Much-awaited change in BJP has been effected. Newly elected BJP President Nitin Gadkari has announced his new team, which is a mixture of young and old stalwarts with greater participation of RSS.
The Saffron Party has promoted Varun Gandhi as national secretary. Cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was also awarded with secretary post. Television actor and politician Smriti Irani, RP Mehra and Santosh Gangwar have also been named secretaries.
On the other hand, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ravi Shankar Prasad were also promoted and appointed as new party Vice Presidents. Purushottam Rupala and Shanta Kumar have also been appointed as new Vice Presidents.
Other BJP vice presidents are: BC Khanduri, Nejma Heptullah, Kalraj Mishra, Vinay Katiyar, Hema Malini, Kiran Ghai and Vijoy Chakrobraty.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara raje, who was forced to step down as Leader of opposition in state assembly, and senior leader Ananth Kumar were given responsibility of party's General Secretary.
Shahnawaz Hussain and Tarun Vijay are among new spokespersons along with Prakash Javadekar, Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Ravi Shankar Prasad has been appointed as senior spokesperson.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Varun Gandhi
Varun Gandhi is the son of Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi, the son and daughter-in-law of the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. Feroze Varun Gandhi was 3 months old when his father was killed in a plane crash.
On 31 October 1984, when Varun Gandhi was 4 years old, his grandmother and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her bodyguards.
Varun's mother, apart from being a political opponent of the Indian National Congress, is an animal rights' activist of international stature. She used her famous name to direct attention in the country towards animal welfare. She has set up a nationwide organization called People For Animals (PFA).
Varun's great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first Prime Minister of India, and his great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru was a distinguished leader of the Indian independence movement. His grandfather Feroze Gandhi was a Parsi parliamentarian and the husband of Indira Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi is said to have been very fond of Varun, and was greatly distressed when Varun's mother left the household. In an interview, Varun suggested that he feels a bond with the Nehru-Gandhi family, even though he belongs to a rival political party. Varun has claimed that Indira Gandhi did not force his mother Maneka Gandhi to leave, she left on her own.
He started his education at Modern School, New Delhi. After finishing the fourth standard, he transferred to the Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh, India. He then went on to The British School, New Delhi, studying for his UK secondary exam board GCSEs and A levels. He obtained his BSc in Economics from the University of London External System.
Career
Varun Gandhi held college degrees from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), both in London, United Kingdom.
Varun was exposed to politics from an early age as his mother, Maneka Gandhi, was politically active since his birth.[citation needed]
In August 1999, at the age of 19, Feroze Varun Gandhi was active in his mother's Pilibhit constituency. She made Varun accompany her in meetings. Varun started addressing public meetings during this election campaign.
He wrote a book of poems titled "The Otherness of Self", illustrated by Anjolie Ela Menon, Manjit Bawa and Manu Parekh. Asked what drew him to poetry, Varun Gandhi, explained: “Because it is so precise and illustrates the strength of language.”
In February 2004, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party along with his mother after being convinced to do so by BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan.[6] His joining the BJP was hyped by the BJP with general secretary Pramod Mahajan claiming that "With Varun joining BJP, half the Congress will be with us..." The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee posed before the media with Maneka Gandhi and Varun after which the BJP held a media event presided over by the then BJP president Venkaiah Naidu[8] . The president of the Indian National Congress and Varun's aunt, Sonia, wished him success in his career in politics. She later said that Maneka and Varun's joining BJP was "painful as the Nehru-Gandhi family had always fought against communalism".
Varun was used as a star campaigner by the BJP in the 2004 elections. He, however, refused to attack his family consisting of his cousins Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and his aunt Sonia Gandhi.
In October 2004, when campaigning for the BJP in Maharashtra assembly elections, he questioned the Congress as to what it had done for minorities in the past 50 years.
In November 2004, he was inducted into the BJP national executive.
In 2006, the BJP asked him to contest the by-election to Lok Sabha from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, a seat vacated by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Chauhan. The party backtracked later denying Varun the ticket. The party then offered Varun a seat to contest from Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur constituency, but this time Varun refused the seat.
In January 2008, the media reported that his mother Maneka Gandhi would vacate her five-time constituency of Pilibhit for Varun during the 2009 elections, while she will contest from neighboring Aonla. BJP decided to field Varun Gandhi from the Pilibhit Lok sabha seat for general election 2009. Varun Gandhi was elected into the 15th Lok Sabha of India by a victory margin of nearly 293,501 votes. He procured around 429,000 votes. Highest margin for a newcomer, and second highest margin in the House.
