NEW DELHI: Commenting on the current turmoil in the BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday said Sangh would not interfere in the internal matters of the BJP and the leadership issue should be resolved by the party itself.
The RSS chief was speaking out for the first time since the expulsion of former union minister Jaswant Singh from the BJP for his book on founder of Pakistan Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
BJP has to "think and decide" its own future, Bhagwat said, while stressing that the ideal age for the leadership of the Sangh Parivar it heads was "50 to 60 years".
Referring to his recent suggestion to TV channel Times Now that a younger leadership take over the reins of the BJP, Bhagwat said: "Fifty to sixty years is the average age for the Sangh leadership and it's for the political party to decide what should be the right age for it."
He also said the RSS will not comment on the Kandahar episode.
Rejecting the suggestion by senior BJP leader Arun Shourie that RSS should take over reins of the party, Bhagwat repeatedly said that BJP itself will have to decide on its matters, including leadership issue and whether LK Advani should go or stay, reported PTI.
"Whatever is happening (in BJP) is not good," said Bhagwat, who faced a volley of questions on BJP's internal squabbles.
"(Lok Sabha) poll results have given a jolt, severe jolt to BJP. They will have to regain balance," he said, adding "I feel they will be able to do it.... BJP will emerge from the crisis."
He said there were systems in place which could be invoked by the BJP leadership to address its problems.
Replying to a question, the RSS chief said "BJP will not perish. It will rise from ashes."
Bhagwat also made it clear that RSS does not believe in giving "unsolicited advice" to the BJP.
"If the party (BJP) wants some help, we will give. If the party wants advice, we will give. What to do and what not to do is for the party to decide," he said.
The RSS chief, who discussed the developments in BJP with party president Rajnath Singh on Thursday, said he had suggested that BJP leaders should "work unitedly and move forward".
Contending that this would happen, he said the BJP does follow the advice and, "therefore, I believe it will get out of crisis."
Asked whether he was worried about the future of the BJP, Bhagwat said "we should be concerned about everyone, but we are not worried...everything will be alright." (Chinta sabki honi chahiye, lekin chintit nahin hain).
It was "too early" to term the developments in the party as its downfall, he noted.
He also rubbished suggestions that RSS was losing grip on the BJP. "It is a wrong perception," he added.
To questions about who should be the leader of BJP and who should be promoted, Bhagwat said it was for the party to decide.
Advani was at centre of cash-for-vote drama in LS: Jaswant Singh
NEW DELHI: Firing a fresh salvo, Jaswant Singh has said that senior BJP leader L K Advani was "at the centre" of the cash-for-votes scam drama enacted in the Lok Sabha last year.
"It's a great sense of pity. Here was a man who has consumed by an ambition to be Prime Minister, and that desire made him commit so many mistakes.
"Do you know this whole wretched thing of money for votes is a classic example of wrong decision making and it's extremely troubling that he did not stand up and say no. Advaniji was at the centre of this whole drama," he told a news magazine.
Singh was referring to the episode in the Lok Sabha during the trust vote in July last year when three BJP MPs displayed bundles of currency
notes totalling Rs one crore claiming they were being offered as bribe to support the government.
Singh said the facts were clear and he stumbled on to the whole thing when a very strange looking fellow was brought to his house by Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Advani.
"I was not consulted but I was appalled that Advaniji was giving the MPs the go ahead to display money in Parliament," he said adding that Advani had two choices -- either to take the money to the Speaker or into the House. But he told the MPs to display the money in Parliament.
Singh said it was a matter of great sadness that Advani had singularly failed in his function as a leader to lead. A leader will have to lead by example and not through diktats, vague and unspecified insinuations and fears.
Citing the example of the army where leaders take responsibility, he said there were numerous examples when Advani would either keep quite or transfer responsibility to somebody else on occasions that troubled him and where he is likely to come under fire. "That is not the trait of a leader."
On Arun Shourie's description of Rajnath Singh as a Humpty Dumpty, Singh said the BJP president was a provincial leader who should never have been pushed up.
On BJP, he said "this is no longer a political party. It is a cult or a sect. It has been reduced to the proprietary partnership of a few. This has come about under the leadership of Advani. To explain superficially, the 116 BJP MPs today are like lost waifs."
The former external affairs and defence minister said he did not support the decisions like banning of overflights to Pakistan and deployment of troops during 'Operation Parakram' when he was away on some visit.
He said he was also greatly distressed when the BSF was sent into Bangladesh and a "wounding photograph" of the body of a BSF soldier being carried slunge on a bamboo appeared in the media.
"I never really was able to illicit an answer as to who ordered the BSF to go into Bangladesh. Is it not the home ministry," he said.
RSS will not interfere in internal matters of BJP: Bhagwat
New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Friday that the age group of 55 to 60 is the ideal for leaders of the Sangh Parivar, and added that it was for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to decide at what age its leaders will quit office and retire.
