SAHARATIMEREDESIGN by abhay salve

saharatime Farewell to arms P27 For India and Pakistan, the question of Kashmir unclear.

Unholi Colors P41 Harmful gulal has blackened the world of more than 80 villagers. Pushing the boundaries P53 When in a punishing mood, Sehwag can be murderous.

THEY LOVE HER March 24, 2009 Issue 327 Rs 10/-

Edit note

Washing dirty linen in public

s the appointment of Sudhanshu Mittal as the coincharge of the North-east by BJP president Rajnath Singh the only reason which has brought the internal feud in the BJP to the fore? The sulking party general secretary Arun Jaitley is not showing up in central election committee meetings to protest the matter and is firm on Mittal’s removal. This, he says, is his ‘ethical’ stand. Both the leaders are not ready to give in. The public posture is that everything is normal. L K Advani says that the matter makes a good story for the media but his words and expressions don’t look in tandem. He appeared embarrassed and apprehensive while making the statement. Embarrassed because despite all his efforts, he falls short in the skills of a statesman A B Vajpayee would not have allowed the matter to linger on for so long, that too when elections are round the corner. He is apprehensive because in this tug-of-war between the two titans, the chances of his becoming the prime minister might fade away. The smoke of this inevitable showdown was visible right from the time of the National Executive and National Council meetings in Nagpur. But Jaitley prevailed upon the senior leaders of the BJP to get things done the way he wanted. Even former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu had to eat humble pie in the bargain.The Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Jaitley wanted to emerge as the most powerful and influential leader to stake claim for the seat of the next party president. Prima facie, Rajnath Singh has nothing to wlose as his term ends anyway in December 2009.

party president is not ready to take back his decision just because the appointmen does not go well with the party general secretary. His argument is that Jaitley also made a couple of appointments but he (Rajnath Singh) did not make it an issue. Jaitley, however, has taken the ‘ethical’ route, suggesting that the clash is inevitable. The ringside story is that Rajnath was not happy the way things unfolded in Nagpur and afterwards. The appointment of Mittal was just a way to assert himself and put a check on Jaitley.But what could be the possible reason for Jaitley not falling in line even after Advani’s intervention? Probably Jaitley wanted to emerge as the most powerful and influential leader to stake claim for the seat of the next party president. Prima facie, Rajnath Singh has nothing to lose as his term ends anyway in December 2009. But the general secretary has to prove that the party president succumbs to his demands. Jaitley has been enjoying so much freedom and clout in the party that he is beyond the control of the president. But it appears that Jaitely has also antagonized many people who are clearly seen to be siding with the party . President. Settling scores in the media is different from finding friends on the party forum. Even if Jaitley was right, this is not the time to wash dirty linen in public. st 01

Content

Cover Story : Farewell to Arms

For India and Pakistan, the question of Kashmir still rears its controversial head every time there is a bid to normalise relations. Many Kashmiri militants have given up the gun, but not the separatist agenda. go on page 18

Managing Editor - J B Roy Chief Executive Officer: Sushanto Roy Editor : Uday Shanker Sinha Resident Editor: Vishal Duggal Associate Editors: Mukul Shukla, Neena Kumar Assistant Editor - Bhupinder Gupta

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Chief Sub-Editors Vinod K Shukla, Pragya Bharati (Mumbai) Copy Desk - Vipin Kumar, Soni Sinha, Sanjay Singh, Arijeet Dutta Special Correspondents - Shankar Kumar, Shikha Parihar Principal Correspondents - Dinesh Kumar, Sanjay K Jha Sr Correspondents : Alpana Ghosh (Kolkata), Neeraj Pathak, Aditya Sharma (Delhi)

Correspondents: Madhurima Mitra (Allahabad), Viresh Verma, Heena Mehta Bureau Heads: Udaya Tarra Nayar (Mumbai), Amitabh Srivastava (Dehradun) Chief Art Editor: Vijay Kaul Art Editor: Satish Gairola Photo Editor :Subhash Paul

Illustrator : Budha Chandra Singh Design Team:Suman Prasad, Ravindra Kumar Sharma, Bikash Chakraverty Circulation Head : Sisir Ghosh Prem Gupta- 9999799081, Rajiv Gupta- 9899510713

Special Report : P36

International : P44

Unholi colors

Past Catching UP

Society : P44

Collage of Colors With the fashion week season just round the corner, designers have started gearing up for their Autumn/ Winter line

Harmful gulal has blackened the world of more than 80 villagers in Haryana at least four of them permanently

A common enterprise for Saudi Arabia and Pakistan over the past three decades has been Afghanistan and fomenting Islamic movements inside India

Business :P46 : Cautious automism

Social Dad :P64

Revving car sales in February were a surprise but this may be a temporary upsurge….

With divorces becoming a not-so-rare phenomenon, children are fast adapting themselves.

Nation

Face to Face : P14 Young and old leaders must be able to perform alike

Sports

Sports :P39: Pushing the Boundries

Books

When in a punishing mood, Virender Sehwag can make reputed bowlers look quite ordinary with his scintillating strokeplay

Hot 'n' Happening

Travel :P54 : Pilgrim’s Delight This place, well-cushioned between beautiful hills and lake, offers an unhurried pace of life to the visitors

Society :P62 : Young and old leaders must be able to perform alike

content

Nation :P34: Books survivors The eighties saw eruption of bloody communal clashes and ethnic insurgency in Tripura that threatened to destroy the social fabric of the state.

Published by Anil Abraham for Sahara India Mass Communication from 8th Floor, (Unit No. 804), New Delhi House, 27 Barakhamba Road, New Delhi printed by Swatantra Mishra at Sahara India Mass Communication Press, C-2,3,4, Sector-11, Noida-201301

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Noida off: 0120 - 2537245, 2538566, 2534524, Telefax: 0120- 2538911, 2547470, Mumbai: 022-56981111, fax: 022-26763898, Kolkata: 033-22829364, fax: 033-22829364, Lucknow: 05222337777, fax: 2370336,2370380, Kanpur: 0512-2318330, fax: 05122361044, Gorakhpur: 0551-2202362, fax: 0551-2202365, Bhopal: 0755

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The Week that was

Chatter box

Year : 6

46 52

Numerozone Vanity fair

Close encounter Horse Fair

Neighbours

Arts & Culture

International Business

60 71 72

Issue : 305

Letters to Editor Letter of the week

Early grooming

efer to "Babies 'learn music' while sleeping" ( ST March 14, 2009 ). There are the findings which reinforce and underline that our personality and our traits are shaped even when we are still in the womb. Parents should remember that 'Babies grasp grammar early on'. Also note that" A mother's voice is music to the ears of sick children "It is a fact that a child starts learning the worldly wisdom in the womb of mother like Abhimanyu which is often dismissed as myth. Therefore, especially mother should start bringing up the child from the day she conceives it rather than after the child's birth! Mahesh Kapasi, Delhi

ts leaders head small unsuccessful groups. Unfortunately, the Left did not avail the opportunity to lead the nation earlier. It seems to me the Third Front is waiting to grab any discontented element that walks out of an existing alliance. This is the politics of opportunism.

The charm of Gulmarg

Down memory lane

he travel piece on Gulmarg made for an interesting read. For the state always in the news for militancy it was good to see the response towards the snow festival in Gulmarg. When Gulmarg is covered with snow, it presents spectacular site and reminds one of Switzerland. This tourists' delight is ideal for adventure sports like skiing, snow- skating, sledge- riding, running down snow slopes and playing with snowman.t more interesting. When in the South someone says Madras was not like this before, it generally means an expression of longing for its old world charms. They continue to refer to the city as Madras. While to all other Tamils this bustling city is Chennai.

t was a surprise to learn that Madras still exists for the Chennaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s elite even years after the name change. The special report on Chennai also looked into the history associated with it making it more interesting. When in the South someone says Madras was not like this before, it generally means an expression of longing for its old world charms. They continue to refer to the city as Madras. While to all other Tamils this bustling city is Chennai. The pictures too like one of the British-built building which once defined the Madras skyline brought back memories of the colonial era and a treat for the eyes. Sanjeev Mohan, Bangalore

Vivek Singh, Mumbai Vishal Pande, Allahabad

Teeming with PMs

'Indian' PM,please!

Never ever there were so many prime ministerial candidates in India in any one election. Suddenly, it seems that in India we need thousands of prime ministers to run the country. So, I suggest that all other categories of ministers be abolished and each aspiring candidate be allotted portfolios like Prime Minister for finance, Prime Minister for external affairs, etc.

Sharad Pawar pushes for a PM from the state; Mayawati feels she's the best Dalit representative and Jayalalithaa says every small party has the right to aspire for the PM's chair. Suddenly the electoral battle seems centred around the whole question of

Anubhav Bhargava,Gondia

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Picture of the Week

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Graffiti

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Opinion: Politics

The Front is back The Congress and the BJP have pooh-poohed the idea of the Third Front, but they have to face the reality. The two parties are engaged in direct fights only in a few states. Kalyani Shankar

he very idea of a Third Front induces butterflies in the stomach but the way national politics is taking shape, it cannot be ruled out. Sensing this, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda launched the Third Front officially on March 12 in Karnataka with good response from many regional parties and the Left. For Gowda it is a last ditch attempt to become the tenant of 7, Race Course Road.The new front is impressive with the CPI, the CPI-M, the BSP, the TDP, the AIADMK, the TRS and the JD(S) to name a few. The Congress decision to go for state-specific poll tie up has enabled UPA allies like the NCP to keep their post poll options open. UPA allies like the NCP and the RJD may have no aversion to joining this front while the BJD has already given some hint.The Third Front idea is not new. Two years ago TDP supremo Chandra Babu Naidu floated the UNPA with stalwarts like Jayalalithaa, Mulayam Singh Yadav and others in Hyderabad. The Left parties kept themselves out of this. This front did not take off as Jaya withdrew quickly due to ego problems. Then the UNPA collapsed when its convener Mulayam Singh himself moved out of the front to support the Congress last year. The track record has proved that both the National Front in 1989 and the United Front in 1996 did not last long. Since the political pundits have predicted a splintered verdict, these leaders have revived this dream. The so-called Third Frontâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calculations are that if the Congress and the BJP together get less than 250 seats, the others will have the upper hand. The national parties have become weaker, yielding space to the regional players. Their vote share has also shrunk in the last two decades while that of the regional parties is on the increase. Obviously, people are disenchanted with them, and are looking for other options. Lack of strong leadership in the national parties has given space to personality-oriented regional satraps. No doubt Sonia Gandhi has unified the Congress but there is no second-rung leadership at the state level to counter the regional forces. Today a Mulayam, Nitish, Lalu, Jayalalithaa, Mayawati or Mamata command more votes in their states. In states like West Bengal, UP and Bihar, the national parties are minor partners. Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

The two major fronts, which were dreaming of bipolar politics, find to their shock that they are unable to retain their coalition partners. While the Congress may be ahead of the BJP in this race, they are unable to build up a coalition. Both Manmohan Singh and his predecessor Vajpayee had a tough time managing their allies.The Congress is confused whether to adopt a long-term or a short-term strategy to retain power. A section in the party is not for riding piggyback on the regional players, as it will ultimately weaken the party. The Congress has learnt this lesson first in Tamil Nadu and now in UP and Bihar. Last, but not the least, too many prime ministerial candidates have emerged even before the polls Encouraged by the way Deve Gowda and Gujaral became prime ministers, the regional satraps are eyeing Delhi. In fact, Mulayam was a candidate when Gujaral was chosen, and so was Jayalalitha when Vajpayee lost his government by one vote. Lalu has been eyeing the post for long. Sharad Pawar lost out to Narasimha Rao in 1991 in the prime ministerial race but still has not given up his ambition. Mayawati is a front- runner if she gets about 40-50 seats. The Congress and the BJP have pooh-poohed the idea of the Third Front but they have to face the reality. The Congress has to deal with the Third Front in the entire south in different forms. The Congress and the BJP are engaged in direct fight only in few states like MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Goa and Gujarat. The BJP seems to have given up even before the battle has begun and there is gloom in BJP headquarters. The latest blow came from the BJD when it severed its connections with them. Rumours are that the JD (U) is next in the queue and may pull out after the polls. Its relations with Shiv Sena and Akali Dal are also strained. These disgruntled elements in both the camps now have the option of a Third Front. However, it is too early to predict anything. There is general fear of a government of a motley group of parties. If this fear grips the public, they may move towards the Congress. The Left wants to make sure that a non-Congress, non- BJP government emerges like in 1996 when the Congress supported the regional parties from outside. Kalyani Shankar is a senior journalist. st 07

Life Positive : Indomitable spirit

Shoveling her wayout!

Malti Tudu, a Santhal of Godda district, Jharkhand, is perhaps the only woman hydraulicshovel operator in the country Sanjeev Jha Godda.

he operates a 120-tonne hydraulic shovel at the Rajmahal Project of the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) in the Godda district of Jharkhand. She is confident and dexterous; a man couldn’t have done the job better. Life lost all meaning for 32-year-old Malti Tudu of Bara Simra village in 1991 when her husband Basant Marandi passed away leaving a three-year-old son and the pains of widowhood for her at the tender age of 16. “I could see no way out for me, as my husband was the only earning member of my family. But since he was a class-III employee in ECL here, I was offered a job on compassionate grounds against his sudden demise. Though village pradhan (headman) Santlal Murmu recommended a class-IV job for me in the Bal Bharti School being run by the ECL management, he never boosted my morale there. Rather he always undermined my ability and confidence and tried to discourage me, saying that I can do no other work than that one,” recalls Malti. But Malti took the disparaging attitude of her village pradhan as a challenge and accepted work in the DG shed. “It was worse than the job at Bal Bharti, as being a young girl I was the target of everyone there. I even contemplated committing suicide, as they were forcing me to compromise,” she said. In 1999, the poor Santhal girl decided to try her luck for the last time. “Kisi tarah se himmat karke main tatkaleen mahaprabandhak saheb S P Singh ke paas pahunchi (After gathering up courage, I somehow managed to reach the then general manager of the project). He gave a patient hearing to my woes and asked me where I want to work. I immediately replied, “Machine section”, to which he agreed at once. From Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

the very next day, I started learning to operate PC-300 shovel. My Guru-ji Rajkumar Pandit never minded my mistakes and it was his inspiration that a tribal girl is now before you, as the only hydraulic shovel operator of the world,” she said. The very picture of self-confidence, she adds, “Within one year, you will see how this naïve tribal girl plays with the electric shovel.” Even Malti’s trainer Pandit appears quite impressed with her resolve. He is proud to have a fast learner like her. “She was exceptionally sincere and determined from the moment she came to me. The result is now before you all,” he said enthusiastically. Malti,who now earns around Rs 20,000 per month, no longer harbours any fears. “As far as adjusting with my male counterparts in the shed is concerned, I have always adopted a ‘tit-for-tat’ approach. Once when an official of manager rank tried to put his hands on my shoulder, I thrashed him with the umbrella in my hand. Since that day, my male colleagues have never done anything wrong with me,” she said without any shilly-shallying. Malti’s only son Stephen Marandi has passed matriculation with good marks from the prestigious St Xavier’s School in the neighbouring Sahebganj district. “I want to make him a doctor because it will be the best service for my community that lacks proper medical facilities,” she said.Despite her independence, Malti has not given up the customs of her tribal community. “Rice is my favourite dish and I take handia (tribal liquor made by fermentation of rice) every evening after my work,” she candidly says. st

Nation : Orissa

Old age is solution

his recently floated regional political outfit The Janahitakar Party of Orissa that plans to contest the upcoming elections in the state has mostly veterans as its members and it calls upon to join as many older persons to give the people of the state better governance. No wonder six out of the seven members in its executive committee are above 70 while the ‘ young blood’ is 65-year old. The party’s chairman however has the befitting reply for the reason. The party has come into exisence when a nationwide debate is raging over the retirement age for politicians. “When we decided to have a political forum we resolved to have older persons as its members as they have no family responsibility and liability. The criteria we set for membership were the person should not be dependent upon his/ her family and vice versa. Also he must have spare time and money to serve the society,” said party chairman Sarat Chandra Mohapatra(79),who is a Bhubaneswar-based businessman. “We have around 500 members across the state. Most of them are above 60. We have some younger persons also who are self-dependent,” he informed.“Unlike other parties we call our associates as presidium members. So far we have well organized groups in Khurda,Puri,Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts. We are contacting the like minded people in other areas too,” said Panigrahi, the vice-presidium member.Though the party is yet to release a proper election manifesto, it has mainly three issues on its agenda. “We want decentralization of power from Panchayat Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Age is no bar in politics. The Janahitakar Party of Orissa has proved it once again Hemant Kumar Rout Bhubaneswar

level to Parliament and have a direct election at all the levels. Also the Prime Minister and President should be directly elected by the people,” said Mohapatra.“ Besides, we visualize to adopt Gandhian economics, discourage large industries and encourage agro industries, small and cottage industries and develop rural economy by promoting village industries,” he maintained. The outfit that got registered in 2004 has announced to contest in all 147 Assembly seats and 21 parliamentary constituencies in the coming elections. It has selected ‘two burning candles’–one for seva (service) and another for tyaga (sacrifice) as its election symbol.“With this trust we have so far selected a list of 40 candidates for the Assembly seats and five for Lok Sabha seats.” he said. The party has a few criteria for the candidates. “People, who support our ideology, have their own income, and are self-employed and established can be our candidates. The candidates will be allowed to spend within Rs 30,000 on assembly election campaign and around Rs one lakh for Lok Sabha elections,” Mohapatra said.The party leaders who also bring out a newspaper titled ‘Seva and Tyaga’ claim that its victorious members whether for Assembly or Parliament won’t take salary from the government but only the travel allowances. “All other parties are power hankering. But we believe in ideology. We are not open for all but those are sensible and really want to serve for the people are welcome to Janahitakar Party, which will one day take a shape of national party,” he added st

News wrap: the week that was

Consider climate change threat to public health: WHO NEW YORK: The UN health agency has asked policymakers to consider the threat climate change poses to public health before setting up their priorities for action and investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) highlighted the health dimension of the issue at the threeday "Climate Change â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions" conference in Copenhagen. Based on research, WHO estimates that around 150,000 deaths now

occur in low-income countries each year, with young children making up almost 85 per cent of these excess deaths, due to the effect climate change has on crop failure, diarrhoeal disease, malaria and flooding. Health hazards from climate change are diverse, global and difficult to reverse, according to WHO. They range from increased risk to safety from extreme weather events, to the effects of global warming on infectious disease and sea level rises leading to salinisation of land

and water sources. The agency contends that feasible improvements to the environment could reduce the burden on global disease, a large part of which is caused by energy consumption and transport systems, by more than 25 per cent. Outdoor air pollution accounts for 800,000 deaths annually around the world, traffic accidents for 1.2 million, physical inactivity for 1.9 million and indoor air pollution for 1.5 million, WHO says.

