The Tribune – Captain: Badal misusing SGPC funds

G S Paul, Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 6. Putting up a unity show at an impressive Punjab Bachao “rally here today, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Captain Amarinder Singh continued his tirade against the Badals.

He alleged that owing to the SAD-BJP governmemnt’s “lack of vision and planning”, core issues like unemployment, poverty and trade and industry had been ignored.

He accused Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of misusing SGPC funds. “It is for the first time in Sikh history that Darbar Sahib accounts are running in a deficit of Rs 24 crore. This is because the Badals have been misusing gurdwara funds,” he alleged.

He said for the past five years the Badals had looted Punjab. “Whether the sand, liquor, transport or cable trade, they have not spared anything.”

He pointed out that the government’s pension and shagun schemes had failed with funds diverted for the CM’s Sangat Darshan programme.

He was unsparing in his criticism of Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal and his brother-in-law Bikram S Majithia. Accusing the CM of being corrupt, the former Chief Minister said his father had left him with 80 acres of land, but the latter now had five-star luxury hotels in Gurgaon worth Rs 2000 crore. Party affairs incharge GS Charak claimed that at the end of the Punjab Bachao rallies, “the entire Punjab would have pronounced its verdict in favour of the Congress”.

Congress Legislative Party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal accused the Badals of having betrayed the Panth. Among others who addressed the rally were OP Soni, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Prof Darbari Lal, Jasbir Singh Dimpa, Harjit Singh Thekedar, Sardul Singh, Lali Majithia and Sukh Sarkaria.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111107/punjab.htm#3

The Asian Age – Ayodhya sticking point for JD-U

Yojna Gusai, Asian Age Correspondent

New Delhi, 7 November 2011. It is not just the seat-sharing formula that the BJP needs to sort out with its alliance partner JD(U). The saffron party also has to convince the JD(U) that it did not keep the latter in the dark over the concluding point of the Janswabhiman yatras, which is Ayodhya.

It was learnt that JD(U) leaders, who participated when the yatras were launched in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, have decided to skip the concluding ceremony on November 17 when the entire BJP top brass is expected to be present. The JD(U) claims it was not informed earlier that the yatras will conclude in Ayodhya.

However, the BJP is still persuading its ally to participate when the yatras conclude.

The BJP had undertaken the Ram Rath Yatra in 1990 to gather support for Ram Mandir construction at the disputed site in Ayodhya. Two years later the Babri Masjid was demolished.

The JD(U), it was learnt, is apprehensive that its participation in the concluding ceremony might “hurt” its minority vote bank. The yatras — one headed by former party chief Rajnath Singh and the other by senior leader Kalraj Mishra — were launched on October 13. JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav had attended the yatra when it had commenced from Mathura, led by Mr Singh.

After the success it met during last year’s Bihar Assembly polls, when its minority vote bank also increased sizeably, the JD(U) is of the view that its presence at the ceremony might upset its prospective minority voter in the poll-bound state.

When asked to comment on the JD(U)’s reluctance to attend the concluding function of the Janswabhiman yatras in Ayodhya, Mr Mishra said “there are no differences with the JD(U) either on a seat-sharing formula or the yatras concluding in Ayodhya. They (the JD-U) had attended (Janswabhiman yatra) and we are sure they have no such problem. It’s the BJP’s yatra, not the NDA’s.”

The JD(U) is yet to settle the issue of seat-sharing formula with the BJP.

While the JD(U) wants to contest 53 of the 403 Assembly constituencies, the BJP is reluctant to give more than 20.

http://www.asianage.com/india/ayodhya-sticking-point-jd-u-732

The Netherlands : Den Haag – Rotterdam – Amsterdam 2 till 12 September 2011

Mostly pictures of gurdwaras, trains and trams taken during my recent visit to the Netherlands

9 September Schiphol Airport – Den Haag

Schiphol Airport Station – Brussel Intercity

Den Haag Holland Spoor – Brussel Intercity

From Den Haag Holland Spoor to Hoefkade, HTM Tram 11

10 September Den Haag

Scheepersstraat, Sufi Masjid Nurul Islam

Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures at :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/ 

More Netherlands pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Seminar discusses threadbare issues concerning women

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 6. Issues concerning women in general and those of Sikh women in particular were discussed threadbare at a seminar organised by the Institute of Sikh Studies (IOSS) at its headquarters Gurdwara Kanthala Sahib here today.

In her keynote address, Professor Shashi Bala of Guru Nana Dev University explained how early history of Sikhs placed men and women at par. However, unwritten rules that followed attempted to debar women from official religious matters on false notions of “impurity”. She also expressed concern over the growing incidence of crime against women.

Gurdev Singh, patron of the IOSS, provided a brief background of the organisation and various activities being undertaken by it. Baljit Kaur, acting president of the IOSS, said that the Sikh gurus not only provided an ideological base through their hymns for socio-religious rehabilitation of women but also undertook several practical steps in this direction.

