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Jaswant's dilemma on mole issue
by Ashok Dixit

      New Delhi: There are enough indicators that some 'interested' organization planted the letter supposed to have been written by a former US envoy Harry Barnes to the former Senator Thomas Graham in 1995 on Jaswant Singh who was then a opposition Member of Parliament. The letter, quoted by Jaswant Singh in his book 'A Call to Honour' has raised a controversy about the existence of a 'mole' in former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao's Office in 1995. Jaswant Singh has not indicated who handed over the letter to him, and why he had not acted on it for the last ten years. Apart from not disclosing the contents of the letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee when he was in office in the National Democratic Alliance Government, Jaswant Singh says that he has handed over the letter given to him by an American diplomat to the Prime Minister's Office, and claims that he has not used the word "mole". The word "mole" is a creation of the media.

     Harrry Barnes is reported to have denied writing such a letter. The United States Embassy has told a New Delhi newspaper that the letter is a "poor imitation of official US government correspondence." B Raman, a former Addditional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, confirms the United States embassy explanation in his assessment. He points out that the letter seems to have been drafted in Delhi. The language used in the letter is not American. Americans spell defence with an "s" and not with a "c". Other flaws brought to the notice by Raman are unusual expansions of abbreviated names of offices (like an Indian being told that MEA means Ministry of External Affairs); that are normally not mentioned, confusion of tenses used and mistakes in the sequencing of the events that were mentioned in the purported letter. What was the objective of giving the letter to Jaswant Singh in1995? Experts, who are familiar with diplomacy and intelligence operations are of the view that most probably the United States sources wanted a confirmation of the roumours circulating in 1995 that India was preparing for a nuclear explosion. They expected Jaswant Singh, who then an Opposition Member of Parliament generally interested in security issues to raise it in the public. The result would have forced the Government to confirm or deny that India was preparing itself to conduct a nuclear explosion. But Jaswant Singh chose not to raise the issue in public. He also kept the contents of the letter to himself without disclosing it, when he was in office to Atal Behari Vajpayee or George Fernandes. By raising the issue now, Jaswant Singh is facing a privilege issue in Parliament. On the other hand some experts, who do not want to be identified, believe that the Government of PV Narasimha Rao, which was worried about development of missiles by Pakistan and its efforts to develop an 'Islamic bomb' was preparing itself to conduct a nuclear experiment. There was also pressure on India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and a section in the Government wanted it to conduct a nuclear experiment before that happened. PV Narasimha Rao was also getting ready to face a general election and he had to consider the implications. In all possibility India would then have to face sanctions. As Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh was likely to be a person in the loop. Many believe that Prime Minister Narasimha Rao might have managed to sensitise the United States Government about the dangers developing in the sub-continent because of Pakistan developing an 'Islamic bomb'.

Girl found dead in Agra hotel (Go To Top)

     Agra: A girl, who was reportedly on a tour to Agra along with her two male companions, was found dead in a hotel room under mysterious circumstances early on Thursday morning. According to police, all three had come from Chennai at around 3:20 am this morning, and were scheduled to leave for Delhi later in the day. "We got the information today morning that a girl was found dead in the room no. 205 of the hotel City Heart situated under Saraiganj police station. After investigation, we learnt that two boys and a girl came to the hotel at around 3:20 am. Boys left at around 7:45 am. After that hotel staff found the dead body in room," said Sanjay Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Lohamandi, Agra. "The boys and girl have mentioned address of Chennai in the hotel booking form. According to record, they had come as tourists from Chennai and were about to go to Delhi. We have registered a case. Fingerprints have been collected. Details of the incident will come out after the post-mortem of the dead body," Singh added. Strangulation marks were also found on the neck of the dead girl. Her body was wet when the police arrived. The police are yet to find clues about companions of the girl.

