New Delhi, June 14
India’s education sector is in for a major overhaul with the union human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal hinting at its complete restructuring to remove the roadblocks in the path of aspiring students. At the heart of Sibal’s HRD agenda is bold reform to open up a hitherto closed sector to growth and fresh opportunity that would unleash the talent of students like never before.

And to set his ambitious agenda rolling, Sibal is ready to go the Manmohan Singh way. “What Dr Manmohan Singh did with the Indian economy in 1991, we need to do with the Indian education in 2009. It is time we opened up,” the visionary minister told The Tribune in an exclusive interview here, unambiguously declaring his plans to liberalize the education sector to bring in more finances, better academic infrastructure and multiple work opportunities both within and outside the country. Already the government is thinking in terms of setting up an education development and finance corporation with an initial corpus of about Rs 3000 crore, with Sibal admitting that the ministry needed to address the gaping demand-supply gap in higher education sector to stem the rot of capitation fee.

A review of deemed universities (some were caught demanding capitation fee banned under law) is underway, but Sibal said the solution to such malaises lay in funding the education well. “Students in higher education institutes must have access to loans. We can have a loan guarantee scheme to support their education. We can also set up an education finance corporation with a seed corpus of about Rs 3000 to support higher education of which there is huge demand,” he said.

With Sibal ready to apply the Manmohan Singh model to education, one could well expect some never-heard-of measures like FDI in education, foreign campuses and public private partnerships to meet the supply gaps in the expanding sector. On the regulation front, the HRD minister favours a SEBI-like overarching regulator instead of the existing regulating bodies like the UGC and the AICTE. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and Yashpal committee have already recommended winding up of these bodies to establish a National Council for Higher Education, which found a mention in the President’s address to the Parliament recently.

Asked if he would do away with UGC and AICTE, Sibal said, “The recommendations of NKC and Yashpal panel are pivotal in moving forward,” he clearly hinted at the need to have a larger SEBI like regulator.

On the front of deemed universities, too, Sibal did not rule out a review of existing procedures for grant of recognition to universities. “We may have to restructure the entire system. We are looking at that possibility,” said Sibal, adding that the government’s intent behind reviewing the function of 125 existing deemed varsities was “reformatory” and not “punitive”. “No action that we take against the management of erring universities would affect the careers of students. They will get their degrees in time, their education will continue. That’s our assurance to them. They will not be penalized for the fault of managements,” Sibal clarified, allaying all cause for panic.

Vocational training, it appears, would be another major area of engagement for the HRD ministry under Sibal, who has plans to introduce special skills development programmes at schools, especially for classes X to XII. The idea is to arm students with better and greater career options, he said, admitting that he favoured the autonomy of institutes of higher learning like IIMs and IITs.

Meanwhile, Kapil Sibal favours a case-to-case decision when it comes to the implementation of government’s quota policy to the faculty of 47 institutes of national importance. When asked if he was for exempting the faculty of these institutes of the reservation policy (the controversial bill granting the proposed exemption was withdrawn from the 14th Lok Sabha, following pressure from political parties), Sibal said, “I would do it on a case to case basis. We favour the quota policy but it must be done in a way that retains equity.” 

Panvel (Maharashtra), June 14
NCP leader Padamsinh Patil, arrested in connection with the murder of Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar, has accused the CBI of pressurising him to confessing to the crime and undergo scientific tests even as the police arrested one more shooter allegedly involved in the killing.

As the court extended the custody of Patil in CBI custody till June 20, CBI sought his further interrogation on the grounds that the case is at a crucial stage and they need to probe the involvement of some other politicians and police officials in the case.

Patil's lawyer Dinesh Tiwari told the court that the investigation agency is allegedly pressurising Patil to give a confessional statement and to undergo scientific tests.

Patil does not intend to give any confessional statement as he has done nothing wrong and is innocent and is not ready to undergo scientific tests due to his health conditions, Tiwari said.

"I do not intend to give any confessional statement as I have done nothing wrong and I do not want to undergo any scientific tests due to health reasons," an application by Patil opposing extension of remand says.

The CBI, on the other hand, said since Patil is not co-operating with investigators, it is considering scientific tests on him like narco-analysis and brain-mapping, the remand application filed by the agency states.

CBI counsel Ejaz Khan also told the court that the agency is investigating the money trail and how and who transferred the supari (contract killing sum) through hawala channels.

Tiwari had also prepared an application to be submitted to the court regarding the pressure on Patil to undergo scientific tests but did not file it today as CBI did not seek permission to conduct the narco-analysis tests.

