AV 15th April 2017

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Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

INVISIBLE, FORGOTTEN, SUFFERERS: PLIGHT OF WIDOWS AROUND THE WORLD

WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT THE DISADVANTAGED WIDOWS IN INDIA

HOPE AND DESPAIR TWO INDIANS FACE

For more information, visit WWW.theloombafoundation.org or Contact, Safdar Shah at safdar@theloombafoundation.org

Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2017, in what Islamabad calls a counterintelligence operation in Balochistan's Mashkel.

Following the arrest, Islamabad released a video showing Jadhav purportedly admitting his involvement in spying. Pak claimed that he was holding

Continued on page 26

London court gets its first ever Indian-origin female judge

Anuja Ravindra Dhir

An Indian-origin woman has become the first nonwhite female judge to sit at the Old Bailey Court of London. Anuja Ravindra

Dhir, who was advised to take up hairdressing by a teacher at her high school, is also the youngest circuit Continued on page 2

Krishna Maharaj in USA Jail and Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan Jail

As the world proceeds towards a future that seems uncertain yet promising, several countries unwittingly choose to turn inwards, ignoring international relations in the bid. The approach is not only selfish, and inconsiderate, but keeping globalisation's pace today, it is common sense that a country's inclination can set a precedent to the place it occupies in the current world order.

In the last few days, two disturbing events have

brought to light the scale at which foreign countries fail to deliver justice. The closest to home is the death sentence awarded to former Indian Navy man Kulbhushan Jadhav, by a military court in Pakistan.

In what is seen as a definite strain in bilateral ties, India has declared the sentence as “premeditated murder”. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has asserted that India will go “out of way” to ensure justice to Jhadav, warning

Pak of severe consequences. “I would caution Pakistan government to consider the consequences for our bilateral relationship if they proceed on this matter. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Jadhav. If anything, he is the victim of a plan that seeks to cast aspersions on India to deflect international attention from Pakistan's well-known record of sponsoring and supporting terrorism,” she said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australia PM Malcolm Turnbull at the Akshardham Temple, in New Delhi { Report on page 23 }

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2

ONE ONE with Keith Vaz, MP

Asian Voice 15th April 2017

www.asian-voice.com

to

Mr Maganbhai P Patel OBE

Mr Maganbhai P Patel OBE is currently the President of the Gujarat Hindu Association and the Leicester Hindu Festival Council, an umbrella organisation with 40 affiliated organisations. He is regarded as one of Leicester's most respected community leaders. He was born in India but moved to East Africa in 1954. He worked there as an accountant in 1970. He celebrates his 80th birthday this month.

Maganbhai moved to Leicester in 1970. He is multi-lingual speaking five language. His vast knowledge and skills have been acquired over the years through his involvement with various organisations throughout the United Kingdom as a President of many local organisations, Director and ViceChair of Voluntary Action Leicester, Founder, Trustee of the Hindu Temple Leicester, LEA Governor of Rushey Mead and Wyvern Primary Schools, Chairman of the Leicester Rajkot Twinning Association and the Belgrave Association and as a qualified accountant.

1) What is your current position?

I am currently the President of the Gujarat Hindu Association, the Leicester Hindu Festival Council, Karod Kiran Arts and Satsang Parivar. I am also a Trustee of the Shree Mandhata Samaj Shayak Mandal in Leicester.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

One of my proudest achievements was receiving an OBE in 2006. I was also presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award in 2008 by the Shree Mandhata Samaj Shayak

Mandal in Leicester. I also won the S.A.C.P. Community Award in June 2009.

Pic courtesy: Daily Mail

I would change how the benefit system is funded and how our economy works. It is so important that governments secure the conditions to create jobs. Jobs for their people that should be a big priority for any government.

4) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?

I have been the biggest influence and motivation to myself.

As President of the Gujarat Hindu Association the best aspect of my role is guiding my team and local communities in the right direction.

6) And the worst?

There isn’t a bad aspect to what I do. I enjoy and honour my role. I

London Fire Brigade confirmed they were called to the incident, which is now under control, and confirmed the explosions were caused by a lorry fire

thick back smoke was pluming up. As I started filming a second blast went off and then a third one went off. It was really loud. The police emptied the street out and the traffic has been directed away. It's literally a ghost town now.'

In the video, he says: 'There has been an explosion just of Kenton Road near Kenton Station - absolutely massive. The fire brigade are going in. There is a column of smoke going high high high up into the

8) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?

I am inspired by helping other communities, supporting my team and the local authorities in Leicester. I also enjoy helping members of the community to achieve a better and healthier life.

5) What is the best aspect of your current role?

sky.’

London Fire Brigade said there was no record of any injuries, adding: 'We were called at 12.57 and the incident was over for us at 13.48. It was a lorry which was gutted by fire and the adjacent property windows were damaged by it. We had three fire engines at the scene.'

Harrow Borough Police confirmed the cause of the fire was an electrical fault and the road closures have been lifted.

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community in Leicester. There have been few organisations that have their own premises but we have and that is because it is so well respected.

3) What inspires you?

Series of four ‘absolutely massive’ explosions rock London street A series of 'absolutely massive' explosions rocked London last Saturday afternoon. Plumes of black smoke billowed over shops near Kenton Station in Harrow this afternoon after a lorry caught fire.

Andrzej Bania, 53, started filming after hearing the first of four explosions at around 1pm on Saturday.

Speaking to the Daily Mail he described hearing an 'absolutely massive' blast which 'shook the windows' and is interrupted by two further blasts in the fourminute video.

London Fire Brigade confirmed they were called to the incident, which is now under control, and confirmed the explosions were caused by a lorry fire.

Mr Bania said: 'I was in my living room having a chat with a friend of mine and my daughter says, "Quick, quick," she had seen what was happening outside. We went to the window at the back and loads of

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love meeting members of the local community and listening to their views. People have been my inspiration.

7) What are your long term goals?

I would love to expand the Gujarat Hindu Association to every town and city across the United Kingdom. It has been the centrepiece of the life of the

9) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?

I would spend my time with the father of my home nation Mahatma Gandhi because this moral leader was able to achieve the impossible in 1947. It would be a learning curve for anyone to be marooned with him on a desert island.

Student from Harrow runs marathon to thank hospital for saving father's life A student plans to run his first ever marathon to thank the hospital that saved his father’s life.

Jeet, a 20-year-old from Harrow, is raising money for the National Brain Appeal, the charity that supports The National Hospital where his father was treated.

Hours after returning from weddings in Kenya and Tanzania in December 2008, Jeet’s father Mukesh was taken ill with extreme fatigue and difficulty breathing.

Shortly after, he was diagnosed with GuillainBarré syndrome, a disease that affects only one in 100,000 people.

It causes the body’s immune system to attack the peripheral nerves, resulting in muscle weakness.

After six months at The National Hospital, Mukesh was transferred to a rehabilitation unit at

Jeet Vaghela (left) with his family at his father Mukesh Vaghela's (second from left) 50th birthday.

Northwick Park Hospital where he remained for a further year and a half receiving physiotherapy and support to help improve his mobility.

After nearly two years in hospital, Mukesh made a phenomenal recovery and in 2015 celebrated his 50th birthday with the whole family.

Jeet said: “The London Marathon has been something I have wanted to do for a long time to honour my father’s

fight for fitness. I am so grateful for the care my father received when he was in hospital.

“Without the fantastic work of the doctors and nurses at The National Hospital, he would not be alive today. They provided him with the best possible care and support imaginable along the way.”

Jeet is set to run on Sunday April 23. To support him, visit: justgiving.com/fundraising/jeet-vaghela

London court gets its first ever Indian-origin female judge

Continued from page 1 judge currently to sit at the court.

Speaking to the press this week the 49-year-old said that she is often mistaken for a witness or a defendant since she entered the legal profession.

“I remember going to a crown court out of London and the man at the gate didn’t believe I was a barrister. In the end I had to show him my wig and gown before they would actually let me into the building,” she said.

With 15 judges in the

Old Bailey, only five of them are women, three of which were the most recent intake.

“I’m often asked if there is a glass ceiling. I think sometimes there are two ceilings – or no glass ceiling at all.

“There is one glass ceiling that’s in our minds, that’s what we think we can achieve so perhaps we impose our glass ceiling and that has happened to me several times… most clients did not want a young, Asian, Scottish female representing them, so that made it harder for

me to build a client base,” she told the BBC. Dhir was born in Dundee, Scotland, to Indian immigrant parents and studied at Harris Academy before studying English and Scots law at Dundee University.

She subsequently won a Gray’s Inn scholarship in London, calling to the bar in 1989 where she practised for 23 years as both prosecutor and defence counsel.

She recalls her dyslexia in school led her teachers to advice against dreaming of a legal career.

“I’m dyslexic so I find it difficult to read and write.

And when I went to school in the 1970s in Scotland, women were not encouraged to aim high.

“When I first said to a teacher at school I wanted to go to university when I was older, she told me that I should aim a little lower and suggested I try hairdressing instead,” she recalls.

Dhir donned her judge’s robes as a circuit judge at the Central Criminal Courts, known as at the Old Bailey, in London in February.

When she began her career as a lawyer in the 1980s, Anuja Ravindra Dhir knew she was in for a long struggle.

“Currently the Old Bailey's first non-white circuit judge, the 49 year old said she was often mistaken for a witness or a defendant.

"When I first said to a teacher at school, I wanted to go to university when I was older, she told me that I should aim a little lower and suggested I try hairdressing instead," she said.

"My daughter, it would never cross her mind being

treated differently because she's a female or because she's not white, whereas in my generation we did.

“We were surprised when people didn't treat us differently. Not now, but when I came to the bar, I was not expecting to be treated like a white Oxbridge male at all."

She also spoke about times when initially clients refused to be represented as a young Asian Scottish female.

One would think the treatment would change once she became a circuit judge, in February.

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Is the world drifting to a Great Power war?

The spectre of jihadi terror continues to cast a baleful shadow across continents. Barely had decent men and women everywhere recovered from the shock of the Westminster Bridge suicide assault on the innocent, than the traumatic bombing of the St Petersburg metro by a blast suspect, one Akbarzhon Jalilov, from Kyrgyzstan made media headlines. Fourteen passengers died and around 50 were injured. While world leaders condemned the attack, a British Conservative MP was indecently quick off the mark on the BBC called it a ‘blowback’ from the Russian presence in Syria, which he said had place Moscow above Washington as the primary target of Jihadi vengeance. A prominent neo-con US columnist suggested the the blast was the work of Russian security services as a diversion to save the Putin regime from imminent collapse.

Another jihadi attack occurred in Stockholm, when an Uzbek immigrant drove his truck/van into a crow of shoppers in the Swedish capital, leading to deaths and injuries.

On Syria itself, President Trump has reversed his earlier avowed goal of improved US-Russia ties. This volte face promises few lasting dividends in America and elsewhere. With the American nation, deeply divided already, its political and social fissures are poised to deepen further, and swelling antiwar demonstrations, as in Vietnam war, decades ago, are certain to take a heavy toll in public trust. President Trump’s statement that he had ordered the bombing of Syria because American security was at stake is too absurd for serious comment.

His Administration is doomed, henceforth, to lurch from crisis to crisis until its last rites in office.

The Trump Administration launching a military assault on Syria for reasons as valid as ‘the weapons of mass destruction’ that were allegedly in Saddam Hussein’s possession and readied for use against his own people, could have unforeseen consequences transcend-

ing the borders of the Middle East, leading to an adumbration of the situation preceding the First World War of 1914.

The United States is the only nation to have used atom bombs, when they dropped one each on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The official narrative would have us believe that this was done to save American lives - an obscene falsehood on every count.

Admiral William D. Leahy, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff declared: ‘It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.

My feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted the an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Age.’ An exultant President Truman, on receiving the report of the atomic bombings, said: ‘This is the greatest thing in history…We have won the gamble.’ Truman’s hubris, stemming from an ingrained belief common to all US presidents to this day, that America is the divine instrument of God’s purpose, blinded to the consequences of his barbaric act.

It led instead to an arms race in weapons of mass destruction and the spectre of a nuclear Armageddon.

President Trump and his philistine cabal would do well to ponder these iconic lines of the poet Shelley: I met a traveller from an antique land,/Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone/ Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, /Half sunk, a visage lies, whose frown,/And wrinkled sneer and lips of cold command./ Tell that its sculptor well those passions read…And on the pedestal these words appear:/ M y name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:/ Look on my works ye Mighty and despair!”/…

Round the decay/ Of that colossal rock, boundless and bare/ The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Facing US perversity, Chinese obduracy President Trump has decided to turn the clock back on the Indian subcontinent by re-hyphenating India, Pakistan over Kashmir. US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikky Haley, declared recently that the Trump Administration was determined to mediate in the search for a permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute. This has caused considerable displeasure in New Delhi, with the Indian government issuing a firm rebuttal to any such move. Kashmir was a bilateral matter to be resolved

by India and Pakistan without the interference from any quarter, said the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

The Trump Administration’s demarche has been a wake-up call to sections of the Indian media and the political class, much given to salivating at the mere mention of the United States and its gifts, always rhapsodizing on the soaring Indo-US relationship of their dreams.

Former Indian foreign secretary, Kanwal Sibal, writing on The Telegraph’s edit-page deplored the practice of the country’s principal English language broadsheets’ reliance on Western news agencies and newspapers their syndicated columnists for wisdom on Russia – a point emphasized on this page of Asian Voice. People who rarely read history, let alone ponder its lessons, prefer instead to cull their reports of press handouts and sumptuous post-prandial diplomatic lunches, trot out rancid clichés on shared values of democracy and much else scripted in heaven. Earthy truths tell a different tale.

Amnesia hobbles memory, hence the Nixon Administration’s close alignment with Maoist China and the military regime in Pakistan, led Henry Kissinger,

with his president’s full approval a demarche to B eijing to open a second front against India along the Himalayan border, to save Pakistan – the common client – from military defeat in December 1971.

The Kolkata-based Telegraph’s Diplomatic Correspondent, K.P. Nayar, in a sensational front-page report (April 7) relates how US Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry made direct approaches to Pranab Mukherjee, then Indian Finance Minister, with the aim of bring about a ‘colour revolution’ in Bangladesh- the ‘kind of regime change successfully attempted in Georgia, Ukraine and Egypt’. The US aim was to replace the government of Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka with one to be led by Mohammed Younis, Director of the micro-credit lender Grameen Bank.

Pranab Mukherjee (now Indian President) rejected these appeals and assured Sheikh Hasina (who had got wind) of the US design, the India would stand by her, and that she had nothing to fear. These revelations were likely to appear in the third volume of President Mukherjee’s memoirs.

China continues to berate India over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, to which it has laid claim. The language emanating from Beijing, minatory and insulting, has stiffened Indian resolve. Chief Minister Khandu stated that Arunachal Pradesh had no legal border with China, but it had one with Tibet – a truly magnificent response in face of China’s brutal invasion and occupation of the country. The Dalai Lama likened the attitude of the Chinese government to that of the genocidal Cambodia regime of Pol Pot in the 1970s.

Jagadish Bose: Father of radio science In 1895, a remarkable experiment was conducted at the Town Hall in Calcutta, before, among others, the assembled Bengal Governor and some his senior officials were privy to the world’s first successful demonstration of radio communication. Bose refused to patent his invention on principle – which cost him the Nobel Prize, and enabled the Italian Guglielmo Marconi to win it. That is a story of its own.

Today, scientists and engineers, looking to construct 5G mobile communication, are basing their efforts on the millimetre wavelength frequency that Bose used in his experiment 122 years ago.

Ramjee Prasad, Professor of Future Technologies for Business Eco-system Innovation at Aarhus University, Denmark, during an address at the 5G Summit in

Kolkata, said: ‘I take a lot of inspiration from Bengal and Kolkata because it is here that radio communication was born. The millimetre wave that J.C. Bose worked on is the backbone of developing 5G.’ The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s leading technical organization in the field recognized the 1895 experiment as a milestone. ‘In the scientific community Bose is now gaining recognition as the father of radio science and semiconductor technology. While advancement in semiconductor technology had led to smartphones, millimeter wave technology may bring about a more wirelessly connected world tomorrow,’ said Suvra Sekhar Das, Associate Professor at the GS Sanyal School of Telecommunication at IITKharagpur.

A faithful friend is the medicine of life - Apocrypha

Cllr Ketan Sheth

Councillor for Tokyngton Wembley Brent Council’s Chair of Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee

What if you could run your own healthcare plan?

Recovery is about a personal journey towards a meaningful and satisfying life, living as well as possible, whatever symptoms or difficulties are present. But, what if you could run your own healthcare plan? Well, CNWL – Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust teaches people to do just that. It runs a Recovery College, which provides the tools to make this happen and to help you become an expert in your own recovery; managing your physical and mental health conditions or that of someone you care for.

In the last three years, the College has grown to such an extent that it now offers 90 different courses. Every course and workshop is co-designed and co-run by trainers who have experienced mental health or other difficulties, working alongside professionals. 3,000 people have been on courses in the last two years, nearly 1,200 from Brent alone.

In Brent, the Recovery College, in partnership with The Kilburn Park Medical Centre, set up the Healthy Living in Practice Project, with Dr Tamara Joffe leading the way. The aim of the Project was to see if the patients could have better outcomes if they took greater control over their wellbeing and at the same time free up GP time. This was put to the test last year.

As always, the best way to kick-start any new project is to talk to the patients and Tamara’s team did just that. About 120 patients took part in the trial and spoke about health issues that made them see their GPs. These included disabling

Editor: CB Patel

pain, anxiety, depression, stress and sleeping better etc.

What they did then was to set up 23 courses for the patients to tackle these health issues. The courses were run jointly with other experienced patients. Of 120 patients, 76 took part in the trial.

A record of each patient’s thoughts about their health issues before and after the course was kept.

These records revealed that the patients generally felt positive about themselves.

However, did the patients need to see their GPs less? Well, overall clinical contacts for the patients fell and more importantly they felt better about their health.

Learning together in a safe environment with excellent peer trainers and expert practitioners allowed them to share problems and solutions about conditions that were dominating their lives. There was a new community spirit and trust that the trainers brought, which allowed the patients to share experiences and also have fun! The GPs, as a result, had more time for other patients.

Tamara’s team has now started another project to see if they can have the same effect for weight loss, reducing blood pressure and managing diabetes.

Recovery College is a good use of NHS resources and good for patients’ health and wellbeing.

It puts patients’ recovery back in their control and provides hope, choice and learning opportunities to develop self-help and self-management skills, and explore vocational and personal development.

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Burberry model Neelam Gill talks about discrimination The first British Indian model to star in a Burberry campaign, the face of Blink Brow Bar and L'Oreal's latest uber diverse ad and spokesperson for bullying, depression and self worth, Neelam's way more than just a pretty face.

Born in 1995 Neelam is a British fashion model.

She is known for her work with clothing houses Burberry, Abercrombie & Fitch and appearing in Vogue.

Gill has spoken about bullying, depression and body confidence issues via her YouTube channel and also said that she "feels sorry" for online trolls.

At the age of fourteen she signed with Models 1 but it wasn’t until she was 18 and had gained four A* at A-level that her mum allowed her to try modelling as a career.

Speaking recently to The Guardian Neelam who has been consistently written about as the first British Indian to become a

muse to a major fashion house with Burberry, the first to become the face of high-street teen emporium Abercrombie & Fitch and was even the first British Indian to ever appear in British Vogue.

She has also appeared in Vogue India.

Neelam comes from Coventry but currently lives in London. Her grandparents were born in India and are from Punjab. Her parents, both from traditional Indian families, were born in the UK and had an arranged marriage. They struggled as a couple, working in her paternal grandparents’ corner shop and living in the flat above until they could afford to move to

their own house.

After they divorced and her career in modeling started Neelam started waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, paralysed and rigid which would then lead on with the nausea and puking and even suffered with depression.

Despite all this Neelam has managed to break into an industry that has always been known for being snobby and racist.

According to The Guardian Neelam has endured breathtaking racist abuse online since she entered the public eye in 2013, first as a model

with opinions, later because it was rumoured in 2015 that she was seeing Zayn Malik.

That year, her personal experiences caused her to post a series of videos to her YouTube channel, of her chatting on the effects of bullying, depression, body image and racism.

Many time she acknowledged that she was setting herself “up for hate”, but that it didn’t matter “if I reached one person who needed to hear those things. Depression is still something I suffer with,” she says, “but it’s something you learn how to cope with and you get help.”

Neelam and Malik

Saffiyah Khan Meets Saira Zafar After Confronting EDL’s Ian Crossland At Birmingham March The woman who confronted the leader of the English Defence League (EDL) during a protest last Saturday has been reunited with the Muslim female she stepped in to protect.

The photo of Saffiyah Khan smiling in the face of an angered Ian Crossland became a viral sensation over the weekend and details of the encounter have continued to emerge since.

Saira Zafar, 24, had been part of a counterdemonstration at the event “to show that [the EDL’s message] is not acceptable and that it will be countered” when she was cornered by members of the far-right group.

Speaking to The Guardian she said: “They were saying, ‘You’re not English,’ ‘This is a Christian country, not your country,’ and ‘Go back to where you came from.’ I was alarmed and worried for my safety.”

Khan said she felt the need to intervene when police failed to respond.

She added: “I wasn’t going to let someone who was speaking the truth and being replied to aggressively be put in that position. You didn’t look like you wanted to be there and I have an intrinsic problem with that.”

The EDL tried to downplay the incident.

According to anti-extremist group Hope Not Hate, Ian Crossland responded to a Facebook post of the photo by claiming Saffiyah Khan had disrupted a minute’s silence for terror attack victims, adding “she’s lucky she’s got any teeth left”.

But analysis of footage from the event show a number of EDL members including Crossland himself - speaking throughout the minute’s silence, giving the impression to protestors that one wasn’t actually underway.

Anita Faster who was at the event, told The Huffington Post UK: “I remember hearing a call for a minutes silence, which as a human being I was fully

INSET: Khan facing off with EDL leader Ian Crossland

Saffiyah Khan (L) and Saira Zafar (R).

respected. I was, however, shocked to hear the far right members present continue to hurl abuse and profanities at our group. I also recall seeing one EDLer jump over one of their own marshals in an attempt to land a punch on the guy to my left.”

Even former EDL leader, Tommy Robinson, said the entire episode was “embarrassing” for the farright group.

Khan told the Guardian: “The picture definitely is embarrassing for the EDL. Personally I don’t

know how much I agree with him, but that statement is bang on.”

Zafar concluded: “There’s no need for anything like this. I’m sure we’re more than capable of living together, united despite our differences. You just have to walk into Birmingham city centre to see how diverse it is. People of different colours different religions. It’s an absolutely amazing city and such a beautiful city, and it’s nothing like the sort of message that the EDL came here to deliver.”

Men 'groomed teenage girl from the age of 12 before raping her in drug den' A teenage girl was allegedly groomed from the age of 12 and and taken to a drug den before being 'passed around for sex' by a gang of men. The girl fell pregnant at 14 during an 18-month ordeal which saw her raped and sexually assaulted by the men at a house in the Brierfield area of Burnley in Lancashire.

Six men from the area have appeared before Manchester Crown Court to face a range of sexual offences against the girl.

Mohammed Imran Amjad, 26, known as Immy

, denies rape, child abduction and intimidating a witness.

Shiraz Afzal,26, known as Frankie, denies aiding and abetting rape. Omar Mazafar,22, known as Bats, denies inciting rape.

Mohammed Suleman Farooq, 23, known as Sully, denies sexual assault, engaging in sexual activity with a child, and witness intimidation.

Mohammed Zeeshan Amjad,25, known as Zishan, denies rape and engaging in sexual activity with a child and Haroon

Mahmood, 22, denies rape and engaging in sexual activity with a child.

The court heard that the girl later told police just before her 15th birthday when she was pregnant that she was first contacted

by Immy when she was 12 years old. She was 13 when he began to drive her around Burnley and began to take her to the house where she was later raped and sexually assaulted by a number of men.

One of the men had created a Facebook account with photographs

Mohammed Zeeshan Amjad

of her and explicit captions.

The trial continues.

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Life of Singing Saint celebrated

Leading academic Professor Nazira Karodia, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Wolverhampton, has been honoured for her “exceptional” work.

Professor Karodia was among other dignitaries each of whom spoke at the annual Birmingham Thyagaraja Festival. The list included West Midlands’ mayoral candidate Andy Street, Mayor of Solihull Cllr Mike Robinson and Mayoress Jenny Robinson, new Indian Consul General in Birmingham Dr Aman Puri, Birmingham Children’s Hospital deputy chairman Vij Randeniya and Dr Rajah and his wife from The Balaji Temple.

The festival, which this year coincided with the UK-India Year of Culture, saw aspiring singers, musicians and professional dancers bring to life the songs, rhythms and teachings of Thyagaraja, one of the legendary composers of Indian and Carnatic classical music.

Thyagaraja, also known as the singing saint, composed thousands of devotional hymns, most in praise of the Hindu God, Lord Rama, many of which remain popular today.

He was born in 1767 at Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu. He was named after the presiding deity of

the famous temple in his native Thiruvarur. He was one of three sons.

The event was organised by Shruthi UK, a South Asian arts organisation based in Solihull, brainchild of Dr Chithra Ramakrishnan, who hails from a family of talented musicians and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, (RSA).

Sending his good wishes, Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, said: “Music of the Singing Saint is rejoiced by those in India and abroad and he is indeed, a pride, among many, of our great nation.”

Also in attendance was one of the world’s most well-known gurus of Carnatic music, Guru Vid Shri Neyveli Santhanagopalan – a patron of Shruthi UK’s sister organisation the British Carnatic Choir.

Shruthi UK aims to inspire and motivate people from all ages and backgrounds but particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. For more information visit www.shruthiuk.com The UK-India Year of Culture was formally launched at Buckingham Palace in February. It aims to celebrate the deep cultural ties and the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence through a year-long programme of events and exhibitions which will take place in both countries.

Driver caught at Channel Tunnel trying to smuggle passenger into UK A Leicester man has been jailed for 16 months today after he was caught trying to smuggle a passenger into the UK. Gurpal Bharth, of Western Road, West End, was stopped by Border Force officers at the Channel Tunnel UK control zone in Coquelles on August 14 last year on his return from France.

In his car was a passenger who was carrying a UK passport. Bharth told officers that the man was a friend he had known for several years.

