Nitaqat fallout triggers rioting in Riyadh
Saudi authorities and migrant workers, mostly from east Africa, have clashed on Saturday in a southern district of Riyadh — the violence being attributed to the enforcement of the government’s Nitaqat policy geared towards expanding employment opportunities for Saudi nationals.
The Saudi daily Arab News is reporting that violence broke out when a group of men, angered by the Kingdom’s campaign against illegal expatriate workers, went on a rampage in Riyadh’s southern district of Manfouha on Saturday night. The area is mostly occupied by poor migrant workers, mainly from east Africa. Two people, including one Saudi national, were killed when riot police responded to attacks by expats with rocks, knives and sticks. Police fired shots in the air and used truncheons to disperse the large crowds. Another 68 people, including 28 Saudis and 40 foreigners were injured during the violence, which also led to 561 arrests.
The government has launched its drive to round up those who have been staying illegally following the expiry of a seven month amnesty that allowed expatriates, mostly in the blue collar category, to either shift jobs or leave the country, without paying a penalty. Under Saudi laws, those individuals who overstay the duration of their visas or work for someone else, other than their official sponsor, are considered illegal.
The seven month grace period had been provided on account of the displacement of expatriate workers that was caused by the enforcement of the Nitaqat policy, which demands that at least 10 per cent of the work force in any private enterprise, should be Saudi. Nearly four million expatriates, including one million Indians have managed to find new employers, and around a million have left the country.
Expatriates comprise around one-third of Saudi Arabia’s population of around 27 million.
The Saudis decided to introduce new labour laws to counter the possible fall-out in the Kingdom of the Arab Spring, where youth unemployment had become the major cause of political uprisings, which toppled many regimes in the region.
Observers say that authorities are trying to tighten their vigil, but in the past, a large number of migrants from neighbouring African countries have entered the Kingdom through a relatively porous Saudi-Yemen border. Since many have arrived without the required documents, they have found it difficult to either find new jobs, or manage a legal exit from the country during the amnesty period.
AFP is quoting the Ethiopian government as saying that arrangements were being made to repatriate citizens who had missed the amnesty deadline.
PM to skip CHOGM
Attendance not important if it is against people’s sentiments, says Congress leader
Bowing to political pressure, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) beginning on Friday in Colombo, highly placed government sources have said.
This came at the end of a day in which the government dropped ample hints that it was not necessary for the Prime Minister to attend every commonwealth conclave.
As etiquette demands that the hosts should be first informed about the decision, government officials declined to publicly announce who would represent India at the summit.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who is anyway going to Colombo mid-week, will therefore represent India at CHOGM; there will be no stopover at Jaffna, capital of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, where most of the alleged human rights abuses occurred in the final stages of the conflict in 2009.
Meanwhile, a senior Congress functionary stressed on Saturday that it was not important for the Prime Minister to attend CHOGM, especially if it went against the sentiments of a section of the Indian population — the people of Tamil Nadu, in this case. For the Congress, with a difficult election ahead in 2014, the goodwill of potential alliance partners is of paramount concern.
‘Horses-for-courses’
Diplomats pointed out that over the last two decades, an Indian Prime Minister had participated in five of 10 CHOGMs. On four occasions, a Central Minister led the Indian delegation and at the previous CHOGM at Perth, Vice-President Hamid Ansari had represented the country.
“What we have followed is an approach akin to horses-for-courses. We focus on what is required in terms of our national interest, international obligations and foreign policy priorities. You would observe from the diversity of participants in the 10 summit meetings that we have followed what suits our national interests on each occasion,” explained Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.
His colleague, Pavan Kapoor, pointed out that no CHOGM sees a cent-per-cent participation of all the invited Heads of Government. Mr. Akbaruddin provided a third justification — ever since India joined the Commonwealth, no Indian Prime Minister had attended more than two summits staged abroad. As Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh had participated in the Kampala (2007) and Port of Spain (2009) CHOGMs. “What we are trying to give is a perspective,” he offered.
Mr. Kapoor pointed out that the CHOGM process would begin on Monday with a meeting of senior officials followed by an interaction among Foreign Ministers. CHOGM, as is its tradition, will have deliberations from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. India had informed Colombo that senior diplomat Navtej Sarna and Mr. Kapoor will be at the officials’ meeting and Mr. Khurshid assisted by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh at the pre-CHOGM Ministerial.
Verdict on CBI formation stayed
Accused in sensational cases are seeking to exploit judgment: Supreme Court
: In a huge relief to the Union government and the CBI, the Supreme Court on Saturday stayed the Gauhati High Court verdict, which declared the premier investigating agency “unconstitutional,” saying the accused in “sensational cases” sought halting of criminal proceedings based on that judgment.
