Govt may relent, put Prime Minister under Lokpal

August 23, 2011 By

NEW DELHI: Anxious to resolve the standoff with the Anna Hazare group over Lokpal, the government appeared set to relent on placing the Prime Minister within the jurisdiction of the anti-graft ombudsman. “We don't have any problem in placing PM within the scope of Lokpal,” senior government sources indicated.

Although they made it plain that they don't agree with Team Anna's demand that Jan Lokpal Bill should be the sole reference point for the creation of an anti-corruption watchdog and insisted that Parliament would only discuss the legislation approved by the Standing Committee, the re-think on including the PM in Lokpal is a significant concession as well as a tactical move to break the logjam.

In another significant move, the government has fast-tracked the process to draft a Grievance Redressal Bill which will deal with corruption faced by the common man it getting licences and other clearances, as well benefits under government schemes. The draft of the proposed law is expected to be put up for public discussion by this weekend.

Besides mollifying the anti-corruption sentiment that has being powering the Anna campaign, the move to bring the PM within Lokpal is also aimed to help end Congress's isolation in Parliament. The BJP, Left and other parties like the DMK are opposed to keeping the PM outside the Lokpal's purview.

However, while these concessions may potentially narrow the divergence between the two sides, there was still no indication of the activists accepting this as a basis to end their agitation. Manmohan Singh had argued for keeping his office within Lokpal's ambit but was overruled by a majority in the Cabinet who felt that such a move could tie a prime minister in knots and paralyze the government with motivated complaints.

On Monday, however, the tune was different. Sources indicated that PM's inclusion could be unconditional, reflecting a drastic re-think forced by Anna Hazare's huge mass mobilization. Spurred by swelling crowds, Team Anna continued with its pressure tactic, denying that they were negotiating with the government through negotiators. It said it would settle for none other than an empowered representative of the PM. Rahul Gandhi or Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan as negotiators.

Law minister Salman Khurshid said that the Grievance Redressal Bill was part of a bouquet of new laws that the government aims to bring – on judicial accountability, whistleblowers, Lokpal and a legislation to strengthen the CVC. This, he said, was a multi-pronged anti-corruption strategy envisaged by government.

The chairman of the Standing Committee, Abhishek Singhvi, however, said that a solution is possible if the civil society agreed to defer its activism for a while. Asserting that the committee can come up with a constructive solution, Singhvi said, “If the Standing Committee strains its every sinew to fast-track its proceedings, look at the huge amount of diverse inputs, and hold intense deliberations, it can submit a report as early as eight weeks from now.”

PM sent out a co

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nciliatory signal on Monday, his second since Saturday. Speaking at the Golden Jubilee event of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Singh said: “We are open to a reasoned debate on all these issues. We have made it clear that all concerned individuals should convey their concern on different aspects of the bill to their representatives in Parliament and to the standing committeea¦the standing committee has the power to propose any amendment.”

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said that his ministry would put the draft of the grievance redressal legislation on the ministry's website by the weekend. If the timeline is significant and betrays the government's anxiety to counter the perception of it being soft on corruption, so is the choice of Jairam to craft the legislation.

Team Anna group had demanded that Ramesh should be put on the ministerial panel that negotiated the draft of the Lokpal bill. Although the government did not agree, Anna aide Prashant Bhushan told TOI that Ramesh would be acceptable to them as interlocutor.

However, chances of a fresh dialogue between the two sides are still not looking bright. Team Anna stuck to their August 30 deadline for the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill, rejecting the government's stand that parliamentary process be allowed to play out. Kiran Bedi chided the government, saying it “took MPs just five minutes to clear the bill to raise their salaries, but it's finding it difficult to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill in five to six days.”

The government does not seem inclined to make any further concessions on the sticking points: essentially, inclusion of higher judiciary and civil society's insistence on including the entire central government officialdom. Unlike in the case of judiciary, government has no philosophical opposition to putting the lower bureaucracy within the scope of Lokpal, but is deterred by the daunting logistical constraints.

