Mahatma Gandhi's statue to be installed
in Chicago
Ahmedabad:
An eight-feet tall statue of Mahatma Gandhi will be
installed at Heritage Plaza in Chicago soon. The statue
will be among a dozen statues of great people from around
the world. The bronze statue has been sculpted by Jasuben
Shilpi of Ahmedabad. Shilpi said Chicago-based Gandhi Memorial
Trust had approached her for the statue. She said it took
her three months and 600 kilograms of bronze to complete
the statue.
The
statue is unique in a sense that perhaps for the first time
Gandhi would be seen carrying a book in his left hand. "I
decided to make the statue showing Mahatama carrying a book
in one of his hand and other having staff. He should be
shown as if was walking fast. He used to sport a piece of
cloth round his neck and in a happy mood. This is the kind
of statue I have tried to give them," Shilpi said. The statue
will be unveiled in Chicago on October 2, Gandhi's birthday.
Shilpi has sculpted about 500 statues of bronze till now.
Sonia visits Rae Bareli: Slams BJP,
nails Mulayam Govt (Go
To Top)
Rae
Bareli: There is a serious law and order problem in
Uttar Pradesh and it could be ended only by change in the
state government, said Congress president Sonia Gandhi on
Friday. She said this while on her first visit to her parliamentary
constituency Rae Bareli after leading her party to an impressive
show in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls. Sonia also criticised
the BJP for ridiculing her party's ability to firm up a
coalition before the elections. "Some people were saying
that we will not be able to form a coalition easily. But
their hopes have been dashed. We formed the government without
any difficulty and also finalised the CMP," she said on
the occasion.
Sonia preferred to meet the people through road shows and
didn't hold any public meetings. Though the Congress president's
visit is seen as a thanks-giving gesture to her voters,
but apparently it's more for lunching a tirade against the
present Mulayam Singh Yadav-led coalition government. This
is the second occasion in quick succession when a member
from the Gandhi family has spoken against Mulayam's government.
A couple of days earlier, Sonia's son and newly-elected
MP from Amethi had also alleged the same while on a visit
to his constituency. The latest developments are likely
to kick a new political storm in the days to come. Notably,
the Congress and Mulayam's Samajwadi Party are coalition
p
One killed in UP clash (Go
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Thakurdwara
(UP): At least one person was killed and five injured
on Friday following clashes between supporters of two political
parties in Thakurdwara town in Uttar Pradesh. Police said
the clashes broke out when activists of the ruling Samajwadi
Party (SP) tried to disrupt a local committee meeting of
the BJP. "There was a fight between the two groups due to
which they opened fire. And in this one person was killed
and five are injured," Moradabad SSP G.K. Goswami said.
R. Ramesh Kumar, the district magistrate, said the police
have recovered some arms from the site. "Keeping security
in mind we have deployed police. We have recovered arms
also," he said. An eyewitness said activists of the two
parties indulged in heavy firing. "I heard bullet noises
and saw bullets were being fired and we did not have the
courage to go near the spot as bullets were being fired,"
said Anwar Ali, an eyewitness. Political and caste clashes
are regular in the most populous state of UP ever since
lower caste dominated regional parties came into prominence.
BK Chaturvedi will be new Cabinet Secretary
(Go
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New
Delhi: Petroleum Secretary BK Chaturvedi was appointed
as the new Cabinet Secretary here Friday. He will succeed
Kamal Pande. Chaturvedi, a 1966 batch IAS officer of Uttar
Pradesh cadre, will have a term of two years. BK Chaturvedi
will take up the new assignment on June 14, 2004. Talking
about his new priorities, Chaturvedi said, "as far as the
Government is concerned, it is already decided that the
Common Minimum Programme's implementation is one of the
highest priorities. And that will be, naturally, the Cabinet
Secretary's priority too. The CMP is a very comprehensive
and an all- encompassing programme. And naturally, we would
like to see that it is effectively implemented." When asked
whether the inherent contradictions of a coalition government
wouldn't be a setback to it's implementation, the Cabinet
Secretary-designate said that the Government has as such
agreed on the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) after discussions
among various partners.
"As
far as coalition governments are concerned, one has to appreciate
that in a country like India which has a federal structure
and which is so vast, there are bound to be various view
points, various political factions and parties. So to expect
a unified command is not really realistic. The CMP is reflecting
the priority of the Government and our job will be to implement
this effectively," he said. Commenting on the PMO playing
a more important role than the Cabinet Secretary in this
era of coalitions, Chaturvedi said, "I would not like to
put institutions as a versus question. It's a question of
working as a team." Sharing his views on the rising global
oil prices, the Cabinet Secretary designate said, "The international
prices of oil have gone up and India buys about 70 per cent
of it's oil. Naturally, whatever prices have gone up has
to be reflected in some way or the other. The effort of
the Government is to see that the consumer is affected the
least to the extent Government succeeds in looking after
the interest of the consumer."
