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Mayawati justifies suspension of rebel MLA
New Delhi/Lucknow, Nov 7 (ANI): Mayawati, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and leader of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, on Thursday suspended her party legislator after he joined hands with dissidents. Jai Prakash Yadav, a BSP legislator, was suspended after he rebelled against the party leadership claiming that the coalition government headed by BSP had lost majority in the assembly. Mayawati justified the suspension saying a police case was registered against Yadav who was wanted in several cases of intimidation and other excesses. "He (Jai Prakash Yadav) went with the dissidents just to save himself,therefore I am suspending him from the party. The directions have been given to the party president since I am in New Delhi. He has committed two mistakes. On the one hand, an FIR has been lodged against him after he has done something wrong and police is after him. Secondly, he has joined hands with dissidents, which will not save him," Mayawati told reporters in New Delhi. Earlier on Thursday in Lucknow, the suspended BSP legislator Jai Prakash Yadav met Governor Vishnukant Shastri and urged him to convene a special session of the assembly. Talking to reporters later, Yadav said all the criminal cases against him were politically motivated. "Mayawati just wants slaves, who listen to her. For her (Mayawati) all legislators are useless. She wants all to agree with her. I am not like this and I will not bend before her even if there are 50 cases against me," said Yadav. Ravindra Singh Pundeer, a dissident BJP legislator, said the BSP was on the verge of collapse and a large number of legislators would desert the party soon. "About 50 BSP members are about to leave the party. BSP legislators are ready and a big political explosion is expected very soon. There is no doubt....The Governor should call the session and everything will be clear on the floor of the House," said Pundeer. As the crisis continues to deepen in the state, BJP leaders are maintaining silence. "If any legislator is exploited due to political reasons then I do not accept and condemn it. But if some action is taken seeing the ground conditions then it should not be linked with politics," said Lalji Tondon, legislature party leader of BJP. The political turmoil began in the state after more than a dozen dissident legislators belonging to BJP joined a revolt against the leadership of Mayawati demanding early convening of the House for a trial of strength.(ANI) Gandhinagar, Nov 7 (ANI): BJP leaders on Thursday held a meeting in Gandhinagar, Gujarat to select candidates for the forthcoming assembly elections. The state is scheduled to go to polls on December 12. Chief Minister Narendra Modi and party's election committee convener Keshubhai Patel were among senior party functionaries who attended the crucial meeting. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, BJP state unit president Rajendra Singh Rana said the party would release the candidates' list soon. The ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress party have high stakes in Gujarat which witnessed one of the worst religious riots in a decade. "Since today (Thursday) morning senior party leaders are holding meetings with party presidents of different districts and other observers......The meeting has just begun but the list of names of candidates will be given very soon," Rana told reporters. Elections in Gujarat were announced late last month by the Election Commission earlier refusing to hold elections in October due to prevailing atmosphere. More than 1,000 people, mostly minority Muslims, were killed across the state following the violence which erupted in late February, after a Muslim mob burned 59 Hindu pilgrims alive in an attack on a train, triggering massive reprisals by Hindu gangs. Country's opposition parties halted Parliament for long periods demanding dismissal of state chief minister Narendra Modi over his handling of the riots. Gujarat is the last major state held by the BJP after a string of losses in state elections.(ANI) Farooq to contest Rajya Sabha poll
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Jammu, Nov 7 (ANI): After the debacle of his National Conference Party in the recently concluded elections in Kashmir, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah said he would contest elections to the Rajya Sabha. Jammu and Kashmir has four seats in the Rajya Sabha, the elections for which are due later this month. "Yes I am filing the nominations for the Rajya Sabha," Abdullah told reporters upon his arrival in Jammu on Thursday. He, however, ruled out joining Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's cabinet. Abdullah's son Omar quit Vajpayee's cabinet after the election verdict. His resignation is yet to be accepted by Vajpayee. "No, I don't see myself in the Union (Federal) Council of Ministers," Abdullah said. The National Conference party was turned out of power after having ruled the state on-and-off for more than half a century. Abdullah said his party would play the role of a "good opposition". "We are fighters, we are going to fight as a good opposition and we are going to watch the government. After all they have promised so many things to the people. We would like to see those promises fulfilled," said Abdullah. Newly elected chief minister Mufti Moahmmed Sayeed has promised to bring peace to the bloodied Himalayan region after nearly 13 years of separatist violence.(ANI) Ends BSB Rebel BSP legislator suspended from party
