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India flavour of the day
at White House
Time flies when PM, Obama meet |
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Baloch leaders reject Pak package
26/11: Brown lauds India’s response
Biden calls India’s rise ‘meteoric’
UN concern on Tamils
100 icebergs heading towards Kiwiland
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India flavour of the day
at White House
First lady Michelle Obama's strapless, floor-length, champagne-coloured gown - the creation of Indian-born designer Naeem Khan - was accessorised with shiny Indian churis. The deep purple flower arrangements at each dinner table paid homage to the peacock, India's state bird. And, perhaps most notably, in a sign of bipartisan support in Washington for the U.S.-India relationship, guests at President Barack Obama's first state dinner, held in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dined off plates belonging to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton's state china services.
"Aapka swagat hai," a beaming Obama declared, welcoming guests to a specially constructed tent on the South Lawn of the White House. His warm welcome set the tone for the evening. The President noted that many of the guests had this year attended White House celebrations of Diwali and Guru Nanak's birth anniversary. The dinner, he said, was a celebration of the "great and growing partnership between the United States and India." Noting that in India, "some of life's most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent," Obama remarked, "It's a little like tonight." Mrs. Obama worked with superstar guest chef Marcus Samuelsson and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and her team to create a menu that honoured the culinary flavors present in Indian cuisine. Composer A.R. Rahman was among those who provided entertainment for the evening. The White House had kept details of the event a closely guarded secret. But on Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Obama revealed some details of the event. At the State Dining Room event, the first lady wore a skirt by Indian designer Rachel Roy. The state dinner was a big draw and many of the invitees jockeyed hard to get their names on the exclusive list. Others who were a shoo in included Vice-President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (who was not accompanied by her husband, the former President Bill Clinton), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Members of Congress, captains of Indian industry, including Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal and Ratan Tata, Hollywood directors Stephen Spielberg and M. Night Shyamalan, and author Jhumpa Lahiri were among those invited. The dinner drew close to 340 guests.
Obama lauded the US-India relationship and said the leaders had worked this week "to fulfill our duty - bring our countries closer together than ever before. Tonight, under the stars, we celebrate the spirit that will sustain our partnership - the bonds of friendship between our people." He said this bond included the more than two million Indian Americans who "enrich every corner of our great nation." In his remarks, Singh said Obama's journey to the White House had captured the imagination of millions and millions of people in India. "You are an inspiration to all those who cherish the values of democracy, diversity, and equal opportunity," he told the President. He applauded the Nobel Committee's decision to bestow the Peace Prize on the President, saying it was a recognition of the "healing touch you have provided and the power of your idealism and your vision." The Prime Minister also praised the success of the Indian American community describing it as "a tribute to our common ethos.
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Time flies when PM, Obama meet Before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh landed in Washingtion, there were some concerns in the Indian camp on whether he would share the same chemistry with US president Barack Obama as he did with his predecessor. As the PM winds up his four-day visit here, initial reports emanating from the foreign office mandarins is that the two leaders established an excellent rapport with each other in their first bilateral one-to-one meeting though the two have met twice on the margins of multilateral meetings earlier this year. The two leaders were joined by their respective national security advisors — India’s MK Narayanan and US’ James Jones — in the one-to-one meeting. This meeting was originally scheduled to last half-an-hour but the discussions were so frank that they overshot this time limit and went on for close to an hour. As a result, the subsequent delegation-level talks which were allotted 25 minutes had to be wound up in 10 minutes. While delegation-level talks turned out to be a mere formality, the extended Singh-Obama deliberations were said to be productive and substantive. These discussions, it is learnt, focused primarily on strategic and security issues. Sources said Singh’s “body language” appeared extremely positive when he emerged from his meeting with President Obama. Though India had reason to be happy that the two leaders got along like a house on fire, there was also no getting away from the hard reality that India has a long way to go before it can establish a global strategic partnership with the US. The US cannot get away from China’s influence on Washington given the latter’s heavy economic dependence on Beijing. Nevertheless, India is encouraged by Obama’s description of the PM as a “wise man, a man of honesty and integrity. “I respect him and I trust him…” he had said in his remarks at the White House yesterday. Besides this lavish praise, the symbolism of PM Singh being invited as the first state guest for an elaborate State Banquet at the White House, was also considered significant.
