epaper delhi english edition 12-05-2013

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R oad and Transport Minister CP Joshi will also be in the driver's seat in the Railway Ministry while Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal will have the additional charge of the Law Ministry. The development follows resignation of Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar from the Union Cabinet on Friday. Sibal, a lawyer himself, will handle the Law Ministry for the first time, while Joshi had held the Railway portfolio temporarily last year after the exit of Trinamool Congress nomi- nee Mukul Roy. Joshi was at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, ready to fly to Finland when he got a message that he was given the additional charge of the Railway Ministry. Joshi, who was scheduled to lead a delegation to Finland to sign an MoU in the road transport sector, cancelled the foreign visit in order to assume additional charge on Monday. These minor tinkerings in Team Manmohan are expected to be fol- lowed by a mini Cabinet reshuffle sometime next week to fill up some vacancies caused by the DMK’s exit from the Government and the need to place new nominees in the departments being held as addi- tional charge. Sources said that Congress pres- ident Sonia Gandhi will be meeting senior party leaders soon to discuss the reshuffle. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was virtu- ally forced by Sonia to sack his pro- tégé Ashwani Kumar, will not be part of the deliberations. Sonia's political secretary Ahmed Patel will brief the PM about the outcome of the discussions. Though Sonia has not com- mented on the recent political devel- opment, the party wants to make sure that she is seen as the person who compelled the PM to act against the tainted ministers. “Congress president and Rahul Gandhi never tolerate corruption and that is why they took the resignations of the two Ministers,” Congress spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das said. The statement made clear who is the boss in the UPA. It is a different matter that Sonia Gandhi was present at the Congress Core Group meeting last Sunday where the party decided to back both Bansal and Ashwani Kumar. In fact, when Bansal volun- teered to resign after the CBI arrest- ed his nephew in a job-for-cash scam, he was asked to stay on both by the PM and the party. The Congress leadership will need to explain to the nation why they insisted on defending the two tainted Ministers even at the cost of paralysing the Parliament. The party could not hold the Opposition responsible for the washout of the second half of the Budget Session when it could have avoided the stalemate by asking these two Ministers to put in their papers in time. The exit of Ashwani Kumar is unlikely to put the lid on the con- troversy triggered by the vetting of the CBI status report in the coal scam by him, PMO officials and Attorney General GE Vahanvati. On the last date of hearing of the case, the Supreme Court had expressed strong reservation on the role of the PMO officials who vis- ited the CBI headquarters to peruse the report. While the Government has indicated it will stand by the AG, it will be extremely difficult for the PM to leave untouched these joint secretaries in view of the SC's obser- vations against them. The SC had observed that the heart of the report was changed by these two officials. Meanwhile, it emerged on Saturday that in his resignation letter, Bansal maintained he was not aware that his nephew was in contact with Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar but he still thought it prop- er to step down. 64-year-old Bansal, who was made Railway Minister in October last year, said he looks forward to an expeditious investigation into the allegations. The CBI had earlier grilled Bansal’s personal secretary Rahul Bhandari, a 1997 batch Punjab cadre IAS officer who is believed to be privy to all the crucial decisions taken in the Railway Ministry. Related reports on P7 I nspector Badrish Dutt, post- ed with the elite Special Cell of Delhi Police and his para- mour were found dead in a house in Sector-52 in Gurgaon, police said on Saturday. Inspector Dutt, (45), who was one of the best in techni- cal interception, was shot in the left temple from his own 9MM service revolver, while Geeta Sharma, (45), a divorcee was shot in the right temple. Both had died on the spot. The gory crime scene was discovered by Special Cell sleuths who went to enquire about Inspector Dutt when he did nor respond to their calls on his cellphone. They then informed the Gurgaon Police about the tragic incident. It is said that Inspector Dutt had a rocky relationship with his family and had start- ed living with Geeta Sharma who had a flat on the second floor in Ardee City, Sector 52. Commissioner of Police Gurgaon Alok Mittal said that Inspector Dutt and Geeta Sharma had suffered gunshot injuries and the bullets were fired from a very close range. Turn to Page 6 A fter securing the resignation of Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, the BJP on Sunday announced the launch of its Jail Bharo Andolan (court arrest programme) to take for- ward its campaign against the ruling coalition. This agitation programme would be carried out between May 27 and June 2 with senior lead- ers of the party courting arrest in different parts of the country. The Opposition party also stepped up the attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claiming that Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal have been made ‘scapegoats’ to divert attention from the Prime Minister. “The Government has totally lost the moral strength and it continues to survive on its numeric strength. It is my suggestion to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he should introspect and decide what should be done on his part to restore the faith of the people in the entire political establishment. I think if he does an honest introspection, he will find no other option but to resign,” BJP chief Rajnath Singh said. Turn to Page 6 F ormer Pakistan Prime Minister and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his rival Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf on Saturday night won from their respective constituencies. Sharif won the Sargodha seat from his stronghold Punjab province and his party was reported to be leading in 110 of the 203 seats for which trends were available. Polling was held for 272 seats in the National Assembly. Cricketer-turned-politician Khan won Peshawar-I constituency even as his party led in 32 seats. Earlier in the day bombings and street clashes left at least 32 people dead and over 200 others injured as millions of Pakistanis defied Taliban threats and voted to elect a new Parliament and four Provincial Assemblies. However, Election officials admitted on Saturday that they failed to hold free and fair polls in the country’s largest city of Karachi, where voting was marred by two blasts and other incidents of violence. The violent run-up to the elections left at least 100 people, including three candidates, dead in terror attacks after the Taliban told Pakistanis to boycott the elections. Turn to Page 6 Related reports on P9

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Road and Transport Minister CPJoshi will also be in the driver's

seat in the Railway Ministry whileTelecom Minister Kapil Sibal willhave the additional charge of theLaw Ministry. The developmentfollows resignation of Pawan KumarBansal and Ashwani Kumar fromthe Union Cabinet on Friday.

Sibal, a lawyer himself, willhandle the Law Ministry for the firsttime, while Joshihad held theRailway portfoliotemporarily lastyear after the exitof TrinamoolCongress nomi-nee Mukul Roy.

Joshi was atthe Indira GandhiI n t e r n a t i o n a lAirport, ready tofly to Finlandwhen he got amessage that he was given the additional charge of the RailwayMinistry.

Joshi, who was scheduled to leada delegation to Finland to sign anMoU in the road transport sector,cancelled the foreign visit in orderto assume additional charge onMonday.

These minor tinkerings in TeamManmohan are expected to be fol-lowed by a mini Cabinet reshufflesometime next week to fill up somevacancies caused by the DMK’s exit from the Government and the need to place new nominees in

the departments being held as addi-tional charge.

Sources said that Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi will be meetingsenior party leaders soon to discussthe reshuffle. Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, who was virtu-ally forced by Sonia to sack his pro-tégé Ashwani Kumar, will not bepart of the deliberations. Sonia'spolitical secretary Ahmed Patel willbrief the PM about the outcome ofthe discussions.

Though Sonia has not com-mented on the recent political devel-opment, the party wants to makesure that she is seen as the personwho compelled the PM to actagainst the tainted ministers.

“Congress president and RahulGandhi never tolerate corruption andthat is why they took the resignationsof the two Ministers,” Congressspokesperson Bhakta Charan Das

said. The statement made clear whois the boss in the UPA.

It is a different matter thatSonia Gandhi was present at theCongress Core Group meeting lastSunday where the party decided toback both Bansal and AshwaniKumar. In fact, when Bansal volun-teered to resign after the CBI arrest-ed his nephew in a job-for-cashscam, he was asked to stay on bothby the PM and the party.

The Congress leadership willneed to explain to the nation whythey insisted on defending the twotainted Ministers even at the cost of

paralysing the Parliament.The party could not hold the

Opposition responsible for thewashout of the second half of theBudget Session when it could haveavoided the stalemate by askingthese two Ministers to put in theirpapers in time.

The exit of Ashwani Kumar isunlikely to put the lid on the con-troversy triggered by the vetting ofthe CBI status report in the coalscam by him, PMO officials andAttorney General GE Vahanvati.

On the last date of hearing of thecase, the Supreme Court hadexpressed strong reservation on therole of the PMO officials who vis-ited the CBI headquarters to perusethe report. While the Governmenthas indicated it will stand by the AG,it will be extremely difficult for thePM to leave untouched these jointsecretaries in view of the SC's obser-

vations againstthem. The SChad observed thatthe heart of thereport waschanged by thesetwo officials.

Meanwhile, itemerged onSaturday that inhis resignationletter, Bansalmaintained hewas not aware

that his nephew was in contact withRailway Board Member MaheshKumar but he still thought it prop-er to step down.

64-year-old Bansal, who wasmade Railway Minister in Octoberlast year, said he looks forward to anexpeditious investigation into theallegations.

The CBI had earlier grilledBansal’s personal secretary RahulBhandari, a 1997 batch Punjabcadre IAS officer who is believed tobe privy to all the crucial decisionstaken in the Railway Ministry.

Related reports on P7

������������ ���������

Inspector Badrish Dutt, post-ed with the elite Special Cell

of Delhi Police and his para-mour were found dead in ahouse in Sector-52 in Gurgaon,

police said on Saturday.Inspector Dutt, (45), who

was one of the best in techni-cal interception, was shot in theleft temple from his own 9MMservice revolver, while GeetaSharma, (45), a divorcee wasshot in the right temple. Both

had died on the spot. The gory crime scene was

discovered by Special Cellsleuths who went to enquireabout Inspector Dutt when hedid nor respond to their callson his cellphone. They theninformed the Gurgaon Policeabout the tragic incident.

It is said that InspectorDutt had a rocky relationshipwith his family and had start-ed living with Geeta Sharmawho had a flat on the secondfloor in Ardee City, Sector 52.

Commissioner of PoliceGurgaon Alok Mittal said thatInspector Dutt and GeetaSharma had suffered gunshotinjuries and the bullets werefired from a very close range.

Turn to Page 6

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After securing the resignation of PawanKumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, the BJP

on Sunday announced the launch of its Jail BharoAndolan (court arrest programme) to take for-ward its campaign against the ruling coalition.This agitation programme would be carried outbetween May 27 and June 2 with senior lead-ers of the party courting arrest in different partsof the country.

The Opposition party also stepped up theattack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singhclaiming that Ashwani Kumar and PawanBansal have been made ‘scapegoats’ to divertattention from the Prime Minister.

“The Government has totally lost the moralstrength and it continues to survive on itsnumeric strength. It is my suggestion to Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh that he shouldintrospect and decide what should be done onhis part to restore the faith of the people in theentire political establishment. I think if he doesan honest introspection, he will find no other option but to resign,” BJP chief RajnathSingh said.

Turn to Page 6

����� ���� �� ������� �������������

Former Pakistan Prime Minister andPML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his

rival Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Saturday night won from theirrespective constituencies.

Sharif won the Sargodha seat from hisstronghold Punjab province and hisparty was reported to be leading in 110of the 203 seats for which trends wereavailable.

Polling was held for 272 seats in theNational Assembly.

Cricketer-turned-politician Khanwon Peshawar-I constituency even as hisparty led in 32 seats.

Earlier in the day bombings and streetclashes left at least 32 people dead andover 200 others injured as millions ofPakistanis defied Taliban threats andvoted to elect a new Parliament and fourProvincial Assemblies.

However, Election officials admittedon Saturday that they failed to hold freeand fair polls in the country’s largest cityof Karachi, where voting was marred bytwo blasts and other incidents of violence.

The violent run-up to the electionsleft at least 100 people, including threecandidates, dead in terror attacks afterthe Taliban told Pakistanis to boycottthe elections.

Turn to Page 6Related reports on P9

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Not just for the Trekkiesbut also for freshers, thisone is a delight through

and through. It is adequately oldworld, charming, mixes humanemotions with the inimitableSpock logic, explores the finalfrontier with the same gusto andalso relives the Trek series inright earnestness.

Add to that director JJAbrams’ yen for fierce pace,drama and visual graffiti andyou have an unbeatable combothat will soar the charts in avertical climb.

Though for oldies weddedto William Shatner, Chris Pinemay come across as someonerather over the board, much toofierce to give finesse a chance, aman hellbent on quick revengeand a lad too young for theposition on the USS Enterprise,there is no doubt that he tootakes you where no man hasgone before.

His journey is full of pitfallsand a mission bypassing the“just explorers” history of hisunit. And, the pace of thisspatial outing is set from thevery first frame in which Kirkand Spock (Zachary Quinto) arebusy saving a planet and itsinhabitants in a haze of orange— a volcano bursting in thebackground, Mr Spock almostimploding in the heat and thespace ship rising from the oceanfor all to see. Even as you catchyour breath, there is a rescue

mission for saving Spock whosevulcan lineage disallows himfrom hiding the truth— thistime about the laws contravenedby Kirk. The Kirk-Spockrelationship is syrupy — moresyrupy than Spock’s romancewith Lt Uhura.

It has humour, expectationand, of course, a tantalisingclash between humanemotionalism and perceived

vulcan lack of sentimentality. It’sin this relationship that the

human side of Spock and thesuperhuman side of Kirk getsrevealed. Around this centralpivot, there is also a groovyvillain, exploration of space anda mission you get instantlyhooked on to.

It is, indeed, a techno-savvyreturn to the good old days ofthe USS Enterprise and a crewyou had loved so intensely allthose decades ago.

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The story follows Yashvardhan (JackieShroff) a real estate agent known to

be involved in illegal activities. Thepolice capture’s his right hand man Ajay(Arjun Kapoor). In order to catchYashvardhan red-handed, the policesend a lookalike — Vishal (ArjunKapoor who plays a double role). WhenVishal is planted in Yashwardhan’sworld in place of Ajay, the lawmakers(Rishi Kapoor & Prithviraj) roll the diceand a sequence of events unravel —something much more than what Vishalhad bargained for. He finds himself ina predicament that puts him to the test.

Vishal joins into the crew andbecome an informer, whilst Ajay is beingtortured into snitching all ofYashvardhan's business secrets. It isfurther revealed that Ajay and Vishalwere two twins who were separated andnow the Police is taking advantage of it.

The movie is set in 2011 in Lahore. Atan outdoor café a Pakistani Changez

(Riz Ahmed) tells Bobby (Liev Schreiber),an American journalist, about hisexperiences in the US. Roll back 10 years,and we find a younger Changez fresh fromPrinceton, seeking fortune and glory onWall Street.

The American dream seems wellwithin his grasp, complete with a smart andgorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (KateHudson). But when the Twin Towers areattacked, a cultural divide slowly begins tocrack open between Changez and Erica.Changez’s dream turns into a nightmare:Profiled, wrongfully arrested, strip-searched and interrogated, he istransformed from a well-educated,upwardly mobile businessman to ascapegoat and perceived enemy.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is astory about conflicting ideologies whereperception and suspicion have the powerto determine life or death.

The girl is cute, her family is cute, herfriends are cute, the film is cute,

dialogues are cute, the Shammi Kapoornumbers are cute and the direction is cutetoo. Gippi, the pleasantly plump teenagerwho leads the loser group in her school, isthe butt of all unsavoury jokes, keeps fallingoff chairs, hates to move on the playground,resents alllessons,looks downon boys herage and isthe epitomeof teeny-bopperblunder,somehowtakes your heart.

All the scorn around her barely pullsher down and the way she shakes onShammi Kapoor numbers, or for thatmatter, understands the angst of herdivorced mother who is forced to attendher ex-husband’s second marriage with astraight face, makes her good currency for afilm so centralised on her that there is notone frame without her in the entire film.

Sonam Nair , the debutant director, hasdone well to catch the pulse of this genre offilm. She keeps it souffle light and yetpuncy, real and yet dreamy, fun and yetpoignant in a subtle kind of way. Gippiwarms your heart pretty well but it wouldhave been great if the fun episodes weremore than Nair unfolds in this one.

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Iluminati Films keeps its promise to itsaudience. It promised fun, and it

delivers fun. Yes, this first of thezombies from Bollywood is surprisinglyhilarious. Yes, it is gross too but whenthree buddies — twolibidinous bewdas andone a dutiful do-gooder— get together, whatelse can you expect. Buthere, the four-letterwords and all thingsoutrageous comeglossed in high ticklevalue and that’s whatmakes Go Goa Gone a movie to laughaloud with.

Said Ali Khan may not be thecentral character of this rather hatkefilm, but as the Russian goonda mawali

high on hennaed hair, guns and anaccent you could give your life for, hetowers in his small and becomingcameo.

Abandoned on an island off thecoast of Goa, luredinto its remoteness ona rave party invitethrown at them by asexy siren, both KunalKhemu and Vir Dashave a time of theirlife — but once theywake up on theabandoned beach, all

hell is let loose, what with friends-turned-zombies baying for their blood,flesh and even bones, if you may!

It’s a roller-coaster dive into comedyand no there’s no fear factor.

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If you thought, with the death of Rano(for many it signified the triumph of

evil over good) everything supernatur-al in Anamika would go out of the win-dow, you’re in for a shock. For starters,good old Annie Gill is going to be backwith a bang, or with a candle, if you may.

In a typical Noorie-type-white- sareeclad ghost avatar, Gill will be back tohaunt you. The only difference will bethat Rano, the ghost, will only be therein spirit while Shivani Surve as Chhaviwill replace her as Jeet’s love interest inthe serial. Sounds spooky? Gill tells youthat this twist isn’t meant to spook youbut is aimed at tugging heartstrings.

“Anamika is a love story. Rano andJeet can never really be separated. Rano’sheart will always beat for Jeet and she’lldo anything to save him from the chu-dail. Only this time, she’ll take Chhavi’shelp,” Gill, who is busy shooting her post-death scenes, tells you.

Does it not feel weird to be living oneday and spreading your charm aroundto the next day when you are dead andhave to play a ghost meandering in thebackground? “At the end of the day, wewant our audiences to like the concept,the show and its uniqueness. It matters

little whether I’m being sidelined or myscreen time has reduced. If the creativeteam feels this twist is going to capturethe attention of our faithful audience, I’mall with them. Shivani is a brilliant actorand is very hardworking,” says Gill, rub-bishing rumours that she has beenreplaced because of her attitude.

“I get along well with everyone onthe sets and the creative director is afriend. They’ve all liked me in this role.I’m saddened by the rumours. But, star-dom comes in a package — kabhie hasnahai, kabhi rona hai,” Gill says.

As for the show, Surve, best knownfor her role in Agle Janam Mohe BitiyaNa Kijo, is going to take centrestage andwill give stiff competition to Anamika.Unlike Rano, Chhavi has a more fearlessand a pragmatic approach to life and willnot easily give-in to a supernaturalpower. “The chudail, at times, scaredRano because she was a believer. Chhavidoesn’t believe in such things so itmakes it difficult for the chudail,” Gill tellsyou. Jeet and Surve will be a couple even-tually, all thanks to Rano’s efforts. “I’ll beappearing on the show to guide Chhaviand remind her that she’s meant to pro-tect Jeet from Anamika,” Gill says.

When Avika Gor re-appeared on TV in a

fresh, bubbly new avatar,audiences had a mixedresponse. Some said, she fitthe bill while others criticisedher new look, saying shelooked too young for a nayeenaveli dulhan. But after shedies as Roli in Sasural SimarKa, Gor has made some spacefor herself as Jhumki. As Roli,Gor may have lived all thetwists — she has been shotat twice, survived a near-death experience when abullet piercedthrough her heart andhas been pushedin and out ofher khaan-daan. But,Roli hasalways been incontrol. “Myscriptwriterhad this eventplanned for along time butwe keptdelaying it,waiting forthe righttime. There’sgoing to be anew turn ofevents in theserial when Premfinds a Roli look-alike inRajasthan. Hebrings her back tothe house andmany things fallin place. Thisrusty Roli willbe quite amatch for thevillain,” Gortells you.With thisgaon ki

chhori avatar, Gor does a full-circle and is back to dressingup as in her Balika Vadhudays. But that’s somethingGor doesn’t mind. “I’m happyto be going back to my roots.I love dressing up so more thefinery, the better it is. The newrole is going to lend a freshperspective to the show,” Gorsays, adding that as an actor

she’s blessed to have donetwo different roles inthe same serial.

“Not many actorswith my experienceget such variety in one

show,” the 19-year-oldsays. In her opinion,

doing multipleshows is good. It

isn’t possible fora TV actor

to restrictherself toa showw h e n

there’s somuch more

she can exper-iment with. “Idon’t thinkparticipationin any dancereality showdemands ad r a s t i cchange inschedule.I’ve han-dled af u l l -

f l edgedshow while tryingmy hand at danc-

ing in the previousseasons of JhalakDikhhla Jaa and it hasworked out well,” Gor,who was one of com-

petitors for the wildcard entry, states.

Siddharth Shiv Shukla was as sur-prised as you were when he was

told one fine morning that he wasgoing to get kidnapped by terroristsfront in Srinagar while on his hon-eymoon. He was surprised but nottoo shaken. After all, Balika Vadhuhas been all about a tornado of activ-ity ever since Pratyusha Banerjeemade way for Toral Rasputra.

Shukla tells you that he prefers tonot be in a state of ennui. “I get boredeasily. So changes are always welcome.If the team thought it was a good ideato shoot the kidnapping sequence,who am I to question that?,” Shuklasays. He adds that his kidnapping onlymeans much more work for him.

“I’m not going to take a breakfrom the show. My work hours areonly going to get tougher. As it is, I

shoot for 12 hours non-stop to havebulk episodes ready. This kidnappingwill only increase my workload,” hesays.

Shukla has already shot for a cou-ple of advance episodes and he saysthere’s a lot more thrill that is goingto be unfurled in the coming weeks.

“I’ve wrapped up some advanceepisodes and the plot is interesting.I’m sure the audience will love thiscourse we’re going to take,” he tellsyou.

An avid fitness enthusiast, Shuklasays his main purpose to accept theJhalak Dikhhla Jaa offer was becausehe’s keen to work out through rigor-ous dance routines. “I’ve two left feetand am in Jhalak purely to have somefun. I’ve already started practisingand it has been lovely till now,” the 27-year-old model-turned-actor says.He adds that as reality shows have noguarantee that you’ll last long, it’salways advisable to guard your seri-al job. “I’ve no intention to take abreak from Balika to fit the dates forJhalak. This is my bread and butter,dance is just for fun,” he says.

So now what, you ask him andShukla promptly tells you that theonus is entirely on Anandi to findways to rescue Shiv from terroristswho will be gunning for his blood.

For Drashti Dami fans who aremissing her on the show,

there’s some good news thatawaits. The actress is going toreturn to the serial much soonerthan you expected. Shewas on a break for somereason while the makerswere contemplating achange of track. WhileDami is gearing up forJhalak Dikhhla Jaa,the producer of theshow, Saurav Tewarisays he isn’t worriedabout her commit-ment to wrap up theshow. “She’s a veryhardworking actressand a woman of herword. She knows thather role in MadhubalaEk Ishq Ek Junoon is piv-otal and, therefore, Dami has

committed most of her time for this show. Weencourage other actors to explore other oppor-tunities on the soapdish and we were very gen-uinely supportive about her joining a dance real-

ity show. She has got the talent. As forMadhubala, we are toying with the idea ofa changed track. But now, it is too early tocomment. Let’s just say, for the coming fewweeks, we’ll just be testing waters. No con-crete script has been decided upon as yet,”Tewari tells you.

He adds that in case an actor wants toleave the show there’s no contract that canbind the person. But there’s an under-standing that the actor shares with the pro-duction team. “It’s all a question of good-will and actors on TV are matured people.They know their responsibilities and actaccordingly. The same is expected out ofDami,” he concludes.

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Jantar Mantar, a prominentarchitectural landmark in

the Capital, would soon regainits age-old identity of an astro-nomical observatory frombeing merely a ‘protest venue’in recent years.

Having suffered muchdamage due to vandalism inthe name of protests, the struc-ture is set to get a revamp withthe Archaeological Survey ofIndia (ASI) coming up with ablueprint of the same.

Apart from improving itscondition, the ASI is also plan-ning to make the astronomicalobservatory fully functional. Thedevelopment also comes in wakeof a Delhi High Court’s order forthe monument’s preservation.

To start with, the ASI hasbegun constructing a ‘VisitorOrientation Centre’ insideJantar Mantar. “We have demol-ished our office there and havestarted the construction of aninterpretation centre at thesame place. The centre will haveaudio-visual displays, narra-tive panels, models and draw-ings of different components orinstruments of the monument.For those, this centre will act asa comfortable place to know

everything about the observa-tory,” said Daljit SinghSuperintending Archeologistof ASI’s Delhi circle.

Meanwhile, the ASI has alsodecided to prepare fresh docu-mentation for the instrumentsthere. “We are starting with theexact documentation for thecurved graduation of astro-nomical scales within a day ortwo. This will be first done for the‘Jayaprakash Yantra’ for mea-

surement of time. Further, thestone that will be used for rede-velopment will be chosen froma variety of samples. Finding theperfect stone is important as thenew ones have to match with thealready existing ones,” Singhsaid. The documentation, to becarried out under the guidanceof renowned astronomer VNSharma, will only be acceptedafter the committee gives theconsent for it, he added.

“A meeting was held inJanuary 21 this year in which itwas decided to use lime, insteadof marble, for the restoration ofthe instruments. Earlier we haddecided on using marble, butlater it was found that betterreadings can be achieved if theinstruments are given lime fin-ishing,” said Singh. The ASI hasstarted preparing coordinatedrawings for different instru-ments in the monument. “Scalesof the ‘Mishra Yantra’ will mostprobably be made of marble.Moreover, picture documenta-tion for implementation in orderto restore the functionality of thescales and marking as per theoriginal ones present on theinstruments shall be complete inall respects within a month,” saida member of the committee forJanatar Mantar restoration.

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The significance of JantarMantar has evolved from

being the city’s oldest astro-nomical observatory to beingthe official ‘protest’ venue forall Indians. With its closeproximity to Parliament, thiseighteenth century monumentwhich represents the nation’sscientific heritage, has alsobeen serving the people as asite to make their voices heard.

However, Jantar Mantarwas not always the first pref-erence for protests; it wasrather Boat Club, situatednear Rajpath. “ TheGovernment, from 1993onwards, declared JantarMantar as the officialvenue to stage protestsin the city. The deci-sion

of shifting the place fromBoat Club to Jantar Mantarwas taken seeing the reper-cussions of the massiveprotest carr ied out byMahendra Singh Tikait in1988,” said Jagdish Mamgain,the author of ‘Rang BadaltiDilli’ and the president of theProgressive Party.

Citing security reasonsfor the shift in the protest site,a senior Government officialsaid, “Boat Club is just a stepaway from the PrimeMinister’s Office as well as

from the Finance, ExternalAffairs and Home Ministries.So, it was extremelyunsafe toallow any

such activity there. Also, itused to severely affect thecleanliness of the area,

which is of national andinternational importance.”

The protest of BharatiyaKisan Sangh which was led byTikait, is believed to haveshaken the Government inOctober, 1988. “The Capitalhad seen the biggest protest of

its time. Tikait broughtthousands of agitatingfarmers to the site and foralmost a week he had

held the place under siege.He had polluted and

filled the place with anArmy of catt le

along withhis pro-

testers who even started cook-ing food there. A new legislation was introducedand protesting at Boat Clubwas banned since then,” said a senior official of theNew Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

Jantar Mantar was zeroedin as a protest zone by theGovernment because it isnear Parliament, yet it is notso close that it would affectthe routine affairs of the con-cerned authorit ies . TheGovernment can easily takenotice of the demand of thepublic from there, he added.

The Jantar Mantar sincethen has been home to hun-dreds of protests and dharnas,the landmark ones being theIndia Against Corruptionmovement led by AnnaHazare and the protest againstDecember 16 gang-rape.

Even politicians from dif-ferent part ies l ike the

Trinamool Congress, BJPand AAP have protestedand delivered speeches

there. The astronomicalobservatory turned

protest site has near-ly 200 protestersaround it on adaily basis. But in

times of huge publicoutcry, the numbersswell up to eventhousands.

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The protests at JantarMantar are taking a toll

on the business of not just thetraders of the nearby markets.Traffic diversions and block-age of roads are primarilypreventing people from goingto these markets.

Traders claimed they havewitnessed a slump of morethan 50 per cent in their busi-ness during the last two yearsespecially after the anti-cor-ruption movement by AnnaHazare at the venue in April2011. For most of them sur-vival has become difficult as atthe time of the demonstrationsno one prefers to visit theseareas and the customers getsdiverted to other places.

However, the street ven-dors and the street shopssurrounding the protest venuehave been reaping the bene-fit of these protests. The dosashops at Jantar Mantar andother juice shops registerexcessively high sales duringthe protests.

“There is a dip in sales bynearly 50 per cent whenprotests are on. Roads remainblocked due to protests.Janpath was once called as the“queen’s way” and there used tobe a lot of foreign tourists. Nowdue to the frequent demon-strations everything is in amess. It is affecting the dailyroutine of the people as alsoour business. Parking chaos inthe area also prevents visitorsfrom coming here” saidAshwini Kathpalia a dismayedowner of a prominent confec-tionary store, Depauls atJanpath. Adding to that,Gautam, owner of LeatherSmith Gallery, said “Its not justthe sales that drop .There aretimes when we have to literal-ly shut down our shopsbecause protestors storm thestreets in huge numbers. Thereis a constant fear that these rab-ble rousers might even breakinto our shops,” he said.

The big and old establish-ments too are not spared dur-ing the protests as they saidtheir sale was also reduced byat least 20 percent. “Duringprotests our sale decreases by15-20 percent. We are evenmulling legal recourse to get ridof the perennial problem,” saida manager at the KwalityRestaurant in ConnaughtPlace. However, big hotels,like The Park and others saidsuch protests had no impact onthem as they had a differentcategory of customers who donot get deterred by such activ-ities. The area surroundingJantar Mantar is archeologi-cally rich and once used to wit-ness a lot of foreign visitors butnow the situation has changed.S Nanda, the owner of imper-ial stores and tailors, was griefstricken as he said, “Foreigners,who were the mainstay of ourbusiness at one time, have dis-appeared. They don’t choose tocome as they get frightened tosee the demonstrations; oursales have dipped by more than60 per cent.”

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DISTINCT INSTRUMENTS WITHIN THE OBSERVATORY OF JANTAR MANTAR:

Samrat Yantra: The Samrat Yantra, or Supreme Instrument,is a giant triangle that is basically an equal hour sundial. Itis 70 feet high, 114 feet long at the base, and 10 feet thick.It has a 128-foot-long (39 m) hypotenuse that is parallel tothe Earth’s axis and points toward the North Pole. On eitherside of the triangle is a quadrant with graduations indicat-ing hours, minutes, and seconds. Jayaprakash Yantra: The Jayaprakash consists of hollowedout hemispheres with markings on their concave surfaces.Crosswires were stretched between points on their rim. Frominside the Ram, an observer could align the position of a starwith various markings or a window’s edge.Mishra Yantra: The Mishra yantras were able to indicatewhen it was noon in various cities all over the world andwas the only structure in the observatory not invented byJai Singh II.

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Following the new ordi-nances of Delhi University

(DU) in the new Four-YearUndergraduate Courses theuniversity’s Academic Councilhas approved a new rule ofContinuous ComprehensiveEvaluation (CCE) for the prac-ticals in Science Courses.

Now the evaluation ofScience practicals will depend50 per cent on the performanceshown through out the semes-ter and 50 per cent on the end-semester examination. Till nowthe final assessment was basedon the practical and theoryexam conducted in the end ofthe session. But now the assess-ment will happen throughout

the year with the espousal ofCCE scheme.

“The final result of thepractical paper will depend halfon the marks obtained in theCCE under which the studentwill be evaluated throughout thesession and half will depend onthe final practical examinationin the end. The CCE will com-prise of the number of practicalsattended by the students and hisoverall performance in the class.The teachers will have to keepa record of the student in theirpresence and performance dur-ing the practical classesthroughout,” said SC Bhatla, thehead of Botany.

A Science subject paper isof 150 marks in which practicalsconstitute 50 marks. The theo-ry paper is of 75 marks and 25

marks have been kept for inter-nal assessment based on atten-dance, projects and other activ-ities. For the 50 marks of prac-ticals, 25 would be given underthe CCE and 25 would be car-ried in the final practical exam-ination in the end-semester.

The CCE system whichwas first adopted by the CBSEwill reduce the term examina-tion weightage from 100 to 50per cent. This will apply to thepracticals of both Discipline-ICourses and Discipline-IICourses. A committee com-prising of the HoDs of Sciencesubjects had put this proposalbefore the Academic Council.

“There were also thoughtto make the assessment of thepracticals completely CCE andscrap the exams based but it

was later decided to keep it on50-50 form. Professors hadconcerns that students comeunder pressure due to the prac-tical examination and get veryless time to focus on the theo-

ry papers thus it will bring arelaxation to them and alsourge to attend practicals tothose students who tool prac-tical classes casually,” said oneof the AC members.

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After a spell of hot andsunny days in the National

Capital, there is a respite insight with light rains accom-panied by thunder and duststorms expected on Sunday.

“Thunderstorms and duststorm will occur in parts ofthe city tonight (Saturday)and on Sunday along withlight rains,” said an official ofthe India meteorologicalDepartment (IMD).

Meanwhile, with suddenchange in weather, the mercury

dipped to 36 degree celcius onSaturday as the city witnesseda low velocity dusty winds inthe evening.

The decline in maximumtemperature, which was threedegrees below normal and 4.6degrees down from Friday’s40.6 degree C was due to adecent cloud cover which occu-pied the sky all through the day.

The official of the IMDsaid sunday’s maximum andminimum temperatures areexpected to hover around 36and 25 degree Celsius. Theskies remained for a major

part of Saturday and maximumtemperatures settled threenotches below average at 36degree Celsius.

The minimum was anotches below average at 24.6 degrees. The day’s max-imum humidity was recordedat 46 per cent.

Friday’s maximum tem-perature was 40.6 degreeCelsius, a notch above average,while the minimum was 25.2degree Celsius, average for thistime of the year. Humiditylevels oscillated between 29and 46 per cent.

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The spurned stalker whomurdered the 17-year-old

girl Sakshi in her Munirka houseon Friday morning has beenarrested by South district police.He was arrested from Baghpatdistrict, Western Uttar Pradesh.

Subhash alis Rohit (25) wasarrested within hours of hisescape from the spot. It has nowemerged that he wanted to com-mit suicide after killing Sakshibut could not do so as the bar-rel of the country made gun thathe was carrying burst after thefirst shot. Subhash, a school dropout happened to be the cousinof Sakshi’s sister-in-law and wasa frequent visitor to her house.He was obsessed with the girland had even maintained a liai-son with the girl despite objec-tions from her family.

DCP, South district, BSJaisawal said that Subhash aliasRohit a resident of Loni area inadjoining Gaziabad was nabbedfrom Ghitoli village of Baghpatdistrict on Friday night.

A pistol believed to beused in the murder, bloodstained cloths and a mobilephone was recovered from hispossession. The murderweapon has been sent for bal-listic examination, he said.

