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Tuesday,
June 24, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Poison in veins Another rail accident What others say
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Troops: Attempts to please US
A tale of turkeys
Getting ready for polls:
BJP opts for caution
From rags to 450-m-dollar fortune
Track two diplomacy in Indo-Pak context
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Poison in veins Terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir have found a new method to kill innocents. They are said to have injected some poisonous substance into the veins of two of their victims in the Surankot area on Saturday night to carry on the proxy war. One of these unfortunate persons was the widow of a Congress leader, who was gunned down by militants four years ago. The worrying point, however, is that these heartless killers seem to have started working on a new strategy: what they have so far been doing by using guns and grenades can be accomplished with syringes and poisons available with chemists. The change in their tactics has come about as heavy troop deployment as part of Operation Sarpvinash has made the carrying of guns almost impossible. This means a serious challenge to the security forces. They will have to think of an equally matching, rather better, strategy to expose the militant designs. Terrorists are known for their capacity of springing surprises. But experts are convinced that the monster can be immobilised once it loses its sources of sustenance. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have no love lost for these killers, misusing the fair name of religion. This is a result of the efforts of the Army and the local administration’s “healing touch” policy. The problem is still persisting because of Pakistan’s policy of deceit. General Pervez Musharraf claims that his government does not patronise any terrorist outfit, but refuses to guarantee an end to the militant infiltration into India. His argument is that “there is nobody in the world who can guarantee to stop it completely”. This is a clever way of saying that Pakistan cannot help in eliminating the menace forever. That is why his statements do not match the situation at the ground level. The terrorist outfits he has banned have changed their names to continue with their operations unhindered. One report has it that over 5000 militants are currently being trained in various camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Such camps exist elsewhere too. That is why Indian security forces have always been noticing suspicious movements on the other side of the border. The world community should take note of these developments and force General Musharraf to sincerely cooperate in the fight against terrorism. Being foxy on this highly sensitive issue will not help. This is in the interest of peace in the region. |
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Another rail accident The death of 23 passengers following the derailment of the Karwar-Mumbai train near Ratnagiri in the Konkan Railway once again brings to the fore the woeful lack of safety measures in the Indian Railways. Surprisingly, even though train accidents have become common, not a single head has rolled. There is absolutely no accountability in the system. Incompetence has crept in mainly because of the laxity at the top. If boulders on the track caused the Ratnagiri derailment, why did the authorities not take the necessary preventive measures? There are well-laid out guidelines for the rail track engineers on how to cope with emergencies caused by landslides. As the Konkan region was experiencing heavy rains, the authorities should have prepared for the likelihood of landslides. They should have arranged proper checks on the track by patrolmen before trains were allowed to pass on the route. This was apparently not done. After an accident, the authorities dutifully order an inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS). However, there is no follow up and the report gathers dust in the Rail Bhavan’s cupboards. The Railway Safety Review Committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice H. R. Khanna had, for instance, recommended various steps for improving railway safety. But they have not been implemented for reasons best known to the authorities. The Khanna Committee, that submitted its report to Parliament as long as six years ago, observed that by labelling only certain accidents as “consequential”, the authorities have sought to absolve themselves of any responsibility for deaths and injuries to a substantial number of victims of such disasters. Moreover, the CRS reports on railway accidents are confidential and neither the media nor the general public have access to them. Even though the CRS of respective zones are on deputation from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, they are hardly independent in their functioning. Their reports are final and not open to any amendment by the Chief CRS; also these are vetted by the Railway Board. After an inquiry, a Press note is issued fixing responsibility for the accident. But the reports offer no explanation for the cause of the accident. The CRS reports, in their present form, lack credibility. They should be made public after incorporating the views of the Ministry and the Railway Board. The authorities need to know that the functioning of the railways is a matter of public concern and they can be held responsible if safe travel cannot be assured. |
