AFTERNOON VOICE

I am no Anna

2011-08-26T06:35:00.001-07:00

When it comes to Gandhi, (Mahatma to Madam), everyone criticizes; when it comes to their good deeds, they want be called Gandhian. India, a country of one billion plus, still depend on these dinosaurs to lead us. Why can’t we make up a political party which is totally secular, unlike other parties which divide Indians into Dalits, Muslims and Christians? It does not even acknowledge the presence of the majority Hindus. There is a need for a political party made up of educated young men dedicated to the upliftment of India and its poor and treating every Indian as an equal, and on his merit. After all, you can admit a donkey to Engineering or Medical school but you can’t make him a thoroughbred race horse.

The Parliament was formed since the all the citizens can't assemble at a place and hence their representatives were elected as MPs/MLAs. Now the Technology has become very advance. We can discuss the issue through Media, Internet, Papers or any other means and can Caste Vote through Mobiles, Internet and other format. At a given time, out of 544 MP's, hardly few are available in the Parliament. The MP's make a mockery of the Parliament. Even to reach parliament and seek votes, other parties are bribed. The most corrupt Parliament decides the fate of and progress of this country.

We don't need the Parliament now. We can franchise our votes through the latest technology. It is important to adopt points in Jan LokPal bill; Team Anna did not force the Jan Lok Pal bill in its purest format. We are very well aware of the team formed and them reaching out to all politicians. Dear Sir, you were PM material, but we expect clear intent and desire about such subject, which affects every Indian. We do not need any confusing statements.

Swami Agnivesh, who is on board Team Anna, walked out of the mission due to the differences with other members. Same happened with Hegde. He too cut off himself from team Anna, infact he is the one who drafted this bill. Agnivesh ridiculed Anna’s agitation saying this is some sort of..., seen as a threat to the Parliament, with the condition 'you do it by tomorrow or day after'. This is not becoming of a Gandhian fast or a moment. He said the movement against corruption has been total, peaceful and non-violent and got solidarity from all across the country. So this was the right moment to call it off. But even if it is being called off tomorrow or if it is prolonged and somebody insists on passing the bill, we should respect parliamentary procedures and the Constitution. Too much of dictatorship of Kiran bedi and imposition from kejriwal, somewhere Anna’s mission is going haywire. Now, except the sponsor people on the Ramleela ground, common public as such lost the interest, those who are publicity mongers are reaching Ramleela to see the fasting old man not with any intention to support his mission.

BJP also surprised people by withdrawing support all of sudden; this is the true colour of BJP. Confused party, there is no proper stand on the lokpal issue. On one side party leader Gadkari said BJP is fully supporting the lokpal. On the other hand, Advani is saying passing Anna’s lokpal under the given clauses is difficult in such short span. All the politicians are corrupt, BJP is not exceptional. May be there are few issues in the current Jan Lok Pal. Why political parties not willing to create a strong bill against corruption? Do they want all the parties to support corruption? Without sticking to each of the provisions of Jan Lokpal that is not self-righteous, the main spirit of the bill has to be respected by the government and they have to introduce their own bill so that they are morally bound to get it passed. The twist in the issue is activists are deeply divided over the anti corruption movement led by Anna Hazare. This is the time when Anna and his team should not stand on false prestige. It should gauge the public mood and the aspirations of the youth, students and the ordinary people.

The government should also realise that the proposed Lokpal bill draft falls much short of the people's aspirations. Instead of sitting on technicalities that the bill is the property of the Parliament and so on, the government has already rectified its stand and got the issue in parliament for discussion and they are trying to make it an effective legislation. Parliament should be respected, but the supreme parliament - people - should get higher respect. Anna and his team have realised that Public sentiment is against corruption. Now, nobody can stop this yearning for transparency and accountability. Among individuals and groups, families and communities, the talk narrows down to one point: Corruption and the mounting corruption in the country. Probably this is the reason Anna is inflexible over several appeals by Government.

I don't support Anna's movement at all; neither does he represent me in any way. He has adopted a demanding attitude in his fight against corruption and is affiliated to right-wing Hindu groups. Everyone is been fighting the government pressing for some legislation like the communal violence bill. But that doesn't mean Anna’s team can undermine the existing democratic institutions of India. Framing laws need deep engagements, holistic consultations. Bills aren't Maggie noodles that you cook for two minutes and are ready to eat. What Anna is proposing is an anti-democratic Lokpal. It would take away all the power from existing institutions and suddenly we will have an over-arching and super-power like institution. For that, a necessary condition is the creation of a social consciousness which would decisively disapprove and reject the culture of favouritism and nepotism. Moreover, one must also need to define corruption. Are we only worried about the monetary corruption? Does this lokpal cover all that? Or they are ignoring morally corrupt behavior of the people?

The Jan Lokpal Bill thus raises the conflict of interest, as well as the merger of powers correctly separated by the Constitution, to the level of structural principles.
Even if the office of the Lokpal is constituted as an 11-member panel, will these members be attending personally to the torrent of complaints that will pour onto their desks every day? The Lokpal’s office will require machinery far faster than any so far in existence in India. Who is going to monitor the Lokpal’s super-bureaucracy? Slowly everyone is realising the ground facts. However, greed for power and credit earning aim result in dumping and parting from main issues.

Who says Anna is Gandhi?

2011-08-25T02:55:00.001-07:00

Fully packed publicity stunts with good PR and promotions, this agitation has taken worst shape. Every day unwanted SMSs and calls from marketing agencies stating how great is Anna and his Satyagraha, bothers everyone. Too much of hammering on national television, the charm of this agitation is fading away somewhere down the line.
By wearing a Gandhi topi and white Dhoti one can never become Gandhi, Anna declaring himself as Gandhi is a blot on the ‘Father of the Nation’.

Gandhiji always believed in creating awareness and discussing the issues with taking large number of people in confidence. He never asked people to resort to violent means or gave liberty to anyone for creating ransack in public life. He never believed in show off or false displays. His fight for freedom has grace. Anna Hazare himself was corrupt at times; he used government machineries’ for his personal benefit. He misused trust funds, his relatives are his successors. What now people are painting about him is just an eye wash and exaggeration.

If Hazare would have been really an honest man then the corruption issues in Maharashtra would have evaporated by now. Whenever he raised his voice over sugar factory scams, land gabbing issues, farmer’s issues, instead of being strict he took good will and perks from them. That’s the reason Anna couldn’t deter Maharashtra Government and its ministers.

Did not we protest against the British and saved our country from the clutches of its tyranny? Did it solve our problems and are we happy? The issue of corruption and satyagraha by Anna was important, but his team is taking him for a ride. Instead of depending on Kejriwal, and Kiran Bedi, he should have invited others people such as Aruna Roy and her team taken into confidence and ensured a dialogue instead of resorting to fast for demands that would undermine supremacy of the Parliament. I was really shocked to see G R Khairnar and Desarda, a former member of the Maharashtra planning board and Hazare's associate for two decades, pointing flaws in Anna and his movement. Anna had some drawbacks, which others exploited at times. Anna always has a coterie around him who get influenced. It could become a problem, as there could be people with vested interests in this coterie. In fact, this is the reason many respected personalities who used to work with Hazare distanced themselves from him, now.

Anna’s knowledge of the Constitution and law was limited and he relied on people around him. Even at this time, he is under the control of people like Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Santosh Hegde, Swami Agnivesh and Kiran Bedi. In fact, he should have taken others into confidence in larger public interest instead of monopolising the movement. Khainar termed Hazare's fast unwarranted and unwise. Many have the opinion that Anna has become a pawn in the hands of Bedi and Kejriwal. In addition, communal forces have jumped into the agitation. Government made blunder by arresting Anna, otherwise today he wouldn’t have gained sympathy waves.

Khairnar had also launched a campaign against corruption and criminalisation of politics in the 90s. He distances himself from this movement of Hazare because he found him conflicting personality. In 1995 was his inconsistent approach towards the issue. Hazare told Khairnar not to speak against Sharad Pawar because he is holy cow of Maharashtra and later, he met Bal Thackeray and asked him to eliminate corruption. Riding on the wave, the Sena-BJP combine found it easier to win power in Maharashtra in the 1995 assembly elections. As per Khairnar, Anna’s associates are exploiting his popularity and misleading the whole movement. In the recent past, Y.P. Singh, former IPS officer, claims that he had given Anna Hazare Adarsh papers to seek ouster of Deshmukh and Shinde from cabinet. However, Anna kept quiet.

Anna is a simple man and has hardly travelled outside his village to understand the nitty-gritty of the whole issue. The government's draft may be weak but even Anna's proposals have provisions which run contrary to the Constitution of India. Are we not protesting against the corruption? Will it solve our problem? The fight for independence, fight against right and wrong, and fight against corruption will remain as long as human race exist on this earth. One should publicise the history of mankind from several thousand years.

Team Anna wants a written commitment from the government assuring that a bill with Jan Lokpal elements will be passed this Parliament session. The main issue that seems to have resolved during the talks held between the two sides is that the PM will now be included within the purview of the Lokpal Bill. But if MP’s are included within the purview of the Lokpal Bill then they must include business man, corporate house and NGO’s too. The actual corruption is here.

Determined to break the deadlock over the ballooning agitation led by Hazare, the Congress pulled out all stops to end the row and appealed for suppleness and moderation from all stakeholders on the Lokpal bill. Government called an all-party meeting to break the logjam. But the paths and methodologies used by the government and Hazare's team are different. Still the government is committed to passing a constitutionally valid and the best possible Lokpal legislation with inputs from civil society with the broadest possible consensus. And they are open to talk with everyone concerning this issue. Team Anna wants written assurance on Lokpal and government wants play safe by not committing anything. So far nothing concrete has happened. Let us see how many more meeting takes place to settle this issue. All party meeting at 7, Race Course Road, PM’s residence has not come to any conclusion, today. Let see who wins the final race…

It’s too early to conclude over Lokpal

2011-08-24T01:25:00.001-07:00

The letter written by prime minister seems to be mere formality; it’s nowhere close to the demands of Anna and his team. It is very clear that the government is trying to give the message that several clauses in the Anna’s draft is not practical and it won’t be accepted as it is. Moreover, his letter also tried to make a precise point that there are other groups of civil societies too and that the Government will consider their point of view. Prime Minister rubbished the basic demands of team Anna by saying that boils down to semantic debate.
Any ways let us be practical. We all love bribes, whether they are good or bad. But, for some, definitely it is not a good idea. For the people belonging to middle and small income group, it is not something that really makes them happy unless they get their work done by bribing the concerned authorities.
Unless the Indian masses are taken into confidence, the movement cannot succeed. I have no hesitation in stating that the members of Team Anna appear to be more focused at hogging the limelight by their ubiquitous presence before the TV Media. Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi are media crazy. They must share the information with the masses who are agitated all across the country. They cannot hijack the movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare by any means.
One fails to understand how and why the politicians with shady credentials like Sandeep Dikshit, son of Sheila Dikshit, are being associated with the secret parleys between Salman Khursheed, the Law minister and Arvind Kejriwal? Does it need it be recalled that the reputation of the son and mother duo is at stake in the context of CWG and other Scams. How could they be privy to talks between Team Anna and Team Congress? This is most unfortunate that the government is dealing with the agitation in the most casual manner. It is time they realise that if anything happens to Anna, the movement will not remain peaceful and it would indeed be impossible for them to control the situation.
If you are not a politician or a Congress supporter, then you can understand what I want to explain to you. The services of the Police are available to us to handle issues of corruption (like if anybody riding bike without helmets). But can you tell me if any police employee indulges in corruption, then how will you to handle that case? Like that we have all kinds of rules to handle the common people but why we don't have good rules or laws to prevent the Judiciary or the politicians from being corrupt? That is why the public servants do not think twice before accepting bribes from the common citizens. They are almost playing with our democracy and our country. If we are asking to frame a law to handle these corrupt politicians, police and government officials then what is the wrong with that? Politicians are scared because Jan lokpal will expose their corrupt practices. We have to force them to make laws (Jan lokpal) to handle their corruption otherwise they will not make any such law with would go against them.
We need the Jan lokpal bill to pass to punish corrupt politicians and all other public servants. If we are able to pass the Jan Lokpal bill, then these sectors (politics, police and government) will be corruption free, once these sectors will become corruption free, then they will work honestly to make our country corruption fee. All this sounds like an unrealistic story. Let it be Anna’s lokpal or Aruna’s lokpal; just by passing the bill nothing can be achieved; there is no guarantee of clean governance even if these bills are passed.
The initial step has to be taken by the people of India; but by going door to door, we are just making mockery by creating violence. By panicking minister’s family, by using bad words under the cover of Anna, one cannot achieve anything; rather, the revolution would take an ugly turn. Even team Anna has also realised this.
While addressing his supporters, Anna gave them a clear message that they should not take the path of violence; that if they do, the government will crush them. The government is very powerful. Non-violence is a very “powerful weapon,” he said. But the point is that why did he order people to go door to door and who was there to check the credentials of these support groups visiting minister’s places? In a way, this is breach of security and you are asking your supporters to violate the security rules. This is the reason the government has not been able to crush us so far. There was also a group of people who had come drunk to the venue and created ruckus last week. Finally 74 years old Hazare had to appeal to all his supporters not to come drunk. Even otherwise, they should not drink or smoke as it affects their health.
Hazare's associates demanded that the government appoint an official representative for talks on the Lokpal Bill even as the anti-corruption activist's health deteriorated with eight days of fasting and doctors advised him maximum rest. An early solution to the Lokpal logjam is in sight, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh writing to Anna Hazare to call off his fast. This comes amid government and Team Anna getting ready for direct talks, with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee representing the government. The prime minister is also holding a high-level meeting to resolve the issue. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi may also attend it. Moreover when Rahul is holding meetings with everyone over the lokpal bill issue, then why is he not meeting Hazare? Or why has he never visited him? Meanwhile, hectic back-channel negotiations were going on between Team Anna as the fast continued for the eighth day. As Hazare's health took a turn for worse, the government began talks on multiple fronts.
Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who met members of Hazare's core group, opened negotiations with opposition parties. The office of Prime Minister deputed government's top most crisis manager Mukherjee and Law Minister Salman Khurshid to salvage the festering standoff. The government is also falling back on the senior Marathi ministers in the UPA cabinet. Many of them like former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh are considered close to Hazare. The help of Sushil Kumar Shinde and Sharad Pawar has also been sought. Social Activists Swami Agnivesh too spoke to Khurshid.
Till Monday, Anna was quite reluctant that he will speak to only Rahul or Prime Mimister, and today when they realised government’s adamancy and Ann’s health, Kejriwal clarified that Hazare had not insisted that he will talk only with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. He wants to meet someone who is officially sent by the government. In its proposal, it is learnt that the government has proposed that the Lok Sabha Speaker can take decision to send the Jan Lokpal Bill directly to the Standing Committee. The government has also proposed that the prime minister be brought under Lokpal, although an inquiry can be initiated against him only after he remits office. To strengthen the judiciary, the government has proposed that a judicial standard accountability bill will be introduced in Parliament. It also proposes to include civil society members in the draft panel. A separate grievance redressal mechanism has been proposed, which will hear the complaints against government officials and departments.
The government has also proposed that once the Lokpal Bill is passed, all state chief ministers would be asked to appoint Lokayuktas on the basis of Jan Lokpal.
Let see what would be the outcome of the high end drama of meetings and negotiations.

a commitment to modernity

2010-02-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

The technology interests me much less than the people who use it. I have found that contrary to what old farts may claim, young people are keenly interested in politics, have strong views on many events, and are far more articulate than the generations that preceded them. At present, bloggers, visitors to websites and tweeters remain a curiosity for traditional media. We rarely accord them the respect they get in the West and only use their views as fillers, either for graphics on TV shows or for stories on how celebrities are now on Twitter. I suspect old media may be making a huge mistake by being so blinkered. There is a new generation out there, expressing itself in ways that were largely unknown even a decade or so ago. As this generation comes of age, its views will determine the path India chooses to follow. For those of you who are not familiar with the world of the Internet, here are some of the things that I have noticed in my engagement with those who blog.Of course, I do not claim that my experiences are typical or that I have examined a scientifically chosen sample of bloggers. But, for what it’s worth, here’s what I found.
Economic views: People on the Net tend to have a contemptuous attitude to Marxism and socialist views. The consensus is decidedly right-wing and when Jyoti Basu died, the response to his passing was far less reverential on the web than it was on TV channels or in the press. If there is a new generation of articulate young Marxists out there, then they are not on the web. Religious issues: Nobody really cares about the Babri Masjid. Even those who are sympathetic to the BJP have no interest in the construction of a grand Ram temple or in a Hindu renaissance. This generation has no time for ancient disputes about medieval mosques. On the other hand, there is a growing revulsion over Islamic extremism and fundamentalism. This is less anti-Muslim in origin and more anti-backwardness. This generation hates anything that sounds primitive or regressive. Fundamentalism is seen as going back in time, as being anti-modern and thus, deeply revolting.
BJP bloggers: Almost any liberal who has some experience of the Net will tell you that there is a hardcore of pro-BJP bloggers and tweeters who will vigorously defend the Sangh parivar and viciously attack anybody they regard as ‘pseudo-secular’. On the other hand, there is scant evidence of a hardcore of pro-Congress bloggers and tweeters who respond with equal ferocity.
Why should this be so? It could be that many NRIs who support the BJP are Internet veterans. Or it could be, as is often rumoured, that the BJP employs a small group of people to scour the Internet every day and to heckle all anti-BJP bloggers.I don’t know what the truth is. But either way, the Congress is a clear loser on the Net.
Manmohan Singh: But the Prime Minister is a clear winner. Except for the hard BJP core, most bloggers and tweeters seem to respect Manmohan Singh. He is by far the most popular politician on the Internet and can rarely do any wrong in the eyes of tweeters.Partly, this is a reflection of the respect that Singh commands among educated Indians but it is also because the Internet sees him as representing the forces of modernity: pro-liberalisation, clean, well-educated, etc.
Pakistan and China: If you were to look at Twitter after a terrorist attack, or some provocative remark from China, you might think that tweeters were all hard-line xenophobes.But the reality is more complex. This is a strongly patriotic generation that is driven by a vision of India as a potential superpower. Anybody who attacks India or is seen as standing in the way of India’s rise is treated harshly. There is no generalised hatred of Pakistan on the whole (though there are a lot of hate-India Pakistani sites). If Manmohan Singh says he wants to improve relations with our neighbour, he is applauded. But if Pakistan is seen to back terrorists or to refuse to act against the 26/11 plotters, the tenor of tweets can be high-pitched and hostile.
So it is with China. Many people believe that China will do everything to prevent India from rising. The anti-China stuff on the Net is usually motivated by this belief. There is no generalised criticism of China of the sort that you see on Western sites: human rights, treatment of Tibetans, etc.
Previous Prime Ministers: While TV and print concentrated on the Emergency in their assessments of Indira Gandhi’s reign on the 25th anniversary of her death, the Internet was less worried about the excesses of that period. For many bloggers, history began in 1980 so they regarded Operation Blue Star as being the most significant event of Mrs Gandhi’s prime minister ship. Others referred to her image as a strong leader and praised her for standing up on India’s behalf. Yet, there is much less enthusiasm for Rajiv Gandhi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A feeling that Narasimha Rao ended decades of socialism and put India on the path to modernity leads young people to regard him as a great PM. And finally: The distinguishing features of this Internet generation? Well, I would say: a commitment to modernity, a strong nationalist streak and contempt for the ‘socialist’ past and those who represent it. Perhaps these are the views of a whole new generation of affluent urban Indians, not just those who are on the Internet.

Wars, Crises and Rises

2010-01-12T18:37:00.001-08:00

In international politics, decades are important tools that help us understand and interpret history better. The major developments in the past often come to our mind with tags of decades -- the economic crisis of 1920’s, the wars of 1930’s, the reconstruction of 1950’s, the Lost Decade, and so on. Now, standing at the starting point of a new decade, how do we analyse the bygone one (2000-10)? According to British historian Andrew Roberts, the first ten years of the new century, or the Noughties, were full of troubles. It witnessed two major wars, one of the gravest financial crises in decades, a number of natural disasters including Tsunami, and changes in global power dynamics. At the beginning of the century, not many might have forecast such a troublesome first decade. The Noughties followed a decade that the saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent emergence of the US as the sole super power in the world. The successful tests of American hard power in the Balkan and the Middle East in the late 1990’s underscored the opinion that the new century would be an American century. President George W. Bush, who assumed office in 2001, vowed to accelerate American style free market capitalism and expand the military capabilities of the country. Everything looked set for paving the way for the US to reshape and lead the global order without major hindrances. But the path of history often lies beyond the scope of prediction.
Wars

The beginning of sweeping changes of the decade started on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Centre, the tall symbols of America’s economic might, was attacked by a few terrorists. The attack became a reference point of the decade, if not of the century. In the same month, president Bush declared America’s “war on terror” and the US started this war on October 7 by bombing Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The US could drive the Taliban out of Kabul within weeks of bombing, and set up a puppet government of Hamid Karzai in the capital city. But the war did have ripple- effect across the Muslim Middle East. The war on terror was interpreted by many political Islamists as an “imperial crusade” of the West against Islam. This notion gained currency when Bush opened another war front in the Islamic world in 2003. Accusing the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq of supporting al-Qaeda in the region and mobilising weapons of mass destruction, the US declared war on the Baathist country in March 2003. Two months later, president Bush declared victory in Iraq. Saddam Hussein went absconding, the regime was toppled and a provincial government was established, which was followed by a bloody resistance by Iraqis against the occupation. Saddam was captured in December 2003 and hanged on December 30, 2006. According to many reports, the neoconservatives in the Bush administration wanted to expand the war to Iran, and further to Syria as part of their plans to reinforce America’s hegemony on the entire Middle East. But the Iraqi resistance bogged America down for years. When things started returning to a new normal in Iraq, the economic catastrophe limited America’s military possibilities.

Crisis

If America’s hard power faced fresh challenges in the first half of the decade, its unique economic model was nearly destroyed in the second half. The unregulated capitalism, which the US championed for years, drew flak from all corners when Wall Street investment banking giants like Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, plunging the entire world into an unprecedented liquidity crisis. The woes of the financial sector soon expanded to the real economy, leaving most of the advanced developed countries in recession. The new president of the US, Barack Obama, in complete realisation that his country was not in an advanced position to cope with the world’s problems, came forward to formulate a new cooperation mechanism with the emerging economies including China and India. Many countries, including the US, put caps on the flow of capital, implemented fresh regulations and expanded the scope the government to fight the crisis.

The Rise of China

Another major twist of the decade is the rise of emerging powers, including China, India and Brazil, onto the global stage. Of these, China stands out. According to many analysts, the this century is China’s. British academic Martin Jaques says the stage is set for China to rise as a counter power to the US and radically overhaul the international system. China’s escape from the global slowdown nearly unhurt has forced many analysts to take a more positive view vis-à-vis the Asian giant. China is the fastest growing economy in the world and is set to overtake Japan as the second largest economy in 2010. It is also a fast rising military power and a regional hegemonic state in Asia. The new decade will see China further expanding its economic influence and making efforts to convert that into political clout. According to Goldman Sachs, China will move past the US as the largest economy by 2027. If the trend of Noughties continues in the new decade, it will have radical effect on the existing global order, so far dominated by the West. So, gear up to live in a rapidly changing world.

Water-less Vows and future

2010-01-12T18:35:00.000-08:00

Last night Sachin tendulkar announced in front of National TV channel that he will bath in only one bucket of water so safe wastage. Will this stop wastage of water? Something much hilarious to this was the BMC Commissioner who kept on announcing Sachin’s promise on nation TV. The point is that who is going to keep vigil in Sachin’s bathroom. Without any doubt I can definitely say there is no announcement but curtsey government and BMC common man of Mumbai is taking bath twice a week in half bucket water. They cannot even think of taking full glass of water at a time to drink. I request BMC commissioner and Tendulkar to give this message to Maharashtra Governor because every day his garden consumes 4000 liter water. Our dear CM has faulty water meter, politicians need liters of water to clean their cars and dogs. It’s the upper crust always privileged but common man cannot even afford to do so.
Can you manage a family of five or more on four buckets of water day? That is a maximum of 80 litres a day. Not per person but for five people. Therefore, 20 litres per person per day. And then there are days when there is not a drop of water. This is the challenge facing millions of people, not in a water-deprived desert area but in Mumbai, the city with the best supply of water of any city in India.So if people predict that the next water wars in this decade will take place not between nations but between communities in our cities, they are not far off the mark. The wars will be between the poor, the most deprived, and between the rich and the poor. The rich will also suffer water cuts, as they already do. But they will manage without having to face too much hardship because they will always have the ability to hoard, store and buy water. The poor, on the other hand, will get less than they already do, which is little enough. And without permanent housing, they will never have the same ability to store water, as do those who live in puccabuildings. So the gap between the rich and the poor will be defined through access to water.
Increased burden
With this scarcity, the burden on women will increase, as it already has. Receding water tables and decreasing snow melt have forced millions of women, in deserts and mountain regions, in villages and towns, to work harder to find water. Somehow they must fulfil their principal duties of washing, cleaning, cooking — and so they scrounge and beg, and walk longer distances to fetch that one, two or three buckets of precious water.The other reality that is emerging is how, in times of scarcity, no one wants to share, be generous, least of all those who have enough. Housing societies in Mumbai, for instance, are making rules not allowing “outsiders” from taking out water from the buildings. These “outsiders” are actually the “insiders”, the domestic help in all our homes without whom our lives would be really difficult. They are the people who cook and clean and wash. They do this in homes where water flows through taps. And then when they finish work, they go out of the buildings to their homes in a slum where there are days without a drop of water. Yet, we feel justified in denying such people water at times of acute need. There is no culture in the world that defends the denial of water to a thirsty or needy person. Yet, the urban middle class ethos is defending just this.Mumbai is facing one of its worst water crises and the primary reason for it is the massive leakages in the city’s water supply lines.If that you think is grim, then here’s an even grimmer prognosis. The city will have to live with the water loss due to leakages. There seems to be no solution in sight.According to senior engineers with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s hydraulic department, bring down the percentage of water loss due to leakages beyond a certain point will be financially unviable and technically challenging. The wastage, they said, can be brought down to 15% of the total water supply that currently stands at 22%.Assuming that there is better monsoon in the city this year, which will restore the normal water supply of about 3,400 million litres daily (mld), then the city will lose close to 510 mld daily to leakages. Thus, going by the current demand for water, the amount of water that will be wasted would be sufficient to provide proper water supply to all the eastern suburbs.Even globally, the accepted norm for wastage of water through leakages in the water supply distribution system is just about 7%. Engineers, however, insist that the cost involved in detecting, repairing the leakage and then maintaining the restored condition is huge. Many of the leakages ran underground and beneath concretised surfaces, which makes repairing them even a technical challenge. According to the presentation made by Singapore’s national water agency — Public Utilities Board (PUB) — on Sunday, Singapore has been successful in bringing leakages down to 4.4% of their total water supply.The belief that all leakages in the city cannot be tapped and repaired will also pose a question mark on the efficacy of a plan to conduct a comprehensive water audit for the city. Former hydraulic chief TV Shah — widely considered as an expert in the field of water engineering — has already asserted that given the city’s topography and land-use, it will be difficult to carry out an accurate city-wide water audit. RTI exposes delays in arresting leakages: A Right to Information (RTI) query has exposed the BMC’s failure in arresting leakages. The RTI query filed by Yuva, a citizen’s activist group, had sought information of leakages detected in various wards between April 2008 and March 2009. Apart from revealing that an average 80 leakages occurred in a ward every month, the reply also brought to light a serious loophole. Despite the authorities knowing about it, many leakages are not being plugged in time. For instance, between May and August last year, several detected leakages in the Colaba municipal ward went unattended. The case was pretty much the same in other parts of the city as well. Civic officials passed the blame on procedural delays and resource crunch. Water projects, dams worth Rs 40,050 cr pending in state.Even as the state deals with a water crisis, a Right To Information query has revealed that over the last 10 years water projects worth Rs 40,050 crore are incomplete. The details provided by the state water department to RTI activist Chetan Kothari said there are about 75 minor projects, 181 medium and 1,125 major projects pending at various stages of work in the 11th five year plan (2007-2012). Blaming it all on the scanty rainfall, the government was on the verge of declaring drought in some parts of the state in 2009. Also, the city is dealing with severe water crisis for the first time ever. The RTI revelation is shocking in the time when we are dealing with water crisis. The project cost escalates with time leaving taxpayers to pay for the same.the irrigation water was not only necessary for farmers to grow crops but also for the commoner so that he does not end up paying high prices for the ration.The list of incomplete projects includes over 1,200 major and minor projects relating to irrigation and dams. The project work started without prioritising them. There is a need to prioritise the projects to take them ahead,there need to be plan to revive six lakes as a measure to resolve water crisis in the city. Revival of each lake is likely to cost about Rs2 to 4 crore. There is so much to be done but who cares..sachin Tendulkar’s one bucket Bath may safe sufficient water for mumbaikar.