World population will be 7 billion in 2012 NEW YORK: The world's population will hit 7 billion early in 2012 and cross 9 billion in 2050, with the majority of the increase taking place in developing countries, revised United Nations estimates show. India, United States, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan are among nine countries, which are projected to account for half of the world's population increase from 2010 to 2050. The others are Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Tanzania. "There have been no big changes for the recent estimates and we have not changed the assumptions for the future," Hania Zlotnik, Director of the Population Division at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said. "We're still projecting that by 2050 the population of the world will be around 9.1 billion," she said, as she presented the 2008 Revision of the World Population Prospects.

Bone analysis shows 20 per cent lied about age BEIJING: X-ray bone analysis of 15,000 young Chinese athletes shows about 20 per cent have lied about their ages, provincial sports authorities say. The analysis was conducted by sports officials in southern Guangdong province and reported on the Web site of the Southern Metropolis Daily. The confirmation of age faking again puts the pressure on Chinese sports officials. Several of China's gold-medal winning female gymnastics at last year's Olympics were

widely suspected of being underage, although they were later cleared by officials of the sport's world governing body. NBA player Yi Jianlian is also widely reported to have falsified his age on Chinese documents. Late last year China's Sports Ministry reported that it found 36 players in China's professional basketball league whose dates of birth may have been changed. The newspaper reported that Guangdong authorities found that 2,000 athletes were no

longer eligible to compete in youth events.It said another 1,000 need to compete in different age categories. Guangzhou will host 2010 Asian Games, and provincial officials appear to be cracking down beforehand. "We wo http://www.myinkblog.com/wpcontent/uploads/2008/07/stop-climate-change.jpg n't allow those who faked their age to get any benefit at all," said Ye Xiquan, deputy director of the provincial sports bureau.

Captive breeding programme to sav Kashmir’s red deer JAMMU: Stepping in to save Kashmir's endangered red deer – hanguls – from extinction, the Jammu and Kashmir government has launched a Rs 8.80 crore project under which carnivore proof enclosures will be set up for captive breeding of fawns. With most of the stags falling prey to leopards, wild dogs, jackals and wolfs leading to a decline in population of hanguls, the wildlife department has decided to set up carnivore proof insito enclosures (CPIES) for them. "We have launched a major initiative to save hanguls in Kashmir Valley from extinction under the Rs 8.80 crore Save Hangul project. In this Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

direction, hanguls would soon have CPIES homes where they would be bred in captivity," Jammu and Kashmir Chief Wildlife Warden A K Shrivastava said. Fine tuned by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the project involves captive breeding, insito enclosure upbringing, census, radio active collars, anti-poaching, anti-grazing measures and habitat improvement to save and conserve hanguls and also increase their population. Jammu and Kashmir's state animal, hangul, is an endangered species of the red deer family. The department has started construction of carnivore proof enclosures on a war footing at

Shikargah Wildlife Sanctuary (Tral), Dachigam National Park (Srinagar). The breeding centers would also be gradually set up at Gurez, Bandipora, Ajas, Mangat and Khanmoh.

Opinion: Matters

CZAR MODI RULES

hank God our general election will be on schedule! We can be sure about that now – after home minister P Chidambaram went on record saying that the government is helpless and can't alter the poll schedule announced by the Election Commission. Not that, by stating the obvious, the minister did any favour to us. But there were times these past two weeks or so when the Indian Premier League's high profile honcho, one Lalit Modi, was unhappy that the election set for April-May clashed with League's schedule and he couldn't conceive of a situation in which the IPL, now in its second year, could be disturbed. Look at the staggering Rs 1,200 crore riding on it. The starry sponsors of various teams, men and women like Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Shilpa Shetty not to forget the liquor baron Vijay Mallya – called the franchisees – would stand to lose a minimum of Rs 20-30 crore each if the IPL postponed. What a calamity it would have been. And add to that its fell Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

We are told T-20 has in a year's timeprovided the shortest path to moksha. Cricket, as you know, is said to be our religion. And Lalit Modi & Co would want us to believe that India is safer than Pakistan.In such a situation, does one really need to wonder why IPL should try to gain precedence over a general election that has direct bearing on the future of this country? The moolah is more crucial.

effect on ordinary cricket fans for whom we are told T-20 has in a year's time provided the shortest path to moksha. Cricket, as you know, is said to be our religion. The Lahore attack on Sri Lankan cricketers may have proved that the players are soft targets in this part of the world. While Lalit Modi & Co would want us to believe that India is a lot safer than Pakistan – and there is some basis for this belief, the 26/11 Mumbai horror notwithstanding – this is not the time to trade in illusions. But Lalit Modi and his patron saint the Union agriculture minister and more importantly the cricket czar of India Sharad Pawar, who is set to take over as the International Cricket Council chief, had made up their mind: the IPL must go ahead national elections or not. So, poor Mr Chidambaram, given the political interplay within the ruling United Progressive Alliance, had to eat his words when he first said that his security concerns and that the Election Commission appeared to be loaded

against the staging of the IPL. He required a minimum 75,000 central para-military personnel to take care of the staggered poll in various parts of the country. He even suggested postponement of the League and finally settled for 'rejigging' the dates in a manner that the League did not clash with polling days in various states. The home minister was obviously under pressure from sources too well-known to be mentioned here and at the time of writing was awaiting word from the IPL's Modi about "rejigging". Never the man to miss an opportunity, Modi promptly announced some additional venues and as a special concession announced that he would ensure that on the day of counting of votes no League matches would be staged. Quite a concession, this. For the rest, Modi and his mentor did not care if the tournament would involve hasty transportation of security personnel from one state to another as the polling progresses – from Himalayas to Cape Comorin, from Nagar Haveli to Imphal. Providing security at the IPL venues would normally fall within the realm of state police forces but many states have been quick enough to baulk at the prospect, stressing that their own personnel would be required to be on "election duty" regardless of the presence of central security men at polling booths etc. The IPL brat-pack has pooh poohed the suggestion. "We will take care of security", Modi was heard saying on a TV channel. Didn't know that the BCCI had its own army as well. Of course, what wouldn't the board do to protect its hopes or raking in another Rs 1,000 crore from the IPL. Remember the almost casual manner in which Modi made a presentation of Rs 7 crore to the former Rajasthan chief minister for her relief fund at one of the IPL matches in Jaipur last year. Money: easy come, easy go.Dozens of foreign players who have signed up for the six-week-long tournament have indicated their disinclination to participate while many others are weighing the potential risks against the lolly that is available. And any reluctance of the state governments to guarantee the maximum level of security would only add to the players' concerns. The League might have stood market logic and sentiment on its head during these recessionary times – K P Pieterson and Andrew Flintoff were bought for a staggering $1.1 million each -–at the second auction last month, but the dangerous times in which we live and play tell us that we steer clear of the illusion that big money can solve every vexing problem we face. That, though, doesn't daunt our little Mr Modi.Deprived of his crown as the Rajasthan Cricket Association president, he hit back by announcing shifting the inaugural ceremony, held last year in Jaipur, to Mumbai, his mentor Sharad Pawar's home ground. Wouldn't such an extravaganza staged in the great Maratha leader's Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

backyard boost the prospects of his National Congress Party which is a coalition partner in the Maharashtra government? Forget 26/11 and the terrible carnage Pakistani terrorists inflicted on the city. Who cares. This we will be told represents the undying resilient spirit of Mumbai. Indeed, as it speaks highly of the undying spirit of Lalit Modi, who lost the election to his own state's cricket association and yet continues to be the vice-president of the world's richest cricket board. How come? Because he also holds an elected post in the Punjab Cricket Association. In normal circumstances one would ask how did he hold a position in two different state associations. But you don't ask such question of those who are blessed by whichever clique controls the Board. There is no room in it for genuine cricketers or cricket promoters. Remember the Haryana Cricket Association has no room for a Kapil Dev. A former BCCI president (from Haryana) couldn't stand the presence of a genuine cricketer in his state association. He saw a threat if a Kapil Dev was somehow was allowed a say in the running of his state's cricketing affairs. The Lalit Modi phenomenon owes its origin to this disease that has allowed upstarts (in the cricketing sense) to grab the reins of power in the Board. In such a situation, does one really need to wonder why IPL should try to gain precedence over a general election that has direct bearing on the future of this country? With the IPL running concurrently with the poll campaign and polling, the League doesn't mind putting the lives of hundreds of cricket-crazy Indians and their idols, the players, at risk. The IPL says that the international cricket calendar is packed for the next two years and if they do not stage their show now the tournament might die. The Lahore attack on Sri Lankan team has, as it is, cast a dark shadow on sub-continental cricket. At the rate we are going we might soon find that no foreign teams may venture to undertake a tour of any of the sub-continental countries, the so-called Asian giants. Even little Bangladesh has asked Pakistan not to visit the country for the present – and that's well within the region. But cricket czars couldn't care less. All they are interested in is the moolah that they hope to rake in courtesy the IPL. Truth to tell, when big money comes into play the world stops being a reasonable and sensible world and we find ourselves having to do a bit of cognitive acrobatics to make sense of it all. Left to IPL it would rather that the general elections are postponed, even if that violates the Constitution of the country. Y' see there is no room in the cricketing calendar other than the one chosen by Modi and his IPL. And Modi does have his patrons who wouldn't be bothered much if a score or even a hundred people were killed for want of security. st

Face to face: Kiran Rijiju

Young and old leaders must be able to perform alike Kiren Rijiju is one of the youngest Parliament-arians of the country and is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of the 14th Lok Sabha. He represents the Arunachal (West) constituency, which is the fourth largest parliamentary constituency in India. He is also the National secretary of the BJP. While defence minister A K Antony and army chief General Deepak Kapoor have underplayed the intrusions on several occasions, Rijiju has tried to apprise the Parliament of the seriousness of the problem in the strategic state. Rijiju has been making it a point for long that the Indian Army is not prepared for a conflict with China and today this is an accepted fact. The young MP still regrets that only cosmetic actions are being taken to correct this imbalance. In a candid interview with Sahara Time correspondent Vinod Shukla, Rijiju highlights various issues of the state.

How the BJP is going to perform in the North-East region in the forthcoming parliamentary elections? The BJP is the only alternative which will take the space occupied by the Congress in the North-East. The reason is that people of the North-East have been fooled by the Congress in the past 62 years through false promises. The forthcoming elections will be a new political achievement for the BJP and the NDA. Out of 25 parliamentary seats in the North-East region, we are going to capture a minimum of 15 seats. So this is the beginning of the downslide of the Congress and a new era of growth for the BJP in the North-East. It is quite unusual that the remotest region of the country has 100 per cent representation in the Parliament under an extremist political force – the BJP. What do you say? This is really an interesting question. We must relate to the psyche of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. The state was victim of the Chinese incursion in 1962. So the people of the state always wanted a party with a nationalist approach and having a patriotic fervour. The BJP is the only political party which seems to be imbibing patriotic and nationalist feeling. We need special care and protection because of our remote geographical condition. This can be offered only by a party which is truly nationalistic and that party is undoubtedly the BJP. Don't you think that there is a feeling of alienation among the people of AP from the rest of the country? Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

It is not alienation of the people of the state from the rest of the country. I would rather call it a gap between the state and the mainland. How-ever, most of the political parties use such language as alienation. India is a federal state and the relation between the state and the Centre is well defined. So the question of alienation does not arise. There is a gap between the rulers at the Centre and those in the state. If it is bridged, the so-called alienation from the mainland will be taken care of. Moreover, we will have a bonding with the North-East people. Which are the states other than AP and Asom where the BJP stands any chance to expand its presence? We are getting stronger by the day in the region. We are strong in AP, Asom and Manipur. We are weaker in Mijoram and Sikkim. We have our presence in Meghalaya and are a part of the government in Nagaland. We are not contesting elections in Nagaland but are giving a chance to our ally in the state – the Nagaland People's Front. Do you feel that the region is different from the rest of the country in terms of geography of the area, people's aspiration and needs? The geography of the region is different but not the aspirations. Every state in the country is facing its unique circumstances. North-East has unique problems due to its unique history but regional aspirations can be achieved with a sincere effort. It's not that difficult. And if a region becomes strong, the nation becomes strong.

I have shaken the conscience of the government on the issue of Chinese invasion of AP. The government's 足consideration for the state was never as focused as now.

You were appreciated for asking questions on China in the Parliament. How far is the government sensitive on this issue? The government of India has been activated on the issue. I have shaken the conscience of the government on the issue of Chinese invasion of Arunachal Pradesh. The government's consideration for the state was never as focused as now. We received Rs 20,000 crore package for the region. Had I not made it a point in the Parliament the government would have considered Arunachal Pradesh as any other state of the country. Now the government is considering it as a special state because of my efforts inside and outside the Parliament. Is it just the problem of encroachment by the Chinese Army of the Indian territory or something else? It is the issue of incursion by the Chinese army. They still have some area of Arunachal Pradesh in their control. What do you think is the solution of this problem? The solution of the problem is that first you need to strengthen yourself. Once you are strong enough, possibly then you can talk about the issue with China to get our land back.

and is the root cause for several problems in the entire region. Flood has devastated the region badly. These are the issues which are different from the issues of the rest of the country. Since you belong to the young genre of politicians, do you feel that more and more young people should join politics for the betterment of the country? If young people do not join the politics, it won't be possible to fill the gap and replace the vacuum caused by the old leadership. It is a process and it should to be continued. My cynicism is that young and old leaders must be able to perform alike. How do you foresee the BJP's and NDA's performance across the 足country? We are coming to power at the Centre. The UPA has done enough damage to the country. We will give you a better option. What are the areas that need to be given more attention in the North-East region? What would you like to do if the BJP forms the government at the Centre? Security of the North-East must be increased. Special attention must be given to the region to strengthen its economic structure and finally the illegal Bangladeshi settlers should be identified and deported. st

What are the other issues that your party is talking about in the region, as issues of the rest of the country are different from that of the North-East? We will raise the issue of infrastructure in the region which is quite poor. The issue of immigration is equally important Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Cover story : Return of Prodigals

Farewell to arms The youth who picked up the gun met different fates: Many were killed in encounters with security forces; some were arrested and jailed while a good number of them surrendered before the security forces. Many such released militants joined separatist or mainstream politics. Some of them became MLAs and even ministers. Those who joined separatist political parties now preach peace and non-violence. Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Azam Inquilabi are examples of this breed of released militants.

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

A good number of those released after completing their sentences returned to the quiet family life of a common man. They distanced themselves from militancy and separatism, minding their home and hearth by starting businesses or returning to their pre-militant professions.

he year 1987 was a watershed in the turbulent history of Kashmir. The large scale rigging in the assembly elections that year turned Mohammad Yousuf Shah – one of the candidates in the elections – into Syed Salahudin, a name which became synonymous with militant separatism. This sparked off the bloody era of armed uprising which even today refuses to die. Though some youth had been flirting with militancy earlier also but mostly they were crusaders without a cause. As is widely believed, the rampant rigging provided them a reason to take up guns against the state.

The introduction of the gun into this Valley of Sufi saints attracted the youth who easily succumbed to the tempting romanticism that came with Kalashnikovs. Intoxicated with the brute power of guns, they were brainwashed by the fanatic militant leaders who tempered their resolve with a call to fight for Allah and Islam which were purportedly in danger under ‘Indian rule’. As a result, in the early 1990s droves of youth especially from the Valley crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to receive arms training on the other side of the divided state. The peak years of militancy saw violence, widespread bloodshed and gross violation of human rights by both the security forces and militants. This era left behind poignant human tragedies across the state. One important facet of the Kashmir militancy is that though unemployment, deprivation and lack of avenues were the excuses most of the youth offered for picking up the gun, a significant number of educated people – doctors, engineers, lawyers, professors and highly paid professionals – too, joined the armed separatists. At one point of time the number of local militants ran into the thousands. The potent anti-insurgency strategy of the security forces finally began to pay off. In the mid-1990s with the help of Ikhwan (militants-turned-counterinsurgents sponsored by the security agencies) not only the number of militants but also their capacity to Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

strike was brought under control. After much death and destruction, militancy is now grounded. Security agencies claim that there are not more than 800 militants active in J&K and that they too are on the run.The primary reason for this is disenchantment of the locals with the gun and the realization of the havoc it has played with their lives. Even though the funeral processions of the deceased militants are still attended by thousands of sloganeering people the fact is that the gun does not fascinate them any more. The youth who picked up the gun met different fates: Many were killed in encounters with security forces; some were arrested and jailed while a good number of them surrendered before the security forces. Many such released militants joined separatist or mainstream politics. Some of them became MLAs and even ministers. Those who joined separatist political parties now preach peace and nonviolence. Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Azam Inquilabi are examples of this breed of released militants. A good number of those released after completing their sentences returned to the quiet family life of a common man. They distanced themselves from militancy and separatism, minding their home and hearth by starting businesses or returning to their premilitant professions. The majority of such youth feel that separatist leaders cashed in on their sacrifices, secured the future of their children and are doing “business in the name of movement.” They realised that the gun consumed a generation of Kashmiris, ravaged thousands of families and shattered lives. But even more importantly their parents and relatives motivated them to abandon the path of the gun and return to family life. Militancy was the most tragic part of history of this paradise on Earth. Former militants and their past and present lives are a glaring example of this human tragedy.

Dis-armed struggle

They picked up the gun, lived a hard underground life and spent years in jails-their personal and family lives were shattered. Now, though not repentant for picking up the gun, the former militant commanders say dialogue and not gun is the solution. Pervez Majeed had a tête-à-tête with some of them. Name: Javaid Ahmad Mir Code Name: Same Age: 47 years Marital Status: Married; Two daughters Underground Life: 5 years Jailed For: 10 years

ormer militants’ thinking reveals it all.Javaid Ahmad Mir was a part of the first group of Kashmiri youth who crossed the LoC for arms training in early 1987. Others included Yasin Malik, Ashfaq Majeed Wani and Abdul Hameed Shiekh. These commanders of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) were known as the HAJI group, after the first alphabets of their names. This group introduced the gun in Kashmir and brainwashed youths to join the armed struggle. In the early 1990s the HAJI were the most wanted by the security agencies. Wani and Shiekh were killed by security forces, while Mir and Malik were captured. After their release they opted for peaceful political movement. Mir has remained the chief commander and then chairman of JKLF, one of the first militant groups, and perhaps the first to shun the gun for a peaceful political struggle. It is now divided into many factions. Mir says he is the only member in his family who couldn’t complete his graduation. Before joining militancy, Mir was a junior assistant in the PHE department. A one-time Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

‘fierce’ militant commander, Mir, now a member of the Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat Conference, is often seen leading peaceful protest demonstrations in Srinagar. “I have held about 550 protest demonstrations since my release,” he says. What has the gun given to Kashmiris? The gun brought Kashmir into international focus. We were ignored by all till then. That is why we were pushed to launch an armed struggle. And we succeeded in making the world listen to us. Do you repent picking up the gun? Not at all. I conscientiously sacrificed my life and career for my people. Even my father was brutally killed in custody. I don’t repent about anything. Should the militant struggle continue? I have been saying that the gun has served its purpose; now the issue has to be resolved on the table. I want the new generation of Kashmiris to be doctors and engineers, not bombers. Your solution to the Kashmir issue: I think the solution lies with India.

Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership have time and again shown willingness for dialogue, but India has adopted a rigid stance. On election boycott calls: Elections have been there since 1947, but they don’t affect the Kashmir issue. These are meant to run local administration affairs. On Pakistan: Nothing.

akistan has always been supporting the cause of the Kashmiris. As compared to India, Pakistan seems serious about resolving the issue peacefully. Babar Badar joined the separatist movement at the age of 19. During the peak years of militancy in Kashmir, Badar was a headache for the security agencies. He was chief commander of the Muslim Janbaz Force (MJF), a formidable and well-organized militant group during the early 1990s. Badar es-

Name: Firdous Sayeed Baba Code Name: Babar Badar Age: 42 years Marital Status: Married; Two kids Underground Life: 4 years Jailed For: 3 years

tablished the MJF as the second largest cadre-based militant group, second only to the Hizbul Mujahideen. With his arrest the militant group lost steam. Badar again came into the limelight when after his release, he alongwith three other top released militant commanders, held talks with the then home minister of the Congress government S B Chavan in March 1996. This was the first ever meeting between Kashmiri separatists and the Centre. The group had to face harsh criticism and threats from separatists and militants alike for the dialogue move. Badar later joined mainstream politics and was MLC of the National Conference for four years. Badar says that he has quit active politics since 2002. Though he joined the separatist movement at an early age and couldn’t pass even the 10th standard, Badar is a prolific writer. He runs an NGO and nowadays writes a column

for a local English daily, in which he advocates a non-militant solution to the Kashmir issue. For his ideological rivals in the separatist camp, he is a “traitor.” What has the gun given to Kashmiris? It undoubtedly had advantages and disadvantages. The introduction of the gun was like a big bang; it attracted world attention toward Kashmir. We thought perhaps it would help us in achieving our goal. But that goal is yet to be achieved. Do you repent picking up the gun? No. But one needs to revisit the strategy in any struggle.

cal movement, not the gun. Your solution to the Kashmir issue: Dialogue and not the gun is the solution. I am for a peaceful solution, which gives Kashmiris a sense of achievement. On election boycott calls: It will take a long time to solve the Kashmir issue. People can’t live without sadak, pani and bijli till then. Even [Syed Ali Shah] Geelani sahib, though very late, has accepted this reality. On Pakistan: If Pakistan prefers its national interests over the Kashmir issue, it is alright.

Should the militant struggle continue? In today’s world scenario, the gun is not accepted. Those who live in the world of realities won’t continue the militant struggle. Kashmiris need a logical politi-

The new kid on the block T he tendency among the militant leaders to join politics is growing. Almost all the militant commanders who were released from jails in the last few years have chosen to tread the political path, the latest being Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, a prominent commander of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front who has announced continuing the “struggle” politically. Zahoor, 37, is the younger

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

brother of Muhammad Maqbool Bhat, who sparked off the separatist movement in Kashmir. He was hanged in Tihar Jail in Delhi in 1984. Another brother of Bhat, Manzoor, also a JKLF commander, was killed in 1995. Zahoor first crossed the LoC in July 1988 for arms training. He returned with his wife and three children to the Valley after 20 years, on February 11, surfacing in his native village Treh-

gam in Kupwara district at a public gathering organized to mark the 25th death anniversary of Maqbool Bhat. Zahoor, now under arrest, slammed the separatist leaders for “dwarfing the movement,” and vowed to fight for the rights of all inhabitants of J&K, irrespective of region or religion. “The gun has served its purpose and now we need a peaceful political struggle,” Zahoor told Sahara Time. st

Name: Muhammad Akbar Bhat Code Name: Zaffar Abdul Fateh, Zaffar Akbar Bhat Age: 43 years Marital Status: Married; Three kids Underground Life: 15 years Jailed For: 5 years

ashmiri leadership couldn’t protect their national interest! Muhammad Akbar Bhat, a former divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen is one of the first lot of Kashmiri militants. He came to the forefront when Hizb, through its chief commander Abdul Majeed Dar, announced a historical ceasefire in July 2000. Subsequently, he was part of the Hizb’s team of commanders which met the then home secretary Kamal Panday in Srinagar in that year. However, the ceasefire lasted for 11 days only because of the internal rift in the Hizb. The bickering in the outfit over the ceasefire issue saw the mysterious killing of two ceasefire protagonists – Dar and Farooq Ahmad Mircha. Bhat was arrested in 2003, and after his release he began the Salvation Movement (SM), an or-

ganization of released militants, which seeks a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue. Bhat claims that the Salvation Movement has a regular membership of 21000. “More than seventy percent members of the SM are released militants,” he said. Bhat is being criticized by hawks in the separatist camp even though his brother and two prominent members (former Hizb commanders) were killed by suspected militants. Before joining separatism in 1988, he was a section officer at a premier Srinagar hospital.

Should the militant struggle continue? I believe the Kashmir issue can’t be solved with the gun. It needs dialogue and deliberations. The world doesn’t recognize a militant movement now. Your solution to the Kashmir issue: Trust amongst all parties of the dispute. Respecting life and honour of Kashmiris and healing their wounds through CBMs.

What has the gun given to Kashmiris? The Kashmir issue was like a buried dead body. The gun gave it a new life.

On Pakistan: Pakistan, despite being entangled in its own crisis, has been supporting our cause.

On election boycott calls: Elections have no bearing on the Kashmir issue.

Do you repent picking up the gun? No. Name : Name: Aftab Shah Code Name: Shahidul Islam Age: 43 years Marital Status: Married; two daughters Underground Life: 8 years Jailed For: 3 years

hahidul Islam joined the separatist movement in 1984. An LL.B., he practiced law for sometime in the J&K High Court in 1988. However, he abandoned law and joined militancy becoming the chief commander of Hizbollah, a potent militant outfit of its time. He galvanized militant activities in Srinagar city for many years. After his release, he became close to Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and was his political secretary for a long time. A few days back Shahid stirred the political pot when he quit the separatist camp and vowed to Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

“serve his people by nation building and by socially empowering them.” What has the gun given to Kashmiris? Gunshots in Kashmir highlighted the Kashmir issue internationally. Do you repent picking up the gun? No. I was not under any illusion that a few hundred boys will throw India out of Kashmir. Should the militant struggle continue? Militancy has its own life span. It is

now not acceptable to the international community. Your solution to the Kashmir issue:It can be solved through dialogue only. On election boycott calls: It doesn’t impact the Kashmir issue. Asking people to boycott elections is a mistake and should not be repeated. On Pakistan: Both India and Pakistan are responsible for the Kashmiris’ sufferingName:

I Ghulam Rasool Shah Code Name: Imran Rahi Age: 53 years Marital Status: Married; Four children Underground Life: 5 years

mran Rahi joined separatism in 1974 as a member of the Peoples League, one of the first separatist organizations of Kashmir. Later, with the onset of militancy, he became the deputy chief commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen. He was one of the 12 militants who escaped from Srinagar Central Jail in a sensational jailbreak in 1990. However, he was arrested later. Rahi was one of the four released militant commanders who held talks with the then home minister S B Chavan in March 1996. Rahi, who unsuccessfully fought the 2002 assembly elections, is now heading his own political outfitPeoples Party. What has the gun given to Kashmiris? We made the strangled voice of the Kashmiris heard all over the world.

sman Majeed is a strange albeit interesting character in the history of Kashmir militancy. His life as a militant commander was fraught with paradoxes and paradigm shifts. His journey from a militant leader to an MLA and then a minister in the state government is fascinating. A resident of Guroora village of Bandipore district in North Kashmir, Majeed crossed the LoC in late 1989. He returned to Kashmir in the spring of 1990 and was made deputy chief commander of the Students Liberation Front. Majeed was arrested, but released after 26 days in exchange for some government functionaries kidnapped by his organization. He again returned to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1992 where he was the caretaker of the training camp of the Ikhwanul Musalmeen. Majeed says that he has also remained the vicechairman of the United Jihad council (UJC) – a Muzaffarabad based amalgam Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Do you repent picking up the gun? We picked up the gun consciously. Now, we think it is not needed. . Should the militant struggle continue? Wars are not won through the gun. Even militants agree to that, but India is not responding. Your solution to the Kashmir issue: No way except dialogue.On election boycott calls: Nothing to do with the Kashmir issue. Separatists lack understanding of the ground. On Pakistan: Both the countries have made Kashmir the scapegoat.

Name: Abdul Majeed Ganaei Code Name: Usman Majeed Age: 47 years Marital Status: Married; Three daughters Underground Life: 4 years Jailed For: 26 Days of militant organizations active in Kashmir, nowadays headed by Syed Salahudin. He came back to Kashmir in 1994. He is one of the founders of the Awami League, an offshoot of Ikhwan, which was a loose network of government-sponsored gunmen who, supported by the security agencies, fought against militants across Kashmir. Majeed successfully fought the 2002 assembly elections from Bandipore constituency and became minister of state for planning and development in the Mufti Muhammad Sayeed government. He lost the seat to the PDP candidate in the recent polls. Majeed is one of the few surviving exmilitant commanders who openly and bitterly oppose militancy. “Shunning militancy was a difficult decision… a lot of people are after my life but I am happy to give it up,” he says. What has the gun given to Kashmiris? Nothing except death and destruction.

Gun ravaged Kashmiris politically, socially, morally, economically…in all spheres of life. Do you repent picking up the gun? Yes I do. I am deeply repentant for troubling my people by using the gun. Should the militant struggle continue? Militancy is our enemy. We should join hands to wipe it out. Your solution to the Kashmir issue? Kashmir is an integral part of India. It is only India and Pakistan who have to sort out their own issues. On election boycott calls: It is utter nonsense. Our institutions like Election Commission of India are respected the world over. On Pakistan: Pakistan is responsible for all the death and destruction in Kashmir. Now, it’s business as usual.

number of militants after their release from jail refused to join the separatist political parties as many others did. Instead, they chose to stay at home, opened shops, and started their own businesses or did some other work to earn their livelihood. Sahara Time correspondent Pervez Majeed profiles a few… Abdul Salaam Rather, 55, has been associated with separatism since the 1970s. He was a practising lawyer when he crossed the LoC. He was the “mastermind” of the Al-Jihad militant outfit. A good orator, Rather was one among the intellectually sound militant commanders. He spent nearly two years underground and four years in jail. Nowadays Rather practises law in his hometown Baramulla and was president of the Bar Association for three years. Today he can be seen criticizing separatists in discussions and intellectual gatherings and advocating a peaceful and logical solution to the Kashmir issue. “Every sane person will support dialogue to resolve any issue,” Rather says. Altaf Aalamgeer, 42, a resident of Nawab Bazar, Srinagar, was Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

chief commander of Al-Jihad, a prominent militant outfit of its time. He spent six years underground, was jailed for seven years and released in March 2000. After his release, he started a medicine business and is now a successful wholesale medicine dealer. He is married and takes care of his family and business. “Though I am not repentant about becoming a militant, the gun didn’t yield the expected results,” says Altaf. But why didn’t he join any separatist political party as other commanders usually do? “I think I have a responsibility towards my family, I have to work hard to make them happy,” he says. Hamidullah Bhat, 40, from Pulwama district, crossed the LoC for arms training in 1990. As an important member of the Hizbul Mujahideen, this “militant intellectual” handled the publicity section of the outfit in Kashmir and wrote articles for newspapers. Bhat remained underground for about four years and spent 15 months in jail. Released in October 1996, he shunned the separatist parties who wished to utilize the fertile brain of this thinker. “I deem the gun a failure and separatism

a callous business; both are futile,” he says. Nowadays, Bhat, a government teacher, is better known by his penname Hameed Saalik and is a wellknown columnist, writing regular political columns for the prominent Urdu weekly Chattan, in which he lashes out at the separatists’ policies. Farooq Ahmad Dagga, 42, joined separatism at the age of 20, in 1987. A prominent commander of the Muslim Janbaz Force in sensitive Kupwara district, he remained underground for nearly two years. Twice arrested, he spent around three years in jails. After his release in 1993, he didn’t join any separatist political group, as was the trend then. Rather he started working to earn a living, and now he is a known government contractor. He also heads the Government Contractors Association of Kupwara town. Father of a girl, Dagga says “the movement has turned into a business” and that he hates this business. “Nevertheless,” he asserts, “peace can’t be established unless Kashmiris are given their genuine political rights.” st

“I was an intelligent student, I wanted to go to the university for a doctorate, but my dreams are shattered,” he laments.

Tragic saga of a militant Pervez Majeed /Srinagar

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

uring his routine sorties on the bumpy Srinagar roads, Imtiyaz, 38, almost always lapses into contemplation – the future of his two kids worries him. He drives a passenger mini-bus for a Srinagar transporter for Rs 4,000 a month to support his family of six including his old, frail parents. And he always repents a “mistake” he committed more than eighteen years back - giving in to the temptation of wielding a Kalashnikov and the brute thrill that came with it. This is the tragic saga of a typical Kashmiri militant! Imtiyaz was a first year B Sc student in a Srinagar college, when militancy erupted in Jammu and Kashmir. The glittering Kalashnikovs the militants used to brandish in their neighbourhood in old Srinagar city fascinated him. He, along with two other boys of his locality crossed the Line of Control for arms training. “The gun had romance attached to it; like many other boys of my age, I wanted to have one on my shoulders,” Imtiyaz says. Without informing his parents, he left home along with a dozen other enthusiastic Kashmiri youth and crossed the LoC in the summer of 1990. After training for two months in a camp in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir he returned with a Kalashanikov. In the Srinagar localities, he, like hordes of militants, proudly used to flaunt his arms. His days were spent in moving from one hideout to another with other militants, occasional grenade attacks on security forces’ pickets and meetings with commanders in which plans were made “which security force camp or bunker is to be attacked tomorrow.” Some four months after Imtiyaz’s tryst with guerrilla warfare, he was caught by the security forces. He was tortured during interrogation and made to handover to his interrogators all his weapons including that glittering Kalashnikov. He was kept in different security camps in the city for many months, before being sent to a Jammu jail. He served more than three years in jail, for “unlawful border crossing, possessing il-

legal arms and waging war against the sovereignty of India.” After his release, there were more ordeals waiting for him. Every week, he was summoned by the security force camp of his locality and often beaten and humiliated. He was jobless. Because of his militant background not even a shopkeeper was willing to hire him as a salesman. “That was a wretched life I lived for many years,” Imtiyaz recollects. His father, a labourer, was unable to feed the family. So Imtiyaz too started earning as a labourer to support his family. For many years, he toiled as a labourer. On the advice of another released militant, he took the job of a bus conductor. Later, he learnt to drive. For the last six years he has been driving a city mini-bus. He got married, and has two sons, both studying in a government primary school. As a driver, Imtiyaz hardly manages to feed his family. “I am not able to do any other work. The security forces tortured me brutally during interrogation and I am not keeping good health.” “I was an intelligent student I wanted to go to the university for a doctorate, but my dreams are shattered,” he laments. Do you repent picking up the gun? “Yes, I think I betrayed my parents,” Imtiyaz sighs. “I ravaged my life. I am neither a good son nor a good father and husband…I am not able to provide quality education to my children, I feel guilty,” he laments.Imtiyaz says Kashmir is a political issue and that gun can’t solve it. “Kashmiri youth made a blunder by picking up the gun; it gave us nothing except tragedies.” Citing his own example, Imtiyaz says, “I could have served my family and my people better if I was armed with knowledge rather than a gun,” he explains. However, he hastens to add, “ The intention of the youth who resorted to arms should not be doubted, that would be injustice, they were innocent like me and got trapped in a situation.” Imtiyaz didn’t allow taking his picture. “Please don’t show me to people, I have not done anything to be admired!” st

Nation: Bihar this state more than others, civil service officers are BABUS TO Inshowing their true political colours by opting out of service DON KHADI and seeking tickets to contest elections Shivangi Sinha Patna

f reports doing the rounds are to be believed, many civil service officials and khaki-clad top cops are going to don khadi in the 2009 parliamentary election. They are going to throw their hats in the ring in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Most of them would be candidates of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar.The name of Gupteshwar Pandey, till recently inspector general (security), is in the clear. His application for the voluntary retirement scheme has been accepted and he is most likely to be the BJP candidate from Buxar parliamentary seat. Till now Lalmuni Chaubey of the BJP has been representing that seat. Though the real picture would emerge only after the seat-sharing arrangement between respective alliance partners is finalized, yet there are many who are eagerly waiting for the ticket.Former IPS officer Balbir Chand is once again trying to get the BJP ticket from the Gaya parliamentary constituency. In 2004, he unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha poll on a BJP ticket from there. However, Sukhdeo Paswan, another BJP leader, is also in the running. Reports also say that an IAS officer, considered to be close to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, is also likely to be fielded from Nalanda as a Janata Dal (United) candidate. The UP cadre IAS officer hails from the same district, which incidentally is the home turf of the chief minister.Now it remains to be seen from where the former Union defence minister George Fernandes would contest. Some time back he announced that he would shift from Muzaffarpur to Nalanda. Former director general of Bihar police, Ashish Ranjan Sinha, is also likely to jump into the fray. However, it is not yet clear from which constituency he would be fielded. He is a Kurmi, the caste to which the chief minister belongs. However, Sinha was close to the RJD chief Lalu Prasad too, when the latter and his wife were in power in Bihar.Another IPS officer, who too is said to be close to chief minister and Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

belongs to his caste, is aspiring to enter the Lok Sabha. However, it is not yet clear whether he would get the ticket or not.It needs to be mentioned that in 2004 Nitish saw to it that no Kurmi, apart from himself, gets a Lok Sabha ticket from the NDA. Ram Swaroop Prasad, a Kurmi leader, was elected only in the by-election in 2006 after Nitish vacated the seat. He has now deserted the party. This time, a couple of Kurmi candidates are likely to contest on the NDA tickets. However, the RJD is also likely to field a bureaucrat. The name of a former district magistrate of Bhagalpur is also doing the rounds in political circles. It is believed that the officer might contest the coming election from any Yadavdominated constituency.Similarly, former IAS officer Munni Lal Paswan and former IPS officer Nikhil Kumar are all set to contest the election again on BJP and Congress tickets respectively.However, the biggest surprise is the likely candidature of principal home secretary, Afzal Amanullah. He is likely to be made the Janata Dal (U) candidate from Kishanganj seat. However, till now the BJP is making claim on the seat, though it unsuccessfully contested from here last time.Earlier, there was a rumour that Afzalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife Parween Amanullah, a social activist, would be contesting the election on a Janata Dal (U) ticket. Parween is the daughter of diplomat and former Kishanganj MP, Syed Shahabuddin, who in 1978 quit the Indian Foreign Service and joined politics. Though Shahabuddin is known for his anti-BJP stance, he still has good relations with a couple of BJP top brass.If Afzal or Parween gets the Janata Dal (U) ticket, it is likely to have an impact on the politics of Shahabuddin too. Many seasoned politicians, especially of the NDA, are now a disheartened lot as they may be denied ticket to accommodate the IAS and IPS officers. With Nitish Kumar calling the shots, their political space is simply shrinking. st

