Short News 3 December

Chavez plans new referendum
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez says he expects a fresh referendum in February on a move allowing him to stand for re-election.

Republican wins key Senate race
US Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss wins re-election in Georgia, dashing the Democrats’ hopes of a “super-majority”.

US carmakers publish rescue plans
US carmakers General Motors, Ford and Chrysler present their new cost-cutting plans to Congress.

Thai demonstrators leave airports
Thai anti-government protesters hand over Bangkok’s main airports to the authorities after an eight-day blockade.

Chinese dairy exports in decline
China’s dairy exports have all but ground to a halt following the scandal earlier this year when milk was tainted with melamine.

15 year term sought in Munir case
Prosecutors request a 15-year jail term for an ex-spy chief accused of ordering a murder, but are accused of leniency.

 

‘लिपस्टिक लगानेवालों का विरोध’

मुंबई में हुए चरमपंथी हमलों पर जनता के आक्रोश को भारतीय जनता पार्टी के नेता मुख्तार अब्बास नक़वी ने प्रायोजित बताया.

उन्होंने विरोध प्रदर्शन कर रही जनता की तुलना अलगाववादियों से की.

पत्रकारों से बातचीत में जब उनसे पूछा गया कि मुंबई में जनता का गुस्सा नेताओं पर फूट रहा है तो इसके जवाब में नक़वी ने कहा कि हमारी कुछ महिलाएँ लिपस्टिक और पावडर लगाकर हाथ में मोमबत्ती लिए पश्चिमी सभ्यता के साथ नेताओं को गाली दे रही हैं, ये ठीक वैसा ही है जैसा अलगाववादी करते हैं.

हमारी कुछ महिलाएँ लिपस्टिक और पावडर लगाकर हाथ में मोमबत्ती लिए पश्चिमी सभ्यता के साथ नेताओं को गाली दे रही हैं, ये ठीक वैसा ही है जैसा अलगाववादी करते हैं

मुख्तार अब्बास नक़वी, भाजपा नेता

उन्होंने कहा कि अलगाववादी भी लोकतंत्र के प्रति लोगों में अविश्वास पैदा करते हैं.

उनका कहना था कि विरोध प्रदर्शन कर रहे इन लोगों की जांच होनी चाहिए कि आखिर ये कौन लोग हैं और उनका संबंध किससे है.

पत्रकारों ने जब नक़वी से ये जानना चाहा कि क्या महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री विलासराव देशमुख का ताजमहल होटल के दौरे पर फ़िल्मकार रामगोपाल वर्मा को साथ ले जाना सही था, तो नक़वी ने कहा इस मामले को तूल देकर जबरन मुद्दा बनाया जा रहा है और ये कोई बड़ी बात नहीं है.

नक़वी के इस बयान से भाजपा मुश्किल में आ गई है.

इसके तुरंत बाद भाजपा नेता राजीव प्रताप रूड़ी ने बयान जारी किया कि ये नक़वी के अपने विचार हैं और भाजपा का इससे कोई लेना देना नहीं है.

उनका कहना था कि चरमपंथ के ख़िलाफ़ नेताओं और सरकारों को कड़े क़दम उठाने ही होंगे. जब तक ये नहीं होगा, आम आदमी का गुस्सा शांत नहीं होगा.

I think मुख्तार अब्बास नक़वी, भाजपा नेता supportor of terrorist? Mumbai Police Please interogate, People didn’t want any cloud around leader. the latest speech tells the truth BJP and Congress is same. Common man need to take over the Government with the help of Army. We didn’t want Democracy ( लोकतंत्र ) we want save peacefull life.

 

R.R. Patil resigned

Maharashtra Deputy CM RR Patil, who was under fire for terming the recent terror attacks in Mumbai as a “small incident”, has resigned as the Deputy CM of Maharashtra. RR Patil has sent his resignation letter to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. “I have gone by my conscience and decided to step down”, says RR Patil.

