Day: April 23, 2012

New Delhi, Apr 23 (ANI)Leaders of various political outfits on Monday gave a mixed response to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion that the president of the country should be a non-political person, saying a final decision on the issue would be taken only after consultations.
Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav said it is not the correct time to comment on the presidential candidate, and added that his party would react only after taking the views of the allies.
“He (Sharad Pawar) has given a suggestion. There have been no talks on this within our party or the NDA. It is suggestion. So, it is not the right time to comment on it. There will be a variety of discussions. It is a big election. We will take this issue forward only after discussions and views of the allies,” said Yadav.
“Now, it is his (Sharad Pawar’s) suggestion. We can’t react on every issue. There have been no discussions on this. So, it would not be correct to comment on this for now,” he added, when asked that the Samajwadi Party has put its weight behind former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdula Kalam for the top post.
Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said there has been a lot of interest in speculation on the presidential election.
He, however, said nothing in this regard was formal till now.
“Nothing has come to us formally so far. There is naturally a lot of interest in speculation on the presidential election.
It happens every five years beginning in the month of April-May and goes on till the elections,” said Yechury.
So, it is a good reflection of the vibrancy of our democracy. We want that a president should be the one with full consensus,” he added.
Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shahid Siddiqui earlier in the day welcomed Pawar’s suggestion that the president of the country should be a non-political person, and said his party would definitely back Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam if there is a consensus on his name.
Siddiqui said the president of India should be above politics and parties, and should be the one who represents the nation as a whole.
Pawar, an ally of the ruling UPA Government, had earlier on Sunday said he wants a non-political person to become the next president of India.
Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding K. R. Narayanan. He served from July 25, 2002 to July 24, 2007.
The Samajwadi Party has begun exploring the chances of putting together a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition in the run-up to the presidential election due in June this year, and Kiranmay Nanda’s meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee was a step ahead in this direction.
The names of Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee are doing the rounds as nominees for the top post, which falls vacant on July 24 when Pratibha Devisingh Patil’s term ends.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/lawmakers-give-mixed-responses-on-next-presidential-candidate/

New Delhi, Apr.23 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday accused Congress leader Sajjan Kumar of inciting the 1984-anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, and added that the killings in the Delhi Cantonment area of the city were not spontaneous.
Television reports quoted the CBI, as saying that Sajjan Kumar allegedly told mobs that not a single Sikh should survive.
The CBI said: “people of a certain community were targeted and that the riots were well-organised and backed by both the government and the police.”
On April 12, the CBI apprised a Delhi court of statements of witnesses who had identified Sajjan Kumar, facing trial for his alleged role in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, as the person who was instigating a mob during the carnage.
Sajjan Kumar and five others, Balwan Khokkar, Kishan Khokkar, Mahender Yadav, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal, are facing trial in the killings of six people in Delhi Cantonment during the riots.
They are accused of instigating a mob to kill Sikhs in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
The CBI today recalled in a Delhi court the statement of a woman witness who had identified senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar as the person addressing a mob and instigating it to kill Sikhs during the 1984 riots.
Resuming final arguments in the case, CBI prosecutor R S Cheema told District Judge J R Aryan that witness Nirpreet Kaur, whose father was burnt alive in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, had deposed that she had seen Sajjan Kumar addressing a mob on November 3, 1984 and provoking it to attack and kill Sikhs.
The 1984 Anti-Sikh riots were spread over a period of four days across northern India, particularly Delhi.
Armed mobs attacked Sikhs and their propeties in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.
Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards for authorising a military operation on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which was then occupied by Sikh extremists led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
The government officially recorded 2,700 deaths from the ensuing chaos.
It also said that about 20,000 had fled Delhi. However, the People’s Uinion for Civil Liberties (PUCL) reported that at least 50,000 persons had been displaced.
The most affected regions were neighbourhoods in Delhi. Human rights organisations and the newspapers believe the massacre was organised.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/cbi-blames-congress-leader-sajjan-for-inciting-1984-anti-sikh-riots/