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BJP unapologetic about Kandahar hijacking episode
Manoj C G and Ajay Kaul
New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) Under attack from Congress on the Kandahar hijacking episode, BJP is not apologetic about the then NDA Government's decision to free three terrorists and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh accompanying them to Afghanistan, saying it was a "necessity" at that time.
BJP President Rajnath Singh refused to accept that the 1999 Kandahar episode was a "weakpoint" for the party and it has been pushed on the "backfoot" as Congress is raising questions over the NDA government's approach to terrorism.
"We had to save the lives of so many people (held hostage on the hijacked plane)... It does not mean we compromised with terrorism," he told PTI in an interview amid sustained attack by Congress over NDA government's decision to release three terrorists to end the hijacking crisis.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi yesterday accused the saffron party of "surrendering to terrorists" in 1999.
Five terrorists hijacked IC-814 plane during flight from Kathmandu to Delhi on December 24. At least 154 passengers and crew were held hostage for eight days and the stand-off ended when three dreaded terrorists were released and Jaswant Singh took them on a special plane to Kandahar.
Asked whether BJP did not find anything wrong in a minister accompanying terrorists, Rajnath Singh said "considering the sentiments of the nation and people of the country, it was a necessity of that time." PTI
Lanka procuring arms from Pak to fight LTTE
New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) Engaged in an all-out military campaign against the LTTE, Sri Lanka has said it was procuring arms from Pakistan to meet the terror threat from the Tamil Tigers.
"We are facing a problem of terrorism against a democratically-elected legitimate state. In that situation, the government needs to procure equipment to resist that terrorism. So we are making the purchases," Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India C R Jaisinghe told PTI when asked about reports that Sri Lanka was procuring arms from Pakistan.
Noting that the Island nation had witnessed a surge in violence in recent months, he said: "The arms and equipment purchases are for our internal security and they are certainly not because we perceive a threat from any external power." Asked whether Sri Lanka wanted military supplies from India, the envoy was not specific and broadly said, "we always look forward to Indian support. We have no doubt that we have the goodwill of India".
"I think there is no doubt in the minds of Sri Lankans that we have the goodwill (of India) in our effort to preserve the undivided nature of the country and work for a political solution that is acceptable to all," he said.
India has been refusing to supply arms to Sri Lanka but is exchanging political support for maintenance of the Island nation's territorial unity.
With India reluctant to enhance defence cooperation with it, Sri Lanka has shown signs of turning towards Pakistan with a high-level defence delegation from Islamabad holding talks with senior officials in Colombo recently. PTI
Churches, NGOs issue guidelines for political parties
Kohima, Feb 17 (PTI) The influential church groups and social organisations in Nagaland have issued various dos and don'ts for political parties to ensure free, fair and morally acceptable state Assembly Polls on March 5.
These organisations have been very vocal against many of the methods used by political parties to woo young voters, particularly the prevailing practice of setting up the so-called 'youth camps', where money and liquor flow freely.
Besides polluting the impressionable minds, the churches and NGOs felt such camps often caused nuisance to public peace and harmony in residential colonies and their negative impacts continued even after the elections.
Soon after announcement of the assembly poll schedules, Nagaland Baptist Church Council and the powerful Naga Mothers' Association issued guidelines to political parties and candidates not to lure students and youth with money and to strictly abide by the Election Commission's model code of conduct.
As electioneering gathers momentum across Nagaland, many NGOs have taken the lead in passing resolutions in their respective villages or residential colonies restraining political parties from doing whatever they want to garner votes.
Campaigning during the night have been banned in most residential areas keeping in mind public peace and the upcoming HSLC and Higher Secondary final exams.
Five tribal church associations of Tuensang yesterday organised an interactive session with all contesting candidates of the border district and passed resolutions to ensure a fair election which would lead to socio-economic development of the area. PTI
Raje govt transfers three IAS, 49 IPS officers
Jaipur, Feb 17 (PTI) In a major reshuffle, Rajasthan government has transferred three IAS and 49 IPS officers including four IGPs and 16 SPs.
IAS officer C M Meena has been made chief managing director of State Non Conventional Energy Corporation while Rajiv Swaroop has been transferred as commissioner in Rashtriya Gramin Rozgar Yojna, an official said today.
