AV 26th April 2014

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VOL 42. ISSUE 51

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Police colluded with govt during Delhi riots

Cobrapost's sting reveals inaction of policemen in 1984 anti-Sikh riots

A sting operation by news portal Cobrapost reveals that Delhi police colluded with the Congress government during the 1984 antiSikh riots which broke out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

The portal interviewed eight officers of Delhi Police, some of them admitting to their failure as a force, while others

Controversy of Birmingham Schools See Page 11 •••

Election News on Pages 16-17 and 25

confessed that the top brass of the police force colluded with the then Congress government to teach Sikhs “a lesson�.

The policemen interviewed include the then Kalyanpuri Station House Office (SHO) Shoorveer Singh Tyagi; Rohtas Singh (SHO Delhi Cantonment); S N Bhaskar (SHO Krishna Nagar); O P Yadav (SHO Srinivaspuri); and Jaipal Singh (SHO Mehrauli).

The then police chief S C Tandon, conveniently parried all questions and then additional commissioner of police (ACP) Gautam Kaul straightaway rejected the idea that he had any first-hand knowledge of rioting.

Amrik Singh Bhullar, then the SHO of Patel Nagar – who the portal

reporter also met – had named some local leaders in his affidavit, accusing them of instigating and even leading the frenzied mobs.

The interview reveals that the operational dysfunction was so obvious through the rank and file of Delhi Police that the Kusum Mittal Committee, formed upon the recom-

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mendation of justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, had identified 72 police officers for conniving in the riots and arson or gross negligence in discharging their duty.

Of these officers, the committee had sought the dismissal of 30.

Their interviews to Continued on page 26

Happy 88th Birthday to Her Majesty

In honour of her birthday, a new portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, taken by renowned photographer David Bailey, has been released to mark her official 88th birthday, on Monday 21 April.

Continued on page 6

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Keith Vazwith MP

Keith Vaz MP

Mohamed Mijarul Quayes

my current assignment. Relating more professionally, I would say that London offers an extensive agenda on a bilateral plane, am full multilateral engagement in the context of the Commonwealth, and to perhaps a lesser degree with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Then there is extensive Consular content in my current charge that is smaller than only the Gulf.

Ambassador Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, the High Commissioner of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to the Court of St. James’, is a career Foreign Service officer with over 30 years in service. Prior to his current assignment, he served as the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh. He is concurrently the Ambassador to Ireland. He has previously served as Bangladeshi Ambassador in the Russia Federation.

As Foreign Secretary, Ambassador Quayes was actively involved in expanding Bangladesh’s relations with neighbours in South and South East Asia and other global partners. He is also a serving member of the UN International Civil Service Commission.

3) What inspires you?

The collective heritage of humankind inspires me as also the unending promise of the human prospect. That faith helps me look beyond the strife, the petty divides, and the ruthless insensitivity that has characterised aspects of our contemporary world. Every time a child is born, as Rabindranath Tagore observed, it renews my faith that God has not given up on man.

1) Please tell me about your current position?

An Ambassadorial assignment is a two-pronged mission, consisting of representation and the ceremonial aspect, and pursuing national interests. There is much more to representation than formal state-to-state representation, as there is huge potential in connecting with the media, academia and think tanks, the private sector and civil society. One special element of London assignment involves the vibrant Bengali community, with the High Commissioner’s repertoire including a role as patron of community initiatives and enterprise.

4) What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?

I seriously feel that the global media has perhaps not done justice to Bangladesh commensurate with its credentials as an active, responsible and contributing member of the international community. Despite the global recession, the country has sustained over six per cent growth over the past several years; we continue to lead in global peacekeeping, our innovative social interventions, such as micro-finance, non-formal education, women’s empowerment continue to be replicated beyond our borders, we are on track on

2) What are your proudest achievements?

As Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary, I was involved in expanding global diplomatic presence, with the addition of as many as 18 new diplomatic missions and submissions/consulates. I was also able to take forward Bangladesh’s relations with neighbouring countries and major global partners.

the MDGs. 5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?

We have a top class diplomatic service which attracts the best and the brightest. It is on the job that you develop your professional acumen, and that is where seniors and peers quietly help shape your strengths, your career. My posting in the Geneva Mission in the mid1990s honed my multilateral skills like no other and familiarity with issues on the cutting edge.

6) What is the best aspect about your current role?

London has a persona of its own, particularly owing to the familiarity for someone from our part of the world, and is the single most attractive aspect of

7) And the worst?

I have come to rue the photo sessions that are part and parcel of every community event, because everyone has to be in the photograph, preferably on his/her own, and preferably with his/her own cell phone camera. If you ask me what it entails, on an average, even for a small size event with a turnout of 69 persons, there would be 690 clicks!

8) What are your long term goals?

The long term goals have to do with the challenges. Our major challenges on a national scale are: diversifying exports and enhancing market access; facilitating foreign direct investment; exploring newer markets and better terms of employment for expatriate Bangladeshis and optimising ODA flow and utilisation, particularly in sectoral priorities.

But beyond that, I look towards

building our partnership with Britain in furthering common values and working together on global priorities.

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

As a public servant, our orientation does not venture on to the political turf; however, if I had to give my personal opinion, I would speak of education. Without undermining the value of formal education as is, I see it deficient in relating schooling to enrichment and excellence in the qualitative sense. An achievement oriented education drives you towards a degree and the market. We need to give space to the power of education that is one with life, with a capacity for what we can call real freedom – freedom from ignorance about the laws of the universe, and freedom from passion and prejudice in our communication with the human world.

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

In Frederick Prokosch’s novel, The Missolonghi Manuscript, Byron poses this question to Shelley.

Shelley chose Shakespeare for his inexhaustible capacity to create human characters and the human context. I would assume that the company of someone near and dear would be more worthwhile. If I were to choose a literary character rather than a historical figure, I would choose ‘Friday’ in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

Rise of UKIP ahead of European Elections

With the European elections only a month away, the Tories are preparing themselves to face the growing UK Independence Party (UKIP) and accepting that it may be a close election. Many of the Tory party’s senior figures have even given up pretending that it will be anything other than a nightmare for them.

Ministers and MPs are aware of the difficult situation, particularly after many core Conservative voters are ready to defect to Nigel Farage’s party.

So what exactly has given way to this extraordinary rise of UKIP in recent years? Tory party membership is indeed small these days with as few as 100,000 members remaining. Mr Farage has cleverly managed to tap into the deep unhap-

piness of the wider people with mainstream parties.

In a revealing poll published in The Sunday Telegraph, many of UKIP's own voters say discontent with the Tories, Labour and

the Liberal Democrats explains the party’s popularity. From those UKIP voters polled, almost a third, 29 per cent, thought it was the main reason,

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while more than 24 per cent chose the party’s tough line on immigration. UKIP’s flagship policy of withdrawal from the European Union was cited by 41 per cent.

Seemingly, the rise of the UKIP has also been spurred on by recent scandals such as the Maria Miller case.

In addition, Mr Farage has maintained his popularity, despite facing allegations himself last week that he abused the allowances he receives as a member of the European Parliament.

UKIP is still popular with 27 per cent of those polled by ICM saying they will back UKIP in

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May. These figures put the party ahead of the Conservatives, who are on 22 per cent, and just behind Labour on 30 per cent.

UKIP's truthful or racist posters?

Amidst their raging popularity, UKIP launched a new immigration-centred poster campaign which is sure to cause contoversy. Mr Farage referred to it as “a hard-hitting reflection of reality” after it was attacked as “racist” by some of his Labour opponents.

UKIP, which is antiEuropean Union, used its £1.5 million donation from millionaire businessman Paul Sykes to launch its biggest-ever publicity drive on Tuesday 22 April, ahead of next month’s European

Parliament elections. The party said that it hoped to more than double its spending to £3million on the Euro elections, compared to £1.3million in the last Euro elections in 2009 according to Electoral Commission records.

The posters – which will be displayed all over the country on billboards - dispay messages such as “British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour” and that 26 million unemployed people across Europe are “after” British jobs. Other posters complain that 75 per cent of British laws are made in Brussels and that UK taxpayers fund the “celebrity lifestyle” of EU bureaucrats.

This campaign is sure to garner much attention and mixed feelings from all immigrant communities in Britain, especially the Asian community.

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

COMMENT

Whither India’s Communist-led Left

India’s two Communist parties, particularly the China-inclined Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), as it is referred to in the media, are in trouble, deep trouble. Their support base in Kerala and West Bengal is shrinking fast, with no sign of new members joining their depleted ranks. The oxygen tanks of ideological renewal are almost empty and the patient is drifting into a coma from which there there is little chance of recovery. The Communist leaders appear panic stricken as the evening shadows fall. Media reports suggesting that West Bengal – the CPI(M’s) principal bastion - registered an 80 per cent voter turnout in the fifth phase of the general election provoked the party leadership to level charges of vote rigging against the Trinamool Congress State government. The irony of the accusation was not lost on the electorate. The CPI((M)-led Left Front in its three decades and more in government had elevated vote rigging to a black art. Until the Election Commission came into being in the early 1990s, under the able chairmanship of T.N Seshan, and took remedial measures to correct such malpractice. Voters’ lists were checked and bogus names eliminated. A strict code of conduct for parties was drawn up and law enforcement through tighter policing and an enhanced security presence on the ground eliminated the pandemic of wrongdoing. Correct voting lists and strict supervision in polling booths and their surrounds brought order and discipline into the democratic process. The signs of CPI(M) decline became evident when due process was enforced. The party’s apocalypse occurred in the State elections of 2011 when every one of its ministers lost his/her seat. The scale of the demolition could be likened to a tsunami. The CPI (M) is now lodged somewhere between rubble and rabble,

bereft of fresh ideas, confused and lacking direction. Discredited clichés and shibboleths and rancid slogans tell of the Party’s inability to respond creatively to the newly emergent social and economic environment, guaranteeing an extinction worthy of the venerable Dodo. Such has been the age-old story of the survival of the fittest.

If the truth be told, Indian Communism was, even its heyday day, never more than a secondary current in the national mainstream. It never made it to the top league of Communist parties. Russia in 1917, China in 1949, Vietnam in the 1950s,60s and 70s were convulsed by revolutions that can only be described as world historical events. So also in its way was India’s independence in 1947 from British colonial rule. Communism was a peripheral force in that struggle, its Lilliputian leadership derided the landmark event as a fake. Compared to giants such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel et al. Communists were moles laboring under a strong inferiority complex, attempting unsuccessfully to hijack the country’s historical narrative. Great revolutions, whether it be in France (1789), Russia, China, Vietnam or Cuba have had a national character, without which there would have been no nation building achievement, warts and all. Their revolutionary parties, as agents of change, would have shrivelled into obscurity. The Communist failure to achieve power at the centre in India and its clear lack of sustained national appeal has been integral to the Indian story. Their leaders were much given to fantasy, to exaggerate their party’s role in the general scheme of things – ever the problem with small men with king-sized egos and little ability. The Napoleon complex makes those subject to its irrational whims believe that they are the authentic Napoleon. It’s a psychiatric disorder, alas.

The global order being what it is, the voices that are assured a receptive audience are those that mostly emanate from the exclusivist US-EU-NATO club. Be that as it may, the explosive situation in Ukraine, brought about, it must be said, by the delusions and conceits of this arrogant body, may be getting out of control. Its consequences could destroy the peace of the Eurasian space, and regions beyond. India has called for restraint. Sujatha Singh, the Indian Foreign Secretary (the senior-most civil servant in the External Affairs Ministry), during a three-day visit to Moscow, held extensive talks with Russia’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov and Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, from whom she received a “detailed briefing.” Later, addressing students and professors at the capital’s prestigious Diplomatic Academy, she said: “I hope that a diplomatic solution…..will take into account the interests of all…..ethnic and linguistic minorities, otherwise there there’ll always be conflict.” She made it clear that India does not support economic sanctions against Russia.

Voices of sanity in the West have started to make an impact. Le Monde Diplomatique has fired a frontpage broadside at the French, British and American media for their ant-Russian hysteria and its offensive racist undertones. It derides the portrayal of a Manichean conflict between good and evil. Olivier Zajec, a senior researcher at France’s Institut de Strategie Comparee, Paris, and author of the article, writes: “Russia lends itself well to this appealingly simple scenario. Many commentators see it as a bar-

barian state ruled by Cossacks, as a semi-Mongol otherworld…..reclusive autocrats, out of touch with the times, advance pawns on ivory chessboards rather than reading the Economist…..The clichés of the Western press – not just since the start of the Ukraine crisis, but over the last 15 years – may be all that most readers know about Russia’s current foreign policy. This negative view, verging on caricature, is a well-established tradition…..the supposed continuity from Stalin to Putin – (is) a favourite theme of French columnists and US neo-con thinktanks…..The analysis of events in Kiev’s Independence Square results from this persistent demonization.” It is a damning indictment that should have also included the BBC, whose reporting on the subject has been a cocktail of half-truths, elisions and outright falsehoods packaged in atavistic prejudice rooted in the Great Game of the 19th century. US Secretary of State John Kerry’s impulsive acceptance of a forged anti-Semitic declaration purporting to come from Russian-speaking East Ukraine has further muddied the waters.

Sujatha Singh was right to strike an independent Indian note in her address, irrespective of which government comes to power when the general elections result is revealed in mid-May. The founders of the Indian Republic never intended that their country and its people take the easy way out and opt for a liveried coolie status in an environment dominated and controlled by the West. There are cards that India will have to play, and play well, to withstand the current turbulence in international politics.

Malaria-borne mosquitoes resistant to old drugs are wreaking havoc in many of the world’s tropical regions, so the fight is on to discover an effective antidote to the killer disease. Indian scientists, experimenting with a novel ant-malaria vaccine, claim to have found “promising results” in mice - “80 to 85 per cent efficient”- in a dozen rodents they vaccinated.

The new candidate vaccine, created by a team at the Indian Institute of Science contains live malaria sporozoites (an immature stage of the parasite) with an important genetic modification. The researchers neutralized molecule central to the pathogen’s survival as it enters its first target - the liver of the victim. The vaccine candidate appears to prime the immune system of the mice by kick-starting a T cell immune response.

“We need to repeat the experiment in a few more animals to confirm our results,” said Viswanathan

Nagaraj, a Ramanujan Fellow at the Institute. The promise of the vaccine is based on two earlier discoveries of the same team. The first discovery, made 20 years ago, showed that the parasite can produce its own immunizing molecule. In 2013, the team achieved its second breakthrough when it identified all the molecular producing genes. “Inactivating the sporozoites is always the main challenge while researching a malaria vaccine,” said Team leader Professor G.Padmanabhan. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria infected 207 million people across the world in 2012, resulting in 627,000 deaths. Nearly 80 per cent of these deaths were children, aged five and under. A proven vaccine to immunize vulnerable people most at risk of catching malaria will surely be a boon for all humanity. It will be a proud day for India if the vaccine in question proves itself against all reasonable doubt.

India urges restraint in Ukraine

Indian search for anti-malaria vaccine yields promising results

3

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

- John O'Keeffe (1999)

“Our London” Navin Shah

GLA Member for Brent and Harrow

Britain Is a Christian Country and India Is a Hindu Country – Get Over It. The British Prime Minister, representative of the nation, said Britain is a Christian country. Oh boy, did that cause a load of secularist, pluralist, liberals to go nuts and panic. All the PM said is that Britain should be proud of saying it is a Christian country.

Like the BJP feels about India, Cameron feels about Britain – be proud to express your faith. But like all the secularist, pluralist, liberals go nuts at the name of ‘Modi’ so they have in Britain too.

A load of really famous clever people wrote a letter to the Telegraph saying the British PM is wrong.

Just as people write in the Guardian that Modi is a crazy religious rightwing sectarian divisive bigot.

This is what they wrote in the Telegraph about PM Cameron: “we object to his characterisation of Britain as a Christian country…

Britain is not a Christian country… At a social level, Britain has been shaped for the better by many pre-Christian, non-Christian, and postChristian forces. We are a plural society with citizens with a range of perspectives, and we are a largely non-religious society…Constantly to claim otherwise fosters alienation and division in our society. This needlessly fuels enervating sectarian debates that are by and large absent from the lives of most British people, who do not want religions or religious identities to be actively prioritised by their elected government.”

You really have to be in denial to think Britain is not a Christian coun-

try – what the hell do you think Easter holidays and Christmas breaks are? About bunnies and Fir trees? Or an established Church is.

The Queen is not a Defender of Faiths but of ‘The Faith’ – and it isn’t Islam they are talking about. Not seen any Sharia laws recently in Britain.

As for India, it’s also known as Hindustan for good reason. When three quarters of your population follow one faith – Hinduism – to deny it is a Hindu nation, when every corner street has a temple, the country stands still at Diwali – you’re fool to call it anything other than a Hindu nation.

The problem that the followers of Modi and Cameron have is that they want their countries to be more Hindu and more Christian respectively. They wish it was even more proudly religious. The mistake they make is that they’ve won the battle, they will not persuade their enemies otherwise by argument.

They should maintain their winning position by keeping quiet about it, doing good works, being good men and women of Faith and making it happen anyway regardless of who is in office.

Attracting attention only brings objectors and raising obstacles.

Christ and Ram did not need go proclaiming their religion. They just go on with it. So should the British PM and the most likely next Indian PM. Evangelists are so annoying and hence unpopular. First rule of politics: it is popularity contest. Second rule: When you win, keep power, by staying popular.

ASIAN VOICE is published by Asian Business Publications Ltd Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market, (Off Coronet Street) London N1 6HW. Tel: 020 7749 4080 Fax: 020 7749 4081 Email: aveditorial@abplgroup.com © Asian Business Publications www.abplgroup.com AsianVoiceNewsweekly

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MIDLANDS VOICE

Leeds shopkeeper’s robbery ordeal hell

An elderly shopkeeper who was terrorised by a hammer-wielding robber believes economic problems have fuelled violent crime.

Thakor Patel, 74, and his wife Dhaniben, 73, were powerless to fight back when regular customer Jonathan Kear raided their corner shop, Neils Store, in Kirkstall, Leeds.

Kear, who stole cigarettes and bottles of spirits, was caught after he returned to the store three days later to buy sweets for a group of children. He was jailed for six years after being found guilty of robbery by a Leeds Crown Court jury.

Mr Patel said his family had been left “extremely frightened” by the incident, adding: “We have had the shop for more than 40 years and this is the first time anything like this ever happened. So many people are jobless and it’s happening so many times at

Thakor Patel, 74, Dhaniben, 73, and Vilasben, 50, pictured after robbery ordeal

so many shops. I’ve lost about 50 per cent of my customers and it’s very hard for people. I think they are more desperate.”

Kear, who had been into the shop on previous occasions, walked into Neils, on Abbey Road, with an accomplice shortly before closing time on the night of October 28 last year. Mr and Mrs Patel and their daughter-

in-law Vilas, 50, were watching television in the flat at the back of the store when they were confronted by him wielding a claw hammer.

Mr Patel said: “He shouted ‘Don’t come down or I’ll hit you’. I tried to get in the way of my wife and daughter-inlaw and he swung the hammer at me, trying to hit me. It was extremely

frightening. My wife couldn’t sleep for a long time afterwards.”

The robbers escaped with hundreds of pounds worth of cigarettes and alcohol.

But Kear returned on Halloween with a group of children and was arrested after police were alerted by a panic alarm that officers installed after the robbery.

Kear, 38, was found guilty and jailed after a two-day trial.

Investigating Officer PC Mark Lynam paid tribute to the Patels. He said: “This was a targeted attack on a local store which the suspect frequently visited. The victims of this crime are elderly upstanding members of the community who have run their shop since 1971 without being subjected to crime. Mr Patel and his family have been excellent witnesses and were crucial in facilitating a prosecution in this case.”

Thousands join Vaisakhi walk in Coventry

Coventry: Chanting, drumming, flowers and even a Hummer truck filled the streets of Foleshill on Sunday, as Sikhs celebrated the Vaisakhi festival.

Thousands of people joined a procession from the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Parkash temple on Harnall Lane to commemorate the harvest and the Sikh new year.

A grey day was brightened by orange flags, garlands of flowers and tables laden with free food.

For Hardeep Bains, it was a chance to share Sikhism with the wider community. He said: “This is a celebration of the birth date of Sikhism – it’s our 315th anniversary. In India, so that everybody

Procession from Gurdwara Guru Nanak Parkash temple on Harnall Lane commemorated harvest and Sikh new year

can share in the day’s happiness, people parade around the villages. We try to mimic that here and to include our whole neighbourhood.”

A bus festooned in flowers and flags held the Sikh holy book and led the procession up Stoney

Stanton Road and back around to the Gurdwara from 11am.

Drummers marched ahead of the bus, and women swept the path ahead of barefoot men carrying swords and flags.

Bali Kaur, a steward, explained the significance

of the items on display. She said: “This day celebrates our guru’s baptism of five Sikhs. When he did that, he gave them the articles of faith that we see around us today. Those are the swords that the men are holding, the uncut long hair which is covered by the turban, the small wooden comb, the undergarment and the metal bracelet that we wear on our arms. This festival is about saying thank you.

It’s happening all around the world.”

Organisers presented cheques to West Midlands Police, The Telegraph’s Snowball Appeal, Broad Park Children’s Respite Centre and Macmillan Cancer Support.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Police hoping to recoup 'Pakistan palace' tax fraud money

Police are aiming to recoup money from a tax fraudster who was building a £2.3m mansion in Pakistan which was as big as Buckingham Palace. said Police Mohammed Suleman Khan lived a life of luxury in a £500,000 house in Moseley in Birmingham despite having no obvious income. Detectives found he was handling huge amounts of undeclared money. He was jailed for four years on 4 April at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to fraud and tax evasion.

West Midlands Police said Khan, pictured, 42, from Grove Avenue in Moseley, had told officers that he was a debt collector and businessman who had an annual income of £40,000 a year.

A joint investigation between the force and HM Revenue and Customs found in reality Khan was making at least £300,000 a year. It discovered he had avoided paying more than £445,000 in tax and national insurance between 2002 and 2011.

During searches of his house, police found £120,000 in cash and plans for the mansion in Ghorghusti in the Attok region of Pakistan. It said the building was the size of Buckingham Palace and had its own cinema, library, servant quarters

and guard rooms.

West Midlands Police said because it could not find information about any business he controlled or owned it had to prosecute Khan on the evidence of his lifestyle and property he owned.

Pakistani ‘palace’

Det Insp Andy Bannister, from the force's CID, said: "Khan's bank accounts bore no resemblance to his day-to-dayliving. He maintained he was a debt collector and businessman but failed to provide investigators or the court with any evidence to back this up. He had his day in court and was ultimately found to have cheated the public revenue by not paying tax or national insurance contributions."

Police investigate 'unexplained' death of Asian doctor

Young Rolls Royce tycoon ambushed and held at gunpoint by thugs

Zahid Khan alerted police who pounced on the gang

A young dad has spoken for the first time about the terrifying moment a gang swooped to snatch his brand new Rolls-Royce – and held two guns to his head. Zahid Khan says he was kidnapped by the thugs who stole his £250,000 car and demanded a cash ransom.

Now the four men,

including one of Mr Khan’s best friends, have been jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for a total of 41 years for blackmail and firearm offences, although they were cleared of kidnap.

Mr Khan said he was ambushed on the very day he had bought his dream machine, when he proudly

took it round to show to pal Rizwan Jahangir. The 28-year-old victim, from Moseley, says he was blindfolded and held for seven hours before being forced to tell family members to hand over £10,000 in cash and his collection of expensive watches.

He says the gang, who were led by Jahangir, dumped him out of a car on to his own doorstep the following morning so that he could collect even more cash for the safe return of the car. But instead the trainee pilot called in police who drafted in armed officers to arrest the gang in a dramatic sting operation that was caught on camera in Coventry on April 5.

Six Birmingham men were all charged by police with conspiracy to commit kidnap, conspiracy to commit blackmail and

possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence.

Two were found not guilty of all of the offences on April 2, a further four were found not guilty of kidnap, but were found guilty of blackmail and firearm offences.

Rizwan Jahangir, aged 37, from Harts Road, Ward End, and Blall Harron, aged 31, from Morris Road, Ward End, were found guilty of blackmail and possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and were jailed for 13 years and 12 years respectively.

Liaquat Hussain, aged 34, from Barrows Road, Sparkbrook, and Imran Ashraf, aged 35, from Benton Road, Sparkhill were found guilty of blackmail and each jailed for eight years.

Police van and tent outside home of dead man

Coventry: The body of a 63-year-old man has been discovered at a home in Cannon Park.

Police were called out to the detached property in Cannon Hill Road on Monday morning.

A spokesman for the force said the death was currently being treated as ''unexplained'' and a post mortem examination is being carried out.

The 63-year-old man has been named by neighbours as Dr Gupta Judge who has lived in the road for about a decade. It’s understood he used to run a medical practice in Binley before retiring recently.

One neighbour said: “It’s very distressing. He was a really nice guy, we were only talking about the garden recently. He was a very clever and a really lovely man. He came from Malaysia. I believe he used to work at University Hospital.”

The gated property was sealed off and a forensic tent was erected around the front door. Police are continuing to restrict access to the property but there was no visible activity inside this morning.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said the results of the post mortem examination were expected to be released Tuesday.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Legal aid is not for foreigners to profit, says Justice Minister

Justice Minister Chris Grayling, pictured, has said the justice system is being abused by pressure groups and law firms using legal aid to profit from cases, in a bid to block Government decisions.

Foreigners should be banned from fighting British court cases using legal aid to stop the justice system being seen as dishonourable, the Justice Secretary said. Chris Grayling warned that court cases brought by foreign citizens using British taxpayers’ money risked undermining faith in the justice system. He referred to British society as “too legalistic”, with too many people and groups mounting legal cases to advance their own interests.

Mr Grayling is currently embroiled in a battle with members of the legal profession over attempts to cut legal aid spending and tighten rules on judi-

cial review. He is also defending plans to make it harder to seek judicial reviews of public bodies’ decisions. The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, now posed to Parliament, aims to curb public funding for judicial reviews, requiring judges to reject cases that appear unlikely to succeed.

Mr Grayling says these moves are necessary to save money and prevent pressure groups, lobbyists and businesses using the system inappropriately.

Sajid Javid to decide on Gay Marriage

A tough decision will soon need to be made by new Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, pictured, within weeks of taking up his new role.

Mr Javid will have to decide whether to open civil partnerships up to heterosexual couples and whichever decision he makes, he will most certainly be thrust into the centre of the debate over gay marriage.

The sensitive nature of the issue puts the church against campaigners and will rsurface one of the most delicate issues for the Tories.

A consultation launched under Maria Miller’s tenure as culture secretary is offering three options.

The first would abolish civil partnerships and convert existing civil partnerships into marriages, including against the couples’ wishes.

The second would stop new civil partnerships being registered, but retain existing ones. The third would retain and open up civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples.

A statement from the Church of England, which has recently been released, reportedly said the Government should not abolish civil partnerships because it would create an “invidious choice” for gay couples who may not wish, for religious reasons, to get married.

UK

Abu Hamza 'happy' about 9/11 attacks, jury hears Abu Hamza spoke about his happiness after the September 11 attacks and praised the hijackers, in a broadcast interview shown by tape to a jury at his terrorism trial on Monday 21 April.

He was quick to respond when when asked about the fatal attack that killed nearly 3,000 people and was seen candidly talking about the attacks in the interview with a Canadian broadcaster. He also referred to Al Qaeda's actions as similar to heroes in American movies.

'Everybody was happy

Naomi Michelle Coleman

on her right arm.

Buddhism is the reli-

when the planes hit the World Trade Center,' Hamza reportedly said in the interview. 'Anybody who tell you he was not happy, they are hypocrites.'

He is currently on trial in New York after being extradited to the US to face terrorism charges.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest last week turned down an origrequest by inal defence lawyers to exclude it from trial on the grounds that it

would unfairly prejudice their client.

Hamza, 56, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he supported Al Qaeda by trying to set up a terrorist training camp in 1999 in Oregon. He also is accused of helping to abduct two American tourists and 14 others in Yemen in 1998 where four hostages died.

If Hamza is convicted of the charges, he could face life in prison. He is expected to testify at the at Manhattan’s trial Federal Court which is expected to last about a month.

a judicial review claiming the GMC failed too many doctors from overseas in GP tests. But a High Court judge ruled against them this month after seeing UCL’s report.

The Indian physicians’ association (BAPIO) said it was dismayed by the findings. It has called for a common test for all doctors. Dr Ramesh Mehta, its president, said: “We must drive standards up, but we need objective evidence and fair processes.

We are foremost NHS doctors and want the NHS to be the best; this blame game is not helpful.”

Half of foreign doctors lacking in necessary skills Abu Hamza

Half of all foreign doctors in Britain do not have the necessary skills to work here but can practise because the competency exam is too easy, a major study finds.

But the study, commissioned by the GMC and carried out by University College London, found that around half would fail to reach the standards expected of British doctors and calls for the pass rate of the competency exam to be raised from 63 to 76 per cent to “ensure patient safety”.

More than 88,000 foreign-trained doctors are

registered to work in Britain and make up almost a third of all NHS doctors but account for approximately two thirds of those struck off each year. Figures from 2012 showed that of 669 doctors who were struck off or suspended in the previous five years, 420 had trained abroad with the largest number of doctors removed or suspended originating from India.

In 2011 the GMC set up a working party to review whether the competency exam needed to be updated and asked UCL to compile this

research. The review is due later this year but its findings have been made public after they were used to defend an allegation that the GMC was racist in marking the exams of foreign doctors.

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin launched

Seven men and a youth appeared in court Monday accused of the murder of a mother and her three children who died in a house fire.

The eight defendants have all denied the charges which relate to an incident in Wood Hill, Spinney Hills, Leicester.

