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The Gang The several hundred vigilante women of India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state’s Banda area proudly call themselves the “gulabi gang” (pink gang), which had taken upon it the onus to free the society of corruption. The gang has waged a war against the ‘wrongdoers’, the corrupt government officials and the violent husbands. The Gang shot to the limelight in April 2006 when it hijacked trucks laden with food meant for the poor that was being taken to be sold for profit at the market by corrupt officials. Later, action was taken against the wholesaler.

 

Formation The gang, based in Banda district, one of the poorest parts of Uttar Pradesh, has got them a name because of its strict dress code, pink sarees and blouses. The women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor. They have sworn to root out corruption in the police force and deliver ruthless summary justice to anyone believed guilty of domestic violence or sexual abuse. Sampat Pal Devi, a 46 year old woman, leads the “pink gang”. Gang has even unearthed wrongdoing among politicians despite the fact that its members are drawn from the lowest ‘dalit’ caste at the bottom of Indian society.

 

 Works Members of the Gang always carry a lathi (stick) for protections or to use to beat the wrongdoers. The gang has consistently been both praised and criticized for taking the law into its own hands. Some of the gang members have been hit by a variety of criminal charges. But they remain unrepentant. They already have done some work in combating crime and corruption in the area. Evan the local police favored their style of functioning. They are termed as,” not a gang in the usual sense of the term but as a gang for justice. They have remained away from political parties and NGOs because,” they are always looking for kickbacks when they offer to fund”. It is not only a women’s group but a movement that is against the social injustice, child marriages and corruption.

Movement Yaga Guru Baba Ramdev and the Sadhu community has joined hands to launch national wide agitation if the Center Government does not intervene in the saving the holy river Ganga. Baba has warned and has given the time limit of three months to the Central and the State governments through which Ganga passes, to “take concrete actions to save the holy river”. Otherwise he has decided to launch a countrywide agitation for it.

 

Battle Yoga Guru Ramdev and the community of other Spiritual seers across the country, is the latest to join the ‘warriors’ who are waging a battle against the industry and development lobbies across the country and reluctant state machineries to save India’s dying rivers. With the Baba and the Sadhu community their power has increased a lot and it is being expected that they will purge not only Ganga but many other rivers and lakes of the accumulated filth and breathe a new life into them.

 

Ganga Raksha Manch The seer told that he is at the forefront of a group, the Ganga Raksha Manch, set up by spiritual heads in Hardwar to press the government to declare the endangered river a national heritage. The Ganga Raksha Manch comprises spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravishankar of the Art of Living, Murari Bapu, Asaram Bapu, Ramesh Bhai Ojha, the heads of the Shankaracharya hermitages across the country and along with various scientific and legal experts. He has their consent in taking it to the streets if the government doesn’t respond to their call

 

Ganga Expressway He criticized the UP chief minister Mayawati’s mega project, Ganga expressway from Noida to Ballia. Opposition had alleged a land scam behind the Rs 40,000-crore Ballia to Noida Ganga Expressway announced early this year by UP CM Mayawati. “We are not anti development, but it should not happen at the cost of the holy Ganga. All the residential and shopping complexes proposed along the Ganga expressway will only add to the huge flow of pollutants, which are destroying the sacred river,” said Baba Ramdev.

 

Report A recent study by the Uttarakhand Environment Conservation and Pollution Board had revealed that the level of pollution in the river has reached alarming proportions. Yaga guru urged the Center and the state governments declare Ganga as a national heritage and set up a Save Ganga Authority. That is the only way to keep the purity and sanctity of the holy river, Ganga maintained.

 

 

Ambush Thirty seven personal belonging to elite anti-naxal force Greyhounds went missing after Maoists ambushed a motor launch carrying an Andhra Pradesh police team in the Chitrakonda reservoir just inside the Orissa border on Sunday. The launch was carrying 62 officers and constables when nearly 100 Maoists of the Kalimela dalam of Orissa sitting on two hillocks straddling the reservoir opened fire with rocket-launchers, mortars and light machine guns on the boat. Maoists killed the boat driver, who belonged to the Orissa agriculture department. The police also fired back and during the exchange of fire the fiber glass boat capsized after it was holed due to the firing by the Maoists.