The third IAS officer Siyaram Meena has been made managing director of Food Storage Corporation, he said.
IGP Bhupendra Kumar Dak, who is presently posted at the police headquarters here, has been given additional charge of Chief Minister's Vigilance Cell.
The transfer orders were issued last night.
Rajib Kumar Dasot will take over as IGP Jodhpur, N Ravindra Kumar Reddy as IGP Udaipur and Hemant K Purohit as IGP personnel, the official said. PTI
India have too many youngsters in their team: Ponting
Adelaide, Feb 17 (PTI) Australian skipper Ricky Ponting felt the Indian side lacked experience as the hosts secured a 50-run victory in the tri-series one-dayer tonight.
"I guess a good balance of youth and experience is always welcome. In our teams, we try to have experience in important positions. This India hasn't got. They have a lot of talented youngsters but they are in a rebuilding phase as they would be in Tests soon," Ponting said in the post-match press conference here.
It did not stop the home captain from appealing to his batsmen to deliver the goods which they have not done in the series so far.
"We have not been playing anywhere near our best. It's about the time batters did so. We have been winning and getting bonus points and if our batters hit the straps, we would be very difficult to beat." PTI
Munaf was not worth his place in the team : Gavaskar
Adelaide, Feb 17 (PTI) A livid Sunil Gavaskar today lashed out at Indian seamer Munaf Patel for his lackadaisical attitude on the field and suggested he should not have been included in the side that lost to Australia in the tri-series one-dayer here today.
Furious with the pacer's sluggish fielding, the former captain said he had no problems with Munaf as a bowler but felt the pacer could neither really bat, nor did he give his best in the field.
In such a situation, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla or all-rounder Praveen Kumar, who can bat a bit, would have been a better choice as the fourth bowler, Gavaskar said.
"If he is among the three regular bowlers, it's okay but Munaf does not deserve a place as the fourth bowler. Because he cannot bat, he is useless as a fielder and in one-day cricket you need to do well in at least two aspects," Gavaskar said. More
Dhoni asks batsmen to take more responsibility
Adelaide, Feb 17 (PTI) After an abject failure of his batting line-up, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today minced no words in telling the Indian batsmen to take more responsibility.
The Indian pacers stuck to their task to restrict the strong Australian batting line-up to a modest 203 for nine but the batsmen messed it up as the visitors crashed to a 50-run defeat in the tri-series one-dayer here.
Dhoni said the batsmen should back each other and focus on not losing early wickets.
"It's important that the batsmen take more responsibility. The guys must take the initiative when we are playing with five bowlers and one batsman short," Dhoni said after match.
"Especially in these conditions, it's important not to lose any wicket till the 12th over. Because after that the Kukaboora gets softer and comes on to the bat. It's a learning experience that in international cricket you have to give your best," he said.
Dhoni said his getting run out was the turning point of the match and blamed it on Rohit Sharma, who was running for his captain but could not make the ground.
"It was bad reaction from Rohit. Even with the cramps I could have run and made it easily," he said.
Dhoni defended the move to send Irfan Pathan up the batting order.
"It gives more depth to the batting as the rest of the order stays as it is. After him, Rohit comes at No.4, then Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh), me and Robin (Uthappa) at seven. I am happy with the order," he said. PTI
PML-Q, allies will certainly have majority: Musharraf
London, Feb 17 (PTI) President Pervez Musharrf believes that the PML-Q along with its allies that support him will "certainly have the majority" in Monday's crucial elections in Pakistan, though uncertain "whether they will be able to form a government".
The PML-Q allied with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement will "certainly have the majority. Whether they'll be able to form a government is a question mark," President Musharraf told Jemima Khan, the ex-wife of Pakistani politician Imran Khan in an 'extraordinary encounter' in Rawalpindi, ahead of the key elections to National and provincial assemblies.
Musharraf's assertion contradicts all recent opinion polls, which have shown that the popularity of his favoured party is right down, at just 12 per cent.
The former army chief dismissed recent opinion polls that showed that majority of the voters wanted him to quit, favouring the Opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
He said the suveys were biased, conducted by local organisations that are against him.
"They have been abusing me right from the beginning and you will never get good results from them," Musharraf was quoted as saying by Jemima in an exclusive article in The Independent daily today.
