‘Clean politics’ in UP, Raja Bhaiya style –ToI-16.3.12

Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav formally took over the reins of UP on Thursday when he was sworn in as chief minister along with a team of 47 ministers, most of them old Mulayam Singh Yadav loyalists, among them the controversial Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya who has been booked under POTA and has several cases pending against him. 
    As the team didn’t quite inspire confidence in his promise of providing clean politics in UP, many wondered whether Akhilesh has had a free hand in picking his ministry. Only one member of the socalled ‘Team Akhilesh’ – IIM-Ahmedabad’s former professor Abhishek Mishra – has been picked as a minister of state. 
    The size of the ministry is small compared to Mulayam’s jumbo-sized 98-member cabinet, but it is still much larger than initial estimates as Akhilesh himself had talked about a small team. Doubts were being raised on the Samajwadi Party’s intentions to check crime and criminals as 28 out of 47 ministers have criminal cases against them, even though a number of these cases could be political in nature. 
    At a ceremony at the La Martiniere school grounds, 19 cabinet ministers were inducted and 28 ministers of state. The ceremony was attended by several political bigwigs, among them Union cabinet minister Pawan Bansal and veteran Congress leader Motilal Vora. There were also Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury of CPM and A B Bardhan of CPI which made political pundits wonder whether Mulayam was cosying up to the Left for the possible formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP political front. 
    While the SP was successful in shedding its anti-English, anti-computer image under Akhilesh during the election campaign, he will still have to explain the inclusion of the likes of Raja Bhaiya and Mahmoob Ali, who faces 15 criminal cases. Akhilesh later defended Raja Bhaiya’s inclusion saying he had been a minister before. Akhilesh tries to do a balancing act 
    After the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, Akhilesh Yadav went to the CM office at the secretariat annexe to take charge and later addressed a news conference at 5, Kalidas Marg –official residence of the UP CM – where he promised to implement all the promises made in the party manifesto. At his first cabinet meeting it was decided that all girl students passing Class X would be given laptops. 
    This done, the Mulayam Singh family, including Akhilesh and his wife Dimple and Shivpal Yadav, headed for Sahara Sheher for a lunch hosted by Sahara chief Subrata Roy. The lunch was also attended by the visiting Left leaders and other political and business notables, including Anil Ambani. Jaya Bachchan and Zayed Khan. 
    At one level, Akhilesh’s team has been picked with care – almost all castes and communities have found representation. Although the 18% job quota for Muslims promised by SP is yet to materialize, the party has given 20% ministerial berths to the community by inducting 10 ministers – threecabinet and seven ministers of state. The maximum number of Cabinet ministers are Yadavs (6), followed by five Thakurs, three Brahmins, and two Dalits. 
    While L K Advani didn’t turn up for the swearing in, leaving Kalraj Mishra as the sole BJP representative, the presence of BSP leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Swami Prasad Maurya was a surprise. The unexpected arrival of BSP leaders evoked a warm welcome as senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav hugged them and later escorted the two to meet Mulayam.

Cops name 3 Iranians in attack on Israeli embassy car-ToI-15.3.12

New Delhi: Exactly a month after ‘international terrorism’ hit New Delhi with a bomb attack on an Israelidiplomat’scar,theDelhiPolice and intelligence agencies say they have identified three Iranians behindthebombing. 
    Sources said the three, all holding Iranian passports, are Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr and Mohammad Reza Abolghasemi. They came to Delhi on tourist visas15daysbeforethe attack and left after the bombing for a middle-eastern country. Houshangwastheonewhostuckthe magnetic IED on Israeli diplomat Tal Yehoshua Koren’sToyota Innovaon Feb13, a police source said, adding that the nameswere revealedby arrestedIndian freelance journalist Syed MohammadAhmadKazmi. 
    The Delhi Police on Wednesday got “open warrants” issued against the trio. India will now formally give the names to the Iranian government. The investigation agencies are also trying to find out the group within Iran to which three are affiliated to. “Preliminary investigations suggest they belong to the Iranian spy agency,” a source said. Delhi Police commissioner B KGupta islikely tohold a pressconference on Thursday or Friday to sharedetailsof theinvestigations. 
    The source said the passport of Houshang Irani, son of Ataollah, wasissuedon Jan 9,2010,by theIranian government. Similarly, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr, son of Seyed Ebrahim, had his passport issued on Dec 25, 2008, and that of Mohammad Reza Abolghasemi, son of Mohammad Javad, was issued on Dec 2, 2008. All three had visited India earlier aswell. 
    Irani had reportedly come to Delhi in Feb 2011 and met Kazmi and also stayed with him for some time, the source said. This time around, the bombers stayed at a Paharganjhotel. 
    On thedayof blast,sourcessaid, Irani rented a black Hero Honda Passion Pro bike from Karol Bagh and followed Yehoshua’s car as shewasheading towardstheAmerican school.Asthecar stopped attheAurangzeb Road-Safdarjung Road crossing,hestuckthe magneticIED on the right side of the car and fled. The cops have recovered the black bike. 
    Amid protests over journalist Kazmi’s arrest in the case, cops firmly said he was part of the conspiracy and providedlogisticalhelp to the bombers. Delhi Police had recovered a moped, HR51-5306, from Kazmi’s residence when he was arrestedon March6. Sourcessaidthis mopedwasusedby the attackersfor recce. 
FOREIGN PLOT 
Police say case cracked. Their findings 
Three Iranian nationals — Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr & Mohd Reza Abolghasemi — planned and carried out attack on Israeli diplomat 
Their passport no.s will be given to Iranian embassy and warrants issued 
Trio came on tourist visas and fled to a middle-eastern country after bombing 
Arrested journalist Syed Mohd Ahmad Kazmi gave logistical support to bombers.