The stay came on an urgent petition filed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), nodal Ministry for the CBI. A Bench, headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, heard the appeal at an extraordinary hearing in his residence.
“There shall be a stay of operation of the final judgment and the impugned order dated November 6, 2013 passed by the Gauhati High Court,” said the Bench, which included Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
It rejected the objections raised by counsel for Navendra Kumar, on whose petition the High Court passed the verdict, that the DoPT was not authorised to file the special leave petition as it was not a party in the High Court.
“Respondent 1 [Mr. Kumar] is permitted to raise all objections in his proposed reply,” the Bench said in its order asking his lawyer L.S. Chaudhary, who accepted the notice, to file it within two weeks after which the Centre will respond with its rejoinder.
Posting further hearing to December 6, the Bench rejected the contention that the Centre’s plea was a “collusive petition” as, instead of the CBI and the Home Ministry, it was filed by the DoPT.
“The DoPT is an appropriate department. The CBI will file a separate appeal. We can’t dismiss the DoPT’s appeal in limine,” the Bench said taking note of Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati’s submission that the CBI and the Home Ministry would file separate appeals.
“You did not implead proper respondents before the High Court,” the Bench told Mr. Kumar’s lawyer. “We read in the newspapers that many people are seeking stay [of proceedings based on this judgment]. You have read that the two accused in two sensational cases [of the CBI] have sought stay of the trial. You file your objections. We will consider everything. Notice does not mean that we are rejecting your plea. We are concerned about all other cases [of the CBI],” it said.
IIT-M to assess strength of Pamban bridge
Centenary celebrations of bridge likely on February 24, 2014
The Southern Railway has awarded a consultancy project to the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras to assess the strength of Pamban rail bridge, India’s first cantilever bridge, completing 100 years on February 24, 2014, and suggest the need for a new bridge, G.Narayanan, Additional General Manager, Southern Railway has said.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, Mr.Narayanan who was here to discuss the arrangements for the centenary celebrations of the world famous bridge said besides assessing the strength of the bridge, the IIT–Madras experts would suggest whether to build a new bride adjacent to the existing bridge with a split span (Scherzarspan) for navigation.
Northeastern States plead inability to roll out food law
Centre deputes K.V. Thomas for urgent consultations with them
A majority of States in the northeast have conveyed to the Central government that it is not “practical” for them to roll out the United Progressive Alliance’s “game-changer” food security law for lack of resources, manpower and infrastructure.
Alarmed at the admitted ill-preparedness of these States to implement the food law, the Centre has deputed Union Food Minister K.V. Thomas to hold urgent consultations with them. The Minister is flying down to Guwahati on Monday with a high-level team of officials and has convened a two-day meeting with the Food Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.
No door delivery
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram have candidly told the Central government that it is not possible for them to make door delivery at fair price shops as they do not have the resources or manpower. Nagaland has said that it is not practical for it to do door delivery due to the “topography” of the State. Tripura plans to introduce mobile vans. Only Sikkim said it had opened 25 godowns to store foodgrains for the public distribution system. Under the new system, States have to create intermediary points for storing four months’ of foodgrain stocks.
All the seven States and Sikkim have demanded more foodgrains allocation as they have “negligible” local production of cereals. The government is bound by the Act to provide subsidised wheat or rice or coarse cereals to 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban population. Only identified beneficiaries are eligible to receive 5 kg of rice or wheat or coarse cereal at Rs. 3, Rs. 2 and Re 1 per kg every month.
Based on their offtake in the last three years, but for Manipur, the northeastern States will tend to lose their allocation under the Act. But the Centre has given an assurance in Parliament that it will not cut the allocation of any State for three years.
Implementation
left to States
The Food Ministry has pointed out that under the new law, implementation of the programme is with the State governments through local self-government bodies, which must be strengthened. The States have to evolve a proper criterion and mechanism to identify the beneficiaries. They have to set up grievance redress bodies and vigilance committees at district and State levels.
It is incumbent upon States to computerise the PDS with digitisation of database and computerisation of the supply chain for implementation of the Act. So far only Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand have indicated their readiness to implement the law. Poll-bound Delhi has said it will do it in phases.
Exercise Malabar scaled down
At least a few in the strategic community resent the Indian defence establishment’s stance in scaling down Exercise Malabar, the annual India-U.S. naval interaction, whose at-sea segment now under way on India’s eastern seaboard is a shadow of the previous editions.
