Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here unannounced on Saturday to reassure Iraqis that the United States will support them, even as it withdraws combat troops. But with Iraq reeling from a week of suicide bombings, she got a jittery reception from a country that still plainly relies on the United States for security, stability and economic survival.
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed journalists and representatives of Iraqi civil society at the United States embassy in Baghdad on Saturday.
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In an encounter with Iraqi students, journalists and activists, Mrs. Clinton was peppered with questions about how the United States could help Iraq in ways large and small — from building confidence in the Iraqi armed forces to supplying farmers with more up-to-date machinery.
Mrs. Clinton, making her first visit to Baghdad as secretary of state, promised to help Iraq with these and other issues. But, she told the audience of 120, there were some things Iraq had to do for itself.
“The more united Iraq is, the more you will trust the security services,” Mrs. Clinton said in response to a question about the army from a young Iraqi journalist. “The security services have to earn your trust, but the people have to demand it.”
Mrs. Clinton insisted that the recent suicide bombings, which killed 160 people and wounded hundreds more, did not mean that Iraq was returning to the sectarian violence that convulsed the country two years ago.
Yet her first stop in Baghdad was to get a briefing on the security situation from the American commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno. Security concerns also came up immediately in Mrs. Clinton’s meeting later in the day with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
“Our meeting in 2007 really took place during very difficult circumstances,” Mr. Maliki said as they sat down, “But the security situation, and the situation generally, improved afterward.”
Mrs. Clinton, who had flown in from Kuwait on a military transport plane, was greeted in Baghdad by the new American ambassador to Iraq, Christopher R. Hill; the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen; and the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari. She was then driven to the new American Embassy in a heavily armed motorcade.
“In Iraq, there will always be political conflicts,” Mrs. Clinton said to reporters on Friday evening, before setting off on the visit. “But I really believe that Iraq, as a whole, is on the right track.”
She characterized the latest violence as the last gasp of “rejectionists” who feared that the government would succeed in creating a united and peaceful Iraq. The suicide bombings, she said, are “in an unfortunately tragic way, a signal that the rejectionists fear that Iraq is going in the right direction.”
Mrs. Clinton has been a regular visitor here, coming three times as a senator to chart the progress of a war she voted to authorize but later said had been mismanaged by the Bush administration. She said she was pleased to be back, though the attacks cast a shadow over her visit.
While the violence is far below the worst levels in 2007, 18 major attacks this month have kindled fears that Baathist jihadist elements could be reconstituting themselves into a smaller, but still deadly, insurgency that will exploit the withdrawal of American troops between now and 2011.
Mrs. Clinton compared these latest suicide bombings to a spectacular terrorist attack that occurred several months after the Good Friday peace accord ended years of conflict in Northern Ireland.
At times, her analysis echoed that of former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Mr. Cheney spoke of the insurgency being in its “last throes,” during a period of relentless violence; Mr. Rumsfeld talked of “dead-enders” who kept fighting a lost cause.
On Friday, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of the military’s Central Command, testified before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that the suicide bombers might have been part of a militant network based in Tunisia. Four of the bombers, he said, were from Tunisia.
Mrs. Clinton said she did not have specific information on the bombers, but said: “We’ve seen suicide bombers from many countries in Iraq over the last six years. It’s unfortunate that young men, and occasionally even a young woman, would travel to Iraq to kill other people in that way.”
At least half the dead from the recent bombings were Iranian pilgrims, and on Saturday, Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed the United States for the killings.
“The main suspects of this crime and similar ones are the U.S. security and military forces,” the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying. “They have occupied an Islamic country claiming that they want to fight terrorism while tens of thousands of people are being killed and insecurity is on the rise.”
He added that he expected Iraqi officials to provide better security for Shiite pilgrims traveling to Iraq’s holy sites.
The violence did not curtail Mrs. Clinton’s crowded schedule for her brief visit. In addition to her official meetings, she played host at a round table of Iraqi women — something she has done in previous trips to Iraq. And she roamed the stage at the town hall meeting of Iraqis.