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What others say Unite on N. Korea issue Two months have passed since inconclusive US North Korean talks, hosted by China, Pyongyang’s most important ally. No new discussions are scheduled, and each week brings continued bluster from the North. Every US move to draw other nations into dealing with North Korea’s nuclear threat triggers hostile rhetoric from Pyongyang. No matter what the North demands, however, the US can’t deal with its threats on a one-to-one basis. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met with Asian diplomats last week in Cambodia and said North Korea was now the top priority for Washington in trying to stop the spread of the deadliest weapons. The US is trying to bring peace to Iraq, develop a working government in Afghanistan and persuade Iran not to use its nuclear power plants to make atomic weapons. Jumping from hot spot to hot spot fragments the government’s attention, no matter what State Department and other administration officials say about being able to handle multiple crises. Powell himself rightly stressed the need for unity is facing Pyongyang. — Los Angeles Times
Shun Burma’s junta Burma is unfree, and has been for decades. Generals have ruled since 1962, and in 1990 they refused to honour the outcome of an election which Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won by a landslide. Now they’ve jailed her yet again, in an outrageous spasm of repression that cannot go unchallenged. Canada’s diplomatic leverage over Burma, also known as Myanmar, is minimal. We do barely $60 million worth of trade. That said, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham is right to be seeking new ways to step up the pressure. He plans to ban Gen Than Shwe and his cronies from travelling here, and will urge the United Nations to freeze their foreign assets. He should also actively discourage Canadians from travelling to Burma, or doing business there. Shwe teased Burma’s hopes a year ago, promising to free Suu Kyi from house arrest so she could campaign for gradual reform. But Suu Kyi sumbolizes Burma’s burning democratic yearning. She soon drew massive crowds, including Buddhist leaders. That spooked the Generals, who re-arrested her May 30. Even the Red Cross cannot contact her. Shwe’s pretext for detaining Suu Kyi was a vicious attack by junta loyalists on her supporters. The Generals put her in “protective custody” and closed her National League for Democracy offices, and the universities. Bizarrely, they also accused her of “undemocratic acts” and collusion with “foreign nations.” Thus ended Rangoon’s Prague spring. — Toronto Star
Shackling children Some are detained, chained, shackled and put in secure confinement. Although guilty of no crime, others are held with juvenile criminals, for months or even years. Still others are deprived temporarily of exercise or education — and all of them are living within the United States. They are the “unaccompanied minors,” children from ages two to 17 who have been detained after entering this country alone, without parents or family, after boarding an airplane or wadding across the border. Their numbers are not large — about 5,000 arrive every year — and certainly not all are mistreated. But if even a handful of them are, that constitutes a scandal. Anecdotal stories of these children have been circulating for some time. Now Amnesty International has compiled a report that shows the wider scale of the problem. Amnesty investigators met children who were strip-searched or kept in solitary confinement. Although some were victims of child abuse or refugees from war zones, they had not received weekly visits from officials specialising in juvenile care, as the law requires. Nearly half of juvenile jails hold unaccompanied minors in the same cells as young offenders — and 83 per cent of these facilities routinely restrain children with handcuffs or leg irons when they are transported. — The Washington Post |
Troops: Attempts to please US THE controversy over the sending of Indian troops to Iraq has raised a constitutional anomaly. Should the government of the day have the right to make war without parliamentary consent? War-making powers in the United States need the Senate’s assent, but there is no similar provision in the Indian Constitution. It is no secret, to the governing party or anyone else, that public opinion is overwhelmingly against sending troops to Iraq for a number of valid reasons. India would be using its forces to enable the occupying power to rule over an occupied people. Indian troops would be under the overall command of American Generals, whatever sops are offered in terms of flying the Indian flag in the Indian compound. Besides, despite the government’s hand wringing, Parliament passed a resolution regretting, if not condemning, the American approach to Iraq. True, the UN Security Council legitimised the invasion and occupation post facto while giving the US and Britain the status of occupying powers under whose authority any other power must work. These issues are being fudged even as Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani first admonished the Congress party for opposing the sending of troops without looking at the full picture and amplified, on return to India from the US, that it would be in the country’s interest to have “a presence” in Iraq. Mr Advani is obviously an enthusiastic proponent of sending troops. