BJP rejects demand to apologise for Bofors charges (Go To Top)

         New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party today ruled out any chances of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) submitting an apology to the Congress party president, Sonia Gandhi, for framing bribery charges against her husband and late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in connection with the Bofors gun scam. Gandhi had earlier this week demanded an apology from the Atal Behari Vajpayee government after a High Court exonerated Rajiv Gandhi. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday had said there was no evidence to show that Gandhi had accepted money to clear a 1.2 billion dollars artillery deal with Sweden's Bofors almost 16 years ago.

          "Why should Vajpayee apologise, why should the BJP apologise? The Congress should apologise for the scams and scandals. It is a fact that money changed hands in Bofors. There were middlemen; there is no doubt about it. Who received the money, that is a matter of investigation," said BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu. "As far as the transaction is concerned, everybody knows there were middlemen. There was a transaction of money. Money has been put in the foreign bank accounts of individuals. Everybody knows Quattrochi and who is close to Quattrochi? Why should we answer? The Congress party should answer," added Naidu, while addressing the BJP's core committee for the north-east here today. BJP leaders have said the government has two months to appeal against the judgement exonerating Rajiv Gandhi.

          The arms scandal, which engulfed Rajiv Gandhi's administration in 1987, eventually contributed to his fall from power in 1989, ending the Congress party's omnipresent sway in Indian politics. Gandhi was named along with five other people in the police charge-sheet, but he could not be brought to trial as he was assassinated in May 1991.

BJP to market development, leadership in upcoming polls (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The BJP is set to bank on the planks of development and the charisma of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajapyee in the forthcoming general elections. "The entire thrust of our campaign will be on development, will be on leadership, will be on the future vision of India," the party's president, M.Venkaiah Naidu, told a news conference here. "We will decide later who will contest from where. One thing is clear that we want to move ahead, taking Sangma (the leader of the breakaway faction of the Nationalist Congress Party) along with us. Seat-sharing will be worked out later," he added.

          President APJ Abdul Kalam formally dissolved Parliament on Friday, eight months ahead of schedule, to make way for the polls, which the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is expected to win. The NDA is banking heavily on an economic boom, the BJP's gains in the recent state assembly polls and India's peace moves with Pakistan. Apart from Sangma's NCP, the BJP has also aligned itself with Tamil Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa's All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagam (AIADMK).

          Meanwhile, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi has said that the Opposition combine will give a befitting contest to the NDA in the upcoming polls. Talking to reporters here, she said: "I believe the feel-good factor does not exist. Yes, it does exist for a few people. Basically for those who are very close to government. But, if you move out of Delhi, there is no feel-good factor. Farmers are in distress, there are many unemployed youths." Gandhi further said that efforts were on to firm up an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-led by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. "Efforts are on, but nothing final has been done. Right now nothing final has been done, talks are on. We will soon take a decision on the BSP alliance. Yes, there is less time, but we will do it fast," she claimed. The Election Commission is expected to announce the dates for the elections next week.

Party committed to Ram temple construction: Vajpayee (Go To Top)

          Faizabad: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today launched the BJP's election campaign in Uttar Pradesh by declaring that the party was committed to constructing the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Urging all concerned parties to reach an understanding and resolve the dispute harmoniously, Vajpayee described the construction of the temple as an "unfinished task" of his government. "We want that the construction of Ram Temple is completed and all hurdles in its way removed," Vajpayee told a rally of BJP workers in Faizabad. "The path of judiciary could be a long one and could take time. The parties concerned should reach an understanding in a harmonious way to resolve it," he said, while appealing to the people to give another five-year tenure to his government.

Lyngdoh retires (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The man who led the world's largest democracy through two of its most trying yet successful state elections, James Michael Lyngdoh, retired on Saturday. TS Krishnamurthy will succeed Lyngdoh, who defied government pressure for early elections in Gujarat and oversaw fair polls in Kashmir. Last year, Lyngdoh was one of the seven winners of the Ramon Magasaysay Award, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Lyngdoh rose from relative anonymity in 2002 when he rejected the BJP's plans for a snap poll in Gujarat, where over 1,000 people died in communal riots brought on by a train burning incident in Godhra. The move prompted a bitter and sometimes personal criticism of Lyngdoh, a Christian, by Hindu hardliners. In the same year, he oversaw tense elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which were regarded as the fairest in almost two decades despite reports of widespread violence by separatists. The Business Week magazine last year named Lyngdoh as one of Asia's 25 leaders at the forefront of change. Krishnamurthy is expected to hold a meeting of the Election Commission next week to announce the dates for the forthcoming general polls.

