Karnataka Governor invites leaders
Bangalore:
Karnataka Governor T N Chaturvedi has invited state
unit presidents of the BJP, the Congress and the Janata
Dal (Secular) for informal discussions on government formation
in the state. The Governor will hold talks with Anantkumar
of the BJP, B Janardhana Poojary of the Congress and Siddaramaih
of the JD (S) as assembly elections in the state have thrown
up a fractured verdict. The Congress and the JDS have agreed
to form a coalition government, but are yet to arrive at
a final decision on the nature of the arrangement. The JD
(S), which has emerged as a key player with 58 seats, has
already elected Siddaramaiah as its Legislature party leader.
However, the Congress, which was won 65 seats, is yet to
initiate the process of convening its legislature party.
The BJP, which has emerged as the single largest party,
winning 79 seats, will be holding the meeting on May 23.
Financial markets bounce back after
black Monday (Go
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New
Delhi/Mumbai: Indian shares jumped six percent on Tuesday
from wrenching falls the day before as investors found value
in stocks hammered by fears a new leftist-backed government
would stall economic growth. The rupee was firmer, moving
away from an eight-month intra- day low struck on Monday,
while bonds rose as the central bank left interest rates
on hold. The benchmark Bombay stock exchange index was up
6.3 percent at 4,787 points at 0641 GMT. The index plunged
11.1 percent, or 564.71 points, on Monday -- its second-biggest
fall since a drop of 570.42 points at the height of a stock
market scandal in 1992. In Monday's session, the index had
dropped as much as 842.37 points, or 16.6 percent, a record
intra-day fall. Indian financial markets have been heading
down for three weeks on fears of a slowdown in economic
reforms in Asia's third- largest economy after exit polls
suggested the ruling, pro- reforms National Democratic Alliance
may not win a majority. "Still the anxiety is in the future
market, the affendo market, the derivative market because
there the NIFTY discounting is still about 50-55 even 60
points, which becomes almost five percent of the current
ruling price. which generally does not happen. Generally
the NIFTY futures or for that matter any future are higher
than the cash market price. But for a few days because of
the uncertainty, the NIFTY and cash discount was hardly
20 points in NIFTY," Bombay-based market analyst Ashok Ajmera
said. The last three weeks have seen the Bombay index slide
by 24 percent to a seven-month low on Monday, wiping out
$75 billion in investor wealth.
BJP continues protests against Sonia
Gandhi (Go
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New
Delhi: Activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
on Tuesday continued protests against Prime Minister-elect
Sonia Gandhi, raising her foreign origin. The Italy-born
Gandhi is set to become the next Prime Minister after she
was unanimously elected to lead the world's largest democracy
after the Congress' ousted the BJP -led coalition in a thrilling
upset in national election last week. The BJP, which has
campaigned for debarring persons of foreign origin from
occupying high offices, has decided to boycott Gandhi's
swearing-in ceremony. Caretaker Health Minister Sushma Swaraj
and her husband Swaraj Kaushal have threatened to quit the
upper house if Gandhi was sworn in. Led by hardline leader
Govindacharya, the BJP rank and file have decided to intensify
an agitation against a foreign origin Indian being installed
as prime minister. "Such kinds of traditions are not followed
anywhere in the world, not even in our country. Such protests
are happening all over the country as people do not want
any foreigner as the Prime Minister of this country. The
prime minister will only be of Indian origin," said Virendra
Singh, an activist. Gandhi ousted BJP-led allies last week
in a stunning election win that surprised everyone, including
Congress, but fell short of a clear majority and needs new
partners to rule. Leftist parties, which hold 59 of the
new parliament's 545 seats, have backed Gandhi as PM but
decided to support the new coalition government from outside.
Gandhi is still considered a political novice after formally
taking over Congress in 1998, seven years after her husband,
former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated in
1991. But analysts say her unexpected and resounding win
after counting in the largest democratic vote on earth has
guaranteed her the prime ministership.
HC to hear foreign origin plea on May
26 (Go
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New
Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday posted for hearing
on May 26 a petition seeking stay on a person who is not
a naturally born citizen of India to hold office of Prime
Minister. The court set the date when the petition came
up for hearing before the Bench of Chief Justice B C Patel
and Justice B D Ahmed. In a fresh application, the petitioner
of the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha (RMM), Ravindra Kumar, sought
to restrain Congress president Sonia Gandhi from holding
the office of Prime Minister. RMM had moved a petition way
back in 1999 for restraining those with acquired citizenship
from holding high offices.
