India rules out use of nuclear weapons
New Delhi,Monday, June 03, 2002: Addressing international concerns, India Monday categorically ruled out use of nuclear weapons against Pakistan saying as a responsible nation "it feels it will be imprudent to use such weapons".
A Defence Ministry statement said "Government makes it clear that India does not believe in the use of nuclear weapons. Neither does it visualise that it will be used by any other country".
The Government was reacting to media reports about the possible use of nuclear weapons in the context of current India-Pakistan stand off.
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Bilal Lone formally inducted into Hurriyat
Srinagar,Monday, June 03, 2002: Bilal Ghani Lone, elder son of slain Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone was on Monday formally inducted into the 23-member amalgam of separatist parties as he attended the meeting of the Conference for the first time.
Bilal was nominated as the executive member of the Hurriyat at a supreme council meeting of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference (JKPC), founded by his father, on May 25.
While Bilal replaces his father in the Hurriyat executive, his younger brother Sajjad has taken over as Chairman of the JKPC.
The Hurriyat meeting was called at the amalgam's headquarters at Rajbagh here to pay tributes to the slain leader.
Conceding that Lone's assassination has dealt with a setback to Hurriyat Conference, Chairman of the alliance A G Bhat urged the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to constitute a commission of enquiry to investigate into Lone's killing.
"It is very difficult to say who killed Lone. We have demanded that the UN Secretary-General should constitute a commission of enquiry to investigate the killing of not only Lone but the mass killings of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims at various places in Jammu and Kashmir with a view to unmask the ugly face of the people involved in the gruesome acts", Bhat said.
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Some consular staff empty out, tourists leave too
Within hours of the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) advising their citizens and non-essential consular staff to leave India, roughly two-thirds of the diplomatic staff at the Deputy British High Commission in Mumbai are planning to depart. The American Consulate, however, is currently undecided as it received the communique from its government only on Friday. There are about 60,000 US citizens in India at present.
A spokesperson of the British Deputy High Commission told Newsline that the staff who will stay back in Mumbai include core diplomatic personnel only. ‘‘Similarly, diplomatic staff of the embassy will remain. Some of the commission staff leaving are those who had booked to go for a holiday and those who are contemplating going on a holiday at the end of the month but in view of the UK government’s circular, they have advanced their plans to an earlier date,’’ she said.
The director of public affairs office of the American Center, Elizabeth Corwin, said, ‘‘We received the communique only on Friday and since Saturday and Sunday are holidays, nothing has been decided. I still have to talk with the other consulates.’’ Several Western countries, including Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Denmark, have advised their non-essential consular staff to leave India and Pakistan and against venturing near border areas in India due to the threat of war between the two countries. However, the warnings have not triggered a scramble for flights out of India, according to airport authorities and airline sources. ‘‘There is no panic in the country. I think there is more panic outside the country,’’ says Subhash Goyal, chairperson of Stic Travels.
The rising tensions between India and Pakistan nevertheless are slowly but surely starting to affect the tourism industry. Travel agents in the city, since the last few days, are reporting a marginal drop in inbound and outbound traffic.
Many of them are reporting cancellations of tours booked by tourists from US, the UK and European countries. The agents fear that if the situation does not improve within the next 15-20 days, it would have an impact on the tourism Industry, which had only recently started to recover from the September 11 aftermath.
Katgara, who is also a director with the Travel corporation of India, adds: ‘‘There has been a 17 per cent drop in tourists coming to India, mainly from the US, the UK and Europe.’’
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India not to be persuaded to open talks with Pak
Almaty,Monday, June 03, 2002: With both Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf present in this capital city of Kazakhstan, India today made it clear that it would not be persuaded by other countries to open a dialogue with Pakistan till cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is stopped.
In fact, an offer by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev to make arrangements for talks between Vajpayee and Musharraf, who are staying a short distance away in different hotels, was gently turned down by the Indian side.
The offer was made by Nazarbaev during a meeting with Vajpayee even as Musharraf flew in for the 16-nation Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) on Tuesday.
Nothwithstanding what other countries felt, there could be no no dialogue till Islamabad stopped cross-border terrorism, Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah, who is accompanying Vajpayee on his four-day visit to Kazakhstan, told reporters here.
"The Prime Minister will not not engage in any talks with General Musharraf till violence goes down in Jammu and Kashmir and infiltration stops. We have not not changed our position," he said.
