Sat june issue 2016 pages 40

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CELEBRATING 13TH YEAR OF PUBLICATION

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READ INSIDE

South Asia Times Vol.13 I No. 11 I JUNE 2016 I FREE s o u t hasiatim es.com .au Editor: Neeraj Nanda

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GUEST EDITORIAL PROPERTY EXPO METRO EXPERIENCE LETTER FROM SYDNEY SOUTH ASIA hindi pushp SPORTS

PG 3 PG 6 PG 8 PG 14 PG 20 PG 30-31 PG 36 See page 2

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New Homes, Plans & Permits, S/E Development Sites: iaussiebuilders.com.au

THE BATTLE FOR CANBERRA See page 3

Malcolm Turnbull

Bill Shorten

9 YEARS OF TRUSTED SERVICE OVER 500,000 FLIGHTS SOLD 24/7 CUSTOMER CARE ATAS ACCREDITED

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EDITORIAL

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SAT

South Asia Times

PUBLISHER/EDITOR Neeraj Nanda M: 0421 677 082 satimes@gmail.com

EDITOR (Hindi Pushp) Dr. Dinesh Srivastava dsrivastava@optusnet.com.au

SAT NEWS BUREAU/Australia (Melbourne) Neeraj Nanda satimes@gmail.com

SAT NEWS BUREAU/South Asia (New Delhi, India) RAJIV SHARMA rajeev.anchor@gmail.com PRASHAT TANDON news.prashant@gmail.com

SAT ADVERTISING (Melbourne) M: 0421 677 082 & E: satimes@gmail.com PHOTO SECTION (Melbourne) AP Guruswamy apgfoto@yahoo.com M: 0431 482 258 Kulbir Photographer creativeartmedia.au@gmail.com M: 0430 306 255

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address P O Box 465, Brentford Square, Vic. 3131 Phone: (03) 9095 6220; Mobile: 0421 677 082 Email: satimes@gmail.com/ editor@southasiatimes.com.au

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DISCLAIMER

South Asia Times (SAT) is a monthly newspaper published in English (2 pages in Hindi) from Melbourne, Australia.

Contributors supply material to SAT at their own risk and any errors will be corrected as quickly as possible. SAT does not accept responsibility for the authenticity of any advertisement, text content or a picture in the publication.

No material, including text or advertisements designed by the SAT or pictures may be reproduced in any form without the written consent o f t h e e d i t o r / p u b l i s h e r.

Opinions/stories/reports or any text content are those of the writers/contributors and not necessarily endorsed by the SAT.

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Federal Election 2016: The battle for Canberra

By Neeraj Nanda

system, which has raised the ire of GPs and pathology companies. elbourne: Well, when you go to Labor: Has criticized measures it vote on July 2 to elect a new says will threaten the bulk-billing rate government in Canberra you and promised to increase spending on have the same choice – Coalition health. or Labor. With the Greens probably relevant And there is much more to be read in a hung Parliament. This is the longest at – www.adelaidenow.com.au ever election campaign and Malcolm The Greens have divided their Turnbull and Bill Shorten are already policies into Ecological sustainability, hopping around from here to there. The TV economic justice, peace and nonchannels have a lot to report unless you violence, democracy and social justice. are on Murdoch’s Sky News Australia with a Details can be accessed at www.greens. definite choice. Like it or not that happens org.au/policy. each day. ABC 24 and ABC can have it any Under the category ‘Economic way with different choices. Though ABC’s Justice’ the Greens site says: “The Insiders on Sunday has contending scribes Australian Greens support an economy discussing the campaign. that sustains the needs of people and The good thing is that the campaign issues nature, now and for future generations. are clear cut – Negative gearing, child care, Economic activity should support, superannuation, penalty rates, Medicare, rather than deplete the social and education, Broadband, environment, taxes, natural capital of our world - that is, wages, refugees and so on. Labor and unions have aggressively launched a social media campaign on Medicare, penalty rates and education issues. Candidates are doing doorto-door campaign and mailboxes are full of messages from candidates. In fact, I know of many who are committed and they are Labor, Coalition or Greens. But most are not and need to know where the parties stand on the big issues.

The Advertiser (Adelaide) in an analysis – Federal Election 2016: Comparison of Liberal and Labor Party policies (by Peter Jean) says the following on few of the issues:

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the natural environment on which we all depend, and the social relationships that make people happy and healthy.

These principles apply at all levels of economic activity – local, regional, national and global.”

For the South Asian communities the issues are the same as anyone else in the wider community. If there is no Medicare or a payment to be made with it then it hurts everyone.

Education cuts also hurt everyone.

A strong economy is good for all Australians though the parties are debating what constitutes a strong economy. Multiculturalism and diversity are the pillars of Australian democracy. The absence of South Asians in Australian politics has long been felt. It’s not an easy task but also not impossible. One has to be optimistic!

HATE HURTS, HARMONY WORKS

ASYLUM SEEKERS Coalition: Maintain existing hard line against illegal boat arrivals through offshore detention centres.

Labor: Supports offshore detention but wants more done to ensure people found to be refugees are resettled in third countries.

BANKS Coalition: Giving extra resources to watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and will bill the cost back to the banks.

Labor: Planning a Royal Com-mission into banking sector.

THE BUDGET DEFICIT Coalition: After abandoning many of the harsh budget cuts announced in 2014, the Government expects to achieve a small surplus by 2021.

Labor: Has proposed $71 billion worth of measures it says will improve the state of the budget, including halting proposed tax breaks for big companies.

ECONOMY/JOBS Coalition: Wants to make it easier for Australian businesses to compete in the world economy, and a greater focus on science and innovation. Is using changes to tax and company laws to encourage start-ups and as part of an innovation policy.

Labor: Wants more science and technology taught in schools, TAFEs and universities to prepare students to work in the future economy. Will establish $500 million smart investment fund and support infrastructure projects that boost the economy.

HEALTH Coalition: Restored $2.9 billion in state funding for hospitals while a long-term funding deal is negotiated. is attempting to find savings and efficiencies in the Medicare www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

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Intersection near Shri. Shiva Vishnu Temple upgraded By our community reporter

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elbourne :Traffic management at the intersection of Wedge Rd &Dandenong-Frankston-

Boundary Road (goes to the Carrum Downs temple) was recently celebrated at the site led by Sonya Kilkenny MP and joined by Manoj Kumar, BhishamMaharaj, Pt. Patil, Neeraj Nanda, Sunil Kumar, John Kumar and others.

BhishamMaharaj did the ritual ceremony.

The intersection now is complete with traffic lights, turns and markings to make driving easy and safe for drivers. Earlier the place was notorious for

confusion and there were many accidents. Devotees going into Boundary Road to the Hindu Temple will be greatly benefitted by the new investment. The demand to upgrade the intersection was made by the community

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and temple devotees. Local temple and Labor activists were in the forefront to urge the Andrews Government to upgrade the intersection.

The new system will benefit the community &Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple devotees.

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Indian property expo in Melbourne a big success By our community reporter

property in India is driven by many factors such as personal need, family use and for some it is an investment in a growth market. It is imperative that one is clear about the requirements and have realistic expectations. One has to weigh the market options and only choose the reputed developers with solid track record. This event will provide a genuine opportunity for anyone looking to buy a property in India,� says India Events CEO, Mr Vishal Gupta.

No doubt, for two days it was nice to see families and friends discussing and getting information about buying a property in India.

Anyone who missed out the expo and still on the lookout for a property in India can get more info from:

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elbourne: It started off with a bang at the Radisson (Flagstaff) on 28 May and concluded the next day on 29 May. With hundreds of people around who came in a stream, which did not seem to end even on the concluding day.

Families with kids and seniors were there and taking an eager interest in shopping for a property in India.

Different developers from all over India with colorful banners and broachers laid out tables.

One could buy property DelhiNCR , Mohali, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai & Hyderabad. There were special deals on offer for spot bookings.

And many did take place apart from the numerous enquiries. The expo was organized by SumoGlobal Properties and the official remittance partner was remit2india.

Besides the Ozone group there were a number of other Indian Developers such as Godrej Properties, Tata

Housing,MahindraLifespaces, Ajmera Realty, Puravankara, Lodha, Sobha, Mantri, WTC, Amanora etc. showcasing their project With more than 100 projects on offer and experts present to advise on Tax Structuring, Funding form

Indian Banks,Use of Equity from Australian Properties, Self-Managed Super Fund, Repatriation of Funds and Property Research the expo was a major success for non resident Indians in Melbourne. “The decision of buying a

www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

SUMO Global Australia Pty. Ltd. Level 8, 55 Clarence St, Sydney, 2000 NSW Office/Fax 1 : +61 (0) 2 9869 7105 Mobile : +61 (0) 425 335 795 vishal@sumoglobalwealth.com Website - www.sumoglobalwealth.com

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Delhi SGPC Vice President welcomed in Victorian Parliament

By our community reporter

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elbourne: It was a great moment for Australian Multiculturism when Victorian MP Hon. JudePerera welcomed

Mr.Satpal Singh, Vice President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee at the Victorian Parliament on 25th May. It was also proud moment for local Cranbourne Indian community group who visited the Victorian

Parliament with Mr.Satpal Singh.

All the visitors enjoyed many multicultural dialogues and discussions between Australia and South Asia. Hon. Jude Perera took the group around the Parliament and

updated the precious and historical importance of the parliament buildings, library and other places inside.

The community group also got an opportunity to see the Parliamentary live session in the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council.

Mr.Satpal Singh was impressed with the way the session was conducted at the Victorian Parliament.

Local community activist & ex-federal Labor candidate

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Mr.Manoj Kumar also accompanied them to make sure the local community with their guest must enjoy the visit.

“South Asia is a progressive region in the world and Australia’s relationship with South Asia is important and vital for Australian growth culturally & economically. Such visits and engagement sencourage more trust and proximity within Australia & south Asia” said Mr. Kumar.

NYC Metro experience for Melbourne

By SAT News Desk

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elbourne 31 May: The Andrews Labor Government’s signature infrastructure project, the Metro Tunnel, will benefit from the construction expertise of the largest and most expensive transport project in the United States.

In a rare glimpse of New York City’s East Side Access project, Premier Daniel Andrews went around 45 metres below the streets of midtown Manhattan to inspect progress on the 9.65km tunnel connecting Grand Central Station to the Long Island Rail Road – the busiest commuter rail network in America.

The entire East Side Access project includes 13 kilometres of tunnelling under the East River in New York and will reduce daily commute times by up to 40 minutes.

Dr Michael Horodniceanu, President of the project arm of New York City’s Metropolitan Transport

Authority, and the Coordinator General of Victoria’s Major Transport Program, Corey Hannett, joined the Premier.

The East Side Access project has encountered significant challenges; encountering 350 million year-old rock during the tunneling.

The underground tour was a unique opportunity to learn from the experiences of New York City and

gain valuable insights for Victoria’s Metro Tunnel Project.

The Premier also announced that Dr. Horodniceanu has accepted an invitation to visit Victoria later this year, providing further advice and support ahead of major construction starting in 2018.