CBI Joint Director Rishiraj Singh said "the investigation in this case is in full progress. Another accused Pintu Singh has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police and we are completing the formality to take him in CBI custody."

Pintu Singh, who had allegedly opened fire at Nimbalkar and his driver Samad Kazi, would be brought to Mumbai soon and will be produced before the Panvel court, he said.

CBI has collected new material in the case and searches in Patil's south Mumbai residence are yet to be conducted, which is why Patil's custody was sought, Khan said.

Meanwhile, two other arrested accused in the Patil muder case Mohan Shukla and Satish Mandade were also produced before the court today and were remanded to judicial custody till June 26.

CBI today detained Abdul Rehman, driver of arrested accused Parasmal Jain who allegedly arranged for the killing of Nimbalkar.

CBI sources alleged Rehman was aware of the conspiracy as he had accompanied Jain to conduct a recce of Nimbalkar's house in Osmanabad and had been informed by Jain about the job to eliminate Nimbalkar. CBI, which took over the case last year, has arrested five persons so far- Patil, Shukla, Mandade, Jain and Dinesh Tiwari. Jain and Tiwari are at present in judicial custody till June 21. — PTI

Kaiga (Karnataka), June 14
As it began the probe into the mysterious death nuclear power plant scientist L Mahalingam, Karnataka police were today clueless whether he was killed or committed suicide saying a conclusion can be reached in a couple of days after testing of his viscera.

"We cannot say anything at present. The cause of death cannot be ascertained till we receive the report of the viscera samples which have been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Mangalore, for chemical examination", a top police official told PTI today.

"We expect the FSL report to come in a couple of days. Only then will the actual cause of death be known", he said.

Meanwhile, the mortal remains Mahalingam, whose body was fished out of a river flowing along Kaiga township, were consigned to flames in the forest land adjacent to the township here today.

Mahalingam, who was working in the simulator training division of Nuclear Power Corporation India Limited (NPCIL) for the past eight years, was bid a tearful adieu by his family, friends and the NPCIL officials who were present in large numbers at the funeral.

The 47-year-old Mahalingam, whose body was recovered by Naval divers last night ending the suspense over his disappearance during a morning walk on June 8 at Kaiga town, is survived by wife Vinayakasundari and 17-year-old daughter Malavika. His body was earlier identified by his wife.

Before joining the Kaiga nuclear power plant, he had worked at the Kalpakkam atomic power plant near Chennai.

His colleagues and the NPCIL officials fondly remembered him as "not only a good training officer but an avid environmentalist who used to actively take part in the eco-protection programmes of the plant".

Police had said on Saturday they were investigating whether Mahalingam had drowned or whether there was any foul play.

The body of Mahalingam was earlier handed over to his family after a team of doctors conducted a post-mortem.

The disappearance of Mahalingam had initially caused concern but the NPCIL authorities were quick to clarify that he did not have any access to sensitive documents.

As the police and CISF personnel remained clueless about the whereabouts of Mahalingam even after intensive search, authorities pressed divers from the nearby Naval base into service. Intelligence officials had also joined in  the efforts to trace Mahalingam.

Mahalingam had disappeared during his stint at Kalpakkam atomic power plant for a few days but had returned home, according to officials. — PTI 

New Delhi, June 14
In early Nineties many of our friends flaunting Left leanings were clamouring to join the BJP. An Assistant Editor in the The Times of India then, Swapan Dasgupta, an articulate and sophisticated intellectual, led the bandwagon. Then followed his friend Chandan Mitra, a philosopher and guide, also in ToI then.

In the meantime, another young ex-Telegraph, ex-Statesman journalist joined the new team of Vinod Mehta when he launched The Pioneer from Delhi in December 1991. That was Kanchan Gupta.

One by one, all these journalists trudged to the saffron camp and benefited immensely from the BJP, with Chandan Mitra mysteriously becoming the proprietor of The Pioneer without spending a rupee, thanks to the generosity of the BJP and more particularly that of LK Advani.

By 1998 when the BJP-led NDA assumed power, these journalists and many other fair-weather friends, including Sudheendra Kulkarni, had entrenched themselves well within the BJP and naturally enjoyed lavishly at its cost. The only exception perhaps was Swapan Dasgupta. But that is another story.

When the BJP lost power in 2004, all the branded BJP editors -- Kanchan, Swapan, Surya Prakash and Udyan Namboodri -- were pensioned off to Chandan Mitra’s Pioneer. Today, however, each one of them is finding fault with Advani, the BJP and some even with the Sangh. These are ominous signs of the demise of a political party and reminds one of the slow and painful death of Janata Dal in the early 90s when the ‘Dalam’ was dying and BJP was on the upswing and everyone was joining it or identifying with it because that was the most happening party.

