17dec

Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014 

Buying/Selling 1 

Winzone Realty Inc. 

Baldev 

Singh 

Associate 

Broker/Notary 

Cell : 917-224-7395 

Vol. 12 Issue 29 December 18-25, 2014 www.thesouthasianinsider.com Price $ 1 Published Weekly from New York 

Story 

ON Page 

18-22 

Rs 9,300 crore black money 

changes hands in medical 

seat sale every year 

(Agencies) New Delhi : The White 

Paper on Black Money in India, 

published recently, estimated that 

deposits by Indians in all Swiss 

banks at the end of 2010 amounted 

to Rs 9,300 crore or about $1.5 

billion. That much money, if not more, 

is changing hands in the black 

market of medical education in India 

every year. 

Back-of-the-envelope calculations 

show that the 'sale' of MBBS and post 

graduate seats in medical colleges 

rakes in about Rs 10,000 crore or 

more in a year. And that's a 

conservative estimate. Here's the 

calculation. 

There are a total of about 8,100 

MBBS seats in the management 

quota in private colleges 

(approximately 30% of the 27,000 

seats in such colleges). 

(Contd on page 23) 

When Obama was mistaken for waiter and valet 

(Agencies) Washington : : President 

Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle 

Obama say they have been mistaken for 

valet and wait staff on their journey to 

the White House despite the progress 

America has seen in race relations. 

The First Couple sat down for a candid 

conversation with a popular magazine 

on racism in American amid a fervid 

debate on the issue after a raft of whiteon-black 

killings. “There’s no black male 

my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t 

come out of a restaurant and is waiting 

for their car and somebody didn’t hand 

them their car keys,” the President told 

the magazine, confirming that he had 

experienced being taken for a valet. 

The President was joined by the First 

Lady for an interview on, “How We Deal 

with Our Own Racist Experiences,” that 

will hit the stands on Friday. On her part, 

Michelle Obama related that even as the 

First Lady, during a visit she took to a 

Target (Departmental) store, the only 

person who came up to her in the store 

was a woman who asked her to help take 

something off a shelf. “Because she 

didn’t see me as the first lady, she saw 

me as someone who could help her. 

Those kinds of things happen in life. So 

it isn’t anything new,” she said. 

The interview came amid chatter that 

the First Couple were insulated from or 

had grown out of the racial discrimination 

that black experience every day and that 

the President was cold to the suffering 

of African-Americans. (Contd on page 23) 

New York Magazine says ‘we were duped’ by $72 million teen trader 

(Agencies) New York - Magazine issued 

an apology to its readers Tuesday morning, 

acknowledging the editors were “duped” by 

the teen stock trader rumored to have made 

$72 million. 

“Our fact-checking process was obviously 

inadequate; we take full responsibility and 

we should have known better. New York 

apologizes to our readers,” the note read. 

The note was added to the profile of 17- 

year-old Mohammed Islam, featured as part 

of the magazine’s “Reasons to love New York” 

issue. It was the second editor’s note in 24 

hours. The first came late Monday night after 

the New York Observer ran an interview with 

Islam in which he admitted to making the 

story up. (Contd on page 23)


TRI-STATE/COMMUNITY 

2 

Health care is a civil right, says Dr Ramanathan Raju 

Among Tamils) at a function attended 

by leading Indian-Amerition, 

in his address said Dr. Raju 

Medical College Alumni Associacan 

physicians in Hotel Madras has a reputation for helping 

Woodlands in New Hyde Park people. 

recently. 

Dr. Robert D’Esposito 

John Joseph, Executive president of Nassau County 

Vice President of America Tamil Medical Society who presented 

Sangam presided over the meeting. 

“I have chosen a profession praised his spirited public service 

the Tamil Ratna Award on Dr Raju 

which brought me so much joy and a zeal to provide healthcare to 

and my work in the last decades the uninsured. He said it's appropriate 

that America Tamil Sangam 

to eliminate the health care disparities 

that exist in our country should honor one of its proud son 

has been very fulfilling. The who has become a leader in health 

people from Tamil Nadu are always 

at the forefront of social the highest ranking Indian-American 

care system. Capt Stanley George, 

justice issues in this country and officer of NYPD in his remarks 

this is because of the rich traditions 

we carry in our social fab- 

Sangam for honoring one of its illus- 

praised the role of America Tamil 

(By a staff writer) the health for all is to provide adequate 

access not only to Health and Hospitals Corporadent 

and CEO of New York City 

Healthcare is a fundamental right 

ric and greatness we carry in our trious sons of Tamil Nadu. Dr 

of every citizen and more of a civil healthcare but also equal opportunities 

in education wealth hous- 

investiture ceremony of America 

tion. Dr Raju was addressing an 

service. As we continue our mission 

to bring our greatness and break of Ebola could go down in 

Raju’s work on preventing an out- 

right, a human right and a constitutional 

right for all this country. 

“ The only way to improve said Dr Ramanathan Raju, Presi- 

highest honor Tamil Ratna (Jewel 

ing jobs and pursuing happiness,” Tamil Sangam that bestowed its 

our service to all New Yorkers organizations 

like America Tamil America Tamil Sangam also hon- 

the history of New York City. 

Sangam have a special place in ored Dr Karthi Ramasamy, a 

our minds and hearts,” he said. leading plastic and cosmetic surgeon 

in Chennai for his fight 

Dr Madan Raj, a leading pain 

management physician of Long against obesity especially childhood 

obesity in Island and officer of Madurai 

schools. 

US Senate confirms Vivek 

Murthy as surgeon general 

(Agencies) Washington : 37- 

year-old Indian-American physician 

Vivek Hallegere Murthy 

has been confirmed as the 19th 

surgeon general of America by 

US Senate. He is youngest 

person and first person of Indian-origin 

to hold the post. 

The upper house of US 

Congress confirmed Murthy's 

nomination by 51 votes to 43 

more than year after President 

Barack Obama had nominated 

him to this top administration 

post on public health issues in 

November 2013 which saw a 

strong opposition from the 

powerful pro-gun lobby National 

Rifle Association (NRA). 

The final voting came yesterday 

soon after the Senate invoked 

cloture — a procedural 

hurdle — by same numbers (51 

to 43 votes) Pitching strongly for 

Murthy's confirmation, Senator 

Dick Durbin praised Murthy for his 

dedication to fighting obesity, tobacco 

related diseases and other 

chronic diseases that account for 

seven out of the top 10 causes 

for death in America and make 

up for 84 per cent of America's 

health care costs. "I believe 

Dr Murthy understands the importance 

of the national crises 

before him, and feel confident 

that his experiences, his training, 

and his tenacity have provided 

him the qualifications he 

needs to tackle these issues, 

and the many more he's sure 

to face, head-on," Durbin said. 

"Not only is Dr Murthy an outstanding 

doctor and public 

health expert, but he also remains 

closely connected to his 

community and family," he 

said. "There is no question 

about the qualification of Dr 

Murthy to do his job," said 

another Senator Chris Murphy, 

adding that Murthy has a really 

impressive history of commitment 

to international public 

health, building two international 

organizations, one 

that empowers hundreds of 

youths in the US and India to 

educate over 45,000 students 

on HIV prevention. 

(Contd on page 23)


TRI-STATE/COMMUNITY 

3 

USA Experiences The First SHIAMAK Winter Funk Show! 

(Agencies) (New York )- Enthusiastic students 

lined up at the Memorial Auditorium 

at Montclair State University for their first 

dance performance as a part of the 

SHIAMAK Dance Academy on Saturday, 

December 6th. Participants, ages four to 

eighty four, dressed in colorful costumes 

were ready to embody the academy's 

motto, Have Feet. Will Dance. Millions 

of students across India, Canada, Australia, 

the UK and the UAE have learnt at the 

world's biggest dance academy, performed 

on stage and experienced the joy of being 

stars. The movement that has now reached 

New York and New Jersey has been the 

latest buzz amongst the South Asian community 

and the fans of Bollywood dancing. 

Founder and Artistic Director of the 

academy, Shiamak Davar is the most 

sought after choreographer in India and is 

referred to as the Guru of Dance. With the 

festive season, the show took Santa on a 

dance through Bollywood. From the Christmas 

inspired decoration in the lobby to a 

visit from Santa himself, the audience had 

a great time clicking photographs even before 

the show started! The show, hosted 

by Monty Lokesh Kataria, kept the audience 

engaged and entertained throughout. 

From current hits to retro, divas of 

Bollywood to the biggest heroes, tribute 

to stars and covering different eras of Indian 

Cinema, the show was a complete 

Bollywood cinematic journey. The highlight 

of the show were the stars of tomorrow, 

kids between ages four to six who had the 

audience on their feet. A first time ever 

performance by the SHIAMAK Dance 

Team- USA gave a glimpse of the training 

and expertise of the dance academy's faculty. 

'The Winter Funk show was a true 

showcase of all that the students have 

learnt, cultivated and experienced through 

the classes,' said Deeba Patel, Senior 

Manager with the SHIAMAK Group. The 

Chief Economic Development Officer of 

Choose New Jersey, Mr. Michael Chrobak 

addressed the audience and commented, 

"I believe Shiamak Davar is the biggest 

Bollywood choreographer and SHIAMAK 

classes are in five countries and more. I'm 

glad Shiamak has brought his classes to 

New Jersey so the community can come 

together to stay connected to this rich 

culture of India and Bollywood through 

Dance! I wish The SHIAMAK group great 

success across the US and congratulations 

to all the performers tonight!" Instructors 

Bhuvan Sharma and Devashree Pande 

trained the students for fifteen classes 

enabling them to perform on stage for this 

big night. Their energy reflected in each of 

the performer that took to the stage. 'You 

are making history today by being part of 

the very first Winter Funk show here in 

the USA', said Bhuvan and received a thunderous 

applause from the audience. 

Devashree was extremely pleased with the 

students and knew that 'all the students 

from Jersey City, Edison, Paramus, 

Queen, Manhattan will perform like 

rock stars on stage!' The show ended 

with a high energy performance on 

Indiawale, the biggest current hit from 

Bollywood. Students are looking forward 

to the next batch of classes starting 

8th December and another one in 

the New Year on 11th January. Phone 

registrations are open for new students 

and beginners as well. 

Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's FOODFOOD Channel Launched 

(Agencies) New York : 

A star-studded evening was recently 

to celebrate the launch 

of Master Chef Sanjeev 

Kapoor's television channel 

FOODFOOD on DISH Network 

(channel 713) and 

Dishworld.Widely successful in 

India, FoodFood is a 24/7 food 

lifestyle channeland serves as 

a destination for those passionate 

about the flavors, art and 

lifestyle of Indian cuisine. 

Bollywood themed 

Dhoom Restaurant in Secaucus, 

NJ was a perfect setting for the 

event serving decadent, signature 

dishes and celebrating Indian cuisine 

with style.The high-profile 

guest list included Consul General 

of India, Mayor of Secaucus, 

Fox News anchor Kelly Wright, 

channel heads from most major 

South Asian TV 

channels,celebrity chefs, and top 

restaurateurs,. A live cooking 

demo performed by Master Chef 

Kapoor himself along with Dhoom 

owner Vijay Rao and Chef Dhandu 

Ram wrapped up the evening. The 

event was organized by Varli media. 

Chef Sanjeev Kapoor is 

the most celebrated and well-recognized 

Indian Chef in 

theculinaryworldand this new step 

forward in Indian TV programming 

furthers his growing list of accomplishments. 

Showcasing recipes 

that are as rich and diverse as the 

Indian culture, FoodFood capitalizes 

on the growing demand for 

Indian food across the world.The 

viewers in the U.S. market will 

now be able to enjoy all the popular 

programs of the channel like 

Sanjeev Kapoor's Kitchen, Turban 

Tadka, Mummy Ka Magic and 

Health Mange More on DISH, 

which offers one of the largest 

selections of international programming. 

Veracity Multimedia 

partnered with FoodFood to 

launch the channel on Dish 

Network in the US earlier this 

year. In Canada, FoodFood 

caters to almost 70% of the 

households through all the major 

service providers. It is also 

present in UAE & Qatar and is in 

negotiation with major platforms 

in Singapore and Indonesia.


OP-ED 

4 

Nuclear Deal with Russia is No Reason to Celebrate 

(By Mani Shankar Aiyar ) 

On the same day that visiting 

Russian President Vladimir 

Putin committed himself to supplying 

12 nuclear reactors to India, 

oil prices slipped below $60 

and look set to drop to a band 

between $35 and $40. This 

makes the nuclear deal less enticing 

than it might otherwise have 

been. For it underlines the impossibility 

of substituting nuclear 

power for petroleum in our energy 

basket. In present circumstances, 

Modi would have been 

better advised to ask Putin how 

he thought Russia might network 

India into an Asian gas and oil 

community to meet India's energy 

requirements than focus on 

nuclear cooperation. 

This is not the popular or media 

perception and, therefore, 

needs to be explained. Even under 

the most optimistic assumptions, 

nuclear energy, which now 

constitutes between 1%-2% of 

India's energy consumption, 

could not rise above 6% till well 

into the middle of the century. 

Therefore, our prime requirement 

is not nuclear power but fossil 

energy. 

Second, as Kudankulam has 

demonstrated, finding locations 

for nuclear plants is always going 

to be problematic and will increasingly 

be so. For while no 

one objects to nuclear energy, 

almost everyone objects to locating 

nuclear plants in their vicinity. 

We have seen this at Jaitapur 

in Maharashtra as well as in 

West Bengal. Fukushima has 

shown that even in a highly developed 

country like Japan with 

a deeply embedded industrial 

culture and a highly disciplined 

work-force, nuclear accidents can 

happen and leave a trail of destruction 

over decades, indeed 

over generations, that make the 

Bhopal tragedy look like a small 

accident. 

That is why the Three Mile Island 

nuclear accident in the US 

in 1979 led to a complete stoppage 

of all new nuclear plants in 

that country for nearly four decades. 

The most intensively industrialized 

country in the world, 

Germany, which has no fossil fuel 

of its own, decided in the wake 

of Fukushima that it would phase 

out all its existing nuclear power 

plants, build no new plants and 

move towards one hundred per 

cent dependence on fossil fuels 

and renewable energy. France 

alone continues to rely on nuclear 

power but has the safety backup 

of ample supplies of gas from 

Algeria by pipeline. For India to 

be celebrating 12 new Russian 

nuclear plants is like dancing the 

Dance of Death twelve times over. 

Third, while Obama could tick 

off BP that the US would not accept 

"nickels and dimes" for the 

damage done to the country's 

environment by the deep sea oil 

rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico 

(which killed no humans but did 

polish off a few seals) and thus 

get compensation of 68 billion 

dollars, India screwed no more 

than $480 million out of Union 

Carbide despite the loss of hundreds 

of lives and severe injuries 

to thousands of others - and still 

counting. Yet, our law on liability 

for nuclear accidents is considered 

too drastic for a single 

American nuclear plant manufacturer 

to come forward with supplies 

to India. 

Fourth, the Russian nuclear 

deal comes at just the time that 

oil prices are plummeting, taking 

the sheen off much costlier 

nuclear power and pointing to the 

restoration of stability in the global 

oil and gas market. 

As Russia is a leading producer 

of oil and gas, what Modi 

should have talked to Putin about 

(but did not) is the possibility of 

India-Russian cooperation in securing 

the diversion towards India 

of Russia's rich resources of 

oil and gas. He should have done 

so bearing at least two other factors 

in mind. One, that incremental 

Russian production is much 

more likely to come from its Siberian 

fields to the east of the 

Urals than from the traditional 

fields in western Russia which 

are getting increasingly depleted. 

What the Russians call Siberia 

is what, we should point out to 

them, constitutes north Asia. 

Moreover, the island of Sakhalin, 

where ONGC is partnering BP, 

clearly lies in Asian and not European 

Russia. 

Also, Russia continues to 

have tremendous influence, particularly 

in the complex petroleum 

sector, over its former Central 

Asian republics - 

Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, 

Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, who 

are flush with oil and gas. It is 

from these sources that China 

has sourced much of its huge 

incremental requirements of oil 

and gas. There is still plenty left 

over. And we should be much 

more actively pursuing oil diplomacy 

in Central and North Asia 

than has been in evidence recently 

to access these resources. 

The prospects for this 

have significantly increased since 

the Ukraine snafu has led to the 

West boycotting Russian fuel 

supplies. Also, the fall in international 

oil prices makes it incumbent 

on Russia to look to newer 

and more reliable partners - and 

there can be no more reliable 

partner than "time-tested" India. 

It would appear, however, that 

oil was not even whispered in 

Modi's conversations with Putin. 

By focusing almost exclusively 

on nuclear reactors, Modi gave 

Russia a market to flog their reactors 

that few others want but 

which will barely contribute to 

meeting our growing energy requirements 

while subjecting the 

country's future to the uttermost 

danger of nuclear catastrophe. 

What Modi's advisers need to 

recognize is the dramatically altering 

geo-politics of oil and gas. 