‘Eating red meat could lead to early death’-ToI-14.3.12

    Eating a portion of processed red meat daily can boost a person’s risk of dying young by up to 20%, said a long-running US study of more than 120,000 people released on Monday.
    While the research by Harvard University experts offers more evidence that eating red meat increases the risk of heart disease and cancer, it also counsels that substituting fish and poultry may lower early death risk.
    “This study provides clear evidence that regular consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, contributes substantially to premature death,” said Frank Hu, senior author of the study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
    Researchers gleaned their data from a study of 37,698 men who were followed for 22 years and 83,644 women who were tracked for 28 years. Subjects answered surveys about their eating habits every four years. Those who ate a card-deck-sized serving of unprocessed red meat each day on average saw a 13% higher risk of dying than others. And if the red meat was processed, like in a hot dog or two slices of bacon, that risk jumped to 20%. AFP

Forced conversion of Hindus in Pak jolts US out of slumber-ToI-14.3.12

Washington: Pakistan’s state-endorsed discrimination, and in some cases extermination, of its minorities has finally caught the eye of Washington lawmakers. Coming on the heels of support in Congress for a Baloch homeland in the face of Islamabad’s depredations in the region, a US Congressman has zeroed in on the abduction and forced religious conversion of Hindus in the country highlighted by the case of Rinkel Kumari. 
    In a sharply-worded letter to Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari, Congressman Brad Sherman urged him to take action to ensure the return of Rinkel Kumari to her family, pursuant to reports that she had been abducted with the help of a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker. 
    In a case that has been widely reported in the liberal Pakistani media, Rinkel, who was abducted on February 24, was forced to marry one Naveed Shah and convert to Islam. 
    She was subsequently produced before a civil judge twice, but she was reportedly coerced into claiming that she had converted on her own will, even as her family was denied access to her in kangaroo court proceedings that revealed in video clips to be led by a frenzied mob of zealots, including armed followers of the Pakistani lawmaker. 
    According to Pakistani civil liberties activists in Washington, Rinkel was allegedly threatened while in police custody that if she did not change her statement, she and her family would be killed. 
    “Rinkel’s case is just one case of abduction and forced religious conversion in Pakistan,” Sherman said in the letter to Zardari, citing the Asian Human Rights commission figure of 20-25 kidnappings and forced conversions of Hindu girls in Sindh every month.

Forced conversion of Hindus in Pak jolts US out of slumber-ToI-14.3.12

Washington: Pakistan’s state-endorsed discrimination, and in some cases extermination, of its minorities has finally caught the eye of Washington lawmakers. Coming on the heels of support in Congress for a Baloch homeland in the face of Islamabad’s depredations in the region, a US Congressman has zeroed in on the abduction and forced religious conversion of Hindus in the country highlighted by the case of Rinkel Kumari. 
    In a sharply-worded letter to Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari, Congressman Brad Sherman urged him to take action to ensure the return of Rinkel Kumari to her family, pursuant to reports that she had been abducted with the help of a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker. 
    In a case that has been widely reported in the liberal Pakistani media, Rinkel, who was abducted on February 24, was forced to marry one Naveed Shah and convert to Islam. 
    She was subsequently produced before a civil judge twice, but she was reportedly coerced into claiming that she had converted on her own will, even as her family was denied access to her in kangaroo court proceedings that revealed in video clips to be led by a frenzied mob of zealots, including armed followers of the Pakistani lawmaker. 
    According to Pakistani civil liberties activists in Washington, Rinkel was allegedly threatened while in police custody that if she did not change her statement, she and her family would be killed. 
    “Rinkel’s case is just one case of abduction and forced religious conversion in Pakistan,” Sherman said in the letter to Zardari, citing the Asian Human Rights commission figure of 20-25 kidnappings and forced conversions of Hindu girls in Sindh every month.