The Tribune – Resolution on fortifying ties with Pakistan passed

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20. The assembly today passed a resolution urging the Centre to take concrete steps to promote friendship and peace with Pakistan besides enhancing bilateral trade as well as working to opening land routes to Central Asian countries.

The resolution was moved by SAD legislator Harpreet Singh. Speaking on the issue, he stressed the need to open old trade routes, including the Grand Trunk Road to Lahore and beyond to Central Asia, besides the Silk route.

He said there was a need to increase access to international borders from Attari for economic development of the region. Industries Minister Anil Joshi, seconding the resolution, said Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had laid the ground work for improving the ties with Pakistan during his recent visit to Pakistan and that the Centre should build on this goodwill. Others who spoke on the resolution were Bibi Jagir Kaur and Tota Singh.

The resolution was put to voice vote and passed unanimously in the absence of Congress legislators who boycotted the House proceedings today.

What it says

Resolution moved by SAD legislator Harpreet Singh :

It stressed the need to open old trade routes to Lahore and Central Asia

Asks the Centre to build on the goodwill created by Sukhbir during his recent visit to Pakistan

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121221/punjab.htm#6

The Tribune – Captain, Jakhar visit Bhaini Sahib

Tribune News Service

Bhaini Sahib (Khanna), December 20. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Captain Amarinder Singh, along with the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Sunil Jakhar, visited Bhaini Sahib today. They met the widow of Satguru Jagjit Singh and the next Namdhari head, Satguru Uday Singh. The visit assumes significance in the wake of the “succession war” within the sect and the recent protests against former state Congress president H S Hanspal, who is the Namdhari Darbar (Bhaini Sahib) president.

The International Sangat had on December 18 burnt the effigies of HS Hanspal and Namdhari Darbar vice-president Surinder Lyal, alleging that they were trying to create a divide in the sangat. International Namdhari Sangat president Navtej Singh, while casting aspersions on Hanspal’s role in the appointment of Thakur Uday Singh as the sect head, had claimed that Hanspal and Lyal wanted to draw political mileage. This angered Lyal who called the International Sangat a fake organisation.

During Amarinder’s visit today, Hanspal, MLAs Arvind Khanna, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Punjab Youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary and senior functionaries of the Namdhari Darbar, were present at Bhaini Sahib.

Amarinder recalled the time he had spent with the late Satguru and appreciated his “selfless service to humankind.” Later, interacting with mediapersons at the helipad at Raian village, he criticised the state government for “failing to maintain” law and order.

Alleging that some SAD leaders had unleashed a reign of terror on the state by sheltering law-breakers, he appealed to the Chief Minister to take action against those disrupting law and order in Punjab.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121221/punjab.htm#3

The Hindu – Amid fear of attack on students, Malala asks Pakistan not to rename college after her

Mingora, 21 December 2012. An official says Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls’ education, has urged Pakistan to reverse a decision to rename a college in her honour to avert militant attacks on students.

The 15-year-old who became a symbol of youth resistance to the Taliban made the request after students broke into the school, tore down Malala’s pictures and boycotted classes in her home town of Mingora. They say renaming the college endangers their lives.

Senior government official Kamran Rehman said on Friday Malala called him from London, where she is being treated for critical wounds from the attack on Oct. 9. The Taliban said it targeted her for promoting education for secular girls.

Malala’s case won worldwide recognition for the struggle for women’s rights in Pakistan. (AP)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/amid-fear-of-attack-on-students-malala-asks-pakistan-not-to-rename-college-after-her/article4225382.ece

Luik / Liège Kirtan Darbar – 22 September 2012

Sadh sangat

Granthi Jaspal Singh

Palki Sahib

The youngest of the Saini girls

Back to the dastar wearing Singanis

Sikhs from other areas of Belgium and from the UK were also present

Guru Nanak Prakash Gurdwara
625 Rue Saint Leonard
B-4000 Liège

To see more Belgium and Netherlands gurdwara pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622147381380/

More Luik – Liège pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Congress wrests Himachal, Modi scores a hat-trick; Anti-incumbency, Dhumal-Shanta rift sink BJP

Rakesh Lohumi, Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 20. The Congress bounced back to power in the hill state winning 36 out of the total 68 seats, while the ruling BJP had to contend with 26. As expected, the Independents put up a good show to bag five seats. The BJP breakaway group Himachal Lokhit Party, which had floated the Third Front with the CPM and the CPI, could just muster a solitary seat.

