News Bench September 2014 Issue English by News Bench

{

RED FEEDS ON GREEN GIVE ME ORANGE 84 Hijacking the original Trinamool The new ‘in’ colour in fashion ` 20

S E P T E M B E R 2 014

NEWS BENCH M

100 DAYS, 101 BARBS

Forgett honeymoon; on; mainstream media me ia has treated early days re me as a nightmare reg ews Bench analyses why ews hy of the Modi regime nightmare. News

VOL-1, ISSUE - 4

Editor: Anil Pandey Executive Editor: Gaurav Rathi Associate Editors: Mayank Singh, Sujit Chakraborty, Sadashiv Tripathi, Shubhra Singh Assistant Editor: Vikas Kumar, Devendra Gautam Special Correspondents: Avinash Mishra Correspondents: Narendra Yadav, Ranjeet Pandey, Birendra Kumar Choudhary Chief Copy Editor: Vikas Chaudhary Senior Copy Editor: Ravi Joshi (Web) Copy Editors: Anant Kumar Das, Santosh Kumar Dubey PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM Consulting Photo Editor: Rangnath Tiwari Photographer: Hariom Sharma Photo Researcher: Sanjay Kumar DESIGNING TEAM Consulting Design Director: Satyajit Dutta Senior Designers: Rajendra Singh Negi, Lalit Bisht OPERATIONS AGM Operations: Aarti Gambhir Media Coordinator: Tanvi Tomar, Gulafsha Praveen SALES AND MARKETING Sr. Manager: Manoj K. Singhal Manager: Sonam Gupta Assistant Manager: Neeraj K. Mishra Executives: R R Chaturvedi CIRCULATION Head: Bhupendra Singh Bisht Executive: Chandan Srivastava, Vinod, Patras, Amar Singh Yadav, Arun Singh LEGAL Legal Advisor: RAGHAV LAW MAX Distributor Central News Agency, New Delhi Owned, Printed & Published by: Kushal Dev Rathi 27/29/14 B, Near Karan Gali, Pandav Road, Shahdara, Delhi-110032 Published From: 27/29/14 B, Near Karan Gali, Pandav Road, Shahdara, Delhi-110032 Printed at: M P Printers, B-220 Phase-2, Noida-201301 Uttar Pradesh Editor: Anil Pandey (Responsible for the selection of News under PRB act) (All disputes shall be subject to the jurisdiction of Delhi courts only.) Editorial Office: G-22, Sec-3, Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Pin code 201301 Contact: 0120-2520002 RNI NO. DELENG18740 TC

this edition

SEP 2014

COVER STORY

100 DAYS, 101 BARBS Unlike previous governments, the new Modi regime did not get that "honeymoon" period when the media waits and watches. The criticisims started right away, so is the media on a witch hunt already?

FRONT OF THE BOOK

EDITORIAL

NEWS IMPACT

LETTERS

Is it a crime for a scribe to praise a politician if he is honest, clean and unassuming? Never! Our report on 2nd Class Martyrs had a stunning impact on honours for the paramilitary forces

Is Arvind Kejriwal really a CIA agent that he has been painted as? There is need for real proof

IMPACT INDIA

POSITIVE INDIA

POLIWOOD

The Cabinet proposal on the age-agnostic highest punishment for heinous crimes will bear fruit For the first time a keyboard based on Devnagri script is set to change a lot of things

SPECIAL REPORT

Is the BJP really behind the UP riots or are they being engineered to defame Narendra Modi?

Cover Design By Satyajit Datta SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

politics & states COLUMNISTS

48 KEDARNATH

A 2004 scientific report had predicted the disaster but was hushed up

ASHOK TANDON The recent turmoil in Congress brings back memories of its many crises, starting 1907

ADVANI

The man whose wish was the command for the party has been sacked from the BJP's highest body

SHIV VISHWANATHAN wants to give Modi a longer time before any judgement

AAP

WAIEL AWWAD

The party seems to be on a revival path but if this fails, it is doomed forever

BENGAL

says the US and the West are splitting the world for their own sinister purposes

The original Green TMC cadre are being gobbled by the 'Red' Marxist opportunist infringers

30 PRIYANKA While Rahul is damned by Old Guard, can Priyanka salvage Congress?

PANDIT REHAB

UP DACOITS

Muslims as well Kashmiri Pandits are furoius with a rehab package for the latter

The Chambal brigands have now taken to 'taxing' contractors and government officials

FOREIGN POLICY Quietly, Indian foreign policy takes a right turn vis-a-vis south Asian neighbours, starting with Bhutan

ALOK RANJAN

TAMIL IRE

The UP Chief Secretary spoke to News Bench on a wide range of issues

All the parties are upset because Modi govt refuses to give visa to UNHRC team

60 KIDNEY RACKET Odisha cases of illegal kidney farming have shocked the state's people

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Life & style 70

EDUCATION Foerign degress can now be had through Indian univs due to their tie-ups with foreign institutes

72 REAL ESTATE Due to delays and court orders, Noida realty is losing consumer confidence

WEDDING BELLS

From location to card selectiom, from menu to settings, a wedding manual

84 GO ORANGE The fiery hue has set the fashion world aflame and specially suits Indian skin tone

86 OUTDOORS Beyond the four walls of a room there is open space that can be as inviting as any

KABBADI The rustic rural sport is getting huge business and glamour traction and has hit the world stage

88 FORMAL WEAR FOR Form no longer Formals mean black or white... all manners white of clo clothes are around

94 78

MANDU ROMANCE The eternal love story of Sultan Baz Bahadur and shepherdess Roopmati lends a mystique to Mandu

JAZBAA A News Bench nch h family paid tribute to our martyrs who have e given us our d freedom with cherished songs by Hariharan

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

FROM THE EDITOR's DESK

HONEST POLITICOS AREN'T EXTINCT

OLITICAL discourse and media coverage of on toiling in their fields as ordinary farmers despite being politicians and political parties in India has become powerful politicians. I thought of the late SP leader Mohan so toxic that even the slightest bit of praise for Singh whose life was a symbol of simplicity. He used to walk to something good that a politician might have done the parliament. In Congress, there is former defence minister is immediately construed as a PR exercise. A journalist AK Antony who is admired by one and all for his humility and praising a "neta" is promptly branded as a sycophant or a paid spartan lifestyle. Then there is the BJP chief minister of Goa mouthpiece. Hidden behind such perceptions is the media Manohar Parrikar who routinely rides his scooty to go and narrative of politics being only, and only about earning power, attend assembly sessions and can be seen enjoying ice cream influence and money. No doubt many politicians and their with family members in street kiosks without any fuss. CPI behaviour is responsible for this public perception reinforced leader the late Indrajit Gupta was the union home minister in repeatedly by the media. But let's ask ourselves honestly: are all the 1990s. Yet, he refused to stay in a bungalow and preferred politicians bad, power hungry and prone to throw their weight a one room suite at Western Court in Delhi. Mr Gupta used around? And is media not doing a disservice to democracy by to personally carry files and move around the corridors of the home ministry. The late Kushabhau Thakre of BJP preferred continually harping on the negative and the cynical? to stay in a single room at the BJP I was forced to ask myself these headquarters and was frequently seen questions when News Bench took the sipping tea at the common canteen. opportunity of Independence Day MEDIA MUST Perhaps the most astonishing and celebrations to organise an evening of EXPOSE THE UGLY inspiring example is that of the long melodious songs by Hariharan to honour serving Tripura chief minister Manik martyrs. We had invited the Lok Sabha SIDE OF POLITICS, Sarkar who still manages his household MP from Jammu Jitendra Singh as the BUT GOODNESS on a budget of Rs 5,000 per month. His chief guest. He happens to be minister wife goes shopping for vegetables by of state with independent charge and OF POLITICIANS hiring a cycle rickshaw. Can you imagine handles the crucial PMO portfolio. Our MUST ALSO BE the wife of a chief minister hiring a cycle team members waiting to receive Mr HIGHLIGHTED rickshaw to go shopping? The fact is Singh outside the hotel were expecting Mrs Sarkar does it routinely and doesn't a cavalcade of cars with flashing red make a song and dance about it. beacons surrounded by grim looking and There are literally dozens and dozens of similar examples of gun toting security personnel. They actually couldn't recognise Dr Singh when he got down alone from a non descript car and honest politicians who genuinely believe in politics as service moved towards the entrance. Wearing simple clothes, Dr Singh and practice that faith. I know, it is the responsibility of the looked like the quintessential aam aadmi of India. He was media to unearth corruption, scams and the skulduggery of treated as such by the hotel security. They were shocked when politicians. That must be done. But I also feel that goodness he stood patiently as the hotel security guards frisked and and basic decency too must be highlighted. By choosing to checked him thoroughly. No objections, no tantrums and no highlight only the bad and the ugly while ignoring and turning slogans by a group of supporters. Do remember, this gentleman a blind eye to the good is not doing service to democracy. is in charge of the prime minister's office, someone with direct, immediate and continuous access to Narendra Modi. The humble and no nonsense demeanor of Dr Singh made me think hard about our role as media professionals in generating public images and perceptions. I thought then of former Deputy Speaker, Lok Sabha, Karia Munda and former Anil Pandey home minister of Chattisgarh, Nanki Ram, who insisted Editor

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

IMPACT

INALLY, the wait is over. Dilip Trivedi, Director General of the largest paramilitary force, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), has given orders to all the Field Commanders to start using the prefix Shaheed before every trooper who lays down his life in the service of the nation. Not just that, critically important is the part of the order that says that this will also apply for those killed in operations. We are not chest thumping, but sharing this long awaited decision with our readers. Senior CRPF officers admit that the DG was visibly moved by the haunting cover story written by our Associate Editor Mayank Singh. The story had highlighted the plight of martyrs and their families who forlornly craved recognition and respect-in life, and in death. The News Bench team congratulates Mayank and photographer Rangnath Tiwari. The story had its genesis in the way the families of our troops who made the supreme sacrifice were not treated with respect or dignity. And, there is a tale of diligence and involvement behind this full package of the cover story titled as ‘2nd Class Martyrs’. The pain and helplessness felt while interacting with the personnel is what guided Mayank to give words to this indignation. He travelled extensively, met the families of the jawans who lost their lives to the bullets of the anti-national and anti social elements. The sources within the CRPF informed News Bench that the DG had asked for a copy of the magazine as he got to know of this story. They said that our story was one of the main agenda on August 11 for the Monday Meeting which is scheduled at 11am every Monday in the Head Quarters of the CRPF situated in the CGO Complex. The story was read; and the DG was briefed about the issue of the honorific Shaheed not being used. Dilip Trivedi at once took a decision in the favour of the martyrs. Coincidently, on the very

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

T C A P M THE ISHAHEED: JOURNEY HAS BEGUN… THE STORY WAS SO WELL DOCUMENTED THAT IT HAS FOR THE FIRST TIME BROUGHT HONOURS FOR ALL THE CRPF PERSONNELL WHO DIE FOR THE COUNTRY

FACADE

2ND CLASS MARTYRS

Document that shows that the DG, CRPF has issued the order that from now the Force will use the honoriﬁc "Shaheed" for all personnel killed in action

same day, one of the officers whose plight was highlighted by News Bench got his due. Brave heart officer RK Singh was decorated with Shaurya Chakra and yet was overlooked when it came to promote him to the rank of Deputy Commandant and present him as hero. Singh is now a Deputy Commandant! Mayank has been highlighting the chinks in the internal security deployment and conditions of the personnel of CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB and NSG and he has been talking of this long standing pain faced by the families of the troopers killed in action where they were called as dead. It lacked the honour due to the jawans and families who faced this predicament. There are moments in the story which will compel every Indian to proscribe the kind of treatment that is meted out to these brave hearts and their families. The administration has not risen to honour the sacrifice with Shaheed Rohtash Singh’s family arranging to get the statue made and installed on a podium with a partial financial help from the local administration. Shaheed Pradeep Kumar’s sacrifice did not elicit even this much as a podium was constructed which is yet to receive the statue of this courageous man. One can empathise with the families of Pradeep

“It has come as a good step. We wish more such stories can be done which can highlight the problems on ground which our paramilitary forces are facing. I felt very happy to see the way so many aspects have been brought out. I appreciate the reporter’s hard work as it must have taken a lot of time in collecting the information and in meeting the families. I congratulate News Bench.” PS Nair: General Secretary, All India Central Para Military Forces Ex Servicemen Welfare Association

and Rohtash, but what about a family which has been in the service of the nation since generations? Words of Shaheed Sunil Kumar’s father will stir the blood as Ramanand says, “Very few people are fortunate enough to die for the country.” People who are so called educated and have taken on the mantle of policy making have a lot to learn from the

people living in villages. The innocent and simple villagers give the maximum respect to the people who are ready to sacrifice in the service of the nation. This was brought out so well by Mayank that it touched me as a citizen and an editor. It was an amazing feeling when everyone, from old men, children and youth came forward to help News Bench meet our jawans’ families. There is a lot to do as it took long 67 years for CRPF to take such a positive and motivating step. Sources informed News Bench that other paramilitary forces are also contemplating issuing similar orders. This one step by DG Dilip Trivedi is certain to infuse a new lease of motivation amongst the troops and will give some solace to the personnel who are already suffering from lack of promotion, several financial benefits and poor field conditions. It has come as boost to the kind of hard work News Bench has done in the small period of four months to publish credible stories. We are committed to publish more such stories which we believe will highlight important issues and will help bring the change for good for the country and its people. Anil Pandey Editor, News Bench SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

DROPBOX

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR KEJRIWAL CIA AGENT? I am a fairly senior leader in the Aam Admi Party and have read your cover story and report that says that Arvind Kejriwal is an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, the spy agency of the US government. Do you have any evidence of this? I ﬁnd it nowhere in the report. It vaguely says that he got the Magsaysay award, and hence he is a US stooge. Why? Did your very own RSS follower Arun Shourie not get the same Magsaysay Awards as well? Buddhadeb Basu, a famous, post-Tagore era Bengali litterateur also got the same award. Was he a US operative? Going by that logic, was Rabindranath Tagore a British stooge, since he got the Nobel Prize? Your report says that the NGO run by Kejriwal had received funding from the US and other countries. This act is part of the global decision by developed countries to invest in developing countries to expand their market.

Ashok Verma Farash Khana, Delhi

CRUEL REALITY

‘C’ FOR CORRUPTION?

I am a regular reader of your News Bench magazine. In your August 2014 issue, I went through Impact India and Positive India columns which make a very pleasurable reading. However, I was really shocked to read the article titled ‘Orphanage industry down under’. Sir, this story is absolutely correct. Today, many Muslim children are being trafficked by the clergy in the name of religion. Through NGOs, many children are being smuggled illegally to the Gulf countries where they are being subjected to sexual exploitation under very exacting situations. In these foreign countries, the hapless children do not know where to escape, or how. Since they do not know the local language, or English, they cannot talk to anyone, including the local cops. On the contrary, their tormentors threaten their victims to implicate the already tormented children in a theft or any other criminal case. Sir, this is a very difficult and sad situation. Since you have highlighted the problem of the oppressed children, may Allah bless you! Gazala Bibi Urdu Bazaar, Moradabad

I read your article Old Wine in Older Bottle in the August issue of News Bench, which proves that Congress Party lives and dies only for power, not for the country or for the benefit of the people of Mother India. If people have voted them out of power, it is as if they are going to die! They have no ideology, or the plan for the nation’s welfare. They hanker after only power, corruption and money. I suppose if the Congress Party is voted out in the next general election in 2019 also, they may decide to commit mass suicide, because there is no meaning in life or politics without corruption-money. Mohd. Rizvan Ramnagar, Nainital

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

GOVERNMENT RACIALIST! I read News Bench magazine with a great interest. Your cover story on second class martyrs is very good; I appreciate it. The system is discriminating amongst the soldiers dying on the international borders, those dying in accidents in rescue operation meant for those stranded in high altitude Himalayas, and those fighting against Naxals in Chhattisgarh, Orissa and elsewhere.

In fact, every man in uniform is doing the same kind of work, but you cannot even call the non-army personnel as ‘soldiers’… as if that term is the personal jageer of the army. No doubt, they all die for the sake of the nation, but our government grants compensations and honours to them adopting different parameters. To some martyrs, the government attitude is downright belittling. This discriminating attitude adopted by the government is faulty, and they should correct it, so that the paramilitary jawans and cops serving in the civil police do not feel disheartened and become disenchanted. News Bench has raised the issue in a valiant manner, so I must thank the entire News Bench team. If pointing out to anyone’s colour can be said to be ‘discrimination’ then the government is discriminating between those wearing khaki and those wearing olive uniforms, so is our government racialist? SK Agrawal Sector 2, Vasundhara

GO, GO, DYNASTY This is about the article in News Bench magazine Old Wine in Older Bottle.

DROPBOX

‘PAPPU' IS NOT ROBIN HOOD Your article ‘Robin Hood’ and his wife in Lok Sabha is full of clichés; there is nothing new in it. I am sorry to say that this article glamourises criminals in politics. Every political party in India is promoting dirty criminals, and notorious murderers in the electoral politics. Now, the pressmen also call them ‘Robin Hood.’ Robin Hood in Europe was a philanthropist, while criminals in Indian politics enter Parliament in order to loot public money and to hold the entire administrative system to ransom to make illegal gains. They are legitimising corruption. Kishore Jha Aurangabad, Bihar

EXPRESS@NEWS BENCH A BRILLIANT STORY I wish to congratulate you for bringing out a magazine which has tried to collect stories from every part of the country. Thus, it gives us glimpses of happenings from across the states. I have seen at least one story in every issue till now from the northeast. It is good that you have made it a regular feature, as it has been seen that this area has generally been overlooked by the Delhi based national media. The earlier story on Sikkim wanting to gleave India is scary. I have been to Sikkim, and the people are really gentle Buddhists, so they must be really hurt. But, the highlight of your August issue of the magazine was your cover story which has picked up every aspect of a problem which has plagued our paramilitary forces. Paramilitary is a very important tool in the hand of the state in the process of providing safety and security. The sheer number, about 10 lakh, of the active paramilitary troops and their family members is going to beneﬁt if the problems as highlighted by your magazine are solved. You have also started devoting more pages on lifestyle and this adds colour to your entire package. Congratulations!

FACADE

The Congress Party shows no sign of improving, let alone repenting and rethinking. So long as Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are around, Congress is not going to change. They think that Congress Party is their fiefdom. Rahul Gandhi was the chief strategist of the party in the just bygone Lok Sabha Polls, and since all his strategies have failed miserably, he should be sacked from the Congress. During the polls, most of the old stalwarts were ignored and humiliated, so he earned their ire, which resulted in an utter fiasco. And what kind of secular person Sonia is? On one hand, she swears by secularism, while on the other, she has forged an alliance with the most communal man of India Shahi Imam Syed Bukhari. Does not she know the meaning of the word ‘secularism’? As per Roget’s Thesaurus, ‘secularism’ is an antonym of ‘religiosity’. According to Sonia, if you ally with the Hindus, you become communal, but if she allies with Muslims, she becomes a genuine ‘secular’. As a result of all such and many other follies, Sonia and her party are out of power. I suppose, now it is the proper time to straighten their thinking, and remove cobwebs from their mind. Rajkumar Bansal Shambha Bazaar, Bijnor, UP

Avinesh Kumar, Civil Lines, Gorakhpur.

OF SWAMIS AND MAZAARS Apropos of your article "Swami, Sai and Politics", there are some persons in RSS, BJP and Congress who are attempting their best to drag Swami Swaroopanand into their gutter politics. If the Hindu pontiff has some controversial past, it does not mean that everything he does or says should be made part of a new controversy. Some RSS, BJP and Congress elements are choosing to stoke communal embers through such activity. I would like to draw your attention to RSS statements that it was worried over the growing popularity not only of Sai, but also a plethora of other mazaars that have sprung up on public lands mysteriously. But the RSS never follows its own words, and it is not the sole custodian of Hindu religion. If the pontiff asserts himself as the custodian of the Hindu religion, what is objectionable in it? Now, with their man Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs, why is the RSS not doing anything to get rid of the mazaar menace across India? Mazaars are disliked not just by Hindus but millions of Muslims as well! Murshid Kuli Khan Baharampur, West Bengal

LISTENING POST! Since we launched, we have been receiving a lot of responses, suggestions and advices. We believe in growing through consensus. We are sure you have some more wisdom to add. Please send your responses to feedback@newsbench.in or G-22, Sector-3, Noida, UP-201301

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

ACTIONS

IMPACT INDIA What happened over the last month that was historic and will have a lasting impact on India, politically, socially, economically or culturally? Here are some of the latest developments!

RAPE: NO LONGER A CHILD’S PLAY!

HE mindlessly cruel, inhuman last month, the Supreme Court had gangrape of a 23-yer-old in questioned the blanket immunity December 2012, with the enjoyed by underage offenders and ‘medianym’ of “Nirbhaya” that had set asked the government to consider fire to the country has finally found reviewing the law. “You can’t have a some response from the government. cut-off date for crime,” it had said. The number of criminal cases Despite the viciousness of From now on minors involving juveniles has the incident, the accused accused of heinous been increasing and there escaped the noose, as he was just a few months less crimes may not escape is growing indignation the noose easily of letting such criminals than being an adult. off as minors. There is In early August the Union cabinet approved the Juvenile also scientific evidence that kids reach Justice (Care and Protection of Children) mental maturity much before than they Bill, 2014 that proposes treating minors would a few decades ago. This move older than 16 years as adults if charged will warm the cockles of all those who with serious crimes such as rape. have been grilling the government for However, they would not be sentenced the imminent freeing of Nirbhaya’s to life or death if found guilty. Just tormentor No. 1.

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

CAN NOT JUST FACILITATE WEST

N an unexpected stance, the Narendra Modi government went against the developed world’s sentiments on the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), virtually scuttling it in favour of the food security of millions of marginalised sections in the country. The message is that under the present dispensation, India’s first duty is to protect the interests of its countrymen. The tough stance took the world community, especially USA and European Union, by surprise. They were expecting a liberal stance from the Modi-led pro-reforms government. The truth is TFA is not in the interest of India at all. The country already has a huge trade deficit, and any further move towards trade facilitation will only widen this gap, creating loss of foreign currency, which will eventually devalue the rupee in the short run. The

CONSEQUENCES

Food security is not just about food being there but being accessible

GREENBACKS IN DEFENCE AND RAILWAYS

FACADE

major beneficiary will be China, with Sanjay Baru, former media advisor to which our trade balance is already Manmohan Singh, says: "In the current hugely distorted. Other short-term stand-off on India's stance on its food beneficiaries will be Asean, Germany security policy, Western powers are and some other countries in Asia, Latin pretending as if they are the upholders America and Europe, who are heavily of fair play and India the spoiler. The export-oriented. The other important fact is that major trading powers have thing is we are not in any advantageous never shied away from being spoilers in position in terms of trade facilitation, multilateral trade talks whenever it has suited their national so far as software interests.” In the services are past, when Japan concerned, as the WHEN JAPAN started challenging threat of change STARTED the hegemony of in visa rules and USA in world trade, other barriers are CHALLENGING THE USA used Special Damocles swords HEGEMONY OF and Super 301 laws hanging over to push Japan. Why, the heads of the THE US IN WORLD even creation of the industry. So while TRADE, IT USED European Union India is being SUPER 301 LAWS was to counter portrayed as a Japan’s economic ‘party pooper” at rise globally. the moment, the The TFA would have benefitted truth is it has done the right thing as far India only if we had been a major as domestic interests are concerned. Experts were quick to praise the manufacturing and export-driven decision taken by the government. economy, but that is not so.