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .............................................................................................................. 25

Nation: Poll 09

Harried Father Arjun Singhs son & daughter are both in the fray of a Lok Sabha ticket, but Digvijay Singh may spike thier chances

NEW DELHI NOV 8. Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party took the lead over the Congress in naming candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls, consensus continued to elude the Congress Screening Committee constituted to scrutinise party candidates for the 70 Assembly segments in the Capital. With no agreement on a majority of the seats in sight, the Committee is all set to send its “recommendations’’ to the Central Election Committee chaired by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, which is scheduled to take up discussions on Delhi tomorrow. It is learnt that the proceedings of the Committee have remained deadlocked amid claims and counter claims by warring factions. With no breakthrough in sight, the Committee is understood to have decided to send all the relevant recommendations to the CEC for its consideration. It is learnt the Committee has been able to zero down on around 25 single names for as much constituencies. A panel of around five names has been formed in around eight constituencies, six in one constituency and two to three names in majority of the constituencies. A dispute of sorts seems to have arisen over dropping of Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

some sitting MLAs as both the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit and the DPCC president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, are not able to agree who all should be axed and who should replace them in order to give a fresh look to the new team. But certainly a number of sitting MLAs seem to be in trouble after the scrutiny of their records by the Screening Committee headed by the AICC leader, Motilal Vora. Leading the band of sitting MLAs, about whom questions have been raised, is the Tilak Nagar MLA, Jaspal Singh. Considered close to the AICC leader, Arjun Singh, the Tilak Nagar legislator is facing strong protests from his own party and cadres. The block president and the sitting Congress Councillors are understood to have written to the party High Command and the Screening Committee stating that they would not support the candidature of Mr. Singh. In fact, the local Councillor, Anita Babbar, who is at loggerheads with Mr. Singh, along with the Block President, B. R. Malhotra, are protesting against granting of party ticket to Mr. Jaspal Singh, who is also supported by Ms. Dikshit. Similarly, the Hauz Khas sitting

MLA, Kiran Walia, is also facing trouble and could find the going tough. In fact, she has a strong opponent in shape of Bina Singh, daughter of senior AICC leader, Arjun Singh. The party is also exploring the possibility of fielding a social worker and activist from this seat. Similarly, Charan Singh Kandera, sitting MLA from Narela, is facing stiff opposition from within his constituency and the party for nonperformance. He has also reportedly not found favour with the Committee. It is learnt the Screening Committee has also identified Kamal Yadav (Najafgarh), Mahinder Yadav (Palam), Darshana Ram Kumar (Ram Nagar), Moti Lal Bakolia (Karol Bagh), Amrish Gautam (Patparganj) and Radhey Shyam Khanna (Rohtas Nagar) among the sitting MLAs who could find the going tough if given a re-nomination. It is expected the CEC would discuss the names by tomorrow evening but no announcement is expected before November 10 late night. It is learnt the party would announce a small list around November 11 and then release the larger list on November 13, a day before the last date for filling of nominations. st

Close encounter: Manishankar Aiyar

Two cooks spoil the broth It was a nasty surprise for the Congress when Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan entered into a seatsharing arraWngement

he Congress leadership is bruised and baffled, looking for cover after the joint announcement of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Lok Janshakti chief Ram Vilas Paswan that they would contest on 37 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, thus leaving the Congress sulking at only three. The RJD decided to contest 25 Lok Sabha seats and the Lok Janshakti bagged 12 in its kitty to share the larger part of seats in the politically significant state. Senior Congress leaders are huddled together, considering the prospects of contesting alone after the RJD inflicted injury upon them. In such a case, they might opt for contesting 20-odd seats. The aggressive reaction of the Congress has put the Lalu-Paswan duo on the back foot. Facing the heat, sources claimed that Lalu unofficially agreed to concede two more seats from his pocket and one from the chunk of Paswan's 12 seats in order to persuade the Congress leadership to join the seat-sharing arrangement.Lalu's resilience also emanated from the fact that Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

his brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav revolted after the denial of Lok Sabha ticket and landed at the residence of Sushil Kumar Shinde, seeking a Congress ticket. As the situation turned fluid, former RJD minister and Dalit leader Ramai Ram also landed in the Congress camp, followed by veteran Jai Narain Nishad and Lovely Anand (wife of former MP Anand Mohan). The RJD leader Pappu Yadav and his wife Ranjeeta Ranjan are also trying for Congress tickets. Thus, the fast political development has put the RJD chief on the back foot. The announcement by the Lalu-Paswan duo has marginalized the Congress in the state to the extent that the party may not be able to recover till 2020. This is the reason why Congress leaders went for an aggressive posturing to salvage the situation in the state. Senior Congress leaders including former PCC chief Sadanand Singh, AICC secretary Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaisar and member of the AICC election committee Dr Ashok Kumar met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to save party workers from humiliation.

Sonia gave priority to party workers and declined audience to Lalu Yadav on March 17. Instead, she agreed to meet Lalu and Paswan on March 18 to sort out the contentious issue. The in-charge of central election committee for Bihar, Sushil Kumar Shinde, said that the state leadership of the party had prepared a list of 11 candidates. "How can we show our face to the people?" Shinde asked reporters and assured that he will revert after two days. Several Congress leaders from Bihar rushed to meet the external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and seek his intervention to sort out the Bihar imbroglio. Pranab obliged them by seeking exclusive audience with Sonia on this matter on March 17. For the first time in the five-year UPA rule, the Congress leaders have put Lalu on the defensive by considering fielding 20 candidates in the state. It remains to be seen whether Lalu recaptures the political mileage or the Congress leaders tames this wily Bihar politician. st

Nation: Poll09

Pawar’s Ploy Shikha Parihar / New Delhi

n Friday, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar could not fly to Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, to attend a rally organised by the antiCongress platform of the Left parties and the Biju Janata Dal due to “technical snag” in his aircraft. Pawar’s presence would have given a severe psychological jolt to the Congress with whom his party has an alliance in Maharashtra for the coming election. He and his colleague Praful Patel are part of the Union Cabinet and his party is an important part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance . The excuse given by Pawar cannot be easily believed because he could have organised a private aircraft at short notice given that his confidante Praful Patel is civil aviation minister. It seems that like the old Chinese warriors, Pawar is sidestepping and not retreating.He is giving the cold-shoulder to the Left parties and the Third Front but more importantly, he is playing cold-blooded politics with the Congress Some experts have incorrectly observed that the softly-worded warning by Home Minister P Chidambaram, who has an ego-tussle with Pawar over security to the Indian Premier League, has deterred the Maratha politician from flying to Orissa.As rediff.com reported on Thursday, Janardan Dwivedi, Congress media campaign chief, said, “The Congress party has already clarified its position earlier that there would be no alliances with any party at the national level but only at the state level. As far as Pawar is concerned and whatever he is doing in Orissa, it is for him to think whether it is correct ethically and morally”.Dwivedi almost warned Pawar when he said, “The Congress values its relationship with its alliance partners but that does not mean that we will compromise with our ideology and policies. He will be responsible for the consequences of his actions.”Now, what Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

could be the possible ‘consequences’ and what could be the possible ‘action’ Dwivedi is talking about?Those who claim that Pawar bowed down to Chidambarams or Dwivedis do not know the stuff that Pawar is made of. Hopefully, the Congress is aware that the consequences of a tussle with Pawar means in coming assembly elections in Maharashtra, the NCP and Congress alliance will come under pressure and could also break. It is no secret that Pawar has ambitions to become prime minister. In this ugly season of political ‘free for all’, Pawar is trying to keep the windows open for post-poll manoeuvring. Since last few months, he was in touch with Left leaders A B Bardhan and Prakash Karat and he is in position to lobby with the BJP and it’s allies in the NDA if the need arises.But, since his party is likely to win around 12 Lok Sabha seats or so, Pawar is treading carefully on his home turf of Maharashtra. Even today, Pawar’s main focus is assembly elections and he can not blur his focus.He took the decision to not attend the rally in Orissa on Thursday. Pawar was in Vidrabha region. In Khamgaon constituency of Buldhana he praised Congress President Sonia Gandhi to the skies.He said five years back Sonia Gandhi formed an alliance of secular parties and because of her this country is safe. He praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also.“Manmohan Singh is a very nice person. He has truly worked for the development of the country. I was lucky that I was a part of his cabinet,” said Pawar. Right now, till the day of election apparently he is fighting against BJP and Shiv Sena so he is talking against communalism. The demand of the times is such that Pawar said in a unique speech delivered through a cell phone in Orissa that, “I am not with the Third Front. There is a difference between Third Front and BJD. We

Pawar understands Maharashtra politics like nobody does. He is the son of soil with an impressive track record. Pawar was doing politics of development when Modi was a college student. His power stems from micromanaging Maharashtra politics. He has taken care of vested interests of the sugar co-operatives lobby and through them he has taken care of local politics right up to the village level.He is the man, the Late Pramod Mahajan used to say, who holds power even when he is out of power.

want to continue with the UPA.”These days, he is speaking against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to win the trust of the Muslims in Vidarbha. If he would have gone to Bhubaneshwar, the Congress cadre would have surely boycotted NCP candidates. In Maharashtra, where the NCP is fighting 22 seats, his candidates will be in trouble if Congress workers sabotage the NCP’s campaign. Congress is fighting in 26 seats and the alliance is quite vulnerable, both ways.Whatever Pawar is talking now is only for consumption of voters for the Lok Sabha elections but whatever he will be doing after the election will be to nurture his vested interests in the assembly election which are due this winter.Dwivedi’s harsh remarks are not appropriate at all for Congress in view of Pawar’s larger game-plan. When Pawar turned 60, entire Maharashtra celebrated his birthday. At that time, his daughter Supriya Sule had said in an interview that after so many years she has been unable to understand her father! How true! His friends also say that Pawar is deep and mysterious. He is a difficult politician to understand.His native Baramati was dry area where in 1970s he developed the scheme of water management and that did wonders for people. Agriculture development in and around Baramati was a pioneering effort in the country.Baramati’s development is seen to be believed. Pawar’s private businesses, his alleged links with underworld gangs, his tenure as chief minister during the communal tension in Mumbai and serious corruption charges against him and his family has not overshadowed his capacity to govern. That is the clout of being Pawar. Long before people of New Delhi understood the power of regional politics, Pawar recognised it. He won the Lok Sabha election from Baramati in 1984 for the first Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

time. In March 1985, he also won state assembly elections from Baramati. Pawar being Pawar preferred to continue in state politics. He resigned from the Lok Sabha and became the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.For the NCP it is okay if Pawar did not fly to have a photo-op with Karat. Of course, that’s a net loss to Karat but the Congress will not be able to rejoice for long.Gajanan Janbhor, senior editor of Lokmat, says, “Nobody can be sure when Pawar can take a U-turn. If Mulayam Singh Yadav can shake hands with Kalyan Singh why can’t Pawar have an alliance with the Shiv Sena in the coming election?” Move around Maharashtra and in all places where Congress candidates are facing Shiv Sena going is getting tough for the Congress. There is no evidence of a secret understanding between the Shiv Sena and NCP but already observers are calculating the effects of NCP’s Maratha vote bank’s and Shiv Sena’s OBC’s vote bank. (In the 2004 assembly elections, the Shiv Sena got 19.9 percent of the votes and NCP got 18.75 percent)How will the Brahmin and Dalit vote go in the assembly election and will it radically transform the state politics forever? For more than a decade, the Congress is unable to make in roads in UP, Bihar and Tamil Nadu due to two regional alliances who dominate the political space. If after the Lok Sabha election, Pawar finds the Congress weak or playing hard ball with him then a Shiv Sena-NCP alliance can not be ruled out.It will be radical but it is not impossible.If UPA loses power or the Third Front does not work out then Pawar will play his big game for sure.A Mumbai-based senior journalist points out that in seats like Satara, Nagpur and Kolhapur one can already see that undercurrent. In a very Mumbai dialect he told me, “Pawar-Sena ka setting lagta hai.” st

Nation : Uttarakhand

BJP FORGETS RAM The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani launched the party’s Lok Sabha campaign by grading Manmohan Singh as the weakest prime minister of the country. “This is the first time in the history of the country that a prime minister cannot take any decision on his own. He has to consult 10, Janpath for each

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Advani did not mention Ram or the Ram Temple or Ganga even once during his address to a rally in Uttarakhand. Amitabh Shrivastava Dehradun and every decision,” Advani thundered at the ‘Sankalp Rally’ of the party at the Parade Ground, Dehradun.Even though the elections in Uttarakhand have been scheduled for May 13, the BJP launched its campaign by bringing in Advani for a rally in Dehradun on March 8. BJP president Rajnath Singh, who was

also scheduled to attend, could not make it. The function was timed to celebrate the completion of two years in office by the BJP government in the state headed by Lt General (Retd) B C Khanduri who had taken oath as chief minister on March 8, 2007.The audience was surprised that the prime ministeriTemple or Ganga even once during his 45-minute address.It was left to Rajya Sabha MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the former chief minister of the state, to mention that the choice before the people wasbetween Rome Rajya and Ram Rajya. “Do we want an India known for Sita or a Sonia?” he asked the audience. The BJP had declared its candidates for the five seats in the state almost on the day the elections were announced. Two names in the list -- those of Jaspal Rana for the Tehri seat and that of education minister Madan Kaushik for Hardwar -- met with some resistance at the local level but even that whimper of protest died down once it became clear that the party high command was not willing to change its mind. Currently, the BJP has two seats out of five. These seats are: Bachi Singh Rawat from Almora and T P S Rawat from Pauri Garhwal. Two seats are with the Congress: Vijay Bahuguna from Tehri and K C Singh Bawa from Nainital. Rajendra Singh Badi is the Samajwadi Party MP from Hardwar. All the five candidates of the BJP were present on the dais as Advani presented a grim scenario of the chaos created by the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh. “Unemployment is increasing at a rapid pace and the scene is only going to worsen in the next six months when more than 1.5 crore people will be without jobs,” Advani told the audience.Patting the Khanduri government profusely for its performance in two years, he said that Khanduri’s work style was transparent as minister for surface transport at the Centre and he had set an example in Uttarakhand in the same manner. Striking a nostalgic note, Advani stated that even though he had travelled to all the 28 states, he had a special affinity with Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand which had been created by the NDA government to ensure efficiency and better governance.Talking about terrorism, the former deputy prime minister condemned the UPA for not implementing the Supreme Court order to execute Afzal due to votebank politics. “The BJP stands for zero tolerance in two fields: terrorism and corruption,” he promised to the people and asked them to throw out the UPA in the coming elections. However, the fissures in the BJP could not be hidden even during the rally. Trivendra Singh Rawat, minister for agriculture, who was asked to garland the chief minister, refused to do so even though he was present on the state.A prominent MLA of the BJP Munna Singh Chauhan decided not to share the dais but said that he was watching the proceedings standing among the audience. Since then he has been telling the media that he was not happy with the treatment being meted out to him by the party. The Congress has not been able to announce its list for the five seats due to the towering ambitions of its leaders who are camping in Delhi for the last two weeks to get their candidates in. However, Suryakant Dhasmana, media coordinator of the Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee, retorted to Advani’s comment on Manmohan Singh. “If our Prime Minister is taking advice from10, Janpath, what is the problem? Soniaji is the party president and a duly elected MP. If the Prime Minister does not consult her, should he consult Nagpur for every decision as the BJP does?” said Dhasmana. The BJP tried to get maximum mileage out of the festival of colours Holi, as Khanduri and his arch rival Koshyari tried to meet their voters and supporters a day before Holi at their respective residences to show their strength. Khanduri, known for his curt behaviour, actually danced to the tunes of Garhwali songs along with his wife for almost an hour at his residence in the presence of his officers and the media, much to everyone’s surprise.The Samajwadi Party and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal are also trying to out up a brave show in the elections by announcing their candidates for some seats. But since both are expecting an agreement with the Congress and the BJP at the last minute, neither their workers nor the common man is taking these parties seriously and the situation remains fluid.

As Varun plays communal card

he strident communal overtones of the campaign being run by "the other" Gandhi son, Varun, contesting his maiden Lok Sabha election from Pillibhit, has left even workers of his BJP shocked and it may trigger a communal clash. While "Jai Shri Ram" is his battle-cry at all roadside meetings or assemblies, he said at the Dalchand meeting: "Agar kissi galat tatv ke aadmi ne, kisi Hindu pe haath uthaya ya hinduon ke upar yeh samajh key ki yeh kamzor hain, unke peeche koi nahi hai... Hinduon ke upar haath uthaya, mein Gita ki kasam khake kehta hoon ki mein uss haath ko kaat daaloonga (If somebody lifts a hand against Hindus, or thinks they are weak, there is nobody behind them, then I swear on the Bhagvad Gita that I will chop off that hand)." st

Nation: Tripura

Books survive bullets The eighties saw eruption of bloody communal clashes and ethnic insurgency in Tripura that threatened to destroy the social fabric of the state. But also born during those tumultuous times was the Agartala Book Fair that has tried to restore some sanity in the state

he haunting Madhavi escapes the rustle of spring, acrid with the smell of gunpowder” – These lines by an eminent literary figure of Tripura, Chandra Kanta Murasingh say it all about the changes Tripura suffered during the eighties, due to ethnic unrest and insurgency which still flare up time and again. In 1980, the bloody ethnic clashes in the state took not only hundreds of lives mostly in the remote interiors but also of age-old communal bonhomie, making the state as the hotbed of ethnic insurgency. In those violent times was born Agartala Book Fair, held for the first time in 1981; people of Tripura took to books to find peace and forget, although only temporarily, their horrors. “In the backdrop of the ethnic clashes of 1980, the starting of the book fair in Tripura was a very momentous initiative because in those traumatic times the fair worked as a balm for the pains that people were suffering,” says Subhabrata Deb, a renowned publisher in Tripura. Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

While in the country’s heartland many big-budget book fairs are held where people get to read and buy the bestsellers, in Tripura’s capital Agartala, book fair has simply redefined the role of books in people’s life. As the tiny northeastern state has matured over the years, so has its annual book fair, whose 27th edition held recently saw 150 stalls of participants, making it the biggest book fiesta in the trouble-torn region. “The Agartala book fair is something that has not only helped the state but the entire North-East. Many North-Eastern states that are plagued by insurgency are now promoting book fairs. The North-East does not have many avenues to stay connected to the rest of the world and the annual book fair is a gateway to the world,” says eminent lawyer Subhashish Talapatra. Over the last 25 years this annual event in Agartala has immensely contributed to Tripura’s social paradigm. “In the early days of insurgency, terror

was writ-large on every face and books bought from the book fair helped us relax. Tripura’s rich tradition in reading and writing took off from book fairs. The publishing industry in Tripura that is now the best in North-East is a spin off the book fair. Most importantly, the local tribal language Kokborok has greatly benefited from these fairs. A lot of books in Kokborok have been published,” explains Tapas Dey, a political analyst in Agartala. The observations of the experts find credence if one visits the book fair at Agartala. Its latest edition saw a daily turnout of 13 lakh people. All were busy reading and buying books, proving beyond doubt that high literacy rate of northeast has helped the growth of what academicians term as ‘book culture’, giving a tremendous boost to publishing industry in regional languages in addition to the mainstream languages like English, Hindi and Bengali. In fact, books in Kokborok, Manipuri, Assamese and

Over the years the tribals of Tripura have given up arms to join the mainstream Subsequently, Kokborok has flourished, as have the literary works in it.