 

Police According to the Police sources the boat sank when to defend themselves the personal carrying heavy rucksacks and weapons moved to the left of the boat. After the policemen fell in to the water the Maoists used country boats to reach them and opened fire. Two policemen and a boat driver were taken hostage by them. Only 25 “swam to safety”, six of them with bullet injuries, rest of the policemen are missing, feared drowned. “Some injured policemen were inside the cabin when the boat capsized. Whether they have managed to escape or have died would be known after the boat is recovered,” a police officer said.

 

Reports There are no confirmed reports about the exact figure of the safe and missing police personal. Director General of Andhra Pradesh Police S.S.P. Yadav told that 10 policemen were injured and 35 were missing after the attack. It was one of biggest and first of the year’s surprise attack on the police squad carried out by State Militia Commission, which was recently constituted by the Communist Party of India-Maoist to intensify attacks on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border. In the recent years Maoists had suffered several setbacks when they had lost over 300 armed cadres, including several top leaders. Search operation was launched by fire brigade and police personnel of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and was later on joined by Navel personal on Monday.

 

Maoists’ Base Maoists are slowly and quietly making their base in the cities Maoist leaders wander through the remotest vast areas of the country which are trapped in poverty and neglected by the government, raise some slogans and offer some instant justice for some social problems and pick up some young boys to fire a gun for a cause. . They are no longer confined to the jungles. Maoists are slowly and quietly making their base in the cities.

 

 

 

 

Report A new survey based on experience of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in availing various public services last year revealed that the level of corruption is “alarming” in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. According to the ‘India Corruption Study 2007′, brought out by Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS), one third of below poverty line households in the country bribed officials to avail various public services - from police to PDS.

 

Corruption Levels Report was released by the Vice-President on Sunday. It was stated in the report that nearly 10 lakh BPL households had to pay bribes to the tune of Rs 7.15 crore last year to avail the benefit under the UPA’s flagship scheme. Study has disclosed rampant corruption in implementation of the populist National Rural Guarantee Employment (NREG) scheme. States have been grouped into four categories according to the level of corruption. These four levels are alarming, very high, and high and moderate.

 

‘Moderate’ In Himachal Pradesh, Andhara Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Haryana and West Bengal the corruption level is ‘moderate’. Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu fall into the “very high” group. The report was based on the corruption experienced by Below Poverty Line households while availing basic services like hospital, electricity and water supply, PDS and other services as land records and registration, housing, banking and police services.

 

Political Interference There are several schemes that have been initiated by the central and the state governments for providing employment and other benefits for the poor. But these schemes are present only on the papers in stead of ground level. Study found that 14 per cent of the poor households either paid bribe or used a ‘contact’ mainly political, to get the benefits of National Rural Guarantee Employment (NREG) scheme. This is the fate of every scheme and the poor.

 

Reality Poor can get the benefits of such schemes only through political activists. Most of funds issued for such schemes sometimes remain unused or are used for some other purposes.Situation is so bad that people all called only to sign papers only to fulfill the necessary requirements. And funds disappear like the water in the desert.

 

 

 

Battling for Life Former Indian Army Chief Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was battling for life in a military hospital in

Wellington in TamilNadu. According to the military hospital sources he was undergoing treatment for a lung cancer. When the reports last came in he has slipped into coma and passed away late Thursday night on June26. He was in extremely critical condition and the doctors feared the worst. Manekshaw had been suffering of old age-related ailments for the past few years and was being treated at the Army Hospital in New Delhi and at the Military Hospital at Wallington, where he settled down after retiring as the army chief on Jan 15, 1973 after four decades of military service.

