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Ayodhya demolition
Power debt recast |
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The won't-be soldiers
Terrorist outfits in Pakistan
‘Take Five’ beats on
CINEMA: NEW Releases
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Ayodhya demolition
The
CBI should at least now realise its responsibility of taking the Babari Masjid demolition case more seriously than it has done so far. The Supreme Court justifiably directed the Central investigating agency representing the prosecution side of the case to show greater involvement in the matter. What irked the court was the failure of Additional Solicitor-General AS Chandhok to appear before it on behalf of the CBI. The court exposed the style of taking up of the case by the CBI when it observed that the agency was casual in its approach, which must change in the interest of justice and protecting the honour of the nation. It is not without reason that the apex court wants the mosque demolition case hearing to be expedited by the trial court in Rae Bareli. The Ayodhya mosque was brought down on December 6, 1992, damaging the nation’s secular image at the global level, but no one has been punished so far. The Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice HL Dattu and Justice CK Prasad issued the significant directive while hearing a leave petition on Thursday filed by the CBI against an Allahabad High Court verdict, which upheld the dropping of the conspiracy charge by the Rae Bareli special court against BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati and 18 others. The apex court now wants the hearing on other charges against the accused to be expedited by the trial court so that the guilty are quickly brought to justice. Interestingly, almost all aspects of the case have been probed by the Liberhan Commission appointed to expedite the matter. The commission took its own time to record what a number of witnesses revealed before it. The panel finally came out with an exhaustive report blaming LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati and others for the destruction of the disputed structure when there was a BJP government in Lucknow. But all this has failed to produce the desired result so far, reflecting poorly on India’s justice system. Even now the nation’s prestige can be restored by disposing of the Ayodhya case speedily. The guilty must get their just deserts irrespective of how high or might they are.
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Power debt recast
Punjab's
rejection of the Central package for restructuring Rs 10,500 crore loan of Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd has not come as a surprise. By accepting it, the state would have to raise power tariffs almost annually till it started recovering the cost price from consumers. Transmission and distribution losses had to be brought down. Since the supply of free power to the farm sector is not metered, there is no way to check whether PSPCL passes on its losses as consumption by farmers. The power sector is in a mess which has a bearing on the state's industry, agriculture and normal life in general. The state's political leadership has seldom displayed any will to reform. The payment of subsidy is erratic or is adjusted against the government's loan or electricity duty. When the power board was split, the government refused to absorb the losses of the two power companies as has been done elsewhere. Now under the Central scheme, which is optional for all states, the government had a chance to absorb 50 per cent of the losses by issuing government-guaranteed bonds to lenders and would have got 25 per cent reimbursement from the Centre, which comes to Rs 1,300 crore. This too it has refused. The rejection means PSPCL's precarious financial condition could worsen. Last year the RBI told banks not to lend to loss-making power boards. There may not be enough cash to buy power. Even if private firms make the state power surplus, how will PSPCL buy it? Purchasing power at Rs 7 a unit during the peak season and selling it at Rs 3-4 a unit makes little economic sense. Punjab is among the seven states with maximum losses for which the package was meant essentially. The others are Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Of these, four — UP, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Haryana — are set to take advantage of the scheme as they have the financial muscle. Punjab is not financially in a position to take on the challenge, but has made lame excuses while turning down the Central offer.
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The won't-be soldiers
Punjabis
are a martial race, they said. There was reason: besides history, numbers in the Indian Army - among both officers and other ranks - were overwhelmingly made up of young men from Punjab, a land of sturdy farmers. Not anymore. The number of Gentlemen Cadets from Punjab passing out at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, on Saturday is a measly 20 out of 421. In comparison, Haryana has done far better with 50, as have the hill states of Himachal (22) and Uttarakhand (46), which otherwise have much smaller populations. Recruitment drives for jawans in Punjab have also thrown up dismal results for the past few years. Rampant drug addiction is cited as the most obvious explanation for the situation. It is valid, but there are other complex cultural changes at work too. Several studies and reports - though none comprehensive - say up to 75 per cent of the male youth population of Punjab takes drugs in one form or the other. Whatever be the exact figure, anything close to this is enough to make a society dysfunctional. Drugs are as much a cause as the result of youth losing direction. One reason for high addiction rates is easy availability of drugs, which is something the state government has to address forthwith. The other is lack of any alternative avenue to give the youth the 'high' they need. There is little meaningful education. Till the sixties, a large number of the officers selected in the Services came from government schools in the villages of Punjab. The state is also undergoing a drastic and rapid cultural flux, fuelled largely by the fire in real estate. And farmers - the traditional stock for the armed forces — are the most affected by this. Many of those who come upon instant big money are unable to handle it, and those who don't are liable to heartburn, neither of which is good. Quality education has to be made available to every child, urban or rural, to ensure they have a purpose in their youth. The other need is for them to be role models, of which there are few today. Unless the Punjab Government and the Punjabi himself sit up, it might be long before a state derailed by militancy becomes the pride of the nation once again.
