O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Minority bashing
Advani returns to his favourite sport
THE Union Budget is such a comprehensive document that one can find a million ways to praise it — or to trash it. It is but natural for the Opposition to do the latter. And yet, setting aside all the other loopholes, what does the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani choose to find fault with? The so-called heavy communal overtones of the budget. This is a brazen display of his Hindutva mindset which perceives a communal tone even where it does not exist.

Waiver not enough
Raise farm productivity
THE Rs 60,000-crore agricultural loan waiver and one-time settlement announced in the budget for 2008-09, welcome as it is, will not be enough to mitigate distress among farmers. According to the C. Rangarajan Committee, only 27 per cent of the farm households take loans from formal sources.

Money aplenty
Use the defence budget wisely
WITH the mandatory, ritualistic assurance of “more, if needed,” the allocation of defence has crossed the Rs 1 lakh-crore mark. It is without doubt a staggering sum of money. Even with more than half being spent on the revenue account, there is plenty left over for capital spending. In fact, the next five years of the 11th Five Year Plan envisions spending Rs 1 lakh crore on acquisitions alone.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Gen Moeen’s visit and after
Bangladesh must address India’s concerns
by Hiranmay Karlekar
IT would be an exaggeration to say that India treated Bangladesh’s Chief of Army Staff (the acronym there is CAS), General Moeen U Ahmed, as royalty during his recent visit to New Delhi. He was, however, given importance much more than what a visiting service chief normally receives. Apart from receiving six gift horses, he discussed Indo-Bangladesh ties and trade relations with Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh respectively.

MIDDLE

Murder of a morning
by B.K. Karkra
WE were then trying to come to terms with our post-retirement life. I could have hung on to my orderlies for some more time. But we took a conscious decision to break with our service life and settle down to a self-reliant future.

OPED

Homes as equity
Reverse mortgage loans useful for senior citizens
by Usha Rai
People are living longer, the cost of living is going up and the value of the senior citizens’ pensions or savings is dwindling. Currently there are 90 million people above the age of 60. While the population of India is growing at the rate of 1.9 per cent, that of the elderly is growing by 3 per cent. By 2031 the population of silvers or the elderly will be 179 million and by 2051 they will account for 17 per cent of the population or 301 million.

Subhas Bose’s death: no final answers
by V.N. Datta
IN his article entitled ‘Netaji: the Mystery deepens’, Major General Himmat Singh Gill disagrees with the view that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had died in the plane crash at Taipei on August 19,1945. (The Tribune, Feb 3.) Thus he rejects the findings of both the Shah Nawaz Khan Committee (1956), and the Khosla Commission (1971) which had confirmed Bose’s death at Taipei that day.

Chatterati
Bollywood calling
by Devi Cherian
Political leader’s sons are rushing to Bollywood. LJP President Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chiragh will soon be making his debut in Anuj Saxena’s movie. Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son is also getting ready to join the list of Bollywood newcomers. Tassaduq Hussain, cinematographer of the acclaimed Omkara, is the son of former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

• Star-studded lives

EDITORIALS

Minority bashing
Advani returns to his favourite sport

THE Union Budget is such a comprehensive document that one can find a million ways to praise it — or to trash it. It is but natural for the Opposition to do the latter. And yet, setting aside all the other loopholes, what does the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani choose to find fault with? The so-called heavy communal overtones of the budget. This is a brazen display of his Hindutva mindset which perceives a communal tone even where it does not exist.

What has apparently provoked his ire is the doubling of allocation for the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore. What he has lost sight of is the fact that this money is to go towards the multi-sectoral development plan for each of the 90 minority-concentration districts. Even Mr Advani would agree that the conditions in which bulk of the minorities are living are far from human and their upliftment needs to be a national effort. To deny them this due would be both unjust and unfair.

