NEW DELHI: Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Sunday met former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the latter's residence here.
Singh, who was a Cabinet minister under Vajpayee's government, drove to the ailing BJP patriarch's Krishna Menon marg residence this afternoon.
"I came here to wish Vajpayeeji on the occasion of Ganseh Chaturthi," Singh told reporters after the meeting.
This is Singh's first meeting with a senior BJP leader after he was expelled from the party earlier this week for praising Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his book "Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence".
Singh had yesterday met his former Cabinet colleague and JD (U) leader George Fernandes.
Jaswant Singh has been having an uneasy relationship with the party leadership ever since BJP's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections on which he had circulated a note demanding thorough discussion.
One more BJP exit — Atal, Advani’s aide Kulkarni
New Delhi: Admitting that he had come to the “painful realisation” that he could no longer “meaningfully” contribute to the BJP, Sudheendra Kulkarni announced today that after 13 years as a full-time party activist — during which he worked as a close aide of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and then led L K Advani’s 2009 campiagn — he had decided to “end my active association with the party”.
Citing “ideological differences with the BJP as it stands today,” Kulkarni said in a signed statement: “I shall, however, continue to be its well-wisher.”
Kulkarni, incidentally, had stepped down as an office-bearer in 2005 — in the wake of Advani’s Jinnah controversy — and then sent a letter to Advani calling for “recasting” the RSS-BJP relationship, distancing the party from extremist elements and solving the “organisational disarray.” These issues have come back to haunt the party after the expulsion of Jaswant Singh in Shimla.
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After the election defeat in 2009, Kulkarni had written that the “BJP and Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani... look weak, helpless and not fully in command,” criticised Varun Gandhi’s speech and underlined how allies had drifted away after the Gujarat riots.
In his statement today, Kulkarni said: “I was attracted to the BJP because of twin factors. First was my disillusionment with the Indian communist movement, where I first cut my teeth as a political activist. I found answers to many of my questions in ‘Integral Humanism’, the philosophical treatise authored by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, the ideological guru of the BJP and one of the greatest political thinkers of modern India. The second factor was the inspiring personalities of Shri Advani and Shri Vajpayee, who embodied high ideals.”
India behind Lanka's victory over LTTE: Book
NEW DELHI: Even as it publicly refused to give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons for the war against LTTE, India had a "hidden hand" in the success of the island nation's campaign over the terrorist outfit, says a new book.
Although in the initial days he was advised to seek a negotiated settlement with the Tamil Tigers, New Delhi saw merit in Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's argument that the LTTE was only biding its time to regroup and rearm itself and that war was inevitable sooner than later, says 'Sri Lanka, From War to Peace', by journalist Nitin Gokhale.
Defence and Strategic Affairs Editor with NDTV, Gokhale covered the 33-month Eelam War in Sri Lanka.
The Mi-17s that India 'quietly gifted' to Lanka were in addition to a Sukanya class offshore patrol vessel also gifted by the Indian Coast Guard to the Sri Lankan Navy in 2002. The choppers played a major role in several daring missions launched by the Sri Lankan Air Force to rescue the army's deep penetration units and injured soldiers from deep inside LTTE-held territory, the book says.
"Hampered by domestic compulsion, New Delhi could not go beyond such meagre and clandestine transfer of military hardware. Publicly all India was willing to acknowledge was the supply of low-flying detection "Indra" radars to the Sri Lankan Air Force since this equipment was considered a defensive apparatus," the author says.
Gokhale quotes senior Sri Lankan army officers saying that thanks to the Mi-17s, the soldiers operating behind enemy lines functioned with a greater degree of confidence since they knew these choppers were always at hand to come to their rescue whenever necessary. This surely was the key factor in our Special Forces delivering spectacular results.
Not wanting to annoy its Tamil Nadu allies like the DMK unnecessarily, New Delhi had a 'politically most important message' conveyed to Colombo to try and conclude the war against the LTTE (called Eelam War IV) before the summer of 2009 when India was expected to hold the general elections, Gokhale says.
"The Rajapakse regime was nothing if not shrewd". Aware of dynamics that determined India's Lankan policies, it was also conscious of India's anxiety in losing strategic space in Sri Lanka. The Rajapakse brothers were pragmatic enough to realize that Lanka needed India's support in war against the LTTE, total support from China and Pakistan notwithstanding".
Colombo could ignore India but only upto a point, the author says.