Dr Michael Horodniceanu says, "There is no project of this magnitude that is without problems that's

why you have engineers to overcome them, like everything else I imagine Melbourne will have challenges, but they will be overcome carefully and thoughtfully."

The Labor Government fully funded the Metro Tunnel in the Victorian Budget 2016/17 – a project that will create 3,700 Victorian jobs.

The project will take our busiest trains lines through

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new 9km tunnels, relieving congestion in the City Loop and allowing us to run more trains in and out of the city every day.

It will deliver five new state-of-the-art underground stations, with two new CBD stations directly connected to Flinders Street and Melbourne Central stations.

Premier Daniel Andrews said, “Construction of New York City’s massive East Side Access Project hasn’t been easy, but that’s exactly why Victoria should learn from its challenges and how engineers were able to overcome them.”

“The East Side Access project has already been underway for nine years and is the biggest infrastructure in the USA and now its leader is coming to Melbourne to make sure the Metro Tunnel is just as good."

"This is all about jobs and making sure that the world's most livable city has a truly world-class public transport system."

—SAT News Service

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Advertisement

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At this year’s federal election, the way you vote for the Senate has changed and it’s important that you understand how to vote correctly.

If you choose to vote below the line, you must number at least 12 boxes, from 1 to 12, for individual candidates in the order of your choice.

On the large white Senate ballot paper, you can choose to vote either above or below the line.

Voting for the House of Representatives has not changed.

On the green ballot paper, you must number every box, starting with the number ‘1’ for your first choice, ‘2’ for your second choice and so on until you have numbered every box.

If you choose to vote above the line, you now need to number at least 6 boxes. Put the number ‘1’ in the box for the party or group that is your first choice, a ‘2’ for your second choice and so on until you’ve numbered at least 6 boxes.

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community

Telangana Formation Day celebrated

By our community reporter

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elbourne, 4 June: The TelanganaJagruthi (Australia Chapter) organized a massive Telangana State Formation Day celebration at the Shri. Shiva Vishnu Temple cultural centre, Carrum Downs. The Chief Guest was Mrs. KalavakuntlaKavitha, Member of Parliament (LokSabha) and President of the TelanganaJagruthi India.

She is also the daughter of the present Telangana Chief Minister.

The program was massive with hundreds of people seated and a large number

of VIPs including local leaders, community leaders, MPs and prominent persons from all walks of life.

A massive multicultural program of dances and music was also a part of the celebrations. Later the VIP’s one by one addressed the gathering and wished well for Telangana, its people and culture.

The highlight of the event was Mrs. KalavakuntlaKavitha’s address where she detailed the progress made so far and how sacrifices were made for the demand of Telangana. She also praised the role of the overseas Telangana people and urged them to remain attached to their home state and India.

She also presented awards and mementos to prominent community people and local leaders. In fact, the entire Telangana community estimated to be around 7,000 + families in Victoria had someone representing them at the celebrations. A large number of Telangana overseas students were also present during the event.

Snacks were distributed to those present and the musical program continued till the conclusion of the event. Telangana is the new and 29th state in South India with Hyderabad as its capital. The place is famous as an It and business hub in India. —SAT News Service.

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southSouth asia times 11 Asia Times

In Case, You Do Not Know About First Home Owner Grant, Read This…

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he most general introduction of the First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) is that it is a scheme tooffset the effect of GST (Good and Services Tax Bill) on the home ownership. Introduced on 1July 2000, this grant is a national scheme. Not only the scheme is funded by the states and the territories, it’s also administered under their own legislation.

Case in point, in the event of satisfying all the eligibility criteria, under the said scheme, you’ll bepayable a one-off grant being a first homeowner. No matter how exciting the process of buying a new home is, you will be equally exhausted.

Moredraining than the feeling you get when you have to choose which flavour of the ice cream to eat,home buying turns nerve wrecking looking at the plethora of options. Not to forget, you will alsohave a certain financial obligations to cover, isn’t it?

The Perfect Start for Your First Home – First Home Owner Grant The First Home Owner

the criteria that makes you eligible for the First Home Owners Grant in

Grant in Australia is a good start for your purchase, for that matter. The good news is that in case you are a first homebuyer, as per the grant, you will be rewarded withAUD $7,000 in cash by the Government of Australia.

With minor differences

in regulationsamong the various states of the country, the basic purpose of the grant is to assist the firsthomebuyers. Also, the grant is valid for all the states of Australia.

Nevertheless, ever since this grant came into being

in 2000, it has undergone various changes.

To know the exact amount that will be approved for you, it is insisted that you should refer to your own state government regulations and laws.

Do you want to know

Victoria to lead nation on climate change

By SAT News Desk

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elbourne , 9 June : Victoria will once again lead the nation on climate change by legislating ambitious targets and introducing apledge system to bring government, business and the community together to achieve the collective goal.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosioannounced a series of five year interim targets with the goal of achieving the overall target of net zerogreenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The targets are recommendations of the 2015 Independent Review of the Climate Change Act 2010. In responseto the review, the Labor Government will enshrine the net zero emissions reduction target in legislation while also making climate change a consideration across government decision making, policies and programs.

The Andrews Labor Government is also introducing a wide-ranging emissions reduction pledge program for theprivate, government and community sectors.

The pledge program will give businesses and organisations already taking significant action on climate change theopportunity to showcase and build upon their work to-date, while inspiring and enabling others to make theirown contributions to

emissions reductions.

Victorians are invited to visit the pledge website and register their commitment to be part of the process ofhelping Victoria reach net zero by 2050 at: take2.vic.gov.au Premier Daniel Andrews said, “Victoria is once again leading the nation when it comes to tackling climate change.”

“Updating our laws and introducing a target to reduce emissions in Victoria will ensure we take advantage of the new jobs and economic opportunities created by renewable energy.”

Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said, “We are taking decisive action because we know that climate change is real and we ignore it at our peril.”

“We are working with business and across government to reduce emissions in Victoria.”

For more information, and to obtain a copy of the Independent Review of the Climate Change Act 2010 report go to www.delwp.vic.gov. au/climate-change-act. www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

Australia? Read on to know• Your property should be listed among the residential purposes. The property should aim at non-commercial goals such as – home unit, fixed dwelling or apartments.

• This should be your first grant.

• The property should be possessed by the buyer within the first twelve months.

Now you know how First Home Owners Grant in Australia can benefit you. All you need to do is to evaluate the eligibility criteria thoroughly as per your own state.

Happy buying!

Until next time.

Loans Direct ABN : 38 270 143 010 Suite 19, 17 - 19 Miles Street, Mulgrave, VIC 3170 Tel: 03 8400 4565 | Fax: 03 9818 3300 Email: harry@loansdirect. com.au —Supplied

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COMMUNITY

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Innovative healthcare education for ruralurban centres

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elhi, 23rd May 2016: A new partnership was signed on 23 rd May 2016 that will bringworld-class healthcare education and training to India.

Leading Australian healthcare education provider Health Careers, and Hello Health ServicesPvt. Ltd, one of the largest multi-disciplinary healthcare organizations in India, have enteredinto a partnership to provide international training expertise in nursing and healthcare specifictraining for people in rural-urban areas, in local languages, and using the latest technology.

The partnership highlights the growing relationship between Australia and India in trainingand education, and will enable both companies to scale up their operations toward achievingthe vision of Skill India, to make

India a human resource capital of the world. In Australia,the partnership discussions were facilitated

by ShaliniValecha for Hello Health.

Commenting on the partnership, Health Careers CEO & MD BijoKunnumpurath noted thathigh quality education and training will be vital to improving the skills and capability ofhealthcare workers in India. “This partnership is of great importance to India, and HealthCareers is proud to be working with Hello Health to train the future healthcare workforce,”said Mr Kunnumpurath.

Speaking about the partnership, Hello Health CEO Suvanjay Kr Sharma said, “Adoption ofnew technologies will redefine primary medical care in India and will require a highly skilledworkforce. We are pleased to be partnering with an organisation like Health Careers that

willbring international training expertise to rural-urban India.” The partnership aims to raise the level of capability of healthcare students as they take upopportunities to become part of the Hello Health team, and within the health care system inIndia.

Health Careers’ training and education programs will be available through a Hello Healthtraining centre and virtual classrooms at SantKabir Nagar, Uttar Pradesh in the first instance,and then in more than 17 rural-urban centres during 2016/2017. Students will have access tolearning resources and leading educators.

Both organisations share a vision to develop greater opportunities for students to enter thehealthcare workforce by adopting the latest technologies and collaborative tools.

About the Partners: Hello Health Services

Pvt Ltd was formed in 2009 and currently employs over 200 clinicaland support professionals who provide multi-disciplinary home health services to over1,00,000 + members across India. Hello Health has opened India’s first ‘Digital clinic andSmart Cancer Care Centre’ with advanced technology for primary care, and screening andtreatment for cancer patients. Hello Health received its first Venture funding in 2015 fromSmall Scale Industrial Bank of India (SIDBI) through Samridhi Fund (Supported by UK Government’s Department of International Development (DFID).

Health Careers International Pty Ltd is an Australian healthcare education provider thathas been educating healthcare professionals since 2004.

Health Careers has trained over8,000 students from India and around the world.

www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

The partnership aims to raise the level of capability of healthcare students as they take upopportunities to become part of the Hello Health team, and within the health care system in India.

The company has a plan to plan to open 50learning hubs in India by 2020.

—Supplied

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Indian Consulate in Sydney fined $10,620 over unfair dismissal S

By Ashok Kumar

ydney, 1 June: All is not well with the Indian Consulate in Sydney. According to the documents in possession of The Indian Sub-continent Times (THE IST), the past and present events have not been so bright for the Consulate despite good service to the Diaspora.

The past few months, particularly, have not been very exciting for the Consulate. Two cases have come to light, one, an employee, a whistleblower, whose employment was terminated and he challenged ‘the unfair dismissal’ in the Fair Work Commission court. The judgement went in favour of the employee despite the Consulate putting up stiff resistance. The consulate ignored the fact working laws are different in Australia than in India and it had to follow Australian procedures when dealing with any Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident as the employee of the Consulate.

Their charges were set aside by the judge by terming them not enough to stand defence of the proceedings and warrant dismissal. The employee raised some very fundamental issues that were not to the liking of his bosses.

The Court gave ample opportunity to the Consulate for reconciliation and save cost on court fees. But the Consulate opted

to go ahead with the court with proceedings and thereby incurring three times the cost and ended up paying 12 weeks’ salary $10,620 though that could have gone up to a maximum of 26 weeks’ salary in rarest of rare cases. Had the Consulate opted for an out of court settlement or reconciliation as opportunity set out by court, it could have saved a lot of money and embarrassment and future litigation.

So, why he did not avail the re-instatement offer? He replied that when “they can terminate my employment on flimsy grounds then my job will always be under threat. At least now I can live in peace. It will be better if I opt for compensation.”

Meanwhile, Transport Workers Union NSW Acting Secretary Richard Olsen has welcomed the decision by the Fair Work Commission to award a driver unfairly dismissed by the Indian Consulate in Sydney more than $10,000 saying that it sends a clear message that no employer is above the law.

