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Not-so-aam ideas Seeking nuclear restraint |
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China flexes its maritime muscle
Asking questions with wh-words
CINEMA: NEW Releases
Imagery can’t win the day
Hollow fury
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Not-so-aam ideas Apart
from the Aam Admi Party leaders' known views on corruption, crony capitalism, decentralisation of powers and FDI in retail, the party's manifesto contains some refreshing new ideas. The one that has caught immediate public attention is the lowering of the age for contesting elections from 25 to 21. The party's argument in its favour is valid: If a man can vote at 18, get married at 21, why can't he contest an election at 21? Responding to a question after the release of the manifesto on Thursday, Arvind Kejriwal supported the suggestion that there should be an upper age limit for fighting elections, but left it to "further debate". On their own, MPs may not pass a law to retire senior citizens from Parliament. It is either for voters or political parties with younger leaders at the helm to force elderly politicians to sit at home and make way for youth, who are increasingly becoming politically assertive. Another smart, politically beneficial idea relates to farmers. Though AAP is largely urban-based, it pledges support to the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. Farmers' organisations have held numerous protests to demand the implementation of the Swaminathan formula under which farmers should be paid minimum support prices calculated on the basis of input costs plus 50 per cent profit. Since farmers constitute a large vote bank, political parties often promise remunerative farm prices but no government - either at the Centre or in states -- has implemented the Swaminathan report. Since AAP was formed in the backdrop of campaigns against corruption and attacks on women, the manifesto says that "citizens' security forces" would be formed with a branch in each ward to help women, children and senior citizens. The party promises police reforms, emphasising that "not lodging an FIR will be made an offence". Crimes against women would be handled by fast-track courts and the number of judges doubled in five years. Though AAP lacks a coherent ideology, it has a socialist bias. Its leadership sounds pragmatic, meaning the party ignores the colour of the cat as long as it catches mice.
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Seeking nuclear restraint Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh wants nuclear weapon states to come to an agreement where they would not be the first to use nuclear weapons against other countries. Indeed, his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had first announced in 1998 that India would maintain a no-first-use nuclear strike policy. India has all along maintained that even as it has armed itself with nuclear devices, it wants to work at eliminating such weapons of mass destruction. Indian Prime Ministers have for long argued that the country is a reluctant nuclear nation, and remains committed to nuclear non-proliferation, in spite of having two nuclear weapon states as its neighbours. While China has maintained its no-first-use policy since 2008, Pakistan has kept its option open; although it says it will use nuclear weapons against either nuclear or non-nuclear states only in the case of invasion or other attack on its territory. In recent years, it seems to have ramped up its production of nuclear weapons, especially smaller tactical weapons. An uncertain security situation in the country adds to a degree of worry about the safety of such devices. Even as India remains committed to nuclear non-proliferation and its no-first-use declaration, the possibility of nuclear weapons coming in the hands of non-state actors remains a nightmare. So does the idea of tactical weapons in the hands of a hawkish military force. Rising tensions in the world have raised the possibility that even nations that have been working towards decreasing their nuclear stockpiles, or have abandoned their weaponisation programmes may change course. This would be disastrous, since even as the world has remained nuclear bomb free since 1945, nuclear weapons have proliferated in spite of the best efforts at non-proliferation. Indeed, the only way to ensure that nuclear bombs remain consigned to the dark days of history is to phase out such weapons of mass destruction. Dr Manmohan Singh has made the country's position clear. His is a voice of reason in a world which seems to be inclined towards ignoring such sanity.
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Thought for the Day
Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be. —
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Increased cost of living
WHILE the Government of India has not a word to say in extenuation of the most unaccountable delay in the publication of the Prices Enquiry Committee and the people are generally feeling their own helplessness to combat the evils of high prices, it is not a little comforting to find that women is England have been concerting practical unofficial measures to deal effectively with this great economic problem. In mail week a conference was held at Toynbee Hall to consider not only the increased cost of living but also the question of a legal standard of quality for food. The meeting was convened by the National Women's Council of the British Socialist Party and the Women's Industrial Council and 18 societies and organisations were represented. It was explained at the conference that the retail price in London of 23 principal foodstuffs, including bread, meat, bacon, butter, and eggs had advanced 17.9 per cent between 1886 and 1910 and that since then the necessaries of life had risen considerably more. Labour discontent in England
THE Government of India and the public have to face a type of discontent in India which is sometimes exhibiting itself in revolutionary forms. However small or isolated such revolutionaries are, their evil propaganda cannot be slighted or ignored. It is, however, difficult to suggest what the remedies should be and in what way the evil is to be nipped in the bud. Perhaps the nature and directions of a parallel movement in Great Britain and Ireland will enable us to face the situation with courage. The Home Government has troubles enough in the unlawful deed, of suffragettes, in Labour revolutionary movements and in armed resistance by Ulster.
