04 News of the week
Kashmir Cong workers ask Sonia to oust Soz
■ By Arif Bashir
A head of the civic and pan-
chayat polls, the Congress
party was rocked last Friday
with party workers staging a
protest at the party headquarter
in Srinagar accusing state
Congress chief and former Union
minister, Prof Saif-ud-din Soz for
patronizing “brokers and coun-
ter-insurgents” in the party. The
workers demanded his immedi-
ate removal.
Shouting anti-Soz and pro-
Congress slogans, the workers
registered their protests against
Soz, for “polluting” the party by
joining hands with “counter-in-
surgents and brokers.”
Asking Sonia Gandhi to inter-
vene and remove Soz from his
position for the “betterment” of
the party and its “credibility
among the masses,” the agitating
workers alleged that such designs
Antony’s friends Cong still helping Lalu?
■ By Manoj Ravindran
D uring his heydays as
Kerala chief minister and
Opposition leader, AK Antony
used to be a vehement critic of
the CPM and spared no oppor-
tunity to poke at the party’s
ills. Nevertheless, he has not
kept his admiration and respect
for party stalwarts like EMS
Namboodiripad a secret. Being
known as an uncorrupt politi-
cian, the Left also found it hard
to attack Antony as party gen-
eral secretary Prakash Karat
himself had given him a clean
chit in certain controversial
defence acquisitions.
No wonder then that the
CPM invited the Defence
Minister to be chief guest
along with Karat for opening
Kairali Towers, the headquar-
ters of the party-run TV chan-
nels Kairali, People and Yes in
Thiruvan-anthapuram recent-
ly. Antony not only graced the
occasion happily, he also went
on to praise the mutual respect
that political rivals in Kerala
harboured. However, not many
Congress workers who are rou-
tinely at the receiving end of
the CPM’s misuse of the police
machinery will agree with
Antony. In fact, Congress lead-
ers in Kerala are reportedly
Godman quits
■ By Anand Ram
T he disgraced self-styled god-
man Nithyananda, who is
virtually on the run for the past
two months, has announced his
‘resignation’ as head of the
Nityananda Dhyanapeetam and
from all trusts associated with
his organisation, in an attempt
to safeguard his interests.
Nithyananda, who is facing
several charges of cheating,
rape, falsification of documents
and forging of his birth
certificate, is evading the
Karnataka police. His attempts
to obtain anticipatory bail have
also failed.
In a statement posted on his
org anisation’s website,
not quite happy with Antony’s
decision to inaugurate the con-
troversial buildings in the heart
of the city which house the stu-
dio complex too. Sources say it
forced Opposition leader
Oommen Chandy also to attend
the function after conveniently
forgetting the allegations they
had raised long ago against the
land acquisition for the towers.
It has also denied them an elec-
tion issue to attack the ``work-
er’s party’’ which had increas-
ingly been embracing corporate
culture by building supermar-
kets, hospitals and amusement
parks. It has also been accused
of cosying up to the rich and
influential.  Earlier, the Patna high court
Nithyananda said, “I have decid-
ed to live a life of spiritual seclu-
sion for some indefinite time, to
which the acharyas have agreed
in principle.” He claimed that a
board of trustees consisting of
‘sadhakas of dhyanapeetam’
would henceforth manage the
organisation.
Meanwhile, the Crime
Investigation Department (CID)
has sought information from “all
those affected and victims” of
the self-styled godman for taking
up prosecution.
The CID superintendent
of police Yogappa, who is con-
ducting the investigation,
can be contacted on mobile
094808-00123 or landline
080-22381894.  Minister. His wife Kauserbi dis-
■ By Indrajit Singh
R JD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav
was enjoying chaita (folk
songs with a hint of vulgarity)
in the company of his supporters
at Danapur, about 12 km
west of the state capital last
Friday blissfully unaware of
the fact that CBI director
Ashwini Kumar had dashed
his hopes of hitting the
campaign trail on a high in
the wake of the reprieve to
him and his wife Rabri Devi
by the apex court in the
disproportionate assets case,
an offshoot of the multi-crore
fodder scam.
The CBI director while
talking to a TV channel
claimed the Centre had refused
permission to the agency to
appeal against the Supreme
Court order.
The couple was accused of
amassing assets worth Rs 46
lakh beyond their known
