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| Tuesday, February 06, 2007 |
| Cauvery verdict reaction in Karnataka: Anger and discontent, no violence as Tamil Nadu CM calls for friendship |
There is widespread anger and disappointment in Karnataka over the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s judgment, delivered on Monday in New Delhi.
A bandh was called in some parts of Karnataka on Tuesday.
After protests in Mysore and Bangalore on Monday, the Karnataka authorities are not taking any chances.
Given the long history of violence connected with the Cauvery water sharing, security has been tightened in Bangalore and the three Cauvery basin districts of Mysore, Mandya and Chamrajnagar.
On Monday, flag marches were held in Mandya. All academic institutions in these areas are closed Tuesday as a precautionary measure.
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has called an all-party meeting to discuss the crisis.
The Cauvery dispute has always been a touchy issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for over 100 years.
The Tribunal's judgment is supposed to be permanent and it will be implemented by a regulatory authority.
But, Karnataka is likely to appeal against the Tribunal's order, which means that the implementation of the final order will be delayed at least by one year.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi has called for friendly ties between people in both States.
"We want closer ties between the Tamilians and Kannadigas in Karnataka, not a bandh," Karunanidhi said.
Karnataka is feeling shortchanged as it will now have to release over 10 tmc more water than what it does currently for Tamil Nadu.
Of the 740,000 million cubic feet of water that flows annually in the Cauvery river, Tamil Nadu is now entitled to 419 tmc.
Karnataka gets 270 tmc less than half of what it had demanded.
Kerala has been awarded 30 tmc, and Puducherry, 7 tmc.
The farmers in the Cauvery delta and political parties by and large have welcomed the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and demanded an independent monitoring mechanism to implement it.
S Renganathan, general secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Association, said he was satisfied as it was an improvement over the interim award.
The Tribunal had given a lion’s share of utilisable flows in the Cauvery basin to Tamil Nadu, with 50% dependability.
Expressing happiness over the award, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president M Krishnaswamy said it was a welcome relief to the delta farmers. They had suffered too much in the last 16 years as Karnataka had failed to implement the interim award, he said.Labels: Politics |
posted by a correspondent @ 9:51 AM   |
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| Monday, February 05, 2007 |
| Cauvery Tribunal final verdict out; alert in Bangalore against violence |
In a significant judgment, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, based in New Delhi, on Monday allocated 419 tmc ft of water annually to Tamil Nadu and 270 tmc ft to Karnataka
In the much-awaited final verdict after over 16 years of hearings, the Tribunal also awarded 30 tmc ft of Cauvery river water to Kerala and 7 tmc ft to Pudicherry, the other parties to the dispute.
The Tribunal, set up in 1990, had in its interim order given 205 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu.
The Cauvery river water tribunal was set up in 1990 after the failure of several rounds of talks between the two states.
Dozens of meetings have been held to find a settlement of the century-old dispute.
Headed by retired Justice N P Singh, the three-member Tribunal had arrived at the total availability of water at 740 tmc ft.
N S Rao and Sudhir Narain were the other members of the Tribunal, which was originally headed by Justice Chittatosh Mukherjee, who later quit.
The verdict of the Tribunal can be challenged by any of the parties in court.
During arguments, Tamil Nadu pleaded for allocation of 562 tmc ft of water to meet irrigation, domestic and industrial requirements. Karnataka had pleaded for a share of 465 tmc ft of water.
Thousands of policemen were on guard in the technology hub of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, to thwart possible violence arising from the verdict.
In 1991, an interim court order telling Karnataka to release 205 billion cubic feet of water from their shared Cauvery river had sparked riots against minority Tamils in Bangalore, leaving more than 18 people dead.
Bangalore Police Commissioner Achyut Rao said hundreds of people have been taken into custody as part of the security measures to prevent a repeat of the 1991 riots.
"We have issued instructions to deal with any law and order situation sternly," Rao told reporters.
Bus services between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been suspended as a precautionary measure and many schools and colleges across Bangalore have been closed.
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had earlier held an all-party meeting and called for peace in the event of the Tribunal order going against the State.
