The South Asian Times

e x c e l l e n c e

Vol.9 No. 14 July 30-Aug 5, 2016 80 Cents

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5th India Day Parade History Made

in Hicksville on Aug 6 Hillary Clinton
It will start from Apna Bazar this time at 2 pm
Hicksville, NY: The countdown to
celebrate the 70th Independence
Day of India, at the 5th IDPUSA
India Day Parade in Hicksville,
Long Island on Saturday, August
6 has begun. Bollywoo d star
Bobby Deol will be the Grand
Marshal and joining him will be
Youth Heartthrob singer Raghav
and Bollywood actor Prashantt
Guptha.
A slew of entertainment and
shopping has been planned by a
committee of community leaders
organizing the event to bring a
memorable and enjoyable experi
ence of celebrating India, the
countrys heritage and rich cul

Film star Bobby Deol,

Grand Marshal

Bollywood actor
Prashantt Guptha,
CoGrand Marshal

ture. T he parade will start at

Apna Bazar at 2 PM Sharp and
move along Bethpage Road.

Several decorated floats and

musical bands w ill be the

Continued on page 4

Democratic Convention
turns spotlight on
Indian Americans

SAARC meet: Rajnath to submit

proof of Pak sponsoring terror
New Delhi: Pakistan's sustained
support to crossborder terror
ism w ill be raised by Home
Minister Rajnath Singh during
his twoday visit to Islamabad to
attend the SAARC ministerial
conference beginning August 3.
Singh, who will attend the
SAARC Home Ministers' confer
ence, is expected to bluntly ask
Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts
of terror in India, of ficial
sources said.
This will be the first visit to
Pakistan by any senior Indian
leader after the Pathankot
attack on January 2, which cre
ated tension between the two
countries.
The Home Minister may pro
vide documentary proof of the
involvement of Pakistan's state
and nonstate actors in terror

Sensational singer
Raghav, Guest
of Honor

acts in Jammu and Kashmir and

other parts during separate
meetings he is likely to have
with his counterpart Chaudhry
Nisar Ali Khan and Pakistan
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Describing Hizbul Mujahideen
militant Burhan Wani in
Kashmir as "martyr", Sharif had

Philadelphia, PA: Three leaders

from the IndianAmerican commu
nity took the stage before the
4,765 national delegates and the
national media as the Democratic
Party Convention turned the spot
light on the community, recogniz
ing its rising role.
The president of the Center for
American Progress Action Fund,
Neera Tanden, made an impas
sioned speech on Wednesday in
support of Hillary Clinton, declar
ing, "Hillary will always have our
backing." She recalled her becom
ing Hillary Clinton's adviser and
her role in Clinton's campaigns.
She is likely to get a role in the
Hillary administration.
Cong ressman Ami Bera of
California was presented as a

Continued on page 4

Continued on page 3

Union Home Minister

Rajnath Singh

nominated for
President at DNC
Philadelphia, PA:
Promising a
populist
agenda
to
build a better
nation based on
unity, Hillary
Clinton
on
Thursday night
accepted the
Democratic
Party's presi
dential nomi
nation mak
ing her the
first women
candidate of
a major US
party and chal
l e n g e d
Republican rival
Donald Trump on
what she said was his
message of hate and divisiveness.
"It is with humility, determina
tion and boundless confidence in
America's promise that I accept
your nomination for President of
the United States," Clinton said to
thunderous applause at the Wells
Fargo Centre in Philadelphia.
"Your cause is our cause," she
declared as her party members
waved placards and flags and

roared their support. "Our country

needs your ideas and commit
ment." She promised to take on
Wall Street, large corporations and
the rich to make them pay their
fair share of taxes and treat work
ers fairly. The former First Lady

Continued on page 4
Democratic National
Convention coverage
on pages >> 911

The first woman nominee for US

President promises to heal nation's
divides and defeat ISIS - and makes a
case against Trump on Thursday.

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US AFFAIRS 9

RELIGION 16

SPORTS 24

SPIRITUAL AWARENESS 30

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July 30-Aug 5, 2016

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TRISTATE COMMUNITY

Hillary understands global

complexity: Ami Bera
Philadelphia, PA: "I support Hillary Clinton
because she is the only candidate that under
stands the complexity of the world," said the
lone IndianAmerican Congressman Ami Bera
on Wednesday.
Bera appeared on the gigantic stage of the
DNC along with several other lawmakers from
the Asian American and Pacic Islanders
(AAPI) community led by Congresswoman
Judy Chu. "America needs a president who will
ght for all of us, someone who rejects the
hateful rhetoric that is too often used to divide
us and who believes that America's diversity is
our greatest strength. That's why we've got to
elect Hillary Clinton as our next President of
the United States! When it comes to the issues
most important to us, Hillary Clinton gets it,"
Chu said.
Bera is seeking a third Congressional term
from California.

Philadelphia, PA: One day after he gave a

nonprime time speech to halfempty audi
torium at the
Democratic
N a t i o n a l
Convention,
Mayor Bill de
Blasio was edged
out of a planned
speaking spot at
a New York State
Democrat break
fast in which his
archenemy Gov.
NYC Mayor Bill de
Andrew Cuomo
Blasio was late in
he ld court. De
endorsing
Hillary
Blasio, one of the
Clinton
for
President
top Dems from the
state, was supposed to address the New
York delegation at the 8:30 a.m. breakfast,
but had to run when the program ran late
before he was called. Cuomo dominated
the festivities, giving a 30minute speech in
which he touted his successes, and trashed
Donald Trump.
De Blasio on Wednesday spoke around 5
p.m. Compare it to former Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, a registered Independent, who
was given a prime time spot and brought
down the house.
The poor reception for De Blasio may be
the result of his late endorsement for
Hillary.

At DNC, Kamala
Harriss national
profile seen to grow
Philadelphia, PA: California
Attorney General Kamala
Harris spoke briey to
California delegates Tuesday
morning, encouraging them to
"own our power" and "be a
leader" at this wee k's
Demo crat ic
Nat ional
Convention.
"Let's walk out of our break
fast meeting and walk into this
convention being proud of who
we are and what we stand for
and take our rightful role of
leadership in this convention

and in this country," she said.

Harris is running for U.S.
Senate against US Rep. Loretta
Sanchez, who recently suggest
ed to a Southern California
radio host that President
Obama endorsed Harris
because they are both black.
Harris has asked Sanchez to
apologize.
The New York Times noted
that Kamala Harris is among a
few youthful Democrats seen
as taking the mantle of party
leadership in future.

California
Attorney
General
Kamala
Harris at a
meeting for
California
delegates at
DNC
Tuesday.
(Photo : Bay
Area News
Group).

Democratic Convention turns

spotlight on Indian Americans

Shekhar Narasimhan, has set up

the Asian American Pacific
Islander Victory Fund to fund
voter mobilization campaigns in
key states.

Congressman Ami Bera speaking

at the DNC. (Photo: IANS)

Philly a low point

for Mayor de Blasio

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

At 18, Sruthi Palaniyappan

was the youngest Indian
American delegate to the
DNC in Philadelphia.
(Photos: IANS)

Continued from page 1

leader reflecting the diversity of the Democratic Party in
Congress.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is running for Congress from
Illinois, came on stage as a "New Leader of Tomorrow." He
told IANS that he was thrilled about the moment in the party
limelight. If elected, he will be the fourth IndianAmerican to
serve in the House of Representatives.
Congresswoman Grace Meng, the head of an influential
Asian American political action committee, called at the
Convention for supporting Krishnamoorthi and said the pres
ence of the Asians in Congress would grow with his election.
Reflecting the rise of the Indian American millennials, an
18yearold delegate from Iowa, Sruthi Palaniyappan, intro
duced her state delegation's announcement of its votes dur
ing the Convention roll call Tuesday.A Hillary delegate, she
said she started at the local precinct level and worked her
way up to get elected as a national delegate. She starts col
lege at Harvard in September.
While an exact count of Indian American delegates was not
available, according to party sources there were about 300
Asian American delegates and a sizable number of them were
Asian Indians. There were also scores of Indian Americans
volunteering at the convention.
Even though Indians are less than one per cent of the US
population, they can play a crucial role in the battleground
states like Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio where both par
t ies are almost evenly balanced, according to Toby
Chaudhuri, a former White House strategy and communica
tions adviser.
Indians have founded organizations to rally support for
Clinton and other candidates and to raise funds for cam
paigns.
IndianAmericans for Hillary Clinton (IAFHC) founded by
Rajan Natarajan, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
in Maryland, is working at the grassroots level on mobilizing
Indian Americans to register and vote. When the organisa
tion held a rally in Maryland in April, Clinton campaign
chairman John Podesta attended it.
Shekhar Narasimhan has set up the AsianAmerican Pacific
Islander Victory Fund, which he said had raised $300,000
and has a target of $1.5 million. It will fund drives to mobi
lize voters in the six swing states and promote progressive
candidates.
On August 12, IndianAmerican leaders will be meeting in
Las Vegas to see how they can help put more of their com
munity in public offices, according to one of the organizers
of the meeting.

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

Hillary Clinton nominated for

President at DNC
Continued from page 1
also said she would penalize corporations
that send jobs abroad and hit out at Trump
for having some of his products manufac
tured abroad, mentioning picture frames
made in India.
At the same time she promised stern
against terrorism, but by working with
allies. Clinton said she would strike the
Islamic State (IS) terror group from the air
and empower allies to defeat them, while
countering its appeal to youth.
She invoked the commitment of Humayun
Khan, a 27yearold Pakistani American
Army captain, killed in 2004 in Iraq trying
to save his soldiers, and Nat Kaine, the
Marine son of her Vice President nominee,
Tim Kaine, to protect the US to declare her
commitment the armed forces and to keep
ing the nation safe.
Philade lphia was where the US
Independence Declaration was signed 240
years ago. From the Convention in the city,
the party and the nation should message of
unity, liberty and equality enshrined in it,
she said.
The former Secretary of State presented
her vision of a "country that works for
everyone, not only those at the top.
Clinton promised to work to bring jobs,
penalize corporations that hurt workers,
and improve the life of the citizens. She said
she would work along with the Republican
Party to make the biggest investments since
the Second World War to create jobs.
In an appeal to the Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders' backers and to assuage the
sense of economic insecurity that plagues
also the supporters of Trump, she said, "Our
economy isn't working the way it should
because democracy isn't working the way it
should."
She said that she would appoint Supreme
Court judges who would overturn judg
ments that allowed some types of political
donations and, if necessary, introduce a con
stitutional amendment.
"Wall Street will not be allowed to wreck
Main Street," she said, outlining her populist
agenda.
Corporations, Wall Street and the rich will
be made to pay more taxes, Clinton added.
Working with Sanders, she said she would

TURN PAGE
work to make college tuition free and elimi
nate college tuition debts.
Overcoming an early party leadership cri
sis and the persistent vociferous opposition
to her from the supporters of insurgent
rival, Sanders, the Convention ended gener
ally on an upbeat note.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama
addressed the Convention and gave her a
resounding endorsement and declare
Clinton the leader to pick up the baton and
give the nation continuity and strong lead
ership.
Now comes the momentous task of wag
ing a toug h e lectoral battle ag ainst
Republican Donald Trump, who has taken
the campaign to new levels of bitter and
aggressive animosity.
The Democratic Party presented her as an
amalgam of compassion and toughness, a
leader who can heal the economic, social
and racial of the nation, but is also has the
steely resolve to taken the enemies of her
nation.
For the Convention's finale, Che lsea
Clinton introduced her mother extolling her
commitment to public service and the val
ues of compassion for the less fortunate she
instilled. She said Hillary Clinton keeps
going amid the sound and fury of politics
despite setbacks because of her commit
ment.
Patriotism was the theme of one of the
last segments of the Convention showing
support of military veterans, placards with
"USA" shouts of "USA,USA" by the audience
and a show of cards by participants to spell
out a patriotic theme.
The displays sought to douse Republican
Party criticism and to seek to reassure a
nation uneasy with terror and Islamic radi
calism a fear Trump has mined that
Clinton would be a determined leader who
would keep the country safe and at the
same time douse antiAmericanism at home.
A Sikh exserviceman, Major Kamaljeet
Singh, in a pink turban stood with his col
leagues behind retired General John Allen,
who declared, "We are the greatest country
on the planet".
As the audience shouted, "USA, USA,", he
said that under Clinton the country will not
"abandon the world," and pursue our ene
mies defeat the IS and stop the spread of
nuclear weapons.

Chairman and Co-Founder

Kamlesh C. Mehta

Associate Editors:
Hiral Dholakia-Dave

Co-Founder: Saroosh Gull

Contributing Editors: Meenakshi Iyer,

Nilima Madan, Melvin Durai,
Dr Prem Kumar Sharma, Ashok Vyas,
Dr Akshat Jain, Ashok Ojha

President: Arjit Mehta

To rebut Donald Trump plans on Muslim

immigration, Khizr Khan, the father of a 27
yearold Pakistani American Army captain,
Humayun Khan, killed in 2004 in Iraq try
ing to save his soldiers from a bomb, chal
lenged Trump, "You are asking Americans to
trust you with their future. Let me ask you,
if you have read the US Constitution?"
He added, "We will become stronger when
IANS
Clinton becomes president."

5th India Day Parade in

Hicksville on Aug 6
Continued from page 1
attraction of the colorful parade. It will cul
minate in the parking area opposite Asa Mai
Hindu Temple. There a shopping arcade will
be set up for visitors to buy various wares
and enjoy the delectable food. An entertain
ing and colorful cultural show will follow.
A day after the parade, a Grand Gala
Dinner with Bollywood celebrities has been
planned on August 7th at 5PM @ T he
Woodlands, 1 S Woods Rd, Woodbury, NY.
Tickets and additional information is
available
on
our
we bsite
at
www.idpusany.org.
The IDPUSA parade came into being in
2012 when likeminded friends, including
Bobby K. Kalotee, Indu Jaiswal, Kamlesh
Mehta and many others, had the bright idea
of celebrating Indias Independence Day in
Hicksville which is now nicknamed Little
India. They brought together various sec
tions in the Indian American community for
the cause. With each passing year, the
parade has been growing in size, strength
and quality.
The committee led by President Beena
Kothari is working tirelessly and independ
ently, without any outside interference, to
put together the Parade. They have the sup
port and full cooperation of the Nassau
County and various town administrations.
T he India Day Parade is successfully
working as a bridge between the Indian
Americans and the mainstream community.

SAARC meet: Rajnath to submit

proof of Pak sponsoring terror
Continued from page 1
recently said that "Kashmir will one day
become Pakistan", prompting External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to say that
his dream of the state becoming a part of

TheSouthAsianTimes.info
his country "will not be realized even at the
end of eternity".
Singh will also raise the issue of slow
pace of probe into terror attack in the
Pathankot airbase, which was carried out
by Pakistanbased terror group Jaishe
Mohammad, and the trial into the Mumbai
terror attack case in that country, sources
said.
Singh will be accompanied by Union
Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and several
other senior officers of the Home Ministry.
Key issues like fight against terrorism,
illegal traf ficking in narcotic drugs, psy
chotropic substances and small arms and
how to make coordinated and concerted
efforts to combat such menace will figure
in the SAARC meet.
The threetier meeting will begin at the
joint secretary level and then move on to
Secretary and Home Ministerlevel meet
ings.
The meeting will also focus on strength
ening networking among police authorities
of SAARC membercountries and also
enhance informationsharing among law
PTI
enforcement agencies.

Rahman concert at UN
for MS Subbulakshmis
100th birthday

Composer & musician

AR Rahman

Bharat Ratna M S
Subbulakshmi

scar winning composer and musi

cian AR Rahman will commemorate
the 100th birthday of Bharat Ratna
M S Subbulakshmi at a concert to be held
in the United Nations General Assembly
hall on August 15th sy 6.30 pm. The by
invitation only event is for dignitaries and
patrons of Sankara Nethralaya.

Jaipur (India) Bureau

Prakash Bhandari
Prakash@TheSouthAsianTimes.info

IANS Washington Bureau

Arun Kumar
arun.kumar@ians,in

Photographs: Gunjesh Desai/

masalajunction.com.
Xitij Joshi/xitijphoto.com

Printing: Five Star Printing, NY

Photo Journalist: Sandeep Girhotra

Cartoonist: Mahendra Shah

Chief Operating Officer:

Ginsmon P. Zacharia
P: 516 776 7061
ginsmon@hotmail.com

West Coast Correspondent

Pooja Jain,
Pooja@TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Art and Design: Vladimir Tomovski

Bhagwati Creations,
Dhiraj Kumar

Managing Editor: Parveen Chopra

P : 516.710.0508
Editor@TheSouthAsianTimes.info

New Delhi Bureau

Meenakshi Iyer
Delhi@TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Web Editor: B.B.Chopra

News Service: HT Media Ltd.
IANS Newswire Services

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TRISTATE COMMUNITY

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

NY doctor is Fellow of Royal College Ravishankar Bhooplapur named

to prestigious Rotary committee
of Physicians in London
New York: Dr. Mani Srinivasan,
Medical Of ficer at the US State
Department and a New York
Physician, has been made a Fellow
of Royal College of Physicians in
London for his contribution to
medical science. He is a Consultant
in Infect ious Disease at the
Voluntary Medical Services in
Chennai. Dr.Srinivasan is serving
as a Medical Of ficer since 2003.
He has received many awards for
exemplary medical care from the
State Department. Recently, Dr.
Srinivasan was honored by The
White House Medical Unit for his
continued support to its mission in
keeping with the highest tradition
of medical care.
The Royal College of Physicians
Council has announced that, based
on endorsement of his colleagues
both locally and internationally.
The Fellowship is being of fered.
This recognition is not offered to

Dr Mani Srinivasan
all physicians and indeed many
who are under consideration, are
not offered the fellowship because
they have not demonstrated that
they have not gone above and
beyond the call of duty. Fellow of
Royal College of Physicians, FRCP,

is considered as a mark of excel

lence for physicians, a commu
nique from the Registrar of the
College, said.
Dr.Srinivasan was senior House
Of ficer of the Madras General
Hospital, Madras, India in 1973
and studied Medicine at Stanley
Medical College Hospital, Madras
in 1972. He followed it up with an
MD in New York State University
and was certified by the American
Board of Internal Medicine. He had
his PostDo ctoral training in
Columbia University in Infectious
Diseases and is a Fellow of the
American College of Physicians. He
has published in peer review jour
nals and his clinical interests are
geared to newer antibiotics and
Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Srinivasan is a member of
many professional societies such
as the Infectious Disease Society of
America.

New York: On July 1st,

Ravishankar Bhooplapur was
appointed to the very prestigious
Rotary Finance Investment
Committee for a six year term
ending
in
June
2022.
Bhooplapur has served in Rotary
since 1980. He is the recipient of
Rotarys Meritorious Service
Award, the Dist inguished
Service Award, and Rotarys
hig hest honor, T he Service
Above Se lf award. He was
inducted into the Rotary Hall of
Fame in 2005 and named Rotary
District Governor on July 2,
2009. He earned a Fellowship by
the Life Underwriting Training
Council in September 1996 and
has proven himself in the finan
cial sector since.
He founded Vision Financial
Services in 1997 and has exten
sive experience in Risk and Asset
management. He currently

NJ man kills wife in kitchen while 3 children asleep

Announcement

state protective services workers

New York: A 46yearold Indian
took custody of them, the report
American man in New Jersey has
said.
been arrested and charged with
"This is a very horrific scene. It's a
murder for stabbing his wife to
situation where there are children
death in their apartment while the
involved and they have lost their
couple's three children were asleep.
mother and their father is probably
Nitin Singh was charged with mur
going to be incarcerated," Cummings
der, aggravated assault and unlaw
said. Singh's wife was pronounced
ful possession of a weapon.
dead at the scene and had been
Singh is accused of stabbing his
wife Seema Singh, 42, multiple Nitin Singh allegedly stabbed wife stabbed multiple times in the face,
chest and abdomen.
t imes last wee k and has been
30 times. Called 911.
While authorities are investigat
remanded to the Salem County
Correctional Facility in default of bail of a million dol ing the cause of the murder, police have indicated it
could have been some sort of domestic dispute.
lars cash, the Pennsville Police Department said.
A report in NJ.com said Singh was found covered Cummings said that Pennsville police had never been
with blood standing over his wife's body in their called to the Singhs' apartment for any type of domes
kitchen when emergency personnel arrived early tic troubles in the past.
The Singhs owned the building where the murder
Tuesday morning, according to Pennsville Chief of
Police Allen Cummings. Cummings said Singh himself took place and had owned a convenience store in the
locality. Neighbors expressed shock at the murder,
had called 911 seeking help for his wife.
The couple's three children two boys, aged 16 and saying it was hard to believe Singh could commit such
6 and a 5year old girl were taken from the apart a crime. "He's the nicest person I ever met. I never
ment through a side door so they did not see the heard any type of fighting going on. They never
crime scene in the kitchen, authorities said. The chil raised their voice or anything," Singh's neighbor
dren were taken to the Pennsville police station and George Hemple said of him.

Ravishankar Bhooplapur
serves as Chief Executive of
Vision Financial and President of
Xavier University School of
Medicine.
The committee is composed of
a Chair, Vice Chair, 7 appointed
members, 1 advisor and 2 Rotary
Foundation Finance Committee
Representatives and has the
legal and moral responsibility to
manage the assets of the Rotary.
The current portfolio consists of
nearly $1 Billion (US).

India Day Parade

in Queens

loral Park Be llerose

Indian
Merchants
Association Inc will be
hosting India Day Parade on
August 13, 2016. The parade
starts 11.am onwards from
268th street to 235th street
on Hillside Avenue, Queens. A

cultural mela will also be

held from 1.00 pm to 6.00
pm at PadavanPreller Field
No.1.
Jhalak Dikhla Ja fame anchor
Manish Paul and Dil Saala
Sanki actress Madalsa
Sharma will lead the parade.

Consulate General of India, New York

Invitation

Celebration of 70th Independence Day of India

On the occasion of 70th Independence Day of India on 15th
August 2016, a flag hoisting ceremony will take place at the CGI
at 3 East, 64th street, between Madison & 5th Av., NY10065 as
per the schedule given below.

