Hyderabad, September 26
Cracks have surfaced in Telangana statehood movement over the contentious question of who should be treated as the natives of Telangana region.The "locals versus settlers (non-locals)" debate has generated bitterness and added fuel to an already volatile political situation. The main bone of contention is Hyderabad, which is part of Telangana region.

As the capital of Andhra Pradesh, the cosmopolitan city of over 70 lakh population has seen large scale influx of people from other regions of the state over the last five decades.

The Telangana Rashtriya Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is in the forefront of the statehood agitation, has touched the raw nerves of his fellow travellers by stating that all those born in Telangana should be considered as "sons of the soil".

This means that the children of "settlers" will be treated as locals and entitled for equal job and educational opportunities. The TRS chief's remarks are viewed as blasphemous by hardcore Telangana protagonists who routinely whip up emotions and use the perceived anger against non-locals as their political weapon.

Expectedly, Rao's conciliatory statement evoked anger from a section of Telangana supporters, particularly the student community. "For many decades, the natives of Telangana have suffered because local reservation rules were not implemented properly. They have lost their jobs and land to the exploitative settlers," the Osmania University Student Joint Action Committee (JAC) leader P Ravi said.

Ravi accused the TRS president of acting as a "stooge of Andhra capitalists". Even the convener of political JAC, of which TRS is a partner, has disagreed with Rao's remarks.

"Such a prescription will hurt the interests of local Telangana people, given the injustice done to them over decades," the JAC convener Prof M Kodandaram said. The pro-Telangana leaders within the ruling Congress also condemned the TRS chief's observations, saying they undermined the spirit of the statehood movement.

"Only those people who settled in Telangana region before November 1, 1956 (when Andhra Pradesh was formed) should be treated as locals," the Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and a strong votary of separate Telangana state K Kesava Rao said.

The status of those who migrated to the region later should be decided only after bifurcation of the state, he said. Several senior Congress leaders from the region, including former Union Minister G Venkataswamy, concurred with his views.

Telangana was part of the Nizam's princely state before being merged with other Telugu-speaking areas to form Andhra Pradesh, the first linguistic state in the country. 

Darjeeling, September 26
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was today given a rousing welcome by supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha as she arrived on a two-day visit here for hearing "problems" of the Hills.

Her convoy, which started from New Jalpaiguri railway station amid tight security, was greeted by hundreds of GJM supporters lined along Hill Cart Road leading to Darjeeling. Cut-outs and welcome banners were prominently displayed en route.

Mamata, who had on various occasions expressed her reservations against the division of Bengal, is scheduled to announce a few railway projects and meet the representatives of civil society.

The visit is significant in the light of GJM's sustained agitation for a separate state to be carved out of West Bengal and support from the Hills is crucial to decide the fate of her candidates in three constituencies in the coming Assembly elections.

North Bengal, a Marxist citadel till the other day, has of late developed chinks in the armour and Mamata is determined to utilise it to strengthen her chances to come to power in the state.

Recently in the civic elections, the Congress-Trinamool Congress combine had ousted the Left Front from the Siliguri municipal board. In a by-election at Kalchini in the Dooars, the combine had defeated the Left Front candidate.

Mamata said she had come to the Hills not as the Centre's representative, but to see the ground situation. "I love the Darjeeling Hills and its people. I want to hear their problems from their own mouths." — PTI

Thrissur, September 26
Noted dancer Kalamandalam Hemalatha is all set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by virtue of her performance of Mohiniyattam lasting 108 hours. The 35-year-old danseuse, who concluded her choreographic marathon last night, will soon be applying for the record for the 'longest dance show," the organisers of the show said.

The present record is that of eminent choreographer Dr Vattikotta Yadagiri Acharya of Hyderabad set in 2008. Hemalatha has over 20 years of experience as a dancer and had performed in India and abroad. A student of Kerala's premier school for performing arts Kalamandalam, she excelled especially in Mohiniyattam, Kerala's unique dancing tradition famed for its ability to depict subtle shades of emotions.

Though she had made an earlier attempt in June last, she was forced to give it up due to ill-health after 64 hours. — PTI 

Ayodhya, September 26
As all eyes are riveted on the emotive Ayodhya issue, Muslim artisans here continue to make floral decorations for Hindu devotees as they have done for several generations and believe that the court verdict will not affect the ties between the two communities.

