Issue 302

21 14/06/2019 NEWS LITERATURE POLITICS FASHION ART & CULTURE KIDS RELIGION FILMS
www.samajweekly.com
China, India should not pose
threat to each other : Xi
Beijing : Chinese President
Xi Jinping on Thursday told
Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi that the two countries
should not pose a threat to each
other and step up cooperation in
various fields, including the construction
of the Bangladesh-
China-India-Myanmar (BCIM)
Economic Corridor. After Xi met
Modi for the first time, after the
Indian leader was re-elected
Prime Minister, on the sidelines
of the Shanghai Cooperation at
Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, the
Chinese Foreign Ministry issued
a statement late Thursday
evening, giving details about the
meet between the two leaders,
who also discussed the US' protectionist
trade policy.
Xi, who congratulated Modi
on his re-election, said both
countries needed to accept their
differences and expand their
cooperation in various spheres.
He pointed out that China and
India are the only two emerging
market countries with a population
of one billion in the world,
and they are at an important
stage of rapid development.
"The cooperation between
China and India will not only help
each other's development, but will
also contribute to peace, stability,
and prosperity in Asia and the
world," he said. Xi also emphasised
that "the two sides should
adhere to the basic judgment that
China and India... do not pose a
threat to each other. They must
persist in deepening mutual trust,
focusing on cooperation, and
accepting differences so that
China-India relations become a
more positive asset and positive
energy for promoting the development
of the two countries".
He stressed the need to step
up cooperation in investment,
production capacity, tourism,
and among others, expand benefits
of common interests to jointly
promote regional interconnectivity
- including the construction
of the BCIM, and better
realise cooperative development
and common development.
Mainstream is an abused
word : Ayushmann
BCIM is also one of the major
six corridors of China's Belt and
Road connectivity project. It
aims to connect China's eastern
city of Kunming with India's
Kolkata through Bangladesh's
Dhaka and Myanmar's
Mandalay. India had not opposed
the BCIM but its response to the
project was tepid as it said to
have concerns about China
expanding its influence in its
eastern neighbours.
India also fears the project
would expose its northeastern
region. Xi also told Modi "that it
was necessary to make good use
of mechanisms such as the meeting
of special representatives on
the border issue, strengthen the
building of confidence measures,
and maintain stability in the
border areas of the two countries".
The two countries have a
dispute over their 3,448 km long
border, which is also the ninth
largest boundary in the world.
Xi also said that "as important
representatives of developing
countries and emerging market
economies, China and India must
jointly safeguard free trade and
multilateralism and safeguard the
legitimate development rights of
developing countries". The US
has turned up the heat on Indian
and China as it in May took its
trade spat with China to the next
level by slapping tariffs on its
goods worth $200 billion and
ended the preferential status for
Indian goods earlier this month.
Modi told Xi that the Indian side
was willing to maintain close
high-level exchanges with China,
strengthen strategic communication,
promote bilateral relations
in a wide range of fields, expand
new areas of cooperation, and
properly handle their differences.
"India and China should jointly
plan the commemoration of the
70th anniversary of the establishment
of diplomatic relations
between the two countries next
year and enhance cultural
exchanges between the two
countries," Modi was quoted as
saying by the statement.
#MeToo: Mumbai Police
close Tanushree's case
against Nana Patekar
Mumbai : In a surprising development, the Mumbai Police
have filed a closure report in the alleged #MeToo sexual harassment
case lodged by
actress Tanushree
Dutta against actor
Nana Patekar, a top
official said here on
Thursday.
"Yes, we have filed
a B-Summary Report
before the court,"
Mumbai Police
spokesperson, Deputy
Commissioner of
Police Manjunath
Shinge told IANS. The
police move comes
after they reportedly did not find enough evidence in the matter,
virtually ending the case as they cannot continue further investigations.
Dutta's lawyer Nitin Satpute said that they would challenge
the police move in the matter.
"If the police file any B or C classification of Summary Report,
that cannot be final. We shall oppose it before the court. After hearing,
if the court is satisfied, then it can again direct the police to reinvestigate,"
Satpute told IANS.
He accused the police of conducting a shoddy probe into the
entire matter, not recording the statements of many other witnesses,
but relying on the evidence of only "one or two" witnesses in a
bid to protect the accused.
"In view of this, we shall oppose the B Summary Report and
also file a writ petition before Bombay High Court," Satpute added.
Dutta had lodged the complaint against Patekar in September
2018 accusing him of allegedly sexually harassing her over a
decade ago, in 2008 during a shoot, but he (Patekar) had stoutly
denied the charges levelled by her.
The actress on Thursday said in a statement: "Our witnesses
have been silenced by intimidation and fake witnesses have been
put forth to weaken the case. What was the rush to file a B
Summary report when all of my witnesses have not even recorded
their statements yet? I'm neither shocked nor surprised being a
woman in India this is something we all have got used to."
Mumbai : Actor
Ayushmann Khurrana,
whose filmography is as
versatile as it gets with a
"Badhaai Ho" and
"Andhadhun", says the
world of cinema must not
discriminate by bracketing
content into mainstream and
non-mainstream.
An actor who is against
talent and content being
labelled, Ayushmann will
soon be seen in "Article 15",
a content-driven film on the
subject of discrimination
itself.
"The validation that I
have got with my back-toback
successes with
'Andhadhun', 'Badhaai Ho',
'Shubh Mangal Saavdhan'
and 'Bareilly Ki Barfi' has
driven me to stay on the
path of giving audiences
quality, entertaining cinema that
they would want to come to the
theatres to watch.
"To me, mainstream is an
abused word. For me, mainstream
cinema is every film that
people simply love to watch
because of reasons that are personal
to them. The world has
progressed to being anti-label,
high time our industry too moves
away from labelling audiences
and films," he added.
He feels the way mainstream
has been defined so far has been
extremely skewed and discriminatory.
"Every film has its set of
audience and not every film is
meant to appeal to everyone.
That's the beauty of films. It's
subjective, it evokes an intimate
and highly personal
reaction and entertains likeminded
people," said the
actor, who began his career
with "Vicky Donor".
"Just because a film's
appeal doesn't conform to
what some would think as
pan Indian, doesn't make it a
non-mainstream film. One
immediately judges films
with a different sensibility
and to me that's hugely discriminatory.
I have fought
this discrimination and will
continue to do so all my
career. Thankfully, my content
choices have worked
and proved that there is an
audience for every kind of
film.
"We shouldn't see filmmaking
through just one filter
of it being a pan India
mass entertainer. We take the
meaning and beauty out of making
films by doing this. It is a
medium of bold creative expressions
and we should celebrate
everyone's work and be inclusive
about ideas and opinions. Every
film has a different purpose and
it's great to have powerful and
different voices and ideas."