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India joined Pakistan & 42 others in a vote against gay rights at UN

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United-Nations

United Nations: India was among the 43 countries that voted in support of a Russian-drafted resolution that proposed removing benefits for same-sex partners of UN staff, but the resolution failed to pass in the General Assembly committee after 80 nations opposed it.

The Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, that deals with administrative and budgetary issues, voted against the Russian proposal here on Tuesday that aimed at stopping the UN from offering marital benefits to its employees with same-sex spouses.

The resolution would have had UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon withdraw his policy laying out the United Nations current rules for the personal status of staff members for determining their benefits and entitlements.

The policy made by Ban last summer had recognised same-sex marriages of all UN staffers, allowing them to receive UN benefits.

India, along with China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE voted in favour of the draft resolution, which had 37 abstentions.

Same-sex relations are a criminal offence in India.

Ban has been a strong proponent of equal rights for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community and had said that he is proud to stand for greater equality for all staff.

In introducing the policy last year, the UN chief had called on all members of the UN family to unite in rejecting homophobia.

Previously, a staff member’s marital status was determined by the laws applicable in his or her country of nationality.

Under the new UN policy on the personal status of same- sex couples, which became effective on June 26 last year, the world body recognised all same-sex couples married in a country where it is legal, regardless of their nationality.

About 40,000 UN staff across the world came under the purview of the policy.

Ban’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the secretary-general “does appreciate the support of those who recognized his authority as Chief Administrative Officer as per the UN Charter.”

US led the opposition to Moscow’s proposal, with its envoy to the UN telling the committee that the vote preserves the Secretary-General’s administrative prerogatives under the UN Charter, allowing the UN to determine how the UN administers staff benefits.

US Permanent Representative Samantha Power said that “vote should never have happened” as it sets a dangerous precedent in challenging the secretary-general’s authority to make administrative decisions.

“We must speak plainly about what Russia tried to do today: diminish the authority of the UN Secretary-General and export to the UN its domestic hostility to LGBT rights,” Power said.

UN staff unions welcomed the Fifth Committee’s decision to maintain benefits for the same-sex partners of UN staff.

“The UN advocates for human rights around the world and it’s quite right therefore that it should not pay benefits to staff based on their sexual orientation. We’re glad that after three months of uncertainty on how the vote would go, common sense prevailed,” said Ian Richards, President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations representing 60,000 staff working at the UN.

Haq had said last year that the UN chief had not consulted member states in arriving at the new policy but had acted on his own authority as the head of the management of the United Nations.

Russia’s deputy ambassador Petr Iliichev stressed that his country was not challenging the role of the Secretary-General but the changes under consideration must be made in consultation with Member States.

He said the nationality of the staff member should be taken into consideration when making entitlement determinations.

He said the new policy discriminated against a number of UN Member States, as it did not consider their legislative and judicial systems, and denied the Assembly the opportunity to discuss its substance.

Saudi Arabia’s representative Bilal Taher Muhhamad Wilson said he voted in favour of the draft decision on moral grounds as the Kingdom held that same-sex marriage was immoral.

(PTI)

US airstrikes, coupled with Iran-backed militias and Iraqi forces, target ISIS in Tikrit

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‘US military now involved in two air wars in the Middle East, not to mention more widespread drone actions.’

U.S. fighter jets in this file photo. U.S. Central Command has confirmed that airstrikes against targets in the Iraqi city of Tikrit were exectued following a request by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. (Photo: US Military)

U.S. fighter jets in this file photo. U.S. Central Command has confirmed that airstrikes against targets in the Iraqi city of Tikrit were exectued following a request by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. (Photo: US Military)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Following earlier indications that such attacks were likely, the U.S. military bombarded targets in the Iraqi city of Tikrit overnight as it took a commanding role in an ongoing offensive against Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants that has so far been spearheaded by Iraqi forces and Shi’ite militias which receive direct backing and guidance from the Iranian military.