The 24-year-old told the officers that he was giving him a lift to the UK having met up by chance at a festival in Calais.

However, checks established that the man was an imposter and that the pass-

port he presented had been cancelled by its rightful holder in 2009.

The individual was subsequently identified as an Indian national and he was passed to the French Police Aux Frontieres.

Bharth was arrested and the investigation passed to Immigration Enforcement Criminal and Financial Investigation officers.

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New security checks proposed by the US worry Brit-Asians Rupanjana Dutta Britons travelling to the US may be asked for social media usernames and passwords and their phone’s address book under new border checks being considered at US airports. British Asians travelling to the US for work and pleasure are now worried that they will be prone to extra questioning, forced to hand over their personal details to the US authority, because of the new border law being considered.

The Wall Street journal reported that the Trump administration is considering “extreme vetting” scenarios in which even tourists from US allies such as the UK, France and Germany are subject to intense security checks.

While google and facebook have refused to hand over encrypted information and messages to security officials, this security check is posing a threat to a man's basic right to private life.

“We will do it when we think there’s a reason to do it,” US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told a US Senate committee hearing last week. “The vast majority of people will not be questioned in that way.”

However, he did not elaborate on the plans.

Donald Trump, who was elected on a promise to strengthen US borders, has already overseen tighter controls since taking office. They include a temporary ban on travellers from six majority

Muslim countries without visas, which has been blocked, and a ban on laptops and other large electronic devices as carryons from certain countries, which has been followed by the UK. According to a Daily Telegraph report, Mr Kelly previously floated the prospect of asking for passwords in February.

“We want to say for instance, ‘What sites do you visit? And give us your passwords,’ so that we can see what they do on the internet. If they don’t want to give us that information then they don’t come,” he told the congressional Homeland Security Committee.

Border officials have the ability to refuse entry if tourists do not comply, and it is unclear what recourse those who do not want to hand over their details have.

While those who have had to hand over their details could take measures such as changing their password, or turning on two-factor authentication, which requires a code on a mobile phone to log in, this could simply lead to heightened suspi-

cion.

Anjali Rego-Dsouza, an Indian citizen living in the UK told Asian Voice, “This invasion of privacy is worrying and I would avoid traveling to USA as people of colour will be targeted first. I feel USA is being paranoid and inquisitive in the name of national security. I'm due to travel this year and I plan to leave my laptop at home but I will take my iPhone with me. I plan to erase the whole phone and will take a cloud back up. I will restore the backup after I cross security. I don't mind going through this little inconvenience to prevent them from invading my privacy snooping into my life which is none of their business.”

Puloma Chatterjee, told the newspaper, “There's no doubt people of colour will be targeted more and people with "certain" names even further. Also what happens if I handover my password etc and then my identity gets stolen or in this day and age of mobile banking, myaccount gets hacked?

Will the Homeland security be accountable for all the trouble that I'll have to go through then? This will definitely deter me from travelling to the US.” Karan Morjaria, a City worker told AV, “I travel to the US for work. My phone belongs to the office and there is data that I cannot let anyone snoop on. How can I handover such information to the US officials? This is not acceptable.”

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British Asian soldier brutally murders girlfriend Trial continues for British Asian soldier Trimaan Dhillon, 26 who murdered his girlfriend Alice Ruggles 24, by slitting her throat from “ear to ear” after the couple split.

Dhillon, an army signaller who had planned to join the SAS subjected his former girlfriend to months of emotional blackmail and harassment before sneaking into her home to carry out this brutal attack.

Ruggles ended the relationship in October 2016 and declined to press charges against Dhillon's disturbing behaviour – a choice the prosecution claimed she declined because she was too kind-hearted.

The split-up was nasty and Dhillon's attempts to rekindle the relationship fell on deaf ears, aggravated his obsessive behaviour - and he left no stones unturned to harass her.

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Trimaan Dhillon, 26 who murdered his girlfriend Alice Ruggles

ed fake dating profiles to smear Ruggles' reputation, hacked into her social media accounts and forced her to report the matter to the Northumbria Police.

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

Six family members jailed for abusing teen Family members of a teenager who was killed following years of abuse from her own family, have been convicted for a total of 56 years for the crime. Shahena Uddin, 19, was found dead in the bathroom in her home in Watford in October last year after she was brutally beaten with fists and weapons.

Her family called an ambulance after they discovered her the next morning and told paramedics she collapsed as she had not felt well.

Severe bruising on several parts of Uddin's body was noticed, and the police was called. During trial, the court heard that the victim suffered severe mental and physical abuse at the hands of her family. Detective Inspector Fraser Wylie from the Bedforshire, Cambridgshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit said, "In all my years as a detective, this case has been possibly one of the most harrowing cases of domestic abuse I have dealt with. How any person can inflict such violence and mental abuse on someone is beyond comprehension, and even more so when those inflicting that abuse are members of a family who were supposed to have a duty of care."

Her sister-in-law Salma Begum, 33, was convicted of murder and conspiracy to pervert the course, and sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 18 years. Her husband, and the victim's brother, Suhail Uddin, 35, was convicted for 10 years. Rehene Uddin, 22, Jhuhal Uddin, 33, Tohel Uddin, 24, and Jewel Uddin, 27,

Radical Islamic activities traced down in London

Khalid Masood

Shahena Uddin

were each sentenced to 5, 9, and six and a half, and 8 years respectively.

Wylie informed, "Shahena Uddin suffered unimaginable abuse both physically and mentally which was tantamount to torture.

What she was subjected to, being denied water, being made to drink toilet water, and being forced to eat her own faeces, are just a few of the extremely disturbing 'punishments' her family inflicted on her, isolating her and making her life agony."

Shahena was so brutally beaten the night she died, that the neighbours thought her family was "tenderising meat".

It also emerged that the teenager had written begging letters to her sister-in-law, asking to be allowed to leave the family home. In one such letter, she drew a heart captioned 'before' and a broker heart with the word 'after. Addressing

herself as 'Shina', she wrote, "Shina is bad and does not deserve to live in this bad world. Shina RUINED everyone's life and happiness. I don't know how this all happened in a few hours. RUINED EVERYTHING. RUINED EVERYONE'S HAPPINESS. UPSET EVERYONE. WHY?" In another letter, addressing Salma as 'Afa', she wrote, "It hurts when you call me a cow and a ratdog. I am suffering. I have no one to tell so please can you help me. Afa, I will put my head in the toilet for you just to forgive me. Please Afa I really need you."

The police, after the conclusion of the case, admitted that they were unable to find a motive for the prolonged abuse. One official said the "troubled" family was "held together by control and internal discipline of an extreme variety."

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Two seperate incidents in London have revealed evidences of extremist behaviour by Islamic groups in the UK. In a recent revelation, the Westminster terrorist Khalid Masood was found to have played a key role at a mosque in Luton that motives Muslims to take up weapons to triumph over “Jews and the rest of the enemies of Islam.”

Masood was a public contact person for the hardline website of the Luton Islamic Centre mosque calltoislam.com.

While the mosque insists that it condemns terrorism, there were evidence of extreme violent radicalisation. Security officers are of the opinion that Masood was radicalised while a worshipper at the mosque.

In another incident, charity organisation Islamic Relief was questioned for inviting hardliner Muslim preacher Yashir Qadhi to star in a fundraising tour of Britain. Qadhi, an American

academic educated in Saudi Arabia was found instigating students through speeches that Islam validated killing homosexuals and stoning adulterers. He clarified that these punishments only applied in an Islamic society and is not applicable in the West.

Yashir Qadhi

After being alerted by The Times newspaper in London, the Charity Commission is questioning charities Islamic Relief, Muslim Aid and Read Foundation about their sponsorship of Dr Gadhi's eight-city lecture tour starting this month.

Qadhi serves as Dean of Academic Affairs at the international Al-Maghrib Institute which has taught Islamic sciences to 80,000 students and is based in 11 countries including the UK.

Matru Vandana's last chapters A musical evening to celebrate Mother’s Day and pay homage to mothers delights audiences in Leicester and Preston over the weekend

Kokila Patel & Kamal Rao

Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar organised the concluding chapters of the Matru Vandana series at Leicester and Preston over the 7th and 8th April weekend.

Matru Vandana, coorganised by Vasant Bhakta in Leicester was set up at Shri Lohana Mahajan Hall on the 7th April, 2017.

Revered singer Maya Dipak was flown down from India to delight the audiences with an evening of sugam sangeet in her versatile, distinguished and melodious voice. She was accompanied by musicians

Mohan Parmar, Prahlad Nayee, Dasrath Nayee, Ishwar Tailor, Chandrakant Limbachia, Balwant Panchal and Urmila Solanki from Gujarat Hindu Society- Preston Committee present a birthday card to CB Patel

Anant Patel on keyboard, Naushad on the tabla and Mina Patel was on the manjira and khanjari during all the events.

Trained in Hindustani Classical, Maya is a famed

Ishwar Tailor, President, Gujarat Hindu Society honouring Maya Dipak

artist in Gujarat and has been honoured with Gaurav Puraskar from the Gujarat government for her contributions to the field of vocals for Sugam Sangeet.

Like the events in London, Barking and Birmingham, Maya paid tribute to mothers through Sugam Sangeet and old Hindi film songs. Her songs were themed on the special bond shared between the mother and child. She also focussed on the importance of the girl child.

Bhakta (Mr B) thanked Sabras Radio, Vajubhai Madhlani and Committee members of Shri Lohana Mahajan Hall, Radias

Superstores and Viren Patel – for helping out with the Sound System. He also helped our volunteers Jayendra Gohil, Manhar Patel, Pravin Morzaria and Thakor Prajapati.

The Gujarat Hindu Society co-organised Matru Vandana in Preston on the 8th April. Around 250 people attended the concluding event that evoked tears from the audiences, moved by Maya Dipak's astounding performance. She received a standing ovation from the audience and they demanded her to come again to perform at Preston.

Inaugural lamps were

Kokila Patel, Maya Dipak, Surendra Patel, Vasant Bhakta, Kamal Rao and CB Patel at the Leicester event

lit by CB Patel, Ishewar Tailor, Dashrathbhai Nayee, President of the Hindu Council North and Maya Dipak. It was the eve of our Editor CB Patel's 80th birthday and a small celebration was organised on the stage. The Head Pandit chanted mantras and blessed him and the President of the Gujarat Hindu Society, Ishwar Tailor gifted CB with a customised card, signed by the key committee members.

A scrumptious Gujarati dinner was laid out for the guests; Ishwar conveyed his gratitude to Kamalkant Parikh of RK sweets for sponsoring the foods for the event.

Ishwar Tailor was thankful to CB Patel and his team for their constant support towards the Gujarat Hindu Society, Chandrakant Limbachia for helping out with the sound system and for planning the event and the Committee members and volunteers of the event.

Matru Vandana has been a super-hit event in all the five locations – London, Barking, Birmingham, Leicester and Preston. After a standing ovation from the audience at Preston, there were demands for organising a similar event for Father's Day – Pitru Vandana, in June.

UK Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

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Diaspora gears up to celebrate New Year festivities Rupanjana Dutta

3,000 people gathered outside the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Well Lane, Wednesfield on Sunday 9th in this tradition which dates back centuries. The procession was led by a drummer, followed by sword bearers, Khalsa flag bearers and a float carrying the Sikh holy book, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

Among the dignitaries at the celebration was Wolverhampton Mayor Barry Findlay, who said: "It is a great community event, and an important part of my mayoral role.

And they brought the sunshine!"

On 30 April the Indian high commission is organising the first ever Vaisakhi celebration at SKLPC, in Northolt.

T

his year 14 April marks the beginning of the Bengali, Assamese, Tamil and Sikh new year (Vaisakhi festival). Every year, thousands of people celebrate their new years, which include prayers, processions, festivities and feasts. Vaisakhi is celebrated by 20 million Sikhs worldwide, including big processions in cities like Toronto, Canada.

The Mayor of London Rt Hon Sadiq Khan will celebrate the Vaisakhi festival on 29 April at the Trafalgar Square in London.

On Sunday 9th, crowds gathered in Southall to watch the annual Vaisakhi parade, which started and ended at the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall Gurdwara on Havelock Road.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was in attendance and tweeted: ‘Londoners don’t just tolerate our

Southall Nagar Kirtan

diversity, we celebrate it!

Brilliant to be back in Southall alongside thousands at Vaisakhi celebrations.’

Other MPs including Southall MP Virendra Sharma and Feltham and Heston MP Seema Malhotra were in attendance.

The Birmingham celebrations, organised by the Council of Sikh Gurdwaras

in Birmingham, will be on Sunday, April 30, and are expected to attract more than 100,000 people.

There will be two processions plus open-air family festivities in Handsworth Park. Sangat (congregations) from gurdwaras (temples) throughout Birmingham and Sandwell will share meals from a langar (community canteen/kitchen) to over-

come cultural differences and break down barriers.

People from diverse communities will join in the festivities at the park and enjoy meals prepared by members of the Sikh community, as well as sing hymns that are set to music.

It was on this day in 1699 that the Khalsa order was established by Guru Gobind Singh.

Between 2,000 and

Thousands take to the streets of Glasgow for annual Sikh festival and procession

The Sikh Community in Scotland gathered in their thousands to celebrate the historic Sikh festival, Vaisakhi. Vaisakhi is cele-

A new survey has suggested that UK has become a less attractive place to do business as a result of the Brexit vote. Professional services firm KPMG questioned 100 of the largest UK listed companies and foreign owned subsidiaries, as well as 60 companies from across the other G7 nations, and found that respondents deemed the UK less attractive than they did this time last year in terms of both tax competitiveness and

appeal as a destination for foreign direct investment, reported The Independent.

"As in 2015, the Irish tax regime tops the rankings with 74 per cent of UK companies selecting it as one of their 'top three' and the UK again taking second place," KPMG wrote in the accompanying report. "What is noticeable however, is the widening gap between Ireland and the UK which was just 1 per cent in 2015 but has

grown to 9 per cent in the past year," they said. The survey showed that amongst the 60 non-UK companies surveyed this year, the UK fell from first to fifth place in the rankings, trailing Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Singapore.

"Not only does this demonstrate a sharp decline in perceptions of the UK's tax regime, there also seems to be a clear divide in sentiment

Pic courtesy: The Times

Brexit raises investment questions 29 years old Priya Narayan has lived in many cities around the world.

She was brought up in Malaysia, where she was educated at an international school, Priya moved to Wales with her parents when she was 11 and stayed there until she moved to Oxford to study when she was 23. She has been in London for the past few years. Interviewd

by The Times, the Risk Manager for HSBC has recently bought her first home at Dockside in Canary Wharf with £420,000. Her parents assisted her with £50,000 deposit, that helped her to get on the property ladder.

She had previously rented in flatshares across Docklands.

She loves living in the area, near the water, close to the DLR and other transports and feels safe living in the island. Her office is 10 mins walk from

Priya Narayan

her home. Priya who earns £50,000 a year is becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of Brexit on her investment and would like to know how leaving EU will affect London Property market. She told The Times “Although I am pleased becoming a homeowner, I am concerned about how Brexit will impact real estate in London, and the kind of market we'll face in a few years' time. I am wonderinf whether my property is a sound investment.”

Priya also wants to

know how much of the 40% government loan under Help to Buy scheme as a first time buyer- she should repay during the five year interst-fee period, or whether she would be better off using her savings to repay more of her mortgage. Her decision will be influenced by the property prices, because if they were to drop then the total amount of government loan would get smaller, in line with the flat's value.

She would also like to have the flexibility of moving in the future, this may not be her permanent home in the future. She would like to know what will happen to her loan if she sells during the five year interest free period.

There are many international opportunities at HSBC, she told The Times.

“I'm hoping I've made the right choices.”

between UK versus nonUK businesses," KPMG said.

Asked why their perception of the UK had changed, non-domestic businesses mostly cited the prospect of sensitivity to disruptions in trade deals and tariffs as a result of Brexit, and an end to the UK's access to the single market. One concern was also the risk to the mobility of skilled labour.

The survey that was conducted between December 2016 and February 2017 and 56 per cent of the companies interviewed had a turnover of over £1bn, according to KPMG. A total of 22 of the companies interviewed were members of the FTSE 100 bluechip index, with another 21 in the FTSE 250.

Pic courtesy: Daily Telegraph

Study: Brexit has already made UK less attractive for business

This year’s procession began at Glasgow’s West End Gurdwara on Otago Street on Sunday before heading to Central Gurdwara on Berkeley Street and then proceeded to the Southside Gurdwara’s at St Andrews Drive, before the finale of the procession at the Glasgow Gurdwara on Albert Drive.

Thousands of Sikhs from across Scotland have taken part in this annual procession, which this year celebrated its 25th anniversary. The first procession took place in April 1992.

Gurdwara President, Mr Labhaya Singh, said: “Sikhs celebrate Vaisakhi every year to commemorate the creation of the Sikh Nation, the Khalsa in 1699

by Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru. Vaisakhi reminds Sikhs worldwide about our responsibility to preserve human rights, promote equality, practice compassion and implement selfless service into our daily lives.

“For the last 25 years the Glasgow Gurdwara Council, have held a city-

Sikhs playing the bagpipes as a cultural fusion in Glasgow during the recent Vaisakhi festivities which was believed to have more than 1000 visitors

brated by Sikhs in April every year and the community marks this occasion by having an annual procession, which weaves thousands of Scottish Sikhs through the heart of Glasgow.

wide procession through Glasgow called the Nagar Keertan. This procession is close to the heart of the Sikh community and marks an important time for us to come together and celebrate our contributions to the City of Glasgow."

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To register call 0207 749 4085 or Email: support@abplgroup.com Only registered guests will be permitted to attend the seminar

8

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

BOOKWORM

The Racism of UK Caste Legislation Jay Jina Dr Prakash Shah’s, “Against Caste in British Law”, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2015, is an important and highly relevant work.

It exposes flawed premises on which the caste clause in the UK Equality Act (2010) is formulated. There is a brief historical account of the Protestant Christian framework on which the oppressive hierarchy of a “caste system” was framed as an instrument of British colonial power. This is followed by how this fiction has since been adopted in law, first in post-independence India’s “caste” based reservations, resulting in conflicts of secular interests between imagined “caste hierarchies” and now the potential consequences for British Indians being accused of racism, and whose culture, religions, associations, and businesses threatened with prosecution.

The book exposes why Hindus are right to consider this UK legislation a threat to Indian culture and a device of attack from Christian proselytizers. It provides important pointers to research and policy questions about Indian culture, history, narrative, and future, which all who are interested in human civilization need to ponder and address.

The incisive foreword

by Dr Gautam Sen sets the colonial underpinnings of the “caste system” starting On 5th April 2017, Selva and Tharshiny Pankaj hosted a Sri Lankan New Year Dinner & Dance at the May Fair Hotel in London. Sponsored by Regent Group, the London based private education group which they own and manage in their roles of CEO and MD respectively, the event was put together with the theme of unity in mind.

Graced with the presence of family, friends, and business colleagues alike, Selva, and others, including Lord Dolar Popat who gave the Keynote Speech, Dr Christopher Moran,

with the racist body measurements and classifications used by the British to make sense of Indian people and their culture. Sen exposes the flawed logic of a “hierarchy”, supposedly dominated by evil “high caste” Brahmins subjugating “lower castes” via a static, durable, hereditary mechanism of “false religion”.

This Christian fabricated “caste system” gets attention over important historical facts, such as the actual dynamics of Indian society, the 1000 years old upheaval and genocide by Islamic invasions and famines under British colonialism. Enslavement and cultural destruction are sanitised and “caste” is adopted as the definition of Indian society in “secular” history and post-independence politics.

The Protestant colonial-Orientalist-Secular view of Indian culture and how this informs the “moral” basis for legislation together with the questionable research by the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are explained.

In this view, three foundations support each other: First, the Protestant colonial account which deems Hindu culture as morally corrupt, static, and racist; with Brahmins as priests of false religion.

Second, the evolution of this theology with Orientalism and the discredited Aryan invasion theory. Race is made the

defining aspect of Indian people in which fair “Aryan” Brahmins brought their “caste” based false Hinduism and Sanskrit to dominate the dark “lower caste” natives.

Third, the secularisation of “caste” as universally accepted in which the Brahmin priesthood exists at the heart of Indian religion and all knowledge about India.

It is as if, over the past 200 years, little new knowledge has been added beyond creating a link between Hinduism and an imaginary Aryan invasion.

Leading UK Race-Rights academics of Indian origin are so immersed in “colonial consciousness” and distant from their culture that they see British Hindu society, its temples and community institutions as founded purely on “caste prejudice”.

Others allege that British Indians practice apartheid and therefore are racists, because, for example, their voluntary choice of marriage partners within their own jati groups is immoral (and potentially unlawful), and thus must be legislated against.

Another, on the EHRC academic team, dubiously connected similarities between bricks used in contemporary “Dalit” dwellings and those found in Harappan sites as evidence of an Aryan invasion and “caste oppression”.

The EHRC, having delegated research to these scholars of the Protestant

Selva and Tharshiny Pankaj with Lord Popat and Dominic Johnson, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party

Chairman of the charity Cooperation Ireland, and Simon Blagden CBE, Chairman of Fujitsu, who gave the Address, spoke of the importance of harmony within different parts of the community and the utmost importance of

sharing common British values, even in the face of adversity, whilst guests enjoyed a variety of culinary delights. The evening concluded with traditional Sri Lankan music and dancing as everyone let their hair down.

Guests at the event

Colonial-OrientalistSecular school, has now declared itself an advocate for divisive “minority rights” attitudes while undermining the successful Hindu community.

Given the church roots of the “caste system”, it is no surprise that the initial sponsor of legislation was Lord Harries, a former Bishop of the Church of England who has a consistent anti-India, antiHindu record. He has been supported by other Christian and Labour peers of similar opinion together with some who are Hindu in name only.

Harries takes an obsessive interest in “Dalit” welfare in India whilst having little to say about hundreds of underage white girls that have been sexually abused by “Asian” men in his former diocese.

The book documents the tone of parliamentary debates, by, for example, the quote of Lord Lester, a Queen’s Counsel, who saw the evil of “caste” so clearly that commenting about research evidence, he remarked, “I simply do not understand why research is needed”.

It is a tragic irony that people who call themselves anti-racists have adopted racist theories about Indians to literally legislate, subjugate and destroy their religions and culture.

The remainder chapters demonstrate the author’s legal expertise and offers practical insights.

Potential implications

AsianVoiceNews

on those of Indian origin/religions in their personal, associational, and professional lives are foreseen, as are the impact on community and even private events such as Navaratri or facilities hire for weddings becoming grounds for artificially divisive legal disputes.

Inconvenient questions, avoided by the prolegislation lobby are raised: who determines hierarchy of “high” and “low” caste? In a dispute, who judges? Is alleged discrimination only a oneway street?

How many “Dalits” are there in the UK? Anything from 50,000 to one million has been quoted in Parliament.

Would there be a statutory need for “caste” monitoring, and if so, would only Indian organizations have to comply? Would only employees of Indian origin need to declare their “caste affiliation”? If so, is this not discriminatory?

Why can Christian schools and Muslim cemeteries discriminate on religious grounds but a Hindu Navarati ceremony be potentially prosecutable by allegation of “caste” discrimination?

How can law dictate who one chooses to marry?

More disturbing is the likelihood that the defendant would carry the burden of proof.

The book is also of interest to those in India since it provides solid evidence of threats to Indian society and potentially malicious global influence from bodies including the European

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Parliament, UN Human Rights organs, and “Dalit” fronted Christian groups.

Shah shows how, despite half-hearted attempts to disassociate “caste” from Indian religions, the Lords legislators show consistent contempt of Indians and particularly Hindus. He presents evidence exposing their proselytization goals and extending the divisive, poverty perpetuating Indian reservations policy to Christian converts, without daring to contemplate similar catastrophe in the UK. In their quest for souls in the final “pagan” frontier, former colonists go to any depth to stall India’s progress.

The Chandok v Tirkey (2014) case in which the Employment Appeal Tribunal decided that “caste” may already be covered in UK law, and the positions of the parties and potential contradictions are also highlighted.

The EHRC is shown to reveal its prejudice against Hindus by its back-door tactics of preemptive intervention and arguing for a judicial extension of the law, despite the well-known fact that bringing the legislation into force was highly contested.

This important book contributes valuably to understanding the current pressures upon Indian culture. It draws cautionary lessons for Indians both here and in India, whose policy makers and academia must look afresh at India’s history, civilization and future contribution to humanity.

Officers from all over Britain pay respects to PC Keith Palmer's cortege

The funeral of PC Keith Palmer, killed in last month's Westminster attack, took place at the Southwark Cathedral in central London on Tuesday. The funeral cortege made its way from the Palace of Westminster to Southwark Cathedral.

The cathedral service was followed by a private cremation.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Mayor of London

Sadiq Khan and the manager and captain of PC Palmer's beloved Charlton

FC, Karl Robinson and Johnnie Jackson, were among the congregation.

allegedly pounced on the 30-year old hotel housekeeper as she walked to work. Mrs Kaur scratched her attacker as she desperately fought for her life but her screams would have been drowned out by the noise of motorway traffic, jurors were told.

The defendant, who refused to make any comment in police interviews, denies murder.

Pardeep Kaur

Homeless Latvian man accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Pardeep Kaur A homeless man is accused sexually assaulting and murdering a woman beneath a motorway bridge before dumping her body in undergrowth, a court heard.

Latvian Vadims Ruskuls, 25, was thought to be sleeping rough with his mother beneath the bridge crossing the M4 when he allegedly murdered Pardeep Kaur. He

UK Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

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9

Armed Forces urge British Asian contributions British Asians from civilian backgrounds join the Armed forces and uphold their work-ethics and culture through the honourable platform Smita Sarkar For the Asian community, working in the Armed forces was not a preferred career choice – it was an unusual dream, not something many grew up aspiring to be.

Even as they trained professionally, they were lured by the perks of multinational companies. Some thought their scope would be limited unless they held front-line jobs and were in combat. Some shied away for not being from an Army background or having the 'requisite' fitness, discipline or physical attributes to be in the Army.

The trend seems to be changing in the past two decades. British Asians are not shying away, and many have joined the front-line Combat forces and serving across the globe in an assortment of roles including medicine, engineering, HR and logistics.

In exclusive interviews to Asian Voice, Army personnels share their experiences and views as inspirations for the community.