Jaiswal said that the victim,Sakshi alias Pinki, a class XII stu-dent in government school at RKPuram Sector 5, had knownSubhash for the last few years.She however, started to ignoreSubhash after she came to knowthat he was a school dropout

after class 8 and worked as asweeper in Loni, Gaziabad, theDCP added. Sakshi’s father whoworks as a plumber in theJawahar Lal Nehru University(JNU) had also scolded Subhashmany a times as he was nothappy with his ways. Sakshi wasa bright student and her fatherwanted her to pursue her stud-ies and make a career out of that,a police officer involved in theinvestigation said.

“Sakshi had written herClass 12 examinations and wasexpecting her result. She was inher on Friday room when theincident took place. Subhashwas known to her and he alsoknew that Sakshi was present inher house “They had met in amarriage ceremony followingwhich their acquaintance grew.However, when the victim cameto know that he is not as edu-

cated as her, she started driftingaway from him. This denialangered Subhash and he decid-ed to avenge his humiliation”the DCP said.

It appears that the accusedhad planned toeliminate Sakshiafter he foundthat she was notgoing to marryhim. Actionableinformation was receivedfrom victim’s friends, neigh-bours about assailant after whichseveral raids were conducted invarious districts of Western UP.The assailant was finally arrest-ed from Ghitoli village of Bagpatdistrict from UP. He was broughtto Vasant Vihar police stationand put to sustained interroga-tion and accused allegedly con-fessed that he murdered Sakshias he wanted revenge.

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One person was beaten todeath by his neighbours in

Jahangirpuri area in NorthEast Delhi on Friday night. Aminor altercation over spittingturned into group fightingwhich claimed one life.

According to police, thedeceased has been identified asArun, who lived along with hisparents in K Block,Jahangirpuri. “On Friday night,when Arun was wandering inthe neighbouring A Block area,he spat in front of Dharampal’shouse. Dharampal, who wasstanding in front of the house,objected Arun’s act which trig-gered a heated argumentbetween the both. Soon, argu-ment turned ugly after some ofDharampal’s acquaintancesjoined him,” said the police.

According to police,Dharampal along with

his friends mercilesslythrashed Arun. Arun

sustained severe injuriesall over his body which

caused his death.Dharampal and one of hisassociates too sustained injuriesin the fight. Soon after thepolice was informed by aneighbour a team of policereached the spot and all thethree injured were rushed toBabu Jagjivanram Hospital,where Arun was declaredbrought dead while two othersare recuperating.

“Arun was hit all over hisbody including his privateparts, which led to his death onthe spot. The injured are recu-perating and their conditionsare stable,” said a source post-ed with the hospital.

Police said that they haveregistered a case at Jahangirpuripolice station and investiga-tions are on.

“The investigation sleuthshave not recorded the statementsof the injured as they were notfit to give statement. Thedeceased’s postmortem report isalso awaited,” said the police.

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Unhappy over allegedharassment of residents

by police in name of checkingunauthorised construction,Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit islikely to seek the Centre’s inter-vention to direct the force toconcentrate on improving lawand order situation rather thanmeddling in other issues.Dikshit voiced her displeasureabout police’s role in checkingunauthorised construction invarious areas, including in LalDora areas, at a meeting attend-ed by a number of her cabinetcolleagues and MPs.

The meeting discussedvarious problems being facedby lakhs of residents of LalDora areas. The Chief Ministerhas been critical of function-ing of police following theDecember 16 gang-rape of a23-year-old girl.

In February, the ChiefMinister had even sought thePrime Minister’s intervention toensure better policing in Delhi,complaining that the force had

failed to deliver on its promisesto improve women’s safety afterthe December 16 incident thatsparked a public outrage.

The Delhi Government hadlast month taken an “in-princi-ple” decision to regularise all

colonies which came up onextended Lal Dora land.Regularisation of the colonieswill help residents get theirproperties registered and carryout construction works afterapproval of building plans. “The

Chief Minister made it clear thatthe police must concentrate onimproving law and order ratherthan on the issues which comeunder the jurisdiction of thelocal bodies and other agencies,”officials who attended the meet-

ing quoted Dikshit as saying.They said she favoured

“clear demarcation” of roles ofvarious agencies so that residentsare not harassed by more thanone agency on a single issue. TheChief Minister told the meetingthat her Government may takeup the issue with the UnionGovernment. Officials said themeeting also discussed abolish-ing Rule 81 of the LandAcquisition Act, which willmean that villages in the nation-al capital would no longer beapprehensive of getting noticesunder the provision.

The Chief Minister indi-cated Government may bring aCabinet note for regularisa-tion of colonies in extended LalDora and to restrict use of Rule81. As per existing norms underthe Act, no agricultural land canbe used for construction ofhouses and other purposes butlifting of the restriction wouldpave the way for building flatson these areas. The meeting wasattended by UrbanDevelopment MinisterArvinder Singh Lovely, PWD

Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan,Chief Secretary DM Spolia andMPs Sandeep Dikshit andRamesh Kumar besides a dozenof MLAs. On the issue of shift-ing of high tension power trans-mission lines from densely-populated areas, Dikshit saidthe Government was mullingpolicy to address the issue.

East Delhi MP SandeepDikshit, while expressing hisdeep concern over the delay incommissioning of Munak Canal,suggested a delegation of elect-ed representatives of Delhishould call on the HaryanaChief Minister to impress uponthe need for immediate settle-ment of the issue. The Munakcanal was constructed byHaryana with financial assistanceof around Rs 400 crore from theDelhi Government on the con-dition that the national Capitalwill be supplied 80 MGD waterfrom it. But later, Haryanarefused to supply the water to thecity. The meeting decided a del-egation would soon meetHaryana Chief MinisterBhupender Singh Hooda.

New Delhi: Delhi Government on Saturday approved a long-pending proposal to construct around 40,000 low cost flats inthe city for distribution among people belonging to econom-ically weaker sections (EWS). The proposal was given a goahead at a meeting of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board(DUSIB) chaired by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

The flats will be constructed at Savda Ghevra andBhalswa area of Jahangirpuri. A 100 acre plot is lying vacantat Savda Ghevra while the size of the land at Bhalswa is around102 acre. “Around 40,000 flats for urban poor would be devel-oped at these two sites,” said a senior DUSIB official. TheDUSIB is the nodal agency for implementing the slum relo-cation policy.

The meeting also approved four more projects for con-struction of around 6,200 flats under Rajiv Awas Yojana andin-situ re-development scheme for Jhugi Jhopri clusters in var-ious areas. It also decided to distribute 14,000 low-cost flatsto slum dwellers by September as their constructions havealready been completed.

The flats were built by Delhi State Industrial InfrastructureDevelopment Corporation (DSIIDC) in Bawana, Narela andBhorgah area with financial assistance from the Union UrbanDevelopment Ministry under the JNNURM scheme. The meeting also gave its nod for construction of a workingwomen hostel at Jhilmil Colony in East Delhi at an estimat-ed cost of Rs 3.74 crore. SR

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As long power cuts returnedto haunt the residents in

the sweltering heat, DelhiGovernment on Saturday saidit was making sincere efforts tomake available enough elec-tricity during the summer.

Senior officials in powerdepartment said discoms havetied up with various generatingplants for 6,100 mega watts ofelectricity as they expect a risein demand in peak summermonths.

The current powerdemand has been fluctuatingbetween 4,200 MW to 4,600MW. The maximum demandhad gone little over 5,600 MWlast summer. “The discoms arenot buying any costly powerfrom gas stations and liquidfuel stations of NTPC andhave tied up with reasonablycheaper sources in the interestsof Delhi consumers,” said theofficials. Several areas in thecity witnessed power curs rang-ing from one to three hours inthe last few days.

“The Government of Delhiis committed to ensure 24x7power supply to the citizens ofDelhi,” said the officials. Theysaid government has directedthe private power distributioncompanies to attend to thelocal faults so that power cutsdoes not take place for longerduration.

“During summer, it is pos-sible that due to ambient tem-

perature which keeps on risingin summer, the machines, con-ductors or wires are suscepti-ble to incur tripping and faults.Apart from this the Discomsnormally take few minutes inchanging over the lines andsupply wherever there occursany tripping on account oftechnical reasons,” he said.

New Delhi: In a move to gogreen, the BSES YamunaPower Limited (BYPL) hasshifted to using solar powerin its offices. The powerdistribution company hasinstalled solar panels at 9 ofits offices. Besides, it has alsoinitiated a RenewableEnergy Assisted Pump(REAP) project which alongwith solar power is expect-ed to generate nearly 450KW of energy.

“Solar panels will beinstalled at the car parkingarea of BYPL’s head office inKarkardooma and otheroffice locations. These willgenerate over 355 KW ofsolar power. In addition, 88solar pumps will help it toharness an additional 100KW power,” said RameshNarayanan BYPL CEO. SR

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Abody of an unidentifiedwoman was recovered

from Dwarka North area ofsouth west Delhi on Saturday.

The Police Control Roomreceived a call regarding thebody that was lying abandonedin an isolated place around 4pm, said a police official.

“A team of police reachedto the spot. Her body has beenpreserved at the hospital mor-tuary for postmortem,” he said.

Police said that there wereseveral marks of scratches allover her body. Her clotheswere torn and hands were tied.

“So far investigations haverevealed that prima facie, shewas strangled to death. Severalinjury marks pointed that shefought with the accused. Thepostmortem report of thedeceased is awaited. The sur-rounding area around the spotwas searched but no card orpaper found to get details onher identity,” said the police.

Police refused to revealmore information and saidthat the case is being probedand it will be too early to saywhether it was a case of raped.

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Under the new format of the Delhi University, student canexplore one more subject for masters apart from

Discipline-I Course, the major subject in which he/she wouldbe enrolled for the Honours Degree. The Discipline-II Coursewhich is compulsory to opt for after the Honours subject wouldreserve another choice for the eligibility of a master’s degree.It could also be a package of two more subjects to study dur-ing the four-year degree.

There are 20 papers of Discipline-I Course and six papers ofDiscipline-II Course. After clearing the 20 papers of DC-I, thestudent will obtain an Honours degree and take admission forthe masters in the same subject. But now if a student clears sixpapers of the DC-II in a particular subject he/she will be eligi-ble to do masters in it as well.

“Earlier students were restricted to do masters in the samesubject which they did their honours in but now in order toincrease the flexibility the DC-II paper could be kept as secondoption. They will be eligible to do masters in this subject only afterthey clear all the six papers compulsorily in the chosen subject.For example, a student with Physics as DC-I can opt for Chemistryas DC-II and will eventually be eligible to do masters in eitherof the subjects,” said Virender Bhardwaj, an AC member.

A student who wishes to explore two different subjectsinstead of doing all six papers in one subject also has the optionto divide it. “In DC-II, a student has to do three papers in botanyand three in Zoology. However, the option for getting eligibleto do masters in these subjects will not be there. These optionshave been given to give flexibility of choice to students in high-er education. It was discussed in the Academic Council meet-ing as well,” he added.

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Guwahati: Forest officials inAssam’s Kaziranga NationalPark found two carcasses ofone-horned rhinos from twolocations, officials said onSaturday.

Park director NK Vasu saidthe carcasses were spotted byforest guards on Friday. “Hornsof both rhinos were missing,which indicates that it was acase of poaching,” Vasu said.

With this, the number ofrhinos poached this year hasrisen to 19.

Forest officials said one ofthe carcasses was found nearBorkata in Bagori forest range.The other was recovered fromnear the Noloni anti-poachingcamp in Agaratoli range.

Park officials said the rhi-nos were killed a few days ago.

The Assam governmenthad handed over cases of rhinopoaching to the Central Bureauof Investigation. Nearly 130one-horned rhinos have beenkilled by poachers in Assam inthe last decade. IANS

From page 1The Taliban vowed more

attacks on Saturday. The threatsforced most political parties toconfine themselves to limitedpublic canvassing and to go forappeals through electronicmedia.

A staggering 75,000 securi-ty personnel, including 5,000troops were deployed for sensi-tive polling stations in Taliban-dominated restive areas innorthwest, to ensure smoothvoting. Whereas, women werestopped from voting at some ofthe polling stations in Punjaband the Taliban stronghold inthe northwestern tribal districtof North Waziristan, reportssaid. Not a single woman casther vote in Sahiwal’s polling sta-tion number 15 where a total of645 women were registered. “Itis a tradition of the villagers tobar women from voting, onewhich was started by tribalelders 35 years ago,” the Dawnreported. Sahiwal is located inPakistan's Punjab province.

The Election Commissionhad extended the voting time byone hour till 6 pm (local time)as large number of voters wereseen standing in queues toexercise their franchise.

A total of 4,670 candidatescontested for the 342-memberNational Assembly while near-ly 11,000 are running for the

four provincial assemblies inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab,Sindh and Baluchistan.

The main contenders arethe PPP, which has been rulingthe country, PML-N led by for-mer Prime Minister NawazSharif and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf headed by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

The Election Commissiontermed the turnout as “verygood” across the country in gen-eral without specifying the pre-cise figure. The process ofcounting of votes began aspolling closed and the trends areexpected by Sunday morning.

Malala Yousufzai, teenagerights activist who was shot in

the head by the Taliban, alsoappealed to people to exercisetheir franchise, saying “one votecan change” Pakistan's future.

While, former PrimeMinister and PML-N chiefNawaz Sharif cast his ballot andsaid he was confident of receiv-ing “good news” about his vic-tory. President Asif Ali Zardaricast his vote for Pakistan's gen-eral election through postalballot, the presidentialspokesman has said. Meanwhile,Pakistan's right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party decided toboycott the general electionsclaiming massive rigging andmismanagement at severalpolling stations.

From page 1He asked the Prime Minister and

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi whetherany place was left for ethics and princi-ples in politics or will ministers step downonly after the Supreme Court makesadverse comments (against them).

The principal Opposition hasalso decided to hold a meeting of itsnational executive in Goa betweenJune 7 and 9 to draw future pro-grammes against the UPA. The partyi s a l s o prepar ing a “Vis ionDocument” to inform people aboutt h ings t hat a f uture NDAGovernment would deliver.

“Our campaign will be positive. Thevision document is being prepared andwhen unveiled it will let people knowpositives the BJP will deliver,” Singh said.

The BJP chief also appealed to UttarPradesh-based Samajwadi Party andthe Bahujan Samaj Party to withdrawsupport to the UPA in the absence ofwhich they will be held “equally respon-sible” for the misdeeds of the Congress-led coalition.

After the DMK and the TMC walkedout of the UPA, the Congress-led alliancesurvived on outside support from 43 MPsof these two parties.

Singh also echoed Leader ofOpposition Sushma Swaraj’s view thatParliament could have functioned prop-erly and important legislations passed, ifthe resignations of Bansal and Kumarhad come earlier.

“We want the Food Security Bill andLand Acquisition Bill to be debated andpassed with some amendments,” he reit-erated.

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Invigorated by the imminentassumption of office by a

Congress Government inKarnataka and expecting sup-port for their bid from theCongress in that State, politi-cal parties in Kerala lobbyingfor Islamist leader AbdulNasser Madani, lodged in aBangalore prison as an accusedin the 2008 bombings case,have started lobbying forensuring his release.

The first party in Kerala tostart pro-Madani lobbying isnone other than the Congressleading the nine-party rulingUDF and the strategy adopt-ed to ensure the PDP chair-man’s release is pivoted on theold method of raising issues ofhis ill-health and the need forcompassionate approach tohis case.

Kerala Chief MinisterOommen Chandy and StateCongress president RameshChennithala have already

made their intentions knownby saying they would do every-thing possible from withinthe “limitations” for helpingMadani. Muslim League, thesecond biggest constituent ofthe UDF, declared its supportto the attempts in this regardon Saturday.

Observers feel that shock-ing reversals in theProsecution’s stand in thecourts could be seen now as the

minority cell of the KarnatakaCongress party has said that itsapproach towards the mattercould be different from that ofthe BJP. “Don’t be surprised ifstrange things happen in theBangalore bombings case now,”said a senior lawyer of theKerala High Court.

Madani, 48, has beenlodged at the ParappanaAgrahara prison outsideBangalore for the past 32

months as 31st accused in the2008 Bangalore bombings case.He was arrested on August 17,2010 by a team of KarnatakaPolice amidst a weeklong secu-rity drama from Anvarssery, hisoperational headquarters inKollam district.

“We will ask the Congressgovernment in Karnataka (tobe installed on Monday) to takea humanitarian approachtowards Madani. That hasalways been our stand,” Kerala’sCongress party chiefChennithala said in Alappuzhathe other day. “Law will, ofcourse, take its course. But wefeel that there should be ahumanitarian approach,” saidChennithala.

Chief Minister Chandy hasalready said that everythingpossible would be done forensuring humanitarian helpfor Madani from within “lim-itations”. Chandy had a fewmonths ago discussed with(outgoing BJP Chief Minister)Jagadish Shettar to speed up

Madani’s trial and to give himdue medical treatment.

Senior Muslim Leagueleader ET Muhammad BasheerMP said in Chennai onSaturday that his party wouldhold discussions (with the con-cerned authorities) on the issueof Madani’s release once aCongress Government tookcharge in Karnataka. Basheersaid the Muslim League wouldhold talks with the Congressleadership on the matter.

Analysts say that Keralacould now see a rush of parties,including those from the Leftcombine, to declare support forMadani and to demand“humanitarian consideration”for him. Such a campaign waswitnessed early this year afterreports about deterioration inMadani’s health condition.

The minority cell of theKarnataka Pradesh CongressCommittee has reportedlydecided to consider the legalsteps that could be taken tohelp Madani and to review the

position adopted by the out-going BJP government on thematter. It has also said thatappropriate steps would betaken at the appropriate time inthe issue of Madani’s bail.

According to sources inthe PDP, lawyers working forMadani in Bangalore are con-fident that the new Congressgovernment to be installed inKarnataka might take some“positive” steps. “Congressleaders in Bangalore havealready assured that theywould have a different stand-point in the Madani issue fromthat of the BJP,” said a PDPfunctionary.

The Kerala LegislativeAssembly had in 2006 unani-mously passed a resolutionseeking the release of Madanion humanitarian grounds fromthe Coimbatore prison wherehe had been lodged since 1999for his alleged role in the 1998Coimbatore serial blasts. Hewas released on August 1, 2007after acquittal in the case.

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The Trinamool Congresscontinued to fire salvos at

the Congress holding it respon-sible for unleashing a reign ofcorruption.

Picking up from whereBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee left on Friday vowingat a public rally to uproot theCongress both from Delhiand Bengal senior Trinamoolleader Saugata Roy onSaturday said both formerLaw and Railway Ministershad mud on their faces.

On whether the Congresshad managed to repair someof the damages in the Railwaybribery case and the CBI con-troversy by getting RailwayMinister Pawan KumarBansal and Law MinisterAshwini Kumar to resign,Roy said, “they have resigneda little late without grace andwith mud on their face”adding his party had alwayspursued the issue because itwas “against corruption.”

The Chief Minister had onFriday vowed to erase the

Congress from Bengal andtake all such measures neces-sary to see the party lose in thegeneral elections.

Meanwhile, in an unre-lated development BengalPanchayat Minister SubrotaMukherjee on Saturday saidthat the Government wouldmove the Supreme Court ifits appeal to throw out theCalcutta High Court orderon conducting of panchayatelections fell through in theDivision Bench.

On the single Bench orderasking the Government to

comply with all the direc-tions of the State ElectionCommission regarding theholding of panchayat elec-tions, Mukherjee said that“even God could not imple-ment the un-implementableorder passed by the Court”adding if need be and “if wedo not get justice even in theDivision Bench we will movethe Supreme Court.”

Mukherjee’s statementshad implications of inordi-nately delaying the rural elec-tions, State Congress leader-ship said.

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Lucknow: Eminent classicalsinger and “Thumri” expo-nent Girija Devi was admittedto a hospital in Varanasi afterthe 85-year-old took ill, com-plaining of severe stomachache, family members said onSaturday.

The “Thumriqueen” startedvomiting at herSanjay Nagar res-idence inVaranasi onFriday evening.She was taken toSir SunderlalHospital atBanaras HinduU n i v e r s i t y(BHU), whereshe was admit-ted and several tests were con-ducted on her.

Family members said thatGirija Devi had complained ofpain after which doctorsadvised some tests which con-

cluded that she had infection inthe gall bladder.

Doctors say she was out ofdanger and that a surgerywould be performed on herafter the bouts of vomiting sub-side and the infection in the

bladder iscleared.

Her disci-ples and fansmade a beelineto meet her.

Girija Devifrom theBanaras gharana(school) hasbeen creditedwith preservingand elevatingthe “Thumri”form of Indian

classical singing and her reper-toire includes the semi-classicalgenres “Kajri” and “Chaiti”.

She was awarded thePadma Shri and PadmaBhushan. IANS

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Kolkata: In what could lead the June 2 Howrah parliamen-tary by-elections to a photo-finish of sorts the State BJP hasnominated former State party president and a politicalheavyweight professor Ashim Kumar Ghosh as its candidate.

Ghosh is likely to file his nominations on Tuesday a BJPrelease said.

With the BJP’s coming into the fray the Howrah polls turnout to be a four-cornered affair with all the four major par-ties Trinamool Congress, Congress, CPI(M) and BJP decid-ing to try their lucks. PNS

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From page 1The weapon used in the

offence was also recovered fromthe spot. Both the bodies havebeen sent for post-mortemexamination and the exact tim-ing of both the deaths would beknown only after forensicexperts give their opinion,Mittal said.

Gurgaon Police is investi-gating the case from four dif-ferent angles. They are investi-gating whether it was a suicidepact by the duo? Whether oneof them first shot the other andthen committed suicide? Whowas the first to be killed? Whatwas the extreme provocationthat led the duo to enter into asuicide pact and end their lives?

Police suspect that it wasGeeta Sharma who first shotInspector Dutt and then enderher life. The trajectory of thebullets on both the bodies indi-cates this.

Police say that GeetaSharma had a shady past as shewas arrested by Delhi PoliceCrime Branch on charges offorgery. She had issued forgedverification letters on behalf ofthe Intelligence Bureau (IB).Geeta Sharma, who ran a detec-tive agency from her house, wasin-fact released from Tihar jaillast week only.

Joint Commissioner ofGurgaon Police, MaheshwarDayal said that both the bodieswere discovered from GeetaSharmas's house on Saturdaymorning. Preliminary investi-gations have revealed that theincident took place betweenone am to and four am on theintervening night of Friday andSaturday.

Police officials said thatInspector Dutt and GeetaSharma were right handed andthe manner in which the bulletshave pierced through their tem-

ples indicates that it was GeetaSharma who first killedInspector Dutt and then shotherself dead. Sharma had on herright temple. Geeta Sharma'sbody was found over the bodyof Inspector Dutt's body. GeetaSharma was unhappy sinceDutt never visited her when shewas lodged in Tihar jail for threeweeks. It was here the seeds ofdistrust were sown, policesources said.

Inspector Dutt, who joinedDelhi Police in 1991 as Sub-Inspector was one of the chosenones who were inducted into theSpecial Cell in 1994. With thedemise of Inspector Dutt DelhiPolice has lost a 'MasterInvestigator' who could crackany code and track downInternet Protocol (IP) address-es, Voice Over Internet Protocol(VOIP) and intercept callsemanating from any part of thecountry.

He was one of the aceinvestigators who cracked thedastardly December 13, 2001Parliament attack case. He isalso credited with identifyingthe hidden network of IndianMujahideen (IM) and many ofits operatives were arrested afterSpecial Cell launched the crack-down on IM's Pan India net-work.

Inspector Dutt was alsoinvestigating the sensation hack-ing of the two websites "ame-thi.net" and 'raebareli.net.Amethinet and raebareli werecreated specifically to addressthe constituents of the CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi andVice President Rahul Gandhi.

Inspector Dutt was part ofthe team under ACP RajbirSingh and Inspector MohanChand Sharma and was instru-mental in many successful oper-ations. With his death, DelhiPolice have lost one of the wiz-ards in deciphering codes of ter-rorist outfits, one of his col-leagues lamented.

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Salem: In a shocking incident,an 80-year-old woman wasallegedly raped by a 41-year-oldman following which she wasadmitted to a hospital in a seri-ous condition.

The woman, a widow, isbattling for life at a governmenthospital here, police said onSaturday.

The accusedPalanivel, a vegetablevendor, of Malliyakari inthe district was detainedby the local people andhanded over to police whoarrested him and slapped arape case.

According to police, thewoman was living alone at

Gopalapuram in Malliakari.Around midnight on Friday,Palanivel, who has two wivesand four children, went to thevictim’s house and asked forwater, but she refused.

Suddenly, he forced hisway into the house, alleged-ly raped her and bit her pri-vate parts.

Local residents calledan ambulance and rushedthe woman to Attur

Government Hospital fromwhere she was shifted toMohan Kumaramangalam

Medical College Hospital here. Doctors said the condition

of the woman was critical.PTI

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Aizawl: Thunderstorm andlandslides have claimed eightlives, rendered 11 missingand left 25 others injured inthe state capital, police said onSaturday.

Nine houses in Laipuitlandlocality here were swept awayin a massive landslide early onSaturday morning, killing eightpersons, superintendent ofpolice (traffic) Lallianmawia,who was supervising the rescuework, said. Eleven personswere missing and 9 othersinjured in the landslide, he said.

Rescue work was underwaywith volunteers and policemensearching the debris for bodiesand survivors, he said. PTI

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Telugu Desam Party suffered a setback on Saturdaywith senior party leader and former Minister

Kadiam Srihari quitting the party in protest againstparty’s ambivalent stand on Telangana issue.

Srihari, who was also the party politburo member,decided to resign after consultations with his follow-ers in Warangal district. While TDP leadership wasshocked by the developments, other parties grabbedthe opportunity to woo the strong leader from Dalitcommunity.

Srihari was keeping a low profile in the party forquite some time and did not participate in the recentpublic meetings marking the successful completion ofthe walkathon by party president N ChandrababuNaidu.

TDP leaders from Telangana region speciallyWarangal district were quick to condemn KadiamSrihari’s resignation. Another Dalit leader of theparty M Narasimhlu said that Kadiam Srihari was acovert agent of other parties in Telugu Desam Party andhad harmed the party’s interest.

Former Minister and party MLA from WarangalE Dayakar Rao said that any body who leaves the partywill damage himself and no harm will come to the partyby Srihari’s resignation.

Other party leaders recalled that earlier anothersenior party leader from Telangana region T DevenderGoud had also quit the party ahead of 2009 electionsbut could not make any impact and had to return tothe party.

Many party leaders and MLAS have quit the TDPin the recent past criticizing Chandrababu Naidu’sunclear stand on Telangana issue. They include NJanardhan Reddy and T Harishwar Reddy.

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Police have unearthed prop-erty worth �750 crore so far

by quizzing chit fund-aidedSaradha Group’s arrested pro-moter Sudipa Sen and his topaides, an official said onSaturday. Six motorcycles withred beacons and hooters alleged-ly used by company’s officials tocarry cash was also seized.

The bikes were found in agarage of Saradha Group office,police sources said.

Meanwhile, the Justice(retd) Shyamal Sen inquirycommission constituted by theWest Bengal Government toprobe the Saradha Group scamand recommend ways of return-ing money to the depositors, wasbeing flooded with complaints.

An official said around60,000 complaints have beenreceived from investors and

agents, who have been pouringin not only from across WestBengal, but from adjoiningstates as well. It will receivecomplaints until June 29.

A commission official saidit was taking complaints notonly from investors and agentsof Saradha group, but alsofrom other such companies."This is as per the terms of ref-erence."

With Sen being grilled inpolice custody, the sleuths con-tinued to find more assets.

“We have so far unearthedassets valued at �750 crore bygrilling Sen,” said DeputyCommissioner of Police ArnabGhosh of BidhannagarCommissionerate, which isprobing what is being regard-ed as the biggest financial scamto rock West Bengal.

During the day, police per-sonnel from Joynagar in South

24 Parganas district interrogat-ed Sen and his confidant DebjaniMukherjee in connection with acheating case filed against themby some depositors.

A couple of days back thesleuths had summoned forquestioning a former official ofthe Reserve Bank of India whoduring his days with the apexbank is said to have givensome undue facilities to Sen.

A police source said namesof some officers of Securitiesand Exchange Board of India,Income Tax department, banks,and other central and state gov-ernment agencies have croppedup following Sen's interroga-tion. “Some of them havealready been questioned. Weare tallying their replies withthe information given by Sen.”

Sleuths have also stum-bled on 40 acres of land ownedby Sen in Shimla.

Sen, Mukherjeee andanother senior official of theGroup were arrested April 23from Sonmarg in Jammu andKashmir, days after the Groupcollapsed, unable to repay lakhsof depositors — most of thempoor people from villages andsmall towns — who had parkedtheir hard earned money withits companies, lured by promiseof huge returns.

Already, a number of anddepositors of Saradha and sim-ilar chit fund companies havecommitted suicide, whileoffices of a large number ofsuch dubious concerns operat-ing in the state have beenattacked.

Even on Saturday, an officeof a chit fund company wasransacked by depositors atPandabeshwar of Hooghly dis-trict for allegedly cheating andsiphoning of funds.

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PD(5338)CI, Mohammad Suhil S/oMohammad Akil R/o HouseNo. 709, Gali HakeemSharifuddin Haveli Azam KhanBazar, Chitli Qabar JamaMasjid, Delhi-6, have changedmy name Mohd Suheil Ansari.

PD(5339)CI, Kurshid Atkar S/o AltafHussain R/o House No. 2434,Gali Abdul Qadir behind G.B.Road, Delhi-110006. havechanged my name KhursheedAkhtar for future.

PD(5340)CI, Roy Sumita Sunil KumarW/o Ashok Kumar MukharjiR/o B-144, Kendriya Vihar,Sector-51, Noida, Distt. G.B.Nagar, have changed my nameSumita Mukharji for all pur-poses.

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External Affairs MinisterSalman Khurshid has said

that India has given a counterproposal to China for BorderDefence CooperationAgreement (BDCA).

“China has proposed some-time back a proposal for BorderDefence CooperationAgreement...We have also givenour suggestions,” said Khurshid,who returned from his two-dayvisit to Beijing on Saturday inthe backdrop of deep Chineseincursion in Ladakh.

The Minister said thatIndia has also given a counterproposal to BDCA and bothcountries were examining theseproposals. Khurshid, however,refrained from divulging anyfurther details on the Indianproposal. He also clarified thatthe proposals were not meantto replace any existing ones.

Khurshid, said, for the firsttime, China has shown “sensi-tivity” towards India’s demandfor expanding mechanism todeal with issues pertaining totrans-border rivers.

Under BDCA, China hadproposed expansion of friend-ly contacts and more commu-nication between the troops ofthe two sides on the ground,which would help avoid anymisunderstanding or flare-upalong the Line of ActualControl (LAC).

On the recent incursion byChinese troops in Daulat BegOldi sector, Khurshid asserted

that he “flagged” the issue at thethree-hour long meeting withhis counterpart Wang Yi onThursday. Khurshid said bothsides had expressed “satisfac-tion” over the fact that thestand-off in Ladakh wasresolved peacefully throughexisting mechanisms.

“We said that we both needto do analysis of why it hap-pened. And while all this is

going on, we can improve ourattempts and our ability toresolve the larger issue, whichwe finally have to resolve,” saidKhurshid.

“We did not do any post-mortem and we were notapportioning blame,” he added.He said, India also flagged theneed to expand or set up a sep-arate mechanism to deal withissues pertaining to trans-bor-der rivers.

Khurshid said the 16thround of talks between theSpecial Representatives on theboundary question was sched-uled to take place in the nexttwo months. He said China hadappointed the former ForeignMinister and top diplomatYang Jiechi as the new SR tosucceed recently retired formerState Councillor Dai Bingguo,who chaired the previousround with National SecurityAdviser Shivshankar Menon.

For the first time, India hasseen some “movement” withChina assuring that it wascommitted to ensuring thatIndia’s rights were not harmed,he said.

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Dropping hints at according specialstatus to Bihar, Union Finance

Minister P Chidambaram has said thatBihar will certainly be declared a back-ward State once a high level commit-tee completes the task of revisiting thecriteria fixed for the purpose.

Chidambaram’s statement assumesa special significance against the back-drop of the fact that the Chief Minister’sclaim for the special category will getan unprecedented boost once the Stategets the backward status.

Chidambaram was in Bihar on aone-day visit to attend two separatemeetings on proposed NalandaInternational University and State

Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) atRajgir in Nalanda district.

Later, he told newspersons inPatna that the Centre would announceconstitution of a committee for the pur-

pose of revisiting the criteria fixed fordeclaring a state backward in the nextfew days. The sub-committee, to beheaded by the Chief Economic Adviser,Raghuram Rajan, will be asked to sub-mit its report in one month.

Sitting next to Nitish Kumar whohad earlier showered praise on theUnion Finance Minister for his “pos-itive” approach on the special status toBihar, P Chidambaram said that he andNitish Kumar discussed various issuespertaining to development of the State.

Speaking on the proposed NalandaInternational University, Chidambaraminformed that the Centre will spend Rs2,154 crore over the next 10 years forthe growth of the university.

He said that ruins of the Nalanda

University should be declared asWorld Heritage site and he will takeup the matter with the Union CultureMinistry in this regard.

On banks’ performance in Bihar,Chidambaram said that commercialbanks have started taking steps for thegrowth of the State during the last fewyears but still he is not fully satisfiedwith their achievements.

In all, 750 new branches of com-mercial banks will be opened inBihar during 2013-14 against 410 newbranches inaugurated during 2012-13.

Besides sanctioning educationloans to meet the growing demand,banks have also been asked to dis-tribute 11 lakh Kisan Credit Cardsamong beneficiaries in the state.

On the chit fund scam in thecountry, the Union Finance Ministersaid that the government is ready fora CBI probe into the scam, adding thatKolkata High Court is already hear-ing a case in this regard,

If Kolkata High Court agrees, thegovernment will order a CBI probeinto the scam. He said that state gov-ernments have the responsibility formonitoring activities of the chit fundcompanies.

P Chidambaram also visited thestate Congress headquarters, SadaquatAshram where the senior Congressleader Prem Chandra Mishra sub-mitted a memorandum to him, seek-ing adequate grants for the centrallysponsored schemes.

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Are the Railway and LawMinistries in UPA-II jinxed

portfolios? It looks like if onegoes by the record that fouryears of UPA’s second avatarhas seen six Railway Ministersand four Law Ministers.

On Saturday, a day afterPawan Bansal put in his papers,Surface Transport Minister CPJoshi got the additional chargeof Railway Minister for the sec-ond time. Mamata Banerjee asthe first Railway Minister ofUPA-II in May 2009 quit exact-ly two years later in 2011 afterher party ousted CPI(M) inWest Bengal and the Trinamoolboss moved to Kolkata’sWriters’ Building.

The Ministry remainedwith her party and DineshTrivedi was appointed RailwayMinister on July 12 that year.Before he could complete a yearin the Rail Bhawan, Banerjeemade him quit in March 2012for presenting an ‘anti-people’Budget.