Indian students to register at GoIs Student Registration Module

A student registration module is now available on MADAD portal on the given
link https://portal2.madad.gov.in/AppConsular/welcomeLink. The homepage
of MADAD portal provides basic guidance on how students can register them
selves on this module. All Indian students in the USA are requested to register
themselves at the earliest.

If you wish to attend please register by going to IndiaCGNY.org.

Due to limited capacity at the Consulate, preregistration is required.
Confirmation will be sent out in the 1st week of August, which is
required to get the access to the venue..

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TRISTATE COMMUNITY

Consul General of India in New York, Riva Ganguly Das attended the 125th
Birth Anniversary Celebration of Baba Sahib Dr.B.R. Ambedkar
at Shri Guru Ravidas gurdwara in New York on July 24, 2016. The event was
organized by Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha of New York.

Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos recently met with members of the
American Malayalee Chamber of Commerce to discuss their plans for the future and
hopes for the community. Pictured are members of the American Malayalee Chamber
of Commerce and Comptroller Maragos.

Ekal Vidyalaya to hit $7.5 M mark

of fund raising in 2016
New York: Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation
has been supporting functionalliteracy,
healthcare, and integral development in
rural areas of India for past 27 years. As
of now, there are 53,000 Ekalschools
(and counting), in almost 30 states
throughout India, including in Nepal;
JammuKashmir. For just $365, Ekal is
able to provide education and healthcare
training to a group of 3040 children
(termed as one Ekal school) for the entire
year. The main objective of this social
venture is not only to eradicate illiteracy,
but also, to empower these rural lives by
providing sustainable villagebased
skills. Ekal achieves this objective by
raising funds, primarily in India and USA.
Every year EkalUSA, hosts a series of
fundraising concerts, between February
and June, in all major U.S. metropolises
by bringing wellknown artistes from In
dia. In addition, the funds are also raised
by direct appeals to consistent, major
donors. In recently concluded fundrais
ing efforts, Ekal hosted 62 concerts, all
across U.S. through its satellite Chap
ters. According to Dr. Jawahar Taunk,
Regional President of Florida, $400,000
was raised in his region alone. Through
concerts only, Ekal has raised more than
$4 Million so far this year. In addition,
for newly initiated Endowment Fund,
$1 Million has been pledged by couple of
generous donors in U.S. and Canada. A
handful of entrepreneurs have also

Through concerts, Ekal has already raised more than $4 Million so far this year.
picked up their own specific projects
based on necessities in certain areas. In
spired by PM Modis clarion call for
CleanIndia campaign, Himanshu Shah
of Shah Capital has taken responsibility
to make a cluster of villages environ
mentally clean by devoting his personal
resources. Moreover, considering 30% of
total funds come into Ekalcoffer, each
year, during NovemberDecember, Ekal
is pretty confident to cross $7.5 Million
mark, this year, just for USA alone. This
is also a great tribute from its 1,000
strong selfless dedicated volunteers in
USA. This year Ekal had invited two
groups of artistes to headline its various
events. One group was headed by Ra
jdeep Chatterjee; Pallabi Roy Chowdhuri
and another was headed by Anand Vin
od; Vibhavari Yadav. All concerts were
preceded by DVDbriefing on Ekals ma

jor activities and futuristic plans. During

the concerts, the people were also treat
ed to highly focused PowerPoint pres
entation that depicted Ekals historic
progress from its inception, allocation of
funds and the model for accountability,
at every level.
It is worth noting that Ekal renders its
services without any credence to caste,
creed, religion and region and its over
head is in single digit. CEO of ZEETV, Dr.
Subhash Chandras induction as the
Chairman of Ekal Global has been a
boon to Ekal Abhiyan in attracting ma
jor industrial houses and entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year, while releasing Subhash
Chandras autobiographical book, ZEE
Factor, PM Modi also lauded Ekals awe
inspiring comprehensive rural work as a
role model for other organizations to
follow.

GOPIOCT honors ve Indian Americans

New York: It was a memorable
evening in every possible way. The
Ballroom at The Hilton Hotel in Stam
ford, CT was filled with more than
200 invited guests from across the
state of Connecticut, including com
munity leaders, elected officials, and
honorees and their families last
month. The event was the 10th annu
al Gala and Awards Nite organized by
The Global Organization of People of
Indian Origin (GOPIO) Connecticut
Chapter honoring five for their
achievements and contributions to
the community: The gala included a
cocktail reception, dinner, music, live
DJ and dances by participants, elo
quent speeches, touching life stories

GOPIOCT 2016 awardees: (L to R) David Smith, Anjali Sharma, Sachin

Lawande, Annapurna Duleep and Roopa Modha
and inspiring narratives on the lives
of the five distinguished honorees.
Prominent among those who had at
tended and spoke at the annual gala
included, US Senator Richard Blu
menthal, Congressman Jim Himes,

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Stamford Mayor David Martin, Nor

walk Mayor Harry Rilling, Connecti
cut State Senators Tony Hwang and
Carlo Leone and CT State Assembly
man Dan Carter. Earlier in the day,
Connecticuts junior senator Chris

IACFNJ to celebrate Indias

70th I-Day on Aug 21
New Jersey: IndoAmerican Cultural Foundation of Central
New Jersey (IACFNJ), a nonprofit organization in central
jersey will celebrate Indias 70th Independence Day on
Sunday, August 21, 2016, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Shree
Swaminarayan Temple (old YMCA), 329 Culver Road,
South Brunswick. Approximately 300 to 400 people are
expected to attend this funfilled patriotic event which is
free and open to all public.
After last six years grand success and overwhelming
community support, the organizers and executive commit
tee of IACFNJ once again are getting ready to organize
2016 patriotic celebration of Indias Independence Day
event with funfilled entertainment and cultural activities,
dance performances, traditional Indian dances, patriotic
dances, childrens activities, DJ, live music and authentic
Indian food sampling which will be open to all at an out
door location of the temple grounds. The program will in
clude singing of the American and Indian Anthems fol
lowed by the local and state public officials and dignitarys
addresses to the attendees and fun filled patriotic dances
from the young and talented kids from the local dance
groups.
The live DJ and music will be provided by DJ Darshan of
NorthBrunswick. The authentic Indian food sampling will
be provided to all participants at end of the program. The
henna tattoos, face paintings and other kids activities will
be the attractions for this community event. Many young
high school students will provide their community volun
teer services during this event. The volunteer participants
will be awarded with certificate of volunteerism.
The next IACFNJ mega event will be Navratri Garba 2016
in South Brunswick on October 1, 7, 8, 14 and 15 at Cross
roads South Middle School. For Further information on this
celebration and future events, visit www.IACFNJ.org

Murphy addressed GOPIOCT mem

bers. Sachin Lawande, President and
CEO of Visteon Corporation (Van Bu
ren, MI), was recognized for his
achievement as a Corporate Leader.
Visteon is one of the worlds leading
suppliers of vehicle cockpit electron
ics, serving auto manufacturers
around the globe. Sachin was de
scribed to be leading a rapid evolu
tion of electronics technology and
software to meet the demands of the
connected car era.
Anjali Sharma, a Greenwich resi
dent, was honored for Community
Service and promoting philanthropy.
Anjali, a Trustee of AIF, has worked
tirelessly to as a humanist and phi
lanthropist to promote Indias devel
opment. She won the loudest ap
plause from the audience for her sim

ple narration of the many efforts she

and her organization takes to bring a
little cheer in the lives of hundreds of
people in India.
Annapurna Duleep, a former Nor
walk Councilwoman, was recognized
for her contributions and achieve
ments in Political Involvement. Anna
is the first woman and South Asian to
be elected Sheriff of Norwalk City in
2014. She is an ardent proponent of
gun control. GOPIOCT Presidents
Young Professional Achiever Award
was given to Roopa Modha of Shel
ton, who has been working tirelessly
to promote womens issues using her
legal expertise to further womens
causes. Her commitment is to em
power women and bring the issues of
domestic violence and rape into the
public domain.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

NATIONAL COMMUNITY

Indian Ambassador meets top US

lawmakers of Hillary campaign
Philadelphia: Continuing his outreach
with American political leadership,
Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K
Singh has met top Democratic lawmak
ers, including ofcials of the Hillary
Clinton campaign, to underline the
importance India attaches to the bilat
eral ties.
At a t ime, when the ent ire
Democratic leadership is camping here
to prepare for the crucial November
general elections, the top Indian diplo
mat was given rare access to the top
leadership of the party, reecting the
importance the party, its lawmakers
and the Hillary campaign attaches to
the IndiaUS relationship.
He met Senator Patrick Leahy,
Ranking Member of Senate Judiciary
Committee, who is also Ranking
Member of the crucial Senate
Appropriation Subcommittee on State,
Foreign Operat ions and Re lated
Programs, and Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi.
John Po desta, chair of Hillary
Clinton's Campaign and former
Counselor to US President Barack
Obama met the Indian Ambassador,
indicating the signicance a Clinton
Administration would attach to India
US ties. Singh had interactions with
top Democratic lawmakers Nita Lowey,
Frank Pallone, and Joe Crowley, who is
Vice Chair of Democratic Caucus and
former CoChair of House India
Caucus. The Ambassador had a meet
ing with Congressman Ami Bera, the

Arun K. Singh
meeting with
House
Democratic
Leader Nancy
Pelosi ( DCA)
at Democratic
National
Convention,
Philadelphia
(Image :
Facebook/Indi
a in USA)

only Indian American lawmaker in the

US House of Representatives.
Top Indian American community
leaders attending the fourday national
convention held a reception for Singh,
"Chai and Chaat" which among others
was attended by Senator Corry Booker,
Ranking Member of Senate Commerce,
Science
and
Transportat ion
Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere,
Fisheries and Coast Guards.
In his address, the Ambassador
underscored the important role being
played by Indian American community
in strengthening India US ties.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is running
for House of Representative race in
Illinois, Raj Goyle, former Democratic
Member of Kansas House of
Representatives, were present at the
event.

It was also attended by a number of

politically connected Indian Americans
Sunil Puri, Deepak Raj, Mahinder
Tak, Anurag Verma, Priya Dayananda,
Mini Timmaraju and She khar
Narsimhan.
Singh also addressed another event
titled "South Asians for Hillary."
He also attended a diplomatic recep
tion by American Jewish Committee
(AJC) and made brief remarks.
On the sidelines of the convention,
the Indian Ambassador met Kesha
Ram, Vermont State Representative,
who is running for the position of State
Lt Governor.
The Indian Ambassador had made a
similar outreach with the Republican
leadership during last wee k's
Republican National Convention in
(PTI)
Cleveland.

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

Neera Tanden
debuts on US
political stage
Philadelphia: IndianAmerican Neera Tanden made
her political debut in the US elections when she stood
behind the lectern to
address thousands of
de leg ates
of
the
Democratic party and its
top
leadership
in
Philade lphia
on
Wednesday night.
Currently, president of
Center for American
Progress, Tanden is a
close condent of Hillary
Clinton, the Democratic
presidential nominee,
and highly speculated as
a potent ial cabinet
appointee in her admin
istration.
So far, Neera Tanden, 45, is the only Indian
American to have been invited by the Democratic
leadership and the Clinton Campaign to address the
just concluded Democratic National Convention.
She was a key member of the Democratic Platform
Committee.
Neera Tanden, who has played an important role in
shaping some of the key policy issues of the party, the
Obama Administration and the Clinton Campaign
alleged that the rhetoric of Donald Trump has been
"very hateful."
"He has been very antagonist ic towards all
immigrants. He does not have a very clear picture of
who an American is. And I do not think that that is
really welcoming among the South Asian community.
You will see in Hillary's speech on Thursday really
welcoming everyone and that includes Indian
Americans, includes South Asians and the great diver
sity of the country," Tanden said.

Raja Krishnamoorthi recognized as emerging Democratic leader

Philadelphia: IndianAmerican Raja
Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic
Congressional candidate from
Illinois, was introduced as one of
the party's emerging leaders dur
ing the Demo crat ic Nat ional
Convention.
Krishnamoorthi, 42, is among
only two Congressional candidates
to have been invited on to the DNC
stage here as the party's rising star
or emerging leader.
Stephanie Murphy from Florida
is the other Congressional candi
date to be recognized by the
Democratic party in this category.
Having won the Demo crat ic
Party's Congressional primary in
Illinois on March 16, Mr

Raja Krishnamoorthi
(Image : dailyherald.com)
Krishnamoorthi faces Peter
DiCianni of the Republican party
who ran unopposed during the pri
mary. He has raised a whopping

$1.6 million more than his oppo

nents and is considered to be a
heavy favorite.
If elected, he would join Ami
Bera in the US House of
Representat ives in the next
Congress beginning January 2017.
Bera, meanwhile, is seeking his
thirdterm in the November gener
al elections. Krishnamoorthi has
the distinction of being endorsed
by US President Barack Obama.
"I know he'll g ht hard in
Congress to create more good jobs,
empower more Americans to start
businesses, and help working fami
lies af ford to put their children
through college," Obama said in
his endorsement last month. He

has also been endorsed by other

top Democratic leaders including
Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker
of
the
US
House
of
Representatives.
Krishnamoorthi previously was
the policy director and a senior
advisor for Barack Obama's 2004
US Senate campaign, and also
served as an advisor to Obama's
2008 Presidential campaign.
He served as Deputy Treasurer
of Illinois from 20072009 under
Illinois
Treasurer
Alexi
Giannoulias, and in 2010 ran for
the Democratic nomination for
Illinois State Comptroller, losing to
David E Miller by less than one
percent of the vote.

Born in New Delhi on July 19,

1973, his parents immigrated to
Buf falo New York when he was
three months old. Krishnamurthy
currently serves as president of
Sivananthan Labs and Episolar Inc,
small businesses that develop and
sell products in the national secu
rity and renewable energy indus
tries. He is a cofounder of
InSPIRE, a nonprot organisation
that provides training to Illinois
students and veterans in solar
technology, and was formerly Vice
Chairman of the Illinois Innovation
Council, whose mission is to pro
mote innovative technologies that
support economic growth and job
creation in Illinois.

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

NATIONAL COMMUNITY

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Indiaborn Muslim cop keeps Hindu temple safe

Indianapolis: A Mumbaiborn Mus
lim police officer is the security in
charge of the largest Hindu temple in
the Indianapolis city of US, setting an
example of interfaith cooperation
and social harmony at a time when
religious intolerance rhetoric is on
the rise due to the election cycle.
An eightdegree blackbelt in Taek
wondo and a kick boxing champion,
Lt Javed Khan from the local police
department is director of security at
the Hindu temple in Indianapolis.
For hundreds of visitors thronging
the temple daily, in particularly over
the weekend, Khan, who was born in
Mumbai and raised in Lonavla, Pune,
is now considered a part and parcel
of the Hindu temple.
"My message is this; we are all one.

Lt Javed Khan (Image courtesy: midday.com)

We are all the children of God. There
is only one God and then there are

different forms and names, we

choose to worship," Khan told PTI in

I'm proud of my Indian heritage:

Designer Rachel Roy

New Delhi: Born to a Bengali father and

Dutch mother, American fashion designer
Rachel Roy, whose client list includes the
likes of Michelle Obama and Penelope Cruz,
is proud of her Indian heritage, and says
India has influenced her work in many
ways, especially the colors and prints in her
designs.
"My father is Indian and I've been very
fortunate to travel to India several times.
This is my second trip in the last few years
and I am bringing my daughter Ava again.
She joined me on my last trip where we vis
ited New Delhi, Agra, and Goa," Roy told
IANS during her recent visit to India to
judge the 2016/17 International Woolmark
Prize India, Pakistan and Middle East
regional final held in Mumbai.
"It's always an emotional experience for
me as I'm quite proud of my Indian heritage
and also quite passionate about philan
thropic causes I'm involved in, including
Children's Hope India and World of
Children," added the designer in an email
interview.
The Rachel Roy brand debuted in 2004
and for over a decade. She has built her
readytowear and accessories business
into a globally recognized brand with cate
gories including jewe llery and home
products.
Talking about India has influenced her
designs, Roy said: "It has influenced so
many parts of my life from design to beauty
to accessories. I have a love of color and
print... And that was definitely influenced

(Image courtesy: ibtimes.com)

by my Indian side of the family. I remember
my aunts putting on kohl on their eyes and
loving the ritual and process it felt really
special for me to watch them," she said. It's
not just the country that fascinates her, but
also the creations of some Indian designers.
"I always love what Bibhu (Mohapatra)
and Waris (Ahluwalia) do and have been
watching people like Manish Malhotra,
Payal Singhal and Priyanka Lama. India
holds a special place in my heart, so I look
for growth and success of designers and
businesses with roots to the country," said
Roy, who added that she would love to
expand into India when the time is right.
"Everyone is so welcoming when I spend
time here that it would be amazing to be
able to establish a longer term relation
ship," added the designer, who also has
Kate Hudson, Kim Kardashian and Sharon
Stone as clients.
(IANS)

a phone interview from Indianapolis.

"We are Indians. Half my family is
Hindu. I do not believe in Hindu
Muslim thing," he said.
"I am just doing my duty. I am not
doing anything special or extraordi
nary," Khan said when asked for an
interview.
Khan settled in Indiana in 2001, a
year after he migrated to the United
States. He had been coming to the US
since 1986 for participating in vari
ous martial arts championship.
Khan said it all started a few years
ago, when he married his daughter
to a Telugu boy at this Hindu temple,
after which he started knowing peo
ple at the temple. Soon, he said, "I felt
there is need over there for protec
tion. Then I offered my services. I am

director of security for the temple

now. While the temple has been in
existence for the past several years,
its formal opening ceremony
Kumbhabhishekam was held last
year, which was attended by top
state leaders." "Your place of worship
adds another significant landmark to
the city of Indianapolis and I am cer
tain that it will play a key role in en
riching the cultural heritage of our
state, as well as, the learning and
spiritual growth of its devotees and
visitors," Indiana Governor Mike
Pence had said in a message in June
last year at the time of the formal
opening of the temple built at an es
timated cost of $10 million. Pence is
now the vice presidential candidate
(PTI)
of the Republican party.

NYs Dr Bhayani hosts celebrity

football charity match in India
The proceeds went to Modi's Beti
Bachao and Swachh Bharat initiatives
New York: W hen Dr Raj
Bhayani from New York heard
Prime Minister Narendra
Modis Mann ki baat on March
27th he was extremely inspired
by the PMs idea of making
football a popular game in India
and India hosting FIFA world
cup in 2017.
He immediately discussed this
with his team members
Priyanka Kothari, a well known
actress and Bhasker Prakash
from New Delhi and so was
born the concept of hosting a
Football for Nation event Baba Ramdev, Dr Raj Bhayani and Ranbir Kapoor, who led
where
in
Members
of
All Star Football team to a win against Parliamentarians'
Parliament would play football
team. (Image : hindustantimes.com)
against Bollywood cine stars in
The objective of this match was to increase
a charity match.
T his concept was initiated by actress awareness about Prime Ministers initiative
Priyanka Kothari, supported by Dr. Raj Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Abhiyan and
Bhayani as chief organizer and hosted by Swacch Bharat Swasth Bharat Abhiyan as
Bhasker Prakashs Adhunik Art Gallery. It was well as to make football a popular game all
a herculean task as bringing all these partici over country with proceeds from the match
pants together was very difficult. And finally going towards both the initiatives.
While Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for
the match was played on July 24, 2016 at 7
Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise and
pm at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi.
Vijay Goel Minister of Youth Af fairs and MP Manoj Tiwari led the Parliamentarian
Sports accepted to be the chief guest. Mrs. team, All Star Football team was led by
Maneka Gandhi, Cabinet Minister for Women Abhishek Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor.
All Star Football team won the match, where
and Child Deve lopment was guest of
honor.Baba Ramdev agreed to be Brand Ranbir Kapoor played extremely well and
helped the team to score the victory.
Ambassador of the event.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

US AFFAIRS

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

Obama appeals for Hillary, slams Trump

voice?...If so, you should vote for him," he
added. Obama said the message at last
week's Republican convention in Cleveland
"wasn't particularly Republican and it
sure wasn't conservative."
The President also praised former presi
dential hopeful Bernie Sanders for his
efforts to end the role of money in politics
and to promote a progressive agenda.
During his speech, Obama also recalled
the moment in 2004 that catapulted him to
national prominence, kickstarting his path
to the White House and he insisted the
country was better off now than when he

first entered office in 2009.