Weaving bonds of communal amity, around 15 Muslim families in the Asharfi Bhawan area of Ayodhya have been involved in making floral garlands and 
decorative offerings for Hindu devotees.

"We have been doing this for several generations. Muslims making garlands for Hindu gods and goddesses may be a strange thing for an outsider but not for residents of Ayodhya," Abdul Qayyum, a Muslim artisan, said.

Mohammad Shafeeq, another Muslim artisan, says the work means much more to them and is not just a source of livelihood.

"It's true, it is a source of livelihood for us, but you just can't ignore the responsibility that comes along with it. We consider ourselves lucky as the almighty has assigned us the job of helping the devotees," said Mohammad Shafeeq, another Muslim artisan.

Muslim families involved in the garland-making business earn around Rs 200-250 daily, but their income increases during festive seasons due to higher demand. "Normally, we have a fixed number of clients to whom we supply garlands and floral decorations. But whenever there is a Hindu festival, our daily income increases to around two times the average," added Shafeeq.

Asked what they think about the verdict on Ayodhya issue in the long-pending title suit, Muslim artisans said irrespective of the outcome of the judgement they would continue with their business to help Hindu devotees. "We just pray for peace and believe the judgement will not affect Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and unity," Shafeeq added.

The Supreme Court had on Thursday deferred by a week the pronouncement of verdict in the Ayodhya title suit by the Allahabad High Court, which was expected to deliver the vedict on September 24 and decided to hear the plea for postponement on September 28. — PTI

New Delhi, September 26
A considerable section in urban India may be enjoying sexual freedom but for majority of Indians, sex is still a dirty word, says writer Richard Crasta, author of the novel “Revised Kama Sutra”.

"One of the curious things I have noticed is that for lot of Indians, sex is still a dirty word. So it will take time for them to remain relaxed and enjoy the experience," says Crasta, who has come out with a republished version of his raunchy comic novel "The Revised Kama Sutra", published 20 years ago.

"There is considerable sexual freedom seen among the urban Indian crowd, they are more liberal in talking about sex. But 95 per cent of the lower middle class still has reservations," he told PTI.

According to Crasta, who divides his time between US and India, virginity is very important for Indians but the biggest problem is hypocrisy. "A major section of the society is still repressed," he says. On the recent trend among young couples to remain childless and instead concentrate on careers and property, he says, "Money has become a displacement for repressed sex." One of the funniest and most talked-about novels, 'The Revised Kama Sutra', with its distinctive voice and its hilarious story of an Indian boy growing into manhood, has garnered rave reviews from readers and critics alike and has been translated into languages as diverse and exotic as Latvian and Hebrew.

It has been published in 11 countries and in eight languages. It tells the story of Vijay Prabhu, a small-town, middle-class Indian boy, a survivor of assorted Jesuit boarding schools. Filled with erotic longing and a deep desire to be free of conservative Mangalore, Prabhu embarks on a sexual and spiritual odyssey that finally ends in the US, the land of free sex, free speech, greenbacks, and Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup.

On the book’s title, he says, "It is an ironic title, very subversive. India is the land of the Kamasutra and we are experts in the art of seducing women. The characters in the novel make fun of the Kamasutra." He incorporated minor changes but "did not dilute anything". The revised edition is published by HarperCollins India.

"I have kept the story intact. The presentation and quality have improved," he says. Along the way, the novel gives us new and gloriously comic insights into sex, childhood, colonialism, desire, ambition, women, and naive Third World dreamers of the American Dream. — PTI 

Mumbai, September 26
The Bombay High Court has upheld the decision of a five-judge disciplinary committee censuring a civil judge for puffing away in the bar room with lawyers and reporting late to the court.

Hearing a petition filed by the aggrieved judge, Justice BH Marlapalle and Justice Amjad Sayed, on September 23, held that the penalty imposed by the disciplinary committee of the High Court on the civil judge was "minor and fully justified." SB Kulkarni, currently presiding over a Buldana civil court, was "censured" in February this year by the high court committee which conducted an inquiry initiated by the Principal Judge at Jalgaon on a complaint filed by lawyers.