Banerjee’s trusted aide

Mukul Roy was brought in asthe Railway Minister on March20 and exactly a year and halflater he had to resign followingTrinamool’s decision to walkout of the UPA on FDI inmulti-brand retail issue.

The portfolio returned tothe Congress after a gap of 17years with CP Joshi gettingadditional charge of theRailways in September 2012.Considered close to Congressgeneral secretary RahulGandhi, Joshi lost his addi-

tional charge of the RailwayMinistry to Prime MinisterManmohan Singh camp fol-lower Pawan Kumar Bansal.Then Parliamentary AffairsMinister, Bansal was shifted tothe Railway Ministry inOctober.

In less than seven monthsof moving into the RailBhawan, Bansal got embroiledinto a controversy and lost hisjob as Railway Minister onFriday. This paved way forJoshi getting additional charge

of Railway Ministry for the sec-ond time in less than a year.

Similarly, Karnataka veter-an M Veerappa Moily wasappointed as the first LawMinister of UPA-II on 28 May2009. Exactly two years later hewas shifted to the CorporateAffairs Ministry amidst spec-ulation that his party was nothappy with his performance asthe Law Minister.

Salman Khurshid whoreplaced Moily as LawMinister in May 2011 wasmoved out to External AffairsMinistry exactly a year andfive months later in 2012.Ashwani Kumar, another con-fidant of Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, wasbrought in as Law Minister inOctober 2012 but lost his jobon Friday after his continuitybecame untenable against thebackdrop of SC’s observationin Coalgate. The Minister forCommunication andTechnology Kapil Sibal, whogot additional charge of theLaw Ministry of Saturday, ishimself a lawyer.

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After picking holes in theimplementation of the

UPA’s f lagship rural jobscheme, MGNREGA, theComptroller Auditor General(CAG) of India is now all set toscan the functioning of the�15,184 crore Indira AwasYojna (IAY) that aims to pro-vide houses to poor families inrural areas.

According to a senior offi-cial in the Union RuralDevelopment Ministry, theperformance of the Centralrural housing scheme for theperiod from 2008-09 to 2012-13 being implemented in 28States and five UnionTerritories will be under theCAG’s radar.

“The CAG will be con-ducting field visits and fieldaudits as well as scrutiny ofrecords/documents pertainingto implementation of lAY in 28States and five UTs. Since thePerformance Audit envisagesphysical verification by way ofjoint inspection to be con-ducted by the teams consistingof audit officials as well as offi-cials from the StateGovernments, we have askedthem to ensure all cooperationto the agency,” he said.

Under the Centrally spon-sored scheme, the funding isshared between the Centre andthe State Government in theratio of 75:25. Under thescheme, a rural poor family canavail assistance of �75,000 toconstruct a dwelling unit.

This is for the first timethat the housing scheme isbeing brought under the lens ofthe top auditor with RuralDevelopment Jairam Rameshshowing his keenness to bringtransparency and cleanliness inalmost all the scheme under his Ministry.

The CAG audit report onMGNREGA, which was tabledin Parliament last month hasbrought to fore several irregu-larities in the implementationof the scheme where worksamounting to around Rs 4,070crore were incomplete evenafter one to five years oflaunching.

The CAG scrutiny is alsolikely to reveal lapses in the per-formance and implementationof the IAY across the country.So far, the CAG had beenauditing the implementation ofthe Central housing schemestatewise. For instance, in itslatest report on implementationof the scheme in Odisha, theauditor has detected fraud andseveral irregularities at the costof the beneficiaries.

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Law Minister AshwaniKumar said on Saturday

that his decision to quit was toput an end to “unnecessarycontroversy” and in no way didit imply any “wrongdoing” onhis part for changing the statusreport of CBI in the Coalgatescam.

Speaking to media a dayafter he was asked to resign bythe Prime Minister, Kumarsought to put the recordstraight in order to suggest thathis resignation was fallout of apolitical decision. However,the Supreme Court had foundno fault on hisrole in calling forthe CBI reportand makingamends, he reit-erated.

“Resignationdoes not implyw rongdoing ,”Kumar toldreporters. “I havedone so (resign)to put an end toan unnecessarycontroversy in amatter which isbefore theSupreme Court and in whichno adverse comments havebeen made against me in anymanner whatsoever,” said astatement issued by him duringthe day.

Kumar was under fire eversince he was named by the CBIDirector in an affidavit in theSupreme Court for calling himover to share the contents of adraft Status Report to be tabledbefore the Supreme Court.When the bench headed byJustice RM Lodha enquiredabout the nature of changes, theCBI Director in yet anotheraffidavit pointed out that the“heart” of the Status Report waschanged as desired by the LawMinister.

The former Law Ministersaid there are certain politicaldecisions that are considerednecessary and he did what thePrime Minister and the partyhigh command thought wasappropriate. “When resignationpapers are put they do not, byany stretch of imagination,imply any wrongdoing,” hesaid, when asked whether the

resignation substantiated theallegation of wrongdoing.“There are certain politicaldecisions that are considerednecessary...No adverse com-ments have been made againstme…My conscience remainsclear and I believe that I willstand vindicated,” he said.

To a question whether hewas made a scapegoat by hisGovernment, Kumar left every-body guessing by his statement,“People of this country, myfriends who stood by me, manyof you in media and myesteemed colleagues in theprofession know me for what Iam. I would rather let themmake a judgment.”

Kumar said whatever thePrime Minister and the partyHigh Command thought fit, “asa loyal foot soldier I have doneand I am proud of the fact thatI am a loyal foot soldier of the

party.”H e

defended thePM and said,“It is preroga-tive of theP r i m eMinister toask his col-leagues whento resign andhow to resign,”he said. Somesupp or ters ,who had gath-ered at hisofficial resi-

dence, raised slogans in supportof Prime Minister ManmohanSingh and Ashwani Kumar.

Kumar’s claim that theapex court made no adversecomment against him evokedsharp reactions fromOpposition parties. “Whatshould I say when a formerLaw Minister, in spite of sting-ing observation by the SupremeCourt and affidavit by the CBIthat no minutes were main-tained, is saying there is noadverse report,” BJP spokesper-son Ravishankar Prasad report-edly told a news channel.

CPI leader D Raja termedKumar’s claims as “indefensi-ble”. The CBI itself havingadmitted there was a meetingwith the Law Minister in whichJoint Secretary-level officialsfrom the PMO was present. “Itis not convincing that PrimeMinister is not aware whatthis official was doing fromPMO. So there are many ques-tions involved and this is notgoing to be the end. A thor-ough investigation will have togo on,” he said.

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CBI has sent interceptedphone conversations to the

Central Forensic ScienceLaboratory to identify the voic-es of suspects in the �10 crorerailway bribery scandal beforeit questions sacked RailwayMinister Pawan Bansal.

CBI sourcessaid the agency hasalso sought theopinion of CFSL toidentify the personswho are part of con-versations inter-cepted by theagency in its sur-veillance exercise spanningover two months in whichover 1,000 phone calls weretapped.

The sources said theagency is planning to questionBansal soon and it wants toascertain his voice before that.The CBI also plans to usethese intercepts to further itsinvestigation into the cash-for-post scam in which thenephew of Bansal, Vijay Singla,

and suspended Railway BoardMember Mahesh Kumar werearrested.

Some of these tapped con-versations were used by theagency to seek the remand ofthe accused arrested in con-nection with the bribery scan-dal. CBI has identified for clos-er scrutiny 500 phone calls

from out of the 1,000intercepted calls mainlyamong the four arrestedaccused.

According to thetapes, these calls wereamong four key playersin the scandal — Kumar,Singla and middlemen

Manjunath and Sandeep Goyal. There were calls in which

Singla is purported to be assur-ing Kumar that the work wouldbe done. Kumar was allegedlyassured that he will get thelucrative post of Member(Electrical) in return for “pecu-niary gratification.”

Singla was in touch withKumar for elevation asMember (electrical), consid-ered a lucrative post.

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The Congress on Thursdayslammed the BJP for demand-ing resignation of PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhover coal block allocation scamand said it was reflection of thefrustration of a party whoseagenda has been rejected bythe voters. Several seniorCongress leaders came out todefend the PM, who is in lineof the Opposition fire after theexit of Law Minister AshwaniKumar.

The Congress leaderswere obviously irked bysenior BJP leader LKAdvani’s causticremarks that therewas no logic in thePrime Minister’s con-tinuance.

“Having decid-ed to drop the LawMinister who was protectingthe Prime Minister, then theconsequences should follow.The consequence is that the

Prime Minister must resignnow,” Advani said.

Rejecting thedemand, Union

M i n i s t e rM a n i s hTewari said,“The logicalculmination

of the peo-ple’s verdicti nKarnataka

should be a serious, sustainedand sober introspection of theBJP’s policies, politics and phi-

losophy over the past nineyears.”

Seeking to turn the tableson the BJP over its charge ofdelay in resignations of UnionMinisters Ashwani Kumar andPK Bansal, party spokespersonBhakta Charan Das asked,“How many months the BJPhad taken to decide over fateof its former president NitinGadkari, former KaranatakaChief Minister BSYeddyurappa and formerUttarakhand Chief MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal Nishank,

when their resignations weresought after corruptioncharges.”

“The BJP has nothing elseto do except demanding res-ignations,” he added.

Another party spokesper-son Sandip Dikshit said therewas no question of the PrimeMinister’s resignation and thatit is “one of those fancydemands of the BJP. It is total-ly unjustified and uncalled for”.

External Affairs MinisterSalman Khurshid also dis-missed the demand and said,“This is a reason why peoplein political life refuse to dowhat is morally the right thingto do because it is not taken inright perspective. You see it asa sign of weakness.”

Congress general secre-tary Digvijay Singh, whiledescribing the resignations ofthe two Union Ministers as“appropriate”, took a dig at theBJP saying “this has never been the character ofthe BJP”.

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Even as agriculture forms thebackbone of development,

with 52 per cent of India ’s work-force still engaged in agriculturefor its livelihood, farmingremains one of the most non-lucrative occupation. All effortsto attain food security and inclu-sive growth seem to be goingdown the drain as farm yields aregoing flat and contribution ofagriculture to GDP is on a downslide at 13.9 per cent.

According to the latest Foodand Agriculture IntegratedDevelopment Action 3 (FAIDA)report, India has not been ableto reach its potential in agricul-ture produce and marketing.Today, our country is the thirdlargest agriculture producer inthe world but at the same time,it is a laggard in terms of yield.Agricultural scientists say that weproduce only half of the poten-tial yield but the silver liningbehind the dark clouds is thatprocessing could grow from Rs1.1 trillion in 2011 to Rs 5.65 tril-lion by 2030, while India ’s foodexports could grow from 1.4 tril-lion in 2011 to Rs 7.72 trillion by2030.

Most of the times, the poli-cymakers have been adopting apiecemeal approach. But theneed of the hour is missionmode, to achieve the requiredgrowth. As is obvious from theprevalent state of affairs, wherethe government is cash-strapped,private sector investment isimportant. Along with bringingin public investment in agricul-ture, there is a need for addingincentives to agriculture.

While agriculture is thelargest source of livelihood forthe Indian workers, it is pitiablethat a farmer earns merely 30-40per cent of the nation’s overallaverage per capita income. Thereare studies that show a distinctshift by farmers to the high-valueportfolio in certain areas, wheredemand-supply links have been

improved and high yield andgood quality of produce haveallowed successful exports andmeeting the domestic demand aswell.

But generally, it is a sad taleof the farmers. There is an evi-dent slowdown in per hectareyields across most crops, poorquality of seeds, insufficienttechnology, ineffective exten-sion services, lack of awarenessand adoption of best practicemethods among farmers and lowadoption of the latest technolo-gy, adversely affecting yields.Another major aspect which isleading to flat farm growth is theuse of outdated practices andinputs with low involvement oforganised sector and unfulfilledexport potential.

According to the FAIDAreport, by 2030, India ’s per capi-ta income is expected to increaseby 320 per cent, with food con-sumption going up to Rs 22.5lakh crore from Rs 11 lakh crorein 2010. Vegetables and complexproteins will be consumedincreasingly but is the countryprepared for this? It is time pol-icymakers encouraged agrientrepreneurs, converging tech-nocrats with agri-business ven-tures and attained self-suffi-ciency in food needs and nutri-tional requirement of the coun-try.

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State Finance Ministers onSaturday turned down the

Centre's request to placemobile phones and tablets inthe list of declared goods inthe GST regime, saying theidea is untenable.

The Ministr y forCommunication andInformation Technology'srequest for placing mobilephones and tablets in thedeclared goods list came upfor discussions at the meetingand was rejected, SushilKumar Modi, Chairman of theEmpowered Committee ofState Finance Ministers onGST, told reporters after theconclusion of a two-day meet-ing of the Committee.

"The panel is of the firmview that the idea is untenableand no item should be kept inthe declared goods list in theGST regime," he said.GSTpanel says no to placingmobiles in declared goods list

The Finance Ministershave gathered here to sort outcomplex issues such as taxrates and exemptions under

the proposed indirect taxregime.

Modi, who is also theDeputy Chief Minister of

Bihar, said the GST networkwould create a robust infra-structure for effective imple-mentation of GST regime.

The IT-enabled GSTNwill provide an interface tostakeholders and avoid eva-sion in indirect taxation sys-tems.

The EmpoweredCommittee also set up twoimportant committees, oneto look into taxation of sugar,textile and tobacco products,and the other to draft GSTlegislation.

Giving the latest VAT rev-enue position of states, Modisaid Bihar was at the top with30.5 per cent VAT revenuegowth followed by TamilNadu with 27.7 per cent andGujarat with 26.5 per cent.

However, the panel couldnot take a call on revising thelower VAT rate from 5 percent to six per cent, Modi said.

The GST panel decided tohold a meeting of special cat-egory states, including Jammuand Kashmir, by the end ofJune or early July to discussthe implications of the pro-posed GST regime on them inview of the fact that theyenjoy a number of tax exemp-tions due to their special cat-egory status.

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The national capital witnessedentry of as many as 13 major

global retailers in 2012, whilemany more are expected toenter the Indian market with theGovernment allowing FDI inmulti-brand retail, according toproperty consultant CBRE.

"New Delhi witnessed theentry of 13 prominent globalretailers in 2012 as compared to27 in Singapore and 51 in HongKong," CBRE said in a statement.

The new entries in theCapital was the same as Beijingand Osaka, as per the CBREreport on Retail Hotspots in AsiaPacific.

As many as 24 global retail-ers entered in Tokyo and 15 inHo Chi Minh City, said thereport that aims to identify mar-kets which have been the mostsuccessful in attracting retailers.

"Hong Kong, Japan andSingapore top the list of cities fornew retailer entries across AsiaPacific," report said.

"However, New Delhi

achieved more new entries com-pared to other South East Asianmarkets such as Bangkok, KualaLumpur and Jakarta and hasbeen characterised as a matur-ing/emerging retail market inAsia-Pacific, similar to the likesof Beijing, Shanghai and Ho ChiMinh City," it said.

Commenting on the report,CBRE South Asia Chairmanand Managing DirectorAnshuman Magazine said glob-al retailers are "slowly but sure-

ly" looking at India as a matureand viable market to expandtheir business.

"With Asia Pacific contin-uing to lure international anddomestic retail chains, India ispoised to witness a retail revo-lution. With the governmentpermitting FDI in multi-brandretail, we can expect moreinternational retailers to seri-ously consider the growingconsumer base here," headded.

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DLF, a leading real estatedeveloper will raise up to

�1,888 crore through sale of 8.1crore equity shares to institu-tional investors on May 14.

The issue of shares via insti-tutional placement programme(IPP) is being done to meet mar-ket regulator SEBI's guideline onminimum 25 per cent publicshareholding by June 30 for pri-vate sector listed companies.

The company has fixed aprice band of �222-233 pershare for its 8.1-crore shareoffer.

In a filing to the BSE, DLFsaid "the Equity IssuanceCommittee of the Board ofDirectors...Has finalised May14, 2013 as the issue openingand closing date.

"Further, the floor price hasbeen finalised at � 222 per equi-ty share with price band of � 222to �233 per equity share," the fil-ing added.

Last month, DLF's share-holders approved the sale offresh equity shares to meet mar-ket regulator Sebi's public share-holding norms. Promoters have78.58 per cent stake in thecompany as on March 31.

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Two car bombs exploded ina Turkish town near the

border with Syria on Saturday,killing at least 18 people andinjuring more than 22 others,officials and media reports said.

Interior MinisterMuammer Guler told privateNTV television that the explo-sions hit the town of Reyhanli,just across the border fromSyria’s Idlib province. One ofthe car bombs exploded out-side the city hall while theother went off outside thepost office, he said.

Guler said the number ofinjured had risen above 22people, but he did not specify.

There was no immediate

conf irmation of Syr ianinvolvement. Turkey, whichshares a more than 500-mileborder with Syria, has been acrucial supporter of theSyrian rebel cause andAnkara has allowed its terri-tory to be used as a logisticsbase and staging center forSyrian insurgents.

At least 15 ambulanceswere helping the injured, thehealth ministry said. Therewas no immediate informationon the identities of the victims.

Foreign Minister AhmetDavutoglu vowed from Berlinthat Turkey would act. “Thosewho for whatever reasonattempt to bring the externalchaos into our country willget a response,” he said.

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The International SpaceStation’s crew prepared for

a precedent-setting spacewalkon Saturday to try to stopammonia leaking into spacefrom the research laboratory’spower system.

During a spacewalk set tobegin at 1215 GMT, NASAastronauts Tom Marshburnand Chris Cassidy will try toinspect and possibly repair theammonia leak that affectedthe US segment of the orbitinglaboratory on Thursday.

Officials said the six-hourspacewalk will set a precedentbecause it will be conducted onsuch short notice.

“Good Morning, Earth! Acomplex & vital day on SpaceStation, as Tom and Chris suit

up and go outside to help fixthe ammonia leak,” ISS com-mander Chris Hadfield, who

will oversee the spacewalk,tweeted from the space sta-tion.”Busy day!”

In another message sever-al hours later he saidMarshburn and Cassidy were“in the final stages of readyingthe suits and airlock for theirspacewalk.”

NASA has stressed thatthe lives of a multinational crewwere not in danger but bothRussian and US space expertscalled the leak “serious.”

While in open space,Cassidy will wear a spacesuitwith red stripes, whileMarshburn’s suit will have nostripes, NASA said. Both menhave worked together duringspacewalks before.

Hadfield will oversee thesuit-up of the flight engineersand their duties outside.

On the ground NASAastronaut Terry Virts andEuropean Space Agency astro-naut Samantha Cristoforetticonducted a simulated space-walk in a large pool of waterknown as the NeutralBuoyancy Laboratory to helprefine techniques, the US spaceagency said.

“Appreciate the incredibleeffort from the ground teamshelping us prep for the possi-ble EVA tomorrow,”Marshburn said on Twitter,using a specialist term todescribe “extra-vehicular activity.”

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Astrong earthquake of 6.2magnitude hit southern

Iran early on Saturday, killingone child and injuring at least20 others in remote, moun-tainous villages, state televi-sion reported.

The US Geological Surveyregistered the quake at 0738IST, measured at 85 kilometres(52 miles) southeast of thetown of Minab, located in thesouthern Hormuzgan provinceand off the Strait of Hormuz.

The quake was registered ata depth of 36.44 kilometres(22.64 miles), the USGS said.

A local emergency officialsaid a two-year-old died of seri-ous injuries. “The child passed

away on route to hospital,”Mohammad Shekari was quot-ed by the ISNA news agency.

Iran’s top quake rescueoperations official, MahmoudMozafar, said at least 20 peoplehad been injured.

Iran sits astride severalmajor fault lines and is proneto frequent earthquakes, someof which have been devastating.

Head of Iran’s NationalInstitute for OceanographyVahid Chegini said today’s

quake was unlikely to spark atsunami in the Gulf or the Seaof Oman.

“The chances of a tsunamibecause of today’s quake areremote as the quake wasinland,” Chegini told the Mehrnews agency.

Mozafar, who heads Iran’sRed Crescent rescue corps,said rescue teams were dis-patched to Hormuzgan’sremote area hit by the quake.

Provincial emergency chiefHossein Ranjbar told state tele-vision that some 70 villages hadsuffered severe damage in thequake, which according toIran’s Seismological Centre wasfollowed by a series of after-shocks, measuring between 4.1and 5.2.

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Former Egyptian PresidentHosni Mubarak on Saturday

appeared in court for a freshtrial in cases related todeaths of nearly 850 pro-testers during the uprisingagainst his rule in 2011 aswell as corruption.

His two sons, Gamaland Alaa, along with for-mer Interior MinisterHabib El-Adly and six formeraides were also in court to facethe charges.

Mubarak, 85, who was con-victed in the case in 2012 wasgranted a retrial after he filed an

appeal citing procedural irreg-ularities in the earlier trial.

Mubarak, who ruled Egyptfor nearly 30 years, came intothe courtroom sitting up on a

stretcher dressed inwhite and wearingsunglasses.

The first retrialwhich was to startin April fell apartafter the presidingjudge Mustafa

Hassan Abdullah referred it tothe Cairo Appeal Court,reported Ahram Online.

Judge Mahmoud KamelEl-Rashidi will now take overthe proceedings.

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Suspected ivory poachershave slaughtered 26 ele-

phants in the Dzanga Baireserve in the Central AfricanRepublic, the World WideFund for Nature (WWF) said.

The reserve is known as the“village of elephants”.

“At least 26 elephants weremassacred in the Dzanga BaiWorld Heritage Site in theCentral African Republic, after17 heavily armed suspectedpoachers entered the site onMay 6,” the WWF said in astatement.

Local residents have start-

ed taking meat from the car-casses at the site, which hasbeen described now as an “ele-phant mortuary”, wildlife offi-

cials said.Dzanga Bai is a

unique site wherebetween 50 and200 forest ele-phants congregateevery day to drinkmineral salts pre-sent in the sands.

Wildlife offi-cials have warnedthat more ele-phants could bekilled by poachers.The suspected

poachers are believed to be partof a rebel force that seizedpower in the violence-riddencountry in March.

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Describing India as its most impor-tant partner in Asia, the US says the

growing convergence in interests andoutlook has brought about unprece-dented cooperation on issues rangingfrom regional and global security tocounter-terrorism.

“President Obama has called ourpartnership with India a ‘defining part-nership for the 21st century’,” recalledAssistant Secretary of State RobertBlake during a talk at BostonUniversity’s India Symposium inBoston, Massachusetts, on Friday.

“And as we go about the much-talked about ‘Asia rebalance’, there’s nomore important partner for the UnitedStates in the region than India,” he said,

according to a copy of the addressreleased by the State Department.

“The growing convergence of ourinterests and outlook has brought aboutunprecedented cooperation on region-al and global security, economics andtrade, education, science and technol-ogy, clean energy, health, and coun-terterrorism,” Blake said.

India’s Minister for HumanResources Development Pallam Rajuwill visit Washington next week to laythe groundwork for the HigherEducation Dialogue to be held with theUS-India Strategic Dialogue in NewDelhi next month.

“We will work together to helpIndia achieve its ambitious goal toestablish 200 community colleges;build the next cadre of America’s Indiaexperts; and increase access to highereducation through innovative use oftechnology,” Blake said.

“The commitment by bothGovernments to emphasise higher edu-cation collaboration underscores ourshared belief that education is thelynchpin of the entrepreneurship andinnovation that will drive our knowl-

edge economies and growth and helpus meet new challenges.”

While the US has long been afavoured destination for Indian studentswith over 100,000 new Indian studentscoming to the US every year, Indiaranks only eleventh among the desti-nations for American students studyingabroad, he noted.

“I want many more Americans toexperience the richness of India’s cul-ture, the vibrancy of its young people,and the dynamism of its economy,”Blake said.

The US official said he was “veryexcited that discussions like ours aretaking place at so many levels, becauseboth our countries can contribute to oneanother, and frankly, can learn fromeach other.” IANS

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Sri Lanka freed anOpposition Muslim political

leader from jail without chargeafter detaining him earlier inthe week under a tough anti-terrorism law, his lawyer saidon Saturday.

Azath Sally (49), the for-mer deputy mayor of Colombo,was arrested on Sunday anddetained in police custody inwhat the minority Muslimcommunity described as thelatest attack on them in theBuddhist-dominated islandnation.

Sally, leader of the MuslimNational Unity Alliance, wasreleased on Friday after author-ities revoked a 90-day detentionordered by President Mahinda

Rajapaksa, who is also theminister of defence, his lawyerShiraz Noordeen said.

“No charges have beenpressed and he was released

after negotiations with thedefence ministry,” Noordeensaid.

A vocal critic of Rajapaksa,Sally is now in hospital fol-lowing a hunger strike helaunched in protest over hisarrest under the Prevention ofTerrorism Act.

The United States, whichmoved a censure motionagainst Sri Lanka at the MarchUN Human Rights Councilsessions in Geneva, earlierasked Colombo to ensure theopposition leader had access tolawyers.

Local media reports quot-ed unnamed officials as sayingSally was accused of incitingMuslims to take up armsagainst the state — a claim hislawyer denied.

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Hundreds of Indianwomen, mainly from the

southern State of AndhraPradesh, are entering Bahrainon forged visit visas to work asdomestic helps, a media reportsaid Saturday.

Unscrupulous recruit-ment agents are helping thesewomen, who mainly comefrom poor backgrounds andare willing to pay a largeamount of money to work inthe Gulf nation, which is caus-ing a major problem forBahraini families, the GulfDaily News reported.

“These housemaids,mainly from Andhra Pradesh,are leaving India based on aphotocopy of a forged visitvisa,” an official of the Indianembassy in Bahrain was quot-ed as saying.

“This is not a valid visitvisa issued by Bahrainiauthorities.”

The official saidunscrupulous agents in Indiamake sure that these domes-tic workers clear the immi-gration process.

Once they enter Bahrain,agents there give them legiti-mate working visas.

The official said thesewomen mainly come to Bah-rain to work for a short time.

“Based on all the caseswe have dealt with so far,these women start workingin Bahraini households ini-tially and after three monthsrun away and come to ussaying they want to go back,”he said.

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At least 34 miners havedied and nine others

trapped in two separate coalmine accidents in China, offi-cials said on Saturday.

Twenty-two miners werekilled and nine others trappedin a gas explosion in a collieryin southwest China's SichuanProvince today, the country'swork safety authorities said.

The accident occurred inthe afternoon in Taozigou coalmine, Luxian County in thecity of Luzhou when 108 min-ers were working under-

ground, state-run Xinhua newsagency reported. Rescue workis underway.

Earlier, 12 miners werekilled and two others injuredin a colliery gas explosion insouthwest China's GuizhouProvince, local authorities said.

The accident happenedon Friday in the Dashan coalmine in Pingba County when30 people were in the mine,according to the GuizhouProvincial Administration ofWork Safety.

Sixteen miners were liftedfrom the pit but ten otherswere found dead. PTI

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Malala Yousufzai, teenagerights activist who was

shot in the head by the Taliban,on Saturday appealed to peopleto exercise their franchise, say-ing “one vote can change”Pakistan’s future.

“It’s an honour for me toshare some words with my sis-ters and brothers in my coun-try,” Malala said in a letter car-ried by the Dawn newspaper.

“If we want education, elec-tricity and natural gas in ourcountry, we must take a step,”the 15-year-old said.

“Let’s vote for our country.We never realised how muchpowerful our vote is. One votecan change our future,” she said.

Pakistan’s landmark pollsset in motion the first democ-ratic transition of power in thecountry’s 66-year history.

“It’s our vote that chooseswhich politicians will governour motherland. I request allmy sisters and mothers to

move forward, go to pollingstation and vote. It’s our right,”Malala appealed to the people.

“And one day, a change willcome. All girls and boys will begoing to schools and there willbe peace everywhere,” she said.

Malala was shot in Pakistan’sconservative Swat Valley on

October 9 last year and was air-lifted to the Queen ElizabethHospital on October 15 for fur-ther specialist treatment. Shereceived bullet wounds justabove her left eye. Malala hasundergone two successful oper-ations to attach a titaniumplate and cochlear implant.

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Islamabad: A total of 180million ballot papers weigh-ing 650 tonnes were used forSaturday’s general electionsin Pakistan.

Security personnel trans-ported the ballot papers to thepolling booths across thecountry. Some 50 army heli-copters flew for 347 hours totransport the ballot papers.

Security cover had beenprovided to five printingpresses where the ballot

papers were printed, a militaryofficer said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, PakistanElection CommissionSecretary Ishtiak AhmadKhan said that a foolproof sys-tem had been put in place sothat nobody could steal theballot papers, the newspaperreported.

There was no room forcapturing polling stations andstamping ballot papers, saidKhan. PTI

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From here onwards, it’sonly a matter of mathe-matical calculations and

assumptions for Kings XIPunjab, while SunrisersHyderabad continued to be inthe race for the playoffs as theybeat the hosts by 30 runs at thePCA Stadium here on Saturday.

A good allround perfor-mance by Sunrisers helpedthem secure two preciouspoints from this match as theyshare fourth spot with RoyalChallengers Bangalore with 16points from 13 matches in thepoints table.

Defending a modest 151-run target, Hyderabad restrict-ed Punjab to 120 for 9, theirlowest score this season.Darren Sammy, who failedwith the bat, proved his effec-tiveness with ball as he regis-tered his best bowling figuresin IPL — 4 for 22. Dale Steynalso bowled effectively takingtwo wickets for 20 runs.

Batting first after losingthe toss, Hyderabad were off toa scratchy start with theiropeners — Shikhar Dhawanand Parthiv Patel — survivingon their luck and poor field-ing rather than will. Severalballs beat their bats and manyothers took edges that landedin the no-man’s land. Therewas certain tentativeness intheir footwork and flashinessin handwork.

It was quite frustrating forPunjab, a team playing for sur-vival in the tournament, thatdespite good efforts by bowlersneither wickets were fallingnor runs were stopping. Butskipper Gilchrist, a highlyexperienced player, knew ifthey persisted with the sameintensity and made some smartmoves, success wasn’t too far.

And it duly came with thewicket of Dhawan off the firstball of Harmeet Singh Bansal,

who replaced Praveen Kumarafter two fruitless overs by thesenior pacer. Dhawan (15) ranout of luck as he pushed the fulllength delivery straight into thehands of Harmeet to depart.

What happened after thatwas just a confirmation oftheir struggles with the willowthroughout the league.Dhawan’s departure openedthe floodgates as Hyderabadwere reduced to 52 for 5 in 8.4overs from 28 for 1 in 4.1 overs.

The wrecker-in-chief was19-year-old Sandeep Sharma ofUnder-19 World Cup fame,who made his IPL debut in thismatch. Sandeep (3 for 21)struck three quick blows toHyderabad, including that ofskipper Cameron White, whocame in the side in place ofregular captain KumarSangakkara. Another wicketin the form of Darren Sammy,

who failed to comprehendPiyush Chawla’s googly, put thevisitors in a state of bother.

But a good mix of patienceand aggression from Patel —he top-scored for Hyderabadwith 61 off 47 balls — and a19-ball 32-run cameo byThisara Perera down the orderhelped Sunrisers recover wellfrom early blows. A 48-runstand between Patel and Pererafrom just 25 balls ensuredthey have a good total onboard to defend.

Hyderabad started theirpursuit in right earnest withDale Steyn providing a break-through in the first over.However, Gilchrist and ShaunMarsh managed to stem thesituation from turning into acrisis with a cautious 44-runpartnership. The duo onlystarted to look set for a repeatof last match’s performance,

where they added 102 runs ina similar situation, whenSammy removed them bothwith the first two deliveries ofhis spell. He took anotherone — David Miller — in thenext over.

With the loss of all threeplayers around whom theirbatting revolves, it was onlydownhill for Punjab. LukePomersbach (33 not out off 40balls) and R Sathish (25 off 18)tried to put up a resistance butthat proved insuff icientagainst the best bowling unitof this IPL.

Brief Scores:Sunrisers Hyderabad: 150 for7 in 20 overs (Parthiv Patel 61,Thisara Perera 32 not out;Sandeep Sharma 3/21) beatKings XI Punjab: 120 for 9 in20 overs (Luke Pomersbach 33not out; Darren Sammy 4/22)by 30 runs.

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Mumbai Indians inchedcloser to earning a play-

off berth as they rode on a dis-ciplined bowling performanceto eke out a five-wicket winover Pune Warriors in a matchhere today.

Mitchell Johnson led theway with an economical fig-ures of 2/8 off his four oversbefore skipper Rohit Sharma’spatient knock of 37 off 41 ballsguided Mumbai to a win withseven balls to spare at theSahara Subrata RoyInternational Stadium.

Speedsters Lasith Malingaand Abu Nechim Ahmed, too,came up with impressive per-formances, picking up twowickets each. Off-spinnerHarbhajan Singh alsoimpressed with a spell of onefor 14, which included thewicket of Yuvraj Singh, whowas the lone bright spot for theWarriors with a 29-ball 33.

Chasing a modest total,Mumbai were off to a disas-trous start, losing openerDwayne Smith in the innings’first delivery, the batsman’s off-stump knocked over by AshokDinda. Sachin Tendulkarhelped himself to a few bound-aries before Ajantha Mendishad the veteran batsmancaught at long-on by ManishPandey. It was the carom balland Tendulkar tried play itover the bowler’s head.

And when Dinesh Karthikslog-swept a Yuvraj deliverystraight to the waiting hands oflong-off fielder Pandey, itseemed Mumbai were intenton making a heavy weather ofthe chase. Ambati Rayudusmashed a few quick runswith the help of two fours anda six, but he failed to see thevisitors through as Dinda hadhim caught at deep square-leg.

Sharma, however, wascomposed at the other end.With Mumbai needing 13 offthe last three overs, their latestmillion-dollar signing, Glenn

Maxwell, playing in his firstmatch, hit Dinda for a four andsix to make the scores level.

Sharma, after doing allthe hard work, got out toKane Richardson beforeHarbhajan lofted the bowerover extra cover to completethe chase.

Earlier, Johnson was thestandout performer with theball for Mumbai.

Electing to bat, PuneWarriors were off to a poorstart as both their openers,Robin Uthappa and skipperAaron Finch, departed inquick succession. Johnsononce again struck early as hedismissed Finch for 10 whenthe Australian ended up hit-ting a short of length deliverystraight to short cover, whereDwayne Smith completed aneasy catch.

Malinga then trappedUthappa leg before for 11,with the Pune scorecard read-ing 25 for two inside fiveovers. Yuvraj and ManishPandey shared a 59-run standfor the third wicket to reviveWarriors’ sagging moralebefore departing.

Yuvraj, who was recentlydropped from the ChampionsTrophy squad owing to indif-ferent form, finally found sometouch as he laced his inningswith one four and two sixes.He found an able ally in

Manish Pandey, who came upwith a useful run-a-ball 29.

Pune, who were cruisingalong at 84 for two, suddenlyslumped to 85 for five asMumbai bowlers pegged themback with three quick strikes.Pandey was the first to go as hewas caught at deep square legby Ambati Rayudu offMalinga. Angelo Mathews (0)could call himself unfortu-nate as he took off for a non-existent single and SachinTendulkar’s direct hit foundthe batsman a couple of inch-es short of his crease at thenon-striker’s end.