How will India become a superpower by 2010?

2010-01-12T18:34:00.001-08:00

We puff up with pride at the buzz about India [ Images ] in the West. We're proud when Shashi Tharoor [ Images ] gets a shot at the United Nations secretary general's post. We're thrilled with the malls, call centres and software whizzes. But is that enough to bring India the glory it deserves?If India has to achieve greatness, we all need to act. We must have ideas and vision to make this great country a superpower by 2010.Rediff.com calls upon Indians to join this debate on the 60th anniversary of Independence.Come, discuss how this beloved country of ours can achieve everything you want it to be.

Through this Rediff Connexions groups you can discuss with others your ideas to make our nation truly great and try to find solutions to the many, many problems that could hold us back if we are not careful and clever.How to join Connexions:It is easily done -- register your e-mail address, first, on Rediff Connexions.Note that it does not have to be a Rediffmail address -- any e-mail address will do. You can do this in the new user area on the right side of the Rediff Connexions page.Next, pick your password, fill in a small form that talks you through your school, your college, your interests.Why do we want information about where you went to school, and what you like?Glad you asked -- Connexions is all about, you guessed it, making connections.Once we know your interests, it helps us put you in touch with fellow travellers -- long lost schoolmates, for instance; or someone who shares your hobbies, your interests.The Internet made the world a small place; Connexions is all about making it still smaller.We will send you an e-mail validating your membership, click on the link in your mail -- and you are registered.Don't forget to come back to this page and click on the link below and join the discussion:
THE year 2010 is not far enough away to justify a long-term vision, such as Vision 2020 which President APJ Abdul Kalam has authored. Equally, the time horizon between now and 2010 will take us beyond the five year term of the current United Progressive Alliance government. One cannot, therefore, view this period only through the lens of stated governmental goals and objectives, i.e. the Common Minimum Programme.
The year 2000 was globally celebrated as the first year of the new millennium. Five years have gone by since then. For India, the events of the past five years have been significant, at times tumultuous and at other times momentous. The events and images that we witnessed during the last five years have included:
Images of India (2000-2005)
March 2000: President Bill Clinton’s visit to India, the first by a U.S. President in two decades.
May 2000: Birth of India’s one billionth citizen.
January 2001: Earthquake in Gujarat killing 30,000 people.
April 2001: Successful launch of India’s GSLV propelling India into satellite-launchers club of five.
July 2001: Failed Agra Summit between Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistan President Musharraf.
September 2001: Lifting of U.S. sanctions against India and Pakistan (imposed after ’98 nuclear tests).
December 2001: Terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament.
December 2001: Indian and Pakistani troop formation along border prompting fears of a war.
February 2002: Gujarat carnage, the worst inter-religious killing in a decade.
July 2002: Election of scientist APJ Abdul Kalam as President.
August 2003: Two simultaneous bomb blasts in Mumbai killing 50 (Gateway to India; Zaveri Bazaar).
May 2004: General election; Congress coalition with Manmohan Singh as PM assumes office.
December 2004: Tsunami natural disaster killing over 300,000 people worldwide (12,405 in India).
April 2005: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India; principles set for border dispute settlement.
April 2005: Commencement of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service between India and Pakistan.
July 2005: Signing of Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal offering civilian nuclear technology access.
July 2005: Mumbai floods prompted by the most severe rainfall in a hundred years killing 1,000 persons.
October 2005: Kashmir earthquake killing approximately 1,500 people in the Indian state of J&K.
October 2005: Simultaneous terrorist bombings in crowded Delhi marketplaces killing 62.
Yet, India remains not so very different a place today in 2005 than it was back in 2000. The events of the last five years have not fundamentally altered the socio-economic and political fabric of the country as a whole. The trend during this period (2000-05) has not taken this nation into an entirely different plane or trajectory.
One reads, sees and hears a great deal more about India in the international media today than has ever been the norm in the past. The column-inches and airtime devoted to coverage of the Indian economy and polity globally have risen. While this is certainly not a flawless barometer, it serves as a better indicator of India being at the cusp of future sustained growth than our operator-driven equity capital markets which have been on an untamed upswing.

The year 2010 is closer than we think. What will India look like in 2010? How different an India will it be from the India of today? As a young Indian, I feel our images of India in 2010 will be shaped, in great measure, by how the answers to four important questions evolve over the next five years:
1. Will this ageing nation be able to elect a younger political leadership?
2. Can our state and government focus principally on the happiness of the ‘common man’?
3. Have we ensured that during the next five years India’s economic growth is unhindered and accelerated?
4. Can this country execute on long-term strategies rather than just near-term fire-fighting exercises?
Younger Leadership for an Ageing Nation? I do not mean to state the obvious. By the year 2010, however, all of us will be five years older. According to United Nations estimates, by 2010 India’s median age, estimated today in 2005 at 24.3 years, will rise to 25.6 years. In fact, India’s median age has risen steadily since 1970 and is expected to continue its upward trajectory – according to some estimates until well beyond the middle of this century. While India, as a nation, will have aged over the next five years and beyond, one hopes that our political leadership will grow younger, more agile and vigorous. This is bound to have far-reaching consequences for the Indian political landscape.
India’s Political Leadership in 2010 – Coming of Age
Congress
Arjun Singh 80 years
Manmohan Singh 78 years
Pranab Mukherjee 75 years
Sonia Gandhi 64 years
BJP
Atal Bihari Vajpayee 86 years
L.K. Advani 83 years
Murli Manohar Joshi 76 years
Jaswant Singh 72 years
It is well-established and widely accepted that there are two political anchors today around which coalition governments can be cobbled together in India. The table above shows a plausible list of the four senior-most present-day leaders in both anchor parties. By 2010, only one of the aforementioned eight major political leaders, who have all participated in governing the country over the past several years, will be under 65 years of age, the ‘normal retirement age’ as defined by the US Congress for social security purposes in that country.
The writing is on the wall with regard to a generational shift in the BJP by 2010. The Vajpayee-Advani duo will no longer be at the helm of that party five years from now. The jury is still out on who could possibly grow into that role in the BJP. The Congress too must see some turnover in its senior ranks by 2010. However, the near universal ageing of the party’s entire senior leadership rung shall not have taken place, unlike in the BJP. Smaller national and regional parties too are witnessing generational shifts with the passing of the baton. The period between now and 2010 is likely to herald a partial dismantling of the gerontocracy that India has evolved into during the post Rajiv Gandhi era.
A younger leadership in India will, by default, have the ability to think and act beyond a limited five year time horizon. The potential upside of such a shift is considerable.

Aam Aadmi Ko Kya Mila? The key question for the poor of India is: Will the India of 2010 be a more livable place? The ‘Aam Aadmi’ slogan today is slowly catching up with the popularity of ‘India Shining’ in 2003. However, the concrete results of this gradual shift will begin to become apparent only by 2010.
Lord William Beveridge, born in India to an ICS father and an educationist mother, was the author of the Beveridge Report (The Social Insurance and Allied Services Report) of 1942 in Britain. He had famously said: ‘The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.’ An economist and social reformer, Beveridge conceptualized and articulated the fundamentals of the Labour government’s legislation for social reform which served too as the outline of the welfare state in post-war Britain. Full employment in a free society was the cornerstone of Beveridge’s belief system. During the year gone by, the Government of India has appeared to embrace Lord Beveridge’s thought process.
One of India’s northern neighbours, Bhutan, sets an example for us. In 1972, Bhutan, led by King Jigme Singye Wangchuck upon his ascent to the throne, had designed and introduced the concept of Gross National Happiness (‘GNH’) as the objective of all economic development and good governance of the nation. What is crucial about this concept is not the debate surrounding whether and how GNH should be defined or quantified. For India, getting mired in the theory of the technical term is uninteresting and unimportant. What is critical, however, is the directional tilt and perspective that this provides a process as complex as governance of a democracy of 1.1 billion people. The ability to perceive life, both in the rural and urban spheres, as it exists through the eyes of millions of common folk is a skill that our political leadership needs to focus on and refine.

Closer to home, no school child in India who has ever read a textbook published by the National Council for Educational Research and Training can be oblivious to ‘Mahatma Gandhi’s talisman’. Gandhiji’s talisman figures prominently on their inside covers: ‘Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.’
For a twelve year old, as I was when I first read this quote, the question of arousing one’s conscience through observing the misery around one was somewhat novel. Perhaps I was too young then to understand the import of Gandhi’s words. However, even today in 2005, more than a half century after Gandhi’s assassination, his words provide us with a roadmap.
The UPA government has enacted into law the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. By 2008-09, the Government of India proposes to write an annual check of approximately US$9 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) for this programme which will constitute 1% of India’s projected GDP. The proposed phased implementation of the act suggests that by 2010 one full year of the nationwide programme rollout would have been covered. By 2010 the effects and benefits of this piece of legislation should have become visible. The act seeks to deal with unemployment in this country and has its specific focus on the rural domain. The employment dividend that will accrue from this is contingent upon the effective implementation of the act and by tactically plugging holes in an otherwise leaky delivery system. This is the first significant step down the path of India ultimately emerging as a welfare state. No other developing nation of scale has attempted to undertake such a risk and adventure.

Is the Hindu Rate of Growth Dead and Buried? India’s economic growth trajectory since independence has been characterized by economists broadly as having taken place in three distinct phases: 1950/51 - 1979/80 Hindu Rate of Growth; 1980/81 - 1990/91 Initial Reforms; 1991/92 to date Economic Liberalization.
Each of these periods have had their own Real GDP Compounded Annual Growth Rates (‘CAGRs’) which ranged from approximately 3% to 6%. With the advent of each phase, India’s growth trajectory shifted to a new, higher plane.
The most relevant reference period for India’s projected growth over the coming five years is the most recent of the three phases – economic liberalization 1991/92 - 2004/05, which witnessed a 6.09% growth rate. The table below provides both historical data pertaining to this period as well as forecasts for the coming five years up to 2010 by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
India’s Real GDP CAGR %
1991/92-2009/10E 1991/92-2009/10E 2005/06-2004/05
6.31% 6.09% 6.88%
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit; Macroeconomic Indicators; 9 December 2004.
Many times in the past India’s critics have written us off. We had once been written off as a colony. We had then been written off by Paul Ehrlich as being an overpopulated basket case. We had later been written off as being on the losing side during the Cold War as a friend of the Soviets. Most recently, we were written off in 1991 during our balance of payment and liquidity crises. Each time India has proven its critics wrong.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently stated in Parliament that the combined fiscal deficit of the Indian central government and state governments is 10% of GDP and ‘among the highest in the world’. As we begin to mortgage our anticipated future economic growth over the next five years for ‘good expenditure’ such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee, we must also commit to taking the difficult steps needed to sustain and hasten this growth.

India needs, once again, to exceed expectations by beating macroeconomic estimates for the level of real GDP growth that this country should experience between now and 2010. A synopsis of this well-known formula, among other points, includes: reduction of fiscal deficit at the central and state government levels; reform of labour laws and productivity; investment in infrastructure; and reform of the judiciary.
Each of these is a difficult decision which will be accompanied by punishing levels of execution risk. They require courage of convictions and the ability to sacrifice the immediate term for the long-term. India has a better chance with these over the coming five years, given the practitioner’s sophistication in economics that is to be found in our top leadership.

Can India Shift Gears Out of Fire-fighting Mode? The business of governing a country our size has layers of complexity that go well above and beyond those required for managing a large business in the corporate sector, whether in India or abroad. In fact, the analogy of a nation’s CEO itself should be suspect as it is misleading. The title of Chief Executive which President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held in Pakistan from 12 October 1999 to 23 November 2002 is not a bit tenable in the context of India. Luckily, leaving aside our pink sheets, this reference has failed to gain currency in India.
However, there is one analogy from the world of business which warrants examination in the sphere of governance, namely the Long-Term Incentive Plan. This refers to the grant of shares to any eligible employee of a company, the final vesting of which is subject to continued employment with the company and satisfaction of a performance condition. This compensation instrument is specifically designed to increase performance-pay correlation over the long-term and to align incentives of individuals with those of the organization itself over time.
Political travesties and natural disasters sap a very substantial percentage of real-time mindshare and energy of Indian governments. The proliferation of both print and electronic media makes today’s India the most crowded media market in the world. The media has contributed to magnifying the devastation and immediacy of situations raising expectation levels to never-before-seen heights. Valuable time is lost in the newfound and unhealthy media induced need to articulate and communicate damage control measures as opposed to the time spent to implement them. Both in the aftermath of the Jharkhand constitutional crisis and the Mumbai floods, far too many people were seen on television in Indian TV news network studios who should perhaps have been involved in disaster management by being members of damage control teams in the field.

Is there an answer in India for the overwhelming sense of helplessness and despair that a critical mass of such circumstances triggers? Can greater governance bandwidth be deployed for longer-term measures and concrete action rather than be consumed by reacting to immediate term complaining? Can we provide cures for casteism, corruption, communalism, population explosion, environmental degradation and AIDS?
India as a nation has systems and delivery mechanisms which, for better or for worse, do function, albeit occasionally, haltingly and imperfectly, as far as short term deliverables and deadlines are concerned. Equally, given our history as a planned economy, long-term conceptual thinking is on-going both within and outside the government. Anticipating problems and ideating on potential solutions, with an emphasis on long-term silver bullets, ‘armchair-ism’, is an area of national strength. However, a void appears to exist where teambuilding for and implementation of long-term plans is concerned.
Simply put, today’s problems weigh so heavily on those running the government that the potentially bigger problems of tomorrow are left largely unacknowledged and unaddressed. This is an area of great systemic weakness in India. Our leaders are older than they ought to be. Our citizenry, also our greatest asset, is young. A severe and visible disconnect exists between the separate time horizons that each of these two groups are focused on and invested in. Therein lies the problem. Indians have been abysmal at following up on and implementing plans that impact the distant future.

Effective long-term execution is a source of competitive disadvantage for India. That is where Rajiv Gandhi was so uniquely different from other leaders of his generation and later. Given fourteen years of hindsight since his assassination, we can see with clarity his futuristic action-orientation. His successors have been unable to carry that tradition forward. This is why the Aam Aadmi in India, more than the establishment, recall him with such affection and nostalgia. If India is to leapfrog into the millennium we live in, we need to be pro-active in demonstrating that political and organizational capital is being invested in the domain of future-oriented implementation.
I see India becoming by 2010:
* The most populous democracy governed by young, modern, idealistic and innovative leaders.
* Home to the largest number of the world’s poor with an emerging social security construct.
* The world’s fastest growing economy administered by a democratic coalition government.
* A major nation where long-term problem solving has outpaced short-term quick fixes.
2010: Key political risks facing Asian mkts
Asia weathered the economic storms of 2009 remarkably well, but the performance of regional markets next year depends heavily on whether the continent can steer a course through some treacherous political risks.
The difficult relationship between Washington and Beijing
China will face intensifying pressure in 2010 to let the yuan appreciate. But Beijing will not want to put economic growth at risk by letting the currency rise too quickly, and does not appreciate being told what to do by Washington or anyone else.
In the United States, meanwhile, yuan weakness is regarded as a protectionist policy that threatens the U.S. recovery.
Washington may retaliate by imposing more trade restrictions, like the tariffs on Chinese tyres announced in September, sparking a tit-for-tat trade war. And there is also the danger that Beijing's backing of regimes that Washington finds unpalatable flares up into a political confrontation.
Most analysts say Washington and Beijing are painfully aware of the risks and would step back from the brink before any dispute threatened the global economy. But the two countries have yet to find a way to communicate comfortably as partners. The risk of a misunderstanding or sudden chill in relations is real.
What to watch for:
-- The battle over the yuan. Will Beijing let it appreciate, and if not, will Washington throw a tantrum?
-- Protectionism and trade tariffs. If President Barack Obama imposes more tariffs, under pressure from Congress and domestic industry, expect sparks to fly.
-- Any disputes arising from China's dealings with North Korea, Myanmar, Iran and other "rogue states".
Post-stimulus hangover: Asset bubbles and capital controls
Asia is leading the world out of recession, which means Asian governments are among the first to confront a key policy problem -- how to time their exit from the vast stimulus packages that helped keep them afloat during the global economic crisis.
If governments withdraw stimulus too soon, they could topple back into stagnation. And if China falls into this trap, the impact on the global economy could be dire.
But keep policy too loose for too long and they risk not just resurgent inflation but also potentially catastrophic asset price bubbles, as plentiful credit sparks a scramble for property and equities. The danger of China's economy being derailed by a burst property bubble is a key concern for 2010.
Another risk for investors is that countries trying to prevent bubbles and control inflows of "hot money" tighten capital controls and try to lock in foreign cash.
Two more political issues complicate the dilemma.
First, unless governments coordinate their exit plans, there is a major risk of unexpected spillover effects. But the crisis demonstrated the lack of global governance bodies able to handle international policy coordination, and while G20 members have promised to move in step, it is more likely their stimulus exit will be dictated by national interest alone.
Second, disagreements could also erupt within countries, between governments focused on safeguarding growth and central banks fearful of inflation and bubbles. That could lead to bad decisions, and make policy hard to forecast.
What to watch for:
-- All eyes are on China, key engine of global growth since the financial crisis hit. Can it steer a course through the policy perils? If it stumbles, the tremors will be global.
-- Much of Asia faces property bubble risks, with Hong Kong and Singapore particularly in focus.
-- India and Indonesia are two key countries where capital controls could be tightened, spooking investors.
-- The next G20 summits are in June in Canada and November in South Korea. Coordination of exit strategy will be a key theme.
-- Disagreements between the government and central bank are already an issue in Japan. South Korea and India, among others, may also see policy friction in 2010.
Thorny political transitions
In 2009, Asia smoothly negotiated several potentially tricky elections and transitions of power, although the victory of the Democratic Party in Japan's elections after decades in opposition produced some market volatility. Things may be tougher in 2010.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is widely expected to win another term, with the only question being the timing of the election. But elections in the Philippines and Sri Lanka are harder to call.
Moreover, two important Asian heads of state are ailing and there is no certainty who or what will come after them.
Thailand's 82-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been in hospital since September, another complication in the long-running political crisis that has riven the country. Many analysts expect instability to get even worse after his reign ends -- giving Thai markets a rough ride. But most say there is little risk of contagion in other markets.
If North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies in 2010, by contrast, the tremors will be felt in South Korea, Japan and beyond.
Many analysts say Kim's death could herald the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang, leading possibly to prolonged civil war in North Korea, aggressive moves against the South, or the sudden reunification of the Korean peninsula. In all of these cases, the likely market reaction would be strongly negative.
What to watch for:
-- The health of North Korea's Kim and Thailand's king will be closely watched, and could unsettle markets.
-- Populist pre-election pledges in Sri Lanka and the Philippines may result in economic problems later in the year.
Afpak tremors start to trouble investors
Long-running instability and widespread violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan rarely register on the radar screen of investors. But that may change in 2010.
Firstly, with Obama facing mid-term polls in November, and with effective defeat in the war in Afghanistan still possible in 2010, his strategy may become a central campaign issue and could even cost him a majority in the House of Representatives if things go badly.
Secondly, the decisive victory of the Congress party in India's 2009 elections was another good-news story for markets that could be threatened if militants based in Pakistan provoke a confrontation again, following the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Analysts expect al Qaeda and its allies to again try to spark conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours. And Pakistan's weak government, under threat on several fronts, may have its own reasons to focus popular anger on India.
What to watch for:
-- Evidence of whether Obama's troop surge is making a difference, or whether his Afghan policy comes to be regarded as an expensive failure. In the latter scenario, he will be highly vulnerable going into the mid-term elections.
-- The state of India-Pakistan relations, and the risk of conflict if Pakistan-based militants once again launch a major attack on Indian soil.
Social unrest packs a belated punch
Many analysts predicted that the global economic crisis would unleash mass unrest in several countries around the world, with the potential to topple governments. They were mostly wrong. In particular, forecasts that China's leadership could be shaken by serious unrest proved to be way off the mark.
But unemployment is a lagging indicator. Even as the global economy moves out of crisis, many countries will see jobless numbers and social hardship continuing to rise.
Another spark that could ignite unrest would be inflation in food and fuel prices. The global crisis put the brakes on a dramatic surge in commodity prices that is likely to resume as global growth resumes.
What to watch for:
-- The doomsday scenario for markets would be mass unrest across China that threatens to topple the government. Most analysts see the possibility of this as extremely low in 2010, but any upsurge in unrest in China would rattle investors.
-- India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are other key emerging markets where unrest could hamper economic reform and dent markets if instability flares in 2010.
FACTBOX - Key political risks to watch in Asia in 2010

Asia weathered the economic storms of 2009 remarkably well, but the performance of regional markets next year depends heavily on whether the continent can steer a course through some treacherous political risks:
THE DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND BEIJING
China will face intensifying pressure in 2010 to let the yuan appreciate. But Beijing will not want to put economic growth at risk by letting the currency rise too quickly, and does not appreciate being told what to do by Washington or anyone else.
In the United States, meanwhile, yuan weakness is regarded as a protectionist policy that threatens the U.S. recovery.
Washington may retaliate by imposing more trade restrictions, like the tariffs on Chinese tyres announced in September, sparking a tit-for-tat trade war. And there is also the danger that Beijing's backing of regimes that Washington finds unpalatable flares up into a political confrontation.
Most analysts say Washington and Beijing are painfully aware of the risks and would step back from the brink before any dispute threatened the global economy. But the two countries have yet to find a way to communicate comfortably as partners. The risk of a misunderstanding or sudden chill in relations is real.
What to watch:
-- The battle over the yuan. Will Beijing let it appreciate, and if not, will Washington throw a tantrum?
-- Protectionism and trade tariffs. If President Barack Obama imposes more tariffs, under pressure from Congress and domestic industry, expect sparks to fly.
-- Any disputes arising from China's dealings with North Korea, Myanmar, Iran and other "rogue states".
POST-STIMULUS HANGOVER: ASSET BUBBLES AND CAPITAL CONTROLS
Asia is leading the world out of recession, which means Asian governments are among the first to confront a key policy problem -- how to time their exit from the vast stimulus packages that helped keep them afloat during the global economic crisis.
If governments withdraw stimulus too soon, they could topple back into stagnation. And if China falls into this trap, the impact on the global economy could be dire.
But keep policy too loose for too long and they risk not just resurgent inflation but also potentially catastrophic asset price bubbles, as plentiful credit sparks a scramble for property and equities. The danger of China's economy being derailed by a burst property bubble is a key concern for 2010.
Another risk for investors is that countries trying to prevent bubbles and control inflows of "hot money" tighten capital controls and try to lock in foreign cash.
Two more political issues complicate the dilemma.
First, unless governments coordinate their exit plans, there is a major risk of unexpected spillover effects. But the crisis demonstrated the lack of global governance bodies able to handle international policy coordination, and while G20 members have promised to move in step, it is more likely their stimulus exit will be dictated by national interest alone.
Second, disagreements could also erupt within countries, between governments focused on safeguarding growth and central banks fearful of inflation and bubbles. That could lead to bad decisions, and make policy hard to forecast.
What to watch:
-- All eyes are on China, key engine of global growth since the financial crisis hit. Can it steer a course through the policy perils? If it stumbles, the tremors will be global.
-- Much of Asia faces property bubble risks, with Hong Kong and Singapore particularly in focus.
-- India and Indonesia are two key countries where capital controls could be tightened, spooking investors.
-- The next G20 summits are in June in Canada and November in South Korea. Coordination of exit strategy will be a key theme.
-- Disagreements between the government and central bank are already an issue in Japan. South Korea and India, among others, may also see policy friction in 2010.
THORNY POLITICAL TRANSITIONS
In 2009, Asia smoothly negotiated several potentially tricky elections and transitions of power, although the victory of the Democratic Party in Japan's elections after decades in opposition produced some market volatility. Things may be tougher in 2010.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is widely expected to win another term, with the only question being the timing of the election. But elections in the Philippines and Sri Lanka are harder to call.
Moreover, two important Asian heads of state are ailing and there is no certainty who or what will come after them.
Thailand's 82-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been in hospital since September, another complication in the long-running political crisis that has riven the country. Many analysts expect instability to get even worse after his reign ends -- giving Thai markets a rough ride. But most say there is little risk of contagion in other markets.
If North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies in 2010, by contrast, the tremors will be felt in South Korea, Japan and beyond.
Many analysts say Kim's death could herald the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang, leading possibly to prolonged civil war in North Korea, aggressive moves against the South, or the sudden reunification of the Korean peninsula. In all of these cases, the likely market reaction would be strongly negative.
What to watch:
-- The health of North Korea's Kim and Thailand's king will be closely watched, and could unsettle markets.
-- Populist pre-election pledges in Sri Lanka and the Philippines may result in economic problems later in the year.
AFPAK TREMORS START TO TROUBLE INVESTORS
Long-running instability and widespread violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan rarely register on the radar screen of investors. But that may change in 2010.
Firstly, with Obama facing mid-term polls in November, and with effective defeat in the war in Afghanistan still possible in 2010, his strategy may become a central campaign issue and could even cost him a majority in the House of Representatives if things go badly.
Secondly, the decisive victory of the Congress party in India's 2009 elections was another good-news story for markets that could be threatened if militants based in Pakistan provoke a confrontation again, following the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Analysts expect al Qaeda and its allies to again try to spark conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours. And Pakistan's weak government, under threat on several fronts, may have its own reasons to focus popular anger on India.
What to watch:
-- Evidence of whether Obama's troop surge is making a difference, or whether his Afghan policy comes to be regarded as an expensive failure. In the latter scenario, he will be highly vulnerable going into the mid-term elections.
-- The state of India-Pakistan relations, and the risk of conflict if Pakistan-based militants once again launch a major attack on Indian soil.
SOCIAL UNREST PACKS A BELATED PUNCH
Many analysts predicted that the global economic crisis would unleash mass unrest in several countries around the world, with the potential to topple governments. They were mostly wrong. In particular, forecasts that China's leadership could be shaken by serious unrest proved to be way off the mark.
But unemployment is a lagging indicator. Even as the global economy moves out of crisis, many countries will see jobless numbers and social hardship continuing to rise.
Another spark that could ignite unrest would be inflation in food and fuel prices. The global crisis put the brakes on a dramatic surge in commodity prices that is likely to resume as global growth resumes.
What to watch:
-- The doomsday scenario for markets would be mass unrest across China that threatens to topple the government. Most analysts see the possibility of this as extremely low in 2010, but any upsurge in unrest in China would rattle investors.
-- India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are other key emerging markets where unrest could hamper economic reform and dent markets if instability flares in 2010.
'2009 was a good year, next will be brighter'

Q&A: Vedika Bhandarkar, MD & Head of Investment Banking, J P Morgan

Investment banking shifted focus in 2009, as capital raising dominated over mergers and acquisitions (M&As) advisory. US-based J P Morgan led this shift globally. Vedika Bhandarkar, managing director & head of investment banking, tells how even in a supposedly bad year, the bank raised about Rs 1,00,000 crore. In an interview, she tells that this signals hope for the advisory business to pick up in 2010, after a year when J P Morgan was missing from the top of the league table. Excerpts:

So, is it the end of a bad year?
No. A good year is now coming to an end. In 2008, things really slowed down. Till January-February (2009), the equity and debt capital markets were pretty much shut and only M&As announced earlier were concluded. So, 2008 was pretty weak. On the contrary, 2009 has been good. When we went into the calendar year, it did not look like it would be a good year. The first four months were quiet, but we have seen a spate of capital issuances since May. It started with deleveraging, but now we are seeing a little bit of growth capital. Things are not back to normal on the M&A front, but there are enough signs that the activity will pick up in 2010.
Despite a lot of growth in capital markets, bank lendings are growing slowly?
Bank borrowings always lag the recovery in capital markets. Companies in most sectors are optimistic about 2010. A lot of profit growth has come from cost reduction. Companies want sustainable growth for a couple of quarters before they start dusting out old expansion plans. We expect bank borrowings will pick up in the second half of 2010.
In the first quarter of 2008, there were certain public issues that drained out liquidity and forced others to shelve their plans. The next quarter will be a busy one with a large number of issues lined up. Do you again anticipate liquidity issues?
In 2008, the market was not affected because of a few issues. The global crisis had started and money stopped flowing in. Domestic liquidity also started getting tight. The amount of capital raised this year is just under $20 billion (around Rs 93,000 crore). In our best year, which was 2007, the capital raised was $35 billion. So, there is still a fair way to go. Global liquidity is quite high and the flow into equity and emerging market funds will continue. On the domestic side, insurance had a tough 2008, but the situation is better now. There are a lot of prospectuses that have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), there are companies which have raised capital and will come back next year. Besides, there are very few mid-caps that have raised capital this year. There will be a lot of supply, but we are not sure if there will be enough demand for all the issues.
Will the government’s disinvestment programme crowd out private sector issues?
From the numbers announced so far, it does not look so. But if the government wants to bring 10 or 15 more issues, then may be.
How will rising valuations affect M&As, especially inbound deals?
Ideally, M&As should peak when valuations are low. But in practice, it is the other way round. That’s because companies, the buyers and the sellers, are not confident during tough times. Now companies in the US are shifting focus from survival to growth. People have started talking about M&As, which was not the case six months ago. But with strong equity markets, valuations have started emerging as a concern.
Where do you expect to see more activity?
In traditional sectors such as healthcare, information technology services, telecom and general manufacturing.
Are telecom companies getting desperate to expand overseas at a time when consolidation talks are gaining strength here?
There is no desperation. In India, Bharti got some good operating lessons in one of the lowest tariff environments. It has been looking out at markets with similar characteristics. Consolidation in the Indian telecom sector is a given, but we do not know if it will happen in the next 12, 24 or 36 months. Consolidation is bound to happen with tariffs falling and so many players.
The banking sector is also crowded and there is talk of consolidation…
It is completely linked to the government, which accounts for 70 per cent of the banking sector business. We are much more bullish on telecom consolidation happening sooner.
In terms of financing, will there be more of structured finance in coming days?
The market has come out of a major crisis. Right now vanilla financing seems good. Experimenting is on the margin. In private transactions, structuring is back, but not on the public side.
On M&As, it was a bad year for the industry as a whole. How would you rate it for J P Morgan?
The focus for the company this year was on equity fund raising, and we are ranked number one there (in the global league table). In terms of M&As, there have been very few large completed transactions in India. We closed the DoCoMo transaction earlier this year.

