BJP asks Ram Jethmalani why he shouldn't be expelled from party

NEW DELHI: Moving a step forward on his suspension, BJP on Monday issued a show-cause notice to its Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani asking him to explain why he should not be expelled from the party for "anti-party" activities and indiscipline.

"The parliamentary board confirmed the decision of national president Nitin Gadkari to immediately suspend Ram Jethmalani for his indiscipline and anti-party activities. He has also been issued a notice on why he should not be expelled from the party for six years," BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting.

Kumar, however, said the issue of the statements made by its Lok Sabha MPs Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha against Gadkari and its leaders of the opposition in the two Houses of Parliament did not come up for discussion in the meeting. The two leaders have also demanded Gadkari's resignation. Shatrughan Sinha had also supported Jethmalani in demanding the resignation of Gadkari.

Only the parliamentary board, BJP's highest decision-making body, has the authority to expel a party MP or an MLA. In 2009, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh had been expelled without being show-caused even though he is a Lok Sabha MP when he wrote a book praising Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and holding Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel responsible for the Partition.

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

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President Obama Prepares for Cabinet Shuffle


Nov 26, 2012 6:45am







ap barack obama hillary clinton ll 120514 wblog President Obama Prepares for Cabinet Shuffle

Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo


As President Obama prepares for his second term, preparations have begun for the traditional shuffling of the Cabinet.


Top priority for the president: filling slots for those top officials heading — if not running — for the door: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner.


To replace Clinton, Democratic insiders suggest that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Susan Rice is the frontrunner, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also a viable candidate.


Rice has been harshly criticized by Republicans for the erroneous comments she made on Sunday news talk shows after the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, comments that were based on intelligence reports that falsely blamed the attack on a protest against an anti-Muslim video. When the president, during his recent press conference, offered a vociferous defense of Rice, many of those close to him began to suspect he was tipping his hand as to what he might decide.


To replace Geithner at Treasury, White House chief of staff Jack Lew is thought to have the inside track if he wants it, with other possibilities including Neal Wolin, the current deputy secretary of the Treasury and Lael Brainard, current under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.


Other informed sources suggest that there is consideration being given to a business/CEO type such as investor Roger Altman, former Time/Warner chair Richard Parsons, and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg.


Those are the two most pressing jobs to fill, with Clinton exhausted from a long stretch in government — eight years as first lady, eight as senator, and four as secretary of state — and the president having personally promised Geithner’s wife that he could leave as soon as possible after the election.


Any of the business/CEO types being discussed for treasury secretary could also serve as secretary of commerce, a position that for the Obama administration has proved as troublesome as the role of drummer in Spinal Tap. Jeff Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management & Budget, is said to be under consideration.


It’s too flip to refer to it as a consolation prize, but informed sources say that — with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also planning on leaving — Kerry could be offered the position secretary of defense if he wants it, though the Massachusetts senator has suggested he only wants State. Another option, Michelle Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense for Policy, would be the first female to serve in that position. There was some discussion of National Security Adviser Tom Donilon moving across the river, but it seems clear, sources say, that he’s staying where he is.


If Lew leaves to take the position at Treasury, some possible replacements for him as chief of staff include deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough or Vice President Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain. Tom Nides, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, has also been discussed.


President Obama’s senior adviser David Plouffe has also long discussed leaving the White House. There are many options to fill his shoes, including the elevation of communications director Dan Pfeiffer. Also possible: bringing back former press secretary Robert Gibbs, or former deputy chief of staff/campaign manager Jim Messina. Another option might be to bring in some of the people who were part of the messaging shop in the campaign — David Simus, who served as director of opinion research for the campaign, or Larry Grisolano, who did ads for campaign.


– Jake Tapper



SHOWS: World News







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Gaza damage to cost US$1.2b: Hamas spokesman






GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel's eight-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip has caused more than US$1.2 billion in direct and indirect damages, a spokesman for the Hamas government said on Sunday.

"The total cost of damages caused by the Israeli aggression is US$1.245 billion (960 million euros)," Taher al-Nunu told reporters in Gaza City.

He said direct damage caused by more than a week of Israeli aerial bombardment had cost US$545 million (420 million euros) while indirect damages added up to some US$700 million (540 million euros).