Harbhajan then landedPune a body blow when he hadthe dangerous looking Yuvrajtrapped in front — he hadfailed to judge the line of theball. Warriors never recoveredfrom there and lost three morewickets in the form ofAbhishek Nayar (11), KaneRichardson (8) andBhuvneshwar Kumar (2) to capoff a pathetic batting display.

Brief scoresPune Warriors: 112/8 in 20overs (Yuvraj Singh 33, ManishPandey 29; Mitchell Johnson2/8, Abu Nechim Ahmed 2/27,Lasith Malinga 2/27,Harbhajan Singh 1/14) lost toMumbai Indians: 116/5 in18.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 37,Ambati Rayudu 26; AshokDinda 2/35) by five wickets.

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Inching closer to a playoffberth, Royal Challengers

Bangalore will face an incon-sistent Kolkata Knight Riders,who would be eyeingrevenge, when the two sidesclash in the city’s first PepsiIPL game at the JharkhandCricket Association’sInternational stadium tomor-row.

It is exactly a month sincethe two teams clashed inBangalore where Chris Gayleblew away KKR with a 50-ball85 that was laced with ninesixes. Riding on Gayle’s bril-liance and some other notableperformers, RCB are amongthe top-four in the pointstable while KKR are lan-guishing in the bottom half.Both teams will go into thematch high on confidencewinning their last games.While KKR comprehensivelybeat a hapless Pune Warriors,RCB pulled off a thrilleragainst the Delhi Daredevilsonly last night.

For RCB, Gayle’s rather

quiet outings in the past fewmatches would be a concern.But that has more or less beencompensated by the likes ofskipper Virat Kohli, who wasquite impressive during his58-ball 99 in the previousmatch. Also finding his feet isthe fit-again CheteshwarPujara, who would be expect-ed to play the sheet-anchorrole given that he is not exact-ly a big-hitter.

In fact, batting is hardly aconcern for RCB with pinch-hitters like Moises Henriquesand A B de Villiers making upthe lower half of their line-up.

KKR, in contrast, havebeen throughly exposed as abrittle batting unit.

Though skipper GautamGambhir found some of hislost touch with a half-centu-ry against Pune but thatwould hardly make up for the

failure of others against ateam like RCB.

Veteran al l-rounderJacques Kallis has been strug-gling and similar is the casewith expensive-buy YusufPathan, who has not beenable to justify the captain’scontinuing faith in him.

On the bowling front,RCB came in for some thrash-ing last night even thoughmedium-pacer JaydevUnadkat stood out with afiver in four economical oversconceding just 25 runs.

But the likes of VinayKumar and Henriques leakedruns at 10 per over and thatwould certainly be a cause ofconcern for the team.

KKR’s bowling, on theother hand, delivered againstPune but that can hardly be ameasure of how good they aregiven that the Warriors are ateam in doldrums.

Given their current form,RCB would start outrightfavourites and it would beinteresting to see if KKRmanage to get the better offtheir mighty opponent.

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As the T20 Championship enters itsbusiness end stage, while top teams

will eye to consolidate their position, themiddle-placed teams are aiming to reachthe top and the below-placed ones willstrive to avoid the last place.

Teams who will compete on Sunday’ssecond match — Chennai Super Kingsand Rajasthan Royals are sitting pretty atthe top spot. CSK are one first andRajasthan joint second on points.

The MS Dhoni-lead yellow brigadehave 20 points from 13 matches while theRahul Dravid-led side have 18 points inequal number of matches.

But, CSK, who have already reachedthe playoffs, are eyeing a win to ensurethat they will be among the top two teamsas the two top get an extra chance to qual-ify if they lose the first playoff tie.

Also, because momentum in thisform of the game is very important. “Thisis a very important match for us. Anothercouple of wins means we will acquire toptwo berths. Also we want to carrymomentum of winning into playoffs. Toadd to that, we are looking to be moreconsistent. We had won seven games onthe trot but wehad a huge lossagainst MumbaiIndians. But, we made a strong comebackagainst Sunrisers Hyderabad. So, tomor-row, we have a tough match facing thenumber two (joint on points withMumbai) team in the competition,”Steve Rixon, CSK’s fielding coach toldreporters during the pre-match press con-ference.

CSK have in their ranks — Orangecap leader Michael Hussey (574 runs) andPurple cap donning Dwayne Bravo (20

wickets), who have justified their repu-tations. CSK also have been served wellby Suresh Raina (458 runs), Dhoni (314

runs) while their bowlers — MohitSharma (13 wickets), Ravindra Jadeja, RAshwin (13 wickets), Chris Morris (12wickets) have performed well.

But, the table-toppers have a toughtask against Rajasthan, whose fort —Sawai Man Singh Stadium is yet to bebreached in this season in seven match-es. Rajasthan, playing at their final homegame, are on the verge of qualifying forplayoffs and a win in the Pink City will

not only ensure them atop-four berth but alsotheir citadel will remainunblemished.

Finishing on a high infront of their home sup-

porters will be an extra motivating fac-tor for them. Royals’ batters — Dravid(365 runs), Ajinkya Rahane (424 runs),burly Australian all-rounder ShaneWatson (eight wickets and 413 runs),Sanju Samson and Stuart Binny havebeen in red-hot form.

Especially Dravid’s go-to-manWatson, who had scored a 55-ball 100 inthe game against CSK at Chepauk, in theteams’ last meeting, will be more thaneager to better his score so that he canend on a winning side, unlike that tiewhere his team’s commanding score of185 was chased down by CSK.

Bowlers in James Faulkner, the sec-ond in the highest wicket-takers list with19 wickets, have been the leading forceand with the support of SiddharthTrivedi, Kevon Cooper (14 wickets) andAjit Chandila, are well-equipped to trou-ble any batting line-up.

Get ready for this mouth-wateringclash.

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You have been a revelation this sea-son…Yeah, I have really enjoyed the IPL.

It has been a very good time (forme) to learn a lot more, get abit more experience and I amjust thankful that I have donewell so far. I just want thismomentum and confidenceto keep going.

Most eye-catching aspect ofyour game is your ability to

hit the ball a long distance. Is thisyour natural game or did you makesome adjustments to suit Twenty20?It is my natural game. Not quite likewhat I did the other day. It is suitedfor T20 cricket but, having said that,I am not generally with one-day andfour-day stuff. I do like to hit the balla lot more.

Recently you mentioned that yourfather gave you some useful adviceabout batting. Did he also playcricket?He used to play cricket. He wasn’t aprofessional player. He used to playjust club cricket in South Africa. Heplayed for many years and that’s whyhe taught me from very young age toenjoy my cricket. There is a sayingthat goes as, "When it’s in the ‘V’, it’sin the tree. When it’s in the arc, it’s outof the park."

You have a very simple battingstyle. You don’t use those impro-vised and fancy shots which com-plicates batting.Yes, I just try to keep my game sim-ple. I think if it’s working, I should tryand keep it as simple as possible sothat there are not too many things inmy mind. I can stick to the game plan.AB de Villiers is unbelievable that hecan play all the shots. It’s really goodto think like that because you got toreact very quickly to change yourshots. But I think, for me, what’sworking is to play straight and justkeep it simple.

How did you start playing cricket?It’s, as I said my dad used to play,because of him. I used to go to theground with him, my brother and mymother to watch him (father) play.My brother and I used to play on theside of the field. So I think I startedat a very young age, 5 or 6 years maybe, on the sides of the cricket fields.I started cricket from there and thenwhen I went to school, I played a lotof it. It was early in high school whenI started taking cricket seriously andstarted thinking that I can do this afterschool.

When you came to play IPL, whatwere your expectations? What wasgoing through your mind?I didn’t have much in my mind. I justcame here to make the best of theavailable opportunities and themoment that I am in. So when Ireached here I wanted to do the bestI could and give the most I can to theteam. And I am very grateful that it’sgone as well as it has.

What do you think worked for youin the IPL this season?I played a lot of cricket in the off-sea-son in Yorkshire. Played for them inT20 and it went really well. I think ithelped me gain confidence and workon how to get myself in. I have been

working really hard on my first 15balls and giving myself a chance to bethere in the middle. I think that hashelped me.

How has been the experience ofsharing the dressing room withAdam Gilchrist?That’s what I enjoy most about IPL.It gives us an opportunity to mix withgood overseas players, guys whohave played unbelievable cricket.For me, I am really happy to haveAdam Gilchrist with me and alsoDarren Lehmann, they are very goodcricketers. I have learnt a lot fromthem. Gilchrist has helped me a lotwith my batting in the two years thatI have been with him. Not too muchbut just enough to guard me and helpme with certain things. The fact thathe is here if I have a question I cango and ask him.

What did you ask him?It’s not really technical stuff. It’s moreabout what he used to think at a par-ticular moment of the game duringhis international career. Like how togo about building an innings, how heused to prepare himself, what all heused to do and stuff like that. You canput a whole lot of cricket togetherfrom different people and then try towork out what is best for you.

Do you idolise anyone?I don’t have any cricketing hero butused to enjoy watching MatthewHayden. That’s it. My father is veryclose to me. I really love my father.Well, I love my family, all of them. Iam thankful to my parents me for giv-ing me these opportunities.

Do you have any hobbies?I have actually. Back in South Africa,we call it Praai. It’s like a barbeque. SoI like to have Praai with my familyand friends. And I lived in Durbanwhich is at the beach, so I started surf-ing. I really enjoy surfing now.

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Hockey needs maniacal geniusesfor the game to re- brand itself.

It also needs a more competitivefield, with surprise winners andlosers. While the game itself isspreading its reach, its summitstructure invariably shows the famil-iar faces. Australia, the Netherlands,Germany and Spain are firmlyentrenched at the top. Could we seehockey’s Japan come from behindand defeat world champions Spain?This happened in soccer, but will ithappen in hockey?

The major hockey powers peekdown from the summit, bemused atthe toddlers and foot soldiers break-ing a sweat. South Africa, Pakistan,Argentina, South Korea, Belgium,New Zealand and India- to name afew- just aren’t able to crack thecitadels of the big four, and Britainis able to do so only occasionally.Unless something happens to shakethe status quo, Hockey’s predictabil-ity — the one-dish taste of a multi-national and multi-cultural sport —will undermine the game.

Take recent performances. 127nations make up the FIH, but whatdo they have to show? In the HockeyWorld League Round 2 in Delhi,India thumped Fiji 16- 0 and Oman9- 1, while Ireland thrashed Fiji 13-0. Many of the games witnessedmore process than contest. The ideaof a world league is good, butpresently the gaps between themajor nations and the minnows arehuge. Hockey needs not a circular,but an elliptical orbit that makes thegame wander from its predictablecourse, with zigzags, not straight lineresults. What needs to be done?

One way would be to do one ofthe three majors — the Olympics,World Cup and Champions Trophy— on grass on a rotating basis. Thenext Olympics, the World Cup afterthat, and the Champions Trophythereafter could be played on grass,in turn. After all, the hallowedWimbledon, one of Tennis’ four ven-erable Grand Slam tournaments, isplayed on grass. This just mightintroduce some flair and mysteryinto the game.

But will the FIH take such a boldstep? Are the more successful teamsfearful of playing on grass? Orworse, do India and Pakistan, whohave for long complained that theEuropeans killed grass hockey togain an unfair advantage on artifi-cial surfaces fear that their real lim-itations will be exposed- even ongrass? Like artificial surfaces, grasstoo will be an equal challenge to all,and could provide answers. What weneed is smart sceptics who can putthe game under rigorous scrutiny.

To their credit, teams like Indiaand Pakistan have faced their pro-longed hockey decline with a steelyforbearance. They still ignite the pas-sion, if not the performance. Thereis a view, including in India, thateven on grass the Asians will beworsted by the Europeans. Sadly,opinion here is polarized betweenthe Europeans and India- Pakistan.

Will grass really matter? Since thegame has become physical and tacti-cal, to match the Europeans, even ongrass, the Indians and Pakistanis willneed supreme fitness and a moreaggressive presence. This shift topower play is not peculiar to hockey.Even in badminton, Indian players arebecoming more successful because of

more aggressive play, with weight andendurance training. India’s hockeycoach, Michael Nobbs often says thatIndian players need to put on weightto develop a power game.

The other point is infrastructureand system development. The Dutchhave at least 600 artificial pitches.The Leiden Club, against whom theIndian team played last week, has2,500 members. Amsterdam alonehas 3 clubs with 8,000 members, and18 pitches. The Dutch organizegoalkeeping camps for age 7- 12, anda recent one watched by the touringIndian team had 60 trainees. Delhi,which boasts one of the world’s besthockey stadiums, has only 5 artifi-cial pitches, and no club system.

The reasons for the decline ofIndian hockey are complex, butsurely this can be reversed? Indianeeds litmus players who are willingto run long tests. Nobbs wisely senta developmental team for this year’sAzlan Shah tournament, taking thelonger view, and knowing that thisinvitational tournament does notadd ranking points. Hockey India’smoves to introduce uniform train-ing methods right through the juniorand senior levels is a good coursecorrection. Out of these incremen-tal steps the game can revive.

(The writer is an IFS officer.These are his personal views, not

those of the Government)

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It is a rare occasion indeedthat the Indian hockey

team manages to beatmighty Holland in consec-utive matches, that too intheir own country. Butunder the able leadership ofSardar Singh, the youngIndian team have accom-plished that difficult feat.

The Indians defeatedthe London Olympics silvermedalists 2-0 and 4-2 in thetwo matches which weresupposed to be part of apreparatory tour ahead ofthe FIH men’s HockeyWorld League Round- 3(Semi-finals) to be playedat Rotterdam, Netherlandsfrom June 13-23.

The new look Indianteam thus continued theirseries of good perfor-mances since the humiliat-ing debacle at the Olympicslast August.

Of course, this wasonly a friendly series andthe mighty Dutchmensurely did not exert them-selves as much as theywould have if the matcheshad been part of an impor-tant tournament.

But still, a couple ofvictories against a big teamwill act as a huge moralebooster for the Indian teamahead of the FIH WorldLeague which is also a qual-ifier for the World Cup2014 to be played in Hague,the Netherlands.

In keeping with chiefcoach Michael Nobbs’ postLondon 2012 policy ofbuilding a team of young-sters keeping in mind the2016 Olympics, the Indianteam once again featured ahost of youngsters.

The victories in Hollandindicate that the team theyoungsters, who were stillraw and relatively inexperi-enced when Nobbs startedhis ‘Project Rio’, are gainingexperience and maturityand are starting to gel intoa formidable unit.

"It was a morale boost-ing tour since we had aseries of good results againsta top team like Holland.First we played a few match-es against some Dutch clubsin which we did quite well.The Holland league is thebest in the world and thosematches helped us a lot inacclimatising to the localconditions and we man-aged to play well against theHolland team," striker SVSunil told The Pioneer.

"The matches weretough, but this tour hashelped us a lot in our prepa-rations for the HockeyWorld Tour," he added.

Talking about theimprovement in the team’sperformances after thereshuffle post-London, Sunilsaid," the team has changeda lot since then. We havebeen training hard and con-stantly improving our per-formances. A lot of planningand strategesing has beendone."

Sunil was confident thatIndia will do well at theHWL and qualify for the2014 World Cup. "We mustqualify. We just have to doit, there is no other option.There is the Asia Cup afterthe HWL which is also aqualifier. But we want toqualify at the HWL andnot wait for the last momentto qualify," Sunil said.

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Talktime�����������After directing films like Tum Bin, Dus and Ra.One, AnubhavSinha is ready to take off as a producer with his much-talked aboutfilm Gulaab Gang. He talks to MANJARI SINGH about thefilm, the anxiety and the challenges faced

� How did you turn a into a producer? I always wanted to be one. It’s been in my mind for six-

seven years. I had been working towards it. It finally happenedin 2011 when I set up my own company. I decided to work onmovies after Ra.One (October 2011) but I took break for a fewmonths because my mother was not well. Then, finally, twomovies happened in April 2012 —Warning and Gulaab Gang.Warning is about youth who get into trouble. I have cast newfaces in the movie and 90 per cent scenes have been shotunderwater.

� What is Gulaab Gang all about?It is about a group of women who fight injustice against

women but end up fighting women. I know a lot has beenwritten about how the movie is based on Sampat Pal’s (founderof Gulaabi Gang) life. There are some similarities like womenwearing pink and in a way the movie is a tribute to her but it isnot entirely based on her life. I have never met her and I don’tknow her story. The movie is a complete work of fiction. Theshooting ended on April 20, 2013. We are now looking for asuitable date to release it. It may be around September orOctober this year.

� How did you convince Madhuri Dixit to do thismovie?

Madhuri was my only choice. It didn’t require any con-vincing. She liked the script and agreed to do the film. Thesame goes for Juhi Chawla, although her role is negative,something she has never done before. I just took three vis-its to convince her to play the role.

� Women-centric films are in these days. Is that thereason why you made Gulaab Gang?

I started the film in November 2011 and that’s when Imet Saumik Sen. I don’t think either of the two movies,Dirty Picture or Kahaani was released at that time. I havemade the film because I liked the story and the script; it’snot made as a women-centric film. Moreover, you can’t goto the financer and tell him that just because a particularfilm worked, your film will also work. I always cite theexample of Delhi Belly. It is one of the most unconvention-al movies made till date it was a hit. Just because that wasa hit, one can’t say all films of that kind will be hits too.

� You have said that the movie has been difficult. Why?That’s because there’s no male protagonist in the film.

Dirty Picture still had Emraan Hashmi but Gulaab Ganghas only women. You might cite the example of Kahaanibut I know the problems Shujoy Ghosh (director) wentthrough when he made the film.

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‘A very difficultfilm to make’

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The first recorded use of flowers incuisine finds was in 140 BC. As

time passed, their use increased. Withover 25 flowers being used in servingculinary delights today, chefs areexperimenting with flowers onceagain.

The use of flowers was prevalentin Roman, Chinese, Italian and evenHispanic cultures. Chinese made useof daylily buds, the Romans used mal-low, rose and violets. Italian andHispanic used stuffed squash blos-soms and Indians till date use rosepetals in many recipes. A greenliqueur made in France during the17th century uses carnation petals.

“Using flowers for cooking inIndia is a concept that has yet to catchon. This is because we use them forreligious purposes. To use the sameflower and eat it doesn’t seem to sitwith us comfortably. But the thoughtof creamy hibiscus veloute, basil,coriander, flower fondue and roastedcarnation vegetable tart, braised sweettomato with sunflower seed pestoexcites the Indian pallete,” executivechef Vimal Vikraman with The GrandMercure Hotel, Bengaluru says.

Therefore, it is not surprisingthat chefs use it to create exoticdrinks, salads and main dishes. “Whilesouth India and West Bengal usesbanana flowers and pumpkin flowers

to make bhajiyas, the north has beenusing rose petals to make gulokand.However using marigold, hibiscus,carnations or even violet is somethingnew.

“For example hibiscus or marigoldwith spinach makes for a great com-bination. Blanch the spinach and setaside. Saute onions and garlic sepa-rately. Add the spinach and cook for

five to 10 minutes. When you areabout to serve add the hibiscus ormarigold flowers. Not only does it addflavour to the dish, the red, yellow andgreen have a great visual appeal,” chefVimal tells you.

He warns that one should not buyflowers for cooking purpose fromflower vendors. One must grow theirown flowers for cooking. “The ones

that you get in the market have a lotof pesticides. These are likely to domore harm,” he says, adding thatthough he has yet to introduce a full-fledged menu that have flowers, he iswilling to serve his customers a four-course meal if given a day’s heads-up.

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For students of WhistlingWoods International

(WWI) in Mumbai, there is alot of action that awaits in thisinstallment of Cinema 100, thenext wave starting today. Fromworkshops relating to film-making to panel discussions bycelebrities from all walks of life,this fun-filled festival is goingto be one of its kind.

“Last year’s response wasoverwhelming. The studentsgot to learn a lot from all thatwas discussed. This year wehave done many new thingswith the modules. We arescreening Bombay Talkies as atribute to the film industry,”Meghna Ghai Puri, the presi-dent of WWI, tells you.

Bollywood showmanSubhash Ghai’s daughterMeghna Ghai-Puri was recent-ly honoured with for mediaeducation. As the president ofthis �70 crore film, televisionand media arts institute, Puriis wanting to expand the WWIbranches to Delhi and

Haryana. It was Subhash Ghai’s

dream of starting a schooland so Whistling WoodsInternational was born. Heshared this dream withMeghna while she was pursu-ing a course in London. “Wehave always wanted to give thebest to our students. Throughspecial festivals such as this, weare giving them the exposureto mingle with renownedartists in the industry. This islike an on-job training,” Purisays.

The full-time faculty ofWhistling Woods Internationalis a body of academics andindustry professionals withregular guest lectures by lead-ing Indian and Internationalfilmmakers, actors and tech-nicians like Rakeysh Mehra,Vishal Bharadwaj, AshutoshGowarikar, Farhan Akhtar,Ashok Amritraj, ShyamBenegal, Farah Khan,Naseeruddin Shah, PankajKapur, Ratna Pathak Shah,Danny Boyle, RajkumarHirani, Nagesh Kukunoor andothers.

Main tumhari bacche ki maabanne wali hoon is my

favourite maa-wallah dialogue.The role of the maa has beenslightly sidelined these days,but am sure they will be backwith a bang like they were in the70s and the 80s. My vote for thebest maa goes to Rakhiji in KaranArjun. She was pragmatic yet very maa-like.

I am a typical maa ka ladla, but I am not all thatbigda hua. For a long time, my friends in college wouldtease me by calling me mama’s boy! And I loved it.I miss my mother who is no more. I share every lit-tle achievement or problem with her when we havethe ‘talk’ every night before I fall asleep.

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Maa ka doodh piya hai tosamne aa... is my

favourite. I don’t rememberhow many times I havemouthed this dialogue inmy films. This is one line thatanyone, even a fresher canemote. Mothers on the silverscreen are excellent supporting castto stars. Rohini Hattangadi is a very powerful moth-er figure and Farida Jalal is the mom that every bac-cha wants to have.

I share a very special relationship with mymother. I am not a very emotional person so I findit difficult to express my feelings to her. But she hasplayed a huge role in making me what I am todayin the film industry. F�����������$������

Maa... tum kitni achhi ho is the one for me.Most dialogues on mummiyan are serious

and have a very high impact but this evokeslaughter. Why is it so much of a surprise thata mother turns out to be good?Funny, isn’t it?

I have never hadreservations about play-ing a character if a filmexcites me. If today, Iam offered the role ofa mother, I will takeit up, depending onwhat the script andthe role is. Being amother myself, I havecome to realise whatkind of sacrificesand the immenselove that a moth-er can showtowards herchild.

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Ghar mein maabehen nahin hai

kya? is the simplest,most direct yet mostmeaningful dialogueI have heard. Is thereany way else you canquestion the intentionsof a pervert? I don’t thinkso. There are many lines from Bollywoodthat stick with you but the ones around amaa are always remembered.

Nargis is the quintessential maa but inthe modern format, I think, Reema Lagoois splendid. Nowadays, mothers are not thetypical becharis as they were portrayedyears ago. Today, the mother is stylish, hasher own life and doesn’t mind having neg-ative shades. The role has changed to keeppace with the changing mores.

My mother, till date, is my best friendand confidante. I feel jittery if a week haspassed and I haven’t seen my mom.

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Tumhari maa meri kabze mein hai... isfunny and serious at the same time. It

is also a dialogue that can do with multi-ple emotions. You can say it like a dham-ki or be sad about it. What makes a maaline popular is because many people relateto it in their lives. I was a problem child and

hats off to my mother who had a lot ofpatience in me. I am a pampered child.

For me, Lillete Dubey makes for theperfect on-screen mother and auntymaterial. She is smart and very practi-

cal. She is very good looking aswell. F�""�##�������$������ �

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When the talk is about thequintessential maa in B-

town, how can one forget theiconic dialogue which wasrecently voted the most popu-lar dialogue in Hindi cinemaever (the poll was conducted bya popular magazine in January,2013). Javed Akhtar is proud tobe associated with the merepaas maa hai line from the 1979superhit Deewar. But the writer-lyricist says he has cut theumbilical chord with many ofhis other dialogues long back.

“I am a staunch believer ofmoving on. Attachment is notthe most desirable thing. Apiece of writing is like a child

you have created. With time,that child becomes an adult anddevelops a personality all hisown. Just like how you wouldnot take credit for your child’sachievements, you don’t, do sofor your dialogues too,” Akhtarsays.

There have been timeswhen Akhtar hears a songcomposed by him earlier anddoesn’t remember it’s written byhim. “It becomes embarrassingwhen you compliment a songand its composer without real-ising it is you who created it. Butthat is what my relationshipwith my songs is. Many peopledon’t believe me but it’s true,” he

tells you.Having said that, Akhtar

doesn’t deny that there is some-thing about mere paas maa haiwhich makes him come back tothis dialogue, every once in awhile.

“Salim and I knew we hadto come up with somethingvery dramatic for the scenewhere the brothers were meet-ing for the last time. We creat-ed 534 lines for this momentbefore mere paas.... came to ourmind. It was almost spiritual, asif the line presented itself to us.Both of us were quite pleasedand so was the director butnone of us had imagined that

this punchline would be used inso many more films, theatre,speeches, comedy circuits etc,”Akhtar tells you.

Akhtar says this line,when used by AR Rahmanin his Oscar speech becamemost special. “He justdidn’t use the linefor the heck ofit. I knowhow closeRahman isto hism o t h e r .Woh shabduske dil senikle thhe. Andthat is what made

it so beautiful,” he tells you.Akhtar lost his mother on

his eight birthday. Safia Akhtarwas a writer and a voraciousreader while his father JanNisar Akhtar was a poet. “I wasa keen learner in school butwhen my mother was alive, Iremember, I was very eager tocome back home to her. Shewould often narrate a novelto me. She knew how tospice things up. I loved lis-tening to her voice, her wayof story-telling which wasvery intriguing. She died atmy maternal grandfather’shome in Lucknow and Iwas brought up by myaunt, but I wonder ifanyone can substitute amother’s bond,” Akhtarsays.

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The BJP’s humiliating defeat inKarnataka has raised morequestions than answers. Howcould the party which regis-tered such a spectacular victory

in 2008 be reduced to rubble five yearslater? Will the BJP be able to make acomeback in the 2014 Lok Sabhaelection? Or, is it all over for the party asfar as its southern dreams are concerned?

It is pertinent to note that formerChief Minister and Lingayat leader BSYeddyurappa, who built the party fromscratch in the State, has now become oneof the main reasons why the BJP is in sucha mess. Apart from the Lingayat vote split,the consolidation of backward classes infavour of the Congress has sounded thedeath knell for the party. In Karnatakapolitics, two steams of voters — backwardclasses and dominant communities —decide the fate of a political party. Thiselection has seen the consolidation of thetwo groups in favour of the Congress,thus eroding the BJP’s base. Had the BJPnot retained some support in urbancentres, it could not have even got theface-saving 40 seats — which it holdsjointly with HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal(Secular). The party has won 13 out of 28constituencies in Bangalore urban.

In 2008, many Left leaders amongDalits formed a political platform in theBJP to defeat the Congress. The divisionof the Left and the Right among Dalitshas traditionally been exploited bydifferent political parties, particularly theCongress. In 2008, however, the attitudeof the Left Dalits changed favourablytowards the BJP. Likewise, Lingayatsbacked Yeddyurappa to bring the BJP topower. Five years down the line, thesetwo support bases have erodedconsiderably, causing a major electoraldebacle for the party.

No wonder, the BJP not only lost itsstrongholds of coastal and Mumbai-Karnataka districts but also Hyderabad-Karnataka and Central Karnataka (whichare regarded as the hotbed of Lingayatpolitics). Moderate faces in the BJP nowfeel that the hardcore Hindutva agendapursued by some leaders in coastaldistricts of Mangalore and Udupi haseroded the party’s vote base in the region.

An analysis of the voting patternclearly indicates that Yeddyurappa’s KJPhas become a major spoiler for the BJP,which has got just below 20 per cent oftotal votes. By garnering about 10 percent votes, the KJP has spelt doom forthe ruling BJP and catapulted theCongress to power in Karnataka. Thistime the Congress has improved its tallyto 121 from 80 in 2008, and secured ahandsome 36.55 per cent vote share inthe Assembly election. “We have lostmore than 30 constituencies because ofthe KJP,” confesses a BJP insider.

Battered in Bellary and coastaldistricts, particularly Dakshina Kannada,besides yielding considerable ground in

other parts of the State, the BJP isclearly devastated. In around 100

constituencies, Yeddyurappa’sKJP and the BSR Congress ofB Sriramulu chipped away its

votes in no small measure.The KJP and the BSRCongress could win just10 seats, but the damagethey have done to the BJPis immense.

The anti-incumbencyfactor and incessant

infighting within the BJP leading to asmany as three Chief Ministers in fiveyears, coupled with the perception thatsome ministers were deeply involved incorruption, added to the party’s woes. TheBJP’s first Government in the South wasthus seen in poor light, overshadowingsome of the development works it haddone in the past five years.

It is amply clear that Yeddyurappavowed to demolish the BJP for what itdid to him — and he succeeded in hisendeavour. The Congress didn’t have todo much as disarray in Opposition rankswas certainly to its disadvantage. As forthe JD(S), it could not become thekingmaker, but improved its tally from28 in 2008 to 40 this year. Though theJD(S) tried hard to spread its influencebeyond its stronghold of the Old Mysoreregion, it couldn’t make any significantbreakthrough and was well below 58seats it had won way back in 2004. Also,to its disappointment, the verdict hasbeen decisively in favour of the Congress,thus eliminating any role of the JD(S) ingovernment formation. People clearlydid not favour a coalition government;they saw the Congress — and not theJD(S) — as an alternative to the BJP.

According to Prof Suresh Misra of theIndian Institute of Public Administration,New Delhi, the Yeddyurappa factor hasloomed large over the BJP. “It is clear thatYeddyurappa has spoiled the BJP’s party.His influence remains strong among hiscaste members. Looking at the pollimpact, it was a bad decision by the BJP tothrow him out of the party,” says he.

Even the BJP leadership is divided onthe Yeddyurappa factor. Many feel that itwas a blunder on the part of the seniorparty leadership to isolate Yeddyurappaover the issue of corruption. A senior BJPleader says on the condition of anonymitythat it was the ‘ego’ of a senior leader thatdestroyed the party in Karnataka.“Corruption was not at all an issue. Asenior leader simply made it an ego issuetaking a moral high ground on corruption.Who is not corrupt here? We have notonly lost a great experiment in Karnatakaabut also an opportunity,” says he.

Some party workers believe that theBJP should have taken a leaf out of SoniaGandhi’s Himachal Pradesh experiment.The Congress decided to go ahead withVirbhadra Singh as the party’s mascot inHimachal Pradesh despite unsubstan-tiated corruption charges levelled againsthim by his adversaries. This gambleworked for the Congress.

Yeddyurappa’s eviction from the BJPcost the party about 20 of 33 seats it hadwon in the Lingayat belt of Mumbai-Karnataka in 2008. The BJP, which won33 of 50 seats in the region then, hasnow been reduced to a mere 13. TheKJP essentially split the BJP votes byhalf in many of these constituencies.While Yeddyurappa’s KJP could winonly two of the 50 seats here and theSriramulu’s BSR Congress none, thetwo breakaway parties handed theCongress victory in 31 seats — 19 morethan what it had won in 2008.

The BJP, which swept Bagalkot,Bijapur, Gadag and Haveri in 2008, hasvirtually been wiped out in these districts,winning only three of the 25 seats. TheBSR Congress, too, contributed to theBJP’s downfall, particularly in Gadag.

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When I was young, I loved storiesabout tigers and leopards. Myfather would often tell me aboutJim Corbett’s adventures in thewild. Thirty years later, I still

remember the spell those words would create.My eyes would focus on his lips — incessantlydrawing pictures in my mind. But a regretremained over the years: Of not visiting JimCorbett National Park. So, when my friendEmelda rang me up asking if I would join her —with her husband Umarjit and kids — toCorbett, I got excited. For, it would not only helpme find some relief from the approaching sum-mer heat, but also allow me to see the landnamed after one of my childhood heroes.

Kashipur was our first stop. We had ourbreakfast at a local food stall there. After drivingfor two hours we crossed Ramnagar. Fromthere, the road traverses flanking along thegorge of the river Kosi, the ‘sorrow of Bihar’. Onthe way, we saw the famous Garjiya temple. Theroad led us to a flat terrain and we saw a beauti-ful village along the river. All the houses werethatched and trees were laden with wild orchids.The name of the village was Sunderkhal. Thebeauty of the place, however, was occasionallymarred by man-animal conflicts. An old womantold me how a tigress killed six people, includ-ing five women, in 2010. I then realised why thevillage was surrounded by an electric fencing.

At around 11 am we crossed Dhangari Gate,the main entry of Dhikala. On the way, I noticeda number of resorts and properties for sale.Suddenly, a few spotted deer jumped down thehill slope and we almost hit a calf. We stoppedthe car and watched them disappear in thewoods. We were both worried as well as exitedwith the encounter.

After 15 minutes of drive, we saw a woodenhanging-board. On it was written — ‘TheDen’. So, here we were finally at ourresort. The rooms were well-fur-nished. We unpacked our bags,went to the reception and enquiredabout the safari jeep. Much to the

disappointment of Emelda, she was told thatthe jeep won’t be coming to pick us up. Sherang up the adventure club and shouted atthem. Finally, they agreed to send the vehicle.The manager showed us the way to the dininghall where food was served in a buffet style.

By the time we finished our lunch, the jeephad arrived. On the way, the driver showed us thespot where the tigress had killed her first victimin 2010. He also said that the Government wouldsoon be moving the villagers away. Around 2.30pm, we entered Bijrani Gate. A few locals weretrying to rent us binoculars. Meanwhile, GauravKulbe, our forest guide, checked the papers andgot into the jeep. He was young, energetic andquite serious about his work. He told us how hewished to visit the Northeastern States.

Gaurav took us to many places, and we sawspotted deer, sambar, langur, turtle, monitor lizardand a snake-eagle. When we reached the foothills,we saw a golden mahseer swimming in the brook.From there, the grassland started. We stopped atthe government rest house. Few vehicles werealready parked there. The boundaries were sur-rounded by an electric fencing. At the centre ofthe compound stood a gigantic silk-cotton tree.

Once our papers got verified, we started mov-ing again. Driving a little further, we saw tigerclaw marks on the bark of a tree. So, we were in atiger’s territory! We stopped by a waterhole, wait-ing for the animal. Failing to find him, we movedinto the grassland and again there were pugmarksof a tiger near the riverbed. We were soon in themiddle of a vast grassland and could see a watch-tower at Bijrani. A couple of trucks were parked atthe base of a hillock and we watched them from adistance. Half-an-hour later, aswe were losing hope, atigress appeared and

a woman shouted: “Oh!there it is.” Gaurav yelled at her to

maintain silence. We watched the beautiful ani-mal for a few minutes and headed back.

