Daily News (In Short)-10-July-2015

#* Cricket and mystery deaths threaten Narendra Modi’s bid to overhaul India

New Delhi: Another Indian parliament session, another occasion to block key pieces of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic agenda. This time his opponents are seizing upon scandals involving members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): One concerning a former top cricket official, and the other relating to dozens of deaths linked to fraud in state-run bureaucratic entrance exams.
The opposition Congress party is threatening to disrupt a parliamentary session starting 21 July unless key BJP officials resign. Shouting law makers have been deployed by both main parties when in opposition to prevent laws from being passed. Such protests would make it nearly impossible for Modi to pass bills needed to implement a national sales tax by April—replacing a jumble of state taxes in one of the country’s biggest reform proposals in decades.
Investors are growing impatient with promises that aren’t backed by action: India’s benchmark stock index, up 30% in 2014 following Modi’s win, is nearly unchanged this year. “It’s absolutely important to get it approved for investment sentiment to turn,” said Sudip Shah, London-based chief executive of Orbit Investment Securities Services Plc, referring to the goods and services tax. “There hasn’t been any major reform since the government has come.”
Modi’s BJP blocked the tax it now advocates during the Congress party’s decade-long rule, giving his opponents extra motivation to hold up measures to ease land acquisition and overhaul the electricity sector. They also now have some ammunition after Modi won on an anti-corruption platform and promised a clean government.
Cricket boss
“The government’s response will decide the fate of the session,” Satyavrat Chaturvedi, a senior Congress law maker, said by phone. “If the government takes an obstinate view, then of course there will be resistance.”
For the past month, India’s nightly news shows—some featuring split screens with as many as eight guests—have spent much of their time focused on two scandals that the Congress will seize on when parliament reopens.
The first involves Lalit Modi, no relation to the Prime Minister, who formerly helmed India’s top cricket league. In 2010 he fled to London after tax officials started investigating money laundering and tax evasion allegations, prompting Indian authorities to revoke his passport. It was later restored.
46 dead
In June, it emerged that foreign minister Sushma Swaraj last year had helped the former cricket chief procure British travel papers, sparking outrage among political opponents who saw it as akin to aiding a fugitive. In a series of Twitter posts, Swaraj said it was done on humanitarian grounds so that Lalit Modi—who denies any wrongdoing—could travel with his ailing wife.
Another key BJP member, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, was also accused of helping Lalit Modi. She has also denied any wrongdoing and refused to heed Congress’s calls for her to resign.
The second scandal is in the BJP-run state of Madhya Pradesh. Under what’s known as the Vyapam scam, which came to light in 2013, thousands of people received bureaucratic jobs and got into medical schools in the state through systematic fraud related to entrance examinations.
The crisis has intensified as witnesses helping authorities have turned up dead, as well as a Delhi-based television journalist on 4 July. In all, 46 people connected to the scam have died, many of them in mysterious circumstances, with more than 2,000 people arrested, the Times of India reported, citing its own investigation.

#* Uproar in Punjab after road accident kills one, Congress alleges CM Badal's family bus hit him

Ropar(Punjab): A scooterist was killed on Friday in an accident near Ropar toll plaza in Ropar and opposition Congress alleged that he was hit by a bus owned by the Badal family.
However, police said the scooterist was killed in an accident between a car and the scooter. Residents of Behrampur Zimidara and surrounding villages blocked the Ropar-Chandigarh highway at Solkhian after the accident, alleging the scooterist was killed by a luxury private bus, seeking adequate compensation for the next of the kin of deceased and registering a case against the bus driver.
The deceased had been identified as Swarn Singh (40), police said, adding that Singh was on his way to home after night shift at work when the accident occurred.
The deceased's wife Mandeep Kaur said that the bus has hit the scooter. She alleged that the bus driver after hitting the scooter sped away with the vehicle.
Punjab Congress President, Partap Singh Bajwa alleged that the bus belonged to Dabwali transport company owned by Badal family and demanded the registration of a case against all the directors of the company.
"Todays incident is a classic example of hit & run as the bus driver didn't even bother to stop after crushing Swaran Singh and the police had failed to take any action and the reasons were obvious."
He demanded that Dabwali transport company should pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to the victim's family. Bajwa also demanded government job for the bereaved family on the pattern of the Moga tragedy involving Orbit bus.
He also appealed to the Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana High Court to take suo motto notice of this another case allegedly involving the transport company of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
"...impose ban on the plying of the Badal family buses which had turned into killing machines on the highways. The Dabwali Transport was started by Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal," Bajwa appealed.
He said the local Congress leaders were sitting on a dharna since morning demanding action against the company and compensation to the bereaved family and made it clear that it would continue till the acceptance of all the demands.
"This latest incident involving the Badal bus has once again proved that there is no law of the land in the state and the writ of the Badal family is the law. This can't be allowed to go on and the people would not tolerate such goondaism anymore," he added.
However, Ropar SSP Varinder Pal Singh said that the bus was not involved in the accident.
"Car has banged into the scooter... its air bag opened... car is damaged", he said. He said the car driver Prabhbir had been arrested for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