Sources in the government also pointed out that Centre can't direct states on what kind of Lokayuktas they should have as the Constitution prohibits New Delhi from legislating on state matters.

TIMES APPEAL

Last Thursday, The Times of India offered three solutions (while acknowledging the legal/constitutional roadblocks to each one of them) to break the logjam: (1) A referendum; (2) An MP introduces Team Anna's draft as a private member's Bill, and Parliament debates both the government and the Jan Lokpal versions; (3) The issue be referred to an eminent persons' committee. We would not be so immodest or foolish to believe that a better solution does not lie outside of the three proposed by TOI. But there can be no second opinion on the need to find common ground. Both the government and Team Anna claim to be doing what they're doing “for the people”. If that be so, neither side should allow ego to come in the way of a solution that best tackles the curse of corruption and serves the cause of India and its people. This is a moment in our history that calls for humility and guts, not hubris or bravado.

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Ex-defence secretary takes over as CVC today

July 13, 2011 By

NEW DELHI: Pradeep Kumar, the outgoing defence secretary and the next Chief Vigilance Commissioner, says corruption remains a very major challenge and would have to be dealt at all levels.

Kumar will be sworn in as the CVC on Thursday, almost four months after PJ Thomas's appointment was quashed by the Supreme Court because of a pending chargesheet against him. The President will administer the oath of office to the 62-year-old IAS officer at Rashtrapati Bhavan at 11 am, officials said.

“Corruption is a very major challenge,” Kumar said on Wednesday, discussing the challenges of heading the country's anti-corruption watchdog at a time when a spirited debate over several scandals and the efficacies of the present anti-corruption mechanisms has gripped the nation.

Kumar, a Haryana cadre IAS officer who was set to complete his mandated two-year term as defence secretary on July 31, was unanimously chosen as the next CVC by a panel comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. He will have a tenure of little over three years.

Meanwhile, PJ Thomas on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court demanding a stay on the appointment of Kumar. Through his writ petition, Thomas sought a direction to the President not to issue the warrant of appointment to Kumar since she was yet to decide on Thomas's represe

ntation to her against the judgment of the apex court.

Government sources said that Rashtrapati Bhavan had referred Thomas's petition within days to the Department of Personnel and Training for appropriate action.

In his representation to the President on March 16, Thomas had requested her to refer the decision of the apex court to a constitution bench, arguing the SC bench had no jurisdiction to cancel his appointment as only a five-judge bench could have adjudicated the case. The President cancelled Thomas's appointment as CVC on March 15, 11 days after the apex court order.

“The warrant of appointment of Thomas was cancelled only on the basis of the said judgment. When the legality and the validity of the judgment itself is disputed, it is our humble view that only after reaching conclusion on the legality and validity of the judgment, the respondent (President) should go ahead with the appointment of new CVC,” the petition argued, urging the HC to intervene.

The petition cites Article 145 (3) of the Constitution, saying issues connected with the interpretation of the Constitution have to be decided by a minimum five-judge bench and therefore assails the SC three-judge bench verdict.

The SC had quashed the appointment of Thomas as CVC as a chargesheet was pending against him in the palmolein corruption case in Kerala. Thomas was appointed as CVC in September 2010.

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India PM: Global economic recovery tentative

June 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

July 27 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the global economic recovery was still tentative, required concerted efforts by countries to anchor it firmly, and suggested government spending could make up for weak private demand, an official said on Sunday.

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Singh made the remarks to British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters.

“Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said that India would like to see continued concerted efforts by all countries to ensure the global economic recovery gets further consolidated as the process was still somewhat tentative,” Prakash said on Sunday.

“He said the slack in private demand could be compensated by fiscal measures and stimulus packages.”

(Reporting by C.J. Kuncheria)

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Dhaka, Delhi to talk boundary disputes next month

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dhaka, June 6 (IANS) The Joint Boundary Working Group of Bangladesh and India is expected to meet next month to comprehensively address long-pending land boundary disputes, a media report quoting officials said here.

Both sides are working to implement various decisions and fulfil commitments made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during her New Delhi visit in January.

