UPA has support of 285 MPs: Narayanaswamy

Madurai (DNS): Refuting criticisms of the CPI that the Congress was indulging in horsetrading to win the trust vote, Union Minister V। Narayanaswamy on Monday claimed the UPA government has the support of 285 MPs.

A minimum of 272 is required for a simple majority in the 543-strong Lok Sabha। Narayanswamy, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, said the Congress would issue a three-line whip to its MPs to be present in Parliament on July 22 to vote in favour of the government during the trust vote.

Simlarly, the allies would also issue whip to their respective MPs to be present in Parliament, he told reporters here।

He claimed that the Janata Dal(S), Akali Dal, National Conference, some independents and small parties were supporting the government। "We expect 290 members to support the government. But it will not be less than 285 MPs who will support the Government."

He said there was no need for the government to bargain when it was confident of winning the trust vote. It was the Left which was critical of communal forces and had joined hands with BJP to oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal, he charged.

CBI Director's Pak visit cancelled after Kabul blast

New Delhi (DNS): The visit of CBI Director Vijay Shankar to Pakistan was cancelled following the car bomb blast outside the Indian Mission in Kabul and India accusing Pakistan of ISI's role in the same।

Shankar was slated to leave for Islamabad on Monday along with a team of officials from Home and External Affairs Ministries for a meeting with Pakistan's Federal Investigating Agency (FIA)।

This was a return visit of CBI Director as the FIA Director General along with a team had visited the CBI last year।

Though there was no official word about the cancellation of the CBI Chief's visit to Pakistan, sources attributed it to the heightened tension between India and Pakistan following the car-bomb attack on Indian Mission in Kabul that claimed the lives of four Indians including Defence Attache Brigadier R D Mehta and Counsellor Venkateswara Rao।

Preliminary investigations into the bomb blast pointed to Pakistan's ISI, which has been agitated over the presence of Indian mission in Kabul and consulates in other Afghan provinces including Kandahar.

Obama to end Iraq war; focus on Pak, Afghanistan

Washington, July 14: Vowing to pursue a new military strategy, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Monday promised to pull out the bulk of US forces from Iraq by mid-2010 so as to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, "where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven।"

"As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan। We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there," he wrote in a stinging opinion piece in the New York Times.

"I would not hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq," the 47-year-old Senator from Illonis wrote while describing military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan as "the greatest strategic blunder in the recent history of American foreign policy।"

Obama, who aspires to be the first black-American president said that ending the war in Iraq was essential to meet America's "broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven।"

"Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been," he said while quoting Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to say that the US will not have "sufficient resources to finish the job in Afghanistan until we reduce our commitment to Iraq।"

Obama said the recent call by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presented an enormous opportunity.

Bardhan accuses UPA of horsetrading

NEW DELHI: With political parties bracing themselves for the trust vote, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan on Monday accused the Congress-led UPA of horsetrading and alleged that the going rate of an MP was Rs 25 crore।

"No one has principles anymore। It is not a question of few crores but Rs 25 crore for horsetrading," Bardhan said addressing a meeting to launch Left parties' nationwide campaign against the government.

"I have never seen Rs 25 crore in my lifetime. I am sure that none of you (audience) have seen it either," the top CPI leader said.

UPA obsessed with nuke deal, has not kept its promises: Left

NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Monday launched a nationwide campaign to explain to people the reasons that prompted them to withdraw support to the UPA government which, they alleged, "failed" to keep promises due to its "obsession" with the nuclear deal।

Top Left leaders addressed a meeting here where they cited the UPA's "failures, including rising prices and inflation, surrendering of national interest, and unkept promises with regard to the Common Minimum Programme (CPM)"

The leaders "vigorously" attacked the government for its "refusal" to take appropriate steps to tackle the "runaway" inflation and "back-breaking" price rise।

The campaign was launched to explain to people the reasons for withdrawing support besides "explaining the UPA's pro-American and anti-people policies which are resulting in price rise and other problems," CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat said।

The Left parties are trying to rally other democratic and secular forces "who do not want either the Congress or BJP to be the only alternative"।

In the course of the campaign, he said the Left will also place before the people an alternative to meet energy requirements for development and for putting an end to the economic policies pursued by the Government which are "harmful to farmers, rural poor, workers and other sections"।

Karat said the Government and the Congress wanted to fulfill their promise to US President George W Bush। "It is their primary aim and not tackling inflation or price rise."

