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Partition

Partition of India - refugees displaced by the partition

Monday, November 23, 2009

Condoleezza, Quattrocchi and Left Ruled Bengal

Condoleezza, Quattrocchi and Left Ruled Bengal

Indian Holocaust My father`s Life and Time- Two Hundred Twenty Five

Palash Biswas



After the 1962 war, Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai sentiment gets stronger once again with militaries of the two countries joining hands for the first time to conduct a joint army exercise, to be held in October in China.Both sides agree to meet again in August in New Delhi and wrap up the joint research by October.Condoleezza Rice does not believe that India and China's rise will threaten the "American Century". CPIM has once again rejected its patriarch, nonogenerian comrade Jyoti Basu. He was not allowed to lead the Nation. He is not projected for Raiseena Hills and a Kuleen Brahmin happens to be the RED HORse, Pranab Mukherjee. Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi will be set free if Argentina's Supreme Court rejects India's appeal against a ruling Saturday by a lower court that did not grant New Delhi's extradition request. He will be. No doubt.Contrarily, An Indian court has ruled that the prime suspect in the rape and murder of a British teenager can be extradited to face trial in the UK.

We all know all about partition of India as well as partition of Communist party of India. Shyama Prasad mukherjee, the nonchallangeable Caste Hindu leader in Bengal had said whether India is partitioned or not, Bengal has to be divided as caste hindues are not ready to accept the dominance of the Downtrodden of the Hindu society,the dalits and the Converted Muslims who ruled over Bengal before partition! Communist party was divided as Marxists insisted to follow Chinese line!

Enslavement is the old story. India is not all over cow belt and there happens a sharpened absence of National Dalit Movement. Mukherjee happened to be the father of Jana Sangh which turned into BJP! Now, the Ruling classes, enbloke follws the Chinese Line!

Condoleezza, Quattrocchi and the Indian Marxists all are the advocates of post modern Manusmriti, Globalisation! Ms Mamata Bannerjee and her close allies the Sangh Parivar are the best weapons of the Zionist Hindu Global Order led by Washington!

Trinamool Congress (TC) led activists blocked all important roads all over West Bengal for an hour on Saturday, after the Left Front distanced itself from taking any decision on TC leader Mamata Banerjee's Singur demand.Though she had left the decision on the West Bengal government, that did not stop the activists from creating complete chaos in the state for over an hour on Saturday.Jyoti Basu was manipulated by Buddha/Biman to bluff Mamata and gain tempo in a chess game. Mamata is no good in chess. She will lose, if she believes in this shennanigans.

An independent commission comprising jurists namely Mr Justice Abani Mohan Sinha, Mr Justice Malay Sengupta and Mr Justice Ranendra Narayan Roy has been constituted by Citizen’s Council of West Bengal to conduct a judicial probe into the series of incidents in Nandigram and Singur.

An affidavit filed by the state government in the Calcutta High Court today stated that around Rs 28 crore out of the Rs 119.52 crore allocated as compensation for land acquisition at Singur are still lying with the district collector of Hooghly. Of the 997.11 acres of land, the owners of 671 acres have already received compensation from the district collector. Till April 25, Rs 90.35 crore have been received by 10,021 awardees, the affidavit said.


The protest comes just days after Mamata met CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu, where both indicated some movement forward on the Singur issue.The meeting was also later endorsed by West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharya.Meanwhile, the CPI-M-led Left Front distanced itself from taking any decision on Mamata Banerjee's demand, putting the ball in the West Bengal government's court.


West Bengal government mulls offering alternative land to Singur farmers.The state government has already begun a process of identifying the land that can be offered to those farmers who have not accepted the compensation. And, thus, the much hyped talks between Basu and Ms Mamta has been nullified as CPIM has made it clear that no land would be returned in Singur! We all know the causes and the effect. But we always pretend to be unaware. It is not disillusionment at all. It is highdrama in the land of soap operas and melodrama. It is Farce classical. Everyone is playing his role. Nation suffers. Suffers the Dalit Bharat. And Shining India celebrates!

Former chief minister Mr Jyoti Basu yesterday admitted there is no surplus land in Singur available to distribute among farmers who don’t want to give it up for the Tata small car factory. However, he said the CPI-M is trying to work out a new formula for their rehabilitation. Industry minister Mr Nirupam Sen has been asked to prepare a note on the matter, which is likely to be placed before the Left Front tomorrow. Talking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the CPI-M state secretariat at Alimuddin Street, Mr Basu said: “There are many legal aspects. Mr Nirupam Sen is preparing a note. But there is no land in Singur”.

