Oct 14 Pages 27-48

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27 October 14, 2011

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Hillary Clinton Proposes India-China-US Relationship

Poverty Bane in Economic Boom

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By Coomi KapoorCHENNAI (Star): Two decades

after India abandoned the licence-quota-permit raj for an open-market economy, the jury is still out on the efficacy of the new economic system.

For the second fastest growing economy in the world, India has a record number of people living below the poverty line. Rising living standards and a huge increase in the middle-class numbers have failed to hide the groaning pover ty of well over a third of the billion-plus people.

Q u a l i t y e d u c a t i o n and hea l th services are still a distant dream for a vast majority of people, though everyone in some way has benefited from what the economists love to call the trickle-down effect of faster economic growth. Yet, economic disparities have grown in the last two decades of liberalisation.

Officially, the percentage of people living below the poverty line, that is on less than a dollar a day, is over 33% of the total population.

There is no death from starvation anymore. Food stocks are plenty and governments have been quite generous in providing highly subsidised rations to the poor.

Yet, people sound far more aggrieved, even angry, now than they had when India was growing at a mere 5% to 6% in the pre-reforms years. The 7% to 8% average growth recorded in the two decades since the liberalization has raised aspirations, and led to the growth of some 300 million-strong middle class which, traditionally, tends to be critical of its leaders and tries to hold them to a sterner

test than may be practical in what is the world’s biggest dysfunctional democracy.

Economic prosperity can be measured by the evidence of those who had a bicycle in the early 90s now ride scooters and motorcycles, while those with scooters and motorcycles have graduated to cars.

Now, invariably it is the car owner who is part of the middle

class while the one with a scooter or a cycle is generally clubbed with the lower middle class.

In the past India barely produced, annually, 20,000 cars of shoddy quality in the pre-reforms years. Now, it sells more than 20,000 in less than a week.

There was a waiting list of 10 to 15 years for a basic model of a Fiat or an Ambassador then. Now, you can buy the Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes off the shelf. India is an attractive market.

Back then, there was a decades-long waiting list for a land-line telephone connection from the state-owned monopolies. And, of course, there were no cellular phones. Now, India boasts of over 800 million cell phones and the cheapest tariff possible in the entire world. State-owned telephone companies are in huge losses.

Foreign travel was a dream those days when airfares were prohibitively high and there were

Continued on page 30

Hyundai factory in Chennai, India, sign of affluence

WASHINGTON (ET): Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today proposed a “strong, constructive” relationship between India, China and the US to solve “pressing issues” of the 21st century.

India’s leadership will “help to shape” positively the future not

only of South and Central Asia, but also of the Asia Pacific, she said urging New Delhi not just to “look East, but to engage East”.

Outlining a new US thinking, 63-year-old Clinton said here that her country was committed to a strong, constructive relationship

Hillary Clinton is a tad bit late in proposing a trade relationship, as India and China has already started forging relationships in defence, tourism, sports, and cultural interaction arenas in early 2011

among India, the US and China.

“We know this will not always be easy. There are important matters on which we all disagree, one with the other. But we do have significant areas of common interest.

“Ultimately, if we want to address, manage or solve some of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, India, China and the US will have to coordinate our efforts,” she said.

The Secretary of State answered questions on Indo-US ties, India’s role in world affairs and the recent US spat with Pakistan over its approach in dealing with terrorism.

Appearing to soft-pedal the strain in US-Pak ties, Clinton said Washington was deeply committed to long-standing relationship with Pakistan “despite the complexities and challenges that sometimes arise”.

India has More Affluent Households than EuropeNEVADA(NTI): India and China

have overtaken many European countries in the number of affluent households, according to a new Global Affluent Investor study by leading market research company TNS.

India appears in the top five countries where the affluent have more than 1 million dollars investable assets, study points out.

Reg van Steen, TNS Director Business and Finance, comments: “...emerging markets will become new centres of affluence in coming years. India and China have already surpassed major European markets like Germany and France”.

But there is big contrast in wealth

distribution as only around one percent are affluent in India. Among 80 percent if affluent households in India, men are the primary decision makers. Indian investors are keen investors in precious metals.

Meanwhile, Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) on Sunday, said that although India was on track to become a global power, but her new prosperity had remained evasive for many.

Despite economic miracle, many Indians stil l l ived in desperate poverty. Inequalities in opportunities blocked poor people from participating in the growth process and they remained trapped

in vicious cycle of poverty. It was blight on a country, which prided herself on having joined the league of hottest growth economies.

Zed, who is Chairperson of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, also appealed to India’s billionaires/millionaires, who had enormously benefitted from India’s economic growth, to pledge some of their wealth to charitable causes aimed at poverty eradication. Zed urged India to wake up and deal with her monumental poverty crisis at an emergency level as according to an estimate, about one third of world’s poor lived in India.

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Can football Make an Impact in Cricket-Mad South Asia?

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By John DuerDen(Dawn): In the third round of

qualification for the 2014 World Cup, as we all know, Pakistan was absent but it was not only Pakistan. India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives were also busy doing other things.

It is disappointing for South Asia as a whole. To say that it is disappointing for Pakistan is to make an obvious point. Pakistan may have found it difficult to cheer on India and Bangladesh in the second round – of course, that is the nature of football and the nature of rivalry – but fans of the Greenshirts should have been at least a little sad that their neighbours didn’t even make the group stage.

That stage includes teams such as South Korea, Japan and Australia. It includes players who play their club football for Arsenal, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Everton, Wolfsburg, CSKA Moscow, Osasuna, Schalke, Hamburg, Sunderland – some of the established European teams. There are coaches like Frank Rijkaard who has managed the likes of Barcelona and Netherlands, Carlos Queiroz who arrived in Iran with the names of Real Madrid and Portugal on his CV, Japan’s Alberto Zaccheroni has coached a whole host of top flight Italian clubs – the list goes on.