Nunu said the eight-day operation had completely destroyed 200 homes and partially damaged another 8,000.

Another 42 non-residential buildings, including the Hamas government headquarters, were also completely destroyed, he said.

Three mosques and a health centre were levelled, and hundreds of official buildings were also partially razed, Nunu said.

During the operation, the Israeli military said it hit more than 1,500 targets, including 19 command centres, 26 weapons manufacturing and storage facilities and "hundreds of underground rocket launchers" as well as "dozens" of longer-range rocket launchers.

Statistics provided by the Hamas-run health ministry show that between November 14-21, 166 Gazans were killed, most of them civilians, and another 1,235 people were wounded.

Of those killed, at least 43 were children and 13 women, the emergency services and rights groups said.

In Israel, rocket fire from Gaza killed six Israelis -- four civilians and two soldiers -- while another 240 people were injured, the military said.

- AFP/xq



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Cellphones reshape prostitution in India, complicate efforts to prevent AIDS

MUMBAI: Millions once bought sex in the narrow alleys of Kamathipura, a vast red-light district here. However, sex workers with inexpensive mobile phones are luring customers elsewhere, and that is endangering the astonishing progress India has made against AIDS.

Indeed, the recent closings of hundreds of ancient brothels, while something of an economic victory for sex workers, may one day cost them, and many others, their lives.

"The place where sex happens turns out to be an important HIV prevention point," said Saggurti Niranjan, programme associate of the Population Council. "And when we don't know where that is, we can't help stop the transmission."

Cellphones, those tiny gateways to modernity, have recently allowed sex workers to shed the shackles of brothel madams and strike out on their own. However, that independence has made sex workers far harder for government and safe-sex counselors to trace. And without the advice and free condoms those counselors provide, sex workers and their customers are returning to dangerous ways.

Studies show that sex workers who rely on cellphones are more susceptible to HIV because they are far less likely than their brothel-based peers to require their clients to wear condoms.

In interviews, sex workers said they had surrendered some control in the bedroom in exchange for far more control over their incomes.

"Now, I get the full cash in my hand before we start," said Neelan, a sex worker with four children whose side business in sex work is unknown to her husband and neighbors. (Neelan is a professional name, not her real one.)

"Earlier, if the customer got scared and didn't go all the way, the madam might not charge the full amount," she explained. "But if they back out now, I say that I have removed all my clothes and am going to keep the money."

India has been the world's most surprising AIDS success story. Though infections did not appear in India until 1986, many predicted the nation would soon become the epidemic's focal point. In 2002, the CIA's National Intelligence Council predicted that India would have as many as 25 million AIDS cases by 2010. Instead, India now has about 1.5 million.

An important reason the disease never took extensive hold in India is that most women here have fewer sexual partners than in many other developing countries. Just as important was an intensive effort underwritten by the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to target high-risk groups like sex workers, gay men and intravenous drug users.

However, the Gates Foundation is now largely ending its oversight and support for AIDS prevention in India, just as efforts directed at sex workers are becoming much more difficult. Experts say it is too early to identify how much HIV infections might rise.

"Nowadays, the mobility of sex workers is huge, and contacting them is very difficult," said Ashok Alexander, the former director in India of the Gates Foundation. "It's a totally different challenge, and the strategies will also have to change."

An example of the strategies that had been working can be found in Delhi's red-light district on Garstin Bastion Road near the old Delhi railway station, where brothels have thrived since the 16th century. A walk through dark alleys, past blind beggars and up narrow, steep and deeply worn stone staircases brings customers into brightly lighted rooms teeming with scores of women brushing each other's hair, trying on new dresses, eating snacks, performing the latest Bollywood dances, tending small children and disappearing into tiny bedrooms with nervous men who come out moments later buttoning their trousers.

A 2009 government survey found 2,000 sex workers at Garstin Bastion (also known as GB) Road who served about 8,000 men a day. The government estimated that if it could deliver as many as 320,000 free condoms each month and train dozens of sex workers to counsel safe-sex practices to their peers, AIDS infections could be significantly reduced. Instead of broadcasting safe-sex messages across the country — an expensive and inefficient strategy commonly employed in much of the world — it encircled Garstin Bastion with a firebreak of posters with messages like "Don't take a risk, use a condom" and "When a condom is in, risk is out."