sources of income when Lalu
was chief minister between
1990 and 1997. Kumar said it
was a fit case for appeal as the
agency had adequate evidence
against the couple.
The Bihar government had
filed the appeal in the apex
court after the CBI did not
challenge their acquittal.
CURRENT, Monday, April 5–11, 2010
would ruin the party image for
all times to come. “We want the
immediate removal of Saif-ud-
Din Soz as the state party presi-
dent,” the protesting Congress
workers said while appealing to
Sonia Gandhi to take concrete
steps in this regard “if Congress
was to maintain its clean
political record.”
It is pertinent to mention that
the reaction of the workers came
after the party state chief wel-
comed many new entrants in
the party, including Imtiyaz
Ahmad Parray, son of the infa-
mous counter-insurgent Kukka
Parray and Master Mohammad
Maqbool Malla.
“These new entrants are pure-
ly killers and the party decision
is entirely wrong. The high com-
mand must intervene in order to
maintain the party reputation or
else it will be the end of Congress
in the Kashmir valley,” said
had in September 2007 held that
the state government’s appeal
challenging the couple’s acquit-
tal was maintainable. But the
CBI also moved the apex court
questioning the locus stand of
the state government under
Section 378 of the criminal
Gujarat police not
helping CBI probe
■ By RK Misra
T he CBI which has been
entrusted with the investiga-
tion of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh
fake encounter case by the
Supreme Court is back before the
apex court, frustrated by the non-
cooperation of the Gujarat police.
The CBI has been asking for
some crucial papers pertaining
to the fake encounter case but
the Gujarat police have been
dragging its feet. Sohrabuddin
Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi
were both done in by the Gujarat
police. Sheikh was shot in a fake
encounter after being labelled as
a dangerous terrorist out on a
mission to eliminate the Chief
Ghulam Mohammad Dar, a
Congress block president from
Budgam. Another Congress
worker, Sajad Ahmed alleged
that Soz had acquired 420 kanals
of land by bribing revenue offi-
cials. “Nobody has dared to ask
him from where he acquired
such property.” He accused the
state Congress chief of tarnish-
ing the party’s image.
“Saif-ud-Din Soz and his close
aides in the party have amassed
huge wealth,” alleged Abdul
Razzaq, Congress block presi-
dent from Khan Sahib Budgam.
“In Baramulla and Budgam dis-
tricts he owns branches of
Delhi Public School,” he alleged
adding that while Soz is minting
money running private schools,
ordinary Congress workers’
children are struggling for
bare minimum educational facil-
ities in almost defunct govern-
ment schools. 
procedure code (CrPC).
The revelation by the CBI
director has given the NDA
government an opportunity to
go whole hog against the
Congress and Lalu Prasad
Yadav. “By restraining the CBI
from appealing in either the high
court or the apex court, the
Congress has shown its real
face and that the Congress is
still hand in glove with Lalu,”
said state JD(U) chief Vijay
Kumar Chowdhary.
Even former CBI director
UN Biswas, who investigated
the case questioned the
Centre’s motive. “The case is
really strong and filed
under prevention of corrup-
tion act against a public serv-
ant,” Biswas said. JD(U)
national spokesperson
Shivanand Tiwary said this
was not the first time that the
premier investigating agency
had allowed the accused to go
scot free.
The animal husbandry
department (AHD) scam,
known as the fodder scam had
rocked undivided Bihar in the
1990s when Lalu was the chief
minister. It related to the
fraudulent withdrawal of
Rs 1,153 crore from district
treasuries by AHD officials
in cahoots with the then
chief minister. 
appeared mysteriously and was
later suspected to have been
killed by the police.
The death of prime witness
Tulsiram Prajapati in another
fake encounter has become the
latest bone of contention between
the CBI and the Gujarat police.
The Gujarat state CID (Crime)
has pointblank refused to hand
over the Prajapati papers
to the CBI.Reticent as it is about
handing over crucial papers, the
Gujarat police are however more
than willing to oblige with
police officers to assist in the
investigations. The Gujarat
police have offered the services
of a serving IGP and even subor-
dinate officers to help with the
investigations. 
CURRENT, Monday, April 5–11, 2010 Sniper 05