The accused are Aaron Webb (20) of Saltersford Road, North Evington, Leicester; Jackson Powell (20) of Burnside Road, Saffron Lane estate; Nathaniel Mullings (19) of Farrington Street, off Humberstone Road; Shaun Carter (24) of Franche Road, Dane Hills; Kemo Porter (19) of

Browning Street, West End, Tristan Richards (22) of Sparkenhoe Street, Highfields, all Leicester, Akeem Jeffers (21) of Car Mills, Buslingthorpe Lane, Leeds; and a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons. They are all charged with murdering Shehnila Taufiq, 47, and her children Zainab, 19, Bilal, 17, and Jamal,15, on September 13 last year.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges at previous hearings.

Husband and father Dr Taufiq Sattar sat in the public gallery at Nottingham Crown Court Tuesday as the legal teams

made representations to High Court Judge Mr Justice John Griffith Williams.

Prosecuting counsel

Eight deny murdering Leicester mother and her three children

Sri Lanka to deport British tourist over Buddha tattoo A British tourist is to be deported from Sri Lanka because of a tattoo of Buddha on her arm.

Sri Lankan police said Naomi Michelle Coleman, 37, was arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport in the capital, Colombo, after she arrived from India.

A police spokesman said she was arrested for "hurting others' religious feelings" after the tattoo of a Buddha seated on a lotus flower was spotted

5

gion of the country's majority ethnic Sinhalese and Buddhist tattoos are seen as culturally insensitive.

After her arrest Coleman appeared before a magistrate who ordered her deportation.

The spokesman said she is currently being held at an immigration detention centre until deportation and said she would be removed "very soon - it could be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow".

The scene after the fatal fire in Wood Hill, Leicester

Richard Latham QC told the court that he anticipated the trial would last between six to eight weeks.

Sham weddings ringleader Harpal Singh jailed The organiser of a bogus weddings racket was caught at his own fake marriage, a court heard last week.

Harpal Singh, pictured, 51, made £5000 a time setting up sham marriages between Czech women and Asian students. But Indian-born Singh was arrested after registry office staff became suspicious his divorce papers were fake. And he was found to be carrying a bag of identity cards and “marriage packs” for other bogus weddings, including one due to take place at Motherwell Register

Office.

Singh was jailed for four years and 20 weeks last Friday after he and three other defendants admitted conspiracy.

Haider Ali and Awais Ahmed, both 23, from Surrey and London, who had paid to go through sham marriages, were jailed for 12 months but freed because of time spent on remand.

The court was told Singh, who lived in London, entered the UK in 2006 on a six-month visa with his wife and three children. But after two failed immigration

applications, he was caught trying to marry at Cardiff Register Office last May.

UK

Launch of the British Mother Nature triumphs in green show Sikh Report 2014

6

By Charu Smita

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

The launch of the British Sikh Report 2014 on the 9th of April was one of those evenings that leave you wondering. Sikh community from India has been a part of the UK since 1854 when the 15 year old Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last king of the Sikh Empire, was brought to England following the

belonging, employment, languages, households, property, business, religion (and faith), to faith schools, transport, sports and crime.

British Prime Minister David Cameron had encouraging words for the launch of the BSR - “The Sikh community is playing a key part in our future too. Sikh entrepreneurs, business leaders,

annexation of the Punjab by the East India Company.

Outside India, the largest Sikh community is in Britain. To address and discuss the issues concerning this community, the BSR (British Sikh Report) Team members came together to create a statistical report which would serve as a reference data bank for the British Sikh community for funding programs and assessment of the community needs. All these team members were a part of the City Sikhs Network.

The BSR Team consists of independent and autonomous professionals from all walks of life along with partner organisations which support it.

The research report deals with crucial issues that are wide ranging- from questions about identity,

hardworking families, students and public servants will be at the forefront of our Island story in the years ahead”.

The leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband MP also joined him in welcoming the BSR, “I sincerely believe that Britain is at its best when everyone from all different communities comes together”.

Fabian Hamilton MP, who is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs wished the best for the BSR Team and felt that the report will help in providing much needed information about the dynamics of the British Sikh community, which he hopes would help Sikhs throughout the United Kingdom.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Lord

Dholakia, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats also sent out congratulatory messages and the event was well attended people belonging to various community members of inter faith.

The BSR had equal contribution from both men and women in creating the strategic document. Although several British Sikh organisations were consulted whilst the Questionnaire was being put together, the team retained its independence due to risk of influences of any vested interests.

The questionnaire was then put across on various forums on the internet and it enjoyed a wide participation from British Sikh households.

It was heartening to read the report in which 73% of the participants claim to speak Punjabi fluently and 25% can speak basic Punjabi.

There was an issue of selfidentity too, the definition of which has always plagued the Diaspora.

However, it was quite promising to find how the young British Sikhs have a clear positioning of their identity brackets. The classification ranged from British Asian, Indian Sikh, East African Sikh, Scottish Sikh, to English Sikh, Sikh and Punjabi Sikh.

As Lord Dholakia put it, “This publication will be of immense help to all political parties because it identifies issues which now confront the successive generations of Sikhs in Britain”.

the portrait in recognition of the campaign's work.

The monarch is pictured wearing regal pearls and a dress by Angela Kelly, her personal assistant and senior dresser of 12 years.

Bailey, 76, has photographed a wide range of people over the decades, including actors, writers, musicians, film-makers, models, artists amongst many others.

Speaking about Her Royal Highness, Bailey said, "I've always been a huge fan of the queen. She has very kind eyes with a mischievous glint. I've always liked strong women and she is a very strong woman."

Recently-appointed Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said the portrait was taken to "showcase everything that is great about the UK to an international

audience".

It is hoped that the image will encourage foreign visitors to experience Britain's royal heritage.

The British monarchy is one of the biggest drivers of UK tourism, creating an estimated £500 million per year in foreign spending, according to the tourism agency, VisitBritain.

The Queen typically spends her real birthday in private, but the occasion is marked publicly by gun salutes in central London at midday: a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park, a 21 gun salute in Windsor Great Park and a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London.

As she passes her 88th year, Queen Elizabeth II's reign of 62 years becomes the second longest for a British monarch, only surpassed by her great-great grand mother, who reigned over 63 years.

Happy 88th Birthday to Her Majesty

Continued from page 1

The black-and-white photograph of the elegant monarch was captured in March at her Buckingham Palace official residence in London.

Traditionally, the British sovereign celebrates her birthday twice.

The Queen's official birthday takes place on a Saturday in June, because the summer weather is supposed to be better for open-air events. This year it falls on 14 June.

The picture was authorized as part of a British government marketing campaign called "GREAT", aimed at encouraging people around the world to visit, study in and do business with Britain.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Queen Elizabeth agreed to sit for

By Rudy & Marlene Otter

Thousands walked out of a two-day show in London’s Olympia convinced that a healthier and happier lifestyle was well worth pursuing.

The show, Natural & Organic Products Europe, not only celebrated its 18th and biggest annual outing so far but announced that with interest in the sector soaring it would be relocating in 2015 to ExCel, the sprawling exhibitions centre in London’s Docklands to accommodate many more than this year’s 650 exhibitors from 45 countries.

India put its stamp on the show with a range of chemical-free Ayurvedic and other products, helping to draw 9,000 buyers spanning health, food and beauty spheres, major supermarkets and multiples, international wholesalers and distributors,

pharmacies, contract caterers, salon and spar representatives as well as hordes of visitors to a business worth nearly 21 billion euros.

The Vegan Society marked its 70th birthday at the show, rejoicing in The Independent newspaper’s forecast that veganism would go “mainstream” this year. Roxy Shahidi, ITV’s Emmerdale actress, described her devotion to vegan food.

Naturally sourced food and drinks, vitamin tablets, skin creams and household products were on display everywhere.

Annes Junaid of CBL Natural Foods, Sri Lanka, was telling people about his

organic products ranging from mangoes and cashew nuts to pineapples, papayas and spices.

Lectures included topics on why natural food is “better than drugs”.

Jay Morjaria of Sutra Kitchen cooked a vegetarian and protein meal using “seasonal ingredients with global flavours”.

Nishma Shah of Shambu’s prepared an oil-free, sugar-free African fusion meal with an “Asian twist”. Both chefs’ dishes had tasters swooning with appreciation. Amarjit Sahota of Organic Monitor, a specialist research agency, explained how earnestly the cosmetics industry was “greening up”.

Asian and Black voters increasingly turning to Tories David Cameron

The Conservative Party could gain a large number of votes from Asian and black voters, who have chosen to move to the suburbs and abandon their traditional support for Labour, a think-tank has suggested. Both Trevor Philips, the former head of the equalities watchdog, and Richard Webber, a geography professor at University College London, have argued that ethnic minority voters are more likely to turn to the Conservatives as they become more middleclass.

Trevor Philips's predictions have been stated in an article, to be published in a Demos report on Friday, which says that second or third-generation immigrants could move away from their initial support for Labour, and are less likely to vote for Ed Miliband.

The authors say, “The

expectation would be that succeeding generations of minority voters may drift away from their parents’ reflex support for Labour — or at the very least might not inherit the firstgeneration immigrants’ hostility to the Conservatives.”

This declining support for Labour, the article suggests, could be due to a large out-movement of ethnic minority families from the inner cities where they first settled, due to

skyrocketing inner-city housing costs and changes to the benefit system.

An analysis of polling data, by YouGov, suggests that ethnic minority voters are significantly more likely to vote Labour in nonwhite neighbourhoods than those that are predominantly white.

In non-white areas, 60 per cent of ethnic minorities vote Labour, compared with 48.1 per cent of voters in white neighbourhoods.

A man who beheaded his teenage girlfriend with a kitchen knife has been found guilty of her murder. Pizza delivery driver Aras Hussein decapitated 18-year-old student Reema Ramzan at his flat in Sheffield in June last year before stabbing himself in the chest.

The 21-year-old was jailed for life at Sheffield Crown Court and ordered to serve a minimum term of 20 years.

Aras Hussein

Victim: Reema Ramzan

Sheffield man guilty of beheading girlfriend

The Story of Bunnychow:

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

UK

Truck, bread and moving beyond curry

Tanveer Mann

The latest endeavour by Shanti Hospitality, involves a truck, some bread and some big global flavours. If you put them all together, you get 'Bunnychow', a new and intriguing fast food concept, recently launched in the UK. The interesting creation is essentially a hollowed out loaf of bread stuffed with an array of different fillings including ‘ B a n g c l u c k Chicken’, which is flavoured with a Thai inspired spicy ginger sauce, succulent chicken and an Asian slaw, or ‘Pork Pickle’ slow n’ roasted pork and homemade pickles or the signature ‘Monkey Gland Meatball’ cooked in a South African, BBQ inspired monkey gland sauce. The Bunnychow received investment from Shanti Hospitality in 2013, and although it’s a new concept in the UK market, it actually originates from Durban, South Africa in the 1940s.

CEO of Bunnychow, Atholl Milton explains, “This is a South African concept which was created by the workers so that they could carry their daily curry to the sugar plantation fields, by using a loaf of bread, as the vessel for carrying the filling. It was a good source of protein as

Monkey Gland meatball

well as carbs and helped them get through the day.

Bunny chow is now a legendary dish in Durban, South African and we loved the idea of using the loaf as a vessel for a range

of exciting fillings, to keep the workers of London sustained throughout the day. In 2013, we developed the bunnychow food truck which roamed around London showing up at events or festivals.

This really tested the product. Soon after, we found there was a huge interest in Bunnychow so we opened up our very own shop in Boxpark.”

Bunnychow's stationary first appearance thus came in the heart of Shoreditch.

Housed in adapted shipping containers, Boxpark offers a bunch of pop-up shops and global street food spots, the perfect spot to ensure Bunnychow is completely at home.

Speaking about the strategy to grow this new business, Milton said, “Since we launched, we have received great feedback from the customers and the press with the likes of Olive Magazine and Charles Campion hailing it as a key trend for 2014. We have finally

secured a location in Soho that will become our yearround equivalent to Preta-Manger, where you can get hot food, as well as breakfast. The roll out strategy is then to set up 7-10 of these in the next few years. There will be a variety of food on offer from breakfast through to dinner and we’re looking to launch our own branded products, in-store such as our range of healthy, freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices.

It’s also important that we continue to evolve and adapt the menu with the seasons and with an awareness of new trends and flavour profiles.

Asking Milton what compelled Shanti Hospitality to choose this particular type of cuisine, he said, “Well, nobody has really done it in a big way, over here. A lot of people are doing sandwiches, pizza, burgers but that is everywhere. Bunny chow is something which has a tradition to it and a histo-

ry to it. You can also adapt this type of food to the local culture and change the flavours according to the season.

Also the bread itself can be varied to appeal to different types of customers, for instance gluten-free.

As fast food goes, Bunnychow increasingly

Bangcluck Chicken

attracts many lovers and Shanti Hospitality hopes to fulfil the demand by expanding the company across central London.

Milton said, “At the moment our concentra-

7

tion is on launching individual outlet concepts such as Wardour Street in Soho, and from there, we’ll assess the market and move forward, storeby-store.”

Bunnychow received investment from Shanti Hospitality, a part of C&C Alpha Group but has been conscious not to blow the budget on traditional advertising and marketing. Milton said the secret is, “we decided to take a more untraditional route in the sense of talking about the brand.

So, for example, we've used social media to get people about talking Bunnychow, taking pictures of it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, that has all created a huge buzz, which has been really encouraging”. the If Bunnychow tweets, ‘likes’ and instagrams are anything to go by, this new food phenomenon is set to be deadly competition to all existing fast-food joints!

8

UK

Use of Religion in Politics As I See It

Easter’s peace message Dear Readers, there are more than 1.7 billion followers of Jesus Christ. Most of them are Catholic. The Church of England is the authorized religion in Britain. As per tradition, the Easter peace message is delivered by the Pope, Church of England’s Archbishop and the head of the English Catholic Church. The British Queen delivers a Christmas message, but she does not give a message on Easter.

Yes, on the eve of Good Friday – the tradition of Maundy Thursday is kept alive by the Pope, as well as the Queen.

In the suburbs of Rome, the Vatican, the Pope continues the age-old tradition by washing the feet of eleven elderly people, cleaning them with cloths and kissing their feet. Visuals of this ceremony were broadcasted in British television channels.

In the case of the Queen, she continued the tradition by giving silver coins to poor people (mostly elderly people). Though Pope and the Queen have continued the tradition, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has seemingly broken the tradition. As we know, generally the British PM doesn’t give a message on Easter. He, however, set a new tradition by delivering an Easter message this time.

At a time when the European and local elections are due and the PM takes such a step, obviously his opponents would not miss a chance to target him. They said that, there was no need to give an Easter message and called it a gimmick. The Opposition party accused him of using religion to improve the Conservative party’s position and to woo the voters. In this context, you can term the Easter message of Mr. Cameron as Communal too.

In Britain, Mr. Cameron’s message has created controversy. In the same manner, a controversy has been created following a statement of a Muslim cler-

gy on post-Godhra riots in India. The ruling Congress party is in trouble in the on-going general elections in India.

In the past one decade, the Indian government was not able to take several important decisions in time and rampant corruption has crossed all the previous records. In Narendra Modi’s words – “RSVP means Rahul (Gandhi), Sonia (Gandhi), (Robert) Vadra and Priyanka. People are considering them responsible for all the mess that happened in the country. As a result of it, they are trying to divert attention of the voters by using religious and communal issues.”

Another such point is the Muslim skull cap. Readers might know that, during a ‘Sadbhavana’ program of Narendra Modi in 2010-11, a Muslim clergy offered Modi to wear a skull cap.

However, Modi declined to wear the cap with politeness but accepted a scarf. This incident is still in discussion.

Here I would like to quote a statement of Jamiyat-Ulema-E-Hind’s president Maulana Madani: “There is nothing wrong if Modi didn’t wear a skull cap. Being a Muslim I also didn’t do ‘Tilak’. No individual can be forced to accept a token of another’s religion.” Madani also said in reference of pressure on Modi that he should apologise publicly for post Godhra riots.

Madani said: “There is no need for Modi to apologize for riots. Yes, he should undergo the penalty if found guilty by a court.”

It would be better if the politicians understand that at the time of elections they are expected to raise issues related to peoples’ problems and tell them that what they can do for the development of the country. Provocation of people’s feelings may help them in the shortterm but in the long run it would only dent them.

- CB

Podiatrist denies sexually assaulting patient

A podiatrist massaged and rubbed a woman’s thighs, saying 'beautiful, beautiful' when she had paid him to just cut her toe nails, a court was told.

It was alleged at Cardiff Crown Court that Yousef Kalami, 59, also put the patient’s leg up over his shoulder.

Prosecutor Nicholas Gareth Jones told the defendant was getting “sexual gratification” from the examination of the woman aged in her 60s at her Pontypridd home.

“When he arrived, she sat on a chair expecting him to sit on a small table in front of her but he told her to lie down on the settee. He put on blue rubber gloves, looked at her feet and then bent both her legs up and felt her thighs.

And he put his hand on her lower abdomen, near her private parts – something which caused her great embarrassment and concern and which the prosecution says was something unnecessary to the treatment he was carrying out. She made an excuse of feeling giddy and needing to get up but he

said he hadn’t finished and rubbed his hands on her thighs again,” he said.

Mr Jones alleged that later, after washing his hands, the practitioner stopped to comment on family pictures the patient had on her fridge and then assaulted her a second time.

“From behind, he put his hands around her waist, pulled her towards him and thrust himself against her buttocks, again saying ‘beautiful’,” the barrister said.

The woman, giving evidence over a live video link to the courtroom – where Kalami denies two charges of sexual assault – said she booked him for a home visit through Church Village Podiatry and Chiropody Services.

Questioned by the podiatrist’s defence counsel Stephen Jeary, she said it wasn’t true that she had told Kalami she had a bad back and legs.

“He explained what he would do and you agreed to it,” Mr Jeary suggested.

The woman told him: “No, he didn’t (explain) and I didn’t agree.

Chiropodist Yousef Kalami

“We hadn’t even spoken before his asked me to lie down and he wasn’t asking me how I felt.

“He was just massaging my thighs and saying ‘yes, seems alright.. beautiful’. He just kept repeating ‘beautiful’.

The court heard that when arrested, Kalami, of Chandler’s Reach, Llantwit Fardre, told police he had performed some of the treatment as she described but it had not been in anyway sexual.

He had felt some of the muscles in her legs because that could cause foot problems but he had been nowhere near her private parts.

Young girl from Harrow set to be Labour's MP candidate

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Rupanjana Dutta Tanveer Mann

In October, a local Harrow girl, Uma Kumaran, was selected to be Labour’s MP candidate in the forthcoming general election.

Since then, Uma's campaigning, passion and enthusiasm for making a better Harrow, has gained attention from many in Politics, including Gareth Thomas, Labour’s MP for Harrow West, saying: “Uma will be a first-class MP standing up for the people of Harrow East.”

London-born Uma was raised in and still lives in Harrow with her parents, Sri Lankan Tamils, who fled the country in the midst of the Civil War. Uma obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Politics and a Master of Science (MSc) in Public Policy from Queen Mary

Harrow sharing their same experiences.

Uma's youthful age has not restrained her from fighting for what she believes, neither has it denoted her as 'less' experienced. She explained, she is waiting for it to be a hurdle and fortunately, so far it hasn't been. Instead of her age, the nature of Politics and the public's perception of it has had a

If she wins, Uma plans to enforce change in Harrow, focusing particularly on the cost of living.

Explaining, she said, 'Our residents are working really hard here, trying to build a better life for themselves, for their children and right now people are feeling like they're working to live and living for work. We have the largest number of dependent children in Harrow. We have 77% home ownership which means house prices are far beyond the reach of people. We've got lots of people living with their families, making parents worried that their children are not able to get on that housing ladder. You've got people working on national minimum wage that isn't really in line with inflation so they're weekly bills have gone up but their pay hasn't.'

University of London.

Her journey into Politics began when she became increasingly unhappy with the situation in Harrow. Deciding to do something about her frustration with the system, Uma chose to quit her day job in the NHS and throw herself into Politics, becoming a Parliamentary intern. In due course, she became a case worker who accompanied MPs to listen to their constituent's problems. In an exclusive interview, Uma refers to her journey into Politics, as 'kind of falling down stairs but upright.'

When asked why she chose Labour in particular, she said, 'I believe we're born equal and we should all have the equal chance to succeed but not everyone has it. However, we do live in a society that cares for one another and its this core value that made me join the Labour Party.'

Speaking about the rewarding aspect of her political career so far, Uma said the most rewarding is meeting warm people who are genuinely happy that there is a woman from

significant impact on Uma, particularly with the ongoing challenge of tackling apathy. She expresses, ''You're all the same' is something I hear time and time again, and it's really sad because we're not all the same. Yes, everyone gets into Politics to make a difference, but obviously being a Labour Party candidate, my views and values are very different from the Government today.'

'Part of my challenge is to work to re-engage people, especially the young people, because ultimately the decisions this Government are making are disproportionately affecting them. Youngsters need to get involved and vote. These are the people who could change the direction of Politics.'

Talking about the challenges women face in Politics, Uma said, 'I think being a woman in Politics is extremely difficult and can be quite daunting as well. It is not in the comfort zone of most people but at the same time, we never go anywhere alone.

There are a lot of structures that help, but ultimately it does feel like a man's world at times.'

How is Uma garnering support from the younger generation? For one, she is out on the doorsteps every weekend, ensuring face-tofact contact with voters.

She is also an avid user of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. She does understand that youngsters may feel Politics is alien to them but in response, she believes, 'I can relate to their stories. They'd be surprised how many of the things they've done that I've probably done as well.

It's true, Politics as a whole should be more relevant. It should give those a chance who are capable of representing where they're from.'

Asking her if she believes the UK could have an Asian Prime Minister in the future, Uma optimistically replied, 'Of course it can, I'm not saying its going to be easy but it is up to people like me, you and everyone out there to do their bit to make a difference and for me its not about having an Asian PM because their Asian but having a Prime Minister despite the fact that they're Asian and its the best person for the job.'

Uma Kumaran

UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Leading Lights

Rani Singh, Special Assignments Editor

The Law Student and Challenging Playwright Iman’s interest in theatre was first piqued while reading English Literature at Edinburgh University, as a reviewer at the annual Fringe Festival.

Graduating in a recession, Iman did an MSc in Postcolonial Literature and went on to do a mixture of jobs in London including working with the South Asian Literature Festival, when my own book launched, and Booktrust.

Iman, who is now studying law, has just written a play called “Speed,” which my Ed, Rupanjana, liked.

Iman explained the play’s genesis.

“Speed was a child of the recession and the journey every 20-something goes through in trying to figure out who they are.

It’s a comedy featuring five 20-somethings with various degrees of success in their personal and professional lives. It’s about the difficulties arising when true desire conflicts with expectation. I challenged the presumption that that money + love = happiness.

Iman Qureshi

What if we don’t love who we’re supposed to?

What if our career ambitions do not make money?

I battled these questions in my own life, and having imbibed theatre in Edinburgh, I put it all in a play.”

Speed’s first draft was written early 2012 and submitted to Kali Theatre who invite submissions from Asian women for their annual programme for developing writers..

Iman secured a place and got workshops with indus-

try professionals. The course was free, one evening a week, so was compatible with her fulltime day job.

She said, “Those workshops were my A-Z of playwriting. At the end of the programme I redrafted Speed and resubmitted it to Kali.” From there it was given a workshop with actors and a director, Poonam Brah, and then developed further, resulting in a full production as part of Kali’s 2013 festival, and then again in February 2014.

Iman said, “The soul of my play lies with a transgender man named Sammy. He’s had a difficult and lonely journey figuring out who he is. I didn’t want to write about his trauma, but

rather his triumph, bravery and kindness. Sammy has never had a relationship before, so this foray into speed-dating is a first.

As he walks into the bar nervous and optimistic, he’s confronted with selfish, world-weary characters who are unlucky in love and railing against society’s expectations.

Sammy, having challenged one of society’s most rigid definitions - gender - is a saviour. His honesty and capacity to see beyond appearances is the central message of the play.”

Iman says that the theme is love. “But the process of love is often one about negotiating identity, learning to come to terms with who you are.

Different characters have different challenges. One character has invested so much in a relationship that his own dreams have

been neglected. Another character - a working class lefty – struggles with the fact that she’s fallen in love with a posh boy.

Another character is too afraid to accept the fact that he’s gay. My favourite

“My passion is an interest in people. I’d like to be a lawyer by day, writer by night.” character, and in my opinion the most complex, is a woman who is tormented by both her femininity and Asian-ness. She despises being looked at and ogled, and hates both being labelled Asian, and playing the female act which women are often forced into. I think her rage at

Goldy Notay and Tariq Jordan in 'Speed'

9

being labelled and confined is very similar to my own, but her challenge is to learn how to be at peace with those identities without letting them define her. Sammy gives her that peace. It’s the most unusual and unexpected match of the event, but the most powerful.”

Since Iman is combining Law and Drama writing, I wonder which one she is more passionate about. She replied, “I have one passion, but two career ambitions. My passion is an interest in people. I’d like to be a lawyer by day, writer by night. I never understand how people are full time writers. Where do they get their material from? I’m the sort of person who needs inspiration. I’m sure my friends feel mildly violated seeing Speed, as so much is inspired from my life, and consequently, theirs. Law is the sort of field where you’re really exposed to the mechanics of business, governance and society; I love learning about those worlds. Law and writing are complementary and there’s a precedent for people who have done both. So in an ideal world, that would be me.

Performed in Gujarati with scene synopses in English

From 5 – 10 May

#AllsWell #G2G

10

YOUR VOICE

Indian elections getting too personal?

The Indian election is going to end in three weeks time and the way in which personal attacks made against Modi in desperation by educated Congress senior leaders is disgraceful. Every body knows Congress is going to loose because of corruption and several scandals including 2G Spectrum, coal allocation and Commonwealth games.

It is outrageous on the part of Rahul Gandhi to bring out the married life of Modi which is irrelevant. Rahul Gandhi himself is a currency smuggler and has had several Latin American girl friends.

Sonia describes Modi as Hitler, Mussolini, dictator and so on and if he becomes the Prime Minister he will drive Muslims out of the country and he was responsible for the killing of 1000 Muslims in Gujarat during Godhra riots.

Modi like Sonia and Mussolini were elected by the people. Sonia Gandhi fails to understand Hindus represent 80 per cent of the population and minority Muslims have the audacity to set fire to pilgrims in one railway compartment who were returning from Ayodhya.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are faceless people who failed to condemn a Muslim leader who said Muslim soldiers were responsible for Kargil victory and Hindu soldiers are hapless people.

The entire election campaign is concentrated on Muslims in U.P and Bihar and there was no coverage from other states. Hindus should be very calm in these circumstances and should avoid communal riots which the Congress leaders are trying to do.

aaStop Modi campaign

Perceptions and Reality

Anti-Modi campaign has been there in India ever since he became Chief Minister of Gujarat. However, very recently it is gathering momentum and indeed it has taken a very sinister turn.

There is now a deliberate conspiracy to do everything possible to stop Mr. Modi becoming the next Prime Minister of India. A number of people of Indian origin have written a letter in the Guardian blaming him of the Godhra incident in 2002.

These people are supposed to be highly intellectual Indian elites. Mr Modi has been found to be completely innocent by the Courts and also by the Investigating Authority set up by the Congress Govt.

The record of the UPA Govt shows that in the past ten years there has been endemic corruption, bribery and nepotism with society going from bad to worse. The law and order situation has deteriorated especially in the northern half of India. One woman or girl is raped every twenty minutes. Thousands of farmers have been committing suicide every year. In 2004 when the UPA coalition won the election the annual GDP growth was 7.9%. It is now almost half this figure.

India is a vast country of more than 1.2 billion people of huge diversity. It requires a high quality brain with right vision and efficient administrative ability to run the country for the good of all concerned. It is a choice for the people of India to make. There is a need to examine the real motive for campaigning against Modi in this way.

We should all be proud of Alpesh for his deep faith in Bharati culture and also CB for his optimism for Modi and congratulate them both.

The West perceives Bharati culture with its multiple gods and caste system as an oddity and has tried hard to destroy it since the British Raj with Macaulay’s introduction of the western education system. Before that, many others have tried with sword and failed. The reality is that the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece, Rome and many others have vanished but there is some basic goodness in the foundation of the Bharati culture which has allowed it to stand firm for millenniums. Modi is a product of this ancient (Sanatan) culture. Hence the mass hysteria against him in western media (Guardian, The Economist, etc.) and their clones. Their perception is how a product of this odd culture can dare stand at the helm of the Government of the biggest democracy in the world, especially without their affirmative node.

They will try their best to stop it happening. They have been trying a similar scenario in Cuba since 1959 (Bay of Pigs in 1961 to ZunZuneo-AID in 2014) and have failed miserably because reality is that the people are with Castros. If people are with Modi then no power on earth could stop him at the helm. Of course they will try to achieve their aim with fair or foul means like media, AAP, NGOs, rigging AVMs, etc.

Narsibhai Patel New Malden

Dr. Jatindra Saha By email

For a week, we had the worst air pollution since early sixties, mainly due to sands blowing from Sahara desert, complicated by excessive use of cars, especially in good weather condition with high pressure making air stagnant, thus retaining pollution rather than dispersing. Air pollution affects people with asthma and weak lungs most, forcing many to stay indoors, unable to go to work or to schools. Yet we pay scant attention to the needs of cyclists, in sharp contrast to Nederland where every road has safe and functional cycle lane built in during road construction.

Netherland, a flat country suitable for cycling has most cycle friendly roads in Europe with safety paramount, in sharp contrasts to UK/London where hundreds of cyclists are killed every year by motorists, mainly HGV with poor driving and blind spots due to lack of guidance and safety laws. This may be put right, as EU has just announced strict regulation, built in safety measures for Lorries including bigger, round windows which will eliminate blind spots. Cycling, the best form of physical exercise, keep cyclists healthy if the air they breathe in is clean, reducing healthcare cost and obesity, especially in children. This will free high streets from car traffic and pollution. But the question is will Britain accept these new EU laws designed for HGV? Bhupendra M Gandhi By email

Arun Vaidyanathan By email

Being Indian

The timing is right for a new beginning for India. The Muslims of India are different from the Muslims in other parts of the world. If you study carefully all the terrorism activities around the world over the past 50 years, you will come to a factual conclusion that Indian Muslims were not involved in most of them.