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Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. — Andre Gide
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Terrorist outfits in Pakistan
Ajmal Kasab
has finally been hanged, but he was only a foot soldier of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a fundamentalist organisation that continues to launch acts of terror on Indian soil. Despite the voluminous evidence presented to Pakistan, President Zardari's government has failed to satisfactorily meet India's demands for either effectively trying the masterminds of the Mumbai terror strikes of November 26, 2008, or handing them over to face justice in India. Peace is undeniably important but not if the cost is a continuing proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, and terrorism in other parts of India being sponsored from across the border by organisations over which the Pakistan government claims it has no control. Since all other options have been exhausted, the Government of India must consider viable military and covert options to send a strong message to the Pakistan army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate that India's threshold of tolerance has been crossed and that enough is enough, especially if a similar incident recurs. Military options include trans-LoC raids on the leadership and training camps of the LeT, the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) by Special Forces, the destruction of the Pakistan army's posts on the LoC and its logistics installations in PoK by heavy doses of artillery fire and the precision bombing of selected targets by the Indian Air Force. However, hard military options have only a transitory impact unless these are sustained over a long period of time. The use of kinetic force also causes inevitable collateral damage, runs the risk of escalating into a larger war with attendant nuclear dangers and has adverse international ramifications. In order to achieve a lasting impact and ensure that the actual perpetrators of terrorism are targeted, it is necessary to employ covert capabilities to neutralise the leadership of terrorist organisations. Clandestine operations can be methodically planned and stealthily executed at an opportune moment. These are not critical responses and also have an element of 'plausible deniability' built into them. Other advantages include a relatively low political, economic and military cost and low risk of casualties to own operatives as local personnel — who harbour grudges against the targeted organisations - can often be used. After Independence, Indian intelligence agencies had virtually no covert capabilities available while Pakistan launched irregular warfare against India in Jammu and Kashmir and sustained it over the next few decades. After the 1962 war with China, India's newly-established external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), received help from the CIA to establish capabilities for clandestine operations across India's borders. When the ISI intervened to provide 'political, diplomatic and moral' support to the protagonists of Khalistan in Punjab in the 1980s, India is reported to have retaliated in Sind and Balochistan. Soon after the Brass Tacks IV crisis in 1987, RAW chief A.K. Verma and ISI chief Lt-Gen Hamid Gul (now on India's wanted list) reportedly agreed to stop launching covert operations against each other. Pakistan did not keep its part of the bargain in Kashmir on the specious plea that it is disputed territory and went flat out to support militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, Pakistan has often accused India of clandestine interference in its internal affairs but has failed to corroborate its claims with hard evidence. B.Raman, a well-known intelligence analyst and former Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, has written: "The RAW imposed heavy costs on Pakistan for supporting the Khalistanis and should be able to do so now for its support to the LeT and other jihadi terrorist organisations." According to the intelligence grapevine, India's covert capabilities in Pakistan were wound down on the orders of the Prime Minister in 1997 so as to promote reconciliation. If that is true, a great deal of effort will be necessary to establish these capabilities from scratch. Young operatives will have to be selected and trained — first in the rudiments of intelligence gathering and, after being given some in-country experience, in the complexities of high-risk special operations in a hostile foreign environment. They will also need to be imparted specialised instructions in selecting, training and motivating local agents to carry out pre-planned and opportunity strikes against nominated targets. It takes at least three to five years to put in place basic capabilities for covert operations in Pakistan as both terrorist organisations and their handlers like the ISI have to be penetrated and it is to be hoped that permission has been given to RAW to revive its earlier capabilities. Targets should include the leaders of fundamentalist terrorist organisations in Pakistan who are sponsoring terrorist strikes in India, their ISI handlers — particularly those who are renegade or rogue elements. Masterminds like Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi must be neutralised one by one if Pakistan does not act against them. Fugitives from Indian justice like Dawood Ibrahim must be hounded out. In fact, Dawood should be secretly apprehended from his hideout in Karachi and brought back alive to India to face public trial. In a later phase, when a network of operatives is in place and sufficient experience has been gained, logistics installations of the army like ammunition dumps — from which explosives are issued for suicide strikes — should be blown up. In this age of realpolitik, adherence to ahimsa will not pay dividends and India will remain at the mercy of terrorist organisations. Such organisations will always have the initiative as they can choose the time and place of the next attack. The RAW must be given the wherewithal necessary to undertake sustained covert operations in Pakistan to eliminate the leadership of organisations inimical to India. The flames of fundamentalist terrorism in India are still being fanned by the Pakistan army and the ISI though on a reduced scale. The time to debate this issue on moral and legal grounds has long since
passed. The writer is a Delhi-based
strategic analyst.
