HEAD LINE:

• Pak won't hand over 26/11 suspects: Gilani (TOI)

LEAD:

Contrary to Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani's contention, India is yet to get any response to its dossier, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday while maintaining his tough stance on Pakistan. "We've not received any official communication from Pakistan till Saturday. We have already given all documents on the matter to Pakistan," Mukherjee told journalists in West Bengal, on Sunday. "But, I don't know if they (Pakistan) have sent anything today (Sunday)," he added. In Pakistan, Gilani reiterated that they would not send any Mumbai-related suspect to India to face trial. Gilani's statement came even as Mumbai investigators said they would include the names of four LeT leaders in Pakistan in the chargesheet. Gilani's stand is expected because it would be politically suicidal for any Pakistani Govt to send over suspects. "We are conducting our own investigation and once we have completed it, we will bring the findings before the people," Gilani said, adding that the evidence provided by India was being examined. "We have our own laws and we will take action according to them. We want to assure everyone that we will not allow our soil to be used for terrorism," the premier said. While India has not given any deadline to Pakistan to respond to the dossier, Gilani announced on Friday that they had sent over a response to India. "India has given 52 pages (dossier) to the CIA and our ISI has given its feedback and information sharing. That has been passed on to India," he had said. (TOI)

• New Delhi: Indicating stricter measures to check illegal immigration from Bangladesh, home minister P Chidambaram has said nationals from that country have "no business" to be in India without permission. He also said that there is "no reason" why a large number of visas are being issued to Bangladeshis every month. Chidambaram, who has been taking a close look at the security set up in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, voiced concern over the "very ineffective" monitoring system to check whether a Bangladeshi coming to India has returned to his country after expiry of his visa or stayed on. "I don't regard a Bangladeshi as a Muslim or a non-Muslim. He is a Bangladeshi. He has no business to come to India unless he has a visa. He has no business to live here unless he has a residence permit. He has no business to work here unless he has a work permit. His religion is completely irrelevant," he told a news channel. To a question on steps to end illegal immigration, the home minister said, "I am now looking into what is happening on our borders, passport control points...I think we issue a very large number of visas to Bangladeshis every month."(TOI)
• New Delhi: Less than two months after it forwarded the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC) Bill, 2003, to President Pratibha Patil with the recommendation to send it back to the Gujarat Assembly without signing it in view of its "draconian" provisions, the Home Ministry has recalled the file from the Rashtrapati Bhawan. "We received a communiqu195169rom the Home Ministry three days ago that it wants the GUJCOC Bill file back. We have sent it back," said a senior officer in Rashtrapati Bhawan. While Home Ministry officials refused to say why the Bill file had been called back, Rashtrapati Bhawan sources told The Indian Express that the decision to recall the file means that the entire matter may be looked afresh. "Since the Govt has itself amended the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, both the PM and the Home Minister are in favour of studying the proposed Gujarat law again. If need be, we can even suggest to the Gujarat Govt to remove clauses that could be susceptible to misuse by the police," said a source. (IE)
• RJD chief and railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has once again positioned himself as the kingmaker in the fresh round of political stalemate in Jharkhand. Mr Prasad has been trying to stall Jharkhand chief minister Sibu Soren's attempt to install his successor for the top post, but also rejected his plea to allow him to complete his six months in the office. Since the Congress has decided to play only a backroom game in the present crisis emanating out of Mr Soren's defeat in the recently-held Tamar Assembly bypoll, all the UPA partners in the state Govt are looking up to Mr Prasad to prop up an alternative Govt. Confirming that Mr Soren had an hour-long meeting with Mr Prasad in Patna on Saturday, senior RJD leader Shyam Rajak said, "Laluji told Guruji that neither of his suggestions is acceptable to the UPA leaders. He has no option but to resign and before his resignation, there can not be hold any discussion on any alternative name for the chief minister's post."(AA)
• Minister for external affairs Pranab Mukherjee is expected to visit Sri Lanka in February for talks on a host of bilateral and regional issues, including the situation obtaining in the island nation as Govt troops pressed ahead with their offensive against the LTTE. Mr Mukherjee's visit to Colombo will be the first by an Indian minister after Lankan troops captured LTTE-held territories in Kilinochchi, Elephant Pass and the vital A-9 road linking the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland, dealing a decisive blow to the Tamil separatist organisation. Sri Lanka will host the Saarc council of ministers here in February and Mr Mukherjee will be among the invitees, sources told this newspaper. Sri Lanka is the current chair of the eight-member Saarc. (AA)
• New Delhi: Amid signs that the seven-day-old truckers' strike was breaking up in some parts of the country, the Centre gave indications that it would take a tough line to force the agitators to end the stir, like it did with officers of oil PSUs. Sources said more arrests of leaders spearheading the strike were likely on Monday. In a letter to states, Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar has cited the strategy adopted to deal with the oil strike while seeking ''effective intervention'' to ensure free movement of essential commodities and prevent hoarding of goods. Meanwhile, road transport secretary Brahm Dutt claimed that trucks had started moving in Pune and Mumbai in Maharashtra, Krishna and Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh, Hassan in Karnataka, Jaipur in Rajasthan and in Gurgaon. There were also reports of one truckers' association in Maharashtra calling off the strike. (TOI)
• New Delhi: Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing made their second arrest in the DDA scam shockingly, the ''whistle blower'' of the scam, 30-year-old law graduate and property dealer Deepak Kumar. "We have incriminating evidence against him and his name cropped up during interrogation of Lakshmi Narayan Meena, prime accused in the scam. We recorded his statement on Saturday and will further question him," said a police officer. Additional CP (EOW) S B K Singh refused to comment about the arrest. The development has caused outrage in some circles with complainant Udit Raj questioning the need to arrest Deepak when cops knew all along that he had been a part of the racket and that's where his information came from. "This is a bid to punish him for speaking up. Deepak was initially involved in the scam, but switched sides. Neither Deepak nor I hid this information. We reported to Malviya Nagar police on October 31, more than a month-and-a-half before the draw, telling them everything," he said. (TOI)