Mr Olsen was speaking after the Fair Work Commission ruled in favour of TWU member and former employee of the Consulate, Hitender Kumar, who was unfairly dismissed by the Consulate last year.

“It takes guts to stand up to your boss – especially when that boss is a Foreign Consulate who sacks you

“This decision sends a message to all workers in Australia, especially foreign migrants, that you have rights no matter who your boss is or what they tell you.

for highlighting major issues in the workplace,” Mr. Olsen said.

“This decision sends a message to all workers in Australia, especially foreign migrants, that you have rights no matter who your boss is or what they tell you.

“It also sends a message to employers that even if you have diplomatic immunity, you still have to play by Australian workplace laws.”

Mr. Olsen said that there are systematic problems with the exploitation of foreign workers in Australia.

“From 7-Eleven, the transport industry and all the way up to foreign embassies, we have seen foreign migrants underpaid, exploited and sacked by their bosses if they speak up,” Mr Olsen said.

“I would encourage any workers who are victims of workplace harassment or underpayment to get in touch with a union to learn about their rights as Australian workers.

“Whether you have a 30,000 year heritage in Australia or you just arrived here last week, if you do Aussie work then you have Aussie rights.”

Mr. Kumar said that he was delighted the Fair Work Commission Court had ruled in his favour.

“When I began to highlight serious issues and discrepancies in what was going on at the Consulate, I was sacked on a trumped up charge. I’m delighted that I’ve been vindicated by the Courts,” Mr. Kumar said.

“I want to tell other Australians, particularly migrants, to not be afraid. If you think are being exploited or there is something happening at work that is not right,

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speak out.”

In a another case, that does not augur well, has come to light, an Indian citizen living in Australia whose passport has been impounded in 2014 by the Ministry of External affairs, The author Govt of India, is still roaming free in Australia, a la ChotaRajan and Vijay Mallaya in UK. Incidentally, Mallaya’s passport too has been revoked by MEA. Mr. RajneshKoul was living in Sydney with his wife when suddenly he left his wife, Parul, at home and disappeared.

Subsequently, it was learnt that his passport has been impounded by the Ministry and that was intimated to Consulate in Sydney. But as per documents in possession of The IST, the Consulate failed to inform the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

Hence, the summonses have been returned without being delivered as Rajnesh is untraceable and his stay is deemed as illegal in Australia. Rajnesh has several criminal cases pending in Indian courts. Poor Parul is running from pillar to post for justice.

The case raises few questions: To become a citizen of Australia or to obtain Australian passport one needs Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) from the Indian authorities (Consulate), so who issued the PCC to Rajnesh knowing very well that his passport has been impounded? And, if he has become a citizen of Australia, how and from where did he obtain PCC? According to an update given to The IST, the Consulate has warded off Parul’s pleas as to why the information had not been forwarded to the Department of Immigration and Border Security; the Consulate shifted the blame to Ghaziabad RPO. It is learnt that the Consulate, on the advice of Ghaziabad RPO impounded the passport of Mr. RajneshKoul in 2014; hence it was the duty of the Consulate to inform Department of Immigration and Border Protection which reportedly they have not done so far, drawing more flak from the common public. However, MsParulKaul has informed the Department of Immigration and Border Protection of the status.

It is a common knowledge that the Consulate is the authority representing India in Australia.

—Source: Indian Subcontinent Times, Sydney

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IF IT DOESN’T ADD UP,

SPEAK UP.

CALL THE

NATIONAL SECURITY HOTLINE

1800 123 400 Even if you think it’s probably nothing, the smallest piece of information can be valuable. Calls to the National Security Hotline have already contributed to investigations. If something doesn’t add up, speak up by calling the National Security Hotline.

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Satrangi Festival 2016 a grand success M

By SAT News Desk

elbourne, 22 May: The Satrangi Film Festival 2016,at the Clayton Hall showed its successfrom the beginning with a massive cultural extravaganza embracing a fashion show with 132 performers from 22 diverse cultures like Indians, Africans, Lebanese, Yugoslavians, Chinese, American tribals, Greeks, Indonesians, Mexicans, Malayas, Ghana, Afghans, Pakistanis, Srilankan and Nepalese.

Nine cross-cultural movies, English & Lebanese Bands, were appreciated by political guests including MPsMr Hong Lim, Ms Inga Pulich, Victorian Multicultural Commissioner Mr Chidambaram Srinivasan and others, and many others media, community activists

and corporates.

Satrangi festival was dedicated to patron Bollywood Filmmaker Late Yash Raj Chopra, who left for heavenly abode in 2012.

The organisers felt inspired from Yash Chopra, for his feature film "Chak De India" shot in Melbourne.

The festival’s closing ceremony at the RMIT on 28 May organised film screening, entertainment, workshop etc. There were many speakers from different media and film sectors. Ten short films ran for 2 minutes each and then the cast and crew spoke about the film. MC Nesan Naidoo conducted the Cultural Diversity & Identity Workshop with various guests, filmmakers and prominent people.

It goes without saying that the festival was well received in the community

and appreciated. The opening and closing of the event had hundreds of people in colourful outfits. The atmosphere was musical, colourful and

joyful. The arrangements were well done and the organisers need to be commended for it.

The whole Satrangi Festival 2016 was conceived

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and conducted under the able leadership of Festival Director Mr.Nawal Mudgal, to promote cultural diversity and foster intercultural awareness.

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‘Bitter Truth’ theme relevant for community

By our community reporter

M

elbourne: The atmosphere was somber and calm as the locally produced movie ‘Bitter Truth’ started.

For about two hours the visibly disturbing saga of a newly wed facing ‘domestic violence’ in a desi family played on the screen. Organized by the filmmakers, the cast was present and interacted with the audience after the movie ended.

The movie theme is a day-

to-day reality in the South Asian community with the bitter truth no more hidden or a secret. The need to talk about it is what the movie unleashes.

This film should not be compared to the sleek and big budget Bollywood stuff.

Surely, the screenplay, editing, music and acting could have been better but let’s not forget it was a first effort with volunteer actors.

That way is worth the effort because of its powerful message.

The turbulence in the new life of a ‘bahu’ (daughter in law) with a rude and abusive

hubby speaks for itself.

Silence in such a situation is no good as help is always available from different sources. The local actors (some well known in the community) have done their best. Basically, the movie

is a mission and should be taken as that and shown around the community.

The movie is directed by Gurmeet Sran and produced

by Prakash Patel & Redhill Productions and stars Karan Battan, Sonia Singh, Sunita

Sangeet Sandhya Open forum for music lovers – classical, semi-classical & film music

Saturday 6/02/16 - Cyril James Saturday 2/04/16 - Ustad Aminul Haque Tuesday 4/06/16 - Shubhangi Pandey Saturday 6/08/16 - Sneha Mahajan Saturday 1/10/16 - Chanchal Mandal Saturday 3/12/16 - TBA

Swar Sandhya Open forum for music lovers; Karaoke – Popular Indian Music Bring your own music, perform and enjoy

Saturday 2/1/16 Saturday 7/5/16 Saturday 3/9/16

Saturday 5/3/16 Saturday 2/7/16 Monday 5/11/16

Venue: Waverly Meadows Primary School,

Time: 8.00pm

Columbia Drive, Wheelers Hill Free Entry, with ample parking, Free tea, coffee and biscuits Contact: Phone- 0402 074 208 or 0407 559 113 email- sangeetswarsandhya@gmail.com www.facebook.com/sangeetsandhya

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Sethi, Satinder Chawala, Rakesh Raizada and Monica Raizada among others.

The movie is also being screened in different Australian cities.

—SAT News Service

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ASSAM RESULTS ANALYSIS

Hindu consolidation or the last battle to protect Assamese identity

By Aman Wadud

I

n 1671 the great Ahom general Lachit Barphukan defeated the Mughals. Ismail Siddique aka Bagh Hazarika was a commander under Lachit Barphukan and a Hindu general Ram Singh led the Mughal Army. The battle was fought at Saraighat.

Never was the battle of Saraighat seen as a Hindu versus the Muslims until the 2016 assembly election of Assam. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared that the election is the last battle of Saraighat- the last battle to protect the identity of Assam. BJP made this the theme of the recently-held election. The result shows that it did strike a chord with large section of people in Assam.

The BJP never did actually say, directly who the Mughals of 2016 are, but they didn’t leave any room for doubt, either.

Tarun Gogoi, an Ahom, made a feeble attempt to term Narendra Modi as the Mughal who is trying to invade Assam. He failed miserably in his attempt.BJP went overboard to assert, in turn, who is the present day Ahom(s) and who the Mughal(s), of course by doing what they do best: distorting history.

Amit Shah in an election rally said that Ahom King Sukapha defeated the Mughals 17 times. Well, Sukapha founded the Ahom dynasty in 1228 AD and died in 1268 AD. The historical rule of the Mughal dynasty in India, began in 1526 AD; just 300 years apart, but not bad. It proved a good slogan and mobilization, too good for BJP. For Assam this was a historic election. Not only because the Lotus bloomed for the first time in North East but, more importantly, because for the first time Hindu votes –across the board - got consolidated.

If at all this was a battle to protect identity it was the Hindu identity and not the Assamese identity. The main target of the BJP in this election was the Muslims of Bengali origin.

The migration of the hard working Muslim peasants of Bengal origin started from the later part of 19th century according to a well planned British strategy to grow more food. The migration was at its peak between the first and third decades decade of the 20th Century. By the time India gained Independence the Muslim population of Assam had become 24%.

In the 1950s, during the language movement, the Muslims of Bengali origin accepted the Assamese language by giving up their mother tongue, an unprecedented sacrifice.

Today there is not even a single Bengali medium school in entire areas dominated by Muslims

of Bengal origin. They got assimilated with the culture and started calling themselves Assamese. Many Assamese intellectuals call them Neo-Assamese.

In 1960, Assam Assembly passed the Language Bill making Assamese the official language of Assam. The language bill would not have been passed without the help of Muslims of Bengali origin. Except a handful of people, the sacrifice of Muslims of Bengali origin never got acknowledged.

Very soon, the Muslims of Bengali origin became the target of chauvinistic leaders.

In the beginning of Assam movement, Bengali Hindus, Marwaris, Nepalis and the Muslims of Bengal origin were targeted as outsiders- Hindus and Muslims alike. How could RSS have stayed silent when Hindus were targeted?

There comes the RSS twist to the Assam movement.

Slowly the movement that started against all outsiders became a movement that only targeted ‘illegal’ immigrants. The Muslims of Bengal origin who migrated much before Independence were branded as illegal immigrants. Bengali Hindus were not spared, but the worst kind of atrocities were inflicted on Muslims. This six year-long movement had such a long-lasting affect that it still decides who will win elections in Assam.

The Assam movement was seen as movement to protect Assamese identity.

After six years when the leaders of the Assam movement formed a political party named the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to contest election, they ended up winning only 55 seats, nine short of absolute majority.

Bengali Hindus and Muslims of Bengali origin didn’t vote for them. The biggest take away lesson from this election was – no party

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could get absolute majority without the support of Muslims and Bengali Hindus.

The BJP think tank was very much aware of this and conscious that, just Muslimbashing, per se, won’t help, or work. If at all, the BJP wanted to achieve its ‘Mission 84’ to form govt on their own they had to unite the Hindus.

