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Vol : 03 : #30 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
No passport needed for Sikhs<br />
visiting Kartarpur Sahib: Pak<br />
Chandigarh : In a major relief to<br />
Sikh devotees visiting Pakistan for the<br />
celebrations of the 550th Prakash Purb<br />
of Guru Nanak Dev, Islamabad on<br />
Friday announced the waiving of<br />
requirement of a passport for identification<br />
and prior registration for such<br />
visitors.<br />
It also exempted the Indian pilgrims<br />
from paying a $20 entry fee on<br />
the day of inauguration of the corridor<br />
and Guru Nanak Dev's birthday.<br />
"For Sikhs coming for pilgrimage<br />
to Kartarpur from India, I have waived<br />
off 2 requirements: i) they won't need<br />
a passport -- just a valid ID; ii) they no<br />
longer have to register 10 days in<br />
advance," Pakistan Prime Minister<br />
Imran Khan tweeted.<br />
"Also, no fee will be charged on<br />
day of inauguration and on Guruji's<br />
550th birthday," he added.<br />
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will<br />
inaugurate the Kartarpur Corridor on<br />
<strong>Nov</strong>ember 9 and dispatch the first lot<br />
of pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Sahib<br />
Gurdwara in Pakistan's Punjab<br />
province on the occasion of the 550th<br />
birth anniversary celebrations of Guru<br />
Nanak Dev that falls on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 12.<br />
Reacting to the announcement,<br />
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder<br />
Singh said the waiver should be<br />
extended to not just "Sikhs but all citizens<br />
of secular India".<br />
Also, he demanded that the fee<br />
should be waived off on "all days<br />
instead of just two".<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara,<br />
originally known as Gurdwara Darbar<br />
Sahib, is a highly revered Sikh shrine<br />
where Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years<br />
of his life and is his final resting place.<br />
Earlier, India and Pakistan signed<br />
an agreement to operationalise the<br />
Kartarpur Corridor to allow Indian pilgrims<br />
a visa free visit to the holy<br />
Darbar Sahib. However, the ticklish<br />
issue of a $20 service fee imposed by<br />
Islamabad remained unresolved.<br />
India signed the deal in the interest<br />
of the pilgrims and timely operationalisation<br />
of the Kartarpur Corridor<br />
before the celebrations.<br />
Orissa High Court bar<br />
association calls off stir<br />
Bhubaneswar : <strong>The</strong> Orissa High Court Bar Association on<br />
Friday called off their cease work agitation and announced to<br />
resume court work from <strong>Nov</strong>ember 4.<br />
<strong>The</strong> development came after the Supreme Court directed the<br />
bar association to end the agitation. On October 24, the apex court<br />
observed that there was little doubt that the conduct of the lawyers<br />
fell within the domain of contempt.<br />
"Following Supreme Court's judgement on disruption in court<br />
work and keeping in view larger interests of people, we have<br />
called off our strike," informed Gopalkrushna Mohanty, President,<br />
Orissa High Court Bar Association.<br />
"We will resume work from Monday, but we will continue to<br />
press for our demands at different forums. We have lost confidence<br />
in the Collegium," Mohanty said.<br />
Notably, the lawyers have been abstaining from court work<br />
since October 14 protesting the recommendations of some names<br />
by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment of judges in the<br />
High Court. <strong>The</strong> Collegium has recommended names of advocate<br />
Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi and judicial officer Bibhu Prasad<br />
Routray to be appointed as Orissa High Court judges.<br />
After the Supreme Court observation, the Bar Council of India<br />
(BCI) also asked the agitating lawyers to withdraw their ongoing<br />
cease-work stir.<br />
’UNCOUTH’:<br />
Puducherry LG<br />
Kiran Bedi as CM<br />
calls her 'demon'<br />
Chennai : Puducherry Lt.<br />
Governor Kiran Bedi on<br />
Friday termed as "unparliamentary,<br />
uncouth and unacceptable"<br />
the term of "demon"<br />
used for her by Chief Minister<br />
V. Narayanasamy.<br />
In a tweet, Bedi said: "<strong>The</strong><br />
expression of DEMON used<br />
is unparliamentary, uncalled<br />
for, uncivilised, uncouth and<br />
unacceptable."<br />
Narayanasamy had on<br />
Thursday used the term for<br />
Bedi, with whom he has been<br />
at logger-heads over governance<br />
for long.<br />
Addressing a meeting of<br />
the Congress party, he had<br />
said the Central government<br />
has posted a "demon" here<br />
which is hindering implementation<br />
of welfare schemes.<br />
EU agrees Brexit extension<br />
to Janaury 31, 2020<br />
London, <strong>The</strong> European<br />
Union (EU) has agreed to<br />
extend Brexit until January 31,<br />
2020, European Council<br />
President Donald Tusk<br />
announced on Monday.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> EU27 has agreed that it<br />
will accept the UK’s request for<br />
a #Brexit flextension until 31<br />
January 2020. <strong>The</strong> decision is<br />
expected to be formalised<br />
through a written procedure,”<br />
Tusk said in a tweet.<br />
“Flextension” means flexible<br />
extension. If MPs approve the<br />
Brexit deal sooner, the UK<br />
could leave the EU before<br />
January 31, 2020. <strong>The</strong> draft text of an agreement<br />
for the 27 EU ambassadors – seen by the BBC –<br />
includes two other possible dates for Brexit:<br />
<strong>Nov</strong>ember 30 and December 31.<br />
It also includes a commitment that the<br />
Withdrawal Agreement on the UK’s exit from<br />
the EU cannot be renegotiated in future.<br />
<strong>The</strong> UK was due to leave the EU on Thursday,<br />
but Prime Minister Boris Johnson was required<br />
to request an extension from the bloc after<br />
Parliament, in a historic session on October 19,<br />
voted against his Brexit deal.<br />
Johnson had repeatedly said the UK would<br />
leave on October 31 deadline “do or die”, but the<br />
law – known as the Benn act – also requires him<br />
to accept the offer.<br />
<strong>The</strong> development comes as UK MPs prepare<br />
to vote on Monday on proposals by Johnson for<br />
an early general election on December 12.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and<br />
Liberal Democrats have also proposed an election<br />
on December 9. Johnson said that if the vote<br />
was approved, his Brexit bill would resume its<br />
progress through Parliament until that is dissolved<br />
on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 6, the BBC reported.<br />
Two-thirds of MPs – 434 – would have to<br />
back the motion for it to pass under the law<br />
which sets election timings. A Downing Street<br />
source said on Sunday that MPs would vote on<br />
an election “so we can get a new Parliament”.<br />
If the vote was lost, the sources said that the<br />
government would then “look at all options”<br />
including ideas similar to those proposed by<br />
other parties.<br />
MPs have already twice rejected a call from<br />
the Prime Minister to hold a general election.
2<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 ASIA<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Who are they seeking<br />
'Azadi' from? asks Imran<br />
Islamabad : As the Jamiat<br />
Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl's (JUI-F)<br />
'Azadi March', led by its chief<br />
Maulana Fazlur Rehman to call<br />
for toppling the incumbent<br />
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)<br />
Team AI :<br />
Devinder Chander<br />
Editor-in-chief<br />
Columnists<br />
V.B. Rawat<br />
Farzana Suri<br />
Arun Kumar<br />
Rahul Kumar<br />
Harminder K. Bhogal<br />
Head Office<br />
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government reached<br />
Islamabad, Prime Minister<br />
Imran Khan posed a query to<br />
the participants "who they are<br />
seeking 'azadi' (freedom)<br />
from?".<br />
While addressing a rally in<br />
Gilgit Baltistan, Prime Minister<br />
Khan said: "If you ask PPP<br />
members they will say things<br />
are becoming expensive...<br />
PML-N members will not<br />
know why they are at the march<br />
and if you ask JUI-F they will<br />
say Jews are about to take over<br />
Islamabad," Dawn news reported.<br />
Khan also queried as to<br />
what the Pakistan's Peoples<br />
Party Chairman Bilawal<br />
Bhutto-Zardari was doing joining<br />
hands with a right-wing<br />
Islamist party. "Bilawal, who<br />
calls himself a liberal, has also<br />
joined the 'jalsa'. (It seems) the<br />
Indian-origin researcher wins award for work on batteries<br />
New Delhi : Dr Neeraj Sharma from<br />
the University of New South Wales<br />
(UNSW), Sydney -- considered one of<br />
the global leaders in the use of neutron<br />
and X-ray scattering methods to study<br />
materials for next-generation lithiumion<br />
batteries - has won the 'Early Career<br />
Researcher of the Year (Physical<br />
Sciences)'. NSW Premier Gladys<br />
Berejiklian honoured 35-year-old Dr<br />
Sharma, from the School of Chemistry<br />
at UNSW, with the award at the<br />
Government House in Sydney, the university<br />
said in a statement on Friday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> award was given for his work in<br />
lithium-ion batteries found in electronic<br />
devices, electric vehicles and the grid,<br />
as well as next-generation battery systems<br />
such as sodium-ion batteries that<br />
will leave minimal environmental<br />
impact, and transition away from fossil<br />
fuels for energy generation and transportation.<br />
"To develop the next generation of<br />
only thing 'liberal' about<br />
Bilawal is that he is liberally<br />
corrupt," he said. Khan's comments<br />
on Bhutto-Zardari came<br />
hours after the latter addressed<br />
the Azadi March participants<br />
on Friday morning here where<br />
he called the former a "puppet".<br />
technologies, we need better performance<br />
at a lower environmental cost,"<br />
said Dr Sharma. "My work explores<br />
lithium-ion batteries - found in electronic<br />
devices, electric vehicles and the grid<br />
- as well as next-generation battery systems<br />
such as sodium-ion batteries. I find<br />
the study of sodium-ion batteries partic-<br />
<strong>The</strong> PPP leader added that the<br />
nation was not ready to bow its<br />
head before a "selected" Prime<br />
Minister and "those who have<br />
selected him". <strong>The</strong> marchers,<br />
who set out from Karachi on<br />
Sunday, left Lahore on<br />
Wednesday and culminated its<br />
journey on Thursday night in<br />
Islamabad. <strong>The</strong> development<br />
comes after the ruling and the<br />
opposition parties reached an<br />
agreement to let the anti-government<br />
march progress as<br />
planned, as long as they protesters<br />
do not cross the sensitive<br />
"red zone" in Islamabad.<br />
<strong>The</strong> JUI-F supremo is expected<br />
to present his demands at a<br />
rally after the Friday prayers,<br />
which will also be addressed by<br />
opposition leaders.<br />
Fazlur Rehman gives two-day<br />
deadline to Imran Khan to quit<br />
Islamabad : Jamiat Ulema<br />
Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana<br />
Fazlur Rehman, leading the Azadi<br />
march demanding the resignation of<br />
Prime Minister Imran Khan, has<br />
given him a two-day deadline to<br />
resign. Addressing the march at<br />
Metro Ground in Islamabad on<br />
Friday, Rehman said that we are<br />
giving two days' time to Prime<br />
Minister Imran Khan to resign and<br />
other 'National Organisations' to<br />
withdraw support to the incumbent<br />
government. Several opposition<br />
leaders are also participating in the<br />
march. Rehman said that he doesn't<br />
want any conflict with the 'National<br />
Organisations', rather he wants them to be<br />
stable and neutral. He said, "If we feel that<br />
the organisations continue to back and protect<br />
the illegitimate government, then they<br />
have two days' time. After that we shouldn't<br />
be stopped from forming our perspective<br />
about them. Prime Minister<br />
Imran Khan has two days to resign.<br />
If he doesn't resign in two days, then<br />
the people of Pakistan are capable of<br />
entering the PM House forcefully<br />
and arrest the prime minister."<br />
He slammed the government for<br />
failing to live up to its promises. He<br />
said that the government had promised<br />
to build five million homes for<br />
the poor but they have demolished<br />
more than five million homes<br />
instead. Instead of providing<br />
employment to one crore people, the<br />
government has made 25 lakh people<br />
jobless, he said, adding that the public<br />
can't be left at the mercy of such an irresponsible<br />
government.<br />
* <strong>The</strong> <strong>Asian</strong> <strong>Independent</strong> and people associated with it are not responsible for any claims made by the advertisers and do not endorse in any products or services advertised. Please visit www.theasianindependent.com/tc for more information.<br />
Liver cancer<br />
deaths 50% up in<br />
last 10 YEARS<br />
London : Liver cancer deaths have increased by around 50<br />
per cent in the last decade and have tripled since records began,<br />
researchers have warned.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new mortality data from Cancer Research UK, shows that<br />
there were around 5,700 deaths from liver cancer in 2<strong>01</strong>7 in the<br />
UK, which is the highest ever yearly number of deaths recorded.<br />
This has climbed from 3,200 deaths in 2007. Of all cancer<br />
types, liver cancer has had the largest increase in deaths over the<br />
last decade and the most rapid rise in deaths since the UK records<br />
began. "Unfortunately, progress in treating liver cancer has been<br />
painfully slow and we desperately need more options for<br />
patients. Another problem is the rise in the number of people<br />
being diagnosed, which has meant we are losing more people to<br />
this disease than ever before," said researcher Helen Reeves,<br />
Professor at Newcastle University.<br />
Experts believe that death rates have risen so steeply because<br />
the number of people being diagnosed with liver cancer has also<br />
increased -- by 60 per cent in the last decade -- and survival is<br />
typically low. It's one of the hardest cancers to treat, and fiveyear<br />
survival can range from anywhere between six per cent and<br />
37 per cent depending on age and gender, the researchers said.<br />
According to the study, while there are several factors affecting<br />
liver cancer risk, being overweight or obese and smoking are<br />
two of the biggest preventable causes.<br />
Twenty-three per cent of liver cancer cases can be linked to<br />
being overweight or obese, and 20 per cent can be linked to<br />
smoking. Overall, around half of cases are preventable.<br />
"Rising levels of obesity and associated conditions like diabetes<br />
and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases have likely had a big<br />
role in this, although they aren't the only factors," Reeves said.<br />
"A lot of progress has been made saving lives from cancer, but<br />
it's worrying to see deaths from liver cancer increasing at such an<br />
alarming rate," said Michelle Mitchell from Cancer Research<br />
UK. "Far too many lives are being lost, which is why we're funding<br />
more research into this area. And aiming to understand more<br />
about the biology of the disease to develop better treatments,"<br />
Mitchell added.<br />
ularly fascinating and<br />
we have been developing<br />
new electrodes<br />
for these systems," he<br />
elaborated.<br />
By focusing on<br />
electrochemical reactions<br />
in batteries, Dr<br />
Sharma aims to better<br />
understand how electrode<br />
composition,<br />
and structure at the<br />
atomic level, influence<br />
performance.<br />
His research group is<br />
also exploring inherently<br />
safe solid-state batteries, energydense<br />
lithium-sulfur batteries, dual<br />
function solar batteries and methods for<br />
recycling. "We can enable and enhance<br />
the uptake of electric vehicles, ensure<br />
batteries are recycled leaving minimal<br />
environmental impact, and transition<br />
away from fossil fuels for energy generation<br />
and transportation. <strong>The</strong>re is significant<br />
opportunity to shape how we live<br />
into the future," Dr Sharma said.<br />
Researchers from UNSW won half of<br />
the science and engineering awards<br />
announced by the NSW Premier, including<br />
the top prize for 'NSW Scientist of<br />
the Year'. "Such achievements will<br />
inspire more students from India to take<br />
up meaningful research careers," said<br />
Amit Dasgupta, UNSW Country Head,<br />
India.<br />
UNSW Engineering has launched<br />
new streams starting February 2020 in<br />
mining engineering, renewable energy<br />
and petroleum engineering, and is in the<br />
process of finalising a new Robotics<br />
stream to be available from early 2020.<br />
"Students in India will find these courses<br />
exciting. We would like more meritorious<br />
students from the region to apply<br />
for the 'Future of Change' scholarships,<br />
available exclusively to the Indian students,"<br />
Dasgupta added.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Militants hurl petrol bomb at<br />
school in Shopian, J&K<br />
Srinagar : Suspected militants on Friday<br />
evening hurled petrol bomb at a school building<br />
in<br />
S o u t h<br />
Kashmir's<br />
Shopian<br />
district.<br />
Police<br />
said milit<br />
a n t s<br />
hurled<br />
petrol<br />
bomb at a<br />
school<br />
building in Kundalan village in Shopian district<br />
on Friday. <strong>The</strong> school is designated as an<br />
examination centre for the ongoing 10th board<br />
exam.<br />
Police said some damage has been caused<br />
to the school office in the incident and resulting<br />
fire was immediately put out.<br />
'Pak to spend Kartarpur income<br />
on Sikh community, shrines'<br />
Islamabad : Pakistan will spend the revenue<br />
generated by the Kartarpur pilgrimage on<br />
the welfare of the Sikh community and renovation<br />
of their holy sites, officials said. Senior<br />
government officials said that Pakistan does<br />
not intend to make money from the Sikh pilgrims<br />
but contribute to their welfare, <strong>The</strong><br />
Nation reported on Friday. "Yes, there will be<br />
some income but we don't want to use that<br />
money for projects other than those of the<br />
Sikhs themselves.<br />
<strong>The</strong> money will be used to renovate their<br />
worship places and their holy historical sites,"<br />
said one official. Another official said the government<br />
will even add more money to the<br />
income generated from the Kartarpur pilgrimage<br />
for improved facilities in the corridor to be<br />
opened next weekend. Pakistan is expected to<br />
earn up to $365,00,000 annually from pilgrims<br />
visiting the holy Darbar Sahib in<br />
Kartarpur, the final resting place of Guru<br />
Nanak Dev. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran<br />
Khan will inaugurate the Kartarpur corridor<br />
on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 9.<br />
Radio Kashmir renamed<br />
All India Radio<br />
Srinagar : With the historic Thursday seeing<br />
two new Union Territories of Jammu and<br />
Kashmir and Ladakh come into being, putting<br />
into effect the reorganisation of the erstwhile<br />
state, radio stations too have been renamed.<br />
Radio Station situated in Jammu is<br />
renamed as the All India Radio, Jammu. While<br />
stations in Srinagar and Leh have also been<br />
renamed as the All India Radio, Srinagar and<br />
All India Radio Leh, respectively.<br />
<strong>The</strong> implementation of the Jammu and<br />
Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2<strong>01</strong>9, which got<br />
President's assent on August 9, means the special<br />
status enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir<br />
under Article 370 comes to an end after 72<br />
years and has come into effect at 12 a.m. last<br />
night. As per the Act, the respective UTs will<br />
have Lieutenant Governor as administrator<br />
who will be appointed by the President of<br />
India. <strong>The</strong> tenure will be determined by the<br />
President.<br />
Hong Kong : A Hong Kong<br />
court on Friday issued a temporary<br />
injunction to block messages inciting<br />
violence on popular instant messaging<br />
applications like Telegram<br />
and online forum LIHKG, aimed at<br />
minimizing the risk of violent clashes<br />
which have increased over the<br />
past 21 weeks of anti-government<br />
protests in the city High Court<br />
Judge Russell Coleman granted the<br />
injunction applied for by the city's<br />
justice department to prevent citizens<br />
from "wilfully disseminating,<br />
circulating, publishing or republishing"<br />
any material that "promotes,<br />
encourages or incites the use or<br />
threat of violence", reports Efe<br />
news. Local media reports have said<br />
that messages inciting violence<br />
against the police were circulated on<br />
these popular apps but do not specify<br />
whether violent demonstrators or<br />
ASIA<br />
infiltrators among them have been<br />
behind them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> injunction will be in effect<br />
until <strong>Nov</strong>ember <strong>15</strong>, when a formal<br />
hearing for the application could<br />
lead to an extension.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> temporary injunction sets<br />
an extremely dangerous precedent<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
HK court orders ban on online<br />
messages inciting violence<br />
US hits out at China over the<br />
Dalai Lama, PRAISES INDIA<br />
Washington : As<br />
China protested the<br />
meeting between a senior<br />
US diplomat and the<br />
Dalai Lama in<br />
Dharamsala in India,<br />
Washington emphasized<br />
on the "enduring US<br />
support for the Tibetan<br />
people" and praised<br />
India's "extraordinary generosity" in supporting<br />
the Tibetans' religious freedom. US<br />
Ambassador at Large for International<br />
Religious Freedom Sam Brownback met the<br />
Dalai Lama in Dharmshala on Monday.<br />
Alice G. Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary<br />
of State, Bureau of South and Central Asia, in<br />
tweets said: "@IRF_Ambassador's meeting<br />
with His Holiness in Dharamsala emphasizes<br />
enduring U.S. support for the Tibetan people.<br />
India has greatly supported Tibetan religious<br />
freedom, and the U.S. stands in deep admiration<br />
of India's extraordinary generosity."<br />
On the issue of a successor to the Dalai<br />
Lama, and China's stand on it, she said: "<strong>The</strong><br />
Chinese Communist Party claim that Dalai<br />
Lama's succession "must comply with Chinese<br />
laws and regulations" is meritless. Tibetan<br />
communities, like all faith communities,<br />
should be able to select, educate, & venerate<br />
their religious leaders without government<br />
interference. AGW". <strong>The</strong> Chinese Foreign<br />
Ministry, reacting to Brownback's visit, said on<br />
Tuesday: "We urge the US official to stop contacting<br />
the Dalai Lama clique, making irresponsible<br />
remarks and using<br />
Tibet-related issues to interfere<br />
in China's internal<br />
affairs.<br />
Chinese Foreign Ministry<br />
spokesperson, Geng Shuang<br />
said that Brownback's<br />
remarks violated the US'<br />
commitment to recognise<br />
Tibet as part of China and not<br />
support aTibet secession'. On a successor to<br />
the Dalai Lama, Geng said the process "should<br />
follow (Chinese) national laws and regulations,<br />
religious rituals and historical conventions".Brownback,<br />
during his meeting with the<br />
Tibetan spiritual leader in Dharamsala, said the<br />
role of picking a successor to the Dalai Lama<br />
belongs to the Tibetan Buddhist system, the<br />
Dalai Lama, and other Tibetan leaders. "It does<br />
not belong to anybody else, not any government<br />
or any entity", he is quoted as saying.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re have been concerns over the health of<br />
the 84-year-old Dalai Lama. Brownback had<br />
also called on China to release the Dalai Lamaappointed<br />
Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi<br />
Nyima, whose whereabouts are not known.<br />
"We call on the (People's Republic of China)<br />
government to release immediately the<br />
Tibetan-recognised Panchen Lama Gedhun<br />
Choekyi Nyima or share the truth about his<br />
fate with the world," Brownback said. <strong>The</strong><br />
Panchen Lama is regarded in Tibetan Buddhist<br />
hierarchy as second most important after the<br />
Dalai Lama. China has appointed a six-yearold<br />
boy as the Panchen Lama.<br />
5-phase poll in Jharkhand from <strong>Nov</strong> 30, result on Dec 23<br />
New Delhi : <strong>The</strong> Election<br />
Commission of India on Friday<br />
announced a 5-phase poll for<br />
Jharkhand Assembly election<br />
from <strong>Nov</strong>ember 30. While date<br />
of polling for first phase is<br />
<strong>Nov</strong>ember 30, second phase<br />
polling will take place on<br />
December 7. <strong>The</strong> third, fourth<br />
and fifth phases of polling will take place on<br />
December 12, 16 and 19, respectively.<br />
Counting of votes will be taken up on<br />
December 23, Chief Election Commissioner<br />
Sunil Arora announced<br />
on Friday.<br />
In Jharkhand, Chief<br />
Minister Raghubar Dasled<br />
BJP is hoping to<br />
retain power in the state.<br />
In 2<strong>01</strong>4, while the BJP<br />
won 37 seats, its ally All<br />
Jharkhand Students<br />
Union (AJSU) won five. <strong>The</strong> combined tally<br />
was enough for the National Democratic<br />
Alliance (NDA) to cross the majority mark of<br />
41 in the 81-member Assembly.<br />
3<br />
for introducing internet censorship<br />
of online speech similar to the Great<br />
Firewall of China" and "is a serious<br />
breach of citizens' freedom of<br />
expression and Hong Kong's supposed<br />
free flow of information",<br />
Hong Kong lawmaker Charles Mok<br />
said. Mok told Hong Kong broadcaster<br />
RTHK that this selective ban<br />
"would put Hong Kong's economy<br />
and in particular its innovation and<br />
technology industries in a precarious<br />
position".<br />
<strong>The</strong> legislator also expressed<br />
concern about the use of such regulations<br />
that bypass the local parliament<br />
instead of opting for the standard<br />
legal procedures. <strong>The</strong> Hong<br />
Kong protests, which have been<br />
drawing massive crowds since June<br />
following a contentious proposed<br />
extradition law, have mutated into a<br />
movement that seeks to improve the<br />
democratic mechanisms that govern<br />
Hong Kong and safeguard - or<br />
expand - the region's partial autonomy<br />
from Beijing. However, some<br />
demonstrators have opted for more<br />
radical tactics than peaceful civil<br />
disobedience and violent clashes<br />
with the police have been frequent.<br />
Nepal PM's health issues raise<br />
concerns over governance<br />
Kathmandu : <strong>The</strong> health condition of Nepal Prime<br />
Minister K.P.<br />
Sharma Oli,<br />
who was hospitalised<br />
earlier<br />
this week, has<br />
raised questions<br />
about his fitness<br />
to govern the<br />
Himalayan<br />
nation.<br />
Ever since<br />
Oli, 67, was<br />
admitted to the<br />
Grande International Hospital here on Wednesday<br />
morning, little information has been provided by the<br />
government authorities. But on Thursday, a doctor<br />
who has been monitoring Oli's health told <strong>The</strong><br />
Kathmandu Post that the Prime Minister had undergone<br />
a second procedure for urethral dilation on<br />
Wednesday. <strong>The</strong> doctor also confirmed that Oli had<br />
undergone two rounds of dialysis during his stay at<br />
Grande, despite much speculation and a lack of information<br />
from officials and attending doctors. On<br />
Wednesday evening, a brief statement issued by Dibya<br />
Singh Shah, Oli's personal physician, and Chakra Raj<br />
Pandey, medical director at the Grande hospital, had<br />
described the Prime Minister's health as "normal".<br />
But on Thursday afternoon, Nepal Communist<br />
Party (NCP) leaders said that Oli had undergone dialysis,<br />
of which there was no indication or information<br />
either from the hospital or Oli's physician.<br />
Later on Thursday, ruling party Co-chair Pushpa<br />
Kamal Dahal, after meeting Oli at the hospital, also<br />
told the media that Oli had undergone dialysis.<br />
"After his second dialysis, the prime minister is<br />
resting," said Dahal. Statements from Oli's aides only<br />
added to the confusion. Kundan Aryal, Oli's press<br />
adviser, said on Wednesday that the Prime Minister<br />
had been taken to the hospital for "a regular health<br />
check-up" despite reports that he had been admitted to<br />
the intensive care unit. Finally, on Thursday evening,<br />
the hospital organised a press conference and Pandey<br />
confirmed that Oli had undergone dialysis, but stopped<br />
short of divulging any more information, <strong>The</strong><br />
Kathmandu Post reported.<br />
Oli is functioning with just one working kidney that<br />
was transplanted 12 years ago in 2007 at India's Apollo<br />
Hospital. This is not the first time Oli's team has tried<br />
to shroud his health condition. In August, Oli left for<br />
Singapore again to undergo plasmapheresis, a process<br />
that filters the blood and removes antibodies, a necessary<br />
procedure for someone who has a transplanted<br />
organ.