The Vice-Chancellor of Guru Granth Sahib University appreciated the dedicated work undertaken for propagation of Sikh religion and literature by the IOSS and its founder members. He lamented that the Sikhs were forgetting what the gurus taught them.

Dr Kirpal Singh traced the status of women in Sikh scriptures. Dr Rajinder Jit Kaur Dhindsa, director, Institute of Advanced Studies in Sikhism, discussed issues like dowry and female foeticide.

Dr Jaspal Kaur Kang explained how Guru Nanak was a social reformer par excellence and how his thoughts were revolutionary not only in light of his contemporary society but even today. Amandeep Singh in his paper discussed how gender relations within Sikhism have been interpreted in Western paradigm. Singh compared and contrasted the writings of Doris R Jakobsh and Nikki-Guninder Kaur Singh, as both have done a comprehensive analysis on feminism in Sikh history and philosophy.

SGPC member Harjinder Kaur appreciated clear interpretation by scholars of the difference in thoughts held by Western authors on the empowerment of the women vis-à-vis Sikh authors.

Dr Rajni Bala talked about the evil of female foeticide saying that “womb of the mother becomes tomb of the girl child”. She explained how ultrasound testing was being misused in India for sex determination tests leading to illegitimate abortions.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111107/punjab.htm#15

Dawn – Seven indicted in Benazir case

Malik Asad

6 November 2011.

Rawalpindi: An anti-terrorism court here on Saturday indicted seven accused, including former Rawalpindi CCPO Saud Aziz and former SP of Rawal Town, Khurram Shahzad, in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

The accused pleaded not guilty to involvement in the assassination of the former prime minister. Ms Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack on December 27, 2007.

Shahid Rafique, Special Judge of ATC-I, conducted the trial in Adiala Jail. He said in the indictment of Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad that it was their responsibility to provide security to Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, but they showed negligence of duty and did not provide adequate security to her.

According to the charge-sheet, both the officers were involved in hosing down of the murder site, resulting in disappearance of material evidence, and they failed to ensure an autopsy was conducted on the body.

Malik Rafique, counsel for the police officers, told Dawn that the nature of indictment of his clients was different from the other accused who faced charges of conspiracy and abetment in the killing of Ms Bhutto. He said framing of charges did not mean the court had declared the accused guilty. The prosecution now has to substantiate the charges to convict the accused, he added.

The other accused indicted are Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, Rasheed Ahmed, Rafaqat Hussain and Hasnain Gul for killing, hatching conspiracy to kill Benazir Bhutto and abetting the perpetrators, using illegal explosive material on December 27, 2007 when 22 people, including Ms Bhutto, were killed and 65 others injured near Liaquat Bagh.

However, the accused refused to accept the charges levelled against them and said they would face the trial despite the fact that they had already confessed before a judicial magistrate for having the knowledge of the plot to kill Ms Bhutto and helping the suicide bomber.

The court while seeking the evidence of the prosecution summoned witnesses on the next date of hearing fixed for November 19.

Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, FIA Senior Public Prosecutor, told Dawn that the statements of prosecution witnesses would be recorded during the next hearing and the same day he would request the court for conducting the trial on a day-to-day basis.

If the court would accept our plea for speedy trial, the prosecution can conclude its proceedings in two months time, he added.

Reuters adds: “They have been charged with conspiracy as well as abetment in the murder,” Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, a government prosecutor, told Reuters.

The charismatic Bhutto was killed on December 27, 2007 as she waved to a crowd through the sunroof of a sports utility vehicle following an election rally in Rawalpindi weeks after she returned to Pakistan from a self-imposed exile after striking a deal with then military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Genereal Musharraf’s government had blamed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud for the killing. Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike near the Afghan border in 2009.

The five Taliban militants were charged with “criminal conspiracy” for bringing the suicide bomber from the tribal belt in the northwest to Rawalpindi where he carried out the attack, another prosecutor Mohammad Azhar said.

General Musharraf, who lives in exile in Dubai and London, also faces accusations of failing to provide adequate security to Ms Bhutto.

The anti-terrorism court in February issued an arrest warrant for him and later declared him fugitive of law after he failed to respond to these accusations.

In August, the court ordered the confiscation of all property and the freezing of General Musharraf’s bank accounts in Pakistan after he again failed to respond.

The prosecutor Ali said the court would deal with General Musharraf’s issue later.

A report by a UN commission of inquiry released last year said any credible investigation should not rule out the possibility that members of military and security establishment were involved in the killing, though it did not say who it believed was guilty.

It heavily criticised Pakistani authorities, saying they had “severely hampered” the investigation.

General Musharraf has denied suggestions that he or his security agencies had any role in Mr Bhutto’s murder.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/06/seven-indicted-in-benazir-case.html