Indian News Briefly | DesPardes.com

BHUBANESHWAR, DEC 7: India successfully tested on Wednesday a surface-to-air missile for the second time in five days from a coastal range in the east of the country. The domestically developed Akash missile was fired from the Chandipur-on-Sea testing site, 125 miles northeast of Orissa state capital Bhubaneswar.

The 1,540-pound Akash, can track 100 targets simultaneously with onboard radar. It is able to move at a speed of 600 meters (yards) a second and deliver a 55-kilogram warhead across 27 kilometers in 50 seconds.

Study Predicts 100 Million India Web Users

DEC 7: The number of Internet users in India will shoot to 100 million in two years from the current 38.5 million, an industry study said. The number of Internet users has soared 54 percent from 25 million users in 2004-2005.

The catalyst for this growth was the rise in online shopping for airline and rail tickets, books and home appliances, Preeti Desai, president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, said Wednesday.

Desai said the forecast was based on increasing use of e-commerce and online communication.

The e-commerce market was likely to grow to rupees 23 billion ($511 million) by 2006-2007 from the present rupees 11.8 billion ($262 million), the trade group study said.

The association conducted the survey in October and polled 882 people who shopped online from cyber cafes. It offered no margin of error.

The number of cyber cafes in cities and towns across India moved from 18,000 in 2001 to 105,350 this year, the study said. (AP)

Jagat suspicious of sequence of events

NEW DELHI, DEC 7 � Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh's son Jagat Singh refuses to name any individual as to how the Iraq oil-for-food scandal has ensnared his family, but says categorically that the way the controversy has unfolded is cause for "many suspicions".

In an interview with the BBC Hindi service before his father offered to resign from the union cabinet late on Monday, Jagat Singh admitted that both of them were passing through a difficult phase and added that he was confident they would come out clean.

"The way this entire issue has unfolded, it raises many doubts and the entire sequence of events leaves behind a trail of questions, raising many suspicions in our minds," he told BBC. He said he would not want to comment "at this point of time" on whether there was a conspiracy against his family.

The legislator from Rajasthan reiterated that they were ready for all kinds of probes.

Answering a question on whether he and his father were isolated in the party after former prot�g� and ambassador to Croatia Aneil Matherani's damning disclosures, Jagat Singh said: "We are not thinking about future and strategies at the moment. We are ready for all kinds of probes."

He added, however, that Matherani's utterances lacked conviction.

"Till 10 days back he was in India and was asked by Indian Express newspaper about the allegations. At that time he had said it was all baseless. Then 10 days later, he decides to speak to India Today (magazine) from Croatia over telephone and makes wild statements, then retracts later in the day."

Jagat Singh said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's Sunday night decision to remove Natwar Singh from the party's steering committee was her right.

"So far as the removal from the steering committee is concerned, it is party president Sonia Gandhi's prerogative whom she wants in the steering committee and whom she does not want! She is the authority, it is her decision and she has every right to decide."

According to Jagat Singh, it was "not fair" for Randeep Surjewala, the Youth Congress president, to say that he had not taken permission for his earlier trips to Iraq.

Bill Gates meet Anil Ambani, discuss IPTV

New Delhi, Dec 7 - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates today met Reliance Infocomm chief Anil Ambani and discussed cooperation between the two companies on next-generation Internet Protocol (IP)-based television services in India.

"I had a chance to meet Anil Ambani today. We will now help them in rolling out broadband services... he has a strategy in place and we will play a key role in helping them," Gates said after the meeting.

Reliance Infocommm had signed an agreement with Microsoft in October 2003 for rolling out IPTV in India.

"We are putting renewed energy into the (IPTV) tie-up," Gates said.

IPTV has been successful in US and Microsoft is doing something of this type in a developing nation for the first time, he said, adding that a clear picture would emerge next year.

Air ban on holy man�s staff sparks violence
A holy Man

NEW DELHI, Dec 7 - Indian police have used canes to beat back hundreds of angry followers of a Hindu seer when they took to the streets of two cities after the guru was barred from carrying his staff on board a commercial flight.

Narendra Maharaj, a little-known holy man was barred from taking his staff on a flight from Lucknow to Mumbai on Tuesday because of security rules, an officer of the Central Industrial Security Force, which is charged with protecting airports, said.