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China flexes its maritime muscle
China
has been continuously building its military potential in pace with its growing economy. That’s how it has embarked upon a comprehensive military expansion in recent years. Its rising politico-military profile has led it to adopt an aggressive posture in the international arena. Its tiff with most of its maritime neighbours like Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other ASEAN countries is a reflection of this mindset. While these issues continue to simmer, China has raised yet another one causing alarm amongst the Indian Ocean littoral states, including India. According to a recent report, a Chinese nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) has made a protracted foray deep into the Indian Ocean. It spent nearly two months loitering between the Gulf of Aden and the western coast of India before returning to the home base on Hainan Island in the South China Sea via the straits of Malacca. This is the first-ever Chinese strategic ingress into an area considered by India as its sphere of influence and through which pass 80 per cent of India's energy requirements. This has set alarm in the security establishment, particularly the Indian Navy. China is also wary of India controlling the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean, for nearly three-fourth of its energy supplies pass through the straits of Malacca. It fears an Indian disruption at some critical juncture. That is why it wants an early solution to what it calls as its “Malacca dilemma”. This is an indication of what lies ahead so far as India's security and economic interests are concerned. A clash of interest is bound to result in challenges that would not be easy to surmount. The logic behind securing maritime bases by China in India's neighbourhood thus stands out clearly. The so-called pearls around India's neck ranging from Gwadar in Pakistan to Hambantota in Sri Lanka to Myanmar are not without purpose. Whatever reasons China may put forward in defence of its sortie in the Indian Ocean close to India, its strategic intentions are quite evident. China's mounting aggressiveness in keeping with its maritime vision has the Indian Navy worried for long. Its lead in submarines, both in respect of nuclear-powered attack submarines and the conventional diesel-electric submarine is substantial, to say the least. Its fast-growing maritime hardware comprising destroyers, frigates and other naval assets has already altered the balance of power in the Indian Ocean. The nuclear submarine's quiet ingress into the Indian Ocean recently is a clear manifestation of this. Gradually the dwindling force level and progressive obsolescence as witnessed in the recent spate of naval accidents does not auger well for a navy that aspires to control the high seas. Apart from the solitary nuclear-powered attack submarine, INS Chakara, on lease from Russia since 2012, India continues to struggle with its indigenous Arihant. Nuclear-powered submarines have a tremendous operational edge over the conventional diesel submarines. The submarine arm of the Indian Navy is largely obsolescent, if not obsolete. Diesel-electric submarines are no match to China's nuclear-powered submarines. No new platforms have been acquired for over a decade now. The Indian Navy is losing its edge very fast unless some urgent measures are taken immediately. Lack of vision and a lackadaisical attitude towards security matters had led us to a national disaster in the past and sadly the scenario is no different today. Like in the past, the government continues to remain oblivious of the Chinese, as also of its own war capabilities. Nehru's rather undiplomatic statement that he had told his army to throw the Chinese out was an obvious reflection of this. The Indian response to the Chinese buildup continues to remain dismissal as hitherto. Our border infrastructure in comparison to the Chinese is lagging behind by decades. Down south in the high seas too, we are being challenged by an aggressive adversary. The state of (un)preparedness of the armed forces and the apathetic attitude of the political leadership today has all the ingredients of a potential disaster. The military brass is once again going around with a begging bowl but the leadership remains unmoved. Unfortunately, the political leadership is not well disposed towards military matters. They are largely dependent on the bureaucratic advice. The bureaucrats have thus managed to exercise authority without responsibility. The proclivity to suspect every provisioning demand put up by the services and to delay its acquisition unmindful of its urgency frustrates the armed forces. The deterrent potential of the Indian armed forces is thus gradually eroding, whether it is the Navy in the Indian Ocean or the Army up in the Himalayas. China's growing economy and its leadership's penchant for national security coupled with its global aspirations have led China to spend heavily on defence year after year. China's current defence budget at $131.57 billion is more than three and a half times of India's $36.3 billion. China is known to conceal its actual defence allocation, which may be many times more than what is made public. With a defence budget under 2 per cent of the GDP and multiple peripheral threats, the armed forces face a serious predicament. Their diminishing potential as in the case of the Navy, which is supposed to guard our southern flank in the Indian Ocean, is a serious matter. It's time the politico-bureaucratic leadership in this country understood that neither diplomacy can be effective nor economic prowess sustained unless backed by a powerful military. The writer is a former Director General,