"Through every victory and every set
back, I've insisted that change is never
easy, and never quick; that we wouldn't
meet all of our challenges in one term, or
one presidency, or even in one lifetime...So
tonight, I'm here to tell you that, yes, we
still have more work to do," Obama said.
He also mentioned his accomplishments
over his two terms as president including
Osama bin Laden's killing, legalization of
gay marriage, an improved economy and
diplomatic deals with Iran and Cuba.
IANS

In formally accepting
the nomination to be
Hillary Clintons vice
presidential running
mate, Senator Tim
Kaine of Virginia
showed off his
comedic chops by
impersonating
Donald Trump at the
DNC. (Photo : Reuters)

Hillary Clinton made an appearance Wednesday at the DNC stage after a fullthroated
endorsement of her candidacy by President Obama. (Photo courtesy NYT)
Philadelphia, PA: President Barack Obama
on Wednesday night made a fervent appeal
for Hillary Clinton, casting the Democratic
nominee as a custodian of his legacy while
rejecting Republicans' message as foster
ing anger and hate.
Obama, during his address at the
Democratic National Convention (DNC)
here, said, "I can say with confidence there
has never been a man or a woman not
me, not Bill, nobody more qualified than
Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the
United States of America."
"This is not your typical election...It's not
just a choice between parties or policies;
the usual debates between left and right.
This is a more fundamental choice about
who we are as a people, and whether we

stay true to this great American experi

ment in selfgovernment," the President
said.
Her rival, Republican presidential nomi
nee Donald Trump, meanwhile, is merely
ginning up fear to secure votes, Obama
noted. "Donald Trump calls it 'a divided
crime scene' that only he can fix," Obama
said of the Republican nominee's descrip
tions of the state of the country.
"He's just of fering slogans, and he's
offering fear. He's betting that if he scares
enough people, he might score just enough
votes to win this election," the President
said. "Does anyone really believe that a guy
who's spent his 70 years on this Earth
showing no regard for working people is
suddenly going to be your champion? Your

At the DNC, former NYC

mayor Michael Bloomberg
dubbed Trump a dangerous
demagogue and conman
while making an appeal to
independent voters to not
sit out the election and vote
Hillary for President.
(Photo courtesy AP)

'Treason'? Critics savage Trump over

Russia hack comments
Washington: Donald Trump's call
on Russia to hack Hillary
Clinton's emails has shocked,
flabbergasted and appalled law
makers and national security
experts across the political spec
trum, with some describing his
comments as "treason."
Few would argue Wednesday
that what the Republican presi
dential nominee said will directly
cause Russia to conduct more
cyberespionage against the US
than it already is doing. But sever
al described Trump's statements
as dangerous for America's global
standing. Some echoed the
Clinton campaign in calling the
comments a threat to national
security.
"Its just one more example of
the reckless and dangerous com
ments that Donald Trump makes

Donald Trump later tried to walk back his comments as being sarcastic
that compromises American for
eign policy objectives," said Sen.
Ben Cardin of Maryland, the rank
ing Demo crat on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
Leon Panetta, a former CIA

director, said Trump's comments

were "beyond the pale" because
he was "in fact asking the
Russians to engage in American
polit ics." An aide to House
Speaker Paul Ryan, who has

endorsed Trump, added, mean

while, that "Russia is a global
menace led by a devious thug"
and that it should stay out of the
U.S. election.
On Thursday, Trump tried to
walk back his comments saying
he was only kidding when he
appeared to encourage Russian
inte lligence agencies to find
Hillary Clinton's thousands of
deleted emails.
"Of course I'm being sarcastic,"
Trump said in a Fox News inter
view that aired the day after his
comments sparked a national
furor. "You have 33,000 emails
deleted, and the real problem is
what was said on the emails from
the Democratic Convention."
Trump was speaking after the
recent hack of the Democratic
National Committee, which led to

the publication of thousands of

emails on WikiLeaks. The emails
showed officials criticizing Bernie
Sanders during his primary cam
paign against Hillary Clinton, a
time when the DNC claimed it
was neutral in the race.
At
a
news
conference
Wednesday in Doral, Florida,
Trump ignited his controversy
with what appeared to be a chal
lenge to Moscow.
"Russia, if you're listening, I
hope you're able to find the
30,000 emails that are missing,"
Trump said, referring to separate
emails that Clinton wrote on a
personal server she used for offi
cials business and did not hand
over to the State Department. "I
think you w ill probably be
rewarded mightily by our press."

Agencies

10

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

US AFFAIRS

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

Hillary nominated for President; Bill hails 'changemaker'
By Arul Louis in Philadelphia

When she lost to Barack Obama in 2008 in the presidential race, she
said she caused 18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling in
America, referring to the number of votes she received. On Tuesday
her video image appeared at the convention stage from behind a
cascading shattering glass.

In his personal testimony in support of Hillary, former President Bill Clinton

said her negative portrayal by the Trump campaign was madeup.

Philadelphia, PA : Hillary Clinton

wrestled her way into history on
Tuesday becoming the first woman
to be nominated by a major politi
cal party for the President of the
United States and was hailed by
her husband, former President Bill
Clinton, as "the best darn change
maker I ever met".
Her insurgent rival in the
Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders,
put a dramatic end to a fractious
campaign by personally having her
nominated unanimously by accla
mation at the party convention
here.
Hillary came on a video link to
thank the Democratic convention
delegates and said, "I can't believe
we just put the biggest crack in the
glass ceiling yet."
If she is elected in November, she
will join Chancellor Angela Merkel
of Germany, Prime Minister
Theresa May of Britain and Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina of
Bang ladesh as women leading
major nations 50 years after a
woman, Indira Gandhi, became
India's Prime Minister.
Her nominat ion came eig ht
years after her first bid. In 2008
she was thought to have an easy
road to the W hite House, but
Barack Obama emerged virtually
out of nowhere to walk away with
the nomination and eventually

made history by becoming the first

AfricanAmerican to win the presi
dency.
In a sentimental speech that
began with being drawn by her
magnet ism when he first saw
Hillary at Yale University in 1971,
Bill Clinton traced their courtship
and their life that took them once
to the White House and her, after
wards, to the Senate and the State
Department. "We have been
throug h goo d t imes and bad,
through joy and heartbreak," he
said.
In keeping with the tradition of
the nominee not coming on stage
till the last day of the convention,
Hillary Clinton spoke by a video
link. "If there are any little girls out
there who stayed up late to watch,
let me just say I may become the
first woman President but one of
you is next," she said.
When the voting results of all
the states and territories were
announced, Sanders asked to sus
pend the process and nominate
her by acclamation without count
ing the delegate votes. The conven
tion immediately approved the
nomination with loud cheers.
The formal nominating session
began with Tulsi Gabbard, the first
and only Hindu to be elected to
Cong ress, invoking Mahatma
Gand hi to formally nominate
Sanders. She said: A small body of

determined spirits fired by an

unquenchable faith in their mis
sion can alter the course of histo
ry. Gabbard had resigned as the
Vice Chair of the Democratic Party
in February to openly work for the
election of Sanders.
In the November election, Hillary
Clinton will be locked in a nasty
race w ith Republican Party's
Donald Trump, who has been
accused of being antiwoman.
He loomed as an ominous pres
ence at the Convention as speaker
after speaker hit out at his opposi
tion to abortion rights and mater
nity benefits, his unabashedly sex
ist remarks about women, and
what they asserted were his
extremely negative statements
about immigrants and Muslims.
Earlier as the count ing of
delegate votes from states and
territories was underway, a young
Indian woman, Sruthi Palaniappan
introduced Iowa's vote announce
ment. India West newspaper
reported that Palaniappan, an
18yearold high school student, is
the youngest Indian American del
eg ate at the Convent ion. Her
father, Palaniappan Andiappan, is
a member of the Convention's
credent ials committee, the
newspaper said.
Before Hillary Clinton accepted
the nomination via video, Actress
Meryl Streep highlighted the his
toric nature of her nomination.

Amid revolt by supporters, Sanders tried to rally support for Hillary

Philadelphia, PA: Amid a sustained
revolt by his supporters, Bernie
Sanders, the unsuccessful insurgent
candidate for the Democratic Party
presidential nomination, struggled
on Monday to rally the fractured
party to support Hillary Clinton
against Donald Trump, the
Republican Party nominee.
Speaking at the party convention
here, Sanders declared: "Hillary
Clinton must become the next presi
dent of the United States." With
Trump, "the choice is not even
close".
The conventions opening was
marred by the weekend resignation
of the Democratic Party Chair,
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, follow
ing leaks of party emails that
showed the leadership favoring
Hillary and undercutting Sanders.
The Democratic Party insists that
their computers were hacked by
Russians and links Soviet President
Vladimir Putin and Trump.
Daylong protests in Philadelphia
city by Sanders supporters carried
on to the convention floor where
they booed speaker after speaker.

Even Sanders drew scattered boos

from his own supporters as he
called on them to support Hillary.
The intractable mood of his sup
porters, a combination of youth and
old time radicals, who feel betrayed
by the party and assert that the
selection process was rigged, was
captured by a young Indian
American protester who wanted to
by identified only by her first name,
Viji. She told IANS that she was not
swayed by the party threats that dis
sidence would result in a Trump vic
tory. "Trump may be a racist, but at
least he won the nomination fair
and square unlike Hillary who stole
the election from Sanders," said Viji
from Cleveland.
She criticized Clinton over her
economic policies that favored the
rich, her support for the Trans
Pacific Partnership trade agreement
and her support for the Iraq war.
However, echoing the hopes of the
party leadership, Khayati Joshi, the
Cochair of the New Jersey State
Democratic South Asian American
Caucus and a delegate to the con
vention, dismissed the continuing

Sanders movement and the party

chair's resignation as "distractions".
T he professor at Fairleigh
Dickinson University told IANS
added that once the campaigns
gained steam, the rifts would heal.
The party establishment took sev
eral steps to mollify the Sanders
crowd. They moved up his speech to
the last spot of the day and gave the
keynote slot to Elizabeth Warren, a
leader of the party's leftwing whose
views are close to Sanders.
In a speech that sounded like an
echo of the Left in India, the
Massachusetts senator, Elizabeth
Warren, railed against globalization,
the poor getting poorer, the income
divide, big businesses benefiting
from government, tax cuts for the
rich and a system rigged against the
voiceless masses.
In a charm offensive towards the
petulant Sanderistas, every speaker
with a political message paid hom
age to Sanders for awakening the
party to several progressive issues.
The convention organizers even dis
tributed Sanders placards to all del
egates to cheer him.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders finally withdrew his candidature when

during the delegates rollout Tuesday at the 2016 Democratic National
Convention he moved to nominate Hillary Clinton by voice vote.

A supporter
of Bernie
Sanders
protests
against
the
nomination
of Hillary
Clinton
at the
2016 DNC

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

US AFFAIRS

11

HILLARY CLINTON: First Lady President?

In this, the most advanced nation in the world, the most powerful democracy, how is it
that we have never even had a woman vice president, let alone President?
By Shivaji Sengupta
ack in England in the 18th century there was a rather
populist controversy on whether women in the Anglican
Church should be preachers. Dr. Samuel Johnson, he of
the founder of the modern dictionary fame, weighed in with
typical characteristic flair: Sir, he opined, a woman preach
er is rather like a dog walking on its hind legs. It does not do
it well, but the wonder is that it does it at all!
Almost three hundred years later that particular controver
sy is still alive and well in the United States. Meanwhile, we
may be at the threshold of another first in living history:
Hillary Clinton as the first woman president of the United
States. Thus, the title of this piece is purposely tongue in
cheek, given that the presumptive Democratic candidate was
also a first lady.
Should ladies be president? Especially, supposedly demure
and docile first ladies who are supposed to enter the White
House strictly as their husbands consorts?
Most readers of 21st century America will dismiss the ques
tion, perhaps with exaggerated intolerance. Give me a break!
Of course they should! We are too late already! Look at Indira
Gandhi, Golda Meir, Corazon Aquino, Sirimavo Bandaranaike!
Look right now across the Atlantic: Angela Merkel and
Bangladesh! So why not Hillary Clinton?
Why not, indeed! In this, the most advanced nation in the
world, the most powerful democracy, how is it that we have
never even had a woman vice president, never mind presi
dent? And now that Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton is about to
create history, why is it that her popularity level is abysmally
low, with only Donald Trump as her healthy competitor?
Clinton is now viewed unfavorably by 55 percent of the
electorate, according to the HuffPost. Only 40.2 percent of
people view her favorably. A broad number of Americans
dont trust Clinton. There are also other reasons: consequence
of her sheer longevity in public life; her earnings after leaving

the State Department or the longrunning controversy over

her private email. Last, but not least, she is Bill Clintons wife!
But why? Colin Powel, when Secretary of State, had
Department emails delivered to his private server at home;
nobody has ever asked how much money Jim Baker,
Secretary of State during the first president Bush, made after
leaving his position? And as for longevity? Are thirty years
longer for a woman in politics than men who have been there
for much more? Why are these things seen as particularly
unfavorable when others all men have been guilty of the
same things.
There are theories about this.
The one that intrigues me most is postfeminism. You must
have already heard that Hillary is much less popular to
younger women (ages 18 through 35) than she is among the

older. Actually, I in my naivet, expected otherwise. I thought

it would be the new generation of women who would look at
the Clinton phenomenon as the final successful effort to shat
ter the glass ceiling. Not so; and at least one reason is post
feminism.
Postfeminism is an attitude, a way of looking at the world
that subscribe to a sort of neutrality about women that is
actually not that neutral. In fact, it may be a contradiction. Its
practitioners are women who, thoroughly saturated with the
dictates of western feminism, now transcend it. They apply all
the favorable tenets of feminism to themselves, but look
askance when other women invoke feminist ideals to get
ahead of men. (And since the first 43 presidents of the United
States have all been men, Hillary Clintons claim to the presi
dency can be interpreted as a woman trying to get ahead of
them).
Paul Begala, an influential Democrat strategist, put it suc
cinctly: women can, and do, capably run for president. They
have the potential to be as popular with the US electorate as
male candidates. Any failure of their candidacy should prop
erly be ascribed to their personal shortcomings, or strategic
miscalculations rather than to the continued influence of sex
ism in US culture.
Postfeminist views of both Hillary Clinton specifically, and
contemporary presidency in general, ignore an important cul
tural reality: Americans have always preferred potential
female presidential candidates to actual ones. A fictional
Hillary Clinton running the world is appealing only when
shes not actually the one running it.

The writer is Professor of English

and Vice President for Academic
Affairs at Boricua College in NYC.
He's been living in the US for
almost 50 years.

Michelle Obama makes a case for

Hillary Clinton for President
The First Ladys speech at the DNC Monday
was widely admired.
By Arul Louis

S First Lady Michelle Obama on

Monday addressed the opening night
of the Demo crat ic Nat ional
Convention (DNC) with a message of hope
and unity for the party while endorsing
Hillary Clinton for President, saying she
trusts Hillary to lead the country.
Hillary Clinton has never quit on any
thing in her life, Michelle Obama said at
the Wells Fargo Centre in Philadelphia, PA.
I want someone with proven strength
someone who understands that the issues a
president faces are not black and white and
cannot be boiled down to 140 characters,
the First Lady said. Clinton has the guts
and the grace to keep coming back and
putting those cracks in that highest and

In what almost surely had to be the best greatest convention

speech ever by a First Lady, Michelle Obama made about
as strong a case for Hillary Clinton for President as
anyone could possibly make.
hardest glass ceiling, she added.
T he First Lady said she trusts and
believes the former Secretary of State was
truly qualified to shape Americas children
for the next four or eig ht years.
Novembers election isnt Republican ver
sus Democrat, Michelle said. It is about
who will have the power to shape our chil
dren for the next four or eight years of
their lives.
I am with you tonight because in this
election, there is only one person who I
trust with that responsibility, only one per
son who I believe is truly qualified to be
president of the US, and that is our friend,
Hillary Clinton. She went on to praise
Clintons resiliency after the bitter primary
in 2008, one that had similar levels of heat
as this years battle between the former

First Lady and Democratic rival Bernie

Sanders.
When she did not win the nomination
eight years ago, she did not get angry or
disillusioned, the First Lady said. Hillary
did not pack up and go home because as a
true public servant, Hillary knows that this
is so much bigger than her own disappoint
ment. Michelle, who took to the stage to
Clintons campaign music Brave by Sara
Bareilles cast Hillary as a lifelong fighter
who has spent decades trying to improve
the lives of others while implicitly rebuking
her rival, Republican presidential nominee
Donald Trump.
She touted Clintons experience fighting
for children with disabilities as a young
lawyer, pushing for health care when she
was first lady herself and child care as a

New York senator. Without restating the

message the Clinton campaign has been
pushing against Trump, the First Lady also
suggested the real estate mogul lacked the
temperament to be commander in chief,
ridiculing his Twitter tendencies and thin
skin without ever mentioning his name.
Michelle described the next president she
wants to see in the White House as a uniter
who would not pit divisions of people
against each other because we are always
stronger together. Before she concluded
her speech, Michelle delivered a message
unmistakably delivered at the billionaire
businessman. Dont let anyone ever tell
you that this country is not great, that
somehow we need to make it great again.
Because this right now is the greatest coun
try on Earth, First Lady said.

12

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

INDIA

Eminent writer Mahasweta Devi dead

Kolkata: "All through my life, I've done what
ever I felt like doing" this quote aptly
describes the fiercely independentminded
Mahasweta Devi, the doyen of activistwrit
ing in India, who died on Thursday aged 90.
T he Ramon Magsaysay and Jnanpith
awardee Bengali novelist penned telling
commentaries on the sufferings and oppres
sion of tribals, and in a rarity for a citybred
writer, came down from the ivory tower to
mingle with them.
She shared their food and huts, tried to
understand their problems and fought the
powersthatbe to uphold the rights and bet
ter the living condition of these backward
people.
In her sixdecade literary career, she
authored over 120 books, comprising 20 col
lections of short stories and around 100 nov
els and contributed innumerable articles and
columns to newspapers and magazines, a
large number of them woven around tribal
life.
Adopting a distinctly matteroffact style
free from sentimentality, Mahasweta vividly
portrayed the sufferings the tribals endured
at the hands of uppercaste landlords,
moneylenders and government servants,
and chronicled the stories of tribal resistance
and protests.
"Aranyer Adhikar" (The Occupation of the
Forest), dwelling on Birsa Munda's revolt
against the British, fetched Mahasweta the
Sahitya Akademi award in 1979. "Choti
Munda evam Tar Tir" (Choti Munda and His
Arrow), "Bashai Tudu" , "Titu Mir" are among
other novels that come under the genre. Her
short story collections, including "Imaginary
Maps" and "Breast Stories", "Of Women,
Outcasts, Peasants, and Rebels", and short
stories "Dhowli" and "Rudali" also deal with
tribal life. Another famous novel published in
1975 "Hajar Churashir Maa" (Mother of
1084) inspired by Maxim Gorky's

Tabla maestro Pt Lacchu

Maharaj dies in Varanasi
Lucknow: Tabla maestro Pandit Lacchu Maharaj passed away in Varanasi on
Thursday. He was 72. Other than his professional performances all over the world,
he played the tabla in many Bollywood films.
He had married French woman Teena and she, along with their only daughter, is
in Switzerland. Thumri exponent Girija Devi, who also lives in Varanasi, condoled
the death of the maestro and said such artists are not born every day.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has also mourned the passing away
of Pt Lacchu Maharaj.

Mahasweta Devi's work as an activist and

writer received wide recognition.
"Mother", Ahas the backdrop of the Naxalite
movement. It narrates a mother'sAefforts to
understand her son, who dies as a Naxalite
fighter.
(It was turned into an extremely touching
Hindi movie, "Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma", featur
ing Jaya Bahaduri, in 1998.)
Mahasweta's debut book in 1956 was a
lucid life sketch "Jhansir Rani" (the Queen of
Jhansi) describing the bravery and martyr
dom of Laxmibai. She also wrote popular
humorous pieces and stories in children's
magazines like Sandesh.
Mahasweta had deep respect for tribal life
and culture, highlighting the absence of the
caste, dowry systems and gender discrimina
tion in their society and was convinced the
"socalled mainstream" had nothing to offer.
"The tribals are more civilised than us," she
would often say.
In 1978, Mahasweta championed the
cause of two tribal groups the Lodhas of

Rajnath to visit Pak

for Saarc Home
Ministers' meet
New Delhi: Amid tension over violence in Kashmir, Home Minister
Rajnath Singh is scheduled to travel
to Pakistan to attend the Saarc
Home/Interior
Ministers
Conference in August, of ficial
sources confirmed.
In the meet ing, scheduled on
August 3 and 4, Rajnath Sing h
would raise the issue of crossbor
der terrorism.
The Home Minister has already
pointed fingers at Pakistan for stok
ing unrest in Kashmir where a wave
of violence, following the killing on
July 8 of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, has
claimed about 50 lives and left thousands injured.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc)
leadership had agreed in 2005 during the 13th Summit in Dhaka
that Home/Interior Ministers of the Saarc nations may meet annu
ally to strengthen cooperation in the area of counterterrorism.
The first meeting of Home/Interior Ministers was held in Dhaka
on May 11, 2006.

the erstwhile Midnapur district and the

Kheria Sabars of Purulia who were among
those notified by the British in 1871 as
"criminals". Though these tribes were denoti
fied after independence, the stigma remained
and they faced trouble whenever crimes
were committed in their vicinity.
Purulia soon emerged as the epicentre of
Mahasweta's activism and she came to be
revered as "The Mother of the Sabars".
Simultaneously, she lent her weight to the
tribal struggles in various other states.
In 1998, Mahasweta's speech at Vadodara
on the plight of India's denotified tribals
influenced the formation of the Denotified
and Nomadic Tribes' Rights Action Group
(DNTRAG) mass organisation that now
keeps vigil against such atrocities.
That protest was the second nature of the
1926born Mahasweta, daughter of poet
novelist Manish Ghatak and writersocial
activist Dharitri Devi, was amply evident
through the decades. In the 1980s, moved by
the miseries of women confined to Kolkata
jails for years as noncriminal lunatics,
Mahasweta wrote sharp and incisive articles
in newspapers demanding their release, forc
ing the West Bengal government to free and
rehabilitate them. Mahasweta, who obtained

a B.A in English from Bolpurbased Vishva

Bharati University founded by Nobel laure
ate Rabindranath Tagore, led militant
protests in the first decade of the 21st centu
ry against private promoters for undertaking
"mindless constructions" in the Khowai
region close to the university one of the
Bard's favorite haunts.
In the twilight years of the state's erstwhile
Left Front government, Mahasweta mobi
lized the civil society against the regime's
"forcible" acquisition of agricultural land for
setting up big industries in rural pockets like
Singur and Nandigram.
She wholeheartedly backed then opposi
tion leader Mamata Banerjee, who became
chief minister in 2011, ending the 34year
LF rule.
Her work as an activist and writer received
wide recognition. The honors showered on
her included the country's highest Jnanpith
literary award (1996), the Magsaysay (1997)
the Padma Shri (1986), the Padma
Vibhushan (2006) and and the
Bangabibhushan (2011).
Apart from "Hazar Chaurasi..." four of her
other creations have been made into films
"Sunghursh" (1968), "Rudaali" (1993),
"Maati Maay" (2006) and "Gangor" (2010).