The Muslims invaded India in the 11th century. The British in the 17th century. Hindus remained a majority before then, during their rule and now. When the same people invaded Africa or other Asian nations, they managed to convert them to Islam or Christianity. Not in India.

Communal harmony in India has been the norm throughout centuries. It is not going to change now.

All Indians pursue the desire to work hard and progress in a true democracy that you are experiencing right now: 15% increase in turnout in the democratic elections compared to the last General Election.

It is expected that India will be the third largest economy in the world by 2028 after USA and China [Accounting and Business UK 02/2014, page 8, Trends].

Current widely publicized attempts to arouse communal disharmony will not

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Modi good for India

All the signs point to Narendra Modi romping to victory in India’s general election and that will be very good news indeed if it happens. Nothing however can be assumed until all the votes are counted and the winner announced.

Modi is widely regarded as the best candidate to ginger up India’s economy and set it on the path to ever greater growth. What he has already achieved for Gujarat will give him the confidence to repeat his successful formula for the rest of the country.

Rudy Otter By email work in India.

The factual history of relations between Hindus and Muslims is more fully described in “Being Indian – Inside the Real India” by Pavan K. Varma [pages 161-173] and “India – A Portrait” by Patrick French [pages 340-48].

Banias are interested in doing business with each other rather than killing each other.

Subscribe Today Asian Voice in UK for only £27.50 for one year

Nagin Kajuria By email

ASIAN VOICE

Is cycling the solution to clean air?

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Truth Verses Propaganda I cannot help but wonder whether Jayewardene’s letter in your esteem paper is the truth or misguided, misinformed piece in view of the forth-coming local elections that may be fought under difficult and different atmosphere.

I have met Cllr. Navin Shah on many occasions, interviewing him on behalf of various newspapers and magazines. Cllr.

Shah has decided to stand-down on his own accord at the next election, due in few weeks. This is in sharp contrast to so many who cling on to their seats even when they may have clearly passed their sell by date, unable to perform their duties to the best of their abilities.

In this day and age £8,160 allowance is insignificant, especially for someone of the stature of Cllr Shah who is also London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow and an accomplished architect who willingly gave up his thriving practice long time ago to fulfil his life-long ambition on political front and his burning desire to serve the humanity and in particular his community, his constituents. He feels he has served diligently at Council level, achieved his goal and it is time to make way for younger generation. He works tirelessly across the Brent and Harrow communities; support local organizations across party divide and plays a leading role in interfaith awareness, building bridges and serving his constituents to the best of his ability.

I cannot help but feel that one day he may grace HOC or HOL, an honour he richly deserves and long overdue.

Kumudini Valambia By email

Under pressure

I was shocked recently when I saw a story on BBC News (Tuesday 1st April 2014) in which the new NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens tries to relax whilst a Practice Nurse checks his blood pressure when he visited Consett Medical Centre in Co Durham on his first day in the job. This was then followed by his picture being in the nationals including The Metro.

I wish to take this opportunity to bring to your readers awareness that the nurse is using a Mercury Sphygmomenometer (blood pressure measuring instrument) with a stethoscope. I was under the impression that this instrument was banned and not in use since 2005.

As a retired practice nurse myself I know the Mercury Sphygmomenometer is the most accurate and reliable machine hence it is called ‘Gold Standard” but if I had used it I would have been inviting trouble not just for myself but also those who employed me.

Kalpana Shah-Patel Retired Practice Nurse Wembley, Middx

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UK

Alleged plot to ‘take over’ schools will fracture social cohesion, warns former head

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

11

Once again the media spotlight is on Birmingham.

This time into an alleged plot by Islamic extremists to take over schools in the city. Dhiren Katwa, our Birmingham-born roving reporter, spoke to a range of citizens to gauge their mood and reaction.

People I approached had plenty to say. But hardly anyone was prepared to talk on-record. This alone is proof enough of the sensitivity of this issue, one which has been simmering for years. So why only now has this become a full blown matter for discussion and debate?

‘Because the government has only just realised, and taken seriously the level of threat and the risk of potential widespread impact,’ said a senior academic, who asked not to be named.

The investigation, called Operation Trojan Horse, was triggered last month after an anonymous letter – which has not been verified as genuine – was leaked to MPs, press and ministers.

The undated and unsigned letter offers a five-step plan to take over schools in communities with large Muslim populations with the help of what it calls “hardline” parents who follow the strict Salafi branch of Islam.

However one of the alleged plotters, Tahir Alam – a former chair of the education committee of the Muslim Council of Britain – described the letter “a malicious fabrication and completely untrue”. A total 25 Birmingham schools are

thought to be at risk from the alleged takeover plot.

Birmingham’s population stands at just over one million of which 42% are from ethnic minority groups; 21.8% are followers of Islam.

There have also been suggestions of similar tactics being employed in Bradford and Manchester.

However councils in both cities have denied investigating any specific allegations.

The letter names four Birmingham schools where they have already had “success”: Adderley Primary, Saltley School, Park View School and Regents Park Community Primary School. Last October headteacher Tina Ireland resigned from Regents Park after an investigation into the school’s outstanding SATs results.

The letter’s authors claim they “planted the seed of her cheating in order to get the result she has”.

Saltley’s headteacher resigned last year after a critical Ofsted report.

Inspectors said there was a “dysfunctional” relationship between head teacher Balwant Bains and governors which was hindering the school.

One head of a Birmingham school said:

Stephen Rimmer

“I cannot make any official comments on Trojan Horse as heads have been asked not to comment by Birmingham City Council”.

He added: “However, I do think the allegations are likely to be true, sadly a lot of good people and schools have been damaged as a consequence.”

Kamal Hanif is headteacher at Waverley School in the Small Heath, an inner-city area of Birmingham. In 2012, he was awarded an OBE for services to education.

He became one of the youngest headteachers in England when appointed in 2005, then aged 33. He chose not to comment on Operation Trojan.

Steven Tuft, a former head of a Birmingham school, recently retired, said: “I really don’t know where to begin as this is such an emotive topic.”

He added: “My real concern is that of social cohesion, as you know, Birmingham has no ethnic majority, and the city is truly integrated, unlike some other towns and cities in the UK that have

Ian Kershaw

Ministers' betrayal of the NHS whistle blowers

Leading doctors have accused the Government of betraying NHS whistleblowers despite promising they will be protected. They say nothing has changed over the last year even though ministers have pledged to change the culture of the Health Service to make it easier for staff to raise concerns.

Only last week it emerged that an NHS trust had spent £10million trying to silence cardiologist Dr Raj Mattu who warned of patients dying on overcrowded wards. He was suspended from Coventry's Walgrave Hospital in 2000 and later sacked but last Thursday he was vindicated when a High Court judge ruled he had been unfairly dismissed.

Since then, a further two cases have come to light involving senior doctors who have effectively been barred from the NHS after raising concerns.

One of them included that of paediatric surgeon Shiban Ahmed who has been

Balwant Bains

a diverse ethnic grouping.”

Ruth Jacobs is a leader of the Jewish community in Birmingham. She said: “It seems to me that there are many allegations about this situation which are very concerning if they are true or false, as either way they raise issues which need to be addressed. I think it would be untimely and inappropriate for me as a member of the Jewish community to make any comment on this situation which I understand to be under review by both the City Council and the Government except to say that I hope that the measures put in place to investigate these serious questions will be successful in revealing exactly what the situation is, and be able to resolve the many underlying issues which have the potential to create division and intolerance.”

Cllr Chaman Lal (Lab; Soho Ward) said ‘it would be inappropriate of me to make comment on the Trojan Horse issue whilst we have a number of ongoing high-profile investigations.’ However, he

promised to end 'the era of gagging NHS staff'.

In a victory for whistleblowers, Dr Mattu was cleared last Thursday of any wrongdoing. Coventry and Warwickshire NHS trust – which runs Walgrave Hospital – had pursued him through employment tribunals, running up a bill of £10million.

But there are fears that there are many other cases of whistleblowers being suspendDr Raj Mattu with his wife Sangeeta ed. Dr O'Keefe raised concerns about a patient suspended by Alder Hey in who suffered a brain injury Liverpool since 2009 and after becoming disconnected wrongly accused of being from a ventilator for more 'suicidal' after warning that than ten minutes. He was five patients had died needsuspended after being lessly. accused of bullying colDr Peter Tomlin, of the leagues.

Doctors' Support Group, Dr Ahmed spoke out said: 'We have constantly about the quality of surgery been promised better protecat Alder Hey in 2009. He was tion for whistleblowers and suspended when the hospital an end to long-term suspenruled him to be 'suicidal'. The sions. Neither has happened.'

British Medical Association Last March, Health rejects that assessment.

Secretary Jeremy Hunt

Cllr Chaman Lal

added that the “government’s removal of the Local Education Authority powers in Academies and free schools can lead to Trojan Horse situations’.

I contacted several other professionals from the education sector in Birmingham, who happen to be from major faith groups, for comment. All declined to formally comment, but were willing to speak to me off-record.

Interestingly, the general consensus was that they do believe the allegations to be true and are hoping that the various investigations going on will bring out the truth.

Since the allegations unfolded, a number of appointments have been announced.

These include: Peter Clarke, former head of Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command, has been appointed as a special commissioner to review evidence of the alleged plan to drive out non-compliant heads and governors in Birmingham; Ian Kershaw, managing director of Northern Education, will oversee

Pank Patel

the Trojan Horse investigation on behalf of Birmingham City Council; Stephen Rimmer will chair a group which will include senior representatives from faith and community groups, those affected by the allegations.

Mr Rimmer was brought to the West Midlands last year to lead an investigation into the abuse and sexual exploitation of children, and was previously employed by the Home Officer as director of its Prevent strategy, set up to counter radicalisation.

Pank Patel, who has been headteacher at Wood Green Academy since 2006, has been appointed by the Department for Education as its first Commissioner for Schools in the West Midlands. Mr Patel will decide which schools can become academies and will monitor performance.

Do you believe the allegations to be true, or otherwise? Email me your thoughts, views, comments at dhiren.katwa@abplgroup. com

EU ban on Indian mangoes and vegetables

European Union member states have decided to ban the import of five types of fruits and vegetables from India, after several batches were found to be contaminated by pests such as fruit flies, the bloc’s executive said.

The prohibition, which goes into effect in May, covers mangoes, aubergines, the taro plant and two types of gourd.

These represent less than 5 per cent of the bloc’s fresh fruit and vegetable imports from India, according to the E u r o p e a n Commission.

Pests that are not native to Europe were found in 207 fruit and vegetable consignments from the subcontinent last year, the Commission said, adding that they “could pose a threat to EU agriculture and production.” The EU’s

executive also said there were ‘significant shortcomings’ in the certification systems that prevent contaminated goods from being exported. The ban, agreed by a committee of experts representing member states, is to be reviewed by the end of 2015.

This issue has raised many concerns within the grocery industry.

Sangat Advice Centre, a nonprofit organisation that works with the local community in Harrow, have stepped up to help the local grocers affected.

Kanti Nagda on behalf of the centre

said: “It has been brought to our notice by our business clients that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is imposing a ban on the import of mangos and other vegetables from India from next month. Sangat Advice Centre, in order to establish the facts and the reasons behind such a harsh ban, has written to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Farming, Food and Marine environment to meet a delegation of businessmen and community representatives. An on line petition has been started by the Indian business community. Not only the Indian business community in the UK but consumers of these items are very concerned about such a ban.”

12

MEDIA WATCH

The elections are in full swing and so are speculative opinion polls. It is part of the razzmatazz that accompanies the exercise and is accepted as such. It gives a buzz to the proceedings, but otherwise lacks credibility. The latest such opinion poll carried prominently (and solely) by the Times of India (April 15), borders on the absurd. Certain BJP heavyweights, such as Arun Jaitley, have already relegated the Congress Party to third position – which is what they did in 2004 and 2009. They may be proved right this time, but why tempt fate.

Better, surely, to wait for the final count in a few weeks time.

A tranquillizer might help soothe fraught nerves. Put opinion poll fever down to media hype. The Election Commission has issued a ban on the racket of opinion polls in the interests of a level playing in the elections going forward (Hindu April 17)

Supreme Court upholds Transgender rights Much more significant was the empowerment of India’s transgender population, whose rights have been endorsed by a Supreme Court ruling. The Times of India (April 16) on its

added the caveat that the Court should now revise its verdict upholding the validity of Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes gay relationships among men and women.

There are inter-related issues that require uniformity of approach. Amnesty is right.

(Hindu April 17)

Transgender people celebrate

front page wrote: “Centuries of having to live with the indeterminate identity came to an end…..when the Supreme Court recognized them as the ‘the third gender’ separate from male or female,” a boost to their struggle to achieve a more secure social and economic future. According to the front-page report in the Hindu (April 16) the “Bench directed the Centre and the States to…..extend reservation for admission in educational institutions and for public appointment,” The Bench said the issue for transvestites was not a medical but a human rights issue. As citizens of India, the Constitution upholds Transgender rights, “irrespective of caste, religion or gender.” By virtue of this ruling documents pertaining to identity, including a birth certificate, passport, ration card and driving licence must henceforth recognize the third gender. To the National Legal Services Authority belongs the credit of filing the petition, the Supreme Court judgment being the welcome response.

Struggle ahead.

Gay rights

However, transgender activists are under no illusions about the struggle that lies ahead.

Substantial though the victory is, the more difficult battle by far will be overcoming the encrusted social prejudice against the community. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon hailed the Supreme Court judgment as a major step forward, as has Amnesty International, which

Stunning TCS performance

Indian software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has produced a stellar performance in the fourth quarter of the 20013-14 financial year during which its profit jumped a staggering 48 per cent. Not surprisingly the news made banner

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

first Indian IT firm to have more than 300,000 registered employees, and the outlook for 2014-15 suggests that the overall TCS performance will outstrip that of 2013-14.

“We are seeing three areas of spending – in simplification, improving discretionary budgets towards towards going digital and in regulatory changes, namely governance,….But going into FY15, we believe India will improve. We will have to wait and for the first two quarters…..our focus has been to stay disciplined in operations while supporting growth across multiple markets, industries and technologies…..We are continuously investing to stay ahead of the game,” said TCS CEO N.Chandrasekeran. (Business Line, Hindu, Mint, Telegraph April 17)

HCL Tech in top gear

Led by applications services and improved business across a broad spectrum, HCL Technologies has reported a consolidated net profit of of Rs 1,624 crore for the quarter ending March 31, 2014, a spectacular jump of 59 per cent from the corresponding period of the previous year. HCL Technologies President and CEO, Anant Gupta, said: “We continue to focus on Fortune 500 and Global 2000 customers. Whether it is operational outsourcing or pure transformational deals, we will be targeting specific markets.”

(Business Line April 18).

Infosys beat market expectations by posting a 25 per cent profit for the fourth quarter ending March 31. (Business Line April 16)

Record voter turnout

There has been a record voter turnout in the fifth phase of the general election, with West Bengal leading the list with an 80 per cent figure, which the Communist-led Left Front(fac-

Indian democracy.” (Hindu April 17). Jayalalitha spurned the remark by launching a vigorous attack on Modi, debunking the Gujarat model of development (Hindu April 18) Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party-BJP alliance in Andhra Pradesh with TDP threatened their accord over ticket distribution in the election. However, later reports say that the issue has been settled (Times of India April 18, 19).

High speed trains

An Indian delegation led by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, and including senior officials of the Indian Railways, visited China to establish a cooperative venture between the two countries for the development of high speed trains in India. China, with its 9,700 kilometres of high speed tracks, is well advanced in the field, hence Dr Ahluwalia and his colleagues met with Chinese Prime Minister Le Keqiang; the Indian team also held talks with top Chinese railway officials on a contract for Sino-Indian high speed railway cooperation.

High speed corridors

India is conducting a series of feasibility studies on high speed rail corridors in different parts of the country, of which the 650kilometre Mumbai-PuneAhmedabad link has been studied by Systems of France, Italferr (Italy) and RITES (India). The 991- kilometer stretch between Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-VaranasiPatna has resulted in a feasibility report by Mott McDonald (UK).

The 135-kilometre

More hires, rosier future

TCS is set to recruit 55,000 staff in the current fiscal (2014-15), as Asia’s largest IT firm expects stable demand for its off-shoring and backroom services over the next 12 months. The company has already offered employment to 25,000 IT graduates. It is the

Buy Tejas, not Rafele

An article in the op-ed page of the Hindu (April 17) by Manmohan Reddy, an expert on aviation and defence, argued for

Tejas aircraft

increased orders for India’s domestically-designed and manufactured fighter aircraft Tejas over the French Rafale contracted by the Indian Air Force (IAF). Reddy points out that the escalating cost of the French war plane with its additional weapons suite would be hugely over budget - $20 billion over the original price tag of $12 billion – and cripple IAF plans for other urgently needed acquisitions. Reddy suggests the IAF buy 200 advanced model Tejas, which, though slightly inferior to the Rafale, could make up through numbers what it loses in quality. The IAF’s Sukhoi MKI30 is a lethal, top quality fighter bomber, which it has in numbers. When the fifth generation Russian-Indian aircraft arrives, the IAF will have all the cutting edge it needs, making the Rafale surplus to Indian requirements.

Dhowan, new naval chief

N.Chandrasekeran

media headlines, Propelled by high demand for IT outsourcing services across Europe and the Asia-Pacific, TCS posted a 48.18 per cent leap in net profit. TCS recorded maximum sequential revenue growth from Continental Europe (up 5 per cent) followed by the UK (up 2.6 per cent) and the Asia-Pacific (2.4 per cent). During this quarter, TCS won nine large outsourcing contracts, apart from 18 new deals in the digital space.

Chennai corridor have been assessed by Ineco, Pointec and Ayesa of Spain, and by a consortium led by Brinckerhorf (India). Another 850-kilometre stretch covering ChennaiBangalore-CoimbatoreErnakulam-Thiravanthapuram has resulted in a report by JARTS of Japan, while the tender for the 591-kilometre DelhJaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur link is work in progress. India’s present fast trains are capable of 130kilometre speed levels, which, hopefully, will be upgraded to 200-kilometre speeds, thus reducing fuel consumption and costs, and a 15-30 per cent in travel time reduction (Business Line April 18)

West Bengal election booth

ing extinction) claims is proof the poll has been rigged.

Elsewhere, Odisha followed with a 70 plus turnout, while the other States involved also registered record queues of people casting their ballots.

Modi criticized

BJP prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi spoke of his “excellent personal relations” with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIDMK head Jayalalitha and other non-BJP leaders. He said this was the “beauty of

Howrah-Haldia and the 664kilometre projects through the Hyderabad-Domaku-Vijawada-

R. K. Dhowan has been appointed Chief of the Naval Staff in succession to Admiral D.K.Joshi who resigned his position following a number high profile accidents involving submarines.

Admiral Dhowan’s tenure will last 25 months. Commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1975, he has commanded a number of frontline warships during his career.

He was FlagO f f i c e r Commanding of the Eastern Fleet and the Chief of Staff at N a v a l Headquarters.

Admiral Dhowan inspecting naval guard of honour

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

BBC presenter George Alagiah diagnosed with bowel cancer George Alagiah, the BBC newsreader, has been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

The 58-year-old newsreader is undergoing treatment and is “optimistic for a positive outcome”.

The BBC announced the news in a statement last week: “George Alagiah has recently been diagnosed with bowel cancer and will be off air for a while, as he undergoes treatment. He is grateful for all the good wishes he has received thus far and is optimistic for a positive outcome.

George asks that he and his family are given the space and privacy they require whilst he recovers. Our thoughts are with him and his family and we send them our very best wishes during this time. Until such time as George is well enough to return to work the BBC News at Six and GMT on BBC World News will be presented as usual by familiar faces from BBC News.”

George Alagiah has thanked viewers for their messages of goodwill

research.

"What a friend, what a woman!" he wrote.

Alagiah has been married to his wife, Frances, for 30 years and they have two grown-up sons.

George Alagiah The SriLankan born after his cancer diagnopresenter has spoken presis. "It's been a week of viously about his admirashock and hope, tears tion for medical care in and laughter, realism and Britain, saying: “The optimism.

But so NHS is the civilising and touched and strengthdefining institution of ened by good wishes.

British life. I appreciate it Thank you all," he wrote as a former foreign correon Twitter. spondent, having come The 58-year-old first from the poor world to joined the BBC in 1989 the rich world, and havand spent many years as ing spent most of my one of the BBC's leading working life in countries foreign correspondents, where people wish they reporting on events such had something like the as the genocide in NHS.” Rwanda and the conflict Bowel cancer is the in Kosovo. third most common type He was made an OBE of cancer. If diagnosed in in 2008's New Year its earliest stages, the Honours. chance of surviving a furIn a second tweet, ther five years is 90 per Alagiah thanked his cent and a complete cure newsroom colleague is usually possible, Sophie Raworth for runaccording to NHS statisning the Boston tics. marathon in aid of cancer

UK

Many miss out on first choice in scramble for schools

Wednesday 16 April was a crucial day for parents all over the UK. It was the first national offer day for primary schools, where many parents found out whether their children managed to secure a place at their first choice.

Hundreds of thousands of families across England received the good – and bad news, with almost two-fifths of children failing to win a place at their first choice of primary school, despite thousands more places being created.

According to results, about one in 10 will not be able to go to the school of their choice, and in London the figure was one in five. As many as four in 10 children missed out in one borough. Many schools are already overfilled, with lessons taught in corridors and temporary classrooms built on playgrounds.

The Government’s promises that £5 billion would be spent during this parliament to expand primary schools, and that 260,000 extra places had been created to date, seemed to no avail, as research by The Times suggested that the majori-

Lamb curries and kebabs found to be everything but lamb

After the discovery that a large number of lamb curries and kebabs were found to be contaminated, by consumer organisation Which?, now takeaway owners are to face a new testing programme.

The watchdog found nearly a third of lamb takeaways it checked contained a different meat and 43 out of 145 samples of lamb takeaways - usually curries or kebabs - were wrongly described.

The FSA said 25 of the samples were found to contain only beef, which is cheaper than lamb.

Chicken and turkey were

also found, but no samples contained horse meat.

Local authorities are now being asked to test 300 samples of lamb from takeaways, from the start of May.

Takeaway owners are also being warned that they can be fined up to £5,000 for mislabelling food.

Which? Also found even higher numbers of

contamination, after a series of tests were carried out in London and Birmingham. It found 40% of lamb takeaways contained other types of meat, with some containing no lamb at all. Of 30 samples tested in Birmingham, 16 more than half - contained other meat. In a similar experiment in London, meat in eight of the samples was not pure lamb.

As part of its campaign to “Stop Food Fraud”, Which? is now urging the government to take further action to restore customer confidence in the origins of meat.

Restauranteur creates Easter egg ... for Hindus An award-winning British restaurant has created the world’s first ‘Easter’ egg ... for Hindus.

The “Vishneaster Egg” is made with curryflavoured chocolate and is described as a “culinary celebration of east meets west”. Inside the shell are “tiny scrolls” containing sacred texts from both the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures, and from the Bible. And its centre is also filled with chocolate gold coins and other auspicious items associated with the world’s thirdlargest religion.

It was developed by restauranteur Asad Khan in order to make the traditional Western egg a more inclusive, “interreligious treat”. The £29.99 egg went on sale on Thursday 17 April, at India Dining

Restauranteur Asad Khan

in Warlingham, Surrey, to mark the arrival of Easter and the annual Hindu festival of Vishu.

Khan said: “The Vishneaster Egg, a play on words, was born from a desire to celebrate and to unite, at least temporarily, two of the world’s largest religions and two of their biggest festivals. Vishu

and Easter may vary in terms of spiritual context.

But both are celebrated in April with an exchange of gifts and with a feast.I wanted to add an interreligious treat to our menu which British Hindus and British Christians can both enjoy.”

The egg, which took six weeks to perfect, is a mix of Indian spices, sea salt, mango and dark

13

chocolate. These ingredients are said to signify the essence of the ‘Sadya’ – a feast of salty, sweet, sour and bitter foods. Its contents - gold coins and nuts – are items considered by Hindus to represent prosperity, and which feature in the Vishu festival.

The Vedic scripture, “You must learn to endure fleeting things – they come and go!” and the Biblical verse, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil” are written on scrolls, also placed within the egg’s shell.

Customer Meena Williams, originally from the southern Indian state of Kerala, said: “This is a brilliant idea, and I’m very much looking forward to trying it.”

ty of the new places were engulfed by the increase in population.

One in 12 children in London was not offered one of his or her top three schools, and one in 20 did not win a place in any of his or her six preferences.

In Kensington and Chelsea, just 61.5 per cent got into their top choice school, down from 65 per cent last year, and 15 per cent did not get into any of their chosen schools.

With the desperation that came with national offer day, councils have started placing a tighter grip on parents who rent a second home only yards from the best schools, in order to secure a place.

Local authorities have tightened their admissions code and withdrawn places from children whose parents were deemed to have cheated

the system. Five children were reportedly either removed from schools in Camden, north London, or had offers of places withdrawn.

Bromley Council has also introduced tougher measures.

One of Camden’s most popular primary schools, Eleanor Palmer, caused extreme anger last year when even families living on the same street were turned away, as the catchment area had become so tiny. Local parents complained to the council because many successful applicants were living in rented flats next to the school.

The borough has since introduced admissions guidance under which it will not accept applications from parents who have a temporary address, if the family still owns its former property.

Are you looking for a more rewarding career?

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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.

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14

COMMUNITY

What Shishukunj means to me

Kajal Shah

As a member of Shishukunj for about 28 years, I have often heard the phrase ‘Shishukunj is a family.’ This is a cliché but as I reflect on what Shishukunj means to me, the word ‘family’ is actually the most fitting summary.

I lost my father before I was a teenager and with limited extended family support Shishukunj, in many ways, filled the void.

Firstly, it has provided me with an extensive support network across a wide age range that has fortified me with emotional support and inspiration. We have worked together, as families do, and our relationships have grown stronger through this work. My brothers and sisters from Shishukunj are my closest friends and the ones I turn to at important crossroads in my life.

Next, as the best families do, Shishukunj has given me a safe arena within which I have been able to develop my values. From a young age I discovered that several principles were important to me: people and their happiness; pushing myself to achieve the best I could in everything I do; and learning from others. I have also learnt that instead of being black and white, life is actually different shades of grey.

Through Shishukunj, I feel I have developed the skills to effectively navigate through this ‘grey’.

Finally, the Shishukunj family has given me the opportunity to help develop the next generation. This privilege is quite humbling and gives one a sense of self-worth.

The old adage is true: ‘you learn best when you have to teach’ and through Shishukunj I have learnt to learn from children.

Professionally, I am a GP partner working with a relatively deprived population with multiple psychosocial as well as

medical needs. I was lucky to attend excellent schools for my education, however my mainstream education could not provide me with the opportunity to mix with people that were not from privileged backgrounds. My Shishukunj brothers and sisters are extremely diverse and

ing in teams and working hard are all skills that Shishukunj has helped me build. Without these, I would not have the professional standing I have today at a relatively young age.

Four and a half months ago, I had a baby daughter. As a mother, I feel privileged that my

Working with children has been one of the most inspiring things in my life

have taken many different journeys in their lives. The relationships I have formed within this family have helped me to empathise and communicate with my patients with their wide variety of perspectives and problems.

Patients have often complimented my communication skills and caring nature, and Shishukunj has had a big part to play in this aspect of my development.

I’m sure that many people reading this article will be increasingly aware of the nature of the work of a GP. As well as patient care, there are aspects of managing and developing a small business with elements that include managing staff and finances, not to mention all the paperwork! Of course, the skills of project management, developing a vision, predicting and solving problems in imaginative ways with limited resources, work-

daughter, Bhavni, will have all the benefits I have had and continue to have from the Shishukunj family and I look forward to seeing how her journey in Shishukunj develops. In fact, her name was derived from the word Bhaav.

This term is widely used in Shishukunj and underpins the way in which we strive to do everything.

It is difficult to translate into English, but the essence is about doing things with passion, love and care.

Family means a lot of things to different people. It is potentially a multifaceted rich entity, which creates the perfect environment for support and development for all its members. Shishukunj has done that for me and for that I will always be indebted.

For more information on Shishukunj please visit www.shishukunj.org.uk

Father of four scalded by stewardess A holidaymaker was left covered in burns and blisters on his chest after an air stewardess spilled boiling tea on him during a flight.

Father-of-four Khizar Hayat, pictured, 40, was travelling on a Qatar Airways flight home to Manchester when another passenger reclined their chair and the hostess who was handing out tea tripped - tipping the boiling hot drink on him.

The steaming liquid

poured down Mr Hayat's chest, leaving him with a huge angry red burn and blisters which erupted immediately. Despite his agony he was 'brushed off' by the airline crew, who merely gave him a damp cloth to dab his injuries with.

And although he made a formal complaint to the airway when he landed at Manchester Airport and two follow up emails, Mr Hayat is yet to receive an apology.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

National Hindu Students Forum (UK)

Annual General Meeting 2014

Sheena Patel National Treasurer – NHSF (UK) Another year filled with commitment, hard work and fun has flown by in the NHSF (UK) calendar. As we look back over the past 12 months, we can see the wisdom and the knowledge of experienced committee members shining through, whilst observing the enthusiasm and dedication of our newer committee and chapter members. The reflection of the past coupled with the inspiration of what the future holds brings to mind the purpose and reasoning as to why we all love this organisation and have dedicated so much our time towards it. As my final year on committee, it fills me with pride to have been part of NHSF (UK) and I look forward to what the future has in store.

Chapters, well-wishers, sponsors and committee members gathered at Nottingham University on 29th March 2014 for NHSF (UK)’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Dedication, pride and passion were prevalent amongst those present. Our AGM started out in a rather unusual but exciting way by our hosts Himanshi Patel and Kamal Panchal, who rapped their introduction in style!

The formalities were completed by each team coordinator providing an

outline of the work they have been involved with and their achievements in the year. The accounts were formally read out and ratified, and looking at the events locally, zonally and nationally, 2013-14 has been a year of excellence and a year of showcasing Hindu Dharma.