Life and Career Manekshaw was credited with crafting the campaign that led India to victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war and creation of Bangladesh after the war. Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, born in Amritsar, Punjab on 03 April 1914, joined the first batch of 40 cadets at Indian Military Academy (IMA), DehraDun on 01 October 1932, after completing his schooling in Amritsar and

Sherwood

College, Nainital. He passed out of the IMA in December 1934 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army. During his military service of four decades he fought five wars from the British era and World War II, to the three wars against China and Pakistan after

India’s independence in 1947.
 

Honor Sam Manekshaw was the first of only two Indian military officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal of the Indian Army. He was awarded by the President of India, Padma Vibhushan in 1972, conferred the honorary rank of field marshal on 1 January 1973, for his stellar leadership during the Bangladesh campaign that saw the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani troops on December 16, 1971 in Dacca, then the capital of East Pakistan and which has now been renamed Dhaka.

Contribution During his four decades of military service he showed, acumen for planning and administration while handling the issue related to partition in 1947, uncommon ability to motivate the forces, coupling with it a mature war strategy. He is known for, as Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee, welding the Army, Navy and Air Force in to a well-knit team, well planned and well executed operations during the war against Pakistan in 1971.

Incident In a shocking development, a young Muslim woman who was raped by her father-in-law has been “punished” with a divorce from her husband by a community panchayat that now finds her marriage ‘illegal’. This is exactly the replay of the Imrana case after three years that has caught the nations’ attention. Ms Hamid-un-Nisha, 25, was raped by her father-in-law Mr. Ramzan Ali in Bahrawan village in Gorakhpur district. Her husband Mr. Abdul Rashid works in Dubai.

Panchayat She told about the incident to her relatives and also to her husband when he returned after a few days. As the news of the incident spread, a panchayat was convened on Wednesday June 25 in which representatives from 28 panchayats of neighboring villages took part. Ali admitted before the panchayat that he had raped Hamid-un-Nisha and pleaded guilty. He has been let off with a monetary fine of Rs 35,000 to be paid to the victim by the panchayat. Hamid-un-Nisha was told that since she had sex with her father-in-law, her marriage with Rashid was ‘haraam’ (illegal) and she stood divorced. 

Replay of Imrana Case Since the matter was resolved in the panchayat no FIR has been registered in the case. .  It may be recalled that in June 2005, Imrana was raped by her father-in-law in Muzaffarnagar district. The community panchayat in the village had declared her marriage illegal and had asked the victim to treat her husband as her ‘son.’ Despite of protests Imrana had lodged a case her father-in –law, who was later on sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment but Imrana is facing social ostracism in her village and community even today.

 

Nationwide Debate The case once again has triggered off a nationwide debate on Shariat and women’s rights. Ms Hamid-un-Nisha has been punished though she is a victim. Once again the narrow minded followers of a religion to prove their dedication have spoiled a life and the victim was forced to leave her house and to stay with her parents. And for more surprise the husband of the victim acted only like a spectator and maintained a neutral stand on the issue. In such circumstance an innocent victim has been forced to resolve to the fate and she is victim of the crime committed by the whole society. Rules are made for the welfare and well being of the society, society is not made for rules. It is an inhuman act, committed by so called ‘protectors’ of society and all those who are responsible must not be spared.

 

Processions Clashes continued even for the sixth day on Saturday between police and demonstrators at several places in the Kashmir valley as the protests against transfer of forest land to the Amarnath shrine board intensified. Maximum restraint was observed by police and Central Reserve Police Force to avoid a bloody confrontation despite of a few violent incidents. Massive protests started after Friday prayers when people starter pouring out in the streets throughout the Valley and started blocking roads and burnt half a dozen CRPF bunkers. Protestors burnt effigies of several political leaders. All the streets were packed with people chanting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. They also shouted slogans against Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and his predecessor Mufti Mohammad Sayeed holding them responsible for transferring land to SASB as part of a “major conspiracy.”