Surprising many international AIDS experts, these and related tactics worked. Studies showed that condom use among clients of sex workers soared.

"To the credit of the Indian strategists, their focus on these high-risk groups paid off," said Dr Peter Piot, the former executive director of U.N.AIDS and now director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. A number of other countries, following India's example, have achieved impressive results over the past decade as well, according to the latest United Nations report, which was released last week.

However, now that mobile phones are untethering prostitution from brothels, those targeted measures are threatened. At the same time, the advent of cellphones seems to be expanding the sex marketplace — luring more women into part-time sex work and persuading more men to pay for sex. Cellphone-based massage and escort services are mushrooming across India.

"There may now be clients who may not have otherwise availed themselves of the services but do so now because it is easier and more private," said Suneeta Krishnan, a senior epidemiologist with Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina.

The changes have led to a steep drop in business on Delhi's Garstin Bastion Road and have nearly destroyed Mumbai's Kamathipura district, where brothels had thrived since the 18th century.

Champa, a wrinkled madam with silver toe rings, bangles on her wrists and henna-dyed hair, has for 50 years owned a brothel in a narrow lane here. But like many other industries where information technology has undermined the role of middlemen between buyers and sellers, Champa's business is withering.

"It's the end of Kamathipura," Champa said with a resigned wave as she squatted on the floor of her entryway.

She once had as many as 20 sex workers living in her nine-bedroom brothel; she now has three, she said. Worse, at least from her point of view, the women working for her collect their own fees and offer her just $2 a day to rent one of her tiny bedrooms. As recently as five years ago, Champa — she has just one name — collected $2 for every client served.

As Champa spoke, several garishly dressed young women walked through the brothel's tiny foyer to sweep and water the hard dirt floor just outside. The lane was teeming with laborers, uniformed schoolchildren, and veiled matrons. The sex workers soon settled onto benches and teased the men getting haircuts at a nearby outdoor barbershop.

There were once 75 brothels on this lane; now there are eight. Kamathipura had as many as 50,000 sex workers in the 1990s but now has fewer than 5,000, according to city officials and nongovernmental organizations.

Kamathipura's destruction is partly a tale of urban renewal. India's rapid development has turned former slums into sought-after addresses, and rising land values led many brothel owners to sell out.

But just as important has been the spread of cellphones into the hands of nearly three out of four Indians. Five years ago, cellphones were still a middle-class accouterment. Fierce competition led prices to plunge, and now even trash pickers and rickshaw drivers answer pocket phones.

But not all has changed. Vicious madams still exist, human trafficking is still rampant, village girls are still duped into the trade, and some brothels still thrive. Most sex workers are illiterate, come from lower castes and are poor. But cellphones have given them a measure of power they did not have before.

"I'm happy that mobile phones are so popular and that I have this opportunity," said Kushi, a mother who got into secret, part-time prostitution after she left her abusive and alcoholic husband. (Kushi is her work name.) She has three to four clients a week and charges each about $20, she said, compared with a typical price of $4 in cheap brothels.

"Cellphones allow the women to keep much more of their money," Niranjan of the Population Council said. "But they make HIV prevention programmes more challenging."

(Sruthi Gottipati contributed reporting in Mumbai and New Delhi.)

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

Read More..

New Congress: Fewer Moderates Make Deals Harder












When the next Congress cranks up in January, there will be more women, many new faces and 11 fewer tea party-backed House Republicans from the class of 2010 who sought a second term.



Overriding those changes, though, is a thinning of pragmatic, centrist veterans in both parties. Among those leaving are some of the Senate's most pragmatic lawmakers, nearly half the House's centrist Blue Dog Democrats and several moderate House Republicans.



That could leave the parties more polarized even as President Barack Obama and congressional leaders talk up the cooperation needed to tackle complex, vexing problems such as curbing deficits, revamping tax laws and culling savings from Medicare and other costly, popular programs.



"This movement away from the center, at a time when issues have to be resolved from the middle, makes it much more difficult to find solutions to major problems," said William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a private group advocating compromise.



