Politics

Chandigarh, July 01: Sukhbir Singh Badal resigned as Punjab deputy chief minister Wednesday, less than six months after being sworn in as second in command to his father Parkash Singh Badal.

Chief Minister Badal confirmed that his son had put in his papers. He did not say when he would forward the resignation for acceptance by the Punjab governor.

Badal junior resigned as he could not get himself elected to the Punjab assembly within six months of being sworn in.

New Delhi, July 01: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi Wednesday said that the Congress-led government lacked a road map to improve the education system and added that it should evolve consensus among all stakeholders before introducing reforms.

New Delhi, July 01: Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram refused to comment on Justice M.S. Liberhan commission report on Babri mosque demolition in Uttar Pradesh.

“Justice Liberhan has submitted his report to the Prime Minister this morning. I believe that the report will be forwarded to the ministry during the course of day. Since I have not read the report then nothing further I am going to say,” Chidambaram said.

The contents of the report were not immediately known.

New Delhi, July 01: The Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are three years away but the state unit of the Congress which is already on a high after its electoral success in the state has started reorganising the party’s structure.

The Congress is giving serious thought on replacing the party’s district and block level units with Assembly and parliamentary level units. In other words, the party’s units will reflect the electoral boundaries rather than administrative borders.

Lucknow, July 01: Asking the central government to make public the Liberhan Commission report, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday alleged that the Congress was as much responsible as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. “Timely intervention by the Congress, which was ruling at the centre at that time, could have prevented the demolition of the Babri Masjid,” Mayawati told reporters here.

Chennai, July 01: Reacting to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s proposal to scrap the 10th class examinations and conduct 12th standard exams under one board, AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa today said the plan appeared to have been made “unilaterally” and without “proper application of mind”.

“His (Sibal’s) announcement that the system of Board Examinations at the 10th standard level would be withdrawn and the 12th standard examinations would be a common examination for the whole country appears to have been made unilaterally and without proper application of mind,” she said in a statement here.

New Delhi, July 01: Nominal passenger fare revision, incentives on freight transport, enhanced funding for security and seasonal passes for vendors at Rs 20 are likely to be the highlights of the Railway Budget to be presented on July 03.

Besides, economic meals at stations and more janata trains are expected to find mention in the budget as also expediting work on railway coach factory in Rae Bareli and putting the dedicated freight corridor (DFC) on fast track.

New Delhi, June 30: The BJP has adopted a “wait-and-watch posture in the wake of the Liberhan Commission submitting its report on Babri Mosque demolition and is waiting for the government’s next move on it before firming up its own strategy.

“As of now, we don’t know how the Congress-led UPA government will handle the Commission’s report. Once the picture becomes clear, we will plan our response to it,” a senior BJP leader said.

BJP veterans L K Advani and M M Joshi, along with former party leaders Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh, are accused in the Babri mosque demolition case.

Gandhinagar, June 30: Gujarat government on Monday claimed in the assembly that it has got rid of the communal riots in the state.

During his budget speech in the assembly today, State Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala said, “We have successfully got rid of terrorism and communal riots in the state.”

However, Chief Minister Narendra Modi is often blamed for the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat which had claimed over 1200 human lives.

Patna, June 30: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to table the report of the Liberhan Commission, that probed the 1992 demolition of Barbri Masjid in Ayodhya, in the coming session of Lok Sabha.

“I urge PM to submit the report of the Commission in the Lok Sabha,” Prasad told reporters here.

Though the entire country and the world knew about the real culprits, the people would still like to know what were the Commission’s findings, he said.

New Delhi, June 30: Congress today launched a sharp attack on BJP over the Liberhan Commission report on Babri Masjid demolition asking it why it did not scrap the panel during its six-year rule if it felt that the move was a political vendetta.

It also said “excessive protests” by BJP even before contents of the Liberhan Commission report are out reflected a “guilty mind”.

AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters that if BJP was now crying vendetta, then why it did not wound up the Commission when it was in power and on the other hand gave it extensions after extensions.

Mumbai, June 30: Police forces in mega cities will be provided with helicopters like in New York and London and other big cities of the world, Home Minister P Chidambaram said here today.

“There are plans to provide helicopters for the mega city policing. So when mega city policing project is complete, mega cities will have helicopters,” Chidambaram told reporters after inaugurating the first of the four hubs of elite National Security Guard commandoes here.

“That is the way policing is done in cities like New York and London and other big cities,” he said.

Bhopal, June 30: As the Liberhan Commission probe report on the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was submitted to the government Tuesday, former Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) leader Uma Bharati said she does not regret the destruction and would be ready to be hanged if found guilty.