As we were returning, I thought of how in1936 Corbett attained the distinction of being thefirst national park to be established in mainlandAsia. To recognise the contributions of James ECorbett, the park — which was earlier termedHailey National Park and then RamgangaNational Park — was christened as Jim CorbettNational Park in 1957. I also remembered howthe park had been closely linked with tigers —this despite the fact that with about 600 species ofavifauna Corbett had been one of the richest birdsanctuaries in the country. Corbett’s tiger associa-tion is understandable because not just theendangered Bengal tiger resides here but also thesanctuary has been the first to come underProject Tiger initiative.

Next morning, we got up early for the ele-phant safari. When we reach the Way MarkAdventure office, a man took us to the stable. Iwas a bit disheartened to see the size of the ele-phant given to us for ride. It was the smallest ofall and I sarcastically asked the mahout if shecould carry us. He roared into laughter. On theway, the mahout told us that Larli was theyoungest elephant they had. She was only 20years old and would attain maturity at the age of40. Soon we reached the riverbed; the Sitabaniforest was just across it.

The day was cloudy and pleasant. We saw asambar sitting under the bushes but won’t justrun away. I had a feeling that something wasgoing to happen. Suddenly, cheetals and mon-keys started making alarm calls. The mahout

guided the elephant towards the direction. Loand behold, we saw a big Royal

Bengal tiger. Hailing high his

head, he gave us a longlook. And then, he leaped across the

stream to vanish into the forest. On our return journey, we saw some girls

cutting firewoods not far from the spot we sawthe tiger. When we reached the elephant stable,there were many people awaiting us. They alladmired the tiger snaps we had taken. A kidcomplained to his mother that they must buy agood camera to click tigers. Before we left for theresort, Emelda gave the mahout a tip of �200 andbought some edibles for the young elephant.

In the afternoon, Umarjit and I had a cantersafari for Dhikala. We dropped Emelda and herkids at the resort and headed for Dhangari Gate.At the checkpost, we were informed that ourcanter will arrive at 2.30 pm. We felt sorry forourselves that we skipped both breakfast andlunch in order to report on time. With nothingelse to do, we went to see Corbett Museum.There was, however, not much to see.

When the canter finally arrived, we wereshocked to see the kind of companions we had.Some boys from Delhi were making a lot of noise.Some of them constantly made false alarms ofsighting animals. They showed no respect for thewildlife or people around them. If Wikipedia is tobe believed, every season more than 70,000 peoplecome to the park. I am sure most of them won’t bebetter than those I encountered that afternoon.Worse, we had an indifferent guide and driver.They wouldn’t stop for any photographic momentand the canter appeared more like a public trans-port and the guide our conductor!

We stopped for a while at Dhikala. Fromthere, we saw Ramganga river, famous forghariyals and golden mahseer. But we saw noth-ing from that distance. However, we sighted afew animals — crocodile, spotted deer, sambar,wild boar, among others.

When we returned, Emelda and kids were stillplaying in the lawn. We took our dinner andretired to bed early. Next morning, I sneaked outearly and spent some time in the river. When Ireturned, my friends were still at the breakfast

table. We took light food and went to pack ourbags. As we were taking our luggage out, wehad a sinking feeling: We were, after all,going back to the madness of the city life.

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In Shirahatti, the Congress got44,738 votes while the second-placed BJP candidate won 44,423.

The BSR Congress took away 26,791votes; even the KJP’s 3,841 votes wasmore than the winning margin.

JD(S) president HD Kumaraswamyacknowledges the role played by thetwo parties in the rise of the Congress— and the consequent decline of theBJP. “The KJP’s agenda was to dividevotes. This has been achieved as isevident from the results,’’ says he.

State BJP president Prahlad Joshiagrees. “Many factors have damagedour interests. More than corruption, itwas differences of opinion and thebreaking away of a splinter group. Theparty will try to address all issuesimmediately,’’ says he.

Within the BJP, there are manytakers of this viewpoint. Says a seniorparty leader, “Factional feud in the BJPhas affected governance. This, alongwith political instability, has led to loss of confidence in the BJP. Also,corruption at the State level seems tohave overshadowed the corruptioncharges against the Congress-led UPAGovernment at the Centre.”

It’s not that the voters have not rewarded honest representatives

— BJP’s Suresh Kumar and CNAswath Narayan have easily retainedtheir seats. But caste considerationdid play its part, especially amongthose who were not exactly seen to behonest. No less than 23 formerministers, who held various portfoliosin governments headed byYeddyurappa and DV SadanandaGowda and Jagadish Shettar, lost their seats. Even Deputy ChiefMinister KS Eshwarappa could notretain his seat. He was pushed to thethird position in Shimoga.

The impressive Karnataka victoryhas brought temporary reprieve to abeleaguered Congress, infusing a bit ofcheer into an otherwise gloomyscenario. But there has been admissionon the part of senior Congress leadersthat this victory, however significant itmay be, is more of an exception thanrule. “People in Karnataka, after all,

have voted for a State Government. Totake a national meaning out of a Stateelection would be highly misplaced,”says a Congress worker.

Many analysts, too, caution the UPA not to take the Karnatakavictory as a referendum on thenational scale. Message is loud andclear that this election was fought onlocal issues, a vote on the quality ofgovernance delivered by the BJP inKarnataka. By no means, nationalissues got any traction during the campaign.

It is interesting to note NCP chiefSharad Pawar’s comment on theKarnataka election. He said that theresult would not set the tone for the LokSabha election in 2014. Addressing arally in Satara, he said: “Don’t jump toany conclusion because of the win inKarnataka. The forthcoming electionsin Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh are more important andpose a bigger challenge to the UPA. Onecan’t predict which way the wind willblow with just one electoral victory.”

Pawar’s comment may not appearsoothing to the Congress leadership,especially at the Centre, but it’s arealistic analysis of the politicalscenario in the country.

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First off, Ford really does not describe the EcoSport as asports utility vehicle (SUV). Vinay Piparsania, FordIndia’s Director of Marketing and Sales, describes thecar as an “Urban SUV”. It is not a big car; it does nothave the dominating sense that, say, its bigger sibling

from the Ford stable, the Endeavour, has.

������������������Ford has designed this car to fit into a very specific box, a boxthat has to ensure that it is under four metres in length. It hashigh ground clearance, which is what basically qualifies it towear the SUV moniker. As Ehab Kaoud, the chief designer of thecar, explains, the car has well-defined lines but does not haveoverly complex ridges running all over the place.

The EcoSport clearly ‘looks’ like a Ford with its big, almostagape radiator grille. It also has a side-opening rear door, afunction necessitated by the spare wheel on the door. Theneatest feature on the exterior of the car is the fact that insteadof a big, ugly handle, the EcoSport has a button to open therear door which is embedded in the rear light cluster. This has,however, meant the reverse lights have been pushed down andintegrated into the rear bumper.

Inside, the front of the car is a replica of the interiors ofthe Ford Fiesta, which is a place to be. The major change isthat the EcoBoost-engined Titanium-spec car we were drivinghad nice cyan-coloured dials and centre-console.

Rear legroom is acceptable when you subscribe to the beliefthat the EcoSport is essentially a big hatchback on stilts. Luggagespace is also acceptable if you use the ‘big hatch’ concept. Spacefor a couple of smallish suitcases or one large suitcase. But theroof-rails do come equipped with tie-down points to secure lug-gage which you can store up there as well.

��� �����Ford wanted journalists to not just experience the EcoSportbut also the revolutionary EcoBoost engine that would be oneof the engine options on the vehicle. This one-litre three-cylin-der petrol engine deserves the ‘revolutionary’ tag.

In addition to the technical tweaks, Ford has also added aturbocharger to the engine, upping the power output of thisengine to an incredible 125PS (123 horsepower). Keep inmind, there are 1.5 litre engines on bigger sedans that do notproduce that much power.

So, how does the power come on? A bit gradually, to bevery honest. While there is no perceptible turbo lag, it does takesome time to get the engine to get to the higher ranges of therev range. That said, in city-driving conditions where most gearchanges take place at around 2,500rpm, the car does just fine.Acceleration in third gear between 40-60 km/hour is impressive,although on some uphill stretches you do need to downshift.You have to keep on reminding yourself that this is a smallengine trying to act like a big brute of an engine.

If you, however, do want to put the pedal to the metal, onceyou get going, the EcoBoost can surprise you. You can almostreach an indicated 100 km/hour on second gear, and a fewaggressive gear shifts can get the EcoSport up and going,although after some time the car seems to run out of breath.

Ford will also be coming up with another petrol option(the engine on the Figo) as well as its 1.5 litre TDCi diesel thatdoes duty on both the Fiesta and Figo. The EcoBoost, however,is the most powerful of the three and the only engine option

that we drove. The EcoBoost is also good on emissions,being cleaner than all other engines in its class, deserving the‘Eco’ tag there as well. Fuel economy is claimed at over 18 kmper litre in testing; but in a 150-km long drive in Goa, onboth open road and through crowded villages and towns, wemanaged 11 km per litre — but then again this was ‘heavyright foot’ driving. Drive sensibly and one ought to get 13-14km per litre in real-world conditions.

Ford vehicles have historically been supple on the roadand true to form the EcoSport handles it beautifully. Ford’slast attempt at a small ‘Utility Vehicle’ in India was the Fusion,and while sales were dismal, the 1.6-litre petrol engine versionof that car was a fabulous mix of fun and practicality.

The EcoSport does not disappoint, although again youhave to remind yourself that the high ground clearance doeshave a negative impact on handling. But handling and ridingcomforts are both impressive as is the fairly powerful air-con-ditioner. All in all, a very solid package.

���������The EcoSport is also the first Ford to have the Microsoft Syncsystem installed (on higher spec Titanium and Titanium +models). Now, one should realise that gadgets and toys are asvital in selling cars as performance. However, after having dri-ven the Fiesta extensively, the Sync system on the EcoSport feltvery similar to the non-Sync system on the Fiesta.

Now, while Sync is all well and good, Ford’s Sync system isnowhere near as smooth to use as systems on the luxuryGerman brands (Audi, BMW and Mercedes). While they arenot in the same price bracket, things could have been better.The voice command system recognises Indian accents andvoices well enough, but trying to get music to play overBluetooth was a challenge. And a full-colour display wouldhave been so much nicer than the monochrome display. It isnot that expensive anymore.

Piparsania did clarify that Ford would have representa-tives who would explain the entire Sync system for cus-tomers, including how to sync devices and voice commandsand so on. Smart move, although I believe Ford can do morewith Sync (as it has done in the US market). Maybe in someof its future products!

����������������This is a question that several people have been asking, andfrankly, having driven both cars, it is difficult to find a com-parison. Sure, it is likely that they will be in similar pricebrackets and appeal to same kind of buyers. The Ford is defi-nitely better put together, has far superior plastics and in theEcoBoost at least, a better engine. But the Duster is much larg-er and has much more luggage space, and might be morepractical for larger families, moving dogs and the like.

Some might even find the Ford’s look a bit “too modern”while others find the Duster ‘dowdy’, although it will be inter-esting to see what Nissan does when it comes out with arebadged Duster later this year. Both cars could easily do withbigger engines, but it will be interesting to drive the EcoSportwith the diesel motor once it launches to do a fair comparison.

This is not a car or an engine designed for boy racers,and Ford’s target buyer is a 30-something family man with asingle kid. And you know what? This car suits the targetmarket just fine.

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It was built to recreate the condi-tions of the Big Bang in the huntfor the so-called God Particle,

but now the technology behind theworld’s biggest physics experimentmay also provide a new way to treatcancer. Scientists working at CERN,the home of the Large HadronCollider, are developing new typesof radiotherapy that can destroytumours while damaging less of thesurrounding tissue, helping toreduce side effects. They havebegun a five-year research projectto test different beams of ions —electrically charged atoms — fortheir ability to kill cancer cells.

Engineers are carrying out a £14million upgrade on one of the parti-cle accelerators linked to the LHC sothat it can carry out medical resea-rch. Physicists behind the projecthope it will allow them to producemore effective treatments that canbe afforded by the NHS of Britain.

Stephen Myers, director ofaccelerator technology at CERN,said that they were already workingwith a British company to buildsmaller versions of the 250 ft longring needed to produce the parti-cles so that it can be installed inhospitals. “We are hoping to devel-op new types of cancer therapy bytesting all the different types of ions— like oxygen or carbon — to seewhich is the best,” he said.

“Current radiotherapies causedcollateral damage to the surround-ing tissue and that makes it diffi-cult to treat some types of cancer,like eye melanomas or those thatare hard to reach. Low energy ionbeams can cause less damage as thedestruction of the cells is depen-dent on the energy of the beamand it can be focussed very precise-ly onto a tumour,” he explained.“This can allow patients to recoverfaster and surgeons can destroymore of the tumour, so survivalrates are much better. We wouldlike to see if we can bring every-thing down to a regular sized fromand put one in every teaching hos-pital in Europe,” he added.

Current radiotherapy tech-niques use X-rays and electronbeams that are fired into the bodyto kill cancer cells, but can cause alot of damage to healthy tissues,bringing unpleasant side effects. Anew type of radiotherapy whichuses beams of particles known asprotons is already starting to beused and has been found to pro-duce better results.

The protons can be focussedwith greater accuracy than currentradiotherapy methods, meaningthat doctors can target more of thecancer without damaging the sur-rounding tissue. However, protonbeam therapy, as it is known, is

available in just 32 hospitalsaround the world and just one inthe UK — the ClatterbridgeCancer Centre, where it is used totreat eye tumours.

Two more proton beam thera-py centres are planned in Britain— with one due to be built inManchester and another inLondon. However, it costs hospitals£120 million for a proton beamtherapy machine and treating apatient can cost between £90,000and £120,000 each.

Scientists at CERN are nowworking with London-based com-pany Advanced Oncotherapy todevelop smaller and cheaper protonbeam devices so that they can bemore widely available. MichaelSinclair, the firm’s chief executive,hopes to install at least 10 newmachines within the next five years.He said that it could mean 12,000cancer patients could receive thenew type of treatment.

He said: “Proton beam therapyoffers a significant improvementfor patients with cancer than con-ventional radiotherapy, but so farthe big problem has always beenthe cost.”

“The machine developed byCERN has significant clinicaladvantages and will cost a third ofequivalent equipment that is cur-rently available,” he added.

“This is a game-changer —bringing a more effective cancertreatment to the masses,” he pro-claimed stressing the value of thisnew development.

Britain contributes around£100 million a year to CERN, withthe bulk of that being used to payfor the Large Hadron Collider.

Earlier this year, scientistsannounced that they had discov-ered a new type of particle that isbelieved to be a Higgs boson — theelusive so-called God Particle thatis believed to give other subatomicparticles mass.

The 17-mile long particle accel-erator, which is sited beneath theSwiss French border, near toGeneva, has now been shut downfor two years while it undergoes a£70 million upgrade.

It is fed by a number of small-er particle accelerators which fireatoms or protons into the LHCfor experiments. Engineers are toconvert one of these, known asthe Low Energy Ion Ring, orLEIR, so that it can be used forbiomedical research.

As well as testing differentions for their ability to kill cancercells, scientists will also use it forexperiments on how exposure toradiation from space can affectastronauts.

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Those of us in the media whobroke ranks with our col-leagues and defied popular

perception of Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh as a man of unim-peachable integrity to describe himas a glorified babu, weak and pusil-lanimous, remarkably bereft of anysense of honour and utterlyunscrupulous in a cynical and slymanner, were rudely rebuked forbesmirching the reputation of anhonest man. That was during themonths when Manmohan Singh waspushing the India-US civil nucleardeal and displayed no qualms aboutmisleading Parliament repeatedly tosidestep inconvenient questions fromthe Opposition. The Americans kepton shifting the goalposts; our oblig-ing Prime Minister kept on insistingthat we were being sold an apple andnot a lemon as claimed by critics ofthe nuclear deal.

Then came the infamous cash-for-vote scandal when money wasused for purchasing parliamentarysupport for UPA1 which had clearlylost its majority after the Left walkedout of a perverse relationship. It didnot bother Manmohan Singh, toutedas a man for whom probity matteredmore than power, that he won thevote but lost the trust of the people.We reminded those flying the flagfor Manmohan Singh that ourdescription of him was not wide ofthe mark; sadly, few were persuadedthat the Prime Minister’s mask hadfallen off, exposing the face of a cyni-cal politician for whom ends justifythe means. A second victory for theCongress-led UPA in 2009 weakenedthe case against Manmohan Singh —the image of a clean politician, wewere told, had swayed opinion in hisparty’s favour.

We will never know the truthabout that assertion and it would befoolish to speak with certitude onimponderables that influence theoutcome of an election. But what canbe said without fear of contradictionis that by the time he took oath ofoffice in 2009, Manmohan Singh wasno longer an accidental politician buta crafty practitioner of the politics ofcynicism. Between the summer of2009 and that of 2013, the craftypolitician has become craftier,although as during the tenure ofUPA1, he has got away with impuni-ty by using the popular perception ofhim as a man of integrity and hon-our as a cover. That was till now.Even as I write, the Prime Ministerstands disrobed of his fictionalintegrity and denuded of make-believe honour; his ‘spotless’ image,cultivated assiduously by camp fol-lowers, most of them charlatans inmedia, lies in tatters, smudged byscams and stained by scandals,beyond repair and resurrection.

If India has never before seen aGovernment as steeped in corruptionas the present regime headed by Man-mohan Singh, the nation has neverhad to contend with a Prime Ministerso fallen that Lucifer would be envi-ous. In her time Mrs Indira Gandhispoke of corruption as a global realityand thus sought to put a gloss on it. Itcould also be argued that she was notparticularly finicky about rules andprocedures being followed, nor wasshe averse to undue favours or elseshe would have asked Sanjay Gandhi

not to accept huge tracts of land forhis non-existent Maruti car factory.We have also seen a Prime Ministerturn his office into a cash-and-carrycounter when Chandra Shekharoccupied the post for a few months.The Bofors scandal led to the down-fall of Rajiv Gandhi; no Prime Minis-ter had been called a ‘thief ’ beforethat, unfairly as it may have been.

But what we are witnessing nowis incredibly stupendous and stun-ning at once: A “dithering, ineffectu-al bureaucrat”, to quote The Washington Post, “presiding overa deeply corrupt Government”. Whatwe have is a Prime Minister whoclaims to be perpetually in the darkabout what’s happening right underhis nose; scornful of accountabilityand disdainful of responsibility.When the Great 2G Spectrum Rob-bery came to light, he said he wasnot aware of what A Raja was up toalthough that is not true. As we nowknow, at every stage Raja kept thePrime Minister informed of his deci-sions and actions; at no stage didManmohan Singh remonstrate. Wealso know that he has failed to act onthe findings of the CommonwealthGames inquiry committee that hehad set up. All that and more palesinto insignificance compared to thegargantuan Coalgate scam — he heldcharge of the Coal Ministry whencoal blocks were allocated to croniesof the regime for a song, defyingboth logic and rules. His claim, that

he was not aware of the loot, comesas no surprise.

The story does not end there. Itcontinues with the Law Minister, theGovernment’s law officers and seniorofficials of the Prime Minister’sOffice and the Coal Ministry tryingto manipulate the CBI’s investigationinto the scandal. Together theychanged the “heart of the report” theCBI was supposed to submit to theSupreme Court, detailing its investi-gation and findings. The Prime Min-ister’s response? Why, he wasn’taware of the tampering with thereport, of course! And even after hebecame aware of it, he brazenlydefended Law Minister AshwaniKumar, refusing to act against himdespite severe strictures by theSupreme Court in the form ofscathing observations.

Just as the Prime Minister wouldnot countenance any demand to sackhis Railway Minister Pawan KumarBansal whose nephew was caughtred-handed collecting cash for prizepostings. Even as the evidenceagainst the Minister piled up by theday, Manmohan Singh refused to act.Was it merely because Pawan KumarBansal was loyal to him instead ofthe Palace? Is that also why AshwaniKumar thought he could get awaywith his shameful though amazinglybrazen attempt to whitewash theCoalgate scandal? Lutyens’s Delhi isawash with stories, each more scan-dalous than the other. For instance,

lurid details of alleged taped conver-sations between Pawan KumarBansal and his associates are doingthe rounds. As always, it’s difficult toseparate fact from fiction and thatpath is best avoided.

What we do know is that itrequired an incensed Congress presi-dent to tell the Prime Minister wherehe got off to get the two tainted Min-isters out of the Cabinet. Fridayafternoon’s unscheduled visit bySonia Gandhi to the Prime Minister’sresidence was followed by PawanKumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumarputting in their papers. For therecord, the meeting lasted for 15minutes; the discussion could nothave been replete with niceties. ThatAhmed Patel made it a point to bepresent when the two Ministerscame to hand over their resignationletters has served to underscore thefact that Manmohan Singh may bethe Prime Minister but he is not theprimus inter pares.

A person who has so debasedthe Prime Minister’s office andbecome an object of ridicule withinand outside the Government and theruling alliance, not to mention hisown party, should put in his paperstoo. But this would require summon-ing a sense of honour and dignitywhich is absent at the moment.Manmohan Singh is incapable ofdoing even that.

(The writer is a senior journalistbased in Delhi)

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���������������������� !����"��#!�Reader response to Swapan Dasgupta’s column,Usual Suspects, published onMay 5:

What is the alternative? Asmuch as many would like theUPA Government to go, thequestion that wracks mostpeople is: Who will replacethe present Congress-ledregime? Narendra Modiseems like the only choice, buthis partymen and senior lead-ers — LK Advani, SushmaSwaraj etc — will probablynot let him succeed.

And then, we have the so-called secularists like NitishKumar who, fearing a Muslimbacklash, will not supportModi either.

I see another UPAregime, with a weakerCongress, in power for anoth-er term, and we have to live

with that, thanks to the pettypoliticking of some. If we suf-fer in the process, so be it.

SG

Shun the regime: There is nodoubt that the Congress-ledUPA Government hasbecome a house of scamsters— with the 2G Spectrumscam, Coalgate, Adarsh hous-ing racket, and now the latestrail scam. But hats off to itsshamelessness, the UPAremains glued to power torake in some more illegalmoolah. The UPA’s continu-ance spells deep trouble forthe nation, and it has becomenecessary that the curtains bebrought down on this dishon-est and morally bankruptGovernment and election beheld expeditiously. It will bebe a while before the nextGovernment can put thehouse in order.

Bal Govind

$�" �%��!��!&����'�#�(!��"'�("���(��(�Reader response to Kanchan Gupta’s column,Coffee Break, published onMay 5:

Let’s hope good trolls win:Delhi’s powerful, and theirsupporters, have been usingvile epithets and targeting so-called Hindu fundamentalists.They want to keep the Twitterplaying-field uneven.

Ram Ram

No place to hide now:OMG… the TRP talks back!Is the crib of every print andTV hack.Used to flinging at us a oneway barrageTheir ‘supremacy’ is now alonely mirage.Shoving down our throatSonia’s agendaThey are willing tools for herselfish propaganda.

Unfortunately, we can nowchallenge every byteFrom this they’ll get norespite.Indeed, so much distress hasbeen causedThat Rajdeep has his Twitteraccount paused!Crying like a baby over Twit-ter bad behaviourEven “breakfast with RahulG” has not been a saviour!Not acceptable that weshould call a spade a spadeThey subject you to a Twitterblockade!Blockade therapy is ineffec-tive it’s been foundNew handles sprout and RTsabound!Certainly Twitter is a verycruel, leaky placeLeaves no corner for crooksto hide their face!

Finally, will you all pleasegive us a break. We needsome sensible stuff.

Rati Parker

��(��(���!�"���'�!&(��)&�&���Reader response to Rajesh Singh’s column, Plain Talk, published on May 5:

Lead from the front: If thetop leader of the nation isweak-willed, irresolute andunable to govern, little canbe expected of him.Consequently, PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhhas become a mute spectatorto the shenanigans of hisGovernment — which thecitizens of this country canno longer tolerate.

Singh has turned out tobe a huge disappointment.Rather than lead firmly fromthe front, he has allowedhimself to be led, frombehind the scenes, by UPAchairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Singh must drawstrength and guidance from

Sardar Patel’s life and his no-nonsense stand on nationalissues, rather than blindlyfollow the diktats of his partychief. His clean image andthe respect he commandedhas suffered severely inrecent times. He must actboldly or quit.

Mahesh Kumar

The price of arrogance: Inhis letter, Sardar Patel hadnot only envisaged China’sthreat but also predicted thelikelihood of tense relationswith our immediate neigh-bours like Nepal, Tibet,Bhutan, Sikkim (which was aprotectorate of India up to1974). It was becauseJawaharlal Nehru was arro-gant towards Sardar Patelthat he did not give duethought to his HomeMinister’s wise suggestionsor discuss the issue with him.

Anil Gupta

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Man is the repository of sleepingpowers of various kinds. Kundaliniawakening figures on top of them.Kundalini means one which issitting recoiled — like a serpent —

in a pit that is a source of massive energy. It isbelieved to be rising up undulating and hissinglike a snake. This energy lies right below thenavel centre at the tip of the spine near the sexcentre. Every work of God is law-bound. Sex is apower given to every living being for the purposeof creation, reproduction and evolution. Thepresence of such a big reservoir of power nearthe navel centre empowers this centre.

Kundalini has been used, after stronglyawakening it and making it go upwards, to gainparanormal powers and spiritual experiencesrather than spending it in sex. But a few pointscontradict this theory: First, kundalini awakeninghas nothing to do with spirituality, self-realisation or God. It is only a storehouse ofmassive energy in body that can be used for thedevelopment of physical, mental or psychicpowers. Awakening of any of the abovementioned powers only boosts ego. The desirefor power itself is desire for ego. After all, wedesire acquisition of power only for makingourselves more superior or powerful than others,to enslave others and foster our own ego.

Second, ego is the greatest hurdle inbecoming spiritual. So, the desire for awakeningkundalini closes the door of spirituality forever.With the notion of kundalini awakening thepractitioner becomes egoistic. That is whynobody — from Lord Rama and Krishna toBuddha and Mahavira — ever tried to awaken itor even talked about it. Third, the purification ofbody and mind purifies the chakra and once thatis achieved, kundalini starts to rise on its ownaccord, finding the way up free of blockage. It isnot to be led up. Last, Hatha yoga is theexperiment to lift kundalini forcefully. It isharmful and causes mental abnormality andphysical suffering.

Kundalini awakening is entirely a personalexperience which does not benefit the largerworld. It in no way helps awaken or transformthe lives of thousand others. Hundreds of saints,gurus, yoga teachers and sadhaks have claimed toachieve this feat. But what contribution does itmake in the progress of society? Has it eliminatedeven an ounce of poverty, penury, religious

dogmatism, corruption and immoralities? Kundalini, in fact, is not to be awakened

because once awakened, it starts its journey toupward chakras naturally. Kundalini awakening isthe outcome of awareness and self-realisation. Aswe become aware and start liberating ourselvesfrom physical, mental and emotional blockages(that we create out of our ignorance), and startflowing with the spontaneous laws of nature ourbeing becomes pure and expanded, forcing thekundalini power to rise up.

Man has always desired power to boost hisego. If you believe that you will find Godthrough kundalini awakening, then please comeout of this illusion. Liberation lies in theknowledge of the self; so, with your awakeningyou start perceiving Him immediately in yourselfand in your surroundings.

First of all, the very idea of seeking God ispointless. You do not search for your image inmirror; the moment dust is removed, it appearsbefore you. So, honestly speaking, our search forGod is irrelevant. Our search for absolute blissgets over with either complete submission (bycomplete dissolution of the ‘I’ sense) or in thesupreme state of awareness where all ourambitions, desires, expectations and egoformations are burnt in the fire of knowledge.We then live our lives with supreme awareness.

Ironically, we can’t — and won’t — get thisstate with kundalini awakening. Also, if you thinkkundalini awakening is a means of spiritualexperience or progress, then think over it again.It is not a way to achieve spirituality because theoutcome of spirituality is love, celebration,happiness, equanimity and devotion. In kundaliniawakening, one goes on to strengthen one’sindividuality; that is why no one exudes love,egolessness, spirit of celebration, equanimity anddevotion due to it. So, we will not achieve truehappiness and peace of mind even withthousands of such awakenings.

If you experience anything good by followingthe advice of your guru, then the reason is notyour guru but you yourself; after all, whenever yourely upon a guru, then it is your unshakable faithalone — and not the grace of your master — thattransforms your life. So, do not run after a guru inthe name of kundalini awakening. Make your faithunshakable and then hang on to that. You willhave a lot of awakening on your hands anyway.

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This is not the time for a longlecture. But I shall speak toyou in brief about a few

things which I should like you tocarry into practice. First, we haveto understand the ideal, and thenthe methods by which we canmake it practical. Those of youwho are sannyasins must try to dogood to others, for sannyasameans that. There is no time todeliver a long discourse on renun-ciation, but I shall very brieflycharacterise it as “the love ofdeath”. Worldly people love life.The sannyasin is to love death.Are we to commit suicide then?Far from it. For suicides are notlovers of death, as it is often seenthat when a man trying to com-mit suicide fails, he neverattempts it for a second time.What is the love of death then?We must die, that is certain; let usdie then for a good cause. Let allour actions — eating, drinking,

and everything that we do — tendtowards the sacrifice of our self.You nourish your body by eating.What good is there in doing thatif you do not hold it as a sacrificeto the well-being of others? Younourish your minds by readingbooks. There is no good in doingthat unless you hold it also as asacrifice to the whole world. Forthe whole world is one; you arerated a very insignificant part ofit, and therefore it is right for youthat you should serve your mil-lions of brothers rather thanaggrandise this little self.

“With hands and feet every-where, with eyes, heads, andmouths everywhere, with earseverywhere in the universe, Thatexists pervading all.” (Gita, XIII 13)

Thus you must die a gradualdeath. In such a death is heaven,all good is stored therein — andin its opposite is all that is dia-bolical and evil.

Then as to the methods ofcarrying the ideals into practicallife. First, we have to understandthat we must not have any impos-sible ideal. An ideal which is toohigh makes a nation weak anddegraded. This happened after theBuddhist and the Jain reforms.On the other hand, too much

practicality is also wrong. If youhave not even a little imagination,if you have no ideal let guide you,you are simply a brute. So wemust not lower our ideal, neitherare we to lose sight of practicality.We must avoid the two extremes.In our country, the old idea is tosit in a cave and meditate and die.

To go ahead of others in salvationis wrong. One must learn sooneror later that one cannot get salva-tion if one does not try to seekthe salvation of his brothers. Youmust try to combine in your lifeimmense idealism with immensepracticality. You must be preparedto go into deep meditation now,and the next moment you mustbe ready to go and cultivate thesefields. You must be prepared toexplain the difficult intricacies ofthe Shastras now, and the nextmoment to go and sell the pro-duce of the fields in the market.You must be prepared for allmenial services, not only here,but elsewhere also.

The next thing to remember isthat the aim of this institution is tomake men. You must not merelylearn what the rishis taught. Thoserishis are gone, and their opinionsare also gone with them. You mustbe rishis yourselves. You are also

men as much as the greatest menthat were ever born — even ourincarnations. What can merebook-learning do? What can medi-tation do even? What can themantras and tantras do? You muststand on your own feet. You musthave this new method — themethod of man-making. The trueman is he who is strong as strengthitself and yet possesses a woman’sheart. You must feel for the mil-lions of beings around you, and yetyou must be strong and inflexibleand you must also possess obedi-ence; though it may seem a littleparadoxical — you must possessthese apparently conflictingvirtues. If your superior order youto throw yourself into a river andcatch a crocodile, you must firstobey and then reason with him.Even if the order be wrong, firstobey and then contradict it.

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Life is not a bed of roses; rather it’s full of chal-lenges. And true character of a human being ismanifested in his courage and ability to deal with

such challenges. Today, however, we tend to ignore thistruth and introduce ourselves to a whole new world ofpomp. Aren’t we running away from ourselves whenwe pop a sleeping pill to keep worrying thoughts atbay? Sleeping pills have emerged as a ‘useful’ tool to getover the uncomfortable issues of life, making one anescapist. But there are other ways as well.

The conventional way of an escapist is to indulgein drinking after coming home in the evening, whenthe reality stares in the face. What will you say about alarge percentage of our populace getting addicted tothe Internet and its related appliances? A lot of time isspent in this activity. A milder form of being in denialof reality is watching excessive television; one tries tokeep the mind distracted. A small percentage keepthemselves surrounded by sycophants or hangers-on.

If these were not bad enough, there are manytakers of smoking. There are many who ignore defi-nite symptoms of illness because they don’t lovethemselves. Then there is illicit sex which is not onlya health risk but also a direct attack on the self.Gambling is not far behind when one is prepared tofritter away hard-earned money.

All these symbolise weaknesses in human charac-ter. So in the face of trouble, we tremble and fall preyto wrong temptations. What we need to remember is:No one can escape problems in this material world.One has only two choices when faced with a prob-lem. Either one does one’s best and solves the prob-lem, or be ready to face the consequences. There isno third choice. If one takes the escape route byindulging in liquor, drugs, illicit sex, etc, one onlycompounds the problem.

What does a believer do? He has the all-powerfulGod on his side. No problem is too big for theomnipotent God. Lord Krishna has specifically madea mention of this promise in the Bhagavad Gita whenHe states, “Having My consciousness you will crossall impediments by My grace.” With this assurance, adevotee never avoids a problem and, invariably, isable to solve it with God’s assistance. A devotee isguided by his/her self. Such a person doesn’t allowfearful thoughts bother him or her. At the same time,a devotee is blissful, satisfied and at peace with him-self and others.

Therefore, if we wish to avoid escaping ourselves,we can try to become true devotees of God. If thattask seems too daunting, we can at least becomegood human beings. All attempts to make the selfbetter pays rich dividends over a period of time.

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With hindsight, it seems as ifFrançois Hollande’s trou-bles started the day he wasinaugurated, on May 152012. First he was drenched

by a surprise storm as his open Citroëndrove up the Champs-Elysées. Then, thevery same day, his Falcon plane was hit bylightning on the way to Berlin, where he wasscheduled to meet Angela Merkel — mak-ing it possibly the first and last time theGerman Chancellor has felt unreservedsympathy for him. The new President hadto turn back before travelling to Berlin inanother aircraft. When he got there — inmore pouring rain — he missed a turn onthe airfield red carpet while reviewingGerman troops, and had to be steered backin the right direction by Merkel’s firm gripon his elbow, a moment that prescientlysymbolised their future relationship.

And everything went downhill from there.

One year later, the man who had billedhimself as the “normal President” duringhis victorious campaign against NicolasSarkozy is breaking records for unpopulari-ty. With 75 per cent against him, Hollandeis scoring the lowest approval ratings of anyPresident of the Fifth Republic since thecountry started conducting polls.Unemployment has risen by 11.5 per centsince his election, reaching an all-time highof 3.2 million. An estimated 1,50,000 youngpeople have left the country in search ofbetter prospects abroad: The only jobs cre-ated in France have been in the public sec-tor, usually in fields such as teaching thatare solidly controlled by Socialist voters.

