asian voice

30th January to 5th February 2010VOL 38. ISSUE 38 80pLet noble thoughts come to us from every side

VOICEFIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE

30th January to 5th February 2010VOL 38. ISSUE 38 80pLet noble thoughts come to us from every side

VOICEFIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE Special Issue

BollyCats

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SEE INSIDE ....

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With this

week's

Asian

Voice,

all paid

subscribers

will receive

a copy of our free

Wedding Special

supplement

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So the date is fixed and

you are going to be the

main attraction for the

whole wedding! Wow and Oh

my God! All eyes fixed on you?

That calls for extra cautious

make up and perfect styling of

wedding costumes. Well is it

not given that your outfit is

going to be the most checked

out and commented upon? Of

course it's that one chance in a

life time when you can get

away being a complete bling

bling. So take up girl, enjoy the

opportunity to be breath taker

and be the talk of the town!

Colour

Indian bridal fashion comes in

a variety of colours most com-

monly red, pink and

green. However over

recent times brides

have also experimented

with mint, magenta and

even golds. Bridal fash-

ion in India utilises a

vast array of fabrics and

cloths including silks,

crepe, kengi and many

others. The outfits

themselves are designed

very traditional to ultra

designer all dependant

upon the brides person-

al choice.More and more

designs are entering the

bridal market these are

exciting times as brides strive

for individuality on this the

most important day of their

lives.

Style

Usually the pure Indian wed-

dings are a mix of either

Lahengas or Sarees as the

main costume for the bride. A

renowned designer from India

Raghavendra Rathore states,

lahengas look great for Indian

weddings. There is a consisten-

cy of silhouette as well. The

kali concept is still big and the

embroidery is definitely evolv-

ing. We are moving away from

tiny, intricate works to bolder

motifs.There are two types of

lahengas. The heavy wedding

lahenga and the light lahenga

for other ceremonies.

For a sangeet, colour

should be bright and attention

grabbing, with a focus on

vibrant hued ethnic outfits. A

motif that occurs in the bride's

dress may be echoed in the

scarf or buttons of the groom's

outfit. The same design can be

interpreted both in masculine

and feminine way.

The current trend inclines

towards velvet lahengas with

very heavy embroidery in the

Nizami style. It may look the

perfect, but it takes about half

a year to make and also try and

pick something simpler, lighter

and well within in your

budget.

Old is Gold

The must have

wedding jew-

elleries are

straight out of

the history

pages. Brides are

kicking in old-

style with

ancient wedding

designs. Revival

of heritage jew-

ellery ever since

the movie Jodha

Akbar has set a

new trend.

Replicas of cer-

tain kinds of neck-

laces like long haar,

or Hyderbadi

chandabaali or

R a j a s t h a n i

haslis are

b e c o m -i n gp o p -

ular.Royal jew-

ellery worn in

the Mughal era

and Rajput

pieces are the inspi-

ration. You obviously can;'t

get the actual antique piece,

but replicas do magic! Get

south sea pearls, polki (uncut

diamonds) and jadau style

jewellery to replace Basra

pearls or antique jewelleries.

New charms

Unusual pieces like armlets,

chain kamarpattas to go

around the waist, jhommars

(pieces on one side of the head

like Umrao Jaan) are becoming

popular. Pick up small nose

rings, jadau anklets and very

delicate maang-tikkas.

Diamonds are woman's

best friend. Whether small

studs or chandelier earrings or

a cocktail ring, diamonds rule!

What to buy

For brides to be, two sets of

jewellery are the current trend.

Each set is a complete package

with neck- lace, bangles, earrings, anklets

and tikkas. Use heavy jadau

and polki. Keep your jewellery

chunky and ethnic.30th of

January

1948

70% voting inLankan prez poll

India celebrates R-Dayamidst tight security

South Korean President chief

guest at the ceremony

A blinding mist did madea difference, yet NewDelhi, the capital ofIndia celebrated theRepublic day of thecountry with fervor, gai-ety and enthusiasm.Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh leadthe nation in payinghomage to the martyrs at

the Amar Jawan Jyoti atIndia Gate. Tight securi-ty arrangements wereevident in view of theterror threats.

The tricolour wasunfurled, nationalanthem played as per thetraditions soon after thearrival of the dignitaries.

Indian soldiers at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi

Polling in Sri Lanka’spresidential electionended on Tuesday by andlarge peacefully with aturnout of more than 70per cent as heavy securitywas deployed to preventviolence.

Election observersreported sporadic inci-dents of violence andintimidation but said theydid not disrupt overallpolling.

Given the high stakesinvolved for the incum-bent President, MahindaRajapaksa, seeking a sec-ond term, two years aheadof his first tenure, and the

opposition consensusnominee and his mainopponent, retired ArmyChief General Sarath

Fonseka, the polling hasbeen remarkably peaceful.

The polling whichbegan at 7 am concluded at

4 pm. Reports reaching theElection Commission andthe independent NGOsmonitoring the electionindicated a great deal ofenthusiasm among voters.

At the presidentialpolls in 2005, the thenPrime Minister MahindaRajapaksa, who contestedon the United PartyFreedom Allliance (UPFA)ticket, obtained 4,887,162votes (50.29 per cent) andthe United National Party(UNP) candidate andOpposition Leader RanilWickremesinghe secured4,706,366 votes (47.43%).

Supporters of Gen. Sarath Fonseka cheer at the end

of the presidential elections in Colombo

Continued on page 22Continued on page 22

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 20102 www.abplgroup.com

People! The Grosvenor HouseBallroom was the venuefor the wedding of Amritand Ratna last Saturday.Amrit is the son of Dr.and Mrs Lamba fromEdgware, North London.A fun time was had byall.

! Congratulations tothe Kansagra clan on thebirth of their first grand-child - a son for Perryand grandson forMukeshbhai from Kenya.The little boy is to benamed Aditiya-Vikram.He looks as chubby ashis Dad.

! Shadow ImmigrationMinister Damian Green,MP for Ashford has gothis DNA back. The MPhad been arrested lastyear of the great leak out-rage.

He is also one of the veryfew to manage to win theargument over whetherthe police could keep hisDNA.

ONE ON ONEKeith Vaz MP with

Dr. Ahmad Al DubayanDirector General of the Islamic Cultural Central

Dr. Ahmad Al Dubayan was born in SaudiArabia. He completed a Master's Degree inLinguistics from the University ImamMohammad Bin Saud in Riyadh and later lec-tured in Riyadh at Imam University and at theUniversity of Indonesia in Jakarta.

He completed his PhD in Germany at RuhrUniversity in Philology, Linguistics, IslamicStudies and English Studies. His is fluent inseveral languages and has published threebooks. His is most famous for his papers oneducational issues, linguistic studies, organisa-tion management and different cultural issues.Since 2001, he has worked internationally andhas taken the post of Director General of theIslamic Cultural Centre, London.

What inspired you torun the Islamic CulturalCentre?

The challenge of beingassociated with andheading an organisationconsisting of culturallydiverse MuslimCommunities. A deepinspiration comes alsofrom serving all sectorsof society as a whole,which is Interesting andgives values to my life.

What do you think is thebiggest issue facingMuslims in the UKtoday?

Lack of proper educationand based on this lack ofopportunities in engag-ing with the wider

British community with-out fearing the loss ofthe faith identity. One ofthe biggest issues is thebad image of Islamfuelled by some wrongbehaviour of Muslimsand the unfair media.

What do you think hasbeen the biggest worldissue of the last year?

I believe that conflictsand wars around us inthe world which causethe loss of millions oflives and also effect theenvironment. We aredestroying this beautifulworld, which God gaveus, by our callousnessand wars, overexploita-tion, pollution anddesertification! It is a

duty of every nation andevery single human beingto make the world a betterliving environment.

If you were the PrimeMinister, what one thingwould you most like tochange?

Policies which help themedia to maintain betterrelations among commu-nities. I would alsoendorse some policies andinitiatives regarding howto build bridges of trustamong the communities inthe UK.

Who has been the biggestinfluence on your careerto date?

My mother and my father,whose words of wisdomand advice have beenalways roaming around inmy mind, especially whenI am alone facing prob-lems!!

What has been the biggestobstacle in your career?

Firstly working awayfrom home! And separat-ing my work duties frommy family life.

What are your proudestachievements?

My own academicworks including publi-cations. And establish-ing a strong systemwithin the IslamicCultural Centre, settingup education classes,assisting in setting upThe Mosque and ImamsAdvisory Board in theUK. Establishingstrong units in the ICCserving: educational,interfaith, administra-tion and improved serv-ices to the community

What are your longterm goals?

Strive to create greaterunderstanding, respect,cooperation and trustamong European lead-ers/American policymakers and Muslimsocial and politicalactivities. Providingany kind of assistancefor those who needmercy everywhere inthe world.

If you were maroonedon a desert island,which historical figureswould you like to spendyour time with andwhy?

When a person ismarooned the last thingyou think of is a histor-ical figure, but toanswer your question Iwould choose MahatmaGandhi, Malcolm X, Dr.Martin Luther King andNelson Mandela. Theyraised the value ofhuman beings ashuman beings are with-out any differencebetween races, coloursand creeds….

Damian Green

Asian Voice Political and Public Life AwardsIts time for the ‘Asian Voice

Political and Public LifeAwards'. These awards aregiven annually to peoplewho have made a specialimpact in the preceding 12months, ranging from inter-national politicians to indi-viduals who have made a bigdifference in their local com-munities.

The Asian Voice Politicaland Public Life Awards offeran unique opportunity topositively communicateyour company's name,image, products and servic-es to a clearly defined, influ-ential, socially aware andhighly receptive audience.

More importantly, as asponsor, you will join withreaders of Asian Voice andGujarat Samachar and paytribute to an exceptionalbunch of people.

The awards will be hand-ed out at a prestigious cere-mony at the House ofCommons on 25th February,2010 and the winners willbe joined at the ceremony bya select group of 250 highprofile politicians from all

political parties, businessmen, community leaders tocelebrate their achieve-ments.

Last year’s awardsproved a great success, withfigures as diverse as Rt HonGeff Hoon MP – The thenDefence Secretary, Mr EricPickles MP – Chairman ofConservative Party, MsCaroline Fint MP – Ministerfor Europe, Mr RobertHoward Harris MP, SaileshVara MP, Rt Hon Keith VazMP – Chairman of Homeaffair, attended the event.

2009 Asian VoicePolitical & Public LifeAward included Winners RtHon Harriet Harman, AdamHolloway MP, SarahTeather MP, Naresh Goyal -Jet Airways, Ms AnnTreneman – Jounalist,Slumdog Millionaire,Baroness Uddin,Mohammed Ajeeb CBE, MrDolar Popat, Mr RajeshRupani - Sony TelevisionAsia, Ms Nina Wadia, MsTeji Singh, Mr Amin Ali, MsNina Amin, Mr Dipankar

Categories" Politician of the Year " Labour Parliamentarian of the Year" Liberal Democrat Parliamentarian of the Year" Conservative Parliamentarian of the Year" Minister of the Year" TV personality of the Year " Journalist of the Year" Special Award for International Achievement" Media Company of the Year" Restaurant of the Year " Asian broadcaster of the Year" Campaign of the Year" Male Entrepreneur of the Year" Female Entrepreneur of the Year" Professional of the Year" News Agency of the Year" Community Award" Lifetime Achievement Award Male " Lifetime Achievement Award Female " Sports Personality of the Year

De Sarkar, Mr BhanuChoudhrie.

The shortlists for theawards for 2010 will bedecided by a panel ofjudges and as always weare sure even this yearthere's going to be a fierce

competition which willprove very difficult for thepanel to choose the win-ner.

Readers of AsianVoice vote and nominatewho they think shouldwin the coveted Awards.

Our columnist Dhiren Katwa has beeninvited to speak about diversity in the media aspart of Coventry Conversations, a series ofmedia talks. Chemist turned journalist Dhiren,who is senior news editor of Asian Voice, willshare his experience of working in the mediaindustry, now for almost ten years. “My energyand inspiration come from Mr CB Patel, editorof Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, whoencouraged me to consider a career in journal-ism,” said Dhiren. He added: “At the time Ilaughed at the suggestion but since have notlooked back, credit to CB, my role model.”Speakers at Coventry Conversations haveincluded editor of The Guardian, AlanRusbridger, Channel Four news anchor JonSnow, equalities tsar Trevor Phillips and DailyTelegraph columnist Jim White. Dhiren’s talkwill take place at Ellen Terry Building,Coventry University, at 1pm on Thursday 4February. Entry is free and open to all.

Asian Voice inCoventry

Asian Voice is the Voice of

British Asians

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 2010 www.abplgroup.com 3

Thought for the WeekRepublic Day Diamond Jubilee: What it means for IndiaJanuary 26, 1950 was the day, 60 years ago,when India declared herself a republic andadopted a written constitution proclaimingthe event. Republic Day, and every anniver-sary of Indian independence, are the twobiggest dates in the country's calendar, evi-dence of another year gone by, with its cata-logue of achievements and failures.

Sixty years of celebration and tribulationare now part of a lengthening historicalrecord. Time moves ever faster and one land-mark fellows another in a never endingOdyssey into the future. India and the worldwere starkly different in 1950. The bleakinternational landscape testified to the ColdWar and its power blocs and proxy conflicts,most notably in Korea and South East Asia.India was perceived by the West as a preten-tious state punching above its weight, its car-dinal sin being its refusal to be a participantin the Cold War between the capitalist Westled by the United States and the communistEast powered by the erstwhile Soviet Union.Refusal of the poisoned chalice pointingdelusively to a hallucinatory route to pros-perity and power on the coat tails of bigbrother was an act of far-seeing statesman-ship, as was the move to establish a demo-cratic republic based on the rule of law andfully sovereign in the directions India's elect-ed leaders charted for their country.

Today the signs point to an India on themarch, it tells of a country kearning to fulfillits true potential, which are are self-evidenttruths. Those who were given to dismissIndia are now more respectful. The Frenchwriter Dominique Moisi, today a visiting pro-fessor at Harvard University, while acceptingthat President Obama's reception for PrimeMinister Manmohan at the White House inWashington was largely a celebratory eventdesigned to massage India's collective ego,did also signal the country's arrival as a sig-

nificant power on the international stage. India is bursting with soft power -

Bollywood, the reach of its popular music,the appeal of India's writers, its cultural andreligious festivals involving casts of manythousands, its burgeoning science, technolo-gy and its entrepreneurial vitality are makingwaves across the globe – but in an uncertainworld plagued by terrorism and violence andthe conceits of aggressive nationalisms, softpower must of necessity be supplemented byhard power. The readiness for war is often aguarantee of peace. India is equipped tomeet its likely challengers; in the years tocome its arsenal of weaponry will surely beawesome.

Professor Moisi states the obvious. “Indiatoday sees that the wider world, particularlythe West, regards it with growing respect,not only for the country's performance butalso for its essence – a young country that isalso an ancient civilization. A little morethan 60 years ago, India remained the crownjewel of the British Empire. Fifty yeas ago, ifyou sought to read about India in the West,you would mostly find books about spiritu-ality. Today, the books about India includetopics like management and nuclear ener-gy....The period when India was forgotten oran afterthought is at an end, and with it theperiod when India could forget about theworld.” It takes two to tango.

What will India look like in 2047, the cen-tenary of its independence, or in 2050 whenit celebrates its 100th year as a republic? Nolonger a third world nation surely, but onefully developed. It would be tempting thefates to peer too far into the distance. Let usbe content with the thought that India's timehas come. What the country makes of itselfwill become clear in the years to come.Hopefully the rite of passage won't be tooexacting.

Faith and charity in Gujarat temple town Palitana is a sleepy town in Gujarat. Perchedhigh on a hill overlooking it is a network of1,500 exquisite temples. For adherents of theJain faith it is a place of considerable signifi-cance, since it represents the world's highestconcentration of Jain temples - all packed intoclusters to enable barefoot pilgrims to walkaround with ease.

Every year more than half a million Jaindevotees (of a total global community ofapproximately 10 million) make their way toPalitana's stone and marble shrines. Non-vio-lence and compassion for all living things is atthe core of Jain belief. This year their spiritualquest in Palitana is embodied in a project tohelp people with their disabilities.

A group of Jains has set up a vast medicalcamp in the town for physically handicappedpeople. Here, the spiritual becomes practical,as doctors fit patients with artificial limbs and

calipers. Others are given crutches and wheel-chairs. Those with hearing difficulties aregiven special aids and taught to use them.. Thedoctors are assisted by volunteers who comefrom all over the world.

“Our Jain faith teaches us to reach out tothe under-privileged,” says Asha Mehta of theRatna Nidhi Charitable Trust, which organizedthe camp. “We've also set up similar camps in11 African countries to help landmine vic-tims,” she said. Jain organizations have visitedKabul, to help war victims and are planningthe same for Angola.

The drive for material comfort has not sub-sumed charity and compassion for the less for-tunate of our fellow humans. This is the peren-nial message of all that is enduring in faith.“The essence of Jainism is to give up selfish-ness for selflessness,” explains Palitana's chiefJain monk Acharya Shri Rajvashsurji.

Tougher road in Afghanistan: no sign of relief as conflict deepens

Just how tough the situation in Afghanistanis will become clear when the London con-ference on the country convenes. Past assur-ances from on high are as far from reality asthey ever were. The Taliban is a major pres-ence on the ground and Pakistan – America'sregional ally – is reluctant to play ball withWashington for reasons of its own. USGeneral David Petraeus says that theHelmand fught will get tougher before it gets

easier.” Haven't we heard these comfortingsentiments before? The truth is that the great and good inWashington and London are thrashingaround in the dark, not a whit the wiser onwhere they are going and why. Meanwhile,the killing fields of Afghanistan keep takingtheir toll of innocent lives – Afghan, Britishand American and those farther afield inNato. The pity of it.

COMMENT

The Hindu Community ofBritain in 2010 is moreinfluential and more selfconfident than ever before.It is also more prosperous.That prosperity has beenbuilt on the hard work andeducational achievementof a generation of youngHindus who now domi-nate the professions ofpharmacy, accountancy,IT, medicine and the law.But the community’s verysuccess now -- in this elec-tion year -- brings with itan obligation to speak upfor the values that it holdsdear and on which thatprosperity has itself beenbuilt.

The current generationof young professionals willall acknowledge that theirown success would nothave been possible but forthe incredible determina-tion of parents and grand-parents who came to thiscountry -- often with littleor nothing in their pock-ets, but with a total deter-mination that their chil-dren would not suffer theindignities and privationsthat they themselves hadbeen forced to livethrough. Hindus in Britaintoday were not born with asilver spoon in theirmouth, but with the simpleunderstanding that suc-cess comes only throughlong hours of hard work,by the support of familyand by a community net-work that is always pre-pared to help the weakestand those in real need.

These are the valueswhich are at stake in thisgeneral election year. Andit is to remain true to thesevalues, that I believe theHindu community shouldvote for the Labour Party.Labour is not just a friendwhen it is looking forvotes. Our history runsback more than 60 years toIndia's Independence andpeople like FennerBrockway and ClementAtlee. We set up LabourFriends of India more thanten years ago and were thefirst to call for India to siton the P5 of the SecurityCouncil at the UnitedNations and the first toprovide support overKargil and the attacks onthe Indian parliament.This close empathy andunderstanding comes froma history of shared values.

Before 1997 the Hinducommunity in my con-stituency in Brent was

reluctant to send theirchildren to the local stateschools. And with goodreason! Those who couldafford it, paid for privateeducation; those whocould not, spent hourssupervising homeworkand worrying. That falsechoice has now disap-peared. Parents in BrentNorth today have a realchoice of high quality stateschools. Schools whereonly 32% of pupilsachieved five GCSEs at A*to C, now record successrates over 90%! This didnot happen by chance; justas the previous years ofeducational failure did nothappen by chance. Thissuccess came about by agovernment that said“Every Child Matters!”and was prepared to investour taxes to prove thatthey meant it.

Now our Labour gov-ernment is promising toensure that every childwith special educationalneeds will be given one-to-one attention. Of coursethis will help that individ-ual child; but it will alsoensure that the rest of theclass is able to proceedfaster and without theteacher being distracted.These are the values webelieve in: the whole com-munity becoming strongerthrough helping the weak-est member. TheConservative Party oncesaid “There is no suchthing as society”. Theirpolicies – particularly ineducation where theywould scrap SurestartCentres -- show that theystill believe it.

Of course the Labourgovernment has made mis-takes. Nobody gets every-thing right and govern-ment too must understandand learn from what it hasgot wrong. But the processof government is aboutmore than this policy orthat law, right or wrong. Itis about the values bywhich we as a nation wishto live. I firmly believe thatthe values of the HinduCommunity are the valuesof the Labour Party. I askthe Hindu Community toreflect on its success andto use its influence at thegeneral election to vote forthose values by votingLabour.

(This is a shortenedversion. View the full let-ter at www.barrygar-diner.com)

Open letter to theHindu Forum of Britain

Barry Gardiner MP

Member of Parliamentfor Brent North

Never doubt that a small group of thought-ful, committed people can change the world.

Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 20104

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Cricket crazy Indians for the first time was seenso euphoric on Monday morning, as theyexpected a couple of Oscars. British Indians inthe UK, Dharavi slums, the shanty township ofMumbai, a village in Uttar Pradesh and almostthe entire Bollywood waited in expectation,glued to their TV sets. They burst into celebra-tions as one by one, their heroes, the actors ofthe British Indian film and the music maestro, AR Rahman bagged the top awards in the worldof entertainment.

British actress Kate Winslett also won theOscar after having missed it almost five timesearlier.

‘Smile Pinki’, a short documentary on acleft-lipped Indian girl in Uttar Pradesh directedby American director Megan Mylan, won theOscar for the Best Documentary (Short).

‘Smile Pinky’ too gets the Oscar

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Many thanks for publishing my articleon the Maharaja exhibition throughFuture Generations, Sai School column. Itook the AV copy to my School for myteachers to see my article who felt veryproud to see that their student's articlewas published on the 2nd page of AsianVoice. My article was then shown to theHead Teacher who was also very pleasedand wishes to share it with the rest of theschool.

This has boosted my confidence andmy parents are also very proud, who arenow encouraging me to write more arti-cles. A few friends who wanted to see theExhibition last weekend on the final daywere unable to get any tickets due to thesurge at the last minute, I hope my articlehelped in some way to raise awareness ofthis unique Exhibition which the V & Ahosted. I also discovered that AsianVoice is a fantastic paper and I would bereading it regularly.

Aditi Vyas, 11 yearsSai School

Maharaja Exhibition

and Sai School Column

Cllr. Navin Shah’s expressed a level ofconcern for Londoners in his column of9th January (AV pg 3).

It is easy to criticise Boris Johnson forthis year’s fare increases, but people for-got that Ken Livingstone had put themup by the same percentages in 2005; andthen a bit more in 2006. Boris Johnsonhas made half-price travel on the networkavailable to an estimated 150,000 morepeople since he took over, and in totalaround 40% of bus passengers now trav-el for free or at a concessionary rate.While I certainly sympathise with thosethe increases will most seriously affect, itis vital that London’s transport infra-structure gets the investment it clearlyneeds.

The total cost of replacing the unpop-ular bendy buses is around 3 million; aminor amount when compared with thebillion pound black hole Boris Johnsoninherited.

In 2006 – that Labour brought abudget to Harrow Council with onetotalling £9 million. And three years ear-lier, Harrow experienced a 21% CouncilTax increase.

This year Harrow Council will befreezing Council Tax for the first time in14 years, and Boris Johnson has alsofrozen the GLA precept for the secondyear in a row. These are positive actionsintended to help people in difficult eco-nomic times!

Cllr. Anjana PatelPortfolio Holder for Schools &

Children’s DevelopmentHarrow Council

Transport fare hike

and council tax The devastating earthquake whichstruck Haiti on 12 January has claimedhundreds of thousands of lives and leftmillions of people homeless and desti-tute. Countless children have becomeorphans. The outbreak of contagious dis-eases and diarrhoea due to unsanitaryconditions will claim further lives.Hindus will call this the “Kaliyug” andJains – “Panchmo Aaro”. There is short-age of water, food, medicine and shelter.

Is this the wrath of God? Who shouldwe blame? It is man himself who hasemitted, and continues to emit, all thosegreen house gases in the atmosphere andcausing global warming.

So what could be done to preventsuch disasters from happening again? Itis time for governments to do more toprotect the environment. This could beachieved by reducing global warming andconserving an ecological balance byavoiding the depletion of naturalresources like trees and forests – by creat-ing sustainability. Otherwise a day willcome when our posterity would have noearth to live on!

Dinesh ShethNewbury Park, Ilford

The Wrath of God?

Copenhagen conference was a stitch-up between America, China, India andother interested parties, by-passing EU,Russia and other big polluters who aregenuine players on the carbon reductionfront.

In any case all these measures aretemporary, inefficient and misleadingsolutions to a real problem. The humanpopulation has more than trebled in justone hundred years; more babies wereborn in the last fifty years than in the pre-vious two thousand years.

China is the only country that is tak-ing this issue seriously.

It is a taboo subject in Catholic,

The Misguided

Campaign

We had great leaders at the time ofindependence. On 26th January 1950India became Republic and declared thatwe, the people of India having solemnlyresolved to constitute India into aSovereign Democratic Republic and tosecure to all its citizens:

Justice, Social, economic and politi-cal, Liberty of thought, expression, belief,faith and worship;Equality of status andof opportunities and to promote amongthem all.

Fraternity assuring the dignity of theindividual and the unity of the nation.Forevery word we should be proud of butduring the last 60 years what we haveachieved, we have to think and be truth-ful to our selves.

Our present leaders must understandthat systems which were developed atthat time, are not functioning to theneeds of majority of people but only thecleverer people are fully misusing the sys-tem.

We all need to give more and morewake up calls to our leaders that theyneed to develop the policies to serve themajority of people and eliminate theshanties from India.

Dharam DevIlford

The Republic of India

Following should enlighten Mr Mitter(AV 23rd Jan, pg 4) that there was nocaste discrimination in Mahabharat days.Vidur, dasi putra lived with the royal fam-ily.

Matsya kanya was cohabited by MuniPrashar and later by father of Bhishma.Indra cohabited with Ahalya.Vishwamitra cohabited with Menka.None of the ladies were royal. Ram atefruit tasted by Sabri. His Vanar sena wascasteless.