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government seems to be having second thoughts, in view of widespread opposition, the dominant elements in the BJP are determined to send the troops. Efforts to evolve a consensus have taken the form of consultations with the main opposition Congress party and a meeting with the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance. The former, held after loud Congress complaints, saw the party soften its stand, presumably because it wished the BJP to carry the can when the body bags start arriving. The session with the NDA was notable for purchasing the constituents’ assent to sending troops by using the well-worn expedient of leaving the decision to the Prime Minister. Gradually and surreptitiously, the country is being beguiled into accepting the sending of Indian troops to Iraq as a fait accompli. Periodically, we have Army spokesmen telling us that they have not merely identified the division that could be sent but are also getting it ready for departure, waiting for the command. On the other hand, we are still being lulled by government spokesmen into believing that they are waiting for further clarifications from the Pentagon before taking a decision. It would seem that the ideologues in the government have won the day, and, but for saner elements mounting a successful rearguard action, Indian troops will be sent to Iraq in harm’s way. What are the compulsions to send troops to shoot Iraqis in order to maintain American occupation? They seem to be both conceptual and tactical. Conceptually, the dominant BJP wing wants to buttress a strategic alliance with the United States even by agreeing to do its dirty work and footing a hefty bill in the process. India will pay for its troops to police the new American colony. These elements in the government are undeterred by the plight of Britain’s Tony Blair facing a revolt from his own governing party while being widely lampooned in the British media as serving a role similar to that of Gurkhas in the British imperial army. It is a well-established fact that the neoconservatives running President George W. Bush’s foreign policy conceive of a partnership only in terms of the other party’s subservience. And “consultations” for them mean telling their interlocutors their decisions. Nobody can argue that in the starkly changed world after the demise of the Soviet Union and the unveiling of President Bush’s national security strategy of pre-emptive and preventive wars, India should adhere to the shibboleths of a bygone era. It is obviously to the country’s advantage to cultivate good relations with the US, but the mantra being propagated is that India should put all its eggs in the American basket and wait for the goodies to rain down. Tactically, India hopes to gain a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and secure American benevolence for a solution of the Kashmir problem it can live with. India has learned few lessons from its exuberant support for the American “war on terror” after Nine Eleven. The country found itself sidetracked as America successfully wooed Pakistan in tackling the Taliban and Al-Qaeda by giving General Pervez Musharraf a new status and an economic lifeline. New Delhi had overlooked the simple fact that geography and Pakistani complicity in Afghanistan made it a favourite American candidate. India won a point internationally in highlighting the anti-terrorism war it had been fighting in Kashmir for 12 years, but it took New Delhi some time to recognise that America will not pull its chestnuts out of the fire. American national interests do not so demand. For its part, India must carefully consider its national interest, a phrase being freely bandied about to justify the sending of troops. The nation remains unconvinced even as the softening up process proceeds apace. To suggest that those who oppose the decision are unreconstructed Third Worldists or men and women living in the past is both dishonest and being abusive. Indian and American interests in the New World Order converge and diverge and it can do the country no good to succumb to serving US interests at the cost of sacrificing its own. A partnership, strategic or otherwise, is no partnership if one party cannot disagree with the other. If the root cause of the government’s inclination to send troops is fear of annoying America, such an ignoble emotion should be banished. America and the world will respect India all the more for refusing to participate in a very dubious venture. Instead of putting forward clever or specious arguments for sending troops, India should realise that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq is the antithesis of all India stands for. India — as much of the world — is against a pre-emptive or preventive attack on a sovereign country without the approval of the UN Security Council. And however much one derides the United Nations, it is still the only and essential multilateral organisation that can bring some order and decency to individual countries’ behaviour. It might suit the present US administration to cock a snook at the UN, but it does not suit India to be party to an act of banditry. The writer, a former Editor of The Statesman and The Indian Express, contributes a fortnightly column to The Tribune |