This is further evident from the repeated statements made by Himanta Biswa Sarma, the former Congressman, the new Hindu Hriday Samrat of Assam.

Talking about Indian Muslims of Bengali origin, Sarma told the Indian Express,“I am saying they are people who came from Bangladesh in different years. It’s about ethnicity, our Assamese culture. The fight in Assam is about those 34 seats where Bangladeshi immigrants, who are now Indian citizens, are in a majority. Out of the 126 seats, we have to work hard in the remaining 92 seats to save our identity.

This is our last chance. We don’t want Bangladeshi people to encroach on not just our land but also our political space. In this election Bangladeshi immigrants want their own chief minister, too.”

The Chief Minister he was referring to is Badruddin Ajmal, who lost by more than 16000 votes in a constituency with more than 97 per cent Muslim population.

The constituency is South Salamara. Wazed Ali Chowdhury a Congress candidate won because he was seen as a man with far greater credibility. Wherever the Muslims had a better alternative to the AIUDF, the latter lost.

The BJP fought this last battle to save Assamese ethnicity and culture from Muslims of Bengali origin who had accepted Assamese language and got assimilated with Assamese society.

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CONTD. FROM PG 22 The Marwaris and Bengali Hindus never threatened the BJPs version of Assamese ethnicity and culture.

The BJP also made its intention to give citizenship to only Hindus who came from Bangladesh, clear. This has been a plan of the party since 2014. Himanta Biswa Sarma went to the extent of saying that even if a Hindu came just a day before – yesterday-- from Bangladesh they would be granted citizenship. In contrast, during its campaign, the BJP has vowed to strip Muslims of Bengali origin of their citizenship. Four Marwaris and 12 Bengali Hindus won on a BJP ticket in a state election fought as the last battle to protect Assamese ethnicity and culture. There is no doubt that Marwaris and Bengali Hindus are integral part of greater Assamese society, but so are the Muslims of Bengali origin who considers themselves as Assamese.

The only difference is the religion. They were and have been however completely sidelined by the BJP. How can the BJP explain this and justify it ? How can the BJP say that it has no problem with Muslims?

Two posters played a crucial role for BJP in this election; it featured one common man – Maulana

Baddrudin Ajmal, the perfume baron chief of AIUDF. One poster had picture of Ajmal and Sarbananda Sonowal with the caption “Whom do you want to see as the Chief Minister of Assam”.

Another poster had picture of Ajmal and his party men with Tarun Gogoi, the picture was taken when AIUDF leaders were giving a memorandum to Assam Chief Minister; the only thing that AIUDF has done for the people they claim to represent is submitting memorandum to different constitutional authorities and taking pictures of these meeting and then showing these photos around to justify their relevance.

The BJP used one of such picture to its best interest.

BJP circulated this picture through big hoardings all over the state with caption “Secret pact between Congress and AIUDF”. An impression was created that if people don’t vote for the BJP, the Congress and AIUDF will form government and Ajmal will become the Chief Minister of Assam. Voting for Congress was like voting for AIUDF! The incompetence and political naivety of Ajmal was not the issue for BJP, his identity was the sole issue. It worked wonders for the BJP. Hindu votes got consolidated like never

before and BJP made history in Assam.

After the election results, when it became clear that BJP had succeeded in polarising the people of Assam on religious lines, the BJP think tank started a reverse propaganda drive to quell its communal image.

They started propagating the theory that Assamese Muslims voted for BJP en masse! The insidious motive was and is to show that the Assam polity is not polarised and some Muslims stand with the BJP. There is no doubt that based on local issues some Muslims ended up voting for the BJP, even some Muslims of Bengali origin and some Muslims of Bark valley voted for BJP but it was nowhere close to an all-state phenomenon it is being made out to be.

It was merely an exception. In upper Assam, where the Congress got otherwise wiped out, the handful of seats that the grand old party won was because the Assamese Muslim vote played a crucial role in the Congress victory. Most importantly in the Nazira and Sibsagar constituency which is the heartland of Assamese Muslims, the Congress won both seats. In these two constituencies Muslim population comprised of more than 30 percent.

southSouth asia times 21 Asia Times In Amguri, another constituency with sizable Assamese Muslim votes, Congress candidate lost by only 1620 votes.

In Hajo, a lower Assam constituency known for its communal harmony with a sizable number of Assamese Muslim Population tells another story. The Guwahati Lok Sabha MP’s daughter won on the BJP ticket but in a crooked contest: an Assamese Muslim was a Congress candidate. When BJP realized that its senior leader’s daughter is losing, something exceptional happened. Another Assamese Muslim, an AGP stalwart contested from Hajo on the party ticket at a time when there was an alliance with AGP and BJP. So two alliance partners contested on the same seat!

The result was obvious, the Assamese Muslim votes got divided and the Congress candidate lost by less than 9000 votes; the AGP candidate got more than 16000 votes.

It is no wonder BJP had no complaint against the AGP candidate who violated the alliance rule and contested from the same constituency against the BJP. BJPs fake love for the Assamese Muslim got exposed yet another time. In Chaygaon an Assamese Muslim won on

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the Congress ticket; the BJPs dirty tricks didn’t work here. BJP claims that it is not against the Assamese indigenous Muslims. But can the BJP claim that it gave ticket to any Assamese indigenous Muslim where there was and is any chance of that candidate winning? The answer is big no. Even the president of Minority Morcha of the BJP, Mominul Awal, was denied a ticket, a person who alone brought many Muslims to the BJP but was not even worth a BJP ticket! The BJP could have fielded Assamese Muslim candidate in both Nazira and Sibsagar constituency, but they didn’t. Nor did the Congress in all these years.

Shall we understand that in the land of Shankar-Azan an Assamese Muslim can’t even win from a constituency despite having more 30 percent Assamese Muslim votes?

BJP projected Assam win as a national win, not only because it won the state for the first time, but also because it succeeded in polarising people on religious line and consolidated the Hindu votes in Assam.

The author is an Guwahati based lawyer, He tweets at @ Aman Wadud) —Source: Sabrang, 21 May 2016.

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Sri Lanka: Latest population projection of 25 Million poses challenges

By Editor, Sunday Times, Sri Lanka

M

ay 29 2016 (The Sunday Times Sri Lanka) - The most recent population projections expect the Island’s population to reach 25 million by 2042 and 25.8 million by 2062. It is expected to stabilize around the mid 2060s at 25-26 million. This is a significant departure from earlier projections that expected population stability much earlier at around 23-24 million in the 2030s and to decline thereafter.

This higher population growth that is mainly due to the recent increase in fertility from below replacement level to above replacement level, poses serious social and economic challenges in education, health, care of the elderly, public finances and retirement benefits.

Twenty Five million Prof. Indralal de Silva’s and Dr. Ranjith de Silva’s recent book, Sri Lanka: 25 Million People and Implications, Population and Housing Projections 2012-2062, presents comprehensive population projections for 2012-2062 incorporating the latest information revealed in the Census of Population and Housing 2012. These expect population growth to be higher than experienced in recent years.

Projected population increase This standard population projection of the authors

projects that the population would reach 21.3 million in 2017, 22.2 million by 2022, 25 million by 2042 and 25.8 million by 2062. The population reaches stability around the mid 2060s at 2526 million.

This population projection is a significant departure from earlier projections that expected population stability much earlier at around 23-24 million in the 2030s and then begin to decline. This revision is mainly due to the increase in fertility from below replacement level to above replacement level in the past ten years.

Econ-Cartoon2Fertility

The revised population projections are different to those made several years ago since fertility trends have changed recently.

The previous projections expected the country’s population to stabilize at around 23 to 24 million in 2025. This was based on the total fertility rate declining to below replacement level of 2.1 and reaching 2.0 in 2010. With the total fertility rate increasing to 2.4 in 2012-13, the population is increasing faster.

Growth of population Since a large number of women will enter reproductive age in the next

few years and the expected total fertility rate would be above the replacement level for some time, there is an in-built momentum for the growth of population in the next three to four decades. However, the rate of population growth will be on a declining trend and a near zero population growth rate would be attained after 2062.

Gender balance According to the projection the sex ratio would favor females for the next two decades.

However due to an expected improvement in male health in the next decade, and the elimination of

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some factors, such as the war that reduced male life expectancy in the past, male survival rates could improve.

The Sri Lankan population is becoming increasingly feminized. In the aged category, a high proportion is female due to their increased life expectancy compared to males.

According to the authors of this book, female life expectancy today exceeds male life expectancy by a wide margin, as a majority of this female elderly category is economically inactive in contrast to males in the same category.

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CONTD. FROM PG 22 This implies increased attention to coping with the increasing female aged dependents.

Migration The out-migration of females, especially to the Middle East, and the transition from extended to nuclear families has led to inadequate familial care for elderly at home.

The government needs to provide social security mechanisms for the increasing female elderly population. As the number of the elderly grows, the higher mortality among them would result in an increase in the crude death rate.

Population pyramid The shape of Sri Lanka’s population pyramid has been changing rapidly over the years. This pyramid, which had a classical shape in 1981, changed into a pagoda like structure by 2012. During the interim period, the working age population grew significantly. The proportion of children (below 15 years) declined from 35 per cent in 1981 to 25 percent in 2012. The declining fertility over the years led to the progressive decline in the

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base of the pyramid.

The number of children is significant when making projections on expenditure on education. This number that was 5.1 million in 2012 will increase to 5.3 million in 2017, remain fairly static for the next ten years, and fall once again to 5.1 million by 2032. Thereafter, it would be on a declining trend and drop to 4.4 million by 2062.

This contrasts with earlier predictions of a continuous decline in the child population.

Unenviable predicament Although this age structure transition was an expected phenomenon with society undergoing the demographic transition, what was unexpected was the increase in fertility that arrested the deckling child dependency. Sri Lanka is now in an unenviable predicament of both child dependency and old age dependency being high in the next few decades.

While the ageing of the population poses serious economic and social challenges, child dependency will not decrease as expected earlier owing to the increasing fertility. The proportion of females would be higher than of males and the labour

force would not decline.

Problems and challenges The new population projections that are different to what was expected earlier have to be taken into account in the planning of health facilities, education and social welfare, particularly the care of the elderly. The ageing population requires the enhancement of medical

care for illnesses associated with ageing and the expansion of institutional homes for the elderly. The retirement schemes now in operation are limited in coverage, inadequate to the beneficiaries and a strain on the resources of the pension funds or the government.

A total revamping of these schemes to make them more supportive of the elderly, while at the same time financially viable is a serious

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challenge facing the country.

The continuing increase in the child population’s means that maternal and childcare and primary education will require adequate resources.

These critical issues that must be addressed without delay if the country is to avoid severe social strains will be discussed in next Sunday’s column.

The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, originally published this story.

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India: The clash of ideologies

By Latha Jishnu

n

ew Delhi , May 30 2016: Indian democracy is quite often about the politics of visibility, the image most often replacing the substance.

Political parties celebrate their leaders, both living and dead, in huge newspaper advertisements that cost an enormous amount. For leaders who have passed on, there is usually a remembrance on their birth and death anniversaries whereas in the case of serving politicians just about any occasion is an excuse to indulge in an extra splash of image building.

