Month: February 2020

Deepak Pant

The world of diplomacy is predicated on national interests couched in politeness, spin and a way with words. The work of diplomats is less under scrutiny and known to the public at large than that of civil servants working within the country. But declassified documents can shed a light on the cut-and-thrust between diplomats and the administration of the country they are posted in.

One such Indian diplomat was L M Singhvi, who had one of the longest tenures in London as India’s high commissioner, from 1991 to 1997. He was in post during celebrations to mark 50 years of India’s independence, and was known to vigorously push India’s interests in the UK.

One of his proposals was to celebrate India-UK friendship in 1996 by placing sculptures of the two prime ministers at the time – P V Narasimha Rao and John Major – in a public place. But this unnerved top British officials, who exchanged several confidential letters for six months. The proposal was made in December 1995 by Singhvi, who wanted Major to attend the ceremony in London on January 26, 1996, the documents released by National Archives show.

The idea was to place the two sculptures in 10 Downing Street or the Treasury office, but officials opposed it because it contravened the convention against statues in public places to living UK politicians – the two venues are considered public places.

“There is no written rule about this, but is well-established convention. Both HM The Queen and HM The Queen Mother have decreed that there should be no statues of them erected in the United Kingdom during their lifetimes”, the Foreign Office wrote to Number 10.

Besides, the note released by National Archives added: “A general election is expected in India in April. It is possible that the Prime Minister’s attendance at the unveiling of twin sculptures of himself and Narasimha Rao could be seen in India as an intervention in Indian politics.”

John Holmes, Major’s private secretary, wrote to him: “An odd story. You will know that the Indian High Commissioner here, Dr Singhvi, is pushy and not easily put off…Having taken advice, I wrote back to say that it was not usual practice here to erect sculptures of living British politicians”.

“This would have put off most people, but not Dr Singhvi. He telephoned me to explain that he had specially commissioned the sculpture from Shenda Amery…He would still like to present you with the sculpture and put it somewhere appropriate”.

After several exchanges between Downing Street and the Foreign Office, Major met Singhvi on May 1, 1996, when the latter said Narasimha Rao was likely to emerge as the leader of the single largest party in the Indian election (the BJP won the largest number of seats).

A note on the meeting said: “Singhvi presented the Prime Minister with a small bust of Gandhi. He also brought along the bust of the Prime Minister which he had commissioned…The Prime Minister explained, again, that it was not the practice here to display publicly busts of serving politicians”.

“We have returned it to the High Commissioner’s office for private display”, it added.

S L Sharpe in the Foreign Office had advised Holmes that Major should accept the Gandhi bust, but added: “You should however be aware that the bust is not unique. The Foreign Secretary accepted such a bust when Dr Singhvi called on him…I think the Home Secretary has one too”.

“So Dr Singhvi seems to have a job lot to dispose of. (The inscription says that the bust commemorates the 125th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth in 1869 – so he has been a bit slow about it!),” the letter remarked.

British officials also doubted another of Singhvi’s proposal for a video-conference lasting between 5 and 10 minutes on live television between Major and Rao to commemorate 125 years of communication links between the two countries in early 1996.

“We doubt whether this proposal, which appears to be a personal initiative of Dr Singhvi, has yet been cleared with Prime Minister Rao. We would not want therefore to recommend that the Prime Minister agree at this late stage to participate in what we judge to be a rather ill-prepared scheme”, the Foreign Office wrote to Downing Street on January 15, 1996.

Singhvi, a jurist, writer and parliamentarian who passed away in 2007, was one of the few high commissioners since 1947 who were not career diplomats. He was appointed to the office by Narasimha Rao, and remained in the post until 1997 as governments changed in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appreciated efforts of officials of national carrier Air India and the Ministry of Health, which conducted evacuation operations of the stranded Indians in Wuhan city.

“The Prime Minister has issued a letter of appreciation to the team members of the evacuation operations. This letter would be handed over to the crew by Minister of State for Civil Aviation,” read a release from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

In two separate operations, Air India evacuated a total of 640 Indians from Wuhan city, which is the epicenter of the widely spreading deadly novel coronavirus.