Kashmir Valley locked down, curfew back in Srinagar

Srinagar: Curfew was reimposed
in various places in the Kashmir
Valley on Wednesday following
clashes between protesters and
security forces amid heavy rains,
hours after a dragging security
lockdown was lifted in all areas
barring the volatile southern dis
tricts.
A police of ficer said here that
ang ry young men took to the
streets and hurled stones at securi
ty forces, prompting authorities to
reimpose curbs on the movement
of people at places where peace
was breached.
The government had lifted cur
few from various places in the
restive valley on Tuesday. But as
soon as people were allowed to
move, clashes broke out in
Srinagar and at some other places
in southern Kashmir.
The curfew was, however, not
removed from south Kashmir amid
fears that a separatistcalled march
to Kulgam town may trigger more
violence. All link roads and entry
points to the south of the valley

Security forces keep strict vigil in Srinagar as curfew

continues in Kashmir Valley. (Photo: IANS)

were closed and no vehicular

movement was allowed on the
JammuSrinagar highway that
runs throug h the reg ion, the
worsthit in the unrest since July 8
which has left nearly 50 people
dead and thousands injured.
Senior separatist leader Syed Ali
Shah Geelani, in house detention,
defied the restrictions and came
out of his residence in upscale
Hyderpora neighbourhood.
Police took Geelani, chairman of
the hardline Hurriyat Conference
faction, into preventive custody.
He was briefly lodged at a nearby

police station, police said.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman
of the moderate Hurriyat faction,
was also detained after he tried to
march towards Kulgam, breaking
the security cordon around his
house here, an aide told IANS.
Earlier, in Srinagar, while curfew
was lifted from most parts, the
restrictions continued in some
parts of the old city where a 61
yearold man died on Tuesday
evening after losing control on his
twowhee ler during a clash
between stonepelting mobs and
security forces.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

INDIA

Cabinet approves key

changes in GST Bill

Modi can even have me

murdered: Kejriwal
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal has alleged that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi was so furious with the
AAP that he can even have him
(Kejriwal) murdered.
In an open appeal to his party volun
teers, ministers and legislators, Kejriwal
said the Aam Aadmi Party was passing
through "a critical time" and the situa
tion was sure to worsen.
Accusing Modi of acting in anger and
trying to crush the AAP, Kejriwal said:
"They can have us killed. They can even
have me killed.
"I am telling all MLAs, anything can
happen."
Asking the legislators to discuss the
situation with their families, he said: "If
you are ready, then stay with us. If there
are doubts, then drop out, for now."
According to the AAP leader, Modi
was orchestrating all the government
action against his party because he
wanted to break it at a time when it was
spreading wings in Punjab, Goa and
Gujarat.
Accusing Modi of trying to crush his
foes, he said no other party was able to

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

(Photo: IANS)
raise its voice against the Modi govern
ment.
"He has le ft no stone unturned"

13

against the AAP", Kejriwal said. "But he

is not able to crush our spirits. We
refuse to surrender. That why he is
angry, frustrated."
The AAPrun Delhi government has
been locked in a war of words with the
Modi government since winning elec
tions in the capital in February 2015,
chiefly over issues of governance and
jurisdiction.
The relations between the two have
been seriously strained in recent
months after police arrested 10 legisla
tors on various charges in Delhi. Barring
one, all of them have been left of f by
courts.
"Why is this happening?" Kejriwal
asked in a video message. He said differ
ent people gave dif ferent reasons,
including how Modi had failed to fulfil
his election promises in contrast to the
AAP.
"Insiders tell me that Modi is very
angry with us (AAP)," he went on. "He is
not thinking logically."
When a leader, he said, acts without
thinking, "there is danger to the country.
This is really worrisome".

New Delhi: In a bid to strengthen the chances of pas

sage of the crucial GST Bill, the Union Cabinet has
approved key changes in the proposed legislation,
including dropping the proposed one per cent addi
tional tax on interstate sale, sources said. This provi
sion's removal has been a key demand of the opposi
tion Congress.
The cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also agreed to include
the mechanism to compensate states for all loss of rev
enues for five years.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi earlier told the Rajya Sabha that the GST
Bill will come up for discussion in the first week of
August. It is pending in the Rajya Sabha, where the
National Democratic Alliance government lacks a
majority.
West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra chaired the
meeting of the empowered committee of state finance
ministers to form a consensus on the bill, and the
states agreed to keep the GST rate out of the bill.
However, there was no decision on what the rate
should be as all the states did not agree on the pro
posed 18 per cent rate.
The Congress demands that the constitutional
amendment bill sould provide for capping the GST rate
at 18 per cent. Mitra said a broad consensus has been
worked out on the GST and all are of the opinion that
taxes on the common man need to be reduced. At the
same time, there is a need to ensure that the trend of
revenue collection continues, he added.

SC faults magistrate for seeking police report

in defamation case against Rahul
New Delhi: The Supreme Court
faulted the magistrate for seeking
a police report on a complaint of
criminal de famat ion ag ainst
Congress Vice President Rahul
Gandhi, who had blamed the RSS
for the assassination of Mahatma
Gandhi.
At the outset of the hearing on
the plea by Rahul Gandhi seeking
quashing of the criminal defama
tion against him by RSS func
tionary Rajesh Madhav Kunte, the
bench of Justice Dipak Misra and
Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, in
a poser, asked if in a case of crim
inal defamation, can a magistrate
take cognizance of a complaint
after calling a report from the
police.
Justice Misra referred to the
judgment in Subramanian Swamy
case rendered by him wherein
the top court had held that in
criminal defamation, police has
no role and magistrate has to

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

take the cognizance of the com
plaint based on his satisfaction.
The court said that it was incum

bent on the complainant to prima

facie satisfy the magistrate's
court on the veracity of the com

plaint. Indicating that it would

return the matter to the magis
trate for fresh consideration,
Justice Misra said: "Police has no
role. No report can be called
(from police). Under Section 199
of Cr.P.C. there is a different pro
cedure. Magistrate can't call for
report from police. That is basic.
Magistrate should make his own
inquires.
"In the language employed
under Section 499 and Section
500 of IPC, police has no role, it
will be remanded (back to magis
trate)."
Defending the magistrate call
ing for police report, Additional
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta
told the court that magistrate
may by calling police report
ascertain whether any such inci
dent took place.
Taking exception to Mehta, a
government counsel, addressing
the court on the issue, senior

counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for

Rahul Gandhi, wondered what
was the role of the state in a mat
ter of private complaint.
Mehta responded that he want
ed to assist the court on the ques
tion of law and Rahul Gandhi had
made the state a respondent in
his petition.
As senior counsel U.R. Lalit,
appearing for Kunte, said: "I only
want the court to see what had
happened in the present case
be fore the court", the bench
asked him: "Can there be a law
for X situation and a law for Y sit
uation."
Seeking time to revisit the facts
of the case in the light of the May
13 judgment and get back to the
court, Lalit said that what has
been said in the May 13 judg
ment appears to be the law of the
land. Allowing time to Lalit, the
court directed the listing of the
matter on August 23.

14

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

OP-ED

L'affaire Siddhu: BJP has only itself to blame

By Sanjeev Srivastava

he monsoon session of parliament was

being projected as a triumphant one
for the BJP with those opposing the
GST Bill falling in line. Its passage was being
seen more as a question of when, rather than
if. The prospect of GST becoming a reality
soon was giving an additional fillip to the
already prevalent feelgood factor in the rul
ing dispensation.
The party had scored a victory in the
northeast by claiming Assam, the monsoon
gods were showering bountiful blessings
after two years of drought, the cabinet
expansion and reshuf fle was by and large
hailed as a masterly exercise which com
bined political messaging, regional aspira
tions, caste equations and administrative
requirements. And the Indian economy and
stock markets had not just weathered Brexit
well, but the timing too was Godsend. Our
own Rexit, in RBI Governor Raghuram
Rajan's quitting before a second term all but
drowned in the global hullabaloo.
All was going well for the BJP, or so it
seemed. But the political developments of
the past few days have seen the party ceding
advantage to its rivals. The BJP leadership,
which prides itself on thinking and planning
ahead, outsmarting and outwitting its rivals
with a mix of strategy, speed and resources,
is no longer looking all that pat. Their win
ning ways, the deft touch, the masterly
strokes all seem to be deserting the BJP as
its leadership finds itself outmanoeuvred

and outwitted. It all started with Arunachal

Pradesh. Of course the cat was set amongst
the pigeons by the Supreme Court but then
the BJP should have anticipated it; especially
after Uttarakhand. The reversal is not just
about losing a remote state to the Congress.
The manner in which Congress got its act
together, marshalled its troops and out
smarted the BJP gave Congress just the life
line it needed at a time when the party was
gasping for oxygen, resigned to a slow, ago
nising and humiliating political demise.
The Arunachal comeback headlined by
India's largest se lling newspaper as
"Congress snatching victory from the jaws of
defeat" has given Congressmen across the
country hope, a reason to believe in them
selves.
What the Congress leadership could not do
since the crushing defeat in May 2014 the
BJP managed it by its needless and illtimed
adventurism in Arunachal. And the party
may repeat its folly if the leadership contin
ues to depend and be guided by the likes of
Himanta Biswa Sharma, who crossed over
from Congress just before Assam elections.
Then came the announcement of Sheila
Dixit as the Congress chief ministerial candi
date in Uttar Pradesh. It's unlikely she and
Raj Babbar can galvanize the party to victo
ry, but if the road show in Lucknow was any
indication the duo has definitely succeeded
in energising the party workers. Dixit's entry
has complicated matters for the BJP, which is
looking bereft of a strategy in this crucial
state.

With the three other political parties now

projecting a face in these e lections in
Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Dixit, how
long can the BJP avoid this question? The
BJP has maintained that it will not project a
face or do so at the right time but the
fact is that with Dixit joining the fray, the
BJP's hand is almost forced. It may still not
announce a candidate, saying it has many
leaders to fit the role but one can see
through its discomfiture.
Surely, the electorate of India's most popu
lous state, which returned 71 NDA MP's in
2014, deserve to know who their chief min
ister will be if they vote for BJP in 2017. The
one winning horse the BJP could have
backed in UP suffers from the handicap of a
wrong surname Varun Gandhi.
The UP battle is truly open and the BJP is
definitely a serious contender. But here
again, the turn of events is making BJP look
more like a reactive force than a proactive
one.
It's in Punjab that the BJP has suffered the
biggest shocker in the exit of Navjot Singh
Sidhu. With Sidhu gone, the party has lost its
most charismatic face in Punjab. Sidhu is not
just all charisma, he is the right caste as well
(Jat Sikh). Sidhu has not just left the party
faceless in Punjab, his timing has also left
the top brass redfaced and squirming.
He quit on the first day of the monsoon
session, just a few weeks after he was nomi
nated to the upper house. Sidhu's angst with
the BadalJaitly duo was one of the country's
worst kept political secrets, so who brokered

If Navjot Singh Sidhu becomes the face of

AAP in Punjab as is widely speculated
the assembly elections really open up.
the deal of Sidhu's Rajya Sabha membership
in return for his silence?
If Sidhu becomes the face of AAP in Punjab
as is widely speculated the assembly
elections really open up.
A scenario which the BJP may just have
forced upon itself by forcing Sidhu's hand.

REFORMING INDIA'S BUREAUCRACY: THERE IS NO EASY SOLUTION

By Archana G. Gulati
s someone with firsthand
experience of how babudom
(bureaucracy) functions in
India, I am often amused, and at
times distressed, by people's
assessment of how to cure the
many ills of our bureaucracy.
It is understandably difficult for
the outside observer to pin down
the crux of the problems of cor
ruption, lethargic decisionmaking
and general inertia that are evi
dently keeping this institution
from delivering. It is clearly frus
trating for the average Indian to
pay taxes to sustain this huge,
apparently use less institution
whose members seem to only
abuse power and enjoy perks and
do no good, or not enough, at any
rate.
Various analysts have narrowed
down the problem to low salaries,
fear of the vigilance and audit
machinery, lure of postretirement
jobs, general lack of ethics in socie
ty and the like. The dif ficulty is
that there is no easy formula to
tackle these problems.
I heartily agree with Anja
Manuel that India needs "a com
prehensive ethics and education
campaign in schools and the news

What is needed is more transparency and accountability in regulation.

media would shift cultural norms
away from seeing graft as an
inevitable part of life." This brings
me to the next ofttouted solution.
I agree, only partially, with those
who blame the 3Cs (Comptroller
and Auditor General, Central
Bureau of Investigation and
Central Vigilance Commission) for
the resident inertia of the Indian
bureaucracy. The truth is that we
desperately need these institutions
to do their job well. The trouble is
that more often than not, the
resources of these bodies are being

misused to settle scores and wreak

revenge.
Very often decisive bureaucrats,
who are the epitome of diligence
and honesty, are subject to mali
cious inquiries (initiated by
unscrupulous and the dishonest) to
teach them a lesson and to reign
them in or even as convenient
scapegoats. It is up to the govern
ment to rehaul these bodies and to
severely punish those found to
have abetted the harassment of
upright bureaucrats, either deliber
ately, or because of their sheer

indifference or carelessness.
A little digging would often
reveal crooked fellow bureaucrats
behind bogus complaints or audit
paras and the complicity of the
staff of these bodies lies at the root
of the manipulation of the 3Cs. The
careful selection of of ficers who
man these bodies must be given
utmost priority.
The need for a genuine under
standing of policy and programme
implementation rather than a
pedantic, hypertechnical or polic
ing mindset is of utmost impor

The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.

tance if these bodies are to concen

trate on curtailing dishonesty. Only
when this happens will this coun
try set free the bright, honest
bureaucrat who truly wants to
serve his/her country and is will
ing to work day and night to deliv
er. One idea of giving bureaucrats
the option of branching into the
regulatory stream after the age of
55 is a good one. He has stated
that "those interested in regulation
should be allowed to continue till
65 years, while others follow the
direct line operations till 60 or, in
exceptional cases, 62 years".
However, how this will solve the
"malleability" of regulators is not
clear. In a liberalized market econ
omy, the professionalism and
autonomy of the regulator is criti
cal and regulators who are at the
end of the day political appointees
may necessarily exhibit these
traits.
What is needed is more trans
parency and accountability in reg
ulation. The actions of a number of
regulators are still cloaked behind
an opaque or at least translucent
wall that hides regulatory capture
and worse. The public should have
a right to know the rationale for all
government and regulatory
decisions.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

ART & CULTURE

July 30- Aug 5, 2016

15

Raza: Painter who believed in

Christ and Krishna & 'Bindu'
By Uma Nair

Steeped in Indian
advaita philosophy
S.H. Raza was one of a
handful of contemporary artists who
brought Indian art
onto the world
modernist stage.
He died last week
at age 94.

n Indian artist in Paris an Indian

artist who decided he would explore
the rudiments of plastic art, a gen
tleman who was subtle and every bit an
arts connoisseur, a writer, a thinker, and
an aesthetic being how much can one
say of Syed Haider Raza, who died in New
Delhi last week aged 94?
For Indian contemporary art Raza was
the creator of an epic bridge one that
spanned the elements of tradition and
brought them forward to create islands of
color that were steeped in Indian advaita
philosophy and the idea of the seed the
germination, the principle of everything
being born from the word Om.
Last year, I spent a few hours with him
and the meetings unraveled the beauty of
flashback and the pathos and solitude of a
truly gifted artist. In our meetings, he
would bring back the past all his old
explorations unveiled themselves. Raza's
early works were drawn from his memo
ries of a childhood spent in the forests of
his native village in Madhya Pradesh. He
would talk of his school master, who told
him to concentrate on the single spot that
became the historic Bindu. Raza's style
evolved over the years from expression
ist landscapes, which became resonant,

geometric representations of French

towns and villages in the early 1950s dur
ing his years in Paris. Later, while the
lines blurred and color dominated there
was a deeper intensity of spirituality that
wove into his works. The ideation of the
landscape melted into a nonrepresenta
tional, spiritual sentiment evoked by the
eternal spatial structures of a place in
intangible strokes. By the 1970s, the puri
ty of geometrical forms gathered momen
tum and he mapped out a metaphorical
space. The "Bindu" became his iconic
insignia. We saw a dark sphere that was
not just sacred in its symbolism, but an
emblem of Indianness a symbol that
spoke in holistic terms in the context of

Indian literature, philosophy and ideas.

"The Bindu symbolizes the seed, bearing
the potential of all life", he often said.
His life changed after the death in 2002
of his wife of many years, the artist Janine
Mongillat. His friend Ashok Vajpayee
brought him to India to look after him
and give him the space and the peace to
create works in his last years.
As a man, Raza was gentle and loved his
glass of wine and cheese. He loved music
and used to attend Mass at Sacred Heart
Cathedral at the Gol Dakkhana in Delhi.
He spoke of life in Paris and how he

would go with Janine to church. He said

he missed the hymns he was a great
believer in the plurality of religions.
"I be lieve in Christ and Krishna. I
be lieve the gods are for everyone. I
believe that Christ is the symbol of suffer
ing and forgiveness. We can't change that
powerful message; it is a lesson for each
one of us.
He received many accolades in life, and
in death the tributes have been pouring
in. He leaves behind a body of work that
will bring harmony and peace to every
wall it hangs on.

Odissi's spirituality inspires

me: Ileana Citaristi
By Mudita Girotra

talianborn Ileana Citaristi came to

India 30 years ago in search of inspi
ration and discovered Odissi. She
says the classical dance form has inspired
her with its spiritual content and mean
ing.
"I came here as an adult in search of
inspiration. Certain things in me certainly
reflect my original culture, but I feel
immensely af fected by spiritualism and
the approach to life. This form of dance
has inspired me with its spiritual content
and meaning," Citaristi, 48, told IANS in
an interview.
Not surprisingly, one of her recent per
formances in Delhi was woven around
the theme of spirituality. The story of a
Brahmin man, "Sarah" dealt with the diffi
cult search for selfrealization.
"The existing tales, scriptures or peo
ple's stories can be beautifully conveyed
throug h any medium of art. We, as
dancers, visualize them and offer human
emotions of devotion, yearning, grief and
joy through our medium, either in a nar
rat ive or in a suggest ive manner,"
explained the Bhubaneshwar based

Italianborn Ileana Citaristi has lived in India for 30 years,

learning and practicing the classic Indian dance form.
Citaristi, a receipient of the Padma Shri
and a Nat ional Award for Best
Choreog raphy
(Aparna
Sen's
"Yugant"/1995).
"We highlight the story from a certain
point of view, leaving it open for interpre

tation," added the danseuse, who has also

penned two books "T he Making of a
Guru: Kelucharan Mohapatra, his Life and
Times" on her mentor, and "Traditional
Martial Practices in Orissa.
Tracing her journey to this country,

Citaristi said: "India has had a lot of influ

ence on me and I have been a part of the
entire cultural context. Growing up here
has been a very natural process."
She also spoke of the assurance that
Indian culture and Odissi dance gave to
her parents who hadn't supported her
when she was pursuing classical ballet in
Italy. "I was doing classical Ballet in Italy.
But my parents thought dance was not
really important. My case was similar to
many girls in India who are sent to dance
schools but are not allowed to pursue it
as their career," she said adding: "Within
a year spent in this country, my parents
saw a lot of change in me. After that, they
were convinced that I had found my way
in dance."
Having completely thrown herself into
the dance form, Citaristi has never felt
inferior to the Odissi dancers of Indian
origin.
"I have immersed myself completely
into this dance form. I am sure I cannot
match up to the level of gurus but I have
never looked at Indian dancers thinking
they are better. There was a struggle with
rhythm initially but not any more," she
said.

16

RELIGION

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

RELIGION

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

17

Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai

Inspiring Inner Awakening and Social Service

The founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur in Gujarat, which has 26 centers
across USA, was recently on a month-long dharmayatra in America.

Divine Lecture by Pujya Gurudevshri at

Jain Center of New Jersey

ujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai,

fondly addressed as Gurudev,
Sahebji and Bapa, is the
founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Mis
sion Dharampur. He is a spiritual vi
sionary and compassionate seer of
todays age. Pujya Gurudevshris
deepseated love for all beings as
pires for all souls to attain inner
peace. With the sole objective of up
lifting people spiritually, he travels
the world, during dharmayatras,
blazing the trail of spirituality. He
imparts invaluable teachings
through lifetransforming discours
es, meditation camps, selfdevelop
ment workshops and spiritual re

treats. He also inspires several so

cial service initiatives. A traditional
ist in his beliefs and a reformist in
his expressions, Pujya Gurudevshri
has demystified religion and con
ferred a universal appeal to ageold
spiritual principles. Shrimad Ra
jchandra Ashram, Dharampur in Gu
jarat, India serves as the Missions
International Headquarters.
During Pujya Gurudevshris recent
dharmayatra to America, from 14
June 18 July, whether it was the
hot and rugged Phoenix or icy Alas
ka; the strikingly fashionable Los
Angeles; the beach city of Miami or
the hotbed of commerce New York,

Spiritual Play performed at the Jain Center of New Jersey

Pujya Gurudevshris unstoppable

surge of grace touched the hearts
of thousands.
Throughout the dharmayatra,
he encouraged aspirants to con
nect to their True Nature while
traversing the journey of life
through vibrant discourses on top
ics like Remaining aware and cen
tered in all situations, Managing
your thoughts, The power of a
smile, Looking within and tackling
passions. He also engendered the
value of supporting society through
social service activities. Phoenix, AZ
seekers adopted a street under the
AdoptAStreet program to help
maintain and beautify Phoenix
streets. Pujya Gurudevshri unveiled
the street board, Adopt a Street
Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram.
Aspirants thus charged and in
spired by Pujya Gurudevshris wis

Adopt a Sign in Phoenix, Arizona inaugurated by Pujya Gurudevshri

dom and empowered by the joy of

reaching out to society, form a
strong internal network, to remain
aligned to these principles and posi
tivity throughout the year. An Inter
national Trust, Shrimad Rajchandra
Mission Dharampur (USA) serves as
a platform to support the Missions
spiritual and social activities in
America. There are 26 centers in
various cities across USA at present
and members meet every week to
discuss and deepen their under
standing of Pujya Gurudevshris
spiritual teachings; as well as to per
form acts of community service lo
cally. Pujya Gurudevshris endearing
personality and vibrant spirituality
has attracted multitudes of young
sters towards a life with a higher
goal. He is aptly addressed as a
'Leader of the Youth'. The US has 5
Youth Groups that meet either

Guruvarya Pujya Sahebji and Guests from

Anoopam Mission with Pujya Gurudevshri

weekly or biweekly and engage in

discussions of spiritual topics as
well as social service activities while
creating deep and meaningful con
nections.
Shrimad Rajchandra Divinetouch
(SRD) is a journey of inner awaken
ing for children. As our children
race ahead in the outside world,
SRD takes them on a divine journey
by addressing their character, moral
and spiritual development, enabling
them to develop and blossom to
their full potential. SRD is an initia
tive aimed at inspiring and enabling
children to live a more enriching
and meaningful life, in line with the
teachings of the Enlightened Souls.
USA currently has 18 SRD Centers.
Shrimad Rajchandra Love and
Care is a Mission Initiative to bring
joy and offer service to all living be
ings. Included in this program are
10 Cares such as medical care, edu
cation care, animal care and envi
ronmental care to name a few. Each
center in USA supports these activi
ties in various ways. They often
have daily food donation routes
partnering with local restaurants
and chains of stores such as Wal
mart and Costco, where they donate
unused food to shelters for the
homeless. Distributing school sup
plies and clothing, as well as clean
ing up local streets are activities
that are regularly performed. Cen
ters often organize nationwide ac

Honoring Padma Vibhushan Pandit Jasrajji at

Queensborough Performing Arts Center

Honoring Arvind Vora as a Dignitary at QPAC

Launch of Spiritual Books and DVDs from Shrimad Rajchandra Mission

Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai addressing devotees at Jain Center of New Jersey
tivities as well. Once a year, SRMD
(USA) comes together to have a
Love and Care Walk, which is a 5K
Charity Walkathon used to bring
awareness to the social causes sup
ported by the Mission. In 2015,
this event was held at the Liberty
State Park in Jersey City, overlook
ing the NYC skyline. They drew
more than 700 participants and
raised over $350,000 in their first
year of running the charity event.
In 2016, the 2nd Annual Love and
Care Walk was held in Icy Strait
Point, Alaska, drawing over 900
participants and raising over
$650,000. These funds are used to
support social causes run by the
Mission in India such as medical
care and education for severely un
derprivileged children in rural Gu
jarat.
This year, due to these efforts,
Love and Care USA contributed sig
nificantly towards building a sci

ence college for these children.