4<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 ASIA<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
<strong>The</strong> festival season is not<br />
over yet now. Something is<br />
today and will continue for next<br />
six days till the Chhath comes.<br />
A careful analysis will tell you<br />
how we celebrate male<br />
supremacy during these festivities.<br />
Just a few days before<br />
Diwali, you have Karwachauth<br />
and now in next one or two<br />
days, you have Bhai dooj and<br />
then Chhath too will give you a<br />
glimpse of celebrations for<br />
sons. India is a continent and<br />
therefore will have more festivals<br />
than anybody else. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
is cultural crisis and cultural<br />
hegemony through festivals<br />
too. Patriarchy too is enforced<br />
through them. Now, lots of<br />
researches and narratives to<br />
justify them.<br />
Many people dont want to<br />
celebrate it because they feel<br />
this is not their identity. Others<br />
suffer in continuous confusion<br />
as to what do you say when<br />
some body ‘greet’ you with ‘<br />
Happy Diwali’. Friends are<br />
confused in it. ‘ How do I<br />
answer their happy diwali<br />
greetings when I am not a<br />
Hindu, said a Buddhist friend.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are number of them who<br />
are now suggesting that there is<br />
a reference to Deepdanostsav<br />
in Buddhism while other suggest<br />
that such festivals dont<br />
exists in Buddhist countries.<br />
Lots of debate should we be<br />
celebrating Hindu festivals or<br />
not or shouldnt we ?<br />
Now, this crisis is not with<br />
Muslims or Christians as they<br />
are clear about their identity<br />
and hence they participate in<br />
Diwali and Holi in the similar<br />
way, as we might participate in<br />
Eid and Christmas. <strong>The</strong> issue is<br />
so much in our mind that if a<br />
politician greet people ( who is<br />
not expected to celebrate<br />
Diwali), we get disturbed and<br />
blame him as ‘sold out’. I think,<br />
we need to ponder over a few<br />
things on these issues and save<br />
ourselves from tensions and<br />
isolation.<br />
One no festival in India is<br />
celebrated with one narrative<br />
and if you have traveled across<br />
the country and seen how<br />
things are celebrated then you<br />
will find out that most of our<br />
festivals are actually Bahujan<br />
Adivasi festivals and not really<br />
brahmanical as being projected.<br />
<strong>The</strong> brahmanical forces<br />
hijacked them and build their<br />
own narratives around them<br />
otherwise a God like Shiva can<br />
never be a brahmanical god.<br />
Dusshera festival have different<br />
and diverse celebrations<br />
across the country. In Bengal it<br />
is Kali Puja, in Gujarat it is<br />
Durga Puja, in<br />
the north it is<br />
Ram leela and<br />
among the<br />
Adivasis and<br />
many places, it is remembering<br />
Mahishasura. While, the north<br />
Indians dont eat non vegetarian<br />
food during the Navratris,<br />
Bengalis rejoice it. Similarly,<br />
Dipwali is not celebrated in the<br />
same way. In many places in<br />
Maharashtra Diwali is people’s<br />
wish to have ‘ Bali ka raj’.<br />
Most of the festivals had local<br />
cultural practices.<br />
Celebrate or not :<br />
WHOSE FESTIVALS<br />
ARE THEY ?<br />
While people may practice<br />
same religion, it is not necessary<br />
their festivals and cultural<br />
practices are same. Islam and<br />
Christianity too have these<br />
diversities according to regions<br />
and languages. In India,<br />
because all the non Muslims<br />
and Non Christians are termed<br />
as Hindus hence we confuse<br />
this diversity as Hindu festivals.<br />
Most of our festivals have<br />
relations with seasons or crops,<br />
whether it is Diwali, Makar<br />
Sakranti, Baishakhi, Holi,<br />
Dusshera, Basant Panchami but<br />
all these festivals are celebrated<br />
in diverse ways and narratives.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are no homogeneous narratives<br />
in relation to this and<br />
therefore we need to be careful<br />
when we analyse them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dhamma Chakra<br />
Pravartan Diwas is celebrated<br />
on October 14th but equally<br />
important is that a huge number<br />
of people remember it on<br />
Dusshera day which is termed<br />
as Ashoka Vijayadashmi day.<br />
Festivals were used by political<br />
leaders for reaching the bigger<br />
masses and it is true that<br />
Hindutva leaders reached it<br />
first. <strong>The</strong> counter narrative that<br />
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat<br />
social and human rights activist<br />
was built by Dr Baba Saheb<br />
Ambedkar was not repeated by<br />
politicians who swore by his<br />
name.<br />
Every Indian religious<br />
places that has brahmanical<br />
links today, has a Buddhist or<br />
Jain past. Dig any place and<br />
you will find it. Similarly,<br />
every brahmanical festival<br />
today is somewhere a Buddhist<br />
past too. <strong>The</strong> bigger reality is<br />
that diyas and lighting of lamp<br />
was a common way of celebration<br />
in the past the only thing is<br />
the narratives. It is important<br />
for all of us to delink ourselves<br />
with all the brahmanical narratives<br />
and rituals of these festivities<br />
by completely rejecting<br />
them and celebrate them in a<br />
much more rational and egalitarian<br />
way.<br />
Even if you dont want to celebrate<br />
it there is nothing wrong.<br />
People like us move out of<br />
Delhi and be with communities<br />
we love, share our happiness<br />
with them, enjoy moments with<br />
your near dear ones.<br />
Brahmanism have destroyed<br />
the good spirit of the festivals.<br />
Today Diwali Dusshera and<br />
Holi impact our environment<br />
more than anything else but<br />
now the Banias too build up the<br />
narratives with the help of<br />
brahmins and you see the vulgar<br />
display of wealth during<br />
this period. All the campaign in<br />
the name of swachch Bharat<br />
a n d<br />
clean<br />
India<br />
i s<br />
brought to naught by the same<br />
elite which happily pose with a<br />
‘glossy’ ‘jhadu’ in their hand.<br />
I know Delhi must have<br />
become a gas chamber today<br />
and our ‘messiahs’ will be<br />
quiet. he wont speak on this<br />
biggest non-sense that we do.<br />
He he wont speak against how<br />
all these festivals are choking<br />
our lonely planet.<br />
No festival should be<br />
allowed to destroy our lonely<br />
planet. We cant have celebrations<br />
decided by the market<br />
today.<br />
Protection of environment as<br />
well as health is more important.<br />
Destruction of environment<br />
in the name of ‘celebrations’<br />
is ‘unique’ to brahmanical<br />
culture of India. It is time<br />
we wake up, reject these dangerous<br />
practices and enjoy festivities<br />
without bringing God<br />
and god-men in between.<br />
Celebrate festivals without<br />
Gods and their rituals and I can<br />
say, you will able to protect<br />
nature and human race as well.<br />
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a<br />
social and human rights<br />
activist. He blogs at<br />
www.manukhsi.blogspot.com<br />
twitter @freetohumanity<br />
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
NEWS<br />
House votes to authorise, open<br />
up Trump impeachment process<br />
New York : A politically-fractured<br />
House of Representatives voted on<br />
Thursday to authorise and open up the<br />
impeachment hearings against President<br />
Donald Trump, meeting a demand by him<br />
and the Republicans. <strong>The</strong> resolution that<br />
also set up the framework for the impeachment<br />
sailed through the House where the<br />
Democrats have a majority and the move<br />
was proposed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.<br />
<strong>The</strong> votes, mostly along party lines,<br />
were 232 for the resolution and 196<br />
against. Only two Democrats joined the<br />
Republican in voting against it. Although<br />
the Republicans had demanded open hearings<br />
and their increased participation, they<br />
opposed the resolution because it did not<br />
meet all their demands. <strong>The</strong>ir attempt to<br />
amend the resolution was earlier defeated.<br />
A group of Republican members of<br />
Congress last week barged into the underground<br />
chamber where the secret hearings<br />
were held and demanded to be allowed to<br />
participate to highlight their opposition to<br />
the secret proceedings.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y left after hours of a dharna-style<br />
protest and the hearings started about five<br />
hours late in secret.<br />
Pelosi, who presided over the voting on<br />
Thursday, appealed for support saying: "It's<br />
about the truth. And what is at stake in all<br />
of this is nothing less than our democracy."<br />
She said that it was being taken up<br />
solemnly and without any "glee".<br />
As the House took up the resolution,<br />
Trump tweeted: "<strong>The</strong> Impeachment Hoax<br />
is hurting our Stock Market. <strong>The</strong> Do<br />
Nothing Democrats don't care!"<br />
Later the White House issued a formal<br />
statement saying: "<strong>The</strong> Democrats'<br />
unhinged obsession with this illegitimate<br />
impeachment proceeding does not hurt<br />
President Trump; it hurts the American<br />
people." "Speaker Pelosi and the<br />
Democrats have done nothing more than<br />
enshrine unacceptable violations of due<br />
process into House rules," it added, accusing<br />
them of "wasting" time instead of taking<br />
up important issues facing the nation.<br />
This is only the third time an impeachment<br />
process has been launched.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n Presidents Andrew Jackson in<br />
1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were<br />
impeached but the Senate did not convict<br />
them. Former President Richard Nixon<br />
resigned before the impeachment process<br />
could begin. <strong>The</strong> House Intelligence<br />
Committee will hold the first set of hearings<br />
under its chair, Adam Schiff, and produce<br />
a report for the Judiciary Committee,<br />
which will have the final say in drawing up<br />
the charges against Trump in what is<br />
known as Articles of Impeachment. After<br />
the full House votes to approve the Articles<br />
of Impeachment with a simple majority,<br />
the Senate will hold a formal trial presided<br />
over by Supreme Court Chief Justice John<br />
Roberts on the charges.<br />
Two-thirds of the 100 Senators will have<br />
to vote to convict the President and remove<br />
him from office. As of now, it seems<br />
unlikely that there will be that many Senate<br />
votes for impeachment, making the process<br />
nothing more than a political catharsis.<br />
Nominally the proposed impeachment<br />
procedures give the Republicans some<br />
rights in the conduct of the proceedings to<br />
assuage their complaints about being sidelined.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Republican Party leaders, David<br />
Nunes on the Intelligence Committee and<br />
Dough Collins on the Judiciary Committee<br />
will have the right to call witnesses, but the<br />
chairs can object and call for a committee<br />
vote, where there is a Democratic majority.<br />
CNN quoted Republican Representative<br />
Greg Walden as complaining: "It is still not<br />
set up as a fair process" because "the<br />
Democrats call all the shots." Jim<br />
McGovern, the chair of the Rules<br />
Committee that finalised the draft resolution<br />
that set out the procedures, dismissed<br />
the Republican concerns, saying, according<br />
to CNN: "<strong>The</strong>ir sole mission is to circle<br />
the wagons around Donald Trump. <strong>The</strong>y're<br />
not interested in the truth." Trump's<br />
lawyers will be allowed to participate in<br />
the Judiciary Committee's proceedings by<br />
submitting evidence and cross-examining<br />
witnesses. But if Trump prevents witnesses<br />
from appearing before it or refuses requests<br />
for documents, his lawyers will not be<br />
allowed to continue examining witnesses.<br />
Only the chair and the Republican<br />
leader - and/or their lawyers - on the panel<br />
will first question witnesses for 45 minutes<br />
each and other members can examine them<br />
for a limited time.<br />
Pelosi had resisted having the full<br />
House vote on impeachment or have the<br />
proceedings in the open but finally gave in.<br />
<strong>The</strong> vote undercuts Trump's excuse to<br />
not allow witnesses or to provide documents<br />
to the inquiry because he said the<br />
House had not approved it. It also shuts<br />
down complaints about the secrecy, which<br />
gave the Democrats an upper hand through<br />
selective leaks. It was not clear when the<br />
open hearings will begin. <strong>The</strong> House has a<br />
week of recess next week, during which<br />
the secret inquiry may be wound up to pave<br />
the way for open hearings. A key figure in<br />
the White House Drama, John Bolton, who<br />
was fired by Trump as the National<br />
Security Adviser and whose name has figured<br />
in some of the testimonies, has been<br />
asked to appear before the inquiry next<br />
week. If the open hearings end up delaying<br />
the final impeachment vote till the end of<br />
this year or beyond, they could create problems<br />
for the Democratic Party's process of<br />
selecting its candidate to run against<br />
Trump. <strong>The</strong> primaries and caucuses that<br />
determine the support for candidates at the<br />
state level leading up to the convention<br />
start in early February.<br />
If the impeachment trial in the Senate<br />
overlaps this period, it could be a distraction<br />
and also interfere with the campaigns<br />
of candidates like Elizabeth Warren and<br />
Kamala Harris who are Senators.<br />
Meanwhile, another important issue, the<br />
continued funding of the government,<br />
looms next month while the House will be<br />
grappling with impeachment. <strong>The</strong> funding<br />
ends on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 21 and if Congress does<br />
not pass the legislation authorising the<br />
spending or it Trump doesn't sign it, government<br />
operations will shut down, except<br />
for the most essential ones. A 35-day shutdown<br />
occurred between December last<br />
year and January when Trump refused to<br />
approve the budget without allocation for<br />
his border wall and most federal workers<br />
were temporarily laid off and services were<br />
curtailed. As Pelosi stood firm, Trump<br />
compromised.<br />
Currently, the government is being run<br />
on a temporary measure under what is<br />
known as a continuing resolution by<br />
Congress to provide interim funding.<br />
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer<br />
warned that Trump may create another<br />
shutdown to divert attention from the<br />
impeachment. "I am increasingly worried<br />
that President Trump may want to shut<br />
down the government again because of<br />
impeachment, an impeachment inquiry. He<br />
always wants to create diversions," he said.<br />
IS names Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi as its new leader<br />
Cairo : <strong>The</strong> Islamic State terror organisation<br />
on Thursday named Abu Ibrahim al-<br />
Quraishi as its new leader after it confirmed<br />
the death of Abu Bak al-Baghdadi<br />
who was killed in a US raid in northern<br />
Syria. A spokesperson for the terror organisation,<br />
Abu Hasan Al Mohager, was also<br />
killed, the group said in a voice message on<br />
Telegram, Efe news reported. United States<br />
President Donald Trump announced that<br />
Baghdadi was killed in a military raid that<br />
took place on Sunday in Syria's Idlib<br />
province.<br />
<strong>The</strong> message did not provide further<br />
details about the circumstances of their<br />
deaths. Addressing the United States, the<br />
spokesperson said: "Do not be thrilled with<br />
the death of Baghdadi. Do not forget the<br />
death you have suffered at his hands."<br />
"Your destiny is controlled by a stupid<br />
elder who changes his mind overnight," the<br />
spokesperson added. Baghdadi became one<br />
of the world's most-wanted terrorist leaders<br />
when he proclaimed the Islamic State terror<br />
organisation's so-called caliphate from<br />
a pulpit of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in<br />
the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2<strong>01</strong>4.<br />
At that time, IS had conquered half of<br />
Syria and around a third of Iraq.<br />
It had under its control not only the historic<br />
city of Mosul, where it filled a power<br />
vacuum left by an Iraqi army in retreat, but<br />
also Raqqa across the border in Syria.<br />
Five years later, the so-called caliphate<br />
all but collapsed when US-backed Kurdish<br />
militias seized its last outpost in southeast<br />
Syria in March. Baghdadi was a ruthless<br />
leader who oversaw the murder of thousands<br />
of civilians. He was erroneously<br />
reported dead on several previous occasions.<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
5<br />
Bengal workers killing 'pre-planned',<br />
demand probe: Mamata<br />
Kolkata : Describing the killings of five workers from her state<br />
in the Kashmir Valley as being "preplanned<br />
and brutal", West Bengal<br />
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on<br />
Thursday demanded a "comprehensive<br />
inquiry" into the incident.<br />
Five workers from Bengal were<br />
shot dead by terrorists at Katrasoo<br />
village of Kulgam district on<br />
Tuesday evening.<br />
"Our workers who had gone there,<br />
had gone there in search of jobs.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were preparing to come back.<br />
But the way they have been murdered<br />
brutally, it is a dangerous incident.<br />
"I think it is a pre-planned brutal murder," she told mediapersons<br />
here. Banerjee wondered how the incident could take place in<br />
a situation where there are no political activities, the press cannot<br />
move freely, and even MPs are not permitted to go there.<br />
"Now there are no political activities there. <strong>The</strong> press cannot<br />
move freely. No MP can go there. So if some people had gone for<br />
work and were preparing to come back, what was the need to murder<br />
them?" she asked. Banerjee also pointed out that the incident<br />
happened on the day the European MPs' delegation arrived in<br />
India. "<strong>The</strong>y also have not liked the incident. <strong>The</strong>se sort of incidents<br />
give a bad name to the country. Whatever has happened is<br />
not right. <strong>The</strong>re has to be a comprehensive inquiry," she added.<br />
Inflation, not Kashmir biggest<br />
issue in Pakistan: Survey<br />
Islamabad : Pakistan's state of economy and not Kashmir is the<br />
biggest cause of worry for a vast<br />
majority of Pakistanis, a new survey<br />
has revealed. <strong>The</strong> survey, conducted<br />
in four provinces of Pakistan by<br />
Gallup-Gilani Pakistan, has found<br />
that 53 per cent of Pakistanis are worried<br />
about inflation, 23 per cent said<br />
unemployment was a major problem,<br />
while four per cent of the people<br />
identified corruption as the major<br />
problem, the survey said. Of the 1,200 Pakistanis surveyed, only 8<br />
per cent considered Kashmir as the biggest issue of Pakistan.<br />
<strong>The</strong> issue of Kashmir ranked third, after inflation and unemployment<br />
in Pakistan, but above local matters such as water crisis,<br />
corruption and political instability.<br />
Interestingly, Pakistan's political parties have always harped on<br />
the Kashmir issue, which they say is close to their heart. But, if the<br />
survey is to be believed, the people seem to care less about<br />
Kashmir. <strong>The</strong> survey took place over a period of two weeks from<br />
October 7 to October 20. <strong>The</strong> sample size of the survey comprised<br />
men and women in urban and rural areas in all four provinces of<br />
Pakistan - Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North-West Frontier<br />
Province. Gallup Pakistan is the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup<br />
International.<br />
Pak train fire: Eyewitnesses say<br />
short-circuit caused fire<br />
Islamabad : A passenger of Tezgam train has disputed the<br />
statements of Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed that the<br />
incident took place due to gas cylinders carried by Tablighi Jamaat<br />
members. In a video that went viral, the eyewitness claimed that<br />
the fire could not be attributed to the gas cylinder blast as all the<br />
cylinders were emptied at the station.<br />
<strong>The</strong> fire broke out in the AC sleeper where the cylinders were<br />
not allowed, he said adding that they were told by railway personnel<br />
that it was infact due to a short circuit in the ceiling fan, the<br />
Pakistani media reported. He claimed the fan had not been<br />
repaired for the past four days. <strong>The</strong> eye witness added, there were<br />
no fire extinguishers in the carriages and rejected the railways<br />
minster's statement that tableeghi jamaat passengers were behind<br />
the incident. At least 73 people were killed and dozens wounded<br />
after a passenger train erupted in flames in central Pakistan on<br />
Thursday enroute to Rawalpindi from Karachi.
6 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 ASIA<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Canadian Elections have given numerous<br />
message to Indian People as well as our politicians<br />
Welcome Back Justin Trudeau<br />
<strong>The</strong> Canadian citizens must be congratulated<br />
for returning liberals headed<br />
by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau without<br />
an absolute majority. He will need<br />
the support from other parties but the<br />
dangers of Conservative party returning<br />
to power are out of question now. In the<br />
338 members Parliament, the Liberals<br />
got reduced fro 184 to <strong>15</strong>7 though the<br />
opposition conservative party increased<br />
its seats from 99 to 121 but still far short<br />
of the half way mark.<br />
In the over all vote percentage conservatives<br />
were 34.4% while the liberals<br />
got 33.1% and the new democratic party<br />
headed by Mr Jagmeet Singh which got<br />
<strong>15</strong>.9% vote share and 24 seats. Singh<br />
was projected as the Prime Ministerial<br />
candidates and has support of a large<br />
number of the minorities, immigrants<br />
and other progressive. This result also<br />
brought 98 women parliamentarian<br />
which constitute about 29% of the total<br />
representatives. Last time it was 88<br />
members.<br />
This time the Canadians have elected<br />
19 members from Indian communities<br />
in which 18 happened to be Sikhs, perhaps<br />
their greatest representation in<br />
power structure anywhere in the world.<br />
In Indian Parliament there are merely 13<br />
as per reports. Last year when Prime<br />
Minister Justin Trudeau visited India, he<br />
joked that he has more ministers from<br />
Sikh community than the government of<br />
India. In fact, he had five Sikh minister<br />
including one member holding the<br />
Ministry of Defense Portfolio. <strong>The</strong> party<br />
wise break up of these winning Indian<br />
Canadian also reflect a clear trend. 13<br />
were elected on Liberal Party ticket<br />
headed by the Prime minister, 4 by the<br />
Conservative Party and one by the NDP.<br />
Canada’s population is about<br />
3,75,89,262. In terms of size, Canada is<br />
the second biggest country after Russia<br />
and it has a size of 9.9 million square<br />
kilometers. When the government worldover,<br />
particularly in the neighboring<br />
USA were speaking up against the<br />
immigrants and minorities, Canada was<br />
welcoming them with an open arm.<br />
According to data available, Canada<br />
admitted 3,13,580 immigrants from<br />
2<strong>01</strong>8 to 2<strong>01</strong>9.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was huge campaign against the<br />
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his<br />
alleged participation and support in<br />
some racist programmes during his student<br />
days but it was clear that the people<br />
of Canada looked at his current track<br />
record and voted him. People of Canada<br />
have delivered a verdict which should<br />
make all of us proud. It did not give a<br />
solid majority to the Liberal party may<br />
be because of their failure on certain<br />
domestic fronts but it supported them.<br />
More over, the growth of the parties like<br />
NDP, suggest that people would support<br />
the voices of minorities and immigrants.<br />
<strong>The</strong> people of India can learn a lot<br />
from Canada. How this country is welcoming<br />
people from different parts of<br />
the world and how they are putting them<br />
in their power structure. <strong>The</strong> immigrants<br />
in Canada, the Sikhs or any one are not<br />
mere than century old unlike Muslims<br />
and Christians in this country who are<br />
living more than 700 years and there is<br />
no immigration here that happen to<br />
Western world and yet we are asking<br />
hundreds of questions of loyalty to both<br />
Muslims and Christians here whose<br />
track record in our national building<br />
remain far superior to those who are<br />
enjoying the fruits of power.<br />
Today, we celebrate the victory of<br />
Canadian Indian and if there are ministers,<br />
we feel proud on them but why ?<br />
All of them are Canadian citizens and<br />
they might have migrated several years<br />
back and now dedicated to the constitution<br />
of Canada. <strong>The</strong>ir only relation with<br />
India remain cultural. Can we do the<br />
same if things happened here. Muslims<br />
here are Muslim Indian and Indian<br />
Muslims and have no other loyalty.<br />
None celebrate elsewhere on their victory<br />
except their own constituency.<br />
Every one know about the French<br />
speaking Quebec State of Canada which<br />
speak of its distinct French identity and<br />
talks of more autonomy and yet flourishing<br />
here. None call them anti national<br />
and there is no military presence.<br />
Canada is a shining example of how we<br />
can progress peacefully and in co-existence.<br />
India was an example. We all<br />
have those traits and we had a leadership<br />
who we hate because their building<br />
a plural society was the biggest hindrance<br />
in the way of those who wanted<br />
to get absolute power without any<br />
accountability.<br />
Opposition is not a burden. All those<br />
who seeks votes in the name of minorities<br />
and immigrants are not anti national.<br />
Minorities, immigrants too have<br />
right to express their feeling and ask<br />
question to all in Parliament and must<br />
have representation. Indian media is<br />
running campaign to demolish the<br />
opposition and minorities as well as<br />
marginalised. Canadian have voted in a<br />
very diverse way and perhaps this is the<br />
best way now to run democracy and<br />
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat<br />
social and human rights activist<br />
remain committed to people. With<br />
absolute majorities we are handing over<br />
power to dictators who are never democratic<br />
and misusing the faith of the people<br />
posed in them. <strong>The</strong> arrogance of<br />
power is allowing them to betray people<br />
and be pygmies of the big industrial<br />
houses. Both the political parties and<br />
Indian media must understand that<br />
diversity is to be celebrated and<br />
enjoyed. Canada is a new country in<br />
comparison to us but it is welcoming<br />
minorities, immigrants and we as an<br />
ancient civilization with a great track<br />
record of multiple-faith working together<br />
and contributing to nation building<br />
are converting our own people as ‘foreigner’<br />
or anti national just because he<br />
does not follow your faith which is sad<br />
and dangerous too. A huge country like<br />
India can not run smoothly by putting a<br />
gun over the head of its minorities and<br />
making them suspect for every anti<br />
national or illegal act. This has to stop.<br />
Learn from the West and Canada particularly<br />
as it engages with minorities and<br />
immigrants and do not treat them anti<br />
national just because they disagree with<br />
the prime minister or ruling party.<br />
We welcome Justin Trudeau again<br />
and hope his policies will strengthen<br />
world peace by increased engagements<br />
with migrants and minorities of all varieties<br />
world over.<br />
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He<br />
blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity<br />
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com<br />
Can’t control dengue, pay Rs 50 lakh: Telangana HC<br />
Hyderabad, <strong>The</strong> Telangana<br />
High Court on Thursday said if<br />
the government failed to control<br />
dengue, it should pay Rs 50 lakh<br />
compensation to the families of<br />
those who died of the disease.<br />
<strong>The</strong> High Court pulled up the<br />
state authorities for their failure to<br />
control the mosquito menace,<br />
resulting in people dying of<br />
dengue and other mosquito-borne<br />
diseases. A division bench comprising<br />
Chief Justice R.S.<br />
Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek<br />
Reddy was not satisfied with the<br />
steps listed out by senior government<br />
officials on measures taken<br />
to control the mosquito menace.<br />
On summons by the bench, Chief<br />
Secretary S.K. Joshi, Municipal<br />
Administration Secretary Aravind<br />
Kumar, Greater Hyderabad<br />
Municipal Corporation (GHMC)<br />
commissioner Lokesh Kumar and<br />
superintendent of governmentrun<br />
Fever Hospital Dr Shankar<br />
appeared before the court on<br />
Thursday and briefed it on the<br />
steps taken. <strong>The</strong> officials<br />
informed the court that municipal<br />
authorities identified 427 points<br />
prone to mosquito breeding and<br />
took the steps to check the menace.<br />
<strong>The</strong> court, however, observed<br />
that the measures exist only on<br />
paper. It asked officials to visit<br />
Musi River in front of High Court<br />
building to see the situation for<br />
themselves. As the mosquitoes<br />
from the dried river enter into<br />
High Court complex, the judges<br />
remarked that people would not<br />
come to the court if the problem<br />
was not addressed. <strong>The</strong> bench<br />
also remarked that the IAS officers<br />
were not even reading<br />
newspapers, which carry stories<br />
about problems faced by people.<br />
It observed that it is the duty of<br />
the government and officials to<br />
look after people’s welfare and<br />
when they fail, they should pay<br />
the compensation. For the second<br />
day, the High Court heard<br />
the petitions questioning official<br />
apathy in tackling dengue epidemic<br />
and in curbing mosquito<br />
breeders. <strong>The</strong> bench asked the<br />
government how the number of<br />
dengue cases rose from 85 in<br />
January to 3,800 in October. A<br />
district court judge from<br />
Khammam succumbed to<br />
dengue while undergoing treatment<br />
at a corporate hospital in<br />
Hyderabad on Monday. <strong>The</strong><br />
bench also took note of this case.<br />
It asked the government to set<br />
up a committee headed by the<br />
chief secretary and take steps on<br />
war-footing to control the mosquito<br />
menace.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
<strong>The</strong> gruesome murder of Kamlesh<br />
Tiwari reflect the state of law and order<br />
in Uttar Pradesh particularly in the capital<br />
city of Lucknow.<br />
His family alleged that the security<br />
was withdrawn by the state government.<br />
With in few hours, Uttar Pradesh<br />
police claimed that they have resolved<br />
the murder mystery as they claimed that<br />
Gujarat police has arrested three persons<br />
in Surat. Anyway, we don’t comment<br />
on an administrative thing and<br />
would like it to be proved in the court of<br />
