HEAD LINE:

• National parties are passe: Lalu says it is the regional parties who are the Real High Command (TOI)

LEAD:

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who holds charge of Finance, on Friday stressed the need to protect jobs and retain employees, even if it meant a cut in compensation, in view of the impact of the global economic meltdown. Offering this advice to India Inc. while inaugurating the 42nd Indian labour conference here, Mr. Mukherjee said: "Jobs must be protected even it means some reduction in compensation at various levels. Social welfare net needs strengthening because this will provide the base for a socially harmonious shift in the pattern of employment." He said the govt was making all-out efforts to ensure flow of credit to boost trade and investment and consumption and to stimulate additional demand through public and private expenditure. "The govt's approach of inclusive growth is the critical component of its strategy to ensure an early recovery from the current crisis," he said. (HINDU)

• New Delhi: The masterminds of 26/11 had plotted at least 20 attacks across the country, according to Western experts who mined the data stored in the computer of top Lashkar terrorist Zarar Shah. The chilling disclosure was made by UK's Guardian newspaper which said that Shah and fellow Lashkar jihadi Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi had drawn elaborate plans to carry out commando-like strikes against scores of Indian targets. The report also confirms how Lashkar has moved beyond an anti-India agenda to grow into a serious global terror threat, with the data yielding plans to attack more than 300 targets spread across the world. These targets have not been named but most of them are said to be located in the US, Europe and Israel. The newspaper report quoted analysts to say that the list was more of a "statement of intent" because LeT would have to set up terror cells all over the world to carry out attacks in so many places. Yet, it points to the growing ambition of the Pakistan based Lashkar, which not long ago claimed to be focused only on India, to dodge international pressure.(TOI)
• New Delhi: Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Friday said the truce between Pakistan and the Taliban added to India's "worries." "From 26/11 onwards, we are very much concerned about the security scenario. This new development, in a way, adds to our worries," Mr. Antony said. He said the govt's stand had been spelt out by Pranab Mukherjee. "On behalf of the govt, the External Affairs Minister has already reacted. What he has said is the stand of the govt," he said. (HINDU
• New Delhi: Anxious to deter any attempt to exploit his perceived vulnerability on his home ground of Bihar, railway minister Lalu Prasad fired a warning shot across Congress's bow. Speaking in Rajya Sabha on the Interim Railway Budget, the RJD strongman launched into a big attack on all-India parties, both Congress and BJP, calling them irrelevant. "National parties, whether Congress or BJP, are passe," he said, adding that the current times are marked by the ascendancy of the regional parties. "Leaders of national parties keep swearing by their high command. But it is the regional parties who are the real high command. Congress and BJP should forget about it. This age belongs to us." As he hit out at the all-India parties, the railway minister spoke fondly of the regional satraps Jayalalithaa, TDP and DMK. While there was no apparent provocation for the threat against the all-India parties, political circles were seeing it against the backdrop of the known desire of the Congress to extract more Lok Sabha seats in Bihar than Lalu may be willing to concede. Congress, which has long chaffed at the 'junior partner' status it has had to put up with in Bihar under Lalu's suzerainty, seems determined to drive a tougher bargain this time when the RJD strongman is widely perceived to be up against a formidable challenge from NDA under CM Nitish Kumar.(TOI)
• New Delhi: Disregarding the fact that the Punjab and Haryana High Court is yet to determine whether the mining lease of Sirohi and Khori Jamalpur in Faridabad district should be extended or not, the Haryana govt is going ahead with their auction for two more years. Accordingly, the Haryana department of mines and geology issued auction notice on February 17 eight days before the issue is taken up by the HC on February 25. This seemingly brazen move would indicate a presumption of the court decision as well as the officials' determination to carry on with mining which, according to experts, is wrecking the ecosystem of the Aravalis. It's not known whether Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda has acquiesced in the auction move or not, though some reports in local papers claim he has. Hooda on Friday told TOI he was worried about the lakes. A number of expert teams, including an SC-appointed Central Empowered Committee, have recommended that the entire Faridabad district should be declared a prohibited zone for mining. (TOI)
• New Delhi: The Congress's stomach for volatile quota issues is set to be tested in the run-up to elections, with a concerted attack from Dalit groups groups on the reservation Bill putting a question mark on Centre's activism to push through a plan to sub-categorise SCs. Centre had to hastily drop the contentious clauses from the proposed reservation law after Dalits across partylines and BSP complained that they were designed by Congress-led Centre to shrink the ambit of quota on the sly. It has led to relief in official quarters that the party had survived a strong political damage. Just when the controversy over the SC/ST reservation Bill settled, the UPA leadership on Friday saw OBC satraps demand that a similar law for backward castes be promulgated soon. The Bill seeks to club executive orders governing quota into a law. Given the activism a quota issue can touch off, Congress is in a dilemma over its plan to sub-categorise SCs since it has to balance the rebellion of the lobby against the proposal with the pressure from Andhra Pradesh CM.(TOI)
• New Delhi: Congress mounted a spirited defence of the vote-on-account with Nilgiris MP R Prabhu countering BJP's charge that the Budget figures were like the Satyam balance sheet by saying that the govt had given the rural economy a huge impetus through Bharat Nirman, NREGA, health and mid-day meal spending. Prabhu said that BJP leader Ananth Kumar did now how to look at balance sheets and misinterpreted Budget statistics. "I don't think he knows how to read the Budget. There is massive spending on social sector, more than ever before, and this will ensure the poor have some money to spend," he said. Pointing to Coimbatore, which lies in his constituency, Prabhu said the city had received a grant under JNURM for Rs 3,000 crore. "This is a tremendous opportunity for the city to overhaul its infrastructure," he said even as he admitted there was a problem in terms of exports. "Tirupur is not far away and I know how things are," he said. (TOI)