Chakma language are regular bestsellers. In the 27th version of the fair, 35 books in Kokborok were released. “The development of language and its literature is very important for any community. Over the years the tribals of Tripura have given up arms to join the mainstream. Subsequently Kokborok has flourished, as have the literary works in it. Obviously, the spark for this amazing success story of Kokborok came from the annual book fair. The book fair has been a massive movement here,” says Kumud Kundu Choudhury, a nontribal scholar whose book in Kokborok – Kereng Kothama, has been an alltime bestseller. The publication houses of Tripura boast of more than 300 books in various tribal languages – enough reason for the educated tribal youths to take up writing as a serious career. “Books have helped the tribal society of Tripura as we not only got to understand the problem but are also inspired to read and write in our own Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

language. Now tribal language books sell like hotcakes,” says Sephali Debbarma, a tribal author. In the North-East more people have lost their lives to insurgency than even in Jammu and Kashmir. But the scare of terror attacks, though deep-rooted in the minds of people here, has failed to dampen their love for books. “We do not have many big events here and the book fair is something we look forward to with great expectation. It’s like a festival for us where we enjoy our travel to the world of books,” says Subhrajit Bhattacharjee, a young writer from Tripura. The way books have blended with the life of people here and have helped them de-stress from the horrors of terror is something that has amazed people across the country. “For us, publishing books is a profession but I am surprised at the emotion people show towards books. In fact publishers here participate in the book fair despite financial crunch. I feel Tripura book fair should be a model for the rest of the

nation,” opined Vikas Singh, a publisher from New Delhi who participates in Agartala Book Fair every year. Apart from providing a platform to the literary works in Tripura’s tribal languages, book fair has also been a lifeline for the rich folklore of the state. “It’s the only book fair that opens avenues for the publications in tribal languages, inspiring people to write on the folklore of Tripura. Even today when the tribal society is witnessing rapid changes, youngsters are picking up books on their folktales. It is incredible,” says tribal leader Shymacharan Tripura. Agartala has evolved as the epicenter of publication in the NorthEast paving way for employment and books are kindling new hopes amid the disgruntled lot. st

Special Report:Festival Disaster

UnHoli colours Even as the wheat crops of my field are drying, I am helpless now to feed my 足ageing parents and children. Doctors of Sarvodaya Hospital in Faridabad have told me to undergo surgery followed by one month's 足bed-rest Bharat Singh, victim

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Harmful gulal has blackened the world of more than 80 villagers in Haryana â&#x20AC;&#x201C; at least four of them permanently

an the festival of colours take away all the colours of life? Ask 35-something Bharat Singh of this village and he would curse his fate: "Life, at this moment, is nothing more a burden for me. Even for attending the nature's call, I have to depend on my sixyear-old son."Right from the morning of March 12 (one day after the Holi festival), all the youth of Sondhad village were full of zeal and enthusiasm for the celebrations of Fuldol â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the traditional colour carnival of this village. But by evening, darkness covered their lives when, at around 5 pm, at least 80 people were left partially or completely blind in that village. The victims were mostly boys studying in colleges whose sight was affected after playing with harmful gulal. The shopkeeper who sold the colour has gone into hiding, so it could not be ascertained where he got the stock from. Bharat narrates the fateful incident: "Nobody knew that the yellow and red colours will take away the light from our world. Soon after colour was sprinkled on our counterparts from the roofs of the chaupal, the cheers of Holi turned into cries of blindings. Even as the wheat crops of my field are drying, I am helpless now to feed my ageing parents and children. Doctors of Sarvodaya Hospital in Faridabad have told me to undergo surgery followed by one month's bed-rest." Incidentally, he is the only earning member of his family, consisting of septuagenarian parents, his wife and three siblings. Another victim Ranvir is doing the diploma course in engineering at Rohtak. Doctors are not sure about the line of treatment to follow, according to Ranvir. "It all happened within minutes. I had come to my village to celebrate Fuldol with my friends here, but the contaminated colour has blackened my future," he said, adding, "Our relatives at once took us to government hospital at Hodal, but due to unavailability of appropriate medicines, we got the bandages and pain-killers from a private nursing home at Palwal." The fateful incident has turned Sachin (14) insomniac. Her mother Lajwanti complains: "Fuldol has taken away our only hope. My only son now neither eats nor sleeps. I will trek to Vaishno Devi if his eyes are cured." Sitting beside his mother, this class-IX student said: "I was the cricket captain of my school. The inter-school tournament has already started, but I can't even watch my friends playing there. Death would be better than this life now." If other victims like Tularam (20), Phool (20), Deshraj (29), Dipu (23), Vedu (27), Bhoop (18) and Bhim Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

(30) are to be believed; altogether 83 persons lost their eyesight partially or completely. Tractor driver Bhim informed that two of them collapsed immediately. "Four from our group have lost their sight completely and the doctors have clearly said that they will have to undergo surgery," he told. Sexagenarian village pradhan Baljeet is perplexed. "Our village is famous for the Fuldol fair since long and all of us, especially the youths, actively participate in this festival. This year too, I had given the money to arrange colours at altogether 16 chaupals in the village. The start was also good, as no untoward incident took place from the starting point at Bawra Patti Chaupal to Mana Patti Chaupal. But after that the colours started showing their effects and we were left to see our boys falling prey one by one. Luckily, one of the directors of the health service of Haryana belongs to our village. He himself initiated all government help in this regard," he said. The Sahara Time team found a village in despair, with many people wearing dark glasses. Dr Manisha, who was treating patients in the village who suffered minor damage, said: "All the patients under my treatment are well now and within a day or two they'll be able to perform their routine work." When asked about the cause of the incident, she said: "Prima facie, it appears due to contamination in the colour. But till the laboratory confirms it, it will be a mere guess only." Chief medical officer of the Palwal district Aditya Chaudhary admitted that the eyes of four boys had been seriously damaged and nothing could be done at that stage. "I've asked for some specialist in this connection," he said. He, however, suspected that colour powder used by the boys had crushed glass or chemicals mixed in it. Meanwhile, Palwal district superintendent of police Sanjay Kumar said that the samples of the colour powder had been sent to forensic science laboratory at Madhuban. "As soon as the report comes, the case would be registered against everyone involved in it. Stern action will also be taken against them," he said. On the other hand, Palwal district deputy commissioner C R Rana claimed that all the victims are well now. "The district administration had offered them free medicare even in the private nursing homes, as they should feel satisfied. After all, eyes are a lifeline for anyone," he told Sahara Time. st

Special Report:Festival Disaster

Holi Hooligans

exagenarian village pradhan Baljeet is perplexed. “Our village is famous for the Fuldol fair since long and all of us, especially the youths, actively participate in this festival. This year too, I had given the money to arrange colours at altogether 16 chaupals in the village. The start was also good, as no untoward incident took place from the starting point at Bawra Patti Chaupal to Mana Patti Chaupal. But after that the colours started showing their effects and we were left to see our boys falling prey one by one. Luckily, one of the directors of the health service of Haryana belongs to our village. He himself initiated all government help in this regard,” he said. The Sahara Time team found a village in despair, with Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

many people wearing dark glasses. Dr Manisha, who was treating patients in the village who suffered minor damage, said: “All the patients under my treatment are well now and within a day or two they’ll be able to perform their routine work.” When asked about the cause of the incident, she said: “Prima facie, it appears due to contamination in the colour. But till the laboratory confirms it, it will be a mere guess only.” Chief medical officer of the Palwal district Aditya Chaudhary admitted that the eyes of four boys had been seriously damaged and nothing could be done at that stage. “I’ve asked for some specialist in this connection,” he said. He, however, suspected that colour powder used by the boys had crushed glass or chemicals mixed in it.

Meanwhile, Palwal district superintendent of police Sanjay Kumar said that the samples of the colour powder had been sent to forensic science laboratory at Madhuban. “As soon as the report comes, the case would be registered against everyone involved in it. Stern action will also be taken against them,” he said. On the other hand, Palwal district deputy commissioner C R Rana claimed that all the victims are well now. “The district administration had offered them free medicare even in the private nursing homes, as they should feel satisfied. After all, eyes are a lifeline for anyone,” he told Sahara Time. st

Cricket: Virender Sehwag

Pushing the boundries

hether he is facing a world-class fast bowler or a wily spinner – when Virender Sehwag is at his marauding best, there is absolutely no mercy for the bowler. Rendered helpless, he is simply sent on a leather hunt. From a middle-order batsman in his initial days to becoming one of the most explosive openers in the game, Sehwag has really come of age on the cricketing scene. But one thing that is still common in his past and his current opening status in world cricket: Sehwag's mindset is that the 'ball is supposed to live outside the boundary'. He always follows a simple strategy and that is to hit the ball as hard as he can. "He is a brilliant player and has his own style. At the moment he is performing extraordinarily well. The thing that makes him most dangerous is that he starts playing his powerful shots from the very first ball of the game. No matter whether it's a Test, Twenty20 or a One-Day International. The reason behind his success in all the formats is that he never takes any kind of pressure on him while batting. He has his own natural technique which is good enough to tackle any kind of bowler in this world," says the former Indian opener Chetan Chauhan who has watched Sehwag closely. Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

When in a punishing mood, Virender Sehwag can make reputed bowlers look quite ordinary with his scintillating strokeplay

Though Sehwag is not technically very sound, he still manages to excel in the opening slot due to his superb hand-eye coordination and his ability to take the attack to the opposition with his unique style of audacious batting. And the awesome power in his strokes is the result of his high backlift. For a long time, Sachin Tendulkar was the batsman the opposition were scared off, but now Virender Sehwag seems to have taken over that mantle, while the maestro has now switched to the role of a mentor in the side. One of the reasons behind his success as an opener is his ability to chip the ball over the inner circle at the time when Power Play is on. By the time the Power Play comes to an end, he has most of the time given the team the momentum that makes life easy for the middle order to carry forward. He is one of those rare batsmen who had the guts to go to his 100 or even 300-run knock with a six. Sehwag's batting style proclaims loudly that for him Tests and ODIs have just one difference – that is the colour of the outfit and the ball. He has proved that technique is not all that matters, the thing that matters is to know your strengths and weaknesses and work over them. And in his recent run of rich form, Sehwag has added another weapon in his batting apart from his driving – the pull shot. The pull shot is a versatile, valu-

Cricket: Virender singh Sehwag able weapon, and in cultivating the stroke, Sehwag hasn't merely added a dimension – he has transformed his batting forever.After his comeback to the international arena, he has shown tremendous improvement in his game, especially against the deliveries pitched on the middle stump coming swiftly on to shoulder height. Earlier, it was an easy way out for the bowlers to disturb him a bit and get him out. But in the ongoing tour of New Zealand he has shown that now those deliveries are no more a sign of trouble as he repeatedly sent those deliveries out of the ground. Sehwag takes maximum number of risks while batting, sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't. And that's what Sehwag is all about. "I think Virender Sehwag, in my opinion, is probably the best batsman in the world. I would rate him as the best as of today. Because he can demolish any bowling attack, be it spin, swing, pace – and let's face it, he's got runs in all kinds of conditions. He's scored runs in England, he's scored runs in South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies – he has proved himself in all kinds of conditions," says Krishnamachari Srikkanth, chairman of selectors.

The former opener, himself a dasher in his heydays, was thrilled by Sehwag's exploits and went on to say: "I think the greatest quality in Sehwag is that he is very positive in his approach and he backs himself. He has tremendous self-confidence, which is very, very important. He is not scared to play his shots in any form of cricket – be it Twenty20, ODI or Test cricket". With adulation pouring in from all quarters, the Nawab of Najafgarah, it seems, is the toast of the cricket world – and why should he not be? His scintillating batting has been a treat for lovers of the game. Bowlers feel helpless and short of ideas when Sehwag starts playing his natural game and even sends the good length balls to the boundaries. His fans hope he will carry forward his current form for a long time, helping India to win the upcoming Test st

JEEV FINISHES FOURTH With adulation pouring in from all quarters, the Nawab of Najafgarah, it seems, is the toast of the cricket world – and why should he not be? His scintillating batting has been a treat for lovers of the game. Bowlers feel helpless and short of ideas when Sehwag starts playing his natural game and even sends the good length balls to the boundaries. His fans hope he will carry forward his current form for a long time, helping India to win the upcoming Test

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

cricket:IPL2009

A ray of hope After hectic consultations between BCCI, home ministry and the states, the second Indian Premier League seems to be finally on track

Arijeet Dutta / New Delhi

he cloud of uncertainty that was looming over the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) appears to have cleared as of now. The sigh of relief for the IPL comes after state governments reportedly expressed their satisfaction with the new re-revised schedule sent by the BCCI to the home ministry. The tournament appeared to have hit the roadblock when the MHA (ministry of home affairs) advised the IPL organisers that it may not be feasible to hold the matches as per the revised schedule proposed by them. Hence the IPL organisers were advised to accommodate the concerns of various state governments and draw up a re-revised schedule and submit the same to the MHA. "The ministry will take a decision after receiving a new schedule," a ministry statement said. Soon after the home ministry's latest directive to look for new dates, the IPL hierarchy was literally racing against time in order to salvage the cash-rich tournament. Lalit Modi, IPL commissioner and chairman, said that he was ready with the new dates and even admitted that he was tired of saying that the IPL is on track. In its bid to break the imbroglio over the issue, the home ministry officials met their BCCI counterparts to break the deadlock over the dates, but the meeting proved inconclusive, raising eyebrows over the fate of the event. N Srinivasan, BCCI secretary, who also owns the IPL team Chennai Super Kings, said that BCCI

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

would be rescheduling the dates soon. "We have also expressed our difficulties and our own concerns," said Srinivasan, who led the three-member BCCI team during the consultations with the home ministry. The IPL, as a matter of fact, had submitted a revised schedule but that was not acceptable to several states, including Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where the IPL matches would be played. "We are constantly fine-tuning the schedule to address the concerns of all the states hosting the matches. It is a tight situation and if need be, we may have to have three matches on a number of days or add some new venues to complete the event within the specific dates," an IPL source said. As per the new schedule, New Delhi and Jaipur, along with Vishakhapatnam, have been dropped as venues. Dharamshala, Ahmedabad and Nagpur are the three new venues. Mumbai will host the maximum number of matches â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 14 at two centres: DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and the Brabourne Stadium, followed by seven matches each in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The IPL is slated to begin on April 10 and end on May 24 as per the original plan. The constant dilly-dallying over the IPL dates and security matters had raised doubts over the tournament. Cricket writer Ashish Shukla says: "Time is running out fast

Cricket: Virender singh Sehwag The reason why IPL organisers are keen to hold the tournament is that any postponement would mean that the event has to be shelved till this period next year in view of the crammed cricketing calendar

for the IPL. If the dates issue is not solved soon, it could spell trouble for the tournament. Further, if the tournament matches are not played in April, English players could miss the event since they will be here for only three weeks. All in all, one can say it's now or never for the IPL". Another cricket analyst, C R Rao, says: "It's a risk for the government and the IPL organisers if they decide to go ahead with the tournament. One incident here and India as a venue for big sports events may be in doubt. Maybe even the World Cup 2011 and Commonwealth Games in 2010. Holding it will only benefit the IPL and its organisers, but one incident and it will harm the whole country and its reputation. The focus on India is like never before. Even an incident like the Jaipur blasts last time will be blown up much more". The reason why IPL organisers are keen to hold the tournament is that any postponement would mean that the event has to be shelved till this period next year in view of the crammed cricketing calendar. A postponement would also entail heavy financial losses for the organisers as well as the eight franchisees, many of whom have already gone ahead with their merchandising and ad campaigns. The teams that have already started preparing for the second edition are the Kolkata Knight Riders owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Rukh Khan. "King Khan" is producing Knights & Angels, the first ever-televised hunt show on NDTV Imagine to find cheerleaders for his side. The 24 girls have been selected after auditions in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. The parameters for their selection were dancing skills, inclination towards sports and overall personality and attitude. The objective is to encourage sports enthusiasts to take active interest in cheerleading. Rajasthan Royals, the champions of IPL 2008, in the run-up to second edition of the IPL are gearing up in style with a host of new initiatives planned with a view to engage the local community as well as the catchment areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat. These initiatives help build a strong fan base both in India and overseas. From new sporting gear for the team and for the fans, a new anthem called Halla Bol rendered by Anand Raj Anand, to a DVD capturing the fairytale success of the Royals. The franchisee is in talks with many Indian and international brands to launch formal wear, including Jodhpuris and other apparels. However, all these efforts of the franchisee owners could go waste if the tournament does not get the go-ahead in time. So with plenty at stake for the players involved, the IPL is an event which, if dropped, would be a costly proposition. st

Business: Nano Business: Nano

First Nano From Pantnagar

Tata’s exit decision came after the long political turmoil in West Bengal. Since the establishment of the factory in Singur, a spat begun between the ruling government and the opposition Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee.

n A major setback to industrialisation in communist ruled West Bengal, Tata Motors has decided to pull out of Singur. The company has decided to roll out first Nano from Pantnagar in Uttarakhand state. According to the sources, company will make an official announcement within a week. Meanwhile, the state government sources informed that Tata Motors has started to move out the equipments from the Singur plant. Several trucks loaded with the machines have started rolling out of the Singur Nano manufacturing factory. According to sources, the process of shifting the equipments had started ten days back. Tata’s exit decision came after the long political turmoil in West Bengal. Since the establishment of the factory in Singur, a spat begun between the ruling government and the opposition Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee. Mamata was demanding the return of 400 acres land to the farmers that was provided to Tatas for setting up the factory. The Trinamool Congress chief staged protests state-wide and in front of Nano manufacturing plant as well As the Tata Nano project was an important step for industrialisation in

