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You are here: Home / Archives for Pranab Mukherjee

President for debate, discussion; not disruption of Parliament

February 23, 2016 by Nasheman

pranab-mukherjee

New Delhi: Parliament reflects the supreme will of the people, President Pranab Mukherjee said today in a strong criticism of disruption and obstruction and called upon all MPs to discharge their responsibilities in a spirit of cooperation and mutual accommodation.

In his customary address to the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament outlining government’s agenda in the coming financial year, he also declared that the government will constantly strive for smooth and construction conduct of Parliamentary business.

“Our Parliament reflects the supreme will of the people. Democratic temper calls for debate and discussion, and not disruption of obstruction.

“My government will constantly strive for smooth and constructive conduct of Parliamentary business. I urge all Members of Parliament to discharge their solemn responsibilities in a spirit of cooperation and mutual accommodation. Let us all collectively endeavour to build a flourishing and prosperous India,” he said.

The President remarks assume significance in the context of repeated disruption of business on various issues, loss of time of Parliament and the stalling of legislative business in Rajya Sabha where the government lacks majority.

The 20-page speech was heard in rapt attention by members in the central hall of Parliament whenever he spoke of the government achievements and new announcements.

“Let noble thoughts come from all directions, should be the spirit behind the debate in this temple of democracy. Being a member of this great institution bestows great honour as well as important responsibilities,” Mukherjee said.

Asserting that the government is fully committed to firmly dealing with all challenges concerning the security of the country, the President said terrorism is a global threat and strong counter-terrorism measures are necessary worldwide to eradicate it completely.

“Let me congratulate the security forces in successfully foiling the recent attack at the Pathankot air base by terrorists. Firm and effective steps will be taken to deal with any situation arising out of cross-border terrorism,” he said.

“My government is committed to forging a mutually respectful relationship with Pakistan and in creating an environment of cooperation in combating cross border terrorism,” Mukherjee said while referring to the government’s foreign policy.

He said the government believes in a secure and prosperous future for the neighbourhood while committing itself to the principle of ‘the world is one family’.

Elaborating on the focus of the government ‘development for all’ beyond just the economic advancements that dominate headlines, the President said the country must ensure that the poor and deprived were truly empowered to take advantage of opportunities to improve their lives.

“Development for all means that backward sections of society are equally valued and are genuine stakeholders in the country’s progress. Development for all implies that we tackle the pollution, traffic, and garbage problems that plague our cities,” he said.

Mukherjee said ‘development for all’ also meant development of the entire world which was why India has to be a responsible member of the global comity of nations helping humanity solve major challenges such as terrorism, climate change and financial instability.

The President said the government is focused on poverty eradication, farmers’ prosperity and massive employment generation.

“The overriding goal for my government is poverty eradication,” he said adding the poorest of the poor were entitled to the first charge on the nation’s resources.

Removing the scourge of poverty and destitution was government’s most sacred moral responsibility, Mukherjee said it was pledge to making this goal possible through financial inclusion and social security, the two wings on which human aspiration takes fight.

“To this end,l my government has placed great emphasis on food security, Housing for All and subsidies that reach those who need them the most, when they need them the most,” he said.

The President said under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna he was proud to say that it was the world’s most successful financial inclusion programme.

“Under the programme, out of over 21 crore accounts opened, 15 crore accounts are operational with an aggregate deposit of over Rs.32,000 crore.

“The programme has gone beyond mere opening of bank accounts to becoming a platform for poverty eradication by offering basic financial services and security to the poor,” he said.

To universalise social security, the President said, the government has launched three new insurance and pension schemes which afford insurance to hitherto uncovered sections of society.

He said targeted subsidies ensure that benefits reach the deserving. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has so far been extended to 42 schemes funded by the government.

“PAHAL has become the largest direct cash transfer programme of its kind in the world, with nearly 15 crore beneficiaries. Since June 2014, the food security coverage has more than doubled to cover over 68 crore persons.”

The ‘Give-It-Up’ campaign in tandem with the Give-Back programmes has released subsidised fresh connections to 50 lakh below-poverty-line families.

