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NASSCOM stands by Bazee.com

      New Delhi: National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) has strongly criticized the arrest of Bazee.com CEO Avnish Bajaj, terming it as "grossly unfair". NASSCOM chairman, Kiran Karnik said that his outfit was not defending an individual but a principle. He claimed that Bajaj has neither been convicted nor has he been found guilty and in these circumstances, and keeping him behind bars is certainly not fair. "The whole procedure is not in keeping at all with proper norms of justice," he said. Karnik asserted that in this case there was no apprehension of further crime and thus keeping Bajaj behind bars was unruly. Arrest of Bajaj displayed the draconian approach of law enforcement agencies as the company was offering full cooperation in investigating as to how the MMS clip came up for sale at the portal. Karnik said that the investigations are still on, there is a due process of law in the country and a person cannot be put in jail assuming he is guilty. The chairman said that the site had only advertised a product, just like any other media would and it was not selling the product itself. The site did not know the content of the product and it was immediately removed, once the issue was brought forth. However, Karnik admitted that these incidents to send across wrong signals to the investors. "These things should be rectified immediately, else the investors get wrong signals, he said. He also admitted that the cyber laws in the country needed rectification and should be stricter. "Laws need to be looked at and NASSCOM is closely working with the government in this regard," he said.

India, Pakistan foreign secretaries to meet on Dec 27-28: PM (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today the next round of composite dialogue with Pakistan will start from next week. "Technical level meetings on various levels are already underway. The two foreign secretaries are going to meet on December 27-28 to initiate next round of the composite dialogue," Singh said in the Lok Sabha. India and Pakistan have completed first round of the composite dialogue to resolve their all bilateral issues, including Kashmir. Singh said he hade made it clear to President Pervez Musharraf, whom he met in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting, that India was committed to resolving the Kashmir dispute but opposed redrawing of borders. "We had also discussed bilateral issues including Jammu and Kashmir. We agreed the possible peaceful negotiated settlement of the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to be explored in a sincere spirit and a purposeful manner. I made it clear to President Musharraf while we are willing to look at various options we would not agree to an redrawing of boundaries or the other partition of our country," he said. Musharraf's seven-region formula on Kashmir has repeatedly been rejected by New Delhi. The mood between Indian and Pakistan has lightened considerably since former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extended a hand of friendship to Islamabad last April, but there has been little sign of progress on Kashmir.

'Siachen' Major sentenced, to appeal (Go To Top)

      Jodhpur: The army officer who was today declared guilty of sacking encounters in Siachen glacier and sent to three-years imprisonment has said that he will appeal against the decision in either the High Court or Supreme Court. Major Surinder Singh has been dismissed and sentenced to three years Rigorous Imprisonment, for faking killings of Pakistani soldiers to win awards. The court found him guilty on all seven counts that he was charged with. These include creating an unnecessary alarm and fake firing. Major Singh, who had filmed the fake encounters, has always claimed that he was acting under orders from his senior officers.

A beleagured CM reaches out to national media  (Go To Top)
by N Bhadran Nair

      New Delhi: Beleaguered by charges of three rape cases involving political leaders, including a cabinet minister, Kerala Chief Minsiter Oomen Chandy today set out on an image building exercise with the national media. Chandy, who had an interaction with limited journalists in the capital today, tried to project an investor-friendly image of the state, which has a history of extreme trade unionism, scaring away prospective investors and even existing industries packing up their shops due to labour unrest. While listing out the achievements during his first 100 days, Chandy was at pains to clear the smog of sex scandals involving political leaders, including one of his cabinet colleagues.

       Chandy, who took over from A.K. Antony after a bitter inner-party tug-of-war between Antony group and Karunakaran group, had a political roller-coaster course, with party colleagues and even coalition partners demanding action against the state industry minister P.K. Kunjalikutty, for his alleged involvement in the infamous "Ice Cream Parlour Case". Before the sleaze involving his cabinet colleague died down, Chandy himself had been accused of impropriety and misbehaving with a woman while traveling on a train. Kerala, which boasts of being the most literate state with the highest human resource index, has one more first in its sleeve, with the number of high-profile sex scandals involving people holding social and political positions.

