NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (UNI) The opposition in the Lok Sabha today heckled defence minister George Fernandes when he was introduced to the house by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Mr Fernandes, who had quit the cabinet following the Tehelka expose on defence deals, was reinducted into the cabinet last month.
Opposition members shouted "shame, shame" as the prime minister stood up to make the customary introduction of two of his new ministers, the other being minister of state for defence Harin Pathak.
The members were seen making various objections, but speaker G M C Balayogi ruled that nothing would go on record.
Earlier, two new members, Mr Madhusudan Mistri and Mr Kailash Meghwal, who were elected to the House in the recent byelections, took oath of affirmation.
LS, RS adjourned after paying tributes to Scindia, others NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (UNI) Both houses of parliament adjourned on the opening day of the winter session today without transacting any business as a mark of respect to Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Madhavrao Scindia, who was killed in an air crash on September 30, and 14 other sitting and former MPs who died in the inter-session period.
Members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha observed silence for two minutes to pay tributes to them as well as to those killed in the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11 and on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly on October one.
Before adjourning the proceedings, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Krishan Kant and Lok Sabha speaker G.M.C.
Balayogi made obituary references in the respective houses to the departed leaders.
In his obituary reference, Mr Krishan Kant said the house conveyed its profound sense of sorrow and deep sympathy to the families of former Rajya Sabha MPs K P Mallikarjunudu, Pratap Mishra, Surendranath Dwivedi, Maragathan Chandrashekhar and Shyamdhar Misra and Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Madhavrao Scindia.
Condemning the terrorist attacks in the United States, he said India lost no time in lending its voice to the world community as the country knew what it meant to lose loved ones in such wanton attacks.
"Our hearts go out to the families of the victims who are still trying to come to terms with the tragedy." Mr Krishan Kant said Mr Scindia carved a niche for himself in politics, government and cricket.
Mr Balayogi said that as decided at the leaders meeting held earlier in the morning, the references made from the chair was also on behalf of leaders of all parties and groups and the entire house.
The two houses placed on record its heart-felt sympathies for victims of terrorism, in India and in other parts of the world.
"For us in India, terrorism has a special resonance because we have been a victim of terrorism for over a decade, and we know what it is like to lose a loved one in a wanton terrorist attack," Mr Balayogi said.
The speaker said Mr Scindia was a leader of the masses in the true sense of the word.
He ceaselessly strove for their uplift and betterment.
Besides Mr Scindia, the Lok Sabha mourned the deaths of Samar Choudhury (sitting member) and ten former members Y.S.
Mahajan, Pundlikrao Ramji Gawali, K.
Vijayabhaskara Reddy, Surendranath Dwivedy, P.K.
Devarajan, Maragatham Chandrasekhar, P.K.
Kodiyan, Shyam Dhar Misra and Kamala Bahuguna.
WB asks for more BSF forces to tackle ISI, terrorists KOLKATA, Nov 19 (UNI) The West Bengal government has demanded 14 more battalions of the Border Security Force to strengthen vigil along the states border with Bangladesh in view of increasing threats from the ISI and terrorists.
"We need at least 34 battalions to man the Bangladesh border...
But we have only 20 battalions, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told reporters here today.
He said he had taken up the matter with prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and union home minister LK Advani in New Delhi.
"I have insisted on deployment of 14 more battalions and I hope they will do the needfull, he said.
Mr Bhattacharjee said the centre had already agreed to raise a special force for deployment along the countrys border with Nepal.
"We have demanded deployment of Special Security Bureau (SSB) personnel along the Nepal border till the special forces are raised and deployed.
SSB personnel are deployed along Nepals border in Bihar and UP and there is no reason why they should not be deployed in West Bengal, he said.
To a question on increasing attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and their subsequent exodus to India, Mr Bhattacharjee said he had discussed the situation with both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani.
Centre could misuse POTO against minorities: Tohra NAGPUR, Nov 19 (UNI) Former Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Gurucharan Singh Tohra has expressed apprehension that the Centre would misuse the recently-promulgated Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) against the minority communities.
Talking to reporters here last evening, Mr Tohra noted that the Centre had not named any Hindu body as a terrorist organisation.
Only those affiliated to the minority communities had been listed as terrorist outfits in the Centres list.
This indicated that the government would misuse the Ordinance, when converted into a bill, against the minority communities, he alleged.
It is for this reason that "we will oppose the ordinance, Mr Tohra said.
The former SGPC president, accompanied by former secretary Manjit Singh Calcutta, was in town on a personal visit Mr Tohra also charged the Parkash Singh Badal government in Punjab indulging in extravagant expenditure in the state without any plans.
The populist policies of the Badal government had resulted in the Punjab farmers falling into the debt trap, he calimed.