So Mahinda Rajapakse hit upon an idea of an informal exchange mechanism between New Delhi and Colombo. He nominated both his brothers - Basil (MP and Presidential advisor) and Gotabaya, the Defence Secretary along with his own secretary Lalith Weeratunga.
India too reciprocated immediately. The Indian team comprised National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh.
Colombo may have been ambivalent about meeting Indian requests to end the operations before the general elections but the Sri Lankan leadership once again gratefully acknowledged the Indian Navy's contribution in locating and destroying at least 10 'floating warehouses' owned by the LTTE that were used by the Tigers to store arms, ammunition and even armoured personnel carriers.
Well-coordinated operations by the two navies between 2006 and 2009 actually broke the backbone of the Sea Tigers, Gokhale says.
Also, under an agreement between the two countries, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard frequently sent out ships to patrol the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. Presence of warships and Indian patrol vessels acted as firm deterrence against the Sea Tigers, the book says.
The book also notes the transformation of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Navy into lethal forces that played vital roles in victory over the LTTE. "The Sri Lankan Air Force had indeed come a long way from its inglorious days in the 1990s when it lost three aircraft to the LTTE's ground fire in the assault on Jaffna".
"What is not so well known is that the Sri Lankan Air Force jets almost killed Prabhakaran in one of the air raids on his hideout in Puththukudirippu. But as luck would have it, Prabhakaran had left the base minutes before the bombs rained on the target," the book says.
Gokhale also says that if the Indians quietly helped the Sri Lankan Navy transform itself, the Lankan Air Force got a big boost from the Chinese and the Pakistanis. Pakistani personnel helped the Lankans in training and maintenance while the Chinese supplied them with vital equipment at a critical time. The Chinese gifted four F7 GS fighter planes which are the most sophisticated jets in Sri Lanka's arsenal today with in-built air interception radar and carry four heat seeking missiles, he says.
After a successful campaign against the LTTE, President Rajapakse's biggest challenge would be to win the peace by sparking reconciliation between its majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil ethnic populations, healing a rift that looks unbridgeable, Gokhale says. Rajapakse will have to restore to their homes and livelihoods some 300,000 Tamils in the North who fled the fighting only to be housed in camps.
"President Rajapakse and his team must avoid triumphalism to spoil the enormous goodwill that they have earned by winning the war. They must ensure that the death of one Prabhakaran does not lead to birth of another. Therein lies Mahinda Rajapakse's test," the book says.
H1N1 pandemic: 48-year-old dies of Swine Flu in Vadodara
New Delhi:A 48-year-old man succumbed to Swine Flu at the SSG hospital here this morning, pushing the total number of H1N1 deaths in Gujarat to six. Hasmukh Hingu was admitted to the government-run hospital on August 20 with respiratory distress syndrome and had been in a critical stage since then, Dipesh Duttaroy, in-charge superintendent of the hospital said.
Hingu tested positive for Swine Flu yesterday, Duttaroy added. With this, the nation-wide toll from H1N1 pandemic has risen to 64, hospital authorities said.
Pakistan Taliban name new leader
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban announced a successor to slain commander Baitullah Mehsud, but intelligence officials said on Sunday it was probably a smokescreen meant to hold together a movement left leaderless for almost three weeks.
Taliban officials rang journalists in northwest Pakistan on Saturday to say Hakimullah Mehsud, a young militant who commands fighters in the Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram tribal regions, had been chosen as the new chief by a leadership council, or shura.
Western governments with troops in Afghanistan are watching to see if any new Pakistani Taliban leader would shift focus from fighting the Pakistani government and put the movement's weight behind the Afghan insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.
A BBC report quoted Faqir Mohammad, head of the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal region, as saying Hakimullah was selected.
Tribal elders told Reuters that Hakimullah was named after Faqir Mohammad was dissuaded from taking the leadership, although earlier he had said he was taking temporary command.
"There's confusion. Two days ago, Fariq Mohammad claimed he's acting chief and now he says Hakimullah is," one senior intelligence officer in northwest Pakistan said. "It's a trick."
Intelligence officials insisted Hakimullah was killed or gravely wounded in a shootout with a rival days after Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a U.S. missile strike on Aug. 5.
"The announcement is real, but the man isn't," the officer said. "The real Hakimullah is dead."
Another senior officer, who requested anonymity, speculated that the Taliban leadership was trying to buy time until one of Hakimullah's brothers returned from fighting in the Afghan insurgency to take command of his men.
