Blood Cry Deepens with War Against Black Untouchables Escalates. Maoists Ready for Talks. Resistance Heroine Engaged in Political Mathematics!

Troubled galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 263

Palash Biswas

Maoist violence part of "wider gameplan", says CPI(M)

Press Trust of India - ‎17 minutes ago‎

New Delhi, Jun 20 (PTI)
Condemning the Maoist violence against the Left cadre, Communist Party
of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Saturday said these attacks were part of a
"wider gameplan by powerful vested interests" to destroy the party in
its bastion of ...

Paramilitary trooper dies in Lalgarh of heat stroke Hindu

Lalgarh Maoists ready for talks, asks Govt to suspend ops Indian Express

Times of India - Livemint - HardNews Magazine
- Wiki

Mamata calls Buddhadeb 'a bigger Maoist', threatens stir

Tags:

Kolkata

Buzz up!vote now

_{(Source: IANS)}
^{Published: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 at 20:45 IST}

F Prev Next L

Kolkata:
West Bengal's principal opposition party Trinamool Congress chief
Mamata Banerjee Saturday said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
"is a bigger Maoist" and threatened a stir if allegations that her
party had links with leftwing rebels were not withdrawn.

"We will wait for 48 hours. If nothing happens within that time, then
we will hit the streets," Banerjee told mediapersons at her Kalighat
residence.

"We don't support Maoists. If you search the chief minister's house,
you will get Maoist literature. He is a bigger Maoist," the Trinamool
chief said.

Banerjee also demanded Bhattacharjee's resignation for the atrocities
committed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres in
various parts of the state.

"This chief minister should be sacked. He is wholly responsible for all
the atrocities. He is the lead actor of all the atrocities across
Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, Mangalkot and Keshpur," Banerjee said.

The railway minister also questioned why the state government took so much time to crack down on the Maoists.

"Why didn't you ban the Maoists in the state, when it is banned in
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh?" she asked pointedly.

"I am condemning the atrocities, whoever is doing this. But who created
the Maoists? Who has carried out atrocities against common people in
the name of Maoists? The people who are arrested in Lalgarh are not
Maoists," she thundered, denying her party's links with the rebels.

She alleged the CPI-M was trying to establish its sway in Lalgarh in
the name of the operation. Neither the central nor the state government
had apprised her party about the ongoing operation beforehand, she
added.

"They didn't tell us anything about the operation that is going on for
three days. We have not been informed by the state or the central
government. Law and order is a state subject. It is their joint
operation. I don't want to talk on this."

Asked about the Maoist leader Kishanji's comment that they participated
in the Singur and Nandigram along with Trinamool, Banerjee said: "There
were no Maoists during the Singur and Nandigram fights. I don't know
any Kishanji. It is a drama created by the CPI-M. They are very good at
creating new drama."

http://www.samaylive.com/news/mamata-calls-buddhadeb-a-bigger-maoist-threatens-stir/635632.html

SECURITY OPERATION GOES SLOW

Font Size

Maoists offer peace talks as troops enter Lalgarh

Agencies

Time Published on Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 10:24, Updated on Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 13:57 in India section

Tags Tags: Maoists, Lalgarh Maoists , New Delhi

Read Comment | Post Comment

RED ALERT: Policemen during an encounter with Maoists at Bhimpur, in west Midnapore.

What's your opinion

brought to you by

Left Front view profile

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Trinamool moves away from Maoists

20 Jun 2009, 0255 hrs IST,
Saugata Roy, TNN

KOLKATA:
Things are not the same for railway minister Mamata Banerjee when it comes to
realpolitik. Because, what was "fair" in Nandigram, is not

so for a party which
is now a part of the Union government. So when Maoist strategist Koteswar Rao
alias Kishanji urged upon Mamata to stop sending central forces against the
people of Lalgarh, Banerjee dissociated her party from the "politics of
individual killings".

Her colleague and Leader of the Opposition in
the West Bengal Assembly, Partha Chatterjee, dittoed his leader's view. "We are
against individual killings. We want peace to return in the area. The trouble
that broke out in Lalgarh is a manifestation of the public outrage against lack
of development in the Jangalmahal. People of this area had been neglected for
the past three decades, with a section of CPM leaders usurping the fruits of
whatever development trickled in. Our party wants the tribals to get their due
in terms of education, health and drinking water. We are keeping an eye on the
development and will not spare the government if the ordinary people faces
repression," Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee's concern over the plight of
the tribals in Jangalmahal is genuine, given the lack of development in the
forest areas of West Midnapore. The resentment had been growing since long with
Chunibala Hansda's Jharkhand Party winning a considerable number of panchayats
since the late Nineties. The Congress had an alliance with the Jharkhand Party
(Chunibala), but the Trinamool Congress was nowhere in the scene. The
Trinamool-BJP bike brigades once made an armed assault to gain political grounds
among the defiant tribals, but could not make much
headway.

Trinamool's honeymoon with the Maoists began in Nandigram
after the carnage in March 2007. Even if the Trinamool leaders would concede to
this marriage of convenience, a document of the CPI (Maoist) meeting held
between March 26 and April 1, 2008 reveals: "Some people are trying to project
the struggle in Nandigram as an unarmed mass movement. The fact is that the
movement would not have survived for 11 months without armed resistance by the
local militia. Some people are shying away from bringing this fact to the
media." Referring to the villagers driven out of Khejuri by the CPM brigade, the
report says: "Some of the Trinamool supporters gathered two dozens of weapons
from outside. Initially, the Trinamool led the Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh
Committee. But we took over the leadership in the villages since July. Since
then, we worked in tandem with Trinamool Congress and chalked out
programmes."

In fact, the Maoist strategist told about his leading
the armed resistance against the CPM marauders during the second attack in
Nandigram in 2008. "We were doing fine. But at the end, we fell short of bullets
and had to beat a retreat," Kishanji had told TOI in an
interview.

Sailing on the rising discontent in the Jangalmahal, the
Opposition, particularly the Trinamool leaders kept on fanning the violence from
outside and revelled in the Maoist strikes against the CPM cadres. At the same
time, whenever the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government hinted at the bonhomie
between the Maoists and the Trinamool, the party took a dig at the CM saying the
Maoists are offshoots of the CPM. "It is a battle between the haves and have
nots within the CPM. We have no role in it," the Leader of the Opposition said.
Instead, some leaders criticised chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of not
banning the outfit.

"Trinamool's complicity with the Maoists is an
open secret. The fact that the Trinamool Congress fought the government jointly
with the Trinamool is evident from the booklet the police seized from a house
they raided in Jadavpur where four students were living. This apart, Gorkha Jan
Mukti (GJM) leader Roshan Giri, PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato and a section of
Trinamool leaders from Kolkata had a joint meeting on February 29," said CPM
state committee member Rabin Deb.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Trinamool-moves-away-from-Maoists/articleshow/4678373.cms

Trinamul worries over risk to image

CHARU SUDAN KASTURI AND BARUN GHOSH

A leaflet dropped from a copter, appealing to Lalgarh villagers not to
fall prey to the Maoists’ provocations and to approach the local
administration with their grievances. (Amit Datta)

June 19:
The participation of central forces in the Lalgarh crackdown and an
open challenge from a Maoist leader for support has left the Trinamul
Congress worried that its carefully crafted pro-poor image may receive
a dent.

Any
allegation of human rights abuse against tribals by forces sent by the
Centre could push it on the back foot in Bengal, senior leaders said.

The
party is also concerned that its strategy to differentiate between the
Naxalites and ordinary tribals — Mamata Banerjee has asked the Bengal
government to ban the CPI (Maoist) — could backfire.

These
fears have arisen after a Maoist leader challenged Trinamul to choose
between supporting “the people” and allowing central forces to
par-ticipate in the Lalgarh assault. “If what Mamata Banerjee told
rallies during the Nandigram struggle is true, she should take a stand
and support the people,” Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao said yesterday.

Union
home minister P. Chidambaram today defended Trinamul, saying the
allegations against it or the Congress of supporting the Maoists were
“unfortunate” and incorrect. But his certificate may not be enough for
Trinamul to wriggle out of CPM allegations that it is implicitly
backing the Maoists.

During
its opposition to the Tatas in Singur and the battles with the state
government in Nandigram, the CPM had argued that “outsiders”, including
Maoists, were fomenting trouble. Trinamul had rejected the charge.

“Today,
if we argue, like the CPM did, that the Maoists are outsiders and do
not represent the concerns of the people, it could backfire on us,” a
Trinamul leader argued.

Lalgarh
leader Chhatradhar Mahato today asked: “Why is Mamata Banerjee not
being vocal about the use of central forces against us?”

Mamata
today called back all her MPs to Bengal and sent Nandigram leader Sisir
Adhikari to West Midnapore. She has assigned two jobs to the MPs: to
counter the campaign linking her party with the Maoists and to keep her
posted on whether “innocent tribals were being killed in Lalgarh.

Sources
said she would not leave the state for the time being and was meeting
officials at home for the railway budget to be presented on July 3.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090620/jsp/bengal/story_11136672.jsp

Tribals torch houses of CPI(M) leaders

Midnapore (PTI) Tribals on Saturday torched houses of two CPI(M) leaders at Baita area in West Midnapore district, police said.

The tribals under the People's
Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) set ablaze the house of
Ranjit Giri at around 12 noon. They then damaged the house of another
CPI(M) leader Atonu Giri located in the neighbourhood.

One person, identified as Haren Modi, was detained in this regard, police said.

Modi rejects amendments to Gujarat's anti-terror bill

New Delhi (PTI): Striking an aggressive
posture, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday rejected the
amendments suggested by the Centre to GUJCOC, saying it would amount to
taking away the "teeth and nails" of the legislation.

"The amendments suggested by the Centre
amount to taking away the teeth and nails of the Gujarat Control of
Organised Crime Act (GUJCOC)," he told reporters on the sidelines of
the BJP National Executive meeting here.

Mr. Modi said if necessary, the Gujarat government would take the GUCOC Bill back to state assembly.

He said Bill was passed by the assembly on the basis of guidelines from the Centre to combat organised crime.

The Union Cabinet on Friday returned
the controversial GUJCOC Bill passed by the Gujarat Assembly to the
state, saying that without three key amendments it could not be sent
for Presidential assent.

One of the amendments being suggested
to the state government is that the provision that confession before a
police officer will be admissible should be dropped.

Mr. Modi criticised the UPA government for "failing" to take a decision on the bill in its entire five-year term.

He contended that the GUJCOC was a
"xerox copy" of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act which
has been in force in the western state.

Congress says state anti-terror laws should be on UAPA pattern

New Delhi (PTI) The Congress on
Saturday defended the decision of the UPA government to return the
anti-terror law of the Gujarat government, GUJCOC, saying it was
necessary to strike a balance between a tough law and civil liberties.

"There has to be a balance between the
toughness of a law and the civil liberties of the people. It was felt
that there could be excesses and civil liberties could be curbed,"
party spokesman Manish Tewari told PTI.