Despite a widely touted “austerity”drive, public spending stands at 57 percent of GDP — the figure in Britain is 45per cent — and the country’s public debtis about to reach 94 per cent of GDP. Thelargest street demonstrations since 1984— when the country also had a SocialistPresident, François Mitterrand — havebrought more than a million people on tothe streets of Paris on two occasions (andmore are planned), to protest againstJustice Minister Christiane Taubira’s newlaw on gay marriage and adoption: Giventhat France is a fairly tolerant society,these were effectively a street referendumagainst Hollande.

France’s very visible spat with Germanyis a good example of how Hollande man-ages to make a bad situation worse. It ishardly new for French and GermanGovernments to disagree on economic

issues; nor is itunusual that itsleaders belong todifferent politicalparties. Yet,mindful of theEuropean lever-age afforded bythe French-German axis, ValéryGiscard d’Estaing, a conservative, wasexcellent friends with the Social DemocratHelmut Schmidt, while the SocialistMitterrand spoke in almost Gaullian termsof his German counterpart, the ChristianDemocrat Helmut Kohl. Even JacquesChirac never clashed with ChancellorGerhard Schröder in the way he did (asPrime Minister) with Margaret Thatcher.

Hollande, however, still seems to man-age France the way he managed rival “cur-rents” during his long tenure as SocialistParty leader, trying to play one against theother while trying to keep everyone happyby granting them some sort of concession.This was in evidence at last year’s Europeansummit, where instead of sitting down withMerkel to hammer out a viable compro-mise, he tried to rustle up an alliance withSpain and Italy behind her back, thinkingthis would be enough to counter theGerman position.

“This may work in Corrèze (Hollande’sconstituency in central France); it doesn’t inthe real world,” a French diplomat com-mented at the time. “At the end of the day,the Germans were annoyed, the French linewas all but absent from the final commu-niqué — and Angela Merkel and DavidCameron found themselves in closeralliance than they’d ever been.”

Recently, a trio of ministers includingthe flamboyant Arnaud Montebourg,Minister for Industrial Recovery, startedmaking increasingly belligerent statementsabout “German-imposed austerity”, accus-ing Merkel of “egotistical intransigence”and calling for “a democratic confrontationwith Germany”, without being taken to taskby the President.

It didn’t take long for Merkel’sentourage, who are much savvier in theways of French politics than the French areabout Berlin affairs, to counterleak amemo — plausibly produced by theChancellor’s coalition partners, the FreeDemocrats — on France being “Europe’sbiggest problem child”, with a stalled econ-omy and a “meandering” reform pro-gramme. Merkel then gave a perfunctory

denial that she thought any-thing of the kind.

The truth is that she isincensed with Hollande, not least

because of her growing conviction thatthe French President and his spin doc-

tors allowed the German-bashing becausethey felt that it would displace domestic dis-satisfaction with Hollande on to Germany.

Even the notoriously complacentFrench press is now giving the President ahard time. “Is ‘GrandPa’ (one of Hollande’smildest nicknames) really up to it?” askedthe news magazine L’Express on a recentcover. Le Point called him “MonsieurFaible” — Mr Weak — after Hollande con-fessed that he hadn’t believed the economiccrisis would “last so long”.

“The country is drowning in an ocean ofdiscouragement,” said Christophe Barbier,the influential editor of L’Express. “It’s notjust the tax-avoiding rich, artists like GérardDepardieu, businessmen — everyone is nowtempted to leave for a better life elsewhere.Young people feel they will never get a break,a job, a sign of trust. Entrepreneurs have tofend off red tape, rising costs and levies.”

In April, to add to this toxic climate,came the Cahuzac scandal: France’s BudgetMinister, the man in charge of fighting taxfraud, was revealed to have a secret bankaccount in Switzerland — and in all likeli-hood another in Singapore — and to havelied to the President and Parliament about it.

In the recent weeks, polls have givenMarine Le Pen, the far-Right National Frontleader, record numbers in a hypotheticalpresidential election — 23 per cent, wellabove Hollande at 19 per cent, whileSarkozy scored 34 per cent. Were Sarkozy tostand, he would beat Le Pen easily in thesecond round but the talk in France hasbeen of the dangers of Fascism, beginningwith the very real distrust of all politiciansand of the ruling class.

It says a lot about Hollande’s tin earthat he chose that very moment to compelministers to disclose their personal assets,arguing for the virtues of “transparency”against corruption. This may work in theUnited States, where personal success isadmired: But in France, a country whereunregenerated Marxist thought still largelyholds sway, overlaying a centuries-oldCatholic mistrust of money, it promptedClaude Bartolone, the Socialist Speaker ofthe National Assembly, who is fighting

suggestions of a similar obligation forMPs, to talk of “voyeurism and envy”.

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Michelle Obama onTuesday returned to

the business of sellingher first book, and shestarted by telling scoresof people waiting in lineat a popular bookstore to“buy away” becauseMother’s Day is coming.“It’s a great gift,” shesaid of AmericanGrown: The Story of theWhite House KitchenGarden and GardensAcross America.

The book was pub-lished about a year ago inlate May, and the firstlady did just one book-signing event inWashington about twoweeks afterward. She was,at the time, taking part inan even bigger sales job:Campaigning around thecountry to help Pres-ident Barack Obamawin a second term.

“If you recall, when the book cameout we were in the middle of this cam-paign, or something or other,” she joked

Tuesday. “So we were a little busy.”With the election over and a sec-ond term in the history books,the First Lady ventured a fewmiles north of the White Houseto the Politics and Prose book-store on a rainy morning to plugthe fruit of her first turn as abest-selling author.

More than 175,000 copieshave been printed, according toCrown Publishers, which doesnot release sales figures.

The first lady said she wrotethe 271-page book for a bumper

crop of reasons: To tell the story ofher White House garden on theSouth Lawn, to spread the word

about the history of communitygardening in the United States

and to start a conversationabout childhood obesity in

the US. “So all of that ispart of this book, andit’s trying to do a lit-tle bit of everything,”

she said. (AP)

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Oleg Topalovwas being

held on chargesof double mur-der and arms traf-ficking when hebecame the fourth man in two decadesto escape the maximum-securityMatrosskaya Tishina prison in Moscow.

Authorities say Topalov, 33, couldonly have used a spoon to dig the hole inthe ceiling of his cell, through which hemade it to the roof. From there, Topalovwas able to escape over the main fence.Investigators have accused prison staff ofa “dishonest or careless attitude to theirwork that was made use of by the prison-er Topalov,” reports Sky News.

Topalov had been held sinceOctober 2011 and his case was sent tocourt last month, the InvestigativeCommittee said in a statement. (UPI)

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According to a recent article fromScience News, early humans enjoyed

dining on antelope brains. The findings

came from recently dis-covered fossils in Kenya.

Experts believe the“hominids” were trying to “add

a side of fatty, nutrient-rich brain tissue totheir diets.” Research

cited in Science Newsargues that human scavengers likelywaited for big cats to feed on the car-casses before hammering at the skulls toaccess the brain tissue.

Newser writes that “this nutrient-rich brain tissue may have helped homoerectus support larger bodies, biggerbrains, and travel longer distances.”(Yahoo News)

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With friends and family alreadygathered for her graduation from

Washington State University, CassieDotts thought it would be a good timefor another ceremony — her wedding.

She married University of Idahofisheries science graduate Ben Ho in aceremony one recent day in Moscow,Idaho. Then she received her doctoratein veterinary medicine in the next day’s

WSU graduation in Pullman,Washington.

The Moscow-Pullman Daily Newsreports that Dotts wore her cap andgown over her wedding dress for peo-ple who wanted to see her as both agraduate and newlywed.

The couple plans tomove to Dotts’ nativeNevada where she plansto work as a veterinari-an in Las Vegas. (AP)

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Britain’s weakeconomy has

taken its toll on thenation’s poshestgreengrocer withPrince Charles forcedto close his organic veg-etable store, citingfalling trade and risingprices.

Prince Charles,the heir to thethrone and a cham-pion of the envi-ronment, opened a store

near to his countryhome Highgrove inGloucestershire, south-west England, abouteight years ago after

converting his estate toorganic farming in 1986.

The store, The VegShed, sold organic vegetables and fruitfreshly grown on theestate’s Duchy HomeFarm and becameknown for selling edi-ble but oddly shaped

organic produce thatwould normally berejected by super-markets.

But a spokes-woman for the

prince said thestore had closed after

it failed to make aprofit as it was nolonger financiallyviable. The producewas invariably more

expensive than at localsupermarkets. (Reuters)

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For weeks after a clash betweenthe Nigerian army and Islamic

militants last month in the remotefishing village of Baga, it was diffi-cult for outsiders to determinewhat had happened. Residentswho fled to the state capital toldhuman rights organisations thataround 200 people had been killedwhen the army went on a ram-page, burning much of the villageof thatch-roofed homes andshooting residents as they tried toflee. There are several reasons whythis incident should be taken seri-ously by the Obama Administra-tion and other Governments.First, while the incident may havebeen exceptional in scope, suchabuses are not uncommon: Infighting Boko Haram, a terroristgroup that has committed manyatrocities of its own, the Nigerianarmy has repeatedly killed inno-cent civilians.

Such abuses should matter inWashington because the UnitedStates is providing assistance tothe Nigerian army. Such aidmakes sense: Boko Haram, whichis believed to have ties to AlQaeda, is a serious threat. Howev-er, under US law, aid cannot beprovided to forces that are knownto have committed human rightsabuses; more broadly, the UnitedStates has a strong interest inpreventing practices that them-selves foster extremism.

Islamic militants in Nigeriastaged a five-hour-long prison

rescue on Tuesday, the Nigerianmilitary said, leaving 55 peopledead and underlining the insur-gents’ persistent demand forprisoner releases.

Shortly before dawn, sus-pected members of Nigeria’sBoko Haram sect stormed aprison nestled in Bama, a villagein the group’s northeasternNigerian heartland. The attackended shortly before noon, withmore than 100 prisoners freed,and scores of people dead.

Tuesday’s attack comes asAfrica’s most populous nationdebates a truce offer for BokoHaram, and the concessions theGovernment might make to thesect. More than 3,000 peoplehave died in Boko Haram’s carbombings, drive-by killings, andgunbattles with police over thepast four years.

The release of prisoners is arecurrent demand made by thegroup. The group also demandsa wider implementation ofIslamic law in Nigeria and resti-tution for damaged mosques.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s mili-tary has come under increasedcriticism after a battle lastmonth in nearby Baga left asmany as 200 people dead, mostof them civilians, according tolocal residents and aid groups.

The United States and Russiaagreed Tuesday to try to bring

together the Government of Syri-an President Bashar Assad andthe opposition for peace talks,signalling a potential break-through in long-stalled diplomat-ic efforts to end a bloody conflictthat threatens to destabilise theentire region. The proposed peaceconference, announced by Secre-tary of State John F Kerry andRussian Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov after a day of talks,appeared to reflect a softening ofRussia’s staunch support of Assad.

Lavrov said the US and Rus-sia were committed to a deal thatwould guarantee the “sovereigntyand territorial integrity” of Syriaand would follow the approach ofa diplomatic agreement workedout by world powers last year.

Moscow’s softening positionmay reflect a growing urgency infinding a diplomatic solution at amoment when it appears Syria’s2-year-old civil war could explodeinto a regionwide proxy struggleentangling the United States,Israel, Russia, Iran and its neigh-bouring states. The ObamaAdministration has been threat-ening in recent days to increaseits military role in support of therebels, and last week Israel struckSyrian targets twice.

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Russia and the United Statesannounced on Tuesday that

they would seek to convene aninternational conference withinweeks aimed at ending the civilwar in Syria, jointly intensifyingtheir diplomatic pressure on thecombatants to peacefully settle aconflict that has taken more than70,000 lives and left millions dis-placed and desperate. Secretary ofState John Kerry, who was visitingRussia seeking to find commonground on the Syria conflict, toldreporters at a joint appearancewith his Russian counterpart,Foreign Minister Sergey VLavrov, that the aim would be topush the Government of Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad and the Syr-ian opposition to attend.

The announcement appearedto signal a strong desire by bothcountries to halt what has been adangerous escalation in the con-flict, with evidence of chemicalweapons use, a surge in the num-ber of civilians fleeing combatand a refugee crisis that is over-whelming Syria’s neighbours.Israeli aerial attacks on suspectedmunitions sites in Syria height-ened and further complicated thetensions in the region. Kerry’svisit also came as the ObamaAdministration faced increasingcalls to intervene in the conflict.

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Mohsin Hamid’s latestbook, How to Get FilthyRich in Rising Asia, com-pels you to forget yourroutine worries and

engagements and dwell upon the kind ofsociety we Asians are living in, particu-larly those of us who belong to theIndian subcontinent. The book, even asit is based in contemporary Pakistan, isstarkly realistic, and for the most part,there is nothing in it that we Indianscannot identify with.

The book, resembling a self-helpguide, documents a rags-to-riches storyof a nameless Pakistani boy who emergesfrom his poverty-stricken surroundingsto become an influential businesstycoon. His journey from his bleak ori-gins to someone who becomes a thrivingwater industrialist is fraught with diffi-culties and hardship that he circumventsto emerge as a brilliant success story.

The protagonist wants to brush offfrom his self the dirt and squalor intowhich he was born and brought up, andwho stops at nothing when it comes tobecoming ‘filthy rich’. Both the protago-nist and his lady love, the pretty girl, asthe narrator calls her, are blessed with aMachiavellian streak that keeps stimulat-ing them to advance further and furtherin their pursuit of riches. This book willstrike a chord with all those who havenot had opportunities for proving theirworth and acquiring wealth. We run intosuch people quite often who have nohesitation in bending the system torealise their dreams.

The male lead, in the novel, whenhe is young, and still resides in village,suffers from Hepatitis E, and his par-ents, because they do not have enoughmoney to consult a doctor, whisk himaway to the city. Here he is admitted to a

school and taught by an inept teacherwho believes in corporal punishmentbeating those students who know betterthan to simply repeat after him. Afterschool he finds himself at universitywhere he joins an organisation whosemembers are held in awe by fellow stu-dents. However, the readers see himgradually eschewing idealism and beginworking, first with a dealer sellingexpired food products, and then startinghis own enterprise that sells bottledwater. He expands this trade by floutingrules with impunity and bribing his waythrough the red tape. His businessbecomes no less than an empire and thecredit for it goes to his colluding liberal-ly, and in an underhand manner, withthose wielding power and authoritysuch as Pakistan’s military, politiciansand bureaucrats.

Going by the title of the book, itseems obvious that Asia is rising. The

question that may perhaps nag the read-ers is to what extent is this claim genuineenough. In spite of gaining freedomfrom the colonial rule, the countriesconstituting the so-called rising Asia areridden with all kinds of inequities at thepolitical, economic and social levels.Countries like Pakistan have seen little inthe way of development and its largepopulation lives in abject poverty anddeprivation. They confront all kinds ofproblems — to quote just one instancefrom the novel, the protagonist’s sickmother is not even ensured adequatemedical treatment only because it isbeyond her family’s reach.

Reading the novel is almost like bit-ing into a slice of life, and on a numberof occasions, one identifies with howthings work in the ‘rising’ Asianeconomies, particularly in Pakistan —the rural and urban divide, dirt and filthin both villages and cities, rampant cor-

ruption, threats of terrorism, nepotism,poverty and despair, the all-powerfulmilitary and bureaucracy which have nocompunctions about becoming party tovenality if it suits their interest.

One must concede that Hamid’sexperiments with how his stories shouldbe narrated are always refreshing. If in,The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the narra-tive was in the first person, then How toGet Filthy Rich in Rising Asia has beentold by a second-person who addressesthe protagonist and instructs him onwhat steps he should take on his pathtowards achieving economic success.Hamid dispenses with the names of hischaracters; the characters in the novelcould be just anyone in the ‘rising’ Asiatrying to realise their ambitions. Thereader is taken on a journey through theprotagonist’s life with each chapter find-ing him a decade older and his businessgrowing from strength to strength.

The novel, if seen through the prismof postcolonialism, reveals how littlethings have changed in ‘modern’Pakistan even as the British left thecountry more than six decades ago.Thenarrator in How to Get Filthy Rich inRising Asia, in the guise of an instructorin a self-help book, guides the protago-nist to come to city, become educated,not fall in love, put aside idealism, courtviolence, befriend a bureaucrat, patron-ise military and get mired in debt.Taking his advice, the main character ofHow to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia isable to ride the crest of financial success.

The problem is that Hamid does notreveal anything new when he prescribesthe essentials to be followed in order tobecome rich — at least not to those whoreside in the subcontinent. Here it isalmost our second nature to bribe inorder to get the smallest of government-related works accomplished. The book,therefore, appears to be written for theWestern readers who are not so wellacquainted with the executive and finan-cial workings of the state in the newlyemerging economies of Asia.

The novel, nevertheless, is a com-pelling read and even as one does notwait with baited breath for what occursin the end, one is fully absorbed in the narrative recognising easily the situ-ations that involve the central charac-ters of this work.

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Every new traveller to an unfa-miliar land and its people isbaffled not so much by its floraand fauna, climate and othergeographical novelties, as by

the difficulty in understanding theprevalent social, political and religiouspractices, customs, culture, traditionsand food habits of the habitants. The dif-ficulty becomes more acute when theland and the people are completely aliento the visitor’s culture. With the passageof time he is able to understand, at leastsuperficially, these new practices andbecomes familiar with them.

After a considerable time of interac-tion with the natives and extensive obser-vations of the pattern of their behaviour,the visitor grasps the import of theirpractices. He finds some family resem-blances between the practices of his owncustoms, culture and tradition, and theones which he comes across in theunknown land. Still he finds it arduous toexpress his experiences and observationsin a language which would convey to hispeople back home the true nature, con-tent and extent of the unfamiliar experi-ences, traditions, and social, political andreligious practices of the aliens.

Jerry Toner, in his book Homer’sTurk, argues that Western classics haveplayed a “pivotal role” in understandingand communicating the ingredients,nuances and subtleties of the new civili-sation. He argues, “When faced withnew world, it has often been to the oldworld that they (Europeans) have turnedto help them understand such novelty”.These Greek and Roman classics,according to him, “provided models andexemplars... a repertoire of rhetoricalstyles, imagery, comparisons, tropes andrepresentative figures” to enable thetravellers to come to grips with the newcivilisations and religions. He supportshis argument with the travelogues writ-ten by several Europeans travellers andhistorians from Jacobean to modernHollywood blockbusters, from theAugustan to the post-modern.

The author has based his thesis onthe assumption that classical referencesprovide to the traveller “the space toform a more detached, more sympathet-ic view” of the newly encountered civili-sation. “Classics”, according to him,“represented civilisation and itself wasbelieved to hold civilising powers”. As aconsequence, he upholds that the clas-sics “acted as a prism through whichwriters saw the object of their study, onethat refracted the images they saw”. Itwas because of these powers of the clas-sics that the travellers used them asmediations to translate “the East intofamiliar past in order to familiarise theiraudience back home”.

The Western authors believed thatthe classics are the repositories of eternaltruths and used the classic texts for threepurposes. The first was to preserve “polit-ical conservativism”. The second was “topush the claims of reform and revolution”.

Finally, the third was to serve “anthropo-logical” purposes — to provide “modelsof objective history” which, in turn,helped in developing a “heretical frame-work for interpreting the religious other”.

Homer’s Turk, as Toner agrees, is “abook about English images”. The voice ofthe Easterners, therefore, is “largelyabsent”. Because of this shortcoming, thetheories in it are one-sided. They areEurocentric. For example, most of thewritings referred to in it conclude thatthe Orient is “childlike, juvenile andirrational” and that “the Asiatics areborn to be slaves”. They view “Europe asa sovereign princess and Asia as herhandmaid”. Consequently, it is the taskof the English to teach “it about liberty,freedom and democracy”. Too muchreliance on the reference to the classicsand treating them as final authority onlyhelps in propagating the stereotypes ofthe orient and interpreting the foreignotherness in irreverent tones.

For instance, too much dependenceon the classics led some readers to see

the “East as exotic and dangerous as aplace of alluring sexuality”. The ancientperceptions of the East led many tobelieve it as “the place of loose sexualmorality, the idea being that the physicalheat of the place must result in humanbeings of certain sexual proclivities”.Even with respect to the literature, theclassics — some of which are as old asAlexander — claim that European talentsare far superior to the Asian talents.

Likewise, the accounts of Indian cul-ture and civilisation in the classics are farfrom true. They contain descriptionswhich allege that there are some Indian“men that sleep in their ears”, or “men arewithout ears”; and, that there are “antsthat mine gold” in India. The descriptionsalso contain libellous accounts as theinhabitants of India “have intercoursewith the women in the open and... eat thebodies of their kinsmen”. Besides narrat-ing that it is a land where “tough sophistsstand on one leg and hold logs over theirheads”, they also claim that it is a land “offlowing milk and olive oil” and that its

“people lived to be over four hundredyears old but stayed young and beautifuland had no disease”.

European classical literature upholdsthat Indian culture is “static andunchanging” and has no sense of historyand, therefore, of progress. It maintains,“Hindus, at the time of Alexander’s inva-sion, were in a state of manners, societyand knowledge, exactly the same withthat in which they were discovered bythe nations of modern Europe”. Nothingcould be more misleading. This kind ofmisconception about Indian culture, val-ues, traditions and literature led philoso-pher-historians like JS Mill to concludethat Indian history “begins with thearrival of the British”. The British,according to such historians, were need-ed by India “to lead it out of the perpetu-al standstill in which it was trapped”.Nothing can be farther than the truththen such inferences.

These travellers because of the influ-ence of the Western classics not onlyupheld that as compared to the advanced

West the Orient enjoys only primitiveexistence. Regarding “the locals asuncivilised cowards”, they also saw “theOrient as having had nothing but adecivilising influence on the West” and“the Orientals as ‘antipathetical’ to anEnglishman”. They believed that an ‘EastIndian’ is worst of all the Orientals.

The depiction of the Orient in theHollywood blockbusters shows that evenin the present day the West has not beenable to shed the classic image of theOrient. In almost all the flicks, “theOrient is shown as a hackneyed backdrop— an ossified society where nothingchanges, peopled by caricatures addictedto exoticism, eroticism and decadence, fitonly to be oppressed by sadistic despots”.

One may not agree with the author’sinterpretation of the concept of ‘classic’ asa ‘plastic concept’, or the conclusionsdrawn in the book. However, one has toadmit that the book is well-researched,readable and accessible.

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Going by the hypothesis ofIndian philosophy, a sin-gular force — the force of

consciousness — remains the dri-ving spirit of the manifest phe-nomenal world. Not acknowledg-ing the existence of such a force,although undetectable in scientif-ic terms, it will be difficult toexplain the world process.Because there has to be a force inexistence, which when unavail-able to the body-mechanism, thegross body meets its end. So longas this very force remains opera-tive within the system, all ourdynamic functions, including ourpower of knowing, are on.

The force of consciousness is believed to be all pervading —occupying every point of thespace — thus maintaining contin-uum all through the universe. It

implies that every point of thespace is in intimate and immedi-ate connection with the rest.Modern science, too, veers roundthis concept; its premise, however,being different from our philo-sophic hypothesis. It is this verycontinuum in existence whichholds the key to unity underlyingall diverse functionaries in theuniverse and thereby their inte-grated working. It also impliesthat the reverberations of energyexcited at any point of space shallbe carried over all across with thepotential of comeback with addon. It is on this very premise thatthe law of karma, as propoundedby Indian philosophy, rests:“What you give to others comesback to you in equal terms.” For,every action on one’s partinvolves playing with energy, be it

exciting a thought or getting intoany physical act, all powered bythe force of consciousness.

If the implication of the lawof karma remains present in one’smind, one would refrain fromgetting into an unbecoming act.The truth, however, is that sel-dom does any ordinary mortal,caught up in the glare and glitterof the seeming world, keep thisin mind. Such people get tempt-ed to seek immediate gratifica-tion of their desires, whateverway it comes. But remember thelaw of karma, being a self-auto-mated process of nature, willnever spare you. Sooner or later,you will get caught up in its bindand with obvious consequences,no matter how smartly you con-duct yourself. And it does notcall for any third party vigilanceeither. For, an ill-framed mindhas to invariably leave a trail ofhis/her ill-conceived act, which

has to come to light sooner orlater. So, in effect, you become avictim of your own making.

A case in point is that ofsomeone who came askingwhether he would be able to findreprieve from the sword of lawhanging over his head. He hadsecured a dignified position play-ing all the foul tricks in his hands.And now, not only he has lost hiscredibility, but has to use his ill-

gotten money to secure his posi-tion. Had he been conscious ofthe implications of the law ofkarma beforehand, he would havebeen spared of its perils. A lookinto his astrological chart wouldthrow light on the man’s mentalpropensities that drove him crazy.

The lagna, the fifth and theninth signs loaded with majorplanets, read together with pow-erful Jupiter in the 10th house

make him highly ambitious. Theadverse placement of Venus tomischievous Neptune and theSun tempts him to adopt evenperverse ways to accumulate rich-es. Jupiter placed oppositeNeptune makes him compromisethe value system. On top of that ishis inflated ego, coming as it maywith materially-driven fiery Mars,placed adverse to expansiveJupiter. That closes his mind fromvisualising the fallout of mind-lessly pursuing his whims andfancies. And the result is there forall to see. As soon as progressedlagna closed up with headlessKetu, and progressed meridianbecame square to Rahu and Ketu,the two karmic planets, the law ofkarma struck upon him badly.������ �� ����������� ����� $�������������������������� ��������������� 6�)) ��������������� �

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Which gemstone suits me?— Bindiya

Wear a copper-mixed gold ring fittedwith 6-7 carats worth of Aquamarine inyour ring finger. Wear it for the firsttime on a Wednesday around sunset. When do I get married?

— Jyotika SharmaA marriage of your choice seems to belikely close to your 30th year. By when will the pending court casebe resolved?

— Mousami BanikTime turns to your advantage fromJune 2013. So just need to have patienceand face the challenges strongly. How do I improve my focus and con-centration on studies?

— SagarYou may have to come in person tolearn the technique correctly, so thatyou get expected result from it.

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�A total of 2,161 children (1,102 boys and 962girls) went missing from Delhi in 2012, of which1,556 children were found and 603 remaineduntraced in 2012. More recent statistics say, 733children are missing till May, 2013.�Out of the 10 districts, the two districts that hadthe highest registered cases were the Outer Districtwith 549 children missing (427 found, 120 missing,2 no record); and the North-west district with 465missing, of which only 203 were recovered.�On an average, 18 children go missing in theCapital daily, according to data gathered byBachpan Bachao Andolan and CRY.

The missing children statistics are staggering. Theissue continues to haunt the Indian political system.For many States and politicians, it is not even prior-ity. If we don’t recover these children fast, most willend up like Gudiya — tortured, beaten and left todie

— Actor Anupam Kher at an event on 100 years of cinema

With every phone call, Mrs VishnuTripathy from Sarita Vihar wouldget excited. Otherwise confinedto bed due to paralysis, she wouldcome to life if the phone rang —

‘Did she call? Have the police found her?’, shewould ask her 35-year-old engineer son Arjun.This would happen over and over again for years.

“My daughter Nidhi was just four when shewent to school and never came back. This hap-pened in 2010. Nidhi was going to a playschool inthe locality. On August 16, just a week before herbirthday, Nidhi went missing. Her school busstopped at the stand but to my wife’s horror, mydaughter was not in it. Her school didi had no ideawhere she had gone. We rushed to school, but shewas not there either. Since this was only a start-upschool, there was no provision of a CCTV. So wecouldn’t tab Nidhi’s whereabouts.

“We had no clue whether she had been pickedup from outside the school or something unto-ward had happened to her in school itself,” Arjuntells you. The hapless family has lodged manycomplaints against the school’s negligence. “Wehave been begging the police to find my onlychild,” Arjun says, unable to stop his eyes fromwelling up.

In the past two years, the Tripathys have doneeverything possible to trace Nidhi — hired adetective agency from Lajpat Nagar IV to look intothe matter at a whopping cost of �2 lakh, bribedcops, visited the police station a staggering 274times and tried to find her themselves. But, Nidhiis nowhere to be found. Now her traumatisedfather tells you that he is hoping she is dead — notfallen prey to some sadistic pervert or the beggingmafia. “My wife left me shortly after Nidhi disap-peared. She requires constant medical interventionand has been given 16 shock therapies till now justto keep her mind in control. She doesn’t rememberany of us and the doctor has advised us to leave

her alone. My father passed away on January 12,2011, after a cardiac arrest. My entire life has fallenapart. I have contemplated suicide many times. Icannot rest till I find what happened to my daugh-ter,” Arjun, who works as a senior consultant withan MNC, says. Workwise too Arjun has sufferedmany setbacks.

In the wake of recent happenings in theCapital, many parents of missing children haveresurfaced with their demand that the police findtheir wards who they fear might or must alreadyhave suffered Gudiya’s fate.

“The rape incident of five-year-old Gudiya hasthrown up a challenge for the police. We are inves-tigating the missing children cases registered withus. We fear that more than 66 per cent such chil-dren may never be found,” Satish Dhar, seniorinspector, Ashok Vihar police station, says.

He tells you that missing children cases are thetoughest to crack. “In most cases, children runaway with a relative in search of a better life. Whilesome return to their parents after a few months ofself-exile, others never make it,” Dhar says.

It might stagger you to know that eight chil-dren go missing in India every minute, more than90 per cent of them never to be recovered. Theapathetic police approach and a skewed law thatallows States to manipulate the definition of miss-ing children to suit their personal agenda makesthis a grim situation.

Agrees Vijay Vaidya, a social activist fromMumbai. His NGO Bepatta Vyakti Shodh Samiti,has been working on rescuing missing children for25 years. “The number of children below five whogo missing is steadily increasing. It is depressingwhen you cannot find a missing child. Part of theproblem is that the law on missing children inIndia is inadequate. In the absence of a legal defin-ition of a ‘missing child’, each State follows its ownrules. Also, lack of co-ordination between Statesmakes it difficult to track down such children. Lawenforcing authorities treat these cases in the mostshoddy manner. They are usually accorded lowpriority by the police, who are required to focusmore on maintaining law-and-order and checkingother crime. In most States, the police do not evenregister an FIR, preferring to merely putting thename on their list of missing people. Without anFIR, an in-depth investigation is never done,”Vaidya says.

Dhar, however, assets that the low prioritygiven to such cases is due to an altogether differentreason. “Supposing, we get 100 cases of missingchildren, we find that more than 20 per cent haverun away. In other cases, one of the parent is part-ner in the crime. In 5 per cent cases, these childrenare recovered from a relative’s place where thechild had gone out of his/her accord. Such thingsmake these cases low priority,” Dhar states.

He is currently in the pursuit of Meenakshi(12) who used to live with her parents inPushplok, a ghetto near Ashok Vihar. According toher parents, Meenakshi was last seen on January 1,2013 when she had gone to a local sweetmeat shop

to buy some mithai. “Her parents filed an FIR onthe January 2. As per the law, we waited for anoth-er 24 hours before pressing our PCR vans into ser-vice. Investigations revealed that shopowner RamDayal had also disappeared the same day. His shopwas locked up and employees sacked.

“We found out the whereabouts of Dayal in acouple of days and were sure that we would recov-er Meenakshi from him. When we arrived at hishouse in Patna, his family was mourning his death.Dayal had committed suicide by throwing himselfbefore a running train. His family had no idea whyhe had done so. Local residents found his body onthe rail tracks.

“We had hit a deadend on Meenakshi. ButDayal’s wife called us a week later to tell us about aletter he had posted to his family. In that letter, hesaid he had committed suicide because of a mis-take he had committed,” Dhar recalls.

Nothing more to explain was there. “Itremains a mystery what happened to Meenakshi— was she raped, killed, dumped by Dayal or wasthere some other angle to her disappearance,”Dayal says. The case goes on, with no leads.

Most missing children belong to slum areasand hail from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Not always are these children forced intohuman trafficking or prostitution. Sometimesthere are cases of brutal rapes and murders ofmissing children. After the infamous Nithari inci-

dent where body parts of at least 31 children werediscovered from the drain of a house in NOIDA,parents fear the worst about their missing child.

“More than 86 per cent missing children casesare reported from slums. These children are easytarget because there is almost no parental surveil-lance. They tend to wander away and, in mostcases, go unnoticed. Parents fear going to thepolice station to even record a complaint,” VijiArora, director policy and advocacy, CRY, tellsyou.

Sunita’s 10-year-old son Sonu went missing in2010 and, she recalls how lodging an FIR was themost horrible experience for her. A house maidhailing from Balia and living in Jehangirpuri,Sunita went to the local police station to registeran FIR. “After several visits, they registered the FIRbut asked me to reimburse their fuel charges. I wasshell-shocked. They said since they would have toburn fuel in finding my son, I would have to bearthe expense,” Sunita recalls. She could not pay thismoney and has not heard from the police in thepast three years and her son is still missing.

In some cases, police apathy has proved fatal.Families have lost a child because, they feel, thepolice did not act on time. Banwari Lal’s 10-year-old son Gaurav was brutally killed by their relative

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The country was one ofthe fastest growing in the

European Union, havingintroduced the euro a yearpreviously, and unemploy-ment was steadily falling.Prime Minister Jose MariaAznar had just been re-elect-ed, and money was pouringinto infrastructure, businessventures and creative indus-tries.

“There was a sort ofeuphoria,” he said. “Everyonewas working, everyone washappy — there was such abuzz in the air. I was 20 andarrived as a student, and Iremember being struck byhow vibrant and energetic itwas — and how differentfrom Colombia, where Icame from.”

But fast-forward 13years, and Mr Oliveros isback in Bogota.

His business inBarcelona failed — a victimof the harsh austerity mea-sures, which forcedSpaniards nationwide totighten their belts. Managersat the Smart Tapas bar heowned in the city’s Raval dis-trict — one of the oldest andmost vibrant parts of thecentre — noticed thatinstead of spending �50(£42) a night, his clientswould reduce their expendi-ture to less than �10.

Then the customersdried up altogether. In 2011he sold up and moved backto Bogota, becoming one ofthe hundreds of thousandsof Latin Americans who areleaving Spain and returningto their homeland.

Earlier this week, datareleased by Spain’s NationalStatistics Institute (NSI)showed that the number ofSpanish residents fell by206,000 to 47.1m — a figureentirely accounted for, theNSI says, by the fall in thenumber of registered foreignresidents. The population ofnative Spaniards grew lastyear by 10,000 — a smallerincrease than in recent years— only minimally offsettinga fall of 216,000 in the num-ber of registered foreigners.

The majority of thoseleaving were from Colombia,

Ecuador or Bolivia — lead-ing to the first drop in popu-lation in modern Spanishhistory.

The reason for theirdeparture is clear. Figurespublished by the NSI showedthat unemployment hadrisen to 27.2pc — the sev-enth consecutive quarter thatthe number out of work hadrisen, and the highest levelsince records began in the1970s.

