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MARCH 15
Vajpayee to be sworn in on Thursday
President K R Narayanan formally invited A B Vajpayee to form the government after a 50 minute meeting at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday night. The BJP leader has been asked to prove his majority within ten days.
'The Congress not staking a claim made it clear that a viable alternative to a BJP-led government would not be obtainable now'
The text of the communique issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Another Jaya somersault lands AIADMK in a BJP govt
In a dramatic reversal of her stand for the third time in as many days, Jayalalitha announced that her party and its allies, the Pattal Makkal Kattchi and the Thamizhaga Rajiv Congress would join the Vajpayee government. However, Dr Subramanian Swamy has been kept out.
Congress not to stake claim
Facing a battery of newsmen and cameramen at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sonia Gandhi said, "We do not have the numbers to stake a claim to form a government. However, we are watching the situation."
Swamy resigned to watchdog's role
Asked whether he felt he had been ditched by Jayalalitha, Dr Swamy told Rediff On The NeT. "She tried hard for four days to ensure my entry into the Cabinet. The BJP was adamant. So I decided not to take part in the government. That was the only practical solution."
Vajpayee to seek consensus on national issues
In a statement issued after he was appointed prime minister by
President K R Narayanan, Vajpayee said, ''The results of the recent Lok Sabha election have not given a clear majority to anybody. But this flaw in the verdict can be overcome if parties set aside confrontationist politics and become participants in the noble task of nation building."
UF left without anyone to back
The UF top brass was in session at Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral's home when Sonia Gandhi, after meeting President Narayanan, announced that the Congress would not stake its claim to power.
How the BJP finally made it
The sequence of events that led to Atal Bihari Vajpayee being appointed prime minister.
MARCH 14
Sonia takes over
Congress workers are jubiliant but Sitaram Kesri refuses to budge from the party president's post. Sharad Pawar likely to become CPP leader.
'Rattled' BJP to wait for President's word
Worried about the AIADMK's vituperative attack on its leadership, the BJP is now trying to pacify Jayalalitha before it forms a government at the Centre.
Allies make Jaya toe the BJP line
What really turned the tide against Jayalalitha was the increasing feeling both within her party and among the MDMK and the PMK that not standing by the BJP now after winning a vote on 'Vajpayee's leadership' would go against the mandate of the people.
All eyes on Naidu
President K R Narayanan yesterday held a telephonic conversation with Naidu, apparently to know his views on the formation of a stable government at the Centre.
Do not invite BJP, Laloo, Mulayam tell President
The SP and the RJD said that the UF and the Congress combination had the 'mandate' to provide a 'stable and secular government'.
UF should support Congress-led govt: Basu
United Front convenor N Chandrababu Naidu should
change his mind about the Congress, feels the West Bengal chief minister.
179 MPs won more than 50 per cent of the votes
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies won 86 seats with more than 50 per cent of the vote, followed by the Congress and its allies (61), United Front (24) and others (eight).
'The BJP is being dishonest when it says Ayodhya is not an issue'
An interview with RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy.
OTHER REPORTS:
Patel expands ministry
The Gujarat chief minister added 28 faces to his 10-day-old ministry, including 11 cabinet ministers, 13 state ministers and four deputy ministers.
UF leaves Himachal mess for Vajpayee to handle
The Union Cabinet on Saturday deferred a decision
on Himachal Pradesh Governor Rama Devi's recommendation to impose President's rule in that state.
Dada Kondke dead
The Marathi comedian famed for his double entendres falls victim to a heart attack.
Holi revelry leaves 23 dead
In Uttar Pradesh alone, 11 people were killed and over a dozen
injured in separate incidents.
TODAY'S COLUMNS
Friends and Foes
The biggest threat to the Vajpayee government will come not from the shenanigans of Mulayam, Amar Singh et al, but from the BJP's putative friends who have fought the election side by side but now are unable
to stay together when power beckons.
The Seventh Heaven
High up in the sky, higher than paradise, there is a place called seventh heaven. Mortals reach it rarely, but some do manage the feat, after much tears, prayers and such stuff. And so it happened with H D Deve Gowda, on Monday,
March 9... Political buzz from the Delhi Durbar.
