THIRSTY INDIAAT CAN PM DELIVER MALAYALAM MOVIES BOILING POINT IN FINANCE? STEP UP SEXAPPEALwww.indiatoday.in

ALSO AVAILABLE ON iPadJULY 16, 2012 30 FOR SALE IN INDIA AND NEPAL ONLY

9

7 7 0 2 5 4

8 3 9 9 0 9

RNI NO. 28587/75 REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/12-14; U(C)-88/12-14; TECH/HR/05/FBD/11-13: TN/CH(C)/257/12-14 TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-519/12-14 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT

LeT TERRORIST ZABIUDDIN ANSARI ALIAS ABU JUNDAL

THE SECRETPLOTAnsaris arrest exposes a sinister conspiracy to deflect responsibility from Pakistan towards Indians in the Mumbai terror outrage

TO BLAME INDIA

WorldMags.net

From the editor-in-chiefwww.indiatoday.inEditor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga Editorial Director: M.J. Akbar Editor: Kaveree Bamzai Managing Editor: S. Prasannarajan Deputy Editors: Damayanti Datta, Dhiraj Nayyar, Shantanu Guha Ray Senior Editors: Prachi Bhuchar, S. Sahaya Ranjit, Priya Sahgal, Sandeep Unnithan, Devesh Kumar AHMEDABAD: Uday Mahurkar HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon Photo Editor: T. Narayan Associate Editors: Bhavna Vij-Aurora, Shafi Rahman THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: M.G. Radhakrishnan Assistant Editors: Abdus Salam BANGALORE: Sowmya Aji CHANDIGARH: Asit Jolly MUMBAI: Kiran Tare JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava Principal Correspondent: CHENNAI: Lakshmi Kumaraswami Senior Correspondents: Shravya Jain GUWAHATI: Kaushik Deka MUMBAI: Nishat Bari Copy Desk: Archana Pande, Monalisa S. Arthur (Copy Editors), Priyadarshini Sen Photo Department: Subir Halder, Yasbant Negi, Vikram Sharma, Reuben Singh AHMEDABAD: Shailesh Raval CHENNAI: H.K. Rajashekar MUMBAI: Mandar Deodhar, Bhaskar Paul, Rashmi Hajela (Chief Photo Researcher) Infographics and Illustrations: Saurabh Singh (Chief of Graphics) Art Department: Madhu Bhaskar (Art Director), Madhumangal Singh, Vandana Nayar, Jyoti K. Singh (Deputy Art Directors), Vipin Gupta, Pushvinder Kaur, Shipra Rathoria Production Department: Surinder Hastu (Chief of Production), Harish Aggarwal, Naveen Gupta Chief of Information Bureau: Rajesh Sharma Group Business Head : Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher: Anil Fernandes (Impact) IMPACT TEAM Senior General Managers: Sonal Pandey (West and South), Kaustav Chatterjee (East), V. Somasundaram (Chennai), Jitendra Lad (West) Head (North): Dipayan Chowdhary Consumer Marketing Services: Poonam Sangha, Head - Consumer Services Sales and Operations: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager Vinod Das, Senior General Manager (National) Rajesh Menon, General Manager (West) Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (South) Rakesh Sharma, General Manager (Operations)

Volume XXXVII Number 29; For the week July 10-16, 2012, released on July 9 Editorial Office Living Media India Ltd. F-14/15, Connaught Place New Delhi 110001; Phones: 23315801-4; Fax: 23316180; Subscriptions: For assistance contact Customer Care India Today Group, A-61, Sector-57, Noida (UP)-201301; Phones: Toll-free number: 1800 1800 100 (from BSNL/MTNL lines); (95120) 2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad; (0120) 2479900 from Rest of India (MondayFriday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.); Fax: (0120) 4078080; e-mail: wecare@intoday.com; Mumbai: 022-24444423-6, Fax: 24444358 Sales: Direct all trade enquiries to General Manager (Sales), Living Media India Limited, B-45, Sector 57, Noida-201301 (UP) Regd. Office: K-9 Connaught Circus, New Delhi 110001 Impact Offices: 1201, 12th Floor, Tower 2 A, One Indiabulls Centre, (Jupiter Mills), S.B. Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai-400013; Phone: 66063355; Fax: 66063226 E-1, Ground Floor, Videocon Towers, Jhandewalan Extn, New Delhi Guna Complex, 5th Floor, Main Building, No.443, Anna Salai, Chennai600018; Phone: 2847 8525 201-204 Richmond Towers, 2nd Floor, 12, Richmond Road, Bangalore-560025; Phones: 22212448, 22213037, 22218343; Fax: 22218335; 52, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, 4th Floor, Kolkata-700071; Phones: 22825398; Fax: 22827254; 6-3-885/7/B, Somajiguda, Hyderabad500082; Phone: 23401657, 23400479, 23410100, 23402481, 23410982, 23411498; Fax: 23403484 39/1045, Karakkatt Road, Kochi 682016; Phones: 2377057, 2377058 ; Fax: 2377059 2/C, Suryarath Bldg, 2nd Floor, Behind White House, Panchwati, Office C.G. Road, Ahmedabad-380006; Phone: 26560393, 26560929; Fax: 26565293 Copyright Living Media India Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Editor: Kaveree Bamzai. Printed and published by Ashish Bagga on behalf of Living Media India Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd., 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana) and at A-9, Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, district Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001. INDIA TODAY does not take the responsibility for returning unsolicited publication material.

he night of November 26 in 2008 still burns bright in national memory, as a reminder of how India survived, and at what cost, one of the biggest terrorist attacks in history. For 60 hours, as Indias iconic metropolis burned, it was jihad played out live to a stunned nation. Mumbai 26/11, which took a toll of 166 lives, exposed the innovative strategies, audacity and perseverance of the attackers. The trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani survivor among the terrorists, revealed Pakistans involvement in the origin, planning and execution of the attack. The 1,522-page judgment by Justice M.L. Tahaliyani contained deadly details about Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the training of the terrorists in Pakistani camps. Later, what David Coleman Headley, the America-born LeT scout, told his interrogators further elaborated how ISI, the Pakistani intelligence, supervised the attack on India at every stage. Even as all the roads from 26/11 converged in Islamabad, Pakistan continued to obfuscate the issue despite New Delhis demands for cooperation. That said, India post-26/11 was not exactly America in the wake of 9/11. There was hardly an India united, politically and emotionally, standing up to the enemy. Even before the embers of Mumbai died down, sections of the political class and the intelligentsia were busy fabricating conspiracy theories. The killing of Hemant Karkare, chief of Maharashtras Anti-Terrorism Squad who was leading the investigations into the 2008 Malegaon blasts which implicated some Hindu extremists, was enough for them to see the hidden hand of saffron terrorism behind 26/11. The public utterances of some Congress leaders and the conspiracy-peddling by a section of the Urdu press were as ridiculousand irresponsibleas the theory that 9/11 was a Zionist plot. That is exactly what Pakistan OUR DECEMBER wanted to hear from India, and the conspiracy theorists 2008 COVER played straight into Islamabads propaganda. The recent arrest of Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, also known as Abu Jundal, an Indian who was travelling with a fake Pakistani passport, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, now confirms the Pakistani plot to put the blame for 26/11 on India. Ansari, who had been absconding from India since 2006, was on the list of 50 fugitives New Delhi wanted from Pakistan. His value has increased ever since Kasab named one Abu Jundal as one of the controllers of 26/11 operation based in Karachi. After he entered Saudi Arabia last summer, India has been using all its diplomatic skills to get him deported from the Arab kingdom, Pakistans most influential ally and benefactor. That the Saudis finally handed over Ansari to India speaks volumes about how the best of bilateral relations are no guarantee for the safety of an international terrorist, who is increasingly getting isolated everywhere except in Pakistan. Even as we go to the press, Ansari, from a safe house in Delhi, is telling his interrogators more dramatic details about how ISI collaborated with LeT on 26/11. Our cover story, written by Senior Editor Sandeep Unnithan with bureau reports, exposes how the Ansari story blows the lid off the secret Pakistani plot to make 26/11 an India-based conspiracy. It also shows how wrong it was for certain politicians and media to exploit the attack on India for short-term vote-bank benefits. The latest revelation only confirms that Pakistan is yet to come clean on its role as a protector and promoter of extraterritorial terrorism even as the two countries make the right noises about building a harmonious relationship. The ghost of 26/11 will continue to haunt us till the real culprits own up their crime.

T

All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only

(Aroon Purie)

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

10

InsideC OV E R STO RY M U M B A I AT TAC KN AT I O NKARNATAKA

18

The Secret Plot to Blame India

Ansaris arrest exposes a sinister conspiracy to deflect responsibility from Pakistan towards Indians in the Mumbai terror outrage.

38 42

Y eddyurappa Pulls the Plug

Former chief minister wants his successor replaced. BJP has no choice but to agree.

N AT I O NNIIRA RADIA

Shes Back in the Game

Controversial lobbyist Niira Radia returns to corporate PR, advises Adanis and the Sahara Group.

S P EC I A L R E P O R TECONOMY

CINEMAMALAYALAM MOVIES

34

Can PM Do What Pranab Could Not?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, now doubling as finance minister, wants to revive the animal spirits of the economy. Time and political compulsions are likely to defeat him.

60THE BIG STORYWAT E R C R I S I S

The Bawdy and the Beautiful

Kissing onscreen, female leads who liberally mouth the F-word, and an impotent hero. Malayalam cinema pushes the envelope.

2602

Boiling Point

10 14 58 62

UP FRONT GLASS HOUSE CONTROVERSY GLOSSARY

The prospect of a lean monsoon is not the only worry. Depletion of groundwater and population pressure spell a grim future for India. Expect water wars ahead.