This is a format Mrs. Clinton savored as a presidential candidate, and that, as secretary of state, she has used from South Korea to Belgium. But the audience in Baghdad seemed less dazzled by her celebrity than in those countries, and more worried about the United States’ commitment.
Among those questioning Mrs. Clinton was a middle-aged human rights activist, who asked whether the Obama administration, consumed by the economic crisis, had put Iraq on the back burner.
“Let me assure you, and repeat what President Obama said,” she replied. “We are committed to Iraq; we want to see a stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq.” But, she added, there is a transition under way.
Mr. Hill, the new American ambassador, beat Mrs. Clinton to Baghdad by one day. He was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday after a lengthy process that was held up by Republican senators, who objected to his lack of experience in the Arab world and his handling of negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
In Iraq, Mr. Hill will spearhead the shift in emphasis by the United States from military to civilian operations. Some Iraq experts said the American civilian presence here had been lacking momentum since the departure in February of the previous United States ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Taliban halt military convoy from entering Swat
The local Taliban stopped the convoy of security forces from entering Mingora by surrounding it from all sides. –: As the peace deal with militants in Swat garners criticism, the local Taliban in the restive valley stopped a military convoy from entering Mingora city in the south of the district on Saturday, sources said.
‘The local Taliban stopped the convoy of security forces from entering Mingora by surrounding it from all sides,’ a source told DawnNews, on condition of anonymity.
Hours later, the convoy was forced to turn back.
Later, in reaction, military authorities issued a statement condemning the incident.
They warned that if such a situation developed again, the armed forces would not hesitate to use force.
‘The local Taliban stopped the convoy of security forces from entering Mingora by surrounding it from all sides,’ a source told DawnNews, on condition of anonymity.
Hours later, the convoy was forced to turn back.
Later, in reaction, military authorities issued a statement condemning the incident.
They warned that if such a situation developed again, the armed forces would not hesitate to use force.
Friday, April 24, 2009
I'll revive economy in 100 days: PM
Manmohan Singh certainly knows his strengths. And he's pitching it hard. In an exclusive interview to TOI, the PM said if voted back to
power, he would roll out a 100-day action plan to revive the economy by adding greater zip to the stimulus packages and by tackling job losses.
"There is considerable scope to refuel the stimulus packages and our aim is to take the economy back to the stage where 9% to 10% growth is possible," he said, adding that such a boost would revive confidence in the economy.
Singh was hopeful of a quick economic recovery and creation of new jobs. He said that the recovery process was being led by cement, textiles and construction industries and these sectors would also create employment opportunities.
Singh has also added a new priority to his 100-day "to-do" list ^ bringing back black money salted away in tax havens abroad by taking whatever steps required. He, however, disputed figures being quoted by BJP leader L K Advani: "I am not denying its existence ^ but how much in Swiss banks, how much in tax havens, nobody knows."
On opaque banks in tax havens, he said, "We argued within a group of friendly countries for absolute transparency within the banking system and an international agreement to share information between tax authorities of different countries."
The PM has pointed to India's unstable neighbourhood along with home-grown terror and said that given the international ramifications, his government would urgently modernize the security and intelligence mechanism if voted back to power. He drew attention to the Taliban's expansion in Pakistan and linked it to a spurt in terror directed against India.
On the role of home-grown terror, he said, "We cannot say there are no links between terrorists outside and terrorists within the country." He laid emphasis on getting the basics like ground-level policing right. "Ultimately, community policing is the best way (of handling the problem)," he said.
Insisting only a Congress-led government would be up to the task of meeting the challenges, he recalled the perils posed by a government that lacked solid moorings by referring to the mortgaging of gold reserves by the short-lived Chandra Shekhar government and the success of the Congress government that took office in 1991 in bringing it back.
power, he would roll out a 100-day action plan to revive the economy by adding greater zip to the stimulus packages and by tackling job losses.
