‘Congress hatching political conspiracy against BSP’
Mayawati
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Mayawati has accused Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of
?hatching a political conspiracy? against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
over the withdrawal of land in Rae Bareli for a rail coach factory. “It
is a calculated move by the Congress party ahead of the Lok Sabha
elections. Sonia Gandhi and her party are misguiding people by
projecting that BSP is against development,” Mayawati said at a press
conference on Wednesday.
“If the Congress really wants development in the true sense, why is the
party not taking up any development projects in Bundelkhand and eastern
Uttar Pradesh?” The Mayawati government on Saturday night withdrew the land
allotted for the rail coach factory project of the central government
in Rae Bareli, which is the parliamentary constituency of Sonia Gandhi.
Mayawati said in order to gain political mileage, the Congress could
not think of development outside Rae Bareli and Amethi, the latter
being the constituency of Sonia’s Gandhi’s son Rahul. (IANS)
Bahujan Samaj Party chief and Uttar Pradesh (UP)
chief minister Mayawati announced on Monday a number of initiatives for
the community, including the setting up of an Arabic-Persian university Announces
several sops; holds Congress, SP responsible for their plight
Arabi-Farsi university to be set up in Lucknow
964 primary, 1,212 secondary schools to be set up
Photo: Subir Roy
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati exchanging greetings with
the Muslim religious leaders during a party convention in Lucknow on
Monday.
LUCKNOW: Announcing several sops for Muslims, Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Mayawati on Monday emphasised that the future of the minority
community was secure only under the Bahujan Samaj Party rule. She held
the Congress and the Samajwadi Party squarely responsible for the
plight of the Muslims and appealed to them to support the BSP (in the
next Lok Sabha polls) for the solution of their problems.
The BSP leader assured the Muslims that they would be given adequate
representation in Parliament and in the State Assembly in accordance
with their population. The rule at the Centre would ensure prosperity
for the Muslims and other sections of society, she said.
Addressing the BSP national convention on the problems of the
Muslims in the country, their causes and solutions at the CMS
auditorium here, the Chief Minister announced that an Arabi-Farsi
university would be set up in Lucknow and 100 new madarsas would be
taken up for grants in the current financial year. While the number of
aided madarsas in the State would go up to 460, Rs.10 crore had been
allocated for setting up the Arabi-Farsi university, the Chief Minister
said.
Other measures announced by her included 964 new primary and 1,212
secondary schools in Muslim-dominated areas with 100 new schools
exclusively for girl students, 58 government secondary schools to be
set up in 22 districts, a Unani Directorate, a Rs.4-crore coaching
centre in Lucknow for Muslim youth desirous of entering IAS and IPS,
and the Kanshi Ram Self-Employment Scheme for the educated youth.
A grant of Rs.2 crore was announced for improving the financial
health of the Waqf Boards and promotion of Urdu language. The annual
grant for the UP Urdu Academy was increased from Rs.1.5 crore to 3
crore.
A special cell was constituted by the Chief Minister for reviewing
the decisions. The cell will be headed by the UP Advisory Council
chairman, Satish Chandra Mishra. A monthly progress report would be
submitted to Ms. Mayawati by Mr. Mishra.
Referring to the Batla House encounter in Delhi, Ms. Mayawati said
the onus was on the Centre to remove doubts among the Muslims that the
encounter was fake. She slammed attempts to tarnish the entire
community in the wake of recent terrorist attacks and said innocent
Muslims should not be hounded and solid evidence should be produced
before taking action.
Stating that the Muslims were feeling insulted and insecure, the
Chief Minister attacked the political parties who were trying to gain
political mileage. She said she had written to the Prime Minister on
October 10 demanding action against the guilty in the recent incidents
in Orissa and Karnataka.
She said the socio-economic and educational backwardness of the
Muslims and the insecurity of their lives and property was a fall-out
of vote bank politics of the Congress and the SP. Communal riots in the
rest of the country and in UP had occurred only under the Congress and
SP rule, she charged, and slammed the BJP for seeking political gains
from the Ram Janmabhumi/Babri Masjid issue and the recent violence in
Orissa and Karnataka.
In his address, the Vice-Chairman of the All India Muslim Personal
Law Board, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, underlined the need for unity among the
Muslims and said they would have to emerge as a โpower houseโ. He said
they should understand their responsibilities and exhorted them stop
being dependent on others.
