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Tension
prevails as accident breaks into communal clash |
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Congress
slams Narendra Modi on not appearing before SIT |
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Modi does not appear before SIT Sunday |
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AIMPLB
concerned over Indo-Israel relations, other Muslim issues |
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Minister meets Attorney General on quota issue |
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Muslim law board enhances its own women quota |
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Congress keen on quota for Muslims: AP CM
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Karnataka passes
cow slaughter ban bill |
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India's
women's bill inspiring for Africa: Ghana minister:
India's experiment with
gender equality in parliament through the women's
....Read
Full
No pressure from allies on women’s quota bill: Congress
More women in parliament will change face of Indian politics
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 Mohd Saquib becomes first Malegaonian to crack IIT entrance:
Ansari Mohd. Saquib
became first from Malegaon
....Read
Full
Facebook to open India office in Hyderabad |
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Sacred
cows and commonwealth games:
Leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly
BJP 's VK Malhotra and Congress Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit have
demonstrated the real colours of the rulers of the ‘modern and
democratic ....
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AIMPLB concerned over Indo-Israel relations, CV Bill, fake
encounters:
The Executve Committee (EC) of the All India Muslim Personal Law
Board (AIMPLB) in its 21st annual convention on Sunday expressed....Read
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 AIMPLB now more
representative, Rabey Nadvi president for third term:
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) in its 21st annual
convention held at Nadwatul Uloom .....Read
Full |
 Modi may not
depose before SIT Sunday:
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
is not likely to depose before the Special Investigation Team (SIT)
Sunday on ....Read
Full
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 Lok Sabha passes bill for better care of ancient monuments:
Protection of ancient monuments and
archaeological remains climbed a notch higher up the governm.....Read
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 Terrorized for Stoning Israeli Troops:
Al-Hasan Muhtaseb, 13,
and his brother Amir,10, were returning from their aunt’s house in
the West Bank town of Al-Khalil (Hebron)
.....Read
Full |
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 For Shahid
Azmi... The Martyr!:
No
sight would have been as brutal for a mother than to see her son
lying in a pool of blood , taking his last few breaths. The
.....Read
Full |
 2006 Malegaon blasts:
CBI charge sheet, a dereliction of duty? -- A review:
The CBI charge sheet
in the case of Malegaon 2006 bomb blasts is a faint
lackadaisical attempt in 75 odd
....Read
Full |
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 Over 32,000 widows,
97,000 orphans in Kashmir:
There are over 32,000 widows and 97,000 orphaned children in
violence-battered Jammu and Kashmir, a new study has found.....Read
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 Jewish settlements spark worldwide outrage:
International outrage over Israel’s policy of continued
settlement building in occupied territories grew on Saturday
with Palestinian .....Read
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U.S. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi heads to the floor to participate in the health care debate
(Photo: Alex
Brandon/AP)
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Washington:
The Democratic-controlled Congress handed President Barack Obama a
major legislative victory on Sunday night (Monday morning IST)
extending healthcare to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and
cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in
the century-long quest for near universal coverage.
Widely viewed as dead two months ago,
the Senate-passed Bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote, with
Republicans unanimous in opposition.
Congressional officials said they expected Obama to sign the Bill as
early as Tuesday and was expected to make a statement following the
vote.
Republicans hoped that by blocking the legislation, they would be
able to thwart Obama’s ambitious domestic agenda, including
immigration reform and climate change legislation.
While national healthcare has been a goal of presidents stretching
back decades, it has proved elusive, in part because self-reliance
and suspicion of a strong central government remain strong in the
U.S.
After more than a year of political combat — certain to persist into
the fall election campaign for control of Congress — debate on the
House floor fell along predictable lines.
“We will be joining those who established Social Security, Medicare
and now, tonight, health care for all Americans,” said Speaker Nancy
Pelosi before the vote, referring the government’s pension programme
and health insurance for the elderly established nearly 50 years
ago.
“This is the civil rights act of the 21st century,” added
Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the top-ranking black
member of the House.
Republicans readily agreed the Bill would affect everyone in
America, but warned repeatedly of the burden imposed by more than
$900 billion in tax increases and Medicare cuts combined.
“We have failed to listen to America,” said Representative John
Boehner, leader of a party that has vowed to carry the fight into
the fall’s midterm elections for control of Congress.
Earlier in the day, the House argued its way through a thicket of
Republican objections toward an evening vote on the Bill to extend
coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from
denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and
cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade.
A shouting band of protesters outside the Capitol dramatised their
opposition, and one man stood up in the House visitor’s gallery
shouting, “Kill the bill” before he was ushered out — evidence of
the passions the yearlong debate over health care has stirred.
Obama lobbied by phone from the White House, then took the crucial
step of issuing an executive order that satisfied a small group of
Democrats who demanded that no federal funds be used for elective
abortions.
Over and over, Democrats stressed the historic nature of the day.
The measure represents the biggest expansion of the social safety
net since Medicare and Medicaid were enacted in 1965 during
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration to provide
government-funded healthcare coverage to the elderly and poor.
“Health care isn’t only a civil right, it’s a moral issue,” said
Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy. He said his late father,
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, had worked his entire career for
nationwide healthcare, and President John F. Kennedy before him.
Obama has said often that presidents of both parties have tried
without success to achieve national health insurance, beginning with
Theodore Roosevelt early in the 20th century.
The 44th president’s quest to succeed where others have failed
seemed at a dead end two months ago, when Republicans won a special
election to fill Edward Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, and
with it, enough votes to prevent a final vote.
But the White House, Ms. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid soon
came up with a rescue plan that required the House to approve the
Senate-passed measure despite opposition to many of its provisions,
then have both chambers pass a fix-it measure incorporating numerous
changes.
Under the legislation, most Americans would be required to purchase
insurance, and face penalties if they refused. Much of the money in
the bill would be devoted to subsidies to help families at incomes
of up to $88,000 a year pay their premiums.
The legislation would also usher in a significant expansion of
Medicaid, the federal-state health care programme for the poor.
The insurance industry would come under new federal regulation. They
would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies,
from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and from
canceling policies when a policyholder becomes ill.
Parents would be able to keep older children on their coverage up to
age 26. A new high-risk pool would offer coverage to uninsured
people with medical problems until 2014, when the coverage expansion
goes into high gear.
Once enacted, the two Bills would create a series of so-called
“insurance exchanges” beginning in 2014 where self-employed people
and small businesses could pool together to shop for healthcare
coverage.
To pay for the changes, the legislation includes more than $400
billion in higher taxes over a decade, roughly half of it from a new
Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and
couples over $250,000.
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