Rajkot, 17 May 2012

Gujarat BJP has appointed 8 district prabharis (guardians) and two city prabharis in Saurashtra. Following is the list of new prabharis, as per the statement released by the party from Rajkot yesterday.

Vijay Rupani – Rajkot city
Ramesh Mungra – Rajkot district
Nitin Bharadwaj – Amreli district
Ramesh Rupapara – Kutch district
Mansukh Mandavia – Junagadh district
Bharat Gajipara – Porbandar district
IK Jadeja – Bhavnagar district
Jagdish Patel – Surendranagar district
Jitubhai Vaghani – Jamnagar city
Jayantibhai Kavadia – Jamnagar district

Ahmedabad, 17 May 2012

So who represent Gujarat in BJP’s national executive meeting? Who are those from the party in Gujarat, suitable to get invitation of the national executive meeting? Go ahead and read all the names.

Former President of Gujarat BJP and Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat Shri Purushottam Rupala attends the national executive in capacity of national vice president of party.

Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Vadodara MP Balkrishna Shukla attend the meeting as member.

Anandiben Patel and Amit Shah attend the meeting as special invitees in national executive.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi is invited as he is the Chief Minister of a state being ruled by the party. He tops the permanent invitees list.

Keshubhai Patel is invited to national executive, as an Ex-Chief Minister.

According to BJP constitution, all BJP Chief Ministers and ex Chief Ministers are permanent invitees. Keshubhai is one of the 8 former Chief Ministers who are in a list of permanent invitees. Former Chief Ministers Sunder Lal Patwa, Madan Lal Khurana, Nityanand Swami, Kailash Joshi, Babulal Gaur, BC Khanduri, BS Yediurappa are other former CMs in the list.

Amit Thaker, former president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha is also in the list of permenent invitees. His name is mentioned in ‘others’ category.

Bhavnagar, 17 May 2012

Dr. D.R.Korat, Vice Chancellor of Maharaja Krushnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University has announced an open competition for making of a new logo of the university as per its new name. Shri Korat will be giving Rs 11,111 prize to the winning entry from his own pocket.

On the occasion of 100th birth anniversary of former ruler of Bhavnagar Shri Krushnakumarsinhji, the Bhavnagar University was recently renamed as Maharaja Krushnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University by Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi.A bill in this regard was passed in the Gujarat assembly in last budget session.

Form distribution for logo-making will take place at Shantilal Shah pharmacy college between 18-25 May during 11am-1pm. Black and white print of proposed logo, a CD with the image of new logo in coral draw format and a short note in support of the elements depicted in the logo will have to be submitted by 31st of May. More details can be obtained from Professor Himal Pandya (98790-49553).

Ahmedabad, 17 May 2012

“I have seen and made many ‘reel’ life heroes in my career, but now I am going to meet a real life hero in Ahmedabad”, said director Mahesh Bhatt in his candlelight support to IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt after the Gujarat Police arrested the latter for coercing and intimidating his assistant to testify in a manner favourable to Bhatt.

Bhatt was already facing judicial processes for several acts of abuse and indiscipline. The police atrocities in Jam Jodhpur in 1990, for example, as well as falsely planting narcotic drugs in a hotel room in Gujarat showing it to be occupied by a lawyer (who was, in fact, in Rajasthan) and then abducting him were well-known instances.

Yet, for those few days in 2011 when the Anna wave had captured the nation’s fancy painting all governments with the same brush, Bhatt was the crusader to many – the real life Singham – who stood up against the mighty Narendra Modi establishment.

This myth was busted beginning with the Amicus Curiae’s report in which Mr. Ramchandran concluded that he had no doubts that Bhatt had been actively strategizing with those who would gain mileage from his testimony. The SIT has documented this “strategizing” at length in addition to several lies and frauds hitherto unknown in his overall attempts at nailing Modi for the 2002 riots.

The very fact that Bhatt was in touch with IPS officer Rahul Sharma (who was in possession of call records during the riot days) to ascertain his movements on February 27 2002 in order to support his presence at the meeting at the CM’s residence indicates the patent falsehood in his statements.

As late as in December 2011, Bhatt produced two faxes dated February 27 and 28 of 2002 which contain alerts to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to the fact that (a) the decision to bring dead bodies of kar sevaks to Ahmedabad would have communal repercussions which required preventive action; and (b) the lives of Mr. Jafri and other family members were in imminent danger.

Yesterday, Bhatt has written a letter to the SIT chief contesting the SIT findings that the two faxes were fabricated.

However, several facts belie his contrived attempts to contest the SIT’s findings.