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Baloch leaders reject Pak package
The Balochistan package of reforms unveiled by the government in the ongoing session of parliament on Tuesday evening has evoked a mixed reaction. While analysts have called it a good beginning, Baloch nationalists have rejected it as just another attempt to deceive the people by making insincere promises. Top nationalist leaders, including Sardar Attaullah Mengal, Nawabzada Harbiyar Marri, Hasil Bizenjo, Abdul Malik and Dr Abdul Hayee, decried the announcement as a mere eyewash saying it did not contain any concrete steps and failed to address the core issues that had alienated the Baloch people and forced their youth to take up arms in revolt. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said its chief Nawaz Sharif had advised Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to take into confidence all stakeholders in the province before announcing the package. “The government has apparently tabled the Bill in a haste to deflect attention from its current woes relating to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), parliamentary leader of the party Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said. Prime Minister Gilani told parliament that it was only a beginning of concerted efforts to “heal the wounds” inflicted on the Baloch people over past 60 years. “It is a historic start and our government is determined to restore the confidence of the people of Balochistan in the federation,” the PM said. The package proposes the facilitation of the return of political exiles, immediate release of political workers, dialogue with major stakeholders in the province, setting up of a fact-finding commission to investigate into the circumstances that led to the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a judicial inquiry into the killing of three Baloch nationalist leaders, halting further construction of cantonments in the Sui and Kohlu area, withdrawal of armed forces from these areas and limiting federal agencies’ operations to hunt down terrorists. “We are aware that a sense of deprivation prevails in provinces in the political and economic structures ... (we) are determined to correct the wrongs of history by conferring political, economic, and cultural rights on provinces,” Rabbani said. Veteran Baloch leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal termed the package a “joke” and said he would not want to become part of any joke to offer any comment. Youthful scion of Marri tribe Nawabzada Harbiyar Marri said the people of Balochistan wanted independence. The package had come at a time when their struggle had entered a decisive phase, he added.
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26/11: Brown lauds India’s response
London, November 25 "Their misguided aim was to create terror and uncertainty in the region. The Government and the people of India were neither cowed nor provoked by these atrocities but stood resolute," Brown said in a statement. "The attacks in Mumbai last year were an outrage. No one who watched the events unfold on television will forget the way that those responsible sought to cause the greatest fear and suffering," he added. Looking forward to his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting later this week in Port of Spain, Brown said the UK will work "shoulder to shoulder with India and our international partners, to confront this common threat". —
PTI
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Biden calls India’s rise ‘meteoric’
Washington, November 25 Biden, who as the Senator had played a key role in the passage of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, said US Presidents — beginning with President Bill Clinton, continuing with President George W Bush and now with President Barack Obama — had worked very hard and not only from the head, but from the heart, to strengthen this relationship. "The historic agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation was a major step forward, a major step forward, in US-Indian relations and are now closer than ever before," Biden said. The US Vice President appreciated the leadership shown by the Prime Minister in the nuclear deal. “You took some real risks. You had to exercise genuine leadership in a divided government to push forward that agreement. And for that, I want to as a plain old politician compliment you for your courage and skill, in which you pursued that,” he said amidst a round of applause. "It's been said that the US-India relationship is a bond between, as the secretary said, the oldest and the largest democracies in the world. In the 21st century, as the world becomes smaller, the bonds between us grow stronger," he said. "Those bonds are built on the shared traditions which you mentioned today with the President (Barack Obama), Mr Prime Minister, of pluralism, tolerance, diversity and democracy," he said, adding: "For years, our relationship grew stronger, its focus remained narrow: how to contend with the issues between us. Well, increasingly now we recognise our partnership and expand it to how we can deal with the relationships that both of us together can make a positive impact on and influence the world." Referring to the strategic dialogue launched by Clinton and her Indian counterpart S M Krishna, the Vice President said, "More than ever before, the United States and India together, together, not only are but have an obligation to make a global impact." “These are not easy days, and this is coming up on an anniversary of a very sad event in your country, the terrorist attack in Mumbai. No one need tell you, Indian population or India leadership, that we have a common concern about terrorism in the world,” he said. — PTI
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UN concern on Tamils
United Nations, November 25 John Holmes, who just returned from Sri Lanka, said the UN would have liked — and still wants —more consultation with the detainees and opportunities for them to see their home areas before going back, as called for in UN guidelines. The UN has also expressed concern to the government about the lack of advance notice to UN agencies, to prepare to assist the Tamils returning home, he said on Monday. —
AP
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100 icebergs heading towards Kiwiland
Sydney, November 23 An Australian Antarctic division glaciologist said the ice chunks, spotted by satellite photography, had passed the Auckland Islands and were heading towards the main South Island, about 450 km northeast. Scientist Neal Young said more than 100 icebergs, some of them more than 200m wide, were seen in just one cluster, indicating there could be hundreds more. He said these were the remains of a massive ice floe that split from the Antarctic as sea and air temperature went up due to global warming. “All of these have come from a larger one that was probably 30 sq km in size when it left Antarctica. It has done a long circuit around Antarctica and now the bigger parts of it are breaking up and producing smaller ones,” Young said. He said icebergs had not floated this close to New Zealand since 2006, when a number of such floating masses had come within 25 km of the coastline, the first such sighting since 1931. — AFP
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