Members of all ages have described
substantial changes in their lives
through the application of Pujya Gu
rudevshris teachings. Mansee
Shah, a member of the Manhattan
Youth Group, says, While we used
to spend time on movies, dinners,
and other trivial activities, Pujya Gu
rudevshri gave us a higher purpose.
He has taught us to use our time
wisely, to make a difference, and re
alize that we are here to use every
moment to uplift ourselves and
those around us. Being able to take
part in spiritual and social service
activities truly makes our lives
worth living.
Pujya Gurudevshris affable de
meanour and integrative approach
have built close ties with eminent
spiritual leaders and organisations.
To celebrate universal brotherhood
and unity in diversity, he was invit
ed as a representative of Jainism in

the World Alliance of Religions

Peace (WARP) Summit held in
Seoul, South Korea in 2014. He also
participated in an insightful interac
tion at A Meeting of Diverse Spiritu
al Traditions in India a Spiritual
Meet Hosted by His Holiness the
Dalai Lama at New Delhi.
In support of the efforts towards
enhancing sanitation and hygiene
conditions in India and world over
Pujya Gurudevshri attended a recep
tion hosted by Richard Verma, US
Ambassador to India. He was award
ed for his leadership in addressing
Health and Sanitation issues
amongst the underprivileged in May
2015. In so many ways, under Pujya
Gurudevshris able guidance, the
Mission is reaching out and enhanc
ing lives across the globe.
For more information, please visit:
www.shrimadrajchandramission.org
or call: SRMD (USA) President Sne
hal Shah at 8569126200.

Pujya Gurudevshri's engaging lecture at Queensborough Performing

Arts Center in New York

Love and Care Walk 2016 in Icy Strait Point, Alaska

18

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

'Kabali' sets new box office

record on opening day
uperstar Rajinikanth's "Kabali" has
grossed over Rs 40 crore at the
Indian box office, beating Salman
Khan starrer Bollywood drama "Sultan"
to emerge as the highest grossing
Indian film on the opening day, accord
ing to estimates by trade pundits.
"Salman's 'Sultan' minted Rs 36.5
crore from the domestic box office as
opposed to Rs 48 crore of 'Kabali'.
Despite mixed reviews, 'Kabali' managed
to rake in the moolah because it was
released in three languages," a leading
producerdistributor told IANS, unwill
ing to give his name.
An actionpacked directorial by Pa
Ranjith, "Kabali" features 65yearold
megastar Rajinikanth as a gangster who
takes a shot at redemption and how he
fights for equal pay rights for Tamils in
Malaysia.
It released in Tamil, and was also
dubbed in Hindi and Telugu apart from
other languages.
In Tamil Nadu, "Kabali"
superseded the previ
ous best opening
record held by Ajith
Kumar's "Vedalam",
which had collected
around Rs 15

Twinkle slams
Naseer for calling
father 'poor actor'
ctressturnedwriter Twinkle Khanna has
slammed veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah for
calling her late
father and Bollywood
superstar Rajesh Khanna
a "poor actor".
In an interview to a
newspaper, Naseeruddin
was quoted as saying: "It
was the 1970s when
mediocrity came in
Hindi films. That's when
the actor called Rajesh
Actress and columnist
Khanna joined the
Twinkle is Rajesh
industry. For all his suc
Khannas daughter.
cess, I think Mr Khanna
was a very limited actor. In fact, he was a poor
actor. Intellectually, he wasn't the most alert person
I have ever met. His taste ruled the industry."
Not happy with the 65yearold star's opinion
about her late father, Twinkle took to Twitter on
Saturday night to express her disapproval.
"Sir if you can't respect the living, respect the
dead mediocrity is attacking a man who can't
respond Naseerudin Shah," Twinkle wrote.

Kangana walks
the ramp for
designer Manav
Gangwani.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

ULTIMATE BOLLYWOOD

Fans celebrates the release of actor Rajinikanth's film Kabali.

crore, said another trade analyst. Rajesh
Thadani, a Mumbaibased distributor,
said: "The film has made an outstanding
first day collection of around Rs 48
crore. But since the review is not that
great, there will be a drop in its collec
tion..."
The movie, which had reportedly
minted Rs 200 crore from its
prerelease business, is also on
a winning spree in North
America.
From premiere shows
ational Award
winning actress
Kangana
Ranaut, who has been
romantically linked
with actors like
Aditya Pancholi,
Adhyayan Suman
and most recently

Why not:
Kangana on
getting
married more
than once

alone, the film has collected $2 million

from the US and Canada markets
where it released in over 400 screens
according to distribution company
CineGalaxy Inc.
"It is easily the best opening for an
Indian film from premiere shows in
North America.
The film has collected $2 million from
the premiere shows and it includes both
the Tamil and Telugu version of
'Kabali'," Sanjay Dusari, CoFounder of
CineGalaxy Inc, said.
Hrithik Roshan, says she has no qualms
about getting hitched more than once.
Kangana was the showstopper for
designer Manav Gangwani's show on
the final day of the FDCI India Couture
Week (ICW) 2016 here on Sunday.
She said she wants Gangwani to
design her first wedding dress.
"I think I definitely feel very special.
Me and Manav were discussing about
my wedding that for my first wedding
wear, he will design for sure," Kangana
told reporters.
Asked whether she will have
more than one wedding, the
"Queen" actress said: "Why not? If
one happens, then I think many
more can happen."

Harshvardhan more
hardworking than
me: Dad Anil Kapoor
ctor Anil Kapoor
says that his son
Harshvardhan is
more hardworking than
him, something surpris
ing for him as people
often tell him that no one
can work harder than
him. "I feel that he is
more hardworking than
The Harshvardhan
me, which is very sur
starrer Mirzya
prising, because people
releases on Oct 7.
often tell me that no one
can be more hardworking than me. Whether people
accept him or not, till now people have only liked
the trailer very much, but I can definitely say that he
is very hardworking," Kapoor said at the screening
of his television show "24".

Pakistan to ban
Sunny Leone song?

he Pakistan Censor Board is

reportedly set to ban a song fea
turing former adult film star
turnedactress Sunny Leone from the
Hindi movie "Raees" set for release in
January 2017.
But the Daily Times reported on
Sunday that there was no confirma
tion of this report. "Raees" also stars
superstar Shah Rukh Khan,
Pakistani VJturnedactress Mahira
Khan and actor Nawazuddin
Siddiqui and centres around a boot
legger who is pursued by a police
officer.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Salman acquitted in two

chinkara poaching cases
he Rajasthan High Court
acquitted Bollywood super
star Salman Khan in two
cases of chinkara poaching of
1998, disappointing the Bishnoi
community and animal rights
activists. Salman had appealed
before the Jodhpur bench
of the high court chal
lenging a lower court
verdict of 2006 handing
him a one year and a
fiveyear jail term in
the two separate inci
dents of poaching.
Salman and the
Rajasthan govern
ment had challenged
the lower court's ver
dicts on various
grounds.
Justice Nirmaljit Kaur,
while allowing Salman's
appeal, acquitted him of
all charges and dismissed
the state government
appeal for enhancing the
sentences.

Bollywood
superstar
Salman Khan

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

ULTIMATE BOLLYWOOD

19

It's raining love-triangles

in Bollywood films

"He has been acquitted in both

the cases by the high court,"
Salman's counsel Hastimal
Saraswat said.
It is the second time Salman has
won acquittal in a criminal case.
Last year, the Bombay High Court
acquitted him in 2002 accident
case that killed one man and
injured four others on a Mumbai
pavement. The actor had been
found guilty by a sessions court for
culpable homicide not amounting
to murder and sentenced to five
years in jail.
"There is disappointment espe
cially among wildlife lovers in our
community," said Hiraram Bishnoi,
a community leader. Official
sources said the Supreme Court
might now be approached.
But Rajasthan's Additional
Advocate General K.L. Thakur said:
"We will study the judgment in
detail first and then decide on the
future course of action." Salman
refrained from commenting on the
development.

When Aditya Chopra told Ranveer to act like himself

ctor Ranveer Singh says that
during the shoot of one of
the sequences of his film
"Befikre", the director Aditya
Chopra observed that he was act
ing like Anil Kapoor and told him
to act like himself.
"'Befikre' shoot was going on in
Paris and Adi (Chopra) sir cut a
shot, came from behind the moni
tor and said 'Yaar, you have started
acting like Anil Kapoor. After 'Dil
Dhadakne Do' there has been a
deep impact of his on you. So now
in the next take, you give Ranveer's
shot, and not Anil's'," Ranveer said
at the screening of Anil's television
show "24".
Ranveer even imitated Anil's
expressions and mannerisms at the
event and posed in the "24" look
with Anil.
"Actually he's the biggest mas
tikhor of all, when I see him I get
into masti mood or looking at me,
he comes into masti mood; it's just

always a riot.
How
can
I
explain what
happens after I
see him? I really
am in love , so
infatuated by
him," he added.
T he duo are
related as Anil's
wife Sunita is
Ranveer's aunt.
Anil had previous
ly said that he
would want to see
his
daughter
Sonam
being
paired opposite
Ranveer and had
even approved him
as the choice for
the role of his
Lakhan in the
remake of the film
"Ram Lakhan", a film
not being made now.

his is not the

first film that
raises the
burning issue of
corruption by
espousing vigilan
tism. But "Madaari"
moves you to tears. I
had to watch it twice on two
successive days to absorb the immensity of
Nishikant Kamat's treatise that and I
quote from the film's stunning climax
"Corruption is not part of our political sys
tem, our political system exists for corrup

'Madaari': A
heartbreaking
wake-up call

Actors Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif.

e it Katrina Kaif, Sidharth
Malhotra, Ranbir Kapoor,
Anushka
Sharma
or
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the
actors will be seen caught in love
triangles on the big screen in the
coming months.
Here are a few love triangle
based films that will hit the
screens this year:
* "Baar Baar Dekho": Releasing
in September, the romantic drama
will feature Sidharth, Katrina and
Sayani Gupta. Directed by Nitya
Mehra, the film has been copro
duced by Dharma Productions
and Excel Entertainment.
* "Happy Bhag Jaayegi": Co
produced by Aanand L. Rai and
Krishika Lulla, the film is set for
an August release. The Mudassar
Aziz directorial stars Ali Fazal,

or
king with direct
will be seen wor
e.
tim
st
Ranveer Singh
fir
ry
for the ve
Aditya Chopra

Review

The film stars Irrfan Khan in the lead.

tion". With brilliant impunity, "Madaari"
builds a case for selfjustice when all sys
tems collapse and you've nowhere to go but
to your conscience to escape the feeling of

complete annihilation. One such bereft

inconsolable soul is Nirmal Kumar who has
lost his son to corruption.
On the surface, "Madaari" is just a slick
catandmouse chase saga about a vigilante
and a police of ficial (Jimmy Sheirgill, as
usual ef fortless). But scratch the surface.
What we get are some of the most thought
provoking dialogues on the rot in present
day politicking herd since Javed Akhtar
penned a pained political parable in "Main
Azaad Hoon". Kamat's film is not only
provocative and evocative, it's also very
cleverly put together. The editing (by Aarif

Abhay Deol and Diana Penty.

* "Noor": The film revolves
around actress Sonakshi Sinha's
character a journalist. Comedian
Kanan Gill and actor Purab Kohli
will be playing her love interests.
The film, directed by Sunhil Sippy,
is an adaptation of the novel
"Karachi, You're Killing Me!".
* "Manmarziyan": Written by
Anand L. Rai, the love triangle is
between actors Ayushmann
Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar and
Vicky Kaushal in the film.
Releasing this September, the
movie is based in Punjab.
* "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil":
Featuring Ranbir, Anushka,
Aishwarya, Saif Ali Khan and
Fawad Khan, the film has been
directed and produced by Karan
Johar. It will release in October.

Shaikh) creates a special af finity between

the wounds of time and the processes of
everyday existence which cruelly wash
away the tears of the wounded.
It is easy to miss the film's deepseated
passion to extract powerful emotions from
situations that have been milked to maudlin
death in our cinema. Overcoming its clichd
karma, "Madaari" still moves us, sometimes
to tears.
The bonding which grows between the
kidnapper and the little boy is played out
with a heartwarming blend of paternal
emotions and a convivial kinship.

20

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

Rami Ranger honored with

honorary doctorate
London: Rami Ranger, a leading
Londonbased NRI entrepreneur, has
been conferred with an honorary doc
torate for his services to business, phi
lanthropy and promotion of social
cohesion in Britain.
Commander of the Order of the
British Empire (CBE) and Chairman of
Sun Mark Ltd and Sea, Air and Land
Forwarding, Ranger received the
Honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon DLitt)
from the University of West London at
their annual graduation ceremony held
at the Wembley stadium on Thursday.
The doctorate was conferred upon
him by the chancellor Laurence Geller
CBE and Vice Chancellor, Professor
Peter John. The citation was read by the
Director of Development and Alumni
relations, Luna Sidhu and it read:
"Raminder Ranger CBE, known to all
as Rami, is a man who has defied great
odds to achieve outstanding success in
business and beyond. Rami's life began
in a refugee camp in newly partitioned
India," the citation read.
Born in July 1947 in Gujranwala,
Pakistan, Rami came to the UK in
search of a "better life". He found work
as a chef in KFC but soon his work ethic
and commitment got noticed and he
began to rise quickly through the ranks
to become District Manager for the
chain. His entrepreneurial spirit led him

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

DIASPORA

Rami Ranger (center)

to start his own freight forwarding
business from a shed in Hayes with just
2 pounds of capital, it said. Expressing
his gratitude to the university for rec
ognizing him and his ef forts, Ranger
said he succeeded in life primarily
because of the role his mother played in
his upbringing and the five principles
around which all of his act ivit ies
revolved: selfrespect, good work ethics,
commitment, vision and empathy for
others. He urged his audience to imple
ment these principles in their daily
lives. Ranger, whose companies have
revenues in excess of 200 million
pounds, has been conferred w ith
numerous awards such as the Institute
of Export (IOE) Award 2013, Institute of
Directors Award in 2014 and a Lifetime

Telangana to launch
exclusive portals for NRIs
Hyderabad: As part of its proposed NRI Policy, Telangana
government will launch an exclusive portal for nonresident
Indians and also open a 'Center for Non Resident
Telanganites' Affairs' in all districts, state cabinet Minister
K T Rama Rao said. Rao, state minister for IT, Industries and
NRI affairs, today held meeting with all the stakeholders
seeking suggestions to incorporate in the proposed 'NRI
Policy' of the state. We will be launching an exclusive por
tal for NRIs with information and online services. We are
already conducting skill development initiatives for people
who want to migrate in search of livelihood," he told
reporters here. "We will be building a database of migrants
from Telangana to various countries. This will help in
speedy resolution of issues, if any and district level offices
would be opened for CENTA Center for Non Resident
Telanganites' Affairs," he added. The minister said a special
officer would be appointed to assist NRIs wishing to invest
in Telangana and a Corpus Fund intended for the welfare of
NRIs would also be established. All the suggestions will be
used to formulate the policy and placed before the cabinet
for approval, said Rao, son of Telangana chief minister K
Chandrashekar Rao.
(PTI)

Achievement award by the Family

Business Place among others.
"Alongside building a very successful
business, Rami has never shied from
giving back to his community and his
adopted country. Following the 7/7
bombings he set up an interfaith forum
to build bridges between the different
communities," the citation said. Rami is
active in the world of politics, encour
aging major political parties to engage
with the various ethnic communities
that makeup modern day Britain in
order to build a more cohesive society.
He supports a number of charities
from the Princes' Trust to Cancer
Research UK and various educational
institutions including the University of
(PTI)
West London.

Indianorigin student
tops prestigious
exam in Singapore
Singapore: An Indianorigin student in Singapore has
beaten over 40 students and topped the International
Baccalaureate Diploma examination, an internationally
accepted qualification
for entry into higher
education that is rec
ognized by many uni
versities worldwide.
Rasika Kale, a non
resident Indian stu
dents
at
the
Singaporebased
Global
Indian
International School
(GIIS), topped the IB
ranking for IBDP
exam 2016 (Grade 12
equivalent), scoring
Rasika Kale topped
45 out of 45 points,
International Baccalaureate
said Kamal Gupta,
Diploma exam
Chie f
Operat ing
(Image courtesy:
Of ficer of Global
genxisocialbuzz.com)
Schools Foundation,
which established GIIS in South East Asia and Middle
East. "As thousands of students from over 40 countries
appear for the IB exams, achieving a world topper rank
ing is as prestigious as winning a gold medal in the
Olympics of academics," said Gupta. Rasika nurtured
into an allround performer with a combination of intel
ligence and passion for performing arts, Gupta said.
T hree other GIIS students, Aarushi Khandelwal,
Revvand Rajesh and Sibiranjith Nagesh, secured a near
perfect score of 44 out of 45 points in the same
examination.

Nobel scientist Venki Ramakrishnan

dismisses impact of Brexit
London: Indiaborn Nobel Prize win
ning scientist Venki Ramakrishnan
has said that he
has seen no evi
dence of a nega
t ive impact on
Britain's scientif
ic community as
a result of the
UK's vote to
Venki Ramakrishnan
leave
the
(Image courtesy:
European Union
Thehindu.com)
(EU).
The president of the Royal Society,
the UK national academy of science,
said that Britain, as "one of the most
tolerant places in the world", will con
tinue to attract foreign academics to
its shores despite Brexit.
"The reality is the UK is an incredi
bly strong science country, and its

membership in the EU is only one of

the many considerations that people
take into account when they come
here," Venki said.
"If you look at my lab, there are peo
ple from all over the world, and that's
not going to change as a result of the
referendum. If we want to do good
science then we have to be globally
competitive and get the best of people
from wherever they are," he said.
British researchers and scientists
receive approximate ly 1 billion
pounds a year from EU funding
schemes and a number of academics
had issued pleas in favor of remaining
within the economic bloc in the lead
up to the June 23 referendum.
"The message I'm hearing back is
that the government is very commit
ted to making sure that the UK sci

ence spending is protected. What I

take that to mean is that if we were to
lose EU funding they would eventual
ly restore it," Venki, who is in his early
60s, said.
T he Tamil Nadu born and
Cambridgebased biolog ist took
charge as the Royal So ciety of
Britain's first Indianorigin president
in December 2015.
He was knighted by Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II in 2012. The research for
which Prof Venki shared the 2009
Nobel was commenced in the US,
where he has spent much of his work
ing life before moving to Cambridge
in 1999.
He shared the prize with Thomas
Steitz, of Yale University and Ada
Yonath, of the Weizmann Institute of
(PTI)
Science, Jerusalem.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Ousting Chinese journalists

must hurt Indians
Beijing: Warning of "seri
ous consequences" over
the expulsion of three
Chinese journalists by
India, a stateowned daily
urged Beijing to make "a
few Indians" feel the pain
over Chinese visas.
"If New Delhi is really
taking revenge due to the
NSG membership issue,
there will be serious con
By refusing to extend their visas, the
sequences," an editorial in
Chinese journalists will have
the Global Times said.
to leave India.
India has refused to
extend the visas of three Chinese revenge against China for the lat
journalists from the Chinese gov ter's opposition to India joining
ernmentrun Xinhua news agency. the Nuclear Suppliers Group
But New Delhi said Xinhua could (NSG)." The hardhitting editorial
noted that Indian society had in
always send new replacements.
The Global Times noted that no recent years witnessed soaring
of ficial reason was given for the nationalism.
"Crowned by Western public
rejection of the visa request of the
opinion as the world's biggest
three Chinese journalists.
"Some Indian media claimed democracy, the Indians have a
that the three journalists are sus strong sense of pride.
"China should stick to a friendly
pected of impersonating other
people to access several restricted strategy toward India... On the
departments in Delhi and Mumbai visa issue this time, we should
take actions to display our reac
with fake names.
"T here were also reports tion. We at least should make a
attributing it to the journalists' few Indians feel Chinese visas are
meeting with exiled Tibetan also not easy to get."
By refusing to extend their visas,
activists.
"Moreover, speculation is the Chinese journalists will have
swirling that India is taking to leave India.

Kathmandu: Nepal's President

Bidya Devi Bhandari removed
constitutional impediment in the
formation of a new government
under
the
Transit ional
Provisions of the Constitution,
and paved the way for a succes
sor to assume of fice after the
incumbent prime minister
stepped down.
Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli

led cabinet recommended to the

President to invoke Article 305
as there was no provision to
elect a new Prime Minister after
Oli's resignation, Kathmandu
Post reported.
Bhandari issued an order to
elect a new Prime Minister under
the provisions of the Article 298
(2) and (3) of the Constitution.
"As per the Article 298, a new

21

Rajnath appeals for Kashmir

peace, tells Pak to behave
Srinagar: Home Minister Rajnath
Singh urged Kashmiri youths to
end their protests and ordered
security forces to avoid pellet
guns to bring peace in the
Kashmir Valley. He also told
Pakistan not to encourage people
in Jammu and Kashmir to become
terrorists.
At the end of a twoday visit to
the Kashmir Valley, Srinagar and
Anantnag included, the minister
said New Delhi was ready for talks
that will help bring "peace and
normalcy" in the state.
His trip came amid the deadliest
unrest in years that has left 45
people dead in violent stone
throwing protests following the
July 8 killing of top proPakistan
rebel commander Burhan Wani.
"I urge the youth of Kashmir not
to engage in stonepelting and
also ask the security forces to
avoid using pellet guns against
protesters as far as possible,"
Rajnath Singh told reporters here.
He reiterated his commitment in
parliament that the central gov
ernment would set up a team of
experts to find ways of using non
lethal weapons to control mobs
that will submit a report in two
months.
"I appeal to people to restore
peace and normalcy," he said,
adding New Delhi was ready for a
"constructive" dialogue which can

Nepali President paves way

for formation of new govt

PM K P Sharma Oli is also the Chairman of Communist Party

of Nepal (Unified MarxistLeninist).