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Lalit Mansing, India's Ambassador to the U.S., on Fox News Sunday
Following is a transcripted excerpt from Fox News Sunday, June 2, 2002.
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS: On Friday, the State Department said only essential diplomats would remain in India and that some 60,000 other Americans should consider leaving.
For more on all this, we're joined by India's ambassador to the United States, Lalit Mansing. Also here with questions is Fox News contributor Juan Williams, national correspondent of National Public Radio.
Good morning, Mr. Ambassador. Welcome to you, sir.
LALIT MANSING, INDIA'S AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Thank you.
HUME: Your colleague from Pakistan said, upon leaving here, that you will not be in the same with room with her. What is that all about?
MANSING: No. I have very friendly relations with her. We get together...
HUME: Did you talk while you were here?
MANSING: I didn't see her, otherwise I would have greeted her. She came to my house for dinner the other day.
HUME: Oh, she did?
MANSING: Yes.
HUME: All right. Well, that's interesting to know.
Let me ask you about some of the issues that she raised. She says, for example, that you won't attend this conference, the troops amassed on the border, and that they have renounced first use of nuclear weapons. What about all that?
MANSING: Well, let's get to the bottom of this. Why did this situation arise? For the last 15 to 20 years, we've been facing terrorism coming across the borders from Pakistan. And today, we are facing a violation of our borders, terrorist groups coming in, killing our women and children, threats of use of nuclear weapons against us. We are in a situation where we have to defend our country, and that's exactly what we're doing.
HUME: Now, you heard what the president said and what your colleague from -- counterpart from Pakistan said about the stopping of those raids. In your judgment, have they stopped?
MANSING: They haven't.
HUME: And in recent days, even?
MANSING: No. This is why you probably heard a tone of exasperation in President Bush's statement saying this has to stop. He was asking President Musharraf to stop these incursions, because he had said he would stop them. He hasn't done so, so far.
HUME: And, now, what is your sense now about whether war could be avoided?
MANSING: The war can be avoided if Pakistan can be persuaded to switch off terrorism.
HUME: Now, are you prepared to -- with this massive deployment, are you prepared to go to war over these raids?
MANSING: No. War is not an option of our choice.
We've been facing a series of terrorist attacks. We have lost more than 1,000 people after September 11. And the last attack on the 14th of May was particularly gruesome, when the terrorists went to an army camp and killed, basically, women and children.
Now, our leaders have taken the line that, look, we have to respond. But we have diplomatic options, and the last choice is military action. For the last six months, we have been exercising the diplomatic option. Now we are coming to a stage when we are running out of these diplomatic options.
This is why it's important for Pakistan to listen to what President Bush and other world leaders are saying: Stop the export of terrorism into India.
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS: Ambassador Mansing, why is it that India has not allowed democracy for the people of Kashmir? India is renowned as a great democracy in that region, but yet, the people of Kashmir have not been allowed to vote as to whether or not they would become an independent state.
MANSING: Now, that's a different point altogether. There the question of their being asked to vote, whether they want to become independent or other (ph). But the people of Kashmir have exercised their democratic rights. They have taken part in every single election, which as been held in India in the last 50 years. That's more than what we can so for the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
For that matter, that's more than what you can say about Pakistan. How many elections can you count, which have been held in Pakistan?
We have democracy, and the people of Kashmir enjoy the benefits of democracy.
WILLIAMS: But no referendum on independence?
MANSING: The referendum idea came up in a U.N. Security Council resolution in 1948. And Kofi Annan, who went to Islamabad last year, said this resolution can't be implemented. It's a non-binding resolution. You can't revive a document which is 50 years old and say, what about it?
The reason why the referendum couldn't be held out (ph), was that the U.N. had prescribed conditions for the referendum: Number one, there'll be a ceasefire. Number two, Pakistan will have to withdraw from the territory it had occupied. Number three, you have the referendum. Pakistan never withdrew from the territory.
HUME: So are you prepared -- so if Pakistan did these things, there would be a referendum? Is that what you think?
MANSING: If Pakistan had done those things in 1948, they would have in the referendum.
HUME: What if they did them now?
MANSING: Fifty years later, the people of (inaudible) and Kashmir have exercised their democratic rights. They have constituted an assembly. They have got their own legislature, their own government. You can't go back to 1948 and say, now let's have a referendum. Things have changed.
WILLIAMS: Now, Mr. Ambassador, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said that he would like to have a sit-down meeting with the leader of Pakistan and India. Is that in the future?