The Union Cabinet had on Friday
returned the controversial GUJCOC Bill passed by the Gujarat Assembly
to the state, saying that without three key amendments it could not be
sent for Presidential assent.

One suggestion was to scrap the provision that confession before a police officer will be admissible before court.

Mr. Tewari said after the UPA
government amended the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, new
anti-terror acts in the states should be on the pattern of the UAPA
enacted last year after the Mumbai attacks.

"All state acts which come into existence after the enactment of the UAPA should conform to the ground norm," he added.

An Appeal to the International Community

from

the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP)

Raise their Voice against State repression in Lalgarh, West Bengal, India

The
CRPP hereby wish to draw the attention of the international community
to the plight of the adivasi people in one corner of the State of West
Bengal, India. That area is called Lalgarh--an integral part of Jangal
Mahal i.e., Forest area and situated in the West Medinipur district of West Bengal. The tribal people of India
had always been the victims of anti-people policies of the ruling
classes, be that during colonial times or during the period following
the 'transfer of power' to friendly hands in 1947. Forest
lands were being systematically cleared to make room for agricultural
lands for revenue earning. Vast stretches of land were converted into
reserved areas by evicting adivasis from their land and habitats on a
massive scale. In the recent times, the central and state governments
have initiated the land-grab movements so as to facilitate the loot and
plunder of the country's natural and mineral resources by the foreign
MNCs.

At
a place called Salboni within the same district and somewhat far from
Lalgarh, a Special Economic Zone was to be created by the big business
house of the Jindals on 5,000 acres of land. In November 2008,
immediately after the inauguration of the said SEZ project, the convoy
of the WB chief minister, that of one central minister
and of Jindal was attacked with landmines by the Maoist insurgents as a
result of which some policemen got injured. What followed was police
repression of the most brutal kind. Village houses were raided at dawn
when people were still asleep, people were arrested, women
were humiliated and beaten with rifle butts on all parts of the body
and the eyes and molested. One woman lost her left eye as a result of
police cruelty. One pregnant wife, whose husband was picked up, was
forcibly dragged out of her home and then thrown on the road and beaten
up. Schools students returning home after attending a village cultural
performance and a retired school and others were picked up and detained
illegally on mere suspicion of being involved in the mine explosion.
These atrocities were committed in Lalgarh and Binpur areas—far from
the site of the mine explosion.

The people of Lalgarh, however, refused to be cowed down by such terror. They formed the People's Committee Against
Police Atrocities and demanded public apology from the police and
compensation for the damage done to the people. They dug roads, felled
trees on the roads, formed village committees and this just struggle
for dignity and against state brutality has spread to
other parts of Jangal Mahal embracing as many as 1,100 villages, if not
more, in the three adjoining districts at present. The People's
Committee formed village committees, women's branches, youth branches
and have carried on development work in the form of the setting up of
health centres for free medical care of the poor. They raised demands
concerning initiated a total social boycott of the police, raised
blockades and check-posts preventing the entry of police and the CPI (M) goons.

After
the Lok Sabha elections held recently, and the formation of a
Congress-led government at the centre, the central government is all
set to send more para-military forces to help the 'left-front'
government suppress this just struggle of the people. The central and
state forces are being accompanied by CPI (M) led goons who had already set up Salwa Judum-type reactionary organizations to suppress
the Lalgarh people's, as they had done in Nandigram earlier. The
CPM-sponsored hermads/goons had already attacked many villages
controlled by the People's Committee, killed some members, wounded
others and burnt a large number of houses. They are bent upon making
genocides in the Jangal Mahal area with the backing of the state and
central forces. Very recently, when a cultural team from Jangal Mahal
went a place called Chakulia in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand to
mobilize people to participate in a women's rally scheduled to take
place on 5 June, many of them were arrested and molested in the police
station and sent to jail. When the committee members proceeded towards
the police station to seek release of the political prisoners, they
were prevented from doing so by a massive mobilization of state forces
and the use of tear-gas shells against the precisionists. The situation
is really very critical and needs immediate intervention by the
international community.

The
CRPP urges upon the international community to raise their voice
against the brutality done by the Indian ruling classes to the people
of Jangal Mahal to nip their just struggle in the bud by putting
pressure on the government of India
through various means. The struggle being waged by the people of
Lalgarh, nay of Jangal Mahal, is a just struggle and we urge upon you
to stand by its side to the best of your ability.

Gursharan Singh Amit Bhattacharyya SAR Geelani Rona Wilson

President Secretary General Vice-President Media Secretary

Postscript:

As
reports last came in, the central government has kept its 'Cobra'
force—a commando force of the notorious 'Greyhound' type--ready on the
Jharkhand-WB border. Helicopter surveys have been going on and the
state is preparing for a massive crackdown with the para-military
forces and the state police forces to crush this just struggle of the
people in pools of blood. Needless to state, they will be joined by the
notorious CPI(M)
goons. Nobody knows how many people will fall down dead in the battle
ahead, how many people will receive bullet wounds and get disabled for
life in the process, how many children would lose their parents, and
how many women would be humiliated in their just and heroic struggle
for justice and dignity.

TOO LATE, TOO SLOW

There
may be some irony in a government that proudly upholds the red flag
sending a police force to suppress a rebellion in a place called
Lalgarh or red fort. That expedition, from all accounts, is not meeting
with any remarkable success. After nearly 24 hours, not a single area
is free of insurgents. Clearly, the situation is quite outside the
control of the state government. The latter has only itself to blame
for its present sorry plight. Insurgency in Lalgarh has had a prolonged
gestation. With all the intelligence at its disposal, the government of
West Bengal, by design or otherwise, did nothing to abort the growth or
to address the issues that have allowed so-called Maoists to strike
roots in the most deprived parts of the state of West Bengal. The chief
minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, like Nero of old, has
sat back and has allowed Lalgarh to burn.

It
is impossible to comprehend this inactivity on the part of a chief
minister who belongs to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Mr
Bhattacharjee’s loyalty to his party and to communism is above
question. It would not be unfair to him and to the CPI(M) to suggest
that his role models are those who occupy a hallowed place in the
pantheon of international communism — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Josef
Stalin and Mao Zedong. The records of these ‘heroes’ in suppressing
rebellion should be instructive reading for Mr Bhattacharjee — not that
he is unaware of this history. To cite a few instances. Lenin had no
hesitation in ordering the troops in 1921 to attack the rebellious
Kronstadt sailors who at one time had been the most steadfast
supporters of the Bolsheviks. Stalin, during the great terror of
1937-38, liquidated some two million people; he also had Leon Trotsky,
his great rival and critic, pursued across continents to have him
eliminated in Mexico. Mao’s use of violence during the Cultural
Revolution in China and at other times has become part of revolutionary
lore. Mr Bhattacharjee is a claimant to a rich legacy. That he
hesitates and procrastinates has more to do with lack of courage and
political will than with pangs of conscience. Even his predecessor in
West Bengal did not hesitate to kill thousands in Marichjhampi. Mr
Bhattacharjee rather enjoys the mantle of governance but without the
attendant responsibilities. Hence the bizarre paradox of a communist
leader behaving like a bleeding-heart liberal.

The
problem is that not even a liberal head of government can afford to
dawdle in the face of an insurgency. It is imperative on the part of a
government to establish its authority over the territory under its
jurisdiction. The quicker it does so, the more effective is its
authority. The government has allowed the situation to grow into
alarming proportions instead of curbing it when it was small. Having
begun the counter-attack, belatedly, it should not drag its feet. If
necessary it should take the help of the army.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090620/jsp/opinion/story_11133705.jsp

‘Civic society’ dons statement armour again

OUR BUREAU

June 19: The
Lalgarh violence has divided Left academics and commentators 1,500km
away in Delhi, one group criticising the Maoists for murdering CPM
activists and the other opposing the government operation to recapture
the territory.

In
Bengal too, a group of academics and artists who had protested against
the Left after Nandigram have appealed to both sides to avoid violence
and offered to help “create an environment of peaceful talks at the
preliminary stage”.

In
Delhi, historians Sumit and Tanika Sarkar and columnists Achin Vanaik,
Sumit Chakravartty and Praful Bidwai today issued a statement calling
the security forces’ offensive in Lalgarh “unacceptable”.

“We
are profoundly disturbed by the massive central and state armed police
operation in Lalgarh-Jangalmahal in West Bengal.… The operation is
taking an unacceptable toll of civilian life and safety,” their
statement says.

Yesterday,
another set of Left-leaning academics had demanded the Centre offer
“full and effective support to the state government in tackling the
situation”.

This
group includes historian Irfan Habib, economists Prabhat and Utsa
Patnaik and Jayati Ghose, author Githa Hariharan, painter Shamshad
Hussain and theatre artiste M.K. Raina.

They
have echoed the CPM allegation that state Opposition parties are
supporting the Maoists and voiced concern at the “organised” post-poll
attacks on CPM supporters.

The
other camp has also condemned Maoist violence but argued that the
police-paramilitary offensive is ill-conceived. “This was launched
without exploring a negotiated settlement of genuine popular grievances
and by blurring the crucial distinction between violent Maoists and
peace-minded civilians,” its statement says.

This group had criticised the Bengal government also over the Nandigram violence in 2007.

The split among Delhi “intellectuals” over Lalgarh mirrors a similar division in Bengal after Nandigram, when one group of buddhijibis — academics,
writers and artists, mostly with Left sympathies — had for the first
time organised an anti-CPM march through Calcutta.

The CPM had replied with a march by scholars and artists supporting it, who came to be mockingly known as buddhajibis — a play on chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s name.

Bengal’s buddhijibis today
appealed to the Centre and the state “not to unleash brute force” in
Lalgarh, and to the “organisers and participants of this movement… to
eschew violence at all cost”.

“In
spite of the rationality and ethics behind the mass uprising… wanton
acts of violence committed under grave provocation would detract (from)
the moral foundation of this popular and legitimate movement,” the
Civic Society of West Bengal said.

The
statement was issued on behalf of Mahasweta Devi, Tarun Sanyal,
Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, Sunanda Sanyal, Shuvaprasanna, Jogen
Chowdhury, Goutam Ghose, Joy Goswami, Samir Aich, Shipra Bhattacharya,
Amiya Chowdhury, Samar Bagchi, Kalyan Rudra, Chaitali Dutta, Bhaskar
Gupta, Ashokendu Sengupta, Anup Bandyopadhyay, Sujoy Basu and others.

They
warned that a “bloodbath” may impact the whole of central India’s
tribal belt and cause “a general tribal uprising comparable with the
Santhal rebellion of 1856-58.”

Painter Shuvaprasanna told The Telegraph:
“The Left won in Lalgarh which means they are important there; they
shouldn’t exploit the police and army to work things to their
advantage.”

Playwright
Bratya Basu blamed the state, saying the tribals “have lived even
without food” and wondering “where the money for their development gets
channelled”.