#* Anti-terror meet, 26/11 trial: 5 highlights of Modi-Sharif talks

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif held bilateral talks on the sidelines of a summit in Russia, agreeing on five points to tackle terror and improve ties between the two nations on Friday.
"The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. They (Modi and Sharif) discussed issues of bilateral and regional interest," Pakistan foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary said. "They agreed that India and Pakistan have a collective responsibility to ensure peace and promote development in the region," he added. "Both leaders condemned terrorism in all its forms," Chaudhary said.

Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar said the two leaders agreed on the following five points that were discussed at their meet:

1) A meeting in New Delhi between the NSAs of the two nations on all issues connected to terror.

2) Early meets of DG BSF and DG Pakistan Rangers followed by a meeting of DGMOs.

Read: Day ahead of Modi-Sharif talks, BSF jawan killed in Pak firing

3) A decision for release of fishermen in each other's custodies and their boats in 15 days.

4) A mechanism to facilitate religious tourism.

5) Both sides agreed to expedite the Mumbai attacks trial, including a provision for voice sample.

#* Jammu-Srinagar National highway closure halts Amarnath Yatra 

JAMMU: More than 2,000 passenger vehicles, including 68 carrying Kashmir-bound Amarnath pilgrims, have been left stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar National highway, following its closure due to massive landslides at several places triggered by overnight rainfall. 

"The Jammu-Srinagar National highway has been closed and the Amarnath Yatra halted due to massive landslides at several places trigged by the heavy overnight rainfall," SSP Traffic (NH) Sanjay Kotwal told PTI. 
He said that around 68 vehicles carrying the Amarnath Pilgrims have been asked to stop near Kud and Patnitop stretch of the Highway to ensure their safety and security. 

"Today the traffic was from Srinagar to Jammu so around 1,000 vehicles from the valley are left stranded on the Highway and similar number of Jammu to Srinagar vehicles have been left stranded on the highway at several places," Kotwal said. 

He said that the men and machinery of the Border Road Organisation (BRO) was working round the clock to restore the road connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and rest of the country. 

"Our men have been working to ensure that the highway gets restored within next few hours," Kotwal said. 

This is the second time in the last 24 hours that Jammu- Srinagar national highway was closed following heavy rains across the state. 

On Thursday, the highway was closed at 3 AM following heavy rainfall, due to which the yatra was halted. The highway was thrown open after remaining closed for several hours. 

"Yesterday, we opened the highway for vehicular traffic after it was closed due to early morning landslides. Today again it was closed due to fresh landslides," he said. 

#* AAP to expand students wing in Maharashtra

The AAP's state unit had yesterday announced the launch of its Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS)- a student and youth wing along with 'Graduate's Forum' - with the purpose of making a foray into student politics.

"We would be having six regions. Dr Sushant Bolkar has been appointed as head of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)," AAP's Maharashtra unit executive member and CYSS in-charge Farooque Ahmed told reporters here today.

"In the other five regions of Konkan, North Maharashtra, Western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha, the heads would be appointed soon," he said. "Youth are the foundation of tomorrow's India and have a crucial role to play in reforming politics. CYSS is an honest attempt to create leaders and allocate responsible positions to youth," AAP's state convener Subhash Ware stated.

"AAP has initiated its foray into student politics and going by the enormous support from students and party's cadre, the CYSS will emerge as a force to reckon with across the state," he added.

Ware alleged that traditional political parties haven't done justice to students' issues. "They have merely reduced the students to pawn in the game of petty politics. This is exactly what CYSS is attempting to change," he added.