Interview

2010-01-12T18:32:00.000-08:00

When the late G K Moopanar walked away with a substantial number of Congressmen from Tamil Nadu in 1996 to form the Tamil Maanila Congress, little did he know that one year after his death, the TMC merged with the Congress and cease to exist. The party patriarch died, TMC leaders elected his son G K Vasan -- till then an unknown -- as their president. It was rumoured that Vasan became the choice because there were too many aspirants for the post. After Vasan took over, a series of consultations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi led the way for the TMC's merger with the parent organisation. Today he is central shipping Minister but again nothing been heard from his ministry Excerpts from a telephonic interview by Vaidehi Sachin
What are the plans for 2010 for shipping industry?
The government increasing the port capacity to nearly 1,000 million tons a year with projects allotted by the end of 2011-12, but legal and administrative delays hindered the programme. Now, the major ports are likely to have a capacity of 743 mt of cargo by March 31, 2012. I have advised the environment ministry that all stakeholders, including the shipping ministry, will be consulted before the finalisation of any policy. The point is that we don’t have any time to lose in expanding the capacity of our ports when India’s economic growth and share in world trade are expected to rise.
Nearly 60, 000 workers from all the ports in the country had threatened to go on a strike unless their demands, which included getting their arrears from january 1, 2007 why the workers are going on strike frequently?
They met me and I re-assuring and some of their demands have been met. The strike would have affected nearly 1,000 officers at the Kolkata port and nearly 3,000 grade III and IV officers. We are taking some strong measures to prevent strike like situations.
What are measures taken by the Shipping Minister to encourage private sector investment in the shipping sector?
We have takenall possible measures to encourage private sector investment in the shipping sector as major ports alone require over Rs 36,000 crore private investment by March 2012. Our ports could handle an estimated one billion tonne traffic by 2011-12...Rs 36,868 crore private investment is required for the major ports' capacity addition and the government has introduced greater transparency in bidding system.
Why The Ministry of Shipping is nearly doubling the initial cost estimates of the controversial Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project?
The government is yet to take a view on shipping subsidy provided to shipbuilders and discussions are on. Initially, the project was to be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 2,400 crore. But we are revising the cost estimates, part of which would be requested for immediately to clear dues pending to the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI).
After assuming charge at the shipping ministry last year,you had announced that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government would complete the Sethusamudram Project ?
Yes that is on my priority list,See as it is beneficial for the country and for the state of Tamil Nadu.The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has been entrusted to conduct an environmental impact assessment of the alternative alignment, proposed between Dhanushkodi and Lands End, Rameshwaram Island. The ports capacity including at the 12 state-owned major ports and over 200 minor ports could be over a billion tonne by the end of the 11th Plan, he said, adding the last fiscal saw the domestic ports handling about 733 million tonnes cargo out of which 530 million tonnes were handled by the 12-major ports.

Any plans to trifurcate the directorate general of shipping (DGS) with a view to create separate directorates for each of the three regions?
The government has no plans to trifurcate the directorate general of shipping (DGS) to create separate directorates.
How will you strengthen the shipping administration?
We have made entire department techno savvy. Strengthening the shipping administration directorate and its allied offices have been fully computerized and connected by internet. The training examination and certification processes in Mercantile Marine Departments (MMDs) have been tested under Quality Certification System ISO 9001. The technical officers were given training in technical and administrative functions with a view to improve their performance.
How to cope up with increasing work load?
By growth in shipping activities and international trade, the directorate has set up offices of MMDs at four new locations at Kandla, Haldia, Paradip and New Mangalore. MMDs of Kochi and Kandla have also been upgraded to a regional level. The directorate has started an e-governance project that enables users to access information and processes regarding regulatory service of the directorate online.
Some political pundits allege that you are a non performing minister.
I don't think those reports have any validity .It’s their view and opinion. I no need to clarify on this my work will speak.
Then why are such reports against you to newspapers almost daily?
As long as the media is there, such reports are bound to appear. This is not new for any politician.
So you are denying the reports...
I am just telling you the facts (laughs).

What is opinion about Cruise shipping?
Cruise shipping would be a path breaking development in India's efforts to carve a prominent space in world tourism and it would showcase India as a major source and destination of world tourism.The number of cruise ships which called at Indian ports increased in the year while the number of cruise passengers too saw a jump.Italian luxury liner Silversea Cruises, which sails across seven continents in over 80 countries, covering more than 400 destinations already announced launching services in the country at the close of the year.
If we had to look back do you feel sad that there will not be a party called the Tamil Maanila Congress now?
On the contrary, I was happy that I could do what my father wanted to do. I knew I was doing my part in a proper way.
You were never in the limelight when your father was alive. But after he passed away, the party made you president. Were you a reluctant leader?
I had all along been working for the party, but silently. Everybody in the party knew what I was doing. I had been working not only for the TMC, but for the Congress too. I worked for the Congress from 1984 onwards, but without making any noise about my work. To me, it was duty first and publicity next. So, when the senior party leaders asked me to head the party, I agreed. That was because I really wanted the TMC to rejoin the Congress one day. After all, that is where all of us belong. I am sure I have done my duty well. I have fulfilled the wish of my father.

Crazy Scribe

2010-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Mudslinging could become a sporting event in Commonwealth Games 2010
The Chairman of the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee Suresh Kalmadi has announced that “mudslinging” will be a new addition to the Commonwealth Games that might be organized next year in Delhi. Kalmadi, along with colleague Lalit Bhanot, who is secretary general of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, was also kind enough to demonstrate a sample game of mudslinging to the journalists. But the plan may hit a roadblock as Commonwealth Games Federation is yet to approve the decision.“We will need these big piles of mud. It will be fun. bada mazaa aayega!”
Reports say that the biggest roadblock is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a set format of the mudslinging game. Although the game has been played quite frequently in India in the public domain, nobody is quite sure about the rules of the game, except for the fact that it involves two groups slinging mud at each other.In fact even during the demonstration, a lot of questions remained unanswered, especially about the composition of the participating teams, because while Kalmadi and Bhanot paired up as a doubles team, their rival Mike Hooper, the CEO of Commonwealth Games Federation, was playing all by himself.“I know you guys would have a lot of questions, but there is still one year to go before the games start. We are working towards it and in due course we will make sure that mudslinging becomes an accepted game. You will see a lot of mudslinging in the coming weeks and the rules of the games will automatically get written.” Suresh Kalmadi expressed confidence.
Mr. Kalmandi also informed that he would be meeting Mike Fennell, the President of the Commonwealth Games Federation, later this month and would invite him to take part in the mudslinging. In case Mike Fennell insists upon disallowing mudslinging, Kalmadi has a plan ready.“He can’t do that. It’s a matter of our national pride. If Fennell does that (reject mudslinging) we’d start a campaign in India against the Commonwealth Games and make sure that each Indian realizes how our national pride was trampled upon. But I sincerely believe that mudslinging will get the recognition it deserves.” Kalmadi explained his foolproof plans.

Sheila and Kumar go to Supreme Court over civic manners
The campaign to teach manners to Delhi residents ahead of the Commonwealth Games seems to have run into rough weather with the “Kumars” of Delhi filing a petition in the Supreme Court against the Delhi government for showing them in bad light. The Delhi government had recently announced a campaign called “Thu Thu Kumar, Su Su Kumar or Poly auntie?” to discourage people from making the city dirty.The concerned campaign was designed to shame, and hence reform, people who are seen spitting, urinating, and littering in public. The campaign included catchy slogans like, “Thu Thu Kumar na bane (Don’t spit in public)” and similarly for people urinating (Su Su Kumar) and littering (Poly Auntie) in public. But the “Kumars” have come out in strong protest against the campaign. They claim that the campaign has hurt their sentiments.Kumars insist that the man in the picture is not necessary a Kumar
“How can you insult all Kumars like this? Everyone urinates or spits in the public places in Delhi, so why single out the Kumars? Why didn’t the Delhi government think of some other name like, Thu Thu Dixit na bane, or Su Su Gandhi na bane. It’s just too embarrassing for us. We will take this fight to court and pressurize Delhi government into stopping this slander.” S Kumar, one of the aggrieved Kumars said. Kumars claims that their community has always brought fame to the nation and they didn’t expect such treatment in return from the government. They cited Hollywood movies like “Harold and Kumar” to buttress their point. A mahapanchayat of Kumars too have been called by a retired Lieutenant Bhainsla Kumar, who served in Indian army in 1970’s.“We are a peace loving community, but nobody can hurt our sentiments just like that. We are requesting the Sheila government to stop the campaign within two weeks and apologize to our community. If they fail to do it, all the Kumars will be forced to spit and urinate all around Delhi, especially at Commonwealth Games sites.” Lt. Bhainsla Kumar announced the non-cooperation movement.

Hundreds suffer losses in Delhi as they try to learn manners
Home Minister P Chidambaram’s advice to Delhiites to learn manners and behave in a way that suits residents of a “big, good international city” was taken seriously by many Delhiites but they ended up getting frustrated and fooled. Most of these people are now angry with the Home Minister and wants him to think twice before he speaks, with a few demanding compensation for the losses they had to incur after heeding to his advice.“I applied brakes and slowed down my car as soon as the green light turned yellow, and wow, my car was smashed hard by this sedan behind me whose driver had applied accelerator to escape the red light. Before I could say something the driver started shouting at me for driving the car as a donkey and was joined by others behind him. What was Chidambaram thinking?” Subhash Malik, a Delhi resident said.Subhash was still fortunate when compared with Sandeep Singh, the DTC bus conductor, who was beaten black and blue by a group of college going youth when he told them not to get into the bus as it was already full to capacity. The assailants also took away all the money and bus tickets that was with Sandeep at the time of the attack. Sandeep has been admitted to hospital with various injuries.“I had seen some dubbed English movies and they never show any overcrowded buses. I thought Chidambaram sahib would like to see those kinds of buses during commonwealth games so I tried my bit. They bit me on my nose too when I told them that dilli ki naak mat katwao (don’t be a shame for Delhi).” Sandeep recounted his horror.There were several unfortunate souls with similar stories, who had to suffer in one way or the other as they tried to behave like a citizen of a big, good international city. A woman fell down and suffered minor fractures as she tried to avoid crossing the road during traffic and instead used the foot-over bridge, which apparently had unkempt slippery stairs.The government has expressed grief and concern over these incidents and has cautioned the citizens that if they didn’t learn to behave in time, the commonwealth games could be postponed or shifted out of the country. Commonwealth Games Federation head Michael Fennell had already expressed his displeasure at Delhi’s readiness to host the games, and the government thinks that such incidents could aggravate the fears that Delhi was not ready.Bogus News too urges the responsible citizens of Delhi to behave properly as Commonwealth Games must happen on time.

Amar Singh to start second innings in Bollywood
Even though Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has tried to downplay the resignation of Amar Singh and is hopeful of his return to the fold, Faking News has learned that the 53-year-old high profile leader has not only left Samajwadi Party, he has left politics for good and not joining any other political party. And guess what, the socialite-politician is ready to start his second innings in Bollywood.
“Yes, I am starring in the sequel to Paa, titled Paa-Do.” said a jubilant Mr. Amar Singh, ending all speculations over his future career and sequel to Paa. Candid as always, he admitted that he was pretty frustrated with his political career. “I do not think that with my failing health I can catch up with Mayawati or Madhu Koda, and I want to be second to none. Even Shibu Soren seems to be getting ahead now.” he woefully added.
Upon being quizzed further, Mr. Singh revealed that Paa-Do will be based on a story he himself penned during his illness. It will star Mr. Singh as a kid with a rare disease, but not Progeria. Singh will be suffering from fecal incontinence, which is the loss of regular control of the bowels.

Amar Singh gives a facial expression as an actor
“It’s a very challenging role, but my political career has trained me perfectly for it. I will fit to the T playing this complex character.” a visibly proud Mr. Singh said. “The movie will be a visual treat (sic.) for all the viewers, and in a way will also showcase my political achievements till date.” he further added.
Questions as to how exactly his achievements will be showcased were greeted with a sly smile, “that is for the viewers to discover after they watch the movie.” Mr Singh said. On being quizzed if any other politicians were being roped in for the movie, Mr. Singh was furious. “Isn’t one enough?” he angrily retorted.
The movie will also star Rakhi Sawant in the pivotal role of the mother of the child that doesn’t have a hold on his bowels. “I have seen Rakhi in both Rakhi ka Swayamvar and Pati, Patni aur Woh; she is phenomenal.”
A question as to whether Rakhi will also feature in an item song in the movie was however ignored by Mr. Singh. He also said that producers were still looking for an actor to play his dad’s role in the movie. “It is not an easy role, that of the child’s father. The actor will have to share screen space with both me and Rakhi, no easy feat that will be”, he added.
Upon being asked what role would the venerable Big-B play in the sequel, Mr. Singh said, “Mr Bachchan visited me many times while I was undergoing treatment in Singapore, and that’s when it struck me that in the never-seen-before role of a male nurse, Mr. Bachchan could wow audiences around the world. And that’s what he will play in Paa-do, be my nurse”.
The Bachchan family was unavailable for comments. The senior Bachchan is expected to soon blog about this exciting new development. Given the phenomenal success of Paa, one can only hope that Paa-Do isn’t merely a whiff of hot air.
After accused of promoting ragging, copying other’s creative work and dumbing down of higher education, 3 Idiots team is now being accused of promoting farting in public. An NGO has moved a petition against the producers and actors for making one of the key characters of the movie – Chatur Ramalingam aka Silencer – fart many times in the movie and even read a shloka praising his farting abilities.
“It was disgusting to see a movie that glorified farting. Everyone in the multiplex was laughing like a donkey when Chatur was delivering the fart speech. This can’t be tolerated. All is not well with this senseless movie.” Hawa Ram, spokesperson of the NGO called IAF (Indians Against Farting) said, especially accusing Aamir Khan of conspiring to make India a fart-friendly nation by deceit.

IAF members believe that these guys are sitting on a chair called Silencer, which suppresses the sound of farting
In the movie, Rancho, the character played by Aamir Khan, pens some Sanskrit sounding verse that was actually a phonetic adaptation of various kinds of farting. The verse is read out by Chatur on Teacher’s Day as a part of welcome speech. IAF members believe that not only in the movie, Aamir Khan is conspiring even in the real world.
“Aamir Khan is the main culprit. He projects himself as a serious person but has been silently working to turn India into a fart nation. You remember Taare Zameen Par? In that movie, he promoted that child actor Darsheel Safary, who is now playing Padduram – a farting child. What nonsense!” Hawa Ram hinted at the conspiracy, citing the second movie of Darsheel rumored to be released sometime this year.
When the question was put to Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the producer of 3 Idiots, he told our reporter to shut up. Our reporter went silent and then farted loudly, after which Vidhu apologized for his misconduct. Later on, Vidhu revealed that the story of 3 Idiots was based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone, and hence all such accusations and litigations should be directed at Chetan.
When contacted, Chetan Bhagat said that the issue was over from his side and he has moved on.
IAF has accused both Chetan Bhagat and the 3 Idiots team to have colluded to divert the attention from the real issue.
In a move aimed to make movie watching experience better for thousands of cine goers, the leading multiplex cinema chain PVR Cinemas has announced providing child silencers to people taking their kids along with them to U/A rated movies. The silencers would be provided free on demand in the first couple of months, but it would be made compulsory or discontinued thereafter based upon the feedback from people.
Child silencers have been specifically designed by 21-year-old Raju Rastogi, a final year Mechanical Engineering student at IIT Bombay, who thought about it while watching 3 Idiots. Raju’s hairs (on his head) were pulled by a 3-year-old kid let loose by his parents in the back row of the PVR Juhu. When Raju looked back at the kid angrily, the kid started howling. Raju and his friends couldn’t hear the dialogues of the movie clearly for next 15 minutes.

A child wearing silencer before entering the movie hall
“I wanted to throw the kid on the screen. Not only had he cried for those 15 minutes, for the rest of the movie he and his ugly fat mother kept on discussing some nonsense like yellow cats and blue rats. I so badly wanted to put a tape on the lips of both the mother and the kid.” Raju recounted his horrors that pushed him to think of innovation, research and development; things expected from an IIT student.
Raju came back to his hostel room and thought hard over it. Initially he thought to make a device that could put the kids on vibration mode like mobiles, but he dumped the idea as it could have caused resonance with multiple kids in the multiplex and could have brought down the multiplex killing thousands of people. Being a Mechanical Engineer, he fell back upon combustion engines and decided to make a child silencer.
The child silencer would allow the kid to see everything around him/her but would mute his/her voice. There would be earphones coming out of the silencer, which would be required to be plugged in the ears of the parents or guardians accompanying the child, so that they can heed to some emergency demands of the kids like peeing.
“Child silencer seemed a safe idea and I instantly started working on the design the same night. It took me just eight days and I was ready with a prototype. I applied for a patent and at the same time I approached PVR for its commercialization.” Raju told Faking News.
PVR authorities were initially reluctant to try the idea even though they agreed that kids continued to be a nuisance for cine goers apart from people talking loudly on mobiles. After a lot of deliberations and negotiations with Raju, finally PVR managers decided to put the idea on probation for the first two months.
“We were aware of this problem and internally we have been discussing ways to address it. Initially we had thought of providing free candies to children with marijuana or tequila mixed in it, but our lawyers informed that it could amount to illegal business practice. Raju came with his prototype at just the right moment.” PVR Cinemas Chairman Ajay Bijli said.
At the time of filing this report, silencers had been provided for all the movies released today till the matinee show. Initial reports suggested that most people had welcomed the idea.
Domestic Maya Calendar found predicting doomsday in 2012

A team of archeologists, historians and scientists have found an encrypted Indian Maya calendar. Experts differ on the exact interpretation of the calendar, but it seems to be about Uttar Pradesh in particular. There are talks of Maya and Doomsday but people are not sure what does it mean.

Bogus News in-house archeologists and artists have decoded the calendar into a simplified version for the readers.
Australia denies racism, accuses Kangaroos of attacking Indians
Australian authorities continue to come out with weird statements amid outrage in India over deadly attacks on the Indian students down under. Authorities have now claimed that the attacks were the handiwork of some kangaroos, and hence, not racial in nature. Authorities suspect that either one big burly Kangaroo or a group of rowdy Kangaroos were behind the attacks. They have also released picture of a suspect Kangaroo.
“Our stand has been vindicated. These attacks were not at all racial, as the paranoid Indian media have been suggesting. The attackers belong to a different species altogether. We will thoroughly investigate the issue and try to arrest these Kangaroos soon. I hope Indians will stop creating hysteria now.” Melbourne Police Chief Mr. Down Right Rood informed in a packed press conference.
The police and authorities had tough time explaining the rowdy-Kangaroo-theory as none of the victims had claimed that the attackers were of bestial appearance. Last year, one of the videos clearly showed a group of human looking Australians attacking an Indian in a train, but the authorities insist that the attackers were Kangaroos.

A Kangaroo preparing himself to attack Indian students, according to the Australian authorities
When asked why the Kangaroos were attacking Indians only, Mr. Rood said, “Indians are not new to being attacked by animals. It has happened in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Did not a monkey called Monkeyman attack Indians a few years back? My research department informs me that Indians worship cows so that they don’t attack them at will. Indians must introspect why they are always at the receiving end. We will fully cooperate with the introspection.”
Faking News has learned that a few researchers had also suggested that the suspected attacker Kangaroo and the Monkeyman could be blood related. Researchers believe that the British government, which ruled over both India and Australia at one time, might have dumped the Kangaroo into Australia for being too criminal and violent, as was the norm in those days. But the authorities have chosen to ignore these findings.
While the claims of Melbourne police and authorities were dismissed by many Indians outrightly, some groups suggested that they should wait till the investigations were over before concluding anything. A few Indians have been petrified over the possibility of existence of self-transforming Kangaroos that transform into human beings before attacking Indians.
“This is crazy! The government must tell us how to differentiate between those who appear as human beings and those who are actually human beings in Australia.” Rahul Sheth, an Indian living in Australia expressed his concerns.
Although the ploy of the authorities to work around the racism charges might seem to be working, there is some bad news for them. Some groups a suspect a racial bias in the whole case as the authorities chose to point fingers at an aboriginal animal over other animals. Australian jails already have over representation of aborigines, and now an aborigine animal waits to join them.
An apple, which was dropped from the highest tip of Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) to double-check Newton’s laws of motion and Gravitation, has disappeared and has been untraceable since it was dropped by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The decision to drop the apple was taken after various Arab and European scholars disputed the validity of Newton’s findings, especially the theory of gravitation.
Apart from the theory of gravitation, the apple was also supposed to validate Newton’s laws of motion, especially the second law. The exact height of the Burj Tower, which remains a mystery till date, was to be ascertained using one of the equations of motion (h=½.g.t^2) based on the second law. And if the result were to agree with the official version on the height of the tower, Newton’s laws would have been officially recognized in the richest emirate.

The Lost Apple
“His Highness took a bold and modern step but somehow the apple never reached the ground. It’s an unfortunate and serious development and raises questions over Newton’s laws and theories. It’s incumbent upon the Newtonian scientists now to prove that the laws are still valid.” leading scholar Zakir Bin Zaid said.
While the moderate scholars like Zakir Bin Zaid term the development as ‘unfortunate’, a few of the hardliners have declared the whole act of dropping an apple as ‘infidel’ and have asked Sheikh Mohammad to apologize.
“Apple is the forbidden fruit and I wonder what Sheikh was doing with it on the rooftop of a tower.” said Maulana Zawahiri, who has now joined Taliban after renouncing his UAE citizenship five years back, from some unknown and unbombed part of Pakistan, adding, “There is nothing to validate, we always knew that Newton’s laws were wrong; if every action had equal and opposite reaction, bombs should have imploded back after exploding.”
Meanwhile a massive manhunt has been launched to locate and recover the missing apple. Various theories have been put forward regarding the disappearance of the apple. Many people believe that the laborers from India and Pakistan might have stolen the apple mid-air as they get only one roti and a bowl of daal to eat on normal days.
“They might have thought that Sheikh was rewarding them for their hard work with an apple. Thousands of laborers were used to build Burj Dubai and one lucky person might have grabbed the apple as it fell, and fled away with it so that the other laborers don’t demand their share.” Habib Hussain of Moradabad, who had run back to India hiding in a toilet of an Air India flight, said.
Journalists debate what news to make out of assorted pictures of sexy girls
With about a dozen pictures of women in skimpy clothes and sexy poses on the desk, a group of young and dynamic journalists debated over an hour the various news stories that could accompany the pictures for tomorrow’s edition of Hilly Times. The debate was still on till the reports last came in, but the group of journalists had shortlisted three possible news stories for the final decision.
“See, all of them are wearing blue swimsuits, we can write a trend story on how blue is going to be the color this winter, we can also use stills from the Blue movie.” proposed Kimmi, the 21-year-old expert on fashion news wearing a deep V neck T-shirt, adding to the spirited discussion among her colleagues who thought it was a brilliant idea worth exploring.

Such pictures inspired the journalists to think over various issues for discussion
Buoyed by the marvel at her suggestion, Kimmi jumped over from her chair to sit on the desk, just close to the pictures of the sexy girls, and proceeded to buttress her point to four of her co-workers, who had huddled around her chair in the cubicle. “Maybe we can mention the blue color of Manmohan Singh’s turban too as a fashion statement by our Prime Minister?” Kimmi shrugged her arms to a bunch of thoughtful journalists, who then came up with names of other possible blue celebrities for discussion.
“Can’t we somehow link these pictures to AIDS, it was World AIDS Day yesterday, and twitter is still red, something around that?” heads nodded in appreciation as 27-year-old Bikas pitched in with his idea, changing the topic from blue to red, though Kimmi frowned and thought it didn’t make any sense. “You sure people would read that?” Kimmi expressed her apprehensions to which Bikas said, “Of course!”
Various other colors were discussed and rejected in the course of next half an hour before someone suggested taking out three of the best pictures from the lot and making a poster on the lines of Amir Khan’s upcoming movie 3 Idiots. “We can use the text from what was given to us by that shoddy PR agency that has been bugging us for an article for a month now. The graphic artists will make the poster, and we can have a walk down, it’s a beautiful day out there.” suggested Anand, 25, with an impish look and tone, setting off girly giggles from everyone.
At the time of filing this report, the group of young and dynamic journalists had shot a mail to their editor to finalize one of the ideas and continued discussing various other stuffs around the pictures as the editor was momentarily out of his office for the last three hours. The group also discussed plans for the party next week to celebrate the rocketing readership of Hilly Times.
Great Indian Sex Survey by BogusNews
Like a responsible media unit taking care of public ‘interest’, BogusNews too has come up with a sex survey revealing the most secret and sensuous details of sex lives of the Indians. The survey has thrown many surprises and has helped understand the innermost desires of the Indian men and women. We bring to you some of the highlights and findings of The Great Indian Sex Survey.
• Contrary to the popular belief, there were no major differences between Hindu and Muslim ways of sex.
• The rich Indians valued sex highly, the poor thought it cheap.
• On an average this year, a married Indian couple had indulged in sex five times a week, two times out of which was with the consent of the wife. Trend was not too different even in the case of unmarried couples.
• Indian male was still stuck up with the number 362436 – that was the average number of times in a year when he thought about having sex with a female, mostly of the human species.
• Young Indians had no qualms establishing physical relationships with the opposite sex without any plans of getting married. They thought it no different than renting and living in an apartment without any plans of buying it.
• For sex related problems, most of the men still relied on Hashmi Dawakhana (Amroha), Sablok Clinic (Delhi) or Japani Tel (Japanese oil); rest of them denied having any problem whatsoever.
• Many Indian men thought that foreplay was a new rule introduced in the 20-20 cricket matches by ICC.
• Some men admitted popping in Viagra to improve performance, women thought it crazy to swallow.
• Young men found porn movies informative, young women found them weird and even funny at times.
• Many young women wondered why their boyfriends insisted on not taking off their stockings or footwear during sex.
• Indian women were still very secretive about oral sex, very few of them opened their mouth.
• Women continued to fake orgasms, and men sizes.
• It was found out that while in the western countries a man kissing the breasts was taken as a mark of respect by the woman, the Indian woman desired to be kissed on their asses to be conveyed that respect.
• The average duration of sexual intercourse was unknown, but everyone, especially the husband, claimed it to be higher than their neighbors.
• Many more couples were talking sex than before, but not amongst themselves.
• The favorite place by couples to have sex continued to be the bedroom, but the fantasy choices were varied – Parliament, Pakistan, Qutub Minar, on a boat, and on a railway berth – in that order.
• Gay sex had jumped 231445% from last year. Homosexuals were also seen as the most eager to take part in more of such surveys.
• Around 69% of the wives suspected their husbands of having an extra marital affair. 99% of the husbands suspected their wives of not trusting them enough.
• Cheating husbands were confident that their wives would forgive them for adultery as they didn’t have a choice.
• Cheating husbands were confident that their wives could not indulge in adultery as they didn’t have a choice.
• One night stands grew by over 78% over last year, mostly paid.
(The above survey was carried out in thirteen major cities in India and a total of 539 respondents were interviewed, out of which 289 were men and rest were women. 129 married couples were interviewed out of which… Do you really care about such statistics in such surveys?)
The whole nation was shell-shocked when Amar Sabbhulkar, a 26-year-old unemployed youth, forgot that it was first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks on Thursday. This despite the fact that all the news channels of India were relentlessly trying to remind everyone that Mumbai was attacked and hundreds of innocent people were killed exactly a year back. Amar’s atrocious amnesia came to the fore when he appeared live on ABS News.
“What are we discussing here? Why have you called these models and actresses? And you just played that music video, why? I’m sorry I’m completely at loss and I can’t think straight. Are we discussing some film that is going to be released tomorrow? What is that ‘lest we forget’ stuff at the backstage? What are we forgetting here? Please help me, I can’t recall anything.” Amar appeared totally baffled and scatterbrained in the middle of the ABS (Always Breaking Some) News’ Live show called “Mumbai has won”.