Theatre
director Dolly Basu, not formally with the Civic Society, said: “We
need to look at what has driven the Maoists to do this. Just dialogue
would not help now; any talk has to be backed up with concrete
solutions (to) the villagers’ problems.”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090620/jsp/bengal/story_11136375.jsp

Top 10 challenges for India to achieve 2050 potential
Comment Mail to friend ECONOMICTIMES.COM Various studies have shown that India could be 40 times bigger by 2050. To achieve this potential, however, the nation needs to implement many changes. In one of its latest papers, Goldman Sachs outlines ten crucial steps that India must take in order to achieve its full potential. “In our latest annual update to our Growth Environment Scores (GES), India scores below the other three BRIC nations, and is currently ranked 110 out of a set of 181 countries assigned GES scores. If India were able to undertake the necessary reforms, it could raise its growth potential by as much as 2.8% per annum, placing it in a very strong position to deliver the impressive growth we outlined,” it says. Here are the 10 things for India, as outlined by Goldman Sachs, to achieve its 2050 potential: Next >>

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4666960.cms

Lalgarh operation: First hand report

20 Jun 2009, 1750 hrs IST, Tamal Sengupta,
ET Bureau

PINDRAKHALI:
Maoists drew first blood, triggering a landmine blast at Pirakata market around
8.30 pm on Friday evening in which the Domkal

More Pictures

sub-divisional police
officer’s (SDPO) jeep was blown off and three police personnel got
critically injured. Throughout the day, Maoists and their sympathisers kept the
huge security presence in the area guessing about what their next move might be.
So successful were they in their plans, that security personnel remained camped
at Bhimpur throughout the day with Lalgarh lying just about 10 kms ahead.

Around 10 pm, Maoists blasted
a culvert at Pindrakhali, between Pirakata and Bhimpur and the very spot where
Team ET along with about 30 media personnel got stranded in a cross-fire earlier
in the afternoon. At 10.30 pm, the Maoists were reported to have opened fire
with some medium artillery weapons on Lalgarh police station, where a number of
policemen have been kept under seige for a few weeks
now.

This is supposed to be a
crack army type operation. And yet, it was inexplicable why security forces
under the command of Praveen Kumar, DIG Midnapore Range, and Manoj Varma, SP,
West Midnapore remained glued to Bhimpur, giving Maoists some vital time to
recoup. No information was passed on to media, but it was pretty clear that the
security field command wasn’t too sure about engaging trained Maoist
guerillas with sophisticated weaponry in the 6 kms of dense forest, known
locally as Jhikita jungles, that lay between Bhimpur and
Lalgarh.

What was even more
ironical was the fact that after progressing to Bhimpur from Pirakata on
Thursday at a rapid pace, the security forces did not quite think of keeping the
stretch they had already traversed, properly sanitised. This turned out to be a
monumental blunder, because Maoists and their sympathisers re-grouped at the
security forces’ rear and threatened to cut off the line of retreat. It
was a very clever move on part of the Maoists, but it perhaps should have been
anticipated nonetheless.

What
happened therefore was pretty alarming even for the media. Since the road from
Pirakata to Bhimpur lay unattended, resistance groups found ample time to dig up
the stretch at various points and plant landmines. Hearing about this, a section
of forces from Bhimpur rushed back just after noon towards Pirakata to assess
the damage, followed by media.

At Pirakhuli and Pindrakhali,
they met with a hail of bullets from resistance groups, who lay low among the
grass on either side of the road or among the line of trees just beyond, sniping
at the security personnel who were on the main road and therefore quite easy
targets. The security forces fired back, but largely at an unseen enemy which
had the advantage of knowing the terrain so well that they could afford to stay
largely out of sight and yet do the
damage.

As bullets flew thick
and fast, the media team got trapped and were chased by a section of the state
police, which suddenly got belligerent and started targetting anyone with a
camera. Team ET, along with others of the media, were forced by security forces
around 3 pm to sit huddled on the open fields close to Kuldiha Primary School at
Pindrakali, some 6 kms from Pirakata.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/Lalgarh-operation-First-hand-report/articleshow/4680636.cms

Dealing with Lalgarh

20 Jun 2009, 0052 hrs IST,
ET Bureau

ith
the state police and central forces starting the operation against Maoists in
Lalgarh in West Bengal, the first and most immediate priority

now must be to
ensure as low a loss of life and property as possible. With some estimates
putting the number of armed Maoists in the hundreds, hiding amidst a rural
population of around 40,000, the state and Centre have a real task at hand to
avoid a potential carnage.

That said, it is indeed ironic that one
of the main problems in the area, that of the state having retreated and
abdicated its responsibility, will now be compounded by the state now
intervening by using force. Many areas in the west Midnapore region, having been
excluded from the patronage network that defines the CPI(M) regime, were simply
left out of the developmental ambit.

Add to that events like the
harsh police crackdown after last year’s assassination attempt on chief
minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and an already bad situation took a turn for
the worse as Lalgarh’s tribals responded by launching an agitation. To
that end, the core question isn’t whether the Police Santrosh Birodhi
Janashadharaner Committee or the People’s Committee against Police
Atrocities is led, infiltrated or supported by Maoists.

The
question, rather, is whether the state, per se, can correct its skewed,
non-inclusive developmental vision which leaves out entire sections of society.
The Maoists, as they have in Lalgarh, will simply step in where the state
retreats, instigating the idea among the dispossessed that the state just
can’t work. Fighting this extremism, clearly, is simply not a question of
restoring law and order alone.

On another level, current events also
mark a high point in West Bengal’s culture of savage political violence.
Deployed by various groups, including the Left, the methods are now being used
by the likes of the Trinamool. But two wrongs hardly make a right. The spate of
attacks on CPI(M) members, must, therefore be condemned and stopped.

The Centre, on its part, seemed to have an initial reaction of
looking the other way when things took a turn for the worse in Lalgarh. Given
the challenge it symbolises, Lalgarh needs to be dealt with carefully, at
multiple levels; beyond restoring law and order.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Dealing-with-Lalgarh/articleshow/4678302.cms

Maoist violence

IANS

Lalgarh: Maoists hold out against forces

2009-06-20 01:01:00
Last Updated: 2009-06-20 01:14:33

Most Read

Images: Battleground Bengal

Shiney Ahuja's 'Maid'en trial

STREE: Macau's spicy lady

Wish Rahul Gandhi on his bâ€™day!

Women fall for looks, not cars!

Lalgarh: Maoist
rebels put up stiff resistance to the advancing security forces in
Lalgarh, carrying out surprise attacks and engaging them in heavy
gunbattles on the second day of a massive operation launched by the
West Bengal government to free the area of the leftwing radicals.

Two security personnel were injured in a landmine blast.

The state
government used surveillance helicopters to watch over rebel movement
in the area and also air-dropped leaflets written in Bengali and the
tribal Alchiki script, asking people of Lalgarh not to fall into the
Maoists' trap to use women and children as human shields.

A
landmine blast occurred in the evening at Pirakata bazaar, an area
reclaimed by the forces from the rebels Thursday. Two policemen in a
vehicle that hit the landmine were injured. "Both suffered splinter
injuries in the low-intensity blast," an official said.

COBRA team to move in after villagers' evacuation

After
a relatively easy day on Thursday, the central and state security
personnel who had set up camp near West Midnapore district's Jhitka
jungle - believed to be a Maoist den - were somewhat taken aback when
the Maoists rushed in from the paddy fields to an area where the forces
had halted on Thursday night and started firing.

As
the firing began, the forces immediately started retracing their steps
for a couple of kilometres, to Pirrhakhuli - where they were attacked
by another group of well-armed Maoists, accompanied by about 100
members of their associate People's Committee Against Police Atrocities
(PCAPA). Attacked from the rear, the police seemed trapped, as the
Jhitka jungle is also believed to be heavily mined.

The
rebels fired from the paddy fields, and some nearby houses for about an
hour before fleeing, said Inspector General of state police (Law and
Order) Raj Kanojia. "It was long range fire. I have not received any
report of casualties," he said.

Seven arrests were made from Goaltor in the same district, Kanojia said.

Some journalists saw Maoists planting mines at Koima, an area reclaimed by the security forces on Thursday night.

The
security forces have been advancing from four directions towards
Lalgarh, 200 km from Kolkata, where the Maoist guerrillas have been
active in organising a tribal movement alongside the tribal body PCAPA.

Securing Lalgarh could take time: Chidambaram

Apart
from the main contingent at Bhimpur, three other teams are moving from
Jhargam and Goaltor in West Midnapore district and Sarenga in Bankura.

The group which started from Sarenga police station, faced a stiff challenge at Kargil
More of Pingboni, where the Maoists tried to obstruct them by digging
roads, burning a road bridge and felling a large number of trees.

The
security forces also had to contend with a human wall at Sarenga and
used tear gas and batons to break the wall of protestors.

The Sarenga offensive was halted for the day and the forces are waiting for reinforcements.

In
Kolkata, Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen claimed that some top Maoists
leaders including their politburo member Kishanjee alias K Koteshwar
Rao may have fled Lalgarh.

Sen also told reporters that the state government had asked the centre for more forces.

IAF choppers drop leaflets over Lalgar h

The
top bureaucrat, briefing mediapersons after day-long meetings of a core
group set up to monitor the security operations, parried a question on
how long the operation will continue, saying "We have not set any
target".

In New Delhi,
Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the West Bengal government should
ban the Left extremist outfit, Communist Party of India-Maoist, which
has declared the state's Lalgarh area a 'liberated zone'.

"No
one can understand why the Communist Party of India-Maoist has not been
banned (by West Bengal)," he told reporters after a cabinet meeting
chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"We
are dealing with a situation in which a militant organisation is
challenging the writ of the civil administration. We are engaged in an
operation to re-establish the civil authority," Chidambaram maintained.

Lalgarh has been on the
boil since last November when a landmine exploded on the route of the
convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then central
ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada.

Buddhadeb offers talks with Lalgarh tribals

Complaining
of police atrocities after the blast, the angry tribals launched an
agitation virtually cutting off the area from the rest of the district.

During
the last few days, the agitators have torched CPI-M offices, driven
away the party's supporters and forced the police to leave, thereby
establishing a virtual free zone.

Maoists
have been active in the three western districts of the state - West
Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. They also backed the
Trinamool-sponsored movement against the state government's bid to
establish a chemical hub at Nandigram in East Midnapore district.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?a=jgubbjcabjf&title=_Maoists_hold_out_against_forces_on_day_2_of_Lalgarh_operation&?vsv=TopHP1

Weak monsoon casts shadow over D-Street

20 Jun 2009, 1339 hrs IST, Partha Sinha,
TNN

MUMBAI:
A clear blue sky in June is slowly emerging to be a cause of concern for Dalal
Street. A number of broking houses have already put their

Pick stocks on fundamentals
Fiscal & revenue deficit
Short-term plans are safe bets
Five facts on stock falls
Volatility: Bet on big guns

investors on alert: We
could expect weakness in the market and additional pain on the fiscal front in
case the monsoon is substantially below normal, which in turn could affect
agricultural output.

And what
is adding to these concerns is the chance of El Nino, a global weather-related
phenomenon that usually leads to a draught-like situation in India. So at this
point the question that a section of the market players is asking:
‘‘ Can the Street discount the drizzles and support the threemonth
old bull run?''