Defence Planning Staff
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Asking questions with wh-words “I keep six honest serving-men 1. The hall has got pictures on its walls? (Though this illustration is not a wh-word question, it is an essential step here.) The sentence is acceptable in spoken English as an echo question with the support of intonation. An echo question is a repetition of the statement made earlier to confirm something. However, this sentence does not find acceptance in formal writing where grammatical correctness is an issue. The learner is violating the subject and auxiliary inversion rule. Here, the subject is “The hall”, “has” is the auxiliary and “got” the main verb. As per the rule, "has" should be placed before “The hall” for the sentence to read as “Has the hall got ... “. This rule applies to all forms of have: has and had, to all forms of be: is, am, are, was, were and to all modals: can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might and must. 2. Why you enjoy climbing hills? When the sentence has only one verb, in this case “enjoy”, we must insert the auxiliary verb “do” before the subject “you” to frame a question. It is referred to as the “do support” rule where “do” is borrowed from outside. The corrected version is “Why do you enjoy climbing hills”. The word “climbing” should not be taken for a verb as it names an action and functions as a noun. When combined with hills, the two form a noun phrase. 3. When you left for Delhi? The sentence must take the support of “do” as an auxiliary, as it has only one verb and such verbs do not accept inversion. In addition, once “do” is placed as an auxiliary verb, the tense must be moved from the main verb “left” to the auxiliary verb “do”. The reformulated sentence will read as “When did you leave for Delhi”. 4. For what did you throw away your cell phone? Occasionally, we do encounter structures such as the one given above. A similar example is “From where are you coming”. The two become acceptable by moving the prepositions “For” and “From” to the end of the sentences. But in certain other places, prepositions can precede wh-words, as in “To whom are you writing the letter” or “On what terms have you
rented it”. Besides the ones discussed, there are other forms of framing questions. For instance, (i) Ready? (ii) Rita is preparing for what? (iii) Where am I going when? (iv) Where to? They are acceptable in colloquial speech but formal discourse must follow norms.
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CINEMA: NEW Releases It's unfair to imagine that Varun despite his six packs and amazing dancing skills can be the rightful inheritor of Govinda's inimitable comic legacy. But the young actor carries the film on his shoulders with disarming charm. Nonika Singh
Words
par nahi emotion par dhyan do… keeps reiterating gifted actor Saurabh Shukla playing mafia don's loyalist. Hey, did we hear that right… words and emotions. For the film has neither the power of emotion nor the punch of words. Of course, expecting emotions in a David Dhawan film would be asking for the moon. It's only fair, the film gets no marks on the emotional count. But sadly the unadulterated fun, the trademark of Dhawan's films, too comes in jerks and depends entirely on what and how you define fun. If inane tukbandi is your idea of entertainment, you get it in abundance. In fact, the film that packs references to other films by the sack-full is replete with cheesy one-liners equally divided between the lead Sinu (Varun Dhawan) and Saurabh Shukla and occasionally by Rajpal Yadav. The plot, in the grand tradition of Dhawan films, is non-existent and is merely a mishmash of contrived conjectures. So let's get down to basics. Now the moot question—do we miss the actor with the perfect comic timing with whom Dhawan has delivered many a blockbuster? Well, it's unfair to imagine that Varun despite his six packs and amazing dancing skills can be the rightful inheritor of Chi Chi's inimitable comic legacy. But the young actor carries the film on his shoulders with disarming charm. As for the charming ladies of the film, well they are no more than eye candy and the only prize they, especially Nargis Fakhri and Evelyn Sharma, seem to be competing for is who is the dumbest of all! Anyways, in father David's directorial signature sonny dear Varun has to rule the roost even though Arunoday has a major part too. And going by Varun's enormous screen presence you can't grudge him the mileage he gets. But if you are complaining about missing elements like attention to detail, layered characterisation, clearly you bought the tickets for the wrong film. Such cinematic niceties have no place in masala entertainment that comes under David Dhawan brand. So before you ask what's there for you….well there are laughs for sure, a fine pace too and a light-hearted breezy feel that enables you to suffer the nonsense of it all without feeling the pain. Only after the film chugs to its logical conclusion with Shukla getting the last laugh and line, Aap jaise logon ko bewakoof kehate hain we can't help but wonder, if he meant the viewers? Well, if you are willing to play the fool, the tomfoolery here might get you your money's worth. Time pass or nonsensical fun…choose your own description of this no-brainer. From a critical eye this is average fare that offers nothing new except Varun of course.