Our outgoing President, Pranav Bhanot reminisced on the work NHSF (UK) has been involved with not only this year, but over the past 23 years and thanked those that had been a part of the journey.

Avnish Thakrar our outgoing Vice President urged chapter members and committee members to continue the hard work undertaken and requested that we strive towards upholding the values and tenets NHSF (UK) stands for. Chapter HUM awards were given, and successes celebrated highlighting the variety of events and initiatives undertaken At a chapter level as well as a national level, the bar in terms of being pioneers of Hindu Dharma has been set higher than ever before.

With Bhakti events continuing across each zone and chapter learning increasing to new heights, NHSF (UK) is gathering communities together and practicing Hindu Dharma. We have also had the first ever London zone sports competition this year and our first zonal Sewa event which was held by London zone at Bhaktivedanta Manor. This turned out to be a huge success, which was awarded a ‘Sewa Pioneers’ Award at the House of Commons.

Our national event this year, Dharma Fest, focussed on portraying Hindu Dharma through the arts.

We challenged our chapters partaking to demonstrate their knowledge of Hindu Dharma through, song,

dance and expressive arts.

This was a new stepping stone for NHSF (UK), which was a truly amazing experience for those that took part and those who were in the audience.

Sports competition again exceeded expectations and boundaries, with 950 attendees, the day proved to be exciting, competitive and thoroughly enjoyable.

Demand for football was so high, we added an extra pitch to our games and spaces for badminton were all taken on the very first day registration opened!

NHSF (UK) has had a fantastic year in terms of other projects. The World Hindu Youth Conference took place in Bali, bringing together the Hindu youth from across the world to discuss and debate what the future holds.

The parliamentary event held in February showcased NHSF (UK)’s achievements over the years and many MPs including Ed Miliband attended to join in the success. The official launch of Human Boundaries cemented our commitment to raising awareness for religious minorities in Pakistan.

As always with the highlights of the year, comes the sadness of departing committee members that have been long standing and valued members. Their work is an inspiration to our Hindu samaj and I can honestly say that being part of NHSF (UK) is a fantastic experience that is highly recommended.

On a final note, I would like to wish the new President, Yajur Shah and the rest of the committee the very best of luck for the next few years ahead and encourage them to continue the passion that the last 23 years of NHSF (UK) has held.

Bhavan Centre hosts incredible Charcoal and Acrylic Art Exhibition Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan was host to a praiseworthy art exhibition by Ratna Singh, from Mumbai, India. The 2day exhibition was Ratna’s first solo exhibition and received a lot of interest and praise from over a hundred guests. Chief guest Mr Ramesh Arora, Managing Director, Montcalm Hotels, lit a lamp to mark the start of the exhibition, whilst Spanish Curator, Mr Miguel Angel Collazo Araujo, helped showcase Ratna’s art work.

The exhibition displayed an array of Charcoal and Acrylics on canvas and her theme, ‘Race with the force of time’, portrayed a collection of horses racing in different directions along with a seated Buddha. Due to the great success of her first exhibition, she will now be holding a second in August.

Mr Joginder Sanger, Chairman of the Bhavan Centre and Ratna Singh, Artist

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Life and MUSIC

Tanveer Mann

15

If you have any particular topics you would like covered on my page, please let me know.

www.punjabeeblonde.com

tanveer.mann@abplgroup.com

Beauty Show your hair some

Top 20 Official Download Hits!

1. Bikram Singh - Kawan 2 (feat. Gunjan & Tigerstyle)

2. Meet Brothers Anjjan - Baby Doll (feat. Kanika Kapoor & Kunal Avanti) 3. Gin & Rees - Jeeja Saali (feat. Miss Pooja & Jagdev Jammu) 4. Jags Klimax & Shin DCS – Hanji

5. Yo Yo Honey Singh & Neha Kakkar - Sunny Sunny 6. Diljit Dosanjh – Work of Warriors

7. Manjit Pappu & Dj Vix - Lakk Tera 8. Diljit Dosanjh - Sweetu

9. Ziggy Bonafide - Has Ke Bol (feat. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan)

10. Baljit Malwa - Pauna Bhangra (feat. Tru Skool & Kaos Productions) 11. PBN & Raj Bains - Phatte Chuk Di 12. Arijit Singh - Palat - Tera Hero Idhar Hai

13. Dev Dhillon & Gupsy Aujla

14. Manjit Pappu & Dj Vix

love this Summer

As we slowly but surely merge into the long-awaited summer season, it's hard not to daydream about exotic beaches, summer getaways, pamper sessions and body massages. Yet while we plan to indulge in post-beach pampering sessions and layering our skin with tropical scented products, our hair care is often forgotten due to our obsession with radiant summer skin.

According to celebrity Hairstylist Asgar and Style Director at the Daniel Galvin Salon in London, sun, chlorine and humidity are the summer foes of great hair and the key to avoid damage is to start a protective hair-care routine in early spring and follow it during the hot months to come.

Recommended Hair Care!

15. Khiza & Zack Knight 16. DJ Gurps

17. Sk1 - Ishq Da Rogh (feat. Tamzin)

18. Money Aujla - London (feat. Nesdi Jones & Yo Yo Honey Singh) 19. Sunidhi Chauhan - Kamli 20. Arijit Singh - Suno Na Sangemarmar

UK

Visit: www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork to see more chart hits

FASHION

South Asian Fashion Designers come together for Faisana Fashion Weekend!

Faisana Fashion weekend brings together the crème of Indian and Pakistani design talent on one platform in the UK for the very first time! Don't miss the exclusive pop-up weekend extravaganza at the Mayfair Hotel from 12-7pm on Sunday 3rd May.

l Making sunscreen for hair your beach bag beauty essential. UV rays can cause extreme damage to your hair, leaving it frizzy, faded and brittle. Choose a good protective spray and apply generously to protect it from burning. l Getting into the air-dried hair look.

Spare your locks some heat and give your hair dryer a summer break. To avoid frizz, Asgar recommends towel drying your hair thoroughly and applying a leave-in conditioner. Twist the damp hair into a bun and secure it with a clip to dry to achieve tousled fun-loving summer waves. l Coconut oil is the secret to summer hair care. Packed with natural goodness, it makes for the perfect

frizz antidote. Asgar suggests using it as a leave-in conditioner to make up for the summer excesses.

Coconut oil penetrates into the hair fiber, bringing out deep conditioning from inside out and acts as a potent moisture lock. Apply on to the ends of your hair and carefully work your way up, concentrating on the ends and using very little or nothing at the roots. l Don’t underestimate the use of fresh water.

Salt water and chlorine are often responsible for the dreaded ‘summer frizz’. According to Asgar, by drenching your hair with fresh water before and after a swim, the hair is less likely to absorb salty water or chlorine. It’s also a good idea to keep a spray bottle with fresh water to refresh the hair whilst sunbathing.

For more exclusive tips, visit: www.asgarboo.com

My pick for this week:

Revolt by Qaisra Shahraz

The two-day event at Mayfair Hotel will launch with an exclusive invite-only Champagne, Canapés and Couture evening on 2nd May, 7-9.30pm. A free to attend, open exhibition, The Grand Trunk Show, will follow on 3rd May, 12-7pm, showcasing a wide range of ready to wear and couture from the designers’ latest collections for the general public, hosted by the designers themselves. Importantly, prices will be very competitive, in line with Indian and Pakistani retail prices.

Visit www.faisanaweekend.com for more information.

Faisana: Fashion Weekend presents three of India and three of Pakistan’s most celebrated designers – Anita Dongre, Rina Dhaka and Bhairavi Jaikishan (India); and Umar Sayeed, Nida Azwer and Sania Maskatiya (Pakistan). It marks the first event to combine Indian and Pakistani fashion from the respective countries’ most lauded fashion houses and provide a unique buying experience that will showcase the high end of South Asian fashion.

A multi-layered, multi-faceted story of love and loss, finding and losing, and mixed-race marriage, Revolt is the tale of three wealthy sisters and the problems that no amount of money can solve. There is a daughter, abandoned because of an impulsive marriage, an aunt who pines for lost love, and a bridegroom with the biggest problem of them all.

Set in England and the fictional village of Gulistan in Pakistan, with its fascinating array of quirky, eccentric and unforgettable characters, Revolt centres on the forthcoming marriage of two rich cousins and the often hilarious but always deeply moving pitfalls and perils of living in a place where everyone knows everybody else’s business. Underpinning the action is the compulsive and pervading need to resolve the conflict between Pakistani Muslim values and those of the modern West.

A brilliantly incisive portrait of small-town life, exploding into a

BOOKS

panoramic portrayal of the nature of change, freedom, pride and prejudice, Revolt also reminds us of a darker, more threatening world. Immensely readable, dramatic and beautifully evocative, this book will enthral, as the action unfolds and the tensions play out to their startling resolution.

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th May 2014

List of new 543 Lok Sabha members CONSTITUENCY

WINNER

ANDHRA PRADESH Adilabad Godam gesh Peddapalle Balka Suman Karimgar Vinod K Boipally Nizamabad Kalvakuntla Kavitha Zahirabad B.B.Patil Medak K Chandrashekar Rao Malkajgiri Ch.Malla Reddy Secundrabad Bandaru Dattatreya Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi Chelvella Konda V Reddy Mahbubgar A P Jithender Reddy garkurnool ndi Yellaiah lgonda Gutha Sukhender Reddy Bhongir Dr. rsaiah Boora Warangal Kadiyam Srihari Mahabubabad Azmeera Seetaram ik Khammam P Srinivasa Reddy Aruku Kothapalli Geetha Srikakulam Rammohanidu K Viziagaram Ashok GR Pusapati Visakhapatm Kambhampati Hari Babu Akapalli Muttamsetti S Rao Kakida Sunil K Chalamalasetty Amalapuram Pandula Ravindra Babu Rajahmundry Murali M Maganti rsapuram Gokaraju Ganga Raju Eluru Venkateswara Rao Machilipatm Kokalla raya Rao Vijayawada Srinivas Kesineni Guntur Jayadev Galla rasaraopet Rayapati Sambasiva Rao Bapatla Malyadri Sriram Ongole Magunta S Reddy ndyal S.P.Y Reddy Kurnool Butta Renuka Antapur Jutur CR Divakar Reddy Hindupur Kristappa Nimmala Kadapa Avish Reddy YS Nellore M Rajamohan Reddy Tirupati Varaprasad Rao V Rajampet P.V.Midhun Reddy Chittoor Ramalli Sivaprasad ARUCHAL PRADESH Aruchal West Kiren Rijiju Aruchal East Ninong Ering

ASSAM Karimganj Silchar Autonomous Dist Dhubri Kokrajhar Barpeta Gauhati Mangaldoi Tezpur Nowgong Kaliabor Jorhat Dibrugarh Lakhimpur

BIHAR Valmiki gar P Champaran Purvi Champaran Sheohar Sitamarhi Madhubani Jhanjharpur Supaul Araria Kishanganj Purnia Madhepura Darbhanga Muzaffarpur Vaishali Gopalganj Siwan Maharajganj Saran Hajipur Ujiarpur Samastipur Begusarai Khagaria Bhagalpur Banka Munger landa Pat Sahib Pataliputra Arrah Buxar Sasaram Karakat

Radheshyam Sushmita Dev Biren Singh Engti Badruddin Ajmal BA Kumar Sarania Siraj Uddin Ajmal Bijoya Chakravarty Ramen Deka Ram Prasad Sarmah Rajen Gohain Gourav Gogoi Kamakhya Prasad Tasa Rameshwar Teli Sarbanda Sonowal Satish Dubey Dr. Sanjay Jayaswal Radha Mohan Singh Rama Devi Ram Kumar Sharma Hukum Deo N Yadav Birendra K Chaudhary Ranjeet Ranjan Taslim Uddin Mohd Asrarul Haque Santosh Kumar Pappu Yadav Kirti Azad Ajay Nishad Rama Kishore Singh Jak Ram Om Prakash Yadav Jardan Singh Sigriwal Rajiv Pratap Rudy Ram Vilas Paswan Nityand Rai Ram Chandra Paswan Bhola Singh Choudhary Mahboob AK Shailesh Kumar Jaiprakash N Yadav Vee Devi Kaushlendra Kumar Shatrughan Sinha Ram Kripal Yadav Raj Kumar Singh Ashwini Kumar Choubey Chhedi Paswan Upendra Kushwaha

PARTY

42 SEATS TRS TRS TRS TRS TRS TRS TDP BJP AIMIM TRS TRS INC INC TRS TRS TRS YSRC YSRC TDP TDP BJP TDP YSRC TDP TDP BJP TDP TDP TDP TDP TDP TDP TDP YSRC YSRC TDP TDP YSRC YSRC YSRC YSRC TDP 11 BJP INC

14 AIUDF INC INC AIUDF IND AIUDF BJP BJP BJP BJP INC BJP BJP BJP

40 BJP BJP BJP BJP RLSP BJP BJP INC RJD INC JD(U) RJD BJP BJP LJP BJP BJP BJP BJP LJP BJP LJP BJP LJP RJD RJD LJP JD(U) BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP RLSP

Jahabad Aurangabad Gaya wada Jamui Janjgir-Champa Korba Bilaspur Rajndgaon Durg Raipur Mahasamund Bastar Kanker

DELHI Chandni Chowk North East Delhi East Delhi New Delhi North West Delhi West Delhi South Delhi GOA North Goa South Goa

GUJARAT Narendra Modi

Dr. Arun Kumar Sushil Kumar Singh Hari Manjhi Giriraj Singh Chirag Kumar Paswan Smt. Kamla Patle Dr. Banshilal Mahato Lakhanlal Sau Abhishek Singh T Sahu Ramesh Bais Chandu Lal Sahu Dinesh Kashyap Vikram Usendi

2 BJP BJP

Smt. Kirron Kher tubhai G. Patel

26

Chavda Vinod Lahamashi

Paresh Rawal

BJP Ahmedabad(E)

Dr. Kirit Solanki

BJP Katch

Chauhan Devusing BJP Kheda

Patel Jayshreeben

BJP Ahmedabad(W)

Kachhadiya Naranbhai BJP Amreli

BJP Mahesana

C. R. Patil

BJP Navsari

Dilip Patel

Chauhan PrabhatSinh

BJP Anand

Chaudhary Haribhai BJP Banaskantha

Vasava Parbhubhai

BJP Panchmahal

Liladharbhai Khodaji BJP Patan

Radadiya Vithalbhai

BJP Bardoli

Vasava Mansukhbhai BJP Bharuch

Dr. Bharatiben Shiyal

BJP Bhavnagar

Jasvantsinh Bhabhor BJP Dahod

BJP Porbandar

Kundariya Mohanbhai BJP Rajkot

Ramsinh Rathwa BJP Chhota Udaipur

Darshana Vikram BJP Surat

L.K. Advani

BJP Gandhinagar

Poonamben Maadam

Chudasama Rajeshbhai

Fatepara Devajibhai BJP Surendranagar

Dr. K. C. Patel

BJP Valsad

Rathod Dipsinh

BJP Junagadh HARYANA Ambala

7 BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

Dr. Harsh Vardhan Manoj Tiwari Mahesh Giri Smt. Meekshi Lekhi Udit Raj Parvesh Sahib Singh Ramesh Bidhuri

BJP - Vadodara, Varanasi

BJP Jamnagar

RLSP BJP BJP BJP LJP BJP BJP BJP BJP Cong BJP BJP BJP BJP

BJP Sabarkantha Rattan Lal Kataria

10 BJP

Kurukshetra Sirsa Hisar Karl Sonipat Rohtak Bhiwani Gurgaon Faridabad

Rajkumar Saini Charanjeet Singh Dushyant Chautala Ashwini Kumar Ramesh Kaushik Deepender Singh Dharambir Inderjit Singh Krishan Pal

HIMACHAL PRADESH Kangra Shanta Kumar Mandi Ram Swaroop Sharma Hamirpur Anurag Singh Thakur Shimla Virender Kashyap

JAMMU & KASHMIR Baramulla Muzaffar Hussain Baig Srigar Tariq Hameed Karra Ladakh Thupstan Chhewang Udhampur Dr. Jitendra Singh Jammu Jugal Kishore

JHARKHAND Rajmahal Dumka Godda Chatra Kodarma Giridih Dhanbad Ranchi Jamshedpur Singhbhum Khunti Lohardaga Palamau Hazaribagh

KARTAKA Chikkodi Belgaum Bagalkot Bijapur Gulbarga Raichur Bidar Koppal Bellary Haveri Dharwad Uttara Kanda Davagere Shimoga Udupi Ckmglr Hassan Dakshi Kanda Chitradurga Tumkur Mandya Mysore Chamarajagar Bangalore Rural Bangalore North Bangalore Central Bangalore South Chikkballapur Kolar KERALA Kasaragod Kannur Vadakara Wayanad Kozhikode Malappuram Ponnani Palakkad Alathur Thrissur Chalakudy Ernakulam Idukki Kottayam Alappuzha Mavelikkara Pathamthitta Kollam Attingal Thiru’puram

Vijay Kumar Hansdak Shibu Soren Nishikant Dubey Sunil Kumar Singh Ravindra Kumar Ray Ravindra Kumar Pandey Pashupati th Singh Ramtahal Choudhary Vidyut Baran Mahanto Laxman Giluwa Karia Munda Sudarshan Bhagat Vishnu Dayal Ram Jayant Sinha Prakash Hukkeri Suresh Angadi P.C. Gaddigoudar Ramesh Jigajigi Mallikarjun Kharge B.V.yak Bhagwanth Sangan A. Karadi B Sreeramulu Udasi Chanbasappa Pralhad Joshi Antkumar Hegde G.M. Siddeshwara B.S. Yeddyurappa Shobha Karandlaje H.D. Devegowda lin Kumar Katil B.N.Chandrappa S.P.Muddahanumegowda C.S.Puttaraju Prathap Simha R. Dhruvaraya D.K.Suresh D.V. Sadanda Gowda P.C. Mohan Anth Kumar M Veerappa Moily K H Muniyappa

BJP INLD INLD BJP BJP INC BJP BJP BJP 4 BJP BJP BJP BJP

6 JKPDP JKPDP BJP BJP BJP

14 JMM JMM BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

28 INC BJP BJP BJP INC INC BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP JD(S) BJP INC INC JD(S) BJP INC INC BJP BJP BJP INC INC

20 P. Karuna Karan CPI(M) P.K. Srimati Teacher CPI(M) Mullapali Ramchandran INC I M Shanvas INC M K Raghvan INC E Ahmed Muslim League E T Mohammad Bashir Muslim League A B Rajesh CPI(M) PK Biju CPI(M) C N Jaydevan CPI Inosent Independent K V Thomas INC Joy George Independent Jose K Mani Kerala Congress(M) K C Venugopal INC Kondikunil Suresh INC Anto Antony INC N K Premachandran RSP A Sampat CPI(M) Shashi Tharur INC

MADHYA PRADESH Morena Anoop Mishra Bhind Bhagirath Prasad Gwalior Narendra Singh Tomar Guna Jyotiraditya M. Scindia Sagar Laxmi Narayan Yadav Tikamgarh Dr. Virendra Kumar Damoh Prahlad Singh Patel Khajuraho Nagendra Singh Satna Ganesh Singh Rewa Janardan Mishra Sidhi Riti Pathak Shahdol Dalpat Singh Paraste Jabalpur Rakesh Singh Mandla Faggan S Kulaste Balaghat Bodhsingh Bhagat Chhindwara Kamal Nath

29 BJP BJP BJP INC BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP INC

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Hoshangabad Vidisha Bhopal Rajgarh Dewas Ujjain Mandsour Ratlam Dhar Indore Khargone Khandwa Betul

MAHARASHTRA Nandurbar Dhule Jalgaon Raver Buldhana Akola Amravati Wardha Ramtek Nagpur B- Gondiya Gadchiroli-Chimur Chandrapur Yavatmal-Washim Hingoli Nanded Parbhani Jalna Aurangabad Dindori Nashik Palghar Bhiwandi Kalyan Thane Mumbai North Mumbai N-West Mumbai N-East Mumbai N-Cntrl Mumbai S-Cntrl Mumbai South Raigad Maval Pune Baramati Shirur Ahmadnagar Shirdi Beed Osmanabad Latur Solapur Madha Sangli Satara R-Sindhudurg Kolhapur Hatkanangle MANIPUR Inner Manipur Outer Manipur NAGALAND Nagaland

ODISHA Bargarh Sundargarh Sambalpur Keonjhar Mayurbhanj Balasore Bhadrak Jajpur Dhenkanal Bolangir Kalahandi Nabarangpur Kandhamal Cuttack Kendrapara Jagatsinghpur Puri Bhubaneswar Aska Berhampur Koraput

PUNJAB Gurdaspur Amritsar Khadoor Sahib Jalandhar Hoshiarpur Anandpur Sahib Ludhiana Fatehgarh Sahib Faridkot Ferozpur Bathinda Sangrur Patiala

Uday Pratap Singh Sushma Swaraj Alok Sanjar Rodmal Nagar Manohar Untwal Chintamani Malviya Sudhir Gupta Dileep Singh Bhuriya Savitri Thakur Sumitra Mahajan Subhash Patel Nandkumar S Chouhan Jyoti Dhurve Gavit Heena V Bhamare Subhash Patil Ashok Tapiram Khadase Raksha Nikhil Jadhav Prataprao Dhotre Sanjay Shyamrao Adsul Anandrao Vithoba Ramdas Chandrabhanji Krupal Balaji Tumane Gadkari Nitin Jairam Nanabhau Falgunrao Ashok Mahadeorao Nete Ahir Hansraj Gangaram Gawali Bhavana Rajeev Shankarrao Ashok S Chavan Jadhav Sanjay Haribhau Danve Raosaheb Chandrakant B Khaire Chavan H Deoram Godse Hement Tukaram Wanaga Chintaman Kapil Moreshwar Patil Dr.Shrikant Eknath Vichare Rajan Baburao Gopal Chinayya Shetty Gajanan Chandrakant Kirit Somaiya Poonam Mahajan Shewale Rahul Ramesh Sawant Arvind Ganpat Geete Anant Gangaram Barne Shrirang Chandu Anil Shirole Supriya Sule Adhalrao Shivaji Gandhi D Mansukhlal Lokhande Sadashiv Munde Gopinathrao P Gaikwad R Vishwanath Gaikwad Sunil Baliram Sharad Bansode Mohite Patil V Sanjaykaka Patil Udayan Raje Pratap Bhosale Vinayak Bhaurao Raut Dhananjay B Mahadik Raju Shetty Dr. Thokchom Meinya Thangso Baite Neiphiu Rio Prabhas Kumar Singh Jual Oram Nagendra Kumar Pradhan Sakuntala Laguri Rama Chandra Hansdah Rabindra Kumar Jena Arjun Charan Sethi Rita Tarai Tathagata Satpathy Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo Arka Keshari Deo Balabhadra Majhi Hemendra Chandra Singh Bhartruhari Mahatab Sri Baijayant Panda Kulamani Samal Pinaki Mishra Prasanna Kumar Patasani, Ladu Kishore Swain Sidhant Mohapatra Jhina Hikaka Vinod Khanna Capt. Amindar Singh Ranjit Singh Brahmpura Santokh Singh Choudhary Vijay Sampla Prem Singh Chandumajra Ravneet Singh Bittu Harinder Singh Khalsa Prof. Sadhu Singh Sher Singh Ghubaya Harsimrat Kaur Badal Bhagwant Mann Dr. Dhawan Vira Gandhi

BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

48 BJP BJP BJP BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP BJP BJP SHS INC INC SHS BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP SHS SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP SHS SHS SHS SHS BJP NCP SHS BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP NCP BJP INC SHS NCP SWP 2 INC INC

1 NPF

10 BJD BJP BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD

13 BJP INC SAD INC BJP SAD INC AAP AAP SAD SAD AAP AAP

RAJASTHAN Ganganagar Bikaner Churu Jhunjhunu Sikar Jaipur Rural Jaipur Alwar Bharatpur Karauli-Dholpur Dausa Tonk-S Ajmer Nagaur Pali Jodhpur Barmer Jalore Udaipur Banswara Chittorgarh Rajsamand Bhilwara Kota Jhalawar-Baran SIKKIM Sikkim

TAMIL NADU Thiruvallur Chennai North Chennai South Chennai Central Sriperumbudur Kancheepuram Arakkonam Vellore Krishnagiri Dharmapuri Tiruvannamalai Arani Viluppuram Kallakurichi Salem Namakkal Erode Tiruppur Nilgiris Coimbatore Pollachi Dindigul Karur Tiruchirappalli Perambalur Cuddalore Chidambaram Mayiladuthurai Nagapattinam Thanjavur Sivaganga Madurai Theni Virudhunagar Ramanathapuram Thoothukkudi Tenkasi Tirunelveli Kanniyakumari TRIPURA Tripura West Tripura East

25 Nihalchal BJP Arjun Ram Meghwal BJP Rahul Kaswan BJP Santosh Ahlawat BJP Sumedha N Saraswati BJP Rajyavardhan S Rathore BJP Ramcharan Bohara BJP Mahant Chand N Yogi BJP Bahadur Singh BJP Manoj Rajoria BJP Harish Chandra BJP Madhopur Sukhbir S JaunapuriaBJP Sanwar Lal Jat BJP C R Choudhary BJP P P Choudhary BJP G Shekhawat BJP Col. Sona Ram BJP Devji Patel BJP Arjunlal Meena BJP Manshankar Ninama BJP Chandra Prakash BJP Hari Om Singh Rathore BJP Subhash C Baheria BJP Om Birla BJP Dushyant BJP Prem Das Rai Venugopal. P Venkatesh Babu TG J. Jayavardhan S.R. Vijayakumar Ramachandran, K.N Maragatham K Hari G Senguttuvan, B. Ashok Kumar.K Anbumani Ramadoss Vanaroja R V.Elumalai S. Rajendran K. Kamaraj Pannerselvam.V Sundaram P.R Selvakumara CS V.Sathyabama Gopalakrishnan, C. Nagarajan, P. Mahendran.C Udhaya Kumar .M Thambidurai.M P.Kumar R.P.Marutharajaa A.Arunmozhithevan M.Chandrakasi Bharathi Mohan R.K Gopal. Dr. K Parasuraman.K Pr Senthilnathan R.Gopalakrishnan Parthipan, R. Radhakrishnan Anwhar Raajhaa A J Thiyagaraj Natterjee Vasanthi M Prabakaran.K.R.P Radhakrishnan P. Sankar Prasad Datta Jitentra Choudhury

UTTAR PRADESH Saharanpur Raghav Lakhanpal Kairana Hukum Singh Muzaffarnagar Sanjeev Kumar Balyan Bijnor Kunwar Bhartendra Nagina Yashwant Singh Moradabad Kunwer Sarvesh Kumar Rampur Dr. Nepal Singh Sambhal Satya Pal Singh Amroha Kanwar Singh Tanwar Meerut Rajendra Agarwal Baghpat Dr. Satyapal Singh Ghaziabad Vijay Kumar Singh Gautam Budh Ngr Mahesh Sharma Bulandshahr Dr. Bhola Singh Aligarh Satish Kumar Hathras Rajesh Kumar Mathura Hema Malini Agra Ramshankar Katheria Fatehpur Sikri Babulal Firozabad Akshay Yadav Mainpuri Mulayam Singh Yadav Etah Rajvir Singh Badaun Dharmandra Yadav Aonla Dharmendra Kumar Bareilly Santosh Gangwar Pilibhit Maneka Sanjay Gandhi Shahjahanpur Krishna Raj Kheri Ajay Kumar Dhaurahra Rekha Sitapur Rajesh Kumar Singh Hardoi Anshul Verma Misrikh Anju Bala

1 SDF

39 ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK PMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK ADMK BJP

2 CPI(M) CPI(M) 80 BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP SP SP BJP SP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

Unnao Mohanlalganj Lucknow Rae Bareli Amethi Sultanpur Pratapgarh Farrukhabad Etawah Kannauj Kanpur Akbarpur Jalaun Jhansi Hamirpur Banda Fatehpur Kaushambi Phulpur Allahabad Barabanki Faizabad Ambedkar Nagar Bahraich Kaiserganj Shrawasti Gonda Domariyaganj Basti Sant Kabir Nagar Maharajganj Gorakhpur Kushi Nagar Deoria Bansgaon Lalganj Azamgarh Ghosi Salempur Ballia Jaunpur Machhlishahr Ghazipur Chandauli Varanasi Bhadohi Mirzapur Robertsganj

UTTARAKHAND Tehri Garhwal Garhwal Almora Nainital Hardwar

WEST BENGAL Cooch Behar Alipurduars Jalpaiguri Darjeeling Raiganj Balurghat Maldaha Uttar Maldaha Jangipur Baharampur Murshidabad Krishnanagar Ranaghat Bangaon Barrackpore Dum Dum Barasat Basirhat Joynagar Mathurapur Diamond Harbour Jadavpur Kolkata Kolkata Uttar Howrah Uluberia Srerampur Hooghly Arambagh Tamluk Kanthi Ghatal Jhargram Medinipur Purulia Bankura Bishnupur Bardhaman Burdwan Asansol Bolpur Birbhum