Going by the
latest monsoon update received from the India Meteorological Department (Met),
till June 17, the amount of rainfall that the whole country received was about
54% less than the 10-year average for the corresponding period. Also, for the
week ended June 17, of the 36 Met divisions in India, up to 28 received
deficient or scanty rainfall during the period, a research note from Emkay
Global Financial said.

Although earlier this week top
Met officials maintained that India will receive about 96% of the long-term
average rainfall, not many are willing to take a bet on the same. ‘‘
The delay in the onset of the monsoon and rising El Nino risks has revived
memories of the market selloff during the drought of 2002,'' a report from CLSA,
one of the largest foreign brokerages in India, wrote on Thursday.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Weak-monsoon-casts-shadow-over-D-Street-/articleshow/4679887.cms

Premium cars to tank up on cheap fuel 20 Jun 2009, 0037 hrs IST, Chanchal Pal Chauhan, ET Bureau

NEW
DELHI: Soon, there will be a number of premium cars running on cheaper gas fuels
like CNG and LPG, which slashes the running cost of these

Fiat Grande Punto | Maruti Ritz | Hyundai i20

vehicles by half.
Toyota Corolla, Maruti SX4, Skoda Octavia and General Motors’ Chevrolet
Aveo are set to come in compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) versions soon, according to company executives.

Until now, such
alternative fuel options were mostly restricted to compact cars like Maruti 800,
GM Spark, Hyundai Santro and i10, all driving good sales.

CNG and
LPG offer almost 50% lower running cost over conventional fossil fuels like
petrol and diesel. With running costs becoming a big concern for customers,
carmakers are now looking to extend the benefit of cheaper and greener fuel to
mid-size cars. “We are working with different fuel options to lower
emissions without compromising power of the vehicle,” said IV Rao, who
heads the research and development division of Maruti Suzuki.

Skoda
Auto, which has launched Octavia on natural gas in Spain and other European
markets, is considering the gas-based fuel options for India. The company is
keen to bring into India the Greenline technology that uses 10% less fuel than
the other traditional 1.9 TDI models due to a few subtle eco-tweaks of the
engine, a Skoda Auto official said.

Toyota Kirloskar, which recently
launched the CNG version of Innova, is now testing the natural gas-powered
Corolla, a company executive said. GM, which launched Optra CNG back in 2006, is
now considering more eco-friendly vehicles running on bio-diesel besides the CNG
version of Aveo.

Also Read

→ Audi launches three variants of A4 in the Indian market

→ Fiat drives in another Grande compact car

→ Small car likely in two to three years: Honda Siel Cars

→ GM India bets big on new mini car

“We have drawn a full-fledged plan to reap the benefits of
eco-friendly and efficient gas-based fuels for our cars,” said P Balendra,
GM’s vice-president for corporate affairs. “We are expanding our
portfolio in bio-diesel fuel too.” These carmakers are encouraged by the
success of Hyundai Accent’s CNG version. “Accent revived after the
gas variant was launched and saw sales zooming in cities like Delhi, Agra,
Mumbai and Ahmedabad where CNG is available,” a senior executive of
Hyundai Motor India told ET.

The move is part of the carmakers’ bid
to revive the sale of mid-sized cars, which dropped 3% year-on-year to 36,410
cars during April and May. Besides gas-based fuel technology, carmakers have
also come together to develop alternative fuel hybrid vehicles for the upcoming
Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

India’s largest auto company Tata
Motors, top carmaker Maruti Suzuki and utility vehicle maker Mahindra &
Mahindra are working together to develop a hybrid technology for their vehicles
under the National Hybrid Propulsion Programme of the government.

The trio will venture into developing lithium-ion batteries,
electric vehicle technologies and other necessary

components required for
launching hybrid vehicles. While M&M will showcase its Scorpio hybrid during
the Commonwealth Games, Tata Motors will come up with its already developed
concepts of Indica Vista EV and the Indica EV electrical vehicles.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Now-premium-cars-set-to-become-more-affordable/articleshow/4678278.cms


After virtual pool, it’s salary cuts for Satyamites With the co agreeing to credit only basic salary, the pressure of EMIs is mounting on Satyam staff as basic pay is not enough to cover EMI. Satyam calls back 380 staff from virtual pool According to sources, nearly, 380 employees, who were on the virtual pool, were asked to join back the company. Satyam to put 10,000 staff on 'virtual pool' The Satyam Computers board that met on Thursday in Hyderabad cleared the proposal for implementing the virtual pool programme to send close to 10,000 employees on a sabbatical. Govt to put Satyam case on fast track Serious Fraud Investigation Office has been asked to put the prosecution on fast track, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid said. Court extends Raju's remand by 14 days The remand of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and seven others accused in the multi-crore accounting fraud in the IT firm was further extended by 14 days by a local court here on Wednesday. Satyam Computers still losing clients Two US-based clients of Satyam along with another banking sector client have terminated their contracts with the scam-hit IT firm. SFIO to soon initiate prosecution in Satyam case The government is likely to soon give its nod to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) for initiating prosecution against the persons involved in the Rs 7,800 crore-accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services. SEBI chief for quick punishment for Satyam fraudsters Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman C B Bhave on Thursday said punishment should be quick for the perpetrators of fraud at IT firm Satyam Computer. Court rejects bail pleas of Raju brothers A local court here on Wednesday dismissed the bail pleas of Satyam Computer's founder Chairman B Ramalinga Raju, his brother and former MD Rama Raju and former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas. Four top officials leaving Satyam Four top guns are on their way out of the scam-hit IT major Satyam and buzz is that many senior functionaries of the firm will soon follow suit. Decoding the Satyam buy Satyam, Upaid get chance to try out-of-court settlement Satyam Computer Services and UK-based mobile solutions company Upaid have been offered a chance to settle their dispute out-of-court. Rajus, Srinivas move higher court for bail The court will hear arguments on the bail applications of Ramalinga Raju and Vadlamani tomorrow. Consumer forum rejects plea on compensation in Satyam case Consumer forum refused to hear Satyam investors' petition seeking a compensation of Rs 4,987.5 cr, saying it is not equipped to deal with such cases. Satyam investors seek Rs 5000 cr compensation over share crash Around three lakh Satyam shareholders lost their money when Satyam shares crashed to Rs 11.50 in January 2009. Satyam's rise, fall and resurrection Satyam no more a worthy rival of Infosys! Scam-hit Satyam Computer seems to have lost its place among the competitors of its rival IT service provider Infosys.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickieslist/3981495.cms

Air India seeks employees' help in 'fight for survival'

20 Jun 2009, 1938 hrs IST,
IANS
MUMBAI:
A day after Air India asked its top executives to forgo their salary for July,
the chairman and managing director of the state-run

Top 15 global airlines
Top performing airports
Domestic carriers flying abroad
New departure terminal at IGI Airport

carrier, Arvind Jadhav,
Saturday appealed to all staff to "rise up to the challenge" and help the
airline in its "fight for survival".

In a letter to each employee,
Jadhav has said that in view of the global crisis, all airlines have been
experiencing low fares, poor load factors, drop in premium travel, decline in
cargo load and low yields.

Despite the hardships in the
industry, Air india has not taken any harsh steps like pay cuts and job cuts so
far, Jadhav pointed out.

"Employees have been receiving
their wages, salaries every month even when people in the industry have lost
jobs or seen emoluments take a dip. We should consider ourselves fortunate that
we have been insulated from the adverse impact of the economic meltdown so far,"
Jadhav said.

His letter comes
at a time when the employees of the carrier have called for an indefinite strike
from July 1 if the management delays their salaries.

The company, struggling to
cope with a cash crunch, had earlier announced that it will defer its employees'
salaries of June by two weeks. It has also asked the top executives above
general manager level to forego their compensation for July.

"As loans from financial
institutions at high interest rates cannot be availed of endlessly to meet
working capital expenditure, the time has come for us to face the moment of
truth. This is an hour of crisis for us all and it is a fight for survival,"
Jadhav said.

The company has
already requested the government to infuse funds by way of equity and soft loans
and is hopeful that it would come soon, he added.

Jadhav also warned of the
impact of suggestions for disinvestment or privatisation of Air India.

He urged each and every
employee to "rise up to the challenge" and demonstrate their ability to overcome
the crisis and emerge with flying colours.

Jadhav said the management was
in dialogue with employees' unions to apprise them of the difficult financial
situation confronting the aviation industry and the airline in
particular.

Obama "ready to fight" for new financial agency

20 Jun 2009, 1617 hrs IST,
REUTERS
ASHINGTON:
President Barack Obama said on Saturday he is "ready to fight" for a tough new
agency to protect consumers from risky loans and

other financial products and
lashed out at groups that might stand in the
way.

"These interests argue
against reform even as millions of people are facing the consequences of this
crisis in their own lives," Obama said in a weekly radio
address.

"These interests
defend business-as-usual even though we know that it was business-as-usual that
allowed this crisis to take
place."

Obama said opponents
were already "mobilizing" against his proposal earlier this week to create a new
Consumer Financial Protection Agency as part of the most sweeping set of
financial regulatory reforms since the
1930s.

The new agency, which
Congress would have to approve, would have the power to write rules and design
or ban financial products. It could also examine firms and impose fines and
other penalties on almost any institution that offers products such as home
loans or credit cards.

Critics
argue that the new agency would stifle financial product innovation, boost the
cost of regulatory compliance and cause prices for consumers to
rise.

"It's going to create
exactly the type of duplication, second-guessing and layering that we feared,"
David Hirschman, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital
Markets, said earlier this
week.

Obama said the proposed
agency was badly needed to help consumers make sense of complex financial
instruments and to keep loan companies
honest.

"Today, folks signing
up for a mortgage, student loan, or credit card face a bewildering array of
incomprehensible options. Companies compete not by offering better products, but
more complicated ones -- with more fine print and hidden terms," Obama
said.

"The American people sent
me to Washington to stand up for their interests. And while I'm not spoiling for
a fight, I'm ready for
one."

Senior lawmakers have
said they expect to pass financial reform regulation by the end of the
year.

Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner, at a Senate hearing on Thursday, faced the most opposition to
Obama's proposal to give the Federal Reserve new powers to police broad risks in
the economy.

Some lawmakers
believe the central bank failed to halt practices that led to the global
financial crisis.

Giving the
Federal Reserve more authority "is like a parent giving his son a bigger, faster
car right after he crashed the family station wagon," said Senate Banking
Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.


