RSS link worked for Shettar - Times of India
BANGALORE: What made BJP veteran LK Advani delay his decision on making RDPR minister Jagadish Shettar the CM, in spite of his RSS roots?
According to sources close to Shettar, his being identified with former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, and his resignation for a change in leadership had upset Advani. In fact, Advani had also declined to meet him during the recent crisis. But he relented following negotiations by senior leaders -- both at the central and state levels.
Sources said Shettar's lineage of being a hardcore RSS man favoured him. "Advani knows Shettar's family well, and their commitment to the RSS and the party. Hence, he had a change of heart," they added.
Minnesota Vikings star arrested after refusing to leave club - Reuters
HOUSTON |
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson was detained for resisting arrest early on Saturday after he refused to leave a Houston nightclub at closing time and shoved an off-duty police officer, police said.
The off-duty officer, who was working a security assignment at Bayou Place, asked Peterson, 27, and others in his group several times to leave the downtown club at around 2 a.m., Houston Police Department spokesman Kese Smith said.
Peterson, who has been recuperating from surgery for an injury sustained in December, responded by yelling and pushing the guard, causing him to stumble, Smith said. Peterson was charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor, Smith said.
Peterson, who is from Palestine, Texas, was held on $1,000 bail at a Houston jail, according to the police website. It was not clear if he had been released.
(Reporting by Robert Kleeman; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Paul Simao)
BJP a party with unending differences - The Hindu
NEWS ANALYSIS Factionalism, defiance of high command by regional satraps make things worse
‘Party with a difference’ is the tag line of the BJP and as the political arm of the RSS it prided itself as one. Thanks to the unbridled factionalism at all levels and brazen defiance of the central leadership by the regional satraps, the slogan makes no sense. An appropriate label to reflect the changed character of the BJP could be: a ‘party with unending differences.’
The central leadership bowing down to pressures from the former Karnataka Chief Minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa, and shunting out Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda best reflect the state of drift and helplessness of the high command.
No political logic
Ironically, it is for the third time in a span of less than one year that the central leadership has been forced to effect a chief ministerial change and that too in a State where Assembly elections are due in less than nine months. What makes it even more bizarre is that there is no political logic to the appointment of Jagadish Shettar, a choice of Mr. Yeddyurappa, as the new Chief Minister.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, a powerful leader from the influential Lingayat community, was at loggerheads with Mr. Shettar (also from the same caste) as long as he was Chief Minister. That is the reason he backed Mr. Gowda as his successor. As Mr. Gowda began to acquire clout and status, Mr. Yeddyurappa was left with no option but to join hands with his political foe.
The story of the party in Gujarat is ditto. Narendra Modi, considered the star campaigner and Hindutva mascot of the party, treats Gujarat as his fiefdom. Since the re-induction of his arch-rival and hardcore RSS faithful Sanjay Joshi into the party in July last year (he was forced to quit from the primary membership of the BJP a few weeks ago) Mr. Modi had left no stone unturned to humiliate party president Nitin Gadkari.
All from the RSS ranks
Incidentally, all the three — Mr. Gadkari, Mr. Modi and Mr. Joshi — are from the RSS rank and file but the affiliation made no difference to their public feud. Signalling that he would not let the central leadership get away with any decision against his wishes, Mr. Modi stayed away from the 2011 October national executive meeting.
He upped the ante by refusing to campaign for the party in the five Assembly elections in February-March despite repeated appeals from several quarters. To buy peace with Mr. Modi, hours before the recent Mumbai national executive, the BJP chief sacked Mr. Joshi from the executive.
Thrown out
The Gujarat Chief Minister turned up on the last day of the session only after the central leadership went public on the sacking of Mr. Joshi. Mr. Modi was not content with the huge embarrassment to the central leadership and made sure, within three weeks of the Mumbai meeting, that Mr. Joshi was thrown out of the party.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, who had vowed to stay away from the Mumbai meeting in protest against the “management of the party affairs” by the leadership, took the first available flight to Mumbai after Mr. Modi announced his intention to participate.
