In The Name Of Allah, The Most Beneficent And Merciful
May 26th,
2002
Headlines:
·
2 killed as riots erupt in Godhra
again (Times Of India)
· One killed in
fresh violence in Godhra (Indo-Asian
news Service)
· Modi favours October elections (Times Of India)
·
Modi’s Idle minister busy in
rebel camp (The Telegraph)
· Two
die in fresh religious violence in Gujarat (The Khaleej Times)
NEWS HEADLINES
2
killed as riots erupt in Godhra again
RAJA BOSE
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ SATURDAY,
MAY 25, 2002 10:02:31 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=13942193
VADODARA: Two
people were killed in police firing on Friday night as
Godhra witnessed
its first communal clash since the attack on the ill-
fated Sabarmati
Express on February 27. Indefinite curfew has been
imposed in six
police posts of Godhra.
Pitched battle
ensued between members of two communities at Juhupur
area of Godhra
around 11 pm despite a night curfew as mobs pelted
stones and crude
bombs were hurled. Though the violence did not
spread to the
now-notorious Signal Falia and Polan Bazaar areas, it
took the police
over an hour to bring the situation under control.
However, a stray
attempt was made to disrupt the uneasy calm once
again as a woman
and her daughter were stabbed around 3 am.
"We are yet to
ascertain how the problem started. About 40 persons
have been arrested
and massive combing operations are on in the city
to flush out
illegal weapons. A number of crude bombs have been
recovered during
combing," said district collector Jayanti Ravi.
Police sources
indicated that there could be two reasons behind the
flare-up. "The
miscreants may have been waiting for an opportunity.
They chose to
strike now as the Army has left. Another reason could
be that they wanted
to create panic during Id which is being
celebrated on
Saturday," said a police official.
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
One
killed in fresh violence in Godhra
By
Indo-Asian News Service
Saturday
May 25, 7:52 PM
http://in.news.yahoo.com/020525/43/1ouw5.html
Ahmedabad, May 25
(IANS) Gujarat government's security
advisor K.P.S. Gill
was faced with renewed crisis as
he arrived in
Godhra Saturday evening to take stock of
the situation
following fresh violence that left one
person dead.
Gill was scheduled
to meet senior police officers and
the district
collector to assess the atmosphere in the
town where three
months of fragile peace was shattered
late Friday night
when crude bombs exploded in the
Juharpura and
Patelwadi neighbourhoods, bringing Hindu
and Muslim mobs out
on the streets.
In the ensuing
firing by the police to control the
crowds, one person
was killed and about 10 people were
injured. The police
said the mobs also fired at each
other.
The town has
remained under night curfew since then
but no incident has
been reported.
Gujarat convulsed
with its worst communal violence
following the
February 28 torching of 58 Hindu train
passengers at
Godhra. Though nearly 950 people, mostly
Muslims, perished
in the backlash across the state,
the town had
remained largely incident free since
then.
Godhra's
superintendent of police Raju Bhargav said
the situation was
brought under control by Friday
midnight
Copyright © 2001
IANS India Private Limited. All
rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2002
Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Modi
favours October elections
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2002 12:53:33 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=10854756
GANDHINAGAR: Chief
Minister Narendra Modi strongly favours holding
Gujarat assembly
elections in October, a close confidant of the CM
told Times News
Network here on Thursday.
The insider said
elections in October would help the BJP as Narmada-
based drinking
water would have reached Saurashtra, North Gujarat and
parts of Kutch by
then. ``It would mean that the BJP will be fighting
the polls not just
on the Hindutva card. Besides, if we have a good
monsoon, it will be
a bonus for us,'' he said.
Rather inflated
intelligence figures are being quoted by sources
close to the CM to
say that if the polls are held immediately, the
BJP would win 141
seats. References are also being made to a certain
opinion poll which
said that the BJP would get 121 of the 182
assembly seats if
the polls are held right away.
``And if we hold
the polls in October, there might be some erosion,
but according to
our estimate, it would not be sizable. Even then, we
will be able to win
up to 110 seats. It is not advisable to wait
longer,'' said a
senior minister.
Assembly elections
are otherwise due in February 2003, before the
term of the present
assembly ends 10 months from now.
It is not known how
state BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy, expected
here on May 30 to
attend the state BJP executive meeting, would react
to the CM's wish to
hold elections in October. Modi had mooted the
idea of an early
poll during the thick of the riots but this was
turned down by the
Prime Minister.
But not all
ministers are sure the BJP will fight the elections under
Modi's leadership
and some are still speculating whether there would
be a change of
guard midstream to appease the NDA allies and also
ward off criticism
from other countries over the government's role in
the riots. They
sure want to fight polls as early as possible so that
the fires of
Hindutva unleashed during the riots remain alive to some
degree.
