the state as well. ''Reokong Peo and Yangthang areas beyond Wangtu, a police post, in Kinnaur district are cut off from the rest of the country,'' the District Commissioner Amandeep Garg said on Monday. Transmission lines were down at several places in the district and would take time before they were restored. Garg said the water level in the river was receding and was now 12 to 13 feet only.

     Earlier in the day and on Sunday night, a high alert was sounded along a 200 kilometre-long stretch bordering the Spiti and Satluj rivers from Sumdoh to Sunni in Himachal Pradesh as water levels of the Pareechu Lake continue to rise alarmingly, even as the Crisis Management Group (CMG) headed by Cabinet Secretary B.K.Chaturvedi continued to monitor the situation from New Delhi on Monday. Union Home Ministry and Himachal Pradesh Government sources contacted confirmed that people living in the low lying areas along the River Satluj are being evacuated to safer places. The Home Ministry has said that it will probably release satellite pictures to give a clear indication of whether the Parechu Lake in China is overflowing. Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi-17, Mi-7 and Mi-8 helicopter squadrons have been placed on high alert to evacuate staranded residents from the area bordering the River Satluj, the water levels of which had risen to a height of over 40 feet on Sunday. Officials sources in Shimla said that so far five bridges have been swept away and at least six villages inundated by the flash floods. Huge swathes of the National Highway in Kinnaur have bee engulfed with water. Two companies of the recently created Disaster Management Force (DMF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force have been deployed to help the state government tide over the situation if need be. There have been no casualties so far.

Madras HC quashes `Common Entrance Test' order (Go To Top)

     Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday quashed the Tamil Nadu Government's recent order abolishing Common Entrance Test (CET) for admissions to professional courses in the state. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Markandeya Khatju and Justice S M Ibrahimkalifullah, however, said that regarding the improvement examination, the matter is a policy decision of the government and the court would not interfere as it was a benefit given to the students. The court said the improvement examinations would be valid for this year. The state government headed by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had issued the notification to abolish the CET on June 9. After the judgement was delivered, Senior Counsel K M Vijayan, who argued for the petitioners, pointed out that when the court was hearing the petitions, the state government had issued prospectus for admission to medical courses, which did not allow students to seek admission based on their improvement marks. Responding to this, Advocate General N R Chandran said if the government decided to implement today's High Court order, necessary guidelines would be issued.

     After this, the Bench made it clear that the procedure followed last year had to be followed for this academic year also, to enable the students to seek admissions to engineering and medical courses based on their improvement marks. Having conducted the CET on April 23 and 24 and allowed students to take improvement examinations, the state government scrapped the entrance tests and cancelled the improvement examination, holding that the existing system of admission to professional courses, adversely affected the interests of students hailing from rural areas. Announcing a new policy, the government had said that admission to professional courses from the academic year 2005-06 would be purely based on marks obtained in the Plus Two examinations and following the rule of reservation. Over 1.65 lakh students had taken the CET in April and the government, after announcing the results and starting the process of admission to engineering courses, decided to do away with the existing system and came out with a new admission policy. The demand for doing away with the CET was first made by the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and it soon became a political issue with the DMK, the main Opposition party, the Congress and the Left parties supporting the demand. Bowing to Opposition pressure, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced the scrapping of CET and improvement examinations on 6th June, three days after which the government issued an order to this effect.

SC team probing Best Bakery case to visit Vadodara (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Supreme Court Committee probing abduction charges levelled by Best Bakery prime witness Zahira Sheikh against well-known social activist Teesta Setalvad, will visit Vadodara on June 30 to record statements of the former's relatives. Supreme Court Registrar, B M Gupta will lead a team on a two-day visit to the city, where the committee hopes to record the statements of Zahira's elder brother Nafitullah and former Vadodara Deputy Mayor and NCP councillor Nisar Bapu, who allegedly played a key role in a controversial sting operation to expose financial calumny in the Best Bakery case. In December, 2004, a tape prepared by the web portal Tehelka showed Bapu talking to Vadodara Congress councillor Chandrakant Srivastava and local BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava, in which it was disclosed that and alleged settlement of Rs.18 lakh had been reached with Zahira in return for her retraction of previous statements made before a Vadodara fast track court in 2003. Besides Zahira and Teesta, the committee has already recorded the statements of the Srivastava brothers and two Vadodara-based lawyers - Shailesh Patel and Tushar Vyas, who were also shown on the Tehelka tape.

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