Mutiny Over The Bounty
Even if two service men were to put their signatures on a joint statement, expressing discontent with some facet of the service, be it so mundane as poor food in the mess, or so complicated as the Pay Commission report, it
would in the ultimate analysis have to be termed as 'mutiny', says Admiral (retd) J G Nadkarni.
MARCH 13
President to hold talks with UF, Congress; decision on Saturday
President Kocheril Raman Narayanan has decided to hold consultations with the Congress and the United Front, following the failure of the Bharatiya Janata Party to provide documentary proof that it enjoys majority support in the Lok Sabha.
BJP will not toe Jaya line
The party will rather forego its long-cherished dream of forming a government at the Centre than yield to the AIADMK's pressure for the 'immediate dismissal' of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu.
Mandal messiah preaches politics of consensus
V P Singh made it clear that all the issues should be decided by consensus by the country as a whole, and not by any government on its own.
Fear forces DMK to stay with UF
Though the party had toyed with the idea of abstaining from voting after a confidence motion favouring the BJP, it does not want to be left 'friendless' at the national level.
HP chief minister quits
Virbhadra Singh's decision comes in the wake of a split in former
Union communications minister Sukh Ram's Himachal Vikas Congress. Two HVC MLAs joined the Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday.
BJP-Sena to do soul-searching in April
Informed sources said the forthcoming assembly session will discuss ways of wooing dalits to the combine, since the community is supposed to have plumbed wholeheartedly for the Congress-RPI alliance in the recent election.
Poorvanchal remains BJP's Achilles heel
The region's electoral importance can be seen from the fact that it houses 39 per cent of UP's Lok Sabha seats and 41 per cent of its assembly seats.
RJD proves equal to BJP-Samata challenge in Bihar
The RJD, led by former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, polled 26.29 per cent of the votes, which is about three per cent more than that received by the BJP.
OTHER REPORTS:
Pak complains to Security Council of RAW hand in violence
Foreign secretary tells the envoys that his country has proof of the Indian agency's involvement in the recent blasts and that such subversive action could derail the peace process between the two countries.
Kailash Joshi, 4 Jains discharged in hawala case
In his order, special judge V B Gupta said, ''After going through
the entire material on record, there has been no corroborative evidence.''
West Bengal assembly goes one up on UP
A virtual bedlam marred the opening day of the budget session of the West Bengal assembly today as opposition Congress members went on a rampage, heckling Governor K V Raghunatha Reddy, tearing up copies of his address and forcing
him to leave the House without finishing the speech.
2051: A demographic odyssey
By the middle of the 21st century, Kerala should be arriving at its much-coveted target: zero rate of population growth. And with it would come plentiful jobs, better economic facilities, and a lot, lot more.
Clinton coming later this year
The President was originally scheduled to visit the sub-continent
this month, but he had to put it off due to the collapse of the Inder Kumar Gujral government.
TODAY'S COLUMNS
Men behaving badly
'Normally,' says Varsha Bhosle, 'I'd have felt sorry for any person in Kesri's predicament. But for the Bihari Bandicoot, a sycophant who places
his Gandhi topi at the feet of the Gandhi widow, I feel no sympathy. He had it coming. And I hope to god that all the other psychopathic sycophants also get their just desserts.'
Had Vajpayee refused, to whom could the President have turned?
The Congress and UF, says T V R Shenoy, were too busy with internal
squabbles to give the country a prime minister. Was India expected to wait forever for them to settle the leadership issue that should have been dealt with two months ago?
Speaking of Women
'Rabri Devi has demonstrated something remarkable: that it is possible for an
unschooled person, a 'mere housewife', that too a 'backward-caste' woman, to do
a perfectly good job of running a state government. She is clearly an accidental feminist.' Rajeev Srinivasan considers three unusual feminists.
MARCH 12
'Delayed' support letters rattle BJP
The BJP's four Tamil allies, including the AIADMK, have not sent the support letters, causing much embarrassment to the saffron party. Its detractors now assert that the allies are demanding their 'pound of flesh' -- Karunanidhi's dismissal as a quid pro quo for their support.
Sangma does not want to be a 'pawn in power politics'
The 11th Lok Sabha Speaker said he had conveyed his decision to senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar and Madhavrao Scindia.