West Bengal, so the state government tried to sort out the issue through talks. The state government’s efforts fastened after Ratan Tata’s warning that the company might shift the Nano plant to some other state.The state governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi talked to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee at Raj Bhavan to sort out the issue.After the talks Mamata announced that the government would return 300 acres of land and she suspended her dharna (protest) outside the manufacturing plant. But, later the chief minister clarified that the government had not made any such promise to Mamata. Since then no satisfactory decision could be taken by state government and the opposition. Tata Motors was in pressure to meet the October deadline for Rs 1 lakh car ’Nano’. As the situation in Singur was not favourable, the company decided to relocate the plant to Pantnagar. Exit of Tata from Singur is unfortunate and a major blow to the country’s less industrialised state West Bengal. Bottom line is that Mamata’s irritable demand has pushed the state backward and it would discourage investors as well. st

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

International: Pakistan

Past Catching up

f the three As that control and guide the destiny of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (IRP), two â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Arabia and America leveraged their influence to avert an immediate political crisis in that country triggered by the street politics of Nawaz Sharif in the first fortnight of March. While the Saudis, who hosted him during his long years of exile during the previous military regime, worked on a belligerent Sharif to pull him back from the brink of a showdown with the government of President Asif Ali Zardari and the army, the US worked through its chief of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, to make Pakistani army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, to go soft on the stand taken by its former chief, General Pervez Musharraf, and continued under a quid pro quo deal by the current President Zardari, against the reinstatement of ousted chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.Once the US and Saudi Arabia had put the arrangement in place which placated Sharif without compromising his political posturing, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a speech to the nation, announced on March 16 that his government would reinstate ousted chief justice Chaudhry after Gilani met with army chief Kayani and President Zardari. Chaudhry will resume his duties as the country's top judge on March 22, Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

after the present incumbent retires. The last-minute development, though expected, came as a bit of surprise for its timing (early morning local time). Sources report that while the Saudis' job was a bit difficult as it involved tending to the wounded pride of Sharif, the US interlocutors made it clear to both Zardari and Kayani not to risk the state of Pakistan to maintain and sustain the stand of a former President against the ousted chief justice. Since both Zardari and Kayani are on best of terms (the latter served as military adviser to late prime minister Benazir Bhutto and was instrumental in bringing about a rapprochement between her and Musharraf). While no love has been lost between Washington and Islamabad as the latter has been dragging its feet against credible military action on the ground against the Talibs, the US does not want the haven of safety expanding for the jehadist forces to whole of Pakistan â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a situation that would have arisen if Pakistan were allowed to go for a confrontation between its government and the opposition parties. That confrontation would have further weakened the willingness of the Pakistani army to do whatever little it has been doing to assist in the war against terror. Saudi Arabia, too, was alarmed over this dire prospect as the Zardari-Sharif conflict escalated in the second week of March.

A common enterprise for Saudi Arabia and Pakistan over the past three decades has been Afghanistan and fomenting Islamic movements inside India. But 9/11 has pitched them against their own Frankenstein monsters Al-Qaeda and the Taliban

On March 5, for instance, the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad reportedly received threatening e-mails warning of attacks on Saudi interests in Pakistan. According to a Pakistani newspaper, The Nation, the e-mails purportedly were sent by Al-Qaeda and threatened attacks on targets such as the Saudi Embassy and Saudi airline facilities in Pakistan. While the credibility of this threat could be disputed in view of the fact that the Al-Qaeda never divulges the targets locked down for attack, this does point to one thing with surety: the Al-Qaeda has declared a war on the Saudis. This became dead clear after a January 2009 video by jehadits in Yemen announced the formation of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. al-Zawahiri proclaimed in a February statement that the new organization "is the awakening, which aims to liberate the Arabian Peninsula from the Crusader invaders and their treacherous agents. In a January 2009 message, al-Zawahiri had said: "Oh lions of Islam everywhere, the leaders of Muslim countries are the guards of the American-Zionist interests. They are the ones who have given up Palestine and recognized Israel â&#x20AC;Ś Abdallah Bin Abd-al-Aziz has invented the interfaith dialogue and met Peres in New York, paving the way for the complete recognition of Israel." Al-Zawahiri continued, Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

"Thwart the efforts of those traitors by striking the interests of the enemies of Islam." These statements from the Al-Qaeda's number 2 explain why Riyadh's intelligence chief, Prince Muqrin bin Abdel-Aziz, visited Pakistan and Afghanistan recently. Clearly, the Saudis need help from their allies in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. But they have been running into problems as their allies have been constantly waging war against one another. So Riyadh has set out to put Pakistani house in order by leveraging its influence â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both in terms of cash and religion -upon all actors of the state Saudi Arabia has long had a strong relationship with Pakistan, based on shared perspectives toward regional (read anti-India) and international matters (e.g. Iran in cahoots with Western powers). . Till 9/11 happened and compelled them to change tracks. And the change of tracks has finally pitched them against their own Frankenstein monsters â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. st

Business:Automobile

CAUTIOUS AUTOISM Revving car sales in February were a surprise but this may be a temporary upsurge Arvind Saxena,

Sr VP, Hyundai Motors

he Indian automobile sector has popped a surprise by revving up car sales by 22 per cent in February, recording a two-year high. Was it due to lower rates of interest on car loans (down to 10 per cent) or rollback in car prices due to lower excise? The �� UPA government reduced excise duty rates by 2 per cent last month after the interim budget. This led to a roll-back in prices of fast-selling models by an average of Rs 4,000-5,000 per unit. At the same time, several makers also floated new variants like Xylo from Mahindra, new look Honda city and 'Muzic' from GM as well as A-Star from Maruti. Asked why companies were keen to launch new models when the market was down, Arvind Saxena, senior vice-president, Hyundai Motors India told Sahara Time, "Sometimes it helps in creating demand. Besides the models were conceptualized and brought into production last year and hence it has kept on rolling …it is Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

difficult to stop the process of the new launch as it costs a lot in terms of money spent by the company, the vendors and other ancillaries who are part of the manufacture of the new model." However, the recession will still make its presence felt. "The February figures may not mean much as the lower base last year gives a biased view. In the coming days, sales will not sustain," he adds. This means that the worst is not over, by and large – the last quarter is normally the best time for the sector as sales normally pick up during this period. In fact, the January February quarter – being the last quarter of the fiscal year – generates lots of sales. Auto companies have by and large announced substantial up-front discounts as well as several freebies to woo buyers. For instance, insurance cover at Re 1 by market leader Suzuki along with add-ons like enhanced warranty and free accessories seems to have helped the sector avoid the slump.

Surge in sales is biased as last year the base was low. In coming days, the growth will again decline….the new models were conceptualized and brought into production over last year and hence it has kept on rolling …it is difficult to stop the process of a new launch as it costs a lot in terms of money spent by the company, the vendors and other ancillaries who are part of the manufacture of the new model."

This is all the more heartening since the impact of the global slowdown was very obvious last year. This year, ten out of a dozen car manufacturers in India have seen a jump in sales during February. Market leader Maruti Suzuki, which is the country's largest carmaker, achieved its highest ever domestic and total sales in February 2009 besides also clocking the highest export sales. The company sold 79,190 vehicles in February 2009; which was up by 24.1 per cent over corresponding month last fiscal. This is also the second month in a row that Maruti has recorded highest monthly domestic sales at 67,005 units, recorded for the previous month – January 2009. The latest entrant in the Maruti stable, A-star, was the leader in exports as it clocked 8,565 units in February. This is higher than the previous highest export sales of 8,282 units recorded in March 2004. This month the company also surpassed the cumulative export sales recorded during fiscal 200809. On similar lines, Hyundai Motors, which is considered the country's second largest car manufacturer, registered a whopping 45.3 per cent sales growth in the domestic market. Cumulatively, sales increased by 31.9 per cent over February, 2008 and in the exports area too sales increased by 18.3 per cent. In terms of numbers, Hyundai's total sales for February stood at 38,254 units against 29,001 units in February 2008. The domestic market accounted for 21,215 units, compared to 14,600 units for the same month last year while the exports totaled 17,039 units in February 2009, against 14,401 units of February 2008. In the segment-wise analysis, cumulative sales in the month of February, 2009 for Hyundai stood as follows – A2 Segment (Santro, i10, Getz & i20) 34,285 units; A3 Segment (Accent & Verna) 3,900 units; A5 Segment (Sonata Transform) 66 units; and SUV Segment (Tucson) three units. However, General Motors India reported a decline of 11.5 per cent in sales in February 2009 – the company sold 4,921units last month, as compared to 5,563 units in February 2008. GMI sold 945 units of the Chevrolet Tavera, 746 units of the Aveo, 89 units of the Optra, 2,940 units of the Spark and 201 units of the Captiva in February this year.The company plans to better its sales during the second half of the year, after the launch of the all-new Chevrolet Cruze luxury sedan even as Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

it plans to launch a new hatchback in India, which may either replace the underperforming U-VA. Will the good news on the export front sustain despite the recession overseas? Industry experts hold that the export market is demanding low-cost and fuel efficient cars in the wake of the recession as well as the economic slowdown that has hit the pockets of car owners. Hyundai's Saxena again adds a word of caution. "Exports too are visibly big as they are compared to a lower base last year," he says. On a cumulative basis, domestic sales of passenger vehicles segment registered 0.28 per cent growth during AprilFebruary 2009 over April-February 2008. This makes passenger cars and other vehicles sales growth at 1.35 per cent and 7.01 per cent respectively during this period. However, sales of utility vehicles fell by 7.9 per cent. Sales in February 2009 for passenger vehicles grew at 15.02 per cent over February 2008 – with all segments except utility vehicles registering positive growth. On the other hand, two wheelers registered growth of 2.5 per cent during the cumulative period of April to February 2009. Mopeds and scooters grew by 3.86 per cent and 9.51 per cent. Motorcycles also grew marginally at 0.98 per cent. On similar lines, electric two wheelers segment grew by 45.24 per cent. Two-wheelers sales grew at a growth rate of 16.23 percent in February 2009 over the same month last year, as per the industry sources. In sharp contrast, however, sales of commercial vehicles have fallen. As per industry, commercial vehicle sales fell by more than 50 per cent. While medium and heavy commercial vehicles declined by 31.7 percent, light commercial vehicles recorded growth of (-) 7.87 per cent. In February 2009, commercial vehicles sales fell by 31.68 percent compared to February 2008. Medium and and heavy commercial vehicles fell by 51.33 per cent and LCV fell by 3.7 per cent. Also, sales of buses fell by 20.69 per cent and smaller buses grew by 18.5 per cent. In fact, the sales of commercial vehicles – which is also an important barometer of the economy's health – clearly shows that all is not fine and the February jump in car sales may not be a big phenomenon. The current surge in sales may be a temporary phase. st

International: Saudi Arabia

Newfound bomb-homie

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, March 4 — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia concluded an extraordinary meeting early Sunday promising a thaw in relations between the two regional powers. But they stopped short of agreeing on any concrete plans to tackle the escalating sectarian and political crises throughout the Middle East.Mr. Ahmadinejad said that the two countries had agreed to try to curb tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and that they had discussed in detail issues related to the Palestinians and Iraq. The leaders are believed to have focused on finding ways to end the political standoff in Lebanon between Hezbollah, backed by Iran, and the government of Fouad Siniora, which is supported by the United States.Mr. Ahmadinejad’s first official visit to Saudi Arabia, which began Saturday, was marked by decidedly public shows of warmth and friendship between the leaders, as the men embraced, at times held hands in an Arab sign of close friendship, and smiled to cameras. The event marked the culmination of months of diplomatic efforts between senior Saudi and Iranian officials to ease the political standoff in Lebanon, cool sectarian violence in Iraq and possibly avert a looming Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

How to bring Syria back into the Arab fold after two years of isolation ?

Iranian confrontation with the United States.Analysts were divided on Sunday over the ultimate impact of the summit meeting, held at the behest of the Iranian president. To some, it promised to break the spiraling cycle of brinkmanship in the region, focusing both countries on constructive solutions to their differences. Skeptics, however, said the absence of any tangible resolutions or initiatives, coupled with Mr. Ahmadinejad’s continuing aggressive speech, suggested that the meeting was more a public relations offensive meant to help Iran improve its image at home and in the Arab world as its confrontation with the United States appears to be escalating. On Saturday, diplomats from Germany and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council discussed trying to impose tougher sanctions on Iran for its continued uranium enrichment efforts in defiance of the Security Council. The diplomats, speaking in a conference call, ended their discussion without an agreement. But after Mr. Ahmadinejad landed in Tehran on Sunday, he repeated earlier warnings of a “conspiracy” to divide the Muslim world. This time, he included Saudi Arabia as one of his partners in resisting the plan.

Saudi Arabia did what people have been asking the U.S. to do for long 2 decades.

Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are aware of the enemies’ conspiracies,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told reporters. “We decided to take measures to confront such plots, and hopefully this will strengthen Muslim countries against oppressive pressures by the imperialist front.” Saudi officials had no comment about that. But there was conflict over another issue. The Saudi Press Agency reported that Mr. Ahmadinejad had expressed support for a Saudi-led land-for-peace initiative that would have Arab states recognize Israel in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the lands occupied by Israel in 1967. Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday agreed to revive the plan ahead of the Arab League summit meeting in Riyadh later this month. An Iranian official, speaking to Iran’s state-run media, reportedly denied that the initiative was discussed during the summit meeting.State Department officials on Sunday had no immediate comment on the meeting. But Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Friday, before the talks, that “it’s going to be up to the Saudi leadership to decide how they interact with the Iranian president.” A Saudi analyst with close ties to the government said, “In the end, they both know this is a geopolitical struggle,” adding, “They can offer big words about ending sectarian strife, but what can they really do about it? Ahmadinejad simply undertook this visit to make himself look cooperative with other Persian Gulf states.” Mr. Ahmadinejad has come under increased pressure in recent weeks to tone down his comments. In Tehran on Saturday, Akbar Alami, a member of Parliament, said members intended to ask him to appear before them to answer questions about his policies. Mr. Alami said the lawmakers wanted to question his “provocative speeches, positions that are against diplomatic norms and against the country’s national interests,” the ISNA student news agency Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

reported. Sunni-Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran have vied for regional dominance, each carrying the banner of Islam and seeing itself as defending its majority sect. At the same time, the region’s calculus has changed significantly with the American invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein. Saudi Arabia in recent months has led an aggressive diplomatic effort to counterbalance Iran’s growing influence in the region, most recently serving as a host for the major Palestinian factions at a meeting in which they said they had agreed to form a unity government.Saudi Arabia is also said to be working to bring Lebanese parties together to arrive at a peaceful settlement of the three-month crisis. An important part of the discussion on Saturday, some analysts said, was how to bring Syria back into the Arab fold after two years of isolation. For much of the 1980s, Saudi Arabia and Iran had an adversarial relationship. Their relations thawed with the election of a reformist president in Iran, Mohammad Khatami, in 1997. But relations have cooled significantly since the election of Mr. Ahmadinejad in 2005.The meeting on Saturday, though initiated by Iran, was an example of Saudi Arabia’s muscle-flexing in the region.“Saudi Arabia did what people have been asking the U.S. to do for so long, which is to extend a hand out to the Iranians,” said Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “The Saudis seized on the right time to give the Iranians a window of opportunity to get out of their mess.” Mr. Aly said the test of a détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran is yet to come. “Will the Iranians be willing to give the Saudis what they didn’t give the Europeans, which is to stop their nuclear activity?” he said. “That will be a litmus test.” Reporting was contributed by Nazila Fathi from Tehran; Nada Bakri from Beirut, Lebanon; Thom Shanker from Washington; and Rasheed Abou-Alsamh from Jidda, Saudi Arabia. st

Neighbours: Pakistan

The international community has been watching developments in Pakistan with consternation, especially PresidentZardari's lack of control on the crisis

Peeved at his surrender before the Taliban in Swat and the FATA region, the US feels that Zardari's continuance would cost America's war against terror dear

Gilani may call the shot P

olitical circles in Islamabad are agog with talk of change in the administrative powers of the country's constitutional head. According to reports, plans are afoot to restore all powers to the Prime Minister by bringing an amendment to the constitution of Pakistan. If this happens, instead of President Asif Ali Zardari, it will be Pakistan premier Yousuf Raza Gilani who will be number one in this South Asian country. As per intelligence sources, the US, whose influence is writ large on the length and breadth of Pakistan, is giving a fillip to this plan. "The present administration in the US feels that Zardari as President is incapable of leading Pakistan in the desired direction. They (the US) don't want him (Zardari) to be replaced – instead, they want Prime Minister Gilani to call the shots in the administrative and political affairs of Pakistan," sources said. Washington lost trust in President Zardari after he exposed his inability to understand the ground reality of Pakistan. Peeved at his surrender before the Taliban in Swat and the FATA region, the international community led by the US feels that Zardari's continuance as an empowered President will not only cost America's war against terror dear, but would be harmful to Pakistan's overall interests. Interestingly, Washington doesn't trust former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif too. In the eyes of the US, besides being close to Saudi Arabia, Sharif is soft towards extremists and jehadis. Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

The just concluded crisis has left President Zardari defenceless. Reinstatement of Pakistan Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary will make his life tough in days to come. There are chances justice Chaudhary, who was sacked by General Pervez Musharraf during the 2007 emergency, could scrap the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that was issued by Musharraf to drop graft cases against PPP leaders. If this happens, not only will Zardari find his political career finished but also see himself languishing behind bars. Anyway, after the "long march"– a five-day political protest carried out by opposition leaders, lawyers and members of civic society – came to an end, the people of Pakistan heaved a sigh of relief. In the tension-filled agitation that began on March 12 and lasted till March 16, it was the Sharif brothers – Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief and former Premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahwaz Sharif – who stole the show. Pushed to the corner by the Pakistan Supreme Court's verdict which barred the former prime minister from contesting elections and also declared Shahwaz Sharif's election null and void, the duo made sure that President Zardari didn't escape from being held responsible for such a situation. Sensing the mood of people, they backed the lawyers' movement for an independent judiciary in Pakistan. For the Zardari regime, already facing a crisis on economic, unemployment and law and order fronts, the joining of

Experience has shown that extremist elements got entrenched only during military rule in Pakistan

Sharif brothers in the lawyers'-led movement fuelled antigovernment sentiments across thccountry. Chaos and confusion were writ large everywhere in the country. This prompted army chief General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani, who had been earlier summoned by the Barack Obama administration to the US for explaining on the security situation in Pakistan, to put his country's President under ultimatum, with a rider that if he failed to get his act together in controlling the deteriorating political and law and order situation, the army would step in. This led to speculation that Pakistan would once again come under military rule. However, the US intervened and ensured that no such situation emerged at a time when Washington was in fullfledged war against Taliban and Al-Qaida in the Pakistan and Afghanistan region. Pushed by America and pressurized by General Kayani, the Pakistan President finally caved in and agreed to fulfill the demands of lawyers and his political rival Sharif. The government promised to reinstate the apex court chief justice by March 21 and file a review petition in the Supreme Court against Sharif brothers' disqualification. This has once again brought into the open the facts about the PML (N) leader's political clout. Pakistan's Punjab, which is the largest and the most populous province of the country, is his party's bastion. Despite this, analysts feel, there is the least possibility he would be in the reckoning for any top constitutional post in Pakistan. Obviously, this will not happen until the US so Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

wishes. The Obama administration has vowed to strengthen democracy and the democratic spirit in Pakistan. "Experience has shown that democracy has been the best weapon against radicalism. The US efforts are aimed at consolidating democracy and not that much reliance on supporting individuals," retired Lt-General Talat Masood in an article in the Pakistani daily Dawn said. India too wants democracy to flourish in its backyard. This is the reason why, when the political crisis was defused, New Delhi expressed its happiness. Like the US, India is also of the view that the military regime in Pakistan has not served positive dividends on the security front. Experience shows that terrorists and jehadi elements have got entrenched in Pakistan only when there has been military rule in the country. Washington is of the view that Pakistan for more than 20 years has used US aid to buy conventional weapons to counter India, "instead of establishing a counterinsurgency capability". Given this, the international community wants accountability on the part of Islamabad. Besides, it is determined to counter the growth of outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Taliban and Al-Qaeda but it is not possible without strengthening democratic forces in Pakistan. This is the reason why the US refused to blink when General Kayani was intent on grabbing power in the South Asian country. st

Book: Review

Flotsam & Jetsam The story has a meandering structure, switching back and forth in time, a fractured chronology that encourages connections and contrasts. But it’s overdone.

