Congress abusing CBI to implicate RSS leaders

Guwahati, Jan 7 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of abusing the CBI to falsely implicate some leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in terror attacks.

'The selective leaks by the CBI and other investigating agencies that are seeking to implicate certain leaders of the RSS are highly condemnable,' BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad told journalists here.

Although the BJP leader did not take the name of any RSS leader, the obvious reference was to media reports on the sensational confession of Swami Aseemanand in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts.

'The confession was made under the duress of the investigating agency, but firing the gun against the RSS and the VHP from the shoulders of someone else as the NIA (National Investigation Agency) is doing by selective leaks is deeply condemnable,' the BJP leader said.

Prasad said the BJP would welcome action against anyone if found guilty of or involved in terror attacks.

'Let there be a fair investigation and we would welcome action against anyone if found guilty,' the BJP leader said.

'We never say Muslim terrorism, but call it Jehadi terrorism. But we don't like the expression Hindu terrorism or saffron terror as terrorism has no religion.'

Prasad launched a vitriolic attack on the Congress party, saying the UPA government was using the CBI to make selective leaks to cover up rampant corruption and scams.

'The record of the Congress and the UPA in the abuse of the CBI and other investigating agencies for its own selfish ends is too well known. The Congress is notorious for abusing the CBI,' the BJP leader said.

'The Congress is sinking into an ocean of corruption day by day and hence trying to divert the attention with these sinister selective leaks, which is condemnable.'

The BJP leader is in Guwahati to take part in the party's two-day national executive meeting beginning Saturday.

http://www.sify.com/news/congress-abusing-cbi-to-implicate-rss-leaders-says-bjp-news-national-lbhr4gdfbcg.html

BJP MP dares Malik on Lal Chowk flag

Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS) Kashmiri separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik must clarify which flag he wants to see hoisted at Srinagar's Lal Chowk on Republic Day, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP demanded here Wednesday.

'Yasin Malik should clarify which country's flag he wants to see there. We know he wants to see the flag of Pakistan there. His dream will never be fulfilled,' BJP MP Chandan Mitra told reporters here.

While addressing a seminar in Srinagar Tuesday, Malik had challenged BJP's decision to hoist the national flag at the Lal Chowk on Republic Day.

'If the BJP intends to go ahead with its decision, we will see whose flag is hoisted at Lal Chowk,' Malik had said.

Mitra also condemned Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for asking BJP not to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk.

The youth wing of the BJP, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, is scheduled to organise Rashtriya Ekta Yatra from Kolkata to Srinagar for the unity of the nation and to bind the youth of India with Kashmir

The rally will start Jan 12 from Kolkata and pass through 11 states before reaching Lal Chowk in Srinagar Jan 26. Hoisting the national flag there will mark the end of the rally.

Asked whether the BJP youth wing was trying to compete with the Youth Congress under Rahul Gandhi, Morcha national secretary Bani Tripathy said: 'We don't want any comparisons because we don't believe in any individual-oriented or family-oriented politics.

'A family runs Congress party. It's entirely their prerogative how the Youth Congress will function,' she said. (Sify News)

BJP major winner in Karnataka district elections

Bangalore: Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday emerged as a major winner in polls to the local governing councils but it suffered setbacks in the home turf of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and the powerful Reddy brothers.

Of the 30 zila (district) panchayats, the BJP bagged 12, Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) four each while in the remaining 10 it was a split verdict.

Of the 176 taluka (sub-district) panchayats, the BJP won 68, Congress 31 and JD-S 29 while no party emerged a clear winner in the remaining 48.

But for Yeddyurappa, whose continuance depends on the party's show in these polls, it was a major setback as in his home district of Shimoga, the BJP barely managed to win the zila panchayat, bagging 16 of the 31 seats and conceding 13 to the Congress and two to the JD-S.

The Reddy brothers, who are mining barons and ministers, were in for a shock as the BJP failed to get a majority in the 36-member Bellary zila panchayat. The party won just 18 seats, with the Congress taking 17 and the JD-S one. 

Of the brothers, the younger one G. Janardhana Reddy is the tourism minister and the elder G. Karunakara Reddy holds the revenue portfolio. The Reddys face charges of illegal iron ore mining and income tax evasion.