What also needs to be realised is that the progress of the country lies in equitable growth wherein every section is enabled to strive for emancipation and empowerment. There cannot be pockets of affluence surrounded by vast areas of deprivation and poverty. No state, no region, no community, no caste can be allowed to be left behind, for that would be a drain on the whole country.

It is surprising that Mr Advani has gone so far as to say that the budget is a throwback to the days of Liaqat Ali. That is another way of emphasising that the budget is patently communal. It is odd, indeed, that he admires Jinnah’s “secularism” but sees “communalism” in the Indian Budget. This from a politician who has praised the pogrom in Gujarat and has to his credit the Rath yatra and the Babri demolition. To describe this exclusivist tendency as sad and perverse would be an understatement.

Waiver not enough
Raise farm productivity

THE Rs 60,000-crore agricultural loan waiver and one-time settlement announced in the budget for 2008-09, welcome as it is, will not be enough to mitigate distress among farmers. According to the C. Rangarajan Committee, only 27 per cent of the farm households take loans from formal sources.

Most others borrow from private moneylenders, who charge heavy interest rates and also force the borrowers to sell their crops to or through them at lower-than-market prices. Haryana has passed the Rural Indebtedness Act to check exploitation of small farmers by moneylenders. Punjab only toyed with the idea and then dropped it.

Debt is only one part of the problem that has got highlighted due to suicides by farmers. Irrigation is another. There are farmers, particularly in arid and other areas where irrigation facilities are absent or inadequate, who own more than two hectares but are poor because of low productivity or frequent crop failures. They will not benefit from the loan waiver.

Though the budget provides more funds for irrigation, it is the states that have to take steps to conserve water resources and meet the irrigation needs of farmers. Farm productivity in India is below global standards. There is need to use biotechnology to improve the quality of seeds as has been done in the case of cotton and strengthen extension services to provide expert advice to farmers on what to grow and how.

If farmers are to be rescued from relapsing into a debt trap and agriculture has to be made remunerative, the practice of artificially suppressing farm prices will have to be given up. While the government must ensure payment of the minimum support prices, if global prices are higher the growers must not be denied the added benefit. Last year the government paid much more for imported wheat than what was paid to local farmers. The government burden can be contained if the food, power and fertiliser subsidies are limited to the needy. The M.S. Swaminathan panel has laid the road map for rejuvenating agriculture and this merits closer attention.

Money aplenty
Use the defence budget wisely

WITH the mandatory, ritualistic assurance of “more, if needed,” the allocation of defence has crossed the Rs 1 lakh-crore mark. It is without doubt a staggering sum of money. Even with more than half being spent on the revenue account, there is plenty left over for capital spending. In fact, the next five years of the 11th Five Year Plan envisions spending Rs 1 lakh crore on acquisitions alone.

The trope of modernisation has been bandied about for several years now, but the painfully slow process has continued to be as constricted as ever. Defence procurement manuals and policies have come and gone, offset benchmarks are being set and revised, but the required speed is not there.

In terms of purchasing power parity, this figure will continue to be exceeded only by China and the United States. But in terms of sheer technological advancement and battle readiness in responding to a specific set of threats, many a country will be ahead. Experts from the National Security Council Advisory Board had recently stated that India still lacks the wherewithal for what may be called “modern warfare.” Of course, modern warfare is more than just network-centricity and the ability to find, engage and destroy targets from stand-off distances, with precision munitions, in real time. It is about having a holistic concept of security that ensures that the nation is not undermined on any front by hostile interests.

Defence modernisation, and indeed defence budgeting, is closely linked to indigenous strength, and we are still wanting in this aspect. Many a parliamentary committee report has stressed on the negative consequences of import dependence and the need to build a strong research and development base, which can take on projects with accountability and deliver on time, meeting all performance parameters.

While DRDO is riding a wave of modest successes on missile technology, there are several major weapons platform projects that continue to struggle. While the bulk of the capital budget will continue to go into high value imports in the near future, it would be unforgivable if there is no plan to change this in the long term.