They also decided to work on 115 enclaves created by the demarcation of the boundary determined by the British between India and the then East Pakistan during the 1947 partition of undivided India.

The partition was on Hindu-Muslim lines. However, these enclaves, considered ‘in adverse possession’, have Muslim majority areas in India and Hindu majority areas in Bangladesh.

The South Asian neighbours having a porous 4,098 km border are committed to addressing the land boundary issues keeping the spirit of the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement signed by the then prime ministers, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Indira Gandhi.

‘The joint boundary group will meet either on July or August to resolve the boundary disputes between the two countries,’ India’s Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said in New Delhi on Friday.

However, Bangladesh officials maintain that they were ready to convene the meeting much earlier.

Officials of foreign and home ministries here are hopeful that the Joint Boundary Working Group will resolve issues related to adverse possessions, enclaves and the un-demarcated areas, Pillai said.

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Mirwaiz proposes, Omar doubts

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Srinagar, June 5 — What might have been a positive step by the Hurriyat on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir has been somewhat offset by a note of disquiet expressed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Jammu and Kashmir separatist outfit All Parties Hurriyat Conference (moderate) said on Saturday the group had never ruled out dialogue with the Centre on what the constitutional status of the state should be.And, just two days ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to the state on Monday, Abdullah expressed doubts on Saturday on the genuineness of encounters reported from the line of control. The context of Abdullah’s statement is the three killings in the fake encounter in Machil, 65 km north of Srinagar, by the Army. “The Jammu and Kashmir police have been flooded with complaints questioning the genuineness of encounters, all of which are being reinvestigated,” Abdullah said. The statement has come just days after three families from Nadihaal in north Kashmir said the boys the Army called militants were their relatives and not terrorists. Abdullah criticised the lack of transparency in the Army, stressing that “they act as the judge, the jury and the executioner in the state”. In an exclusive interview on Saturday, Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said: “The Hurriyat never closed its doors to dialogue, but the dialogue needs some substance and sustainability.”

“It is for the Prime Minister to repeal draconian laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and also address the issue of human rights with commitment to honour them.” the Mirwaiz said.

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CPI(M) seeks special package for J-K farmers

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Srinagar, Jun 6 (PTI) CPI(M) in Jammu and Kashmir today demanded from the Centre a special package for rehabilitation of farmers and cattle owners who suffered extensive losses due to inclement weather conditions in the state. “I urge the state government to project the losses before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to the state so that special financial assistance from the Centre could be assured for providing relief to the affected people,” state Secretary of CPI(M) M Y Tarigami said in a statement.

He appealed to the government to prepare a contingency plan to ensure timely relief to the affected and to minimise the losses. Tarigami said crop insurance scheme that was recently announced for the state be implemented during the monsoons and stressed for inclusion of horticulture sector under the scheme.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be on a two-day visit to Kashmir from tomorrow during which he is expected to renew the offer for talks with separatists and review the progress in the Round Table peace initiative and development work being undertaken in the state.

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TN CM writes to PM on rehabilitation of Tamils in Sri Lanka

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Chennai, Jun 6 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the issue of Tamils still living in transit camps in Sri Lanka during his meeting with the president of the island nation. In a letter to Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi said nearly 80,000 Tamils are still living in transit camps and they are awaiting rehabilitation measures by the Sri Lankan government.

“Those families who have been rehabilitated and settled elsewhere also be provided with economic development and justice-based reconciliation to work towards a permanent political settlement,” he said. He urged the prime minister to take up these issues during his meeting with Sri Lankan President at New Delhi on Tuesday “as a special agenda and impress upon him the need for earliest rehabilitation measures to Sri Lankan Tamils.

” Karunanidhi said Colombo had promised to rehabilitate all Sri Lankan Tamils living in transit camps before December 2009.

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PM’s trip to J-K: Army apprehends a suicide attack

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Army has sent messages warning of a suicide attack during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir but they have been found to be unsubstantiated by the state police and central security agencies.

The Army establishment in the Valley had pressed panic buttons by claiming that Lashker-e-Taiba commander Abdullah Unni was planning to carry out a suicide attack during Singh’s visit starting tomorrow, official sources said.