There is little doubt that public outrage has forced Patil to resign. He had refused to resign from his post on Sunday. NCP Chief Sharad Pawar reportedly asked RR Patil to tender resignation after his “small incident’ remark caused public outrage across the country.

According to sources, Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh will be asked to resign. If he does not, then he is likely to be removed. The Congress leadership does not want to take any chance in the wake of rising public anger against the Congress and Centre for failing to fight the menace of terrorism.

 

Terror Attacks in Mumbai a “small incident”

Breaking News! Maharashtra Deputy CM RR Patil, created a flutter yesterday, by terming the worst-ever terror attacks in Mumbai, as a “small incident”. There has been a huge outrage over RR Patil’s remarks, not only in Mumbai, but also across the country.

RR Pattil, known for his controversial remarks, said “bade shahron mein aise ek adh hadse hote rahte hain. Woh 5,000 logon ko marne aye the lekin humne kitna kum nuksan hone diya . (Such small incidents happen in big cities. They (terrorists) came to kill 5,000 people but we ensured minimal damage)”.

If Patil’s remarks were not enough, Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh sparked anger in the public by taking his sons Ritesh (Bollywood Actor) and Amit and most shocking, film maker Ram Gopal Varma, on his visit to Hotel Taj and Hotel Trident Oberoi to get the detailed account on recent terror attacks.

It was an official visit of the Chief Minister, but it’s surprising why Ram Gopal Varma was allowed in his entourage. Even Congress leaders like Veerappa Moily have pulled up Vilasrao Deshmukh for this “irresponsible” act. Opposition BJP and Shiv Sena have criticised Vilasrao Deshmukh for taking his son and filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma on an official visit to inquire about terror-stricken Taj and Oberoi.

 

Mumbai Under Assault

Current report says that 85 people were killed in mumbai shootout including 6 foreigners and 14 polices. And still few hundred is trapped in TAJ HOTEL, OBEROI HOTEL, CAMA hospital.
Terrorist attacked in 11 places in mumbai. killed at least 87 people including 14 cops.

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For the last several months, bombings have rattled the image of an India industriously humming toward prosperity. Beginning about two years ago, they have occured with increasing frequency: about a dozen such attacks have pockmarked India’s largest cities, from Delhi and Jaipur to Bangalore and Guwahati. And so when the alarms went out on Wednesday night, it looked like Mumbai (formerly Bombay) was being hit by another one of those attacks. The modus operandi was similar: simultaneous blasts in heavily populated areas. But this time, the attack was different.

Indeed, the assault only seemed to grow in frenzy, scope and intensity as time passed. Less that two hours after the first reports of firings and explosions, which came at about 10 p.m. local time, it soon became clear that instead of just crude bombs left on bicycles, scooters and cars, this attack used the whole arsenal: grenades, AK-47s, rifles and a car bomb in a taxi that exploded on the highway headed to the city’s international airport. And unlike previous attacks, which have hit mainly Indians in popular, crowded markets, this one appeared to have targeted foreigners and the posh hotels they frequent. Two of the city’s landmark properties — the Oberoi and the Taj Hotel — were under siege. The grand dome of the Taj caught fire, masked in a purple haze, after terrorists set off an explosion on the roof as police closed in on them. About 300 troops, sent in by the central government, have also surrounded the Oberoi.

A British national, a man in his 30s, who was having dinner inside the Oberoi Hotel, one of the city’s poshest, told the Times Now television station that two young men — in jeans and t-shirts — came in brandishing AK-47s and rifles, singled out those carrying British and American passports and ordered them to the roof. “We went on the 18th floor, it became very smoky, we escaped. Just two of us,” said the British man, who was not identified. As of 2 a.m. local time, several of the hostages were still being held, with dozens of Indian commandos surrounding the hotel.

