Dear all,
Welcome.
Pressure tactics: BJP is undergoing pressure tactics where a faction of it had indirectly tried to boycott Modi's rise at the National Platform. Uptil now, his stature had been mostly of State leader wherein he had played his agenda of development. The said faction leaders are Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharti & Jaswant Singh out of which some had been ill whilst others suffer from Namonitis fever or Namonia which had been denied by some like Yashwant Sinha etc. Congress had tried to harness the situation stating that BJP is having fever which could be spread after it comes into power. It is to note that BJP's national convention is being held at Goa since yesterday for a period of three days. Rumours have been coming about Advani's arrival today or tomorrow. After a gap of near about five decades, he is not attending the convention, which is supposed to increase the stature of Modi and handing him the reigns of party's election campaigning.
On the first day, Leader of Opposition, Sushma Swaraj, had come about a hour late after the scheduled time. But BJP President had stated that all leaders would be going happily. Advani had expressed his dismay over Modi's being given the reigns of party's campaign despite his being most popular leader amongst the BJP.
It is to note that earlier too, Modi had been criticized during Gujarat's assembly elections and had even been boycotted by EU. His Visa had also been denied with the latest news of his lecture being dismissed at the Wharton's India Economic Forum. But under a separate banner, Overseas friends of BJP, he had addressed NRIs through Video-conferencing.
Naxalites attack: The attack on Congress leaders vehicles convoy at Parivartan Rally had been handed over to NIA for investigation. In it's initial report, it had suggested involvement of four Congress leaders who had remained in touch with the Naxalites through fake mobile numbers. While during the attack, a Congress MLA, Lakhma, had been left but other leaders had been killed, it was suggested by many BJP leaders to have his Narco test done. NIA would be interrogating him again. In the list, Sukma Rest house Officials are also there from where such leakage of rally's information is alleged. Lakhma is said to be prime witness. He was left by Naxalites. Around 52 names are also included along with him. There is no official video-footage of the rally but unofficial footage is being searched by the Police.
Content Monitoring: After USA's NSA monitoring of internet content, the internet websites like Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple, etc had denied it as their server is not reachable to govt. agencies. As per a special rule, NSA had claimed such access. The US intelligence could trace history, email content, file transfer/share etc. Microsoft had also denied such secret information. Apple's spokesman told that data is not shared with any govt. agency. Without Court order, no information is provided. Facebook & Yahoo had told that such information's privacy is vital for them.
CWG scam: The CBI had again interrogated CWG Organising committee's the then President, Kalmadi. He had been asked about a 70 crore INR contract given to EKS, a swiss company. CBI wants to know as to how the rules were violated for providing contract to it. CBI had already filed charge sheet for irregularities pertaining to Time, Record, & Score (TRS) system installing company.
Modi Brand: After Wharton's denial for his lecture, Modi had addressed NRIs through video-conferencing. Also, recently Belgium's commercial envoy had stated that it(Belgium) had opened up it's embassy at Ahmedabad.
Now day before yesterday, representatives from around twenty countries had met Gujarat CM, Modi. These are from Latin American countries. They are Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina etc. They had praised Gujarat's development whereas Modi had apprised them of commercial opportunities in Gujarat State. The meeting lasted for about two hours.
Political Outfits/RTI: A landmark judgment to include all national political parties in the ambit of the Right to Information Act has brought much cheer to the non-governmental organisation that had been fighting for this purpose.
National coordinator of the organisation, Association for Democratic Reforms, Anil Bairwal, said this step will help the common man participate in the political process.
“For long, parties have functioned without adequate transparency in financial and operational affairs. Parties get hundreds of crores as donations but are unwilling to give any information on it. It’s the same with internal party elections,” says Bairwal.
“The judgment means that we can demand this information and political parties will have to answer.” On June 3, a judgment by a full bench of the Central Information Commission said that political outfits will have to take steps to make disclosures as mandated by the Right to Information Act.
However, unlike governmental organisations where it is a practice to document day-to-day operations, the chance of checking if a political party is being untrue in its Right To Information (RTI) reply is rather slim, considering their paperless manner of functioning.
The activist hopes that, like national parties, regional outfits too will soon be included under the Act.
What he means is that certain states have a strong presence of regional parties. AIADMK and DMK have a strong presence in Tamil Nadu, while SP and BSP are the prominent parties in UP.
“The next logical step should be to get regional parties under the Act,” he said.
Naxalite menace: The political activities would be more in Naxalite affected regions despite the attack. In the Chief Ministers meeting held on June 5, it was assured to provide protection to those rallies. It is learnt that three reasons are cited for presence of Naxalites. Firstly, absence of security forces, Secondly, the lack of developmental works & finally, absence of political activities. The example of West Bengal's region was cited where their leader, Kishenji i.e. Koteswar rao was dominant. But after WB CM & Trinamool head came & political activities got raised, public got aloof from Naxalites. Later, Kishenji was shot dead.
Home ministry believes that political activity would help tribal youth come into the main stream. Also, a nodal Officer would be appointed at the Head quarters for security of those rallies & leaders. He would assess danger upon such rallies & provide security. Also, the nationalisation of Tendu leaves collection would prevent the funding of Naxalites. Presently, it is being done by private collectors who gave bribe to Naxalites for collection. Also, illegal mining had been said to be another source of Naxalite funding.
Jan LokPal: Veteran Social activist, Anna Hazare, had stated that demonstration for Jan LokPal bill would start again. He had written a letter to PM expressing his dismay over govt. failure to bring it. He had earlier, too, stated that he would sit on protest before the elections if the bill is not passed.
As per Anna, the price hike is more due to corruption but the govt. is silent. Therefore, he had decided to sit on protest. His dates are not finalised but it is likely to be during October. He had also told that despite opposition, the govt. had got majority for passing FDI in retail sector & coveted Presidential elections. There is no will to fight corruption. The govt. had not taken steps to pursue Citizen charter, Strong LokPal & bringing govt. staff under it.
With regards,
M.K.Pachraiya