Communications were sent to the state as well as the Centre for shifting of the venue of the Prime Minister’s official engagements to Cantonment area, a proposal rejected by the state government.

The state police and the central security agencies sought the coordinates of the intercept of the terrorists by the Army, but it turned it down citing operational reasons, the sources said.

The state police had sought the CD of the conversation between the terrorists to get a voice sample of Abdullah Unni which was also not provided by the Army, they said.

There were other intercepts the Army has claimed to have picked up from the border in North Kashmir but none of them could be corroborated independently by the state or central security agencies, the sources said.

During the last visit of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to the state, Army had picked up two engineers who were planning to visit secretariat for attending a meeting.

Army intelligence had earlier also provided an input about the World Badminton championship in Hyderabad, which was later found to be incorrect.

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Trinamool to stay with UPA govt for full tenure: Mamata

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Making it clear that Trinamool Congress would remain a “trusted” ally of UPA government for its full tenure, party chief Mamata Banerjee has kept her cards close to her chest on an alliance with Congress for the West Bengal Assembly polls, saying that “nothing is closed”.

“I will speak on what is happening today. I will not speak about the future. We have gone to the people when all others had left us and they (people) have supported us. When opportunity comes in the future, we will speak. Nothing is closed,” Banerjee said in an interview after her party’s triumph in civic polls which it fought without a tie-up with the Congress.

“When the UPA-II government was formed, we as an ally made a commitment to remain in it for five years. We will stay unless we are pushed out,” Banerjee said.

55-year-old Banerjee, however, said, “those who are saying that we are not to be trusted, should understand that we are more trusted then anybody else. There cannot be comparison between our commitment and those of others. We only want love and respect.”

Stating that the Left parties were the main allies of the UPA-I before they quit on the nuclear deal issue, she said her party will remain in UPA-II “as long as CPI(M) is not there.

“If there are relations with the CPI(M) we cannot stay. We cannot co-exist with the CPI(M) just as and DMK and AIADMK cannot coexist,” the TC supremo, whose party is the second largest ally in the UPA with 19 MPs, said.

On her ties with the UPA, the Railway Minister said that there should be reciprocity “in the way we love and respect them. We also want a reciprocal gesture. We don’t want anything more than that.”

Describing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as “a good man and a gentleman”, she said, “We have got all his blessings and support. He is a good administrator. He has information about who is doing what.”

Asked about a senior Congress leader saying in the acrimonious run-up to the civic polls that alliance could not be made at the cost of the party, she said, “I respect senior leaders of the Congress.

“I have no comment. Anybody can make some comment. It is their prerogative and their choice.”

On suggestions by a section of Bengal Congress leaders that the party could not be written off because of the the civic poll outcome and was in a position for seat-sharing on honourable terms with the Trinamool for the 2011 assembly polls, she said, “They got the verdict of the people. The verdict itself speaks about performance.”

To a question on CPI(M) Politburo member Biman Bose’s statement that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would not step down and there was no question of advancing the assembly elections, she reiterated, “We are in favour of the early elections.

She accused the CPI(M) of raising the bogey of post-poll violence.

“If there was violence, it would have erupted within 72 hours,” she said when asked about CPI(M) statement that the chief minister had skipped the CPI(M) Politburo meeting in New Delhi to control post-poll violence in in the state.

“That there was no post-poll violence, credit should go to us since we have told our workers not to take out victory processions maintain restraint. By raising the bogey of violence, the ruling party is trying to instigate violence.”

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South African President meets President Patil

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, June 4 (ANI): South African President Jacob Zuma, who is on a three-day visit to India, met President Pratibha Devisingh Patil here on Friday.

The visiting President was accorded a ceremonial welcome with a guard of honour presented by the personnel of Indian defence forces in the presence of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and President Patil.

Addressing the media, President Zuma said the aim of his visit was to strengthen relations between the two countries.

“Well firstly to strengthen our relations as two countries. We do have very cordial and historic relations between India and South Africa,” he said.

President Zuma also visited Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, where he paid floral tribute.