Cover concept by: DEV KABIR MALIK

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Subscribe Now Indias No. 1 MagazinePrint: www.indiatoday.in/subscribe or Call Toll Free: 1800 1800 100 Digital: www.indiatoday.in/digitalmagazine

WEB EXCLUSIVEAKBAR KA DURBAR India Today Editorial Director M.J. Akbar will take your questions on politics and issues of national importance.Ask Now: www.indiatoday.in/akbar

MOBILE

INDIA TODAY NEWSLETTER Subscribe to SNIP, a quick dose of daily snippets of news and entertainment.www.indiatoday.in/snip

SUPPLEMENTS

Get Latest News on your Mobile.

SMS SUB NEWS to 52424Charges `30/month for Reliance, Idea & MTS, `7/week for Airtel, `1 for 2 days for MTNL Mumbai subscribers.

Read these supplements and more online at www.indiatoday.in

WorldMags.net

Mens healthDigital Magazine

on sale now!

+

inDias largest-selling Mens Magazine with a Moving cover anD an exclusive 32-page

big arMs guiDeDOWNLOAD NOW!

Now available on iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Android, PC & Mac

For all other devices, visitWorldMags.net www. menshealthindia.com/digitalmagazine

TRAVEL PLUS now available on iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, PC and Mac.

Touch Base with the World

Grab your Digital Edition.DOWNLOAD NOW!

App Store

Available on the

www.indiatoday.in/digitalmagazines

WorldMags.net

BYWORD

M.J. AKBAR

S

The Pak-Saudi relationship found its true historic moment traws dont float in the winds of international diplomacy because a sudden gust has risen on a lazy afternoon. during the 10-year Afghan war against the Soviet Union, They are sent up there to check the weather at funded by Saudis, armed by America, and conducted by various levels of a turbulent atmosphere. If a straw does President Zia-ul-Haq, who might have been put into power encounter too much friction and gets burnt out, no great from a Riyadh casting couch. When the Soviets were driven deal: It was only a straw. But if it floats and finds a destina- out in 1989, there was still the future of Afghanistan to worry tion then it becomes an asset in the construction of a bridge, about. In 1994 Pakistan launched the Taliban; by 1996 the sometimes between nations divided by a sea of differences, Taliban had taken Kabul. Pakistan had not only extended its strategic space to the rear, the perennial dream of its military rather than merely a gulf of irritations. In 1947, the Arab world watched the emergence of establishment, it had also turned this into Islamic space. Pakistan and India with wary interest. Its more vibrant parts, Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia were the only three nations like Egypt, were weighed by their own dilemmas; not least of to recognise the Taliban government. The Saudi ship of state turns at a glacial pace, but the them being imposed monarchs who gave orders to Cairo and took orders from London. Indias first prime minister straws began to float with greater frequency after 9/11 zeroed Jawaharlal Nehru took an active dislike to Egypts King the war against terrorism into the AfPak region. Riyadh began Farouk, which may explain his disproportionate fondness for to praise the rising economies of China and India. I recall a Gamal Nasser, who overthrew the royals in what must surely startling statement by a Saudi minister made in Islamabad: be among the more polite coups in history. A defining moment Indian Muslims, he argued, were not a minority, but equal came in 1956 when secular Nehru supported Nasser during citizens of their nation. This would have tweaked an ear or two the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Suez and Islamic in the land created of the two-nation theory. In 2006 King Pakistan stood by Britain. As one Arab commentator tartly Abdullah raised the profile with his state visit to India. And yet there was a long step to the point where Saudis noted, The Pakistanis think that Islam was born in 1947. But Saudi Arabia, deeply enmeshed in the Western would hand over Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, embrace, had little time for left radicalism, whether genuine wanted by India for his crucial role in the planning and or pseudo. It was drawn to Pakistan by both religion and pol- operations of the Mumbai terror carnage. Ansari had gone itics, not to mention geopolitics. Pakistan positioned itself as to Saudi Arabia, with help from his Pakistani mentors, for a frontline state against Soviet communism (though not safety; he discovered that Saudi interrogators wanted to China), long before the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan did know what he knew. Only when Saudis were convinced that his Pakistani passport was fake, and indeed make it a borderline case. SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com that he was an Indian, did they send Saudi kings are also, as rulers of him back to face trial in his own counMecca and Medina, Custodian of the try. They knew Ansari would severely Two Holy Mosques. They were atdamage Pakistans game of deflect tracted as well by Pakistans claim to and deceive over Mumbai. They chose be a fortress of the faith between to cooperate with India at the expense Hindu-dominated South Asia and of Pakistan. This is not an individual Atheist-Communist Central Asia. decision. This is policy; and therefore Few nations have been as skilful the start of a process. as Pakistan in exploiting the uses of It is facile to suggest that they did so adversity. It turned the period beunder American pressure. Riyadh is not tween two wars, of Bangladesh in a cardboard government. King Abdullah 1971 and Afghanistan in 1979, into a is convinced that such demons are as indecade of resurrection. The strategic jurious to the stability of Saudi Arabia as relationship between Saudi Arabia they are to India. He has also ripped and Pakistan was cemented to seemapart one of the great falsehoods propaingly unbreakable levels. Saudi supKing Abdullah is convinced such gated by many Muslim terrorists: That port financed the Pakistani nuclear they had the sanction of faith. They never programme, advertised then as an demons are as injurious to the Islamic bomb. Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttos stability of Saudi Arabia as they are did. They do not now. They never will. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will Lahore Islamic conference in 1974 to India. He has also ripped apart remain the closest of friends, and the was a phenomenal success, and lives the great falsehood propagated by best of allies. But the Saudis have on both in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and in symbols scattered many Muslim terrorists: That they ensured that it will not live outside the had the sanction of faith. parameters of law and world order. across Pakistani cities.

NO KINGDOM FOR KILLERS

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

70

Mail

Messpot of DespotsJ U LY 2 , 2 0 1 2

Corrupt politicians, obdurate judges and compromised journalists have driven Pakistans crumbling democracy to despair.

It is ironic that Pakistan is still called a democracy with so much of debauchery perpetrated by their politicians, the media and the judiciary.K.C. KUMAR,Bangalore

Future TensePakistan is no stranger to constitutional crises; it has been struggling through it since 1947 (Messpot of Despots, July 2). The present controversial ruling marks another attempt of the judiciary to assert itself as an institution that towers above a weak, ineffective civilian government and an opaque, intrusive military. Pakistan today showcases a sorry spectacle in the comity of nations with its head of state the fountainhead of corruption. Asif Ali Zardari may have got away for now with the prime ministers job sacrificed in the process. Pakistan being Pakistan, this isnt the end of the story, only another chapter in its turbulent political history.MEGHANA. A, UK

Fall of the Indian IdolA few friendly tips to a friend have disgraced Rajat Gupta, the poster boy of the corporate world (Indian Verdict in America, July 2). The insider-trading scandal has brought the world crashing down around him. Rajat Gupta was one of the earliest Indians to bring alive the quintessential American dream and his trailblazing career had in fact paved the way for many others from the subcontinent to strike big.KAMAL KISHORE, Patna

Given the brilliant corporate track record of Rajat Gupta and his philanthropic activities in the US, the court ought to take a lenient view of his lapses and sentence him to a lighter punishment. He doesnt seem to have gained anything through insider trading. He has only lost all the respect he had earned over the years.RADHA MARY, Delhi

FOR SUBSCRIPTION ASSISTANCE, CONTACT: Customer Care, India Today Group, A-61, Sector-57, Noida (Uttar Pradesh)-201301. Phones: 2479900 from Noida, 95120-2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad, and 0120-2479900 from Rest of India. Toll Free No.: 1800 1800 100. Fax: 0120-4078080. E-mail: wecare@intoday.com

08

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

AP PHOTO

Yousuf Raza Gilanis exit from power comes as a blow to an already besieged democratic consolidation in Pakistan. The neighbour nation once again experiences devastating consequences of politics. As the authorities withdrew security to Gilanis son contesting Multan bypoll as PPP candidate, Pakistans new prime minister, on the other hand, retained most key members of the Gilani Cabinet in the same position. The hypocrisy of governance is not easily understandable to the common man.RAMESH SINHA, Gurgaon

An unstable Pakistan will jeopardise world peace and its immediate neighbours face the maximum danger. The Frankenstein monster created by Pakistan in the form of

Mailterrorism is bouncing back on its creator. Its India-centric policies are ultimately working against it. One can only wish that a country like United States of America takes control of Pakistans nuclear installations and reins in the disruptive elements before the condition gets out of control.R.K. MISHRA, www.intoday.com

35Manmohan Singhs name for president. Pranab Mukherjee has failed as finance minister. Inflation is virtually beyond control. Besides, his wrong policies are responsible for laying hurdles in the path of economic growth. The economist Prime Minister should take over as finance minister.MAHESH KUMAR, Mumbai

very easy to fall into the trap of vices, but very difficult to come out of it. Youngsters should avoid bad company for their own sake. A casual, just-for-fun drink could turn into a nightmarish addiction and thus destroy all the possibilities of creating a noble and meaningful life in future.V.K. TANGRI, Dehradun