Sages who gave scriptures were notupper caste, yet there are not discrimi-nated. Krishna had royal blood, wasbrought up as cow herder. Bhim did notconsider caste when he married cannibalHidimba? Krishna physically cured humpbacked Kubja.

Princess Kunti resided at ashram ofrishi Durvasa who was not of royal caste.Sita resided at ashram of non royal casterishi after her exile. Viswamitra decidedto perform non kshatriya karma toKamdhenu cow.

Many rishis consumed by pride weresent to butcher’s shop to seek enlighten-ment..

Chandargupta Maurya, succeeded inuniting Hindu kings against Alexander,was not a Rajput or Brahmin.

Ramesh JhallaVia Email

Who is NHSF

protecting?

I read letters in AV regarding theIndian Students and their very unfortu-nate plight. We have started thelunchtime programme especially for thesestudents and has been advertised in yoursister concern Gujarat Samachar.

We have now employed 3 students inthe Mandir hopefully may employmore. Quite a few students now give theirseva free on

Thursdays and Saturdays. We want todo very much more to help these studentsand are looking at ways how we can helpthem.

Some students walk all the way fromWembley to come to the Mandir inGreenford and on Thursday evening weget about 40 students. Leftover prasadis packed for them to take away.

Jai Jalaram!

Mansukh MorjariaVia Email

Jalaram Mandir

Greenford France has banned Muslim women

wearing Burkha in public places. Nowthe UK Independent Party wants to banburkha in Britain. In Britain the Queenis the head of the church and it is a secu-lar Christian nation. A small number ofminority faith communities in Britain tryto enforce their own culture and tradi-tion, which is alien to Western tradition.

In most of the Islamic countries onlyIslam is the official religion and peoplefrom other religious faith are not allowedto practice in public and they have to fol-low the strict Islamic law.

British society in the name of multi-culturalism is totally divided on the basisof religion and there are separate faithschools with no contact with main streamsociety. Swiss government is justified inbanning minarets, since Islamic countriesdo not allow temples or churches built intheir countries. There cannot be one lawfor Muslim countries and the other forthe rest.

Arun VaidyanathanVia Email

Should Burkha be

banned in Britain?This is in response to the letter by MrMitter in AV issue 23rd Jan. NHSF (UK)would like to make it clear that it is notprotecting caste discrimination, nor is itsaying that caste discrimination does notexist. We have also not said that Dalitsare attacking Hindu Dharma; we havementioned organisations and relevantpeople, but not a community. It is alsoincorrect that in the Mahabharata, Karnawas not made commander in chief – hewas made commander in chief afterDronacharya had been killed in battle.

Caste discrimination is condemned byNHSF, as well as by Hindu scriptures.NHSF considers all Hindus as part of oneunited society, without any form of clas-sification such as Dalits, Untouchables,etc. NHSF, therefore, does not keep a reg-ister of members based on such false divi-sions such as caste in the Hindu Society.Hence it views all its members by onedefinition only, i.e. as Hindus alone.Therole of NHSF within the samaj is toPreserve, Practice, Protect and PromoteHindu Dharma.

There is also a more informative arti-cle which has been published on theNHSF website (www.nhsf.org.uk).

Chirag PatelPublic Relations Team, NHSF (UK)

NHSF not protecting

caste discrimination

YOUR VOICE

ASIAN VOICE is published byAsian Business Publications Ltd

Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market,

(Off Coronet Street) London N1 6HW.

Tel: 020 7749 4080 Fax: 020 7749 4081Email: [email protected]

www: abplgroup.com© Asian Business Publications

Islamic, Jewish countries, as well as inIndia, one of the worse offenders on pop-ulation front where hundreds of millionslive on less than a dollar a day.

There is no one easy solution. It hasto be a combination of several factors,use of renewable power, such as wind tur-bines, hydro-electricity, harnessing tidalwaves, nuclear energy, encouraging vege-tarianism and reducing human popula-tion.

So far no one nation is willing toendorse all these measures, not evenBritain who professes to be in the frontline.

Bhupendra M GandhiVia Email

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 2010 5

Leicester VoiceDo you have any comments, news or photographs about

Leicester? If you do, please send them to Leicester Voice [email protected]

1. Favourite colour: Red

2. Favourite food: Fish

3. Favourite actor: Jeetendra

4. Favourite holiday destination: India - Goa

5. Favourite historical character: Nero

6. Favourite period of history: 1949

7. Favourite part of Leicester: Evington

8. Lucky number: 37

9. Favourite TV programme: Sky News

10. Who is the person you admire the most:Amitabh Bachchan

Top 10

Name: Mr Dalubhai Chauhan

Age: 70

Occupation: Estate Agent

Lives: Evington

A mother last weekclaimed her family had toshower at a leisure centrefor three months after analleged "rogue builder"failed to complete work ontheir home.

Kam Sokhi told theLeicester Mercury that sheexperienced a "living hell"when she entrusted builderMohammed Nagdi toextend and renovate herfamily's Oadby house.

Mrs Sokhi said thebuilder stripped the show-er and bath but did notreplace them, which meantthe family had to wash atthe nearby Parklandsleisure centre.

She said Mr Nagdi alsobuilt a room with a ceilingthat was just 5ft 4ins high.

Last week, the citycouncil's trading standardsteam took legal actionagainst Mr Nagdi, 43, afterreceiving six complaintsabout him since September2004.

The first of those com-plaints was lodged by MrsSokhi, 44.

The married mum offour had wanted a fourthbedroom added above thekitchen and an extensionto the lounge. Mr Nagdistarted work on the housein August, 2004, after giv-ing a quote of £39,000.

But he allegedly left thesite in September that year,with Mrs Sokhi havingpaid him £36,900. She saidit took another two yearsfor the work to be putright, by another company.

Mrs Shokhi said: "It

was a nightmare to live inthe house. Floorboardsweren't laid and there werewires coming out of thewalls. I used to lie awake atnight crying and then wakeup in the morning and crysome more – it was a livinghell for two years. Wespent three months takingshowers at the Parklandssports centre because wehad nowhere else to washbecause he had stripped itout – that cost a lot ofmoney in itself, and it wasembarrassing for me andmy children. It cost £31,000to remedy the work. Thehouse is fixed now, but itstill haunts me."

A November 2004building inspection reportby Oadby and WigstonBorough Council lists 20aspects of the property asnot complying with build-ing regulations, including a"structurally inadequate"roof to the first floor exten-sion.

Mr Nagdi told theLeicester Mercury: "MrsSokhi says the work I didwasn't of a good standardbut the quality of the workwas good enough. I thinkshe took advantage of mygood nature and sheexpected me to do thingsfor free. I went on holidayto Turkey for a week andthat week plastering mate-rials were ordered and shegot people to do stuffwhich messed up my work– when I came back I wassurprised."

He added: "Some of thepeople who have com-

plained about me I havegot letters of satisfactionfrom – I have lots of satis-fied customers. I have beendoing this for 15 years andsome customers are diffi-cult. Sometimes mistakeshappen, but they are notdeliberate."

During the case on lastTuesday at the city's coun-ty court, Mr Nagdi, ofSpinney Hills, Leicester,who trades under the nameEast Midlands BuildingServices, did not admit anywrongdoing. But he signeda voluntary undertaking tosay he would comply withthe law in future.

District Judge PaulAtkinson told him:"Allegations have beenmade that you are what iscolloquially termed a'rogue builder'. I fullyaccept these allegations arenot fully admitted but ifyou breach these undertak-ings you can confidentlyexpect to go to prison."

Leicester Mercuryreports, Mr Nagdi formallyagreed to comply with theGoods and Services Act1982, which means hemust carry out work withreasonable care, to a goodstandard, in reasonabletime.

Caroline Frith, the citycouncil's principal legalofficer, said: "We are out tomake sure the customergets a fair deal – taking himto court might not helpthose in the past, but it willtry to prevent it in thefuture."

Builder's work led to 'living hell'

Training inside a freezermight not be everybody'scup of tea, but for onedentist it is just anotherday at the office.

Fund-raiser AmitKotecha has begun train-ing inside an industrialfreezer in shivering tem-peratures of -28C as heprepares to climb MountEverest. And after com-pleting his first session onan exercise bike, he said itwas not cold enough.

Amit, 41, will set offfor Everest in March, andhopes to raise £100,000for Cancer Research UKby scaling the 29,000ftpeak.

His mother, Mira, diedof cancer 20 years ago,aged just 42, and the oralsurgeon, from KirbyMuxloe, has been raisingmoney for the charity eversince.

On Friday, the father-of-three donned his hikinggear and set off for thefreezers at his brother-in-law Jake Karia's firm,Global Fine Foods, inLeicester's TroonIndustrial Estate.

Amit said: "I know itsounds strange but it was

too hot. As the suits I waswearing were so good Icame out sweating loads.The temperatures atEverest will be around -40C and then if you thinkabout the windchill factorit's going to be even colder– so it was a little bitwarm. But it is great train-ing. There isn't reallyanother way I'll be able toget used to the conditionsbefore I head out there.''

Despite describinghimself as a "novice

climber", Amit has trekkedto base camp at MountEverest but said that was awalk in the park comparedto what he will face in afew months.

After fitness work inthe gym and training inthe countryside, Amit hasnow turned to his extremeregime. "It has been goingvery well. I go walking forabout two hours eachmorning in Bradgate Parkwith a 30kg weight on myback and I've been doing alot of gym work. But thisis just something a littleextra to get me prepared. "

Jake allowed his broth-er-in-law to train in one ofhis freezers, which areusually used to storefrozen ready meals.

He said: "I said how Iwas used to the cold, withall the freezers we have atwork. They have fans toowhich blow cold air. Hepicked up on that andthought it would be agreat way to help with histraining.''

Amit has raised £6,000towards the £100,000 tar-get. He said businesseshave pledged £35,000, ifhe reaches the summit.

Everest-climb dentist trains forchallenge in food firm's freezer!

A man accused of a series ofarson offences, including set-ting his home on fire andrisking the lives of his family,has entered not guilty pleas.Via a video link from a prisonwhere he is on remand,Omar Mohammed Sulemandenied three counts of arsonat 45 The Fairway, Oadby,with intent to endanger hisrelatives' lives, on March 4,March 7 and March 14. Healso denied three alternativecounts of arson, recklesslyendangering life, on the samedates.

Suleman, of the sameaddress, also denied arson inthe garden of his home onMarch 3 and damaging a carby fire, on February 26. Hedenied two counts of arson,causing damage by fire to theinterior of the Vista building,in St Matthew's Way,Leicester, on January 9 andFebruary 16 last year.

The Leicester CrownCourt hearing wasadjourned for a trial onSeptember 1. Judge CharlesWide QC remandedSuleman back into custodyto await trial.

Local manpleads not

guilty to arson

Amit Kotecha

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 20106 UKKapil’sKHICHADIby Kapil Dudakia - email: [email protected]

Awe and Wonder

Awe and wonder arewords often used in edu-cation, but rarely do wefind clear examples inreality. On Saturday 23rdJanuary I was invited tothe pre-opening of the‘Krishna Avanti’ schoolin Edgware. On arrivalyou are struck immedi-ately with clean lines inthe architecture, the useof wood and grass grow-ing on the roof – yes myfriends you read thatright, grass growing onthe roof. This as I foundout is probably one of thegreenest schools in thecountry with state of theart technology to use rainwater for cooling as wellas other uses - gas moni-toring systems so that ifat any stage these exceedcertain amounts thenventilation opens auto-matically, under floorheating and of course, alot more long lasting lowmaintenance woodinside.

We all had a typicalHindu welcome followedby a guided tour whereyou could sense theexcitement even in theperson giving the tour.As you walk from theentrance to the receptionclasses, the attention todetail grabs you. Gooduse of colours, wood anddecorative patterns. Asthe tour continues youget that feeling thatsomething very unique isgoing to be just aroundthe corner. And at thatvery moment, LordKrishna answers you asyou cast your eye on anauthentic Hindu mandirin the very heart of theschool itself. Built in tra-ditional style, from thetraditional stone carvedto perfection to the use ofwood from India for thedoors and wooden carv-ings. You notice at thatmoment that your mouthis wide open, and as youlook around, the mouthsof others around you areopen also. Awe and won-der my friends, is in frontof you. You know andfeel that you have beentransported to anotherdimension which youcannot find in any otherfaith school in the coun-try.

Hindu ethos

The school will of coursehave the NationalCurriculum but willenhance that with theHindu ethos and our val-ues. You see this immedi-ately as you realise youhave to take your shoesoff when you enter theschool. The kitchen willbe busy preparing vege-tarian food of both east-ern and western taste. Infact they have so manyvarieties that the menudoes not repeat for threeweeks. My only concernnow is that there is a seri-ous danger that parentswhen they come to droptheir children off at theschool gates may notwish to go home but stayand join in.

The event went verysmoothly, the usual trainof local politicians wereat hand to give their sup-port – no doubt withhopes that through somedivine intervention theymight get a few morevotes at the next election.We have to recognise alsothat this would not havebeen possible had TonyBlair not brought in thelaw that allowed forequality and equity with-in the faith schools sec-tor. The event was agreat success and headteacher Mrs NainaParmar now has a schoolwhich is a great resourceto offer to the children.The challenge now forgovernors and staff is toconcentrate on the quali-ty of education, stan-dards attained, ethosinculcated and the forma-tion of a child’s characterin line with the Hinduethos and values. Timewill always be the judgein relation to how suc-cessful the school hasbeen, but from what Ihave seen – I have highhopes that it will deliveron those expectations.

Secondarychallenge

The challenge to theGovernment is to doaway with the bureaucra-cy that so often slows theprogress of establishingnew schools. Time isnow running out, pupils

who leave Krishna Avantiwill require a secondaryschool that can addresstheir needs; otherwisethey will enter the main-stream where the ethoswill be very different. Iraised this issue with oneof the politicians whosepartner just happens tobe the Chief Inspector ofSchools and I hope thatthe urgency of what isrequired can be commu-nicated directly to thecabinet.

Now that we have thefirst state funded HinduPrimary School, it is timeto be serious about set-ting up the first statefunded Hindu SecondarySchool. I wonder whichparty will make this hap-pen and take the creditthat goes with it.

Clarkie agreeswith me!

In my recent columns Ihad warned that theTories in their rhetoricand zeal might fall foul ofplaying up to massivecuts and that as a strategycould prove costly when itcomes to voters. It seemsKenneth Clarke agreeswith me when he recentlysaid, ‘calamitous’ and‘damaging and unsup-portable’ cuts in the pub-lic sector would not repre-sent the best way forwardfor the Tories. So nowthat we have got that outof the way, I wait to seewhat else they will adoptin the coming weeks.

Of course I can seewhy Kenneth Clarkemight have been forced tomake this correctivestatement, after all in thelast two polls the lead theTories have had overLabour has been reducednow to 9%. The pollshave been volatile andtherefore one cannotmake too much until theyare validated by the nextfew, however, the factthat the polls seem toshift so markedly givesboth Labour and theTories a cause for con-cern. In this election, itseems the only poll thatwill really matter is theone on election-day.Now that will make thenext few months interest-ing for all us.

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Teenager quizzed overAsha Muneer murder

The teenagerquizzed over thehorrific murderof pretty sixth-former AshaMuneer was herex-boyfriend.

F o r e n s i cteams sealed offthe house of the19-year-old -arrested hours after Asha,18, was battered, stabbedand her jugular veinslashed on a river tow-path.

Kitchen knives weretaken away to be exam-ined - along with clothesand the suspect's mobilephone.

The swoop came as itemerged police were calledto a bust-up between Ashaand an ex six months ago.Cops left after he was"given advice".

Asha, who workedpart-time at a LauraAshley shop, was walkingto meet fellow students atMcDonald's when she waskilled in Reading, Berks.

Last week her new

boyfriend - gap-year uni-versity student SunilBhardwaj, 19, - posted atribute to his "princess" onFacebook. He wrote: "Ididn't get to tell you howmuch you meant to me."

A friend of Asha's toldhow she also worked as anightclub promoter andhad been organising abash called Sinfully Sexy -with raunchy flyers show-ing a girl in a bra.

Boyfriend Sunil vowedto still go - so it could hon-our her memory.

Police said as frogmenscoured the River Kennetfor the murder weapon:"Nothing was taken fromher handbag so robberywas not the motive."

Pupils at HighdownSchool, where popularAsha was taking A-levelsin Sociology, Economicsand English, were offeredcounselling.

Head Tim Royle said:"The whole school com-munity is deeply shocked."

Cabbie dadMohammad, 67, mumNasreen, 47, and sistersUmaria, 22, and Saba, 17,said in a statement: "Ourfamily have lost a lovingbeautiful daughter.

Asha Muneer

Sunil Bhardwaj

BY ANNETTE PINNER, CEOTHE VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

On a recent trip to Delhiby my daughter, herhosts were surprised tolearn that there is suchan organisation in theUK as the VegetarianSociety. In India, a thirdof the population is vege-tarian and the concepthas been imbedded in theIndian psyche for thou-sands of years.

In the UK, on theother hand, ninety-sevenpercent of the populationeat meat. The VegetarianSociety of the UK is rela-tively young and wasstarted in 1847 by whatone might call intellectu-als; certainly they wereperceived as a bit weirdby their contemporaries.Even so, it is probablythe oldest vegetarianorganisation in theworld.

When the Vegetarian

Debate on Vegetarianismencouraged in the UK

Society charity wasformed, populationdemographics were verydifferent from today; wehave become more multi-cultural since then andlinks have been forgedbetween the charity andthe UK Asian communi-ty. Mahatma Gandhi, infact, sat on the commit-tee of the LondonVegetarian Society in thelate 1800s. Today thesecontinued bonds arereflected in our electedtrustees, almost a third ofwhom are from an Asianbackground.

Vegetarianism in theUK is no longer seen asthe extreme way of lifethat it once appeared tobe. Furthermore, manypeople acknowledgelegitimate concernsabout the impact of meatproduction on animalwelfare, human wellbeingand the environment.

From our headquar-ters in Parkdale, nearManchester, our smallteam works hard to pro-mote vegetarianism andhelp vegetarians. Ourwebsite is packed withinformation and recipes.We offer advice to all veg-etarians and businessorganisations by phone;we run campaigns toraise awareness of vari-ous issues, such as notserving vegetarians fish;vegetarian food suppliersand restaurants use ourVegetarian Societyapproved trademark; weteach cookery classes inour Cordon Vert cookeryschool; our work in

schools and with otheryoung people is headedup by a special team; anetwork of local volun-teers assist with fundraising and to promotesocial interactionbetween vegetarians; andwe work closely with thepress and are seen as thevoice of vegetarians inthe UK.

However, we stillneed all those who havean affinity with the causeto be involved in improv-ing and protecting thefuture of vegetarianismin the UK. This is whereyou come in. We wouldwelcome more membersfrom the Asian communi-ty but even if you don’twish to join us, we’d loveto hear your opinions.

As an Asian vegetarian:

! What could theVegetarian Society do foryou?! What could you helpus do for the benefit ofother vegetarians? ! Is it important for thecommunity to protect thepractice of vegetarianismin a country where mostof the population eatmeat?! Should parentsencourage their childrento be vegetarian?! Does it matter thatthere are now new rea-sons for being vegetarian,such as reducing environ-mental impact and pro-tecting the sustainabilityof our food supply?

It is clear from the let-ters page of the The

Asian Voice that vegetar-ianism is of some interestfor many readers. AsianVoice has kindly agreedto start a debate on whatyou feel are the impor-tant issues. Please sendyour views to AnnettePinner c/o Asian Voice,Karma Yoga House, 12Hoxton Market, London,N1 6HW or by email [email protected]

Chinese nationals Junjie Kao(30), Wie Xing (30) andBangladeshi national KhaledMahmud (35) were sen-tenced to seven years impris-onment at Croydon CrownCourt for conspiracy to assistunlawful immigration.

Junjie Kao and Wei Xingalso pleaded guilty to moneylaundering after £2.65 millionpounds in cash was discov-

ered in the flat they shared inRotherhithe, south eastLondon. At the heart of thegang's conspiracy was abogus college which they setup, purporting to offer gen-uine courses of education,but in fact offering none.

The gang also set up alegal services company, whichprepared false documents forimmigration.

Four jailed in Immigration scam

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 2010 7UK

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A supermarket shelf-stacker who was filmedsabotaging food, cuttingclothes and licking a rawchicken in the storewhere he worked hasbeen jailed.

Adeel Ayub, 30, wasfilmed setting off a fireextinguisher and smash-ing eggs in the Asdabranch at Fulwood,Preston, Lancashire.

The footage, filmedby a colleague on amobile phone, alsoshowed Ayub slashingstaff furniture and uri-nating in a bin.

He started a two-month jail term after hewas sentenced atPreston Magistrates'Court last week.

Magistrates were soappalled by his behav-iour that they gave himthe maximum sentenceavailable.

A visually shockedAyub, of Spinney Brow,Ribbleton, was led downas relatives watchedfrom the public gallery.

The film, which wasleft anonymously in abrown envelope at thefront desk of a localnewspaper, was thenpassed on to Asda whocontacted PrestonPolice. It also featuredon YouTube.

It shows Ayub, wear-ing the Asda uniform,

committing the offenceswhen he worked therebetween 2005 and2008.

It then films Ayubreturning to the store in2009, after leavingAsda’s employment,and, wearing a blackhoodie, stamps on wholechickens on display.

He then tears off theplastic wrapping of one,licks the breast beforeplacing it back on theshelf. Ayub denied this.

Ayub’s charges relat-ed to destroying a fireextinguisher; damagingfurniture; criminal dam-age; destroying clothingand destroying foodstock.

The prosecutionaccepted that Ayub wasonly filmed the clothesand furniture beingdestroyed.

An Asda spokesmansaid: ‘Our colleagueswere very upset about itat the time and we arepleased we can finallydraw a line under it andput it behind us.’

Britain's top judge sent outa powerful message lastweek that a householderhas a right to defend hisfamily.

The Lord Chief Justicefreed a father jailed forattacking an armed bur-glar, saying the casedemanded mercy in theface of a national outcry.

Millionaire business-man Munir Hussain wenthome from prison afterLord Judge ruled at theAppeal Court that he hadlashed out because therobber's gang had threat-ened to kill his wife andchildren.

His two-and-a-half-year term was changed to a

suspended sentence whilehis brother Tokeer, whowas also involved in theincident, had his 39-month

sentence reduced to twoyears meaning he could bereleased within months.

Lord Judge said hisdecision came because ofthe exceptional nature ofthe case and the publicoutrage it has provoked.

'There are some situa-tions which guidelinescannot and do not cover.This is one of them andtoday the sentence of thecourt must address andbalance the ancient princi-ples of justice and mercy.In this case the call for amerciful sentence isintense.'

Lord Judge insistedthat his ruling did not rep-resent a green light forhomeowners to mete outvigilante justice againstburglars.

But his judgment will

be seen as bol-stering the rightof householdersto protect theirhome and fami-ly againstattack.

Mr Hussain,53, was jailedlast month forattacking aknife-wieldingburglar whoheld his familyhostage in theirown home andthreatened toslit their

throats. His case provoked

nationwide fury when heand his brother were jailedfor injuring career criminalWalid Salem, while theconvicted burglar wasallowed to walk free.

Following the AppealCourt decision, his sonAwais, 22, and his brotherQadeer collected him fromHMP Bullingdon, aCategory C prison inOxfordshire, and hereturned home to HighW y c o m b e ,Buckinghamshire, for anemotional reunion with hiswife and family.

Looking shaken anddrained, Mr Hussainhugged relatives andthanked the nation for thesupport he and his brotherhad received.

Awais Hussain, centre, the son of Munir Hussain, with barrister Razi Shah, left, and family members Qadeer Hussain, right,

and Zahir Ahmed, left

Mr Hussain is greeted by his son Awais as he leavesBullingdon Prison in Oxfordshire

Judge frees millionaire jailed for attacking knife-wielding burglar

Jailed after being filmedsabotaging food at Asda

Adeel Ayub


News in BriefProbe set to shake-up clueless council on spending

Influencing trade links

Divorcing couples can now qualify for the sameretail opportunities as newlyweds. Alongside thewedding list, Debenhams has announced a divorcelist service.

Fire boss aims highBritain’s first Asian chief

fire officer, Vijith Randeniya,is warming up in preparationfor scaling one of the UK’shighest mountains. MrRandeniya, pictured, will beclimbing Mount Snowdon inApril to raise cash for theFirefighters Charity and Helpfor Heroes. He will be usingfull breathing equipment dur-ing the gruelling challenge. Good luck Vij!

Prayer by mobile

phone

Gifts for split-ups

A national one-day conferencewhich aims to raise the profile ofpsychological therapies for peoplefrom diverse communities is beingheld in Nottingham next Tuesday(Feb 2). The free event will featureworkshops and discussions.Speakers include Professor DineshBhugra, pictured, President of the Royal College ofPsychiatrists, Dr Ben Wright and Beena Rajkumar,the conference organiser. For more information [email protected]

Mind therapy conference

Two meetings for businesses to find out abouthow Sandwell Council and West Midlands PoliceAuthority’s budgets will affect them have been brand-ed a waste of time, after hardly any companies turnedup. At the council meeting, just two people turned uplast Thursday while at the meeting of the latter, ofmore than 110 invited delegates fewer than 20 werefrom private companies.

Useless meetings

The Harry Ramsden’s fish andchip shop chain has been bought byRanjit Boparan, the owner of WestBromwich-based 2 Sisters chickenfactory. Mr Boparan, pictured, sayshe will open 100 new stores andcreate 600 jobs. Founded in 1928,there are currently 36 restaurantsand takeaways, within the Harry Ramsden’s business,including the largest fish and chip shop in the worldin Guiseley, Leeds. Mr Boparan, 43, is one of theUK’s most successful self-made entrepreneurs. Heand his wife Baljinder are worth around £135 million.

Sikh millionaire buys

food chain

A husband from Willenhall whose wife was leftwith a bald patch after he pulled out a clump of herhair during a row has been jailed for 26 weeks forassaulting her. Ex-businessman Mohinder Singh, 59,was sentenced at Walsall Magistrates Court afterbeing found guilty of assaulting his wife BalwinderKaur.

Hair-pull hubby jailed

Lichfield Islamic Cultural Society has promised itwill call worshippers to prayer by mobile phonerather than broadcasting when a new mosque opens.The Muslim group has had a bid accepted for StoweTeaching Unit and plans to take it over in April.