 

Yatra Amarnath yatra was suspended on Friday for the third time as a precautionary measure for ensuring safety of pilgrims as protests over the land transfer issue were continuing in the valley for the last few days. Because of bad weather and heavy rains it was suspended on June 20 because the routes leading to the temple had become dangerous. It was again suspended on June 25 due to heavy rush at Nunwan and Baltal base camps in Kashmir.

Jammu Despite continuous appeals by Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad, to people to maintain calm and not to pay any heed to elements out to vitiate peace, protests have spread even to some parts of Jammu. People are also infuriated with the double standards of PDP chief “Mufti and his party ministers who first gave consent to the diversion of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and then provoked the people to grind their own axe thereby vitiating centuries-old communal harmony”. 

 

Political Interests All the political parties are trying to exploit the ongoing agitations to suit their Political interests eying the coming elections. PDP and its ministers in the government had themselves approved the order of giving land to SASB and now they have changed their colors. Reason is very simple they have nothing to do with the people except robbing them of their votes and engaging them in violence.

 

 

Meeting During the talks between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in New Delhi, both the sides agreed that composite dialogue is a useful platform to address all bilateral issues and decided to launch its 5^th round from July 21.It is the first major political contact from across the border after a new elected government came to power in Islamabad.

Invitation

Pakistan extended a fresh invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit the country, saying the political environment in both the countries is “right” to make the peace process “result-oriented”. Visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi after wide-ranging talks said “We are looking forward to his visit to

Islamabad“. He said “The political environment in both the countries is “right” to make the peace process “result-oriented”.

 

 

Mukherjee Mukherjee spoke about the threat posed by terrorism and said both the countries have to be “unambiguous” in fighting the menace. “Terrorism is a threat to the stability of our respective democratic frameworks. Whatever be our political differences, we have to be unambiguous in addressing terrorist threats,” Mukherjee said. Both the sides agreed to hold the fifth round of composite dialogue on New Delhi in which

Jammu and Kashmir issue, peace and security and confidence building measures are expected to be discussed. Mukherjee said “Singh has agreed in principle to visit

Pakistan but wants the trip to be substantive and not symbolic”. 

Qureshi The two sides also agreed on setting up an institutional mechanism for regular dialogue between their Planning Commissions and discuss the possibility of cooperation in wind and thermal power sector as well as mass rapid transport system, like Metro rail. Qureshi said it was in the “mutual interest” of India and

Pakistan to maintain ceasefire. He said “serious thoughts” should be given to “outstanding” issues that need our consideration.

Hopes The timing is right to build the ties, “peace, friendship and good neighborly relations”, particularly through enhancement of cooperation in economic and trade fields and people-to-people contacts. India-Pakistan-Iran pipeline is to mutually benefit both India and

Pakistan.” And can become a “a pipeline of peace and new bondage”.

 

 

Political Record Rashtriya Janta Dal is a political party in India which has its political base mainly in Bihar. Laloo Prasad Yadav is its President. This party has remained in power in Bihar under the Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and then Rabri Devi, who is also Laloo’s wife for more than 13 years. But after the state assembly elections in February 2005, Bihar came under President’s Rule because no political party could win enough seats to prove its majority in the assembly to form a government. Then new elections brought to power the coalition government of Janta Dal (United) and Bhartiya Janta Party.

History Rashtriya Janta Dal was formed in 1997 when Laloo Yadav broke away from Janta Dal. The mass base of the party has traditionally been some of the backward classes and religious minorities. Laloo’s path to power was catalyzed by the strategic alliance he forged between the poor Yadav caste and the Muslims. He served as the Chief Minister of Bihar from 1990-1997 but was forced to resign following escalating corruption charges in the fodder scam. There after his wife Rabri Devi became the Chief Minister of Bihar. It was alleged Laloo continued to act and administer as a real CM with his wife being a ceremonial head. She was the first woman Chief Minister of the state of Bihar. She as a Chief Minister of Bihar came under severe sarcastical criticism and stiff opposition, because she was nearly illiterate and had no interest in politics.