House rents up by around 25% in major cities The high cost of properties and slackening supply of houses have fuelled rentals in Delhi, say industry officials. DLF not to sell core assets as credit begins to flow DLF promoters had sold a 9.9% stake in the past month to raise Rs 3,980 crore, which has put the company in a comfortable position. Indian real estate back on the radar of NRIs and PIOs Global property investments are making a comeback, searching for Indian HNIs, who would be willing to buy property abroad. Property investment: Land or apartment Allotment of low-cost flats under JNNURM on the anvil With the elections over, the much-awaited allotment of low-cost flats constructed here under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for the poor is likely to kick off within the next two months. States, PEs queue up for Nano homes Tata Housing Development is in talks with various state govts for developing affordable housing projects. The houses are priced at around Rs 4 lakh. NRIs lift the spirits of realty sector Even after demand for flats up to Rs 30 lakh and 40 lakh and above really hit a new low, there are still ready buyers for independent houses. Investors warm up to realty, once again After a near 16-month hiatus, strategic investors are again warming up to real estate sector. NBCC flats to cost 30-50% lower than private developers NBCC has decided to offer flats at prices much below the current market prices offered by private developers. Affordable housing: The buzzword in realty Private Equity firms are intrested in investing in affordable housing projects ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh across India. It's a good time to buy property overseas Brokers claim realty prices in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, San Francisco and California have dropped by more than 40%. Land investment I Buying house? Quote price Taxman says DLF diverted funds, questions role of auditors The I-T authorities have slapped a tax liability of Rs 300-400 crore on realty leader DLF. UPA-2 breathes hope into realty The clear mandate for a second term to a more stable Manmohan Singh govt has roused the expectations of the realty sector. It's still dream home as rates hover near highs Latest data shows rise in prices softened in the second half of 2008, but they didn't really decline in Delhi & Mumbai. Land as investment I Buying house? Quote price Office rentals to fall 20% in 2009; realty to recover in 2010 Realty consultant Jones Lang LaSalle said office rentals in Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune are expected to decline between 30% and 40%. Tata group launches low-cost housing programme Tata Housing Development Co launched a low cost housing project under the banner 'Shubh Griha', offering property in the price band of Rs 3.9 lakh to Rs 6.7 lakh per unit across the country.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickieslist/4207320.cms


Will recession hit Warren Buffett lunch? Warren Buffett is again raising money for charity by auctioning a chance to dine with him, which last year fetched a record $2.11 mn. Warren Buffett attacks bank stress tests Buffett said the government is taking the wrong approach in assessing banks by ignoring differences in lenders' business models. I won't buy newspapers 'at any price' today: Warren Buffett Warren Buffett may have sagely advice on investment in any number of fields, but one area he says he won't touch these days is the newspaper industry. Ajit Jain among candidates to replace Buffett: Report India-born Ajit Jain could be in race to replace billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett as CEO of Berkshire. Buffett makes good, bad bets \| Buffett on succession Buffett makes good bets, bad bets Even the most famous investor Warren Buffett doesn't get everything right. Buffett on succession, acquisitions Berkshire Hathaway has been preparing succession plans for 78-year-old Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway at a glance Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate holding co whose core biz is insurance. Warren Buffett at a glance Warren Buffett is world's second-richest person, and most-revered US capitalist. US government doing the right things: Buffett Berkshire's Class A stock lost 32% in 2008, and Berkshire's book value - assets minus liabilities - declined 9.6%, to $70,530 per share. Moody's strips Berkshire Hathaway of top rating The cut by Moody's comes 4 weeks after Fitch stripped Berkshire of its top rating. Gainers: BSE ( A, B ), NSE \| Losers: BSE ( A, B ), NSE I Stocks 52 Wk: High, Low Buffett's favourite banker to leave Goldman Goldman in particular has seen several senior bankers decamp, including media banker Joseph Ravitch, who earlier announced plans to leave. The Buffett Way: Time for a Rethink? The value investing style championed by Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett often excels in bear markets, but not this time. Is the strategy still sound? Berkshire may lose "AAA" S&P rating In 2008 profit of Berkshire fell 62% and its net worth fell 9.6%, the worst year since Buffett took over in 1965. Buffett paid compensation of $491,000 in 2008 Berkshire said Buffett's 2008 salary was $100,000, the same amount he has taken for a quarter century. AIG asked Buffett for help before US rescue AIG was first bailed out by the Fed with a $85 bn credit line shortly after investment bank Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickieslist/4081661.cms

Analysis: Obama offers split verdict on economy

20 Jun 2009, 2003 hrs IST,
AGENCIES

WASHINGTON:
It's a difficult balancing act for President Barack Obama and his economic
policymakers.

Where some economists see "green shoots" of a recovery
others see only yellow weeds of continuing recession. It's hard to know for sure
whether things are getting better or worse with the US economy.

President Harry S Truman whimsically asked for a "one-handed
economist." He complained that "all my economists say, `on the one hand ... on
the other hand."'

That's pretty much the dilemma that Obama and his
policymakers now face.

With consumer spending accounting for more
than two-thirds of the US economy, Obama is mindful that reviving it depends a
lot on restoring confidence. So he's been trying to put the most positive spin
on any signs of improvement, as have leaders in other recession-wracked
countries.

"It's safe to say we have stepped back from the brink,
that there is some calm that didn't exist before," Obama said recently about
what already is the longest recession since World War II.

On the
other hand, there's a clear danger. Sound too cheery and people lose confidence
in your judgment, especially if their own eyes see a bleaker picture.

Ease up on government stimulus spending too soon and the recovery
could be snuffed out. Talk by some Group of Eight finance ministers about
stimulus exit strategies briefly spooked international stock markets. But keep
stimulus spending going too long and you end up with huge deficits and soaring
inflation.

Polls show people in the United States increasingly are
concerned about the government's record levels of debt, a sour legacy for future
generations.

So Obama has talked up and talked down the economy. At
the same time.

"Even as we've made progress, we know that the road
to prosperity remains long and it remains difficult," he told a Chicago audience
this past week as he promoted his health care overhaul. It's an effort that
Obama says will help the economy in the long run, but one that the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office says could top $1 trillion over 10 years.

The daily numbers don't help much. On the one hand, some statistics
suggest the recession's fury is easing. Not only are fewer jobs being lost, but
there are signs that stability is returning to housing and manufacturing. Even
with recent declines, stocks are up about 30 per cent from their March lows.

On the other hand, the economy is continuing to shed tens of
thousands of jobs a month and the unemployment rate may soon exceed 10 per cent.
Housing values still are falling. Consumers keep spending cautiously. Even
though 10 top banks won Treasury Department approval to repay $68 billion of
bailout money, hundreds of billions of dollars in bad debt clogs the balance
sheets of many banks. Gasoline prices are rising again.

Since the
recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6 million
jobs.

"We are still in a recession. The risks are still to the
downside. The coast isn't clear," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's
Economy.com.

While Zandi thinks the recession probably will end this
year, he sees an extended period of slow growth and continued high unemployment,
as do many economists.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Naxal veterans slam Lalgarh misadventure

19 Jun 2009, 0315 hrs IST, Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey , TNN

KOLKATA:
It's been just over three decades since the Naxalite uprising, but
old-timers haven't forgotten the heady whiff of revolution. So,
parallels
are being drawn with the Lalgarh movement just as the Maoists have
rattled the CPM government, the Naxalites, back in the '60s and '70s,
had put the Congress government in a fix. There are similarities in the
two operations.

But yesteryear Naxalites don't think so. In fact, they brand the Lalgarh offensive a "misadventure".

Many
feel the time was not suitable for an armed offensive. According to
them, it was the time for a democratic movement through which the
masses could have been mobilised and demands placed. As the Left
Front's losses in the Lok Sabha elections show, change is in the air.
Had the democratic movement failed to get a better deal for the
tribals, only then would an armed struggle be imperative.

At this stage, it would just see innocent lives sacrificed without managing to get a fair deal for the masses, they feel.

One
of the most well-known faces of the Naxalite movement, Kanu Sanyal,
felt that from the very beginning, the Lalgarh movement lacked the
character of a mass uprising. This is the main difference with the
Naxalite movement, which started off with farmers capturing land. The
struggle revolved around keeping the land away from the state or the
rich landowner. "Our agenda was fixed. We led the farmers from
the forefront and were ready to die. So many of us got caught and
killed, but it was for the cause of a revolution. But the Maoists are
egging on the tribals of Lalgarh from the rear. When the state
machinery strikes, they have their retreat route ready. Do you call
this a revolution?" Sanyal asked.

He still lives in
Naxalbari in Darjeeling district and has been keenly following the
developments in Lalgarh. "I had expected them to at least come up with
a charter of demands for the people. Instead, they have always played
on the emotions of the tribals by calling them a class. During the
Naxalite movement we just had two classes the rich and the poor we
didn't create such caste divides." All that the Maoists had done for
the tribals was create a small armed group that would fight police
while they themselves beat a retreat. The unarmed masses would be left
to die, he feared.

Another well-known Naxalite leader,
Purnendu Basu, feels the Maoists are not good strategists. "They are
using helpless tribals as bait to increase their influence. Several
Naxalite leaders like Santosh Rana, Pradip Banerjee and Aditya Kisku,
have been trying for the past year to visit them and start a dialogue.
It would have actually helped the Maoists as these three leaders had
led the struggle in the same zone in the 70s and could have shared
their experiences and seen that there were no excesses," Basu added.

Azizul
Haq is upset with the way in which the Maoist movement is progressing
in Lalgarh. "Listen to their leader Kishanji's interviews. He has
himself said that Maoists helped oust Trinamool from Keshpur while he
is now trying to oust CPM from Lalgarh. Are they hired goons or leaders
of a mass movement?" Haq asked.

He also questioned the
new-found friendship between Maoists and Trinamool. "How can a movement
like this find a friend in Trinamool that represents the remnants of
feudalism? A party that has a leader who was the publicity officer in
Voice of America against the Nicaragua struggle (Kabir Suman) will help
Maoists in their pro-people struggle?" Haq asked cynically.

He
felt that the state operation at Lalgarh is nothing but big drama,
which will help them escape. It might also see Maoist leaders take
refuge in Trinamool leaders' homes initially and establish themselves
elsewhere.

http://naxalwatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/naxal-veterans-slam-lalgarh.html

Naxals trigger twin blasts, force cops to redraw plan

20 Jun 2009, 0512 hrs IST,
Caesar Mondal & Jayanta Gupta, TNN

LALGARH: The battle that everyone
expected since the beginning of Lalgarh operation erupted just as the sun was
setting on Friday. Maoists fired

on central forces in Kuldiha — one of the
areas cleared by police the previous day.

Two hours later, an IED
blast hit the Domkal SDPO's car in Pirakata, critically injuring three
policemen. A culvert was blown up in Nimtala. And around 9pm, gunfire was heard
near Lalgarh police station. The Maoists have drawn first blood.

What
surprised police was that all the attacks occurred in areas that security forces
had swept through on Thursday. It was a classic case of an attacking army moving
faster than the generals expected. The forces covered 12 km on day 1, but found
their lines stretched thin. No force was deployed in the 7-km stretch between
Pirakata and Pirakhali, which had been taken over by security forces on
Thursday.

With the twin attacks, the Maoists have forced police to
redraw the battle plan, commit forces to new areas and redeploy units. The
guerrillas now aim to cut off forces advancing from Pirakata from those
stationed at Bhimpur. Roads have been dug up at various points, blocked with
trees and even mines are believed to have been laid.