A tale of turkeys Despite their historic allegiance to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the Americans tend to be stingy about holidays on the campuses. It is hard to believe that no more than three or four holidays figure on their calendar, and the idea of casual leave simply amuses them. I once asked a colleague, who was soon to get married, if she ever had heard of maternity leave. With a sense of utter disbelief writ large on her blonde face she confessed she was hearing the phrase for the first time. Once apprehending imminent cold and fever I asked our department chairman if I could apply for medical leave. Dropping his jaw he remarked: “In America we can’t afford to die on a working day. If at all we have to, then first we must crawl to the telephone and inform the department.” This grim aspect of American academic life was perhaps the primary reason for our return home, to a land paved with all kinds of leave and all forms of holidays. Nevertheless, the American schools compensate the paucity of holidays with a festive outburst on certain days. It is around Christmas and Thanksgiving Day that the campuses suddenly shift to a more relaxed pace of life. For about four weeks the harrowing stress and the rigorous schedule of course work surrender to a mood of gaiety and celebration. Thanksgiving Day falls on the fourth Thursday of November. It is observed as a national holiday. The most prevalent story is that when the Mayflower Pilgrims had exhausted their provisions after landing on the eastern coast they feared they would die of starvation. When a wandering Indian chieftain looked at their pale faces, he pointed to a turkey lurking in the nearby forest. The traditional feast of turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie is to commemorate the day the Lord saved the Founding Fathers of America. The campus where my wife and I worked for a few years celebrated the day in a memorable fashion. One dressed turkey was presented to each faculty member who could either keep it for his or her own use or pass it on to some friends. One week before the festival we would receive telephone calls from the secretaries in our steno pool who knew about our reverence for both fish and fowl. They wanted to know if we would like our two turkeys to be delivered to us or to someone else. That is the time when we thought of a colleague, a Yoga and yoghurt freak whose office was next to ours. In the first few weeks he had shared with us his deep admiration for naturopathy which had cured his and his family’s coughs and colds. He had also mentioned the books he had read about our culture and joint family tradition. Since he was an American carrying an Indian heart, we asked Anne, our charming executive secretary, to pick up our freebies and deliver them to that India fan. As long as we worked there, Mark Wilson remained the recipient of our annual gifts. For over 20 years he has been nursing a desire to visit us, but he is scared of the Indian snakes and elephants. All the same in every letter he says he prays for India and misses us on Thanksgiving Day. |
Getting ready for polls:
BJP opts for caution The BJP finds itself at the crossroads once again in the run up to critical assembly elections later this year and the Lok Sabha poll in the second half of 2004. Efforts to settle the leadership question of who after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, advancing the Lok Sabha poll and finding an amicable solution to the vexed Ayodhya problem have taken some queer twists and turns. Efforts to rein in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other front organisations singularly critical of Mr Vajpayee for having sidelined the core issues of Ayodhya, uniform civil code and abrogation of Article 370 according special status to Jammu and Kashmir have failed. Intra-party divisions are becoming shriller as evidenced at the three-day “Chintan Baithak” of the BJP which concluded at Uttan near Mumbai last week. First, the leadership issue which got compounded by BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu alluding to two mascots for the party in Mr Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani. This happened when the Prime Minister was on a three-nation European tour from May 27 to June 3. Prior to that for several months there has been hushed talk of finding an alternative to Mr Vajpayee who would pursue the BJP agenda rather than the BJP-led NDA’s national agenda of governance. To add spice Mr Vajpayee told a German magazine in an interview that he is making his third and final attempt to extend a hand of friendship to Pakistan and if that endeavour fails, then he will retire. When mediapersons accompanying Mr Vajpayee sought clarifications on the retirement aspect, he insisted that it was in reference to himself. The Prime Minister’s aides sought to underplay the retirement matter on the ground that the time at Mr Vajpayee’s hand was short with general elections barely 18 months away. However, the retirement issue refused to die out becoming apparent that the Prime Minister was going to respond strongly to his critics in the Sangh Parivar. One did not have to wait long as within 48 hours on his return home from a highly successful European tour, Mr