The ongoing edition is indisputably the weakest, with just a guided missile destroyer of the U.S. Navy, with a few helicopters to boot, operating alongside two frontline Indian warships — the stealth frigate INS Shivalik and the destroyer INS Ranvijay — besides a few soon-to-be phased out Tu-142 long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
In contrast, the U.S. Navy last year fielded the super-carrier USS Carl Vinson, a destroyer, a cruiser, a supply vessel, a submarine and a P-3C Orion patrol aircraft and India mobilised at least five frontline platforms, besides a fleet tanker.
“The beauty of the Malabar series was that we [the Indian Navy] got so much exposure to super carriers and nuclear submarines operated by the world’s biggest naval force. We have benefitted immensely from the exercise,” said the former Navy Chief Admiral (retired), Sureesh Mehta, who was at the helm when the exercise faced flak from India’s Left parties.
Taking exception to the scale-back, Admiral Mehta said multilateralism had a vital role to play in the present strategic environment, and the magnitude and complexity of the event should be enhanced. “Our Navy periodically exercises with many naval forces, be it the British, the French, the Russian, the Japanese or the American, but large-scale multilateral exercises are more complex and therefore needed. We are not going to align with anybody. But it is important for us to learn from those operating more advanced platforms. As for the willingness of other navies to operate with us, countries like the U.S. and Japan go out on a limb to hold exercises with us in the region.”
Admiral Mehta said Australia and Japan would still be ready to take part in the Malabar series if invited, as “strategic submission,” fearing Chinese outrage, wouldn’t augur well for the country.
The former diplomat, M.K. Bhadrakumar, said it was only right for India to do some course correction in respect of Exercise Malabar, as it had been overhyped. There was no question of India distancing itself from the U.S., which promised to bend over backwards to facilitate critical technology transfer to India and with which India held, by far, the largest number of military interactions.
Citing the Chinese reaction to India’s attempt to forge a naval-power quadrilateral using the exercise, he said change of governments in Japan and Australia rendered the move impractical. Australia’s calibrated response to China, its largest trading partner and contributor to economic growth, pre-empted the possibility. While it was legitimate for India to hold military exercises with other countries, if it stemmed from a containment strategy towards China, it would be unsustainable and antithetical to our traditions, he said.
On the part of the U.S., in the wake of its pronounced policy of ‘strategic balance’ in the region, it needed to maintain a certain distance with India, as Pakistan was a key ally, giving it critical logistics support in AfPak.
Requests for response from the Indian and U.S. Navies went unheeded.
This year, U.S. has deployed just a guided missile destroyer and
India, two ships
Kushan, Gupta era pottery discovered
ASI unearths rare pieces at a dilapidated fort in Unnao, U.P.
The Archaeological Survey of India has unearthed rare pieces of pottery dating back to the Kushan and Gupta periods in the ongoing excavation at the dilapidated fort of Raja Ram Baksh Singh at Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to The Hindu here on Thursday, ASI Additional Director-General D. R. Mani said: “We have managed to prove that a kingdom existed in Unnao about 2,000 years ago. The discovery points to the tradition prevailing in North India and epitomises the cultural heritage of Ganga-Jamuna.”
Dr. Mani has been at the centre of many discoveries of archaeological sites across the country. Shedding light on the findings, ASI Director (Archaeology) Syed Jamal Hasan said red pottery has been discovered. “What we have discovered is similar to the kulhars (handle-less terracotta cups), which we find after every 10 km even now. These are not national treasures but minor antiquities. But we have even stumbled upon black slipped ware and Northern blade polish ware.”
According to renowned archaeologist D. S. Sharma, the pottery highlights the fact that “2,000 years of habitation existed at this archeologically-significant site.”
“Though the ASI is not blowing its trumpet on the discoveries, it has, in fact, unravelled an ancient site. It has led to the discovery of bangles made of a mixture of mud and glass which date back to the Gupta period. These bangles are similar to those found in the Indus Valley Civilisation.”
ASI found bangles similar to those in the Indus Valley Civilisation
Archaeologists say the find proves the kingdom existed 2,000 years ago
Vrindavani Vastra: Gogoi to move British Museum
The Assam government has decided to move the authorities of the British Museum to arrange for an exhibition of the Vrindavani Vastra in London to enable Assamese living there to have a look at the unique tapestry.
Vrindavani Vastra is a rare drape woven by skilled Assamese weavers in the 16th century under the supervision of the medieval Vaishnavite saint, social reformer and creative genius Srimanta Sankardeva and his chief disciple Madhavdeva. It depicts scenes from Lord Krishna’s childhood home of Vrindavan.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who visited the British Museum on November 5 to have a look at the tapestry, also announced on Saturday that the government would organise Assam Day in London and request the authorities of the museum to exhibit the drape during the proposed event.
