Page 2 Mail Today, Tuesday, April 8, 2008
THE INCLUSION of theseptuagenarian formerChief Election Commis-sioner, M.S. Gill, in theUnion Cabinet as sportsand youth affairs ministerhas the Opposition BJPfrowning.
Not only has his inclusionbeen termed as “improper”politicisation of the constitu-tional position held by him,his appointment as ministerof state (despite theindependent charge tag) hasalso been seen as a “devalu-ation” of the institutionitself. That he is already inpolitics by the virtue of hiselection to Rajya Sabha on aCongress ticket earlier, hasbeen all but forgotten.
Discounting the fact that anot-so-moral precedence hasbeen set which future CECsmay follow, the Congress isflashing Gill’s experience as an“able administrator” to justifyhis induction.
It is also being said that Aiyarhas been “relieved” from thesports ministry as he has been“unhappy” and his bête noirIndian Olympic Associationsecretary, Suresh Kalmadi,made it no easier for him. Thepublic sparring the twoindulged in after India lost thebid to host the 2014 AsianGames to South Korea, was notforgotten. Nor the free-flow ofunsavoury comments thatcame out of the sportsminister’s office that caused
much embarrassment to theCongress high-command.
But what has raised curiouseyebrows within the Congressover Gill’s ministerial assig-nation was the fact JyotiradityaScindia was keen to take overfrom Aiyar. It took somepersuasion from Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi to getScindia to take on the miniportfolio of minister of state forIT and communications.
It is not being missed thatScindia’s posting could be seenas challenge to the incumbent(T.R. Baalu) by a fusioncandidate. It would be uponthe Union minister from DMK,to nurture Scindia (that is givehim work). The record set byanother Cabinet minister froma southern party is certainlynot quite encouraging.
As for Kanimozhi, it seemsManmohan-Sonia wanted tostay away from “family politics”
of DMK chief and Tamil Naduchief minister M. Karunanidhi.
Much like Rahul Gandhi, the40-year-old Rajya Sabha MP,turned down the offer becauseshe “is still student in politics”.But Congress leaders sayKarunanidhi, under fire forpromoting “dynasty politics”,did not want to draw more flak.Karunanidhi’s son M.K. Stalinis a Cabinet minister in thestate government.
Manmohan and Sonia,however, had to carry out fartrickier political balancingwhile reshuffling the Cabinet, inwhich Andhra Pradesh hasgone under-represented. Theyhad to by-pass Rahul’spromote-the-youth line, in caseof Rajasthan.
Thre-time MP, SantoshBagrodia, was inducted whileSachin Pilot was left out. Itseems, there was much to gainfrom promoting Bagrodia’s
Vaish-Vaniya community thanPilot’s protesting-Gujjar friends.
Sources said, formerRajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot asalso Rajasthan PCC advisedthe Congress brass againstinducting a young Gujjar leaderin an election year as thatwould alienate the powerfulMeena community from theparty. Besides, Avtar SinghBadana, also a Gujjar leader, isseen to be having more politicalclout than Pilot.
At least two of the seven whotook charge on Monday, VyalarRavi and Narayansamy, are allsmiles. Ravi is rather kickedabout the parliamentary affairsministry charge which has beenyanked away from Priya RanjanDasmunsi. In trying to regainfoothold as the West Bengal PCCchief, Dasmunsi is still not surewhether he lost out in Delhi.
INSIDE Comment 10 � Bollywood Diary 21 � Weather 26 � TV Picks 33-34 � Sports 40-48
R PRASAD
INTERNATIONAL human rights groupAmnesty International has urged India toprobe into hundreds of graves of uniden-tified people recently discovered inKashmir saying that they may be ofinnocent people killed by the armed forces.
The appeal comes a week after Associ-ation of Parents of Disappeared Persons(APDP), a Srinagar-based human rightsgroup, released its report detailing theexistence of at least 940 nameless graves inArmy-controlled Uri of Baramulla district.
“The grave sites are believed to containthe remains of victims of unlawful killings,enforced disappearances, torture andother abuses which occurred in the contextof armed conflict persisting in the statesince 1989,” the Amnesty International said.
The government and the armed forceshave maintained that the nameless gravesare those of “unidentified foreignmilitants”, and have given contradictoryand varying numbers of those disap-
peared since 1989 when armed insurgencyerupted in Kashmir.
More than a month before APDP releasedits report titled “Facts Under Ground”, MAILTODAY had come out with its investigationon one such graveyard in Tchahal in Urithat brought to light more than 200nameless graves. At least six exhumationsby families had found their disappearedmembers buried at Tchahal who accordingto officials were killed in encounters withthe armed forces.
The Amnesty International has asked theCentre to allow international agencies andexperts to help conduct a probe and “asan immediate step, the grave sites must besecured to preserve the evidence”.