Yeddyurappa hailed his party's show, though it fell short of the sweep that he and state BJP president K.S. Eshwarappa were predicting. Both had been confidently saying that their party would capture power in at least 20 of the 30 zila panchayats and over 100 of the 176 taluka panchayats.

'I thank the voters for their optimum support to the BJP,' Yeddyurappa, who led the party battling charges of nepotism in prime land allotment to his kin in and around Bangalore, told reporters.

'Earlier, the BJP was considered an urban-based party. These results have shown that the BJP has a huge rural base,' he said.

At a separate press meet, Eshwarappa said he was confident that the BJP would be in power in 14 of the 30 zila panchayats, 12 on its own and two with the help of Independents.

The Congress, though putting up a poor show compared to the 2005 zila panchayat and taluka panchayat polls when it was a clear winner, hailed its performance in Bellary and Shimoga.

State unit president G. Parameshwara and central labour minister Mallikharjun Kharge said the BJP's show in the two districts considered its stronghold showed 'people's anger over corruption in the government'.

Over 65 percent of the around 21 million voters, nearly half of them women, cast their ballots in the elections to the 30 zila and 176 taluka panchayats Dec 26, Dec 31 and Jan 1.

The BJP, Congress and JD-S were locked in a three-way fight in a majority of the 1,013 zila and 3,659 taluka panchayat seats.

These are the first elections to the local governing councils after the BJP came to power in the state in May 2008.

http://www.sify.com/news/bjp-major-winner-in-karnataka-district-elections-news-national-lbeqEmdighf.html

ADVANI FLAYS CONG, SAYS EMERGENCY OF 1975 AKIN TO NAZI RULE

The 172-page book published by the Congress Party with the title “Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation” carries just two short paragraphs to tell the country what happened during the emergency of 1975-77. The two paragraphs are as follows:

“The period of the emergency saw the suspension of normal political procedures and fundamental rights, arrests of the leaders of the Grand Alliance, and enforcement of press censorship and strict discipline. Extreme communal and leftist organizations were banned.  More than one lakh people were arrested over the 19 months of the Emergency. Powers of the judiciary were reduced drastically.  Unlimited state and party power was concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister.

Vast sections of the population welcomed it initially since general administration improved. But, civil rights activists took exception to the curbs on freedom of expression and personal liberties. Unfortunately, in certain spheres, over-enthusiasm led to compulsion in enforcement of certain programmes like compulsory sterilization and clearance of slums. Sanjay Gandhi had, by then, emerged as a leader of great significance. It was due to his support to family planning that the government decided to pursue it more vigorously. He also promoted slum clearance, anti-dowry measures and promotion of literacy but in an arbitrary and authoritarian manner much to the annoyance of the popular opinion.”

These two curt paragraphs are preceded by two full pages about factors leading to the emergency in which Jaya Prakash Narayan’s “extra-constitutional and undemocratic movement” on the one hand and the Allahabad High Court’s verdict on the other hand, charging Smt. Gandhi with violating the election law to win her seat and invalidating her election, have been identified as the two factors which led to the Emergency.

The second paragraph from the book quoted above is a ridiculous attempt to make Sanjay Gandhi a scapegoat for all the misdeeds the country had to suffer during the Emergency.  In the last sixty years, whenever the executive has found a judicial verdict unpalatable its reaction has been to have the verdict undone by mobilizing legislative support for the executive’s view point.  In 1975 also this was sought to be done by amending the law in respect of electoral corruption.  But Mrs. Gandhi did not stop there.  Without consulting her Cabinet, or even her Law Minister and Home Minister, she made President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed invoke Art., 352 to put democracy under indefinite suspension. The Congress Party publication indicates that the Party regrets only the ‘excesses’ committed during the Emergency, because Sanjay Gandhi promoted worthwhile causes such as slum-clearance, anti-dowry measures, and literacy, but in an arbitrary and authoritarian manner.

I hold that promulgation of the Emergency itself was an unforgivable crime against Democracy and that the constitution makers had never ever conceived that any Prime Minister of independent India would so grossly abuse Art. 352 of the Constitution.

I am very happy therefore that lately (November, 2010) the Supreme Court has revisited the Emergency and affirmed that the A.N. Ray majority judgement of the Supreme Court during the Emergency was erroneous and that the lone dissenting judgement of Justice H.R. Khanna is the law of the land today. In a lecture delivered in February, 2009 former Chief Justice Venkatachallaiah commented that the 1976 majority judgement deserved to be “confined to the dustbin of history”.