The Karnataka Tamils Federation - which represents the minority Tamil community – has written to President APJ Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and local officials asking for security for Tamils living in Bangalore and other parts of the Cauvery river basin.Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 9:54 PM |
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| Tuesday, January 30, 2007 |
| ULFA ultimatum to TV channel: Prove charges or leave Assam |
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) on Tuesday asked a television channel to leave Assam or face action if it fails to prove its allegations that the outfit is being bribed by the Assam Government to lie low during the coming National Games.
North East Television (NETV), a Guwahati-based television channel, had last week reported that the Assam Government had paid money to buy peace with the ULFA for the smooth conduct of the National Games in Guwahati from February 9 to 18, 2007.
"Let NETV prove to the public about the ULFA taking money from the Assam Government. If it fails to prove the allegation within a month, it will have to leave Assam or else face dire consequences," ULFA `commander-in-chief' Paresh Baruah said in a statement.
The National Games has come under a cloud with ULFA blamed for a wave of violence beginning January 5, 2007, in which 90 people were killed. But the Assam Government has vowed to hold the Games as scheduled.
Meanwhile, over 10 Myanmarese soldiers and three militants were killed in fresh fighting when Myanmar launched a massive military crackdown to evict anti-India guerrillas from its soil.
According to a spokesman of the SS Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K), Myanmar's military junta had burnt down the outfit's general headquarters and two other camps in Myanmar's northern Sagaing Division.
The NSCN-K, which is fighting for an independent homeland for the Nagas in Nagaland, has at least 50 camps with 5,000 guerrilla fighters entrenched in fortified bunkers in the Sagaing Division.
Myanmar's offensive comes a week after India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Yangon, capital of Myanmar, and sought the country's help in cracking down on the rebels from India's troubled North-East, who are seeking refuge across the border.
Pranab Mukherjee's visit came after reports from Indian security officials that hundreds of rebels from Assam have fled to Myanmar since New Delhi launched a military operation against the guerrillas earlier in January, 2007.
At least four other militant groups from the North-East, including the ULFA, have training camps in northern Myanmar's thick jungles.
The NSCN's Khaplang faction has been observing a ceasefire with New Delhi since 2001, though peace talks are yet to begin.
Myanmar had earlier pledged that the junta would not let Indian rebels operate from its soil. In 2006, Myanmar had launched a military operation against the NSCN-K and overran several of their bases.
India and Myanmar share a 1,640-kilometre unfenced border, allowing militants from the North-East to use Myanmar as a springboard to carry out their hit-and-run strikes on Indian soldiers.Labels: media, Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 8:20 PM |
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| Wednesday, January 24, 2007 |
| One killed, 12 hurt as violence unabated in Assam |
The long-drawn-out violence in Assam shows no signs of abating.
As each day passes, the situation seems to be getting more dreadful, with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) stepping up its attacks.
On Tuesday, a panchayat member belonging to the Congress party was killed and at least 12 people were injured, some seriously, in separate incidents of ULFA-sponsored bomb blasts.
The Assam police said armed ULFA militants raided the house of Chandra Chutia, president of the Congress-controlled Sachani Gaon gram panchayat at Tarani Pathar area in Dibrugarh district and shot him dead.
Six people were injured when a bomb exploded among the Saraswati Puja revellers in the busy Adabari bus terminus area in Guwahati.
Tension prevailed in the Bongaigaon town as a powerful bomb went off near the Superintendent of Police’s office at Paglasthan area. Five persons were seriously injured in the blast. Police said the casualty figure could go up.
Another bomb exploded at the Boro fish market area in Bongaigaon, but there was no casualty.
In another incident, a 16-year old girl was injured when she was hit by bullet splinters from the ULFA’s grenade attack in Kamalpur area in Kamrup district.
The Assam police also recovered and defused a powerful improvised explosive devise (IED) kept in an isolated area near the high-security Guwahati Refinery area complex in Noonmati area of Guwahati.
In Lakhimpur district, the police dug up an IED, fitted with TNT and a time device, from a paddy field and defused it.Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 10:37 AM |
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| Sidhu's nomination papers found incomplete |
In a situation that is extremely interesting and a sort of anti-climax, so to speak, Navjot Singh Sidhu, the cricketer-turned-politician, will not be filing his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha by-election in Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday.
The reason is that his nomination papers have been found incomplete.