Mr Jyoti Basu has been the bane of West Bengal for over fifty years. He has often spoken of retirement, but when will he do so? He is trying to pacify the opposition. And Buddhadev is doing his job.The real estate major, DLF Ltd, is set to invest over Rs 30,000 crore in the Dankuni township which will include a textile special economic zone and a Rs 550 crore hospitality complex off the EM Bypass that will include a business hotel, a luxury hotel and service apartments in collaboration with the US hospitality giant Hilton.

Mr Basu also admitted that farmers owing allegiance to the Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee are not likely to move out of Singur even if the government provides alternative land. “Why would they go?” he asked, echoing Trinamul supremo Miss Mamata Banerjee who claims there are many farmers who don’t want to give up their land. She is demanding that 300-odd acres she claims were forcibly acquired for the car factory and ancillary units be returned to the farmers.
Asked whether he could foresee a peaceful end to the land dispute, the veteran Marxist said: “That depends on them (Trinamul).” Pointing out that in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) the government has filed an affidavit at the Calcutta High Court stating the entire 998-acre plot is needed for the Tata project, a state secretariat member of the CPI-M claimed the party is in a fix. “If, under any circumstances, we decide to return 300 acres of acquired land to the farmers the government will be accused of lying before the court. Moreover there are many legal complications in the process of returning acquired land”, he said. Tomorrow’s Left Front meeting is likely to be stormy as allies of the CPI-M are upset with Front chairman Mr Biman Bose. Meanwhile, the state government has rejected a proposal to provide alternative land to farmers in Singur.

See what Condoleezza says and realise the implications untold! It is wellscripted post modern Manusmriti and Imperialism ensured WIN with Zionist Hindutva trumpcrad on one hand and the Marxist Capitalism on the other!In a bid to break the logjam over the civil nuclear deal with the US, India has offered to set up a dedicated safeguarded facility for reprocessing of atomic fuel. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met US president George W Bush near here on Friday, officials of the two countries discussed in detail the proposal, under which India will negotiate a higher level of safeguards with the IAEA.

National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and his US counterpart Stephen Hadley held thorough deliberations on the proposal for establishing a dedicated national facility for reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, sources said. The proposal was made to find a way out of the problems in talks over 123 agreement due to differing positions over the reprocessing issue. As officials discussed the proposal, Mr Singh had a brief meeting with Bush in Germany’s seaside resort of Heiligendamm on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

Notwithstanding the rise of India and China, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice does not believe that "American Century" is giving way to the era of American decline or the coming of "somebody else's century." She is absolutely correct. But we see no sign of disillusionment as Sensex India is way ahead in the process of Americanisation!The United States will continue to use free trade, foreign aid and all elements of its power to promote an open international order based on political liberty, free markets, self-determination and national sovereignty, she said.

China and India yesterday poured cold water on the climate change deal reached at the G8.They both rejected attempts by America to make environmental targets dependent on their willingness to follow suit.China gave a studied, neutral response to the deal in Germany to move towards cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.India reiterated that it had not changed its attitude that it was up to the developed world to take the initiative.In theory, both should have been pleased that there was no attempt to set specific targets for their own greenhouse gas emissions, which they have refused to consider.

Please read the following lines and you will get the source of the globalisation spirit of our national leaders. They are only the US loudspekers full of echoes! Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today wound up his four-day visit to Germany which witnessed a political push being given by India and the US to the talks on civil nuclear cooperation that had got stuck because of differences on reprocessing and some other issues. While most of the separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir adopted a wait and watch policy on the surfacing of the "al-Qaeda" CD, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party president Shabir Ahmad Shah has dismissed it as a "deep-rooted ...