�When he arrived in Mumbai, the officials tried to pacify him and requested him to talk to his supporters but he refused,� he said. About 500 of the guru�s supporters protested.

�The unruly mob refused to let passengers in or out of the building. The security personnel tried to pacify them but they didn�t listen.�

The seer, clad in saffron robes, was shown on television demanding the sacking of the policemen who caned his supporters.

On Wednesday, a similar mob rallied at the Aurangabad airport, near Mumbai, believed to be his base. By early afternoon, another crowd had begun gathering at Mumbai airport.

Intel to invest more than 1bn dollars in India

DEC 5: The chairman of Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, said Monday the company planned to invest more than one billion dollars to expand in India in the next five years, a news report said. The company plans to invest 800 million dollars in operations in the next five years and set up a 250-million-dollar venture capital fund in the country, the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Intel chairman Craig Barrett as saying.

Natwar Dumped! Will Resign
Natwar Singh coming out of 10 Janpath after meeting Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.

NEW JERSEY, DEC 5: After he was removed from the Congress party's steering committee, Crestfallen Natwar Singh announced he will resign once prime minister Manmohan Singh returns from Russia.

Sonia Gandhi had talked to Manmohan Singh � who was away in Russia � on phone before going public with the resolution sacking Natwar.

Natwar Singh met Sonia at 10 Janpath in New Delhi Monday night to inform her of his decision to resign. �I have taken the decision in the larger interests of the Congress,� he reportedly told Sonia.

Earlier in the day, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had, in the wake of Natwar�s dismissal from the Congress steering (working) committee, deciphered the party�s message for his senior colleague: take the cue and bow out.

Also read:

Volcker 'Category 2' storm now

Natwar Singh's Barrel Sinks

Natwar meets Singh, sans resignation

Envoy secures UN docs on Natwar Singh

Congress lawyers knock at Annan door

�Natwar Singh has an acute mind. He understands the subtleties of the game,� Sibal said amid reports that the steering panel�s resolution against the former external affairs minister had the support of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Put together, the jigsaw puzzle of a minister advising another to quit fell in place, reported Hindustan Times.

The Congress party, however as of now, is reportedly on very strong legal footing. A source in the ministry of external affairs told rediff.com there was no documentary evidence against the party in the scam.

The documents obtained by India's Special Envoy Virender Dayal from the UN Independent Inquiry Committee led by Paul Volcker show how the oil vouchers were allegedly allotted to Natwar Singh when he visited Baghdad along with a Congress delegation and his son Jagat Singh.

The investigators have not just documents of allotment by Iraq's then President Saddam Hussein, but enough supporting documents also. Among these are signatures and bank documents of the people reportedly involved in the scam, says a media report.

Thse evidences show that the same parties executed the allotments to Natwar Singh and to the Congress.

The documents, however, make no mention of the Congress party as suspected by the Opposition and critics of party president Sonia Gandhi.

A party source said these developments led Sonia Gandhi to believe that Natwar Singh misused the party's name to make money. The end result: the party has distanced itself from Natwar, said rediff.com

(DesPardes News Monitor)

Volcker 'Category 2' storm now
Natwar Singh

DEC 5: Sleuths from the intelligence agencies and the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday night picked up for questioning India's Ambassador to Croatia Anil Mathrani whose reported claims in connection with the Volcker issue have led to a fresh standoff between Congress and the Opposition.

Mathrani was met by officials from the Enforcement Directorate and intelligence agencies as soon as he landed at the airport in New Delhi on Saturday night and taken to an undisclosed location to verify his statements given to NDTV - a TV channel and India Today, an influential newsmagazine.

A news report says Minister without portfolio Natwar Singh on Sunday refused to "sacrifice" himself by quitting the Union Council of Ministers as it would look like an admission of guilt and might not stop with his resignation. The Opposition will use my resignation to further tarnish the reputation of the Congress Party. I will not let this happen."

Breaking his silence, Mr. Jagat Singh, Natwar Singh's son admitted that he was not part of the official Congress delegation but had gone in his capacity as Youth Congress leader to assist his father, as he was unwell. He said he had informed the [then] Youth Congress president R.S. Surjewala, who had endorsed the trip, but Mr. Surjewala denied in an interview to a TV channel Jagat Singh's assertion. "No one approached me for this. I did not clear the visit," said Mr. Surjewala, who is now the Haryana Transport Minister.