Asia is the world's biggest producer 

of oil and gas. It is also the 

largest growing market for oil and 

gas with a huge unsatisfied appetite 

for fuel to sustain its growth. 

That is why, within an overarching 

goal of progressively establishing 

an Asian Oil and Gas Community, 

attention should be centred 

on first putting in place the elements 

of an Asian gas grid. 

From an Indian perspective, 

the first leg of such a grid should 

be to link Iran with India either 

overland through Pakistan or by 

the undersea technology that has 

only lately become feasible. Such 

a core gas pipeline can then be 

extended to Qatar and other Gulf 

countries, and beyond to Iraq, 

and include a major branch line 

to Azerbaijan. Supplementing this 

western gas network, we should 

be expediting the Turkmenistan- 

Afghanistan-Pakistan-India 

(TAPI) pipeline that is on the drawing 

boards but is still to take-off 

for want of the necessary political 

will. 

(Contd on page 22) 

Economy Alert! Worries Ahead for Modi and Jaitley 

The uptick in sentiment and confidence 

that was reflected after the Modi government 

came to power seems to be waning as some 

economic indicators clearly challenge the 

narrative of a near-term recovery in the 

economy. 

The one question being raised is why the 

rupee is suddenly weakening if global investor 

confidence in India is at an all-time high. 

The exchange rate last week had flirted with 

Rs. 63 to a dollar mark. October and November 

have also seen a doubling of gold 

imports as compared to previous months. 

Such a dramatic rise in gold imports does 

not necessarily signify a new fillip for productive 

investments. 

Particularly worrisome is the latest data 

showing a 4.2 per cent negative growth in 

industrial production for October. This shows 

that ongoing investment projects totalling Rs 

6.3 lakh crore, which were already in the pipeline 

early this year, are not moving forward 

for various reasons. Infrastructure projects, 

particularly in the road sector, are not moving 

because private companies building them 

are either strapped for cash or engaged in 

disputes relating to execution with the government. 

It is telling that a highway project 

in Modi's constituency, Varanasi, has not 

progressed at all over the last six months, 

in spite of having been launched in 2013. 

A report in The Economic Times last week 

quoted prominent industrialists who, in an 

internal review meeting at the CII (Confederation 

of Indian Industry) expressed a lot of 

unease about economic recovery, especially 

over the current infrastructure bottlenecks. 

In the infrastructure sector, the NDA is now 

gradually realising, there are intractable issues 

that go well beyond the "legacy problems" 

which is easily attributed to the previous 

government. 

Private operators too have to contend 

with wrong judgement in assessing their 

capacity to manage these projects. The NDA 

is now having to deal with the mistakes made 

by private operators in judging the risk-reward 

equation in infrastructure projects such 

as roads and power. I have a suspicion that 

even now private operators want to cut their 

losses and get out. Some of them did it over 

the past two years. This was easy under 

the UPA, especially in recent years, when 

politically everything could be blamed on an 

inefficient and corrupt government. The private 

operators didn't have to look within, at 

their own mistakes. The NDA regime is now 

asking the private operators to walk the talk 

while promising to clear all policy and regulatory 

hurdles. However, the government cannot 

take the responsibility for over leveraged 

balance sheets of private operators. This is 

what haunts many projects in the infrastructure 

space. 

In the non-infrastructure sectors there is 

a genuine lack of demand, which governments 

can do nothing about. ICRA (Investment 

Information Credit Rating Agency Ltd)'s 

Chief Economist, Madan Sabnavis, has 

pointed out that Indian Industry is today 

working at just 70 per cent of built-up capacity. 

In 2011-12 industry was operating at 

77 per cent capacity. This shows there is 

overcapacity looming on the horizon. In such 

a situation, fresh investment cannot be expected 

anytime soon. 

So we face one set of problems in the 

infrastructure sectors where demand does 

exceed supply. In non-infrastructure sectors 

we are faced with overcapacity due to demand 

contraction. This could get worse in 

the coming year because rural demand, 

which is critical, could further contract as 

global food prices have dropped by 20 to 30 

per cent. The farmers' income growth could 

therefore decelerate in 2015. Nominal rural 

wages grew handsomely by 17 to 19 per cent 

for a few years until 2012 end. That was triggering 

higher inflation but also helped demand 

growth. 

From mid-2013 onward real rural wage 

growth is at near zero and this will certainly 

impact medium-term demand. There is also 

some output slowdown being anticipated by 

experts in the agriculture sector which consistently 

recorded around 3 per cent growth 

in recent years. Agriculture production growth 

could also slip in 2015. In short, many domestic 

challenges for Narendra Modi and 

Arun Jaitley. In 2015, Modi may have to shift 

focus from foreign to domestic policy. 

By MK Venu


EDITORIAL 

5 

200 days on, missing Dr Singh Damning indictment of CIA 

HISTORY will judge me, Manmohan Singh said in his last comments as prime 

minister. It was 200 days on Thursday since he relinquished office. I am not surprised 

how some of his erstwhile critics are already missing him though they may 

not regard his party with similar respect. 

For all his sins of omission and commission, which include serious financial 

scandals, there was something pleasantly dignified about Dr Singh. President Obama 

approached him as an intellectual guru. The Japanese emperor honoured him with 

the highest civilian award for a foreigner. Dr Singh didn’t tom-tom it. He embodied 

India’s cultural sinews in his genteel person, and though a religious man, he didn’t 

find it necessary to underscore the heritage by gifting religious scriptures to all and 

sundry.There was something wholesome he brought to India’s highest political office 

with markedly agreeable atmospherics. I recall reading his wife Gursharan Kaur’s 

comments where she spoke generously of Sonia Gandhi. Why Because the Congress 

president had remembered that the prime minister’s wife was searching in 

vain for Sheila Dhar’s Raag-n-Josh. 

The out-of-print book is an anecdotal masterpiece on India’s illustrious musicians, 

their quirks and their bad day out. Personal insights about stalwarts like 

Begum Akhtar, Bhimsen Joshi, Vilayat Khan, Rais Khan among others are a treat 

for Indian music lovers. Sonia Gandhi remembered to find her a copy. What could 

be more lovely than prime ministerial spouses exchanging books on music. 

And what did Shakespeare say through Julius Caesar about people like Cassius 

with no ear for music 

“He doesn’t like plays the way you do, Antony. He doesn’t listen to music. He 

rarely smiles, and when he does smile, he does so in a self-mocking way, as if he 

scorns himself for smiling at all. Men like him will never be comfortable while someone 

ranks higher than themselves, and therefore they’re very dangerous.”Though I 

have never met them, I feel proud for India that in the not-too-distant past its prime 

minister had three very talented and dignified daughters — a writer, a human rights 

lawyer who has fought for migrants’ rights in the United States, and a much-respected 

professor of Indian history. They never imposed themselves as the prime 

minister’s relatives and, I am told, they lead very low-key and intellectually contented 

lives. 

If quiet dignity marked his personal life, a genial countenance made him an ideal 

representative of Gandhi’s and Nehru’s India. In the bigger picture, relations with 

Pakistan and China were difficult, sometimes prickly, but they were never allowed 

to become cavalier. There was no tu-tu mai-mai, an ugly blame game. Mumbai 

terror was a huge setback, in some ways more provocative than the attack on 

parliament during his predecessor’s tenure. To Dr Singh’s credit he managed to 

deal with the crisis without mobilising the armed forces. He used diplomatic tact 

instead, and leaned on global goodwill to put Pakistan under scrutiny as a source of 

cross-border trouble to its neighbours. 

It wasn’t an easy decision to not send the military to the borders given the moblike 

chorus for revenge from an increasingly xenophobic media. Indian voters to their 

credit rewarded Dr Singh’s sagacity with a second term. When the Chinese rattled 

their sabres, he stared them down. When Pakistan-based militants allegedly beheaded 

Indian soldiers, he didn’t say he would get 10 of theirs. He just spoke to 

their prime minister as a civilised neighbour would. 

There was little or no risk of nuclear suicide during his 10-year rule, compared 

with two close calls in the six years headed by his immediate predecessor. Unlike 

in recent days there was no public discourse from the highest office or talk of 

punitive cross-border strikes. If the powder was kept dry it was not announced from 

the pulpit. At home, prospects of large-scale riots or religiously inspired genocide 

were mostly unthinkable under Dr Singh’s watch although cynical Congress party 

satraps and the communal opposition never stopped trying to create electorally 

handy polarisation. 

Manmohan Singh knew his economics though he abused it by offering untenable 

prescriptions, which mostly militated against his self-proclaimed icon Jawaharlal 

Nehru’s equitable vision for India. He allowed himself to be advised by some very 

accomplished social and environmental activists in the form of the National Advisory 

Council, which was headed by Sonia Gandhi. It was clean, visionary, often ambitious-in-scope 

but always secular advice from respected academics and assorted 

hands-on social workers. No obscurantist maverick, much less religio-fascist ideologues 

of a rapidly multiplying variety were allowed close to the apex situation 

room. And yet Manmohan Singh’s legacy carries unacceptable blemishes. He created 

hope among the minorities with a diligent report on their hapless living conditions, 

but failed to follow up with worthwhile structural reforms to bring them into the 

mainstream. This ended up creating room for mistrust between communities without 

an iota of good being done to anyone. He declared India’s most deprived, exploited 

and economically marginalised tribespeople as the nation’s most serious 

internal security challenge. What the tribal communities wanted was so doable: 

“Remove the baniya (usurer)-contractor-politician nexus,” they said. Instead of addressing 

them even-handedly, Dr Singh chose the militarist path to tackle the selfstyled 

Maoists, making it easy for his successors to exploit the potentially rightwing 

sentiment he generated. 

The report by a Senate committee of the U.S. Congress that said the 

Central Intelligence Agency used inhuman and cruel methods on terror 

suspects is damning enough, but it would not have served its purpose if 

those who carried out the torture and authorised it get away scot-free. 

Many of the methods mentioned have been in the public realm. It is well 

known that under a programme of ‘rendition’, the CIA was spiriting away 

suspects to countries where U.S. laws on interrogation would not apply, 

such as Syria, Thailand or Poland, and subjecting them to techniques 

such as waterboarding. Yet, the report is shocking in its detail of these 

and other “enhanced interrogation techniques”, including one described 

as “rectal feeding”. CIA employees who questioned the techniques were 

overruled. Torture led to the death of at least one suspect and caused 

permanent physical damage to others. At least 26 of those subjected to 

the methods had been wrongly detained. Put together by Democrat members 

of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the report was released after 

five years of work. It concludes that the EITs resulted in no vital intelligence, 

and refutes suggestions that they led the CIA to Osama bin Laden. 

The White House and the CIA made several efforts to stop the report from 

coming out. Committee chairman Dianne Feinstein has said she was 

swayed at times by the argument that it might give an upper hand to 

forces that were out to destroy America, but that she realised her country 

would stand taller for accepting that it had done wrong. Ms. Feinstein 

pushed it out just before the Democrats hand over control of the Senate to 

the Republicans. 

Predictably though, the report has seen a partisan divide, with Republican 

members rejecting it. It has also spurred many to come to the CIA’s 

defence, including a former head of the agency, and former Vice-President 

Dick Cheney, who authorised many of the brutal techniques. He said 

last week that he “would do it again in a minute”. President George Bush, 

in whose administration these practices came to acquire currency, also 

defended them. The U.S. has always been accused of double standards 

when it comes to human rights, of preaching from the rule book to other 

countries, while proceeding to ignore those rules itself. That accusation 

is bound to grow louder. President Barack Obama, who had prohibited 

torture by an executive order in 2009, has acknowledged the CIA’s methods 

had done “significant damage to America’s standing in the world and 

made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners”. It is going 

to stay that way as he is unlikely to be able to punish the perpetrators. 

President : Bhupinder Kaur Thind 

Director : Anupam Nagpal 

TV Partner: Ajay Batra (IVS TV) 

Web Coordinator : Jatinder Kumar 

ISSN No. 1554 06X 

Chairman: Karam Singh Thind (Honorary) 

Editor in Chief: Sharanjit Singh Thind 

Editor: Aruna Singh :(Political Affairs-India) 

Associate Editor: Bidisha Roy 

Editorial Intern: Max 

Special Correspondent : 

Gagandeep Singh (INDIA) 

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OPINION 

6 

Friendship With Russia Comforts, Even if it Doesn't Electrify 

(By Siddharth Varadarajan) 

At the heart of the decadesold 

partnership between Russia 

and India is a reality that neither 

the end of the Cold War nor the 

advent of unabashed capitalism 

in both countries has so far managed 

to change: Moscow will always 

be more willing to provide 

things that New Delhi may ideally 

like to buy from the West but 

is not able to because of the 

latter's reluctance. 

Back in the day, it was steel 

plants and giant turbines, military 

aircraft and tanks; then it was 

nuclear reactors and fuel. Today, 

it is nuclear submarines, outer 

space and rocketry, and the prospect 

of technology transfer in the 

civil nuclear energy field. 

Of course, this partnership 

has never been strictly transactional. 

Russia stood by India 

whenever it was under pressure 

regionally or internationally, while 

India too would do what it could 

to watch Russia's back. Moscow 

was a solid ally through all of 

India's wars; and though India 

made known its disapproval of the 

former Soviet Union's invasions of 

Hungary, Czechoslovakia and 

even Afghanistan, it refused to 

join the West in isolating Moscow. 

And the same is true for today. 

"India and Russia", the vision 

document released by Narendra 

Modi and Vladimir Putin at the 

end of their summit meeting on 

Thursday says bluntly, "oppose 

economic sanctions that do not 

have the approval of the United 

Nations Security Council," a clear 

reference to Washington's efforts 

to squeeze Moscow over the 

latter's intervention in the Ukraine. 

The document also speaks of 

enhanced cooperation in the 

fields of nuclear energy, defence 

trade and manufacturing, and the 

peaceful use of outer space. 

No doubt the passage of time 

has grafted new and significant 

elements to this bilateral relationship. 

And the US has now 

emerged as the largest supplier 

of military hardware to India. But 

broadly speaking, the strategic 

logic of Indo-Russian ties in 2014 

is not very different from what it 

was one, two, four or even five decades 

ago. 

As Modi noted in his remarks 

to the media at the end of the 

summit, India today has wider options 

in some of those areas, especially 

defence. But, he said, 

Russia would continue to remain 

its most important partner. This 

is essentially because Moscow 

gives what others don't. Critical 

assistance for India's nuclear 

submarine programme, for example. 

The main statement and a parallel 

document outlining the 'strategic 

vision' for cooperation in the 

civil nuclear energy front reiterate 

earlier plans for a total of 12 Russian 

reactors to be built at 

Kudankulam and another (yet to 

be identified) site in India. What 

is new, however, is the commitment 

to "progressively and significantly 

enhance the scope of 

orders for materials and equipment 

from Indian suppliers and 

establish joint ventures, including 

by transfer of technology, as 

mutually agreed. This will include 

manufacturing of both main equipment 

and spares, with special 

priority for spares, for Russiandesigned 

nuclear power units in 

Talking with Pakistanis 

(By Dr. Shashi Tharoor ) 

Meeting a visiting delegation 

of Pakistani Parliamentarians 

this week - brought to India by 

the Islamabad-based Pakistan 

Institute of Legislative Development 

and Transparency (PILDAT) 

and hosted at our Parliament library 

by Mani Shankar Aiyar - 

offered yet another reminder of 

the paradoxes of the Indo-Pak relationship. 

On the one hand it's so easy 

to slip into a comfort zone with 

Pakistanis; with language, food, 

music, movies, clothes and 

many cultural assumptions in 

common, they are like familiar 

cousins, not hostile strangers. 

On the other, they serve in, and 

represent, a country that is an 

avowed enemy of India's, from 

which a seemingly interminable 

series of terrorist attacks have 

emanated as part of an officiallysupported 

campaign to "bleed 

India to death by a thousand 

cuts". 

The success of any Indo-Pak 

Track II dialogue of this kind 

therefore requires that it be built 

on denial. It focuses on making 

the visitors feel welcome, emphasizes 

the feel-good aspects 

of their presence in our midst, 

celebrates the many things we 

have in common, and tries to 

brush the real problems under a 

carpet (not a Kashmiri carpet, 

since that might provoke disagreeable 

thoughts). The Pakistani 

export of terrorism to India 

is never mentioned. In other 

words, Track-II dialogues are a 

self-fulfilling exercise in self-vindication. 

Their success depends 

on denying the very problems 

that makes such dialogues necessary 

in the first place. 

I'm all in favour of Indo-Pak 

peace and bonhomie. I've seen 

a lot of it in my decades abroad 

with the United Nations - where 

Indian and Pakistani colleagues 

were always the best of friends, 

even military officers serving in 

the Peacekeeping Department. 

Many a Pakistani cab driver in 

New York has attempted to decline 

my money for the fare, saying 

that I was a brother (this of 

course always won him a bigger 

tip, but the spirit was genuine). 

Indians and Pakistanis overseas 

are almost always the best of 

friends, since being in foreign 

lands enhances their consciousness 

of what they have in common, 

which vastly exceeds what 

divides them. 