The latest statistics showthat the number of peopleout of work in Spain isgreater than the entire popu-lation of Denmark. Youthunemployment is even morecatastrophic, with 57pc ofthose under 25 currentlywithout work. “There wasextraordinary growth inimmigrants from 2000 to2009, which is reversingquickly due to the economiccrisis,” said Albert Esteve,from the Barcelona Centrefor Demographic Studies.“Spain is less attractivebecause there are no jobs.”

Ramón Antonio Armijosspent eight years working onfruit and vegetable farmsnear Almeria. But he hasreturned home to Ecuador.So have seven of his eight

brothers — only one hasremained, trapped by hismortgage in Spain.

“I loved Spain but whenthe work dried up I had toreturn,” said Mr Armijos, 36,an engineer. “There is farmore work in Ecuador nowand those who are left inSpain are all thinking ofcoming home.”

Hundreds of businessesare shutting down, such asMr Oliveros’s small compa-ny, or closing their Spanishoperations. French electron-ics retailer Darty is abandon-ing the country, while thosethat remain are making yetmore redundancies — theIberia airline, Vodafone andMadrid’s public televisionstation Telemadrid having allannounced plans to cutthousands of jobs in the firstpart of this year.

Conversely, the grimeconomic picture contrastssharply with financial mar-kets. Yields on Spain’s 10-year bonds fell this week totheir lowest level since late2010, as waves of liquidityfrom around the globe havebrought down borrowingcosts and all but banishedlast year’s fears that a budgetcrisis would force Madrid to

seek an international sover-eign bail-out.

But economists said thatSpain’s falling cost of bor-rowing showed the discon-nect between the marketsand the reality on theground. “These unemploy-ment figures are worse thanexpected and highlight theserious situation of theSpanish economy,” said JoseLuis Martinez, from Citi inMadrid. “It also shows theshocking decouplingbetween the real and thefinancial economy.”

Mr Oliveros is certainthat he made the right deci-sion to abandon the sinkingship.

“Colombia has so muchenergy and drive now,” hesaid, speaking by telephonefrom Bogota. His Spanishwife, an actress, has foundplenty of work in Colombia,while Mr Oliveros has beenable to return to his profes-sion as a television directorand documentary maker.

“The war of the 1980s isover and the government ismaking real advances inimproving people’s quality oflife. We have a far brighterfuture here.”

While Spain’s economy is

mired in recession, businessin Colombia — SouthAmerica’s fourth-largesteconomy — is booming,with annual growth rates inexcess of 4pc.

As Spain was once againheld up as a symbol of theeurozone woes, Standard &Poor’s rating agency onThursday lifted its foreigncurrency rating by a notch,praising the country’s stableoutlook and economicpromise.

“We raised our long-term foreign currency ratingbecause of the strengtheningpillars underpinningColombia’s economy, whichhave reduced its vulnerabili-ty to external shocks andenhanced its capacity for sta-ble long-term GDP growth,”said Joydeep Mukherji,Standard & Poor’s creditanalyst.

President Juan ManuelSantos, Colombia’s centre-Right leader since 2010, hascontinued his predecessor’spro-business stance and hastaken advantage of recentyears of favourable com-modity prices – in particularcoffee, gold and oil. MrSantos has made structuralchanges in fiscal policy,established a fund to saveabove-budgeted revenuesfrom the commodities sec-tor, and has promised todevelop its domestic capitalmarkets.

Standard & Poor’s notedthat these steps boost theresilience of the economy inthe event of a sharp fall inexport prices or other exter-nal shocks. For Mr Oliverosand his friends, the contrastwith Spain is clear.

“I know so many peoplewho are coming back,” hesaid. “Previously, you couldwork in the Spanish con-struction industry and earn�2,000 a month easily, butnow those people are inlimbo. There are so manyproblems.“And those whowere perhaps thinking ofleaving will rethink. Theymight go to study in Brazilor the US. But certainly notSpain.”

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An attempt by members ofGreece’s far-Right, anti-immi-

grant Golden Dawn political partyto hand out emergency foodrations to Greeks only was brokenup by police firing tear gas.

The party, which has attractedwidespread condemnation for itsxenophobic, racist policies,attempted to distribute bread, eggsand lamb to Greeks outsideParliament in Athens’ SyntagmaSquare, ahead of the start of theGreek Orthodox Easter.

But the stunt ended in chaos,with Golden Dawn members inblack T-shirts hitting riot policeover the head with rolled up Greekflags and the police firing a volleyof tear gas.

The party had tried to pushahead with the food handout indefiance of a ban imposed by themayor of Athens, George Kaminis.

He had called the plan a “soupkitchen of hatred” because onlypeople able to prove their national-ity by showing a Greek identitycard were eligible to receive food.It was “arbitrary, racist and illegal,”he said.

Golden Dawn held a similarevent in Syntagma Square last year,after which the mayor vowed thathe would not allow a repeat per-formance.

During a day of acute tension,Mr Kaminis alleged that a GoldenDawn MP, Giorgos Germenis,tried to punch him and that hedrew a hand gun.

Police said Mr Germenis hadmoved “menacingly” against themayor and that they would investi-gate the firearm allegations.

He was led away by security

officers. His punch reportedlylanded on a 12-year-old girlinstead, injuring her.

Around 200 party membersturned up in the square more thantwo hours earlier than announcedand began handing out bags offood after checking recipients'identity cards.

“Golden Dawn will standbeside Greeks, it will stand by thesuffering Greeks whatever deci-sions the immigrant-loving MrKaminis takes. Greeks, keep yourheads high, happy holidays! Wewill take our country back,” saidChristos Pappas, the head of theGolden Dawn parliamentarygroup.

Scuffles broke out betweenparty members and riot police asauthorities tried to prevent theparty’s truck from unloading itscargo of meat and other goods.

Police used pepper spray toforce back party officials holdingGreek flags on thick woodensticks, and the truck was eventuallyforced to move on.

“Today the logic of violence, ofthuggery, of ‘having my way’ wasbeaten,” said the mayor.

“Syntagma Square will neverbe used again by anyone to handout goods. Thuggery will not pre-vail in this city as long as I ammayor.”

The party transferred thehandout to its offices in anotherpart of the capital, giving out freepotatoes and Easter eggs to hun-dreds of supporters.

Golden Dawn rose fromobscurity last year, tapping intoresentment among ordinaryGreeks over the growing number

of immigrants in the country, andfeeding on the desperation causedby six years of recession.

In elections last year, the partywon nearly seven per cent of thevote and took 18 of Parliament’s300 seats.

Polls suggest the party is nowGreece’s third biggest politicalforce. Party members display Nazisymbols and have been seen givingNazi-style salutes but deny havingneo-Nazi sympathies.

But many of its members havebeen implicated in vicious attackson immigrants.

Greece is an entry point forlarge numbers of illegal immi-grants trying to reach other partsof the European Union.

In October, Parliamentstripped two Golden Dawn MPs oftheir parliamentary immunities

after they were charged withdestroying property belonging toimmigrants at a market nearAthens.

Greeks are buckling underharsh austerity measures imposedby the troika of internationallenders which engineered a mas-sive 270 billion euro bail-out tosave the country from economicmeltdown.

Last month Athens announcedthat it will fire 4,000 civil servantsthis year as part of the austeritymeasures agreed with theEuropean Union and InternationalMonetary Fund.

The redundancies will begin asavage round of job cuts in theGreek public sector, with another11,000 officials due to be sacked bythe end of next year.

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Saudi Arabia is hoping to wean jailed al-Qaeda mili-tants off religious extremism with counselling, spa

treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilita-tion centre in Riyadh. In between sessions with coun-selors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able torelax in the centre’s facilities which include anOlympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a gymand a television hall.

The new complex is the work of PrinceMohammed bin Nayef ’s Centre for Counselling andCare, a body set up seven years ago to rehabilitateextremists jailed during a Saudi crackdown on thelocal branch of al-Qaeda.

“Just under 3,000 (Islamist prisoners) will have togo through one of these centres before they can bereleased,” interior ministry spokesman General Mansural-Turki told the Press during a tour of the new centre.

Another centre has already opened in the westernport city of Jeddah, and three more are planned for thenorth, east and south of the desert kingdom.

The new facility in Riyadh, however, is the first tooffer inmates a taste of luxury as an incentive to mod-erate their beliefs.

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This is the age ofEquated

MonthlyInstalment (EMI)EMIs. Almost allof us buy things onEMIs, they are easyto avail and afford-able. But there arevery few people whoactually calculate theEMI that one shouldbe paying. Take anexample of the com-mon norm that mostpeople follow whilebuying a car on EMI.One enters the show-room, gives the repre-sentative the figure ofthe down payment andthe amount of loan theywant with the tenureperiod. The representa-tive rattles off the rate ofinterest and after a fewpunches on the calcula-tor arrives at the EMI.

However, industry expertssay that one should not be sotrusting when it comes to EMIs.That one must keep a few pointsin mind while opting for theEMI. “Never get in the trap oflower EMIs. Whenever one goesfor low EMIs the durationincreases which means in thelong run one will end up payinga lot more interest to the banks.This is a fact which banks don’ttell you,” Abhishek Dwivedi Anti-Money Laundering consultanthelping large financial institu-tions implement standardisedand production AML solutions atglobal level explains.

He also says that one mustcheck what the financial situationand try to increase the EMI asmuch as possible. “If your finan-cial situation changes and youcan’t afford high EMI, changeyour EMI to a lower value. Abank should allow the customersto change EMI as and whenrequired. While choosing a bankmake sure that the bank confirmssuch flexibility,” Dwivedi saysadding that increasing ordecreasing an EMI is not allowedif the remaining duration is onlya year.

But despite a few catches,going for an EMI is a betteroption than doing part-payment.This is because under certain cir-cumstances an EMI works to theperson’s advantage. For example,

on a loan of �20 lakh for20 years with a interest

11 per cent if onejust increases the

EMI by �2,000 permonth, one can save a

total of over �8 lakh in thelong run on the interest

you pay to the bank. Ifone were to savethis �2,000 for a

year, meaning 12 x�2,000 = �24,000 and pay it aspart-payment after a year, onecan only save �1.62 lakh on inter-est.

It is not just the saving aspectthat must be kept in mind. Onealso has to keep in mind that ini-tially, the interest is higher, sincemore principal is outstanding. Inthe later years, the principal get-ting repaid starts increasing andinterest drops. Then there is pre-

EMI and zero per cent interest onEMIs. Zero per cent interest ismostly applicable on smallhousehold items. These have arider clause like one to two percent processing fee (for a �12,000product one will pay �1,200-�2,400 processing fee). “The factthat one will pay some amount inadvance means that �12,000 willnot get divided into EMI. Oneneeds to pay the first two to threemonths together and then paythe EMI. Nothing comes for free.Always remember to read thefine print of such zero per centschemes,” Dwivedi cautions.

Dwivedi, who has recentlyreleased an Android App formobile phones called EMI ExpertLite where users can benefit fromthe tips, is quick to point out thatthe only hidden rider on an EMIis the failure of customers tounderstand that for a longerduration loan they pay very lessprincipal component for the firstfew years. Banks generally don’ttell you this part and even if theydo, they do not advise to increaseEMI or lower duration whichmeans one pays far more princi-pal component,” Dwivedi says.

As for the pre-EMI, Dwiveditells you that no builder is goingto deliver the apartment on thedue date, there will be delays.The customer should alwaysremember the golden rule for aloan — always try to reduce theinterest component as much aspossible. In pre-EMI one is onlypaying interest componentwhereas the priority shouldalways be to pay off the principalcomponent as soon as possible.

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The AC Nielsen and P&G ThankYou Mom survey reveals that 77

per cent of mothers surveyed don’ttalk about their unfulfilled dreams.This year the campaign led by P&Gand its brands Ariel, Vicks,Whisper, Pampers goes one stepfurther to realise a mother’s dream.These are her forgotten dreams thatshe had given less importance to,while realising her children’sdream.

The campaign also hopes toacknowledge a mother’s dedicationtowards the wellbeing of her family.In its second year, as part of the

campaign, P&G joins hands withchildren across the country toenable their mothers to realise atleast one lost dream.

The survey said that while 87per cent of the mothers surveyedsaid that they would like to havesome free time for themselves, 79per cent of children stated that theywould like to help their motherswith daily chores, but they are too

busy at work to help out. A 55 percent of the children said that theywillingly don’t contribute to house-hold chores.

93 per cent of mothers alsosaid that they would like for theirchildren to realise their dreams and95 per cent said that their chil-dren's dream was their dream. 93per cent agree that they wouldwant their children to fulfill their

dreams. while 77 per cent mothersagreed that they feel a sense of losswhen reminded about their lostdreams. The survey also said that61 per cent agreed that they donnot realise their capabilities. 76 percent mothers stopped pursuing theirdream because of household work.

Commenting on the occasion,Kainaz Gazder, marketing directorP&G India said “We have alwaysstrived to work towards touchingand improving lives of mothers.Each brand of ours is committedtowards identifying the challenges amother faces.”

Ason gets irritated when the mother asks himto call her. “Kaam karoon ya aap ko phone

karoon,” is his refrain. The mother is crestfallenas the son walks out of the house in a huff onlyto return to grab the phone that his father handshim. Once back in office in another city, the sonrealises that his phone has been silent for hours.Taking it out from the pocket he finds that it ishis mother’s phone. “Ma ko koi phone nahinkarta” is his first thought and he immediatelycalls his mother and tells her that he will callevery day from now on. This is an ad on TV by apopular service provider.

While there are some children who may for-get to be in touch with their parents and onlycall on certain special days like Mothers’ Day,there are many who don’t wait for an occasion tomake their mothers feel special.

For 26-year-old senior event manager, AmitKhurana, taking his mother out for dinner fol-lowed by a movie is a fortnightly event. “Mywork keeps me away from home for long hours.I seldom get time to interact with my parents ona daily basis. Hence, I make sure that I take oneday every fortnight to take my mother out. Wetalk and catch up with what is happening in mylife, her life and general family gossip. I also takeadvice on relationship, where to invest and how Ihave invested my money,” Khurana says, addingthat the only reason why his father is not a partof such dos is because he doesn’t want to comebetween the mother and son time.

Khurana is not alone when it comes tospending quality time with his mother. ForSaurabh Roy spending time with family was adone thing. “As a child my parents and I wouldgo out for dinners on a weekly basis. So the tra-

dition has carried on with a slight difference. It isnow just my mother and me. We go for dinnerand talk of general things — my work and herwork (she is the head mistress with aGovernment school),” the 27-year-old tells you.

It is not just dinners that the mother-son goon. There is shopping as well. While most boysmay feel embarrassed to go shopping with theirmothers, this corporate lawyer with an MNC hasno such problems. “There is no awkwardness.My mother knows my choice and going with hermakes it easy for me. And it is not as if I don’t goalone. But seven out of 10 times, I am with her,”Roy states adding that he enjoys these outingswith his mother.

Agrees a freelance media professional. “Mybusy schedule keeps me tied-up most eveningwith weekends being the busiest. The only freetime that I have is during the day. So, once in awhile I go shopping with my daughter. We spenda couple of hours looking at the latestfashion trends. In case she likessomething, I buy it for her, oth-erwise, we end up havinglunch. Those few hours thatI spend with her are beau-tiful,” Sadhna Shrivastavtells you.

Then there are somewho put in a lot ofthought in what to gifttheir mother on Mothers’Day. Twelve-year-oldMihika last year, gave aduppatta that she had paint-ed herself. “I wanted to givesomething that I had made. So I

bought the material and asked my art teacher toprint the design that my brother, Siddhant and Ihad chosen. My mother loved it. So the time andeffort put into making it was worth the joy onher face,” Mihika tells you. And then there aresome who give their mothers their entire two-year savings. “It was not something great that Idid. My mother has sacrificed a lot for me. Icome from a very conservative family wherehaving a son is a must. So when I gave my moth-er �3 lakh, she cried a lot. ‘Bete ki koi zarooratnahin hai’ my mom had said. That was themoment for me,” Manjusha Singh says.

While it is easy for children to go out withtheir mothers if in the same city, it becomes atad difficult to do something for the motherslong distance. To make up for the lost time, thereare some children who take time out from theirprofessional lives to take their parents, especiallytheir mothers on a holiday. “I believe parentingis the most difficult job in the world — more sofor the mother — so, it seems rather meagre tojust name a single day as Mothers’ Day, as if forthe rest of the 364 days she doesn’t really count.Even if I forget Mothers’ Day, I try to give-backin any way I can, when I can. I feel I am particu-larly lucky that at 47 I still have my parents. Tenyears ago, I had no notion of any give-back; likemost children, I too felt parents were a given andthere to give. Nothing to fuss over or about.Okay, they should remain in good health andcarry on as usual but that was about it. Now Irealise all that they have done for me from themoment I was born,” Manjira Dutta tells you.

So one of the things that she does at leastonce a year is go on a holiday with them andfocus exclusively on them. She chooses a placethat’s easy to travel to and move around in. Thisis not intended to be one of those hectic, lets-pack-activity-into-every-minute type of holiday.This is their time, no husband, no children, nosibling, no friends, just Dutta and her parents.“Till about six years ago, I would send them on aholiday by themselves but, I realised, they weremore keen to be with me rather than be away onholiday in an exotic place. When we are on vaca-tion together it’s not like being at home. First, it’sa refreshingly new environment where you arewaited upon; our space is magically cleaned;food is just a call away; there’s a pooland spa to relax in; no doorbells; nopressing domestic chores. Andbest of all, there is absolutelyno compulsion or need to doanything. We can sit back,relax and just talk with-out interruptions, andbe happy together,”

Dutta says.

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Apropos Kink in us by DeebashreeMohanty, Manjari Singh and ShibajiRoychoudhury in Foray dated May 5,

2013. Pornographic videos and books that arefreely available in the market give people newideas and fantasies that they want to emulate tostimulate their sexual life. Though there is noharm in having fantasies, one should be matureenough to know and understand that there is adifference between a fantasy and reality.

— M Kumar

Aporpos Not a grim picture by ChandrabhanPrasad in Foray dated May 5, 2013. There is

no doubt that existence of caste system is badfor any modern society. The fact that it is losingground in cities is good news. Dalits could notprosper because they were not given theopportunity to rise in life. No one can deny thatreservation has benefited them and they haveachieved success in every walk of life.Unfortunately, the benefits of the reservation isnow going to people who have already made itbig in life. The Dalits who have already becomeachievers should not take advantage of thereservation policy. They should make way for

those who are still struggling. Afterall, the benefit will go to people oftheir own community. Anotherimportant aspect is reservation inpromotion. Once the Dalits have got afoot hold, they should compete likethe rest of the people from the generalcategory do.

— Shailendra Kaul

This refers to Managing SP’s tantrumman by Tavishi Srivastava in Foray

dated May 5, 2013. The frisking at thevarious US airports does go down wellwith us who have ageold tradition andculture of welcoming even our unsolicitedguests. The plea that Mohd Azam Khanhad on his mind — the minority votebank— while taking exception to his frisking atthe Logan International Airport in Bostoncuts no ice as Khan already enjoys a hugefollowing in the community. But onewonders why he was treated in such amanner when he had been invited? Whydoes the US treat its invited guests with suchsuspicion? While we are not saying that we

should not be frisked, but at least the dignitarieswho are invited should be treated with morerespect.

— Rukhsana Khan

This refers to Manmohan neither shaken, notstirred by Hari Shankar Vyas in Foray dated

May 5, 2013. Prime Minister Manmohan Singhseems to have mastered the technique ofshunning moral responsibility andaccountability of all the wrong-doings of theUPA-II Government. Hence, the author is rightin quoting a knowledgeable leader that in hispolitical career of 40 years, Singh has nevermorally owned responsibility in the past and isnot likely to do so now.

— M Ratan

This refers to Politicians falling to new low byDevi Cherian in Foray dated May 5, 2013.

Thanks to the corrupt UPA-II, sadly allpoliticians are being painted with same brush. Itis not that we do not have honest politicians,but they are over shadowed by their corruptcolleagues. The problems lies at the top.

— Bal Govind

This refers to Politicians falling to new low byDevi Cherian in Foray dated May 5, 2013. It

is true that the nexus between the criminals andpoliticians is on the rise and no political party isan exception to this rule. People who now joinpolitics consider it as a business venture, withcalculations on return on investment. The‘public can fend for itself ’ is the motto of mostpoliticians today. Reforms in politics is possibleonly if every political party follows a strict rulewhen it comes to accepting new members —they should reject anyone who has a policerecord.

— Mahesh Kumar

This refers to Politicians falling to new low byDevi Cherian in Foray dated May 5, 2013.

The writer has rightly said that honesty, itappears, is a trait that leaders are afraid to beassociated with. If India is one of the mostcorrupt countries in the world today, its creditgoes to our political class. The Ministers areinterested only in making money. One scamafter another clearly shows how shamelessly thecountry is being looted by them.

— Manoj Parashar

Many senior leaders inthe Congress are not

happy with the wayCongress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi has beenconducting party politics. Hehas given instructions thatthe party leaders need tovisit their constituencies on aregular basis and hold publicmeetings. They then need tosubmit a written reportwhich will be scrutinised atdifferent levels. This move,which most leaders view asbabugiri, has not gone downwell among them.

It is said that TeamRahul has prepared a five-page form which all leaderswill have to fill. This hasbeen done to fixresponsibility at every level— from the State incharge toState president to districtpresident. He has done so onthe advice of some partymenwho have pitched for fixingresponsibility. Also, there aremany leaders whomanipulate tickets for theircandidates. If they aredefeated, the onus of failureis put on the organisation.Rahul wants to change this,hence, the filling of forms.

Meanwhile, he alsowants district and booth-level workers to use socialmedia to keep in touch withthe voters in their area. Allof them have been asked toopen Facebook accounts sothat they are made aware ofparty activities and remainin touch with other leaders.However, this move has left afew veterans in a fix as theyare not so well versed withtechnology. Some have,therefore, roped in youngleaders to help them out ofthis predicament.

��� ��������While Rahul Gandhi is

busy motivating his partyleaders to keep in touch viathe social media, the I&BMinistry has already startedrecruiting volunteers to helpthe Ministry advertise theGovernment’s achievementsonline. These digitalvolunteers will advertiseGovernment schemes onFacebook and Twitter.

The Ministry has createdits own channel on YouTubetoo. The channel has alreadytouched two lakh hits. Tillnow, the Ministry hasrecruited 1,200 volunteers.But upbeat with the numberof hits, the Ministry hasrelaxed its rules. This will

help the department recruitmore digital volunteers.

Till now, the UPA-IIGovernment and theCongress was averse to theuse of social media. In fact,Digvijay Singh had said thatGujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi hadmanipulated the socialmedia. And now, UPA-II andthe Congress are doing thesame thing.

���� ��������Rahul Gandhi was

made party vice-president at theChintan Shivir held inJaipur in January. Sincethen, he has been holding aseries of meetings. Already,three rounds of meeting withAll India CongressCommittee (AICC) officebearers, State officials andparty MPs have been held.Though no direct outcomeof these meetings has beenseen or felt, the meetingscontinue.

Rahul also met DelhiChief Minister Sheila Dikshitand Delhi’s president JPAggrawal thrice.Unfortunately, the conflictbetween Dikshit andAggrawal continues. InMadhya Pradesh, things areno different. Three meetingshave been held in the StateCongress unit but groupismin the party continues. Hehas had three rounds ofmeetings with the leaders ofUttrakhand, Punjab andHaryana but factionalism isstill there.

Despite this, Rahul hasnot given up and continuesto hold meetings.

�����������Parliamentary Affairs

Minister Kamal Nath hasfailed to manipulate thingsto the Congress’ advantagein this Budget Session ofParliament. In the WinterSession of 2012, he had beenable to keep Bahujan SamajParty chief Mayawati andSamajwadi Party chiefMulayam Singh Yadav undercontrol by taking them intoconfidence. But this time,Mulayam’s stance towardsthe Congress has notsoftened. But a Kamal Nathconfidant said that theMinister did everything inhis power to keep things incontrol but if the situationand circumstances are notconducive, there is nothingmuch he can do.

The Congressman wasreferring to the fate of LawMinister Ashwani Kumarand Railway MinisterPawan KumarBansal. Bansalwas involvedin acontroversyafter hisnephewwasarrestedfortakingbribe toensurea choicepostingfor arailwayofficial, whileKumar is underfire for vetting aCentral Bureau ofInvestigation reporton the coal scam.

Both the casescame to lightunexpectedly. Andnow, evenpartymen are

distancing themselves fromthe issue. If this was notenough, even the Supreme

Court has made itsobservations in bothcases turning on

the heat onUPA-II. Theonly twoalliancepartners whohave come

forward todefend PawanBansal are LaluPrasad Yadavand NCP’s DPTripathi.

Meanwhile,the BJP is also atloggerheads with

Nath. This isbecause when

Sonia wanted one ofher partymen to givean answer when Leaderof Opposition in LokSabha Sushma Swarajwas delivering aspeech, Nath who sitsjust behind Sonia

interrupted Swaraj. This

did not go down well withthe BJP. It is another matterthat the House was in uproarover the Bansal case and hedidn’t get any sympathy fromhis partymen.

����� ����������Who will be at a

disadvantage if the BJP-JD(U) alliance breaks? Boththe parties are making anassessment. The BJP hassought help from a leadingelection analyst and politicalcommentator agency, GVLNarasimha Rao Lens.Around 2,500 voters from 10Lok Sabha constituencies inBihar were interviewed. Thesurvey revealed that thebenefit would go to the BJP.

Also, if the alliancebreaks, the BJP willannounce Gujarat ChiefMinister Narendra Modi asits Prime Ministerialcandidate. And if JD(U)doesn’t form an alliance withany other party, the BJP willget 29 out of 40 seats inBihar, while the JD(U) will

only win two seats. Last time,the BJP had fought on 15seats and won 12.

However, if the BJP-JD(U) alliance continues, theNDA will get 33 seats out of40. It means NDA will getfour more seats. The surveyalso says that if JD(U) breaksaway from the BJP and formsan alliance with Congress,then the BJP will get 19 seatsand JD(U)-Congress alliancewill get 16. Of these 16 seats,JD(U) will contribute 10 andthe Congress 6. In all thescenario, Lalu’s RashtriyaJanata Dal and Paswan’s LokJanshakti Party will notperform too well.

����,�����Three top Congress

leaders — Sonia Gandhi,Rahul Gandhi and PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh— gave almost similarspeeches in Opposition-ruledStates. The speeches centredaround on the amount ofmoney the Centre had giveto that particular State andthe how the said State hasmisused the money.

During the Assemblyelection campaign inKarnataka as well, Sonia,Manmohan and Rahul hadsaid something similar.While Karnataka ChiefMinister Jagdish Shettar hadpreferred not to react to thespeech, Narendra Modi hadgiven a befitting answer atBelgaum.

Though many ChiefMinisters of non-Congressruled States came up withtheir own strategies on howto deal with what Sonia,Manmohan and Rahul hadto say, Modi’s style wasdifferent. Instead of usingwords like donation andalms, Modi said that theCentre doesn’t give money toStates as part of dowry. Asimilar reply had been givenby Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar.

Even Mayawati had givena befitting reply. Whilecampaigning for theAssembly elections (onNovember 25, 2011 atSiddharthngar, UP) held inUP last year, Rahul had saidthat the “there is an elephantsitting in Lucknow and thiselephant is eating yourmoney”.

“The Congress is gettingnightmares about BSP’selection symbol elephantdriving them away,”Mayawati retorted.

��������������!;�����������Ineed to buy a horse. I have taught in a Delhi University

college since 1989, which means I have many well-wishers,but not enough money. If wishes were horses, I’d have ownedone by now. Why do I want a horse in the first place? I wishto gift it to my boss. He somehow looks incomplete sitting ona vice regal chair. A horse would befit his stature. Before Iforget, I’d need a pair of guns too, perhaps the peacemakercolt from another era. And a holster to sling them at the side,to lend that edge to his swagger. With guns and a horse, hecan do with alacrity what he has set out to; ie, to clean thismessy town called Delhi University, rid it of vermin who willnot submit to his badge.

In two years time he will ride into the sunset, alone. He istherefore in a hurry. He says he has to clean the mess beforehe leaves. He does not trust the guy who’ll take over fromhim. He’s the quintessential lone ranger, the lawgiver whotrusts no human; his faith is rested only on the two things

that sling by his side. If he hadthem that is. Which is why Iwish to gift him the horse, andthe guns.

My boss believes thetownspeople in this wild placeare lazy and petulant. They wileway a few hours at the saloon,then make a load of emptynoise in the town square. Theyresist authority, corrupt youngminds, take back fat paychecksand are basically naysayers.Ironically they are, like him, alllawgivers. They are hisdeputies. This ought to be aplace where folks like to be in.After all, it’s a town full ofdeputies, which is why it’s

called Delhi (DU) And apparently people do filter in, com-ing from all parts of the country.

Usually they hang around for three odd years, sometimesfive. If they have work to do beyond five years, they often endup as deputies. The boss does not like things around here(why does he hang out here then? But shhhh, I did not saythat). The boss wants change. At night he dreams the words‘change’, emblazoned bright across the horizon. He wants toget there and grab ‘change’. He is insistent, childlike almost,on change. It is his raison d'être, the apotheosis of his being.For using such language, I’d get thrown out of DU. We’vebeen asked to keep it simple. And well packaged.

The changes he wants are fundamental, or so he believes.He wants to redesign entry and exit cards. If you want to doeverything and learn nothing you can enter. If you wish toexit simply dumb, you can leave after two years. If you wishto add some polish to your dumbness, you can hang out forthree. But if you wish to seriously stand out and not fit intoanything, except perhaps in some distant shores which havepeculiar entry policies similar to my boss’s ideal, you are wel-come to stay for four years.

The boss believes the town’s not too crowded. Thedeputies differ. In any case till date all lawgivers have only car-ried harmless pens to go about their work, good for no morethan a threatening jab in the air. The guns I’m trying to get formy boss are intended to change the equation. Of course, someof us will get guns too, after he has his set. But not everyone.The ones who look up at the skies will remain holding pens.The ones who go about with their heads bent will carry fire-power. Guns are more useful in their hands. They never lookup. So they will fire at anyone when ordered to.

I greatly admire my boss. He is one of unwavering con-viction. His will to power can kick-spur anything, like gettinga constitution for the town framed in two hours flat. He lis-tens to none. He acts, then (at times) thinks. He is the needof the hour. He is the Great One, he who has the ‘final solu-tion’ for DU. He is not a piffling fool. His motto: To givegood laws, you must be willing to bend a few.

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Many may not term the story of Dalitentrepreneur Devanand Londhe as a

success story. But this businessman fromSangli district of Maharashtra has set up asmall factory in his village manufacturingcotton gloves. These gloves are exported toJapan. The reasons for setting up the unitin his village were two — cheap labourand giving employment to local women.Glove-making is an all-woman job andLondhe employs 150 women.

A few weeks back, I was in his village.I was told that more than half the womenin his factory were from the upper caste. Iwant to inform the esteemed reader thatthere is a sizeable Jain population inSangli. I was introduced to some of them.I asked one Jain worker what made herwork for a Dalit? It took some time for herto open up. But she finally told me thereason why she was working for a personfrom the lower caste. “Paisa jati se bada hogaya hai,” she said philosophically.

While there is no study done on thenumber of upper caste people working forlower caste, there is ample proof that thereare many people from the upper castewho, for the sake of making more money,have been working for Dalit entrepre-neurs. TV anchor Ravish Kumar did ashow for a news channel, NDTV —Special Report on Security Guards inDelhi. He interviewed many securityguards and asked them their caste as well.Many were from the upper caste. In fact,most of them were Brahmins, Bhumihars,

Thakurs and Rajputs from Uttar Pradeshand Bihar.

Kumar’s programme appeared a fewyears back. Wanting to know what the pre-sent situation is, I have been trying totrack the trend on my own. Whenever Ihire a taxi, anywhere in the country, Iinsist on taking the mobile number of thedriver. Not only this, while saving theirnumbers, I ask them their full name. Thishelps me identify their caste. For example,if one is in Maharashtra and the driver’ssurname is Kulkarni, it will mean that heis a Brahmin. If the driver’s surname isDeshmukh, it means that he belongs tothe upper most caste.

After identifying that the driver isindeed a Brahmin my question is alwaysthe same — “Brahmin ho kar bhi taxi cha-late hain aap? The answer now is pre-dictably the same — “Kya karein saheb,paisa to kamana hi hai.”

Many tell you that since they couldn’tstudy or didn’t do too well in school, theyhad no option but to become taxi drivers.A few years back, I was traveling fromRanchi to Jamshedpur. The driver’s sur-name was Sahu. Generally, Sahus belongto the Vaishya community, but in Orissa, itis a caste that equals to Bhumihars.

Surprisingly, the driver knew my casteas well. Not that I told him, but he gath-ered it from my conversation that I washaving with a friend of mine who wastravelling with me. I had some work inJamshedpur even though three days later,

the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce &Industry’s (DICCI) Ranchi chapter was tobe launched. On our way back, we stoppedfor tea at a roadside dhaba.

I was curious how the driver felt, dri-ving two Dalits from Ranchi to Jamshedpurand back. “Aap ke passenger Dalit aur aapSahu — kaisa lagta hai,” I had asked thedriver. “Saheb, aap mujhe Dilli le chalo aurapna driver rakh lo,” he had replied. At that

time, I didn’t think much of what he hadsaid. But the conversation came back to mein this present context.

While, once again, there is no studythat shows that people from the upper casteare going for jobs that are considered to belowly just so that they can earn moremoney, my observations suggest thatmoney is gaining prominence over caste. Ifmoney is becoming bigger than caste, whatshould the anti-caste crusaders be tellingthe Dalit youth? The Dalit youth shouldtake to business in a big way. Moreso, bythose people who swear by Dr BRAmbedkar’s name and follow his teachings.

Most Dalits will want to know fromwhere they will get the capital to start abusiness? Getting a loan from a bank evenfor people from the upper caste is difficult,how will the Dalits get it? Well, the answeris very simple — from where did DICCImembers get money to start their busi-nesses. I have seen many Dalits succeedingin business without taking a bank loan.Since I know hundreds of DICCI mem-bers, I am aware of how most of themstarted their business — with small sav-ings or borrowings from parents, relativesand friends.

The amount of money and effort thatmany Dalits spent in fighting the casteorder, without any success, can be used tostart their own venture. Not only will itimprove their lot, it will help the commu-nity to fight the caste system more effec-tively.

$����D����� �������� ����Speaking after last week’s chastening local election results, the

Conservative Party chairman, Grant Shapps, set out his agenda toregain popular support. He emphasised “fixing the economy”, “sortingout the welfare system” and “helping hard-working people to get on”.The Queen’s Speech last week, was a timely opportunity for theGovernment to make progress on those fronts — and, indeed, its lastpractical chance to introduce any radical legislation in this parliament.

Ministers know that the stakes could hardly be higher. Despitetheir efforts, the national debt is already at its highest level for 40years. Because the annual deficit in the public accounts is proving sohard to control, our debts are set to increase even further, peaking inthe next parliament.