Captain Makhand Singh

Sergt Harpreet Kaur working with children in Kenya

said “We are very keen to achieve proportional representation of all faiths in the Army.”

Captain Singh has spend nearly thirty years in the British Army and served in Bosnia, Germany and Belsize. “It is a common misconception that all soldiers live in barracks. I was provided with accommodation and my children's education was catered for following a UK curriculum so that the family is not disadvantaged in any way.

“The Army focusses on teamwork, and if you want

Are you looking for a more rewarding

to experience 'belonging' – it doesn't get any better than this. It allows its people to flourish and bring out the best in them.”

His contribution in the promotion of Punjabi culture was recognised, and he was awarded the All Party Parliamentary Group Cultural Award.

“It has given me a tremendous amount of fulfilment. There are many soldiers that give their spare time freely highlighting the many values of selfless service to the community. There are Punjabis living all over the world

Media Advertising Sales Representative Media Advertising Sales Representative positions are available with Asian Business Publications Ltd - publishers of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, the leaders in ethnic media.

Using a mixture of face to face, telephone and electronic contact, the position will entail selling advertising space for both Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, theme based specials, sponsorships for various events we conduct through out the year.

We are seeking confident assertive, energetic, and goal-oriented individual with or without previous experience in sales. Position is responsible for building effective consultative business conversations with decision makers and win business. Selected candidates will receive a competitive salary and commissions. For consideration please email resume with references.

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and they are connected to Punjab through their culture and music,” said Capt Makhand Singh.

Sergeant Harpreet Kaur is an Intensive Care Nurse and works in shifts at an NHS hospital, with a military day once a week dedicated to physical training under the direction of military personnels or training instructors.

The exercises ranges from doing a circuit, a 6-8 mile run or 6-8 mile tab carrying 15 Kg weight on the back. She has served in Kenya and in various centres in the UK. Sergeant Kaur used to work in a call centre in Delhi before she moved to the UK and joined the forces.

Like many Asian women, she was initially worried about not being able to endure the physical training. But her perseverance and fighter spirit got the better of her.

“I was not physically fit at all before I joined, However, what I had was a lot of passion, dedication to work hard and learn new skills. The training you get

from the military is second to none and prepares you to work in any challenging situation.

“Life in the Army can vary depending on your job profile. Talking about my personal experience as a nurse, life for me in the army is very fast paced. It doesn’t get monotonous doing the same routine.

"When in the UK , I work as a normal civilian nurse. When on operations we still work as nurses in the field hospital and treat casualties as normal, whoever enters through the military doors, it does not matter if its a civilian or military personnel.

Everyone gets equal treatment.”

Capt M Singh during a hockey game in an army cantonment

“There are more than 100 different types of jobs in the Army and only a handful of them involve front line work. Majority of the jobs are providing Combat Service Support which I am also part of.

The options in the Armed forces are immense and the British Armed forces provides a great opportunity to serve the country, specially at a time when the country needs you the most.

10

READERS’ VOICE

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

The Big Clawback I was appalled to learn that Britain is being asked to pay vast sums of money, to the tune of £56 billion, as a consequence of its exit from the EU. The MEPs say “UK must pay” and voted in favour of taking a tough line on Brexit negotiations.

On the contrary, I would have thought that the British negotiators should try and clawback the billions of pounds which we have contributed towards the running of the EU since 1974, and in bailing out its sick partners like Greece and Spain during this period. Make it tough for the EU negotiators and ask for refund of UK’s investments in the EU projects and loans we have given to the EU. Without getting into the intricacies of the process and the exact amounts involved, as laymen, we want to see if our negotiators can clawback the vast amounts of funds we were made to contribute towards the running of the EU or towards subsidising other member countries.

The monies thus reverted back to us could be put towards the much needed funds to help our ailing NHS and other infrastructures. If EU bosses fail to agree to our counter demands, we must adopt the carrot and stick approach and threaten to remove all EU nationals from our shores without giving them much choice. If our negotiators are taking a soft approach, us Indians, with our financial acumen, could be better placed to get more favourable deals.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

Councils punishing thrifty people

According to recent report published by HOC, after carrying out an in-depth investigation by committee of MPs, it has emerged that most huckster Councils pay on average £421 per week for “Care-Home” residents where Council has to foot their bills from public purse. In sharp contrast self-funding patients pay at least 40% more, on average £220 per week more which many consider to be high handed, unfair, thus subsidising icosahedron Councils with power of bulk purchase, although all patients receive similar care.

While personal contribution is based on savings, the bar is set too low at £24K, any savings above this figure requires full self-funding until the savings figure drops below this level. All incomes, including pensions, interest, dividends and family contribution is taken into account, as well as property which could be exempt in certain circumstances, if occupied by the partner.

No wonder many knowledgeable people plan for such eventualities well in advance, transferring their assets well before deadline or putting them in trust, using the knowledge of specialist lawyers who know all the loop-holes.

It is time for the government to create level playing field, so that all patients contribute equally, without inhibition rather than punishing thrifty who have saved, worked hard throughout their lives instead of encouraging free spending culture and State dependency.

Kumudini Valambia By email

Trump’s Missile Diplomacy

While calculated US response to President Assad’s constant bombing of hospitals and use of chemical weapons against his own civilians may be justified, however it is seen as judgemental and West’s holier than thou attitude may cause concern, as West is acting as self-appointed judge and jury of the free world, recreating cold war atmosphere. It may pose threat to independent nations who may not share West’s ideology.

No wonder some countries like North Korea and Iran would like to develop their own nuclear arsenal as a protection against West’s aggression.

Unilateral action by hierarchical West against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, bypassing UN may not install much faith in West’s ability to be neutral, as some countries with even worse human right records enjoy West’s patronage, as long as they remain West’s pupate. These client states include Algeria and Egypt where democracy was brutally supressed, freely elected governments overthrown by army with tacit support from the West. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and many more have no democracy at all while China who has brutally occupied and ethnically cleansed Tibet enjoys preferential treatment.

Dalai Lama, highly intellectual and articulate person, in the same league as Gandhi, Mandela, Bishop Tutu and Martin Luther King would be hanged if he sets foot in his beloved Tibet. Since the demise of Soviet Union, US is the sole super-power but it is only question of time before belligerent China would rule the world with iron feast.

Bhupendra M. Gandhi By email

House of Lords

The House of Lords is indeed an embarrassment to our democracy, In a bid to swell their numbers in the Lords political parties make more and more appointments. Many of the appointments are made in return for huge donations.

Money indeed can buy you privilege.Once appointed the Lords are there for life, whatever they do or not do. Many Lords abandon their political sponsors and sit on the cross benches. This means they are answerable to no one Pressure groups with vested interests solicit support to get their agendas discussed in the Lords. How can a modern democracy have such a situation where unelected individuals can decide on the way the country is run? A reform of the Lords is overdue if we are going to keep the faith of citizens of this country in our democratic institutions.

Nitin Mehta Croydon

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Snack surprise

Readers will recall that I moaned recently in Asian Voice about the inexplicably high price of chevda from East Africa compared with chevda produced in the UK or India.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised when a nice Gujarati couple (whom my wife and I know well locally in west London), told us they had seen my letter here and decided to spring into action.

The good lady, Ranjan Patel, made the most delicious and spicy chevda specially for us which her husband Kirit kindly delivered to our door. It was a lovely gesture and my wife and I would like to thank our Gujarati friends again through Asian Voice which, in a way, highlights the paper’s power and influence.

Rudy Otter By email

Dr Weston’s Casebook

We hear the stories of some people suddenly gaining exceptional talent for which they had no previous knowledge, after recovering from an accident or coma. The phenomena is interpreted as knowledge of last birth or some miracle. B.B.C. relayed series of programmes conducted by Dr Weston, a prominent surgeon, with the research team and specialists proved and explained the power of human body and brain. A woman can smell Parkinson decease, a man after the accident started playing a piano like a professional, another man gained immense mathematical talent after injury. Whilst healing following an injury, brain rewires and develops the parts differently to hidden talents Dr Weston proved.

Amongst range of cases she investigated, few useful to many were a man who could withstand being in ice for few days continuously by using breathing technique i.e. inhaling and then releasing the air in spurts, what seems like Kapalbhati in yoga!.

This reduces immune response to pain. The team researched how effective this technique is in extreme pain where pain killers are ineffective. Having removed an infected adrenal gland a man lost fear response to faced danger. This case lead to helping people with phobia by adjusting their adrenaline.

It is appeasing to know these diligent professionals in many fields are working to help human race whilst few terrorise the world daily.

Ila Kapadia By email

Reincarnation

Bharatji’s letter about reincarnation is appreciated. But a human being emotionally attached to a deer at the time of his death, becoming a deer is not as straight forward as it appears.

The material mentioned is written under “poetic license”. But the whole process of karma, reincarnation is governed by many subtle spiritual and divine forces, which are invisible and beyond any caliber able instruments devised by human being. The writer also discards the logical fact that the whole purpose of karma and reincarnation is evolution of life towards god head or causal factor. Thus any retrogression of human soul into animal body is unimaginable as it may breech laws of the whole exercise.

Transmigration of soul from one body into another body, is mentioned in Tibetan lore as “Tulku”. Such transmigration is temporary. Therefore “metamorphosis” of human body into an animal body is impossible, because the physical components decompose and cannot be reassembled.

But the soul can experience “metempsychosis” whereby it carries thought element into another body where it reincarnates. Thus it is possible for a human to act as a deer till all its animal thought power is neutralized by being in human environment and circumstances.

Ramesh Jhalla By email

Con artists

On the upcoming auspicious Hindu festival of Holi-Dhuleti I, on behalf of my family and friends from Canada extend our warmest wishes to all the readers of Asian Voice, Gujarat Samachar and it's staff. This festival is celebrated for the arrival of spring and also to burn away our ego, arrogance and any grudges and sprinkle colours of happiness and goodwill by forgiveness.

The celebration of this festival is not only limited to one day event but also ongoing in our day to day lives with our family, friends and relatives. So many scandals of deceits, cheating, extortion and abuse of children and women are happening by socalled Sadhvis, Bapus, Gurus and Babas in our Hindu religious world.

These so-called Sadhvis, Bapus, Gurus by their sweet talk and good oratory skill brain wash people into believing them and donate their hard earned monies to them thinking that by waving a magic wand they will solve their problems, difficulties and hardships and fall in their traps.

Instead of facing difficulties with courage people look for short cuts so they are equally to be blame.

On this holy festival we pray that Almighty Lord bestows blessings on everyone for a healthy, happy and peaceful life ahead and grant them clear thinking and understanding to stay away from these con artists.

Suresh and Bhavna Patel Markham, Canada

The Labour party divided

Divisions have arisen again in the Labour party after the by-election defeat in Copeland. It was a devastating result for the Labour Party. This turned the focus on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and the cry rose again for his resignation. In fact the issue in Copeland was more to do with Brexit than anything else. The key fault line in labour Party is the in-fighting within its own ranks. What both sides say is exaggerated or biased and does not solve the problem rather it acerbates it.

Now is the time for the Labour Party to roll up its sleeves, close ranks and move forward. It should concentrate on working on policies on NHS, education, environment, economy, housing, energy, transport, trade unions, foreign affairs and defence rather than indulging in petty politics which has been going on for quite a while. This is counter-productive and regressive step. It is time to rebuild and re-connect with the voters and not finding scapegoats.

Baldev Sharma Harrow

EDUCATION/COUNCIL

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

Jewish schoolboy forced out by ‘Muslim bullies’ According to a report in the Times Germany’s Jewish leaders have demanded an investigation into antisemitic bullying after a boy was withdrawn from a school by his parents following an attack by Muslim pupils.

The incident involved a teenager, 14, who suffered four months of verbal and physical harassment culminating in an assault by Turkish and Arab boys at a state school in Berlin.

According to the report Josef Schuster, head of the

Central Council of Jews in Germany, called on Muslim community leaders to combat “antisemitic tendencies in their ranks”.

Mr Schuster, 63, has warned that more effort needs to be put into educating Muslim children against antisemitism, especially with the arrival of more than a million migrants since the start of 2015, mainly from Islamic countries.

The boy’s parents had chosen the Friedenauer school because it was mul-

ticultural but his problems started when classmates asked if he was Jewish. His mother, who is British, told the Jewish Chronicle that one of them responded: “Listen, you are a cool dude but I can’t be friends with you, Jews are all murderers.”

The report also mentioned an attack that occured ast month in which the boy “was attacked and almost strangled, and the guy pulled a toy gun on him that looked like a real gun”.

New Mayor set to rebuild Industrial Revolution in West Midlands The mayoral elections in May give the West Midlands an opportunity to reclaim its industrial heritage, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has said. As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, the West Midlands is already home to some of the country’s leading manufacturing and engineering companies.

The Government is gearing up to hand over power to create jobs, build homes and improve transport to a new Mayor for the West Midlands. Mr Javid said now is the time to build on the region’s legacy and ensure the West Midlands is at the

forefront of industry.

This move builds on the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy. This includes the offer of additional support for industries through sector deals to drive the region’s potential for growth.

C o m m u n i t i e s Secretary Sajid Javid said: "The West Midlands has a proud history of leading the way in industry and

innovation, and it’s the right time to capitalise on this legacy.

“Our Midlands Engine Strategy, backed by £392 million investment, is the first step.

But we can’t simply dictate how the West Midlands can boost industry from London.

“That’s why I want voters to have their say on 4 May and vote for a new directly-elected mayor.

With the power to create jobs, improve skills and drive economic growth, this new mayor can help the region reclaim its great industrial heritage.”

Last date to register to vote is 13 April 2017.

A Story of Hope from Hope for Children

Hope for Children, the official charity for the forthcoming Anand Mela in June, has been working in India, since 1995, where It is estimated that there are in excess of 100,000 children living on the streets of Delhi alone. We have been working with specific groups of these children, providing an informal education at contact points around the city, for those who otherwise would have no opportunity to get any form of schooling. This is the inspirational story of one of those we have helped.

Purnima, a hardworking and kindhearted 15-year old girl, lives with her family in a slum area of Delhi, among a migrant community. They originally came from a less-developed part of Northern India, but moved to Delhi with the hope of a better life.

Soon after moving to the city, Purnima, her three sisters, and her mother were left to fend for themselves when their father left. This is an all too common situation resulting in single mothers having to cope on their own to care for their children, and often going to dangerous lengths to do so.

Purnima's mum took it upon herself to provide her for daughters, working tirelessly, until she was involved in a devastating accident. Her injuries meant she was no longer able to work full-time, and it fell to Purnima, as the eldest sibling, to work so the family could survive.

During a day working, Purnima came across one of our pop-up street classrooms in Delhi. She started to attend whenever she could, and quickly flourished in the informal education it provides. With our help she has progressed so well and so quickly that she has been enrolled into school – where she is now top of her class!

Purnima's mum is now focused on getting all of her girls through education, after seeing the hugely positive impact the pop-up street classroom had on Purnima – who is now, thanks to her experience, focused on becoming a teacher herself.

We are as committed as ever to changing the lives of children in India, and we have exciting plans to expand our work.

In our next article, we will give more details about a vital school sanitation project we are hoping to launch later this year and how you can help too.

In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about Hope for Children or volunteering with our team at the Anand Mela, please contact us at ef@hope4c.org. www.hope-for-children.org Office: 01442 234 561 Direct: 07814 004 963

Please note names and images may have been changed to protect identities.

11

Harrow prepares for Swami Vivekananda statue Swami To celebrate Viveknanada's, pictured, 155th birthday in 2018, the Hindu Bengali community in the UK is up in arms to erect a statue of Swamiji in Harrow. The statue which will be half bust, is currently under process in India.

Former Mayor of Mr Mrinal Harrow Chowdhury and London Kalibari (a UK charity), is spear heading the project to get this bust erected in Harrow by September 2016, and they plan to invite India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do the honour of inauguration. Though where

in Harrow the statue will be, has not yet been decided, Mr Chowdhury had actually started working on this project as early as in 2011-12, during his political office years. A bank account is in place

with bank of Baroda's Harrow brunch, to accept any sort of monetary help or donations possible.

Cllr Sachin Shah, the leader of the Harrow Council has promised all the support, though financially the Council can't offer much.

Dr Chowdhury has met Swami Dayatmananda of Bourn End, UK and Suhitananda, Swami Secretary Maharaj of Belur Math. He confirmed that many friends, family and associates have pledged for donations to ensure this statue project is a success.

Ealing Local Businesses owed up to £44,047,600 An estimated 4793 businesses in Ealing, Southall could be owed as much as £44,047,600 in late payments from bigger clients.

Figures released by BACS Payment Schemes Ltd have laid bare the extent of late payments to small and medium-sized businesses, which now stands at £26.3 billion.

Virendra Sharma MP has now revealed what this could mean for Ealing, Southall’s local economy.

Local Labour MP Virendra Sharma said: “This shocking figure of £26.3 billion is a result of

big clients not paying our small businesses for months on end – and sometimes, just not paying them at all.

“Based on the number of businesses in Ealing, Southall this means our local economy could be owed up to £44,047,600 in late payments. What’s truly shocking is that an estimated 50,000 businesses fail each year because of these late payments.

Averaged across the country, that could mean an estimated 93 businesses right here in Ealing, Southall are failing each

year because larger clients just don’t pay them what they owe.

“It’s important that everyone understands what these national figures mean for local economies.

Late payments hurt every local economy across the country.

“Those appalling national figures mean that our small businesses, our local entrepreneurs; the lifeblood of Ealing, Southall are struggling. It’s time for government to step in and make these big clients pay our local business men and women”.

Fundraise the easy way

This May, raising vital funds to help stroke survivors get the support they need and deserve couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is turn your upcoming events, plans and activities purple.

You can host a wear something purple day, sell purple snacks, hold a purple themed quiz, or organise a purple dominos game. Our free downloadable fundraising pack contains everything you need to ‘purple up’ your activities The Stroke Association’s free fundraising pack is full of ideas to help make your event a success. It has everything from publicity tips to purple props, recipes and even a playlist.

Kerry Punton, from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of the many Stroke Association supporters who is Making May Purple for Stroke. She is hosting a mammoth two-day bake sale in support of a colleague who recently lost his father to a stroke. Besides the delicious purple bakes, this extravaganza will also include an Easter egg hunt and a raffle. Kerry’s fundraising target is £300.

Kerry said, “The Stroke Association’s Make May Purple fundraising pack has everything I need to turn my plans purple. I am really looking forward to using the purple recipes, invites and pointers to make my event a real success and hope to storm through my target. I’m keen to do as much as I can to support the Stroke Association and help people affected by stroke. ” Head to stroke.org.uk/mmpfundraise to find out more and download your free fundraising pack.

Whatever you’re doing this May, make it purple for stroke.

12

MEDIA WATCH

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

The troubled India-Africa relationship, following the mob violence targeting Nigerian students resident in the Delhi suburb of Greater Noida, remains in the spotlight, with African envoy’s unprecedented statement of dissatisfaction with the response of the Indian authorities and threatened to raise the issue with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The statement read: ‘The Heads of the African Missions accredited to India reviewed the previous incidents that have taken place in the past and have concluded that no known, sufficient and visible deterring measures were taken by the Government of India. They agreed to take further actions including the call for an independent investigation by the UN Human Rights Council as well as other human rights bodies, and also to comprehensively report the matter to the Union Commission.’

State of denial

The statement of the envoys referred to the ‘accumulated attacks against Africans are xenophobic and racial in nature.’

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has deplored this statement, denying that

Disabled Bangla trio live in hope Three members of a Bangladesh family struck down by a rare lifethreatening muscular dystrophy flew into Mumbai recently for a fortnight’s treatment at a private stem cell and therapy institute.

Duchenne dystrophy, is a severe hereditary disorder, where the muscles begin to weaken at the age of three. By the age of 12, the individual becomes bed-ridden, with death round the corner. The publicized plight of three individuals – Abdus, Rahinul and and Shorab Hussain - caught the attention of Meditourz, a Mumbai-based organization specializing in such diseases in collaboration with NeuroGen, a brain and spine institute. They offered to treatment them for free.

Treatment

‘We have treated several such patients in the last few years.

Many of them came to us bedridden and immobile but can now walk slowly.’ said Nandini Gokulchandran head of the medical services. ‘After figuring out the exact state of the disease, we will apply stem cell therapy by taking samples from bone marrow. The treatment will continue for 10 days.’ (Times of India April 3)

Markets abuzz

Sushma Swaraj

these attacks were motivated by xenophobia or race, but were simply ‘criminal’. Is ‘criminal’ to be restricted to bank heists and domestic burglaries? What then are hate crimes? – those that have occurred recently in the United States, because of the victim’s beard or turban or complexion. What is one to make of the assailant’s obseneties and shouts, Go back to your country’? Does one need an inquiry committee to discover that zero plus zero is zero? Reporters and bystanders in Greater Noida were witness to the xenophobic and racial abuse to which the African students were subjected.

(Hindu, Times of India, Telegraph April 4, 5, 6); TV reports.

India-Africa ties

Indi’s reputation and image in Africa have been severely tarnished. Sushma Swaraj’s disingenuous special pleading will make things worse, not better. It is both hypocritical and counterproductive and defeats any purpose of damage control. The damage caused already is beyond such niceties. The Minister and her bovine officials had better get real with a reality check.

The rally in Indian stocks continues apace. On the first day of trading in the new financial year (April 3), the benchmark Sensex and Nifty indices closed at record highs as global equities rode a liquidity wave. Not only was the Sensex the best performer in Asia, the rally was broad as midcap-and small-cap stocks hit record closing highs. ‘People are reading into it a potential win for the current government in the 2019 general elections. This event has been a major positive from foreign investors perspective,’ said Gautam Trivedi, CEO Religare Capital Markets Ltd in Mumbai (Mint April 4)

Confidence unabated

‘Demonetization did not shake our confidence in the India story,’ said Hugh Young, Managing Director of Aberdeen Asset Management. ‘Indian stocks have seen an astonishing rally at the start of this [financial] year. ‘ he said (Mint April 4)

India-Israel deal on Barak missiles

India is to acquire Israeli Barak8, 70-kilometre short-range surface-to-air missiles for its navy.

The new missiles are urgently required to replace the 9 kilometre range one currently in use, which have completed their shelf

life. All front-line ships of the Indian Navy including the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya are equipped with Barak missiles.

Reports also suggest That India will confirm the purchase of Israeli UAV Herons, which are currently under negotiation, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Israel in July

Named Thermal Energy Sevice Solutions Private Limited, (TESSOL) bagged the award in the Mobility meets Energy Transition category for the development of a plug and chill system for refrigerated perishables. The cold chain technology is based on patented thermal energy storage technology.

Another major deal in the works is the purchase of two further Phalcon AWACS, early warning airborne systems, which are to be

Founder and CEO of TESSOL Rajat Gupta and Product Manager Raj Dhami collected the award. Gupta is an alumni of IIT-

AWACS

Rajat Gupta, Raj Dhami

Disinvestment tops Rs 46 crore

Government closed the financial year 2016-17 by netting a record Rs 46. 247 crore, which is double that of the previous fiscal 2015-16 of Rs 23.997 crore. This buoyant performance tells of a full economic recovery after the brief blip of demonetization (Times of India April 1)

BJP youth drive

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) drive to recruit youth across community lines appear to be paying off. . Having tasted power at the centre, the BJP seeks to broaden its appeal by reaching out to the youth of every community. Eijaz Engineer, who comes from the Kashmir valley, has withstood considerable pressure from separatist groups.

He stands tall with India; Saikat Dutta Choudhurie comes from Barak Valley in Assam; and Anoop Antony Joseph, a Syrian Christian, is from Kerala. All three of these young men have concerns about ISIS and its radicalization activities.

attempt to convince her – never an easy task – that project will bring a major boost of investment worth Rs lakh crore to her cash-starved State.

On past record, Ms Banerjee is less open to economic imperatives than she is to entrenched populist whims. The previous Communistled Left Front government had sanctioned the project. Anutosh Chakraborty, Additional Chief Engineer, Haripur Nuclear Park, will place for her consideration the issues related to the project. The Russian-designed nuclear power plants at Kundakalam in Tamil Nadu have generated the levels of power for India’s southern grid that have impacted the economies of the entire region. Haripur will be Mamata Banerjee’s call (Hindu April 5)

Wisden honours Virat Kohli

AWACS aircraft

mounted on Russian Il-76 military aircraft, these additional to the three earlier acquisitions by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

(Hindu, Times of Indfia April 4)

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Delhi and Harvard University.

(Hindu April 2)

Railways set to expand network

Government is planning an exponential boost to India’s railways by opening new freight corridors in a long overdue bid to decongest some the busiest passenger lines – such the Delhi-Howrah – in the interests of improved time keeping. Railways will aim to commission 3,500 kilometres of track in the financial year 2017-18, while also doubling electrification. This complements the upgrading of stations to acceptable international standards of services and comfort (Times of India April 5)

NPCIL talks with Mamata Banerjee

Representatives of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) are to hold talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata in a bid to revive the Haripur nuclear power project. NPCIL official will

World Cricket’s almanac, Wisden, has named India’s captain and stellar batsman as its Cricketer of 2016. Kohli had a dream run, amassing 1,215 runs, including fourTest double centuries, at a stupendous average of 75.92. In ten

Virat Kohli

ODI appearances, he compiled 739 runs at an average of 92.37, while his 641 T20 international aggregate runs came with average of 105.83.

His Test form in the recent series with Australia dropped to an unprecedented low. Hopefully he will rediscover form sooner rather than later.

Crucial Indo-Bangla ties set to deepen

Goa model

The BJP’s Goa unit has made inroads into the local Christian community. The Goa model drives the BJP outreach in the Christian -populated North Eastern hill states The old antichristian overtones in the BJP electioneering is a thing of the past (Hindu April 2)

Indian startup wins Berlin award

Bangla Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina welcomed by PM Modi

A Pune-based startup is in the international spotlight after carrying off the Berlin Energy Transition Transition Dialogue for its mobile refrigeration technology. The company was one of six winners of the award instituted by the Deutsche Energy Agency for Innovation business ideas in energy transition across the world.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s arrival in New Delhi at the weekend for crucial talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take relations between their countries to the next level. The curtainraiser is to be a grand banquet hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be among the guests. Indo-Bangladesh ties have never been as robust as they are now, with unprecedented cooperation on cross-border jihadi terrorism, burgeoning trade and rail connectivity. High on the present agenda is water sharing of the Teesta River (Telegraph, Hindu, Times of India April 5,6). More next week.