ARCHING past the tiresome days of policy paralysis, the Cabinet has cleared the much needed reforms for raising foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in defence to 49 per cent. The government has also opened high-priority railway infrastructure segment for foreign investment. FDI ceiling in the defence sector has been increased to 49 per cent from current 26 per cent – a massive 23 per cent pole vault with condition that control in joint venture manufacturing defence equipment will remain Indian hands. The move is aimed at boosting the domestic industry of a country which imports up to 70 per cent of its military hardware. The Cabinet also approved a proposal to open up the cashstrapped railways to foreign investment by allowing 100 per cent FDI in areas such as highspeed train systems, suburban corridors and dedicated freight line projects implemented in the Public Private Partnership mode. The decision is aimed to help in modernisation and expansion of the railway projects. But FDI will not be allowed in train operations and safety. The need for foreign investment in railways is a major priority,

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

HOPE - FULL

POSITIVE INDIA Beyond the usual, high decibel screeching of television news about scams, rapes, murders and suicides, there is a very positive India, where life often seems worth living...

JANATA NARAYAN SEWA

ARAYAN SEVA SANSTHAN is an NGO established in 1985 by Dr. Kailash Agrawal ‘Manav’ to treat patients suffering from polio, cerebral palsy and serve the orthopedically handicapped and disabled. Beyond treatment comes education and vocational training to the disabled and mentally retarded people with proper

facilities to develop their potential to the fullest so that they can be self-reliant and independent. This has become possible because this non-governmental charitable organisation works closely with hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, mentally retarded children, handicapped and individuals. The aim is to make possible, through donations and contributions, to extend efforts and provide services to improve the quality of life of physically challenged individuals. Poor, needy and physically challenged persons are being operated “free of cost” at “Narayan Sewa Sansthan”. Then, they are imparted with vocational training, enableing them to earn their livelihood.

WOMEN’S CHETNA

HE story of India’s first rural bank for women began about 17 years ago and today it is a reason to smile for more and more women every day. It was in 1995 that Chetna Sinha and her husband both farmers by profession first approached the Reserve Bank of India with the idea of founding a bank to serve the rural women of our country. Chetna proved that a bank can be run with illiterate women who can't even read or write. The bank started in Mhaswad, a

LAILA FOSTERS MAJNUS OF CONSERVATION

OSITIVE India lives in its villages. Nothing can prove it better than the villages of Attha and Gendra. A crusade which had its genesis in an unfortunate incident has turned a barren stretch of land in the vicinity of Attha into a lush green forest having a radius of about 10 km. In 1983, Lalia, a tribal man, was beaten up by

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

forest guards for cutting trees in a forest in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh. His wife Dahelibai was let off with a reprimand. Rather than making them resentful, however, the incident turned the couple into formidable conservation crusaders in their native Attha village. Under the leadership of the couple, the 700-odd tribals of this

village got together and started forest and water conservation that same year. Dahelabai’s good work motivated the other women of the village who undertook a vigorous forest protection programme that has rejuvenated the green cover in the watershed, about 35 km from Alirajpur district headquarters. The villagers constructed huge

HOPE - FULL

AN INDIAN KEYBOARD

bank has managed to small village in the Satara Women's successfully introduce district of Maharashtra, empowerment has both computerised and with a semi-literate worktaken a new turn with Chetna leading door-to-door banking force of women from the and offers its services to same village. The Sinhas’ dream was to provide loans to help over 180,000 women across nine disfarmers recover from their crushing tricts in rural Maharashtra and Karnateconomic hardships. But it proved to aka, which includes the districts of Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Raigarh, Ratnagiri, be more than just that. The bank has proved that no hin- Pune, Kolhapur, Hubli and Dharwad. drance can withstand the determined. Of these, over 155, 000 women are savToday, despite facing over eight to 10 ings account holders; most of them hours of power outage in a day, the earn less than Rs 50 a day.

stone gully plugs on the deep nullahs in between the hills to stop soil erosion and create new farms. Apart from this, they constructed ﬁeld bunds on the sloping farms to prevent soil loss. This has led to a continuous supply of water through a stream even during summer months. To further hold the soil together, the villagers planted bamboo trees, along with other saplings. Now the abundant

FACADE

N Indian language keyboard is unique, bearing no similarity with the English keyboard. This is primarily due to the complex structure of the Indic scripts, and the existence of a large number of characters in each script. Although solutions have been forthcoming, none have emerged as a possible de-facto industry standard. Media Lab Asia at IIT Bombay has designed a keyboard based on the structure of the Indic alphabet. The keyboard is the result of intensive research and iteration of design, prototyping and user evaluation. The research project was carried out under the aegis of Prof Anirudha Joshi of the

IDC. The key features are that text input is based on Devanagari. Keylekh does not make use of the Shift key to switch between consonants and matras (vowel sounds). And all the alphabets and matras are accommodated.

supply of bamboo is used in house construction and making of baskets. Also, the farmers have come to a situation where they can grow a second crop in the Rabi season to augment their agricultural income. All this has been achieved through collective labour, which has its beginning with Laila’s leadership in organising the workforce under the traditional labour pooling custom called Dhas.

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

SOME RUMOURS

POLIWOOD Politics is not just about votes and social engineering. There are diverse aspects of politics that may not make huge headlines but are exciting, nevertheless. Here's News Bench's platter

RIOT RUMOURS

HE recent riots in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, have triggered off a furious debate between Modi baiters and Modi’s boys. “It is clear that it is the BJP that is behind the riots”, is the opinion that has been taking roots since the last week of July. The reports from the police investigation did not help too. The reports said that the riots were meticulously planned to divide the Sikh and Muslim communities. It said the police and administration gave a clear nine hours to the rioters before clamping down to bring back normalcy. And yet, sources deep within the government told News Bench: “This

is simplistic, because Modi knows very well that his biggest opportunity cannot be allowed to be damned because of any communal streak he may or may not have. He will ensure communal harmony, and the huge extended provision for the Islamic education system in the budget for the current fiscal shows this maturity of his politics." In fact, intelligence sources told News Bench that it is fringe elements within the broad RSS-VHP family, the Togadias of the world that could be trying to malign Modi, taking obvious advantage of the earlier slur against him stemming from the Godhra riots

BOOK POLITICS

UCH noise emanated from the Natwar Singh camp about the ‘truth’. The Old Fox, now a jilted lover of the Congress, has said that his book will reveal all. He is said to have written in his book that is to come out, “One Life Is Not Enough”, that when Sonia Gandhi refused to take the prime ministerial job during UPA I, it was not her “inner voice”, which she made much of, that prompted her. Rather, it was Rahul Gandhi who did the convincing bit. Rahul, who has been derided as a Pappu (imbecile) politician, had pulled the emotional quotient with Mom, telling her that he did not want her to be felled by extremist bullets or human-bombs like his

BABUS SAY

HE new government has become sensitised to the problems the aam aadmi faces because of the absentee zamindars of the government, the babus who take French Leave all the time. Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu strolled down the corridors of his ministry in the last week of July to find that at least 70 junior and senior officials were absent. Apparently, they had stopped coming to office, some

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

SOME TRUTHS

LISTENING POST

W grandmother or his father. Natwar Singh said that Sonia and Priyanka even visited him at his home late July to dissuade him from writing that chapter. He told a section of the media that Sonia apologised for the ill treatment meted out to the senior leader and India’s foreign policy architect, hinting that the 83-year-old was ‘embraced’ by the 67-year-old Sonia,. The 42-year-old Priyanka did nothing of the sort, though! But the cynical media masala makers dismiss all this as the politics of selling books, by making advance noises that whip up the appetite of prospective readers, so that the publisher gets his riches and Natwar’s royalty cheque fattens. “This is standard book publishing politics, boss,” a media expert cooed!

AS Road Transport and Shipping minister Nitin Gadkari’s home and office put under E-surveillance by the Modi sarkar? Seemed a tad likely, as Gadkari is not believed to be a Modi favourite, being one of the G173 members of BJP stalwarts who may have not wanted Modi to cross that figure of seats in the Lok Sabha (see News Bench, May 2014) The calculation of the G173 had been that if Modi achieved only 173 seats, he could not claim to become the PM. Now that Modi has shown his Wave, is he hitting back at his pre-poll tormentors? The G173 includes many stalwarts, including Rajnat Singh, Sushma Swaraj and, of course, Gadkari While the Opposition seized the opportunity to rile the government in Parliament in the last week of July, the Modi government summarily rejected the allegations. Even though Gadkari had denied the report labelling it speculative, the Congress said that the report reflected the lack of mutual trust among NDA ministers. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had said that the government cannot brush the issue under the carpet, especially when the Gujarat government was notorious for snooping,

trolling Modi’s past into his present incarnation. Though for now the matter has been put to bed, the recalcitrant elements in the BJP will from now be wary of saying or doing anything that might seem to be even mildly going against the Boss!

officially on leave, and others ‘just like that’ taking the Eid Holiday to make it a longish ‘off-site’ somewhere to cool off from sweltering Delhi. The minister, on a sudden urge to improve his fiefdom’s reputation, reached the office at 9.10 am and began his day with about an hour spent checking office rooms on different floors of the building that house the Urban Development (UD), Housing and Poverty Alleviation ministries. He caught at least 70 to 80 of them who had yet not reached their office seats. The list of the miss-

ing includes a few director rank officials, a bunch of section officers, some lower divisional clerks and under secretaries, besides Grade IV employees, mostly peons. It is learnt that the minister also got toilets checked on some floors when he was told that an officer has "just gone to the washroom". The washroom searches didn't yield any babus. This is the second time in less than six weeks that Naidu has caught them ' bunking'. And though on the first occasion he had been lenient, this time he has called for action to be taken. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

HISTORY TALKS

WHEN MOTILAL DEFIED MAHATMA! (The author was the media advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was also the London Bureau Chief and Diplomatic Editor of PTI)

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

HE ongoing palace intrigues at 10 Janpath and the current political turmoil within the Congress in the wake of the party’s worst ever defeat in the 2014 parliament elections have revived memories of the turbulences, dissensions and splits the party has gone through in its long and chequered history. The Congress party suffered its worst vertical split in 1969 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared her faction as the real Congress after she was expelled by the powerful party establishment of old guards, known as The Syndicate. While tracing the history of Congress splits, we will share with our readers how Motilal Nehru defied Mahatma Gandhi and launched a breakaway party with his son, later India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, as its Secretary. The Surat Split of 1907 is the first recorded division in the party in its formative stages. At the Surat Session of the party on December 26, 1907, the Moderates led by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta and Surendranath Banerjee and the extremists led by Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal split the party over the choice of the Congress President. The divided Congress, however, re-united at the crucial Lucknow session in 1916, with Tilak and Gokhale sharing the stage once again. Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a senior Congress leader till he joined the Indian Union Muslim League. He deserted the Congress at its Nagpur session in December, 1920, over differences with Mahatma Gandhi. Motilal Nehru along with Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das floated the Swaraj Party on January 9, 1923, opposing Mahatma Gandhi’s decision to suspend all civil resistance

and appointed his son Jawaharlal Nehru as one of the Secretaries. Other prominent Congressmen who joined the Swaraj Party included Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel and HS Suharawardy. Both the factions were conscious of the Surat Split of 1907 and accepted Mahatma Gandhi’s advise to remain Congressmen while functioning as separate parties. Motilal Nehru and others later returned to the Congress fold and the Swaraj Party was disbanded after the death of Chittaranjan Das. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Congress President in 1938, was removed from the post in 1939 following differences with Mahatma

ASHOK TANDON

Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi discussing Congress affairs

Gandhi. He formed All India Forward Bloc in 1939. The socialist caucus of the Indian National Congress led by Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Narendra Dev left the parent party and formed the Socialist Party soon after independence in 1948. Acharya J.B. Kripalani, a socialist and a trusted disciple of Gandhi and Congress president in 1947, had polled the second highest number of votes next to Sardar Patel when elections were conducted by the Congress Party for the post of the future Prime Minister of India. But Gandhi insisted that Nehru should be the first prime minister. After Gandhi’s death, Kripalani left the Congress and formed the Kisan Majdoor Party in 1951. In 1952, the

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

FACADE

them on knotty issues. After Patel’s death Rajagopalachari became home minister but only for a brief period. He left Congress following serious differences with Nehru. He formed Indian National Democratic Congress in Madras in 1956. Rajaji later merged his party with the Swatantra Party. In 1964, veteran West Bengal Congress leader Ajay Mukherjee floated Bangla Congress. Both these parties merged with the Janata Party in 1977. Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik left the Congress in 1969 and formed the Utkal Congress which merged into Janata party in ONE OF THE 1977. MOST SIGNIFICANT M Chenna SPLITS WAS WHEN Redy, Congress chief minister of SUBHASH BOSE Andhra Pradesh QUIT AND FORMED launched Telangana Praja Samiti THE FORWARD in 1969 but later BLOC merged into the parSocialist Party ent party. merged into the After the emergency, KMP and the two veteran Congress leader Jaglaunched the Praja Socialjivan Ram left the party and formed ist Party (PSP). The PSP split in 1972 Congress for Democracy (CFD) along when Dr Ram Manohar Lohia formed with H. N. Bahuguna and D.N. Tiwari. his own party. The CFD joined the Morarji Desai Another veteran freedom fighter government after the Janata Party Prof NG Ranga quit the Congress resounding victory in the elections in Party and founded the Hyderabad 1977. State Praja Party in 1951 but merged it After the humiliating Congress dein Acharya Kripalani’s party KMP. He later joined the Swatantra Party. Ranga feat in 1977, Karnataka Chief Minister Devaraj Urs launched Indian National returned to Congress in 1972. Nehru Congress (Urs). Maratha stronghad appointed India’s first GovernorGeneral C. Rajagopalachari as minister man Sharad Pawar launched Indian National Congress (Socialist) in 1981 without portfolio in his cabinet in which he later merged with Congress. 1950 to work as a buffer between him After Indira Gandhi’s return to and Patel. He was a mediator between

HISTORY TALKS

power in 1980, Jagjivan Ram dissolved CFD and formed Indian National Congress (Jagjivan) in Bihar in 1981 which his daughter Meera Kumar merged with the parent party. Veteran Assam Congress leader Sarat Chandra Sinha formed Indian Congress (Socialist) in 1984. He later merged it with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) when Sharad Pawar floated this party in 1999. Later in 1986 Pranab Mukherjee floated Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress in West Bengal which he later merged with Congress party. In 1988, Tamil film star and Congress leader Sivaji Ganesan launched Thamizhaga Munnetra Munnani which he later merged with Janata Dal. Another land mark split in Congress party took place in 1994 when All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) was launched by ND Tiwari, Arjun Singh and Natwar Singh. This was seen as a move by Sonia Gandhi to upstage the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Later they merged with the main party. Karnataka Congress leader and chief minister Bangarappa first formed Karnataka Congress Party in 1994, and later floated Karnataka Vikas Party in 1996 but merged both the regional outfits with the parent Congress. Senior Tamil leader G.K. Moopanar formed Tamil Maanila Congress and Madhavrao Scindia launched Madhya Pradesh Vikash Congress in 1996. But their sons are in Congress now. Congress stormy petrel in West Bengal Mamata Banerjee formed All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal in 1997, V Ramamurthy in Tamilnadu formed Tamilnadu Makkal Congress, Francis De Souza of Goa formed Rajiv Gandhi Congress party in 1998 and Mukut Mithi of Arunanchal Pradesh

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Motilal Nehru deﬁed Mahatma Gandhi to ﬂoat Swaraj Party

formed Thondar Congress and P Kannan a Congress leader in Pondicherry formed Pondicherry Makkal Congress. In 2002, Vidarbha Janata Congres was formed by Jambuwantrao Dhote in Maharashtra and Sheik Hassan in Goa formed Indian national Congress (sheik Hassan). Congress (Dolo) was formed in Arunanchal Pradesh by Kamengo Dolo in 2003. P. Kannan in Puducherry formed Pondicherry Munnetra Congress in 2005. Veteran Congressman K. Karunakaran formed Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) in 2005 in Kerala , Bhajan Lal in 2007 formed Congress (Mithi) in 1998. formed Haryana Janhit Congress Veteran Jat leader in Rajasthan Sis(Bhajan Lal) . Veteran Congressman ram Ola formed All Indira Congress A.K. Antony formed Congress (A) in (secular) in 1998. At the same time Kerala later merged with Congress. Suresh Kalmadi formed Maharashtra Sukh Ram formed Himachal Vikas Vikas Aghadi in Maharaashtra. Party in HP. Bansi Lal In 1999, Bharatiya Jan formed Haryana Vikas Congress was floated Party. Vazhapadi by Jagannath Mishra SHARAD PAWAR, Ramamurthy forin Bihar. mer Tamizhaga Challenging P.A. SANGMA AND Rahjiv Congress Sonia GanTARIQ ANWAR in Tamilnadu. dhi’s foreign Other rebel origin, ConFORMED NCP Congress outfits gress leaders CHALLENGING included All InSharad Pawar, SONIA GANDHI'S dia Rajiv KranP. A.Sangma tikari Congress, and Tariq Anwar FOREIGN ORIGIN Bharatiya Rajiv launched NationalCongress, Gujarat ist Congress Party State jana Congress and (NCP) on the eve of 1999 Pragatisheel Indira Congress. mid-term polls. Goa People’s In 2011, Jaganamohan Reddy Congress was formed by Francisco launched YSR Congress in Andhra Sardinha in 2000 . P. Chidambaram and a Sonia loyalist Nallari Kiran Kuformed Congress Jananayaka Peravai in Tamilnadu in 2001 but later merged mar Reddy (Congress chief minister of united Andhra) formed Jai Samaiwith Congress. kyandhra Paprty in 2014. Same year, Kumar Ananthan in TN

POLITICS

ADVANI: LEGEND IN HIS OWN LUNCHTIME? The man whose wish was the command for the party has now been sacked from the the BJP's highest bodies, the Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee The move was coming eversince the rise of Narendra Modi, but it's official now...

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

FORLORN ADVANI

BY MAYANK SINGH

MAINSTREAM

HAKRAVAT parivartante sukhanicha dukhanicha”... the old Sanskrit adage from “Sukti Ratnavali” means, “... and thus is life, a cycle of great happiness and great grief ”. And that is the story of Lal Krishna Advani, the last Iron Man (after Ballabh Bhai Patel) that the Bharatiya Janata Party had. The man whose rath (chariot) ran over the Babri Masjid and brought the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in the Centre for the first time, is now a lonely, fatigued figure at the far end of the victory chariot rally of Narendra Modi. The man under whose shadow so many made their careers is now living under his own tall shadow. It is jived that in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the order of things are “eat, meet and sleep”, all three being given equally weightage. But for the 87-year-old Advani, today, eat and sleep is middled by only “read”, for he is out of all meetings, all decisionmaking processes, and perhaps whose only consolation could be a five year term at Raisina Hill... if Modi condescends. For the man who once commanded the party's every move does not today know what is happening inside. It was his hard hitting and uncompromising ultra-Hinduist policy that put the BJP in the national limelight in the late 1980s, and finally came to rule in New Delhi. The party that in 1984 could eke out a mere two seats in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament), snatched away 86 of them in just five years, in 1989. And this was possible only because of Advani’s aggressive programme of demolishing the Babri Masjid heralded by the Ram Janmbhoomi slogan. But the tragic life of Advani has seen, repeatedly, that the harvest from the seeds he sows is reaped by others. He brought the party to power, but the man who wielded that power as the

Sushma Swaraj is perhaps the only leader who has some feelings for him Prime Minister was the redoubtable Parliamentary Board, and his writ ran Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Advani was made on the party’s stances on all major the Deputy Prime Minister. After that issues in the parliament. His would Goliath took his curtain call, Advani be the valediction on all major party was made PM-in-waiting, and he just meets. At 87, Advani still possesses the vigour that would shame young BJP did that: waited the rest of his life. Ane yet, Advani could have been activists, but much of the zeal has been the last person to have read the crystal put under a shroud... the least he boasts ball of his fate. In 2004, when the party of that zeal, the easier life will be made won a woeful slamming at the general for him by N Modi. In effect, his political sheen had come elections, Vajpayee was so sick that under the cloud much he took to the bed. earlier, his fulsome From then till the next decade, Advani TODAY HIS ROOM IN praise of Pakistan’s Jinnah became the only face of PARLIAMENT STILL Qaid-e-Azam as a secular politician the party and ruled it HAS HIS NAME during his 2004 with a sledge hammer in hand. Even when PLAQUE BUT THE Pakistan visit was pure acid down Nitin Gadkari was CROWD THAT ONCE like the party’s throat. He the party president, it was Advani’s words THRONGED HIM HAS was forced to resign his post as party that became the party GONE FOREVER president. On the script. Oftentimes silver jubilee of the major decisions would be consented to by Gadkari because party’s formation, Rajnath Singh was Advani had already taken his stand on made the party president in 2005. That the issue. Despite the fact that the party was the beginning of the countdown to was not in power, Advani’s demeanour Advani’s eventual downfall. Before the was one of a man at the helms of affairs. 2009 elections he posed himself as the Till the beginning of the Modi Era, party’s choice for the prime ministerial circa 2013, he was heading the party’s post. The party had to face a shameful SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

POLITICS

Advani's Ramjanmabhoomi Rath Yatra brought BJP to power for the ﬁrst time defeat in that year’s general elections. After that the astral configuration started seeing a political disconnect. Even the RSS started seeing him as a growing liability. He was asked to ease himself out. But he refused to see the big picture. He still wanted to believe that the sun rises because the cock crows, that is, it is he who runs the party. This pride based on a pedestal that had crumbled became his eventual undoing. From the throne was a he thrown by the RSS. The leaders in his coterie were sent running for cover. These included Sushma Swaraj, Vekaiah Naidu, Arun jaitley and Anant Kumar, who was termed as D-4 by the Sangh boss Mohan Bhagwat. Today, Swaraj perhaps has some corner of the heart for him, but the others have fully turned their back on Lal Krishna Advani. They are all today glittering in Modi’s ministerial galaxy. Today, he is circumscribed narrowly. Very narrowly for a man who once ran India's most prominent ultra-nationalist party. He still sits on the meetings of the BJP parliamentary Board and the national executive of the party, but the agenda is not set by him, and often he attends without even knowing what the agenda is. Naturally, he remains mute during the meetings, mostly. Only recently a meeting was held in former party president Nitin Gadkari’s residence. Its agenda was to create a BJP-RSS Coordination Committee. Advani, however, was seen walking in the labyrinths of the parliament house. Naturally, reporters pounced on him and asked what was happening about the Coordination Committee. Advani dropped a bomb: “I have no intimation about any such meeting!” Today, he is not even in a position to get a car pass made for his bosom pal Dipak Chopra. His chamber still has the name plaque, but the crowd that once thronged in front of the chamber is missing. He sits inside, forlorn. The man who once

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

directed the path of the party now loudly. This is the same man who had remains walking a lonely path between resigned from the party because this the parliament house to his Prithviraj same NaMo was made the Chairman Road residence. Most of the time he of BJP’s election campaign committee. is at home. He was always a voracious Senior journalist Arun Khare sees reader, but by choice. Now that is his this from the point of view of the next compulsion and almost the sole activity trial for the presidential post. But political analyst Rajnikant Bashisht of the man who would once be king. His stature can be seen from the fact does not agree. “Advani is rooted in that though his would be the valedictory the RSS, whose sole aim is to weaken the Congress. In that speech at major party context, while Modi meets, this time on, he is leading the party, was first asked not to PERHAPS HIS is providing speak at all, and then, PRAISE FOR MODI Advani him with support suddenly, he was asked IS MOTIVATED BY just like the shared to address the meet, as responsibilities if he were some lay HIS FOND HOPE Deen leader. But Advani THAT THE PM MIGHT between Dayal Upaddhyay made the best of it: he SEND HIM TO and Shyama Prasad clearly expressed his Mukherjee.” hurt and dismay. RAISINA HILL And now comes Actually, the party his removal from the has undergone a metamorphosis. Advani is refusing to Parliamentary Board. Interestingly, get out of the past and Modi is marching Shivraj Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh CM, towards the future. And the party who is himself a Modi-vendetta target, leadership is naturally more inclined told reporters that Advani remains the towards the future. Is Advani’s repeated "guiding light'"of the party, but that's an resort to historicity a reflection of his euphemism for a burnt out candle! And having become a relic of history? But in for all one sees, Advani is increasingly this context, it remains an inexplicable looking like an apparently green tree, riddle why Advani praises NaMo so whose core has died within.