“More than 62 lakh LPG consumers have voluntarily surrendered their LPG consumers have surrendered their LPG subsidy under the campaign. The highest number of new cooking gas connections to9 the rural poor were distributed in 2015,” he said.

The President said the government has fostered competitive cooperation among various states to enhance ‘Ease of Doing Business’. State governments were being encouraged and supported to simplify procedures, introduce e-enabled processes and invest in infrastructure to improve investment climate.

“A series of reforms have been initiated to help convert job seekers into job creators. My government has launched the Start-Up India campaign which would deepen, expand and support the innovation eco system in the country,” he said.

Mukherjee said a landmark agreement with Japan will make the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor a reality.

By March 2019, under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, 1.78 lakh habitations will be connected with all-weather roads.

“My government has revived a majority of the 73 stalled road projects, completed construction of 7,200 km of high ways and awarded 12,900 km of highway projects which is the highest-ever number of new highway kilometres awarded,” he said amidst thumping of desks by members.

India, the President, said is a haven of stability in an increasingly turbulent global economy. GDP growth has increased making India the world’s fastest growing economy among large economies. Inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit have all decreased.

India recorded the highest-ever foreign exchange reserves in 2015, he said. Mukherjee said the government’s concerted efforts to tackle the menace of black money have started yielding results.

With the enactment of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, a stringent legislative framework has been put in place to combat the menace.

The Gold Monetisation Scheme and Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme in November, 2015 has been launched to ensure productive utilisation of idle assets.

He said the government has taken a number of measures to put in place a simplified, progressive and non-adversarial tax regime by incorporating international prevalent best practices in tax administration.

A gamut of taxpayer facilities like e-filing of returns and various forms, electronic processing and retrieval of documents and online grievance redressal are now available to the citizen, he said.

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Pranab Mukherjee

Opening Ayodhya temple doors error of judgement by Rajiv: President

January 28, 2016 by Nasheman

pranab-mukherjee

New Delhi: The opening of Ram Janmabhoomi temple site in Ayodhya was an “error of judgement” by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the demolition of Babri Masjid an act of “absolute perfidy” that destroyed India’s image, President Pranab Mukherjee has said in his memoir released today.

“The opening of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple site on 1 February 1986 was perhaps another error of judgement. people felt these actions could have been avoided,” the President has written in the book titled “The Turbulent Years: 1980-96”, released by Vice President Hamir Ansari.

“The demolition of Babri Masjid was an act of absolute perfidy…It was the senseless, wanton destruction of a religious structure, purely to serve political ends. It deeply wounded the sentiments of the Muslim community in India and abroad. It destroyed India’s image as a tolerant, pluralistic nation,” he says.

Mukherjee says implementation of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations “contributed to reducing social injustice in society though it also divided and polarised different sections of our population”.

The period of 1989-91, Mukherjee says, was a phase dominated by violence and bitter divisions within Indian society.

“Insurgency and cross border terrorism broke out in Jammu and Kashmir; the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir-Babri Masjid issue rocked the nation. Finally, a suicide bomber brought Rajiv’s life to an abrupt and tragic end on 21 May 1991,” he says.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s campaign by mobilising activists to collect bricks from all over the country and take them in a procession to Ayodhya caused communal tension, he said.

Recalling the Shah Bano case, the President says Rajiv Gandhi’s action eroded his image of a modern man.

“Rajiv’s actions on the Shah Bano judgement and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill drew criticism and eroded his modern image,” the President said.

Shah Bano, a Muslim mother of five children, was divorced by her husband in 1978. She filed a criminal suit in which the Supreme Court ruled in her favour and she won the right to alimony from her husband.

However, the then Congress government, enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. The most controversial provision of the Act was that it gave a Muslim woman the right to maintenance for the period of iddat (about three months) after the divorce, and shifted the onus of maintaining her to her relatives or the Wakf Board. The Act was seen as discriminatory as it denied divorced Muslim women the right to basic maintenance which women of other faiths had recourse to under secular law.