“These strikes are intended to destroy ISIL strongholds with precision, thereby saving innocent Iraqi lives while minimizing collateral damage to infrastructure,” said Lt. Gen. James L. Terry of U.S. Central Command as he confirmed the bombing effort late on Wednesday. “This will further enable Iraqi forces under Iraqi command to maneuver and defeat ISIL in the vicinity of Tikrit.”

The Washington Post reports:

Pentagon officials said that the Iraqi government had requested the assistance as the fight for Tikrit stalled as it moved into its fourth week. They said initial targeting for the strikes will be aided by U.S.-led coalition surveillance aircraft that recently began flying over the city, 110 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The fight for Tikrit is considered a crucial test for larger future objectives, including Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has been the symbol and center of Islamic State power in Iraq since the militants took it last summer.

According to Reuters:

The decision to give air support to the Tikrit campaign pulls the United States into a messy battle that puts the U.S.-led coalition, however reluctantly, on the same side of a fight as Iranian-backed militia in a bid to support Iraqi forces and opens a new chapter in the war.

It also appeared to represent at least a tacit acknowledgement by Baghdad that such airpower was necessary to wrest control of the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from Islamic State fighters, after its attempts to go it alone stalled.

With ongoing and escalating fighting in Yemen in recent days, including a wave of airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia, the greater Middle East region is now awash in a complex web of violence in which proxy battles, influxes of weapons and soldiers, and cross-border sectarian divisions are feeding violence in myriad ways.

As Middle East historian Juan Cole points out, the U.S. military on Wednesday into Thursday was assisting the Saudi bombing of the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, while simultaneously collaborating (at least indirectly) with Iranian military advisors from the Iranian Republican Guard Corp in the operation against ISIS in Tikrit. “The US support for the Saudi air strikes and the new coalition makes the Yemen war now the second major air campaign supported by the US in the region,” he writes. “But the one in Iraq is in alliance with Iran. The one in Yemen is against a group supported in some measure by Iran.” According to Cole:

US air intervention on behalf of the Jerusalem Brigades of the IRGC is ironic in the extreme, since the two have been at daggers drawn for decades. Likewise, militias like Muqtada al-Sadr’s “Peace Brigades” (formerly Mahdi Army) and League of the Righteous (Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq) targeted US troops during Washington’s occupation of Iraq. But the fight against the so-called “Islamic State group” or Daesh has made for very strange bedfellows. Another irony is that apparently the US doesn’t mind essentially tactically allying with Iran this way – the reluctance came from the Shiite militias.

The takeaway, according to Cole, is that the U.S. military is “now involved in two air wars in the Middle East, not to mention more widespread drone actions” elsewhere. Amid all this violence, the prospect for peaceful resolutions anytime soon has dropped to nearly zero.

And the Washington Post adds:

…the Tikrit operation is fraught with potential political and strategic complications for the Obama administration. The overwhelming presence of Shiite militias and volunteers armed and advised by Iran has given rise to fears that their victory would promote sectarian divisions and bloodletting in the majority-Sunni city. U.S. officials have estimated that these Shiite fighters outnumber official Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribal forces by about 5 to 1 in the battle. […]

Human rights groups in recent days have documented the Shiite pursuit of a scorched earth policy in areas already liberated from the Islamic State. After U.S. airstrikes drove the militants out of the town of Amerli, in northeastern Iraq, late last summer, the militias went on a sectarian rampage, burning and bulldozing thousands of homes and other buildings in dozens of Sunni villages.

Iran warns of bloodshed as Saudi-led forces bomb Yemen

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At least 18 people reported killed in airstrikes in Sanaa, as Iran warns violence could spread across the region.

yemen-saudi

by Al Jazeera

Saudi airstrikes on Shia rebels in Yemen have triggered a furious reaction from regional rival Iran, with top officials warning that military action could spill into other countries.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said that a coalition consisting of 10 countries, including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), had begun airstrikes at 2am local time on Thursday, targeting Houthi positions in the capital, Sanaa.