A member of Parliament, Krishna Das, who was interviewed from inside the Taj Hotel, reported that two men also entered that hotel’s restaurant and started firing, but did not take any hostages. As of 2 a.m., he said about 200 people, including women and children, were still inside the hotel without news of the mayhem unfolding around the city. Meanwhile, bombs have been reported in at least seven sites in Mumbai, with 87 people so far reported killed and nearly 200 injured. At least two Mumbai police officers, who went into one of the hotels to confront the terrorists, were killed. Two of the suspects have also been killed by police. It is not yet clear how many attackers were involved in the assault.

The attacks come at a moment when Mumbai has become a communal tinderbox and terrorism has become one of the biggest political issues in the country. The ruling Congress Party has drawn flak for allegedly failing to take a strong line on terrorism, but the states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the leading opposition party at the center, have also been targeted.

Late last month, 10 arrests unearthed what appeared to be a possible Hindu extremist terror network, with ties to the BJP. But, for the most part, security agencies and analysts have blamed jihadi groups for the recent terror attacks. And the simultaneous bomb blasts on Wednesday — similar to previous radical Islamist attacks — immediately led most observers to suspect the jihadis once again. For years, India blamed Pakistan’s intelligence services for terror attacks; then the usual suspects became the Harkat ul Jihad Islamia (based in Bangladesh) and Students Islamic Movement of India, a group that has been banned. This summer, a new group emerged, Indian Mujahideen, claiming responsibility via e-mail for several attacks and stressing that their members and grievances were homegrown. A group called Deccan Mujahideen, previously unknown, has also sent an e-mail claiming responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks. That claim cannot yet be confirmed.

In 1993, Mumbai was hit by a series of bombs that killed nearly 300 people. Those were allegedly detonated at the behest of local gangsters in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence by India’s majority Hindus. Those gangsters, including Dawood Ibrahim, are now believed to have escaped India and to be living in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

As the debate over terror continues, various parties have been trading blame. The BJP has accused the Congress of cooking up charges against the arrested Hindu right-wingers, while the Congress has been accusing the BJP of playing a double-game of pointing fingers at the Congress while lending a hand to Hindu-fundamentalist terrorists. Mumbai has been a focus of the tension between the parties, as several of the so-called “Hindu terror” arrests have taken place in or near the city. Perhaps the size and scale of this most recent attack will force the country’s political leaders to finally push through a long-shelved proposal to co-ordinate intelligence on terror incidents between the states and prevent a repeat of Wednesday’s bloody spectacle. With reporting by Madhur Singh/New Delhi

SYDNEY: At least two Australians have been injured in a wave of terror attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai and a 20-person trade delegation is caught up in the violence, officials said on Wednesday.

The department of foreign affairs gave no further details of the two people injured, but issued a warning to all Australians in the city to remain in a safe location and follow the advice of local authorities.

A trade delegation from New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, was staying at the Trident Hotel, formerly known as the Oberoi, one of two hotels targeted in the attacks, the national AAP news agency reported.

“I can confirm a 20-member trade delegation organised by the Department of State and Regional Development booked into the Oberoi hotel,” a government spokesman said.

“We are currently trying to contact them. The last we heard, they were being evacuated from their rooms but we haven’t had any contact since then.”

Nearly 80 people were killed in a series of attacks apparently targeting foreigners in Mumbai as heavily armed Islamist militants hit two luxury hotels — the Trident and the landmark Taj Mahal.

A group calling itself the “Deccan Mujahedeen” claimed responsibility for the assaults on the hotels in the south of the city and a number of shooting and bombing incidents elsewhere, the Press Trust of India said.

• Previously unknown group claimed responsibility
• Group called Indian Mujahideen threatened to attack Mumbai
• Photo of suspected terrorist released
• Terrorists lobbed grenades and shot people
• Terrorists occupied Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Oberoi Hotel
• 9 militants killed, 9 arrested, 3 detained: CNN
• Terrorists also attacked Cama Hospital, Cafe Leopold, and Ramada Hotel
• Attackers reportedly looking for individuals with British and U.S. passports
• Hostages taken at Hotel Oberoi
• Explosions heard at several locations
• 78 reported dead, hundreds injured
• Three top police officers killed

 

Sonia in Hospital

Congress President Sonia Gandhi was admitted to the Gangaram Hospital in New Delhi on Monday morning.