The point is that this is a whole new ball game and a whole new level and Pakistan and South Asia have missed out. They have missed out on six games with good teams. This is what the team needs to improve. Playing against good teams and good players is a great way to get the experience necessary to improve.

It is not just about the players and the games. It is the atmosphere

at the stadiums and especially the facilities. The players get to see some top of the range stadiums, practice pitches and everything that a top player gets to use. The administrators and support staff and members of the federation and the travelling journalists also get to see how the beautiful game is organized in places like Japan and South Korea, countries that have hosted the World Cup. It is all a great example for Pakistan to look at.

And then playing such big names gives the entire football community a boost. It gets the game in the news, it gets the fans excited and it gets people talking about the game.

That is why it would have been good to see a South Asian team in the group stage. It may not appeal to Pakistan fans to see India facing Japan but that is what the region needs. It benefits everyone in South Asia if all countries develop and improve.

Imagine if India, Maldives and Bangladesh were teams that qualified for the Asian Cup on a regular basis and perhaps even reached the latter stages of the qualification for the World Cups. It would make South Asia a strong football region on the continent and would be great for Pakistan.

Just look at the South Asian Football Federation Championships. This could become an annual event and one that would become increasingly important and become a great way for good teams to test themselves against good teams. It would produce interest outside the region and there could even be the possibility of inviting a couple of

guest teams if that was so desired.The timing of the tournaments

could be such that they would take

place during preparation ahead of qualification campaigns for the World and Asian Cups but still be a valuable tournament in its own right.

Anyway, the tournament should be a regular annual event that is fixed in the schedule so that everyone knows when it will be. It needs to become a more important part of the football calendar and become a competitive challenge for all. India should no longer be allowed to send its under-23 team, it has to become a well-respected and valued tournament.

There needs to be something for the clubs too. Indian teams perform reasonably well at the AFC Cup though have yet to reach the Asian Champions League. For clubs from Pakistan and other South Asian nations, that is still quite a long way in the future.

We all know that strong clubs make strong leagues and strong

leagues make strong national teams. Of course, it is not quite that simple but that such a network gives a

country its football spine. We need to get Indian and Pakistan clubs playing each other in a South Asian club competition along with clubs from elsewhere in the region. It

Efforts are being made to sign up local clubs to play each other in a way to foster football all over South Asian nations. Sponsorship is a big issue

can be as small as having just four teams in total in a mini-tournament played over a weekend or it can be as large as having a group stage and then a knockout stage.

It would take a little sponsorship money to get off the ground but would give clubs something to look forward to and give players at these clubs valuable experience in playing against teams from different countries.

The nations in south Asia have to focus more on the region. India especially are always looking outside and the national team can be found in any other region in the world except for their own backyard. That is partly India’s fault but also the fault of other countries. If everyone pulls together and works together then South Asia can become known for something other than cricket.

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Poverty Bane in Economic Boom

restrictions on the release of foreign exchange.

There are virtually no limits now on the amount of foreign exchange one can take while going for a foreign holiday, nor is there any limit on the number of foreign visits.

Pre-reforms, the only source of entertainment was the dull-as-ditchwater fare dished out by the state-controlled television channel, Doordarshan.

Now, Indians are spoilt for choice. There are more than 200 privately-owned television news channels and an equal number of entertainment channels.

Bollywood, has seen a huge transformation in the last two decades with the rise of new stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai, and a switch from family-socials and historical movies to modern romantic films shot in exotic foreign locales.

Continued from page 27The new Hindi film hero reflects

the change in social mores, embracing global values, shedding squeamishness over greed and ambition and ready to forsake principles for money and women.

Film-making has become more tech-savvy and cinema halls are veritable centres of opulent luxury with more single-screen 1,000-plus seater cinema halls giving way to five-star multiplexes.

A major downside, however, is the rise in economic inequality. Higher economic disparities, especially in the rural areas due to a stress on agricultural incomes, is a major source of concern.

The rate of growth in employment has also slowed down in the post-reforms years.

A higher rate of migration from the rural to urban areas has added to the woes of town planners with pressure on land, water, electricity, etc., stretching civic services to the breaking point even in metropolises like Delhi, Mumbai

and Bengaluru.Political and bureaucratic

corruption has attained new heights. Dismantling of the restrictive permit-quota-licence raj was expected to eliminate corruption by providing a level-playing field and by unshackling the entrepreneurial spirit of Indians.

Instead, the nation has been witness to the most pernicious crony capitalism phenomenon, with politicians perpetrating humongous scams in mining, telecoms, land allotment, the aviation sector, et al.

Indians are disgusted with the growing culture of corruption.

Whether it was the modernisation of the airports or the exploration for oil and natural gas or the construction of six- and eight-lane expressways, the participation of the private sector in these tasks has proved most controversial. The stink of corruption is so strong that it has vitiated the gains of economic reforms and liberalization.

Indian Scientists Sequence Neem tree GenomeBANGALORE (IE): For

The first time ever, researchers in India have sequenced the entire genome of neem tree (Azadirachta Indica) in its entirety.

A team of ten researchers at Ganit Labs — an integrated genomics lab in Bangalore set up earlier this year under a public-private partnership b e t w e e n I n s t i t u t e o f Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology and Strand Life Sciences, a bioinformatics company — has successfully sequenced the genome of the plant known for its medicinal properties.

“This is the first time the genome of a higher organism has been sequenced in India,” the head of Ganit Labs Binay Panda told a press conference Thursday.