I would love to see a time 

when Pakistanis and Indians can 

India." 

The document also envisions 

the export of such components 

to third countries. The proposed 

Joint Working Group on the 

Nuclear Fuel Cycle is likely to 

pursue cooperation in areas like 

spent fuel management, reprocessing, 

etc., areas the US and 

French are reluctant to venture. 

Never before has a meeting 

between India and Russia generated 

as much international interest 

as this week's summit. Relations 

between the West and Moscow 

are the lowest they have been 

for years, (Contd on page 22) 

cross each other's borders with 

the casualness of Americans 

and Canadians, work in each 

other's countries, trade freely 

with each other and contribute 

equally to each other's films, 

music, clothing and creative 

lives, just as they did (as one 

country) before 1947. I would be 

happy if that time came sooner 

rather than later. But, sadly, I am 

only too aware that it's not now. 

In a famous 1947 article in 

Foreign Affairs, George F. 

Kennan argued that the Soviet 

Union's hostility toward the 

United States was chronic and 

incurable, since it was rooted not 

in a classic conflict of interest 

between two great powers, but 

in deep-seated nationalism and 

insecurity on the part of Russia 

which the US could do nothing 

about. (Contd on page 22)


WORLD 

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge and the First 

Lady of New York City Visit Historic Northside Center in Harlem 

(Press Release) New York- Her 

Royal Highness The Duchess of 

Cambridge, escorted by the First 

Lady of New York City Chirlane 

McCray, arrived at Northside Center 

on December 8, 2014 at 11 

am. The historic hour and one half 

visit brought much excitement 

and heightened media attention 

to Northside and the Harlem 

community as the motorcades 

and scores of security personnel 

filled the streets. More than 120 

media outlets covered the event. 

The Duchess and First Lady met 

with Northside's Executive Director 

& CEO Dr. Thelma Dye in a 

briefing to learn more about 

Australian PM says tough new national security laws failed hostages 

From left to right: Thelma Dye, Ph.D., Executive Director, 

Northside Center for Child Development, Her Royal 

Highness, The Duchess of Cambridge, and the First Lady 

of New York City Chirlane McCray tour the Northside 

Center for Child Development. 

President from the Bush family or a second 

one from the Clinton family could well be 

the dynastic choice facing the 2016 electorate 

of the United States, the most talked-up 

democracy in the world. 

Jeb Bush, the former governor of 

Florida, son of the 41st US President George 

Bush and brother of the 43rd President 

George "Dubya" Bush, announced on Tuesday 

that he will "actively explore" the possibility 

of running for President of the United 

States in 2016. 

In a social media posting, Bush 

said he had discussed the future of the nation 

with his family over "good food and a 

whole lot of football" during the holidays, and 

"as a result of these conversations and 

thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong 

leadership I think America needs, I have decided 

to actively explore the possibility of 

running for President of the United States." 

In a preliminary step, he said he 

plans to establish a Leadership PAC in January 

that will help him "facilitate conversations 

with citizens across America to discuss 

the most critical challenges facing our 

exceptional nation." It now remains to be 

seen if Hillary Clinton will follow suit, leading 

up to a second Bush vs Clinton election 

after Bill Clinton defeated George Bush Sr 

in 1992. Clinton has been dithering for 

months on whether to run. Not that it is 

going to be smooth sailing for either candidate 

in the party primaries where they will 

have to overcome other aspirants. Bush will 

have to get past Mitt Romney, who wants to 

take another crack at the White House in 

2016. Clinton will have to overcome Senator 

Elizabeth Warren, who has emerged as the 

darling of the liberal wing of the Democratic 

Party. There are a raft of other aspirants. 

From the Republican side, notably, governors 

Chris Christie of New Jersey, Rick Perry 

of Texas, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John 

Kasich of Ohio, and senators Rand Paul, 

Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. 

From the Democratic side vicepresident 

Joe Biden, former governors Martin 

O'Malley and Andrew Cuomo among others. 

But it is a Bush-Clinton face-off that 

most animates political pundits and pollsters, 

which is rather astonishing for a country that 

boasts of being the world's premier democracy. 

7 

The Duchess and The First Lady pose with children from 

Northside Center for Child Development. 

(Photos courtesy of Northside 

Center for Child Development) 

(Agencies) Sydey : Tough new 

national security laws failed to 

prevent a deadly hostage crisis 

in the heart of Sydney this week, 

Australian Prime Minister Tony 

Abbott said on Wednesday, raising 

questions about the usefulness 

of such measures. Three 

people were killed, including hostage-taker 

Man Haron Monis, 

when heavily armed police 

stormed a Sydney cafe early on 

Tuesday morning and freed terrified 

hostages held at gunpoint for 

16 hours. Police are investigating 

whether the two hostages 

were killed by Monis or died in 

the crossfire. Monis, a self-styled 

sheikh who received political asylum 

from Iran in 2001, was well 

known to Australian police and 

security agencies, having been 

charged as an accessory to murder 

and with dozens of counts of 

sexual and indecent assault. He 

had been free on bail. 

Australia in October 

passed sweeping new security 

laws aimed at preventing young 

people from becoming radicalised 

and going to fight in overseas conflicts 

such as those in Iraq and 

Syria, where scores of Australians 

have joined militant groups. 

Despite those new powers, 

Abbott said Monis was not 

on any security watchlist and 

managed to walk undetected into 

the Lindt Chocolate Cafe with a 

shotgun on a busy workday 

morning. 

"The system did not adequately 

deal with this individual, 

there's no doubt about that," 

Abbott said in an interview with 

Australian Broadcasting Corporation 

radio. 

Abbott said authorities 

would investigate what had happened 

in the lead-up to Monday's 

siege, why Monis was not on any 

watchlist and how he got a gun. 

Under the new security 

provisions, exercised for the first 

time earlier this month to block 

travel to Raqqa Province in Syria, 

Australians going to any area 

overseas declared off limits can 

face up to a decade in prison. 

The legislation expanded 

both the intelligence services' 

ability to access private computer 

networks, cracked down on 

the leaking of classified informa- 

Bush vs Clinton again Jeb Bush may run for US president's post 

(Agencies) WASHINGTON: A third 

tion and bolstered the cooperation 

of the domestic and foreign 

intelligence services. 

The government is also 

introducing controversial data retention 

laws, although Abbott 

said on Tuesday that it was unclear 

whether those laws, aimed 

at intercepting communications 

between individuals plotting attacks, 

would have been useful in 

stopping Monis. 

Monis, who was found 

guilty in 2012 of sending threatening 

letters to the families of 

eight Australian soldiers killed in 

Afghanistan, has been described 

by those who knew him as an 

outcast even from the radical Islamist 

community. 

Critics of the security 

laws, touted by Abbott's conservative 

government as necessary 

to prevent attacks such as the 

hostage crisis, have seized on 

the failure to argue against the 

granting of further powers. 

"There's no control order regime 

to account for this. There's no 

metadata inside an apparently 

deranged mind," Fairfax News 

columnist Waleed Aly wrote. On 

Wednesday morning, people 

were still laying flowers and signing 

condolence books in Martin 

Place, a pedestrian strip near the 

cafe, which is surrounded by 

blacked out fencing and a blue 

tent over the entrance door. Office 

workers were also queuing 

for coffee at a cart just a few yards


WORLD 

8 

Amal Clooney tops Barbara Walters' list of 2014's most fascinating people 

Its George Clooney's newly wedded bride 

Amal Clooney who is Barbara Walters' 

most fascinating person of 2014. 

(Agencies) During her show, 

Walters introduced the 36-yearold 

Oxford-educated UK based 

barrister, who had married the 

Hollywood mega star in September, 

implying that that she definitely 

had something "to fascinate 

the most fascinating man," 

adding that though they may not 

know much about her, her husband 

was well known, the media 

reported.Back in a 1995 interview, 

the actor, 53, had famously told 

Walters that "I'm never going to 

get married again" and Amal being 

able to break that vow was 

what got her the "most fascinating" 

title.Walters said that the 

beauty hadn't been the subject of 

jealousy that much, possibly because 

it was "impossible to resist 

perfection" or maybe people 

found it touching that "no matter 

how long it may take the perfect 

someone is out there for 

everyone."Other stars who made 

Walter's fascinating people list 

were Taylor Swift, Michael 

Strahan, Chelsea Handler, Oprah 

Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Elon 

Musk, Neil Patrick Harris, George 

R.R. Martin and David Koch. 

Rouble collapse shakes Russian 

economy, consumers 

(Agencies) MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir 

Putin faces a major new challenge after a catastrophic 

fall in the value of the rouble, which hit a 

new low on 

Tuesday despite 

the Central 

Bank's 

desperate efforts 

to halt 

the selling. 

On the 

streets of 

Moscow, panicky 

consumers rushed out to buy home appliances 

before they became even more expensive. 

Putin's popularity has been based on 

oil-driven economic growth that has helped increase 

incomes during his 15-year rule. The 

rouble's collapse, driven by a combination of 

slumping oil prices and Western sanctions, is 

denting that pillar of his power. The Kremlin has 

tried to shift blame for Russia's economic woes, 

accusing the West of inflicting economic pain 

on Russia in an attempt to force a regime 

change. The rouble hit a record low of 80 to the 

dollar — down a catastrophic 24 per cent — 

before making a modest improvement to trade 

at 72 to the dollar by late Tuesday afternoon. 

The market plunge defied a whopping predawn 

interest rate hike of 6.5 per centage 

points by Russia's Central Bank aimed at 

defending the currency. The rouble's collapse 

spurred Russians to rush out and buy 

imported cars, refrigerators, washing machines, 

TV sets and other major appliances in a bid to 

spend their roubles before stores put on new 

higher price tags. "Now is the exact time to 

make all the purchases you've been putting off, 

because tomorrow there may already be another 

price," said Alexei Malakhov, a 27-year 

old IT worker who bought a Google phone for 

18,000 roubles ($250) at a Moscow electronics 

store. 

Peshawar killings: From PM Modi to Malala, 

condemnation and shock across the world 

(Agencies) The attack by Pakistan-based 

terrorist group Tehreek-e- 

Taliban on an army school in 

Peshawar, which saw over 130 people 

including over 100 children getting 

killed, has shocked the world. 

The Peshawar terror attack, which 

began at about 11 am on Tuesday 

morning, saw Taliban gunmen enter 

the school and shoot dead innocent 

children and teachers, some of them 

at point blank range. According to reports, 

gunmen came through a graveyard 

situated behind the school and 

began firing indiscriminately at 

schoolchildren. 

A total of 15 blasts were heard inside 

the school campus. While one 

of the TTP gunmen blew himself up, 

five others were shot dead by the 

Pakistan Army. Hospitals swarmed 

with those who were severely injured 

and distraught parents and family. The 

hospitals were not prepared for the 

sudden emergency and reports added 

that there was a crippling shortage of 

blood in the Lady Reading Hospital. 

The Nawaz Sharif government also 

announced a three-day national 

mourning. 

World leaders have condemned 

the attacks and here's what they said: 

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz 

Sharif: As newspapers and channels 

reported an increase in the death toll, 

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz 

Sharif in a statement said, "It is a 

national tragedy. Those were my kids, 

my loss." 

"The government together with the 

army has started Zarb-e-Azb and it 

will continue until the terrorism is 

rooted out from our land. We also have 

had discussions with Afghanistan that 

they and we together fight this terrorism, 

and this fight will continue. No 

one should have any doubt about it. " 

Zarb-e-Azb was the name of the Pakistani 

military operation being carried 

out in North Waziristan. 

India's Prime Minister Narendra 

Modi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

on Tuesday evening spoke with his 

Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif 

over phone and offered his deepest 

condolences. He said India was ready 

to provide all assistance during this 

hour of grief."India stands firmly with 

Pakistan in fight against terror. Told 

PM Sharif we are ready to provide all 

assistance during this hour of grief," 

he tweeted. The PM also tweeted 

saying that schools across India 

should observe 2 minutes of silence 

today to mark solidarity with those 

killed in Pakistan.Modi said the "savage 

killing of innocent children, who 

are the epitome of the finest human 

values, in a temple of learning was 

not only an attack against Pakistan, 

but an assault against the entire humanity". 

"At a time when the world is getting 

disturbingly accustomed to acts 

of terror, this terrible tragedy has 

shaken the conscience of the world," 

he said. Modi also hoped that the 

children who had witnessed the horrific 

attack and loss of their friends 

would come through this trauma with 

counselling.The PM condemned the 

attack and said, "It is a senseless 

act of unspeakable brutality that has 

claimed lives of the most innocent of 

human beings - young children in their 

school. My heart goes out to everyone 

who lost their loved ones today. 

We share their pain & offer our deepest 

condolences."


WORLD 

9 

Poor live closer to their parents than the rich 

(Media Reports) Richer 

people live further away from 

their parents than those on 

modest wages, a new study 

shows. 

The report found workers 

earning less than £25,000 

live within 31 miles of their 

family, but this distance 

grows the wealthier people 

become. 

Britons who earn £35,000 

to £45,000 live 42 miles away 

while those earning more 

than £55,000 live 47 miles 

away.Annuities firm, Partnership, 

said this was because 

high-earning professionals 

were more likely to have moved 

away from where they grew up 

to secure a lucrative career. 

The study also found 

people in their 50s live closest 

to their ageing parents, but 

later move farther away to be 

near their own children and 

grandchildren. 

While people in their 40s 

lived 37 miles away, on average, 

this reduced to 33 miles 

as people reached their early 

50s. 

Experts said this was because 

Britons relocated to be 

closer to their elderly parents, 

or because their parents 

moved closer to them. 

However, as people reach 

their late 50s and early 60s, 

this distance increases 

again. 

The survey found those 

aged 56 to 60 lives 39 miles 

apart and by the time they 

were 61 to 65, they were 50 

miles from their 

parents.Thomas Kenny, at 

Partnership, said: ‘As 

people age and their families 

do the same, they initially 

move closer to their older 

relatives to provide a support 

structure.‘However, once they 

start to approach retirement 

and their own children grow up, 

it appears that the younger 

generation becomes more of a 

focus when it comes to living 

arrangements and more likely 

to base their location on 

them.’ 

Commenting on the distance 

among well-paid workers 

and their parents, he added: 

‘Many people move to city 

centres such as London, 

Manchester or Birmingham to 

earn a higher salary. 

‘These statistics seem to 

suggest that when people 

move to increase their earning 

potential, it takes them further 

away from their families – 

something that does not 

change as they age due to the 

social networks they have built 

up.’ 

The survey of 2,000 over- 

40s found that most middleaged 

people in the UK live 

within 50 miles of their immediate 

older relatives. 

The average person lives 37 

miles away from their parents 

and 42 miles from their 

grandparents.More than 

half of over-40s say they 

see their older relatives 

once a week. People are in 

closest contact with their 

mothers who they see, on 

average, twice a week. 

Two-thirds say they speak 

to an elderly relative every day 

on the phone, 16 per cent do 

so by email and 11 per cent 

use text messages. However, 

one in 10 now have older relatives 

outside the UK, with 

grandparents the most likely 

to live abroad. 

Federal judge : Obama immigration actions ‘unconstitutional’ 

(Media Reports) A federal judge 

has found parts of President 

Obama’s immigration executive 

actions unconstitutional, in an 

opinion delivered as part of a 

separate immigration case not 

directly tied to the policy 

changes. 

The opinion filed 

Tuesday by U.S. District Court 

Judge Arthur Schwab, in 

Pennsylvania, still marks the first 

court opinion to tackle Obama’s 

immigration announcement. He 

said Obama’s immigration 

actions are invalid and effectively 

count as “legislation” from the 

Executive Branch. 

“President Obama’s unilateral 

legislative action violates the 

separation of powers provided for 

in the United States Constitution 

as well as the Take Care Clause, 

and therefore, is 

unconstitutional,” the judge 

wrote. 

The opinion, though, is unique 

in that it did not come in 

response to a challenge to 

Obama’s immigration policy 

announcement. It is unclear what 

impact, if any, the opinion might 

have other than to rally critics and 

fuel momentum behind other 

lawsuits. 

Rather, Schwab issued 

his opinion in response to a 

criminal case against Honduran 

illegal immigrant Elionardo 

Juarez-Escobar, who was 

previously deported in 2005 — 

and was caught in the U.S. again 

earlier this year. 

He already has pleaded 

guilty to “re-entry of a removed 

alien,” but the court 

subsequently examined the 

impact of Obama’s immigration 

actions on the case. 

For that review, Schwab 

left open whether the actions 

might apply to Juarez-Escobar 

but determined the executive 

actions themselves were 

unconstitutional. 

He wrote that the action 

goes beyond so-called 

“prosecutorial discretion” — 

which is the “discretion” the 

administration cites in 

determining whether to pursue 

deportation against illegal 

immigrants. 

Obama’s policy 

changes would give a reprieve to 

up to 5 million illegal immigrants, 

including those whose children 

are citizens or legal permanent 

residents and who meet other 

criteria. 