UK Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

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13

LCNL elects their new President

With the Chancellor – getting things done I have just returned from hosting the UK India Fintech Conference in India with our chief guest the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

For the past decade as the UK Government’s Dealmaker within the Department for International Trade’s Global Entrepreneur Programme, I am responsible for bringing the most innovative young companies from India, China and South East Asia to the UK. I’ve had an unusual insight into what help they need, and a lot of success in helping them do it, so I’ve put together some of my thoughts for those of you looking to make UK connections and secure that expansion deal.

Introductions don't matter - first impressions do

I see around 150 people in person about their technologies annually. Those are the ones who get past the filtering. The vast majority fail for the following reason: n They are solutions looking for problems. You have a limited amount of time to impress me or anyone else. So going on about how brilliant your solution is, without addressing what the global problem is that it solves wastes time and let me think you can’t run a company. n Focus, be professional, be on time, remember the correct day, arrive early, set up your laptop, find the location, have my number, tell me where you are seated in advance. All of this saves about 50% of your allocated 30 minutes of fame.

ONLY one person ever got all these things right when he came to meet me.

His name? Peter Cruddas, now a billionaire. He came to see me at Bloomberg.

Would not take no for an answer. Got everything set up beforehand without bothering me. Trust me, I interview you well before we’ve met.

Your approach matters

Sealing the deal requires patience. I will have trading apprentices who will just start trading straight away without filling in even my simple one page business plan. So they will not set a goal. They will therefore throw away a massive opportunity to

create an income because of their premature excitement. Excitement is good. I love that. But focused controlled excitement and a sure idea of the target you are aiming for is better.

Being Indian matters

Make intellectual property in India, for your Indian company. Then yes, take that company global (preferably from the UK) and sell, rent, licence, lend, franchise that intellectual property.

You see if you make pharmaceuticals for an American company, it’s the company which takes its profits abroad. But then the Indian company owns the intellectual property, it takes that global and profits from it from everywhere.

The long term goal matters

Always remember to see the big picture – the busi-

ness plan, the long term goal. Being professional as a business means knowing not everything always wins. That all you have learnt before which has not won you that great deal or contract was probably wrong.

Stop and ask yourself this question: are you too busy repeating the mistakes of the past that you learnt from those who never made you successful to begin with?

And finally, what is the first commandment of a successful entrepreneur and company? Thou shalt be optimistic.

Getting things done requires a positive outlook and a motivated mind. Find the positives and capitalise on those, mitigate as much as possible the uncertainties and negatives, and do not indulge in wishful thinking, but rather plan and succeed.

Lohana Community North London has elected their 3rd female President after a gap of seven years. Mrs Urmila Thakkar MBE, pictured, has been elected as the new President of LCNL on 2 April. Mr Yatin Dawada has been elected as the Vice President, Mrs Meena Jasani as the Secretary and Sanjay Rughani as the Asst Secretary. Vinod Sakaria has been elected as the new Treasurer and Shiru Savani as the Asst Treasurer. There are 9 committee members elected as well.

Kokiben Vasani was the first female President of

LCNL and Pratibha Lakhani was elected as the second female President.

Lohana Community North London has elected their 3rd female President after a gap of seven years.

Mrs Urmila Thakkar MBE has been elected as the new President of LCNL on 2 April. Mr Yatin Dawada has been elected as the Vice President, Mrs Meena Jasani as the Secretary and Sanjay Rughani as the Asst Secretary, Vinod Sakaria as the new Treasurer and Shiru Savani as the new Asst Treasurer. There are 9 committee members elected as

well.

M r s Thakkar was awarded a MBE in 2011 by the Queen for her services to the community in North West London. Also a member of UK Women's Association she has worked endlessly for women empowerment and simultaneously been active in helping the elderly. Kokiben Vasani was the first female President, that LCNL ever elected, followed by Pratibha Lakhani, who was elected as the second female President, 7 years back.

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1300 women set to make Harrow and Brent Glow for St Luke’s

Asian community groups are coming together to make themselves ‘glow’ with UV paint and plenty of pink at St Luke’s Midnight Walk event on Friday 30 June. 1300 ladies of all ages are expected to walk a 5 or 9-mile route around Harrow and Brent to support St Luke’s in their 30th birthday year.

A group from Halifax North West London are taking part and their team leader, Manisha Umrania says, ‘I have been completing the walk over the last 5 years with a bunch of girls from work as it is a wonderful experience and it raises money for the hospice. Plus Halifax matches whatever I raise so that is even better for St Luke’s!

The walk is great fun. I was really apprehensive the first year I signed up because I thought there was no way I could walk 9-miles! However you don't even realise where the time goes as you walk with friends. The refreshment stops keep you going as well as all the supporters cheer you on along the route.

You get an adrenaline rush once you reach the finish line! It gives you a great sense of achievement and pride.’

Vijesh from The Masters Youth Club plays a vital part in getting volunteer marshals to help out at the Midnight Walk. Vijesh says, ‘As a club we really enjoy helping at the event as it gets both males and females involved and we really enjoy meeting new people and keeping the ladies motivated. It is a really fun night with happy faces and the ladies are really happy that we as marshals are keeping them safe en-route. We will be supporting the walk every year.’

St Luke’s would like to give a big thank you St George’s Shopping Centre in Harrow for sponsoring the event.

Light up the streets of Harrow on Friday 30 June for St Luke’s Hospice.

The event starts with a fun warm up and entertainment from 10:30pm at Harrow Leisure Centre. Registration is £20 until 31 May and £25 thereafter. It is £35 to register on the night. Book your team’s place or enquire about volunteering at the event by phoning 020 8382 8112 or visit www.stlukes-hospice.org/midnightwalk

14 CULTURE

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Historical movie on 'The Black Prince' set to release

Based on the life of Raja Duleep Singh who terrified the British Empire, the movie will be hitting the silver screens globally next month Smita Sarkar The Black Prince, a film made on the life of Raja Duleep Singh and the Maharani Jind Kaur is set for release on 19th May 2017. The Maharani Jind Kaur had waged two fateful wars against the British which led to the annexation of the Punjab. Jind was torn away from her son Duleep Singh – the “Black Prince” when he was just nine-years-old and adopted by a colonial surgeon in England.

The film examines the life and legacy of the Maharajah in exile in the UK. Produced by Brillstein Entertainment (Academy Award winning film 12 Years A Slave), The Black Prince is a period drama written and directed by Hollywood filmmaker Kavi Raz. Kavi Raz wrote on

social media, “the Black Prince is not just a film, but a dream come true and a promise fulfilled.”

Acclaimed singerpoet Satinder Sartaaj marked his acting debut in the film, as Maharajah Duleep Singh. The other notable characters are played by Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) as Dr. Login, the foster parent for the Maharajah, English stage, screen actress Amanda Root (The Iron Lady), who portrays the bold role of Queen Victoria; and veteran actress Shabana Azmi (City of Joy) as Rani Jindan, the exiled King’s mother.

“I made a pledge to myself. It was a promise that I would not only share this great and tragic story of Duleep Singh, the boy King of the mighty Kingdom of Punjab, but in the pro-

effort to destabilise notions of authenticity and promote personal freedom.

With an autobiographical starting point he uses humour and the languages of popular culture and explores fantasy through a domestic lens. Manchester Art Gallery, FVU: Film and Video Umbrella and QUAD, Derby are co-commissioning Patel to make a new film work, The Fight, with support from Arts Council England. He will also present his recent work The Jump, a double screen projection which shows Patel leaping in slow motion from a sofa in his grandmother’s house, wearing a Spider-Man costume.

Patel has exhibited at Tate Britain (2009), Serpentine Gallery (2014), Sadler’s Wells, London (2015), New Art Exchange, Nottingham (2012), Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai

Network of 11 organisations in the UK to celebrate South Asian Arts A new network of eleven arts organisations from across the North of England and South Asia, have announced a three year programme of cocommissions, exhibitions and intellectual exchange to celebrate shared heritage across continents and develop artistic talent.

The New North and South network will bring prominence to the work of leading Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and UK artists and include new artistic commissions, exhibitions and performances in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool and in Colombo, Dhaka, Lahore, Karachi and Kochi.

This new network consists of Manchester Art

Gallery, the Whitworth, Manchester Museum, Liverpool Biennial, The Tetley in Leeds and Colombo Biennale (Sri Lanka), Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), Karachi and Lahore Biennales (Pakistan), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (India) and the British Council.

According to a report in the NewAsianPost, the New North and South also aims to connect with diverse audiences on both continents through a programme of exhibitions and events that showcase the best of contemporary art from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UK and also explore unequal and contested histories of empire and the industrial revolution.

M.I.A to curate Meltdown festival at Southbank

cess, I would share something of myself as well: my heart and soul that moves and inspires me,” quoted Kavi.

Filmed widely across the UK and India, its captures the tragic, yet fascinating true story

and legacy of Maharajah Duleep Singh, providing a visual narrative of one of India’s most noble kings, and his fragile relationship with Queen Victoria, who was Godmother to his children.

Patel's work to be showcased in Manchester Art Gallery Performance artist Hetain Patel's new film work will be showcased at the Manchester Art Gallery from from 30 September 2017 – 4 February 2018.

Hetain uses autobiography, humour and the languages of popular culture to explore fantasy through a domestic lens. He is being commissioned by Manchester Art Gallery, FVU: Film and Video Umbrella and QUAD, Derby to make a new film work. He will also present his recent double screen projection work, The Jump.

Hetain Patel is a British born artist of Indian descent who grew up in Bolton and is now based in London. Patel makes photographs, videos, sculptures and live performances, usually for galleries and theatres. He is interested in connecting marginalised identities with the mainstream in an

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(2015), and Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2012). He is represented by Chatterjee &

M.I.A is to curate the Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival from Friday 9 – Sunday 18 June this year.

Sri Lankan born, London bred Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam (aka M.I.A.) will showcase emerging and established artists from across the world to create a melting pot for global culture in London.

The line-up includes

Scotland-based hip-hop trio Young Fathers; a double-bill with Jamaica reggae stars I Wayne and Dexta Daps; French rapper MHD performing alongside Nigerian soulster Mr Eazi; electronic hip-hop artist Yung Lean from Sweden; Canadian electro thrash-pop duo Crystal Castles; the UK premiere of Brooklyn-based rapper Young M.A and many more.

sioned productions. This is a remarkable growth for the theatre since moving from above a pub on Shepherd’s Bush Green in 2011. The Bush redevelopment has been driven by the aim of realising Artistic Director Madani Younis’ vision of diversity and vibrancy of London today. The new studio

aims to become a home for emerging artists and producers and will work alongside three Project 2036 practitioners (a programme that will offer a Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee playwright, director and producer a £10,000 bursary each year) and the Bush’s Emerging Writers’ Group.

Lal, Mumbai.

For further information visit http://www.hetainpatel.com/

Guards at the Taj to showcase at the opening of new Bush theatre Pulitzer prize finalist Rajiv Joseph's book Guards at the Taj will be showcased at the opening of the newly refurbished Bush Theatre in London.

Award-winning architects Haworth Tompkins has turned an old 20th Century library into a fully accessible, modernised cultural building.

Upon re-opening, the

new building will be more sustainable and entirely accessible, with a new entrance, front-of-house area and exterior garden terrace to the main street.

A new studio space and attic rehearsal room will allow the Bush to work with a further 200 artists each year and allow over 50% increase in produced, co-produced and commis-

SP

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TLIGHT

15

Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

EASTER MESSAGE Lent, forty days prior to Easter, is a special time for Christians and for the Church. It’s a time of Grace and of Renewal.

Lent is a time to Reflect on the Word of God and by applying that Word to one’s individual life and circumstances. There are many holy ways of “keeping Lent”. The New Testament Scripture calls us to prayer, repentance, and almsgiving.

The Church calls us to fast and abstinence, personal and communal worship, the works of mercy.

Fasting is a very important part of Lent. Fasting has a long history among religious people of all faiths.. It has always been a way of expiating sin, a way of purifying the spirit, a way of offering up something to the Lord. In the Christian tradition, too, fasting has held an honoured place. At the same time, however, the spiritual masters have been a bit wary of fasting because of the Lord’s warning in the Gospel of Matthew: “When you fast you are not to look gloom as the hypocrites do.

They change the appearance of their faces so that others may see they are fasting.

I assured you, they are already repaid” (Gospel of St. Matthew Chapter 6: verse 16) There is a subtle temptation to make of fasting a vain display of virtue. It seems uncommonly difficult for a person to fast without making a display of it or without looking down his nose at those poor unfortunates who do not have enough willpower to fast!

The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible links fasting and social justice that pious people seem often to forget. “ Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bows his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

This, rather, is the fasting I wish: Releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke, Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own” ( ISAIAH Chapter 58 : verses 5 ~ 7 ) Lord Jesus Christ suffers and dies on the cross on Friday, Good Friday. It represents the lowest point in the story of this man who did nothing but good.

It’s a tragic ending to a life

spent loving people. The world had pronounced its judgement on Jesus: he was a failure, and his mission was now doomed to die with him on his cross.

The events leading to his crucifixion are heartrending, the circumstances surrounding his death, even more so. Abandoned by the people he had come to redeem, abandoned by closest friends, he now seemed abandoned by his heavenly Father as well.

What more could the world want in showing itself.

Jesus was utterly alone.

The loneliness of Good Friday, when the beloved Son of God died hanging on the cross is the loneliness all of us experience when suffering and pain assail us and when all the world seems to have abandoned us, when even our strength seems not to be there for us. It is the experience of every human heart that has come face to face with pain. God does not pretend to take the pain away from us. As on Good Friday, he didn’t take his Son down from the cross, so does he not take our crosses away from us at times. But as on Good Friday when Jesus hung on the cross, God is unmistakably there, bearing our pain with us, joining us in our suffering, weeping with us, and with us, seeking to find a way to change our suffering into joy.

Good Friday is not the end of our story, just as it wasn’t the end of Jesus.

This Holy Week will bring us through the darkness of Calvary (the place where Lord Jesus was crucified) to the light of Easter. The cross will be a throne and the man on it a king. In the violence of Calvary is the faith that injustice and violence never win but also that the victory of love is slow. The resurrection took three days - a time scale, which says the grace of God drops slowly, and takes time to ease its way through the toughness and the darkness of sin and fear. The pain of the journey is eased by the love and encouraging care of others.

This Holy Week is a time to discover and experience the love of God. What can we say about God’s love? God’s love is unconditional. God’s love for us does not depend on what we do or say, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity, God’s love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. God’s love is from eternity to eternity and is not bound to any timerelated events or circumstances.

Happy Easter to all readers.

Christopher Benjamin Presbyterian Church Wembley

Chetan Sharma: Mad Hatter Food Sunetra Senior

Much like the fictional storyline, what makes Mad Hatter Hospitality so special is its exuberant human centrepiece: foodie founder and occasional forager, Chetan Sharma. A real life version of Lewis Carroll’s striped hat maverick, Chetan has boldly amalgamated the many passions of his life - dipping in and out of his broad and idiosyncratic expertise - into one bright, impressive image. "Mad Hatter Food is a consultancy that accommodates for the entire dining experience," he told us.“From creating unique and experimental menus to minimising the operational strain in kitchens, and advising on architectural design and restaurant trend forecasting, I draw from a wealth of culinary, corporate and scientific experience to ensure that the client receives the best bespoke treatment.” Moor Hall – the only restaurant in the UK to boast a brewery, bakery and stunning wine cellars on site – is the young businessman’s latest project and beautifully encapsulates the Mad Hatter limitless vision. It also helps that Chetan is a highly qualified chef, who loves to collaborate on and experiment with his projects’ respective dishes. Having started up Mad Hatter Food on the side at university, whilst doing wedding favours such as baking brownies and cupcakes, Chetan naturally grew what would become a signature sophisticate palate: his degrees in Clinical and Pharmaceutical Medicine from UCL, and in Physics from Oxford University (an MPhil), gave him wonderfully precise attention to detail, and an appreciation for respectful interactions. *** “There’s an instrument called a sonicator which is used to disrupt membranes," he told us on the topic." It can be used to create a super smooth puree! Of course a basic understanding of heat reactions and chemical reactions has also been a useful foundation for more and more adventurous cooking! Being able to communicate warmly and provide and service with a smile is also pivotal to good hospitality: it makes the restaurant space - and your brand - accessible. Another way in which my interests have played off each other is in product management. The maths learnt at graduate level plays a big part in hospitality operations running smoothly. I can accurately read how restaurants are performing through the analytics: there is no single formula, but available data can be used to improve the performance of individual restaurants.”

But the final layer of Chetan’s professional genius lies beyond the realm of pay cheques and reputability: “I wanted to train at Basque Culinary Centre for haute cooking because that’s where I could picture myself at age 40, putting in the longest hours. That’s really a pertinent question to ask yourself. Though I excelled at academia, I could never see myself stuck behind a Professor’s desk, working away on one paper after another. I enjoy engaging my intellect, but I love to travel, meet like- minded people and have the opportunity to explore the intricacies of the gastronomic world too. During my time at the top Spanish restaurant Mugaritz, for example, they were serving sea anemones with tiny Medusa-like hairs! In life, you’ve got to do what you’re passionate about, and what is special. Some people can’t even chop onions properly, and that’s reflective of it being a skill. If you're really good at your trade, you should be respected for it.” Thus, emphasising the value of the experiential over the staunchly cerebral and systemic, Chetan and his Mad Hatter franchise don’t just bring you candid dishes, but also a liberating theory of mind.

Name another exotic or surprising dish that you’ve come across?

I’ve tried Hemlock in my quest for Sweet Cicely, and that ended up being poisonous. When you forage, you should smell and not taste!

What first sparked your passion for cooking?

My grandmothers. I spent a lot of time with them growing up. My paternal grandmother lived in the UK, and my maternal grandmother was based in India. I remember one of the times I travelled there and we took a trip to the market, as you do: my grandma emphasised the need to patiently wait for the fresh batch of tomatoes. She taught me that the little things count.

What’s been a particularly interesting combination of ingredients?

Surprisingly some chicken I tried at a restaurant called Sketch on Conduit What are some of your Street, Oxford Circus - probably favourite refined techniques because it was simple. It was just learnt from Basque Culinary when I’d begun to get a feel for Centre? fine dining, and the way the The importance of good chicken had been layequipment and rudimentaered, using finely My ry cooking techniques: for shaved Truffle, really signature example, always have brought out the flavour. sharp knives! My most The quality of the would be expensive tool is a chef’s chicken also struck me. simplicity knife from Japan. I learnt As I’ve advanced in my the basics, such as practicculinary journey, I’ve ing traditional cuts and how found that less is more. to make my own stock. I love On Ramsay’s show ‘The F ramen and you need to have a fresh word’, he made a good point: the source for that! more mature you become as a chef, the less you need to put on the plate.

What is your hope for the The basic produce and preparation future? Do you want to finally really matters. The Arab Spring, for open up your own restaurant? What example, was catalysed by rising would be your signature style? bread prices!

Yes, I’d like to open up my own restau-

rant. I made the change from being Director of Research and Development at the Umbel Restaurant Group to my own consultancy because it was starting to feel right. I’d learnt a lot about what restaurants were doing right, and where they were going wrong, and felt I could really utilise the knowledge.

Currently I have been working with the extremely talented Head Chef Mark Birchall at Moor Hall and am feeling similarly inspired. I’ve learnt so much from him and have the itch to pursue my own creative curiosities. For example, I really love the idea of simplicity and pure flavour: serving up a carrot fresh from the earth, with just a little garnish that’s prepared well to accentuate the natural taste. I think my BritishIndian background would naturally influence my dishes too. When we did the course trials at university, it was shown that mums who imbibed carrot juice during pregnancy had babies who developed a palate for it.

Finally, what’s your favourite part of restaurant consulting?

The adrenaline rush: I’ve not been able to replicate it with any other job.

W

www.madhatter.london

twitter.com/chetsharmaox?la ng=en

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UK

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

Non-European immigrants hit by new rule changes

Tougher visa laws and increasing fee are deterring people further to come into this country. While UK is negotiating it's way out of EU, the changing rules not only affect non-EEA workers but may also affect workers from the EEA, after Brexit is complete.

Effective from April 6, 2017 onwards, the changes include an 18% increase in settlement applications to £2,297 and dependent relative applications to a massive £3,250. Individual migrants aren't the only ones affected.

The published Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017 will impose a charge of £1000 per worker per year, on employers who recruit foreign workers from outside the EU. A minimal charge of £364 per worker per year is also applicable to small businesses and universities and some exemptions apply. "Set at £1000 per employee per year, and a reduced rate of £364 for small or charitable organisations, it (Immigration Skills Charge) is designed to cut down on the number of businesses taking on migrant workers and incentivise training British staff to fill those jobs," the UK Home Office said.

However, the charges are only applicable to new recruits and not existing ones.

The latest rules are part of a bunch of tougher measures that are being introduced following a review by the UK's independent Migration Advisory Committeerecommended changes to the visa system last year. Those applying for a Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) visa will be required to pay a health surcharge of £200 per person per year. Dependents of the main applicant will also have to pay over the same amount as the main applicant.

NO IMMIGRATION SKILLS CHARGE FOR PHD LEVEL OCCUPATIONS ON UK TIER 2 VISAS According to a report by the Workpermit.com, employees recruited into PhD-level occupa-

tions will not be subject to the Immigration Skills Charge.

Meanwhile any students in the UK on a Tier-4 visa who are able to switch to a Tier 2 Visa (General) under immigration rules are also exempt from the £1000 fee.

Initially, it was not disclosed by the Home Office as to whether those applying to extend their stay in Britain would be subject to the Immigration Skills Charge.

However, the Government department has since updated its Tier 2 sponsorship guidance.

The updated changes specify that the charge will not apply to non-EEA nationals, sponsored via the Tier 2 immigration route before 6 April, 2017 and who

apply from within the UK to extend their Tier 2 stay with either the same or a different sponsor.

The Home Office has confirmed that sponsors are required to pay the Immigration Skills Charge at the time of allocating a Tier 2 CoS and is payable in advance for the total period of time covered by the certificate of sponsorship.

MINIMUM SALARY THRESHOLD The cost of sponsoring (CoS) many overseas employees even more expensive. For instance, the minimum salary rate payable to ‘experienced workers’ within the Tier 2 (General) immigration cat-

Petition launched to exempt non-EU NHS professionals from £35,000 salary threshold

Since April 2016, Non-EU citizens in the UK have need to earn £35,000/annum on a single contracted salary, if they wish to remain in this country permanently This rule discriminates against those who have chosen to work in the NHS, where such a salary is impossible within the first 5 years of employment.

Anand Kumar, in his petition wrote, “Like many others I came to the UK to complete my MSc and now wish to remain working for NHS making differences to people's lives on a daily basis.

“I have been living here for over 7 years and working extra hours during nights/weekends to meet the threshold however it is not good enough to secure my place here unless something

changes.

“Sadly there are many others facing the same hardship and I believe that the threshold should be lowered to at least the average UK salary £28,000 for NHS staff.”

In the UK, currently average salary of a person is no more than £25,000 per annum.

Kumar has launched an epetition https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/176987, urging the threshold to be lowered.

Currently it has received 11,634 signatures. The government responds to any petition that gets more than 10,000 signature, but as we went to press, Kumar was still awaiting a respond. If the signature reaches 100,000, it will be considered for a debate in the Parliament.

egory will be increased to £30,000 per annum.

Limited exemptions exist for this rule, which mainly apply to ‘public service occupations’ including medical radiographers; nurses; paramedics and secondary education teaching professionals in maths, physics, chemistry, computer science and Mandarin.

OVERSEAS CRIMINAL RECORD CERTIFICATES The Government is set to extend the requirement to provide a criminal record certificate to Tier 2 (General) applicants coming to work in the education, health and social care sectors and to their adult dependents.

A certificate will be required for applicants sponsored in these Standard Occupation Classification codes. Applicants in these codes outside of the Tier 2 (General) route, such as Intracompany Transfers are not affected.

Certificates will also be required from partners applying from overseas, on or after 6 April, 2017 who want to join an existing Tier 2 (General) visa holder working in one of these sectors.

HEALTH SURCHARGE Introduced in 2015, the surcharge is paid by non-EEA nationals who apply to come to the UK to work, study or join family for a period of more than 6 months. It is also paid by nonEEA nationals who are already in the UK and apply to extend their stay.

From 6 April, 2017 those applying for a Tier 2 (Intra-company Transfer) will be required to pay a surcharge of £200 per person per year. Dependents pay around the same amount as the main applicant.

The Government has also announced that it will be making changes to visit visas, Tier 4 applications as well as minor changes and clarifications to the Immigration Rules relating to family and private life based visa applications.

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Summary of changes

• Secondary school teachers in combined science, computer science and Mandarin are being added to the Shortage Occupation List. Secondary school teachers in chemistry are being removed from the list.

• Increasing the minimum salary that sponsors can offer a Tier 2 (General) worker from £25,000 to £30,000 for experienced workers. Some jobs in the health and education sectors are exempt until 1 July 2019.

• Closing the Tier 2 (Intracompany Transfer) Short Term Staff category, meaning that all ICT workers, except graduate trainees, must qualify under a single route with a salary threshold of £41,500.

• Reducing the high-earners’ salary for the Intra-company Transfer Long Term Staff category from £155,300 to £120,000.

These high earners can stay in the route for up to nine years, rather than the usual five years.

• Removing the requirement for Intra-company Transfer workers to have at least one year’s experience working for the sponsor’s linked entity overseas, for applicants paid £73,900 or above.

• Introducing a waiver for the Resident Labour Market Test and an exemption from the Tier 2 (General) limit for posts which support the relocation of a high value business to the UK or a significant new inward investment project.

• Annual updates to the occupational salary rates in the codes of practice.

• Changes to provide greater clarity and consistency as to which types of allowance will be considered against the salary requirements.

UK Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

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Defence Secretary condemns terrorism “flowing across” Pakistan AsianVoiceNews

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participate in KONKAN 17 off the coast of UK in May 2017," the spokesperson added.

UK ON PAKISTAN TERROR

Visits India to take part in the first Indo-UK strategic dialogue Rupanjana Dutta

Britain's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has reached India for a four-day visit to take part in the first IndoUK strategic dialogue. This will be the third UK Cabinet minister to visit India, after Chancellor Philip Hammond and Energy Minister Greg Clark. PM Theresa May visited India in November.