Vajpayee told his senior party colleagues with Mr Venkaiah Naidu in the vanguard that Mr Advani will lead the BJP in the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh as well as next year’s Lok Sabha poll. That sent shock waves in the BJP as Mr Venkaiah Naidu and company had gone calling on Mr Vajpayee to congratulate him for restoring India’s prestige among world powers and the comity of nations. The damage control exercise by the BJP was immediate that Mr Vajpayee is the undisputed and tallest leader in the country and he will lead the party in the elections. This was reaffirmed by Mr Advani and a miffed Mr Venkaiah Naidu seeking to make all too obvious and laboured course corrections aimed at putting his relations with Mr Vajpayee on an even keel. The timing of Mr Vajpayee’s calculated statement of virtually handing over the baton of leadership to Mr Advani was significant coupled with the underlying message to the people at large. That Mr Advani is the next in line for the leadership stakes has never been in doubt. Needless to say Mr Vajpayee’s out of the blue utterances on the leadership question also created a flutter among the constituents of the NDA. There is discernible relief that the leadership issue is now on the backburner despite the RSS chief K Sudarshan holding firm in an interview that the matter is open as leaders are chosen through elections. Second, the internal debate in the BJP on advancing next year’s general elections. Those advocating a snap Lok Sabha poll on the ground of defeating the Congress in at least three of the four states having assembly elections later this year have been stopped in their tracks. These leaders contended that it will be
advantageous to have a mid-term Lok Sabha poll by riding on what they assumed and described as a victory wave because of the anti-incumbancy and other factors. By adopting such a course of action, the fallout of a hard general budget and vagaries of the monsoon can be overcome. This failed to find favour as wider opinion among the BJP strategists at the Chintan Baithak argued that assuming a runaway success for the party is ill conceived. The anti-snap general election votaries insisted that it will be advisable to make a proper assessment of the outcome of the assembly elections in Delhi, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and go for the Lok Sabha poll after presenting a soft 2004-2005 general budget providing sops to all sections of society. Those advocating caution rather than doing things in a rush of blood carried the day at the Chintan Baithak on advancing the Lok Sabha elections. They maintained that a good outcome in the assembly elections and a sop-filled budget which does not weigh down the masses will contribute in bolstering the party. Besides, Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh assured that a soft budget with additional socio-economic measures specially tailored to suit every section can be evolved in the context of a strong economy. Those pressing for the Lok Sabha poll as scheduled in September-October 2004 expressed doubts if the BJP can improve its present tally in the House of the People. This required to be studied in its entirety as the party was already at a saturation point vis-a-vis the Lok Sabha in respect of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Delhi. The BJP’s tally in the current Lok Sabha from these four states is: Seven out of seven seats in Delhi; eight out of 11 in Chattisgarh; 21 out of 29 in Madhya Pradesh; and 16 our of 26 in Rajasthan. In setting the tone for the discussions at the Chintan Baithak, Mr Vajpayee had not spoken his mind either on advancing the general elections or going ahead as scheduled. At the same time, the Prime Minister believes it is not advisable to tinker with the election schedule. He underlined the need for enlarging the goodwill for the BJP by giving a proper account of the policies and programmes. Third and finally, the issues at the hustings should revolve around kisans and the underprivileged, connectivity including the ambitious golden quadrilateral and generating employment in rural areas. The party is facing a delicate situation with the VHP blazing away against the efforts of the Kanchi seer and the government on the Ayodhya issue. The BJP is bound to face growing turbulence in the run up to the elections with Mr Vajpayee being the target from within and without. |
