HEAD LINE:

• We'll have own setup to counter terror: Tata (TOI)
• NIA incomplete, but will back it: BJP (TOI)
• Congress doing mujra for terrorists, says Modi (IE)
• Party guidelines will apply for Lok Sabha election, says Sonia (HINDU)
• Sonia sends Pak a reminder, Antony rules out military option (IE)

LEAD:

India on Tuesday kept up the pressure on Pakistan with foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee stating that the composite dialogue process had been paused in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks even as Pakistani President Asif Zardari again ruled out handing over any terror suspects. Barely a week after having demanded in Parliament that Pakistan must act on its stated preparedness to crack down on terror in a verifiable manner, Mukherjee made the significant statement that the peace process had been severely dented by the Mumbai atrocity. After having admitted that the joint anti-terror mechanism, agreed on by PM Manmohan Singh and former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, had failed, Mukherjee followed up with a tougher dose: "I do admit there is a pause in the composite dialogue process because of the attacks on Mumbai." The foreign minister added, "What we expect, and what we have pointed out to Pakistan, is that they should fulfil their commitment of not allowing their territory for terrorist attacks against India."(TOI)

• NEW DELHI: With the chorus for tough anti-terror laws growing after the Mumbai Terror strikes, the Govt today introduced two Bills providing for a National Investigating Agency (NIA) to probe terror cases across the country and proposing deterrent provisions like detention without bail up to 180 days and up to life imprisonment for those involved in terror acts. For foreign nationals accused, detention can be indefinite. The NIA Bill, 2008 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2008, tabled by Home Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha a day after the Cabinet cleared the measures, extend definition of terrorism to militancy, insurgency and Naxal extremism. The NIA Bill empowers the agency at the Central level to probe terrorism and crimes with national ramifications such as challenges to the country's sovereignty and integrity, bomb blasts, hijacking of aircraft and ships and attacks on nuclear installations. (IE)
• New Delhi: The govt moved swiftly on Tuesday to introduce a bill to set up a National Investigation Agency backed by tough anti-terror laws within 15 hours of obtaining the Union Cabinet's nod. Seeking to ride on the support for NIA in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, home minister P Chidambaram introduced the NIA Bill, 2008, which has sought to provide a wide-ranging ambit for the proposed agency to "investigate and prosecute" offences affecting the country's sovereignty, security and integrity. (TOI)
• The vote share of the Congress in Delhi dropped by almost 8% in the recent assembly elections compared to those held in 2003. Yet, incumbent was able to sail through to a thumping victory, winning just four seats less than it did five years ago. How was this possible? The answer, an analysis of vote shares of various parties suggests, is that the BSP ended up denying the BJP most of the anti-incumbency vote. This is quite ironic given the fact that most pre-poll analyses were viewing the BSP as a major factor that could play "spoiler" for Sheila Dikshit's attempt to return to power for a third successive term in the national capital.(TOI)
• NEW DELHI: The Union govt on Tuesday indicated that if the downward trend in the international crude oil prices continued, the prices of diesel and petrol could be reduced further. "We will watch the movement of crude oil prices to see if further reduction is possible," Home Minister P. Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha during question hour. The Petroleum Ministry had earlier this month cut petrol price by Rs.5 a litre and diesel by Rs.2 a litre as crude oil prices dipped from an all-time high of $147 a barrel in July to under $45 a barrel. Mr. Chidambaram said the govt would look into demands for further reduction in auto fuel prices. Even after the price cut, public sector oil firms were making a profit of Rs.9.98 on sale of every litre of petrol and Rs.1.03 per litre on diesel. (HINDU)
• India on Tuesday cautioned that improvement of ties with Pakistan would have to wait until Islamabad took demonstrable action to get to the bottom of the Mumbai terror attacks. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A.K. Antony delivered the same message in Srinagar and New Delhi respectively: Pakistan must follow up on its promise of action against the "elements" which orchestrated the attacks in Mumbai last month and the future of bilateral ties depended on Pakistan sincerely investigating the incident. "We expect good sense will prevail in the backdrop of these assurances and [hope] a conducive atmosphere can be built up. That is possible only after words are followed by action," Mr. Mukherjee told newspersons. The assurances he referred to were given by the former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on January 6, 2000 and by the present incumbent Asif Ali Zardari at a meeting with PM Manmohan Singh on September 24 this year. Both had promised to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and vowed not to allow Pakistan's soil to be used for launching terror strikes in India. (HINDU)
• New Delhi: Acting on the recommendations of the Lok Sabha Committee that looked into the "cash-for-votes" scam, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Tuesday recommended that the Home Ministry probe the role of three persons linked to the scam. In addition, the Speaker also cautioned the media against "premature disclosure of the evidence tendered before the Committee" warning that it "may attract penal powers of the House". Chatterjee told the Lok Sabha that he would recommend a Home Ministry probe into the role of Sanjeev Saxena, said to be a former aide of Amar Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni, believed to be a close aide of BJP leader L K Advani, and Suhail Hindustani, who is alleged to have facilitated the sting. (IE)
• New Delhi: In the last one week, almost one-fourth of the requests from MPs at the Parliament's reference section pertained to terror. The global meltdown ranked a notch lower. The Parliament's reference service is supposed to equip MPs with research and other material needed for debates in the House. On December 10, when the Lok Sabha debated the Mumbai Terror attacks, of the total 52 members who sought reference material, as many as 13 pertained to terror. Some names in the list: L K Advani, Sumitra Mahajan, B K Tripathy, Ramjilal Suman, Chandrakant Khaire, Sanjay Raut and Yerran Naidu. While requests for backgrounders on Bills being discussed are routine, the MPs' interest in terror, according to the Parliament research and reference team, "has been unprecedented". (IE)
• New Delhi: In a disproportionate assets (DA) case involving SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a plea seeking a modification of its earlier order dated March 1, 2007, where the preliminary probe report was directed to be placed before the Central Govt. This was agreed upon after the petitioner, Allahabad-based advocate Vishwanath Chaturvedi, made a brief mention of the matter seeking permission to file a fresh application with his plea for "modification" of the court's order. The petitioner, who had filed a PIL seeking an independent and impartial probe into the wealth and assets of Yadav and his kin, urged the court to continue to "monitor" the probe besides directing the CBI to register a regular case (RC) against the respondents. (IE)

