A legend that sprang up after the Turkman Gate killing is that when the shrine is disturbed, the government will fall, as it happened with the Indira Gandhi government.
'Skirmishes with officials in the Press Information Bureau were an everyday affair as the newspapers sought clearances from the media censors for publishing the next day's editions'
Former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat, who was indicted by Justice M B Shah Commission in its report on illegal mining in the state, on Friday said the commission never asked him to present his side of the story. "I was never called for any inquiry or justification by the Shah Commission. Whatever is interpreted by the Commission in the report should be verified by the state government," Kamat said, reacting to the report for the first time.
The Gujarat Assembly on Friday passed a resolution requesting the Centre to take strict action against BBC for tarnishing the image and popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with its documentary on the 2002 riots in the state.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the current logjam in Parliament could end if the Opposition and the government sit for a discussion and both move two steps forward.
The action came after Amit Shah accused Teesta of giving baseless information to the police about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The two were produced before metropolitan magistrate SP Patel after their police custody ended.
A court in Ahmedabad on Sunday remanded social activist Teesta Setalvad and former state director general of police R B Sreekumar in police custody till July 2 in a case of fabricating evidence to frame innocent persons in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT), to be headed by a deputy inspector general (DIG) of Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), will probe the case against activist Teesta Setalvad and former Indian Police Service officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt who have been accused of abusing the process of law by fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in connection with the 2002 Gujarat communal riots, a senior official said on Sunday.
After her detention on Saturday, she had been taken to the Santacruz police station in Mumbai for informing the local police about her detention.
Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanti Natarajan on Wednesday termed the Goa government's action against all 93 mining leases in the state, in response to the Justice M B Shah Commission report, a "whitewash". "The Shah Commission tabled its report on September 7. Within two days, the Goa chief minister issued an order suspending licences of mines, which is a complete whitewash," she told reporters.
It is a record that the saffron party has created, where the majority of its legislators belonged to the minority community.
'The downslide has been rapid leading up to the number one and number two of the organisation flinging against each other horrendous accusations of bribery and tampering with investigations for personal gain, and the latest petition to the Supreme Court by the joint director of the CBI, M K Sinha, opening a veritable Pandora's Box of repulsive skeletons,' notes B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant who witnessed the CBI's birth.
Former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice (retd) Santosh Hegde on Sunday opposed granting financial assistance to people affected by closure of mining in Goa and expressed doubts over the state government's willingness to implement recommendations of Justice M B Shah Commission.
Gujarat Congress on Thursday lambasted the findings of the M B Shah Commission that has given 'clean chit' to the Narendra Modi government in nine land allotment cases.
In a move that spells further trouble for mining industry in Goa, the Manohar Parrikar government has decided not to allow mining activity until findings of the Public Accounts Committee and Justice M B Shah Commission on illegalities are dealt with in accordance with law.
The Goa church has demanded that the government withdraw all the criminal cases filed against anti-illegal mining activists across these years as their stand is vindicated after the tabling of the Justice M B Shah commission report.
Mining operations in all the 90 mines in Goa were ordered to be halted by the Supreme Court on Friday on the basis of the Justice M B Shah Commission report which estimated a whopping Rs 35,000 crore loss to the exchequer due to illegal mining in the last 12 years.
With the probe of the Centre-appointed Shah commission into alleged irregularities entering its last lap, Goan miners have started bracing themselves for a possible Karnataka-like blanket ban on mining and exports.
Against the backdrop of allegations pertaining to illegal mining, Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi. Though the Kamat government has been facing heat over alleged instances of illegal mining in the state, the change of leadership is not on the cards at least till the Justice M B Shah Commission probing illegal mining submits its report. Kamat said his meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday was a courtesy call.
There is expected to be chaos in the Goa assembly when the Bharatiya Janata Party raises the issue of illegal mining. The issue after the Shah Commission began probing the illegalities pertaining to the mining industry in Goa.
The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was not aware of the Constitutional provisions allowing for declaration of Emergency that was imposed in 1975 and it was Siddartha Shankar Ray who led her into the decision, says President Pranab Mukherjee.
There was hue and cry over the Lokayukta report on illegal mining in Bellary, and in even went on to cost B S Yeddyurappa his chair as the chief minister of Karnataka. But today the entire focus is on Goa which, according to the preliminary report of the Shah commission, gives the indication that illegal mining in the tourist haven is nothing short of the Bellary scenario.
Aditi Phadnis remembers the former prime minister on her 102nd birth anniversary.
Radha Timblo, a Goa-based miner whose name figures in the black money list submitted by the Centre in the Supreme Court, on Tuesday denied having any "undisclosed" bank account in the country or abroad.
CBDT recently issued orders to all tax offices to check any 'discrepancies' in financial statements of these companies
"The mobile phone records dating back to the post-Godhra riots of 2002 clearly establish a pattern of conspiracy," Mukul Sinha, an advocate from a non-government organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch told the Nanavati-Shah Commission in Ahmedabad.
'There is a group who want to internally damage the Congress and they may be hand in glove with the BJP.'
The Godhra inquiry panel on Saturday ordered two mobile service providers to provide the call details of Gujarat ministers, legislators, police officials and Chief Minister Narendra Modi, during the post-Godhra communal riots.
The Congress has asked the Nanavati-Shah Commission which is probing the post-Godhra riots -- to summon for deposition all those who had been shown on the sting operation conducted by Tehelka. "We have asked the Commission to summon for deposition all those who had been shown making statements on the Tehelka-Aaj Tak sting operation," said Hiralal Gupta, who is the advocate representing the Congress in the Commission.
The brand image, however, may not tarish further as it will have already taken the beating due to consistent injury
The Commission has not given any time frame for the President's office to give the letters.
'The CBI should be bifurcated and the CBI's charter should be restricted to anti-corruption cases.'
'The investigation of major criminal cases having national and international implications, and national crimes spread over more than one state may be entrusted to a new national crime bureau,' recommends Dr Madhav Godbole, the former home secretary.
Sources said the commission has completed the hearing of the matter related to the burning of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express train on February 27, 2002.
The NHRC had in its detailed report indicted the Gujarat government for failing to protect riot witnesses.
Pranab Mukherjee's book The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years takes the readers through the economic and social unrest of the period leading up to the emergency, rise and fall of leaders, many splits within the Congress, while promising to offer more in the next two volumes of the trilogy, says Nivedita Mookerji.
The commission had time and again requested Rashtrapati Bhavan to send copies of the letters to the commission, but the President's office had citied 'privilege' and refused to part with the concerned documents.
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