The Houthi-run health ministry in Sanaa said that at least 18 civilians were killed and 24 others were wounded in the Saudi-led attacks on the capital.

The bombing of the Houthis, who are said to be backed by Iran, a charge Tehran denies, came after several weeks of warnings that Yemen was descending into civil war.

Saudi Arabia said it had launched the bombing raids to reinstate what it called the legitimate government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has been holed up in the main southern city of Aden since fleeing rebel-controlled Sanaa.

The Houthis and their allies within the armed forces had been closing in on Hadi’s last bastion Aden.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the air strikes would lead only to greater loss of life.

“Military action from outside of Yemen against its territorial integrity and its people will have no other result than more bloodshed and more deaths,” he told the Iranian-owned Al-Alam television channel.

“We have always warned countries from the region and the West to be careful and not enter shortsighted games and not go in the same direction as al-Qaeda and Daesh,” he added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

The comments from Zarif, who is in the Swiss city Lausanne for talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Iran’s contested nuclear programme, echoed condemnation of the Saudi-led strikes by officials in Tehran.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Sanaa, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Al Bukhaiti called the military action a declaration of war on Yemen, adding that reports alleging a Houthi leader, Mohamed Ali Al Houthi, had been injured were false.

Sanaa targeted

Huge explosions were heard in Sanaa as strikes hit an airbase at the capital’s airport and other locations in the city, an AFP correspondent reported.

Strikes were also reported on targets in the Malaheez and Hafr Sufyan regions of Saada province, a main Houthi stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.

Citing Saudi military sources, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel reported that 100 Saudi warplanes were involved in the operation, dubbed ‘Decisive Storm’.

The United Arab Emirates is participating with 30 jets, Bahrain with eight, Morocco and Jordan both with six. Sudan reportedly offered three war planes to assist the operation, Al Arabiya reported.

Jordan confirmed to Al Jazeera that it was participating in the offensive.

An Egyptian official told the AFP news agency that Egypt would also take part. Saudi Arabia said that another four Muslim countries including Pakistan wanted to participate in the Saudi-led military coalition.

Kuwait’s defence ministry announced it was sending three squadrons of its F-18 Super Hornet aircraft to Saudi’s King Abdulaziz airbase in Dhahran to take part in the offensive.

Four Egyptian warships also entered the Suez Canal on Thursday en route to the Gulf of Aden after Cairo pledged military support for the campaign, canal officials said.

The officials said the ships will take part in operations “to secure” the strategic waters that control southern access to the Suez Canal.

Pakistan, which has longstanding ties to Saudi Arabia, was examining a request from Riyadh to join the coalition, Islamabad said.

“I can confirm we have been contacted by Saudi Arabia in this regard. The matter is being examined,” foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

Prosecutor says French Alps plane crash 'intentional'

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Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin says co-pilot was alone at controls of Germanwings flight and crashed plane on purpose.

French prosecutor Brice Robin said German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz manually and "intentionally" crashed the Germanwings plane [Reuters]

French prosecutor Brice Robin said German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz manually and “intentionally” crashed the Germanwings plane [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The co-pilot of a Germanwings flight that slammed into an Alpine mountainside “intentionally” sent the plane into its doomed descent, a French prosecutor said.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said on Thursday that the commander left the cockpit, presumably to go to the lavatory, and then was unable to regain access.

In the meantime, he said, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz manually and “intentionally” set the plane on the descent that drove it into the mountainside in the southern French Alps.

It was the co-pilot’s “intention to destroy this plane,” Robin said.

The information was pulled from the black box cockpit voice recorder, but Robin said the co-pilot did not say a word after the commanding pilot left the cockpit.

“It was absolute silence in the cockpit,” he said.

During the final minutes of the flight’s descent, pounding could be heard on the door as alarms sounded, he said.

In the German town of Montabaur, acquaintances said Lubitz was in his late twenties and showed no signs of depression when they saw him last fall as he renewed his glider pilot’s license.