"There is considerable scope to refuel the stimulus packages and our aim is to take the economy back to the stage where 9% to 10% growth is possible," he said, adding that such a boost would revive confidence in the economy.
Singh was hopeful of a quick economic recovery and creation of new jobs. He said that the recovery process was being led by cement, textiles and construction industries and these sectors would also create employment opportunities.
Singh has also added a new priority to his 100-day "to-do" list ^ bringing back black money salted away in tax havens abroad by taking whatever steps required. He, however, disputed figures being quoted by BJP leader L K Advani: "I am not denying its existence ^ but how much in Swiss banks, how much in tax havens, nobody knows."
On opaque banks in tax havens, he said, "We argued within a group of friendly countries for absolute transparency within the banking system and an international agreement to share information between tax authorities of different countries."
The PM has pointed to India's unstable neighbourhood along with home-grown terror and said that given the international ramifications, his government would urgently modernize the security and intelligence mechanism if voted back to power. He drew attention to the Taliban's expansion in Pakistan and linked it to a spurt in terror directed against India.
On the role of home-grown terror, he said, "We cannot say there are no links between terrorists outside and terrorists within the country." He laid emphasis on getting the basics like ground-level policing right. "Ultimately, community policing is the best way (of handling the problem)," he said.
Insisting only a Congress-led government would be up to the task of meeting the challenges, he recalled the perils posed by a government that lacked solid moorings by referring to the mortgaging of gold reserves by the short-lived Chandra Shekhar government and the success of the Congress government that took office in 1991 in bringing it back.
Mexico bid to contain deadly flu
Mexican authorities have closed schools and public buildings in the capital in a bid to contain a new flu virus suspected of killing up to 60 people.
Public events were suspended and residents donned face masks as concern grew over the outbreak.
Health experts say tests so far seem to link it with a new swine flu virus that sickened eight in the southern US.
US experts said they were taking the virus seriously and working to learn as much as possible about it.
But both the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said that there was no need at this point to issue travel advisories for parts of Mexico or the US.
In Geneva, the WHO said an emergency committee would likely convene over the weekend. It said it had prepared "rapid containment measures" in case they were needed.
In the US, the White House said it was monitoring events.
Mexican authorities suspect the virus may have been involved in the deaths of about 60 people, mostly in and around Mexico City, since mid-March.
A new swine flu strain has been confirmed in 20 of the deaths and 40 others are being tested, Mexico's health secretary said. More than 900 other people are thought to have been infected.
Public events were suspended and residents donned face masks as concern grew over the outbreak.
Health experts say tests so far seem to link it with a new swine flu virus that sickened eight in the southern US.
US experts said they were taking the virus seriously and working to learn as much as possible about it.
But both the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said that there was no need at this point to issue travel advisories for parts of Mexico or the US.
In Geneva, the WHO said an emergency committee would likely convene over the weekend. It said it had prepared "rapid containment measures" in case they were needed.
In the US, the White House said it was monitoring events.
Mexican authorities suspect the virus may have been involved in the deaths of about 60 people, mostly in and around Mexico City, since mid-March.
A new swine flu strain has been confirmed in 20 of the deaths and 40 others are being tested, Mexico's health secretary said. More than 900 other people are thought to have been infected.
As Jobs Die, Europe’s Migrants Head for Home
Six years after the Spanish construction boom lured him here from his native Romania, Constantin Marius Craiova is going home, another victim of the bust that is reversing the human tide that has transformed Europe in the past decade.
Migrant and Foreign Workers“Everyone says in Romania there’s no work,” Mr. Craiova, 30, said with a touch of bravado as he lifted his mirrored Ray-Bans onto his forehead. “If there are 26 million people there, they have to do something. I want to see for myself.”
Mr. Craiova, who is planning to return to Romania next month, is one of millions of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa who have flocked to fast-growing places like Spain, Ireland and Britain in the past decade, drawn by low unemployment and liberal immigration policies.
