Indian Parliament adjourned over petrol pump issue
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: Amid uproarious scenes, an unrelenting Opposition Wednesday remained adamant on its demand for resignation of federal Petroleum Minister Ram Naik forcing adjournment of both Houses of Parliament for the third consecutive day over the petrol pump allotment issue.
As soon as the Lok Sabha(lower house) assembled, Congress, Left Party, Samajwadi Party and RJD members trooped to the well raising slogans like "Ram Naik isteefa do (Naik should resign)" and "gali, gali mein shor hai Ram Naik chor hai (there is shout in every lane that Naik is a thief)".
Treasury benches sought to counter the Opposition sloganeering demanding that Question Hour should be allowed to take place.
In the midst of the din, Samajwadi Party member Ramji Lal Suman was seen talking to Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed who pleaded with the members to return to their seats. Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi sat through the uproar.
Naik, who is in the midst of the controversy, was present in the House.
As the pandemonium continued, Sayeed adjourned the House for the day.
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President condemns Amarnath Carnage
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday strongly condemned the "cruel" attack on Amarnath pilgrims and expressed confidence that the people of the state would unitedly fight the "divisive forces with full determination".
In a message, Kalam said the attack on pilgrims is "utterly condemnable".
"The unity shown by various communities in the aftermath of the incident is praiseworthy. I have no doubt that the people of the state will remain united and will fight against such divisive forces with full determination," he said.
He also conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.
Nine pilgrims were killed and 32 injured when a militant lobbed a grenade and opened indiscriminate fire on devotees at the Nunwan base camp en route Amarnath yesterday. The militant was later killed by the security forces.
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Sinha leaving for Afghanistan on August 10
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: Reflecting India's pro-active stance in the rebuilding of war-ravaged Afghanistan, federal External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha will embark on a two-day visit to Kabul from August 10 for discussions with Afghan interim head Hamid Karzai and other leaders.
The entire gamut of bilateral ties is likely to come under review during parleys Sinha will have with Karzai, his Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah and other members of the transitional government, official sources said.
The Indo-Pak standoff is expected to figure during the parleys. New Delhi's serious concerns on Pakistan sponsored cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad's failure to honour its commitments will be conveyed to the Afghan leaders.
Sinha's visit, the first to Afghanistan after taking over his new portfolio, is part of his on-going efforts to forge closer links with neighbouring countries, the sources said.
He is expected to travel by one of the three airbus aircraft gifted by Air India to Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines.
With overflight restrictions announced by Pakistan in January this year for Indian aircraft still in place, Sinha will travel via Dubai where he may make a brief stopover.
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Hindujas accuse CBI of acting under influence
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: The Hinduja brothers, accused in the Rs 6.4 billion Bofors pay off case, on Wednesday charged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with acting against them under the influence of some strong and vested hands and said the evidence to support the chargesheet was inadmissible.
"This is not a case of honesty and fair trial, but a strong and unseen vested hand, best known to CBI, is behind the whole case," Hindujas counsel Amit Desai told the Special Judge Prem Kumar.
He said the entire evidence to support the chargesheet against the Hindujas are inadmissible.
The counsel submitted that first CBI supported their chargsheet based on the newspaper clippings and later procured the unauthenticated documents from Sweden to support their case, both of which cannot be admitted as evidence.
"There is no witness to say anything about the documents procured from Sweden in September 2001," he said.
Arguing for Hinduja brothers -- Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Chand -- on quashing of CBI chargesheet on the ground of inordinate delay in probe and trial, Desai said despite enormous contribution made by the brothers for national interest, they have been harassed at every stage in the investigation of the case.
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Arrests in MP Sati case
(BBC)
Fifteen people have been arrested in central India after a woman burned to death on her husband's funeral pyre.
The suspects in Madhya Pradesh state face charges of murder and conspiracy, the authorities say, and include the woman's two grown-up sons, who apparently did nothing to stop her.
Reports say the 65-year-old woman sat calmly on the blazing pyre as 1,000 villagers, shouting their support, watched her burn.
"Sati", or the ancient Hindu practice of a woman immolating herself on her husband's pyre, has long been banned in India, and those found abetting it face the death penalty.