How can we tackle this challenge? Well, in a way, Grant Shapps’scomments were on exactly the right track. It is the cost not just of thewelfare system, but of the welfare State — and in particular pensionsand the NHS — that will threaten the public finances both in this par-liament, and for decades to come. And what is chiefly responsible forthis process, which will imperil the economy and demand highertaxes from the hard-working people he talks about, is the ageing ofthe population.

Someone aged 65 who retires today has a one in six chance ofspending three decades in retirement. By 2035, the odds will be one infour. This increase in life expectancy is a cause for celebration — foreveryone but the Treasury, which is saddled with rising commitmentsto retired people. Already, the basic State pension costs more than £70billion per year, while the NHS spends roughly twice as much on pen-sioners as on those of working age.

We got a taste of how difficult it will be to address these issues lastweek, when Cabinet unity collapsed completely over the future ofthree benefits for pensioners: The winter fuel allowance (which IainDuncan Smith suggested should be handed back by those who feltthey didn’t need it), free TV licences and free bus passes. Their collec-tive cost is nearly £4 billion annually. That is certainly a lot of money— it would pay for the entire police service in England and Wales forthree months of the year. But even a saving on this scale would be justa first step.

On this score, Queen’s Speech last week, was a timely chance tomake some progress. It looks set, however, to be a missed opportunity.The Pensions Bill will introduce a new flat-rate pension that willincrease at the fastest possible rate for years to come: Under the “triplelock”, it will rise in line with whichever is highest out of inflation orearnings growth — and by at least 2.5 per cent a year come what may.This will, in time, cost the Exchequer more than £10 billion a year.Tories might reflect that one of the early reforms of MargaretThatcher’s Government was to impose a strict limit on the basic statepension, so that it would only rise in line with prices.

The Bill on social care is much better. It accepts that governmentcannot afford to pay for all of the costs of care homes. It tries to helppeople provide for themselves by capping their payments (excludingbed and board) at £72,000. But the Coalition is leaving unchallengedthe main NHS budget — which, at more than £100 billion a year, issix times bigger than social care.

Last week, Lord Warner of Brockley, the former Labour healthminister, argued that ring-fencing the health budget “creates the illu-sion that people don’t have to change the way they deliver services”.Areas subject to cuts, such as the police, fire and rescue and localGovernment, are using the financial pressure as a catalyst to updatetheir thinking. They are leaving behind expensive ways of workingand styles of employment that should have been culled years ago. TheNHS has barely begun.

The Government has to go further. Its ideas should include lowerand more realistic increases in the state pension. It should embracethe idea that people must share some of the costs of the NHS as wellas social care. Professor Malcolm Grant, the chairman of NHSEngland, observed last month that future Governments will inevitablyhave to consider charging for NHS services unless growth returns —and at unprecedented levels. Other developed countries devote rough-ly twice as much of GDP towards private payments for health care.These countries are better prepared for the future — and, in time, willhave far more freedom to reduce taxation.

Part of the problem in Britain is the strength of the elderly votingbloc. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of retired voters increasedby nearly 10 per cent. At the next election, fully a quarter of the elec-torate will be 65 or older; by 2050, it will be a third. Faced with thesenumbers, any politician could be forgiven for kicking the can downthe road. Yet there is a new mood in politics. Figures such as BorisJohnson or Nigel Farage are popular because they are seen to speakhonestly, warts and all. Voters want the right policies — but they alsowant authenticity and truth. And the honest truth is that the welfareState can no longer honour the promises of the past.

Through no fault of their own, pensioners have received a level ofsupport that cannot now be afforded. And if ministers grasp the nettlenow, Britain will be in a much better place — with families able toprepare for their own future, higher levels of saving, and, eventually,lower burdens on the taxpayer. If that was the message of the Queen’sSpeech tomorrow, we would all be better off.

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The success in the KarnatakaAssembly elections has

charged up the Congress. Butwhat is important is whether thefighting spirit exhibit-ed by the party-men will last tillthe 2014 LokSabha polls?The batteredimage of theCongress as aresult of aseries of scamsin the UPA-IIGovernment hasleft the partyleaders onthe defen-sive. Mostof thetime, theseleaders are busyshielding theMinisters involved.However, Karnatakavictory may beshortlived as the chantfor Prime MinisterManmohan Singh’s res-ignation is growinglouder daily.

Now, all eyesare on the revivalpackage of the Congress, espe-cially Uttar Pradesh, which hasbeen lagging behind on the pollscore. The Uttar PradeshCongress Committee (UPCC)chief Nirmal Khatri was conspic-uous by his absence even at atime when the party was cele-

brating its victory at the UPCCoffice. No wonder a party insiderremarked: “Perhaps the PCCchief is busy with more impor-tant matters than celebrating this

win in Karnataka.”However, the

question doing therounds is whether

UP will be ableto do aKarnataka in the

coming LokSabha elec-tions? Even theexpectations

seem to be far-fetched since

nothing can revivethe sagging morale

of the partymen, whohave been subjected to a

persistent bashing at theelections in the State.

Though the partyHigh Command had

appointed Khatri with thehope of revitalising the

party ranks, much needs tobe done in this direction asthe mood of the partyworkers remains

unchanged. Thesunken spirits of the

party workers added tothe infighting in the ranks hasmore or less pushed the party outof reckoning position in the elec-toral ladder.

Worse still is the fact that thevisits by the party’s national vice-president Rahul Gandhi and sis-

ter Priyanka Vadra are mainlyrestricted to Amethi and RaeBareli parliamentary constituen-cies. Questions are being raisedas to why the top leaders areignoring the remaining parlia-mentary constituencies in theState? After all, every seat countsin the upcoming GeneralElections.

But so far, the UPCC is hasnot even authorised to appointmembers of the party’s districtcommittees. Recently, Priyankawas in Rae Bareli for this pur-pose. A disappointed seniorparty leader remarked: “If theparty High Command is over-stepping and appointing districtcommittee members what then isthe role of the UPCC? Are theCongressmen only there to showtheir faces during the visits oftheir top leaders? What about theparty’s preparations for the 2014Lok Sabha polls vis-a-vis theother regional parties like theSamajwadi Party and BahujanSamaj Party which have alreadyfinalised their prospective candi-dates, many of whom have start-ed making preparations in theirrespective constituencies.”

A senior Congress leaderexplained: “Rahulji is personallymonitoring the poll process inUP so it is now up to him toselect candidates for the electionsand bring back the party ontrack.” The journey fromKarnataka to UP to the Centre isa fairly long one. One needs to

just keep the fingers crossed.

�������������� �The 2014 Lok Sabha election

is likely to throw up many sur-prises. If all goes well, the BJP islikely to field the party’s nationalgeneral secretary VarunGandhi from Sultanpur,adjacent to Rahul Gandhi’sAmethi seat. EarlierSultanpur, Amethi andRae Bareli were con-sidered Congressbastion. However,now Amethi isnot a part ofSultanpurdistrict.

It isbelieved thatthe BJP wasconsideringof shiftingVarunGandhi’sLok Sabhaseat from Pilibhitto Sultanpur so thathis mother Animalrights activist andfounder of PeopleFor AnimalsManeka Gandhi canreturn to her homeseat in Pilibhit. Thecontest will beinteresting ifVarun contestsfrom Sultanpur justnext to RahulGandhi’s Amethi seat.

The people are now waitingfor the two Gandhis to confronteach other at the polls.

�����������������Politics, it is said, is discussed

over a cup of tea. But theses days,it is the Coffee House in

the city which happensto be the favourite

hub of all politicalparties. So, cuttingacross party lineswe find them allgathered here.

Recently, abook by asenior jour-nalist onLucknow’s

Coffee Housecontributed in

reviving the erst-while culture of the

place. Some of thesenior’s frequenting the

place include veteran politi-cians like four times ChiefMinister and former AndhraPradesh Governor ND Tiwari,senior Cabinet Minister in theAkhilesh Yadav GovernmentRajendra Choudhary, sitting BJPMP Lalji Tandon. Senior CPIleader Atul Anjan and severalother former BSP leaders.

Of course, it goes withoutsaying that the hot topic ofdebate is the coming 2014 LokSabha elections and the poll pre-paredness of various politicalparties.

There are many things thatare annoying and confus-

ing the voter. A friend justcame back from Bangaloreafter witnessing the plight ofthe voter there. The commonman there is a upset anddoesn’t care much for theelections. A series of allegedcorruption charges duringthe BJP regime has left thepublic angry because it affectstheir daily lives. It is not justsomething that they read orhear in the media.

In Karnataka’s neigh-bouring State, AndhraPradesh, former ChiefMinister, the late YSRajasekhara Reddy, wasknown to work only if he gotsomething in return. The twomajor national parties — theCongress and the BJP — havenot risen for aam aadmi

expectations there. The public, therefore,

voted for the regional partiesand felt that their grievanceswere heard. The regionalleaders were approachableand delivered what theypromised. Since they didn’thave to report to the partyHigh Command, they wereonly answerable to the voter.

The Telangana issue hasleft every one confused. Noone appears to know what ishappening. YSR’s son andYSR Congress chiefJaganmohan Reddy willsweep the Assembly elec-tions. He rose to power usingthe Congress as a steppingstone. But the party’s arro-gance got the better of them.Today, even though he isbehind bars, he managed tosweep the by-polls. The

Assembly election will be nodifferent. Most people wantto know why the Congressfailed to give him a post andgetting him on their side?The Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh doesn’t havemuch say in his State. HisMinisters are doing whatpleases them.

Things are no better inMaharashtra. The ChiefMinister’s Office is so scaredthat a scam may come tolight that no file moves. Butthat has not stopped corrup-tion from taking place. So,while their allies are sitting athome and blaming their part-ners, the State’s business capi-tal is gradually sinking.

Let’s take a look at whatis happening in West Bengal.Chief Minister MamataBanerjee was always thought

of being incorruptible. Butthe chit fund scam hasexposed her as well. Theinvolvement of her nephewand her nominated RajyaSabha MPs have been caughton the wrong foot. But in theend, it is the common manwho suffers. Hearts bleed forthe maid who committedsuicide when her life savingsworth �30,000 vanished.

The people of the Statehad voted for Mamatabecause they thought shewould make sweepingchanges that will improvetheir lot. The much-hypedporiborton or profferedchange of Mamata hasproved to be a sham. Thechit fund sponsored media-houses are closing downrapidly. They were the oneswho had become her party’s

mouth pieces. Peoplebelieved them as they praisedDidi 24x7.

The very same people aretoday agitating because theyhave lost their jobs. In themidst of all this screaming,the voice of the aam aadmihas drowned. The peopleonce again have been leftwith two choice — theCongress of the Left.

At the Centre, things areno better. Whenever thenews of a new scam breaks,the Opposition has only onedemand — resignation of theconcerned Minister and thePrime Minister. But whentheir own Ministers arecaught, they are shielded.With more and more leadersbeing involved in scams, thedilemma facing the voter iswhom should he vote for?

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Life is not good for workingmothers who have to jugglemany things — from an ever

competitive workplace to householdchores, there is lots for them to do.Given this situation, apps designedspecially to suit working mom’sneeds could become instant super-hits, a market entrepreneurs havebeen eyeing for a long time. But veryfew have explored this area till now.

For this Mothers’ Day, app ser-vice providers are vying for yourattention — with a hugevariety of appli-cations, designedfor mothers, theyare hoping to cashin on this vacuum.

“We have beentrying to enter theIndian space withapps designed forworkingmothers.We are soongoing to be launch-ing a special socialnetwork on thesmartphone with fea-tures for the benefit of mothers only,”Jitendra Singh from Gurgaon-basedApps4u, tells you. He tells you thathis app, based social networking, willhelp women be in constant touch.

When the talk is about beingconnected even while being on thego, Wechat, a voice and text messag-ing communication service, hascraved a niche for itself. “At present,

we have a little over three mil-lion subscribers globally. ForMothers’ Day, we have thebaap of all apps available free.The app provides multimediacommunication flexibilityand convenience with textmessaging, hold-to-talkvoice messaging,

Video/Audio calling, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, photo/videosharing, location sharing, and con-tact information exchange forstarters,” Rahul Razdan, president-10c India Internet Private Ltd, tellsyou.

He adds that for multi-taskingworking moms who are always onthe go, the ability to connect withyour boss, team and clients using

broadcast feature can come in handy.With a one touch voice messenger,working mothers can handle workand home at the same time. “Imaginea scenario when the mother iskneeding the dough for rotis. Shesuddenly gets a call from office thatshe cannot take. So what does shedo? Go to the person’s contact andsend him a voice message. In twosimple quick steps, your work isdone,” he says.

This app can be downloaded inany OS and works with 2G and 3Gbandwith as well.

Then there is the Evernote, anapp that helps the mother remembereverything. This free service storesall of your notes, ideas, plans andphotos in one easy-to-access plat-

form. “Just store anything, access itanywhere with a simple swipe,” AnitaGogia, 23 year old MBA student,says.

For women who are consciousabout their fitness and don’t findtime to hit the gym, worry not! Withthe newly launched, My Fitness Pal itis easy to monitor your BMI and alsokeep a tab on the calorie counter. Inaddition to tracking calories eaten,this app also tracks your caloriesburned.

Tracking a baby’s progress mustbe one of the most painful jobs that amother needs to pay heed to. WithTotal Baby app, mothers can now setup reminder alarms. Milestones,doctor visits, growth charts, and vac-cines are just a few of the otherentries you can track while on themove.

For women who like to don thehat of a chef every once in a while,there is a How To Cook Everythingapp that one can take help from.

“ The app lets you browse 2,000recipes and also features Bittman’sown picks. Users can vote on theirfavorite recipes, and the most popu-lar ones appear in the app in a fea-tured recipes section.

“Another awesome thing aboutthis app is that when you are brows-ing the recipes, you’ll be given anoverview, a list of ingredients and thesteps to follow,” Geeta Batra, a work-ing professional, swears by this app.

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Expanding its low-costsmartphone series, Nokia

has globally launched Asha501 touchscreen modelwhich will be available in themarket by June at around�5,500 in India. “We willdeliver Asha 501 in June tomillions of people,” StephenElop, Nokia CEO said.

Asha 501 is the firstdevice to run on the newAsha platform. It has a 3-inch QVGA TFT capacitivedisplay and includes 128 MBof inbuilt flash memory andincludes a 4GB memory cardexpandable up to 32GB.

The device comes withNokia Xpress Browser pre-loaded, which compressesInternet data by up to 90percent. “Asha 501 is thenext generation of Ashasmartphones. We’ve creatednew Asha platform. 80 per-cent of world operates in 2Genvironment and Asha 501is customised to suit 2Genvironment. We’ll expandthis family with 3G productsas well,” Elop added.

The users will be able toaccess Facebook through astandalone app for free onpartner operator networks.It’s the first Nokia device atsuch a low price point to usea micro-SIM. The phone fea-tures a 3.2-megapixel cam-era, WiFi, a lock screen witha glanceable clock and Nokiasays the Asha 501 offers 48days in standby and 17 hoursof talk time. The device isavailable in single and dualSIM models.

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Bioshock Infinite is the third in the Bioshock series.Set in the fantasy floating city of Columbia, you area private investigator who is hired to find ‘the girl’.

Like in real life politics and religion are a heady here inColumbia as well. The girl has super natural powers andyou are on the run as the mark on your hand classifiesyou as the “false shepherd”. While on the run you willally with the resistance called the “Vox Populi” who willaid you to survive. The environment changes as thegame progresses, from bright and sunny to dark & mor-bid with burning streets.

Like the first Bioshock’s plasmids, you haveColumbia’s version which are called vigors. Vigors can bethrown, or used to charge at impossible speeds or togenerate a shockwave to weaken the enemy and thenfinish off with a regulation pistol. Due to the wide openspaces, combat is varied.

Your enemies will come atyou from all directions andinterestingly in a dizzyingarray of platforms (airships)and distances (snipers). Allthrough this Elizabeth is withyou, tossing health packs,opening doors etc. She alsopulls a few cool tricks.

A word of advice, be care-ful with your upgrades andammo. As you will be forced to choose and when yourun out of ammo you will end up with an un-upgradedweapon and that could leave you in a very awkwardposition.

The game is beautifully made with lush landscapesbegging you to come and explore every nook and cran-ny. Worth acquiring and playing.

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�What came first, your love for Indiaor your love for Bollywood?

My love for India. I was fascinated byancient India as much as I was with thewestern classical world. Initially, I wasinterested in the languages that the coun-try had to offer, especially with Sanskrit.Slowly, I was introduced to other philo-sophical texts — I read up a lot on reli-gion, epics and kavya. I was never reallyinto cinema when I was a teenager, Iwould just catch the occasional localrelease. During my time there was noDVD or VHS so we were restricted onlyto the cinema halls. �What made you take keen interest incinema?

I was far more concerned with litera-ture and music. It was only when I cameto London for my studies that I startedvisiting the National Film Theatre (nowthe British Film Institute). That is when Isaw Satyajit Ray’s films which opened myeyes to cinema and made me a madcinephile. �How about your love for Bollywood.When did that strike you?

When I first visited India in 1981, Iwanted to see the great temples of TamilNadu. Later, as my interest in modernIndia developed, I realised that I neededto learn Hindi and that the easiest way todo so was through cinema.

I thought songs were the best way tolearn the dialect of a particular place.And I simply adored Indian music, esp-cially the songs directed by Sachin DevBurman and his brother, Rahul Dev. Iwatched all the songs from NasreenMunni Kabir’s film Mahal with subtitlesand was mesmerised.

I don’t recall which was my firstHindi film though. Probably Sholay. Iremember I was very taken aback when Isat next to Amjad Khan on board a flightin 1989. ‘Look I am sitting next toGabbar’! I exclaimed much to everyone’ssurprise.

�What made you a fan of Hindi cine-ma?

Frankly, I was intrigued by the waypeople talked about Hindi films. Thestars of the film and the magazines thatwrote about them fascinated me. Irealised that in Indian films it is the starthat is more talked about than the filmitself. There was a time when I used towatch six-seven films in a month. Mostof them were recommended by friends.That’s when I realised that I was hookedto Bollywood.

After watching a particular film Iwould hear what film historians likeMunni and Asha Kasbekar had to sayabout it. I learnt a lot from these people.When I was researching for my PhD inBaroda, I saw Chandni and Agneepathwhich were huge hits of the time. �You said you were a huge fan ofSRK...

I met Shah Rukh Khan for the firsttime in Mani Kaul’s play titled the TheIdiot screened at the NFT. I must havespoken with him for exactly 10 minutesbut at the end of the conversation, I wastotally in awe. I started following hisfilms from then on. Even the ones that Ihad missed. At that time, I had very littleidea that I would end up writing aboutYash Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan andthat I would ever attend a conferenceabout SRK in Vienna.�How are Hindi films different from

English ones?I always preferred spectacular gen-

res of cinema — epics, musicals and theworks. Bollywood gives much attentionto spectacle, melodrama and music — allof which I love. I prefer English classicsbut I like all sorts of Hindi films. �Have you explored regional cinema

in India ?Not enough. I have seen some super

hits from down South and a few banglafilms which were recommended to meby my friends. I suppose I see more of

the ‘art’ cinema made in languages otherthan Hindi as these are on the festivalcircuit. I’ve seen some great Marathifilms also. �Why do you think Indian movies failto impress at the Oscar Awards?The Oscar Awards choose a particularkind of cinema. Biopics are hugely popu-lar so the Indian co-production, Gandhi,won 8 Awards. The Academy Awardsjury is not too keen of art cinema, butSatyajit Ray won a lifetime Oscar Awardfor his contribution to the film industry.Nowadays, the quality of Indian cinemahas gone down a bit. I won’t say they areall kitch, but meaningful cinema are fewand far between.

Having said that I do believe that theOscar is not an absolute standard ofquality, so people should stop worryingabout it. �How has Indian cinema evolved andhas diaspora influenced it?

Cinema is ever-evolving. There are afew films made every year just to pleasethe Indian diaspora but I don’t see any-thing wrong in that. Bhojpuri cinema hasemerged in part because of the main-stream becoming too metropolitan.�Which is your favourite Hindi filmand why?

That’s impossible to determine. But ifI have to make a choice, then I will gowith Amar Akbar Anthony. It’s mad,funny, and occasionally serious. Thecasting is superb and the music just bril-liant.�Do you see influence of the west inBollywood?

Indian cinema has always drawn alot from its western counterparts. EvenPhalke was inspired by a western film.However, India remains one of the fewcountries in the world that prefers itsown cinema to that of Hollywood.Kudos to the filmmakers in Bollywoodwho can take inspiration from variousfilms but in the end bring out an entirely

Indianised version. That is an art initself. �Your take on role of women in cine-ma…

There is no single role that you canidentify women to. Each film is differentand within a film there are different rolesfor different women. Mainstream filmsare about sex and romance which mayrestrict the role of the heroine but lastyear’s hits such as Kahaani and EnglishVinglish showed that films can explore afemale perspective too and get all themoolah. More complex female perspec-tives are seen in more realistic cinemasuch as that of Shyam Benegal.�What is your take on item numbers?

Some are like western music videoswhich are all about sex and innuendoand aren’t made for my age group.Others are lively and entertaining. Someare comical and I find them to be so.�What fascinated you the most about

Yash Chopra and his movies the most?Can you recall your last meeting withhim?

His directorial career spans fourdecades and he has been a major pro-ducer since 1973, consolidating his suc-cess in the 1990s with a series of boxoffice hits. As such, he is a public figure,not only in the film industry but also as arepresentative of the industry to thewider world. His name has come to rep-resent a certain style, not only in film-making but also in Indian culture itself,where his name is synonymous withromance, glamour and beauty.

I last met him in June 2012 when hewas wrapping up the London schedule ofJab Tak Hai Jaan. We had organised alunch for his fans and I was a part of it! �What is your next book about?

My book explores the nature of thiscinema which is often dismissed as‘escapist entertainment’, by thinking howescapism and entertainment functionand are mobilised in these hugely popu-lar films, which eschew realistic depic-tions of the everyday, arguing that Hindicinema is the best and most reliableguide we have to how Indians are think-ing about life and the world.�Tell us about your next project —cul-

tural history of the Indian elephant.. I’m interested in elephants them-

selves but in particular in the way peoplethink about them. I am also looking atthe wider ways in which Indian cultureconsiders animals and what makes themdifferent from or similar to humans andGods.

I am quite excited about this projectand waiting to see how it shapes up. Theresearch work for this is going to be anherculian task but I like to take chal-

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in Meerut. For 15 days, thecops kept telling the hapless par-ents that he would come back.Only after a lot of pressure, didthey agree to start a hunt.

“We live in a jhuggi and ittakes a lot of guts for us toapproach the cops for help. But Idid so when my son did not returnfrom the playground. At first, nocase, not even a daily diary entrywas made by the station incharge.And when they did so, it was toolate. Gaurav was no more,” hisfather tells you. He was asked to“pay up” if he wanted the culpritarrested! No arrest has been madein this case.

Lal tells you that skewed lawson kidnapping and missing chil-dren make it a lost cause for par-ents. They have to struggle againstthe entire system to get their childback, safe and sound — and most-ly they lose the battle.

Turned away by the cops andnowhere else to go, families ofmissing children have gone on tothe social media to post theirmissing person reports online.According to recent data releasedby alexa.com, a global monitor ofonline traffic, more than 10 suchreports have been circulated inIndia every month. The mediumsare diverse with Facebook leadingthe pack with over 1,600 missing

people’s reports being circulated injust 2012.

One such case in point is thatof Ashish Wadia, 28-year-oldmedia professional with the newschannel Aaj Tak. Wadia posted onFacebook, a report of his nephewwho went missing onDecember 2, 2012.The response hegot was over-whelming.

“Vivaan wasonly three when hewas kidnapped andkilled by a con-struction workerwho was my sister’sspurned lover. Hehad threatened herof dire conse-quences if she didnot leave her hus-band and child forhim. In December2012, he kidnappedVivaan from thepark and eyewit-nesses confirmedthat Raju was theman. The policenabbed him after23 days. He hadconfined Vivaan toa small room in aflat he was con-structing barely 10

km from his home.“But the tip-off came too late.

Vivaan was found nine days afterhe died due to hunger and thirst.His body had shrivelled up anddecomposed. Raju would havegotten away with minor punish-ment had my FB friends not kept

up the pressure with an intenseonline agitation,” Wadia says.

Targeting high-risk areasand stepping up surveillance inspecial zones could help curbsuch incidents. Children are athigh risk at train and bus ter-

minals. Those in the knowsay that touts hang around

these places and kidnapunattended children.

They are expertsat grabbingthem even iftheir parentsare close by.

“Why dowe assume that

if a child is cry-ing near a couple,

he must be their son ordaughter? What is the harm in

enquiring whether all is well with

the child? If vigilant citizens askthe right questions, many childrencan be saved,” Vaidya says.

There is also a more sophisti-cated manner in tracing missingchildren. Vinod Kumar Tikoo,member of National Commissionof Protection of Child Rights(NCPCR), feels it is high time thatIndia designated an anti-traffick-ing unit to find missing children.“There’s no law as such but chan-nels like an anti-trafficking unitcan help trace these children. Weneed a concerted effort to makethings work,” Tikoo says.

The problem of missing chil-dren remains a global issue. TheUS Department of Justice reports7,97,500 children younger than 18were reported missing in a oneyear period of time studied result-ing in an average of 2,185 childrenbeing reported missing each day.203,900 children were the victimsof family abductions while 58,200children were the victims of non-family abductions. 115 childrenwere the victims of “stereotypical”kidnapping. These crimes involvesomeone the child does not know

or a slight acquaintance who holdsthe child overnight, transports thechild 50 miles or more, kills thechild, demands ransom, or intendsto keep the child permanently.

“We can teach our children tobe safe, to not talk to strangers, tobe cautious, yet predators stillexist. In America, the majority ofchild abductions come from with-in the sphere of people the childknows, such as a family member.The greater cause for concern isthat there are cultures and regionsin the world where the value ofchildren’s lives are cheapened anddisregarded. Programmes to raisepeople’s awareness about the dig-nity of children could have animpact, educationally. My paint-ings of missing children aim to dothat — to promote dignity and tohonour the fragility of childhood,”John Paul Thornton a reputedAmerican artist and educator, tellsyou.

While the issue and lawremain quite the same, it is a factthat the recovery rate of missingchildren in the West is far greaterthan in India. “Due to the lack ofproper mechanisms we are notable to trace missing children intime,” agrees Vaidya.

But there are a few who havebeen lucky. Take the case of Irfan,a 12-year-old boy from Nangloi

east in the Capital. He was one ofthe very few lucky children whoreturned safe. He had been kid-napped by a tout and taken to aremote Punjab village to work inthe fields as a slave. He toiled therewas over a year before beingfound.

Today, he has restricted him-self to his kucca makaan as he istoo scared to venture out alone.And, he wants to stay away fromthe media glare.

“I was playing near my housewhen two men came on a bike andstarted asking for directions.When I offered my help, theygagged me with a piece of cloth. Ifell unconscious and the nextthing I knew I was in Punjab at asardar’s home. He made me workall through the day and would reg-ularly beat me up. One day, I man-aged to break a window pane andrun away to Ludhiana. There, Istarted working with a propertydealer. He was kind enough to giveme food and shelter and also asalary. One day, he saw my photo-graph on the TV and asked mewhere I came from. I told him Iwas kidnapped from Delhi. Hesent me back immediately. I could-n’t remember by address but Imanaged to reach Nangloi. Aneighbour spotted me and tookme home,” Irfan recalls.

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Ican never forget that momentous day backin 1999 when Manchester United stageda stunning comeback to win the

Champions Trophy Final against BayernMunich and complete a historic treble in theprocess.

With the Red Devils trailing 1-2 and justthree minutes left on the clock, it almostseemed like Bayern had the trophy in theirhands.

But ManU did the unthinkable over thenext couple of minutes, with two goals in stop-page time.

That is the image of Sir Alex Fergusson’sManchester United that will always stay in mymind.

A team with indomitable fighting spirit,never giving up till the last second, no mat-ter how seemingly the situation may be.

This is also one of the qualities which haveendeared Manchester United to millions offans across the globe.

Over the years, there have been teamswhich are more talented, with a superiorfootball philosophy.

Like FC Barcelona, who gave them a les-son in the art of football in the ChampionsLeague final of 2009. Or the ‘Galacticos’ ofReal Madrid during the previous decade.Several other European clubs, includingBayern Munich, AC Milan and Inter Milanhave had as good a squad — if not better —than United.

Even the Arsenal team of the late 90s andearly 2000s, studded with the likes of DennisBergkamp, Patrick Viera, Emmanuel Petit,Martin Keone and David Seaman along witha young Thierry Henry with tons of speed toburn were extremely formidable opponents.

But led by the never say attitude of SirAlex, the boys from Manchester surpassedthem all on more than one occasion.

With Sir Alex Ferguson stepping down asmanager of Manchester United at the end ofthe current English Premier League (EPL) sea-son, a glorious chapter in the annals of worldfootball will come to an end.

Like the end of the world, for those whofollow English football closely, the retirementof Sir Alex Ferguson was always one of thosethings it’s probably best to imagine never actu-ally happening at all.

The sight of a grumpy, scowling old manfuriously chewing gum on the sidelines,spitting out instructions to his players and theoccasional abuse to the referees and linesmenhas become something of a permanent fixturein the world of football.

The announcement even forcedManchester United’s share price down by 4.5per cent to less than $18 on the New York

stock exchange initially but by the close it hadbounced back to $18.44 — a 1.76 per centfall overall.

English football’s longest serving manag-er will retire immediately after the PremierLeague fixture against West Bromwich Albionat the Hawthorns Stadium on May 19. It willbe the 2,154th match of Ferguson’s career —both as a player and as a coach.

Sir Alex’s career holds true to the age oldadage that great players do not become greatcoaches.

As a player, he was little better thanmediocre. He made his debut as a 16-year-old

for Glasgow based Queen’s Park FC in theScottish League. He played for the next 16years, including a stint at Rangers FC beforebecoming manager at East Stirlingshire inJune 1974 at the age of 32 - a comparativelyyoung age for a manager.

When he took over as coach at the‘Theatre of Dreams’ on November 6, 1986after a successful eight years at Scottish clubAberdeen, Manchester United was hardly theGoliath it is now.

The team had finished at a lowly 21stposition (second from bottom) in theEnglish League.

The fact that he managed toturn around the team and ledthem to a whopping 13 PremierLeague titles and two ChampionsTrophies over the next 26 years is tes-tament to his football acumen andmanagerial skills.

There are more than one way of rank-ing football managers. First is the combinedweight of total trophies won.

On this count Ferguson will comparefavourably against the best with 13English league titles, three Scottishtitles, 16 domestic cups and fourmajor European trophies.

He has both the Scottishfirst division title and the FifaClub World Cup.

On his own he’s won more tro-phies than Arsenal, who first startedtrying to win them in 1886.

Other than trophies, the other standardmeasure of managerial achievement is the lega-cy that he leaves behind. Ferguson has left behinda lasting imprint at not one but two clubs.

First at Aberdeen, where his success inwresting the ascendancy away from the twogiants of Scottish football — CelticandRangers — is a brilliant footballing story inits own right. The team that beat RealMadrid to win the European CupWinners Cup crowned the first greatFerguson era.

After joining United, Ferguson hasrepeatedly demonstrated his owngreatest strength, the ability to con-tinue to learn and evolve even inmoments of triumph.

Apart from all the trophies, healso had a knack of transform-ing good players into extraor-dinary ones. Be it the ever-green Ryan Giggs, who con-tinues to compete at thehighest level at the age of 39,David Beckham, PaulScholes or Wayne Rooney.

And of course, whocan forget ChristianoRonaldo who spentsix years underFerguson’s tute-lage before arecord transferto Europeangiants RealMadrid.

He willleave behinda legacy, a glit-tering era ofunbridled suc-cess that will be abenchmark againstwhich subsequentgenerations of managerswill be judged.

� Once ran a pub. Ferguson hasworked outside football, starting outas an apprentice toolmaker andshop steward in Glasgow and muchlater running a pub that he renamedFergie’s with a downstairs barnamed the Elbow Room in mem-ory of his physical style as a player.�Intrigued by JFK. Gordon Brownsent him numerous CDs about theassassination of JFK. Fergusonbonded with Brown over a sharedinterest in US politics. “Gordon sentme 35 CDs on it, which was brilliantof him,” he told Manchester radiostation Key 103 in 2007. Fergusonis fascinated with JFK. He said hekept JFK’s autopsy report by his bed.He also has a copy of the WarrenReport signed by [the former USpresident] Gerald Ford.�Gave the young Kenny Dalglishlifts. When Ferguson was at Rangershe gave lifts to a young KennyDalglish who was hoping to besigned. “Fergie used to give us a liftinto town. He had such a big car,”Dalglish told the Guardian. WhenDalglish was picked up by city rivalsCeltic he was forced to play centreback and mark Ferguson in areserve team game.� Told Alastair Campbell to get amasseur for Tony Blair. Fergusonwas a big Labour donor and advisedTony Blair on leadership. The ideaof getting a masseur for the election“battle bus” may have been a steptoo far, he later admitted. Betteradvice was when he said: “So longas you can keep all your key peo-

ple in the same room at the sametime, you’ll be fine.”�Not the longest serving manager.Ferguson was manager ofManchester United for 26-and-a-half years. The longest servingleague manager in Europe wasGuy Roux, who occupied the hot-seat at French team Auxerre for 44years, finally stepping down in2005. Ferguson isn’t even the longestserving Scottish manager. WillieMaley was Celtic manager from1897-1940, clocking up 43 years.�Used to jump over walls as a boy.He grew up in a poor area ofGlasgow where there wasn’t muchto do apart from play football, fightand jump over walls, known asdykes. “The dangerous ones hadnames - the king, the queen, the sui-cide, the diamond, the spiky,”Ferguson once said. “You’d go to dif-ferent areas of Govan to challengeeach other into jumping dykesbecause it was very dangerous. Butyou do that when you’re a kidbecause you’ve got no fear.”

�“Fergie time” is 79 seconds:“Fergie time” is the widely heldbelief by supporters of otherteam, that if Man Utd are losingafter 90 minutes, the referee willextend injury time long enough forthem to equalise or win. Last year,the BBC analysed Fergie time. Itfound that Man Utd were notunique in being given extrainjury time when they werelosing, although it appearedthey got more than otherteams. Games went on 79 sec-onds longer when ManchesterUnited were losing than win-ning. Man Utd’s toweringachievement - securing the treblewith victory in the 1999 EuropeanChampions League - was achievedin Fergie time, when they reverseda Bayern Munich lead, by scoringtwo goals after the 90th minute.� The “hairdryer treatment”: Players speak in awestruck tones ofwhat it is like to be on the receiv-ing end of Sir Alex’s temper. The“hairdryer” — for its sound andheat — became the chosen phrase.Players talk of the moment whenan enraged Ferguson presses hisface close to the you and emits aterrifying torrent of abuse. FormerManchester United winger LeeSharpe has been credited withinventing the term. DavidBeckham said: “The fear of get-ting the hairdryer was the rea-son why we all played so well.He was a manager you wantedto do well for.”

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