Mukherjee says Rajiv Gandhi has been criticised for his excessive reliance on some close friends and advisers who installed the so-called ‘babalog’ government. “Some of them turned out to be fortune seekers.”

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Ayodhya, Babri Masjid, Pranab Mukherjee, Rajiv Gandhi

Growing intolerance: A letter to the president of India by creative and academic community of West Bengal

October 17, 2015 by Nasheman

pranab-mukherjee

To Sri Pranab Mukherjee

The President of India

Your Excellency,

As citizens of a democratic country, we are deeply concerned about the growing culture of murderous intolerance and the brazen assault on the fundamental right to life of those who maintain the core values of diversity, plurality and tolerance of which you yourself have recently reminded us. The targeting of innocents like the recent killing of Muhammad Akhlaq in Dadri and the series of attacks against rationalists and freethinkers including the gruesomely casual killing of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi has made us strangers in our own country. We are horrified at the callous lack of support and apathy of the state in finding and bringing the culprits to justice. The stifling atmosphere of fear and uncertainty is fatal to the freedom of expression that is at the heart of our shared lives, and it is for the restoration of this common fabric that we urge you to intervene.

On behalf of the freethinking, creative minds of India – indeed, on behalf of every citizen of India – we urge you, the guardian of the Constitution of India, to ensure that those who have infringed upon this founding document of the State with impunity, whether overtly or by silent complicity, be brought to justice. Throttling the right to free thought and expression threatens the very existence of our plural society. We demand your active intervention in protecting the basic freedom which is the right of all Indian citizens without discrimination by religion, caste, class or gender. We appeal to you to take firm and immediate steps to combat this well-planned conspiracy to endanger Indian democracy.