Researchers in the US and elsewhere have sequenced genomes of several complex organisms but neem plant is not one of them.

“We have traditionally known the medicinal properties of neem,”

Panda said. “Understanding its genetic complexity will help in developing agriculturally important compounds and pharmaceuticals. For instance, pesticidal compound Azadirachtin is found in neem seeds

India has sequenced the entire genome of neem tree (Azadirachta Indica) in its entirety.

in wildly varying concentrations. With genetic understanding and engineering, Azadirachtin content in neem could potentially be increased and normalized.”www.indoamerican-news.com


31 October 14, 2011

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BANGLADESHAt India-Bangladesh Border, Living in No Man’s Land

By LyDia poLgreenMADHYA MASALDANGA,

India (NYT): Mohammed Idris Ali’s watery rice paddies shimmer in the monsoon breeze just like his neighbors’. His tepee-shaped stacks of jute, ready to be soaked, stripped and then turned into rope, stand as tall as the ones across the rutted footpath.

But the house across the footpath sits in India, and its owner, Chitra Das, has all the trappings of citizenship: a voter ID and a ration card that entitles him to discounted rice and wheat at a government shop. His children go to local schools and have access to Indian government hospitals.

Ali, however, exists in a no man’s land. The patch of earth here on which he lives and farms is part of an archipelago of villages, known as enclaves, that are technically Bangladeshi territory but sit entirely surrounded by India, stuck on the wrong side of the border.

“The Indians say we are not Indian; the Bangladeshis say we are not Bangladeshi,” Ali said. “We are nowhere.”

There are 50 other Bangladeshi enclaves like Ali’s inside India; there are 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh. The people of

the enclaves are orphans, citizens of no country.

For decades, neither the Indian nor the Bangladeshi government has taken responsibility for them. Their villages do without basic public services like electricity and roads. Parents must forge documents to send their children to local schools. They cannot vote. Without identity documents they face arrest and imprisonment as illegal immigrants.

“We were born like this,” said Abdul Mutalib, of Madhya Masaldanga. “Our fathers were born like this. Neither side claims us. But our land is here. What else can we do? Where can we go?”

Now, after decades of indecision, the problem may soon be resolved. When India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, traveled to Bangladesh in September to meet his Bangladeshi counterpart, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, they signed an agreement that would finally allow the enclaves to dissolve into the country already surrounding them.

Under the agreement, the 37,334 nominal Indians living inside Bangladesh will become Bangladeshis, if they wish, and the 14,215 Bangladeshis on the Indian

side of the border will become Indians.

People living in the enclaves are cautiously hopeful that their citizenship will finally be settled.

The Bangladesh-India border is, for the most part, starkly marked: a fence bristling with concertina wire separates the two nations. Heavily armed sentinels prowl it to keep illegal crossers at bay, and hundreds of Bangladeshis have been killed by Indian security forces, rights groups say.

The enclaves resulted from 18th-century peace treaties between the conquering Mughal emperors and the maharaja of Cooch Behar, according to a 520-page historical study of the enclaves completed

Continued on page 39

Muhammad Nazir Hussain, left, considers himself Indian, but his village is officially part of Bangladesh. His younger brother, Manik Mia, right, managed to get an Indian voter ID card.


33 October 14, 2011


October 14, 201134 SPORTS

f1 Grand Prix Good for India: Neel Jani

Mumbai Indians celebrate, winning the coveted cup taking home the cash prize of $2.5 million

Neel Jani, the Swiss racer of I n d i a n o r i g i n , today said that the Indian Grand Prix will surely provide a boost to popularising motorsport in the country but he himself does not seem to be too optimistic about his own Formula One career.

Jani, who had his best racing results in now defunct A1GP series, yesterday drove a Red Bull Racing show car at world’s highest motorable road at the Khardung-La pass.

Jani, born to an Indian father and Swiss mother, said driving a racing car in hilly area was a big challenge.

“It was a great experience. I had to adjust a lot. I had never been to the Himalayan region, where there

is no track and the roads are bumpy. It was different. It was great to see enthusiasm among people for this show but I think Indian Grand Prix will do the major work,” Jani said.

Jani, who got a chance to test drive for Toro Rosso in 2006 and for Red Bull in 2008, though was not keen in pursuing a career in F1, the pinnacle of motorsport.

Mumbai Indians Win Champions League t20By prem rao

(TR): Full credit should go to Harbhajan Singh and his Mumbai Indians who romped home to a 31 run victory against Royal Challengers, Bangalore to walk away with the ICC Champions League T20 Trophy. They get the handsome trophy and the winners’ cash prize of $ 2.5 million while the runners-up settle for $ 1.5 million.

The Mumbai Indians won the toss and decided to bat first. When they managed 140 in their allotted twenty overs, many felt this would be an easy win for the Royal Challengers who had scored in excess of 200 runs to win their last two matches.

The Royal Challengers failed to cash in on the psychological advantage. Apart from Dilshan, the other batsmen just couldn’t get

going. The Chennai pitch suited Harbhajan and young Chahal perfectly and they put immense pressure on the Bangalore batsmen. When Chris Gayle, although to a dodgy LBW decision, and later Virat Kohli were out, the odds tilted in favor of the Mumbai Indians. They displayed great passion in the field to back their tidy bowling.

In my view, the Mumbai Indians used the pitch to their advantage and Harbhajan’s aggressive captaincy gave them the edge. Somehow my favorite team, the Royal Challengers didn’t bring quite the same passion they showed to their previous games.It must be said though that both teams did much better than was expected of them at the beginning of the tournament. As always, T20 cricket continues to be exciting and will bring in the crowds.

