goanet-digest Saturday, June 8 2002 Volume 01 : Number 4058
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In this issue:
[Goanet] NEWS: 'Amend law to check Indian political defections'
[Goanet] Tagore's A Sufi Prayer
Re: [Goanet] Goans Making Headlines in USA.
[Goanet] Dinesh Origins.
[Goanet] LINK Plant World 2002 at Mapusa
[Goanet] FRIDAY BALCAO:Discussion on the results of the Goa Assembly Elections.
See end of digest for information on subscribing/unsusbcribing.
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Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 16:14:15 +0530 (IST)
From: Frederick Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] NEWS: 'Amend law to check Indian political defections'
'Amend law to check Indian political defections'
By Ajit Sahi, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) Seventeen years after India framed a law to check
political defections, politicians and pundits admit the legislation has
failed to rein in politicians willing to switch parties at the drop of a
hat.
Nowhere is the lacuna more visible than in the western state of Maharashtra,
where a string of political flip-flops has pushed the government to the
verge of collapse.
With both the ruling and opposition groupings claiming a right to rule the
state on the strength of their numbers in the splintered state assembly, all
the major parties have been forced to hide their legislators to prevent them
from deserting.
Those who have defected are being guarded round the clock by the new
political masters.
It looks as though the state's ruling Congress party and its ally the
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are not willing to trust their own
legislators. Even the opposition Shiv Sena and its ally, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, are keeping their
flock under scrutiny.
"Politicians have very low moral values that reflect in their shameless
defections," said V.B. Singh, director of the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies. "The anti-defection law has failed and needs to be
changed."
Added Congress leader Anil Shastri: "There is a total degeneration of
values, and there is no such thing as integrity or straightforward politics.
The anti-defection law has outlived its purpose and urgently needs to be
made stringent."
The comments came even as the leading parties in Maharashtra packed off
their legislators to different cities outside the state to keep them under
virtual custody, fearing they would otherwise be "bought over" by rival
parties.
The Congress-led government of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has been
left tottering this week after a string of defections reduced it to a
minority. Deshmukh must win a trust vote June 13 to stay on in power.
As three NCP and one Congress legislator crossed over to the opposition
Sena-BJP combine, the two leading ruling partners sent their legislators to
the adjoining Congress-ruled states of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
Congress legislators arriving at the airport in Karnataka capital Bangalore
Thursday told reporters that they were on a "sight-seeing" trip. But clearly
they had been moved away from the close range of Sena-BJP. They will return
to Maharashtra capital Mumbai ahead of the June 13 trust vote.
The Sena and the BJP are also planning to send off their 124 legislators to
the neighbouring BJP-ruled Goa state to avoid retaliatory Congress-NCP
poaching amid widespread charges and speculation that big money has been
changing hands.
Analysts say the state of affairs in Maharashtra points out the drawback in
a landmark anti-defection law pioneered by former prime minister Rajiv
Gandhi in 1985.
In a bid to check rampant defections that caused much political instability
in India, Gandhi enacted a law that barred any defection until a third of a
party's MPs or legislators decided to part ways.
The law did slow down defections. Now more and more people are arguing that
the main loophole in the law - that defection by a third of MPs or
legislators is permitted - should go.
Said columnist Sudheesh Pachauri: "A defecting legislator or MP must resign
his seat if he leaves his party on whose ticket he was elected. If he is as
popular as he thinks he is, the people would elect him again."
Congress leader Shastri agreed: "This change in the anti-defection law is a
must to end the menace of defections. Every defector must go back to the
electorate to get the voters' approval for his decision."
Admitted Singh: "The anti-defection law has in a way become a facilitator
for those who want to defect."
Shastri said the law had not been designed to meet the challenges of a
multi-party era. In 1985, when it was framed, the Congress was the dominant
political party, and luring a third of such a large party was thought near
impossible.
"But now there are parties with just half a dozen MPs and legislators in the
house. The one-third clause makes no sense for them."
Analysts say the cancer of defections reflects a complete erosion of
principled politics that prevailed in the country during the freedom
struggle against British rule.
"The days of Mahatma Gandhi and ethical politics are gone. Now it is all
money power. Politicians are willing to be bought and sold like in a fish
market," rued Singh.
Added columnist Pachauri: "Opportunism has become a positive value.
Principles are now considered impractical."