Go ahead for 'Blue Lady' scrapping (Go To Top)

     Alang (Gujarat)/New Delhi: An expert committee on Thursday gave the green signal for scrapping of the controversial cruise liner, Blue Lady, which environmentalists say contains toxic material harmful to ship-breakers. Greenpeace and other groups say the 46,000-tonne Norwegian cruise liner, which anchored in June off the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, contains more than 900 tonnes of asbestos which would put the health of workers at risk. The present owner of the ship says the decision would give a breather to the ship-braking yard in Alang, which was almost on the verge of closure. "The notion of bringing this Blue lady for demolition is three- fold. One is, it'll stabilize the working of Alang if we are successful in demolishing this vessel, and we are able to set a lead so other ship-breakers can also follow. Number two, it'll provide about 25 crores (5,354,025 dollars) of revenue to the government, and most important, it will revive the employment problem which was there in Alang," said R.K. Menon, Manager of Priya Blue Industries. Supreme Court had recently allowed the ship to enter Indian waters but put on hold it's dismantling, pending a report by an expert panel on the quantum of toxic wastes on board. Two senior officials, who requested anonymity, had told a news agency that the panel had allowed the ship to be broken. Greenpeace confirmed the panel has given the green signal for the ship to be broken but called the decision "illegal".

    In February, the French government recalled from Indian waters, a decommissioned aircraft carrier Clemenceau after a lengthy campaign by Greenpeace, which said the ship carried toxic waste. A Greenpeace report published in December said thousands of workers in the ship-breaking industry in countries such as India, China and Pakistan had probably died over the past two decades in accidents or due to exposure to toxic waste.

Golden Quadrilateral soon (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, K H Muniyappa on Thursday said that ninety-six percent of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) would be completed by December 2006. He told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the project was facing delay due to problems associated with some contracts, acquisition of land, shifting of utilities, environment and forest clearances, law and order and poor performance of contractors. The (GQ) is the largest expressway project in India. It is the first phase of the (NHDP) which consists of building 5,846 kilometers of four or six lane expressways connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, including 722 km in Rajasthan. The project at a cost of Rs. 60,000 crores is managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. As of May 31, ninety-two percent of the entire work has been completed, with the final completion date set as December 2006, approximately two years behind schedule.

Chargesheet against Rahul Mahajan (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Delhi police on Thursday filed a chargesheet in the Patiala House court against Rahul Mahajan, the son of former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan, and five others in connection with a drugs abuse case. In all, six people, including two Nigerian nationals, will face trial in the case while a Nigerian, Ibirim Ugochukwu Ifeanyi, has been discharged as police did not find any evidence against him. Ifeanyi was in police custody for the past two months. Rahul Mahajan and co-accused Sahil Zaroo have been booked under sections 21, 25, 27, 27(A) and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances(NDPS) Act for consumption of drugs. Zaroo has also been booked under article 419 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Harish Sharma and servant Ganesh have been charged for destruction of evidence. Two Nigerian nationals, Abdul Lateef Ashola Rahul's and Egbedokun James Taiwo, have been booked under sections 21 and 27(A) of NDPS Act. The chargesheet will come before the court for consideration on August 5.

Tantri case accused in custody (Go To Top)

     Kochi: An Ernakulam court has placed the three persons accused of a sex scandal allegedly involving one of the priests of the Sabarimala temple in judicial custody till August 17. Judicial First Class Court Magistrate P Sarangdharan remanded Sobha John, Vigil and Anil Kumar to judicial custody on the basis of a complaint filed by Thantri Kandararu Mohanaru, who claimed that he was forcibly photographed with a woman and threatened at a flat here on July 23. Sobha John and her aides, who were arrested by the police in connection with the sex scandal on Wednesday, have admitted to their role in the case, police here said. Police led by Ernakulam Town Central Circle Inspector G. Venu, filed a case and arrested the three persons, including one woman on Wednesday under sections 115, 120(B) and 395 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Sobha John, the main accused, moved the court and sought bail. Her advocate PM Siraj alleged that the police badly tortured her and prevented her from meeting or talking to anyone. Sobha (30), a native of Thiruvananthapuram, and the other two, Anil (36), her present driver and Vigil (32) her former driver, were the main culprits behind the conspiracy, police officials said. According to the police, Sobha has a bad record and was running a massage parlour in the city. She had been arrested once earlier under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act. She has a child and her husband is working in the Gulf. Police further said that her main business apart from the travel agency and massage parlour was the daily renting of flats. Expressing satisfaction at the arrest of three people in connection with the attack on him here on July 23, sacked Sabarimala thantri Kandararu Mohanararu said that once the probe is over, his innocence will be fully established. The priest said ''Lord Ayyappa is with me. I will be fully absolved of all allegations made against me.'' The thantri had been sacked by the Travancore Devaswom Board on July 24 after reports about his alleged involvement in a sex racket had surfaced. The priest's lawyer Ram Kumar said that the case was moving in the right direction.