Neel Jani, at Khardung La Pass at the top of the world in Kashmir this week sponsored by Red Bull

Hockey 9’s is made for India & Pakistan: CharlesworthNEW DELHI (TOI): Traditional

rivals India and Pakistan are best-suited for hockey’s new nine-a-side format, Hockey 9’s which will make its debut with the LANCO International Super Series in Perth

from October 20-23, said it’s mastermind Ric Charlesworth.

With a view to revolutionize hockey and make it more free-flowing and viewer-friendly, Charlesworth, Australian men’s team coach, had conceptualized the nine-a-side format which will played under new rules to ensure fast-paced hockey.

Charlesworth was of the view that

India and Pakistan will have an edge over other teams in the upcoming four-nation tournament.

“These rules are made for India and Pakistan in my view. Most of us in Australia, love the way India

and Pakistan traditionally play the game. We learnt most of our hockey from what we saw in the sub-continent,” Charlesworth said.

“The Indian players have fluency, speed, terrific skills and play an attacking style of hockey.”

The tournament will feature hosts Australia, India, Pakistan and New Zealand in the men’s category, while India, Australia and Malaysia

will fight it out in the women’s section for top honours.

“ H o c k e y h a s d e v e l o p e d significantly in the past couple of years. The game has become much faster and fluent with more spaces opening up and more opportunity,” he observed.

“Just as in the 70’s when Kerry Packer revolutionized cricket and the game evolved, this (nine-a-side format) is an opportunity to experiment with the rules of hockey,” added former technical director of the Indian hockey team.

Just like Charlesworth, Indian women’s team coach CR Kumar too viewed that Indian and Pakistani players are better equipped to succeed in the new format.

“It will be really tough for the Indian girls because we are still learning. Though we have enough skills it takes a lot of energy in such a format. ” he said.

“We have worked more on our fitness but we also need to concentrate on skill. We will try to give our best but our priority remains the four-Test series against Australia” the coach added.

As per the new rules of the format, a team will consist of nine players as against the usual 11 and there will be 15 minutes per half as compared to 35 minutes halves.

There will also be bigger goals (1 metre wider), unlimited substitutions, one player from each team will be required to stay in the opposition half to create more space, one-on-one penalty shoot out where the striker is allowed only

Hockey, India’s National game is now being encouraged in a bid to revolutionize it as a high powered sport across South Asia

eight seconds to score.The ground rules has also been

relaxed to encourage continuous play. The format allows only two defenders besides the goalkeeper to stop penalty corners.


35 October 14, 2011

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Indian SC Stays Death Sentence for Ajmal QasabNEW DELHI (Dawn):

India’s Supreme Court on Monday stayed the death sentence handed down to the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, pending an appeal hearing.

“This case has to be heard on top priority,” Supreme Court judge Aftab Alam told the court. “It is the demand of the judicial system that we have to hear this appeal.”

Ajmal Amir Kasab, one of 10 gunmen who laid siege to Mumbai for nearly three days killing 166 people, was convicted in May 2010.

Kasab was found guilty of a string of crimes including waging war against India, murder, attempted murder and terrorist acts after a trial at a maximum security prison court in Mumbai.

The first appeal by the 23-year-old school drop-out from a poor farming area in Pakistan’s Punjab state failed in February, when the state high court in Mumbai confirmed both his conviction and death sentence.

India reserves executions, which are carried out by hanging, for the “rarest of the rare” offences.

Dur ing the t r ia l , the p r o s e c u t i o n p r o d u c e d fingerprint, DNA, eyewitness

a n d c a m e r a e v i d e n c e showing Kasab opening fire and throwing grenades in the bloodiest episode of

the November 26 attacks at Mumbai’s main railway station.

A number of senior police officers, including the head

of the Maharashtra state anti-terrorism squad, were killed as the gunmen fled the scene of the carnage.

Three luxury hotels, a popular tourist restaurant and a Jewish centre were also targeted by the other gunmen.

India has accused Lashkar-e-Taiba of being behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which led to the suspension of fragile peace talks between the two neighbours and rivals.

If the Supreme Court upholds the verdict and sentence, Kasab can appeal for clemency to India’s president Pratibha Patil as a last resort.

Executions are rare in India. Most death sentences a r e commuted t o l i f e imprisonment, and convicts can sit on death row for years awaiting a final decision on their pleas for clemency.

Afzal Guru, who was convicted of conspiring with the gunmen who attacked India’s parliament in 2001, killing 10 people, has been on death row for nearly a decade.

His appeal against his death sentence was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2006.

The last execution in India was in 2004 when a 41-year-old former security guard was hanged for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

In May this year, however, Patil unexpectedly rejected a mercy petition from a murderer in the northeastern state of Assam, leaving the state scrabbling to find a hangman.

Ajmal Amir Kasab is awaiting his final verdict the Supreme Court in India has stayed the death sentence for him. Kasab has been charged with multiple crimes including the fact that he is a sponsored terrorist who came into India with intent to kill innocent citizens of India


37 October 14, 2011INDIA

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Prashant Bhushan Beaten up for Kashmir CommentsNEW DELHI (DNA): Team

Anna member and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan was roundly thrashed on Wednesday, kicked in his chest, slapped, dragged by the feet, thrown about like a sack of wheat and pulled by the scruff of the neck by a young man who claimed the advocate had sup-ported a call for a referendum on Kashmir.

The man identified as Inder Verma was with two others of a group called Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (BSKS), which claimed re-sponsibility for the assault on Twit-ter (Bhushan, however, said they belonged to the Sri Ram Sene), where the “president” of the group gloated over the success of the at-tack, which has been condemned by one and all, including Anna Hazare, who demanded temporary protection for Bhushan.