In January 2010, a large section of the BJP was projecting Varun Gandhi as the future face of the party in the country, especially Uttar Pradesh. A public rally addressed by him in Sultanpur, in December 2009, drew a larger crowd than any of the events hosted by the BJP in the recent past. The RSS sees him as the only hope for strengthening the party's presence in Uttar Pradesh.
On 31 October 1984, when Varun Gandhi was 4 years old, his grandmother and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her bodyguards.
Varun's mother, apart from being a political opponent of the Indian National Congress, is an animal rights' activist of international stature. She used her famous name to direct attention in the country towards animal welfare. She has set up a nationwide organization called People For Animals (PFA).
Varun's great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first Prime Minister of India, and his great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru was a distinguished leader of the Indian independence movement. His grandfather Feroze Gandhi was a Parsi parliamentarian and the husband of Indira Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi is said to have been very fond of Varun, and was greatly distressed when Varun's mother left the household. In an interview, Varun suggested that he feels a bond with the Nehru-Gandhi family, even though he belongs to a rival political party. Varun has claimed that Indira Gandhi did not force his mother Maneka Gandhi to leave, she left on her own.
He started his education at Modern School, New Delhi. After finishing the fourth standard, he transferred to the Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh, India. He then went on to The British School, New Delhi, studying for his UK secondary exam board GCSEs and A levels. He obtained his BSc in Economics from the University of London External System.
Career
Varun Gandhi held college degrees from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), both in London, United Kingdom.
Varun was exposed to politics from an early age as his mother, Maneka Gandhi, was politically active since his birth.[citation needed]
In August 1999, at the age of 19, Feroze Varun Gandhi was active in his mother's Pilibhit constituency. She made Varun accompany her in meetings. Varun started addressing public meetings during this election campaign.
He wrote a book of poems titled "The Otherness of Self", illustrated by Anjolie Ela Menon, Manjit Bawa and Manu Parekh. Asked what drew him to poetry, Varun Gandhi, explained: “Because it is so precise and illustrates the strength of language.”
In February 2004, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party along with his mother after being convinced to do so by BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan.[6] His joining the BJP was hyped by the BJP with general secretary Pramod Mahajan claiming that "With Varun joining BJP, half the Congress will be with us..." The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee posed before the media with Maneka Gandhi and Varun after which the BJP held a media event presided over by the then BJP president Venkaiah Naidu[8] . The president of the Indian National Congress and Varun's aunt, Sonia, wished him success in his career in politics. She later said that Maneka and Varun's joining BJP was "painful as the Nehru-Gandhi family had always fought against communalism".
Varun was used as a star campaigner by the BJP in the 2004 elections. He, however, refused to attack his family consisting of his cousins Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and his aunt Sonia Gandhi.
In October 2004, when campaigning for the BJP in Maharashtra assembly elections, he questioned the Congress as to what it had done for minorities in the past 50 years.
In November 2004, he was inducted into the BJP national executive.
In 2006, the BJP asked him to contest the by-election to Lok Sabha from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, a seat vacated by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Chauhan. The party backtracked later denying Varun the ticket. The party then offered Varun a seat to contest from Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur constituency, but this time Varun refused the seat.
In January 2008, the media reported that his mother Maneka Gandhi would vacate her five-time constituency of Pilibhit for Varun during the 2009 elections, while she will contest from neighboring Aonla. BJP decided to field Varun Gandhi from the Pilibhit Lok sabha seat for general election 2009. Varun Gandhi was elected into the 15th Lok Sabha of India by a victory margin of nearly 293,501 votes. He procured around 429,000 votes. Highest margin for a newcomer, and second highest margin in the House.
In January 2010, a large section of the BJP was projecting Varun Gandhi as the future face of the party in the country, especially Uttar Pradesh. A public rally addressed by him in Sultanpur, in December 2009, drew a larger crowd than any of the events hosted by the BJP in the recent past. The RSS sees him as the only hope for strengthening the party's presence in Uttar Pradesh.
India cannot bypass concerns on terror, says Rao
17 Mar 2010
NEW DELHI: India delivered a strong message on terror to Pakistan even as Islamabad continued to make wild allegations of Indian involvement in the Lahore attacks and insurgency in Balochistan. Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao warned against interpreting Indian restraint towards Pakistan as weakness and highlighted Indian efforts to reach out to Islamabad.
“We have consistently emphasised the need for governments concerned to act decisively to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and to effectively deal with groups that perpetrate it... our restraint should not be confused with weakness or unwillingness to act against those that seek to harm our people, create insecurity and hamper our developmental goals,” she said in an speech that was aimed as much at Islamabad as Washington, which wants normalisation of ties between India and Pakistan.