Sidhu was all set to file his nomination papers after the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed his conviction in a manslaughter case -- something that has never happened in the history of post-Independence India.
Sidhu had resigned as Member of Parliament (Bharatiya Janata Party) from Amritsar in December 2006 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court found him guilty of "culpable homicide not amounting to murder" for the death of 65-year-old Gurnam Singh, a resident of Patiala, in 1988.
Sidhu and another man had, in a fit of road rage on the road, beaten Gurnam Singh to death.
Since then, Sidhu became a cricket commentator and later entered politics.
The stay by the Supreme Court had been very timely for Sidhu. And, former Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal, whose Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will fight the Punjab Assembly elections in alliance with the BJP, had remarked that the Supreme Court’s verdict was a "morale booster."
"The verdict has paved the way for Sidhu to contest once again the elections from the Amritsar parliamentary seat and he will again win," Badal had said.
Badal had added that Sidhu would be the alliance's star campaigner in the Punjab polls and that "Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will pay for his wrongdoing during his tenure."
Sidhu’s conviction had been a setback for the BJP, which will be contesting 23 Assembly seats and the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.
Punjab Finance Minister Surender Singh will be the Congress candidate in the Amritsar by-election.
Meanwhile, BJP president Rajnath Singh has declared that Sidhu would be the candidate for Amritsar following the Supreme Court order in his favour, ending speculation on the possibility of the party fielding its general secretary Arun Jaitley.
Asked how the BJP would defend giving ticket to a man convicted by the High Court, Jaitley said: "Sidhu would now go to the voters. They must decide. After all, he took a risk when he resigned his seat. He could not have contested had the Supreme Court not suspended his conviction."
Asked about L K Advani, former president of the BJP, resigning his Lok Sabha seat in 1996 and deciding not to enter Parliament unless he was cleared by court in the hawala scandal, Jaitley said: "There are different ways of expressing moral posturing."Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 10:36 AM |
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| 2007 National Games in Guwahati as scheduled, asserts Gogoi |
National Games 2007 will take place from Feb 9 to 18, asserts Tarun Gogoi, Assam CMDespite the continuing violence unleashed by the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and the deaths of over 70 non-Assamese migrant labourers, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi reiterated on Tuesday that the 33rd National Games will take place in Assam as scheduled.
"I want to say that the National Games will take place in Guwahati from February 9 to 18, 2007, as per schedule, featuring 32 events, the highest to be held in any National Games. People should ignore comments from a section, guided by the ULFA, which is raising questions about the safety of the event," Gogoi told reporters in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Concern about the security aspect had been raised by the Peoples Consultative Group (PCG) in the backdrop of the recent series of killings by the ULFA.
"We have beefed up security. Twenty companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed for the Games and one IGP has been assigned only to oversee security during the Games," Gogoi said.
All the 33 Olympic associations have given entry for the Guwahati National Games, Gogoi added, and rejected reports that the Games equipment had not arrived.
Meanwhile, Tarun Gogoi has condemned the ULFA's demand for sovereignty for Assam and its recent threat to Hindi-speaking people to quit the state.
Gogoi vehemently opposed the ULFA's demand, saying that Assam is a part of India and any Indian citizen could live the state. He also said that Assamese people have the right to go and live in any part of the country.
Assam, Gogoi declared, is independent enough to decide its own destiny and so there is no need for another independence. The state has enough resources and "the Central Government is providing us with sufficient aid. We are doing well being a part of India."
Gogoi asserted that nobody in Assam supports the ULFA's activities and that everyone is condemning it.
He made it clear that unless the outfit shuns the path of violence, there was no question of starting any dialogue with it.
"The Government," Gogoi said, "is determined to reply ULFA's violent activities with continued Army operation, which was started against the outfit since January 8, 2007."
In the recent spate of militant attacks in the Upper Assam and Lower Assam areas, 78 people have so far lost their lives. Most of the victims were Hindi-speaking migrants.
Though the ULFA has denied its involvement in such activities, the Assam Government says it had clear proof that the banned outfit is responsible for the carnage.Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 8:10 AM |
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| A quiet 80th birthday for Bal Thackeray |
Bal Thackeray, the supremo of Shiv Sena, on Tuesday celebrated his 80th birthday in a very different manner.