Karat said, "Nuclear deal and price rise are the issues on which we withdrew support"।

Plans are afoot to field top leaders, who will crisscross the country, to attend public meetings and rallies organised in major towns in all states।

The focus of the campaign will be on youth as the "cream of the country" needs to be educated on the "ill-effects" of the nuclear deal and other problems facing the country।

Meetings will be organised at all major centres as well as in towns and villages। Pamphlets and handbills will be published.

The false claims and assumptions made by Government will be exposed and real facts will brought before them, a senior Left leader said।

The campaign plank will be anti-imperialism and defence of the country's sovereignty, anti-communalism and defence of secular domestic polity and protection and improvement of common people's livelihood against attack of big business.

Mukesh Ambani meets PM

New Delhi, July 14: With UPA government's new found ally Samajwadi Party gunning for Reliance Industries, the company head Mukesh Ambani on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of other senior government functionaries to explain how demands for levy of windfall tax was bad economics।

Ambani first met Singh and there were unsubstantiated reports that he followed this with a meeting with Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi।

Flying in from Mumbai this morning, Mukesh started a series of meeting with top bureaucrats, including a call to Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar।

Ambani's visit assumes importance in the wake of Amar Singh raising a number of issues, including a demand for withdrawal of EOU status for RIL's Jamnagar refinery along with a suggestion that Prime Minister should intervene to bring peace between Mukesh and younger brother Anil।

Sources said Ambani pleaded that the demand for levy of so-called windfall profit tax on private firms was no more than a populist slogan based on the misleading logic that with rising prices of oil across the globe, these companies are making profits far in excess of what they legitimately deserve।

While Government shares production from oil and gas fields and is a beneficiary of high oil prices, the refinery business is highly cyclical and with new capacities coming on stream world over margins will decline precipitously।

Ambani is believed to have told policy makers that fiscal revenue gain from a WPT would be short-term in nature, but the economic costs of introducing an unstable fiscal regime could be long lasting।

Ambani is believed to have told policy makers that during boom periods of business cycles diverse sectors enjoy high returns like the IT boom in the late 1990s, but a WPT was not even contemplated for them।

Presently, many domestic natural resource-extracting entities in non-oil sectors have also benefited financially from the unprecedented global commodity boom। Will it be justified to impose WPT on them, he asked.

The US imposed a WPT in 1980 but repealed it in 1988 as it led to increased dependence on imported oil and gross revenue gains were significantly less than anticipated।

Ambani is believed to have stated that the current high crude oil price has led to an unprecedented increase in supply and service costs raising both exploration and development of oil and gas by a factor of 3 times over the last 3-4 years।

In economic terms, taxes such as WPT increase marginal production costs, and profit maximising firms respond to it by reducing output and raising prices।

Imposing WPT could have several adverse economic affects। If imposed as an excise tax, the WPT would increase marginal production costs, reduce domestic oil production and increase the level of oil imports.

Windfall profit tax is a tax on actual profit or profit margins। If levied on actual profit then it would need to take into account the capital invested, asset base and similar parameters while if levied on profit margins it was necessary to look at margins of other businesses especially during boom periods.

Refining business, Ambani is believed to have argued, is cyclical in nature. Product deficits catalyses expansion plans. But as new capacities come on stream, refining margins decline precipitously. Also, refining needs large and continuous investments just to meet stringent clean fuel specifications and stay in business.