Kalam was not against swearing in Sonia as PM: Manmohan Singh

NEW DELHI, July 30: In the first interview he has given since he demitted office as prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has said that its “a complete canard” that Dr APJ Adbul Kalam, as president, was reluctant to appoint Sonia Gandhi as prime minister. Dr Manmohan Singh said this is “totally untrue and I cannot understand how this story has spread.”

In the interview to the India Today TV programme To The Point broadcast on Wednesday, Manmohan Singh confirmed that APJ Abdul Kalam had given him great support during the run up to the Indo-US nuclear deal and, specifically added, that Dr Kalam had spoken to Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh to persuade them to support the deal rather than vote against it. As Dr Manmohan Singh put it, he suggested to Mr Mulayam Singh that he should go meet Dr Kalam. Dr Manmohan Singh added that Dr Kalam had “totally endorsed” the nuclear deal.

Dr Manmohan Singh also speaks about the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in 2005 which was subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. In the interview Dr Manmohan Singh talks about how he rang Dr Kalam, who was in Russia at the time, the initial doubts Dr Kalam had and how in a substantive and lengthy conversation Dr Manmohan Singh had addressed them.

Dr Manmohan Singh is also questioned about Dr Kalam’s revelations in his book ‘Turning Points” that after the Supreme Court struck down the dissolution Dr Kalam’s conscience told him he must resign but Dr Manmohan Singh persuaded him not to.

Dr Manmohan Singh is also questioned about the fact that in August 2002, just days or weeks after he took over as president, Dr Kalam insisted on visiting Gujarat even though Mr Vajpayee was reluctant he should do so. In response Dr Manmohan Singh spoke of the great focus and attention Dr Kalam would pay to communal issues and revealed that these were frequently discussed between him as prime minister and Dr Kalam as president.

Dr Manmohan Singh also was questioned about the office of profit bill which Dr Kalam, as president, returned to Parliament for reconsideration because he wanted a more systematic approach to decide what was and what was not an office of profit.

Dr Manmohan Singh spoke of the “great trust and friendship” between him and Dr Kalam and called Dr Kalam “his friend, philosopher and guide”. He said they had wide ranging and often probing conversations but Dr Kalam meticulously ensured that, as president, he never crossed any redlines.

Dr Manmohan Singh called Dr Kalam one of India’s greatest presidents and said that not being political was not in any way a handicap. He said Dr Kalam was deeply curious about and interested in development issues. Dr Manmohan Singh in the interview gives examples of times when Dr Kalam made important suggestions which the government took on board.

Dr Manmohan Singh said he has known Dr Kalam since the mid ’70s and described him as the “mastermind” and “architect” of India’s missile programme.

Dr Manmohan Singh also spoke about Dr Kalam’s personality. He talked about his absorbing conversations, his warmth as well as his caring nature. Dr Manmohan Singh spoke about the incredible concern and affection Dr Kalam had for children. He spoke of Dr Kalam’s deep interest in science and spirituality, adding that this combination made Dr Kalam “a unique person”.

Although Dr Manmohan Singh would not say that after Dr Kalam India needed more non-political presidents he did readily agree that Dr Kalam had set a very high precedent and more than fulfilled the first experiment of making a non-political person the president.

Yakub Memon gets death

NEW DELHI, July 30: President Pranab Mukherjee dismissed Yakub Memon’s mercy petition and the Supreme Court upheld his death warrant on Wednesday but the suspense over execution of the Mumbai blasts convict is far from over.

Minutes after his mercy plea was rejected, a bevy of senior lawyers and activists approached Chief Justice of India HL Dattu, seeking a stay on Yakub’s execution, attempting to stave off the hanging scheduled for 7am on Thursday.

The last-ditch plea said an order should be passed asking the authorities to give Yakub at least 14 days time before execution after the rejection of his mercy petition, as per the apex court's guidelines.

A posse of journalists accompanied the advocates – which included Indira Jaising and Prashant Bhushan – as they waited outside the CJI’s residence under the glare of flashbulbs and cameras.

Dattu went through the petition and referred the matter to Justice Dipak Misra, who headed a three-judge bench which held, earlier in the day, that all rules were duly complied with and Yakub had exhausted all legal options.

Sources said the same three-judge bench -- comprising Misra, Prafulla C Pant and Amitava Roy -- was hearing the peition at 2:30am in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

With Mukherjee and home minister Rajnath Singh locked in a marathon meeting over the mercy plea, hundreds of students and activists gathered in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to protest against the death penalty.

The late-night move came after a day of drama, where the top court held that the lone death row convict in the case was given adequate notice to enable him to avail all possible legal remedies.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is dead

NEW DELHI, July 27: Former president and Bharat Ratna APJ Abdul Kalam died on Monday after collapsing during a lecture in Shillong. Kalam, 83, who reached Shillong via Guwahati in the morning, collapsed during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong (IIM-S) around 6:30 pm and rushed to the Bethany Hospital. Doctors at the hospital said he was brought dead around 7pm.