“I wanted the old structure to be destroyed though not in that way,” Uma Bharati, now heading the Bharatiya Janshakti Party after quitting the BJP, told reporters here.

Bhopal, June 30: Bhartiya Janshakti Party President Uma Bharti here today said she is ready to own responsibility for the demolition of the disputed Babri mosque at Ayodhya and has no problem even if she is hanged on the issue.

Reacting to the submission of the Liberahan Commission report on the demolition of the mosque, Bharti told reporters at her residence “like a good commander, I am ready to own the responsibility of the Babri masjid’s demolition and I have no problem even if I will be hanged on the issue.”

Siliguri, June 30: Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) president, Bimal Gurung was granted bail on a bond and surety of Rs 500 for allegedly threatening the electorate during the Lok Sabha elections in Darjeeling.

Gurung surrendered in the court of District Judicial Magistrate Debjyoti Mukherjee yesterday in Darjeeling where he was granted bail. The next date of hearing is August 24.

New Delhi, June 30: The Liberhan Commission report on Babri Masjid demolition today gave a handle to Congress to attack BJP which responded by alleging that the ruling party at the Centre has “begun its conspiracy”.

Non-Congress parties and Muslim groups voiced criticism over delay in preparation of the report and demanded tabling the report in Parliament at the earliest and action taken against those found guilty by the Commission.

Patna, June 30: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said his government is doing the needful for enhancing the superannuation age of teachers of colleges and universities from 62 to 65.

He told the legislative council after some members, cutting across the party lines, raised the issue for the second day while seeking early implementation of the revised UGC pay-scale.

Raising the issue during zero-hour, Kedar Nath Singh and Narendra Singh wanted to know the fate of the recommendations of the UGC for revised pay-scale and raising the retirement age limit from 62 to 65.

Lucknow, June 30: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday urged the Election Commission to serve a notice to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for using public money to install statues, including of herself, in Lucknow.

“We request the Election Commission to serve a notice to Mayawati on the issue. Mayawati’s statue with the elephant, which is the symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), defies the Election Commission’s model code of conduct (whenever elections take place),” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.

New Delhi, June 30: Criticising the CPI-M led government in West Bengal for its handling of the Maoist problem in Lalgarh, JMM leader Shibu Soren today termed the operations as a “plan to kill innocent tribals.”

The tribal leader, whose party is an ally of the ruling UPA at Centre, also felt that the Central government’s decision to ban CPI-Maoist and declare it a terrorist outfit would not serve any purpose.

New Delhi, June 30: Seventeen years after it was set up, the Liberhan Commission probing the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya today submitted its report to prime minister Manmohan Singh. The Commission, which had got 48 extensions, submitted the report to the prime minister by Retd Justice MS Liberhan in presence of home minister P Chidambaram. The contents of the report were not immediately known.

Mumbai, June 30: As the iconic Bandra-Worli Sea Link waits to get inaugurated at the hands of Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, the Bhartiya Janata Party has stake its claim over the first-of-its-kind bridge in the country.

Moreover, BJP has asked the Congress, which works for “aam admi”, to forego the toll charges since there has been a delay of 10 years in completion of the project.

Manamadurai, June 30: Slamming Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for spending Rs 1,000 crore to install her own statues, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said the amount could have been used to provide basic amenities to the people and wipe out poverty.

“Of what use will be the statues in that state. The Rs 1,000 crore will help wipe out poverty of thousands of people, provide basic amenities and education,” he said, addressing a meeting to thank voters of his constituency Sivaganga on Sunday night.

Mumbai, June 30: Taking his cue from Nicolas Sarkozy, Bal Thackeray has demanded a ban on the burqa.

In a strongly-worded editorial in Monday’s edition of party mouthpiece Saamana, the Shiv Sena patriarch praises the French president, deprecates the attitude of India’s “thakela-pakela (tired and bored)” rulers and warns against “the dangers of Islam”.
“I congratulate Sarkozy.

He is an ideal ruler. Their (French) rulers never appease the Muslims for vote-bank politics,” Thackeray writes in the editorial, asking”our rulers to ban the burqa and implement the uniform civil code.”

Kolkata, June 29: The central government should carry out a statewide operation by deploying central forces to recover illegal firearms from different parts of West Bengal, Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said here Monday.

“The Centre should take up this responsibility and conduct operations to recover illegal firearms from across the state,” she said.

New Delhi, June 29: Congress today denied suggestions about a “communication gap” between party President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when she wrote a letter to him stressing the need for implementing UPA’s poll pledges.

“There is no communication gap between government and the party,” Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed told reporters replying to a query why Gandhi needed to write a letter to the PM to remind him of the committments made by the party in its manifesto.