Latest news with #MorarjiDesai
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Assistant commissioner directs strict implementation of residential school admission guidelines
Chikkamagaluru: Tarikere assistant commissioner KJ Kantharaju directed the officials concerned to take strict measures to admit 50% of the students selected by the Karnataka Examination Authority for class 6 in residential schools as per the new guidelines. The assistant commissioner directed the principals of Morarji Desai, Kittur Rani Chennamma, and Dr BR Ambedkar residential schools at a meeting in the city. Kantharaju said 50% of seats can be filled by children from special categories—children with more than 25% disability, children of HIV-affected parents, single-parent or orphaned children, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, children from micro and ultra-micro communities, children of soldiers and ex-servicemen, children displaced by govt schemes, and those who have passed 5th grade in SC/ST ashram residential schools. It was decided in the meeting to grant direct admission to children from the special categories without any examination, as per govt order. For the vacant seats in classes 7 and 8, admissions will be based on reservation, and a selection test will be conducted for this purpose. Residential school principals were instructed to verify and confirm the correct information and advise the sub-divisional officers. The assistant commissioner also directed ensuring student safety, cleanliness, and nutrition in all residential schools. Teachers and cooks in the institutions were warned that any negligence of duty due to political influence would result in disciplinary action. Assistant directors from the department of social welfare and principals from 18 residential schools in Tarikere, Kadur, and Narasimharajapura taluks participated in the meeting.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Surat cycling group keeps ardour alive with prizes
Surat: To keep their 'Surti mijaj' (Surti temperament) intact, a group started the Surat Riders Group in 2019. Their motto was to enjoy life through cycling. The group meets at Dumas every Sunday and sets off cycling after the national anthem is played near the statue of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai statue. The group also awards prizes each month to the three cyclists who log the most kilometres. All the prizes are related to cycling. Mehul Chaudhary, one of the founders, said: "We have added the words 'Assal Surti Mijaj' to our group's name as we believe in cycling and enjoying life while keeping Surti traditions intact. We have 55 members of ages ranging from 20 to 83 years. When we meet, all of us become 25 years old again. We work out hard on the cycle and have Surti food. We give away three prizes each month to the most prolific cyclists." The group has some rules. Members must log a minimum of 30km a day. The person with the most days of reaching this figure gets the first prize. The group believes punctuality is more important than the number of kilometres cycled. It includes businessmen, doctors, bankers, architects, teachers, engineers and builders as cyclists. They take on the responsibility of getting the prizes. "We mainly give cycling gear as prizes, which includes things like goggles, jerseys, helmets and other things. We also organize cycling tours for the group."
The Print
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Story behind ‘treason' charge against Morarji Desai & why Congress is reviving it to target Jaishankar
The purported incident dates back to Desai's tenure as the prime minister between 1977 and 1979, leading the Janata Party government formed in the aftermath of the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi. It was this flattery and friendship that had led Desai to reveal that India was aware of Pakistan's covert attempts at developing military nuclear capability, the book titled The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane had alleged. New Delhi: A 2007 book by a former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer B. Raman had claimed that to flatter India's Morarji Desai, Pakistan's General Zia-ul-Haq would ask, 'Excellency, how many times one should drink the urine in a day? Should it be the first urine of the morning or can it be any time of the day?' These allegations against Desai have now resurfaced, with India coming fresh out of a flare-up with Pakistan. In accusing External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar of doing something 'eerily similar to what Morarji did', Congress Kerala's X handle refers to this book in making these claims against the former prime minister, alleging that the aftermath of Desai's disclosure was that 'several RAW agents were captured, executed or vanished'. Raman's book does not speak of such repercussions. Responding to the allegations, Desai's great-grandson and national vice president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Advocate Madhukeshwar Desai points to the fact that Morarji Desai was India's first non-Congress prime minister and challenged Indira Gandhi multiple times. This, he asserts, 'remains a historical sore point for the Congress party, which has long treated the office of prime minister as the exclusive preserve of one family'. 