Schwab, a George W. 

Bush appointee, wrote that this 

“systematic and rigid process” 

applies to a “broad range” of 

enforcement decisions, as 

opposed to dealing with matters 

on a “case-by-case basis.” 

Further, he wrote that 

the action goes beyond deferring 

deportation by letting 

beneficiaries apply for work 

authorization and allowing some 

to become “quasi-United States 

citizens.” 

He also cited Obama’s 

argument that he was proceeding 

with executive action after 

Congress failed to act on 

comprehensive immigration 

legislation, and countered: 

“Congressional inaction does not 

endow legislative power with the 

Executive.” 

The Justice Department 

downplayed the significance of 

the opinion. 

“The decision is 

unfounded and the court had no 

basis to issue such an order,” a 

DOJ spokesperson said in a 

statement. “No party in the case 

challenged the constitutionality 

of the immigration-related 

executive actions and the 

department’s filing made it clear 

that the executive actions did not 

apply to the criminal matter 

before the court. Moreover, the 

court’s analysis of the legality of 

the executive actions is flatly 

wrong. We will respond to the 

court’s decision at the 

appropriate time.” 

Critics of the 

administration’s policy, though, 

hailed the opinion. 

“The President’s 

unilateral executive action 

suspending the nation’s 

immigration laws for roughly five 

million illegal aliens has received 

its first judicial test, and it has 

failed,” John Eastman, law 

professor at Chapman 

University, said in a 

statement.Other direct legal 

challenges to Obama’s 

immigration actions, including 

one by two-dozen states, remain 

pending before the federal courts.


Rupee Slides to 63.88/Dollar amid Global Turm oil 

putting pressure on the rupee. On Tuesday, 

FIIs sold cash shares worth Rs 1,247 crore, 

extending their selling streak to a sixth consecutive 

session. Analysts and policymakers 

are not overly worried about the weakness 

in the rupee because India's domestic fundamentals 

continue to be strong and the 

country is widely seen as sturdier in the face 

of any sell-off in emerging markets compared 

with last year. Foreign investors have purchased 

a net $43.4 billion in shares and 

bonds this year, allowing India to outperform 

most emerging markets.On Tuesday, Trade 

Secretary Rajeev Kher said he was not too 

(Media Reports) The rupee weakened towards 

64 per dollar on Wednesday as it 

slipped to 63.88 against Tuesday's close of 

63.53 in opening trade. The rupee last traded 

above the 64 per dollar mark in September 

2013. Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at 

Care Ratings expects the rupee to hover 

between 64 and 65 a dollar in the coming 

days. The weakness in the rupee has come 

in the wake of a global turmoil in stocks and 

currencies. Global risk assets have come under 

pressure after Russia's sharp increase 

in interest rates reinforced concerns about 

the global economy at a time when oil prices 

are sliding. Global concerns have led foreign 

investors to pull out money from equities, 

concerned about the rupee's falls to around 

63 to the dollar, while a central bank official 

told Reuters "it is still not an alarming situation". 

"India is certainly less vulnerable to the 

current crisis as compared to other emerging 

Asian economies," said Samir Lodha, managing 

director at QuantArt Market Solutions, citing 

factors such as easing inflation. 

Black money: Rs 6 lakh crore illegally taken out of India in 2012 

(Media Reports) Nearly $95 billion (Rs 6 lakh 

crore) were illegally taken out of India in 2012, 

bringing the total illicit outflow of capital from 

the country to $440 billion (about Rs 28 lakh 

crore) in the preceding decade, according to 

the latest study released on Tuesday by Global 

Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington 

DC-based research and advisory organization. 

Not only have taxes not been paid for 

these enormous sums, they may be used 

for various corrupt or criminal activities once 

parked in foreign safe havens. Overall, just 

in 2012, nearly a trillion dollars ($991 billion) 

in illicit capital flowed out of developing and 

emerging economies the study noted. This 

is an all-time high. Between 2003 and 2012, 

the illicit outflows add up to a monstrous $6.6 

trillion, averaging nearly four percent of the 

developing world's GDP. 

Black money has been a major issue 

roiling India in the recent past. The new 

Modi government had promised that it would 

bring back black money stashed away in 

foreign banks within 100 days. While investigations 

are inching forward, Opposition parties 

have been pressing for more decisive 

action. Despite much political noise over 

"black money", the outflow of national wealth 

seems to be continuing unchecked and growing 

with each passing year. The GFI study 

says that illicit outflows are growing at an 

inflation-adjusted 9.4% per year - roughly 

double global GDP growth over the same 

period. As if these numbers are not mindboggling 

enough, GFI chief economist Dev 

Kar stresses that these estimates are "conservative" 

since several types of illegal transactions 

are not reflected in these figures. 

"This means that many forms of abusive 

transfer pricing by multinational corporations 

as well as much of the proceeds of drug trafficking, 

human smuggling, and other criminal 

activities, which are often settled in cash, 

are not included in these estimates," explained 

Kar, who served as a Senior Economist 

at the International Monetary Fund before 

joining GFI in January 2008. 

India ranked third after China and 

Russia in the quantum of illicit outflows in 

2012. For the whole decade of 2003 to 2012, 

India ranks fourth. A total of 151 countries 

were studied by Kar and his colleague Joseph 

Spanjers at the GFI. "As this report 

demonstrates, illicit financial flows are the 

most damaging economic problem plaguing 

the world's developing and emerging economies," 

said GFI President Raymond Baker 

, a longtime authority on financial crime. 

"These outflows—already greater than the 

combined sum of all Foreign Direct Investment 

(FDI) and ODA flowing into these countries—are 

sapping roughly a trillion dollars 

per year from the world's poor and middleincome 

economies." 

INDIA 

10 

7-year-old Beaten to 

Death in School, Allegedly 

For Not Paying Fees 

(Media Reports) BAREILLY: 

A seven-year-old boy died on 

Tuesday after being beaten 

brutally in a school in 

Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly 

by his teacher. Araj, 

a nursery student, was allegedly 

thrashed for not doing 

his homework and not 

paying the school fee. Senior 

police officer MP Singh 

said at around 11 am, a 

teacher allegedly banged 

Araj's head against the wall 

and he started bleeding from 

his nose. The school authorities 

allegedly took the 

boy to a hospital and called 

his parents, asking them to 

pick up their son as he was 

ill.Araj was unconscious 

when his parents arrived and 

died soon. A post mortem 

report says he died of severe 

head injuries. Residents 

of Nankara village, 

where Araj stayed with his 

parents, protested outside a 

police station demanding 

the school principal's arrest. 

An FIR or police complaint 

has been filed against the 

school's manager but no one 

has been arrested yet.


INDIA 

11 

India's capacity to 

develop advanced 

indigenous arms industry 

questionable: SIPRI 

(Media Reports) CHENNAI: Smriti 

Muralishankar, a Class 12 student in 

Coimbatore, has spent the last four years 

burning the midnight oil to prepare for one 

of the toughest exams in the country - 

the JEE. Only two weeks ago did she 

realise that she was not eligible to write 

the test as she was born abroad and didn't 

have an Indian citizenship. Shreya 

Venkatesh, who has been studying in a 

Chennai school for the last 10 years, also 

found herself in a similar situation when 

she came to know that only Indian citizens 

can take the JEE (Main), which 

serves as the screening test for JEE (Advanced), 

mandatory for entry into IITs. 

The IIT dreams of these two and 

thousands across the country have been 

shattered because they were born 

abroad, to Indian parents who went overseas 

for higher education and jobs. They 

may have been studying in India for years 

now, but when it comes to applying for 

higher education in central and state institutions 

these students find themselves 

denied of opportunities open to their peers 

born in India.For years now, such students 

have been paying a hefty fee (around nine 

times of what is paid by Indian students) 

to study in a state institution. But, since 

IITs out of bounds for 

students born abroad 

the JEE was split in 2014, they have lost 

out on the opportunity to sit for the IIT 

entrance test. 

Foreign, Overseas Citizenship of India 

(OCI) and Person of Indian Origin (PIO) 

category students are not eligible for admission 

to NITs, IIITs and other centrallyfunded 

institutions through JEE (Main). 

They can only be admitted through the 

Direct Admission to Students Abroad 

(DASA) channel using their SAT 2 scores. 

But, admission to IITs is only through JEE 

(Advanced), which requires the students 

to figure among the top 1.5 lakh candidates 

in JEE (Main).The students hope 

that the officials will take their case into 

consideration and make some changes 

in the process before December 18, the 

last date for submission of applications 

for JEE (Main). But, many have 

applied for admission to universities 

abroad rather than wait for the 

changes. Educational consultant D 

Nedunchezhiyan of Technocrat India 

College Finder said, "The situation is 

ironical, and is a loss to our institutions 

as well." 

He said IITs should at least accept the 

SAT 2 scores of these students for admission. 

"There are many bright students 

who secure good marks in SAT 

going to NITs because IITs are out of 

bounds for them. A lot of IT professionals 

who went abroad during the IT 

boom in the 90s are coming back, but 

the brain drain may continue to happen 

in this generation too as their children 

are forced to go overseas to 

study," Nedunchezhiyan said. 

Till 2014, admissions to NITs and IIITs 

were based on AIEEE and entry to IITs 

on JEE. But only Indian nationals 

could take AIEEE, and others entered 

NITs and IIITs through Direct Admission 

to Students Abroad 

(DASA) channel. No such restriction 

for JEE. In 2014, JEE 

was split. JEE(Main) replaced 

AIEEE, but the bar 

on non-Indian citizens remained. 

Since JEE(Main) 

also served as the screening 

test for JEE (Advanced), 

which is a must for admission 

to IITs, non-Indian students 

remained out of the entire 

process The split has affected 

children born overseas 

to Indians who had travelled for 

higher education and jobs to 

other countries years ago and 

have now come back 

They can still get into NITs and 

IIITs through DASA, but not to 

IITs because JEE (Advanced) 

is the only gateway 

(Media Reports) While acknowledging 

that the current government in New 

Delhi has made defence exports a central 

goal, the world's leading think tank 

on the weapons industry has said that 

India's arms making capability remains 

questionable. 

In its latest report on worldwide arms 

producing companies, SIPRI (Stockholm 

International Peace Research Institute) 

has said that successive government in 

India have declared an intent to set up a 

technologically advanced indigenous 

arms industry, reaching the goal remains 

dubious. 

"(current) Sales are mainly based on 

bulk license production of foreign-designed 

weapons, while the development 

of indigenous systems has been plagued 

with problems for decades," the SIPRI 

Top 100 Arms Producing and Military 

Services Companies, 2013 report says. 

While American firms top the list of 

global arms producers - Lockheed Martin 

at the top followed by Boeing - the 

first Indian company to feature is Bangalore 

based HAL at number 42 with a 

profit of USD 476 million in 2013. However, 

most of the profit is only on license 

production of mostly Russian platforms. 

Incidentally, while there has been a 

global decline of 2 percent in arms sales, 

which totaled USD 402 billion last year, 

sales by Russian arms manufacturers 

grew by a rapid 20 percent. The total 

estimated sales of the 10 Russian companies 

at $31 billion in the SIPRI report. 

The SIPRI report has also taken note 

of the BJP government's efforts to promote 

exports, including formulation of a 

strategy for defence exports that also 

seeks to use arms sales as a diplomatic 

tool. "The Indian industry's role in the 

arms export market is also negligible. 

Nevertheless, success in the export 

market remains a central goal of the 

current government, and significant national 

resources are dedicated to attaining 

it," it says. A recent report by the 

defence and aerospace division of Ernst 

and Young suggests that India is likely 

to spend over USD 260 billion on major 

military purchases over the next 12 years 

and a saving of USD 50 billion can be 

achieved in this time period if the Make 

in India model kicks off.


INDIA 

12 

WET AND COLD 

NORTH INDIA 

(Agencies) Delhi's famous 

winter has arrived with a vengeance. 

Just when people began 

to grumble about a markedly 

warm December, the cold set in, 

with heavy rain and strong winds 

intensifying the chill. 

A good 7° below normal, 

Sunday’s maximum temperature 

of 16°C made it the coldest day 

this season, with the minimum 

settling at 14.2°C. 

Winter lovers won't be bothered 

by Monday blues as the 

weatherman predicted a fall of 3- 

5°C in the minimum temperature 

over the next three days. “Sunday 

witnessed cold day conditions 

(when maximum temperature 

is lower than or equal to 

16°C),” B.P. Yadav, head of India 

Meteorological Department’s 

North India Shivers as 

rain and strong winds 

finally usher in winter 

(IMD) weather forecasting division, 

said. 

The relative humidity (maximum) 

on Sunday was recorded 

at 93 per cent with the Capital 

receiving a rainfall of 3.5 mm. The 

chill was strengthened as winds 

of 21 kilometres per hour lashed 

the city. The weatherman attributed 

the phenomenon to Western 

Disturbance over Jammu and 

Kashmir and Pakistan, which induced 

an upper air cyclonic circulation 

over north-west 

Rajasthan and adjoining Haryana. 

As a consequence, heavy 

rains lashed all of North India, 

and Shimla and Manali were covered 

by a thick blanket of snow. 

According to private weather 

forecaster Skymet, Manali recorded 

a maximum temperature 

of 10.4°C and minimum of 

0°C on Sunday morning, 

while the maximum and 

minimum in Shimla 

settled at 6.7°C and 

0.4°C, respectively. 

Punjab and Haryana 

Capital Chandigarh recorded 

a day temperature 

of 15.2°C, with the 

mercury settling at 

10.6°C at night. 

Amritsar recorded a 

maximum temperature 

of 19.2°C and 

minimum of 8.6°C. 

Over the next three days, the 

IMD has forecast a 3-5°C fall in 

minimum temperatures across 

parts of north-west and central India. 

Delhi will be blanketed by 

dense fog on Monday (today), 

which will reduce visibility to 200 

metres or below and persist over 

the next two days. A similar prediction 

has been made for 

Punjab, Haryana and Uttar 

Pradesh. Monday will see a 

cloudy sky in Delhi, with the minimum 

temperature likely to hover 

around 12°C and the maximum, 

18°C. Between Tuesday and Friday, 

the minimum and maximum 

temperatures shall oscillate between 

8-9°C, and 20-21°C, respectively. 

According to the IMD, 

the Capital will witness clear 

skies on Tuesday and Wednesday, 

with clouds likely to return 

in the subsequent two days. “As 

the skies clear up in the 

next two days, the minimum 

temperature will come down 

while the maximum for the day 

will go up. Similar weather conditions 

will prevail over the 

whole of North India,” Yadav 

said. “The western disturbances 

will persist over Jammu 

and Kashmir for 2-3 days. The 

minimum temperature will drop 

as the Western Disturbance 

moves away, while maximum 

will maintain its level or rise marginally,” 

G.P. Sharma, head of 

Skymet’s Meteorology Division 

said. Sharma observed that in 

a unique occurrence, while the 

Western Disturbance has 

brought snow to Himachal 

Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir 

has only seen spells of rain. 

“Shimla and Manali got snow 

but Srinagar got none at all,” he 

added.


Punjab and Haryana High Court stays 

Ashutosh Maharaj's cremation order 

INDIA 

13 

(Agencies) The Punjab and 

Haryana High Court on Monday 

suspended an earlier order of a 

single-bench which had directed 

the Punjab government 

to perform the last rites of controversial 

godman and founder 

of Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan 

(DJJS), Nurmahal --Ashutosh 

Maharaj. The godman has been 

lying in a freezer for over 10 

months. 

A division-bench of the HC 

put on hold the single-judge 

bench order, given December 1, 

which directed the Punjab government 

to perform the last rites 

of Ashutosh Maharaj within 15 

days. The next date of hearing 

is Feb 9, 2015. 

Ashutosh Maharaj, who 

headed the DJJS sect with its 

headquarters at Nurmahal in 

Jalandhar, was declared "clinically 

dead" by doctors January 

29 this year. 

Speaking to the media, DJJS 

counsel Satya Pal Jain said: "The 

Punjab government through its 

counsel said that the state government 

has nothing to do with 

the case as it is the matter between 

DJJS and Dilip Jha who 

claims to be the son of Ashutosh 

Maharaj. The government also expressed 

the inability to cremate 

the baba and said that it is not in 

a position to cremate the seer as 

the case is related to the faith." 

Satya Pal said the single 

bench had termed the documents 

produced by Dilip Kumar Jha as 

'forged' and had failed to prove 

that Ashutosh Maharaj was his 

father. "All the three parties were 

not satisfied with the December 

1 ruling. The court said that it will 

hear all the pleas," Satya Pal Jail 

said. 

Jain said that the court cannot 

say a particular thing in a 

particular way. The court, under 

the section 226 of the IPC, has 

no right to declare a person dead 

or alive. The court also has no 

powers to intervene in religious 

matters. He also said that asking 

someone to cremate the body 

is also beyond the jurisdiction of 

any court of law. 