“He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well,” said a member of the glider club, Peter Ruecker, who watched him learn to fly. “He gave off a good feeling.”

Lubitz had obtained his glider pilot’s license as a teenager, and was accepted as a Lufthansa pilot trainee after finishing a tough German college preparatory school, Ruecker said. He described Lubitz as a “rather quiet” but friendly young man.

The Airbus A320, on a flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, began to descend from cruising altitude after losing radio contact with ground control and slammed into the remote mountain on Tuesday morning, killing all 150 people on board.

Lufthansa has yet to officially identify the pilots but said the co-pilot joined Germanwings in September 2013, directly after training, and had flown 630 hours.

The captain had more than 6,000 hours of flying time and been a Germanwings pilot since May 2014, having previously flown for Lufthansa and Condor, Lufthansa said.

Costa Rica is now running completely on renewable energy

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The country doesn’t need an ounce of coal or petroleum to keep the lights on.

Water is Costa Rica's largest source of energy.(Reuters/Juan Carlos Ulate)

Water is Costa Rica’s largest source of energy.(Reuters/Juan Carlos Ulate)

by Adam Epstein, QZ

Costa Rica is running without having to burn a single fossil fuel, and it’s been doing so for 75 straight days.

Thanks to some heavy rainfall this year, Costa Rica’s hydropower plants alone are generating nearly enough electricity to power the entire country. With a boost from geothermal, solar, and wind energy sources, the country doesn’t need an ounce of coal or petroleum to keep the lights on. Of course, the country has a lot of things going in its favor. Costa Rica is a small nation, has less than 5 million people, doesn’t have much of a manufacturing industry that would require a lot of energy, and is filled with volcanoes and other topographical features that lend themselves to renewable energy.

Nonetheless, it is both a noble and significant feat for a nation of any size to eschew fossil fuels completely.

Costa Rica is not the only place in the area committed to running on green energy. Bonaire, a Dutch island territory off the coast of Venezuela, operates at nearly 100% renewable energy, and will likely reach that milestone soon with the help of an unlikely energy source: algae.

Driven by China, global spending on renewable energy is on track for its first annual gain in three years (though it might not last). Iceland already gets all of its electricity from renewable energy sources, and about 85% of all its energy is produced by geothermal and hydropower sources. And three other European countries (Sweden, Bulgaria, and Estonia) have already hit their 2020 renewable energy goals.

Denmark, which gets 40% of its energy from wind, wants to ditch fossil fuels completely by 2050. The problem with operating completely on renewable energy, as some Danes have noted, is that fossil fuels are still needed as a backup plan if, for instance, there’s a stretch of time when the country hasn’t experienced enough wind or sunshine to power everything. But the rise of renewable energy has rendered many conventional power plants unprofitable, and owners of those plants are trying to close up shop.

In Costa Rica, a drought would seriously disrupt the country’s ability to generate electricity with water. That’s probably why its government approved a $958 million geothermal project. While that’s being funded largely by Japan and the European Investment Bank, Costa Rica has already been able to spend so much on renewable energy because it doesn’t need to spend anything on defense. The country hasn’t had a military since 1948.

Police firing on women on International Women’s Day in Odisha

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Representational Image

Representational Image

by Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan

On 8th March 2015, when the world was observing International Women’s Day, Odisha police fired upon women agitators at Namatara village of Rajakanika block of Kendrapada district and injured 16 villagers, mostly women.

Out of those injured people, 9 villagers (five women, two girl children and 2 men) got admitted in Cuttak Medical College because of serious bullet injury. Now the police have already arrested 6 people for attacking the police and have filed cases against 60 people also. Namatara village having 200 houses are mostly of dalit communities.

Such act of brutality of Odisha police is condemnable.

The women around Rajakanika area were observing Women’s Day on their own way and on that day they went on burning foreign liquor shop, at Namatara village. They were demanding of closing down of that shop for last two years. Even they had given their demands in writing to Mr. Baijayanta Panda, Member of Parliament and Mr. PratapDev, MLA and to the District Collector, several times, what local activist of NishaMuktiAbhijan speaks.