law. Since the death of Kamlesh Tiwari,<br />
our channels have started sinister campaign<br />
against Muslims. <strong>The</strong>re is no control<br />
over the filthy language that these<br />
channels and their loudspeakers who<br />
want to divide people and put India on<br />
fire so that they and their masters can<br />
rule on the polarisation of people. How<br />
long will you keep people in perpetual<br />
hatred. Why the murder of an individual,<br />
even if he was most foul mouth, be<br />
blamed on a particular community.<br />
Kamlesh Tiwari’s mother Kusum<br />
Tiwari has alleged that her son was not<br />
murdered by the Muslim murderers but<br />
some Gupta who happened to belong to<br />
the Hindutva group. Mrs Kusum Tiwari<br />
continued on a TV channel that dont<br />
bring Hindu Muslim issue every time.<br />
This murder has nothing to do with<br />
Hindu-Muslim issue. It is purely done<br />
by a person who they are naming but<br />
despite that Uttar Pradesh police has<br />
not arrested the accused person.<br />
We agree that police must investigate<br />
the issue on its own without any<br />
political interference but then the investigations<br />
should look unbiased. What<br />
the police can do it to speak to their<br />
family persons and see why they are<br />
accusing the other person. His mother<br />
is speaking in full senses and seems to<br />
be determined to fight this case and<br />
take it to logical conclusion. This case<br />
may become difficult for the government<br />
to handle unless properly dealt<br />
ASIA<br />
Kamlesh Tiwari’s mother has a right<br />
to be satisfied with the investigations<br />
related to her son’s death<br />
with.<br />
It is good that<br />
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat<br />
social and human rights activist<br />
Muslims did not respond<br />
to Kamlesh Tiwari’s filth in the similar<br />
way he was doing. Today, Hindutva<br />
trolls are abusing and writing things<br />
and trending hatred against Muslims.<br />
<strong>The</strong> twitter and Facebook who act fast<br />
against free thinkers, human rights<br />
defenders and those who disagree with<br />
this hate politics remain mute to<br />
Hindutva hatemongers who trend<br />
hatred on social media. This has to be<br />
condemned. Social media platforms<br />
must stick to strong norms where<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
7<br />
attempt to sow seeds of division, racial<br />
and caste abuse and slur, religious<br />
hatred must be prohibited. Freedom of<br />
expression is welcome when things are<br />
spoken in a well explained way without<br />
being abusive but these platforms can<br />
not and should not be allowed to abuse<br />
and spread hatred.<br />
<strong>The</strong> National Broadcasting<br />
Authority of India too should strongly<br />
put its agenda on the erring TV channels.<br />
If the body is unable to discipline<br />
these channels then it must approach<br />
courts and ask for maintaining some<br />
decorum and adhering to constitutional<br />
principles on the TV debates. It must<br />
warn the anchors who have become<br />
Party Spokes person to desist from<br />
doing so. Fact is that we blame social<br />
media but it is the manustream media<br />
which need to be disciplined. Kamlesh<br />
Tiwari’s mother’s strong slap on the face<br />
of an anchor who tried to instigate her in<br />
Hindu Muslim binary, is a big example.<br />
That way, we should appreciate the<br />
stand taken by her. She has a right to get<br />
satisfied with the investigations related<br />
to her son’s death. Who ever is the culprit<br />
must be arrested and the family has<br />
a right to question if they are not satisfied.<br />
It is equally important that media<br />
must not play divisive politics in all this.<br />
<strong>The</strong> role of the media is to protect<br />
democracy and not to destroy it.<br />
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social<br />
and human rights activist. He blogs<br />
at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com<br />
twitter @freetohumanity<br />
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com<br />
<strong>The</strong> target of $5 Trillion Economy<br />
is Achievable : Pratap Padode<br />
In an exclusive interview with the<br />
<strong>Asian</strong> <strong>Independent</strong> UK, Pratap<br />
Padode, Founder & Editor-in-Chief<br />
of Construction World magazine &<br />
Founder & Director, First<br />
Construction Council is confident that<br />
the target of a $5 trillion economy is<br />
achievable in India.<br />
What are your views on the current<br />
situation of the construction<br />
industry in India?<br />
A few years back, India was passing<br />
through policy paralysis, the<br />
measures taken at the central government<br />
level were not enough to boost<br />
up the construction industry. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
was a trust deficit between the<br />
builders & the home buyers. Today,<br />
the construction industry has already<br />
picked up the momentum. Big &<br />
small construction companies are taking<br />
new projects across India. In the<br />
coming years, India will lead the<br />
world in the construction industry<br />
since India has surplus land availability.<br />
<strong>The</strong> construction of highways,<br />
roads, and tunnels have further<br />
upgraded the connectivity to boost up<br />
trade between the states.<br />
India is facing a lot of shortage of<br />
skilled manpower, what are your<br />
suggestions to the government?<br />
India is a rich country with surplus<br />
manpower. <strong>The</strong> central government<br />
has established an independent Skill<br />
Development Ministry and allocated<br />
funds to skill manpower. <strong>The</strong> steps<br />
taken are very effective in skilling<br />
India. <strong>The</strong>re is an urgent need to target<br />
manpower from the states where 70<br />
percent of people live in villages. We<br />
must understand that the world is<br />
changing so the technologies. In order<br />
to compete at the international level,<br />
India needs strong skilled manpower<br />
laced with advanced technologies.<br />
It is often alleged that FDI investment<br />
in India is un-even in the construction<br />
industry, what is your<br />
viewpoint?<br />
India is a vast country having 29<br />
states. It is a fact that foreign investors<br />
tend to look for areas where social &<br />
political unrest is at zero level.<br />
Bengaluru city in Karnataka state is<br />
known as a high-tech hub in India.<br />
Every state of India has a vast potential<br />
for the industry to explore and<br />
invest & build. Frankly speaking, state<br />
governments must take initiatives in<br />
collaboration with First Construction<br />
Council bodies or such bodies to boot<br />
up the construction industry in the<br />
state. I believe, if the state governments<br />
shake hands with such bodies<br />
the sky is the limit. This disparity can<br />
only be removed if strong linkages<br />
between states and various stakeholders<br />
are removed.<br />
You are a Founder &<br />
Director of First<br />
Construction Council, please tell us<br />
more about this.<br />
<strong>The</strong> idea behind setting up of First<br />
Construction Council in India is to<br />
promote research in the construction<br />
industry. First Construction Council is<br />
a Think Tank body which will coordinate<br />
with all the stakeholders and conduct<br />
primary & secondary research<br />
across India. We have tied up with<br />
DODG, data & Analytics New York<br />
based Industry Insights Research to<br />
conduct various construction industry-related<br />
research in<br />
India in the future. Mr.<br />
Stephen A Jones,<br />
Senior Director of<br />
– Dr. Rahul Kumar, PhD<br />
DODG having more<br />
than three decades of<br />
experience in research<br />
and analysis is going to be a council<br />
partner. By doing so we will be able to<br />
understand the challenges & opportunities<br />
existing in the construction<br />
industry. <strong>The</strong> findings of such studies<br />
in the future will help the government<br />
of India in formulating sustainable &<br />
viable policies.<br />
What are your viewpoint of<br />
Corporate Social Responsibility?<br />
How you see the role of CSR in<br />
financial inclusion?<br />
India is a democratic country.<br />
Democracy means everyone should<br />
have the right to food, shelter, and<br />
clothing. <strong>The</strong> role of CSR in India is<br />
very positive. Many multinational<br />
companies in India are promoting talents<br />
through various initiatives. For<br />
example, Reliance Industry has been<br />
supporting sports, schools and transforming<br />
the lives of the underprivileged<br />
children in the country.<br />
According to my view, it is the moral<br />
duty of every multinational company<br />
to help and assist the children of the<br />
underprivileged class.<br />
This is the only way forward to<br />
include all sections of the society<br />
in the mainstream society. Further,<br />
I would like to stress upon that in<br />
order to sustain development for<br />
the future generations in India we<br />
must practice egalitarianism.<br />
Prevailing massive social & economic<br />
inequalities can be removed<br />
only if we welcome & embrace<br />
people belonging to all sections of<br />
the society. Modern India has no place<br />
for gender inequality, social & economic<br />
disabilities.<br />
You said $5 trillion economy target<br />
is achievable, could you please<br />
throw some more light on this<br />
issue?<br />
India is already on the global map.<br />
When I visit countries like the USA,<br />
UK, Canada, Russia, China, or South<br />
<strong>Asian</strong> countries I find business people<br />
are talking about India so India is on<br />
the right trajectory for growth & prosperity.<br />
For example, India has been<br />
ranked the best country by the global<br />
prosperity ranking for the investment<br />
environment. <strong>The</strong> government of<br />
India has already announced several<br />
domestic airports for promoting connectivity<br />
between states. New road<br />
highways are being built. New rail<br />
links are built. <strong>The</strong> Smart Cities projects<br />
have unleashed a new era in India<br />
for the construction industry particularly.<br />
Public-Private partnership initiatives<br />
have opened up the doors for<br />
FDI. Huge funds from the developed<br />
nations & the emerging economies are<br />
coming to India.<br />
If we see at the domestic scenario,<br />
new entrepreneurs, builders, traders,<br />
suppliers & various stakeholders, etc.<br />
are entering into the construction<br />
industry while targeting also 2 tier<br />
cities in India. Banks are disbursing<br />
loans for the projects. Looking at all<br />
these positive signs currently prevailing<br />
in the construction industry I am<br />
confident that the target of a $ 5 trillion<br />
economy is achievable.
8 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 ASIA<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Shinde elected Sena leader,<br />
heads to meet Maha Guv<br />
Mumbai : <strong>The</strong> Shiv Sena on Thursday<br />
elected Eknath Shinde as their Legislature<br />
Party leader, and announced their slated<br />
meeting with Maharashtra Governor soon.<br />
Aditya Thackeray proposed Shindes<br />
name for the post and Sunil Prabhu's name<br />
for the post of Chief Whip of the legislature<br />
BJP<br />
party.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Thackeray junior tweeted: "As an<br />
elected MLA, it was my privilege to propose<br />
the name of @mieknathshinde ji as the<br />
leader of the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party<br />
for Athe working the legislature. @prabhu_suneel<br />
ji has been elected as chief whip Governor of the "situation".<br />
ever said, the meeting is to "apprise" the<br />
of the party for the legislature." <strong>The</strong> party is <strong>The</strong> BJP legislature party met in Mumbai<br />
scheduled to meet Maharashtra Governor on Wednesday afternoon and elected former<br />
Bhagat Singh Koshyari, that has sparked Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis as the<br />
speculations. Sena leader Sanjay Raut, how-<br />
leader of its legislature party. Soon after that,<br />
IOC reports sharp 82.7%<br />
fall in Q2 profit<br />
New Delhi : <strong>The</strong> country's largest public sector refiner,<br />
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), on<br />
Thursday reported a 82.7 per cent fall<br />
in its net profit for the second quarter<br />
period of financial year 2<strong>01</strong>9-20 on the<br />
back of slump in refinery margins and<br />
inventory losses.<br />
<strong>The</strong> company posted a standalone<br />
net profit of Rs 563.42 crore in the<br />
July-September quarter of FY20 as against net profit of<br />
Rs 3,246.93 crore in the same period of the previous year.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> major reason for the decline in net profit was inventory<br />
loss in Q2 as against inventory gains in the same<br />
period of previous year," IOC Chairman Sanjiv Singh<br />
said. He added that the company recorded an inventory<br />
loss of Rs 1,807 crore in the second quarter period as<br />
opposed to inventory gain of Rs 2,895 crore in the same<br />
period of FY 19.<br />
<strong>The</strong> company's refinery margins also fell to $1.28 in<br />
Q2 as against refinery margin of $6.79 in the year ago<br />
period. Shares of IOC ended 0.30 points or 0.20 per cent<br />
lower at Rs 146.80 on the BSE.<br />
Delhi HC agrees to hear Facebook's<br />
plea on Ramdev video<br />
New Delhi : <strong>The</strong> Delhi High Court on Thursday<br />
agreed to hear social<br />
media giant Facebook's<br />
plea, challenging a single-judge<br />
order which<br />
had asked it to remove<br />
video content "on a global<br />
basis" allegedly containing<br />
defamatory allegation<br />
against Yoga guru<br />
Baba Ramdev from its platform. A bench of justices S.<br />
Muralidhar and Talwant Singh said that it will hear arguments<br />
at length on December 7 but refused to pass any<br />
interim order to stay single judge order. Facebook's counsel<br />
and senior advocate Kapil Sibal requested the court to<br />
restrain Ramdev from initiating contempt action against it<br />
till the appeal was pending. Ramdev's counsel assured the<br />
court that he will not initiate any contempt action against<br />
the social media platform till the division bench decides<br />
the matter.<br />
Last week, a single-judge bench of the Delhi High<br />
Court had directed the Facebook to globally remove,<br />
block or disable links to a video containing defamatory<br />
allegations against yoga guru Ramdev.<br />
<strong>The</strong> court order had come while hearing a plea by<br />
Ramdev seeking global restraint order against Facebook,<br />
Google, its subsidiary YouTube, and Twitter from carrying<br />
content related to a book. On September 29, 2<strong>01</strong>8, the<br />
Delhi High Court restrained the publication and sale of<br />
the book 'Godman to Tycoon: <strong>The</strong> Untold Story of Baba<br />
Ramdev' until the publisher deletes some defamatory portion<br />
written against Ramdev. <strong>The</strong> court had observed that<br />
the defamatory portions of the book were being communicated<br />
to the public through the video which was<br />
uploaded on Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter.<br />
Mumbai : As much as 14 per cent of Indian<br />
banks payments revenue, or $9 billion, is likely<br />
to be displaced by the growth of digital payments<br />
and competition from non-banks, an Accenture<br />
report said on Thursday.<br />
"With the digital boom as payments become<br />
more instant, invisible and free, banks need to<br />
reinvent themselves to grow customer loyalty,<br />
revenues and profitability," Rishi Aurora, a managing<br />
director at Accenture who leads its financial<br />
services practice in India, said in a statement.<br />
Payments revenue in the country will likely<br />
grow at an annual rate of 10.7 per cent, from<br />
$38 billion in 2<strong>01</strong>9 to more than $70 billion by<br />
2025, said the report titled "Banking Pulse<br />
Survey: Two Ways To Win".<br />
Only banks that change their business models<br />
to adopt the latest technologies and focus on providing<br />
value-added services to customers will<br />
capture a share of the $32 billion in incremental<br />
revenue growth. "To succeed in the post digital<br />
era, banks need to redefine innovation strategies<br />
around scaling technology and adding value to<br />
address the payments challenges," Aurora said.<br />
Digital payments platforms such as Paytm,<br />
Fadnavis asserted, the mandate was for<br />
"grand alliance" of Sena-BJP and the two<br />
will form the government. But Tuesday was<br />
marked with day-long exchange of rhetoric<br />
and counter-rhetoric between the two parties.<br />
First, Sena leader Sanjay Raut alleged the<br />
was "stooping low". <strong>The</strong>n Chief<br />
Minister Devendra Fadnavis issued a statement<br />
rejecting Shiv Sena's claim of 50-50<br />
formula, which they have been adamant<br />
about.<br />
Later on Tuesday evening, Shiv Sena had<br />
cancelled its meeting with the BJP leadership,<br />
including close aide of Amit Shah,<br />
Bhupendra Yadav, to iron out differences. In<br />
2<strong>01</strong>4, the BJP formed a government without<br />
Sena and with outside support of NCP. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
is a sense of deja vu in Maharashtra politics.<br />
Indian banks risk losing $9bn<br />
revenue to e-wallets by 2025<br />
Parties explore tieups for Jharkhand polls<br />
Ranchi : With Jharkhand Assembly elections<br />
only two months away, political parties have started<br />
exploring poll tie-ups, tightening loose ends and<br />
connecting with workers. While the Congress and<br />
the Jharkhand Mukti<br />
Morcha (JMM) have<br />
decided to contest the<br />
elections jointly, they<br />
are yet to finalise seatsharing<br />
formula.<br />
However, the Congress<br />
has agreed to be the<br />
junior partner to the<br />
JMM, according to<br />
state Congress chief<br />
Rameshwar Oraon.<br />
On the alliance, Oraon said, "Everything is predecided,<br />
and the grand alliance will be announced<br />
soon." <strong>The</strong> main goal was to dislodge the Bharatiya<br />
Janata Party (BJP) from power in the state, he<br />
added. According to sources, the JMM will contest<br />
44 seats, the Congress 27 and the rest will go to<br />
other ally partners. Of this, five seats each may go to<br />
the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties.<br />
Jharkhand has a 81-member House. Former Chief<br />
Minister Babulal Marandi's Jharkhand Vikas<br />
Morcha - Prajatantrik (JVM-P) is unlikely to join<br />
the grand alliance. Marandi told IANS any decision<br />
would be taken only after talks with the party workers.<br />
In the next five days,<br />
the party leaders would go<br />
door-to door to gauge public<br />
views, he added.<br />
<strong>The</strong> RJD leaders too<br />
are not satisfied with five<br />
seats. State RJD chief<br />
Abhay Kumar Singh told<br />
IANS, we would like to<br />
contest more seats. <strong>The</strong><br />
partners of the grand<br />
alliance were yet to meet<br />
and discuss the seat-sharing, he added. Sources said<br />
trust deficit was the biggest issue in the opposition<br />
alliance. No one was sure of the partner parties preor<br />
post-poll stances and each was insisting on larger<br />
share of seat, they added.<br />
<strong>The</strong> opposition parties might have different<br />
coalitions in Jharkhand, but to expect a 'mahagathbandhan'<br />
was meaningless, said political critic and<br />
senior journalist Baijnath Mishra.<br />
ICCR to hold international<br />
youth seminar on Sikhism<br />
New Delhi : In a bid to spread the teachings of<br />
Guru Nanak Dev, the Indian Council for Cultural<br />
Relations (ICCR) will organise an international<br />
youth seminar on teachings of the first Sikh guru<br />
and Sikhism on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 6. Addressing a press<br />
conference here, ICCR President Vinay<br />
Sahasrabuddhe said, "On the 550th birth anniversary<br />
of Guru Nanak Devji, the ICCR is planning to<br />
hold an international youth seminar to spread his<br />
teachings and Sikhism's contribution in universal<br />
well being." He said the seminar will be organised on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 6 at the<br />
Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra where about 35-40 international Sikh youth from<br />
US, UK, Malaysia, Thailand, Canada, Italy, Australia, Netherlands,<br />
Singapore and South Africa will participate. Sahasrabuddhe said that<br />
besides the foreign Sikh youths, about 20 Indian Sikh youths will also participate<br />
in the seminar. He said the ICCR has written to the Delhi<br />
University and Jawaharlal Nehru University to send their students to<br />
participate in the international seminar. Sahasrabuddhe said that the foreign<br />
Sikh youths will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind before<br />
leaving for the three day 'Takhat Darshan' from <strong>Nov</strong>ember 7-9. "<strong>The</strong><br />
foreign Sikh youths will meet the President on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 6 and then<br />
leave for the three-day Takhat Darshan of Patna Sahib, Golden Temple<br />
in Amritsar and Hazur Saheb in Maharashtra's Nanded," he said.<br />
Google Pay and PhonePe are quite popular in<br />
India. <strong>The</strong>ir adoption surged dramatically after<br />
the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes<br />
in <strong>Nov</strong>ember last year. <strong>The</strong> report is based on a<br />
revenue-risk analysis model that Accenture<br />
developed to measure trends in how consumers<br />
pay and projected changes in merchant behaviour,<br />
technology and regulation. <strong>The</strong> research is<br />
complemented by a survey of 240 payments<br />
executives at banks across 22 countries to determine<br />
how they plan to mitigate and capitalise on<br />
the disruption in payments to grow customer loyalty,<br />
revenues and profitability. <strong>The</strong> report<br />
showed that global payments revenue in all markets<br />
surveyed will likely grow to more than $2<br />
trillion by 2025, creating a $500 billion opportunity<br />
for banks in those countries. Over the next<br />
six years, banks will face further pressure on<br />
income from card transactions and fees, with<br />
free payments putting 8.4 per cent of payments<br />
revenue at risk in India, said the report. In addition,<br />
competition from non-banks in invisible<br />
payments -- where payments are completed in a<br />
‘virtual wallet' on a mobile app or device -- will<br />
put 3.6 per cent of bank revenues at risk. Card<br />
displacement by instant payments, where funds<br />
are settled and transferred in real-time and banks<br />
make little to no interest, is projected to put an<br />
additional two per cent of payment revenues at<br />
risk. <strong>The</strong> research found that the industry is<br />
aware of the challenges posed by new technologies<br />
in payments.<br />
More than two-thirds of the banking executives<br />
surveyed in all markets agree that payments<br />
are becoming free.<br />
Lawyer shot dead<br />
in Prayagraj<br />
Prayagraj : A lawyer, practising in<br />
Prayagraj District<br />
Court was shot<br />
dead by unidentified<br />
assailants on<br />
Thursday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> deceased<br />
was identified as<br />
Idrees Ali and he has been practicing in the<br />
district court for the last one year.<br />
Mohammad Ali, elder brother of the<br />
deceased said he was shot dead in his<br />
house early in the day.<br />
"He was a very polite man, aged around<br />
28-30 years old. We got the information<br />
about his murder and informed the police<br />
about it. <strong>The</strong> administration has assured his<br />
family of all possible assistance," said<br />
Rakesh Tiwari, the former president of the<br />
District Bar Association. Superintendent of<br />
Police, City, Brijesh Kumar Srivastava,<br />
told reporters that the murder was being<br />
investigated and there was no information<br />
about any possible motive.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk ASIA <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 9<br />
<strong>The</strong> poll results of the Haryana and<br />
Maharashtra Assembly as well as bypolls<br />
in about 52 constituencies across<br />
the country are out and wronged the<br />
pollsters as well as the arrogant<br />
‘spokespersons’ on the Manustream<br />
media who were out and out ‘determined’<br />
to ‘decimate’ the opposition. In<br />
any democracy, if we wish to strengthen<br />
it, people must ensure that a healthy<br />
opposition remains in the Parliament<br />
and Assemblies to make the government<br />
accountable. In the absence of<br />
opposition, media would have done the<br />
job as it is doing so powerfully in the<br />
United States as well as other Western<br />
world but unlike them, the casteist<br />
Manustream media has become one of<br />
the ‘specialised’ branches of the Sangh<br />
Parivar whose job is to spread ‘fakenews’<br />
and have debate based on it, distort<br />
facts and deny people their right to<br />
correct information.<br />
I have always mentioned that no<br />
party, whatever, its strength are, can<br />
win elections on the basis of the propagandist<br />
media because, it is running the<br />
show on the guidelines of RSS ideologues<br />
and therefore has no time to send<br />
to reporters to the ground to get a feel.<br />
In fact, reporters who go to the ground,<br />
is not as a journalist whose job should<br />
be to remain impartial and probing particularly<br />
to the deeds of the ruling party,<br />
our media probe the ‘misdeeds’ of the<br />
opposition and if any one challenge<br />
them or ask accountability from them,<br />
they ‘lynch’ them during their ‘prime<br />
time’ ‘puppet show’. Most of them<br />
were doing more than what can be<br />
afforded at ‘national channels’. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
had pre-election surveys and spent lots<br />
of time in their studios to abuse the<br />
opposition, to divide them, confuse<br />
them. Every one of them had given verdict<br />
to finish the opposition. ‘Gandhis<br />
are done’. ‘Opposition wiped out’. Not<br />
satisfied with the surveys, there was a<br />
‘surgical strike’ too to ensure India-<br />
Pakistan binary remained in the news<br />
and big ‘experts’ continue to do their<br />
‘nationalistic’ work on TV. <strong>The</strong>y won’t<br />
wait for the dead line of the Election<br />
Commission and would do everything<br />
to influence the voters. As the election<br />
time was over, all of them started again<br />
with their ‘exit’ polls with their puppets<br />
speaking what they wish to deny people<br />
even right to ‘peace’. All of ‘exit’<br />
‘experts’ gave BJP and Shiv Sena virtually<br />
two third majority in Maharashtra<br />
and huge win in Haryana. Based on<br />
their ‘exit’ findings they had already<br />
‘broadcasted’ ‘End of Gandhi era’ and<br />
beginning of Modi 3.0. We don’t know<br />
who suggest these headlines but all<br />
these Sangh Parivar influenced or<br />
blessed party workers masquerading as<br />
journalists are a disgrace in the name of<br />
journalism. One channel goes berserk<br />
as its Exit Poll has got the correct<br />
results. Now, our opinion is that all<br />
these polls should be banned. Either<br />
organize them three month before the<br />
polls or before the ‘ Model Code of<br />
Conduct’ and for the Exit Polls, there is<br />
no need as we can always wait for the<br />
main results. We do you need an Exit<br />
poll when the results are about to come<br />
but then you have huge Satta market<br />
based on speculations and these Exit<br />
Polls are meant for that.<br />
<strong>The</strong> current results have many takeaways.<br />
<strong>The</strong> attempt to divert people’s<br />
attention from the issues facing them<br />
and putting them all the time in ‘<br />
national’ perspective will not be useful.<br />
If our political leaders are mature<br />
enough they can easily deflate the<br />
‘national narrative’. BJP wanted to sale<br />
Article 370, Surgical Strike all the time<br />
to both Haryana and Maharashtra but it<br />
ARROGANCE SLAPPED<br />
did not work. Both states have a huge<br />
number of farmers too and their issues<br />
were never addressed by the Prime<br />
Minister, Home Minister and local leaders.<br />
BJP leaders have become arrogant<br />
to shout down the others. A completely<br />
inefficient leader like Manohar Lal<br />
Khattar continue to be chief minister of<br />
Haryana where the Jat discontent with<br />
BJP’s attempt to isolate them was growing.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was nothing for the chief<br />
minister to show as his ‘achievements’<br />
except for abusing and accusing the<br />
opposition and talking about ‘how great<br />
India was”. Narendra Modi while campaigning<br />
in Haryana ‘assured’ that he<br />
would not allow the Satluj water to flow<br />
in Pakistan despite the known fact that<br />
legally India cannot do this as per the<br />
guidelines of the International River<br />
laws.<br />
In Maharashtra, the BJP was over<br />
confidence of Devendra Fadnavis who<br />
too was harping on national issues.<br />
Prime minister spoke about 370 and<br />
‘challenged’ the opposition to oppose it.<br />
During the elections, as usual, the BJP<br />
sent Enforcement Directorate and IT<br />
officials to<br />
Sharad Pawar,<br />
who at this<br />
moment is the<br />
tallest leader<br />
from Maharashtra. <strong>The</strong> attempt was to<br />
humiliate Pawar and compel his supporters<br />
to desert him. A large number of<br />
NCP and Congress leaders were made<br />
to resign from their parties and joined<br />
the BJP but the ‘Operation- ED’ fell flat<br />
on the face of the BJP leaders and<br />
Sharad Pawar, as a matured politicians<br />
used it without speaking anything.<br />
Maharashtra leaders of all the political<br />
parties felt an attack on Pawar was an<br />
attack on the ‘identity’ of Maharashtra,<br />
particularly to that of Marathas who<br />
constitute about 30% of the population.<br />
BJP as a party is never known to<br />
speak about the issues of the poor. It has<br />
nothing to explain to people about policies<br />
and governance. Its major focus is<br />
to influence the NRIs and caste Hindus<br />
and the sloganeering it engage in is<br />
about ‘greatness’ of India and a ‘powerful’,<br />
Ram Mandir, Article 370, India-<br />
Pakistan, Hindu Muslamaan. During<br />
the elections these issues were deliberately<br />
raised as Haryana has a large<br />
number of retired as well as serving<br />
army personnel and hence it attracted. It<br />
is not that the issue did not appeal but<br />
cant be the sole issue. Both<br />
Maharashtra and Haryana results have<br />
one thing in common and that is the<br />
anger of the dominant communities in<br />
these two state. Marathas and Jaats<br />
have been with BJP and perhaps<br />
ignored the local issues but this time<br />
perhaps they realized that the BJP while<br />
trying to get their support was also<br />
backstabbing them. Since its inception,<br />
Jaats have been the main political force<br />
in Haryana but BJP has ‘successfully’<br />
put a Punjabi Khatri as chief minister of<br />
the state who is unacceptable to them.<br />
Most of Khattar’s ministers lost election<br />
showing how the people have<br />
given them a resounding slap very<br />
much similar to what happened to the<br />
arrogant ministers of the Devendra<br />
Fadnavis government yet they<br />
would not like to change Khattar<br />
who is RSS pointman in<br />
Haryana. It is not that Indira<br />
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat<br />
social and human rights activist<br />
Gandhi did not wanted strong<br />
leaders, it looks Amit Shah and<br />
Modi don’t want strong regional<br />
leaders to emerge in their party.<br />
Congress was not really in the fray in<br />
both the state. It look party had already<br />
lost. In the political arithmetic in<br />