This time around, Bal Thackeray's birthday was a definite break from tradition -- it was celebrated quietly and without his customary address to the Shiv Sena workers.
Thackeray spent the day at his residence, Matoshree, in suburban Bandra, Mumbai, with family members. He did not meet party workers and his fans as has been the practice for the past 40 years.
A small note in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana instructed party workers, who wanted to wish Thackeray, to deposit the amount they would have spent on flowers or garlands in an envelope at `Matoshree' as a donation.
Traditionally, Shiv Sainiks have celebrated Bal Thackeray's birthday with great enthusiasm and fanfare had thronged `Matoshree' in large numbers to meet and greet him.
Bal Thackeray, the cartoonist-turned-politician who founded the Shiv Sena 40 years ago, used to address party workers on his birthday.
In 2006, Thackeray broke another tradition by cancelling the Shiv Sena's annual rally on Dussehra, a public meeting which he had been addressing for the last 39 years.
The Shiv Sena patriarch, whose party is facing a major electoral battle in the civic polls, especially in Mumbai, has said time and again that his health was not the same as before and he would cut down on his public appearances.
At a time when the Shiv Sena is struggling with an anti-incumbency factor, both its political agendas of Marathi versus paraprantiya (the outsider) and Hindutva have taken a beating.
After the war of succession ended between his political heirs, Thackeray's estranged nephew Uddhav and his son Raj, it is now a struggle for existence between the two youngsters.
Balasaheb is unlikely to take an active role in the party's proceedings. A party leader said: "Mr Thackeray's health is not very good and he cannot come out and address gatherings regularly. A few days ago, when there was an election in Konkan, he had said that he would be addressing only one gathering a year."Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 8:09 AM |
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| Monday, January 22, 2007 |
| India's Election Commission takes Punjab state police chief off election duties |
The ruling Congress party in Punjab suffered a major setback ahead of Assembly polls as the Election Commission on Saturday ordered that Punjab's controversial Director-General of Police (DGP) S S Virk be taken off from all election-related duties.
The Election Commission has been sent a panel of three names of DGP-level officers of the Punjab police for appointment as the state police chief.
Punjab goes to the polls February 13, 2007. Elections will be held to 117 seats, along with the by-election to the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat that was recently vacated by former cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu following his conviction in a road rage death.
The Election Commission's action against Virk follows several complaints against him by the main opposition Shiromani Akali Dal alleging that he was a `Congress agent.'
Akali leader and MP Sukhbir Badal had recently alleged that Virk and his brother had got a Rs 2.5-billion mega-project for a convention centre, hotel and resort passed by the Amarinder Singh Government recently.
Badal accused that Virk, whose close relations with Amarinder Singh are well-known, had been `rewarded' with the mega project in return for having helped the Congress in the Assembly polls.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh told reporters in Patiala that a panel of names had been forwarded to the Election Commission for appointment of the new DGP.
But Sukhbir Badal said that merely transferring the controversial officer was no punishment. "He should be dismissed from service for indulging in open corruption," he demanded.
The Akali leaders had complained to Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami earlier this month, saying they feared that Virk would help the ruling Congress.
The CEC had then said there was no move to remove Virk till something concrete was found against him.
Sukhbir Badal then revealed Amarinder Singh's largesse to Virk's family through the mega-project that led to the Election Commission's order to take him off from all poll-related duties.
Virk had only two days ago reviewed election-related arrangements with top police and civil officials of the state.
Virk told reporters on Saturday that he would abide by the orders of the Election Commission. He said no orders removing him had so far been received, but he had been told about a panel of names being sent to the Election Commission for a new DGP.
He defended the mega-project saying that his brother had applied for it and that he himself had no role in that enterprise.Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 3:31 AM |
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| Friday, January 19, 2007 |
| Assam: One killed, many hurt as ULFA sets off bomb in market |
Hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who visited the trouble-torn Assam, assured the Hindi-speaking population that they were safe in the state, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has struck again.
In a blast that rocked Ganeshguri, a local wholesale vegetable market run by traders from north India, a child was killed and over a dozen other people were injured.
This violent incident took place even as the Army intensified its offensive against the outlawed ULFA, arresting 10 of its cadres and busting two militant camps.