But the CM's camp
is happy that the issue of leadership has been
pushed to the
background as violence in the state has abated after
supercop K.P.S. Gill
arrived on the scene. And, war clouds have
shifted the focus
from Gujarat. Even liberals belonging to the Suresh
Mehta camp believe
that Modi is the best bet for the BJP to win the
elections.
The threat to Modi
comes from other quarters, mainly the Patel lobby,
which is getting
increasingly restive, as also an alienated state
party leadership
which has been complaining that the CM's style of
functioning is
highly autocratic. ``Under Keshubhai Patel, state BJP
president
Rajendrasinh Rana was silent as he was being given due
importance,"
said a source.
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
MODI’S
IDLE MINISTER BUSY IN REBEL CAMP
FROM BASANT
RAWAT
Ahmedabad, May 24:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/1020525/index.htm
The arrival of K.P.S. Gill has brought a
semblance of
normality to
Gujarat, but it has shovelled more fuel
into smouldering
dissidence within the Narendra Modi
government.
“Sidelined” home
minister Gordhan Zadhaphia has joined
the disgruntled
camp, which already had another
heavyweight,
minister of state for revenue Haren
Pandya. The revenue
minister had turned against the
chief minister
after losing the home minister’s slot.
Zadhaphia, a
loyalist of former chief minister
Keshubhai Patel and
nominee of VHP international
general secretary
Pravin Togadia, is fuming because he
feels that he has
been reduced to a “nominal”
minister.
Zadhaphia’s
discomfiture has grown so much that he has
reportedly asked
the BJP leadership to shift him to
some other
portfolio.
The simmering
discontent reached a boiling point when
the Centre deputed
Gill to the state. Despite his
high-profile
portfolio, Zadhaphia was kept in the dark
about Gill’s arrival.
Next, the home minister was not
consulted on
transfers of senior police officers, not
even those in
Ahmedabad, his constituency.
The perception in
state capital Gandhinagar is that
the powers of the
home minister are being exercised by
Gill and the chief
minister. Recently, when Modi
finalised his
two-day tour of the border areas of
Jamnagar and Kutch,
Zadhaphia was not informed.
BJP insiders cite
another reason for Zadhaphia’s
reluctance to
continue in his post. His roots go back
to the VHP, from
where he became a BJP general
secretary. He was
inducted into the ministry by Modi
at the VHP’s
insistence.
Zadhaphia now finds
himself in an awkward situation
with several VHP
workers being arrested on
riot-related
charges. The home minister is under
pressure to ease
the heat on the VHP workers but his
clout is limited
with most decisions being taken by
Gill.
Whenever leaders of
the VHP or the BJP call new police
chief R.K. Kaushik,
they are told to speak to “higher
authorities”.
While the chief minister
and his security adviser are
hogging the
limelight, dissidents in the BJP are
closing ranks. The
BJP leadership has taken note of
the spiralling
dissidence.
Even senior party
functionaries like Suryakant
Acharya, deputy
chairman of state planning commission,
admit in public
that several ministers and MLAs are
unhappy with Modi’s
autocratic style of functioning.
But Modi’s
supporters, a sizeable section, believe
that the chief
minister has strengthened the party,
which was fast
losing its base, and he should be
retained at any
cost.
Aware of the
ongoing campaign against him, Modi is
busy inaugurating
small projects and schemes,
converting them
into public meetings.
© 2002
The Telegraph. All rights reserved.
Ahmedabad
Sunday, May
26, 2002
http://www.khaleejtimes.co.ae/subcont.htm
AHMEDABAD - At least two people were killed in police firing after fresh Hindu-Muslim clashes in India's riot-torn western Gujarat state late on Friday, police said.
Seven people were injured
in the clashes, police said. The latest flare-up of religious violence
shattered nearly a fortnight of calm. An indefinite curfew wramilitary forces
deployed to prevent further violence in the town, where Hindus and Muslims
pelted stones at each other, superintendent of police Raju Bhargava told
Reuters.
A senior police official
said the violence broke out in Godhra town, some 150 km north-west of
Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city, after a crudely made bomb was exploded by
some people. More than 900 people, mostly Muslims, have died in reprisal
killings by Hindus after a Muslim mob firebombed a train in Godhra, burning
alive 59 Hindus in late February.
"One of the dead is
Muslim, while the second victim is yet to be identified. Both died in police
firing. The situation there is under control now," Bhargava said, adding
that 43 people were arrested for their role in the violence. Another senior
police official said: "The incident has shattered the myth that the state
has returned to normal. It only shows clashes could start between the two
communities without too much of a provocation."
More than 100,000 people,
mostly Muslims, who are still living in crowded and ramshackle relief camps,
have either no home or are too petrified to return to their homes fearing fresh
attacks by Muslims. Authorities have ordered the army, which was stationed in
Gujarat from early March, to return to their operational base in view of the
rising tension between arch rival neighbouring Pakistan. - Reuters
© 2002
Khaleej Times. All
rights reserved.