India aid to Bhutan, ties with Russia worrying China
8 February 2010, BEIJING: India is “intensifying military penetration” in Nepal and Bhutan, a Chinese analyst said in a government-run website. The Himalayan kingdoms have become theatres of conflict between military strategists from India and China, it suggested.
The analyst, Dai Bing, also raised a rare issue saying that the Bhutan Air Force has deployed defense equipment along the border with China after getting them from India. It did not say what kind of equipment has been deployed.
“The struggle between pro-India and pro-China forces in Nepal is at a critical stage and China needs to pay more attention to its interests there,” the analyst said while citing a news report that New Delhi was building an air base in Nepal.
India has also “encouraged Russia” to provide military helicopters and logistical support to Bhutan, the article complained. It said India has helped establish and equip the Bhutan Air Force. It also expressed worry over rising military cooperation between New Delhi and Moscow. The article might seems to actually congratulate India on its defense diplomacy in persuading Russia to take actions that would make China unhappy besides commanding considerable influence over the two Himalayan kingdoms.
This is interesting because Beijing is dangling two lucrative offers before Katmandu. They are the offer to extend the Tibet railway to Nepal and send large numbers of tourists to the Himalayan nation. In turn, it wants an assurance that Tibetan separatists would not operate in Nepal. “In a quest for military advantage along its border with China, India is intensifying its military cooperation with the United States and Russia and stepping up its military penetration of small border states adjoining China and India,” it said. The past decade has seen India buying arms worth $50 billion from the United States, Russia, Britain, Israel and France making it the biggest arms importer in the developing world, it said. It also mentioned the recent agreement between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Russian president on military matters.
“But despite its arms purchases from the great powers and military penetration of neighboring countries, it remains extremely unlikely that India will unleash all-out conflict with China,” the article said. The main reason is India is focused on fighting terrorism and on Its “pressing missions are to contain Pakistan”. “For the foreseeable future, therefore, while a "cold war" between the two countries is increasingly likely, a ‘hot war’ is out of the question,” the article concluded.
AP High Court strikes down law on quota for Muslims
Monday 08 February, 2010: A Constitution bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has struck down a state law providing 4 percent reservation in educational institutions and jobs to 15 groups belonging to the Muslim community.
The order was passed by the seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave on a petition filed by an advocate K Kondala Rao on Monday.
Soon after the court's order, Chief Minister K Rosaiah directed the state advocate general D S R Murthy to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court challenging the verdict.
"The state government is committed to providing 4 per cent reservation to backward class Muslims in the state," he said in a statement.
The court, in its order, set aside the state act and a subsequent 2007 government order allocating 4 percent reservation to the Muslim groups in educational institutions and jobs.
Earlier, the state had moved a bill in the Assembly on the basis of a report submitted to it by the Andhra Pradesh Commission for Backward Classes. The bill was later passed by the Assembly.
The report had recommended that the socially and educationally backward should be adequately represented in the state.
The government order (GO) was issued on 7th July 2007 providing for the quota to the Muslim groups.
West Bengal announces 10 % reservation for Muslims
Meanwhile, the West Bengal govt has announced 10 pc quota in employment for the community under the OBC category.
The state government declared the quota for the Muslims who were educationally, socially and economically backward in the state.
"We have decided to accept the recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission and will take steps to implement it," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told newsmen at the state secretariat on Monday without waiting for the Centre's decision on the report.
He said like other states there was reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in the state. The government, he said, had begun the process of identifying Muslims who were educationally, socially and economically backward. There was 7 percent reservation for OBCs in the state.
"After identification, we will provide reservation to them under the OBC category," the Chief Minister said.
Karnataka to impose ban on Bt Brinjal
8 February 2010, BANGALORE: Karnataka Horticulture minister Umesh Katti said the state government would enforce ban on the commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal in the state.
"We will ban commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal. We have already written to the Centre seeking its deferment," Horticulture minister Umesh Katti said.
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has already said that the Centre would announce its decision on commercial production of the genetically modified crop on February 10.
Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has already conveyed to the Centre that its commercial release should be deferred till the issue was thoroughly examined.
It should take into account the views of all stakeholders and conduct a long-term research for the Bt crop's bio-safety and its consequent contributions to food security and farmers' well-being, Yeddyurappa had said.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat yesterday argued strongly against Bt Brinjal and sought its categorical rejection. He termed the crop as "videshi" (foreign) and sought to equate it with the problem of infiltration of people from across the border.
In Karnataka, brinjal is grown in about 15,000 hectares with annual production of about 3.6 lakh tons.
‘Indo-Pak talks on Feb 18 or 25’
Sunday, February 07, 2010, New Delhi: Days after India proposed Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan, sources said on Sunday the talks could take place either on February 18 or 25 in New Delhi.