YEARS AGO IN INDIA TO DAY

AUGUST 16-31, 197 7

A Start for Bigger Things?Was Mrs Indira Gandhis threeday trip to Paunar (70 km from Nagpur) a prelude to her re-entry into active politics? Despite her statement that she did not discuss politics with Vinoba Bhave, her contradictory statements to the press and public, and her proposed country-wide tour in September, beginning with a trip to her constituency Rae Bareli, has increasingly led observers to speculate about her staging a comeback. Apparently, Mrs Gandhi went to Paunar for inspiration. This was her first officially announced trip out of New Delhi since she stepped down in March. She went to Haridwar once with her family to meet her spiritual guru Anandmai. Perhaps, Anandmai predicted that Mrs Gandhi would stage a comeback and the Paunar trip is part of a well-conceived plan to recharge her spiritual batteries for the task ahead. Whatever her intentions, she received a tumultuous welcome at Nagpur Airport by a 7,000-strong crowd on July 24. Mrs Gandhi stopped twice to give spontaneous speeches. She said in one of her speeches that she knew the people were waiting for her to move. But you should move, she said. Unless you move, no movement can succeed. I will follow. At the ashram she met Vinoba Bhave seven times. The first meeting lasted only four minutes. The others over an hour. None revealed the nature or subjects discussed.by Vijay PhanshikarMRS GANDHI WITH VINOBA BHAVE

Political BattleDrastic poll reforms are necessary before the Lok Sabha elections due in the year 2014. This is crucial towards ensuring that an era of blackmail alliance politics is not possible (The Countdown Begins, July 2). The prime minister and chief ministers should be elected by secret and compulsory vote of all members of the Lower House on nominations signed by at least onethird members. Such an elected leader may be removed by the same process but with the naming of the alternate leader in the same motion mandatory. To avoid members racing for ministerial berths, the system should be such that only those persons as prime minister, chief ministers and ministers who might not have contested any election in last six years.MADHU AGRAWAL, Delhi

Drinking YoungThe increasing problem of drinking is mainly because of lack of parental guidance (Is Young India Drunk?, July 2). We have become too busy in our lives, leaving our children to fend for themselves. Teenagers resort to drinking and crimes due to poor upbringing and a callous attitude. Today, students consider drinking and late-night parties as trendy, and parents turn a blind eye to the indiscipline of their children. The answer lies in exemplary punishments, meted out fast. Schools and colleges must also play their part in ethical growth of the personality of children. The backbone of future India can be saved only by collective action.R.D. SINGH, Haryana

Games People PlayIt is very sad and unfortunate that personal egos have become greater than national pride (Double Fault, July 2). We all know that Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi remain our best bet in mens doubles tennis event at London and that is why All India Tennis Association (AITA) chose them to represent the nation but had to give in to the demands of Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. The kind of immaturity these players have shown may have spoiled our chances of winning a medal. And it has set a very wrong example for our young players.BAL GOVIND, Noida

Mamata Banerjee was right in recommending

The rat race for money, power and prestige has distanced parents from their wards. They have no time to see what their children are up to. It is

Tennis today smacks of an attempt to please all by compromise. It is at its lowest ebb ever. If AITA has displayed a lack of spine, our tennis players like Bhupathi and Bopanna have exhibited a shocking self-centredness.MOTUPALLI S. PRASAD, Chennai

Readers are recommended to make appropriate enquiries before sending money, incurring expenses or entering into commitments in relation to any advertisement appearing in this publication. The India Today Group does not vouch for any claims made by the advertisers of products and services. The printer, publisher, editor-in-chief and the editor of the India Today Group publications shall not be held liable for any consequences in the event of such claims not being honoured by the advertisers.

E-MAILYOUR LETTERS TO: letters.editor@intoday.com FAX THEM TO: 011-23316180 OR LOG ON TO: www.indiatoday.in

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

90

UP FRONT

ABHISHEK PODDAR

I

The effect of our failing museums is immediately ndias growing economy, booming businesses and expanding middle class are often commented upon, but tangible, as art works are deteriorating through a lack of are these really the criteria by which we should be care and attention, and also philosophicalin the sense judging our progress? Shouldnt a country truly be able to that the study of art can instil a feeling of context, pride call itself a leading nation only when it has an enlightened and intellectual inquiry in the nation. Rather than attitude towards its art and cultural heritage, as well as encouraging us to take an interest in art and antiques, its economic development? Unless there is a drastic the current system inhibits private collectors and change in approach towards the future of our dealers through endless red tape and archaic laws which museums, we are at the risk of turning India into a dictate that complex registrations and forms be filled Potemkin Village, whereby a cultural vacuum lurks each time anything above 100 years old is bought, transferred or even transported. Without becoming a behind a glossy facade of development. Indeed, there is no shortage of glitzy shopping malls plausible place for the art trade to operate, and thus filled with relics of economic power, but when it comes to without a community of specialists, enthusiasts and spaces of true integrity, we in India fall embarrassingly professionals, the art world in India will lack the grassshort. By maintaining the status quo, we will lose not only roots foundations it needs to progress. Whilst the current state of affairs is being increasingly priceless art works, but also the wide range of cultural acknowledged, relatively few initiatives have been activity that such objects encourage and inspire. From major institutions in the capital to smaller proposed to tackle the problem. These currently focus museums around the country, the idea of preservation, around staff development and consultancy through tie-ins presentation and curating are well below international with international bodies like the British Museum and standards and seem instead to belong to another century, the Art Institute of Chicago. The impetus for such schemes when it was merely enough to put objects in cabinets, is commendable, but how much do these partner with no further thought to how to bring them to life. institutions really understand the unique challenges of Museum staff are under-qualified, uninterested and Indias government infrastructure? It is perhaps time we looked beyond the state and few in number. Acquisition budgets are either nonexistent or paralysed by red tape and visitor numbers are further towards the private sector for the future of our museumsfollowing the example of the Dr Bhau Daji Lad not even worthy of comment. The contemporary art scene may appear vibrant, but Museum in Mumbai, which rescued itself through its partthe influx of new commercial galleries is only further nership with the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation. By combining propping up the faade. Without major contemporary the financial support of larger corporations with the exhibitions in non-commercial institutions, we do not passion, knowledge and networks of private individuals and foundations, these various entities have have the necessary means to attribute SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com the unique potential to set up new muacademic meaning to current artistic seums and develop them into dynamic, outputs. Our rich past and endlessly engaging and sustainable spaces. In fascinating present should make us a other words, if the Government wont world leader in cultural production wake up to the responsibility and this is simply not the case. benefit of reforming our museums, then By comparison, museums in the perhaps it is time to leverage the power West have become the lifeblood of of Indias liberalised free-market capicities. Often referred to as the churches talism (which one normally associates of the 21st century, such places are with industry and technology) to help charged, dynamic and teeming with the country grow culturally, as well as people. Serious academic research economically. The hope being that such coexists with fun and educational initiatives will kickstart a new era of days out for the familythe study of interest in the artsinspiring, educatthe past corresponding with a celebraing and enriching the country along the tion of the cultural present. The British way. At the least, such initiatives will act Museum in London, for example, The idea of preservation, to preserve the art and heritage of our attracts nearly 6 million visitors a year presentation and curating seem past until the state system wakes up. (many of them Indian), whereas the National Museum in Delhi is one of the to belong to another century few places in the city where one can when it was merely enough to Abhishek Poddar is a Bangalore-based put objects in cabinets. actually escape the crowds. collector and promoter of art

THE ARTOFSHAME

10

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

InTouchwithStyleHARPERS BAZAAR now available on iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, PC and Mac.

Grab your Digital Edition now!DOWNLOAD NOW!

App Store

Available on the Av Available o th e

www.harpersbazaarindia.in/digitalmagazine

Where Fashion Gets Personal

WorldMags.net

GLASS HOUSE

by KAVEREE BAMZAI

NO TIME FOR HOMEanmohan Singh represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha but only a flood or a calamity persuades him to visit the state which gave him a chance to be Prime Minister. On July 2, he, along with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, went for 140 minutes, 90 of which were spent mid-air, scanning Jorhat, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, and Kaziranga National Park. They did not meet a single flood-affected person. The media was luckier. The Prime Minister spent five whole minutes with them as he read out an official statement at Guwahati airport, promising assistance of Rs 500 crore.

M

SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com

P

LANGUAGE OF POWER

YASHBANT NEGI/www.indiatodayimages.com

SONG SUNG BLUE

ut Immediately was the remark on the file by then Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to expedite the proposal of Adarsh Society. The lawyer for the prosecution thought this was enough to implicate Deshmukh, when he grilled him on June 28. But he hadnt accounted for Deshmukhs linguistic dexterity. Deshmukh said put immediately for him meant not before at least six months. Wonder what delay indefinitely means in the Deshmukh dictionary.

O

BADAL

n the last day of the Budget session on June 29, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal mocked the Congress as a party of singers. Congress ought to have requisitioned a full band with crooners, Badal remarked a trifle uncharitably after the Congress MLA and popular folk singer Mohammad Sadique responded with great enthusiasm to the Chief Ministers request for a song during zero hour. Poor Sadique, who had poured his heart into the song Bharat ik mundri, vich nag hai Punjab da (India is the ring in which Punjab is the diamond), said he felt like a schoolboy surrounded by bullies. They were mocking me and used me to embarrass my party, he moaned. Ashok Gehlot did on June 26 in Jaipur, while speaking on the sidelines of a function on drug abuse. If BJP has GEHLOT guts, it should bring Narendra Modi forward as its prime ministerial candidate, he said to the media. Perhaps Gehlots grasp of national politics will ensure a place for him in the Union Cabinet if he is removed before Assembly elections next year.

NAME TROUBLEith the accused in 26/11 Mumbai attack Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal being much in news, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) received a peculiar request from the wellknown Jindal family. MHA was requested to tell the Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau to emphasise the difference between Jundal and Jindal. The police, however, wouldnt reveal which Jindal called.

