NEW DELHI: Speaking at the AICC meeting in New Delhi on Friday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, “Ten years of stability by UPA have given vast opportunities for youth. I thank Prime Minister for the great job he has done.”

Stating that Congress MPs will choose the Prime Minister after elections, Gandhi said, "I am a soldier of Congress. Will do whatever the party wants me to do.

The Congress vice-president pitched for the common man and requested the Prime Minister to increase the subsidised LPG cylinders from 9 to 12.

Gandhi said Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders are Congress’ power and further added that “we have to bring back the voice of MPs and MLAs in lawmaking.”

Gandhi asserted that “common people should enter politics, which is not easy now”.

Gandhi made a veiled attack on the BJP for disrupting Parliament year after year, lighting fire of communal hatred.

He said, “We want to give the country anti-graft Bills which will transform the country, punish corrupt and protect the honest.”

Gandhi further stated, “Congress workers will be given tickets to fight polls, not those from other parties who come for tickets.” He, however, added, “it does not mean we will close doors for others. We want new ideas and thinking too”.

Gandhi made an oblique attack on the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and said “structures of democracy will not be handed over to one person.”

The Congress vice-president further said the Congress will take views of Dalits, tribals, workers, industrialists, youth, women and NGOs for drafting manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls 2014. He stated that “50 per cent of Congress Chief Ministers should be women.” — PTI

Sonia attacks BJP, says its 'divisive' ideology biggest threat

NEW DELHI: Signalling that Congress is ready for the battle ahead in the Lok Sabha elections, party president Sonia Gandhi today attacked the BJP saying its "divisive" ideology is the "biggest threat" while it puts up a "pretence" of moderation.

Facing BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi as the main opponent, she said secularism was a matter of deep faith for the Congress and not a matter of political compulsion.

In 20-minute speech, she also touched on the issue of corruption, a major issue stalking the UPA II government, appealing to parties to rise above political considerations to ensure passage of anti-corruption measures pending in Parliament.

"The biggest threat before the country is from communal forces and ideologies. Congress stands for uniting the people... but what is the approach of our main political opponent? I will tell you. You know it yourself.

"It is to divide the society on communal lines and spread hatred in the name of unity to impose a single identity. They hide their real face behind the mask of moderate pretensions. They criticise our leaders and level false allegations against them and they go to the extent of spreading violence. How can such an ideology be tolerated," Gandhi said addressing the day-long AICC session without naming BJP.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, senior Cabinet ministers and party leaders from all over the country heard her in rapt attention as she spoke of the successes of the UPA coalition.

She said the Congress workers should be proud that the party never compromised on its ideology. "For Congress, secularism is not a political compulsion but a matter of deep faith," she said.

Gandhi said as the Lok Sabha elections near, the party need to send a "clear signal" that Congress is ready and prepared for the battle ahead.

"The Congress has faced many difficult times in the past, much tougher than today. But we have never lost heart. We have repeatedly demonstrated our resilience by remaining committed to our vision, to our values and the beliefs that have sustained us," she said.

"In our long journey, we have seen many ups and downs. We have witnessed victories and faced defeats which are inescapable in politics. But we have kept ourselves vibrant," Gandhi said.

And in these changing circumstances, she said, the Congress has to move forward in a gallant way. And in this, the party will be helped by its fighting spirit.

She said the electoral contest will witness a "sharpening combat" between competing ideologies, between competing interpretations of the past and between clashing visions of future.

"It will be a battle for India as was conceived by our founding fathers and as we cherish. It will be a battle for our age-old secular traditions," she said.

Referring to the issue of corruption, Gandhi said the UPA government has laid out a five-point agenda to fight graft.

She appealed to political parties to rise above political considerations to help get the various anti-corruption Bills pending in Parliament passed when the winter session resumes on February 5. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday appealed to people not to get swayed by the "tall claims" of some opposition parties, which he said were not easy to fulfill.

Addressing the All-India Congress Committee session, the Prime Minister also asked people to compare the work of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with the years when the country was ruled by opposition parties.

"I appeal to people to examine the Opposition claims and compare their work (when they were in power) to that done by our government. Then they will realise whose work is better," he said, referring to the BJP-led NDA government's tenure.

Apparently referring to the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which routed the Congress in Delhi, he said people should not be taken in by the "tall claims" of opposition parties as "they are not easy to fulfill".