POLITICS

AAP KA KYA HOGA? Despite the dejection of the middleclass and apparent rejection by it of the maverickism of Arvind Kejriwal, his party seems to be standing at a critical juncture where it can slowly climb back or commit euthanisa BY VI K A S K U M A R

RVIND KEJRIWAL is the two word magnet that holds the rank and file of Aam Admi Party (AAP). After the drubbing in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election and public in fighting, it appeared as if the party had decided to self destruct. But wisdom seems to have dawned. Despite criticism, it can be said that AAPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jantar Mantar rally was a success and it became evidently clear that the partyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vote bank, especially in the lower section of society is intact. The turnout at Jantar Mantar to build public pressure on the Centre to hold elections in Delhi at least gives one signal - party chief Arvind Kejriwal has not lost his charisma and is still a force to reckon with in Delhi politics. The recent rally at Jantar Mantar by party was the first ambitious public rally after the drubbing in the elections. The rally was important not just for the two-year-old party, but also for the rivals who wanted to check if the party has the guts and gumption to give them a fierce fight if the elections are held in

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Delhi. If the crowd is any indication, then one more trend is clearly emerging within the party-the profile of support base of the party is clearly changing. The middle-class voter seems to have completely junked the party whereas the support of under-privileged class has almost remain intact or increased in some constituencies. Arvind Kejriwal too seems to be playing to his strength which is his ability to connect with the people so he is busy organising short meeting in various localities with emphasis on one-to-one contact. Throwing Iftar party in lowly Shakur Basti is proof of the changed strategy of the party. The

INSIDE AAP

change in the social profile of AAP has created opportunities for party in many constituencies which party had lost by a wafer thin margin. The AAP leadership is recognising this change and is aligning its strategy accordingly. The strategy could reap political dividends and help to nurture the new electoral base for the party. A party MLA, on the condition of anonymity, told News Bench: “The support trend is very much distinct. All local level meetings in slum areas has more headcount. The middle-class has certainly moved away from the party.” Delhi’s autowallas support base to the party, though deteriorated is

largely intact. Rahul Chahiyan, an mass connect and most of the times AAP supporter, says: “We should they give wrong suggestions to Arvind give AAP another chance because the Kejriwal." Karan Singh, founder of BJP government is failing us on every AVAM, told News Bench, “A section front, electricity, water and price rise." within the party is trying to malign my The Party has taken a wise decision of image and is telling malicious things . focussing on Delhi and Punjab where But, if I was so useless then why Arvind its real support exists. It has decided Kejriwal deputed me as an in-charge not to contest in Haryana elections. of Chief Grievance Redressal forum. Political analysts are of the view that I was assigned to handle the people some sanity has been restored in the in Janta Darbar.” News Bench tried party leadership. to elicit response of AAP leaders on However, it is not that party’s problems the issue but all of them declined to have disappeared. A powerful group led say anything saying they don’t want by disgruntled members of AAP has to attach any importance to AVAM as recently formed AAP Volunteer Action this would only enhance their stature. Manch (AVAM), which is openly Such developments have increased raising the issues of lack of transparency the problems of Arvind Kejriwal who and ‘Swaraj’ within is trying very hard to the organisation. bring party back on SOME SANITY Karan Singh, once track. Though, Arvind staunch loyalist of Kejriwal campaigns MAY HAVE BEEN Arvind Kejriwal has tirelessly, he has not launched the outfit of RESTORED BUT THE been able to enthuse disgruntled members PARTY'S PROBLEMS old volunteers who are of AAP. Initially, largely marginalised ARE NOT OVER party supremo within the party AS THE AVAM IS Arvind Kejriwal structure. However, tried to dissuade the party has been REVOLTING him from launching able to attract new such a forum as he volunteers. But, did not want extra headaches for the number of volunteers is not an issue party. Karan Singh did not heed the with the party; it is the coordination suggestions of Arvind Kejriwal and between the volunteer and central was finally shown the door. A very old leadership that is rattling its prospects. member of party, on the condition of There are allegations of giving targets anonymity, told News Bench, “Office- to every karyakarta to mobilise crowds. bearers in the party deride us by saying An old volunteer concerned with ‘lo ji swarajist aa gaye’ (Swarajist have the developments told News Bench arrived) because we demand for swaraj that 12 buses were arranged from vocally. ‘Swarajist’ are laughing stock Manish Sisodia's constituency. Arvind within the party.” He further said, Kejriwal is sharp and understands the “People like Karan Singh should not pulse of common public. He seems have been sacked. He was an asset keen on addressing these problems, for the party. He was a very good but his success will largely depend on organiser who became victim of the how much he is able to motivate the coterie surrounding Arvind Kejriwal.” volunteers. He will have to listen to Another AAP member told News aam karyakarta as they bring voters to Bench, “When we were fighting the the booth. Sooner he understands this battle on streets, these people were fact, better it will be for the party in active on internet. They don’t have terms of chances of revival. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

Kejriwal's men, Shanti Bhushan (middle) and Prashant Bhushan, and his bete noire Karan Singh (seen below in cap)

POLITICS

PRIYANKA GANDHI:

TO BE OR NOT TO BE? Rahul is practically gone, but Priyanka has not practically arrived, with the ruling BJP armed with too many Robert Vadra skeletons to expose if the lady assumes leadership

BY VI K A S K U M A R

RIYANKA GANDHI has a certain degree of enigma attached to her demeanour. Her smile is evergreen. She is politically savvy, is photogenic and she has a spot of combativeness which is a very necessary trait for a politician. Forget about the aura that comes naturally to the Gandhi family members, but she does not seem arrogant, despite her heritage and personal financial health. She is important not just because she is a ‘Gandhi’, but because she seems now to be the only hope of bringing the 129-year-old Congress party out of the ventilator it has been put on ever since the pitiable drubbing it received during the last Lok Sabha elections. Considering that the party had such an array of huge political personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose,

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Ballabh Bhai Patel and Indira Gandhi, does this role befit her? One does not know, but for the average Congress worker, she seems to be the new Jhansi ki Rani. The irony of Congress party is that it is being led by a reluctant prince who does not want to assume full-time responsibility. QUITE Leadership does not come naturally to him, but PREDICTABLY, THE seems to be thrust on AK ANTONY REPORT him. After the historic trampling, perhaps HAS ABSOLVED nobody in the Congress RAHUL GANDHI OF Party wants to give ALL BLAMES FOR him another chance, despite the fact that the THE POLL DEBACLE AK Antony committee that looked into the reasons behind the Congress’ humiliation has absolved Rahul from any failure. According to some leaders, the failure of the party cannot be simplistically laid at the door of Rahul Gandhi. For

CONGRESS CRISIS

Is the Congress' fate now resting on the shoulders of Priyanka Gandhi?

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

sure a section of the party ensured that Rahul did not succeed in what he was trying. A senior functionary within the Congress told News Bench: “Rahul made some bold experiments, but these experiments were ahead of our times. Perhaps the Congress party was not ready for these structural changes.” Meanwhile, the Priyanka backers in the party say she is Congress’ answer of the hour because she is articulate, impressive and connects well with common party workers. A party insider says: “Priyanka Gandhi listens patiently and she is vaery calm, whereas Rahul asks too many questions. This is why a common party worker connects better with Priyanka.” Considering the (perceived) failure of Rahul to provide a vibrant leadership, the clamour to bring Priyanka in the active role has grown within the party. Many leaders feel that she oozes enough charisma to foil Amit Shah’s game-plan. But there are other issues as well. Observers within Congress also feel that the party needs rebooting. The mutinous mood is all pervasive. Recently, for example, Amir Haider, a veteran UP hand, published a 20-page booklet titled ‘Bitter Truth’. It says, inter alia, that when Madhusudan Mistry was supposed to lead in Uttar Pradesh; he was busy campaigning in Vadodara against Narendra Modi. But these sorts of allegations are a thin film over the deeper rot within the party. The fact is that many senior leaders were shown the door in the period of Rahul’s ascendency. These are the people who are guestimating that if Priyanka comes in their fates will be revived. “Those people who were not successful in Rahul’s leadership are hoping for a revival under Priyanka. The old guard wants to push Rahul into the government so that he is not able to manage the party," an insider reveals. Gandhi family is battling, perhaps worst phase in the political career.

POLITICS

Rahul Gandhi and his leadership have ignominy of pushing Congress to the brink where it seems more like a spent force. Voice of dissent is rising in every state. Not long ago, the very party men suspended for a controversial banner in Allahabad last year launched another campaign appealing for a Priyanka Vs Amit Shah faceoff. "Shah ko agar dena hai maat, Priyanka ko saunp do Congress ka haath". In previous interviews, she has said she gives advice on party matters when asked. And, of course, she has campaigned as well, though only in UP and only in the family constituencies. Priyanka’s role in the party has grown over the last few years. She has acted as a mentor to his brother Rahul Gandhi and even Rahul Gandhi gives due respect to her sister and brother-sister duo has good rapport. In the last Lok Sabha election, Priyanka was very active in ticket distribution. She was also sitting in the screening committee. Many leaders, especially those whose position in the party during Rahul’s leadership had weakened, see this as an end of Rahul’s era and beginning of Priyanka era. It is also not that Priyanka has a magic wand and she can eradicate all of the problems just with her magic stick. Electorate is lot more wiser now. During her campaign rallies in 2012, Priyanka told the crowds, "I promised Ma that we will get her all the 10 seats of Rae Bareli and Amethi." The result was an eye-opener for all those who wanted to bask in the Priyanka glory. Samajwadi Party won four out of five seats in Rae Bareli and eight of the 10 assembly seats in Amethi and Sultanpur. Congress lost these seats in an abysmal manner. Suvrokamal Dutta, an astute political analyst, told News Bench, “Priyanka has certain degree of charm and she is no doubt more effective than Rahul Gandhi, but Congress party, if it really wants to revive should give emphasis on cultivating strong leadership in the

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

states.” The clamour to bring Priyanka Gandhi in the active politics is nothing new. But, the demand heightened this time in the wake of poor performance of Congress party. Oscar Fernandes, old loyal leader said, “Priyanka should have a more active role in the Congress and that another member of the Gandhi family would strengthen the party”. Former Union minister KV Thomas also expressed that Priyanka “should come to the main arena. She should

work with mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi as a team … Priyanka is a big fighter. We have seen that in this election. Many people see madam Indira Gandhi in her. She is able to attract the people.” There were also stories coming in newspapers about Priyanka taking role in Congress. This forced Priyanka Gandhi to make a statement in media, “I would be very grateful to all concerned if they desisted from encouraging such baseless rumours.” This statement was

CONGRESS CRISIS

People see shades of Indira Gandhi in Priyanka

THE FACT IS THAT THE FAMILY CHARISMA IS FADING AS A NEW GENERATION OF INDIANS EMERGE GRADUALLY

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

unprecedented in the sense that Priyanka Gandhi sensed that if she does not issue statement then Rahul's authority and control over the party will further erode. Suvrokamal Dutta says, “The coterie within the Congress wants to bring Priyanka Gandhi. Whenever, Congress loses the demand for ‘Gandhis’ soar in the party. However, grim reality is that Congress does not have grassroots structure. There is hardly any strong regional leadership in the states. Whoever tried to rise in the party, coterie nipped them. Interest of this coterie is intact only when Gandhi family is in power.” Political observers are of the view that even if Priyanka takes reins of Congress, it will not be possible for her to revive Congress. The reason extended is that she was actually very active during Lok Sabha elections right from ticket distribution to campaigning, but Congress party was comprehensively trounced by Narendra Modi. Thus, even if she comes she will make not much difference. It is also to be understood that whatever states it has lost to BJP and other regional parties, it has not been able to regain at all as these states got

competent leadership of BJP or Biju Patnaik in Odisha, Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu or Mamata Banerjee in the West Bengal. It is not that family will be able to bounce back naturally, as states lost to BJP are being governed by competent leaders. Senior journalist R Jagannathan has an interesting take on the situation, “In the last election Priyanka appeared to score points primarily because the media was following her around like Mary’s lamb. If she came out in the open as the Congress party’s face of the future, all she would have going for her is the face. Priyanka is hardly what the doctor ordered for a sick Congress party.” There is one more fear in the top brass of Congress party that once Priyanka assumes leadership, many skeletons related to Robert Vadra in the cupboard will roll which will create inconvenience for the party. BJP, in order to blunt the Priyanka factor, released booklet’ ‘Damad Shree’. BJP understands that if it breaks the morale of Gandhi-Nehru family, it will win the battle from Congress. It is clear that morale of cadre within the Congress is low and if Congress brings Priyanka to the fore, it will not be easy for her to infuse life in the party. It is also a fact that family based political parties are now losing appeal which is very much evident from Bhutto family in Pakistan, Shah in Nepal and Kumartunge family in Sri Lanka. The electorate is much wiser now and it has already opted for Narendra Modi over Priyanka Gandhi.

COVER STORY

100 DAYS, 101 BARBS

GOOD public school education empowers you - if nothing else - with the gift of playing around with words with finesse and felicity. This much was evident in the morning of May 17, 2014 when The Indian Express published a column written by the Mani irrepressible and irascible Man Shankar Aiyar. In a clearly somber mood after the stunning electoral verdict delivered on May 16, he wrote: "Darkness descends. The idea of India gutters. The light that lit our freedom struggle and so defined the nature of our nationhood is going out. We are at a moment of history that can only be compared to Lahore, March 23, 1940, when Jinnah persuaded one section of our society to accept that India was comprised of two nations because nationhood had to be founded in

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Forget honeymoon... mainstream media has treated the early days of Modi regime as a nightmare. SUTANU GURU analyses

MAINSTREAM

MODINAMA

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

COVER STORY

religious identity. Thus was conceived a Muslim Pakistan. But Gandhiji resisted India cloning that example with a Hindu India. For that, he had to pay with his life at the instance of the very forces that are today most avidly celebrating Narendra Modi’s victory." There was never any doubt in any sane person's mind that Aiyar will be at his vitriolic and vicious best when it comes to Modi. But his anger and bitterness is so endemic that even fellow Congressmen were not spared outpourings of his bile. Soon after Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister, Congress MP and former UPA minister Sashi Tharoor wrote a column for the widely read American portal Huffington Post. Headlined "Modi 2.0", the column by Tharoor argued that Modi critics should give him time. In double quick time, Aiyar pounced on Tharoor and virtually called him a Judas. Aiyar thundered, "How can so dyed-in-the-wool Hindutva ideologue so suddenly emerge as a Nehruvian secularist? For a man as bright as Tharoor to not ask himself whether Modi has undergone a lobotomy in the week of his inauguration is bewildering. Does he seriously imagine that this mendicant pracharak (Hindu proselytiser), who abandoned his childwife and lonely mother in adolescence, did it all as a lark and is no more serious about Hindutva than Tharoor is as a Congressman?" Just look at the intemperate tone and tenor of words used by Aiyar to describe the democratically elected Prime Minister of his own country. Strangely, media pundits who were giving lectures to Modi till recently about his choice of words were mum. On August 15, 2013, soon after the then PM Dr Manmohan Singh finished his sleep inducing speech, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi delivered an Independence Day speech that was an open challenge to Singh and the UPA regime. The "secular" establishment of Delhi was aghast at the audacity displayed by Modi. Senior journalist TK Arun chided, castigated and condemned Modi for insulting the office of the Prime Minister in a blog for The Times of India: "In attacking Dr Singh thus, Modi displayed plain ignorance of the distinction

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

between the office of the prime minister as a democratic institution and its occupant, a political rival... In attacking the prime minister, Modi attacks Indian democracy itself." TK Arun had no such words of caution and advice for Mani Shankar Aiyar. Now, even his worst detractors will never accuse Modi of being naive. So Modi was well aware of what he and his new government were up against the moment election results were announced. So no one was surprised when the new prime minister posted a blog one month after taking over with the following words: "Every new government has something that friends in the media like to call a ‘honeymoon period.’ Previous governments had the luxury of extending this ‘honeymoon period’ up to a hundred days and even beyond. Not unexpectedly, I don’t have any such luxury. Forget hundred days, the series of allegations began in less than a Aiyar, Irani and Tharoor: dramatis personae in an ongoing farce

MODINAMA

“

English media has been traditionally proNehru-Gandhi family and fears Modi

”

SUVRO KAMAL DUTTA, POLITICAL ANALYST

HE’S DIFFERENT

ARENDRA MODI should not be compared with other PMs, as the situation is different and the need of the hour is also different. Most of the prime Ram ministers have worked under Bahadur Rai traditional setups. Modi was expected to announce big ticket decisions, but it did not happen. He is trying to create his own path. In a parliamentary system, cabinet works on behalf of the PM, but Narendra Modi is working as an axle and the cabinet is revolving around him. Narendra Modi has restored the prestige of the prime minister's ofﬁce in the true sense, which was destroyed during last one or two decades. Now, the impact of a functioning and active government can be seen. Bureaucrats are coming on time and meetings are taking place at 9 am. Now, people are complaining about Narendra Modi’s maintaining silence. Communication has in fact increased. He is communicating with bureaucrats, with party, with RSS and intellectuals. This is mainly a complaint of the media. Few editors sitting in the large media houses had the misconception that they can advice prime minister. Narendra Modi had cut them to size. He is working more and talking less. In his foreign trip, he did not accommodate editors. They feel marginalised. His approach is very much pragmatic. My own view is that Narendra Modi is not accustomed to work under pressure. Problems will be there, but it will not be serious in nature. Ram Bahadur Rai is a Political Observer

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

hundred hours. But when one is working with the sole aim of serving the nation determinately, these things do not matter. That is why I keep working and that is most satisfying." Now that the Modi regime completes 100 days in office, someone who is not a partisan participant in the vicious war that seems to be going on between Bharat and India would not have failed to notice a few things. First, that the Modi government hasn't committed any blunder. Second, there has been no major corruption scandal involving any senior government functionary. And third, Modi seems to have gone out of his way in all his public speeches as someone who wants consensus over divisiveness. And yet, if you go only by what appears in mainstream media, you would come to the conclusion that the new Modi government has been swamped by crises, provocative remarks and abject failure on all fronts: from tackling inflation to battling corruption. In the inaugural issue of News Bench, we had put Modi on the cover and made an attempt to analyse his real enemies - both within his party and the world outside it. One inescapable conclusion was that Modi's biggest enemies were in what is politely known as the secular media and intellectual establishment based primarily in Delhi, but Tears have with vibrant branches in other parts dried of India. in herIt would be instructive as well as interesting to take a look again at two eyes, and yet, in the end statements issued by hard line secularist Arundhati Roy and Savita Devi the so called soft secularist Ramchandra before the asks: Guha "If everyone gets election results. scared, Roy said: "From being thiswho openly sort will fight for of communal hatred-spewing the country saccharine person, he then put on the suit of a corporate man, and, you know, is now trying to play the role of the statesmen, which he's not managing to do really. The corporations are all backing Modi because they think that (Prime Minister) Manmohan (Singh) and the Congress government hasn't shown the nerve it requires to actually send in the army into places like Chhattisgarh and Orissa". Guha was less scathing, though no less ominous sounding in his portrayal of Modi: In a column for The Telegraph in March 2014, Guha writes, "Writers and activists I know — and sometimes admire — were nervous that the victory of a Narendra Modi-led coalition would lead to a period of authoritarian and even fascist rule in the country." They spoke

COVER STORY

will replace them. The Modi of a return to the days of Indira government is being tested from Gandhiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Emergency, when the the very first day and it has not press was censored, Opposition even got its honeymoon period." politicians were in jail, and there There is method to this kind of was an atmosphere of fear all jaundiced madness. Those who around. Some worried about the were virulently opposed to the persecution or harassment of the idea of Modi as the prime minister minorities...These fears are not are those who now are fervently entirely invalid. Throughout his hoping that he falters, stumbles and campaign tour, Narendra Modi eventually fails. Since they happen had regularly made nasty personal to be more partisan participants remarks about his political rivals. than objective observers, they have He is also extremely intolerant of been feverishly hunting for reasons dissent, as witness the intimidation and excuses to damn and demonise of artists and writers in his home the Modi regime. state, Gujarat. Now that Modi has And when overt damning and become our prime minister, what demonising doesn't work, they kind of policies shall he promote? attempt demeaning the Modi Is the choice of Smriti Irani for Mohan Bhagwat regime by complaining that the the critical ministry of Human Resource Development - dealing with educational issues - a new government is a pale imitation of the UPA regime. Just diktat of the RSS? If the goons of the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv look at the reasons trotted out by the Modi baiters as if they Sena attack independent-minded writers and artists, will he are public prosecutors reading out a charge sheet against act against them? When the media criticise the policies of his Modi in a court of law. The first charge is that the arrival government, will he seek to silence them? Will he allow civil of the Modi government has led to a resurgence of Hindu servants and public institutions independence and autonomy communal forces in the country to the point that minorities now live in clear and present danger. or will they have to toe the Sangh line?". The second charge is that the Modi government is as Take a closer look at what people like Mani Shankar Aiyar, Arundhati Roy and Ramchandra Guha say before and after incompetent as the preceding UPA regime when it comes elections and it becomes easier to understand the manner in to economic policies. The third charge is that since Modi which the mainstream media and intellectual establishment is personally an authoritarian and intolerant person, has covered the first 100 days of the Modi government. Fear, his government too is behaving in an intolerant and mistrust and outright prejudice have a lot to do with this. authoritarian manner. Within days of Modi taking over as Argues political analyst Suvro Kamal Dutta: â&#x20AC;&#x153;English media prime minister, a BJP MP from Bihar Giriraj Kishore made has traditionally been pro Nehru-Gandhi family. These a needlessly stupid statement about people arrested on people are now fearful that their existence is threatened. suspected charges of terrorism of So, they want to malign the government at any cost. These belonging to a particular religion Many fans of Modi who people fail to understand that it is people who has chosen - read Muslim- and having like Amit Shah are deeply suspicious of Narendra Modi. My understanding is these pseudo left- sympathies for Pakistan. There Arun Jaitley wing intellectuals are afraid that right-wing intellectuals was an immediate and huge

CONTROVERSIES

IRANI DEGREE

since there is no choice.