"We are trying to convince the 

court that the judgment, delivered 

on December 1, is against the 

settled law. The court cannot go 

into the question whether someone 

is in Samadhi or how he will 

be cremated. All issues were 

wrongly decided by the single 

bench," Satya Pal said. 

Citing the Mayank shekhar 

case, Dilip's counsel S.K. Sohi 

said that his client's demand for 

the DNA test is justified and the 

only way which can prove that 

Ashutosh Maharaj is his biological 

father. 

"The law says that if a person 

offers his DNA he should be 

given the chance to prove the 

paternity. This is the most scientific 

test which has no alternative. 

The apex court had 

also allowed Mayank shekhar 

, N D Tiwari's son to go for the 

test.Only the DNA test can prove 

him ( Dilip) right or wrong. The 

body is there (Ashutosh Maharaj) 

and the claimant too," S K Sohi 

said. 

"Clinical tests are not required 

when someone is in 

Samadhi.The samadhi comes 

to an end when the doctors declared 

him dead," Sohi said. 

Another petitioner, Puran 

Sigh,who had alleged that DJJS 

management is eyeing frozen 

baba's property has also announced 

his support for Dilip 

Jha. 

We hope that the double 

bench will give its decision in 

our favour.We are hoping for the 

good. We demand that the body 

of Ashutosh Maharaj be given 

to Dilip Kumar Jha so that he is 

able to perform the last rites," 

Puran Singh said. stays-cremation 

Windows 10 leaked images show Cortana, Xbox integration 

(Agencies) To say that 

we're excited for Windows 10 

would be an understatement. 

With Microsoft accidentally 

gimping Windows 7 with a 

faulty update this week and 

Windows 8.1 continuing to be 

a lovable mess, Microsoft's 

new operating system can't get 

here soon enough. 

New images of Windows 10, 

part of a pre-consumer build 

leaked earlier today, show off 

two of the platform's most anticipated 

features — Cortana 

and Xbox. Earlier this month, 

we saw a video from WinBeta 

with Cortana in Windows. Although 

that video did wonders 

showing off how awesome it 

will be to have a voice assistant 

built right into the operating 

system, the actual design 

and layout of Cortana was unpolished 

and pretty crappy 

looking. Build 9901 gives us a 

pretty good idea what Cortana 

will look like once Windows 10 

is ready to ship. 

As The Verge's Tom Warren 

points out, Cortana on 

desktop looks similar to its 

Windows Phone orientation, 

which makes sense since one 

of Windows 10's objectives is 

to unify Microsoft across all 

platforms. However, in this 

build Cortana is only partly 

functional.Other sneak 

peeks include a first look at 

the Xbox app running on 

Windows 10 (above) along 

with updates to the Windows 

Store, according to WinBeta. 

Windows expert Paul Thurrott 

also breaks down this new 

build with a detailed 

changelog of everything that 

is new. 

The focus on the consumer 

side of the OS is probably a 

preamble to Microsoft's upcoming 

Windows 10 event set 

for January 21, which was announced 

on Thursday. 

Titled "The Next Chapter," 

the event is rumored to focus 

specifically on the consumer 

side of things and have 

Microsoft's big wigs on hand, 

including Satya Nadella and 

Xbox's Phil Spencer. It's also 

possible that we'll hear more 

on Windows 10 pricing and 

when the software will be 

ready for launch. 

As leaks and excitement 

continue to build, January 21 

could become a monumental 

date in Microsoft history. 

Whether for good or bad, we'll find 

out in a little more than a month.


WORLD 

14 

The Lone Wolf, Self-Styled Sheikh Who Held a Sydney Cafe Hostage 

(Agencies) Sydney : Man Haron 

Monis, the Sydney hostage-taker 

killed in a 16-hour siege, was a 

self-styled sheikh with his own 

Wikipedia entry who was on bail 

when he emerged as a lone wolf 

gunman. 

Born in Iran, the 50-yearold 

was named in reports hours 

before being gunned down as the 

"cleric" who triggered a security 

lockdown in the heart of 

Australia's biggest city by unfurling 

an Islamic flag and holding 

several people captive in a 

chocolate cafe. 

Arriving in Australia as a 

refugee in 1996, Monis was no 

stranger to controversy. 

Convicted over sending 

offensive letters to the families of 

dead soldiers, he was on bail on 

charges of being an accessory 

to the murder of his ex-wife and 

for sexual and indecent assault, 

multiple Australian outlets reported. 

His personal website, 

before it was taken down Tuesday, 

featured a banner photo with 

graphic images of dead Arab children, 

with the caption: "This is an 

evidence for the terrorism of 

America and its allies including 

Australia. The result of their 

airstrikes."The gunman converted 

from Shiism to Sunni Islam, according 

to a post on his website. 

The Sunni-based Islamic State 

and other jihadist groups consider 

Shiites heretics, or rejectionists 

-- "rafidi" -- of true Islam."I used 

to be a rafidi, but not anymore. 

Now I am a Muslim, Alhamdu 

Lillah," he said.On his website, 

self-styled Sheikh Haron, also 

known as Man Haron Monis, says 

his children have been "taken 

away by the Australian government" 

and that he is not allowed 

to contact them.Monis was on 

bail for dozens of charges, including 

22 of aggravated sexual assault 

and 14 of aggravated indecent 

assault, according to the 

Australian Associated Press. 

Mehdi's Entire Focus Was West 

Asia, Say Bangalore Police 

(Agencies) The entire focus of 

Mehdi Masroor Biswas' Twitter 

account was West Asia and 

most of his followers are from 

there, said the Bangalore police, 

who arrested the man three days 

ago. 

The Bangalore police 

also said during questioning, 

Mehdi claimed he never spoke to 

any fighter of the Islamic State. 

He said he also never encouraged 

anyone to join the armed 

struggle in the middle-east and 

nor did he know of anyone joining 

the IS because of his tweets, 

the police said.Mehdi, who is allegedly 

behind the 

@shamiwitness - the most-read 

Twitter handle of the Islamic State 

- is currently in police custody for 

questioning. "The conversations, 

the tweets that were given, tweets 

that were read, the matter that 

were discussed, the times zones 

- everything was around West 

Asia - around Iraq and Syria," said 

Bangalore police commissioner 

MN Reddi. "It so happens he 

could have operated from anywhere 

on earth." 

The police have issued 

a notice to the Twitter Corporation, 

asking them to answer a set 

of queries. "They have already responded 

substantially regarding 

various types of information to 

provide to us - data etc. It (the 

investigation) is still going on," Mr 

Reddi said. Mehdi used to translate 

Arabic tweets into English 

and uploaded data and videos on 

the Twitter handle 

@shamiwitness, which had over 

17,000 followers, police said. 

On Monday, Union 

Home Minister Rajnath Singh 

said over 60% of Mehdi's followers 

were non-Muslims from Western 

countries. The rest were Muslims, 

also from western countries, 

particularly the UK. "The interrogation 

of Mehdi Biswas has indicated 

that his activities were limited 

to posting and re-posting of 

pro-ISIS material on his Twitter 

account and social media sites. 

He has denied having recruited 

any person for ISIS," the Home 

Minister said. Mehdi, Mr Singh 

also said, had got interested in 

the developments in Syria, Iraq 

and Afghanistan during his college 

days. Once he got active in 

the social media, in 2009, he 

started interacting with people in 

the social networking sites on 

matters related to 

"Jihad"."Further investigation is in 

progress," he added. 

Stemming from his time as a 

"spiritual healer", an additional 40 

charges were levelled against 

him in October and he was also 

on bail for being an accessary to 

murder. The Sydney Morning Herald 

said it was understood that 

days before Monday's siege, 

Monis had lost a bid to have the 

charges over the letters overturned. 

Showing a flair for the dramatic, 

a photograph said to be 

from his Facebook page published 

by the Business Insider 

showed him in chains with a 

poster claiming "I have been tortured 

in prison for my political 

letters. Monis has said the crimes 

he has been accused of in the 

past were attempts to smear 

him. "These cases are in fact 

political cases against this Muslim 

activist, not real criminal 

cases."He compared himself to 

Wikileaks' Julian Assange on his 

website, saying both were activists 

facing government-backed 

smear campaigns.He also 

counted astrology, numerology, 

meditation and black magic 

among his expertise, according 

to reports.Before the raid, Monis 

had reportedly demanded an Islamic 

State flag and a phone call 

with Australian Prime Minister 

Tony Abbott.But police and 

Monis's former lawyer Manny 

Conditsis said the public could 

be assured that the siege was not 

the work of an organised terrorist 

group."This is a one-off random 

individual," he told the ABC. "It's 

not a concerted terrorism event 

or act. It's a damaged-goods individual 

who's done something 

outrageous." The Australian 

newspaper called him a "selfstyled 

sheikh" who had sent offensive 

letters to the families of 

dead Australian soldiers and was 

on bail on charges of being an 

accessory to the murder of his 

ex-wife. It said Monis -- shown in 

local media in a photo smiling 

and sporting a beard and a white 

turban -- lived in Sydney's southwest 

and was "understood to be 

a fringe Islamist". 

Volvo to Retail Cars Online 

(Agencies) Volvo Car Corp said it will start selling 

vehicles online as it rolls out new models to 

compete with German luxury rivals such as 

BMW. The Swedish carmaker, controlled by 

China's Geely, will gradually introduce web sales 

and spend more on digital advertising, it said as 

it outlined changes to its global marketing strategy 

on Monday. 

"The plan is to have 

all our car lines in all our 

markets offered digitally," 

Volvo sales chief Alain 

Visser said in an interview. 

Few manufacturers 

have tried selling directly 

online. A notable exception 

is Tesla, whose electric car 

sales have cut out traditional 

dealers, leading to conflict 

and effective exclusion from 

parts of the United States. 

But Volvo has assured its 

2,000 global dealerships, half of which are in 

Europe, that it has no such plans. 

"If you say the word e-commerce, initially 

dealers get nervous," Visser said. "We don't 

see a car distribution network without dealers in 

the foreseeable future," he said, adding that vehicles 

sold online "will still pass through the 

dealer network" for delivery. 

Volvo raised its 2014 sales goal in August 

as it launched a revamped XC90 crossover, 

the first vehicle developed under Zhejiang Geely 

Holding Group ownership. With its flagship SUV 

and other models to follow, Volvo is ratcheting 

up the gadgetry and glitz to woo Chinese customers 

without losing sight of core attributes including 

safety and uncluttered Scandinavian design. 

The Swedish carmaker plans to withdraw 

from all but one motor show per year in 

each of three regions - Europe, North America 

and Asia - and stage its own global event instead. 

Volvo also said it would not follow rivals 

into city-centre boutique dealerships of the kind 

increasingly used by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and 

Audi. 

"We're a different brand with limited financial 

means," Visser said. "We don't believe 

in building these big palaces." Some 80 percent 

of Volvo customers already shop online for other 

goods, the sales chief added, and research suggests 

many will do the same for cars in future. 

But some analysts such as Stuart Pearson of 

Exane BNP Paribas remain skeptical, citing 

weak orders from experimental online sales of 

the BMW's i8 hybrid sports car. "BMW has tried 

it in Germany, but they really haven't had a huge 

amount of volume," Pearson said. "People still 

want to go into dealers."


WORLD 

15 

Are POTATOES the ultimate diet food 

How a chemical compound found in 

spuds is shown to prevent weight gain 

(Agencies) Potatoes have 

long been considered something 

of an anti-diet food, but new research 

has found that they may 

in fact prevent weight gain. 

According to a new paper published 

by researchers at McGill 

University, high potato consumption 

in mice was shown to decrease 

body weight gain. 

The team believe that the findings 

are due to potatoes' high 

concentration of polyphenols - a 

disease-fighting chemical component 

found in fruits and vegetables. 

'We were astonished by 

the results,' said Professor Luis 

Agellon, one of the authors of the 

study. 

'We thought this can't be right 

- in fact, we ran the experiment 

again using a different batch of 

extract prepared from potatoes 

grown in another season, just to 

be certain.' 

Over a period of ten weeks, 

the mice - who started out weighing 

25 grams on average - were 

each fed an 'obesity-inducing 

diet', with some consuming a 

polyphenol-rich extract made 

from about 30 potatoes. 

By the end of the experiment, 

the animals who hadn't been fed 

the potato extract had gained an 

average of 16 grams. 

Those who had consumed the 

daily dose of polyphenol-rich potato 

extract, however, put on only 

7 grams.Principal author Stan 

Kubow believes that the findings 

may well explain the 'French paradox' 

- the notion that the French 

remain slim despite their seemingly 

unhealthy diet, which is high 

in saturated fats. 

'In the famous French diet, 

considered to be very healthy, 

potatoes - not red wine - are the 

primary source of polyphenols,' 

he explained. 

'In North America, potatoes 

come third as a source of 

polyphenols – before the popular 

blueberries.' Dr Kubow added that 

even though the chemicals in 

potatoes may prevent weight 

gain, that's not to say that a diet 

high in potatoes can necessarily 

keep you slim. 

'The daily dose of extract 

comes from 30 potatoes, but of 

course we don't advise anyone to 

eat 30 potatoes a day, as that 

would be an enormous number 

of calories,' he said. 

Instead, the researchers are 

envisaging making the extract 

available as a dietary supplement 

or as a cooking ingredient to help 

We will free India of Muslims 

and Christians by 2021 

(Agencies) Even as Opposition 

parties up the ante over alleged 

incidents of religious reconversion, 

the Dharm Jagran Samiti 

has declared that it will ensure 

India becomes a Hindu Rashtra 

by 2021. 

Speaking in Agra on Thursday, 

a Dharm Jagran Samiti (DJS) 

functionary said Muslims and 

Christians will have to convert to 

Hinduism if they want to stay in 

this country. The DJS has been 

at the forefront of the reconversion 

- or ‘ghar wapsi’ - 

programmes in recent times in 

which some Muslims have been 

reportedly ‘reconverted’ to 

Hinduism.However, their action 

drew widespread condemnation, 

leading to the arrest of one 

activist.“Our target is to make 

India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021. 

The Muslims and Christians don’t 

have any right to stay here. 

“So they would either be converted 

to Hinduism or forced to 

run away from here,” Uttar 

Pradesh DJS head Rajeshwar 

Singh said. He was reacting to 

the arrest of Nand Kishore 

Valmiki, a DJS activist. 

Valmiki was arrested on Tuesday 

for his alleged involvement in 

forcefully converting over 100 

Muslims to Hinduism in Agra. 

Singh said although he has 

temporarily suspended his ‘ghar 

wapsi’ programme in Aligarh and 

some other districts of the state 

that were supposed to be held on 

December 25, it would be restarted 

soon. 

The DJS leader claimed that 

those who have been opposing 

‘ghar wapsi’ were fearful of Muslims. 

But, he would set India free 

from this fear, he added. 

“I belong to the Solanki subcaste 

within the Rajput caste. 

The Thakurs (Rajputs) respect 

me. I am their leader and they 

follow my orders. “The Muslims 

had converted Rajputs to Islam 

by force. But the Rajputs are rising 

again. 

fight obesity. 

Potatoes may be popularly 

known for their carbohydrate and 

starch, but it's not the first time 

that a study has shown they 

aren't necessarily bad for the 

waistline. According to a study 

published in October in the Journal 

of the American College of Nutrition, 

dieters who included potatoes 

in their meal plans all lost 

weight - as long as they reduced 

their overall calorie intake. 

The scientists concluded 

there is no evidence that potatoes 

lead to weight gain if they are prepared 

in a healthy manner.


ENTERTAINMENT 

16 

Imam Siddique, Neha Dhupia in a fight! 

(Agencies) Stylist and reality TV star 

Imam Siddique ruffled a few feathers 

at the Max Design Awards 2014, 

Student Edition, in Mumbai, which 

featured celebs such as Ashish 

Soni, Gaurav Gupta, Neha Dhupia, 

Masaba Gupta and Marc 

Robinson. When Neha asked a 

student the meaning of Haute 

Couture (meaning “made to 

measure”), Imam got up, interrupted 

and told the judges: 

“You guys do not know the 

meaning of the term. You 

guys are laughing amongst yourselves…” 

To this, Neha calmly said, “If you 

are done, can I proceed with my job” This 

got Imam more agitated and he went on 

to explain the term in detail, little realising 

that he was doing this in front of the top 

four designers of the country. Neha just 

said, “In this case you may feel free to 

use the door… we have two of them.” Imam 

later says, “I always get tangled in controversies… 

When I complimented Neha 

saying, ‘You look beautiful, whose dress 

are you wearing’ She could not name 

the designer. Arre kiska dress pehna hai 

woh bhi usse malum nahi (she doesn’t 

even know whose dress she is wearing).” 

The issue that set Imam off initially 

was that the students were mispronouncing 

“Haute Couture” and the 

judges on the dais were giggling at 

them. “It was not only me, but another 

family in the audience also felt that the 

students were being mocked. And, 

therefore, I got up and defended the 

students.” Neha Dhupia, on the other 

hand, refused to comment. She said, 

“I have said what I had to… I do not 

want to say anything more.” 