From the creative and academic community of West Bengal,

  • Nabaneeta Dev Sen
  • Nirendranath Chakraborty
  • Ashok Mitra
  • Shankha Ghosh
  • Alokranjan Dasgupta
  • Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
  • Pabitra Sarkar
  • Ipshita Chanda
  • Samaresh Majumder
  • Amiya Bagchi
  • Bibhash Chakraborty
  • Rudraprasad Sengupta
  • Swatilekha Sengupta
  • Bani Basu
  • Subodh Sarkar
  • Antara Dev Sen
  • Pratik Kanjilal
  • Nandana Dev Sen
  • Wasim Kapoor
  • Dipali Bhattacharya
  • Srijato
  • Sohini Sengupta
  • Emanul Haque
  • Bikashranjan Bhattacharya
  • Chitra Sen
  • Kaushik Sen
  • Reshmi Sen
  • Srikanta Acharya
  • Bijaya Mukhopadhyay
  • Sarat Mukhopadyay
  • Gargi Roychoudhury
  • Arna Sheel
  • Ujjwal Chattopadhyay
  • Meghnad Bhattacharya
  • Kishor Sengupta
  • Subrata Gangopadhyay
  • Samir Aich
  • Srabasti Basu
  • All Members of P.E.N International, India, West Bengal Branch
  • Krishna Bose
  • Ranjan Gupta
  • Shyamal Mukhopadhyay
  • Sugata Choudhuri
  • Arindam Acharjee
  • Barun Chakrabarty
  • Krishna Sen
  • All Members of SOI, Forum for Creative Women
  • Anjali Das
  • Jyotsna Karmakar
  • Sharmishtha Dasgupta
  • Maya Siddhanta
  • Dipanwita Roy
  • Chitra Lahiri
  • Chaitali Chattopadhyay
  • Sutapa Bhattacharya
  • Sanjukta Bandopadhyay
  • Esha De
  • Ishita Bhaduri
  • Kana Basu Misra
  • Susmeli Dutta
  • Deepshikha Poddar
  • Binata Roychowdhury
  • Pritha Bal
  • Dipannita Datta
  • Bubun Chattopadhyay
  • Banani Das
  • Swapna Bandopadhyay
  • Kasturi Chattopadhyay
  • Sanhita Bandopadhyay
  • Tanbir Nasreen
  • Kamalakkha Gangopadhyay
  • Manasij Majumder
  • Dhritikanta Lahiri Choudhury
  • Shankar Majumder
  • Pratibha Mandal
  • Bidisha Ghosh Biswas
  • Agnimitra Biswas
  • K. Biswanath
  • Anit Bose
  • Paushali Sengupta
  • Rangan Sengupta
  • Bipasha Raha
  • Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta
  • Arnab Dutta
  • Judhajit Sarkar
  • Nabin Mandal
  • Sheila Lahiri Chowdhury
  • Dipkanta Lahiri Chowdhury
  • Debjani Lahiri Chowdhury
  • Ridhi Sen
  • Pankaj Saha
  • Avery Chaurey
  • Indira Mukherjee
  • Riya Chatterjee
  • Kanai Barui
  • Bulbul Datta
  • S.N. Paul
  • Amitabha Mandal
  • Jharna Barui
  • Neelu Das
  • Sukanta Chaudhuri
  • Supriya Chaudhuri
  • Sounak Chakraborty
  • Sebanti Ghosh
  • Sudhir Chandra
  • Minati Chatterjee
  • Jayati Ghosh
  • Bikash Mukherjee
  • Sudip Nath
  • Indira Chakraborty
  • Amit Das
  • Nandita Kundu
  • Jhinuk Roy
  • Saumen Mukhopadhyay
  • Anish Sengupta
  • Mahashweta Samajdar
  • Anuttama Banerji
  • Soumyajit Paul
  • Soma Roychowdhury
  • Himanshu Biswas
  • Arpita Sikka
  • Prabhas Ghosh
  • Ayan Majumdar
  • Biswajit Bhowmik
  • Chaitali Chatterji
  • Sharmila Das
  • T.K. Mandal
  • Abhijit Ghosh
  • Yasodhara Roychowdhury
  • Upasana Mukherjee
  • Biplab Gangopadhyay
  • Amit Kr. Pandit
  • Gargi Sarkar
  • Debu
  • Sreyash Sarkar
  • Agomani Dasgupta Mukherji
  • Roshni Charaborty
  • Ajeya Sarkar
  • Sreyashi Musafir
  • Swapna Chakraborty
  • Sremayi Bhatta
  • Nilanjana Chatterjee
  • Sudakshina Bhagat
  • Swastika
  • Swapna Dutta
  • Sajal Samudra
  • Paula Sengupta
  • Abhimanyu Mahato
  • Pias Majid
  • Arvind Deb Sarkar
  • Alamgir Haque
  • Sharmila Sen
  • Pallabi Dey
  • Anamika Dutta Sarkar
  • Samapan Saha
  • Saumitra Polley
  • Anjan Achariya
  • Anirban Das
  • Amlan Chaudhuri
  • Md. Inasuddin
  • Biplab Kr. Pal
  • Swapan Bose
  • Ramkumar Acharya

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: Dadri, Pranab Mukherjee, West Bengal

India will support Palestine cause, engage with Israel: Pranab Mukherjee

October 12, 2015 by Nasheman

India Palestine Israel

Amman: India will continue to extend unwavering support for separate statehood for Palestine while also engaging with Israel to forge an independent and long-standing bilateral relationship, President Pranab Mukherjee said here on Sunday.

The president also lauded Jordan’s humanitarian support in sheltering 1.4 million Syrians, called for a concerted global action for a peaceful resolution of conflict in the troubled country, while also pushing its own case in forging a UN treaty on countering terrorism.

These were the gist of the visiting president’s messages during his meetings with the Jordanian leadership on the second day of his visit here, and at a speech he delivered at the University of Jordan, which conferred a doctorate on him in political science.

“India supports a negotiated solution resulting in a sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognized borders,” the president said at the university.

“Our bilateral relations with Israel are independent of our relations with Palestine,” he said.

“India has played a proactive role in garnering support for this cause in all multilateral fora. We have called upon both sides to exercise restraint and work towards a comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue.”

Jordan is the only country in the Arab world, besides Egypt, which has a peace agreement with Israel.

The president also quoted Mahatma Gandhi, as drawn from a book written by Queen Noor: “‘Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English and France to the French’.”