Haryana, Congress had already lost the<br />
jaat support as it was not seen as standing<br />
with Hooda, the tallest Jaat leader of<br />
the state. Rahul Gandhi’s card of bringing<br />
a Dalit as the leader of the party in<br />
Haryana actually went against the party.<br />
This also shows the caste realities of<br />
our country and how social reforms<br />
can’t happen in the realm of politics.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Jaats who were already disturb losing<br />
their power, would not side with a<br />
party where they don’t have the leadership<br />
role. Second, Ashok Tanwar was<br />
no match to Hooda’s outreach and the<br />
result is party failed. <strong>The</strong> late decision<br />
to give Hooda, charge of Haryana along<br />
with Sailja paved the return of the jaat<br />
voters to the party but it may not be<br />
permanent unless a Jaat is at the helm of<br />
the affairs of the party. Jaats have no<br />
love relations with Congress but they<br />
never had a liking for the Sangh Parivar<br />
except the specific efforts of the Sangh<br />
Parivar to woe them in 2<strong>01</strong>4 onwards<br />
that they swayed in the nationalistic<br />
narratives of the BJP as a huge number<br />
of them are in the armed forces. <strong>The</strong><br />
fact is that BJP has cleverly reduced the<br />
Jaat political representation in Western<br />
Uttar Pradesh which were its dominant<br />
areas. Also the BJP strategies are cleverly<br />
planned as it had two-three big jaat<br />
groups in Haryana, it did not want to<br />
put its weight on them entirely.<br />
Dushyant Chautala and their other family<br />
members ensured that Jaat voters<br />
don’t reach Congress alone and remain<br />
fragmented much to the benefit of the<br />
BJP.<br />
In Maharashtra, NCP-Congress put a<br />
great show and the<br />
credit goes to Sharad<br />
Pawar who tirelessly<br />
campaigned. <strong>The</strong> two<br />
parties which are<br />
being blamed for<br />
playing spoilsports<br />
for Congress-NCP in<br />
Maharashtra are<br />
VBA of Prakash<br />
Ambedkar and<br />
AIMIM of Asadduin<br />
Owaisi. VBA and AIMIM had jointly<br />
fought the Lok Sabha election and<br />
secured one Lok Sabha seat. This time,<br />
both broke and while VBA could not<br />
get a single seat, AIMIM got two seats<br />
in Maharashtra and one in Bihar. <strong>The</strong><br />
fact is that Muslims are feeling deeply<br />
betrayed from the secular party and<br />
AIMIM and its leader are looking decisive<br />
and well prepared to raise their<br />
issue. Asaduddin Owaisi, has been raising<br />
the economic issues, and that of the<br />
Dalits and farmers. Both the parties are<br />
being blamed for giving 30 odd seats to<br />
BJP as the vote got by these parties was<br />
more than the margin of defeat but the<br />
question is why should these parties be<br />
blamed. Is not it a fact that both got substantial<br />
chunk of vote during Lok Sabha<br />
polls and even then both Congress and<br />
NCP did not seem to be bother too<br />
much about them. We know in politics,<br />
politicians have become hard bargainers<br />
and in that the smaller parties are<br />
proving to be craftier then the bigger<br />
one as they can switch over easily. Both<br />
VBA and AIMIM were ready to talk to<br />
Congress but not really ready with NCP<br />
which is predominantly an upper caste<br />
party. Both NCP and Congress failed<br />
miserably in Maharashtra because they<br />
did not take VBA and AIMIM seriously.<br />
It is well understood that many time<br />
politicians in their attempt to blackmail<br />
and bargain actually go beyond rhetoric.<br />
Most of them judge their political<br />
strength beyond normal and hence a<br />
possible alliance is impossible with<br />
Machiavellian politicians.<br />
India is definitely in the coalition age<br />
and all members will have to judge<br />
themselves honestly to come for an<br />
alliance. Democracy in this country is<br />
not really for the sake of democracy but<br />
representation of communities and<br />
leaders. BJP has woven a better community<br />
alliance everywhere which is<br />
making it successful. Powerful communities<br />
are looking for their share in<br />
power, they are craving for bigger positions.<br />
Marathas and Jats felt left out in<br />
the political structure have switched<br />
alligience because they found powerful<br />
leaders at the helm of top positions in<br />
party. Congress will have to develop<br />
stronger regional leaders added with<br />
strong sense of social justice and minority<br />
representation as in the absence of<br />
all of this, they will never gain trust of<br />
various communities. <strong>The</strong> defeat of<br />
NDA in Bihar reflect that all is not good<br />
for Nitish Kumar and RJD and other<br />
opposition parties will make it difficult<br />
for him in the coming Assembly polls.<br />
In Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav has<br />
proved that he is the better bet to counter<br />
Yogi Adityanath. He needs to build<br />
the Samajwadi Party and get rid of the<br />
middlemen who don’t have any ideological<br />
strength of the party. As far as<br />
BSP is concern, the lesser said about it<br />
the better. Rather than introspecting on<br />
her politics, Ms Mayawati continue to<br />
blame others for her defeat. Kerala is<br />
out of reach of NDA at the moment so<br />
is Tamilnadu.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se results have several messages<br />
for all.<br />
That media will be used to divert<br />
attention and steal the mandate. All the<br />
opposition leaders should boycott<br />
media and may be file a petition in the<br />
Supreme Court for a comprehensive<br />
guideline on media ethics. Pre poll surveys<br />
should only be allowed prior to<br />
election notifications and exit polls<br />
should be completely banned.<br />
Modi and Shah will continue to harp<br />
on ‘nationalistic’ ‘narratives’ with the<br />
help of media. It is not true that their<br />
‘efforts’ have failed. It is true that they<br />
have won despite no factual pro people<br />
works visible prove that people are still<br />
fancied by these narratives including<br />
370 though it wont work fully if there is<br />
a good counter narratives on the massive<br />
economic failures of the government.<br />
<strong>The</strong> opposition needs to counter<br />
them with local narrative and expose<br />
the lies being spread in the name of<br />
abrogation of 370 and Kashmir.<br />
<strong>The</strong> bigger parties need to develop<br />
better strategic alliances and honor the<br />
smaller parties. Attempt to discredit<br />
them will only push them towards the<br />
Hindutva. Just blaming political parties<br />
not in alliance with them as B team of<br />
BJP will not work.<br />
<strong>The</strong> B team argument can easily<br />
work on Congress Party too as it has<br />
failed to prove ideologically that it is<br />
different than BJP. See Page 23
10 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 ASIA<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
India objects to China's<br />
comment on Ladakh<br />
New Delhi : Taking strong<br />
objection to comments made by<br />
China on creation of the Union<br />
Territory of Ladakh, India on<br />
Thursday asked it to refrain from<br />
making statements on its internal<br />
matters just like New Delhi does<br />
not make any remarks on internal<br />
issues of any other country.<br />
Addressing a media briefing<br />
here, External Affairs Ministry<br />
spokesperson Raveesh Kumar<br />
highlighted that China continues<br />
to be in "occupation of a large<br />
tract of area in the Union<br />
Territories of Jammu and<br />
Kashmir and Ladakh" and has<br />
"illegally acquired Indian territories<br />
from Pakistan-occupied-<br />
Kashmir (PoK) under the socalled<br />
China-Pakistan Boundary<br />
Agreement of 1963".<br />
He reiterated India's concern<br />
on the projects in "so-called<br />
China-Pakistan Economic<br />
Corridor (CPEC) which is in the<br />
territory that has been illegally<br />
occupied by Pakistan since<br />
Court notice on<br />
lack of playgrounds<br />
in SHIMLA<br />
1947", in a reference to the parts<br />
of Jammu and Kashmir under<br />
Pakistani occupation.<br />
"We have seen the statement<br />
made by the spokesperson of the<br />
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of<br />
China on the establishment of<br />
the Union Territories of Jammu<br />
and Kashmir and Ladakh. China<br />
is well aware of India's consistent<br />
and clear position on this<br />
issue.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> matter of reorganization<br />
of the erstwhile State of Jammu<br />
and Kashmir into the Union<br />
Territories of Jammu and<br />
Kashmir and Ladakh is entirely<br />
an internal affair of India. We do<br />
not expect other countries,<br />
including China, to comment on<br />
the matters which are internal to<br />
India, just as India refrains from<br />
commenting on internal issues of<br />
other countries," the spokersperson<br />
said.<br />
Asserting that the Union<br />
Territories of Jammu and<br />
Kashmir and Ladakh are integral<br />
part of India, Kumar said: "We<br />
expect other countries to respect<br />
India's sovereignty and territorial<br />
integrity". Referring to the<br />
boundary question between<br />
India and China, he noted that<br />
the two countries have agreed to<br />
seek a fair, reasonable and mutually-accepted<br />
solution to the<br />
issue through peaceful consultations<br />
on the basis of the political<br />
parameters and guiding principles<br />
that were agreed in 2005.<br />
"This was reiterated also in the<br />
2nd India-China Informal<br />
Summit between Prime Minister<br />
Narendra Modi and President Xi<br />
Jinping in Chennai earlier this<br />
month. In the interim, the two<br />
sides have also agreed to maintain<br />
peace and tranquility in the<br />
border area," Kumar added.<br />
CBDT extends IT returns date<br />
in J&K, Ladakh till <strong>Nov</strong> 30<br />
New Delhi : <strong>The</strong> Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on<br />
Thursday extended, till <strong>Nov</strong>ember 30, the date for filing of Income<br />
Tax Returns for the assessees in all categories in newly-created<br />
Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in view of disruptions<br />
in internet services there.<br />
In an order, the CBDT said that it "further extends due date of filing<br />
of Income tax returns/tax audit reports to 30th <strong>Nov</strong>ember, 2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
in respect of all categories of income tax assessees in the Union<br />
Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh who<br />
were/are required to file the income tax returns/tax audit reports..."<br />
It said the extension is being given "on consideration of reports of<br />
disturbances in internet facility in certain areas of Jammu and<br />
Kashmir". <strong>The</strong> reference to "disturbances" was apparently to the partial<br />
suspension of internet services which continues there.<br />
"It is also clarified that ITRs filed by certain categories of income<br />
tax assessees who were required to file ITRs by 31.08.2<strong>01</strong>9 but have<br />
filed ITRs after 31.08.2<strong>01</strong>9 till the date of issuance of this order shall<br />
be deemed to have filed within the due date... ," the order said.<br />
SC will rule for Babri Masjid,<br />
Muslim body believes<br />
Shimla : <strong>The</strong> Himachal Pradesh High Court<br />
has issued notice to the Chief Secretary, the<br />
Principal Secretary, the Shimla Deputy<br />
Commissioner and the Municipal Corporation<br />
Commissioner on the issue of lack of playgrounds<br />
in the city.<br />
A Division Bench, comprising Justice<br />
Dharam Chand Chaudhary and Justice Jyotsna<br />
Rewal Dua, issued notices on a petition taken up<br />
suo moto as public interest litigation on a letter<br />
written to the Chief Justice by children of Nabha<br />
Estate, a government locality.<br />
<strong>The</strong> children wrote the city was getting overcrowded<br />
and more buildings were coming up<br />
squeezing out open space for them to play. <strong>The</strong><br />
biggest building in their area, Block No 34, had<br />
been demolished and there the government proposed<br />
to build three-four buildings there leaving<br />
very little open space for children.<br />
New Delhi : <strong>The</strong> central advisory<br />
council of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH)<br />
has said evidences and witnesses suggest<br />
the Supreme Court will rule in<br />
favour of the Babri Masjid. In a statement,<br />
released here on Thursday, the<br />
JIH's advisory council expressed satisfaction<br />
with the counsels representing<br />
the Muslim side in the Ayodhya title<br />
dispute.<br />
"<strong>The</strong>y put forth claims over the<br />
masjid with facts, evidence and witnesses",<br />
it said. <strong>The</strong> council also<br />
emphasised on the documentary evidence<br />
to stake rights over the masjid.<br />
Citing the probability of decision<br />
in its favour, the Muslim body said,<br />
"This will enhance the prestige of the<br />
Supreme Court. It will also erase the<br />
stain on India's polity, which it carried<br />
after the demolition of the Babri<br />
Masjid." <strong>The</strong> council said the entire<br />
world was awaiting the apex court<br />
judgment on the centuries-old dispute.<br />
<strong>The</strong> JIH council also expressed<br />
concern over Indian economy, exclusion<br />
of nearly 19 lakh people from the<br />
final list of the National Register of<br />
Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the<br />
Union Home Minister's statement that<br />
the NRC would be implemented<br />
across the nation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> NRC was a drain on the<br />
exchequer, a waste of human<br />
resources, and a harmful thing for the<br />
nation, it said. <strong>The</strong> council appealed<br />
all citizens, especially Muslims, to<br />
avoid unnecessary fear and anxiety.<br />
"As responsible citizens, they should<br />
update the necessary legal papers and<br />
documents in their possession," it<br />
said.<br />
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www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
It is a fact that politics and crime are<br />
inseparable particularly in India. Soutik<br />
Biswas argues that criminals get elected<br />
not only because many voters are illinformed,<br />
but also for sociopolitical reasons.<br />
According to a report released this<br />
April by the Association for Democratic<br />
Reforms (ADR), a nonprofit that works<br />
on electoral and political reform, a total<br />
of 1,580 Members of Parliament (MPs)<br />
and Member of Legislative Assemblies<br />
(MLAs), or approximately 33 percent of<br />
the legislators in India’s Parliament and<br />
state assemblies, have criminal cases<br />
pending against them.<br />
Gopal Kanda, Chief of Haryana<br />
Lokhit Party defeated his nearest rival<br />
Gokul Setia, an <strong>Independent</strong>, by a slender<br />
margin of 602. <strong>The</strong> victory of Gopal<br />
Kanda has raised the eyebrows of the<br />
leaders of National Democratic Party<br />
(NDA) government. His criminal background<br />
infuriated BJP Uma Bharti,<br />
Arun Singh, and many more leaders do<br />
not include Gopal Kanda in the formation<br />
of the government in Haryana. <strong>The</strong><br />
argument against Gopal Kanda is that<br />
his criminal background would cause<br />
political damage to the BJP in the forthcoming<br />
local body elections. According<br />
to the Association for Democratic<br />
Reforms (ADR) report 39 percent of<br />
winning candidates in 2<strong>01</strong>9 General<br />
elections of the BJP is of criminal background.<br />
<strong>The</strong> BJP in the state of Haryana<br />
is trying to kill two birds with one stone.<br />
On one hand, the BJP wants to project<br />
itself as a party with a difference and on<br />
the other hand, the BJP would like to<br />
use Gopal Kanda against Dushyant<br />
Chautala, the Jannayak Janata<br />
Party(JJP) Chief.<br />
No doubt, Gopal Kanda is an experienced<br />
politician as well a rich businessman<br />
of Sirsa. He is currently on the bail<br />
in the suicide case of Geetika Sharma, an<br />
air hostess who worked for his aviation<br />
ASIA<br />
Why GOPAL KANDA is<br />
Untouchable to the BJP<br />
company called<br />
then the leaders like<br />
MDLR Airlines. Due<br />
to his powerful influence<br />
in his constituency,<br />
he won despite<br />
Uma Bharti will never<br />
speak a word in the<br />
public. Since 2<strong>01</strong>4,<br />
many social scientists<br />
negative propaganda<br />
and political<br />
against him. Gopal<br />
Kanda knows very<br />
well the power of<br />
observers blame that<br />
the number of criminals<br />
in the BJP has<br />
money. Tax evasion<br />
increased manifold<br />
case and a threat to<br />
the Income Tax officials<br />
by the Kanda<br />
clique proves that in<br />
since the glue of political<br />
power attracts<br />
them to the BJP.<br />
Narendra Modi and<br />
India nothing is<br />
Amit Shah did not<br />
impossible if you<br />
take any political<br />
have the money and<br />
right political connections.<br />
stand in stopping the<br />
entry of the criminals<br />
We also cannot<br />
into the BJP.<br />
blame the gullible voters who run to vote be any objection by the BJP leaders to <strong>The</strong> litany is that the BJP rape case<br />
for the known criminals. Indian society, include him in the formation of the government.<br />
Uma Bharti, the BJP woman the top BJP leaders. It is observed that<br />
accused MPs, MLAs are pampered by<br />
at large, has become accustomed to voting<br />
to politicians with criminal background<br />
due to absence of a politician Pragya Singh Thakur, an active member ruling dispensation usually go scot-free.<br />
leader never made any statement against BJP rapists under the patronage of the<br />
with a clean image in the society. of the ABVP and later on joined the Even if they have to stay for some time<br />
Gopal Kanda offered his support to RSS, currently BJP Member<br />
in jail due to media pressure, they<br />
form the BJP government in Haryana of Parliament, accused in<br />
enjoy all comforts in the four<br />
but was rejected by the central the leadership<br />
Malegoan blast. Uma Bharti,<br />
walls of the jail. With the support<br />
of the BJP on the ground that<br />
of the ruling dispensation, the<br />
the BJP`s flagship programme “Betti – Dr. Rahul Kumar, PhD<br />
majority of the criminals get<br />
Bachao, Betti Padhao, shall embolden<br />
social antipathy against the BJP in did not raise objections<br />
tal with medical false reports and<br />
themselves admitted to the hospi-<br />
the state of Haryana.<br />
against Chinmayanand, rape<br />
enjoy all sorts of privileges and<br />
Gopal Kanda after winning assembly case accused; Kuldeep<br />
civic facilities. Conviction in<br />
election claims that he is an RSS man. Sengar, Unnao rape case accused. It all such cases is, comparatively to the<br />
His father was an RSS man. If Gopal shows that the BJP has a double standard.<br />
When it is the case of Brahmins low in India. Bindu, a litigator at<br />
developed nations of the world, is very<br />
Kanda claims that he has close connections<br />
with the RSS then there should not priests or BJP’s own political leaders Alternative Law Forum, nexus being<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
11<br />
formed between the public prosecutor,<br />
the police and the accused that collectively<br />
works against the victim in order<br />
to get the case withdrawn” Bindu said.<br />
“Many public prosecutors are extremely<br />
corrupt and I have seen one take money<br />
to derail the case in front of my<br />
eyes.”<strong>The</strong> antipathy of the police<br />
administration and patronage of the ruling<br />
dispensation have sent a loud and<br />
clear message to the rape victims at<br />
large that they should not dare to raise<br />
voice against the perpetrators.<br />
Due to nexus between criminals &<br />
politicians, the cleanliness of politics in<br />
India seems beyond redemption. Some<br />
scrupulous Judges in the Honorable<br />
Supreme Court & High Courts are<br />
found exasperated to deal with the<br />
nexus having the patronage of the ruling<br />
dispensation. Responding to such cases,<br />
Sapna Narang, High Court Lawyer, and<br />
activist argues that ‘Nothing will<br />
change unless the Parliament amends<br />
article 102 of the Constitution & provisions<br />
of the People`s Act to disqualify<br />
unworthy candidates.<br />
In contemporary times, the BJP is<br />
having a large number of politicians<br />
with a criminal background. <strong>The</strong> BJP<br />
cannot ignore Gopal Kanda for a long<br />
time since he has already won the seat.<br />
It is certain that he is going to play a<br />
crucial role in the Haryana State<br />
Assembly. Gopal Kanda is a snake in<br />
the pit of the BJP. Such politicians are<br />
very useful for the BJP to foment communal<br />
violence in the name of religion<br />
to divide and conquer so it is hoped that<br />
wealthy & politically well-connected,<br />
influential Gopal Kanda having a political,<br />
administrative experience shall not<br />
remain untouchable to the BJP in the<br />
coming months. Those who worked day<br />
& night to make Gopal Kanda victorious<br />
in the hope for some perks should<br />
wait patiently.<br />
Jansadharan Exp decorated with Sardar Patel's images<br />
New Delhi : To mark the 144th birth<br />
anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,<br />
the Indian Railways on Thursday<br />
upgraded the coaches of the<br />
Muzaffarpur-Ahmedabad Jansadharan<br />
weekly express into the LHB coach and<br />
also vinly wrapped it with the contribution<br />
of the Iron Man of the country.<br />
According to the railway ministry<br />
officials, the East Central Railway first<br />
upgraded the rake of the weekly train<br />
from the old ICF coaches to more safer<br />
Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ECR also vinyl wrapped the train<br />
showcasing the contribution of Sardar<br />
Patel in uniting India. <strong>The</strong> train has been<br />
decorated with photographs of important<br />
life events of Sardar Patel and his<br />
important quotes. <strong>The</strong> Muzaffarpur-<br />
Ahmedabad Jansadharan weekly<br />
express passes through the states of<br />
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and<br />
Gujarat to spread awareness among the<br />
masses about the role of Sardar Patel in<br />
uniting India. <strong>The</strong> train will departed<br />
from Muzaffarpur on Thursday at 9.20<br />
p.m. for Ahmedabad.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Narendra Modi government has<br />
been observing Patel's birth anniversary<br />
as 'Ekta Diwas' or National Unity Day<br />
since 2<strong>01</strong>4. As part of celebrations, various<br />
programmes are being organised<br />
across the country this year, recalling<br />
Sardar Patel's contribution to the unification<br />
of India.Prime Minister Narendra<br />
Modi also attended a special function<br />
organised in Kevadia in Gujarat, where<br />
statue of unity (world's largest statue)<br />
dedicated to Patel is located.<br />
On kanshi TV<br />
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12 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 NEWS<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Veteran CPI leader<br />
Gurudas Dasgupta dead,<br />
Prez, PM mourn<br />
New Delhi : After WhatsApp confirmed<br />
that Indian human rights<br />
activists and journalists were among<br />
those targeted by an Israeli spyware, a<br />
political blame game erupted on<br />
Thursday between the Bharatiya<br />
Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress,<br />
with some leaders demanding a parliamentary<br />
probe into the matter.<br />
"Indian users were among those<br />
contacted by us this week," a<br />
WhatsApp Spokesperson told IANS,<br />
without revealing the numbers or<br />
names of those affected. However,<br />
some individuals came out on their<br />
own on social media and news outlets,<br />
revealing they were among those<br />
affected by the spyware developed by<br />
Israeli cyber intelligence company<br />
NSO Group.<br />
<strong>The</strong> piece of NSO Group software<br />
called Pegasus allegedly exploited<br />
WhatsApp's video calling system with<br />
installing the spyware via giving<br />
missed calls to snoop on 1,400 select<br />
users globally. "Government of India<br />
is concerned at the breach of the privacy<br />
of citizens of India on the messaging<br />
platform Whatsapp. We have<br />
asked Whatsapp to explain the kind of<br />
breach and what it is doing to safeguard<br />
the privacy of millions of Indian<br />
citizens," tweeted IT Minister Ravi<br />
Shankar Prasad. "Those trying to<br />
Kolkata : Veteran communist<br />
leader and trade unionist<br />
Gurudas Dasgupta, considered a<br />
very capable parliamentarian,<br />
died at his south Kolkata residence<br />
on Thursday after a long<br />
battle with cancer. He was 82.<br />
Dasgupta, Deputy General<br />
Secretary of the Communist<br />
Party of India (CPI), passed away<br />
at 6 a.m. leaving behind his wife,<br />
a daughter and a granddaughter,<br />
family sources said.<br />
"He was admitted to Tata<br />
Medical Centre, where he was on<br />
ventilation also for some time.<br />
On Monday he was released from the hospital<br />
and brought home," party state<br />
Secretary, Swapan Banerjee, told IANS.<br />
President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime<br />
Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in<br />
paying homage to Dasgupta - a three-term<br />
Rajya Sabha member, who was also elected<br />
to the Lok Sabha twice --from Panskura<br />
in 2004 and Ghatal in 2009.<br />
He began his long parliamentary career<br />
following his election to the Upper House<br />
of Parliament in 1985, and made his mark<br />
with his erudition, fearless and articulate<br />
oratory, speaking out with a crusader's zeal<br />
against corruption, capitalism and what he<br />
always termed as the "neo-imperialist policies".<br />
He was twice re-elected to the Rajya<br />
Sabha in 1988 and 1994. Dasgupta lost the<br />
bypoll to the Panskura Lok Sabha constituency<br />
in West Bengal in 2000, but won<br />
the seat in the general elections four years<br />
later as a Left Front-backed candidate.<br />
Dasgupta was one of those parliamentarians<br />
who repeatedly highlighted the<br />
Bofors scandal that came into the public<br />
domain in the late 1980s during the prime<br />
ministerial stint of Rajiv Gandhi. He also<br />
served on the joint parliamentary committees<br />
formed to probe the securities scam<br />
and the 2G spectrum scandal.<br />
One of the tallest leaders of the Indian<br />
trade union movement, Dasgupta served<br />
the All India Trade Union Congress in various<br />
capacities including its General<br />
Secretary and Vice President. "He was one<br />
of those leaders who successfully brought<br />
all trade unions under a common platform<br />
in the interest of the workers. <strong>The</strong> strong<br />
joint trade union movements that we see<br />
nowadays is the result of that effort," said<br />
Banerjee. Kovind in his message expressed<br />
sadness over Dasgupta's demise and said<br />
he had a aforceful presence in the House.<br />
"A big loss for public life in Bengal and<br />
India. Condolences to his family, colleagues<br />
and well-wishers," the President<br />
said. Modi described Dasgupta<br />
as one of the "most committed<br />
and articulate proponents of his<br />
ideology". "He was a strong<br />
voice in Parliament, whose interventions<br />
were keenly heard<br />
across the political spectrum.<br />
Saddened by his passing away.<br />
May his soul rest in peace," Modi<br />
said on Twitter. West Bengal<br />
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee<br />
said Dasgupta will be remembered<br />
for his contribution to the<br />
nation as a Parliamentarian and<br />
trade union leader. Dasgupta's<br />
body has been kept in a South<br />
Kolkata mortuary, from where it will be<br />
taken on Friday morning to his residence,<br />
AITUC state headquarters and the CPI<br />
state committee headquarters before the<br />
last rites are performed at the Keoratala<br />
crematorium. Born on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 3, 1936,<br />
in Barishal (now in Bangladesh) of undivided<br />
Bengal, Dasgupta was baptised into<br />
politics through the student movement, and<br />
served as the President and General<br />
Secretary of the undivided Bengal<br />
Provincial Students' Federation between<br />
1958 and 1960. He became a Communist<br />
Party of India member in 1952 and was<br />
detained under Defence of India Rules in<br />
1965 and went underground on several<br />
occasions during the Congress rule in West<br />
Bengal. He visited various countries<br />
including Finland, France, Hungary, Italy,<br />
South Africa, the UK and erstwhile Soviet<br />
Union. A prolific writer, Dasgupta was a<br />
regular contributor to several Bengali and<br />
English newspapers.<br />
make political capital out of it need to<br />
be gently reminded about the bugging<br />
incident in the office of the then eminent<br />
Finance Minister Pranab<br />
Mukherjee during UPA regime. Also a<br />
gentle reminder of the spying over the<br />
then Army Chief Gen. V. K. Singh,"<br />
said Prasad. "<strong>The</strong>se are instances of<br />
breach of privacy of highly reputed<br />
individuals, for personal whims and<br />
fancies of a family," he added.<br />
<strong>The</strong> BJP also dared WhatsApp to<br />
reveal the names of those affected.<br />
<strong>The</strong> WhatsApp spygate immediately<br />
snowballed into a political controversy,<br />
with several Congress leaders<br />
blaming the BJP of being behind the<br />
WhatsApp snooping. "Modi Govt<br />
caught snooping! Appalling but not<br />
Surprising! After all, BJP Govt 1.<br />
Fought against our right to privacy. 2.<br />
Set up a multi crore Surveillance<br />
Structure until stopped by SC. SC<br />
must take immediate cognisance &<br />
issue notice to BJP Govt," tweeted<br />
Congress Party leader Randeep Singh<br />
Surjewala.<br />
Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill<br />
Kashmir situation can be<br />
resolved only with full respect<br />
for human rights: UN<br />
United Nations : Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned<br />
about the situation in Kashmir<br />
and is clear that it can only be resolved<br />
when human rights is respected, according<br />
to his Deputy Spokesperson Farhan<br />
Haq. Asked by a reporter at the noon<br />
briefing on Thursday about Kashmir<br />
being made into a Union Territory and<br />
losing its flag and Constitution, Haq said<br />
he was reiterating "our basic concerns<br />
that the Secretary-General has previously<br />
expressed, his concerns about the situation in Kashmir".<br />
"We make clear, particularly as the Human Right<br />
Commissioner (Michele Bachelet) has made clear, the situation<br />
in Kashmir can only be solved with full respect for human<br />
rights," he said. Guterres has met with representatives of India<br />
and Pakistan at their request to discuss the situation and he has<br />
appealed to both sides to deal with the situation through dialogue,<br />
he added. At the stroke of midnight on October 31, what<br />
was the state of Jammu and Kashmir was split into two Union<br />
Territories -- (1)Jammu and Kashmir and (2) Ladakh.<br />
This follows the central government's decision in August to<br />
revoke Article 370 of the constitution that gave Kashmir special<br />
status and Parliament passing the Jammu and Kashmir<br />
Reorganisation Act to make the change.<br />
AKSHAY KUMAR TEACHES US<br />
A LESSON IN HUMANITY<br />
Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar’s latest film ‘Housefull<br />
4’ is breaking records at the box office, and he<br />
is basking in the success of the film with his<br />
family. In a tweet posted through his Twitter<br />
account Akshay Kumar shared a ‘life lesson’<br />
that he and his daughter learnt yesterday<br />
morning, thanks to an elderly couple. Whilst<br />