'Any leader who emerges from outside that lineage—whether Morarji Desai, Lal Bahadur Shastri, P.V. Narasimha Rao, or even Manmohan Singh—inevitably finds their legacy either diminished, sidelined or tarnished by Congress leaders,' he told ThePrint. 'Treason' At the centre of this furore are Jaishankar's remarks about a 'message' by New Delhi to Islamabad at the 'start' of Operation Sindoor that it was targeting terrorist infrastructure, and not military bases. Citing these remarks, the Congress earlier this week alleged 'treason' on the part of the minister, alleging that he had acted as an 'informant' for Pakistan. The Ministry of External Affairs has called this 'misrepresentation of facts'. However, Congress media and publicity department chairperson Pawan Khera went on to draw comparisons, and recalled a 'history of such espionage involving Pakistan'. 'Turn back the pages of history and consider what Morarji Desai, who was made the PM by the Janata Party and Jana Sangh, did. Recorded history shows that on a telephone call with (Pakistan's military dictator) Zia-Ul-Haq, Desai had passed on information on RAW's infrastructure in Pakistan. That was the undoing of decades of work,' Khera was quoted as saying. 'What he did was a sin, a crime. What Jaishankar did is also a sin. And the PM's silence is a sin as well.' However, Madhukeshwar asserts that the comments are 'baseless and driven purely by political motives'. 'These allegations, revived from the misinterpretation of a 2007 book by a former R&AW officer, have never been substantiated by any credible evidence,' he said, adding that no formal inquiry or independent assessment has ever supported the notion that the former prime minister compromised Indian intelligence or national security. Also Read: Congress revives Morarji 'treason' charge to attack Jaishankar over Op Sindoor 'message' to Pakistan 'Indiscreet political leaders' While there isn't a lot of official documentation on the claim, the book by Raman, former head of R&AW's Counter-Terrorism Division, details the efforts taken by the agency's Science and Technology Division to establish details of Pakistan's clandestine military nuclear programme. This S&T Division had first discovered that Pakistan was secretly constructing a uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta, in addition to a plutonium reprocessing plant. This was done through 'brilliant analysis' of tit bits of technical intelligence collected by the monitoring division of the intelligence agency. According to Raman, Desai had told Zia that he was aware of Pakistan's clandestine attempts to develop nuclear capability in a conversation. 'Indiscreet political leaders are the unavoidable occupational hazards of the intelligence profession,' the book asserts. Commentators have claimed that this allegedly led to several of R&AW's assets in Pakistan being compromised. However, there does not seem to be any official documentation or inquiry on this. Desai often spoke of his attempts at maintaining friendly relations with General Zia. In his acceptance speech of Nishan-e-Pakistan—the country's highest civilian honour—in 1991, he mentions one such conversation. According to a newspaper report from the time, Desai had recalled that when he was the Prime Minister, he had told Zia: 'If you have any trouble, you come to me, and whenever I have any trouble, I shall come to you—we need not go to the army'. Nishan-e-Pakistan The 'Nishan-e-Pakistan' further muddled the conspiracy theories against Desai. The conferment of the award, which roughly means 'the ultimate symbol of Pakistan', was announced on 14 August, 1988—Pakistan's independence day. However, the award was kept in abeyance for several reasons—from the controversy it had thrown up in India, to President Zia's death in an aircrash days after the award was announced, according to reports from the time. Desai had recognised it as a gesture of goodwill towards the people of India by the people of Pakistan. However, it had drawn sharp reactions from the Congress at the time. A report by the The Indian Express from 17 August, 1988 talks about the All India Congress Committee-I opining that Desai's acceptance of the award was unconstitutional, referring to Article 18(2) of the Constitution, which says, 'No citizen of India shall accept any title from any foreign State'. Then AICC-I general secretary K.N. Singh and MP R.L. Bhatia had said that it was expected that Desal would reject the title 'with contempt it deserves', pointing out that the Pakistan president had been aiding terrorists in Punjab and indulging in hostility. 