The minister is visiting Mumbai and Delhi and will hold meetings with senior Indian defence ministry officials, military staff and business leaders. Fallon will be in Mumbai to inspect the guided missile destroyer ‘Chennai’, among other engagements, and in New Delhi for talks with defence minister Arun Jaitley, national security advisor Ajit Doval and Indian military chiefs to further the India-UK Defence and International Security Partnership.

Terrorism will “absolutely” be part of the talks, he said. In the eve of his departure, he spoke on the same lines as Indian PM Narendra Modi who on Saturday at an event without naming the nation slammed Pakistan saying that it breeds, inspires and encourages terrorism and this “thought” is a roadblock to peace within the region and the world. He also highlighted that India’s doors are always open for cooperation, but for that Pakistan has to shun terrorism.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister of India (file photo)

SIR FALLON'S INDIA VISIT

The British High Commission in a statement said, “Sir Michael will join his counterpart, Shri Arun Jaitley, for the first India-UK Strategic Dialogue, which was agreed in November 2015 during Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi's visit to London as part of the Defence and International Security Partnership.”

The visit promises to further cement the Defence and International Security Partnership, which aims to strengthen collaboration and cooperation between India and the UK, including by enhancing mutual capabilities and effectiveness through joint training and doctrine development, the statement said.

UK-India Strategic Dialogue will look at ways of increasing cooperation in science and technology, research and development, and countering violent extremism, it said.

On Wednesday, the Defence Secretary will be the special guest at a reception hosted by British high commissioner

Dominic Asquith in New Delhi to celebrate the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II -- which falls on April 21.

On Tuesday he visited the Western Naval Command of the Indian Navy on Wednesday and he was accompanied by a 12-member UK delegation, during the visit, a Defence spokesperson said.

Fallon and the delegation also interacted with Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command.

A spokesperson in a statement said, "Discussions were held on aspects related to Defence and naval cooperation, maritime security and current environment in the Indo-Pacific region.”

"Progress on maritime issues, as outlined in the Defence and International Security Partnership were also discussed.

The delegation also visited Indian Naval Ship Kolkata, a front line indigenously built stealth destroyer and were conducted around the ship.

"Royal Navy and

Indian students applying to British universities.

Ninety percent of Indian students who apply for a student visa get a student visa.”

But in reality the Indian students feel unwelcomed in the UK. Their number fell by 50%, resulting from the drastic changes in the visa rules.

The government is now proposing more changes to the system, which may deter them further. The Conservative government has already scrapped the Post Study Work (PSW) visa that allowed foreign students to gain UK work

experience for 2 years after completion of a degree course. It also helped them to pay back hefty loans they have taken to come and study a course that cost them minimum £20,000 as tuition fee.

By 2025, eight million young people will be moving from their home country to go to the Universitya vast economic opportunity for the UK. This flawed visa rule means Britain's share of the international market is actually declining, with Australia and Canada pulling out all stops to

Indian Navy have for long shared a healthy relationship of mutual respect, trust and professionalism.

The two navies have engaged in a bilateral naval exercise named KONKAN from 2004 onwards.

PM Narendra Modi meets Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

"The last edition of the KONKAN series of exercises was held in December 2016 and INS Tarkash is scheduled to

Reducing number of students from India raises concerns

While Michael Fallon visits India the issues of immigration, especially regarding falling number of Indian students in India lingers on. UK has included students into the net immigration number that the country is trying to cut down.

Chancellor Philip Hammond during his visit to India, in the beginning of April said, “There is no doubt that there is a perception in India that Indian students are somehow being impeded from going to the UK. “There is no quota, no limits, no restrictions on

In an interview with Hindustan Times, the Defence Secretary said that UK needs to be more forthright on terrorism, particularly on terrorism that “flows across” Pakistan’s borders into Afghanistan and elsewhere.

On the eve of his visit he said Britain has made it “very clear” to Pakistan that there cannot be any excuse or justification for terrorism.

Fallon’s remarks are significant in the context of Brexit compelling the UK to focus more on major economies such as India, and the grouse in New Delhi that unlike the United States’ contemporary view, India continues to be hyphenated with Pakistan in London’s outlook.

Fallon said the UK did condemn the Uri attack but agreed that “We have to be more forthright on terrorism…we have to call it

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on Saturday 8 April where he said that India’s doors are always open for cooperation, but for that Pakistan has to shun terrorism.

Hitting out at Pakistan, Modi reportedly said it breeds, inspires and encourages terrorism and this “thought” is a roadblock to peace within the region and the world.

The Hindu reported that he emphasised that “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” is not just restricted to India, but also to the neighbouring countries and development of India is incomplete without the progress of the region.

He was speaking at the ceremony where families of martyrs of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War were felicitated by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Modi said India is a victim of the “thought” that encourages terrorism.

“The thought, whose policymakers prefer terrorism over humanity, destruction over development, destruction over creation, backstabbing over trust, is the biggest

attract more students.

Though 81% of Britons agree that foreign students have a positive impact, 57% support excluding them from immigration targets.

Rohan Silva in his Evening Standard column wrote, “To make a success of Brexit, UK needs to build on our country's strength, not undermine them. That means making it easier for our universities to complete globally in the fast-growing market for foreign students, which would be good for the economy- and command public support too.”

out for what it is”.

“There is no excuse, justification for terrorism and we make that very clear in Pakistan”, he said and added that his talks in India will also focus “on what more Pakistan needs to do to tackle terrorism that flows across the border into Afghanistan and elsewhere”.

“We have been trying to improve relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan because that is causing real difficulties in Afghanistan, the relationship needs to be improved rapidly. We have made that clear to the new Pakistani chief of army staff. We made it clear to them that they have work to do in the border areas”.

MINISTER SUPPORTS PM MODI'S VIEW Minister Fallon's statement came right after

challenge to the society and its economic development,” he said.

Stating that 1,661 Indian soldiers laid down their lives in the Bangladesh Liberation War, Modi said the Indian army’s struggle in this cannot be forgotten.

The Prime Minister said the genocide by Pakistan in 1971 was undertaken to wipe out an entire generation of Bangladesh and every person who was proud of the idea of Bangladesh was eliminated.

Speaking at the event, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina said, the history of Bangladesh has been written with the blood of Indian martyrs along with valiant freedom fighters of Bangladesh.

“They fought together for the independence of Bangladesh.”

18

FINANCIAL VOICE

www.asian-voice.com

RBI chief opposes waiving of farm loans Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

Alarmed over state governments waiving farm loans, RBI Governor Urjit Patel has called for a consensus on eschewing them to avoid damaging the national balance sheet. "It undermines honest credit culture, it impacts credit discipline, and it plugs incentives for future borrowers to repay. In other words, waivers engender moral hazard," Patel said.

The statement was in response to a question asking about concerns over

Urjit Patel

loan waivers.

Most recently, UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath recently announced a £3.60 billion farm loan waiver. The move, in all

possibilities, could be followed in Punjab and Maharashtra.

"If on account of this, overall government borrowings go up, yields on government bonds are also impacted. It can also lead to crowding out of private borrowers as higher government borrowing can lead to an increase in cost for borrowing for others," Patel said. He is not the first banker to criticise farm loan waivers.

State Bank of India

chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya last month said, "We feel that in case of a (farm) loan waiver there is always a fall in credit discipline because the people who get the waiver have expectations of future waivers as well."

Last week, Yogi Aditya Nath wrote off farmer loans, fulfilling his campaign promise. The waiver will be funded by the state government through resources raised by issuing Kisan Rahat Bonds.

Adani now looks to start solar plant in Australia Adani has apparently been developing plans to build a large scale solar plant in the Bowen Basin, in the heart of Queensland's major coal region in Australia. It has been learnt that executives from Adani have been meeting with landowners in the Isaac Regional Council to seek their interest in doing a deal to host a large solar farm.

The company has been for long, trying to develop a controversial mega-coal mining project in the Falilee Basin, seeking support from the federal and state government.

A spokesman speaking for the Indian firm was unavailable to immediately confirm the status

of the project. However, if a project is proposed, it will likely take some months to merely get development approval

Gautam Adani

from the local council, even after agreements are struck with local landowners.

Queensland has emerged as a hotspot for large scale solar developments, with Ergon Energy holding a tender for up to 150MW of capacity.

Several proposals have been made for large scale solar in the region, including from the proponents of a large scale pumped hydro plant on an old gold mine, proponents of a combined 1,200MW solar and wind hybrid plant inland from Townsville, a potential 2GW mega solar park in southern Queensland, and various other large scale plants of 100MW or

more.

A solar project from Adani would be ironic, considering its commitment to the coal and the fact that it would be located in the middle of coal country. Adani has a total of 10,480 MW of generation capacity, all of it in coal, except for one 40MW solar park that is actually operating. Recent solar auctions show that the cost of solar energy is cheaper than that using imported coal. Other Indian coal companies are also turning towards solar, with even the state owned India Coal – the world’s biggest coal company – announcing that it would install 1GW of solar to help power its assets.

AsianVoiceNews

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Indian power majors to raise $1bn in UK via masala bonds Masala bonds in the UK can help staterun power companies raise nearly $1 billion, India's Minister for Power, Coal, Renewable Energy, and Mines, Piyush Goyal, said.

The statement came in the backdrop of discussions on bilateral energy ties with his UK counterpart Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy, Masala bonds are rupee-denominated papers issued by Indian corporates in overseas markets to raise funds. Both the countries involved in the meeting, reaffirmed commitment to anchor investments up to £120 million each in a joint fund, which aims to raise around £500 million. They also agreed that the fund will focus its initial investments on India's rapidly growing energy and renewables markets.

Sources said state-run generation utility NTPC is expected to raise another £200-300 million to fund capital expenditure. The company was the first Indian corporate to float 'green' masala bonds in

August 2016 for £200 million.

Power Finance Corporation too could be looking at raising another £200-300 million to fund expansion and modernisation of the country's transmission, distribution and generation infrastructure.

Other companies looking at offering masala bonds in the UK include transmission utility PowerGrid, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, Solar Energy Corporation of India and Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. All of them together could aggregate a mop-up of £100 million or so. But all of this money is not going to be raised at one go.“These are independent entities and their board decides such issues. They will hit the market as and when they deem fit,” a power ministry official said.

REALESTATEVOICE

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THE PERFECT BUYER AsianVoiceNews

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap London Property Investment

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

An agent, with whom we have done many deals, approached me with a property in W2. The property is a 452 sq. ft. one bedroom flat, on the fourth floor of a popular portered block. The property was priced originally at £500k.

However, the seller has fallen on hard times and wanted to offload. After some toing and froing, the deal was struck at a low ball figure of £407,500 which equates to £901 per sq. ft. Prices in the block float around the £1,300 mark, and these are for properties on the first floor.

In a block, typically the higher you go the higher the prices. As this property is on the fourth floor it should attract a premium. Without even

AGONY AGENT Each week, we answer a reader’s rental property question, from first-time landlords to experienced owners. Agony Agent, is here to help!

barking l Could be a safety hazard if they escape and cause injury to a person or animal Tips to prevent the risk

Q: Do I need to take references on my tenant’s dogs?

A: Whilst there are upsides to having a pet in a rented property, what are the downsides? l Pet damage is not covered by insurance policies l Allergies, infestations, damage l Potential nuisance to neighbours, such as

Ask the tenant about their pet - a guidance booklet from the ‘Lets with Pets’ website contains useful questions to ask them.

References: If there is a previous landlord, ask for references on these pets.

If there was no previous landlord, ask for a reference from their vet (sounds strange, but you will not be the first person ever to do this).

BUY TO LET OPPORTUNITY

Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

taking this point into account you’re getting a whopping 30% discount in W2.

lawyers over the weekend.

We are hopeful for an exchange this week.

I pretty much knew who would purchase this property prior to even seeing the flat. The buyer has purchased and sold several properties in the same block through me.

He viewed the property on Friday evening at 6pm and the deal was placed with

When looking at a property, especially in a purpose-built block, viewing the flat should not really be the deal closer.

The numbers of the deal are most important, and where the market is going in the next few years. This is what should close the deal, when you see a flat all you’re seeing is a shoebox. Yet most are addicted to the act of seeing. Of course, there are subtle features which come through on a viewing such as how the light comes in, the noise from the street and so on, but these are the finishing touches, and not the main crux of the deal. This particular property is perfectly rentable as it is,

Flats: If the property is a leasehold flat, check the terms of the head lease for any restrictions which would prevent an occupier from keeping pets. If there are no such restrictions, you would normally be entitled as a private landlord to allow tenants to keep pets at your discretion.

the tenancy agreement saying that no pets are allowed without the Landlord’s written consent (or words to that effect). Be sure to confirm your “no pet” policy before the tenant moves in. You may end up losing the right to keep the tenant’s pets off the property if swift action is not taken.

Deposits: Obtain a higher deposit; normally an extra two weeks is good practice, and have an addendum in your contract to tie them to a professional clean at the end of the tenancy.

What can be done if a tenant breaches the “no pet” policy? There are several ways you can choose to deal with pets in rental properties depending on how serious the problem actually is. If the tenant decides to keep pets such as a caged bird or small fish tank, the landlord may be happy to turn a blind eye, especially

Typically, the lower the value of the flat the less the discount. You cannot purchase much for £400k anywhere in London, let alone in a prime area of W2; at this price level you’re kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There are many buyers at this level, therefore, discounts at this level are hard to come by.

“No Pet” policy: If you insist on no pets in the property you can include a suitable worded clause in l

Spacious studio apartment

l

Purchase price is £950 per sq. ft.

l

Recently, comparable properties have been sold at £1,108 per sq. ft.

l

As it is market value is around £425,000

Edgware Road, London W2 Purchase Price: £320,000

19

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at £400pw week which represents a very respectable 5.1% yield.

This used to be the normal yield in Central London about a decade ago.

Currently, yields for W1 and W2 float around 2-3% level.

We are looking at a flattish market for the next couple of years, therefore, it’s important when buying that you either have a if you have an excellent tenant who always pays their rent on time.

However, if a larger pet like a cat or dog appears, the landlord may wish to take action. Try to have a peaceful discussion with the tenant and if the pet is acceptable, an additional pet deposit should be paid to cover any possible cleaning or damages.

If your tenant and you are unable to reach a mutual agreement on pets in rental properties, then it’s time to consider taking action to evict the tenant.

Obtaining possession if there is a breach Based on the general advice from solicitors, a tenant would be in breach

discount or an angle to add some value. In this deal, you have three very strong features: the high floor, the entry level of the price, and the substantial level of discount you’re coming in with. Last week we wrote about our Westbourne Grove deal, which had a discount of 25%, as well as the ability to add another 40% of square footage, making it a stonking deal. of their agreement if they introduced an animal that was not included on the tenancy agreement, but it is likely to be difficult to quantify loss and enforce against the breach. A landlord could in extreme circumstances apply to the court for possession but the judge would take into consideration the impact of the tenant losing their home versus the inconvenience of a pet.

Who knew something as cute as a puppy could create sooo much work?

Need help? Please get in touch.

Richard Bond Lettings Manager

20

FINANCIAL VOICE

Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

Consultant Editor Financial Voice Alpesh Patel

Dear Financial Voice Reader, Who Really Wins and Who Loses in Trading the Markets? Part 2 Last week I was with a bunch of Fintech entrepreneurs and the British Chancellor and Governor of the Bank of England. This is part 2 to my article.

What if you had all the statistics as to who wins and who loses in trading? Which clients of a broker make money and which ones lose? What if that data could tell you across thousands of trades over years, what winning traders do right and losers get wrong, which products winners trade? At what times are they most profitable?

I posed this conundrum – how come people had more winning trades when they traded GBP/USD but actually still lost money?

It means they won more when they won, than they lost when they had losing trades. They let winners run and cut losers short. How did they do that? Well, the more profitable trades and times to trade were in USD/JPY and GBP/USD between midnight and 6am New York time(!) when the US markets were quiet. At these times, 55% of trades in these currencies were profitable. Presumably, when the markets were quiet there was less volatility and possibility of accidentally being frightened or confused out of a trading position.

Okay, so what other insights do we have? Crucial to letting winners run and cutting losers short was using ‘stop-losses’. These are orders when you place a trade to say at what price you will sell it. Research shows the traders who placed these at the time they placed their initial order were more likely to be profitable than those who did not. The ones who ‘traded by the seat of their pants’ without such ‘stop-orders’ tended to have a few big losses which would get the better of them. Another test showed that those we placed a reward target between 1 to 1.5 compared to their loss were the most likely to make money. So if you thought GBP/USD might go from 1.5 to 1.6 (your reward being 0.1) then your loss would not be under 1.4.

What about account sizes? Maybe the profitable traders were just richer and had lots of money. Research showed that actually the traders with $10,000 in their accounts did better than those with $5,000. But note that it is a mere $10,000, not millions.

And those with $1,000 did the worst. So when brokers try to entice you with small account opening sizes, be warned – the reason you end up losing is because even a small bet will eat into a greater proportion of your initial capital and it is hard to recoup such percentage losses – and although you only lost 1/10 with a $1,000 account as you did with a $10,000 account – you are more likely to lose with that $1,000 account.

Finally, winners tended to use less leverage, or margin (if you’ve ever bought a house you know what I mean).

Profitable traders used 5:1 leverage; i.e. they borrowed £5 from the broker for every £1 they put up. Losing traders, especially more likely to have smaller accounts, used 25:1 leverage – maybe because they had so little capital – but they were also least profitable. The leverage did not improve their return on capital (as it does with houses if the prices go up) but made them losers. Just as it did with the credit crunch.

Want to learn more? www.alpeshpatel.com/profitmaster

Finally, Mallya's Kingfisher Villa sold Liquor baron Vijay Mallya's famous Kingfisher Villa has finally been sold.

After failing to find bidders at multiple auctions, lenders agreed to dispose the property through a negotiated sale to actorbusinessman Sachiin Joshi. He is said to have paid marginally higher than the last reserve price of £7.3 million.

SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya confirmed the news saying there was a sale but refused to divulge the name of the buyer. The sea facing palatial villa, situated in Candolim, Goa, has peaked the interest of half a dozen players in the hospitality

industry, and a media group, when it was opened for inspection to interested bidders. The reserve price of £8.5 million, however, did not find any buyers.

"I read in the papers that auctions were being carried out and that these had failed a couple times.

When I saw the auction failed for a third time, I sensed an opportunity. So I contacted SBI, went through rigorous processes to make the deal happen under a private treaty following the law of land, and finally here I am, the owner of Kingfisher Villa," Joshi said. He said he was not sure what he intended to do with it.

www.asian-voice.com

India is now the world's 4th largest aviation market AsianVoiceNews

The International Air Transport Association said that India recorded the fourth highest number of passengers taking off in 2016, up two places from the previous year, overtaking the UK and Brazil.

A shade over 130 million flyers took off from India, including domestic, international and connecting, last year. Globally, 3.80 billion passengers took off in 2016 (half domestic, 35% international and 15% connecting) -up from 3.50 billion in 2015.

The pecking order of the top three - the US, China and Japan remained unchanged, but there was a shakeup after that with India a part of it.

At this rate, India will soon

be at the third spot in terms of number of passengers taking off by overtaking Japan. In total passenger terms, India saw 152 million passengers flying last year, with 99 million flying within the country and 53 million internationally.

The big movers on this year's rankings are the key emerging markets of India

and Indonesia. India has jumped up two places to the fourth ranking with 131million departures in 2016 and, with stellar passenger growth of 20% yearon-year, continues to close in fast on Japan. Just three years ago India held the eighth ranking,” says IATA. Indonesia also moved up two positions, to the sixth spot, in 2016. IATA 's

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

takeoff numbers are at 131 million as it includes all of the 99 million domestic flyers; 27 million people flying out of India and only a part of the 26 million international flyers to India who took off to take more flights last year. However, the growth is coming amid an infra crunch -especially at busy metro airports - that is getting worse by the day due to the over 20% rise in traffic that India has been witnessing on a month-onmonth basis for almost two years now. Air traffic congestion has made hovering common at Delhi and Mumbai. These two airports hardly have any free slots available for new flights, with Mumbai completely choked.

Re at 20-month high Rajya Sabha OKs 4 as foreign funds GST bills, eyes on states pump $13 bn in '17 Indian rupee hit a 20month high at 64.32 to the dollar last week, on India's improving economic fundamentals, government's resolve to push through tough economic reforms like the GST, and the RBI's stand of not intervening in the forex market. The rupee strengthened against all the other major currencies; euro, yen and pound.

"Indian macro-economic scenario continues to attract healthy foreign inflows with strong growth outlook amid stable inflation, lower fiscal deficit, benign CAD and continued policy reforms like GST. A powerful mandate in UP has increased investor optimism in further economic reforms from the Modi government," said Sajal Gupta, head (forex & rates), Edelweiss Securities.

Given that factors strengthening the rupee are unlikely to change anytime soon, economists and forex market dealers said they expect the Indian currency to appreciate further.

Market players also said that despite the rupee's fast appreciation in recent months, the RBI has not intervened in the forex market. "The RBI's hands-off

approach amid surging capital flows has been a key driver for the rupee's appreciation. Besides the obvious cost of sterilisation amid ample liquidity, a stronger rupee also dampens inflation. The recent rebound in exports may have also given comfort to the central bank," Gupta said.

A stronger rupee has several macro implications such as lower import bills and lower imported inflation, and thereby less pressure on interest rates,” said Siddhartha Sanyal, chief India economist, Barclays.

“However, the cost-benefit analysis for the economy as a whole remains delicate and complicated with benefits for consumers and a challenge for a set of domestic import-competing companies sectors,” Sanyal said.

An appreciating rupee, on the other hand, is bad news for exporters, especially major players in the software services and pharma industries, and also garments and textiles. Market players pointed out that in addition to a stronger rupee, IT and pharma majors also have the US government and policy related issues to tackle.

India's Upper House has approved four important bills for the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), in a move that will pave the way for rollout of the ambitious indirect tax reform from July 1. Now, state legislatures will have to approve the SGST bill.

Identified as a top reform priority by the Narendra Modi government, the tax reform will subsume central and state levies such as excise duty, additional duties of customs, service tax, value added tax, central sales tax, entry tax, octroi and luxury tax. "On May 17-18, we will give final approval to rules and rates, looks like it can be implemented from July 1," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. The government has hinted that product and service-wise GST rates may be announced closer to the rollout date, while finalising nine sets of rules for the indirect tax reforms.

"The passage of the four bills necessary for introduction of GST by Rajya Sabha reaffirms that July 1 is the go-live date for the most significant indirect tax reform of the country," said MS Mani, senior

Arun Jaitley

director at consulting firm Deloitte.

Amendments to the bills were being taken up in the Rajya Sabha by deputy chairman PJ Kurien, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said he was not moving them. "Former PM Manmohan Singh has taken his approach in the spirit of consensus and in respect of the federal structure," he said. In support of the policies, Singh called the move a game changer.

Once the four bills were cleared, finance minister Arun Jaitley walked up to Singh and shook his hands, while Singh congratulated him on passage of the bills.

Jaitley said, "When it came to the larger interest of the nation, all political parties have spoken in one voice." He called the GST bill a "collective achievement" in which all states and political parties had contributed.

I-T collections in Gujarat Cairn gets fresh £1.02 bn touches £4.04 bn tax demand The Income Tax Department in Gujarat has finally collected £4.04 billion in the fiscal year 201617, after failing to achieve targets three years in a row.

Tax collections in the state, registered a 15 per cent spike in 2016-17, compared to collections of 2015-16. Pound 2.71 billion was collected in the third quarter, accounting for 67 per cent of the total.

Officials said that £111.7 million was collect-

ed in the state under the Income Declaration Scheme from June 1 to September 30 last year.

Figures reveal, the IT collection was £3.50 billion in the fiscal year 2015-16, against the target of £3.60 billion. The collection fell short by £320 million in 2014-15, when the target was £3.41 billion and £3.09 billion was collected. Every year, the tax target is increased by 10% to 15%.

The Income Tax Department has slapped a fresh demand note of £1.02 billion on British explorer Cairn Energy, just weeks after tax tribunal ITAT upheld levy of retrospective tax. In its March 9 order, the ITAT held that Cairn Energy was liable to pay tax on the 2006 transfer of India assets to the new Cairn India, prior to its listing. It also held that interest cannot be charged on it as the demand was raised

using retrospective tax legislation.

Sending a notice to its shareholders, the company said, "Following the ruling of the ITAT, an amended tax demand, received on March 31, 2017, noted that the late payment interest would now be charged from February 2016, i.e., from 30 days following the date of the original 2016 final assessment order." It said ITAT's decision is "potentially subject to appeal."

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Egypt declares emergency after church attacks

CAIRO: Egypt imposed a three-month state of emergency on Monday and ordered the military to protect vital infrastructure after the Islamic State terror group targeted two minority Coptic Christian churches in powerful bombings, killing at least 45 people and wounding more than 120 others. As Egyptians bid tearful farewell to the those who died in the terror attacks on Palm Sunday, the Egyptian government declared that the state of emergency across the country will be effective from Monday. Egypt's Cabinet approved the measure which allows authorities to make arrests without warrants and search people's homes - and explained the reasons for the imposition of emergency. The Cabinet's approval came after President AbdelFattah alSisi announced the state of emergency for three months on Sunday night. US President Trump called Sisi after the bombings to express his condolences, Washington said on Monday. “The President also expressed his confidence in President Al Sisi's commitment to protect Christians and all Egyptians.”

March to demand Zuma's resignation

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

PRETORIA: Tens of thousands of people marched through South African cities in largely peaceful protests to demand President Jacob Zuma's resignation. In the biggest political protests in years, large crowds gathered in the capital Pretoria, the economic hub Johannesburg, and the coastal cities of Durban and Cape Town.

Nobel laureate and antiapartheid leader Desmond Tutu, 85 and frail in health, made a rare public appearance to support the protests outside Cape Town. Several thousand people attended the Johannesburg protest organised by the opposition Democratic Alliance party, which hopes to make gains in the 2019 elections. "We want Zuma to fall. He is too corrupt. Real people are struggling," protester Vanessa Michael, 54, said.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings, last week, said, “South Africa's Long Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings to 'BB+' 'from 'BBB-'.