Congress' list of candidates for RS polls
(Go
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New
Delhi: The Congress released its list of candidates
for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections here Friday. While
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Vijay Darda are the
party's candidates from Maharashtra, party spokesperson
Ambika Soni has been given the ticket from Punjab. Union
Power Minister PM Sayeed has also been nominated for a Rajya
Sabha seat. Both Patil and Sayeed had lost in the recently
held parliamentary polls. Congress Working Committee (CWC)
member Oscar Fernandes and HV Hariprasad have been given
RS tickets from Karnataka. Party spokesman Anand Sharma
said the party was confident of winning both the seats.
Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has fielded
Tariq Anwar from Maharashtra. As many as 65 RS seats are
going to fall vacant later this month, and the polls are
being held to fill these vacancies. A maximum number of
11 seats are to be filled from Uttar Pradesh.
BDR-BSF trade heavy gunfire (Go
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Dhaka:
The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh
Rifles on Thursday exchanged heavy gunfire at Daikhata frontier
in Bangladesh's northern district of Panchagar. Bangladesh's
private news agency United News of Bangladesh (UNB) said
the firing took place reportedly over a road construction
by the Indian guards on the zero line. BDR officials said
the Indian people were trying to construct a road near the
zero line with the help of BSF members at Daikhata. Despite
the members of the BDR forces asked repeatedly their counterparts
to refrain from the construction, they continued to do so.
On Thursday morning the BSF members opened fire on the BDR
soldiers as the latter warned the Indian guards. The gunfire
continued for two hours. However, no casualties were reported.
At one stage, BSF retreated and proposed for a flag meeting.
At the meeting held this afternoon, BSF agreed to postpone
construction of the road till demarcation of the border.
Kaizad Gustad case hearing on June 14
(Go
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Mumbai:
The hearing of the application for bail for the three
persons arrested in the Nadia Khan death case has been adjourned
till 14th June. Nadia, the second assistant to director
Kaizad Gustad, was accidentally killed during a film shoot
on May 25 at the Mahalaxmi suburban railway station in Mumbai.
The crew was shooting for Gustad's new film 'Mumbai Central.'
The Government Railway Police has arrested three members
of the crew including Gustad and his assistants Ashish Udeshi
and Hadley D'Mello. They were produced before Metropolitan
Magistrate P. T. Rahule who remanded them in police custody
till June 14. The honorable judge held that in the circumstances,
the investigating officer deserved every opportunity to
collect all the relevant evidence and directed him to collect
all possible documents and properties in possession of Gustad's
film company, 'Below the Line' Productions Pvt. Ltd. The
judge ordered the possession of the second camera film that
might have been operative on the fateful day of Ms. Khan's
accident. The three accused have been arrested on charges
including those of culpable homicide not amounting to murder
(Section 302, part two of the Indian Penal Code), common
intention (Section 34 IPC), and causing disappearance of
evidence (Section 201 IPC).
The
film's unit was granted permission to shoot on Track No.1
and around it, near Mahalaxmi Station in Mumbai between
25th May and 30th May 2004. Gustad's company had complied
with the necessary procedural formalities including payment
of deposit and fees to the Railway Authorities before commencing
shoot on 25th of May. This included payment for 8 Railway
Protection Force or General Railway Police constables to
oversee the shoot. However, none of the police officials
were present by the shoot site even when the incident occurred.
The custody till 14th would provide the Investigating Officer
to procure documents like the films 'Continuity Register',
Shot 'Log Book' etc.
Ronald Reagan played key role in strengthening
Indo-US ties (Go
To Top)
by Priscilla Huff
Washington:
India's External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh on Friday
travelled to Washington for his first meetings with the
Bush administration. The sudden visit was prompted by a
sad occasion as Singh is representing his country at the
state funeral for former US President Ronald Reagan, who
died last Saturday. Singh and US Secretary of State Colin
Powell addressed reporters just moments after their first
meeting.
Natwar Singh said: "I've come to represent the government
of India on this sad occasion. The passing of President
Reagan has been widely mourned in India. President Reagan
played an important role in strengthening U.S.-Indo relations.
He and Ms Reagan received with great form, Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi during her visit to Washington in 1982. Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi counted President
and Mrs. Reagan among their friends." He added: "I've also
informed him about the change of government in India. And
that we intend to continue the polices that we have followed
for 57 years. There's been a broad national consensus on
India's foreign policy to continue and we've hit the road
running. My visit also comes at a time when India and the
US are witnessing a period of close engagement in our bilateral
relations. Our relations are expanded in scope and depth
and my government is determined to work closely with the
U.S. administration to take this partnership forward in
all areas. Both our countries have clear commonalties in
shaping a democratic and pluralistic world order, free of
terrorism."
Addressing reporters on the occasion, US Secretary of State
Colin Powell said: "The most important issue that we touched
on was the fact that the US and India have a very good,
strong relationship. We intend to not only keep it strong
but to build on that relationship, to move forward. The
minister told me that he planned to move very fast and I
said I would do my best to keep up with him."