Smaller parties in Punjab will form a front to defeat the Badal government in the next assembly elections, said Mr Tohra, adding that he would join hands with the Communists, Bahujan Sangh Party, Janata Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party to contest the next elections.
Swamy criticises PM for divesting Maneka of culture ministry NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (UNI) Janata Party President Subramaniam Swamy today criticised prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for divesting Ms Maneka Gandhi of the culture ministry portfolio, saying she had been penalised for ordering inquiries into smuggling of antiques to Italy.
The "sudden nocturnal stripping off the culture ministry portfolio from Ms Maneka Gandhi resulted from a previous day confabulation between the prime minister and Ms Sonia Gandhi, Dr Swamy said in a statement.
Ms Maneka Gandhis real fault which invited the prime ministers action was her ordering a full-scale investigation into the smuggling of antiques and rare paintings to Italy.
"She (Maneka) had informed of the same in a letter to me on November 13, he said.
Accusing Mr Vajpayee and Ms Sonia Gandhi of acting in a "collusive manner, he said even on the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), the prime minister had a secret deal with the Congress President in order to "appease their common benefactors.
Describing Ms Sonia Gandhi as an "imposter from Italy, the Janata Party president said Congressmen should grow spine to challenge her leadership and "expose her nefarious activities.
SC notices to UP govt, CBI in Ayodhya case NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (UNI) The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government and the CBI on two petitions challenging an Allahabad High Court order to drop criminal proceedings against three union ministers and five others regarding conspiracy in the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya on December 6 1992.
The notices, returnable within four weeks, were issued by a bench comprising Mr justice G B Pattanaik and Mr justice N Santosh Hegde, on a public interest petition by the Society for Justice and a Special Leave Petition by columnist Kuldip Nayar.
The bench asked the state government and CBI to file their replies, if any, within four weeks.
By the impugned judgment, dated February 12 this year, the High Court had dropped the criminal proceedings against the eight persons on the ground that the state governments notification on October 8, 1993, for creating a special court to try them was without its (courts) prior permission and, therefore, invalid.
The Gigh Court had, however, said the state government could clear the technical defect by issuing a fresh notification in consultation with it.
However, the state government did not issue any fresh notification.
Hence, the petitions before the apex court seeking a direction to the state government to issue a fresh notification and proceed against the eight accused, including the three union ministers, according to law.
Buddhadeb wants no confrontation with centre KOLKATA, Nov 19 (UNI) West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said his government would go ahead with a proposed law against organised crimes and terrorism and place the bill in the state assembly next month during the winter session.
Mr Bhattacharjee said his government had been opposing the Prevention Of Terrorism Ordinance because law and order is a state subject and the centre should leave it to the states without going for such ordinance.
He said his government would not invite any confrontation with the BJP led National Democratic Alliance government at the centre despite differences on several issues.
" We want to maintain best of working relation with the centre and I dont want to invite any confrontation," Mr Bhattacharjee told reporters here.
He said his government was opposed to many policies of the BJP and the NDA and would not hesitate to confront such policies .
"We have many differences and we will not compromise on such issues.But that does not mean we cannot have good working relation," he said.
Secular parties suffer from inverted communalism: Javed NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (UNI) Noted lyricist Javed Akhtar today charged parties across the political spectrum in India with failure to adopt the right posture against communalism and said even the secular forces suffered from a somewhat "inverted communalism." "The difference between so-called secular parties and the communal forces on communalism lies only in reaction, but their perception is the same.
The secular forces call for tolerance of minorities while the communal elements betray their impatience," Akhtar said after receiving an award along with his wife and actress Shabana Azmi, MP, for contribution to national integration, instituted by All India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF).
"The secular parties have to maintain equidistance from both majority and minority communalism.
They should come out openly against minority communalism," Akhtar said.
He said the "middle-of-the-road" parties did not dare to speak against communal acts or utterances of minorities for fear of "hurting the average Muslim".
"This is inverted communalism." "There is no difference between majority and minority communalism.
Majority communalism is justified on the grounds of minority communalism," he said.
Referring to the pro-Taliban speeches of Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Akhtar said it is for the political parties to come out against such utterances.
"Unfortunately it is left to the specially-coined category of liberal Muslims to come out on the streets ...
The liberal Muslim is a busy man today." "Kitna Gehra Andhera Hoga Ki Jugnu Bhi Sitare Jaise Dikhne Lage (It is so dark that even fire-flies look like stars)," he said in his inimitable style on being awarded for the stand taken by him and Shabana against communal utterances by the Shahi Imam and others.
Stressing on Indias pluralism and secularism, Shabana said, without naming any organisation, that some forces were making deliberate attempts to compress the national identity to the confines of religion.