Taj Hotel was put on fire again and again on television screens lest people forgot 26/11
Sakar Sharma, the ABS newsreader who was anchoring the show, screamed as soon as Amar expressed his failure to recall the 26/11 events. “Irresponsible people like Amar are letting us down!” Sakar pronounced with his index finger pointing towards the sky and his burning eyes looking straight into the camera, before he directly addressed Amar by pointing the finger at him, “Can’t you recall how our countrymen were butchered like lambs a year back. How can you forget Amar? We had showed all those stuff Live and Exclusive! Can you recall now?”
Amar couldn’t recall a stuff as an offended nation watched him blabbering live on television. Finally Sakar had to announce a commercial break after his repeated attempts to make Amar recall the events of 26/11 failed flat. During the break Amar was taken away from the live show and handed over to his friends. “Mumbai has won” resumed after this minor hiccup with all the guests vivid with their memories and demanding some sort of action to be taken against the problems.
“I don’t know what happened to him suddenly. He has a good memory and he remembered everything till yesterday. And tell me, how can you forget the events of 26/11? You forget something only when there is some change or considerable time has elapsed. There hardly has been any change on any front and it’s just been a year.” Amar’s friend Sameer told Faking News as he took away Amar from the venue of “Mumbai has won”.
Amar was later taken to a hospital. He is apparently the only Indian being treated for such sort of amnesia, as the rest of the India thinks they have not forgotten anything.

Swabhimaan Sanghatana

2010-01-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

Activists from the Swabhimaan Sanghatana, led by Nitesh Rane ransacked Andheri (K-East) ward office and blackened the face of an assistant engineer of the water works department. How sad? Who is blackening the faces of ministers who are responsible for inadequate food and water supply? These politically motivated traits will enhance false publicity to so called NGO group and Newly elected minister but cannot resolve the water crisis in the city. by putting ink on official’s face can lead to arrest but will not enhance supply of water. This is the second incident involving Swabhimaan Sanghatana. Two weeks ago, some activists attempted to forcibly enter the municipal corporation's headquarters and police had to use lathicharge. One activist died of heart attack in the incident. In the aftermath of scanty rainfall, Mumbai’s citizens have been warned that only 200 days of water supply is there at present in the major reservoirs, which means grim days ahead. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has introduced a 15 per cent cut in supply, which is expected to be increased to 30 per cent. There is also talk of no supply once a week, but a decision on that will be after consultation with political parties. The metropolis is presently getting a daily supply of 2,320 million litres, against the 3,450 million litres supplied by BMC during normal times. The demand for water from the 12.5 million population is actually estimated at 4,550 million litres a day. As on December 15, the reservoirs had only 71 billion litres, against 1000 billion litres available during the same date last year. Ironically, as much as 560 million litres is estimated to be lost daily due to leakage and stealing.
The state government has already announced that no water connection would be provided to highrise buildings in Greater Mumbai till 2012, when three new water reservoirs would be completed. This has evoked angry reactions from the realty sector, as nearly 1,400 projects cleared by BMC, with total investment of over Rs 25,000 crore, would be in jeopardy. The construction of three water projects, Madhya Vaitarana (455 million litres), Gargai (455 million) and Pinjal (865 million) is underway.
The Congress-NCP government has taken a decision to regularise slums which had come up by the year 2000 in Greater Mumbai, but the BMC is in no hurry to plan for water supply to these shanties. It says it has also stepped up action on water theft; insiders say a fifth of supply is lost due to leakage and pilferage. It also plans to gear up on metering of supply.The state government is contemplating a separate legislation to allow punitive action against misuse of water and causing pollution, by making it a cognisable offence. A fine of Rs 25,000 and six months in jail is being envisaged. The government admits the water shortage is not restricted to Mumbai and other big cities, but is also being faced by smaller towns and villages. It plans to set up state and district-level authorities for underground water. And, says it plans to emphasise conservation of water sources and use of water through participative management.

Prior permission of a civic or local body would be necessary in future to dig a well, especially in a water-deficit situation. Besides, drinking water would get priority over industrial use in such circumstances.So far, the government has got 18 proposals on supply through desalination of water. However, the costs are high. According to the government calculations, BMC needs to pay Rs 35-40 for every 1,000 kl of saline water conversion into potable water. The government and BMC agree that such a project is a necessity to reduce pressure on existing water supply sources, but are still unclear on how to meet such costs.
BMC currently does have one desalination project plan, a pilot one, for residents of Navy Nagar, which houses personnel and kin from the navy in South Mumbai. The cost projected for supplying a million litres is Rs 125 crore. As for rainwater harvesting, it has yet to gather momentum anywhere. It is yet to take off in the true sense, as there is no mindset. The public has a tendency to rely on the government or on BMC. They are not inclined to take the initiative for such projects. People, at large, are apprehensive about the expenditure, which is around Rs 1-5 lakh for a well-planned water harvesting project. On top of it, the administration lacks the necessary drive to promote it. Though it has been made mandatory for new buildings in Mumbai, there is no monitoring agency to track its implementation. Poor is suffering without food and water none his basic needs are fulfilled. India’s wide experience with monsoon failure yields a formulaic response: draw down grain stocks to feed the poor, sell some of it in the open market to keep a lid on food prices, lower taxes on food imports and stop exports. Looks good on paper. Here’s how it plays out on the ground.
India’s wheat futures were higher on Friday afternoon tracking the government’s concern on rising food prices, analysts said. The wheat January futures contract NWTF0 was up 0.97 per cent at Rs 1,356 per 100 kg. “Arrivals in the mandi are less than last year... prices are not coming down below the Rs 1,380 levels. The Food Corporation of India has earmarked 500,000 tonnes of wheat for sale to bulk consumers such as flour mills between October and December, but the mills have not been lifting stocks saying the Rs 1,400-1,450 per 100 kg price was too high.
India has raised its summer-sown rice output estimates by 2.2 million tonnes, the government said, reducing prospects of imports after the worst monsoon in 37 years damaged paddy fields. To shore up stocks at government warehouses, three state-run trading firms in October floated import tenders totalling 30,000 tonnes, but did not place an order due to high bids.
The Indian spot sugar price climbed for a third consecutive, bolstered by a drop in output, improvement in demand and as a shortage of rail wagons delayed arrivals of imported sugar in the market, dealers said. In Kolhapur, a key market in top sugar producer Maharashtra, the price of the most traded S-variety sugar rose 2.12 per cent to Rs 3,300 rupees per 100 kg. India’s sugar output fell 9.6 per cent to 1.70 million tonnes in the first two months of the season that began in October due to delayed cane crushing. Imported sugar has piled up at ports, particularly in Kandla in western India, because of a shortage of railway wagons and protests against raw sugar imports by farmers in the northern Uttar Pradesh state.
To talk about Vegetables, India’s potato output is likely to rise by 5.1 per cent to a record 32.7 million tonnes in 2009-10 as higher prices prompted farmers to cultivate the tuber crop on more area, Because of scanty rains in some areas farmers have not cultivated paddy. Average wholesale potato price in Agra, a major spot market in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, was Rs 750 per 100 kg on Friday [December 18], after hitting a high of Rs 1,450 in late October. In December 2008 the price was hovering at around Rs 160. India’s onion output is likely to remain almost steady in 2009-10 at 7.70 million tonnes, compared with 7.64 million tonnes a year ago. Average wholesale price of onion in the country’s largest onion trading hub, Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, was Rs 1,400 per 100 kg on Friday, after hitting a year high of Rs 1,927 on November 17, NHRDF data showed. India’s onion exports in first eight months stood at 1.328 million tonnes, up 17 per cent compared to 1.132 million tonnes during the same period a year ago. “In the last two months the government has raised the minimum export price. It will discourage exports and will help in augmenting domestic supply. Even garlic, A good, garlicky wind is blowing across the Himalayas. A Chinese rally in garlic, which made it this year's best performing asset there, has quadrupled Indian prices and fueled an unprecedented eight-fold jump in exports. At the spot market garlic price has surged 375 per cent to Rs 4,750 per 100 kg since March. This is an account of our attempts to treat the symptoms of a drought. Our heroic efforts at treating the disease are the subject of another article

Please.... Let her die? Why not ask doctor to play God?

2010-01-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

The mark of a civilised society is the status of its women. And given that anything clandestine is generally viewed as suspicious, the importance of taking this step becomes apparent. It’s been a terrible time ever since news broke of the plea by Aruna Shanbhag to the Supreme Court, asking the KEM hospital in Mumbai to stop force-feeding her and let her die in peace, Aruna’s family, particularly her elder brother, Balakrishna, are torn between wanting to see her alive one last time and setting her free from her bondage. Balakrishna, 84, a small-time businessman who lives with his daughter in Bengaluru after moving from Shimoga, is said to be deeply saddened that there is a move to end Aruna’s life. Deluged with calls from family and friends the day he newspapers splashed the news about the proceedings of the Supreme Court, many of them recalled old times when the pretty Aruna was a fixture in the family home in Haldipur. Others who had only heard of Aruna’s plight asked whether the family planned to speak out or stay silent. Relatives who first refused finally agreed to share the family’s views. Balakrishna had not seen his sister for 17 years. After the attack in 1973 that robbed the bright young woman of a promising future, Balakrishna, who had a special bond with his “beautiful sister” tried desperately to bring her home. But with Aruna’s coma persisting, Balakrishna was unable to persuade the hospital to release her. They simply refused. Balakrishna was undeterred. Contrary to reports that the family had abandoned Aruna, Balakrishna is said to have visited the hospital at regular intervals, interacting with the doctor who had been betrothed to her, until his failing health made it impossible for him to travel to Mumbai. The last time he visited Aruna was about 17 years back, and every time he saw the state she was in, he would get upset. Aruna lies on the bed just like a vegetable, recognising nobody, unable to speak.
She was beautiful, after finishing her Class X she came to Mumbai with great dreams. The ancestral home at Haldipur is empty, locked up as all other family members — including two of Aruna’s siblings who were born mentally challenged — moved out or passed on. KEM where Shanbaug worked and where she was sodomised by a hospital wardboy, who tied her neck with a dogchain cutting off oxygen supply to the brain, shares a special relationship with her. Nurses who knew her try to remember as she was, as a very bright nurse. Today, had she been working, she would have been a matron. The youngest of seven children of Ramchandra Shanbaug, Aruna had left her parents' home accompanied by her cousin who worked in the city with dreams of becoming a nurse at the prestigious KEM Hospital. Successful, beautiful and intelligent is how she is described by her then fiancé. She was engaged to be married at the time of the incident with a doctor at the hospital. Aruna’s relatives admit the family has discussed the issue of whether euthanasia was the right way forward for the hapless woman. She and her brother had a bond. He cannot bear to think about euthanasia. But, the other family members from the younger generation have no attachment because they have not seen her or met her. So, we feel euthanasia might be the right way to give her a dignified end. But despite the state she’s in, her brother will be devastated but its hard time one has to Govern death with rules. The plight of a 61-year-old woman, who suffered a brutal sexual assault 36 years ago and has been lying in a vegetative state ever since, has moved the Supreme Court into setting aside its pro-life stance and examining the womans plea that her life be ended. The woman, Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug, does not want to live anymore. The doctors have told her that there is no chance of any improvement in her state. So she, through her next friend Pinki Virani, decided to move the SC with a plea to direct the KEM Hospital not to force-feed her . Is this plea not akin to euthanasia asked a Supreme Court bench, if you see the fact, Is not keeping the woman in this persistent vegetative state by force-feeding violative of her right to live with dignity guaranteed by Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution. Law has provision for euthanasia.
She is beyond cure. Let the court inquire about what medical science has in store for her. It appears that there has been utter indifference of medical world towards her. The SC has to lay down some guideline in such cases. The pro-life apex court, which had negated pleas of termination of pregnancy of a mentally retarded girl resulting from a rape at a Nari Niketan in Chandigarh and a similar plea from a Mumbai couple for terminating a diseased fetus, Aruna is going through a torture of a life. Is this human rights Should the medical authorities not be activated to do something This is not a case to be left aside and forgotten.
After the assault left her without the ability to see, hear or speak, KEM nurses have been taking care of her, bathing her and feeding her. Irony is that when she actually needed protection she was raped and now Male employees are kept out and the hospital room kept locked for Shanbaug's safety. Some new recruits are not aware of her past, but KEM authorities and staff make that extra effort to ensure that her life is a little happier, entering the room and checking in on her five times a day.
My views on mercy killings are very clear. It should be allowed after framing proper rules. A duly authorised medical panel should certify that the condition of the person in question has reached an irretrievable stage following which he or she should be allowed to die. In case the patient is not conscious, his closest relatives should be involved in the process. They should be allowed to take a call on whether or not to put an end to the life of the person. This should not mean that anybody can claim to be the closest relative of the patient and decide on mercy killing. There should be a proper framework to identify the closest relative. And, of course, this too should be carried out only after due medical certification. Many people question the fact that the Constitution allows the right to life but does not permit the right to death. However, what competent courts have established not be forgotten. The right to life means right to life with dignity. And the right to life with dignity entails the right to die in a dignified way. There is no point in forcing a person to live in horrible and undignified circumstances and also make him die under similar circumstances.Doubts being raised about the possible misuse of the provisions are misplaced. Considering that somebody tries to pass off a case that can be salvaged as “irretrievable”, possibly with an ulterior vested interest, that person would be liable to face murder charges. As it is, medical certification in each case will be a must. Another line of thought being floated is that since God has given us life, only He has the right to take it away. I believe this lies in the realm of religious discourse. We have to look at the more practical aspects of life. I, however, don’t understand how forcing a human being to live for several years with machines all around him and needles thrust into his or her body is an act of kindness when compared to putting a dignified end to his life. Also, we are a country where beds are in short supply compared to patients. Though one can’t say that a person should not be given all possible medical attention and treatment to save his life and improve his condition, but if it is medically proven that the case is irretrievable, then I do not believe there is anything positive about keeping a bed occupied. years, a room in Mumbai's King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital's ward 4 has been reserved for one special patient. Behind locked doors, hidden by brown curtains, lies 61-year-old Aruna Shanbaug, a former nurse at the hospital who has spent three decades in a vegetative state in the room after a brutal sexual assault. I understand We have no moral right to terminate her life. But one should agree that Anruna needs salvation.
However, even doctors in favour of euthanasia it is a weak case for assisted death. In order to qualify for euthanasia, a person should ask for it voluntarily, has to be of sound mind, must have exhausted all the existing treatment modalities along with pain management and the disease must be incurable. This case is weak in the sense that she is in a vegetative state and the question of power of attorney comes into picture

Education through home schooling, an experiment

2010-01-12T18:25:00.000-08:00

The rising fees, the astronomical donations, the lack of individual attention, the sky rocketing cost for extra tuitions, the lack of time for extra curricular activities, obesity, the sedentary lifestyle right from the start, etc--all these lead me to question the educational system in our country and where our Gen-X is heading to.
When people come over to your house or if you catch up with people to lounge your weekend with, the most common line you hear is "when we were young". This statement is always seconded by negativity over the present situation of our kids and their education.
Gone are the days that you could tell your kids that you worked your lives off for them because your kids seem to be busier than you.
You start your day by going work and end it in the evening by unwinding with a drink, television or an enjoyable book. On the flip side take a look at your kids they start the day with tuitions (maybe) then school to tuitions and then back home to further homework and studies. Where is the effective time where they could unwind?
When you sit back with regrets of your life a majority never lists your childhood because the majority has had their bit of careless times.
I was reading this interesting article on the net about the education in the United States. Pretty interesting how they always differ to be different. This concept of "Home Schooling" caught my fancy i.e. study from or @home as the name suggests. This kind of education is subject to debate but also to a lot of good where the parents are directly responsible for their children and the interest level in their children. This kind of schooling also puts into curriculum the kids has sufficient amount of mingling with other children and play. Studies have also found that children subject to "Home Schooling" have shown to be more intellectual than the children who attending regular school.
The school dropout rate has been nipped to an extent today however at any given day if you ask a kid "if he/she would be given an option of dropping out (without mentioning the repercussions) or staying in, the answer would always be the latter. This could be because of various reasons from maybe lack of individual attention, lack of expertise to find problems that the kid is suffering from (dyslexia etc) or simply being lost in a crowd from the so called "better in class" so the tendency to relax on their efficiencies. The actual inspiration to this article was because of noted Noble price winner for Economics Mr Amartya Sen on his views on the tuition culture and home work in our country.
Here is a whole new avenue in the educational system, we could be so much a part of our children's lives and guide them towards aspiring much more than they are doing right now. The concept of home tutoring starts off by the parents attending workshops on tutoring the children with the curriculum running parallel in schools; the routine for these kids are as usual to the kids attending regular school. The first period start, the recesses the split periods the breaks etc only that this entire activity would be from home.
When we can say ".......... starts from home" means to say that the fundamentals start from home, likewise even education and being good citizens too. End of the day you know parents will never let their kids go astray or down.
Now in the present with parents warring with other parents on whose kid is better, with the rising number of reality shows for example, we could have a winner with this educational system. I am not saying things are bad at the present juncture however the when change is the only inevitable thing lets join hands to focus on making it better. Hence I am trying to be a drop in the ocean to the better educating of our GenX and start a change in our education system for the better. How many are a part of this to make a change.

The Power of the Fast

2010-01-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

In politics, never write off anyone. A few months ago, I was invited by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader, and politician of the moment, K Chandrasekhar Rao, to his residence for an Andhra (oops, Telangana!) lunch. Tied up in other work, I frankly did not make the effort to keep the date. The fact that KCR's party just has two MPs, including the party 'supremo', may have influenced my decision. In Delhi's power equations, two MPs make you almost irrelevant: lunch with KCR, honestly, seemed a waste of time. Today, KCR has proved the power of one, forcing the Centre to blink after going on a 11-day fast over his demand for a separate state of Telangana.
The demand is not new. Nor is the student agitation. In 1969, more than 300 students were killed while agitating for a separate state. Long before KCR, there was Dr M Chenna Reddy, who eventually allowed his separatist urges to be dissolved by his ambition to be Andhra chief minister. KCR, too, has been a political nomad, who only left the Telugu Desam in 2001 to form the TRS because he was passed over for cabinet minister. His experiment with the UPA ended when he realized that YS Rajasekhar Reddy was slowly decimating his party. Just days before the 2009 general elections, he resurfaced at an NDA rally, only to find himself being swept aside once again by the YSR tidal wave.
But what he couldn't do through the ballot box, KCR has achieved, at least temporarily, through one of the oldest forms of political protests: 'a fast unto death'. It was the Mahatma who legitimized the idea of a fast as an instrument of non-violent civil disobedience, designed mainly to further the clear strategic goal of political independence. During his lifetime, Gandhi fasted at least 17 times, the last time in August 1947 in an effort to stop Hindu-Muslim violence in the aftermath of Partition.
KCR is no Mahatma. Far from it. Nor is he a Potti Sreeramulu, who made the ultimate sacrifice when on a fast unto death that led to the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1952. But KCR has shown that it is possible to use a Gandhian tool in a contemporary India that otherwise identifies with the Mahatma only through the cinematic glow of a Munnabhai . In Gandhi's view, "the fasts must have a concrete and specific goal, not abstract aims' and 'the fast must not ask people to do something they were incapable of, or to cause great hardship." The 'success' of Gandhi's fasts were based on his moral power, his ability to emotionally unite a nation with the spirit of sacrifice. The fasting, in a sense, was an extension of his lifestyle based on austerity and personal courage.
The 'success' of KCR's fast, on the other hand, has much to do with the power of the visual image and the impact it can have in shaping public perceptions. That there has always been a popular pro-Telagana sentiment is undeniable. But that sentiment has needed a symbol around which it can crystallize. For the last ten days, Andhra Pradesh's dozen-plus Telugu news channels--more than any other state in the country--have shown little else but an emaciated Rao in different hospitals. The image of a politician on saline drip with doctors offering hourly health updates was enough to build a larger-than-life aura around a leader who otherwise had dropped off the headlines.
Making KCR's task easier was a weak and nervous Andhra government still coming to terms with YSR's death. A strong state government would not have allowed the student agitation in Osmania University to get out of control and would have sent out a firm message of zero tolerance for any law and order disturbance. Unfortunately, K Rosaiah is a chief minister who feels so obliged that the Congress high command has given him the post that he has forgotten his prime responsibility lies in governing the state.
So, will other movements for a separate state now gather fresh momentum and will we see more 'fasts unto death' in the weeks ahead? An Ajit Singh in UP, Gorkhaland activists in West Bengal, even the ageing Vidarbha warriors may be tempted to test the resolve of the Indian state, or at least try and make political capital of the post-Telangana concession. No two situations are alike, but a state which capitulates once gives the impression that it can do so again in the future. So, the fast as a made for television event may well be replicated in other parts of the country.
Ironically, the one individual who perhaps best exemplifies the Gandhian spirit of fasting isn't on the national television map. Last month marked nine years since a frail, but remarkably gritty Manipuri woman, Irom Sharmila went on a fast unto death, demanding the removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Locked up in a hospital room in Imphal, she has been force fed by the government and re-arrested every time she is granted bail. She is a staunch believer in ahimsa, and it's the state and the militant groups in Manipur who stand charged with violence and human right violations. Perhaps, Manipur isn't mainstream enough, nor is there the kind of relentless news coverage that will make Irom Sharmila's story force the Indian state to accommodate, or at least listen to her brave voice. Irom Sharmila is a true inheritor of the Gandhian legacy of peaceful protest; KCR is only an ambitious politician who is looking to revive his career.
Post script: I am looking forward to KCR inviting me for a Telangana lunch when he is next in the capital. Don't want to make the same mistake again of underestimating a neta's capacity for political resurrection.

Activism we can do without3 Comments

2010-01-12T18:23:00.001-08:00

It was activism of a different sort when some eminent citizens such as actor Aamir Khan, Magsaysay award winners Sandeep Pande and Arvind Kejriwal, social activist Anna Hazare and journalist-author Madhu Trehan wrote to the prime minister last week that former IPS officer Kiran Bedi should be made the chief information commissioner (CIC) of India. The efforts of these well-meaning activists raise some fundamental questions about the role of civil society.In the last two decades or so, prompted by a neo-liberal intellectual climate, the role of the government in a democracy has been under constant scrutiny. There is a broad agreement across political opinions now that governance is not ONLY what the government does. Governance is the cumulative product of the efforts of the institutions of market, state and civil society. Civil society is expected to articulate opinions that the market, the state and political parties may find risky.The big leap in the evolution of Indian civil society came with the setting up of the National Advisory Council (NAC) in 2004, when the first UPA government came to power. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, whose personality transcends the boundary between a politician and an activist, headed the NAC. The NAC was a culmination of the activism directed against several measures of NDA rule between 1999 and 2004, particularly in matters relating to education policy and communal harmony. The NAC played a key role in legislations such as the RTI and Right to Education. Sonia’s exit from the NAC made it defunct.
While the NAC was a structured mode of civil society participation, ‘activists’ in India in general tend to be anarchists. One of our celebrated civil society activists occasionally even cedes from the Indian republic!!!! And many are still in the mode of ‘civil disobedience,’ unaware of the fact that it was designed against a government that was not participatory.I find the intervention of Aamir and Co, of telling which particular INDIVIDUAL should be CIC, useless and counterproductive. A panel comprising of the prime minister, the leader of opposition and another cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister selects the CIC. There is a system in place.If Khan and his friends found the system of selection inadequate or unfair they should have built a case against the process. By insisting on one name, they have equated activism to lobbying.

Where there is a large subsidy component?

2010-01-12T18:21:00.000-08:00

At first glance the most recent numbers on central finances are reassuring with overall performance broadly in line with the budget estimates, as pointed out in the Mid-Year Review of the Economy. But a closer look at the more detailed ministry-wise spending patterns show some very disconcerting trends. For one there is a sharp disparity in the share of budget allocations spent by the different ministries. And what is worse is that the expenditure of some of the major ministries, where there is a large subsidy component, has far exceeded the norms, while those of the many other economic ministries, that play a pivotal role in boosting the long-term growth prospects, are way below par.
Leading the list of the big spenders is the ministry of consumer affairs, food & public distribution, which has already spent 84% of its budget allocation in the first seven months of the fiscal. This is on account of the huge expenditure incurred by the department of food & public distribution, which had already spent Rs 45,076 crore of the Rs 53,262 crore allocated in the budget. The primary reason is the large procurement and demand for PDS grain, which will ensure that the food subsidy Bill significantly exceeds the budget allocation of Rs 52,489 crore.The second biggest spender is the ministry of communication & information technology, which spent as much as 78% of the annual budget allocations during April-October 2009-10. And both the department of posts and the department of telecommunications have spent heavily. The worst-case scenario was in the department of posts, where the cost of running the unviable postal system has ensured that the department has already spent 98.8% of its entire budget allocation of Rs 6,021 crore. The spending of the department of telecommunication was only slightly lower at 80%.The other major spender was the ministry of chemicals & fertilisers, which doles out the fertiliser subsidy. Numbers for the first six months of the fiscal show that the ministry has spent close to three-fourths of its budget allocations. The government effort to roll back fertiliser subsidies by reducing the spending from Rs 75,849 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 49,980 crore in 2009-10 budget estimates has obviously not been backed with matching measures to bring down subsidy payouts.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that if the past trends continue through the rest of the year, the spending of these three ministries alone would exceed the annual budget projections by Rs 41,684 crore, which would mean that their actual expenditure can exceed annual budget allocations by more than a third. And apart from these major three, there are another eight ministries that have already spent 64-75% of the budget allocations in April-October. These are ministries of labour & employment (75%), textiles (67%), law & justice (66%), civil aviation (66%), science & technology (65%), personnel, public grievance & pensions (65%), mines (64%), and women & child development (61%), all of which have spent more than the pro rata share of 58%.Equally, if not even more, disturbing is the slow pace of spending by other ministries that play a significant role in improving economic and social infrastructure or in building governance capacity. This is an impressive list that includes ministries of rural development, human development, road transport & highways, power, panchayati raj, petroleum & natural gas, micro, small and medium enterprises, development of north eastern region, housing & urban poverty alleviation, heavy industry & public enterprises, and new & renewable energy.Expenditure in these ministries during April-October 2009-10 was less than 50%. Apart from these there were another 14-odd ministries who spent less than half their budget allocation in the first seven months of the year.
Topping this list is the ministry of heavy industry, with jurisdiction over many important public sector units, which has spent only 11% of its annual budget allocation of Rs 829 crore. The ministry of housing & urban poverty alleviation was another major laggard, spending only 16% of its annual budget outlay of Rs 858 crore. Similarly, ministry of panchayati raj could also make only limited headway so far, spending just about a quarter of its annual budget outlay of Rs 4,781 crore.
But more distressing is the slow pace of spending by important infrastructure-related ministries. For instance, the ministry of shipping, which has close to 45% of its annual outlay of Rs 1,756 crore allocated to ports, could spent only 15% of the amount till now. Similarly, the ministry of power has only been able to spend 21% of its allocation of Rs 9,202 crore, even when power deficits in the states remain at fairly high levels.
The list of laggards include other ministries with high visibility and large budgets like the ministries of rural development, HRD, road transport & highways, and petroleum & natural gas, which could only spent 41-48% of their annual budget allocations during April-October 2009-10.

All is well?

2010-01-12T18:19:00.000-08:00

Is all well, truly? Doesn’t look like, does it? If one goes by the interviews of Chetan Bhagat and the team of the movie ‘3 Idiots’, all is definitely not well. A fire has been raging between Bhagat, the celebrated writer of many bestsellers like ‘One Night at the Call Center’, ‘3 Mistakes of My Life’ etc. and the makers of the now smash hit, Aamir Khan
starrer flick.

