‘RSS didn’t insist on Modi as PM candidate’
New Delhi: Contradicting reports that it had dictated Narendra Modi’s name as
BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, RSS leader MG Vaidya said a proposal from
BJP quarters must have come and the Sangh gave its
consent. He said RSS does not dictate as to who should be made Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Minister, MP or MlA but only gives its advice whenever there is a dispute and gives advice only when sought. The RSS leader also contradicted reports that RSS had given any promise in 1949 of not entering politics when the ban on it was revoked.
Vice-President Hamid Ansari returns home
New Delhi: Vice-President Hamid Ansari returned
home on Saturday after an eight-day official visit to Peru, Cuba and the United Kingdom. Ansari’s meeting with revolutionary hero Fidel Castro was the high point of a rare bilateral visit by any Indian VVIP to Cuba, during which the two countries inked an agreement on cooperation in broadcasting. The Vice-President began his three nation tour from Peru where four agreements were signed, including one on defence cooperation, to boost its ties with the fastest growing country in latin America.
CPI wants India to stay away from CHOGM
New Delhi: The CPI on Saturday demanded India stays away from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri lanka and rework its policy towards the island nation in the wake of a purported expose which showed a young woman was captured and killed by the lankan army. “The Channel 4 expose of gang rape and killing of Isai Priya, a media person in Sri lanka, is a barbaric inhuman act by the Sri lankan army,” CPI leader D Raja charged. This is one of many evidences to accuse Sri lankan Government for “horrendous war crimes and human rights violations”, he added.
‘Up interventions against HIV in India’
New Delhi: Acknowledging the need for the scaling up of interventions against HIV in India, the Secretary of the Department of AIDS Control, lov Verma, on Saturday called for community participation to ensure complete eradication of the disease. “Involvement of the community is key for a successful intervention programme and the public health system could not move without their involvement,” Verma said. He was speaking at the conclusion of a two-day National Dissemination Workshop here.