New Delhi: The ten Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008 could have been guided by an Indian handler whose true identity was yet to be ascertained, Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
While refusing to speculate on the name of the handler, the Home Minister said investigators had known for long time that there was a handler in 26/11 attack who could be an Indian.
“We know him by Abu Jindal that something we have known for many many months now... but he is not Abu Jindal. That is not his real name. We cannot put a finger who he is, unless we get a voice sample. And they won't give us voice sample. “There is a speculation that Abu Jindal could be....but how as a Home Minister I can speculate? I can’t speculate”, he told news channel.
India proposes talks, Pakistan seeks clarity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign ministry has confirmed that India had proposed foreign secretary-level talks with Islamabad but said it was seeking clarification of the content of the talks.
Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told media that that the agenda of the proposed talks Pakistan is not so far clear. "We have sought clarification from the Indian government about the agenda and substance of the proposed talks. We will respond to the proposal after we receive the reply from New Delhi," he said.
India adopted a very strict position with Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead. Since then, India has been blaming Pakistan for not doing enough to prosecute the perpetrators of the attack, while Pakistan was saying that the evidence provided by India was not sufficient.
The proposal comes ahead of a visit to Pakistan by India's minister of internal security for a regional meeting this month. Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram is slated to travel to Pakistan on Feb 26 for a meeting of countries in the region, the first high-level diplomatic visit by a top Indian official in nearly two years.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry officials said Chidambaram would meet his Pakistani counterpart, Rehman Malik.
Since the Mumbai attacks, there have been some meetings of high-ranking officials, such as when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani last summer on the sidelines of a summit in Sharm-El-Shiekh, Egypt. But India has continued to express its reservations regarding Pakistan's lack of vigor to act against the culprits of Mumbai carnage on its soil.
Earlier, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also welcomed dialogue proposal from India, saying it was a positive development. Responding to Delhi’s call to Pakistan’s high commissioner for resumption of dialogue, he said Pakistan shares a viewpoint that bilateral talks is the only way for the resolution of all the issues and "we always focused on resumption of dialogue."
He further said that signals were already emanating from Indian side and their home minster P Chidambaram had already said, "if he went to Pakistan for the SAARC meeting later this month, there was a possibility of bilateral talks."
Replying to a question he said "Our agenda is very comprehensive, before Mumbai mayhem we had started fifth round of dialogue and I wish to resume dialogue from that stage."
The foreign minister said during meeting in Sharm-El-Sheikh, the prime ministers of Pakistan and India had reached the conclusion that dialogue is the only way forward and we raised the Baluchistan issue for the very first time which was also mentioned in the joint statement.
Show black flags to Rahul: Bal Thackeray
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on Thursday asked partymen to show black flags to Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Mumbai tomorrow in protest the Congress leader's 'Mumbai for all' comment.
Thackeray has asked Sena workers to show black flags to Rahul during his visit to the city, senior party leader Sanjay Raut told PTI.
The directive from Thackeray has come at a time when there has been a war of words between Sena and Congress over the migrant issue.
Rahul has ticked off Sena by asserting that Mumbai is for all Indians and people have a right to go anywhere.
He has faced the ire of Sena chief who said the Congress leader was "totally frustrated".
Thackeray said the Sena will not tolerate anything spoken against "Marathi pride."
He also raked up Rahul's mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying "Mumbai may belong to all Indians but how can it belong to an Italian mummy?"
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray has questioned the timing of the visit. "What was the need for this visit now? There may be elections in Bihar, but we will not tolerate anything spoken against Mumbai and Marathi pride," he had said.
During his short visit, Rahul will interact with college students at the Bhaidas Hall in suburban Vile Parle and then proceed to Ramabai Nagar slum colony in Ghatkopar to meet slum youth.
The visit is a part of the ongoing Mumbai Youth Congress membership drive for organisational elections.
India to have own panel on climate change: Jairam Ramesh
NEW DELHI: India would soon have its very own panel on climate change, union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced on Thursday and added that the country could not depend only on reports from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
"There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am all for climate science but not for climate evangelism. I think people misused the IPCC report," Ramesh told a news channel here.