Ever since her appointment as HRD Minister, Smriti Irani has been slammed for her allegedly fake degree. The barbs on her have been both elitist, snobbish and abusive. Modi keeps mum

MUSLIM TECHIE

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

A bloodthirsty mob murdered an IT professional in Pune after some communal incidents. There was hysterical coverage in media about

Muslims being unsafe in the Modi era.

RAMZAAN FOOD A bunch of Shiv Sena MPs, angry with facilities and food, force-fed a roti to the catering manager of Maharashtra Sadan.

He was a Muslim on fast during Ramzaan. Again, the media went hysterical.

RIOT AFTER RIOT Uttar Pradesh has been wracked by riots and communal violence since the SP government took

MODINAMA

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

Modi is crass. He lacks dignity. He lacks grace. He boycotted Vajpayee

over in March 2012. But for the English media, it is the BJP and the RSS that are behind all this for electoral gains.

CENSORSHIP! The newspaper DNA dropped a web column of

rabid Modi hater and ex Tehelka employee Rana Ayyub that trashed Amit Shah. All hell broke loose. The same media kept quiet about NDTV dropping a story on the National Herald scam involving the Gandhi family.

â&#x20AC;?

KUMAR KETKAR, POLITICAL ANALYST

sagacity and statesmanship now started demanding that prime minister Modi issue a personal statement condemning the murder. When Modi didn't issue any statement, it was concluded that the prime minister was tacitly encouraging the fascists. In between, the BJP MP from Jammu and a minister in the PMO Jitender Singh called for a debate on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gives special status to Kashmir. That too was construed as yet another attack unleashed by communal forces. And then came the most farcical episode in this serial Modi bashing. Upset with poor facilities and poor food at Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi, a group of Shiv Sena MPs resorted to favorite Shiv Sena tactics: they behaved like goons. One MP shoved a roti down the throat of the catering manager. The manager happened to be a Muslim who was observing Roza during Ramzaan. Once again, there were hysterics in the media and loud demands that Modi personally condemn the act. There were scholarly columns arguing that the BJP led government was deliberately insulting and denigrating Islam. And of course, there are the communal incidents and riots that seem to continue in an unending spiral in Uttar Pradesh. According to the media and intellectual establishment, the new BJP president Amit Shah is directly and personally responsible for the communal riots in the state. Once again, the series of riots in that benighted state are being seen as a signal that the BJP led government will deny security, peace

HINDU NATION

ARTICLE 370

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat publicly said that India is basically a Hindu nation because of its cultural roots. The English media took it as an assault on the plural fabric of India.

A trusted Modi minister called for a debate on Article 370 that gives special status to J&K. The media says a dictatorial Modi must answer to the nation.

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

uproar and there were allegations that communal bigots like Kishore are now ruling the roost. Then came the gruesome incident in Pune where a bloodthirsty mob killed an IT professional in the streets after a few days of communal hate mongering in the city. The murdered IT professional was a Muslim. Tragic and unforgivable as the murder was, the mainstream media went into such hysterics that you would not be blamed for thinking Armageddon had finally arrived in India. "Muslim techie" became the buzzword and dozens of columns were written about how the murder was a sinister signal about the growing clout of communal, ultra-nationalist and fascist forces. The same political pundits who admired the inexplicable silence of Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2011 as a sign of

COVER STORY

“THINGS HAVE STARTED CHANGING” How do you perceive the threemonth rule of Narendra Modi? It is clear that his focus is on implementation. In fact, this is the thing which cannot be overemphasised. India never lacks in ideas. It lacks Gurcharan Das implementation. Hundreds of projects are delayed, just because we have poor execution. Bureaucrats are now coming on time. But don’t you think the budget has not been able to satisfy the market? You will have to understand that the budget was prepared by Chidambaram and presented by Arun Jaitley. The government had no option, as time was very limited. But yes, the government could have curtailed subsidies. What do you think of the Modi government? Things have started changing. You will be aware that Rajasthan has amended labour laws. Many BJP ruled states have started to act even faster than the centre. What is your perception about his Red Fort speech? I think he missed a great opportunity. He could have given a definitive roadmap. Do you think the government will be able to tame inflation? You will have to understand that the inflation is because of excessive expenditure and it is the result of bad policies of the earlier government. Things will take time to improve. Can you point out one noticeable step taken by the Narendra Modi government? Self-attestation is a major administrative reform. Birth certificates, mark sheets, etc., no longer need to be attested by gazetted officers. This is a big relief for the poorer sections of society living in villages. This will hugely cut the red-tape. But how do you see his silence on riots? These things are not in his control. However, he should have condemned this categorically, and that he has not done. It is a thing of concern for me. The author is an Economic Philosopher

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

and livelihood to the Many equations minorities. There was and positions have changed since Modi a truly macabre and arrived bizarre occasion when famous TV anchor Arnab Goswami actually asked a BJP spokesperson why his party was building temples in a Muslim majority locality. The BJP panelist had the presence of mind to point out that it looks as if it is the media that is inflaming communal tension. But then, not many listened to him since the media has been too busy painting the Modi regime as a communal, bigoted and fascist. Difficult to find comments like this one made by Dalit Christian activist RL Francis in an interview to News Bench: "Modi seems to have vision and he is well aware of the sensibilities of people. The good part is that the government seems working without creating any noise. This is a welcome change." That Modi would be targeted over communalism is not surprising. But what must have surprised Modi is the manner in which the economic policies and decisions of his government have been savaged in the media. Interestingly, in this attack, many erstwhile Modi fans seemed to have joined traditional Modi baiters. What does the normal businessman think of the Modi government ? Says Praveen Khandelwal, General Secretary, Confederation of All India Traders: “The government is now moving from policy paralysis to policy reforms, so it should be given time. I think you will start seeing remarkable change after one or two years.”

MODINAMA

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

As of now, the momentum is lost. They might still recover, but we have lost the moment

proponents of market friendly and right wing economic policies. Sometime ago, a commentator in News Bench had written on Narendra Modi that he believes more in pragmatism rather than capitalism or socialism. And that his government seems determined to be pragmatic in an almost boring manner. For days and weeks before he presented the Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was offered a glittering and bewildering range of policy advice options. There was an almost breathless sense of anticipation in the pink papers about the revolutionary new policy paradigm that Jaitley would unveil in his maiden budget speech. Unfortunately, at least as far as pink papers were concerned, the Jaitley budget was a damp squib. It was promptly dubbed UPA-3. There is little doubt that the budget speech delivered

â&#x20AC;?

BIBEK DEBROY, ECONOMIST

by Jaitley was uninspiring and totally bereft of gestures that generate enthusiasm and excitement. The budget also revealed that Modi is not going for radical changes that completely demolish the old order and rather prefers the more gradual approach. Many think that this approach might just fail. One such person is Bibek Debroy who was quoted thus in a story released by Reuters: "As of now, the momentum is lost. They might still recover it, but we have lost the moment," said Debroy, a prominent economist who co-wrote a book laying out a reform agenda that the new prime minister himself launched in June. But is the Modi government really UPA-3 when it comes to economic policies? First, it would be churlish to judge the economic policy track record of any government in anything less than two years. Second, as the exclusive interview given by famous author and former CEO of Proctor and Gamble India, Gurcharan Das indicates, it is small steps like doing away with attestation of certificates that will eventually have a huge impact. The third charge against Modi about being authoritarian has got a lot of traction by a few photographs that were ironically released by the government. The photos show Modi in a meeting with ministers where Railway minister Sadanand Gowda and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan are seen standing almost at attention as they face the PM who seems to look like a head master sitting in his chair. That is the humorous side of it. The serious side is the charge about him being authoritarian. More charitable pundits like Pratap Bhanu Mehta of Centre for Policy Research have compared Modi to the legendary French leader General Charles de Gaulle. The usual suspects like Aiyar have, of course, compared him with Hitler. Once again, common sense suggests that it is too early to judge Modi on this count. But yes, we are living in the age of 24*7 noise masquerading as news. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

But nobody seems to be willing to give any time to the Modi government on this issue. Anyone reading newspapers and watching TV channels must have noticed how Modi has been personally attacked for the seeming failure to contain inflation. The high prices of tomatoes have become a favourite tool for Modi baiters, the same set who defended high inflation for eight years of the UPA regime - till it became indefensible. One reason for the serial attacks on the economic policy is along expected lines; it is a diatribe of Modi baiters who will criticise and demonise him no matter what. But the reason is more interesting. A lot of Modi fans are

COVER STORY

Modiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s was the first Independence Day speech that did not lean upon the authority or pedigree of anything else, but the people. It did not invoke a pantheon, or even a party

RED FORT RESOLVE: The Buck Starts Here

USHAR GANDHI and Barkha Dutt of NDTV can never be accused of being members of the Modi fan club. No wonder then that Indians who follow both politics and the politics of media were dumbstruck while watching TV soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi finished his maiden Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort. Seized by an inexplicable bout of mea culpa, Gandhi admitted on live television that he had come prepared to criticise Modi but was compelled to praise him. Of course, the usual suspects in the Congress like Manish

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Tiwari and Mani Shankar Aiyar sifted through garbage dumps of prejudice to slam the Modi speech. Perennially prejudiced international media outlets like The Economist - the magazine that had openly asked Indian voters to prefer Rahul Gandhi over Modi - also found enough to carp, crib and complain. A few things became very clear to Indians during and after the speech. For one, Modi is the unquestionable leader of the country. Not since the early tenure of Rajiv Gandhi has a prime minister appeared so secure and comfortable while interacting with citizens. Second, Modi has a talent for connecting with real Indians in a manner that continues to

MODINAMA

The third and most important thing that was clear to anyone without prejudice was that Modi was, is and will remain what is popularly known in Hindi as "lambi race ka ghoda" that was actually clear to many Indians even during the election campaign. He almost never made any grandiose promise or displayed a gesture of doing this and that in 100 days. Even then, he would talk about India achieving some goals by 2019 when it will celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi or 2022 when India will start celebrating 75 years of freedom. By the time he finished his August 15 speech, many of his critics admitted that the man has a clear long term vision and that he is willing to walk the talk. Some habitual critics carped that his obsessive focus on toilets and sanitation was not befitting the stature of a prime minister delivering an Independence Day speech. But they missed the point entirely. Modi understands that an overwhelming majority of Indians want small incremental changes in governance that would make a dramatic long term impact in their lives. Talking about toilets might look like a dampener for the elitists who clung nostalgically to grand Nehruvian visions of Non Alignment, Panchsheel and world peace. But in a country where more than 60% citizens do not have access to clean toilets even seven decades after independence! Such seemingly small things matter a lot. Modi's speech also made one more thing very clear: India doesn't need more laws but badly needs social change and a change in mindsets. He didn't talk about or promise more draconian laws to curb the national shame of rape. Instead he chided parents for being prejudiced towards daughters and pampering sons. He did not talk about bringing in more draconian laws to tackle the menace of corruption in government offices. Instead, he marveled how the fact that government servants had started going to office in time has become news, Modi also connected with neo middle class aspiration when he exhorted all Indians to work towards a better India and work harder. And nobody doubts his credibility and sincerity. No one made any jokes when he proclaimed in his speech that he will work 13 hours a day if government officers work 12 hours a day. The same ability to connect with masses instead of saying things to please elite sections of media and society was visible even when Modi invokes the Make in India slogan and invited entrepreneurs from all over the world to make India a manufacturing hub. Pratap Bhanu Mehta puts it aptly in his column: " No "defectâ&#x20AC;? manufacturing is a much better aspiration than the self justifying homilies to jugaad. Policy wonks, and the Prime Minister rightly kept away from that."

baffle and infuriate the English speaking secular media and intellectual establishment of Delhi. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, the president of Centre for Policy Research explained this brilliantly in a column for The Indian Express: "Modiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s was the first Independence Day speech that did not lean upon the authority or pedigree of anything else, but the people. It does not invoke a pantheon, or even a party. Modi carries the imprimatur of authority because it was animated by a confident sense that he embodied the nation whose first servant he had declared himself to be. It has the confidence only self made men can have. It is democratic in the sense of being direct: its extempore quality refusing a script as itself being an intolerable form of mediation between the people and its leaders. It called for democratic consensus, a marching in lock step where the people are together. And in times recently marked by a paralytic rancour, this message resonates."

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

Modi mesmerised even critics and skeptics by laying out his vision for the future

COVER STORY

MODINAMA

“WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR SOME MORE TIME TO ASSESS IMPACT OF MODI GOVERNMENT”

of the Congress and the rise of the Modi LMOST three months have elapsed regime as a celebration of the impact after Modi has assumed power. It of a younger middleclass generation? seems he is banking on the agenda It seems as if India stifled by years of of development and governance because “zombie Congress” exploded like a choked people have given him that mandate. He has pressure cooker, exploring with a sense of taken a few good steps. The bureaucracy liberation, sensing a new theatre where seems to be working. the Union Budget Shiv Vishwanathan desire mixes religiosity and revivalism. can be termed modest, at best, but there The new majoritarianism has emerged are some worrying trends as well. The and the dissent of the Left has almost government lacks transparency and in many cases, it seemed secretive. It seems Modi is moving disappeared. Now, we see the emergence of the Right away from the Nehruvian consensus model. It is by expressed in many ways. BJP MP Giriraj Singh asking and large clear that the era of Nehruvian consensus is dissenters to “go to Pakistan”, and Shiv Sena MP over. The country is witnessing the ascent of Narendra stuffing chapatti into a fasting Muslim's mouth are all Modi and the Congress is almost decimated. Many expressions of the Right. Now we see the spread of changes are taking place in the social and political jingoism in the air. It seems dissent will be smashed landscape, but one has to understand that Modi is and the party and media knows how to convert more a symptom who represents deeper forces. yesterday's dissenters into stale news. A good example If the 1950s represented independence, is Gopal Subramanium. He hogged the limelight for a nationalism and socialism, 2014 is more about day or two and then disappeared as if he did not exist. Modi has injected the idea of development deep autonomy, consumerism and desire. The planning commission is dismantled and it marks the end of into the middleclass. For him, development is a the Nehruvian legacy. The years of socialism means process that cannot wait. It argues that development years of waiting and this is a thing of the past. can be more distributive than justice can. The catch The younger generation does not have memories is that they have to become citizens and citizenship of that era. Modi has heralded the mindscape is defined as attempts to join the mainstream. of Indians and this era will have its own impact. From my point of view, Modi’s first impact was not In this era, elections have become more a in policy but in taming the elite of the city which he had manifestation of the lampooned for so long. He Self. Modi has been did not cut the electricity, a self-made man. but information. It was Speed, implementation, fascinating to watch practicality, delivery a city where touts, and efficiency will be gossip mongers and the new virtues of the power brokers suddenly incumbent government. looked unemployed. The city is the site of the new mobility and it is the (The author is a place for new aspirations. redoubtable social However, amidst scientist and a public all this, there are intellectual. He is certain things that currently serving in worries me. Should we the OP Jindal Global consider the defeat University.)

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

DIPLOMACY

The US Secretary of State John Kerry made a quick visit to meet the PM in New Delhi

SURAAJ BEYOND BORDERS Instead of a much desired muscularity in foreign affairs of the new government, Sushma Swaraj is steering the country in the precise direction that Modi wants, suggesting a thoughtful understanding BY MAYANK SINGH

HE may no longer be as high profile and seemingly powerful as her contemporary Arun Jaitley. There continue to be whispers about how the Prime Minister

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Narendra Modi is comfortable with her. Yet, without creating ripples, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has been engaged in quiet but very effective diplomacy to take the Modi agenda forward. Of course, there is never any doubt that Modi is the real Boss.

A point which has caught peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention is the way Modi has modulated and conducted the matters related to Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relations with the countries and international forums. Modi has disappointed all those who expected his foreign policy doctrine

LOOKING EAST

attracting foreign investement and nurturing good relations, as has been seen in the good gestures of two big leaders, Xi Jinping and Shinzo Abe. As chief minister he built a strong relationship with China, visited it at least four times and successfully attracted Chinese investment into Gujarat. Construing Modis recent moves

Shinzo Abe and Modi have been talking for some time now and this will bear fruit. but the US is still not in the clear

and steps, Dr Pankaj Jha, Director Research, Indian Council of World Affairs, sees it as the well planned steps to catapult Modi into the stature of a statesman. He says, “Sushma Swaraj is entrusted with fact-finding and audit and feasibility studies in businessfinance with regard to the policy lacuna in the last decade and how the new

government can address them thus improving the relations all around. Prime Minister has already chartered a course of joint vision of growth and progress. On the international front Modi is creating an aura with regards to his foreign policy vision and his aim for larger international good.” The “multi-track alignment” with all the great powers has already begun and it was put clearly in words by President Pranab Mukherjee. In the President’s address he had stated that the government will work with China to develop a strategic and cooperative partnership, work with Japan to build modern infrastructure, build on the firm foundations of the relations with Russia, pursue the relationship with the US with renewed vigour and make concerted efforts to achieve progress in key areas with the European Union. What was noticed during the swearing in ceremony of Narendra Modi was the invitation to the PM of the Tibetan Government in-Exile, but another invitee went unnoticed. The invitation to Mauritius was a sound decision to extend a fraternal hand to a small country that is of great strategic importance to us. Modi has started a new step, as the sources in Ministry of External Affairs inform News Bench, he has ordered that every visit is followed by a debriefing so that all parts of the government is aware of what was achieved - and what wasn’t. A summit meeting with President Barack Obama will coincide with Modi's visit to New York for UN General Assembly. The PM has a tight schedule in November. The G-20 summit is lined up in Brisbane, Australia, on Nov 1516; Saarc summit in Kathmandu in November; the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN India summit in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. Russian and Chinese presidents are also expected to travel to India later this year. Seems there are interesting times ahead for diplomats! SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

MAINSTREAM

to be defined by a new muscularity or power. Instead, what happened in Bhutan, BRICS and Nepal gives an assurance that India's dealing with the issues pertaining to international relations will be conscious, deliberate and will change it from words to action. For, Nepal has been waiting for an oil pipeline which has been approved to encash the dividends in the form of people appreciating India’s gesture. The 81 kilometre petroleum pipeline at the cost of Rs 200 crore will be from Raxaul (in Bihar) to Amlekhgunj (in Nepal). The project, which would cut oil transportation cost by more than 50 per cent, has been proposed, debated and revised several times since 1995. There will be a renewed emphasis on using the carrots of economic levers and soft power. This suggests a thoughtful understanding of the importance of what Nye terms “smart power”: a clever combination of the tools of conventional hard, or military and economic, power and soft power. It is this integrated approach that will best serve India in a complex interdependent world, which is defined as much by conflict and competition as it is by cooperation and the need for greater coordination in confronting common global threats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered Nepal $1 billion in concessional loans to help build power plants and roads during his trip. Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay had conveyed his appreciation to the government and people of India for the generous development assistance since the 1st Five Year Plan in 1961. This is understood better in the strong message to Islamabad the Modi government sent when it called off the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan, an hour after Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit met Kashmiri separatist leaders. Coming on Modi’s economic diplomacy, he has a track record of

INVESTIGATION

The Temple survived, a miracle in itself, since the water surge was so high that it went right over its crown

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

KEDARNATH DISASTER

KEDARNATH CATASTROPHE:

CONSPIRACY

of SILENCE That the Chorabari Lake could explode any day had been predicted nine years before the disaster. But the government chose to suppress the report by its own agency, taking no measures to control The annointing of Amit Shah: a seemingly helpless Rajnath Singh looks. the impending crisis due to climate change BY SUJIT C HAKR AB O R T Y

VEN as the frozen and part-decomposed bodies of many victims of the “Himalayan Tsunami”, the Kedarnath disaster last year, are being dug up here and there, are some scientists cursing themselves for the loss of lives of more than 10,000 people, because they had chosen to suppress a report that had predicted the calamity as early as in 2004? “Chorabari Lake Will Explode Like a Bomb Anytime”. This was the front page headline of a report in Dainik Jagran in 2004, which was based on a report prepared by DP Dobhal, head of glaciology, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, the government’s official agency to monitor glaciers. “I had managed to get a copy of the report from my sources in the institute,” says Lakshmi Prasad Pant, correspondent of Dainik Jagran, who was then based in Uttarakhand. Pant, who now heads the Jaipur edition of Dainik Bhaskar, told News Bench over phone from Jaipur: “After getting the report, I was looking for Dr Dobhal, who was its principal author. I finally traced him right up there at the base of Chorabari Lake, and he told me exactly those words... ‘this lake will explode like a bomb’, and explained to me the geological details. But after I did the report, all hell broke loose. Dr Dobhal was severely reprimanded by the government for ‘leaking the report’ and ‘sensationalising the issue’ and the Wadia Institute sent me a notice and published it in their records, stating that my entry there was banned for life. Pant told News Bench. When News Bench caught up with Dobhal, he agreed: “Yes, I had done that report, and I had pointed out that danger, but the report was later withdrawn,” he said, still reluctant to talk much on that issue. So how did this disaster in 2013 happen? All the reports so far just speak of one single factor: cloudburst and an avalanche. But SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