MANSING: No. Our prime minister has said that we don't favor such a meeting for a simple reason: If you have a meeting, you must have something to discuss. It is not as if we didn't have meetings. In 1999, our prime minister went by bus to Lahore to have a meeting with his Pakistan counterpart.
Last year, our prime minister invited General Musharraf to come to Delhi and to Agra for talks. Well, what happens is, when you across the table, the Pakistanis say, "There is no terrorism, there is nothing to discuss."
So our point is, well, you have to make up your mind. Do you want to pursue terrorism or do you want to pursue a dialog? You have to choose.
HUME: Well, it's an interesting question, though, sir, because here you've described your disappointment at earlier diplomatic efforts.
MANSING: That's right.
HUME: But this situation has clearly worsened. There's a very great flashpoint there. Nuclear weapons on each side.
MANSING: Yes.
HUME: And this is a bona fide crisis. And an opportunity presents itself in this Kazakstan session to have a meeting between the two leaders. And yet, it is India that says no.
MANSING: No.
HUME: Now, previous disappoints aside, sir...
MANSING: Yes.
HUME: ... why not pursue every possible opportunity?
MANSING: No, there is a simple solution to this. The whole thing arose because there is cross-border terrorism from Pakistan. Now, all the world leaders -- President Bush, Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, President Putin -- everybody's telling Pakistan, stop it. If Pakistan stops terrorism, there is no question of troop deployment to the borders. So why don't we address the simple question of asking Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism?
WILLIAMS: Well, with this attitude, you will never have any negotiations.
But let me just quickly ask, earlier we heard the ambassador from Pakistan say to Brit Hume and Fred Barnes that the line between the two capitals that would inform them of an early-warning system with regard to the use of nuclear weapons is not working. Is that right?
MANSING: Oh, that's not right. The telephones are working. We have embassies in both countries. The Directors General of military operation on both sides have a hotline, and they speak to each other. As a matter of routine, every Tuesday they speak to each other.
It's not as if communications don't exist. Last week, even while talk of war was going on, the delegations of India and Pakistan met in Delhi to discuss the sharing of the rivers which are common to India and Pakistan.
Let's not assume that there is a total breakdown of communications.
HUME: Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for coming in.
MANSING: Thank you.
HUME: Do come back.
MANSING: It's a pleasure to be here.
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OIC, Gulf leaders call for restraint
Dubai,Monday, June 03, 2002: The Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League have called on India and Pakistan to resolve their differences through talks and offered to help defuse the crisis between the two countries.
OIC Secretary General Abdelwahed Belkeziz said in Jeddah that he was following with "deep concern the growing tension between India and Pakistan over the conflict on Kashmir."
"All disputes should be resolved through dialogue and recognised peaceful means, and that there is no justification for the threat to use force," Belkeziz said in a statement, the Riyadh Daily reported today.
He expressed "full readiness to exert goodwill efforts with two countries to defuse tension and facilitate dialogue as a step towards serious and fruitful negotiations to reach a just and durable settlement for outstanding issues."
The Secretary General appealed to the international community "to intervene and make Pakistan and India avoid conflict in the region." He also called on the two countries to "show self-restraint, withdraw their troops from the border to positions occupied before the crisis and allow international observers to monitor the situation."
The Cairo-based pan-Arab organisation Arab League also urged India and Pakistan "to show restraint and to stop escalation," its spokesman Hisham Yussef said.
Meanwhile, fearing economic and other fall out from any India-Pakistan conflict, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, home to millions of expatriates from India and Pakistan have also urged the two countries to settle their differences through a dialogue and not war.
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Infosys Chairman to be next President?
(Wired News)
Some people in Bangalore, the software capital of India, have decided that one of the most successful businessmen in the country should become the next president of India.
Narayana Murthy is the chairman of Infosys, the first Indian firm to be listed on the Nasdaq. Time/CNN voted him one of the 25 most influential global executives, and he is one of the richest men in India.
A group of software entrepreneurs and like-minded people have created a website that seeks support for his candidacy.
"He is worthy to be the president of India," said Shankara Prasad, one of the creators of the website.
More than 5,000 people pledged support in the first week alone, Prasad said. But India's population of 1 billion people don't affect the July election, not directly anyway.
he Indian president will be chosen not by voters but by politicians -– the democratically elected federal members of the parliament and the provincial members of the legislative assembly. The problem with Prasad's campaign is that right now the last name on their minds is Narayana Murthy.