Support for President Musharraf has dramatically fallen in Pakistan, where a majority of the people believe stability and security in the country would improve if he resigned.
According to a survey conducted by BBC World Service last week almost half the respondents said they thought his controversial re-election in October last year, while he was still army chief, was not valid. PTI
LTTE says nobody can touch Prabhakaran
Colombo, Feb 17 (PTI) Rubbishing frequent claims by Sri Lankan government that the elusive LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been injured in a military raid, his key aide has said the people would soon realise the "futility" of army's claims of success against the rebels.
"A false propaganda saying our leader Prabhakaran is injured is being carried. Nobody can approach our leader," LTTE political head B. Nadesan told the Tamil Daily Thinakkural in an interview yesterday.
While the Sri Lankan security forces were claiming success in their clashes against LTTE, Nadesan said the "people of Sri Lanka will realise the futility of such a claim in times to come".
Nadesan accused the Sri Lankan government of trying to sideline the Norwegian mediators besides contradicting the United Nations. "The government is not in favour of peace process," he said.
Lankan Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke had said that fighter jets had dropped 20 bombs on Prabhakaran's bunker on November 26, 2007 and had claimed that the rebel leader could have been injured in the attack. The LTTE denied the claim.
The Air Chief repeated the claim on Thursday saying he was confident that Prabhakaran, 53, had been critically injured in that raid.
Over 1,000 rebels and hundreds of civilians have died in escalated violence in the country since the government scarpped a tattered 2002 ceasefire last month. PTI
Canara set to enter broking business, SBI to scale up ops
Mumbai, Feb 17 (PTI) Recognising the potential in the broking space, state-run Canara Bank is mulling a foray in the sector while State Bank of India has plans to scale up its business manifold by next year.
Canara Bank, plans to foray into broking along with its wholly-owned broking subsidiary, Gilt Securities Trading Corporation.
Presently, SBI's services in broking is limited to online equity trading. However, the bank will shortly enrich its portfolio by enabling customer-access to mutual funds and IPOs, a company official said.
Kolkata-based United Bank is also understood to have zeroed in on leading broking firm IDBI Capital Markets as its partner from among a group of bidders, including Sharekhan. The official announcement is expected within a month, an official connected with the development told PTI.
"The deal is most likely to emerge in favour of IDBI Capital. The announcement may happen in March and operations would start in a few months time," the official said.
SBI started its broking operations in 2005 by partnering with Motilal Oswal and with its own subsidiary, SBI Cap Securities last year.
Presently, SBI has a minimal presence in the segment, having only around 20,000 customers, but plans to scale up its business manifold by 2009.
"We are aiming to be among the top three players in the next two years," a senior SBI official said. PTI
Reliance Power board considering free bonus shares
New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) In an unprecedented move, Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Power will give free bonus shares to all its shareholders to compensate the losses they suffered when the company was listed a week ago.
"Reliance Power board will consider issuing free bonus shares to all shareholders excluding the promoters," a group spokesperson said.
On the day of its listing at Rs 547.8 a share, Reliance Power performed miserably at the stock exchanges and closed the day nearly 32 per cent lower.
The IPO had attracted a total demand of about Rs 7,50,000 crore and the company had issued the shares at Rs 450 while giving a discount Rs 20 a share to retail investors. PTI
One in every 30 e-mails in India contains virus: Report
New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) India, where internet penetration is increasing fast, is also the most vulnerable to spammers and virus attacks, a study has said.
"Virus activity increased across a number of countries in January, including India, which takes the number one spot with 1 in 30.5 emails," a study conducted by a web security services firm MessageLabs said.
Apart from virus attacks, spams are now proving to be the most disruptive element in the e-mail traffic. The study conducted in January this year found the global ratio of spam mail was 73.4 per cent, which means one in every 1.36 email was affected.
Interestingly, virus attack on the western countries are far less than on India, the leading provider of integrated messaging and web security services said in the study.
In New Zealand, web security levels were pretty good as one out of 768 mails had Virus, while for Australia, it was one for every 298.7 mails. In the US, one in every 191.5 email had a virus while the same in Canada was found in every 158.4 e-mails.
Among other Asian countries, Japan was at the lower end of the table, where one in every 273.7 mails had virus in them. However, China was better placed than India as one virus attack was reported for every 92.7 mails there.