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

SUBCONTINENT

government cannot be formed

directly through House after res
ignation of Oli," Minister for
Information and Communication
Sherdhan Rai, who is also the
government spokesman, said.
However, under the Article
305, in case of any difficulties in
implementing the Constitution,
the President can issue neces
sary orders to remove such diffi
culty on the recommendation of
the government. However, such
orders must be submitted to the
leg islature/parliament
for
approval.
It has been reported that
Bhandari w ill make formal
appeal to major political parties
soon to form the new govern
ment based on consensus.
After serving as the Prime
Minister for nine months, Oli
stepped down after his govern
ment was reduced to minority as
its coalition partners Communist
Party of Nepal (MaoistCentre),
Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum
(Loktantrik) and Rashtriya
Prajatantra Party pulled out sup
port.

Union Home Minister

Rajnath Singh.
help in restoring normalcy in the
troubled valley.
He said he met at least 13 dele
gations during his stay in Srinagar
and asked them "to help the gov
ernment with constructive sug
gestions in bringing peace and
normalcy. "If there are differences

of opinion, those can be resolved

through dialogue."
Asked if the government was
ready to talk to separatist leaders,
Rajnath Singh didn't rule it out
but said normalcy was the priori
ty. "Let us first ensure normalcy.
Then, we can decide whether we
talk to separatists or any other
group."
Saying the Indian government
would never tolerate terrorism,
the minister said while Pakistan
carried out operations against
militants in Islamabad's Lal
Masjid in July 2007, they encour
aged youths to take up arms in
Kashmir.
"I would like to tell our neigh
boring country, you are af fected
by terrorism. You had to storm
the Lal Masjid to kill the terror
ists. But on the other hand, you
appeal to Kashmiri youth to take
up guns.
"This should stop.... Pakistani's
role is not 'pak' (pure) on Kashmir.
They must change their attitude
and mindset visavis Jammu and
Kashmir."
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif had hailed the slain Hizbul
Mujahideen commander as a
"martyr" who fought for Kashmir's
"Azadi". And, Sharif said his coun
try was wait ing for the day
Kashmir becomes a part of
Pakistan.

Afghan official says major

offensive against IS underway
n Afghan ofcial says a mil
itary of fensive has been
launched ag ainst the
Islamic State group in the coun
try's far eastern region.
Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for
the Defense Ministry, said that
the of fensive began over the
weekend in Nangarhar province,
bordering Pakistan.
It started hours after an IS sui
cide bomber killed at least 80
people who were taking part in a
peaceful demonstration in Kabul,
a report in The Times of India

said. Waziri says President

Ashraf Ghani gave the orders for
the offensive. He says it will con
sist of airstrikes, ground attacks
and clearing operations. A US
military spokesman, Brig Gen
Charles Cleveland, says American
forces have also been involved,
conducting multiple counterter
rorism strikes.
President Barack Obama
recently expanded the conditions
for US troops in Afghanistan to
support Afghan offensive opera
tions.

Members of Afghan security forces.

22 July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

INTERNATIONAL

Philippines president Man kills 19 mentally disabled

declares unilateral
people in Japan; arrested
ceasefire
Manila: Philippines President
Rodrigo Duterte declared a uni
lateral cease fire w ith the
Communist Party of the
PhilippinesNew People's Army
Nat ional Demo crat ic Front
(CPPNPANDF).
"I am announcing a unilateral
ceasefire with the CPPNPA
NDF ef fective immediately,"
Xinhua news agency quoted
Duterte as saying.
With the resumption of the
formal peace talks next month,
the president said this was the
time to end the "decades of
ambuscades".
"All of us want peace, not the
peace of the dead but the peace
of the living ... if we cannot as
yet love one another, then in
God's name let us not hate each
other too much," he said in his
first State of the Nat ion
Address.
Duterte said it was his "goal
and dream" to have a "perma
nent and lasting peace" with

Philippines President
Rodrigo Duterte.
the leftist rebe ls before he
steps down from the presiden
cy in 2022.
The leftist insurgency in the
Philippines is considered as the
longest running communist
insurgency in Asia. The CPP
NPANDF has been waging war
against the government for
over four decades.

Tokyo: Police arrested a 26year

old man who went on a stabbing
spree at a care facility for people
with mental disabilities in Tokyo
that left at least 19 people dead
and 25 injured.
Satoshi Uematsu was charged
with mass killing, after he turned
himself into police shortly after
the savage stabbing, Xinhua
news agency reported.
Investigative sources said the
assailant currently unem
ployed used to work at the
Tsukui Yamayurien care facility
where he attacked dozens of dis
abled residents, either harboring
deep resentment for those with
disabilities or for the facility
itself.
Uematsu, who was carrying a
bag full of bloodied knives and
blades when he arrived at the
police station, lived half a km
away from the facility, and cur
rently undergoing mental health
checks, sources said.
The killer himself was hospital
ized in a mental hospital in
February 2016 as city officials
deemed him unstable but was

Cops stand guard outside the Tsukui Yamayurien care facility.

released later in March as his
health was considered to have
improved.
Prior to his hospitalization, he
reportedly wrote a letter to a
lower house member of the par
liament outlining his wish of
"world where the disabled can be
euthanized".
The attacker mentioned that
the Tsukui Yamayurien care
facility would be one of his tar

French church priest killed,

IS claims attack
Paris: A priest and two armed men were
killed and a person was injured in a
hostagetaking incident in a church in
France's Normandy region, President
Francois Hollande said.
Rev. Jacques Hamel, 84, was killed when
two men armed with knives stormed the
church and took five people hostage dur
ing a morning Mass at a church in Saint
EtienneduRouvray area of Rouen, CNN
quoted Hollande as saying.
The Islamic State said its "soldiers"
slaughtered the elderly priest and critical
ly injured a worshipper.
"The perpetrators of the attack on a
church in Normandy, France, are two
Islamic State soldiers," the jihadist group's
Amaq news agency said, citing an IS secu
rity source.
"They responded to an appeal to strike
countries belonging to the Crusader coali
tion," AKI quoted Amaq as saying.
Earlier, Hollande said that the attack
was a "cowardly assassination" carried out
"by two terrorists in the name of Daesh
(the IS)". The attackers were shot dead by
the police. "The two killers came out and
they were neutralized," French Interior
Ministry spokesman PierreHenry Brandet
said. Besides the slain priest, two nuns and
two churchgoers were taken hostage,
BFMTV reported.
The injured hostage was "between life
and death", Brandet said.
The priest's killing follows a string of
violent attacks across the Europe in recent

gets. In June last year Uematsu

came to be known to local prose
cutors following an altercation
with a man at a station in Tokyo
during which the man sustained
injuries.
The actual motive for the
attack was still being investigat
ed and not yet clear whether he
saw his actions as emancipating
the disabled or simply wanted to
massacre.

Search for MH370

to be suspended

An aircraft searching for MH370 debris flies

over the Saint Andre beach.

French police stand guard near the church which was attacked
in SaintEtienneduRouvray.
days, most of them claimed by the IS, most
notably July 14 attack in the French city
of Nice that left 84 dead and more than
300 injured.
France has been under a state of emer
gency since the November 13 Paris terror
attacks last year. At least 130 people were
killed and over 350 were injured in a seri
ous of attacks.
French police told CNN that one of the
church attackers had tried to go to fight in
Syria last year, but had been stopped in
Turkey by authorities.
He was then sent back to France and
sent to prison in May 2015. Before he was
released, he was placed under police sur

veillance and forced to wear an electronic

monitoring tag.
French authorities have struggled to
monitor the thousands of domestic Islamic
radicals on their radar, and, in response to
the heightened terror threat, President
Hollande has vowed to double the number
of of ficials charged with the task. More
than 10,000 people were on their "fiche S"
list, used to flag radicalized individuals
considered a threat to national security.
The Vatican condemned the attack, par
ticularly the killing of the priest, calling it
"terrible news". It said the Pope shared the
pain and horror in response to the "absurd
violence".

Kuala Lumpur: Search for the missing

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is to be sus
pended, the Malaysian government said to
the passengers' next of kin in a statement.
The governments of Malaysia, Australia
and China restated their commitment to
completing the current search zone of
120,000 sq.km, but stipulated in their state
ment that "in the absence of credible new
evidence leading to the identification of a
specific location of the aircraft", the search
would not end, but be suspended, CNN
reported.
The statement was sent to the families
after ministers from Australia, Malaysia and
China met in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8,
2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing
with 239 people on board.
A joint search effort has not yet found the
main body of the aircraft in the south Indian
Ocean, where it presumably crashed.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

BUSINESS

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

23

Resolve dual control issue to facilitate GST: Amit Mitra

New Delhi: There is an unani
mous ag reement among the
states about no dual control on
businesses w ith an annual
turnover below Rs 1.5 crore and
the decision has been conveyed
to Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley, the head of the empow
ered committee of state Finance
Ministers said.
The committee is working out a
consensus on the Goods and
Services Tax (GST) Bill, which is
pending in the Rajya Sabha. The
Lok Sabha has already passed
the legislation.
"It was a unanimous decision of
the states that dual control
should be only when the
turnover is above Rs 1.5 crore

Amit Mitra, head of the empowered

committee of state Finance Ministers.
turnover. The decision of the
state finance ministers has been

Verizon deal to accelerate

Yahoo's transformation:
CEO Mayer
New York: Making of ficial the
$4.8 billion acquisit ion of
Yahoo's core internet business
by US wireless company Verizon,
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said
that the deal "presents exciting
opportunit ies to acce lerate
Yahoo's transformation" and
that she plans to stay to "see
Yahoo into its next chapter".
"Today's announcement not
only brings us an important step
toward separating Yahoo's oper
ating business from our Asian
asset equity stakes, it also pres
ents exciting opportunities to
accelerate Yahoo's transforma
t ion," said Mayer, who was
appointed CEO in 2012, in a
mail to Yahoo employees.
Terming the acquisition talks
"rigorous" and "thorough", the
Stanford g raduate said that
among the many entities that
showed interest in Yahoo,
"Verizon believed most in the
immense value we've created,
and in what a combination could
bring our users, our advertisers,
and our partners".
Spe lling out what the deal
would mean to Verizon, Mayer
said that Yahoo's products and
brand will be central to achiev

ing the goals set by the largest

US wireless communications
service provider.
"With more than 100 million
wireless customers, a shared
view of the importance of mobile
and video ad tech, a deep con
tent focus through AOL, Verizon
brings clear synergies to the
table. And with their aggressive
aims to grow global audience to
2B users and $20B in revenue
within the mobilemedia busi
ness by 2020, Yahoo's products
and brand will be central to
achieving these goals," she
wrote. Re flect ing back on
Yahoo's journey, Mayer said:
"Before Yahoo, the internet was
a government research project.
Yahoo humanised and popu
larised the web, email, search,
realtime media and more."
Referring to the struggle to
reposition the company as a
"mobile" company, the Yahoo
CEO complimented the compa
ny's "loyal and dedicated
employee base".
"As one of the largest wireless
and cable companies in the
world, Verizon opens the door to
extensive distribution opportuni
ties," she added.

conveyed to the Union Finance

Minister," committee chairman

Amit Mitra, who is also the

Finance Minister of West Bengal,
said after the panel's meeting
here.
"The dual control issue needs
to be resolved for the GST to hap
pen," he said.
If small businesses w ith a
turnover below Rs 1.5 crore are
placed under dual control, they
will have two overseeing authori
t ies one represent ing the
Centre and the other the state
concerned.
Mitra said a broad consensus
has been worked out on the GST
and all are of the opinion that
taxes on the common man need
to be reduced.
At the same time, there is a

need to ensure that the trend of

revenue collection continues,
Mitra added.
"It is very important that tax on
the common man is significantly
reduced. At the same time we
need to safeguard the taxes
going to the state exchequer," he
said.
"We will work towards this so
that small businesses do not suf
fer. It has to be through a con
sensus for the GST to happen,"
Mitra added.
Minister
of
State
for
Parliamentary Af fairs Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi earlier told the
Rajya Sabha that the GST Bill will
come up for discussion in the
first week of August.

We are ready to open retail

stores in India: Tim Cook
Washington/New Delhi: As the sales
of Apple iPhones went through a
global slowdown barring in India,
the Cupertinobased tech giant's CEO
Tim Cook has announced to soon
open retail stores in the country a
move that brings to the fore the
global importance of the burgeoning
Indian smartphone market.
Apple's thirdquarter net income
plunged 27 per cent to $7.8 billion
on a decline of iPhone sales. It sold
40.4 million iPhones in the quarter,
compared with 47.5 million in the
same period of 2015.
But sales of the Apple devices in
India rose 51 per cent in the last
three quarters compared with a year
earlier, Cook said. "India is now one
of our fastest growing markets. In
the first three quarters of this fiscal
year, our iPhone sales in India were
up 51 percent year on year. We're
looking forward to opening retail
stores in India down the road and we
see huge potential for that vibrant
country," The Wall Street Journal
reported, citing Cook.
The announcement was made on
the sidelines of Apple's Q3 2016
earnings call. India is expected to
overtake the US as the second
largest smartphone market next year
with robust annual growth, a
Morgan Stanley report said recently.
"After realising the increasing impor

The sales of the Apple devices in India rose 51 per cent in the last
three quarters compared with a year earlier.
tance of India to its core businesses,
Apple is now turning its Indiaentry
plans into reality. Having its own
stores will help provide better user
experience to its prospective cus
tomers which, in turn, will help
Apple spruce up the business," Vishal
Tripathi, Research Director at global
market consultancy firm Gartner,
told IANS.
"Having said that, Apple will also
need to work very closely with their
existing partners to understand the
finer nuances and maximise the

returns," he added. Cook, who visited

India in the sweltering heat of May
announced the first development
centre in Hyderabad to work on
Apple Maps and an app design and
development centre in Bengaluru
that will support the Indian develop
ers creating mobile apps for its iOS
mobile platform. In his much awaited
meeting with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, the 55yearold
Apple head stressed the possibilities
of manufacturing and retailing Apple
devices in the country.

24 July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

SPORTS

NADA defers verdict on Indian wrestler Narsingh

New Delhi: Dopetainted wrestler

Narsingh Yadav will have to wait
to know his fate as the National
Anti Doping Agency (NADA) on
Wednesday
de ferred
the
announcement of the verdict by a
day.
During a prolonged hearing
spanning more than three hours,
Narsingh's lawyers pleaded that
the 26yearold was a victim of
circumstances and urged the
panel not to put a ban on his Rio
Olympic prospects.
Narsingh's chances of partici
pat ing in the upcoming Rio
Games came under a cloud last
Sunday when he returned a posi
tive result for a dope test con
ducted by the NADA on June 25.
Following this, the Mumbai
based grappler, who was selected
to represent the country in the
men's 74kg freestyle category
ahead of twotime Olympic medal
list Sushil Kumar, was handed a
provisional suspension.
He ran into further trouble on
Wednesday after it was

announced that a second test con

ducted on July 5 has also
returned a positive result.
Meanwhile, under pressure
from the United World Wrestling,
a hesitant Wrestling Federation of
India (WFI) on Tuesday, named
Parveen Rana for the replacement
slot in order to preserve India's
Olympic quota in the 74kg
freestyle category.
WFI President Brij Bhushan
Sharan Singh said that Rana's
name was sent on July 25
which was the last date for nam
ing replacements to secure the
Olympic quota.
"Although Praveen Rana has
been named as replacement for
Yadav if he gets a clean cheat, I
am ready to fight another battle
for him to secure his Olympic
berth," Singh said.
"Rana's name was sent to secure
country's Olympic quota and the
proposal was accepted on July
26. If we wouldn't have recom
mended Rana's name, we would
have missed our quota," he added.
Singh, however, is still hopeful
that Narsingh has a slim chance
of participating in the quadrenni
al extravaganza, something which
looks a distant possibility going
by Sports Minister Vijay Goel's
comments.
"His road to the Olympics has
not completely ended. Now, it's

Dopetainted wrestler Narsingh Yadav. (Photo: IANS)

up to Yadav to prove his inno
cence. Once given clean cheat, he
will go for the Olympics," Singh
said.
T he minister on Wednesday
said that no player in the
Olympics squad can be substitut
ed if he or she has been suspend
ed by an antidoping panel. "I

don't think any person is allowed

as replacement of another, if the
original player has failed the dope
test," Goe l told reporters in
Parliament.
"In case a player is seriously
unwell, then under extraordinary
circumstances the concerned
agency considers substituting

another player," the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) leader added.
But Singh refuted Goel's claims,
saying: "The minister is unaware
of the rules. He is saying such
things due to lack of information.
Rana's name has already been
accepted."
Narsingh had claimed of a con
spiracy to frame him and had
filed a police report in this regard,
although he refrained from nam
ing anyone.
"I have always maintained that
there has been a conspiracy
against me. If I am cleared of the
charges, I will go to Rio. I have
identified the boy who was seen
contaminating my food. I have
given a detailed complaint to the
police," Narsingh told the media
after filing his police complaint.
"I fee l even of ficials are
involved because I am not being
provided the CCTV footage," he
added. Singh backed Narsingh's
claims and asserted that a con
spiracy was hatched to stop the
wrestler from participating in the
Olympics and this needs to be
exposed in order to secure future
generations of sportspersons.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people
in Narsingh's native village of
Ajgara in Varanasi district have
started a demonstration demand
ing a CBI probe into the whole
issue.

ZIKA FEAR MAY KEEP FANS AT HOME Back injury hit my Rio preparations:
Javelin thrower Neeraj
DURING RIO OLYMPICS: REPORT
New Delhi: While sports enthusi
asts are set for the Rio Olympic
Games next month, many will
watch the action from the com
fort of their homes partly
because of the fear about the
Zika virus, a study revealed.
"We're dubbing Rio Olympics
2016
the
stayathome
Olympics,'" said Becky Tasker,
Manag ing Analyst at Adobe
Digital Insights (ADI), in a state
ment on Wednesday.
"We think Zika could be driving
some of this. We looked at social
mentions surrounding Olympics
and Zika virus and we found that
the US is exponentially talking
about compared with other coun
tries. We think that could be
affecting travel to Brazil," Tasker
added.
As part of the analysis, ADI
looked at global flights booked to
Rio for the first six months of
2016. Not only are flights to Rio
down overall, but flights booked
are also lagg ing the major
growth in bookings seen for the
2014 World Cup despite the
fact that the Rio Olympics offers

twice as many tickets.

"Our prediction is that this
Olympics will be very mobile
centric, in that people will be
watching it from their mobile
devices," Tasker said.
Based on the fact that booked
flights to Rio are down, more
mobile consumption is expected
for the Rio Olympics.
"It will be interesting to see if
marketers have shifted their
strategies in terms of advertising
to communicate with this audi
ence that is trending towards
being stayathome," Tasker
noted.
According to the report, Rio is
going to boost some product cat
egory sales around 80 per cent.
"We typically see that major
sporting events drive the desire
to gear up," Tasker said.
As an example, during the
Sochi Olympics, winter sports
gear (figure skates, ho ckey
equipment, ski equipment, and
snowboard equipment) sales
grew 82 per cent. "Expect similar
trends for the Rio Olympics," she
said.