National Party Presently Rashtriya Janta Dal is a partner on the Indian coalition government lead by Congress and its president Laloo Prasad Yadav is the Railway minister in the coalition government. He is currently a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha from the Chhapra constituency. Election Commission on June 24 accorded the national party status to RJD. RJD was being recognized as a state party in Bihar, Jharkhand and Manipur fulfilled the conditions for recognition as a national party on the basis of its poll performance in the recently held Nagaland elections. The party has the seventh political party to get the national status. Its election symbol is hurricane lamp.

Manifesto RJD has promised to set up a “vikas sena”, besides toning up administrative units to ensure that the benefits of development reach dalits, backwards, minorities and other oppressed sections of society directly in its manifesto.

Court Controversial Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP from Balia Suraj Singh alias Surajbhan Singh with two others were on Tuesday held guilty by a Bihar fast track court of murdering a farmer named Rami Singh over a land dispute 16 years ago. Surajbhan Singh represents

Bihar’s Balia constituency in parliament and is considered to be very close the Union Minister of Steel and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan.

Incident Rami Singh, a resident of Mathurapur village in Begusarai district was shot on Jan 16, 1992 allegedly by Surajbhan Singh and his henchmen to avenge the killing of an associate Ramadhar Singh in a land dispute, according to the police complaint in the case. While an accused Pappu Singh had sought a separate trial, two others-Suro Singh and Shankar Singh- also convicted in the same case had been killed in an encounter before the case could go to trial. The fast court judge R P Dubey convicted MP Surajbhan Singh, Jaijairam Singh and Radha Singh. The quantum of sentence will be announced on Wednesday.

Related Facts It may also be recalled that Begusarai public prosecutor Ram Naresh Sharma who was earlier handling the same case was shot dead in his house in Begusarai on November 8, 2007.Hundereds of people, mostly supporters of Surajbhan Singh, had gathered outside the court since early afternoon to hear the court’s verdict that was announced amid tight security. Surajbhan Singh is accused in several criminal cases, including those of murder, extortion, kidnapping and looting. Soon after the court found him along with the two other convicts, police took them into custody, were handcuffed and sent to jail under judicial custody.

Criminalization of Politics In the last two months the judiciary has pronounced some judgments in which most politicians or their relatives were convicted .There is only the judiciary left in which people have some belief. Though some political parties have taken steps to stop the criminalization of the politics by not allowing the criminals to contest in the elections on the party tickets but that is not enough. Some concrete steps are needed to purge and purify all the political system from the criminal impurities. Courts are the last option to deal with the criminals it is the duty of the people and the political parties to disallow the criminal elements from entering into the political circles.

Political Record Rashtriya Janta Dal is a political party in India which has its political base mainly in

Bihar. Laloo Prasad Yadav is its President. This party has remained in power in

Bihar under the Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and then Rabri Devi, who is also Laloo’s wife for more than 13 years. But after the state assembly elections in February 2005,

Bihar came under President’s Rule because no political party could win enough seats to prove its majority in the assembly to form a government. Then new elections brought to power the coalition government of Janta Dal (United) and Bhartiya Janta Party.

History Rashtriya Janta Dal was formed in 1997 when Laloo Yadav broke away from Janta Dal. The mass base of the party has traditionally been some of the backward classes and religious minorities. Laloo’s path to power was catalyzed by the strategic alliance he forged between the poor Yadav caste and the Muslims. He served as the Chief Minister of

Bihar from 1990-1997 but was forced to resign following escalating corruption charges in the fodder scam. There after his wife Rabri Devi became the Chief Minister of

Bihar. It was alleged Laloo continued to act and administer as a real CM with his wife being a ceremonial head. She was the first woman Chief Minister of the state of

Bihar. She as a Chief Minister of

Bihar came under severe sarcastical criticism and stiff opposition, because she was nearly illiterate and had no interest in politics. 