walking in the morning, the father daughter<br />
duo chanced upon the humble home of an<br />
elderly couple and asked for a ‘sip of water’.<br />
In return the elderly couple not only offered<br />
water but fed Akshay Kumar and his daughter<br />
with ‘gur roti’. <strong>The</strong> actor was impressed by<br />
the couple’s kind gesture and posed for pictures<br />
which were later posted on Twitter. Akshay Kumar wrote<br />
saying ‘Today’s morning walk turned into a life lesson for the<br />
little one. We walked into this kind, old couple’s house for a sip<br />
of water and they made us the most delicious gur-roti. Truly,<br />
being kind costs nothing but means everything!’<br />
WhatsApp confirms Israeli bug snooped on Indians, politics on<br />
tweeted: "1) BJP Govt wanted Aadhar<br />
linked with phone 2) objected to right<br />
to privacy as fundamental right; 3)<br />
20/12/2<strong>01</strong>8 issued Notification authorising<br />
data snooping 4) WhatsApp<br />
snooping thru Israeli Software; Nextcameras<br />
in our Homes in name of<br />
Rashtravaad? Tricks of Bhrasht Jasoos<br />
Party?" Congress Party spokesperson<br />
Sanjay Jha tweeted: "Big Bro is<br />
watching, reading and analysing your<br />
#WhatsApp message".<br />
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has<br />
already sued NSO Group that exploited<br />
its video calling system to snoop on<br />
1,400 select users globally. Those targeted<br />
in India included the human<br />
rights activists who were arrested over<br />
their alleged involvement in the<br />
Bhima-Koregaon Dalit riots near Pune<br />
in January last year and some journalists.<br />
Of 1,400 affected users, over 20<br />
are academics, lawyers, Dalit activists<br />
and journalists from India.<br />
Sidhant Sibal, who is principal<br />
diplomatic and defence correspondent<br />
for WIONews, tweeted: "Here is the<br />
good news. WhatsApp was able to<br />
raise the alarm of hacking and they<br />
promptly took measures--Technical &<br />
Legal. Having being approached by<br />
them, they suggested measures to be<br />
safe online."<br />
According to WhatsApp, the NSO<br />
Group used the flaw to hack into users'<br />
smartphones. "It targeted at least 100<br />
human-rights defenders, journalists<br />
and other members of civil society<br />
across the world," the head of<br />
WhatsApp, Will Cathart, wrote in an<br />
op-ed published by <strong>The</strong> Washington<br />
Post. In a statement, NSO Group<br />
denied performing any such act, saying<br />
it disputed the allegations and<br />
vowed to "vigorously fight them."<br />
In May, WhatsApp urged its 1.5 billion<br />
users to upgrade the app after discovering<br />
the vulnerability that allowed<br />
a spyware to be installed on users'<br />
phones via the app's phone call function.<br />
NSO limits sales of Pegasus to<br />
state intelligence agencies and others.<br />
<strong>The</strong> software has the ability to collect<br />
intimate data from a target device.<br />
According to experts, the victims of<br />
the latest WhatsApp spyware attack<br />
may have lost important personal<br />
information including location data<br />
and email content. "<strong>The</strong> bug can be<br />
exploited based on a decades-old type<br />
of vulnerability - a buffer overflow,"<br />
Carl Leonard, Principal Security<br />
Analyst at cybersecurity company<br />
Forcepoint, told IANS.<br />
"One could assume that an attacker<br />
may seek out bulk contact lists, email<br />
data, location data or other personal<br />
information," Leonard added.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
HEALTH<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
13<br />
Eating tomatoes could<br />
increase sperm count<br />
LONDON : Tomatoes might<br />
cost you dearly in India nowadays,<br />
but adding one or two in<br />
your daily diet could keep your<br />
virility up and running, according<br />
to researchers. A dietary<br />
compound called Lacto<br />
Lycopene found in tomatoes has<br />
been shown to improve sperm<br />
quality and those took this supplement<br />
had almost 40 per cent<br />
more fast swimming sperm with<br />
improvements to sperm size and<br />
shape. “We didn’t really expect<br />
that at the end of the study, there<br />
would be any difference in the<br />
sperm from men who took the<br />
tablet versus those who took the<br />
placebo. When we decoded the<br />
results, I nearly fell off my<br />
chair,” said Allan Pacey,<br />
Professor of Andrology<br />
Reproduction and Head of the<br />
University of Sheffield’s<br />
Department of Oncology and<br />
Metabolism. <strong>The</strong> discovery<br />
could transform the outlook for<br />
men with fertility problems as<br />
sperm quality could be improved<br />
with a simple diet supplement<br />
containing LactoLycopene found<br />
in cooked tomatoes.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 12-week trial designed<br />
by Liz Williams, a leading specialist<br />
in human nutrition at the<br />
University of Sheffield, involved<br />
60 healthy volunteers aged 19-<br />
30. Half took LactoLycopene<br />
supplements and the other half<br />
took an identical placebo<br />
(dummy pills) every day for 12<br />
weeks. Sperm and blood samples<br />
were collected at the beginning<br />
and end of the trial.<br />
<strong>The</strong> team discovered that it is<br />
possible to increase the proportion<br />
of healthy shaped sperm<br />
(sperm morphology) and boost<br />
‘fast swimming’ sperm by around<br />
40 per cent. Lycopene can be<br />
found in some fruits and vegetables,<br />
but the main source in the<br />
diet is from tomatoes. Lycopene<br />
is a pigment that gives tomatoes<br />
their red colour, but the dietary<br />
Lycopene is poorly absorbed by<br />
the human body, so the compound<br />
used for the trial was a<br />
commercially available formulation<br />
called LactoLycopene;<br />
designed by FutureYou<br />
Cambridge to improve bioavailability.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> improvement in<br />
morphology, the size and shape<br />
of the sperm, was dramatic. This<br />
was the first properly designed<br />
and controlled study of the effect<br />
of LactoLycopene on semen<br />
quality, and it has spurred us to<br />
want to do more work with this<br />
molecule,” explained Pacey.<br />
“We were surprised by the<br />
improvement in sperm quality<br />
shown by the results,” added<br />
Williams in a paper published in<br />
the European Journal of<br />
Nutrition. <strong>The</strong> next step for<br />
researchers is to repeat the exercise<br />
in men with fertility problems<br />
and see if LactoLycopene<br />
can increase sperm quality for<br />
those men and whether it helps<br />
couples conceive and avoid<br />
invasive fertility treatments.<br />
World Mental Health Day :<br />
EAT HAPPY TO FEEL HAPPY<br />
Feeling down in the dumps,<br />
consumed with anxiety at the<br />
thought of the day ahead or unable<br />
to muster the energy to face the<br />
outside world? Your mood<br />
enhancer is as close as the fridge,<br />
stocked hopefully with “happy<br />
food” like banana and berries, kale<br />
and cabbage. ‘You are what you<br />
eat’ should be an everyday mantra<br />
to keep you healthy in body and<br />
also to keep you fit mentally is the<br />
new thinking in the medical community,<br />
which is increasingly<br />
using “nutritional psychiatry” to<br />
combat a spectrum of ailments.<br />
Consuming a “happy diet” can<br />
help “avoid, treat and prevent”<br />
depression, anxiety, post traumatic<br />
stress disorder (PTSD) and other<br />
mental illnesses, said several medical<br />
consultants and researchers on World<br />
Mental Health Day, observed every year on<br />
October 10.<br />
According to clinical psychologist Preeti<br />
Singh, research in the field of nutritional<br />
psychiatry has shown that optimisation of<br />
micro-nutrients is a “viable way to avoid,<br />
treat and prevent mental illnesses”.<br />
A “happy diet” can comprise leafy vegetables<br />
like kale, cabbage and spinach as<br />
well as broccoli, mushrooms, red/yellow bell<br />
peppers, zucchini, onions, oregano, and vitamin<br />
rich fruits like berries, apples, oranges,<br />
peaches and pears. Proteins can be consumed<br />
in the form of eggs, cheese, chicken and fish,<br />
while nuts, almonds, and pistachios can supply<br />
the micro-nutrients.<br />
<strong>The</strong> mental health awareness movement<br />
gained momentum in India when Bollywood<br />
actor Deepika Padukone opened up about her<br />
battle with depression in 2<strong>01</strong>5, reassuring<br />
those suffering that it was ‘okay to not feel<br />
okay’. A 2<strong>01</strong>8 study by global medical journal<br />
Lancet noted that people with mental illnesses<br />
accounted for nearly 6.5 per cent of<br />
the Indian population, which, it said, was<br />
likely to increase to 20 per cent in 2020.<br />
Diagnosed with clinical depression, anxiety<br />
and PTSD a few years ago, UK-based<br />
teacher Kasturi Roy Bardhan said she found<br />
relief in medication, face-to-face therapy as<br />
well as a change in diet. She was unable to<br />
find work for a long time and, when she did,<br />
dragging herself to work became an “everyday<br />
battle”, she recalled.“Making sure you are eating<br />
healthy, or food that you generally associate<br />
with positive memories or thoughts makes<br />
you feel better emotionally,” the 29-year-old<br />
said. A September 2<strong>01</strong>9 study conducted by<br />
Australia’s Deakin University revealed that<br />
dietary intervention can reduce depressive<br />
symptoms in individuals more efficiently than<br />
social support, which is known to be helpful<br />
for people with mental health issues.<br />
For the experiment, adults with major<br />
depressive disorders were recruited and randomly<br />
assigned to receive either social support<br />
or support from a clinical dietician over<br />
a three-month period. <strong>The</strong> results showed<br />
that around 33 per cent of those in the dietary<br />
support group met criteria for remission of<br />
major depression, compared to only 8 per<br />
cent of those in the social support group.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> results of the team’s new study offer<br />
a possible new treatment approach to depression,<br />
one of the world’s most prevalent and<br />
costly medical disorders,” Felice Jacka,<br />
director of Deakin’s Food and Mood Centre,<br />
said in the report. Biologically put, chemicals<br />
produced in the gut also affect the brain,<br />
and by altering the type of food, it is possible<br />
to improve one’s brain health. “Food is generally<br />
associated with just weight<br />
loss and weight gain,” said<br />
Mumbai-based nutritional consultant<br />
Jaydeep Bhuta. He explained<br />
that consumption of certain food<br />
items help release happy hormones<br />
that get processed by the<br />
brain and help improving the<br />
mood. “<strong>The</strong>re’s a saying—‘You<br />
are what you eat’. It simply means<br />
that whatever you eat, directly<br />
affects the structure and function<br />
of your brain and, ultimately your<br />
mood,” Bhuta said.<br />
Banana, for instance, is known<br />
to be a great mood uplifter, added<br />
Delhi-based nutritionist Surbhi<br />
Aggarwal. “It releases the happy<br />
hormone serotonin. So, we can<br />
say, ‘Eating one banana every day,<br />
keeps the mental health issues<br />
away’,” she added. One can keep the happiness<br />
metre high by consuming antioxidantrich<br />
products such as apricots, carrots, sweet<br />
potatoes, kiwis, tomatoes, along with healthy<br />
carbohydrates that can be found in abundance<br />
in legumes. Gurgaon-based theatre<br />
artiste Sakshi Gandhi was prescribed food<br />
rich in iron, and vitamin D to treat her<br />
depression, which was adversely affecting<br />
her day-to-day life. Her sleeping patterns<br />
changed, she would have disturbing thoughts<br />
and completely stopped socialising, she said.<br />
“A change in diet along with exercises was<br />
prescribed. It helped in overall increase of<br />
energy levels, and I stopped feeling exhausted,<br />
both mentally and physically,” she added.<br />
Both medical experts as well as nutritionists<br />
agree that while a balanced diet can<br />
enhance the treatment of mental illnesses, it<br />
is not an alternative to traditional medication.<br />
“Right food can enhance positive effect<br />
of medication but this can’t be an alternative<br />
to psychotropic drugs (medication capable of<br />
affecting the mind, emotions, and behaviour),”<br />
said Shweta Sharma, clinical psychologist<br />
at Gurgaon’s Columbia Asia hospital.<br />
“With the right diet, one can control side<br />
effects and the duration to continue the medication,”<br />
she added. So if you are not feeling<br />
great, talk to friends, exercise, seek professional<br />
help—but also remember to eat happy.<br />
India biggest success<br />
story among malaria<br />
endemic countries<br />
New Delhi : India has been<br />
the biggest success story<br />
amongst malaria endemic<br />
countries in the world in bringing<br />
down malaria cases and<br />
deaths, which have declined by<br />
49.09 per cent and 50.52 per<br />
cent in 2<strong>01</strong>7, respectively, as<br />
compared to 2<strong>01</strong>3.<br />
This was apprised to the<br />
Union Cabinet chaired by<br />
Prime Minister Narendra Modi<br />
in a briefing on the progress<br />
under the National Health<br />
Mission (NHM) and decisions<br />
of the Empowered Programme<br />
Committee and Mission<br />
Steering Group of the NHM.<br />
Apart from the success in<br />
controlling malaria, there has<br />
been acceleration in decline of<br />
Maternal Mortality Ratio<br />
(MMR), and Under Five<br />
Mortality Rate (U5MR) since<br />
the launch of the<br />
NRHM/NHM. At the current<br />
rate of decline, India should<br />
able to reach its SDG target<br />
much before the due year of<br />
2030. As per the progress<br />
report, the Revised National<br />
Tuberculosis Control<br />
Programme (RNTCP) has been<br />
significantly strengthened and<br />
intensified. Due to the intensified<br />
efforts, there is 16 per cent<br />
jump in identification of new<br />
cases in one year. Universal<br />
drug sensitive cases also<br />
increased by 54 per cent.<br />
In 2<strong>01</strong>8, Measles-Rubella<br />
(MR) vaccination drive was conducted<br />
in 17 additional state,<br />
thereby covering 30.50 crore<br />
children till March 2<strong>01</strong>9. In<br />
2<strong>01</strong>8-19, 52,744 Ayushman<br />
Bharat-Health and Wellness<br />
Centress were approved against<br />
which 17,149 HWCs were operationalized<br />
against the target of<br />
<strong>15</strong>,000. A total of 1.81 lakh<br />
health workers which included<br />
ASHAs, MPHWs, Staff Nurses<br />
and PHC-MOs were trained on<br />
NCDs during 2<strong>01</strong>8-19. <strong>The</strong><br />
states have initiated activities to<br />
operationalise the HWCs.<br />
During 2<strong>01</strong>8-19, rotavirus vaccine<br />
(RVV) was introduced in<br />
additional two states. By now, all<br />
the states/UTs are covered with<br />
RVV. In addition, during the<br />
year, pneumococcal conjugated<br />
vaccine (PCV) was expanded to<br />
MP, Haryana and the remaining<br />
districts of Bihar, Rajasthan and<br />
Uttar Pradesh. <strong>The</strong> National<br />
Viral Hepatitis Control<br />
Programme was approved for<br />
prevention, management and<br />
treatment of Hepatitis to A, B, C<br />
and E and rollout was initiated.<br />
This would benefit an estimated<br />
5 crore patients of hepatitis.
14 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 HEALTH<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Babies understand counting years earlier than believed<br />
NEW YORK : Babies who are years away<br />
from being able to say 'one', 'two', and 'three' actually<br />
already have a sense of what counting means,<br />
said a new study.<br />
"Research like ours shows that babies actually<br />
have a pretty sophisticated understanding of the<br />
world—they're already trying to make sense of<br />
what adults around them are saying, and that<br />
includes this domain of counting and numbers,"<br />
said the study's senior author Lisa Feigenson from<br />
the Johns Hopkins University in the US.<br />
For the study, published in the journal<br />
Developmental Science, the researchers worked<br />
with 14 and 18-month-old infants.<br />
<strong>The</strong> babies watched as toys, little dogs or cars,<br />
were hidden in a box that they couldn't see inside<br />
of, but could reach into.<br />
Sometimes the researchers counted each toy<br />
aloud as they dropped them into the box, saying,<br />
'Look! One, two, three, four—four dogs!' Other<br />
times the researchers simply dropped each toy into<br />
the box, saying, 'This, this, this and this—these<br />
dogs'. Without counting, the babies had a hard time<br />
remembering that the box held four things.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y tended to become distracted after the<br />
researchers pulled just one out—as if there was<br />
nothing else to see. But when the toys were counted,<br />
the babies clearly expected more than one to be<br />
pulled from the box. According to the study, they<br />
didn't remember the exact but they did remember<br />
the approximate number.<br />
"When we counted the toys for the babies<br />
before we hid them, the babies were much better at<br />
remembering how many toys there were," said the<br />
study's researcher Jenny Wang, Assistant Professor<br />
at the Rutgers University.<br />
Poor toilet hygiene, not food,<br />
behind superbug spread<br />
London : Poor toilet hygiene, rather than<br />
undercooked chicken or other food, may be<br />
behind the spread of antibiotic-resistant E.<br />
coli bacteria, a study has found.<br />
People harmlessly carry E. coli bacteria in<br />
their gut, as do animals. However, some<br />
strains cause food poisoning whereas others<br />
cause urinary tract infections (UTIs), and<br />
infections after gut surgery, according to the<br />
researchers from the University of East<br />
Anglia (UEA) in the UK.<br />
E. coli has become considerably more<br />
antibiotic resistant over the past 20 years<br />
both in humans and animals, the researchers<br />
said. Particularly important are strains with<br />
'Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamases<br />
(ESBLs) -- enzymes that destroy many<br />
important penicillin and cephalosporin<br />
antibiotics, they said. However, until now, it<br />
has not been known whether antibioticresistant<br />
E. coli that cause bloodstream<br />
infections are picked up via the food chain,<br />
or passed from person to person.<br />
Researchers showed how they sequenced<br />
the genomes of resistant E. coli from multiple<br />
sources across the UK -- including from<br />
human bloodstream infections, human faeces,<br />
human sewerage, animal slurry and meat<br />
including beef, pork and chicken, and fruit<br />
and salad. <strong>The</strong> findings, published in <strong>The</strong><br />
Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, show<br />
that antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' strains of<br />
E. coli from human blood, faeces and sewerage<br />
samples were similar to one another.<br />
Strain 'ST131' dominated among ESBL-<br />
E. coli from all these human sample types,<br />
the researchers said. <strong>The</strong>y found that resistant<br />
E. coli strains from meat, principally<br />
chicken, cattle and animal slurry were largely<br />
different to those infecting humans.<br />
ST131 was scarcely seen. Instead, strains<br />
ST23, 117 and ST602 dominated, according<br />
to the researchers. <strong>The</strong>y found there was little<br />
crossover of ESBL-E. coli from animals<br />
to humans. <strong>The</strong> researchers looked at more<br />
than 20,000 faecal samples and around nine<br />
per cent were positive for ESBL-E. coli<br />
across the regions, except for in London,<br />
where the carriage rate was almost double --<br />
at 17 per cent. "We found ESBL-E. coli in 65<br />
per cent of retail chicken samples -- ranging<br />
from just over 40 per cent in Scotland to over<br />
80 per cent in Northwest England," said<br />
David Livermore, from UEA's Norwich<br />
Medical School. "But the strains of resistant<br />
E. coli, were almost entirely different from<br />
the types found in human faeces, sewage and<br />
bloodstream infections," Livermore said.<br />
"Only a very few beef and pork samples<br />
tested positive, and we didn't detect ESBL-E.<br />
coli at all in 400 fruit and vegetable samples -<br />
- many of which were imported to the UK,"<br />
he said. <strong>The</strong> results show that there are<br />
human-adapted strains of ESBL-E. coli, principally<br />
ST131, which dwell in the gut and<br />
which occasionally -- usually via UTIs -- go<br />
on to cause serious infections. <strong>The</strong>y study<br />
also shows that there are animal strains of<br />
ESBL-E. coli. "But -- and critically -- there's<br />
little crossover between strains from humans,<br />
chickens and cattle. <strong>The</strong> great majority of<br />
strains of ESBL-E. coli causing human infections<br />
aren't coming from eating chicken, or<br />
anything else in the food chain," David added.<br />
More Indians prefer physical wellbeing over mental: Survey<br />
New Delhi, A majority of Indians,<br />
at 75 per cent, are preoccupied about<br />
their physical wellbeing, over mental<br />
wellbeing at 62 per cent, a survey by<br />
global market reseach agency Ipsos<br />
has found.<br />
<strong>The</strong> survey, conducted to coincide<br />
with the World Mental Health Day,<br />
found 64 per cent Indians believe that<br />
is equally important to have both,<br />
physical and mental health.<br />
Indians want a clear shift in the<br />
handling and perception of mental illness.<br />
As many as 64 per cent Indians<br />
want the stigma attached with mental<br />
health issues to go and they would prefer<br />
if it was treated like any other illness.<br />
Further, 74 per cent Indians<br />
Thousands of<br />
patients suffer as<br />
doctors strike<br />
work in TN<br />
Chennai, For the second day in succession, thousands of patients<br />
in government hospitals in Tamil Nadu continue to suffer as around<br />
17,000 doctors are on a strike since Friday, demanding pay parity.<br />
Besides pay parity with their counterparts in the Central government,<br />
the doctors are also demanding the implementation of the timebound<br />
promotion, and the non-reduction in the numbers of the doctors<br />
in hospitals.<br />
<strong>The</strong> striking doctors have said that in patients will not be examined<br />
unless an emergency happens and life saving/medical/surgical<br />
emergencies will be attended to.<br />
Meanwhile, on Friday DMK President M.K. Stalin urged the<br />
Tamil Nadu government and the striking doctors to hold talks and<br />
find a solution as patients were suffering.<br />
exhort adoption of a more tolerant attitude<br />
towards those with mental illness<br />
in the society. <strong>The</strong> survey also shows a<br />
more positive and empathetic change<br />
coming about towards those with<br />
signs of mental health conditions with<br />
64 per cent urban Indians believe seeing<br />
a mental health specialist or therapist,<br />
as a sign of strength. “Indians are<br />
recognising that being healthy and<br />
well is a combination of both, physical<br />
and mental wellbeing and both work<br />
in tandem. Also mental health issues<br />
are like any other illness and it is<br />
alright to see a doctor for alleviating<br />
symptoms,” says Monica Gangwani,<br />
Executive Director & Country Service<br />
Line Leader, Healthcare, Ipsos India.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ipsos survey found that views<br />
around mental health somewhat disjointed<br />
and devoid of clear consensus.<br />
Aout half of Indians polled (52 per<br />
cent), disagree that increased spending<br />
on mental health services is a waste of<br />
money. However, 27 per cent think it<br />
is a wasteful expenditure, while 17 per<br />
cent were neutral, 3 per cent were<br />
undecided and 1 per cent refused to<br />
tender opinion.<br />
As many as 39 per cent Indians<br />
reject exclusion of someone from public<br />
office, on the grounds of mental<br />
health history, while 32 per cent agree<br />
on exclusion, 25 per cent were neutral,<br />
3 per cent undecided and 1 per cent<br />
refused an opinion.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
HEALTH<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
<strong>15</strong><br />
Obesity causes diabetes in women,<br />
KIDNEY DISEASE IN MEN<br />
London : Obesity poses a higher risk of type<br />
2 diabetes in women, and Chronic Obstructive<br />
Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and chronic kidney<br />
disease in men, said a new study from the<br />
University of Oxford. “<strong>The</strong> study shows just how<br />
harmful carrying excess weight can be to human<br />
health, and that women and men may experience<br />
different diseases as a result,” said the study’s<br />
first author Jenny Censin. To identify additional<br />
causes of death made worse by obesity,<br />
researchers performed an analysis that explores<br />
cause-and-effect relationships using genetic data<br />
and three measures of obesity from 228,466<br />
women and 195,041 men in the UK Biobank.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir analysis showed that obesity contributes<br />
to a laundry list of health problems including<br />
coronary artery disease, type 1 and 2 diabetes,<br />
stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,<br />
lung cancer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,<br />
chronic liver disease and kidney failure.<br />
While obesity causes type 2 diabetes in both<br />
women and men, women experienced a higher<br />
risk of type 2 diabetes as compared to men, while<br />
men faced a greater risk of chronic obstructive<br />
pulmonary disease and chronic kidney disease.<br />
“Given the compelling evidence of harm that<br />
arises as a consequence of obesity across a broad<br />
range of diseases that result in death, our findings<br />
highlight the critical need for public health<br />
measures to stem the tide of obesity,” said<br />
researcher Michael Holmes, who supervised the<br />
work together with researcher Cecilia Lindgren.<br />
Overall, the study found that obesity causes or<br />
contributes to the majority of the leading causes<br />
of death worldwide that are not linked to the<br />
infectious diseases.<br />
<strong>The</strong> impact of obesity, however, manifests differently<br />
in men and women.<br />
BAD BREAKUPS<br />
may not trigger<br />
Facebook use may<br />
not make kids<br />
depressed: Study<br />
NEW YORK : That pint of ice<br />
cream after a nasty breakup may not<br />
do as much damage as you think.<br />
Despite the emotional turmoil, people<br />
on average do not report gaining<br />
weight after a relationship dissolution,<br />
says a new study.<br />
According to the researchers, it has<br />
been well documented that people<br />
sometimes use food as a way to cope<br />
with negative feelings and that emotional<br />
eating can lead to unhealthy<br />
food choices.<br />
"...our research showed that while<br />
it's possible people may drown their<br />
weight gain: Study<br />
sorrows in ice cream for a day or two,<br />
modern humans do not tend to gain<br />
weight after a breakup," said study<br />
author Marissa Harrison, Associate<br />
Professor at Penn State University in<br />
the US.<br />
Breakups can be stressful and emotional,<br />
it could potentially trigger emotional<br />
eating.<br />
"Food was much scarcer in the<br />
ancestral environment, so if your partner<br />
abandoned you, it could have<br />
made gathering food much harder,"<br />
Harrison added. For the study, published<br />
in the Journal of the<br />
Evolutionary Studies Consortium, the<br />
researchers completed two studies to<br />
test the theory that people may be<br />
more likely to gain weight after a relationship<br />
breakup. In the first one, the<br />
researchers recruited 581 people to<br />
complete an online survey about<br />
whether they had recently gone<br />
through a breakup and whether they<br />
gained or lost weight within a year of<br />
the breakup.<br />
Most of the participants—62.7 per<br />
cent—reported no weight change.<br />
For the second study, the<br />
researchers recruited 261 new participants<br />
to take a different, more extensive<br />
survey than the one used in the<br />
first study. <strong>The</strong> new survey asked<br />
whether participants had ever experienced<br />
the dissolution of a long-term<br />
relationship, and whether they gained<br />
or lost weight as a result.<br />
<strong>The</strong> survey also asked about participants'<br />
attitudes toward their ex-partner,<br />
how committed the relationship<br />
was, who initiated the breakup,<br />
whether the participants tended to eat<br />
emotionally, and how much participants<br />
enjoy food in general. While all<br />
participants reported experiencing a<br />
break up at some point in their lives,<br />
the majority of participants—65.13<br />
per cent—reported no change in<br />
weight after relationship dissolution.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> only thing we found was in<br />
the second study, women who already<br />
had a proclivity for emotional eating<br />
did gain weight after a relationship<br />
breakup. But it wasn't common,"<br />
Harrison added.<br />
New York : <strong>The</strong> amount of time<br />
spent on social media is not directly<br />
adding to the anxiety or depression<br />
issues in teenagers, say reseachers<br />
from Brigham Young University.<br />
<strong>The</strong> study, published in the journal<br />
Computers in Human Behavior, shows<br />
that it is not merely the amount of time<br />
spent on social media that’s leading to<br />
an increase in depression or anxiety<br />
among adolescents.<br />
“We spent eight years trying to really<br />
understand the relationship between<br />
time spent on social media and depression<br />
for developing teenagers,” said<br />
study author Sarah Coyne, Professor<br />
at Brigham Young University in the<br />
US. “If they increased their social<br />
media time, would it make them more<br />
depressed? Also, if they decreased<br />
their social media time, were they less<br />
depressed? <strong>The</strong> answer is no. We<br />
found that time spent on social media<br />
was not what was impacting anxiety or<br />
depression,” Coyne added.<br />
Mental health is a multi-process<br />
syndrome, where no one stressor is<br />
likely to be the cause of depression or<br />
anxiety. For the study, researchers<br />
worked with 500 youth between the<br />
ages of 13 and 20, who completed<br />
once-yearly questionnaires over an<br />
eight-year span. Social media use was<br />
measured by asking participants how<br />
much time they spent on social networking<br />
sites on a typical day. To<br />
measure depression and anxiety, participants<br />
responded to questions with<br />
different scales to indicate depressive<br />
symptoms and anxiety levels.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se results were then analysed on<br />
an individual level to see if there was<br />
a strong correlation between the two<br />
variables. At age 13, adolescents<br />
reported an average social networking<br />
use of 31-60 minutes per day.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se average levels increased<br />
steadily so that by young adulthood,<br />
they were reporting upwards of two<br />
hours per day. According to the<br />
researchers, this increase of social networking,<br />
though, did not predict future<br />
mental health. That is, adolescents’<br />
increase in social networking beyond<br />
their typical levels did not predict<br />
changes in anxiety or depression one<br />
year later. Researchers suggest some<br />
healthier ways to use social media: Be<br />
an active user instead of a passive<br />
user. Instead of just scrolling, actively<br />
comment, post and like other content.<br />
Limit social media use at least an<br />
hour before falling asleep. Getting<br />
enough sleep is one of the most protective<br />
factors for mental health, the<br />
researchers said.