Another
contingent of central forces has started moving from the Sarenga end (a forest
area between Goaltore and Ranibandh) towards the West Midnapore border. This
road leads to Lalgarh and is diagonally opposite the one from Pirakata along
which another contingent is moving towards Lalgarh. After Thursday's rapid-march
operation, security forces seemed to hold back a little on Friday. They started
advancing from Pirrakhali at 6am. After marching for about an hour, they came to
a halt at Bhimpur. Minesweepers and detectors were used to locate explosives.
But the operation was suddenly suspended and the forces moved into Bhimpur High
School where they stayed put for the next six
hours.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Naxals-trigger-twin-blasts-force-cops-to-redraw-plan/articleshow/4677815.cms

Mamata leading violence from behind, says Brinda

Special Correspondent

Photo: R.V. Moorthy

Voicing protest: CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat during a
demonstration in New Delhi on Thursday against Maoist attacks on CPI
(M) cadres in Lalgarh.

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday
accused the Trinamool Congress of leading an “unholy alliance” with the
Maoists in West Bengal to destabilise the Left Front government.

“The Trinamool Congress is trying to destabilise the pro-poor Left
government by unleashing terror in connivance with the Maoist forces in
parts of West Bengal,” Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said here.

Addressing party workers at a protest rally, she charged the
Trinamool chief with leading the violence from behind the scene. The
Maoists and those with the Trinamool were killing CPI(M) workers and
conspiring to disrupt the law and order situation in the State. She
said that so far 53 party workers had been killed in the attacks, and
accused that the main Opposition party was behind it.

In an editorial in the latest edition of party organ People’s Democracy,
the party said that unlike in Nandigram, where Maoists claimed they
were behind it all, this time it was openly acknowledged that the
violence unleashed in Lalgarh was by the Maoists and the Trinamool
Congress and the others were following their “leader.” “Clearly, the
objective here is to destabilise the elected State government through
Maoist violence.”

Stating that it was gross abuse of parliamentary democracy that
those who had taken oath under the Constitution to serve as Ministers
in the Central government, were themselves leading and participating in
the most “unconstitutional and illegal orgy of violence” resulting in
large-scale loss of human life and destruction of property.

“The Congress party heading the Central government far from being
uncomfortable is an accomplice in this gross violation of the Indian
Constitution,” the editorial noted and said that such a state of
anarchy and designed unleashing of violence could not be tolerated in
any civil society.

The party said the Central and State governments must act urgently
in coordination and in the interests of the country and its
constitutional scheme of things and immediately restore normality in
areas affected by violence.

Lalgarh shadow over politburo meet 20 Jun 2009, 0726 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW
DELHI: The Lalgarh situation has not spiralled out of control like the one in
Nandigram — this was the sub-text of the message West Bengal

Marxists
broadcasted on the sidelines of a crucial CPM politburo meeting on Friday.

The meeting saw the CPM’s West Bengal unit presenting a report
to the politburo on the Maoist rebellion in Lalgarh and the steps taken by the
state government so far. The meeting, called to review the causes for the
CPM’s poll reverses in the general elections, also discussed the
party’s electoral performance and the reasons the drubbing in both West
Bengal and Kerala. Though there was a general discussion on factionalism in
Kerala caused by the V S Achuthanandan-Pinarayi Vijayan rivalry, ways to resolve
the explosive situation in the Kerala unit in the aftermath of state secretary
Vijayan being charged in SNC Lavalin scam is likely to be taken up in a separate
another PB meeting, sources indicated.

With CPM charging its rivals,
the Trinamool Congress (and Congress to some extent), of “aiding and
abetting” the Maoist rebellion in West Bengal’s Lalgarh in order to
“destabilise” the state government, the party prepared ground for
claiming a high moral ground in the event of a Nandigram-type opposition
onslaught. However, this seemed unlikely as the security forces undertook a
joint operation on Maoist-controlled areas which involved both state police and
Central forces. The state government’s bid to seek the assistance of the
Centre, where Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee is a Cabinet minister, instead of
moving into the troubled areas first and the statement of CPI (Maoist) leader
Kishenji — that the Trinamool should support it in Lalgarh as quid-pro-quo
for its support to the party in Nandigram — seemed to have completed
CPM’s firefighting exercise on the issue for the moment.

The
Lalgarh issue has assumed do-or-die proportions for the state CPM represented by
chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. He had to face harsh criticism from
within the party and the Left Front for mishandling land acquisition in
Nandigram and Singur, seen as a prime cause for the party’s electoral
drubbing.

CPM state secretary Biman Bose, a politburo member, told
reporters that the “gameplan”of CPM’s opponents was revealed
by the Maoist leaders seeking Trinamool’s help in Lalgarh. “The game
plan is by Trinamool Congress and their rainbow alliances. That has been proved
by the Maoists saying “we helped them in Nandigram and now we seek the
help of them (TC) in Lalgarh”. He also added that there was no internal
feud in the party’s Bengal unit. Both the Trinamool and Congress have
rebutted CPM’s statements.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Lalgarh-shadow-over-politburo-meet/articleshow/4679030.cms

Deepa demands all-party meeting on Lalgarh

SILIGURI,
19 JUNE: Congress Raiganj MP Mrs Deepa Das Munshi today demanded that
the state government should immediately convene an all-party meeting on
the Lalgarh turmoil.

“We have been asking the chief minister for this since quite sometime
now and today I am iterating the demand again. The all-party meeting
should be convened immediately to discuss the the Lalgarh issue in
details,” Mrs Das Munshi said.

Even after putting it on record that the ongoing police and
paramilitary action at Lalgarh was “needed” to regain administrative
control over the area, the Congress MP added that there was also the
need to go deep into the genesis of turmoil.

“Lalgarh is the result of a three-decade long exploitation of the
tribal people by the Left Front government in the state and police
action will bring about short-term success alone. If the state is
really serious about eradicating the menace, the grievances of the
tribals will have to be addressed as a priority,” Mrs Das Munshi said.

The Raiganj MP further added that the state administration must also
reach out to the tribal people in the Dooars or else it too can turn
out to be another Lalgarh.

Mrs Das Munshi, who is in Siliguri to campaign for the 28 June
panchayat polls here, also informed that she has put forward several
suggestions to railway minister Ms Mamata Banerjee towards improving
the rail services in north Bengal.

special article

Bumpy ride in politics

Why Mayawati, Lalu And BJP Have Faltered

Amulya Ganguli

IN one of the brief clips which appeared on television during the
run-up to the polls, a young journalist claimed that Mayawati would be
one of those who would play a crucial role in the formation of the next
government. In the event, she did not live up to these expectations.
What was worth noting, however, was that ever since Mayawati’s success
in the UP assembly elections, the assessments of her political prowess
had tended to be romantic in the sense that they were not very
realistic.

A major factor which was ignored was that the fortunes of a political
party normally tended to follow an undulating course rather than a
straight line. True, sometimes the ups and downs can be widely
separated ~ in Lalu Prasad’s case, the interval was 15 years, in West
Bengal it’s been more than 30. But the fluctuations are inevitable.
Yet, in Mayawati’s case, her 2007 success was seen by political
commentators to lead straight upwards. She herself thought so. Hence,
the talk about her becoming the Prime Minister.

Lucknow to Delhi

There was also perhaps a sentimental element born of upper caste angst
in these predictions as if destiny had chosen her as a means of
recompense for all the indignities which her community had suffered
through the centuries. There were the inevitable comparisons,
therefore, with Barack Obama. If these balloons have now been
punctured, the fault is not hers so much as of her starry-eyed backers.
Their first mistake was the fatuity of the comparison. For all her
feistiness, Mayawati evidently lacks Obama’s charisma and intellect. To
expect her political juggernaut, therefore, to roll on unchecked from
Lucknow to Delhi was naive.

There was an element of cynicism as well in these grandiose hopes in
the sense that a fractured mandate was expected to create conditions
where the number of MPs in her party would assume crucial importance.
However, if these calculations went awry, the reason was the
electorate’s eminent good sense. It was they, rather than the analysts,
who saw through the hollowness of her pretensions, apparently because
of the signs of megalomania which she displayed by her extravagant
birthday bashes and penchant for building statues of herself.

The earlier optimistic evaluation of Mayawati’s future was based on the
untenable conviction about the durability of her so-called rainbow
coalition of Dalits and Brahmins in UP. It was seen as a magic mantra
which would spread her influence all over the country. Yet, it should
have been obvious from the start that the Dalit-Brahmin alliance would
be less viable than the Congress’s earlier Brahmin-Dalit-Muslim
alliance since the upper castes would resent the loss of their
dominance under Mayawati. In the Congress’s formulation, the upper
castes held the upper hand. In any case, such opportunistic tie-ups
tend to crack after some time, as has happened with Lalu Prasad’s MY
(Muslim-Yadav) combination. It hasn’t taken long, therefore, for
Mayawati’s rainbow to vanish.

Mayawati is not the only one in recent years who has failed to deceive
the voters long enough to achieve her objective. As mentioned before,
Lalu Prasad was another such person even if it took a decade and a half
for the people of Bihar to wake up to his false promises and another
five years to bring him crashing down to earth. His latest tally of
four seats compared to 22 in 2004 shows how wildly a party’s prospects
can fluctuate. In the cases of both Mayawati and Lalu Prasad, the
political trick was to inflate the self-esteem of their core groups of
supporters without any intention of building on their backing by
focussing on the administration. Only a self-defeating lack of vision,
probably born of a limited education, can explain such a failure.

It was almost as if they wanted the Yadavs (in Lalu Prasad’s case) and
Dalits (in Mayawati’s case) to remain backward so that they could
continue to exploit their grievances. Backwardness apparently became a
badge of honour for them just as rudeness became the distinguishing
feature of Communists, vide Ashok Mitra’s celebrated comment about
being a Communist, not a gentleman. Since gentlemanliness was
associated with the bourgeoisie, it was to be shunned.

Living conditions

Similarly, favourable living conditions, including decent educational
and health facilities, had so long been associated with the upper
castes that their absence was seen as something of which the backward
castes and Dalits need not be ashamed of. It is much like the
Gujjars demanding Scheduled Tribe status by highlighting their
primitive social traits and lack of education.

But if Lalu Prasad and Mayawati have found out that raising hopes of a
higher social status by ending discrimination against the backward
castes and Dalits was not enough to win votes after a time, the BJP has
discovered that its ruse of harping on Muslim appeasement would not
work for ever. The BJP tried to rewrite history by depicting
Hindu-Muslim relations as a long period of confrontation going back to
the medieval ages while promising a new era of dominance by the
majority community. Like Mayawati, the BJP leaders, too, saw a straight
upward line of political advancement. But it didn’t take long for the
voters to realize that they were being taken for a ride and that the
party’s sole interest was in advancing its own cause by sowing seeds of
communal discord.

If the BJP’s upward line has been reversed, the Congress’s revival
shows that the opposite can also happen for two reasons. First, the
electorate’s disenchantment with one party can make it turn to its
opponent. Secondly, a new generation can grow up which is unaware of
the latter’s earlier sins.

