Indian, US warships to carry out wargames in Arabian sea

New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) The US navy will field its most powerful warships led by the latest nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan and nuclear submarine USS Springfield in a new range of wargames in the Arabian sea from October 15, a naval official here said।

Indian and US warships will undertake complex air-to-air, under-sea and warship-to-warship manoeuvres in the wargames for ten days, the official said।

Along with the carriers and submarines, the Malabar series of wargames on India's western seaboard will also see participation by latest guided missile cruisers, destroyers and frigates as well as long range maritime F-18 and Jaguar fighters।

"The naval wargames will be complex in nature involving anti-submarine warfare manoeuvres, flying operations and crossdeck embarkations," the naval official said signalling a resolve of the two countries to take their military-to- military interaction to a new high।

The new Malabar series of wargames come close on the heels of frontline Indian Air Force Sukhoi fighters taking part for the first time in fighter exercises at the world's most advanced air wargames complex at Nellis Air Base in the Nevada desert of the United States.

Congress giving priority to BCs: Srinivas

Hyderbad Kamis, Agust 21 2008, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President D Srinivas today denied media reports that the party was not giving priority to the Backward Classes in the selection of District Congress Committee (DCC) Presidents। Addressing a press conference here, he said the Congress was the only party in the country, which was giving priority to the weaker sections, including Backward Classes and minorities.

Stating that the Congress had given more than 50 per cent posts to the people from the weaker sections, he said the party had appointed 11 BCs , two minorities and 15 from other classes as DCC Presidents after detailed discussions with Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and other senior leaders in the state। Mr Srinivas said he along with Mr Reddy had a detailed exercise on the selection of candidates for the DCC Posts. The same list was sent to the Congress High Command and it was approved by AICC President Sonia Gandhi.

He said, ''my wish is to see more than 100 candidates from weaker section sitting in the assembly on behalf of the Congress party, and the whole exercise of reshuffling the organisational set up is for coming back to power in the next elections in the state।'' Regarding the selection of DCC Presidents for Kurnool and Khammam, he said the High Command would take a decision very soon.

Selection of President for the Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee was pending with the High Command, he added.

Amarnath land row protests shift to Delhi

NEW DELHI: Shifting the scene to the capital, members of the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS) Thursday courted arrest here to protest the revocation of land allotted to the shrine board managing the pilgrimage to the shrine in the Kashmir valley।

Amongst those arrested were Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia and three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators in the Delhi assembly O।P. Babbar, Jagdish Mukhi and H.S. Bali.

Members of the SASS, a conglomerate of various organisations spearheading the protests in Jammu, marched to the offices of the deputy commissioners of police (DCP) in six places at 9।30 a.m.

“Over 7,000 members of the Samiti courted arrest under the All India Jail Bharo (fill-the-jails) agitation,” SASS spokesperson Vinod Bansal told IANS।

The genesis of the trouble lies in the Jammu and Kashmir government's decision in May to allot 40 hectares of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board that manages the annual pilgrimage to the high altitude shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva। The decision led to massive protests in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley. Its revocation July 1 ignited a counter agitation in the Hindu majority Jammu region.

The trouble has continued to snowball since with shutdowns, curfew and violent clashes that have polarised Jammu against Kashmir।

The death toll in the state in the waves of protests and counter-protests now stands at around 40.

HC convicts advocates Anand, Khan in BMW expose case

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court today convicted senior advocates -- R K Anand and I U Khan -- in the BMW expose case for obstructing administration of justice।

"They are senior advocates and they did not tender either conditional or unconditional apology for their conduct in the BMW case," a Division Bench of Justices Manmohan Sarin and Madan B Lokur said, in their 112-page verdict in the contempt case relating to the expose।

Recommending that they be stripped of their designation of senior advocate, the court asked them not to appear in the Delhi High Court and its subordinate courts for the next four months as punishment।

The Bench also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on each of them and rapped them for their "irresponsible" behaviour, saying "we are not dealing with young lawyers। Both are seasoned lawyers and such conduct was not expected of them."

Meanwhile, the court recommended that amicus curiae Arvind Nigam, who assisted the court in the over year-long trial, be designated as a senior advocate।

During the proceedings, Anand was conspicuous by his absence while Khan was present in the court।

Both Anand and Khan were accused of obstructing the administration of justice by allegedly influencing a witness Sunil Kulkarni in the sensational nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case।

Anand, the defence counsel and Khan, the prosecutor, were shown as colluding with the witness in an NDTV sting operation last year।

The court on May 31 last year had taken suo motu cognisance of the sting operation showing Anand, in collusion with Khan, allegedly offering money to Kulkarni to depose in favour of Sanjeev Nanda, the prime accused in the hit-and-run case।

Nanda, the grandson of retired Naval chief S M Nanda, is accused of mowing down six persons, including three policemen, with his BMW car on January 10, 1999.