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From rags to 450-m-dollar fortune Contents of the new book have been kept a closely guarded secret and characters are not known to anybody except the writer. It is speculated that “Harry” in the new book is Harry Potter, the boy wizard created by Rowling. Within a week of the release of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, she proposes to appear before children in London to answer their questions and read from the book. So high was the expectation that days before the new book was to go for sale, about 8000 copies were stolen. An audacious raider drove off with a lorry load of copies despite the presence of closed-circuit cameras and security guards. The lone thief driver broke into a distribution centre in a stolen cab, showed officials false papers and drove away with some of the most jealously guarded books in history worth about 130,000 pound sterling. The thief, however, did not realise that it would be virtually impossible to sell the book. Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, Rowling’s life has the lustre of a fairy tale. It is, truly, a story of rags to riches and change in her fortunes has been bewildering indeed. After four Harry Potter books and two movies, her fortune is estimated at 450-million-dollar and she is known to be richer than the Queen of England. With the publication of her fifth book her wealth has further gone up. Less than a decade ago she was an unknown poor woman, deserted by her husband with an infant daughter to nurture. A divorcee, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with the daughter, Rowling wrote “Harry Potter” and the “Sorcerer’s Stone” at a table in a cafe during her daughter’s nap. Harry Potter was an instant success and changed her fortunes. Rowling is a born writer or, as her admirers put it, “born with a pen in her hand”. She wrote the first story when she was only six years old and it was about a rabbit. But how did she create “Harry Potter” ? She was stuck in on a delayed train for four hours between Manchester and London and she imagined of a boy called “Harry Potter”. In her own words: “I was travelling in a train between Manchester and London and it just popped into my head. I spent four hours thinking about what would he look like?” By the time she got off the train at King’s Circles, many of the characters of the books had already been invented. A unique aspect of her writing is that both children as well as adults get so engrossed with her tales that they don’t leave the book unless they reach the last page. Rowling studied both English and French but at University stage, she opted for French which, she says, was a “big mistake”. By the time, she was 26, she went to Portugal as a teacher of English, fell in love with a Portuguese TV journalist, married him and the couple soon had a daughter. Her Portuguese students would often make fun of her and ridicule her as “Rolling Stone”. The marriage was not to last for long, both fell out and divorce followed as she was penning down her first book in the “Potter” series. Rowling returned to Britain with little daughter, Jessica, just three months old. The worst phase in her life had begun. But her cerebrated book “Harry Potter” pitch-forked her to the threshhold of affluence. Rowling, entering 37, tied the nuptial knot again towards the fag end of 2001. Her second husband, Neil Murry, is an anaesthetist and six years younger to her. The couple has now a son. Rowling proposes to write the sixth book and devote the spare time looking after her family. |
Track two diplomacy in Indo-Pak context Nobody is saying this, at least for now. But the Indians and the Pakistanis should be saying this: “No Track Two diplomacy please, we are Indians and Pakistanis.” The term “track two diplomacy” gained currency in past few years when relations between India and Pakistan reached a flashpoint since Kargil. Since then a number of track two diplomatic exercises have been conducted, the latest finishing just a few days ago in Kathmandu. Insiders say that track two diplomacy can never succeed in the Indo-Pak context. That is because at invariably all such jamborees the leading lights arrayed from both sides are so closely identified with their respective governments that it becomes hard to discern at times whether the participants are independent observers or government spokesmen. Such events only create false hopes and mislead people. Briefing blues A cardinal principle of intelligence craft is that the left hand should not know what the right is doing. This is precisely what happened the other day, but for wrong reasons. It happened one evening earlier this week when the Defence Intelligence Agency, set up recently to act exclusively as the coordinating body for the three-services intelligence, invited defence correspondents. What had been billed as a small get together for defence correspondents organised at the instance of DIA Chief Lt-Gen Kamal Davar eventually turned out to be a full-fledged briefing about the status of infiltration from across the border, the growing menace of ISI in the north-east through Bangladesh and whether Indian troops should be in Iraq. There was confusion all over as the surprised correspondents had come with the idea of relaxing rather than any briefing. This was clear from the fact