Despite not havingworked since 2007, MrBerkley, 51, a servicedirector in the Adults andCommunities Directorateremains, apparently, onthe payroll. Mr Khalid,MP for Perry Barr, toldreporters: “This is a ludi-crous waste of publicmoney and in the end wewill all be paying for itthrough our counciltaxes.” In addition, it isclaimed Mr Broomes willalso get £50,000 compen-sation after an allegationmade against him wasdismissed.

Council officials haverefused to comment orjustify why Mr Broomes

has continued to drawhis £90,000 salarydespite being on ‘garden-ing leave’. Mr Broomeswas not available forcomment.

The shocking revela-tions have emerged at atime when Mr Broomes’department is in financialcrisis with 270 employeesfacing redundancy, whilea further 1,380 others inthe council are on noticeof possible redundancy.Just days ago the coun-cil’s human resourceschief Alan Rudgeresponded to workers’job fears by declaring:“We cannot employ peo-ple for the sake of it.”

Mr Broomes, fromLichfield in Staffordshire,came to the city councilin 2003 from SandwellMetropolitan BoroughCouncil where he wasacting head of providerservices. He was one ofthree new service direc-

tors hired by Birminghamsocial services as part of aradical shake-up in thedepartment’s manage-ment.

This news comes justdays after bosses at thecouncil, Britain’s largest

local authority, admittedthey have no idea howmuch money the councilis spending on hiringexpensive private sectorconsultants. Although anestimated £130 million ayear has not been denied.Opposition Labour coun-

cillors were toldthere are no centralrecords detailingthe number of con-sultants on thebooks. CouncillorRudge also admit-ted he could not besure how manyworked for thecouncil. “It’s a

financial matter, not onefor human resources.These are issues forService Birmingham,”said Councillor Rudge.He was not available forcomment.

A leading expert onsupplier diversity,Mayank Shah, deliveredan informative andexciting presentation toa unisex group of 50black and Asian entre-preneurs, existing andemerging, as part of aspecial dinner atBirmingham’s MarriottHotel last Thursday. MrShah, pictured, is direc-tor of Minority SupplierDiversity UK, orMSDUK, a not-for-profitnational organisation setup to provide directlinks between public and private organisations andethnic minority businesses to encourage developmentof mutually beneficial business relationships.Leicester-based MSDUK’s mission is to help removebarriers to growth, which still exist according toresearch, for ethnic minority businesses, particularlyin areas such as accessing start-up and growthfinance and securing contracts. The event was organ-ised by the Institute of Asian Businesses, a diversityarm of Birmingham Chamber.

This week, Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood hascalled for a probe into why Berkley Broomes, pictured,the most senior Afro-Caribbean officer at BirminghamCity Council was paid £200,000 in wages despite beingsuspended for two years.

Contact: Dhiren on 07970 911 386 or [email protected] Katwa Midland Voice

Uni fraud, MD jailed A managing director who stole

nearly £5 million fromBirmingham University to fundhis gambling addiction has beenjailed for six years. Paul Sadler,50, pictured, was head ofBirmingham Research andDevelopment (BRDL) when hesiphoned off the cash to fritteraway in casinos and fund a flashlifestyle. Birmingham CrownCourt heard Sadler was earningup to £270,000 a year includingbonuses. The self-confessed addict was reportedly gam-bling up to £40,000 a night and lost a total of £1 millionat Birmingham’s Grosvenor Casino. Sadler’s book-keep-er and accomplice, Christine Eggleton, was jailed for twoyears.

Car park rapist caged A Walsall man who raped a

woman in a car park has been sen-tenced to five-and-half years inprison. Deepak Sehdev, 30, pic-tured, was found guilty of rape andsexual assault on December 18,following a five-day trial atWolverhampton Crown Court. Thecharges followed an incident onAugust 13, 2008, where a 20-year-old woman agreed to meet up withSehdev, after previously meetinghim on a night out.

Can you help?A charity which looks after people with autism is

recruiting volunteers. The National Autistic Society inBirmingham is offering training to people on February19 and 26. For details call Sharlene Davis on 07795 301710.

Pet cemetery West Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire

has given the green light for a new joint animal andhuman cemetery. Oneacre will be dedicatedto animal burials. Therest of the four-and-a-quarter acre site willbe a ‘green’ humanburial ground.According to theAssociation of PrivatePet Cemeteries andCrematoria, 1.5 mil-lion dogs and cats dieevery year. Of these,300,000 are buried inthe owner’s gardenand 1,000 in pet cemeteries, while 100,000 are indi-vidually cremated. The rest are incinerated as clini-cal waste. Britain has 19 pet burial sites. The phe-nomenon is not new. Pharaohs in ancient Egyptwere often buried with mummified monkeys, catsand birds because they believed animals and humansshared an afterlife.

Fly-tipper curry boss

finedA curry house owner from Birmingham, Suba Miha,

has been fined £1,600 and ordered to give up his vanafter being found guilty of fly-tipping. Miha was caughtdumping left over curry, ghee and oil containers inWestley Street, Nechells, following an undercover opera-tion. He was regularly driving from his Cardamon restau-rant in Swan Street, Alcester, to the inner-city street toget rid of unwanted food.

Pho

to:

Sun

day

Mer

cury

Higher education ministerDavid Lammy has warneduniversities to expect yearsof reduced funding.

In an article for thePolicy Review magazine,Mr Lammy said universitiesshould be looking for theirown sources of income.

They should not rely ona current review of student

tuition fees to shore uptheir funding, he added.

Last week LordMandelson said tighterbudgets could spur univer-sities to diversifying theirfunding.

In December the gov-ernment in Englandrevealed it would be mak-ing extra cuts of £135m to

universities, on top of the£600m announced in thepre-budget report and £180in efficiency savings.

Mr Lammy wrote in thePolicy Review it would be"a good few years" beforeuniversities could expect tosee any really significantupturn in their income fromthe public purse.

University vice chancel-lors should "find ways ofrelying less on the taxpayeras a hedge against anyfuture tightening of thepublic purse-strings". Buthe suggested the implica-tions of the cuts had beenexaggerated.

Some universities mayconcentrate mainly on off-campus teaching, either inworkplaces or online, Mr

Lammy believes, whilemany more students maytake part-time courses.

Shadow UniversitiesSecretary David Willetts setout the Conservatives'plans for the sector in thesame journal.

The party also wantsmore people to study part-time and pledges to givethem a "fairer deal" in termsof government grants andloans.

The Conservatives saythey would create 10,000extra university places in2010 and offer graduates abonus if they pay back theirloans ahead of schedule.The Liberal Democratshave said they would phaseout tuition fees over sixyears.

Minister warns universities of reduced funding


One of the charities SaiSchool has supportedover many years isDavid Shepherd WildlifeF o u n d a t i o n ,www.davidshepherd.org/about-us/

David Shepherd is aworld famous wildlifeartist and conservation-ist whose charity sup-ports endangeredspecies. Each year Saistudents participate inhis art competition andthis year the theme is‘Global Warming’.

This year my class-mates and I have decid-ed to produce a posteron global warming andwho it is affecting, weare mainly focusing onendangered animals.Our Slogan for ourposter is ‘Save OurSouls’.

The artwork willconsist of drawings ofendangered speciesbeing stamped out byhumans, we will bringreal shoe soles and stickit on top of animals whoare being destroyed byus, hence the doublemeaning title “Save ourSouls.”

We are trying tomake people aware thatthe smallest things wedo are causing a bigproblem. For example,just driving to the localshops for bread is affect-ing animals’ habitats.Polar bears today arethinner and less healthythan those of 20 yearsago, many fish speciesare moving northward

in search of coolerwaters, many animalsmay even becomeextinct. Temperaturesare rising which is caus-ing ice caps to melt.

But there are thingswe can do to help savethe animals.

For example insteadof 4 people using 4 carsto get to the same place,you could use 1 car with4 people in it, saving 4times carbon emissions.You could also take thebus, walk or cycle.Remember to turn of thelights, television, andcomputer when you arenot using them. Recyclecans, bottles, plasticbags, and newspapers.By recycling, you sendless trash to the landfilland you help save natu-ral resources like trees,oil, and elements suchas aluminum. There aremany more little thingswe can do to reduceglobal warming.

Whenever you take acar journey, think of theanimals who are strug-gling to survive and giveyour car a rest by walk-ing, riding your bike ortaking the bus. I hopethat each and every onewho reads this articlewill make it your mis-sion to tell at least 9 ofyour close friends andfamily about the state ofanimals and collectivelywe can help the endan-gered species on ourfragile planet by reduc-ing our carbon foot-prints.

by Shivaani Raichura, Age 13

Global Warning

Future GenerationsSai School Harrow

Some schools in Englandare struggling to cover cit-izenship properly, accord-ing to inspectors. A reportby Ofsted says that insome secondary schools,pupils have "importantgaps" in their knowledge.

However, inspectorssay lessons haveimproved since they weremade compulsory sevenyears ago. Their report,based on 91 schools, saysjust over half were at least"good" on the subject, butonly one was rated "out-standing" and 10 were"inadequate".

In some of these cases,inspectors say, citizenshiphas been "misunderstoodor ignored". The studyadds that in schoolswhere citizenship lessons

were only "sat-isfactory", stu-dents were get-ting an uneveneducation. Insome second-aries, pupils'knowledge waspatchy, it says."Typically, stu-dents knew agood dealabout someaspects of thecurriculum (such ashuman rights), but hadimportant gaps in theirknowledge. The quality ofteaching was also unevenand the curriculum onlypartly covered."

Often citizenshipshared a timetable slotwith Personal, Social,Health and Economic

(PSHE) education, butthe time allowed was "toolittle to do justice toeither subject", inspec-tors say. Inspectorspraised schools whichgave pupils opportunitiesoutside the classroom -for example through vol-unteering or being part ofa school council.

Ofsted chief inspectorChristine Gilbert, said:"Citizenship is becominga well established part ofthe school curriculumand this report highlightsthe ways in whichschools are successfullypromoting social respon-sibility, communityinvolvement and politicalunderstanding. It isimportant that the goodpractice featured in thereport is replicated morewidely."

The government hasaccepted the report'sfindings in full and says itwill maintain the numberof initial teacher trainingplaces for the subject andcontinue to provide extratraining for existing teach-ers.

Ofsted highlights 'gaps' incitizenship teaching

Fewer secondaryschools in Englandare meeting a gov-ernment target onpupils taking aGCSE in a modernforeign language, asurvey suggests.

Ministers wantschools to have"between 50% and90%" of pupils tak-ing a modern foreign lan-guage at GCSE. But asurvey for The NationalCentre for Languages(Cilt) suggests only 40%of state schools meet thistarget - and that the trendis downwards.

The government saysthe proportion of pupilstaking languages has sta-bilised. Across the board,in England last summer,44% of pupils in KeyStage 4 (15- and 16-year-olds) took a languageGCSE. That proportionhad not changed sincethe previous year. Beforethat there had been dra-matic falls, stemmingback to the decision in2004 to make languagesnon-compulsory from theage of 14. But accordingto Cilt, that statistic hidesa patchy picture.

Independent schools,selective state schoolsand schools specialisingin languages remainstrong in this area, whilein other state schools,

fewer pupils are takinglanguage GCSES, theorganisation says.

The survey for TheNational Centre forLanguages (Cilt) suggeststhe number of schoolswhere at least half ofpupils in Year 10 study alanguage is down to 40%.This compares to 45%last year. The online sur-vey was of 2,000 schools(1,500 state and 500independent) and wascarried out in theautumn.

Cilt's report on theannual survey said:"There is little sign yet ofa recovery in take up forlanguages in Key Stage 4which have been indecline since 2002-3."

The organisationclaims a key obstacle toincreasing the take-up oflanguages is "league tablepressures" - that schoolsare steering pupilstowards subjects in whichthey are more likely to gettop grades.

Fewer schools hitlanguage target

EDUCATION

An eight-year-old boy andhis nine year-old sisterhave both gained A*grades in GCSE maths.

Raam Songara and hissister Meera began study-ing independently afterthey were given mathstextbooks by theirfather Dipak when theywere just four and five.

But Mr Songara, 38,was astonished whenthey ploughed throughthe key stage two booksand kept getting themmore to feed theirappetite for numbers.

When the childrenreached GCSE mathslevel books last year, MrSongara gave them afoundation paper to tryand was amazed whenthey scored over 90 percent.

He asked the childrenif they would like to take aGCSE exam and arrangedwith Luton Sixth FormCollege in Bedfordshirefor them to sit the twoexams as external candi-dates.

After sitting the testsin November, theyreceived the results lastThursday, both gainingtop A* grades by scoringover 90 per cent, withouthaving any private tuition.

Mr Songara said he

only got them the books tokeep them occupied whilehe and wife 30, lookedafter younger brothersShiva, seven, and theother, three.

Risk management con-sultant Mr Songara, fromLuton, Beds., said: ''Theyjust kept on wanting to

learn. We are all over themoon with the results.

''They didn't havetutors, I just saw that theywere learning at their ownspeed so I let them get onwith it.

''My main concern is tokeep them happyand they seemedto be enjoyingthe maths - andit kept themquiet.''

Raam, nownine, and Meera,now 10, are stu-dents atM o o r l a n d sI n d e p e n d e n tSchool in Luton.

The paircould skip ahead

at school but theirparents wanted them toremain with their peergroup, although Raamdoes study maths twoyears ahead.

Mr Songara, who has adegree in ActuarialScience, who originatefrom Nani Rafoodar (nearLalpur) & Jamnagar,

Gujarat, added: ''We wereover the moon when wegot the results. The wholefamily was screaming andshouting.

''I just want them toenjoy their childhood.There's no rush for themto take their A Levels.''

But the children thor-oughly enjoyed the experi-ence and are keen to con-tinue.

Meera said: ''We didn'tknow that the results werecoming out so it was a sur-prise when Dad gave usthe envelope.

''I couldn't believe itwhen we opened it up andwe had both got A*s. Itwas an amazing feeling.''

Raam added: ''I lovedoing maths, it's reallyfun. It was exciting to dothe exam and get theresults, I just want to keepon doing it.''

Raam wants to becomea mathematician one daybut Meera's favourite sub-ject is English and she iskeeping her options openfor the future.

Boy, 8, and sister, 9, get GCSE A* in maths

Meera and Raam Songara

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 201010 ART & CULTURE

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was thepre-eminent political and spiritualleader of India during the Indian inde-pendence movement. He was the pio-neer of Satyagraha—resistanceto tyranny through mass civildisobedience, a philosophyfirmly founded uponahimsa or total nonvio-lence—which led Indiato independence andinspired movementsfor civil rights andfreedom across theworld. Gandhi is com-monly known aroundthe world as MahatmaGandhi and in India alsoas Bapu. He is officiallyhonoured in India as theFather of the Nation; his birthday,2 October, is commemorated there asGandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, andworldwide as the International Day ofNon-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violentcivil disobedience while an expatriatelawyer in South Africa, during the resi-dent Indian community's struggle forcivil rights. After his return to India in1915, he organised protests by peasants,farmers, and urban labourers concern-ing excessive land-tax anddiscrimination. After assum-ing leadership of the IndianNational Congress in 1921,Gandhiji led nationwide cam-paigns to ease poverty,expand women's rights, buildreligious and ethnic amity,end untouchability, andincrease economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimedto achieve Swaraj or the inde-pendence of India from for-eign domination. Gandhifamously led his followers inthe Non-cooperation move-ment that protested theBritish-imposed salt tax withthe 400 km (240 mi) DandiSalt March in 1930. Later, in1942, he launched the QuitIndia civil disobedience movementdemanding immediate independence forIndia. Gandhi spent a number of yearsin jail in both South Africa and India.

As a practitioner of ahimsa, heswore to speak the truth and advocatedthat others do the same. Gandhi livedmodestly in a self-sufficient residentialcommunity and wore the traditionalIndian dhoti and shawl, woven withyarn he had hand spun on a charkha.He ate simple vegetarian food, eventual-ly adopting a fruitarian diet, and alsoundertook long fasts as a means of bothself-purification as well as socialprotest.

On 30 January 1948, Gandhi wasshot while having his nightly public

walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan(Birla House) in New Delhi. The assas-sin, Nathuram Godse, was a nationalistwho held Gandhi responsible for weak-

ening India by insisting upon apayment to Pakistan.

Godse and his co-con-spirator Narayan Aptewere later tried and con-victed; they were exe-cuted on 15 November1949. Gandhi's memo-rial (or Samadhi) at RajGhat, New Delhi, bearsthe epigraph "He Ram",

which may be translatedas "Oh God". These are

widely believed to beGandhi's last words after he

was shot, though the veracity ofthis statement has been disputed.

Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nationthrough radio:

"Friends and comrades, the light hasgone out of our lives, and there is dark-ness everywhere, and I do not quiteknow what to tell you or how to say it.Our beloved leader, Bapu as we calledhim, the father of the nation, is no more.Perhaps I am wrong to say that; never-theless, we will not see him again, as wehave seen him for these many years, wewill not run to him for advice or seeksolace from him, and that is a terribleblow, not only for me, but for millionsand millions in this country."

Gandhi's ashes were poured intourns which were sent across India formemorial services. Most were immersedat the Sangam at Allahabad on 12February 1948 but some were secretlytaken away.

In 1997, Tushar Gandhi immersedthe contents of one urn, found in a bankvault and reclaimed through the courts,at the Sangam at Allahabad. On 30January 2008 the contents of anotherurn were immersed at GirgaumChowpatty by the family after a Dubai-based businessman had sent it to aMumbai museum. Another urn hasended up in a palace of the Aga Khan inPune (where he had been imprisonedfrom 1942 to 1944) and another in the

Self-Realisation Fellowship Lake Shrinein Los Angeles.

Gandhi Nirvan day in London

! In London, Mahatma GandhiFoundation (UK) is observing GandhiNirvan Day on Friday 29th January at6:30pm in Kenton at St Gregory'sCatholic Science College. HE NalinSurie, Indian High Commission andMPs, Lords, Mayours of Harrow andBrent are invited.

! The India League is observing thesame on 30th January 2010 at 11am intavistock square, London WC1 whereMahatma's statue is situated.

Gandhi Nirvan Din30th January 1948

Spriha’sCorner

B4U Music, the UK’sleading Asian network,was the official mediasponsor of the AsianBride Show 2010 held atthe prestigious WembleyStadium on January 23-24.

Brides-to-be andwedding planners allmade their way to theAsian Bride Show 2010,a two-day bridalshow organised by AsianWoman Magazine andwhich featured the A-Zof a wedding.

More than 10,000visitors attended theevent held at theWembley stadium onJanuary 23 and 24, 2010.

From High Streetretailers to specialistAsian brands, there wasa diverse range of prod-ucts to cater to everyaspect of a couple's bigday. Among the high-lights were on-the-spot

photo shoots and theopportunity to meet andseek advice from indus-try professionals on howto plan the perfect wed-ding.

B4U Music, whichwill feature the secondedition of the WeddingPlanner program inMarch 2010, covered theevent for broadcast, andgot the latest Asian wed-dings trends fromexhibitors, caterers,designers and photogra-phers at the show.

One of the big attrac-

tions at theevent was theeye-catchingBol lywood-themed cat-walk show-casing thelatest trendsin glamorousd e s i g n e rAsian bridalwear.

An entertaining per-formance by talentedyoung singer NavinKundra, with his loveballad Teri Leye and hisupbeat new singleMehbooba were a big hitwith the visitors.

Celebrity guests atthe show included theimmensely popular new-lyweds, Shay and Sunny,and brother Tindy fromChannel 4’s The(Grewal) Family series.The couple signed auto-graphs and put on anentertaining act on stage.

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at [email protected]

B4U music shines at Asian Bride Show 2010By Spriha Srivastava

We have all grown uphearing the word “Sewa”from our elders and havesomehow taken it forgranted. It is basically aSanskrit word thatmeans selfless service. Itis a beautiful conceptand what is even morebeautiful is the fact thatfrom now on aday has beendedicated tothis.

Well yes,Last week on14th January2010, aboutfifty commu-nity groupsand three hun-dred peoplebraved the icyweather ofLondon tocome together andlaunch ‘National SewaDay’ at the Shree KutchSatsang SwaminarayanTemple in Stanmore,London. At this historicevent - cultural, religious,caste, youth, sports &health groups pledged toorganise activities thatpromote social actionand volunteering fortheir members on 21stNovember 2010 – whichis the first National SewaDay (NSD).

On behalf of SewaInternational (UK) – thecoordinating organisa-tion behind NationalSewa Day, Mr. ArupGanguly, said,

“We are humbledwith the level of supportthat this idea has attract-ed and hope and wel-come more community

groups and individualswill join hands with us tomake National Sewa Daya success in 2010.”

The aim of this eventis to undertake more andmore projects in order toprovide service to thosein need. But the projectsthat this initiative will

undertake must abide bythree governing princi-ples. Firstly, it shouldaim to relieve hardshipand poverty. Secondly,the project should bringa little joy where noneexists. And finally, it is tohelp the environment.

The projects will varyand encompass all ageand ability groups. Thetwo rules that will applyuniversally are that eachtask must not take upmore than one day tocomplete and that nofund!raising takes placeon NSD.

The first NationalSewa Day that will beheld on 21st November,2010 will provide peoplea chance to give back tothe community throughvolunteering on a singleday to make a difference.

Events are being organ-ised by participatingorganisations up anddown the country toallow the community achance to come togetheron one day.

All the events organ-ised will take place onthe same and will not

have anyfundraising asthis is anopportunity togive back to thecommunity bygiving up some-thing as valu-able – our time.From Infantsthrough toP e n s i o n e r s

anyone can getinvolved andmake a differ-

ence.The concept is surely

an excellent collabora-tion between variousorganisations and indi-viduals in the Indiancommunity in UK.

Mr Arup Gangulyconcluded by saying:“Today marks a veryimportant day, as thefounding organisations’give us confidence towork in partnership withgroups all across thecountry to reduce hard-ship & poverty, to helpour environment, and tobring a little joy allthrough volunteering –not by fund raising. It is away for all of us to makeour mark regardless ofour affiliation, level ofreligious conviction,wealth, age, sex ornationality.”

National “Sewa” Day launched in UK

Founding organisations with Rt. Hon. Gareth

Thomas MP, Minister for International Development

- signalling his support for the initiative

Pandit Nehru with Mahatma Gandhi

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 2010 11UK

Protect your lungs whenusing cut-off sawsIf you work on the roadsbuilding or maintaininghighway paving then youare likely to use a cut-offsaw. In English it is alsoknown as a disc cutter or a‘whizzer’. As you knowcutting kerbs, paving orblocks can produce enor-mous amounts of stonedust. This dust will containsome very tiny dust parti-cles called in English ‘res-pirable crystalline silica’(known as RCS). Exposureto RCS dust can cause seri-ous health problems and

may eventually kill you.Large amounts of crys-

talline silica can be foundin kerbs, flagstones, bricks,tiles and concrete. Cuttingany of these with a pow-ered saw produces the verytiny RCS particles. Theyare so small that they can-not be seen. If you breathein RCS you could developthe following diseases:

Silicosis - Silicosismakes breathing more diffi-cult and increases the riskof lung infections.

Lung cancer – heavyand prolonged exposure toRCS can cause lung cancer.

Chronic lung diseases –like bronchitis or emphyse-ma which cause breathless-ness and prolonged cough-ing. They are slow to devel-op and are rarely seen inpeople under 40. They canbe very disabling and areleading causes of prema-ture death.

How to reduce the riskto your lungs

Damp down the dust.Water suppression is your

first line of defence. Allmodern cut-off saws havean attachment for a waterhose. You need a minimumwater flow rate of 0.5 litresper second to damp downthe dust effectively.

Even with water sup-pression you will need towear a suitable dust mask.Normal masks for stoppingnuisance dust do not pro-tect your lungs. Your maskshould have a protectionfactor of 10. Even whenwater suppression is work-ing effectively you shoulduse either a mask calledFFP3 or a respirator with

P3 filters.Your employer must

provide you with this basicequipment and train you touse it free of charge. If youremployer does not respondthen you can call HSE inconfidence.

Maintain equipment! There is no point inusing good equipment if itis not working properly.You should check yourmachinery and safetyequipment regularly.! Make sure the water jetsare working properly.Maintaining an adequatewater flow by cleaning the

water jets is essential andshould be done at leastevery time the blades arechanged.! Replace worn cuttingdiscs to reduce the cuttingtime.! Maintain the hoses andwater bottles.! Inspect and maintainmasks – masks should bereplaced regularly.

Other risksYou should consider thesafety of others as well asyourself when you operatea cut-off saw. Use suitablepersonal protective equip-ment such as hard hats,safety glasses and eardefenders. Make sure theseitems are worn correctly

and are suitable to be usedall at the same time.

Remember!! You cannot always seedust from cutting! Dust could harm work-mates or other peoplestanding near you! Always damp down dust! Wear a suitable dust mask

If you are worried abouthealth and safety at your sitetalk to your employer, themain contractor or a safetyrepresentative. If you are stillworried, you can contact theHealth and Safety Executive(HSE).

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Asian Voice & GujaratSamachar along withHealth and SafetyExecutive (HSE) -Construction Division ishosting a freeseminar/event at theBrent Indian Association(BIA),Ealing Road onSunday 28th February forconstruction workers pro-viding advice on varioushealth and safety meas-ures they will need to keepin mind whilst they are onthe construction sites.

Also they will be advisedon their statutory rightswhilst they are on con-struction sites.

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Seminar to be held

A large part ofManchester Airportwas evacuated lastweek after a manattempted to carry anunidentified whitepowder onto a plane.

The substance wasdiscovered in a bagthat the Asian man,who is believed to be inhis 20s, was planning totake on a flight fromManchester to LondonHeathrow.

It comes less than 24hours after Britain's terrorlevel was increased to 'se-vere' - meaning an attackis 'highly likely'.

A chemical incidentwas declared and thecheck-in and securityscreening areas at the air-port's Terminal 3 wereevacuated for severalhours.

The rest of the airportremained open, but anumber of flights weredelayed.

The powder - whichthe man was carrying inboth his hand luggage andhold baggage - was laterfound to be harmless.

An ExplosiveOrdinance Device Teamattended the scene butfound no evidence thepowder could be used as adetonator.

The passenger helpeddetectives with theirinquiries at the scene as

the tests were carried outbut no arrests were madein connection with theincident.

The passenger hadbeen trying to board flightBD589 to Heathrow,which was due to departat 1.55pm.

It is understood hetold airport staff that hewas carrying a 'freeze-dried compound' on behalfof a friend.