News of her hospitalisation created a buzz in the capital’s political circles.

Sources said that Sonia Gandhi was admitted for a routine check-up and would be discharged later in the day. The Congress president has history of asthma problems and her hospitalisation was related to that.

I hope god blast her! Ehehe…

 

BJP warns Cong against politicising terror

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday cautioned the ruling Congress against “playing politics” over terror.

Warning that “political moves” could prove counter-productive for the ruling party, senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu said, “Planting stories about involvement of people and organisations affiliated to BJP will prove counter-productive, as the investigation agencies should have sufficient proof to bring the probe to a logical end.”

BJP also seemed to be speaking in the same voice after a bout of differences within the party that came to the fore last week, when a section preferred to remain silent on the involvement of saffron suspects like Sadhvi Pragya Singh and others in the Malegaon blast case and wait till investigations were over, while another section came out openly in defence of the “nationalistic people and organisations” with the line that Hindutva forces could have nothing to do with terror acts.

However, the party seems to have decided on the line that those found guilty should be proceeded against, but only after evidence that could prove their involvement.

Naidu also questioned the timing of the “selective leaks” and said the issue was being politicised ahead of assembly elections in six states and the impending Lok Sabha elections.

“Stories are being planted about involvement of a Hindu leader and a BJP legislator… sufficient evidence should be there to place the investigation before the judiciary,” he said, as party chief Rajnath Singh too accused the government of communalising the Malegaon case.

“The government is playing with fire by painting terrorism in communal colours. Hindu terrorism is politically motivated. I caution the government to change its outlook on terrorism and see it in the right perspective,” Singh said in Raipur.

Both Singh and Naidu maintained that the BJP was not against any probe but would oppose distorted propaganda against religious leaders. “The use of phrases like Hindu terrorism has political overtones,” Naidu said.

Party general secretary Gopinath Munde had said in Ahmednagar on Wednesday that Hindu organisations being questioned in the Malegaon blast case were targeted without any concrete evidence.

 

BJP in Madhya Pradesh

For voters in the forthcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, the central poll issue is not bijli (electricity) or sadak (road). It is paani (water).

The capital Bhopal gets fresh drinking water once in two days. The fast depleting Upper lake — the only source of water in the city — has ‘exposed’ the state government which may have done sterling work elsewhere but has failed to provide safe (or even unsafe) drinking water to the capital city and the rest of the state.

Irrigation continues to be a major challenge, and that the government is totally dependent on the monsoon is evident from this year’s shrinking wheat acreage. The government claims that it has brought an additional 480,000 hectares of land under irrigation. But agricultural potential continues to languish because of scanty rainfall.

“Government reservoirs are dry this year and the irrigation potential is likely to be down from 700,000 hectares to 400,000 hectares,” says Pravesh Sharma, principal secretary, Department of Farmer Welfare, Agriculture and Cooperatives. All major foodgrains reported negative to 5.33 per cent growth. The acreage of oilseeds has gone down by 1.89 per cent. The wheat acreage has gone down by 50 per cent this year in Malwa region, the latest state economic survey says.

That the Bharatiya Janata Party government changed three chiefs ministers in five years hasn’t helped the situation.

Raghavji, finance minister of the BJP’s first chief minister Uma Bharti, had the daunting task of financing some populist measures put in place by her. Although she departed unceremoniously from the government and the party in August 2004, Raghavji was kept on as finance minister.

His management of finances was home-made and simple: curtail non-plan expenditure and put the surplus funds in development activities. Madhya Pradesh was rewarded by the Finance Commission twice as a result: Rs 363.06 crore was granted as debt waiver incentive in 2005-06, and an equal amount in the next financial year. His efforts to enact the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act in 2005 ensured his government another incentive of Rs 293.14 crore under debt swap and consolidation schemes.