Girl apologises over PM house incident (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Veena Choudhari, who along with her two friends a few days back had managed to breach the security at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's official 7 Race Course Road residence, has apologised for the incident. Veena Choudhari, who along with her friend Yogita and a male friend Imran breached the security, told NDTV that Dr. Singh should see them as innocents rather than as potential terrorists. Veena said that they were not at all aware that '7 Race Course' is the residence of Dr. Singh. And when we came to know about that it was Dr Singh residence, we turned around. Veena said that the fault lay with the security guards and not them. She said they should have not allowed them to pass. "We three just wanted to meet the PM. And if security guards stopped us there at the gate, then the situation would not have become as big as it is now. We may even go to jail," NDTV quoted her, as saying. She further said that her chances of ever meeting the Prime Minister was now a distant dream.

    On July 27, three youngsters in a black Sonata car driven by Yogita breached the security at the Prime Minister's residence. They were not only allowed to pass through first security cordon but were also not detained when she was stopped at the second cordon. The girls were identified as Yogita Khatwani and Veena Choudhari, both residents of Jaipur and stewardesses with Air Sahara. Imran of Delhi was a friend who accompanied them on the late night drive. Soon after the incident took place, Air Sahara said it will sack the two girls. On July 28, they were booked for breaching the PM's security cordon, but granted bail. They were let out after putting up a surety of Rs 25,000 each.

Kochi to have hi-tech city campus (Go To Top)

     Thiruvananthapuram: Hi-tech city, a campus for firms engaged in IT, biotech and similar sectors, will come up in Kochi with an investment of 1.07 billion dollars. Disclosing this to the media, Kerala's Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem said: "We have already completed the preliminary round of discussions with the Bangalore-based Shobha Group that will execute the project." The proposed campus would come up near the Kochi International Airport in an area of around 400 acres, which the company would acquire, the minister said. He added that the project would be completed in eight years and it would offer jobs to 54,000 people. He said that the state government will only act as a facilitator to get licenses and other things.

Non-EU doctors require permit in UK (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi told the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the British Government has implemented new immigration and employment regulations, under which all non-European Union doctors will require a work permit to work in United Kingdom. However, work permit will be given against specific vacancies for which suitable UK/EU doctors are not available. Ravi informed the House that the issue has been raised with UK authorities from time to time by the Indian Mission in U.K. In reply to another query, the minister said that the UK had not enforced a ban on recruitment of nurses from outside the EU. However, Health Department there removed general nurses from the 'Skills Shortage Occupations List' of the UK Home Office last month. The change in regulation will not affect advances and senior nurse grades in certain specialties, and will not make any difference to nurses currently working in the U.K., the minister said The change in the regulation does not stop UK employers from undertaking international recruitment of nurses. They have to demonstrate that they cannot fill a post with a UK or European Economic Area (EEA) applicant first. The new regulations are likely to come into effect on August 14, he added. Ravi also told the Lok Sabha that during his visit to Bahrain recently, he had discussed with Bahrain Labour Minister Dr. Majeed Muhsin Al-Alawi, the issues of payment of compensation to the families of those Indians who lost their lives in the recent Al-Dana Boat tragedy and the instances of exploitation of Indian workers in Bahrain by their employers.

Osama's son for terror attack on Israel (Go To Top)

      New York: A German daily has claimed that Osama bin Laden's son is in Lebanon to launch a series of terror attacks against Israel. According to the New York Post, twenty-seven-year-old Saad bin Laden was released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard last Friday and given the responsibility of "building Islamist terror cells and preparing them (the Lebanese) to fight with the Hezbollah." Intelligence sources were quoted by the Die Welt as saying that Iran is interested in recruiting Lebanese refugees in Syria for the fight against Israel, using bin Laden's help. Saad bin Laden was supposedly under house arrest in Iran. Up until this latest move, intelligence officials believed that Saad, who speaks fluent English, was part of a small cadre running the al Qaeda from Iran. Israel accuses Iran of providing Hezbollah with missiles to use against civilian and military targets. Tehran, which funded Hezbollah in the 1980s, insists it now provides only moral support to the group.

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