Nandigram Resistance is now divided thanks to the survival strategy and damage control campaign by CPIM and also the role played by politicians who made the dalits and Muslims scapegoats!Left Front puts the ball in Govt.'s court on Singur issue . The CPI(M)-led Left Front today distanced itself from taking any decision on Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's demand that land at Singur, acquired for the Tata Motors project against the wishes of farmers, have to be returned and put the ball in the West Bengal Government's court. While, Mamata made her position more specific yesterday. A total of 402 acres owned by farmers at Singur from whom land had been taken without consent would have to be returned. The government has been criticised for taking 997 acres of land forcibly at Singur, about 40km from Kolkata, to accommodate the Tata Motors Ltd’s project for making the country’s cheapest cars. It is now talking of offering land elsewhere to those farmers who are unwilling to accept the monetary compensation for the area they lost.
While it has set aside Rs118.95 crore in compensation, the state government has already paid about 2,414 owners for 287.52 acres of that land and has offered 10% more on the original price to about 710 land owners, who resisted the original price. In an affidavit in the Kolkata high court on Thursday, the government stated that owners of about 326 acres have refused to accept any monetary compensation.
Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Opposition party in the state, Trinamool Congress, has been demanding that the land should be returned to the farmers who are unwilling to sell their land. She conveyed this demand to CPM’s veteran leader and politburo member, Jyoti Basu, earlier this week, when he called her to end the ongoing political war over land issues in the state.
The state government has already begun a process of identifying the land that can be offered to those farmers who have not accepted the compensation and are still fighting the forcible acquisition.
“Nirupam (Sen, the state commerce and industries minister) is preparing the list (of land owners) and we are looking into the various legal factors involved,” Basu said after his party’s state secretariat met this afternoon. “I am hopeful that we will resolve the issue soon,” he said, without elaborating further.
Sen acknowledged that he had been assigned the task by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, according to a party leader present at the meeting who did not wish to be named.
So far, Banerjee has demanded that the land that was forcibly acquired be returned to the farmers. It is unclear whether the disgruntled farmers will accept land elsewhere.


On the other hand, India intends to move Argentine SC against Q verdictas CITU is ready for granting licence to organised retail trade.Argentinian lawyer Miguel Almeyra, who represented the CBI, said he had expected the ruling to go against Quattrocchi in the local court in Argentina.India will move the Argentine Supreme Court against a lower court's decision to reject CBI's appeal for extradition of Bofors case accused Ottavio Quattrocchi, a lawyer representing Indian authorities said on Saturday. CBI is seeking Quattrocchi's extradition so that he can face trial in Bofors case. The Italian faces charges of taking bribes to swing a Rs 1,437-crore guns deal in the 1986 in favour of Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors.India's efforts for his extradition began four months ago when Quattrocchi was detained on February six in the Misiones province on the basis of an Interpol alert.

CBI maintains that Quattrocchi took $7 million in bribes as a middleman in the $1.2 billion purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB in 1986 for the Indian Army.The case against him strengthened in June 2003 when Interpol revealed that two bank accounts held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria with the BSI AG bank in London contained 3 million euros and $1 million.Public prosecutor Liliam Delgado argued that the reasons behind the extradition request were not politically motivated.

Quattrocchi's lawyer Alejandro Freeland, on the other hand, portrayed his client as the victim of the Indian government harassment and said the CBI case was "weak". Quattrocchi told the press that he had been "persecuted" for 20 years.

"I don't believe there are any reasons to overturn this ruling," Freeland remarked. He said Quattrocchi was "illegally" arrested because there was not a court order when the Argentine authorities caught him.

Likewise, the lawyer went on, the detention order by the local judge was issued after the arrest.

According to Freeland, the Italian businessman had been already tried in New Delhi twice, in 2004 and 2005, and found not guilty. This constitutes a clear case of "double jeopardy", he said.

In New Delhi, a disappointed CBI did not make any public statement but senior officers told IANS that they would appeal in Argentina's Supreme Court. However, CBI officials did not appear very hopeful.

"The Argentinean lower court has given a 29-page order in Spanish. We need to first translate the order and study it. We have a few days and will soon take a call to appeal in the Supreme Court," a senior official said.

However, CBI sources privately admitted that the likelihood of getting a positive order in the Supreme Court at Buenos Aires was slender as it was not in a position to furnish additional information to bolster its arguments.

The CBI had already submitted a 250-page extradition request to the Argentine government after Quattrocchi's arrest in February.

Another CBI officer said: "What can we say? We were always fighting with our backs to the wall."

India's ambassador to Argentina, Pramathesh Rath, said that in the Argentine system the public prosecutor was obliged to appeal in the Supreme Court unless New Delhi specifically asks him not to do so.

A two-member CBI team led by Director (Prosecution) S.K. Sharma was in Argentina to assist the lawyers in the arguments that were technical in nature.