Firstly, not only could Bhatt not produce the originals or office copies of the said faxes before the SIT, Bhatt did not refer to them in seven opportunities he had in the previous nine years to either the Nanavati Mehta Commission, SIT, Mr. R.B. Sreekumar who officially requested all State IB officers to produce any material they had in relation to the 2002 riots, Bhatt’s own affidavit before the Supreme Court, or, most importantly, the Amicus Curiae.

Further, some striking aspects highlighted by the SIT on the fabrication of the fax messages are as under:

(i) The dispatch numbers typed on both fax messages [(i) D-2/2-COM/100/2002; and (ii) D-2/2-COM/174/2002] are actually the numbers contained on other unrelated official letters between official agencies of the Gujarat Government and the Central Government.

(ii) All dispatch numbers on messages sent by the State IB were hand-written whereas only Bhatt’s faxes contained typed numbers.

(iii) The initials of two senior police officers, one of whom was Bhatt’s Head of Department, have been forged.

Given that the Amicus Curiae report, which concluded that offences could be made out against Modi based solely on Bhatt’s testimony, was submitted to the Supreme Court in July 2011, Mr. Ramchandran had no knowledge of this fabrication which has come to light only since December 2011.

It is anybody’s guess what Mr. Ramchandran’s conclusion would have been had he been privy to SIT’s investigation of the two faxes.

Tarachand Yadav, the lone individual who has supported Bhatt’s version of events, testified that Bhatt had reached Police Bhavan at 9:00 AM on February 28. Bhatt also testified that he briefed the Head of his Department at 10:00 AM and attended a meeting at Modi’s residence at 10:30 AM in which Bhatt alleged that Modi did not want to rush for requisitioning the Army.

At 11:00 AM, he stated that he went to the DGP’s chamber and found the two ministers – Late Ashok Bhatt and IK Jadeja – seated in his chamber. All these events occurred in Gandhinagar.

This version was picked up by many sections of the media as clinching evidence to incriminate Modi. However, when Bhatt’s mobile phone records were examined by the SIT, his location until 10:57 AM was in Ahmedabad city. Even if he had departed that very minute, he could not have reached Gandhinagar prior to 11:30 AM.

Bhatt called both his assistant officers – K.D. Panth and Shailesh Raval – informing them that they should
testify that they accompanied Bhatt to Modi’s residence on February 27, 2002. While Panth has filed a complaint that Bhatt detained him compelling him to sign an affidavit containing false facts, Raval outright rejected Bhatt’s demands complaining to the SIT fearing reprisal from Bhatt.

Even Yadav, his lone supporter, has admitted that he went to Bhatt’s residence before his statement to the SIT. Moreover, when Yadav was being interrogated in the SIT office, Bhatt repeatedly kept calling him on his mobile phone.

It is anybody’s guess what may have been Bhatt’s reason for such frantic calls to Yadav.

Several email exchanges have provided evidence of senior functionaries of Gujarat Congress providing him “packages”, Blackberry and legal assistance. The Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, Mr. Shaktisinh Gohil, gave Bhatt pointers on allegations he could make against SIT members!

Notably, Bhatt has accepted email exchanges saying they were on the “right side of the law”.

Furthermore, while his acts of persuading NGOs and other entities to influence the Amicus Curiae and the Supreme Court with the help of media were well-known, in one instance, Bhatt arranged with a journalist to prepare an affidavit to corroborate his version and suggested the journalist to use the “media trick” of leaking the affidavit which would force the Amicus Curiae and Supreme Court to take note of the same.

The SIT closure report elaborates several other instances which seriously discredit Bhatt and his version of what happened in February 2002.

Ever since all these facts about Bhatt have been documented in the SIT closure report, the media has almost instantaneously stopped glorifying the man who, until recently, held the “key to the truth”. Criticisms of, and disagreements with, the opinions and conclusions made by the SIT is one thing, disputing facts and evidence is quite another.

Realizing that Bhatt is now a spent force, the New Delhi media clique has, as I have pointed out earlier , shifted its focus to either misinterpreting the SIT report or making wild allegations against the SIT members to continue its trial against Modi. It is only a matter of time before Bhatt is discarded even by politicians who, in Ramchandran’s words, stood to “gain mileage from his testimony”.

The only place where the ‘whistleblower’ Bhatt has a chance to be glamourized as a “real life hero” is in a movie scripted by the filmmaker Bhatt. While the movie may well generate financial riches, it will do little to transmute fiction into fact. The masquerade has been lifted for good.