The Congress Party has admitted that more than one lakh persons were jailed during the Emergency. The exact number was 1,10,806. Of these 34,988 were detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act whereunder no grounds were to be given to the prisoner. These prisoners included Jayaprakash Narain, Morarji Desai, Chandra Shekhar, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bala Saheb Deoras, and a large number of MPs, MLAs and eminent journalists.

Almost all MISA detenues had filed habeas corpus petitions in their respective State High Courts. At all places, Government had raised the same objection: in an Emergency, all Fundamental Rights are suspended and so no detenue has a right to file a Habeas Corpus petition. Almost all the High Courts rejected the Government’s objection and ruled in favour of the petitioners. Government not only went in appeal to the Supreme Court but actually punished the judges who had allowed the petitions. The diary I used to maintain while I was in prison records the names of 19 judges who were transferred to other High Courts because they had decided against Government !

My diary also records under the date December 16, 1975 :

The Supreme Court has been hearing GOI’s appeal against the High Court judgements in favour of MISA prisoners. This includes our case also. Justice Khanna is reported to have pointed out to (Attorney General) Niren De that Article 21 of the Constitution deals with the right not only to personal liberty but also to life.  Is it the stand of the Attorney General that even if a person is killed he has no remedy because enforcement of this right has been suspended ?  Niren De replies: “It weighs on my conscience.  But that is the position in law.”

Pronouncing majority judgement in this appeal, Supreme Court Bench comprising of  C.J. A.N.Ray, Justices H.R.Khanna, M.H.Beg, Y.V. Chandrachud and P.N. Bhagwati (Justice Khanna dissenting ) declared : “In view of the Presidential Order dated 27 June, 1975 no person has any locus standi to move any writ petition under Art 226 before a High Court for habeas corpus .

“The appeals are accepted. The Judgements of the High Courts are set aside”

 In his historic dissenting judgement, Justice Khanna observed:

“Sanctity of life and liberty was not something new when the Constitution was drafted.  It represented a facet of higher values which mankind began to cherish in its evolution from a state of tooth and claw to a civilized existence. Likewise, the principle that no one shall be deprived of his life and liberty without the authority of law was not the gift of the Constitution. It was a necessary corollary of the concept relating to the sanctity of life and liberty; it existed and was in force before the coming into force of the Constitution.

“It has been argued that suspending the right of a person to move any Court for the enforcement of right to life and personal liberty is done under a constitutional provision and therefore it cannot be said that the resulting situation would mean the absence of the rule of law. This argument in my opinion, cannot stand close scrutiny for it tries to equate illusion of the rule of law with the reality of rule of law.  Supposing a law is made that in the matter of the protection of life and liberty, the administrative officers would not be governed by any law and that it would be permissible for them to deprive a person of life and liberty without any authority of law. In one sense, it might in that event be argued that even if lives of hundreds of persons are taken capriciously and maliciously without the authority of law, it is enforcement of the above enacted law. Thus, in a purely formal sense, any system or norm based on a hierarchy of orders, even the organized mass murders of Nazi regime can qualify as law.”

Justice Khanna passed away on 25 February 2008, at age ninety five. In its editorial after he delivered his landmark judgement, the New York Times  wrote on 30 April, 1976, “If India ever finds its way back to the freedom and democracy that were proud hallmarks of its first 18 years as an independent nation, someone will surely erect a monument to Justice H.R. Khanna of the Supreme Court”.

Q & A: Nitin Gadkari, BJP President

'PM must explain his role in the spectrum scam'

BJP President Nitin Gadkari tells Gyan Varma that there is no disagreement within the party over the issue of JPC.


Even as the BJP continues to demand a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the corruption issue, there seems to be a tussle with Murli Manohar Joshi, head of the Public Accounts Committee. How do you react to these different views within the party?
There is no tussle between the Bharatiya Janata Party and its senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi. The PAC is an official committee of Parliament and it’s a continuous process. As far as the BJP is concerned, Joshi has never opposed the idea of the setting up of a JPC. He is with the party on the demand for a JPC. The allegation that there is a division within the BJP on the issue of JPC and that Joshi is not agreeing to the BJP demand is all a creation of the Congress party. They want to confuse the people of the country by trying to prove there is no need for a JPC and the senior leaders of BJP are not entirely ready for a JPC probe. But, they won’t succeed.