16 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 ENTERTAINMENT<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Parineeti to visit Saina’s<br />
Hyderabad home to<br />
prepare for BIOPIC<br />
Sunny Leone draws flak<br />
for copying artwork,<br />
ACTOR RESPONDS<br />
Hyderabad : Actress Parineeti Chopra, who is all set to play<br />
Saina Nehwal on screen, will be visiting the ace badminton player’s<br />
home here for the first time, as part fo preparation for her<br />
role. “I want to become Saina. For that I want to go to her house<br />
and see how she lives. We have met many times, but this time I<br />
want to go to her house, live like her and eat like her for a day.<br />
She has promised me that her mom will feed me the exact food<br />
that Saina eats. So I am excited to go to her house and live her<br />
life for one whole day,” Parineeti said.<br />
Bollywood actors working in biopics have been known to<br />
make the extra effort to bring alive the character on screen. In the<br />
recent past, actor Ranveer Singh spent 10 days with Kapil Dev,<br />
to prepare for his role of the Indian cricketer in “83”. Earlier,<br />
Priyanka Chopra Jonas spent time with boxer Mary Kom to<br />
essay the wrestler’s life story. <strong>The</strong> Saina Nehwal biopic is directed<br />
by Amole Gupte and is being produced by T-series.<br />
Would love to go on<br />
long drive with wife<br />
Anushka: Virat Kohli<br />
Mumbai, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli has said he<br />
would like to go on a long drive with his actress wife Anushka<br />
Sharma when they get the time.<br />
“We haven’t been able to go on long drives as times have been<br />
hectic. Whenever you get time, you go for a holiday mostly, so,<br />
may be, when I spend more time in the city and at home, I will<br />
find places to go for long drives. I think highway is a good place<br />
to go on for a long drive,” said VIrat.<br />
Asked who he would love to take on a long drive, Virat’s reply<br />
was instant. “My wife for sure. Isn’t that obvious?” he quipped,<br />
talking about his better half, actress Anushka Sharma.<br />
Where would he love to go on a long drive?<br />
“You don’t really think about where you want to go when you<br />
go on a long drive. You just get into the car, find a long stretch<br />
which is never ending and just keep going.<br />
Whenever you feel like you are done then just take turn back<br />
and come back home and usually, it would be at night when there<br />
is less traffic. You just have to put on some nice music and great<br />
weather would be handy as well so in the future, when I am in<br />
the city and at home, we will be going for more drives than we<br />
are at the moment,” said Virat, interacting with the media at the<br />
launch of Audi A6, as brand ambassador of the luxury car brand<br />
on Thursday in Mumbai.<br />
Mumbai : Actress Sunny Leone has<br />
been blasted on social media for copying<br />
for charity an artwork originally painted by<br />
French illustrator Malika Favre.<br />
<strong>The</strong> anonymous Instagram account<br />
Dietsabya called out the similarity on<br />
Monday, sharing snapshots of similar photographs<br />
of Favre and Sunny’s painting.<br />
“We are all for charity, but stealing an<br />
artist’s original work - without credit - and<br />
auctioning it off for charity (as your own)<br />
is just dirty. Left: original by<br />
@malikafavre; right: w* by @sunnyleone,”<br />
the snapshot was captioned.<br />
This forced the Instagram account to<br />
call the actress out on social media.<br />
<strong>The</strong> actress soon replied that she had not<br />
copied the original artwork but was given a<br />
photograph from which she drew her painting.<br />
She wrote: “Hello. Just to give you the<br />
correct information , I was given a photograph<br />
of this piece of art. I then decided to<br />
paint it! At no time did I claim to come up<br />
with the idea. I simply painted a piece of art<br />
that I saw and loved. It should be taken as a<br />
compliment as it was being donated to cancer<br />
patients for charity. “Nothing more and<br />
nothing less. Sorry you don’t like the version<br />
that I choose to create while helping<br />
Kajal Aggarwal wants<br />
to get married soon<br />
Mumbai, Actress Kajal Aggarwal says<br />
she plans to get married soon.<br />
<strong>The</strong> actress opened up about her plans to<br />
settle down during a conversation with<br />
Lakshmi Manchu on VOOT’s “Feet Up with<br />
the Stars Telugu”. When Lakshmi asked her<br />
about her wedding plans, Kajal said: “Yes, I<br />
am planning for a wedding soon.” Asked<br />
about the qualities that she would want in<br />
her husband, she said: “Quite a lot of things,<br />
but most importantly he should be possessive,<br />
caring and spiritual.” <strong>The</strong> actress also<br />
opened up about her beliefs, saying “I’m<br />
very Spiritual, I even have a small idol of<br />
Lord Shiva which travels with me wherever<br />
I go.” When the host asked her “Kill, Hook<br />
Up or Marry”, she said: “Ram Charan —<br />
Kill, N. T. Rama Rao Jr.<br />
Mumbai, Raveena Tandon turned a<br />
year older on Saturday, and it was a<br />
working birthday for the “Mohra”<br />
actress. Raveena, who is currently judging<br />
the dance based reality TV show<br />
“Nach Baliye 9”, reserved the day for<br />
work and quality time with her family.<br />
“Usually on birthdays, people examine<br />
their lives. I think it’s best to do that<br />
while at work. My family is the centre<br />
of everything I do. Spending time with<br />
loved ones and my kids helps me<br />
children in Need. <strong>The</strong> painting was not<br />
about you or I. It was about trying to help!<br />
Best of luck! Keep creating.” Dietsabya then<br />
shared Favre’s response to Sunny’s painting<br />
on their Instagram stories. “Sunny Leone a<br />
Actress Nia Sharma's glitzy<br />
silver lehenga caught fire at a<br />
Diwali party.<br />
Nia took to Instagram stories<br />
to share details of her little<br />
mishap, revealing that her<br />
lehenga caught fire by a diya at<br />
the party. She did not sustain<br />
injuries thanks to the layers in<br />
her outfit.<br />
She shared a photograph of<br />
the burnt ensemble and said<br />
that she is still unsure of how<br />
she was saved from injury.<br />
<strong>The</strong> actress wrote: "<strong>The</strong> power of a<br />
diya. Caught fire in a second! I got saved<br />
by the layers in my outfit or some guards<br />
you and protects you." Nia was seen dancing<br />
at the party with singer Guru<br />
credit would have been the minimum...<br />
Intellectual property is a thing you know?<br />
What if I didn’t want a copy of my work to<br />
be copied by you and auctioned? <strong>The</strong> cause<br />
is commendable, the attitude not so much.”<br />
Nia Sharma's lehenga<br />
catches fire at Diwali<br />
party, picture goes viral<br />
appreciate the little joys of life. I am<br />
fortunate to have a loving family and<br />
also an extended work family. Both<br />
keep me grounded,” she said.<br />
She also celebrated her birthday on<br />
Friday evening on the sets of “Nach<br />
Baliye 9”. She was surprised when her<br />
whole family, including her parents, inlaws<br />
and daughter, turned up to celebrate<br />
the occasion. Raveena, 45, recently<br />
featured in the recreated version of<br />
her hit song “Sheher Ki Ladki”.<br />
Randhawa. <strong>The</strong> bash was also attended by<br />
Mika Singh and Kapil Sharma among others.<br />
On the work front, Nia will next be<br />
seen in the fourth installment of Ekta<br />
Kapoor's hit franchise, ‘Naagin’.<br />
Work keeps me grounded: Raveena Tandon
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Star Bharat’s show Musakaan is<br />
known to be one of the favourites of<br />
audiences. Viewers will witness<br />
major plot twist. Soon a new entrant<br />
will be seen and it is none other<br />
than TV actress Kritika Sengar,<br />
whose acting has been appreciated<br />
for her roles in Kasautii Zindagii<br />
Kay, Jhansi Ki Rani, Punar Vivaah<br />
and Kasam Tere Pyaar Ki.<br />
According to sources from the production<br />
house, Kritika will play the<br />
role of a parallel lead in Musakaan.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re will be a six-year leap in the<br />
storyline. Raunak and Muskaan<br />
(Ssharad Malhotra and Yesha<br />
Rughani) will once again separate<br />
from each other.<br />
Reportedly, Kritika will be seen<br />
as Raunak’s new, second wife as he<br />
gets separated from his first wife<br />
Muskaan. <strong>The</strong> actress has worked<br />
in many shows. During this time,<br />
her performances for the roles of a<br />
sister-in-law, daughter and daughter-in-law<br />
have always been appreciated.<br />
ENTERTAINMENT<br />
New leading lady<br />
Kritika Sengar bags the parallel lead in Musakaan post time leap<br />
Strength of a woman<br />
Tahira Kashyap’s journey through battling cancer<br />
has been exemplary,<br />
which has given hope<br />
to many. She recently<br />
said while she was<br />
advised to not reveal<br />
cancer, she decided to<br />
do it. Now, that she has<br />
emerged victorious<br />
after undergoing treatment,<br />
Tahira is determined<br />
to keep the dialogue<br />
going. She will<br />
be part of a discussion<br />
in Chandigarh on<br />
October 29 for Leaf &<br />
Life organisation, run<br />
by Rohini Mahajan,<br />
which grows and supplies Microgreens.<br />
Talking about the campaign, Tahira says, “It is very<br />
important to share your story, but not stop at that.<br />
Microgreens encourage a healthy lifestyle and it’s a<br />
great honour to discuss with women why and how<br />
they should choose a lifestyle high on nutrition.”<br />
When Anupam Kher learned a life<br />
lesson in the ninth standard!<br />
Clearly, he has had a rollercoaster<br />
of a ride through his 35-<br />
year-long film journey, since his<br />
1984 breakthrough with<br />
Saaransh. And that’s exactly<br />
what Anupam Kher has tried to<br />
capture in his new autobiography,<br />
Lessons Life Taught Me,<br />
Unknowingly. Although the<br />
book has him sharing anecdotes<br />
and rare nuggets from his life as<br />
well as the lessons it taught him,<br />
the actor maintains the idea was<br />
not to “make it sensational”. “I<br />
strongly believe you have to live<br />
life with your own values and<br />
that you should be able to look at<br />
yourself in the mirror with pride.<br />
So, the book is very funny and<br />
has great entertainment, but I<br />
have tried not to make it sensational.<br />
Though a lot of people<br />
asked me about it, that was not<br />
my intention. In the book, I have<br />
narrated some incidents from my<br />
life which needed to be told the<br />
way I have mentioned them. But<br />
I am very clear that I can’t tell<br />
my truth at somebody else’s<br />
inconvenience. So, I have<br />
changed a few names and also<br />
concealed their identities,” says<br />
the actor.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Silver Linings Playbook<br />
(2<strong>01</strong>2) actor says he has mentioned<br />
the names of people who<br />
he has dealt with at the professional<br />
level, but changed the<br />
identities of those he has had a<br />
rendezvous with in the personal<br />
sphere. Ask him what’s been his<br />
biggest life lesson till date, and<br />
Kher goes back to his school<br />
days to recount a story when he<br />
was in Class IX. “I remember I<br />
was in ninth standard, and had<br />
taken the report card to my<br />
father. He looked at it and told<br />
me that my rank was 59. He then<br />
asked me about the strength of<br />
my class. When I told him it’s<br />
60, I was scared despite the fact<br />
that he never hit me physically,”<br />
says the actor, adding “after taking<br />
a pause”, his father gave him<br />
a “lesson that he still swears by”.<br />
“He explained to me that the<br />
student who ranked first would<br />
always run the risk of coming<br />
second every year and face failure.<br />
But someone, who is in the<br />
59th position, can always work<br />
hard and reach the 30th or 40th<br />
position. My dad said, ‘Next<br />
time, your rank should be 48 and<br />
not 59’. And that was such a<br />
great lesson as I then understood<br />
the meaning of failure,” he adds.<br />
Sunny Leone surprised by Nawazuddin’s dancing skills<br />
Mumbai, Actress Sunny<br />
Leone says she was surprised<br />
with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s<br />
dancing skills while working on<br />
the song “Battiyan bujhaado”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> song will feature in<br />
Nawazuddin’s upcoming<br />
“Motichoor Chaknachoor”. It is<br />
composed by Ramji Gulati, who<br />
also sings the song with Jyotica<br />
Tangri. “I was hooked to the<br />
soundtrack from the very first<br />
time I heard it. A catchy tune, that<br />
really grows on you, ‘Battiyan<br />
bujhaado’ is a full-blown dance<br />
song, that will surely be on every<br />
party’s playlist. And shooting the<br />
song with Nawaz, with whom I<br />
am sharing a screen for the first<br />
time, was an<br />
extremely enjoyable<br />
experience,”<br />
Sunny said.<br />
“He has quite<br />
surprised me<br />
with how sporting<br />
and fun he<br />
can be at dancing,<br />
on and offscreen,<br />
which the<br />
audience will see<br />
when the song<br />
launches today,” she added.<br />
“Motichoor Chaknachoor” is<br />
about a young NRI husbandobsessed<br />
bride and a desperate<br />
groom Pushpinder (Nawazuddin).<br />
Athiya Shetty will be seen<br />
essaying role of Anita, an educated<br />
girl who is looking for a green<br />
card holder groom. Pushpinder,<br />
the eager to get married boy, is<br />
settled in Dubai, and follows his<br />
mother’s instructions. <strong>The</strong> story is<br />
about how their life changes<br />
when the two get married.<br />
Directed by Debamitra Biswal,<br />
produced by Viacom18 Studios,<br />
Woodpecker Movies, Rajesh and<br />
Kiran Bhatia, the film will release<br />
on <strong>Nov</strong>ember <strong>15</strong>.<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
17<br />
Ekta Kapoor ‘burns the<br />
floor’ with Rajkummar Rao,<br />
calls him ‘partner in crime’<br />
Diwali is over but it seems the festive fever still rages on for many<br />
people including<br />
celebrities, who<br />
continue to post<br />
celebratory<br />
videos and pictures<br />
on social<br />
media. Among<br />
the many videos<br />
still pouring in, a<br />
dance clip featuring<br />
actor<br />
Rajkummar Rao<br />
and producer<br />
Ekta Kapoor at<br />
the latter's<br />
Diwali bash has<br />
been trending.<br />
Ekta on<br />
Sunday hosted a<br />
star-studded<br />
Diwali bash in<br />
w h i c h<br />
Rajkummar marked his presence. Sharing a glimpse of their celebrations,<br />
Ekta took to Instagram and posted a video in which she, along<br />
with Rajkummar, is seen grooving to the Govinda-Raveena Tandon<br />
hit song ‘Akhiyon se goli maare’, from the 1998 film, ‘Dulhe Raja’.<br />
"This had to be shared! I cannot dance but I guess Zumba and my<br />
partner in crime are helping! A Diwali get together (Small one) turns<br />
into a floor burning night with my #lsd guy RajKummar! #dancingsince2<strong>01</strong>0,"<br />
Ekta captioned the video.<br />
Rajkummar made his Bollywood debut with Ekta Kapoor's production<br />
film ‘Ragini MMS’. He even recently featured in her film<br />
‘Judgementall Hai Kya’.<br />
When King Khan<br />
CHARMED<br />
... at the interview with David<br />
Lettermen, which has gone viral<br />
Shah Rukh Khan’s fans across the globe have fallen in love with<br />
the superstar all over<br />
again after watching<br />
his latest interview<br />
with television host<br />
David Letterman on<br />
Netflix, which is<br />
currently viral.<br />
Fans of King<br />
Khan took to Twitter<br />
to express their love<br />
for the superstar<br />
after watching the<br />
interview and they<br />
just can’t stop gushing<br />
about it. <strong>The</strong><br />
actor took to Twitter<br />
to share the news<br />
with his fans that he<br />
is watching his own<br />
interview with<br />
younger son<br />
AbRam!<br />
He tweeted, “So<br />
you finally settle<br />
down on your soft<br />
bed, with your softer<br />
littlest one & say,<br />
“let’s watch something<br />
new today...on<br />
@NetflixIndia ...”<br />
and this banner pops<br />
up!! & the littlest<br />
one quips...”papa it’s<br />
not new...it’s just you!! Well...” Reacting to SRK’s tweet, a fan<br />
wrote: “Loved it. Best statement when you said Shah Rukh Khan is<br />
a myth I am just his employee. More glory to you.” Another fan commented:<br />
“How sweet being with your lil ray of sunshine...but<br />
ShahRukh..you’re new everyday ,never a dull moment with you<br />
around....you never chase to amaze me. Loved watching it. Thanks<br />
for being in my life. Keep Shining your light.”
18 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 ENTERTAINMENT<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Boman Irani talks<br />
about the surge in<br />
content driven cinema<br />
and admits that<br />
he wouldn’t waste<br />
time on a film that<br />
he won’t enjoy<br />
A supporter of underdog stories,<br />
Boman Irani says he knew<br />
he wanted to be a part of Made<br />
In China the moment he heard<br />
the script.<br />
“I loved the story. I was keen<br />
to work with Rajkummar Rao,<br />
too. I spent a lot of with the<br />
director Mikhil Musale, and I<br />
realised that the story is in good<br />
hands. I have done underdog<br />
stories before and the stance<br />
this film takes is quite interesting,”<br />
says the 59-year-old actor,<br />
who plays a sexologist in the<br />
film and hopes the film encourages<br />
people to seek medical<br />
help for sexual issues and not<br />
shy away from it. Working with<br />
Rajkummar was a pleasure for<br />
the senior actor who says he<br />
was “proud to work with him”.<br />
He adds, “I kind of understood<br />
what Rajkummar is about. You<br />
do tend to understand what<br />
process he is going through, if<br />
you are an actor. When I met<br />
and worked with him, I realised<br />
that this guy is so good at his<br />
work, and we should all feel<br />
happy for his success. <strong>The</strong>re is<br />
a great reward for work and<br />
application he puts into his<br />
roles.”<br />
2<strong>01</strong>9 saw a surge of movies<br />
hailed as new-age cinema and<br />
content-driven films. Boman is<br />
thrilled with the kind of films<br />
being made but also feels that<br />
the credit for them must be<br />
given where it is due. He says,<br />
“It is the writers who are writing<br />
stories and have brought<br />
about the change. It is not the<br />
Once again, Ankhiyon<br />
Se Goli Maare<br />
<strong>The</strong> shoot for Pati Patni Aur Woh remake, starring Kartik<br />
Aaryan, Ananya Panday and Bhumi Pednekar, has already been<br />
wrapped up. But, reportedly, the lead actors will reunite soon at<br />
the studio to shoot a song. <strong>The</strong> song is a recreation of Govinda and<br />
Raveena Tandon’s Dulhe Raja song Akhiyon Se Goli Maare. <strong>The</strong><br />
choreography this time will be by Farah Khan. Director Mudassar<br />
Aziz is excited to have her on board.<br />
Mudassar said that their story is based in a certain milieu. To<br />
take the narrative forward, they required more songs. <strong>The</strong> makers<br />
collectively felt that they needed a fun song to communicate with<br />
the audience and that the characters could let loose in an alternate<br />
setting. <strong>The</strong> movie is the remake of BR Chopra’s 1978 classic hit<br />
film which starred Sanjeev Kumar, Vidya Sinha and Ranjeeta.<br />
‘WRITERS<br />
deserve just as<br />
much credit’<br />
actor who has done that, let’s<br />
be clear and honour the writer.<br />
Sure, the actors are choosing<br />
these scripts and being courageous.<br />
But not just actors, writers,<br />
too, should get due credit<br />
for the surge in content-driven<br />
films. <strong>The</strong> writers need to be<br />
appreciated and even paid well<br />
for creating content that is celebrated<br />
in films.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Munna Bhai M.B.B.S<br />
(2003) actor has done 93 films<br />
to date but he says he isn’t<br />
looking at the 100-film mark.<br />
“That is not my goal. I do films<br />
to have a good time. I want to<br />
enjoy my role and the process<br />
of the film, more than anything<br />
else. I don’t want to<br />
waste time on a<br />
film that I<br />
won’t enjoy,”<br />
he says.<br />
Dalljiet Kaur did not expect to be<br />
evicted from the house this early<br />
Actor Dalljiet Kaur was<br />
recently evicted from a popular<br />
reality show and this left her<br />
fans shocked. However, she is<br />
happy about the love and support<br />
she received from people.<br />
“My fans did not expect me to<br />
be the first one to evicted and<br />
neither did I. This is shocking<br />
for me as well because I had the<br />
potential as I was real and not<br />
faking it. I was even doing the<br />
tasks well. I did not fight with<br />
anyone much. I think we as<br />
housemates would have formed<br />
deep bonds after the third week<br />
but I did not get the opportunity,”<br />
she says. Dalljiet adds that<br />
she never intended to fight or<br />
create a scene in the house just<br />
to get noticed. “I did not want<br />
to cry and show my weakness<br />
because my fans appreciate my<br />
strength and get inspired by it.<br />
If I would have cried, I’d<br />
have got more support but I did<br />
not want to do it. It was very<br />
important for me to represent<br />
my family well so that even<br />
they could feel proud of me,”<br />
she says, adding that the show<br />
has taught her about people and<br />
their mindsets. On asking about<br />
her future plans, Dalljiet<br />
reveals, “I am looking for a<br />
new phase in my career now. I<br />
hope I do a lot of events, web<br />
series, and daily soaps. I want<br />
to send a message across to all<br />
producers out there that I want<br />
to do something really good<br />
and my dates are available, so<br />
they can give me work immediately<br />
because I don’t want to sit<br />
at home.”<br />
Now, Baiju Bawra by Bhansali<br />
Bollywood’s ace director Sanjay Leela<br />
Bhansali, after recently announcing his<br />
movie titled Gangubai Kathiawadi, has now<br />
announced his second venture titled Baiju<br />
Bawra. <strong>The</strong> movie is slated to release on the<br />
auspicious occasion of Diwali in 2021. <strong>The</strong><br />
film will be a revenge story, but nothing<br />
concrete is known as of now. Bhansali<br />
Productions took to its official Twitter handle<br />
and announced the film, stating it to be<br />
the director’s most ambitious magnum<br />
opus!<br />
Reports suggest that Ajay Devgn is in<br />
talks with the director for the film. If things<br />
work out, this will be the first time in 20<br />
years when the actor and director will be<br />
collaborating after Hum Dil De Chuke<br />
Sanam.<br />
Meanwhile, Bhansali’s Gangubai<br />
Kathiwadi is also in line. It is reported to be<br />
based on a chapter in Husain Zaidi’s novel<br />
Mafia Queens Of Mumbai. <strong>The</strong> filmmaker<br />
is yet to announce a male lead in the film<br />
opposite Alia Bhatt. <strong>The</strong>se two projects<br />
come after shelving of Salman Khan and<br />
Alia Bhatt-starrer Inshallah.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
NEWS<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
19<br />
Naga settlement only after<br />
consulting all stake-holders<br />
New Delhi : <strong>The</strong> Centre on<br />
Thursday clarified that all stake-holders,<br />
including Assam, Manipur and<br />
Arunachal Pradesh, will be duly consulted<br />
and their concerns will be taken<br />
into consideration before any settlement<br />
is arrived at with Naga groups.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Union Home Ministry issued<br />
the clarification following rumours<br />
being spread in some sections of<br />
media, including social media, that<br />
"final Naga settlement has been<br />
arrived at and will be announced<br />
soon".<br />
"This is creating anxiety and concern<br />
in some parts of the country,"<br />
said the statement.<br />
"It is clarified that before any settlement<br />
is arrived at with Naga groups, all stakeholders<br />
including States of Assam, Manipur and<br />
Arunachal Pradesh will be duly consulted and their<br />
concerns will be taken into consideration," it said,<br />
stressing "no credence needs to be given to such<br />
rumours and incorrect information".<br />
Getting nod from the apex leadership of all 14<br />
Naga tribes and various stake-holders in a meeting<br />
held in Nagaland on October 18, the Centre had<br />
said that it had determined to conclude the peace<br />
process without delay after the overwhelming support<br />
in favour of a settlement of the issue.<br />
Noting that "endless negotiation under the shadow<br />
of guns is not acceptable", a statement from the<br />
Naga interlocutor’s office said that the Central government<br />
expects all negotiating parties to heed the<br />
will of the people, and facilitate the conclusion of<br />
the Naga peace process within the stipulated time.<br />
As the 22-year-old Naga talks between the<br />
Centre and National Socialist Council of Nagaland-<br />
Isak-Muivah stand on shaky ground with some<br />
leaders of the groups adopting a "procrastinating<br />
attitude" by raising the contentious symbolic issues<br />
of separate Naga national flag and Constitution on<br />
which they are fully aware of the Centre’s position,<br />
Centre’s representative and interlocutor for Naga<br />
Peace Talks, R.N. Ravi on Friday held a detailed<br />
consultation meeting with the primary stake-holders<br />
of the Naga society. <strong>The</strong><br />
meeting was attended by the<br />
apex leadership of all the 14<br />
Naga tribes of Nagaland, all the<br />
minority non-Naga tribes of<br />
Nagaland, the Nagaland GB<br />
(Gaon Burahs) Federation, the<br />
Nagaland Tribes Council, the<br />
Church leaders and civil society<br />
organisations, said the statement.<br />
It said that primary stakeholders<br />
- tribal and civil society<br />
organisations from Nagaland,<br />
Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh<br />
and Assam -- were involved in<br />
the peace process and made<br />
valuable contributions through<br />
regular consultations and insightful inputs, said,<br />
adding the Church leaders with their constant<br />
prayers and goodwill have immensely contributed<br />
to the cause of enduring peace.<br />
It is a matter of great satisfaction that agreements<br />
with the NSCN (I-M) on August 3, 2<strong>01</strong>5 and<br />
with seven Naga armed groups under the banner of<br />
Working Committee of Naga National Political<br />
Groups (NNPGs) on <strong>Nov</strong>ember 17, 2<strong>01</strong>7 -- on the<br />
political parameters of the settlement were signed,<br />
the statement said, adding that a mutually agreed<br />
draft comprehensive settlement, including all the<br />
substantive issues and competencies, is ready for<br />
inking the final agreement.<br />
300 farmers booked for<br />
stubble burning in UP<br />
Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), Three hundred farmers<br />
have been booked for burning stubble in their<br />
fields in Uttar Pradesh s Pilibhit district, despite<br />
directives from the National Green Tribunal<br />
(NGT).<br />
<strong>The</strong> cases have been registered by revenue<br />
officials in villages that include Bilsanda, Neria,<br />
Amaria, Puranpur, Seramau, Madhotanda,<br />
Jahanabad, Bisalpur and Gajraula.<br />
Angry farmers are now taking to the streets to<br />
register their protest against the police action.<br />
Charanjeet Singh, a local farmer said that the<br />
farmers were already suffering due to non-payment<br />
of cane dues, low prices of paddy and the<br />
paucity of fertiliser, and now they were being<br />
harassed in the name of stubble burning.<br />
City magistrate Ritu Punia said that the directives<br />
of the NGT were being followed and the<br />
district administration would not allow stubble<br />
burning in the district. We have directed all revenue<br />
officials to report cases of stubble burning in<br />
the district, he said.
