Mr. Suresh Kalmadi Speaking At The Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony Invites the World To Visit India For the 2010 Edition of Commonwealth Games
Shri Suresh Kalmadi, MP, Chairman Pune Vyaspeeth, Shri Ashok Chavan Hon Minister for Industries GOM, Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh, Hon Chief Minister Maharashtra, Dr R A Mashelkar, Dir CSIR, Ms Rajni Tribhuvan, Hon Mayor Pune at Inauguration
My dear Suresh,
Kindly keep in mind to suggest few Freedom Fighters who are still in a position to move about and work like me to nominate on Railway Advisory or/and Telephone advisory National/Regional Committees.
About me you can think of nominating me in addition to above on Central Health Advisary Committee, as I am a senior HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT AND A Ex-Professor in Hospital Management of the Pune University.
I spoke about the first two to you in the morning at Congress House.Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Prabhakar Gupte.
Freedom Fighter.
Hos.Mag.Consultant.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi walked up to the podium at a conference of world leaders and captured the audience virtually from the word go with her opening gambit. Taking the audience completely by surprise, Sonia quipped she was “ready to bet that none of you expected me last year to take part in this year's conference as part of the establishment".
The “transformation” of Sonia, which was also lauded by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, was complete when she handled questions on various issues deftly - including a "tough" one from Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan. To a query from Abdullah, who expressed his "silent admiration" for the way she has evolved, Gandhi said "I have learnt from all of you, including you".
To a question which now has become a cliché, Sonia replied "I am not power the behind the throne. I do not wish to be power behind the throne." The Congress President said similar insinuations were made even when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister. She added such suggestions were "not something that has happened just now”. “When Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, I was supposed to have sacked Ministers, brought new ones," she stated.
Asked whether it was right to assume that she was the "rising star" on the nation's political scene, Gandhi replied "I would not want to be a star and I would like to be just me".
Gandhi, who is also UPA Chairperson, said that she "does not look at government files or takes government decisions". The UPA Chairperson said that party leaders do meet the Prime Minister on a weekly basis to have discussions on a variety of issues. "I would never allow him (the Prime Minister) to come and see me and I will always go there", she said when asked whether she asked Singh to meet her or she herself goes to meet him.
A five-member Coordination Committee has been set to ensure "free flow of information" on Congress party and government policies. The Committee, constituted on the initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, includes
Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy,
Minister Of State in PMO, Prithviraj Chavan,
AICC'S Media Chairperson Girija Vyas and its
Secretary Tom Vadakkan and
Prime Minister's Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru.
Other ministers could attend the Committee's meetings depending on issues, party sources said, adding the initiative was an outcome of the Prime Minister's meeting with the office- bearers of the AICC's media department last week which suggested regular interaction with government on information.
In the first meeting attended by the five members presided over by the Prime Minister, it was decided that the "activities, achievements and initiatives" taken by the Government were put in a proper perspective and context.
A close coordination is needed between the Government and the Congress party's Media Department to enable people know about the work being done by the ruling UPA, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today. Singh made the suggestion while interacting with the members of the AICC Media department over lunch at his official residence here.
Later, Chairperson of the department Girija Vyas told reporters that it was an informal interaction between Singh and the department's members. Vyas said that they told the Prime Minister about the difficulties faced by the media in getting information from the Government. Asked about his response, Vyas said "it was positive." Besides her, those present at the lunch were Spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan and AICC Secretary Tom Vadakkan.
Two spokesmen Anand Sharma and Abhishek Singh could not attend as they were out of Delhi, Vyas said.
The Congress intends to break its local leaders' stranglehold over the organisation at the grassroot level through the ongoing membership drive. AICC treasurer Motilal Vora says, "Among the objectives of the membership drive is a shakeup at the lower rungs of the organisation with the entry of fresh recruits." Organisational polls will follow the membership drive. Block and district level presidents, entrenched in the organisation's ground level for decades, have blocked emergence of new leaders.
The party expects a rush of new entrants as the party is back in power at the Centre. But enthusiasm in UP for Congress membership has surprised the central leadership. As many as 87 lakh people have filled the enrolment forms in the state with 45 days more still to go for enrolment closure scheduled for November 15.
The organisational polls of the Congress down the years have given rise to many controversies, including that of bogus membership. Perhaps in a bid to avoid any row over bogus membership, the AICC reportedly has not set state-specific targets. But, the Congress hopes to enrol 1.5 crore new primary members to take its overall tally to five crores. After the membership drive, the exercise of scrutinising membership forms and submitting the fees at various levels will begin. After that, elections will be conducted for primary, block, district and pradesh panels. This process will be completed by April 30, 2005. Thereafter, the party president will be elected.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday that the jobless growth of the past few years needed to be reversed. "The time has come for us to add to the call for garibi hatao, a new slogan for our times ‘rozgar badhao,’" he said. Unveiling the government's plans to push employment-led growth, he said: "The working classes of our country have my assurance that we shall never pursue a path which adversely affects the interests of the workers and the toiling masses of our country." Indian labour markets needed "increased flexibility" Singh said. But there could be no easy advocacy of "the hire-and-fire approach" as the country's social security institutions were not well developed.
