BJP RIFT DEEPENS , Yashwant Quits Party Posts 13 June 2009,PTI, Times of India:NEW DELHI: Trouble in BJP deepened on Saturday with Yashwant Sinha quitting as vice-president even as party President Rajnath Singh threatened action against leaders violating party discipline and airing their views in public. Sinha, who was the BJP vice-president, also quit from the party’s national executive. For More...... CLICK HERE Morcha asks hills to stock up for ‘long strike’

OUR CORRESPONDENT, The Telegraph: Darjeeling, June 12: The advent of the monsoon signalling an end to tourist season in the Darjeeling hills has prompted the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha once again to revive its agitation for Gorkhaland — this time in the nature of a “long strike”.

However, Morcha president Bimal Gurung, who had not called a general strike of more than six days last year, has appealed to the people to be ready and his outfit has already started setting up godowns to stock up foodgrain to tide over the agitation phase.

The date for the commencement of the strike will be announced once the central committee of the party meets in a few days, he said, in an interview to a local cable channel here last evening.

Explaining why his party had refrained from any agitation in the past four months, Gurung said: “There was no agitation because of the board examinations and the tourist season. Had I intensified the movement, drivers, hoteliers and everyone connected to the tourism industry would have been very angry, but that period is over.”

“We have already sent an MP, Jaswant Singh, to Delhi and now need to convey a message to the capital and the rest of Bengal from the grassroots level. There will be hardships but we must not forget our issue of statehood,” Gurung said. Going by his statement, the strike is likely to begin at the end of June that marks an end to the tourist season.

Even then, with the Morcha chief announcing that the party would stock up godowns with food items and urging people to do the same, tour operators are wary of the effects of prolonged strikes. “The tourism sector is a sensitive one and lengthy disruption at any time of the year is bound to have a long-term effect,” one of them said.

As far as tea gardens are concerned, planters are not too worried as the Morcha usually leaves the sector out of its strikes. However, if the party includes gardens, as Gurung said he wanted to make an impact on Delhi and the rest of Bengal, planters fear that they might be affected very badly.

“The first flush was poor as the weather was dry and with heavy rain during the second flush, the soil temperature has come down. We expect the second flush to continue till the third week of July. If there is a strike in the tea industry at that time, gardens will suffer very badly,” a planter said.

Many here feel the agitation should take place in phases. “The monsoon has arrived and immediate relief and restoration need to be carried out to prevent the havoc of the type caused by landslides at the end of last month. Taking this aspect into account, I do not think the Morcha will go for prolonged strikes,” a resident said.

Last year, the most prolonged strike was for six days — from June 17 to 22. But the party had kept government offices closed for almost two months at a stretch only to allow them to open for disbursement of salaries.

GJM reaps Jaswant benefit, to meet Manmohan next week

Kartyk Venkatraman

Posted: Friday , Jun 12, 2009 at 0418 hrs IST, INDIAN EXPRESS

Kolkata: The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha’s decision to get BJP leader Jaswant Singh elected from Darjeeling seems to be paying off as senior Morcha leaders will accompany him for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week.

Though the meeting will primarily focus on the relief measures in the hills, where over 20 people died in the recent landslides, the Morcha is open to any discussion, including their statehood demand.

“A GJM delegation will accompany Singh. I cannot say when or who will be going. The details will be made clear on June 13,” said Roshan Giri, general secretary of the GJM.

The meeting assumes significance as it stands apart from the ongoing tripartite talks being held between the Centre, West Bengal government and the GJM.

Giri said the delegation’s focus will be on the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila. “We want to focus on relief. If the Gorkhaland issue comes up, we will discuss that too,” he added.

Sources in the party said Jaswant Singh had recently taken up the issue of the damages with the Prime Minister. Besides seeking assistance for landslide victims from Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, he had also raised the issue with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, asking for the release of special funds for a natural calamity for Darjeeling.

Singh has also requested for the inclusion of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong in projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Demand to lift rafting suspension