Oxfam links up with IIFA to fight poverty
Daily News & Analysis - 10 hours ago
Leeds: Using the power of Indian cinema to remove poverty and suffering around the world, Oxfam, a leading charity organization, has emerged as one of the key partners of the ongoing International India Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend.

'Star' land deals under scrutiny
Times of India - 7 Jun 2007
PUNE: The souring of megastar Amitabh Bachchan's land deal and farmer status in Uttar Pradesh, in addition to the subsequent repercussions on his land purchase in Pune district, have compelled the district administration to review all land purchases ...
I'ma farmer too: Aamir Khan SantaBanta.com
The sons of the soil Economic Times

Share burden on crop loans, govt tells banks
06:4 PM | June 03,2007
Rules out hike in subsidy, asks banks to provide loans up to Rs3 lakh at 7%

Buffer hike may ease India’s sugar woes
03:20 PM | June 05,2007
The government is considering a plan to raise the buffer stock to 5 million tonnes from 2 million

CII-McKinsey for promotion of wasteland farming, rural tourism
06:50 PM | June 01,2007
Report says rural focus can create 40 million jobs, Rs85,000 crore additional income and can jack up rural per capita income by 25-30%

Maninder Singh ruled out of danger after suicide bid
Times of India - 3 hours ago
NEW DELHI: Former Indian cricketer Maninder Singh, charged with possessing drugs last month, allegedly slashed his wrists on Saturday in his east Delhi home in what police say could be a suicide attempt.
Maninder Singh hospitalised NDTV.com
Maninder 'out of danger' Chennai Online

The CITU on Saturday said that it was in favour of granting licenses to organised retail trade, but was opposed to the entry of foreign players. West Bengal CITU President Shyamal Chakraborty told newspersons here that it would place a proposal before the state government on this. He said that with big corporate entities entering the organised retail trade, it would become difficult for the small retailers to carry on business unless they were given protection. Chakrabarty said that nearly 16 crore people were dependent on small retail trade. He said that the retail sector had emerged as the second highest employment generator in the country after agriculture. The CITU leader also opposed the entry of foreign players in the organised retail trade. In this context, he also criticised the tie-up between Bharti and WalMart. He alleged that it was a kind of backdoor entry of a foreign player in India.


US foreign policy, Rice claimed, is guided by both interests and ideals. The two are "inextricably linked" because "liberty and justice within states leads to peace and stability between states."

In the "new era of globalisation there is a real sense of uncertainty among many Americans today ...even leading some to speculate, again, that the American Century is giving way to the era of American decline," she said Thursday at the centennial celebration of the Economic Club of New York.

"This mood hangs over many of those articles and news reports that we see these days about the rise of China and India, and perhaps the coming of somebody else's century. We are to believe that America has had a good run, but it must be all downhill from here."

"Well, I think it won't surprise you that I don't believe that for a minute.

I'm optimistic about America and about America's future," Rice declared.


"To be sure, this is not a status quo objective. But that does not make it impractical. Indeed, helping states to transform themselves, to improve themselves, is the most realistic approach to the problems we now face," Rice said.


"Freedom is not an abstract principle. It is the most practical way for states to organize themselves successfully, to adapt to change, and to grow economically," she said. Rice called for a new bipartisan consensus on free trade as a vital tool of US foreign policy.

"Trade is the engine not only of economic growth, but also of political transformation. Integrating into the global economy helps to open closed societies. It helps new democracies to deliver on the high hopes of the people. And it gives governments a stake in the international system," she said.

This is the objective of the trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea now before US Congress, and of the Doha round of global trade negotiations, she said.

Rice said today, when some of the greatest international challenges emerge from within ill-governed or failed states, "global development is both a moral ideal and a national interest." The United States is determined to use its foreign aid to help states transform by promoting good governance and fighting poverty, she said.

The United States also is working to make its aid an incentive to govern justly, reform economies and invest in people, Rice said.

"We'd like to get out of the business of foreign aid entirely, but the way to do that is by helping countries meet their own needs through the development of effective democratic institutions and economic institutions," she said.

And see what the Marxists say in Kolkata!

"The Left Front can only suggest, but it is not within its jurisdiction to instruct the West Bengal government what it should do with regard to the demands (made by Mamata during her meeting with Basu) on the Singur project," chairman Biman Bose told newspersons after a meeting of the Front here.