      Besides the Ice Cream Parlour case, the long list includes the Thoppumpadi scandal, in which some 69 people, including a noted music director and a religious leader had ravaged a college girl. The most recent includes the Kiliroor sex scandal, where a school drop out baited to hill stations and resorts by dozens of men, died after giving birth to a baby girl. Before the storm died down, the third Kaviyoor sex scandal came to light, where the girl and her entire family committed suicide unable to face the social stigma. The only red-herring in the three month-long rule of Chandy was that he has taken the bold decision to implement a directive of the State High Court to recover for damages of public property during bandhs and hartals called by political parties and trade unions. "We have decided to implement the court directive despite opposition from several quarters," said Chandy in a firm tone.

Indo-Bangla double entry visa system starts (Go To Top)
by Pinaki Das

      Agartala: Bangladesh has agreed to allow double entry and exit visas for Indian citizens transiting through any international airport or land port, provided the passenger produces the air or bus ticket up to Dhaka. Sazzad Taimur, the First Secretary and Head of Mission of the Bangladesh Visa Office here, said that the new provision would improve the chances of Indians wanting to travel through Bangladesh. India has already granted double entry and exit visas to Bangladeshi citizens through any international airport or land port. Dhaka's agreement to grant Indian citizens the double-entry and exit visa was only a reciprocal move on Bangladesh's part. Tripura's Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said that this step would be beneficial to both countries in terms of trade and tourism. Both countries had earlier agreed to run passenger buses daily on the Agartala-Dhaka route which was formally inaugurated on September 19, 2003 that to become third international bus service in south Asia after Delhi-Lahore and Calcutta-Dhaka. New Delhi and Dhaka reached a consensus on combating cross-border terrorism through a simultaneous operation along their respective borders, especially to stop drug-smuggling, human-trafficking and trespassing of criminals during the Home Secretary level meeting at Dhaka in August this year.

Brahmos test-fired (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The supersonic cruise missile Brahmos was flight-tested for the first time in land-to-land role today. According to a press release, this historic flight test was conducted in the Western Test Range (Rajasthan) this afternoon. The test flight was witnessed by the Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister M Natarajan, GOC-in-C, Western Command and Army Chief Designate, Lt Gen JJ Singh and other senior officers from the Army and Navy. From among a group of identified targets (built up), the mission team chose a target and the missile came dead on target destroying the built up target. The senior officers flew over the destroyed target immediately thereafter signaling a total success of Brahmos in its capability of taking on land targets from land platform. The Chief Controller Research and Development and CEO Brahmos Dr A Sivathanu Pillai complimented all those work centres who have contributed to the success of this mission.

Zaheera turns hostile in Best Bakery case hearing (Go To Top)

      Vadodara: Zaheera Sheikh, prime witness in the 2002 Best Bakery case, was today declared hostile by the prosecution. The move came after she resiled her police statement during the retrial in a special court in Mumbai. Zaheera is the seventh witness to turn hostile in the case. Others who did not support the prosecution include Zaheera's mother Sehrunissa, her sister Saira, brothers - Nafitullah and Nasibullah and two independent witnesses. During examination, Zaheera told the designated judge Abhay Thipsay that her maternal uncle, Quaser, was not present in the Best Bakery when it was set on fire by a group of people on March 1, 2002. In her police statement, Zaheera had said that Quaser was present at the bakery at the time of the incident. In police records, however, he is shown as missing. Zaheera further told the court that she had signed only one document and that was the FIR. However, Zaheera said, she did not know the contents of the FIR. Zaheera, a key eye witness, also said she did not see anything on the day when the Best Bakery was set on fire. She maintained that there was lot of smoke and fire all around and missiles were thrown by the mob at the terrace of the bakery where she and others had taken shelter. Zaheera said only her sister Sabira was on the first floor of the bakery when it was set on fire.

     However, police records show that Sabira and some others including Shabnam and Ruksana, were present on the first floor. Soon after this, the prosecutor declared her hostile as she did not support the prosecution's case. Altogether 14 persons died when the bakery was set afire on March one, 2002 by an irate mob in the post-Godhra riots. A total of 22 accused are facing the trial. In a U-turn on November 3, Zaheera filed an affidavit before Vadodara collector. In that she alleged that she was pressurised by NGO activist Teesta Setalvad to name innocent persons as accused before the special court in Mumbai conducting the re-trial. Zaheera had also denied meeting BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastav, who she had alleged to have threatened her from stating the truth before Vadodara fast track court. In another turnaround, she had also said that the judgement passed by the Fast Track Court Judge H U Mahida was correct. With Teesta's support, Zaheera had earlier moved the Supreme Court for its re-trial outside Gujarat. Following her petition, the apex court had ordered transfer of the case to a Mumbai court and also rapped the state government regarding protection to riot witnesses.