“Despite being aware of the aforementioned severe situation in the region, the Air India sent two B-747 aircraft with teams of Air India as well as teams from Ministry of Health for two consecutive days, i.e. 31st January 2020 and on 1st February 2020, returning the next day,” read the release.

People who were evacuated from Wuhan, earlier this month, are kept under quarantines built at the ITBP facility in Delhi’s Chhawla and Army facility in Haryana’s Manesar.

(ANI)

The Delhi Police on Thursday said that it will take match-fixing accused Sanjeev Chawla, who was brought to New Delhi on Wednesday after his extradition from London, to various places including the venues where matches of India-South Africa series were played in the year 2000 for investigation in the match-fixing case.

On Thursday, Chawla was sent to 12-day police custody by Delhi’s Patiala House Court.

“First of all he has to be interrogated at length to unearth the whole conspiracy, all accused involved in India or abroad are to be identified. He has to be taken to Cochin, Jamshedpur, Faridabad, Vadodra, Nagpur Mumbai and Bangalore for investigation and detailed interrogation and confrontation with other accused persons is to be carried out to completely unearth the match fixing conspiracy,” the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch told the court.

The match-fixing racket was busted by the Delhi police in 2000.

Terming Chawla as the “main conduit” in the match fixing in India-South Africa cricket series in 2000, the Delhi Police Crime Branch had sought Chawla’s custody for 14 days. However, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sudhir Kumar Sirohi permitted Delhi Police to quiz Chawla only for 12 days.

Speaking to reporters here, DCP Crime Branch Ram Gopal Naik said there were six accused in the chargesheet of whom three were arrested.

“The other two accused were Sanjeev Chawla and Manohar Khattar. Khattar is in the US as per our information,” Naik said.

Former South African captain Hansie Cronje, who later died in a plane crash, had also been named in the chargesheet.

In India vs South Africa Series, five one day matches and three Test matches were played. The ODI matches were played at Cochin, Jamshedpur, Faridabad, Vadodra and Nagpur whereas the Test matches were played at Mumbai and Bangalore.

“The accused Sanjeev Kumar Chawla played the main conduit in the above match fixing and while committing the above-said crime he stayed in the same hotels where the teams were staying. He had given money, mobile phone and also transferred money in accounts of accused Hansei Cronje. He was in regular contact with other three accused persons and many others,” the Crime Branch told the court.

Public Prosecutors Atul Kumar Shrivastava and Anil Paswan told the court that the accused is required to be confronted with evidence in connection with match-fixing of five ODI international matches and some test matches that took place in 2000.

Advocates Vineet Malhotra and Hemant Shah appeared for Sanjeev Chawla and opposed the Delhi Police plea seeking custodial interrogation stating that the chargesheet has been filed in the case.

The lawyers also said that as per the extradition terms and conditions, the government has assured that Chawla would be only kept in Tihar Jail.

Malhotra said that Chawla is not an Indian citizen, which was opposed by prosecutors saying that he was earlier an Indian citizen.

(ANI)

Diplomats of 25 countries including those from Germany, Canada, France and Afghanistan, on Wednesday reached Kashmir to witness the ground situation in the region nearly six months after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.

This is the second batch of foreign diplomats that will be visiting Jammu and Kashmir in the last one month.

The delegation will meet fruit growers in North Kashmir before reaching Srinagar where they are scheduled to meet media representatives, civil society groups and politicians of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian Army will also brief the visiting diplomats on the security situation in Kashmir and are expected to give a detailed presentation on Pakistan’s involvement in fomenting and sponsoring terrorism in the newly-formed Union Territory.

According to reports, the envoys will have a night halt in Srinagar before moving to Jammu next day where they are expected to meet Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu and civil society groups.

The delegation includes diplomats from Canada, Austria, Uzbekistan, Uganda, Slovak Republic, Netherlands, Namibia, Kyrgyz Republic, Bulgaria, Germany, Tajikistan, France, Mexico, Denmark, Italy, Afghanistan, New Zealand, Poland, and Rwanda.

The fresh batch of diplomats also includes EU representatives, and their participation assumes significance as the EU Parliament recently initiated to bring a joint draft resolution on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Kashmir, the vote on which was later deferred.