Human rights workers in Kashmirincluding members of APDP have beencomplaining for years that innocent
people have disappeared or have beenkilled by government forces in stagedencounters. Numerous cases of suspectedmilitants who have been arrested andnever heard from again have beenreported in the past.
The Amnesty in its statement has recom-mended to “create a single authoritativeand comprehensive database of the namesand details, including where possible DNAinformation, of all individuals who havegone missing, who have been subjected toenforced disappearance, or abducted inJammu and Kashmir since 1989”.
The statement urges India to “ratifywithout delay and without any reserva-tions the UN Convention for the Protectionof All Persons from Enforced Disap-pearance”.
According to independent estimates,8000 people have been subjected toenforced disappearance since 1989.
By Parvaiz Bukhariin Srinagar
Amnesty call to probe Kashmir graves
BJP raises a stinkover Gill inclusionBy Santwana Bhattacharya in New Delhi
Rain, storm won’t hit wheat targetTHE WHEAT production target for 2008won’t suffer from the untimely rain andhailstorms that lashed wheat-producingareas in Punjab and Haryana recently.
“There might have been some damage,but it’s not a matter of concern yet,” saidagriculture secretary P.K. Mishra at thecurtainraiser event of the four-day GlobalAgro Industries Forum to begin on Tuesday.
Mishra said the production estimateremained unchanged at 74.81 milliontonnes. Agricultural scientists havepredicted that if the rain continues,damage would be severe in places wherethe crop was sown early.
The recent rains have also damaged
crops of cumin, chillies, mango, maize andpotato in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.Gujarat’s mango, wheat and maize outputhas been adversely affected.
Mishra said the Centre has asked statesto inform about the extent of cropdamages. He said weather conditions andtemperatures are conducive as of now,specially for wheat. “In some places,wheat was sown late and those cropswould benefit from the rain,” Mishra said.
Last month, the government hadprojected the 2008 wheat output to be74.81 million tonnes, down from the earlierestimate of 75.5 million tonnes. India hadimported 1.8 million tonnes of wheat in2007, down from 5.5 million tonnes in 2006,when the government had imported the
grain after a gap of six years. The achievement of the target, however,
may not have any meaning if the food andconsumer affairs ministry fails to procureadequate foodgrain from the farmers.
With private companies like ITC andCargill paying more to farmers, the FCI iskeeping its fingers crossed over its wheattarget. In February this year, thegovernment had raised the procurementprice to Rs 1,000 per quintal from Rs 850.
But agriculture minister Sharad Pawar onMonday said the government would notraise the procurement price for farmers.Pawar told reporters in Punjab thatgovernment agencies would buy 12 milliontonnes of wheat from Punjab and Haryana.
GAIN AND LOSS: Jyotiraditya Scindia was keen on the sports ministry that went to M.S. Gill.
By Debabrata Mohanty in New Delhi
Figures are in Rs* quantity in litre
PRICE CHECKCommodity April 6 April 7
Rice/kg 30-35 28-44Wheat/kg 14-15 14-15Eggs/dozen 24-25 24-26Mustard oil
*84-86 78-110
Flour/kg 14-17 12-14Onion/kg 12-14 13-15Pulses/kg 40-44 38-44
Yechuri meetsSonia on inflationCPM LEADER Sitaram Yechuri metCongress chief Sonia Gandhi onMonday and apprised her aboutthe urgent necessity of reining in inflation. The closed-doormeeting that lasted 20 minutes wasalso attended by Congress leadersPranab Mukherjee, Ahmed Pateland A.K. Antony, sources said.
Yechuri handed over to Gandhithe resolution on rising prices thatwas adopted in the recently heldparty congress of the CPM.
The meeting comes at a timewhen the Congress has begun tofeel a storm of agitation over itsfailure to control rising prices.
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Orissa NGOs canhelp riot victimsTHE SUPREME Court onMonday allowed charitable organ-isations and NGOs to go aheadwith providing relief to thoseaffected by violence against Chris-tians in Kandhamal in Orissa onthe eve of Christmas last year.
A Bench comprising JusticeH.K. Sema and Markandey Katju,in an interim order, stayed anorder by the district adminis-tration restraining charitable,religious and non-governmentorganisations from carrying outany relief work in the area.
The interim order was passed onan appeal by the Archbishop ofCuttack against a High Courtjudgment refusing to interferewith the collector’s order.
Mail Today
Bird flu spreadsto TripuraAFTER creating a scare in WestBengal, the avian influenza virushas now reached Tripura withreports of over 3,000 birds dyingthere last week.
Animal husbandry departmentofficials said the birds, includingpoultry, died in three villagesbordering Bangladesh promptingthe Tripura government toprohibit import of poultry fromthe neighbouring country.
Samples of the dead poultryhave tested positive for bird flu.From Tuesday, the administrationwill cull 25,000 birds in eight grampanchayats that fall within five-km radius of the affected villages.
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