Thought for the day

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination. — Ernest Hemingway

ARTICLE

Gen Moeen’s visit and after
Bangladesh must address India’s concerns
by Hiranmay Karlekar

IT would be an exaggeration to say that India treated Bangladesh’s Chief of Army Staff (the acronym there is CAS), General Moeen U Ahmed, as royalty during his recent visit to New Delhi. He was, however, given importance much more than what a visiting service chief normally receives. Apart from receiving six gift horses, he discussed Indo-Bangladesh ties and trade relations with Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh respectively.

He met the Minister of State for Defence, Mr M.M. Pallam Raju, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharya, and, of course, India’s Chief of Army Staff, Gen Deepak Kapoor. He visited Goa and Ajmer. His father had vowed during his visit to the latter to name his son after the great saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.

The question arises: was the special treatment given to the visiting General in order? India has several important issues with Bangladesh. The first is illegal migration that has changed the demographic character of the districts of Assam and West Bengal bordering Bangladesh, in which the latter’s Directorate-General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI)—the all-powerful military intelligence outfit — as well terrorist groups like the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HUJIB), which remain active despite being banned, have set up cells. Besides, the routes used by illegal migrants are also used by terrorists and arms smugglers.

The second issue is the help and sanctuary that the DGFI and other intelligence agencies provide to secessionist terrorist groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) active in north-eastern India. The transit of goods from West Bengal to north-eastern India through Bangladesh is the third issue. The fourth is the rise of Islamist terrorist groups like the HUJIB. The latter has been involved in almost every major terrorist strike in India in the last couple of years.

The question is: can General Moeen (as he is commonly referred to in Bangladesh) help? The Army keeps the present “caretaker” government, which it installed on January 11, 2007, in power. As CAS, General Moeen, should have an important say its affairs. The Army, however, has a chequered history of vicious internal conflicts. Brigadier Khaled Musharraf ousted Maj-Gen Ziaur Rahman, who had become CAS after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s assassination on August 15, 1975, through a coup on November 3, 1975. Brigadier was ousted by a counter coup on November 7, during which he was killed, and Maj-Gen Ziaur Rahman came back to power.

General Zia, who later became President, was himself assassinated on May 30, 1981, by soldiers commanded by Maj-Gen Abul Monjur, who in turn was killed shortly afterwards. Many suspect that Lt-Gen Hussain Mohammad Ershad, who, as CAS staged a bloodless coup and captured power in 1982, had a hand in both killings.

Tensions and conflicting loyalties continue within Bangladesh’s Army though these have not led to violent confrontations. General Moeen is not known to be hostile to India. However, Maj-Gen Syed Fatemi Ahmed Rumi, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 66th Division, who visited India with him, was known as a loyalist of Khaleda Zia, whose second tenure as Prime Minister (2001-2006) saw a sharp decline in India-Bangladesh relations.

He was, during this period, Director-General of the Special Security Force (SSF-the counterpart of India’ Special Security Group) in charge of the Prime Minister and the President’s Security. Lt.-Gen. Jahangir Alam Khan Chowdhury, currently Quarter Master-General, is an India-hater known chiefly for his vicious verbal attacks on this country, made while he, then a Maj-General, was the Director-General of the Bangladesh Rifles.

Besides, the DGFI, like Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, is almost a sovereign entity. Though Maj-Gen Golam Mohammed is Director-General, his two deputies, Brig-Gen ATM Amin and Brig-Gen Chowdhury Fazlul Bari, are the most important persons not only in the organisation but in the present government also. Both are considered to be close to the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JeIB), whose ideology is almost identical with the Taliban’s. According to rumours, they have been planning to oust General Moeen through a coup staged with the help of Lt-Gen Masud Uddin Chowdhury, currently the Bangladesh Army’s Principal Staff Officer, who earlier was the GOC of the Ninth Division located at Savar, near Dhaka. No coup can succeed without the support of this formation which is now commanded by Maj-Gen Ashab Uddin.

