Elastic Straps: June 2008 Archives

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday demanded a special assistance from the Centre for the victims of the 1992-93 Mumbai riots .

Speaking at a high-level meeting in Mantralaya, the chief minister directed the officials to write to the Centre regarding this.

The Centre has given special package for the victims of 1984 riots. A similar package is necessary for riot victims in Mumbai, he said.



Full Story: Deshmukh demands aid package for 1992 riot victims

Amid speculation about the Samajwadi Party and the Congress joining hands to bail out UPA government in its stand-off with the Left on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the BJP on Monday put up a brave face, saying this would ultimately benefit it.

"If the SP and the Congress come together, that will mark the death knell of the so-called Third Front as the SP is kingpin of this front. This would lead to the Congress versus anti-Congress politics which would benefit the BJP," a senior BJP leader said, preferring anonymity.

"The SP and the Congress joining hands would benefit the SP at the cost of Congress in UP. This alliance would harm Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) most as a chunk of Dalit-Muslim votes would go to the SP and the Congress. The BJP will gain in such a scenario," the leader claimed.



Full Story: SP-Cong alliance will benefit us: BJP

after being rebuked by the judges of a reality TV show, is suffering from Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis.

The teenager's family had claimed that she was unable to speak and was paralysed after the judges harshly criticised her performance in a reality show.

However, doctors at the neurological department of NIMHANS, Bangalore, where she is being treatment, told rediff.com that it is a case of neurological disorder.



Full Story: 'Paralysed' reality show contestant suffering from encephalomyelitis

] threats to resign, the paralysis at the Centre is absolute. One day, it looks the prime minister is threatening to go eyeball to eyeball with the Left. The next day, the Congress president takes over and tries to mollify the Communists One day, the government seems to have made up its mind about the nuclear deal but the very next day the bumbling begins anew. It is the tragedy of this government that despite signing the landmark civilian nuclear energy cooperation pact with the US it will be remembered for the lack of spine it showed in standing up to its own convictions.

] by renouncing the most powerful office in the country had become the most powerful political figure. She had given the prime ministership to one of the most respected public figures of the last twenty years, to someone who had taken some tough decisions at a time when it had seemed nothing could go right for the country.

So it was natural that it was seen as the beginning of a new phase in functioning of the Congress party and it was expected that after being out of power for a long time, Congress will be governing with a renewed sense of purpose, especially with an efficient Dr Singh at the helm.



Full Story: Dr Singh, lead or leave

Asking the United Progressive Alliance government to seek a confidence vote in the Lok Sabha if it wanted to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart L K Advani on Sunday said the Centre should focus on burning issues and development instead of fighting with the Left over the proposed pact.

"We will ask the government to face a confidence vote in the Lok Sabha on the nuclear issue following the present political situation," Advani said while addressing a rally in Rourkela.

The UPA government, Advani said, was wasting time in fighting the Left parties on the nuclear deal instead of concentrating on development and solving burning problems.



Full Story: Seek confidence vote in Lok Sabha, Advani tells government

Congress' efforts to woo the Samajwadi Party against the backdrop of the standoff with the Left parties on the nuclear deal are expected to gain momentum with the arrival of Amar Singh from US on Monday.

The Congress is expected to open channels of communication with SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav once Amar Singh lands from US.

With 39 members in Lok Sabha, the SP may play a crucial role in rescuing the government in case the UPA government goes ahead with implementing the nuclear deal and the Left parties execute their threat of withdrawing support.



Full Story: Congress expected to open channels with SP over N-deal

nuclear agreement . Citing rising oil prices, the party justified the nuclear deal as being essential for the country's energy needs and warned that the country's economic growth was being endangered by 'blind ideological obduracy'.

A day after Prakash Karat's article attacking the Prime Minister appeared, Congress spokesman Veerappa Moily issued a seven-page statement countering the arguments forwarded by the CPI-M general secretary.

"The Left's objections are ideological rather than rational and it has fallen back on absurd arguments," said the statement, which quotes former President A P J Abdul Kalam as well as some prominent scientists, to defend the nuclear deal.



Full Story: Left argument on nuclear deal absurd: Congress

"It is not often we have a leader who lets his work speak for itself rather than lofty speeches," she said and asked partymen communicate the achievements of the government to the people.

People's Democracy , charged the Prime Minister with being creating the prevailing political crisis saying his "renewed bid" to go to the IAEA to seek its approval for the safeguards agreement to operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal was the main reason.

Sonia asked the Congressmen to strengthen the party and build "living contact" with members at each level of the organisation.



Full Story: Dr Singh's work speaks for itself: Sonia

at the military hospital in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, past midnight on Thursday, will be held at Ooty as per Zoroastrian rites at 3.30 on Friday.

The first Field Marshal of the country, who was also the hero of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, had been suffering from prolonged illness.

The body of one of India's greatest soldiers will kept at the MRC grounds in Wellington between 1100 hours and 1300 hours on Friday for the public to pay homage.



Full Story: State funeral for Sam Manekshaw

India's greatest military victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war that created just not history, but also a new nation.

Affectionately called "Sam Bahadur", Manekshaw, 94, was the architect of many a military triumph, but his finest hour came when Pakistani forces were vanquished in 14 days flat.

battle front itself during the Second World War. He was also the first Indian officer to command the Gorkhas after India got Independence.



Full Story: Manekshaw: A soldier who created a nation

] by people with links to the founder of the banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

     Hurriyat leaders, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were on their way to the reception on Wednesday night when a top government official asked them not to attend the event "hosted on the platform of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah", the new organisation set up by Saeed after the LeT was banned.