20 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 NEWS<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
MASS surveillance tech just<br />
needs a missed call to hack you<br />
New Delhi : As Indians break their<br />
heads over WhatsApp spygate where<br />
an Israeli bug infected select users<br />
smartphones to access their personal<br />
details, the mass surveillance technology<br />
has truly come of age and now the<br />
governments just need to make a<br />
missed call to install an "exploit link"<br />
into the device of a person they want<br />
to bug and listen in.<br />
From the days when surveillance<br />
methods involved bugging the phone<br />
or cable wires to tap phones (remember<br />
Radia tapes!) to track a person’s<br />
vehicle by installing a tracking device<br />
beneath the car, cyber criminals and<br />
hackers have devised modern and<br />
untraceable tools to hack into your<br />
systems. <strong>The</strong> most popular mass surveillance<br />
programme is ’PRISM’ --<br />
under which the US National Security<br />
Agency (NSA) collects user’s personal<br />
communications from various US<br />
internet companies. ’PRISM’ allegedly<br />
collects stored Internet communications<br />
based on demands made to internet<br />
companies.<br />
<strong>The</strong> NSA can use PRISM requests<br />
to target communications that were<br />
encrypted when they traveled across<br />
the internet backbone, to focus on<br />
stored data that telecommunication filtering<br />
systems discarded earlier, and to<br />
get access to data. Its existence was<br />
leaked by NSA contractor and whistleblower<br />
Edward Snowden, who warned<br />
that the extent of mass data collection<br />
was far greater than the public knew.<br />
US President Barack Obama, during a<br />
visit to Germany, stated that the NSA’s<br />
Cupertino (California) :<br />
Riding once again on its<br />
Services and Wearable business<br />
even as iPhone sales dropped 9<br />
per cent, Apple has posted a<br />
strong revenue of $64 billion --<br />
an increase of 2 per cent from<br />
the year-ago quarter -- for its<br />
fiscal 2<strong>01</strong>9 fourth quarter that<br />
ended on September 28.<br />
Services revenue hit an alltime<br />
high of $12.5 billion while<br />
global sales accounted for 60<br />
per cent of the quarter’s revenue.<br />
For its full fiscal year,<br />
Apple generated over $46 billion<br />
in total services revenue.<br />
"We concluded a groundbreaking<br />
fiscal 2<strong>01</strong>9 with our<br />
highest Q4 revenue ever, fueled<br />
by accelerating growth from<br />
Services, Wearables and iPad,"<br />
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a<br />
statement.<br />
Apple’s profit dipped 3 per<br />
cent to $13.7 billion, but the<br />
$3.03 earnings per share (EPS)<br />
met analyst projections.<br />
"With customers and<br />
reviewers raving about the new<br />
generation of iPhones, new,<br />
noise-cancelling AirPods Pro,<br />
the hotly-anticipated arrival of<br />
Apple TV+, and our best lineup<br />
of products and services, we’re<br />
very optimistic about what the<br />
holiday quarter has in store,"<br />
Cook elaborated.<br />
"All told, outside of iPhone,<br />
our revenue grew by $17 billion<br />
to almost $118 billion," for<br />
the full fiscal year," he added.<br />
Apple forecasts revenue<br />
between $85.5 billion and<br />
$89.5 billion for its fiscal 2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
first quarter and operating<br />
expenses between $9.6 billion<br />
and $9.8 billion.<br />
"Our strong business performance<br />
drove record Q4 EPS<br />
of $3.03 and record Q4 operating<br />
cash flow of $19.9 billion,"<br />
said Luca Maestri, Apple’s<br />
CFO. "We also returned over<br />
$21 billion to shareholders,<br />
including almost $18 billion in<br />
share repurchases and $3.5 billion<br />
in dividends and equivalents,<br />
as we continue on our<br />
path to reaching a net cash neutral<br />
position over time," he<br />
added. According to Cook, the<br />
company set new Q4 revenue<br />
records in the Americas and<br />
data gathering practices constitute "a<br />
circumscribed, narrow system directed<br />
at us being able to protect our people".<br />
According to Amnesty.org, NSA and<br />
UK’s Government Communications<br />
Headquarters (GCHQ) are monitoring<br />
you with code names. ’Muscular’ is<br />
one such project that "intercepts user<br />
data as it passes between Google<br />
servers". Yahoo! was also said to be<br />
affected. Between December 2<strong>01</strong>2 and<br />
Despite iPhone decline, Apple<br />
logs record quarter growth<br />
Rest of Asia Pacific and saw<br />
further improvement in our<br />
revenue trends in Greater<br />
China. "Outside of iPhone, our<br />
September quarter revenue was<br />
up 17 per cent. We reached a<br />
new all-time high for Services<br />
with growth accelerating to 18<br />
per cent. We generated well<br />
over 50 per cent revenue<br />
growth from Wearables," said<br />
Cook. iPhone revenue in the<br />
September quarter was $33 billion.<br />
"This 9 per cent decline<br />
over last year is a significant<br />
improvement over the <strong>15</strong> per<br />
cent decline we saw across the<br />
first three quarters," Cook<br />
noted. In the iPad segment,<br />
Apple generated 17 per cent<br />
growth driven by iPad Pro.<br />
Apple saw double-digit<br />
services revenue growth and<br />
all-time records in all five of its<br />
geographic segments.<br />
"We established new alltime<br />
highs for multiple services<br />
categories including the App<br />
Store, AppleCare, Music, cloud<br />
services and our App Store<br />
search ad business. We are well<br />
on our way to accomplishing<br />
our goal of doubling our fiscal<br />
year 2<strong>01</strong>6 Services revenue<br />
during 2020," Cook told the<br />
analysts.<br />
For Apple Pay, revenue and<br />
transactions more than doubled<br />
year-over-year with over 3 billion<br />
transactions in the<br />
September quarter exceeding<br />
PayPal’s number of transactions<br />
and growing four times as<br />
fast. Apple Pay is now live in<br />
49 markets around the world<br />
with over 6,000 issuers on the<br />
platform. Apple Card was<br />
launched in August in the US.<br />
"Users kind of apply for<br />
Apple Card through the wallet<br />
app on iPhone in minutes and<br />
start using it right away in<br />
stores, in apps and on websites.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’ve told us they love Apple<br />
Card’s simplicity, privacy,<br />
security and transparency,<br />
which has helped them make<br />
healthier financial choices,"<br />
Cook mentioned.<br />
Later this year, the company<br />
is adding another feature to<br />
simply manage payments right<br />
in the Apple Wallet app on<br />
iPhone.<br />
January 2<strong>01</strong>3, ’Muscular’ collected<br />
181 million records but "Google has<br />
now strengthened security between<br />
their servers since then.<br />
Another tool called ’Optic Nerve’<br />
allowed secret access to Yahoo! webcam<br />
chats. In a six-month period, it<br />
spied on 1.8 million Yahoo! users and<br />
took one still image every five minutes<br />
of video per user. "GCHQ targeted<br />
Belgacom, Belgium’s largest telecommunications<br />
provider with spyware<br />
called Regin, a malicious piece of<br />
software designed to break into<br />
Belgaom’s networks. <strong>The</strong> purpose of<br />
the GCHQ hack was to spy on phones<br />
and internet users using the Belgacom<br />
network". Since then, the technology<br />
has evolved to such an extent that just<br />
a missed call is enough to snoop on<br />
anyone, anywhere. Citizen Lab, a laboratory<br />
based at the Munk School of<br />
Global Affairs and Public Policy of the<br />
University of Toronto, has identified<br />
over 100 cases of abusive targeting of<br />
human rights’ defenders and journalists<br />
in at least 20 countries across the<br />
globe via the new piece of Israeli spyware<br />
called Pegasus. Once Pegasus is<br />
installed, it begins contacting the operator’s<br />
command and control (C&C)<br />
servers to receive and execute operators’<br />
commands, and send back the target’s<br />
private data, including passwords,<br />
contact lists, calendar events,<br />
text messages, and live voice calls<br />
from popular mobile messaging apps.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> operator can even turn on the<br />
phone’s camera and microphone to<br />
capture activity in the phone’s vicinity,<br />
and use the GPS function to track a target’s<br />
location and movements," said<br />
Citizen Lab. <strong>The</strong> spyware can be<br />
placed on phones using multiple vectors,<br />
or means of infection. <strong>The</strong><br />
WhatsApp exploit from May 2<strong>01</strong>9 was<br />
one such vector. In 2<strong>01</strong>7, the wife of a<br />
murdered Mexican journalist was sent<br />
alarming text messages concerning her<br />
husband’s murder, designed to trick her<br />
into clicking on a link and infecting her<br />
phone with the Pegasus spyware. In<br />
2<strong>01</strong>8, a close confidant of Jamal<br />
Khashoggi was targeted in Canada<br />
with a fake package notification,<br />
resulting in the infection of his iPhone.<br />
Citizen Lab has tracked more than two<br />
dozen cases using similar techniques.<br />
Indian-American White House official<br />
caught in impeachment crossfire<br />
New York : An Indian-American White House official has<br />
been caught in the crossfire of internal politics arising from the<br />
Ukraine controversy<br />
that has engulfed<br />
President Donald<br />
Trump in an impeachment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> expertise of<br />
Kashyap Patel, the<br />
National Security<br />
Council’s (NSC) senior<br />
Director of counter-terrorism,<br />
on Ukraine has<br />
been questioned by<br />
another NSC official, Lt Col Alexander Vindman, during the<br />
impeachment inquiry hearings, Politico reported on Wednesday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sniping brings to the open the conflicts inside the Trump<br />
administration between those like Patel, who are considered his<br />
loyalists, and those opposed to him. Vindman told the secret<br />
inquiry that Patel had "misrepresented" his expertise on Ukraine to<br />
Trump, Politico reported. He said that had been prevented from<br />
participating in a briefing for Trump on Ukraine because the<br />
President believed Patel was the expert on that country instead of<br />
himself, Politico reported.<br />
Vindman said that the NSC Senior Director for European and<br />
Russian affairs, Fiona Hill, told him that she and then-National<br />
Security Adviser John Bolton felt that his presence at the briefing<br />
would create "an uncomfortable situation," according to Politico.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Washington Post also gave an account matching it in major<br />
details. Politico had earlier reported that Hill testified before the<br />
impeachment inquiry that Trump thought Patel was in charge of<br />
Ukraine policy for the NSC. Vindman, who was born in Ukraine<br />
and came to the US as a refugee when he was a child, is a decorated<br />
veteran of the Iraq war. He was on the line listening to Trump’s<br />
phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in July during<br />
which he asked for help in investigating former Vice President<br />
Joe Biden’ son’s connections to a Ukrainian gas company and if his<br />
father had interfered in an investigation of the company. Vindman<br />
has been hailed a hero by the Democrats and the media for his testimony<br />
against Trump. He had asserted that Trump had undermined<br />
national security by asking Ukraine for a favour against the Bidens<br />
because that could undermine the bipartisan support for Kyiv.<br />
While he said that he was not allowed to make some changes to<br />
the reconstruction of the Trump-Zelensky phone conversation that<br />
was made public, it did not appear from leaked accounts of his<br />
impeachment testimony that he had established that Trump had<br />
made the Ukrainian probe of the Bidens a condition for releasing<br />
aid, as has been alleged.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
NEWS<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
21<br />
Dushyant Chautala Factor<br />
Frank Hebert rightly said,<br />
“Absolute power attracts the corruptible.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> fractured assembly election<br />
2<strong>01</strong>9 result in Haryana shows that the<br />
foundation of collapse in the BJP turf<br />
has been laid down by the Congress<br />
Party. <strong>The</strong> result also shows that<br />
Congress has emerged as a strong<br />
opposition party with 30 MLAs<br />
despite the NDA`s government anticongress,<br />
anti-dynasty 24×7 feisty &<br />
marooned corporate media propaganda<br />
& meager financial resources.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is no denying the fact that<br />
Modi`s popularity has been dropped<br />
obliquely. <strong>The</strong> Congress party has succeeded<br />
in making a dent in the Modi<br />
turf within five years. It will be quite<br />
difficult for the Modi 2.0 in the coming<br />
years to rebound after Haryana<br />
assembly election plummet to win a<br />
clear cut majority in the upcoming<br />
elections in two states: Jharkhand &<br />
Delhi, as happened in 2<strong>01</strong>9 provided<br />
the Electronic Voting Machines<br />
(EVMs) do not tamper. Enough entertainment<br />
has been made by Modi 1.0<br />
to befool the people of the super-poor<br />
country. Now the people of India<br />
understand subterfuges of the BJP.<br />
Sunday is always a holiday. No government<br />
department works for the<br />
welfare of the people on Sunday. <strong>The</strong><br />
BJP is so greedy, insecure & desperate<br />
to hold power that even the top party<br />
leadership could not wait till Monday<br />
for Swearing-in-Ceremony of<br />
Manohar Lal Khattar as the Chief<br />
Minister of Haryana for the second<br />
inning. It reflects the sneaky mentality<br />
of the BJP. It is really disgusting to<br />
think. Post-poll alliance with the<br />
Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) shows that<br />
the BJP can stoop to any sneaky level<br />
to retain & sustain political power. It<br />
does not make any difference for the<br />
BJP if a leader of a political party, who<br />
is willing to extend support, is a corrupt,<br />
lacerated, squinted, black or<br />
white, deaf or dumb. <strong>The</strong> legacy that<br />
Dushyant Chautala will follow is reprehensible.<br />
His great- grandfather Om<br />
Prakash Chautala & his father Ajay<br />
Chautala both have been convicted in<br />
the 2000 Junior Basic Teachers<br />
recruitment scam[i] and were sentenced<br />
to ten years of imprisonment.<br />
Dushyant Chautala`s love for his<br />
father, who is already on <strong>15</strong> days furlough<br />
from Tihar jail, strikes the right<br />
political cord with two purposes in<br />
mind while shaking hands with the<br />
BJP. One is to rule the state & the<br />
other is to protect his family.<br />
A young, tall, smart, US-educated<br />
Dushyant Chautala, Deputy Chief<br />
Minister of Haryana understands better<br />
how he can protect his beloved and<br />
respected father Ajay Chautala under<br />
the thumb of the BJP. He also understands<br />
that the BJP is a ‘Nirma<br />
Washing Powder ’now- a -days for all<br />
the corrupt political leaders in India.<br />
Some of the erstwhile exceedingly<br />
corrupt Congress party leaders and<br />
other various political party leaders<br />
have joined the BJP to save their skin<br />
in HARYANA POLITICS<br />
from the law-enforcing agencies. For<br />
instance, BJP Mukul Roy, BJP<br />
Narayan Rane, BJP Sushil Modi, BJP<br />
Giriraj Singh, BJP Janardhan Reddy<br />
are facing charges due to financial<br />
scams. <strong>The</strong>y all defected their parent<br />
political party & joined the BJP. It is<br />
also a fact that the BJP that claims a<br />
party with difference seems to be a<br />
Heaven for all the corrupt political<br />
leaders. Social critics assert that<br />
whosoever will embrace the BJP, his<br />
or her sins will be washed away in the<br />
Maili Ganga. His or her corruption<br />
cases will be withdrawn or partially<br />
closed or no CBI or ED will be sent to<br />
his or her house to make a raid in the<br />
future. <strong>The</strong> NDA government under<br />
Prime Minister Modi did not dare to<br />
touch these BJP corrupt leaders.<br />
Prime Minister Narendra Modi does<br />
not get tired of blaming Gandhi<br />
Family until today for all ills of the<br />
country. Of course, there is a vast difference<br />
between speech and action.<br />
Dushyant Chautala, 31, having<br />
Business Administration degree from<br />
California University will be the first<br />
young, dynamic Deputy Chief<br />
Minister of Haryana who earned<br />
unhappiness of the voters of<br />
Haryana by taking a stupid decision<br />
to shake hands with the BJP. <strong>The</strong><br />
young, inexperienced Dushyant<br />
Chautala is not fully aware of the<br />
dirty, divisive politics of the BJP. Two<br />
things are certain, one is that Dushyant<br />
Chautala`s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP)<br />
will be treated as a Junior Partner and<br />
the other is that the JJP`s MLAs will<br />
be co-opted by the BJP sooner or later.<br />
– Dr. Rahul Kumar, PhD<br />
It is certain that the BJP will encourage<br />
factionalism within the JJP.<br />
Past track record of the BJP shows<br />
that the Regional political party Chiefs<br />
are not treated well by the BJP. Two<br />
examples are pertinent to refer here;<br />
Ram Das Athawale, President of<br />
Republican Party of India (A) once a<br />
loyal dog to Sharad Pawar, President<br />
of Nationalist Congress Party in<br />
Maharashtra and Mayawati of<br />
Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) swallowed<br />
by the BJP. Both shook hands with the<br />
BJP. Ram Das Athwale is an agent of<br />
BJP-Shiv Sena in Maharastra.<br />
Mayawati not only lost Dalit vote<br />
bank but also respect among the Dalit<br />
communities. <strong>The</strong> BJP powerful<br />
machinery backed by the rich businessmen<br />
and corporate houses in connivance<br />
with the RSS workers works<br />
day & night to use acid to destroy the<br />
roots of an opposition political party.<br />
Today both are a political trophy to be<br />
kept in the corner of a home. <strong>The</strong> state<br />
of Haryana is sui generis, a sociological<br />
term used by Emile<br />
Durkheim, a French sociologist,<br />
in itself. <strong>The</strong> Jat community<br />
dominates the sociocultural,<br />
socio-economic &<br />
socio-political spheres in the<br />
state. <strong>The</strong> Jat caste has a reasonable<br />
representation in almost all<br />
sectors like education, government<br />
services, police, etc. Agriculture landholding<br />
by the Jat community in<br />
Haryana rules the roost. Literacy<br />
among women in Haryana is still an<br />
issue to ponder over. Only 29 percent<br />
of women age <strong>15</strong>-49 in the state have<br />
completed 12[ii]. 34 percent of<br />
women age <strong>15</strong>-49 in Haryana have<br />
experienced physical or sexual violence[iii].<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a substantial<br />
increase in crime under the Khattar<br />
BJP government in the state.<br />
According to National Crime Record<br />
Bureau (NCRB), the state recorded<br />
57.1 percent increase in crime rate in<br />
2<strong>01</strong>6(<strong>The</strong> Tribune, 23 Oct 2<strong>01</strong>9). <strong>The</strong><br />
practice of patriarchy in the state poses<br />
several challenges to the state social<br />
harmony. Honor killings in the state<br />
are quite prevalent. “Even marriages<br />
into the same gotra(same descendants<br />
& same lineage clan) have emerged as<br />
the causes of honor killings in the<br />
state. <strong>The</strong> role of community members,<br />
community elders & particularly<br />
the community Councils (such as<br />
Khap Panchayats) can be observed as<br />
patronizing the honor killings & protecting<br />
the killers. Honor Killings are<br />
majorly executed by the Jats<br />
in the state”[iv]. Despite,<br />
Betti Padhao, Betti bachao<br />
flagship programme, the girl<br />
child is not at all welcome by<br />
the members of the Jat community<br />
in New India of<br />
Narendra Modi.<br />
<strong>The</strong> state of Haryana has<br />
been always in the headlines<br />
due to atrocities by the Jats against the<br />
Scheduled castes. <strong>The</strong> socio-economic<br />
conditions of the Scheduled Castes in<br />
the state of Haryana are worsening day<br />
by day. According to NCRB<br />
2<strong>01</strong>7report, a 19.24 percent increase<br />
has been reported in crimes against<br />
Scheduled Castes in Haryana.<br />
Surinder Singh Jodhka, teaching<br />
Sociology at the Centre for the Study<br />
of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru<br />
University explains, “Politically also<br />
the locally dominant communities did<br />
not care for support of Dalits. A Jat<br />
leader from the Haryana region, Sir<br />
Chhotu Ram of the Unionist Party,<br />
who acquired quite a prominence in<br />
the regional politics of Punjab during<br />
the pre-independence period, had once<br />
told some Dalits that he could not do<br />
anything for their welfare as it might<br />
offend the landowning Jats. He reportedly<br />
said:<br />
I cannot annoy my own brothers to<br />
benefit you. If the zamindars do not<br />
stop these practices, I cannot do anything.<br />
If on this basis you want to<br />
deprive us of your votes do so, for it<br />
does not matter. <strong>The</strong> zamindars are<br />
numerically stronger than you in the<br />
villages[v].<br />
<strong>The</strong> members of the Jat community<br />
practice caste discrimination against<br />
religious minorities. <strong>The</strong> communal<br />
threat, particularly to Muslims in the<br />
state, has increased manifold due to<br />
the existence of several Gau Rakshak<br />
Dals aided and abetted by the Bajrang<br />
Dal, VHP and the RSS. On 10 June<br />
2<strong>01</strong>6 in Faridabad district, Haryana,<br />
two Muslim men allegedly found<br />
transporting beef were forced to consume<br />
dung, urine, milk & curd by vigilantes<br />
who uploaded footage of the<br />
incident[vi]. Khattar during his first<br />
tenure, implemented Hindu holy text,<br />
the Bhagwad Gita in the Haryana<br />
school curriculum. <strong>The</strong> BJP under the<br />
Khattar government in the state succeeded<br />
to a larger extent to suppress<br />
the Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs &<br />
Christians in the state and pampered<br />
the vigilantes. Brahmins, Khatris get<br />
social preferences under the Khattar<br />
government in the state.<br />
Unemployment is high among the<br />
members of the religious minorities.<br />
Haryana is not a safe place for the<br />
poor Dalits, Muslims & Christians.<br />
Real Estate market is quite volatile<br />
in the state of Haryana. <strong>The</strong> land<br />
prices in Gurugram are comparatively<br />
higher than in other districts of the<br />
state. <strong>The</strong> presence of multinational<br />
companies (MNCs), chain of foreign<br />
Five Star Hotels attracts the attention<br />
of wealthy people across India &<br />
abroad to invest money in the real<br />
estate market. In contemporary times,<br />
the Real Estate market in Gurugram<br />
especially get stuck up because of a<br />
larger number of court cases against<br />
Haryana Urban Development<br />
Authority (HUDA) filed by the farmers.Due<br />
to a perpetual rise in land<br />
prices, the farmers who sold their land<br />
to the HUDA 10 years back or their<br />
land acquired by the HUDA to redevelop<br />
the city of Gurugram, are coming<br />
back to reclaim more financial<br />
compensation for their land.<br />
See Page 23
22 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 WORLD<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Remarkable ‘philosophy’.<br />
He thanked the people of<br />
Maharashtra and Haryana for<br />
‘posing’ faith in BJP despite the<br />
known fact that the arrogant<br />
ministers in both the states lost<br />
miserably. Now, when all the<br />
leaders are in Jail in Jammu and<br />
Kashmir, all the major political<br />
parties boycotted except for<br />
BJP, he is hailing these ‘second’<br />
tier Panchayat elections in<br />
J & K as ‘historic’. So, they<br />
have everything historic without<br />
participation of people. Sad<br />
part is that secular rationalists<br />
too fall in such trap. If you have<br />
heard the speech of a so-called<br />
‘secularists’ who said that her<br />
Hindu voice was not allowed in<br />
‘secular’ India during the US<br />
Congressional hearing, then listen<br />
to the speech made by Dr<br />
Natasha Kaul, a Kashmiri<br />
expatriate who expose the<br />
attempt to divert attention from<br />
the real issues. Look at the<br />
videos after the hearing and<br />
how she was harassed by the<br />
KPs there.<br />
<strong>The</strong> narrative of the Sangh<br />
Parivar which are being planted<br />
through social media and some<br />
time used by the ‘liberals’ are<br />
dangerous but it is meant to<br />
attract the caste Hindus in rest<br />
of the country, to feed them<br />
continuously with anti Muslim<br />
feeling and divert the entire<br />
narrative and issue into a<br />
Pakistan sponsored terrorism.<br />
Agreed, Pakistan is responsible<br />
for many thing including<br />
Islamising the entire Kashmir<br />
issue but then arent Kashmiri<br />
Pandits responsible for using it<br />
to create hatred against<br />
Muslims. Question is what has<br />
government done to win over<br />
the Kashmiris. Does it want<br />
Kashmiris to be at its mercy<br />
and without any credible political<br />
leadership or whether RSS<br />
is looking for some Khattar<br />
kind of leader in the valley.<br />
If you listen to the entire discussion<br />
at the US<br />
Congressional hearing where<br />
the Congress members countered<br />
some of the arguments<br />
put forward by Arti Tikku<br />
Singh, who has off late become<br />
fan of the Sangh Parivar and<br />
BJP. Strange are India’s ‘secularists’<br />
who can be swayed by<br />
the anti Muslim feeling and<br />
who look at Kashmir issue just<br />
from the ‘terrorist’ view point<br />
and as if there are no other<br />
issues except for the infiltration<br />
and terrorism. <strong>The</strong>y are the<br />
issues and must be dwelt with<br />
seriously but can be hide from<br />
the fact that the Jammu and<br />
Kashmir issue remain to be<br />
taken care off and resolved otherwise<br />
there will not be peace.<br />
Kashmiri Pandits who have<br />
become Pawns in the hands of<br />
Hindutva can not discuss<br />
Kashmir since 1990 but since it<br />
was purchased by Gulab Singh<br />
and how the rules were framed,<br />