Stressing that the IPCC's weakness was that it didn't do original research and derives assessments from published literature, the minister announced a climate change panel for India.
He said that IPCC has "had goof-ups on the glaciers, on the Amazon, on the snow peaks." However, he added that the IPCC with a network of 200 scientists worldwide was "a responsible body".
"I respect the IPCC. At the same time India is a large country... we can't depend only IPCC. So we have launched the Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment ... It's got 125 research institutions from across the country. We will have international collaborations. It's a kind of an Indian IPCC and not a rival to the IPCC. We will do our own assessment," Ramesh explained.
The first climate change assessment from this body would be brought out in November this year, he said.
The "four by four assessment" would look at four sectors -- agriculture, health, water and forests -- and four regions. These would be Himalayan ecosystems, coastal areas, western ghats and the northeast.
"Through this we will demonstrate our commitment to climate science," Ramesh concluded.
Ramesh also commented on the IPCC erring report's claim that the Himalayan glaciers would retreat by 2035.
"The health of glaciers is a cause for serious concern. Most glaciers are melting.... they are retreating. Overall, one can say incontrovertibly that the debris on our glaciers is very high, the mass balance is very low, the snow balance is very low. We have to be very cautious about the future of the glaciers particularly because of water security," the minister said.
Ramesh announced the setting up of the National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology at Dehradun (Uttarakhand).
"This is going to start a series of programmes on measuring, monitoring, modelling on what is happening to our glaciers and also look at what is happening to them in the regional context with Pakistan, Nepal and others," he informed.
Business News
Decision on Parikh Panel report likely before Budget
New Delhi: The government said on Thursday that it may decide before the beginning of the Budget session on the Parikh Panel recommendations of freeing the oil prices and increasing the rates of kerosene and cooking fuel. “By next week, the ministry will be able to offer its comments on the recommendations and it will then go to the Cabinet”, Oil Minister Murli Deora told reporters here.
Asked by when the Cabinet is expected to take a decision, he said, “it will be very soon, may be before the Budget itself” A Prime Minister-appointed expert group, headed by Kirit Parikh, yesterday suggested freeing petrol and diesel prices and suggested raising LPG rates by a steep Rs 100 per cylinder and kerosene by Rs 6 a litre. Deregulation of auto fuel prices would result in a hike of Rs 4.72 a litre in petrol prices and diesel rates by Rs 2.33 per litre.
Earlier in the day, Deora's deputy Jitin Prasada hinted that the government may not accept the report in totality and would protect the common man's interest. “The Government will ensure that least burden is passed on to the poor and common man... while also ensuring that the financial health of (PSU fuel retailers) is protected”, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said here
State-owned Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum currently lose Rs 180 crore per day on selling petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene below the imported cost. In full-fiscal, they are estimated to lose Rs 46,030 crore
Food inflation goes north, up 17.56 pct
New Delhi:The food price index rose 17.56 per cent in the 12 months to Jan. 23, strengthening the case for more government steps to tame rising prices in the budget, while the fuel price index was up 5.88 per cent, the government said on Thursday.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present India's annual budget for 2010/11 on Feb. 26.
India's annual wholesale inflation picked up to 7.31 per cent in December 2009, compared with 4.78 per cent in November.
Air India likely to get Rs 1,200 cr in Buget
Aamby Valley, Maharashtra: Air India expects to get an allocation of Rs 1,200 crore in the forthcoming Budget, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Thursday.
"We expect a Rs 1,200-crore provision for Air India in the budget," Patel told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Maharashtra.
Patel said he expected the process of equity infusion of Rs 800 crore into the airline by the government to be completed over the next eight to ten days.
Yesterday, Patel had said in Delhi that while the infusion was likely to occur over the next few days, the government wanted Air India to take "extraordinary" measures for its turnaround.
"We are moving the Cabinet (for equity infusion of Rs 800 crore), a note has already been circulated. I think by next week the Cabinet approval should come," Patel had said after a meeting of the Group of Ministers formed to look after the revival of Air India.
