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Manmohan
invites N-E
rebel groups for talks
What is India News Service, Monday, 22
November 2004, 1700 hrs IST
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday invited ULFA in Assam as also other insurgent groups in
the northeastern states to shun violence and hold talks. He said Myanmar and Bangladesh
had assured him that their soil would not be used for anti-India operations.
Addressing a press conference at Imphal at the end of his two-day visit to trouble-torn Manipur, he said there had been overtures from
ULFA, and declared, “This is an open invitation to all those young men and women who have taken to arms to give up this path and work with us to bring about peace and prosperity in all northeastern states”.
“Our government is willing to talk to any group that shuns the path of violence and seeks peaceful resolution of all outstanding problems,” he said.
'India serious about talks with Pakistan':
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dismissed Pakistan President Musharraf's remark that India had failed to show flexibility in solving the Kashmir problem.
Pak PM arrives tomorrow:
Manmohan’s virtual rejection of Musharraf's proposal on J&K and the Pak leader’s tough
response have made the backdrop for talks anything but pleasant.
Lower expectations from talks, Pak PM says: A day before his visit to India for talks, Pak PM sounds a cautionary note - ties will improve, breakthrough unlikely, he says.
Natwar counsels patience: In the midst of
a Indo-Pak fusillade of words, External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh on Sunday counselled patience to Pakistan, saying results of efforts to solve long-festering bilateral problems cannot be expected in a day or two.
Special:
What does it mean to be a Hindu in
India?
Unease grows in the hearts of common Indians as they
watch
a revered saint being arrested and humiliated, writes
Soumya Sitaraman
What is
India Editorial
A What is India Compilation
The
Kanchi Acharya case
High
Court turns down Seer's plea: The Madras High Court on Monday rejected Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswati's petition challenging a Kancheepuram court order to send him to police custody.
Justice A K Rajan, however, permitted the Seer's counsel to be present while he was being interrogated by the police.
Kancheepuram First Class Judicial Magistrate-I G Uttamaraj had remanded the Seer to police custody from 12:05 pm on November 19 to 10:30 am on November 22.
Uttamaraj had directed that Kanchi seer's counsel could only meet him between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm during the period of police custody.
Advani calls on
junior seer: BJP president L K Advani on Monday called on Vijayendra
Saraswati at the Kanchi mutt. "I hope this unfortunate episode of the arrest of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra
Saraswati will end soon," he said.
Police continue to grill pontiff:
The Kanchi mutt has clarified that it has not petitioned the
president or the prime minister against the arrest.
PM
hopes Acharya will be treated well: Reiterating that the Centre had no hand in the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday expressed the hope that the Acharya would be treated with respect
and dignity.
Humiliating for
Hindus, says Kalyan: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP national vice-president Kalyan Singh
has criticised the Congress for " supporting" the Tamil Nadu government on the
seer's arrest.
Police
cordon
around mutt: Functionaries at the Kanchi Sankara Mutt have
expressed concern at the police "harassment" of
visitors.
Arrest
anti-Hindu, says BJP: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday
continued its `dharna' to protest against the arrest of the Kanchi
Sankaracharya.
OPINION
Commotion
in Kanchi
The arrest of the Shankaracharya has rocked the Kamakoti Peetam as nothing
before. RAJEEV P I takes a look at Jayendra Saraswati’s unorthodox religio-political
activism
For a man whose office is weighed down by tradition, Jayendra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Kanchi’s Kamakoti Peetam, has always been a bit unorthodox. In just so many ways, he is an absolutely unprecedented Shankaracharya.
He’s travelled abroad — famously to China — actively immersed himself in political discourse, attended VHP dharma sansads, played a role in social engineering, made himself so accessible to journalists as to be termed media-savvy, used chartered aircraft liberally, made corporate friends.
He’s even watched television, which was, once upon a time not so long ago, the cause of much anguish and anxiety among the devout in Kanchi.
In Tamil politics, where caste is decidedly a bigger force than religion, the anti-Brahmin DMK is happily and gleefully exploiting the Shankaracharya’s arrest.
As the Sankaracharya stands like Abhimanyu ...
The entire polity of Tamil Nadu except the BJP is ranged against him. Never in the history of the state did the DMK and the AIADMK, whose leaders never meet, ever unite on anything as they do on this issue and against
him, says S GURUMURTHY
The lawyer’s outfits are targeting his head. For the 'secular' media it is a godsend to say not just that the Modi type Hindus are criminals, even Sankaracharya is one such. It is having a field day in publishing and showing all kinds of rubbish. Here there is no difference between the yellow journals and the serious ones in the content that is carried about him.
Today the Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati is standing like Abhimanyu caught in Chakravyuha. Thanks to the vicious atmosphere, the Acharya has been convicted at the bar of the public even as the investigation on the charges against him has just begun.