But in a marked sign of how quickly the economies of Western Europe have deteriorated, workers like Mr. Craiova are now heading home, hoping to find better job prospects, or at least lower costs of living, in their native lands.
In many ways, this is what the European Union was meant to be, a zone where workers could move freely in search of jobs. But as the economic crisis deepens, fault lines are emerging across the Continent, where borders may be porous but national identities remain fixed.
Indeed, while all workers are theoretically equal under European rules, some may be more equal than others as national, or even local, concerns come to the fore.
Consider Ireland’s capital, which earned the nickname Dublinski as roughly 180,000 Poles, Czechs and other Eastern Europeans went there in search of work after the European Union expanded in 2004. Now, a stunning rise in the unemployment rate, currently 10.4 percent, is making even the most recent arrivals rethink their plans.
“Since 2000, there has been a resurgence of intra-European migration,” said Rainer Münz, a migration scholar who is head of research and development at Erste Bank in Vienna. “To a certain extent, that’s clearly unwinding now.”
Between April 2008 and the end of this month, as many as 50,000 workers are likely to have returned home from Ireland, mostly to Eastern Europe, according to Alan Barrett of the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin.
“Things have changed quickly,” said Monica Jelinkova, 25, who moved to Dublin from the Czech Republic 18 months ago. “I used to know 15 people here. Now there are only four friends left.”
While unemployment is also rising in the Czech Republic, “it is much easier to be at home with family and with friends and not to have a job,” she said, “than to be here and not to have a job.”
Until very recently, countries like Spain, Ireland and Italy were nations of emigrants, not immigrants.
That changed in the decade-long expansion that began in the late 1990s. In Spain, where the growth has been the most explosive, the foreign population rose to 5.2 million last year out of a total of 45 million people from 750,000 in 1999, according to the National Statistics Institute. Ireland’s population, now 4.1 million, was also transformed, with the percentage of foreign-born residents rising to 11 percent in 2006 from 7 percent in 2002.
“In the U.S., it took generations to build up a foreign-born population of that size,” said Demetrios Papademetriou, head of the Migration Policy Institute, a research group in Washington. “These countries have done it at an unprecedented rate, but the society and institutions haven’t even begun to have a chance to catch up.”
Alcalá, a Madrid bedroom community and the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, is home to so many Romanian immigrants — 20,000 by some estimates — that Romania’s president, Traian Basescu, campaigned here for parliamentary elections last fall.
But signs of the reverse migration of Romanians are already evident. “Slowly, slowly, they’re disappearing,” said Gheorghe Gainar, the president of a Romanian cultural association in Alcalá. “When you look for them, you don’t find them. Sometimes you ask a relative, and they say they’ve gone back.”
The reverse exodus from more prosperous countries in Western Europe is likely to add to the economic pressures already buffeting Central and Eastern Europe, where migrants from developing countries are in turn being encouraged to leave.
The Czech government announced in February that it would pay 500 euros, or about $660, and provide one-way plane tickets to each foreigner who has lost his job and wants to go home.
And in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, workers from China have been camped out in freezing weather in front of the Chinese Embassy for two months, essentially stranded after their construction jobs disappeared.
Like the Czech Republic, Spain is offering financial incentives to leave. A new program aimed at legal immigrants from South America allows them to take their unemployment payments in a lump sum if they agree to leave and not return for at least three years. The Spanish government says only around 3,000 people have taken advantage of the plan, but many others are leaving of their own accord.
Airlines in Spain are offering deals on one-way tickets to Latin America, and they say demand has increased significantly. Every day, Barajas airport in Madrid is the setting for emotional departures, as families send their jobless loved ones back home.
Citizens of European Union countries, like Mr. Craiova, are not eligible for the incentive plan for Latin American migrants, but they are finding other creative solutions to their predicament.
Like many other Romanians leaving Spain, Mr. Craiova said he planned to take the unemployment money he was owed by the Spanish government back to Romania, where it will go further. He needs only to return to Spain every three months to sign for it. His Peruvian wife, with their children, will follow him to Romania once he finds work.