In recent days, the clash of ideologies and personalities of India past and present has been playing out even in the ad space with the BJP and the Congress marking anniversaries that commemorate critical milestones in India`s democratic journey. Loud and characteristically in your face was the advertising blitzkrieg unleashed by the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) to mark the second anniversary of the NarendraModi regime (May 26). And there was a twist. Most of the fulsome tributes came from party chief ministers in BJP-ruled states who, like the vassals of yore, lauded their chieftain for his `outstanding governance` or `great achievements` or the `innumerable achievements` of his `charismatic and visionary leadership`. So we know who picked up the tab for this anniversary extravagance apart from the government of India.

A day later, there was a much smaller ad and very few of them in memory of India`s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his death anniversary.

That commemoration did not come from the government of India, as it should have; it was put up by the Congress party. This was all of a piece with the policy of the BJP regime which is trying to obliterate Nehru`s memory and legacy in mission mode, and not just because of his staunch ideological opposition to the politics of communalism. That legacy of his which kept India on the secular path for decades is being whittled away by a ferocious political campaign and in unsavory ways by the saffron underbelly of the party. An entire online industry has sprung up to promote websites that spew venom against India`s first prime minister with gross calumny while its army of Internet trolls flood social websites with misrepresentations that only reveal their lack of history and culture.

It is undoubtedly galling for the BJP and its ideologues in

As the saffron ideology becomes increasingly popular, especially with the middle class, there is a marked inability in the ranks of secular society to come to terms with this phenomenon.

the parent organization, the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh, that they can flaunt no heroes of their own from the freedom struggle. That they did not take part in the freedom movement is a historical truth they cannot undo. On the other hand, they have to contend with a Nehru who spent close to nine years in prison and was once paraded in chains by the British.

That is one reason why the Hindu supremacist BJP resents Nehru and the liberal, secular Indians who subscribe to his ideals. The most irksome is Nehru`s known opposition to religious fundamentalism which, like poverty, he believed to be the worst scourge of the country. But there are clearly more reasons for the Hindutva brigade`s implacable hatred of the man who steered India in the first 16 years of its independence, an extraordinary stint that was marked by visionary successes and some profound failures.

At the simplest level it is, perhaps, a class issue.

Nehru was British-educated and patently Westernised even if he wore khadi and a Congress cap along with his trademark bandhgalaModi`s attire, incidentally, is a flattering imitation of this attire, down to his churidars and he was suavely cosmopolitan.

He wrote and spoke in elegant English and he was comfortable in the company of women. To add to his aura was wealth, which he gave away, a fact that the class of people who subscribe to the saffron ideology probably find astonishing. Besides, he mattered greatly in the global scheme of things.

Today, when liberals ask why they are the targets of the saffron brigade, the answer could be that for the most part they come from a similar background and champion the values that Nehru held dear.

At least that comes across as a major grouse with the saffron lobby if you read their

blogs and other online rants.

But there are obviously deeper reasons for the growing chasm between the secular opponents of the majoritarian principles pushed by the Modi regime and the supposedly rooted Indian who prefers the vernacular, is proud to belt out BharatmatakiJai (victory to Mother India) and is above all a proud Hindu.

As the saffron ideology becomes increasingly popular, especially with the middle class, there is a marked inability in the ranks of secular society to come to terms with this phenomenon. Their antipathy to Hindutva is also marked by a similar revulsion tinged with derision. Where, they ask, are intellectuals of repute who can make a persuasive case for the country`s rightward shift? Why does the BJP and its brotherhood of saffron suffer from such a striking intellectual deficit? They have no historians or even Sanskritists of repute. They might have

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some economists in their retinue but certainly no thinkers with a compelling vision for the country`s future.

One-way for the Modi men to understand why Nehru`s legacy endures would be to understand his towering vision for the country. To start with they could peruse Nehru: The making of India, published in the centennial year of his birth (1988). The book is long but easy to read and it shows why Nehru is still important to the idea of a modern India. `His most important contribution in a life full of contributions was a clear establishment of a vision in which to lift India from the 18th century towards the 21st, explains M.J. Akbar, the author, who repeatedly emphasizes Nehru`s conviction that communalism was the worst evil facing independent India.

Having watched religious emotions play havoc with the unity of the country and the people, to stand up and take positions against what might be called fundamentalism, to seek to define a new language by saying that the steel mills and the dams were the temples of modern India, this required conviction, courage and the confidence that swaying them with religion was not just wrong but injurious ‌ these were remarkable convictions that shaped India.

The author, once a Congressman, now has clout in the BJP. He is a member of the RajyaSabha (upper house of parliament) and is national spokesman of the party. If he could he persuade Modi and his cabal to read his book, would it change the disastrous trajectory of current politics?

The writer is a journalist based in New Delhi. ljishnu@ yahoo.com This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan (Heading changed)

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Jihad vs. Terrorism - 2

By RASHID SULTAN

(Contd. from June 2016 issue) Dear reader, these facts may seem minutiae, on the surface but, they are important to understand today’s Islamic terrorism.

The establishment of Israel and the consequent fleeing of Palestinians to the neighbouring countries, was seen by Muslims as a dagger in the heart of the Arab world. And, as the time passed and as no help was coming forth from either the Western block or their own rulers, the anger kept growing among the masses.

The euphoria came to its peak in 1967 when Egypt, Syria and Jordan decided to attack Israel. While Jordan had always been under American influence, both Egypt and Syria were proUSSR (Russia now). These were the days of Cold War. The USA called on the USSR asking it to refrain their protégées- Egypt and Syriafrom taking any military action while guaranteeing no action from Israel. USSR allies decided to withhold action believing in the guarantee by the USSR.

But, USA could not stop Israel from taking a preemptive action (or was it a pre-planned tactic of the Western block)?

And thus one fine morning in March 1967, Israel attacked all these three countries, unexpectedly, suddenly. In a few hours, the entire air forces of the three countries were annihilated.

Not a single aircraft was left serviceable. And, thus, Israel occupied theSinai peninsula (Egypt), the whole West Bank (Palestine) and the Golan Heights (Syria) and also annexed eastern Jerusalem, which had remained with Muslims after the partition of Palestine.

Gamal Nasser’s (Egypt’s ruler) psychological condition after this was no different to Pandit Nehru’s after the Chinese aggression, and he could not survive for long. He paid the penalty for believing the USSR and in its guarantee by losing his status in the non-aligned world.

After the ceasefire (though, there was no need for a ceasefire ), the UNO, under UN charter, ordered Israel to vacate all the occupied territories and go back to its borders, which Israel has refused to do till

date- 49 years, now. Another milestone in the world history!

Why? Because USA , the leader of the so-called free world, under the influence of the Israeli and the Jewish lobby- the strongest in the USA- has vetoed every decision, on Israel,in the Security Council even after 49 years.

(Remember, Barack O Bama’s promises before his election in 2008 and his first overseas trip to the Arab world, after election, and his threats to Netanyahu and then, his ultimate backdown. He could not keep his throne byantagonising the Jewish/Israeli lobby).

And thus the first Islamic terrorist attack happened. In 1972, the Black September group (Palestinians) attacked the Munich Olympics where 11 Israeli athletes and 5 Palestinians were killed. The jury is still out whether the 9 Israeli athletes were killed- by Palestinians or by German commandos?

And, thus the spiral of Palestinian terrorist attacks and Israeli violence began with no respite. For every Israeli killed, twenty Palestinians were dumped.

Israel has taken the art of disproportionate reaction to its utmost heights, to this day, despite condemnation and protests from around the world.

The brutal suppression of Palestinians (mostly Muslims) for decades was sowing more and more hatred for Israelis and their western backers- USA, Britain, France, the Security Council members who have the veto.

The desperation in the Arab world kept growing.

But, what could a common Arab do? All the rulers – Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the Emirates were under the influence of the USA while Syria, Yemen etc. were pro-Russian.

Remember the cold war?

The Arabs have never known democracy. Even after the end of the colonial era, they have been ruled either by kings, sheikhs or dictators. The Indian example of freedom from colonialists has passed them by. They haven’t tasted any freedom – speech, dissent, action or choice. They only know the brutal force of the rulers by whatever meanspolice or military.

And, then, USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan came in 1979.

There was a considerable portion of Muslims, around the globe, that were adamant to take revenge against the West including the ‘atheistic’ USSR: (a) fF or the injustices during western colonialism and the arbitrary partition of the Arab world after the 2nd world war when the colonialists finally left (Remember the partition of India and Vietnam)? (b) The continuing patronage and support of Israel despite the wholesale breaches of human rights (c) The support of USA for the dictators under whose ruthless and brutal regimes the whole Arab world was seething (oil reigned supreme).

Due to the sensibilities of the cold war, USA was not prepared to send its army to face the USSR. The best way was to start a proxy war via Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Pakistan and the Fidayeen from all over the Muslim world. Billions and billions of dollars in cash and warehouses and warehouses of small, medium and large armaments were poured through Pakistan, and from the north of Afghanistan.

CONTD. ON PG 29

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Bangladesh : Child domestic labor abuse rampant

By Aasha Mehreen Amin

M

ay 30 2016 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh) - It is easy to miss stories about child domestic workers being tortured and killed. Easy because stories of children being killed have become eerily regular. It is May 28 and there is the report of 14-year-old Konika Rani being hacked to death by a drug addict with three of her classmates also grievously injured by him.

There is also the horror of having to read about a sixyear-old being left critically wounded after being raped by her neighbor. Next to this is the news of 11-yearold HasinaAkhter dying in hospital from the fatal wounds inflicted on her, presumably by her employers.

It’s hard to choose which incident merits more attention – they are, after all, all children.

But for now let’s just focus on the child domestic worker.

Why? Because in the other two cases, such attacks, though heinous and reprehensible, are unpredictable. In the case of Hasina, however, the chance of abuse is uncomfortably high. Child domestic workers – a staggering 421,000 in number, according to Unicef (2015) – are possibly the most vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse mainly because they are confined to a house 24-7 and have little means of escape.

Extreme poverty forces families to send their children to homes of the more privileged. Once they are employed, they are at the mercy of their employers and

their families. They are often made to do the work of an adult and paid a pittance. They work odd hours and are given hardly any time to rest, least of all play. School, for most, is no longer a part of their lives.

But the worst part of their working environment is that they will be severely reprimanded in the form of verbal or physical abuse for making the smallest of mistakes. A Unicef study has reported as much as 60 percent of child domestic workers saying that they faced some kind of abuse during work, such as slapping and scolding; more than half received no wage at all.

The fact that HasinaAkhter did not even get a chance to say goodbye to her mother before her frail little body gave in to the injuries inflicted on her, is not surprising.

Yet the extent to which her tormenters went will not fail to make one feel sick to the stomach: her hand and leg were broken, there were burns on her back and injuries on her head and other parts of her body, her face bloodied.

This is how her mother Salma Begum found her when she rushed from her home in Mymensingh to Dhaka Medical College.

Salma, a domestic worker, had fallen ill and she sent her little daughter Hasina to her employer Shariful Islam’s house in Mohammadpur.