I didn’t leave 

‘Bombairiya’ 

in lurch, says 

Richa Chadda 

More than 

heroes, it’s 

the heroines 

who are 

curious 

about Sunny 

Leone 

(Agencies) It has been 

over two years since 

Sunny Leone started 

her career in 

Bollywood. While it is 

obvious why the industry 

men find her interesting 

(ahem!), it is 

the curiosity that the 

heroines have about 

the adult star that is 

baffling. 

(Agencies) Commenting on reports of her 

walking out of British film “Bombairiya” in the 

middle, actress Richa Chadda says constant 

procrastination of the project, which led to 

clash with her other commitments forced her 

to opt out of the movie. 

Directed by debutant Pia Sukanya, the 

film is an ode to Mumbai and is being produced 

by India-born British producer Michael 

Ward. It was slated to go on floors in December. 

“I was approached by Beautiful Bay productions 

in August 2013 to play the lead in 

their next film. I agreed because they had a 

phenomenal script. I stood by them as they 

found producers and line producers. 

“The shoot was initially to start in January 

2014 , then April, then July. Finally in 

August Michael Ward mentioned that he 

needed more prep time and I told him I had 

prior commitments till December. After some 

adjustments on both our parts we were ready 

to roll in December. They paid me a token 

to say we intend to make the film. 

“While I was away shooting for ‘Masaan’, 

Michael demanded a change in the schedule 

yet again. At this point it began to clash 

with a prior commitment in January, which 

he was aware of,” read an official statement 

from the actress. There were reports that 

Richa left the filmmakers in lurch because 

of some other film accusing her of 

unprofessionalism. The “Fukrey” actress was 

equally shocked by the claims. 

“We tried to work this out… I have waited 

for the film to take off for more than a year 

and a half so its a tad unfair to expect me to 

not honour other film commitments,” the 

actress said. The film also stars Akshay 

Oberoi and Siddhanth Kapoor.


ADVERTISEMENT 

17


SPECIAL FEATURE 

18 

(Agencies) Posing proudly in front of 

a Taliban banner declaring ‘There is no 

God but Allah’, this is the hand-picked 

suicide cell responsible for the coldblooded 

slaughter of 132 schoolchildren. 

Clutching an array of rocket launchers 

and machine guns, the crazed gunmen 

are shown both in traditional clothing 

of Taliban fighters and the Pakistan 

military uniforms they wore to avoid suspicion 

immediately before storming the 

Army School in Peshawar. 

The pictures – apparently taken in the 

hours before Tuesday’s attack – were released 

yesterday by the Taliban, together 

with a threat to carry out similar attacks 

despite the outrage at the horrific, carefully 

planned massacre in which 132 children 

and more than a dozen teachers were 

killed. 

In an email released this morning, 

Khurasani attempted to justify the attack 

by claiming that the Pakistani army has 

long killed the innocent children and families 

of Taliban fighters. 

But he vowed more such militant attacks 

and told Pakistani civilians to detach 

themselves from all military institution, 

adding: 'We are still able to carry 

out major attacks. This was just the 

trailer.' In the email, the terror group 

warned Muslims to avoid places with military 

ties, saying it attacked the school to 

avenge the deaths of children allegedly 

killed by soldiers in tribal areas. 

It accused the students at the army 

school of 'following the path of their fathers 

and brothers to take part in the fight 

against the tribesmen' nationwide. 

The warning came as the Prince of 

Wales joined the international condemnation 

of the attack, describing it as ‘sickening’ 

and a ‘horrific reminder that Muslims 

themselves are the victims of the violent 

intolerance of the extremists’. 

Speaking at the Syrian Orthodox 

Church in London, Prince Charles added: 

‘The many, many families in Pakistan who 

have lost children, other relatives, friends 

and colleagues in the massacre are in 

my prayers.’ 

The Peshawar atrocity is said to have 

been ordered by Maulana Fazlullah, head 

of the Taliban in Pakistan and the man 

who ordered the shooting of teenage education 

campaigner Malala Yousafzai, this 

year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Fazlullah is understood to have demanded 

that his lieutenant Umar Naray 

managed the operation, and communicated 

with the gunmen directly from his 

base over the border in Afghanistan. 

Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Raheel 

Sharif, flew to Kabul to seek help in tracking 

him down. 

'His communications have been intercepted 

as well which helped security 

agencies in tracing his location and 

whereabouts which was urgently shared 

not only with the Afghan army but also 

with Nato forces,' a security source was 

quoted as telling Peshawar's Dawn newspaper. 

The firebrand militant, whose thick 

black beard reaches halfway down his 

chest, took control of the Pakistani 

Taliban 13 months ago. It is thought the 

massacre may have been his barbaric 

revenge for Malala, 17, being award the 

Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year. 

Whatever his twisted motive, Fazlullah 

has succeeded in uniting the world in revulsion 

once again. In a society usually 

reluctant to criticise the Taliban, there 

was an outpouring of anger across Pakistan 

yesterday. 

At a vigil in the capital Islamabad, 

Fatimah Khan, 38, said: ‘I don’t have 

words for my pain and anger. They slaughtered 

those children like animals.’ 

Naba Mehdi, 16, had a message of 

defiance for the Taliban. 

‘We’re not scared of you,’ she said. 

‘We will still study and fight for our freedom. 

This is our war.’ 

As the photographs of the murders 

were released by the Pakistani Taliban, 

all six men were named on Twitter. But 

their personal details have not yet been 

independently verified. 

The government in Islamabad immediately 

responded by instructing schools 

across the country to increase their security 

and to rehearse escape routines. 

It came as mass funerals took place 

across Peshawar on the first of three days 

of national mourning and as Pakistan’s 

prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, ordered a



19 

moratorium on the death penalty to be lifted 

for terror-related cases. 

Government spokesman Mohiuddin Wan 

said: 'It was decided that this moratorium 

should be lifted. The prime minister approved... 

Black warrants [execution orders] will 

be issued within a day or two.' 

The moratorium on civilian executions had 

been in place since 2008. Only one execution 

has taken place since then. 

Amid harrowing scenes, dozens of small 

wooden coffins were carried for burial together 

with those of their teachers. Rows of children 

and fellow pupils stood in silence, some weeping, 

their hands clasped in front of them beside 

the lines of caskets draped in blankets. 

People across the country lit candles and 

held vigils for the 148 who were killed – seven 

more of the critically injured died in hospital 

yesterday. 

‘They finished in minutes what I had lived 

my whole life for – my son,’ said labourer 

Akhtar Hussain, tears streaming down his face 

as he buried 14-year-old Fahad. 

He said he had worked for years in Dubai 

to earn a livelihood for his children, adding: 

‘That innocent one is now gone in the grave, 

and I can’t wait to join him, I can’t live any 

more.’ 

Among the best attended of the funerals 

was that of teacher Afsha Ahmed, 24, who 

confronted the gunmen when they burst into 

her classroom and told them: ‘You can only 

kill my students over my dead body.’ 

She was burned alive as she stood in front 

of her pupils. The family of another teacher 

torched alive in front of her class gathered to 

say funeral prayers. 

Tahira Kazi, the principal of the Army Public 

School and College in Peshawar, was set 

on fire by jihadists who slaughtered so many. 

It is believed she was targeted because 

she is married to a retired army colonel, Kazi 

Zafrullah. The picture obtained by MailOnline 

shows her standing proudly next to a student 

believed to be her son. 

Prime Minister Sharif said Pakistan stood 

united to ensure the deaths of the children 

were not wasted, after a meeting of all party 

leaders in Peshawar. He promised that in military 

action, there would be no distinction between 

‘good and bad’ Taliban.We have resolved 

to continue the war against terrorism 

till the last terrorist is eliminated,’ Mr Sharif 

said. ‘We must not forget these scenes. The 

way they left bullet holes in the bodies of innocent 

kids, the way they tore apart their 

faces with bullets.’ 

He said he spoke to Afghan President 

Ashraf Ghani to discuss how both countries 

could do more to fight terrorism. Significantly, 

the two agreed to launch operations on their 

respective sides of the border, and pledged to 

‘clean this region from terrorism’. 

Yesterday, the first devastating images 

also emerged of the blood-soaked classrooms 

where 132 innocent children and nine teachers 

were massacred by the Taliban. 

Horrifying pictures revealed the carnage 

wrought by seven extremist gunmen who 

sprayed children with bullets as they sat receiving 

first aid tuition and exploded suicide 

bombs in a room of 60 pupils. 

Pictures of a blood splattered doorway leading 

to an auditorium and the scene of the final 

gun battle also emerged. 

In a grim tour of the building photographers 

were shown inside the auditorium. 

The floor is caked in blood in places and 

dozens of chairs lie in disarray, knocked over 

by children running for cover as the terrorists 

hosed them with bullets. 

The lucky ones, it transpired, survived by 

playing dead under these chairs as the gunmen 

stalked the room, searching for children 

they'd missed.



20 

(Agencies) A teenage survivor 

who was shot in both legs during 

today's Taliban attack on a Pakistani 

school has described how 

he shoved a tie in his mouth to 

stop him from screaming in fear 

as gunmen hunted for children to 

kill. 

Shahrukh Khan, 16, was sitting 

with his classmates during 

a careers guidance session at the 

Army Public School in Peshawar 

when gunmen wearing paramilitary 

uniforms burst in and opened 

fire. 

The schoolboy described how 

he cowered under a bench and 

played dead while gunmen 

'pumped bullets' in fellow students' 

bodies. 

Fearing he was about to be 

killed, the young boy then managed 

to crawl to shelter behind a 

door in a nearby classroom, despite 

sustaining gunshot wounds 

to both his legs. Today's attack 

in the north-western Pakistani 

city of Peshawar today left at 

least 132 children dead and is 

believed to be the bloodiest ever 

attacks in the nation's history. 

The horror at the Pakistan 

Army Public School in Peshawar 

came on the day when the military 

was scheduled to provide a 

display of first-aid and drills. 

At first, the children thought 

it was just a drill. Then the 

screaming began. As the pupils 

poring over their books realised 

the bangs they could hear were 

the sounds of guns fired in anger, 

panic spread. 

In minutes the school resembled 

a battleground with terrified 

pupils running for their lives, 

hiding or pretending to be dead. 

Speaking from his bed in the 

trauma ward of the Lady Reading 

Hospital, Shahrukh described 

how the gunmen shouted 'Allaho-Akbar' 

before opening fire. 

He said: 'Someone screamed 

at us to get down and hide below 

the desks. Then one of them 

shouted: "There are so many 

children beneath the benches, go 

and get them." 

'I saw a pair of big black boots 

coming towards me, this guy was 

probably hunting for students hiding 

beneath the benches.' 

Khan said he felt searing pain 

as he was shot in both his legs 

just below the knee. He decided 

to play dead, adding: 'I folded my 

tie and pushed it into my mouth 

so that I wouldn't scream. The 

man with big boots kept on looking 

for students and pumping 

bullets into their bodies. 

'I lay as still as I could and 

closed my eyes, waiting to get 

shot again. My body was shivering. 

'I saw death so close and I will 

never forget the black boots approaching 

me—I felt as though it 

was death that was approaching 

me.' The attack started with nine 

gunmen entering the 500-pupil 

school - which has students aged 

10 to 18 - in the early hours. 

The jihadists shot their way 

into the building and went from 

classroom to classroom, shooting 

at random and picking off students 

one by one. 

Eye-witnesses described how 

students cowered under desks as 

dead bodies were strewn along 

corridors. 

News images of the aftermath 

of the attack showed boys in 

blood-soaked school uniforms 

with green blazers being carried 

from the scene. 

By 10.15, at least 60 pupils 

were already dead as hundreds 

of Pakistani soldiers poured from 

lorries to seal off the area and 

take the battle to the Taliban fighters, 

all of whom were wearing 

suicide vests.Two helicopters, 

including a gunship, hovered over 

the school’s grounds ‘spotting’ for 

Special Forces as they hunted 

down the gunmen, who were 

seemingly more intent on killing 

as many children as possible 

than taking hostages. 

As the gunfight intensified, at 

least three of the militants blew 

themselves up, leaving behind 

several charred bodies of bombers 

and victims. 

Taliban later accepted responsibility 

for the attack, claiming it 

'was just a trailer'. 

As his father, a shopkeeper, 

comforted him in his bloodsoaked 

bed, Shahrukh recalled: 

'The men left after some time and 

I stayed there for a few minutes. 

'Then I tried to get up but fell 

to the ground because of my 

wounds. When I crawled to the 

next room, it was horrible. I saw 

the dead body of our office assistant 

on fire. 

'She was sitting on the chair 

with blood dripping from her body 

as she burned.' 

It was not immediately clear 

how the woman's body caught 

fire, though local media has reported 

that some of the Taliban 

militants set her alight because 

she was trying to protect her students. 

Khan, who said he also saw 

the body of a soldier who worked 

at the school, crawled behind a 

door to hide and then lost consciousness, 

later waking up in 

hospital. 

A 10-year-old boy caught up 

in the massacre also spoke of his 

dramatic escape from Taliban 

gunmen as bullets whizzed past



21 

his head - having seen two of his 

classmates shot dead in front of him. 

Irfan Shah told how he was sitting in 

his class at 10:30 when he heard the 

sound of firing outside. 

Shah told MailOnline: 'It was our 

social studies period. Our teacher first 

told us that some kind of drill was 

going on and that we do not need to 

worry. It was very intense firing. Then 

the sound came closer. Then we 

heard cries. One of our friends open 

the window of the class. 

'He started weeping as there were 

several school fellows lying on the 

ground outside the class. 

'Everybody was in panic. Two of 

our class fellows ran outside class in 

panic. They were shot in front of us.' 

He said that the teacher asked 

the children, part of a class of 33, to 

run towards the back gate of the 

school. 

He continued: 'The back gate is 

around 200 meters from our class 

room. I tightly held the hand of my 

friend Daniyal and we both ran towards 

the back gate. We were weeping. 

I felt bullets passing by my head 

twice. It was so terrible. 'All the children 

had bullet wounds. All the children 

were bleeding,' he added. 

Akhtar Ali, who works out for the 

UN, was weeping outside the school. 

He told MailOnline: 'My 14-yearold 

niece Afaq is inside the school. I 

don't know if she is alive or dead. I 

am desperate. I am just waiting in 

hope. It is agony. ' 

'My son was in uniform in the 

morning. He is in a casket now,' 

wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he 

came to the hospital to collect the body 

of his 14-year-old son, Abdullah. 

'My son was my dream. My dream 

has been killed.' media spoke to 

Naveed Ahmed, who works at the irrigation 

department. He said: 'My son 

Hasid Asmad is 16-years-old, is still 

inside the school., He took a mobile 

and called me while I was in the 

mosque, he was praying down the 

phone. I have been waiting so many 

hours for news. My son told that he 

was being kept safe by the Pakistan 

army inside. They are taking a picture 

of them to prove they are safe. 'They 

have told me that the children are safe 

in the custody of the army.' Mrs 

Humayun Khan, one of the mothers of 

a student, said with tears in her eyes: 

'No body is telling me about my son's 

whereabouts... I have checked the hospital 

and he is not there. I am really 

losing my heart. God forbid may he's 

not among the students still under 

custody of terrorists.' A student who 

survived the attack said soldiers came 

to rescue students during a lull in the 

firing. 'When we were coming out of 

the class we saw dead bodies of our 

friends lying in the corridors. They were 

bleeding. Some were shot three times, 

some four times,' the student said. 

'The men entered the rooms one 

by one and started indiscriminate firing 

at the staff and students.' Zakir 

Ahmad, who runs an electronics store 

in Peshawar, has lost his 16-year-old 

Abdullah and is frantically searching 

for 12-year-old Hassnain, who is still 

missing hours after the atrocity. Crying 

and barely able to speak, he told 

MailOnline: 'When I heard there was 

an attack I ran to the school. I heard 

firing. I sent my cousins and staff to 

search the hospitals while I stayed 

praying at school. Then after an hour I 

got the call, he just said Abdullah is 

dead. I have found him in the hospital. 

I still don't know anything about my 

boy Hasnain.


CONTD. 

22 

Talking with Pakistanis 

much of a policy. Pakistan can tus quo power that would like to 

deny our shared history but India be left alone to concentrate on its 

cannot change its geography. Pakistan 

economic development; Indians 

(Contd from page 6) Something 

similar could be said about India 

and Pakistan. Straightforward disagreements 

between two states 

can be resolved through dialogue 

and compromise. But how can that 

work when Pakistan's abiding hostility 

towards India is rooted in fundamental 

insecurity about its national 

identity as the "not-India" for 

the sub-continent's Muslims, and 

even worse, driven by the self-interest 

of a rapacious military which 

commands a greater share of the 

national GDP than the military of 

any other country in the world, and 

needs this hostility to justify its 

power and privileges 

The visit of the Pakistani MNAs 

(as their Members of Parliament 

are called) did not meet with universal 

approbation among those 

who became aware of their presence 

in New Delhi. For there are 

not many takers in the Indian political 

space right now for pursuing 

dialogue with a country whose military 

intelligence (or elements 

thereof) almost certainly have had 

a hand in every terror attack on Indian 

begun to take on the challenge of 

fighting some terrorist groups - not 

the ones lovingly nurtured by the 

ISI to assault India, but the ones 

who have escaped GHQ 

Rawalpindi's control and turned on 

Pakistan's own military institutions. 