National Party Presently Rashtriya Janta Dal is a partner on the Indian coalition government lead by Congress and its president Laloo Prasad Yadav is the Railway minister in the coalition government. He is currently a Member of Parliament in the 14^th Lok Sabha from the Chhapra constituency. Election Commission on June 24 accorded the national party status to RJD. RJD was being recognized as a state party in

Bihar, Jharkhand and Manipur fulfilled the conditions for recognition as a national party on the basis of its poll performance in the recently held Nagaland elections. The party has the seventh political party to get the national status. Its election symbol is hurricane lamp.

Manifesto RJD has promised to set up a “vikas sena”, besides toning up administrative units to ensure that the benefits of development reach dalits, backwards, minorities and other oppressed sections of society directly in its manifesto.

 

 

 

Battling for Life Former Indian Army Chief Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw is battling for life in a military hospital in

Wellington in TamilNadu. According to the military hospital sources he is undergoing treatment for a lung cancer. When the reports last came in he has slipped into coma. He is in extremely critical condition and the doctors fear the worst. Manekshaw has been suffering of old age-related ailments for the past few years and was being treated at the Army Hospital in New Delhi and at the Military Hospital at Wallington, where he settled down after retiring as the army chief on Jan 15, 1973 after four decades of military service.

Life and Career Manekshaw is credited with crating the campaign that led India to victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war and creation of

Bangladesh after the war.

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, born in Amritsar, Punjab on 03 April 1914, joined the first batch of 40 cadets at Indian Military Academy (IMA), DehraDun on 01 October 1932, after completing his schooling in Amritsar and

Sherwood

College, Nainital. He passed out of the IMA in December 1934 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army. During his military service of four decades he fought five wars from the British era and World War II, to the three wars against China and Pakistan after

India’s independence in 1947.

Honor Sam Manekshaw is the first of only two Indian military officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal of the Indian Army. He was, awarded by the President of India, Padma Vibhushan in 1972, conferred the honorary rank of field marshal on 1 January 1973, for his stellar leadership during the Bangladesh campaign that saw the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani troops on December 16, 1971 in Dacca, then the capital of East Pakistan and which has now been renamed

Dhaka.

Contribution During his four decades of military service he showed, acumen for planning and administration while handling the issue related to partition in 1947, uncommon ability to motivate the forces, coupling with it a mature war strategy. He is known for, as Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee, welding the Army, Navy and Air Force in to a well-knit team, well planned and well executed operations during the war against

Pakistan in 1971.

 

 

 

Incident Demanding arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, Sikh activists on Wednesday stopped trains at several places across Punjab. The protests were sparked after the killing a Sikh youth, Balkar Singh, outside a shopping mall in Mumbai by the Dera chief’s bodyguards. A protest in Mumbai, led to altercations between Ram Rahim Singh’s supporters and the Sikh group which turned violent after the group allegedly started pelting stones. It is said that a private bodyguard of the Baba opened fire on the agitating crowd that killed one person and injured more than two. Following the death Sikhs went on the rampage in Mumbai.

 

Protests Many radical groups are demanding the arrest of the Dera chief. Dera chief has been provided with the Z plus security cover. When he is having the Z-plus security then why he is having the private bodyguards? Why he was having the private arms? These are the questions that are haunting the minds of the people. It must be recalled that there were widespread protest against the Dera last year that had turned into a major controversy and the centre government had to intervene to defuse the situation. At many places Sikhs and the followers of the dera had clashed.

 

Politics During the elections for Punjab assembly Dera chief had urged the people to vote in favor of the Congress party. But the elections were won by the Akali Dal and BJP coalition. The Dera has remained in headlines because of the controversies related to sexual exploitation of the women and anti Sikhism activities. Last year when Dera chief had appeared in the dress resembling to the tenth Sikh Guru Sri Guru Gobind Singh  Ji , in a public meeting , it had triggered wide spread agitations by the Sikhs against the Dera. This turned violent and at many places clashes were reported between the Sikhs and the Dera followers.Situation could only be controlled after the intervention of the center government by pacifyiung the Sikh community.