W

MODI

SOFT TARGET

I

DESHMUKHMANDAR DEODHAR/www.indiatodayimages.com

f youre a chief minister in trouble, how do you hope to impress Congress chief Sonia Gandhi? Simple. Attack Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Thats what Rajasthan Chief Minister

14

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?.A. Sangma may be fighting a losing battle in 2012, but according to an NCP leader, he is positioning himself as the consensus candidate for 2017. What happens to his daughter in the interim? NCP chief Sharad Pawar has made it clear to Agatha that the party will take disciplinary action against her if she campaigns for her father, who is not the Government candidate. Perhaps that is why she was missing from the official delegation that accompanied Sangma to file his nomination, though she has been actively canvassing for him at social events .AGATHA SANGMA

LOST AND FOUNDJP President Nitin Gadkari has lost 27 kg and was looking almost svelte at the wedding of son Sarang on July 2. He has, however, gained friends going by the turnout of the smartest in the city for the reception at Ashoka Hotel. Wags thought that this was the first sign of a change in government after the next polls. Delhis sycophants can smell the air.SHEKHAR YADAV

P

B

After saying he was ready to swear in Italian Sonia Gandhi as PM, Kalam has become a laughing stock. He is now a hypocrite.BAL THACKERAY Shiv Sena Chief

TWEET SONA PRABHAKAR RAO/www.indiatodayimages.com

I dont regret not becoming the PM. Im repeating that Manmohan Singh is one of the finest persons to be the PM.PRANAB MUKHERJEE Former Finance Minister

GADKARI WITH WIFE

NAIDU (LEFT) WITH LOKESH

hat do young politicians do to make an impact? Write a stirring speech for Parliament? No. Adopt a village? No. They just get on to Twitter. And hope for the best. Nara Lokesh, 29, who is doing an MBA from Stanford and is the only child of TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, 62, has begun using Twitter to communicate with party workers and young voters. He uses his iPhone4 to tweet at least twice a day. His questions range from asking tweeple what the TDP stand on the presidential race should be to defending his father as pro-farmer. Hope lies eternal in a tweet.HOODA

W

WEEK

OF THE

Glad to see Geelanis imagination and ability to create fiction has not dulled with age.

The poor boy (Vishnu Vardhan) is 307 in the world and I dont even know if he has grasscourt shoes. So it is a bit of a tough one.LEANDER PAES, on his Olympics doubles partner

J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah after Syed Ali Shah Geelani claimed he had information that India was conspiring to create a state within a state in Kashmir .

TENNIS TROUBLEPAESAP PHOTO

H

aryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda loves his tennis. An avid player, Hooda had kept aside time for two visits to England this summer, one to witness the ongoing Wimbledon, and the other later, to attend the Olympics. The presidential elections have ensured that he can do neither. Hooda sahib is likely to cancel his trips, a senior aide said. Bad news for officials too: They cant accompany the Chief Minister.

with KAUSHIK DEKA, ROHIT PARIHAR, KIRAN TARE, AMARNATH K. MENON, PRIYA SAHGAL, BHAVNA VIJ-AURORA

CHANDRADEEP KUMAR/www.indiatodayimages.com

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

15

SignatureB O T T O M

DHIRAJ NAYYAR

THE RIGHTAGENDAts just as well for the NDA that its civil war of words on Hindutva versus secularism is playing out now, well before the next General Elections. The people of India have already settled that issue in favour of secularism, a fact that even the hard-line Narendra Modi has tacitly, if not explicitly, accepted. His relentless focus on governance issues in the decade since riotous 2002 is sufficient evidence. The fact is that the next election, whether in 2014 or earlier, will be fought, not on the issue of secularism, but on the twin issues of governance and the economy. If NDA wants a shot at power, it needs to develop a coherent alternative to what the Congress and UPA have offered. It is easy to be complacent. The UPA is paralysed in government and the economy is in a tailspin. The Opposition could quite possibly ride to power on an anti-incumbency vote alone. But that would be taking for granted a highly perceptive electorate. People want to see a coherent governance agenda that can deliver economic growth and prosperity. There certainly is room for one on the centre-right. The Congress, while it is led by the Gandhi family, will be openly populist: In favour of massive redistributive Government-spending schemes in the name of the poor and in favour of a strict leash on private enterprise. NDA must affirm its commitment to free enterprise, domestic and foreign. For this to be credible, NDA may need to support at least some reformist legislation proposed by UPA in the coming months. The NDA must also lay out a clear roadmap for Government spending, particularly subsidies. It shouldnt be too

L I N E

I

hard to argue the case for withdrawing all subsidies to the richa significant contributor to the fiscal deficitwhether urban (on diesel) or rural (on fertilisers). However, the more important part of the alternative agenda has to focus on rethinking government. Nobody can argue that the state has no role to play in Indias development. It does, but in a manner that facilitates growth and reduces wastage of public money. The NDA need to look no further than the two protagonists in its internal battle, Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi, to get inspiration. Modi has showed how governments in India can deliver top-class infrastructure, just like China. He has delivered 24-hour electricity to all of Gujarat even as the rest of India is blacked out. He has invested in irrigation infrastructure. Gujarats farmers have reaped the benefits of a 10 per cent per annum agricultural growth for a decade. Modi has innovated smartly in public transport to make Gujarats cities more liveable. Nitish has done his bit for road infrastructure in Bihar but his real achievements are in making government-spending programmes for the poor more efficient in outcomes. His free bicycles scheme for girls has increased female enrolment in schools. His experiment with direct cash transfers to the poor is curbing the waste and corruption of the public distribution system. Any political formation that has workable solutions to Indias infrastructure deficit, and waste in government, will appeal to voters. If NDA wants a shot at power, it needs to persuade Modi and Nitish to put down their swords. They need to pen the manifesto instead. Institutes of Technology (IITs), by the human resource development ministry on public-private partnership model. INCLUDED The eco-sensitive Western Ghats along the west coast of India, in the coveted list of the World Heritage Sites, at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee held in Russia.

SAURABH SINGH / www.indiatodayimages.com

NOBODY CAN ARGUE THAT THE STATE HAS NO ROLE TO PLAY IN INDIAS DEVELOPMENT. IT DOES, BUT IN A MANNER THAT FACILITATES GROWTH AND REDUCES WASTAGE OF PUBLIC MONEY.

S I G N P O STSRELEASED Indian prisoner Surjeet Singh, who spent more than 30 years in Pakistani jail on charges of espionage, from Kot Lakhpat jail. He was handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah SINGH border.16INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

BANNED Five cricketers T.P. Sudhindra, Shalabh Srivastava, Amit Yadav, Mohnish Mishra and Abhinav Baliwho were caught in a TV sting operation in May agreeing to spot-fix matches and receiving under-the-table payments from franchises. SANCTIONED Setting up of three new Indian

DIED Guo Qinglan, wife of legendary Indian physician Dr Dwarkanath QINGLAN Shantaram Kotnis who provided medical assistance in China in the 1930s. Qinglan, 96, has been an honoured guest at many high-level diplomatic functions between China and India.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Cover Story 26/11 MUMBAI ATTACKDEADLY DECEPTIONSISI wanted to leave enough

The Secr

red herrings to implicate Indians in the 26/11 attack

Fake identities

The attackers carried ID cards of Arunodaya College, Hyderabad. The college is genuine but the ID cards were fake.

BLAMEThe arrest of Zabiuddin Ansari, a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist used by Pakistan in the execution of 26/11, exposes Islamabads agenda of turning the Mumbai attack into an Indian conspiracyBy Sandeep Unnithan

LeT plotter David Headley purchased wristbands for all 10 attackers at Mumbais Siddhivinayak temple.

Threads of distractions

O

Blame it on Indians

Kharak Singh from India bought the Internet calling service used by LeT handlers. His IP address was in Pakistan.

Lies on live television

Were from Hyderabad. Dont you know Hyderabad? Dont you know your country? attacker Fahadullah told a TV channel. All 10 terrorists were given mobile phones with Indian SIM cards by LeTs communications chief Zarar Shah.

Numbers game

n May 21, 2009, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani gunman from the 26/11 attack, was giving evidence in the court of Justice M.L. Tahaliyani at Mumbais Arthur Road prison. Suddenly, he dropped a name. The person, he said, who had been their principal guide during the 60-hour operation from a control room in Karachi was Abu Jundal. No one in India had heard this name. Some were puzzled. Prosecution lawyer Ujjwal Nikam believed it was misinformation. And, as so often, the name Abu Jundal disappeared into a file. Three years later, on June 21, 2012, Saudi Arabia bundled a wanted Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative, Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, 30, on a plane and sent him to New Delhi. Ansari had more than one alias; among them was Abu Jundal. When Kasab, from his Mumbai cell, heard that Abu Jundal had been deported by the Saudis and was a captive in India, he became, say his jailors, contemplative. The final pieces of a complex puzzle was coming together. Perhaps the mostPhoto imaging by SAURABH SINGH /www.indiatodayimages.com

WorldMags.net

et Plotto

INDIA

WorldMags.net

OCTOBER 13, 2008 INDIA TODAY

00

Cover Story 26/11 MUMBAI ATTACKdeceptive element in the exhaustive planning that had gone into the barbaric terrorist attack on Mumbai, conceived by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and implemented by LeT, was a poisonous sting in the tail. When the horror that took 166 lives was over, the ISI wanted to leave behind enough false trails to implicate Indians for its most spectacular offensive against India. It was a plot in which Ansari was a key protagonist. Born in Gevrai village in Maharashtras Beed district, he completed his matriculation and did an Industrial Training Institute course to become an electrician. He became an anti-India radical after the 2002 Gujarat riots and went into the shadows of terrorism, first joining the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), then the LeT. Ansari came on the police radar for another plot against India, in transporting a shipment of 43 kg of RDX, 16 AK-47 assault rifles and 50 hand grenades to Aurangabad in 2006. This shipment, meant for a terror attack, was intercepted by the Maharashtra police. Under pressure, Ansari contacted LeT and fled to Pakistan. His name entered the public domain when the Indian Government handed over a list of 50 Most Wanted Fugitives to the Pakistani authorities in March 2007. But Ansari was proving to be an invaluable asset for the LeT. A highly committed operative, he knew the layout of the land and directed terrorists during the attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008. He was involved in plotting the blast at Punes German Bakery on February 13, 2010, that killed 17 people. But still, India did not know of his role in the 26/11 attack. The

SED THE MUMBAI CONSPIRACY EXPOKey 26/11 plotters and perpetrators say Pakistan masterminded the attackKasab told the Mumbai Police on November 29, 2008, that he was trained by LeT and had met its chief Hafiz Saeed as well as military commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. He also detailed the entire journey of the attack team from Karachi to Mumbai. The LeT brass asked them to kill as many people as they could, he added.

