Top India News Stories of 24th October 2008

Daily news summary

Speaker turns down privilege notice against PM
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today turned down a privilege notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he was not satisfied that a breach of privilege has been committed by him on the India-US civilian nuclear deal. The speaker heard breach of privilege notice against the PM Oct 20. The notice was given by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Basudeb Acharya, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Yerran Naidu and other Left leaders. The speaker ruled that the Lok Sabha could take up no motion of privilege against the prime minister, as he was a member of the other house, the Rajya Sabha. And in a case when a member of the other house is involved in alleged breach of privilege, the presiding officer first satisfies himself about the charge and only then refers the case to his counterpart in the other house, Chatterjee informed. The Left MPs alleged in the notice that the prime minister in his reply to the Motion of Confidence July 22 had assured the parliament that he would come to parliament before operationalising the India-US civilian nuclear deal.

GAGAN to provide world’s most sophisticated air navigation system to India
By 2011, India will have arguably the most sophisticated satellite-based air navigation system in the world that will bring immense benefits to both civilian and military aircraft, experts said. Raytheon Company of the US is currently leading a team of companies to deliver a comprehensive solution for a global satellite navigation system to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Airports Authority of India. The USD196 million or Rs.7.74 billion Global Positioning Satellite-Aided Geosynchronous Augmented Navigation System or GAGAN, to be implemented from the end of this year or early next year, will provide India with the most accurate, flexible and efficient air navigation system ever deployed. The project will provide straight-line fuel-efficient routes and precision approach landings, thereby reducing fuel burn substantially. It will also enable multiple approach capability. GAGAN will also make it possible to provide coverage of oceanic areas, which is not possible by terrestrial systems; improve airport and airspace access in all weather conditions; enhance reliability and reduce delays; provide uniform and accurate navigation performance over the entire airspace; provide fuel efficient air corridors and provide CAT-I approach without ground element support. Broadly, the project would result in fuel savings/efficiency for airlines and enable higher air traffic within the limited airspace.

Festive season prolongs month-long Parliament session
The month long parliament session, which was to last till Nov 21 will now reconvene on Dec 10 keeping in mind the festive season. It was originally thought that the session would reconvene Dec 8 as had been suggested by Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani of the Bharatiya Janata Party after a telephonic conversation between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is the leader of the Lok Sabha. However, the presiding officers of the two houses, after discussions with the leaders of all the political parties in parliament, decided to reconvene the house Dec 10, sources said. The BJP had last week demanded that the parliament session be rescheduled in view of the Diwali festival Oct 28 and the assembly elections. The Left parties had immediately opposed this, also demanding that a full-fledged winter session be called. The rescheduling now makes clear that the government would dispense with the winter session and instead call a brief session in February 2009 to pass a vote-on-account as a full-fledged budget cannot be presented in an election year. The winter session normally begins in mid-November and lasts till just before Christmas. When the house reconvenes, it would be meeting for the third part of the session.

India provides ISI 'link' to Kabul attack evidence to Pakistan
India shared sensitive information with Pakistan that pointed to the ISI's alleged complicity in the July 7 bombing outside its embassy in Kabul as the two countries ended a special meeting of their joint-terror mechanism on a "positive" note in New Delhi. "Information on issues of mutual concern including the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul was exchanged," said a joint statement after the meeting of the special session of the joint anti-terror mechanism. India presented "some evidence" of the involvement of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the July 7 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, official sources said. Indian officials also alluded to intelligence intercepts by the US agencies that too had pointed to the ISI's role in the attack. The attack on the Kabul embassy - the first attack on an Indian mission overseas - killed an Indian diplomat and a military attaché.

Raj Thackeray to now face murder charge in Bihar
The father of Pawan Kumar, the youth who was allegedly killed by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists in Mumbai, has now filed a murder case against the party chief Raj Thackeray in a Bihar court today. The murder case was filed under section 302 of IPC in the court of chief judicial magistrate in Biharsharif, the district headquarters of Nalanda, by Pawan's father Jagdish Prasad. Thackeray and MNS activists were accused of killing Pawan in Mumbai last Sunday. Pawan, a resident of Bara-Khurd village in Nalanda, was one of the hundreds of students from Bihar appearing for a railway recruitment exam in Maharashtra Sunday when MNS activists attacked them.