BJP

BJP said it would support the Bill for a National Investigation Agency brought forward by the Manmohan Singh govt claiming that it was a "reluctant acceptance" of what the main Opposition party had been campaigning for since the repeal of POTA. BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said, "We have been calling for a tough investigation and punitive system to deal with terrorism. Some provisions have been toughened and it has been recognised that there is a need to treat terror crimes in a separate category." While BJP will enable the govt to pass the Bill in Parliament, the party is keen to make the point that the law is "incomplete" in the face of the political compulsions of the ruling coalition. "The admissibility of confessions before a senior police officer and a magistrate is not there. This means that the damning account of arrested Mumbai terrorist Ajmal Kasab on which India has built its case against Pakistan will not be acceptable in court," he said. In consultations with the govt over the NIA and changes in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, BJP put it across that the agency needed the backing of a strong anti-terrorism law. The party also called for the inclusion of admissibility of confessions given in writing or recorded by electronic devices like tapes and sound tracks.(TOI)

CONGRESS

The Congress on Tuesday supported the move of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to refer to the govt for appropriate action against three BJP MPs Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora, whose names figured in the cash-for-vote report. "We believe that several important observations made by the parliamentary committee [whose report was tabled in the House on Monday], including how large amount of money was brought inside the Parliament House without the sanction of Hon'ble Speaker and also kept at undisclosed location inside the House and brought by these MPs at a time before the confidence vote was moved by the PM," Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said. It was not only a question of corruption and an attempt to subvert the course of parliamentary proceedings but also a breach of security inside the Parliament House. It was important for parliamentary democracy that relevant investigating agencies exhaustively go into the question of the source of the money too, she said.(HINDU)

STATES

DELHI

Leader of Congress Legislature Party Sheila Dikshit would on Wednesday be sworn in as the CM of Delhi for the third successive term by Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna at Raj Niwas. Ms. Dikshit along with her six Cabinet colleagues would take oath at around 12-30 p.m. On Monday, she had met Mr. Khanna and staked her claim to form the next Govt. The Congress has in all won 43 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly elections. While the mystery surrounding the election of Ms Dikshit as leader of the CLP was brought to an end within minutes by Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had informed central observer Mohsina Kidwai over phone itself of her decision to retain Ms Dikshit, the same has not been the case with the Delhi Cabinet. Till Tuesday evening, speculations were rife on its composition. While in the past couple of days it had almost become certain that all the former Ministers barring Health Minister Yoganand Shastri have retained their place. As for Dr. Shastri word is doing the rounds that he would be made the next Speaker. But those close to present Speaker Prem Singh, who also holds the record for having been elected from the same constituency 11 consecutive times, believe that he would not go. (HINDU)

J&K

J&K will vote on Wednesday in the sixth and penultimate phase of the Assembly elections that have seen mass participation despite boycott calls by separatists. This round will decide the fate of the former CMs, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad. The elections will be held in 16 constituencies in five districts 10 in Anantnag and Kulgam in the Kashmir Valley, and six in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban in the Jammu region. While Mr. Sayeed of the People's Democratic Party is fighting from Anantnag, Mr. Azad of the Congress is seeking re-election from Bhaderwah in Doda district.(HINDU)

