Posted on: 03-03-06 22:14:11
http://web.mid-day.com/news/city/2006/march/132196.htm
Abu Salem ki netagiri
By: Nishant A Bhuse
March 3, 2006
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Abu Salem now wants to become a neta. From the underworld, the extradited don wants to switch to politics. And he is eyeing a seat in the Uttar Pradesh legislature. According to his brother Abu Lais, Salem wants to contest the state elections in 2007.
“Main election ladna chahta hoon… aanewale vidhan sabha chunav mein,” Salem told his brother during a five-minute meeting earlier this week.
Aware of his fan following in his native district Azamgadh, Salem wants to stand for polls on home turf.
According to sources, Lais even consulted Ashok Sarogi, Salem’s lawyer, about his brother’s political ambition. Speaking to MiD DAY, Sarogi confirmed the news, adding that he gave his nod to Salem’s plans.
However, a number of legal issues have to be sorted out before the don can make his foray into politics.
Salem’s brother, however, was reluctant to say more. When contacted, he said, “Ha, hum log election ke bare mein soch rahe hain,” before hanging up.
Currently in judicial custody, Salem grabbed the headlines yesterday as his confessions to the CBI in the 1993 bomb blasts case was made public.
The deported don had said he delivered AK 56 rifles and ammunition to Sanjay Dutt at the actor’s residence just days before the Mumbai blasts.
Another example of an underworld figure wanting to join politics was Dawood Ibrahim’s extradited younger brother, Iqbal Kaskar. He was to file nomination papers from prison to contest elections from South Mumbai, but withdrew in the last minute.
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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....
"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"