It is thought the HomeOffice's decision toincrease the terror alertlevel on last Friday nightwas prompted by theimpending visit by HilaryClinton.

Tory MP PatrickMercer, chairman of theCommons counter-terror-ism sub-committee, said itwas not surprising the ter-ror threat had beenupgraded.

He added: 'Thereduced level we have hadrecently is unusual - weare back to the norm'.

Britain is now on asimilar level of alert to theU.S.

Terror scare atManchester AirportThe body of brave Sikh

hero, who was stabbed todeath, returned toPunjab, accompanied byhis father. SukhwinderSingh was stabbed todeath as he chased rob-bers, who had beenrobbed a lady on January8.

Three men werearrested by police buthave been allowed bail.No further arrests havebeen made

Cllr Inder Singh Jamutold a local paper, “Theuntimely death of lateSukhwinder Singh hasearned great recognitionfor this act of braverywhich has earned enor-mous fame to Sikhs par-ticularly in Sikh uniformPunjabis and IndiansUK. Keeping in view hisbravery, Prince Charles,

Body of brave Sikh hero returns to Punjab

Prime Minister GordonBrown, Leader of theBorough of Barking andDagenham Mr Smithwho is my Ward col-league, PoliceCommander and manymore leaders of variousorganisations have sentmessage of condolenceand sympathy to the fam-ily of Sukhwinder Singhalong with members andvisitors of GurudwaraSingh Sabha, EastLondon.

“The leader of bor-ough of Barking &Dagenham Cllr Liam

Smith has kindly agreedto my request that a reso-lution to recognise thebravery of SukhinderSingh will be passed inthe next Assembly of theCouncil. Sardar PakharSingh father ofSukhwinder Singh ofVillage DholanwalDistrict Ludhianaarrived here on 22January to take the bodyof his son back home.

“Bhog ceremony washeld on 23 January atGurdwara Barking whichwas heavily attended byvarious organisationsand Gurdwaras represen-tatives in spite of inter-national conference onsame day at Coventryagainst the new SikhCalendar. To providefinancial support to thevictim’s family moneywas generously donatedfrom various parts of thecountry including dona-tions from British peo-ple.

“A local FuneralCompany, who arrangesfuneral services has con-ducted a free service as atoken of sympathy withSikh community.

“DGPC has ceasedthis opportunity and hasmade necessary arrange-ments including specialcar with Sewadars totake body from DelhiAirport to VillageDholanwal.”

Sukhwinder Singh


Scrutator’s“Harbingers of hope for India in 2010?”: SoutikBiswas's title for his thoughtful BBC News blog was agood read. “Has India's 'Deciding Decade' begun?, heasks. “A study done by a Delhi-based economic researchfirm along with a leading newspaper, thinks so. It saysthat India's GDP can grow at an average annual rate of9.6 per cent for the next tenyears even if there were noreforms. Incomes will dou-ble, the middle class willburgeon and urbanizationwill proceed at breakneckspeed.”

So much for his openinglines. The rash of positiveIndian stories, however,were topped by news fromBihar, for long a basket case,the

“poorest, most lawless,underdeveloped – appears tohave clocked the fastest rateof growth during 2008-2009.Mr Biswas says that if the“Bihar government is to be believed, the state's growthrate – 11.4 per cent – is higher than India's industriallydeveloped states.... Bihar's remarkable 'turnaround'shows the way for India, in a way.” The quoted aca-demic Pratap Bhanu Mehta put it well: “for the firsttime in modern Indian history, Indians, including thevery marginalized, have an idea that change is possible:our destinies are ours to shape.”

A Times of India report (January 4) set this achieve-ment in a broader context. The previously designated'sick' states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, UttarPradesh and Orissa, but now they were escaping thepoverty trap with 7 per economic growth. Apropos ofBihar, once considered the most hopeless of the lot, TheTimes said: “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar deserves anaward for the most inclusive revolution of the decade.”And so say all of us.

Defining India

The Wall Street Journalwriter S.Mitra Kalita'sarticle, “The Decade thatDefined India – and IndiaDefined” (December 28,2009) was an absorbinganalysis of India's emer-gence from the shadows.

Ms Kalita set thescene. “Nobody knewwhat would happen when1999 ended. Would com-puter systems crash andparalyze machines?....The

Indians called in tohelp....worked days andnights....This was thedecade that defined India -and India defined....Americans didn't knowIndia at all, [the image ofthe country being] ofsnake charmers and theTaj Mahal, poverty andfilth....Ten years later, theworld is in panic modeagain....this time, it's fromthe evolution of that nas-cent outsourcing modelinto the engine of a robustglobal player that can do

more than serve US com-panies....The bookends ofthis decade are significantfor India and its place inthe new economic order.The backlash against out-sourcing remains a veryreal threat, intensifyingamid 10 per cent unem-ployment in the US. Butoutsourcing – and the ideathat companies must oper-ate cheaply, efficiently,globally – has come to bean accepted, inescapablereality....Indeed many

information-technologyconsultants who workedfor Y2K-related clients 10years ago have gone intobusiness for themselves,twisting the outsourcingmodel into all sorts of sec-tors, from transcribinghospital records to offer-ing American teenagershelp with their home-work.”

Into the future

Ms Katila concludes: “Butcongratulations for Indiamust be fleeting. It is too

easy to look backward tosee how far it has come. Itis hardly fruitful to lookforward to a time that itmight surpass China orthe US as a superpower.What will distinguishIndia in the decade thatbegins Friday [January 1,2010] is its ability to lookinward, to clean its gov-ernment, to uplift more ofits population, to fosterthe businesses and inno-vations....and make [the]success of the last 10 yearsthe norm across regionsand industries.That mightjust clinch more than thenext decade – it couldpave the way for an Indiancentury.” It's all to play for.

Indian strength

Lord Mandelson, UKSecretary for Business,Innovation and Skills,during a visit to NewDelhi in December 2009,where, addressing localentrepreneurs, heremarked that Tata'sinvestments in the Jaguarand Land Rover automo-tive brands had woken upBritain to the growingstrength of Indian manu-facturing.

Distinguishing thepast from the present, hesaid: “ There are manyfacets of India's relation-ship with Britain inrespect of history lan-guage, culture, values,democracy and the rule oflaw. But our futureengagement will be aboutcollaborating in scienceand research, joint ven-tures in high value, hightechnology-based syner-gies drawn from bothcountries and innovationwill provide the spark, theagenda.

There were, he wenton. almost 250 partner-ships in India betweenBritish universities andinstitutions and this maygrew tenfold in the nextfive years. LordMandelson also said thatnearly 2,500 British entre-preneurs would getBritish government sup-port in their search forIndian partners to sharetheir technology andknow-how in sectors likeinfrastructure, automo-tive, life sciences and ener-gy.

India-Israeli

ties deepen

Zee News online (inIndia) stated (January 6)that India and Israel weredeepening their securityties with a meetingbetween their respectiveexperts in New Delhi onstepped up co-operation incounter-terrorism andrelated fields.

These issues were dis-cussed between India'ssecurity chiefM.K.Narayanan and hisIsraeli counterpart UziArad. India-Israel anti-ter-

rorist co-operation hadgrown exponentially fol-lowing the Pakistan terrorattack on Mumbai on26/11 2008.

The bilateral jointworking group on count-er-terrorism met in NewDelhi in December (2009)and held detailed delibera-tion on ways in whichsuch co-operation couldbe enhanced, particularlyin the field of intelligencesharing.

A separate meetingtook place between theIsraeli agriculture minis-ter, heading a large Israelibusiness delegation, andhis Indian counterpart,Sharad Pawar, on ways tointensify India-Israeli co-operation in agriculture.The two sides reviewedbilateral co-operation inthis field and were satis-fied at the progress, butthey believed that therewas room for furtherimprovement in recyclingwaste water, efficient useof water in agriculture andhigher value agriculture.

Mr Pawar was invitedto pay a visit to Israel toacquaint himself with thelatest Israeli advances inwater management andother areas of agriculture.

Solar eclipse

India launched a total of10 Rohini rockets from theThumba EquatorialRocket Launching Stationin Kerala and the SatishDhawan Space Centre in

Sriharikota to study theeffects of the longestannual solar eclipse of thismillennium. An Indianspace scientist at Thumbasaid: “It was a spectacularsight. It was an exhilarat-ing experience. On the onehand, there was the awe-inspiring sight of themoon covering the disc ofthe afternoon sun....Onthe other hand, was theroar of five sounding rock-ets zooming into the skyone after another, com-

plete with a countdownand commentary....thestudy of such rare phe-nomenon as the annualsolar eclipse is not onlyintellectually rewardingbut has useful, long-term

practical applications.”(The Hindu January 16)

Meanwhile, SrikumarBanerjee Chairman,Atomic EnergyCommission, said a sec-ond Bhabha AtomicResearch Centre would beestablished inVisakhapatnam sinceBARC, Trombay, wasexpanding in a big way.The Visakhapatnam cen-tre would concentrate onenergy science and theenvironment.

The Department ofAtomic Energy's mandate

was also to conduct basicresearch in physics, chem-istry, mathematics andmaterial sciences, DrBanerjee said.

V.K. Saraswat,Director-General, DefenceResearch andD e v e l o p m e n tOrganization (DRDO)said it was working onhypersonic cruise missiles.It had developed anengine for missiles thatwas driven by kerosene(The Hindu, January 5).

Bajaj Auto

posts new high

Bajaj Auto's new brandstrategy in motorcyles haspaid off well, with thecompany on course torecord its best year ever inprofitability and marketshare. Its market share,which was barely 17 percent a year ago, hasjumped to 35 per centtoday. “We have more thandoubled our our marketshare in a year and wouldbe at our highest level bythe end of this quarter,”said Rajiv Bajaj, ManagingDirector.

His confidence clearlystems from the fact thatthere were still threemonths to go before for therecently launched Pulsar135cc to consolidate itselfin the market and startclocking volumes.(Business Line, January12)

Heart valve

that worked

A new heart valvedesigned at the Sree ChitraTirunal Institute forMedical Sciences andTechnology inThiruvanthapuram inKerala has made a differ-ence to the lives of peoplewith damaged valves,notably for its greateraffordability, stemmingfrom its lower cost. Withstates like Andhra Pradeshand Tamil Nadu startinghealth insurance schemesfor the poor the demandfor this valve is set to grow.

“Nothing was morepainful or cruel than thedenial of a surgical proce-dure to a patient on theground that a life savingdevice was beyond his orher means,” wrote M.S.Valiathan, who headed theSree Chitra TirunalInstitute for two decades.

In 1976, with a projectfunded by the Departmentof Science and Technologybe initiated efforts to makehearty valves within thecountry with superiordurability because of itsmechanical device, not onethat used human or animaltissue, said G.S.Bhuvaneshwar who cameto the institute as a youngengineer and was entrust-ed with the task of devel-oping the valve.

He must be a fulfilledand happy man.

Bajaj Pulsar 135cc model motorbike

The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson in India

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

Indian rockets to study the eclipse

MEDIA WATCH

Flying into the StarAlliance seems still a longjourney for Air India, asone of the basic require-ments – of systems integra-tion is yet to complete forthe Maharaja. This was theassessment of WolfgangMayrhuber, chairman andchief executive ofLufthansa the German car-

rier and one of the found-ing members of the StarAlliance after a meeting hehad with Air India chair-man and managing direc-tor Arvind Jadhav.

Lufthansa CEO alsosaid Air India still hassome other issues thatneeded to be sorted outapart from upgradation of

the IT technology. Theprocess of Air India joiningthe Star Alliance startedway back in 2006, when itgot the invitation to get onboard with a group of 25airlines globally. Thealliance has a network thatoperates more than 19,500flights daily from 1,071 air-ports in 171 countries.

Being a member of thealliance brings in benefitsof improved product offer-ing, better service stan-dards, access to new mar-kets and premium cus-tomers as well as partner-ship with leading global

airlines. Sharing of airportlounges and synchronisa-tion of flight schedules arealso benefits that provideseamless travel to passen-gers on a single ticket eventhough they may have tofly with more than onecarrier in a single journey.

Air India already hasmade Frankfurt its hub forEurope and the USA,which is the hub forLufthansa.

The two also have acode sharing pact. TheGerman airline seestremendous growth poten-tial in India.

Dear Financial Voice Reader,

I write to you from Dubai where we are launchingnew Sterlingmarkets.com services. Here, as from else-where, the popularity of Financial TV has never beengreater. Each fortnight I co-host a slot on CNBC inLondon for an hour. Sometimes I come across CEOs.Every Wednesday on Bloomberg TV I would cross-examine the CEO of a company who had their resultsthat day. You may think CEOs speak English. It maysound like the language you use to communicate. Butit is not. It is ‘CEOese’. Here are some translations.

CEO: Profits are up

Translation: Profit is opinion, but cash is fact. Ourprofits are up even though we have less cash in thebank because:

we sold some of our ‘crown jewel’ assets as a oneoff. So the profit rise is a one-off exceptional item notthe start of a trend. And those assets we sold, we’llneed those in the future.

Actually, when we said we sold those assets, itwasn’t for cash. It was a barter arrangement andummm… so our cash balance isn’t improved…buthey, we can still call it profit because we put a ‘notion-al value’ in the accounts.

CEO: Prospects are good

Translation: We are not telling you about the con-tingent liabilities; the lawsuits and the pension provi-sions. We can lean on the accountant to say it is nottoo bad and so our figures don’t look too bad, untilthe proverbial hits the fan that is. But hey, I’ll haveleft by then.

CEO: I have every confidence in the company

Translation: That damn headhunter still hasn’tagreed my golden handshake at the next job.

CEO: We have increased profits from increased

revenue growth.

Translation: You might think sales are growingand this is adding to profits, especially with widerprofits margins. That would get your vote. But I amafraid I am tricking you. We are counting money thatis expected but not in hand. That allows us to showgreater revenues and profits. Guess what? Sometimeswe think there is little chance of getting that money.Bristol-Myers Squibb overstated $2.5 billion in rev-enues and $900 million in earnings between 1999 and2001 by giving incentives to move product before theend of its quarters.

CEO: We have increased market share

Translation: Sounds good doesn’t it. Actually thisis achieved from a lower profit margin and that meansprice-cutting to increase volume. That can be fine inthe short-term, but longer term I do not rate thoseearnings as necessarily high quality.

CEO: Our cost-cutting programme means our

profits are up

Translation: Cost cutting can be a short-term ben-efit before longer term profitability is hit. Imagine forinstance companies cutting on research and develop-ment. This years earnings go up, but in five years youpay the real price for potentially under-investing.

CEO: People selling our stock are midguided

Translation: Actually they’re &*&S! In April2000, Enron CEO called hedge

fund manager Richard Grubman an a--hole duringa conference call with analysts and investors. Lessthan eight months later, the company was filing forbankruptcy, costing investors billions.

CEO: Don’t worry about the footnotes

Translation: Heck that’s where I have hiddeneverything.

CEO: If you ignore the one-offs it looks very

healthy

Translation: Yeah, these one-off expenses come inevery year, they’re not so one off. Cendant, Kodak,

Edison International, HCA, Weyerhauser. Each ofthese companies took a special charge/gain in each ofthe 20 quarters between 1998 and 2002.

CEO: We’re sorry to lose him as a director, but

he’ll still be a consultant

Translation: Yes, a very lucrative consulting con-tract indeed and I hope to get one when I leave…we’retrying to make it a tradition in the board room.

CEO: The director did well and so we feel the

perks are sound practice

Translation: Damn you’re good, no one hardly evernotices the non-cash perks such as flights on the cor-porate jet. Of course that doesn’t mean we run thecompany like a personal bank account…much.

CEO: Yes, we have increased the amount in non-

audit fees with pay the accounting firm

Translation: Damn again, you really know yourstuff. Okay Enron also paid a lot more to their audi-tors, who just happened to look the other way, butwe’re not playing that game. Honest.

Alpesh Patel

Consultant EditorFinancial Voice

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UK benefited from Indian investments in 20094,000 jobs created in Britain, says Prince Michael of Kent

Even as the globaleconomies were under theimpact of the severe melt-down, Britian gained sub-stantially from Indianinvestments and the bilat-eral trade between the twocountries witnessed a dou-ble digit growth in 2009,Prince Michael of Kentsaid in Mumbai, the com-mercial capital of Indialast week. He also pledged

a donation of $100,000 forrebuilding Nariman Housethat was badly damaged inthe 26/11 attack.

Indian investmentswere instrumental to create4,000 jobs in UK the previ-ous, as the India – UK tradecrossed £12 billion. Heemphasised that the twocountries need to worktogether as there is a poten-tial for further business

growth. Prince Michael wason a three day visit to Indiato visit the GlobalEconomic Summit inMumbai. He said India andUK should co-operate infacilitating more small busi-nesses in the both thecountries through venturecapital, appropriate financ-ing vehicles as also reduc-ing the red tape. Limitedlong term finances, con-

straints on external com-mercial borrowings and alimited bond markets werethe impediments, he added.

A strong SME sector isvery important for emerg-ing economies like India.Financing from innovativesources such as mutual,pension and infrastructurefunds should also beexplored, Prince Michaelfurther added.

ONGC, Hindujas in dispute overIranian gas share quantum

The joint venture betweenIndia’s state owned firmONGC and HindujaGroup, the business groupowned by British businessbarons of Indian origin isin a dispute over the quan-tum of share that theyhave got from Iran afterthey succeeded in findinghuge gas reserves at thegiant Sourt Pars gas fieldin the gulf country.

According to sourcesin the knowledge of the

matter, Oil and NaturalGas Corporation (ONGC)feels that the joint venturewas offered a stake by Iranwas primarily due toONGC’s expertise in thebusiness. Hence, it wantsseventy five percent of thejv’s share in the LNG thatIran has offered, while theHindujas say their sub-sidiary (Ashok LeylandProjects Services (ALPS)should get fifty per cent ofthe LNG. ONGC is of the

view that as ALPS has noexperience in the oil andgas exploration and pro-duction, they should getonly twenty five per cent.

Iran signed agreementsjust last month after yearsof tough negotiations. Asper the agreements, theONGC led joint venturewould get 40 per cent ofthe gas in SP – 12. There isalso another three wayjoint venture betweenONGC, ALPS and

Petronet LNG that is apartner in Iran LNG. Thiscompany is setting up aplant to convert gas fromSP – 12 field into LNG forexports. Iran LNG pactprovides that the Indian jvwill buy 20 per cent stake.Here, the Hinduja groupwants half of the stake foritself, leaving half to beshared between ONGCand Petronet LNG. Thereare differences on thispartnership too.

British business group wants half of the jv share, ONGC to give only a quarter

Star Alliance is still far away for AIMaharaja yet to complete systems integration

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UK out of recession after 18 monthsRecovery very meager – just 0.1 growth for Q4 of 2009

Against an expectation of0.4 per cent growth, UKregistered a very meagereconomic growth of 0.1per cent for the October –December 2009 period,signalling that the countryhas just been able to beatthe recession after 18months of downslide.

The lower growth hasraised fears that the coun-try could slip back, as UKwitnessed an overall melt-down of 6 per cent and 4.8per cent for last year, thebiggest annual contractionsince 1949.

UK is the last of themajor G7 countries toemerge out of the melt-down effect.

Analysts term thegrowth as a blow to hopesof a decisive upturn.

Jonathan Loynes, ananalyst at CapitalEconomics, said “As

household incomes arestill under pressure, creditin short supply and amajor fiscal squeeze loom-ing, the path to a fullrecovery is going to be along and bumpy one”. Hepredicted the GDP growthfor the country would bebelow 1 per cent in 2010.Hetal Mehta, senior eco-nomic adviser to the Ernst& Young Item Club, saidthe preliminary GDP esti-mate was at odds withmuch more upbeat surveydata.

'There is a strong pos-sibility that the Q4 figureswill be revised up,' sheadded.

While unemploymentfell for the first time in 18months, manufacturingsector also recorded anupturn. ONS data said thepositive growth was driv-en by the distribution,

hotels and restaurants sec-tors.

A Treasury spokesmansaid: 'The Chancellor hasalways said that the econ-omy would return togrowth by the turn of theyear, and today's estimateof 0.1 per cent growth inthe fourth quarter bearsthat judgment out.

'What this estimatemakes clear is that theGovernment is right to beconfident but cautiousabout the prospects for theeconomy and that it isright that we keep sup-porting the economy.

No early withdrawl ofsupport, assures Brown

As minister have pri-vately expressed fears ofUK likely to slip back intorecession, Prime MinsterGordon Brown insistedthat as British was last toemerge out of the slump,

tightening the belt wouldbe likely only in 2011

The Prime Minister,speaking at his monthlypress conference, said: 'Myjudgment was that we hadto act quickly, decisivelyand dramatically to dealwith the recession.

'I have been provedright. My judgment aboutthe present situation iswithdraw the stimulus tooquickly and you lose jobsand you put the recoveryat risk.

Tory leader DavidCameron said it was goodnews that official statisticsare expected to confirmthat Britain is finally outof recession. But he saidthat with Britain borrow-ing £6,000 a second, therecovery was being put atrisk by Mr Brown's refusalto begin immediate publicspending cuts.

SpiceJet ready to fly beyond India, buying 4 new planesThe Indian low cost carrier to hire 140 – 150 new staff for the expansion

One of India’s biggest lowcost airlines, SpiceJet isready to fly beyond Indiaas it completes five yearsof its operations in thecountry in May next. Theairline is to buy 4 new air-crafts and has plans to hireabout 150 new employees– about 100 flight atten-dants and 40 pilots for theexpansion.

SpiceJet chief execu-tive Sanjay Aggarwal,speaking to mediamen saidthey have already appliedfor permission to fly to SriLanka, Nepal, Bangladeshand the Maldives. The cur-rent regulations in Indiarequire that an airlineshould have a minimum offive years of domestic

operations, before it can beallowed to fly abroad.SpiceJet is set to completethat period in May.

The airline at presentowns and operates a fleetof 19 Boeing aircrafts.

Sanjay Aggarwal fur-ther said the airline also

has plans to raise hugeamount of funds for futuregrowth. At present, asSpiceJet has enoughmoney, they are yet placethe proposal of furtherfund raising before theboard of directors. Theywould be aiming at mobi-

lizing an amount of uptoUS$ 75 million.

Flying high on recordprofits in Q3

The airline clocked arecord net profit of Rs 1.09billion for Q3 of 2010(October – December,2009) against Rs 180 mil-lion over the same perioda year ago. DropppingATF prices and 36% risein operational income ledthe company to postrobust net profit.

SpiceJet also benefitedfrom the Indian Rupeegoing up against the USdollar, as a part of compa-ny's cost like lease rental,maintenance, employeecosts etc. are dollardenominated.

Reliance Globalcom launches Simply Reliance Plan in UK1.25 p/minute to calls to India; 2.2 million customers worldwide

Reliance Global Call, theglobal leader in web basedcalling card services haslaunched a aggressive andsimple plan that offers,consumers across the UK,the lowest rate of 2.49pence/minute on FreePhone and 1.25 pence perminute on Geographicaccess numbers to callIndia. This plan makes itcheaper for millions ofconsumers in the UK whowant to call India. Withunique services that allowyou do dial directly fromyour phonebook andunmatched voice quality,Reliance consumers enjoya call experience that hasnever been possiblebefore, by any calling cardcustomer.

The new call rates toIndia are applicable forcustomers who sign up/recharge from 10th Dec2009 to 10th Feb 2010.The Simply Reliance planis offered to all existingcustomers, both prepaidand post-paid, as well asnew customers wanting tojoin the Reliance GlobalCall family. This pay as you

use service has no annualor monthly contract or anyother hidden charges andis available onlinewww.relianceglobalcall.com or by calling the toll freenumber 0800 376 9636.

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Maruti whizz past Japanese parentunit in 2009 production, sales

Maruti Suzuki, the leaderin Indian car market,whizzed past its Japaneseparent company SuzukiMotor Corporation in pro-duction and sales for theyear 2009.

Maruti sold 9,67,581cars for the year ended31st December, 2009. Thefigures include exports of1,30,688 cars. The pro-duction numbers were9,66,399 units. SuzukiMotor Corporationrecorded production of9,08,302 units.

Maruti Suzuki has alsoannounced an investmentof Rs. 17 billion at itsManesar plant nearGurgaon, which is aimed

to increase the capacity ofthe plant by 250,000 unitsper annum by 2012.

Suzuki MotorCorporation expects tocross the cumulative salesfigures of 20 million unitsin January, 2010 since itsinception in 1955. This isagainst Maruti Suzukisales of 8 million cars in27 years. The Indian sub-sidiary, which was a jointventure in the initial yearswas started in the 1980sand has been the marketleader right from the startup. Now a fully ownedunit of the Japanese par-ent company, Marutienjoys more than 50%share in India.

Adani’s Mundra Power projectgets UN environment certificateMundra PowerProject in Gujaratof the Adanigroup has beencertified as thefirst of its kinde n v i r o n m e n tfriendly project aUN body, as itwas registered asa CDM (CleanDevelopment Mechanism)project under the UNFC-CC, according to a releaseof Adani Power Limited.

An authorised bodyunder the Kyoto Protocol,UNFCCC registers suchprojects after stringentscrutiny. Mundra PowerProject is being set up witha final capacity of 4,620Mega Watt. Of this, thefirst two super criticalunits of 660 MW each are

scheduled to becommissioned inthe year 2010-11.

In all, APL issetting up a 9,240-MW thermalpower generationcapacity at threeplaces, the otherlocations being

Tiroda in Maharashtra(3,300 MW) and Kawai inRajasthan (1,320 MW).

The enhanced plantefficiency reduces emis-sions of carbon dioxideand all other pollutants byconsuming less fuel perunit of electricity generat-ed. The efficiencyimprovement has led toregistration as CDM proj-ect and earning ofCertified EmissionReductions (CERs).

China bounces backwith 8.7% growth

Beijing about to beat Tokyo as the global no. 2 economy

China has bounced backto economic health, regis-tering an 8.7 growth forthe year 2009. It is all setto overtake Japan as thesecond largest economy ofthe World, The official fig-ures released by govern-ment for the last quarterof 2009 showed a growthof 10.7 per cent, whichwas very much beyondexpectations. The highgrowth was a result ofrecording spending by thegovernment in infrastruc-ture projects.

Analysts though pointout that most the growththat China has registeredis backed by the hugestimulus plans of the gov-ernment that began in

Novermber 2008. Thetotal outlay of the stimu-lus was US$ 586 billion.