The Jordanian side was equally candid and said it saw Israel resorting to “state terrorism” against the people of Palestine, as clashes between the two sides continued unabated. This was also the text of a resolution that was passed by the Jordanian Parliament on Saturday, accusing Israelis of “sapping the rights” of Palestinians.

President Mukherjee, who earlier in the day opened a street, named after Mahatma Gandhi here, continued his engagements with the Jordanian leadership, during which he also took up the issue of ending conflict in Syria, while supporting Amman’s endeavours.

Jordan has a population of 6.5 million and another 1.5 million — or 25 percent — have taken shelter in the country.

The Indian side said it strongly endorsed the June 2012 resolution of the Action Group for Syria that met at the UN office in Switzerland — called the Geneva-I Communique — that not only wanted an end to further military conflict, but also rapid steps for a credible political agreement, involving the people.

About the increasing Russian involvement in Syria, Anil Wadhwa, secretary, east in India’s foreign ministry said there was major distinction and Moscow was primarily seeking to curtail the advancement of the extremist group Islamic State in Syria.

Since September 30, Russia has been carrying out airstrikes against certain positions of Islamic State which has been criticised by the US as being directed at anti-government rebels.

The talks between the Jordanian and Indian sides also veered around terrorism — of which the South Asian country has been a victim.

India pushed for a total compliance of United Nations Security Council Resolution number 1,353 of 2011 and the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy adopted in 2006, as also for the early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, that has been pending for over a decade.

President Mukherjee himself pushed for this convention strongly and said it will serve to put a curb against state-sponsored terrorism in the most effective manner, by getting countries to take steps that will not only suppress such acts, but also punish its perpetrators, abettors, financiers, facilitators and collaborators.

During his engagements here, the Indian side and the Jordanian sides signed a number of pacts, ranging from cooperation in maritime transport to information technology, besides some 10 in the field of education between the Jawaharlal University, Jamia Millia Islamiyya, University of Delhi and IIT-Kharagpur, with their Jordanian counterparts.

(IANS)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Pranab Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife Suvra Mukherjee passes away

August 18, 2015 by Nasheman

Suvra Mukherjee

New Delhi: She had always remained in the background, smiling graciously at invited guests from her wheelchair during events held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. First Lady Suvra Mukherjee, President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife of 58 years, died here on Tuesday, it was announced.

The first lady was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Army’s Research And Referral Hospital here two weeks back. President Mukherjee cut short his two-day visit to Odisha and returned to the national capital that evening itself. She was known to be suffering from a heart ailment.

“Suvra Mukherjee died after a cardiac arrest. She was on ventilator till the time of her death,” Army’s Research And Referral Hospital PRO Sanjay Kumar told IANS.

Married to Pranab Mukherjee on July 13, 1957, Suvra Mukherjee was an accomplished Rabindra Sangeet exponent. The couple have two sons and a daughter. Her son Abhijeet Mukherjee is a Congress MP from Jangipur, West Bengal, while daughter Sharmistha is an accomplished dancer and has joined the Congress party. Another son is Indrajit Mukherjee.

Suvra Mukherjee was born in Narail, Bangladesh, where her relatives still live.

During his state visit to Bangladesh in March 2013, President Mukherjee paid his first visit to his “sosur bari”, or in-laws’ house, where the couple were given the traditional welcome accorded to newly-weds, complete with conch-shells being blown and ‘uloo dhoni’ and ‘mangal deep’ aarti.

The grand family welcome at Bhadrabila village, some 9 km from Narail town, probably made up for the physical stress she had to endure, being wheel-chair bound throughout the trip.

She is not known to have accompanied her husband on a foreign tour after that.

Her ancestors had migrated to India in early 1950s after the 1947 partition.

In an interview to Times of India in July 2012, just after Pranab was named as the next president, Suvra told the daily that she and her husband had never had a fight.