In the Senate, moderate Scott Brown, R-Mass., lost to Democrat Elizabeth Warren, who will be one of the most liberal members. Another GOP moderate, Richard Lugar of Indiana, fell in the primary election. Two others, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Olympia Snowe of Maine, are retiring.





Moderate Democratic senators such as Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, James Webb of Virginia are leaving, as is Democratic-leaning independent Joe Lieberman.



While about half the incoming 12 Senate freshmen of both parties are moderates, new arrivals include tea party Republican Ted Cruz of Texas, conservative Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and liberals such as Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Hawaii's Mazie Hirono.



There's a similar pattern in the House, where 10 of the 24 Democratic Blue Dogs lost, are retiring or, in the case of Rep. Joe Donnelly, R-Ind., are moving to the Senate. That will further slash a centrist group that just a few years ago had more than 50 members, though some new freshmen might join.



Among Republicans, moderates like Reps. Judy Biggert of Illinois and New Hampshire's Charles Bass were defeated while others such as Reps. Jerry Lewis of California and Steven LaTourette of Ohio decided to retire.



"Congress seems to be going in the opposite direction of the country, just as the country is screaming for solutions to gridlock," said Democratic strategist Phil Singer.



Whether the changes are good is often in the eye of the beholder.



Seventy-one of the 83 House GOP freshmen of 2010 were re-elected Nov. 6, but 11 lost, including one of the group's highest profile members, conservative Rep. Allen West, R-Fla. Another faces a runoff in December.



"Some of the people who are the anti-government ideologues, some of them are gone," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "And that message has been rejected by the American people."



Sal Russo, strategist for the Tea Party Express, said such departures would be balanced by newly elected conservatives, including the Senate's Cruz and GOP Reps.-elect Ted Yoho of Florida and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.



"Pretty much everybody that ran in 2012 was talking about the economic woes we face, stopping excessive spending, controlling unsustainable debt," he said.





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Crisis over president's powers exposes Egypt divisions

CAIRO (Reuters) - Youths clashed with police in Cairo on Saturday as protests at new powers assumed by President Mohamed Mursi stretched into a second day, confronting Egypt with a crisis that has exposed the split between newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.


A handful of hardcore activists hurling rocks battled riot police in the streets near Tahrir Square, where several thousand protesters massed on Friday to demonstrate against a decree that has rallied opposition ranks against Mursi.


Following a day of violence in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez, the smell of teargas hung over the square, the heart of the uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power in February 2011.


More than 300 people were injured on Friday. Offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Mursi to power, were attacked in at least three cities.


Egypt's highest judicial authority said the decree marked an "unprecedented attack" on the independence of the judiciary, the state news agency reported.


Leftist, liberal and socialist parties have called for an open-ended sit-in with the aim of "toppling" the decree which has also drawn statements of concern from the United States and the European Union. A few dozen activists manning makeshift barricades kept traffic out of the square on Saturday.


Calling the decree "fascist and despotic", Mursi's critics called for a big protest on Tuesday against a move they say has revealed the autocratic impulses of a man jailed by Mubarak, who outlawed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.


"We are facing a historic moment in which we either complete our revolution or we abandon it to become prey for a group that has put its narrow party interests above the national interest," the liberal Dustour Party said in a statement.


Issued late on Thursday, the decree marks an effort by the Mursi administration to consolidate its influence after it successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August.


The decree reflects the Muslim Brotherhood's suspicion towards sections of a judiciary unreformed from Mubarak's days: it guards from judicial review decisions taken by Mursi until a new parliament is elected in a vote expected early next year.


It also shields the assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from a raft of legal challenges that have threatened the Islamist-dominated assembly with dissolution.


The Mursi administration has defended the decree on the grounds that it aims to speed up a protracted transition from Mubarak's rule to a new system of democratic government.


"It aims to sideline Mursi's enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution," said Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.


"We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and its getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down," Zarwan said.


"INTIFADA"


A central element of Egypt's transition, the drafting of the constitution has been plagued by divisions between Islamists and their more secular-minded opponents, nearly all of whom have withdrawn from the body writing the document.


Mursi's new powers allowed him to replace the prosecutor general - a Mubarak holdover who the new president had tried to replace in October only to kick up a storm of protest from the judiciary, which said he had exceeded his authorities.