Also, the India-EU summit is also slated to take place in Brussels next month where External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be participating.

Last month, envoys of 15 countries including US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster and diplomats from Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil, Niger, Nigeria, Morocco, Guyana, Argentina, Philippines, Norway, Maldives, Fiji, Togo, Bangladesh and Peru visited Jammu and Kashmir on January 9 and 10 to see first-hand efforts being made by the government in the region.

(ANI)

AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal is slated to take oath as the Delhi Chief Minister for the third time on February 16.

The oath-taking ceremony will take place at Ramlila Maidan.

AAP galloped to a landslide victory by winning 62 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly elections in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015’s tally of three seats. The Congress, which drew a blank in the previous elections, failed to open its account yet again.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal is scheduled to meet Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal at 11:30 am today.

(ANI)

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Wednesday sentenced Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) to 11 years in prison in terror financing cases.

Saeed was sentenced in two terror financing cases, The Express Tribune reported.

Special Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Arshad Hussain Bhatta announced the reserved verdict.

On Tuesday, the court had accepted a plea of Saeed to club all six terror financing cases against him and his associates and announce the verdict on completion of the trial.

The court had indicted the JuD chief and three of his associates – Hafiz Abdul Salam bin Mohammad, Mohammad Ashraf and Professor Zafar Iqbal – on terror financing charges on December 11 last year in a case filed by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).

Saeed and Iqbal were later indicted in a similar case on December 20. The cases were filed by CTD Lahore and Gujranwala chapters.

The ATC on Saturday last week had deferred announcing its verdict in the terror financing cases and decided to hear arguments on February 11 on the suspects application to hear all cases first before reserving its judgment.

On July 3 last year, 13 top leaders of the banned outfit, including its chief Saeed and Naib Emir Abdul Rehman Makki, were booked in nearly two dozen cases of terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Saeed was later arrested by the CTD on July 17 while he was travelling between Gujranwala and Lahore.

Saeed is nominated in 29 cases pertaining to alleged terror financing, money laundering as well as illegal land grabbing. During the trial of both cases, the court recorded the statements of 23 witnesses.

The crackdown on JuD last year followed a warning by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to Pakistan to deliver on its commitments to curb terror financing and money laundering.

The government had announced a ban on JuD and Falah-e-Insanyat Foundation (FIF) to partially address the concerns raised by India that Pakistan supported these and six similar organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or at least considered them low-risk entities.

The law enforcement agencies over the next few weeks had intensified their crackdown on JeM, JuD, FIF and other banned outfits, and arrested more than 100 activists. Nearly 200 seminaries besides hundreds of other facilities and assets associated with them across the country were taken over by the government.

(ANI)

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the Delhi assembly elections for the second time in a row on Tuesday. Its stellar performance has surprised the BJP, which had hopes of a comeback in the city where it has been out of power for over two decades.

The magnitude of AAP’s sweep kept the BJP to single digits and prevented the Congress from opening its account. This is the second time in succession the Congress was unable to get a seat in assembly polls.

AAP’s victory came in the backdrop of a shrill campaign in which the Citizenship Amendment Act and the over 50-day protest at Shaheen Bagh against the legislation were raked up by the BJP.

AAP is poised to win 62 seats in the 70-member assembly, five seats short of its 2015 tally when it had won 67 seats. The party had won 55 seats and was leading on seven more. The BJP had won seven seats and was leading on one more.

AAP, which had won 54.34 per cent votes in 2015, came close to its past performance and secured 53.58 per cent votes.

BJP, which had got three seats in the 2015 election, also improved its vote percentage from 32.19 in the previous election to 38.50 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the leaders who congratulated Kejriwal.

“Congratulations to AAP and Arvind Kerjriwalji for the victory in the Delhi Assembly Elections. Wishing them the very best in fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Delhi,” he said.

Kejriwal won his New Delhi seat by 21,697 votes against his BJP rival Sunil Kumar Yadav. He termed AAP’s victory in Delhi as a win for the people who consider him as their son.

“I thank people of Delhi for reposing their faith in AAP for the third time. This is the victory of the people who consider me as their son and voted for us. This is the beginning of a new kind of politics. This is a new sign,” Kejriwal said at the AAP office here.