She was to do some light housework and play with the children. For four months, however, Salma had no news of her child, until she got the ominous call from her employer that Hasina had typhoid and malaria and

was in hospital. According to a news report, Shariful Islam had brought a severely injured Hasina to the hospital, telling the police on duty that he had found her lying on the street. After admitting her to the hospital, Shariful quickly left the scene. Later, when the police went to Shariful’s house, after Salma had spoken to them, the couple had already fled. They were later arrested from Sreepur while in hiding.

There may be all kinds of socio-psychological explanations behind such barbarity inflicted by people who otherwise appear quite ‘normal’. Think of the wellknown cricketer and his wife who turned out to be sadistic torturers of their child domestic worker. We don’t need experts to tell us, however, why employers think they can get away with abusing child workers.

Despite the Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy-2015, which has been approved by the cabinet, there has been virtually no move to enforce this policy that would require all domestic workers to be registered as well as be guaranteed basic rights in terms of working hours, leave, benefits, health care and legal redress. Despite laws that serve the harshest punishment for physical torture, rape and murder of children, child domestic workers continue to be victims of all kinds of abuse.

The reason is simple. It is easy to beat and torture a child and get away with it.

Child workers do not have a voice and there are no

avenues by which they can get help when they are being victimised. The worst part is that in many cases the entire family collaborates in the torture. There is no one to speak out for the child domestic worker. Neighbours may hear their cries of help but few will try to intervene.

The idea of child labour is abhorrent in any society but it is a reality that we have done little to fix. Poverty compels families to send their children to the city to work in strangers’ homes in the hope that they will be fed, clothed and given some money to help them survive. This makes it a complex issue, one that cannot be solved with blanket bans without addressing the factors that push children into domestic work. But can we call ourselves a civilised nation if we continue to employ little children to work like adults who are vulnerable to abuse?

It is hard to accept the truth that while employers shower their own children with love, caring and indulgence, when it comes to their child domestic worker, she/he is treated with contempt, neglect and sometimes brutality. Essentially, it is a class issue and the feudal mindset of society serves to perpetuate the idea that domestic workers are inferior beings with child domestic workers falling in the lowest rung of the ladder.

While we may wait for the Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy-2015 to make any significant change in the lives of domestic workers in general, the state must work towards the total

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It is hard to accept the truth that while employers shower their own children with love, caring and indulgence, when it comes to their child domestic worker, she/he is treated with contempt, neglect and sometimes brutality. prohibition of employing children for household work, which can only be defined as hazardous child labour. This is because no matter how much we harp on having helplines, monitoring teams, mandatory schooling and enforcement of stringent laws to ensure the safety and wellbeing of child domestic workers, in the real world, human beings have a propensity to become monsters when no one is looking.

The writer is Deputy Editor, Editorial & Opinion, The Daily Star. (Heading changed) This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

J U N E

southSouth asia times 27 Asia Times

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EDITOR’S PICK

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Salma Dam Cements India-Afghan Ties N

EW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani formally inaugurated the $290-million Salma Dam on Saturday. The two leaders jointly pressed a remotecontrolled button that activated the turbines, as security risks prevented them from the dam site.

The Salma Dam -- also known as the AfghanIndian friendship dam -- is a 1700 crore infrastructure showpiece by India in Herat province, and is indicative of the former’s soft power muscle in Afghanistan. It will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of power once functional.

At the inauguration ceremony, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani welcomed PM Modi saying, “Today, we come together to make eternal India Afghan ties and friendship. This Dam will chart a new course of cooperation and prosperity… Our people identify India with roads, dams and over 200 small development projects."

PM Modi, in turn, reiterated India’s commitment to Afghanistan, saying, “India will not forget you or turn away… Your friendship is our honour; your dreams are our duty.”

The Indian Prime Minister is in Afghanistan as part of a five nation tour. This is PM Modi’s second visit to Afghanistan in less than six months -- indicating perhaps the renewed importance India is placing on the conflict-torn country.

This importance is corroborated by India’s soft power presence, as India’s development assistance programme for Afghanistan

stands at $2 billion, making the country one of the leading donor nations in Afghanistan.

India’s soft power presence is in the form of investments in hospitals and institutional buildings (India built Afghanistan’s parliament), accords to train army and police officers, and other capacity building measures. It’s interest in the region is linked to Afghanistan emerging as an economic and energy link to Central Asia. The recent Chabahar Port deal signed between India, Iran and Afghanistan is indicative of the same.

There has been concern in India in recent years on the lack of space accorded to it as far as Afghanistan is concern, despite the country making clear that it has strategic interests in the country. Last year, India was left out as the US and China co-convened a high level meeting on Afghanistan’s peaceful development and regional cooperation.

Months of efforts by both Pakistan and the U.S. to ease out differences and bring China on board finally bore fruit, with the first-ofits-kind meet being held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

In the chair were the Chief Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Afghan Foreign Minister SalahuddinRabbani. Those who participated in the talks were ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran,Australia, Italy, Norway.

Kazakhstan. Pakistan was represented by National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz.

There was no sign of India,

clearly not even invited as a participant.

In the ensuing dialogue that has involved Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States and China, there has been no role for India. China has thus stepped in where India seems to have been afraid to tread. In that it has expanded its role from economic and financial assistance to a clearly strategic partnership, sitting on the same side of the table as the US on this issue.

In the process that India, which seems to be happy with the “fondness” that the common Afghan reportedly has for Indians, seemed to be completely out of the picture as even two major competitors join hands to tackle the challenges posed

by Afghanistan, and the fast deteriorating situation there.

China’s interest in Afghanistan shifted from the financial to the strategic about three years ago according to experts here.

In fact the Wall Street Journal taking first note of the shift wrote: During Afghanistan’s tumultuous political transition last year, Chinese security officials began visiting Kabul regularly, and expressed concerns about militant havens, according to a former senior Afghan security official.

Franz-Michael Mellbin, the European Union envoy to Afghanistan, said he first noticed increased Chinese interest in Afghanistan in 2013. “They have been looking for an area to expand their foreign policy toolbox,” he said, “but also doing it in a way that would not be seen strategically threatening to the U.S.” During an October

conference on Afghanistan in Beijing, a Chinese general surprised some U.S. participants by suggesting the Pentagon inquire about a joint effort with China to train Afghan security forces, say people familiar with the matter.

This was followed by a secret meeting of the Taliban in China in May this year, with the news being leaked at the time to the Wall Street Journal in the US. Top officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan were present at the meeting, that really became the turn point for full blown Chinese participation in the Afghan peace process. The US has been in close contact with Beijing with Secretary of State John Kerry speaking highly of the new found cooperation with China at the New York meeting.

He went on to describe China “as a country that understands very deeply the cross currents in Afghanistan. Relations between China and Pakistan are close and strategic, leading to discomfort in New Delhi and also Washington, that the latter has clearly overcome. The Wall Street Journal quoted Hu Shisheng, an Afghanistan expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a think tank linked to the Ministry of State Security saying that the training of Afghan forces outside Afghanistan by both US and China was seen as “feasible and realistic.” The two countries are jointly training diplomats as well.

Pakistan is supportive, with a foreign ministry statement from Islamabad maintaining earlier that the Sharif government will

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At the inauguration ceremony, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani welcomed PM Modi saying, “Today, we come together to make eternal India Afghan ties and friendship. This Dam will chart a new course of cooperation and prosperity… work closely with China to support the Afghan peace process. US media reports also suggest a lowering of tensions with senior officials being quoted as saying that they do not see China as a competitor to its relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Given the above, India -- now more than ever -feels the need to establish ties with Afghanistan, and PM Modi’s visit to Kabul is located in this strategic context. The Salma Dam project is an offering in this larger context, the Indian cabinet having approved its construction at a revise cost just ahead of PM Modi’s first visit.

Source: The Citizen, June 05. 2016.

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MUSINGS

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southSouth asia times 29 Asia Times

Jihad vs. Terrorism - 2

CONTD. FROM PG 25

The war was mainly won by the Fidayeens with help of Arab money and military from the USA. But, in the meanwhile, America had created a Frankenstein in the form of Osama Bin Laden, a very, very rich man with ambition to defeat not only the Arab rulers but their backers in Washington, London and Paris.And he launched‘Al Qaida’a vehicle for his Jihad.

And so 09/11/2001 happened- killing 3000 people in New York.

His argument was thatcitizens in the west were electing their leaders who, in turn, wage unjust wars on Muslims are, therefore, equally responsible, for their government’s evil policies and thus are a ‘collateral damage’ in the ‘just war’- the same refrain which the West has been chanting for decades justifying civilian deaths when attacking the third world countries.

The invasion of Afghanistan was a knee jerk reaction by President Bush Jnr.to avenge the 09/11.

The attack on Iraq, on flimsy arguments, blew the

fuse of the anger of Muslim world. Was it to take revenge of his father’s earlier Gulf war in 1991?No evidence of Mass destruction has been found so far.

And,the result?

More than a million Iraqi civilians killedin the aftermath.

And, then, came the Arab Spring. From Tunisia to Libya,to Syria and to Egypt.

But, we have witnessed how ruthlessly the rebellion against the dictatorial regimes was supressedby the rulers while, the USA benignly looked the other way and delivered lip service in condemning the suppression of human rights. The Iraqi liberation gave birth to yet another problem- sectarianism. Shias came to power, and Sunnis, in minority, were openly discriminated and sidelined, after decades of ruling Iraq.

Pride?

This gave rise to Sunnis taking up arms in parts of Iraq where they were in majority, and spreading to neighbouring Syria, where the Sunni majority has been ruled by a minority of a subsect of Shias.

In the beginning, the revolt was in the hands of

moderate Sunnis.

But along came the ISIS or Dayesh or now ISthe extremist and most fundamentalist interpreters of Islamic tenets.

And, we know how thousands of Muslims, both Sunnis and Shias, are being butchered every month by them in the name of Islam or their progeny around the world.

They declared themselves a caliphate. How and when and who chose their caliph, nobody knows?

This is no Jihad but, simply a political battle where Sunnis are killing innocent Shias; Sunnis are killing innocent Sunnis and in the process also killing innocent Christians in the lands they occupy- Iraq, Syria as well as in the West.

The result?

Millions of refugees are fleeing from their lands.

There are more than 100 million refugees around the world and majority of them are Muslims, from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

After, initially, accepting them in the beginning, no government, now is ready to embrace them due to far right movements in so many countries in the EU,

particularly Eastern Europe.

Why go far? Look at Nauru and Manus Island’s refugees where they are perishing for 3 years.

The plight of these refugees are further enflaming the ire of Muslims around the world and the IS is using this scenario to attract more and more young Muslims from around the world to its ranks.

They call it Jihad.

Killing innocent men, women and children in the name of Jihad is totally contrary to the edicts of the holy Quran, as said earlier in this article.

No newspaper is complete, today, without news of people being butchered and massacred in the name of this so-called Jihad.

And what is the West doing?

Accepting a fragment of refugeesin Europe while overwhelming number of displaced refugees are living in tents and dirty and filthy surroundings in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon?Another example of resentment among the Muslims around the globe and another excuse for Muslims to keep up the Jihad.