The South African President, who is on his first official trip to Asia, arrived in New Delhi from Mumbai on Thursday.

He is accompanied by a high profile business delegation to promote and strengthen the historical and business ties between both countries. (ANI)

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India, US to discuss terror, Pak at strategic dialogue

May 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Continuing with their deepening ties, India and US will hold their first Strategic Dialogue next week and will discuss a plethora of issues, including the security situation in the region and cooperation in countering terrorism.

The Strategic Dialogue, to be held on June 3 in Washington, will cover 18 sectors, including energy and climate change, education and development, strategic cooperation and science and technology. The Indian side will be led by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna while US will be represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Strategic Dialogue will focus on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues of shared interest and common concern. It would give direction to the programmes currently under implementation and take initiatives to further the Indian and US developmental, security and economic interests, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said here on Sunday.

The two sides will discuss the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the issue of continuing support of terror groups by Islamabad is also expected to come up at the dialogue which will also lay the ground for President Barak Obama’s visit to India in November.

Interestingly, the dialogue will take place at a time when Indian investigators will be in the US to question David Coleman Headley.

It (the dialogue) will focus on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues of shared interest and common concern. It would give direction to the programmes currently under implementation and take initiatives to further the Indian and US developmental, security and economic interests, Prakash said.

The dialogue will be based on the joint statement that was issued after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Obama in Washington in November. Currently our interaction, our exchanges, our dialogue is being undertaken in eighteen areas comprising of five pillars of cooperation, under the Strategic Dialogue. These are: strategic cooperation; energy and climate change; education and development; economic, trade and agriculture; and lastly science, technology, health and innovation, the spokesperson said.

The two sides will also seek to operationalise the Obama-Singh Knowledge Initiative that aims at increasing University linkages, faculty exchanges and cooperation in the education sector. Talks will also be held on ways and means to increase cooperation in agricultural research, human resource capacity development and natural resource management.

The Indian delegation will include HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. From the US, National Security Adviser James Jones, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be present.

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Manmohan, Obama discuss global, regional issues

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Ahead of the first-ever strategic dialogue between their countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama had a telephonic conversation on Friday evening during which the two leaders discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest.

“The two leaders discussed the forthcoming strategic dialogue between the two countries scheduled next week in Washington,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, adding that both the sides attach great priority to the dialogue as a means to strengthen bilateral engagement on a wide range of issues including high technology trade, science and technology, civil nuclear cooperation, agriculture, human resource development, security and other strategic issues.

Foreign Minister S M Krishna will lead a high-level delegation comprising several Cabinet ministers to Washington where the strategic dialogue is scheduled from June 1 to 4. The US delegation would be headed by Krishna’s counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The other Cabinet ministers will have separate bilateral meetings with their respective counterparts. Amongst the items high on agenda is India’s request for removal of many of its scientific institutions belonging to the Department of Atomic Energy or Indian Space Research Organisation from an Entities’ List maintained by US authorities. Institutions included on this list require special authorisation to import dual-use high-technology items from the US.

The telephonic conversation between Singh and Obama comes just a day after the United States unveiled its National Security Strategy for this year that identified India as one of the “key centres of influence” and called for building a “strategic partnership” with New Delhi.

“The US and India are building a strategic partnership that is underpinned by our shared interests, our shared values as the world’s two largest democracies, and close connections among our people. India’s responsible advancement serves as a positive example for developing nations,,” the National Security Strategy document said.

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It’s a complex issue, says US of Headley access

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 29 (IANS) The US is cooperating with India ‘very closely on this critical and very complex issue’ of providing access to Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley, says a US official without committing whether New Delhi would get such access.

‘Let me just say on that that we are very pleased that the United States and India have been able to cooperate very closely on this critical and very complex issue,’ Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake told reporters Friday when asked about ‘one of the sticking points of India-US relations.’

‘And we continue to work very hard with our Indian counterparts to move forward on that. But I don’t have anything more to say. I’d just refer you to the Department of Justice for further comment,’ he said.