There has been an ongoing debate about how much of the book ‘Five Point Someone’ has been incorporated in the movie. I read the book sometime back, but could not watch the movie in the first week as it was running to full houses. But after the uncivil verbal blast of the producer of the movie Vidhu Vinod Chopra in a press conference, quotable quotes of Aamir Khan and blistering bytes of Chetan Bhagat in the press, my curiosity was aroused. I was utterly shocked at such a hue and cry being raised about a movie. I am a fan of Chetan Bhagat, having read all his books. But I also adore Aamir Khan, who has a track record of doing some really good, socially relevant cinema. So I went on to book my tickets for the next week to find out the truth for myself.

As soon as the movie began, time just flew…..I could not hold back my laughter at any point, although there were actually some serious and emotional moments. The movie ended…Oh! But why, I wondered aloud. I was in a mood to go on and on with the ‘3 Idiots’!

I must admit that the movie is an excellent one, a laugh riot with Rancho (Aamir Khan) and his two idiots in an excellent act. After quite a long time, I watched a movie that completely moved me and realized that Aamir is a genius with a capital ‘G’.

All the other cast members are great too and well suited to their roles. But that is not the point. The point is that is it ‘Five Point Someone’ or is it altogether a different story? Does Chetan Bhagat deserve more credit than he has been given in the movie? Yes, the movie is about three engineering students; yes, it has a ragging scene; yes, it has a suicidal attempt by one of the three friends and also a scene where they steal question papers.

So is Chetan right?

I don’t agree completely because the story is pretty different. Plots from the book, I think, have been taken and fused to move the story forward, but they are certainly not the main story.

I am a fan of Chetan, he is quite a big name so he should not bother about how much name this movie brings to him. It’s not the movie, but his writings that make Mr Bhagat famous. Even if he is doing it for honour, he may just drop it, because it is starting to look like he is doing it for cheap publicity.

By his own admission, his book is selling (even) more after the controversy broke out.

Why does it really bother a writer of Chetan’s stature if his name comes up in the opening credits or in the closing credits? He should feel happy about the fact that two of his famous works have been made into Bollywood movies and most people recognize that- or at least now all of them do!

Come to think of it, the basic thought of the movie, ‘All is Well’, has been thoroughly defeated by this unnecessary debate. Even if there is problem between the movie makers and the writer, they should have sorted it out amongst themselves. Instead, they have decided to wash their dirty linen in full public glare and appeared to be idiots! And everyone (read: the media) is having a time of their lives, enjoying their public spat.

When an actor like Aamir Khan decides to lash out at someone in public, Vidhu Vinod Chopra gets mad at reporters, then obviously an unnecessary topic gets stretched like a chewing gum. In the process, the message that Aamir and the film makers have sought to communicate- that Indian education system is down in the dumps- has just got lost in this din.

So we have discussions on their fight rather than education. This discussion appears puerile. Let us just say that it is a fantastic movie with good direction and even better acting. Having said this, we must also acknowledge the fact that this movie has derived a lot of things from the book, which has been a worthy piece of reading.

vaidehi with red swastik

2010-01-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

vaidehi Faliciated at Red swastik society for her outstanding contribution towards journalism.

The Awakening

2009-12-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

by vaidehi sachin

I am proud of my reporter Gautam korde.It was quite surprising to see all Dalit leaders supporting this boy. Most of them were speechless because, none could encash this subject yet for their political motives. Reformation was always a problem for the downtrodden that, even a death was challenging. I am proud of my reporter for making such an interesting move to restore the dignity of his own community.
Thousands of people belonging to lower castes and tribal, converted to Buddhism in India in a hope that they would finally be ejected out of a discriminating religion which categorizes men into higher and lower merely based on which families they are born into. It was a futile hope. In India, you can never shake off your caste identities even if you change your religion.
There are Dalits who are lower caste Hindus, and then there are Muslim Dalits, Christian Dalits and even Sikh Dalits. Identities like Christian Dalits sound like misnomers as Christianity does not have any notion of caste but when a Dalit converts into Christianity he takes his caste along with him. There is even an attempt to legitimize these identities when politicians demand reservation for converted Dalits. Casteism is a social problem and caste identities are so deeply ingrained in rural India that even if a person converts to a different religion, he can not escape his caste.
People in his village, his neighbourhood and social circle would always know what caste he belonged to. I said rural India because it is the village which is really the den of caste based discrimination. Cities are a product of migrating people and often in cities caste identities tend to evaporate. Even if it does not totally become irrelevant, it blurs as cities are melting pots of all lineages. Cities provide certain amount of anonymity and a loosely coupled social fabric which makes caste based identities less visible. Cities are also about economic activities and ability of a person to contribute fiscally takes precedence over his caste background. I am not saying that cities are about equality but a Dalit person is less likely to be identified by his caste and stopped from entering a Hindu temple in a city than he is in his own village. As India becomes more urbanized, would caste identities become irrelevant? This is something best left to time.
Ambedkar, the first Dalit leader of modern India and author of our constitution, realized a fact that caste in India is difficult to escape when he was stopped from entering a temple in Nasik in 1930. So dismayed was he with the incident that he proclaimed that though he was born a Hindu, he would never die in that discriminating religion. Eventually, few months before he died, he converted en-mass with his followers to Buddhism. What has been happening in Punjab is also a stark reminder of how deep-rooted casteism is in the Indian society.
Sikhism as a religion was created during the dark period of Hinduism when it was under threat from Mogul (arab-muslim) invaders and from its own ritualistic distortions and corruptions. The main teachings of Sikhism were based on equality and outright rejection of caste. So it is quite ironical that in today's rural Punjab, large number of backwards and Dalit Sikhs feels discriminated and left out by mainstream Sikhism.
The Dera phenomenon which has gathered momentum in rural Punjab is a reaction to this very fact. People, who have felt marginalized by the high body of Sikhism, flock to Deras to get their fix of religion. The recent violence in Punjab between Dera followers and Akali Sikhs can be understood in this light as a power struggle between those who control the religion and those who feel left out and seek alternatives. It is a classic case of a social group (Sikh) conflict when members of a group desert it to form another group.
The mass conversion of Dalits and tribals can perhaps be termed as political stunt by certain Dalit politicians of Maharashtra but it is important to see it from another perspective which is that of emergence and assertiveness of Dalits as a political force in India. The fact that previously a Dalit party, BSP, won elections with majority seats in most populous state of India and a Dalit is now a chief minister is an indication of this fact.
What is unique about this new found political awareness is the fact that instead of being used as a pawn and vote bank in political equations by national parties, BSP has forged its own alliances to seize the power, signaling a shift in political maturity of the party. How interesting is it that BSP, a party of Dalits and lower castes has forged alliance with higher caste and even fielded high caste candidates to seize the power, taking most of the national parties by complete surprise. What it does to the political landscape in India and how it would change the social profile of Dalits would make an engaging spectacle. Unfortunately, as the political parties and leaders became big, the differences and power greed resulted in these parties having to face tragic refusal from their own community. Everyone of them fought for dignity of living, education, reservations, scholarships, and so on but none of them ever realized that they don’t have their own space as crematorium.
Both Hinduism and Buddhism originated in the Indian subcontinent and share a very long but rather peculiar and uncomfortable relation, which in many ways is comparable to that of Judaism and Christianity. The Buddha was born in a Hindu family, just as Christ was born in a Jewish family. Some people still argue that Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism and the Buddha was a part of the Hindu pantheon, a view which is not acceptable to many Buddhists. It is however widely accepted that Buddhism gained popularity in India because it released the people from the oppression of tradition and orthodoxy.
The teachings of the Buddha created hope and aspiration for those who had otherwise no hope of salvation and freedom of choice in a society that was dominated by caste system, predominance of ritual form of worship and the exclusive status of the privileged classes which the Vedic religion upheld as inviolable and indisputable. Despite the fundamental differences between both the religions, Hinduism and Buddhism influenced each other in many ways. The Buddhist notion of non-injury and compassion toward all living beings took deep roots in the Indian soil. Mahayana Buddhism even took a cue from the traditional Indian methods of devotional worship. Technically speaking, Hinduism is not a religion but a group of religious and sectarian movements that share some fundamentals and in some respects, identical beliefs, regional variations, history, tradition and practices peculiar to the land and the times in which they originated and evolved.
In contrast, Buddhism is a well established and organized religion having a set of beliefs and practices, commonly known as the Dhamma, based on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Thousands of low-caste Hindus groups to converted to Buddhism in an apparent revolt against India's caste system. It’s high time when they should be given provision to have their own space where they can rest their bodies in peace.

Gautam Korde afternoonvoice reporter

2009-12-15T06:02:00.000-08:00

Senior Adv. Kunjuraman has petitioned the court on behalf of his client (Buddhist) and filed a Public Interest Litigation demanding that “The State Government should provide a special and/or separate crematorium for the Buddhist Community” due to the discrimination faced in the Hindu Crematoriums.
The PIL stems from the deep sense of hurt felt by the petitioner on the occasion of Mahapariniravana divas when he came across facts about the Author of the Constitution of India and the first Dalit leader, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar. His research on the final rites of the leader showed that he was meted the same fate and was denied cremation in a Hindu crematorium in Dadar, owing to which the final rites were performed at Chowpaty.
The PIL No. 30239/2009 has been filed before the Chief Justice, High Court.
A press conference for the same shall be held today at 6pm at the understated address.

Contact:
Gautam Korde
o9833433447
32229881/2/5
204/206, 1st floor, Sanchar Sadan,
Bazar Gate Street, Fort,
Mumbai - 400 001.

Why did the Bombay Police let their best men bleed to death?

2009-12-15T05:54:00.000-08:00

Whatever new information is emerging shows the Bombay Police in a very poor light. There is, first of all, Hasan Gafoor’s claim that, as police commissioner, he found that four of his officers refused to risk their lives that night. And now there is Vinita Kamte’s deeply moving book, To The Last Bullet .All of us know that Ashok Kamte, Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar were killed on the night of 26/11.
First of all, Ashok Kamte was not merely driving around. He was in charge of the East Zone so the attacks were outside his area. He was specially called to the Special Branch Office near the spot where the terrorists were.

Secondly, Kamte and Karkare were not together. Karkare had heard about the firing at VT Station and reached there independently. Witnesses told him that the terrorists had left and had now reached Cama Hospital.

Karkare radioed the Central Room at 23.24 hrs (11.24 pm): “We need to encircle Cama Hospital. We are near SB2 Office Side. Send a team to the front side of the Cama Hospital. Request the army for their commandos.”

So, at 11.24 pm, the Chief of the state’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had (a) already worked out that this was a terror strike when much of the police force was confused, (b) had asked for commandos and (c) had planned to encircle Cama Hospital to flush out the terrorists.

But all his requests were ignored. No reinforcements reached Cama Hospital. Nothing he said was passed on. And police headquarters are only two minutes from Cama Hospital!

As it turned out, because there were no policemen at the front gate of Cama Hospital, Kasab and Ismail, his partner, simply strolled out of the hospital. They walked into the nearby Rang Bhavan Lane. On their way in, they shot at a passing Honda City, hitting the driver in his finger. Two constables from the Azad Maidan police station saw the incident clearly and informed their Control Room at 23.45 hrs. Residents of Rang Bhavan Lane who had seen the shooting also called the Control Room.

Nobody in the Control Room either sent cops or even, informed Karkare of any of this. He still believed that the terrorists were inside the hospital and that reinforcements had reached Cama Hospital — after all, he had radioed for men half an hour before. He decided to go to the front of Cama Hospital and took Kamte (who had an AK-47) and Salaskar with him.

At 12.01 am or so, the vehicle containing Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar entered Rang Bhavan Lane. The officers thought they saw something moving in the bushes. So Kamte got out of the car and opened fire with his AK-47. He hit Kasab in the arm. But Ismail then returned the fire with his assault rifle and in the gun battle, the three men (Kamte, Karkare and Salaskar) were injured. (As, of course, was Kasab).

The terrorists pulled them out of the vehicle, threw them on the road and hijacked the car. They lay there from 12.04 am to 12.49 am! Were they dead? Probably not, Salaskar was alive when they took him to the hospital. He died there. Kamte bled to death from a scalp injury. If he had not been left to bleed on the road for over 40 minutes, he might still be alive today. So why did the Bombay Police let their best men bleed to death on a road two minutes from headquarters? They knew they were there.

The version we have been fed is that these two top officers (Salaskar was not from the IPS) behaved like headless chickens driving around recklessly on the streets of Bombay and that they were easy pickings for the terrorists. Vinita’s book proves the opposite: their colleagues let them die. The more we learn about the events of 26/11, the less we know. We are aware now of who perpetrated and planned the attacks — thanks largely to Ajmal Kasab — but we know less than we should about other aspects of 26/11.
The residents of Rang Bhavan Lane kept phoning the Control Room. Many called repeatedly, describing the terrorists, and informing the cops of the fire fight. Nobody responded.

At 12.04 am right after the gun-battle involving Karkare’s team, a policeman reported the firing to the Main Control Room. At 12.25 am, Arun Jhadav, who had survived the attack, called the Control Room and told them about the incident. Nothing happened.
Just after the officers were shot, a police vehicle sped by — eyewitnesses are quite clear. But neither did it stop nor did it inform the Control Room. Another police vehicle passed at 12.33 am. It told the Control Room “three people are lying in the St Xavier’s Lane. We need a stretcher.” But it did not stop. And no help arrived for another 16 minutes!

The Control Room let the terrorists get away and let three brave officers bleed to death like dogs in the street.And then, there are the lies and the politics within the force. One theory for the fiasco of 26/11 is that the Crime Branch officers who manned the Control Room were unwilling to help Karkare because of internal politics. Certainly, the way in which the police tried to conceal the fact that it was Kamte who injured Kasab (making it easier to capture him later) is truly contemptible.

When Vinita Kamte tried to find out how her husband had died, the Bombay Police did everything to stop her from finding out the truth.

Eventually, the State’s Chief Information Commissioner forced the police to part with the logs and the audio records under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. That’s how we now know what happened that night.That goes to the credit of this brave woman and to the RTI, which has changed the equation between the citizen and the government.

But it says very little for the Bombay Police. The officers who sent her husband to his death are still in positions of authority.The next time the terrorists strike, the police force will fail again. Brave men will lose their lives. And Bombay will pay the price for the politics within its police force.

Bombay Police after 26/11

2009-11-14T03:08:00.000-08:00

On an overcast April morning in the compound of a police barracks in Central Bombay, a team of 6 young men in commando clothing, armed with K-47's and pistols, walked, crouched and lunged for our cameras. They simulated combat at close quarters: how to enter a building, guard its entrance, take control of the stairwell and burst into a room occupied by fictional terrorists. They were members of the Quick Response Team, or QRT, their existence a challenge to the much repeated cliché of a city police unprepared for the commando style attacks of last November. The QRT was created in 2003, after a series of bomb blasts in Bombay, precisely to counter a terrorist attack. Not to guard exits or form outer cordons or manage crowds, but to engage the bad guys. They were selected from among the constabulary for their youth and fitness. They trained with the army in Pune. They went to Manesar to train with the NSG. They have AK-47's, 9mm pistols, bulletproof vests, imported helmets. They are divided into teams on multiple shifts, so that at any time of the day or night, one team of 12 commandoes is always on call, 24x7.
On their biggest night, they would barely fire more than a few rounds. By dawn, they were manning outer perimeters at the Taj and Trident. What went wrong? The answers are couched in that familiar, mystifying vagueness which has come to define Bombay police in its moment of reckoning: "We were called into action at ten pm. A team of 7 went to CST. We went from train to train clearing compartments. We surrounded a motor cabin on Platform 2 inside which two men were hiding. But it turned out to be false alarm. We realized by then the terrorists had left the station. We were told that they had gone towards Cama Hospital. As we left, we heard firing outside Metro cinema. We saw a Qualis with guns sticking out of the window. We fired at it. But by then it had sped off." This from the team that went to the Trident Hotel: "6 of us entered the Trident. We saw glass, blood, bodies everywhere. A grenade dropped from one of the higher floors as we entered. We went up to the second floor going room by room. We didn't know what we were looking for. We took turns in escorting guests to the exit. We thought we'd go right to the top and start clearing the floors, but we didn't have enough numbers. We had been split up into very small groups. So we rescued guests and guarded the exits till the Navy commandos came. The exchange with the young commandoes of the QRT : S.I Vasave, S.I. Kerkar, constables Mhatre and Patil took place in a former complex of jail cells attached to the Bhoiwada police station, about 10 kilometers north of Victoria Terminus. Its walls are peeling, patches of damp everywhere. One of the now-empty lockups serves as the QRT's main command post, with a roster sketched on a blackboard, and a wireless receiver propped on a table in the corner. Flies buzz around puddles and mounds of garbage. On the iron bars of the cells, underwear and trousers are hung out to dry. This is where the city has chosen to house and headquarter its elite anti-terrorist force.
The QRT was orphaned almost as soon as it was created, the casualty of yet another departmental turf war. It was meant to be part of the crime branch of the city police, but was then brought under the command of the Anti Terror Squad. The ATS itself is a bastard child; it's raised from the Maharashtra police, but the chief of the ATS reports to the Bombay police commissioner. That night, says S.I. Vasave, as we went from location to location, we had no one to guide us. The man who is meant to be in charge of the QRT, himself caught up in the anarchy of the night, called them just as they were setting off: "This is your first chance to prove yourself", Hemant Karkare told them. "Kuch karke dikhana hai". Just over two hours later, they would discover his body in a pool of blood in a lane behind Cama Hospital.
Bombay turns you into a crime reporter. It is home to the most storied police force in the country. The only police force where a sub-inspector (Daya Nayak) can inspire a clutch of Bollywood thrillers. The only force which has a celebrity sniffer dog: Zanjeer, the golden labrador that scented out the hidden caches of RDX in Thane and Mumbra in 1993. Zanjeer was sent off with full honours when he died in 2000. Not long after we
moved to Bombay in 2003, on my first visit to police headquarters, I lingered on the magnificent wooden staircase that leads to the police commissioners office. On the wall curved a gallery of the city's khakhi celebrities: Ribeiro, Soman, Samra, Mendonca, and Singh. The Telgi Stamp paper scam had just broken. Sharma and several others, including the encounter specialist Pradeep Sawant were charged with bungling the investigation into Telgi, a forger of stamp paper. Over the next few weeks more than a dozen policemen - officers like Sharma and Sawant, but many others of varying ranks - were suspended, arrested and sent to jail. Later, Sharma was discharged and released. He said his release proved his case: that he was the victim of murky departmental rivalries. Many saw the Telgi purge as one of the worst moments in the history of the force. Worse than the 1992-93 riots, when the police was seen as nakedly communal? I asked an officer who was with the crime branch. Worse, he said. In August of that same year, two blasts went off in the city - one at the Gateway of India, another in Zaveri Bazaar, a crowded marketplace in central Bombay. 54 people died. Acting on the basis of a tip off from a taxi driver, and using their network of informants, the crime branch cracked the case within two months. One of the main accused was shot in an ‘encounter’. Three others were arrested. (They were recently sentenced.) I had been in Bombay for only 6 months. I already had a taste of the fame and notoriety that is the legacy of its police force.

The city's first police chief, an East India Company buccaneer called James Tod, was tried and sacked for corruption in 1790. "The principal witness against him (as must always happen)" wrote Sir James Mackintosh, "was his native receiver of bribes". Charles Forjett, who became Commissioner almost a century later, was the police force's first moderniser. He laid the ground for Bombay police's high standards of detection. Forjett was Anglo Indian, and often moved around the city undercover to unearth crime, ("..the strong 'strain of the country' in his blood enabled him, when disguised, to pass among natives of India as one of themselves"), a technique he used to expose the Bombay chapter of the mutineers of 1857. The mutineers were strapped to cannons and blown to bits on the Esplanade. The weight of so much history needs a suitable setting. Wander through the streets of south Bombay and it's a fair chance that some of the finest Victorian and Gothic architecture is police property: the Commissioner's office in Crawford Market, the late-18th century ATS headquarters in Byculla (which was the earlier Commissionerate, in Forjett's time), the Old Bazaar Gate Police Station (now the headquarters of DCP Zone 1), the Colaba Police station, built in 1906, and the Maharashtra Police Headquarters at Apollo Bunder, a grand old Gothic pile of blue basalt, once called Sailor's Home. All these buildings are a stone's throw away from the Taj, CST, Cama Hospital, Leopold's, Nariman House. Unknowingly, the terrorists of 26/11 had wandered into the heart of police Bombay. As the gunmen from Pakistan killed, lingered, reloaded, and killed again, they would unravel the reputation - and the troubled core - of the country’s most celebrated police force. There is a story the officers of Bombay police like to tell: of brotherhood, risk and the fight against evil. But it is a story that unfolds far away from Bombay, in the jungles of Vidharbha. Many of the officers in the 'frontlines' of 26/11 had done postings, often overlapping, in Maharashtra's naxal-affected districts: Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Bhandara. This, I am told again and again, is not a coincidence. "You see who was the first to rush to the spots that night." Hemant Karkare (S.P. Chandrapur 1991), Sadandand Date (A.S.P. Bhandara
1995) and Ashok Kamte (A.S.P. Bhandara 1991) were at Cama, Deven Bharati (A.S.P Gadchiroli 1996) and Hemant Nagrale (A.S.P. Chandrapur, 1992) were at the Taj, Parambir Singh (S.P. Bhandara 1995) at the Trident, KP Raghuvanshi (SP, Gadchiroli, 1992) at VT. "You get that killer instinct when you are in the jungle. We used to sleep with our AK's", one of them tells me. In the context of the November attacks, this may seem ironic, even mildly absurd. But this is a force looking for redemption. The successes of Maharashtra's police force in containing naxalism in Vidharbha in the early to mid-nineties are generally unchallenged, unlikethe events of 26/11. There is a nostalgia for that time in the forest; many of them straight out of the Academy, thrust into a sort of Boy's Own world of adventure and danger, away from the politics and intrigue of Headquarters. When I met Hemant Karkare for the first time in August last year, the walls of his office were mounted with tastefully polished driftwood in interesting shapes - a crucifix, a stag's head - picked up from the jungles of Chandrapur. He was precise, almost formal. But that evening he was incensed. Both the ATS and the Crime Branch of the Bombay police were chasing a key informant, a car thief called Afzal Usmani, a crucial link to the Bombay module of the Indian Mujahideen (IM). The IM have been blamed for the series of bomb blasts across India in 2008. The CrimeBranch got to him first. Usmani led them to the entire local IM module, nd then, when the ATS asked for his custody, he 'vanished'. The IM case had gone out of the ATS's hands. (The Crime Branch says they had nothing to do with the disappearance of the informant.)
Karkare wanted to complain to the DGP, AN Roy. But Roy was fighting his own battles. His status at DGP faced a number of legal challenges. And, going by the buzz in police circles, he was said to be locked in a factional war with Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor. Roy's admirers, most of whom served under him when Roy was Bombay's police commissioner, found Gafoor uncommunicative and bureaucratic, not a leader of men. Gafoor's supporters claimed this was untrue, that Gafoor was competent, but less publicity-seeking than Roy.

Then, in October, the ATS began arresting Hindu radicals for the bomb blasts in the largely Muslim town of Malegaon, and Karkare was attacked by the BJP and the Shiv Sena. He went into a shell. I finally managed to get him to agree to an interview in the last week of November. He was upset but restrained. But he was more emotional in the company of his IPS batchmate, KL Prasad, Bombay's Joint Commissioner for Law and Order, whom he had gone to meet on the night of 26th November. The Shiv Sena had called for a bandh to protest the arrests of the Malegaon accused. "Hemant was very down", Prasad recalls. "I tried to cheer him up by cracking bawdy jokes. Hemant had a more intellectual sense of humour. His jokes had quotes from Churchill. I tried to pull his leg, 'Hemant, we are not like you. We are ganvaars'. But he was too depressed." Prasad was not in the best of moods himself. His long running tensions with Gafoor were well known in police circles. On the night of the attacks, the legatee's of Forjett were not a happy family.

By general consensus, it appears that the national malaise of political interference, enality and factionalism gained momentum amongst the Bombay police about 15 years ago, during the state's first coalition government. The home department, which came under the chief minister, was brought under the newly-created post of the deputy chief minister. This gave a new vigour to the usual commerce of transfers and postings, first under the Shiv-Sena BJP alliance, and later under successive Congress-NCP regimes. According to Julio Ribeiro, it was the beginning of the end. "The chain of command has been broken. Now, even an inspector will go directly to mantralaya for his posting." Ribeiro was Commissioner in the early eighties. He says he received only one application for a posting from the office of Chief Minister Vasantdada Patil, which he turned down. Today, flagrant, Bihar-style displays of "political nexus" are common across Bombay. An officer tells me how in some parts of the city, "inspectors roam openly with MLA's. We can't do anything. At best we can ask him to not do any work." But the current factionalism is given a more sinister reading. In post-Raj Thackeray Bombay, it is suggested by a member of the Gafoor camp that the faction wars are based on resentment against a "clique of non-Maharashtrian officers who are ruling the roost" (a reference to the AN Roy's group). That the rank and file is angry with this clique, and that even Maharashtrian IPS officers are "upset by their high-handed behaviour". The idea of a largely Maharashtrian constabulary, protecting a city of 'outsiders', resentful of their non-Maharashtrian IPS superiors has a certain devious potential. It's the kind of conspiracy theory that the MNS could have dreamt up, except I am hearing it from a police officer! But empirically it makes no sense. The various factions of Bombay police, such as they are, have no regional homogeneity. I ask around if the insider-outside virus has infected the police. Mercifully, there are few takers. I am pointed to other ways in which parochialism has reared its head. Two successive home ministers of the Maratha caste - RR Patil and Jayant Patil - have fuelled accusations of caste bias in vital city postings. (I ask one of my crime reporters to do a spot poll: how many DCP’s are of the Maratha caste? The answer: 7 out of the city's 12 DCP’s are Marathas). The communal taint of 1992. Parochialism in 2009. Bombay is an island. Its police force is not. The walls of Assistant Sub Inspector Robert Pinto's flat are in bloom. There is a vivid patch of green algae growing out of the outer wall of the balcony. Next to the kitchen, a thick outcrop of shrubbery has forced itself out of a crack. How long, I ask, pointing to the weeds. He shakes his head. Too long. From his balcony, we overlook the grey concrete sprawl of the police's Motor Transport yard in Byculla. From above, the roofs of the white police cars - Qualis', Bolero's, Indica's - look like crushed eggshells. Kids run around the puddles. Around the three sides of the MTYard are blocks of police flats, built in the early sixties. Each flat is about 10 square feet. There is a common block of bathrooms and one wash area on the far end of each floor. As we approach the building, we see a giant poster of Vijay Khandekar, the wireless operator who died on the steps of Cama Hospital, killed by grenade shrapnel. A small crowd surrounds us. They think we are here to meet his family. We say we have come to look at how ordinary policemen live. Hands tug at us, pulling us up the stairs. We are taken inside one of the flats. "Look, look at the cracks on the ceiling". Chunks of plaster have fallen away, exposing rusted iron pipes. Forty years after it was built, the bones of the building lie exposed. There is a minor scuffle for our attention. "It’s worse in my flat". "No, mine is worse." The flats are crammed, even on a weekday afternoon. There are parents, grandparents, children back from school, cousins visiting from Solapur to look for work in the city.

The residents of the MT Yard flats still count themselves as the lucky ones. Space is a luxury in Bombay, even for the city's guardians. (Various proposals to increase housing for the constabulary gather dust. The post of the DG housing is seen as a dead end or a parking lot where you await rehabilitation. It’s where Hassan Gafoor is sent, for his omissions on the night of the attacks.) For the roughly 40,000 strong force, there is less than 20,000 liveable flats. The rest get a housing allowance, which varies according to rank. A PSI, for instance, gets 3500 rs a month. That can get you a room in a slum. I am reminded of what one of the officers told me about the enormity of policing Bombay in the aftermath of the Indian Mujahideen arrests. 'Take Behrampada', he said, a teeming slum in Bandra that fell under his jurisdiction. "Its just rows and rows of three - storied tin sheds, about 3 feet apart. How are you going to police that?" There are constables who probably live in Behrampada. It is a strange notion: cops and potential sleeper cells, living in cramped proximity.
Vijay Khandekar was earning a constable's salary when he died at Cama: about 8000 rupees a month. The boys of the QRT have it better: for a job that involves a more direct risk, they get 100 percent more than the standard pay scale. A QRT constable (prefer to be called commandoes) earns 16,000 to 20,000 rupees a month. An S.I. of the QRT would earn about 28,000 rupees. That's just above a starting salary in a call center in Bombay's suburbs.
In one of the flats, a girl of about 14 is conducting math tuitions for kids from her building. The floor is swarming with 8 year olds. She is giggling, excited by the cameras. Her father works in the M.T. yard as a senior mechanic. "Would you join the police", I ask her. She laughs and shakes her head. Later, I put that question to Constable Amit Chitle, who was shot in the leg at the Taj. We are at his home in the rundown BDD chawls in Worli, tenements built for mill workers, now it is that rare thing: a low-income housing block in the heart of the island city. Amit is second generation police. The flat was allotted to his father, a motor mechanic. When we meet him, he is wearing shorts; the scars from the bullet wound are visible. Amit still seems in mild shock, ill at ease with the attention that his 'heroism' has brought him. On the wall is pinned a photograph from his college days, when he aspired to be a management student. Will you go back to work, I ask. He darts a glance at his mother. Lose the job, lose the house. Why not, his mother says. He can always find something less risky.