#* Ghost of Vyapam and Shivraj Singh Chouhan: Four questions from CBI that may seal the CM's fate

The BJP is claiming a virtue out of necessity.
After refusing for months to hand over the Vyapam scam to the CBI, chief minister Shivraj Chouhan and his colleagues are now saying they are relieved the Supreme Court has asked the agency to step in. "The learned Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi clearly enunciated before the Supreme Court the state government's stand that it desires a CBI probe. It must be pointed out that the government had already approached the high court with a similar request. The apex court has accepted it and also appreciated the AG's stand," BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told PTI.
Did Chouhan have any other option? Two days ago, when the apex court decided to hear petitions for handing over the case to the CBI, Chouhan's hand was forced. To preempt the embarrasment of being directed by the SC to give up his obduracy, Chouhan had to hurriedly request the high court to seek the CBI's intervention.
The decision will now take some pressure off Chouhan and the BJP. If the Opposition attacks him further, he can always claim that the CBI is investigating the case and everybody should wait for the outcome, which, considering its scale and magnitude, will take months, if not years.
So, the Vyapam ghost is off Chouhan's shoulders for some time. We will feel some of its tremors in the Monsoon session of Parliament, but after that it will be business as usual.
What happens ultimately will depend on how the CBI handles some of the key questions related to the scam. Here are the top answers that will decide Chouhan's fate.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. AFPMadhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. AFP
Who is the kingpin of the racket?
Most of the people arrested in connection with the scam so far are students, parents and middlemen who gave and accepted money for securing admissions through the Professional Examintion Board, known by its Hindi acronym Vyapam.
The only politician of some significance arrested so far is former education minister Lakshmikant Sharma. But Sharma has been unusually quiet during his interrogation by the special task force officers. He has not told investigators about how the entire racket functioned, who were its real beneficiaries and mastermind.
The STF has allowed Sharma to get away with silence and cryptic replies, without making any effort to make him spill the beans on his collabarators and protectors.
The Congress has claimed that the scam trail goes right up to the CM's house and office. It has alleged the involvement of Chouhan's relatives and alleged they were in constant touch with Sharma through phone and text messages.
Chouhan and the BJP have denied all this. They have called the phone records produced by Congress bogus and called an excel sheet, which reportedly contains the names of the scam's beneficiaries, fake.
It will be the CBI's job to make Sharma talk and separate truth from allegations and explanations.
Why have there been so many deaths?
At least two dozen people connected with the probe have died under suspicious circumstances. Some of them have been attributed to sudden illness, mainly heart attack, or suicide. But, as this Hindustan Times report points out, not one suicide note was found by cops. "...10 Vyapam-related deaths were dubbed suicide even though none of them left a suicide note, revealing another intriguing gap in the investigations already facing accusations of wrong arrests and tampered post-mortem reports. Besides, there are allegations that in the cases where foul play was alleged police termed the deaths as suicide without conducting an autopsy."
Namrata Damor's death was called suicide even when the autopsy pointed at murder; Jabalpur medical college dean DK Sakalle died of unexplained burn injuries, another accused had injury marks even though his death was attributed to suicide by hanging; and a key witness fell off (or was thrown out) a moving bus and died.
The CBI will have to find a suitable explanation for all these 'unexplained' suicides and sudden deaths.
What was the role of the Sangh Parivar?
The Congress has alleged that the scam had its genesis in the Chouhan government's efforts to accommodate RSS workers and their families in medical colleges and state services. Several important Sangh leaders allegedly benefitted from it and top-functionaries recommended candidates for admission and recruitment.
In 2014, former RSS chief KS Sudarshan's name was also dragged into the controversy when it was alleged that he had recommended the name of a member of his personal staff for a government job. This was promptly denied by the government and the STF as hearsay. But doubts have persisted. The CBI will have a tough task de-linking Nagpur from the scam.
Did the governor, judiciary and bureaucrats benefit from Vyapam?
MP governor Ramnaresh Yadav was named as an accused in the scam; his son is among those charged with accepting money in the Raj Bhawan for recommending recruitments and admissions.
The trail turned cold when Yadav's son died mysteriously and the high court quashed the FIR against the government citing constitutional immunity. Now that the governor's continuation in office appears difficult (the SC has sent a notice to Yadav on the issue of the FIR against him), the CBI may get a chance to investigate the case against him.
The governor has access to several government files, he can seek any information, appoint and transfer officials. Potentially, he can share a lot of information about MP bureaucrats and the judiciary, whose roles have come under scrutiny because of allegations by whistleblowers.
The CBI has a lot to question; the Chouhan government has a lot to answer. Till more facts emerge, the BJP can continue claiming victory in a moral and political setback.

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