To be fair to these people who naturally represent the rising middle class, they waited patiently for five years in a hope that the UPA government would be a one-election wonder and would die a natural death in the next round. So much for their political understanding. From 2004 to 2009, they worked hard day and night to bring down the UPA government every day, but without much success though.

They started making preparations for the elections two years ago, to be exact from December 10, 2007, onwards when Rajnath Singh announced LK Advani as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.

Today, the whole BJP is bewildered and confused. It really has no answers why it lost so badly. Actually as Yashwant Sinha pointed out had it not been for its spectacular performance in Bihar, Jharkhand and Karnataka, the party may have ended up with a double-digit figure.

Then there are the likes of Kulkarni who are blaming the RSS for the defeat. Others like Kanchan Gupta are blaming Advani and Jaitley while yet another faction, like Jaswant Singh, is blaming both. The truth however, lies somewhere else.

The mainstay of BJP support has always been the upwardly mobile urban middle class. In 1989, the BJP grew from two members in the Lok Sabha to 85, as the class which had been attracted by Rajiv Gandhi in 1984, abandoned the Congress. In 1990, the Mandal-Mandir controversy helped the BJP strengthen its hold on this class and further added rural upper caste in north India’s UP and Bihar, as also sections of OBCs and Dalits enthused by the idea of building Ram temple in Ayodhya further bolstered its prospects.

In December 1993, the BJP lost assembly elections in UP, MP and almost all the states ruled by it, showing that it was vulnerable even then. Then, Advani came up with the idea of declaring Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime ministerial candidate and the BJP’s fortunes rose thereafter.

As Jaitley had candidly admitted in his analysis post 2004 defeat: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became the new icon of the upwardly mobile urban middle class. They started abandoning the BJP. Nowhere was it so evident as in the Delhi assembly where Sheila Dikshit and Manmohan Singh together trounced the BJP, giving a clear inkling of what an objective analyst should have expected of the BJP in the General Election.

As for Advani, he sought to be at par with Vajpayee. And drawing a parallel from how he had announced Vajpayee’s candidature in 1995, he sought the same for himself in 2007. Though reluctantly, the BJP did declare him their prime minister-in-waiting that December. In the process, the entire party leadership took a backseat. Advani with his “think tank” took the steering wheel and BJP president Rajnath Singh along with the rest of the party rode pillion.

Many of them had assessed for long that there was no chance of regaining power in 2009 either. In fact, a former BJP leader Uma Bharti once told a group of journalists in 2002-03 that the party would be out of power for at least next 10 years. To be fair to Advani, he, being an elder statesman, became a rallying point and the others buried their hatchets. But now that the older generation of leaders like Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie are seeing that time has come for them to hang their gloves, they are naturally desperate and bitter.

This will also pass. After all five years are to pass by and after that they will be too old to take on Rahul Gandhi. On the other hand, Manmohan Singh will be too old for the Congress to project in the next elections. The BJP has some hope of regaining the confidence of its middle class voter if it has the right leader to match Rahul Gandhi.

Guwahati, June 14
Learning a lesson from the drubbing it had received in the just held parliamentary election, the regional Asom Gana Parishad today decided to launch a massive membership drive to infuse new blood to the party from grass root level.

The central executive committee of the regional party which is the main opposition party in Assam, made a thorough analysis of the reasons for its poor show in parliamentary polls in a marathon meeting held here today and underlined the need to strengthen the party’s base among the masses. The party won only one out of the total 14 LS seats in Assam though its ally BJP won four seats.

“The meeting in one of its resolution decided to launch a massive membership drive to enroll at least 20,000 new members in each of the 126 legislative assembly constituencies in the state. Further, the party set up will be reorganized from the grass root level to the top level. All the sister organizations of the party including the women and youth wings will be restructured at all level,” one of the party general secretary, Apurba Kumar Bhattacharrya said.

He also informed that the party’s central body also considered various aspects of the seat-sharing understanding it had with the BJP during the parliamentary election in order to keep the anti-Congress voted undivided. “As on date, the party has decided to stick to the understanding it has with the BJP till 2011 Assembly election,” he said.

The decision of the party’s top leadership to have an alliance with the BJP during the just concluded Parliamentary election did not go down well with the grass root workers in some of the constituencies and hence failed to enthuse party workers during the polls. The AGP’s proposed membership drive is also aimed at countering the similar drive launched by its arch rival Congress all over the state.