Netherland Joseph O’neill Fourth Estate Price : Rs295/Pages : 247

ans van den Broek is a pleasant chap: observant, often witty, cricket-loving, and kind to the strangest of strangers. This characterization of the narrator, along with some beautiful and perceptive prose, is what gives Netherland its special appeal, for this is a retrospective novel of sparse drama and little suspense. Another attraction is the unusual milieu: the New York cricket scene, and its largely South Asian and West Indian membership. A second milieu, the famously offbeat Chelsea Hotel, is a tad predictable as an urban microcosm (as is the amiable eccentricity of its inhabitants) but O’Neill refreshes the device with gentle humor. Passages set in Holland and London add further cosmopolitanism, quite fitting to this story of global migrants. Chuck Ramkissoon, Hans’s driven and ethically suspect friend, is a Trinidadian Gatsby for our times, a self-centered dreamer with a shady fortune who still inspires affection and loyalty. And there’s much of Nick Carraway about Hans: a level-headed outsider both drawn to and wary of his exotic friend, a capable man who makes a decent living in the city but opts to follow his heart and leave. Where Netherland differs most from Gatsby is in its embrace of New York. This is a “post-9/11 novel,” or so Michiko Kakutani described it in the New York Times. Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

While there’s some discussion of the malaise that followed the attacks - the strain threatens to scupper Hans’ marriage to Rachel (a smart but shrill Brit) - O’Neill is more interested in celebrating New York’s endless power to create possibility for new generations of immigrants. NYC is a vortex of enthusiasm, and though Hans is rather unhappy there, he warms to its energizing, regenerating effect on others. Without overdoing it, O’Neill peppers his tale with arresting imagery. The Staten Island cricket field where Hans plays is surrounded by houses with elaborate gardens. “For as long as anyone can remember, the local residents have tolerated the occasional crash of a cricket ball, arriving like a gigantic meteoritic cranberry, into their flowering shrubbery.” O’Neill does a fine job of explaining cricket to the American majority without boring the initiated. The story has a meandering structure, switching back and forth in time, a fractured chronology that encourages connections and contrasts. But it’s overdone. It’s self-consciously literary. The main effect is to de-emphasize drama and keep the focus on observation, yet O’Neill could have struck a better balance between action and thought. We have the makings of a much more emotionally compelling story - What will happen to Chuck

Malgudi days Revisited Uninspiring and very dull man splits up from his family and meets a larger-than-life and actually rather unsavoury character. Some talk of setting up international cricket in New York. Nothing happens.

and his dream of a first-class Brooklyn cricket ground? What will happen to Hans and Rachel’s marriage? - but these outcomes are revealed within the first two pages. Rather like a fiveday game of cricket between teams unafraid of a draw, the novel is an exercise in understatement, eliciting only moderate emotional investment, mildly pleasurable with occasional flashes of brilliance. Since U.S. critics (NYT, New Yorker) consider Netherland exemplary, it seems to me that Tom Wolfe’s complaint of 20 years ago is still valid: much modern fiction remains too concerned with literary effect and intellectual contemplation and too little interested in enthralling stories. I’m not arguing for gratuitous pushing of readers’ buttons, or for catharsis, but for the kind of alternately unsettling and inspiring storytelling that Wolfe advocated when he called for a return to the spirit of Dickens. The “post9/11 novel” surely deserves as much. Like many other reviewers, I read this book because of the fantastic praise it was getting and didn`t want to miss a great novel: I wouldn`t have done. st Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Frying pan & other stories Raja Frog book Price : Rs145/Pages : 128

A poignant potpourri of stories that will grab the attention of young and old alike. Each story has a moral and an appeal of its own that can reach people from various strata of life. The collection is relevant to our time and touches issues pertaining to friendship, caste, women s rights and empowerment with much sensitivity. Love seems to be the basis for many of the stories, passion is evident in some of them be it for a lover, for freedom, empowerment, or in general for a better life. The story has a meandering structure, switching back and forth in time, a fractured chronology that encourages connections and contrasts. But it’s overdone. It’s self-consciously literary. The main effect is to de-emphasize drama and keep the focus on observation, yet O’Neill could have struck a better balance between action and thought. We have the makings of a much more emotionally compelling story - but these outcomes are revealed within the first two pages. Rather like a five-day game of cricket between teams unafraid of a draw, the novel is an exercise in understatement, eliciting only moderate emotional investment, mildly pleasurable with occasional flashes of brilliance.ago is still valid: much modern fiction remains too concerned with literary effect and intellectual contemplation and too little interested in enthralling stories. I read this book because of the fantastic praise it was getting and didn`t want to miss a great novel: I wouldn`t have done st

Travel: Pushkar

PUSHKARS PILGRIM

first went to Pushkar at the end of the eighties when it was a tranquil place full of pilgrims and a sprinkling of hippies and western travelers. Accommodation was basic with a handful of guest houses. Pilgrims who could not afford the guest houses slept in the corridors in front of the shops. The main road winding along the lake to the Brahma temple, which was quiet and empty of vehicles is now buzzing with honking motorbikes and cars. For me Pushkar, in spite of “modern” intrusions and growing traffic and tourists, offers solace, natural beauty of hills and the lake, heritage buildings and a strange ambience of a small Indian town mixed with the buzz of international tourists. I find it exciting to feel equally at ease talking with villagers and guessing from which part of Rajasthan or India they are from as well as blending with the western travelers. There are three recurring dimensions of Pushkar. In the Puranas it is narrated that Brahma performed three Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

This place, well-cushioned between beautiful hills and lake, offers an unhurried pace of life to the visitors

‘Yagyas’ in Pushkar. There are or were three pushkas (lakes); old, middle and the new which is the present one. The others have dried up. Similarly three rivers including Saraswati are believed to fed the lake. Three hills strategically surround Pushkar. According to the ancient text Puskara Mahatmya the three dimensions of Pushkar make it specially auspicious as they symbolise the connection among the three cosmic domains. The first is the land and atmosphere, the second is space and ether and the third is heavenly realm of the gods. For it not the temples and rituals which are attractive but nature and the lake symbolizing the life sustaining powers of nature that have a greater meaning. Firstly, Pushkar is referred to as ‘Teerth Raj’ or the king of pilgrimages. People come to take a holy dip in the lake on auspicious days, particularly on full moon nights. Pilgrimage is also combined with trading in the market place particularly for the villagers. Its hills divide eastern Rajasthan from the western. In eastern

They are more elegant and hardy and they can be trained well to do intricate jobs as testified by their inclusion in the old Bikaner forces and now in the border security forces

Pushkar, there is a green valley and rose plantations of the finest variety brought from Persia by the emperor Jehangir. The Pandavas are believed to have camped here near a spring. In the west, are the semi-arid sand dunes. The spectacular scenic beauty is created by the lake, hills and the unexpected mix of ecologies. Thirdly Pushkar has become a significant international tourist destination and has earned the fame of being one of the most colourful fairs in the world. In Rajasthan, where animal husbandry is very important for livelihood, the close relationship with animals is widely celebrated. The best breeds of camels come from Bikaner. They are more elegant and hardy and they can be trained well to do intricate jobs as testified by their inclusion in the old Bikaner forces and now in the border security forces. It is believed that camel milk is nutritious and good for skin. Like the bullock cart in other regions, the camel cart with airplane tyres is very useful in Rajasthan. Recently the trade in camels during the Pushkar fair have declined because the Raibaris and other camel breeders find that their traditional grazing routes have been restricted and the younger generation prefer to look for other jobs. In order to channel crores of rupees pouring in, there is need for setting up of a Pushkar Development Council, which can consist of concerned persons in the government, municipality, NGOs, environmentalists etc. The district collector and the municipality on their own are busy with so many other activities. Based on existing reports and new studies, the council can recommend an integrated plan of action to regenerate and develop the lake. De-silting, water purification, cleaning of the lake and the watershed, planting tree and shrubs to stop sand erosion, and limiting the number of tube wells in the region are some of the options. The recent death of nearly one lakh fishes has raised a huge stink, which has spoiled the quality of water. Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Like Goa and Manali, the number of a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;particularâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; type of tourists are many in Pushkar. Many western tourists go to Rishikesh to learn yoga, to Varanasi to learn classical music and to Dharamsala to learn Buddhism, but unfortunately Pushkar has become a market place for cheap drugs. Some young tourists, many of them Israelis, come to have fun, become high on drugs and enjoy their own social life, without being sensitive to the local culture and customs of the religious place. Sometimes they indulge in undesirable behaviour, which attracts many local boys, aspiring for western girl-friends and an alien lifestyle. For a deeper cosmic connection, a three dimensional reform in Pushkar is needed: firstly to regenerate the lake and its surroundings, secondly to improve the quality of tourism and finally to improve the spiritual and cultural atmosphere and bring about a serene environment. I often sit at the Gopal tea shop in the central square, watching the theatre of pilgrims, shopping villagers, pandas, charming gypsy girls, foreign travelers, cows, camels and monkeys :Sipping mint lemon tea at the Gopal tea shop, reveals a collage of self interrogating views. An Irishman with extra dimensional vision of bhang lassi protests that all British girls drive around with Israeli boys on the Enfield as if they are the chosen people. He clarifies he is being neither sexist nor racist but somewhere in between. A Dutch Christian girl is feeding a limping calf, the Brahman boys giggle only amused, not shamed by the plight of the calf in their country. An old woman left behind by her group, squints at the path leading to the holy water of the lake. She wants to get away away from the mad noise and the scantily dressed phirangis, which make her feel an alien in her own land. st

Art & Culture: Street performers

Kings of the streets

hile he was shooting Journeyings and Conversations on migrant people from Bihar, UP and other states who live in and around Howrah Station, documentary filmmaker Arvind Sinha had spotted some small kids perform on the platforms of Howrah Station in Kolkata. He had made up his mind at that time that he would come back to make a film exclusively focused on these child performers. Sinha began following the children as they wandered from one street to another, went back to their homes, shared a cheap thali of food and sang, danced, performed acrobatics with cheap and crude make-up on their faces, over a period of six years, from 2002 to 2008. King of India was screened at the Joris Ivens Competition at IDFA in Amsterdam, one of the two Indian films ever to have been selected for its main competition. Sinha is a leading Indian documentary filmSahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

performing children of the streets is interwoven with interesting episodes and real life dramas

maker. He has won some of the topmost and most prestigious awards in the world for his films . “For several months each year, hundreds of wayside performers called ‘Nats’ make the chaotic and colourful metropolis of Kolkata their temporary home. They live in tents pitched a few hundred meters away from the railway tracks. ‘Nats’ are traditional performers – singers, actors, dancers, acrobats, all rolled into one. They spend their nights in the tents and their days in the big city where there is a ready audience for their entertaining skills. This film is about one of the ‘Nat’ families living in these tents in conditions that even the most primitive municipality should not approve of,” explains Sinha. Raja Hindustani, Toofan, Jyotsna, Reshma and Chandni are names of popular Hindi films. They are also the names of a group of children, brothers and sisters, who sing, dance, play the dholak and perform acrobatics on the streets,

The pace is dynamic and in the six-year span the children grow up

pavements, fun-fairs, carnivals, markets, grounds, bridges and railway platforms of Kolkata. Ratan Singh, their father, a migrant from Chhatisgarh, claims to be a descendant of the “Nats” of Rajasthan but lives in a tent-like temporary shanty in the suburbs of Kolkata with wife Radha and children. Ratan Singh his wife Radha, two sons and four daughters, belong to the remote Chhattisgarh region. Today, the ‘Nats’ are outside the caste system and are considered untouchables. The medieval Rajputs were fearless warriors while Ratan Singh and others of his ‘Nat’ fraternity earn their living as wayside performers. The camera opens on the crudely painted face of a little boy of six or seven. His name is Raja Hindustani, after the popular Aamir Khan hit because, his parents say he was born the day Raja Hindustani was released. He is a street performer who performs on the streets of Kolkata, on railway platforms of Sealdah and Howrah, with his elder brother Toofan and sister Jyotsna, to the accompaniment of a cheap dholak that has seen better days. This little boy Raja, and his kin are the heroes of Sinha’s 107-minute long King of India. The film remains focused on the children while they perform the same tricks, sing the same songs, till, with Toofan’s marriage to Julie, they add new items to their repertoire like tightrope walking, swaying, jumping, now with one of the younger girls Reshma as lead performer because Jyotsna is married now. Janaki is married off to a boy from the same class and trade. Radha is thrown out of her home when Julie steps in. Ranjan Palit’s camera sweeps across pavements of Kolkata and its suburbs, along railway tracks, on and under bridges, offering glimpses of the children’s daily life as they share food among themselves, or fight with each other, while the eldest looks after the rest, and Julie takes the collection plate around. They do their marketing with small change from their collection. The pace is dynamic and in the six-year span the children grow up. The little grandson learns his tricks as his parents Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

move away with him to settle separately. Without taking sides, and centering his text on the children and the influence of Hindi cinema on their lives, Sinha makes King of India its own powerful statement. The parents suffer no pangs of guilt either for living off their children, or for denying them a childhood filled with healthy nourishment and some education. The important questions Sinha has left unexplored are the dangers of child abuse and girl-trafficking these children are subject to, the dangers the crude and ingenuous make-up substances might cause to their delicate skins, the danger of being kidnapped, and the vulnerability of the kids who honestly hand over the day’s takings to their exploitative parents. Living precariously, they have not turned precocious, but they do try to extract little joys from their lives.Ranjan Palit’s camera shows an opening frame close-up of the crudely painted face of a boy of six or seven. He is Raja Hindustani. The film portrays the life of a poverty-ridden family. The camera travels into streets and bylanes of the Kolkata we do not generally get to see, thus throwing up a collage of the city far away from the glitter of the shopping malls and the multiplex culture. “I have tried to take both a macro and a micro view of the ‘Nat’ community of performers in the backdrop of a totally insensitive ‘mainstream’ India which is unwilling to provide physical space to these people living on the margins. No one either cares or notices their presence as they share space with pigs and dogs and rodents and I found them co-existing without any qualms in blissful harmony along the railway tracks,” informs Sinha who grew close to the Singh family over the six years he took to shoot the film. He has shown the film to the family. The closing shots show that Toofan has shifted elsewhere with wife Julie and infant son Kishore Kumar while Ratan Singh is planning to remarry, leaving wife Radha completely in the lurch. He has no compunctions in confessing that the one lakh rupee loan the family has incurred will now be his two sons’ liability with each one having to bear the responsibility of half that amount! st

Close encounter: Manishnker Aiyar

Writing is part of my life Diplomat turned politician, Union minister for panchayati raj Mani Shankar Aiyar is known for his incisive wit. His latest book A Time of Transition: Rajiv Gandhi to the 21st Century gives a rundown of the last two decades of India's development. He spoke to Sahara Time's Viresh Verma on the book and more...

