India Politics

By Liz Mathew, IANS, New Delhi : Although they themselves are to blame, political parties have finally started to vocally worry over the role of black money in elections in India. The money factor in the recent Karnataka polls has given sleepless nights to many politicians as well as the intelligentsia. Middle-level political activists say that moneybags are marginalising them -- slowly but effectively.

By IANS, Srinagar : After nearly five years, the two estranged factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference in Jammu and Kashmir will chalk out a common `resistance programme' against a controversial allotment of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) by the state government. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, the chairman of the moderate Hurriyat group, would call on Syed Ali Geelani, the hardline separatist leader and chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat group, Thursday to chalk out a common 'resistance programme' against the allotment of forest land to SASB.

By IANS, New Delhi : India's ruling coalition and its Left allies Wednesday said they would pursue efforts to end their flaming row over the India-US nuclear deal and meet again "in due course". After about 100 minutes of talks at External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's residence, leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its Left allies declared that an expected showdown had been averted. Mukherjee read out a brief statement after the ninth UPA-Left nuclear committee meeting.

By IANS, Kanpur : The main opposition BharatIiya Janata Party (BJP) will demand a trust vote in parliament if the Left parties withdraw support to the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the India-US nuclear deal, the party's prime ministerial aspirant L.K. Advani said here Friday. "We would press for the government to seek a confidence vote in the event of the Left withdrawing its support," he declared while kicking off the BJP's Lok Sabha poll campaign from the historic Phoolbagh Maidan in this Uttar Pradesh town.

By TwoCircles.net reporter, Tiruchirapalli: Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) will make formal inauguration of the Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (MMK), its newly-floated political party, at the party's state conference at Chennai after the rainy season. Addressing a press conference here on 6th July TMMK president M H Jawahirullah announced it and said efforts were on to register the MMK with the Election Commission. He further said the party would contest in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

By IANS, New Delhi : As the clock ticks away for the trust vote set for July 22, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday expressed confidence about winning it and said the nuclear deal would “in no way impinge” on India's strategic programme nor compromise the country's foreign policy. "People of India understand the significance of the nuclear deal. The nuclear deal will in no way impinge on India's strategic programme," Manmohan Singh told senior editors from the electronic media at a breakfast meeting at his 7 Race Course residence.

By IANS, New Delhi : With a trust vote looming in parliament next week, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also a leading political manager of the ruling coalition, has decided to send junior minister Anand Sharma to Singapore to attend a ministerial meeting of the Asean Regional Forum. Mukherjee was slated to attend the crucial ARF meeting in Singapore July 21-24. But with the government battling for survival after the Left parties withdrew their support last week, he decided to send Sharma for it, official sources said.

By IANS, New Delhi : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati Monday appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to make the India-US nuclear deal a “prestige” issue and said the next government should finalise it. Mayawati, who has virtually taken over the role of the principal opposition rallying point for smaller political formations opposing Manmohan Singh's government in the trust vote, also claimed that the deal was a step to make India a slave of the US.

By IANS, New Delhi : In a passionate speech which he was not allowed to deliver in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intended to state that tackling inflation and revitalising the farm sector were two of his government's top priorities. "My priorities are tackling the imported inflation caused by steep increase in oil prices," says the text of the prime minister's speech which was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's request after opposition members disrupted proceedings.

By Sharat Pradhan, IANS, Lucknow : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati may have suddenly emerged as a contender for the country's top job but even her guide, philosopher and political mentor Kanshi Ram had not thought she would travel this far. Even when Kanshi Ram named her as his only successor despite much opposition from within the party, no one had imagined that Mayawati would one day end up as a national figure commanding the support of older political parties and many of their veteran leaders.

By IANS, Mumbai : Terror attacks are being carried out to divert people's attention from "a serious issue", like how communal riots took place in the past, a group of intellectuals from progressive, Dalit and backward class groups said here Monday. Under an umbrella organisation called Awami Bharat, the groups emphasised that the politics of communal riots had now been replaced by the politics of terror. They stressed that terror strikes should be analysed in a political context.

By IANS, Bhopal : L.K. Advani, the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will flag off Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's public rally Thursday aimed at launching the party's election campaign in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. BJP state President Narendra Singh Tomar, who inspected the venue of the public meeting at Ujjain Wednesday, said: "The state polls are due in November this year. Several works related to development and public welfare were done in past four-and-a-half years regime of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh."

By NNN-PTI, Mumbai, India : Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said the party will extend support to the UPA Government if it came up with a stringent law against terrorism. "They (UPA) repealed POTA and TADA... But an extraordinary situation needs an extraordinary law.... If the UPA could muster the political will to introduce a stringent law, we will extend support," he said on Wednesday.

By IANS Ahmedabad : Narendra Modi, who led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to an emphatic win in Gujarat, would not shift to national politics in the near future, party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said Monday. "Modi is a dynamic leader. The party has given him the task of Gujarat. It will decide in future if he will shift to the national level," he told reporters here. He said Modi's victory, third consecutive win for the party in the state, had boosted the morale of the organisation.

By IANS, Bangalore : The first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in southern India has drawn a comprehensive development blueprint to transform Karnataka into a model state by 2020, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said here Friday. Addressing a huge gathering to mark the 62nd Independence Day celebrations, Yeddyurappa said the blueprint was aimed at removing regional imbalance in the state and ensure equitable development.

By IANS, Chennai : The Communist Party of India (CPI) has called for an all-party meeting Monday to deliberate upon possible solutions for the Sri Lankan Tamil tangle. Invitations have been sent to all political parties in Tamil Nadu to discuss means to stop the civil war and prevent the loss of innocent civilians' lives, a party press release said Saturday. Meanwhile, over 11 Tamil refugee families from Sri Lanka comprising the old and the infirm, as also women and children surrendered to police in Rameshwaram, 600 km south of here, police said.

By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,

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