Bose, also the state secretary of the CPI(M), said the Left Front welcomed the June 4 meeting between Basu and Mamata, but insisted that the state government would take whatever steps needed in the light of what transpired during the talks. "The demands raised have to be discussed with the state government," he said. If the opposition wanted a discussion, Basu said, the state government was ready to talk as the Chief Minister had said so several times earlier.

Meanwhile,The scheduled inauguration of the newly built bridge across the Hooghly river as well as the Belghoria Expressway by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 12 has been postponed.
The programmes, he said, were postponed due to the prime minister's engagement at the G-8 summit.

Bar on overseas loans for realty projects may go
The government will revisit its recent decision to stop companies borrowing abroad for real estate infrastructure projects in July because it expects to get a better sense of whether the central bank’s inflation-fighting efforts are working by then. The government decided to block the ECB route for real estate infrastructure projects to help the Reserve Bank of India slow down the growth of money supply which took inflation to a two-year high.
“A high-level committee on external commercial borrowings will take a look at the policy in mid-July. It’s a temporary measure (the decision to block ECB route for real estate infrastructure),” said a seniorofficial of the finance ministry who did not wish to beidentified.
In a few weeks, the government would get a better sense of inflation levels and interest rate trend which would help it decide if ECBs should be opened for realty companies again, the official added.
Final data on ECBs comes with a lag of more than a month. When the high-level committee meets next month, it would also be able to access accurate data on the extent of overseas borrowing in therecent past for real estate, the official said.
ECB inflows surged in 2006-07 on the back of investment demand, touching $9.1 billion between April and December 2006. In 2005-06, ECB inflows were $2.72 billion.
Realty companies were allowed to raise money through ECBs provided the end-use was restricted to the development of integrated townships spread over at least 100 acres.
Data on the extent of ECB inflows to realty companies is not available and a senior executive of a realty company, who did not wish to be identified, said “it was not so much.”

DLF picks Frankfurt’s Fraport as partner for foray into airports
01:8 AM | June 08,2007
The real estate major said in its filing with Sebi that it’s set up a special purpose vehicle with German company
Invest forex reserves overseas to develop infrastructure: panel
12:34 AM | June 08,2007
India is looking for ways to fund development of roads, ports and power, and has been debating how to use its rising foreign exchange reserves
US-based solar chip-maker to invest $2b in India over next decade
12:53 PM | June 08,2007
With over 40% cost advantage over other mainstream solar technologies, the fab units would give a boost to rural electrification and large commercial installations

BJP flays Congress over Quattrocchi, seeks fresh appeal
New Delhi: The main opposition BJP today blamed the Congress-led government for the CBI's failed attempt to secure extradition of Bofors suspect Ottavio Quattrocchi from Argentina and demanded immediate appeal against the ruling by a court in that country. BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, whose party-led NDA government itself had failed to secure the extradition of Quattrocchi in Malayasia, said the CBI was required to file an appeal against decline by an Argentinian court of New Delhi's request to deport him to face trial in India.

In support of his charges about links between the ruling Congress and Quattrocchi, he alleged that the government had hushed up a case filed by the PMO against a man for posing as an Advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh because the suspect was known to the son of the Italian businessman.In his comments, senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the Opposition would lodge its protest both inside and outside Parliament over the government's handling of the case.

Quattrocchi timeline

Following is the chronology of events that took place during this year when Ottavio Quattrochi was arrested in Argentina following an Interpol Red Corner notice issued at the request of India:

January 2007: Ottavio Quattrocchi, despite having an Interpol warrant against him, takes an Alitalia flight from Italy to Buenos Aires, before proceeding to visit the Iguazu Falls.

February 6: At Iguazu, Quattrocchi goes over to nearby Brazil but is detained at Iguazu airport on his return.

February 8: Interpol informs CBI about Quattrocchi's detention

February 13: The CBI responding to the Supreme Court on a matter relating to money withdrawn by Quattrocchi, does not mention the fact of his detention. CBI admits later that it had this information at that time.

February 23: CBI releases a statement about Quattrocchi's arrest in Argentina

February 26: Quattrocchi released on bail.

March 2: The CBI sends a two member team -- Director Prosecution S K Sharma and Superintendent of Police Keshav Mishra -- to assist in fighting the extradition case.

March 7: The CBI submits 250-page plea for extradition of Quattrocchi to the Argentinian Foreign Office.

