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Vajpayee did nothing to stop Gujarat riots:
Narayanan
What is India News Service,
Tuesday, 1 March 2005, 2000 hrs IST
The Gujarat riots were the result of a "conspiracy" between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in the state and at the Centre, which also led to the Army not being given powers to stem the violence, says former President KR Narayanan.
In an interview with the Malayalam magazine Manava Samskrithi, Narayanan said he, as President, wrote several letters to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and even spoke to him about the riots.
"But he did not do anything positive," the former President said about the 2002 sectarian violence in which over 1,000 people were killed.
Narayanan also dwelt at length on the role of the Army, its move not to shoot at rioters and its inability to curtail the riots that went on for three months.
Holding the Vajpayee government culpable for the Army's failure in controlling the situation, he said: "I asked the Army to be deployed to suppress the violence. If asked by the state government (led by Narendra Modi) for the Army to be deployed to take control of law and order, the Centre is constitutionally bound and it is the duty of the Centre.
"The Army was sent, but there was no shooting against those who created the violence. Had that been done, a lot of gruesome incidents that occurred later, could have been prevented."
The former President went on to add forcefully: "If the Army was given the powers to suppress the violence, the gruesome tragedy in Gujarat could have been more or less eliminated. But the state government did not do it; the Centre also did not do it. It was a conspiracy between the state and the central government that was responsible for the Gujarat violence."
SC amused at Centre\92s silence over Punjab water issue: The SC also issued notices to Centre and six states debarring those with more than two children from contesting Parliamentary and assembly elections.
Tremors in
snow states: An earthquake of slight intensity was felt in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh today. The tremor, measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale, was recorded at 6.10 p.m. in Jammu and Kashmir.
National rural health mission to be flagged off:
The scheme would address problems of non-availability of doctors, basic medicines and paramedical personnel at rural primary health
centres.
States
NDA stakes claim to form government in Jharkhand:
The BJP-led NDA today formally staked its claim to form the government in Jharkhand, submitting a list of 41 MLAs, 36 elected on alliance ticket and five Independents.
Paswan's MLAs want tieup with
BJP, but he says no: Amidst reports that his newly elected party MLAs favoured seeking outside support of BJP in government formation in Bihar, LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan ruled out any such possibility.
Cong tries to flock
Laloo, Paswan together: The Congress is worried that if the RJD fails to form a government in Bihar, thanks to Mr Paswan, it might not support the JMM-Congress combine in
Jharkhand.
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Mamata raises a toast to Lalu's fall:
There are many ways of interpreting electoral routs. Suspending a grunt over her party's no-gain-no-loss show in Jharkhand for a while Nationalist Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee has gone partying. The reason: "Appreciable performance of the NDA in Bihar and Jharkhand." It is another matter that the NTC, which fought the Jharkhand elections independent of the alliance has won none out of the 18 seats. For the record, Trinamul all India general secretary Mukul Roy had then swore by the 32 per cent Bengali votes in the tribal State.
Rabri quits, Paswan changes tack:
Just hours after the Bihar Chief Minister, Rabri Devi, put in her papers, the Lok Jan Shakti Party chief and Union Steel Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, initiated a move apparently seeking to pre-empt the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the National Democratic Alliance from forming the government.
Speaker, deputy\92s resignations scuttle Rane trust vote:
The ball is once again in the Governor\92s court with the BJP calling for the dismissal of the Rane government and Rane demanding appointment of a new Speaker.
Neighbours
Nepalese forces kill 74 Maoists:
Three securitymen were also killed in the gunbattle between army and rebels.
Don't grant
Taslima citizenship, B'desh tells India: Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who is reportedly among the 199 nominees for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, said being from the sub-continent and pursuing her literary activities among her "own people" was more important to her than winning a prestigious award.
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View from abroad
Mumbai cheapest city to live in: A survey by Swiss banking group says Mumbai has the cheapest cost of living in the world.
UK
panditjis in lingo tangle: The British Home Office introduced new immigration rules that require, amongst other things, that all priests from all religions should have advanced English skills.
The reasoning behind this move was to ensure that mosques employed imams who could communicate with young, second generation Muslims.
But the new rules have caused great concern amongst Hindu groups and temples have found it hard to recruit priests from India since the introduction of the new regulations.
Overall
Ex-president blamed Vajpayee for Gujarat riots:
K R
Narayanan has said the former prime minister also did little to stop the
violence.
Paswan refused to support Lalu: He said he would rather prefer
president's rule in Bihar.
Bangladesh said it was against writer's demand for Indian citizenship: Reports
also suggest Tasleema Nazreen has been shortlisted for the Nobel peace prize.
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