IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – April 6th, 2009

by on August 11, 2009

IN THIS ISSUE

NEWS HEADLINES

OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

NEWS HEADLINES

MODIS GUJARAT TOPS LIST OF COMPLAINTS ON COMMUNAL VIOLENCE, SAYS NHRC (APR 3, 2009, EXPRESS INDIA)

Gujarat has topped the list of states in the country with regard to complaints of communal violence, followed by Uttar Pradesh, according to NHRC figures. Of the total 324 complaints relating to communal violence in the country received by the NHRC since January 2008, 72 are from Gujarat. This accounts for about 22 per cent of the total complaints received by NHRC so far.

Second in the list is Uttar Pradesh, where the NHRC figures reveal a total of 58 complaints of communal violence being filed in the same period. Maharastra, Tamil Nadu and Orissa follow close behind with 30 complaints each.

NHRC statistics also show that there were no complaints from some states like Himachal Pradesh, Megalaya and Sikkim, and Union Territories, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, and Puducherry.

http://www.expressindia.com/story_print.php?storyId=442466

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MODI DEVOTEE BARRED FROM POLL DUTY (APR 5, 2009, INDIAN EXPRESS)

Amreli District Collector D G Jhalavadia, who had hit the headlines in May last year for touching Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s feet at a public function, has been removed from election duty for the Lok Sabha polls. The Election Commission of India (EC) took this step following a strong representation by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC). A senior official in the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said on Saturday that the EC faxed a letter to the state chief secretary in the evening, ordering that Jhalavadia be removed from poll duty. The Commission has asked the chief secretary to suggest a panel of three IAS officers out of whom one could be selected to replace Jhalavadia as the Amreli collector.

Jay Narayan Vyas, state minister and BJP spokesperson, had later defended him, saying he is a fair man. He even pointed out that Jhalavadia had recently issued notices to Agriculture Minister Dilip Sanghani for violating the Model Code of Conduct. Modhwadia told Newsline that at one point of time, the BJP was even considering the name of Jhalavadia to contest the Amreli Lok Sabha seat. The controversial collector had, however, turned down the offer, saying he still has a long time to spend in the civil services.

Earlier in its representation, the GPCC had drawn the attention of the EC to the incident wherein Jhalavadia had reportedly touched the feet of Modi and even vacated a chair for him after receiving a Rs 1-crore cheque for the development of the district. The event was organised to celebrate the Gujarat Foundation Day on May 1, 2008 at Amreli town. Apart from ministers and bureaucrats, state BJP top brass was also present on the dais when the incident occurred.

The Congress had also complained about the "proximity" of the 1998-batch IAS officer to the ruling BJP. Hailing from a village in Una taluka of neighbouring Junagadh district, Jhalavadia, promoted from the state services, had served as collector in Narmada and Kheda districts before coming to Amreli.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story_print.php?storyid=443234

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CONGRESS SAYS ADVANI IS THE REAL CULPRIT (MAR 30, 2009, THE HINDU)

The Congress trained its guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani on the Varun Gandhi hate speech episode on Sunday, alleging that he was the "real culprit." "Varun is a small pawn in the whole game. The real culprit is Mr. Advani for this philosophy and thinking," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said in the context of Mr. Gandhi’s alleged anti-Muslim speeches. Attacking Mr. Advani for maintaining that the party’s decision to field Mr. Gandhi from Pilibhit was correct, Mr. Singhvi alleged that he supported Mr. Gandhi and never denounced his statements.

Senior Congress leader and Union Minister Kapil Sibal said Mr. Gandhi was a "minor player" in the whole controversy and that the conspirators and co-conspirators who stood to gain were "Advani and his party." Another party leader Digvijay Singh said, "It was sad to see that Varun had been made a pawn by the BJP, the RSS and the VHP and his inflammatory speeches were being written by people like VHP leader Parveen Togadia to divide voters on religious lines."

Responding to Mr. Advani’s remarks that this was the first time in the last 60 years that the Election Commission recommended to a party not to field a candidate, Mr. Sibal said "no statement has been ever made in the past 60 years like the one given by Varun." Mr. Sibal also alleged that Mr. Gandhi is "10 steps ahead of [Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra] Modi."

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/30/stories/2009033058421200.htm

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BJP TO PLAY COMMUNAL CARD IN KANDHAMAL DISTRICT (APR 4, 2009, THE HINDU)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to evoke frenzy in Kandhamal district over the murder of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati during the election campaign. It became clear when the president of the BJP, Rajnath Singh, also made it his major electoral plank during his campaign meeting at Baliguda in Kandhamal district on Thursday. It may be noted that the BJP has fielded Ashok Sahu, the leader of the Hindu Jagran Sammukhya (HJS), as its candidate for the Phulbani Lok Sabha seat, the only Parliamentary constituency of Kandhamal district.

During his electoral speech at Baliguda, Mr. Singh has already promised to order for a CBI enquiry to track down the real conspirators behind the gruesome murder of the VHP leader. He reiterated that he would never come down to face the public in Kandhamal district if he failed to keep this promise. Mr. Singh also criticised Chief Minster Naveen Patnaik for his alleged callousness towards the murder of the VHP leader, which according to him had hurt the sentiments of the majority community in Orissa. He claimed that he himself had regularly phoned up Mr. Patnaik urging him to take strict measures to nab the culprits behind the murder of the seer. But Mr. Patnaik preferred to sideline the issue, he alleged.