Sachchidanand H Sakshi Kaushal Kishore Raj Nath Singh Sonia Gandhi Rahul Gandhi Feroze Varun Gandhi Kuwar Harivansh Singh Mukesh Rajput Ashok Kumar Doharey Dimple Yadav Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi Devendra Singh Bhanu Pratap Singh Uma Bharti Kunwar P Singh Bhairon Prasad Mishra Sadhavi Niranjan Jyoti Vinod Kumar Keshav Prasad Shyama Charan Gupta Priyanka Singh Rawat Lallu Singh Hariom Savitri Bai Foole Brij Bhusan S Singh Daddan Mishra Kirti Vardhan Singh Jagdambika Pal Harish Chandra Sharad Tripathi Pankaj Adityanath Rajesh Pandey Kalraj Mishra Kamlesh Paswan Neelam Mulayam Singh Yadav Harinarayan Rajbhar Ravindra Kushawaha Bharat Singh Krishna Pratap Ram Charitra Nishad Manoj Sinha Mahendra Nath Narendra Modi Virendra Singh Anupriya Singh Patel Chhote Lal Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri Ajay Tamta Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ramesh P Nishank Renuka Sinha Dasrath Tirkey Bijoy C Barman SS Ahluwalia Md. Salim Arpita Ghosh Mausam Noor Dakshin Abu HK Chowdhury Abhijit Mukherjee Adhir R Chowdhury Badaruddoza Khan Tapas Paul Tapas Mandal Kapil Krishna Thakur Dinesh Trivedi Saugata Roy Kakali Ghoshdostidar Idris Ali Pratima Mondal Choudhury Mohan Jatua Abhishek Banerjee Sugata Bose Dakshin Subrata Bakshi Sudip Bandyopadhyay Prasun Banerjee Sultan Ahmed Kalyan Banerjee Ratna De Afrin Ali Suvendu Adhikari Sisir Kumar Adhikari Dev Uma Saren Sandhya Roy Mriganka Mahato Moon Moon Sen Saumitra Khan Purba Sunil Kumar Mondal Mamtaz Sanghamita Babul Supriyo Anupam Hazra Satabdi Roy

UNION TERRITORIES A&Nicobar Islands Bishnu Pada Ray Chandigarh Smt. Kirron Kher Dadar & Nagar H Natubhai G. Patel Daman & Diu Patel Lalubhai Babubhai Lakshadweep V M Kumar Puducherry Pradeep Kumar Singh

17

BJP BJP BJP INC INC BJP AD BJP BJP SP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP SP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP AD BJP

5 BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

42 TMC TMC TMC BJP CPM TMC INC INC INC INC CPM TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC TMC BJP TMC TMC BJP BJP BJP BJP ABCD ABCD

16

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List of new 543 Lok Sabha members CONSTITUENCY

WINNER

ANDHRA PRADESH Adilabad Godam gesh Peddapalle Balka Suman Karimgar Vinod K Boipally Nizamabad Kalvakuntla Kavitha Zahirabad B.B.Patil Medak K Chandrashekar Rao Malkajgiri Ch.Malla Reddy Secundrabad Bandaru Dattatreya Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi Chelvella Konda V Reddy Mahbubgar A P Jithender Reddy garkurnool ndi Yellaiah lgonda Gutha Sukhender Reddy Bhongir Dr. rsaiah Boora Warangal Kadiyam Srihari Mahabubabad Azmeera Seetaram ik Khammam P Srinivasa Reddy Aruku Kothapalli Geetha Srikakulam Rammohanidu K Viziagaram Ashok GR Pusapati Visakhapatm Kambhampati Hari Babu Akapalli Muttamsetti S Rao Kakida Sunil K Chalamalasetty Amalapuram Pandula Ravindra Babu Rajahmundry Murali M Maganti rsapuram Gokaraju Ganga Raju Eluru Venkateswara Rao Machilipatm Kokalla raya Rao Vijayawada Srinivas Kesineni Guntur Jayadev Galla rasaraopet Rayapati Sambasiva Rao Bapatla Malyadri Sriram Ongole Magunta S Reddy ndyal S.P.Y Reddy Kurnool Butta Renuka Antapur Jutur CR Divakar Reddy Hindupur Kristappa Nimmala Kadapa Avish Reddy YS Nellore M Rajamohan Reddy Tirupati Varaprasad Rao V Rajampet P.V.Midhun Reddy Chittoor Ramalli Sivaprasad ARUCHAL PRADESH Aruchal West Kiren Rijiju Aruchal East Ninong Ering

ASSAM Karimganj Silchar Autonomous Dist Dhubri Kokrajhar Barpeta Gauhati Mangaldoi Tezpur Nowgong Kaliabor Jorhat Dibrugarh Lakhimpur

BIHAR Valmiki gar P Champaran Purvi Champaran Sheohar Sitamarhi Madhubani Jhanjharpur Supaul Araria Kishanganj Purnia Madhepura Darbhanga Muzaffarpur Vaishali Gopalganj Siwan Maharajganj Saran Hajipur Ujiarpur Samastipur Begusarai Khagaria Bhagalpur Banka Munger landa Pat Sahib Pataliputra Arrah Buxar Sasaram Karakat

Radheshyam Sushmita Dev Biren Singh Engti Badruddin Ajmal BA Kumar Sarania Siraj Uddin Ajmal Bijoya Chakravarty Ramen Deka Ram Prasad Sarmah Rajen Gohain Gourav Gogoi Kamakhya Prasad Tasa Rameshwar Teli Sarbanda Sonowal Satish Dubey Dr. Sanjay Jayaswal Radha Mohan Singh Rama Devi Ram Kumar Sharma Hukum Deo N Yadav Birendra K Chaudhary Ranjeet Ranjan Taslim Uddin Mohd Asrarul Haque Santosh Kumar Pappu Yadav Kirti Azad Ajay Nishad Rama Kishore Singh Jak Ram Om Prakash Yadav Jardan Singh Sigriwal Rajiv Pratap Rudy Ram Vilas Paswan Nityand Rai Ram Chandra Paswan Bhola Singh Choudhary Mahboob AK Shailesh Kumar Jaiprakash N Yadav Vee Devi Kaushlendra Kumar Shatrughan Sinha Ram Kripal Yadav Raj Kumar Singh Ashwini Kumar Choubey Chhedi Paswan Upendra Kushwaha

PARTY

42 SEATS TRS TRS TRS TRS TRS TRS TDP BJP AIMIM TRS TRS INC INC TRS TRS TRS YSRC YSRC TDP TDP BJP TDP YSRC TDP TDP BJP TDP TDP TDP TDP TDP TDP TDP YSRC YSRC TDP TDP YSRC YSRC YSRC YSRC TDP 11 BJP INC

14 AIUDF INC INC AIUDF IND AIUDF BJP BJP BJP BJP INC BJP BJP BJP

40 BJP BJP BJP BJP RLSP BJP BJP INC RJD INC JD(U) RJD BJP BJP LJP BJP BJP BJP BJP LJP BJP LJP BJP LJP RJD RJD LJP JD(U) BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP RLSP

Jahabad Aurangabad Gaya wada Jamui Janjgir-Champa Korba Bilaspur Rajndgaon Durg Raipur Mahasamund Bastar Kanker

DELHI Chandni Chowk North East Delhi East Delhi New Delhi North West Delhi West Delhi South Delhi GOA North Goa South Goa

GUJARAT Narendra Modi

Dr. Arun Kumar Sushil Kumar Singh Hari Manjhi Giriraj Singh Chirag Kumar Paswan Smt. Kamla Patle Dr. Banshilal Mahato Lakhanlal Sau Abhishek Singh T Sahu Ramesh Bais Chandu Lal Sahu Dinesh Kashyap Vikram Usendi

2 BJP BJP

Smt. Kirron Kher tubhai G. Patel

26

Chavda Vinod Lahamashi

Paresh Rawal

BJP Ahmedabad(E)

Dr. Kirit Solanki

BJP Katch

Chauhan Devusing BJP Kheda

Patel Jayshreeben

BJP Ahmedabad(W)

Kachhadiya Naranbhai BJP Amreli

BJP Mahesana

C. R. Patil

BJP Navsari

Dilip Patel

Chauhan PrabhatSinh

BJP Anand

Chaudhary Haribhai BJP Banaskantha

Vasava Parbhubhai

BJP Panchmahal

Liladharbhai Khodaji BJP Patan

Radadiya Vithalbhai

BJP Bardoli

Vasava Mansukhbhai BJP Bharuch

Dr. Bharatiben Shiyal

BJP Bhavnagar

Jasvantsinh Bhabhor BJP Dahod

BJP Porbandar

Kundariya Mohanbhai BJP Rajkot

Ramsinh Rathwa BJP Chhota Udaipur

Darshana Vikram BJP Surat

L.K. Advani

BJP Gandhinagar

Poonamben Maadam

Chudasama Rajeshbhai

Fatepara Devajibhai BJP Surendranagar

Dr. K. C. Patel

BJP Valsad

Rathod Dipsinh

BJP Junagadh HARYANA Ambala

7 BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

Dr. Harsh Vardhan Manoj Tiwari Mahesh Giri Smt. Meekshi Lekhi Udit Raj Parvesh Sahib Singh Ramesh Bidhuri

BJP - Vadodara, Varanasi

BJP Jamnagar

RLSP BJP BJP BJP LJP BJP BJP BJP BJP Cong BJP BJP BJP BJP

BJP Sabarkantha Rattan Lal Kataria

10 BJP

Kurukshetra Sirsa Hisar Karl Sonipat Rohtak Bhiwani Gurgaon Faridabad

Rajkumar Saini Charanjeet Singh Dushyant Chautala Ashwini Kumar Ramesh Kaushik Deepender Singh Dharambir Inderjit Singh Krishan Pal

HIMACHAL PRADESH Kangra Shanta Kumar Mandi Ram Swaroop Sharma Hamirpur Anurag Singh Thakur Shimla Virender Kashyap

JAMMU & KASHMIR Baramulla Muzaffar Hussain Baig Srigar Tariq Hameed Karra Ladakh Thupstan Chhewang Udhampur Dr. Jitendra Singh Jammu Jugal Kishore

JHARKHAND Rajmahal Dumka Godda Chatra Kodarma Giridih Dhanbad Ranchi Jamshedpur Singhbhum Khunti Lohardaga Palamau Hazaribagh

KARTAKA Chikkodi Belgaum Bagalkot Bijapur Gulbarga Raichur Bidar Koppal Bellary Haveri Dharwad Uttara Kanda Davagere Shimoga Udupi Ckmglr Hassan Dakshi Kanda Chitradurga Tumkur Mandya Mysore Chamarajagar Bangalore Rural Bangalore North Bangalore Central Bangalore South Chikkballapur Kolar KERALA Kasaragod Kannur Vadakara Wayanad Kozhikode Malappuram Ponnani Palakkad Alathur Thrissur Chalakudy Ernakulam Idukki Kottayam Alappuzha Mavelikkara Pathamthitta Kollam Attingal Thiru’puram

Vijay Kumar Hansdak Shibu Soren Nishikant Dubey Sunil Kumar Singh Ravindra Kumar Ray Ravindra Kumar Pandey Pashupati th Singh Ramtahal Choudhary Vidyut Baran Mahanto Laxman Giluwa Karia Munda Sudarshan Bhagat Vishnu Dayal Ram Jayant Sinha Prakash Hukkeri Suresh Angadi P.C. Gaddigoudar Ramesh Jigajigi Mallikarjun Kharge B.V.yak Bhagwanth Sangan A. Karadi B Sreeramulu Udasi Chanbasappa Pralhad Joshi Antkumar Hegde G.M. Siddeshwara B.S. Yeddyurappa Shobha Karandlaje H.D. Devegowda lin Kumar Katil B.N.Chandrappa S.P.Muddahanumegowda C.S.Puttaraju Prathap Simha R. Dhruvaraya D.K.Suresh D.V. Sadanda Gowda P.C. Mohan Anth Kumar M Veerappa Moily K H Muniyappa

BJP INLD INLD BJP BJP INC BJP BJP BJP 4 BJP BJP BJP BJP

6 JKPDP JKPDP BJP BJP BJP

14 JMM JMM BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

28 INC BJP BJP BJP INC INC BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP JD(S) BJP INC INC JD(S) BJP INC INC BJP BJP BJP INC INC

20 P. Karuna Karan CPI(M) P.K. Srimati Teacher CPI(M) Mullapali Ramchandran INC I M Shanvas INC M K Raghvan INC E Ahmed Muslim League E T Mohammad Bashir Muslim League A B Rajesh CPI(M) PK Biju CPI(M) C N Jaydevan CPI Inosent Independent K V Thomas INC Joy George Independent Jose K Mani Kerala Congress(M) K C Venugopal INC Kondikunil Suresh INC Anto Antony INC N K Premachandran RSP A Sampat CPI(M) Shashi Tharur INC

MADHYA PRADESH Morena Anoop Mishra Bhind Bhagirath Prasad Gwalior Narendra Singh Tomar Guna Jyotiraditya M. Scindia Sagar Laxmi Narayan Yadav Tikamgarh Dr. Virendra Kumar Damoh Prahlad Singh Patel Khajuraho Nagendra Singh Satna Ganesh Singh Rewa Janardan Mishra Sidhi Riti Pathak Shahdol Dalpat Singh Paraste Jabalpur Rakesh Singh Mandla Faggan S Kulaste Balaghat Bodhsingh Bhagat Chhindwara Kamal Nath

29 BJP BJP BJP INC BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP INC

ELECTION SPECIAL

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Hoshangabad Vidisha Bhopal Rajgarh Dewas Ujjain Mandsour Ratlam Dhar Indore Khargone Khandwa Betul

MAHARASHTRA Nandurbar Dhule Jalgaon Raver Buldhana Akola Amravati Wardha Ramtek Nagpur B- Gondiya Gadchiroli-Chimur Chandrapur Yavatmal-Washim Hingoli Nanded Parbhani Jalna Aurangabad Dindori Nashik Palghar Bhiwandi Kalyan Thane Mumbai North Mumbai N-West Mumbai N-East Mumbai N-Cntrl Mumbai S-Cntrl Mumbai South Raigad Maval Pune Baramati Shirur Ahmadnagar Shirdi Beed Osmanabad Latur Solapur Madha Sangli Satara R-Sindhudurg Kolhapur Hatkanangle MANIPUR Inner Manipur Outer Manipur NAGALAND Nagaland

ODISHA Bargarh Sundargarh Sambalpur Keonjhar Mayurbhanj Balasore Bhadrak Jajpur Dhenkanal Bolangir Kalahandi Nabarangpur Kandhamal Cuttack Kendrapara Jagatsinghpur Puri Bhubaneswar Aska Berhampur Koraput

PUNJAB Gurdaspur Amritsar Khadoor Sahib Jalandhar Hoshiarpur Anandpur Sahib Ludhiana Fatehgarh Sahib Faridkot Ferozpur Bathinda Sangrur Patiala

Uday Pratap Singh Sushma Swaraj Alok Sanjar Rodmal Nagar Manohar Untwal Chintamani Malviya Sudhir Gupta Dileep Singh Bhuriya Savitri Thakur Sumitra Mahajan Subhash Patel Nandkumar S Chouhan Jyoti Dhurve Gavit Heena V Bhamare Subhash Patil Ashok Tapiram Khadase Raksha Nikhil Jadhav Prataprao Dhotre Sanjay Shyamrao Adsul Anandrao Vithoba Ramdas Chandrabhanji Krupal Balaji Tumane Gadkari Nitin Jairam Nanabhau Falgunrao Ashok Mahadeorao Nete Ahir Hansraj Gangaram Gawali Bhavana Rajeev Shankarrao Ashok S Chavan Jadhav Sanjay Haribhau Danve Raosaheb Chandrakant B Khaire Chavan H Deoram Godse Hement Tukaram Wanaga Chintaman Kapil Moreshwar Patil Dr.Shrikant Eknath Vichare Rajan Baburao Gopal Chinayya Shetty Gajanan Chandrakant Kirit Somaiya Poonam Mahajan Shewale Rahul Ramesh Sawant Arvind Ganpat Geete Anant Gangaram Barne Shrirang Chandu Anil Shirole Supriya Sule Adhalrao Shivaji Gandhi D Mansukhlal Lokhande Sadashiv Munde Gopinathrao P Gaikwad R Vishwanath Gaikwad Sunil Baliram Sharad Bansode Mohite Patil V Sanjaykaka Patil Udayan Raje Pratap Bhosale Vinayak Bhaurao Raut Dhananjay B Mahadik Raju Shetty Dr. Thokchom Meinya Thangso Baite Neiphiu Rio Prabhas Kumar Singh Jual Oram Nagendra Kumar Pradhan Sakuntala Laguri Rama Chandra Hansdah Rabindra Kumar Jena Arjun Charan Sethi Rita Tarai Tathagata Satpathy Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo Arka Keshari Deo Balabhadra Majhi Hemendra Chandra Singh Bhartruhari Mahatab Sri Baijayant Panda Kulamani Samal Pinaki Mishra Prasanna Kumar Patasani, Ladu Kishore Swain Sidhant Mohapatra Jhina Hikaka Vinod Khanna Capt. Amindar Singh Ranjit Singh Brahmpura Santokh Singh Choudhary Vijay Sampla Prem Singh Chandumajra Ravneet Singh Bittu Harinder Singh Khalsa Prof. Sadhu Singh Sher Singh Ghubaya Harsimrat Kaur Badal Bhagwant Mann Dr. Dhawan Vira Gandhi

BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP BJP

48 BJP BJP BJP BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP BJP BJP SHS INC INC SHS BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP SHS SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP SHS SHS SHS SHS BJP NCP SHS BJP SHS BJP SHS BJP BJP NCP BJP INC SHS NCP SWP 2 INC INC

1 NPF

10 BJD BJP BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD BJD

13 BJP INC SAD INC BJP SAD INC AAP AAP SAD SAD AAP AAP

RAJASTHAN Ganganagar Bikaner Churu Jhunjhunu Sikar Jaipur Rural Jaipur Alwar Bharatpur Karauli-Dholpur Dausa Tonk-S Ajmer Nagaur Pali Jodhpur Barmer Jalore Udaipur Banswara Chittorgarh Rajsamand Bhilwara Kota Jhalawar-Baran SIKKIM Sikkim

TAMIL NADU Thiruvallur Chennai North Chennai South Chennai Central Sriperumbudur Kancheepuram Arakkonam Vellore Krishnagiri Dharmapuri Tiruvannamalai Arani Viluppuram Kallakurichi Salem Namakkal Erode Tiruppur Nilgiris Coimbatore Pollachi Dindigul Karur Tiruchirappalli Perambalur Cuddalore Chidambaram Mayiladuthurai Nagapattinam Thanjavur Sivaganga Madurai Theni Virudhunagar Ramanathapuram Thoothukkudi Tenkasi Tirunelveli Kanniyakumari TRIPURA Tripura West Tripura East

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Dear Financial Voice Reader,

Many investors like to buy shares in companies in which the directors themselves are buying stock.

The theory is simple: directors should know more about their own companies than outsiders.

Therefore, if the directors are buying shares this should signal the company is doing well and that the share price will rise. And if they’re selling shares, well surely it’s time to bail out.

The internet makes tracking such directors’ dealings easier than ever – easier to get the information, easier to track purchase or sale trends, and quicker and easier to react to these signals.

In fact, there’s only one problem with this theory: it doesn't work.

I tested it with the following experiment. I took five stocks at random. In the three months following a director’s share purchase, the stocks fell on average. In each case no directors sold shares during that 3-month period. The purchases simply did not boost the share price.

And it isn’t that share prices take longer than three months to react after a director’s purchase. I also examined the 12-month period after the same purchases and found they still made little difference to the overall average performance.

My conclusion? If directors’ dealings do work as a signal, they don’t work in an obvious, easy or straightforward way. Which is a good reason not to use it at all.

Closer inspection reveals why directors dealings don’t work as a signal. Directors could be buying shares not because of faith in a rising share price, but because the company expects new directors to do this (just as a new worker is expected to ‘volunteer’ overtime). It could also be that the share price has fallen sharply and they’re buying stock as a public statement of confidence in the company.

Equally, it could be part of their estate planning, tax re-organisation, or an exercise of options.

These purchases are hardly calculated moves based on the director’s belief in a share price rise.

But although directors’ purchases are not a good signal to buy their stock, perhaps their sales are a good reason to sell it. After all, isn’t the director saying his money is better off elsewhere?

Not so. Wharton’s Andrew Metrick and Harvard’s Leslie Jeng constructed a hypothetical portfolio of all ‘insider’ (the US term for high ranking corporate officers including directors) sales over a 10-year period ending in 1996. The portfolio merely performed in line with the market. You might as well have ignored directors’ sales altogether.

And Professor Josef Lakonishok, Illinois University, came to the same conclusion when he examined directors’ share sales. He found that executives are twice as likely to sell their company’s stock as buy it, simply because many receive their pay in options. And the timing is random, too – more likely prompted by the need to raise cash to make a down payment on a new car than doubts about the company’s future share performance.

So if neither directors’ buying nor their selling is a signal for the net trader to do the same, perhaps we should do the reverse - buy when they sell and sell when they buy? Evidence for this comes from a test by Business 2.0 magazine, which found that a portfolio of 100 stocks with the most insider selling actually gained 40 percent over 12 months.

But where’s the logic in that? Would you confidently risk money believing directors are bound to be wrong about their own company’s future share price?

More localism needed in business rates reform

By Dhruv Patel

Last year I was elected to the City of London Council as an Independent. In the run up to my campaign, many small retailers informed me about the devastating effect the current business rates system was having on them. As my family operates a small, independent chain of pharmacies, this did not come as a surprise. I therefore made business rates reform one of the key platforms of my campaign.

Business rates are set every five years using the rateable value of the property as it was two years previously. This means that from 2010 onwards, the value of the property used to calculate the tax was based on high pre-crisis 2008 figures. As the economy tightened, the increasing discrepancies between the value used to calculate business rates and real market rents, became a

serious issue. This imbalance would have been addressed in the next English revaluation of 2015 but the government announced a postponement until 2017. This decision means the rateable value of business properties remains too high in many areas.

Another major problem specific to Central London is the difficulty in the application of the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme. Almost no small retailers in Central London can take advantage of the relief, as it is only given to occupiers of property with a rateable value below a maximum of £12,000 (a figure which is set nationally). Both of these problems have led our high streets to become unaffordable, resulting in either empty buildings interspersed with a few betting shops and pawnbrokers or the uniform bleakness of chain stores and multiples.

Additionally, there is increasing competition from internet retailers who do not have to pay for a high street presence.

The House of Commons BIS Committee agrees, with a recent report saying the Business Rates system is in need of “fundamental reforms”. I propose a solution that would allow local authorities to take control of their own local business rate revenue.

Historically, local authorities collected business rates, but had no incentive to drive growth locally – using their levers such as planning, parking and public transportation policy – as any resulting increase in business rates had to be paid into a national central pool. Recently, the government modified this policy, and for 2013-14 onwards, local authorities are allowed to retain some of the growth they achieve in business rates receipts.

This is good news but

these plans don't go far enough. Local authorities should also be given responsibility for setting the business rate multiplier, timing of revaluations and, most importantly, identifying the availability and premise on which reliefs are made available.

Mayor Boris Johnson’s 2013 London Finance Commission report suggests ‘comprehensive package of devolution measures to give Londoners a more direct say over a greater proportion of taxes raised in their city’. I agree, and believe that the tasks of setting rates and reliefs, and deciding how to spend them are devolved to local and regional levels of government. This would give people a democratic say in which type of businesses they want to encourage and how the receipts are spent, allowing them to witness the resultant effect in their own, and neighboring, areas.

the country in a van, encouraging rural shopkeepers to stock their lines and taking money only when they sold. Soon their product attracted buyers.

“It wasn’t the real dark blue soap that people were used to,” says Shah. “We made it whiter and lighter; we put a slight perfume in it.” Since then they started oil-processing factories for cooking oils as well as soap; buying land or contracting farmers to produce ingredients; and making hundreds of brands for east Africa’s growing population of consumers. “We have a product for every pocket,” says Shah.

The company’s greatest moment was not only in securing its first million but was escaping one of Africa’s biggest corruption scandals. Kenya claimed to be exporting gold but it turned out fake and the currency crashed in 1992.

Bidco was heading for a crash, too: it owed $13m for a 1991 loan, which it was repaying at 16 Kenyan shillings to the dollar.

When the shilling slumped

to 30, Bidco decided to repay the loan in full at the new rate. It was the best decision we took, because thereafter the exchange rate went to 84 shillings. If we hadn’t taken that decision, we’d have been dead.

And a lot of people did go under, said Shah. Shah says there is no place for automatons in his factory.

Workers and management eat together. Shah has no secretary, which means he must be one of the world’s most accessible CEOs. But ambition is something else altogether. When Unilever sold several lines in 2002, Bidco – then third in the market – outbid rivals to buy four brands of cooking fats and soaps. “The person with the fire in the belly gets it,” says Shah.

That fire still burns.

Shah, who says wealth ratings vastly overestimate Bidco’s value, nevertheless believes more growth is coming. He wants to list the company in London, not Kenya. “We still see more growth in Africa, and we’ll take the whole of Africa.”

Vimal Shah becomes richest man in Kenya

Vimal Shah, the chief executive of Bidco is the richest man in Kenya with an asset worth $ 1.7 billion. When he started manufacturing consumer goods in 1985, no banker was willing to give him a loan. One banker said, “Unilever will kill you.”

Later Unilever had sold several brands to Bidco.

Bidco now aims to be the market leader in household products such as detergents, soaps and cooking oils across Africa by 2030.

Speaking about the life journey outside his factory in Thika, an industrial town near Nairobi, Vimal Shah, 53, said that his philosophy is “Start small, aim big.” Named after their father, BD Shah, who is now company chairman, Bidco is the fulfillment of Vimal and his elder brother Tarun’s childhood dream when they were students in Nairobi. Vimal Shah is the chief executive of the business, which turned over $500m last year.

Their father, a first-

Vimal Shah

generation Kenyan whose Indian father was a dhow boat trader sailing the route between his homeland and the African coast, had shut down a small cloth manufacturing business in 1980, after family wrangling. But the young brothers first wanted to start manufacturing cotton garments. Later they became fascinated by the potential for farming cotton seeds. The Shahs made their millions from cotton.

When no one would give them the big loan, instead of growing seeds at home, they shipped in oil from Malaysia and started a soap factory. When no one wanted to buy their new brands they went round

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REAL ESTATE VOICE

Flipping Vs Keeping

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap A Property Investment Company

19

I had a proposition this week to start a small consortium with some investors who wanted to build up a portfolio and keep these properties. They wanted me involved to tap into the deal flow we can access.

They have built up a number of properties in Harrow and North London. They know our game plan is mostly to hit and run, meaning to buy and sell in a short space of time, ideally without adding any value what so ever.

The reason why they were swayed towards purchasing and holding is because they are getting on and this is the way they have always done things.

They felt e ve n tho ugh cu rrentl y the market is supporting our strate gy I shou ld start think ing abou t build in g a strong asset base for the times ahe ad . It will n ot be su mmer in the propert y market forever, as su re as the seasons chang e t here will be a change in the pro perty marke t and t here fore t here must be some emphasis on the buy and hold strate gy.

This question arises again and again. Do you buy and sell or buy to keep?

Both have their pros and cons. Buying and selling is about two things: price and timing. The price you purchase at is of course important relative to the market price. If you purchase below enough you can resell still keeping below the market price and you will have sufficient demand. The other point which many people do not place enough emphasis on is the timing. This is not only the time between exchange and completion, but also the timing in relation to where the rest of the market is at.

An example I have mentioned before, but is worth revisiting, is when I attended a corporate event and met an Indian man whose family were big in the commercial property market and had built up an asset base of £350m. A prominent business man offered £330m for the whole portfolio, however they refused the offer. This was pre credit crunch 2007, fast forward to post credit crunch the portfolio was suddenly worth £150m. The borrower was wise enough to not give personal guarantees on the borrowings he took. He has mentioned to me several times the reason why he’s still standing is because of this very reason. I have heard it said if you owe the bank £100,000 you have a problem, however if you owe the bank £100m they have the problem!

The other person I met was a Jewish property veteran in his 60; amazingly he had managed to sell his properties prior to each recession hitting three times. Is that reading the market? Or is this having friends at the top?

The timing in between exchange and completion is also important as in a rising market this will increase the margin the longer the time to completion. Currently we have a deal we agreed about three months ago in Kensington, by the time we complete it will be another three months, during this time the price will have increased. However it can also work the opposite way too, as many investors know too well having bought off plan properties pre 2007 and being forced to complete at higher prices than the actual prop-

erty is worth.

Buying and selling means you’re exposed to the market for short periods of time, typically over a three to six month time period; this isn’t a long time in property. It allows you to ride the market up and down if you can read the signals well. You can also pick and choose your deals, and be always on the lookout for deals. When buying and selling you are exposed to capital gains tax most of the time which tends to be more favourable than the income tax.

H o w e v e r i n s o m e wa y s f l i p p i n g g o e s a g a i n s t t h e n a t u ra l at t r i b u t e p r o p e rt y h a s. P ro pe r t y r i se s b y i t se l f wi t h o u t an y o u t s i d e e f f o rt , m e a n i n g i t e ar n s f o r y o u p a s si v e l y .

H o l d i n g p r o p e rt i e s a l l o w s i t t o d o w h a t i t d o e s wh i c h i s go up over t he medium and long t erm. T his do es no t m e a n y o u a l l o w y o u r m o n e y t o b e t r a p pe d i n t h e p r o p e r t y , a f t e r a s i x m o n t h p e r i o d y o u c a n e i t h e r r e m o rt g a g e o r ap p l y f o r a f u rt h e r a d v a n c e f ro m yo u r e x i s t i n g l e n d e r al l o w i n g y o u t o e x t r a c t t yp i c a l l y 7 5 % o f t h e p r o p e rt y v al u e a s o p po s e d t o t h e pu r c h a s e p ri c e .

There are cost benefits to holding stock too, you save paying expenses such as stamp duty, arrangement fees, and agent’s selling costs etc again and again.

The other benefit to holding property is you never ever pay capital gains tax. Capital gains tax is only payable at the point of sale, if you never sell you never pay. Just to be clear this does not mean you cannot take money out of the property. You can in theory take all your deposit money out and more.

Another important point is the type of cash flow you require.

Are happy with a lumpy one, meaning you get a lump sum a few times a year as opposed to a steady income which you will get with rents. Generally speaking trading properties gives one a more aggressive return on the money invested, but not always.

There is no single right or wrong answer to this question. It depends on many factors such as hassle factor, tax situation, the amount of money you have and will be getting, also the enthusiasm you need to have to be involved in buying and selling properties. If you have limited means but a lot of interest in property and pushing things hard, then trading is a good option. Whereas if you’re retired and depend upon a steady monthly income this may not be the right way.