INVESTIGATION

no one is trying to grapple with a much larger issue that the common man had been talking about for a long time. Though the common man is not able to articulate the issue using technical terms such as ‘global warming’ or ‘climate change’, what they have been saying proves purely those complex factors at play. What Dobhal says now in his defence shows what official victimisation can do to a senior scientist. He says that incessant rain from June 13 cut off all communication between the Wadia institute in Dehradun and the monitoring watchtower at the Chorabari Glacier, so he could not receive any information that the lake was filling up to a dangerous level. “We have been monitoring Chorabari Lake at the side of Chorabari Glacier. The lake has a depth of around 18 to 20 metres, but only about four or five metres of water was there before the cloudburst. On June 13 after heavy rains, my men at the monitoring post told me that the lake seemed to be filling up, so I told them to keep monitoring it. But by June 14, due to heavy rains the communication system snapped and I was not receiving any information,” he said. However, environmental expert KN Vajpai, director of Climate Himalaya, an NGO, rubbishes this: “Even till early morning of June 17, at around 7.30 am, we have spoken over phone to people at Kedarnath who had faced the first lesser rush of water the previous evening. So how can Dobhal say communication had snapped on June 14?” Dobhal also told News Bench that the communication snapped because the solar battery cells for the communication system could not be charged due to days of rains and constant cloud. But the fact is that even under heavy cloud, after the sun is up, solar cells do get charged. Besides, Vajpayee also pointed to another fallacy: “Suppose we accept this excuse, even then the monitoring tower people could have come down to

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

This is the place where the massive boulder crashed into the Chorabari Lake

Kedarnath town and informed Dobhal over land phone. They come to town almost every day for shopping for their station, and it is just 4 kilometres downhill. So why could they not come down since June 14, when Dobhal says the communication stopped?” At this point in time it is necessary to take a look at the timeline: June 13, heavy rains started, which was nothing unusual. The India Meteorological Department had predicted heavy to very heavy rains over the next few days. June 14, 15 and 16 heavy rains continued. June 16, at around 7.45 pm, suddenly there was a huge wave of water that caused considerable damage, and

struck fear in the minds of locals as well thousands of pilgrims near the Kedarnath Temple to Lord Shiva. June 17, around 7.45 am, the final massive surge of water took away everything in its path. Thousands perished in a few minutes! Before that, Vajpayee says, through the night of June 16, residents in downhill areas were talking on land and mobile phones with their friends and relatives living higher up, which gives a lie to Dobhal’s claim of communications getting snapped off on June 14. But more than that, Vajpayee says, what is important is: “They spoke of a constant and loud noise of something breaking up somewhere higher up. They said that they had been hearing the same

KEDARNATH DISASTER

noise for the past few weeks,” Vajpai told News Bench. His version was corroborated by Ramesh Mumukshu, a Right to Information Activist from the area who told News Bench: “The 2013 summer had been unbelievably hot. We were up there at above 3,000 metres (around 10,000 feet) on a pilgrimage. We felt as if we would choke in the heat even at that height. Throughout summer, people could not use blankets at night, which is unthinkable. Naturally, the ice had been rapidly cracking up. This is the sound that we and people around Kedarnath had been hearing through that summer.” This is what Dobhal now calls an ‘avalanche’, but News Bench has proof

LOCALS SPOKE OF SOUNDS OF ICE CRACKING THROUGH THE SUMMER BUT SCIENTISTS CALLED THIS 'BUNKUM' But do they? “It is true. It had been too hot that year, and overall the heat has been rising so much that ceiling fans are becoming common even in higher reaches,” Ganga Joshi and Bhupal Bisht, colleagues at the NGO Chirag told News Bench. Chirag works on Himalayan glaciers and has access to sophisticated equipment. So, if the facts are pieced together then the picture that emerges is that global warming and local micro-level warming had been melting the glaciers. The delicate nature of Chorabari Lake had been predicted way back in 2004, but the report was suppressed. Meanwhile, clearly, the Wadia Institute had not been laying much stress on Chorabari, since the head of glaciology himself had once been victimised over that lake: “We were monitoring it but it was a small lake with little water in it,” Dobhal says now. “Cloudbursts are not rare in these parts, and even on June 7, there were localised cloudbursts over three other areas. Cloudbursts come and go, doing some damage but this kind of a tsunami never happened. So cloudburst does not explain this.” This is the common opinion of Mumukshu, Vajpai, Joshi, Bisht and everyone else that News Bench spoke to. “Warming of the glaciers is precisely what had happened, but even now, scientists are not taking global warming seriously, and we are waiting for another disaster,” Vajpai warns. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

PROVINCIAL

that it is not. It was not an avalanche, but a massive boulder that had slipped from its place where it had stood for thousands of years, held by the firm ice, but which had been getting loosened all of an exceptionally hot summer, and finally crashed into the almost filled up Chorabari Lake. The unusual heat that Vajpayee and Mumukshu had told News Bench about had been rapidly eating up the glacier’s ice. So while the heavy rains were gradually filling up the lake, the crashing boulder sent an unthinkably high wave of water. Witnesses say that the June 17 morning surge leapt right over the peak of the Kedarnath Temple. News Bench confronted Dobhal with the evidence of photographs that showed the place where the boulder crashed into the lake. But Dobhal perhaps did not believe that there could be unpublished photographs of such proportions. “You see, the rain down hill had caused snowfall on the glacier and then an avalanche happened... avalanches happen in the mountains all the time,” Dobhal tried to explain this away. “But people living up there below the Chorabari Lake and in the Kedarnath town, which is about four kilometre from the lake, have been saying that the summer has been excessively hot and loud noise of something cracking up has been a constant,” News Bench asked. Dobhal’s reaction to this was predictable that of a scientist: “All that is bunkum... people on the streets just say whatever they like.”

POLITICS

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her cronies

‘RED’ TMC FEEDS ON ‘GREEN’ TMC Thousands of riffraff lumpen elements from the CPIM had inundated the Trinamool Congress soon after their party’s virtual annihilation in 2011, and using their silver tongues, have hijacked the original TMC BY PRAKRITI BHADURI

EAR, hear, do you know who this gentleman is?” Late at night at a party, the speaker’s voice gets submerged, for a while, before he raises the bar and says, with an inexplicable

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

pride: “He is Dr Rajiv Sil, my personal physician. He had earlier been the personal physician to Jyoti Basu when Mr Basu was the Chief Minister of West Bengal.” That was Mukul Roy, member of Rajya Sabha and second-in-command of All India Trinamool Congress

(AITMC). Dr Sil until 2009 was a fellow-traveller – a professed supporter of the vanguard of the proletariat the now deeply mourned CPIM. The worthy doctor had parachuted himself into the party boss' home and hearth due to his proximity to Chandan Bose, Jyoti Basu’s son.

PHOTOS: SUVENDU DAS

WEST BENGAL

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

PROVINCIAL

Now Sil is the personal physician that the boil has come from is deeper who cares only for those who bow of the man who is both the eyes and inside. down to her in canine subservience. ears of TMC boss Mamata Banerjee. A sizeable section of the original It is the clash between “Green TMC There is need to go back to history to men” – the mainstem of the party, the ‘Green’ TMC cadre is honest and understand the present-day crisis and original foot soldiers of the movement dedicated. On the contrary are the imminent catastrophe facing the TMC. against CPIM – with the “Red TMC ‘Red’ TMCs. After taking over as CM, Sil and Chandan Bose were friends men” – the lumpen riffraff from that Didi gave Roy a free hand. He calls since the two had been together at the same CPIM who inundated the TMC the shots in most of the districts of the Srinagar Medical College. Interestingly, after their party was routed three years state, excepting Malda, Murshidabad, Chandan had gotten himself registered ago. “You can have an idea of how the Uttar Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri, but – despite his lack of merit – in that CPIM elements have the organisational college due the influence of former infiltrated our party”, network is completely MANY LUMPEN West Bengal Chief Minister, Congress said the unnameable under his grip. And it leader Siddharth Shankar Ray, a bum- source from TMC who is he who has allowed CPIM ELEMENTS chum of then CPIM boss Jyoti Basu. narrated this episode Red TMC to HAVE JOINED TMC. the When the CPIM came to power in the to this correspondent. become a Red menace state in 1977, Basu branded Ray as “the THEY ARE BEING within the party. Within months butcher”, for slaying innumerous CPIM of the TMC era of pathetically SHIELDED BY TMC And and Naxaite activists in the late 1970s. governance, sidelined within scores LEADERS LIKE But their friendship continued, under of CPIM dropouts TMC are leaders the benevolent umbrella of Indira (including who have genuine card MUKUL ROY Gandhi. mass following. Sisir holding party This typical “sleeping with the enemy” members) and antiAdhikari, a veteran syndrome marks Bengal politics that social elements, sneaked into the TMC TMC member and Union Minister has brought Mamata Didi’s TMC today and in many places, and they edged of state was not allowed to sit in the to a point where it is all set to implode. out those who had fought the CPIM’s front row, though in the previous four For CPIM boss Jyoti Basu’s personal politics of terror tooth and nail. An anniversaries to mark the occasion, physician becoming the personal overwhelming majority of these CPIM Adhikari was found seated in the front physician of TMC renegades took shelter row. Humiliated alike are other Lok s e c on d - i n - c om m an d under Roy. Some others Sabha members such as Saugata Roy, Mukul Roy (Right): The Mukul Roy is just a boil managed to knock on the also a former Union MoS, Adhikari’s second-in-command that can be seen on the door of TMC supremo eldest son Subhendu, the architect of the in All Indian Trinmool skin. The impure blood Congress Mamata Banerjee herself, political and parliamentary victories of TMC and even the party’s Chief Whip in the West Bengal state assembly, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, founder of TMC’s trade union wing, Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress. Chattopadhyay, Adhikari and very few such people have been with the AITC from its inception. Apart from the domination of the Reds, the other most worrisome thing is the transformation of Didi herself, from her incarnations before and after she became the CM. What has been happening inside the TMC had been almost accurately predicted by the Jnanpith laureate Mahasweta Devi, who Mamata used to look up to as her guardian angel during the days of

POLITICS

resistance to the CPI(M)-led Left Front government. The day before the results of WB Assembly results were out, a journalist asked the literary giant and social activist to say something given the inevitable reality that TMC would end the tortuous 34-year-CPIM-led Left rule. “I am concerned about one thing. How and who can save Mamata from Mamata,” Mahashweta Devi had said clearly. This metamorphosis of Mamata from being a street fighter into a megalomaniac is what people like Roy have been cashing in on. Take the inexplicable way the TMC boss has been shielding Anubrata Mandal, a sidekick of Roy. Mandal, an MLA and Birbhum district Trinamool president, is among Saugata Roy (centre): Senior TMC leaders are being sidelined and humiliated the main accused in the murder of ‘Green’ TMC activist Sagar Ghosh. On the night of 21 July, 2013, Ghosh was of IPC, but are moving freely around. have no alternative. We may be killed any shot dead. However, when his son and Among them are Manirul Islam, an day and are terrorised by the party’s new wife Shibani went to Parui police station MLA from the same district, and Arabul satraps,” a senior TMC functionary who to lodge a complaint naming Mandal Islam, an ex-MLA from Bhangar. They was Mamata’s confidante before 2011, and 40 others for the murder. But they are criminals and real estate dons who told News Bench. were stupefied to know that the police switched over from the CPIM to TMC. The BJP is optimistic about its had already lodged an FIR naming They are the ones most favoured by prospects in West Bengal after the Nepal Roy and three other relatives Roy and Mamata. spectacular success in the parliamentary of the victim. All four A pervasive contest. Its vote share went up from were arrested and later frustration among a little over four per cent in the state released on bail. ‘Green’ TMCs forms assembly polls in 2011, to about 17 DIDI SEEMS TO a murky canopy over per cent in the last LS elections. Small Later, Nepal Roy BE COMPLETELY the TMC and its wonder, the tough and scheming BJP convincingly proved the future. Many of them leader Amit Shah personally oversees possible link of Mandal UNWARE OF THE are reluctantly ready the party organisation in Bengal. in the murder. HC set up PROBLEM OF to join the BJP. Hriday His eyes are on the civic polls in 25 a special investigation HUMILIATION THAT Ghosh and some of municipal corporations this year, and team to probe the accusation. The CM, THE ORIGINAL TMC his associates have the state assembly polls in 2016. But why this suicidal tendency of joined the BJP. Babul implicitly disregarding the judiciary, stated CADRE ARE FACING Supriyo, the well- allowing the party’s former deadliest known singer, and enemy to rule? An oncogenic crisis at a meeting that she now a BJP MP, inflicted has grown like a poison-plant in the would “always stand by” Mandal, aka Kesto, alleging that a humiliating defeat on the TMC trade court yard Trinamool Bhavan, TMC’s the “fabulous organiser” was being union president Dola Sen (nominated national headquarters, at the Eastern “unnecessarily targeted”. So far the by Mamata without consulting the TU Metropolitan Bypass in east Kolkata.The police has done nothing. And the state head Sobhahndeb Chattopadhyay) in root cause is Mamata’s megalomania the Asansol LS constituency. Supriyo has which is cashed in by highly suspect home ministry is Mamata’s portfolio. Like Mandal, there are over a dozen made significant inroads into the TMC leaders who swarm around her and party leaders who deserved to be organisation and several thousand cadres give her what she craves for most: booked under non-bailable sections have crossed over to the saffron party. “We genuflecting in praise!

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

POLITICS

BY RUHAAN HAROON

S the Narendra Modi government trying to create a Palestine like situation in Kashmir Valley by proposing a rehabilitation package for Kashmir Pandits in separate and secure enclosures? At least some of the parties involved have said precisely that, and it is clear that the Saffron party’s first major initiative in the largely Green Valley has left everyone red in their faces. The rehab package of Rs 500 crore (Rs five billion) announced under the Union Budget one-twelfth of the Rs 6,000 crore that the state government had originally demanded has united the hardcore separatists and divided the Pandit community, and clearly, it is a lose-lose situation at the moment. The new plan is for those who had been forced to leave their ancestral land with the onset of the militant violence in early 1990’s. The most suspicious aspect of the plan – rejected by both Pandit and Muslim leaderships is that the returnees will reside in separate conclaves under special security. This got the goat of the Muslim Kashmiri leaders, who openly oppose this. As per the official record 60,452 migrant families are registered with the government. Among these 38,119 are presently residing in Jammu, 19,338 in Delhi and the rest in other parts of the country or abroad. The critics the proposed rehabilitation plan say that a separate settlement for the Pandits will divide Kashmiri society on religious lines. Pertinently, in 2008, the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre had approved Rs 1618.40 crore for the purpose, but the Pandits did not return, seeking enhancement in the package. Thus the state government revisited and revised the plan in 2012 and then Pandits of Jammu protested against the plan. They don't want to go home to barricaded conclaves

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

again in 2013. On June, 20th, Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh discussed the rehabilitation issue with Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. While presenting the Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that Rs 500 crore will be earmarked

to provide support to migrants for “rebuilding their lives”. But the Muslim parties will hear none of that. The Majlis-e-Ittehad-e-Millat (MIM), a group of Muslim religious parties, which include some of the important cadre-based orginisations like Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ahle

PANDITS DAMN REHAB PACK... ... and Muslims will hear nothing of it either. Pandits say living in barricaded solonies is humiliating, and Muslim separatists say this is what Israel has done in Gaza

KASHMIRI PANDITS

dangerous plan. They plan to create erupted. Nobody is to blame,” Sanjay three walled cities in the Valley in Saraf, a well known Kashmiri Pandit the name of the rehabilitation of the and leader of the Lok Janshakti Party Pandits. This is exactly what Israel did (LJP) told News Bench. “Back in the Valley, we have to go in Palestine to change the demography of the place. By rehabilitating Kashmiri to temples, but we also have to the Pandits in separate enclaves, they also sufi shrines like Dastgir Sahib and want to give our freedom struggle a Makhdoom Sahib. These holy places communal tinge,” Geelani told News are in Muslim dominated areas. Will thousands of Pandits go there under Bench. Expectedly, several Kashmiri Pandit security cover?” Saraf asks. The Jammu & Kashmir Vichar Manch leaders have strongly criticised the objections of Muslim leaders. “I can’t national vice president, RL Bhat, also understand why they oppose the plan expressed surprise and unhappiness. of our separate settlement. We are "It is unbelievable and a totally hollow returning after 25 years. We need some announcement meant to generate security. How can we be safe among publicity rather than addressing the the same people who forced us to leave problem genuinely.” But such protestations the place? Besides, what Sanjay Saraf is a of Hindus and Muslims if tomorrow the same strong voice against wanting to get back as problem erupts again. Do the rehab plan of the good neighbours may we again have to migrate Pandits in Kashmir not work easily today, back?” asks Moti Kaul, analysts believe. president of the All Says Tariq Ali India Kashmiri Samaj. Mir, a journalist and However, Kaul political commentator: may be a lone voice “There is no denying in support of the that the communities proposal. On July 10, don’t trust each other. the Pandit leadership Particularly the new in Jammu, where the generations of both largest number of these Muslims and Pandits families live, denounced have never known the package: “It is each other. The new shocking, insulting generation Muslims and unbelievable to the community... It was never an economic have of youngsters, grown up in a issue for us. There are no takers for it," conflict situation, seeing atrocities and Panun Kashmir convenor Agnishekhar bloodshed for last 25 years. Similarly, the Pandits have their younger told reporters at a press conference. “I don’t think we need a security cover generation who have seen misery and here. What is the fun of homecoming faced ignominy in exile. Something if we have to reside in walled localities needs to be done first to infuse some in Kashmir? We will be safe with our trust among the new generations on Muslim brothers, as we have been living both sides.” What those steps might be have not with them for centuries. In the 1990’s the situation was terrible. At that time been given prior thought. And it seems Muslims themselves were not safe here. that for the NDA, the best option We cannot blame our Muslim brothers now will be to quietly send the rehab for what happened at that time in a proposal deep into the backburner particular situation. A large number if even its intended beneficiaries are of Muslims were killed after militancy opposing this. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

PROVINCIAL

Hadith and Anjuman-e-Sharia Shian, were the first to protest the plan. MIM president, Mufti Bashir-ud-Din said at a press conference in Srinagar on July 3: "We have discussed the issue of Pandits. We want them to return (on their own) but they are being sent here under a conspiracy. We will strongly oppose this." The Mufti told News Bench: “The Pandits are part and parcel of our society. They are our brothers and we will be happy if they return, but we object to the plan of separate settlements. They must be settled alongside their Muslim brothers. Some 850 hectares of land has been identified for these separate settlements. All this is designed to divide Kashmiri society on religious lines. How can we allow this?” Hardliner separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani echoes this. “This is India’s

INTERVIEW

WE WILL DO EVERYTHING TO ENSURE WOMEN’S SAFETY The Annexe Building, the ultimate powerhouse of UP, is charged up. Alok Ranjan is the new chief secretary of the state and he really talks. He not only talks to bureaucrats, but also communicates with the common man. He is handling important portfolios like industry and a gricultural. Avinash Chandra Mishra talked to him at length What is the result of meetings on public welfare projects? The result is positive. Tne Chief Minister wants results on the ground. Schemes are being monitored, targets are being fixed. We are trying to fix the law and order situation and electricity issues. We are giving top priority to the safety of women. Instructions are being given to all the secretaries. Our focus is better execution. Are you fixing accountability for non-performance? Oh yes. the heads of various departments are held responsible. Those officers deputed at district and block levels will have to visit areas under their jurisdiction and check if implementation is happening on the ground. Officers should ensure that funds are spent wisely on the ground. I will also visit villages at random.

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

What is your take on the law and order problem and increasing atrocities against women? I have already told you that stopping atrocities against women is our topmost priority. I have given instructions to various secretaries and also talked to the DGP in this matter. There should be no discrimination and the law should be obeyed under any circumstance. Women should be given special attention at all police stations and strict action should be taken immediately if there are complaints by them. We have also started a ‘Women's Helpline’ and ‘Power Helpline’. Riots are increasing in Uttar Pradesh. Is this a conspiracy? First of all, you will have to understand that these are overblown coverages. These are not riots. They are stray

incidents. We are making every effort to stop riots or any untoward incidents. We are also analysing the crime pattern and are watchful. Gautambudh Nagar has major contribution in revenues. Crimes have increased there and so has the influence of mining mafia? Gautambudh Nagar police have all modern facilities. They have access to cyber traffic. This has improved the efficiency of the police. The Noida Authority has also given them vehicles. This will all help to curb crime. What steps you are taking to improve the electricity situation in the state? We are trying to purchase electricity from Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. There are certain issues in Anpara power station. It will soon be sorted out. In the next two years you

PHOTO: INDRESH RASTOGI

UP CHIEF SECRETARY

will see a completely changed situation of electricity in the state. There will be 24X7 supply of electricity. How much support do you get from the Centre? The Central government is supportive, but we have not made any specific demand from them. They are not creating obstacles in our way. Our demands are being met. We have identified 40 key nodes of development. What are doing about industrial development in Uttar Pradesh? The situation is gradually changing. We have signed up many major MoUs with various companies. We have already implemented the Single Window Clearance System. Most of the clearances can be obtained online. Industrial climate is changing slowly.