Policemen who tried to stop the ceremony in Panna district say they were forced back by the angry crowd.
One of the officers told Reuters news agency he had caught hold of the woman, Kuttu Bai, but had been beaten and pelted with stones.
"It is not clear if the woman committed the act voluntarily or if she was forced to do so," he said.
Extra police have been deployed in the area to prevent attempts to glorify the incident - although local villagers insist they want to worship the woman as their new goddess or "sati mata".
Cases of sati are very rare.
Sati is still revered by many
The last high-profile incident was in Rajasthan in 1987 when 18-year-old Roop Kanwar was burned to death.
The case sparked national and international outrage.
Police charged Roop Kanwar's father-in-law and brother-in-law with forcing her to sit on the pyre with her husband's body, but the two men were acquitted by an Indian court in October 1996.
However the widespread media attention surrounding the case led India to enact legislation calling for the death penalty for anyone abetting sati.
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China condemns terrorist attack on Amarnath pilgrims
Beijing,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: China Wednesday condemned the terrorist attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir which killed nine people and injured scores of others.
"We have noticed the relevant report. We condemn the violent acts committed by terrorists against the Indian pilgrims," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told PTI when asked for China's reaction.
"We express our sympathy and condolences to the family members of the killed and the injured," Kong said.
Last Friday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledged to his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin that he would do his "best" to ease tensions in South Asia.
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3 Pak missionary attackers blow themselves fearing villagers
Islamabad,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: Three suspected militants who carried out the attack on a Christian missionary school near Pakistan's hill resort of Murree blew themselves up in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after they were confronted by local villagers.
The militants killed themselves by exploding hand grenades while running towards river Jhelum after they were chased by people of Khaddar village, 50 km south of PoK capital Muzaffarabad, police said.
The three armed men, believed to have been involved in the Monday's attack on the school at village Gharrial near Murree in which six persons were killed, were identified by the villagers when they reached there from the nearby jungles.
The villagers, who recognised them by their details published in Tuesday's newspapers, questioned the militants after which the trio ran towards the river, accounts published in the media said.
The villagers also informed the police as they chased the militants, who pitched themselves on a rock in the river pleading mercy before blowing themselves up.
Bodies of two of the militants were swept away in the river while police recovered one body which was beyond recognition.
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Gurbux fails cricket loyalty test, quits
(Times News Network)
Britain’s leading race relations campaigner, an Indian–born, cricket-crazy Sikh, has resigned from his post after pleading guilty to drunken misbehaviour after India’s triumphant victory over England in a Lord’s cricket ground match last month.
On Wednesday, Gurbux Singh’s drunken misconduct, which saw him fail the infamous ‘cricket loyalty test’ for immigrants, was defended by his friend, the Indian-born Baroness Sheela Flather.
"India had just won with the last two balls and if you’re a real cricketing fan, you would know how people get wound up about that", Flather said, in an attempt to excuse and explain Singh’s behaviour.
As the first Asian chairman of Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Singh’s high-profile job gave him the opportunity to hold ministers and the government as a whole to account on allegations of racial discrimination.
Singh, who was born in Punjab and moved with his family to Britain in the 1950s, pleaded guilty in a London court on Monday. He admitted to "threatening behaviour" towards the police.
In a written statement, a clearly shattered Singh said he "deeply regretted this entire incident and now wish to put it behind me".
some British commentators have remarked on the anomaly of Britain’s arguably highest-ranking race relations campaigner flying the flag for a "foreign" cricket team, that is India.
Decades ago, a former British minister Norman Tebbit had devised the so-called cricket loyalty test for immigrants to Britain, urging them to show loyalty to their adopted country by supporting its cricket team.
But Singh always said that love for Indian cricket did not conflict with his feelings of being British.
As the first Indian head of the CRE, Singh's tenure was high-profile and never dull. One of his attention-grabbing racial equality campaigns saw computers changing celebrities into different colours and racial groups, with London mayor Ken Livingstone depicted as an Asian.
The idea, Singh then said, was for people to understand that colour is only skin-deep.
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India to ratify Kyoto Protocol
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: Government has decided to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on containing the emission of green house gases that result in climate change and thus adversely affect the environment.