But the unpalatable fact remains 

that what Pakistan is suffering from 

today is the direct result of a deliberate 

policy of inciting, financing, 

training, equipping militants and 

jihadis over 20 years as an instrument 

of state policy. As Dr. Frankenstein 

discovered when he built 

his monster, it is impossible to 

control the monster once you've 

created it. 

Attempts by glibly sophisticated 

Pakistani spokesmen to 

portray themselves as fellow victims 

of terror - indeed, to go so far 

as to compare the number of 

deaths suffered by Pakistan in its 

war against terrorism on its own 

soil with those inflicted upon India 

- seek to obscure the fundamental 

difference between the two situations. 

Pakistanis are not suffering 

death and destruction from terror- 

The moment the Pakistani establishment 

genuinely disavows 

the nurturing and deployment of 

terror as an instrument of state 

policy, and concludes that it faces 

the same enemy as India and 

should make common cause with 

it to stamp out the scourge, is the 

moment that a genuine prospect 

of peace will dawn on the subcontinent. 

Such a sentiment is, alas, 

far from even glimmering on the 

horizon. 

So should New Delhi resume 

talks with the government in 

Islamabad Track-II is all very well, 

but the days of sari-shawl exchanges 

have been supplanted by 

a frigid silence. Talking again before 

there has been any significant 

progress in Pakistan bringing the 

perpetrators of 26/11 to book, 

many Indians feel, would mean 

surrendering to Pakistani intransigence. 

Is there any point talking 

to people whose territory and institutions 

are being used to attack 

and kill Indians 

And yet it is also clear that "not 

talking" to any Pakistanis is not 

is next door and can no 

more be ignored than a thorn 

pierced into India's side. 

India's refusal to talk after 26/ 

11 worked for a while as a source 

of pressure on Pakistan. It contributed, 

together with Western (especially 

American) diplomatic 

efforts, to some of Islamabad's 

initial co-operation, including 

the arrest of Lashkar-e-Toiba operative 

Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi 

and six of his co-conspirators. 

But it has long passed its useby 

date. The refusal to resume 

dialogue has not just stopped producing 

any fresh results; the only 

argument that justifies it - that it is 

a source of leverage - gives some 

in India the illusion of influence over 

events that New Delhi does not in 

fact possess. 

Instead, it's ironically India - the 

victims of 26/11 and other examples 

of Pakistani malfeasance 

- who have come to seem intransigent 

and unaccommodating. The 

transcendent reality of life on the 

subcontinent is that it has always 

been India that wishes to live in 

peace. India is, at bottom, a sta- 

see Pakistan as the troublemaker, 

needling and bleeding its neighbour 

in an effort to change the power 

balance and wrest control of a part 

of Indian territory (Kashmir). Refusing 

to talk doesn't change any of 

that, but it brought India no rewards 

and in fact imposed a cost. When 

Pakistan was allowed to sound reasonable 

and conciliatory while India 

seemed truculent and unreasonable, 

New Delhi's international 

image as a constructive force for 

peace took a beating. 

To say that we will not talk 

as long as there is terror is essentially 

to give the terrorists a 

veto over our own diplomatic 

choices. For talking can achieve 

constructive results. It can identify 

and narrow the differences 

between our two countries on 

those issues that can be dealt 

with, while keeping the spirit of 

dialogue (and implicitly of compromise) 

alive. 

So yes, by all means, let us 

talk to Pakistan and Pakistanis on 

every "Track" available. It is what 

we say when we talk that will make 

all the difference. 

soil, even while its government ists trained in India. No one trav- 

professes peace. Few in the government 

eled from India to attack the Marriott Friendship With Russia Comforts, Even if it Doesn't Electrify 

are prepared to accept Hotel in Islamabad or the 

(Contd from page 6) thanks to ence in Ukraine is certainly a ness-to-business ties are a fragile 

link in the bilateral relationship, 

that we are obliged to pursue normal 

relations with a Pakistan that stanis sailed to Mumbai to wreak 

base at Mehran, whereas Paki- 

Western sanctions. India, on the cause for concern here, as is the 

other hand, is a country everyone 

seems anxious to embrace, ments in Kiev, strategic chal- 

weakest. 

intransigence of hardline ele- 

and people-to people relations the 

incubates terror while the country's mayhem on 26/11 and crossed the 

civilian government remains either border to attack Uri last month. 

especially given the excitement lenges in South Asia, West Asia, Unless Moscow and New 

unable or unwilling to curb the socalled 

non-state actors who roam cer in its own midst, but a cancer 

Pakistan has to cauterize a can- 

Modi has triggered among international 

investors. 

reinforced the importance of Rus- 

ways of marrying India's human 

the wider Asia-Pacific region have Delhi are able to find innovative 

freely preaching hatred. Hafiz that was implanted by itself and 

What was left unsaid in the sia for India. 

capital endowments with Russia's 

Saeed's recent rally where he its own institutions. And this will 

run-up to Thursday's meeting was India and Russia will continue comparative advantage in the 

preached jihad against India to 5 only happen if our neighbours eliminate 

the warped thinking, amongst 

the Western hope that India to provide political comfort to one fields of mathematics, science 

lakh deliriously bloodthirsty fanatics 

could not have taken place with- 

powerful elements in Islamabad, 

would try and put some strategic another on major global issues and engineering, the West will 

distance between itself and Russia. 

The Indian government may excitement in the economic pensive -- source of technology. 

but is there scope for genuine remain a more exciting -- if exout 

government support. And we that a terrorist who sets off a bomb 

are supposed to be nice to such a at the Marriott in Islamabad is a 

have had misgivings over Crimea's sphere Modi and Putin are trying 

to push cooperation in the field operation remain, but these will 

Defence, nuclear and space co- 

government, some Indians ask incredulously. 

off a bomb at the Taj in Mumbai is 

bad terrorist whereas one who sets 

secession from Ukraine but has 

baulked from airing these publicly. 

but Russia is too far for there to sian technologies in these fields 

of diamonds and hydrocarbons only be relevant so long as Rus- 

It is true that the Pakistani a good one. 

Army, however, selectively, has 

And while Moscow's interfer- 

be any viable pipeline link. Busi- 

are. 

Nuclear Deal with Russia is No Reason to Celebrate 

naval 

(Contd from page 4) Tapping all these 

sources might provide such huge surpluses 

over and above India's immediate 

needs as to make it possible to extend 

the pipeline right across India to southwest 

China through Myanmar. We would 

earn far higher transit fees from any such 

arrangements than we might have to pay 

out to get west Asian and central Asian 

gas into India. 

To promote this as a pan-Asian 

project, we should extend TAPI to send 

out tentacles to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan 

and Russia itself - for the Caspian petroleum-rich 

port town of Astrakhan lies in 

the Russian Federation. If Astrakhan were 

to be a key hub of the proposed Asian 

Gas Grid, the other Central Asian Republics 

might have the greater confidence to 

become part of this revolutionary new network. 

As far as north Asia is concerned, 

while a pipeline all the way from Siberia 

or Sakhalin to India might not at present 

be technically feasible, swap arrangements 

might be possible between India 

and Korea, as well as India and Japan, to 

supply them gas from our contracted lots 

in north Asia (particularly Sakhalin) in 

exchange for our getting the LNG they 

have contracted from Indonesia and possibly 

Australia. To do all this requires, 

however, a revival of the Nehruvian vision 

that led to India convening the Asian Relations 

Conference under Jawaharlal 

Nehru in March 1947 even before we were 

wholly independent. Asia is the continent 

that led the world in the progress of human 

civilization from the earliest recorded 

times till the onset of European colonialism 

some 300 years ago. But Asia remains 

the most divided continent despite 

the Nehruvian initiative of 1947. That is 

because, in spite of progressively shaking 

off the colonial yoke, Asia has been 

the playground of Great Power rivalry in 

the second half of the 20th century and 

into the 21st. 

This must change. We should take 

note from the European experience of 

having first set up the European Coal and 

Steel Community before moving to the 

European Common Market, the European 

Community and now the European Union. 

An Asian Union might be a century or more 

away but we can move towards that goal 

by establishing an Asian Gas Grid as the 

first step towards an Asian Oil and Gas 

Community that might over time then 

evolve into an Asian Union. But how can 

an India narrowly wedded to Hindutva and 

a Hindu Rashtra, and controlled by the 

likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi 

Jyoti, even begin to have the all-encompassing 

vision that guided the 

Father of our Foreign Policy No wonder 

Modi prefers to limit himself to buying 

nuclear reactors that no one else wants.


US Senate confirms Vivek Murthy as surgeon general 

(Contd from page 2) 

Senator Richard 

Blumenthal said Murthy has addressed 

some of the nation's 

most pressing health problems 

over the times. "Dr Murthy's credentials 

are without question. 

They are impeccable, unquestionable 

and indisputable". 

Coming out in support of 

Murthy, senator Daniel Markey 

said he has developed a skill set 

which is much needed for the 21st 

century and in an era where disease 

cross international boundaries. 

"It is an opportunity to put 

a real leader in this position," he 

said. Senator Mazie Hirono said 

Murthy would make an effective 

surgeon general. On the one 

hand, when several senators have 

lauded Murthy's nomination there 

were others who continued to 

oppose his confirmation. 

"The American people 

deserve a surgeon general who 

has proven, throughout his or her 

career that their main focus is a 

commitment to patients, not a 

commitment to politics. 

When Obama was mistaken for waiter and valet 

(Contd from page 1) The First 

Lady contested that. “I think 

people forget that we’ve lived in 

the White House for six years,” 

she said. “Before that, Barack 

Obama was a black man that 

lived on the South Side of Chicago, 

who had his share of 

troubles catching cabs.” 

She also recalled another incident 

when Obama was wearing 

a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, 

and somebody asked him to 

get coffee. 

There was have other eyewitness 

accounts of how Obama 

was subjected to prejudice even 

after he entered elite circles. A 

Wall Street Journal reporter once 

wrote about how she witnessed 

Obama get the rough end of the 

stereotype at a New York City 

book party hosted by Tina Brown 

in 2003. 

The reporter had been chatting 

with Obama at the party and 

when they finished their conversation, 

another guest walked up 

to her and inquired after the 

man’s identity, admitting that he 

had mistaken him for the wait 

staff. 

The man, an established author, 

“sheepishly he told me he 

didn’t know that Obama was a 

guest at the party, and had asked 

him to fetch him a drink. In less 

than six years, Obama has gone 

Rs 9,300cr black money changes 

hands in medical seat sale every year 

(Contd from page 1) The price of 

each seat varies from about Rs 55 lakh 

in Kerala and some not-so-wellestablished 

colleges in Tamil Nadu and 

UP to over Rs 75 lakh in colleges in 

Maharashtra, Andhra and Gujarat. At 

a conservative average of Rs 60 lakh 

per seat, the money generated is Rs 

4,860 crore. 

Here's why this could be an 

underestimation. Scams exposed 

almost every year show that 

although the management and NRI 

quota is said to be 30%, in reality 

the number of seats sold is much 

higher. In many states, the 

permitted management quota is 

higher — in Madhya Pradesh, for 

instance, private medical colleges 

are allowed to keep 15% of seats 

for NRI quota and 44% for 

management, bringing the total 

saleable seats to nearly 60%. 

In the Vyapam scandal in MP, 220 

of 378 seats in the state quota or about 

60% of the state seats were sold to 

ineligible students last year. "The state 

quota seats are filled by scorers hired 

by admission rackets. The scorers are 

later paid to vacate the seats, which 

are filled after the first counselling 

session for premium rates," explained 

Dr Anand Rai, the whistleblower in this 

scam, which exposed the involvement 

of senior politicians and bureaucrats in 

the medical admission racket. Similar 

rackets have been exposed in 

Karnataka and other states too, where 

the bulk of seats in private medical 

colleges were sold. 

The sale of PG seats is at an even 

higher rate. Seats in coveted fields like 

radiology are said to touch Rs 3 crore, 

while seats in gynaecology and 

dermatology could be available for Rs 

1.5-2 crore. In most places, seats are 

sold even before the results for the All 

India Common Entrance Test were 

declared. In some states with no 

regulation, almost all PG seats in the 

private sector are sold. 

Similar calculations for MD and 

MS seats as for MBBS seats show 

that these would fetch another 

nearly Rs 2,500 crore. Thus, the 

'market' for medical seats as a 

whole is in excess of Rs 7,300 crore 

even by the most conservative 

estimate. 

There are other factors to take 

into account — for instance, in 

minority institutions almost 80% 

seats are management quota; in 

some states this quota is 40%; in 

most states there is little or no 

regulation of PG seats, so almost 

the entire lot gets sold off; in many 

states, the so-called state quota is 

diverted through various kinds of 

fraud and sold off. Factor all of this 

in, and the size of the market is 

actually probably over Rs 10,000 

crore or $1.5 billion-plus, all of it in 

black money. 

from being mistaken for a waiter 

among the New York media elite, 

to the president-elect,” the journalist, 

Katie Rosman, had written. 

However, the president said in 

the People interview that the 

small irritations or indignities that 

he and his wife experienced are 

nothing compared to what a previous 

generation experienced. 

“It’s one thing for me to be mistaken 

for a waiter at a gala. It’s 

another thing for my son to be 

mistaken for a robber and to be 

handcuffed, or worse, if he happens 

to be walking down the 

street and is dressed the way 

teenagers dress,” Obama said. 

CONTD. 

23 

New York Magzine says ‘we were 

duped’ by $72 million teen trader 

(Contd from page1) The initial 

story of Islam made immediate 

waves. The New York Post 

featured it on its front page on 

Sunday and it was shared widely 

on Facebook. 

Commentators quickly 

questioned whether Islam could 

have truly made $72 million. 

The writer of the story, 

Jessica Pressler, told 

CNNMoney that Islam’s net worth 

had been fact-checked, and the 

story said that Islam had 

confirmed his net worth to be in 

the “high eight figures.” Pressler 

told CNNMoney that the teen 

appeared to have “an obscene 

amount of money in his account.” 

The Washington Post 

reported the flaws in that factchecking 

process. It cited an 

anonymous “source close to 

the Islam family” who said that 

the 17-year-old “created some 

bullsh*t thing on the computer 

with blacked out numbers. He 

said she could look at it for 10 

seconds, and pulled it away.” 

Pressler, who is heading to 

Bloomberg News in the new 

year to cover the “culture of 

wealth and money,” told 

CNNMoney that her piece was 

“skeptical enough.” 

Bloomberg declined to 

comment on the matter. 

Pressler faulted the original 

headline: “A Stuyvesant senior 

made $72 million trading stocks 

on his lunch break.” She told 

CNNMoney she didn’t write it and 

said it was “glib.” 

Islam took issue with New 

York Magazine in an interview 

with CNBC. “The way we were 

portrayed is not who we are,” he 

said. 

New York Magazine originally 

defended the piece. It noted that 

the “story itself does not specify 

an amount.” 

The revised headline, which 

says that Islam “made millions 

picking stocks,” is still 

inaccurate. 

The story was still featured 

prominently on New York 

Magazine’s website late Monday, 

hours after the Observer interview 

was published. A spokeswoman 

for New York Magazine did not 

say whether the story will be 

retracted completely. 

'Sons of Guns' star William Hayden 

indicted on more child rape charges 

(Agencies) An East Baton Rouge Parish 

grand jury has indicted former reality TV 

star Will Hayden on three counts of rape 

involving two victims. 

The Advocate reports the 49-year-old 

Hayden, who once starred in the 'Sons of 

Guns' TV show based out of 

his Baton Rouge gun shop, 

was charged Wednesday 

with two counts of aggravated 

rape and one count of forcible 

rape. 

Hayden is accused of 

raping a young girl multiple 

times between March 2013 

and August According to the 

indictment, the assaults 

allegedly began a few days 

after the girl's 11th birthday. 

He's also accused of 

raping a woman in the early 

1990s and was charged with 

forcible rape in that incident. 

Hayden's attorney, Frank 

Holthaus, could not confirm the indictment, 

saying he had yet to see it. 

Hayden was arrested August 27. After 

the arrest, The Discovery Channel canceled 

the show, citing 'the serious and horrific 

nature of the charges' against the star. 

He was arrested on aggravated rape 

charges involving a child and had already 

faced child molestation and aggravated 

crime against nature charges stemming 

from an arrest August 9.Hayden began 

having sex with the child, then 11 years 

old, in 2013, according to allegations in an 

affidavit filed by sheriff's deputies. The latest 

rape, the report said, happened in July. 

A guardian of the victim contacted 

deputies Aug. 16. The victim confided to 

the guardian after Hayden's Aug. 9 arrest, 

according to the report.Deputies said they 

met with the child and guardian and took a 

statement. 

