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Jyoti Basu passes away

Former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu’s body being taken to his residence from the hospital on Sunday afternoon
Marxist patriarch and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, who was battling for life in a hospital in Kolkata for the last fortnight, died on Sunday. “I have to give you the sad news that Jyoti Basu is no longer with us,” Biman Bose, the chairman of the Left Front coordination committee, told reporters around 1230 IST.
An emotional Bose said Jyoti Babu is no longer in this world.
Basu, 96, who had suffered multi-organ failure was on a temporary pacemaker since late Saturday night.
Basu’s personal physician Dr Ajit Kumar Maity said that the veteran leader breathed his last at 11:47 am at the AMRI Hospital where he was admitted with pneumonia on January 1.
He was put on a ventilator on January 6. Basu, who strode the political arena like a colossus for over six decades, is survived by son Chandan. His wife Kamal pre-deceased him four years ago. The Communist Party of India leader was the longest serving chief minister in Indian political history. A founder member of the CPI-M politburo from the days of its inception in 1964, Basu was regarded as many as the ‘cornerstone of Bengal politics.’

Born on July 8, 1914, in an upper middle class Bengali family in Kolkata, Basu’s father Nishikantha Basu was a doctor. After attaining school education from St Xavier’s Collegiate School and graduation from Presidency College Arts Faculty in Kolkata, Basu travelled to the United Kingdom to study law, where he was introduced to the Communist Party of Britain.

Basu returned to India in 1940, and after qualifying for the bar, he became a full-timer in the Communist Party of India. Basu was elected to the Bengal legislative assembly in 1946, contesting the railway constituency.

When the Communist Party of India split in 1964, Basu became one of the first nine members of the Politburo of the newly formed Communist Party of India-Marxist. In 1967 and 1969, Basu became deputy chief minister of West Bengal in the United Front government.

From June 21, 1977 to November 6, 2000, Basu served as the chief minister of West Bengal for the Left Front government. In 1996, Basu seemed all set to be the consensus leader of the United Front for the post of prime minister of India.

However, the CPI-M politburo decided not to participate in the government, and Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Deve Gowda instead became the Prime Minister.

Basu resigned from the chief ministership of West Bengal in 2000 for health reasons and was succeeded by fellow CPI-M politician Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. 

Source: rediff news
Jyoti Basu is a fan of Swami Vivekananda – Sri Sri Ravishankar

KCR's statement on Telangana

In an angry reaction to Centre’s backtracking on Telangana issue, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao tonight announced that MPs, MLAs and other elected representatives of the region will submit their resignations and a 48-hour bandh tomorrow.

“Chidambaram statement amounts to putting the Telangana issue on the backbruner. We have been betrayed once again by the state of the Home Minister.

“There is no clarity or time frame fixed. In the name of consensus will they take 150 years? How much time they are going to take (for creating Telangana)?” he told a press conference at the residence of Congress leader Jana Reddy and flanked by leaders from other parties. .
Source: PTI News

On the day Home Minister P. Chidambaram appealed for calm in Andhra Pradesh and said all stakeholders would be consulted on creating a Telangana state, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao Wednesday appealed to the cental government to immediately begin the constitutional process for forming the new state. He also said political consensus could never be achieved on the issue.
Addressing a meeting at the TRS office here hours before Chidambaram made his statement in New Delhi, Chandrasekhara Rao warned the government against making any statement that might provoke the people of Telangana.
“Already there is uproar in Telangana. Students, lawyers and others are coming out on the streets. We have been patient and calm. Don’t raise the emotions. Don’t play with the people of Telangana otherwise they will not keep quiet,” KCR, as Chandrasekhara Rao is known, added.
He also warned that all legislators from the region, irrespective of their party affiliations, would resign if the government backtracked on Telangana and reduce the Congress government to a minority.
KCR again warned that the people of Telangana were ready to lay down their lives to achieve their goal.
He said talks on moving a resolution in the assembly or achieving a political consensus would not help. “The political consensus can’t be arrived at even after 100 years because they (the Andhra and Rayalseema regions) will never agree to the formation of Telangana state,” he added.
KCR, whose 11-day hunger strike last month had prompted Chidambaram to make his Dec 9 statement on Telangana, said a resolution in the assembly was not required as the Indian constitution and various verdicts of Supreme Court were clear on creating new states.
He announced that a Joint Action Committee of legislators, MPs and other public representatives of Telangana, as also lawyers, students and others fighting for the new state would be formed to chalk out the future course of action.
Source: twocircles.net

Other update: Rosaiah’s hails Chidambaram’s statement.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah tonight welcomed Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement on the contentious Telangana statehood issue and said it should not be seen as either a victory or defeat for one region or the other.

Rosaiah called for withdrawal of all forms of agitations for and against Telangana and asked the MPs, MLAs and MLCs, who had resigned either favouring or opposing a new state, to retrace their steps.

He said the state government supported “each letter” of Chidambaram’s statement which has done “equal and appropriate justice to people of all regions of Andhra Pradesh,” Rosaiah told a press conference at the end of an emergency meeting of the state cabinet late this evening.
Source: PTI News

Telangana: Chidambaram' fresh statement

IT CAN WAIT: Home Minister P Chidambaram seeks consensus in Andhra Pradesh over Telangana.
The Central government on Wednesday said it wants to consider “all views” on the demand for a separate Telangana state and “peace and tranquility should be maintained” in Andhra Pradesh.
Home Minister P Chidambaram gave a short statement in New Delhi on Wednesday, effectively putting the demand for a separate Telangana state in abeyance. “At a meeting of all political parties on December 7 a consensus emerged on Telangana. The situation has altered now,” he said.

“Centre wants to take all views before coming to a decision. Peace and tranquility should be maintained,” he said.
Congress dumps it on Andhra leaders
The Congress said on Wednesday that Telangana was an old issue and it was for the collective political leadership of Andhra Pradesh to resolve the situation that has arisen due to regional divisions over its proposed statehood.
Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said it was for the “collective wisdom” of Andhra Pradesh leaders across the political spectrum to “sit down and form appropriate solution.”
Answering queries about divisions in its Andhra Pradesh unit on Telangana, Tiwari said that it was an old issue which has been grappled by “generations of leaders of the state.”
He refused to comment on the remarks of Home Minister P Chidambaram, made earlier this month, giving principled clearance to the demand for a separate Telangana state.
Faced with deep divisions in its ranks in the state, the Congress has been trying to come out with a compromise formula to bring down political temperatures. The Congress core group met Monday evening while senior leaders met party president Sonia Gandhi Wednesday to evolve an appropriate response.
Congress sources said that the meeting at Sonia Gandhi‘s residence was attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A. K. Antony, Chidambaram, Law Minister Veerapa Moily and Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president.

Source: IBN Live

Joe Biden, Barack Obama's vice president

US Presidential candidate Barack Obama has chosen Joe Biden as his vice president. Their names together ‘Obama Biden’ sound similar to ‘Osama Bin Laden‘, the most dreaded terrorist.


Joe Biden's photo
Joe Biden


Here is an email from Obama announcing his VP.

Friend —

I have some important news that I want to make official.

I’ve chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.

Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois — the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.

I’m excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can’t do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change.

Please let Joe know that you’re glad he’s part of our team. Share your personal welcome note and we’ll make sure he gets it:

http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe

Thanks for your support,

Barack

P.S. — Make sure to turn on your TV at 2:00 p.m. Central Time to join us or watch online at http://www.BarackObama.com.