New Delhi: Promising javelin throw

er Neeraj Chopra, who scripted his
tory by becoming the first Indian
athlete to become a world champi
on at any level, said that a back
injury had affected his preparations
for the upcoming Rio Olympics,
starting August 5.
T he Haryana youngster on
Saturday won the gold medal at the
under20 World Championships in
Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Chopra threw a huge 86.48
metres to bag the gold but he did it
after the qualification deadline of
Olympics 2016 which was July 18.
"I had a back injury in April and it
af fected preparation for the
Olympics. In Poland, I had a target
ed gold medal but I am happy that I
eclipsed the world record, I had
worked hard for it. My confidence
was high for the event. But I never
thought I will break the world
record," Chopra told reporters on
his arrival here.
Chopra said he was disappointed
to miss out on the Games this year
but vowed to earn a gold medal for
India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 18yearold's coach Garry
Calvert also heaped praises on his
student. "He has a superior tech

Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.

nique for his age and his whole
character, he applies himself better
than most. Now we have to go back
to the drawing board and get more
power and strength to match the
men in the world," Calvert said.
"We saw this threw coming for 6
7 weeks. It was brewing while in
Europe competing, he was perform
ing at a high level. His worst throw
was 79m which shows that we were
on target. So we knew if he applies
himself at qualifying round, he hit
big position under massive pres

sure."
When asked as to what was spe
cial about Chopra, the Australian
coach said, "He leaves his arm back,
keeps it way back and throws his
body. That is an exceptional skill.
He does it naturally. His arm stays
back and body attacks."
Sports Minister Vijay Goel had
already announced a cash award of
Rs. 10 lakh for the athlete besides
assuring all facilities and support
from the government under exist
ing policies.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

SPORTS

25

First Test: Why did West Indians cave in to Kohli & Co

By Shivaji Sengupta
es, India won the first Test match con
vincingly by an innings and 92 runs;
which makes it tougher to write a bal
anced evaluation of the four days.
The aftermath of any onesided victory can
provoke scathing criticism of the loser, and
unqualified praise for the winner. What is it
that Shakespeare said? The good is often
interred with the bones! Even though I am a
dye hard fan of Indian cricket, my heart
grieved when I saw the faces of Ian Bishop,
Sir Vivian Richards and Jef frey Dujon all
yesteryears legends as they sat and heard
the "objective" lambasting of their team from
Sunil Gavaskar and Ajay Jadeja, with little to
say in defense of their own team. Time was
when we heard similar criticism for the
Indian team from a Weekes, Worrell or
Walcott as they sat in the commentator's box.
How the wheel has turned!
I was thinking why cannot this West Indies
team take India by storm in the second Test?
After all, didn't the West Indies hammer the
hell out of the Indians very recently in the
semifinal of the T20 World Cup? Didn't this
same Carlos Brathwaite hit four consecutive
6s in the last four balls of the same World
Cup final against England and his team
become champion for the second time in the
last three T20 World Cups? Then?
I know, I know; this is a five day Test match,
and not something that you can hit your way
out of, to victory. The Indian contingent bat
ted carefully the first morning, the only time
the pitch had some "life" in it. They batted
carefully, getting the measure of the wicket.
Then, in Rahul David's words, they batted

Virat Kohli smashed double ton and

R. Ashwin scored 113 and took 7 wickets
once, and batted big, and batted the West
Indies out of the match.
But the West Indies do not have the person
nel to do the same thing. T heir Marlon
Samuels played an atypical knock, unleashed
some terrific fours, and went back to the
pavilion for exactly 50. Yet this same Marlon
Samuels hit two ODI centuries against South
Africa and Australia just last month! We've
already invoked Carlos Brathwaite. What hap
pened?
Speaking to Sanjay Manjrekar during the
lunch break on the fourth day, the West
Indian coach, Phil Simmons, explained that
this West Indies team is young, and needed to
play correct and cautious Test cricket before
they could attack India: play each ball on
merit, avoid false strokes and above all, don't
get out! Absolutely not! Sir Vivian Richards

exclaimed in disagreement with Simmons. A

Test match is not the place to learn to play
Test cricket, he said. They are representing
their country! Sir Vivian fumed. Let them
counter attack. It's the only way to put India
back on the defensive!
Ajay Jadeja agreed. Any comparison of this
West Indies team with the Indians is unfair,
he said. India is ranked No.2 behind Australia;
the West Indies, 8th. Their only way out of
this quagmire is to go out and attack: with the
bat and the ball.
In my opinion, they should include in the
team another bowler with genuine pace to
accompany Shannon Gabriel. He bowled fast
and effectively, coming at the Indians consis
tently with over 90 miles an hour. But from
the other end Jason Holder was clocking in
the low 80s, or even less. Not gifted with
making magic with his slower pace, like a
Josh Hazelwood or Vernon Philander, all
Holder did was give the Indian batsmen
respite. Also, although it's not our place to
comment on the West Indies' selection poli
cies, keeping out players like Chris Gayle,
Ravi Rampaul, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sunil
Narine and now, Denesh Ramdin is baffling.
Add to them five of the present players,
Kraigg Brathwaite, Carlos Brathwaite, Daren
Bravo, Marlon Samuels and Jason Holder, and
we have a proper West Indian cricket team
with the tools to take on India.
And what does India need to do? Simple:
keep winning! While in the West Indies, they
are showing purpose and poise. T heir
approach to this Test has been described as
clinical. Virat Kohli, Sir Vivian said, came to
score a twohundred. And while Murali Vijay
missed out and Pujara got stuck in the mud,

Shikhar Dhawan flourished. Like the West

Indies' lower order, the Indian lower order
also batted well, only proportionately better
since Ashwin and Mishra scored a century
and half century respectively. Ashwin, of
course, covered himself with further glory
when he took seven wickets in West Indies'
second innings, after going wicketless in the
first. And the fact that the Indian pacers
bowled faster than those of the West Indies
(never thought I'd live to say this!), and took
10 wickets between them (the spinners tak
ing the other 10) was very, very heartening.
Add to that Wridhiman Saha's wicket keeping
feat of seven victims, and India's picture per
fect performance is complete!
Yet, let us not gloat. Let us remember that
the West Indies too can carry a couple of
good memories from this Test: the first hour
of the first day, when on a lively pitch, the
West Indian bowlers had the Indians hopping
literally. On the fourth day, at 132 for 8,
when all was over bar the shouting, the West
Indian tailenders, Brathwaite and Devendra
Bishoo, turned formality into fight and
delayed their defeat with a 95run 9th wicket
stand. If they can infuse into the team anoth
er accomplished batsman, and as Sir Vivian
advised, bring in a genuine pacer, if Sunil
Narine is invited in, then, we will have a
match on our hands in Jamaica.
Kohli in his postmatch conference stated
with utter directness and simplicity: we want
to win all the matches.
Let us leave it at that.
(The writer is Professor of English and Vice
President for Academic Affairs at Boricua
College in NYC. He's been living in the US for
almost 50 years.)

Ashwin back as No.1 Test

bowler, Kohli rises to 12th

Viv Richards' son gifts Kohli

a painting of his double ton

Dubai: Star Indian of f

the two bowlers has been
spinner Ravichandran
trimmed from three
Ashwin's matchwinning
points to just one point
sevenwicket haul in the
only.
first Test against the
In contrast, Yasir has
West Indies helped him
conceded 46 points and
regain the No.1 spot
now trails number one
among bowlers in the
ranked Ashwin by 44
latest International
points.
Cricket Council (ICC)
In the batting chart,
Test rankings.
India captain Virat Kohli's
T he Chennai born
maiden double hundred
tweaker
not
only
at Antigua, which set the
regained the top spot in
base for his country's
Star Indian offspinner
the bowler rankings but
biggest win outside Asia,
Ravichandran Ashwin.
also consolidated his
has helped him move up
position as the best allrounder with a knock two places to No.12 while opener Shikhar
of 113 in the first innings of the Antigua Dhawan has gained four places after a knock
Test, which India won by an innings and 92 of 84.
runs at the Sir Viv Richards stadium.
England's Joe Root and Alastair Cook have
Ashwin has replaced Pakistan legspinner reaped the benefits of solid knocks to gain
Yasir Shah, who had grabbed the number one two and four places, respectively. Root's 254
ranking for bowlers only last week with a 10 and 71 not out has taken him to second posi
wicket haul in the opening Test against tion while Cook's 105 and 76 not out have
England at Lord's. Yasir, who could take only helped him return to the top10, in ninth
one wicket in the second Test at Old position.
Traf ford, has dropped to fifth place below
England seamer Chris Woakes has jumped
James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Dale up 10 places to 23rd rank after his match
Steyn. The 29yearold Ashwin has gained haul of seven for 108 at Old Trafford, which
five points following his performance in the contributed to England's 330run victory
first Test, while Anderson has earned seven that levelled the fourmatch series against
points. This means the preTest gap between Pakistan at 11.

Antigua: Mali Richards

has joined his father and
West Indian legend
Vivian Richards in hail
ing India skipper Virat
Kohli, who blasted his
maiden double ton to
guide the visitors to an
innings and 92run win
in the first Test against
the hosts here.
As a tribute, Mali
Richards gifted Kohli a
painting that captures a
moment from his blis
tering knock at the Sir
Viv Richards stadium in
the first Test match
here.
"We decided to com
memorate his maiden
double hundred as he
Mali Richards (seen with father Sir Viv Richards)
registered the milestone
presented the painting to Virat Kohli.
here in Antigua. We pre
pared the entire painting in just one day hundred away from home in Tests.
"I think it was a magnificent hundred. To
and came here to present it to him," the
junior Richards told bcci.tv after gifting score a double hundred at Sir Vivian
the painting made by him and his artist Richards Cricket Ground is a formidable
task in terms of what he has achieved. As a
friend.
Viv had earlier hailed Kohli's knock as batsman myself, it was very pleasing to see
"classy". The Delhi batsman also became and even though it was against the West
the first Indian captain to score a double Indies, I do appreciate seeing class and his

26

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

SCI-TECH

Clinton launches app to

gamify campaigning

Pokemon Go: New hope for

augmented reality products
By Nishant Arora

New York: For better or worse,

preaching the gospel of your candi
date no longer requires leaving the
couch. As anyone whos cracked
open a social media account over the
past year can corroborate, the plat
forms are lousy with campaign slo
gans, incriminating links and, um,
spirited discussions.
In the lead up to next weeks
Democratic National Convention in
Philadelphia, Hillary Clintons cam
paign launched an app designed to
turn an iPhone into a digital HQ.
What does that mean, precisely? Its
essentially a way for the campaign to
offer up a onestop shop for outspo
ken followers to follow along at
home, with checkins to events and

televised speeches, quizzes on the

candidates policies and the like.
The app is designed to gamify the
campaigning process, of fering up
virtual badges and real life prizes for
activities like sharing videos through
Facebook as if eager followers
needed another reason to post candi
date af firming content on social
media.
As Recode notes, the simply titled
Hillary 2016 app was inspired by
FarmVille and built by former
employees
of
DreamWorks
Animation, Charity: Water and
Livestream. At the very least, its a
decidedly more positive approach to
social sharing than the campaigns
recent Trump Yourself app.

New Delhi: When the $1,500 eye

wearable device Goog le Glass
failed to take off commercially last
year, it hit the augmented reality
(AR) industry to a certain extent.
Now, the maddening craze for the
GPSbased Pokemon Go game,
which projects digital creatures
around you to "capture" on your
smartphone, has brought back the
focus and a revival strategy for
the AR players.
For a layman, unlike the virtual
reality (VR) where the user is iso
lated from the real world, AR users
continue to be in touch with the
real world while interacting with
the virtual world. T his makes
experts feel that AR has a definite
edge over VR in the future.
Is Pokemon Go a revival sign for
AR technology after the commer
cial failure of Google Glass?
"Pokemon Go is not an AR game
in the strictest sense. However,
that is the most convenient label
we can apply to it. It is primarily a
geolocation aware game which

India getting 6 new IITs

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Monday passed
the Institutes of Technology (Amendment)
Bill, 2016, which seeks to set up six new
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) includ
ing one at Jammu. The other new IITs are to
come up in Tirupati, Palakkad, Goa, Dharwad,
and Bhilai. Several members supported the
bill but opposed the fee hike at the premier
engineering institutes.
Union Human Resource Deve lopment
Minister Prakash Javadekar said while mov
ing the Bill that the government is focusing on
improving the performance of the institutes
and quality of education. He also tried to
assure the members on the fees, saying that
the government is keen only to garner fees
from who can pay.
"Education must be inclusive. To ensure
equity it must be af fordable also. But those
capable of paying must pay. You should not
oppose when rich are being asked to pay," he
said. He said in three years, the government
will mobilize Rs 20,000 crore for IITs.
Javadekar also sought to dispel the notion
that the funding in IITs have declined, noting
that the central government has allocated Rs
4,035 crore to the IITs this fiscal as against Rs
3,855 crore in previous year.
The government has formed High Education
Financial Agency (HEFA) to upgrade the infra
structure, he said, adding that the Narendra
Modi government is committed to "Sabko
Shiksha Achchi Shiksa (Good Education to
All)."
On the fee structure, something which was
flagged by several members including
Saugata Roy of Trinamool Congress,
Javadekar said students from the ST and SC
communities, from the Below Poverty Line
(BPL) category and physically challenged have

The locations of 23 IITs

full waiver of fees in the IITs and NITs.
Families with income below Rs 9 lakh per
annum also can get zero per cent education
loan, he said adding affirmative steps can cer
tainly change the scene of higher technical
education in the country.
Javadekar also addressed the concern about
coaching classes for entrance exam and said
the government has started online program
IITPAL, under which aspirants can get free
tutorials, exams, and homework.
Jayadev Galla (Telugu Desam Party) said
government should set up a central university
and a tribal university in Andhra Pradesh,
while Communist Party of IndiaMarxist's M.B.
Rajesh suggested that higher technical educa
tion should be made more inclusive.
Satya Pal Singh (BJP) suggested that govern
ment should ask at least one IIT to focus on
rural technologies with a view to promote
IANS
inclusive development.

can overlay some objects in the

real world. To experience the true
potential of AR, you have to look at
Google's Project Tango, US startup
Magic Leap, Microsoft's Hololens
and others," explained Suman
Saraf, CoFounder and CTO at
BlueStacks one of the largest
mobile gaming platforms for com
puters in the world.
"But phenomena like Pokemon
Go will certainly help the masses
relate to AR and make it part of
their daily conversations," Saraf
told IANS.
The Pokemon Go is available for

download on Google Playstore and

Apple's App Store in the US, Japan,
Australia, the Philippines, New
Zealand, Germany, Britain, Europe
and Canada and is coming soon to
India, Sing apore, Taiwan and
Indonesia.
The mobile game, developed by
US software company Niantic and
partowned
by
Japanese
videogame giant Nintendo, has
topped over 15 million downloads
and its servers are crashing world
wide owing to heavy traffic (amid
some hacking reports too).

MIT made a movie screen that brings

you 3D without the glasses
New York: If you are
tired of wearing those
goofy glasses for a 3D
movie experience, here
comes some goo d
news. Scientists from
MIT and Israe l's
Weizmann Institute of
Science have deve l
oped a display that lets
you watch 3D films in a
theater without eye
wear.
Dubbed "Cinema 3D",
the prototype uses a
special array of lenses
and mirrors to enable
viewers to watch a 3D movie from any
seat in a theatre.
"Existing approaches to glassesfree 3D
require screens whose resolut ion
requirements are so enormous that they
are completely impractical," said profes
sor Wojciech Matusik from MIT's
Computer Science and Art ificial
Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). "This is the first
technical approach that allows for glass
esfree 3D on a large scale."
Glassesfree 3D already exists but not
in a way that scales to movie theatres.
The key insight with Cinema 3D is that
people in movie theatres move their
heads only over a very small range of
angles limited by the width of their seat.
Thus, it is enough to display a narrow
range of angles and replicate it to all
seats in the theater.
What Cinema 3D does, then, is encode
multiple parallax barriers in one display

such that each viewer sees a parallax bar

rier tailored to their position.
That range of views is then replicated
across the theatre by a series of mirrors
and lenses within Cinema 3D's special
optics system.
"The authors [of Cinema 3D] cleverly
exploited the fact that theatres have a
unique setup in which every person sits
in a more or less fixed position the whole
time," added Gordon Wetzstein, assistant
professor of electrical engineering at
Stanford University who was not
involved in the research.
The researchers are optimistic that
future versions could push the technolo
gy to a place where theatres would be
able to offer glassesfree alternatives for
3D movies.
The paper is scheduled to be presented
at SIGGRAPH computergraphics confer
ence in Anaheim, California, this week.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

FASHION

27

Designers went experimental with

couture at FDCI ICW 2016

Models in Varun Behl's creation (Image courtesy: intoday.in)

A model in Gaurav Gupta creation

(Image courtesy: Cosmopolitan.in)
New Delhi: Experimenting with colors, sil
houettes, styles and presentation turned out
to be the highlights at the recently conclud
ed FDCI (Fashion Design Council of India)
India Couture Week 2016, where 11 design
ers showcased highend ensembles amidst
dramatic settings.
While several names in the Indian design
fraternity will continue to argue that cou
ture in the country is majorly about bridal
wear, the audience at the fiveday gala got to
see creations which were beyond wedding
lehengas and sherwanis.
"Each designer had their own specialty

Reynu Tandons Kamangari

(image : elle.in)

that they showed on the ramp, so the ICW

wasn't only pure simple bridal... It was
experimental couture, there were gowns for
the red carpet and cuts were dif ferent...
There was everything for everyone. The
designers experimented with colors too,"
said Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI, which had
organized the event.
In terms of colors, one could see the domi
nance of pastel shades over the routine red,
pink and orange which are thought be quin
tessential colors for the couturelover in the
country.
Many designers have time and again said

Emma Watson, Kate Moss

donate jeans for charity

Los Angeles: Actress Emma Watson and

supermodel Kate
Moss are among
celebrities who
have donated
their jeans for
International
R e s c u e
Committee's
Jeans
for
Re fugee's cam
paign. The 42yearold supermodel has joined
a number of famous faces including Spice
Girls singer Victoria Beckham, Eva Longoria
and actress Alicia Vikander to raise awareness
for the International Rescue Committee's
Jeans for Refugee's campaign.
The initiative entails the stars donating their
denim wardrobe staples to artist Johny Dar
who will transform the garments into a piece
of art, which will be auctioned off online via
Catawiki over the next 100 days to boost
funds for the organisation, reports female
first.co.uk.
Speaking to Vogue about the charity work,
Dar said: "In this case it's not about fashion,
it's art. It's an intuitive process, surfing what
ever feelings were in the jeans from the
celebrity who wore them, and doing my best
to bring them out through the painting."

that since the wedding market in India can

not be ignored as that is one occasion when
people are ready to splurge, couture has
turned out to be more about bridal in the
country. Having said that, the designer line
up Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani,
Rohit Bal, Anita Dongre, Varun Bahl, Gaurav
Gupta, Rahul Mishra, Reynu Taandon,
Rimple and Harpreet Narula and Anamika
Khanna unleashed a melange of designs in
the couture segment.
There were jackets of varying lengths for
men and women, Bardot blouses with
embellished and embroidered skirts and
lehengas, and largely a mix of Indian and
western silhouettes, the shows were a treat
for fashionistas.
While Dongre showcased blouses with dif
ferent cuts which could be worn otherwise
with a simple pair of jeans or a plain skirt
and not necessarily with a sari or a lehenga,
Bahl draped models in floral creations which

again could be mix matched.

The menswear line by most designers had
layers. Dif ferent jackets, including floral
ones, shawls, stoles and kurtas breathed
fresh air into the styles that men with a taste
for style could carry off easily.
Although Swarovski's elements brought a
bling to several creations, the collections in
dabka and gota patti looked like they are
here to stay lending an old world charm to
the moderncut garments.
Given how popular Bollywood stars are at
events such as this, they couldn't have been
given a miss. From Fawad Khan, Deepika
Padukone and Kangana Ranaut to Yami
Gautam, Divya Khosla Kumar and Saiyami
Kher, they were all seen sashaying down the
ramp in fineries, while celebrities like Bhumi
Pednekar, Randeep Hooda and Pernia
Qureshi had come to support the designers
from the stands.
(IANS)

Kangana turns Mughal empress for Manav Gangwani

New Delhi: Actress Kangana
Ranaut looked every inch a
Mughal empress as she walked
for Manav Gangwani in his cre
ation from his latest collection
titled BegumeJannat at the
FDCI India Couture Week
2016 here on Sunday.
Kangana looked ravishing in
a maroon choli, with mirror
work, that she paired with a
heavily embroidered lehenga
and mesh duppatta. T he
"Queen" star with beautiful
curls completed her regal look
with minimal makeup.
"Kangana is a very versatile
person and it is easy working
with her. She exudes a certain
charm and a classic yet mod
ern vibe that sets perfectly
with my collection this year,"
Gangwani, who has styled stars
like Hrithik Roshan, Kylie
Minogue, Lady Gaga and Eric
Clapton, told IANS.
The of fsite show hosted by
Gangwani at the Lodhi hotel
here, saw as many as 70 hand
crafted silhouettes that cap
tured the era of the Mughals

and the royal age effortlessly

with flowing kaftans, intricate
ly designed lehengas, flamboy
ant saris and classic sherwani
in shades of ivory, black, navy,
green, maroon and white.
With specially curated music
by Amaan and Ayaan Ali

Bangash, the models sashayed

down the ramp in pieces from
the grand collection, which
saw intricate work of zardozi.
The designer used fabrics
such as luxurious silk velvet,
sheer gauzy tissues, regal silk
and tulle sprinkled with shim

mering mirror work.

His collection, which made
many emotional including
actresssocial activist Nafisa
Ali, was an to ode Gangwani's
friend Zainab Nedou Patel,
who was from Kashmir and
passed away recently.
Talking about the collection,
Gangwani told IANS: "Begume
Jannat is an amalgamation of
sentiments evoked by the word
'Jannat' which means paradise.
Every garment in this collec
tion is disguised as a visual
piece of paradise to be owned
and cherished.
"The collection also strives to
reinvent the ageold silhouette
of the Angrakha, which literal
ly translates to a body protec
tion. This is a crossover open
silhouette that is feminine
while retaining its royal
demeanor."
T he attendees including
celebrities like Robert Vadra
and Zayed Khan put up a glit
tering sideshow who reached
the hotel in some of the fanci
est cars seen in Delhi.

28

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

HUMOR

Humor with Melvin Durai

THE PLANE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA

oga offers a number of bene

fits, including stress reduc
tion and improved fitness. It
may also reduce your risk for
heart disease, high blood pressure
and other conditions. Best of all, it
allows you to twist your body into
various impressive positions, earn
ing you admiration from your
friends and family, and perhaps
even a recruitment letter from the
traveling circus.
One of the major advantages of
yoga is that you dont need any
equipment to do it. That means
you can do yoga anywhere you go.
But please resist the temptation.
Some places are just not meant
for yoga. You probably shouldnt
do yoga in a busy restaurant, for
example, even if youve been wait
ing too long for your food.
A few breathing exercises are
fine, but unless youre eager to get
the waiters attention, please keep
your feet on the ground.
The same applies to a crowded
bus, even if putt ing one foot
behind your head allows you to

occupy less room. If the bus makes

a sudden stop, you may hurt your
self or someone else. The para
medics may have trouble untan
gling you from yourself.
Trains are also not ideal for
yoga, unless you have a compart
ment to yourself. But even then,
you need to be cautious, in case
the train makes a sudden stop and
sends you rolling, all balled up,
into the next life.
Planes are usually too cramped
for yoga and your fellow passen
gers may look at you strangely.
Be fore you attempt any thing,
please ask the flight attendant if
the airline has a policy about in
flight yoga.
It may not seem fair, but the in
flight yoga policy is usually quite
similar to the inflight golf and in
flight soccer policies.
If youre really eager to do yoga
while flying, feel free to start a
petition. I know at least one man
whod be willing to sign it. His
name is Hyongtae Pae and he
recently tried to do yoga during a

United Airlines flight from Hawaii

to Japan.
Rather than stay in his seat dur
ing meal time, the 72yearold
retired farmer from South Korea
decided to go to the back of the
plane to do yoga and meditate.
(This is not too surprising. Most
people would rather do yoga than
eat airline food.)
W hen members of the flight
crew told Pae to return to his seat,
he grew violent,
according to an
Associated
Press report. He
a l l e g e d l y
pushed his wife
and tried to
headbutt and
bite some mili

tary personnel (U.S. Marines on

the flight) who joined the effort to
get him back to his seat.
Yes, he was very determined to
do yoga. Not many people would
fight of f the Marines to do yoga,
but Pae was ready to take on the
entire U.S. armed forces if need be.
I want do yoga! You no stop me
do yoga!
Pae also allegedly threatened to
kill his fellow passengers while
yelling that God doesnt exist. The
pilot, concerned about safety, had
no choice but to turn the plane
around and return to Hawaii.
Request to land! Request to land!
he radioed the Honolulu airport.
We have a yoga emergency!
Pae soon found himself in jail,
with enough time and space to do

as much yoga as his heart desired.