Regardless of their fate, many immigrants realize that economic circumstances are squeezing locals, too. On a recent weekday evening, Juan and Miriam Garnica, Bolivians who are legal residents in Spain, were sending off Juan’s cousin, who had not found enough work in the fields to stay the three years required to establish residency.
The cousin, Sandro Garnica, 36, looked despondent as he held two backpacks and a new digital camera. But Ms. Garnica, 35, a worker for the Madrid city government, was philosophical.
“We have a plan B,” she said. “At least we can go back to our home. But the Spanish? What do they do?”
Rachel Donadio reported from Alcalá de Henares, Madrid and Rome, and Nelson D. Schwartz from Paris and Vienna. Eamon Quinn contributed reporting from Dublin, and Davin Ellicson from Bucharest, Romania.
Migrant and Foreign Workers“Everyone says in Romania there’s no work,” Mr. Craiova, 30, said with a touch of bravado as he lifted his mirrored Ray-Bans onto his forehead. “If there are 26 million people there, they have to do something. I want to see for myself.”
Mr. Craiova, who is planning to return to Romania next month, is one of millions of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa who have flocked to fast-growing places like Spain, Ireland and Britain in the past decade, drawn by low unemployment and liberal immigration policies.
But in a marked sign of how quickly the economies of Western Europe have deteriorated, workers like Mr. Craiova are now heading home, hoping to find better job prospects, or at least lower costs of living, in their native lands.
In many ways, this is what the European Union was meant to be, a zone where workers could move freely in search of jobs. But as the economic crisis deepens, fault lines are emerging across the Continent, where borders may be porous but national identities remain fixed.
Indeed, while all workers are theoretically equal under European rules, some may be more equal than others as national, or even local, concerns come to the fore.
Consider Ireland’s capital, which earned the nickname Dublinski as roughly 180,000 Poles, Czechs and other Eastern Europeans went there in search of work after the European Union expanded in 2004. Now, a stunning rise in the unemployment rate, currently 10.4 percent, is making even the most recent arrivals rethink their plans.
“Since 2000, there has been a resurgence of intra-European migration,” said Rainer Münz, a migration scholar who is head of research and development at Erste Bank in Vienna. “To a certain extent, that’s clearly unwinding now.”
Between April 2008 and the end of this month, as many as 50,000 workers are likely to have returned home from Ireland, mostly to Eastern Europe, according to Alan Barrett of the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin.
“Things have changed quickly,” said Monica Jelinkova, 25, who moved to Dublin from the Czech Republic 18 months ago. “I used to know 15 people here. Now there are only four friends left.”
While unemployment is also rising in the Czech Republic, “it is much easier to be at home with family and with friends and not to have a job,” she said, “than to be here and not to have a job.”
Until very recently, countries like Spain, Ireland and Italy were nations of emigrants, not immigrants.
That changed in the decade-long expansion that began in the late 1990s. In Spain, where the growth has been the most explosive, the foreign population rose to 5.2 million last year out of a total of 45 million people from 750,000 in 1999, according to the National Statistics Institute. Ireland’s population, now 4.1 million, was also transformed, with the percentage of foreign-born residents rising to 11 percent in 2006 from 7 percent in 2002.
“In the U.S., it took generations to build up a foreign-born population of that size,” said Demetrios Papademetriou, head of the Migration Policy Institute, a research group in Washington. “These countries have done it at an unprecedented rate, but the society and institutions haven’t even begun to have a chance to catch up.”
Alcalá, a Madrid bedroom community and the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, is home to so many Romanian immigrants — 20,000 by some estimates — that Romania’s president, Traian Basescu, campaigned here for parliamentary elections last fall.
But signs of the reverse migration of Romanians are already evident. “Slowly, slowly, they’re disappearing,” said Gheorghe Gainar, the president of a Romanian cultural association in Alcalá. “When you look for them, you don’t find them. Sometimes you ask a relative, and they say they’ve gone back.”