“We are not like today’s couples. It’s not a lovey-dovey relationship and we don’t express our emotions overtly. It’s all in the mind and heart. We don’t really indulge in small love talk. At our age, it’s more about depending on each other wholeheartedly. His love for me is different. Every day, after his bath he comes to me, touches my forehead and recites some mantras. He does this every day of the year and yesterday was no exception. This is how he expresses his love. We’ve been married for 55 years and we haven’t fought for a single day!”

Being a music lover, her concern before shifting to the palatial 360-room Rashtrapati Bhavan was to find an appropriate place for her musical instruments, harmonium and tanpura.

In fact, her love for Rabindra Sangeet found a reflection in the melodies played by the Rashtrapati Bhavan band during the formal events, like At Home and dinner receptions for foreign dignitaries.

The band has begun interspersing usual melodies with well-known melodious Rabindra Sangeet numbers.

Bengali sweets, like sandesh, also made its entry into Rashtrapati Bhavan.

(IANS)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Pranab Mukherjee, Suvra Mukherjee

25,000 farmers seek President’s permission to end lives on Independence-Day

August 10, 2015 by Nasheman

pranab-mukherjee

Lucknow: Around 25,000 farmers in Mathura have sought permission from President Pranab Mukherjee to commit suicide on August 15 after a 17-year-long struggle to get compensation from the government failed to meet success.

Construction of Gokul Barrage had submerged 700 acres of land and the farmer from 11 villages have been fighting for compensation since 1998.

As per government sources, 25,000 farmers are due to get Rs 800 crore as compensation for lost 700 acres of land.

Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, an off-shoot of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, took their cause and the agitating farmers even faced bullets in November 2014 but nothing has happened so far.

In February this year, when the farmers sat on dharna, several protesters were falsely implicated for loot and dacoity.

Finally seeing that there are no hopes of justice being made, the farmers under the aegis of Sangha wrote a letter to the President on Saturday seeking permission to hang themselves.

(Agencies)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Farmer Suicide, Farmers, Independence Day, Pranab Mukherjee

Petition by eminent personalities urges President to pardon Yakub Memon

July 27, 2015 by Nasheman

Yakub Memon

New Delhi: Leaders of various parties including BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and its expelled MP Ram Jethmalani, eminent jurists and persons from different walks of life today submitted a fresh petition to President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to waive off the death sentence of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.

In the new petition urging stay against imminent execution of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, the signatories claimed that there are “substantive and fresh grounds” that can be considered on merits.

Memon is scheduled to be executed on July 30 as per the execution warrant issued by TADA Court.

The petition has come at a time when there is a huge political controversy over Memon’s hanging and the BJP has condemned the remarks by parties against the hanging of Memon saying such a defence is happening due to “petty politics”.

BJP MP Sinha, who had a day before met and praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has once again gone against the party’s stand on the Memon issue.

In the 15-page petition, the signatories have cited varioius legal points and international committments to argue that Memon should not be hanged.

“We most humbly request your Excellency to consider the case of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon and spare him from the noose of death for a crime that was master-minded by someone else to communally divide the country.

“Grant of mercy in this case will send out a message that while this country will not tolerate acts of terrorism, as a nation we are committed to equal application of the power of mercy and values of forgiveness, and justice. Blood letting and human sacrifice will not make this country a safer place; it will, however, degrade us all,” the signatories said.

Besides Sinha and Jethmalani, those, who have signed the petition include MPs like Mani Shankar Aiyar (Congress), Majeed Memon (NCP), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), K T S Tulsi and H K Dua (nominated) and T Siva (DMK), former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI(ML)-Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Brinda Karat (CPI-M) and filmmakers and actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Mahesh Bhatt, M K Raina and Tushar Gandhi.

It also included various academicians, members of the legal fraternity, activists and retired judges – Justice Panachand Jain, Justice H S Bedi, Justice P B Sawant, Justice H Suresh, Justice K P Siva Subramaniam, Justice S N Bhargava, Justice (retd) K Chandru, and Justice Nagmohan Das, noted lawyer Indira Jaising.

Others include academicians like Irfan Habib, Arjun Dev, D N Jha, and social activists Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze and John Dayal.

They cited that India is a signatory to an international commitment to abolish death penalty and hence death penalty cannot be imposed in India.