Ajmal Kasab

Headley told the National Investigation Agency in New York during questioning between June 3 and June 9, 2010, that he had been in close touch with two serving ISI officers, Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali. He said ISI had financed his stay in Mumbai and was fully involved in the 26/11 attack. All LeT leaders had an ISI handler, he added.

David Coleman Headley

Zabiuddin AnsariAnsari told the Special Cell of Delhi Police and intelligence sleuths during questioning in New Delhi on June 21 that ISI officials and LeT supremo Hafiz Muhammad Saeed were present in the LeT control room in Karachi when the attackers laid siege to Mumbai on November 26, 2008. The control room was later destroyed.

20

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

DESCENTINTO TERRORZabiuddin Ansaris journey began in Maharashtras backyard and ended in Saudi Arabia

1

November 13, 1981

2

2002

3

2005

Born in Gevrai town, Beed district, Maharashtra, as Syed Zabiuddin Sayed Zakiuddin Ansari.

Joins the Students Islamic Movement of India. Becomes a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) activist after the Gujarat riots.

Goes to Pakistan for training in an LeT camp. Starts plotting terror attacks from Aurangabad.

Muzaffarabad Delhi Dammam Karachi Dhaka Aurangabad Beed

4

May 2006

5

Escapes to Pakistan via Bangladesh after police intercept an LeT shipment of 43 kg of RDX, 16 AK-47 rifles and 50 hand grenades in Aurangabad.Graphic by SAURABH SINGH /www.indiatodayimages.com

November 26, 2008

6

April 26, 2011

7

Guides and monitors the Mumbai attack from an LeT control room in Karachi.

Leaves Karachi for Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on a false Pakistani passport.

Nabbed by Saudi authorities after a tip-off from US and Indian intelligence. Deported to India from Riyadh on June 21.

May 2011

breakthrough came in May 2010 when the Delhi Police intercepted a call from an India-based terrorist, Ajmal, who was in touch with his Pakistani handler. Ajmal had planned an attack on foreigners during the Commonwealth Games in Delhi that year. He referred to his handler as Abu Jundal. The agencies tracked Jundal down inside Pakistan. He was using the alias of Riyasat Ali and shuttled between LeTs headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore, and Karachi. Then they made a stunning discovery. Jundal, Riyasat Ali and Zabiuddin Ansari were the same person. Now they waited for their target to travel out of Pakistan. n early 2011, Pakistan issued a passport to him, and sent him to Saudi Arabia to recruit potential jihadis from Indian labourers on behalf of LeT. In the oil-rich port of Dammam, Ansari ran a small taxi rental business, posing as Pakistani national Riyasat Ali. The US intelligence alerted the Saudis about Ansaris terrorist links; Riyadh put him

under surveillance. Meanwhile, New Delhi provided the Arab kingdom with proof that Riyasat Ali was Zabiuddin Ansari, an LeT operative and originally an Indian citizen. DNA samples of his relatives were sent to the Saudi government even as the home ministry provided evidence of Ansaris involvement in the Aurangabad arms haul case. Islamabad, fearing

that his deportation could explode their ploy of deniability, still maintained that he was a Pakistani citizen and wanted him back. But the Saudis interrogated Ansari and discovered that he was indeed an LeT operative. They had to take a call. Should they stand by their long-time ally Pakistan and let Ansari remain in Dammam or stand by international

I

PAKISTANS INTERIOR MINISTER REHMAN Malik, while defending his army and the ISI, was silent on how Zabiuddin Ansari, an Indian citizen, managed to get a Pakistani passport and a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis.AP PHOTO

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

21

Cover Story 26/11 MUMBAI ATTACKlaw and hand him over to India? The Kingdom chose India. At a safe house of the Delhi Polices Special Cell in the Capitals Lodhi colony, Ansari has been telling his interrogators details of the secret plot at the core of the deadly attack on Mumbai. The intent was to land a double sucker punch. The first blow would devastate Mumbai. The second blow would, with just enough evidence, promote conspiracy theories among a section of media, opinion makers and political leaders that Hindu militants were behind the carnage. The conspiracy theorists didnt let Pakistan down. There is more to it than meets the eye, former Maharashtra chief minister Abdul Rehman Antulay said outside the Lok Sabha on December 18, 2008, about the death of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare. Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar had been ambushed and killed by Ajmal Kasab and his accomplice Ismail Khan on November 26, 2008. Karkare was probing the Malegaon blasts, which had resulted in the arrests of Hindu fringe elements such as Lt-Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Swami Aseemanand. Much of the Urdu press in India placed the blame for the attack on a diabolical Zionist-RSS nexus.HEMANT KARKARE DURING THE 26/11 ATTACK

Aziz Burney, group editor of leading Urdu newspaper Roznama Rashtriya Sahara blamed Hindu extremists. Is there any connection between the 26/11 attack and the Malegaon terror attack? screamed a headline in the daily on November 29. This is a joint terror operation by Sangh Parivar and Mossad said the Urdu Times of November 30, 2008. On December 5, Roznama Rashtriya Sahara ran another story: Who do you believe, Kasab the terrorist, or Karkare the martyr? The paper hinted that the 26/11 attack was the work of Hindu fundamentalists and an elaborate plot to silence Karkare. Hindu terrorists are behind Mumbai attacks said the Akhbare Mashriq on

December 6, 2008. In September 2009, a retired Maharashtra inspectorgeneral of police, S.M. Mushrif, in his book Who Killed Karkare?, blamed the Intelligence Bureau and Hindu extremists for 26/11. The conspiracy theory was also enthusiastically bought by politicians who wanted to mine the Muslim vote. On December 6, 2010, senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh released Burneys book 26/11RSS ki Saazish, which accused the RSS of planning and executing the 26/11 attack. Five days later, Singh claimed that Karkare had rung him up hours before he was gunned down and complained about threats and pressure from radical Hindu groups. nsaris confessions have further unravelled the secret Pakistani plot. He told interrogators of his role in teaching the 26/11 attackers Hindi. He would give them Hindi magazines and conduct conversations with them to sharpen their language skills before they left Karachi. He taught the attackers to blend into Indiagreet people with a proper namaste, maintain a low profile and be polite to women. There were other aspects to this smokescreenthe terrorists were made to wear sacred red threads bought for Rs 20 each by LeT scout David Coleman Headley from Mumbais Siddhivinayak temple. All 10 terrorists carried fake identity cards of Arunodaya College, located in Hyderabad. They also took Hindu names. Ajmal Kasab became Sameer Choudhary and Ismail Khan was Naraish Verma. An LeT operative pretended to be Kharak Singh from India and purchased Internet calling services from a US-based firm for $250 (Rs 10,000). The terrorists were told to communicate with their Karachi-based handlers using phones with Indian SIM cards. The LeT, according to Ansari, monitored the attack from a specially created military-style command and control centre in Karachi, which was visited by LeT leaders and ISI officials.

MUCH OFTHE URDU PRESS IN INDIA BLAMED Hindu extremists for the Mumbai outrage. They saw it as an elaborate plot to silence Hemant Karkare, the chief of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.

A

22

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

FEASTING ON THE HORROR

Conspiracy theorists who ate humble pie

THEN

NOW

December 18, 2008

A.R.ANTULAY Former Maharashtra chief minister

December 11, 2010

DIGVIJAYA SINGH Congress general secretary

CIA, Mossad, Narendra

January 12, 2009

AZIZ BURNEY Group editor, Roznama Rashtriya SaharaThe control room had multiple television sets tuned into Indian TV channels, satellite telephones and computers. The handlersSajid Mir, Abu Al Qama, Abu Qahafa and Muzzammilmaintained constant communication with the 10 terrorists. Ansari tutored two of the LeT terrorists who had stormed into Nariman House on what to tell the Indian media in Hindi. He asked them to impersonate disgruntled Muslim youth.While doing this, he used a Hindi word prashaasan (administration). Indian intelligence agencies who tapped into the conversation were intrigued by the use of a Hindi word by a Pakistani controller. Actually, Pakistans web of deceit had begun imploding with the arrest of Headley, the LeT scout, by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2010. He told his Indian interrogators that the Pakistan Army and ISI were deeply involved in the 26/11 attack. He was in touch with two serving ISI officers, Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali. Headley also made the chilling revelation that every senior LeT leader was handled by an ISI operative. Ansaris interrogation brings fresh

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

Modi and RSS are responsible for the attack. Mumbai Police killed Hemant Karkare with Army help. Constables fired at CST railway station.

I apologised on January 29, 2010, in the interest of the nation. But many questions remain unanswered. I still do not know why Karkare took a different route.

Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare told me hours before the terror strike that he feared for his safety from Hindu extremists. He was getting threat calls.

There is nothing more to say, I have clarified everything. I am happy that the home minister has pressed Pakistan to admit facts relating to Jundal.