The reverse exodus from more prosperous countries in Western Europe is likely to add to the economic pressures already buffeting Central and Eastern Europe, where migrants from developing countries are in turn being encouraged to leave.
The Czech government announced in February that it would pay 500 euros, or about $660, and provide one-way plane tickets to each foreigner who has lost his job and wants to go home.
And in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, workers from China have been camped out in freezing weather in front of the Chinese Embassy for two months, essentially stranded after their construction jobs disappeared.
Like the Czech Republic, Spain is offering financial incentives to leave. A new program aimed at legal immigrants from South America allows them to take their unemployment payments in a lump sum if they agree to leave and not return for at least three years. The Spanish government says only around 3,000 people have taken advantage of the plan, but many others are leaving of their own accord.
Airlines in Spain are offering deals on one-way tickets to Latin America, and they say demand has increased significantly. Every day, Barajas airport in Madrid is the setting for emotional departures, as families send their jobless loved ones back home.
Citizens of European Union countries, like Mr. Craiova, are not eligible for the incentive plan for Latin American migrants, but they are finding other creative solutions to their predicament.
Like many other Romanians leaving Spain, Mr. Craiova said he planned to take the unemployment money he was owed by the Spanish government back to Romania, where it will go further. He needs only to return to Spain every three months to sign for it. His Peruvian wife, with their children, will follow him to Romania once he finds work.
Regardless of their fate, many immigrants realize that economic circumstances are squeezing locals, too. On a recent weekday evening, Juan and Miriam Garnica, Bolivians who are legal residents in Spain, were sending off Juan’s cousin, who had not found enough work in the fields to stay the three years required to establish residency.
The cousin, Sandro Garnica, 36, looked despondent as he held two backpacks and a new digital camera. But Ms. Garnica, 35, a worker for the Madrid city government, was philosophical.
“We have a plan B,” she said. “At least we can go back to our home. But the Spanish? What do they do?”
Rachel Donadio reported from Alcalá de Henares, Madrid and Rome, and Nelson D. Schwartz from Paris and Vienna. Eamon Quinn contributed reporting from Dublin, and Davin Ellicson from Bucharest, Romania.
‘China is fishing in troubled waters in Lanka’
China is using the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka to expand its sphere of influence and that has impacted India’s response to the situation, said Home Minister P Chidambaram. “China is fishing in troubled waters. That is a lone, discordant voice among all of the global community,” he told Hindustan Times on Friday.
The comments are significant as Lanka’s importance for Beijing is in the sea-lanes of communication in the north Indian Ocean through which Chinese trade and energy supplies flow.China is encouraging the Sri Lankan offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) while the rest of the world, including India, has called for a cessation of hostilities to enable civilians to escape. Fighting for a separate state for Tamil-speaking people, the LTTE has been declared a terrorist outfit by United Nations.
"China is acting with a clear agenda,” said Chidambaram. “Our policies take account of the Chinese calculations.” He said Pakistan also might have wanted to seek a foothold on the southern (maritime) border of India, but internal issues were holding it back. “They are not in a position to do something adventurous now,” he said.
The comments are significant as Lanka’s importance for Beijing is in the sea-lanes of communication in the north Indian Ocean through which Chinese trade and energy supplies flow.
“They want to secure the lanes by building strategic and defense ties with Colombo,” said Sujit Dutta, head of the East Asia Programme of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis.
Senior Chinese naval officials have often stated that “the Indian Ocean isn’t India’s” despite no such claim by New Delhi. In the conversation that spanned a range of political and security issues Chidambaram expressed satisfaction over his 150 days in office. He replaced Shivraj Patil on December 1, 2008 in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. He was finance minister till then.
“Our intelligence gathering and sharing are far more effective now than six months ago. State governments are responding to the situation with utmost urgency and are better equipped to deal with it should another terrorist attack take place,” he said.
The Home Hinister said India is trying to put pressure on Colombo and the LTTE to cease hostilities. "It’s a humanitarian crisis. We want the killings to stop. Unfortunately, neither the Sri Lankan government nor the LTTE is willing to listen to the international community,” he said.