She further said that India could not just bypass the concerns on terror and go about business as usual by resuming the composite dialogue process. ``It is very, very difficult to be convinced in such a situation that we should set aside these concerns and just move on,’’ she said but added that the door for dialogue had never been shut. Ms Rao, who is on a six day visit to the US, was speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington. She also made it clear that India has no plans to downscale its presence in Afghanistan following the targeting of Indian nationals in Afghanistan by terror elements.
``We are not scaling down our operations in Afghanistan, we are taking all necessary security measures to safeguard Indian lives there,” she said and called the February 26 Kabul attack as a “barbaric attack against Indians engaged in humanitarian and development work in Afghanistan”.
Any downscaling of Indian presence would be widely welcomed in Pakistan which has been seeking a reduction of Indian involvement in Afghanistan while looking at increasing its own presence. Focusing on Pakistan, the foreign secretary also pointed out that persons who were identified by the world as terrorists were making open threats against India. “I did not want to bring the name of Hafiz Saeed and Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the LeT... we feel (they) continue to roam, to speak, have unhindered access to media, to channels to communicate that agenda (of violence).. that effects us. Our people are concerned about it,” Ms Rao said.
She also alluded to the impatience within India against the continued export of terror from Pakistan. The general feeling in India right now is: “We have suffered too much for too long,” she said. Ms Rao, who is in the US to co-chair a meeting of the India-United States High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG), is scheduled to meet US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and other top US officials.
India has continued to make the point that selective targeting of terror elements would not yield the required results either in Afghanistan or Pakistan. ``Distinctions made between the various terrorist outfits are now meaningless, since they are now in effect fused both operationally and ideologically,” she said.
Another point that India has been making repeatedly is a cautious approach to pouring in large amounts of military aid to Pakistan. Ms Rao said there should be strict accountability criteria on US defence assistance rendered to Pakistan.
NEW DELHI: India delivered a strong message on terror to Pakistan even as Islamabad continued to make wild allegations of Indian involvement in the Lahore attacks and insurgency in Balochistan. Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao warned against interpreting Indian restraint towards Pakistan as weakness and highlighted Indian efforts to reach out to Islamabad.
“We have consistently emphasised the need for governments concerned to act decisively to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and to effectively deal with groups that perpetrate it... our restraint should not be confused with weakness or unwillingness to act against those that seek to harm our people, create insecurity and hamper our developmental goals,” she said in an speech that was aimed as much at Islamabad as Washington, which wants normalisation of ties between India and Pakistan.
She further said that India could not just bypass the concerns on terror and go about business as usual by resuming the composite dialogue process. ``It is very, very difficult to be convinced in such a situation that we should set aside these concerns and just move on,’’ she said but added that the door for dialogue had never been shut. Ms Rao, who is on a six day visit to the US, was speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington. She also made it clear that India has no plans to downscale its presence in Afghanistan following the targeting of Indian nationals in Afghanistan by terror elements.
``We are not scaling down our operations in Afghanistan, we are taking all necessary security measures to safeguard Indian lives there,” she said and called the February 26 Kabul attack as a “barbaric attack against Indians engaged in humanitarian and development work in Afghanistan”.
Any downscaling of Indian presence would be widely welcomed in Pakistan which has been seeking a reduction of Indian involvement in Afghanistan while looking at increasing its own presence. Focusing on Pakistan, the foreign secretary also pointed out that persons who were identified by the world as terrorists were making open threats against India. “I did not want to bring the name of Hafiz Saeed and Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the LeT... we feel (they) continue to roam, to speak, have unhindered access to media, to channels to communicate that agenda (of violence).. that effects us. Our people are concerned about it,” Ms Rao said.
She also alluded to the impatience within India against the continued export of terror from Pakistan. The general feeling in India right now is: “We have suffered too much for too long,” she said. Ms Rao, who is in the US to co-chair a meeting of the India-United States High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG), is scheduled to meet US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and other top US officials.
India has continued to make the point that selective targeting of terror elements would not yield the required results either in Afghanistan or Pakistan. ``Distinctions made between the various terrorist outfits are now meaningless, since they are now in effect fused both operationally and ideologically,” she said.
Another point that India has been making repeatedly is a cautious approach to pouring in large amounts of military aid to Pakistan. Ms Rao said there should be strict accountability criteria on US defence assistance rendered to Pakistan.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Women's Reservation Bill: MPs protest, RS adjourned
NEW DELHI: SP, BSP and RJD members on Monday strongly opposed the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, with one of them even trying to climb the Speaker's podium, leading to adjournment of the House for the second time till 2pm.