HAL to export copters to USA, Israel
(Go
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Bangalore:
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has plans to export
the indigenously developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH)
'Dhruv' to the USA and Israel. Speaking on the sidelines
of a seminar organised by telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited (BSNL) in Bangalore on Monday, the Chairman and
Managing Director of HAL, N R Mohanty, said that negotiations
were still on. "I am trying for an order to Israel. I want
to go for ALH (Advanced Light Helicopter) delivery. We want
to do it very fast. So to start with they are talking to
Israelis, it is very difficult business and for the first
time we are doing this sort of exercise because we have
to develop our own helicoper and the aircraft. Till yesterday
it was all licensed production. So probably it was not required.
Today, the HAL is opening up," said Mohanty. Mohanty said
they had already supplied the copters to Indian armed services.
Mohanty also said that the first batch of two Sukhoi 30
fighter planes would be delivered to the Indian Air Force
by the end of June. The HAL has set up a special factory
at Koraput, a small town in n Karnataka for manufacturing
Russian Sukhoi-MKI fighter.
BJP steps up campaign against Sonia
becoming PM (Go
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New
Delhi: After a humiliating defeat in general elections,
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday launched a campaign
against Sonia Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister. Gandhi's
Congress party and its allies piped the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance out of power. According to latest reports,
Gandhi who has the support of 320 lawmakers in the 545-member
parliament, has declined to accept the top post. She was
scheduled to address a meeting of her party's elected members
to announce her decision. Earlier, a senior BJP leader met
President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam and petitioned him against swearing
in Gandhi. "If Sonia Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister of
this country I will definitely resign from the upper house.
I will fight as I have vowed not to wear coloured clothes,
tonsure my head, sleep on the ground and eat chickpeas.
This will continue till she is the Prime Minister," Sushma
Swaraj, who was health minister in Atal Behari Vajpayee's
cabinet, told reporters after meeting Kalam. Another hardline
leader and chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharti sent
in her resignation to the party and vowed to join a campaign
against Gandhi. "Today the country is at stake because a
person of foreign origin is being promoted to Prime Minister's
post. She (Sonia Gandhi) will have access to all the confidential
files. She is one person who did not take the citizenship
of the country for 17 years because she is not in love with
the country, she was forced to do it. Siding with her are
the left parties who knew that they can never win an election.
They are doing it just for power," Bharti told reporters
in New Delhi. Bharti, who was leaving for Kedarnath pilgrim
town, said she would fax her resignation letter to the Madhya
Pradesh Governor from there.
Meanwhile, BJP supporters took to the streets in Guwahati,
to protest against Gandhi. Holding placards, the protesters
shouted slogans against Gandhi.
Sonia listens to her inner voice, opts
out of PM race (Go
To Top)
by
Ashok Dixit
New
Delhi: It was a first for the Congress party, a first
in Indian politics and a first for India. Apparently bowing
to the pressures of her two children - Rahul Gandhi and
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other members of her immediate
family, besides listening to her inner voice and consciousness,
a grim but calm Congress party president Sonia Gandhi announced
that she had decided to opt out of the race for prime minister.
Her announcement at 7.15 p.m. at an emergency meeting of
the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) in Parliament House
brought the house down. Pandemonium raged as various MPs
rushed to the main podium to convince Sonia to reconsider
her stance, saying that she was their only supreme leader
and that no one could take her place. In her 10-minute statement,
Gandhi, claiming the high moral ground, said: "One thing
has been always clear for me, that if I ever find myself
in a position that I find myself in today, I will follow
my inner voice. Keeping that inner voice in mind, I must
humbly decline this post of Prime Minister-in-waiting and
leader of the CPP." "You have reposed your faith. This faith
has placed a tremendous pressure on me. My aim has always
been to promote and protect the secular foundation of our
nation. This will continue. I request you to accept my decision.
This is my inner voice and conscience. Our aim, my aim is
and should be to provide a stable and secular government,"
she said. "My aim has never been the Prime Minister's post.