Virus levels for nearly all industry sectors increased in January. In the finance sector, virus level was low in comparison with other segments where one in every 177.9 mails was affected while for the IT services sector, the figure was 143 and in retail 1 in every 125.6 emails received had a virus.
The global ratio of email-borne viruses in e-mail traffic was one in 131.4 emails. PTI
Karnataka, on the terrorist radar
Jacinta D'Souza and Bharathi Raghunath
Bangalore, Feb 17 (PTI) Karnataka, fast emerging as the economic hub of the country, seems to have zoomed up on the radar of international terrorist groups too if the unearthing of terror training camps and explosives stashed away in its forests and recovery of documents revealing sinister designs of terrorist groups is any indication.
According to Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) officials, it is not just the forests in the state that provide a refuge to the terror groups but also the cosmopolitan nature of cities like Bangalore where the terrorists "can merge with the locals without being noticed".
Infact, in many places "it is the locals who wittingly or unwittingly give them all support, they said.
The recent arrest of two SIMI activists, Abdul Ghouse, alias Riyauzuddin and Asafdullah Abbubaker at Davangere and their associate Asif from Hubli, revealed that it was just the tip of the iceberg.
The terror suspects handed over to the police by the locals due to their suspicious activities were earlier taken to be mere vehicle lifters. However, a thorough search of their hideouts, threw open the pandora's box.
The maps of Hubli airport, passports of different countries, documents all appeared to point to the fact that there is more than meets the eye.
In fast developments, police unearthed several plans that the accused claimed to have hatched, including targeting ensitive areas of many states, even beaches of Goa. Ghouse also claimed to have undergone training in Pakistan and to have known those responsible for the attack on the IISc. PTI
Film Review: Grand epic bordering on boredom
Cast and Crew: Hrithik Roshan: Emperor Akbar
Aishwarya Rai: Jodha Bhai
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Screenplay: Ashutosh Gowariker
Producer: Ashutosh Gowariker
Music: A. R. Rahman
It's been a while since a period film actually made a mark in Indian cinema and Ashutosh Gowariker's 'Jodha Akbar' is not likely going to make one either. The film is watchable but only just so, thanks to the sloppy editing and rather slipshod direction. Fact is, that at three hours and twenty minutes, it is a tedious watch and could have been a better film, if it was condensed to about two-and-a-half-hours.
While Aishwarya Rai as the spirited Rajput princess Jodha Bai looks beautiful but a bit older, Hrithik Roshan as Emperor Akbar seems terribly miscast. Even though he is playing the role of young Akbar, his boyish image goes against the royalty of being the king of Hindustan.
But the film does have its moments. The cinematography is very appealing and the costumes are beautiful. And while everyone actually knows the story, Gowariker has infact managed to capture the hospitality of the Rajputs and the grandeur of the Mughal Empire to quite a degree. The marriage of convenience between Jodha and Akbar turns out to be a full-fledged love story with an old world charm. PTI
Post-Partition days were not so encouraging for Pak: Benazir
New Delhi, Feb 17 (PTI) The Partition of 1947 was a "setback" for Pakistan as far as military, bureaucracy and natural resources were concerned and left the new country politically and economically vulnerable, slain Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto wrote in her last book.
"At independence, Pakistan and India were to divide their resources equally, but this is in fact never occurred," she wrote in "Benazir Bhutto: Reconciliation, Islam, Democracy & the West", which she completed shortly before her assassination on December 27.
Bhutto claimed of the 133 civil servants in the Bengal region, only one came to work in Pakistan.
"By early 1951, fully 10 per cent of the population of Pakistan was Muslim refugees from India, largely from Muslim-dominated areas of India." Pakistan also had a distinct military disadvantage with the Indians, she felt.
"When the military was split, Pakistan received only six of the 40 armored regiments of the army, only eight of 40 artillery units and only eight of 21 infantry units. At the time of Partition, Pakistan, which was supposed to have received 39 per cent of the Indian British Army, received only 30 per cent of the army, 40 per cent of the navy and 20 per cent of the air force, thus putting it at a distinct military disadvantage with the Indians." According to Benazir, compounding these military and bureaucratic inequities were natural resource issues between the two countries, most notably the Indus Valley water dispute. PTI
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