According to the affidavit, the child told 

deputies Hayden took her virginity when she 

was 11 years old and that sex acts 

happened almost daily thereafter. 

The report says Hayden coerced the 

victim into silence with threats of physical 

abuse.


BUSINESS 

24 

Sony urges media groups to delete hacked data 

(Agencies) washington : Sony 

Entertainment pressed media 

outlets on Sunday against using 

data that hackers may have 

leaked about the studio. 

In the letter sent to 

groups including The New York 

Times and The Hollywood Reporter, 

lawyer David Boies said 

the "stolen information" must be 

destroyed and should not make 

it to publication. 

The studio "does not 

consent to your possession, review, 

copying, dissemination, 

publication, uploading, downloading 

or making any use of the 

stolen information, and to request 

your cooperation in destroying 

the stolen information," 

Boies wrote in the three-page 

letter. 

The demand comes 

amid a series of damaging leaks 

about salaries, employee health 

records, unpublished scripts and 

email exchanges about movie 

stars and filmmakers. The information 

has been published by 

websites including gawker.com. 

The FBI has launched 

an investigation. The unflattering 

leaks -- including a producer labeling 

Angelina Jolie a "minimally 

talented spoiled brat" -- have 

thrown Sony into damage control 

mode, amid few signs they are 

going to stop any time soon. 

Sony co-chair Amy Pascal 

was also shown to have made 

racially insensitive remarks about 

president Barack Obama -- the 

first black president of the United 

States -- in company emails. 

A group that claims to 

have hacked Sony's servers has 

demanded its movie studio pull a 

soon-to-be-released comedy depicting 

a fictional CIA plot to kill 

North Korea's leader. Sony is trying 

to determine whether North 

Korean hackers are the source 

of the leaks, according to tech 

website Re/code. North Korea, 

however, has denied involvement 

in the brazen cyber attack on 

Sony Pictures, but praised it as 

a "righteous deed" potentially orchestrated 

by supporters furious 

over the movie "The Interview," 

due out on Christmas Day. 

RBI allows banks to 

recast large project loans 

MUMBAI: Hundreds of road, 

power, steel and other large 

projects that are stuck because 

of their inability to generate cash 

flows required to repay loans are 

likely to go on-stream with the 

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowing 

lenders to extend the repayment 

period for these 

projects. With the RBI allowing 

restructuring of even those loans 

that have been declared in default, 

there is hope that a large chunk 

of bad loans will be eventually 

upgraded. 

"Until now, banks were 

focused on a 'fault finding' mission 

after a default. Now they will 

go in search of profits," said 

Nirmal Gangwal, founder and MD, 

Brescon Corporate Advisors, a 

firm that advises banks on bad 

loans. Gangwal said that banks 

have enough powers to use as a 

stick against borrowers, including 

laws to attach assets and the 

power to convert debt to equity. 

The new guidelines give them the 

incentive to work in a constructive 

way with the borrower. 

The RBI typically does 

not encourage giving borrowers 

more time or more liquidity 

merely to avoid a default. However, 

in the case of large 

projects it has made an exception 

since it is only in India 

there was a restriction on the 

tenure of the project loan."The 

biggest beneficiary would be 

road assets and projects in 

the power and steel sector. 

Those sectors associated with 

these industries —telecom, 

cement, fertilizer, textiles — 

will also benefit. The only unfortunate 

part is that this relaxation 

has been restricted to 

only Rs 500-crore projects," 

said Gangwal. 

"Banks have represented 

that flexible structuring 

of project loans with the option 

of periodic refinancing may 

also be allowed to existing 

loans to infrastructure projects 

and core industries projects, as 

it would ensure long-term viability 

of existing infrastructure/core 

industries sector projects by 

aligning the debt repayment obligations 

with cash flows generated 

during their economic life," 

RBI circular said .


BUSINESS 

25 

SpiceJet gets 10 days to raise funds or face end 

(Agencies) New Delhi : 

The Centre has given a final 

chance to cash-strapped 

SpiceJet to survive, asking the 

low cost carrier to raise funds 

within the next 10 days, possibly 

from promoter Sun Group 

chief Kalanithi Maran, or face 

closure. The respite came on 

Monday after the SpiceJet management, 

led by COO Sanjiv 

Kapoor and Sun Group CFO S 

L Narayanan, reportedly told 

aviation authorities it would shut 

"tonight or in 30 days" unless 

the Centre saved it fr-om payment 

demands of oil firms and 

airport operators. 

SpiceJet told minister of 

state Mahesh Sharma that its 

immediate cash requirement 

was Rs 1,400 crore and the overall 

requirement (including long 

term) Rs 2,000 crore. They have 

requested for some relief. We'll 

discuss that with seniors in the 

government, other ministries like 

finance and oil and take the issue 

up to the PMO. However, 

we have given no assurance to 

SpiceJet. We will take a final decision 

keeping wider interest of 

passengers in mind," Mahesh 

Sharma said. 

Sources say the NDA 

government is reportedly working 

out a "revival package" for 

SpiceJet as it fears shut down of 

yet another big airline after Kingfisher 

— both poor companies of 

rich promoters — "will send a bad 

signal globally". The package, 

however, may be pegged to the 

airline raising funds in the next 10 

days. 

SpiceJet has also seen 

leasors taking back planes, leaving 

it with a smaller fleet due to 

which daily flights are down from 

332 to 239. The airline owes 

money to airports, oil companies, 

employees and even statutory 

dues — exactly like Vijay 

Mallya's Kingfisher which shut 

down in October 2012. 

The low cost carrier 

(LCC) disclosed its dire financial 

state in a series of meetings on 

Monday with director general of 

civil aviation (DGCA) chief 

Prabhat Kumar and ministry top 

brass, including the minister. 

Kumar had asked SpiceJet to 

clear November salary dues and 

give a 'convincing' roadmap for 

clearing Rs 1,600-crore dues by 

Monday. The airline, however, 

failed to meet these regulatory 

conditions and told the government 

that it could shut down anytime 

without its intervention. 

The Airports Authority of 

India (AAI) was to put the LCC 

on cash-and-carry from Tuesday 

as it has dues of Rs 194 crore. 

Oil companies have of late been 

playing tough with the airline in 

giving jet fuel because of its dues. 

The LCC started building pressure 

on the government to come 

to its rescue right from Monday 

morning.


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26


TRAVEL 

27 

Acrobatic dinners, wavy rooms and a frozen bar on a four-day cruise 

We always tell children 

it's rude to play with your food. 

But when circus performers 

hang upsidedown while you're 

eating, chefs juggle knives by 

your table and waiters only 

stop bringing you food when 

you show them a red card, it's 

hard not to join in the fun. 

Dining has always been 

an important part of any cruise 

holiday but on Norwegian 

Epic, food as theatre has been 

taken to whole new heights. 

During Cirque Dream And 

Dinner, the incredible acrobats 

performed mind-boggling feats 

above us and we had to remind 

ourselves to eat the three 

courses that had been served 

in the Spiegeltent big-top restaurant. 

With 20 eating establishments 

on board Norwegian 

Epic, our four-night mini cruise 

around the Mediterranean gave 

me only enough time to get a 

taste of the options available. 

Launched in 2010, the 

4,100 passenger Epic dwarfs 

most other big cruise ships, 

but despite its hulking size, the 

ship has a pleasant flow and 

well-thought-out design inside. 

Eschewing the glitzier, brash 

décor that many large ships 

favour, Epic attracts a young 

mixed European crowd of 

couples and families who 

come for the less stuffy 

'freestyle cruising'. 

Studio single cabins are 

a genius idea; these cool inside-facing 

pods, with mood 

lights and a communal lounge 

area, are perfect for solo passengers 

who don't want to pay 

a single supplement. 

Elsewhere, balcony cabins 

have a 'wavy' design, with 

an unusual bathroom arrangement, 

but use their available 

space excellently. There are 

also interconnecting staterooms. 

Taking the tots along 

doesn't mean having to sacrifice 

on style when it comes to 

staterooms. Some of the most 

luxurious suites, such as the 

Haven two-bedroom balcony 

villas, are perfect for a family 

of four. This luxurious shipwithin-a-ship 

area called the 

Haven is an exclusive place for 

Haven villa and suite guests. 

With its own plush lounge, dining 

room, pool, spa and gym 

area, there's no need to venture 

out into the ship. 

It would be a shame not 

to, though, as there is so much 

going on. Kids big and small 

can enjoy a ride on one of the 

three water slides in the Aqua 

Park. Teens and adults can indulge 

in treatments in 

Mandara, the largest spa at 

sea. There's also the Posh 

Beach Club – an adults-only 

area of day beds. NCL Epic 

is a fun place for a holiday with 

friends and couples, but she 

is also an ideal place for families 

to enjoy a quick getaway. 

Norwegian Cruise Line has a 

partnership with TV channel 

Nickelodeon and so children 

can enjoy a Dora's dance 

party, breakfast with 

SpongeBob SquarePants or 

take part in messy 'splash 

mobs' with Team Nick. Epic's 

free children's clubs have had 

a makeover with the addition 

of the Splash Academy for children 

aged six months to 12 

years old and the Entourage 

programme for 13- to 17-yearolds. 

On 2012 Epic sailings 

there is a 'Little Norwegians 

Explore for Free' programme 

of free shore excursions for 

children. Ports of call often 

take a back seat to the wow 

factor of the ship itself, but with 

stops at Marseilles, Palma, 

and a day at sea, the fournight 

cruise to and from 

Barcelona packs in some 

Mediterranean highlights. 

In Majorca's attractive 

capital Palma, Epic's berth 

overshadows even the poshest 

mega yacht in the marina, and 

it's a pleasant walk to the old 

town's cathedral and winding 

back streets. On board, there's 

entertainment throughout the day, 

but the evening is when the fun 

and freestyling really begins with 

the huge range of restaurants to 

choose from. Epic is big on Asian 

food; from the swish Wasabi 

sushi bar to the Japanesestyle 

Teppanyaki, where our jubilant 

chef expertly sliced open a raw 

egg and showed off his knife 

skills as he cooked dinner in 

front of our table. 

Moderno Churrascaria is 

based on Brazil's famous meat 

meccas. Waiters come 

around brandishing meat 

skewers, carving some off for 

you until you turn over a card 

on your table to say you've 

had enough.


Now for some more fruity photos of Kim! 

Jokers share pictures of food that looks 

like famous shot of Kardashian's bottom 

ENTERTAINMENT 

28 

Nothing can add to your style quotient more 

than a sexy pair of high heels. And if you want them 

to be sexier, just opt for the tie-up or lace-up ones! 

These trendy shoes have a typical girly feel to them, 

thanks to the delicate ribbons and strings that makes 

lace-ups and tie-ups a hot and sexy choice. Shoe 

and accessory designer Pushpita Gaur says, “Tieup 

heels are definitely in trend internationally. It began 

last season but has transformed from just delicate 

and feminine to more bold and aggressive in terms of 

styling and colours.” You can go ahead and 

complement your wardrobe with the various designs 

and styles available. Whether it is the rope, the 

knotted, the stripe or the scarf. Kapil Mahtani, CEO 

of a popular shoe store says, “Though this style has 

been around since the last season, it is picking up 

only now, and we have seen a demand in the market 

for these.” The fact that these shoes work not only for 

high-fashion dressed-up occasions but can also be 

worn as casuals, he asserts. Almas Nanda, shoe 

designer, states that block colours like shocking pink, 

electric blue, orange and nude are really hot this 

season for tie-ups. “Of course black is an all-time 

favourite. And these shoes usually look good with most 

outfits,” she says.


Bollywood 

29


SHOWBIZ 

30 

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan felicitated at Miss World 2014 

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was 

Sunday felicitated by the Miss 

World Organisation at the 64th 

edition of the international 

beauty pageant for her commitment 

to "beauty with a purpose" 

since winning the crown two 

decades ago. Described as embodiment 

of beauty with purpose, 

Aishwarya is also seen as the 

most successful Miss World so 

far, a title that she won in 1994.I 

stand here overwhelmed by this 

honour. I thank Miss World Organization 

for such an incredible 

one time to go out there and 

experience beauty with a purpose...," 

said the actress looking 

gorgeous in shimmery gown. 

The 41-year-old was accompanied 

by her mother 

Vrinda, husband and actor 

Abhishek Bachchan and threeyear-old 

daughter Aaradhya on 

the stage. 

Having starred in movies 

like Devdas and Hum Dil De 

Chuke Sanam, she is now a 

regular at the prestigious 

Cannes film festival. 

honour that I have received..." 

Meanwhile, Koyal 

she said in her acceptance 

speech. "To have the opportunity 

to hold the title, to wear the 

crown with pride... that was my 

Rana, India's representative at 

the Miss World this year, could 

only make it to the top 10. The 

crown went to Miss South Africa. 

The Hobbit...' tops foreign charts, mints $117.6 million 

The final instalment in Peter Jackson's 

six-film Middle Earth series debuted in 

38 foreign territories, including major markets 

like Japan, Russia and Mexico. It 

opens in the US Wednesday, reports 

variety.com. 

Imax screenings accounted for $6.4 

million of the film's opening. Among the 

notable territories, Germany accounted 

for $19.5 million, Britain contributed $15.2 

million, France added $14.5 million, and 

Russia amassed $13.4 million, making 

it to be the biggest Warner Bros opening 

ever. liding in at number two on the foreign 

charts, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" 

earned $18.8 million from 6,096 screens 

in 27 markets. the Hunger Games: 

Mockingjay - Part 1" and "Penguins of 

Madagascar" were the third and fourth 

highest-grossing films overseas, picking 

up $16 million and $14.7 million, respectively. 

The "Hunger Games" sequel 

has earned $611.4 million worldwide, 

while the "Madagascar" spin-off 

has picked up $175.5 million. Fifth 

place finisher "Interstellar" blasted 

past $600 million globally last week. 

The space adventure earned $11.4 million 

overseas, pushing its worldwide total 

to $621.8 million. Chinese audiences 

were a boon to "Interstellar," delivering 

$122.9 million in ticket sales.


ENTERTAINMENT 

31 

Bipasha Basu’s hot and spooky ‘Alone’ 

trailer crosses 3 mn views on YouTube 

Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover starrer ‘Alone’ seems to be raving towards its 

success. The trailer of the film, that recently got released on Tuesday, December 9 

has gone over 3 million views on popular video sharing site, YouTube. 

Alone, which happens to be a horror-thriller film with Bipasha Basu in double role 

garnered many eye balls with the release of its first trailer. Bipasha and the others 

associated with the film also cherished upon several acknowledgements and appreciations 

from the member of the film industry including stars like SRK, Hrithik and 

Priyanka. The trailer has crossed whooping 3 million views within its 6 days of 

release. 

Digging 

into fears 

a n d 

threats, 

Alone definitely 

chills 

out your 

spine and 

challenges 

you to watch 

it alone. 

While the 

actress 

is all 

confident 

and cheery for the release of the film, what has also come out as 

something tremendously intriguing is Bipasha’s too-intimate-to-handle 

chemistry with actor Karan Singh Grover. Where the entire industry is 

going gaga over praising how smashing Bipasha is looking in the trailer, 

the film also promises several distinctively sensuous scenes. Bipasha is 

playing both Anjana and Sanjana in the film, conjoined twins who are drift 

apart by the destiny. Looking as sassy as always, the actress is sure to 

leave her footprints in your heart with her sultry appearance in the film. 

Karan Singh Grover, who is already considered as the man of great looks 

on the small screen is accompanying the lady perfectly in ‘Alone.’Thus, 

apart from the entire spookiness and horror that the film has deemed to 

be providing, you can surely expect an intensely carved romance on 

screen between Bipasha and Karan 

The film which is directed by Bhushan Patel is releasing on January 16, 

next year. The music which is composed by Mithoon, Ankit Tiwri and 

Jeet Ganguly is soon to hit the charts. 

Jacqueline Fernandez 

to replace Sayessha 

Trade reports suggest that since Sayessha had 

to choose between Ajay Devgn's 'Shivaay' and 

Tiger Shroff's next being produced by Ekta Kapoor 

to avoid a date clash, Jacqueline Fernandez, who 

is currently on a roll, is tipped to be the girl paired 

opposite Tiger. 

Hrithik Roshan Denies 

Dating Kangana Ranaut 

An Indian daily today ran a story about how 

Hrithik Roshan is the mystery man that 

Kangana Ranaut is in love with. The news item 

said that Hrithik and Kangana were in a serious 

relationship, but weren't prepared to talk about 

it yet. Ever since Hrithik has become single 

again there have been stories about his closeness 

to various actresses, though Hrithik has 

denied them. Hrithik took to a social networking 

site to dismiss the newspaper report linking 

him up with Kangana. "Cover story. Lovely. This 

is so absurd it doesn't even get me angry. Are 

these papers and writers just plain delusional 

". Price of being single I guess.But I'm not 

paying.Unless it's for the shrink who I think these 

journos need. :) u guys have a wonderful day," 

tweeted Hrithik.


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