Of Murders, Massacres, Ministers and Mongrel Minstrels
Sid Harth
Harin Pathak may be asked to go
By Bhaskar Roy
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: A question mark looms large over the continuation of
minister of state for defence Harin Pathak, after Prime Minister
Vajpayee asked law minister Arun Jaitley to study the chargesheet
against him in a 1985 case of murders and attempted murders.
The reason the PM did not seek a legal opinion from the attorney-
general was perhaps because he wanted to assess the seriousness of the
judicial indictment at a political level, a source said.
While a Samata Party spokesman denied defence minister George
Fernandes' meeting with the PM in this regard, BJP vice-president Jana
Krishnamurthy on Friday left for Ahmedabad to consult state party
functionaries and collect inputs about the fallout of the case.
There is an apprehension in BJP circles that the Congress and other
opposition parties are going to raise the issue in Parliament during
the coming winter session. There are indications that given the
seriousness of the charges and precedents of ministers quitting in the
face of less grave charges, Pathak may be given the marching order.
A senior BJP functionary said that the PM was unlikely to overlook the
charges keeping in view their sensitive nature and the fodder they
would provide to the opposition during the winter session.
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/11indi20.htm
Left, Congress say indicted BJP ministers should go
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: The Left parties joined the Congress on Friday in demanding
the resignation of minister of state for defence production Hiren
Pathak and Gujarat health minister Ashok Bhatt, who have been framed on
charges of murder and rioting in an Ahmedabad court.
In a statement here the CPM politburo said it is necessary that the two
ministers resign immediately to facilitate proper conduct of the case.
Stating that the charges relate to an incident in 1985, the CPM said,
``It is shameful that the BJP leadership was trying to justify their
continuance even after proceedings had been initiated against them.''
The CPI too sought the resignation of the two ministers, saying they
``should not be allowed to continue in office'' after having been
framed. ``But the BJP-led NDA coalition is not expected to observe such
moral standards,'' the party central secretariat said in a statement.
``People's pressure must be built for dismissal of not only Harin
Pathak but all those ministers who are facing criminal charges in
various courts, including home minister L.K. Advani and human resource
development minister Murli Manohar Joshi who have been chargesheeted in
Babri Masjid demolition case,'' the statement added.
The Congress said the BJP, which is always preaching value-based
politics, is setting new standards in public life by shielding the two
indicted ministers.
In a scathing attack on the BJP, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi
Azad said the BJP leadership's stand that Pathak and Bhatt were not
involved in any corruption case and that the incident related to the
anti-reservation movement was unacceptable. His party would raise the
issue in the coming session of Parliament, Azad said and asked whether
the BJP's proposed review of the Constitution would also turn the
Indian Penal Code upside down and delete the section on murder. If the
BJP is of the view that a corruption case is more heinous than a
murder, criminals will escape after committing murders, Azad stressed.
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/11indi43.htm
</cgi-bin/mailpg.cgi> </cgi-bin/mailpg.cgi>Dissent rears its head as
Swamy expands ministry
The Times of India News Service
DEHRA DUN: The Uttaranchal government's first day in office began on a
note of dissent with a dozen legislators keeping away from the swearing-
in ceremony on Friday. Even as the Nityanand Swamy ministry was
expanded with the induction of nine ministers, including five of
Cabinet rank, three ministers-designate did not turn up for the oath.
According to sources they were unhappy for not having being considered
for either the Cabinet rank of deputy chief ministership.
Others, sources said, felt let down by chief minister Nityananda Swamy
for not inducting them into his ministry.
The undercurrent of dissidence observed during the election of Swami as
BJP legislature party leader came to the fore in full force on Friday
afternoon with minister-designates not appearing for the swearing-in
and their supporters raising slogans against the chief minister.
The drama unfolded in front of hundreds of guests when two prominent
leaders - Ramesh Chandra Pokhriyal, former Cabinet minister in the
Uttar Pradesh government and strong contender for the chief minister's
post and Bhagat Singh Koshyari, MLC and another contender for the chief
minister's post - did not show up on stage. Both of them were to be
sworn in as Cabinet ministers. They later held a closed-door meeting in
the local BJP office with a dozen unhappy MLAs, whose supporters were
raising slogans outside displaying their anger.
It was decided at the meeting that grievances of those MLAs who are
``dissatisfied'' with the expansion would be conveyed to the party high
command. And that matters pertaining to further expansion of the
ministry would be left to the party high command.
Besides Pokhriyal and Koshyari, other legislators closeted in the BJP
office at Rajpur road included Tilak Raj Behad, Raghunath Singh
Chauhan, Harbans Kapoor, Gyan Chandra, Prakash Pant, Lakhi Ram Joshi,
Narain Ram Das, K C Punetha and B S Chufal.