The Outlooks are Stable.” It said the decision reflects Fitch's view that recent political events, including a major cabinet reshuffle, will weaken standards of governance and public finances.

The statement said, “The Cabinet reshuffle, which involved the replacement of the finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, and the deputy finance minister, Mcebisi

Jonas, is likely to result in a change in the direction of economic policy. The reshuffle partly reflected efforts by the out-going finance minister to improve the governance of state-owned enterprises. The reshuffle is likely to undermine, if not reverse, progress in SOE governance, raising the risk that SOE debt could migrate on to the government's balance sheet.”

“The new finance minister has stated that he does not intend to change fiscal policy and remains committed to expenditure ceilings that have been a pillar of fiscal consolidation.

However, Fitch believes that following the government reshuffle, fiscal consolidation will be less of a priority given the president's focus on 'radical socio-economic transformation'. This means that renewed shortfalls in revenues, for example as a result of lower than expected GDP growth, are less likely to be compensated by expendi-

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ture and revenue measures.

This could put upward pressure on general government debt, which at an estimated 53% of GDP at end-March 2017 was already slightly above the 'BB' category median of 51%,” the statement said.

The downgrade came a week after the cabinet was reshuffled which saw Gordhan being replaced by Malusi Gigaba, former Minister of home affairs. One of the reasons being forwarded for the downgrade included “tensions within the ANC will mean that political energy will be absorbed by efforts to maintain party unity and fend off leadership challenges and to placate rising social pressures for addressing inequality, poverty, and weak public service delivery.

The Treasury's ability to withstand departmental demands for increased spending may also weaken.” The Treasury is yet to react to the latest ratings decision.

WORLD Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

In Brief

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Trump picks 2 PIOs for key jobs

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has nominated two Indian-Americans Vishal Amin and Neomi Rao for key administrative posts to coordinate US law-enforcement strategy around copyright, patents and trademarks and oversee his plan to eliminate 75% of federal regulations. They will be Trump's new IP and regulatory czars, respectively, as he nominated them while making many administrative appointments. Amin has been nominated to be the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator while Rao will be the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). If confirmed by the US Senate, Amin, who is currently a senior counsel on House Judiciary Committee, would succeed Daniel Marti. He also served in the administration of President George W Bush at the White House, as associate director for domestic policy, and at the US department of commerce, as special assistant and associate director for policy in the office of the secretary.

Rao has been nominated to be the administrator of the OIRA, a statutory part of the office of management and budget within the executive office of the President.

‘Muslim Nato’ not against any country: Pak

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan defended the appointment of former army chief General Raheel Sharif as the head of a Saudi-led multi-national military coalition, saying the alliance was not against any country, a day after Iran raised its concern on the issue. “The Islamic alliance is against terrorism and not any (specific) country,” foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua, referring to the 41-nation coalition, being dubbed as “Muslim Nato,” said. Janjua said Pakistan was finding it hard to maintain balance in ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the wake of appointment of Sharif. “It is difficult... but Pakistan will not go against Iran's interests.”

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Hindu babies to decline during 2055-2060 Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

WASHINGTON: A research study reveals that Hindus will witness a “dramatic” drop-off in births between 2055 and 2060 owing to a declining fertility in India.

The Pew Research Center study said that the number of babies born to Muslim women is expected to overtake those born to Christians worldwide within two decades, making Islam the world's largest religion by 2075. Christian and Muslim mothers will expectedly give birth to increasing numbers of babies through 2060, but, Muslim births are projected

to rise at a much faster rate.

“The drop-off in births will be especially dramatic for Hindus, who are expected to see 33 million fewer births

between 2055 and 2060 than between 2010 and 2015, due in large part to declining fertility in India, which is home to 94 per cent of the global

Hindu population as of 2017,” the study titled 'The Changing Global Religious Landscape', said.

An estimated 68 million babies were born to unaffiliated mothers, between 2010 and 2015, compared to 109 million to Hindu mothers.

Between 2015 and 2060, the global Muslim population is expected to grow by 70 per cent. Islam is already the world's fastest-growing religion. When asked, Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew, said, “It's really a geographic story.”

Lord Shiva statue at world's largest particle physics lab CERN

Making a bold political statement similar to former FLOTUS Michelle Obama, Prime Minister Theresa May touched down in Riyadh last week with her head uncovered. Saudi Arabia's strict dress code requires women keep their hair covered in public spaces. While PM May aspired to inspire Saudi women, the move supposedly didn't go down well with King Salman bin Abdulaziz, as he avoided looking his guest in the face

Expat fired over abusive social media post against Indian journalist DUBAI: A UAE-based company has reportedly sacked an Indian employee for abusing an Indian journalist on the internet and posting derogatory posts against Islam on social media website Facebook.

The incident was brought to light when well-known investigative journalist Rana Ayyub from New Delhi, posted his cheap messages on her Twitter.

Identified as BB, from Kerala, the 31 year old employee of Alpha Paint in Dubai, sent an abusive message with sexual overtones to Ayyub on Facebook Messenger. She posted a screenshot of the message on April 6, saying, "Just a sample of the filth I received on my Facebook page. Time to name and shame this pervert." Some of her followers reported the matter to Alpha Paint's management.

Human Resource Manager Shadi Al Refai informed that they received the complaint by email on April 7, from a man saying that one of the staff members abused a woman on social media.

The email included a copy of the abusive message sent by BB. "We veri-

fied the accuracy of the information and checked on the name of the man.

On April 8, at 8 am, the termination order was issued," Al Refai said.

"When we checked on his Facebook account, we saw the abusive message which was sent to that lady in addition to offensive posts against Islam," he added.

Law in UAE is known to be strict.

Under its Cybercrime law, any form of misuse of a computer of smart device or an electronic network or system could fetch the violator, if found guilty, a lengthy jail term or a hefty fine. Ayyub was impressed with Alpha's prompt action, and posted tweets praising the company.

"Humanity is alive. I am told that the person who wrote this to me has been sacked from his job following a complaint by a Good Samaritan." She also said, "I think it is brave of them to do this without even me filing an FIR... and without even getting in touch with me... He could do this at his workplace tomorrow if he doesn't like someone.

This is a lesson for even others who write such messages."

BERN: A statue of Lord Shiva has been adorned at the CERN, Switzerland, home to Large Hadron Collider.

Unveiled on June 18, 2004, the two-metre-tall statue was a gift from the Government of India. The statue is attached with a plaque explaining its significance. “Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art, and modern physics.”

The statue shows Shiva performing the Tandava, a dance believed to be the source of the cycle of creation, preservation, and destruction.

Post-doc student working at CERN, Aidan Randle-Conde said, “In the light of day, when CERN is teeming with life, Shiva seems playful, reminding us that the universe is constantly shaking things up, remaking itself and is never static. But by night, when we have more time to contemplate the deeper questions

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Ahmadi prof gunned down in Lahore

ISLAMABAD: A retired professor belonging to the Ahmadi community was killed in a faith-based attack in Lahore, local media said. Dr Ashfaq Ahmad, 68, a nutritionist by profession and former professor at the Lahore University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, was travelling in a car with two of his relatives to offer Friday prayers, when an unknown attacker on a motorbike shot him in the head. Saleemuddin, spokesperson for the community, said, “Dr Ashfaq was killed because of his faith.”

He added that an organised hate campaign was going on against the Ahmadi people.

Pak Taliban suicide attack kills 6 in Lahore

ISLAMABAD: Six people, including four army men, were killed and at least 20 injured in a suicide attack on a Census team in Lahore's cantonment area last week. “It was a suicide blast. Four soldiers and two civilian Census officials were killed while 19 people were injured. The condition of four is serious,” said Punjab government spokesperson Malik Ahmed Khan. Teams of enumerators, accompanied by the military and police personnel, are carrying out Pakistan's first Census in almost two decades.

The enormous and highly charged task could redraw the country's political map ahead of the next general elections.

Pakistani man killed in Oz by ‘IS-inspired’ teenagers

Shiva literally casts a long shadow over our work, a bit like the shadows on Plato's cave.”

The CERN has even faced flak for putting up the statue, mainly because it has been accused of playing God to conservative Christians.

CERN explained that they decided to put up a statue of 'The Destroyer' as since India was one of the institute's observer states, it represented CERN's multiculturalism with scientists from across the globe.

VAT fraudster ordered to pay less as he is 'too poor' LONDON: In a rather surprising verdict, a criminal involved in a £250 million VAT fraud has been let of repaying the cheated money as he is too poor to pay. Nasir Khan was ordered to repay £14 million for his part in the organised crime. He reportedly used the money to pay for expensive properties in the UK and Spain, and buy luxury cars including a Ferrari, Lambhorghini, Bentley and a yacht.

HM Revenue and Customs said he lived the "lifestyle of an international playboy" at the expense of the taxpayer. Following a confiscation order by a judge and tax officials pledging to recover "as much as possible" of the cash, the Crown Prosecution Service has now told Khan

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that he does not have to pay.

Khan is one of 15 criminals jailed in 2011 for the "unprecedented £250 million VAT fraud" that took place between 2001 and 2003. The HMRC at the time said the operation had diverted "vital income from the UK's public services into the pockets of career criminals to fund their lavish and luxurious lifestyles."

A spokesman said, "Certificates of inadequacy are offered in the small number of cases where the sale of the individuals assets do not meet the original valuation. This could be down to any number of reasons, including third party litigation, the asset is in an overseas country where it cannot be realised or simply a fall in market value."

MELBOURNE: A Pakistani man was stabbed to death allegedly by two teenagers in Australia, prompting police to investigate if the attack was inspired by the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Zasheen Akbar, 29, a service station attendant, was found with stab wounds at the Caltex service station in New South Wales. Akbar was found lying on the floor with the windows smashed. Counter-terrorism police are investigating whether the 15-yearold and 16-year-old boys, who allegedly murdered the attendant, had been radicalised. Police believe the two teenagers, who have been arrested, went on a rampage, stabbing another man in the stomach, hitting a third with a tyre iron and a fourth with a beer bottle.

Germany to fine online giants €50m for hate posts

BERLIN: Germany has approved fines of up to 50 million euros against online giants that fail to remove hate speech and fake news reported by users within a week. Executives of social media groups like Twitter and Facebook also risk individual fines up to 5 million euros in case of non-compliance. “Hate crimes that are not effectively combatted and prosecuted pose a great danger for the peaceful cohesion of a free, open and democratic society,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet.

Indian doctor wins £1.76 mn lottery in UAE

DUBAI: An Indian woman doctor Nishita Radhakrishna Pillai, from Kerala, has won a Dirham 10 million (approximately £1.76 million) lottery in the Big Ticket raffle in Abu Dhabi. After 50 attempts at striking gold at one of the mostanticipated raffle bonanzas in the UAE, the mother of two finally joined the ranks of high-networth individuals. Pillai, a medical practitioner who is currently in the US, is the second person to bring home Dirham 10 million, the biggest amount granted to a draw participant since the inception of the raffle bonanza, Gulf News reported.

Maldives oppn leader held for ‘sedition’

MALÉ: Police in Maldives arrested an opposition leader for “plotting to overthrow the government,” days after the opposition's failed bid to oust the speaker and take control of parliament. The arrest of Qasim Ibrahim, the leader of Jumhooree Party, comes ahead of another impeachment vote against the deputy speaker. Police in their chargesheet said Qasim was arrested for his role of “bribing and undue influencing of parliament members and state security forces.” Police also said his arrest was due to his attempt of “unlawful incitement to the removal, from office, of the legitimate government.”

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Trade deal eludes as India, Australia ink 6 pacts Seeking to boost trade and security ties between in India and Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visiting counterpart Malcolm Turnbull signed six agreements, including one for expanding counterterrorism cooperation. “We had a very good discussion about Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and I think it's fair to say that progress has not been as fast as either of us would like it to be,” Turnbull said after the meeting.

Discussions also circled the topic of energy, with Turnbull saying that Australia is ready to supply uranium to India as soon as possible. Both the countries had signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement three years ago, however, the actual supply is yet to be commenced. “We are work-

Narendra Modi and Malcolm Turnbull travelling to Akshardham temple in Delhi Metro

the Nuclear Suppliers Group, during talks. In a bid to deepen maritime cooperation, both sides recognised that India and Australia share common interests in ensuring maritime security and safety of sea lines of communication.

A joint statement was released following talks, and both the leaders reiterated their support for continued

Malcolm Turnbull calling on Vice President M. Hamid Ansari in New Delhi

ing closely with India to meet our respective requirements for the provision of fuel for India's civil nuclear programme,” he said.

Meanwhile, Modi said the guest country is now ready to export uranium to India with the passage of a legislation in the Australian Parliament with bi-partisan support. Turnbull noted Australia's strong support for India's membership of

bilateral nuclear cooperation and that they anticipated commercial export of Australian uranium to India could begin soon. “Both leaders recognised the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded lawful commerce, as well as resolving maritime disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with international law,

including UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea),” the statement read.

“The two Prime Ministers highlighted their shared desire to ensure that Indian Ocean architecture keeps pace with regional issues and addresses emerging threats and challenges in the region,” it read. Modi and Turnbull agreed that the bilateral maritime exercise first held in the Bay of Bengal in 2015, will be repeated off Western Australia in the first half of 2018. “They also welcomed a decision for the first bilateral Army-to-Army exercise to take place in 2018. They looked forward to the inaugural secretaries' defence and foreign affairs dialogue in the '2+2' format as a new mechanism to build on the deep strategic partnership.”

PM Modi and Turnbull also visited Swaminarayan Akshardham where they paid respects to Bhagwan Swaminarayan. They saw the Gajendra Pithika outside the main mandir, and offered abhishek to Nilkanth Varni, and prayed for world peace and for cordial bilateral relations between both the countries.

Turnbull was informed about the environmentfriendly aspects of Akshardham, and how the entire 100 acre cultural complex was inspired by Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

World celebrates Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14 Celebrated to commemorate the pioneer of the Dalit movement, Dr BR Ambedkar, Ambedkar Jayanti or Bhim Jayanti, is an annual festival observed in April 14. Popularly called Baba Saheb, he was an Indian jurist, economist, politician, and social reformer prominently known for campaigning against social discrimination against Dalits, and supporting the rights of women, and labour.

Ambedkar was Independent India's first law minister, and the principal architect of the Constitution of India. He left behind a legacy filled with socio-political reforms.

Ambedkar staunchly believed in free-

Dr BR Ambedkar

dom and criticised caste society. There are several institutions currently named in his honour. The leader's initiatives are known to influence India's socio-economic policies, education, and affirmative action through socio-economic and legal incentives.

Several political parties, and workers' unions have based their ideologies on his political philosophy, especially in Maharashtra.

His conversion into Buddhism has also played an important role in the way Indians the religion, and boosted their interest in Buddhist philosophy.

Every year, on Ambedkar Jayanti, processions are carried out several organisations in his memory. It is also customary for the President, the Prime Minister, and political leaders to pay homage at the Statue of Ambedkar at the Parliament of India, in the National Capital.

Not only in India, his Day is celebrated throughout the world, especially by Dalits who consider him their leader. The Indian communities in the UK and USA prominently celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti.

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Modi promises Hasina Teesta solution, $4.5 bn credit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised that Sheikh Hasina, one of India's strongest allies in its fight against terrorism, will not return empty-handed on her demand for a Teestasolution. “I firmly believe that it is only my government and Excellency Sheikh Hasina, your government, that can and will find an early solution to Teesta water sharing,” he said.

Modi has been rather warm to his Bangladeshi counterpart, breaking protocol to personally receive her at the airport, travelling in normal traffic and spending time with Hasina's staff and Bangladeshi journalists. A total of 22 agreements were signed, reaffirming an old alliance that helped to liberate Bangladesh from Pakistan.

A joint statement was released saying both the countries would start negotiations on sharing waters of the Feni, Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, and Dudhkumar rivers. Five defence cooperation agreements including a $500 million line of credit for defence purchases from India, were also signed.

Foreign secretary S Jaishankar briefed the press saying, “The chemistry between the two leaders was

ing from other river systems in the region too, and not just from Teesta.

Conveying fears that too much water from Teesta to Bangla, could leave North Bengal Modi with Sheikh Hasina dry, the CM suggested to provide water very visible.” India also to the neighbouring country announced a $4.5 billion from Torsha river instead. line of credit, for which both She also offered to provide countries have already idenelectricity, claiming Bengal tified 17 new projects, has excess electricity which including development of could be sold to Dhaka. three ports, railway, and “India has always stood roads. “We want to build for the prosperity of cooperation in new areas, Bangladesh, we are a long especially some high-techstanding and trusted develnology areas that have a opment partner of deeper connect with the Bangladesh,” Modi said in youth in both our societies,” his statement. “While our Modi said. partnership brings prosperThe main attraction of ity to our people, it also Hasina's trip to India howworks to protect them from ever, was her private dinner forces of radicalisation and with West Bengal Chief extremism. Their spread Minister Mamata Banerjee poses a grave threat, not just at Rashtrapati Bhavan. to India and Bangladesh but With Banerjee being the to the entire region. Prime only obstacle to the Teesta Minister Sheikh Hasina's agreement, the meeting was firm resolve in dealing with of grave importance. terrorism and her governAccording to reports, ment's 'zero-tolerance' poliMamata suggested that cy towards terrorism is an since Bangladesh needs inspiration for all of us,” he more water, both sides said. should explore water-shar-

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EC cancels RK Nagar bypoll, cites rampant corruption In Brief AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

CHENNAI: Two days after the Income Tax department raided Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar the Election Commission has decided to cancel the RK Nagar constituency by-election scheduled on April 12.

Attributing the decision to rampant voter bribing and corruption, the commission released a 29-page statement signed by chief election commissioner Nazim Zaidi and his two associates and election commissioners AK Joti and OP Rawat.

By-election to the constituency which lay empty following the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa "shall be held by the commission in due course

when the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to lure the electors gets removed with the passage of time, and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive to the holding of free and fair election." Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh

Saudi-based banker divorces wife through ad HYDERABAD: Just when divorces through Whatsapp and speed post are becoming a debate in courts, a Saudi Arabia-based banker decided to declare the end of his marriage to a 25 year old woman in Hyderabad, through a newspaper ad.

Mohd Mushtaquddin married the unnamed woman in 2015 and took her to Saudi five months later. They even had a baby girl last year.

Two months ago, the family came to India and the woman went to her parents' home after an alleged fight.

Three weeks later, Mushtaquddin allegedly left for Saudi Arabia without informing his wife and even neglected her calls. The woman was told by her father-in-law that he had left and wasn't allowed in their home. "If I did anything wrong, he should have spo-

ken to me and my parents. If I was wrong he should have given talaaq in front of everyone as he was married me in front of all relatives. Why did he run away to Saudi Arabia without meeting me... and divorce me through an ad even with a 10 month old baby."

Police officer S Gangadhar said the man had harassed his wife for a dowry of Rs 2000,000. "We are conducting a probe and also verifying if a divorce announced through a newspaper is valid under the Sharia," Gangadhar said.

The case comes two days after a man was arrested in Hyderabad for mailing a "triple talaaq" postcard to divorce his new wife.

The practice has been challenged by Muslim women in the Supreme Court.

Drug case: Properties of 13 people attached CHANDIGARH: The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties worth £6.16 million belonging to 13 people in a multi-million drug racket case. The properties include showrooms, agricultural land, residential houses, assets of businesses, firms, fixed deposit receipts, and seven luxury cars.

Former Akali minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur's immovable property worth Rs 1475,000 was ordered to be attached by the agency, along with his son Damanvir Singh Phillaur's immovable property worth £472,000.

Apart from these two, ED attached the property of forner Akali MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Avinash Chander.

"ED Jalandhar zone is investigating drug racket case of Jagdhish Bhola and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002.

Investigation revealed that proceeds of crime derived from cash-rich drug business has been laundered in mov-

able and immovable properties. The ED has issued provisional attachment order on March 31 for attaching movable/immovable properties worth £6.16 million," it said.

The order also included attached property of Amritsar-based businessman Jagjit Singh Chahal, Paramjit Singh Chahal and Inderjit Kaur, along with the properties of Una-based businessman Devinder Kant Sharma, Canadian NRIs Sukhraj Singh, and Jaswinder Singh.

The ED has earlier attached the assets worth over £3.4 million and prosecution complaints have already been filed against 48 people and companies.

The ED has been probing an international drug racket, which was unearthed with the arrest of an NRI, Anoop Singh Kahlon, by the Fatehgarh Sahib police in March 2013. Further probe in the case had led to the arrest of alleged kingpin Jagdish Bhola, a dismissed DSP of Punjab police.

Lakhoni had also been summoned to submit a report and so was the new-appointed special electoral officer Vikram Batea.

The EC's sudden decision came two days after I-T sleuths launched extensive searches and raids on the residence and several premises of

Vijayabaskar across Tamil Nadu. I-T officials said the raids helped uncover a major plot to bribe voters. The documents unearthed showed that close to £9 million was to distributed to voters in R K Nagar constituency by the AIADMK Amma party which fielded T T V Dhinakaran.

"Before parting with the case, the commission cannot help expressing its anguish over the sordid state of affairs as revealed in the reports of the election expenditure observers, election expenditure monitoring teams, static surveillance teams, flying squad teams, video surveillance teams, as well as the reports of the income tax authorities," the statement read.

SC rejects Karnataka plea in Jaya case NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that the late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa will not be declared convict in the disproportionate assets case. The Karnataka government had sought a review of the apex court's order abating fine of £10 million on Jaya, but an apex court bench headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Bose, and comprising of Justice Amitava Roy dismissed the plea.

The government said the SC's verdict of abatement of the corruption case against the late Tamil Nadu chief minister stands as a fault in the record, which deserves to be re-looked at. The bench concluded that the case against Jayalalithaa stood abated with her death. A two-judge bench of the apex court had convicted VK Sasikala on February 14, and ordered her to surrender to the law enforcement authorities

immediately to serve the remainder of her four-year jail term.

"If a party dies after the conclusion of the arguments and the judgment is reserved, there is no question of abatement of appeal and that the judgment subsequently pronounced shall have the same force and effect as if the same was pronounced before the death took place," Karnataka had submitted in a review petition, represented by counsel Joseph Aristotle.

"There are no provisions either in the Constitution or in the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 for such abatement of appeal. On the other hand, the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 provide that both in case of civil appeals as well as election petitions there will be no abatement if the death takes place after conclusion of hearing," the review petition had contended.

Infighting dents BJP’s image in Haryana CHANDIGARH: A senior Haryana minister's meeting with BJP president Amit Shah last week, has prompted speculation that the state would soon have a Deputy Chief Minister. It has been learnt that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar himself gave the idea in exasperation, telling a party leader that "if the party thinks I cannot rein in 16-odd 'unhappy' legislators, bring in a second-incommand to handle them."

Times are tough for the BJP in the state, as a political uncertainty looms over the state, the CM has for now, managed to calm things down with his influence in the Sangh parivar. Khattar argued to the party leadership that "If you elevate a minister before satisfying the disgruntled legislators, it will wreak havoc on the party."

However, Haryana BJP president, and a Khattar loyalist, Subhash Barala brushed the move calling it a "media speculation". If BJP insiders are to be believed, the legislators

Manohar Lal Khattar

received the message that an "awashak" meeting was to be held in Delhi soon.

The announcement of the move was to be made there in the presence of Barala, however developments sent a message out that the party is unable to keep its flock together. One of the complaints by the legislators who claimed they were being ignored by their own party is that just 14 ministers including Khattar, manage to get works done. Two rounds of talks with the MLAs were held in Delhi last month, where they were assured of addressing their concerns after the Uttar Pradesh elections.

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HC asks TN to waive loans of drought-hit farmers

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to waive loans of all drought-hit farmers, also restraining cooperative societies and banks from recovering their dues. It also noted that the state's financial situation was grim and that it was single-handedly shouldering the debt burden in a drought year.

A division bench comprising justices S Nagamuthu and MV Muralidaran gave the order of waiving the loans, while allowing a petition by National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturists Association. "We are aware that the state's financial situation is grim.

The government is already single-handedly shouldering the burden of £578 million and it will be an additional burden to bear £198.03 million."

Jayalalithaa’s 'son' arrested

CHENNAI: Police have arrested J Krishnamurthy, 28, who had recently approached the Madras high court claiming to be late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's son. Justice R Madhavan had ordered to arrest Krishnamurthy and produce him before the court on April 10. He had been moving from one place to another for the past one week after an order for his arrest was issued on March 27. "We have been following Krishnamurthy by tracking mobile tower locations. We missed him narrowly to apprehend him in Tiruvannamalai, Vaniyambadi and Karur. Later, one of the teams nabbed him at Dindigul. We kept on sending his photograph to all district superintendents of police to trace him, however, we missed him narrowly."

Tirupati temple earns £103.8 mn in cash offerings

TIRUPATI: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) earned £103.8 million through cash offerings from devotees this year. TTD Executive Officer D Sambasiva Rao said 268 million devotees visited the shrine during the financial year, and a total of 104.6 million laddoos were sold in the duration. The TTD approved a £285.8 million annual budget for 2017-18, in February. Cash offerings by devotees at the temple 'hundi' was projected at £111 million, while interest on investments in various nationalised banks was estimated to fetch £80.77 million. The sale of Rs 300 special entry 'darshan' is expected to fetch a minimum of £25.6 million during the financial year. The sale of laddoos is expected to fetch £16.5 million.

Apologise for anti-Sikh riots: SGPC asks Centre

AMRITSAR: The SGPC hailed the passing of a motion in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Canada) to recognise the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as "Sikh genocide". It has now also demanded that the Indian government too apologise for the same, in the Parliament. SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar said a communication was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to keep in mind the sacrifices made

by Sikhs for the nation, before considering the demands. Dal Khalsa president Harpal Singh Cheema, and spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said that after over three decades of struggle for justice by Sikh advocacy groups, the international community has finally begun accepting the role of the Indian government in the riots.

Punjab gets £1.79 bn for wheat procurement

CHANDIGARH: The Central Government has released £1.79 billion for Cash Credit Limit for Punjab's Rabi procurement. The Union Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India, in separate letters to the Punjab Principal Secretary, said the Centre has decided to release the CCL immediately in view of the urgent need to procure wheat. The money is used to pay farmers for the crops the government agencies procure twice annually, wheat in April-May and paddy in October-November. Wheat procurement in Punjab began on April 1.