Asked if he couldn’t say in so many whether US was going to give access to India, Blake said: ‘I’m not in a position to.’

‘I don’t think it’s a sticking point. I think that we’ve got – again, we’ve got a good dialogue and I think we’ll work out a way forward,’ he added when asked if this was a sticking point ahead of the inaugural US-India strategic dialogue here next week.

However, an Indian diplomat insisted that India would get access to Headley soon as promised by President Barack Obama during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here last month.

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US not frustrated over delay in nuclear liability law

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 29 (IANS) The US says it’s not frustrated at the delay in India enacting the nuclear liability act to take their ‘win-win’ nuclear deal forward as it understands the ‘political resonance’ over it because of the Bhopal gas disaster.

‘I don’t think it’s taken that long,’ Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake told reporters Friday when asked if the US was frustrated at the delay which was coming in the way of US companies selling nuclear reactors to India.

‘India is a democracy and, like our own democracy, they have to work a bill first through their own cabinet system and then they have get a consensus within their own parliamentary system on this very, very important bill.’

‘And it has some political resonance in India because of the Bhopal disaster. So people obviously look at this very closely and they should. It deserves that kind of scrutiny.’

The passage of this legislation is a priority for the Indian government, he said, citing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks on the issue at his recent press conference.

‘And it’s a priority because it’s going to help the United States and other countries to deliver nuclear technology that will help to meet the energy needs of India’s fast-growing economy. And it will also help us because we’ll be able to substantially increase our exports, but also provide much needed new jobs in the United States.’

‘So we see this as a win-win for both of our countries,’ Blake said. ‘And we’re not frustrated. We trust Prime Minister Singh’s judgment on this. ‘And our main interest is in making sure that the legislation that is passed is compliant with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation, which is the international standard for such legislation.’

‘If passed, it would provide a very important legal protection and open the way for billions of dollars in American reactor exports and thousands of jobs,’ he said.

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US-India strategic dialogue to prepare ground for Obama visit

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 29 (IANS) The inaugural US-India strategic dialogue here next week would prepare the ground for President Barack Obama’s visit to India in autumn, say officials.

‘Let me just say that there has not been any change,’ Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake told reporters Friday asserting ‘the Obama Administration attaches great importance to our relations with India.’

‘As President Obama himself has said, this will be one of our signature partnerships in the 21st century,’ he said pointing to the fact that Obama had invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the first state visit of his administration last November ‘to reaffirm the importance that we attach to our relations with India.’

‘One of the purposes of the strategic dialogue is to think through what are the big, new opportunities and where are the big areas of cooperation,’ Blake said suggesting sceptics perceptions would be best addressed ‘just by delivering results and by showing, in a concrete way, all of the various things that we’re doing.’

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lead a team of ministers and officials at the June 2-3 dialogue covering a wide range of areas, including high technology trade, science & technology, civil nuclear cooperation, agriculture, human resource development, security and other strategic issues.

After the dialogue ‘there will be deliverables’ Blake said. But ‘the purpose of this dialogue is really to think strategically and, again, to get the key people who work on these issues together to think ahead to the President’s visit and to think strategically about what we can do.’

Among the global and regional issues the situation in Afghanistan Pakistan region would be the key focus area. The two sides will also talk about Iran as ‘the United States and India both share a concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and both of us are opposed to any kind of nuclear arms for Iran.’

On the bilateral front, ‘we have 18 separate dialogues underway between the United States and India to really try to capture the full scope of the opportunities ahead of us,’ Blake said.

Tone for the discussions was set by Obama’s phone call Friday to Manmohan Singh when the ‘leaders agreed that the Dialogue is an important milestone in the development of the US-India strategic partnership and looked forward to its results.’

Obama and Singh ‘also expressed their hope that the Dialogue will initiate a regular exchange of ideas and discussion between their governments and both pledged their support toward that end,’ according to a White House readout of the call.

The dialogue gets underway June 2 with the 35th annual meeting of the US-India Business Council, while Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and US Under Secretary of Political Affairs Bill Burns ‘will oversee a very wide-ranging foreign policy dialogue that will cover Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East, probably China, and many other topics.’

