Om Mathur, an RSS pracharak drafted in the party for more than 25 years, has been made the BJP chief in Rajasthan since January this year.

There are reports that the Chief Minister neglected the organisation during the past five years, refusing to meet even her own ministers. And there is dissension, so how are you managing the cadre?
Such things happen only due to lack of communication. I came here in January this year and tried to remove the discrepancies. I organised regular meetings between the party organisation and the government. Ever since, all government decisions are being taken in consultation with the party.

How true are reports of Vasundhara Raje’s corruption?
They are absolutely false. Why didn’t the opposition raise these issues inside the Assembly during the past five years of BJP rule? Why are such things being raked up only during the past 20 days through newspaper advertisements? In any case, people living in glasshouses do not have a right to throw stones at others.

Vasundhara is also being accused of being too arrogant, even more arrogant than Narendra Modi. How do you explain that?
Every person has a distinct personality and working style. Those seeing her from a distance may call her arrogant, but those who know her closely know how sensitive and magnanimous she is. Vasundhara is a lady of action, vision and quick decisionmaking.

What impact would the BSP have in these elections?
Rajasthan has traditionally been a state with only two parties. There was never scope for a third party. Election results would bear me out on December 8....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Sun,sea and span

Inhaling the fresh ocean breeze while a cool subtle wind blew my hair away from my face, ignoring the 6 lanes of cars zipping by and the numerous diverse people walking and conversing by me, I was lost in my own world enjoying one of the beauties of California. Standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, bundled up with a light layer of clothing, I began my 2.2 mile walk across the bridge on one of my frequent visits to San Francisco (SF).

However, what made this trip unique was that I had decided to see SF from a tourist point of view, like I had in 1989, during my first visit.

The highlights of San Francisco-day-life are just as exciting and varied as the infamous SF nightlife. From a walk or drive down the world’s most crooked street, Lombard Street, to a cruise to Alcatraz Island, the infamous escape-proof prison meant for the most dangerous criminals until June 11, 1962, when two prisoners broke out and yet died while swimming in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay. Originally built and used as a lighthouse, the ‘Rock’ (as it is locally referred to) has now become a favourite tourist destination, for which daily ferry rides from Pier 33 take place every 30 minutes to allow visitors to experience the ocean and also give them a guided tour of the prison and its history. Alcatraz is known to have held famous prisoners such as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud and Alvin Karpis.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Abbas-hamas head-on again

The Palestinian Authority's central council has designated to appoint Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian president. It is largely a figurative office, as a Palestinian state is yet to be formed. The position has been vacant since Yasser Arafat's death in 2004.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas ­– who is facing a mounting challenge from Hamas to the authority of his rule – threatened that unless the Palestinian resistance group decides to reconcile with his Fatah movement, he is going to annouce fresh elections. Abbas threatened to issue a diktat early next year that will make both Presidential and Parliamentary polls mandatory. His term in office ends on 9 January. Hamas hurriedly discarded the bid, saying the thought itself was “unconstitutional".

“It's a symbol indicating the political problem that Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and his group are facing while he is going to lose his official position as the (president) of the Palestinian Authority,” said Mahmoud Zahar, a key political figure in Hamas......Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Who is Lt. Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit?

Well neither did it appear to anyone else until investigations of the Malegaon blasts after the arrest of Hindu activist, Pragya Singh, led the trail of the deadly explosions to Purohit and a retired Major, Ramesh Upadhaya, amongst others.

According to insiders in the army, Purohit was given the critical responsibility of raising 41 Rashtriya Rifles, a dedicated counter-terrorism force that operates out of Kupwara, in northern Kashmir. Kupwara remains one of the main points of infiltration of terrorists from across the Line of Control. His tenure in Jammu and Kashmir ended in January, 2005, while serving in the Awantipora-based 31-Counter Intelligence Unit of the MI. Well informed sources say that Purohit’s involvement in the cloak and dagger game dates back to his days in the crucial MI in a Kashmir valley defined by civil war conditions - days where for a military intelligence officer, it would often become very difficult to differentiate between foe and friend. Like all sensitive intelligence assignments, the job demanded establishing contacts with jehadis, a task considered vital for reading the rival’s mind. The purpose: to pick up and collate information and tactical intelligence.