Prisoners, incidentally, can bene
fit immensely from yoga. It calms
their minds and reduces their
stress.
But more importantly than that,
it greatly enhances their flexibility,
allowing them to squeeze through
small openings.
According to his attorney, Pae
started doing yoga recently to help
him deal with anxiety. He was
probably feeling a little anxious on
the flight thats why he wanted to
do yoga. But a plane, like a bus,
train or car, isnt an ideal place for
yoga. Pae should have perhaps
done his yoga and meditation in
the airport, before boarding the
plane.
Airports usually have plenty of
space for yoga. But please be cau
tious. Even if you have good bal
ance, you probably should stay off
the baggage carousel. You never
know who might claim you.
Airports also have travelers tak
ing naps in all sorts of unusual
positions, so its easy to blend into
the crowd. Just close your eyes,
assume a yoga position, and no
one will raise an eyebrow.
But if you happen to be doing
yoga with your limbs bent awk
wardly, dont be surprised if a rich
traveler tosses a few coins at you.
Its yet another benefit of doing
yoga.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

BEST
RATE
FOR
INDIA
AND
PAKISTAN
New York Head Quarter
422S Broadway
HICKSVILLE
NY 11801

5168271010

by Mahendra Shah
Mahendra Shah is an architect by education, entrepreneur by profession, artist and
humorist, cartoonist and writer by hobby. He has been recording the plight of the
immigrant Indians for the past many years in his cartoons. Hailing from Gujarat,
he lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

ASTROLOGY

July 30-August 5, 2016

29

Chandigarh, India: +91-172- 256 2832, 257 2874

Delhi, India: +91-11- 2644 9898, 2648 9899
psharma@premastrologer.com; www.premastrologer.com

By Dr Prem Kumar Sharma

JULY 30AUGUST 5, 2016

ARIES: A long pending decision gets final
ized at professional front. An important
development at personal front brings
jubilation for entire family. Financial hassles
seem to get over as someone lends a timely
helping hand. A romantic encounter is likely to
add spice to life. Your confidence and energy
will be high this week.
A beautiful vacation you awaited for is on your
cards. You might deal in some ancestral proper
ty or any other parental property. If possible,
avoid giving unnecessary importance to minor
issues otherwise.
TAURUS: Plans for new ventures get
streamlined with the help of seniors. A
happy time in the company of friends
and relatives as they do many favours to you.
Promising week to invest surplus money in real
estate. Romantic partner would try innovative
methods to catch your attention. A week when
smile will perpetually be on your face and
strangers will seem familiar. Destination with a
great deal is on your way, be ready for traveling.
A deal regarding residential property can start
moving on its right path. Avoid indulging in
matters that dont concern you.
GEMINI: Female colleagues lend a help
ing hand in completing important
assignments. Enjoying the company of
close relatives will brighten your evening. A
sound financial health would enable to invest on
lucrative schemes. Initiatives in love bring posi
tive results as you catch the desired attention.
Your energy level will be high. Better to chan
nelise it in a positive direction.
Be ready to travel with a challenge, new connec
tions will help you. Discussing property matters
with parents can help for better innovations.
Dont forget to save yourself from unfair criti
cism of the people.

CANCER: At work you will be a part of

something big, bringing appreciation &
rewards. Shopping with family mem
bers will be highly pleasurable and exciting.
Your brilliant ideas would help in bringing
financial gains. Your generous attitude would
contribute much in your love life this week.
Positive outlook impresses those around you
besides keeping you fit & fine. Traveling abroad
can be exciting adventure that will be remem
bered forever. Planning a property might
explore new horizons for you and your family.
Time to look out for activities not very expen
sive but entertaining to keep yourself busy.
LEO: You are likely to establish yourself
a good manager on managing people
and situation without any problem. You
will be at the limelight in a social gathering pro
vided you attend. A promising week to earn prof
its in real estate and financial transactions.
Extremely supportive & loving partner would
help in withering away your troubles. Charity
work undertaken will bring mental peace & com
fort. Finally you have found the time for your
deserving break, travel will be favourable. Your
friends and family will be of great support if you
are trying for an office. Restrain yourself from
indulging in too much talking without purpose.
VIRGO: You will be successful in realis
ing your targets at professional front.
You will be the star of attraction of fam
ilys gettogether this week. An improvement in
monetary position makes it convenient to pur
chase essential items. Romantic vibrations from
someone unknown would lift your spirits taking
imaginations to scaling heights. Meditation and
selfrealization prove beneficial. Adventurous
holidays, the best way to experience with your
friends, time to enjoy. Its time to make some
property investments for your kids.

30th July, 2016

Ruled planet: Jupiter Ruled by no : 3
Traits in you: As you are ruled by Jupiter, you are
ambitious, dignified, friendly, cheerful and highly
optimistic. You are a believer but you do not
believe anything without proper proof. People
respect in many ways as you are very social and
friendly to them. However, your arrogance blocks
the way to become a complete person.
Health this year: You may enjoy a great health
this year. However, that does not mean you will
start neglecting your health. You need to take
care of your diet and nutrition to maintain a good
health. You may practice some exercises to
remain fit.
Finance this year: Monetary benefits will be
tough to achieve this year. You may not get
expected financial support from your family. Your
past investments will not work this year as
expected. However, you may go for new short
term investments, which will gain you enough
money. If you are planning to set up a business, it
is advisable not to go for any partnerships.
Career this year: Your confidence will convert you
into a winner. You will be capable enough to over
come any challenge you need to face. The chances
of your promotion and transfer are high due to
the organizational change.
Romance this year: Your romantic life will
become stagnant this year as you may not give
enough time to your beloved. If you are unmar
ried and planning to marry this year, it may not
happen because of the negative movements of
your stars and planets.
Lucky month: August, February, May and June

Finance this year: Though you will be able to

improve your financial status, you may end up
spending a lot of money in buying luxury and
comfort for yourself and your family.
You may put your money in real estate for better
returns.
Career this year: Your ef forts will bear results
and you will be appreciated with awards and
rewards towards the end of the year. You may get
a promotion for your smart work and efficiency.
Romance this year: Your plans to go for holidays
with your partner may not work because of huge
work pressure and this may create disturbance in
your marital life. You need to take care of the
emotional requirements of your partner to lead a
peaceful life this year.
Lucky month: September, December, March, July

LIBRA: With your high confidence you

will be able to cross all hurdles at pro
fessional front. Help from family mem
bers would take care of your needs. This week
longterm investment would enable to make
substantial gains. Love life brings immense
romantic pleasure. You will have ample time to
do things to improve your health. Take a trip, as
there is some place waiting for you. Purchasing
official accessories can lead to improve growth
of your office. Encourage yourself to do some
experimentation.
SCORPIO: Timely help of associates will
not only pass difficult times at work but
also help in regaining professional edge.
You will enjoy the time spent with family mem
bers and friends. Financial hassles will be eased
out with the help of your friends. Traveling
proves a blessing in disguise by bringing a love
in your life.
Sound physical health will enable to participate
in outdoor activities. Great time for perfect fam
ily vacation to an exciting destination.
Inheriting property from your relatives seems
to be ahead. Time to bring positive attitude of
`Yes in life.
SAGITTARIUS: A promising week to
start a new venture in partnership. All
are likely to be benefited. Your gener
ous behaviour would enable to enjoy some love
ly moments with family. Certain important plans
will be executed, bringing fresh financial gains.
You are likely to get a new friendship opportu
nity in the evening. You will be successful in get
ting rid from tensions. Travel opportunities full
of challenges are often the beginning of great
enterprises. Your income can be doubled by
renting your house or a part of your house. Use
friendship tool to help friends at the time of
need.

CAPRICORN: Your technical expertise

gives a decisive edge over competitors
at work. Friends and family members
would lend a helping hand. Speculations are
likely to bring monetary profits. New romance
that some of you are going to experience would
take the worries off mind. A sparkling laughter
filled week when most things proceed, as you
desire.
You will discover travel destinations that are
unique and magical. It would be beneficial if
you plan to buy a small property. You are likely
to make mistakes steeping stones for success.
AQUARIUS: Hard work of the past
brings rich dividends. However contin
ue enhancing your skills/adopt tech
niques for further development. An unexpected
message from a distant relative brings happy
news for the entire family. Monetary position is
likely to improve later in the week. You enjoy a
memorable time with partner to cement the
lovely bond. Your enormous confidence would
help in enjoying a healthy life. A trip that is
unconventional and adventurous will be
favourable enjoy every minute of it. Real estate
is one thing on which you can rely on to invest.
Circumstances would require sticking to your
convictions.
PISCES: Dedication & loyalty at work
would bring desired results. Relatives
are likely to give some valuable advice
regarding personal life. Hard work of previous
weeks brings good fortune enabling to fulfill
monetary promises. You will be attracted to
someone special. A very healthy week filled with
happiness & vitality. Dreaming of traveling is
good, but if possible than plan a trip. Investment
on construction business would flourish your
income. If possible, avoid unnecessarily
criticising yourself.

ANNUAL PREDICTIONS: FOR THOSE BORN IN THIS WEEK

31st July, 2016

Ruled planet: Uranus Ruled by no : 4
Traits in you: Uranus, being your dominating
planet helps you become dynamic and creative.
You are positive, realistic, responsive, and sincere.
You need to work and overcome the weaknesses
in your personality to attract more people
towards you.
Health this year: Your health would remain very
good this year. However, you need to go for regu
lar yoga exercises. You should not ignore your
healthy diet plan to remain in shape. Go for regu
lar medical checkups to avoid any hiccups
further.

1st August, 2016

Ruled planet: Sun Ruled by no : 1
Traits in you: Being under the guidance of Sun,
you are active, dynamic, authoritative, brilliant
and talented. You have the ability to initiate new
ideas and work on them. However, you need to
work on your stubbornness to become a better
individual.
Health this year: You may suffer from joint pain
or high blood pressure this year. Gowever, proper
medication would help you maintain a good
health.
Finance this year: You will find new ways to
enhance your confidence to earn and improve
your financial condition. Your professional jour
neys will pay of f and you will be successful in
your deals this year. You should invest in a house
or selected socks to get better benefits. If you
schedule business trips abroad, you may find a
chance to meet old friends and get new opportu
nities to improve your business. You may end up
spending a lot of money in your legal issues as
they will be stretched more than expected.
Career this year: The following year will bring
you lot of promises and surprises to cherish in
your career. You may get rewards for your work.
Your long cherished dreams may get fulfilled this
year.
Romance this year: You will find your spouse or
partner supportive and understanding enough to
help you in critical situations this year.
Lucky month: September, October, April and May

2nd August, 2016

Ruled planet: Moon Ruled by no : 2
Traits in you: As you are ruled by Moon, you are
simple, honest, and cooperative. You are fond of
peace and harmony.
Health this year: You may get worried for your par
ents health and increasing household expenditure.
Finance this year: You may establish new con
tacts and partnerships this year. You will get ben
efitted from your previous investments. You may
gain unexpectedly, which will improve your finan
cial position much better than expected.
Career this year: You have ample new and inno
vative ideas. You are a perfectionist in whatever
you do. However, you have to control your whim
and jealousy to succeed in your life.
Romance this year: You will find your spouse sup
portive enough to your concerns and provide you
with love and affection.
Lucky month: October , November & December
3rd August, 2016
Ruled planet: Uranus Ruled by no : 4
Traits in you: You are the owner of a responsible,
disciplined, sociable, organized and creative per
sonality. You hold religious beliefs and philoso
phy at high esteem. You should avoid being jeal
ous, stubborn and self centered at times to
improve your personal traits.
Health this year: You may undergo stress for
your parents health. However, your health will
remain good.
Finance this year: You will earn a handsome
amount of money from your previous invest
ments. The legal issues will be solved in your
favor to provide you with monetary benefits. You
may plan for a business trip to a distant place to
enhance the territory of your business.
Career this year: If you are a sportsperson or
artist or writer, this year will be fruitful for you.
You would be oozing with confidence to make
tough tasks easy.
Romance this year: You will enjoy a blissful rela
tionship with your partner with ample love, care
and support.
Lucky month: September , December, February
4th August, 2016
Ruled planet: Uranus Ruled by no : 4
Traits in you: You are the owner of a responsible,

disciplined, sociable, organized and creative per

sonality. You hold religious beliefs and philoso
phy at high esteem. You should avoid being jeal
ous, stubborn and self centered at times to
improve your personal traits.
Health this year: You may undergo stress for your
parents health. However, your health will remain
good.
Finance this year: You will earn a handsome
amount of money from your previous invest
ments. The legal issues will be solved in your
favor to provide you with monetary benefits. You
may plan for a business trip to a distant place to
enhance the territory of your business.
Career this year: If you are a sportsperson or
artist or writer, this year will be fruitful for you.
You would be oozing with confidence to make
tough tasks easy.
Romance this year: You will enjoy a blissful rela
tionship with your partner with ample love, care
and support.
Lucky month: September , December, February
5th August, 2016
Ruled planet: Mercury Ruled by no : 5
Traits in you: As you are guided by Mercury, you
are gifted with strength, intelligence, diplomacy
and practicability. You are physically and mental
ly active with an intelligent business mind.
Health this year: To attain peace of mind, you
should plan a pilgrimage during the end months
of the year.
Finance this year: You may undergo financial cri
sis in the first couple of months this year. You
may get carried away by new ventures. However,
you need to do enough research on the market
before investing. You will find your past invest
ments paying off in the latter half of the year. You
will be able to solve the property related matters
during the middle months of the year to receive
extra monetary gains.
Career this year: Your effort and commitment in
your professional life is appreciated by your
peers and higher authorities. Your will be criti
cized hugely at times for your nature of being
extravagant and reckless.
Romance this year: Some of you may find your
new love interests and some may tie their knots
this year.
Lucky month: Sept., November , March, May

30

July 30-Aug 5, 2016

SPIRITUAL AWARENESS

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Healing the body through meditation

By Sant Rajinder Singh

Ji Maharaj

octors and scientists have

been studying the body
mind connection and its
relationship to physical health.
Medical researchers have linked
certain illnesses to our state of
mind and to our emotional condi
tion. They have found that when
we undergo mental stress or emo
tional pain or depression, our
physical resistance to disease
drops. We become more suscepti
ble to contracting a disease
because our ability to keep our
immune system in top working
order decreases.
Science has pinpointed certain
diseases such as digestive prob
lems, breathing problems, heart
disease, and migraine headaches,
to name a few, that are sometimes
stressrelated.
Meditation can help us in several
ways. First, it can lessen our stress,
and in turn, reduce our chances of

developing a stressrelated illness.

In this hectic world, our mind is
often agitated by stress and pres
sures. Life has become so compli
cated that people seem to have too
much to do and not enough time to
do it. Some people hold jobs that
require long hours and too much
responsibility. Other people work
two jobs and raise a family. Too
much pressure often causes people
to seem to snapthey become irri
table, of fbalance, and stressed
out. They begin to act in ways that
are not themselves. Sometimes
they take out their frustrations on
their loved ones and hurt those
they should love the most.
Meditation is a way to eliminate
the lack of balance caused by the
mental stresses of life. By spending
time in meditation, we create a
calm haven in which we restore
equilibrium and peace to our men
tal functioning. Researchers have
recorded that the brain activity in
people who meditate reflects a
state of deep relaxation. Their
mind becomes calmer. Meditation
also calms the body. If we could
spend some time each day in medi
tation, we would find our stress
levels would be reduced and our
health would reach a more opti
mum level.
Besides reducing stress during
meditation, there is a carryover
ef fect. We can maintain more
peace of mind as we continue our
activities throughout the day. As
we perfect our meditations, we can

By Sant Rajinder Singh

Ji Maharaj

rue friends are those who stand by you

always. They will sacrifice themselves
for you, and are people on whom you
can always rely. True friends listen to your
problems and share your burdens. Truly, if
we have even one real friend in life, we are
lucky. If we think about our childhood
friends, how many are still with us now?
Have we parted ways already? Perhaps they
have moved away, or we have lost contact
with them. Let us consider our close friends
today. Can we imagine that they, too, will one
day be parted from us just as those friends
from our childhood are gone?
Even if we have one close friend, or even a
few, they can only be with us up to our last
breath, or their last breath. They can only
remain with us in this life and cannot help us
in the moment of our greatest needthe
time of death.
In this connection, there is an interesting
story from the Hindu scriptures. There was a
learned pundit who was the personal minis
ter of King Prikshat. Each day the minister
would read out the scriptures to the king.
The particular scripture said that whoever
hears the scriptures will receive spiritual lib
eration and enlightenment. Month after
month, the king listened to the scriptures
read by the minister. However, he did not
attain liberation.

Recent medical studies are drawing a

correlation between patients who pray
and meditate before and after surgery and
those who do not. Early studies find that
patients heal and recover more quickly
from surgery when they pray or meditate
before surgery or after surgery.
maintain that calm state of mind
even in the midst of turmoil and
strife. We would be more in control
of our reactions and would main
tain an even keel in the face of
other people's conflicts. Reducing
our stress throughout the day can
reduce the risk of becoming victim
to stressrelated ailments.
Second, meditation can lift our
attention to a higher level of con
sciousness so that we do not feel
the pinching effects of any illness
we do develop. Through medita
tion, we come in contact with a

stream of bliss and joy within that

takes our attention away from the
pains of the world. Through mas
tery of meditation, we have a
refuge of bliss and peace within,
safe from the ravages of physical
pain.
Although at times we may get
sick because we break natural
laws, meditation can help us rise
above the discomfort and find sol
ace and peace above the conscious
ness of bodily pain. We have only
to look at neardeath experiences
to see how people who undergo

excruciatingly painful accidents

were lifted above their pain when
they temporarily left their body.
They could see their body with
injuries and trauma lying below
them, but they no longer experi
enced any physical pain until they
returned to the body. This is one
analogous situation to give us an
idea of the power of protection
from pain afforded to us when we
perfect our meditations.
Recent medical studies are draw
ing a correlation between patients
who pray and meditate before and
after surgery and those who do
not. Early studies find that patients
heal and recover more quickly
from surgery when they pray or
meditate before surgery or after
surgery.
Spending regular, accurate time
in meditation has been shown to
reduce stress. Many medical cen
ters and hospitals offer classes in
meditation as a way to reduce
stress and eliminate certain illness
es. Many people have requested to
learn our introductory meditation,
called Jyoti meditation, taught at
our Science of Spirituality centers
throughout the world as a way to
reduce stress.
As you continue to meditate, you
will experience the inner peace
and bliss. As you do this, you will
experience a reduction in stress.
Meditation is an effective means to
help us reduce stress and increase
a sense of calm and peace, which
can help us heal our physical body.

FINDING A TRUE FRIEND

One day, the king sat down and thought,
Here I amlistening to these scriptures
every day, and I am not yet spiritually liber
ated. The scriptures say that whoever listens
to these holy writings will receive salvation
once and for all, but I have not.
Therefore, the king called the minister and
said, Look here. I have heard these scrip
tures so many times and have not attained
liberation. I will give you one more chance to
read these scriptures to me from end to end.
If I am not liberated after that, you will be
put to death. Trembling in his shoes, the
minister began the task of rereading the
scriptures to the king. By the sixth day he
was nearing the end of the scriptures, and
the king was not satisfied. Fearing that on
the seventh day he would be put to death,
the minister sat down in his home and start
ed to cry.
Why are you so sad? asked his daughter
when she saw him.
The ministered explained the situation to
her, The scriptures say that whoever reads
them will be liberated. However, I know that
the king is not liberated, nor am I liberated.
Therefore, tomorrow, I will be put to death.
The daughter was wise and had an idea.
Do not worry, she said. Tomorrow I will
speak to the king. On the following day, the
ministers daughter asked for an audience

with the king.

Why have you come? he questioned her.
She told him, I have come to reply to the
question that you have asked of my father.
But to do this, you and I must go together to
the wilderness. The king was perplexed, but
agreed to go along with her plan. The girl
then sent for her father. She brought along
two ropes and when they reached the wilder
ness she tied the king to one tree and her
father to another tree. Both were then bound,
hand and foot. The king was wondering what
all this meant when the girl asked, Father,
can you kindly unbind the king over there?
The minister replied, I am already bound!
How can I free him?
The girl asked, Your Majesty, will you
kindly unbind my father?
The king replied, Foolish girl, dont you
see that I am bound? How can a bound man
unbind another?
That is all she wanted to hear and said,
Then how can you expect my father, who is
not free himself, to liberate you spiritually?
The king himself had answered the dilemma
in which he had placed the minister. With
that understanding, the king spared the life
of the minister.
At the time of death, we all depart by our
selves. No friends of this world can help us.
They can sit by our bedside and hold our

hand, but they can neither protect us from

death nor accompany us. Knowing this, we
still put our reliance on people of this world.
Looking back at the friendships we have
had in our lives, how many of them led us
closer to God, and how many of them have
taken us away from God? What kind of
friend should we look for then? To be truly
awakened spiritually, we should seek the
friendship of the Lord.
We have only a set number of breaths to
reunite our soul with God. Let us do every
thing possible to attain that goal. The best
way to reach the Lord is through meditation,
sweet remembrance, and selfless service.
These activities safeguard us from being
pulled away by distractions of the world. If
we do these things, then we will be ready at
the time of our death. Having mastered the
art of rising above bodyconsciousness (by
meditating daily on the inner Light and
Sound of God) , we will know what awaits us
in the Beyond. Befriending God makes our
spirit soar. Waves of divine love make our
soul rise to the eyefocus where we see
tremendous Light. Is there any love or
friendship of the world that can bring us to
the eyefocus and make us rise above physi
cal bodyconsciousness? Only the love of the
Lord can make us wide awakenot only in
this world, but wide awake into the Beyond.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

July 30-Aug 5, 2016