THE CM IS KEEN ON INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. WE'LL DO EVERYTHING TO PROMOTE INDUSTRY

Recently, we have organised an investorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conference in Delhi in which 23 companies had participated from countries like Canada, Netherland, Poland, Turkey and Taipei. The CM is very keen on industrial development of the state. UP Skill Development Mission is a success story. More than 4 million youths have been associated in the last six months. Can you elaborate this further? Which are the companies that are going to invest in UP? The Essel group is investing around 22,300 crores in various sectors, Reliance Jio is coming in telecommunication, and ITC is investing Rs 2,000 crore in many

PROVINCIAL

Alok Ranjan, Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh

sectors. The list will be even longer if you include Amity University that is investing Rs 2,000 crore in the education sector, UP Lex is investing Rs 4,000 crore in the field of solar sector, Mathura Refinery will spend around Rs 8,000 crore. We are planning to organise such events in Mumbai and Agra. We will do everything to promote industrialists to come and invest in the state. Lucknow is keen to have Metro. When will the work resume? Metro project is very much important for our CM and he is personally taking interest. We are working day and night to make this possible. The work on the first phase will start from September. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

INVESTIGATION

KIDNEY ROBBERY ROCKS ODISHA BY DHRUTIKAM MOHANT Y

LLEGAL Kidney Racket Busted’… ‘Kingpin of Kidney Racket Arrested’… such headlines in daily newspapers a few years ago would send shivers down the spines of Odiya readers, though the reports were from a neighbouring state. Now this curse has come to haunt Odisha itself, as five such cases were identified in just three months! Most cases of kidney selling follow a similar pattern. First the targeted victims – mostly abysmally poor are lured with assurance of the kind of money they cannot even imagine. Then they are thoroughly brainwashed to believe that one just doesn’t need two kidneys to survive. After that a small part of the promised amount is paid as advance. Next, they are asked to furnish legal documents. Once that is over, the seller is asked to go to a specified hospital and get the kidney removed. And then starts the trauma. The seller now demands the rest of the money. S/he is assured that all the money will be paid after the kidney gets transplanted in the buyer. Then the dalaal, (kingpin) of the racket, vanishes and the victims are left to languish. But that barely shows the dimension of the racket. Government stats show that over the last five year, 592 prospective donors

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

had applied for donating kidneys. Of these, the medical committee has given permission to 550 donors. So far, in three months, five such illegal sales have been detected by the state police. On May 4, Padmini Nayak, wife of a rickshaw puller from Cuttack, revealed how she was promised Rs 300,000 for her kidney, but the kingpin vanished after her organ was taken, paying her meagre money. Thereafter on May 31, Namita Nayak, Victim of the illegal kidney racket a housewife from a poor family, complained that she had sold her kidney for a promised Rs 1,000,000, but the Kolkata and sold to the rich owner of kingpin fled after paying her a paltry the company he works for. The last case sum. Just after a week, another such was reported on July 16. Basanti (name changed), a married woman and wife case surfaced. A person named Ramesh Chandra of a Cuttack driver, alleged that she sold Sahu registered a complaint in state her kidney to a woman trickster. The run-up to these cheatings and capital Bhubaneswar on June 6 that he had been taken to New Delhi by some illegal kidney farming is elaborate acquaintances, who promised to give planning. Says Padmini Nayak: “I came him a job. Once there, he was drugged to know Madam (Sharmistha Nayak, and one of his kidneys was taken out. prime accused in the case) through our Bulu Behera, a resident of Cuttack, Self Help Group. She frequented my filed a police complaint on July 14 that home and often asked about my family his kidney was removed by doctors in problems. One day she proposed that

PHOTOS: ARABINDA MOHAPATRA

Five cases of illegal farming of kidneys and duping of poor people have shocked the state and the government got lambasted when the state legislature was in session, but that got the police go cracking

KIDNEY RACKET

PROVINCIAL

An arrested accused: The police got cracking after an Assembly ruckus

I sell one kidney before the operation, to someone for Rs Sarmistha agreed to ODISHA IS THE 300,000, so that I pay Rs 300,000. But CENTRE OF ABJECT since the deal was for could repay my loans and feed my disabled Rs 1,000,000 lakh, POVERTY AND husband and three they did not agree. children. Initially, MAL-GOVERNANCE, However, Sarmistha Madam gave me SO THE POOR ARE managed to convince just Rs 50,000, and them that the payment SELLING THEIR another Rs 2,000 after would come after the ORGANS the kidney was taken operation. Though her out at Apollo Hospital, kidney was removed Bhubaneswar.” successfully in Seven According to reports, Sarmistha had Hills Hospital of Visakapatanam, the collected Rs 100,000 as advance from promised money never came. the prospective buyer and another But the cases of Ramesh Chandra Rs 600,000 later. But she paid only Rs Sahu and Buloo Behera are a little 45,000 to Namita as advance. When different. They were simply duped the latter insisted on full payment by their friends and relatives. While

Ramesh was taken to Delhi by three friends and his kidney removed in a private hospital in Vasant Kunj, Bulu Behera’s kidney was taken away in Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Kolkata. In his complaint Behera says: “I went to donate blood for my ailing sister, but they injected me with something at the hospital and I lost consciousness. When my sense returned, I found a stitch on my abdomen. When I asked, my brothers, who were present there, told me that my kidney had been taken out.” The most shocking part of this racket is that in all the cases, forged documents have been produced before government agencies which issue approval for organ SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

INVESTIGATION

“WE ARE MAKING CHANGES IN AUTHORISATION PROCESS”

Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak

In the light of the sudden explosion of kidney robbings in the state, News Bench spoke to state health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak ,who was candid about the issue

ECENTLY, several cases of illegal kidney sell have been unearthed by police in Odisha. In most of the cases state level authorisation committee have given go ahead to such persons for kidney donation who had produced forged documents. Is it not negligence of the ofﬁcers of your department? It should be made clear that, the cases of organ donation so far detected are not exactly ‘illegal’. The process prescribed in the law has been followed. The donors in person appeared before the authorisation committee and testiﬁed themselves as relatives of the kidney receiver. But police investigation revealed that they had produced forged documents of identity. Now police is investigating the case and culprits will be punished. However you cannot totally refute the charges that the present process of human organ donation authorisation in the state is free from loopholes, which is helping the kidney rackets to play mischief with the system? After detection of cases, some lacunae in the system of authorisation have surfaced. Not only the authorisation process, but also the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, which governs the system, has some gray areas. That

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

should be taken care of by central as well as state lawmaking bodies in an urgent footing. We will urge the Union government to look into the matter. Has your government taken any specific steps to bring any change in the present system? Yes, we have started initiatives to strengthen the present process of organ donation authorisation. A road map has already been drawn up to curb the ongoing sales under the disguise of kidney donation in the state. According to the roadmap, a committee of experts consisting of legal professionals, doctors and senior police personnel will prepare a draft for a new organ donation authority after studying the models followed in different states of the country. The role of private hospitals are also in suspicion in organ trade. Is there any specific plan to address this problem? Yes, we have already decided to instruct private hospitals operating in the state to constitute authorisation committees to examine each and every case of organ donation and a senior government officer will chair this committee. The government is committed to bring transparency in the system and make it foolproof. Very soon this will be implemented.

donation and also at hospitals which remove kidneys. As per law only a blood relative can donate organs. The applications in Odisha are vetted by Directorate of Medical Education and Training. Padmini Nayak’s testimony clearly shows this: “In the hospital, I was asked whether I had taken permission of my family. I said I had. Then the doctor said my husband’s signature is needed. But I don’t know where they got the signature from.” More glaringly, donor Namita Nayak’s name was changed to Banita Lenka (name of the wife of the buyer, Mohan Lenka) using a forged voter card. As per law, if the transplantation is conducted in a hospital outside the state, the hospital must seek the marriage certificate (if organ donation is among spouses) and get it verified before asking for a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the home state. Apart from this, the hospital must also convene its authorisation committee and get the matter ratified. But in these cases the hospitals had accepted the documents provided by the patient without any verification. When these cases came to light, the state legislature was in session, and the government fielded much indignation. Police promptly arrested kingpin Sharmistha Nayak, her collaborators and Dr N Prabhakar Rao, Director (Medical) of Seven Hills Hospital. They are booked under sections 120 (B), 342, 468, 471, 34 of IPC and section 18 & 19 of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act. One assumes that these criminals will be given strong sentences, but will that help the victims? And why is this happening in the state? Niranjan Patnaik, former President of Odisha Congress, says: “Odisha is a convergence of the worst manifestation of poverty and mal-governance; here the poor are forced to sell their organs for survival. This is utterly depressing.”

CHAMBAL

BY ANIL SINGH

HE only constant is change, they say. And this basic law applies to dacoits of Chambal too. The way dacoits now conduct their business is quite different, yet, the basic remains the same: terror! The most backward area of Bundelkhand, the Chitrakoot ravines in the famous Vindhya Mountains, has been under the sway of dacoits for the past five decades. The moment one chieftain is killed, another takes over. In the 1980s, these dacoits were scripting the political history of Chitrakoot and Banda districts. From the election of village heads, right up to the MPs' names were dictated by the dacoits. Around this time, the bands stopped the traditional loot and started ‘bloodless’ operations of abduction for ransom. But a few more miles down history lane, the infamous dacoit Swadesh Patel, aka Balkharia completely changed the manner of their livelihood. He started raising “taxes” from government projects on various developmental works. On July 22, 2007, the notorious Shiv Kumar Kurmi, or Dadua, the uncrowned king of the “Patha” region – the arid, rocky ravines - for the past three decades, fell to the trap of the Special Task Force. The force managed to break into his ranks and got one of his very own men to blow him up. The very next day, Dadua’s deputy Ambika Patel, alias Thokia, and his men massacred six STF personnel. The government kept an award of Rs 500,000 on his head. He too fell to betrayal, when the STF got his gang member Gyan Singh to slay him on August 4, 2008. The annihilation of Dadua and then Thokia brought a sense of relief to the local people, but that too was shortlived. Very soon people saw the rise of Sundar, aka Ragiya, a Dadua gang member. His gang burnt alive a dozen members of the same family of the

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

CHANGES IN CHAMBAL With many more people keeping licensed guns in the villages, robbery is risky, and with villagers keeping their wealth in bank lockers, the whole modus operandi has had to change

DACOITY

Gaur community in Village Bichhiyan. The government announced an award of Rs 500,000 on his head too. very soon a police team led by IG Rewa, Gaziram Meena, finished off Ragiya. With time, many things have changed. Many people in villages have licensed guns to challenge dacoits. Besides, earlier people would keep their jewellery and extra cash at home, but now people keep these in bank lockers, so the old operational methods of the gangs are not paying off. This brought in Balkharia, and his changed

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

PROVINCIAL

open their mouths in front of the police. Amitabh Yash, DIG, STF, told News Bench: “It is true. Balkharia is raising money from contractors and engineers, but till now, not a single complaint has been filed.” The business of tobacco leaves also offers the dacoits a rich source of ‘taxes’ in the Manikpur-Mau area bordering with Madhya Pradesh. The government appoints “counters”, locally called phadmunshi, who check the number of bundles plucked and pay the labourers according to the fixed rates. The dacoits have extorted lakhs of rupees from these phadmunshis. Naturally, the An STF patrol party. (Inset) latter get their money back by slashing Balkharia seen eating in a the amount paid to the labourers. As photo released by the police a result the forest department as well as phadmunshis are least bothered, as they get their monies. There is a third method of raising tactics. He is the person who has started this business of raising ‘taxes’ money by Balkharia. As recently as from officials and contractors working on July 26 this year, he captured 150 on government projects. Whether it is bighas of land belonging to the forest a road through the jungle, or a check department. His gang felled all the trees dam, nothing gets off Balkharia has not and made the land cultivable. However, been paid his 10 per cent. The officials before the dacoits could start actual or contractors who have shown the farming, the department got the police slightest hesitation in doing so have to chase them out. Interestingly, the been beaten up mercilessly. police department gave out a statement Balkharia had that it was not dacoits stopped the road but Naxalites who had DACOITS NOW construction in occupied the land. various areas of Banda RAISE 'TAXES' FROM But Balkharia’s district because he terror goes unabated. CONTRACTORS had not been paid The police have his ‘tax’. At least four recently issued photos WORKING ON projects have been of the criminal. He GOVERNMENT affected. Similarly, he issued his diktat to PROJECTS AND stopped work on the vote for Samajwadi Baghelwari-Kalinjar Party’s candidate in CAPTURE LAND Road near Kalyanpur. the Lok sabha polls. Having done that, the Those who defied dacoits beat up the workers and sent were later mercilessly beaten up. He the message of “No Tax, No Works”. demolished the memorial raised by the This made the hapless contractors, STF to honour the six personnel slayed who have already invested a substantial by Thokia, to send a message. The STF amount of money, to somehow pay up have repaired the memorial, it still and complete the project. And neither remains under wraps. But Balkharia the contractors nor the villagers dare to merrily remains in the open.

POLITICS

SRILANKAN ISSUE: ETHUVUM MAARAVILLAI... ...that is, “nothing has changed”! The new government under Modi has stayed firm in refusing visas to the UN panel set up to probe war crimes against Tamils during the 25 years of LTTE movement BY N ASOKAN

HE Tamil voters in the last Lok Sabha elections gave the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance four seats – for the first time ever, with the BJP winning two. Those voters had hoped for, among other things, a final solution to the Tamil issue vis-a-vis the Srilankan government. But they now face a wall! In March this year, at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), a resolution backed by the US was passed. Targeting the Srilankan government's excesses during the last phase of the war with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), it called for a “comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations of human rights”. For those coming in late, the LTTE had been fighting a fierce war with the Lankan government for a separate homeland for the Tamil population of Srilanka amidst a vast Sinhalese majority. The war had seen both parties reportedly violating Geneva Convention norms. It was claimed by an earlier UN report that more than 40,000 Tamils, mainly civilians, were

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

The Lankan Tamil issue has enraged people in the state and agitations are frequent

killed by the Srilankan army. Following this, the UNHRC constituted an international threemember experts commission in July and it has started work from August 1. Its mandate is to investigate human rights violations and related crimes by the Srilankan army and LTTE between February 2002 and 2011.

This investigation will conduct a desk review of existing documents and information, including government and civil society reports. This team has to travel to Srilanka where the war affected persons live. Expectedly, the Lankan government insulated itself, saying it is their internal matter. In March, India, under

TAMIL RIGHTS

Gun point: Refugees at a barricaded camp for the Tamils

of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra concrete came out. Meanwhile, the Tamil Eelam Kazhagam, which is an ally of the BJP, has severely criticised the Central movement survives under the of Vishvanathan government. “Refusing visa to the UN stewardship team is not just an unpardonable act, Rudrakumaran, former LTTE legal it is actually a crime of supporting the advisor, a New York-based lawyer and now the president of the of genocide of Tamils,” he said. Meanwhile, the Srilankan Transnational Government of Tamil government has appointed three Eelam. He has rejected the domestic Commissions. He said international experts in an interview that the on war crimes to serve domestic mechanism on an advisory council to the Presidential FROM JAYALALITHA established by the TO VAIKO OR CIVIL Lanka, however large Commission of its mandate may Inquiry, established RIGHTS BODIES, be, would not lead last August. This EVERYONE IS to accountability move is seen as an or justice. The attempt to thwart DISMAYED AT investigative body the international MODI'S LANKA appointed by the UN investigation. PERSPECTIVE is the appropriate In May 2010, one to conduct Colombo had investigations. established a Lessons It is being said that the earlier Learnt and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) to look into the excesses Congress government in Delhi had during the war, but it whitewashed the been supportive of the Srilankan military’s role. Later, Percy Mahendra government, despite allegations of ‘Mahinda’ Rajapaksa, the Lanka human rights abuses and war crimes. president, and himself a Tamil, ordered But signals from new NDA government a military investigation and it was at New Delhi shows that it too is not followed by setting up the Presidential ready to grant visa to members of the Commission of Inquiry last August UN panel. Now, the political parties with the three foreign experts. All and civil society movements in the these commissions and committees state are ready for a major showdown sold lemons to the people, as nothing with the Centre. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

PROVINCIAL

the Congress-led government, had abstained from voting in the UNHRC. But the new government under Narendra Modi also has not changed this position, much to the chagrin of Tamil political parties. “We feel international bodies need to address human rights through a cooperative framework not (through) a punitive approach,” said Akbaruddhin, a Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, after the meeting Srilankan foreign minister had with Sushma Swaraj, the Indian foreign minister, last month. India though, did not openly state that it had denied visa to the UN experts panel. Speaking to News Bench, Prof Saraswathi, President of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, Tamilnadu said: “It is very important for the UN panel to visit India, especially Tamilnadu, because of its proximity to the island nation and also mainly because the refugees are living in special camps here. To get the crucial evidence, the panel has to come to India and meet the affected persons. Indian policy towards Srilanka has to be changed,” The Tamil political parties have upped the ante to press the Modi government to let the UN team in. Addressing a press conference in Chennai, Dr Suresh, General Secretary of Peoples Union of Civil Liberties, has even accused plainclothes Srilankan security personnel trying to track Lanka-Tamil refugees in Tamilnadu. J Jayalalithaa has written to the Prime Minister in a letter on July 23: “I am surprised to see media reports which indicate that India has refused visas to the United Nations Investigation Committee. If the media reports are true... this would be a bitter disappointment for the people of Tamilnadu, who are determined to ensure that the Srilankan regime is held to account for its heinous acts.” The strident anti-Lankan voice, Vaiko, (V Gopalsamy), General Secretary

EDUCATION

BY VI K A S K U M A R

DUCATIONAL institutions in India are realising the importance of global cooperations. The rush for foreign tie-ups among private universities is increasing. Just to substantiate the point, look at these facts: Lovely Professional University has more than 30 international tie-ups in various streams. Similarly Amity University has more than 70 foreign collaborations, OP Jindal Global University has a remarkable number of

collaborations. These are just a handful of examples. Even niche institutes have separate collaborations of various kinds, such as student exchange, faculty exchange and pathway programmes. The process has accelerated during the last four to five years. During the last decade many private universities have created a niche in the education sector. There is a competition to standout in the crowd to attract students. There is a growing sense of realism in private universities that international exposure has become part and parcel of the education programme. It gives them

exposure to global trends and latest management practices. However, the situation was not the same a few years ago. There was no option but to rush abroad at personal cost. Nowadays, international education is accessible in any of the top metros and there is no need to go abroad. Foreign lectures and seminars are also being organised frequently. For example, JRE College of Engineering had invited marketing guru Phillip Kotler. It also has a tie-up with Raffels. Experts are of the view that there are two broad categories of Indian

FOREIGN EXPOSURE AT INDIAN CAMPUS Many Indian private universities are tying up with foreign institutes. This gives students international exposure at much less cost. The trend is fast catching up among private varsities

Lovely Professional University has more than 30 tie-ups

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

FOREIGN TIE-UPS

We have Microsoft Innovation Centre which provides students unique experience and they receive world-class mentoring. here. International exposure improves branding.

Uday Salunkhe, Director, Wellinker Institute We have partnerships and agreements with esteemed international universities with excellence as the core of all our academic endeavours.

comes around Rs 1.5 students: Some crore (Rs 15 mn). students can afford to INTERNATIONAL There are many bear high expense for EDUCATION IS institutes funded by foreign education and the other category of NOW ACCESSIBLE corporates in the last ve years. For example, students can’t afford IN MOST METROS, fiOP Jindal Global this cost but have OBVIATING THE University, Mahindra sufficient financial École Centrale, Shiv muscle to access NEED TO GO Nadar University, exposure to quality ABROAD Ashoka University foreign education. and Azim Premji This is where the role University and they of private universities are coming up, which are entering have tied up with foreign universities into strategic tie-ups with foreign to offer courses and module. Pankaj Agarwal, Vice-Chairman, GL universities. Nitin Garg, Director, International Bajaj Group of Institutions, told News School of Management Excellence Bench: “We have Microsoft Innovation (ISME) says: "The certificate from a Centre which provides students unique foreign university adds to the overall experience and they receive world-class learning experience as well as to the mentoring. here.” It is not that every tie-up is beneficial institute as a brand." ISME has a tieup with Carnegie Mellon University. for the student. There are many The other aspect of this trend is that foreign institutes that have hardly any overseas education has become very credibility or are less known. Many expensive with the fall in the price of Indian institutes just tie-up with such rupees vis a vis other currencies in the unknown foreign ones just to show world. For example, the four-year fully that they have a foreign tie-up. But this residential course in Ashoka University has no meaning. Students must see the cost slightly more than Rs 20 lakh course curriculum and quality of the (including fee and residence expenses) faculty before taking admission. In some cases, institutes have tiewhereas in a topnotch US university it

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

PROVINCIAL

Pankaj Agarwal, Vice-Chairman, GL BAJAJ

ups, which permit students to study at the institute in India for the first year, and then pursue the second year of the course at the university abroad. In this scenario, the curriculums of the two schools are tuned together. Professor Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, Wellinker Institute in Pune, says: “We have now forged new partnerships and agreements with esteemed international universities. With excellence as the core of all our academic endeavours, we are now preparing to become more thoroughly international in our curriculum.” Currently the institute has tie-up with Fox School of Business, University of Hull, Audencia Nantes of France and few other reputed names. Educational institutions are entering into strategic arrangements with their foreign counterparts to make a foreign degree more affordable. Lovely Professional University has Partnerships both in academic and non- academic areas with top-class foreign universities spread USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Brazil, Poland, Ghana, New Zealand, Switzerland, China, Croatia, Spain, Mongolia, Vietnam and Nepal. "With 200,000 students emigrating annually from India for higher education, and more than 700 international collaborations of Indian institutes, students and parents are increasingly seeking ways to garner the benefits of global interconnectedness," says Aurobindo Saxena, Associate Director of Technopak, a higher education consulting firm. Yashmeen Nandeni, a prospective student avers: “It really helps those students who always dream to study in foreign universities but could not fulfill it due to financial reasons.” Market forces are changing the dynamics of education sooner than later. Though many reputed foreign varsities are still not collaborating, but the days are not far off when Harvard and Oxford will have their campuses in our own Gurgaon or Indore.

REAL ESTATE

BRAND NOIDA OR BAN NOIDA?