The assault took place around 4pm inside Bhushan’s chamber near the Supreme Court while he was giving an interview to a chan-nel. The three men stormed in and one of them started thrashing him. Caught on camera, the attack was brutal, swift, sudden, and humili-ating, too. Bhushan was caught totally unawares. The pummelling that he got was intense and totally complete, a hammering that beat belief.

An aide intervened but the attacker sent him flying with a well-aimed-timed jab to the face and continued bashing the mild-

mannered senior advocate, who had become a well-known face on television screens after Hazare threw his weight behind civil society for a strong Lokpal Bill.

Verma was overpowered and roughed up by other lawyers who heard the commotion and rushed in. They grabbed Verma — a clean cut, well-built youth, skewed in his thoughts and indiscreet in the choice of friends — took him into another chamber and roughed him up. Quid pro quo! By then Bhushan had called 100 and soon the police walked in to take charge of a pro-fusely bleeding Verma, who refused to be cowed down. He kept up his harangue, which when he was taking Bhushan to task was “Kashmir dega, Kashmir dega kya”.

Bhushan lodged an FIR right at the spot, his chamber in the Supreme Court. Two other ac-cused - Tejinder Pal Singh Bagga and Vishnu - were on the run. The police have now registered cases against Verma and the other two under sections 452 (trespassing), 323 (causing hurt) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

But even as Verma was on his way to the cop

house, Bagga was tweeting to the world that he will “give his arrest” on Thursday. “I will give my arrest tomorrow. Desh Ko Todne Ki Maang Karne Walon Ke Saath Aage Bhi Yahi Kia Jayega (Similar treatment would be meted to those advocating nation’s division),” Bagga posted on his Twitter account.

Before the attack he had tweeted, “God give us power to complete our mission”. Soon after the attack, Bagga claimed responsibility with the tweet “he try to break my Nation,i try to break his head. Hisab chukta. Congrats to all. operation Prashant Bhushan successful. We hit prashant bhushan hard in his chamber in supreme court. If u will try to break my nation, I will break your heads”.

Hooliganism is nothing new to Bagga’s or-ganisation. The group had targeted Arundhati Roy for her remarks on Kashmir a few months ago. Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was given a similar reception. Bhushan, who has filed several public interest cases, including in the 2G spectrum scam case, had supported a call for referendum in Kashmir in response to a question in Varanasi two weeks ago.

Bhushan was taken to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in New Delhi for a medical examination from where he went to his Noida residence. Later in the evening, Bhushan nar-rated the incident to media.

“The attackers claimed to be members of Sri Ram Sene which is known for goondaism and for unprovoked assault on unarmed people. This is their trademark. This is an organisation which needs to be banned by the government,” he said. “I wish to tell everyone that none of Sri Ram Sene people should be assaulted. Violence is not the answer to violence. There will be legal proceedings against them. Police is taking action against them.” Fellow Jan Lokpal Bill activist Kiran Bedi was of the same view.

Senior lawyer and Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan has been beaten up by three people inside his chamber in the Supreme Court


October 14, 201138 ENTERTAINMENTSur Sangam to feature Melody Duo, Sadhana Sargam and Parthiv Gohil

STAFFORD - Sur Sangam, the musical night starts at 6 pm at the Immanuel Center, Stafford on Sunday October 16. The Muni Seva Charitable Foundation is raising funds for the Kailash Can-cer hospital to benefit rural India. Bollywood Singers, Parthiv Gohil and Sadhana Sargam will be the stars of the evening.

Kavitha Chibber writes, “Parthiv is the small town boy from Bhavnagar in Gujarat, a great inspiration for others.

Parthiv does not come from a musical family. His father played classical music on the radio in the hope that his son may develop an ear for music at a young age.

“My father had made up his mind that if I showed any talent for music he would enroll me in music lessons. He would take me to various classical concerts to see how I would respond.”

Parthiv loved all kinds of mu-sic. “I was fascinated by western music and realized how different jazz, symphony and pop sounded different from each other. I would make listen to the music arrange-ments, fascinated by how the same seven notes can come up with different sounds.”

Parthiv did his Bachelors, while studying under his guru Lakshmi-pati Shukla, a disciple of Pt. Om-karnath Thakur.

Parthiv went on a 24 day trip to Bhopal, to learn from Zia Farid-dudin Dagar, the dhrupad mae-

stro. The teaching was done tra-ditional guru-shishya style, where the teachers’ word was final.

“Ustad ji would wake us up him-self at 5 a.m., tune our tanpura and teach us for a few hours. It was a very intense period, he handled my voice which had just broken with such gentle finesse and mold-ed it so beautiful-ly. I wasn’t sure if I was going to pursue music se-riously, but after those 24 days, I knew I was going to devote my life to music. What-ever I sing today is rooted deeply in what I learnt in those 24 days.”

Parthiv was also able to spend time with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, learning as Pandit ji did his practice.

Parthiv started participating in various state level and national competitions but his big break came when he decided to audi-tion for saregama. “I had sent a tape of my songs which were all classical numbers but was called to audition a year later. It took me 2 years before I appeared in Sare-gama and won”

Parthiv says during the one year gap between the audition and the actual contest he spent each day listening to all the film songs and

singers, memorizing those songs. Parthiv says he received great encouragement after Pandit Jas-raj was bowled over by his per-formance and host singer Sonu Nigam too was very encourag-ing.

