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One more Congress hurdle cleared for Modi

Ahead of General Elections, 2002 riots case was hanging like a naked sword on BJP’s Prime Ministrial candidate NarendraModi. Congress and media had already declared him communal and a culprit. Some NGOs were hell-bent on bashing him. However, Gujarat court on Thursday gave clean chit to him in 2002 riots. The court rejected the petition of ZakiaJafri, whose husband EhsanJafri was burnt alive during the riots, challenging the closure report of a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team.Zakia’s husband, former Congress MP EhsanJafri, was killed in the riots along with 69 others in one of the worst massacres at Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. Proceedings in the matter ended on September 30. It was on September 12, 2011 that the Supreme Court had said it would no longer monitor the case after the SIT cleared Modi of the accusation that he had failed to discharge his constitutional duty to intervene swiftly to stop communal riots. The case was sent back to the lower court.

Gujaratis are the people to judge Modi. They have voted him to power three times consecutively. If they held him guilty of the charge, they wouldn’t have chosen him to be the CM for threeterms. This very fact absolves him of any such malicious charges. He has proved his worth as an able administrator; the US which declined him Visa too has acknowledged this fact. Undoubtedly, he deserves to be a Prime Ministerial candidate. Little of elegance and modesty – that is what it takes to change insights. Modi was defined by the Gujarat riots of 2002 because he has not been tactful enough to confess, despite attacks from all corners over a decade. He never said the riots were unfortunate and that he feels sorry for the lives lost. His prime, and ineradicable, identity has been that of a hardcore Hindu nationalist. The image makeover as the messiah of development came after 2007. For people who arefollowing him since Ayodhya Ram Temple Movement, through the riots of 2002 and the Gauravyatra, it would be difficult to set him apart from political Hindutva, with all its negative implications.

Modi had announced three-day Sadbhavana fast to embrace Muslims. The fast, started on his 61st birthday on September 17, 2011 had launched his campaign to become BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. Since 2002 till now, not a single riot happened in Gujarat. All the people are living in peace. When a mistake happens, it has to be rectified and not be repeated again, that’s how life goes. However, by raising 2002 riots issue, again and again Congress and other so called secular parties are playing communal politics. When Modi became CM of Gujarat, Congress was not happy and they were trying to capture power in this state like they took power in Karnataka. So, Congress made a plan for newly, administratively inexperiencedModi by burning a train at GodhraRailway Station in which majority of children and women were killed. Congress knew that Hindus will definitely react to this. Everyone was in a hurry to declare him responsible for 2002 riots, but the SIT claimed that it could not find any prosecutable evidence against the accused persons regarding their involvement in the alleged conspiracy behind the riots. It had even refused to treat IPS officers like RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt as witnesses on the ground that their statements are hearsay evidence. On the other hand, Zakia has alleged that the SIT has been shielding Modi and others by not believing statements given by these police officers and neglecting the available evidence. Zakia has accused the SIT of playing the role of a court by adjudging the truth of the available evidence. Her lawyers contended that the investigation was incomplete and the probe agency had not even done it seriously. On the opinion of amicus curiae RajuRamachandran that Modi may be prosecuted for inciting communal hatred, the SIT has said that there is no evidence to prosecute him, and the incident alleged was beyond the ambit of its probe. Anyways,Modi got clean chit here.

Congress is planning its plan B to get Modi again.The union government has cleared an inquiry into whether NarendraModi and his government in Gujarat illegally spied upon a young woman architect. The Centre’s plunge into the controversy known as “stalk-gate” has been revealed by the BJP. Stalk-gate rests upon secretly-recorded phone conversations in 2009 between a former senior police officer in Gujarat, GL Singhal, and other members of the anti-terror squad in the state. Singhal submitted many of these tapes to the CBI. The conversations allegedly establish that the woman was being tailed at the instructions of a “saheb” or big boss – Modi, according to the Congress. I hope the probe will start very soon and the Sahebwill come out of it and once again,Modiwill clear his test…

Arvind Kejriwal government transfers 800 Delhi Jal Board officials

arvind-kejriwalThe capital’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government transferred around 800 officials of the Delhi Jal Board on Monday night in a massive reshuffle said to be aimed at improving efficiency and delivery.

Sources said transfer orders were issued at the orders of Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal, who is the chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

On December 28, soon after Mr Kejriwal took office, the water distribution board’s Chief Executive Officer Debashree Mukherjee was transferred.

“All those officials who have worked for over three years in a particular place have been transferred to a different place,” a senior DJB official said.

The transfer orders were issued on a day when three officials of the water distribution utility were suspended after a sting operation by a TV channel purportedly showed them taking bribe.

The AamAadmi Party was voted to power in Delhi on a wave of promises that included 700 litres of free water for every household. After taking charge last week, the Kejriwal government announced that 667 litres of free water would be provided to households with valid water connections and functional meters installed by the Jal board.

Sources said ensuring equitable distribution of water is a priority for the new government and more steps are likely to be taken to improve water distribution. These steps include a crackdown on what is described as the city’s “tanker mafia”, who, allegedly in collusion with Jal board officials, thrive on an artificial shortage of water in several parts of the city.

The current average demand for potable water in Delhi is around 1,100 mgd (million gallons per day) and the Delhi Jal Board supplies around 800 mgd water after treating raw water in its treatment plants. The demand is projected to touch around 1,400 mgd by 2017. Delhi relies heavily on neighbouring states Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for the supply of raw water.

Demands in Devyani case not unreasonable: India

Devyani KhobragadeAsserting that its demand after DevyaniKhobragade’s arrest is not unreasonable, India has said the case is not about mistreatment of a domestic employee but rather of US laws being gamed for immigration purposes.

“This case is about not the mistreatment of a domestic employee but rather US laws being gamed for immigration purposes,” Indian Embassy spokesman SridharanMadhusudhanan, wrote in a letter to The Washington Post. India has been demanding the withdrawal of the case against Khobragade and an apology from the US for the treatment meted out to the 39-year-old diplomat, including a strip search and detention with criminals after her arrest on December 12.

India’s demands are not unreasonable, Madhusudhanan asserted, referring to an op-ed published in the daily a few days ago.

“These include respecting Indian legal processes and affording our diplomats the same immunities and courtesies under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations that the US government seeks for its officials posted abroad,” the Indian diplomat said.

Madhusudhanan said the diplomat was the first complainant in this dispute, both in New York and in India.

“Additionally, the domestic worker’s employment contract is partly with the government of India, which pays for her medical care, travel and significant portions of her salary and living costs. Therefore, any dispute should be resolved in an Indian court,” he contended.
“It is surprising that a pre-existing legal case in India and Indian diplomatic initiatives have been ignored. This case is about not the mistreatment of a domestic employee but rather US laws being gamed for immigration purposes,” Madhusudhanan said. Refuting media reports that claimed in India, US diplomats have been stripped of their identity documents, he said those officials posted in consulates have been issued identity cards with stipulations similar to those their Indian counterparts receive in the US. The US Embassy in New Delhi has not been deprived of security, the official said, adding that traffic barricades that blocked a public street have been dismantled, but the embassy continues to receive exceptional protection by the Indian government. .

“If anything, security has been stepped up recently. However, securing immunities and privileges for US officials abroad is best done by respecting international conventions and according entitled courtesies in the US,” Madhusudhanan wrote in response to the op-ed published earlier by Martina E Vandenberg, a pro bono human rights attorney.