The BJP has also fielded a candidate who is now in jail for his alleged involvement in the rioting in Kandhamal district that followed the murder of the VHP leader. He is Manoj Kumar Pradhan, who is fighting the election from Baliguda Assembly seat on BJP ticket. The BJP president defended his candidature by saying Pradhan was only an undertrial prisoner, while several other parties were fielding candidates who were convicted and spent years in jail. The sitting BJP MLA of Baliguda, Karendra Majhi, was denied ticket to accommodate undertrial prisoner Pradhan.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/04/stories/2009040451110300.htm

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MUSLIMS OBJECT TO CHIDAMBARAMS REMARK ON JAIPUR BLASTS (MAR 29, 2009, THE HINDU)

Muslim groups in Rajasthan have taken strong exception to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram declaring here earlier this week that the May 13, 2008, Jaipur serial blasts case has been solved. They have advised him to restrain himself until the charges framed and evidence collected by the police are proved in the court. Mr. Chidambaram had claimed during his visit to review the internal security situation here this past Tuesday that the blasts case stood resolved with the arrest of three persons and the trial in the court would start at the earliest. He also sought to link the case with the controversial Batla House encounter in Delhi on September 19 last year.

The Rajasthan Muslim Forum – an apex organisation of Muslim groups in the State – described Mr. Chidambaram’s observations as "premature, preposterous and unwarranted" and charged that his "boastful claim" was aimed at exploiting the majority community’s sentiments in the run-up to the coming Lok Sabha elections. "It is shocking that the newly installed Congress-led Government in Rajasthan has given an open approval to the investigations into the blasts by the State police to serve the communal agenda of the ousted BJP regime and has not made any effort to review the probe," said Muslim Forum convenor Qari Moinuddin in a statement on Saturday.

The Muslim Forum expressed scepticism over Mr. Chidambaram’s claim that the two "terrorists" killed in the Batla House encounter were part of the terror group that executed the Jaipur blasts in which 70 people were killed. "The Batla House episode itself is shrouded in mystery and has raised a number of unanswered questions, while the UPA Government at the Centre has rejected the demand for a high-level judicial inquiry into it," said the Forum. The Muslim groups affirmed that the real culprits of the terror attacks in Jaipur as well as at the Ajmer dargah on October 11, 2007, were still at large and lamented that innocent Muslim youngsters – mostly from Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh – had been jailed under "concocted charges".

Other signatories to the statement included Jamat-e-Islami Hind State president Mohammed Salim, Tahaffuz-e-Auqaf Committee chairman and CPI (M) leader Waqar-ul-Ahad, and All India Milli Council State secretary Shaukat Qureshi. The Muslim leaders regretted that even Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had concurred with Mr. Chidambaram’s observations and made a similar claim about "success of the State police" at a meeting of Chief Ministers on internal security in Delhi recently.

Mr. Salim said the Muslim groups firmly believed that all the three accused – Mohammed Saif arrested from L-18 flat of Batla House, computer shop owner Shahbaz Ahmed picked up from Lucknow and electronics engineer Mohammed Sarvar arrested in Madhya Pradesh – were innocent and had no connection with the Jaipur blasts: "The real culprits, who are roaming free, must be mocking at the system and preparing for further attacks." The Muslim Forum expressed surprise at Mr. Chidambaram’s silence on the progress of investigation into the Ajmer dargah blast case, even though the interrogation of some of the accused in the Malegaon blast case of Maharashtra had clearly indicated their involvement in the Ajmer incident that claimed three lives.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/29/stories/2009032959740500.htm

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CBI GIVES CLEAN CHIT TO JAGDISH TYTLER IN 1984 RIOTS CASE (APR 2, 2009, HINDUSTAN TIMES)

The CBI gave a clean chit to former Union minister and senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikhs riots case. Seeking cancellation of the FIR registered against Tytler, the CBI counsel told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit: "We have filed the cancellation report in the matter and want to close the investigation."

According to a source in the CBI, while cross-examining Jasbir Singh, a key witness in the case, the investigating officials found that his statement was unreliable. Singh had recorded his statement before the CBI officers in California in the case. "All the witnesses in the case have altered their statements during the investigations. We could not find any evidence to link Tytler with the killing of Sikhs," said the source.

H S Phoolka, counsel for Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, vehemently opposed the final report filed by the CBI. "The CBI has manipulated the investigations to protect Tytler from criminal proceedings and even provided him a copy before it could be produced in the court," Phoolka submitted in the court. Phoolka asserted that he should be allowed to inspect the report as there was no complainant in the case and it was registered on the information of a police inspector.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=bafc71f9-8aeb-4a80-a030-fc1a6f3e3894

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PAWAR BRINGS IN MALEGAON, BLAMES RSS (MAR 30, 2009, INDIAN EXPRESS)

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday accused the RSS of involvement in the 2006 Nanded blast. "The RSS was involved in Nanded blast

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