The rumours reflect the perception of a large section of Bangladesh’s population about the intentions of JeIB loyalists in the DGFI and the Army. This perception is, in turn, a result of the growing salience of pro-JeIB elements in the uniformed services. Earlier confined to the ranks and the middle levels, they, as underlined by Maj-Gen Mohammad Aminul Karim’s appointment as Military Secretary to President Iajuddin Ahmed, are now making their way to the higher rungs.

This must cause some concern in India. The JeIB clearly identifies it as Bangladesh’s enemy and says that the cultivation of the spirit of jihad is essential to fighting this country. It has also very close links with the various Islamist fundamentalist organisations in Bangladesh, whose leaders have invariably come from its ranks or those of its students organisation, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

The “caretaker” government’s attitude towards the JeIB reflects the Army’s and the DGFI’s softness towards it. While many top leaders of the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, including Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia respectively, are in prison, those of the JeIB, particularly its Ameer, Matiur Rahman Nizami, and General Secretary, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, remain at large. They, along with other leaders of the party, collaborated with the Pakistani Army during the 1971 liberation war, and have been identified as war criminals involved in mass murder, torture and rape. There is growing demand for their trial as war criminals.

Clearly, there is a limit to what General Moeen can do. While no great harm has been done by unrolling the red carpet for him, gestures like the dispatch of 500,000 tonnes of rice to Bangladesh which India has agreed to export to mitigate the shortage of the grain in that country, and final order for duty-free import of eight million pieces of readymade garments from there, to which New Delhi has agreed, must follow tangible moves by the “caretaker” government towards addressing this country’s concerns.

The first move must be the closure of the camps that India’s north-eastern rebel outfits have in Bangladesh and the handing over of Paresh Baruah and Arabinda Rajkhowa, Commander-in-Chief and Chairman, respectively, of ULFA. Besides, as a democracy, India must seek to ensure that the Dhaka regime lifts the draconian restrictions it has imposed on political activity and Press freedom and holds credible elections in time. A secular and democratic Bangladesh would be a stabilising factor in South Asia.

MIDDLE

Murder of a morning
by B.K. Karkra

WE were then trying to come to terms with our post-retirement life. I could have hung on to my orderlies for some more time. But we took a conscious decision to break with our service life and settle down to a self-reliant future.

One implication of that for me was to get up early in the morning and go to the Mother Dairy booth about a kilometre from our place. Despite my long service in the armed forces, I had somehow not got in the habit of rising early. I did so only when it was absolutely necessary. Now again it was time when I had to be per force up on my feet at dawn.

However, those few of us who do get up early know that it was not for nothing that it was said, “Bliss was in that dawn to be alive”. There is an indescribable freshness in the morning air that puts you in that mysterious “feel good” mood. You somehow come to believe that “God is in heaven and all is well with the world”. You find the dust of the gone-by day calmly settled and the new day has yet to raise its quota of dust and noise.

Even 20 years back, there were millions of motorised vehicles on the Delhi roads. The advent of the Metro has, indeed, shaved of some of the traffic from the roads, but a sustained influx of people in the Capital over the years and the pathetic state of public transport have ensured that the roads here remain as jam-packed as these were then.

In fact, some regional politicians who do not see any chance of coming good at the national level have been making life difficult for the outsiders in their vote catchment areas.

The national Capital is the only place where every Indian has an inalienable right to stay and work. Hence this heartland of the nation acts as a magnet to draw a constant stream of people from all corners of the country.

With a stainless steel “dolu”’ (a cylindrical bucket) in hand and the above thoughts in head, I was quietly moving towards the booth with the atmospheric ozone and serenity keeping me company and giving me hope that all would be well in the end. Suddenly an old and ill-kept Matador appeared from behind bellowing a thick cloud of smoke.