The Prime Minister said while economic growth had dipped since last year, it stood at 5 per cent GDP and in the last nine years of UPA rule it was 7.9% GDP, which is a "record" for nine years. — IANS

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Friday charged the Congress with trying every trick, including invoking the threat to secularism and tying up with any force, to keep the main opposition from coming to power after seeing the “writing on the wall that its defeat is certain” in Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking at the BJP National Executive in New Delhi, party president Rajnath Singh said there is growing antagonism against the Congress mainly due to “malgovernance, indecisiveness and corruption” in the UPA government.

“The Congress can see the writing on the wall and knows that defeat is writ large there. The Congress is losing the elections and hence is trying to ensure that the BJP does not get a clear majority. It is making every effort to stop the BJP’s march to success,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters, quoting Singh.

The BJP chief said since the Congress is aware it is going to lose the polls, it is now trying every trick in the book to ensure that a “majboor (weak)” government is formed at the Centre.

Though Singh did not name Aam Admi Party, whose growing clout is a matter of concern for the BJP, party sources said he was making a veiled reference to it. The Congress is supporting the AAP government in Delhi and the BJP has often alleged that the latter is the B-team of the former.

The BJP is also concerned about the Congress encouraging the non-UPA, non-NDA parties to keep the saffron party from forming a government in case of a hung Parliament.

Rajnath Singh also referred to the issue of secularism, a matter on which the Congress has targeted it often, and said many forces want India to be a weak state.

“The party president gave the assurance that BJP-led NDA will form a government which will not only be strong on economics and ethics but will also never compromise on the issue of nationalism,” Javadekar said.

Singh described the UPA government as an NPA — non-performing asset — and said it is time to “write it off”.

“He said India attained Swarajya (independence) in 1947, but now it is time for Purna Swarajya (full independence) by making the country free of corruption and unemployment,” Javadekar said. — PTI

JAIPUR: Seventh edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, a mega annual gathering, kicked off in Jaipur on Friday with a keynote address by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Directors of the festival, which is expecting around 2,00,000 people to attend over a period of five days, say they are unfazed by apprehensions of controversies that had surrounded the event in its past few editions.

"Societies can only progress with debates and discussions. We haven't done anything to avoid controversies, we just want to ensure that freedom of being able to present the views exists," litfest producer Sanjay Roy said.

Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva, who opened the festival by lighting the official festival torch, said JLF had made Jaipur "the Kumbh of literature" in recent years.

Here is a "Twitter-cloud" presentation of the Jaipur Literature Festival. Click on any word of your choice to see the tweet.

"Democracy isn't just about elections or street corner demonstrations, it is about public discussions and dialogues. We need to think about the institution of democracy with a larger perspective and celebrate the coming together of ideas and arguments," she said.

Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place with a posse of police in plainclothes inside the venues along with a reserve contingency staff.

"The organisers said they had asked participants to be careful and not to do anything which might lead to a problem," a senior police officer said.

In 2012, writer Salman Rushdie had to cancel his visit following protest by some religious groups. The controversy did not stop at that but was stoked further when some authors read out a passage from his banned book 'The Satanic Verses'.

The festival was marred by another controversy last year when sociologist Ashis Nandy allegedly made "derogatory remarks" on Dalits, tribals and OBCs at a panel session.

Spread over six venues at the heritage resort Diggi Palace, the litfest is set to feature about 240 authors at over 175 sessions. Co-director William Dalrymple said, "No wonder how Indian democracy works in the coming years, we cannot deny the fact that books matter to the democracy, authors matter and debates matter the most. Over 60 literary festivals, that have sprung up in imitation of JLF is an example of it."

The coming five days will witness sessions on ‘endangered languages, and the challenges of linguistic diversity’; ‘crime and punishment’ which would look at issues of accountability, responsibility and culpability through the prism of detective fiction and 'democracy dialogues' would look at the larger issues of political and social evolution.

The event is set to represent a slice of the vernacular history with over 20 Indian languages while authors and domain experts from over 15 countries would make their presence felt.

The line-up includes Jonathan Franzen, Javed Akhtar, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gloria Steinem, Shashi Tharoor, Ashok Vajpeyi, SR Faruqi, Ved Mehta, Reza Aslan, Samantha Shannon, Ganesh Devy, M T Vasudevan Nair Mahesh Dattani and Narendra Kohli.

This year the publishers are participating in a parallel event ‘Book Mark’, to discuss challenges and opportunities in the rapidly changing sector. It would feature discussions on the challenges of translation, content and format in a digital age and intellectual property, as well as a dialogue with chairman of the newly formed Penguin Random House, John Makinson.