Senior Inspector Prakash Shishupal waves us into the Azad Maidan police station. Kasab and Ismael, after the massacre in VT, had walked past the back entrance of the police station before they entered Cama Hospital. Then he heard they were coming, S.I. Shishupal locked up the back gate, switched off his phone and vanished for the rest of the night. He has since been transferred. But on the day we met him, he was still station boss. He looked harried. Spread out in his desk was rosters and call sheets. The DCP of his region wants visible policing. This meant extra shifts for his beat constables and P.I.'s, who already work twelve to fourteen hour days. The war on terror had created an administrative crisis. "DCP wants more people on the road. People should see the police." But do you have enough men, I ask? "No. We are running short every day." The city has swelled since Forjett's time, but its khakhi ranks have not kept pace. 40,000 to protect 20 million. Even so, he says without irony, Azad Maidan is the "number one police station in Maharashtra". The sanctioned strength of the police station is 365 men. They have 245 men. That still makes them better than the rest. Attached to the Azad Maidan police station is what is called, rather optimistically, a Striking Mobile. Many of them were dispatched on the night of the attacks. We ask to see one. After a while, a Mahindra Bolero pulls up. A S.I. rank policeman springs out, hastily jamming on his helmet, and clutching a SLR. Others emerge, carrying carbines. They arrange themselves for the cameras. How old, I ask, pointing at the SLR. About 25-30 years he says. When did you last fire it? They glance at each other nervously. It was an unfair question. Everyone knows that there are no bullets. One of the officers at the ATS had explained the rules: when you fire a bullet, you account for it. He had seen his men at encounters, even after the fugitive has escaped, on their hands and knees, looking for spent shells. I think of the other iconic image of the night, from the gunfight at CST: constable Jillu Yadav fires his 303 musket at Kasab and Ismail, finds it jammed, and out of sheer frustration hurls a plastic chair in their direction. They have AK-47's, we have garden furniture.

"We were like sitting ducks." I am sitting with one of the officers who were part of the Taj operations. It’s been a strange 9 months for anyone on the 26/11 beat, playing part-reporter, and part-amateur shrink to a befuddled police force. The transition from the first few weeks of fame - memorials, tributes, awards, TV 'specials'- to ignominy has been disorienting. The rivalries that pre-dated the attacks have spread like a virus. All the actions of the night - both heroism and failure - threaten to be coloured by conspiracy theories. Several versions surface, depending on which ‘camp’ one is talking to, of who was brave and who wasn't. Who fired and who didn't. Who was genuinely injured and who faked an injury to get on the Gallantry list.

About the only act of daring on which there is consensus - other than Constable Omble grappling with Qasab at the barricades on Marine Drive - is Sadanand Date at Cama. With his receding hairline and soft-spoken ways, Date could easily pass for a somewhat athletic college professor. (Julio Ribeiro cautions against being fooled by his appearance: 'Date is very tough'.) Date, who like many others that night was outside his
jurisdiction - he is the Additional CP of Mumbai's East Region; Cama falls in South Region - says that he met the seven policemen he rounded up and led to battle for the first time outside the gates of the hospital. He’s been asked many, many times about what possessed him to hunker down in a darkened stairwell, as Qasab and Ismail lobbed a series of grenades at him and his men. With each burst, he took a hit - he was wounded in his leg and eye. But he didn't retreat, and kept firing. Date still has a grenade fragment lodged in his right iris. He is matter of fact: "There were people crying out for help. I am a policeman. What else could I do."It doesn't help that there is no official police narrative because Gafoor, Commissioner during the attacks, inexplicably (or perhaps wisely) didn't order a single post-mortem into the biggest debacle in the history of Bombay police. Instead, parallel reconstructions mushroom in the media, fed by internal leaks. A number of 26/11 quickies hit the market. The family of Ashok Kamte, slain in the attacks, carries out their own investigation of the events at Cama hospital. And there is the slow daily grind of the Kasab trial, throwing up sanitised bulletins of the events of the night. Much of what emerges points to banal, devastating truths: a night of incompetence. Lost nerves. A city police fighting army-trained terrorists. Occasional bursts of raw courage, or risk, or both. But for the most part, an almost surreal inertia. The great quiet.

But the facts have been complicated by the fog of politics and self-preservation. Information has become schizophrenic. There is too much of it, more than of any terrorist attack - wireless records, eyewitness accounts, still photographs, media footage, CCTV footage, intercepted calls - and yet too little. Some of the biggest mysteries of the night remain unexplained. A Himalayan - sized gap exists, even now, between the versions of the control room and those calling for backup. Take Cama Hospital, for instance, where a bleeding Sadandand Date had sent repeated messages for help between 11:13 and 11:50pm. None came. This allowed Kasab and Ismail, who spent 40 minutes killing and shooting, to walk out of the hospital unchallenged. Go by the control room version, and about 130 cops were sent to Cama between 10:30 pm and midnight! At the Taj, there weren’t more than a dozen policemen inside the hotel engaging the terrorists in any serious manner until 2am, when the Navy commandoes came. But the controls records indicate about 120 men were sent to the Taj between 10:15pm and midnight. Where was everyone? "We came. We took positions. We guarded exits. We saved hostages". The last is probably true, and important. Hundreds of people were rescued from the Taj and the Trident. But why didn't anyone directly take on the terrorists? I asked one of the officers who were holed up inside the Taj Hotel's CCTV room, watching the terrorists enter one of the rooms on the 6th floor and not leave it for almost 3 hours. He says he wanted to attack but he got contradictory instructions from different superiors, first a call from an overwrought senior saying "charge the bastards. They have killed our people" (two other officers at the Taj confirm receiving a similar call), and then, minutes later, another call from another senior saying Navy commandoes were on their way. "Let one agency handle it", he was told. (One of Gafoor's supporters says the strategy was to "evacuate the injured, rescue the trapped, and pin down the terrorists till the backup came. That's what we did, and it worked.")

The government committee to investigate the police response to the attacks becomes an outlet for months of frustration, buck-passing, factional rivalry and need for catharsis. Most of the testimonies are critical of the Gafoor, fewer of AN Roy. Gafoor is accused of only talking to his clique of officers during the operations. (Gafoor camp: "that's because the other officers didn't take Gafoor's calls.") Of camping outside the Trident instead of being in the control room. (Gafoor camp: "the Standard Operating Procedure says the control room should be manned by the DCP Operations, not the Police Commissioner"). Of failing to motivate his men to charge the terrorists. ("The NSG took 3 days. So why blame the police?"). Of not conducting a post-mortem of the police response. ("A debriefing happens only in the army.") And so on.
The committee makes some generic observations public: "no force could be prepared for the attacks", "senior officers could have played a greater role" etc. The epic convulsions of the night have been processed into bland officialese. But the damning testimonies against Gafoor make his exit unavoidable. He is 'kicked upstairs' as the Director General of Police Housing.
In the first session of the Maharashtra assembly after the 26/11 attacks, held in Nagpur, Gopinath Munde of the opposition BJP began his statement to the house by saying that he had been "briefed by both factions of the police force." The opposition alleged that there is a "gangwar" within the force, borrowing a term from the battle within the underworld. A celebrated police officer of the original war against the Bombay mafia, who was present in the visitor's gallery, says he was sickened. He says he wanted to take off his uniform and never wear it again. Ever.
There is a new bustle around the Bombay police headquarters at Crawford Market. The new commissioner wants things done in a hurry. "If we are attacked today", D Sivanandan said the day he took over, "we are ready to retaliate". This is, of course, hyperbole. On the day he makes the statement, nothing has arrived: no weapons, no bulletproof vests, and no patrol cars. "For the past 9 months", an officer tells me, "All we did is push paper. Now finally we are on the move".
The commissioner has his share of critics. He was the head of the state intelligence during the attacks. Sivandanan, charismatic, always smiling (the character played by Mohanlal in the underworld thriller Company is said to be loosely modelled on him), laughs off the charges. "How is the state CID meant to know about terrorists from Pakistan?!"

While the force waits for modern assault rifles from the US, 50 AK-47's have been borrowed from the BSF (Sivanandan likes to improvise). 200 bulletproof vests are on their way from Delhi. He want's a dozen bomb disposal squads, up from the existing 3. The number of dog squads will go up from 5 to 100. For every 2 police stations, there will be a six-man team, trained and armed with new weaponry and bulletproof vehicles, ready to respond at short notice. "Your friendly neighborhood commandos!” says an officer with a laugh. There will be CCTV's on every street corner like London and Vienna. 19 amphibious vehicles have been ordered from Canada.

They can be used to protect the city from seaborne attacks. But it is more likely that they will make a less dramatic debut during Ganesh visarjan. Will all of this come through, I ask, somewhat incredulously? "Well, at least Sivanandan is trying. He is banging on every door. We are now holding meetings every day."

The new weapons finally arrive in the last weeks of August. Smith and Wesson pistols, Heckler and Koch sub machine guns, Colt grenade launchers: this is a city gearing up for a mini-war. It’s another matter that the threats are more likely to be homegrown: a sleeper cell that gets activated, or the street thuggery of Bombay's political chauvinists. But his not the time for doubt. The image of the force has taken a dent; its time to display a modern, heavily armed, professional front. All the humdrum worries of city policing - murders, burglaries, Ganesh, dahi handi, vacancies, transfers, postings - take a temporary back seat.

But it is an election year, and the whiff of political opportunism has grown stronger. I am given an example: all DCP level postings within Bombay are no longer the prerogative of the police chief - they are decided directly in Mantralaya. A disgraced officer has been brought back as the DCP of Zone 8 near the airport because his family has a connection to Maharashtra's Minister of State for Home. Another 'black sheep' has used political influence to become DCP of Zone 11, in the suburbs. The DCP’s are a vital link in the city's chain of power. The Bombay police is a 40,000 strong force. But as one of the officers explained to me, "the city is run by the Commissioner, the DCP, and the Senior PI - the station boss. That is the real pyramid of power." The problem is, the politicians know it too. The new home minister, who replaced RR Patil, sacked after the Bombay attacks for claiming that the terrorists killed only 150 people, is, ironically not seen as competent. It is rumored that the police department is now being shadow-controlled by its old nemesis, Chaggan Bhujbal, the minister for Public Works. Today, he is the head of the group of ministers to modernize the police force!
Election-year politics, it is whispered, is behind the surprise appointment of SS Virk as the state's DGP in place of AN Roy. Virk has been out of Maharashtra for 23 years, on deputation to Punjab. At the end of his tenure, he was arrested on charges of corruption, released on bail, and later removed as DGP Punjab by the Election Commission. His resurrection by the Maharashtra government, it is believed, makes him obligated to the masters of Mantralaya. But Virk was an 'action' figure in his own right. He was hit on the jaw by a bullet during Operation Black Thunder. He says as IG CRPF in 1986, he built a formidable network of informants in Amritsar and Jalandhar. "Ten days before he was assassinated, I met Sardar (Chief Minister) Beant Singh. I told him within a month you will be blown up by a human bomb and you won't be able to do anything about it." It has been, to put it mildly, an eventful career. The day I meet him in his office, though, he has a vision: of higher magazine circulation. As DG Punjab, he says he distributed thousands of copies of the police in-house magazine, Darpan, across the Punjab countryside. "It is important", he said, "to heal the psyche". He wants to do the same for Maharashtra. The circulation of the police magazine, Dakshata, is only 6000. He says he will raise it to 18,000. "We will release it, and just watch. The people will do the rest." I ask him if he is out of touch with Maharashtra police. He answers this by speaking to his orderly in fluent, but oddly accented Marathi. During his time in Punjab, he was given several chances to transfer from his home cadre to his home state, a rare opportunity in the All India Services. "But I never took it", he says. "I always wanted to come back." Why, I ask. "Because in Punjab, if you call a constable a b------d, he will take it. But here, in Bombay, he won't. This force which has a pride in the uniform. It is always better."

I called up one of the boys from the QRT the other day. They have scattered now; some guarding VIP installations, others posted to the Qasab trial. They are bemused by all the activity - the new NSG hubs, the neighborhood commando's. The last time we met, he had said he was kept awake by an aural memory: the terrible clatter of AK-47's echoing inside a deserted hotel. No longer, he says. All of us sleep better. But we are more alert: "Ab koi risk nahin lene ka hai". Where are you, I ask? He says he is stationed at the Taj, in a sandbagged bunker looking out towards the harbor, where already in the feverish imagination of the city's politicians, the next boatload of stealthy invaders will falter against the foot of a towering statue of a medieval warrior - king, rising 300 feet high from the Arabian Sea.

I'll name conspirators at the right time: Koda

2009-11-14T03:04:00.000-08:00

Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda - who has been implicated in Rs 4,000 crore scam - has dared the Income Tax department and the Government to prove the charges against him. He has said that he is ready to quit politics if charges against him are proved.
"I'll leave politics forever if charges against me are proved. People are jealous of my rise in politics. All these allegations are baseless. No one can digest the fact that a tribal, a poor man can reach this stage. I'll name my conspirators at the right time," he said.
A diary of Koda seized by the IT department reportedly names many Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders. "I will expose people who were instrumental in the raid," he said.
He has also denied that he had anything to do with an I-T official son's being beaten up earlier.
"Two days back an I-T official's son was attacked. I was blamed for that and I was not even there. I was in Ranchi," says he.The former Jharkhand chief minister also claimed he was targeted because he had risen from a poor family and reached the level he had. "It's a conspiracy against me, and all because I come from a poor family. I am being framed," he stated.
Meanwhile, Koda made it clear he isn't submitting himself to interrogations in Delhi easily. He has written to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), who had summoned him on November 15, telling them he is busy with the election campaign in Jharkhand and that he will present himself at the ED offices only after the elections are over.
"Assembly elections in Jharkhand are round the corner and it is a fundamental right of any Indian citizen to contest elections. I told the Enforcement Directorate that after the elections, I will come wherever they call me," he stated.
This latest ploy to escape questioning in the hawala scam is not likely to go down well with the ED. Koda is right now campaigning in Chaibasa and adjoining areas.
Koda is accused of amassing crores of rupees through hawala. I-T Investigators though have told the Ranchi High Court that they have seized only Rs 23 lakh in cash so far.

Chavan for probe in bulletproof vest controversy

2009-11-14T02:54:00.000-08:00

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has said he will look into the matter of Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare's bulletproof jacket. His wife, Kavita Karkare, had filed an RTI asking for details of Hemant Karkare's bulletproof jacket, but the Maharashtra government has now told her that the jacket was misplaced in the chaos. However, Chavan has promised action into Kavita Karkare's plea.Karkare died in the 26/11 attack in Mumbai after he was shot at eight times by terrorists. He was wearing his bulletproof jacket at the time of the attack. When Hemant Karkare was taken to the hospital after being shot, the doctors had removed the jacket from his body. It was misplaced in the chaos at J J Hospital according to government's reply. A few months ago, the Maharashtra government was in the midst of a controversy over the quality of bulletproof jackets provided to the Mumbai Police.
While the Mumbai Police had then claimed that the file on the purchase of bulletproof jackets had gone missing, wehad learnt that the file did exist and that it contained doubts on the quality of the jackets.Sources within the Mumbai Police had told AV that the file was not lost, but was being protected from public scrutiny to possibly avoid controversial details from coming out in the open. Sources also said that in 2004, samples of the jackets were sent for a trial at the firing range of the State Reserve Police Force. They were fitted on dummies and sprayed with and bullets from self-loading rifles and AK-47s. Every single bullet went through the jackets even though the rounds were fired from a distance.

The National Investigation Agency registered a case againstDavid Coleman Headley

2009-11-13T02:33:00.000-08:00

WITH the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday registering a case here against terror accused David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, both facing trial in the US, a detailed probe will be undertaken over the next 60 days into their terror background and activities during travel to various Indian cities between 2006 and April 2009.
The agencies are convinced that the investigations by NIA will throw up enough material to nail the terror duo’s links with LeT and establish their role in realising the latter’s terror plans in India, which, in turn, will help New Delhi secure an Interpol red corner notice against them and, subsequently, also seek their extradition from the US.
While pointing out that Headley and Rana were not wanted for crimes committed in the US but for plotting terror attacks in Denmark and India, a senior MHA official said New Delhi, at some point of time, would have to approach the US courts with evidence of their involvement in terror acts here and seek their extradition to face trial in India.
The NIA, which will scan Headley’s travel to Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Kochi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and elsewhere during his nine visits to India between 2006 and 2009, will also look out for clues that may link Headley-Rana duo to 26/11 attacks. During his visit to Delhi, Headley stayed at a Paharganj hotel. Of the nine visits by Headley, eight came before the 26/11 strikes and the last one nearly five months after. Though there is no proof yet to link Headley to the November 2008 terror attack, the agencies here are not ruling out the possibility of NIA stumbling upon some evidence of his active or passive role in 26/11 conspiracy while tracing back his activities and movements in India.

It is now well-established that Headley was somewhat of a reconnaissance specialist, having surveyed potential targets, including Delhi-based National Defence College. The agencies also do not completely rule out his role in the reccee of 26/11 targets — Taj, Trident-Oberoi and Nariman House. According to the affidavit submitted by FBI in the Chicago court, a book titled How to Pray like a Jew was recovered from among Headley’s belongings. This raises suspicion about his link to the 26/11 attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai.
Incidentally, the 26/11 attack investigators have not been able to establish so far as to who had carried out the reconnaissance of the targets attacked by the 10-member LeT module soon after landing in Mumbai.
The NIA teams will fan out to the various destinations to which Headley travelled and scan his local contacts and the places visited by him. This is expected to lead the investigators to modules of sleeper cells that Headley may have been setting up for future attacks in India. Meanwhile, India has also decided to tighten visa scrutiny norms for US citizens of Pakistani origin. All visa applications of Pakistan-born Americans will now be routed through New Delhi, government sources say.
The National Investigation Agency has registered a case against U.S. national David Coleman Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana for allegedly plotting terror attacks in India, even as investigators are bracing for exploring their links, if any, with the Mumbai terror attacks.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Headley visited India “several times before 26/11 and once after” the strikes.

Both the accused are under the custody of the FBI in Chicago. Home Ministry officials said a team of FBI officials may come to India to assist in the probe, if needed.
David Headley's 'Rahul' is a fitness instructor
When LeT operative David Coleman Headley mentioned the name Rahul extensively in his e-mails to handlers in Pakistan, the media went abuzz in a guessing game. Was it Rahul Gandhi? That was the first guess, but then Headley mentioned in his coded emails that Rahul was an actor. So, Rahul Bose was zeroed it. Or was it Shah Rukh Khan who took the name Rahul in some of his films?
Home Minister P Chidambaram had told the media in one of this press conferences in Delhi that the Rahul that "you are guessing is not the Rahul you think."
Well, it now turns out that the mysterious Rahul is filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul Bhatt.

Rahul Bhatt, 25, is a fitness instructor and a body builder. He knew Headley, but not as an LeT operative.

Investigating agencies, who have already questioned Rahul, have almost given him a clean chit, saying he appears to be innocent.

Sources say that Rahul met Headley at a gym which Rahul frequented. The two men eventually became friends and when Headley said he was looking to rent a flat, Rahul helped him get one near Breach Candy through a property broker. All this while Rahul was unaware that Headley had LeT links, say investigators.

Rahul, at that time, was busy in a film called `Suicide Bomber' which was supposed to be launched under his family banner Vishesh Films. This was based on the London bombings. The project was eventually shelved.During his stay in Mumbai, Headley was functioning as a consultant for an immigration firm in Tardeo. Probably, that was the only identity that Rahul knew of Headley.
Rahul's father Mahesh Bhatt told the local media that "This (Rahul's interrogation) is an issue of national security and not something trivial related to Bollywood. Ask agencies that deal with national security. I will not say anything more."

Rahul just vanished from the media radar in Mumbai Friday as he switched off his mobile and text messages sent to him did not elicit any reply.

Headley, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, was arrested by US's Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on October 18 with a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin Tahawwur Rana, at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, for planning terror attacks in Denmark and India.

In an e-mail on July 2009, Headley told Lashkar-e-Taiba Member A that "I think when we get a chance we should revisit our last location again and say hi to Rahul."

To this LeT Member A replied: "To see Rahul is a good idea coz have some work for you over there too. Matters are good enough to move forward..."

On July 9, Headley sent another email: "When you say 'move forward', do you mean in the north direction or towards Rahul..." To this Member A replies: "Towards Rahul."
On July 10, Headley wrote again to Member A: "The visit to Rahul's place, is it for checking real estate property like before, or something different and if so please tell what you can please. Also is it in Rahul's city or different one?" To this Member A replied: "There are some investment plans with me, not exactly at Rahul's city.

The Rise And Fall Of King Koda

2009-11-13T01:18:00.001-08:00

ON THE outskirts of the nondescript Chaibasa town in mineral-rich Jharkhand, the primarily tribal population often enjoys its evening rice beer with a traditional dance. Last week, however, the unrelenting drumbeats did not throb with excitement: rather, they seemed to be heralding the fall of a political raja.
As newspapers, FM stations and news channels flooded the state with its secondbiggest news story — the first, obviously, was the elevation of local Ranchi lad Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain of India’s cricket team — most citizens of this fledgling state wondered whether former chief minister Madhu Koda (pronounced Kora) could possibly weather this storm.
As sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (I-T) Department raided his plush residence in Ranchi’s Morabadi neighbourhood, as well as company offices across the country, Koda used the usual tactic to avoid questioning: he complained of pain and high blood pressure and took refuge under an imported quilt in Ranchi’s ultra-modern Apollo Hospital.
Charged with laundering a whopping Rs 4,000 crore through hawala transactions and secret bullion trade, Koda stands accused of having a business empire, from Africa to Dubai to Mumbai, ranging from mines in Liberia to bullion companies in Mumbai and a hotel in Thailand.
Who is Madhu Koda? A farmer’s son, born in Patahatu village in West Singhbhum district of Bihar, Koda was educated in the village school and had never seen the glitzy city life. He had grown up in deep forests and hills. His father, a worker at the Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO), who now farms a small plot in the village, wanted him to join the police, but Koda was not interested. “He wanted to be in politics and, one day, rule the state,” says Ashutosh Sinha, a Chaibasa resident who worked with Koda in his formative years. “He knew the state and what it could offer to someone who runs it.”
From a labourer who worked on window grills and in iron ore mines till the 1990s, and who went on to become the state’s first independent chief minister, Koda’s career certainly reveals a man in a hurry to board the gravy train. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1994, when the Congress was seen as a declining force in tribal politics in the region. He got a ticket to contest the Bihar assembly elections in 2000 and became a minister (for panchayati raj) after Jharkhand was carved out of the state later that year.
As a minister in both the Babulal Marandi (Jharkhand’s first government, in 2000) and the Arjun Munda governments (2003 to 2005), Koda seems to have found the key to ministerial contentment. The fact that he snagged the coveted mines and minerals ministry is significant: control over a state’s mineral resources, especially when metals and minerals fundamentally represent that state’s major source of wealth, confers tremendous discretionary powers to the minister.
Raided Armed policemen guard a house belonging to Koda in LucknowPhoto: AJAY SINGH
Clinching proof? I-T officials carry sackfuls of evidence from Koda’s Ranchi homePhoto: RAJESH KUMAR SEN
IN THE 2005 assembly elections, when the BJP denied Koda a ticket, he quit the party, contested as an Independent from Jaganathpur, his former constituency — and won. Although he agreed to support the BJP in forming a government in the state, under Munda again (and once more got the mines portfolio), in 2006 he and three other independent legislators withdrew support, bringing down the government. He gathered support from the Congress, RJD supremo Lalu Yadav and ‘Guruji’ Shibu Soren and became chief minister himself.
The numbers pertaining to his fabulous wealth are simply astounding. ED and I-T officials — who flew in from Delhi, Kolkata and Patna to conduct the raids — say that they have incontrovertible evidence to nail the former chief minister and his associates, whose interests range from cricket to real estate to commodity trading. “We have clinching evidence against him and his hawala trading,” AK Srivastava, additional I-T commissioner, told TEHELKA.
On paper, there’s evidence that shows Koda invested $1.7 million (Rs 8.5 crore) to purchase coal mines in Liberia in the name of his close associates; that he owns bullion trading companies in Mumbai, real estate in Rajarhat and the expensive Burdwan Road neignbourhoods in Kolkata, flats in New Delhi’s up-market Shanti Niketan and Anand Lok colonies and even a two-star hotel in Thailand.
And that’s just for Koda himself. His close associate, Binod Sinha — once a tractor mechanic who helped his father sell pumping sets in Chaibasa — invested almost Rs 250 crore in another 11 companies in India and acquired properties for the curly-haired Koda. When asked, Sinha told the investigators that he worked on behalf of Koda because the latter had a speech impediment and rarely spoke, both at home and in the state Assembly.
AND COMPLETING the power troika is Sanjay Chaudhary — a former seller of chewing tobacco and now Koda’s Man Friday, whose love for Ray-Ban sunglasses and routine jaunts to the sun-soaked beaches of Thailand’s Koh Samui island along with Koda were folklore in Ranchi. For the record – that’s what the evidence shows till now — Chaudhary owns 14 companies in India and two in Dubai. In fact, Chaudhary, with property worth Rs 200 crore in and around Ranchi, set up two companies in Dubai to handle Koda’s global investments in steel and mining operations in Thailand, Liberia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Africa.
Also under the ED scanner is Balaji Bullion, a small company that traded in gold and silver from Mumbai’s Zhaveri Bazaar, and had people with connections as directors. I-T officials say they have evidence of illegal purchases of bullion and diamonds and of funnelling cash through hawala for investments in at least two Dubai-based companies. Balaji officials, when contacted, denied any involvement. “We have got no notice from either the ED or the I-T department,” said an official.
Sinha is the key accused in the hawala scam and the man the ED has named as the point person handling Koda’s cash in Balaji. ED officials say Sinha had transactions worth Rs 1,400 crore in Balaji and had also purchased the defunct Indo- Asahi company and given a loan of Rs 25 crore to another company. In fact, he wanted to raise enough money to acquire an Indian Premier League cricket team. “Koda is a good friend and I have travelled abroad several times with him. But this entire scandal is politically motivated, ahead of the Assembly polls (scheduled for November 25),” Sinha told the Sadhna news channel.
And despite evidence against him and his cronies piling up, Koda too remains unfazed. “I am innocent and I am being framed,” he told a motley group of reporters. A similar reaction came from his father who told a local news channel that his son was being framed.
BUT DESPITE putting up a brave face, Koda admitted to many things, including foreign trips during his tenure as minister for mines (from March 2005 to September 2006) without informing then chief minister Arjun Munda. I-T officials believe that it was then that he deposited money in a Swiss bank account. In fact, they have traced a person who allegedly helped Koda deposit the same but withheld his identity in the interest of the investigation.
Humble origins Koda’s father, Rasika, at his village near the IISCO plant in ChaibasaPhoto: HINDUSTAN TIMES ARCHIVE
How did Koda create an empire so huge? Where did the cash come from — and what triggered the collapse? ED officials say Koda’s empire ran like a welloiled machine: cash — collected by the state’s all-powerful coal mafia — would be routinely deposited at unknown locations by Koda’s men. They would also hire youngsters, sometimes school students, to count this cash, which allegedly totalled Rs 35 to Rs 50 lakh a day from the coal belt alone. That’s because the coal mafia is said to collect Rs 2 lakh from each of the 20 coal rakes (collection units or wagons) announced by subsidiary companies of the state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) and also some private companies managing coal patches offered by CIL. This reportedly goes to the man who runs the state (read the CM) and is estimated to add up to around Rs 14 crore a month.
Koda, who was in power for a little more than two years, knew the coal business bottom up. His links with some industrialists from West Singhbhum, who supported his bid to get departments that dealt with iron ore or coal mines when he was a minister in the Munda cabinet, is well known. In fact, his wife Gita reportedly had walked out on him when she saw his earnings dwindling from coal and other minerals. Informed sources say that Koda remained cool and is said to have told his friends: “She will return when she will realise my earnings have gone through the roof.” Koda knew what he was saying. If you are the mines minister, you are the king in any mineral-rich state.
Highly-placed sources in Ranchi and Jamshedpur say earnings from other metals and minerals (iron ore) are more than coal and the mafia actively collaborates with the state government in its daily collections. Instances of such collections across the state have often been documented and presented as evidence to the judiciary by a handful of whistle-blowers from CIL, but the cases have rarely made any progress (seeTEHELKA, May 17, 2008).
CIL insiders told TEHELKA that the ED has also gathered evidence against Sanjay Pasari, a businessman from Kolkata who once was linked to former coal ministers PA Sangma and Ram Vilas Paswan, and now works closely with Koda. Pasari is also said to have developed close links with Tikmani and Rungta, two powerful transport contractors who rule the mines of the state-owned Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a subsidiary of CIL. “His investments were meticulously thought out and once the decision was taken, his men travelled with cash to seal the deals,” Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters in Patna.
Koda, who was in power for a little more than two years, knew the coal business bottom up
Koda, who insiders say was a protégé of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav, is said to have specifically asked for the mines fortfolio and rejected the education minister’s job in 2005, during chief minister Arjun Munda’s second term. That’s because Koda clearly knew that in mineral-rich Jharkhand, the ATM (anytime money) ministry is the mines portfolio.
But there is also evidence that Koda — who loved his blue jeans, jackets, shopping at Gurgaon malls and Bangkok visits with Sinha and Chaudhary (there is also Arvind Vyas and a hawala conduit, Manoj Punamia) — misappropriated funds meant for poverty alleviation schemes during his tenure as panchayati raj minister. There was just so much cash floating around that Koda’s men routinely gifted hundreds of rupees to the poor students who were brought in to count the moolah.
Appositely, it was one such open display of arrogance — from Chaudhary — that is supposed to have spelt doom for the Koda Corporation. He actually checked in suitcases filled with cash as baggage for a flight to Dubai. Of course, Chaudhary had meticulously wrapped the bundles of cash in a foil used to pack film sheets. Unfortunately for him, this could not hoodwink the customs authorities in Mumbai. Chaudhary was caught with nearly Rs 2.5 crore in cash and detained in the city. At first there was pressure to release him — from a top Mumbai functionary of a major political party whose son is also on the board of Balaji Bullion, ED officials told TEHELKA.
Youngsters were hired to count the cash collection from the coal belt – almost Rs 50 lakh daily
It worked. And after being released, Chaudhary escaped — in fact, he is still absconding — but incensed Customs officials then alerted the ED and I-T officials. And the chain reaction eventually led to Koda and the public exposure of his huge illegal interests.
And as former colleagues — and now his opponents — in the BJP point out, “Once you have tasted blood, you keep changing your options,” says Modi, who has demanded a probe into a “nexus” between Koda and Lalu Yadav, the RJD boss who has several fodder scam cases against him being tried in Jharkhand courts.
Political observers say it would have been a tribute to Indian democracy if Koda’s journey — from labourer to chief minister — had not foundered. “He showed a lot of hope when he first came into politics, but corruption overtook everything,” says CPI leader D Raja.
The result is that the chilling chronicle of unmitigated greed has grievously damaged the reputation of both Koda — and the mainstream political parties who allowed him to function unchecked.
Was it because they considered him a great political asset that the BJP and Congress allowed him to carry on his hawala transactions and investments across India and the world? Or have these countrywide raids resulted because Koda crossed what is called — in the corridors of power — an accepted line in the level of aggrandisement allowable to politicians?