So, failing from those sides they themselves decided to destroy the shop on International Women’s Day. While coming back from that place, district armed police reached to the village and fired them.

The state government, with the logic of earning targeted revenue of 1800 crores, has started a drive to open up more and more liquor shops both in rural and town areas. But this has been opposed by several groups in the State. Recently, when a team of social activists of NishaMuktiAbhiyan met the excise minister at the Secretariat, the later assured them of not opening any new shop without consent of pallisabha and gramsabha. This has been reported in the media. But in this case, when the dalit women of Namatara village were demanding of closing down of that shop, that went unheard.

It is not only at Namatara village, but in several parts of Odisha, both in tribal as well as in non-tribal areas, people, largely dalit and adivasi women, are now coming on the street and are opposing opening of liquor shops in their own areas. At many places in Odisha, like in Kashipur of Rayagada, Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon of Koraput district, Mathili of Malkangiri, Nikirai and Mahalhat of Kendrapada district, women and men have destroyed liquor shops in last 4 years due to deaf year of the government. They are all facing legal charges.

Most of the women who are participating in such struggle are from poor background. In a male dominated society like us, when daily wage workers, small peasants and village artisans, mostly male, are expending major amount of their income in consuming liquor then other members of their respective families are not getting proper food, education and health treatment. In these cases the most vulnerable are children and aged people in their familiesbecause of addictive-consumption of liquor of male earner.

Specifically, in post-economic reform phase, when burden of education and health care are lying more on individuals because the State is withdrawing from its welfare-role, so slightest unmindful expenses of the bread earner is causing much havoc in the family. On the other hand, both corporate and bureaucrats are taking away lion’s share of the State which ultimately is causing more gap between the poor and the rich. At this stage we, in Odisha, are finding more rural poor women who have one agenda, destroying of liquor shop and in retaliation, police is resorting to arrest and firing.

So in case of Namatara incident several organisations like Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan, Lok Shakti Abhiyan and Committee Against Fabricated Cases etc. are demanding of announcement of rupees one lakh as compensation for the injured people, arresting those police engaged in such firing under 307, attempt to murder, of IPC and treating decisions of Pallisabha and Gramsabha in both tribal and non-tribal areas regarding opening up of new shops and running of existing oneas final decision of the government.

Madhav Gadgil shares Tyler Prize for environmental achievement

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Madhav-Gadgil

Washington: An Indian and an American scientist will share the 2015 Tyler Prize for their leadership and engagement in the development of conservation and sustainability policies in the US, India and internationally.

Madhav Gadgil of Goa University and Jane Lubchenco of Oregon State University were today named winners of the 42nd Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement recognizing careers dedicated to informing policy with sound science, engaging local communities.

As the winners of the Tyler Prize, Gadgil and Lubchenco will share the $200,000 cash prize and each receive a gold medallion.

The two scientists will deliver public lectures on their work at The Forum at the University of Southern California on April 23.

They will be honoured in a private ceremony at The Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on April 24.

“Drs. Lubchenco and Gadgil represent the very best in bringing high-quality science to policymaking to protect our environment and ensure the sustainability of natural resources in their respective countries and around the world,” said Tyler Prize Executive Committee Chair Owen T. Lind, Professor of Biology at Baylor University.

“Both of these laureates have bridged science with cultural and economic realities–like the impact on Indigenous Peoples in India or fishing communities in the United States–to advance the best possible conservation policies.”

Since its inception in 1973 as one of the world’s first international environmental awards, the Tyler Prize has been the premier award for environmental science, environmental health and energy.

Gadgil is the D.D. Kosambi Visiting Research Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Goa University and chaired the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel for India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The landmark report on the biodiversity of the region sparked a national conversation about conservation policies and built upon his earlier work helping to draft India’s Biological Diversity Act.