An Army vehicle had a close shave in Goalpara district in Lower Assam when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off just after the vehicle passed the targeted spot.
It is, however, too early to say whether the blast was a continuation of the recent attacks on Hindi-speaking people in Upper Assam by the ULFA, D K Pathak, IGP (Law and Order), said.
A shopkeeper who witnessed the blast said the explosion was not ear-shattering, but the impact was substantial since the market was crowded at that time.
This is the first incident of an ULFA attack in Lower Assam after last week's killing of 64 non-Assamese migrant workers in Upper Assam.
Security has been tightened in the district that shares its boundary with the West Garo Hills of Meghalaya, a safe passage for Bangladesh-bound rebels.
Meanwhile, the Army has nabbed five ULFA terrorists in Sonitpur district and three crude bombs, a rifle and some machetes were recovered from them. The Army also nabbed two militants each in Dhubri and Tinsukia, and one in Sapkata (Kokrajhar).Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 10:20 AM |
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| Congress withdraws support to Mulayam Govt |
Finally, the Congress Party has made up its mind on Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Congress has decided to withdraw support to the Mulayam Singh Government in Uttar Pradesh.
With the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also stating that they would not stand by Mulayam Singh and the 15-member Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) waiting for the right moment to strike, the days of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Government are numbered.
At a news conference late on Wednesday evening, after receiving clear instructions from the Congress high command, the party’s Uttar Pradesh president Salman Khurshid and Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari said they would call on Governor T V Rajeswar on Thursday morning to "technically" withdraw the support.
The Congress decision comes in the wake of the "anarchy-like" situation prevailing in Uttar Pradesh.
Salman Khurshid said that "in this regime, in which the common man has lost confidence, it would not be possible to have fair and free elections to the state Assembly."
He also said the incident of ghastly killings of children in Nithari village, near Noida, is clearly a case of administrative failure on the part of the Mulayam Singh Government.
"We cannot tolerate this regime anymore," declared Khurshid. Though corruption has spread its tentacles in the entire state, he said, its epicentre is in Noida – a place once famous for good governance."
The state, Khurshid said, "has treated public funds as though they were given for the personal comfort of a few favoured politicians. The administrative machinery has been turned into an unquestioning service of the ruling party. Scams surface only to be buried without investigations."
Salman Khurshid lambasted Mulayam Singh for "never having a clear public mandate" and said "Mulayam Singh’s was a minority government dressed up like a majority government."Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 10:13 AM |
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| Wednesday, January 17, 2007 |
| Ready for talks with ULFA, says PM |
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared on Tuesday that the doors for dialogue with the militant United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) was open, but this should not be mistaken for `weakness.'
"The doors for dialogue are open for everybody, including the ULFA, but I would like to reiterate that no one should mistake our openness for talks and dialogue as a sign of weakness," Manmohan Singh told a news conference in Dibrugarh, Assam, after visiting the violence-hit areas in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
The ULFA has gunned down 70 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers in four days since January 5, 2007.
"The Indian state," Manmohan Singh asserted, "has an obligation to protect the lives and properties of its citizens. This we will discharge -- let there be no doubt on that score. Incidentally, Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam.
He said the Indian state could accommodate the "diversity of opinion and provide scope for meeting wide-ranging needs and aspirations and allowing many cultures and identities to exist. I am sure if we persist with the process of dialogue, a solution can certainly be found in Assam just as it has been found for many other groups and entities."
Asked why he had not visited Assam two years ago when over 100 people were killed in ethnic violence in the state's Karbi Anglong district, Manmohan Singh said: "My various responsibilities as Prime Minister and statecraft do not permit visits to every place. But my sympathies are always with the innocent, law-abiding citizens who are massacred."
To a question on the operations against the ULFA camps in neighbouring Myanmar, the Prime Minister said: "I talked with General Soe Win, Prime Minister of Myanmar, in the Philippine city of Cebu on Monday, and he assured me of intensifying the operations for dealing with the insurgent outfits."
Manmohan Singh said Myanmar's cooperation was essential for dealing with the insurgency in Assam.
On a question of the involvement of Pakistan's Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) in the ULFA carnage, Manmohan Singh said he would not like to comment on that "at this stage."Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 10:24 AM |
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