Naib Imam of Aishbagh Idgah in Lucknow and AIMPLB member Maulana
Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali demanded constitution of an
anti-terrorism committee and Muslim Development Board.
The convention was attended by several other ulemas and representatives from different parts of the State and the country.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief and Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief
minister Mayawati announced on Monday a number of initiatives for the
community, including the setting up of an Arabic-Persian university.
The measures she announced include a Rs2 crore grant to the
Waqf Board that manages religious and community properties, establishment of a
Unani medicine directorate, relaxing the income ceiling for being eligible for
minority scholarships from Rs18,700 to Rs1 lakh; Rs4 crore for a coaching
institute for civil service aspirants from the community and filling up of
vacancies of Urdu language teachers. Urdu will now be taught in 964 primary and
1,212 higher secondary schools and two new schools for girls will be opened.
Muslims are an important political constituency in UP. According
to census 2001 data cited in the Sachar committee report, Muslims
constitute 13.4% of Indiaโs population, growing at an average 2.7% a
year between 1961 and 2001. Majority of them live in four statesโUP,
West Bengal, Bihar and Maharashtra. UP has the largest concentration,
accounting for a little over one-fifth (22%). The state sends 80
members to the Lok Sabha. At present, BSP holds 17 seats and SP holds
37.
โ(The) purpose of the rally is to inform Muslims what
other parties have done for them so far, (and) discuss the current
problems the community faces and what the BSP can do for them.
Responsible Muslims from all over the state were invited for this
purpose,โ said Munquad Ali, BSP member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house
of Parliament.
Traditionally, the Muslim vote has favoured
the Congress and lately, the Samajwadi Party. However, the proximity of
the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with the US, the perceived
profiling of the community in the wake of terror strikes and the police
encounter in Delhi leading to the death of two youth have left the
community uneasy.
Sensing an opportunity, Mayawati has
stepped up her appeal to the community, especially after her publicized
association with the Left immediately after they withdrew support to
the UPA.
Syed Waseem Ahmad, senior reader of political
science at the Aligarh Muslim University, says the BSPโs strategy may
yield โaround 15-20% of the Muslim voteโ.
NEW DELHI: Hundreds
of Islamic leaders in India demanded on Tuesday that the government
protect their community from persecution, saying Muslims were being
unfairly targeted in a police crackdown after bombings across the
country. Communal politics has surfaced as an issue ahead of a general
election due in early 2009, with attacks on Christians and bombings
polarising a secular government and Hindu-nationalist opposition.
โToday, with the injustice and harassment, Islam and Muslims in this
country are under threat,โ said Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, influential
leader of the Jama Masjid mosque, the largest in north India. โWe have
been quiet for a long time, but we cannot take this anymore. We too
have rights.โ
Bukhari said neither the ruling Congress nor the opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were a suitable option for the minority
Muslims, who make up 13 percent of Indiaโs 1.1 billion-plus population.
โThey think we only have these two options,โ he said, addressing a
crowd of Muslim leaders and others on the lawns of the Jama Masjid, a
17th century mosque built by Mughal kings.
โBut water will find its way, it will find its own level.โ Bombings
by suspected militants have killed hundreds of people in recent months,
and Muslim leaders accuse the police of indiscriminate arrests of young
Muslim men who have been labelled as terrorists and paraded before the
media.
DIFFICULT BALANCING ACT: In the last election in
2004, Congress came to power partly due to a secular backlash against
the incumbent BJP-led government, especially after the Gujarat riots in
2002 when more than 2,000 Muslims were massacred by Hindu mobs.
Indiaโs election commission said on Tuesday it would hold five state
elections in November and December that would gauge the political
climate before next yearโs general election.
But the Congress party, labouring with economic woes, has been
losing ground to the BJP, which is calling for harsher anti-terrorism
measures, in state elections over the last year, and cannot be trusted
to do justice to Muslims, Bukhari said. โMuslims should unite, leaving
aside ideological and sectional differences,โ he said.
The government held on Monday a meeting of the National Integration
Council, a panel of public figures, to discuss communal tension, the
first time the group has met since 2005.
The Bahujan Samaj Party is keen to reach out to the Muslim vote bank in the run up to the national elections.