Unlike the American president, the Indian president -- or First Citizen of India -- is widely regarded as His Superfluous Highness. The prime minister of India is the one with real power. The president is an ornamental head, similar to the king or queen of England.
The post is long on prestige if not power, so the president's election is a useful statement for political parties.
There are various other potential candidates, including a Christian and a Muslim. Since the ruling party is accused of being pro-Hindu, electing a Christian or a Muslim to the top position would be politically expedient. Murthy is Hindu.
But the most important question in this campaign is, does Murthy want to be president?
"He has not specifically said that he won't be president," his office said.
But one political insider familiar with the recruiting movement said, "This campaign would not have happened if Murthy didn't approve of it. He is waiting and watching the momentum of the campaign."
And if the Infosys chairman should turn around and later accuse the website of embarrassing him, there won't ba a legal backlash. The Additional Solicitor General of India, S.B. Jaisinghani, said, "To be proposed for the post of president, in my legal opinion, is not exactly derogatory in nature."
Meanwhile, the National Association of Software and Services Companies, of which Murthy is a former chairman, has been silent. NASSCOM Vice President Sangeeta Gupta said, "There is no doubt he would add tremendous value to the post." But she said she could not answer why NASSCOM has not openly sought support for Murthy from politicians.
Murthy is popular among a cross section of the population. Many would like to see the position of president be elevated in stature.
"Instead of using the president's post as a shallow statement of secularism and other things, our politicians should reward men like Narayana Murthy who have made a real contribution to the nation," said popular filmmaker and political commentator Mahesh Bhatt.
And if they do, very soon Murthy will get a job that pays him $1,000 a month -- a huge drop in his earnings, according to popular belief.
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Subsidised EU, US, butter-oil threatens Indian dairy industry
New Delhi,Monday, June 03, 2002: A highly subsidised international trade in milk products mostly by the European Union and the US can erode India's comparative advantage and competitive strengths in the dairy sector.
Dairy industry feels urgent steps need to be undertaken to renegotiate the bound rate of duty in WTO, for dairy products including butter oil to 75 from 40 per cent.
"There is a genuine threat to India's dairy industry from highly subsidised and extremely unfair exports of milk products by the US and European Union. This has resulted in prices falling to abysmal levels," Managing Director, National Cooperative Dairy Federation, Ravi Shankar said.
He said world market prices for milk products, particularly butter, butter-oil and skimmed milk dropped to their lowest levels after price falls in Europe and the US.
Large imports of cheap butter oil bodes ill for the Indian industry, production for which will become unremunerative.
Shankar said if milk producers are to be enabled to receive a remunerative and viable farm gate price of Rs 8.5 and Rs 11 per kg for cow and buffalo milk respectively, they must be able to obtain a net realisation of at least Rs 90 per kg for ghee.
However, ghee prices will fall once butter oil is imported in large volumes and sold locally at prices far below Rs 90 per kg. As a result milk producers would be unable to fetch a viable farm gate price for milk.
In the past five years imports of butter oil into India has grown at an alarmingly fast rate of 7.7 per cent annually, he added.
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Assocham for MFN Status to Afghanistan
New Delhi,Monday, June 03, 2002: Government should consider entering into bilateral agreement with Afghanistan for the Most Favoured Nation status and allowing duty free import from India to provide an enabling atmosphere for companies to participate in the reconstruction process, Assocham has said.
"Chinese, Pakistani and Iranian companies will be our prime competitors as they have greater advantage vis-a-vis direct access through land borders. Keeping this in view it may be of strategic significance for government to initiate bilateral agreements," the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said in a paper on Afghanistan.
As per the paper, agreements that the government must look into are bilateral agreement for MFN status, avoidance of double taxation treaty and agreement for duty free import of goods from India and Income Tax exemption for investment made in Afghanistan from India.
In addition to this, government must announce attractive package of incentives for companies interested in project exports to Afghanistan.
These incentives could be offered specially on account of the logistical hurdles for the industry due to lack of direct land access to Afghanistan, it said adding tax credit could be provided to offset the extra cost incurred for transportation and logistics.
"Government should also consider making a provision for a larger line of credit available to the tune of at least one billion dollars," it said.
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Traffic cops seize mobile phones used while driving
(Express News Service)
The Mumbai Traffic department has decided to confiscate mobile phones from people found using it while driving, to stop the increasing number of violations of the June 2000 legislation banning the same.