China still faces thetwin challenges - a widen-ing gap between urbanand rural areas, and a con-tinued dependence ongrowth that is either gov-ernment-driven or export-led.

Signs of bubblesGlobal experts though

fear that the growth inChina is a bubble and mayburst soon. An economistwith the World Bank,Andrew Burns said, “Wecan already see some signsof bubbles and signs oftensions in the Chineseeconomy, in particular inthe housing sector.”


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Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 201016 FINANCIAL VOICE

Alpesh Patel’s Political Sketchbook:

I have met quite a fewfirst time prospectiveparliamentary candi-dates (PPCs) recently –from all parties. And amquickly under theimpression you eitherneed to be dim or obnox-ious to qualify...or both. Iam considering giving upbeing a vegetarian,because on speaking toPPCs it’s quickly clearthey are from the veg-etable family.

There are someexceptions – RahoulBhansali is a good PPC.But otherwise I get theimpression ego and self-love seem to block theirear passages. And tothink the Cabinet may beselected from this lot oneday. Actually, it won’t.And anyway, say whatyou will about the CivilService, but I rather theyran the country than thevacant wannabe dicta-tors standing for elec-tion.

Take scene one. I wasat a large dinner andseated next to a PPC. Iinnocently asked whichconstituency she’d been‘given’, meaning whichone had the party select-ed her for. On she goesfor what seemed longerthan Avatar about theelectoral process notbeing one where con-stituencies are ‘given’.As I glazed over lookingfor a hammer to bang mytoes for light relief, orwith which to bang herhead in the interests ofdemocracy, I recom-mended she ‘knock on asmany doors as possiblein the campaign’ whichshe took as a comple-ment.

That one fell in thedim and obnoxious cate-gory, because althoughas she pointed out shewas a senior person at afirm who deals with

some big companies anda party hack since shewas out of nappies andso automatically entitledto win, she also wasunder the belief shewould win because ofher ‘national profile’.I’ve got news for you.Local MPs profiles rarelyget them elected. Yourconstituents don’t knowwho you are and don’tcare. That’s why youjoined a party and didn’trun as an independentsweety. Hmmm...seemslike I know more thanher about elections afterall.

Then there was theoccasion at BuckinghamPalace. Another virginPPC. As we stand in lineto be introduced to theQueen, a time perhapswhen decoram and dig-nity are called for, I feelsharp jabbing elbowsfrom behind. No, not theghost of Princess Diana,not even Prince Phillip,but another wannabeMP. Pushing through.Fine. Understandable. Itis the Queen. No longerhas the Queen arrivedthan what does the PPCengage her Majesty in?Conversation about howmuch our would-beexpense fiddler’s daugh-ter loved the Queen’soutfit. As the Queencould not get a word inedgeways – her opinionmattering less to thePPC than the PPCs ownviews, it was difficult totell if the look of disgustfrom the monarch wasbecause she too couldnot find a handy ham-mer.

So for all the entrantsto ‘Make me an MP’ hereare some top tips:

Listen. We the elec-torate want to be heardnot talked at. Read thatagain dimwit. (Sorry forcalling you dimwit, but

I’m playing the odds).You’re not clever,

you’re not better. Wesecretly think if not anMP you’d still be livingoff the state on the dole.

Just because you’vebeen grovelling to theparty and your belovedleader for years does notmean you are entitled toa seat. And if you getvoted in, it’s not yourcharm and delightful witthat did it. Trust me. Itcertainly ain’tthat....ummm and alsoit’s not your looks eitherthat got you elected...however many affairsyour planning as a legis-lator.

And that pose you’veperfected, with the tilt ofyour head. You maythink you’re lookingdown on us with disdain,we just think you’ve gotlong nasal hair.

Don’t be pushy – younever know, a charmingcolumnist with a 180 IQmight be the person youpush and next time hemay name names.

The columnist hailsfrom Karamsad and is aformer Visiting Fellow atCorpus Christi College,Oxford. He readPhilosophy, Politics,Economics at St Anne’sCollege, Oxford when healso interned in the USCongress during theClinton administration,read Law at King’sCollege, London, quali-fying as a barrister. He isa former Bloomberg TVpresenter and FinancialTimes columnist with250+ columns publishedin the FT and author of13 books on businessand the markets. He isthe founder Praefinium –a global AssetManagement [email protected]

The Election – the PPCs:

the dim and the obnoxious

Jet for a stake in MRO jv with Malaysian Airlines

Jet Airways, India’s oldestand one of the best privatecarrier has decided to pickup an equity stake of 26per cent in an MRO jointventure with Hyderabadbased MAS GMRAerospace, the companyhas informed the BSE.

Jet board of directorsgave their approval to theproposal, though the com-pany has not disclosed theamount involved in thedeal.

Jet investment wouldbe partly in cash and part-ly in some other form ofconsideration. MAS GMR

Aerospace EngineeringCompany is a joint ven-ture between the GMRgroup and the engineeringarm of Malaysian Airlines. Private placement route

to raise $150-200 mnSenior Vice President

of the airline also toldreporters that Jet Airwayshas plans to raise $150million to $200 millionthrough placement ofequities to institutions.The details for the samewill be decided in next few

weeks. Airline back in black, earnsnet profit in Q3 for FY 2010

A statement on theOctober – December 2009performance by JetAirways said on Tuesdaythat the airline came outof the red, recording a netprofit of Rs. 1.058 billionagainst net losses of Rs.2.148 billion over thesame period last year.

The profits were in theface a decline of net sales,which stood at Rs. 27.22billion as compared to Rs.29.08 billion for the sameperiod of 2008.

Carrier back in profits, to raise funds through private placement of equity

Gujarat rings in with video telephonyBSNL prepares for commercial launch later this year

Gujarat will be probablyleading on yet anotherfront in the telecom revo-lution. BSNL, the govern-ment owned operator hasalready unveiled VideoTelephony, in associationwith a private partner –SIS. The services will belaunched commerciallyafter a six month selectedtrial run.

Sam Pitroda, advisorto the Prime Minister ofIndia last week unveiledthe services, in associationwith Sai Info Systems(SIS) India Ltd. BSNLgeneral manager SudhirKumar Bhandari, speak-ing to reporters on the

launch, said pilot projectresults have proved thatthe service is of the high-est quality standards.

Sam Pitroda, alsoknown as the father oftelecom revolution inIndia, said video telepho-

ny and broadbandconnectivity havethe potential toenhance educa-tion, healthcaresystem and gov-ernment adminis-tration as well asimprove econom-ic and sociald e v e l o p m e n t .Video phone serv-ice will be avail-able in wire line

as well as wireless mediumover IP. A wide range ofphone equipment fromsimple to high-end modelswill be introduced in themarket, according to SISofficials.

Commonwealth Bank, aleading Australian finan-cial giant would open itsfirst branch in India inMumbai in the secondquarter of 2010, an officialof the bank said.

Pravin Batra, head ofthe commercial bankingdivision of the

Commonwealth Bank,said they have alreadyreceived RBI approval foropening the branch. Thefocus of operations will beon financing trade amongIndia, Australia and NewZealand. Earlier, the bankhad a representative officein Bangalore.

Mumbai to have a Commonwealth

Bank of Australia branch soon

Obese passengers flyingby Air France will berequested to book doubleseats. The airline hasdecided urge them undernew guidelines that will beeffective from 01 April,2010. The French nationalcarrier has cited safety asthe reason.

Air France feels over-weight passengers are a

serious safety hazard toother passengers. They arecausing huge discomfortto fellow travelers. A partof the largest airline groupin Europe in terms of rev-enue, the airline has fur-ther said if the flight is notbooked to full capacity, thepassengers with doublebooking would be givenrefund for the second seat.

Fat travelers to book double

seats with Air France

RIL back to pink

with profits risingTurnover up by 93%, net profit

increases by 16%Reliance IndustriesLimited, one of the largestcorporates of India regis-tered a rise in net profitsfor the Q3 ended 31stDecember, 2009 after fiveconsecutive quarters ofdecline. At Rs. 40.08 bil-lion, the net profitsshowed a rise of 16% (Rs.34.62 billion) over thesame period last year.

The Q3 numbers werebetter than expectations,mainly as gas productionof the company went up

as also increase in crudeoil processing at its newrefinery. The turnover ofRIL turnover increased93% to Rs 588.48 billion,up from Rs 305.37 billionin third quarter of FY09.

RIL’s net during firstnine months of 2009-10,however, declined 1.3% toRs 115.26 bn from Rs116.82 billion for the sameperiod a year ago.

RIL’s outstanding debtas on December 31, 2009,stood at Rs 700.08 billion.

US regulator requested to protect

Satyam in the new avatar

Indian minister for corpo-rate affairs SalmanKhurshid has urged theUS Securities ExchangeCommission (SEC) tokeep in mind the interestsof investors in the scamtainted Saytam ComputerServices, which isMahindra Saytam in thenew avatar, as the SEC islikely to decide on curbson the Indian softwarefirm.

The minister also said

that the government hasestablished the accounta-bility of the erstwhileSatyam management andhas also been able to safe-guard the interests of thestakeholders to a largeextent. “As far as we areconcerned, we have com-municated (to US SEC).The best that could bedone has been done forthe company,” MrKhurshid said.

Mahindra Satyam

faces probable punitiveaction in the US as thecompany’s ADS(American DepositoryShares) were listed andtraded on Americanbourses. In the US, thesecurities laws allowfraud-hit investors to getcompensation from theerrant parties. The SECcan also enforce actionand get damages and com-pensation for theinvestors.

Further curbs will hurt the new owners, shareholders: Salman Khurshid

India will emergeas 3rd largest

economy by 2012A shift in the global eco-nomic power has beenperhaps expedited by theUS financial crisis.PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC), a global consul-tancy firm, in a reportsays India can overtakeJapan to become the 3rdlargest economy globallyby purchasing power pari-ty (PPP).

Goldman Sachs hasprojected in its BRICreport that India couldmarch ahead of Japan, butthe date predicted is 20years behind what PwCprojections.

After 2020, India isexpected to grow fasterthan China. The Asiangiant is also now project-ed to become the no. 1global economy by 2020,PwC reports says.

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 2010 17FINANCIAL VOICE

I have just finishedwatching the film Avatar.The word Avatar comesfrom Sanskrit and meansto Descend. Avatar is afilm with multi layers ofthemes running throughit. It has esoteric themesyet is also very down toearth. In a nutshell we inEarth want to invade

another planet to exploitits resources for money,with no regard for theirdeep culture and connec-tion with mother earth.The earthlings proceedwith their plans with totaldisregard for the indige-nous population.

A similar theme wasthere in the recent TVdocumentary showing ofSlumming It, where theculture cultivated inShanty towns with gener-ation after generationnow faces threat in withthe new 20:20 vision forBombay , where due tothe huge uplift in proper-ty prices these shantytown have literallybecome gold mines andnow face the threat ofbeing grazed to theground in the interest ofpure profit.

It made me wonderwhether the property wedeal in now had it originsin a similar scenario.Perhaps once upon a timeit too formed an impor-tant fabric of the commu-nity, till the profits grewtoo high. And then town-

ships and communitiesbecame exploited and dis-sected with the soleintention of making prof-its.

Lessons learned canbe applied in developingcountries like India,where the country isgoing through a stagger-ing amount of develop-

ment. The developmentshould take into accountthe original and indige-nous members of society.Sadly I doubt this will bethe case as the goldenrule is he who has thegold makes the rules.

This week I am writ-ing about another casewhere we helped usemoney to make moremoney.

This is a recent case,where a clientapproached us to pur-chase and fund a propertyfrom an Auctioneer. Thiswas a probate propertywhere the original ownerhad died and left it tofamily. The family hadbecome frustrated withsome failed sales they hadon the property and want-ing a firm sale to gothrough they put theproperty into auction.This means no ifs andbuts, the property will besold and they will havethe funds in 28 days. Thepurchaser was advised byanother broker to arrangebridging funds.

We advised him not

to. This method would beeasier for the broker notfor the client. To date wehave never used a bridg-ing company to fund forauction purchases, thisshould be done as a lastresort due to the expenseinvolved. Bridging com-panies do release fundsvery quickly even within

24 hours and many arestarting to lend now onvaluation as opposed topurchase price. We man-aged to fund the propertywithin the time frameallowed of 28 days usingconventional funding.

The property was atwo bedroom groundfloor flat on Park Laneleading up to WembleyHigh Rd, minutes awayfrom the newly develop-ing Wembley Central sta-tion where new build onebedroom flats are beingsold for around the£200,000 mark. Thisproperty had a shortishlease of 50 years and wasin a dilapidated condi-tion. The property wasspacious and could haveeasily been convertedinto a three bedroom flat.

Our client has nowsold the property for£216,000 and made ahandsome profit. Thiswas a small development,great for a first timeinvestor, as any mistakesor delayed sales will notcause to much pain.

To profit or notto profit?

Suresh Vagjiani is the Managing Director of Sow & Reap, a Property Investment & Financing company.

THE NAL SAFARI PROJECT

Call On: 0207 706 0187

Sow & ReapCommercial Finance

Gujarat Properties - Sale & ResaleProperty Sourcing

Mortgages

Sow & Reap Properties Limited is trading as Sow & Reap.

Registered in England No. 05083823 Registered Office Address: 31 Southwick Street, Paddington, W2 1JQ

Email at: [email protected]

Are you an outstanding mortgage broker?

If so we want to hear from you!

The ideal candidate must be fully CeMap qualified and

should have: mortgage broking experience, a genuine care

about the needs and requirements of the client, integrity, pro-

fessionalism and commitment. Excellent communication and

time management are essential.

Email your CV to [email protected] with a covering

letter explaining why you would be suitable for this role.

MORTGAGE BROKER REQUIRED

The “Nal Safari” project by RiturajGroup is an offering of Farmhouse-cum-Weekend homes that holds thepossibilities of best returns in terms ofboth lifestyle and investment. Situatedon the state highway, and only about 30minutes drive from the SP Ring roadthat connects the peripheral areas ofAhmedabad, the project site is posi-tioned within a tract where the up andcoming neighbourhoods of futureAhmedabad are being built.

The Nal Safari Project boasts of ascenic natural habitat lying close tosome of the best-known resort areas inGujarat. These include:

! Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary! Goyal Water Park! Gulmohar Country Club! The Film City Project (under con-struction and attracting aroundRs.2000 crore investment)

With excellent comfort, conven-ience and a lush green environment,the area will contain Horse Riding,Water Fall, Swimming Pool, WaterBody Boating and other entertainmentareas including Mini Golf, CricketGround, Rock Climbing, RiffleShooting, Archery and clubhouse. Andit does not end there. The developershave committed to provide cementedroads, green avenues, children’s playingarea, a party-cum-wedding area, road-side plantations, street lights, relaxingpavilions, jogging tracks and deep tube-wells with a water supply line to eachplot and membership scheme of 24hours security through circuit TV.

PURCHASE OPTIONS AT THE NALSAFARI PROJECT

The Project offers different sizes ofplots ranging approximately from 300Sq yards to 3000 Sq yards , with vastoptions of building types - fit to filldreams and pockets of all sizes. Ratesof construction and land prices remainthe same across the range of sizes andbuild up area but may undergo normalescalation with time – since the launch(two years ago) the plot prices havetripled. DOWN PAYMENT AND INSTALLMENT PAYMENT PLANS:

There are two payment plans. Oneis “down payment” and other is an“Installment payment” plan of 10 equalmonthly installments. In both theplans, 20% of total cost is to be paid atthe time of booking. In the down pay-ment plan one has to pay 10% less thanthat under the Installment plan. TENTATIVE BREAK-UP OF COSTS

COST OF LANDLand prices are now available at

about £32 GBP per Sq yard, the ratebeing subject to escalation with time.According to prevalent rates and plotsizes, plot prices would vary from£9000 to £90000.CONSTRUCTION COSTS

Prevalent construction costs arebetween £20 per square feet. Going bythe offered sizes of build up area, con-struction costs would vary between£5000 to £50000.

RITURAJ GROUPProfileRituraj Organisers Pvt Ltd. was

incorporated in 1996. Since a decadethe company is engaged in varioustypes of construction activities. It hasexecuted many projects like commer-cial buildings, residential apartments,industrial sheds, plotting, private bun-galows and resorts, etc.

For specific information on invest-ment contact us on 0207 706 0187 oremail [email protected]


For a guy to make that perfect firstimpression on a gal, he has to havethat certain X-factor that makes herswoon! So if you are trying toimpress Poonam Bajwa, you eitherget yourself a pedicure or a fine pairof shoes! Why? Because Poonamgives a lot of importance to feethygiene.

“The first thing I look at in a guy,are his feet! Clean feet and toenailsare a big turn on! Badly-maintainedfeet say that the guy is too shabbyfor my liking! It puts a big questionon personal hygiene,” she explains,and adds, “I also look at the nape ofthe neck! I like neat, short hair styleson men!” Well, she’s got all her pref-erences set!

Watch out for Poonam Bajwa in“Kacheri Aarambam” opposite Jiivaand in “Thambikottai” oppositeNarain.

Actress Sunaina, who made her debut with an

overpowering performance in “Kadhalil

Vizhundhen” is more elated with handful of

projects. With her second film,

“Maasilamani” turning to be successful,

she had simultaneously signed for couple

of films at the same time.Right now, Sunaina has completed

shooting for “Yaadhumaagi” and

“Kadhiravel.” “Kadhiravel” is a film about

an usual love story interwoven with lots

of interesting elements incisively

catering to the tastes of youth

cohorts. Similarly her other film

“Yaadhumaagi” too falls under the

same category.“Yaadhumaagi” was complet-

ed before a long time and is slat-

ed for the release on Valentine’s

Day. Sunaina reveals that she will

be signing for other projects after

the release of this film, since it has

offered her more scope to perform.

Sunaina on cloud nine

I like men with clean

feet: Poonam Bajwa

A R Rahman’s firstHollywood film “CouplesRetreat” has won him aplace in the Oscar short-list yet again for the BestOriginal Song. The Tamilsong ‘Na Na’ has been wasshortlisted in the BestOriginal Song category forthe 82nd AcademyAwards. The number isspecial for Rahman as itmarks his six-year-old sonAlim’s debut as singer.

It will compete with 62songs from eligible fea-ture-length motion pic-tures for nomination, to beannounced on February 2,according to the officialwebsite of the Academyawards.

‘Na Na’ was written by

Rahman along with rapperBlaaze and Vivian Chaixand sung by the trio alongwith Alim, Clinton andDominic.

The musician, whobecame the first Indian towin two Oscars, is in therunning for the coveted

prize for the secondconsecutive year.

Last yearRahman’s ‘Jai Ho’won the top prize inthe Best OriginalSong category. Healso took the trophyfor the BestSoundtrack for hiscompositions in“ S l u m d o gMillionaire.”

Directed byEmmy-nominated PeterBillingsley, “CouplesRetreat” revolves roundfour couples trying toreconnect with each otherthrough a tropical-islandvacation.

The film stars VinceVaughn and Kristin Davis.

Rahman again in the running for OscarTamil song ‘Na Na’ in ‘Couples Retreat’ has been shortlisted

Priyanka Chopra has bagged the BestActress Award for her role in the multi-award winning film “Fashion” at the56th National Film Awards.Following her closely is her co-star Kangana Ranaut, whowalked away with the BestSupporting Actress Award. TheBest Actor Award has beenbagged by Upendra Limaye forhis stunning act in Marathi film“Jogwa”.

As for the Best Hindi Film,the award was bagged byAbhishek Kapoor’s“Rock On”, while theBest Film Award wentto Rahul Bose starrerBengali flick“Antaheen”. The BestDirector Award wentto Tamil filmmakerBala for his film“Naan Kadavul”.

Abhay Deol star-rer “Oye Lucky LuckyOye” gets the PopularFilm Award andNeeraj Pandey’s “AWednesday” wasnamed as the BestDebut Film of 2008.Stunning actor ArjunRampal won the BestSupporting Actor awardfor his acclaimed role in

“Rock On”. Best Hindi Film: “Rock On”Best Film: “Antaheen” (Bengali)

Best Actress: Priyanka Chopra(“Fashion”)Best Actor: Upendra Limaye“Jogwa”Best Director: Bala (“NaanKadavul”)Best Supporting actress: KangnaRanaut (“Fashion”)Best Supporting actor: Arjun

Rampal (“Rock On”)Best Debut Film: “A

Wednesday”Best Special Effects:

“Mumbai Meri Jaan”Best Popular Film: “OyeLucky Lucky Oye”Best Music Direction:

Shams Patel (“ThanksMaa”)Best Male Singer: Hariharan Best Female Singer: ShreyaGhoshalBest Animation Film:“Roadside Romeo”Best Editing: “Firaaq” Best Children Film:“Gubachi Ganu”Best Costume Designer:

Neeta Lulla (“JodhaaAkbar”)

Best Choreography Award:Chinni Prakash (“Jodhaa

Akbar”)

Priyanka named Best Actress

in 56th National Awards

Aamir Khan has landedthe biggest endorsementdeal in Indian advertisinghistory. He will promotenew telecom entrant,UAE’s Etisalat, for pound4 - 5.37 million for threeyears, kicking in somefresh energy into theIndian advertising seg-ment that has been lickingits wounds from the finan-cial slowdown.

Mr Khan, along withhis Bollywood competitorShah Rukh Khan, alreadycommands the biggestrates, pegged at pound806,112 - 1.07 million peryear per endorsement.

However, the figurespale in the light of the bil-lion-dollar life-timeendorsement that golf leg-

end Tiger Woods signed,and the $70 million dealthat Russian tennis sensa-tion Maria Sharapovabagged early this monthfrom Nike for eight years.

An Etisalat official saidthat the deal was inkedbefore the release of “3Idiots,” where Mr Khanplays the iconoclasticRancho.

The movie, that wasreleased last month,notched pound 32.22 mil-lion from box office collec-tions in the domestic andthe international marketsduring its first 10 days,making it the biggest boxoffice grosser in the histo-ry of Indian cinema.

The Bollywood super-star already promotesbrands such as Parle,Coca-Cola, Tata Sky andSamsung. “The associa-tion with Aamir has donewonders for us; he strivesfor perfection and he’s acomplete brand fit thatgoes beyond being justanother celebrity endorse-ment association,” saidTata Sky chief marketingofficer Vikram Mehra.

Aamir bags biggest endorsement deal

Selvaraghavan clarifies on

‘Aayirathil Oruvan’“Aayirathil Oruvan,” which wasdirected by Selvaraghavan hascreated a lot of controversiesregarding the story and thescenes. The film which wasreleased during Pongal hasKarthi, Reema Sen and Andreain lead roles. The film wasproduced by Ravendran at acost of pound 4.29 million. Thisfilm is about 2 archeologists and oneyoung man who is in search of themissing heir of Chozha king. The story ofthe film begins in 2009 and travelsbackwards to 12th century. Parthiban isthe heir of Chozha king. Reema Sen andAndrea are the two archeologists. Karthiis the young man who assists the twowomen. As the film has createdcontroversies, the producer and thedirector called a press meet to explaintheir stand.

Following are the questions posed tothem and their answers:

The second half of the film isconfusing?

If the film is keenly watched, theaudience can understand the film.

Literary dialogues are notunderstandable?

The dialogues were inaccordance to the Chozhaperiod. That is why this tookplace in the film. I wanted tohave sub-titles in thesescenes. There is nothingworse than this if I put sub-titles for Tamil.

Whether this film was written keepingthe ethnic problems of Sri Lanka in mind?

There is nothing like this. People aretelling that this film is adapted from aHollywood film. But nobody will be ableto tell the title of the Hollywood filmbecause the whole story is from my ownimagination. Have our imaginations runout so much that we have to depend onHollywood films.

There are scenes that make womenaudience flinch?

These comments came from theaudience. So immediately we hadtrimmed these scenes. We have reducedthe length of the film by 15 minutes. Inthe same way we have deleted theviolent scenes.

BollyKatsAsian Voice - Saturday 30th January 2010 www.abplgroup.com 19

New Hindi movie

releasing this week

Top 4 Bollywood movies

for the week

No. Film No. Last Total Week weeks

1 3 Idiots 1 42 Chance Pe Dance New 13 Pyaar Impossible 2 24 Dulha Mil Gaya 3 7

1. Ishqiya2. Rann3. Road To Sangam

It seems like FreidaPinto's Hollywoodhangover is far from

over. Surprisingly thearchetypal Mumbai girlduring her visit at a

recent launch of an inter-national brand's luxurystore was seen giving acold snub to all the

Bollywood hottiespresent.

It was ahigh profileevent and the

s h u t t e r b u g swere busyclicking theladies as theym o v e da r o u n d .

Freida kept her distancefrom the Bollywood star-lets.

According to atabloid, when a photogra-pher requested Freida topose with Shilpa for a pic-ture, she flatly refused tooblige. Nevertheless, thegirl was seen posingtogether with otheractresses, as Lara Dutta,Malaika Arora, DiaMirza, Sameera Reddyand many others werepresent at the launch. Butnext to her was GeneliaD'Souza, not Shilpa.

Confirming the news,a source said, "It was evi-dent that Freida wasn't

too comfortable with theattention she was getting.There was a consciousattempt on her part to notbe clicked with the B-town actresses. Whenasked to pose with Shilpa,she just turned it downand moved the otherway."

When asked about theincident, Shilpa said,"Who is Freida? I don'tknow about her throwinga tantrum but as far as Iknow nobody asked me totake a photo with her. Iwas asked to do one withthe entire group and I didthat. I have no problemsposing with anybody."

Freida refuses to pose with Shilpa

Katrina Kaif, who gavenumerous hits, last year,has just one film for 2010.And the fact that her com-petitors Priyanka Chopraand Kareena Kapoor havemany films lined up forrelease is giving her sleep-less nights.

According to sources,while Katrina has mostlydone romantic comediesin the past, she will beentering a new terri-tory this year withPrakash Jha's‘Rajneeti'.

She now

wants to domore films thatare issue-based,like the onesthat MadhurB h a n d a r k a rmakes. She hasexpressed herdesire to evenwork withBhandarkar, as

t h eleadactresses inhis filmsalways winawards.

W h i l e

rumours of Katrina star-ring in ‘Dostana''s sequel,Imtiaz Ali's next filmopposite Ranbir Kapoorand Farah Khan's ‘Tees

Maar Khan' aredoing the rounds,sources indicatethat Katrina does-n't have anythingon her hand otherthan ‘Rajneeti'and AbbasMustan's remakeof ‘The ItalianJob'.