Three killed, dozens injured in Kashmir blast (Go To Top)

          Srinagar: Two civilians were killed and dozens more were injured on Saturday in a grenade attack by suspected Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir. The blast occurred at a bus stand in Shopian, 40 km south of Srinagar. The injured, some of them in critical condition, have been admitted to various hospitals in Srinagar. An eyewitness said the hand-grenade was actually aimed at an army convoy, which was passing through the area, but missed the target. In a another incident, Zahoor Ahmed Baba, a top commander of the Ikhwaan, an anti-rebel outfit, was shot dead outside his house.

Vaiko out on bail after 18 months in jail (Go To Top)

          Vellore: The leader of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), V Gopalaswamy, alias Vaiko, was released from the jail on bail on Saturday. Vaiko, 58, had been incarcerated for 18 months after he was arrested under the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) on the orders of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa for remarks supportive of Sri Lanka's rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE). Upon coming out of the jail, Vaiko said he would continue the fight for his fundamental rights. "I filed my writ petition in the Supreme Court for the protection of fundamental rights and the freedom of speech in India," he said. "The repressiveness of the Tamil Nadu Government by invoking POTA for political vendetta will become one of the issues in our political campaign," he added.

No respite for Bihar from medico strike (Go To Top)

          Patna: An indefinite strike by junior doctors continues to paralyse health services in Bihar. The strike entered its eighth day on Saturday, and work in the state's three major hospitals was brought to a standstill. Over a thousand doctors from hospitals in Patna, Gaya and Dharbanga have gone off duty, demanding a rise in their monthly stipend and proper accommodation. Thirteen people have died since the strike began and hundreds more, many of them critically ill, are lying unattended. State authorities have held a series of talks with the striking medicos over the past week, but the students are refusing to budge.

India launches Hydrogen-fuelled vehicles in New Delhi (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: India launched Hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on an experimental basis in New Delhi on Saturday. The Union Minister for Non-Conventional Energy Resources, Karia Munda, who flagged off the event, said the hydrogen-based technology will help to bring down environmental pollution. "Not only will it (hydrogen fuel) run two-wheelers or three- wheelers, but it will also be used as cooking gas and to light a bulb. The main thing is that it is never going to end. It is renewable," Munda said.

Khan can keep his money: Musharraf (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that Dr. AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, can keep the wealth that he has accumulated from his "various deals". "Let him live with his money," the Daily Times quoted Musharraf as saying with a smile during an interaction with reporters over tea at the Army House in Rawalpindi. The Washington Post reported Musharraf's statement on Friday. Meanwhile, Lt. General Khalid Kidwai, a key figure in Pakistan's nuclear hierarchy, was quoted as saying that he hoped that Musharraf's pardon would bring the episode to a close. "From the government side, this was the final official version of the controversy. We hope this will all be over in a week's time," he is said to have told reporters.

Libya paid 50m dollars for Khan's N-blueprints (Go To Top)

          Washington: Libya is reported to have forked out 50 million dollars to purchase nuclear blueprints from dealers who were part of the network headed by Dr. AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. "Those blueprints, along with the capability to make enriched uranium, could have given the Libyans all the elements they needed to make a nuclear bomb," according to a New York Times report "What the Libyans purchased, in the words of an American weapons expert who has reviewed the programme in detail, was both the kitchen equipment 'and the recipes," the report was quoted as saying by the Daily Times. The report further goes on to say that the designs flown out of Libya and now in US possession closely resemble the warheads that China tested in the late 1960s and passed on to Pakistan decades ago. However, there is no evidence that the Libyans actually produced the warheads, much less sufficient nuclear fuel.

Commonwealth mission will seek to kick-start stalled trade talks (Go To Top)
by Trevor Barnard

          London: High ranking ministers from four Commonwealth countries will set off this week-end on a nine-day mission to Geneva, Washington, Tokyo and Brussels, with the aim of breathing new life into the trade talks that failed in Cancun, Mexico, last September. The initiative follows a decision taken at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Abuja, Nigeria, in December, and is particularly in line with the Aso Rock Statement, which committed the Commonwealth to help poor countries benefit from multilateral trade. The delegation will consist of: Idris Waziri, Nigeria's Minister of Commerce; Dame Billie Miller, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Barbados; Kaliopate Tavola, Fijian Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade; and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Minister of Commerce, Bangladesh. They will be supported by a team from the Commonwealth Secretariat, led by Deputy Secretary- General Winston Cox.