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‘Take Five’ beats on
For
my eighteenth birthday, my debonair brother-in-law took me out to Trincas, the jazziest 'watering hole' on the Park Street of Calcutta of the sixties. The first Scotch for the nimbu-pani-drinking Patiala boy was ordered along with a pack of 555 cigarettes. The drummer of the bow-tied, jazz quartet marked the moment with a clash of cymbals. As the jazz band played on, I heard mesmerising music that tugged at my heart- strings. When the pianist's keyboard went tired, the saxophonist took over from the fading notes, injecting a new verve into the ensemble. The haunting composition was Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five'. The evening rolled on. A leather-jacketed, gel-haired singer belted out Elvis Presley numbers, followed by, hold your breath, a sweltering star in a long satin, evening gown crooning 'Strangers in the night' by Frank Sinatra. Tuxedo-clad gentlemen led Bengali beauties to the dance floor. But the Patiala lad was still struck with the haunting jazz number and mustered up enough courage to write down a request. Sure enough, the band played it …! 'Take Five' is a legendary jazz piece written by Paul Desmond and first performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet in their 1959 album 'Time Out'. This piece became one of the group's best-known records. "It's famous for its distinctive catchy saxophone melody; imaginative, jolting drum solo; and use of an unusual metre of 5/4 instead of the traditional 4/4 from which its name is derived," explains a music critic. The composition has stayed on in my heart ever since. Next time, it strummed into my life was when me and my newly-wed bride bought a Hi-Fi music system. And our first choice was Dave Brubeck's LP with a romantic jacket cover of a waltzing couple with a jazz quartet in the silhouette. No wonder it became our badge of bonding together with similar musical heart beats — still going strong after decades. I love live bands — but they are getting extinct. The only place in Chandigarh where a band was good enough to play Dave Brubeck was the Rodrigues group — that played in Chopsticks restaurant once upon a time. But my frequent visits to Chicago — the home of jazz — made up for all that pining. Its annual summer jazz festival brings the best from all over the world to perform free in the Millennium Park. And then on our trips to some of its famous jazz clubs, including the legendary Green Mill, I have never hesitated from sending in a request for the old classic. And the music has always obliged. Now, of course, Internet music has made it possible to listen to the best of jazz easily accessible from play stations. But my biggest thrill has been to discover numerous renderings, versions and covers of the classic composition played by other great musicians. My own favourites are versions by Al Jarreau, George Benson and Quincy Jones. Silently, Dave Brubeck died on December 5. He was only one day short of his 92nd birthday, and had been playing music till last year. He said, "One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It's the same any place in the world, that heartbeat." The legend of 'Take Five' will beat
onn.
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Punjabi na chup chaap aate hai na chup chaap jaate hai.... Expectedly with this tongue-in-cheek dialogue resounding all through, the film can be anything but subtle. Yet loudness is not the only failing of this Khiladi. Fashioned after similar other mindless entertainers like Rowdy Rathore and Housefull, this one even fails to serve the prime purpose for which these formula films are made, that is to entertain. Mildly and sporadically funny, high on action and low on IQ, as it treads the same path as N-number of other Hindi movies have, this cinema of escapism offer no respite of any kind.
The storyline hovering around our Khiladi (Akshay Kumar) who for some strange reason is called 72 (Behatar in Punjabi) Singh, a fake policeman who helps real ones, is replete with inane conjectures. So, he has a family whose members are not only named after mathematical numbers from seventy onwards but which is like the United Colours of the World. So, there is a Canadian mother, a Chinese aunt and a South African grandmother. So much so even our Khiladi can't seem to find a suitable Indian bride.
Even the much touted item number Balma picturised on Claudia Ciesla is a dampener. Surprisingly all-in-one Himesh Reshammiya who is the story writer, producer, actor and of course the composer, isn't as bad as an actor. Perhaps for he only has a supporting role. In the role of the composer, well, some songs do sound good but stand out like sore thumbs in the movie that makes it clear from scene one that it is not meant to be taken seriously. All very well for caricatures as characters, lampooning and spoofs as a leitmotif`85. can be hilarious provided there is some method in the madness. Sadly all of this is missing. It is at best a rehash of masala movies sans zing of its own. Sure some dialogues have pun and certain comic sequences make you grin. But the dreary tracks woven within the main narrative make you grimace soon enough and bring the comic quotient down. What's worse, the film perpetuates clich`E9s and stereotypes about Punjabis ad infinitum and ad nauseam. If only like the boisterous, lively Punjabis the movie had been full of beans it wouldn't have turned into a gruelling test on one's patience.