'Mr Singh and Mr Bhatia said that Mr Desai's acceptance of the title confirmed the 'suspicion' that the belated offer was linked with internal turmoil in Pakistan and the emergence once again of an opportunistic anti-Congress Janata type alliance in India,' the news report said. The award was formally conferred on Desai only in 1991 in a simple ceremony held in Bombay. Abdul Sattar, then Pakistani high commissioner to India, had said that the award was in recognition of Desai's contribution to promotion of good neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan. Also Read: Morarji Desai scolded Vajpayee for drinking alcohol. He was India's puritan PM 'Petty beyond belief' However, Desai's actions also found support. K.R. Malkani, the former editor of Organiser and a senior BJP and RSS leader, had written to The Times of India that Pakistan had 'honoured itself' in honouring Desai, and lauded Desai's foreign policy as 'a great success'. He had even written, 'We should hope we both trust more and more leaders on the other side of the Radcliffe Line.' This is documented in the book The People Next Door: The Curious History of India's Relations with Pakistan, authored by T.C.A. Raghavan, former high commissioner to Pakistan. An editorial in The Indian Express from 20 August, 1988, titled 'Petty beyond belief', had then called out the Congress's reaction to the award. It saw the award as a kind of 'tit-for-tat', speculating the reasons behind the conferment of the award. 'At worse, Gen Zia did not take kindly to the conferment on the Pakistani opposition leader, the late Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, of the Indian award of Bharat Ratna and sought only to pay New Delhi in kind,' it said, adding that the statement issued by Congress (I) leaders 'implicitly casting doubts on Mr Desai's patriotism is petty beyond belief'. Desai's great-grandson Madhukeshwar asserts that it was in recognition of his 'unwavering dedication to peace' that he was awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan. 'Morarji Bhai was a lifelong Gandhian, who believed deeply in truth, non-violence, and peaceful coexistence. His commitment to these values was reflected not only in his personal life, but also in his politics. His efforts to improve relations with Pakistan were reflective of this,' he told ThePrint. 'Far from being an indictment, this underscored his Gandhian statesmanship and his courageous pursuit of regional stability at a time when dialogue was politically unpopular. To twist this into an allegation of betrayal is deeply disingenuous.' He added that the contributions of leaders like Desai, 'who upheld democratic values, championed civil liberties, and governed with integrity, deserve respect, not cheap attacks'. 'CIA informant' However, this is not the only allegation against Desai. A 1983 book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh had called Desai a 'paid CIA informant'. The book, titled The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, had alleged that Desai was paid $20,000 a year by the Central Intelligence Agency for information, and was considered a valuable 'asset' to the US government during the administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Desai had called the allegations 'sheer madness' and a 'scandalous and malicious lie', and dragged Hersh to a US court. Reports from the time peg the lawsuit at anywhere between $5 million to $100 million suit for libel. In August 1983, he lost an attempt at the Bombay High Court to stop the distribution of the book in India, with the judge only asking distributors to add a disclaimer on the title page of each copy, mentioning that the distributors 'have no reason to believe that the statements (relating to Desai) are true'. Meanwhile, the US trial saw Desai's lawyers subpoenaing former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, who submitted that Desai was not a CIA agent, 'to the best of my knowledge'. According to archived news reports from the time, Hersh's lawyer had claimed that the journalist's claim was based on consistent information received from half-a-dozen 'high level' government sources. In the libel lawsuit, Desai had to show not only that Hersh's claims were false, but also that he either knew it to be false, or wrote it in reckless disregard for the truth. In October 1989, a jury in Chicago ruled in favour of Hersh, in a trial that lasted longer than six years. (Edited by Mannat Chugh) Also Read: Morarji Desai reversed the changes Indira Gandhi made to PMO. Starting with the name
Indian Express
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Decode Politics: BJP, Congress are both talking Nishan-e-Pakistan, Morarji Desai. Here is why
As the dust around Operation Sindoor settles and political rivals trade barbs over it, the highest civilian honour of Pakistan – the Nishan-e-Pakistan – has found itself at the centre of India's political discourse, with the Opposition Congress as well as the BJP referring to it to target their rivals. The Nishan-e-Pakistan is Pakistan's equivalent to the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award. It was established under the Decorations Act in the neighbouring country in 1957 and is conferred upon people for 'services of utmost distinction to Pakistan's national interest'. Apart from the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the country also constituted civilian awards like the Nishan-e-Imtiaz and the Tamgha-e-Pakistan under the Act. The awards are announced each year on August 14, Pakistan's Independence Day, and conferred upon the awardees on March 23, Pakistan Day. On Tuesday, the award was mentioned by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya to target Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. In a post on X featuring a cropped image overlapping Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir's face with Gandhi's, Malviya wrote, 'It is not surprising that Rahul