Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!remus.rutgers.edu!gaddam From: gaddam@remus.rutgers.edu (Surekha Reddy Gaddam) Newsgroups: misc.news.southasia Subject: News ( May 18 ) Message-ID: Date: 19 May 91 14:19:42 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 84 Approved: gaddam@remus.rutgers.edu News: (May 18) ========================================================================== From Ajai Banerjee: ajax@leland.Stanford.EDU Organization: AIR, Stanford University Compiled from India West, Times of India and IBN news ========================================================================== ELECTIONS: In these elections, the Election Commission will enforce a new law which enables them to order repoll in an entire constituency if there is sufficient evidence of malpractices. The earlier laws permitted repoll only at the level of individual booths. The new law was enforced in the Meham by-elections. The EC will also use a computer system designed by the National Informatics Center to monitor election trends. It will continuously monitor the counting trends in constituencies and identify suspicious circumstances like over 90% votes for a single party. It is hoped that this system will help in identifying these malpractices before the results are declared, as in the past there were many cases of returning officers not reporting malpractices. The death roll in pre-election clashes has crossed 80, with most of the casualties coming from Bihar and Punjab. A few key contests: Amethi: Rajiv Gandhi(Cong) vs Ravindra Pratap Singh(BJP) vs Mohammed Naeem(JD) (R.P. Singh is the same person who defeated Sanjay Gandhi in 1977) New Delhi:L.K.Advani(BJP) vs Rajesh Khanna(Cong) (Advani is also contesting from Gandhinagar) Fatehpur:V.P.Singh(JD) vs H.K.Shastri(Cong) Bhopal:M.A.K.Pataudi(Cong) vs Swami Agnivesh (JD) In Karnataka, the JD and SJD have finally come to an agreement for sharing seats. An unusual situation prevails in Badagara (Kerala) where the Congress, BJP and Muslim League are jointly supporting an independent candidate opposing K.P.Unnikrishnan (JD). TERRORISM As earlier reported at least 11 were killed in a 2-day gun battle at Rattal near Amritsar. the dead included 7 militants and 4 security personnel including a DIG. As many as 4000 troops and paramilitary forces were involved. One possible reason for this large deployment was the presence of G.S. Manochhal who is one of the most wanted militants. He was able to escape. In a Vancouver court, I.S.Reyat was found guilty of conspiring to murder 2 persons in a bomb explosion at Tokyo airport. He has not yet been sentenced. There is strong circumstantial evidence that the persons behind the Tokyo blast were also responsible for the crash of an Air-India plane in which 329 were killed. It is a rather complicated story, but details can be found in the following books: The Death of Air India 182, by Salim Jiwa. The Sorrow and the Terror, by Clark Blaise and Bharati Mukherjee. PAKISTAN The chief of the army staff stated that there will not be any war between India and Pakistan in the near future. 9 were killed in a bomb explosion in a clinic in Rawalpindi. It was owned by a JKLF leader, who blamed Indian agents. STATISTICAL TRIVIA Some results from the 1990 US census: Asian Indians in California: ~160,000, a 176% increase since 1980 In the 9 Bay Area counties: ~53,000, up 188% In Santa Clara County (which includes Silicon Valley):~20,200, up 256% Cities with large numbers of desis include San Jose(~10,700) and Fremont (~5,600) The total population of California is about 29.76 million, so desis are a little over 0.5% of the total. MISCELLANY Deepti Naval and Prakash Jha are divorced. A documentary "Life and Death of a Dynasty" will be shown on PBS on or around May 25. It covers the three PMs of the Nehru-Gandhi family. CRICKET The West Indies have commenced their full tour of England. They lost their opening match against the Duchess of Norfolk's XI, which was captained by Haryana won the Ranji Trophy for the first time, defeating Bombay by only 2 runs. If readmitted, they may play one Test at Lord's in 1992 after the England-Pak series is over. End of News ==============================================================================