At an emergency meeting called to discuss the decree, the Supreme Judicial Council, Egypt's highest judicial authority, urged "the president of the republic to distance this decree from everything that violates the judicial authority".


Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt's most widely read dailies, hailed Friday's protest as "The November 23 Intifada", invoking the Arabic word for uprising. "The people support the president's decisions," declared Freedom and Justice, the newspaper run by the Brotherhood's political party.


The ultraorthodox Salafi Islamist groups that have been pushing for tighter application of Islamic law in the new constitution have rallied behind the decree.


The Nour Party, one such group, stated its support for the Mursi decree. Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, which carried arms against the state in the 1990s, said it would save the revolution from what it described as remnants of the Mubarak regime.


Facing the biggest storm of criticism since he won the presidential election in June, Mursi addressed his supporters outside the presidential palace on Friday. He said opposition did not worry him, but it had to be "real and strong".


Candidates defeated by Mursi in the presidential vote joined the protests against his decision on Friday. Former Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa was photographed linking arms with leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, liberal Mohamed ElBaradei and others.


Mursi is now confronted with a domestic crisis just as his administration won international praise for mediating an end to the eight-day war between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.


"The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.


The European Union urged Mursi to respect the democratic process, while the United Nations expressed fears about human rights.


(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy and Reuters TV; Editing by Alison Williams)


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Egypt judges furious over Morsi's 'unprecedented attack'






CAIRO: Egyptian judges on Saturday slammed a decree by President Mohamed Morsi granting him sweeping powers as "an unprecedented attack" on the judiciary, and courts across two provinces announced a strike.

The constitutional declaration is "an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings," the Supreme Judicial Council said after an emergency meeting.

The council, which handles administrative affairs and judicial appointments, called on the president to remove "anything that touches the judiciary" from the declaration.

Meanwhile, the Judges Club of Alexandria announced "the suspension of work in all courts and prosecution administrations in the provinces of Alexandria and Beheira."

The Alexandria judges "will accept nothing less than the cancellation of (Morsi's decree)," which violates the principle of separation of power, club chief Mohammed Ezzat al-Agwa said.

In Cairo, a general assembly of judges was holding emergency talks to mull a response to the presidential decree.

Morsi's declaration -- which acts as a temporary charter -- allows him to issue any law or decree "to protect the revolution" that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year, with no decision or law subject to challenge in court.

He also sacked prosecutor general Abdel Meguid Mahmud, which had been a key demand of protesters.

In Cairo, a statement by some 20 "independent judges" said that while some of the decisions taken by the president were a response to popular demands, they were issued "at the expense of freedom and democracy."

Morsi also ordered the reopening of investigations into the deaths of some 850 protesters during the 2011 uprising, and hundreds more since.

In a statement, new prosecutor general Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah said that new "revolutionary courts" would be set up and could see Mubarak, his sons and his top security chiefs retried "should there be new evidence."

Mubarak and his interior minister were sentenced to life over the killing of the protesters, but six security chiefs were acquitted in the same case sparking nationwide outrage.

The ousted president's two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were acquitted on corruption charges but are facing new fraud charges.

Morsi's assumption of sweeping powers is seen as a blow to the pro-democracy movement that ousted Mubarak, but his backers say his move will cut back a turbulent and seeminly endless transition to democracy.

- AFP/fa



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Kejriwal's Aam Admi Party will strengthen democratic fabric, Congress says

CHANDIGARH: The Congress on Saturday played down launching of a political outfit by Arvind Kejriwal saying there were 1453 political parties registered in India and one more would strengthen the democratic fabric.

"If a person or group of people have decided to float a political party, it is their right," senior Congress leader and information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told reporters here.

"There are 1453 political parties registered with the Election Commission. So, if one more is added, this will only strengthen our democratic fabric," he said.

"The more the merrier," Tewari quipped when asked to comment on one more party "Aam Aadmi", floated by activist Kejriwal, coming into existence.

"The Aam Aadmi (common man) is synonymous with the Congress since 1885 when the party came into existence.

"Therefore, nobody can either hijack or skyjack or bicyclejack the intrinsic relationship between the Congress and the people of this country," Tewari said.

Kejriwal's party has been named 'Aam Aadmi Party' at a meeting of its founder-members in the national capital.

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