500 prominent Keralites to record their voices on myriad issues
A group of students gave a start to a unique project to record the voices of prominent Keralites like Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan and National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan on a range of issues to enable succeeding generations get a feel of life in the early 21st century. The 24 students of the Sound Engineering Academy began recording and analysing sounds of 500 prominent Keralites. The first recording was of the voice of His Highness Utradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma, Maharaja of Travancore, who spoke on the formation of Kerala state, which took place Nov 1, 1956. Sounds of prominent Keralites including Sashi Tharoor, K.P.S. Menon Junior, Anita Nair, ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair, cricketer S. Sreesanth and film director Priyadarsan would be recorded.

Sobbing Orissa nun recounts her sordid tale of rape
With a scarf covering her head and face, a sobbing nun who was allegedly raped by a mob in Orissa's Kandhamal district, Friday appeared before the media to relate her sordid tale and lamented the state police's failure to help her. Visibly shaken and seemingly not in a state to take any queries, she read out her own hand written statement giving vivid details of the incident. She left soon after that. The Archbishop of Cuttack, Raphael Cheenath, who had recently moved the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), also accompanied. He also did not entertain any questions. In her written complaint in the district on Aug 26, two days after the incident, the nun alleged that a mob of about 40 to 50 armed men attacked a house at K. Nuagaon village where she and a preist Father Thomas Chellantharayil, were hiding after their house was attacked. She alleged that the mob dragged her and the priest and took them to the deserted office of an NGO where she stripped and raped. The priest was doused with petrol and beaten up. They then paraded her naked on the streets. She also alleged that the incident occurred in the presence of a dozen policemen.

Muslim marriages under radar: Women approve; religious bodies disapprove
There were predictable differences among Muslim organisations in Kerala over the state High Court's suggestion for a system of oversight of Muslim marriages and divorces, with women favouring it and religious bodies opposing it. V.P. Suhra, the president of NISA, a Muslim women's organisation, welcomed the courts decision and said, "The government should implement these observations. Divorces in the community are unilateral action taken by men. Holy Koran has been wrongly interpreted to perpetuate male hegemony. The religious heads are likely to oppose the court's observation as it will erode their authority," However, the courts observation did not find favour with many Muslim organisations. The High Court after hearing a case involving a Muslim couple, had said that though polygamy was allowed in Islam there was no system in place at the national or regional level to supervise marriages and divorces. Muslim intellectuals welcomed the observation of the court. "The Indian parliament should make a law that the second marriage or divorce by a Muslim male should follow a due process by the court of law," said M.N. Karassery, a Malayalam columnist.

UP government bars Rahul entry at Kanpur varsity, cancels decision later
Rahul Gandhi's interaction with students at a Kanpur university was cancelled in a move that senior party leaders attributed to the Mayawati government. However, top officials denied that the state government had anything to do with it. Rahul Gandhi, on a daylong visit to Uttar Pradesh, was supposed to meet students at the Chandra Shekhar Azad Agriculture University (CSAAU). However, Vice Chancellor Vinod Kumar Suri was apparently told to cancel the programme. Gandhi, who landed here at 10 a.m., did not hold the interaction but met students while strolling through the campus. The interaction was scheduled to be held in the university auditorium but it was locked when Gandhi reached there along with other senior Congress leaders. Union Minister of State for Home and Kanpur MP Sri Prakash Jaiswal, who was accompanying Gandhi, said, "I got a call from Vice Chancellor Vinod Kumar Suri this morning asking us not to come as the government had cancelled the programme, but we have still come." Gandhi strolled through the campus and then held a closed door meeting with students in the canteen of one of the hostels. Less than a fortnight ago, the Mayawati-led state government had cancelled United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi's function to kick off a rail coach factory in her constituency in Rae Bareli.

US opens consulate in Hyderabad, to issue visas from December
US Ambassador to India David C. Mulford formally opened the consulate of the United States of America at Hyderabad’s Paigha Palace, a heritage building in Begumpet, by formally raising the American flag over the new office. The new consulate will start issuing visas from December this year. This is the fourth US consulate in India after Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai.

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