Musical flavour to the festival is set to provided at a nearby hotel. The 'JLF Music Stage' running nightly till January 20 would feature a line-up of musical talent from Sufi to Soul, including Karsh Kale, Kiran Ahluwalia, Midival Punditz and the cream of Rajasthani musicians and dancers, who will share the stage with Grammy-winning band 'Tinariwen'. — PTI

WASHINGTON: The American Embassy School in New Delhi, which is being accused by the Indian government of violating visa and local laws, is not run by the US mission, a senior State Department official has said.

However, the US is talking with India at the diplomatic level to address concerns of the Indian government in this regard, the official said.

"It (American Embassy School) is not run by the embassy. Only about a third of the students there are American. We are in discussion with the government of India regarding issues they have raised concerning the school," State department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday.

"Since 1952, when the embassy exchanged diplomatic notes with the government of India to establish the American Embassy School, the school has succeeded in providing an international education in New Delhi for the children of diplomatic and expat business community," Psaki said.

A report in The New York Times said the school was being run on a land owned by the American government.

"A handout for new teachers at this city's exclusive American Embassy School, an academic oasis for children of American diplomats and other expatriates, offers some unusual guidance to female teachers whose husbands will also be teaching at the school," the daily reported.

"The female spouse should not state that she will be working," the handout states, instructing spouses to list their occupation on visa applications as "housewife," adding that "no sexism is intended on our part," the NYT said.

The report comes weeks after a diplomatic row between the US and India following arrest and indictment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York.

Psaki said the US is committed to addressing "these concerns" that have been raised.

"We will work those through diplomatic channels, and we've already had conversations at a very high level about them," she said.

Meanwhile, according to a 2011 report of Office of Inspector General of the Department of State, the American school in Mumbai had tax issues with the Indian government.

Parts of the declassified version of the report and publicly available is redacted.

"The school's director was optimistic about resolving the long-standing tax issues with the Indian Government. The Consul General has drafted a memorandum of agreement for the school with the Maharashtra state government to formalise the status of the school as exempt from corporate taxes," said the report.

Though name and location of the American school has been redacted, from the content it appears to be that of the one located in Mumbai. — PTI

KOLKATA: Capturing the public’s imagination for three decades through her ethereal beauty and intense celluloid performance, Suchitra Sen symbolised the golden age of Bengali cinema with memorable films like ‘Agnipariksha’, ’Devdas’ and ‘Saat Paake Bandha’

The doe-eyed beauty turned a recluse after bidding adieu to the world of films in the late seventies and was often compared to Hollywood icon Greta Garbo, who shunned public contact.

No other heroine in Bengal, since Kanan Devi, caught the public imagination as Sen did. In an era of black and white movies, her intense performances catapulted her to stardom.

Such was the popularity of the Sen that during Durga Puja, idols of Lakshmi and Saraswati were known to have been modelled on her face.

Sen on Friday died at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack.

Beginning her career with Bengali film ‘Shesh Kothai’ in 1952, Sen went on to receive a National Award for her performance in Bimal Roy’s 1955 Hindi classic ‘Devdas’, playing the defiant ‘Paro’ to Dilip Kumar’s ‘Devdas’.

She formed an unbeatable romantic pair with Bengali cinema legend Uttam Kumar. The duo gave a string of memorable hits such as ‘Harano Sur’ (1957), ‘Agnipariksha’ (1954),’Saptapadi’ (1961), ‘Grihadaha’ (1967), ‘Indrani’ (1958), ‘Sagarika’ (1956), ‘Bipasha’ (1962), ‘Kamal Lata’ (1969), ‘Alo Amar Alo’ (1972), ‘Har Mana Har’ (1972) and ’Priyo Bandhabi’ (1975).

Sen acted in 52 Bengali and seven Hindi films.

’Champakali’, with Bharat Bhushan, ‘Sarhhaad’ and ‘Bommbai Ka Babu’ with Dev Anand and ‘Mamta’ were some of her other notable Hindi films.

However, her most famous Hindi film after ‘Devdas’ was 1974’s ‘Aandhi’ by Gulzar. She earned wide acclaim for her role opposite Sanjeev Kumar in the film which landed in controversy due to similarities betwen her character and Indira Gandhi.

After her 1978 movie ‘Pronoy Pasha’ with Soumitra Chatterjee flopped, Sen quietly left the limelight and even allegedly refused the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005 preferring not to make a public appearance.

As per her wishes, her family maintained secrecy even when she was hospitalised. The reason behind Sen’s withdrawal from public life remains a mystery.

A follower of the Ramakrishna Mission order, Sen spent her retired life in meditation and prayer. In 1989, when Bharat Maharaj of the mission passed away, she was seen publicly walking all the way to the crematorium from Belur Math near Kolkata.