If the present stalemate with the government on the corruption issue doesn’t end, do you think it will affect the Budget session of Parliament?
It is too early to comment on how the Budget session will be. The BJP is, at present, concentrating on the anti-corruption rallies that are being held in different parts of the country and we continue with our demand for the setting up of a JPC on the 2G spectrum allocation scam.


Why is the Opposition, especially the BJP, adamant on a JPC probe? The investigation agencies are doing their work and the PAC is also looking at the charges. Even the PM has now agreed to appear before the PAC.
The offer given by the Prime Minister by sending a letter to Joshi is a political strategy by him and the Congress party. They are only trying to confuse the people. The PAC has its own limitations and it cannot look into all the aspects that the Opposition, especially the BJP, is demanding. There are instances when corporate lobbyists are seen making ministers in the Cabinet. These are dangerous developments for the country and they must be thoroughly investigated by the Parliamentarians. There is a scam of Rs 1.76 lakh crore and this allegation was not made by the Opposition parties but by the CAG. The magnitude of the scam is so big that it could not have happened without the Cabinet’s approval.
The people of the country have the right to know what is the role of the Prime Minister’s Office, the Congress party and what was the deal between the Congress and the DMK. They had actually outsourced the formation of the government and this has happened for the first time.


The Congress party has alleged that the BJP should not talk about fighting corruption because Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is still holding the post even after all the allegations against him. How do you react to these charges?
The charges against the Yeddyurappa government are not correct. What Yeddyurappa did was immoral, but not illegal. It has been done earlier also and the earlier governments have done ten times more. The governments of S M Krishna, Narayan Dharma Singh and H D Kumaraswamy have also done similar things. When we came to know about the situation in Karnataka, we had asked Yeddyurappa to return the land immediately and set up a commission to look into all these allegations since 1996, so that the people of the state know the truth.


Even as the BJP is holding an anti-corruption rally all across the country, not a single event has been planned in Karnataka? Don’t you think that Karnataka is also an important state where the corruption issue should be highlighted?
This is not true that BJP will not hold any anti-corruption rally in Karnataka. The state has always been very important to the party, especially since we have our first BJP government there now. The reason why we are not holding a rally in Karnataka immediately is because the panchayat and taluk elections are going on and we want them to be over first. We will have a massive rally in Karnataka after the party is through with the elections.


During the recent crisis in Karnataka, how close was Yeddyurappa from being asked to step down? Was there a threat to the state government if he were to be removed?
The state government will complete its full term and there is no threat to the government. There were some issues, but those were sorted out when Yeddyurappa came to Delhi. The state government is doing a good job; it is doing well in the rural and urban areas. Investors are upbeat about coming to Karnataka. I am sure that we are going to win the panchayat and taluk elections with a big margin and that will be the answer to all the allegations that have been levelled against the Yeddyurappa government.


BJP has done better than JD(U) in the Bihar assembly elections. Do you think there is a change in power sharing in the state? Can we call the NDA win as the re-emergence of the NDA in national politics?
The victory of the NDA alliance in Bihar has changed the atmosphere in the country. The Congress has been grounded because of the loss and it will continue to go down from now. The NDA was relevant and it has become even more relevant now. The year 2010 can only be defined as the year of massive scandals done by the Congress party.


Indresh Kumar of the RSS was recently questioned by the CBI in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast case. He has been named in the Ajmer blast case charge-sheet, but not made an accused. Do you think he is being targeted because of political witch hunting?
“Hum to doobe hain sanam, tumko saath le doobenge” is the policy of the Congress. These allegations are only political conspiracies against the BJP and RSS. These are the lies of the Congress, which it wants to feed in the minds of the people against the BJP. The leaders of the Congress party are purposely doing it so that there is a divide between Hindus and Muslims. But, they got the answer in the Bihar elections when Muslims voted for the BJP. They want us to fail, but the BJP will survive and do well. They will never succeed.


What is your choice of an ideal BJP worker? Whether he should be a backward RSS type person or a modern, forward looking political executive?
An ideal BJP member is someone who is a nationalist and who is ready to work for the country and the society. The worker should work for the underprivileged people of the country and should stand up for their rights. The BJP worker should believe that the country comes first, the party second and he is the last person to get priority.


http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/qa-nitin-gadkari-bjp-president/420385/