Giving away the Prime Minister's Shram Awards (2002 and 2003) to workers for exceptional productivity at Vigyan Bhawan here, Singh said there was a need to review the impact of the economic policies, including labour laws "on the growth of employment".
The PM said the government's strategy to translate the new slogan into action starts with the food-for-work programme in 150 backward districts as a first step towards a national employment guarantee scheme. Being launched in the next few weeks, the programme will provide 100 days' employment to all able-bodied rural persons.
In an apparent bid to give a message to the younger generation and take them along in the governance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday had a luncheon meeting with young Congress MPs to know their views on various issues confronting the nation. Though in the first meeting, Singh interacted with only Congress MPs, he assured that he would be interacting with young MPs of other parties as well. The Prime Minister assured the MPs that henceforth, he would interact with them every fortnight and their views would be incorporated while finalising government's policies and programmes. Those who attended the meeting were:
Prasada (UP),
Jyotiraditya Scindia (MP),
Milind Deora (Maharashtra),
Kishan Bhai Patel (Gujarat),
Navin Jindal (Haryana) and
Prithvi Raj Vhavan (MoS PMO).
Prasada said that the young MPs exchanged their views with the Prime Minister on the problems faced by the people in their respective constituency, region and state. Scindia said, "basically the Prime Minister had invited us to know our aspirations and views on different issues like education, health, population, infrastructure, power and farmers' problems".
Dr Manmohan Singh during his press conference on September 04, 2004 said Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks on Savarkar were his personal views. Taking a line totally different from the official stand of Congress, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday described Veer Savarkar as “a fighter and a patriot” and distanced his government from the comments made on the issue made by Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, saying those were the minister’s personal views.
The emphatic comment from Dr Singh about Veer Savarkar comes only a few days after Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said the party did not consider him a patriot or a freedom fighter. The AICC stand has put the state Congress leadership in such a major problem locally that they have openly distanced themselves from it.
“As far as the Savarkar controversy is concerned... they are Mr Aiyar’s personal views and not of the government. It is an unnecessary controversy,” Dr Singh said addressing his first formal press conference after assuming the office of the Prime Minister. “Savarkar was a freedom fighter and a patriot (but) there are some aspects of his life with which we did not agree. He was also a co-accused in the Mahatma Gandhi murder case but was acquitted. He was also associated with the Hinduvta ideology,” he said.
“But I do not believe any good is achieved by speaking ill of the dead,” he said.
by Sam PitrodaSam Pitroda worked closely with Rajiv Gandhi in various capacities, advising him on technology and telecom matters. He was head of the Technology Missions.
The long-term social and economic impact of the Rajiv Gandhi government has not received the kind of attention it deserves. The convergence of Gandhi's birth anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Centre of Development of Telematics (C-DOT) this month perhaps offers an opportunity to look at the impact of what was initiated by Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-1980s.
Rather then getting entangled in cold statistics, what one needs to focus on while assessing the legacy of the Gandhi government, is the dramatic re-engineering of the national mindset, enthusiasm, energy, hope, aspirations and mood during his days. One of the most important priorities that Gandhi and his advisors, such as myself, recognised was to use technology as an entry point and not end in itself to bring about generational changes in our age-old processes and delivery systems that affect mass of people specially in rural areas.
As a result many new programmes were launched in communications, defence, space, agriculture, computerization, planning, etc. The Technology Missions related to water, literacy, immunization, oil-seeds, dairy development and telecommunications were designed to bring new missionary zeal and new management methods to problem solving. There were serious government discussions on launching other Technology Missions related to environment, housing, and managing floods and droughts as well.
C-DOT was the foundation to energize young talent in the country for indigenous development. The task was to develop our own digital rural exchange to provide nationwide STD/PCO network to enhance accessibility and connect rural people to India and the world. This was seen as a pipedream. Nearly two decades hence that mandate seems fulfilled. Now we have 90 million phones - although a lot still remains to be achieved.
Amethi Congress MP and party president Sonia Gandhi's son, Rahul, was the cynosure of all eyes on Saturday at the All India Congress Committee meeting in New Delhi's Talkatora Stadium. An AICC session is a big affair anyways given the size of the party, but Saturday's session was special for two reasons. First, it coincided with the late Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary celebrations and second, it was the party's first AICC session after assuming power at the Centre.