how the King helped cronies to<br />
become landowners and why<br />
the majority of the Kashmiri<br />
Muslims faced discrimination<br />
during the Dogra Raj. It is also<br />
important and perhaps<br />
political historians<br />
post independent<br />
India can<br />
do that, make a<br />
chronological history<br />
of the power<br />
of Kashmiri<br />
Pandits vis a vis<br />
various prime<br />
ministers of India.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y always<br />
enjoyed protection<br />
of the power people.<br />
Look from<br />
Nehru’s time to<br />
Indira Gandhi,<br />
there were senior officers of<br />
KPs in the PMO. It happened<br />
till Rajiv Gandhi. Where are<br />
they now but then KPs,<br />
it seems, today are<br />
totally mesmerized by<br />
the ‘Gujarat model’.<br />
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat<br />
social and human rights activist<br />
Speak to Kashmiris<br />
to resolve the issue<br />
Kashmir is not India<br />
and Pakistan. It is not<br />
merely terrorism. It is people of<br />
Kashmir and their will too. We<br />
say, it is our ‘internal’ matter.<br />
Fair enough but what is internal.<br />
If people are unable to go<br />
to doctors, remain without<br />
newspapers, remain without<br />
internet and other communication.<br />
Can we keep people out of<br />
the courts and judiciary. Can<br />
Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmbedabad,<br />
Kolkata, Banglore, Hyderabad,<br />
Chennai be kept without communication,<br />
internet and television<br />
services for even a single<br />
day ? Can you imagine what<br />
will happen if the mobile services<br />
are disrupted in these<br />
All have a stake in it.<br />
You cant discuss<br />
Kashmir without<br />
engaging their media,<br />
their activists and<br />
their political leadership.<br />
Building up<br />
narrative through the<br />
corrupt and communal<br />
media will not<br />
help India gain any<br />
positive responses on<br />
the issue.<br />
‘nationalist’<br />
places.<br />
What about<br />
the judiciary<br />
and media. Did<br />
we see any<br />
newspaper writing<br />
a front page<br />
bold news and<br />
following it up<br />
courageously<br />
about the<br />
‘arrest’ of Dr<br />
F a r o o q<br />
Abdullah and<br />
other leaders.<br />
Can anyone say<br />
that the Home Minister mislead<br />
the Parliament and the<br />
Supreme Court but then when<br />
the courts are<br />
not ready to listen<br />
and take<br />
their time to<br />
allow things<br />
happen on its<br />
own, you cant<br />
expect anything.<br />
It will<br />
need an A G<br />
Noorani to<br />
speak the truth to our power,<br />
our Courts as we all will fear<br />
contempt as well as harassment.<br />
I know not all in the<br />
media are like that and there<br />
are many serious voices but<br />
they need to speak up though<br />
the space is very little.<br />
For the government and its<br />
good wishers, it is important to<br />
understand that internationally<br />
all these tricks wont work as<br />
they are used to in India<br />
through desi nationalist media<br />
which stand completely<br />
exposed today. In this digital<br />
age, people have their own<br />
sources of information and<br />
international media has report-<br />
ed this issue seriously. How can<br />
anyone think of a solution of a<br />
problem without engaging the<br />
local people, media, intellectuals,<br />
civil society and political<br />
leadership. Kashmir issue is not<br />
an issue for you to get benefit<br />
in Maharashtra and Haryana. It<br />
will have to be solve through<br />
participation of local people<br />
and not through jumlas and<br />
rhetoric that is being produced<br />
to you through an absolutely<br />
spineless media.<br />
In any democracy, it is people<br />
who matter and they are<br />
represented through their representatives,<br />
civil society,<br />
activists, academics, lawyers,<br />
journalists, media. All have a<br />
stake in it. You cant discuss<br />
Kashmir without engaging their<br />
media, their activists and their<br />
political leadership. Building<br />
up narrative through the corrupt<br />
and communal media will not<br />
help India gain any positive<br />
responses on the issue. <strong>The</strong> only<br />
way out is to speak to the people,<br />
listen to their voices and<br />
allow them have a say in their<br />
affairs. Any chest thumping<br />
may give you votes elsewhere<br />
but not help resolve the issue<br />
particularly when India is looking<br />
for support on the issue<br />
from the international community<br />
without wanting to ‘internationalise’<br />
the issue.<br />
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a<br />
social and human rights<br />
activist. He blogs at<br />
www.manukhsi.blogspot.com<br />
twitter @freetohumanity<br />
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
WORLD<br />
Indira Gandhi Assassination : Congress used<br />
Hindu card to consolidate its position politically<br />
without fighting the hatred ideologically<br />
This last day of October<br />
reminds us the brutal assassination<br />
of the then Prime Minister<br />
Mrs Indira Gandhi, by her own<br />
security guards who were supposed<br />
to protect her. Since June<br />
1984 when Indira Gandhi<br />
ordered ‘Operation Bluestar’ at<br />
the Golden Temple in Amritsar,<br />
the Sikh feelings were tremendously<br />
hurt but there was no<br />
attempt to assuage the feelings.<br />
Somehow every Sikh became a<br />
‘terrorist’ and victim of the sinister<br />
campaign to humiliate him. I<br />
still feel, those times were much<br />
better than today because we did<br />
not have these goons who threaten<br />
people from their newsrooms<br />
and instigate violence against<br />
them. Can you imagine, what<br />
would have been the role of this<br />
media in a powerful government<br />
of Rajiv Gandhi. Doordarshan<br />
was showing the dead body of<br />
Mrs Gandhi for many days as<br />
people were shouting slogan :<br />
Khoon Ka Badla Khoon se<br />
lenge..<br />
as Indiraji brought colour TV<br />
revolution to India, people<br />
watched the entire thing on their<br />
TV screens and were being fed<br />
with all the sarkaari reports<br />
every moments. It was perhaps<br />
the first 24×7 ‘spectacle’ for the<br />
TV media to extend its outreach<br />
as for a few days newspaper sale<br />
increased and in smaller places<br />
where we used to live, newspaper<br />
would be sold off before<br />
reaching the homes.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was only doordarshan<br />
and All India Radio. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
doing their duty but there were<br />
no shouting party spokesperson<br />
inside the studio like what we<br />
are witnessing in these times,<br />
who would have launched a<br />
direct campaign against the<br />
Sikhs. <strong>The</strong> media that time was<br />
silently and was just doing its<br />
duty as per the government<br />
order. Doordarshan-Akashwani<br />
would stop all the programmes<br />
and we would just listen some<br />
classical music but on Indira<br />
Gandhi’s assassination day, till<br />
the evening 6 pm, everything<br />
was shut. We were depending on<br />
the external sources like BBC<br />
which had declared that she was<br />
shot dead but there was no official<br />
word about it. Though she<br />
was shot at her home in the<br />
morning time around 9 am, the<br />
official announcement of her<br />
death came at 6 pm on radio and<br />
television simultaneously. When<br />
I imagine what would have happened<br />
if Indira ji was in todays<br />
time or if there were all these<br />
24×7 TV channels.<br />
Violence erupted or was made<br />
to erupt by the goons of the<br />
Congress party but it was not<br />
merely an issue of Congress. In<br />
her death, Indira Gandhi had<br />
become or was projected as a<br />
Great Hindu leader killed by the<br />
Sikhs. So subsequent days, we<br />
saw, a ‘Hindu’ outrage, though<br />
we conveniently called it<br />
Congress goons but it was not<br />
so. Congress had become the<br />
Hindu party, a party of the Hindu<br />
sentiments, whose leader was<br />
called and Rajiv Gandhi called<br />
her Bharat Mata in his first<br />
broad-caste to the nation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> violence or pogrom<br />
whatever we call as the state of<br />
India completely abdicated its<br />
duty. <strong>The</strong> goons whether<br />
Congress Party or any other<br />
sympathizer, whether Hindus or<br />
not, had complete protection<br />
from the administration and its<br />
police. It was like a ‘national’<br />
‘resolve’ to ‘teach’ Sikh a lesson.<br />
Innocent children lost their parents.<br />
We never saw such brutality<br />
since partition of India.<br />
Butchering of families. <strong>The</strong><br />
Home Minister P V Narsimha<br />
Rao sat silently allowing the<br />
goons to do all the things and<br />
police remaining quiet. All over<br />
the country, there was a pattern,<br />
whisper campaign against Sikhs<br />
as if they killed Mrs Gandhi.<br />
This is a serious question to ponder<br />
over. Why we blame the<br />
entire community if the some<br />
crime is done under their name.<br />
Muslims have been punished for<br />
that, Dalits, too and Sikh got<br />
punishment because the murderer<br />
of Indira Gandhi happened to<br />
be Sikh. But the murderer of<br />
Rajiv Gandhi were Hindus while<br />
that of Gandhi were Brahmin but<br />
we never saw that kind of isolation<br />
and condemnation of the<br />
communities. It means, that the<br />
dominant define the discourse<br />
who to vilify and who to glorify.<br />
That is why, Gandhi’s murderers<br />
are still being glorified and nothing<br />
happen to them.<br />
Today when we moan the<br />
brutal murder of Indira Gandhi,<br />
remember her legacy, we can not<br />
keep our eyes shut that the Sikhs<br />
were butchered and murdered in<br />
the aftermath of her assassination<br />
were a complete abdication<br />
of the state Rajdharma. It was a<br />
project Hindu Rashtra, this time<br />
under Rajiv’s Congress where<br />
Sikhs were vilified and Rajiv<br />
became symbol of Hindu<br />
Asmita. If we are living in these<br />
terrible time when Indian state<br />
apparatus has turned brahmanical<br />
then the project started since<br />
the return of Indira Gandhi in<br />
1980. It got strengthened in her<br />
unfortunate assassination in<br />
1984. India is paying a heavy<br />
price today for the games that<br />
the Congress played during this<br />
period in the absence of fighting<br />
the issue ideologically, it tried to<br />
sail through the same boat of<br />
communal polarisation which<br />
resulted in massive mandate for<br />
Rajiv Gandhi but victory of the<br />
Hindu Rashtra. Subsequently,<br />
Rajiv’s flirtation and Congress’s<br />
complete ideological bankruptcy<br />
paved the way for the Hindutva<br />
forces whose cherished dream to<br />
rule India was realised in May<br />
2<strong>01</strong>4 and second mandate of<br />
2<strong>01</strong>9, they have further strengthened<br />
their position. Today is the<br />
day to not merely remember Mrs<br />
Gandhi and her contribution to<br />
our polity but also Congress’es<br />
failure to fight communal forces<br />
ideologically by virtually<br />
becoming the B team of<br />
Hindutva, resulting in the legitimacy<br />
and ascendancy of the hate<br />
mongers in the power structure.<br />
Dalit women prevented from<br />
entering temple in UP district<br />
Bulandshahr : A case of<br />
Dalit women being denied entry<br />
into a temple in Bulandshahr district<br />
of Uttar Pradesh has come<br />
to light with a video of the incident<br />
going viral on social media.<br />
According to informed<br />
sources, the incident took place<br />
on October 25 but the video<br />
went viral on Wednesday.<br />
In the six-minute long video,<br />
a man wearing a black shirt can<br />
be seen standing in front of the<br />
closed gates of a temple while<br />
voices of women can be heard<br />
demanding to know why they<br />
are not being allowed to worship<br />
at the temple.<br />
Other voices can be heard<br />
saying that women also had the<br />
right to worship and would not<br />
leave the temple gates till they<br />
were allowed in. To this, the man<br />
points a finger at the woman and<br />
warns her to talk politely. A<br />
woman is heard saying, "Why<br />
don't you kill us here? We will<br />
die here. Bring lathis... we will<br />
continue sitting here. We will not<br />
leave. Bring the whole village<br />
here. Let them also see."<br />
<strong>The</strong> man is then heard telling<br />
the women that the property and<br />
the temple belong to 'Thakurs'<br />
who are the upper caste.<br />
"This property belongs to<br />
Thakurs. Brahmins and Thakurs<br />
have been praying here for<br />
years," he says.<br />
<strong>The</strong> camera then zooms into<br />
the temple and shows a man<br />
wearing a white t-shirt locking<br />
the main door and walking to the<br />
gate. Both men then stand in<br />
front of the gate and stare at their<br />
mobile phones, while the women<br />
vociferously demand to be<br />
allowed to enter the temple.<br />
As the argument continues,<br />
the men become louder and<br />
more forceful in their refusals.<br />
<strong>The</strong> video shows at least <strong>15</strong><br />
angry and agitated women standing<br />
clustered around the gate,<br />
along with a small group of<br />
school children. Vijender Singh<br />
Valmiki, a community leader<br />
who later complained to the<br />
police on behalf of the women,<br />
said: "<strong>The</strong>se people used to pray<br />
here earlier but last week some<br />
men refused to allow them entry<br />
saying they would not be<br />
allowed because they were<br />
Dalits." <strong>The</strong> police have registered<br />
a case of assault on<br />
October 25, under the SC/ST Act<br />
against unnamed persons who<br />
assaulted a Dalit man on the<br />
same day that the video was<br />
shot. Bulandshahr Additional<br />
Superintendent of Police Atul<br />
Srivastava said: "We are investigating<br />
and facts are being ascertained<br />
about the video. We will<br />
act further in this case."<br />
<strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9<br />
Continue Page 9<br />
Continue Page 21<br />
23<br />
Dushyant Chautala Factor in Haryana...<br />
How is it going to take the minorities and the marginalized along<br />
with it. <strong>The</strong> non-acceptability of a Dalit president by the dominant Jats<br />
in Haryana reflects the ideological crisis of the Congress party. <strong>The</strong><br />
elections show that BJP is not invincible yet it is also time to be alert<br />
all the time particularly the issue of EVMs is not going to die that<br />
soon.And end of the day, political parties must clear their position on<br />
social, economic, cultural, foreign affairs issues and need their effective<br />
propaganda machinery. It cant just respond to the issues but also<br />
clarify various issues. For parties like Congress, it is not merely to condemn<br />
the government but also introspect their own follies in the past.<br />
Unless Congress accept that it did make mistakes and its stand on various<br />
issues remained ambiguous, it wont be able to win the confidence<br />
of minorities and the marginalized. It needs to talk to various social<br />
groups and also allow the other parties to flourish.<br />
One thing is for sure that India cannot be prisoner of a few political<br />
parties and we will have to admit that such a huge country like us, communities<br />
and groups will always attempt to get fair representation and<br />
when bigger national parties fail to provide them fair representations,<br />
they will find their own way and there is nothing wrong. It is for the<br />
parties to develop long term alliances and not merely on the eve of elections.<br />
If we are able to do that, it will help in long term. Is it possible<br />
for Congress and other political parties to build state wise alliances for<br />
the 2024 elections and raise people’s issues both in and outside the<br />
Parliament and assemblies? I am sure, the result can be beyond the<br />
imaginations of the pollsters. <strong>The</strong> people in this country have from time<br />
to time taught arrogant rulers big lessons and one should not be surprise<br />
watching these results that the most arrogant politicians got humiliated<br />
in the worst form. It is time for all to remain on the ground, raise people’s<br />
issues, stop attempting to speculate results and build alliances. If<br />
each sector work according to the norms and ethics, democracy would<br />
get strengthened which is not merely elections but as a culture which<br />
build modern India based on constitutional ethics and norms.<br />
Dushyant Chautala Factor in Haryana...<br />
Although, all the farmers were fully compensated by the<br />
HUDA as per the officials. In the hope of getting more money<br />
through the court cases, the farmers in connivance with the local<br />
lawyers or property dealers have made HUDA administration<br />
notorious. In addition to that, the Jat and Gujjar big landholders<br />
put pressure socially & politically on the ruling government to<br />
compensate more if they want their votes.<br />
<strong>The</strong> majority of the residential sectors in Gurugram is under litigation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> nexus between the lawyers & property dealers have<br />
caused havoc in the life of the plot owners. For instance, Ill-reputed<br />
sector 57 in Gurugram District is again in the headlines because<br />
of litigation between the HUDA and Farmers. 10 years back,<br />
Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) got land from<br />
the farmers and paid full financial compensation to them. After<br />
having full compensation, some farmers filed a court case against<br />
HUDA for more compensation. Under pressure, HUDA sent letters<br />
to the plot owners in Sector 57 Gurugram and demanded<br />
heavy enhancements two times which all the plot owners paid.<br />
HUDA won the case in 2<strong>01</strong>7 from the farmers. After winning<br />
the court case from the farmers, some plot owners were offered<br />
possessions in Sector 57 in 2<strong>01</strong>8. After taking physical possession<br />
from the HUDA administration, some of the plot owners started<br />
construction. As ill-luck have it, the farmers and some unscrupulous,<br />
cunning lawyers provoked the farmers & filed once again a<br />
fresh court case against HUDA in 2<strong>01</strong>9 and the Judge passed the<br />
STAY orders against the whole Sector-57, Gurugram, Haryana.<br />
After stay order by the court, the innocent plot owners are running<br />
from pillar to the post. <strong>The</strong> officials of the HUDA issued letters to<br />
all the plot owners to stop construction leaving behind all of them<br />
in the lurch. God knows when the Judge will remove this stay<br />
order and the innocent plot owners will resume construction and<br />
fulfill their dream of a sweet home[vii]. <strong>The</strong> intervention on behalf<br />
of the Khattar Government in the matter did not yield any positive<br />
result to date.<br />
<strong>The</strong> state of Haryana has been facing great challenges due to<br />
the lethargic & prejudiced attitude of the public system. <strong>The</strong> general<br />
people in the state are the worst sufferers. Some of the issues<br />
such as the land mafia has been active in the state under the nose<br />
of Khattar government. Youths are frustrated due to the high rate<br />
of unemployment. Corruption is high despite the digitization of<br />
the public system. <strong>The</strong> touts are active in every government<br />
department of the state. Police administration is found prejudiced.<br />
<strong>The</strong> attitude of Police officials towards poor, helpless Dalits,<br />
Muslims & Christians is partial. <strong>The</strong>se are some of the burning<br />
issues that need to be addressed on priority. Against this backdrop,<br />
voters of Haryana including poor Dalits, Muslims,Sikhs &<br />
Christians expect of a young, US graduate Dushyant Chautala<br />
with impartial mind and heart to focus on these issues. It is hoped<br />
that Dushyant shall make sincere & honest efforts to provide a<br />
clean and corruption-free administration. I further hope that the<br />
BJP will not disown this young man like Mehbooba Mufti of PDP<br />
(Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party).
24 <strong>01</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 to <strong>15</strong>-11-2<strong>01</strong>9 WORLD<br />
www.theasianindependent.co.uk<br />
Monarch Singge Namgyal's<br />
statue installed in Leh<br />
Leh : An 18-footlong<br />
statue of Singge<br />
Namgyal, the 17th<br />
Monarch of Ladakh,<br />
was inaugurated on<br />
Friday as part of celebrations<br />
of newlyformed<br />
Union<br />
Territory (UT) of<br />
Ladakh.<br />
"In celebration of<br />
the recent UT status<br />
granted to Ladakh,<br />
Hemis Monastery is<br />
offering a new statue<br />
of King Sengey<br />
Namgyal to the people<br />
of the region," the<br />
Gyalwang Drukpa,<br />
the spiritual head of<br />
the Drukpa Lineage<br />
of Vajrayana<br />
Buddhism, tweeted.<br />
"This statue is a<br />
symbol of Ladakh's<br />
history, might, and<br />
identity in remembrance of its<br />
past as great kingdom along the<br />
Silk Road."<br />
<strong>The</strong> statue was envisioned<br />
by the spiritual head in<br />
December 2<strong>01</strong>7 and was carried<br />
forward by the Hemis<br />
Monastery.<br />
<strong>The</strong> story of Singge<br />
Namgyal has fascinating beginning.<br />
When Ali Sher Khan<br />
Anchan also known as Ali Mir<br />
of Skardo imprisoned the then<br />
Ladakh Monarch Jamyang<br />
Namgyal during an expedition,<br />
the incident led to the confluence<br />
between these two kingdoms<br />
with the marriage of<br />
Jamgyang Namgyal and Gyal<br />
Khatun, the daughter of Ali<br />
Sher Khan.<br />
This union gave birth to<br />
arguably the most powerful<br />
king of Ladakh, King Singge<br />
Namgyal.<br />
Singge Namgyal was an<br />
admirable leader and overcame<br />
several challenges faced by his<br />
ancestors with his military and<br />
diplomatic skills. Moreover, he<br />
was also a great patron of arts<br />
and a strong adherent and proponent<br />
of Buddha Dhamma.<br />
His contributions to art and<br />
architecture can be witnessed<br />
with the nine-storey rammed<br />
Leh Palace and a number of<br />
monasteries that were built all<br />
over Ladakh.<br />
King Singge was also highly<br />
influenced by Lama Staktsang<br />
Repa, whom he referred to as,<br />
"the Patron Lama of<br />
Ladakhi Kingdom".<br />
King Namgyal's<br />
patronage led to the<br />
establishment of the<br />
Hemis Monastery<br />
with 25 young students<br />
were brought<br />
from Baltistan to<br />
become monks at the<br />
monastery.<br />
One of the most<br />
revered monasteries<br />
of Ladakh, Hemis<br />
Monastery raised<br />
funds for the 18-foot<br />
tall bronze statue of<br />
Singge Namgyal,<br />
which is placed at the<br />
prominent location of<br />
Skyrsags Chowk in<br />
Leh.<br />
<strong>The</strong> man behind<br />
the masterpiece is the<br />
talented young<br />
Ladakhi artist Tsering<br />
Gyurmet. A culmination of<br />
years of Gyurmet's hardwork,<br />
the statue commemorates the<br />
contributions of Singge<br />
Namgyal in the unification of<br />
Ladakh and flourishment of its<br />
culture and heritage.<br />
With Ladakh being declared<br />
a Union Territory on Thursday,<br />
the statue stands as a reminder<br />
to the people of Ladakh to<br />
regain their sovereignty and<br />
preserve their rich cultural<br />
identity.<br />
Pak invitees to Kartarpur will<br />
have to seek clearance: MEA<br />
New Delhi : Referring to the Congress leader<br />
and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu's<br />
acceptance of the Pakistani invite to the inauguration<br />
of the Kartarpur<br />
corridor, the Ministry of<br />
External Affairs (MEA)<br />
said that the "political<br />
clearance" would have to<br />
be sought for it.<br />
"Those who Pakistan<br />
wants to call have to take<br />
political clearance," MEA spokesperson Raveesh<br />
Kumar said at a briefing, to a question on Sidhu<br />
accepting an invite by Imran Khan to attend the<br />
<strong>Nov</strong>ember 9 inauguration ceremony.<br />
He also said India has given Pakistan a list of<br />
480 pilgrims for the inaugural 'jatha', and is<br />
awaiting clearance from Pakistan.<br />
<strong>15</strong>-year-old held in Chandigarh on<br />
sexual assault charge<br />
Chandigarh : A <strong>15</strong>-year-old<br />
boy was arrested in Chandigarh<br />
for allegedly sexually assaulting a<br />
21-year-old woman on the pretext<br />
of marriage, the police said on<br />
Thursday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> woman alleged the accused<br />
kept her at a hotel in Mumbai and<br />
physically exploited her. <strong>The</strong> boy's<br />
family, however, claimed that the<br />
two had eloped and were brought<br />
back from Mumbai by them.<br />
It is learnt that the boy is also<br />
married, a police official said.<br />
UK ELECTIONS :<br />
Farage calls on Johnson<br />
to form ALLIANCE<br />
London : Brexit Party's leader Nigel Farage on Friday called<br />
on British Prime<br />
Minister Boris<br />
Johnson to dump<br />
Brexit deal and<br />
form a "leave<br />
alliance" for the<br />
upcoming elections.<br />
Launching the<br />
Brexit Party's<br />
election campaign<br />
here, Farage said<br />
that bringing political<br />
parties together<br />
was the "only<br />
way" forward,<br />
BBC reported.<br />
Farage warned<br />
Johnson that if he<br />
rejected his offer,<br />
the Brexit Party would field candidates on "every single seat" in<br />
England, Scotland and Wales.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Conservatives have consistently denied to form an<br />
alliance with the Brexit Party.<br />
Condemning Johnson's Brexit deal, the Brexit Party leader<br />
urged him to drop it "because it is not Brexit".<br />
Farage's statement comes after US President Donald Trump<br />
urged Farage and Johnson to team up as "an unstoppable force".<br />
<strong>The</strong> British PM negotiated a deal with the European Union<br />
(EU) and tried to get it through the UK Parliament in three days<br />
to pass it before the Brexit deadline of October 31.<br />
While, UK MPs voted it through its first hurdle in the House<br />
of Commons, they voted against the short timetable - leading to<br />
a further delay to the country's departure from the EU, to<br />
January 31, 2020.<br />
Farage has criticised Johnson for failing to deliver on his<br />
promise that the Britain would leave the EU by Oct 31. Instead,<br />
he wants Johnson to pursue a free trade pact with the EU -- similar<br />
to the bloc's deal with Canada -- and to impose a new Brexit<br />
deadline of July 1, 2020 to get it signed off.