PHOTOS : HARIOM SHARMA

Various controversies have marred Noida's image as a favourite real estate destination. There are project delays, farmers-related issues and a plethora of litigations

Noida Extension: A city cursed, before its birth BY VI K A S K U M A R

T was what is called a one fell blow, and the dreams of 100,000 home buyers seemed demolished. On April 3 this year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the government body that ensures meeting of environmental standards in all projects, ruled that no construction could be held within a 10-kilometre radius of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary. The NGT declared this huge area as “ecosensitive”. And this, at a time when 100,000 flats have already been built, 30,000 of them are ready and waiting to be handed over, and over 4,000 flats are waiting for the possession certificate. If this were not enough, there was

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

something more in store to break the confidence of buyers in Noida. In an order on April 11, the Allahabad High Court ordered the demolition of two towers in Supertech’s Emerald Court project off the Noida Expressway, and told the company to refund the money to the investors with 14 per cent interest compounded annually. In addition to that, in a study it was found that 77 per cent of real estate projects in Noida are delayed. And even now, the Noida Extension controversy is still fresh in the minds of all home buyers, when dreams of lakhs of them were almost shattered because the Allahabad High Court had declared the land acquisition process in Greater Noida Authority illegal. Later, with mounting pressure

from the public and real estate industry, the government resolved the issue. The cases mentioned above clearly indicate the deep-rooted problems in the system. Real estate industry is unarguably one of the biggest generators of employment. From steel, cement, wood, sand to paint, varnish, tiles and colours, it supports many industries directly or indirectly. Rama Raman, CEO Noida Authority, during a recent conclave told News Bench about the NGT order: “This is more a technical matter and it will be sorted out. The confusion is on what should be limit of eco-sensitive zone. The Uttar Pradesh government has already sent a proposal in this regard and the matter will be sorted out within six weeks.” The

NOIDA

Noida has experienced a period of unprecedented growth over the last few years and will continue in future also. It has good infrastructure also

Geetambar Anand, President Elect, CREDAI The projects have been completed, but delivery cannot not be given. We will have to manage and maintain each and every apartment without charging any money from the buyers.

development of chief wildlife warden the area. Noida has of MoEF, AK Shukla, LENGHTY experienced a period also assured: "We have PROCESSES OF of unprecedented surveyed the area. It is growth over the last a process and we are CLEARANCES few years and will trying to expedite it.” LEAD TO COST continue in future It is to be noted that all the buildings ESCALATION AND also." Obviously, if such an important in Noida have been UNNECESSARY brand is spoilt, it built on designated DELAYS will not be good for areas earmarked by anybody. Such policythe Noida Masterplan related confusions of 1976. The Okhla sanctuary was notified only in 1990. don’t create a conducive environment But even after that, there was no formal for business. We are a new generation demarcation of an eco-sensitive zone. builder, and we are here to do business, The Noida Authority has approved not harass investors. Such orders only all the buildings. All of them are legal ruin consumer sentiments," a builder constructions. How can a judgment be said in confidence. Most of the affected real estate superimposed on this development? If one were to implement this order, we projects are located in Sectors 74, 75, will need to raze high-rises all the way 76, 122, and 137 of Noida. Interestingly, up to the Delhi High Court. All of Sector all the 25 projects have already received 18 with the existing and upcoming environment clearance. Geetamber Anand of ATS says: “Builders had no malls would also need to go." Noida is a very important real idea of any such issue in the region. estate centre in the country. Stressing What is worse is that now, the projects its importance RK Arora, Chairman have been completed, but delivery & Managing Director, Supertech cannot not be given, and we will have Limited told News Bench: "Noida is a to manage and maintain each and systematically planned city of NCR, every apartment without charging any which reflects well in the infrastructural money from the buyers.”

AUTHORITY WILL BUY FROM FARMERS DIRECTLY

Rama Raman

Land acquisition is the biggest problem in Noida affecting realty badly. Don’t you think the Authority is responsible for creating such a situation? There is no fault of the Authority. The government has changed laws time-to-time and this has created a situation in which farmers are now approaching courts. The Authority is sensitive to the problems of buyers and farmers and it is making every effort to avoid such instances in future. Now, we will directly buy lands from farmers. How much time it will take to solve the issue of NGT? UP government has already replied regarding limit of eco-sensitive zone. This is now just100 metres. Now, we are waiting for the response of central government. The ball is in the court of central government. NGT had given six weeks time to UP government and eight weeks time to central government. I hope this will soon be sorted out and again conﬁdence of buyers will be restored. How will you ensure affordable housing for all? It is an important issue. The Authority is trying to strike a balance between builders, buyers and farmers. Transportation is a major issue within different sectors of Noida and Greater Noida? We are aware of the problem and soon city bus service will start in Greater Noida. File has already been sent to UP government for signature on the MOU. Once the formalities are cleared, city bus service will start.

PROVINCIAL

RK Arora, CMD, Supertech Limited

Rama Raman, CEO Noida and Greater Noida Authority

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

REAL ESTATE

The buyer is ultimately getting punished because of these controversies. Amit Chauhan, who represents the Noida Flat Buyers Association, asked News Bench: "What are we getting penalised for? We are consumers; we invested our earnings in valid projects." One controversy after the other in the Noida has dented the investors’ confidence. A trust deficit is deepening. Rakesh Yadav, CMD, Antariksha Builders says, “We don’t need much laws. Builders should get timely payment and if they don’t deliver, they should be penalised. " He further says, "My personal experience says that we have suffered at least 20 per cent reduction in our business because of these controversies.” Though the situation in Noida is still much better than in some places in the country, but there are small changes that could reshape the scenario dramatically. More than 50 files are pending for approval fromthe mining department.” said a first generation builder on condition of anonymity. It is all too easy, nay, even fashionable to blame the builders flatly. However, there is need to understand the situation on the ground. At present, a builder has to take clearances at various levels. The process of getting timely approvals is very tedious and extremely frustrating. It causes unwarranted delays. Seventeen of the 53 clearances needed are mandatory and critical in nature. “Getting clearance for high-rise buildings is even more difficult, as realtors have to take clearance from aviation authorities,” a young, new developer says. This also contributes to the project completion and handing over delays. A first generation builder shared his sentiments with News Bench: “Some agencies take around one year to clear a building proposal, which naturally delays the schedule. As a result the cost shoots up. According to realty experts, the multiplicity of authorities

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Noida flat owners protesting on Noida Extension against the Allahabad HC order

Balwinder Kumar, Vice-Chairman, DDA The situation in Noida is different from DDA's. Noida has to deal with farmers problems, which is fortunately not the case with DDA

Rakesh Yadav, CMD, Antariksha Builders We don’t need much laws. Builders should get timely payment and if they don’t deliver, they should be penalised

issuing clearances is one of the worst bottlenecks faced by realty companies. The single-window approval system will help builders to get all the required approvals collectively from one centre. According to sources, the government is planning to form a common centre for Noida, Greater Noida, Yamuna Expressway and Ghaziabad. A committee had been set up to study the complex issue of clearances and then propose simplifying that. Based on the committee’s report, the government

will set up a nodal agency to coordinate with property developers. But, the plan is gathering dust on the papers. There is an urgent need to cut the approval period to 40-45 days. But there seems to be no urgency in the government. This will save the home buyers ‘money, time and energy and also provides transparency in the real estate market. Delayed projects are an all-India phenomenon, but the problem is more acute in NCR, as the region has the largest number of delayed projects.

BUSINESS

KABBADI GOES BOOM!

Suddenly, the sport that was laughed at by urban spectators as a dusty rural affair has gone global, pulling in money and sex appeal at once BY SUJIT CHAKRABOR T Y

RAPPLING Sonakshi Sinha in a kabaddi court could be… well… interesting. A belle dame from Bihar brand-ambassodoring a rustic sport… The bad news is, she will not be playing kabaddi, actually. The good news is she will, at least, add oomph regularly in kabaddi tussles, sending testosterone rushes in the players of the team sheco-owns, United Singhs, in the World Kabaddi League (WKL). And whether

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

you like hunks or not, the glam-Q of kabaddi will get a kick-up, with Akshay Kumar and Yo Yo Honey Singh turning up to cheer their own teams, Speedy Singhs, and Yo Yo Tigers. In cities across the world! Akshay will perform Live on the opening nite! Imagine the crowd pull… hence the TRPs and hence the sponsorship bounty for the official broadcaster, PTC of Punjab. Yesteryears’ hockey icon Pargat Singh, now the Commissioner of WKL, says in its official website: “It is the first contact team sport to come out

of India the first Indian sports league with an international footprint and a five-month-long calendar.” The games will be played in New York, London, Birmingham, Toronto, Sacramento ... a total of 15 cities across the world. Wondering what the hell this is all about? The WKL kicked off in London in the famous O2 stadium on August 9, and will be played across 15 cities in four continents. And this is now a very intense business, with the rival league, Pro-Kabaddi League (PKL) being played across eight cities in the country. PKL already started in Mumbai on July 26. And Pro-K has pulled in Abhishek Bachchan as one of the team owners. PKL is spearheaded by Charu Sharma, whose sports management company Mashal is the owner of the property. In the fray

KABADDI

From the second year, the sponsors with Charu are Ronnie Screwvala Rajesh Shah (of steel major Mukand Group), demanded that the WCKP sign them retail king Kishore Biyani (Big Bazaar), up for a decade; that is how much value banker Uday Kotak and others.In terms they found in the property. This gave the of monies, there is the kind of volume organisers of the World Cup to plan a one never associated with kabaddi. world-wide league and the WCKP was WKL has declared a total prize money of eventually cannibalised. In May this Rs 3.5 crore (Rs 35 million), and players' year, Pargat and Sukhbir Singh Badal, salaries grossing Rs 1.5 crore (150 Deputy CM of Punjab, announced the million), per annum - much higher than World Kabaddi Leage (WKL). At the launch of the Pro-Kabaddi that of the Pro Kabaddi League players, whose highest salary for the first year has League, Bollywood icons Amitabh been earned by Indian national kabaddi Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shahrukh team captain, Rakesh Kumar: That is just Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar all made Rs 12.8 lakh (Rs 1.28 million). Interestingly, while one may have their presence felt. While the WKL has thought that the elitist sport of golf higher prize money, Pro-K is trying could alone get such figures, the fact is to pull the crowds with star power But that WKL is paying in total prize money while Wave Group is the title sponsor for WKL, PJL has no title exactly the same sponsor. amount as India’s REALTORS HAD But the WKL has wealthiest golf tourney, a format advantage. the Hero Indian Open: ONCE BACKED They will play in top is Rs 3.5 crore GOLF BUT HAVE world cities with The reason behind expatriate all this is that kabaddi PULLED OFF NOW… massive Indian populations, really has reached WILL THEY FIND and sponsors would wherever Indians have. KABADDI A BETTER be too keen to be seen This was realised in partnering them in 2010, when the first INVESTMENT? this global event. World Cup Kabaddi Star Sports is be the Punjab (WCKP) had started. The WCKP organisers official broadcast partner for the Pro had managed to raise Rs 3 crore in Kabaddi League. Star will make use of sponsorship from Pearlz Group, the realty its sports and entertainment network behemoth, followed by peers Omaxe, to promote the league. Matches will Trident and others. These companies have Live, prime-time coverage and Star needed deeper rural penetration and Sports will continue its strategy of airing kabaddi’s emotional connect with local games in Hindi and English. What is interesting is that corporate people paid off. In that inaugural year of WCKP, a giants like Hero (once Hero Honda), reluctant PTC, partly owned by the or major realtor groups like DLF and people in power in Punjab, was sold Avantha were once majorly into golf, the television rights for Rs 27 lakh (2.7 via title sponsorships, which cost these mn). “Initially PTC thought it was a companies humungous packets. Now, waste,” Pargat Singh told News Bench. Hero has withdrawn its support for “But the channel tied up with Dish TV the men’s golf tour, and even Avantha networks in the US, Canada, UK and has gone off the fairways. Will these other countries, and charged up to $15 companies find kabaddi a better per day per TV set and minted millions, investment? That remains an open question, but it seems most likely. of dollars."

Sonakshi has clearly got a double role: team owner as well as the glambassador

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

EVENT POLITICS

ZARAA YAAD KARO QURBANI

THE NEWS BENCH FAMILY CELEBRATED INDEPENDENCE DAY EVE HONOURING OUR MARTYRS, WHO GAVE US OUR PRIZED INDEPENDENCE. HERE'S A GALLERY OF PHOTOS OF OUR VALUABLE GUESTS, WHO WERE REGALED BY MAESTRO HARIHARAN'S SONGS 01

What happened over the last month

What happened over the last

What happened over the last month that

What happened over the last month that was historic and will have a

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

What happened over the last month that was historic

BENGAL REPORT

08 What happened over the last month that

1. Dr Jitendra Singh, (MoS, PMO, Independent Charge), Shri Mahendra Pande, (senior BJP leader), Kushal Dev Rathi (Editor-in- Chief) and Shri Virendra Singh, MP, at the lighting ceremony 2. (From right) Gaurav Rathi, (Executive Editor) Anil Pandey (Editor, News Bench), Jaiveer Rana, Ex DUSU President and Kushal Dev Rathi 3. (From left) Shri Naresh Sirohi (NationalVice-President, BJP Kisan Morcha) and Dr Jitendra Singh 4. Meghha Rathi (Managing Editor) honouring Shri Prahlad Patel, MP and former MoS 5. Kushal Dev Rathi presenting a bouquet to Dr Jitendra Singh 6. Maestro Hariharan giving a live performance 7. Shri Anurag Thakur (MP & National President, BJP Yuva Morcha) with Kushal Dev Rathi 8. Kushal Dev Rathi honouring Shri Satish Upadhyaya, Delhi State BJP Chief 9. Shri Virendra Singh, MP, with Kushal Dev Rathi 10. Kuljeet Singh Chahal (Secretary, Delhi BJP), with Parvesh Verma (MP) 11. Kushal Dev Rathi honouring PVC awardee Captain Bana Singh 12. Rajesh Gehlot (MLA) being presented a plaque by Kushal Dev Rathi 13. Maestro Hariharan with Pawan Kamra, Senior Manager, Kairaili Group 14. Hariharan with Rohit Bajpai (GM, Radisson BLU)

What happened over the last month that

historic and will have a

What happened over the last mon

What happened over the last month that SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

PHOTOS: HARIOM SHARMA

LIFESTYLE

That one evening

when you wed!

BY RAGESHRI NIYOGI

S the monsoon clouds bid adieu to us with their last cascade, we prepare to usher in the next season with great fervour – a season that marks the beginning of many an ‘everafters’, a season of ‘I do’, a season that witnesses rituals upholding traditions as families merge into one, a season of culinary extravaganza and festivities –the wedding season. Indian weddings are known for their opulence and elaborate rituals, be it any of the diverse sub-cultures that partake in it. Weddings have undergone a complete overhaul. Gone is the era of the cookie-cutter wedding; now you have personalised weddings with your own customised wedding itinerary. But how do you go about it? In new age weddings, when one wants to fuse tradition with modernity without going over the top what are your choices? Do you want a theme wedding, a destination wedding, an outdoor/ indoor wedding or a bit of everything? These are just a few of the myriad understated worries that one needs to tread before taking the saat phera. How do you deal with the emotional lead-up to getting hitched. Before you figure out and design your invitation card, you will need to zero in on the venue and the theme of your wedding, as these are the cornerstones of your D-day planning. Everything else falls in place once these two aspects are taken care of. So let’s start at the very beginning, as the song goes.

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

It would be safe to assume that most of you getting hitched in the coming few months would have already booked a venue; but for those who are still losing their sleep over it, here are a few handy tips that will help you short list your venue. Consider the season of your wedding before selecting a venue. Choose a place that offers both indoor and outdoor settings. Play it cool or warm depending on the reading on the Fahrenheit scale. If you want a luxurious wedding, five-star hotels can hardly go wrong. The Leela hotels have hosted

lavish weddings in most cities of India. Sprawling farmhouses in the outskirts of the city make for great venues. Remember Band Baaja Baaraat! Yes, those were the grounds of Sainik farms, known for hosting gala weddings for the affluent. The Royal Western India Turf Club is so exclusive that only club members can plan weddings there, and so are the India Habitat Centre and the India International Centre or Pragati Maidan in New Delhi has a variety of banquet halls such as Phoolwari, Aadar, Satkar and Vatika, which do not burn a

THE LEELA HOTELS HAVE HOSTED LAVISH WEDDINGS IN MOST CITIES IN INDIA. SPRAWLING FARMHOUSES ARE ALSO GOOD

WEDDINGS

The Big Fat Indian Wedding, with each couple trying to create a special something that they think others won’t, have created an industry where everything is available... you just need to decide what you want

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

COLOURS

says, “A big priority deep hole in your wallet. Open air affairs give a was avoiding hyper Destination weddings sense of freshness that consumerist wedding are catching up one’s is a welcome change industry practices. fancy and imagination. The remoteness of the If budget is not a constraint for you, seek the plush place lent itself to DIY 'Do it yourself ' palaces in Rajasthan to tie the knot. The style that doesn’t need more than the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur and ocean.” Book your wedding venue well in the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur play host to celebrity weddings. Goa, Kerala and advance. Booking early will not only the Andamans are some other places buy you peace of mind, but also get you some discounts that you might not be perfect for destination weddings. Weddings are no longer predictable. able to avail at a later date. A wedding theme is just that – a If you want an off-beat and intimate location away from the hullabaloo of single theme. Don’t create a concoction city life, you are most likely to find one. that will leave you with a kaleidoscope From old mansions to villas, there’s no of colours. Once you select a wedding dearth of venues. Suguna Sridhar, a theme, you can coordinate the design writer and editor, chose Kanaka Beach of your invitation card, gifts and your House in Kannur for her wedding. She haute couture.

Here are a few trends in wedding themes and décor. Royalty is not a novelty but it is one of the current trends. If you want to feel like a king and a queen, there’s no stopping you. Create an ambience with elements such as embellished royal parasols and Rajasthani styled décor. Choose drapes and furnishings with colours that create a majestic aura such as red, gold, blue and silver or even a blend of subtle colours for a ravishing appeal. Use marigold and roses for décor. Add light strings and flowers to pillars to enhance the look. Eco-friendly wedding décor is a la mode these days as people opt for green weddings. A natural wedding theme, with its warm and friendly rustic country look, can be eco-friendly as well uber-stylish. Light the venue with paper lanterns and chandeliers instead of neon lights. Cover the ground with delicate rose petals for the ultimate finishing touch to an organic themed wedding. If it is too cold to have an outdoor setting, you can add natural splendour and some instant freshness

LIFESTYLE

Theme weddings are the most happening thing nowadays

with this décor. Cover the walls in greens with hanging candles, trellis over the dinner area covered with greens and hanging chandeliers. One wedding theme that will never lose its appeal is romance. In classic elegant form or a more contemporary reworking, this look always works its magic. Rose petals make the ultimate romantic statement. For lighting you could cover the ceiling (if indoors) with stars and create a moonlit romantic effect. Pranav Maheshwari (Mobile Test Engineer/IT Field) has decided to tie the knot in his hometown Aligarh in November this year. He has opted for a romantic setting. He plans to pledge undying devotion to his bride-to be, Shradha on a floral bridge, 12-feet above the ground, in the backdrop of a waterfall. Pranav says, “For him, water is a symbol of eternal love.” The decorations will cost approximately INR 40,000. Overwhelmed already? Little time and lots to do? No need to fret over those miniscule details, and let your parents and close relatives also heave a sigh of relief. Consider hiring a wedding planner while you spend quality time

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

with your family and friends. First, choose a planner who specialises in your chosen theme. Ensure you see the portfolio of the company. Discuss your budget with the planner beforehand. Don’t let it creep up. A good wedding planner knows the trick of the trade and can secure

ahead with a social media invitation, zing it up with a personal touch. Record a short greeting (funny, formal or a simple a message that reflects your personality) with a slideshow of your favourite pictures and the basic information about the event, and share your video on the events page or email it to everyone. A box full of laddoos and barfis accompanying your wedding cards is passé. Let your creative streak weave its magic with these trendy ideas for gifts and favours that will make your guests go WOW. As we stated earlier, ‘personalising’ is the way forward. Whip up personalised cookies to go with the wedding invitation. Get quirky and throw in flavours and colours that compliment the theme of the invitation

ROMANCE AS A THEME WILL ALWAYS RETAIN ITS APPEAL AND CHARM, WHETHER IN CLASSICAL OR CONTEMPORARY FORMS discounts from vendors. The time is ripe for the wedding invitation. It’s like the brand ambassador of your wedding and deserves a little pampering. Let go of the cliché traditional cards. Add a tadka of your creative juices and prepare your guest for a unique experience. You can avail your wedding planner’s expertise on the subject or follow some of the hottest trends for one-of-a-kind invitation cards given here. Having said so, if you want to go

card. Cupcakes, cake pops, truffles, candies, caramelised dry fruits and customised chocolates (try handmade chocolates by Chocolics) make for great accompaniment to invitation cards. Package your gifts in innovative ways. Seven Promises based out of Noida includes exquisite gift packaging boxes and bags at affordable prices. A range of these are created by special children. Small bonsais, bamboo plants, and seeds of variegated plants make a good addition to your guests’ garden.

SUBSCRIBE TO A WORLD CLASS MAGAZINES JUST GIVE A MISSED CALL AT

TOLL FREE

1800-1039-392

...AND WE SHALL GET BACK TO YOU TO GET YOUR SUBSCRIPTION DONE WE KNOW YOU LOVE YOUR NEWS BENCH AND WANT IT AT YOUR DOORSTEP EVERY MONTH... WE WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN FOR YOU I would like to subscribe for these Magazines : 1 Year

FREQUENCY

UNIT PRICE (Rs.)

Actual

You pay Rs.

You get

News Bench (English Only)

Monthly

240

News Bench (Hindi Only)

Monthly

120

MAGAZINE

2 Year Tick

Actual

You pay Rs.

1 month subs. bonus

480

1 month subs. bonus

240

You get

3 Year Actual

You pay Rs.

You get

2 month Subs. bonus

720

3 month subs. bonus

2 month Subs. bonus

360

3 month subs. bonus

* News bench is available in following languses (Please ck your choice)

Tick

Total Amount Rs.

Hindi English Enclosed in cheque /DD No. Dated D D M M Y Y Please write your name and address on the back of the Cheque / DD. Favouring “GKMS Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.” for

Bank Drawan

To subscribe through Credit Card Visit: www.newsbench.in

Name Address: City Phone

Tick

Pin E-Mail

Please fill this order and mail it with your remi ance to GKMS Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. G-22, Sector-3, Noida-201301 (U.P.) * Terms and Condi ons: Rates & Offer valid in india only. Please allow 4-6 days for delivery of your first copy of the magazine/s by normal post. if you need courier Please add Rs.150/-of courier charges and you get magazine 48 hours to 72 hours. for any queries call 0120-2520002. All disputes shall be subject to Delhi jurisdic on only. Email: info@newsbench.in

FASHION

NEWS BENCH

ORANGE!

colour me

This year, top global fashion houses have laid a heavy stress on this ﬁery hue, but it’s country of origin could be India, and in any case it blends marvellously with Indian women’s skin tone

SEPTEMBER 2014

PALETTE

HEN Madhuri Dixit Nene set fire to the stage in an orange plain sari designed by Sonakshi Raj at IIFA 2014, was she merely going by a global orange craze or was she just being herself? All fashion headlines in the year 2014 have been screaming "Orange is the New Black". I beg your pardon! Is it really? Imagine the Little Black Dress as the Little Orange Dress and a formal soiree replete with women in various shades of this bombshell colour just because it is the latest fashion trend. And if all the neighbourhood auntyjis and mummyjis take this fashion trend seriously, we would have an overdose of orange clad women sporting everything from salwar suits, palazzos, pants to footwear, bags and lipsticks! We may have to wear dark shades to avoid the glare from an overdose of Orange. Although it is tough to agree with the fashion pundits on the new status of Colour Orange, it certainly cannot be denied that this vibrant shade, if worn wisely and judiciously, can be extremely flattering. In the year 2014, the global fashion world has seen many avid proponents of this hue and the trend has been hugely towards the orange palette. Burnt orange, flickering flashes of rust, fruity tones and soothing ombré — this colour dazzled the ramps internationally. Tangerine day dresses and pantsuits, poppy and red-orange floral motifs, cayenne-hued flirty frocks and bold vivid pops of neon orange on the lips was what was seen on the catwalk this year internationally. Show-stopping evening wear too weren’t exempt from the trend with voluminous ball gown skirts and strappy, sky-high heels, proving the colour can even make a statement at cocktail hour. Handbag

trends too showed a panoply of warm, sunshine shades showcased in totes and satchels and several orangesaturated collections. The orange colour palette is definitely big in India being a festive colour with the added advantage of complementing the Indian skin tone. Although the love affair with tangerine has been a global phenomenon for almost over a year, these hues that have always been strong in India and may have been adopted internationally from our palette. From bold statements to soft

feminine combinations, the versatile orange lends itself brilliantly to Indian designs. Although not many people own orange as a colour, however, if blended with the same tonal family such as red and pink, it makes for a fabulous recipe for a style statement. This unique colour can range from classic and sophisticated to fun and funky. Due to its innate vibrancy, this colour palette is going to be in demand this wedding season.Indian designers are gearing up for this Orange Orgy in the coming months.