“Yakub Memon was not given advance notice of the death warrant hearing and as a result of which he and his lawyers could not participate and contest the issuance of the death warrant. Lack of hearing makes the present death warrant void,” they said, citing a Supreme Court decision in the May 2015 Shabnam versus Union of India and Others case.

They said that there are some very “disturbing” aspects of this case which make the award of death sentence to Yakub Memon as “grossly unfair, arbitrary and excessive”.
“Yakub Memon has served more than 20 years in prison since his arrest. His trial took 14 years to complete. While the Supreme Court used this long period of incarceration as a mitigating circumstance to commute the death sentences of the other 10 co-accused persons, it applied a different yardstick to Yakub.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that lengthy incarceration during pendency of appeal in death cases is a significant mitigating circumstance which ought to be considered in determination of sentence. In the interests of justice we request you to give due importance to this,” they said.

They also argued that Memon is mentally unfit for execution as he has been suffering from schizophrenia for the last 20 years.

“His mental condition has been certified by jail doctors. Schizophrenia as a mental illness has been held by the Supreme Court to render a convict unfit for execution,” they said.
They have also cited that commutation of death sentences of convicts in other terror cases like late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

“It is also worthwhile to note that death sentences imposed on the aides of Veerappan (convicted and sentenced to death under TADA), Rajiv Gandhi killers and Devender Pal Singh Bhullar have been commuted recently by Supreme Court.

“While the mercy petitions of Verappan’s aides, Rajiv Gandhi’s three killers and Devender Pal Singh Bhullar were decided belatedly by the President, thereby giving them the claim of delay jurisprudence, the Home Ministry has moved swiftly to reject Yakub Abdul Razak Memon’s mercy’s petition,” they alleged.

The petitioners said that it seemed that “subjective factors” were the basis of decisions which lead to arbitrary actions.

They also argued that the death sentence has been awarded under TADA which was repealed.

“Memon has been tried and sentenced to death under TADA, a special law which was repealed by Parliament on account of it having been used to target minorities,” they said and referred to a Supreme Court judgement, which according to them doubted the legality of prosecutions pursued after the repeal of TADA.

“Given the highly compromised rule of law credentials of TADA, executing Yakub Memon will perpetuate the dark legacy of this law,” they said.

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Pranab Mukherjee, Ram Jethmalani, Shatrughan Sinha, Yakub Memon

Bofors deal not a scandal, but a media trial: Pranab Mukherjee

May 26, 2015 by Nasheman

Republic Day Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee has said the Bofors arms scandal of the 1980s was more of a “media trial” and none of the charges have been proved in any Indian court.

Mukherjee, a former defence minister, made the remarks in an interview with Dagens Nyheter newspaper ahead of an official visit to Sweden next week.

“The first point is no Indian court has given a verdict on it, and though the process of trial is going on…unless somebody, some authoritative institutions describe it as a scandal and punish it, how could you say that it is a scandal,” he said.

“You may have some doubt, you may have some suspicion, but that’s not the proof,” Mukherjee said in response to a question whether a scandal such as the Bofors affair could be avoided in future.

“The so-called scandal which you talk of, yes, in the media, it was there. There was a media trial. But I’m afraid, let us not be too much carried by publicity,” he said.

“But up to now, no Indian court has given any decisive verdict about the alleged scandal.”

Relations between Sweden and India were seriously damaged when allegations surfaced that Swedish arms manufacturing company Bofors had paid $640 million as kickbacks to secure a $1.3 billion contract to sell 410 howitzers to the Indian Army.

The scandal contributed to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s defeat in the 1989 parliamentary polls. Mukherjee, a senior leader of the Congress, was a close confidante of Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991.

Mukherjee asserted during the interview that it was “yet to be to be established that there was a scandal”. He further said that despite the scandal, the Bofors howitzers were prized by the army.

“I was the defence minister of the country long after Bofors, and all my generals certified that this is one of the best guns we are having. Till today, the Indian Army is using it,” he said.