Fanaticising
issues
It is understandable that devotees of the Kanchi Mutt are upset over the deepening travails of the
Sankaracharya, says an editorial in The Hindu
What they must realise, however, is that the time of troubles for the Acharya is a time of legal troubles — arising out of a brutal, motivated, and planned murder of an adversary within the precincts of a temple. Conspiracy theories are singularly out of place here. As this newspaper observed in an earlier editorial, the message sent out by the apprehension and arrest of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi by the Tamil Nadu police in Andhra Pradesh was that nobody, however high in spiritual or temporal matters, was above the law. Asserting in the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the arrest of the Acharya was based on "firm evidence of his involvement" in the murder, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa explained that her Government did not resort to this action "expecting bouquets for arresting the Sankaracharya or fearing brickbats for not arresting him" but acted on "the principle that all are equal before the law." If the evidence does not stand up in court at the trial stage, there will be a big political price to pay.
Her Highness
Relations had already soured...then Jaya saw a chance to rise a few inches
higher, writes S ANAND
When the law really catches up with the high and mighty, there's a sense of disbelief. So the question, 'Why did J. Jayalalitha effect the arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya?' has an apparent unanswerable ring. Jayalalitha's answer, though, is deceptively simple: he is an accused and all are equal before law.
But it's hardly a convincing line from someone who used to consult the Kanchi math head over various issues during her 1991-96 term and again since 2001. Jayalalitha, after all, is seen as a 'natural ally'
of the BJP, lauded by the Sangh parivar as a role model chief minister.
Police and defence affidavits.
Full text in
PDF format
More stories in
earlier editions of What is India:
17
November 2004
18
November 2004
19
November 2004
20
November 2004
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Advani vows to restore Savarkar plaque:
Savarkar espoused Hindutva but was a non-conformist and fought against superstitions, Advani said.
Autonomy should be
reviewed, says Patil: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in an internal and recommendatory report to the Prime Minister, has said efforts should be continued to bring the Hurriyat Conference to the table for talks.
Patil suggests steps to counter terrorism in J&K: The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, has said in a report to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, that improved coordination between the security forces and intelligence agencies was crucial to counter terrorism in Jammu and
Kashmir.
States
MLA says she wasn’t at riot site, cellphone records say she was:
Maya Kodnani, the BJP MLA from Naroda, is a practising gynaecologist whose clinic is barely a kilometre from the site of the Naroda-Patiya massacre. Though there was a case of rioting and arson against her in the worst post-Godhra riot incident in which 83 were killed, just months later it was closed because of lack of evidence.
Cong may pacify Rao with a portfolio:
The Congress will soon have to decide on Telanagana statehood as party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had requested TRS leader K Chandrashekhar Rao to wait till the Maharashtra poll. Rao is not willing to wait any further.
Kannada film industry decides to observe bundh on Thursday:
Veteran actor Rajkumar will lead a dharna near Vidhana Soudha, along with artistes and technicians from the Kannada film industry.
Kaizad robbed at gun point: The filmmaker was on his way to
Guwahati to make a film on India-ASEAN car rally.
Another Agarwal assailant killed: A member of the Bindu Singh gang, Navlesh Dubey, who was among the assailants who killed surgeon N. K. Agarwal on Deepavali, was shot dead by police
in Delhi on Sunday.
Exposition of holy relics begins: The pontifical mass by the Goan Archbishop, Filipe Neri Ferrao, attended by thousands of devotees, marked the beginning of the 16th solemn exposition of holy relics.
Neighbours
Kashmiri leaders on first bus proposed:
Pakistan proposed on Sunday that Kashmiri politicians should be on the inaugural bus when a road transport service begins across the Line of Control (LoC) between Azad Kashmir and the India-held Kashmir.
Bangla Rifles on red alert:
The Bangladesh government has put Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on red-alert along the Indian border
and urged the Border Security Force of India to withdraw its additional forces.
View from
abroad
US Cong passes H1-B visa hike: The US Congress has passed a measure increasing skilled worker visas by 20,000.
Indian students can work for one year after they graduate without requiring a special visa.
Shwaas the Breath hopes
it'll make it at the Oscars: Since it landed in New York, Shwaas hasn’t had time to catch its breath. The team behind the Indian entry for the Oscars has been running around town gathering support, holding screenings, hoping as many as possible see the film before nomination day
Radio brings NRIs closer home: An attempt to reach out to the Indian diaspora via the airwaves of Australia is
being described as an "encouraging success story".
Special:
What does it mean to be a Hindu in
India?
Unease grows in the hearts of common Indians as they
watch
a revered saint being arrested and humiliated, writes
Soumya Sitaraman
What is
India Editorial
Overall
PM invited rebels for talks: Manmohan Singh wound up his tour
of north-eastern states with an open invitation to all rebels.
Shankaracharya's remand was extended: The earlier police
remand expired Monday morning, but police got permission to
interrogate him further.
MLA's testimony looks false: Investigations suggest that an
MLA who claimed to be away from a Gujarat riot site is
fibbing.
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