Chidambaram said the advances made by the Taliban in Pakistan were “extremely worrisome” for India. “Large sections of Pakistan are under the control of the Taliban,” he said. However, the Home Minister did not endorse former NSA Brajesh Mishra’s fears that the Taliban could “get their hands” on nuclear weapons. “My impression is that there are adequate systems in Pakistan to secure them,” he said.
Chidambaram detailed the measures the UPA has already taken to rubbish the BJP’s promise of bringing back Indian wealth stashed in foreign banks. “I challenge Mr Advani to name one step the NDA took between 1998 and 2004 when it was in power to bring back black money. They did not do anything,” he said. During his stewardship of the Finance Ministry, the UPA made “substantial progress” towards unearthing Indian wealth in secret foreign accounts, he claimed.
“Read my lips. We’ve made substantial progress…I am not at liberty to disclose details as some procedural formalities are still underway,” he said.
The comments are significant as Lanka’s importance for Beijing is in the sea-lanes of communication in the north Indian Ocean through which Chinese trade and energy supplies flow.China is encouraging the Sri Lankan offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) while the rest of the world, including India, has called for a cessation of hostilities to enable civilians to escape. Fighting for a separate state for Tamil-speaking people, the LTTE has been declared a terrorist outfit by United Nations.
"China is acting with a clear agenda,” said Chidambaram. “Our policies take account of the Chinese calculations.” He said Pakistan also might have wanted to seek a foothold on the southern (maritime) border of India, but internal issues were holding it back. “They are not in a position to do something adventurous now,” he said.
The comments are significant as Lanka’s importance for Beijing is in the sea-lanes of communication in the north Indian Ocean through which Chinese trade and energy supplies flow.
“They want to secure the lanes by building strategic and defense ties with Colombo,” said Sujit Dutta, head of the East Asia Programme of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis.
Senior Chinese naval officials have often stated that “the Indian Ocean isn’t India’s” despite no such claim by New Delhi. In the conversation that spanned a range of political and security issues Chidambaram expressed satisfaction over his 150 days in office. He replaced Shivraj Patil on December 1, 2008 in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. He was finance minister till then.
“Our intelligence gathering and sharing are far more effective now than six months ago. State governments are responding to the situation with utmost urgency and are better equipped to deal with it should another terrorist attack take place,” he said.
The Home Hinister said India is trying to put pressure on Colombo and the LTTE to cease hostilities. "It’s a humanitarian crisis. We want the killings to stop. Unfortunately, neither the Sri Lankan government nor the LTTE is willing to listen to the international community,” he said.
Chidambaram said the advances made by the Taliban in Pakistan were “extremely worrisome” for India. “Large sections of Pakistan are under the control of the Taliban,” he said. However, the Home Minister did not endorse former NSA Brajesh Mishra’s fears that the Taliban could “get their hands” on nuclear weapons. “My impression is that there are adequate systems in Pakistan to secure them,” he said.
Chidambaram detailed the measures the UPA has already taken to rubbish the BJP’s promise of bringing back Indian wealth stashed in foreign banks. “I challenge Mr Advani to name one step the NDA took between 1998 and 2004 when it was in power to bring back black money. They did not do anything,” he said. During his stewardship of the Finance Ministry, the UPA made “substantial progress” towards unearthing Indian wealth in secret foreign accounts, he claimed.
“Read my lips. We’ve made substantial progress…I am not at liberty to disclose details as some procedural formalities are still underway,” he said.
Modi takes a risky gamble
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s ultimate arbiter on the distribution of tickets in Gujarat, state chief minister Mr Narendra Modi has fielded nineteen new faces in his state where ballots will be cast on 30 April in all 26 Parliament constituencies.