Gandhi is speaking the language of Pakistan and its benefactors. He hasn't congratulated the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) on the flawless Operation Sindoor, which unmistakably showcases India's dominance. Instead, he repeatedly asks how many jets we lost – a question that has already been addressed in the DGMO briefings. Curiously, he hasn't once inquired about how many Pakistani jets were shot down during the conflict, or how many were destroyed while parked in their hangars when Indian forces pounded Pakistani air bases. What's next for Rahul Gandhi? The Nishan-e-Pakistan?' The Congress lashed out almost immediately, with the party's media and publicity incharge Pawan Khera pointing out that it was 'their leader' and India's first non-Congress Prime Minister (and Janata Party leader) Morarji Desai who is still the only Indian politician to have been bestowed the Pakistani honour. 'Some more people deserve Nishan-e-Pakistan, like Lal Krishna Advani, who called Jinnah a secular, and the person who went to eat biryani with Nawaz Sharif without being invited (referring to Modi),' Khera said. On Tuesday, AICC communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh, while slamming the government over sending all-party delegations to various parts of the world in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, also invoked the award. 'It was former Prime Minister Morarji Desai who got Pakistan's highest civilian honour Nishan-e-Pakistan. The BJP must recall that Desai's Cabinet had Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the External Affairs Minister,' Ramesh said. Desai took over as the PM in 1977, in the elections held after the Emergency in which the Congress led by Indira Gandhi was routed. He headed a government of the Janata Party, comprising many anti-Congress parties including the BJP (in its earlier avatar as the Jana Sangh). The internal contradictions within the Janata Party meant that the government proved short lived. In 1988, more than a decade after Desai demitted office and retired from public life, the Pakistan government awarded him the Nishan-e-Pakistan. Islamabad said it was choosing Desai for his 'anti-war stance' and the diplomatic measures he took during his tenure as PM (1977-1979) to normalise India-Pakistan relations in the aftermath of the 1971 war. As his External Affairs Minister, Vajpayee had visited Islamabad where he announced measures such as the stationing of journalists of the two countries in each other's capitals, more frequent exchange of visits, liberalisation of visa facilities and the general improvement of trade to each other's benefits. Addressing the press in Islamabad, Vajpayee said the question of Kashmir could be discussed by the two countries, in accordance with the Simla Agreement, only after the process of normalisation of relations between the two countries was complete. As PM, Desai also advocated normalising ties with China, provided that China returned all Indian territories captured during the 1962 War. After the Bhutto government announced the Nishan-e-Pakistan for him, the Congress urged Desai not to accept the award. However, despite reservations, Desai accepted the award in 1990. In 1991, Desai was conferred the Bharat Ratna, thus becoming the recipient of the highest civilian honour in both the countries. In his autobiography The Story of My Life, Desai wrote about a conversation with a Pakistani minister: 'The Pakistani foreign minister once told me that they didn't expect as much help from Nehru as from me for making peace between the two nations. The policy of threat and blackmail is wrong. I was clear in my mind that friendship can't be achieved by pampering our neighbours. Pampering would make them more aggressive.' In 2020, the Imran Khan government honoured Jammu and Kashmir separatist leader and Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani with the award for 'bolstering support for Pakistan' and for 'his decades-long commitment to the cause of Kashmir'. In 2023, the current Shehbaz Sharif government bestowed the honour on Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the spiritual head of the Dawoodi Bohras, for 'his focus on inter-faith peace, education and healthcare, and his efforts to promote cross-border engagement through social development'. There is a significant population of the Bohra community in Pakistan.
The Print
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Congress' default setting in national security matters—open mouth, put foot in
Congress' accusation of ex-PM and ex-Congressman Morarji Desai and EAM S Jaishankar for espionage is beyond cynical. It's unadulterated balderdash. Seeking a count of aircraft lost in Operation Sindoor is incredibly reckless at this time. Open mouth, put foot in—this seems to be Congress' default setting in national security matters. India-Pakistan new relations can't have Attari ceremony. It's a circus, not nationalism India-Pakistan flare-up catapulted bilateral relations into 'new normal'. This new world should have no place for the pantomime called Attari ceremony, suspended after Pahalgam attack. There's something to be learnt from our military leaders and foreign secretary, who briefed the nation with poise. Wagah circus is no substitute for nationalism.