Many investors go for a mixture of the two, keeping some money parked in a property for a long term investment and some of the money for trading.

The Real Deal

Cornwall Gardens, London, SW7 Purchase Price: £900k l Stunning one double bedroom raised ground floor flat l High ceilings l Share of freehold l Communal gardens l The property is coming in at £1,268 per sq ft while properties in this location are being sold at around £1,700 per sq ft l We are confident this property will be sold quickly Call us now to secure this deal!

0207 993 0103

We provide a turnkey solution. Contact us now:

Specialists in

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www.sowandreap.co.uk

55 Bryanston Street, Marble Arch Tower, London, W1H 7AA

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Tips of the Week

l There are three important considerations when purchasing property: the first is location, the second is location…….and the third? You guessed, it’s location.

l The internet has limited use when researching properties. We have done deals where the statistics on the internet did not support our decision, but our local knowledge did and our clients made money from them.

20

LEGAL VOICE

The rising tide

Maria Fernandes

maria@abplgroup.com

We know that the figures given of the scale of illegal immigration are at best guestimates.

Figures are taken from passenger surveys that are outdated and completely inaccurate. These figures were compiled for a different purpose and therefore it is hardly surprising, The recent perceived announcements designed to discourage illegal immigration are in fact increasing it tenfold.

Rights of appeal have been systematically curtailed over time with the sole aim of reducing pressure on the courts and this trend has been a feature embraced by all political parties without exception. It has led to deeply unfair decisions.

Of particular concern are the severe reductions of rights of appeal for those abroad. One of the areas where this has had disastrous consequences has been where mistakes are made on forms or comments made during an interview which have led to the conclusion by immigration officials that false representations have been made. A person abroad is unable to challenge these assumptions despite the fact that they could be banned from the UK for 10 years.

Within the UK applications which are made usually by those trying to regularise their status are refused without a right of appeal but told to leave. Many want their

day in court, where they hope to persuade a judge that they have a reason to stay. Many have children who were born here or who have lived here for many years. They will have to wait for a removal decision when they will be able to argue their case.

They are often told to leave within 10 days and many interpret this to be a legal deadline when in fact it is nothing of the sort.

The Home Office’s next line of attack is to hand the case over to its partner, Capita, who send repeated text messages to the applicant asking applicants to leave. Many applicants are unaware that Capita are merely glorified telephonists with no real powers.

Removal directions, which should be the last stage of a legal process, are just not carried out sometimes for many years if at all.

A large swathe of applicants, now classified as “illegal immigrants” are waiting for removal directions. In fact they cannot be removed without them.

They are in the twilight zone unable to move forwards and unwilling to leave without being able to represent their case in court. There is a rising hinterland of numbers of illegal immigrants at this end. They continue to exist in this no mans land waiting, waiting, waiting.

Sensex hits new record high

The benchmark BSE Sensex on Tuesday soared to a new record high of 22,812.36 in opening trade on sustained foreign capital inflows and tracking positive domestic cues including robust corporate earnings. The NSE index Nifty also rose 9.55 points, or 0.14 per cent, to trade at a fresh high of 6,827.20, surpassing the previous intraday high of 6,825.45 reached on Monday. The 30-share index, which had gained over 487 points in

the previous two sessions, climbed to another record of 22.812.36 by rising 47.53 points, or 0.20 per cent. All the sectoral indices, led by realty and capital goods, were trading in positive territory with gains up to 0.72 per cent. Brokers said sustained buying by funds and retail investors, driven by encouraging fourth quarter earnings by bluechip companies and positive economic factors, helped the Sensex and Nifty to scale life-time highs.

Commercial Finance BusinessPurchase Property Purchase

Mortgages Residential Buy to let

Modi open to pan-India retail tax

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

A pan-India goods and services tax with the support of state governments, a push for infrastructure and privatisation of state units without politics are among the assurances of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi if voted to power.

In an interview, with remarks in tune with his party's election manifesto, Modi also said the entire gamut of foreign equity needed re-evaluation, even as his pro-people, pro-jobs government will not cut subsidies but shun crony capitalism.

"We have always been on the side of the goods and services tax. But its success lies on a proper information technology network across the country. Unless a proper IT network is laid, implementing this tax is impossible," Modi said.

"The central government has not been able to implement GST. This is because it has to work in partnership with states," he said, adding this pan-India tax regime will also not

Narendra Modi

come into force if states have to bear revenue loss or there is discrimination.

"How can a law that results in revenue loss for state governments work. The views of all states must also be taken into consideration. This was their (United Progressive Alliance government's) responsibility. But they did not do it," he said. On foreign direct investment, Modi more-or-less reiterated what his party manifesto says.

"We still have to think fully about foreign direct investment in retail. We have to protect India's manufacturing sector too.

We have to think about small players. If we are

length about corruption, which he called a disease but one that can be prevented to a large extent with proper processes and systems in place.

"My priority will be to develop systems by which the scope of corruption is reduced. But should we direct our efforts towards preventing corruption or clean up the past? That's a question we have to answer," he said.

"My conscience says I should focus on new corruption so that some more of the muddle is not created," he said. Speaking about himself, he said if any allegations are made against him, he will face a probe and ensure his name is cleared without any interference. On privatisation, Modi said it was a matter of professionalism and not politics.

"We have to undertake case studies. It should be done professionally not politically. If the employees of a sick public sector enterprise are taken into confidence, they will run it better than the private companies," he said.

have forecast slower growth. Agriculture is projected to grow at 3% during 201415 to 2018-19, compared to 4.1% during the previous five years.

Similarly, industrial growth is expected to moderate to 5.3% over the next five years, compared to during the previous five, while services may slow down to 7.8% from 8.1%, the agency said.

“Apart from limited upside to productivity improvement over the next five years, what will hinder a return to the 9% growth path is the fact that other underlying factors, which once favoured high growth, are not as supportive as they were in the high growth period of fiscals 2004-2011,” the agency said. Apart from the global slowdown, Crisil said there was surplus capacity in the economy and it would take a while before investments grows from near-zero levels

Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta is expected to begin his two-year prison term on June 17 for insider trading.

US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan directed Gupta to surrender by 2 pm on that date to start serving his sentence, according to an order issued. Gupta, 65, was convicted in June 2012 on securities fraud and conspiracy charges for having fed tips, from Goldman board meetings in the second half of 2008, to longtime friend Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund firm. A three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction on March 25, rejecting Gupta's claim that Rakoff improperly admitted wiretap evidence at trial. Two weeks later, on April 8, Gupta asked the panel to reconsider, or for the entire 2nd Circuit to review the case. Gary Naftalis, a lawyer for Gupta, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A study has found that China, India and other emerging economies like Russia and Brazil would lead the growth in the global aviation market over the next decade. The study on travel industry trends, carried out by Oxford Economics and commissioned by Amadeus, also predicts that China would overtake the largest outbound market of the United States this year itself.

The Oxford EconomicsAmadeus report shows that Asia would drive a decade of sustained growth for the global travel industry, which would grow by 5.4% per annum over the next decade, outpacing global GDP which would grow by little over three per cent. It predicted that Asia would become the growth leader in outbound travel expenditure over the next decade, overtaking Europe by 2023.

Return to 9% growth in India may not be easy: Crisil

Rating agency Crisil said that it may not be easy for India to return to 9 per cent growth rate over the next five years despite political parties promising to achieve high growth.

Crisil said that India has to settle for an average growth of 6.5 per cent growth, provided there is a stable government at the centre.

The forecast is lower than the average for previous five years (April 2009 to March 2014), estimated at 6.7%, although significantly higher than the 4.9% projected for 201314. The position is in contrast to what political parties are promising during the election campaign.

Although the BJP has not provided any number in its manifesto, its leaders are talking about reversing the slow growth phase.

Congress has said that it would take the economy back to 8% growth rate in three years.

“There is a 50% chance growth will average 6.5% Specialist Finance Development Bridging

over this period, provided we get a decisive mandate in the ensuing general elections, which will hopefully speed up decision making, and improve the investment climate and competitive efficiencies,” the agency said in a report.

At the same time, it warned of adverse impact of a fractured mandate as decision making will be hampered and said there was 30% chance of the economy expanding at the current pace of a little under 5%.

Crisil chief economist D K Joshi said countercyclical policy ammunition is missing. “You can’t cut interest rates and the government can’t spend to prop up the economy, given the fiscal constraints and high inflation.” Across sectors Joshi and his team

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loaded with foreign goods our youth will remain jobless," he said.

"We should have a holistic approach to it," he said, adding that foreign equity in any sector must encourage domestic manufacturing, bring in niche technology and create assets - all of which are necessary to create jobs.

Modi also laid a lot of emphasis on infrastructure, especially railways.

"Railways is an important pillar in our country. It is now only a means of transport for passengers.

But it has the potential to become India's growth engine. It can become a link between the central and the state governments to drive its growth," he said. "We have separated the railways from the federal structure and the states.

Tweaking fares and adding coaches won't help. It needs holistic restructuring, technology upgrade. If we use technology for railways can you imagine what we can show to the world," he said. The prime ministerial aspirant also spoke at

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Gupta’s prison term starts on June 17

China, India to lead aviation market

CURRENCY VOICE

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

21

Foreign Exchange

Paresh Davdra is the Dealing Director of RationalFX, Currency Specialists.

Wages catching up with inflation The UK had good data in the week commencing Monday 14th April, which continues to illustrate a strong recovery for the UK economy. Not surprisingly, the pound had a good week, peaking to near 5 year highs against US dollar and strengthening against the euro.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) grew by 1.6% in the year to March 2014, down from 1.7% in February. The largest contribution to the fall in the rate came from transport, particularly motor fuels. Other smaller downward effects came from the clothing and furniture & household goods sectors.

The output price index for goods produced by UK manufacturers (factory gate prices), rose 0.5% in the year to March, compared with a rise of 0.6% in the year to February also UK house prices increased by 9.1% in the year to February 2014, up from 6.8% in the year to January 2014. The pound strengthened off the back of these figures early in the trading day as inflation was expected to be weaker.

Wages are growing at a faster rate than inflation. Pay growth

including bonus' hit 1.7% and inflation is at 1.6%. This is the first time wages are growing faster than inflation since the height of the financial crisis in 2008 apart from a brief period in 2010. Interesting to note that real wages are still 7.7% lower than they were in 2007 so there is still some way to go.

If this is sustained then it will be very positive for the economy as people will have more money to spend on goods and services and should push up GDP. Also the unemployment rate fell a lot further than expected to 6.9% in the 3 months to February from 7.1%. This figure is significant as it is the first time unemployment has fallen below the 7% threshold the Bank of England set for considering an interest rate hike, before it changed its forward guidance on monetary policy.

The U.S. March consumer price report showed slightly

higher-than-expected monthly numbers coming in at 0.2% increase in March and 1.5% year on year, largely off the back of increased food prices, airfares and alcohol. This is well below the annual inflation figure if 2% that the Federal Reserve are targeting. The Dollar did not move off the back off these inflation figures. However the data did little to stop the US dollars continuing weakness with GBPUSD gaining another 0.2% to reach

the highs of November 2009.

Inflation in the Eurozone last month dropped to its lowest level in over 4 years falling to 0.5% in March. This is going to continue to stoke fears of deflation in the Eurozone and will probably force Draghi to come out with a statement in response to this. The euro didn’t really weaken on the back of this news as it was probably already priced in as it came in line with expectations.

The Eurozone trade surplus rose to €13.6 billion surplus in February, compared with €9.8 billion- surplus in the same period last year. EU's seasonally adjusted exports rose by 0.9% while imports fell by 0.5% compared with January. The Eurozone’s strong trade surplus is one of the fundamental reasons the euro currency has held its value amidst challenging economic conditions.

Weekly Currencies

As of Tuesday 22nd April 2014 @ 1pm

GBP - INR = 102.39 USD - INR = 60.84 EUR - INR = 83.97 GBP - USD = 1.68 GBP - EUR = 1.22

EUR - USD = 1.38 GBP - AED = 6.18

GBP - CAD = 1.85

GBP - NZD = 1.96

GBP - AUD = 1.80

GBP - ZAR = 17.74

GBP - HUF = 373.77

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PAKISTAN - NEPAL - UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Pakistan keenly watching Indian election

Lahore: Will Narendra Modi win? Will India get a stable government? What are Arvind Kejriwal's prospects? Is the Congress finished? The questions fly thick and fast in Pakistan, where interest in India's ongoing parliamentary election runs high, for once overriding questions on all other issues including Kashmir.

An Indian journalist who visited Lahore was bombarded with dozens of questions on the world's largest electoral exercise.

There was not a single question on Kashmir!

Many Pakistanis have their favourites in the Indian political landscape.

Clearly, Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, is not the most liked Indian politician.

Activist-turned-politician Kejriwal's popularity has transcended the borders. He is a favourite with many in Pakistan.

"I would like to see Arvind Kejriwal heading the Delhi government again," businessman Hardeep Khullar, a Pakistani Hindu, said.

"I think whatever he did during his short stint (as chief minister) is commendable," said Khullar.

Naved Siddiqui, a 40year-old working in the hospitality sector, agreed, comparing Kejriwal with cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) once created ripples like the AAP. "We see a similar spark in Kejriwal," said Siddiqui.

"His Aam Aadmi Party did wonders even during the short stint. I want him to win because I like his ideology."

Many Pakistanis seemed to see Kejriwal as a young and energetic leader who has his heart in the right

place.

"Kejriwal is the youngest of the lot. So I want him to win," 22-year-old fashionista Anum Sana said, quickly adding that she would also like Modi to win "since he is a bachelor".

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is out of the reckoning as far as Pakistanis are concerned.

Despite the publicity he is garnering, Modi remains an enigma in Pakistan.

Nawazzudin Khan, a young entrepreneur and PR consultant, felt that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had erred by declaring Modi its prime ministerial candidate.

"Modi is still struggling

to wash away the blot of Gujarat's riots of 2002," said Khan. "Also, his attitude towards the Muslim 'topi' (skullcap) is something that is not appreciated here."

Interestingly, most Pakistanis feel that India won't get a stable government even after this Lok Sabha election, notwithstanding the hue and cry over a possible Modi-led BJP victory.

"I guess it's going to be a 'khichdi sarkar' in India, a coalition government, instead of a single party government," felt Ghulam Allauddin, an Islamabad resident. "But, yes, Modi is emerging stronger," he added.

Amarpreet Ahluwalia, a Pakistani Sikh who lives in Karachi, felt political parties were wasting too much money on the election campaign. "I have been hearing a lot of songs on 'Modi ki Sarkar'. They (BJP) have spent so much money on advertisement. I wish they spend this kind of money on the common man," he said.

"It would have made a whole lot of difference," he added.

London: Ms Helen Mountfield, QC, sitting as a Deputy Queen’s Bench Division judge, said that it was the duty of the immigration official to give reasons for why he had decided to remove someone from United Kingdom under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The judge was hearing the case of one Hom Bahadur Thapa for judicial review of the decision of the Secretary of State for the Home Department to expel him from the UK because it was said that he had breached the terms of his residency.

The claimant was from Nepal and had come to the UK to study. As was usual in the case of study visas he had originally been allowed to work, however his most recent visa had been granted without such permission.

Home Office officials claimed that he had been

working in breach of those most recent arrangements and directed his removal from the UK under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

The judge agreed with the claimant’s argument that fairness demanded that he be given reasons for the exercise of discretion to take enforcement action under section 10 of the 1999 Act. The secretary of state conceded that the immigration officer had to have reasonable evidence upon which she could form a rational judgment that the claimant was working in breach of his visa conditions, at the time of taking enforcement action, but submitted that fairness only required that evidence to be communicated to the affected person when he appealed.

That submission was not accepted, for two reasons.

First, the court had to be in a position to see that the decision-maker appreciated at the point of making a section 10 decision that she had a discretion, and that she had exercised it fairly and in accordance with the secretary of state’s published policy, or that she had recognized that she was departing from it and had said why that was so.

That did not require very detailed reasons, but it did require enough to enable the court to see that the decision-maker had correctly addressed the issue of discretion and, at least on her own stated case, had rational grounds for doing so.

Otherwise, the court could not see that the decisionmaker had acted fairly in determining that the other potential issues of fact and law ought to be determined on an out-of-country, rather than an in-country appeal.

There was a second reason why fairness demanded that at least outline reasons be given at the point of making a section 10 decision: being able to proceed with an appeal only out of country created certain practical difficulties for an appellant.

Seeking and paying for access to a video link was one potential issue.

Securing evidence in the UK was another.

Fairness demanded that at least the gist of the evidence upon which a removal decision under section 10 of the 1999 Act was taken would be communicated to the subject of that decision at the time when the decision itself was communicated, both in order to ensure that the court could see that there had been a lawful and rational exercise of discretion and also to ensure that the appeal process was as fair as possible.

Immigration officials have to give reasons before removal of someone: court

Nepal in talks to avert Sherpa strike 13 guides killed in deadliest Mount Everest avalanche

Kathamndu: Nepalese authorities were meeting with Sherpa mountain guides in an attempt to avert a climbing strike after the deadliest avalanche recorded on Mount Everest killed at least 13 of the guides.

A boycott by Nepal's ethnic Sherpa community could disrupt the Everest climbing season, which is key to the livelihood of thousands of guides and porters. Without Sherpa support, it would be almost impossible for climbers to reach the summit.

Sherpas have threat-

ened to boycott expeditions unless the government meets a series of demands by next week, including providing more insurance money, further financial aid for the families of the victims and new regulations that would ensure climbers' rights.

Maddhu Sudan Burlakoti, the head of Nepal's mountaineering department, said all of the demands would be discussed and a recommendation made to the government later on Tuesday.

Since last week’s avalanche, expedition teams

have declared a week of mourning with no trips to the summit. Ang Tshering of the Nepal M o u n t a i n e e r i n g Association said about 400 foreign climbers from 39 expedition teams are on the mountain with an equal number of Sherpa guides, along with support staff such as cooks, cleaners and porters in the base camp.

If the Sherpas boycott the season, many of the climbers would have to forfeit most or all of the money they have spent to climb Everest, which can add up to $90,000 (£53,000).

Those climbing Everest have long relied on Sherpas for everything from hauling gear to cooking food to high-altitude guiding. Some guides had already left the mountain by Monday, either joining the boycott or mourning their friends and colleagues.

The avalanche caused the most deadly recorded climbing accident in Everest history. At least 13 Sherpas were killed when a block of ice tore loose from the mountain and triggered a cascade that ripped through teams of guides hauling gear.

In Brief

Islamists kidnap schoolgirls in Nigeria

Borno (Nigeria): At least 100 schoolgirls were kidnapped by suspected Islamist extremists from a school in north-east Nigeria.

Some girls later escaped from the captors, officials say. The girls were abducted after midnight from a school in Chibok, on the edge of the Sambisa Forest, an insurgent hideout, said the Borno state police commissioner.

Gunmen killed a soldier and police officer before they took off with the girls. The extremists have been abducting girls to use as cooks and sex slaves.

Biblical films doing well

London: There was choice for people who wanted to see Biblical films during Easter Sunday. “Heaven is for Real” opened on April 16th. “Noah”, starring Russell Crowe, has already grossed around $85m in America and double that abroad. Three religious films released in 2014 - “Noah”, “Son of God”, and “God’s Not Dead”- have done well at the box office. Some viewers complain that films like “Noah” go off-scripture, but others are happy to see Biblical tales given the Hollywood treatment. Later this year Fox will release “Exodus: Gods and Kings”, starring Christian Bale as Moses.

Supermarkets enticing shoppers

London: Supermarkets are using all tricks to entice the shoppers to spend more than what they intended to spent, says a report. There were demands that the consumer watchdog should investigate the marketing tactics used by the big four supermarkets, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. Strategic placing of items such as beer next to nappies was designed to entice male shoppers to buy both items in preparation for the weekend.

Cakes and bacon placed near bread and soup influenced consumers to buy more than they had intended.

NHS failures proving costly for diabetics

London: Diabetes UK says that more than 100 people with diabetes have their feet amputated every week needlessly because of poor NHS care. Many people with diabetes are not offered regular foot checks or referred to specialists quickly enough, the charity claims.

Thousands die of dehydration in hospitals

London: An NHS study has revealed that at least 1,000 hospital patients are dying needlessly each month from dehydration and poor care by doctors and nurses. The deaths from acute kidney injury could be prevented by simply asking the patients to drink more liquids and doctors reviewing their medication, the researchers say. They say that between 15,000 and 40,000 patients die annually because hospital staff fail to diagnose the treatable kidney problem in time.

Working hours of rich people rising substantially

London: A study by Oxford University has found that working hours for the rich have risen substantially since the 1960s.

Economists claim that as better educated people are not doing manual jobs, work has become more satisfying both intellectually and emotionally, meaning they don’t feel the need for leisure time. Many high fliers today see leisure it as a sign of indolence and unemployment. The researchers said there was now a ‘superordinate working class’ which was turning human history on its head as traditionally the lower classes have worked the longest hours.

Pound soaring high against dollar

London: Following the economic recovery, the pound approached a four-year high against the dollar after unemployment fell below the 7 per cent threshold originally set by the Bank of England as the benchmark for raising rates and wages rose by 1.7 per cent. This marked a formal end to the six-year cost-of-living crisis, during which high inflation has meant that wages have in effect been shrinking.

SOUTH KOREA - US - UK

In Brief

Britons among most sceptical about religion

London: A global study has found that Britons are among the most sceptical in the world about religion. Just over a third of people in the UK believe religion has a positive role to play in our daily lives, compared to a global average of 59 per cent. More than a quarter of Britons said that they believe religious belief actually has a negative impact.

Iraqis making false allegations against British soldiers

London: An inquiry has found that Iraqis who accused British soldiers of murder and torture were guilty of a "criminal conspiracy" to pervert the course of justice and repeatedly lied under oath to a public inquiry. The serious charge was made during bitter and heated exchanges as lawyers for the Iraqis accused the British soldiers of "gross violations of the Geneva conventions." Lawyers for the British soldiers suggested the motive behind the Iraqi allegations was an attempt to extract financial compensation.

Taylor Wimpey chief warns against house prices surge

London: Pete Redfern, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, said that the sharp rise in house prices was a result of building higher value family homes and pushing into some of London’s more affluent suburbs, such as Camden and Westminster, where prices were rising. The Office for National Statistics reported that house prices in London had risen by 17.7 per cent in the year to February. Across the UK it rose 9.1 per cent, up from the annual rate of 6.8 per cent in January.

Irish website for broadcasting funeral services

London: An Irish entrepreneur has started a website to broadcast funerals live to relatives living in faraway places. The entrepreneur said, "I provide live streamed footage and audio of funerals in the church and graveyard, subject to the availability of broadband on location.

The entire service can also be made available online no more than two hours after the funeral service. The weblink is passwordprotected so as to ensure only people who you want to see it will see it.”

John Lewis boss opposes extension of Sunday trading hours

London: Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis, has opposed a move by some MPs and some supermarkets to extend the trading hours on Sundays. He said that the existing laws provided a “very good balance” for staff and customers. At present, large stores can only open for six hours on Sunday but there have been growing calls from retailers such as Asda and Morrisons to loosen the rules after successful trials during the 2012 Olympics. However, Street said that John Lewis, which has 41 stores across the UK, is "quite comfortable with the way it is".

British teenager killed in Syria

London: An 18-year-old British teenager who was killed fighting Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria was described by his father as a martyr.

Abubakr Deghayes, whose son Abdullah died earlier this month, said he had flown to Turkey to try to prevent his son joining his two brothers in Syria. Jafer, 16, and Amer, 20, were already fighting in Syria, and Amer was shot in the stomach in the battle in which Abdullah was killed.

23

Hotelier Chatwal pleads guilty to US campaign contribution scheme

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

New York: Prominent New York hotel executive Sant Singh Chatwal pleaded guilty to conspiring to make $188,000 of illegal campaign contributions to three US candidates via straw donors.

Chatwal, chairman of Hampshire Hotels Management, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, to criminal charges of conspiring to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act and witness tampering.

The identities of the candidates were not disclosed except that they ran for federal office. A straw donor is someone who illegally uses someone else's money to make campaign contribu-

Hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal tions in his or her own name.

Chatwal has been a major fundraiser for Democrats including former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is considering a run for president in 2016. One of the three

candidates was Clinton, according to a source familiar with the matter. A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.

As part of a plea agreement, Chatwal, 70, agreed not to appeal any prison sentence shorter than 5-1/4 years. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. The defendant also agreed to forfeit $1 million.

Chatwal entered his plea at a hearing before US District Judge Leo Glasser, saying simply, "I plead guilty, sir."

The case was unveiled two weeks after Hampshire named Eric Danziger to replace Chatwal as chief executive. Chatwal was to

remain chairman of the privately held New York-based company, which was founded in 1986 and operates hotels in New York, Miami and the United Kingdom.

Chatwal is also the founder of the Bombay Palace restaurant chain.

Prosecutors said Chatwal from 2007 to 2011 used employees, business associates and hotel contractors to solicit contributions, which he would reimburse, on behalf of various federal candidates and political action committees.

They said the scheme violated federal limits on campaign contributions by individuals, which in 2008 were $4,600 per candidate and in 2010 were $4,800.

Juan Manuel Santos was heading to Mexico to take part in the ceremony alongside Mexican leader Enrique Pena Nieto and Garcia Marquez's wife and two sons.

The veteran journalist first moved to Mexico in 1961 and it was here that he wrote his seminal novel, "One Hundred Years of

Solitude," which was published in 1967.

His wife, Mercedes Barcha, and sons Rodrigo and Gonzalo, will bring the late writer's ashes to the memorial after leaving their house in southern Mexico City, where they have grieved in private while friends, fellow writers and politicians visited them.

Mexico bids farewell to Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Mexico City: Mexico bid farewell Monday to its adopted son, Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in a national tribute filled with roses and the late Nobel winner's favorite music. Dozens of people lined up outside the capital's domed Fine Arts Palace where Mexico pays tribute to its late artistic icons - for

a memorial ceremony.

Garcia Marquez died in his Mexico City house on Thursday at the age of 87.

"I still can't believe it, which is why I'm here.

Maybe this way I can better accept it," said Felisa Tole, a Colombian woman who has lived in Mexico for eight years. Colombian President

100 killed as South Korean ferry sinks

Jindo (South Korea): More than 100 bodies were recovered from the South Korean ferry which sank off South Korea, coast guard spokesman Kim Jae-in said. One by one, coast guard officers carried the newly arrived bodies covered in white sheets from a boat to a tent on the dock of this island, the first step in identifying a sharply rising number of corpses from a South Korean ferry that sank nearly a week ago. Since divers found a way over the weekend to enter the submerged ferry, the death count has shot up. Officials said that confirmed fatalities had reached 104, with nearly 200 people still missing. Meanwhile, the captain and two crew members of the ferry were arrested on suspicion of negligence and abandoning more than 300 missing or dead. The ferry captain Lee Joonseok defended his decision to wait about 30 minutes before ordering an evacuation. He said that he had delayed evacuation because of the sea conditions and the absence of rescue ships. He was arrested along with one of the Sewol’s three helmsmen and the 25-year-old third mate, prosecutors said. “I am sorry to the people of South Korea for causing a disturbance and I bow my head in apology,” Lee told reporters.

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INDIA

Narendra Modi promises houses, power for all by 2022

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

I have excellent personal relations with Jayalalithaa: Modi

Salem (Tamil Nadu): The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, said that the NDA on coming to power would solve all issues in 60 months, which were left unsolved by the Congress in 60 years.

Addressing an election rally in Salem in support of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam candidates, Modi accused the Congress of failing to resolve inter-State disputes over water and power.

The divide-and-rule policy and vote bank politics of Congress would not work

anymore. “Congress knows only to talk and roll out schemes. But people are tired of promises and want action,” he said. When the country celebrated its 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022, all people, mostly poor, would have houses, toilet facilities, power and schools in nearby areas, Modi said. Pointing out that the severe power crisis in the State had affected agriculture and industry, Modi said interlinking of rivers, which would be implemented by the NDA, would provide both water and electricity.

Former Andhra CM Kiran Reddy opts out of poll

Hyderabad: Former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and president of Jai Samaikyaandhra Party (JSP), Kiran Kumar Reddy, has opted out of the contest in the May 7 elections in the state.

Though Kiran was expected to file his nomination from his home turf Piler assembly constituency in Chittoor district, he opted out at the last minute and instead fielded his younger brother Kishore Kumar Reddy as the JSP candidate.

Kiran's decision not to fight the election comes as a surprise to the two-monthold party that was established on the united AP platform.

Barring Kiran and a couple of expelled Congress MPs, the JSP has no other notable faces as some of his erstwhile cabinet col-

Chandigarh: In a historic decision, Haryana's biggest khap panchayat called by Satrol khap in Hisar gave a go-ahead to inter-caste marriages that have in the past triggered bloody killings in the state and surrounding regions.

The khaps, in the name of tradition, have been opposed to inter-caste marriages, inter-village marriages (that is, within a radius of 42 villages) as well as same-gotra marriages.

With Sunday's meeting, a substantial swathe under Satrol khap will henceforth allow inter-caste marriages as well as weddings between families from villages within the radius of 42 villages though marriages within the same village and immediate bordering villages remain banned. Same-gotra marriages too remain barred, and the weddings can take

Confident that the people will vote for the BJP, Modi said he did not believe in "untouchability" in politics and shared excellent personal relations with political leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. Asked about Jayalalithaa's criticism of him when he was in Chennai, Modi said: "We may criticise our political opponents, but at a personal level I share excellent relations with them." He even talked about his personal equation with Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, who is a political opponent. "We may differ in ideology but I share excellent personal relations with all of them,

including Jayalalithaa. This is the beauty of our democracy," he said in an interview. In another interview, Modi rejected the politics of vendetta. "No government should be vindictive, but the law will take its own course," he said when asked if he would take action against Robert Vadra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law.

Madurai man's borewell robot saves 3-year-old

leagues, who were supposed to join the party, deserted him. Sources close to Kiran said he did not want to contest the election as he would be busy campaigning for the JSP candidates in other constituencies.