Today Parthiv has moved to

Bombay to sing for movies.Music to Parthiv Gohil is a lan-

guage of true emotions which has divine powers to transport one to a different world. A world where there are no boundaries, no reli-gions, no prejudice where every-thing seems to be in balance and in perfect harmony. Close your eyes and listen carefully, you will hear music all around. I owe ev-erything in my life to music, it is my profession, my passion, my way of relaxation, the very reason of my existence. To put it in a nut-shell, my life is a musical journey by which I spread the message of

love. To visit his website, visit www.parthivgohil.com

Sadhana Sargam’s real name is Sadhana Ghanekar. Her mother Neela is a well known classical singer and music teacher. Sad-hana grew up in an intensely mu-sical environment with musical

training starting at the age of 4.

S a d h a n a ’ s mother knew composer Anil Mohile, arrang-ing music for Kalyanji Anan-dji. He intro-duced Sadhana to them, and she was in the children cho-rus in Pam Pa-rarampam, Bole Jeevan Ki Sar-

gam sung by Kishore Kumar in G. P. Sippy Trishna (1978).After the recording, he introduced her to Kalyanji, who christened her as Sadhana Sargam and took her under his wing. Sadhana recorded her career first song for the Gu-jarati film Kanku Pagli. The first Hindi song she sang was Door Nahin Rehna (Rustom), a film re-leased in 1985 but did not do so well.

She continued to sing for Ka-lyanji Anandji, but shot to fame after Rajesh Roshan gave her all the female songs of brother Rake-sh Roshan’s Khudgarz (1987).

Khoon Bhari Maang, Aasman Se Ooncha, Jurm, Kishan Kanhaiya and others.

She is quite a favorite with the virtuoso AR Rahman. Now he has used Sadhana to sing for his international venture-a Chinese Production-Warriors of Heaven and Earth.

She has also sung the Tamil song “ Snehidhane “ composed by A.R.Rehman in the film - “Alay Payudhe”. This is one of the larg-est selling songs in the history of Tamil film industry ( More than 6 million CDs ) amazing for the fact, that she is a Maharashtrian Sadhana has sung that song ef-fortlessly in Tamil.

Sadhana has devoted consider-able time to Kala Veer Academy and to her pursuit of classical mu-sic. She has also sung a Ghazal album with Pankaj Udhas.

Sadhna has a project which is an Oscar film Warriors of Heaven and Earth, her first opportunity to sing for an international produc-tion. She sings the theme song of the film. It was done in Chinese by a Chinese singer and Sadhana sang it in Hindi.

Online tickets are available at www.greenashram.org. For pro-gram details, call Rajiv Malkan at 936-273-2707 or Bina Patel at 713-516-4515. Tickets range from $25 - $50, available at local venues. For details, see the Sur Sangam ad below.

Credits: TOI, Hindi Lyrix

Sadhana Sargam is a favorite of many composers in Bollywood, mostly A R Rahman who has even used her talent in many stage shows. Parthiv Gohil, Sa Re Ga Ma winner is a mellifluous playback singer who is versatile in range encouraged by Sonu Nigam, host of the show


39 October 14, 2011BANGLADESHAt India-Bangladesh Border...

Continued on page 32by Brendan R. Whyte at the University of Melbourne in 2002.

When British India was split in two, the region known as Rangpur went to Pakistan. The princely state of Cooch Behar, which like other princely states had not been part of British India, joined independent India in 1949 and was absorbed into the Indian state of West Bengal.

But the villages, known as chhitmahals, remained marooned. The first failed attempt to resolve the issue came in 1954, when Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan. In 1974, Indira Gandhi and Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, agreed to sort out the border problem, but Rahman was assassinated before the agreement could be carried out, and the pro-Pakistan government in Bangladesh never followed through. A third attempt in 1992, between India’s prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and Khaleda Zia, then the leader of Bangladesh, also went nowhere.

But there are reasons to be more optimistic

now. Bangladesh is more stable and prosperous than ever, its economy growing at about 6 percent a year.

Muhammad Nazir Hussain, who lives in the enclave of Nalgram, certainly hopes that the question of his citizenship will soon be settled. He lives on land his family has farmed for generations and considers himself Indian. But his village is officially part of Bangladesh. His cousin’s house a few

hundred yards away is in India, though half his fields lie in Bangladesh.

“ I t i s a v e r y complicated problem,” he said, with considerable understatement.

Hussain’s younger brother, Manik Mia, has an Indian voter ID card because he was able to register at the home of a relative in an Indian village. Every family, it seems, is divided in this way.

“If we had been in India, we would have been connected to the road, we would have had a school, health facilities, electricity,” Mia said. “But we have none of that. At times I wonder, are we human beings or are we animals?”

They are certainly not treated like Indians. Deeptiman Sengupta, a local activist who has been trying to help enclave dwellers get identity documents, said someone must take responsibility for them.

“India says it is the world’s biggest democracy,” Sengupta said. “Bangladesh is also a democracy. Yet these people are truly stateless for now.”


October 14, 201140

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41 October 14, 2011

The India Studies Program, The Department of Comparative Cultural Studies,

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his patients’ experience in all its ethical and medical complexity.

Dr. Verghese is Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School

of Medicine and the Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is a founding

director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science

Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, AnOali PanoOia, akanoOiaQuh.edu.

The University of Houston provides equal treatment and opportunity to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status or sexual orientation

except where such distinction is required by law. This statement reflects compliance with Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and all

other federal and state regulations.