There is more to it than meets the eye. There should be a probe into Hemant Karkares killing during 26/11. I have done India proud by raising the question.

That was a genuine mistake. Multiple theories were floating in the aftermath of the attack, especially the one revolving around Hemant Karkares death.

23

Cover Story 26/11 MUMBAI ATTACKembarrassment for Pakistan. He has revealed the presence of Pakistans ISI in the control room that the LeT set up to monitor and direct the attack. Ansari also clarified that the LeT has been unaffected by the arrest and ongoing trial of masterminds Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah at an anti-terrorist court in Rawalpindis Adiala Jail. The organisation is still plotting fresh attacks against India. The LeT is widely believed to be a proxy arm of the Pakistan Army. Its battle against India spilled out from Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian mainland. It was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US in 2001 but the Americans saw it as an international threat only after the 26/11 attack. In April this year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a $10 million (Rs 50 crore) bounty for information leading to the arrest and capture of LeT supremo Hafiz Saeed. hat rankles Pakistan is that Ansari was arrested and deported by its closest ally, Saudi Arabia. The kingdom wields almost undiminished power over Pakistans army and political establishment. Through the deportation of Ansari, it has indicated that it will no longer provide protection for Pakistans terrorists. Another suspected terrorist, Fasih Mehmood of the Indian Mujahideen, has been detained by Saudi Arabia for his role in the twin blasts outside Bangalores Chinnaswamy stadium on April 17, 2010. He faces imminent deportation to India. Now that the conspiracy has been exposed, some of its original theorists have backtracked. Digvijaya Singh says he had already clarified about his post-26/11 comments. There is nothing more to say. I am happy that Home Minister P. Chidambaram has upped the ante on the terror issue and has pressed Pakistan to admit facts relating to Jundal having trained terrorists who attacked Mumbai, he told INDIA TODAY. Antulay called his November 27 statement a genuine mistake. Multiple theories were floating in the aftermath of the attack, especially the

Torn bythe TAINTFamilies of alleged terrorists have to live with the horror of guilt by associationabiuddin Ansari, 30, was the quintessential good son. He made his father Zakiuddin, 75, an insurance salesman, quit his demanding job and rest at home the day he started earning as an electrician after completing a diploma from the Industrial Training Institute, Beed, in Maharashtra. But there is no rest for him now. Ansaris escape from India in 2006 ensures regular visits from the police at odd hours. One of his five sisters ended up getting divorced because of his terror links. Zakiuddin is now a heart patient and has already braved two paralytic attacks. His wife, Rehana, 65, hoped that her son would turn up at her daughters wedding in June. Now she can only wonKRISHNA MURARI KISHAN

Z

W

der about when she can see him next. In Bihars Darbhanga district, Dr Firoj Ahmed, 61, is as clueless. His youngest son, Fasih Mehmood, last spoke to him on the phone from Saudi Arabia on May 19 six days after Saudi authorities picked up the mechanical engineer at the behest of India for allegedly being a terror agent. Fasihs cry, I am innocent, still rattles his father. The government medical officer at Benipatti in the adjoining Madhubani district is back to smoking seven cigarettes a day. Firoj owns the biggest house in his village, which Fasih had painted only last year in September when he was there for his marriage. With wife Amra Jamal in Patna to be with their daughter-in-law, Firoj cuts a lonely

ALLEGED TERRORIST FASIH MEHMOODS WIFE, NIKHAT PARVEEN (LEFT)

one revolving around the death of Karkare, he said. Antulay admitted, however, that the Hindu terror angle had momentarily deflected the nations attention from the LeT. Mushrif now refuses to comment because the 26/11 case is subjudice but says he never questioned Pakistans role in the attack. If someone wants to comment on this issue he should approach the court and seek a reinvestigation, he said.

Burneys newspaper ran a front-page apology on January 29, 2010. Burney himself is, however, unapologetic and says many questions on 26/11 remain unanswered. Film producer-director Mahesh Bhatt says there is no denying Pakistans involvement but refuses to believe the theories being floated by Indian investigators now and calls for a debate. After the 9/11 attack, people in the US raised questions on the identity of the attackers. Nobody was

24

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

figure. Just think about what a father will feel in these circumstances, he says. Fasihs arrest has broken us, says his elder brother Sabih Mehmood, 32. Employed with a leading private bank in Dubai, he has returned to India on indefinite leave without pay to support his parents. Fasih is the fourth person from Barh Samaila, a nondescript village in the Keoti block of Darbhanga district located 155 km north-east of capital Patna, to have been picked up within a period of seven months for alleged terror links. Each of these arrests led to the next. On November 22, 2011, Qateel Ahmed Siddiqui, 27, was arrested from the Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi for allegedly being an Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative. Gauhar Azij Khomaini, 32, was arrested a day later on similar charges, also from Delhi. A Delhi Police team brought Siddiqui and Khomaini to Barh Samaila in January to interrogate them in front of their families. The police made the next arrest from the village on May 6 when a joint police team from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, who were operating unapologetic about their views, he says. Kavita Karkare, the widow of Hemant, believes recent developments have vindicated her stand that the attack was not an inside job. I have been saying since the beginning that no Hindus are involved in it. Many people floated stories for political reasons. They fell flat, she says. Pakistan, though, remains unapologetic even as it tries to distance itself from its Indian collaborator. On June

NIKHAT PARVEEN,WHO HAS FILED A HABEAS corpus plea in Supreme Court for her husband Fasih, questions the manner in which his arrest has been handled by Indian agencies.dercover as telephone tower engineers in Barh Samaila, picked up Kafil Ahmed, 26, from his home in connection with the Chinnaswamy Stadium blast on April 17, 2010. A week later, Fasih was detained in Saudi Arabia. Kafil Ahmed, an MA (Urdu) student, taught at a public school in Darbhanga for four years. My son has poor eyesight. He cannot even read a sentence without his glasses. He cannot be a terrorist, says his septuagenarian father Abdul Salam. Kafil has been lodged in Bangalore Central Jail since the time of his arrest. Fasih, whose grandfather Mohammad Mehmood was a freedom fighter, 27, just a week after Ansaris arrival in India, Pakistans Interior Minister Rehman Malik hurriedly called for a press conference. Now things are getting clarified, Malik said. Who knows if there was a sting operation by somebody from India? Malik, while defending his army and the ISI, was silent on how Ansari, an Indian citizen, managed to get a Pakistani passport and a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis. In the run-up to the July 4-5

REUTERS

KHWAJA MOINUDDIN, ZABIUDDIN ANSARIS GRANDFATHER, IN BEED

was particular about praying five times a day. He donated Rs 50,000 for the renovation of the local mosque during his last visit in 2011. He had also sponsored the Haj trip of his parents last year before marrying Nikhat Parveen on September 7, 2011. Parveen, who is now shuttling between her parents home in Patna and Delhi where she has filed a habeas corpus plea in Supreme Court for Fasih, questions the manner in which her husbands arrest has been handled by Indian agencies. Initially, the Government repeatedly denied having got Fasih arrested when we raised questions about his whereabouts. Had the Saudis arrested him on their own, they would have convicted or freed him by now. When we stepped up the heat, the Government issued a Red Corner Notice holding Fasih responsible for the blasts at German Bakery and Chinnaswamy Stadium. They are cooking up stories, she says. After early schooling in Darbhanga, Fasih did his matriculation from Aligarh. He cleared his intermediate from Darbhanga Millat College. His mother and maternal uncle got him admitted to Anjuman Engineering College in Karnataka, recalls Firoj. The notorious Bhatkal brothers, Riyaz and Iqbal, who founded IM, are believed to have studied in the same college. Mohammad Tariq Anjum Hasan, another key IM man arrested early this year from Bihar, graduated in civil engineering from the same college. Please dont jump to conclusions, says Firoj. Please dont pronounce him guilty until proven innocent.by Amitabh Srivastava and Krishna Kumar

foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan in New Delhi, an anonymous source in the Pakistan foreign office told the mediathat 40 Indians were involved in the Mumbai attack. Clearly, one Ansari has not dampened the spirit of the worlds most dangerous benefactor of jihad. Wait for the next round of conspiracy theories, written and sold by Islamabad.with Shantanu Guha Ray, Kiran Tare, Bhavna Vij-Aurora and Mohammad Waqas

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

25

The Big Story

WATER CRISIS

BOILING POINTA26INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

The prospect of a lean monsoon is not the only worry. Depletion of groundwater and population pressure spell a grim future for India. Expect water wars ahead.

By Sowmya Aji

below-par monsoon is likely to set alarm bells ringing in the UPA 2 Government, already reeling under the impact of an economic downturn. Besides affecting the kharif sowing, which is certain to have a bearing on the production of rice, oilseeds and pulses, the delay in rain has the potential of pulling down both the economy and the countrys economic sentiment. Indias total rice production in 2011-12 was 103 million tonnes. If the monsoon continues to play truant through July, this years figure could dip by at least 10 million tonnes, predicts former Union agriculture secretary P.K. Basu. Its not just agrarian India thats taking a hit. As of July 1, only 16 per cent area of the country has received normal rain. Urban India is reeling from extreme temperatures and frequent power cuts. Delhi, for instance, recorded its worst summer in 33 years withtry falls under the crucial zone, where groundwater has been overexploited. And no one has bothered to set up measures for water harvesting and aquifer recharge. Policy paralysis and an appalling lack of management has turned burgeoning India into waterless, despairing India. Eight-year-old Poorni in Karnataka has decaying teeth and limbs that struggle to move due to dangerous fluoride in the groundwater. Sand contractors like Sanjay Singh Yadav, 40, make money in Bihar as the rivers dry up. Riots have broken out over borewell use, leading to death, imprisonment, deprivation and despair to families like that of Ramkumar Yadav, 60, in Chhattisgarh. Hindu Rao Hospital, one of Delhis leading municipal hospitals, cancelled 40 surgeries in a week between June 16 and June 23 due to lack of running water. Politicians, including top leaders such as

average maximum temperature in May-June at a dizzying 41.57C. Everyone blames the monsoon for Indias water woes but it isnt as simple as that. As water conservationist and Magsaysay awardee Rajendra Singh told INDIA TODAY, There is no shortage TODAY of water in terms of rainfall. We, as a country, have failed to make use of it. Groundwater all across the country is depleting. The figures are astounding: Seventy-two per cent of the coun-

WorldMags.net

Summer of Discontent44.6 mm (-42%)

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Only 16 per cent area of the country got normal rainfall in June. The overall rain deficiency stands at an alarming 31 per cent.