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to top Lucknow, Nov. 7 (ANI): The Bahujana Samaj Party suspended its rebel legislator Jai Prakash Yadav from the party on Thursday. The action was taken following his meeting, accompanied by a dissident BJP MLA Ravindra Pundir, with UP Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri this morning when he alleged "victimisation" at the behest of chief minister Ms. Mayawati and demanded the convening of a special Assembly session in which the government will have to seek a confidence vote. Yadav, who represents Dhuriapaar constituency, later told reporters that a case had been filed against him at the Gola police station after he reached late for a BSP meeting convened by Mayawati recently. "The chief minister got angry with me as I reached late and a fake case was filed against me at her behest," he said, accusing Mayawati of "running the party like a dictator". Pundir claimed that about 50 BSP MLAs were ready to join the rebel ranks. But Mayawati denied that there was any discontent and stated that police action was initiated against Yadav following complaints of physical threats by the people of his constituency. (ANI)
3 Trinamul MPs want Mamata to revive ties with NDA Go to top Kolkata, Nov 7 (ANI): Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee appears still undecided on the question of snapping her party's ties with the NDA permanently with the winter session of Parliament only a few days away. The Trinamul Congress leader was earlier expected to take a final decision on the vexed issue before the onset of the winter session, but differences within her parliamentary party has apparently prompted not to take any pre-mature step which can make her position more vulnerable. At present Ms Banerjee is under considerable pressure from at least three party MPs, Ajit Panja, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Bikram Sarkar, to revive the TC's earlier relationship with the ruling coalition in view of the panchayat polls in the state scheduled for early next year. All the three MPs feel the party will face a serious challenge from the Marxists and can not afford to do away with the BJP support required to ensure the victory of its nominees. Despite his suspension in the party following differences of opinion with Ms Banerjee, Panja has been keeping in touch with the NDA higher-ups. His cordial relationship with the BJP leadership became apparent in the recent past when the Centre decided to send him as India's representative to the United Nations to address a special session on human rights violations. Panja as well as Bandopadhyay, who was recently removed from the post of the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, have been openly pleading for restoration of Trinamul's ties with the BJP both at the Central and state levels in order to overcome its current political isolation. According to informed sources, Ms Banerjee is not averse to the idea of restoring her party's links with the NDA provided the Centre evolves "an honourable solution to the problem arising out of Eastern Railway's bifurcation." The Vajpayee-led Centre did not prevent Railway Minister Nitish Kumar from going ahead with the bifurcation despite objections raised by West Bengal's mainline political parties as well as railway experts. The bifurcation has already made thousands of railway workers in Kolkata redundant and is expected to drastically reduce Eastern Railway's annual revenue. The Trinamul Congress supremo decided not to remain "part of the NDA as long as the bifurcation is not revoked." Naturally it will be difficult for her to reverse her stand without receiving some kind of face-saving device from the Centre. Panja, Bandopadhyay and Sarkar, however, are in favour of returning to the ruling coalition without any pre-conditions. They regard Eastern Railway's bifurcation as a "non-issue" which should not be allowed to stand in the way of the party's relationship with the NDA. The three feel Ms Banerjee was unnecessarily making the bifurcation a "prestige issue" and wasting precious time in selecting proper allies to fight the powerful CPI(M) leadership. These pro-BJP leaders regard the saffron party as their natural ally since the Congress has been "consistently wooing the Marxists both at the Centre and in the state". Ms Banerjee, however, intends to stick to her current stand vis-a-vis the NDA as long as the BJP's apex leadership does not show enough interest putting up a joint fight against the Marxists in Bengal and give "due importance and honour to Trinamul Congress as a political ally." One of the reasons for the present stalemate, sources said, is the lack of initiative on the part of NDA convenor and Defence Minister George Fernandes to bring about a rapprochement between the Trinamul Congress supremo and the BJP leadership. Fernandes has not been able to give proper attention to NDA's internal affairs due to his preoccupations as Defence Minister in the past couple of months and may be in a position to do so only after the Gujarat assembly polls. The lady, on her part, does not appear to be in a hurry to rush things as far as her party's relationship with the NDA is concerned and intends to follow a policy of "wait and watch." She feels the country's political scenario at the onset of 2003 will greatly depend on the outcome of the Gurajart election which is extremely crucial for the BJP ensure another term for the NDA in the next Lok Sabha polls. A BJP to rout in Gujarat may spell doom for the party and lead to a new polarisation of political forces at the national level. The Trinamul Congress leader hopes to be in a position of greater political bargain with the BJP in the event of the party's debacle in the crucial election. Ms Banerjee, however, has made two things absolutely clear to her party colleagues. First, she is no longer going to blindly support the NDA policies even if she returns to it. She intends to oppose the Centre's policies which will harm the people's interests. Secondly, she does not mind joining hands with all the anti-CPI(M) forces including the state BJP to ensure the Marxists' defeat in the panchayat polls. She feels she will be in a better position to fight the CPI(M) in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls if she can give a jolt to the Left Front in the panchayat elections by forging a "mahajot" or grand alliance against the Marxists.