Raghavji had to face more challenges when the chief minister changed. Bharti’s successor, Babulal Gaur, promised protection to small traders, professionals and industrialists. Incentives, self-assessment schemes, exemptions, concessions and sops to all categories became the order of the day.

The actual fiscal reforms were visible when Shivraj Singh Chouhan replaced Gaur in November 2005. The tax revenue, which stood at Rs 7769.71 crore in 2004-05, grew to Rs 8933.34 crore (revised estimate) in 2005-06. The state kitty swelled to Rs 10,029.46 crore (budget estimate) in 2006-07 and is expected to touch Rs 11,885.68 crore in the current fiscal (2008-09). The non-tax revenue, which slipped from Rs 4,461.86 crore in 2004-05 also grew to Rs 2,059.08 crore in 2006-07, is expected to touch Rs 3,017.70 crore in 2008-09.

By 2005, Madhya Pradesh had a revenue surplus budget. Although this was mainly due to a grant of Rs 2,749.36 crore which the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board returned to the state government, this increased non-tax revenue receipts. In 2008, Chouhan presented the last budget of the 12th assembly with a revenue surplus of Rs 2,839.78 crore.

The government has drastically reduced non-plan expenditure from Rs 1,382.99 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 383.46 crore (budget estimate) in 2006-07. It estimates the budget to go down to Rs 199 crore.

These are more than mere numbers because the BJP government’s performance in building new roads and managing the power situation has been better than the Congress’s. Of the total plan expenditure of Rs 15,634 crore (budget estimate) in Budget 2008-09, the BJP government earmarked an amount of Rs 2,270.01 crore for road-building to add 21,857 km of road in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12) besides constructing 20,000 km of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna.

There are many pluses in the government’s report card on fiscal reform:

Revenue surplus was achieved for the first time after 13 years against a revenue deficit of Rs 25.49 crore for the year 2005-06 (revised estimate).

The state did not yield to the temptation of taking ways and means advances even for a day, even during the toughest financial year 2005-06 — something which the state achieved after a long gap of 32 years.

Tax revenue growth has gone up from 7.69 per cent in 2002-03 to 18 per cent (average) during 2007-08 and is expected to maintain the same pace.

But intelligent fiscal management has not changed the lives of ordinary people. The dropout rate among schoolchildren continues to hover around 70 per cent, especially among lower income categories. State economic survey data also reveal the growth rate in primary sector has been estimated at 2.80 per cent in 2007-08 against 4.17 per cent in 2005-06.

The number of unemployed youth registered in employment exchanges increased from 466,000 in 2005 to 1.9 million in 2007 (June). The International Food Policy Research Institute report recently revealed that Madhya Pradesh ranked between Ethopia and Chad on the hunger index, even after completion of 12 stages of Bal Sanjeevni Abhiyan — a drive to insulate eight million children against malnutrition with a huge fund allocation of Rs 633.28 crore in 2007-08.

The state government is silent on how it would address the infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rates that are the highest in India, at 74 and 301 per 1,000, respectively.

Budget allocation of Rs 1,240.91 crore to improve power transmission and distribution and an additional allocation of Rs 1,371.40 crore for power sector reforms have failed to bridge the demand-supply gap of 1,000 MW. Age-old thermal power stations break down at regular intervals and daily power cuts are more than 10 hours in rural areas.

As many as 60 companies have queued up to invest in the power sector but poor governance has restricted them to project reports.

The law and order situation in the state is not satisfactory although Rs 500 crore was invested between 2004 and 2007 to modernise police forces. The number of cases of crimes against women has declined by a nominal 4.21 per cent during 2004 and 2005 and 2.7 per cent during 2005 and 2006, but the number is very high at 25,432.

 

छठ पूजा को लेकर सुरक्षा के कड़े इंतज़ाम

छठ को बिहार में राजकीय पर्व जैसा दर्जा मिला हुआ है

मुंबई में छठ पूजा के लिए सुरक्षा के विशेष इंतज़ाम किए गए हैं. इस दौरान मुंबई पुलिस अलावा रिज़र्व पुलिस बलों को भी तैनात किया जा रहा है.