BJP

The BJP on Sunday did not rule out the possibility of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee contesting elections from the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat. Senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon told mediapersons on Sunday, "If he wants, he may come even at the last minute. We will welcome him if he contests the election from Lucknow." For the past several months, there have been reports that Vajpayee, who represents Lucknow, may not contest this time because of his age and poor health. But Tandon said Vajpayee's health was improving. The party had so far not decided on an alternative candidate should Vajpayee decide not to contest. Vajpayee is a father figure and "whosoever the father names, he is accepted", added Tandon, who is considered a potential candidate in case Vajpayee doesn't contest. Apart from Vajpayee, the BJP does not have any candidate who can win Lucknow hands down. In fact, if Vajpayee doesn't contest, retaining Lucknow is going to be a tall order for the party. (IE)

CONGRESS

The Congress seems to have dumped the separate Telangana issue on the ground that "there is no political consensus" and instead decided to "expose" the double standards of the Opposition on the matter. The party claimed that there were many important issues before it and Telangana was not the only one. All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh M. Veerappa Moily told The Hindu from Mangalore that the party could not risk a misadventure on Telangana because there were so many similar demands for creation of separate States like Darjeeling, Bundelkhand, Vidarbha, Harit Pradesh, etc. "If you divide Andhra Pradesh and form Telangana don't you think that they too would raise their voices," he sought to know. That was why, the Congress, being a responsible national political party, did not want to take any hasty decision on the issue. "We are for a national political consensus on the issue; this was mentioned even in the national common minimum programme of the UPA. The parties which did not cooperate when we sought support for the issue are now coming together with elections in mind." He dismissed reports that the Congress would get isolated if it did not announce separate Telangana before the next Assembly/Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh, in view of the alliance forged by the TDP, TRS, CPI and CPI (M). They were using the issue as a "fuel" for their political journey. (HINDU)