H o w e v e r ,Katrina rubbished

this piece of news statingthat she is very busy withher films. She also denieshaving contacted MadhurBhandarkar.

Priyanka-Bebo giving sleepless nights to Katrina

Filmmaker Deepa Mehtadesired to work withVidya Balan and had plansof casting her in a comic-venture paired opposite RMadhavan two years ago.

However, due to somereasons, the plan didn'twork out. She now wantsto work with Vidya on theadaptation of SalmanRushdie's book,'Midnight's Children'.

Vidya even liked thescript as well the role a lot.But, another catch hascome up. Deepa wants

Vidya to play RaniMukherji's sister in thefilm. And that is exact-ly where the problemlies because neither oftwo actresses wants towork together. Theanimosity betweenVidya and Rani goesback to when PradeepSarkar cast Rani in“Laaga Chunari MeinDaag.” Sarkar had ear-lier made “Parineeta”with Vidya and madeher a household name.

But when he chose

Rani over Vidya forhis next film, Vidyawas left shocked.While she had noth-ing bad to say aboutSarkar, she wasclearly hurt.

Deepa, who hasno idea about any ofthis, still wants bothof them to worktogether. Now whowill turn the otherdown first? Will it beVidya? Will it beRani? Only time willtell.

Vidya refuses to work with Rani?

A Ram Gopal Varma film, Rann is a social drama thatperhaps depicts the present day scenario of India.

Rann means battle - a fight between large organ-ized forces. In the context of a civil society and itsseep complexities, large organized forces (here it ispolitical parties, industrial czars and news chan-nels) are not just involved in a fight with each other,but more importantly and frighteningly. They arebattling a war within themselves and this especiallytrue of news channels.

The ways the news are presented today are muchmore entertaining than family soaps and thrillers.What's worse is that we enjoy this kind presentationso much that we have got addicted to them.

There is the government - a system which runsthe country, then there are wealth creators likeindustrialists etc. and then there are politicians inthe ruling party and the opposition.

All the above in a democratic society are sup-posed to be working for the common people and theone and only means of the common people havingany idea as to what those are up to is through themedia. Hence the media had been invented as atruth telling machinery serving the purpose of thecommon people so that they know they are in goodhands on in case they are told that they are not, theycan hope to exercise the power of their vote to bringabout a change.

But in a free economy system where there is somuch competition the media by default is lost in itspurpose.

Rann seeks to expose behind-the-scenes truth ofhow a truth telling machinery by the very virtue ofits positioning has no choice but to corrupt it lf it isto become a money-making and power-brokeringenterprise.

Produced under the banner of Vistaar ReligareFilm Fund, Big Bang Films Production and WSGPictures by Sheetal Vinod Talwar and MadhuMantena, Rann is directed by Ram Gopal Varma.Rohit Banawlikar has the credits for the story andwriting.

The lead cast consists of Amitabh Bachchan,Ritesh Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, Mohnish Behl,Suchitra Krishnamurthy, Rajat Kapoor, Gul Panag,Neetu Chandra, Rajpal Yadav, Sudeep, RahulPendkalkar, Neena Kulkarni, Simone Singh, IklaqKhan and Alok Nath.

Lyrics are by Vayu, Sarim Momin, Sandip Singhand Prashant Pandey, while Music has been scoredby Dharmaraj Bhatt, Sandeep Patil, Jayesh Gandhi,Bapi Tutul, Sanjeev Kohli and Amar Mohile.

Vardan, Shadaab Faridi, Aditi Paul, JayeshGandhi, Abhishek Nailwal, Rajpal Yadav,

Sukhwinder Singh, Sanjeev Kohli, Earl andKunal Ganjawala have rendered the playback.

Sonam replaces Katrina

to be Akki’s lucky charmSonam Kapoor, finally, has a

reason to smile.According toreports, she hasbagged a lead roleopposite AkshayKumar in direc-tor AneesBazmee's nextflick 'Thank You.'Not only that shehas also said tohave replacedAkki's luckycharm Katrinain the flick.

Akshay hasalways been afan of the siz-

zling beautyever since she

made her debut in 'Saawariya'. He hasbeen so much in awe of the young lassthat he even mentioned his desire towork with Sonam to her father AnilKapoor. Some time back there werereports that Farah Khan also was con-sidering Sonam before she finalisedKatrina for “Tees Maar Khan.”

A source reveals that “Thank You”is a romantic comedy and will seeSonam in a totally different role. Therewas buzz that Katrina had landed therole, but the source confirms that herdates were clashing with the Dostanasequel.

The film is supposed to go on floorsmid year and will have Sonam in adouble role. Sonam has read the scriptbut is still to make a final decision. Atthe moment she's in New Zealandshooting for “I Hate Luv Storys.”

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 201020 INDIA

In divine lightBY RAJEN VAKIL

Kunti – the power of invocationKunti, wife of Pandu, isthe mother to fivePandava princes, ofwhom she has givenbirth to the three elderPandavas. Kunti was thedaughter of Surasen,father of Vasudev andgrand-father of SriKrishna. Kunti’s nameat birth was Pritha,meaning Earth.

Surasen hadpromised togive his firstchild to hisc o u s i n ,Kunt ibho j .At a youngage, Kuntiw i l l i n g l yl e a v e sS u r a s e n ’ shouse tobecome thea d o p t e ddaughter ofKuntibhoj, inorder to fulfilher father’sp r o m i s e .Thus, she was born withan element of sacrificeembedded in her charac-ter.

One day RishiDurvasa, known as avery difficult master,arrives at Kuntibhoj’scourt, announcing thathe would be stayingthere for a year. Thethought of how and whowould take care of himputs Kuntibhoj in adilemma. Here, Kuntivolunteers and assuresher adopted father thatshe would take care ofthe Rishi.

Rishi Durvasa wasknown to curse his disci-ples for having even aslight scowl on the face;needless to mentionbeing cursed at thesmallest of mistakes orexpressing displeasure inany form. For a year,Kunti cared for RishiDurvasa, going through ahard routine and cateringto what may sound to usas whims of the Rishi.The Rishi would wakeher up in the middle ofthe night and ask for afull meal to be prepared.On being offered themeal, he would eat amorsel and throw therest out of the window,shouting angrily that thefood was disgusting.Once, he complained ofthe plate being too hot,hearing which Kuntibent and offered her backto be used as a table. TheRishi put the scorchingvessel on her back, scald-ing her completely. Kuntidid not flinch in the leastand willingly acceptedthe harsh treatmentmeted out to her.Through the whole year,Kunti underwent allhardships thrown at herwithout the slightest sign

of displeasure on herface.

After a year, RishiDurvasa was verypleased to see Kunti gothrough all the tests hehad put her up to. He

blessed her special pow-ers and a mantra whichcould invoke cosmicdivine forces. Hence, thename Kunti. ‘Ku’ meansto call, the one that hasthe power of invoking orcalling divine forces froma higher dimension.

Kunti was very youngwhen she underwent thisprocess. Out of curiosity,she tested one of themantras, invoking Surya(the Sun God). Suryablessed Kunti with a son,later known in theMahabharata as Karna(and would be subject toridicule). This put Kuntiat her wit’s end as shewas still unmarried. Sheput the child in a basketand set the child adrift inthe water of the riverGanga. Later, she mar-ried Pandu and motheredthe Pandava princes.

When Rishi Ved Vyaswrote the Mahabharata,he wrote it in form of asimple story but eachline is laden with symbol-ic meaning. Let us tryand unravel this in thecase of Kunti.

Before a master sepa-rates from his disciple(with whom he has limit-ed time to work), hewants to ensure that thedisciple’s ego has dis-solved completely. If notdone, the master knowsthat even an entire life-time of work with thedisciple could go in vain.In order to free the disci-ple of the ego, the masterbecomes wrathful andtakes on a form that isdifficult to deal with. Hedoes this to test whetherthe disciple is completelyfree from ego or not.Rishi Durvasa symbolis-es this aspect of the mas-ter.

If a disciple willingly

goes through the wholeprocess of suffering and adifficult testing period,he comes out of it a dif-ferent person. This disci-ple is free from thebondage of ego. Once theego is dissolved, thatvoid is filled with certain

divine powers ofworking with the

natural forces oflife. Kunti sym-bolises this dis-ciple who isfree from egoand who hass m i l i n g l yu n d e r g o n e

such diffi-cult testsand timeunder awrathfulmaster.

T h ecuriosi-ty ofKunt i( t h edis-

ciple) represents the lackof ‘viveka’ when she usedthe mantra. Viveka isintelligence along withthe power of discern-ment. Pandu meanswhite, representing theintellect within us.Kunti’s marriage withPandu symbolises thedawn of maturity inKunti which brings theright use of power, lead-ing to the birth of the fivePandavas. Pandu alsohad another wife, Madri.Using the mantras andcalling from a higherdimension, Kunti gavebirth to Yudhisthira,Bhima, and Arjuna. Shealso helped Madri givebirth to twins, Nakulaand Sahdeva.

Our body-brain sys-tem has five centres orthe Pandavas. ThePandavas, namelyYudhisthira, Bhima,Arjuna, Nakula andSahdeva represent theintellectual, sex, emo-tional, moving, and theinstinctive centresrespectively.

Of the Pandavas,Arjuna represents ourinner disciple. The disci-ple uses his body-brainsystem to increase hislevel of consciousness tillhe merges with supremeconsciousness, SriKrishna.

For this, we mustknow the sciences of theworking of the body-brain system.

From the next article,we shall study each ofthe Pandava brothers indetail.

(Edited by Chintu Gandhi.

Illustration bySiddharth Ramanuj.)

The author can bereached by emailing

[email protected]

Modi mobilises millions from

appearance fees to fund charityBollywood stars may beraking in millions fromappearances at variousevents, but they have arival from an unexpectedquarter - Gujarat ChiefMinister Narendra Modi.He is a good crowd pullertoo, and has made the bestout of his popularity withthe masses, but used thefunds so raised for goodcauses.

Modi though does nota have a fixed appearance

fee, as his office asks fordonations from the hostsof the events, and the

charges may be varying asper the paying capacitiesof the organisers. A part ofthe donations go to theChief Minister’s ReliefFund. Modi has thusmobilised Rs. 230 millionin last five years and mostof the money has gone foreducating the girl child inthe state.

An aide of the chiefminister said Modi startedseeking donations in2006.

Tourists from Commonwealth nations

may get 50% visa fee concessionGranting a concession of50% in the visa fees fortourists coming fromCommonwealth countriesis under consideration, asource in the Indian min-istry of tourism said lastweek.

The tourism ministryproposal stems out fromthe response to the ‘VisitIndia 2009’ campaign,

which received positiveresponse.

The ministry is also intouch with stakeholders inthe tourism industry –hospitality business, touroperators and others toextend the offer they had made available lastyear.

The aim is also toattract more visitors as

India is to host theCommonwealth Games inNew Delhi in October.

UK, Canada andAustralia have a lion’sshare in the tourists inflowto India from among theCommonwealth countries.

There are 54 membersof the Commonwealth ofnations of which visitorsfrom UK.

Indians in Australia are innews for some right rea-sons also - for recognitionof their contribution inresearch in health careand human welfare. AnIndian-origin Australianresearcher ProfessorRalph Martins, conduct-ing research onAlzheimer’s disease hasbeen named westernAustralia’s Australian ofthe Year. He will joinrecipients from all otherAustralian states and ter-ritories, along with threeother western Australianaward winners, for thenational awards that areto be announced onJanuary 25 in Canberra.

Born in India,Professor Martins hadmoved to Perth when he

was 16. “Theaward signalsProfessor Martins’contribution toresearch onAlzheimer’s dis-ease. It is a recog-nition of his con-tribution,” saysPeter Varghese,Australian HighCommissioner to India,who himself is anAustralian of Indian ori-gin. “I am particularlydelighted that ProfessorMartins has been hon-oured. His Indian back-ground speaks of the con-tribution of the diasporain Australia and standstestament to the multi-cul-tural nature of Australiansociety,” he adds.

Incidentally, Professor

Martins shares hisb r e a k t h r o u g hresearch with spe-cialists in India.Currently, he iscollaborating withDr Jacob Roy,founder presidentof the Alzheimer’s

and RelatedDisorders Society of India(ARDSI), a body involvedin running Alzheimer-related clinics andresearch centres in India.He is also working closelywith researchers at theNational Institute ofMental Health and NeuroSciences, Bangalore; theNational Brain ResearchCentre, Gurgaon; andwith Benny Antony ofKerala-based ArjunaNatural Extracts Ltd.

Choose voter ID and voting or

burqa, says Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court ofIndia has made it plainthat muslim women wouldhave to choose betweenvoter ID and voting orburqa. The ruling from theapex court of India hascome at a time whenatleast two Europeancountries, France andDenmark are also movingahead to almost ban burqa.The moves in all the threecountries are facing strongresistance from clerics.

The instant case camebefore the Supreme Courtof India, as earlier in 2006,even the Madras HighCourt had upheld theElection Commission’sstand that muslim womenvoters cannot be pho-tographed unless theyappear with their burqaslifted for their faces beingcaptured on the cameras.Even at the time of voting,

the burqa-clad womenwould be required to lifttheir veils for identifica-tions.

The order was chal-lenged and the SupremeCourt as counsel for peti-tioner M Ajam Khan saidasking `purdah-nashin'women to lift their veil forbeing photographedwould amount to sacrilegeas their photographswould be seen by manymen working as pollingagents and electoral offi-cials.

"It will hurt their reli-gious sentiments and the

Election Commissionmust not insist on `pur-dah-nashin' women to bephotographed for inclu-sion of their name in theelectoral rolls," said thecounsel arguing before aBench comprising ChiefJustice K G Balakrishnanand Justice DeepakVerma.

As the petitionersagain insisted on protec-tion of religious senti-ments, the Bench said theright to vote was only astatutory right and not afundamental right. Rightto contest an election is anextension of the right tovote. Can anyone contestan election saying photo-graph of her face be nottaken? Can she be pho-tographed in a burqa witha veil and yet contest anelection? the judgesasked.

Narendra Modi

Ralph Martins

OZ award for Indian origin scientist

for research in Alzheimer’s disease

Asian Voice - Saturday 30th January 2010 21INDIA

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Nobel laureate Venky, Dr. Sudhir Parikh, A R Rahman, Aamir get Padma honours

Winner of the Nobel prizefor Chemistry –V e n k a t r a m a nRamakrishnan, Dr. SudhirParikh, Sant SinghChatwal were among theprominent Indians settledabroad who have beenselected for various Padmaawards by India on theoccasion of the Republicday, 2010.

Oscar winner musicmaestro A R Rahman andactor Aamir Khan havebeen selected for the high-est of the civil honoursdeclared for the year 2010– Padma Bhushan. Sixsports persons - boxerVijender Singh, shuttlerSaina Nehwal, cricketerVirender Sehwag, hockeyplayer Ignace Tirkey,Formula I driver NarainKartikeyan andTendulkar’s coachRamakant Achrekar (allPadma Shri) as well as sixfrom Gujarat were alsoamong those to be hon-oured.

130 people have beenselected for the honours,with no one getting thehighest honour of “BharatRatna”, 6 getting the nexthighest of PadmaVibhusan, 43 gettingPadma Bhushan and 81 toreceive 81 Padma Shriawards. Among theawardees woman accountfor 17 honours, while 13are Indians settled abroad.

Among the sixGujarati winners, Pro.Madhusudan Dhaky,Kumudini Lakhia andMallika Sarabhai getPadma Bhushan it in thefield of arts, while Dr.Karsanbhai Patel, founderof the Nirma group ofIndustries, Scientist work-ing at the Plasma ResearchInstitute in AhmedabadProf. Pucadyil Ittoop Johnalongwith USA based NRIDr. Sudhir Parikh werehonoured with PadmaShri.

This year the Presidenthas approved 130 awardsincluding 13 in the catego-ry of foreigners/ NRIs/PIOs. These comprise 6Padma Vibhushan, 43Padma Bhushan and 81Padma Shri awards.There are 17 ladies amongthe awardees.

Padma VibhushanArt: Ebrahim Alkazi

(Delhi), Umayalpuram K.Sivaraman (Tamil Nadu)and Smt. Zohra Sehgal(Delhi), Public Affairs: Dr.

Yaga Venugopal Reddy(Andhra Pradesh),Science and Engineering:Dr. VenkatramanRamakrishnan (UK) andTrade and Industry: Dr.Prathap Chandra Reddy(Tamil Nadu).

Padma BhushanArt: Ilaiyaraaja (Tamil

Nadu), Aamir Khan(Maharashtra), AkbarPadamsee (Maharashtra),Allah Rakha Rahman(Tamil Nadu), PanditChhannulal Mishra (UttarPradesh), Smt. KumudiniLakhia (Gujarat), KuzhurNarayana Marar (Kerala),Prof. Madhusudan AmilalDhaky (Gujarat), Ms.Mallika Sarabhai(Gujarat), Prof. (Dr.)Nookala ChinnaSatyanarayana (AndhraPradesh), Pandit (Dr.)Puttaraj Gavai(Karnataka), Ram Kumar(Delhi), ShrinivasVinayak Khale(Maharashtra)and UstadSultan Khan(Maharashtra). Civil

Service: B.K. Chaturvedi(Delhi), Moosa Raza(Delhi) and Dr. P.R.Dubhashi (Maharashtra).Journalism: FareedZakaria (USA). Literatureand Education: AnilBordia (Rajasthan), Prof.Bipan Chandra (Delhi),G.P. Chopra (Delhi), Prof.Mohammad Amin(Delhi). Prof. Satya VratShastri (Delhi) and Prof.Tan Chung (USA).Medicine: Prof. BelleMonappa Hegde(Karnataka), E.T.Narayanan Mooss(Kerala), Dr. Noshir M.Shroff (Delhi), Dr.Panniyampilly KrishnaWarrier (Kerala), Dr.Ramakant MadanmohanPanda (Maharashtra),Prof.(Dr.) and Satya PaulAgarwal (Delhi). PublicAffairs: Prof. Abhijit Sen(Delhi), Sailesh KumarBandyopadhyay (WestBengal) and Sant SinghChatwal (USA). Scienceand Engineering: Prof.Arogyaswami JosephPaulraj (USA), Prof.Bikash Chandra Sinha(West Bengal) and JagdishChandra Kapur (Delhi).Social Work: Dr.Ba lagangadharanathaSwamiji (Karnataka) andEknath Rao aliasBalasaheb Vikhe Patil(Maharashtra).

Continued on page 22

The history of 26th January for India

The history and impor-tance of 26th January inIndia dates back to theLahore session of theIndian National Congressthat was held there inJanuary, 1930. A decision,a pledge to observe 26thJanuary the “PurnaSwaraj (completeIndependence)Day” of Indiawas taken atthat session.Subsequently, asthe constitutionof India wasready, it wasadopted on thatday in 1950, almost threeyears after the countrygained its Independence.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar,messiah of dalits anddowntrodden in India isalso one of the main archi-tects of the Indian consti-tution. He was the chair-man of the drafting com-mittee that was constitut-ed by the ConstituentAssembly in 1947.

The Lahore session in1930 was held under thepresidency of Pt. JawarharLal Nehru. It paved way tothe Civil Disobediencemovement.

It was decided thatJanuary 26, 1930 would beobserved as the PurnaSwaraj (completeIndependence) Day. ManyIndian political partiesand Indian revolutionaries

from all over the countryunited to observe the daywith honour and pride.

India was declared aSovereign, DemocraticRepublic on the day, as theconstitution, prepared bythe constituent assemblycame into force in 1950. Itis 60 years since India is

being governedby its own con-stitution andthe country hasmade a rapidprogress as ad e m o c r a c y .India also hasearned reputa-

tion as the world largestand most vibrant democ-racy. The republic day cel-ebrations are led by theconstitutional head, thePresident in the NewDelhi and governors in thestate capitals.

Parades are also heldat all district headquartersall over India, with flaghoisting ceremonies and avariety of cultural pro-grammes are presented byespecially school children.

On 26th January 2002,the Indian flag code wasmodified and after severalyears of independence, thecitizens of India werefinally allowed to hoist theIndian flag over theirhomes, offices and facto-ries on any day and notjust National days as wasthe case earlier.

A R Rahman Venkatraman RamakrishnanRepublic DaySpecial

Saturday 30th January 2010 - Asian Voice

SS Menon is new NSA

Outgoing National Security Advisor MK Narayanan is replaced by former Foreign Secretary ShivShankar Menon and he will hold a post equivalent to the Minister of State. The change in the rankcomes after much debate within the Government about restructuring the NSA profile. Menon wasPrime Minister Manmohan Singh's first preference. He has served as Ambassador to China,Pakistan, Israel and Sri Lanka, had played a crucial role, along in accomplishing the India-US nucleardeal. He was appointed Foreign Secretary in September 2006 superseding 16 claimants to the job.

22

70% voting in Lankan prez poll

Mr. Wickremesinghelost mainly due to the dik-tat of the LTTE late leaderVelupillai Prabakarandirecting Tamils to boycottthe poll.

Political and diplomat-ic observers were happythat the election endedwithout any major vio-lence, particularly giventhe apprehensionsexpressed by the opposi-tion in the last few days onpossible large scale vio-

lence and rigging. RajithKeerthi Tennakoon,Director of Campaign ForFree and Fair Elections(CaFFE), NGO, is keep-ing a tab on the electionprocess and said thathours before the pollingbooths opened, there weresix minor incidents.

CaFFE said a handgrenade was exploded nearthe market place in theJaffna peninsula and as aresult people were slightlyscared to come out to vote.

Lee Myung-bak,Presidend of South Koreawas the chief guest at theparade.

At the parade, India’scultural diversity and mili-tary might was on display.President Mrs. PratibhaDevisingh Patil conferredthe gallantry awards to thedefence personnel andpara military personnel.

Bravery award winnerchildren also were a partof the parade. 21 states aswell as Central ministriesand departments dis-

played various Tableaux,showcasing the progressof India. A spectacular fly-past by the IAF was thegrand finale to the parade.On display at parade, themilitary equipmentincluded Light CombatAircraft Tejas, Agni-IIIIntermediate RangeBallistic Missile, ShouryaS u r f a c e - t o - S u r f a c eStrategic Missile and theRohini Radar. The ceremo-ny culminated with theNational Anthem andrelease of orange, whiteand green balloons.

Continued from page 1


Nobel laureate Venky, Dr. Sudhir Parikh, A R Rahman, Aamir get Padma honours Trade and Industry:

Capt. C.P. Krishnan Nair(Maharashtra), Dr.Kushal Pal Singh (Delhi),Manvinder Singh Bangaalias Vindi Banga (UK),Narayanan Vaghul (TamilNadu) and S.P. Oswal(Punjab).

Padma ShriArt: Ms. Rekha

(Maharashtra), ArjunPrajapati (Rajasthan), Ms.Arundhati Nag(Karnataka), Ms. CarmelBerkson (Maharashtra),Ustad F. Wasifuddin Dagar(Delhi), Smt. Gul Bardhan(Madhya Pradesh), Smt.Haobam Ongbi NgangbiDevi (Manipur), HariUppal (Bihar), K.Raghavan (Kerala), GuruMayadhar Raut (Delhi),Mukund Lath (Rajasthan),Nemai Ghosh (WestBengal), PanditRaghunath Panigrahi(Orissa), RajkumarAchouba Singh(Manipur), Dr. Ram DayalMunda (Jharkhand), ResulPokutty (Kerala), Saif AliKhan (Maharashtra), Dr.

(Smt.) Shobha Raju(Andhra Pradesh), Ms.Sumitra Guha (Delhi) andPandit Ulhas Kashalkar(West Bengal). GulamMohammed Mir (PublicService - Jammu andKashmir). Civil Service:D.R. Karthikeyan (Delhi).Environment Protection:Dr. Ranjit Bhargava(Uttarakhand). Literatureand Education: ArunSarma (Assam), Prof.Arvind Kumar(Maharashtra), Ms. BerthaGyndykes Dkhar(Meghalaya), Prof. GovindChandra Pande (MadhyaPradesh), Prof. HamidiKashmiri (Jammu andKashmir), Prof. (Dr.)Hermann Kulke(Germany), Janaki BallavShastri (Bihar), Dr.Jitendra Udhampuri(Jammu and Kashmir), Dr.Lal Bahadur SinghChauhan (Uttar Pradesh),Lalzuia Colney(Mizoram), Ms. MariaAurora Couto (Goa),Dr.(Smt.) RajalakshmiParthasarathy alias Y.G.Parthasarathy (Tamil

Nadu), Prof. RamaranjanMukherji (West Bengal),Dr. RanganathanParthasarathy (TamilNadu), Fr. RomualdD’Souza (Goa), Prof.Sadiq - Ur - RahmanKidwai (Delhi), Mr.Sheldon Pollock (USA)and Dr. Surendra Dubey(Chhattisgarh). Medicine:Dr. Anil Kumar Bhalla(Delhi), Dr. ArvinderSingh Soin (UttarPradesh), Dr. B. RamanaRao (Karnataka), Dr.J a l a k a n t a p u r a mR a m a s w a m yKrishnamoorthy (TamilNadu), Dr. K.K. Aggarwal(Delhi), Prof. KodaganurS. Gopinath (Karnataka),Dr. Laxmi Chand Gupta(Delhi), Dr. PhilipAugustine (Kerala), Dr.Rabindra Narain Singh(Bihar) and Dr. VikasMahatme (Maharashtra).Science and Engineering:Prof. M.R. SatyanarayanaRao (Karnataka), Prof.(Dr.) Palpu Pushpangadan(Kerala), Prof. PonisserilSomasundaran (USA),Prof. Pucadyil Ittoop John

(Gujarat), Dr. Vijay PrasadDimri (Andhra Pradesh)and Dr. (Ms.)V i j a y l a k s h m iR a v i n d r a n a t h(Karnataka). Social Work:Ms. Anu Aga(Maharashtra), AyekpamTomba Meetei (Manipur),Deep Joshi (Delhi), Dr.J.R. Gangaramani (UAE),Kranti Shah(Maharashtra), Dr. KurianJohn Melamparambil(Kerala), Baba Sewa Singh(Punjab), Ms. Sudha Kaul(West Bengal) and Dr.Sudhir M. Parikh (USA).Trade and Industry: Dr.Alluri VenkataSatyanarayana Raju(Andhra Pradesh), Dr. B.Raveendran Pillai(Bahrain), Deepak Puri(Delhi), Irshad Mirza(Uttar Pradesh), Brig. Dr.Kapil Mohan (HimachalPradesh), Dr. KarsanbhaiK. Patel (Gujarat), T.N.Manoharan (Tamil Nadu)and Venu Srinivasan(Tamil Nadu). PublicAffairs: Dr. RafaelIruzubieta Fernandez(Spain).