Gadgil’s career has been dedicated to not only infusing environmental science into policymaking in India, but promoting the field of environmental science nationally, a media release said.

Through his public speaking and writing, Gadgil has advanced the field of environmental science and put it on the national radar.

Gadgil’s approach to ecology is one inherited from his father, an economist: on-the-ground engagement with the communities affected by economic and environmental policies.

“From an early age, my father’s work inspired me to work with people and think about the impact of our collective activities,” said Gadgil.

“This first came about in my work in 1975 when traditional basket weavers who depended on bamboo in the Western Ghats approached the government and said the over-exploitation of bamboo for paper mills was hurting their livelihood.”

Gadgil’s work began examining the tension between economic development, traditional use of resources among local communities and environmental conservation.

This cross-sector approach drove the publication of his first book, This Fissured Land, which is used in environmental education across India, as well as a resource for policymakers.

Working with local forest communities in the central Indian forest belt, Gadgil has seen that that management in the hands of locals is most effective ensuring economic opportunity and sustainable use of natural resources while preserving sacred groves and local cultures.

“We must engage local people who are most directly affected by policies if we want to develop policies that promote sustainability and balance the economics, culture and conservation,” said Gadgil. “Empowering people is the key.”

(IANS)

India, Qatar ink six agreements during Emir's visit

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qatar-india

New Delhi: India and Qatar inked six agreements, including one on transfer of sentenced prisoners, as visiting Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Wednesday.

The Emir, who is here on a two-day visit, was in the morning accorded a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on him, after which he held talks with Prime Minister Modi at Hyderabad House.

The six agreements, besides transfer of sentenced prisoners, are: an MoU for Cooperation in the field of Information and Communication Technology; an MoU between the ministry of earth sciences and Qatar Meteorological Department for Scientific and Technical cooperation; an MoU between Diplomatic Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar and Foreign Service Institute of the ministry of external affairs; an MoU for cooperation in the field of Radio and Television; and an agreement for Mutual Cooperation and Exchange of News.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted: “Opening new doors for investment. Minister @SushmaSwaraj meets Emir of Qatar.”

Under the agreement on transfer of sentenced prisoners, Indian prisoners convicted in Qatar can be repatriated to India to serve the remaining part of their sentence. Similarly Qatari citizens convicted in India can be sent to their home country to serve their sentence. This agreement would enable the sentenced persons to be near their families and would help in the process of their social rehabilitation, said an official statement.

The Qatar emir is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising ministers, senior officials and captains of industry.

The former Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, had visited India thrice: in 1999, in 2005 and in 2012. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh had visited Qatar in November 2008.

Around 600,000 Indian nationals work in Qatar, comprising the largest expatriate community in Qatar. Qatar is also the largest source of India’s LNG imports, at 86 percent. Bilateral trade stands at $16 billion, heavily weighted in favour of Qatar due to India’s LNG imports.

(IANS)

AAP warring factions fail to make any headway in talks

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Yogendra-Yadav-Prashant-Bhushan

New Delhi: Reconciliation talks between the two warring factions in AAP, appeared to have been collapsed today with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal insisting on Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan quitting the National Executive, ahead of the crucial National Council meeting on March 28.

Sources said Yadav and Bhushan made it clear that there was no valid ground for them to step down from the 21 member National Executive and the rival camp should instead address the issues raised by them.

Kejriwal, a key aide of his said, remained firm that the two should quit the National Executive before the National Council meeting on Saturday.

Last ditch efforts by party Lokpal Admiral Ramdas to push for reconciliation failed to make any headway with both camps sticking to their stands.

However, Ilyas Azmi, member of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) said patch up efforts were still underway. “We will keep trying till the last minute,” he said after the PAC meeting here.

Ahead of the meeting, Ramdas, a former Navy chief, held deliberations with Kejriwal for more than an hour, during which he is understood to have conveyed to the party leader to take steps to restore unity and peace in the party.