While stating that the RSS preferred not to interfere in the internal matters of the BJP or other affiliates, Bhagwat said: “It is for the party to decide on the leadership issue. Opinions given by me to party leaders are not official. The RSS does not advise BJP in matters of governance.”
His comments were with reference to the criticisms launched against senior BJP leader L K Advani by some of his former and current colleagues, including Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh, besides former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra.
On the 1999 Kandahar hijack episode, he said the RSS had no role to play. When asked for his reaction to the criticism being levelled against Advani by his colleagues for not accepting that he was present when all key decisions relating to that incident were taken, he said that he had no comment to make, and added that it was for the BJP to say anything on the matter.
“We advise and support the BJP, but decisions in internal matters is theirs. We are never worried, we will tide over the crisis.
He repeatedly refused to comment on the BJP crisis, and as far as Shourie’s comments were concerned, he said: “Don’t want to comment on what Shourie said about others.”
Jinnah, Gandhi shared the dream of federal India: Jaswant
Islamabad: Insisting that a federal India was the dream of both Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said that the country would have been "a global power" now had it not been "cut up" to form Pakistan.
Singh, whose controversial new book 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence' led to his expulsion from BJP, repeated his claim that first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru along with the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and the Congress party had contributed to the partition of the Indian subcontinent.
A federal India was the dream of both Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi but "we let the country be cut up. Patel and Nehru agreed to what Jinnah demanded but in a truncated form. Today we would have been a global power," he said in an interview to Pakistan's 'Dawn News' channel.
However, he also said the future envisaged for India by Nehru, especially on issues like secularism, is yet to be realised. The "destiny of India Nehru spoke of had not been realised," Singh said responding to a question on the fate of secularism in India.
Apart from being reviled by his party for his stance on Pakistan's founder Jinnah, Singh's book has been banned in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat.
Singh referred to the ban and incidents of the burning of his book and said he felt "wounded" as if an "innocent child had been burnt."
The former External Affairs Minister also spoke on a wide range of issues during the interview, including relations between India and Pakistan.
Kasab trial: Key 26/11 witness reported missing
Mumbai: A key witness in the 26/11 attacks case who had deposed against accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed at the trial failed to appear before the court on Friday with the prosecution saying that he was "missing".
The witness, Nurudin Shaikh, told the court that the accused - Faheem and Sabauddin - had met him in Nepal and in his presence they discussed about the maps of some locations in Mumbai, which were later targeted by militants during the November 26 attacks last year.
The court had called the witness on Friday for cross-examination at 11 AM but he failed to turn up.
Special public prosecutor Ujjawal Nikam told the court that crime branch officials had gone to Goregaon residence of the witness to fetch him but his wife had said that Shaikh had left home early morning, saying that he has to go to the court.
"This is a serious matter," judge M L Tahaliyani observed and said he would decide later on what steps the court should take in the matter.
Nikam also said that the identity of the witness had been kept secret earlier and was disclosed to the defence lawyer only yesterday for cross-examination.
According to crime branch, the witness is a childhood friend of Faheem and is staying in the same locality where Fahim stayed in the city.
Faheem and Sabauddin, both Indian nationals, are facing trial along with Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab.
Shaikh on Thursday had told the court that maps of some locations in Mumbai were made by the duo at the instance of wanted accused Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Indian Business News
SC defers hearing on Ambani gas row to October 20
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday deferred hearing on petition filed in regard to the Ambani gas dispute to October 20.
A bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan decided to pose the matter for October after Reliance Industries counsel suggested the matter be heard on the 20th of that month.
Anil Ambani group counsel Mukul Rohtagi said he had no objection.
The cross appeals filed by Mukesh and Anil Ambani group firm on the petition filed by the government was to come up for hearing on September 1, but would have had to be postponed because the Chief Justice was to head the bench on the case was supposed to lead a constitutional bench on that very day.
AI likely to table financial turnaround plan on Sat
New Delhi: Cash-strapped Air India is likely to table a detailed financial turnaround plan at a meeting of the high-level Committee of Secretaries, showing proposals to cut costs and enhance revenue generation over the next five years.
The plan, vetted by the Finance and Civil Aviation Ministries, is likely to include proposals relating to the nature of financial assistance it wants from the Government, including equity infusion and soft loan.
While the Government may make only a partial contribution as equity infusion to the airline, a major part of resource mobilisation is likely to be through options like partial divestment of government equity, issuance of initial public offer or infrastructure bonds, informed sources said.
Officials of the Finance and Civil Aviation Ministries and Air India have held series of discussion over the past few weeks to finalise these proposals, many of which had come up for discussion last month at the first meeting of the CoS, headed by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekar.
The Government had then asked the Petroleum Ministry to extend the credit limit on the purchase of jet fuel by Air India for at least three more months.
Once finalised, the proposals would be sent to the Union Cabinet for its approval, the sources said, adding that the much-needed funding for Air India would be released by the government only after the Cabinet nod.