Mr. Gogoi said the Curator-South and South East Asia Department of the museum, T. Richard Blurton, had informed him earlier that the Vrindavani Vastra piece was picked up by a journalist of The Times , London, from Tibet and donated to the museum.
Mr. Blurton is scheduled to arrive in the State shortly for a visit to the Majuli river-island and other places.
The government has planned to organise a special programme on Vrindavani Vastra, including screening of a video film and exhibition of photographs of the rich tapestry during Mr. Blurton’s visit.
Asked if the government would move the museum to return the drape to Assam, Mr. Gogoi said that his government had no such plan as the museum authorities would never agree to such a proposal.
Mr. Gogoi also said it would not have been possible for the State to preserve the tapestry the way it had been preserved in the British Museum.
The drape was picked up by a journalist from The Times in Tibet and donated to the museum
World powers fail to seal Iran nuclear deal
The five United Nation veto powers and Germany failed to agree on an initial nuclear deal with Iran that would have asked for mutual concessions, after three days of high-level talks in Geneva.
“A lot of concrete progress has been made, but some differences remain,” said Catherine Ashton, chief negotiator for the group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany.
The issue of stopping construction of a plutonium-producing plant was one of the key sticking points, according to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
A new round of talks to clinch a temporary deal on halting parts of Iran’s nuclear programme in return for suspension of some sanctions was scheduled for November 20-21 in Geneva.
“Our goal continues to be a comprehensive solution to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.
The planned agreement fell through after intensive negotiations led by foreign ministers and other senior officials from all involved countries.
The talks included lengthy meetings between two leaders whose countries officially have no diplomatic relations: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry said talks were taking time because longstanding distrust between Iran and the West needed to be overcome.
But he also warned that the talks could not last forever. “The clock is ticking,” he said.
Since Iran’s covert nuclear programme came to light 10 years ago, the six powers, known as the P5+1 or E3+3, have been trying to negotiate a halt of Tehran’s atomic activities, out of fear that they are part of a nuclear weapons programme.
Iran has been stressing that it only needs the technology to make electricity and for other civilian uses.
In the deal discussed this week in Geneva, the group aimed to halt Iran’s current efforts to enrich uranium to 20 per cent.
The six countries are concerned that such material can easily be used in a nuclear warhead, while Iranian leaders insist the uranium will only fuel a research reactor.
Fabius told France Inter radio that the French delegation insisted Tehran halt construction of a new reactor at Arak, which would produce plutonium that could be used in nuclear warheads.
Various media reports suggested that France’s hardline stance prevented an agreement.
But Kerry backed Fabius on the Arak issue and told reporters that it must be addressed as part of any sort of agreement.
Iran’s Zarif avoided criticising the French. “I think we expect all different members of the E3+3 to have their views,” he said.
Zarif said he was “not disappointed at all” by the lack of an agreement and was hoping for a deal at the next round of talks.
Iran has been demanding that embargoes be lifted on oil exports and the banking sector, and it would especially like to see those sanctions suspended that most directly affect the general public.
Western officials had described the prospective deal as a first set of confidence-building steps to be implemented for a limited time to pave the way to a more comprehensive agreement.
The diplomatic drive has opened a rift between the US and Israel, which is convinced that Iran is seeking atomic weapons that endanger Israel’s existence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out Friday at the group of six for planning a deal that would not completely stop Iran’s atomic programme. He made clear that his country would stick to its option of attacking Iranian nuclear sites, should diplomatic efforts fail.
Kerry said the US would keep protecting Israel, but he also stressed that all efforts must be made to deal with Iran through talks.
10,000 feared dead as typhoon Haiyan hits Philippines
As many as 10,000 people are believed to have died in one Philippine city alone when one of the worst storms on record sent giant sea waves, washing away homes, schools and airport buildings, officials said on Sunday. Ferocious winds ravaged several central islands, burying people under tons of debris and leaving corpses hanging from trees.
Regional Police Chief Elmer Soria said there were about 10,000 deaths in the province, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor’s figure was based on reports from village officials in areas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed on Friday. Tacloban is the Leyte provincial capital of 200,000 people and the biggest city on Leyte Island.
On Samar Island, which is facing Tacloban, Leo Dacaynos of the provincial disaster office said on Sunday that 300 people were confirmed dead in Basey town and another 2,000 are missing.
There are still other towns on Samar that have not been reached, he said, and appealed for food and water. Power was knocked out and there was no cellphone signal, making communication possible only by radio.