Sideline Pawar, scream seniors
As the 'war of success' against Kesri intensifies, the clamour for sidelining Pawar seems to be increasing in the Congress.
Naidu may not back BJP openly
The BJP's present predicament may not force TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu to change his stand. Despite mounting pressure, he may not join the saffron alliance.
Kesri discusses stepping down with Sonia
Congress president Sitaram Kesri today met Sonia Gandhi and is understood to have discussed the issue of his resignation from the party post.
'The Congress spoke so much about defending secularism but, in the end, they handed over the government to the BJP'
Outgoing prime minister I K Gujral lashes out in his farewell interview to Pritish Nandy.
Manik Sarkar sworn in as Tripura CM
Seventeen colleagues took the oath with the
CPI-M leader. This is the second successive Left Front government in
the state.
Two UP ministers resign
Shivendra Singh and Yashwant Singh, both
ministers of state, quit in protest against the installation
of Jai Narain Tiwari. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, however, claimed he has not received any resignation.
Achutanandan to act tough with 'anti-party' CITU leaders
Several heads in the Communist Party of India-Marxist in Kerala are set to roll with the party undertaking a postmortem of the Lok Sabha election results.
PUCL team indicts police for violence against poll boycotters
Police personnel went on the rampage in Gunupatti village, Tamil Nadu, inhabited by Sri Lankan repatriates, on February 22, ransacking houses, damaging
household articles and even polluting the public well, a fact-finding
team of the PUCL said in Madras.
17 MPs enter Lok Sabha with huge victory margins
Of the 17 constituencies where voters shrugged off their cynicism to display robust faith in balloting, West Bengal accounts for five, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra with
three each, Assam two and Bihar one.
Chochi, a village in need of aid
Election officials are known to climb hills, cross rivers and trek
through jungles to set up polling booths. But never before have they had the experience of negotiating a village said to be ridden with HIV-infected people.
OTHER REPORTS:
Prabhakar Rao surrenders
Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's
son P V Prabhakar Rao, an accused in the Rs 1.33 billion urea scam,
surrendered before the special judge for economic offences on Wednesday.
CBI team leaves for Channel Islands
Probe on to locate missing kickbacks in Bofors deal.
Student gets double life term for macabre murder
The prosecution's case was that the accused, John David, had subjected another student, Navarasu, to indignities like stripping, and licking footwear, and when he refused to oblige, David brutally assaulted him, and then committed the macabre act of dismembering Navarasu's limbs and decapitating him. He later disposed of the severed parts of the body at different spots.
UAE bans Hindu cremation
The United Arab Emirates has banned the cremation of the Hindus's mortal remains since January this year, says a non-resident Indian.
'India must get priority over China'
'India has and will become increasingly important to America's
economic and strategic interests in South Asia,' Democratic congressman Sherrod Brown said. 'This trend should be encouraged, for a democratic and open India is a much more natural partner for the US than an authoritarian China.''
Sharief seeks early summit with new PM
The Pakistan prime minister has said that New Delhi and Islamabad should resolve the Kashmir issue.
Madras HC reprieve for 609 polluting units
The units in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, should construct individual effluent treatment plants by May 11, ruled the judges.
Bombay blasts destroyed the lives of victims as well as executors
The serial blasts of March 12, 1993, which shook Bombay to its core, has left a swathe of misery in its wake, affecting the lives of the families of both the victims and the perpetrators currently lodged in jail.
The wheels of justice grind slowly in the blasts case
The wheels of justice grind slowly in the blasts case
The enormity of the crime can be seen from the huge number of accused in the case, 198, which includes Iqbal alias Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim. About 136 detenus are yet to be tried.
Fridays don't seem lucky for Bombay
The Friday connection apparently is nothing new. Fiftyfive years ago, on a Friday, April 14, 1944 to be precise, an unprecedented disaster, which later came to be known as the Bombay
Dock Explosion, took place at the naval dockyard in the city. Two explosions devastated life and property worth millions.
Bangla women gets the contraceptive message loud and clear
Johara Khatun, 25, is an example of Bangladesh's success at
population control. Married for eight years, she has only one child... With some 11.5 million women using one kind of contraceptive or the other, the average size of families in the country has applaudably reduced.