Hyderabad, June 14
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy has made out a strong case for Central assistance to “Arogyasri”, a health insurance scheme for the poor being implemented by the state government.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he requested him to take it up as a Centre-sponsored scheme in view of the wide acclaim it has been receiving

Arogyasri was seen as one of the success stories of the Congress government and contributed significantly to the ruling party’s return to power. Under the scheme, the poor families in the state are provided free medical treatment in government and select private hospitals up to a maximum of Rs two lakh.

Seeking Central financial assistance for the scheme, Reddy urged the Prime Minister to advise the Planning Commission to take it up as a Centre-sponsored programme on a 70:30 cost sharing basis.

At present, the state government is spending Rs 1,350 crore per year on the insurance scheme.

The Chief Minister requested the Prime Minister to depute a Central team to study the scheme in depth and explore the possibility of extending it across the country.

He pointed out that the scheme had won wide acclaim at Geneva on the sidelines of World Health Assembly organised by World Health Organisation (WHO).

Arogyasri was launched in April 2007 in three districts on a pilot basis and was soon extended throughout the state, covering 1.65 crore families under BPL category.

So far, more than three lakh patients were treated in hospitals at a cost of over Rs 900 crore. 

Kendrapara (Orissa), June 14
In a bid to thwart infiltration and threat from the sea route, the Centre will launch a comprehensive survey and issue multi-purpose identity cards to settlers in 97 coastal villagers of Orissa's Kendrapara district. The step is being taken after 26/11 and the exercise would be launched next month.

It was likely to be completed in January next year, official souces said. The coastal security project was being jointly implemented by the census directorate and the Union home department, the sources said. The survey, which will encompass 55 villages of Rajanagar tehsil and 41 villages of Mahakalpada tehsil, will be done in accordance with the strict guidelines of the Centre.

All people in the coastal areas, including those who are not residing on a permanent basis, foreigners and those from outside, will be included in the survey and around three lakh people will be issued the multi-purpose identity cards.

Rajanagar and Mahakalapada tehsils are widely regarded as the epicentre of unlawful settlement of Bangladeshis, the sources said adding that as per official estimates about 1,677 infiltrators were present in these areas. Unofficial figures are much higher at 50,000.

Among the officially enumerated foreign nationals, 1,551 Bangladeshis had been given “quit India” notice on January 15, 2005. But the deportation notice was put on hold following allegations of erroneous enumeration. — PTI 

Jaipur, June 14
Cutting across the party lines the political class of Jaipur seems to be getting united to get either IIT or IIM to the state capital.

The VS Vyas Committee set up by the government to recommend locations for IIT, IIM, Central University and a world-class university in Rajasthan turned a blind eye to Jaipur and opted other cities over it for setting up these prestigious institutions. However, the leaders of BJP as well as Congress have now made this a prestige issue and are in no mood to give up without fighting for Jaipur’s honour.

“The Centre will take a call on the issue and before it does so Jaipur MP Mahesh Joshi will represent the city and we will back him to the hilt,” said former BJP minister Kalicharan Saraf.

On the other hand, Joshi has set the ball rolling to take up the issue with the Centre. “I will soon be getting the draft of the Vyas panel report. I will first study it to find out reasons as to why Jaipur was left out while choosing locations for these institutions before raising the issue at the proper platform” he said.

The city residents too have hailed the move by the political leaders. “It’s high time that putting aside their political differences they unite on a single platform to get at least one of these prestigious institutions to the city. If IIMs could be set up in Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Lucknow in UP then why not in our state capital,” asks Rohit Sharma, a youth preparing for CAT here.

BRIEFLY

Shiney Ahuja held on rape charge
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja was today detained for questioning at a suburban police station here after his domestic help alleged that he had raped her. “The domestic help, who has been working at Ahuja’s residence in suburban Oshiwara, alleged that the actor had raped her today afternoon,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Niket Kaushik. “We have registered a FIR and called Ahuja to the police station for questioning in the matter to verify the facts,” he said. The house maid in her complaint has alleged that Ahuja raped her at his residence when they were alone, Kaushik said. — PTI

Four militants killed
IMPHAL: About four militants were killed in separate encounters in Manipur’s Chandel district, official sources said here on Sunday. Assam Rifles personnel of the 29th battalion in a search operation on Saturday at Bongli Hill area shot two militants. An Ak 47 rifle, a magazine, one 9 mm pistol and four hand grenades were recovered. In another encounter between militants and Assam Rifles personnel of 31th Battalion at Lokchao area in the same district on Saturday, two militants were killed, the sources said. — PTI