Naxals butcher 26 CRPF men in Chhattisgarh

Red terror struck again in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday with Naxalites killing at least 26 CRPF personnel. This is the fourth major attack on security forces in the past three months in the state.

According to reports reaching here, a 63-strong CRPF party from 39th battalion was returning after a road opening duty in an area under Dhaurai police station in Narayanpur district of the state, at about 3 pm. Naxals may have been watching the pattern and deployed around 100 cadres to ambush the CRPF party as it returned on Tuesday afternoon.

CRPF men were securing the area ahead of a two-day Naxal-sponsored bandh starting on Wednesday. The Maoists opened fire from a hilltop when the paramilitary men were returning from their duty on foot, CRPF chief Vikram Srivastava said.

There was high casualty as the personnel appear to have once again disregarded standard operating procedures (SOP) by walking too close together.

Reinforcements were on the way and IAF helicopters would be used to evacuate the injured and bring back the dead to Raipur, said home ministry sources. There is no confirmation of casualties on the Maoists’ side.

The series of high-casualty attacks over the last few months has exposed the vulnerability of the CRPF personnel, mainly on account of their failure to follow SOP.

For the Centre, this represents yet another embarrassment and showcases its lack of intelligence inputs and cluelessness in tackling the Maoists. After the Dantewada attack, there was expectation the response mechanism would improve.

Strongly condemning the attack, the BJP said the ‘heinous crime’ proved once again that there was a need for closer Centre-state co-ordination and a decisive fight to end the menace.

“BJP strongly condemns this heinous crime. We have maintained that there is a need for firm action and for closer Centre-state coordination to strengthen the fight against Naxalism,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

“The time has come for a decisive battle against Maoist violence. Such attacks are a big challenge and should be addressed accordingly,” Mr Hussain said.

The attack comes nearly three months after the April 6 Dantewada massacre by Maoists which left 75 CRPF personnel and one Chhattisgarh policeman dead.

Opposition calls 'Bharat Bandh' on July 5

The issue of fuel price hike has brought almost the entire opposition together with the BJP-led NDA and Left parties giving a call for a nation-wide strike on July 5 demanding a rollback.

The NDA and the Left parties made separate announcements in this regard and JD-U chief Sharad Yadav claimed that it was the first such instance of opposition unity after the "JP movement" in the mid-seventies.

"There has been no difference among the entire opposition on the issue of fuel price hike. Every party has condemned it and demanded a rollback," Yadav, who is the NDA convenor, told reporters.

His call for a 12-hour 'Bharat Bandh' came hours after the Left and non-BJP opposition parties called a 12-hour nation-wide strike on July five to protest the government's decision to increase the prices of petroleum products.

All essential services like supply of water, milk, electricity, hospital and emergency services will be exempt from the 'hartal', they said.
Several opposition parties have already declared that they would raise the issue vociferously in Parliament with the monsoon session expected to commence by July-end.

"Check prices or leave the chair (Dam roko ya gaddi chhoro), Price Rise affects all communities (Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, sabke ghar me hai mahangai," will be the Opposition's slogans during the agitation, Yadav said.

He said an effort for a joint protest by the Opposition over the fuel price hike was made during budget session of Parliament in March this year, but it could not materialise.
Besides the four Left parties, the AIADMK, TDP, Samajwadi Party, BJD, JD(S) and INLD "have decided to call for a country-wide hartal on July five", a joint statement by top leaders of CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc said here.

Yadav, who made efforts for the entire opposition to come together for the bandh, downplayed non-inclusion of his party's name as also that of NDA in the Left parties' statement on the strike.

"There are so many internal contradictions in the country. But the issue of fuel price hike is a very serious issue. People's interest come before parties...It was necessary for all parties to come together so that people can express their anger over the issue," Yadav said.

The Left leaders have said they were in discussions with some other "secular opposition" parties to join the hartal, which will be held from 0600 hours to 1800 hours.
However, there is no word from RJD, LJP and BSP so far on whether they would join this Bharat Bandh on July 5 or not. Yadav said CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav were talking to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan over the issue.

Jaswant Singh back in BJP after nine months

Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh today rejoined the party nine months after he was summarily thrown out for writing a controversial book on Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

At a function organised to announce his re-induction into the party fold, 72-year-old Singh profusely thanked senior BJP leader L K Advani for taking the initiative to bring him back to the BJP of which he was a founder member.

"It is good to be back in familiar surroundings... I wish to unreservedly express my gratitude to Advaniji who took the initiative," Singh said. Among others present were party President Nitin Gadkari and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

Recalling his expulsion from the party at its 'Chintan Baithak' in Shimla in August last year, the MP from Darjeeling said, "I was hurt and humiliated by what I had encountered."

Advani said he was "very happy" that Jaswant Singh, whom he had met as an RSS pracharak in Rajasthan, has rejoined the party.

"I am very happy. With happiness there is also a sense of relief. I welcome him," he said.

Gadkari said the "past is past" and hoped that Singh will work to make the party's future bright.

He said this was a day of "great happiness" for him and the party workers.

Singh was expelled from the BJP in August 2009 for praising the Pakistan founder in his book "Jinnah - India,
Partition, Independence".

While holding Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel responsible for partition, Singh maintained that Jinnah was secular, a position that was unacceptable to the Sangh Parivar. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had banned Singh's book in his state.

After his expulsion, BJP also asked Singh to step down from the Chairmanship of Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee but he refused.

Action against Saeed important for regional peace: Jaswant

Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said action against Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed was important for ensuring regional peace.

In an interview, Singh highlighted the importance of action against Saeed and other people responsible for the Mumbai attack.

"Pakistan's handing over of Hafiz Saeed will be a goodwill gesture," he said.