Even in Rajasthan, where the party is not in power, the writ of the national leadership does not run. In April, the former Chief Minister and senior leader, Vasundhara Raje, threatened to walk out of the BJP with all her followers if the RSS-backed senior leader Gulab Chand Kataria was not restrained from going ahead with a State-wide yatra. The party bought peace with her by persuading Mr. Kataria to call off the yatra. The faction led by Ms. Raje has already tied the hands of the central leadership by making it known that when the State goes to the polls next year, she should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate!
In Uttarakhand, the party lost the race for a second term in the recent Assembly elections only due to the failure of the leadership to curb factionalism.
The state of affairs at the national level is no different and come the 2014 general election, things are bound to get worse with too many leaders considering themselves the prime ministerial candidates. The botch-up by the party on the Presidential election, at the expense of antagonising some of the constituents in the National Democratic Alliance, is an indication of things to come.
Keywords: BJP politics
Zola confirmed as Watford boss - Football
Published: 07 Jul 2012 - 19:17:14
Gianfranco Zola has been appointed as manager of Watford, the club have announced.
The Italian has signed a two-year deal at the npower Championship club after the Hornets' new owners confirmed the sacking of Sean Dyche.
"Everyone knows how Gianfranco Zola likes football to be played," Watford technical director Gianluca Nani told the club's official website. "I think Watford's fans can expect an exciting and attacking style from his team. Gianfranco represents this project perfectly."
The appointment completes Zola's return to English football two years after he left West Ham.
It had been expected since the Pozzo family, who completed their takeover of the club from Laurence Bassini last week, revealed the 46-year-old Italian was their preferred candidate.
The Pozzo family also own Serie A side Udinese and La Liga outfit Granada.
The former Chelsea player had two seasons in charge of the Hammers, impressing in the first as he led the club to ninth place in the Premier League in the 2008/09 season.
He struggled badly the following campaign, though, as his side finished just one place above the bottom three and he left his post two days after the end of the season.
Zola, who previously coached the Italy Under-21 side, is best known for a seven-year spell as a player with Chelsea, though, when he established himself as one of the most talented and possibly the best loved foreign player to play in the Premier League.
But he will not have an easy act to follow at Watford, with Dyche helping them finish a respectable 11th in his only season at the helm after succeeding Malky Mackay.
Related Watford News
London police make seventh arrest in terrorism probe - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Police investigating a potential terrorist attack said they had arrested a seventh person, a 22-year-old woman, in east London on Saturday.
Police are on high alert ahead of the London Olympics but said the latest arrest and those of a woman and five men in London earlier this week were not linked to the Games.
All seven suspects have been held on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism", police said.
Britain has spent millions of pounds beefing up security in preparation for the Olympics.
Security chiefs have said repeatedly that they have no information that the Olympics are being targeted, but Jonathan Evans, head of the domestic intelligence agency MI5, has said the Games present an attractive target.
In a separate operation this week police arrested seven men on suspicion of terrorism after weapons were found in a vehicle stopped on a motorway in Yorkshire, northern England.
A police source said that in that case too, there was nothing to suggest any link with the Olympics, which start on July 27.
In both cases security sources have said the suspects were linked to militant Islamism, but that it remained unclear what was planned. The London suspects were arrested when their plotting was at an early stage, the sources added.
In a sign of heightened vigilance ahead of the Games, armed police closed the M6 motorway near Birmingham, in the Midlands, for four hours on Thursday after a man was reported acting suspiciously on a coach heading to London.
It later emerged the alert was caused by a passenger using an electronic cigarette.
Security authorities have assessed the national threat level at "substantial" - meaning that an attack is a strong possibility - but that is one level lower than it has been for most of the time since the July 7, 2005 suicide bomb attacks in London which killed 52 people.
(Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Tim Pearce)
0 Responses to "RSS link worked for Shettar - Times of India"
Post a Comment