The main strategic dialogue on June 3 chaired by Clinton and Krishna will be ‘about not so much what we’ve accomplished, but to look ahead about what we can accomplish, and particularly look ahead to the President’s visit sometime this fall to India,’ Blake said.

On the Indian side, Krishna will be joined by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan and other top officials.

On the US side, Clinton will be joined by National Security Advisor James Jones, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, FBI Director Robert Mueller and the USAID Director Rajiv Shah.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

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Food inflation down at 16.23%

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The country’s food inflation declined marginally after rising for two consecutive weeks. It came down to to 16.23% for the week which ended on May 15 on cheaper food grains and vegetables, from 16.49% reported in the previous week.

However, the food inflation has been above the 16% mark for the fifth straight week due to costlier fruits and vegetables. The marginal fall was mainly due to a 4% slide in masur prices, 2% fall in fruits &vegetable each, and 0.20% decline in prices of cereals and pulses over the week. Non-food articles also saw a decline in prices. Cotton seed prices fell by 2% and raw rubber and mustard seed by 1% each. However, the prices of tea rose by 9% t, that of mutton by 5% t, and urad and spices by 1% each.

Analysts and experts have been anticipating food inflation to fall after the good rabi yield and expectation of normal monsoon.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen have already said that due to better rabi yield, the food inflation could fall to single digit number by October.

An analysis by FE early this week showed that barring a minor increase in wheat price in Ahmedabad and potato price in Chennai and Mumbai, prices of most major food items across all main cities in the country either remained flat or dropped by a few rupees

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58 per cent willing to accept LoC as permanent border

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Jammu, May 28 — A myth has been exploded that the people in Kashmir were against making Line of Control as permanent border between two parts of Jammu and Kashmir. A survey by a UK based think tank has discovered that 58 per cent of the people were in favour of that.

Those surveyed on either side of the 744-km LoC that divides the Himalayan state between India and Pakistan said that the LoC be made a permanent border, but with lot of relaxation on the borderline. Robert Bradrock, a visiting senior research fellow at King’s College, London in his study, “Kashmir: Paths to Peace “for Chatham House, where he works as an associate fellow, that a majority of the people were in favour of the LoC being made permanent border.

“Overall, a majority of the total population, 58 per cent were prepared to accept the LoC as a permanent border if it could be liberalized for people and/or trade to move across it freely, and a further 27 per cent were in favour of it in its current form.” This survey vindicates Kashmir leaders like Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, who since 1990s has been advocating the line.

He has been pleading for making the LoC as a permanent border. Farooq’s argument all along has been that “converting the LoC into a permanent border was the best solution to Kashmir crisis.

” It had also formed a critical part of former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf’s four point formula on Kashmir-making the borders irrelevant. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had proposed of LoC merely a “line on the map”.

The study which addressed a series of questions, including the approach of the people of this state toward becoming independent, joining India or Pakistan, found out from among 3,774 respondents on both sides of the LoC..

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Monsoon makes no headway in 6 days – govt

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

India’s annual monsoon, which is vital for farm and economic growth, has not advanced for the past six days after bringing rains to a far-flung island three days ahead of normal, weather officials said on Thursday.

Monsoon winds were weak, and may need up to two days to strengthen, D. Sivananda Pai, director of the National Climate Center in Pune, told Reuters over phone.

India Meteorological Department has forecast the June-September monsoon would hit the mainland on May 30 in Kerala.

“It is already raining in Kerala but we are waiting for certain characteristics of monsoon,” Pai said.

The rains reached the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on May 17, two days ahead of schedule, before moving to many parts of the Bay of Bengal in the following week.

The progress has not been swift since then due to last week’s cyclone Laila on India’s east coast.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government is banking heavily on monsoon rains, which irrigate 60 percent of the country’s farms, to calm food prices that soared after last year’s driest season in nearly four decades.