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Unless the cause of terrorism is dealt with, no amount of military might will succeed.

The USA, the strongest power on earth, has,at last, realised that no amount of military force is going to annihilate the Islamic militants. Remember Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq? These are the places where the USA had to leave without their aims fulfilled and losing thousands of their soldiers and costing billions and billions to its economy.They are now trying to bring the Talibans to the table in Afghanistan and convince them to participate in the governance of the country.

Times have changed.

Since the 2nd world war, the USA has not won a single war on the world stage. No amount of coercion can suppress these rebellions, except to increase profits for the US armament industry, if this is what they want.

The Islamic terrorism will not go away unless the source of this terrorism is dealt with- the formation of the Palestinian state and the ousting of dictators in the Middle East.

CONCLUDED.

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Business

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No public funding for Adani’s Carmichael Coal mine: Turnbull

By Neeraj Nanda

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elbourne, 4 May: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has in an off-the-cuff remark said he will not waste taxpayer money on the Adani-owned Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.

The PM was answering to a question from Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Nemo in Brisbane. The proposed mine covers 28,000 hectares and has been under flak from environmental groups.

Mr.Adani is a prominent Indian businessman and is considered close to PM Modi and accompanied him during his Australia visit.

In a media statement while welcoming Mr. Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment Greenpeace Pacific reef campaigner ShaniTager said: “While

this off-the-cuff comment is welcome, the prime minister still needs to announce a credible environmental policy to protect the reef from the dangers of coal for future generations.”

“The Carmichael mine would mean more dredging in the Great Barrier Reef, more ships through its waters and more carbon emissions at a time when the reef is suffering from its worst ever bleaching.

The prime minister joins 14 international and

Australian banks that have ruled out funding the project. Queensland’s treasury department has described the project as ‘unbankable’ and no other

investors are prepared to get behind a project that needs $16.5bn.”

Earlier in April more than 150 Brisbane residents had protested outside the

Qld Parliament against the decision to grant a coal mining licence to the Indian coal giant in the Galilee Basin.

—SAT News Service

Australia’s economic edge: the Asian business diasporas

BY SAT News Desk

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elbourne: Australia’s human bridges to Asia are critical national infrastructure, according to a new report fromthe Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA).

With Asian nations rising as the super-economies of the century ahead, the report, Australia’sDiaspora Advantage: Realizing the potential for building transnational business networks with Asia,charts the path to stronger engagement for higher returns. “ Today around 4 million people, or about one in six of the population living and working in Australia,identify as being of Asian origin. Australia’s Chinese and Indian Diasporas, the focus of the report,now include some 1.2 million and 610,000 people respectively, “ says

the ACOLA report.

By 2030 these two economies will be the first and third largest in the world. India was the world’sfastest growing economy in 2015; and together China and India have almost tripled their share of the global economy over the past 20 years.

Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel helped launch the report in Canberra today, with thekeynote presentation from Professor John Fitzgerald FAHA, ACOLA Council.

“Asian communities are driving enterprise and innovation in Australia; using their language skills,

cultural knowledge and global networks to connect us to the engines of the modern world,” Prof Fitzgerald said: “It is time for us to capture this diversity, dynamism and mobility, and work together to harness ourdiaspora advantage.”

At the last Census, Australia’s Chinese and Indian Diasporas owned over 45,000 businesses. In justfive years, the number of Chinese-born business owners grew by 40 per cent; and Indian-bornbusiness owners by 72 per cent.

Recent surveys also show, however, that whilst 9.4 per cent of Australian workers

are Asian-born,only 4.9 per cent advance into senior management roles.

Professor FazalRizvi, Co-Chair of the project’s Expert Working Group, said for Australia to realizeits diaspora advantage, it needs to develop a comprehensive, bi-partisan national approach that buildson successes to date, and the entrepreneurial energies that Asian Australian business communitiesclearly have.

“We suggest involving the Asian business communities in economic and trade policy development,and connecting business Diasporas with

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research collaborations for innovation and commercializing ideas.

The potential role of the Asian business diasporas in Australia’s innovation agenda cannot be stressed enough” he said.

“Australia has an opportunity to take a leading international role in understanding how much Diasporas contribute to global growth, and helping our local business diasporas use their knowledge,skills and networks to forge critical transnational commercial links.”

The report is available on www.acola.org.au —SAT News Service

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OPINION

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southSouth asia times 35 Asia Times

A balance sheet for May 28

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

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ay 29 2016: On this very day, exactly 18 years ago, riotous celebration erupted after Pakistan tested its nuclear weapons. Just 17 days earlier, India had experienced a similar moment. Then, one year later, Pakistan once again saw mass jubilation during the officially sponsored Youm-i-Takbir. But, in sharp contrast, today`s nuclear celebrations are barely audible. One hopes that this signals increased national maturity and sobriety.

From Pakistan`s perspective, its nuclear weapons have already delivered by reducing India`s willingness and ability to use its superior conventional military capability. Indian restraint during the 1999 Kargil war, the subsequent failure of Indian efforts at coercive diplomacy in 2001-02, and the caution exercised after the 2008 Mumbai attack attest to the central lesson of the nuclear age it is not worth going to war against a nuclear-armed adversary on anything of less than national life-ordeath importance. That`s the success part. What of the rest? As readers will surely recall, there were many expectations that went well beyond matching India`s bombs. Lest they be forgotten, let`s recall what they were and review the report card. First, the bomb was supposed to ensure Pakistan`s security. Post Chagai, it was common to claim that `none may now dare look at Pakistan with evil eye`.

But this was shallow rhetoric. In 2016, Pakistan is threatened not so much

by India as by a multitude of Islamist militant groups that are waging bloody war against our state and society. In the last decade, the Pakistan army has lost more soldiers to terrorism than in all four wars against India. Nuclear bombs are

useless against terrorists.

The bombs proved equally useless in stopping the drone that took out Mullah Mansour a few days ago, or the team of SEALs that hunted down Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Apart from issuing sullen remarks about the violation of its sovereignty, Pakistan could do nothing to challenge American power.

Second, ever since the first bomb was ready (1987), it was hoped that the bomb would resolve the Kashmir dispute in Pakistan`s favour.

Protected by nuclear weapons, Pakistan could support militant groups to wage a low-cost war against Indian forces based in Kashmir, raising the cost of Indian occupation.

For fear of triggering nuclear confrontation, India would be deterred from launching cross-border retaliatory raids. The term `nuclear flashpoint` for Kashmir reverberated in the international press.

The hope here was that Western intermediaries would step in and force India to the bargaining table.

It didn`t work. After an initial period of worry, international interest in intervening in the Kashmir dispute waned. The UN no longer pays any attention to the matter. Today, the wisest option for Pakistan would be to stick to its officially declared policy of providing moral and diplomatic support but no clandestine military support to those Kashmiris who bravely resist Indian occupation. Else, how can it reasonably protest Indian support to Baloch separatists? Condemn KulbhushanJadhav and his associates? Third, the euphoria created by the nuclear tests was expected to create a new national spirit. The euphoric press compared this historical moment with the birth of Pakistan in 1947. TV programmes of that time show Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulating cheering citizens. To

bear the pain of Western sanctions, he promised strict personal and public austerity. Henceforth grand public buildings including the prime minister`s house would be converted into schools and women`s universities.

Long before Panama, this became unbelievable.

The fact is that such euphoric moments are strictly temporary. Once the excitement of the blast fades, harsh realities inevitably set in. May 28 did not end Pakistan`s struggle to discover an identity and national purpose or help it overcome deep provincial, religious, ethnic, and linguistic divisions.

Beyond hoping for Chinese largesse, it does not have a programme for economic growth to meet the needs of an exploding population.

Fourth, now a country that was both nuclear and Muslim, Pakistan hoped to emerge as a leader among Islamic countries, standing tall alongside the much older, more established, and much richer Muslim nations.

It also sought to become their defender.

The notion of creating a common defence for the ummah was vigorously promoted by numerousIslamist parties in Pakistan, most notably the Jamaat-i-Islami. Carrying cardboard replicas of the Shaheen and Ghauri missiles through the streets, they claimed the bomb was for Islam rather than just Pakistan. Much of the media was also enthusiastic about expanding the appeal of the bomb.

Indeed, Muslim nations as diverse as Iran and Saudi Arabia were delighted at Pakistan`s success.

Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi flew over to congratulate Pakistan.

Saudi Arabia went further; it provided Pakistan with 50,000 barrels per day of free oil to help it cope with the international sanctions triggered by nuclear tests.

But those moments have long passed. The notion of the ummah has evaporated as Muslims fight Muslims in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Turkey and Libya.

Nothing suggests that this is temporary. Iran and Saudi Arabia are at daggers drawn, and the Pakistan-Iran

CLARIFICATION In SAT May 2016 issue we used a ‘Essay’ by Brian Steel on the issue of using the Roman script for Hindi as a tool to make it easy for non Hindi or non subcontinent people to use it. The ‘Essay’ was with the title ‘Should Hindi Adopt The Roman Script?’ The original heading of the ‘Essay’ was ‘On Language Scripts and Transliteration. With special reference to Hindi and Urdu’. The heading was changed/ improved to help attract readers to the subject.

—EDITOR www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082

relationship simmers with hostility.

Today, Israel and Saudi Arabia are virtual allies with Pakistan drawing ever closer to the latter. The notion that Pakistan`s bomb could be directed against Israel has become unbelievable.

Fifth, and finally, the bomb was supposed to transform Pakistan into a technologically and scientifically advanced country. Amazingly, both India and Pakistan forgot something basic making nuclear weapons many decades after they were first made is a highly unconvincing claim to technological prowess. Even poor North Korea, known for its cartoon-boy dictator but not for new science has conducted four nuclear tests and boasts of ICBM capability.

The atomic bomb was supposed to create a state of bliss. Unsurprisingly that didn`t happen.

Indeed, Pakistan`s security problems cannot be solved by expanding its missile fleet, buying more F-16s, or developing tactical nuclear weapons. Instead, the way forward lies in building a sustainable and active democracy, an economy for peace rather than war, a federation in which provincial grievances can be effectively resolved, elimination of the feudal order, and creating a tolerant society that respects the rule of law.

The writer teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad.

This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan

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Sports

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India aims historic first at the Hockey Champions Trophy London

By SAT Sports Desk

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elbourne: India have never won the Hockey Champions Trophy but the eight time Olympic champions have in recent years been showing signs that a return to the glory days of old might be just around the corner.

Following a ninth place finish at the 2014 Rabobank Hockey World Cup, the team produced a string of high quality performances to claim the silver medal behind World Champions Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

That success was a sign of even greater things to come, with India storming to glory at the 2014 Asian Games to seal their place at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by defeating eternal rivals Pakistan in the competition final before landing a fourth place finish at the end-of-year Hero Hockey Champions Trophy on home

soil in Bhubaneswar.

2015 saw even greater improvement, securing a fourth place finish at the FINTRO Hockey World League Semi-Final in Antwerp, Belgium, early in July before securing the bronze medal at the endof-year Hero Hockey World League Final event in Raipur, India.