India celebrates R-Dayamidst tight security

Eminent columnist Chinu Modi’sbook released in AhmedabadAsian Voice – Gujarat Samachar celebrate

fifth anniversary in India

The Ahmedabad office ofAsian Voice and GujaratSamachar celebrated thefifth anniversary last weekon Thursday with a galafunction at Hotel CambayGrand in the city. EminetGujarati author andcolumnist with theGujarat Samachar ofLondon edition Mr ChinuModi chose the occasionto release his book, a col-lection of humour titled‘Natwar the Nirdosh’.

The book was releasedby speaker of the GujaratAssembly Mr Ashok Bhattand it was released in thepresence of eminent digni-taries and industrialistsfrom Ahmedabad andLondon.

Those present on theoccasion harped on thefact that as per myth thecharacter called Natwarcould never be innocent

but it was only the like ofMr Modi and his play ofwords which could enableto portray even someonelike Natwar as innocent.

Speaking on the occa-sion eminent journalist MrBhupatrai Parekh not onlypraised the past works ofMr Modi but also went toexplain the role of Mr C BPatel, printer and publish-er of Gujarat Samacharand Asian Voice, Londonand his contributiontoward the upliftment ofGujaratis settled in UKand especially in London.

Elaborating the role ofMr Patel he said that hehas not only helped peoplefrom Gujarat but therewere scores of examples inGujaratis settled inLondon who at some timeor the other have lookedback at Mr C B Patel forsome kind of help. On the

completion of five years ofthe Ahmedabad office ofAsian Voice and GujaratSamachar all present cov-eyed their hearties con-gratulations and wishedMr Patel for the success ofthe publication even in thefuture.

Yogendra Makwana,former minister alsorecalled his associationwith C B Patel andGujarat Samachar. Allteam members of GujaratSamachar and AsianVoice, Advertisers,Advertising agencies andwell wishers enjoyed adramatic recital of a cou-ple of pieces of ChinuModi’s book by prominentGujarati stage artists.

P K Lehri, former chiefsecretary of Gujarat andother eminent personali-ties also attended thefunction.

Ashok Bhatt, speaker of Gujarat Assembly unveiled the book penned by Dr. Chinu Modi.

A gala event called Vishwa Gujaraticonclave spreads its wings to Ahmedabad

SWATI BHAN

This winterAhmedabad had morethan just theInternational KiteFestival to boast of . Thecity also played host tothe fourth conclave ofVishwa Gujarati Samaj(VGS) where NonResident Gujaratis fromat least 21 countriesacross the globe partici-pated. On the agendawere many things likegood health facilities, bet-ter education facilitiesacross the state and alsosanitation facilites to bemade available even inthe most interior parts ofthe state. Mr.Krishnakant Vakharia,president of VGS, saidthat the three-day eventwas meant to bring non-resident Gujaratis livingacross the globe on acommon platform to dis-cuss various aspects ofGujarat and its culture

Realising the impor-tance of the role ofGujaratis across theglobe, Mr Vakharia saidthat during the conclave,eminent NRGs MrUkabhai Solanki from theUS, Dr Gautam Bodiwalalfrom the UK, Mr. HemantShah from Canada and JK Chandeni fromTanzania will be felicitat-ed, for their contributionin the development ofGujaratis in the countries

that they reside in. The conclave repre-

sented the diasporaacross the globe for whomthe one thing that was topon the agenda was thedevelopment of the state.And the three day con-clave was not just a dis-cussion table o sort outissues, there were otherattractions as well. Therewere theme pavilionswhich showcasied theheritage and glorious his-tory of Gujarat. For thevisitors there were spe-cially designed handloomand handicraft stalls.Realising the growingimportance of medicaltourism and the incomegenerated from it therewas a special focus onindustries related to med-ical tourism. Hence therewere live demonstrationon ayurvedic therapies,yoga, meditation andcamps. And to cater tothe Gujarati palate therewere also huge food courtserving traditionalGujarati cuisine at thevenue.

The delegates whoparticipated in the threeday conclave, includednot only the NRGs butministers from the Unioncabinet. There might havebeen representatives frompeople across differentideologies but what stoodupmost was the unifiedGujarati spirit whichintends toward working

for the betterment ofGujarat and bringing it onthe global map.Civil Aviation Mr Praful

Patel promises morefacilites for Gujarat air-

ports at VGSCivil Aviation

Minister Praful Patelassured the people ofGujarat about theimprovement in air con-nectivity of the state withthe rest of the world.Patel said, “We will try tohave more direct flightsfrom Ahmedabad tomajor foreign cities.”

He said this afterrequests were put to theminister to look into theissues of the Gujaraticommunity living in for-eign countries. The majordemands put forwardwere to develop Bhuj,Rajkot and Surat as inter-national airports besideshaving more direct flightsfrom Ahmedabad toLondon, Sydney andOman.

About 1,000 delegatesfrom across India andabroad are participatingin the conference. Someof the prominent peopleattending the conferenceinclude Hemraj Shahfrom Mumbai, C B Patelfrom London, NarendraPatel from Chicago,Chandrakant Choithani,from Oman, MohanbhaiShah from Kutch and andHarshad Desai fromSydney.


Wisconsin: An Indian-American woman executive was last week indicted by a federal grand jury before a US court in

Wisconsin on charges of defrauding her company to the tune of a whopping USD 31 million. United States Attorney

James Santelle announced that a grand jury sitting in Milwaukee Court returned a six-count indictment charging Sujata

Sachdeva (46), who is also known as Sue Sachdeva, with six counts of wire fraud. Sachdeva is the former Vice

President of Finance, Secretary, and Principal Accounting Officer for Koss Corporation, a publicly traded company

located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Koss is known as manufacturer of stereo headphones, speakers and related products.

Sujata Sachdeva indicted in multi million dollar scam

90 killed in Ethiopian plane crash

36 killed in Baghdad blasts,Chemical Ali hanged

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Chinese milk products again found withhigh levels of Melamine adulteration

Sanlu group, the state owned dairy products firm went bust in 2008 scandalBeijing: Local health offi-cials have pulledmelamine-tainted milkproducts off the shelves ina southwestern Chineseprovince in the latest caseof tainted food items, statemedia reported.

The three batches ofaffected food products inGuizhou Province includeice popsicles and unspeci-fied food items from adairy company, the China

Daily newspaper reported,quoting reports from theChinese-language NationalBusiness Daily.

Six children died andsome 300,000 were sick-ened in a 2008 milk scan-dal in which milk formulaproducts were found tocontain illegally hightraces of melamine, a toxicindustrial chemical.

In November, Chinaexecuted two people for

their role in the scandal,which also resulted in thebankruptcy of state-owneddairy producer SanluGroup. Since the scandal,regulations on food safetyhave been introduced toensure higher standards,tighter inspections and aproduct recall system.

But a series of recentcases where melamine-tainted products wereuncovered by regulators in

different Chinese provincesraises questions of howeffectively the new laws arebeing enforced. Just thisyear, state media reportedthat a Shanghai dairycompany implicated in theSanlu milk powder scan-dal had been closed downand three of its executivesarrested after they werefound to be producingmilk powder with illegallevels of melamine.

Opposing Rajapaksa costs TV starlet her roleThe intensity, the fierce-ness of the Sri LankanPresidential polls can begauged from the fact thatthe state is alleged to haveused its might to robUpeksha Swarnamali, a TVserial actress of her role ona soap that is being telecaston the state run ITN.

Upeksha had appearedat an election rally ofSarath Fonseka, the chal-lenger to incumbentPresident MahindaRajapaksa, obviously sup-porting the former armychief. This led somebehind the scene develop-ments and in the first

week of this month, therest of her shooting sched-ule for the TV soap operawas cancelled.

ITN, the TV channel,in a bid to keep up the TV

viewership rating high, isusing flashback sequencesand other tactics, even asUpeksha fears she is virtu-ally sacked from the serial.

The channel deniesUpeksha has been thrownout and says her shootingwould resume next month,but the starlet says she isnot sure of that. The statemedia is doing everythingto rope in celebrities –artists and cricketers inparticularly to supportRajapaksa. According toKeerthi Tennakoon of theCampaign for Free and FairElections, if they say no,they sure have problems.

President Rajapaksahas Sanath Jayasuriya andMuttiah Muralitharan bat-ting for him, while ArjunaRanatunga and HashanTillakaratne are in theFonseka team.

Upeksha said that theentertainment industrywas similarly divided, withactors and singers comingunder political pressurefrom the President’s camp.

Since declaring hersupport for the general shesaid that she had receivedanonymous telephone callsasking: “Are you ready toleave the country?” and“Are you ready to hide”?

Victoria appoints ‘respect minister’ to tackle racism, violenceMelbourne: In the wake ofa spate of racial attacksagainst Indians inAustralia, the VictorianGovernment has appointeda former football player asthe nation’s first “respectminister” to tackle prob-lems related to growingracism and alcohol-fuelled

violence in the state.Victorian Premier John

Brumby announced thatJustin Madden would bethe minister for the“respect agenda” as partof his election year cabinetreshuffle, The Australiannewspaper reported.

Brumby said Madden

would be one part of thegovernment’s response indealing with the issues sur-rounding Indian students,along with the educationaland law and orderapproaches. He said thenew minister would be anadditional voice in the com-munity promoting diversity

and racial tolerance.The appointment

comes in the wake of near-ly 100 cases of attacks onIndians, mostly students,being reported in Australiain 2009 as against 17 inci-dents of assaults in 2008.

Majority of the Indiansstudents were subjected toracial attacks inMelbourne, capital of thestate of Victoria. Madden,who already has the plan-ning portfolio, will co-ordi-nate the “whole of govern-ment approach” to socialproblems that have grippedMelbourne, includingrecent violence againstIndians and the increase inassaults. Meanwhile, theopposition called the newappointment as politicalcorrectness gone mad andsaid it would not makeVictoria a safer place.

Assaults on Indians continue unabated Melbourne: Even asIndian and Australian flagsgo side by side on theirnational day on Tuesday,the assault on Indians con-tinue unabated. The latestvictims of were two Indianstudents who wereallegedly assaulted by agroup of thugs here.

Eight persons,described as being ofAsian appearance, havebeen arrested after sever-

al hours of the incidentand were being ques-tioned, police said in astatement. The accusedhad allegedly made com-ments to the duo beforeone of the student waspushed to the ground andkicked on Monday nightin central Melbourne.

The 18-year-oldIndian suffered a woundon his left ear from whatappeared to be an edged

weapon, police said,adding the 22-year-oldstudent was also punchedto the ground and suf-fered minor abrasions tothe forearm.

Earlier, three Indianswere attacked in differentincidents. Two of the vic-tims were taxi drivers.One was attacked inMelbourne and the othertwo were attacked inBrisbane.

Now, Houston has a Mahatma Gandhi districtHouston: A part of south-west Houston, Texas, hometo a large number of SouthAsians, including Indians,has been officially renamedMahatma Gandhi districtto honour the leader on his141st birth year.

An ethnic conclave,Hillcroft was renamed thismonth, fulfilling theseven-year long demand ofover 100,000 strongIndian-American popula-tion living in the Greater

Houston area.City Mayor Annise

Parker announced thechange of name along withConsul General of India inHouston, Sanjiv Arora.

Officials of the IndiaCulture Centre has beenworking relentlessly forrenaming the area that ispopularly known as “LittleIndia” due to the high con-centration of south Asianshops and restaurants.

“Persistence alone

paid off in the end as itwas just getting no where,till the culture center andbusiness leaders settledfor adding the signs desig-nating it a district, a USD10,000 expense,” ICCSpokesperson ManishaMehta said.

Renaming the Hillcroftarea required 75 per cent ofcommercial property own-ers on a street to sign a peti-tion in its support, accord-ing to the municipal law.

Only then the City Councilcan consider the change ofthe name. But Indians ear-lier failed to gather requirednumber of signs as it wasdifficult to agree the non-south Asians there.

The project was pro-posed during the tenure offormer Mayor Bill Whiteas the ICC and Indianmerchants in the areawanted to renameHillcroft Avenue toMahatma Gandhi Avenue.

Beirut: An Ethiopian Airlines plane to Addis Ababacrashed into the Mediterranean minutes after it took offrom Beirut airport, killing all 90 on board earlyMonday. The plane caught fire, as it took off duringweather conditions that were described very bad.Thirty four bodies were found till Tuesday afterLebanese authorities mounted rescue efforts on warfooting. Two Britons and 1 Canadian citizens ofLebanese origin and wife of France’s ambassador toLebanon, Marla Pietton were among the 83 passengers.

UK’s Islam TV Channel chiefHarrath arrested in SA

Pretoria: Mohamed Ali Harrath, a Tunisian nativeand a refugee in UK was arrested in Pretoria, SouthAfrica on an Interpol Red Corner notice. Harrathlanded in Pretoria on Sunday and was taken into cus-tory. He is hospitalised after he collapsed due to apossible hearth problem and faces deportation toTunisia. He has been tried in absentia in his homecountry and has been sentenced to Jail for 56 years.

Harrath is the head of Britian’s most popularMuslim TV Station – Islam Channel and also an advi-sor to Scotland Yard against Islamic extremism. Hehas been felicitated by political leaders of all the threeparties in UK. London Mayor Boris Johnson also hadinvited him to the Trafalgar Square event to mark theend of Ramadan. The Islam Channel, defendingHarrath, accused Tunisia of using Interpol to harassand intimidate Harrath. Mohamed Ali Harrath wasallowed into UK in 1995 as a refugee. South Africatakes requests from fellow African states seriouslyand has detained Sudanese and Rwandan officialswanted for alleged human rights violations. Securityat South African airports is extremely tight before theWorld Cup amid persistent fears of terrorist attacks.The British High Commission confirmed Harrath’sarrest and said it was watching the situation closely.

Baghdad: Suicide bombers attacked three hotels usedby foreigners in the heart of Baghdad on Monday,killing at least 36 people and raising questions aboutgovernment pledges to keep Iraqis safe before a Marchelection. The car bombs wounded at least 71 people asIraq executed the man known as "Chemical Ali" underSaddam Hussein for his use of poison gas againstminority Kurds.

Upeksha Swarnamali


Court moved to ban free movement of AQ Khan Islamabad: Pakistan government has filed a petition at the Lahore High Court last week, seeking a ban

on the free movement and interaction of the nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan with media. The

petition filed by the federal government stated that the liberty granted to Dr Qadeer Khan poses serious

threat to national security. The country’s security establishment was deeply perturbed over Khan’s

recent interactions with foreign and local journalists. It has been alleged that the nuclear scientist has

shared sensitive information with the international media.

24

Pak snubs US over new Taliban offensiveIslamabad: Pakistan'sarmy has said it wouldn’tlaunch any new offensivesagainst Taliban in 2010, asthe US defence secretaryarrived for talks on com-bating militants.

Army spokesmanAthar Abbas said the"overstretched" militaryhad no plans for any freshanti-militant operationsover the next 12 months.

The US wantsPakistan to expand anoffensive against militantslaunching cross-borderattacks in Afghanistan.

Defence SecretaryRobert Gates arrived inPakistan on Thursday forhis first visit since USPresident Barack Obamatook office last year.

The trip comes at a cru-cial time in the fight againstal-Qaeda and the Taliban,with the US planning tocommit 30,000 more troopsto Afghanistan.

Mr Gates was expect-ed to tell Pakistan that itcould do more against topTaliban leaders operatingin its territory, some ofwhom are alleged to haveclose links to Pakistan'sISI intelligence service.

The Pakistani armylaunched major groundoffensives in 2009 in thenorth-west againstPakistani Taliban strong-holds in the Swat region,last April, and in SouthWaziristan, last October.

The militants have hitback with a wave of suicide

bombings and attacks thathave killed hundreds ofpeople across Pakistan. MajGen Abbas, head of publicrelations for the Pakistanarmy, said: "We are notgoing to conduct any majornew operations against themilitants over the next 12months. The Pakistan armyis overstretched and it isnot in a position to openany new fronts. Obviously,we will continue our pres-ent operations inWaziristan and Swat."

Snub to US officialsAccording to reports,

the comments are a clearbrush-off to top US offi-cials, and are likely to putPakistan's shaky coalitiongovernment in an embar-rassing position with its

US ally. He says the move also

threatens to make anyexpanded Nato and USmilitary deployment inAfghanistan ineffective, asthe Taliban will now berelieved of any pressurefrom the Pakistan army.

Before he arrived inIslamabad, Mr Gates toldreporters travelling withhim from India: "You can'tignore one part of this can-cer and pretend that itwon't have some impactcloser to home." His visitcame amidst a slight dete-rioration in relationsbetween the two allies. Inan article published in aPakistani newspaper, MrGates referred to a "trustdeficit".

Gilani not ready to guarantee against repeat of 26/11Islamabad: While theUnited States has stressedthat any more 26/11 likeattacks on India originat-ing from Pakistani soilwould test its patience, thePakistan government hassaid that it cannot guaran-tee repeat of the ghastlyterror attacks whichrocked India's financialcapital.

Sources said PrimeMinister Yousuf RazaGilani told visiting USDefence Secretary RobertGates that Pakistan itselfis witnessing frequent ter-ror attacks, and that itcannot promise thatMumbai type attacks can-not be carried out infuture again.

"Pakistan is itself fac-ing Mumbai-like attacksalmost every other dayand when we cannot pro-tect our own citizens, howcan we guarantee thatthere wouldn't be anymore terrorist hits inIndia," Gilani said.

Linking the terrorattacks with the Kashmirissue, Gilani told Gatesthat the best way to pre-vent such ghastly terroracts is to de-link the peaceprocess from actionagainst extremists.

During his meetingwith Gates, Gilani criti-cised New Delhi for itsobstinate attitude, sayingthat as long as India heldthe peace process hostageto progress on terrorism,forward movement in nor-malisation of ties wasunlikely, The Dawnreported.

"Pakistan is committedto peace in the region andin this context has beenmaking sincere efforts toresume composite dia-logue with India, but theresponse from the other

side has not been encour-aging. Relations betweenIndia and Pakistan shouldnot become hostage to theactivities of terrorists,"sources privy to the meet-ing quoted Gilani, as say-

ing.Meanwhile, Gates dur-

ing his recent India visit,had said that any moreMumbai type attacks onIndia could probably trig-ger a war between the

neighbouring countries.Gates said that it was

unlikely that New Delhiwould show the samerestraint shown after 26November 2008 ifattacked again.

Pakistan likely to get 12

unarmed drones from USIslamabad: The US is nowmulling supply ofunarmed surveillancevehicles to Pakistan to aidits war against theTaliban. It is unclearwhether there would beconditions restraining theuse of these drones alongthe Indian border.

US defence secretaryRobert Gates unveiledplans to supply 12unarmed drone aircraft toPakistan to boost surveil-lance and reconnaissancecapabilities even as hesought to allay regionalconcerns by sayingAmerica is providing

weapons to India andPakistan on an equitablebasis. He said the US hasset aside 1 billion dollarsin its Coalition SupportFund to provide weaponsand equipment toPakistan for the waragainst terrorism and thedrones would be part ofthis package.

The Shadow UAVs willhelp build the PakistanArmy’s capacity for intelli-gence-gathering, he said.

US officials accompa-nying Mr. Gates told themedia that 12 ShadowUAVs will be supplied toPakistan.

Zardari bracing up to fight legal

battle against NRO rulingIslamabad: The Pakistangovernment may fileanother petition seekingreview of the SupremeCourt's verdict on the con-troversial amnesty law, theNational ReconciliationOrdinance (NRO).

Responding to a ques-tion raised by OppositionLeader Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan in the NationalAssembly, Law andParliamentary AffairsMinister Babar Awan saidthe government is examin-ing the detailed judgmentof the apex court, whichnullified the NRO from thedate of its enforcement.

Awan also rejectedKhan's charges that thegovernment was headingtowards a confrontation

with the higher judiciary(Supreme Court) over theissue.

"If somebody wants aconfrontation (to happen)we will disappoint him,"

The Dawn quotedAwan, as saying.

"Judgments areno danger to the(democratic) sys-tem because thejudgments aremade by an institu-tion sitting in a tri-chotomy (of parlia-ment, executiveand judiciary) andsubservient to theC o n s t i t u t i o n .There is no dangerof confrontation toany institution northere is any dangerto the system," he

added.Meanwhile, the

Presidency too has report-edly braced itself to fight alegal battle and contest the

scrapping of the ordinanceand reopening of corrup-tion cases againstPresident Asif Ali Zardari,following the detailedjudgment on the NRObeing made public.

Insiders said thatZardari is likely to seek hisclose aide Barrister AitzazAhsan's legal assistanceover the issue. DrMobashir Hassan, onwhose petition the apexcourt scrapped the NRO,said he was confident thatZardari would vigorouslyappeal against theSupreme Court's decision."I know the feudal mind, ifhe believes it is a matter oftribal honour, he wouldeven lay down his life,"Hassan said.

Court to launch

contempt proceedings

against Rehman MalikIslamabad: Pakistan'ssupreme court on Mondaydecided to launch con-tempt proceedings againstinterior minister RehmanMalik for "interfering" in aprobe into alleged financialirregularities in a state-runsteel firm, rejecting hisexplanation as beingdevoid of an "apology".

The apex court had lastmonth sought a writtenexplanation from Malik for"interfering" in an ongoinginvestigation into allegedwrong-doing and financialirregularities in thePakistan Steel Mills.

The court issued noticeto Malik after initiatingsuo motu proceedings onthe basis of a media reportof alleged corruption inthe state-run firm.

Malik personallyappeared in the apex courtand presented his writtenreply but a two-judgebench headed by chief jus-tice Iftikhar Chaudhrysaid it was not satisfiedwith his explanation.

The court scheduledthe next hearing forFebruary 18, when thebench will initiate con-tempt of court proceed-ings against Malik.

The apex court hadissued notice to Malik fortransferring FederalInvestigation Agency(FIA) chief Tariq Khosa,describing it as an act ofinterference in the court'saffairs as Khosa was prob-ing the reasons for loss ofRs 22 billion incurred bythe Pakistan Steel Mills.

Asif Ali Zardari

Lahore: A court in Lahoreon Friday dismissedLashker-e-Taiba opera-tional commander ZakiurRehman Lakhvi's applica-tion seeking the transferof his trial for planningand facilitating theMumbai terror attacksfrom Rawalpindi to thiseastern Pakistani city.

While disposing of theapplication, Lahore HighCourt Chief JusticeKhwaja MuhammadSharif directed the federaland Punjab governmentsto ensure that foolproofsecurity is provided toLakhvi and his counselKhwaja Sultan.

Chief Justice Sharif

also said there was no jus-tification for the requestfor Lakhvi's trial to beshifted from Rawalpindito Lahore.

In his application,Lakhvi had claimed thatthere was a purportedthreat to his life as agentsof the Indian spy agencyResearch and AnalysesWing were present inRawalpindi.

He asked for his trialto be transferred from ananti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi to Lahore.

The Deputy AttorneyGeneral of the federalgovernment and theAdvocate General of

Punjab province had toldthe high court thatauthorities are providingcomplete security toLakhvi and his counsel.

Lakhvi's counselKhwaja Sultan has alsosaid his client was not sat-isfied with the judge ofthe anti-terrorism court inRawalpindi who was con-ducting the trial.

The LeT commanderwas indicted with six oth-ers - Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad AminSadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz,Jamil Ahmed and YounasAnjum - for planning andhelping execute theassault on India's finan-cial hub in November

2008 that killed nearly180 people.

Their trial is beingconducted withinRawalpindi's Adiala Jailfor security reasons.

The anti-terrorismcourt was to begin record-ing evidence against themat the last hearing onJanuary 16 but wasunable to do so because ofthe application filed byLakhvi in the LahoreHigh Court.

Lakhvi has filedanother application in theRawalpindi-based benchof the Lahore High Courtchallenging the anti-ter-rorism court's dismissal ofhis plea for acquittal.

Mumbai attack mastermind Lakhvi’s plea rejected

Either you or your part-ner have been going

through a phase of inner doubts and uncertainties, andperhaps the main source of tension has simply been theneed for breathing space in your relationship and a needto look at things more objectively. Wait before going fullsteam ahead with grand actions and gestures.

If lately you have hadall sorts of demands being placed on you from all sides,don't despair; take some time out to reflect. Try and workout your priorities. Once you know, don't hesitate toimplement it systematically. A tremendous amount ofplanetary activity in your chart signals a time for change.

This week should seeyou at the peak of your cre-

ative powers. It’s an exciting, expansive time, when youshould find it easier to be who you are and do what youwant. This is a tremendously exciting time for you, inwhich you can embrace changes you might not even con-sider at other times.

Guard against beingtoo impatient and restless. You will need to exercise

care in the use of credit. Extra energy and drive will serveyou well in getting things accomplished, but try not tocome on too strong when you deal with others. Thereappears to be a more successful trend coming into effect.

If you're currently roman-tically involved, your love will go from strength to

strength. The work that you are involved with at this timeis likely to demand a great deal of energy and initiativefrom you. This will also involve a need to establish awider network of contacts. You will find your friends will-ing to help you in any way.

There is an element ofdisruption or stress which may be hard to avoid, but it

appears that there is a strong sense of purpose in the back-ground. A certain amount of hard work will be necessary,but the final result will be extremely pleasing. Anexchange of opinions ought to prove very enlivening atthis time.

Co-operative venturesare likely to generate financial success. So, it would cer-tainly do no harm to adopt a more pushy and outgoingapproach to life. As social life improves, the chances ofmeeting someone are greatly increased. The general pat-tern of things continues on a progressive and buoyant

theme.

There will be increasedscope for varying your activities, widening your networkof contacts and getting out and about. It is an excellenttime for exercising your mental energies, claryfying yourand other people's ideas. Exercise caution when it comesto making financial decisions.

You will feel ener-getic and confident as the week begins. New beginningsare favoured , as long as you do not bite off more than youcan chew. Your thinking is inspired, so listen to yourthoughts. This is a time of expansion and improved oppor-tunity, so do not be complacent. Affairs of the heart arelikely to flourish.

The powerful com-bination of planets in your chart throws a significant

light on material concerns. The cash situation continuesto be rather erratic. However, problems can be avoided ifyou can curtail extravagant impulses and keep everythingwell organised. Keep away from any emotional tensionswith your partner.