According to the ATS, during one of the raids, the army seized 60 kg of RDX which, later Purohit informed his colleagues, had been dutifully dumped into the Jhelum river. In reality, it was smuggled into Maharashtra by the army officer and his accomplices and subsequently used in the explosions. Military sources told TSI that Purohit was later moved to Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh for pursuing a Chinese language course at the Army Education Corps College – his parent cadre - from where he was arrested by the ATS.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

It's not just America that is celebrating the historic Obama victory. The entire world is in raptures, reports Solana Larsen in this special despatch

Obama said he depended on the national citizen movement that made him President to end the devastating economic crisis the country suffered in the eight years under President George W Bush. "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America — I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there," he said amid cheers. This was indisputably one of the most hotly contested elections in US history. Voters stood in record-busting lines that snaked around city blocks, and dared to hope what had seemed impossible two years ago when a first-term African-American senator from Illinois announced that he was running for President.

The jubilation was equally unprecedented. On election-eve 28-year-old Indian blogger Aditi Nadkarni felt impelled to record, "I couldn't vote for Obama. But I wrote him." The young cancer researcher from India who lives in Rochester, Minnesota has been sharing her thoughts on the presidential elections on the South Asian group blog Desicritics.com. Here, she has recounted her personal experiences as an immigrant in the United States and raged against some supporters of John McCain for highlighting Barack Obama's middle name "Hussein" as a disqualifying trait. Indeed for weeks the campaign led by McCain and Palin had been attacking Obama for his alleged association with "a domestic terrorist" from the 1970s. And for some these false alarms actually worked — leading them to drum up wholly unwarranted fears about Obama's religion and ethnic heritage. Was Obama a Muslim? Was he an Arab! That was how it had gone!....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Urgent provisions needed to rescue the poor and destitute

Haris Gazdar, an economist associated with Collective for Social Science Research based in Karachi agrees that at least five per cent additional population has been pushed below the poverty line in recent months. He said it was high time that the government introduce an employment guarantee scheme on the lines provided by India to combat poverty. "In fact, the Pakistan People's Party manifesto has such a provision, but it has not been implemented as yet," he said. Also he added that the poorest sections of the populace should be provided social security and a cash support programme, while their children should be ensured food support at schools.

Bengali who has been the National Coordinator Benazir Income SupportProgram (BISP) and Member National Finance Commission, believes the extent of economic crisis in Pakistan today is structural. He points out that it was in the making for 30 years but was aggravated during the last eight years. "Without the policies followed in the last eight years, we would have lasted a few more years but we were heading for a doom," he told The News on November 2.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Revive economy: key challenge for the new PM elect

IIPM Publication
At a time when the global financial meltdown has had a dreadful impact on a host of countries, to which the New Zealand and her 4.2 million denizens are no exception, the key challenges before Key remain: slump in the housing prices, 25 per cent drop in currency’s value, 33 per cent fall in the stock markets, and above all, the worst recession in almost a decade due to which the $130 billion New Zealand economy contracted in the first half of 2008. In fact, the economic health of the country is so bad that its central bank has already slashed the interest rates by 1.75 percentage points since July.

To address all these challenges and unemployment in the country, which is at a five-year high, John Key has already proposed to cut income taxes and redirect spending to roads and a high-speed Internet network to help create jobs. He also has plans to instruct the head of various departments to undertake a line-by-line review of their spending so that money can be saved. Moreover, Key is even targeting to attend Asia Pacific Economic Forum in Peru to get external help. But until then, the trader-turned-politician will have to go through tough times to manage the country. ....Continue

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The Sunday Indian