     The Hurriyat team was "barred from the reception only to avoid annoying Western quarters and Delhi," sources said.



Full Story: Lashkar shadow keeps Hurriyat team off function in Lahore

A majority 61.3 per cent of drug users in South Asia are from India and 17 is the average age at which Indians get exposed to alcohol, according to a new United Nations report.

India also accounts for low condom usage with only 21.3 per cent of the sample size using them while having casual or non-commercial sex. The figure was a little higher at 23 per cent for those having commercial sex.

The country also had a high of 71.8 per cent of injecting drug consumers, who are at the greatest risk of acquiring HIV, the report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released said.



Full Story: Most drug users in South Asia are from India: Report

of the editor and two journalists of Andhra Jyothy , a prominent Telugu daily, on Thursday night.

  Hundreds of journalists, along with the members of various political parties, took out a rally in Hyderabad from the Press Club at Basheerbagh to the Ambedkar statue at Tank Bund. They raised slogans against the YS Rajasekhara Reddy government and the police, alleging that the government was victimising Andhra Jyothy for its anti-government writings.

  Over 200 journalists were taken in custody when they tried to march towards the state secretariat and the office of the director general of police.



Full Story: AP: Journalists protest arrest of Telugu daily's editor

At first sight, the glasses look like ordinary wraparound shades. Then you notice a tiny keyhole lens where the two eye pieces meet. Follow the wire that sprouts from the top of the bridge of the glass, and you find a tiny video recorder.

Derek Lomas is wearing what the media refers to as the 'James Bond glasses', 'X-ray glasses' and "glasses that can see through walls of houses".

What it really is, is a normal low-end camera mounted on his shades, that he uses to teach his 'design for development' class at the University of California in San Diego.



Full Story: Rediff Special: Design with a heart

. The deadlock over the deal is proving to be a grave distraction from the weighty problems on the economic front, besides posing a threat to the government.

The series of discussions between the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on behalf of the United Progressive Alliance government and the Left parties, led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat, have encountered a roadblock on the question of the safeguards and conditionalities negotiated by the government with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The government has so far been disinclined to share with the Left the draft of the agreement with the IAEA and the Left has expressed its determination to withdraw its support to the government if its objections to the deal are ignored.

] at the forthcoming G-8 meeting, and feeling obliged to deliver what both have laboured so hard for, has understandably been driven to desperation with a sense of being let down and his authority being undermined.



Full Story: Having the N-deal and saving the government

As uncertainty continues over the Indo-US nuclear deal in view of the political crisis in India over the agreement, the US on Monday said every passing day was making it harder to get it through.

"We believe and we continue to believe that this arrangement is in the best interests of India, the United States, and the broader international community, because it will strengthen non-proliferation regimes.

"The reality, of course, is that every day that goes by is one less day on the legislative calendar for us to be able to have Congressional action take place. So it certainly gets harder every day that this is delayed," State department's deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in his briefing.



Full Story: Every passing day makes it tough: US on N-deal

The Uttar Pradesh chief of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India  outfit, who had been absconding since 2001, has been arrested, officials said on Monday.

      Humam Ahmad alias Humayun was arrested by the Special Task Force and Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Uttar Pradesh police from Gorakhpur district on Sunday, additional director general (Law and Order) Brijlal said.

      Humayun was on run after a case was registered against him in 2001 for anti-national activities.



Full Story: UP SIMI chief arrested

As protests by Sikh groups spilled over into Bangalore, Mysore and Jammu besides several towns of Punjab and Haryana, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar appealed to them to "maintain calm and not to allow themselves to be provoked".

He said the protests should be within the "parameters of the law" and announced Rs 5 lakh to dependents of Balkar Singh Thakur, 40, who was killed when Ram Rahim Singh's security guards allegedly opened fire on Sikh demonstrators near a mall in suburban Mulund on Friday.

The head of the Sirsa-based sect was whisked away by the police to an undisclosed place on Sunday morning after he reached Mysore from Bangalore.



Full Story: Sikh protests fan out; Dera chief taken to undisclosed destination

One of the three bodyguards of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh -- arrested for killing a Sikh in Mumbai on Friday -- has confessed to having fired the round from his pistol at the crowd in, a senior police official said on Saturday.

He said Jagdev Singh Gurdev Singh has confessed to having opened fire from his licensed Mauser pistol.

Eleven more, who were with the Dera chief at the time of the incident have been detained and will be arrested soon, police said, adding they will be booked for rioting and assault.



Full Story: Mumbai firing: Dera chief's aide confesses

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has withdrawn her party's support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.

The BSP has 17 members in the Lok Sabha, which has an effective strength of 543. The UPA currently has the support of 220 members. The Left parties, which have 59 lawmakers as a block, extend outside support to the government.

Mayawati has accused the UPA of neglecting Uttar Pradesh and meting out step-motherly treatment to her party and the UP government.



Full Story: Mayawati withdraws support to UPA government

] and Taliban and view United States as the greatest threat to their personal safety, according to a survey by a US agency.

The survey, conducted across Pakistan, also said that the Al Qaeda has gained public support, while a maximum number of Pakistanis viewed the United States as the greatest threat to their personal safety.

"Fourty-four per cent of Pakistanis think the US poses the greatest threat to their safety while the so-called arch rival India comes at second place with only 14 per cent finding it a threat," the poll conducted by US-based 'Terror Free Tomorrow: The Center for Public Opinion and the New America Foundation' said.



Full Story: Musharraf should resign, say majority of Pakistanis