The Congress, which had 23 members in the outgoing House, improved its tally by 13 seats, while the BJP’s score came down to 26 from 41. The margin of victory was not very big but it was a creditable performance by the Congress keeping in view the prevailing anti-party sentiment at the national level due to unfolding of various scams and measures like reduction in number of subsidised LPG cylinders.

The political aware electorate maintained the three-decade old tradition of voting out the incumbent government and gave a clear verdict in favour of the Congress throwing aside all the predictions of a hung House. The strong anti-incumbency factor against the Dhumal government more than neutralised the impact of national issues such as price rise, corruption and FDI on which the BJP was banking on.

While four out of 11 BJP ministers, Ramesh Dhwala, Krishan Kapoor, Narinder Bragta and Khimi Ram, were defeated, some prominent Congress leaders like former Speaker GR Musafir, former ministers Ram Lal Thakur, Rangila Ram Rao and Vijay Singh Mankotia and national mahila Congress chief Anita Verma also lost.

The prominent winners included Chief Minister PK Dhumal, state BJP Chief Satpal Satti, ministers Gulab Singh, Mohinder Singh, Ravinder Ravi, Jai Ram, ID Dhiman, Sarveen Chaudhary. PCC Chief Virbhadra Singh, CLP Leader Vidya Stokes, Kaul Singh, GS Bali and Asha Kumari, former Congress minister, and HLP president Maheshwar Singh also emerged victorious. Rajiv Bindal, who had to resign as Health Minister, also won.

The Dhumal-Shanta Kumar rift cost the party dearly as evident from the poor performance of the BJP in Kangra were the party could win only 3 out of 15 seats while Congress bagged 10, while the decision of the Congress high command to hand over the reins of the party to Virbhadra Singh at the last minute helped the party win despite intense factionalism.

While the BJP lost out in its traditional stronghold of Kangra, made deep inroads into the Congress-dominated old Himachal Sirmour, bagging 4 out of 5 seats, and Chamba (3 out of 5 seats). The Congress did well in Shimla, the home district of PCC Chief Virbhadra Singh and CLP Leader Vidya Stokes, winning 6 out of 8 seats and the BJP securing just 1.

The two parties shared the honours in Mandi securing 5 seats each, while Congress fared well in the Kullu district, where it failed to open its account in 2007, winning 2 out of 4 seats and the BJP had to contend with one seat. HLP president Maheshwar Singh won the Kullu seat.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121221/main1.htm

BBC News – India speculation over ‘national role’ for Narendra Modi

Friday, 21 December 2012. Speculation mounted in the Indian media about a possible national role for Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi, after he won an emphatic fourth victory in Gujarat state polls.

Papers say Mr Modi has emerged as the strongest prime ministerial candidate for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP won 115 seats in the 182-seat assembly

Mr Modi called it a “victory for all those people of the country who are yearning for development”.

Under his leadership, Gujarat has been turned into one of India’s economic powerhouses.

But he is seen as a divisive figure, having been chief minister during the 2002 religious riots when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

Mr Modi was accused of doing little to stop the riots, although he denies this.

‘Polarising figure’

“Through this verdict… I would like to tell [people in the country] that we have to build a campaign for good governance,” Mr Modi said after his victory, a hint, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper, at “national ambitions”.

The win proved that “Mr Modi cannot be described as just another regional leader any more”, the newspaper said.

Writing in The Indian Express newspaper, analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta said Mr Modi’s “triumph is an emphatic political achievement”. “He, like a handful of other chief ministers brilliantly grasped the fact that Indian politics is deeply aspirational. It rewards governance.” But, Mr Mehta wrote, the leader’s “path to a greater national role is still fraught”.

“No chief minister has been able to make an easy transition to national politics. No one can hope to govern India if they are incapable of a statesman-like synthesising capacity. No one can govern India for long if they make minorities feel insecure. “And popular acclaim notwithstanding, it has to be said that Mr Modi has not yet given evidence that he can make the transition to a genuine statesman.”

The Hindu newspaper said Mr Modi’s decisive win was “enough to get all the party’s national leaders to brace themselves for a challenge”.

“Unsurprisingly, the BJP rank-and-file is pushing Mr Modi to take the long march to Delhi. It is a different matter that the party’s second rung – not to speak of its key allies – seem not too enthused by the project,” the newspaper said.

The Times of India said Mr Modi’s “transition to the national stage won’t be easy”. The newspaper said Mr Modi remained a “deeply polarising figure” and was “viewed as an abrasive lone-ranger” in his party.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20807444