The vehicle disappeared in a matter of seconds, but the bitter smoke that it emitted hung on the entire length of the road. All that was good about the morning was gone.

The feeling of peace and tranquillity was simply shattered. Forgetting completely about the morning freshness, I now found myself fighting off the smoke. A single polluting vehicle had, thus, killed my morning and another ugly day stood staring at me.

OPED

Homes as equity
Reverse mortgage loans useful for senior citizens
by Usha Rai

People are living longer, the cost of living is going up and the value of the senior citizens’ pensions or savings is dwindling. Currently there are 90 million people above the age of 60. While the population of India is growing at the rate of 1.9 per cent, that of the elderly is growing by 3 per cent. By 2031 the population of silvers or the elderly will be 179 million and by 2051 they will account for 17 per cent of the population or 301 million.

Fortunately, the interest on bank deposits which had dropped to 6 and 7 per cent has risen again and senior citizens are being wooed with offers of 9 to 10.5 per cent on their deposits. The Senior Citizens Saving Scheme was initiated in 2004 to benefit those 60 and above. It offers an annual return of 9 per cent (payable every quarter) for a deposit maturity period of five years, extendable by another three years. The minimum investment required is Rs 1000 and the maximum Rs 15 lakhs.

What do you do if you have no cash to live with; have no children to help you through old age or even if you have children, they don’t want to help you financially? Today if you have a flat or bungalow, thanks to the reverse mortgage scheme, you can mortgage it, continue to live in it and get a decent return to live comfortably – meeting the rising cost of living and medical expenses of the elderly.

The reverse mortgage loan scheme, launched last year, enables seniors to unlock the value of their home equity. In his budget presentation last Friday, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram made it clear that the revenue from the stream was not considered transfer of capital or income, and was tax free.

Similar mortgage schemes in the US, UK, Canada, Japan and France have proved popular. But there are, so far, few takers in India. This could be because those with a traditional mindset cannot think of using their home as equity and have concerns on property valuation, interest, inheritance and taxation.

According to Mr S Sridhar, chairman and managing director of the National Housing Bank, the RML (Reverse Mortgage Loan) scheme is still in the introductory phase in the country. House owning senior citizens form a small niche market for RML. Over 500 RMLs have been sanctioned involving a committed amount of Rs.278 crore, distributed over Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Explaining the benefits of RMLs for the elderly, Mr Sridhar said conceptually reverse mortgage seeks to monetise the house as an asset and specifically the owner’s equity in the house. The scheme involves the senior citizen borrower(s), above the age of 60 years, mortgaging the house property to a lender, who then makes periodic payments to the borrower(s) during the latter’s lifetime.

The loan amount depends on the assessed value of the house; age of the borrower(s) and the prevalent interest rate. The loan can be provided through monthly disbursements or a lump sum or as a committed line of credit or as a combination of the three. The senior citizen is not required to service the loan during his lifetime and therefore does not make monthly repayments of principal and interest to the lender.

On the borrower’s death or on the borrower leaving the house property permanently, the loan is repaid along with accumulated interest, through sale of the house property. The borrower(s)/heir(s) can also repay or prepay the loan with accumulated interest and have the mortgage released without resorting to sale of the property.

The RMLs are extended by Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) viz. scheduled banks and housing finance companies (HFCs) registered with NHB. The primary lending institution will determine the market value of the residential property at least once every five years. Based on such revaluation, they may review the quantum of loan.

RML obviates the need for senior citizens to meet emergent financial needs by selling their house and perhaps moving to a smaller house possibly located far away, to raise money. The borrower remains the owner of the property. If the sale of the residential property does not cover the outstanding loan the borrowers or the estate will not be asked to make up the shortfall, if any, subject to fulfillment of the agreed terms and conditions. Even if the senior citizen passes away, the spouse can continue to occupy the property until his/her demise. The spouse is usually made a co-borrower.

There are no restrictions on the use of funds (except for speculative, trading and business purposes). Expenses like health care and other needs which are generally expected to rise with ageing can be met from the payments received under RML.