Animated to perfection Hotel Transylvania 3D is a delightful spoof on the eerie monsters of our time (and therefore in animation), having good humour, excellent music, well-spaced and with some great lines - a truly satiating experience, except for a wee bit of slapstick.
Enter, Drac (voice of Adam Sandler), short for you know who, black cape et al, singing to his little girl Mavis "hush little vamp`85" setting the tempo for things to come. Fast-forward to the present day and it's Mavis' 118th birthday, so Drac is 'settigupa' party and calling a plethora of monsters, some known and others not. There's Frank (Kevin James), short for Frankenstein, and wife Eunice (Fran Drescher), Wanda (Molly Shanon) and Wayne Weerwolf (Steve Burcini); Griffin the Monster (David Spade) and of course his daughter, his overprotected daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez). Jonathan, the traveller (Andy Sandberg), is the human who wanders into alien monster domain.
The monster delicacies are lizard fingers, worm cake and other such body parts and Mavis' favourite expression 'holy rabies'. But women's lib seems to have filtered down to them and Mavis shows spunk when charmed by the dapper Jonathan and takes her vampire dad by the horns, as it were. Then on to this amusing story - the musical component by a five (and more)-piece band set the tempo and it is able to adapt to all kinds of music with old Drac also joining in the revellery (a word never associated with horror movies). Refreshing, indeed! So, it's fun ("I invented fun," says Drac) and games as never before. You just have to lap it up and that's not a request. It will do the long-sagging Hollywood image a world of good.
Nothing to play for Films on sport are few and far between, yet when they do happen it is not without a sense of expectation. Playing for Keeps, however, immediately dispels that hope despite an ensemble cast because it alternates between sport and romance, virtually spoon-feeding the viewer.
George Dyer (Gerard Butler), King George in his soccer playing days, is now upon bad times, always in debt and estranged from his wife Stacie (Jessica Beil), who has a live-in boyfriend and his eight-year-old son Lewis (Noah Lomax). It is through his son's craze for soccer that George is asked to coach his school team. George expectedly becomes a favourite not only with the lads but more importantly with their moms who fall over themselves cooing "coach, coach`85" Among them is Pattie (Uma Thurman), the sexy wife of school benefactor Carl (Dennis Quaid), Denise (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a former TV anchor with plenty of contacts, and a weepy, emotional Barb (Judy Greer).
Gerard Butler goes through the motions of his predictable part quite enthusiastically and is supported ably by Jessica Beil while Uma Thurman, still looking desirable, and Catherine Zeta-Jones are merely decorative. Dennis Quaid suffers through his very one-dimensional character. Utterly miss-able!
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And this is where
Manuskh (Himesh Reshammiya) a matchmaker-cum-wedding planner steps in.
He has to find a suitable groom for a don Tatya Tukaram Tendulkar's (Mithun
Chakraborty) sister Indu (Asin) who has scared many grooms away with
her driving antics. So, who can match her better than the Khiladi whose
scintillating speed is the stuff legends are made of? As yet another
cheeky dialogue in the movie goes Duniya mein teen cheezein hoti
zaroor hai par dekhi kissi ne nahin namely bhooton ka sansar,
sacha pyar aur Bahatar Singh ki raftar. Yet neither his nor the
film's raftar can rescue it from falling into the abyss of
ennui. The film does move at a reasonable speed. But based on a
skeletal, that too done to death story line, average performances, it
offers nothing you haven't seen before.
Based on a story by
Todd Durham and the Hagerman brothers, it is a delightful narrative
that sticks to the old beliefs that vampires thirst for human blood is
only nocturnal. Victimised, Drac, the oldest vampire, has vowed
vengeance and war against humans. But then Jonathan comes along`85and
there's a ray of hope.
So, it's a case of
plenty for George and though he has to show some soccer skills, this
contemporary of David Beckham, is busier with his romantic demands.
What's more, Denise is setting him up for a sports commentator's job
with ESPN. Hence, between this, that and the other, all perfectly
predictable, we are put through an ordeal that is only 105 minutes
long but seems longer. There are at least three of better endings but
no, director Muccino chooses to take the longer route in familiar
Hollywood formula style`85.yuk.
Heyy Babyy
127 Hours