As soon as the swearing-in ceremony was over, a group of supporters of
Dehra Dun and Mussoorie legislators, Harbans Kapoor and Rajendra Shah
respectively, began raising slogans condemning the decision taken by
the chief minister.
Sources close to the dissenters said the unhappy MLAs had expressed
their displeasure to the party high- command in Delhi.
Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala administered oath to eight Cabinet and
four ministers of state on Friday at the Parade Grounds where both the
Governor and the chief minister took oath of office on Wednesday mid-
night.
The ministers are: Kedar Singh Fonia, Matbar Singh Kandari, Ajay Bhatt,
Mohan Singh Gamwasi and Bansidhar Bhagat, (all Cabinet rank), N S Rana,
Nirupama Gaur, Suresh Chandra Arya, Teerath Singh Rawat (all ministers
of state).
Former UP minister Narain Ram Das who was made a minister of state did
not take the oath of office.
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5 Dalits massacred in Bihar
PATNA: At least five Dalits were hacked to death by some unidentified
criminals near Binsa village in Bihar's Nalanda district on Thursday
night.
The police said here on Friday that the criminals armed with lethal
weapons attacked the villagers and hacked five people to death. Sources
said that the deceased were all Dalits and supporters of the CPI(ML).
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/11indi7.htm
`History the RSS way'
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: Before avenging the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat
Singh, the revolutionary icon, had met RSS founder K.B.Hedgewar in
Nagpur. Another revolutionary, Rajguru, became an RSS swayamsevak when
he was at Bhonsle Vedshala in Nagpur. After the assassination of
British police officer Sanders, they escaped safely from Lahore.
Hedgewar arranged for Rajguru to hide at RSS worker Bhaiya Dani's farm
house at Umred. And then, Hedgewar founded the RSS to achieve the
country's freedom. This is history as the RSS wants to propagate it.
As part of the Sangh's ``national awareness campaign'', its Delhi unit,
on Friday, issued nine pamphlets at a press conference which would be
distributed to 25 lakh families in the Capital in a month's time. What
the RSS claims about Bhagat Singh and Rajguru are extracts from the
pamphlet National Movement and the Sangh.
There is more of it: That Balaji Huddar, the then all-India general
secretary of the RSS, was part of the 1932 Balaghat treasury raid in
which Bagha Jatin alias Jatindra Nath and his followers were killed.
While Mahatma Gandhi was breaking the salt laws in Dandi, Hedgewar was
breaking ``jungle laws'' in Madhya Bharat. And that, the RSS volunteers
had taken part in the Quit India Movement by establishing a ``parallel
government'' in the Ashti-Chimoor area of Vidarbha.
Fleeing the British secret police and the Communists, Jaya Prakash
Narain and Aruna Asaf Ali took refuge at Delhi Sanghchalak Hansraj
Gupta's house. Achyut Patwardhan and Saney Guruji had made Pune
Sanghchalak Bhausaheb Deshmukh's house their centre of activities. At a
Nagpur secret meeting, in September 1943, the possible role of Sangh
when Subhash Bose's INA reaches India was discussed.
History as it is? ``Simply unthinkable,'' remarked A.G.Noorani, who has
written Bhagat Singh's well-researched and authoritative biography,
when the Times of India contacted him. ``So devoted was Bhagat Singh to
Lala Lajpat Rai that he decided to kill Lala's murderer, Sanders. Yet,
he criticised Lala harshly when Lala turned communal and broke away
from him,'' Noorani said.
``Bhagat Singh's whole outlook was anti-thetical to that of the RSS.
Bhagat Singh's diaries are now available for any research scholar. This
is of a piece with the RSS denouncing Gandhi with Advani denying he is
the father of the nation and Golwalkar denouncing Gandhi in all his
writings, and the RSS claiming lately that GAndhi was pro-RSS and the
RSS pro-Gandhi,'' Noorani said.
Noted historian Prof Suhas Chakravorty, commenting on the RSS version
of the freedom struggle, said: ``Rajguru and Bhagat Singh were studying
Stalin and Marx those days, so it should mean that Hedgewar too was
inclined towards Marxism. Whereas in 1933, Dr Hedgewar's associate Dr
Munje was in Mussolini's camp. The RSS wanted the British to continue
with their if it helped them spread Hindutva.''
Well, irrespective of what others may say, from November 12 to December
12 some 30,000 RSS volunteers will flood Delhi households with their
version of Indian history and seven other pamphlets.
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