The amount of RML that a borrower can avail would depend on the age of the borrower, the market value of the property and the prevailing interest rates. RML as proportion of assessed value of the property may range from 40 % to 60% based on the age of the borrower.

As the age of the borrower or the market value of the property increases, the borrower becomes eligible to higher amounts of loan, and vice versa. The eligible loan amount will be based on actuarial computations and each lender would need to take a view.

.What if a person gives his house on mortgage when he is 65 and lives to 95 years. Would he keep getting the money to live and would this amount appreciate as the market value of the home appreciates and the cost of living and medical care goes up?

Mr Sridhar said as per the asset liability management requirements, the maximum tenure of the loan has been stipulated as 15 years by the NHB. Primary lenders such as Banks and Housing Finance Companies do, however, have the discretion to consider shorter/longer tenure. After the end of the fixed loan disbursement tenure, say 15 years, the lender would stop making payments to the senior citizen borrower.

Subhas Bose’s death: no final answers
by V.N. Datta

IN his article entitled ‘Netaji: the Mystery deepens’, Major General Himmat Singh Gill disagrees with the view that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had died in the plane crash at Taipei on August 19,1945. (The Tribune, Feb 3.) Thus he rejects the findings of both the Shah Nawaz Khan Committee (1956), and the Khosla Commission (1971) which had confirmed Bose’s death at Taipei that day.

The controversy about Netaji’s death has persisted for more than sixty years, and there seems no possibility of resolving it because his associates both in India and abroad, who had fought under difficult circumstances, are no longer alive to give clues as to how and where he died. Thus it is too late in the day to appoint another commission to resolve the mystery of his death.

Even the first commission of enquiry, the Shah Nawaz Khan Committee, was appointed as late as 1956. The Shah Nawaz Committee suffered from several handicaps. General Shah Nawaz Khan had no legal or judicial experience. He was in a desperate hurry to complete the work. He examined a limited number of witnesses, and his mode of cross-examination was totally unsatisfactory.

In July 1970, Justice G.D. Khosla, a legal luminary, was appointed a one-man Commission to ‘inquire into all the facts and circumstances relating to the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the subsequent developments connected therewith’. Khosla recorded the evidence of 200 witnesses in Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore and other places.

He completed his work in June 1974. Khosla ruled that Bose had died in the plane crash in Taipei. Sumar Guha, an MP who had strongly urged for the appointment of a Commission of Enquiry to settle the question of Netaji’s death, called the Khosla Commission findings as ‘an act of conspiracy and treachery’.

The Janata Government headed by Morarji Desai rejected the Khosla Commission judgement. So did, later the M.K. Mukherjee Commission. In his book Brothers against the Raj : A Biography of Subhas and Subhas Chandra Bose, Leonard A. Gordon, a noted American historian, has given details about the circumstances leading to Bose’s death.

According to Gordon, the weight of evidence supports the theory of Bose’s death following the crash of the Japanese military plane at Taipei (Taihkhi) on August 19, 1945. The Japanese had surrendered on 14 August 1945, and Bose flew to Bangkok and to Saigon on 17 August with Col. Habibur Rehman, Col. Pritam Singh, Col. S.A. Aiyer and Major General A.C. Chatterjee.

Because of the short space available in a two-engined heavy bomber of the 97-2 (sally type), he selected only Colonel Habibur Rehman to accompany him. He carried with him in the plane two heavy boxes filled with gold and jewellery. From Tourane the plane flew to Taipei, but when it took off from Taipei it crashed.

Netaji’s clothes caught fire and he was removed to a local hospital where he died. A close study of Gordon’s account shows that there is a striking uniformity of evidence provided by eyewitnesses which raises serious doubts about the authenticity of their statements.

The original death certificate by Dr Yoshimi is not available. Nor was Habibur Rehman ever cross-examined. K.C. Yadav too shares Gordon’s view that Bose had died in the plane crash at Taipei.