BJP

The BJP on Friday demanded that the govt clarify on a statement made by the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, that India and Pakistan were close to arriving at an agreement to resolve the Kashmir issue. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said Mr. Kasuri had talked about a near-agreement on withdrawal of Indian troops from the Siachen, on the contentious Sir Creek question and even on Kashmir. He said the party had no problem if backchannel diplomacy was used to resolve contentious issues, but "the country should have been taken into confidence." He was asked why the BJP-led govts with Vajpayee at the helm between 1998 and 2004 did not take the country into confidence on the former External Affair Minister Jaswant Singh's many rounds of negotiations with the U.S. and even on the reasons for failure of the Agra Summit. Mr. Javadekar said that in the case of the Agra Summit differences had arisen because Pakistan insisted on treating infiltrators coming into Kashmir from Pakistan as "freedom fighters" while India saw them as terrorists. (HINDU

CONGRESS

The Congress today demanded an explanation from the BJP on the reported confessional statement of a key Malegaon terror blast accused, Dayanand Pandey, the self-stayed Shankaracharya, that the RSS allegedly used to receive funds from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. The Congress spokesperson Mr Shakeel Ahmed, today alleged that Pandey has reportedly said in hi8s confession that the "RSS" has been recipient of money from the ISI". "He (Pandey) has named an RSS functionary Indresh Kumar and the RSS general secretary Mohan Bhagwat as recipients of ISI funds," Mr Ahmed charged. "Maybe this ISI fund to the RSS was meant to foment communal tension in India." The Congress Spokesman said such reports were more ominous as Mr Bhagwat was tipped to become the next RSS chief. "Top BJP leaders have repeatedly said that it gets motivation from the RSS. So the BJP should clarify the matter," Mr Ahmed said. "Or, is the BJP also getting such ISI funds, and whether the divisi8ve and communal politics of hate championed by the BJP since late 1980's was also done at the behest of the ISI." Mr Ahmed, who is also the Union Minister of state for home, asked the UPA govt to initiate a "thorough and deep probe" into the matter.

STATES

ORISSA

Newly-appointed Pradesh Congress Committee president K.P. Singh Deo is fighting a lot of odds to consolidate the party in the state. Differences among party leaders, especially among ticket aspirants, have become a major cause of concern for him. Apparently aware of the fact that such misunderstanding and differences would spell disaster for the party in the coming elections, Mr Singh Deo is spending a lot of time and energy to call the leaders to his chamber and convince them to put up a united fight against the ruling BJD-BJP coalition in the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. On Friday, Mr Singh Deo called senior party leader Sitakant Mohapatra and Janmejay Lenka to sort out the differences between them. The meeting, which was also attended by the PCC disciplinary committee chairperson Harihar Karan, lasted for over one hour. According to sources, while advising the leaders to bury their differences, the PCC chief also made it clear to them that the party was not going to tolerate any indiscipline. When asked about the proceedings of the meeting, the disciplinary committee chairman, Mr Karan, said, "This was a routine discussion. Nobody was given any suggestion or warning." Sitakant Mohapatra and Janmejay Lenka belong to Jajpur district and both the leaders are ticket aspirants for Barachana constituency in the district.(AA

UTTAR PRADESH

To protest against alleged harassment of Muslim youths by Anti Terror Squad of the Uttar Pradesh police and anti-community approach of the BSP Govt, the Ulema Council on Friday staged a massive demonstration at historic Tile Wali Masjid and announced its plans to enter electoral politics. Thousands of people who came from Azamgarh and adjoining areas demanded a probe into the Batla House case, in which two youths from the district were killed in an encounter with the Delhi police and immediate release of others arrested on charges of terrorism. "Innocent youths are being implicated in false cases and harassed in the name of terror. A youth is picked up by the police from somewhere else and later it is claimed that he was arrested from Lucknow for his involvement in some bomb blast case," Ulema Council leader Tahir Madani said, while addressing the gathering. "An attempt is being made to paint a bad picture of the community and this would not be tolerated," he said. Demanding a fair inquiry into Batla House case, the Council leader alleged that the Uttar Pradesh ATS had crossed its limits. "Harassment of youths by ATS would not be tolerated; the Council has warned the CM to control the force otherwise it will have serious ramifications," he said. (HINDU

EDITORIAL

India's moral police getting out of hand: It says something for Indian society that the colour which was all pervasive on Valentine's Day was not pink, associated with love and softness, but khaki, which stands for the police whose attitude to citizens is generally marked by force, callousness, and not unusually brutality. On February 14, the day when the idea of love is exalted, the police in all states were ordered to be out in strength to stop vigilante groups from harassing young men and women who desire to make their mutual affection public. Several such groups had given advance notice of their intention. Thankfully the day passed without incident by and large. But in states where it did not notably Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana the police did little to redeem themselves. In Karnataka, they looked the other way when a young Mangalore girl committed suicide after being harassed by a fanatic Hindu group for being seen in the company of a Muslim boy. In a flagrant instance of dereliction of duty, the local superintendent of police later told a television channel that apprehending the culprits could have brought on a communal situation. The state home minister also turned his face away. In Pune in Maharashtra, hoodlums associated with the Shiv Sena forced a girl to "marry" a donkey a perverse thought clearly meant to detract from the dignity of the victim. In Rajasthan, the police took their cue from the CM and used force to scatter youngsters doing nothing more objectionable than offering each other flowers as a token of affection. In Haryana, a police official beat up a young woman and her friend inside her home after making an unauthorised and wholly illegal entry. Later the police took the plea that he had entered a private home in order to protect its owner!(AA)