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Master Tara Singh and Partition of Punjab The Man shaped Destiny of Sikhs carving out space for the community: Even before Congress took stand, the Sikhs decided to oppose Pakistan Akal Takht Dr. Hari Desai

S

ometimes history does injustice to individuals, institutions and even to communities.

The Sikh community has undergone such tragic phases quite often. In 1857, during the mutiny or freedom struggle against the British in India, the Sikhs were considered to be on British side like most of the native rulers.

One would forget to record that in 1846, the Sikhs were fighting the British. The same way a lapse of memory would occur while recording the history of Partition of British India. The Muslim League, headed by Mohammad Ali Jinnah at a convention in March 1940 at Lahore, passed the resolution demanding a sepa-

Gyani Karatar Singh, the close associate of Tara Singh

rate Muslim State i.e.

Pakistan. Both Congress and League never considered the Sikhs as a party till the Viceroy Lord Wavell invited Master Tara Singh as the sole spokesperson of Sikhs at the Simla Conference in 1946 !

Tara Singh(24 June 1885- 22 November 1967) of village Harial in District Rawalpindi was the son of a Hindu of the Malhotra caste. His original name was Nanak Chand Malhotra and was converted to Sikhism while at school, educated at Rawalpindi and then at the Khalsa College, Amritsar.

After taking his degree in 1907, he took a diploma in teaching and became a teacher in the Khalsa High School, Lyallpur: the title ‘master’ has attached to his name ever since. By his sheer efforts, the Sikh and Hindu majority areas were separated from Punjab in 1947. It came to be known

RajPramukh of PEPSU, Maharaja Yadavender Singh of Patiala

as East Punjab having capital at Simla. The Western Punjab has gone to Pakistan following Redcliff Commission verdict. With the merger of the Princely States, Patiala and East Punjab States Union(PEPSU), having capital at Patiala, took shape. The present Punjab, as a Sikh majority state, was carved out of PEPSU in November 1966.

The Sikhs were first to oppose the Pakistan Resolution in May 1940.The Congress waited till April 1942 to take a stand on the March 1940 resolution. In his book “Master Tara Singh and His Reminiscences”, the former Vice Chancellor and Historian Prithipal Singh Kapur highlights that it was Tara Singh’s determination that made Sikhs a third –major community during the partition. Even for Jinnah none mattered other than Hindus and Muslims. The Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabanthak Com mi t te e (S G P C) c onvened a congregation in May 1940 at the Akal Takht to celebrate the Ghalughara day where the Sikhs took pledge to oppose the idea of creating Pakistan. For Tara Singh, Pakistan meant a threat to the very survival of the Sikh community despite the assurance of Jinnah that they had nothing to fear.

Khushwant Singh in “A History of Sikhs” finds Sikhs in a “tricky situation” since “ they were faced with two rival freedom movements: one led by the National Congress for the freedom of the country as a whole; the other led by the Muslim League for an independent Muslim state, involving a division of the country which would inevitably cut across the land in which the Sikhs lived.”

In the spring of 1946, Clement Attlee, the Labour Prime Minister, announced that a team of

A Painting of Master Tara Singh

cabinet ministers would visit India to discuss the next step towards Indian independence. Following the announcement, the Cabinet Mission consisting of Lord Pethick-

The Sikh delegation was united in its opposition to Pakistan. Tara Singh made it clear : “We are for a United India; but if Pakistan was conceded, I am for a separate Sikh

Sardar Baldev Singh with PM Nehru

Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander reached New Delhi. The Indian leaders were interviewed by the Mission. The

state with the right to federate either with India or Pakistan.” Baldev Singh defined the Sikh state, Khalistan, as consisting of

The Viceroy Lord Wavell with Jinnah and Master Tara Singh

Sikhs were represented by Master Tara Singh, Gyani Karatar Singh, Harnam Singh and Baldev Singh.

the Punjab excluding Multan and Rawalpindi divisions, according to Khushwant. Of course, the

Mission did not take the demand of Sikhistan, Azad Punjab or Khalistan, seriously. Even Jinnah continued to send feelers to Sikh leaders of their bright future in Pakistan but Tara Singh and his supporters could read the mischievous design of the Muslim Leaguers.

The Viceroy invited the Congress party to form a government in the hope that it would win over the League. The Congress failed to win over Jinnah but succeeded in persuading the Sikhs to give up their opposition. Nehru had committed a semiautonomous province in Punjab for Sikhs but later he ditched Tara Singh. In the following years, Nehru decided to give crushing defeat to the Master and thereby degrade him among the Sikhs.

On 2 September 1946, Nehru cabinet was sworn in with Baldev Singh holding Defence Portfolio.

When the League called off the boycott, even the League members except Jinnah joined the cabinet in October 1946.

Meanwhile, Jinnah was desperate to have Pakistan and called for Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946. During those four or five days, Kolkata faced the worst communal riots.

The official estimate of casualties in these few days was 5000 killed, 15, 000 injured, and 1,00,000 rendered homeless.

One of the basic factors which nourished the idea of partition of Punjab was the fact that the Muslims were predominant in the Western Punjab and the non-Muslims in the Eastern. Lala Lajpat Rai was the first person to talk about partition of Punjab after Kohat riots in 1923

and 1924. Historian Kapur records : “The Akali Legislature Party met at Assembly Hall, Lahore, on March 4, 1947. When Tara Singh emerged from the assembly building followed by 23 Sikh legislators, the crowd shouted "Pakistan Zindabad". Tara Singh and his followers retaliated by chanting "Pakistan Murdabad". …

But the fury of the Muslims against Tara Singh was so intense that his house in his ancestral village, Harial, in Rawalpindi district was burnt down and 59 of his relations were hacked to death. That was the price paid by Tara Singh for demanding partition of the Punjab.” Four days after the Punjab Assembly incident, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) passed a resolution demanding partition of the Punjab.

When the Punjab Legislative Assembly was convened, all the Muslim members of the Assembly voted against the partition of Punjab while all Sikhs and Hindus voted for partition of the province.

With the partition of Punjab, his dream that “Muslim League would never be allowed to rule over Punjab”, was fulfilled but the Partition of the country brought more tragedies to deal with.

Even in free India, he had to undergo humiliations but like Lord Shiva he could drink off the poison for the sake of his brave and enterprising community. Unfortunately, his wish to die in his native was not fulfilled.

Next Column: Merger of a Hindu State Amarkot with Pak (The writer is a Sociopolitical Historian.

E-mail: haridesai@gmail.com)

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INDIA - WORLD

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

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Trump regime puts over 200,000 foreign Notable businessman and philanthropist Sir Andy spouses in a soup When self-glorifying Trump voters bid their power to make the internationally loathed billionaire the 45th President of the United States of America, they didn't comprehend the abrupt halt that would come in the lives of thousands of immigrants.

Sudarshana Sengupta, a successful scientist working on the launch of her startup, had applied for a permanent residency in the USA. However, her dreams have been put on hold by the Trump administration's revokal of a rule that allows spouses of "high skilled" foreign workers to hold jobs too. The 43 year old biomedical researcher, in an interview with a media source, said she had "followed all the rules, jumped through all the hoops." If put into motion, the move could strip away an estimated 200,000 immigrants of privileges granted by the former Obama government. "I do not want to move back to India just so I can work. I cannot abandon my son and my husband," Sengupta said. The work

Sudarshana Sengupta with family (Photo Credit: Washington Post)

authorisations for spouses on H4 dependent visas are comparatively more flexible than H1B visas as they aren't bound to a single employer.

The new move comes in response to a lawsuit brought against the federal government by a group of IT workers in California, who claim that the spousal visas were hurting American workers. The previous government had granted work privileges to spouses of high skilled workers from the tech and science industries as an incentive them to complete the green card process and stay in the US.

Several economists are already arguing over the unfairness of the policy.

"It's difficult for modern couples to not have spouses who want to work, but it's not in the interest of the American workforce to bring in more workers.

Nobody would make the argument that just because you can work, you can come to the United States. That's the situation here, somebody coming in who may not be able to pass the usual hurdle," said economist and management professor at the Wharton School, Peter Cappelli.

A group of IT workers who were laid off by a

California utility company and replaced with foreign workers on H1B visas, sued the Department of Homeland Security in 2015. The workers who filed suit as Save Jobs USA, argued that the spousal work authorisation endangered American workers by further increasing competition for employment.

Sengupta, along with nonprofit group Immigration Voice which is advocating on behalf of high-skilled foreign workers, has filed a motion to intervene in the court case in case Trump administration does not defend the provision.

Ali Noorani, executive director of Washington lobby group National Immigration Forum said, "The administration, and the Department of Justice in particular, is looking for any opportunity to end legal immigration as we know it to the United States. The administration is on track to keep engineers out of the country and really diminish or dismiss the value of their spouses, who are also contributing to the economy."

Colonial names removed from Kolkata Raj Bhawan In a latest attempt to remove any trace of the British colonial era, West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi re-christened four palatial suites in his official Raj Bhawan residence after Indian well-known leaders, in Kolkata.

Regional authorities dropped the names of British royals and aristocrats at the 214 year old Government House.

The largest of the suites which was once home to the Viceroy until 1911, was named after the Prince of Wales in lieu with Prince Edward's stay there in 1921. It has now been renamed after Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, the only native Indian to ever receive the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913.

Another suit which was

once named after the 1st Viscount Waverly John Anderson, has been renamed after Bengali Hindu monk and philosopher Swami Vivekananda.

Another ground floor set of rooms known as the Second Class Suite, is now known as Bhutal Kaksha.

When India's capital shifted from Kolkata to New Delhi, successive

Hope and despair two Indians face

Continued from page 1 an alias as Hussein Mubarak Patel, and despite India's 13 notes verbale for consular access to Jadhav, only sent a letter of assistance in response seeking help from Indian authorities to probe “charges” against him.

It is strongly suspected that the retired personnel was “snatched” by Pakistani agencies last year, from Iran, and his subsequent presence in the country was never credibly explained. India's claims were boosted by the government of Iran which released a statement saying Jadhav who was in their country, was not engaged in any illegal activity.

“Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances,” the government said.

Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit to make India's outrage evident. “If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observed basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder,” he told Basit.

While Jadhav's case unfolds, a “wrongly jailed” British man of Indian-origin won a fresh chance of freedom on April 8. After spending 30 years in prison for a double murder, Krishna Maharaj, might finally be freed as federal appeals judges in the United States conceded there was “compelling” new evidence that he did not commit the crime. The 11th circuit court in Atlanta, Georgia, accepted that the murders of Derrick and Duane Moo Young in a Miami hotel room in 1986, may be the doing of

Colombia's Medellin drugs cartel, run by the infamous Pablo Escobar.

In major breakthrough, new testimony by a couple of cartel members raises the prospect that Maharaj “could not have been guilty of the Moo Young murders beyond a reasonable doubt, because if a hit man for the cartel committed the murders, Maharaj did not, the judges wrote. Director of Human Rights Group Reprieve, Clive Stafford Smith who has represented Maharaj pro bono, said, “Its' a good day. If I'm being optimistic, this is a 'home by Christmas' eventbut then, they said that about World War I. When I received the legal opinion, I had the totally conflicting feelings of utter elation for Kris and his wife Marita, and then an overwhelming sense of exhaustion at the work that now lies ahead.

There are a lot of legal hurdles to jump, but this finally puts light at the end of the tunnel.”

The best part of the

Viceroys occupied Government House in 1911, after which it became the official residence of Bengal's Lieutenant Governor. The neoclassical building, modelled on Lord Curzon's Kedleston Hall family mansion in Derbyshire, became the Viceroy's official residence after power transferred to the British Crown in 1858. update is that federal prosecutors could now be forced to hand over previously suppressed evidence that would help Kris' claims of innocence. The murders of the Moo Youngs were portrayed as a grudge-killing by Maharaj.

Authorities may not also have to give up secret papers on Jaime Vallejo Meija, an agent for Escobar's cartel, who on the day of the fatal shootings in room 1215 of the Dupont Plaza Hotel, was staying in the room just across the hallway. Smith said, “When a state judge ordered the feds to provide these documents, they ignored him. They'll have a hard time ignoring a federal judge.”

A former millionaire race horse owner from Peckham, south London, Maharaj was originally sentenced to the electric chair.

After 15 years on the death row in Florida, he was resentenced and sentenced for life. At the age of 30, Maharaj suffers from serious illnesses, including infection with a flesh-eating bug.

Chande no more Eminent businessman and philanthropist Sri Jayantilal Keshavji, popularly known as Sir Andy Chande passed away in Kenyan capital Nairobi, at the age of 88. Born on May 7, 1928, Sir Chande was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, on August 29, 2003, the first of its kind to be bestowed upon a Tanzanian citizen.

Calling him an unfailing patriot, former president Benjamin Mkapa issued a condolence message expressing his profound sadness over the news. He called him a great and loyal citizen of Tanzania who contributed his immense business knowledge and skills to the growth of the Tanzanian economy. He also stated that Sir Chande dedicated much of his time to social causes, and gave his service to the School of the Deaf in Buruguni. “Those who served with him on the Boards of both private and public enterprises will attest to his outstanding ability to analyse problems, to examine their impact, and to propose their solution,” the statement read.

Mkapa added, “I have known him for over four decades since the days when I was the Editor of TANU and government newspapers, through my presidency, and after retiring from public ser-

vice. Throughout he gave counsel and consultancy without prejudice, fear, or favour.” Sir Chande was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Shaaban Robert Secondary School, and president of the Dar es Salaam Secondary Education Society when he died. Survived by his wife Jayalaxmi Madhvani, and three sons, he earned several accolades and awards throughout his life. In 2003, he received the 'Pride of Indian Gold Award' by the NRI Institute of London, 'Hind Ratna' from former Indian PM IK Gujral, and was declared to be the non-resident Indian of the year by the International Congress of Non-Resident Indians, in 2003.

Sir Chande was closely associated with Asian Voice since its inception.

He was a regular contributor whose writings and musings were thoroughly enjoyed by us and our readers, particularly his comprehension of current affairs. Sir Andy Chande's demise comes as a personal loss.

SC order hits liquor trade in India The liquor industry has been severely struck by the restriction on the sale of liquor within 500 metres of the highways. The most affected, in all possibilities, would be the wine industry in Nashik. The All India Wine Producers Association (AIWPA) estimates that the overall sales would be affected by up to 20 per cent, resulting in losses worth approximately £12 million.

“Wine sale happens largely at the star hotels, which have also been affected due to the Supreme Court verdict,” an association member said.

Meanwhile Kolkata has its own woes. With around 750 liquor shops and bars back in the business after the state government de-notified state highways, demand rose, but the supply remain inadequate.

Partha Chatterjee, owner of a liquor store, said, “We have not added stocks in the last one week because of the uncertainty. The demand is quite high now, but we do not have the sup-

ply.” On the other hand, authorised liquor shops in other parts of north India face violent protests.

Multiple cases of violence were reported in 24 districts of Uttar Pradesh, and four fresh attacks were reported in Lucknow. A visibly surprised state home secretary Debasish Panda issued directives to all DMs and SSPs to provide security to liquor shops and take action against violent mobs.

Groups mainly consisting of women ransacked and set shops afire in Shahjahanpur and Moradabad in western Uttar Pradesh. Protestors said they had made several complaints to the local police about the nuisance created by the presence of the liquor shops, but no response was issued. “A group of nearly 50 women ransacked a liquor shop and set it on fire. Though five people have been arrested, Sonu Sharma, a BJP municipal councillor, who was said to be leading the mob, is on the run,” a senior official said.

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health & lifestyle

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How to Ditch the Sneezing this Hay Fever Season Hay fever, or seasonal allergic rhinitis, is an allergic reaction to pollen and other airborne allergens. It is the most common and arguably the most annoying allergy, with around 15-20% of the UK population being sufferers. Most people who suffer from hay fever (around 95%) are allergic to grass pollen and many are allergic to tree pollen.

Airborne allergies expert Max Wiseberg offers some useful tips to reduce the symptoms, as the dreaded sneezing season starts.

Grass, trees and weeds release millions of grains of pollen into the air. On warm days with little breeze, the pollen can build up in the air.

Once in contact with the eyes and nose of a hay fever sufferer, the pollen can cause irritation, itching and sneezing.

The body’s reaction to pollen is to produce histamines.

Normal amounts of histamines in the brain are good – they keep us alert, attentive and awake. But, when

Laughter is the Best Medicine

there are too many in the body, they produce the various symptoms common to hay fever sufferers including sneezing, a runny nose, nasal congestion, itchy eyes, watery eyes, streaming eyes, swollen eyes, itchy nose and throat.

Hay fever symptoms may also include an overall achy feeling, or build up of pressure in the entire face area. The sinus area is often the most painful. Constant nose rubbing and blowing can also leave sufferers with skin irritation and sensitivity. All of this can lead to tiredness, fatigue, exhaustion. Hay fever can also affect how you sleep and cause sleep disturbance and difficulty getting to sleep. These symptoms can in turn zap your energy levels leaving you feeling low and sluggish. Chronic hay fever sufferers may experience more severe or prolonged symptoms.

Hay fever expert Max Wiseberg, who is a lifelong hay fever sufferer himself, has some useful

Scene: A conversation with my friend’s father, who know I do web design.

Father: I have a business idea.

How hard is it to make a Facebook?

Me: Oh, very easy.

Friend: He doesn’t mean to make a Facebook profile. He means to remake all of Facebook.

Me: Oh. Very hard.

Father: Oh, OK. *** I tried to explain to a client why I couldn’t help him with a project that was written in a program code that I didn’t know.

“Let’s say you’re asking me to write something in a specific language. Now, I’m fluent in English and Spanish, but your project is in Chinese. Since I don’t understand Chinese, i’m not your best otion. You need someone who is fluent in this specific language. See?” He said he did and thanked me.

The next morning, I got a call from another developer asking: “Why is So-and-So asking us if we’re fluent in Chinese?” *** The computer in my high school classroom was acting up. After watching me struggle with it, a student explained that my hard drive had crashed. So I called IT. “Can someone look at my computer?” I asked. “The hard drive crashed.”

“We can’t just send people down on your say-so,” said the specialist. “How do you know that’s the problem?”

“A student told me.”

“We’ll send someone right over.”

* ** The chef of an upscale restaurant I manage, collided with a waiter one day and spilled coffee all over our computer.

The liquid poured into the processing unit, and resulted in some dramatic crackling and popping sounds.

After sopping up the mess, we gathered around the terminal as the computer was turned back on.

“Please let it work,” pleaded the guiltridden waiter.

A waitress replied, “Should be faster than ever. That was a double espresso.”

tips to reduce hay fever symptoms. “Stopping the cause of hay fever – namely pollen – from getting into the body is one of the best ways of stopping or reducing the symptoms.

There is no cure for hay fever, but stopping the pollen getting into the body is very effective – less pollen, less reaction.

• When indoors, close windows to stop pollen getting through.

• Use an air conditioner preferably with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particle Arresting) filter to capture the pollen and dust particles, cool and circulate the air.

• When going outside, tie your hair up and wear a hat to prevent pollen particles being caught in your hair.

• Wear wraparound sunglasses to prevent pollen particles coming in contact with your eyes.

• Use HayMax. The organic, drug-free allergen barrier balm can be applied to the nostrils and bones of the eyes in the morning and throughout the day, to trap over a third of pollen particles before they enter the body where they can

cause symptoms. Less pollen, less reaction! And 80% of users said it worked.

• Dry clothes indoors rather than on a clothes line to prevent pollen particles being blown onto the clothes by the outside wind.

• Stay hydrated and eat lots of fruit and vegetables to stay healthy and support your immune system.

• Vacuum the house regularly especially beds and fabrics to remove pollen particles.

• If you own a pet then ensure that it is well groomed and shampooed as much as possible to remove pet allergens and pollen particles.

• And finally, shower at night before sleeping to remove pollen particles and pet hair from your hair and body.”

HayMax organic drugfree allergen barrier balms retail at £6.99 per pot and are available from Holland & Barrett, selected Morrisons, Waitrose and Boots, independent health stores, chemists and pharmacies, on 01525 406600 and on-line at haymax.biz.

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| Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

27

Why It is Better to Workout on an Empty Stomach The easiest advice anyone will give you to lose weight and get fit is to exercise regularly but how much and when you should be exercising are also critical issues that need to be taken into consideration.

We know that exercising is good and also that exercising in the morning can really help but did you know that it is best to exercise on an empty stomach?

We didn't until now. There has always been a debate about what we should be eating before a workout but a group of researchers the University of Bath have finally put this debate to rest.

According to the researchers, you should exercise on an empty stomach to boost your metabolism and lose weight. This is also popularly known as 'fasted cardio' and it is believed to help you burn more fat.

The study, which involved two trials, analysed the effects of eating versus fasting on the gene expression in the adipose (fat) tissue in response to exercise and claims that it is better to exercise on an empty stomach to enjoy good health. It was

revealed that the gene expression in the adipose tissue differed significantly in the two trials.

It was found that the expression of two genes, PDK4 and HSL, increased when the men fasted and exercised and decreased when they ate before exercising.

The rise in PDK4 likely indicates that stored fat was used to fuel metabolism during exercise instead of carbohydrates from the recent meal and therefore, it may help in promoting extra weight loss.

A lot of health and fitness experts also advice that you should exercise on an empty stomach as you cells are able to deliver large amounts of oxygen to your muscles and thus, potentially burn more fat.

It can also trigger a set of hormonal changes that can promote muscle gain and fat loss.

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AsianVoiceNews

15th April 2017

O

ne of the most loved characters of SS Rajamouli's magnum opus 'Baahubali: The Beginning' was undoubtedly the mighty 'Bhallaladeva'.

Played by Rana Daggubati, the actor's outstanding performance has made him one of the best characters in the movie. What also took everybody's attention was his beefed up look and chiselled body.

"If you have to be part of a war film, you are supposed to give that extra bit and look even better. And it's all about the bodybuilding techniques. It doesn't come hard to us but it was fun and we enjoy it," Rana said in a recent interview. Speaking out about the final war sequence in the upcoming second and final instalment, he said, "We had lot of fun moments.

Though we never went for a real face off. One of us would be dead by now if we really went into that space.

While it was tiring, it was so much fun. It was worth every moment that we gave for, I mean just for that one shot."

'Baahubali: The Conclusion' will release worldwide on April 28, as the film is slated to open at maximum number of screens worldwide.

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Nithya Menen excited about working with Vijay

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hoot of Ilayathalapathy Vijay's 61st film 'Thalapathy 61' is currently progressing in Rajasthan, and buzz is, actress Nithya Menen has reached Jaisalmer for a song sequence with the actor. "I have come here to shoot for a song in a film with Vijay. This place is very hot but still I feel very happy that I will be shooting with Vijay," the actress said.

Directed by Atlee, the film is the 100th production venture of S r i Thenandal Films banner and s t a r s Samantha and Kajal Aggarwal, along with Nithya.

Music score for the film will be rendered by AR Rahman.

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Mani Ratnam's next summer treat after 'Kaatru Veliyidai'

'Baahubali- The Conclusion' to open on April 28

Asian Voice

ani Ratnam's 'Kaatru Veliyidai' will soon be hitting the screens this week.

His first film with assistant director turned actor Karthi, the movie also marks the 25th year of collaboration between Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman.

Already focused on his next, Mani Ratnam spoke in a recent interview. "I am

working on a script.

Hopefully I will start the film later this year. The film will release for next summer if things fall in place." So after the super hit 'O Kadhal Kanmani' in Summer 2015 and 'Kaatru Veliyidai' in Summer 2017 we can expect the next Mani Ratnam film in Summer 2018. That's great news indeed.

Nayanthara's 'Aramm' goes international

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news. "We feel proud and honoured to share this significant news to media, press members that we are conducting complete Music Scoring for our upcoming movie 'Aramm' in The PKFPrague Philharmonia, an Oscar nominated orchestra!" It added, "'Aramm' will be a notable one among international movies for its content based on real civic issues and for the orchestral score assuring high standards for a world wide premiere."

opi Nainar will direct his debut feature film 'Arram' starring Nayanthara in the lead.

With the film's teaser out, rumours are that it will be out in the international arena where music is concerned. Music for 'Arram' will be provided by Ghibran, and it has been revealed that the complete score will be conducted in Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

The music director's office released an official statement confirming the

Kamal Haasan loses his elder brother Chandra

S

peaking at the memorial of Kamal Haasan's elder brother Chandra, superstar Rajinikanth expressed his concerns. "Whatever little money Kamal has made is mainly due to his elder brother Chandra Haasan.

Even, the current generation actors have made enough money but Kamal doesn't bother much. Don't know how he is going to handle things without brother Chandra," he said.

Thalaivar added, "Only his two brothers Chandra and Charu can handle Kamal's anger. He is the

angriest person I've ever met in my life." Addressing the media later, Kamal said, "I can't stop talking about my brother Chandra, he considered me as his own son.

Talking about his noble qualities can't be restricted to this memorial meet, would remember him forever. The way he handled people with great respect is incredible."

Anurag Kashyap takes Vijay Sethupathi to Bollywood

V

ijay Sethupathi has a couple of projects this year, including '96' with Trisha, and 'Aneethi Kathaigal' with Samantha.

However, the hot buzz is that Sethupathi has been signed on by Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap for one of his production ven-

tures.

Titled 'Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota', the movie will mark the debut of yesteryear heroine Bhagyashree's son Abhimanyu Dasani, and Radhika Madan.

Details will be out soon.

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Shahid resumes shooting for 'Padmavati' AsianVoiceNews

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

Deepika and Ranbir to come together

S

anjay Leela Bhansali's p e r i o d - d r a m a 'Padmavati' fell in trouble earlier this year, when members of the Rajput group Karni Sena stormed the set at Jaipur's Jaigarh Fort, and damaged equipment and roughed up the director. The incident brought filming to an abrupt halt.

Bhansali soon moved to Kolhapur with a group of character artistes to shoot battle sequences on the Mhasai Pathar plateau, but shooting once again was stalled when several boxes containing costumes and jewellery were set on fire, on March 15. This time the director completed the shoot before he returned to Mumbai. Bhansali last week flagged off yet another schedule in Mumbai's Film City with actor Shahid Kappoor who plays Rani Padmavati's husband Maharaja Rawal Ratan Singh.

The actor who was in Amritsar recently with wife Mira and daughter Misha, returned earlier this week and got into work straightaway.