The Chief Minister, who was accompanied by his wife Sunita Kejriwal, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and newly-elected MLA Raghav Chaddha, said, “I thank all the citizens of Delhi and all our party workers. Our party workers continued to work throughout day and night. My family also supported me through this electoral battle. Today is also the birthday of my wife.”

Congratulations poured in for Kejriwal from political leaders across the country. Among those who congratulated him were Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari also congratulated Kejriwal and expressed gratitude towards the BJP party workers for their hard work in the run-up to the polls.

“I thank the people of Delhi. I thank our party workers for their hard work. They have done a lot. I accept the mandate of the people of Delhi and congratulate Arvind Kejriwal. I hope that he will perform well as per the expectations of the people.”

He said the party will evaluate the outcome and the party cadres should not feel disheartened over the performance.

Congress leader P Chidambaram said the people of Delhi have defeated “the dangerous agenda of BJP”.

“AAP won, bluff and bluster lost. The people of Delhi, who are from all parts of India, have defeated the polarising, divisive and dangerous agenda of the BJP. I salute the people of Delhi who have set an example to other states that will hold their elections in 2021 and 2022,” Chidambaram said in a tweet.

Celebrations began at the AAP office soon after it became clear that the party was headed for a big victory. Party workers were seen dancing to drum beats. Bigwigs of the party won the polls. Party leader Amanatullah Khan was leading from Okhla, the constituency which includes Shaheen Bagh, by over 64,000 votes.

The counting of votes for the hard and bitterly-fought Delhi Assembly began amid tight security at 8 am today. Delhi had gone to polls on February 8.

Unlike AAP, the BJP had not projected a chief ministerial candidate and sought votes to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.While Modi held two rallies, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda held several rallies in the city.

AAP sought votes for the development work it had done in the city in the past five years.

AAP government’s efforts to improve government schools apparently touched the lives of the poor people in the city. It also started populist schemes including free travel for women and exemptions in electricity and water bills on stipulated consumption.

The city had witnessed violence during the anti-CAA stir with buses burnt. The police had also entered the Jamia campus. There were two incidents of firing in the run-up to elections even as anti-CAA protests continued.

JNU students had also held protests over campus violence and hike in fees.

The results were disappointing for the Congress which ruled the city for 15 years before the advent of AAP. The party had performed better than AAP in the Lok Sabha polls last year.

(ANI)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Jagat Prakash Nadda on Tuesday said that his party respects the mandate given by the people of Delhi in the Assembly elections.

“The BJP respects the mandate given by the people of Delhi. All the workers worked tirelessly in this election and have been engaged in elections day and night. Heartfelt greetings and thanks to all the workers,” Nadda tweeted.

As per the latest trends, AAP has won 11 seats and is leading on 52 others. The BJP has won one seat and is leading on six, out of the total 70 seats.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar also said that the party respects the mandate given by people in the Delhi Assembly elections and extended best wishes to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“We respect the mandate given by people of Delhi in the Assembly election and give best wishes to Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party. Being in Opposition, BJP will keep raising the issues faced by people,” Javadekar said.

Stating that BJP’s vote share and seats have increased in comparison with last Delhi Assembly elections, Javadekar said that the party will analyse the results.

ANI

The Congress party on Tuesday conceded defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections, saying that the party accepts the verdict given by people of the national capital.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala congratulated AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for the victory in the election.

“The people of Delhi have given its verdict. The verdict is against the Congress party. AICC and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee accept the verdict,” he said.

“The result has further strengthened our pledge to make the party strong again,” added Surjewala.

Though the final result is yet to be announced, trends show the Congress is unlikely to open its account.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is leading on 62 seats while the BJP on 8, as per the trends for all 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly on the website of the Election Commission of India at 2.52 pm.

The counting of votes is currently underway at 21 centers across the country amid tight security. The voting for 70 seats of Delhi assembly took place on February 8.

“We will keep an eye on the work of the coming government for the structural development of the national capital. We will raise the problem of the people of Delhi,” Surjewala said.

“We congratulate Arvind Kejriwal for the victory in the election,” he added.

(ANI)