In his condolence message, President Pranab Mukherjee said "Dr Kalam was a People's President during his lifetime and will remain so even after death."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has lost a "marg darshak" who took India to new heights in the field of science and technology.

"He was a great scientist who contributed immensely in the filed of science and technology as well as space. I have lost a marg darshark.

"He was a source of inspiration for the whole country, particularly the youth. Even in his last days, he remained connected," Modi said.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said "A man of many parts-he won over the hearts and minds of a nation with his warmth and wisdom."

10 killed in terror attack in Gurdaspur

GURDASPUR, July 27: Suspected Pakistani terrorists stormed a police station in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district on Monday, killing seven people and wounding 10 others in an attack that is likely to cast a cloud on resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan.

The terror strike came weeks after prime ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif met in Russia and agreed that top security officers from the two countries would meet to discuss counter-terrorism.

The 11-hour siege in Punjab ended after government forces surrounded the building in Dinanagar town and gunned down the three militants suspected to be from Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The area’s superintendent of police (detective), Baljit Singh, was among those killed, apart from three security personnel and three civilians.

Investigations revealed that the gunmen were Punjabi-speaking Muslims on a suicide mission with body parts shaven and all marks erased to trace their origins back to Pakistan, officials said. Fidayeen (suicide) attackers ritually shave themselves before embarking on a mission, sources observed.

“All ordnance factory marks and numbers on the AK-47s had been erased and so were the marks on the grenade canisters,” said a top security official. “There is nothing to trace the weapons to China or Pakistan. The attack appears to have been planned in great detail so that Pakistan can claim total deniability as no communication was exchanged.”

Two GPS devices found on the bodies were sent to a forensic laboratory to trace the infiltration route, but no identity documents, food, SIM cards or medicines were recovered.

“All we have is three bodies with clean-shaven private parts indicating that they were on a suicide mission and one of them spoke in Punjabi during the attack,” the official noted. “Our assessment is that these terrorists infiltrated across the international border in Punjab and could belong to the LeT as the modus operandi is similar to the (2013) Hiranagar attack in Jammu.”

Cong sets terms for Parliament to function, ready for 'battle'

NEW DELHI, July 20: The Congress will not allow both houses of Parliament to function if the government does not obtain the resignations of BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan before the monsoon session begins on Tuesday, senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has said.

Foreign minister Swaraj, Rajasthan chief minister Raje and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Chouhan should resign or be sacked because the Congress is ready for “battle” and will not “give up” or “give in”, said Azad, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Though the decision to disrupt parliamentary proceedings will be taken on a day-to-day basis, Azad said that the Congress will follow the example of the BJP in the past.

He said the BJP had held up the functioning of the entire monsoon and winter sessions of Parliament under the UPA government over the 2G issue.

Speaking about the Vyapam scam or the scandal over the recruitment and admission tests conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board which he called “the grandmother of all scams”, Azad asked: “Who is responsible for the 40-plus killings? Is it the Pakistan Army? Is it the ISI? Or is it the Naxals?”

Azad alleged that it is people known to and protected by the BJP who are responsible for the suspicious deaths of witnesses and accused linked to the Vyapam scam.

The Congress sees itself as the face and ears of the Indian people who have expressed shock and anger over scams and that is why it is insisting action must be taken against Swaraj, Raje and Chouhan, he added.

Speaking about the land acquisition bill, Azad made it clear the Congress will not allow the bill to be passed in Parliament or even allow it to be tabled in the Upper House and discussed.

Azad said there is no way the Congress will compromise on three critical aspects of the bill – the consent clause, the social impact clause and the clause that determines land will be returned to the farmer if it is unused after five years. Speaking about the GST bill, Azad indicated that the Congress is prepared to be flexible and accommodating over its five key concerns with the bill.

They are the 1% inter-state entry tax, the demand for a flat 18% GST rate, the inclusion of liquor, petrol, tobacco and electricity, 100% compensation for states for five years and enhancing the state vote in the GST Council from two-thirds to three-fourths while reducing the Centre’s vote from one-third to one-fourth.

However, Azad said, how flexible and how accommodating the Congress is prepared to be will only be known after a parliamentary committee submits its report on the GST bill either on Tuesday or Wednesday.

He was confident the Congress has sufficient support from other political parties in the Upper House to ensure that the GST Bill falls short of the two-third majority needed in the Rajya Sabha.

Speaking about the talks between the Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers in the Russian city of Ufa on the sidelines of the SCO summit, Azad said the Narendra Modi had “bungled” and “embarrassed” the country.

He was angry about the commitment to provide additional information on the Mumbai attacks case. India has already provided all the information it has and there is no way this commitment to provide additional information can be fulfilled, he said.