"Deepika Padukone who plays Rani Padmavati is expected to join him soon." Meanwhile, CEO of SLB Films, Shobha Sant has admitted to beefing up security. "After the Kolhapur incident, we wanted to be extra careful," she said.

I

Katrina fusses over a kiss with Ranbir?

f reports are to be believed, actors and exlovers Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor will re-unite, but this time, for a commercial. The two are known to have excellent onscreen chemistry between them, despite their bad break up. A source said that both, Ranbir and Deepika will endorse the same brand and also, Deepika is already part of the brand campaign.

"Ranbir has been approached for endorsing the mobile phone brand and the deal is in the advanced stages. Ranbir is all set to sign on the dotted line," a source said.

They also added that an official announcement will be made once Dippy is established as the face of the brand. "They have just announced Deepika as a the face of the brand and they want to charm the buyers with her first." It will be truly delightful to see the two share a screen space for a commercial.

Not prone to doing the right thing: Shah Rukh

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E

stranged lovers Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif's 'Jagga Jasoos' has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. And just when things were looking up for director Anurag Basu, there seems to be another issue.

Rumors reveal that Katrina and Basu are at loggerheads, this time, over the actress' certain kiss with Ranbir.

A report reveals that a creative poster for 'Jagga Jasoos' shows Kat sharing a lip-lock with her former beau and the actress is not happy about it.

The 'Sheila ki Jawani' actress reportedly does not want the poster to be released, and not only that, she even wants to see all the creatives before they are made public. Details on

the alleged spat are yet to be revealed.

Meanwhile, Ranbir and Katrina are currently shooting a few song sequences for the movie. With over 29 songs in the film, it could be a while before the film hits theatres.

'Jagga Jasoos' is about a boy on a hunt to find his missing dad, and runs into a beautiful lady in the bid.

The story, along with the fact that the actors will be seen in the film for the first time post-break up, may be enough reward for Basu.

ollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan celebrated his silver jubilee in Bollywood this year, and the star made a confession. Speaking out in an interview, Shah Rukh said he lacks the tendency to star in films that can be termed “safe”. “I wish somehow I knew w h i c h

when it started, whether it was with Ketan Mehta, Gauri Shinde, or Rahul Dholakia, it's never been a stayed step into films thinking I will make a regular film,” he said.

The actor also said that while box office failure is indeed “disturbing”, he has found a way around to deal with the outcome of

story to tell. I am also not prone to doing the right thing, to try and make a safe film.

It may seem so because people keep on picking up my safest thing and giving that as an example. My w h o l e career, f r o m

his movies, both successful and flops. “You try.

Sometimes, they don't work. There's nothing

more to it than that. But if it doesn't work, personally, I get very disturbed and sad.”

“The biggest goal is, can I change your mood for two-and-a-half hours when you are in the theatre and you come out walking saying that it enveloped me for these two hours in whichever way- happy, sad, intense, or thinking.

Besides that, there have been no insecurities. And I have never had reasons to be insecure,” Khan said.

The superstar was last seen in Rahul Dholakia's 'Raees'. He will soon be seen with Anushka Sharma in an Imtiaz Ali-directorial.

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LIFF's new features London Indian Film Festival 2017 promises new attractions in the choice of its films and venues

Smita Sarkar

Mr. Krishen Prakash Khanna, a past President and a past General Secretary of The Punjabi Society of The British Isles celebrated his 100th Birthday in great style with close family and friends on

Tuesday 11th April 2017 with a very special guest.

He is pictured here with his daughter, Madhu, Nirbhai Singh Rai (current Treasurer of the Society), and a temporary stand-in from the royal family to

give him his special good wishes.

The Punjabi Society of the British Isles is currently in its 89th year and will be holding its annual charity dinner and dance event in September.

Worker at Leicester shop stabbed customer in the back with scissors for wanting a refund A shop worker who stabbed a young woman in the back with a scissor blade, after an argument in the store, was jailed for nine years.

Zahoor Zarin (23) was found guilty by a Leicester Crown Court jury of intentionally wounding the victim, who is in her 20's, on October 14 last year.

The attack happened in the One Stop Shop, in Leicester, where Zahoor

then worked, said Gary Short, prosecuting.

Zarin denied the

Coming Events

l Shruti Arts presents 'Mulakat- In Conversation with Kaushiki' on April 22, Saturday, 6.00 PM to 6.45 PM, followed by 'Ehsaas- In Concert with Kaushiki, 7.30 PM to 10.00 PM, at Curve Theatre, Rutland Street, Leicester LE1 1SB. l OCHS lectures and seminars: Trinity term 2017Elementary Sanskrit by Dr. Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen from April 23 to June 17. Weeks 1-4, Wednesday 10.00-11.00am, Friday 10.00-12.00, OCHS Library l OCHS lectures and seminars: Trinity term 2017Buddhist Sanskrit by Dr. Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen.

Weeks 1-4, Monday 5.00-6.00pm, OCHS Library.

The One Stop shop where the incident happened (Pic courtesy: Leicester Mercury)

charge claiming he followed the slightly-built woman towards the door, carrying half a pair of broken scissors and lunged in her direction, not intending to make contact, but to scare her off.

The woman suffered a severe wound to her back, which needed hospital treatment, and has left her with ongoing difficulties.

Zarin pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article on the same day and admitted the offence put him in breach of an 18

Sneh Joshi

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20 You may need to take care

as Mercury turns retrograde in your second house of finances. This is a good time to re-assess your money matters. In spite of that, all sorts of things could go wrong especially if people owe you money. Have patience as business matters move slowly or get delayed.

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 Mercury turns retrograde in

your sign for the next three weeks. Normally we expect matters to be dealt with smoothly, but not while the planet Mercury in your sign is moving backwards. Confusion and frustration reign, so put your plans on hold. Curb your expenditure as you will spend unnecessarily.

The retrograde movement

GEMINI May 22 - June 22 of Mercury warns you not

to over-stretch your physical and mental energies. It would be a mistake always to blame the other person if your experience and expectations of love turn out to be disappointing. It is said that if you do not learn from past experience you will be condemned to repeat it until you do learn.

Sometimes when you CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22 choose to lean on friends, you find they're leaning on you already. The next three weeks give you the chance to discover who your true friends are. A tremendous amount of planetary activity in your chart signals a time of mixed emotions as well as personal issues to be dealt with.

The 9th edition of the London Indian Film Festival scheduled in June 2017 will showcase quite a few new elements, the change in the Birmingham chapter being one of them.

Cary Sawhney, the Founder and Executive Director of Europe's largest Indian film festival, the London Indian Film Festival, LIFF told Asian Voice that they were changing the Birmingham element of LIFF to Birmingham Indian Film Festival, this year.

“Birmingham people are saying that its too much imperialism from London to have a London Indian Film Festival in Birmingham. They want to see their own identity,” laughs Cary.

They also hope to branch out in Manchester this year. “The LIFF films month suspended jail sentence, imposed in 2015 for a drugs offence.

Judge Ebraham Mooncey imposed an eight year sentence for the wounding and activated 12 months of the suspended sentence to run consecutively. He told the defendant: "The complainant can't walk properly and has trouble climbing the stairs.

Your view was she was an irritant; she wanted a refund.

"But rather than giving her money back, or even calling the police if she was being a nuisance, you caused the injury in order to teach her a lesson."

is our selection of films, we do take risks and showcase off-the-radar films from the South Asian regions of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh,” said Cary.

The UK-Indian year of culture will mean stronger collaboration with the BBC, BFI and the Indian government.

There will a reception at the Indian High Commission this year, and notable filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, (LIFF's patron) will be showcasing his new film and participating in the festival this year.

“It is rather rare to see him,” beams Cary who is really optimistic that the festival will attract crowds in the London and Birmingham circuits, just like last year. The London Indian Film Festival was established in 2010 to showcase South Asian independent films.

Policeman who assaulted member of public facing gross misconduct hearing

A police officer who assaulted a member of the public is to appear before a misconduct panel to find out whether he will keep his job. Pc Anil Chauhan was convicted by magistrates earlier this year of common assault. The conviction relates to an incident in June last year during which the officer used his Captor spray on an individual without good reason. The handheld device sprays a jet of fluid into a target's eyes and causes temporary, disabling pain.

As a result of the convic-

tion at Leicester Magistrates' Court in January, Leicestershire Police summoned the officer to a misconduct hearing on Monday.

Pc Chauhan is the latest officer to face a panel this year. Two members of the volunteer Special Constabulary were dismissed in the past few months, one for dishonestly claiming approximately £23 in petrol expenses and the other for singing an offensive song and later trying to delete mobile phone footage of the incident.

The UK’s leading Vedic writer and TV personality

Mercury turns retrograde in your tenth house of career and status, slowing down your progress at work. It is important for you to be steadfast and focused as misunderstandings and confusion reign. Stay as organized as possible while Mercury, the planet of communications does its best to trip you up.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

Mercury turns retrograde in your ninth house of travel and adventure, slowing down your pace for the next three weeks. Your mental focus could be anywhere other than your normal routine find a way to break up the monotony. Don't be afraid to take on extra responsibilities as it could lead to better prospects.

The planet Mercury turns LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 retrograde in your eighth house of joint resources, taxes, wills, legacies and alimony, creating confusion and complications for you during the next three weeks. Travel could also prove to be problematic, so make sure you have plenty of time to get where you need to go.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

Your closest relationships come under scrutiny as Mercury, the planet of communications goes retrograde in your seventh house of marriage and partnerships. There can be a lot of misunderstandings and confused signals.

You'll need to listen carefully to what your partner is saying during the next three weeks.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

will be going to Leicester (Square) in London this year - it's a big step for us.

Leicester is the heartland of top cinemas and that's quite exciting.”

The LIFF is scheduled to start from June 22 to July 2, 2017 and Cary and co-LIFF programmer Naman Ramachandran will get some amazing films that have been to the Cannes, Toronto and Berlin Film festivals.

“We'll be having one of the first screenings in the UK for a few of these films. Every year we seem to be getting closer to the Cannes or Berlin releases, which means we are getting these films in our festival closer to six months down the line, rather than a year or so.

“There has been a change in the way International filmmakers are treating us.

Filmmakers want to bring in their films to LIFF. What makes LIFF unique

020 8518 5500

The next three weeks may bring confusion and misundertandings at work and troubles with your health as Mercury turns retrograde in your sixth house. You'll need to pay more attention to detail and double check everything before finalising important matters. Close relationships need to be re-assessed.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

Mercury goes retrograde in your fifth house of romance for the next three weeks. This is a good time reflect and analyze current situations.

Pressure begins to build as there will be a lot of demands in your daily work. Some of you will prefer to get away and seek solitude and avoid social events.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

As Mercury turns retrograde in your fourth house, you need to watch out for extreme changes in peoples attitude and behaviour at home. Strong emotions may spill out with your loved ones, but it is alright to reveal your fears and insecurities sometimes. It's a cosmically testing time, so try not to tread on each other's toes.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

Mercury turns retrograde in your third house of communication, making it difficult to express yourself clearly for the next three weeks. Misunderstandings and confusion could waste a lot of your time. This is also a good time to read into the unspoken rather than what is being said to make any sense.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

www.asian-voice.com

Good show by Kings XI Punjab AsianVoiceNews

Kings XI Punjab is turning out to be one of the most dangerous teams in the IPL competition this time around. For a while at the MPCA Stadium in Indore, they were put on the backfoot by a ferocious assault

by AB de Villiers but held their nerve to record an eight-wicket win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

For a team which finished last in the previous season, the Kings have done well to record their second win in a row, ensuring a perfect start for the underdogs in this campaign. The only positive for RCB in the game was an electrifying return to action by de Villiers, who cracked a typically brilliant, unbeaten 89 (46b, 3x4, 9x6), but couldn't ensure a fighting total for his team, which struggled to break the shackles of Kings' five-pronged pace attack and a good effort by leftarm spinner Axar Patel, who gave away merely 12 runs in his four overs.

Despite a late flourish, which saw them amass as many as 68 off the last four overs, all RCB managed was 148 for four, which was never going to be enough on this small ground against a team which has now made this ground its fortress.

All Kings XI took was 14.3 overs to get to the measly target, even as 33 balls were still left in their bank.

Rashid, Warner tame Gujarat Lions: Rashid Khan has proved that his performance in the first match of the IPL-X was no flash in the pan. His encore at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad handed the Gujarat Lions their second consecutive defeat of the tournament.

For the second time in three days, the Lions lost it in the powerplays, reduced as they were to 40 for two and ultimately to 135 for seven.

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Rana heroics in MI win: Pandey's 81 In Vain As Hosts Clinch A Thriller A blazing half-century from 23-year-old Nitish Rana - 50 off 29 balls, gave Mumbai Indians an unexpected but an absolutely thrilling victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday evening. Mumbai were three down for 74 in a chase that began well but was left undone by some very poor umpiring decisions when Rana walked in.

He began at a pace that initially did not match the momentum required but the moment he settled, the Delhi boy single handedly ended up changing the course of the game.

RCB register first win: It was a gripping tale of two gritty men. One, a 19year-old stinging from a personal loss, the other a 32-year-old underachiever who gave it his all in the 55 minutes he spent on the crease. On a muggy night at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru as top

stars from Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils came a cropper with the bat, RCB's Kedar Jhadav (69, 37b, 5x4, 5x6) and young Delhi batsman Rishabh Pant played defining innings, under different yet testing circumstances.

Maxwell cuts Supergiant to size: Indore: Quite a few eyebrows were raised when batting great Virender Sehwag named Glenn Maxwell as the captain of Kings XI Punjab heading into the season.

Sehwag, though, seems to be going by the theory that leadership may just bring out the best in this maverick player. On Thursday at the MPCA Stadium in Indore, Maxwell showed how the responsibility may finally help him do justice to his enormous talent as his cameo (44 not out, 20b, 4x6, 2x4) helped Kings XI Punjab launch their campaign in style with a sixwicket win over the Rising Pune Supergiant.

Chris Lynn, Gambhir

IPL, 2017 - Points Table Teams Sunrisers Hyderabad Kings XI Punjab Kolkata Knight Riders Mumbai Indians Rising Pune Supergiant Royal Challengers Bangalore Delhi Daredevils Gujarat Lions

Mat 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 2

Won 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0

Lost 0 0 1 1 1 2 1 2

script roaring win for KKR: Never has a total of 183 been chased down without a wicket being lost in T20s, until the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat lions. Chris Lynn announced his arrival with a monstrous knock (93 off 41) that blew away Gujarat Lions.

Together with Gautam Gambhir (76), he put on the highest ever opening stand in IPL history as Kolkata Knight Riders started their campaign with a thumping victory inside 15 overs.

Smith, Rahane guide Pune Supergiant to 7-wicket win over MI: Steve Smith's love affair with the MCA Stadium is getting more profound. After his memorable 109 against India in a Test match recently, the Australian scored a match-winning 84 (54 balls, 7x4, 6x3) to grab a thrilling seven-wicket win for Rising Pune Supergiant against Mumbai Indians in Pune. Needing a challenging 185 to win, Smith smote Kieron Pollard for two sixes in the final over of the innings as the hosts got home with just one ball remaining.

Yuvraj, bowlers fashion dominant win for Sunrisers: Defending Champions Sunrisers Hyderabad got their campaign off to a bright start with a 35-run win over last year's finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rajiv Gandhi International cricket stadium in Hyderabad.

Tied 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

NR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Pts 4 4 2 2 2 2 0 0

England to face India on International Frida

International polo returns to the heart of London, as ICM Capital Team England plans to take on Champions Polo League Team India in one of the biggest crunch matches of the season, on Friday 9 June 2017 at Chestertons Polo in the Park.

Taking place on the opening evening of Chestertons Polo in the Park, in Fulham, Champions Polo Team India will be led by the Maharaja of Jaipur, from a family steeped in polo history, as they do battle at the polo Colosseum of south-west London, Hurlingham Park, for the first time in over 70 years.

With both nations carrying a longstanding heritage in polo and with a huge rivalry at stake, the stage is set for

International Friday to kick-start Chestertons Polo in the Park with a bang. Maharaj Narendra Singh, the son-in-law of His Highness Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh Ji of Jaipur, sat on a horse back for the first time during his wedding with Princess Diya Kumari of Jaipur in 1997.

In order to be able to

continue with the family tradition, he learnt riding at the age of 31 (in 2003) and held a polo stick for the first time at age 32. He thereafter became a name to reckon with in the polo world in a very short span of time. He has lead the Royal Jaipur polo team to Germany, Italy and played extensively around the world and is presently the

NRR +2.100 +1.598 +1.279 -0.025 -0.136 -1.206 -0.750 -2.731

Federation of International Polo Ambassador of India.

At the event, the participating teams will be representing six different cities from around the world competing over three days. The audience will get to see a minimum of three games of polo a day. Of particular excitement this year is that on Friday 9th June, when the organisers are hosting an England International match at Hurlingham, where Team India will be a participant.

To encourage family participation as audience, they have planned for a special treat- a ‘Pitch Invasion’ for children on the morning of Sunday 11th June, which will be West London’s biggest ever children’s party.

SPORT

31

Indian football team jumps to 101 in latest rankings Asian Voice | 15th April 2017

Indian football has achieved its best ever rankings in over two decades by achieving the position of 101 in the FIFA rankings. The new ranking which were released by FIFA saw India jump 31 places from its last rank of 132 (March 2017).

This is India’s best ever FIFA ranking since May 1996 when India were also ranked 101. The ranking of 101 elevated India to 11th ranked team in Asia as well. India’s highest FIFA ranking achieved so far has been 94 which was attained in February 1996 while India were ranked 99 in November 1993 and 100 in October 1993, December 1993 and April 1996. The last couple of years have been extremely encouraging for Indian football, wherein the national team has had 11 victories in 13 matches (including an unofficial match against Bhutan) scoring a total of 31 goals.

Indian boxer Shyam Kumar wins gold at Thailand

Indian boxer K Shyam Kumar (49kg) clinched a gold medal at the Thailand International Tournament in Bangkok even without stepping inside the ring for his summit clash. Shyam, who won a gold at the 2015 edition of the event, was to take on Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the final.

However, Dusmatov pulled out of owing to an injury, giving the Indian his second gold medal at the event. Earlier, Rohit Tokas (64kg) had lost in the semi-finals to settle for bronze medal. Incidentally, Rohit had won a bronze medal in the 2015 edition as well. India thus finished the tournament with two medals. India had sent a seven-strong team for the event, of which four boxers lost in the opening round.

Davis Cup: India beat Uzbekistan 4-1

India stamped its authority over Uzbekistan by winning the Davis Cup tie 4-1 to advance to the World Group Playoff in Bengaluru on Sunday. India's place in the World Group Play-offs, to be held in September, was secured once a 3-0 lead was grabbed in the Asia/Oceania Group I second round tie. The team was eyeing a whitewash but fell short in the second reverse singles' match. Ramkumar Ramnathan continued India's domination of the home tie by outclassing Sanjar Fayziev 6-3, 6-2 in just 67 minutes in the first reverse singles at the KSLTA stadium. Left-handed Prajnesh Gunneswaran, though, had a hard battle at hand against the big-serving 406th ranked Ismailov.

Ismailov negotiated the conditions much better than Fayziev and emerged a deserving 7-5, 6-3 winner in the second reverse singles. Both the players served big but debutant Prajnesh buckled under pressure in crucial moments and that made a difference to the outcome of the match. Ismailov's victory meant that India could not force a whitewash. The last time India enjoyed a clean-sweep was in February 2014 when they hammered Chinese Taipei in Indore.

SPAT BETWEEN BHUPATI AND PAES: A simmering feud between stalwarts Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi has boiled over after an ugly public spat. After India's victory, Bhupathi lashed out at his sulking former doubles partner who was dropped from the squad last week. "We gave him the option (of being a part of the squad and playing as a reserve) and he readily took it," Bhupathi, the non-playing Davis Cup captain, said. "So after that, to sulk about not being in the (playing) four was a bit unprofessional," Bhupathi said of his friend-turned-foe. Adding fuel to the fire, Bhupathi put up a screen shot of his WhatsApp conversation with Paes on social media in a free-for-all slugfest aimed at countering Paes' charge of being dropped in humiliating fashion at the last minute. The conversation suggested that Paes had agreed to join the squad despite being told there was no guarantee he would be in the final four. Paes, 43, then accused Bhupathi of bias and using his position to deliberately keep him out of the squad. "I was never categorically told that I would not be playing, but it was apparent that the decision was made before I arrived in Bangalore.

Sport

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32

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Asian Voice | 15th April 2017 twitter.com/AsianVoiceNews

Haseeb Hameed makes quality return for Lancashire

Haseeb Hameed, the 20year-old prodigy, who underwent two operations – on his nose, to help his breathing, and on his right little finger – contributed a classy 47 to Lancashire’s 319 on the opening day of the Specsavers County Championship season.

Batting was not exactly what it will be against Australia in Perth but there were similarities with what Hameed will face this winter. “It’s nice to get a bit of a start and I think we did quite well to get to the score we did,�

Hameed said. Both Hameed and Keaton Jennings have thrown their helmets into the ring by saying they would like to open for England with Alastair Cook, who is missing this game to rest his left hip, while adding diplomatically they would be happy to bat anywhere.

Hameed is an outstanding “leaver.� He either lets the new ball pass or scores off it, not necessarily an attacking shot, maybe a push and a scamper. Sure, he made a misjudgment here after lunch when a ball from Jamie Porter seamed back and hit the top of his off stump, and he was similarly bowled once in the two

Mustafa Bashir

Haseeb Hameed

Lions ‘Tests’ in Sri Lanka, when he made only 33 runs.

But Hameed still plots the ball’s future trajectory so accurately that he leaves – a crucial skill against the new ball in Australia – with a veteran’s maturity.

A decent score was welcome for Hameed as Mark Stoneman was demonstrating that anyone who can make runs in Durham can rack up millions at the Oval: he marked his Surrey debut with 165. But Hameed and

Jennings, having averaged 43 and 41 respectively in India, are guaranteed to start against South Africa, even with three months to go.

England’s batting coach, Mark Ramprakash, was also able to catch up on the forthright Liam Livingstone, who was promoted to No 3 to develop his technique on the strength of his Lions winter. Anyone who can make two centuries in a

match in Sri Lankan conditions has remarkable powers, and if Livingstone can maintain his career graph, as a batsman and a spinner, he too might tour Australia.

Whereas Hameed caressed the ball through the covers with soft hands, Livingstone whacked it with quick hands – or thick-edged to slip for 28 off 34 balls. His best shot was actually to his second ball which he drove through mid-wicket with breathtaking poise and nonchalance.

ECB plans to take counties to task on Kolapak players The England & Wales Cricket Board is planning take the counties to task as a number of Kolpak players are flooding the county as the overseas cricketers look to exploit the loophole before Brexit is expected to close it off. The ECB will later draft a new memorandum of understanding with the counties and the influx of Kolpak players this year will be part of those discussions. South Africa’s Marchant de Lange became the 11th Kolpak to sign for a county this winter when he joined Glamorgan. A county can save money when a Kolpak is taken, but a local player is suffered.

However, there is little that can be done legally while Britain is still a

Who is a Kolpak?

It is a ruling that means people from countries that have free trade agreements with the European Union have the right to work and live in the EU. It is named after Slovakian handball player Maros Kolpak who took his case to the European Court of Justice when he lost a contract at a German club because they already had two non-EU qualified players. Kolpak won and, like Jean-Marc Bosman in football, his name became a handy way to describe players fitting the new criteria.

TM

member of the European Union. Instead the ECB can incentivise counties financially as part of the next MoU for fielding England qualified players, making it in turn less attractive to sign Kolpaks, or even increase the financial deductions levied for picking Kolpak players.

Several cricketing countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe and most Caribbean islands are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, the free trade deal that allows access to the EU. The ECB thought it had stemmed the flow of Kolpaks three years ago when counties were fined ÂŁ1,100 per match for every non England qualified player they picked. But the economic situation in

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countries like South Africa has resulted in better players opting for the Kolpak route and counties viewing them as a financial risk worth taking.

David Letherdale, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association said that it was disappointing that some counties have felt the need to sign players as Kolpaks or on EU passports instead of developing and producing home-grown players themselves for the future benefit of English cricket. “We are concerned that the number appears to have risen again in recent months.

It is a situation that gives us cause for concern and one that we will continue to monitor.�

A cricketer who misled the court by falsely claiming that he had been signed by Leicestershire in an attempt to avoid prison for domestic violence has finally been jailed.

Mustafa Bashir, 34, of Cheetham Hill, forced his wife, Fakhara Karim, to drink bleach and hit her with a cricket bat but last month got a suspended sentence for assault after claiming Leicestershire County Cricket Club had given him a contract. Now Bashir’s sentence has been reviewed, after it emerged his claims were false. He has been ordered to serve the 18 months which had been suspended behind bars.

And he could face another jail term, if his falsehoods lead to a charge of perverting the course of justice.

He claimed that the Probation Service got it wrong when they recorded that he had played for Pakistan Under-19s - and that he had only ever claimed to play for Islamabad in a national competition.

He claimed that a letter sent to court purporting to be from a sports agent representing Bashir, which not only repeated the claim that he had played for Pakistan, but said he “has a very bright future ahead of him as he has been selected to play for Leicestershire cricket club�, contained ‘typographical errors’, and should have said he ‘had’ a bright future, and ‘had’ been selected to play for

Leicestershire CCC. Bashir then claimed that he had attended a trial at the club, and had been told they would "consider him for the first eleven", although he had not been given a formal contract. Defending, Bob Sastry, said: “Mr Bashir did not have any intention of misleading the court, and also would say at the time [his lawyer] was talking he wasn’t listening to everything that was said, was extremely emotional, and would say he didn’t hear it put forward on his behalf that he had a contract with Leicestershire CCC. His position would be that there has been a series of misunderstandings.�

Rejecting his claims, Judge Richard Mansell QC said: “I directed that you should produce evidence to support the claims you made that you had previously been offered a contract to play cricket for Leciestershire and that such an offer remained open to you if you kept your liberty. “You have failed to produce any evidence to support those claims. All that you have produced today is a handful of emails showing that you may have attended an indoor net session at Grace Road in December 2014, an outdoor net session in April 2015, and a further email from you in December 2015 in which you enquire about the outcome of a trial you had attended at the club.

There is no evidence as to what team you were trying out for or what the outcome was.�

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