Must climate research be outsourced?

2009-11-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

The plea that private think tanks should be involved in energy futures is correct. The idea that only private think tanks should do it is wrong, as it takes a lot of in-house mindsets and skills to use a model for public policy. The critique that minister Jairam Ramesh should not set up a modelling unit at Isro, but give the money to private consultants is interesting. There is a long tradition in the Indian Planning Commission to use university and non-government specialists for energy modelling. Ram Prasad Sengupta was doing this work outside the Commission decades ago. In the mid-eighties, I remember the secretary of the Energy Policy Group under KC Pant, civil servant VB Easwaran coming to me in the Planning Commission to argue for import of wood to save our trees. On his behalf, the argument for OGL import of wood was made passionately by a young MIT-trained engineer who was consulting with the Energy Policy Group. He was so convincing that in the days of near-complete import licensing, we allowed import of wood on OGL with zero tariffs. His name was Jairam Ramesh.

A policy model is not just fun and games. It has to answer specific questions that the Cabinet may ask or that may arise in global negotiations. The other guy will have his answers and you have to push your interest. Again, you have to be consistent with the numbers and arguments you have used earlier, unless you are building up a new ball park, which is seldom the case. In theory, all of this can be given to an outsider. In practice, it becomes difficult. These difficulties arise for different reasons. All the data may not be available in the public domain. For example, you cannot, under the law, give out the numbers relating to a company or a person even if it is large. In fact, you can't do so for two persons or companies, for then one of them can subtract his numbers from what you have released and arrive at his competitor's numbers, and this is illegal in the Statistics Act.

I always publish reports when I work for the government and I discovered a long time ago that secrecy is a mugs game, and no governments fall when a sarkari economist prints his work. As the chairman of BICP, I wanted to publish the reports that were used to decontrol but had to hire economists, now all stars, to aggregate the tables for three companies. Studies on the Structure of the Industrial Economy that resulted, made the economists famous, but were read only by a few.

More importantly, the context can change quickly in a rapidly changing world and if you have the model in your laptop and knowhow, you can work out the new scenario in a matter of seconds. I remember the Plan models we used to run for hours can now be loaded on my mobile or computer diary, and one can play around with new export or rainfall data in plane journeys. In the 11th Plan they have largely subcontracted the statistical work. KL Datta has written an interesting history of the work, and its current state is supposed to be reported, although the Yojana Bhavan Web site hasn't reported it until now. But in the published version of the Plan, the numbers between different chapters are inconsistent, leading to many awkward questions. This is so for sectors like energy, employment and the demographic dividend.

On the other hand, it is extremely unlikely that government in its current avatar will have the patience and put aside the resources for doing all the work in-house. A strong integrating group within the establishment with most of the detailed work subcontracted and done with periodic interaction seems to be the best bet. You need a lot of expertise to use experts. Defining the needs of decision making is not easy Normally, when the work is contracted out, you have to first state the terms of reference in a non-trivial fashion. Only the gifted, and in their absence the experienced, can spell out problems in a manner that the study does not reinvent what is already known in a more fashionable manner. Then when work is under way you need to review progress unless you want to be taken for a ride or led into interesting side paths of great interest for curiosity but not policy relevance. Also, since public money is at stake, the work has to be as laid out and paid for. Finally, preliminary results and drafts have to be commented upon. All of this will need expertise. You need a lot of expertise to use experts.

The minister should be encouraged to work in public-private partnership on climate modelling in Isro. That outfit has a long tradition of modelling, going back to Satish Dhawan and should soon give the Swiss and French energy modellers a run for their money. India led this kind of work in my youth. We can do it again. As a past president of the Indian Econometric Society, I'll be happy.

The author is a former Union minister

Hit the road

Minister Kamal Nath is a go-getter. He has been putting much-needed energies into the road transport and highways sector, which fell into an unforgivable rut over the past few years. At a recent interaction—the Idea Exchange—with The Express Group journalists, he said he would build more roads in a year than were built over five years of the NDA's tenure. There's, of course, UPA-I's abysmal record on roads. But what lends credence to his promise of constructing 7,000 km per year across all states, or 20 km a day, is the constancy with which he has been pursuing the target, across various mechanisms. It's not just the roadshows he has been holding in major capitals to encourage foreign investment for India's road projects; he enjoys great credibility today also because of how he has been trying to get domestic processes streamlined. The latest victory in this chapter involves the government's resolution to let the road transport & highways ministry decide on bidding procedures and make changes to bid documents. This effectively sidelines a dated Planning Commission regime that had introduced a string of tricky clauses in the bid documents, making the clearing of both requests for qualification and requests for proposal long-drawn, inefficient processes. According to the ministry, 27 projects involving about Rs 30,000 crore in investment are currently on hold, on account of obscure bid procedures. Nath can now clear these on an expedited basis, which will not only get the concerned road projects off the ground, but also help improve the general investment climate for the crucial infrastructure sector.

A crucial constriction has been the conflict of interest clause, with restrictive termination clauses, exit clauses, forfeiture of bid security clauses and so on also playing spoilsport in the game of getting investors interested. The global economic downturn obviously took an additional toll on investor interest. At the same time, we are told that India still remains a favourite investment destination. If we are to make the best of this guarded investor interest, it makes sense to give the minister enough room to try out the new process. As we have argued earlier, government concerns about bunching of projects in a few hands and any consequent time overruns could be better addressed through a properly balanced incentive structure that would reward timely completion of projects, penalise the laggards, plus perform a quick appraisal of the strength and capabilities of individual players based on past record. Nath has done well so far. But the clock has begun to really tick for him now.

Fast moving FMCG

The Rs 86,000-crore Indian FMCG industry is on a roll. Compared to other corporate sectors in India, the FMCG industry has performed well in Q2 FY10.While many Indian corporates have reported heavy losses, major FMCG companies have posted a double digit growth in Q2 FY10. As a result, the industry has registered a 12% volume growth in Q2 despite the economic downturn and poor monsoon.

Backed by the softening of commodity prices, benefits of lower excise and on the back of a low base, the industry has registered a healthy growth in Q2. In fact, the industry is expected to register a double-digit growth in the next two quarters of this fiscal.

Sample this: FMCG major Dabur India has posted a 30.7% increase in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter ended September at Rs 140.3 crore, as compared to Rs 107.4 crore in the year-ago period on the back of strong volume growth across key categories.

While Tata Tea Ltd has reported a 32% increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 287.44 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2009, Marico Ltd's total income has increased from Rs 495.21 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, to Rs 519.29 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

Likewise, other FMCG companies such as Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Emami, Britannia Industries and Colgate Palmolive India have posted double-digit growth in Q2 FY10.

Industry captains in the FMCG sector are optimistic about the sector's performance in Q3 FY10. "I think the Indian FMCG industry is doing pretty well. Many companies have posted healthy growth in the second quarter of this fiscal," said Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej group.

Just what fuels the growth of this sector even during tough times? The logic is fairly simple. Consumers can do away with luxury items to tide over the economic downturn. But they vitally need their soaps and soups to lead a normal life.

Recession or no recession, consumers want to eat and live well. Hence, FMCG products will always be in demand.

Does RBI get it? There is no credit

Much as one would like to give kudos to Reserve Bank of India for quietly putting the focus back on liberalisation of the financial sector in its recent review of the monetary policy, its stoic silence on how to grow credit when India's growth pattern is still wavy and fragile is regretful. Just for record, India's non-farm food credit has dropped to single-digit level to 9.66% after 12 years for the year up to October 23.

RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao has deftly shifted the debate from the need to boost economic growth to managing inflationary expectations. He is clearly more concerned about rising prices today, though everyone reckons that much of the increase in the wholesale price index is because of food items. It is not unknown either that the significantly higher consumer price inflation (CPI) also derives from rising prices of food products that have a higher weightage in the CPI.

That India's recovery needs deeper nurturing by making credit available at affordable rates did not seem to have cut much ice with RBI, despite the fact that many sources of funding available last year have disappeared. Instead, it has sought to justify the low credit offtake by citing poor demand from the industry. This argument is specious, more because banks don't want to lend. They have turned pessimists for fear of delinquencies. A clear pointer to this is their huge investment in government securities—almost 30% of deposits—compared to the statutory liquidity requirement of 25%. While larger corporates get all the money at best rates, the small & medium enterprises never make the grade.

Strategically and systematically, the central bank had started building a case for unwinding of the easy monetary stance from the beginning of this financial year. Way back in April, RBI was worried about the consumer price index that was in double digits. And then by August-end, it turned squeamish about rising prices and had said that keeping the monetary policy loose will endanger growth prospects in the medium term. The wholesale price index based inflation then stood at -0.21% for the week ended August 22.

In the second week of September, Subbarao told an international audience in Basel that India may have to reverse its easy monetary policy stance sooner than other economies. Many could have seen it coming, given that inflation had just turned positive to 0.12% for the week ended September 5, after a 13-week stay in the negative territory. Of course, nobody disputes that central banks around the world are finicky about inflation. In India, it has been no different. But during difficult times, governments and monetary authorities worldwide work in tandem to nurse the economy back to a firm recovery. In fact, the governments play a more proactive role—not to conclude that the monetary authorities are losing their independence. So, while RBI thinks that inflation is a bigger concern than growth, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee feels inflation is not a pressing area of concern as yet.

What is unique about RBI is its mandate to strive for growth as well as financial stability with the same intensity as it is to anchor inflationary expectations. The strong double-digit growth rate of industrial output in August possibly egged on the central bank to decisively signal an exit in its recent review. Subbarao hiked the statutory liquidity ratio (the portion of deposits banks have to invest in approved government securities) by 100 basis points to 25%, directed banks to increase their provisioning cover against non-performing assets to 70% by September next and also made it more expensive for the commercial real estate sector to take loans from banks.

After the robust double-digit growth in the index of industrial production (IIP) in August, the 4% growth in the infrastructure output in September has left policy-makers more circumspect about the sustainability of the recovery. As Mukherjee said on Tuesday at the Economic Editors' Conference in Delhi, India cannot afford to drop guard.

The economic stimulus has to run its full course. Fiscal deficit is indeed a cause for concern, he acknowledges, but there is no need to panic.

It is the political economy—need for creating more jobs, protecting the interests and incomes of the existing labour force and increasing household incomes—that Mukherjee is bothered about. Rightfully, the FM expressed concern about poor credit offtake to employment generating sectors—the micro, small & medium sectors and agriculture.

So, the least to expect from RBI was to exhort banks to lend more to the SMEs, the backbone of India's manufacturing sector. But it pared the credit growth target for the financial year to 18% from 20%, tacitly encouraging banks to safely lock their moneys in g-secs. It also stressed more on financial stability by asking banks to provision more towards net NPAs. The country's largest banks, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, are already expecting RBI to review this decision.

Does RBI get it? There is no credit

The central bank's clear signal that it intends to tighten monetary policy is already showing on bank credit off-take. For the first time in 12 years, credit growth dropped to a single-digit level, at 9.66% on a year-on-year basis through October 23, against 10.75% recorded up to October 9. Playing safe, banks have parked a record

Rs 1,33,295 crore with RBI through the reverse repo window that is used to suck out excess liquidity from the system. This will have far-reaching consequences on consumer demand and expansion plans of companies at a time when we are seeing some recovery in certain sectors. Requirements for working capital have not yet picked up, indicating lack of credit demand from the manufacturing sector, which accounts for the bulk of credit off-take. Anticipating interest rates to go up, companies drawing up expansion plans are now tapping non-bank sources such as commercial paper and initial public offerings. These sources, which are cheaper than borrowing from banks, account for about 70% of India Inc's long-term fund requirements. Companies are also finding global market more lucrative to borrow from as the credit default spread has come down to the same level as it was before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Also, one of the reasons for the low credit off-take is the lower demand of funds from oil and fertiliser companies. In fact, last year these companies had borrowed heavily with the government deferring subsidy payments on fuel prices. While there were signs of an increase in the disbursal of loans sanctioned by banks, companies are now deferring disbursement of their sanctioned loans, anticipating interest rates to go up, which will be a drag on their profit margins.

The sluggish credit off-take in the first half of the financial year will make it difficult for banks to meet RBI's revised credit off-take target of 18% this financial, as against 20% estimated in April 2009. Though buoyancy in credit demand will not take place until some large projects take off and the global markets fully recover, credit at low interest rates in sectors like infrastructure, housing and consumer durables should continue for a sustained recovery. Real demand needs to pick up in non-metro and rural markets, which are crucial to sustain overall growth for the manufacturing industry. Banks have become wary of incremental exposure to real estate, gems & jewellery, textiles, leather, auto-ancillary and non-banking financial companies, but these are the sectors that were the main growth drivers of the economy. The central bank's signal on tightening the expansionary monetary policy to contain rising inflation, which is a supply-side problem, will undoubtedly stall the growth process. That can't be a good thing.

Imagine opening a website, keying in a few search terms and presto! You are on the page of a rival website. Users may not mind such an occurrence, but the website in question surely will. That's exactly what happened recently when Consim India, owners of bharatmatrimony.com and indiaproperties.com, petitioned the Madras High Court against Google.com for "infringing on its trademark. In its petition, Consim said Google ads were being used in Bharat Matrimony's platform to sell space to the latter's competitors. For instance, if a user keys in "Tamil matrimony in the Google search field on Bharat Matrimony, the websites thrown up include competitors such as shaadi.com.

According to cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, Google Adwords has been the subject of different litigations in the US as well. The thrust of the subject matter in those cases has been Google's supposed infringement of the trademark of third parties. "In some cases, Google has been able to show that its usage of trademarks in Google Adwords does not constitute any confusion. However, different cases have different facts, says Duggal.

Legal experts say the court will have to examine whether Google has used a mark that is deceptively similar to the trademark of Bharat Matrimony. It will then be imperative for Google and the others involved to demonstrate that the usage of the trademark is in accordance with honest practices in industrial and commercial matters.

According to Duggal, companies can guard against such situations by writing to Google to specifically exclude their registered trademarks from the ambit of Google Adwords. 'If even after that there is no response, and a case is made out for infringement of registered trademark, then the company could take appropriate legal steps', he says.

Wordsmith (New words in business)<\b>

Freemium<\b>

What: A business model where 90 per cent customers receive a company's basic products and services for free, and the other 10 per cent choose to pay for advanced, special features.

Where<\b>: American venture capitalist Fred Wilson coined the term in 2006. He described the model and asked readers for suggestions of what to call it; Jarid Lukin, from one of Wilson's portfolio companies, came up with the winning 'freemium.

Why<\b>: According to Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, freemium has become a hugely popular model with Web 2.0 companies like Flickr, LinkedIn and Skype. The model works because the cost of serving the majority of non-payers is so close to zero, thanks to technological advances, that online companies still make a profit from the paying minority.

With rising defaults, banks have tightened the aggressive expansion drive of their credit card business. The latest Reserve Bank of India data shows that credit card outstandings during this year till August end fell by Rs 4,167 crore, a 14.3% decline as compared with the same period last year. Even the total number of outstanding cards fell to 196.68 lakh as compared with 267.33 lakh in the same month last year. In any case, credit cards are a low-margin business for banks in India because of low income per card and the high initial investments. In fact, Indians spend just 1% of their total purchases through credit cards, while the world average is around 12%.

However, the economic buoyancy in the past few years saw banks chasing all and sundry in order to increase their market share. They issued multiple cards to the same set of people under different branding without any proper due diligence. Still, the business until last year was growing at around 20% annually.

Now, with rising defaults, banks are becoming more vigilant. They are blocking transactions of all cards issued by the bank if the customer defaults on any one card. Many banks have stopped cash withdrawal facilities and have lowered the amount of credit limit on cards.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of repeat defaulters has risen from 15% in 2005 to about 25%. It may rise further. Transaction volume is also down because of a decline in private consumption demand. The increasing exposure to higher risk customers is mainly through personal loans and credit card receivables as these are unsecured. To reduce defaults, banks issuing credit cards will have to profile their customers more intensely and devise various cutomised pricing as done in other developed countries. Just tightening the use of credit cards will not be sufficient
Change, but not yet wholesale
Rashmi
Divergence between the wholesale price index (WPI) and consumer price index for industrial workers—CPI (IW)—has raised questions on the validity of measure of inflation. In recent months, while WPI showed inflation close to or just above zero, CPI (IW) recorded double-digit growth. A colleague from Icrier, speaking at a seminar on the state of the macro economy recently, was unable to decide whether to describe the situation of violently diverging indices as a comedy or a tragedy!

The Cabinet decision to revamp WPI is therefore not a day early and very welcome. The shortcomings of the WPI are well known—incomplete product composition (services are excluded), outdated base year and a defective weight structure. Although WPI's coverage is superior to CPI (IW) in terms of the commodity basket, measurement of inflation using WPI has come in for serious criticism in the last one year.

On October 19, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the commerce and industry ministry's WPI revamp proposal, which was based on the recommendations of a working group headed by Abhijit Sen, member, Planning Commission. The proposal is to convert WPI into a monthly series using 1993-94 as the base year instead of the current practice of weekly reporting. This is similar to the situation in the US and UK. Price data on manufactured products subgroup will henceforth be released monthly in tandem with the release of WPI. In addition, a price index for primary articles and commodities in fuel, power, light and lubricant group would be compiled and reported on a weekly basis to facilitate monitoring of prices of agriculture commodities and petroleum products over a shorter interval. The proposal also carries important changes that are likely to be implemented later, namely expansion of the commodity basket from 435 to around 900 and change in the base year to 2004-05 from the existing 1993-94. Change in the base year and expansion of the basket will naturally alter the weight structure of the subgroups within the WPI. For now, the data on overall WPI will be released on 14th November, with 1993-94 base year and with the old commodity basket.

The expectation from this change is that WPI will now reflect underlying inflation better and also help in narrowing the divergence between the two indices to some extent. WPI comprises three major groups, namely primary articles, manufactured items, and fuel, light, power and lubricants, contributing 22.02%, 63.75% and 14.23%, respectively to overall inflation. Manufacturing is the biggest subgroup and thus movements in WPI inflation closely follow those in the manufacturing.

The proposed changes in the WPI series with its focus on manufacturing have several implications. First, only 16-20% of the WPI items in the manufactured group are updated weekly. For the rest, data is the same as reported in the previous week as companies often do not report price data on a weekly basis. This implies data reported by WPI is based on only 20% items in manufactured group and could be one of the strong reasons for low inflation for manufactured products.

Second, shifting the frequency of price index from weekly to monthly will smoothen out the short-term volatilities in WPI. The figure above shows weekly volatilities, measured by standard deviation, in three major groups of WPI.

During the phase in which the world economy was in recession, from June 2008 to February 2009, fuel prices were highly volatile as were primary articles. These prices are more prone to shocks and the impact is visible in the numbers almost immediately. On the other hand, manufacturing price changes often occur with a time lag. As a result, fluctuations in manufactured group are visible from March 2009 onwards.

The monthly release of WPI would come at a price however. It is reported that data for a specific month will be released with a lag of about eight weeks from current practice of two weeks. The producer price index (PPI) of the US reports more than 9,000 PPIs for individual products and group of products every month for which more than 1,00,000 price quotations are collected. The US data is available with a lag of less than a month. The time gap in the release of WPI needs to be reduced over time to make the policy formulation more effective and fast.

The shift to a monthly series is welcome. It will increase the accuracy of the data and reduce volatility between the provisional and final data. The Cabinet decision to report highly volatile groups—fuel and primary articles—weekly is also useful to the extent that it provides early warning signals for the likely movement of WPI. This is the first step, albeit a small one, towards correction of WPI. Other major changes are required to make the index equivalent to PPI. These include expansion of commodity basket and inclusion of services, change in base year and revision of weight structure. The good news is that these changes are in the offing.

—The author is research associate at Icrier and research scholar at JNU

Report Card

There is a strong feeling that India is becoming very innovative, especially in the West. This study* takes the reader through the empirical evidence on whether this is indeed the case since the reform process of 1991:

India is definitely on a higher economic growth path. There is evidence to show that innovative activities in the industrial sector have shown some significant increases during the post-reform process. Hi-tech industries now contribute over 5% of India's GDP. The innovative activity is, of course, restricted to a few hi-tech industries. There is even some macro evidence to show that the productivity of RandD investments in India is higher than in China, although this proposition requires careful empirical scrutiny before firm conclusions can be reached. This rise in innovative activity is largely contributed by the domestic private sector if one takes into account all the indicators. Within the domestic private sector innovative performance is largely confined to the pharmaceutical industry. In short, India's national system of innovation is to a large extent dominated by the sectoral system of innovation of its pharmaceutical industry and as such this trait is not widespread. Increasingly, MNCs operating from India are also contributing to enhancing the country's innovative performance. This is very likely the consequence of ever increasing FDI in RandD. Most of the MNC patents are in the IT industry. In short, it may not be incorrect to draw the conclusion that India's pharmaceutical and IT industries are becoming innovative, although domestic enterprises are more active innovators only in the former industry, while it is the MNCs that are active in the latter industry.

—* Sunil Mani, Has India Become More Innovative Since 1991? Analysis of the Evidence and Some Disquieting Features, Working Paper 215, Centre for Development Studies, September 2009

Chronicle of tightening foretold

Jahangir Aziz
In the yellow and dog-eared manual that central bankers keep locked in their desks, there is a script on what to do when an economy is coming out of a downturn. And the script goes something like this: in the initial phase of a recovery one can get very strong growth without much credit expansion. And this is because firms hunker down and cut costs during a downturn, sitting on quite a bit of internal savings. Nonbank financing is also relatively cheap as equity markets lead the recovery. But that does not mean credit growth is unimportant. It is virtually impossible to sustain the recovery without the interest-sensitive parts of consumption and investment picking up in due course. Thus, too early a tightening runs the risk of derailing the recovery. Too late a tightening can, of course, ignite inflationary pressures. But as a central banker you want to see evidence of a broad-based sustained recovery and inflationary pressures before doing anything brave.

This script appeared to be spawning a sub-plot since the July policy review as the RBI added emphasis to financial stability as an objective of monetary policy, over and above the standard growth-inflation trade-off. The focus on financial stability is a direct reflection of the RBI's (and to be fair other Asian central banks such as the Bank of Korea and the People's Bank of China) interpretation of the causes of the global financial crisis. Apart from global imbalance, their argument is that with nearly exclusive focus on inflation, which was benign due to large productivity gains, Western central banks maintained easy liquidity for too long a period, which eventually fuelled a sharp asset price (real estate) bubble that eventually burst and brought down the financial system. To avoid repeating the same mistake, financial stability needs to be added to price stability as a salient objective of monetary policy. And, therefore, the RBI could exit earlier than other countries (read the US Fed).

But the subplot has the potential of over running the main script. Even if inflation is almost entirely driven by food prices, which is not dependent on bank credit and, therefore, monetary tightening would be ineffective to curb it, and non-food inflation is still negative, and even if the very sharp upturn in non-agricultural activity still hasn't shown signs of sustaining, the RBI could still tighten. For example, if it feared that the excess liquidity in the banking system could fuel asset price inflation (read equity, real estate, and commodity prices). Relatedly, if the RBI did not exit after calling for an early exit, its credibility would be brought into question. The last thing a central bank wants to do is to call wolf too many times.

The RBI in yesterday's policy review did not let the subplot acquire life of its own. It stuck to the main script and kept policy rates and cash reserve requirement unchanged. In the current circumstances exactly the thing to do. The economy still needs a lot of hand holding as private investment, the main driver of growth in the 2000s, is still floundering. Nonfood inflation, the only part of the inflation that can be curbed by squeezing credit, is still negative given the excess capacity in the economy. And in probably the least disruptive a manner, the RBI kept its focus on financial stability alive and its credibility intact by rewinding a bunch of 'unconventional' liquidity measures introduced in the wake of the October crisis—raising the statutory liquidity requirement back to 25%, returning the provisioning for commercial real estate to 1%, removing the special refinancing facilities for banks. Apart from the increase in the provisioning requirement, the other measures are unlikely to have any significant impact given that they were not binding.

Apart from what excites us in the market, the RBI did make some important structural changes to the functioning of financial markets. To increase financial inclusion the RBI will now allow domestic banks to open branches freely in tier 3-6 cities and will allow exchange rate futures in currencies other than just the dollar. These measures are less sexy than policy rate hikes, but are important small steps in developing India's markets.

What happens now? My guess is that the threat of tightening has already had its desired effect in hardening rates and that the RBI's even tougher exit language should be taken seriously. Any sign of the excess liquidity seeping into asset prices will elicit a quick reaction, perhaps even before the next review in January. The RBI will keep a close watch on credit growth to detect any emerging sign of inflationary expectations taking hold. It has reduced its expected annual credit growth to 18% from 20%, but given that credit growth so far has been languishing, anything close to 15% would be remarkable. Chances are that the RBI will begin tightening around the January policy review by raising the cash reserve requirement, but not before industrial growth shows more evidence that it is on a sustainable path and the global recovery is less of a rumour and more of a reality. In other words, the dog-eared script is still the best bet on trying to anticipate what the central bank will do next.

