Newsreel: 10.11.02

• As China shows it is headed firmly West and begins a conclave formally opening its doors to the new Capitalist rich, India is looking...

• As China shows it is headed firmly West and begins a conclave formally opening its doors to the new Capitalist rich, India is looking East and watching closely. In a major change in foreign policy, PM A.B. Vajpayee says for the first time that there is ‘‘healthy competition’’ between India and China. All along, India has said its ‘Look East’ policy had nothing to do with any threat from its giant neighbour. Earlier, India offers to set up a free trade area with ASEAN over the next 10 years a day after China signs up for the same.

• The only thing Farooq Abdullah walked away with from the J-K debacle was praise for conducting the state’s most free and fair polls. That is tainted this week as CEC J.M. Lyngdoh tells a TV channel that ‘‘a few people, basically of the police’’ had tried to sabotage the polls in favour of the NC. Farooq threatens to sue.

• If you thought UP’s ongoing theatrics were the only drama in politics this week, you were perhaps not watching Punjab. Elections to the Sikh temporal body SGPC in Amritsar, scheduled for November 12, are seeing pre-dawn raids and rescues from under the nose of the police. Parkash Singh Badal’s party SAD right now controls the SGPC and obviously Amarinder Singh doesn’t like that. So Akali workers are being rounded up across the state. The ones Badal has managed to free are being looked after at his farmhouse in Haryana.

NEXT WEEK

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• Govt may call an all-party meeting to clear pending bills before Parliament begins
• CEC goes to Gujarat
• Yashwant Sinha goes to Seoul for the second ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies. May have a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
• The third and fourth ODI against West Indies in Gujarat. The Ashes Test is due to get over on Monday.

• Away from all this, reports came that at least 17 people have died of starvation in the recent past in Madhya Pradesh. The victims were the same as the ones in Rajasthan, the Sahariya tribals. When the Opposition raises the issue in the Assembly, the minister concerned can’t answer a single question.

• NCERT’s latest: The just out Class XI history book documents the duel between ‘Left’ and ‘Sangh’ historians as part of ‘‘developing historigraphy’’. Perhaps it needs an annexure. For right now, teachers from the Left and Right have found common cause, against a UGC idea to have professors on contract to bring greater accountability to the profession. The idea, they say, is ‘‘unconstitutional’’, ‘‘irrational’’, ‘‘unnecessary’’, ‘‘misguided’’.

• It never got the films or the marquee names but IFFI could at least claim that the awards it gave away were pure gold. No more. The Finance Ministry has asked the I&B to cut down the content of gold used in medals presented as Swarna Kamals during IFFI, the national awards handed out each other and the Dadasaheb Phalke award.

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• Acute energy crisis forces Maharashtra to do the politically unthinkable and agree to buy power from Dabhol, but NALCO is derailed, officially. With protests mounting, the Department of Disinvestment asks its advisor, ABN-Amro, to tell potential bidders of NALCO to put plans to conduct due diligence on hold.

• The encounter halo it bathed itself in on Diwali eve begins to wear thin for the Delhi Police as questions mount on where the two alleged terrorists came from and whether they ever attacked the cops. An” eyewitness” says he saw no encounter, just policemen shooting at the men, 30-35 times. The NHRC seeks a report.

• Their vehement protests notwithstanding, all the UN Security Council members fall in line when the US-sponsored resolution on Iraq finally comes to vote on Friday. In a 15-0 vote, including Syria, the resolution gives Iraq last chance to disarm or face the consequences. Saddam gets a week to decide.

• Steel City Jamshedpur sees Indian nerves weakening this week as the Caribbeans keep theirs for a thrilling victory in the first One-Day International tie. India were lucky earlier to draw the third and final Test at Eden Gardens. In other news, the Aussies make a great start in the opening Ashes Test.