Addressing a road show at Piler, Kiran thanked the people for having elected his father and later him for 10 terms from Vayalpadu and Piler constituencies. He requested them to now extend the same support to his brother Kishore.

Chennai: It was "borewell robot", an indigenous device developed by a Maduraibased social worker, that saved a 3-year old boy who fell into an abandoned borewell in a village in Tirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu. For M Manigandan, who along with his team is involved in operations to save children who accidentally fall into borewells, the rescue of the boy on April 14 marked the first success with his device.

An ITI educated fitter and now working as a faculty in a college which imparts vocational training to rural people, the 43-year-old says it took him several years to develop the 'robot', the trigger for which was his own son's accidental fall into a borewell in 2003 and rescue.

Explaining the device, he said the 'robot' is actually a

two feet high simple iron framework weighing just five kg. It has a hook on its top to enable its suspension through a rope deep into borewells. The device has a high resolution camera which can take pictures even in pitch dark conditions and arms which are detachable.

It can lift weight up to 50 kg.

The pictures can be seen on a computer monitor. "In Tirunelveli, we first tried the rubber arms...but the child kept pushing it away probably out of fear...then I used the clamp arms which clutched the child and thankfully we were able to rescue the child."

Asked if the child would not get hurt if the arms clutched it too closely, he said a pressure guage continuously monitors the pressure exerted by the arms and the victim's response.

place only with parental consent.

The reform is significant and represents the first moderation in the hitherto unyielding opposition of khaps to inter-caste and inter-village marriages.

These rules have led to persecution of couples, suicides, honor killings and caste conflicts in rural belts, and even forced bachelors to get brides from other states. The largest number of killings has occurred owing to inter-caste marriages, followed by same village marriages, followed by same-gotra marriages.

Satrol panchayat covers 36 castes in 42 villages spread over 250 sq km area of Narnaund village of Hisar district and has 60 per cent population of jats, who would be able to marry into different castes subject to parental approval.

Chandigarh: Apparently encouraged by the response in Lok Sabha elections, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has decided to contest the upcoming assembly polls in Haryana on its own.

Following a meeting of the party's state executive in New Delhi, president of the INLD's Haryana unit, Ashok Arora, said that they won't form any alliance for the assembly elections.

Before the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had made efforts to help INLD get into an alliance with BJP, which didn't work out as the saffron party chose to go with its pre-poll partner HJC. In the meeting presided over by Ellenabad MLA Abhay Singh Chautala and Arora, INLD candidates expressed confidence that they would win all 10 Lok

Sabha seats in Haryana.

"We have won the semifinal (Lok Sabha polls) and now it's over to the final contest," asserted Abhay Chautala, son of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala. Another INLD leader said, "We have nothing to lose in the Lok Sabha polls as we had not won any seat in the 2009 general elections. But this time, we would certainly win a few seats and increase our vote share too. This would boost the morale of party activists even as we contested the poll without any alliance."

INLD had secured 22.43% votes in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls when it contested all 10 seats in Haryana. In 2009 polls, INLD's vote share slipped to 15.77% votes as it contested five seats in alliance with BJP, which got 12.09% votes.

Kiran Kumar Reddy

Haryana’s khap allows inter-caste marriages

INLD to go it alone in Haryana assembly polls

South Brief

Ex-minister’s wife caught with Rs 4500,000 cash Hyderabad: Police recovered Rs 4500,000 in cash carrying by former Andhra minister K Parthasarathi's wife was while she was travelling in a bus. A week ago a TDP candidate was nabbed travelling in a bus with Rs 9000,000 cash. Parthasarathi had quit the Congress and is now the YSR Congress candidate for the Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency. According to police, his wife Kamala, was carrying two bags and one bag was stuffed with currency notes of 1,000 and 500 denomination.

Irish tourist sexually assaulted at Bangalore

Bangalore: An Irish tourist had a bitter experience in the AC waiting room of the Bangalore railway station. She was molested by a senior citizen when she was half asleep on a couch in the waiting room. Police arrested R Kashinath, 61, from Davanagere.

He molested the tourist on the pretext of draping a blanket around her shoulders. The woman, 30, a psychiatrist, told police that Kashinath made two attempts to molest her. "I shooed him away when he offered me his blanket. I was half asleep when he entered the AC waiting room the second time and molested me,” she told police.

Prohibitory orders in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The Election Commission (EC) has directed all district collectors in Tamil Nadu to promulgate prohibitory orders banning campaign by political parties and assembly of more than five persons. Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar said, “The campaigning stops at 6 pm on Tuesday. We have asked all district collectors and Commissioners of Police to proclaim Section 144 throughout the State, prohibiting campaign by political parties. This is the first time such a measure is being implemented in the State. The prohibition will be in place until 6 am of polling day.”

North Brief

PGI doctors prepare a do-list for next govt

Chandigarh: With the countdown for the next government having started, the PGI faculty association has prepared a do-list of things for the union ministry of health and family welfare. For anything to be ratified for PGI - an institute of excellence under the Act of Parliament - the sanction has to come from the governing body whose president is the union health minister. Perturbed by the pending issues which have been gathering dust, the association plans to pursue some of the previous demands to be considered afresh. These include rotational headship, additional accommodation for the faculty and management of patients in overcrowded emergency.

Complaint filed against Haryana minister Kataria

Gurgaon: A fresh police complaint has been registered against Haryana youth and sports minister Sukhbir Kataria in a bogus voting case, taking the number of complaints to six, officials said. Five police complaints have already been lodged against the minister in Gurgaon. Judicial Magistrate Kavita Yadav ordered filing of complaint against Kataria, Gurgaon legislator Sukhbir and 10 others on charges of cheating, preparing and using fake documents and criminal conspiracy during the election.

Juvenile delinquency high in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: As many as 624 juveniles have been arrested in a total 408 cases during the past three years and 292 juveniles out of 624 were arrested for petty offences. A detailed data of four years between 2008 and 2011 revealed that a total 21 juveniles have been arrested in the cases of murders and 24 were arrested in attempt to murder cases. Six juveniles out of 21, those were arrested in murder charges, were school going students.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Major challenge for Cong in Maharashtra

Mayuri Dave

The second most populated state in India may decide the fate of BJP- led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Home to India's financial hub, Mumbai, the state of Maharashtra is witnessing multi dimensional election battle.

Besides two alliances – BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress - Nationalist Congress Party – presence of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and Aam Adami Party have brought element of suspense as far as results of the elections are concerned.

From the Konkan range and the Western Ghats to the Deccan land, Maharashtra has a compelling range of physical diversity. It reflects even in the case of voters. After its inauguration as a state in 1960, Maharashtra has been under the Congress stronghold. Though, the state has been under the President's rule only once in 1980, fierce political rivalry has prevailed between the Congress and

History likely to repeat in Dadra & Nagar Haveli

Fourth largest Union Territory (UT) Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat is located in western India. While Dadra is an enclave surrounded on all sides by Gujarat, Nagar Haveli is located between Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Date of voting LS Seat 01 April 30, 2014

The UT was earlier under Portuguese control, but was merged with India on 2 August 1954 as one nation.

Tribal groups constitute the majority of the population.

The UT is represented in the Lok Sabha by only one member. However, current MP from the constituency is Natubhai Patel from BJP who is contesting against the Congress party candidate Mohan Delkar.

Looking to the mood of the electors, Patel is expected to retain his seat.

MAHARASHTRA

Date of voting April 10,17 & 24, 2014

Maharashtra has so far witnessed 15 Lok Sabha LS Seat 48 elections starting from t h e 1951. The Congress has S h i v been at its best in the state Sena-BJP giving away a win at the alliance. hands of the Janata Party In the previin 1977, BJP in 1996 and ous state assembly elec1999. In the last general tion, the Congress won 82 elections, the Congress seats, the NCP 62 seats, along with the Nationalist the BJP 46 seats out of the Congress Party (NCP) 288 seats. The rest were bagged a total of 25 seats, bagged by MNS, indewhile the Bharatiya Janata pendents and other Party (BJP) along with the regional parties. Congress elected Ashok Chavan as Shiv Sena clinched 20 the Chief Minister of the seats. state. However, in 2010 he Anti- incumbency facwas forced to resign after tory is the major issue, he was indicted in the which is the worrying facAadarsh Housing scam. tor for the Congress party in the State. Besides, ‘A Important political figures scam as big as 3,854 square metres of land,’ the • Sharad Pawar – NCP • Uddhav Thakre – Shiv Sena Aadarsh Housing Society, which was meant to pro• Raj Thakre – MNS vide a residential complex • Gopinath Munde – BJP • Pruthviraj Chauhan - Cong for the retired personnel of the Defence Services, was

DG

à{

Lok Sabha contest in Goa equally poised

25

being used for the personal benefits of high-ranking AV Correspondent bureaucrats, politicians, fron party. Apart from BJP, Congress, the Nationalist and military officers.

Congress Party (NCP), the Several arrests have been One of the Communist Party of made but the case still most exotic India –Marxist remains unresolved. tourist desti(CPM) and the Another scam, which nations in Communist Party tarnished the image of the India, Goa has of India (CPI) are Congress party is irrigatwo parliamenGOA having sway in tion scam. The scam tary seats. It has the various parts involves Rs 350 billion and a total voter popof the state. was in operation from ulation of 1043,000, Maharashtrawadi 1999 and came to light in comprising 73.76 per Date of voting 2012 when the Economic cent of total popula- April 17, 2014 Gomantak Party Survey 2012 of the year tion of the State.

(MGP), United LS Seat 02 Goans Democratic identified the shocking Gender wise it is one stagnation in irrigation of the most balanced Party (UGDP) and system of the state in India Goa Vikas Party are state. All this as around 50 some of the major GENERAL was despite per cent of its players. are In 2009 Lok Sabha the Rs 700 ELECTION 2014 voters females. elections as many as eight billion spent Besides, the parties contested. The on various state has 27 Congress candidate Cosme irrigationANALYSIS overseas elecFrancisco Caintano related projtors.

Sardinha from the South ects of the Being a highly literate Goa and BJP’s Shripad state. state, with a literacy rate of Yesso Naik from the North Moreover, in the Goa won the election. month of February 2014 88.7 per cent, issues of the Apart from Parikar, the and March 2014, over two state are different. former chief minister and dozen farmers committed Currently BJP government Congress leader suicide in the state. The under the chief minister Pratapsingh Raoji Rane reasons include crop failManohar Parikar is funcand MGP leader Dayanand ure due to poor facilities tioning well. Parikar’s provided to the agriculture clean image would be an Badodkar are key political sector. added advantage to the safleaders in the State.

NOMINATION FORM

The prestigious Asian Achievers Awards is hosted every year by UK’s leading news weeklies Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar to honour British Asians par excellence. If there is someone you know who has broken boundaries and deserves recognition for their unique contribution to the community and the nation then please nominate them for one of the awards listed below.

Make sure that you fill in this application form and send it on or before 14th July, 2014 by post, fax or email to Mr. L George, Tel: 020 7749 4013, Fax 020 7749 4081, Email: aaa@abplgroup.com. If you are sending it by post the address is Mr. L George, ABPL Group, Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market, London N1 6HW.

Please tick the appropriate category Entrepreneur of the Year ....................................................

Uniformed and Civil Services ............................................

Awarded to an entrepreneur with a proven track record of operating a successful business enterprise.

For outstanding achievements in uniformed and civil services or contribution to the community through any of the above services.

Achievement in Media, Arts and Culture ....................

Professional of the Year ......................................................

Someone who has made a mark in media including print and broadcast media; cinema, art and culture.

Achievement in Community Service................................

Awarded to those who have acclaimed popularity internationally for his/her contribution in any particular sector and is recognised for their timeless philanthropic activities.

Sports Personality of the Year............................................

Awarded for excellence in sports.

Woman of the Year ................................................................

The award will recognise and honour a woman who has made a significant mark in any chosen field.

AV Correspondent

Business Person of the Year ..............................................

Awarded to a business person who is a success in every sense of the word and can demonstrate a genuine passion for social issues.

Daman and Diu is a Union Territory of India, situated on the coast of the Arabian Sea. It was a part of Portuguese India along with Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Goa for over 450 years. Daman and Diu, and Goa were administered as a single Union Territory

Professionals in the field of medicine, law, education, banking, finance and others, who have scaled the heights of their chosen profession.

International Personality of the Year ............................

In recognition for an individuals service to community.

Daman & Diu BJP bastion

Lifetime Achievement Award ............................................

To honour those individuals, who during their lifetime, have made immense contributions in any given field. This remarkable individual can be marked as an example for the younger generation.

Application Form

Name of the Person you are Nominating: __________________________________________________________________________

Contact Details of the Nominee (Tel & email):_______________________________________________________________________

Present Occupation of the Nominee:_______________________________________________________________________________

Please attach the Nominees's CV which includes the following information (Please do not exceed a limit of 1000 words) (1) Personal background (2) Most important career achievements till date.

Date of voting LS Seat 01 April 30, 2014

till 1987. In 1987, after Goa became the 25th state of India, Daman and Diu was granted the status of a Union Territory. Sitting BJP MP Lalubhai Babubhai Patel is expected to win against the Congress candidate Ketan Patel in the coming election.

Since then, Prithviraj Chavan has been leading the party in the state.

INDIA

(3) Nominee's contribution to the community and nation.

(4) Future Plans, ambitions and visions.

(5) Any notable obstacles in the Nominee's career that has helped him/her to reach where they are today.

Summary- (Please include a summary in not more than 150 words why the nominee is worthy of winning the particular award in a separate sheet) Nominator’s name and contact details: ____________________________________________________________________________ Nominator’s current Occupation/Company: _________________________________________________________________________ Tel/Mobile: _________________________________ Email: __________________________________________________________

NOMINATION AND SELECTION PROCESS This is a unique event where readers nominate and an independent panel of judges comprising of eminent personalities selects the winner. Judges’ decision is final. ABPL Group will not entertain any dialogue with members of the public regarding the judging process. In order to ensure a high degree of transparency and fairness, the management and members of the staff of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar will play no role in the nomination or judging process. You may use an additional sheet if the space provided is insufficient. The winners will be announced at the AAA Awards ceremony on 19th September, 2014. Asian Voice, Gujarat Samachar will publish the names of the short listed candidates and winners after the event. The winners names will also appear in our e-edition www.abplgroup.com You can nominate yourself if you wish to.

Nominations and entries must follow the prescribed format. All nomination forms must reach our offices on or before 14th July, 2014

26

INDIA - WORLD In Brief

Church leaders blame coalition for hunger in the country

London: The church leaders have used the Easter sermon to pull up the government over hunger, poverty and destitution in the country. The Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby during his Easter sermon has blamed the coalition government for the poverty in the country. One bishop claimed that cut in welfare schemes by the government were having “sinful consequences.” Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, also singled the issue out, speaking of those in Britain and elsewhere who feel “excluded from the fruits of the Earth.”

Many senior clerics took part in a fast during lent to highlight their concerns and last week hundreds of clergy and scores of bishops signed a joint letter raising the issue.

But Tory ministers have repeatedly disputed arguments that welfare cuts have created a “hunger crisis” suggesting that the growth of food banks had more to do with supply than demand.

Classes to begin with singing of national anthem

London: Schools in Bolton are being urged to fly the Union Jack and sing the national anthem at every assembly. Schools in the area will also be asked to fly the St George's cross on April 23, St George's Day, and the Commonwealth flag in March. Mudasir Dean said he wanted to seize the Union Flag back from the Far Right and show children it was a symbol people from all backgrounds could celebrate. “My grandfather came to Bolton in the 1920s from India,” he said.

“He lived here all his life and he was the first Asian to settle in Bolton. Growing up in Bolton, I've seen less and less of the Union Flag. It's been hijacked by the Far Right and it's time we take that symbol back into mainstream British, Bolton life.”

Giant torch unveiled in US in honour of Indian spiritual guru

New York: A giant torch, which is a replica of the Olympic torch, was unveiled in New York in honour of Indian spiritual leader Chinmoy Kumar Ghose. The giant 25-foot tall torch, considered the world's largest, was unveiled by Ashrita Furman, 59, who holds numerous Guinness Book World records. The torch was unveiled to honor 50 years of Ghose's - popularly known as Sri Chinmoy coming to New York from India in April 1964. The torch is 11 times larger than the Olympic torch used in the 1998 Winter Olympic games to carry the flame from Athens to Nagano in Japan and weighs 1,200 kg.

Furman, who constructed the aluminum and steel torch over three weeks, credited the teachings of Ghose for his inspiration. Through the torch, Furman could make a new Guinness record.

Rejoice

100th Birthday Celebration Mrs Dahiben Bhanabhai Karadia celebrated her 100 year milestone on 10th April. She received a best wishes birthday card from Her Majesty The Queen and Secretary of State for work and Pensions Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith.

Mrs Dahiben is originally from Dandi, South Gujarat. Her father Lalbhai and mother Shomben were freedom fighters. Mrs Dahiben thus had the privilege of meeting Mahatma Gandhi in her Childhood. She got married at the age of 16 to Mr Bhanabhai Jashmatbhai. She had three sons Heerabhai, Chhotubhai, Sureshbhai, and two daughters Jasuben and Ramaben, 13 grand children and 7 great-grand children.

After she got married she went to Kenya in 1945 by sailing boat from Jamnagar-Gujarat with her 9 year old son Chotubhai. Her younger son Mr Suresh Karadia, who works for CNN as a camera operator, now takes care of her in his home in Victoria, London.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

12 reasons for Arindam Chaudhuri wanting Modi as PM

1. I haven't seen leadermaterial better than Modi in Indian politics since my childhood; and elders do say that post Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, India has not witnessed a leader who can speak as assertively and as clearly as Modi does! Personally, I am tired of spineless leaders representing the country and would love to see a leader who can stand up to world leaders and make them take note of India.

2. Modi's vision of growth is what India needs.

Gujarat may not be the role model, but Modi is growth focussed, and such economic growth - rather than populist doles like free water and electricity – can take care of all our ills, and can equip people to make them independent.

3. Modi may have seen an unfortunate riot happening during the initial part of his reign, and the Supreme Court may have correctly or incorrectly given him a clean chit, but the fact as they say is that the best apology is in never repeating a mistake. And while before and after 2002, we have seen hundreds of riots taking place all around in India, we haven't seen another one in Gujarat! If that's what Modi believes in and commits himself to, then we have a real man who believes in amending his mistakes instead of forwarding pretentious apologies.

4. Modi has embraced industrialists and has shown himself to be a friend of free market, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is corrupt and won't take care of the masses. He surely looks like a

man of words. Gujarat may not be a leader in Human Development Indexes, but it has some great aspects.

For example, in terms of access to schooling, Muslims in Gujarat are better placed than Hindus.

And that's great news.

Likewise, throughout India, I would love to see Dalits and Muslims getting far better access to education than what they have currently.

5. Modi looks to be a man of reforms, and the business sector needs some desperately. We can't have an unpredictable government that can introduce any taxes with retrospective effect from time to time and harass the business community, which is giving India all its growth and employment. Nor can we have anyone who doesn't understand the significance of the business community and whose thoughts are suspect.

6. Modi has an image that he doesn't take bribes and doesn't let people take bribes. IAS officers swear that they haven't seen a better decision maker than him. We need a firm decision maker like Modi, especially after seeing the intellectually deficient and insensate Manmohan Singh for a decade.

7. In Modi's Gujarat, the crime rate is the lowest amongst all big states of India. My friends in Gujarat swear that they have no fear of thefts or rapes in Gujarat. And any rare crime that takes place is solved within hours, making criminals extremely fearful of committing any crime. After Delhi becoming the rape capital of the world, we need a leader

who can control crime.

8. Good governance is Modi's promise. Good governance is surely not about pointing fingers randomly at others! It's about walking the talk. And here is a man who has walked the talk for 12 years and more, and shown how to win hearts and make a progressive state with good governance.

9. We need to break away from dynastic politics of unilateral, closed-door, secretive, mother and child decision making. Thus, getting a party like BJP to power, which does have a central committee democratically taking decisions, is a must and will restore our faith in democracy.

10. Modi has a mature head on stable shoulders.

He would do well for India vis-à-vis our global relations. I shudder at the thought of a Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal trying to speak on geopolitical effects of the American army withdrawing from Afghanistan or the Chinese might, or even of Russia taking over Crimea. We need a mature leader with a clear vision for India to become the next big superpower.

11. Americans denied him a visa. I hope Modi will never forget that and ergo make friendships where they are required - that is, with China and Russia - to make a new global equation in the balance of power. It's not G8 that the world needs; the world needs the circle of - India-ChinaRussia - to have a peaceful and culturally superior planet. And I hope Modi will be the man to forge that.

12. Finally, on a lighter vein, the very fact that he

will come after Manmohan Singh will in any case make Modi look like the best PM ever! What a contrast and relief it will be! Let's all give this man a chance! India denied Sardar Patel a fair chance to be the PM during his times; we must not do the same with Modi.

••• Arindam Chaudhuri, is a management thought leader & teacher, entrepreneur, public speaker, author, economist, former advisor to the consultative committee of Planning Commission of India in the areas of education and social sector and three times national award winning filmmaker. With a million plus fans, he is the worlds most followed management icon and economist on Facebook! He is the honorary director of IIPM, ranked as one of India’s topmost B-Schools. He is also the founder of the Planman Group which has business interests in consulting, media & entertainment; and is the Editor in Chief of “The Sunday Indian” - the only news magazine in the world that comes out in 14 languages.

His firm, Planman Media, also brings out the leading business magazines “Business & Economy,” “4Ps Business & Marketing,” “Human Factor” and the leading career magazine “MYOD” (Make Your Own Destiny).

He is the only Indian to author two management books which have sold more than a million copies each.. He is also the author of “Planning India” and the best-selling books - The “Great Indian Dream,” “Thorns To Competition and Cult.”

Continued from page 1 this portal has brought out some shocking revelations. The sting reveals that the police force had succumbed to anti-Sikh

sentiments, thus abetting rioting and arson, even encouraging rioters to the extent that repeated warnings about the simmering communal sentiments

against Sikhs in their areas went unheard by senior officers. An interview with Amrik Singh Bhullar reveals that while news of arson and rioting bombarded the police control rooms, only two per cent of the messages were recorded by them and police logbooks were conveniently changed to eliminate evidence of inaction on the part of senior officers. Some officers did not act for fear of punishment or transfers, he recounts.

Some interviews also reveal that how some police officers dumped bodies of victims somewhere else to minimize riot-related crimes in their areas. Acting in connivance with the government, the portal says that the police did not allow the riot victims to file FIRs or when they filed, they clubbed disparate, unconnected cases of murder and arson in one FIR. The portal says that messages were broadcast directing police not to take action against rioters

who were shouting slogans of ‘Indira Gandhi zindabad’.

Some of them also confessed that the then government did not allow the police to act, while creating an impression that the police were not performing their duty.

Also the senior officers did not allow their subordinates to open fire on rioters and did not act even when some press reporters informed them of killing and arson all around the capital. Even the Fire Brigade refused to move to areas where cases of arson had been reported by police. Duirng the interview the then Kalyanpuri SHO Shoorveer Singh Tyagi, who is alleged to have disarmed Sikhs and forced them out of a gurdwara in Trilokpuri making them vulnerable to rioters, reveals that then Police commissioner SC Tandon became a willing partner in this mayhem by abdicating his responsibility as upholder of law and order.

Police colluded with govt during Delhi riots

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

USA – Crossroad to Adventure and Bliss

elebrate with us an opportunity to feel the spirits of the most exciting C places, pursuits, people and atmos-

pheres of the world with an exhilarating All USA Tour to New York, Washington DC, Harrisburg, Niagara, Orlando, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo and San Francisco. A three-night Bahamas Cruise adds an extra spark to this startling concoction of American travel hotspots.

New York, the ‘Big Apple’awaits to engulf you with an unrivaled gamut of architectural landmarks including the iconic Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Centre and many more. Holidaying amid the nonstop buzz of New York’s most bustling sites like Fifth Avenue, Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios and Central Park is an experience beyond words.

Having heard about the unparalleled beauty and elegance of the capital city of the United States, a trip to Washington DC is simply inevitable. Feel the immaculate green countryside of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland while heading to sink in the regal sheen of Washington.

A visit to ‘Niagara Falls’ lets you capture this arresting phenomenon that combines the whim and vigor of three perky waterfalls. Afterwards, get ready to be treated as a ‘Prince or Princess in Wonderland’ by your favorite cartoon characters like Mickey, Donald and Pluto at the ‘Theme Park Capital of the World’ – Orlando. With the iconic Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, Sea World Orlando, and many more to its fold, Orlando holds the key to an action-packed family escapade.

Board the classy ‘Norwegian Sky’ cruise to the Bahamas for a heady dose of entertainment, food and wine before sinking into the picturesque vibes of the colonial architecture and verdant landscapes of the Bahamas.

Who can resist delving into the sheen of Hollywood and the ultra-glamorous landscape of Las Vegas with its glitzy bars, casinos, resorts and restaurants on a trip to America? Besides this, also try the exotic local wines at the Napa Valley in San Francisco to bid a memorable farewell to this holidaying profligacy.

Book a 16 Days USA Tour & Get a 3 Nights Bahamas Cruise Free plus complementary benefits : FREE upgrade to a Balcony Cabin on the Cruise or a FREE upgrade to the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort.

Prices are available starting from just £2330 pp. Call Brightsun Travel on our dedicated tours line 0208 819 0531 or visit www.brightsun.co.uk.

TRAVEL - WORLD

Grand Funfair to be organised in June

London: With pleasant summer coming, Indians eagerly await the Funfair organized by “Gujarat Samachar” and “Asian Voice”. For the last few years, the funfair organized by the popular weeklies has become pleasure destination for everyone.

This year the funfair is being organised on Saturday, 7th June, and Sunday, 8th June, at Harrow (Harrow Leisure Centre) in London.

Traditional folk programmes will be organised in the funfair to entertain all UK-based Indian elders, mothers, brothers and sisters. All of you can enjoy right from morning up to late in the night at the funfair along with Punjabi, Gujarati, Kutchi, Italian and various other delicacies, sweets and other food items. Stalls for cold and hot drinks have also been planned. You can buy Indian handicraft, jewellery, garments, traditional cloths, domestic goods, make-up related items, life-style and

ayurveda products from various stalls.

During the function, you can also see how some of the Gujarati organisations are spreading Indian culture and mannerism in our young generations through children’s dance,

27

songs, music and garaba. If you really want to enjoy traditional Gujarati funfair, do not miss to come at Harrow Leisure Centre on June 7 and June 8.

To book your stall in funfair “Anand Mela” contact to Akshay Desai on 07875229 188. Anyone who want to display his or her art on stage is required to contact Kokila Patel on 07875229 177 or Kamal Rao on 07875 229 211.

‘Gujarat Samachar’ reader foils attempt to cheat him

Kamal Rao

London: An attempt was made to cheat Bharatbhai Sachania, a regular contributor of letters-to-editor column of “Gujarat Samachar.” Fortunately, Sachania was saved because of his presence of mind.

A resident of North Finchley and an employee of Royal Mail, Sachania got a call at around 4 pm, when he was reading a paper after returning from office on April 3, 2014. A person from the other end of telephone identified himself as detective Roger of Paddington Green police station and asked him in an authoritative voice, “Are Mr and Mrs Sachania there?” When he said, “Yes Sachania speaking,” the trickster informed him, “We have arrested two persons, who have purchased a precious watch from your bank card. Have you given them any card? Replying the query, Sachania said, “My son and wife have not returned from work and I will let you know after consulting them.”

After hearing Sachania’s answer, the trickster disconnected the call but Sachania check the number by dialing 147 and came to know that the call came from an unidentified number.

As Sachania had earlier read news appeared in “Gujarat Samachar” about such gang of tricksters, he became alert.

When the trickster again

called after half an hour, Sachania told him that he had called up Paddington Green police station and they said that there was no detective with the name Roger. As soon as the trickster heard this, he immediately disconnected the telephone.

Subsequently, when Sachania called up Paddington Green police Station to know the fact about the said detective, Ms Liz confirmed that the telephone was bogus and registered a complaint. “I experienced an attempt of cheating and thanks to “Gujarat Samachar” I didn’t allow trickster to cheat

me as often I used to read news related to such kind of cheating in the newspaper in the interest of readers,” said Sachania.

Friends, if you get such telephones, without being nervous take some time to think over it. If possible take the name and number of such person and if you have any doubt please ask to relatives and friends too. If you require help of police, then take information from non-emergency number of police ‘101’.

Your alertness and patience would save you from becoming victims of tricksters.

VACANCY

BAR / Waiting STAFF

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Parvathy Nair joins Nagarjuna to host Telugu ‘KBC’ Kamal's ‘Uttama A Villain’ team ctor Akkineni Nagarjuna will host the Telugu version of popular quiz show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" (KBC).

Titled "Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu" in Telugu, the show will go on air from mid-June.

Nagarjuna was s e l e c t e d amongst 38 popular names that were considered to host the show. After rigorous selection process, we have zeroed in on Nagarjuna who we think will do complete justice to the show," Nimagada Prasad, chairman, MAA TV, said. The show will be similar along the lines of original KBC, with a cash prize of Rs 10 million. An elated Nagarjuna said, "The show will realize the dreams of common man.”

Samantha gets rare appreciation

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amantha has proved she is not just a pretty doll banking on looks with her performance in Gautham directed “Naan Ee” and “Neethane En Ponvassantham.” This has made her pair up with leading star one after another. While the young actress is currently acting with Suriya in “Anjaan” and Vijay in “Kaththi” is also the top contender for Vikram and Karthi's next films.

Recently the actress has received a rare appreciation from none other than Suriya, her co-star in “Anjaan.” Suriya has said, "She is someone, who is so natural in her performance and is brilliant as well. She is outspoken and clearly gets the thing what she wants by openly asking for suggestions from director."

‘Samrat & Co’

“Samrat & Co” is a detective thriller film directed by Kaushik Ghatak and produced by Kavita K. Barjatya under the Rajshri Productions banner. It features R a j e e v Khandelwal and Dimpy Singh in the title roles.