A decision to this effect was taken on Tuesday night by the Union cabinet.
As a developing country, India is not required, for present, to reduce the emissions of green house gases (GHG) under the Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol requires the developed countries to reduce their emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent below the 1990 levels by the year 2012.
India is expected to benefit from transfer of technology and additional foreign investments into sectors like renewable energy, energy generation and afforestation projects, when the Protocol comes into force.
Accession to the Protocol will also enable India to take up clean technology projects with external assistance in accordance with national sustainable development priorities.
The Protocol was adopted in 1997 by the countries which are party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Convention seeks to stabilise GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would minimise interference with the climate system.
It provides for three mechanisms that enable the developed countries to meet the emission limitation and reduction commitments and also to take up GHG reduction activities in developing countries.
Till now 77 countries have ratified the Protocol.
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Oil companies file caveats
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: State-owned oil companies on Wednesday filed caveats in Supreme Court and High Courts across the country to prevent local courts from granting ex-parte stay on the cancellation of the petrol pump and gas agency dealerships.
Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation have filed separate caveats in various High Courts, Federal Petroleum Minister Ram Naik told reporters here.
"This is to prevent any local court from granting a stay on Government decision to cancel allotments of over 3000 petrol pumps and gas agencies without hearing us," he said.
Stating that Petroleum Ministry has begun the process of terminating the dealerships, Naik said "a fool-proof legal regime was being drafted in consultation with the Law Ministry so as to avoid litigations."
"Oil companies on their own and we in Petroleum Ministry are examining the issue in consultation with the Law Ministry as how do we do it (terminate dealerships awarded since Janauary 2000), successfully and legally," Naik said.
Petroleum Secretary B K Chaturvedi is holding discussions with his counterpart in the Law Ministry on the issue.
Stating that all the cancelled petrol pumps and gas agencies would be auctioned through competitive bidding, he said present guidelines of reservation for backward castes and allotment to persons below Rs 2 lakh per annum income, have to be looked into afresh if the pumps and agencies are to be tendered.
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Rupee remains weak against USD
Mumbai,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: The Rupee remained weak against the US currency, hovering around overnight levels, weighed down slightly by steady dollar demand from banks in an otherwise quiet and range bound early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market Wednesday.
Despite softer opening at Rs 48.7150/7250 per dollar, the Rupee later edged up to Rs 48.7050/7150 in late morning deals, unchanged from Tuesday's finish of 48.7050/7150.
+Rupee sentiment turned slightly weak because of the renewed overnight corporate dollar demand and the dollar strength in overseas trade+, said a dealer of a state run bank.
The Rupee declined by over six paise yesterday, pulled down by sustained Dollar demand even as the Indian currency had earlier scaled five and a half months' peaks against the US Dollar.
In cross currency trade, the Euro was quoted at Rs 47.14/16, Pound Sterling at Rs 75.00/02 and the Japanese Yen (100) Rs 40.27/30.
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Kournikova likely to play as India stage WTA event
Bangalore,Wednesday, August 07, 2002: India would be staging a Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour event for the first time in February next year where, among others, Russia's glamorous top star and pin-up girl Anna Kournikova is likely to feature.
The event, scheduled to be held from February three next year, is going to be a permanent fixture on the WTA's calendar, a senior WTA official said.
The 'Tier IV' Tournament, with total prize money of USD 140,000, is being brought to India by doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi, under the banner of a sports management company called Globosport, promoted by himself.
WTA Tour Supervisor Angie Woolcock flew to Bangalore yesterday to have a look at facilities that Bangalore has to offer in terms of Tennis infrastructure.
Woolcock told reporters at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association after conducting a site check of the facilities that she would also be visiting Hyderabad and Delhi to evaluate the venues there, and one of these three would be chosen to host the mega event.
But Woolcock and a senior official of Globosport left no one in doubt that Bangalore would be the preferred venue. "Bangalore is great. It has excellent facilities," she said.
Globosport's Vice-President (Marketing), Vinay Shenoy, said Bangalore having already successfully played host to the ATP Doubles Championships is the "hot favourite."
"A couple of players in the top ten have been approached and are seriously considering the option of playing in India. Mahesh is in touch with Anna (Kournikova)," he added.
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