BSP releases its 2nd list of candidates for Rajasthan polls
BSP releases its 2nd list of candidates for Rajasthan polls
IST,PTI
JAIPUR: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Monday released its second
list of 33 candidates for the forthcoming assembly polls in Rajasthan,
scheduled to be held later this year.
With this the Rajasthan BSP has announced 190 candidates for the 200
membersโ assembly, Dharmveer Singh Ashok, incharge of party affairs in
Rajasthan, told reporters.
โThe names for 10 seats will be announced later on,โ he said, adding
that the names of sitting two BSP MLAs have also been kept secret.
Former RAS officer Kanshiram Meghwal and Radhyeshyam Tanwar, former
Congress leader, are among the 33 candidates whose names figured in the
second list from Khajuwala and Jhotwara assembly constituencies.
The election dates are yet to be announced and so far no other political party has come up with any list of candidates.
Prohibitory orders issued ahead of Soniaโs Rae Bareli visit
Updated - 14/10/2008 - IANS.
Hours after the Allahabad High Court ordered status quo on a piece of land
where Congress president Sonia Gandhi was to perform a religious ceremony for a
rail coach factory in her Rae Bareli constituency, the Uttar Pradesh government
imposed prohibitory orders to prevent a Congress rally in the area.
The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government imposed the order
under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code that prevents the gathering of
more than five people in the area.
The Congress maintained that Gandhi would go ahead with the scheduled rally
and โBhoomi Pujanโ for the rail coach project.
Additional District Magistrate D.L. Verma, in a statement, said the state
government, โusing its discretionary powers, has banned any kind of gathering,
rally or public addressโ in Rae Bareli with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, the state government, through its counsel, told the court that it
will not take back possession of the land from the railway.
โThe government also stated that it will not initiate proceedings of
allotting the land to anyone else or initiate any construction work on the
same,โ Khan added.
Parties back Somnath’s decision to call off London trip
New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) Political parties across the spectrum have
asked the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to look into the matter of
protocol relating to Indian dignitaries going abroad. The move comes
after Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s decision to cancel his
trip to London on being told that he would be subjected to a body
search. “The Lok Sabha speaker is the highest authority we have in parliament
and he must be exempted from practices like body frisking. Our foreign
office should take up the issue and discuss the matter with its
counterparts abroad so that a system is evolved,” “Chatterjee’s objection to frisking is valid. It is a not a question of
an individual’s dignity that has been offended but the dignity of the
constitutional authority of a country. Countries like Britain and the
US must stop this,” Several MPs also came out in support of Chatterjee’s decision to call off his proposed trip.
Several MPs also came out in support of Chatterjee’s decision to call off his proposed trip.
“The MEA should look into the
matter urgently. We should work out a system where our dignitaries are
given the same treatment we mete out to others.”
Brajesh Pathak
of the Bahujan Samaj Party also upheld the decision: “The speaker has
done his best to defend the dignity of his office.”
Added CPI
secretary D. Raja: “The speaker must take up the issue with government
to sort it out at the appropriate diplomatic level.”
During his
tenure as speaker, Chatterjee had visited London several times but was
never frisked as he was in the British protocol’s list of people
exempted from a body search.
On Oct 3, the British protocol
department informed the Indian High Commission in London that the
speaker would not be exempt from frisking. It was then that Chatterjee
cancelled his trip saying that it involved the honour of the
constitutional office.
This is the second time that the speaker
has cancelled a foreign trip over this issue. In 2005, he had cancelled
his trip to Australia when the host government told him that he would
be frisked.
SAARC digital library being set up
Allahabad: Even as recession in the developed world casts a shadow
on Indiaโs IT exports, the country is making a mark by setting up a
digital library to preserve the intellectual wealth of neighbouring
SAARC countries.
As a significant step in this direction, India has agreed to a
project for developing a digital library of literary, scientific and
other important works of SAARC member countries.
โWe have been given the responsibility of developing the digital
library following a consensus among SAARC member states for promotion
of educational and cultural exchange,โ Director of the Indian Institute
of Information Technology-Allahabad, (IIIT-A), M D Tiwari said.
Project
โThe IIIT-A was chosen as the resource institution for the project
at a high-level meeting held in New Delhi in which the ministries of
External Affairs, Information Technology and Human Resource Development
discussed the modalities for making the SAARC digital library a
reality,โ Mr. Tiwari said.
He said the project was likely to cost a modest Rs.4 crore. -PTI