The India Studies Program, The Department of Comparative Cultural Studies,

The History and English Departments, El Paso Corporation Lecture Series, and

The Medicine & Society Program in The Honors College

PRESENT

THE 2011 JOHN P. MCGOVERN LECTURE

"onday

() *ctober (011

2rand Ba44roo5 o6

the 89 9i4ton

;:30p5 ?ree @Ao ticket reCuiredE

Introduction by Chitra Divakaruni

8:30 - 9:00 Reception

and Book Signing

Abraham Verghese’s novel, Cutting for Stone, is #1 on the Independent Booksellers paperback fiction

list. He is also known for his work with AIDS patients and his emphasis on “Imagining the Patient’s

Experience.” In his memoirs, In My Country and The Tennis Partner, he imagines and empathizes with

his patients’ experience in all its ethical and medical complexity.

Dr. Verghese is Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School

of Medicine and the Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is a founding

director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science

Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, AnOali PanoOia, akanoOiaQuh.edu.

The University of Houston provides equal treatment and opportunity to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status or sexual orientation

except where such distinction is required by law. This statement reflects compliance with Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and all


Abraham Verghese’s novel, Cutting for Stone, is #1 on the Independent Booksellers paperback fi ction

list. He is also known for his work with AIDS patients and his emphasis on “Imagining the Patient’s Experience.” In his memoirs, In My

Country and The Tennis Partner, he imagines and empathizes with his patients’ experience in all its

ethical and medical complexity.

Dr. Verghese is Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University

School of Medicine and the Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is a founding director of the Center for Medical Hu-

manities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, Anjali Kanojia,

[email protected].

The University of Houston provides equal treatment and opportu-nity to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national

origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status or sexual orientationexcept where such distinction is required by law. This statement

refl ects compliance with Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and all



October 14, 201142


43 October 14, 2011


October 14, 201144 telangana – Hyderabad the Apple of Discord

By raJ Kanwarian inDia CorresponDent

Contrary to indications available in political circles until Sunday (9 October), the expected resolution of the Telangana issue seems to have taken an about turn with the further hardening of the contrarian stands of the two sides. There were many posi-tive straws in the wind until Monday so much so that a leading news chan-nel had forecast that there might be some “Good news for Telangana”. But the situation took a turn for the worse when Andhra chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on his return from New Delhi after consultation with the Central leaders decided on “zero tolerance policy” towards the ongoing agitation.

As a result of this tough policy, police cases were registered against Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekar Rao who has been spearheading the ongoing agitation for the creation of a separate Telangana state. The TRS leader has been charged with making inflam-matory speeches and creating rift be-tween peoples from different regions in the state under section 153A of Indian Penal Code and Police Forces Rights Protection Act. Similar cases were also registered against two union leaders Swamy Gowd and Vittal. They were also charged with instigating policemen to revolt, a la JP Narayan clarion call to policemen to revolt against the government in the pre-emergency days.

During the weekend, there had been hectic discussions in New Delhi on the matter of Telangana statehood between the Andhra chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Central government leaders such as Pranab Mukherjee and it was hoped that an amicable and a mutually acceptable solution would be found for the reso-lution of this intractable problem that had been hanging fire even before Andhra Pradesh was created as a state 48 years ago. But it appears now that the Union government opted to take a tough stand in order to bring about some sort of normalcy in the violence-ridden state.

Here is a picture of the ground reality in the state of Andhra Pradesh since the start of the agitation around 10th September.

· Unprecedented power crisis now stalks the state. The strike has great-ly curtailed the movement of coal

stocks to power generation stations and the power situation could go from bad to worse any time. As per the latest information available, the demand-supply gap in power gen-eration has widened to 27.11 million units. There is a drop in generation of thermal power from 5,000 MW to 1,900 MW.

· Normal life in the region stands crippled since the agitation began al-most a month ago. Even the residence of Petroleum minister S. Jaipal Reddy was attacked reportedly by Telangana agitators even though Mr. Reddy is a supporter of separate state.

· There is an utter chaos in the academic world with schools and colleges in a state of hibernation thereby drastically disrupting studies and examinations’ schedule. This is likely to cause students losing a year in school or college. The parents too are worried about the future of their wards and are hoping for an early end to the ongoing agitation.

· Due to the strike by Andhra Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation (APSRTC), the means of transport have been disrupted and the movement of people drastically restricted. The government has also now decided to break this strike and successfully persuaded a section of the striking workers to return to work. The pro-Telangana agitators allege that the government had offered sub-stantial inducement to the strikers by promising them pay for the strike period and festival advance. This has brought about a rift in the union and further hardened the attitude of the agitators.

· In the past one month, the agi-tators by further intensifying their movement have virtually crippled life in Hyderabad which inciden-tally lies in the proposed Telangana region. Industries and businesses are the worst sufferers and so is their large workforce. In fact, most of the businessmen and industrialists are

opposed to the bifurcation of the state and blame both the state and Central governments for failing to take a firm stand. This is somewhat a bad omen for the Congress party since it currently has a large number of MPs from Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, ambivalence is the keyword as far as the final position of the various national political par-ties is concerned. Even till today, neither the Congress nor BJP nor even the Communist parties have clearly spelled out their respective stands. The problem is that their parties in Andhra Pradesh too are a house divided with the Telangana unit supporting a separate state while the parties’ units in the rest of Andhra Pradesh stoutly opposing its bifurca-tion. The capital city of Hyderabad is the real apple of discord. It is a highly industrialized city with information technology dominating its landscape; it also boasts of a cosmopolitan de-meanor.

Raj Kanwar is a Dehra Dun based freelance journalist and writes columns on current affairs for local and national newspapers. He is also the author of the official history of ONGC, which is one of the top three companies in India in terms of market capitalization. Kanwar is also associated with World Oil as its Contributing Editor for South Asia.

A map of the proposed Telangana state

Though no formal discussions or negotiations at official or political level have taken place, yet some pos-sible options are being discussed in political circles.

· One, create Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital but this is not acceptable at all to the people from residue Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad residents by and large too oppose such a proposition.

