Sonia sacks PCC chief in Karnataka

Krishna, a fellow-Vokkaliga of former prime minister Deve Gowda, gets three vice-presidents, Chandre Gowda, Rehman Khan and H Vishwanath while Kaujalji, a former Speaker, is the treasurer. The campaign committee is loaded with heavyweights like C K Jaffer Sharief, B Shankaranand, Margaret Alva, Chandrasekhara Murthy, R L Jalappa, S Bangarappa, Veerappa Moily and Dharam Singh.

Others in the committee areRajasekhara Murthy, who was in the running for the PCC chief’s post, Mallikarjuna Kharge, H K Patel, K H Ranganath, D K Naicker, V Krishna Rao, K Mallanna, H Hanumanthappa, Shiv Shankarappa, M B Patil, Made Gowda, Chandra Prabha Urs, I G Sanadi, Rani Satheesh, T N Narasimha Murthy, K H Muniappa, Aziz Sait, G Puttaswamy Gowda, Manorama Madhavraj, G Ramakrishna and Basavaraj Patel Anwari.

Sonia has apparently told the new team to get cracking as she sees a chance for the Congress to return to power in the state after two spells of Janata Dal rule, under Deve Gowda and J H Patel.

Meanwhile, newly-appointed Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang had a marathon five-hour meeting with Sonia at 10, Janpath, easily one of the longest she ever had with a state party leader, in which the names of Gamang’s ministers were cleared. The Cabinet expansion is slated for Monday, when Parliament commences its Budget session.

The CWC is slated to meet that day followed by a CPP meeting the next morning in which Sonia islikely to indicate which line the party must take on President’s Rule in Bihar and also whether the Congress must work for the toppling of the BJP-led government in the current session itself.

Gamang, who was here for the NDC meeting, also called on President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani. The new CM has already announced he would review all agreements signed by his predecessor J B Patnaik with MNCs but clarified today that it was only to ensure that proper rehabilitation of tribals would be undertaken in each project.

Gamang said Patnaik was not at fault for the killings of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons. “In Orissa, there is no difference on caste, creed and religion. Something erupts suddenly and we have to ensure that such things are not repeated,” he said.

In an unrelated but important development, the Congress today asked the Centre to review its decision to grant a visa to Salman Rushdie in the “larger interests of thecountry”. Issuing a statement to this effect, the party’s head of the minority cell, Arjun Singh, a champion of Muslim sentiments, said even at this stage, the Government should have wider consultations on an issue which outraged the feelings of a very large section of Muslims in India and other countries.

The minorities are greatly concerned by many events taking place in the country and the cavalier and irresponsible attitude of the BJP government, the statement said. The latest act is the granting of visa to Rushdie, Singh added.

In another statement, Sonia today condemned the killings of Kashmiris by militants in Rajouri district of J&K and asked the Government to ensure protection to the citizens. At least 20 people were gunned down by militants in three separate incidents yesterday.