pall@ecn.purdue.edu (Pallab K Bhattacharyya) (04/16/91)
1. PARTIES GANG UP TO BAR BJP FROM ELECTION FEARS ITS GROWING POPULARITY IN HINDI BELT New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), bidding for power in the May general elections, went on the defensive on April 8 against an attempt to have it barred from contesting the polls. Members, led by a number of Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party, have accused the BJP of sectarianism and have asked the Election Commission to strip the party of its registration. 2. CHANDRA SHEKHAR QUESTIONS FREEDOM OF PRESS New Delhi: Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar on April 6 said that the freedom of the press did not mena that it could play with the dignity of the nation. The press could criticize individuals but it must project a balancedview on issues where the dignity of the nation was involved, he said. 3. SHOTS FIRED AT OFFICE OF ELECTION COMMISSION New Delhi (PTI): Shots were fired at the multi-storied building housing the office of Election Commission on April 3 and a suspicious fire broke out thenext day. Though the damage from shooting was restricted to broken window panes,the police are baffled and surprised by the incident in which shots were fired from an airgun twice during the evening at an interval of about two hours. 4. NEW POLITICAL PARTY FORMED New Delhi (PTI): A new political party, "Jawan, Kisan, Mazdur Party (JKM) made its debut on the national scene on April 4, promising to fight for the rights of ex-servicemen, farmers and laborers by bringing about a "total peaceful revolution" in the country. 5. HOCKEY COACH BALKISHEN SINGH CLAIMS IMPROVEMENT IN TEAM'S PERFORMANCE New Delhi (PTI): The four-week long coaching camp in preparation for theOlympic hockey qualifying round ended here April 5 with the chief coach Balkishen Singh claiming a "25 percent improvement in the players' performance in all departments of the game." SOURCE: NEWS INDIA, APRIL 12, 1991 Peace, .....Pallab --------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited by Surekha Reddy Gaddam. Every effort will be made to get up-to-date election reports from the 15th of next month. --
gaddam@remus.rutgers.edu (Surekha Reddy Gaddam) (05/19/91)
News: (May 18) ========================================================================== From Ajai Banerjee: ajax@leland.Stanford.EDU Organization: AIR, Stanford University Compiled from India West, Times of India and IBN news ========================================================================== ELECTIONS: In these elections, the Election Commission will enforce a new law which enables them to order repoll in an entire constituency if there is sufficient evidence of malpractices. The earlier laws permitted repoll only at the level of individual booths. The new law was enforced in the Meham by-elections. The EC will also use a computer system designed by the National Informatics Center to monitor election trends. It will continuously monitor the counting trends in constituencies and identify suspicious circumstances like over 90% votes for a single party. It is hoped that this system will help in identifying these malpractices before the results are declared, as in the past there were many cases of returning officers not reporting malpractices. The death roll in pre-election clashes has crossed 80, with most of the casualties coming from Bihar and Punjab. A few key contests: Amethi: Rajiv Gandhi(Cong) vs Ravindra Pratap Singh(BJP) vs Mohammed Naeem(JD) (R.P. Singh is the same person who defeated Sanjay Gandhi in 1977) New Delhi:L.K.Advani(BJP) vs Rajesh Khanna(Cong) (Advani is also contesting from Gandhinagar) Fatehpur:V.P.Singh(JD) vs H.K.Shastri(Cong) Bhopal:M.A.K.Pataudi(Cong) vs Swami Agnivesh (JD) In Karnataka, the JD and SJD have finally come to an agreement for sharing seats. An unusual situation prevails in Badagara (Kerala) where the Congress, BJP and Muslim League are jointly supporting an independent candidate opposing K.P.Unnikrishnan (JD). TERRORISM As earlier reported at least 11 were killed in a 2-day gun battle at Rattal near Amritsar. the dead included 7 militants and 4 security personnel including a DIG. As many as 4000 troops and paramilitary forces were involved. One possible reason for this large deployment was the presence of G.S. Manochhal who is one of the most wanted militants. He was able to escape. In a Vancouver court, I.S.Reyat was found guilty of conspiring to murder 2 persons in a bomb explosion at Tokyo airport. He has not yet been sentenced. There is strong circumstantial evidence that the persons behind the Tokyo blast were also responsible for the crash of an Air-India plane in which 329 were killed. It is a rather complicated story, but details can be found in the following books: The Death of Air India 182, by Salim Jiwa. The Sorrow and the Terror, by Clark Blaise and Bharati Mukherjee. PAKISTAN The chief of the army staff stated that there will not be any war between India and Pakistan in the near future. 9 were killed in a bomb explosion in a clinic in Rawalpindi. It was owned by a JKLF leader, who blamed Indian agents. STATISTICAL TRIVIA Some results from the 1990 US census: Asian Indians in California: ~160,000, a 176% increase since 1980 In the 9 Bay Area counties: ~53,000, up 188% In Santa Clara County (which includes Silicon Valley):~20,200, up 256% Cities with large numbers of desis include San Jose(~10,700) and Fremont (~5,600) The total population of California is about 29.76 million, so desis are a little over 0.5% of the total. MISCELLANY Deepti Naval and Prakash Jha are divorced. A documentary "Life and Death of a Dynasty" will be shown on PBS on or around May 25. It covers the three PMs of the Nehru-Gandhi family. CRICKET The West Indies have commenced their full tour of England. They lost their opening match against the Duchess of Norfolk's XI, which was captained by Haryana won the Ranji Trophy for the first time, defeating Bombay by only 2 runs. If readmitted, they may play one Test at Lord's in 1992 after the England-Pak series is over. End of News ==============================================================================
pall@ecn.purdue.edu (05/21/91)
Compiled by Pallab: 1. AS ELECTION CAMPAIGN ENTERS FINAL PHASE SPECULATION OF COALITION GOVT. INTENSIFIES New Delhi: India heads this week into the last phase for campaigning that seem increasingly likely to change the face of the country's politics. And there is a perciptible change in the campaign tempo, with the major political parties throwing their big guns into action for the final round. 2. NAXALS SEIZE AND RELEASE MLA THREAT OF VIOLENCE CASTS SHADOW OVER POLLS IN INDIA New Delhi: With the murder of an independent candidate for Punjab assembly election on May 13, the death-toll in pre-poll violence in India rose to 47 this week. A Congress-I legislator from Andhra Pradesh, P.Sudhir Kumar, was abducted on May 11 and released two days later in exchange for the release of four jailed radicals. 3. FIRST FREE POLLS IN 32 YEARS IN NEPAL Kathmandu: Many people gathered outside Kathmandu's Town Hall on May 13,preparing to celebrate a communist sweep of the capital's seats in the Himalayankingdom's first free polls in 32 years. The Candidates of the United Marxist- Leninist (UML) group, one-time allies of the liberal Nepali Congress in mass protest last year that forced King Birendra to surrender absolute power won four of the first five seats declared after the May 12 general election. 4. DESPITE HEROIC BATTING BY VENGSARKAR (139)... HARYANA WIN THRILLER TO CLINCH MAIDEN RANJI TITLE BEATING BOMBAY BY 2 RUNS Bombay: The exciting, tension-filled finals of the Ranji Trophy tournament, which Haryana won by a narrow margin of two runs could easily go down as one of the most magnificent and thrilling matches in the 57-year-old history of the prestigious National cricket championship. Scores: Haryana -- 522, 242 Bombay -- 410, 352 SOURCE: NEWS INDIA, MAY 17,1991 ============================== Edited by Surekha Reddy Gaddam