Rahul’s Royal Shashi Strokes

PRADYOT DEV Burman, for- APART FROM twittering away, External Affairs Minister
mer MLA from Tripura and roy- Shashi Tharoor also keeps busy in keeping fit. The minister,
alty to boot, is said to be getting known to be an ardent cricket fan is also learnt to have a sound
close to Rahul Gandhi these exercise regimen and hits the gym regularly. Recently, when the
days. Pradyot has known minister made time for a friendly game of cricket between FICCI
Gandhi over the years and has and MEA, he flaunted his fitness as he led the MEA to a glorious
been given some key responsi- victory. Tharoor played the winning shot against the FICCI team
bilities of late – among other which was captained by Rajan Bharti Mittal. But it seems it
things he has been chosen to be wasn’t just years of fitness that helped Shashi stroke the ball
part of Rahul Gandhi’s new well. It was rumoured that Tharoor had a special reason to flaunt
Congress magazine. Apart from his cricketing skills – a certain pretty young thing that accompa-
politics and running his royal nied him to the Modern School grounds for the match encour-
palace as a hotel, Pradyot is also aged him to give the game his best. Tharoor surely keeps the
the chairman and managing ticker ticking.
editor of the North East Today
magazine. In fact, Rahul after
facing criticism that he was running the Congress party like an
NGO office seems to be now wary of that tag and wants to focus
on the politics of politics finally! The buzz in AICC circles is
that while the likes of Pradyot are being encouraged, Rahul’s
SANGHITA SINGH
earlier key aides including Sachin Rao have suddenly found
themselves with less work. Gandhi now seems to be looking for
people with greater exposure to grass-root politics while trying
to diminish the effects of corporatization of his office that he
was being criticized for – critics often pointed out the ways of
Rahul’s men Kanishka Singh and Sachin Rao bringing in their
foreign experience to work in the Indian sarkari set-up, which is
far-removed from the real world whose problems Gandhi is here
to address. Without giving up on the swiftness with which
Chindia
CHINA AND India were the
Rahul’s office functions, the young Gandhi is simply trying to only two countries that per-
get real in the Indian political firmament it seems. haps escaped the worst cri-
sis that was felt by the rest
of the world during the glob-
STRANGE, HOW al. Over the years China has
spiritual devotion can emerged as India largest
lead to some cultural trading partner and India
and fashionable has been China’s second
exchanges too. Monica largest trade partner in
Socolosvky, a popular South Asia. Zhang Yan,
Argentine fashion Chinese ambassador to
designer and a firm India, recently shared that
believer of Sathya Sai China and India comple-
baba (a controversial mented each other and that
spiritual head based its bilateral trade volume
in south India) has which stood at US$ 260 mil-
been running a label lion in 1990 rocketed to US$
called Sathya for the 52 billion in 2008. Given the
last 30 years in Buenos impressive achievement by
Aires. Recently the the two countries in driving
lady helped the gov- investments in recent times,
ernments of both
countries to come
together on a cultural
platform. Socolovsky
Sathya the 2010 target of US$ 60 bil-

was part of an Indian fashion show in Argentina, a first-of-its kind

No Stag
that featured designers from both countries on a common platform.
The fashion show organized last week also showcased the works of
Anita Dongre and Nachiket Barve as well as designer Fabian Zita of
Argentina. Socolvsky who has already visited India 96 times is also
now helping Argentine designers to show-case in India to foster ties
between the countries, rather fashionably!
MOST PEOPLE must have been impressed with British foreign sec-
retary David Miliband when he stayed over at a Dalit hut with good

Vineet’s Pom-poms
friend Rahul Gandhi a few months ago. But not many know that the
trend was started much earlier by the present British high commis-
sioner Richard Stagg who spent a few days in a village in Bihar a few
years ago. Stagg was on a visit three years ago to the eastern state
IPL FEVER has caught on all over the country. But one enthusiast who and decided to spend time by mingling with people at the grass-root
has been touched by the viral is Bennett and Coleman MD Vineet Jain. level. His hosts were delighted with the gesture. But Stagg’s stay was
Jain doesn’t just enjoy cricket but likes to cheer every aspect of the no gimmick for the media – he is in fact scheduled to make another
game. While partying in Delhi as part of the overall IPL cheer, the quiet trip to the state and go back to the village to see if there has
young managing director of one of the largest selling papers of the lion is not a far-fetched been any significant change since his last visit. It seems he had initi-
country recently landed at a Delhi party with a gaggle of ‘friends’. After dream, it seems. While there ated some development projects with the Nitish Kumar government
some hot gossip about who could the bunch of effervescent bubbly are big plans for Indo- in the area and hopes that his little contribution would have made
beauties be people at the party realized that Jain was just being his Chinese business on both some difference. Here’s an ambassador who has really taken people-
hospitable self and had invited some IPL cheer-leaders for an evening sides, foreign secretary to-people interaction to another level – while most ambassadors are
of partying with him. Vineet Jain surely is a businessman with the Nirupama Rao who served remembered by the company they keep in the Capital, here’s one guy
touch. Three cheers Vineet! as Indian ambassador to who will always be cherished by the Dalit whose home he shared.
China before assuming her
new office seems to think
that if Indians could actual-
ly learn the fine-art of alac-
rity that the Chinese display,
there would be huge prog-
ress made by Indian busi-
ness as well. While in China,
Rao experienced the fine-art
of working minus red-tape
and said that the Chinese
did not believe in moving
files from one office to the
other. If the work needed to
be done, permissions could
be sought in a day’s time. If
only we could learn some
bureaucratic lessons from
China, our sarkari corridors
could become more inviting.