मंगलवार को जल में खड़े रहकर सूर्य अर्घ्य दिया जाएगा.

ऐसा अनुमान है कि मुंबई के विभिन्न समुद्र तटों पर लगभग पाँच लाख लोग जमा होंगे और छठ पूजा समारोह में हिस्सा लेंगे.

सबसे अधिक लोगों के मुंबई के जुहू समुद्र तट पर जमा होने की उम्मीद की जा रही है.

कांग्रेसी नेता और पिछले कई वर्षों से छठ पूजा समारोहों से जुड़े संजय निरुपम का भी कहना है, ” इस साल हम उम्मीद कर रहे हैं कि जुहू में लोगों की भारी भीड़ जमा होगी.”

दूसरी ओर पत्रकारों से बातचीत में महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री विलासराव देशमुख ने कहा कि वो ख़ुद मंगलवार को छठ पूजा में हिस्सा लेंगे.

उल्लेखनीय है कि पिछले दिनों मुंबई में कई ऐसी घटनाएं देखने को मिली हैं जिनमें उत्तर भारतीयों को निशाना बनाकर हमले किए गए हैं.

इन हमलों के पीछे कथित रूप से राज ठाकरे के नेतृत्ववाली महाराष्ट्र नवनिर्माण सेना का हाथ बताया जाता है.

लेकिन शुक्रवार को राज ठाकरे ने प्रेस वार्ता में कहा था कि वो छठ जैसी किसी भी पूजा या पर्व के ख़िलाफ़ नहीं हैं और चाहते हैं कि छठ जैसे पर्वों का राजनीतिक इस्तेमाल न हो.

माना जा रहा है कि इस बयान से राज ठाकरे अपने कार्यकर्ताओं को यह संकेत देना चाह रहे थे कि छठ के दौरान पार्टी के कार्यकर्ता किसी भी उत्तर भारतीय विरोधी गतिविधि से बचें.

छठ मुख्य रूप से बिहार और पूर्वी उत्तर प्रदेश में मनाया जाता है. बिहार में तो इसे राजकीय पर्व जैसा दर्जा मिला हुआ है.

अब कोलकाता, दिल्ली और मुंबई जैसे महानगरों में भी बिहार और उत्तर प्रदेश के लोग ये पर्व बड़े पैमाने पर मनाने लगे हैं.

 

Violence breaks out during Bihar Bandh

Violence broke out during the dawn-to-dusk Bihar bandh called on Saturday by various student organisations to protest against the attacks on Biharis by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists in Mumbai, police sources said.

The day-long Bihar bandh was called by various student organisations, particularly AISA, the student wing of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), an ultra Left party, to protest attacks on north Indian candidates during a railway recruitment examination in Mumbai.

Students ransacked Shekhpura railway station and delinked the engine of a passenger train on Saturday morning.

“Some students pelted stones at the police and totally disrupted rail traffic on the Kiul-Gaya railway line,” a district official said.

The police used lathi charge and have taken half a dozen persons in custody after stones were pelted at them.

In Darbhanga, activists of the AISA ransacked Darbhanga railway station and tried to disrupt rail traffic. The police used lathicharge to disperse them.

Similar reports of violence are reaching Patna from Gaya, Nalanda, Bhojpur, Siwan and Muzaffarpur.

However, life in Patna is normal and till now there is no disruption of services owing to the bandh. Vehicles are plying and shops are open. The district administration has deployed additional police forces to take on trouble-makers during the bandh.

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar said patrolling has been intensified and forces have been deployed at vital points to meet any eventuality.

Two days ago various student organisations gave a call for Bihar shutdown on October 25 to protest attacks by MNS  activists in Mumbai.

On Friday, student wings of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Lok Janshakti Party withdrew from the strike.

The ongoing violent protests have continued for last five days.