The team coached by legendary Dutch tactician RoelantOltmans – who guided the Netherlands men to Olympic and World Cup glory in 1996 and 1998 respectively – has made a promising start to 2016, with the side claiming the silver medal at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia.

Defender Harmanpreet Singh, one of the outstanding performers at the Sultan Azlan Shah event, finds himself retained in the squad, as areyoungstersHarjeet Singh and 21-year-old goalkeeper VikasDahiya. Gifted goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh and drag-flicking defender

VR Raghunath, both rested for the event in Malaysia, have returned to the squad and will provide a strong backbone to an impressive looking Indian squad.

RoelantOltmans says, “It is important that we approach the tournament not just with a view to winning it, but also to execute our tactics well, and learn from past mistakes and keep evolving. This will ensure that as a team we are prime placed when we reach

Rio, physically, mentally and tactically.”

Sreejesh has been named captain of the team in the absence of brilliant midfielder Sardar Singh, who has been rested for this event. S.V. Sunil and Akashdeep Singh are two star performers in the forward line who are both capable of making a big impact in any game.

Will they win their first ever Hockey Champions Trophy in London? They are certainly in with a good chance!

Manpreet Singh (midfielder): “We don’t feel scared to take on big teams anymore. We don’t think ourselves as underdogs anymore. In fact, we will go with the confidence that we are as good as any other team if not better, One to watch: P.R. Sreejesh. One of the most athletic goalkeepers in the game, 28-year-old Sreejesh is a sensational shot-stopper and a hugely respected figure within the Indian

team. Sreejesh looks set to make his 150th international appearance in London.

FACTS Current FIH World Ranking: 7 Notable honours: 8x Olympic gold medallists (1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1980), Olympic silver medallists (1960), 2x Olympic bronze medallists (1968, 1972), World champions (1975), 3x Asian Games champions (1966, 1998, 2014), 2x Asia Cup champions (2003, 2007). Hockey World League bronze medallists (2015) Rank in previous CT editions: 2014 – 4th, 2012 – 4th, 2005 – 6th, 2004 – 4th, 2003 – 4th, 2002 – 4th, 1996 – 4th, 1995 – 5th, 1989 – 6th, 1986 – 5th, 1985 – 6th, 1983 – 4th, 1982 – 3rd, 1980 – 5th Hockey India website: www.hockeyindia.org Twitter: @thehockeyindia Facebook: TheHockeyIndia Instagram:hockeyindia Source: www.fih.ch

India A confirmed to join ‘A’ Series

By SAT News Desk

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elbourne: Cricket Australia (CA) has confirmed India A will join the upcoming ‘A’ Series in Queensland, to be played during August and September.

India A joins Australia A, South Africa A and CA’s National Performance Squad for the Quadrangular Series which includes 18 matches comprising 30 days of cricket across Mackay, Brisbane and Townsville.

India A will compete in the One-Day Quad Series throughout August in Townsville and Mackay, followed by two 4-day matches against Australia A during early September in Brisbane.

Cricket Australia Executive General Manager – Team Performance Pat Howard said India A would add another competitive edge to the series.

“This is an important series for developing and growing the depth of talent in our pathways.

Players in the Australia A

and National Performance Squad have been identified as having the potential to play for their country and the national selectors will be watching this series with interest.

“India and South Africa are strong competitors with wide-ranging skills to challenge our players and build their experience against high-quality opposition,” Howard said.

Quadrangular A Series Four Day Matches – Australia A v South Africa A

30 July – 2 August, Australia A v South Africa A, Allan Border Field, Brisbane 6 – 9 August, Australia A v South Africa A, Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville One Day Series 13 August, South Africa A v NPS, Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville 14 August, Australia A v India A, Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville 16 August, Australia A v NPS, Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville 17 August, South Africa

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A v India A, Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville 20 August, Australia A v South Africa A, Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville 21 August, India A v NPS, Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville 24 August, NPS v Australia A, Harrup Park, Mackay 25 August, South Africa A v India A, Harrup Park, Mackay 27 August, NPS v India A, Harrup Park, Mackay 28 August, Australia A v South Africa A, Harrup Park, Mackay 30 August, Australia A v India A, Harrup Park, Mackay 31 August, South Africa A v NPS, Harrup Park, Mackay 3 September; Final 3 v 4, Harrup Park, Mackay 4 September, Final 1 v 2, Harrup Park, Mackay Four Day Matches – Australia A v India A 8-11 September, Australia A v India A, Allan Border Field, Brisbane 15-18 September, Australia A v India A, Allan Border Field, Brisbane

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Entertainment cinema

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A thrilling June with 4 movies

By SAT News Desk

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elbourne: June has a mixed bag of releases from the Mind Blowing Films. There is TE3N, a thriller about a grandfather’s

TE3N

effort to find the truth about his granddaughter’s murder. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, VidyaBalan and NawazuddinSiddiqui. From a thriller we dive straight into Punjab and the drug issue that currently plagues

DIRECTOR: RibhuDasgupta SCREENPLAY: Suresh Nair, Sameer Rajendran, GauriSathe MUSIC BY: Clinton Cerejo CAST: Amitabh Bachan, VidyaBalan, NawazuddinSiddiqui PRODUCED BY: Reliance Entertainment TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SeBCB5ERnps RELEASE DATE: 10th June 2016 SYNOPSIS: It’s been 8 years since John Biswas lost his granddaughter, Angela, in a tragic kidnapping incident that scarred him & his wife Nancy for ever. But eight years later, while the world has moved, John hasn’t given up his relentless quest for justice. He continues to visit the police station where he’s shunned & ignored every day. He continues to revisit the spot where Angela breathed her last, hopelessly looking for clues. The only person whose help he seeks is Martin Das, a ex-cop turned priest who has one thing in common with John – the death of Angela had a life altering impact on both men.

When John accidentally stumbles upon a clue in a busy market, his hopes of justice

the state. Udta Punjab stars ShahidKapoor, DiljitDosanjh, KareenaKapoor Khan and Alia Bhatt. It introduces you to 4 characters and their tryst with drugs. On 24th June 2016 we have two quite different films releasing. One of which

& revenge are once again ignited. He seeks the help of a reluctant Father Martin. But the clue leads them nowhere, leaving John heartbroken & Martin disillusioned – Here’s a case that might never be solved & culprit never caught… But then, 1 day, 8 years after that tragic incident, there’s another kidnapping – & everything about it echoes of similarity with the kidnapping of Angela.

Father Martin is once again dragged into the investigation by cop SaritaSarkar.

While the priest & the cop tackle the new kidnapping, John doggedly pieces together the identity of Angela’s kidnapper from little bits of information that he collects through his own investigations.

The new kidnapping that brings Father Martin &SaritaSarkar together as a team also threatens to drive a wedge between them when the kidnapper is caught & they find themselves with conflicting views about the case. But, little do they know, that John is also closing in on Angela’s kidnapper… TE3N is a gripping thriller that brings together these two parallel investigations into the 2 kidnappings – & builds up into an explosive, emotionallycharged climax.

is a crime thriller that has screened at the Cannes 2016 and a name most Mumbaikars fear, Raman Raghav. The movie is loosely based on the serial killer and the efforts of the police to nab him.

NawazuddinSiddiqui stars as

UDTA PUNJAB

DIRECTOR: AbhishekChaubey WRITTEN BY: Sudip Sharma MUSIC BY: AmitTrivedi CAST: ShahidKapoor, KareenaKapoor, Alia Bhatt, DiljitDosanjh PRODUCED BY: Balaji Motion Pictures TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EJylz_9KYf8 RELEASE DATE: 17th June 2016 SYNOPSIS: What on earth can a rock star, a migrant labourer, a doctor and a cop possibly have in common? Simple, Punjab!4lives, 1 connection - 'Udta Punjab' takes you on a trip like never before.ShahidKapoor, KareenaKapoor, Alia Bhatt and DiljitDosanjh play characters from different walks of life, fighting the menace of drugs in their own way. The film journeys into the artificial highs and the real lows that they face while treading the paths fraught with mortal dangers.

But above all, Udta Punjab is about the famed Punjabi spirit, that despite being fully down, has the audacity of looking you in the eye and saying – Drugs di maa di!

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psycho Raman in the movie.

The other movie is a complete family entertainer starring DiljitDosanjh in Sardaarji 2. It is a story about Jaggi and his efforts to save his village. This Punjabi movie promises fun, laughter and amazing music.

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SadaarJi 2

DIRECTOR: RohitJugraj SCREENPLAY BY: Dheeraj Rattan MUSIC BY: Jatinder Shah LEAD CAST: DiljitDosanjh, SonamBajwa PRODUCED BY: White Hill Production TRAILER:https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gZnrMI4C5pM RELEASE DATE: 24th June 2016 Synopsis: The much awaited Sequel to Last summer's BLOCKBUSTER. It is going to be a fun-filled joyride for the entire family.

The story begins in a village in Punjab, where an organic farmer, the simpleton Jaggi (DILJIT DOSANJH) lives his life. His village is in deep trouble and Jaggi has to travel to AUSTRALIA to earn money and save the village. A mad ride begins on his

quest to earn money, this man of principles starts driving a beautiful ICE CREAM TRUCK, which the kids absolutely love, to earn the cash. A series of events take place during his stint in Australia. He is chased by goons, then ends up meeting a hottempered girl and kidnaps another girl from her own wedding! The craziness just doesn’t seem to end. Shots of Punjab and Sydney combined with some melodious and upbeat music, this movie promises to keep audiences enthralled.

But wait!! - Apparently there isn’t just one Jaggi, there seem to be two of them, or three. The movie revolves around all the efforts Jaggi puts in to save his village and get the girl or girls. So do you think he does it?

Raman Raghav 2.0 DIRECTOR: AnuragKashyap WRITTEN BY: AnuragKashyap and VasanBala MUSIC BY: Ram Sampath CAST: NawazuddinSiddiqui, Vicky Kaushal PRODUCED BY: Phantom Films TRAILER:https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xq1cEmhVa68 RELEASE DATE: 24th June 2016 Synopsis: NawazuddinSiddiqui stars as the terrifying serial killer Ramanna in writer-director AnuragKashyap’s new suspense thriller, Raman Raghav 2.0.

Inspired by the real life crimes of notorious Mumbai serial killer Raman Raghav during the 1960s, Kashyap’s film follows Ramanna through his deranged quest to pass on his knowledge to the object of his obsession, the confused and corrupted young Mumbai Police Commissioner Raghavan

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Singh Ubbi (Vicky Kaushal). Prone to bouts of excessive violence himself and a drug addiction quickly spiralling out of control, Raghavan is easily manipulated from afar by Ramanna as he is led into a brutal game of cat and mouse. Believing he is acting under the authority of God and that his intentions to kill are just and pure, Ramanna seeks to guide and hone Raghavan’sown streak of violence into something in line with his own philosophies. With Ramanna constantly staying one step ahead and escaping from capture at every turn, Raghavan becomes increasingly desperate in his search for the killer. As the body count rises and men, women and children all fall prey to this creature of the night, Ramanna sets Raghavan down an increasingly darker path as the young commissioner is forced to embrace his own dark intentions that brew inside him if he is to stop the killing once and for all.

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