From the Document No: WO 208/808 secured from the Public Records Office, London, and cited by T.R. Sareen in his compilation on Indian National Army: A Contemporary Study (1944-1945), vol v, 2004, pp 45-47, it is evident that Bose was trying to persuade the Japanese Government to help him to go to Russia via Manchuria. By the end of 1944 he realized that the Japanese were going to lay down arms.

In such circumstances, he could look to Russia for support to India’s cause of freedom. As an astute observer, he had realized that the Britian and America were drifting away from Russia on some of the fundamental issues on international relations.

A note by the Military Intelligence on ‘The Last Days of Subhas Chandra Bose’ shows that in June 1945 Bose had approached the Japanese Government to ‘enter U.S.S.R. via Manchuria with a few selected members of his movement’. There is reason to believe that it was for the fulfillment of this purpose that he was brought to Taipei. Lt. General Shidei was also there on his way to Manchuria.

What happened at Taipei where he is reported to have died, has sparked much controversary. Did he die there? Or was the story of his death an invention by the Japanese? The Japanese had stood by him, and he had stood by them in a fight against the Allied powers. Subash Chandra Bose was a man of tearing spirit who would never give in. His own personal future was at strike. He always put his country above his self. Would the Japanese hand him over a War Prisoner to the Birtish?

It is the nature of history to contains gaps, and it is likely that clues to the mystery of Bose’s death may be found in the archival material, especially the Krishna Menon Papers (in Teen Murti), the Radhakrishnan achives (in Chennai) which are still open for inspection, and the Mountbatten private collection.

Chatterati
Bollywood calling
by Devi Cherian

Political leader’s sons are rushing to Bollywood. LJP President Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chiragh will soon be making his debut in Anuj Saxena’s movie. Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son is also getting ready to join the list of Bollywood newcomers. Tassaduq Hussain, cinematographer of the acclaimed Omkara, is the son of former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

The most successful among the “political entrants” has been comedian Ritesh Deshmukh, the son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. He never wanted to be in politics and had his eye on Bollywood from the very beginning. He does everything like play tricks, fight, and sing and dance with gorgeous women.

He has got awards and travels all across the world on the producer’s expense. However, his father was not amused when Ritesh told him about his career choice. But after seeing his first film he has become one of his biggest fans.

Noted filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, who won critical acclaim for his films such as Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi and Chameli, is the nephew of Brajesh Mishra, former national security advisor and principal secretary to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Star-studded lives

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in writing her autobiography with the help of her mother Vrinda Rai. Encompassing her personal as well as professional life, Bollywood’s highest paid female star “will not commission the book to any author” like Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Hema Malini and Helen, whose autobiographies are ghost written.

A number of writers and publishing companies are said to have approached the Bachchan bahu to document her life. But she is very keen on doing it herself. Ash was asked sometime back if she has ever faced any form of abuse in life to which she said: “Almost every woman in India undergoes some kind of abuse at some point of life. I’m no exception.”

Come to think of it, Ash’s life can be a readymade script for any Bollywood blockbuster. Ash was an architecture student, who went on to become Miss World, before conquering Bollywood and then Hollywood, and then became the Bachchan bahu. She is definitely the stuff that makes for good reading.

Aishwarya can always take tips from father-in-law Big B who has been there, done that. Sushmita Sen is working on her autobiography titled The Butterfly. Asha Bhonsle has started work on her autobiography. Dilip Kumar has completed his autobiography.

Sanjay Dutt’s life is being captured between covers by friend and filmmaker Sanjay Gupta. Dharmendra is also working on an autobiography. Shah Rukh Khan has completed his autobiography, but is in no hurry to get it published. King Khan, who claims his life’s story is lying in the hard disc of his home computer, is waiting for the right time because there are three biographies on him in the market right now. Well, lots of reading material for Bollywood admirers.