Verifying anything in the Taliban-held tribal regions is difficult and the past few weeks have seen a spate of claims and counter-claims by the Pakistani authorities and the militants.
Taliban officials say Pakistani intelligence agents were spreading misinformation to create divisions in the movement.
The Pakistani authorities say the Pakistani Taliban is in disarray and the statements made are meant to preserve some sense of unity until a new leader emerges.
The Taliban have denied that Mehsud was killed in the missile strike, but say he is seriously ill.
After the reports of a shootout between Hakimullah and a rival, a Reuters journalist subsequently received calls from both of them denying that there had been any fight.
Intelligence officials doubt whether the callers were who they said they were, even though the journalist knew both men's voices and believed they were genuine.
Baitullah had united 13 militant factions in northwest Pakistan to form the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in late 2007, and the Pakistani authorities are hoping that death would hasten the disintegration of the loose-knit alliance.
A virtual silence over the succession issue in South Waziristan, the stronghold of Baitullah and region where the largest number of fighters is concentrated, made intelligence officials doubt if consensus on a new leader had been reached.
South Waziristan lies at the southwest end of the tribal lands bordering Afghanistan, and Bajaur is at the northeast end.
Tribal elders said Faqir Mohammad was told to drop ideas of leading the Taliban as it would only bring more trouble to Bajaur, a region where the army declared victory in March after a six-month campaign against the militants.
Security forces have surrounded Baitullah's redoubt in the mountains and carried out bombing raids, though a ground offensive does not appear imminent.
Indian Business News
Don't come fishing for account details: Swiss banks to India
New Delhi: Swiss banks may have turned over client details to the US, but they have said India is not welcome there on a name-fishing expedition.
"Swiss law and even OECD's Model Tax Convention do not permit fishing expeditions, in other words, the indiscriminate trawling through bank accounts in the hope of finding something interesting.
"This means that India cannot simply throw its telephone book at Switzerland and ask if any of these people have a bank account here," a top official at Swiss Bankers Association told PTI from Basel.
The secrecy shield provided by Swiss banks have always been a big issue in India, including during the campaign for this year's General Elections, and the Government recently said that it has approached Switzerland seeking details about bank accounts held by Indians there.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee recently informed Parliament that the Government was committed to unearthing black money within and outside the country.
"Swiss authorities, I am told, have agreed for negotiations (on the issue)... We have already taken it (the ssue of black money) not only with Swiss authorities but other nations as well," Mukherjee said.
Last week, the US reached an agreement with Switzerland, under which top Swiss bank UBS AG turned over details of 4,450 secret accounts to the Internal Revenue Service.
GM India to miss deadline for capturing 10% mkt share
New Delhi: Even though bankruptcy-hit US auto giant has been reiterating that its Indian business will remain unaffected, the company will miss its 2010 deadline for achieving 10 per cent share in the car market.
"The economic downturn has forced us to go for a change of plans. Instead of 2010 as the timeline for securing 10 per cent share in the Indian car market, we are now re-scheduling the target till 2011," General Motors India President and Managing Director Karl Slym said.
The company is, however, optimistic of achieving a 10 per cent growth rate in sales this year over last year's figures.
GM India had sold 65,702 units in 2008.
"With the newly-launched LPG Spark which has already sold 600 units, besides the planned launch of Cruze and the mini- car, we are hopeful of a big growth in 2010," Slym said.
He, however, said the missed deadline would not be any big setback.
"We will continue to offer the best models and best services to our customers in the India. With the economy showing signs of bounce-back, we are optimistic about the future," Slym added.
Earlier in June, General Motors had filed for bankruptcy protection in the US, which excluded the Indian operations, and later eventually came out of it with a trimmer new GM.
Since then, it has been maintaining that the business in India would remain unaffected and profitable.
GDP to grow by 7%: CII-Ascon survey
New Delhi: With various segments of the industry showing signs of recovery, a CII-Ascon survey said the county's economic growth could go up to 7 per cent during 2009-10 against 6.7 per cent in the previous fiscal.
Projecting a 6.5-7 per cent growth rate for the current fiscal, the survey said, "the corporate results for the first quarter of 2009-10 showed some incipient signs of stablisation."
The corporate results available for a sample of 515 companies for the quarter ending June, revealed that net sales growth has declined, while net profit growth has improved.