The Bofors howitzers played a key role in the campaign to push back Pakistani troops who occupied strategic heights in the Kargil sector of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.

(Agencies)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Bofors Scandal, Media, Pranab Mukherjee

President gives nod to land ordinance

April 3, 2015 by Nasheman

Republic Day Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi: The land acquisition ordinance, which the government could not get converted into a legislation in Rajya Sabha due to stiff opposition, was today re-promulgated, a day before it is to lapse.

President Pranab Mukherjee has signed the ordinance as recommended by the union cabinet on March 31, official sources said. The earlier ordinance is to lapse tomorrow as it has not been converted into a legislation during the first part of the budget session as required under the Constitution.

The fresh ordinance, which is the 11th by the Narendra Modi government, incorporates nine amendments that were part of the bill passed in Lok Sabha last month. It is pending before the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA coalition lacks the numbers to get it passed.

The pending measure, titled Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, that was passed in Lok Sabha sought to replace the ordinance that was promulgated in December.

The Opposition was not in a mood to oblige the government and, in fact, mounted a strong campaign against it. Led by Sonia Gandhi, the Opposition parties demanded the passage of the original land bill that was passed during the UPA regime.

To enable re-promulgation of the ordinance, the government last week got the Rajya Sabha prorogued.

Under the Constitution at least one of the Houses has to be prorogued for Government to issue an ordinance. Parliament is currently on a month-long recess after the Budget session started on February 23.

The land ordinance was among the six executive orders issued by the government in the inter session period. While five of them were cleared by Parliament, the land measure is stuck.

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: BJP, Land Acquisition Act, Land Ordinance, Pranab Mukherjee

Beef banned in Maharashtra, receives President's assent

March 3, 2015 by Nasheman

The slaughter of cows was previously prohibited in the state under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act of 1976. Photo: IE

The slaughter of cows was previously prohibited in the state under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act of 1976. Photo: IE

Mumbai: The bill banning cow slaughter in Maharashtra, pending for several years, on Monday received the President’s assent, which means red meat lovers in the state will have to do without beef.

This measure has taken almost twenty years to materialize and was initiated during the previous Sena-BJP government.The bill was  first submitted to the President for approval on January 30, 1996. However, subsequent governments at the Centre, including the BJP led NDA stalled it and did not seek the President’s consent.

A delegation of seven state BJP MPs led by Kirit Somaiya, (MP from Mumbai North) had met the President in New Delhi recently and submitted a memorandum seeking assent to the bill. The memorandum said that the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995, passed during the previous Shiv Sena-BJP regime, was pending for approval for 19 years.

“Thanks a lot honourable President sir for the assent on Maharashtra Animal Preservation Bill. Our dream of ban on cow-slaughter becomes reality now,” chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Twitter. A delegation of seven state BJP MPs had met the President recently and submitted a memorandum.

The law will ban beef from the slaughter of bulls and bullocks, which was previously allowed based on a fit-for-slaughter certificate, according to The Indian Express. The new Act will, however, allow the slaughter of water buffaloes.

The punishment for the sale of beef or possession of it could be prison for five years with an additional fine of Rs 10,000. “Apart from rendering people jobless, the immediate effect will be the spiralling price of other meats as people will be forced to gravitate to them,” Indian Express quoted president of the Mumbai Suburban Beef Dealer Association Mohammed Qureshi as saying.

Reuters had earlier reported that Hindu nationalists in India had stepped up attacks on the country’s beef industry, seizing trucks with cattle bound for abattoirs and blockading meat processing plants in a bid to halt the trade in the world’s second-biggest exporter of beef.

An official at a beef transport group in Maharashtra state said around 10 vehicles travelling to Mumbai had been stopped in the last week of February, the animals taken forcefully and drivers beaten up by members of Hindu nationalist groups despite carrying valid documents.

However, a BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told The Hindu that the party’s efforts to seek a ban on slaughter of calves should not be viewed with a communal lens but keeping in mind the “interests of agrarian communities.

 (With inputs from Reuters)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Beef, Cow Slaughter, Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra, Maharashtra Animal Preservation Bill, Pranab Mukherjee

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