Being aggrieved, he filed an appeal before a division bench of the Bombay HC which upheld the decision of the disciplinary committee. — PTI

Mumbai, September 26
The 64-year-old system of manually paying salary to jawans of the Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry Regiment has made way for a computerised system which credits pay directly into their bank accounts.

With implementation of the new system, salaries of the jawans will directly be credited online into their respective bank accounts anywhere in the country and their families will also be able to withdraw money with ATM and debit cards.

This step has been taken by the Defence Accounts Department to empower the soldiers and to do away with the time-consuming method of money order through which they send money to their families.

The Controller General of Defence Accounts shifted to the new system at a function in the premises of Pay Accounts Office (ORs) ACR and MIR at Ahmednagar last week. The office is under Principal Controller of Defence Accounts, Southern Command.

This system is being implemented for all jawans throughout the country in a phased manner.

Principal Controller of Defence Accounts, Southern Command SS Sandhu said his Eight Pay and Accounts Offices were disbursing salary to a third of Indian Army and by November, all remaining PAOs will also be switched over to Monthly Payment System. — PTI

His hopes of emerging as the BJP’s key vote catcher were also dashed when Bihar CM Nitish Kumar declared that Varun was not welcome to campaign in the upcoming state Assembly polls. Varun was forced to keep a low-profile for some time and it was only a few months ago that he was given charge of Assam. The young Gandhi ran out of luck shortly after he got down to working in this North Eastern state. Barely days before he is scheduled to address a rally there on September 29, the BJP received a jolt when its regional ally - Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) - declared that it was severing its ties with the saffron party.

CWG: Worries of small fry

The complaints about the filthy conditions at the living quarters prepared exclusively for the athletes participating in next month’s Commonwealth Games has raised concerns among even smaller countries like Tanzania and Kenya. Their officials are worried that in their effort to mollify sulking countries like Australia and New Zealand, the CWG organisers would spruce up a few rooms and allot the best accommodation to the teams which have been throwing tantrums while the silent ones would be ignored. So, the advance teams from some of the African countries made a dash to the Village to inspect the rooms. The ostensible reason for their visit was that they wanted to satisfy themselves about the accommodation at the Village but their real mission was to make sure there is no discrimination in the final allotment of rooms.

New Delhi, September 26
A day after the Centre announced its eight-point peace package for the Valley, Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani stepped in to block the resumption of normalcy. This when political leaders and Kashmir observers in the capital were still busy hailing the Centre’s move as “positive” and hoping people in the Valley would pitch in equally to give peace a chance.

But that sentiment stood challenged this evening when Geelani asked students, teaching and non-teaching staff ‘not to attend school’ tomorrow as appealed by the state education minister who wants to restart the paralysed academic schedule.

“In the past 105 days of agitation, we gave a hartal call on 75 days and the government clamped a curfew on 75 days. We want to thank everyone for heeding to our appeals. Since we have already given a call for hartal tomorrow, we appeal to all students, teachers and non-teaching staff to boycott schools,” Geelani said.

That being the case, tomorrow would be the first test of people’s urge to get back to normal life, following action on the part of Central and state governments. Valley’s Kashmiris are already wary, as a parent told The Tribune from Srinagar today: “This is virtually threat from Geelani. Some miscreants might try to sabotage the opening of schools. The state government has identified 11 safe routes to ferry students, but who knows what might happen.”

But Kashmiris are hoping against hope, considering most of what the Centre yesterday announced has to be implemented by the Omar Abdullah-led state government, which has been found severely wanting in the past. It could have actually taken all these steps earlier instead of waiting for 105 lives to be lost.

Kapil Kak, Air Vice Marshal (retd), a close observer of Kashmir issues, said the Centre’s move was like an open admonition to the state government to either “deliver or perish”. “Having lost the opportunities it had post-2008 when Kashmiris voted in huge numbers for peace and moderation, what the Centre has now done is the most it could have done at this time. To me, this package is like a reading out of the Riot Act to the state government and telling it to act or perish. Let’s see how the state delivers,” he said.

The ball back in Omar’s court, other observers are apprehensive if he will act given his past track record. 