The government is expected to call an all-party meet before holding the talks to take every political spectrum into confidence.
While terrorism is going to be the major focus of the talks, humanitarian and consular issues, trade and confidence building measures will also be discussed.
India is basically looking at an incremental dialogue with Pakistan and wants to discuss all issues of peace and stability with its neighbour, government sources said.
They added that while aiming to enhance trust and confidence with Pakistan, New Delhi wants to Islamabad to do more against terror.
If sources are to be believed, India is also willing to discuss the controversial issue of Balochistan with Pakistan. Islamabad accuses India of sponsoring terror in its troubled province.
India’s formal proposal to Pakistan to hold talks between Foreign Secretaries is the first definitive departure from the post Mumbai terror attack period when New Delhi suspended the composite dialogue with Islamabad, blaming it for the November 2008 mayhem that left 166 people dead.
But even as Islamabad prepared to receive later this month Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram, its Foreign Office talked tough that nothing short of a restart of the composite dialogue process would satisfy it.
"We want result-oriented and sustained dialogue and no format of engagement other than composite dialogue will be acceptable to us," Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit told the Dawn newspaper.
Basit said Pakistan would not be interested in "talks for the sake of talks".
If the talks materialize, it will be the first meeting between Foreign Secretaries Nirupama Rao of India and Salman Bashir of Pakistan since they met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September last year.
The Indian side has stressed that it will hold "discussions with an open and positive mind" and will not like to prejudge their outcome.
Chidambaram's expected visit to Islamabad to attend the February 26-28 meeting of Home/Interior Ministers of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be the first by an Indian minister to Pakistan since November 20008 when Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai and went on a killing spree, plunging India-Pakistan relations to an all-time low.
The two sides had decided on limited Foreign Secretary-level interaction after talks in Sharm el-Sheikh in July last year to assess the actions taken by Pakistan to punish terrorists linked to the Mumbai carnage and to address India's concerns on cross-border terror.
A positive assessment by India after the talks between Foreign Secretaries could set the stage for the meeting between their Foreign Ministers and Prime Ministers on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Thimpu from April 28-29.
External Affairs Minister SM Krishna Wednesday indicated India's willingness to resume dialogue with Pakistan, saying even a few steps by Islamabad vis-à-vis the Mumbai terror probe will "satisfy" it and make it easier "to carry on normal business" with the neighbouring country.
Maoists blow up railway tracks in Bihar, kill 'police informer' in Orissa
7 February 2010, JAMUI (BIHAR): Maoists blew up railway tracks to enforce their 72-hour bandh near Rajla station on Jhaja-Jasidih section of East Central Railway in Bihar's Jamui district, officials said today.
"About 40 Maoist guerrillas blew up the up and down tracks late last night between Rajla and Narganjo railway halts near Kahba bridge, affecting the movement of several long-distance and local trains," Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) U S Dutt told PTI in Patna.
A stretch of 2.5 feet of up line and five feet of down line was damaged in the blast, railway sources said.
While jawans of GRP, RPF and local police have reached the site, Divisional Railway Manager of Asansol D K Gaien has also rushed to the spot to oversee the repair work, official sources said.
Maoists have called the bandh in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh today to protest the proposed 'Operation Green Hunt' to be launched by Centre against them.
Maoists kill 'police informer' in Orissa
Branding him a police informer, the Maoists killed one person in Orissa's Sundargarh district on the night of his sister's wedding, police said today.
Sukura Oram's body with the throat slit was found this morning.
A group of Maoists entered Kumakela village under Chandiposh police station, about 30 km from here, last night and abducted Oram when he was busy with the wedding ceremony of his sister, the sources said.
After the body was retrieved from near Champajharan over bridge, local people put up a road blockade demanding compensation to the family of Oram and security to villagers.
Policemen were sent to the spot, sources said. The Maoists have killed six persons during the past eight months including two CITU activists and a police sub-inspector in Sundargarh district's Bonai sub-division, police said.
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Case registered against youth for attacking Rathore
Chandigarh, February 08, 2010: Police registered a case against the youth who attacked and injured former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, convicted in the Ruchika molestation case, outside a local court on Monday.
The assailant Utsav Sharma, a student of the prestigious National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, posing as a journalist, stabbed Rathore thrice in the face with a pocketknife outside the court, where the 68-year-old had gone for hearing in connection with the case.
A case under section 324 of the IPC (voluntarily causing hurt using sharp edged weapon) has been registered against 29-year-old Utsav who attacked Rathore, Deputy Superintendent of Police (central), Jagbir Singh said.
Rathore was discharged from the hospital this evening and his condition was stable, Sector 16 government hospital's senior doctor, NK Kaushal said.
He said Rathore's lawyer ND Sharma who had also sustained injuries in the attack, was also discharged.
"We have discharged both of them after keeping them under observation for five hours," the doctor told PTI.