 

 

Vested Interests Reasons behind the controversy are political as well religious. Some political parties are backing the Dera. They want to keep the people of Punjab engaged into violent activities. People only with political interests are fueling the violence. They have nothing to do, neither with Sikhism nor with Dera except their political ideology. 

 

 

 

Court Controversial Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP from Balia Suraj Singh alias Surajbhan Singh with two others were on Tuesday held guilty by a Bihar fast track court of murdering a farmer named Rami Singh over a land dispute 16 years ago. Surajbhan Singh represents Bihar’s Balia constituency in parliament and is considered to be very close the Union Minister of Steel and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan.

 

Incident Rami Singh, a resident of Mathurapur village in Begusarai district was shot on Jan 16, 1992 allegedly by Surajbhan Singh and his henchmen to avenge the killing of an associate Ramadhar Singh in a land dispute, according to the police complaint in the case. While an accused Pappu Singh had sought a separate trial, two others-Suro Singh and Shankar Singh- also convicted in the same case had been killed in an encounter before the case could go to trial. The fast court judge R P Dubey convicted MP Surajbhan Singh, Jaijairam Singh and Radha Singh. The quantum of sentence will be announced on Wednesday.

 

Related Facts It may also be recalled that Begusarai public prosecutor Ram Naresh Sharma who was earlier handling the same case was shot dead in his house in Begusarai on November 8, 2007.Hundereds of people, mostly supporters of Surajbhan Singh, had gathered outside the court since early afternoon to hear the court’s verdict that was announced amid tight security. Surajbhan Singh is accused in several criminal cases, including those of murder, extortion, kidnapping and looting. Soon after the court found him along with the two other convicts, police took them into custody, were handcuffed and sent to jail under judicial custody.

 

Criminalization of Politics In the last two months the judiciary has pronounced some judgments in which most politicians or their relatives were convicted .There is only the judiciary left in which people have some belief. Though some political parties have taken steps to stop the criminalization of the politics by not allowing the criminals to contest in the elections on the party tickets but that is not enough. Some concrete steps are needed to purge and purify all the political system from the criminal impurities. Courts are the last option to deal with the criminals it is the duty of the people and the political parties to disallow the criminal elements from entering into the political circles.

 

 

Protests The row over the transfer of forestland to the Amarnath shrine Board in Jammu and Kashmir has turned into a manor issue that has lead to the wide spread protests throwing normal life out of gear in the state. Situation has become more tense after the so called ‘peaceful’ protests against the recent state government decision of the transfer of forest land to Amarnath Shrine Board took violent turn. One person was killed and many wounded in day long clashes with the riot police on Monday in Srinagar. The police action on Monday has aggravated the already tense situation. The protests are being lead mainly by the newly reunited Hurriyat factions.

Issue Jammu and Kashmir had transferred 800 acres of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board- the body that organizes the Amarnath yatra. The opposition National Conference, the separatist group the Hurriyat as well as the coalition partner PDP has opposed the state government’s decision of transfer of land. It is supposed that the land will be used to build facilities to the Amarnath pilgrims. On the other hand the BJP workers also protested against PDP leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for his opposition of the transfer of land for Amarnath pilgrims.

People-Police Clashes Situation became more tense when police had to open fire of stone pelting youths resulting into the death of a man and many other injured. People, men, women and children took to streets and raised slogans against the police and the government holding them responsible for the death of the youth. At many places, protesters pelted stones on the policemen where clashes were witnessed between the police and protesters. These protests have widened the rift between Hindus and Muslims that will produce more harmful results in the future.

 

 

Politics For most of the political parties an issue has arisen and they are using it as to get mileage over their opponents. State assembly elections are just a few months away and every political party wants to gain as much as possible by raising this issue no matter if some people get killed .PDP has only one way to go to force it coalition partner to change its decision of transfer of land or to face the elections before the schedule.