(-84%) HARYANA & DELHI4.5 mm

9.6 mm

PUNJAB

HIMACHAL PRADESH 27.9 mm (-76%) UTTARAKHAND 75.3 mm (-62%) UPPER WEST BENGAL 629.9 mm (14%) WESTERN UTTAR PRADESH6.8 mm

(-92%)

ASSAM & MEGHALAYA

ARUNACHAL PRADESH 560.4 mm (-1%)

602.1 mm (6%)

WEST RAJASTHAN 6.3 mm (-83%) EAST RAJASTHAN18.4 mm

(-92%)

(-76%) GUJARAT REGION & DAMAN (-77%)

EASTERN UTTAR PRADESH 27.6 mm (-78%)

94.2 mm

BIHAR

(-53%)EASTERN MADHYA PRADESH JHARKHAND135.2 mm

36.7 mm

WESTERN MADHYA PRADESH 52.7 mm (-58%) VIDARBHA

66.4 mm

(-59%)

(-40%) CHHATTISGARH167.1 mm

SAURASHTRA, KUTCH AND DIU 26.1 mm (-75%)

142.8 mm (-27%)

(-23%)

ODISHA

213.1 mm (-12%)

MARATHWADA (-41%) MADHYA MAHARASHTRA93.5 mm

148.2 mm

GANGETIC WEST BENGAL

406.6 mm

NAGALAND, MANIPUR, MIZORAM, TRIPURA

(-46%) TELANGANA

(-10%)

95.7 mm

749.8 mm

KONKAN & GOA

(-43%) NORTH INTERIOR KARNATAKA66.2 mm

126.2 mm (-18%)

(-9%)

(-43%)

103.3 mm

COASTALANDHRA PRADESH

Rainfall figures are based on India Meteorological Department data. Figures indicate actual rainfall in June (in mm); percentage departures of rainfall from the norm are shown in brackets RAINFALL PATTERN IN SUBDIVISIONS June 1 to July 3 Excess Normal Deficient Scanty No Rain Actual 131 Normal 189.2 0 11 15 10 0 % Departure -31

(-13%)945.5 mm

COASTAL KARNATAKA

(-5%)

SOUTH INTERIOR KARNATAKA88.4 mm

(-46%)

73.2 mm

RAYALASEEMA

LAKSHADWEEP 348.5 mm (-2%)

(-47%)

KERALA

524.9 mm

TAMIL NADU & PUDUCHERRY 25.7 mm (-49%)

All India Area Weighted Rainfall (mm)

(-29%)

Normal (+19% or -19%) Deficient (-20% to -59%) Scanty (-60% to -99%)Graphic by SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com

Map not to scale

WorldMags.net

The Big Story WATER CRISISUnion Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, are accused of diverting scarce water to their constituencies in Maharashtra, leaving others to fend for themselves (see box). Asit K. Biswas, the president of the Mexico-based Third World Centre for Water Management, says political will to address the water crisis in the country is completely missing. Politicians provide lip service but nobody is serious about doing anything. Tough decisions are required. People should demand clean water as their right. Be it urban or rural India, water supply and its quality is pathetic. If 8,50,000 people in Lucknow stand in queues for five hours to get water, with 2,50,000 of them waking up at 4 a.m. to do so, Vishwambar Choudhary, who stays in Punes upscale Prabhat Road area, pays Rs 1,100 every alternate day, which works out to Rs 16,500 a month, for water supply by tankers. Bangalore gets eight hours of water supply every alternate day in one-third of its total area; the rest fend for themselves with depleting groundwater and tankers that charge Rs 5 per pot even in the slum areas. Hyderabad is even worse. Shyam Kumar Chaparala, 34, a software industry employee residing in Engineers Colony, Yellareddyguda, in the heart of Hyderabad, gets piped water every other day for about two hours from 4 a.m. All residents in the 12-apartment block pool in money to buy a 5,000-litre tanker for Rs 600 every week. But others in outlying areas, even the bustling and towering apartment blocks of techies in Madhapur and Kondapur, arent as lucky. More than 3,00,000 families residing in the newer localities of metropolitan Hyderabad are fortunate if water is supplied once in four or five days. They end up spending huge sums on tanker supply. Over-reliance on underground water has led to decline in water levels in some areas of Jaipur by five times in 15 years, from 100 ft to 500 ft. The state government, meanwhile, continues to give the go-ahead to apartments and malls in areas where there is no water supply at all. Still, urbanites at least get their water or are in a position to arm-twist and raise a ruckus against the powersthat-be. On an average, according to Water Resources Ministry statistics, an individual uses 150-200 litres of water per day in urban areas against a minuscule 20 litres a day in villages. The Union Government, however, has failed to formulate a Central water policy for more than a decade. The only debate is whether water supply should be privatised or not, with those opposing it raising the bogey of corporate interests in grabbing a large share of the water economy. Ramkumar Yadav, a widow with no income at Singhanpuri village, Mungeli district, Chhattisgarh, has seen water shortage reach such levels of desperation that it resulted in riots in her village on June 3. It was a fight to the death over the use of a borewell, in which three people were killed, and 13 people arrested. My son is now in prison, his wife in hospital and I am left to care for their three children, she says. Other villages in the area faced acute water shortages in 2006, with five-member families surviving on less than 40 litres per week. Over 500 wells and public taps have dried up since. Entire lakes have been drained out due to unplanned quarry work. We have always had a lack of adequate surface water in Mungeli. There have been days when my wife has had to use muckfilled water to cook. Many times we have had to store water in emptied-out gas lanterns. Till two years ago, my eight-year-old daughter had to walk 2 km a day with 13 litres of water balanced on her head, says Raja Thakur, 38, of Pauni village. Borewells changed that and their

Village Anjani State MAHARASHTRAThe lake, in Tasgaon taluk of Sangli district, dried up in February this year.

28

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

Place Greater Hyderabad State ANDHRA PRADESHNew localities in Hyderabad get water only once in four-five days.

A PRABHAKAR RAO/www.indiatodayimages.com

K M KISHAN

Village Bisiyat State BIHARThe scarcity of water in the village has forced many to leave for the district headquarters.life. With government subsidies up to Rs 20,000, villagers were able to install borewells for Rs 10,000 each. But borewells have only become sites of conflict. Conflicts over water are only going to increase in the near future. The rural and urban divide is stark as far as distribution of water is concerned, says Anil Dave, Rajya Sabha MP and member of the parliamentary committee on water resources. The one exception to water conflicts, perhaps, are the people of Madakshira in Andhra Pradesh, who say they dont mind sharing the drinking water they are getting from a 200 km pipeline with their neighbouring taluk of Pavagada in Karnataka, though the political class in both states do not seem to agree. At Chittanadaku village, the first beneficiary of the drinking water tap from the pipeline, Gurumurthy, 35, points to an already existing tubewell that supplies water from a natural tank

WorldMags.net

SHAILESH RAVAL/www.indiatodayimages.com

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

29

The Big Story

WATER CRISIStheir waist, knees and ankles have huge deposits of fluoride, making any movement impossible. And everyone, be it age 25 or 50, complains of pain in the joints. But more than the pain, its the travails of day-to-day life that are disconcerting. Villagers laugh, shrug or shake their heads when asked about water for bathing, washing clothes and utensils. I havent had a bath for months now, says Anjamma, 28. She finds it hard enough to store water for drinking for her husband, three children and herself. If that is the story in the South, at Jalapur village, Narhat block, Nawada district in Bihar, Sanjay Singh Yadav, isnt sure if the drying up of the Tilaiya, a small tributary of the Barakar river, has left him happy or sad. Its ironic. I

nearby. We need piped drinking water, but we can do with less. The people of Pavagada should also get it, he says. This is probably because the situation at Pavagada, part of the second largest arid region in the country after the Thar desert, is similar to what Madakshira faced till it got the pipeline. Groundwater at Pavagada is available only at a depth of 1,500 ft, and this is what the entire population is drinking. All children at Palavalli village in Pavagada, part of the worst-affected Nagalamadike hobli, have lines of decay on their teeth. They are losing hair, while eminent eye hospitals like Narayana Nethralaya from Bangalore have drawn up several lists of school children going blind. Older people are unable to bend, as

PANKAJ TIWARI/www.indiatodayimages.com

Sugar Farmers Divert Water in MAHARASHTRAMinisters ensure water meant for parched regions makes its way to their constituenciesast swathes of Maharashtra are parched with thirst as powerful politicians divert water for their own purposes. The states second biggest dam Ujani, in Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawars Lok Sabha constituency Madha, has been providing water for the area since its inception in 1980. But of its 117 TMC (thousand million cubic metre) of water, 60 TMC is being illegally diverted to sugarcane fields, creating acute water shortage in hundreds of villages in eight taluksMadha, Pandharpur, Mohol, Mangalvedha, Malshiras, North Solapur, South Solapur, Akkalkotof Solapur district. INDIA TODAY has access to a confidential report prepared by officials at the Ujani dam in January this year which explains how the water was to be divided. According to the report, Ujanis water supply is reserved for crops like chilli, jowar, bajra, groundnut, maize, sunflower, tur, wheat, gram and vegetables. However, 51 per cent of its supply goes to six lakh hectares of sugarcane fields spread across three districts. These districts have as many as 50 sugar factories,