‘Revolver Rani’

“Revolver Rani” is a comedy drama film written and directed by Sai Kabir. The

K

amal Haasan's “Uttama Villain” is taking a fast shape in the hands of director actor Ramesh Arvind. Latest on it is Parvathy Nair who has signed the dotted line for UV will be pairing opposite debutante actor Ashwin who plays Kamal Haasan's son in the movie.

Though Parvathy has not revealed anything about her role, a source said: "She is quite excited and nervous! To play the role as a 19-year-old who romances Kamal's son Ashwin.

Currently, Uttama Villain unit is shooting in Bangalore." Andrea Jeremiah and Pooja Kumar plays female leads in the movie that also casts Jayaram in a prominent role with Ghibran's music.

Balaji Mohan comes with a clean product

D

irector Balaji Mohan's second film “Vaayai Moodi Pesavum” was watched

by Censor board officials recently and the board has given a clean 'U' certificate for the film. Sources say that the board officials have appreciated the film for its neat theme of entertainment. VMP marks the debut of Dulquer Salman, the son of Malayalam superstar Mammootty in Tamil screen. Nazriya Nazim plays the lead heroine role in the film which is also being made in Malayalam with the same lead pair.

Madhubala makes her reentry in Tamil films playing Nazriya's mother and Pandiarajan dons and important role in the film.

film is presented by Wave Cinemas. It features Kangana Ranaut and Vir Das in leading roles. Piyush Mishra, Zakir Hussain and Pankaj Saraswat are playing supporting roles in the film. The film is a satirical and unusual love story set against the backdrop of politics.

A biopic on Anna Hazare

‘Kaanchi: The Unbreakable’

“Kaanchi: The Unbreakable” is a romantic film produced and directed by Subhash Ghai, starring newcomer actress Mishti and Kartik Tiwari in lead roles supported by veteran actors Rishi Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty. It is the story of the inner power of a woman who represents millions of suppressed youth against injustice in the country.

M

arathi actor-turned-director Shashank Udapurkar is making a biopic on Anna Hazare, the anticorruption activist. He said that he has received a formal consent from Anna Hazare. “It took me long to complete the script on Anna. I had drafted seven scripts before finalising it, since it is a mammoth task to present 75 years of his life in a two and half hour film.” The movie, which would be produced by Anirudda S Gaikar, would be shot in Ralegan Siddhi, Mumbai, Delhi, Kashmir, Ladakh, Rajasthan and various other places.

Big B, Dhanush begin shooting together

A

mitabh Bachchan is indeed a busy man. Though his latest film “Bhoothnath Returns” has just released a week back, the megastar is already off to Goa with actor Dhanush for their next film with director R. Balki. Both Big B and Dhanush posted about the same on a micro-blogging site. While Bachchan posted, "And travel again .. to begin R Balki's film ... first few days are such a scare, always with each film .. even after 45 years", Dhanush shared, "En route 2 goa for Balki s film shoot and VIP background score." The film also stars Kamal Haasan's younger daughter Akshara Haasan and the music of the film would be composed by Illayaraja. The movie is slated to release by year end.

29

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

‘Kaanchi’ to be released on 25th April ubhash Ghai’s latest film “Kaanchi” will be released worldwide on 25th S April. Newcomers Mishti and Kartik

Tiwari share screen space with Rishi Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty. The music is by Ismail Darbar and SalimSulaiman.

Kaanchi is an innocent, rural beauty from the Uttrakhand hills. Tomboy by nature, she habitually plays pranks on all those around her. Nothing much changed in her life until danger looms large in the form of ‘Shyam Kakda’, ‘Jhoomar Babu Kakda’ and ‘Sushant Kakda’. They represent the rich and powerful of the country and their intentions and motives will displace Kaanchi and the world around her forever. Standing in the way of these powerful figures and their motives is ‘Binda’, Kaanchi’s childhood friend and mentor, but not for long. Soon her world crumbles and her comfort zones eroded. The people around her do not have the strength to fight the mighty powers that

Sunny Leone unveils ‘Mandate’ cover

be, with the system at their beck and call.

Kaanchi, overcome by grief, cannot understand why justice is being subverted. She is told to simply ‘move on’. This is something she cannot accept and her innocence and naivety give way to obsession and blind rage as she seeks out revenge.

‘Savvy’ women felicitated at glittering function

avvy,’ India’s leading women’s magazine, organized a function to ‘S felicitate the women who graced the

cover of magazine as well as to celebrate the success of its collector’s edition “Savvy I Believe Collector’s Edition.”

Nari Hira, Chairman, Magna Publishing Co, and Andrea CostaBir, Editor, unveiled the special edition. They were joined by Devieka Bhojwani, Farah Khan Ali, Mahie Gill, Shilpa Shukla and Parveen Dusanj, who were later felicitated.

Gulshan Grover, Prahlad Kakar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Rohit Roy and Aftab Shivdasani joined the function and shared their thoughts on ‘Savvy’ and the

Court grants divorce to Chitrangada

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ollywood a c t re s s Chitrangada Singh and her golfer husband Jyoti Randhawa have officially been granted divorce by a Gurgaon family court.

Chitrangada married Jyoti in the year 2001. The couple has a five year old son Zorawar Randhawa, whose custody has now been granted to Chitrangada.

Chitrangada who was last seen in “I, Me Aur Main” opposite John Abraham, is currently working on the Tamil film “Anjaan,” where she is doing a cameo.

Sources said the trouble began in the marriage when Chitrangada decided to pursue her film career and settled in Mumbai. Jyoti is based in Delhi. The couple is yet to confirm the news of the divorce.

‘I believe.’ Later family members of the winning ladies share a few words about ‘Savvy’ women in their lives.

The guests included Brinda Chudasama Miller, Deepa and Suhas Awchat, Sandip Soparrkar, Esther and Raju Daswani, Ananya Dutta, Shama Sikander, Alex O’Neil, Lina Tipnis, Kiran Sippy, Kim Jagtiani, Rajeev Paul, Sanjeev and Alyona Kapoor, Eijaz Khan, Raell Padamsee, Sabria Merchant, Tulsi Kumar, Mrunal Jain, Dr Rishma and Dr Hrishikesh Pai, Gauri Poohumul, Preeti Maria, Chhaya Momaya, Kamlesh Hemdev, Sandhya Shetty, designer Kaushik Shrimanker, Jimmy and Ranjan Kapur.

No issues with Shraddha: Sonam

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o l l y w o o d actress Sonam Kapoor said that she had no issues with her contemporary Shraddha Kapoor after she allegedly ignored her at a fashion awards event.

According to a video, Sonam walked past Shraddha at the red carpet of the Grazia Young Fashion Awards. But the actress took to Twitter to clarify why she did not stop to greet Shraddha.

Putting her point forward, Sonam tweeted, “I have no issue with @ShraddhaKapoor I was late and had to run in! #youknowwhatimean.” Sonam recently made headlines when she took potshots at other actresses – Deepika Padukone, Parineeti Chopra and Alia Bhatt on filmmaker Karan Johar’s chat show.

‘Ship of Theseus’ named best film

unny Leone, the sexy diva of Bollywood, was S welcomed by a mob of fans

as she arrived outside Magna House to unveil the latest cover of “Mandate” along with hubby Daniel Weber. She daringly quipped, “I do what I want, so should you.” Sunny also cleared the mist about any bad blood between her and producer Ekta Kapoor, saying “I don’t know where such rumours come from.

But there is nothing wrong between the two of us. In fact we both met recently for the success bash of ‘Ragini MMS 2’ and we celebrated together.”

When a reporter asked her why she is being offered condom brands for endorsements, she said, “I don't mind endorsing a condom brand as I think I am doing a good deed by educating people.” She added, “I am helping people prevent STDs, abortions and unwanted pregnancies and this makes me happy.”

When asked about her forthcoming films, the actress said, “My next film is Tina and Lolo which is very different from the other films I have done. There is a lot of action and flying and stunts and it is worth waiting for.”

Lastly, Sunny danced to the tunes of her very own number Baby Doll along with host Rajeev Paul.

haag Milkha Bhaag’ was the runaway winner of the national award for best ‘B popular film even as Anand Gandhi’s ‘Ship

of Theseus’ won the best feature film award at the 61st National Film awards for 2013. The story of a slain human rights activist lawyer, ‘Shahid’, bagged the best direction award for Hansal Mehta and best actor for Raj Kumar. Kumar shared the award with Suraj Venjaramoodu who acted in the Malayalam film ‘Perariyathavar’.

Best actress award went to Geetanjali Thapa for ‘Liar’s Dice’ while Saurabh Shukla got the best supporting actor award for his role as a judge in the courtroom drama ‘Jolly LLB’. The film also won the award for best Hindi language film. Best supporting actress award was shared by Amruta Subhash for Marathi film ‘Astu’ and Aida El-Kashef who starred in ‘Ship of Theseus’. Hindi film ‘Rangbhoomi’ was adjudged the best non-feature film.

Bengali film ‘Jaatishwar’ bagged four awards including best male playback singer for Rupankar, best costume designer for Sabarni Das, best makeup artist for Vikram Gaikwad and best music direction (songs) for Kabir Suman.

Hindi film ‘Madras Cafe’ won two technical awards including location sound recordist and sound design. The Nargis Dutt award for best film on national integration went to Tamil film ‘Thalaimuraigal’ while the best film on social issues was Marathi film ‘Tuhya Dhamra Koncha’.

Ranbir to move out from home

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a n b i r Kapoor is all set to set up his own house and move out of his family home. Buzz is, his new pad at Hill Road is ready and the 30-year old actor will shift out of Krishna Raj on Pali Hill next week. Ranbir had zeroed down on the apartment himself, after consulting a number of agents for an apartment located between Bandra and Juhu. He finalised the Hill Road property in 2012 and sources said that he would occupy a full floor in the building. Though he has not moved in, the young actor often unwinds there with his close friends.

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UK

Rememberance

Chandrakant Ambalal Patel, of Potomac, Maryland, U.S.A, passed away peacefully at his home on April 11, 2014.

He was the pillar of his family and had touched many lives in all the communities in which he lived. From the original ten Gujarati families in the Washington, DC area of which he was one, the Hindu Community of Greater Washington where he founded the first Hindu temple, the IMF World Bank South Asian community, the international economic community where he was highly respected for his seminal work on a System of National Accounts.

He was born in Tarapur on October 11, 1935. He was a graduate of the M.S. University of Baroda and the Delhi School of Economics with a post graduate diploma from the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. He married the love of his life, Shushila, on August 12, 1962. He was the Chief of Statistics in Tanzania and was recruited to the IMF in 1965 when he emigrated to the United States. He retired as Assistant Director from the IMF and settled into a life of serving as an international consultant on National Accounts. His work on the System of National Accounts led to his being called “THE Great Patel” by the Chief Economist of the US Department of Commerce.

He lived every day with purpose, grace and love for his family and friends. He was an extraordinary, humble man who always saw the beauty in the ordinary. God bless his soul. May he rest in peace.

Food wholesaler slapped with £15,000 penalty

A Southall food wholesaler which illegally repackaged and labelled milk powder has been hit with a penalty of more than £15,000 following an investigation by Ealing Council’s food safety team.

The team launched its investigation in April 2013 after receiving information from the Food Standards Agency food fraud unit that TRS Wholesale Co Limited was repackaging powdered milk despite not having legal permission to do so.

Under European Union law, all wholesale businesses must gain spe-

cific approval before repacking products of animal origin. This ensures the origin of the items can be traced and monitored by food safety officers.

During the investigation, food safety officers also found that the packaging of the powdered milk was incorrectly labelled with an identification mark of another business, which created the impression that the product had been packed at an approved establishment.

The company, represented by a barrister, pleaded guilty in court on Thursday, 6 March, to two charges of breaching food

Editor: CB Patel Associate Editor: Rupanjana Dutta Tel: 020 7749 4098 - Email: rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.com Editorial Executive: Tanveer Mann Tel: 020 7749 4010 - Email: tanveer.mann@abplgroup.com Senior News Editor: Dhiren Katwa Freelance Correspondent: Rudy Otter Chief Operating Officer: Liji George Tel: 020 7749 4013 Email: george@abplgroup.com Chief Financial Officer: Surendra Patel Tel: 020 7749 4093 Mobile: 07875 229 220 Email: surendra.patel@abplgroup.com Chief Accountant: Akshay Desai Tel: 020 7749 4087 Email:accounts@abplgroup.com Business Manager: Alka Shah Tel: 020 7749 4002 - Mobile: 07944 151 893 Email: alka.shah@abplgroup.com Advertising Manager: Kishor Parmar Tel: 020 7749 4095 - Mobile: 07875 229 088 Email: kishor.parmar@abplgroup.com Business Development Managers: Rovin J George - Email: rovin.george@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4097 - Mobile: 07875 229 219 Urja Patel - Email: urja.patel@abplgroup.com Graphic Designers: Harish Dahya & Ajay Kumar Tel: 020 7749 4086 Email: graphics@abplgroup.com Customer Service: Ragini Nayak Tel: 020 7749 4080 - Email: support@abplgroup.com (BPO) AB Publication (India) Pvt. Ltd. 207 Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad.

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Coming Events

l Wednesday 30 April – Tuesday 6 May 2014 – Shiv Mahapurankatha – UK 2014 from 5pm – 8pm at Harrow Leisure Centre, Christchurch Avenue, Harrow, HA3 5BD. Contact: 07949 888 226. l Thursday 1 May 2014 – Narayan Seva Sansthan, Udaipur, India in association with Narayan Seva Sansthan UK from 4.30pm at Shree Geeta Bhawan, 107-117, Heathfield Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, B19 1HI. Contact: 07815 430 077 l Friday 2 May 2014 – Pankkaj Sodha presents Pati Thayo ae Pati Gayo at 8pm at Winston Churchill Hall, Pinn Way, Ruislip HA4 7QL. Contact: 02084 273 413. l Saturday 3rd May 2014 – Vaadgar: An Evergreen Romantic Golden Memories by Harmony, The Heart of Music from 7pm till 12.30am at Sangam Hall, 210 Burnt Oak Broadway, Edgware, HA8 0AP. Contact 07958 565 451. l Sunday 4 May 2014 – Shruti Arts in association with Shivam Theatre presents The Taraana, Indian choir concert composed, arranged and presented by talented musical duo Ashit and Hema Desai from 6pm at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 4a Castletown Road, West Kensington, London W14 9HE. Contact: 0207 381 3086. l Sunday 4 May 2014 – Family Funday with Mehndi, face-painting, firewalking, tombola, music, food stalls, games from 5pm onwards at Anoopam Mission, Brahmjyoti, The Lea, Western Ave, Denham, Uxbridge, Middx UB9 4NA UK. Contact: 01895 832 709. l Tuesday 6 May – Saturday 21 May – Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival 2014 l Thursday 8 May 2014 – Gujarati comedy play from Mumbai at 7pm at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 4a Castletown Road, West Kensington, London W14 9HE. Contact: 0207 381 3086. l Sunday 11th May – Arpankumar & Mital present golden hits in the memory of Lata, Rafi, Asha, Talat, Mukesh and Hemant Kumar, charity concert in aid of new Anoopam Mission Spiritual, Cultural Community Centre from 7pm at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 4a Castletown Road, West Kensington, London W14 9HE. Contact: 0207 381 3086. hygiene regulations. On Thursday, 7 April, Ealing Magistrate’s Court fined the company £3,800 for each offence and ordered

it to pay the council’s costs of £8,178.40 plus a victim surcharge of £120, bringing the total penalty to £15,898.40.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

You have been feeling disconnected for some time and this will be the week you will finally feel a sense of grounding. If unclear about what path to take you will soon realise exactly what you must do to fulfil your plans. Financially you will implement your plans to bring in the cash.

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21

You are endowed with a level of determination that others sometimes find formidable. Once you set your mind on a goal you stay the course no matter what obstacles you encounter. Saturn's placement in your opposite sign often denotes a phase of restriction, sometimes frustration, in one's life.

You know you’ve got no choice but to streamline and reassess your priorities before haphazardly saying yes to everything that smells like a potential opportunity. Try to create a balance between expansion and conservation. Jupiter in Cancer makes you feel invincible, base your decisions on facts.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

Good ideas will open doors to a new opportunity. You cannot let go of your future aspirations because they will manifest. Keep to your path and you will be successful. A wind of change may be in the air; attention should turn to the wider world and benefits come from broadening of horizons and mental stimuli.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

You are in a brilliant period for increasing your earning power and you'll be busy taking charge of your finances. Achieving a sense of security becomes a priority. Although there is a lot of sorting out to be done in your relationship sector, it will not phase you as so many issues have already be dealt with.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

Venus continues to favour your love life. If you are still seeking the ideal partner, things are definitely looking up. An increase in your social life is likely to bring you in touch with someone attractive. At work you need greater flexibility as well as a degree of patience. Do not step on any one's toes.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

Sun is transiting your eighth house of joint finances, loans, taxes, sexuality, and psychological matters. This is a time of increased accumulation of wealth if you manage your resources well. In some cases, a significant tax refund, inheritance, or other such benefit might arrive during this transit.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

Consulting Editor: Bhupatbhai Parekh, Ahmedabad, Gujarat Tel: +91 79 2630 4142 Urvashi Jagadeesan (India) Mumbai: Kanti Bhatt, Hemraj Shah (Jumbo Advertiser) Horizon Advertising & Marketing: 205, Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar,Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad. Tel / Fax: +91 79 2646 5960 Email: horizon.marketing@abplgroup.com General Manager: Sanat Trivedi (M) +91 94293 65619 Email: sanat.trivedi@abplgroup.com Business Manager: Hardik Shah (M) +91 99250 42936 Email: hardik.shah@abplgroup.com Advertising Manager: Neeta Patel (Vadodara) M: +91 98255 11702 Email: neeta_abplgroup@yahoo.co.in Assistant Marketing Manager: Manish Shah (Vadodara) M: +91 96876 06824 Email: manish.shah@abplgroup.com Business Co-ordinator: Shrijit Rajan M: +91 98798 82312 Email: shrijit.rajan@abplgroup.com International Advertisement Representative: Jain Group (South India) Tel: +91 44 42041122/3/4 Fax: +91 44 25362973 Mumbai: +91 222471 4122 Email: jain@jaingroup.net Delhi Office: Tel: +91 44 9311581597

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This is a good time re-assess your life and make important decisions to take your work to another level. There is a chance that you will meet important people who will eventually change the course of your life. An opportunity will manifest that will change your public image at work.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

Sun enters your sign of work and health sector. You are likely to see benefits in these areas, as well as daily routines. Benefits may come through work itself, co-workers, or employees during this cycle. You might be especially interested in the healing arts during this cycle, such as massage or aromatherapy.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

You have the dynamic planet Mars in your solar 10th house. This planet indicates a desire to push forward, to assert yourself mentally and physically. This also means that you want to improve your work prospects. Of course, there are still challenging issues on both a personal and practical level - tread carefully.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

Mercury and Sun are transiting your Solar 4th house of home and family. You are likely to find much joy and pleasure in your family connections and experiences during this transit. Opportunities to buy or sell real estate for financial gain may present themselves. Home improvements and renovations are also favoured.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

Sun and Mercury entering your solar 3rd house bring benefits and fresh energy to networking activities, long-term goals and organizations in your life. Achieving your goals tends to come more easily. Income from your business or career is likely to increase. You can rely on your friends for their help and support.

Srinivasan, 12 cricketers named in match-fixing report: SC

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

Former BCCI president N Srinivasan and 12 cricketers were named in the report on the spot-fixing scandal, the Supreme Court said. In a stinging ruling, the court said that it cannot close its eyes after having come to know of the allegations.

The Supreme Court was ruling on an affidavit filed

by Srinivasan, asking that the apex court reconsider its own interim order of March 28 that had barred him from functioning as Board president.

Emphasizing that Srinivasan cannot perform any duties within BCCI, the court said that its interim order of March 28 will continue to hold good.

Any investigation into the allegations made by the Mudgal committee against 13 people, including N Srinivasan, should be conducted by the Board for Control of Cricket in India itself to maintain its institutional autonomy, said the court, and asked the BCCI and Srinivasan to respond on how the probe be conducted into the allegations.

The apex court has, meanwhile, allowed Sundar Raman to continue as the chief operating officer of IPL 7.

Stating that he was “highly aggrieved” at the “unsubstantiated allega-

SPORT WORLD

tions” levelled against him by the Cricket Association of Bihar, he asked that the court permit him to continue functioning as BCCI president. He particularly objected to the CAB’s legal counsel, Harish Salve, accusing him of “corruption and cover-up” in relation to the betting accusations against his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan.

Srinivasan through counsel argued that the Mudgal commission report had been twisted “out of context” by Salve. This was what prompted the Supreme Court, in its order, to state that Srinivasan was one of the 13 people named in the list against whom the Mudgal committee had made allegations.

SC rejects BCCI probe panel

In a blow to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Supreme Court has rejected the three-member probe panel proposed by the Indian cricket board into corruption in the Indian Premier League. Ravi Shastri, JN Patel and RK Raghavan were named in the BCCI's three-member probe committee.

The apex court has instead told the Justice Mukul Mudgal-led probe

committee to carry out further investigation into the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal. Suspended BCCI president N Srinivasan is one of the 13 names that figure in an inquiry committee report submitted to the apex court. The Supreme Court also said that assistance of investigating agencies would be provided to the committee if it agrees to conduct probe. The top court has allowed the BCCI

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and Srinivasan to hear some portions of audio recordings of Justice Mudgal Committee's proceedings, which need to be submitted before SC's secretary general.

The court also directed the BCCI and Srinivasan not to reveal anything about the contents of the audio recordings, which the court believes could damage the reputation of the game in the country.

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Wawrinka beats Federer to win Monte Carlo Masters

Stanislas Wawrinka showed that his first Grand Slam title wasn't a fluke, upstaging his more illustrious countryman to add a maiden Masters trophy in Monte Carlo on Sunday.

Wawrinka came from a set down to beat Roger Federer 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the Monte Carlo Masters final, another milestone in the lateblooming 29-year-old's career. Having beaten Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal en route to his Australian Open victory this year, Wawrinka showed again he can compete with the best by earning just his second career victory against Federer in the first all-Swiss ATP final in 14 years. "When I go into a match against them, I think I can beat them. I'm on the court to win," Wawrinka said.

Johnson contemplating retirement from T20s

After having spearheaded his side to an Ashes whitewash of England in Australia, Mitchell Johnson is determined to have yet another crack at the urn in England in 2015 and is seriously considering quitting one of the limited overs format in an attempt to prolong his career.

Johnson is looking to quit the T20 format first as he still harbours hopes of leading Australia’s pace attack at the ODI World Cup in 2015 which will be played in Australia and New Zealand. “I think I’ve got to be a lot smarter now.

Twenty20, I will quite happily say, is not my favourite format – I would rather play Test cricket,” Johnson said. “And maybe one-day cricket I have to look at as well. “But my main goal now is to get to that 2015 Ashes series in England, so I’ll be doing everything I can to reach that goal.”

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IPL Results of 8 matches played till Tuesday, 21st April

Match

Date

1

16 April

2

17 April

3

18 April

4

18 April

5

19 April

6

19 April

7

20 April

7

21 April

Teams

MI v/s KKR at Abu Dhabi KKR won by 41 runs Brief scores: KKR 163/5 (19.6 overs); MI 122/7 (19.6 overs) DD v/s RCB at Sharjah RCB won by 8 wickets Brief scores: RCB 146/2 (16.4 overs); DD 145/4 (19.6 overs) CSK v/s KXIP at Abu Dhabi KXIP won by 6 wickets Brief scores: KXIP 205/4 (19.6 overs); CSK 206/4 (18.5 overs) RR v/s SH at Abu Dhabi RR won by 4 wickets Brief scores: RR 135/6 (19.3 overs); SH 133/6 (19.6 overs) RCB v/s MI at Dubai RCB won by 7 wickets Brief scores: RCB 116/3 (17.3 overs); MI 115/9 (19.6 overs) KKR v/s DD at Dubai DD won by 4 wicket Brief scores: DD 167/6 (19.3 overs); DD 166/5 (19.6 overs) RR v/s KXIP at Sharjah KXIP won by 7 wickets Brief scores: KXIP 193/3 (18.4 overs); RR 191/5 (19.6 overs) CSK v/s DD at Abu Dhabi CSK won by 93 runs Brief scores: CSK 177/7 (19.6 overs); DD 84/10 (15.4 overs)

Shah Rukh entertains guests at IPL gala dinner

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 did away with the elaborate opening ceremony of its previous editions, preferring to go for a gala dinner instead held in the Emirates Palace. Apart from the cricketers themselves, other guests at the dinner included Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone.

Khan, who is one of the owners of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise, told gulfnews.com that he was thankful to their host nation. “What a wonderful city Abu Dhabi is. I need to thank them for hosting us and being so warm and gracious. I wish all the players the very best and I can’t wait to see them create magic on the field,” he

said. The Bollywood duo went on to bring out their dance moves to enthrall the other guests. In characteristic fashion, Khan proceeded to banter with certain cricketers, among them India and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Also present at the dinner was former Indian opening batsman and interim-Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, Sunil Gavaskar. In somber tones, he promised that efforts were being made to ensure the integrity of the tournament stayed intact after the spot fixing scandals of the previous edition of the IPL. “We will do everything to reclaim the piety in the world of IPL cricket,” he said.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 26th April 2014

IPL: Chennai crush Delhi

Chennai first rode on Suresh Raina`s fine halfcentury and a late burst from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to post a competitive 177 and then came up with a disciplined bowling and fielding effort to bundle out the Daredevils for a paltry 84 in 15.4 overs at Abu Dhabi in this IPL season.

Raina made 56 off 41 balls during which he struck five boundaries and one six. He shared 54 runs off 46 balls for the second wicket with Dwayne Smith to lay the base for the total.

Towards the end, skipper Dhoni used his long handle to great effect to race his way to 32 off just 15 balls with the help of two fours and as many sixes. Faf du Plesis also made a useful 24 off 17 balls.

Chasing the target, the Daredevils witnessed a nightmarish start as they lost half of their side with just 50 runs on the board in the 10th over.

The Delhi outfit`s chase never really got going as they lost wickets at regular intervals to reel for major part of their innings.

Young Ishwar Pandey impressed his IPL debut.

He struck the first blow for Chennai in only his second over by removing Mayank Agarwal. Agarwal was brilliantly caught by a running Raina at cover as the batsman went for an inside-out shot.

Murali Vijay (11) and Manoj Tiwary too did not help their side`s cause as they departed in the next two overs.

While du Plesis pulled off a stunner to sent packing Viajy off Mohit Sharma`s bowling, the South African pounced on another skier in Pandey`s next over to remove Tiwary.

Skipper Dinesh Karthik (21) and J P Duminy (15) tried to res-

urrect the Daredevils` chase with a 25-run stand for the fourth wicket but it was not to be as wickets continued to tumble like pack of cards.

Duminy was caught plumb in front of the wicket by Dwayne Smith of his first ball before Ben Hilfenhaus induced an edge from an out-of-form Ross Taylor which was gleefully accepted by Dhoni.

Karthik was then cleaned up by Ashwin in the 13th over. Jimmy Neesham (21 off 15) tried hard but the asking was too tall to achieve as Chennai bowlers ran through Delhi`s tail with consummate ease.

Ashwin (2/3), Jadeja (2/18) and Pandey (2/23) shared Delhi’s six wickets between them.

Earlier, Chennai made a relatively quiet start to their innings after electing to bat as they scored their 50-run mark off exactly

the same number of balls.

Chennai, however, suffered their first blow in the fourth over in the form of dangerous Brendon McCullum (9).

The hard-hitting Kiwi batsman failed to latch on to a life provided by Duminy off Jaydev Unadkat`s first delivery and perished in the next ball, caught by substitute Wayne Parnell at short third man.

After McCullum`s dismissal, Raina and Smith played cautiously to build the innings together and help Chennai make 65 runs for the loss of one wicket at the halfway mark.

After taking a close look at the wicket, Raina finally opened up and clobbered left-arm spinner Shabaz Nadeem straight over his head for the first six of the innings.

But Chennai suffered their second blow in the last ball of the 11th over

when Smith was cleaned up by Nadeem.

The wicket hardly had any impact on Raina as he smacked Murali Vijay for three fours in the next over. Raina brought up his half-century in the next over off 36 balls with the help of five fours and one six. But soon after Raina departed in search of quick runs. He was caught

by Vijay at long-on off Neesham. Then came in Dhoni and he made his intentions clear from the onset by smacking Unadkat for six and four in consecutive deliveries of the 17th over.

Dhoni was going great guns before he found Agarwal at the square-leg boundary off Unadkat`s bowling. Mithun Manhas made a quick five-ball unbeaten 13.

For Delhi, Unadkat (3/32) picked up three wickets while pace spearhead Mohammed Shami (1/45).

Indian Premier League 2014 Points Table (21 / 04 / 2014)

Teams Royal Challengers Bangalore Kings XI Punjab Chennai Super Kings Kolkata Knight Riders Rajasthan Royals Delhi Daredevils Sunrisers Hyderabad Mumbai Indians

Match 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

Tied 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

NRR 1.17 0.74 2.08 0.91 -0.18 -1.97 -0.27 -1.52

Points 4 4 2 2 2 2 0 0

Jonathan Trott quits cricket following illness

England cricketer Jonathan Trott has withdrawn from all cricketing activities following relapse of mental health problems.

His problem began when he was touring with the England team in the Ashes series against Australia in November last year. He was forced to return home and the world of sports wished him speedy recovery. In fact everyone thought that he was well on his way to recovery when he joined his county

club Warwickshire for a Championship match against Sussex.

But now Trott has once

again been forced to withdraw from the game, this time pulling out of all cricketing commitments for the forceable future. The 32year-old player informed his team-mates after the match against Sussex earlier this week that he could not be able to continue.

Trott made an announcement, along with

Warwickshire and the England & Wales Cricket Board, that he will take complete break from all cricket for further treatment, with no time frame set on a return. Trott said in a statement: “It was with the best intentions and hope that I returned to cricket with Warwickshire this month.

Much to my disappointment, since my first game, I have felt the same anxieties that occurred during my time in Australia.