You have chosen me as your leader, you have reposed confidence
in me. At the same time this has created a sense of helplessness
in me. There has been no pressure on me whatsoever about
this decision. I thank you for the faith and support you
have reposed in me," she added.
Senior
Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel were seen
trying to placate and pacify the MPs, but with great difficulty.
Almost all of them said that they had won the elections
by huge margins because of Sonia Gandhi and emotionally
and humbly requested her to reconsider her decision.
Former
Finance Minister Manmohan Singh then appeared as the frontrunner
for the CPP leader and prime minister. Other leaders of
the UPA, notably Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI (M) said
that while the allies remained steadfast about Sonia maintaining
her claim to the post, it was eventually an internal matter
of the Congress party to decide on their prime ministerial
candidate. CPI-M veteran and former West Bengal Chief Minister
Jyoti Basu said that it had become a family matter, and
that as far as he was concerned it did not matter to him
who became the Congress parliamentary party's leader. He
said he was more focused on the UPA's Common Minimum Program
and how best the Left could or could not support it. Allied
and Congress leaders converged at the residence of CPI (M)
leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet to discuss the latest development
and its impending fallout. Those against the move have said
that they will continue their protests. In the afternoon,
outgoing Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj threatened
to don white clothes, go bald, sleep on the floor and eat
dry nuts as long as Sonia attempted to sit or sits in the
PM's chair. Gandhi had earlier met President APJ Abdul Kalam
to submit the list of 317 Lok Sabha MPs supporting the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) and to stake her claim to form
the next government. The meeting took place at 12.15 p.m.
Gandhi, who was accompanied by Manmohan Singh, met Kalam
for about 10 minutes and later told waiting reporters that
the President had asked her to meet him again on Wednesday
with all the letters of support, including from those parties
giving outside support. It was thought then that the ensuing
discussions between the two would culminate in an announcement
of a timetable for her being sworn in as the Prime Minister
on Wednesday. Rashtrapati Bhavan sources had also confirmed
that arrangements for the swearing-in ceremony were being
made. The uncertain situation is likely to continue at least
for the next 48 hours.
NDA says it will attend PM's swearing-in
ceremony (Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: The outgoing National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
today said that it would now attend the swearing- in ceremony
of India's next Prime Minister as Sonia Gandhi, the incumbent
president of Congress party had decided to opt out of the
race and post. The decision was taken at an extraordinary
meeting of the NDA that was presided over by outgoing Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Talking to reporters a short
while ago, NDA convener George Fernandes said the meeting
was attended by the BJP president M.Venkaiah Naidu, outgoing
Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant
Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely V K Malhotra, Nitish
Kumar, Sharad Yadav, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Purno Sangma,
Zakaria Thomas and myself. "We also bow are heads in humility
to the people of India. The NDA further holds that the results
of the 14th elections are fractured. No single party has
won the majority. The NDA is committed to play its due role
as a responsible and responsive alliance inside and outside
parliament," Fernandes said.
Decision on new CPP leader on Wednesday
(Go
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New
Delhi: The dramatic emergency meeting of the Congress
Parliamentary Party (CPP) on Tuesday evening ended on a
noisy, but damp note with Congress party president Sonia
Gandhi requesting the MPs to trust her to make a judicious
decision on who the next CPP leader would be. " I have listened
to your views, you have expressed your views, your pain
and your anguish. If you think you trust me, allow me to
take my decision," she told the full house after a series
of emotional and hyperactive speeches by the members asking
her to reconsider her move not to be the country's next
prime minister. Gandhi's concluding note came after senior
party leader Pranab Mukherjee proposed that she be authorised
to take a final decision on the issue keeping in mind the
sentiments that had been expressed within and without the
house and the unanimity of opinion across the country. Known
for keeping her word, decks appeared to be cleared for former
Finance Minister Manmohan Singh taking over the CPP leadership
mantle either on Wednesday or Thursday. That he was a front
runner for Prime Minister could be seen by the heightened
security around his house in the Indian capital. Police
commandos were deputed inside and outside the residence
and streets leading to it were cordoned off. As per television
and other reports, it is expected that Gandhi and her party
will mull over the decision over the next 24 hours, brief
their allies and then possibly announce the name of the
new CPP leader either on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