Complete orange, from top to shirt and skirt, bag and shoes... the lady best showcases the effect of the fiery hue. Besides, there are tunics and shorts, wrist bands and of course, lipsticks in orange!

COLOURS

BY ATIMA MANKOTIA

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

EXTERIORS

Spaced Out BY HAR N ID H K AU R

HY is the concept of a room so limited in terms of four walls and a ceiling? Making a viable living space in outdoor areas is now easy, customisable, and within all different budget frames. All it needs is a little bit of planning, division and compartmentalisation of space, and a lot of creativity. The concept of ‘outdoor living spaces’ may sound odd, at first. Most people have taken to using any extra space they have for solely utilitarian purposes. Interestingly, the biggest concern most people have is that they will lose the utility of the empty space. It just doesn't occur to them that the best way to increase utility is to divide up a yard, terrace, or large balcony so as to maximise enjoying them. The first step is to understand and explore the usage of outdoor space, and then learn how to exploit it. There are various simple ways in which any space, irrespective of location and size, can be spruced up. The simplest step, but the most crucial, would be to define the use of the space. This can be seen as a building block to the

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

entire structure, in terms of thematic considerations, materials to be used, and the colour palette required. A pool area, a meditation space, a play area, or just a small nook to unwind. The most important thing to remember is that given the inherent vulnerability of an outdoor space thanks to the vagaries of nature, safety always comes first. Creating a space is easy as long as you know how to break down the entire process into steps. Roughly speaking, all that’s needed are seven steps. Basically, it includes creating

a focal point, creating zones within the space, adding seating, adding weather friendly elements, adding aesthetic touches through accessories, strategically shielding the view you’ve nurtured, and finally, creating a conduit between the indoor and outdoor space. This might seem like a daunting task, but once it kicks off, it’s simple to just keep following the momentum. The focal point of the space is, by nature, tied to the use of it. For example, an outdoor setting would immediately become the centre of

Exquisite outdoor: This single picture shows exactly how excitingly outdoor spaces can be done up

the space around it. Therefore, it’s important to understand the usage of the space. This is best done by taking into account the people who will be using it. If children are involved, a play area is a must. Since meditation zones are deeply personal, it’s necessary to take into account a person’s own comfort. For sports based activities, the equipment and requirements such as nets and courts are a must. Finally, for simply a space to unwind after a long day, the importance has to be put upon physical comforts. Once this step

UNDER THE SKY

The most problematic, and the most is done, the creation of zones becomes exciting part of having an outdoor very easy. space is the fact that despite all Zones are created by understanding creature comforts, you can’t have full how to best utilise and maximise a control on the weather conditions. space’s potential. This can tie in with What you can do, however, is modify the third step, namely, adding seating them to make the space inhabitable and furniture. Using furniture with through the year. In a place like storage space is an extremely easy, Delhi, with extreme temperatures, and efficient way of using a space well. the challenge is to have non-intrusive Keeping furniture simple is of prime implements that allow all year importance. comfort. Any outdoor space should be easily For the sweltering sun, strategic convertible to accommodate different shading through awnings and paneled number of people for different room barriers in plastic or wood. occasions. This automatically means To combat the heat itself, the best that the seating and furniture used solution is the indigenous water should be lightweight, portable, and cooler, which is affordable, coststurdy enough to counter the natural and-energy effective, and can cool a elements it will be exposed to. The large area in a short amount of time. key words here are ‘simple’, ‘solid’, and The winters can be handled with ‘customisability’. The ideal furniture portable heaters, Kashmiri bukharis, depends on the location, but safe bets and if your space permits, a beautiful include extruded vinyl, heavy plastic, fireplace and chimney set. In areas like wrought iron, and outdoor wicker. Mumbai and Kolkata, the concern is The simplicity of furniture can be humidity. Overhead fans and portable offsetted by accessories. Comfort is dehumidifiers are the simplest way to a key factor in any space, and this combat this. Once your space has a can double up as aesthetic additions. character and is personalised, it Cushions, throws, blankets, seat becomes a sanctuary of covers and the like are sorts, and sanctuaries easily replaceable at are to be protected. affordable prices, The final step and bright, COMFORT IS A in creating cheerful colours KEY FACTOR IN a cohesive are the ideal ANY PLANNING outdoor space addition that is to create can spruce FOR SPACE, AND boundaries up any THIS CAN DOUBLE and coverings space. Small that protect touches like UP AS AESTHETIC it from prying wind chimes, ADDITIONS eyes and gives a rocks, water modicum of privacy. works, and pots There are various add a comfortable, ways of doing so, organic, personalised touch to the and inorganic. Tall ferns, hedges, area. Keeping the fact that fabric and potted palm are a good idea if the isn’t very sturdy, unless outdoor space is large, however, they require plastics or waxed canvas is used, it’s immense amounts of upkeep, and can a good bet to go ahead and let your be a hazard if young children or pets creativity unleash with tailormade use the space. accessories. SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

COLOURS

‘MAKAAN’ IS NOT THE ONLY SPACE YOU NEED TO LIVE IN. YOU CAN LIVE IN ‘MACHAANS’ TOO… IN SPACES OUTSIDE HOMES THAT CAN BE CREATED EQUALLY AESTHETICALLY

FORMAL WEAR

W O R K P L AC E

Wardrobe! The most difficult work in the office is to make people leave their work and turn their heads to have a look at you. But with these latest collections now in the market, you need not try hard to get the m mens' eyes 'Fevicoled' ZARA Cropped Structured Trousers with elegant cuts. Price: Rs 2990 DA MILANO New range of laptop bags with multiple pockets, and organisers Rs 8,999 to Rs 12,999

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

FORMAL WEAR

GUESS Guess's collection of golden watches are perfect for adding bling to your formal look. Price: Rs 36,500

DIOR Card holder which embodies the craftsmanship of Dior. Price: On demand

MANGO Quilted tote leather bag with Twin top handles and detachable long strap Price: Rs 5,390

LACOSTE Petit Pique Textured belt with unmistakably feminine appeal. Rs 4006.57 SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

COLOURS

LOUIS VUITTON Beige can go with any dress. Here is Bata-WomensOna-FashionSandals Price:Rs 46538.80

FASHION

SHREE RAJ MAHAL JEWELLERS There is something new for brides-to-be and their families. Shree Raj Mahal Jewellers is up with their new collection Swara and Saundarya. The Swara collection is all in gold and polki with traditional and royal designs. Saundarya is a mix of traditional designs with fancy and round cut and contemporary styles in diamond jewellery. Price: On demand

Just out...

the best for

brides

THIS MARRIAGE SEASON THERE'S LOTS FOR YOUNG WOMEN ABOUT TO TIE THE KNOT. THESE INCLUDE DIOR'S NEW ADDICT IT LASH MASCARA TO BMW IBFW'S COLLECTION AND MUCH MORE!

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

BMW INDIA BRIDAL FASHION WEEK BMW IBFW showcased the trends and designs for the upcoming wedding season by leading fashion designers.

WEDDING BELLS

DIOR ADDICT IT LASH MASCARA Dior Addict has designed eye makeup with a new volumising mascara Price: Rs 1571.44

BOBBI BROWNSAND EYE PALETTE The perfect day-to-night palette with a range of soft nude shades and sheer washes of sparkle. Price: Rs 3928.60

MAC NAIL TRANSFORMATION Collection of nail lacquers and transformative top coats. Price: Rs 725.28

BRONZING BRUSH REVITALIFT REPAIR 10 The latest revitallift is a multi-action, anti ageing formula by Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;oreal. Price: Rs 2545

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

COLOURS

The bevel cut brush ideal for a natural and luminous sun kissed look. Price: Rs 3,004.93

LIFESTYLE

Nightly delights! For fun or out on business, the allure of the 24X7 coffee shops is equally strong for most people. Though there are scores of them, here are four of the best in Delhi and financial capital Mumbai BY P IYALI PAUL

IGHT is not the most comforting time in Delhi to be out, especially for women. In any case, Delhi is not the nightlife capital of the country. Mostly, the business community spends time in friends’ homes drinking and, may be, gambling. But then there is always the chance that you might get caught famished and out at night, may be just hitting town at an unearthly hour after a flight back. Or may be friends decide just to have a bash out of home. Where do you go? Well there are a score of them at least, with every Five Star hotel running at least one of its restaurants all day and night. The night menu is lighter and more snacky than lunch or dinner types. But well, you will find good food. There are the The Rendezvous, Hotel Intercontinental, Tiffany Coffee Shop at The Connaught, Blooms at Park Royal, Cafe Hyatt Regency, Cana Cona, Vasant Continental, Garden Party, Imperial, the Isfahan at Taj Mahal Hotel and so forth. But here’s a friendly warning: avoid Hotel Ashok and Hotel Samrat. They are rank poor. But then if you are near CP, you could try La Brasserie at Le Meridien. The first thing that will stun you in

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Le Meridian is the small waterfall bay with the colours orange, yellow and red that looks beautiful when looked at from the capsule lift. Through the lenses of art, design, fashion, and cuisine, Le Méridien, New Delhi creates an interactive ambience that encourages guests to embark on journeys of discovery. Like the setup, the menu is international as well. In fact, there is no Indian food at all in this restaurant. The European selection is pretty good: Chicken Breast with Almonds on Pea Mash or the Mixed Mushrooms on toast with Burnt Sage Butter, the pizzas being passable. There is also an entire burger section which is unique, the best of which is Hamburger with

Caramelised Onions, Tomato, Lettuce and Beetroot. For dessert, one can try something new with the Chai Tea Crème Brûlée with Lychee and Berries Compote. Next, you could hop over to Cafe Uno in Shangri La where one can find relaxed meals in a friendly ambience. The entrance provides amazing, soothing fragrances that delight you. The yellow chandeliers and the reflection of lights give you a contemporary atmosphere and with a refreshing view of the lush green gardens, Café Uno offers round-theclock dining options. Guests can choose to dine al fresco on a delectable spread of national and international cuisines. Their young patrons can relish a special kid’s buffet at Cafe

NIGHT OUT

IF YOU WANT TO GO GREEN THEN BOULEVARD AT THE ORCHID IS BEST

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

COLOURS

Uno. The inviting desert original coffee shop of the Two of the best: Shangri La, New counter ensures that the city, at The Taj, offering an Delhi (left) and The buffet is far more popular all-day dining experience Orchid in Mumbai than the à la carte menu. with an à la carte menu The à la carte menu has to suit every mood and the usual suspects lined up: Paneer palate, from breakfast through to Hara Pyaaz, Dal Makhni, Club Uno dinner. To start up the day Shamiana Sandwich and Murgh Makhni. The serves an international breakfast tenderloin burger is excellent, made fare with live counters. Afternoons with real imported chuck steak, offer buffet fare with an array of minimally seasoned and grilled. It international and Indian cuisine, makes for a complete meal. including salads, pastas, pizzas and a By any reckoning, Mumbai is the selection of desserts. city to be in at night. I would try to As soon as I entered Shamiana, it stay on the street, with its amazing gave me a homely yet royal feel. The variety of delectable snacks and even ambience was cosy. The Rose Falooda meals, which obviates the need to and Cold Coffee with Ice cream is go for the star cafes. But if you have a good choice to order. While the money to throw, there is Shamiana the shake is being served, the aroma of

roses wafted in the air. Then came Sourdough Classic Sandwich which was a treat for the taste buds for its pesto sauce. And at last came the Vegetable Green Thai Curry. The curry had a perfect blend of coconut cream and herbs. And if you are more of an environmentalist type, your choice could be Boulevard at The Orchid, Asia’s first eco friendly hotel and is situated near the Mumbai Domestic Airport at Santa Cruz. After watching a late night show, going to Boulevard was quite pleasing. They have quite a large spread of dishes for a midnight dinner, like two soups (veg and nonveg), seven or eight kinds of salads, some five non-veg dishes, ten or twelve veg dishes, all manners of cereal and seven or eight varieties of desserts. There is a fair amount of crowd here and hence you may have to wait for some time. You will enjoy the wait by sinking into deep sofas in the lobby of the hotel. The place is also populated by passengers catching early morning domestic flight or tourists who have arrived late to the city. One can experience grandeur and utmost elegance when you visit The Boulevard. Surrender to the extravagance of the lavish breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight buffets.

PHOTOS: SHIVANI PANDEY

TRAVEL

M ANDU Love story in a khandahar

There are many reasons to visit Mandu, the quaint and beautiful town in Madhya Pradesh, but the most enticing is the little known love saga of shepherdess Roopmati and Sultan Baz Bahadur

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

MANDU

The palaces and forts are no doubt great sites, but the enduring love legend is what makes Mandu enchanting

OME special love stories like that of Laila Majnu, Heer Ranjha or Romeo Juliet have become so famous as to inspire many books and movies. However, some rather forgotten ones are explored while travelling. I encountered one such love saga on a trip to the beautiful, quaint town of Mandu near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. There may be many other reasons to visit this very exquisite little place nestled amidst rocky green hills, but it was the love tale of the shepherdess Roopmati and her beloved Sultan Baz Bahadur fascinated me the most. I reached Mandu after a three hour drive from Bhopal gazing throughout at the village scenes. One could spot on the way cattle grazing in the yellow and green crop fields,

SEPTEMBER 2014

NEWS BENCH

COLOURS

BY SHIVANI PANDEY

children playing outside well kept mud houses and women carrying firewood on their heads, just before reaching Mandu, which is about a half hour uphill drive from the village below. The city of Mandu has an interesting past. Founded as a fortress retreat by Raja Bhoj in the 10th century, but eventually it was ruled by the Taranga, Ghauri, Khilji and Mughal dynasties. The Mughal era was witness to the famous love story of Rani Roopmati and Sultan Baz Bahadur. I was informed that Roopmati, a shepherdess who lived on the banks of Narmada, was a simple and charming village belle with a magical voice. She revered the river Narmada, so much that she would not eat without paying obeisance to it. On one of his hunting trips, the Sultan of Mandu, Baz Bahadur heard Roopmati singing and was instantly captivated by her charm. Being a connoisseur of music he invited her to live in Mandu. She accepted and everything was fine, except for her vow of seeing Narmada before eating, for which she needed to live by its banks. To resolve this issue, Baz Bahadur built two chhattrisâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the pavilions or dome structures on the army watch post in the outskirts of the town. This provided her with views of river Narmada, visible at a distance as a silver thread on its way

TRAVEL

Out of 61 monuments that Mandu to the sea. Since Baz Bahadur's palace has, about 12 are the major ones. In was also visible from there, it served as these twelve, the monuments of Jahaz a perfect arrangement for the two. Mahal, Ashrafi Mahal, Hindola Mahal Rani Roopmati's Pavilion has underand Jami Masjid are some that specifigone two or three stages of construccally should not be missed by a photogtion. On the terrace of the original rapher or those having a keen interest portion are pavilions crowned domes, in history. The Jahaz Mahal is just on fluted both outside and inside. It is said the opposite end from Rani Roopmati’s that Roopmati came here daily from the pavilion. The ground floor of the “Ship palace nearby to savour the breathtakPalace” consists of three large halls, with ing views of river Narmada. corridors in between the narrow rooms Legend has it that Goddess Narmada at the extreme ends. Its spacious terordered Roopmati in a dream to get a race that can be reached after climbing pond excavated near Baz Bahadur’s pala lengthy flight of steps is adorned with ace where the water originally from the domed pavilions. The first storey of the river could gather and she could get a two-storied building was used to house “darshan” of her revered deity close by. the harem of Ghiyath-ud-din. ApparWhen the tank was finally dug, the waently the ruler possessed many beautiter was actually found, and came to be ful women not only from different parts known as Rewa Kund. of the country but from other foreign Baz Bahadur’s palace in the vicinlands too. ity is another architectural marvel. The The Hindola Mahal is again architecpassage through the gateway has guardturally striking and impressive. The side rooms on both sides with a vaulted ceiling. walls are strengthened with massive slopThe main door leads to the outer court. IT IS SAID ing buttresses, which have given the name There is a spacious courtyard with halls on ROOPMATI CAME "swinging" (Hindola) palace to the buildall the four sides and a cistern in its centre. A photographer’s delight, the place fascinates TO THE PAVILION ing. Being an avid photographer, my permost, and those in a rush usually skip other DAILY TO VEIW THE sonal favourites were Jami Masjid, Hinmonuments for this area that houses both BREATHTAKING dola Mahal and Rani Roopmati’s pavilion Rani Roopmati and Baz Bahadur’s palaces. in the same order. Incidentally, Mahmud As I retired for the day I sat with a local BEAUTY OF THE Khilji completed the Jami Masjid that was book about the story of Rani Roopmati and RIVER NARMADA started by Hoshang Shah in A.D.1454. The Baz Bahadur. The revelations it made were interior of the mosque consists of a palatial quite saddening though. Evidently, Akbar's hall with jali (screens) on the sides. The General Adam Khan attacked Mandu and overthrew Baz Bahadur. One of the reasons for Adam Khan's Jami Masjid complex also houses the Hoshang Shah’s tomb. attack is said to be his infatuation for Rani Roopmati. Fi- The tomb that is influenced by Hindu architecture stands on nally, as Baz Bahadur fled from the scene, Rani Roopmati a square shaped marble platform. Surrounded by so much architecture and history, the town poisoned herself to death. And so another love story ended of Mandu has a very ancient feel to it. Everything around in anguish. The next day I set out for the other part of the town which reminds you of a bygone era and impacts your mind in a is limited to a narrow stretch of road with a different monu- special way. While leaving I could easily visualise horses on ment after every few steps. The backyard of the Jami Masjid the streets, huge army battalions and kings on elephant back is mostly abuzz with hawkers selling knick knacks, vegetables going around town as the trumpets go higher and higher. At and other household items. Mandu residents are warm and a distance there is a different kind of music playing. This is hospitable. Tourists come in hordes, and can be seen riding the voice of Rani Roopmati as she sings while praying to her bicycles that can be easily hired on a per-day basis. Some vis- treasured river while Baz Bahadur is all ears standing by the itors come in groups, listening attentively to the Indian guide window of his palace. As a bump on the road downhill from accompanying them while some others can be seen shopping Mandu woke me from my slumber, I realised that this day too shall become history in some time! at the streets.

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

OPEN FORUM

THE US PLAN IS DISINTEGRATION, DIVISION INTO SMALL STATES AND REDRAWING WORLD MAP

India has already submitted long time back HE only way I can describe the state of a comprehensive plan to fight against terrorism affairs in West Asia is to term it as region to the UN. Taking the guidance and cue from in turmoil. The current cycle of violence it we have to fight and eradicate terrorism in has damaged the region extensively and has any form for the sake of the innocent people led to the loss of innumerable precious lives. who are either losing their lives or are getting This region has become a centre of external maimed without any fault of theirs. intervention which is promoting terrorism to Dr Waiel Awwad If we learn that the danger will engulf all of achieve selfish interests in the process of reus and not only Iraq and Syria then we may colonising the region. There is a lot happening under the pretext of humanitarian intervention. Since the see a kind of compromise and rapprochement among invasion in 2003 of Iraq caliphate project was promoted Iran and the Arab countries. When Arab countries put by Dick Cheney who supported and nourished disturbing their interests as a priority and not serving the design elements and inserted them in Iraq and Syria. It was after that vested interest countries would like to widen the gap this that the US pulled out from Iraq. The people of the between Iran and its neighbours, then we can see Iran region aspire for democracy and freedom but unfortunately playing a major stabilising role and not part of the problem this was hijacked by those forces which wanted to topple as projected by some. The project in the Middle East and North Africa was a the secular regimes and to replace them by extremism. The sole sufferer of all this is the people and the sole constructive anarchy where we noticed the radical forces beneficiaries are the US and the West who are interested replacing secular regimes. With the ISIS induction, the West's strategy of creating disorder is more clear and it in natural resources of this part of the world. In a very subtle manner and in a well planned way, entered into the phase of mobile anarchy which will spread Islam phobia has been created in this part of the world. to other parts of the world including India and Southeast Gradually it has created a public opinion and is exposing Asian countries, since there is a considerable number of these countries of their complicity. It has exposed the mercenaries from those countries joining the ISIS and they linkages of Europe and the US with government in power will cause havoc if they returned alive. Extremism and radicalism will strengthen the US and Wahabism. This has led to the growth of radicalism in these countries and they are waking up to realise that it is propaganda on the global fight against terrorism and justify its military intervention in many countries under the time to fight the menace. We have been highlighting these issues and were pretext of Humanitarian Intervention. India will face a herculean task after the US and ISAF warning these countries since much before that it will hit back at them which they ridiculed. And, now, when it has withdrawal from Afghanistan. Will Afghanistan go the same reached right at their doorsteps and has started hurting way as Iraq? Disintegration, division into small states and redrawing of the world map the peace and tranquility in are the main aims of the US their part of the country that supremacy. they are waking up. In this scenario, India When it comes to fight this needs to be vigilant and have problem of terrorism it has to a contingency plan handy to be a joint fight of the countries meet any eventuality. as it needs to be understood that it cannot be controlled by any one country alone. Also, (Writer is a senior Arab we have to attack the entire journalist. He is working as infrastructure and the ideology South Asia Bureau Chief of of terrorism without making Alarabiya TV Channe. Has any distinction like good extensively travelled in Sri terrorist or a bad terrorist. A Lanka , India, Afghanistan , terrorist is a terrorist, after all. West Asia and Gulf Region )

NEWS BENCH

SEPTEMBER 2014

{

RED FEEDS ON GREEN GIVE ME ORANGE 84 Hijacking the original Trinamool The new ‘in’ colour in fashion ` 20

S E P T E M B E R 2 014

NEWS BENCH M

100 DAYS, 101 BARBS

Forgett honeymoon; on; mainstream media me ia has treated early days re me as a nightmare reg ews Bench analyses why ews hy of the Modi regime nightmare. News