—The author is India chief economist, JP Morgan Chase. These are his personal views

Dutta's bosses

You could take a charitable view of Atindranath Dutta's twirl before television cameras. Liberation after a two-day captivity can be exhilarating. So, there he has been, changing his shirt six times a day to keep up with the television appearances, cheerfully recounting the story of his abduction by Maoists as the officer-in-charge of Sankrail police station, thanking his abductors for letting him go, and debating out loud when and why he'd like to join duty. However, to

rationalise Dutta's cheerful engagement with television crew is not to imply that he is in any way being proper. And even as his seniors in the West Bengal police talk of evaluating his "role" in the police station during the Maoist attack last week, Dutta has become the chubby-faced symbol of all that is wrong with the state of Bengal.

It is easy to count Dutta's indiscretions, his failure to express regret over colleagues killed by the Maoists, his inability to affect the sobriety expected after a prisoner swap. But the political and administrative establishment in West Bengal has hardly been different these past days. The state's home secretary has flouted service rules by talking openly about the Dutta incident, freely imbuing his remarks with political content by referring to the Kandahar hijack. Dutta's seniors in the police are furious at his indiscretions, and privately even hint at questionable conduct during the attack on the Sankrail police station in which he has abducted, but in effect Dutta has been allowed a free run. The state government has presented a comic picture. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee thundered warnings, about how the Naxals had better watch out the "next time". This while his party boss, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, defended the swap, and said that the police and the administration cannot fight the Maoists alone — the party, he actually said, will "mobilise people to resist them (the Maoists) and fight them back. We don't rely on the police and administration."

These last days have been a revelation of the administrative anomalies wrought by 32 years of Left rule, during which the lines between party and state have vanished, thereby handicapping the administration in taking on a security issue seen to have ideological colour. It is questionable whether this administration can take on the Maoists with the requisite focus and finesse.

Spammers hit social media sites

2009-11-13T01:09:00.000-08:00

With social networking sites attracting millions every month, the risk of virus attacks, account hijacks and spam mounts. Several instances of hackers exploiting these social media networks have exposed flaws in the system. In April this year, Michael Mookey, a 17-year-old student from New York, created a virus that sent automated tweets in thousands through a cross-site scripting vulnerability. Twitter acknowledged the attack but insisted that no user-sensitive data was lost. Apparently, Mookey only meant to popularise his site, stalkdaily. In August, Twitter was shut down for a few hours when a hacker sent a worm that crashed its servers. The same morning, Facebook confirmed that there was a similar attack but said it affected only a part of the network. The technical term for this is Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. It is caused by infected computers, which are controlled by malicious parties who direct these systems to attack a particular site by sending tonnes of requests. This tends to paralyse networks and real-users of the network experience slow downloads and timeouts. In rare cases, it shuts down the site temporarily, says Rajasekar Raju, Director, Social Media Marketing, Impigertech Technologies. In February 2008, Symantec Corp, a security company, noticed that hackers were exploiting a flaw in the Internet Explorer plug-in used on MySpace. Users would get spam mail that led to a fake log in page, and if the user logged in, the username and password would be stolen.
Users can customise details, include links to other sites, upload images and videos, and even embed code into their profile pages. The problem is that hackers can turn these features into potential attack vectors, says Ratnamala Dam Manna, Director, Security Technology and Response, Symantec.Updating security solutions is the first and most important line of defence against cyber attacks.Operating systems, applications and other software components should be patched with the latest security updates.

Hot n Spicy female chefs!

2009-09-30T01:04:00.000-07:00

Hot n Spicy female chefs!
Nowadays, it's more fun to watch the cookery shows. Thanks to the hot recipes and the hotter chefs. Forget Baywatch and all, and focus on these sexy leggies and their spicy shows…One thing is sure, that you'll end up drooling over...(Hot chefs or their exotic recipes?)

The spicy chef from the land of spices...Padma Lakshmi is Top Chef's super sexy host, also the ex-wife of controversial author, Salman Rushdie. Padma has modeled for Ralph Lauren, Alberta Ferretti, and Emanuel Ungaro. She even made

Katie Lee Joel, the sexy leggy hot chef in high heels is the ex-wife of famous musician Billy Joel. The hot chef holds a Bachelor's degree in English and Journalism. Katie hosted the first season of Top Chef.

Kelly Choi, the hot Asian chef, is also a former model born in Seoul. She was raised in the suburbs of Richmond, where she was cherry-picked straight from local access TV in New York, where, dressed in skimpy outfits and armed with an inquisitive mind, gave New Yorkers an intimate view of some of the city's top kitchens.
Cat Cora is the first female American Iron Chef. She is an executive chef, philantrophist, lesbian mother and above all, a hot n spicy chef.

Which chef are you most apt to watch? One answer would be Rachael Ray. It's indeed a great delight to watch Rachel cook in her skimpy outfits. Hot chef with hot recipes to drool over. Rachael is host of the shows Rachael Ray, 30 Minute Meals, and Rachael Rays Tasty Travels.
Giada de Laurentiis is a sexy 38 year old TV chef, writer, television personality, who currently hosts the Food Network.Giada has published four cookbooks so far.

2009-09-30T01:00:00.001-07:00

बॉलीवुड अभिनेता सलमान खान का अन्य फिल्मों के मुकाबले “वीर” के लिए कुछ ज्यादा ही लगाव है। इस तरह की पीरियड फिल्म करने की इच्छा उनके दिल में अरसे से थी। इसलिए अन्य फिल्मों के मुकाबले वे वीर के लिए ज्यादा मेहनत कर रहे है। खबर है कि फिल्म के निर्देशक अनिल शर्मा और सलमान के बीच फिल्म के सेट पर लगातार विवाद हो रहा है। सलमान हद से ज्यादा टोकते है और यह बात अनिल को पसंद नही आती। वे नही चाहते कि उन्हे सिखाया जाएं कि शॉट को किस तरह फिल्माया जाए। उघर सलमान को लगता है कि अनिल ठीक से फिल्म निर्देशित नही कर रहे है। इस वजह से फिल्म की शूटिंग घीमी रफ्तार से चल रही है।
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बॉलीवुड अभिनेत्री जिया खान को समझ में नही आ रहा है कि वे ऎसा क्या करें कि उनके करियर की ग़ाडी रफ्तार पक़ड लें। बॉलीवुड के महानायक अमिताभ बच्चन के साथ फिल्म “नि:शब्द” करने के बाद महीनों बेकार बैठी रही जिया को “गजनी” मिली। इस फिल्म के लिए उन्होंने “वॉन्टेड” को भी ठुकरा दिया था। “गजनी” ने ऎतिहासिक सफलता हासिल की, लेकिन जिया एक बार फिर हाथ पर हाथ घरे बैठी है। जबकि इस फिल्म की एक अन्य नायिका असिन को कई फिल्मों में काम मिला है। अमिताभ बच्चान और आमिर खान जैसे स्टार्स के साथ काम कर चुकी जिया को समझ नही आ रहा है कि निर्माता उन्हें फिल्म में लेने से क्यों कतरा रहे है।

लोकप्रिय हॉलीवुड फिल्म “जेम्स बांड” के कलाकार डेनियल क्रेग के प़डोस में रहने वाली रॉक गायिका ग्वेन स्टेफनी के घर में चोरी हो गई। खबर है कि डेनियल क्रेग की प़डोसन ग्वेन स्टेफनी जब सिंगापुर में एक कार्यक्रम के दौरान लोगों पर अपने गाने का जादू बिखेर रही थी, तब उनके घर में चोरों ने सेंघ लगा दी। “डेली मेल ऑनलाइन” में प्रकाशित खबर के अनुसार चोरों ने शनिवार की रात को स्टेफनी के 40 लाख पाउंड की कीमत वाले मकान का मुख्य द्वार तो़ड दिया। इस मकान में वह अपने पति गाविन रोसडेल के साथ रहती है। एक प़डोसी ने इस खाली मकान से जोरदार आवाज सुनने के बाद पुलिस को फोन किया। गौरतलब है कि इस गायिका के प़डोस में जेमी ओलीवर और क्रेग जैसे कलाकार रहते है।

भारत में हमले की फिर फिराक में लश्कर

2009-09-30T00:58:00.001-07:00

मुंबई पर 26/11 के आतंकवादी हमले को अंजाम देने वाला पाकिस्तानी आतंकवादी संगठन लश्कर-ए-तैयबा भारत में फिर हमला करने की ताक में है। अमरीकी अखबार न्यूयार्क टाइम्स ने यह खबर संगठन के पूर्व और मौजूदा सदस्यों तथा खुफिया अधिकारियों के हवाले से दी है। अखबार के मुताबिक पाकिस्तान ने अपनी धरती पर आतंकवादी ढांचा ध्वस्त करने के वादे के बावजूद लश्कर का संगठन न केवल कायम है बल्कि वह फल-फूल रहा है। अखबार का कहना है कि उसने मुंबई हमला जांच पर भारतीय और पाकिस्तानी दस्तावेज हासिल किए हैं। इसमें पूरे पाकिस्तान में फैले लश्कर संगठन की विस्तृत तस्वीर है। इनमें 26/11 के हमले की तैयारी के लिए उपयोग किए गए कराची के चार घरों और दो प्रशिक्षण शिविरों का भी ब्योरा है। पाकिस्तानी दस्तावेजों के मुताबिक एक होम्योपैथी दवा विक्रेता हमाद अमीन सादिक ने मुंबई हमले के संगठनकर्ताओं के लिए बैंक खातों का प्रबंध किया और अन्य आपूर्ति सुनिश्चित की। एक वरिष्ठ पाकिस्तानी अधिकारी ने बताया कि अमरीका ने भारत को मुंबई जैसे कुछ अन्य हमले होने के बारे में चेतावनी दी है। परन्तु इस बारे में उन्हें किसी ने कोई सूचना नही दी है। उसने कहा कि पाकिस्तान को भय है कि मुंबई हमले जैसी अन्य घटना हुई, तो भारत सैन्य प्रतिक्रिया व्यक्त कर सकता है। पाकिस्तानी अधिकारी ने यह भी कहा कि वह ऎसा दोबारा नहीं होने की गारंटी नहीं दे सकता, क्योंकि उनका लश्कर पर कई नियंत्रण नहीं है।

Is Mumbai a hub of dirty politics?

2009-09-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

In Mumbai, life starts with a lot of struggle and ends up in the same mode. A stereotype perception that people have about metros is the lifestyle they live and pleasures they are encircled with it is highly blessed and conceivably, which is why Mumbai is getting packed. People from different states are fascinated towards the centre, and why not everybody in today’s world wishes to have all the comforts. People work hard to be wealthy and remain healthy. The life all over the week is full of activity, five days of work and left to two days to overcome from laborious work. There was a time when people did not have much to recreate themselves but now Mumbai is a dream city for all! However, what happens in this dream city is unpredictable.

The bomb blast and recurring terrorist activities are also part of this trance city. People have been suffering the pain but who knows how much it pains except the victim himself.
Mumbai is also becoming a hub of politicians and some dirty politics. After rejection from West Bengal (Mamta Banerjee) Trinamool Congress, Tata received invitation from Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to start Nano project from Maharashtra. ‘Nano’ looks like another dubious deal. What will happen who knows? Maharashtra has always been hounded with some or other hullabaloo.

Besides Nano, party politics has also reached its zenith. We all have right to express what we feel on different issues. We all have been associated with the controversial speech delivered by Raj Thackeray. Media kept a bird’s eye view on the content and explained it to the masses. The ironical part is that when he was delivering the speech, police was keenly listening to his act of mimicry.

Everyone was included in his attack: leaders, celebrities and government as well. Amitabh Bachchan stated, “India is a free country and everyone has the right to live wherever they please.‿ Bachchan’s statement came a day after a hoarding, erected at Mumbai’s north central area of Shivaji Park by Thackeray’s followers, made fun of the actor and called him ’Superstar Shetkari.’ (farmer) The recent observations experienced are that society is getting violent. Violence is the symbol of negativity. We all are becoming so insatiable that even if we are asked to kill someone, it won’t be a big deal. “Only Maharashtra Day should be celebrated in Maharashtra and celebration of any other day would not be tolerated,‿ Thackeray reportedly told the conference. In an article (in a Marathi daily), he justified his anti-north Indian stand and the attacks by his party workers on taxi-drivers and shops.

It is astonishing that in secular India, the head of the fledgling Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) targeted Bachchan and north Indians living in Mumbai. He did not spare even the family of Bollywood superstars. Thackeray is of the opinion that the citizen of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar should not enter Maharashtra because job opportunities for Marathi citizen is decreasing. Incredible aspect, which everyone fails to understand is why the police is not taking any action. United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is sitting idle and so is the chief minister of Maharashtra.

Using abusive languages in front of media and masses is clearly a symbol of his senseless bravery. Thackeray said that Bachchan earns his livelihood in Maharashtra and the welfare activity is done in Uttar Pradesh. Leave others; the only question that comes to mind is that what have you done for Maharashtra? But our police say they need evidence to prove the allegations.

The governor of Bihar, RS Gavai, disapproved of the Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) agitation against north Indians in Maharashtra, questioned Thackeray’s claim to safeguard the interests of the Marathi people. He said, "Thackeray doesn’t seem to have thought about the hostility that Maharashtrians in other states might have to face as a reaction to his hate campaign (against north Indian migrants). What type of love (for the Marathi people) is this?" Gavai told reporters.

Is it a political game or is Maharashta moving ahead towards improvement? Let’s wait and watch, who does what.

Maharashtra polls: all fronts and no back

2009-09-30T00:47:00.000-07:00

Will the Congress-NCP gain from a multiplicity of fronts which could dissipate the anti-Congress vote? Or will the Shiv Sena-BJP benefit from the Third Front’s cutting into the Congress-NCP vote?

Whatever the failings of Maharashtra’s political class, and these are many, a lack of optimism is not among them. Even after the last date for the withdrawal of nominations to the Assembly elections, there are more fronts, real and imagined, alive and still in the making. More candidates, lots more spending. And a rebel-to-candidate ratio that can only be described as entertaining. The chaos and confusion are bewildering. A senior Shiv Sena figure, discarded by his party, contests the election as a Congress candidate. His nephew leaves the Sena to join the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray. And that’s one of the easier moves to follow.

Yet, the key question in the race to control Maharashtra’s 288-seat legislature boils down to: who will the fragmentation benefit? Will the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party gain from a multiplicity of fronts which could dissipate the anti-Congress vote? Or will the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party benefit from the Third Front’s cutting into the Congress-NCP vote? That is the million-dollar question. (And millions of dollars — or rupee equivalents — are being spent by parties to get the answer they like). Given the number of known faces in the fray for every seat, and the complexity of alliance and other factors, that answer might differ in each constituency.

The Lok Sabha elections of April-May were a lot closer in this State than many might believe. The difference between the Congress-NCP and the Sena-BJP fronts was narrower than it appears at first glance. The former may have won 25 Lok Sabha seats and the latter only 20, but in terms of Assembly segments, the Congress-NCP combine led its saffron rivals by less than a dozen. Then too, there were others in the fray — which did make a significant, even decisive, difference to the poll outcome.

The MNS, for instance, torpedoed the Sena-BJP in the Mumbai-Thane region. The MNS did not win a single Lok Sabha seat and led in very few segments, but the lakhs of votes it gathered in those was enough to hand the Congress-NCP victory in a State where they had assiduously pursued defeat. To this day, in the present round, the Congress strategy is mostly based on one assumption. That the MNS will fare even better in a State-level election where regional issues dominate. In short, a Congress-NCP win is predicated on how well the MNS does.

There is not much else the Congress-NCP can count on. Massive job losses, a crippling price rise and abysmal governance are not the best platform to reach out to the voters on. The cheery confidence of the Congress, though, springs from the May Lok Sabha polls. In those, it lost four per cent in vote share compared to 2004 but gained four seats thanks to the MNS sinking the Sena. The Congress-NCP government’s record is easily among the worst in the country. It’s hard to find a single poll promise it actually fulfilled. Popular perception doesn’t worry the parties much, though. In the Congress view, the math should do the trick this time, too. More so when the Opposition has failed to exploit major issues and discontent to put the ruling combine on the mat.

In Vidarbha, the Bahujan Samaj Party did not lead in a single segment in May, but drew lakhs of votes across the region. Enough votes to torpedo the Sena-BJP in eastern Vidarbha’s five Lok Sabha seats while blowing the Congress-NCP out of the water in the five seats of western Vidarbha. Lesson: you can determine the outcome of several contests even if your candidates run a distant third. In the Assembly polls, where State, regional and local-level issues gain weight, this volatility grows.

And boy has it grown. The Republican Left Democratic Front (or ‘third front’) is a rickety outfit. But its member parties, where not squabbling with one another, can cause upsets in some constituencies. In some seats, though not many, its candidates are actually in the running. Former NCP rebels and other mavericks now with this front like Sadashiv Mandlik and Raju Shetty in Kolhapur could, where they are not fighting each other, pose big problems for the ruling alliance in its western Maharashtra stronghold. RPI unity, shallow, limited and unstable though it is, could help some third front candidates pick up a few thousand votes in some places. Votes that could topple a would-be winner in close contests.

Then there is the BSP, which is contesting all 288 seats in the State. Its best bet in making an impact will again be Vidarbha. There, it could hurt both major fronts. However, the way this worked in May, it means the Sena-BJP is already ahead in about 30 of Vidarbha’s’s 62 segments, with the Congress-NCP ahead in only 27.

Raj Thackeray’s MNS is strongest in Mumbai-Thane, Pune and Nashik. The party is contesting around 140 seats across the State and could strike a sharp bargain when the results are out. Apart from the limited seats it will win, MNS candidates are strong in quite a few constituencies where the Congress-Sena race is really close. The MNS also strongly brings alive the Marathi versus non-Marathi issue. A factor which traps the Shiv Sena between proving its Marathi credentials and leading a broader alliance and agenda. But the greatest role of the MNS is in dividing the Sena vote. The media now see Raj Thackeray as the newsmaker of this election. In previous State polls — despite clear evidence of his decline in the past few years — a captive media saw only one newsmaker: Sharad Pawar. Today, they barely know where he is.

The RPI of Prakash Ambedkar has struck its own path, declining to be part of the RLDF and contesting over 120 seats. Who will it affect the most? The Congress-NCP that counts on Dalit votes? Or will the Congress actually gain as the Dalit vote of the third front splinters?

Next, there is Vinay Kore, Cabinet Minister in the present government, one-time NCP leader and weighty in western Maharashtra. His Jan Surajya Shakti (JSS) party has more than 50 candidates in the fray. Mr. Kore speaks of possible post-poll alliances with the MNS, stirring the pot before the stew is in it.

And finally, there are the rebels — a factor that affects all parties in the contest. It would take a census to count the lot. Some of them are locally strong politicians who can make or mar their former party’s chances in their boroughs. With all these factors and actors in play, several seats become hard to predict. The Congress has a simple attitude towards rebels: get elected on any platform you like, then join us in the government. This has often worked in Maharashtra.

There are two ways of looking at who the RLDF or third front will hurt more. A widely-held view is that it must hurt the Congress-NCP. This is because the third front has voters (for instance, Dalits) who could otherwise go with the Congress-NCP but not with the Sena-BJP. And the Sena-BJP voter is most unlikely to be seduced by the RLDF. The Congress take on this is the opposite. It sees the multiple opposition fronts as splitting the anti-Congress, anti-NCP vote. It believes that the Third Front, the MNS and others will do for it what Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party did for Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh — destroy the main rival by dividing the anti-Congress vote.

It’s another matter that Andhra Pradesh is a very different State and YSR was a cut above his Maharashtra counterparts. And that that government actually delivered on some programmes in the social sector. The Congress remains convinced that Maharashtra will witness a repeat of the Andhra math. It realises that if there were no MNS, the Sena-BJP would win. From this it concludes that the MNS being there assures the Congress-NCP alliance of victory. There is truth in the Congress logic that the division of the Marathi vote between the Senas will help. The gamble is on how much.

Another curious aspect of the race in Maharashtra is that both the major alliances have one lame-duck partner with them. On the one side, the NCP seems to be imploding. On the other, the Sena is hamstrung by the BJP’s decline. At this level, it’s a question of which side’s ‘B’ team will fare worse. And of how the ‘A’ sides will limp past the line when hobbled by partners who can’t pull their own weight.
In case of a hung Assembly, where neither major alliance crosses the 145-seat mark, the Congress-NCP will have an edge in government formation. They’ve been in power 10 years. And when it comes to answering million

swine flu spreading fast across the country

2009-08-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Mumbai shuts down as swine flu toll mounts to 15
The Maharashtra government today decided to close down all schools, colleges, cinema halls and malls in the Mumbai in an attempt to arrest the spread of swine flu in the region. Schools, colleges and all private coaching institutions will be closed for a week. Similarly malls, where huge crowds gather, increasing the risk of spread of the H1N1 virus, also will remain shutting for three days. Multiplexes and cinema halls are to be closed for the next three days. "The government has ordered the closure of all schools, colleges and other educational institutions in the city from tomorrow till Aug 20. Similarly, malls, theatres and multiplexes shall be closed for three days from tomorrow as a precaution," a state government official told reporters.The decision came in the wake of a high-level meeting organised by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, authorising the district administrations to take appropriate steps in the matter. The total number of swine flu victims in the state stands at 11 at this moment. The total number of swine flu deaths in the country touched 15 on Wednesday. Pune continued to be the epicenter and Maharashtra became the worst hit state for swine flu as the total number of cases in the country rose to more than a thousand.BMC wants Mumbaikars to decide on closure of schools The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) today said it would seek public opinion on temporary closure of schools here due to rising H1N1 cases. "We want Mumbaikars to decide whether the schools should be closed or not due to (spread of) H1N1 virus. We through our own machinery - Disaster Management Cell - sent SMSes to people. If majority of them say they want schools to be closed then schools will be closed down," Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak said. The BMC, in its SMS to Mumbaikars, asks - Do you think in view of the swine flu all the schools in the city need to be closed? Please answer yes or no on 108 by 9pm today. However, Phatak added, "If we close schools for eight days or so there is no guarantee that the virus will disappear in eight to 10 days. The virus is in the air. It can infect people anywhere, even when someone is at home. Closing the school does not seem like a solution." There is also a possibility that if schools are closed, it will create panic among the people, Phatak said. And for how long will we close schools? For eight days, ten days. After that, what if swine flu cases keep on increasing? Will we again close down schools?" Phatak said.
Mumbai shuts down as swine flu toll goes up to 15
With swine flu spreading fast across the country, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to close down schools, colleges, malls and multiplexes in Mumbai as a precautionary measure. The development came even as the death toll from the Influenza A(H1N1) virus rose to 15 with 33-year-old Balu Kuland becoming the latest victim of the swine flu in Pune. The shutdown in the country’s financial capital follows similar measures adopted in Pune, which has become the hotspot of the virus in the country. According to a senior state government official, schools, colleges and private coaching classes in Mumbai have been ordered to remain closed for the next seven days. Similarly, malls, theatres and multiplexes have been ordered shut for the next three days. Political parties in the state have meanwhile appealed to the people to hold low key 'dahi handi' programmes on Janamasthami to avoid the spread of the virus.Balu Kuland, who died in the Sassoon General Hospital at about 11:00 hrs, was a resident of Pimpri town, near Pune, and was hospitalised three days ago in serious condition, according to Pune Minicipal Corporation (Health Department) chief SR Pardeshi. Two more deaths were reported earlier in the day today, one each in Pune and Nashik. Rupesh Gangurde, a doctor at the Nashik Civil Hospital, died early this morning – the city’s first victim from the swine flu virus.
The 38-year-old doctor died of the viral infection, sources at the Nashik Civil Hospital said. He was admitted to a private hospital on Monday after he complained of vomiting and fever, they said. His blood samples were sent to Pune for testing after which the report tested positive for H1N1.
Gangurde was brought last night to the Civil Hospital where he died at 02:30 hours, they said. Shrawani Deshpande (29) too died this morning at Pune’s government-run Sassoon General Hospital. Shrawani died at 02:30 hrs following severe lung infection caused by the virus, attending doctors said. Shrawani, a resident of Kothrud area, was admitted to the Sassoon Hospital in a critical condition on August 10 after being referred from Sashwat Private Hospital, they said. Earlier, a 35-year-old man had succumbed to the swine flu virus at the Sassoon Hospital late Tuesday. Sanjay Mistry, a resident of Pimpri, near Pune, was admitted to the hospital last Sunday in a critical condition and put on a ventilator.
The total number of swine flu casualties in Maharashtra has now gone up to 11. Two more people have died of swine flu in Gujarat and one each in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Currently, there are five critical patients at Pune’s Sassoon Hospital, three at Delhi’s RML and another two at a Mumbai hospital.

Govt denies link between terror outfits and stock market

2009-08-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Black money: Govt denies link between terror outfits and stock market
Government on Tuesday ruled out any surreptitious entry of terrorist outfits into the stock market and said sufficient caution have been administered to the stock exchanges to look out for any suspicious entry into their activity.
"The Government, at present, does not have any reliable, credible information of any surreptitious entry of terrorist outfit into the stock market," the Department of Revenue said in a fresh affidavit to the Supreme Court which is hearing the issue relating to stashing away of black money by Indians in foreign banks.
However, the Board (Security and Exchange Board of India) as well as stock exchanges have been administered sufficient caution to look out for any suspicious and irregular entrant into the stock market activity," said the affidavit filed in response to the PIL accusing the government of not taking action in bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks.
The PIL filed by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani and others had referred to the media reports alleging a link between money belonging to Indian citizens lying deposited in foreign banks and terrorist fundings. "Upon enquiry, it has been confirmed by the Bombay and Chennai Stock Exchanges that no fictitious or notional companies can be stated to be involved in stock market operations," the second affidavit filed in response to the PIL said.

The government elaborated on the mechanism for regulating the flow of money coming into the stock market through Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) by SEBI and ruled out the possibility of banning participatory notes. "In view of the fact that participatory notes are market instruments and when they are created and traded abroad it is not possible to ban the issue of the said instrument," it said adding they are subjected to regulations and effectively being regulated by SEBI.

The Centre said all FIIs are mandated to report at the end of every month all the informations relating to participatory notes issued by them including the names of the subscriber to the said participatory notes. However, the Centre agreed that there is a possibility of misuse of double taxation treaty between India and Mauritius.

"The Centre is alive and conscious of the potentiality of misuse of double taxation treaty between India and Mauritius. In fact, further amendments to the treaty are being negotiated," the affidavit said. The Department of Revenue brushed aside the allegation of inaction relating to stashing of black money in foreign banks by Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali Khan against whom Enforcement Directorate has lodged a complaint for violating Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

It termed as baseless the allegation that the Centre was interested in protecting powerful individuals who may have been using Khan and his wife as their nominee/benamidar.
The Centre said action has been undertaken against Khan by the ED in which his passport was revoked in 2007 and an FIR was registered agaisnt him in 2008.

The Apex Court had issued a notice to the ED and sought its response to a complaint lodged against Khan for accummulating wealth to the tune of over $ 8 billion in foreign banks.

During the last hearing on July 20, senior advocate Anil Divan, appearing for the petitioners, had alleged the government did not inform about the complaint lodged by ED in December 2008 against Hasan when it had filed the affidavit on May 2.
It was pointed out the complaint filed on December 22, 2008, by an Assistant Director of ED against Khan, showed on December 8, 2006, Khan had an amount of over $8 billion in his account with UBS AG, Zurich.

This amount, Divan had said, was equivalent to Rs 36,000 crore. In a written submission in response to the first affidavit filed by the Centre, the petitioners had said vigorous investigations could have been undertaken into this aspect and action should have been taken against Khan on money laundering charges.

In the complaint, ED had also made a reference to Khan's account and money deposited in UBS Singapore. Besides Jethmalani, five others, including former Punjab DGP K. P. S. Gill and former Secretary General of Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap who are petitioners, have alleged government was not taking action to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks.

The affidavit filed by the government has not dealt with the facts that there was a fake passport case against Khan and investigations into alleged money laundering were also being undertaken against him and he was involved intransactions with Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, they had said.

Pointing out various alleged inactions against Khan, the petitioners in written submissions said "is it not unreasonable to infer that the government is interested in protecting powerful individuals who may be using Khan and his wife as their nominee/benamidar".

Further, Diwan had said, "the most important factor is that not even a single individual has been apprehended or interrogated by the government in last five years in relation to money laundering and slush funds parked abroad."

The affidavit had said investigations against Khan and his alleged co-conspirator Kashinath Tapuria relating to suspected illegal deposits made by them in UBS Bank were underway.

The petition has cited the alleged instance of ED detecting deposits made of around $8.04 billion with the UBS Bank in Zurich by Khan during a raid in Pune in January 2007.
The Income Tax Department had also served a demand notice to the tune of Rs 20,580 crore on Khan, besides Rs 40,000 crore on Tapuria and his wife Chandrika, the petition claimed.