STATES

ASSAM

With the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections round the corner, the Congress in Orissa is yet to gear up for the poll battle. Absence of an "acceptable-to-all" and "clean" image leadership in the party to match the "transparent" personality of ruling BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik has rendered the party in chaos. The party, as it appears now, is likely to the go the Madhya Pradesh way in the coming polls as factional leaders are vying to occupy the Pradesh Congress chief post with an aim that the responsibility will make their claim to the chief ministership stronger, in the event of the party coming to power. Despite the party being in the Opposition for 10 years now, it has not been able to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor for "non-cooperation" among top leaders of the party. In the 2008 zila parishad elections, the BJD and BJP, which share power in the state, fought separately. However, the Congress failed to gain from their rift and formed councils in just 12 out of the 92 rural local-self bodies. Similarly, in the recently-held Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the party won just four out 60 seats.(AA)

CHHATTISGARH

The Chhattisgarh police has constituted a special task force to deal with and raise awareness against sorcery-related crimes on the rise in the tribal-dominated State. State Director General of Police (DGP) Vishwa Ranjan said that a task force, to deal with increasing number of sorcery and superstition-related crimes, had been constituted under his chairmanship. Such task forces would be set up at the district and local police station levels and a massive awareness drive has been launched to educate people, Mr. Ranjan said. Besides police, the task force would include educationists, doctors, social activists, science teachers, journalists, Red Cross officials, NSS officials and theatre persons. (HINDU)

TAMIL NADU

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), are not doing enough to bail out workers of units affected by the global meltdown, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and Member of Parliament Brinda Karat said here on Sunday. "We are not hearing the voice of the UPA partners, so we are raising our voice for the workers. We have demanded a relief package for them," she told presspersons. "There is a strange silence on the part of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its Govt, considering the number of export units in Tamil Nadu affected by the crisis," she said. The CPI(M) had taken serious note of the situation in the knitwear export zone of Tirupur where workers were losing jobs as units were hit by the meltdown. The State Govt did not seem to have asked the Centre for any steps to help the workers, she said. (HINDU)

UTTAR PRADESH

Stung by his demand for BSP's de-recognition, the Mayawati-led party on Sunday heaped scorn on Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh calling him "a political joker" and pressed for a CBI inquiry into donations reportedly made by him to the Clinton Foundation. In a no-holds-barred attack, state BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya claimed that Mr. Singh had lost "his mental balance". Mr. Maurya alleged that he (Mr. Singh) was involved in horse-trading for the July confidence vote sought by the UPA. "Singh is a political joker and people of the State knows this well," he told reporters in a joint press conference with BSP national general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui. "A CBI probe should be instituted into the reasons and source of donations given by Amar Singh to Clinton Foundation. A case under FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) should be registered against him immediately" they said. (HINDU)

EDITORIAL

Price isn't right: The country was once again witness to the sordid spectacle of various interest groups fighting over Oil revenue. This has happened too often, at too great a cost, to be continually ignored. The truckers' strike was essentially in response to what they clearly saw as a window of opportunity: the price of oil had gone down, it was conceivably possible that, if they got in first, they could pressure the Govt into giving them some of the savings, in terms of lower diesel prices. The oil employees' strike was similar: they clearly believed that, since their employers were no longer making huge losses, it was time to extract their pound of flesh. Who will demand a disproportionate share of the benefits from lower international oil prices next? Airlines, perhaps? After all, they stand to gain much from lower air turbine fuel. Blueline bus drivers? People who live in suburbs? Newspaper circulation departments? There is one, and only one root to this kind of invitation to disruption, and it lies in our lack of willingness as a society to deal with the tough questions about energy reform. Energy is more expensive than it was before, and it might get more expensive still. (IE)