The government, which was voted back to power by a bigger mandate from the rural poor last year, is facing severe criticism due to high prices, especially of food. (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

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AI staff calls off strike as govt threatens action

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A section of Air India (AI) staff called off their strike late on Wednesday following a warning from the government of stern action and the Delhi High Court terming the agitation illegal earlier in the day. The two-day flash strike by the airline’s ground staff crippled the carrier’s operation with at least 130 flights either cancelled or delayed on Wednesday.

The high court has also restrained employees from going on strike from May 31, which the airline unions had decided to protest against delay in payment of salaries.

The National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, is estimated to have lost about Rs 10 crore in the two-day flash strike. The airline has suspended 16 and sacked 17 employees with immediate effect in its bid to deal strongly with the employees.

“The employees’ demand was completely unreasonable. Their action has hugely damaged the airline’s reputation,” an Air India official said.

While the civil aviation minister Praful Patel gave free hand to the airline management to deal with striking employees, the Delhi High Court restrained Air India employees from continuing with the strike which caused losses to the airline and inconvenienced passengers.

Patel who apprised the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Cabinet of the situation at Air India called for strong and decisive action against employees.

“Absolutely irresponsible behaviour like this needs strong action. No one can take law into their own hands,” the minister told reporters.

Nearly 10,000 employees represented by Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) resorted to a flash strike on Tuesday alleging that the company management was restricting their freedom of speech by issuing a ‘gag order’.

The airline management has denied that it issued any order stopping union members to air their views. The employee agitation came at a time when Air India struggled to come out of the fallout of an Air India Express flight crash which killed 158 passenger out of 166 in the weekend. Besides, the airline has been facing one of the worst financial crisis in its history with an accumulated loss of over Rs 12,000 crore.

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Home proposes caste count after Census

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Union Home Ministry has said that the best time to go for a caste-based headcount, if there is a decision to that effect, would be after tabulation of Census figures and during the biometric capture phase when photographing, fingerprinting and iris mapping of citizens for the National Population Register (NPR) is done.

The ministry has given its view in an amended note that will be put up for discussion before the Cabinet on Wednesday. The ministry had vehemently opposed caste-based census in an earlier note. The new note also reflects the realisation, in the backdrop of the recent debate in Parliament on the issue, that there is a wider political constituency favouring it.

At his press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that a decision on caste census would be taken by the Cabinet after taking note of the opinion expressed during the Parliament debate.

The note for the Cabinet states that the caste data collected will be anonymised, i.e. anonymity will be preserved like in the case of AIDS screenings. It has, though, suggested that this job be entrusted to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs or be examined by an expert group. The reason, it says, is neither the Census Commission of India (CCI) nor the Office of the Registrar General (ORG) has the expertise to classify caste returns in such manner.

The MHA note poses two questions for the perusal of Cabinet ministers. One, whether the policy decision of not collecting and publishing data on castes other than SC and ST should be reversed and a question on caste be included in the questionnaire for Census 2011 to be conducted from February 9 to 28. And two, whether the question on caste should be taken up when biometrics — photographing, iris mapping and fingerprinting — is done.

“On balance, if a decision is to canvass question of caste, the best time to do so is during the biometric capture phase of National Population Register as headcount will be completed by then,” the note says. Since everyone who is above 15 years will have to be present at the camps where the biometrics will be taken, taking their caste details would be easier, it says. Details of all those below the age of 15 could be taken from the head of the household.

Although the government is yet to announce a schedule for collection of biometric data, it is obvious from the note that the exercise will be done only after completion of Census 2011.

Listing the advantages and disadvantages on having a caste census, the note says that such an exercise will make available socio-economic, demographic and cultural profile of citizens. The complexities, however, are that there are two OBC lists — one of the state and of the Centre. Seven states, including Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, it points out, do not have OBC lists.

There would be difficulty in establishing status of migrants belonging to OBCs who move from state to state and enumerators could face further problems in complex entries like Dhobis in Delhi, Kohli in Maharashtra and Patwa in Uttar Pradesh, who are part of both OBC as well as SC lists.

The note poses queries on how Muslims and Christians, who did not believe in the caste system, would be tabulated. It further says that many people use caste, clan and gotra names interchangeably and putting them together would be a tall order.

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