In the Congress’s case, it has largely succeeded in overcoming the
stigmas of corruption, exemplified by the Bofors scam, and cynicism, as
in the Shah Bano episode, not only because the voters do not seem to
care, but also because the follies of others like casteism and
communalism have become more starkly obvious.

The writer is a former Assistant Editor, The Statesman.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=258377

Tribals wake up to their rights

MALLARPUR,
19 JUNE: Even as the state government is gearing up to launch an
operation to flush out the Maoist-led tribal menace in Lalgarh, the
tribals of the area are trying to make the most of the government
facilities they are entitled to.

The youth of Birbhum's 20 villages in Rampurhat block I area, all
members of a Mallarpur based NGO, Naisubha, have taken up this
initiative of making tribal villagers aware of the government
provisions. This is for the first time that a government programme, in
collaboration with different NGOs, has been started within these tribal
villages under Kathogarah and Masra gram panchayat areas .

The young tribals are working to bring an awareness among the villagers
about different government facilities like ST certificate, old-age
pension, Janani Surakhsha Yojna and others schemes that the government
provides specially for the tribals. “The tribals of these areas have
been victims of starvation simply because they were not aware of
particular government facilities,” said Mr Bahadur Soren, a tribal
youth working in Masra gram panchayat area. The villagers admitted that
if not for the awareness camps organised by the youths, they would not
have known of these facilities.

Meanwhile, the state government with the help of the NGOs, has decided
to launch a programme called West Bengal Civil Society Support
Programme (WBCSP) to make these villagers aware of the government
facilities.

“We have received government assistance to carry out these awareness
camps and programmes in tribal villages. The SDO of Rampurhat assured
us that the government will be organising a programme where many
villagers would be given ST certificates. The district controller has
also decided to organise a camp to distribute ration cards to the
villagers,” said Mr Sadhan Sinha, secretary, Naisubha.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=22&theme=&usrsess=1&id=258531

Discussion on this Kolkata Plus item
Disclaimer: These are Internet generated discussion threads for which the The Statesman has no responsibility.

No discussions on this item

Regained, lost, regained…

Forces caught in repeat battles

SUJAN DUTTA

People with bows and arrows run to block state police in Goaltore, from
where a road leads to Lalgarh, on Friday. The police are trying to open
another flank at Goaltore which lies to the north of Pirakata from
where the first wave of security forces launched the operation on
Thursday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Malida
(West Midnapore), June 19: A light machine gun is mounted on a tripod
and the soldier from the Border Security Force takes position behind it
as his section of 30 men creeps across the fallow farmland on the road
to Lalgarh here this afternoon.

Cries
ululate in a chorus across the field. Through the sights of the machine
gun, are hundreds of villagers — too numerous and too far away to be
counted. The cries rise and fall as the crowd comes closer and then
retreats as the soldiers advance.

The battle of Malida will be fought before the road to Lalgarh is taken.

This
was the road taken by the security forces last afternoon as they
marched, lathi-charged and tear-gassed their way to Bhimpur, about 5km
from here. The first barricade — the “human shield” as the government
said of the Maoists — was put up here. It was no match for the might of
the state forces.

But
in 24 hours, Malida has struck back. The road to Bhimpur, where the
security forces are setting up a major staging post for the mission,
has been cut again. Rocks have been placed on the road. It is three
hours since the road was barricaded and the battle started.

On
the road this side of the barricade towards Pirakata are two companies
of the Border Security Force, inducted from Murshidabad, Alpha Company
of the Central Reserve Police Force’s 50th battalion inducted from
Sindri, a busload of India Reserve police, three carloads of Calcutta’s
Police Rapid Action Force, two busloads of West Bengal Armed Police and
about 15 utility vehicles carrying the officers of each of the forces.

They
carry Insas rifles, carbines, RPG7 shoulder-firing rockets, light
machine guns. They are reinforcements heading to Bhimpur to relieve or
to add muscle to the offensive that began yesterday.

They
were told the road was clear, that it was secured. This is the route
that all supplies and reinforcements, all rolling stock to the Bhimpur
staging post will take. Yet, in less than 24 hours, the security forces
have lost control over it.

They
regained it after sundown. But to secure it, the government will have
to press in more forces, conduct road-opening parties, and sanitise the
fields to the north and south of the road that runs east to west.

Each
of these tasks will take up more troops and more time. The
reinforcements — the contingent that was stuck between Pirakata and
Malida this afternoon — were not expecting to do battle so soon.

If
the battle at Malida today is an indication of the nature of the
operations in Lalgarh, Bengal could be staring at a long hard period of
insurgency and counter-insurgency missions here.

Central
forces run the risk of being converted into armies of occupation for
indefinite periods of time if they get bogged down. Bengal already had
11 companies of CRPF in parts of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore
for well over three years. Lalgarh could turn out to be an extension of
the militarised zone in Bengal unless dramatic and surprising action
gives the offensive a different direction.

Multiple approaches by the security forces — from the Bankura side and also from west of Lalgarh — may open such an opportunity.

But
on day two, there is a slowdown and a re-emergence of an opposition in
Malida where the security forces thought there was none.

“We
were going to our location,” said a BSF trooper — he did not want to be
identified. He is not sure if his location will be Bhimpur. “We were in
Kharagpur and were told to proceed along this road and the Bengal
police is to tell us where we have to set up camp”.

He
points to two trucks loaded with BSF paraphernalia — camp cots, bedding
rolls, tarpaulin, tents, ammunition boxes. But now he is here, waiting
for his section of 30 men drawn from the two companies in this
contingent. The companies have drawn troops from at least three
battalions — 105, 90 and 191. The section is fanning out now.

Brigadier
Ponwar, the director of the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare School
in Kanker, Chhattisgarh, that trains state forces in counter-Naxalite
operations, says the BSF is “probably the most disciplined of the
paramilitary forces”. This is not the BSF’s task.

The
troops that are here are supposed to be on guard on the Bangladesh
border in Malda-Murshidabad but Bengal is finding new borders being
drawn inland.

The
BSF men in the fields going after the villagers — there really cannot
be that many Maoists though the police gathered on the road here insist
they all are — are fanning out now. The villagers are gathered in
groups in a clump of trees and bush.

From the road, they can be discerned only because they are in a crowd and then they let out the ululating cries.

The
villagers are not within firing range of the BSF troopers. The advance
party has gone about 1,000 yards into the field. The villagers are at
least 2,500 yards away. “This afternoon some five or six shots rang
out,” says the BSF soldier on the road watching, his colleagues along
with the rest of the party that is heading towards Bhimpur but is now
stalled.

“And
then the police leading us (the convoy) came and told us there is a
barricade. We would have been in the camp by now,” he says.

Brigadier
Ponwar says the security forces should lay such a siege of Lalgarh that
no Maoist who is inside can come out and no “undesirable element” can
get in.

As
of this moment, when the sun is about to set on the second day after
the operations in Lalgarh were launched, a contingent of heavily armed
police and paramilitary cannot get into Bhimpur. The barricade here
means that those in Bhimpur where the staging post is being set up
cannot come out till it is cleared.

The
BSF advance party creeps about 10 paces and then the men lie down on
the field. In the distance the villagers retreat, vanish and suddenly
they are there again in sight, several hundred heads bobbing above the
brush. A loud explosion breaks the stalemate and the villagers flee.

A friendly BSF soldier on the road sniggers. “That’s a smoke bomb to scare them away,” he says.

There
is no tear gas being fired here. Up ahead constables of Bengal police
are still trying to clear the road of stones and rocks that were piled
up. The road vanishes into a forest turning darker by the minute as the
sun sets. The cries ululate again.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090620/jsp/frontpage/story_11136654.jsp

Outlaw Maoists, prods PC

-‘State has done nothing since blast’

NISHIT DHOLABHAI

Policemen rest at Bhimpur Santhal High School. Picture by Amit Datta

New Delhi, June 19:
Union home minister P. Chidambaram today charged the Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee government with dereliction in tackling the Naxalite
menace and exhorted the state government to ban the outfit.

“Since the chief minister was attacked on November 2 last year, the state government has done nothing,” Chidambaram told The Telegraph
on the eve of his meeting with Bhattacharjee. “It is inexplicable why
Bengal has not banned the Maoist party. We feel it should be banned in
Bengal as it is banned in other states.”

Under
the unlawful activities (prevention) act, Naxalite groups and all their
front organisations are banned by the Centre and by all states affected
by Naxalite violence. However, Bengal has dithered even after a
near-fatal attack on the motorcade of the chief minister and then Union
steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Since law and order is a state
subject, it is not obligatory for states to follow the Centre.

A home department official in Calcutta said the Bengal government wants to fight Maoists “politically”.

A
CPM state committee leader added: “We believe dialogue and not ban
should be the process of seeking solutions in a democracy. If the state
bans Maoists, how will we defend our stand against such action when
Indira Gandhi clamped Emergency and banned many organisations?”

The
CPM has blamed the Trinamul Congress for being hand-in-glove with the
Maoists. But Chidambaram stood by the UPA ally at a media briefing on
cabinet proceedings. He said it was wrong to insinuate that “the
CPI(Maoist) are supported either by the Trinamul Congress or the
Congress.... I have seen Mamataji condemn Maoist violence on
television”.

Chidambaram
advocated a more comprehensive strategy to tackle Maoists, hinting at a
larger effort that would go beyond Lalgarh. “These cannot be ad hoc
measures, there has to be a comprehensive plan,” he said.

He
also cautioned against expectations of a quick flushout in Lalgarh.
“This will take time,” he stressed. But he also hinted that it was well
possible that as security forces proceeded, armed Maoists may stage a
tactical withdrawal.

At
the same time, the home minister endorsed Bhattacharjee’s appeal to the
Naxalites to come to the talks table. “The CM told me he had made an
appeal to Maoist leaders and tribal leaders that the state government
is willing to talk. I endorse that appeal. The central government would
be happy to facilitate such talks,” he told reporters.

There
is little likelihood, though, that a dialogue is on the cards. Talks
with Maoists have failed in Andhra Pradesh and security strategists
believe they used the time to regroup.

Chidambaram
later dismissed too much speculation on a possible dialogue: “I am not
saying there will be a dialogue with Kishanji or someone but we are
saying the tribal leaders (who support Maoists) can talk.”

Chidambaram
advised caution in the use of words such as “war” to describe the
Lalgarh operation. “A government does not go to war with its own
people. These are Indians and they have grievances, in a democracy
there are established ways of seeking redress, taking to arms is not
one of them. But the word ‘war’ should not be used,” he said in answer
to a question.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090620/jsp/bengal/story_11136486.jsp

US aircraft to take off from Mumbai airport soon

Hindu - ‎8 minutes ago‎

Mumbai (PTI): A Kandahar-bound
US military cargo aircraft, which was forced to land at the
international airport here after it intruded into Indian airspace, has
been given clearance and would take off on Saturday night, airport
officials said.