If the BJP wins most of these seats it would establish Mr Modi as the most successful gambler in national politics, for no other state leader had been as daring as he to put so many eggs in one basket in this crucial Parliament election. This is particularly significant in light of the BJP indicating today that Mr Modi is second in line after Mr LK Advani for the post of Prime Minister, a declaration that has sent a wave of excitement among BJP workers, as well as the party's traditional voters.
The simple calculation behind granting tickets to his chosen loyalists is to defeat the anti-incumbency factor. Simultaneously, analysts say, by sending this team of loyalists to Delhi, the Gujarat CM is reinforcing his status in the party organization.
Mr Modi displayed remarkable high handedness in discarding some old BJP stalwarts like Mr Kashiram Rana, six-time MP from Surat, giving that ticket to Ms Darshana Jardosh, a two-time municipal corporation member.
Another ambitious BJP leader under grooming is Mr CR Patil, a nominee for Navsari seat in south Gujarat. He is believed to have accepted the responsibility of winning all seats in this part of the state where the Congress has four sitting MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha.
Speaking to The Statesman, Mr Patil, a wealthy farmer from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, claimed he would stand up to the challenge. The consolidation of rural–urban votes in the delimitation exercise, Mr Patil said, would favour his party since “urbanites were BJP voters”.
Sitting Congress MP from Bardoli constituency, Dr Tushar Chowdhary, was of the view that such calculations seldom counted since an MP is gauged by his performance. He said the Congress should win 16 of the 26 seats because of the incumbency factor. Yet, Dr Chowdhary appeared unhappy with the weakness of the Congress as an organization, and agreed, if somewhat reluctantly, that much needed to be done to revive the party.
'Nothing to apologise for'
Mr Narendra Modi remains defiant over his role in the Gujarat riots, telling a TV channel that he had nothing to apologise for, adds PTI from New Delhi. Defending himself against allegations of being callous towards the plight of Gujarat minorities after the riots, he said, “Why are you being generous? Do not forgive Narendra Modi, if he has done anything wrong. Hang him publicly if you find him guilty.”
If the BJP wins most of these seats it would establish Mr Modi as the most successful gambler in national politics, for no other state leader had been as daring as he to put so many eggs in one basket in this crucial Parliament election. This is particularly significant in light of the BJP indicating today that Mr Modi is second in line after Mr LK Advani for the post of Prime Minister, a declaration that has sent a wave of excitement among BJP workers, as well as the party's traditional voters.
The simple calculation behind granting tickets to his chosen loyalists is to defeat the anti-incumbency factor. Simultaneously, analysts say, by sending this team of loyalists to Delhi, the Gujarat CM is reinforcing his status in the party organization.
Mr Modi displayed remarkable high handedness in discarding some old BJP stalwarts like Mr Kashiram Rana, six-time MP from Surat, giving that ticket to Ms Darshana Jardosh, a two-time municipal corporation member.
Another ambitious BJP leader under grooming is Mr CR Patil, a nominee for Navsari seat in south Gujarat. He is believed to have accepted the responsibility of winning all seats in this part of the state where the Congress has four sitting MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha.
Speaking to The Statesman, Mr Patil, a wealthy farmer from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, claimed he would stand up to the challenge. The consolidation of rural–urban votes in the delimitation exercise, Mr Patil said, would favour his party since “urbanites were BJP voters”.
Sitting Congress MP from Bardoli constituency, Dr Tushar Chowdhary, was of the view that such calculations seldom counted since an MP is gauged by his performance. He said the Congress should win 16 of the 26 seats because of the incumbency factor. Yet, Dr Chowdhary appeared unhappy with the weakness of the Congress as an organization, and agreed, if somewhat reluctantly, that much needed to be done to revive the party.
'Nothing to apologise for'
Mr Narendra Modi remains defiant over his role in the Gujarat riots, telling a TV channel that he had nothing to apologise for, adds PTI from New Delhi. Defending himself against allegations of being callous towards the plight of Gujarat minorities after the riots, he said, “Why are you being generous? Do not forgive Narendra Modi, if he has done anything wrong. Hang him publicly if you find him guilty.”
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