History being edged out of Sri Lankan classrooms
A paper presented at a recent international conference reveals
that history has almost disappeared from schools and universities -- only 1,981 students opted for history at high school in 1990, compared to 17,507 in 1966.
TODAY'S COLUMN
On The Agenda: Police Reform or Drink A Lot
'Now that the elections are done with, we've woken to find that the hole of criminal politics is dug deeper than it ever has been. That's a very serious matter. Nearly two generations of Indians have been deprived of the experience of seeing criminal politicians go to jail. What can we do about that?' asks Dilip D'Souza.
MARCH 11
President wants proof
President K R Narayanan has asked BJP's prime ministerial candidate A B Vajpayee to submit documentary proof that he could form a stable government.
Storm brewing in Congress
The CWC meeting, which began at 1630 hrs and was expected to last for at least a few hours, collapsed within eight minutes, triggering anti-Kesri slogans from the Sonia camp. This indicates that all is not well in the party.
Naidu on the horns of a dilemma
The TDP chief, facing revolt within his party, refuses to give the UF an assurance that his party will not abstain from voting during the floor test.
Mamata turns Pawar away
The Trinamool Congress leader said a firm 'no' to the Congress's attempt to bring her back to its fold. She would extend 'unconditional' support to the BJP.
George will not join BJP ministry
Samata Party leader George Fernandes stated that he has a much bigger agenda outside of government.
Vajpayee appeals for consensus, says onus of stability is on opposition as well
It is as much the responsibility of the opposition as of the government to provide stability to the country, he said.
BJP sees benefits in Sonia's entry
The BJP is not at all threatened at the prospect of Sonia becoming Congress president. Asserting that the Left Front would be hard hit by such a decision, the BJP feels that the moves to form an anti-BJP government at the Centre would come to a nought.
BSP to vote against Vajpayee
Senior leader and newly elected BSP MP Arif Mohammed Khan said his party preferred 'instability' as minority interests could be safeguarded only in 'politically unstable' environs.
Congress, UF may field common candidate for speaker
The CWC has authorised Sharad Pawar to negotiate with the UF in this regard.
Karunanidhi poohpoohs Jayalalitha's charge of being anti-national
Karunanidhi said Jayalalitha's charge was totally baseless.
Over to Lyngdoh!
UDP leader B B Lyngdoh was sworn in as the new Meghalaya chief minister on Tuesday evening after the 12-day-old Congress government bowed out of office.
Sayeed, Soz win Anantnag, Baramulla seats
Congress leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed defeated his rival by 52,000 votes while NC's Saifuddin Soz won the Baramulla seat by a margin of 37,794.
Kalyan Singh adds five more to UP ministry
The new ministers are all BSP rebels who supported the BJP government during the composite floor test on February 26.
'The repercussions would have been grave if prohibition continued'
'Urvashi Sarada', as she is better known, just lost the Tenali seat to the Congress's P Shiv Shankar. Through her hectic campaign, she had no inkling that the same voters who sent her to the Lok Sabha in 1996 would opt for an 'outsider' in 1998, as is evident from this interview conducted when her fate was being sealed by the electorate.
For some, election results are a case of so near and yet so far
The lowest victory/ loss margin of nine votes was recorded in Bihar's Rajmahal constituency, when Som Marandi (BJP) won the seat by this wafer-thin margin.
OTHER REPORTS:
HC upholds ban on Al Umma
The Madras high court today upheld the Tamil Nadu goverment's ban on Al Umma, a Muslim fundamentalist organisation.
Kolhapur barber styles his way to Limca records
Twentyfive-year-old Ramdas Namdeo Aswale has just entered the Limca Book of Records for a marathon 460 haircuts in 27 hours and 18 minutes.
TODAY'S COLUMN
Our New Netas
If you are criminally inclined, says Pritish Nandy, and have failed in whatever you are doing -- be it cat burglary, pickpocketing, thieving, extortion, cheating or blackmailing -- do not fret, there are great opportunities ahead of you. Join politics.
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Holy cow, it's beef!
Mukesh Rai, a devout Hindu, is suing a chain of Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles. For feeding him beef instead of beans.
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