V

most of them run on a cooperative basis under which farmers are the biggest shareholders and Congress and Nationalist Congress Party politicians have controlling shares. Dam officials have repeatedly pointed out to the Maharashtra Water Resources Department about sugarcane fields owned by Rajendra Tambele, a close aide of Sharad Pawar, on more than 100 acres of the dam land at Hingangaon. These get a disproportionate share of water. On May 29, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan admitted in his presentation before Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia that water-intensive cropping pattern (read sugarcane) is the reason behind the states failure in achieving its irrigation targets. Out of 358 taluks in the state, 148 are drought-prone, he said while submitting the states annual plan of Rs 55,000 crore for 2012-13. The Nira-Deoghar dam, completed in 2007 at a cost of Rs 910 crore and with a capacity of 32 TMC water, was meant to bail out Satara farmers. Instead, it services farmers in

Baramati, the stronghold of Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister. I have never faced water shortage thanks to the canal on Nira river, says Baramati farmer Shahaji Jamdar, 35, who sells his sugarcane crop to Chhatrapati Cooperative Sugar Factory, in which Ajit Pawar holds 300 shares and Sharad Pawar 100 shares out of more than 10,000 shares. Around 120 km from Phaltan, Vishal Mali, 23, a villager of Bamni in Khanapur taluk of Sangli district, does not get water to irrigate his less-thanone-acre farm. A canal runs on the outskirts of his village. The canal, which originates from Takari, around 50 km from Bamni, was built to carry water from Krishna river. When water is discharged in the canal around 500 villages get water for farms. However, at Bamni, a sub-canal has been dug to divert much of the water towards the Udgiri Sugar Factory and Power Plant, still under construction and owned by Mohan Kadam, younger brother of Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam. Mali, who works on the construction site, says, The villages to the right of

30

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

am happy, but I am suffering as well, says Yadav, the manager of a contractor who sells sand from the river. With the drying up of the river, the sale of sand has brought him handsome commission; but water for everyday use has become a scarce entity. Few of the hand pumps in the village still work. Some give no more than a bucket of water after an hour of pump-

District Mungeli State CHHATTISGARHThree persons were killed in riots over water in Singhanpuri village on June 3.

ing. The water table has clearly depleted, he says. And no one knows where Jalapur village ends and Jarahiya village begins, as the river used to be the border. Santosh Kumar, 28, should be a rich man if you calculate his acres of land in Bisiyat village against the skyrocketing real-estate prices in Nawada. Kumar, however, can earn only Rs 3,000 a month working as a private medical compounder at the Nawada district headquarters, 40 km from his native village. Thats because there is no water in Bisiyat. He stays with his wife Kaushalya and their three children in a room at his maternal uncles house in Nawada. We have a real drought in Bisiyat, said Sadhu Yadav, 42, a villager. Our agriculture has died, our river in Kolhapur was expected to discharge into the Nira river in Satara and supply it to the drought-prone areas. As soon as he became chief minister in October 1999, Congresss Vilasrao Deshmukh announced a scheme to take 29 TMC of 70 TMC water from the Nira river to his constituency Latur through a canal. The result: The drought-prone taluks of SataraKhatav, Man, Phaltan and Khandalaare woefully in need of water. Former Shiv Sena MP Hindurao Nimbalkar had led an agitation against the decision. He is now in political hibernation after the Shiv Sena disowned him for opposing Deshmukh. Even Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkares home town Roha, in Raigad district, reels under water scarcity. A dam built at Sutarwadi to fulfil the water needs of Roha taluk has not helped, with water from it mostly servicing farms owned by the ministers son Aniket. I cannot be blamed if my farms are near the dam, says Tatkare. His department had announced 76 water schemes under Bharat Nirman Yojana to supply potable water. Around 41 out of these 76 schemes are still incomplete. The drought in Maharashtra is not a natural calamity but a result of the governments bad policies, says water expert Bharat Patankar.by Kiran Tare

SHAILESH RAVAL/www.indiatodayimages.com

the canal get water but not the villages on the left. A site inspection carried out by INDIA TODAY bore this out. The lake in Home Minister R.R. Patils village Anjani, in Tasgaon taluka of Sangli district, ran dry in February. Grape is a major crop in this area. The government discharges 2 TMC water for this lake from a water scheme at Mhaisal, around 30 km from Anjani. However, farmers allege that the water does not reach the lake because Patils older brother Suresh diverts it to his

FARMERS SIT ON WHAT WAS A LAKE IN MALAD, MAHARASHTRA

farms. The diversion has affected grape fields spread over 500 hectares in Tasgaon. The water flow is controlled by a valve which is coincidentally fixed near Sureshs farms. He turns the valve off so that water supply terminates at his farms, says Subhash Mali, 45, a farmer from Savlaj, 3 km from Anjani. The previous Shiv Sena-BJP government had planned a project under which water from the Panchganga

WorldMags.net

JULY 16, 2012 INDIA TODAY

31

The Big Story WATER CRISIS

Taluk Pavagada State KARNATAKAGroundwater is available only at a depth of 1,500 ft. Fluorosis is rife among villagers here.SANDESH RAVIKUMAR

bodies have wilted, and the administration has turned a deaf ear. Basant Das, 45, put off the marriage of his daughter because of fears that the acute water crisis would make it impossible for him to host guests at the wedding. The Meskaur police station in Nawada district is a telling case study of how the ongoing water crisis has spared none in this part of Bihar. The five hand pumps installed in the police campus have gone dry. Policemen posted at this outpost, including the Special Auxiliary Police, have to cross a rocky undulating terrain and then walk nearly 1 km everyday to fetch water from a hand pump installed in a school. The outpost is located on the Nawada-Gaya border, a hotbed of Naxalite activity, hence the cops move in groups and carry arms on them. Our movements have become predictable, making us sitting ducks for the Maoists. But we have to take the risk for water, says a policeman. In Rajasthan, the urban situation is

itself horrendous. As per official claims, of the total 17 million urban population, seven million people dont get official water supply even once in 24 hours. Rajasthan has 220 towns of which Barmer, Balotra and Sojat get government water supply once in four days. Seventeen towns and cities in the state get water supply once in 72 hours, 60 towns once in two days and 136 towns and cities once in 24 hours. Half of the rural population relies on hand pumps as the only source of drinking water. On an average, the water table has gone down an alarming 1.5 m every year since 1990 and 199 of the 237 blocks in the state are in zones where groundwater has been declared as being over exploited. Yet, just 10 per cent of the groundwater pumped out is used for drinking. The last three decades have seen the states farmers drifting away from cattle rearing and growing fodder to highly water-intensive agriculture through drip irrigation.

This has taken a toll on water for drinking, says Purushottam Aggarwal, principal secretary, public health and engineering department, Rajasthan. Nitesh Priyadarshi, a geologist at Ranchi University, maintains that the problem with government schemes for both public water pipes and borewell construction is the lack of geological research and insight. Why arent geological specialists consulted? You cant sit in office, visit a site five times and then draft a plan. You must study the region. Is it in the rain shadow? Is the groundwater fit for drinking? Can wells and lakes be regenerated? These are questions that must be interrogated and answered by experts in the field. Only then can we plan water consumption in a judicious manner that will sustain the areas resources, he says.with Devesh Kumar, Bhavna Vij-Aurora, Rohit Parihar, Amarnath K. Menon, Dinesh C. Sharma, Kiran Tare, Piyush Srivastava, Sonali Acharjee and Amitabh Srivastava

32

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Special Report

ECONOMY

CAN PM DO WHATPRANAB COULD NOT?Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, now doubling as finance minister, wants to revive the animal spirits of the economy. Time and political compulsions are likely to defeat him.By Devesh Kumar

rime Minister Manmohan Singh will need to pass difficult legislations, kick the sloth out of ministers, and bring Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to heel to revive an economy that has slipped back to stagnation. As many as nine bills have been returned to Parliament by the standing committee on finance, which is headed by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha. They have been pending with the Government for varying lengths of time. These include the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill, and the Insurance Bill. These would go a long way towards ushering in reforms in the taxation, pension management and insurance sectors. The last two sectors have been gasping for want of funds. There is also the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012, which is pending before the Government after being returned by the standing committee on rural development. The legislation seeks to provide the right compensation for farmers whose land is being acquired either by the

P

PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH AT A FUNCTION IN DELHI IN 2011

34

INDIA TODAY JULY 16, 2012

WorldMags.net

AP PHOTO/MANISH SWARUP

Government for wholly-owned or PPP model projects, or by private players. On most of these bills, the Government will have to build consensus within the coalition, and with the Opposition. But there seems little hope, given the atmosphere of confrontation. Relations between the Centre and Opposition-ruled states have become strained. Consensus on economic issues can emerge only when there is a political consensus. Cooperative federalism encompasses both politics and economy, argues Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and BJP leader, Arun Jaitley. To drive home his point, he cites the misuse of CBI by the Government to hobble its rivals, as in the case of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Narendra Modi and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The problem, leaders of both the Opposition and allies of the Congress agree, is likely to be compounded by Manmohans inability to communicate with friends and negotiate with foes. Unfortunately, after Pranab Mukherjees exit, there is no consensus builder left in the Government, Yashwant Sinha contends. How will

10 THINGS PM NEEDS TO DO1 Remove non performing ministers. Hold th