The bill, slated to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, created storm in the Lok Sabha soon after Speaker Meira Kumar welcomed a Croatian delegation and read out a reference on International Women's Day.
The moment Kumar called for Question Hour, SP, BSP and RJD members trooped into the Well demanding quotas for OBC, Dalit and Muslim women within the proposed law to reserve 33 per cent seats inParliament and State assemblies for the fair sex.
The Speaker refused to adjourn the House and carried on with the Question Hour. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav gestured his party members to move forward and himself marched to the Well from the side of the treasury benches. Dara Singh Chauhan (BSP) and Lalu Prasad and Umashanker Singh (both RJD) followed Yadav.
At this moment, Mithilesh Kumar (SP) tried to climb the table placed in front of the Speaker prompting Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee to request Yadav to control his members.
On the SP chief's directive, the members retreated a bit but stayed put in the Well and continued to raise slogans.
The bill, slated to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, created storm in the Lok Sabha soon after Speaker Meira Kumar welcomed a Croatian delegation and read out a reference on International Women's Day.
The moment Kumar called for Question Hour, SP, BSP and RJD members trooped into the Well demanding quotas for OBC, Dalit and Muslim women within the proposed law to reserve 33 per cent seats inParliament and State assemblies for the fair sex.
The Speaker refused to adjourn the House and carried on with the Question Hour. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav gestured his party members to move forward and himself marched to the Well from the side of the treasury benches. Dara Singh Chauhan (BSP) and Lalu Prasad and Umashanker Singh (both RJD) followed Yadav.
At this moment, Mithilesh Kumar (SP) tried to climb the table placed in front of the Speaker prompting Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee to request Yadav to control his members.
On the SP chief's directive, the members retreated a bit but stayed put in the Well and continued to raise slogans.
I have not done anything illegal: Nityananda
Chennai: Breaking his silence in the sex scandal in which he allegedly figured, self-styled godman Nityananda Swami today claimed he has not done anything 'illegal' and that he was a victim of a smear campaign.
'There have been many allegations against me and my organisations in recent days...I want to assure you all, all
of you, that nothing illegal has been done by me or by any of my organisations,' he said in a video clip recorded at an
undisclosed location, a week after his alleged sleazy acts were telecast on TV channel drawing widespread protests.
'We are in the process of collecting evidence to establish the falsity and motive of this smear campaign that
has been going against me. I will address all the allegations and issue a detailed explanation. We will find out the truth
and will come back to you very soon. Till then please be patient,' he said.
The CD of him speaking before a camera at an undisclosed location was sent throughhis lawyer and circulated to select
media. The contents of his speech were telecast by a private Tamil Satellite Channel.
His statement comes a day after his former disciple Nithya Dharmananda alias K Lenin said he had shot the video
purportedly showing Nityananda in a compromising position with an actress which was later telecast on TV channels.
Based on his complaint, police registered cases against Nityananda under various sections of the IPC including
cheating, criminal intimidation and rape.
Police Commissioner T Rajendran had said all cases would be transferred to Bangalore since the incident had taken place
at his ashram at Bidadi. Special teams had been formed to trace Nityananda.
The video aired on Tamil TV channels recently had caused a furore, with some Hindu groups and others protesting against
Nityananda even as Karnataka government promised 'very strict' action against him. The Ashram, however, has maintained that the video footage was morphed. PTI
'There have been many allegations against me and my organisations in recent days...I want to assure you all, all
of you, that nothing illegal has been done by me or by any of my organisations,' he said in a video clip recorded at an
undisclosed location, a week after his alleged sleazy acts were telecast on TV channel drawing widespread protests.
'We are in the process of collecting evidence to establish the falsity and motive of this smear campaign that
has been going against me. I will address all the allegations and issue a detailed explanation. We will find out the truth
and will come back to you very soon. Till then please be patient,' he said.
The CD of him speaking before a camera at an undisclosed location was sent throughhis lawyer and circulated to select
media. The contents of his speech were telecast by a private Tamil Satellite Channel.
His statement comes a day after his former disciple Nithya Dharmananda alias K Lenin said he had shot the video
purportedly showing Nityananda in a compromising position with an actress which was later telecast on TV channels.
Based on his complaint, police registered cases against Nityananda under various sections of the IPC including
cheating, criminal intimidation and rape.
Police Commissioner T Rajendran had said all cases would be transferred to Bangalore since the incident had taken place
at his ashram at Bidadi. Special teams had been formed to trace Nityananda.