The pace of everyday lifewill gather momentum and there may be times when youfind it hard to keep your act together. Any obstacles thathave stood in the way of your heart's desires should meltinto the background soon. Your self-confidence will beextremely high and this will be helped by various encour-aging events.

There are subtle trans-formations taking shape in your life. There is much to

suggest that you are in tune with your inner self and intouch with those hidden forces which often seem to takea guiding hand in one's life. Focus on essentials andestablish a solid foundation, so that you feel secure.


Week commences 30th February 2010ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

Sneh Joshi - 020 8518 5500

UK

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This week meet Mr Shobhag Haria, who wouldtalk about his Exhibition of photographs onGandhiji only on CB Live. Born in Kenya, yet hislove for Mother India reflects through his work.

Duncan Lewis organisessuccessful party

Duncan Lewis organised a party in Central Londonon 22nd January 2010 and over 350 guests attendedit. Established in 1998, Duncan Lewis and Co is oneof the fastest growing firms of solicitors in the UKwith 6 offices employing over 400 people.

L-R: Mr. Sarabjit Gupta - Office Manager, Mr. Syed TahlaRafique – Chairman, Ms. Nina Joshi - Managing

Director, Mr. Shany Gupta – CEO, Mr. Sridhar Ponnada -Director - IT and Operations, Mr. Adam Makepeace -

Practice Director and Mr. Kishor Parmar - AdvertisingManger, Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar

photo courtesy: Andrew Smith

Sony Music Entertainment(India) is proud to releasethe soundtrack of one of thisyear’s most highly anticipat-ed Indian motion pictures,My Name is Khan, an epicromantic drama with Globalappeal.The music soundtrack for My Name is Khan is nowavailable nationwide from local stores, Amazon.comand downloadable from iTunes.We are offering 3 lucky readers the chance towin a copy of the CD signed by SRK, Kajol andKJ. To enter, simply answer correctly the following question:Which musical trio directed the soundtrack forMy Name Is Khan?Send your answers along with your postal addressto [email protected] by Monday 1st February 9am.

Win a signed CD of My Name is Khan

Soundtrack – released by Sony Music Entertainment

Coming Events1. Mahatma Gandhi Foundation (UK) presents GandhiNirvan Day on Friday 29th January at 6:30pm, Kentonat St Gregory's Catholic Science College. Contact:Rameshbhai Patel 020 8203 1207

2. The India League presents Gandhi Nirvan Day on30th January 2010 at 11am in Tavistock square,London WC1.

3. IC Punjabi Societies forthcoming charity show, TheBhangra Showdown 2010 on 31st January 2010, atThe London Palladium, Argyll StreetLondon, W1F 7TF.

4. Mahashivratri Utsav, Friday 12th Feb 2010 at ShreeSanatan Mandir and community centre, CatherineStreet, Leicester LE4 6FQ, Contact: 01162661402

5. Inauguration of Shirdi Saibaba Temple on 31stJanuary 2010, Union Hall, Union road, Middlesex HA04AU, 9 am to 9 pm. For more information please visitwww.shirdisai.org.uk or email: [email protected]

Across1 Rain unit5 King of Crete10 Fateful day14 Actress Russo15 Pathogenic bacteria16 Medical fluids17 Start of G.K.

chesterton quip20 Discharge21 Stellar balsts22 Positive reply23 Venetian strip

25 Hebrew month27 Part 2 of quip31 Christian’s frocks35 Expression of sorrow36 Sis, bro or cuz37 Eases off38 Pronoun for Miss piggy39 soaked41 Actor Vigoda42 Rocky’s last name44 Incisive remark45 Outer layer46 Harden

47 Part 3 of quip49 Donated51 TV part?52 Slugger’s stat55 Storage gattery type57 Dental exams?61 End of quip64 Sing Fitzerald65 Lesson66 Italian eight67 Grace closer68 Grow dark, parhaps69 OozeDown1 Eins, zwei, ___2 Ups the RPMs3 Billfrod fillers4 Reads with care5 Hebrew letter6 Cry form the unsighted7 Kiddy taboo8 Drink garnishes9 Fiber source10 Bird’s alma mater11 Repudlate12 White-tailed eagle13 Pronounces18 Cheerleader’s directive19 Battled on and on

24 Way from the heart26 Illuminated27 Metrical feet28 Parade entry29 Selassie of Ethiopia30 Varnish ingredient32 Hoshu port33 Harp on34 Use credit cards37 River of forgelfuiness39 County bordering

Napa40 Follow in time43 Solicit alms45 Multi-speaker sound

systems47 Priam’s wife48 Oodles50 Like th flu52 Perlman of zCheers’53 Salve54 Wight or skye56 Med. School subject58 Comic Johnson59 Dieter’s word60 Word on a traffic sign62 Sunbather’s

acqulsition63 Marsh


C R O S S W O R D - 721 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

35 36 37

38 39 40 41

42 43 44 45

46 47 48

49 50 51

52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63

64 65 66

67 68 69

HOW TOPLAY

Each row,column andsquare 3x3box is a sub-grid of 9cells. Fill inthe grid sothat eachs u b - g r i dcontains the digits 1 to 9.Every puzzlehas onesolution.

Sudoku-72

Solution of sudoku-71

33 6 9 1 7

7 8 5 26 9 1 7

5 2 7 44 6 5 97 5 9 4 1

8

20

12KAKURO - 72

The numbers in the pink squares refer to the sums of the digits that you must fill into the empty spaces directlybelow or to the right of the pink square containing the number. For instance, in the given example, the 2 boxes below12 must contain 2 digits that add upto 12, whereas for 20, the 3 boxes places horizontally next to it must add upto 20.No zeroes are used here, only the digits one through nine.

Example

Solution of KAKURO - 71

Note: A digit cannot appear more than once in any particular digit combination. For instance in the example, we cannot have the combination of 8+4+8 for 20.

SPELLATHON - 72Today’s Ratings: 05-average | 06-good | 07-outstanding

CTC

OA

IH

How many words of four or more letters canyou make from the letters shown in today’spuzzle? In making a word, each letter may beused once only. Each word must contain thecentral letter. There should be at least oneseven-letter word. Plurals, foreign words andproper names are not allowed. British EnglishDictionary is used as reference.

Solution of Crossword-71

MINDBENDER - 72If 02 is 0=0. H2O is H-0-H, and C02 is 0=C=0, Then

what might this represent? =James=

Solution of 71 : The probability is 1 (complete certainty). any three

points on a sphere must be on a hemisphereWHATZIT? - 72

solution of - 71:Under arrest

TIME PASS

Find the familiar phrase, saying or name inthis arrangement of letters.

26

22

7

13

11 11

9 15

16

6

8

18

3

12

15

3

6 30

13

12

3 7

3

18

5

11

7

24

10

19

10

7

11

12

13

10

RulesConnect adja-cent dots withvertical or hori-zontal lines,creating a sin-gle loop.(Fig A).

Crossoversor branchesare not allowed(As shown by dot-ted lines in Fig B).

Numbers in thepuzzle indicate thenumber of linesthat should surround it, whileempty cells maybe surrounded byany number oflines.

You can’t drawlines arroundzeroes.

Each puzzle has just one unique solution.How to begin: Example (Fig A) - Begin with the zero nextto 3. Since no lines can be drawn around zero, markcrosses around it, as shown. Now there is a cross in onespace around 3. So we know the three lines of 3 can onlybe drawn in the remaining three spaces. Next these linescan only be extended in one direction each. Continue,

using the samelogic.Hints: Keep elimi-nating possibili-ties by markingcrosses inspaces betweendots where a lineisn’t possible,i.e., if you havealready complet-ed required linesor where a lineextension maycreate a branchor cause a dead-end (Fig B)

2 2 3

3 3 2

2 1 3

3 3 1 3

3 1 2 0 3

3 3 2 2

3 3 1

LOOP THE LOOP - 47

SCRAMBLE - 47Rearrange the letters in the four word jumbles, one letter to each

square/circle, to make four ordinary words

How to playNow arrange the letters inthe circles to form theanswer to the riddle or tofill in the missing word asindicated

Solution of Scramble - 46Words: Maids, tight, chants, yachts.

Answer: Mile bye mile, it’s a trial. Yard by yard, it’s hard. But inch byinch, it’s a cinch.

Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touchthat never____. – Charles Dickens(5)

MIDAS

GHTIT

AHSTCN

ASTYCH

Solution of LTL No. 46

Solution of Spellathon - 71bliss, boil, boss, BOSSILY, bossy, slob

9

2 1 2 3 2

1 2

3 1 3 0 2

1 2

2 1 3 1 2 3

3 2 1

3 2

x xx x

x x x x x xx x

x x x xx x x x

x x xx x x

x x x xx x x x

x xx x x x x

x xx x x x

x

9 8 3 6 1 2 5 4 7

2 1 5 7 3 4 8 9 6

7 4 6 5 9 8 1 3 2

8 7 1 3 4 5 2 6 9

6 3 4 8 2 9 7 1 5

5 9 2 1 6 7 3 8 4

3 2 8 9 5 6 4 7 1

4 6 7 2 8 1 9 5 3

1 5 9 4 7 3 6 2 8

D O H S T P S O L C O Y

I R O N O R E T R I B U N E

R E M O T E R R E S A L E S

T O E D T U B U L A R

R E M V A T H E M I N

A C H A M I R S A L A N A

F A A G O A T D R Y R O T

F R Y G U N S H O T G U T

A U N T I E T E E M E Y E

I S E R E S A L S A P E R

R O S A S T R I N M I

I M M O R A L A E R O

O L D N I C K C E N T R A L

A P O S T L E A N T A C I D

T S E H I D L A H Y D S

11

5

10

16

6

412

14 7

12

6

13

21

11

8

3

9

29 18

16

8

16

13

23

8

8

9

24

19

11

6

3 4

17

19

15

7

16

12

3

28

10

9 3 2 1

5 2 3 1 4 7 9 8

9 4 4 1 1 7

1 5 3 2 6 2

9 7 7 9

4 7 5 2 8 9

1 2 3 1 2 1

5 7 8 9 1 2 8 7

9 7 9 7

11


English Premier League Matches

Saturday, 30 January Birmingham v/s Tottenham St. Andrews Ground 15:00 Burnley v/s Chelsea Turf Moor 17:30 Fulham v/s Aston Villa Craven Cottage 15:00 Hull v/s Wolverhampton Kingston Comms Stadium 15:00 Liverpool v/s Bolton Anfield 15:00 West Ham v/s Blackburn Boleyn Ground 15:00 Wigan v/s Everton D W Stadium 15:00 Sunday, 31 January Arsenal v/s Man Utd Emirates Stadium 16:00 Man City v/s Portsmouth City of Mcr. Stadium 13:30 Monday, 1 February Sunderland v/s Stoke Stadium of Light 20:00 Tuesday, 2 February Hull v/s Chelsea Kingston Comms Stadium 19:45 West Ham v/s Wolverhampton Boleyn Ground 19:45 Wednesday, 3 February Fulham v/s Portsmouth Craven Cottage 20:00

Delhi escapes World Cup blackout

CWG at Republic Day parade in Delhi

IPL season III live on YouTube

Pink ball trial in OZ next week

Sport WorldAustralia demolish Pakistan in ODIs tooHosts make it 3 – 0 at Adelaide, dash hopes of any fight by Pakistan

Shahid Afridi and UmarAkmal presented someresistance to the hometeam as Pakistan werechasing 287 runs to win thethird ODI at the AdelaideOval and keep the seriesopen, but that was notenough. Ryan Harris, theOZ speedster playing onlyin his second big match,scalped 5 of the Pakistanwickets and helped OZ winthe third ODI by 40 runs aswell as the 5 match series 3– 0, making the remainingtwo matches of little conse-quence.

Australia reached 286losing 6 wickets with halfcenturies from ShaunMarsh and Michael Clarke,while Michael Hussey justmissed the 50 run mark by

a single. Harris bagged theMan of the Match awardfor his efforts, as heclaimed the key wicket ofShahih Afridi who couldhave posed a serious threatfor the home team.

Australia and Pakistan,both the innings saw somelate blitzkrieg, but overall

the show presented by thehome team batting did lit-tle to enthuse cricket fansthat had turned up at thestadium.

For the home crowd,some entertainment cameonly in the fag end. In thelast ten overs when, led byClarke and Hussey,

Australia added 95. Thestory was not the same forPakistan.

Younis Khan had taken20 balls to get off themark. It took an 85-runstand from Umar Akmal(59) and Fawad Alam (33)to give Pakistan a sniff.

{Brief scores: 3rd OID– OZ 6 for 286 (Marsh 83,Clarke 80, Hussey 49)beat Pak 246 (UmarAkmal 59, Harris 5-43,McKay 3-48) by 40 runs.2nd ODI – OZ 6 for 267(Watson 69, White 55,Aamer 3-53) beat Pak 127(Yousuf 58, McKay 3-15)by 140 runs. 1st ODI -OZ - 5 for 275 (White105, Clarke 58) beat Pak274 (Butt 72, Watson 4-36) by 5 wickets.}

Pakistan in U-19 World Cup finals

Pakistan colts entered intothe under-19 World Cupcricket on Monday, as theybeat West Indies by 4wickets in the first semifinal at Lincoln, NewZealand. West Indies hadposed a challenging targetof 213 runs for Pakistan.The Caribbeans hadrocked the opponents withfour early wickets, butHammad Azam rescuedthe ultimate finalists with92 and led them homewith four wickets intactand 9 balls to spare.

The second semi finals

will be played on 27thJanuary between Australiaand Sri Lanka, to decidethe finalists againstPakistan.

Earlier, India lost totheir neighbours Pakistanin the quarter finals, whileEngland was edged out ofthe competition after theylost to the West Indies,also in the quarter finals.England had ended theleague phase at the top ofgroup A, putting behindIndia to the second spot.

But later, in the semi –final for play off for the

5th position, India beatEngland by seven wicketswith more than 13 oversto spare. England man-aged to score just 176runs, as they were bowledout in the last over. Indiaachieved the target in the36th over, losing just 3wickets.

Now, India and SouthAfrica will clash to decidethe 5th and the 6th spot,on 27th January. Englandlost to New Zealand andhad to settle for 8th spotin the playoff game onTuesday.

England, India edged out in the pre quarter finals

SL wants tohost India inJuly/August

Sri Lanka till date, hasonly a tour of West Indies,at the end of the year asthe confirmed home seriesin 2010. It is looking toIndia to help them with atour in July/August,which the island nation issure will come through.Further, Asia Cup is alsodue in June next, and SriLanka stands a chance tobag the hosting, asPakistan would probablynot agree that the tourna-ment goes to India, giventhe latest controversy ofthe IPL snub as also thetense relations betweenthe two neighbours. AsianCricket Council will per-haps decide about theAsia Cup very soon, thismonth itself.

Infact, Sri LankaCricket (SLC) is alsoworking for an ODI tri-series featuring India andNew Zealand to fill thelarge void that it is facingin the international calen-dar for 2010.

Asia Cup may also bepushed back for sometime, as its June timetablehappens to coincide withfootball World Cup, inSouth Africa.

SA say no for Pakistan tour

Pakistan’s aspirations tohave some internationalcricket being played athome have received yetanother setback, as SouthAfrica has pulled out fromtheir scheduled tour ofPakistan that was to takeplace in October –November this year. TheProteas’ decision is due tosecurity concerns.

Ejaz Butt, PCB chair-man confirmed the newsthat South Africa will notbe coming to Pakistan forthe three test and five ODIseries.

Cricket South Africahas instead offered to playPakistan at home, givingthe series a status of‘home’ series for Pakistan,meaning even though the

series could be played inSouth Africa, yet techni-cally Pakistan would beconsidered the hosts.

PCB was instead, look-ing at playing the series atneutral venues like UAEor Sri Lanka.

Ejaz Butt has addedthat, whatever the venue,Pakistan will sure by play-ing the series.

Proteas offer hosting the series at home

IPL season III can still have

Pak cricketers playing

In a new twist to the IPLrow, the League chairmanLalit Modi said Pakistanicricketers still have achance to be picked upand play the IPL seasonIII. This statement hascome on Tuesday after theIPL and the franchiseesearned some flak fromHome Minister of India P.Chidambaram.

In an interview to anews channel,Chidambaram said the gov-ernment of India was not inanyway involved with thedecision of the IPL or the

franchisees. He further com-mented that they shouldhave understood that for theIPL, it was not a Pakistanteam, they were players asindividuals. Chidambaramwent on to say that by notpicking up Pakistan players,the IPL teams have done adisservice to cricket.

Without giving a directto the home minister’sstatement, Modi saidsome teams still have theirquotas to be completed;further some players mayopt to drop out, hence theteams can pick up

Pakistan players. Modirefuted allegations thatthe whole issue was mis-handled by the IPL.

The league chairmansaid even Australiansweren’t picked up, butthere was all the hypearound non inclusion ofonly Pakistan cricketers.

It may be noted here,that Shiv Sena chief BalThackeray has warnedthat Australian cricketerswould not be allowed toplay in Maharashtra. Hisnephew Raj has endorsedthe call.

Pak players can be roped in for vacant quotas of some teams: Modi

Delhi and BCCI escaped a harsh penalty, possiblythe risk of losing a chance to host World Cup match-es next year, as ICC ordered a one year ban on FerozShah Kotla.

IPL matches to be playedOne of the DDCA officials and a former test

cricketer himself, Chetan Chauhan said IPL match-es scheduled in March and April will be played atKotla only.

Cricket and particularly IPLfans this year will have theoption of watching the T20extravaganza, to be stage inIndia in March and April, onYouTube. Google and IPLhave signed a deal to webcast all the 60 IPL matcheslive or after a short delay. The YouTube webcast willbe available all over the world, except the USA. Forthe USA, there will be rebroadcast options.

Under the agreement, signed for a period of twoyears, Google and the IPL will share the revenuesfrom sponsorships and advertising. For viewers,watching the webcast would in all probability be free.

In UK, the telecast rights were sold to Setanta,now a defunct entity. The rights have not beenresold, hence fans there now have the option ofwatching the games on You Tube.

Cricket Australia is also keen tohave Day-Night Test matches, asthey, like ICC feel the innovationwould bring in more spectators andhelp the classic format of the gamesurvive with better prospects. Withthat aim in mind, CA is to for trialsof using Pink balls in day-night games for theirFutures League, starting as early as next week. Thetest run is to determine if the pink ball is able toretain its colour and visibility under lights as also itsability to its holding up characteristics. “CricketAustralia is committed to finding a way to make day-night Test cricket a reality,” James Sutherland, theCEO of Cricket Australia, said. West Indies hasalready played day-night cricket with pink balls.

Clint McKay celebrates one of his three wickets at Adelaide

Former Indian sportsmen wave from a tableau depictingthe 2010 Commonwealth Games at the Republic Day

parade in New Delhi on Tuesday

!"#$%&!"#$%!!!"#$%&'()*%"+),


IPL auction triggersIndo-Pak sports war

Indian Premier Leagueteams not picking up asingle Pakistani cricketeron Tuesday has triggeredan Indo-Pak sports war, asPakistan interior ministerRehman Malik went on tothe extent of saying thecountry would considergiving a “befitting” reply,while former Pakistancricket team captainZaheer Abbas suggestedthat Pakistan should con-sider withdrawing hockeyteam from the World Cupin India as a protest to thehumiliation. Pakistansports minister IjazHussain Jakhrani saidPakistan will not boycottWorld Cup hockey tourna-ment as it is an FIH eventand not an Indian event.

Pakistan has also can-celled a visit of the parlia-mentary delegation toIndia. On Pakistan politi-cal leadership turning theIPL issue into a diplomaticrow; Indian ForeignMinister S M Krishna saidIPL was a private affair,govt. of India has nothingto do with that. He alsosaid Pakistan should knowwhere to draw a line inreacting to such situations.

There were protests inIslamabad and Lahore byvarious organisations,including some oppositionparties on Thursday, withparties demanding anexplanation and an apolo-ty from the IPL and thefranchisees, while InteriorMinister Rehman Malikwent to the extent of ask-ing an apology from Indiaon the snub as well assending a delegation toPakistan to take the crick-eters to India. AngryPakistan fans also burnteffigies of IPL chairmanLalit Modi.

Cable operators of thecountry also decided toboycott the telecast of theIPL season III. One of theteam owners, Bollywoodstarlet Preity Zinta evengot a hate mail fromPakistan, following whichthe Kings XI Punjabowner as well as ShilpaShetty, another Bollywoodheroine and one of thestake holders of RajasthanRoyals also addressed themedia on Friday. They saidthey owe no clarificationsto anybody, the decision ofall the franchisees in notbuying any of the

Pakistani cricketers waspurely on merit of the situ-ation, there was nothinglike a conspiracy or a snubto Pakistan cricketers.

The two starlets alsosaid they hadn’t picked upany new Australian crick-eters following the atmos-phere here in light ofIndians being regularlyattacked in Australia andOZ players saying thatthey will go by CA adviseand security situation atthe time of the tourna-ment.

Indian External AffairsMinister S M Krishna,responding to allegationsthat the government hadthe things planned, refut-ed the suggestions, sayingthat Indian governmenthad “nothing to do” withIndian Premier League(IPL) franchisees notpicking up any Pakistani

cricketers. “We need to make

some sort of strong state-ment conveying our feel-ings over the way the IPLorganisers and franchisesdeliberately insulted ourcricketers at the auction,”Abbas said.

He added thatPakistan must be clearabout its sports policywith India and act accord-ingly. Jakhrani, while talk-ing to the media after aNational Assembly ses-sion, said Pakistan wouldbe reviewing its sportingties with India.

Jamshed Dasti, thechairperson of theNational Assembly stand-ing committee on sports,blamed the PCB leader-ship for the humiliationthe players had to face atthe IPL auction.

Dasti said it was the

PCB's job to give properadvice to players onwhether to make them-selves available for the IPLor not.

"The PCB should havefirst got some assurancefrom the IPL chairman,Lalit Modi before allowingour players to send theirclearance to the Indians,"Dasti said.

Protests in Pakistan,cable operators to boycott

IPL season 3The Cable Operators

Association of Pakistan(CAP) said, it would boy-cott all matches of thethird edition of IPL.

The members of theassociation said their net-works will not air anychannel that beams theIPL matches.

Addressing a newsconference in the Lahorepress club, CAP presidentJabbar Ahmed Khan saidhis group had condemnedthe attitude of the organis-ers of IPL.

Leaders of religiousparties, which do not usu-ally comment on sportsactivities, joined the fray.Hardline Jamaat-e-Islamichief Munawar Hasansaid: "Pakistanis mustboycott IPL matches ontelevision, ban the use ofIndian products and stopwatching Indian films fea-turing Bollywood starswho are IPL franchiseestill an official apology isreceived from the Indiangovernment and the IPLorganisers."

Pakistan cable operators to boycott IPL matches;

Parliamentary delegation cancels India visit

Mushfiqur tonin vain, Indiabeat B’desh

Mushfiqur Rahim’svaliant century and TamimIqbal’s resistance werejust not good enough, asIndian bowling ultimatelygot better of the hometeam on the final day ofthe first test match onThursday, beatingBangladesh by 113 runs tomake it 1 – 0 in the twotest series.

Bangladesh bowlersdid a creditable job bykeeping India well in con-trol in the first innings, asthe visitor could onlyscore 243 runs, and thatalso only after a centuryfrom their master crafts-man – Sachin Tendulkar.India did improve theirshow in the secondinnings, as they piled up413 runs for 8 wickets,challenging the hosts to

score 415 runs to win. Bad light had inter-

rupted the match onalmost all days of thematch, yet India did notfeel any pressure on thetime factor.

Mushfiqur scored thefastest test century for aBangladesh player. But, itwas a failure of both – thebatting and more of thebowling that never testedIndia in the game.

On the final day how-ever, it was Tamim whooffered some resistance.He concentrated hard,and quelled his naturalgame for the first hour.Yet, he succumbed beforelunch itself. Bangladeshstarted the day with 348runs to be scored and 8wickets in hand, a win wasvery much unlikely forthem.

A draw also wouldhave been very much acreditable performance,but that was not to be.

Mushfiqur continuedthe fight, scored a good 60runs for the eight wicketpartnership, but all thatwas not enough to last outthe day.

Finally, India complet-ed the victory in the sec-ond session itself.

{Brief scores: India243 (Tendulkar 105,Sehwag 52, Shakib 5-62,Shahadat 5-71) and 413for 8 dec. (Gambhir 116,Laxman 69, Mishra 50)beat Bangladesh 242(Mahmudullah 69,Zaheer 3-54, Mishra 3-66) and 301 (Mushfiqur101, Tamim 52, Mishra 4-92, Ishant 3-48) by 113runs}.

Chittagong test went into 5th day

as hosts put up a valiant fight

Scotland Yard protection for UK team at Delhi CWG

England’s participation inthe forthcomingCommonwealth Games,to be staged in New Delhi– India is in no doubtswhatsoever, a spokesper-son of the EnglandCommonwealth GamesAssociation (ECGA) hassaid, even as she said thatScotland Yard would bepresent in the Indian cap-ital, coordinating andensuring the safety of theBritish contingent. UKhas reiterated that theirs’will be the biggest squad

at the DelhiCWG.

A report in“The Times ofIndia”, quotingCaroline Searlelast week said thecrack team of theB r i t i s hM e t r o p o l i t a nPolice, alsoknown as Scotland Yardwould be present in Delhiduring the CWG. Theirrole would be atleast toprotect the UK team,which would be of 1500+,

including officials.This will be largestUK contingent atany internationalevent.

Scotland Yardis already workingwith Delhi Policeand other agenciesinvolved in thesecurity of the gala

games. Yard officials havealready visited the Indiancapital in August last year.

ECGA is also takingadvice from BritishForeign, Commonwealth

Office and theCommonwealth GamesFederation also, apartfrom the MetropolitanPolice on the securityaspect.

The British contingentwould consist of teamsfrom Scotland, Wales,Northern Ireland andBritain.

Many of the Britishathletes would be alsoparticipating in testevents at the variousCWG venues fromFebruary to May.

October gala would see largest ever UK contingent participating

Mushfiqur Rahim exults on reaching his maiden

Test century at Chittagong

Chairman and Commissioner of IPL Mr. Lalit Modi (C),

Owner of Rajasthan Royals team Shilpa Shetty (L) and

Owner of Kings XI Punjab Preity Zinta attend the

press conference at Mumbai

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