SAT dismisses shareholder's plea on Bharti-MTN open offer
Mumbai: The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) ‘dismissed’ an appeal by a Bharti Airtel shareholder that challenged a SEBI guidance exempting South Africa's MTN from making an open offer to Bharti shareholders.
A bench comprising Justices N K Sodhi and Samar Ray observed that the appeal was "premature" and dismissed it as ‘infructious’.
Deepak Mehra, a shareholder of Bharti Airtel who holds around 100 shares aggregating to around Rs 40,000, sought to overturn an informal guidance issued by SEBI on June 22.
The market regulator had said that MTN need not make an open offer to Bharti Airtel shareholders in India as its shareholding in the Sunil Mittal-promoted firm would be through Global Depository Reciepts (GDRs).
SEBI said the open offer will only trigger once the GDRs, issued to MTN and its shareholders by Bharti Airtel are converted into local shares with voting rights.
Sodhi observed that a department of SEBI had only issued an informal guidance to Bharti Airtel on June 22, which was not binding on its Board.
As per regulations, SAT can only overturn orders passed by SEBI.
Monsoon may be the worst since 1972
New Delhi: India's poor monsoon rains will improve slightly in their final month but will still end the June-September season about 20 percent below normal, a top official said, making this year's rainfall the worst since 1972.
Weak and uneven monsoon rains have ravaged India's rice crop and hit the sugarcane, soybean and groundnut crops as well as disrupting the flow of water into the main reservoirs, which are vital for hydropower generation and winter irrigation.
"We expect at least 4-5 percent improvement in the seasonal rainfall deficit for the entire season from the current level," Ajit Tyagi, director general of the India Meteorological Department, told Reuters on Friday.
India last suffered a monsoon failure in 2002, when rainfall was 19.2 percent below average through the season, and July rains were 54.2 percent below normal. India's crop output in 2002/03 fell 18 percent.
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This year, June rainfall was the worst in over 80 years, while July saw a 5 percent deficit. August began with an exceptionally dry two weeks, followed by near-normal rains in the later part of the month.
From the start of June to Aug. 26, rains were 25 percent below normal, data showed on Thursday.
"In 2002, the seasonal rainfall deficit was 19 percent. The only difference is that this year's July rainfall was relatively better than 2002," Tyagi said.
Indian Sports News|Sports News
It's official, India in Nehru Cup final under AFC rules
New Delhi: Defending champions India will take on Syria in the final of Nehru Cup international football tournament in New Delhi irrespective of the results of their last round-robin fixture against the West Asians on Saturday and Friday's match between Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan.
India may still get more than six points if they either draw or beat Syria tomorrow but even if they lose by whatever goal margin they will make it to the final for the second consecutive time.
If Sri Lanka beat Kyrgyzstan by a huge goal margin today they will get six points -- the same as India -- but the island country cannot make it to the final as they had lost to the home team 1-3 in their last round-robin match on Wednesday.
According to the AFC rules, head-on result comes first before goal difference while deciding which team goes to next stage after league engagements.
So the final on August 31 will be repeat of 2007 summit clash between India and Syria.
All India Football Federation General Secretary Alberto Colaco cleared the confusion and said India are already through to the final irrespective of the last two league matches. "India and Syria have now qualified for the final now. Under AFC rules, if two teams get same points after league engagements which team advances to the next stage is decided first by looking into the maximum points between or among contending teams (those who have same points)," Colaco said on Friday.
If the matter is not resolved there the goal difference comes into play," he said.
Pak still optimistic about hosting 2011 World Cup
Karachi: Even after giving up their claim to host the 2011 World Cup matches, Pakistan Cricket Board claimed on Friday that the strife-torn country may still get to host some games if the security situation improves in the next few months.
"We can ask the ICC to send a security delegation to review the security situation in Pakistan and if the situation has improved we can end up still hosting some of our matches at home," Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt said.
Butt, however, made it clear that the final decision would be with the ICC and the hosting of matches would depend on teams willing to tour Pakistan.
"But we are hopeful because already the security situation is improving in Pakistan and it will hopefully get better in next five to six months," he said on Friday.
Pakistan was stripped of its share of 14 World Cup matches by the ICC board in April after the Sri Lankan cricket team came under a terrorist attack in Lahore in which six policemen were killed and six players were injured.
Pakistan mounted a legal challenge against the ICC to get back the hosting rights and a final settlement was negotiated yesterday after talks between Butt and ICC President David Morgan.
Under the settlement, Butt said Pakistan now has to withdraw all its legal petitions against the ICC in 15 days including the one over the shifting of the World Cup secretariat from Lahore to Mumbai.
"We are in return guaranteed that we will retain hosting rights of our matches which will, however, be held in the other World Cup host countries. But we will paid around 1500 million rupees as compensation by the ICC including the hosting fees for the matches," Butt said.
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