Singh, whose book 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence', had created a furore in his party leading to his expulsion, said the partition of the Indian subcontinent was a "great tragedy" that even Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah did not want.

Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah, who were originally from what is now the Indian state of Gujarat, wanted to unify India, Singh said.

Jinnah spent almost his entire life as an Indian and only 13 in Pakistan, said Singh, who concluded a visit to Pakistan to promote his book on Jinnah over the weekend.

Expressing grief over the partition, Singh argued: "Muslims did not benefit from the partition and if the Indian subcontinent had remained undivided, we would have become a great power".

Asked about the intolerance demonstrated by the BJP, which expelled him from the party after the release of his book, he said: "When (former premier Atal Bihari) Vajpayee wrote a note of appreciation for Mr Jinnah in the visitor's book at the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, you washed the place we'd visited. What tolerance are we talking about?"

Singh also dismissed allegations that Indian intelligence agency RAW was involved in destabilising Pakistan.

Disband IPL, demands Yadav trio

After the exit of Shashi Tharoor from the union ministry, the Yadav trio on Monday trained its guns on the IPL cricket tournament and demanded in the Lok Sabha that it be taken over by the government.

As soon as the House met for the day, Lalu Prasad (RJD), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) and Sharad Yadav (JD-U) were on their feet demanding that government disband the IPL which according to them has become a "betting and gambling ring".

"The moot question is the IPL and not Tharoor," Sharad Yadav said amid calls from Speaker Meira Kumar to allow the Question Hour to continue.

Prasad wanted the government to take over the IPL and the BCCI. He also wanted a probe into the alleged black money in IPL.

The demands for disbanding the IPL come in the wake of reports that the income tax department is set probe the IPL teams and start wide-ranging investigations into the flow of money in the T20 tournament.
haroor, who was accused of arranging a deal for his friend Sunanda Pushkar, had to resign as Minister of State for External Affairs yesterday for his involvement in the affairs of Kochi IPL team.

Shashi Tharoor quits

Shashi Tharoor tonight resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs after the high-level Congress Core Group decided that he should quit in the wake of controversy over the IPL Kochi franchise, capping a week-long drama that threatened to suck the government and the party into it.

54-year old Tharoor, a newcomer to politics from international diplomacy, was summoned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to his residence late tonight and asked to tender his resignation.

"Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs has submitted his resignation from the Council of Ministers to the Prime Minister today. The Prime Minister has forwarded his resignation letter to the President with a recommendation that it be accepted," PMO spokesman said tonight.

Tharoor, a writer and a former Under Secretary General in the United Nations, earns the dubious distinction of becoming the first minister in the UPA-II to go under the cloud of corruption charges.
The continuance of Tharoor, a first time MP from Thiruvananthapuram who courted controversies throughout his 11-month stint, became untenable in the government ever since the IPL controversy exploded.

He got into serious problems after IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi revealed that Tharoor's friend Sunanda Pushkar had equity stakes in Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), heading the consortium that owns the Kochi team.

It was later disclosed that Pushkar got sweat equity of the value of Rs 70 crore RSW following which the opposition has been gunning for his removal on the ground that it was misuse of office for pecuniary gain.
That Pushkar today offered to surrender the sweat equity and to quit RSW failed to convince the Congress top brass which met at the residence of the Prime Minister in the evening to finalise its strategy before Parliament resumes tomorrow after the week-end.

Singh, who met Gandhi one-on-one before the Core Group discussions, consulted her again before recommending the resignation to the President.

Tharoor's meeting with the Prime Minister in the night was the second during the day. He met him at noon to explain his side of the story.

SIT has no power to summon Modi: Gujarat Govt

The Gujarat Government today said the Supreme Court does not have the power to stay the ongoing trial in the post-Godhra communal riots and that the SIT cannot summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other accused in the murder of ex-Congress MP Ehasan Jafri.

In a fresh affidavit filed in the apex court, the State sought registration of criminal cases against NGO activist Teesta Setalvad and others for allegedly tutoring witnesses, intimidating the SIT and indulging in activities with ulterior political and vested interests.

Questioning the role played by various NGOs, Gujarat urged the apex court to issue notices to all States to examine the “extent of interference by such third parties”.

The State Government’s affidavit comes in response to the apex court’s April 6 decision to consider the application made by Teesta and certain others seeking stay on the trial and transferring the case to the CBI. The applicants had alleged that the SIT was functioning in a biased manner
Modi was earlier grilled by the apex court appointed Special Investigation Team on his alleged role in the 2002 killing of Jafri who was burnt alive by a mob at Gulbarg Society, even though he made frantic calls for help to police and the Chief Minister.

“I state and submit that though this Hon’ble court merely required SIT, in order dated 27th April 2009 ‘to look into the complaint’, the SIT started calling persons named therein and started recording their statements which is neither permissible in law nor contemplated in the aforesaid order,” the affidavit said.
On April 27, 2009, the apex court had asked the SIT to “look into the complaint” of the slain MP’s wife Zakia about the alleged role of Modi and others in the killing.

The apex court at the last hearing while mulling the idea of staying the trial had also asked the State to drop IPS officers--Geeta Johri and Shivanand Jha from the SIT. The case would come up for hearing on Monday.

Stoutly opposing stay of the trial, Gujarat said, “once the investigating agency has filed a charge sheet after conducting an investigation under supervision and monitoring of this hon’ble court, in the respectful submission of the State Government, the jurisdiction of this court,under Article 32 of the Constitution of India would come to an end,” and cited a number of earlier rulings.

The State took the plea that under Section 173(8) of the CrPC once the chargesheet is filed as in the present case, an aggrieved party can approach only the trial court to challenge the alleged shortcomings or the inadequacy of the investigation.