Intruder US-chartered aircraft allowed to leave Mumbai Economic Times

Airspace violation: US military aircraft to take off Times Now.tv

Times of India - Calcutta Telegraph - IBNLive.com - Indian Express

all 151 news articles »

Email this story

Boston Globe

Maoist violence part of "wider gameplan", says CPI(M)

Press Trust of India - ‎17 minutes ago‎

Paramilitary trooper dies in Lalgarh of heat stroke Hindu

Lalgarh Maoists ready for talks, asks Govt to suspend ops Indian Express

Times of India - Livemint - HardNews Magazine
- Wikipedia: Operation Lalgarh

all 1,163 news articles »

Email this story

Indian Express

Difference between what BJP says and does: Congress

Hindu - ‎9 minutes ago‎

New Delhi (PTI) The Congress on
Saturday said there was difference between what the BJP said and
performed and accused the main Opposition party of being neither
committed to Hindutva nor the guiding principles of the country.

Video: Growing dissent in BJP?

NDTV.com
Video:
Growing dissent in BJP?

NDTV.com

BJP needs to rethink its ideology: Brajesh Mishra Zee News

Times Now.tv - Hindustan Times - IBNLive.com - Sakaal Times

all 332 news articles »

Email this story

Mangalorean.com

Accused NCP MP Padamsingh Patil in jail till July 4

Times of India - ‎2 hours ago‎

20 Jun 2009, 1846 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: A Maharashtra court on Saturday granted judicial custody till
July 4 to suspended NCP MP Padamsingh Patil for his alleged involvement
in the 2006 murder of his cousin and Congress leader Pavan Raje
Nimbalkar.

Padamsinh in judicial custody till July 4 Zee News

CBI raids NCP MP's residence The Statesman

Gunaah - Hindu - Hindustan Times - SamayLive

all 82 news articles »

Email this story

Thaindian.com

Modi peeved with Centre for rejecting terror Bill

IBNLive.com - ‎1 hour ago‎

New Delhi: Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Centre of being unfair
by returning his government's Bill which has stringent clauses against
organised crime and terrorism.

Amendments will take away teeth and nail of GUJCOC, Modi Gujarat Global.com

Modi attacks centre for returning Gujarat anti-terror law SamayLive

Hindu - Times of India - Calcutta Telegraph - Economic Times

all 105 news articles »

Email this story

DAWN.com

Shutdown in Kashmir, protests women's deaths

Hindustan Times - ‎4 hours ago‎

Aijaz Hussain, AP Thousands of
troops patrolled the streets of Kashmir as businesses, schools and
government offices closed in protest on Saturday as locals continued to
accuse Indian soldiers of raping and killing two young women last month.

Video: Raw Video: Clashes in Indian Kashmir

The Associated Press
Video:
Raw Video: Clashes in Indian Kashmir

The Associated Press

Dr. Hamid Ansari addresses convocation of University of Kashmir IndiaEduNews.net

BBC News - Hindu - GMA news.tv - Press Information Bureau (press release)

all 136 news articles »

Email this story

Globe and Mail

Terror, peace process with Pak can't go simultaneously: BJP

Hindu - ‎2 hours ago‎

New Delhi (PTI) In the backdrop
of a recent meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari, the BJP on Saturday told the government
that terror attacks and the peace process with the neighbouring country
cannot go ...

No visas for good terrorists Express Buzz

Zardari did not drop Nam plan after Singh snub: Pak Daily News & Analysis

Indian Express - Times of India - IBNLive.com - Hindu

all 1,712 news articles »

Email this story

Thaindian.com

A batch of 1935 Amarnath pilgrims leaves Jammu for holy shrine

Sify - ‎3 hours ago‎

After initial weather related
hindrances, a fresh batch of 1935 pilgrims left Jammu on Saturday for
its onward journey to the holy Amarnath cave shrine in Kashmir.

Fresh batch of Amarnath pilgrims leave Jammu Hindu

Amarnath yatra resumes Hindustan Times

Press Trust of India - News Agency of Kashmir - Kashmir Live - India Infoline.com

all 86 news articles »

Email this story

Nhatky.in

TRS leaders out to placare Chandrasekhar Rao

Indian Express - ‎7 hours ago‎

Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS)
leaders are making desperate attempts to placate K Chandrasekhar Rao to
withdraw his resignation as party president.

I'll continue to work for party: KCR Express Buzz

TRS president resigns Hindu

Economic Times - Zee News - Times of India - Express Buzz

all 48 news articles »

Email this story

Australia.TO

Black flags greet foreign secretary Menon in Nepal, four held

Times of India - ‎7 hours ago‎

KATHMANDU: Indian foreign
secretary Shivshankar Menon, on a two-day visit to Nepal on Saturday to
give fresh impetus to the obstructed peace process and foster better
ties with the new government, faced protests at the Kathmandu airport
on his arrival ...

Menon starts peace tour of Nepal today Economic Times

Foreign Secy to visit Nepal tomorrow Indian Express

Press Trust of India - Xinhua - Deccan Herald

all 104 news articles »

Email this story

Thaindian.com

UPA wins two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand

Times of India - ‎1 hour ago‎

RANCHI: Jharkhand's ruling
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Saturday won in by-elections both
Rajya Sabha seats from the state, beating the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP).

Congress dangles UPA unity carrot Calcutta Telegraph

BJP appeals to other parties to support their RS nominees Indopia

Zee News - Thaindian.com

all 14 news articles »

Email this story

The Nation, Pakistan

US has no intention to send troops to Pakistan: Obama

Press Trust of India - ‎9 hours ago‎

Washington, Jun 20 (PTI) US
President Barack Obama today said that his administration has no
intention to send American troops to Pakistan amid growing speculation
that Washington could be preparing to help Islamabad as its army steps
up the offensive ...

Indra Nooyi pitches for India-Pakistan dialogue Hindu

Pak should dismantle terror infrastructure: Antony Times of India

Economic Times - SamayLive - Pakistan Observer - Business Line

all 111 news articles »

Email this story

Bhatkallys

Congress activists celebrate Rahul's b'day

Express Buzz - ‎8 hours ago‎

HYDERABAD: The State Congress
Committee, Mahila Congress and National Students Union of India
celebrated the 40th birthday of Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary
and son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, across the State today.

YC adopts 39 students on Rahul b'day Times of India

What to expect in Rahul's really tough talent hunt Daily News & Analysis

Indian Express - Business Standard - Bhatkallys - Express Buzz

all 9 news articles »

Email this story

World News

On Rahul's birthday, Congress reaches out to the Dalits

Hindu - ‎18 hours ago‎

LUCKNOW: The Congressmen in
Uttar Pradesh reached out to the Dalits through social gatherings and
feasts on party leader Rahul Gandhi's birthday on Friday, in a bid to
create a dent in the traditional support base of the Bahujan Samaj
Party.

Maya throws Rahul a birthday bash! The Statesman

Cong celebrates Rahul's birthday Times of India

Daily News & Analysis - Central Chronicle - IBNLive.com - Hindu

all 184 news articles »

Email this story

Daily Mail

Two cabbies sent to police remand for British girl's rape

Hindustan Times - ‎7 minutes ago‎

A court in Himachal Pradesh
Saturday sent two cab drivers, accused of raping an 18-year-old British
volunteer teacher at Palampur town in Kangra district, to three days'
police remand, police said.

Video: British girl alleges rape, 2 held

NDTV.com
Video:
British girl alleges rape, 2 held

NDTV.com

British teenager alleges rape Times of India

Hindu - Indian Express - Chandigarh Tribune - SamayLive

all 62 news articles »

Email this story

Oz Immigration Minister meets Indian students

Indian Express - ‎14 hours ago‎

Students shout slogans during a
protest against the racial attacks on Indian students in Australia, in
New Delhi. Australia's Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris
Evans, on Friday met representatives from the Indian community in
Melbourne to ...

Indian students 'clash' with Melbourne police Daily News & Analysis

It's cricket diplomacy in Oz Deccan Herald

Times of India - Hindu - The Australian - Zee News

all 102 news articles »

Email this story

Nhatky.in

IAS officer caught with pants down, suspended

Times of India - ‎15 hours ago‎

BHOPAL: An IAS officer of Madhya
Pradesh government was suspended on Friday after a male colleague
accused him of seeking sexual favours.

IAS pants scandal Calcutta Telegraph

MP: IAS officer suspended after homosexuality charges Indlaw.com

IBNLive.com - Indian Express - SamayLive - Thaindian.com

all 24 news articles »

Email this story

SINDH TODAY

No link with Maoists: Trinamool

Hindu - Ananya Dutta - ‎11 hours ago‎

KOLKATA: Denying the Left
allegations of links between the Trinamool Congress and the Maoists,
Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee on Friday said the Lalgarh
attacks were a factional fight of the CPI(M).

Trinamool moves away from Maoists Times of India

Mamata calls Buddhadeb 'a bigger Maoist', threatens stir SamayLive

Merinews - Indian Express

all 11 news articles »

Email this story

SINDH TODAY

BJP-Akali rift out in the open again

Hindu - Sarabjit Pandher - ‎18 hours ago‎

CHANDIGARH: In what can be seen
as the Bharatiya Janata Party's inability to manage issues with its
coalition partners, problems have surfaced in the BJP-Shiromani Akali
Dal alliance in Punjab.

BJP boycotts cabinet after MLA-Kalia spat Times of India

Congress leaders condemn attack on Ludhiana Tehsildar PunjabNewsline.com

Indian Express - Chandigarh Tribune - Zee News - SamayLive

all 16 news articles »

Email this story

Fresh News

No ULFA presence on our soil: Bhutan

Hindu - ‎18 hours ago‎

Thimphu: Bhutan on Friday
assured India that there was no ULFA presence in that country. “I have
no knowledge [of the presence of the United Liberation Front of Asom
here] ...This is something what we also read in Indian papers but we do
not have any ...

No ULFA on its soil, Bhutan tells India Indian Express

India to offer scholarships to Bhutanese students Press Trust of India

SINDH TODAY - Zee News - TravelBizMonitor - Little About

all 53 news articles »

Email this story

The selection and placement of stories on this page were de

My Blog List

Hits

PalahBiswas On Unique Identity No1.mpg

Unique Identity Number2

Zia clarifies his timing of declaration of independence

What Mujib Said

Jyoti Basu is dead

Dr.BR Ambedkar

CHOTRODHORER GAAN

Memories of Another day

BAMCEF And RASHTRIYA MULNIVASI SANGH

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Blood Cry Deepens with War Against Bl...

Mamata calls Buddhadeb 'a bigger Maoist', threatens stir

Maoists offer peace talks as troops enter Lalgarh

Trinamool moves away from Maoists

Friday, June 19, 2009

Naxals trigger twin blasts, force cops to redraw plan

No comments:

Indus valley civilisation

Arundhati ray

Tweeter

AddThis

Write to the PM of India - Prime Minister's Office

BlogAdda

Hi Friends!

Live traffic

Welcome

Blog Archive

Marichjhanpi, ethnic Cleansing of Mulnivasi Bengali Refugges