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Hero's welcome to Major Rathore

          New Delhi: Major Rajyawardhan Rathore, who won a silver medal in the ongoing Olympics in Athens, returned to a hero's welcome here Saturday. Union Sports Minister Sunil Dutt was himself present at the airport alongwith senior Army officials to receive the national hero, who won the medal for the country for the first time in the double trap event. "I am feeling great because the country is very proud of my achievements," Rathore told reporters.

         Later, Chief of Army Staff General NC Vij and other senior officers gave a hero's welcome to the shooter. "Because he has got the silver medal this time, we hope that he gets the gold for the country in the competitions ahead. And in the intervening period, we will ensure that he gets all the facilities to make sure that he trains himself to his entire satisfaction and secures a gold for the country," said General Vij. Rathore said his determination helped him win the award. "It is not by population but by determination that you win in Olympics. Determination, resources, facilities are all included, then only you win a medal," Rathore said. "There were 201 countries participating who put up their best performances and it is not that easy to win there. Despite that our athletes have put up a better performance in this Olympics. Compared to last games, there were many who reached finals," he added. India has won 11 Olympic hockey medals, but has not added to its eight golds since 1980. With a population of over a billion, three individual bronze medals was a paltry total. India does not count the two sprint silvers that Briton Norman Pritchard won in 1900.

AICC resolution lauds Sonia's `sacrifice' (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Congressmen today lauded their party president Sonia Gandhi's sacrifice by renouncing the prime minister's chair after the last general elections. A resolution circulated at the AICC session said that Sonia's gesture had no parallel in the world. It said: "She chose the party over power, service over a position, work over the fruits of success and struggle instead of comfort. Her efforts will serve as a beacon of light on the path of faith and dedication for the coming generations." Mentioning her contribution in bringing the party to power, the resolution said: "Our success was possible because of the Šdedicated efforts of party workers and Sonia Gandhi." Speaking on the occasion, the party chief launched a scathing attack on BJP accusing it of subverting the recent electoral mandate by not accepting its rejection by the people and showing its "anti-democratic" character. "The BJP is still behaving in a manner that subverts this mandate. It has not accepted its rejection by the people," she said in her opening address to her party workers.

Sonia blames BJP for burning north-east (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Congress party president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday blamed the previous BJP-led NDA government's polices for the unrest racking the northeast. Speaking at the brainstorming session of the party, Gandhi, listed as the world's third most powerful woman by Forbes magazine, said that the BJP's divide and rule politics was the reason behind instability in Manipur. "We are worried about this time whatever is happening in northeast. The BJP and its allies have been playing a dangerous game in the sensitive northeast area. At times we should set aside the politics of divide and rule. Insurgency has to be stopped and dialogues should continue," said Gandhi. For over a month, violent protests have marred Manipur, where people have demanded the revocation of a controversial anti- terror law -- the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, which gives troops the right to arrest and shoot at suspected rebels. People have been protesting the killing of a 30-year-old woman allegedly shot dead by troops on July 10, after she was suspected of being involved in militant-related activities in the state.

           The Manipur government lifted the law partially by scrapping it in Imphal and some surrounding areas last week, but the move failed to stop the protests. Gandhi also lauded the policies of her party in Kashmir, saying it had helped to bring about development in the restive region. "Our party took a daring step by forming a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir two years go. Due to that only, developmental work has again started in the state. The state government's healing touch policy resulted in arousing the feeling of cooperation and faith among the people," she said. The Congress is a junior partner in the People's Democratic Party-led coalition government in Kashmir.

Manmohan says inflation will be tamed (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today that his government would make controlling the record high inflation its top priority, while trying to push growth in Asia's fourth largest economy. Inflation has been steadily picking up in recent months because of rising fuel and commodity prices, which have tracked global trends and raised costs for manufacturers. "We will give the highest priority to taming inflation. The sharp rise in international prices of petroleum products and fears of an impending drought have no doubt strengthened inflationary expectations. However, with the improvement in rainfall and as a result of steps taken by us. Our petroleum taxation, we are confident of bringing the situation under control. Let there be no doubt on that score," said Singh. Annual wholesale price inflation surged to a new high of 7.96 percent in the week ended August 7 from 7.61 percent in the previous week due to higher energy and manufactured product prices.

Truckers' strike halts India's freight movement (Go To Top)

          New Delhi/Mumbai: An indefinite strike called by truckers from Saturday hit freight movement across the country. The government proposed a 10 percent service tax on freight agencies in the 2004/05 budget in a bid to widen the service tax net and boost revenue. Nearly three million vehicles are expected to be off the road because of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) sponsored strike, which is opposing a service tax on transport booking agents. "The major issue is service tax, another issue is recovery of TDS (Tax deducted at source). On these issues we are not going to compromise. There cannot be any discussion, government should withdraw service tax and on TDS, status quo should be restored, then only we can discuss the remaining four or five issues," J.M. Saxena, the secretary of the AIMTC, said. Others said the government's priority should be to minimize the common man's hardships and not widening the tax net. "The government has been increasing all sorts of toll tax. Whichever government comes to power increases the price of petrol and diesel. They do not think of us. We shall break our strike only after everything is settled," Dinesh, a truck driver, said. Business groups have estimated the stoppage cost wholesalers, retailers and industry Rs.15 billion a day.

Dixit leaves for UK, France for strategic talks (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: National Security Advisor JN Dixit left today for Britain and France, where he is expected to hold discussions with the leaderships of those two countries on strategic issues early next week. Dixit would be taking the initiatives undertaken by his predecessor Brajesh Mishra forward, which would include a review of bilateral issues with his British and French counterparts. The review would cover political issues, ways to enhance technical cooperation, cooperation on counter-terrorism measures and human rights reforms, the sources further said. The National Security Advisor will return on Wednesday or Thursday.

Narasimha Rao in hospital (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, 83, who led the last Congress government eight years ago, has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here since August 15 for a chest infection. According to aides, Rao contracted the chest infection while being treated for a liver condition. According to hospital sources, doctors were still investigating how to treat his lingering infection.

Equating Uma's case to Soren unfortunate: BJP (Go To Top)

          Vijayawada: The BJP's Central Parliamentary Board will meet on Monday to discuss the fall out of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti's decision to resign after controversially hoisting the national flag at Hubli. Bharti officially retains the post, as she has only submitted her resignation to BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu and not to the Governor of Madhya Pradesh as is the norm. "Congress is trying to equate Bharati's act of hoisting national flag at Idgah Maidan in Hubli with Shibu Soren issue, which is really unfortunate," Naidu told reporters here. "Is it a big mistake she had done to hoist the national flag at the maidan? It was really a maidan earlier and was later converted to Idgah Maidan," he said. There was no similarity between the cases against tainted ministers and Uma Bharti, he said. "There was no case against her and even the then Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna was ready to withdraw the cases from the sessions court. But now suddenly the Congress in Karataka does not want to withdraw them," he said.