The session was dedicated to Rajiv Gandhi's memory and it was very clear that the party saw it as an opportunity to anoint Rahul as his heir apparent. All along the way to the venue, there were posters of Rahul, with a bold 'tilak' on his forehead, proclaiming him as 'the country's destiny.' The stadium echoed with the cries of 'Rahul Gandhi zindabad' and 'Sonia Gandhi zindabad' the moment the Gandhi scion entered.
Making a scathing attack on BJP, (Bharat Jalao Party) Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi accused the party of subverting the recent electoral mandate by not accepting its rejection by the people and showing its "anti-democratic" character. "The verdict was a clear, categorical, decisive rejection of the BJP and of the NDA. Their arrogance, their lust for power, and their pursuit of personal profit blinded them to reality. They believed they had attained political immortality. Obviously, the BJP did not expect to lose. It lost.
"The BJP is still behaving in a manner that subverts this mandate. It has not accepted its rejection by the people, by the 'aam admi' (common man)," Mrs Gandhi said in her opening address at the one-day AICC session.
Ridiculing the saffron party's 'chintan baithaks' (brainstorming sessions) as 'chinta baithaks' (worrying sessions), she said "the BJP is clearly worried.
"Let us be under no illusions. The BJP has not accepted the verdict of the people. And it will continue to disregard this verdict. But in doing so, it will be shown up for what it really is - anti-democratic, illiberal and hypocritical".
The Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi today visited the malnutrition-hit Melghat region of eastern Maharashtra.Visiting Dhuni village in Dharni tehsil of this district on her second leg of day-long tour to the state, Ms Gandhi said agriculture has suffered in the past five to eight years leading to suicides in several parts of Maharashtra.
She, however, refused to comment on whether the central government or the state government, intends to announce a special package for the farmers.
The Chief Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde said the Democratic Front government has already announced special package for the farmers, hinting that there was no new package ahead.
Earlier, Ms Gandhi’s visit to the tribal-dominated Akkalkuva in Nandurbar district to review malnutrition deaths, was called off due to inclement weather.
Congress President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi will visit the malnutrition-affected Melghat region of east Maharashtra on Wednesday, on the second leg of her day-long tour of the state. Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, MPCC president Prabha Rau and AICC general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Maharashtra, Margaret Alva, would accompany Gandhi during her tour.
Gandhi would first visit tribal-dominated Akkalkuva in Nandurbar district of north Maharashtra, from where several malnutrition deaths were reported, officials sources said.
From Nandurbar, she will proceed to Dhuni village, some 150 km from Amravati, and meet malnutrition-affected children. Although administration has made adequate preparations for the visit, flooding in the area due to heavy rains in the district for the past week could impede the programme."If the nullah crossing the road to Dhuni continues to overflow the programme could be modified," a district official said.
This is the second time in 29 years that a member of the Gandhi family is visiting the tribal Melghat area, the earlier being by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.
Ahead of the organisational elections, Union Minister Oscar Fernandes was on Thursday appointed as Chairman of the Central Election Authority of the Congress with immediate effect. The appointment of Fernandes, a known loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family, was made by party President Sonia Gandhi following resignation of Ram Niwas Mirdha, who had conducted several organisational elections as also Parliamentary party polls.
"Meanwhile, Congress President also included two leaders as special invitees for Congress Working Committee (CWC). They are INTUC President Sanjeeva Reddy and former MP from Arunachal Pradesh Oomen Deori. Gandhi also appointed two Vice Presidents for Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee. They are Ghulam Mohammed Poonchi and former MP and Minister RS Chhib.
The announcement was made by party General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi who dismissed suggestion that Mirdha had resigned under protest. He said Mirdha had met Gandhi and submitted his resignation and "he (Mirdha) might be getting another assignment.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is expected to kick-off her Maharashtra Assembly elections campaign from Nagpur in the second week of August. Given the keen nature of the contest and the perception that the political stock of the Congress-NCP combine has fallen, the state is likely to witness a concentrated campaign by the Congress president and her children — Rahul and Priyanka. The party has got down to serious business in Maharashtra and the leaders in charge of the state are working in close alliance with NCP.
It is learnt that a strong message has already been sent to former PCC president Ranjit Deshmukh to lie low and that he would be accommodated after the elections. "He has been told not to go about making any attempt to create rift and any misadventure will be seriously viewed by the party high-command," said a party official.
AICC general secretary Margaret Alva and secretary Ajay Maken are already camping in the state. Another AICC secretary, B K Hariprasad, has just returned after a two-day visit to Mumbai for an overview of the state organisation.
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