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Imagery can’t win the day
Jal
is definitely an experience; a real peep into the trials and tribulations of tribal villagers living in the Rann of Kutch where potable water is scarce and life is a series of never-ending hardships. Rakesh Mishra's story, developed into a script by director Girish Malik starts on a promising note. However, the two halves don't match up enough to make it worth connecting with on a more cerebral and emotional level. So the effect is not exactly gritty enough. And that's mainly because the story and narrative is logically flawed. The film opens with a stunningly digitised desert storm coming at you from the horizon, while in the foreground you see Bakka(Purab Kohli) desperately digging a well in search of water for his pregnant wife Kesar (Kirti Kulhari), who is literally dying of thirst. Cut to the past where Bakka is the water diviner who appears to have some innate sensitivity that allows him to determine the position of water several meters below the surface. The narrative scrambles together several subplots in an effort to increase the complexity, but the result is non-cohesive. The romance between Bakka and Kesar, the war over water, the unrequited love angle, betrayal of trust, abandonment, sacrifice and survival are elements that find ample space. However, logical flow, coherence and clarity are missing. In a turn of events, Bakka asks his friend Rakkala to head for the mound hiding the jewellery collected from the villagers while he himself goes to return the vehicle with the bore-digging machine. The Indian cast is competent but the foreigners look lost and totally clueless as to what they are doing. Jal could well have become the flavour of the year provided the writer and director had the foresight to do a re-draft or maybe several re-drafts of the script.
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Hollow fury To start with Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) runs into his former counselor Sam Wilson, alias Falcon (Anthony Mackie), who gets him to come back to the espionage game he knows so well. They work for an agency called S.H.I.E.L.D..s (whatever it stands for) but while rescuing the crew of an Algerian vessel, attacked by pirates, Rogers/America joins forces with Natasha Romanoff alias Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen), already on one of her secret missions. There is also S.H.I.E.L.D's director Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford with a probable facelift) who proves to be a dicey customer and agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) provides feminine relief. There's Nick Fury (Samuel L .Jackson) who has lost an eye in action and lest we forget the Winter Soldier of the title James Buckey Barnes (Sebastian Stans) whose old self is frozen in time and a new identity provided to complete the platter. Action is the name of the game and we have bursts of them with Rogers eliminating over half a dozen adversaries in a lift though how he enters it is a mystery. To balance the action are attempts at humour like this one , "Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Answer, "If they shoot at you they are the bad guys. Ha ha! In a film of this nature acting is a minor prop. Chris Evans in the lead role goes through the motions and the blonde Scarlett Johanssen apart from being easy on the eye delivers some witty lines. Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson get their regular cameo space in this more sound than fury entertainer.
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Saturday April 5
What the Fish, produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, is a comedy film starring Dimple Kapadia and directed by Gurmeet Singh. ZEE CINEMA MOVIES NOW ZEE STUDIO MOVIES OK STAR GOLD ZEE ACTION SONY PIX Sunday April 6
Players is an action thriller heist film directed by duo Abbas and Mustan Burmawalla and jointly produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Burmawala Partners. ZEE CINEMA MOVIES OK ZEE ACTION STAR GOLD ZEE CLASSIC ZEE STUDIO
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When
First things first, let's meet our hero, a nincompoop who flunks in exams, fights goondas and seems to have a direct hotline with God. So every now and then each time he crosses by an idol, you find him communicating with the Almighty. But that is only a minor diversion. The main track takes him from Coonoor to Bengaluru (later Bangkok as well)) for he must get a degree. But we all know degrees can wait but chokri can't. In walks Ileana D'Cruz and the hero breaks into a hummable song Tera dhyan kidhar hai ke tera hero idhar hai. Only the dhyan of a bad policeman (Arunoday Singh) too is right on her. Yep, we all know 'har picture mein ek villan hota hai'! But weren't Dhawan films about comedy and of course, lest we forget, Govinda. So pay no attention to the villain who changes colour too. 
The irony though is that the tribal village he belongs to does not have any water well while the rival village has one that is belly full right up to the top. In this scenario, there enters a trio of foreign biologists studying the flamingos that flock to this region year after year. They discover that the young ones of the flamingos are dying because of the high salinity in the sea water and decide to build a pond to provide fresh, less saline water in order to save the birds.
Now, in this anything-is-possible scenario we have king-size aircraft/vessels built for speed, men who sprout wings and fly at will and falling humans (falling or thrown off skyscrapers) being quickly rescued. There is also some mumbo-jumbo of brains being computerised after a person is dead.
6:00PM UTV MOVIES
9:00pm zee cinema