(Author can be reached at @kartikeyatanna on Twitter)

Related articles:

Is Sanjiv Bhatt a spiderman? How SIT punctured his 28-2-2002 story

A journalist of top daily drafted Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavit:SIT report

Truth and justice has prevailed, show moral courage to accept it: Gujarat govt spokesperson on SIT report (Video)

CM’s 27.02.2002 meeting: How SIT exposes lies of Sanjiv Bhatt?

Read all stories on Sanjiv Bhatt from our archive here, read all stories on SIT report from our archive here.

New Delhi, 16 May 2012

Two PSUs of Gujarat have found place in the list of 10 most profit-making State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs) in India, released by Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Praful Patel today.

In the coveted list of 10 most profit-making State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs) during 2007-08, Gujarat govt owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation is on third rank, while Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation is on seventh position.

State-owned Orissa Mining Corp. topped the coveted list of 10 most profit-making State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs) during 2007-08, while Delhi Jal Board was the biggest loss-making firm during the period, according to a government survey.

Orissa Mining Corp earned net profit of Rs 1,052 crore during the 2007-08, while Delhi Jal Board registered loss of Rs 1,567 crore during the period, the National Survey on State-Level Public Enterprises 2007-08 revealed.

Orissa-based PSU Grid Corp of Orissa ranked second among the top 10 profit-making state PSEs, followed by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, Orissa Power Generation Corp and A.P. Industrial Infrastructure Corp.

Power-producing Maharashtra State Power Generation Co was ranked sixth, while Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation was seventh.

Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co, Karnataka Power Corporation and A.P. Power Generation Corp were at eighth, ninth and tenth position, respectively.

Among other firms making losses were Delhi Transport Corporation, Bihar State Electricity Board and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam.

Out of the 849 operating SLPEs, 579 enterprises furnished information on the performance of their respective units and information for another 46 units was obtained from the C&AG Reports for completing the survey.

During 2007-08, 357 SLPEs earned profits, while about 190 such units incurred losses.

In terms of net profit of profit-making SLPEs, Orissa led the states with a net profit of Rs 2,232 crore, followed by Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka during the period under review.

Among the losses-making state PSUs, Delhi topped the chart with a loss of Rs 2,916 crore, followed by Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

About the survey report

The National Survey on State Level Public Enterprises Survey (2007-08) published by the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Government of India on the performance of State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs) was released to-day in New Delhi by Shri Praful Patel, the Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

This is first Survey based on information furnished on-line by the SLPEs in the different States and Union Territories to the Department of Public Enterprises, Government of India. There were 849 operating SLPEs in the country as on 31st March, 2008, out of which 579 SLPEs furnished information on-line for the year 2007-08.

The total financial investment of and turnover in the 579 SLPEs stood at ` 3,29,079 crores and `2,39,453 crores respectively in 2007-08. The overall net profit of the 579 SLPEs stood at ` 865 crores during 2007-08. In terms of employment, the 579 SLPEs employed a total workforce of 14,13,646 employees during the year.

The National Survey on SLPEs (2007-08) has been published in two volumes as described below:

→ Volume-I (of the Survey) is in 2 parts. While Part-I dwells on the performance of SLPEs at the all India level, Part-II dwells on State-wise analysis of performance of SLPEs.

→ Volume-II (of the Survey) provides details on SLPEs for the 3 year period of 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08.

The Minister will forward this report personally to all States and Union Territories for further action on the issues raised in the Report.

Gandhinagar/New Jersey, 16 May 2012

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will talk to Gujaratis and other Indians settled in the United States of America (USA) and Canada in a live show through satellite from Gandhinagar on Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 6.30 a.m. Indian Standard Time (IST).

In all, 12 cities in USA and Canada will be simultaneously connected through videoconferencing. As per USA and Canada local time it will be on Saturday, May 19 around 8.30 p.m. in those countries.

It is in response to longstanding invitation of Gujaratis settled there that Mr. Modi will be talk to them about the progress of Gujarat in various sectors. The live talk can also be viewed on www.gujaratindia.com.

The main function has been held at Shri Swaminarayan temple, 200 Penhom Ave, Secaucus, NJ 07094.

Ahmedabad, 16 May 2012

In recently held Gujarati film award function at Ahmedabad’s Jayshankar Sundari hall, Gujarati film super-star Naresh Kanodia and his brother Mahesh Kanodia rocked the stage with Gujarati film songs.

Veteran Gujarati film-star and former BJP MLA Naresh Kanodia has been awarded recently by Dada Saheb Falke academy in Mumbai, while Mahesh Kanodia, the brother of Naresh Kanodia is former member of parliament of BJP. He can sing in both male and female voices.

During their song and dance sequence, Naresh and Mahesh called all Gujarati film heroines present in the hall on stage. As many as six heroines ranging from Roma Manek to Mamta Soni responded and went to the stage to join the dance. A video of these moments is presented above.