The video aired on Tamil TV channels recently had caused a furore, with some Hindu groups and others protesting against
Nityananda even as Karnataka government promised 'very strict' action against him. The Ashram, however, has maintained that the video footage was morphed. PTI
Rao assures support to SL for resettlement of Tamils
Colombo, Mar 7 (PTI) In the first high-level contact between the two countries after the Presidential polls here, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao today met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and assured him of India's support to the process of resettlement and rehabilitation of Tamil civilians.
Rao met Rajapaksa over lunch at 'Janadhipathi Mandiraya' (President's House), and congratulated him for his resounding victory in the January 26 Presidential polls.
"She expressed India's willingness to continue assisting Sri Lanka in the resettlement of the IDPs...India was also keen to assist in the complete restoration of the railway line in the North," an official statement from the Presidential Secretariat said.
Rao, who had earlier served in Colombo as Indian High Commissioner, also said the Sri Lankan Government has made efforts to resettle nearly 3 lakh displaced civilians after shifting them from the welfare centres in the North and East.
Rao met Rajapaksa over lunch at 'Janadhipathi Mandiraya' (President's House), and congratulated him for his resounding victory in the January 26 Presidential polls.
"She expressed India's willingness to continue assisting Sri Lanka in the resettlement of the IDPs...India was also keen to assist in the complete restoration of the railway line in the North," an official statement from the Presidential Secretariat said.
Rao, who had earlier served in Colombo as Indian High Commissioner, also said the Sri Lankan Government has made efforts to resettle nearly 3 lakh displaced civilians after shifting them from the welfare centres in the North and East.
'42 terrorist camps on border should be disbanded'
Thiruvananthapuram : Defence Minister A.K. Antony Saturday said 42 terrorist camps functioning on the border have to be disbanded by Pakistan for the India-Pakistan talks to be successful.
'Pakistan has not made any serious attempt to disband the camps that are functioning close to Jammu and Kashmir. The decision for bilateral talks has been made consciously and it was not an ad hoc one,' Antony told reporters after inaugurating the new office complex of the Coast Guard station at Vizhinjam near here.
'Though there was no breakthrough, being a conscious decision, the process (of talks)will continue,' he added.
The minister said the union home ministry and the Jammu and Kashmir government have evolved a formula to check infiltration and bring back terrorists to normal life.
'Many have surrendered too. With the conditions becoming normal, there is an increase in tourist arrivals in Kashmir. Attempts for terrorist infiltration are there and the armed forces are maintaining an eternal vigil on the border,' he said.
Onthe US supply of arms to Pakistan, he said the US should make sure that the arms were used at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and not targeted against India.
On the Maoist issue, he denied that the government had any information on the Chinese aiding and abetting the Maoists.
'The army will give logistic support to the State police (of Maoist-affected states). Paramilitary forces will be used for training the State police,' said Antony.
He said the acquisition of defence equipments and aircraft has increased considerably in the past five years.
'The process for acquiring the Kiev-class aircraft, Admiral Gorshkov, from Russia is in the final stage,' added Antony.
He said that after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the threat through sea has increased and a coordinated effort of the forces as well as the government is being made to prevent such attacks.
'One of the positive aspects is that even fishermen have become alert and are giving valuable tip-offs to the forces,' said Antony.
'Pakistan has not made any serious attempt to disband the camps that are functioning close to Jammu and Kashmir. The decision for bilateral talks has been made consciously and it was not an ad hoc one,' Antony told reporters after inaugurating the new office complex of the Coast Guard station at Vizhinjam near here.
'Though there was no breakthrough, being a conscious decision, the process (of talks)will continue,' he added.
The minister said the union home ministry and the Jammu and Kashmir government have evolved a formula to check infiltration and bring back terrorists to normal life.
'Many have surrendered too. With the conditions becoming normal, there is an increase in tourist arrivals in Kashmir. Attempts for terrorist infiltration are there and the armed forces are maintaining an eternal vigil on the border,' he said.
Onthe US supply of arms to Pakistan, he said the US should make sure that the arms were used at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and not targeted against India.
On the Maoist issue, he denied that the government had any information on the Chinese aiding and abetting the Maoists.
'The army will give logistic support to the State police (of Maoist-affected states). Paramilitary forces will be used for training the State police,' said Antony.
He said the acquisition of defence equipments and aircraft has increased considerably in the past five years.
'The process for acquiring the Kiev-class aircraft, Admiral Gorshkov, from Russia is in the final stage,' added Antony.
He said that after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the threat through sea has increased and a coordinated effort of the forces as well as the government is being made to prevent such attacks.
'One of the positive aspects is that even fishermen have become alert and are giving valuable tip-offs to the forces,' said Antony.
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