Chennai, September 26
The proposed visit of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to the millennium year celebration of the historic Lord Shiva temple, popularly known as the Big Temple, at Thanjavur in eastern Tamil Nadu has come under a cloud due to a thousand-year-old belief that the visit of a ruler to the temple will be harmful to his health and lifespan.

The DMK leader, a professed atheist and rationalist, has so far not attended the weeklong celebrations, which began two days ago. Deputy Chief Minister MK Stalin has been deputed to attend the celebrations at the temple that is considered to be an engineering marvel and was built by Chola emperor Rajaraja, whose tiger flag remains the symbol of Tamil culture and identity even now. Whether the 86-year-old leader would visit the temple, brushing aside the fears of a section of partymen and family members, is being keenly watched in the state.

Those who argue against Karunanidhi's visit say the statue of King Rajaraja, who ruled the entire South India and North Sri Lanka, was not kept inside the temple, as it was believed that his statue inside the temple would ruin his health. They point out it was former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who decided to install Rajaraja's statue inside the temple in 1984. Soon after her visit to the temple, she was assassinated and Chief Minister MGR who accompanied her suffered paralysis, they say.

The rationalists within the Dravidian movement too has reasons for opposing the Chief Minister's visit to the temple, since a section of historians believe that king Rajaraja patronised Brahmins and was greatly influenced by their advice in policy decisions.

The founders of the Dravidian movement too had accused Rajaraja of introducing the caste system based on four ‘varunas’ in Tamil Nadu. The DMK had never hailed Rajaraja as a great king, despite his achievements. Even Rajaraja's son Rajendra, who added Malaysia and parts of Indonesia to the Chola empire is not in the good books of the Dravidian movement.

According to the Dravidian movement, king Karikala, who ruled South India and entire Sri Lanka, during the first century AD, was the greatest of Tamil kings. Karikala, the early Chola emperor, was a Buddhist, while Rajaraja and his son were followers of Hinduism. 

Badaun (UP), September 26
Rahul Gandhi may be ducking the queries on his marriage plans but wedding bells are all set to ring for his cousin and BJP's young turk Varun Gandhi Varun's mother and BJP MP from Aonla parliamentary constituency Maneka Gandhi today said that the 30-year-old leader will tie the nuptial knot with a Bengali girl this year itself.

"Varun will wed Yamini, who hails from Bengal, this year," Maneka, the estranged daughter-in-law of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, told reporters. "All members of the Gandhi family, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, will be invited to attend the wedding ceremony," she added.

Varun had attended Priyanka’s wedding ceremony in 1997 as a teenager despite strained ties between the families though Maneka had stayed away. Varun represents Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency and was appointed National Secretary by the BJP in March this year. — PTI

Shimla, September 26
Twenty five families of Chikli village in Anti panchayat of Shimla district have been forced to abandon the village after the fragile hill strata started sinking following incessant rain, endangering all houses.

Two houses have collapsed and some have tilted precariously and the rest have developed wide cracks. Besides Chikli, mostly inhabited by the Scheduled Castes, a major part of the panchayat has been without the water and power supply for over 10 days due to landslides on the Anti-Chhajpur link road. Even mobile phones are not working as there is no power to charge batteries. Many areas are without power as one of the three transformers that was burnt down has not been replaced. The gravity water supply scheme catering to the villages in the area, has also been out of order.

The only communication being provided is through the mobile phone of an apple grower from Chhajpur, Rajiv Chauhan, who charges the battery by using generating sets he has installed in his orchards for the fruit-grading machines. A former pradhan of Chikli, Bhagmal, told The Tribune that of 21 houses, one had already collapsed, five were on the verge of collapsing and cracks in the rest were widening further as the entire hill had become unstable. Another house has collapsed at adjoining Kanot village and many apple sheds in the area have tilted. Residents have abandoned their houses and moved to nearby villages but the administration has not provided any relief hitherto.

Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta had to trek several kilometres to reach the village yesterday. He assured that relief would be provided to the affected families soon.

The local residents and the panchayat had raised their own resources to hire earth-moving machines to clear the landslides but to no avail. The 17-km stretch of the road has been opened up but only upto 6 km from Anti, which was still short of Chikli. The apple growers are a worried lot as almost 50 per cent of the crop, more than two lakh boxes, are yet to be transported to the market.