that the Army PRO, Brigadier Shruti Kant, himself left the venue early as he too apparently did not know that a briefing was in store. It was later explained that there was not supposed to be any briefing at the get-together. But the question arises: can a senior military official hold an important press briefing without the knowledge of high-ups. Politics of quota Politician proposes, Law disposes. This seems to have happened with the BJP and the Congress whose leaders vied with each other over reservation to poorer sections of the upper castes. Obviously the “netas” had their eyes set on the coming elections. But now the move is going to come a cropper as Attorney-General Soli J Sorabjee has given his considered opinion to the government that the benefit could not be extended to this section without a constitutional amendment. It was Rajasthan Chief Minsiter Ashok Gehlot who had stirred the hornet’s nest in an attempt to divert attention from his dismal performance in tackling drought situation and VHP’s ‘trishul diksha’. Gehlot’s master stroke was to ask the Centre to take necessary legal recourse for providing the benefit to upper castes also, forcing BJP to demand setting up of a commission to examine the issue. Youth icons Animal rights activist and former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi continues to be in the news despite being forced into political oblivion by the Vajpayee government. In a recent study commissioned by MTV India, Maneka was nominated among the seven MTV Youth Icons of the year. What is noteworthy is that Maneka’s name was nominated along with that of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, cricket sensation Sachin Tendulkar, superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Managing Director of the Reliance empire Anil Ambani and the star of the soap opera `Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’, Smriti Malhotra, who plays the role of Tulsi. The study was conducted by the Indian Marketing Research Bureau in eight cities including Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai. The best, however, is yet to come. The Indian youth will now vote for one person who they believe is the icon of the year and has influenced them most. The shortlisted icons can keep their fingers crossed till July end when the result of the national vote are expected. Mission USA The Congress party sent its Rajya Sabha member Ashwani Kumar on `Mission USA’ to interact with India Caucus Democrats and Republicans apart from other policy makers around the same time when Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani was in Washington. Kumar pointed out New Delhi’s sensitivity to the issue of Pakistan-sponsored cross border terrorism. The move has created ripples in the political waters of the capital with many interpreting it as the Congress smelling victory in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Political circles are agog with rumours that sending Kumar to the US was an exercise by the Congress at doing the groundwork so that it is not caught unawares once in the saddle. Akali unity Barely before the ink on Akali unity had dried, the leaders owing allegiance to Parkash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra went to town saying that the agreement so far has been reached on the forthcoming panchayat polls only. How the leaders close to both the factional leaders would be accommodated in the Shiromani Akali Dal is a big question. Tailpiece Love is in the air with monsoon rains lashing the country. Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Navtej Sarna’s first novel “We weren’t lovers like that” is hitting the book stalls in the month of ‘Saavan’, eulogised by poets and romanticists as the season of romance. No, the book is not the reflection of the Indo-Pak relationship over half a century, but a romantic novel. Sarna’s novel comes at a time when India and Pakistan are smoking the peace pipe. Contributed by Prashant Sood, Tripti Nath, S.Satyanarayanan, Girja Shankar Kaura, S.S. Negi, R.Suryamurthy, Satish Misra and Rajeev Sharma |
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J.K. Rowling, creator of “Harry Potter”, has become a legend in her life-time and she achieved that exalted position in the shortest span of time. Her books are the most popular children’s series ever written as she finds her way straight into the hearts of youngsters. She, as if, speaks to children through her books and the dialogue is conducted in as many as 200 countries and in 55 languages. “Harry Potter” has become a craze in India too and children, who have access to her books, burn midnight oil to read them; the affluent ones buy them from their own pocket money. Rowling’s latest and fifth in the series — “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” —which was released on Saturday (June 21) night, has set England, Europe and America ablaze with expectation; exact time of the release is one minute past midnight. A print order of 8.5 million copies — largest ever — of a new book, running into 900 pages, has already been placed. Weighing over two pounds, the book is too big to fit through the mail boxes and vans may have to be used to help make deliveries.