Q How important is it for a politician to have books published? Do you feel the refined arena of literature is far removed from the tamasha of politics? A. I don't think that it's important for all but yes, those politicians who are doing right, have the right to get their books published. And I don't agree with you that politics is all tamasha and literature is refined. Much of literature is tamasha and some of politics is refined and therefore there is a kind of osmosis between literature â&#x20AC;&#x201C; particularly non-fiction â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and political literature. After all, that politics is best that is the interplay of ideas. As Hazlitt said, 'Writing concentrates the mind'. So you are forced to write down exactly what you want to say while often in speech nobody bothers to be accurate. That is why the innate talent of writing enables you to be a better politician. Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Q. In your case, has writing as many as seven books helped you in any way as a politician? A. I look upon writing is a very much part of my political life, it integrates me. It certainly helps me to gain a better understanding of what I myself want to say, I don't know if it helps others too. In fact, it was Mark Twain who said that the best way to learn a subject is to write a book about it. It forces you to understand what these views are and to express yourself concisely and accurately with regard to what you may otherwise feel but not articulate. Q. Did you find your columns and articles getting more response from the reading public or your books? A. Oh! There's no doubt that columns get a wider public but they get a much more transient public. Very often I think that

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I don't agree with you that politics is all tamasha and literature is refined. Much of literature is tamasha and some of politics is refinedâ&#x20AC;?

by the time people have their breakfast, they have forgotten what they read and where they read it. So yes, the life of a column is very transient. Columns have a wider audience but a shorter life and books have a smaller audience but a larger life. Q. Like Narasimha Rao, would you consider writing a fictionalised version of your experiences after you retire? A. My wife is very keen that I do so and she is collaborating in writing such a book. But I don't think I have that talent for writing fiction, my imaginative part or the creative part of my mind is not sufficiently developed to do so, maybe hers is. And so perhaps in a collaborative venture we may do so but I don't have any specific plans of doing it at the moment. What my wife wants me to do is not a fictionalised but what she calls a factionalised version that is, you take facts and you fictionalise them. Like on Bofors, a topic on which I have written much. I feel that the media was severely unfair to Rajiv Gandhi, particularly newspapers like the Indian Express and the Hindu, who ran a crusade against him with no substance in it. Q. In your book, you have talked of the transition from single party governance to the instability of coalition politics. Do you still feel coalitions are unstable after the experience of the last five years? A. No, I think we have demonstrated in the last five years that stable government is possible and I would also give the credit to Atal Bihari Vajpaye that he did run more than one coalition government. So a coalition can be stable but more effective government comes from single party governance. But you just can't conjure up single party governance, it's only if you receive a mandate then anyone would prefer single party government to the multi-party governance and if such a mandate is not forthcoming then it is incumbent on all of us to adopt the coalition form of government. Q. So, do you think that the Congress would emerge as a single largest party in 2009 elections? A. While there is life, there is hope too. I hope that in this 2009 elections Congress would make a government on its own but this is what I may want..The prospects at the moment look that there would be another coalition government but the prospects Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

also indicate that Congress is likely to lead such a government. So, I expect to see my party back in office in 2009. Q. There has been a lot of development in the North-east in recent years. Was it difficult to get others in the government to take the region seriously? A. It was not at all difficult as I got it all as a legacy from the previous government. In fact, it was during the Deve Gowda government that the Shukla commission report was written in which a major decision was taken that 10 per cent of all Plan spending by the government of India should be earmarked for the North-east. I have not found any significant resistance on the part of the central government and its allies in working with us for the development of the state. Q. You have called RajiVGandhi the last Nehruvian. Does that mean Rahul Gandhi has a different ideology? A. I called Rajiv Gandhi the last great Nehruvian just to distinguish from little Nehruvians like myself. I don't know about Rahul Gandhi's ideology because he is not yet the leader of India. When he does become [the leader] I'll see what his philosophy is. Q. As a veteran Congress leader, do you see Rahul Gandhi as a potential prime minister of the country? A. Gandhi family is the bonding adhesive of the Indian Congress. And it's not dynastic politics â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so whatever the family origins, he has to be endorsed by the party and then to be endorsed by the nation through an open democratic process. So, yes, I am sure that Rahul Gandhi stands a very good chance of becoming the leader of the party and therefore at some stage the leader of the country. Q. Before signing off, tell us a bit about your other areas of interest? A. Well, I enjoy singing and listening to music. I also spend a lot of time reading and rarely am I reading one book at a time. Usually I am reading 4-5 books and my books are scattered all over my home. My biggest interest is history. I enjoy reading biographies and straight- forward history. st

Society : Fashion

Collage of colours With the spring/summer Lakme Fashion Week running from Tuesday to Saturday, the FDCI event, now christened the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, will get underway at New Delhi April 5 and run till April 9.Just consider the statistics of the two events: 115 designers against 67 last year, 70 shows against 35, 100 models against 48, eight choreographers against four - and, of course, two cities against only one last year.

Neeta Bhargava The uniqueness of her style lies in creating a wearable canvas by the use of hand print on fabrics. A holiday retreat to Ananda turns into an inspiration for her autumn/winter â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;07 collection denoted by the spiritual influence an invitation to ride on the wind, to breathe: a special place of silence and emptiness. A spirit of purity is reflected in the art of soft, unstructured shapes, fluidity of skirts and ephemeral lines.

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

The collections retail at Ogaan (New Delhi), Amethyst (Chennai), Ffolio (Bangalore) and Marichika (Hyderabad).

Puja Arya I studied fashion design at NIFT (New Delhi) for 2 years and was then awarded scholarship by Nottingham Trent University (Nottingham, U.K.) and The Charles Wallace Trust Fund (British Council, India) to complete my course as a degree at Nottingham Trent University. My final collection at NTU was selected for showing at the ‘Graduate Fashion Week’ in London along with the best design collections from all over U.K. My label ‘puja arya’ which I launched in June 2000, focuses on hand block printed garments embellished with hand embroidery. The inspiration has been the idea to breathe fresh air into a dying traditional craft; to create an international silhouette by experimenting with traditional techniques of printing, dyeing, embroidery etc.

Abdul Halder The uniqueness of her style lies in creating a wearable canvas by the use of hand print on fabrics. A holiday retreat to Ananda turns into an inspiration for her autumn/winter ‘’07 collection denoted by the spiritual influence an invitation to ride on the wind, to breathe: a special place of silence and emptiness. A spirit of purity is reflected in the art of soft, unstructured shapes, fluidity of skirts and ephemeral lines.

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Society: Social dads

Daddy dear With divorces becoming a not so rare phenomenon, children are fast adapting themselves to the changes brought into their lives with the advent of surrogate fathers

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hat’s the big deal about the whole thing, I fail to understand? Here is a woman I love and she has a daughter. So if I can accept her why not a part of her? I hate the tag social dad. I am just plain dad with all the good and the bad put together,” smiles Bangalore-based software engineer, Ashok Kannan, who recently got married to Rujuta who had a five-year-old daughter from her previous marriage. Ashok met Rujuta two years ago and they liked each other. Their friendship blossomed into love and soon Ashok proposed to her. Rujuta was very apprehensive since she had a daughter from her previous marriage and was unsure about how not just Ashok but her daughter would take the whole thing. “Honestly, I was very concerned about starting life again with a man who wasn’t my daughter’s biological father. But surprisingly both Ashok and my daughter were rather cool about it. When I met Ashok, he would come to my home for dinner and accompany us to movies and outings. My daughter was very comfortable with him. Ashok, on the other hand, was absolutely fine. For him my daughter was a part of me and someone whom he wanted to care about,” says a relieved Rujuta. Today they are a picture perfect family and in fact Rujuta is planning a son with Ashok and the happiest among them is their daughter, who loves her social father. The term ‘social father’ is used for a person who is married to or cohabiting Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

I developed an inseparable feeling for my children during our first meeting. The credit for the creation of this beautiful family goes to Devi,’

‘I feel both surprised and happy when I see how he manages to respond to all their needs,’

says Dilip

says Pooja

with the child’s mother, but is not the biological father. Dr Nangra, a consulting sociologist with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, explains, “Due to recent trends in marriage, childbearing and cohabitation, fewer and fewer children are growing up in a traditional set up. Increasingly, children spend at least part of their childhood living with single parents or social parents (cohabiting and married step-parents).” With the woman opting for late marriage or pursuing a career, traditional views on marriage and home are breaking. Divorce is no longer a bad word in our culture today. And with life becoming mechanical in a way, practicality seems to win in today’s world. Thus it is not difficult for a man to accept the child of the woman he loves. Since there is no social taboo attached to it anymore, it has become all the more easy. In fact a recent study conducted by Lawrence M Berger, PhD, MSW, of the University of Wisconsin, has shown that social fathers are likely to exhibit equivalent or higher quality parenting behaviours than the biological fathers. The study further indicates that married social fathers were more engaged with children, took on more shared responsibility in parenting and were more trusted by mothers to take care of children. The survey with mothers showed that they perceived married social fathers to be engaged in relatively high quality parenting practices with the five-year-old children. Most notably, social fathers exhibited significantly higher levels of cooperation in parenting than biological

fathers. What makes the social fathers better? Leading psychologist Dr Indu Jha explains, “Indian society is changing radically vis-a -vis the institution of marriage and the role played with that relationship. Social fathers are probably more ready and competent to bring up their wife’s children, and they also try harder to meet their expectations. For many biological fathers, being a father comes along with mandatory compulsive responsibilities and social compulsion. But for a social father it comes by the choice he makes. Marrying a woman with a child means knowing exactly what you are getting into. Biological fathers may be too young to handle the responsibility and may lack the time and experiences of life that a man entering a later stage of fatherhood may have. In such relationships, the success of a social father depends a lot on the child who may have gone through the phase of missing a father figure in his life and may be ready to adjust to the new person coming into the family.” TV star Maninee who got married to Mihir says, “Mihir has given new meaning to my life”. The actress, after her break up with her first husband, got married to Mihir Mishra within a courtship of just 10 days. “Mihir and I were introduced by a common friend Sanjit Bedi (a well known TV actor). Though the court. st

Feature : Horse Fair

Straight from the horses mouth

The half-yearly horse fair near Karnal is quite a jamboree, with the best specimens selling at the price of luxury cars. Sahara Time captures for readers the colour that makes rural India such a vibrant place

he presence of thousands of horses, all of them neighing at the same time, on the outskirts of Karnal, might suffice to remind one of a battle scene, but it turned out to be rather docile horse fair! Held at village Neval in Haryana, this horse fair showcased some of the best horses of the region. The fair was a magnet for horse lovers, who came in droves from Punjab, Delhi and UP to buy and sell their stallions. With the average price of a horse at Rs 1.5 lakh, and the price of some thoroughbreds going as high as Rs 14 lakh, there was lot of cash exchanging hands. There was this interesting dude going by the name of Ravinder who had arrived at the fair with his horse Sultan, who was being touted as being worth at least Rs 12 lakh. For that price you could be the proud possessor of a good luxury car. But Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

for some, a horse is superior to a car. Sultan turns out to one of those pristine white stallions, with not one single black hair on his body. Dhumal Singh, whose chocolate-colored horse was wowing several potential customers with deep pockets, stated that he would not part with his four- legged beauty for not less than Rs 10 lakh. The problem was that he was being offered only Rs 8 lakh, which he refused with disdain. It was quite interesting to note that the global meltdown seemed to have no effect on the fair, as business worth several crores was done over the three-day period. A buyer from Punjab told this correspondent, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This fair is the best place where one can buy and sell horses of many breeds and colours. I have come to the fair to buy a black stallion for myself. Horse-riding is my passion and I love keeping horses as my pets.â&#x20AC;? Ram Chander, a retired police inspector from Haryana Police, stood besides his

mare, describing its qualities to enthusiastic buyers. His love for horses is a legacy from his father, who himself used to keep several horses at their farmhouse in Panipat. “While I was taking my police training at Philaur, I enjoyed riding horses. However, now, due to old age, I am finding it difficult to look after my only mare. One of my sons works at Gurgaon and the other is not keeping good heath. Thus I have come to the fair to sell my mare. You see, I have no other option,” he laments. Ram Chander explains that keeping a horse is no joke. A lot of money goes into feeding it. If you want to keep a horse than apart from open space you should be willing to spend something between Rs 150-200 daily on its diet. The horse needs at least 2 kg of gram along with green fodder everyday. Another trait of the horse is that unlike other animals who have two livers, the horse has only one liver. And therefore it feels the pangs of hunger acutley and wants a constant supply of fodder. It resembles a goat in eating habits! Usually, the horses do not easily fall prey to diseases if they are taken care of properly. A balanced diet is must to keep them in shape. However, there is a disease known in local parlance as ‘fitta’ that causes blindness in horses, and quite often makes them insane. Another problem with horses is that if they get a cut from iron, say for example from a barbed wire, then it takes several days to heal. The wound festers for a long time and one has to place ice on the cut to heal it. At times, if the wound is deep and proper attention is not paid, it could turn out fatal for the horse. Another participant in the fair was Major Singh from Neval village. He said that the number of people who love keeping horses are increasing. “Though a horse doesn’t give milk unlike a buffalo or cow, and is a costly affair to keep, people still love having one as it gives them social status.” Elucidating on the traits of horses, he said, “A horse is an intelligent animal. Whenever I come home, my horse starts neighing to express its happiness. Even if I let it free to graze in my farm, it does not stray away, rather keeps close to me.” Major Singh regrets that though many people in Haryana love keeping horses, the government has done practically nothing for them. “Unlike in Punjab, where the government encourages horse lovers by giving them cash rewards for the best animals, the Haryana government does nothing to encourage horse breeding,” he grieves. Kewal Singh, a horse aficionado in his own right, apprised that a horse needs very little sleep. At the most, it sleeps for two minutes! Most of the time a horse remains wide-awake. “I keep a horse because my gurus used to keep horses. I want to serve my gurus by serving the horse,” he said. Apart from the buyers and sellers, a sizable chunk of the people who attend the fair comprised horse barbers and peddlers who deal in horse equipment. The shavers looked so busy in the fair that they could be seen shaving off the hairs of horses non-stop! Similarly, the peddlers too seemed having a field day. They could be seen selling bells, horse belts, riding seats and other accoutrements to enthusiastic horse lovers. Afizul Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Meharban, from Kerana district in UP, set up his makeshift stall at the fair. His family members could be seen lending a helping hand in his business. “We are constantly on the move as a number of horse fairs are organized round the year in different parts of North India. We go to Mukhsar in Bhatinda, Deban in Saharanpur, Kanda in Meerut and at several other places where horse fairs are held.”

It was quite interesting to note that the global meltdown seems to have no effect on the fair, as business worth several crores was done over the three-day period A fee of Rs 50 was being charged on the sale or purchase of a horse in the fair. However, the participants in the fair were disgruntled that the government had provided no facility to make the fair really comfortable for either men or horses. “Neither there is provision of drinking water for our horses or us, nor is there supply of electricity. Whereas in other fairs we are provided with basic amenities,” said one participant. Well, he certainly had a point. Our government cares more about horse trading (of MLAs and MPs) than it does about its citizens and its real horses. Not only horses but also mules of different colour and sizes were available in the fair. The buyers and sellers in this segment consisted of cart drivers and banjaras who make a living selling their wares on their carts. While this correspondent was coming from the fair he was a witness to a rare occurrence, which apprised how intense, primeval and instinctive is the attraction between opposite sexes, be it between human beings or animals. A black stallion took a sudden fancy to a white mare and began neighing (which resembled crying) at the top of its voice. Sensing trouble, the owner of the mare took it away and tied her at the far end, so that neither could see each other. However, the distance could not prevent the horse from freeing itself from the grip of its owner and galloping towards the object of its desire. The surprised owner of the horse, much to everybody’s amazement, paid the price of the mare and took the much in love couple to his stud farm at Kurukshetra. st

Bollywood: Film

’ve always thought Devdas could only be told in black and white. For it is a bunch of flabbergastingly unidimensional characters -- drunkard, pining lover, courtesan -- that populate Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s essentially simplistic story, remarkable only for its wonderfully amoral, irredeemable titular protagonist.Ushering colour into these monochromatic silhouettes has proved to be disastrous thus far, but Anurag Kashyap trailblazes in with a defiant new version that has only one aim, that to make your jaw drop. Coolth drips from every frame, but we already knew this director as a man of extreme visual flair, and with trusted cinematographer Rajeev Ravi by his side, there was never any doubt that a film about a drugged-up Dev would look trippy beyond belief.Kashyap’s real surprise lies in the way he makes the story work, about how he avoids cinematic pitfalls and makes perhaps the most honest version of the character. In Dev D, Abhay Deol isn’t charming like Dilip Kumar [Images] or melodramatically tragic like Shah Rukh Khan [Images], but he is the character as he should be: the scumbag. Nine minutes into Dev D, you realise that the director isn’t aiming at an emotional connect with the hero, but instead trying to alienate you from him entirely. Gulping down that fact (with Thums Up or Coke, as you prefer) helps you kick back and revel in this utterly unconventional, marvellously immodest film.Kalki Koechlin and Abhay Deol in a scene from Dev DOn seeing raunchy JPEGs of Paro on his computer, Dev breaks into a grin and Anurag stealthily switches languages, having his hero say ‘Paro, main aa raha hoon’ instead of its English, inevitably innuendo’d counterpart. Vile and violent Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .

Anurag Kashyaps Film Contemporary Dev D are both muted and amplified unpredictably in the film, and a dialogue-switch like the one above shows us a director not just confident of his script, but trusting enough that his audience get the line without actually saying it and making them wince. Enough such behind-the-obvious cleverness abounds in the film, and while there are many that might cringe at the film’s three-hour running length, the best way to consume this long tall glass of cinema is by staying chilled. Dev D’s real hero is responsible for this, and despite what the posters might tell you, that isn’t Abhay Deol but the film’s musicman, the astonishing Amit Trivedi who constantly juggles angst and allusion, profanity and pensiveness to make an awesomely heady cocktail that elevates the film itself to another level. The film’s 18-song soundtrack is the narrative, really, bestowing the film with depth and nudging us, as viewers, in the right emotive direction even when the actors and lines themselves fail to get the job done. He’s a master, this Trivedi, and the way Kashyap’s used his songs is wonderfully appropriate, especially the rock version of Emotional Atyachaar. Even so, this is a rather radical project, a film that could well have done more but accomplishes far more than enough, and I think the only reason we expect even greater things is that it really, really whets our appetite.Randomness happens often in our newly-experimental cinema, but it’s always great to see a film where no detail is an accident, where the director gets to execute his vision exactly as he wants -- and this seems pretty darned close.

See Dev D once, get bombed, see it again. st

Bollywood : Glittery

Aamir’s next – a comedy Aamir Khan is set to produce and star in a comic caper written and directed by Neeraj Vora of Phir Hera Pheri fame. Sources reveal, “Neeraj who recently directed Aamir in the Tata Sky ad – where he played a dual role of a man and a woman – has managed to impress Aamir and bagged the next Aamir Khan Productions film. Neeraj had gone to Aamir with his script. Aamir was completely bowled over and immediately offered to produce the film. The film however will begin only around early 2010.” Neeraj and Aamir’s association goes long back. Neeraj had written Aamir’s Rangeela and had also acted with him in films such as Akele Hum Akele Tum and Mann.

Sallu refuses a Bhansali flick

Kat at her best

Amrita got kicked out

If you thought that Salman Khan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali were thick pals then perhaps you are mistaken. If rumours are to be believed then Sallu has refused the director’s forthcoming project Heera Mandi exactly for this reason. It so happened that Bhansali had approached Salman for his project. He offered Khan an ‘important’ role in Heera Mandi which, however, turned out to be just a cameo. And Sallu was very angry. He told the director that he wouldn’t or rather couldn’t do gaddari with his fans by appearing in a cameo. And asked Bhansali to meet him next time when he had a full-fledged role.

It was an occasion to celebrate for the unit members of Rajniti. By now we are all aware of the fact that Katrina Kaif is not too polished with her Hindi diction. But the actress surprised everyone this time around. Recently during the shoots in Bhopal, Prakash Jha who is known for his realistic films, wanted Katrina to deliver her dialogues, lengthy ones at that, in chaste Hindi. He asked our pretty Kat to learn it by heart. Katrina plays a politician in the film (which apparently has been inspired by Sonia Gandhi) and her character is required to speak unadulterated Hindi sans an accent.

The latest victim of the strained Indo-Pak relations is not a Pakistani. Amrita Rao lost out on the Walls ice cream commercial because of 26/11. Sounds unrealistic? Here’s the story: Few months ago Amrita starred alongside Farhan Saeed, the singer from the Pakistani band Jal in the commercial and a music video. However now with the diplomatic ties between the two countries going for a toss, Saeed is finding little support this side of the border. With Saeed out of the picture, Amrita was also given the boot and in came Shruti Hassan. st

Sahara Time , March28th, 2009 .