Having started the drive on May 31, the department had till Saturday confiscated three mobiles.
According to the Traffic department, the failure of the June legislation has prompted this measure. ‘‘We cannot let people take the government for granted. People were just paying the fine and going back to using the mobile while driving,’’ said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sunil Vaidya.
The mobile phones confiscated by policemen are deposited at the traffic police chowkie and can be retrieved within four days by paying a compounding fee of Rs 100. After that, they can be retrieved from the head office of the traffic department at Worli within a fortnight.
‘‘Though the instrument can be retrieved even on the day it is confiscated, the pinch of not having the instrument for some time might keep violators from breaking the rules,’’ said Vaidya. The Joint Commissioner said that if there was a legislation allowing people to use hands-free car kits, which allow the driver to keep his hands on the steering wheel, then it would be okay to use mobile phones.
‘‘But as of now the rules say that when a person is driving alone, the mobile has to be switched off,’’ said Vaidya. He added, ‘‘Self-discipline has to be instilled in people. It is not just the issue of using mobile phones, but other issues like using safety belts that have to be made compulsory.’’
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Team for Triangular series in England to be picked on June 8
Mumbai,Monday, June 03, 2002: The national selectors will meet here on June 8 to pick the Indian cricket team for the Triangular one-day series in England from June 27 to July 13.
Cricket Board Secretary Niranjan Shah told PTI here Monday that with little time left before the team's departure to London on June 18, the selectors have decided to pick the team here next Saturday. About Javagal Srinath, who announced his retirement from Test cricket recently, Shah said it is left to the selectors to decide about his inclusion in the one-day squad. The Indian team, which won the one-day series 2-1 against the West Indies after losing the test series 1-2 is expected to arrive here on June 5 from the Carribeans. The Indians would be playing a Triangular series involving England and Sri Lanka, as the other two teams, on their 83-day tour which also will see India and England play a four-test series after the Triangular one-dayers.
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One-day team is playing to our expectations: Chandu Borde
Mumbai,Monday, June 03, 2002: National Selection Committee Chairman Chandu Borde Monday said the one-day team, which won the one-day series 2-1 against the West Indies Sunday, was playing to "our expectations".
Borde told PTI from Pune that the first overseas one-day series win after Sourav Ganguly took over as captain in 2000 was "like a shot in the arm" for Indian cricket.
"It was very disappointing to see the Indian team lose the Test series 1-2 but now with the one-day series win, things are fitting into the jigzaw puzzle perfectly," Borde added.
"It was team work which got us this victory and I think the youngsters rose to the occasion with some sterling performaces which augurs well before the important tour of England starting on June 18," the former cricketer said.
When asked about Indian paceman Javagal Srinath's chances of making it to the one-day squad, especially after he announced his retirement from Test cricket, Borde, said "we will discuss about it when we (selectors) meet in Mumbai on June eight to pick the team for the Triangular series in England".
Meanwhile, Cricket Board Secretary Niranjan Shah said here that there would be no camps before the Indian team sets out on its 83-day tour of England.
"The players have been playing continuously and I don't think there is any need for a camp before the team leaves for London on June 18," Shah said.
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Defying pain, Tendulkar steers India to victory
Port Of Spain,Monday, June 03, 2002: After Anil Kumbles' stirring act of bravery in the Test series, it was the turn of Sachin Tendulkar to put the team above everything else as the star batsman admitted he batted in pain during his 65-run knock in the deciding one-dayer against the West Indies yesterday.
Tendulkar, who played a surprisingly sedate innings scoring mainly through singles in the 70-ball knock, also said it was the shoulder pain which restricted him from playing the big shots. "There were few shots which I couldn't play at all. I knew for sure to play big shots was impossible," said Tendulkar, who had an ice pack banded together on his left shoulder, as he addressed reporters at the post-match press conference. Tendulkar top scored in India's innings of 260 and also took Brian Lara's prized wicket in his three-over spell for 20 runs to win the man-of-the-match award. "Knowing the condition I was in, I preferred to nudge it around and stay till the end," said Tendulkar "I preferred to keep picking singles." Tendulkar, who missed Saturday's game because of the shoulder affliction, said it was a difficult decision for him to play the final game. "It was a difficult decision because I didn't want to let down the team. If I play I should be able to contribute. If I break down, then I shouldn't be there. It was a tough decision and I wasn't sure what was going to happen," he said.
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