March 23: The hearing of the plea for Quattrocchi's extradition to India began in the Argentinian court.

June 4: The two member team goes again to give final touches ahead of the extradition trial of Quattrocchi.

June 7: Extradition trial begins in El Dorado

June 8: The court in El Dorado rejects India's extradition request of Quattrocchi.

Mamata's truce with CPI(M) enrages SUCI

Kolkata, June 8: With Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee assuring all help, homecoming started for the evicted CPI (M) supporters in Nandigram driving a wedge in the Bhoomi Uchched Protirodh Committee as SUCI today declared to oppose the truce.

Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said about 50 of the 2,500 CPI (M) supporters, who were forced to flee in the unabated political violence, came back two days ago after about five months, SUCI state Secretary Provash Ghosh, however, accused Ms Banerjee of sacrificing the interest of the people of Nandigram for political gains.

Stating that the CPI(M) would be committing a blunder if it went for an adjustment only with the Trinamool Congress, Mr Ghosh demanded that the problem of Nandigram would have to be sorted out through dialogues with the Bhoomi Uchched Protirodh Committee, a platform of different opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and the SUCI.

''In a bid to save its face and make the CPI(M) happy, the Trinamool leadership is sacrificing the interest of the Nandigram people in lieu of settling for the demand of returning land only to those farmers who have not accepted compensation cheques, instead of giving land back to all the farmers of Singur,'' he said in a statement.

He alleged Ms Banerjee's indefinite hunger strike in Kolkata in December last year, helped police to ''capture'' farmers' land at Singur.

Maintaining that the SUCI would not give up the demand for returning land to all the Singur farmers, whose plots had been acquired, Mr Ghosh also demanded that those accused of ''killing and rape'' in Nandigram must be arrested and the guilty police officials punished.

PM to intervene for allies' consensus over next president


The Congress may get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on board to woo allies to support its presidential candidate, with Home Minister Shivraj Patil appearing to be the party's choice.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, along with Defence Minister AK Antony and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, is consulting allies on ensuring their support for the Congress candidate. However, the allies have not been officially informed about the party candidate.

The choice is expected to be conveyed to them by Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi next week. The prime minister may also speak to non-United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies like the Telugu Desam Party and the National Conference.

Important alliance leaders including ministers have been requested to remain in the national capital on Tuesday and Wednesday, when both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are to meet them. Sonia, who is abroad on a brief holiday, will return on Monday or Tuesday.

While Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a crucial factor in the presidential elections, has assured its support for Patil, the Left, which had earlier voiced its reservations against the home minister's candidature, has not yet reviewed its decision.

Left sources have told IANS that they do not view Patil as a man with "impeccable secular credentials".

"Left leaders are of the view that Patil could not be expected to be a neutral person. The Left wants a secular and absolutely impartial person in Rashtrapati Bhavan," said a senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader who did not wish to be identified.

However, CPI-M leaders said they would discuss the issue again. Manmohan Singh and Gandhi are also expected to have another round of discussions with the Left leaders next week.

Contrary to media reports, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) reiterated that it would support the UPA candidate. NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had earlier clarified that his party would support the Congress nominee for the presidential poll scheduled for July.

On Saturday, NCP leader and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel reiterated his party's position that it would support the Congress nominee.

The Congress seems to have zeroed in on Patil as he is the party president's first choice. She was authorised by the Congress Working Committee last week to choose the candidate.

The UPA-Left combine needs 549,442 of the total 1.09 million votes to ensure the victory of its nominee in the presidential polls. The Congress has 280,000 while the share of its allies is 114,647. The Left claims 110,988 votes, while the BSP has 57,200.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Samajwadi Party and others have 511,000 in the electoral college.

An electoral college of MPs and legislators across the country elect the president. The value of a legislator's vote is decided on the basis of the state's population. An MP's vote value is 708.


Bharti to open retail stores early next year: Mittal
New Delhi: Bharti Enterprises will kick off its retail venture early next year, opening half-a-dozen stores - branding of which is still being worked out with its back-end partner Wal-Mart.Mittal had met Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Mike Duke in Washington during the visit as part of a CII delegation.
The two partners have started recruitments and were busy sorting out the legal issues.

FDI in multi-brand retail is a strict no in India, which, however, allows 51 per cent foreign direct investment in single brand retail and 100 per cent in cash and carry wholesale business.

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