“He (Kejriwal) is not willing to concede and has been demanding resignation of Bhushan and Yadav. Even Ramdas tried to intervene, but it is heading nowhere,” said a leader close to Yadav.

Those backing Bhushan and Yadav said that the two leaders will not concede to the demands of Kejriwal.

The internal rift figured in the PAC, the highest decision making body, where majority of the members reasserted their strong support to Kejriwal.

The party’s NC is expected to deliberate on the issues in the party. Both Kejriwal and Yadav are trying to consolidate volunteers support ahead of the meeting.

The talks that began last week with the aim of bridging the trust deficit between the two groups after Yadav and Bhushan were ousted from the PAC showed no signs of rapprochement.

Yadav and Bhushan have been pressing for resolution of key issues like implementation of critical matters such as volunteer participation in AAP’s decision making, autonomy to its state units, bringing the party under the ambit of RTI and appointment of Lokayukta at the state level.

Late in the night, Yogendra Yadav said, “A fake campaign is being run in my name. Callers with false identities proposing me as national convenor. Ridiculous. Outrageous. BEWARE!(sic).”

“More info about fake campaign coming in. If anyone calls you on my behalf and solicits support for me against AK (Arvind Kejriwal), please note the no and report,” Yadav tweeted.

The tweets came in the backdrop of reports that calls are being made and messages sent to AAP volunteers and National Council members purportedly on behalf of Yadav, projecting him as the National Convenor replacing Kejriwal.

Earlier, reports surfaced that AAP leader Shanti Bhushan was going to hold a meeting with the dissidents, a day before the party’s National Council meet on March 28, to discuss the issues of ‘swaraj’ and ‘internal democracy’.

Shanti Bhushan has, however, denied the reports.

(PTI)

Congress leaders want CBI probe into past cases involving BJP, JD(S)

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Photo: IE

Photo: IE

Bengaluru: The Congress legislators on Wednesday unanimously urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to hand over to the CBI for investigation certain issues and cases that have occurred during the BJP and JD(S) rule in the past.

A list of 11 issues and cases, including the accusation of receiving Rs 150 crore kickback from mine owners against JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, rape case against H Halappa, the Padmapriya suicide case and the BBMP fake bill scam, was circulated at the Congress Legislature Party meeting chaired by Siddaramaiah at the Vidhana Soudha.

Another list of three cases that were handed over for CBI probe in the last two years by the Siddaramaiah government was also circulated. These are the Soujanya murder case, irregularities in the Ramanagar-Channapatna Urban Development Authority and Mandya Urban Development Authority.

Many legislators, including Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, chief whip P M Ashok, P M Narendraswamy, Pramod Madwaraj and A Manju, said the government should pay back the Opposition in the same coin, by ordering a CBI probe into the cases of the past.
Shivakumar said the ruling party should effectively counter the Opposition by raising issues and cases of the past. Manju said the BJP and the JD(S) had politicised the IAS officer Ravi’s case. The issues that have been listed are fit for CBI investigation. But the BJP and the JD(S) governments in the past had refused to hand them over to the federal investigating agency despite the Opposition demand, he said.

Earlier, Siddaramaiah explained the circumstance that forced his government to hand over the Ravi case to the CBI. Opposition parties, the BJP and the JD(S), targeted the government, he said.

The chief minister, however, did not react to the demand from the legislators to hand over the list of 11 cases to the CBI.

Some legislators also took exception to the ministers for not properly defending the chief minister in the Ravi case. Some ministers behaved as if they did not belong to this government. They were least bothered about the issue and made no effort to counter the Opposition. Some ministers give prominence only to the Opposition party leaders and neglect the ruling party MLAs. Action should be taken against such ministers, Ashok is learnt to have said.

Rajarajeshwarinagar MLA Munirathna demanded that the government recommend a CBI probe into the accusation that he had kept hundreds of BBMP files at his residence. The Lokayukta had subsequently raided his residence.

The chief minister turned down the demand for increasing the legislators’ annual area development fund to Rs five crore from Rs two crore.

(Agencies)

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