- --Indo-Asian News Service
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Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 05:11:10 -0600 (MDT)
From: The Uncultured Company <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] Tagore's A Sufi Prayer
Hi,
There's so much hatred and hunger for power at the moment in the world.
Seems fanatics of all sorts, though mainly lead by the religious types, are
using religion and freedom to destroy and kill. Regardless of the purpose,
the cause or their beliefs, it's a shame that the biggest gifts of life and
love are stomped upon. What would the winner of a battle do after the
victory? Would they live life in love and harmony? Would that be possible
after having killed another, after having destroyed another? Would the
winner's religion be proclaimed as the 'right' religion?
Even though I have tremendous faith in humans, I'm calling upon the great
architect to look down and put a stop to the evil by some humans, and the
immaturity to ignore the same by many others. Deep within there's a hope
and a plea, that the rules of life would step aside just for a while, so
that goodness would take over and make it all fine. So a part of me wanted
to talk to GOD and say 'look down and fix this', while the other half wants
to tell my fellow humans that they too should stop and simply ask GOD to do
the same. Basically wanting each one of us to feel so close to GOD, and in
our OWN personal way, that it awakens some sort of a Sufi soul within us. A
soul that strips itself naked of everything that man has made and with
every drop of innocence and sincerity whispers a Sufi prayer.
This is my Sufi prayer. Even though I hope that you like it, more sincerely
I hope that it wakes up the child within you to say a simple prayer, to
gift God your own prayer, all because I want the world to be a better place
and want us all to be better humans. After all, we are to date (and will
always be) the greatest creation there ever has been. Remember that and
respect it all around.
Welcome to my new book A Sufi Prayer (
<http://www.goacom.com/tagore>www.goacom.com/tagore )
Tagore
www.goacom.com/tagore
____________________________________________________________________
One World, One Religion, One Race. One Colour, just a different face
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Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 06:19:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Eugene Correia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Goans Making Headlines in USA.
I either read or was told that Dinesh is a Goan from
Bandra, Mumbai. His father used to work for Johnson
and Johnson.
I know a woman in Toronto who knew the family as she
too lived in Bandra. I was under the believe he is of
East Indian origin.
Eugene Correia
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
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Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 07:00:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: eric pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] Dinesh Origins.
Dinesh grew up in a home his parents owned, next
door to my grandmother, on Dr. Peter Dias road,
Bandra, parish of St. Andrew. His parents raised him
as an Evangilical Christian, and he is not a Roman
Catholic. He was named campaign coordinator with the
Catholic Church by Bush Sr., an example of the right
wing's cynicism, then rewarded with the White House
job. He is very Goan, my mother and he belong to the
same D'Souza-Sheth clan in Assagao, Socoll Vaddo.
Thank you, Eugene, for the occasion. eric.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
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Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 17:52:15 +0530 (IST)
From: Frederick Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] LINK Plant World 2002 at Mapusa
Nisarga Nature Club will organise Plant World 2002 at Nehru Park Mapusa
from 10 am to 6 pm from 7 to 9 June to coincide with World Environment
Day.
Viraj Nursery and Lil's Nursery will take part.
Nisarga is an NGO which is setting up plant nurseries in Goa to plant
forest and avenue trees around us. It is prusuing an ambitious
tree-planting programme, called Million Trees in the New Millennium, under
which it aims to plant one million trees.
If anyone is interested in rare forest trees, contact president Pradeep
Sawant on 254314 or 265179. If available in its nursery, the trees will be
given free of cost.
Nisarga, which has networks in Mapusa, Margao, Porvorim and Aldona, has
appealed to people to plant trees and offered help to start nurseries in
their homes or schools. (ENDS)
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Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2002 22:07:16 +0530
From: Goa Desc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] FRIDAY BALCAO:Discussion on the results of the Goa Assembly
Elections.
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WELCOME TO FRIDAY BALCAO
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Dear Cybergaonkars on GoaNet,
We continue with FRIDAY BALCAO
on 14th June from 4pm. to 6pm.
at No. 11, Liberty Apartments,
Feira Alta, Mapusa Goa Ph. 252660
TOPIC: Discussion on the results of the Goa Assembly Elections.
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you could SUBSCRIBE for the invitation cum synopsis
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best wishes,
Lillian D'Costa
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Buy your personal copy and gift one to your relatives, neighbours and friends.
The information handbook that is a must in every Goan home.
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Working On Issues Of Development & Democracy
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End of goanet-digest V1 #4058
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