Meanwhile, the Volcker storm in Parliament is unlikely to subside till the return of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, from Moscow on Wednesday . An all-party meeting tomorrow to break the deadlock was called off.

The planned meeting to break the logjam was put off due to Opposition's insistence over the presence of the Prime Minister, who is also Leader of the Rajya Sabha.

Maintaining that Natwar Singh was being made a scapegoat by the Congress to "save its skin" in the Iraqi oil deals, Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, today again demanded that the ruling party apply the same yardstick and remove Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson of the National Advisory Council.

Uma Bharati

Addressing a press conference here, the BJP President also rubbished the suggestion that the Opposition was raising its pitch on the Volcker report to divert attention from the Uma Bharti issue saying while one dealt with the party's internal affairs, the other related to "purity in politics".

Advani, who drew parallels between the present situation and the run-up to the Emergency, said "in Mumbaiya Hindi, one could say Congress Ka Lafda Hai, Natwar To Bakra Hain (The Congress is the culprit and Natwar Singh is being made a scapegoat. It is important for the country that the Congress role in the whole episode becomes clear.

"The Leader of the Opposition (in Rajya Sabha) was not allowed to speak. A blanket is put around the Indian Ambassador to Croatia and he is whisked away on returning to the country reminding one of the midnight knocks during the Emergency. The Prime Minister says he will consider if Natwar Singh offers to resign. All these statements show the ruling party in bad light. The Minister and his family are repeatedly saying don't make us a scapegoat."

"It seems obvious that the present mood in the ruling establishment is that if blame is put on one person, the party may perhaps be able to get out of it", he said.

"It was bad enough for an individual to be named in the Volcker Report but that the Congress has been named is more serious. You cannot have double standards. Natwar Singh has been stripped of his portfolio. The same approach should be adopted in the case of the Congress President also. Until investigations are complete, the NAC Chairman should quit office", Advani said.

Advani

The Leader of the Opposition, however, alleged that "other considerations were weighing with the party, not accountability".

Terming the Winter Session of Parliament as a "single scam session" and "Iraqi oil scam session", he said, the "oil scam is getting murkier and murkier with every passing day. Correspondingly for the Government, the situation is becoming more and more slippery. There is a sinking feeling".

"That the UN report should name a senior Minister of the UPA and its principal party is bad in itself. The manner in which it is being handled is even worse", he said.

While the principal defense of the ruling coalition was the names were unverified, the Aneil Matherani episode has given a "new turn to the story. It is verification by an insider that there is substance in the allegations," he said.

Matherani, Advani said, was not an ordinary person but one of the four persons sent by the party to Iraq as also then Secretary of its Foreign Affairs Cell.

He said while the Congress' "displeasure" over him was understandable, the manner in which he was treated when he returned showed how the coalition was "messing up the whole thing".

Dalmiya quits as head of Asian body

KOLKATA, Dec 3 (Reuters) Former International Cricket Council (ICC) president Jagmohan Dalmiya resigned as chief of the Asian cricket body on Saturday after his group was voted out in last week's Indian board elections. "In the wake of the recent changes in the Indian board, I feel it is only appropriate that I tender my resignation with immediate effect from both positions," he said in a statement.

Natwar meets Singh, sans resignation

DEC 3: Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, fuelling speculation about his resignation.

Singh, who was accused by his close aide and India's Ambassador to Croatia Anil Mathrani of receiving oil allotment from Saddam's regime for his "personal services", drove to the Prime Minister's official residence for a meeting that lasted about 40 minutes.

Though there was no official word on what transpired at the meeting, sources said he is not resigning, according to media reports.

Earlier, putting up a brave front, Natwar Singh told reporters on the margins of a function in New Delhi that he would "face" the "struggle".

"There is a struggle, we will face it," he said when asked whether he found himself in a situation of "struggle" like Mangal Pandey, the hero of India's first independence struggle of 1857, because of the latest developments.

Singh refused to make any further comments, including whether he would send a legal notice to Mathrani for comments attributed to him by a news magazine alleging that he had received oil vouchers for himself and his Congress party.

Related stories:

Foreign aide sinks Natwar

Advani asks Sonia, to quit post

"Natwar did get oil vouchers"