· Two, Hyderabad be made a Union Territory and the both bifurcated states should build their separate capitals. But this option has a very few takers.

· Three, bifurcate the state with Hyderabad being the common capital as is the case Chandigarh, even though the latter is a Union Territory.

· Four, another option being talked about is creation of Rayala Telangana, by including parts of Rayalaseema districts with Telangana. This doesn’t has much backing.

But Telangana protagonists strong-ly feel that the new state without Hyderabad will be like a body with-out a head. The political parties in the non-Telangana part of Andhra Pradesh also feel that the residue Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation without Hyderabad would be very much like “Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark”. Thus Hyderabad is the main apple of discord.

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45 October 14, 2011

How yoga Won the WestBy ann Louise BarDaCh

(NYT) The party planning is in full swing throughout India. Never mind that the big day, Jan. 12, 2013, com-memorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vivekananda, is more than 15 months away. Not too long ago, Vivekananda, a household name in his homeland, was famous here as well, as the first missionary from the East to the West.

If you’re annoyed that your local gas station is now a yoga studio, you might blame Vivekananda for having introduced “yoga” into the national conversation — though an exercise cult with expensive accessories was hardly what he had in mind.

The Indian monk, born Naren-dranath Datta to an aristocratic Cal-cutta family, alighted in Chicago in 1893 in ochre robes and turban, with little money after a daunting two-month trek from Bombay. Notwith-standing the fact that he had spent the previous night sleeping in a boxcar, the young mystic made an electrify-ing appearance at the opening of the august Parliament of Religions that Sept. 11.

For most of the rest of the month, Vivekananda held the conference’s 4,000 attendees spellbound in a series of showstopping improvised talks. He had simplified Vedanta thought to a few teachings that were acces-sible and irresistible to Westerners, foremost being that “all souls are potentially divine.” His prescription for life was simple, and perfectly

American: “work and worship.” By the end of his last Chicago lecture on Sept. 27, Vivekananda was a star. And like the enterprising Americans he so admired, he went on the road to pitch his message — dazzling some of the great minds of his time.

Yet precious few of the estimated 16 million supple, spandex-clad yo-ginis in the United States, who sustain an annual $6 billion industry, seem to have a clue that they owe their yoga mats to Vivekananda. Enriching this irony was Vivekananda’s utter lack

of interest in physical exer-tions beyond marathon sitting meditations and pilgrimages to holy sites.

“You are not your body,” he often reminded Americans, who tend to prefer “doing” over “being.” More distress-ing, for some, was his other message: “You are not your mind.”

Yoga to the man who most famously delivered its mes-sage to America meant just one thing: “realizing God.” He abhorred channeling, sé-ances and past-life hunts as diversionary. Worse, the great seer savored a good smoke, and on occasion chowed down on meat.

Lacking a fig leaf of false modesty, he informed one Brooklyn audience, “I have a message to the West as Buddha had a message to the

East.” Among those who never doubted

the messenger during his lifetime was Leo Tolstoy. The restless Russian was especially keen for writings on Ramakrishna, Vivekananda’s own guru. Two years before his death, Tol-stoy wrote, “Since 6 in the morning I have been thinking of Vivekananda,” and later, “It is doubtful if in this age man has ever risen above this selfless, spiritual meditation.”

The Harvard philosopher and psy-chologist William James was fasci-

nated by the 31-year-old Indian and quoted at length from Vivekananda’s writings in his seminal work, “The Varieties of Religious Experience.”

“A very nice man! A very nice man!” Vivekananda reported after his first meeting with James, who called his new friend “an honor to humanity.”

The novelist Gertrude Stein, then a student of James’s at Radcliffe, reportedly attended Vivekananda’s 1896 talk at Harvard — which so wowed the college’s graybeards that they offered him the chairmanship of Eastern philosophy. He declined, noting his vows as a monk.

A later convert to the mystic’s writ-ings was Aldous Huxley, who wrote the foreword to the 1942 English-lan-guage edition of “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,” which he described as “the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ulti-mate Reality.” Along with his friend Christopher Isherwood, Huxley was formally initiated at the Vedanta Cen-ter in the Hollywood Hills, where the two sometimes gave the Sunday lecture, often attended by their friends Igor Stravinsky, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Somerset Maugham and Greta Garbo.

In 1945, Henry Miller, famous for his sex-drizzled novels, reported that his most important discovery of recent years was “two volumes on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.” By 1962, Miller concluded that “Swami Vivekananda remains for me one of

the great influences in my life.”J. D. Salinger’s commitment went

deeper and he would leave Vedantic footprints in his work, often via his frontman, Seymour Glass. In his last published work, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” Salinger has Seymour hawk-ing the wisdom of Vivekananda with the avidity of a pitchman on the Shopping Channel, calling him “one of the most exciting, original, and best equipped giants of this century I have ever run into; my personal sympathy for him will never be outgrown or exhausted as long as I live, mark my words; I would easily give 10 years of my life, possibly more, if I could have shaken his hand.”

The waning of Vivekananda’s popularity in America began around the time the baby boomers com-mandeered the yoga business and the ascetic seams between the New Age and the Old Age inevitably frayed. Vivekananda, who always took the long view, might have been amused. His enthusiasm for America was boundless and, quite fittingly, he died on July 4, 1902. He was just 39 years old, but was exhausted from cease-less work and untreated diabetes. He had returned to India and was living in the monastery he founded outside Calcutta. He excused himself for the evening and went into his room, meditated awhile, then took two deep breaths — and passed away. Ear-lier, he had remarked, “I have given enough for fifteen hundred years.” He was done.

Vivekananda in Chicago, 1893

INDIA


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