• Accusing the Congress of being soft on terror, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi said today that the party has been performing "mujra" before the terrorists even as the attacks continue. "In order to confront terrorists, you need a Govt that has the courage to take them on," said Modi, alleging that the Congress's "vote-bank politics" was responsible for the recent attacks. "It revoked POTA soon after coming to power, much to the disappointment of our countrymen and delight of Pakistan," he said. "Eint ka jawab pathar sey dena hoga. Terrorism can be uprooted provided the govt has the will and courage to do so," he added. (IE)

KERALA

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said the party will implement the A.K. Antony Committee's guidelines on how it should prepare for the Lok Sabha and various Assembly elections. Addressing the delegates session of a three-day State conference of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee here on Tuesday, Mrs. Gandhi said the Antony committee which had submitted its report on the basis of the Assembly election reverses in Karnataka had submitted a set of guidelines and suggestions on how the party should prepare for the coming Lok Sabha elections and subsequent elections to State Assemblies. She said that Pradesh Congress Committees and All India Congress Committee general secretaries had been informed about the guidelines, which would focus on the party's interests on a continuing basis. The emphasis would not be on individual's success, but on the success of each and every single party worker, she said.(HINDU)

MAHARASHTRA

Expressing lack of faith in the system to protect his property, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, whose group owns the Taj chain of hotels, said on Tuesday that he was planning to set up his own anti-terror mechanism to protect his group's employees, guests and assets. "We have decided that we will now look at anti-terrorism or protection of our assets and our people ourselves and we will try to create a deterrent. We will not try to create heroes who will engage with the enemy but to try and find as many invisible forms of deterring this, containing them or thwarting their efforts. That's what we are engaged in doing and we will seek external expertise to help us set it up," Tata said on Tuesday. According to Tata, when the firing at the Taj Hotel took place, for some time there was a view that it was a gang war and the local police could deal with it.(IE)

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) court on Tuesday remanded Ajay Rahirkar to police custody till December 20 in connection with the Malegaon blasts of September 29. The 10 other accused, including Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey, were given judicial custody till December 29, said public prosecutor Rohini Salian. The Anti-Terrorism Squad contended that it wanted to investigate the financial angle where Rahirkar allegedly played a key role as the treasurer of the Pune-based Abhinav Bharat organisation. The prosecution submitted statements of witnesses, who claimed that Rahirkar had collected Rs. 10 lakh from them.(HINDU)

RAJASTHAN

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday asked the senior police officers to take effective steps and ensure constant vigilance for preventing terrorist attacks in the State in the wake of the recent Mumbai terror strikes. For this, he underlined the need to beef up law and order situation across the State. Presiding over a high-level meeting to review law and order here, Mr. Gehlot said the Centre had instructed all the States to give the highest priority to prevention and control of terrorism. "It is the responsibility of police officers to ensure that no such incident takes place in our State". Mr. Gehlot said the security of prime locations visited by a large number of people everyday should be stepped up and all steps taken to avert any act of violence. Among others, Chief Secretary D.C. Samant, Director General of Police K.S. Bains, Principal Home Secretary S.N. Thanvi and senior police officers attended the meeting.(HINDU)

UTTAR PRADESH

Post-Vidhan Sabha election victories in Delhi and Rajasthan, the Congress now wants the proposed seat sharing alliance in Uttar Pradesh for next year's Lok Sabha elections on an even keel with the Samajwadi Party. With 80 Parliamentary seats the largest in the country up for grabs, the Congress has reportedly decided to contest 32 seats, leaving the remaining 44 for the Samajwadi Party. UP Congress president, Rita Bahuguna Joshi said here that the details of 32 seats have been sent to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, which the party considered to be a safe bet vis a vis Samajwadi Party. Dr. Joshi was of the view that in the wake of the fresh delimitation of constituencies, the Congress was better placed. The UPCC president added that there were seven to eight other seats on which a consensus had not emerged so far. She was hopeful that the issue would be sorted out as both the Congress and the SP wanted to prevent the division of secular votes in Uttar Pradesh.(HINDU)

EDITORIAL

Cong LS dreams built on 33 seats: The Results of the five Assembly elections announced on December 8 have come as a surprise to most, including the two main contestants, the Congress and the BJP. But more surprising has been some of the conclusions being drawn from the elections and the assessments of their likely repercussions on the general elections to be held in four-five months. Some Congress leaders and sections of the media appear to be so overwhelmed by the success of the party in Delhi and Rajasthan that they have quickly convinced themselves that these results mark a turn-around in the fortunes of the Congress and that the Party is on the road to a massive victory in the elections to the Lok Sabha.(AA, By P.C. Alexander)