"Identity should not come out of a melting pot.
It should be a colourful mosaic where individual identities remain distinct," she said.
AIATF chairman M S Bitta said the couple were chosen for the award for their "bold stand against the provocative utterances of Imams which had put the country on the verge of communal riots" in the wake of the US strikes in Afghanistan.
Former diplomat and AIATF president L M Singhvi said Javed and Shabana displayed the "sense of India".
Sudarshan flays govts silence over attacks on Hindus in Bdesh RAIGAR, Nov 19 (UNI) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief K Sudarshan has criticised the BJP government at the centre for maintaining silence over reports of atrocities on minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
Addressing a meeting of RSS cadres at Saraswati Shisu Mandir here yesterday, Mr Sudarshan said Hindus were constantly being ostracized in Bangladesh but it was surprising that no protest has been registered to the Bangladesh government over the issue by the centre.
Deploring the role of Indian media over the issue, Mr Sudarshan said newspapers in the country were not reporting the atrocities as much as the media in Bangladesh.
He questioned why the Indian media was not able to raise the issue in the manner it was being done by the Bangladeshi media.
Mr Sudarshan said the United States had sided with Pakistan after the September 11 attack on World Trade Cower and ignored India.
Pakistan was not declared a terrorist state despite India clamouring for it for several years, he added.
He said it was high time that India equipped itself with ultra-modern weapons to fight terrrorism on its own.
Ismail toys with Tharoor researches on Tagore for next film KOLKATA, Nov 19 (UNI) Eminent director Ismail Merchant is toying with the idea of filming noted Indian writer Shashi Tharoors latest bestseller "The Riot, but not immediately, even as his Indian Odyssey continues on celluloid with VS Naipaul and now Rabindranath Tagore.
"I have read Tharoors The Riot and found it very interesting.
I think it can be turned into an excellent movie.
But not immediately, said the New York-based filmmaker in an interview to UNI here recently during his visit to the 7th Kolkata film festival.
The Riot is a fast-paced novel about collisions of history and cultures with its setting in a small town in Uttar Pradesh.
"I also like Amitava Ghosh a lot.
I think his book The glass palace is wonderful.
It can be a brilliant film too, said Merchant who was in town during the screening of his latest film "The mystic masseur based on this years nobel prize winner VS Naipaul.
"The subjects on India appeal to me a lot, said the filmmaker whose next film "La Divorce is based on a Diane Johnson novel and will be shot in Paris.
"It is our next film and we have just finished the shooting of merci docteorey based on our original screenplay and set in Paris, said the maker of 46 feature films under the banner of Merchant Ivory Productions.
The Mumbai-born director said he would soon start a project on a film exploring the relationship between Tagore and French litterateur Romain Rolland, both nobel laureates in literature.
"I am considering Soumitra Chatterjee to play the role of Tagore, said Ismail.
Soumitra Chatterjee, an eminent Bengali actor, was a Satyajit Ray favourite.
"Rabindranath Tagore s contact with Romain Rolland dated from 1919 when rolland wrote to compliment Tagore on his definition of narrow nationalism, said Ismail.
At Rolland s request, Tagore signed his name to "La Delaration Pour l Independence De I Esprit which was probably the first organised attempt to mobilise intellectual opinion all over the world against war.
"Their first meeting took place in April 1921, in Paris.
They again met in August in 1930 in Geneva and discussed on international relationship and religion, said Ismail.
Ismail, whose 40th anniversary in a film career was marked by the release of "The Golden Bowl in April this year, is currently basking in the glory of his critically-acclaimed "The mystic masseur, which was one of the most avidly-watched movies at the Kolkata film festival as well as in London film festival.
"I am just too happy that Naipaul entrusted me with his book.
His nobel feat only doubled our happiness, said Ismail.
"I think Naipaul trusted us because of the reputation of the Merchant Ivory productions.
He himself was very excited and felt that it fell on the right hand.
He would see the film soon when he gets back from his tour.
He has been travelling all over Europe and America, said the filmmaker who started his film career with a short theatrical production "The creation of woman.
The mystic masseur is the story of Ganesh Ransumair, a school teacher in the capital city, Port of Spain, in Trinidad set before Indian independence.
Full of subtle humour and satire, it is the story of Ganesh who wants to be a writer but turns his hands into massaging and then miracle healing for money and goes on to become a powerful man in the expatriate Indian community as his fortune changes.
"It was a pleasure working with Ismail and I had to work a lot on my accent to bring originality to my character, said actor om Puri who played an important role in the film.
Ismail merchant and James Ivory would be honoured with New York state governor S Arts award at metropolitan museum of art in the big apple today.
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