Her daughter Moon Moon, though a well-known Bengali actress, could never overcome the large shadow that her mother’s beauty and acting prowess cast. Sen’s grand-daughters Riya and Raima have also featured in some Bollywood flicks.

In 1963, Sen became the first Indian actress to be honoured at an international film festival — best actress award for ‘Saat Paake Bandha’ at Moscow film festival.

She was cast opposite matinee idol Uttam Kumar in 30 films from 1953 to 1975.

She earned both national and international acclaim for her performances as the quintessential romantic heroine be it in the role of ‘Vishnupriya’ in the fifties, ‘Rina Brown’ in the sixties or ‘Bijaya’ in the seventies.

The actress was born as Rama Dasgupta at Pabna (Bangladesh) in 1931 to Karunamoy and Indira Dasgupta.

Suchitra married Dibanath Sen from an aristocratic family in 1947, before launching a successful acting career. There were rumours that the marriage suffered due to her successful acting career.

Initially, Sen was more interested in singing than in acting. In 1951, she auditioned as a playback singer, but was instead offered a role by director Sukumar Dasgupta.

Dasgupta’s assistant director Nitish Roy named her Suchitra by which name she went on to achieve celebrity status.

Her first film ‘Sesh Kothay’ (1952) remained unfinished and ‘Sat Number Kayedi’ with Samar Roy as the hero in 1953 was her first film to hit cinema houses.

That year three other films of hers were also released — Niren Lahiri’s ‘Kajari’, ‘Bhagaban Sri Krishna Chaitanya’ and Nirmal Dey’s ‘Sade Chuttar’ opposite Uttam Kumar.

In 1954, ‘Agnipariksha’ played to packed houses for a record 15 weeks and the Suchitra and Uttam were on their way to success.

The pair then had a string of runway successes due to their on-screen chemistry. But Suchitra’s talent ensured the success of her films even without Uttam as her co-star.

’Uttar Phalguni’, ‘Sandhya Deeper Shikha’, ‘Deep Jeley Jai’, with Basanto Chowdhury and ‘Hospital’ with Ashok Kumar, were also hits. — PTI

DUBAI: India must win the upcoming five-match one-day series against New Zealand if they have to retain their number one status in the ICC team rankings.

India are sitting atop the ICC team rankings table with 120 ratings points, and enter the series leading eighth-ranked New Zealand by 36 ratings points.

If India lose the series, starting Sunday in Napier, they will lose their numero uno status and as many as six ratings points.

India have been the number-one ranked ODI side since January 2013, when it replaced England at the top.

For New Zealand, a series win against India by any margin will mean that it will push up a place to seventh, ahead of West Indies. A series loss for New Zealand, however, will not make any difference to its position on the rankings table.

If India do not manage to win the series against New Zealand, either Australia or England could stake a claim on the number-one rank.

Australia and England are currently playing a five-match series, with the home team leading 1-0.

Australia are currently in second position, six points behind India. For Australia to reclaim the number-one rank, they need to beat England in its ongoing series by a margin of 3-2 or better, and they also require New Zealand to beat India by a margin of 3-2 or better.

On the other hand, England, who sit 10 points behind India in third spot, need to beat Australia by a margin of 4-1 or better, and also for New Zealand to win its series against India by a margin of 4-1 or better, to become the number-one ODI side again.

India's young batsman Virat Kohli will start the series in New Zealand as the highest-ranked batsman on either side.

Kohli is currently in second position in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen with 859 ratings points, just 13 behind number-one ranked AB de Villiers.

A good show with the bat for Kohli could see him reclaim the number-one rank he last held in November 2013.

In all, India has three batsmen in the top 10, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni in sixth place and Shikhar Dhawan in 10th spot.

Inside the top 20, Ross Taylor in 16th and Rohit Sharma in 18th place are the other batsmen likely to be seen in action.

Outside the top 20, the batsmen likely to play the series are Suresh Raina (22nd), Brendon McCullum (23rd), Martin Guptill (24th) and Kane Williamson (31st).

Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja in sixth position will be the highest ranked bowler on either side in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers. In fact, Jadeja is also the only player in the top 10 of the bowlers' table who is likely to feature in the series.

Among the top 20 bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin (16th) and Kyle Mills (17th) are the others likely to feature in the series.

Outside the top 20, the bowlers likely to play are Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (24th), Tim Southee (26th), Nathan McCullum (28th), Mitchell McClenaghan (29th), Amit Mishra (39th), Mohammed Shami (41st) and Ishant Sharma (50th). — PTI