"...as a result of decline in cost of raw materials and power and fuel and moderation in growth of interest expenses the net profit grew strongly by 26 per cent in the June quarter after having contracted by 7.2 per cent in the previous quarter," it said.
The survey said key segments like fertiliser, cement and two-wheelers have entered in the excellent growth category from higher growth levels during April-June 2009-10 compared to the same period previous year.
Sectors reporting excellent growth are industrial gases, automobile like scooters, it said.
"The number of sectors in both excellent and high growth category has recorded an increase reflecting that industry is building on marginal signs of recovery," it said.
Indian Sports News|Sports News
ICC blind to 'chucker' Murali: Richardson
CHRISTCHURCH: The chucker's tag remains Muttiah Muralitharan's albatross and former New Zealand opener Mark Richardson on Sunday accused the Sri Lankan offie of breaching the 15 degree flexion rule.
Richardson said Muralitharan often bends his arm beyond the 15 degree norm even though he felt it was not the spinner but the indifferent International Cricket Council (ICC) which was at fault.
"There is no easy way to put this, no soft way to broach it, so here goes - Muttiah Muralitharan is throwing the ball," Richardson wrote in his column for Herald on Sunday.
"I know he's been tested, re-tested, tested again and cleared. And I know, with the special makeup of his limbs to the naked eye, his action looks worse than it is. But, for goodness sake, half of cricket is now not watched with the naked eye, thanks to the invention of super-slow-motion cameras, hot-spots, snicko and hawk-eyes.
"Many of the slow-motion replays I've seen of Murali have only strengthened my conviction he is exceeding the 15 degrees bending and straightening allowance. Is it not meant to be the other way round? Isn't the hi-tech equipment meant to alleviate my fears?" he asked.
Unlike former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, who often flays Muralitharan, Richardson didn't blame the Lankan offie but opined ICC had failed to deal with the issue.
"I don't blame Murali for this situation. Murali can only do what he does - and what he does he does as a champion, and unlike the other great spinner of my time, Murali does it with good grace and gentlemanly conduct," he said.
"The problem lies with the inappropriate way in which the ICC has decided to police throwing. A player is suspected of throwing and then, for want of a better term, tested in a laboratory. We've all seen the pictures of Murali lit up with bulbs. To his credit he volunteered for this. Apparently he proved he wasn't a chucker.
"But did he really? What he proved is that he can bowl within limitation, not that in the heat of battle he actually does," he said.
"Cricket is not played in a laboratory. On the field it matters where and how the ball gets to the other end. In a laboratory it doesn't, all that matters is how you delivered it," said Richardson, who represented New Zealand in 38 Tests and four ODIs between 2000-2004.
"Because of the way the ICC has gone about dealing with this situation, too many bowlers now appear to have suspect actions and can operate for too long before there is any reaction. Now is the time for the ICC to amend procedures to reflect how it is introducing technology," he added.
Ponting still the best captain, better than Waugh: Chappell
Sunday , Aug 23, 2009:A lackluster Australia maybe on the brink of losing the Ashes urn to England but Ricky Ponting, a superior skipper than his predecessor Steve Waugh, is still the best man to lead the side in Tests, according to former captain Ian Chappell. Chappell felt the selectors sold Ponting down the river, picking an all-pace attack for the unresponsive pitch at The Oval and blaming Ponting for the debacle would be barking up the wrong tree.
"Not only did they (selectors) handcuff Ponting at The Oval with four pacemen on a palpably dry pitch, but they also, once again, resorted to the failed ploy of expecting part-time spinners to do a specialist task. This is a crime punishable by demotion," he wrote in his 'The Daily Telegraph' column. "Good selectors protect the captain from himself on the occasions when he requires that insulation. If Ponting clamoured for an all-seam attack at The Oval the selectors should have been strong enough and wise enough to advise otherwise," he explained.
Throwing his weight behind the beleaguered skipper, Chappell said, "Ponting has many critics when it comes to his captaincy style. However, those pundits should realise the easy part is sacking a captain. The hard part is to find someone who will do the job more efficiently.
"There is no doubt Ponting is still the best man to captain the Test side and that's not just because a demotion would risk robbing the side of its best batsman," he said. "Now is not the right time for Australia to start thinking about a new captain. What is needed is a selection panel that has the vision to unearth young players with the skill and nerve for the long haul and the good sense to choose a balanced attack and then let Ponting lead the way."
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