New Delhi, 16 May 2012

The rupee fell to new record low of 54.56 to the dollar before closing slightly better at 54.50 despite RBI’s intervention, raising widespread concerns about the health of the economy.

Earlier in the day, the currency recovered to 54.24/25 against the greenback compared to the 54.46 record low hit earlier in session, as stocks pared some losses and the euro posted a modest recovery.

Forex dealers attributed the fall to strong capital outflows in tune with the fall in local as well as global stocks where investors are increasingly avoiding riskier assets and moving to the new safe haven – the US dollar.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the domestic unit opened sharply lower at 54.06 and mostly remained bearish. Intra-day it plunged to all time low of 54.56, surpassing the previous all-time low of 54.30 recorded in December last year.

Allaying fears, the Finance Ministry said there was no need to panic. “Rupee is falling due to global factors. There is no need to panic. The fall might continue till there is a certainty about the eurozone recovery. RBI is keeping a watch on it,” a finance ministry official said.

Dealers said RBI intervened at various levels in the market today but its efforts proved futile.

Meanwhile, RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty today said the RBI intervenes in the forex market only to curb volatility and not the slide. “We don’t intervene to arrest the rupee fall, we intervene only to arrest the volatility, you must understand the difference,” he said.

As the rupee touched a record low, Opposition questioned the government in the Lok Sabha on the steps being taken to tackle the situation. “The crisis in our economy is growing. Are we heading towards 1991?” senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said during the Zero Hour.

Ahmedabad, 16 May 2012

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated Devka Vidyapith founded by noted commentator Rameshbhai Oza ‘Bhaishri’ on a 40-bigha plot at his birthplace at Devka near Rajula on the Saurashtra coast.

The new campus based on rich values on the lines of ancient gurukul system of education has been developed by Ramesh Bhaishri to payback his indebtness to the society in collaboration with donors from nearby areas.

Speaking on the occasion after seeking the blessings, Mr. Modi said that education is the base of all round development of a nation. He said that Mahatma Gandhi too realized the importance of Indian system of education, to instill patriotism free from indoctrination by British system to set up Gujarat Vidyapith. Great freedom fighters like late Shyamaji Krishna Verma had also expressed such views.

The Chief Minister said that Gujarat has now charted a new path for human resources development. He said that he derived immense pleasure by the sight of daughters born in poor families going to school, possible through campaigns like Girls Education and School Enrolment.

Ramesh Bhaishri thanked the donors for their contribution to the project. He wished children in the vidyapith learn culture, attain success in life and serve the nation. He lauded the leadership qualities of Mr. Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister.

Ahmedabad, 16 May 2012

Ahmedabad’s rickshaw drivers will go on one-day strike this Friday protesting yet another hike in CNG price by Adani.

According to Shri Mukund Bhatt, who heads the protest programme of rickshaw drivers, Adani Gas has increased CNG prices 29 times in last 8 years. He said the original per Kg price of CNG was Rs 18 earlier, but now it is Rs 53.

“While Adani is only source of getting CNG in Ahmedabad, and usage of CNG is made mandatory by the state government, where should the rickshaw operators go?” Shri Mukund Bhatt asked adding that in one of the meetings with the state government in past, the promise was delivered that CNG gas price will be kept steady for next five years, but the promise has not been kept.

Surat, 16 May 2012

Surat Urban Development Authority(SUDA) has taken a decision to allow construction of 70-meter/23-floor high buildings on outer ring road. The decision has been taken in SUDA’s board meeting.

The state government has already permitted construction of 70-meter high buildings when it comes to hotels or hospitals, but SUDA has sanctioned 70-meter height for all kinds of buildings in 500 meter area on both sides of outer ring road.

At present only 40-meter/13-floor buildings are permitted in Surat.

Seven years back, SUDA first took the decision for construction of 300-ft outer ring road. The state government okayed this project on 30th March, 2011. A notification in this regard was also issued in recent past following which SUDA sent a zone transfer proposal to the state government.

Recently the Urban development department of state government sent a note to SUDA, after which a board meeting of SUDA decided to give upto 0.6 FSI to 5000 sqm plots. Also paid FSI upto 4 will be given as per the decision taken in SUDA meeting. SUDA will take 40% sum of Jantri for paid FSI. SUDA intends to collect construction cost of outer ring road through paid FSI.

A Monday board meeting of SUDA also decided to develop Kamrej Taluka’s Umbhel lake as a tourist point. A decision for six-lane Surat-Kamrej and Surat-Kadodara roads at a cost of Rs 10 crore was also taken in this meeting.