The Telegraph:Teesta Bazar, June 12: River guides based here and in Melli have demanded that the DGHC immediately lift the suspension it had imposed on the rafting in the Teesta following a mishap about two weeks back. However, the 70-odd guides of the 18 rafting units in these areas under the banner of Red and White River Rescue Group and Guides’ Association were prevented from going ahead with their plan to block the Teesta-Pesho-Jorbunglow road for 12 hours by the Teesta branch of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today. The guides said they were being made scapegoats following the June-1 incident in which a tourist from Mumbai died after a raft had capsized in the river near Chitrey. “The tourism department (of the DGHC) is now saying we are not trained. What was the department doing all these years? Had we not been competent, we wouldn’t have been able to rescue 11 of the 12 rafters on board when the mishap occurred,” said Sanjog Gupta, the vice-president of the guides’ association. The proof of their skill, he said, lies in the fact that many of them were hired by rafting groups in Jammu and Kashmir and Arun achal Pradesh. The guides said with the rafting season only 15 to 20 days away from ending, it was imperative for the authorities to lift the suspension, as their families survived on their earnings. The off-season lasts for three months from July to September. “We have lost 12 days of earning. Rafting is the only source of my family’s income,” said Dipen Gurung, a guide. While each guide gets Rs 250 for one rafting trip, his assistant’s fee is Rs 100. On a good day, the guides manage to do three or four trips. “It is not just the guides, but at least 70 per cent of the economy of the Melli-Teesta bazaar-29 Mile area also depends on rafts,” said Saran Chhetri, the Morcha’s Teesta branch president. Chhetri said his party would take up the cause of the river guides with the DGHC authorities on Monday. “We will have to settle the issue across the table. The blame game must stop. We realise that the guides have little employment opportunities here,”he said. Toy Train to Sikkim takes shape Staesman News Service: SILIGURI, 12 JUNE: The Member Mechanical the Indian Railway Board Mr Praveen Kumar today said here that the IRB was giving final shape to a World Heritage toy train service for the Himalayan state of Sikkim. “Hopefully, the work would start this year. When complete, it would prove a watershed in the tourism sector of the north east region of the country,” Mr Kumar said after a high- level railway mechanical board meeting at the Siliguri Junction today. “We have taken up a Rs 15 crore project. Work on the project would start once the Parliament gives the final nod. The revamping work being complete, the shed would accommodate 100 diesel locomotives in place of its present capacity of 50,” Mr Kumar said. “We would also put into execution a 4000 Horse Power engine for the trains operating through the Siliguri Junction,” the railway mechanical board member added.

BJP rules out any action against Jaswant

12 Jun 2009, 1942 hrs IST, PTI, Times of India : NEW DELHI: Struggling to come to grips with the electoral drubbing and the deepening divisions within, BJP president Rajnath Singh on Friday met

L K Advani and other leaders on a day when the party ruled out any action against senior leader Jaswant Singh for raising issues. ( Watch )

With less than 10 days for the national executive to meet here to analyse the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, Singh started parleys with leaders in an apparent bid to try and do some damage-control to see that the rift in the party does not not go further.

But no sooner than he reached Advani's house speculation was rife that some sort of disciplinary action could be taken against Jaswant Singh, who had reportedly questioned the way the party was being run and sought a link between electoral performance and rewards.

Party spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy, however, dismissed such reports saying since there was no proposal that action should be taken against Jaswant Singh there was no question of taking any action.

"To understand his (Jaswant Singh's) words as accusations against some party leaders is wrong. Media is wrong in saying that action will be taken," he said.

Rudy said Jaswant Singh has raised certain issues and the party would consider them. He also would not accept any comparison between Jaswant Singh, a senior leader, and Sudheendra Kulkarni, a close aide of Advani, who had written articles that have come under attack from party leaders.

Though BJP is downplaying Jaswant's outburst in the core committee meeting, the party is unsparing when it comes to Advani's close aide Sudheendhra Kulkarni-- who had gone public with his views on the poll debacle in a periodical.

"His criticism of the party's poll defeat was unacceptable as he was a part of the team. We have strong reservations about how Kulkarni presented himself after elections," Rudy said.

Rudy agreed that though Kulkarni was not a party functionary, he was privy to decision making and played an advisory role to Advani.

In the core committee meeting on Wednesday at Advani's house, Jaswant's criticism was seen as an attack on the nomination of Arun Jaitley, chief strategist during the elections, as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and Sushma Swaraj as the Deputy Leader of the party in Lok Sabha.

Jaswant himself kept away from the media today and sources close to him said he does not want to get into any further controversy.

NO ACTION AGAINST JASWANT-BJP

IANS , 12 June NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday ruled out taking action against veteran leader Jaswant Singh for voicing in the media criticism of the party after the poll debacle but it said the leadership does not approve of such issues being discussed publicly.“There is no proposal (for action) against Jaswant Singh (and so) there is no question of taking any action,” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.“Interpreting his words as charges against some party leaders is wrong. The media is wrong in saying that action will be taken against him,” he told reporters.The party would discuss the issues raised by the former external affairs minister, said Rudy, adding that the senior BJP leaders “feel that the party’s internal issues should not be brought in the media or the public.” On Wednesday Jaswant Singh angrily stated at the party’s core group meeting at the residence of L.K. Advani that there should be a connect between “parinaam aur puraskar (results and rewards)”.His reference was to Arun Jaitley who was the chief poll manager for the party and was later made the leader of the opposition in the upper house of parliament, a post which Jaswant Singh held before being elected to the Lok Sabha.Jaswant Singh is also learnt to have said that those who were in the charge of the elections were now finding faults with the campaign by writing in the media.Besides Jaitley writing in the Indian Express, key Advani aide and pol strategist Sudheendra Kulkarni has analysed the poll results in the Tehelka newsmagazine. They have made comments critical of the party.Next was Jaswant Singh, who in an interview to the NDTV television channel, said the BJP needed to be a “current party” and should reinvent itself.Rumours that action would be taken against Jaswant Singh began after Advani met party president Rajnath Singh, even though Jaswant had strongly defended Advani’s candidature as the party’s prime ministerial nominee.