Further assistance would only be given on achievement of specific revenue enhancement and cost reduction targets by the airline, the Minister had said.
Sports News
Came here with plans to silence Sehwag and others: Steyn
The 2008 battering in Chennai still fresh in mind, South African pace spearhead Dale Steyn on Thursday said he and his his bowling colleagues have arrived here with plans to tame Virender Sehwag in the forthcoming Test series against India.
Sehwag had blasted a 304-ball 319 in that drawn Test with the help of 42 fours and five sixes but Steyn said the Proteas have already sorted out the Delhi dasher.
"It is a challenge. He showed us in Chennai that on flat wickets, he could score runs. But once we exploited what his biggest weaknesses were, he wasn't able to get away again after that," Steyn said at an interactive media meet ahead of the Test series opening here on Sunday.
"We definitely have our game plans against somebody like him. What's happened in the past has happened in the past," Steyn. Putting behind the two-year-old plastering, Steyn said,
"It was definitely not the pitches, it was the mind-frame that we definitely got into. I am not giving everything away here, we still have got to play two Test matches against him. But whenever we go out to bowl in the Test match, you will obviously see what's going to be coming his way."
In fact, the 26-year-old right-arm pacer said, the South Africans have separate plans to silence all the Indian top guns.
"I am not going to single out Sehwag because (Sachin) Tendulkar is also a marvellous player and he has shown what a record he has got. (Gautam) Gambhir too has shown what a record he has got.
"It's not specifically Sehwag that we are afraid of not to say that we are afraid of anybody. I am just saying that he is not the only key player in their side. There are massive other players that we are prepared well for and we will go out there and try to exploit their weaknesses," Steyn said.
The lanky pacer was also of the view that India would struggle to fill the void created by injuries to Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and V V S Laxman even though they have drafted in Rohit Sharma as a cover for the stylish Hyderabadi.
"I guess you could say yes with the absence of guys like Yuvraj, Rahul, and Laxman with their massive experience. If they fill them in with a couple of debutants, obviously that will play in our favour," he said.
Steyn, however, warned his teammates not to underestimate the Indian youngsters, saying they were capable of springing a surprise or two.
"At Test level, you never replace experienced player with someone who is average or borderline average. You always replace him with somebody that has got equal quality. Certainly that's what we try and do in South Africa.
"Whoever steps in their places must have shown his worth at the domestic level and he will obviously step into those shoes knowing he is capable of playing at the highest level," Steyn pointed out.
Steyn said the key for fast bowlers to do well here was to bowl aggressively though they may not get the sort of bounce or seam movement they experience back home.
India start training ahead of big test
Nagpur: While Abhimanyu Mithun was looking to certify his surprise-elevation with a strong show against the South African batsmen at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) ground in Civil Lines, the rest of the 15-member Indian Test squad arrived for their first practice session — since returning from Bangladesh — at the VCA Stadium in Jaamtha, some 20 kms away. The Indians had landed at Nagpur in batches earlier on Wednesday morning.
The Indians have happy memories of the new VCA Stadium having won the only previous Test at the venue, when they beat Australia in 2008 to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Afridi is a cheat, serial offender: Hair
Melbourne: Former Australian umpire Darrell Hair has labelled Shahid Afridi as a "cheat" after his ball-tampering act and is sure that the Pakistan all-rounder will be up to it again in future.
"He has cheated before, he has cheated in this instance - he pleaded guilty - and I'm sure he will again. He is no angel. I remember that incident when he deliberately scratched the pitch when he thought everyone was looking the other way," Hair was quoted as saying by 'Daily Telegraph'.
Hair also said the after his sensational debut century Afridi has not achieved much success and was just an overrated player.
"He thought he would get away with it. Unfortunately he's become a highly over-rated player as well. His first innings at international level was a great century but he has lived off that and never really lived up to it," he said.
Former greats like Allan Border of Australia and Imran Khan of Pakistani along with current Pakistan skipper Mohammed Yousuf have also criticised Afridi for his ball biting act.
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