(ANI) Advani equates ISI with Taliban, Al-Qaeda Go to top Bhiwani, Nov 7 (ANI): Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Thursday equated Pakistan's secret intelligence agency with terror outfits and urged the international community to recognise it as a "source of terrorism." "I want to use this occasion to tell all the leaders of the world, all those who have taken upon themselves to fight a war against terrorism that if they consider the Taliban and the Al- Qaeda as sources of terror, then they must do so for the ISI as well. I warn that by not recognising ISI as a source of terror they would be deceived again," Advani told a gathering of police officials for a sports meet in Bhiwani town. India accuses Pakistan of waging a proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir through the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which it says arms and trains Muslim militants before sending them across the border. Pakistan denies the charge and says it only provides moral support to what it calls the Kashmiri struggle for self- determination. Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting Indian rule in the state where officials say more than 35,000 people have been killed in 13 years of rebellion. Advani expressed concern that Pakistan-backed militants were now fuelling insurgency in the country's north-east. With over 200 ethnic groups in seven states, the northeast is a cauldron of political violence. New Delhi has placed military, paramilitary and police forces under military commanders to fight the rebels, many of whom are believed to have set up camps across the border in Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.(ANI)
Call to make cow the national animal and save it from slaughter
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top New Delhi, Nov. 7 (ANI): The cow should be declared as the national animal and a Central law formulated and passed to ensure its protection, according to two Shankaracharyas. Jyotishpeethadheeshwara Jagat Guru Shankaracharya Sri Madhavashram Ji Maharaj and Jagat Guru Shankaracharya Raj Rajeshwarashram Ji Maharaj were speaking at a massive anti-cow slaughter rally organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Sarvadaliya Goraksha Maha-Abhiyan Samiti near Jantar Mantar here on Thursday. Madhavashram Ji Maharaj criticised the Prime minister for not bringing a law against cow slaughter in India. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party for playing politics in the name of the cow. "Today the person who is seated in the chair of the Prime Minister had once said, 'Cow is our mother.' But he has abandoned this issue after coming to power. Today, the question of the cow protection is not a religious issue. It is a question of national pride. Those who link cow protection with Hindu religion know little," said Raj Rajeshwarashram Ji Maharaj. He also accused lawmakers of nurturing a general aversion against the Hindus. Recalling his meeting with Atal Behari Vajpayee, he said, "Once Vajpayee confessed that he wanted cow slaughtering to be stopped but there are political limitations. We should not see everything in political frame. The country is on the verge of collapsing. Islamic terrorism threatens the country. And the conduct of the politicians of this country seems anti-Hindu." The pontiff further blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for being anti-Goraksha Samiti. "The Animal Commission approved by the Governmnet is a conspiracy of the BJP government to finish the anti-cow slaughter agitation. Because cow is not an animal. She is like our mother." The Samiti paid homage to its members who were killed on November 7, 1966, while protesting against cow slaughter. According to Sri Madhavashram Ji Maharaj, four to five thousand people have been killed during protests and agitations on this issue. People from various parts of the country participated in Thursday's programme. The Samiti demanded that the Central Government implement ustice Guman Mal Lodha Commission's report. Rajeshwarashram Ji Maharaj warned that if the Central government failed to bring in this law then it will be difficult for it to continue to rule the country. And they will soon start country- wide agitation against this. They also demanded that the cow should be made the national animal. Once it is done there will be an end to slaughtering. "Until the cow is declared the national animal, protection is not possible," said Swami Pragyanand Ji Maharaj, the president of Delhi Sant Samaj. He also blamed an international lobby for working against the implementation of such a law. "Earlier too, our legislators tried to pass this law but they failed. A lobby is working against this, as it will mean a heavy loss for those who export beef and cow meat to India," said Swami Pragyanand Ji Maharaj. He also said that all multinational restaurants like McDonalds must be banned in India or else they will start a "jail bharo" movement. (ANI)
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