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NEW YORK • WASHINGTON D.C. • CHICAGO • ATLANTA • CALIFORNIA VOL 17, No. 906 January 27, 2012 50¢ Periodical Postage

India Post

CONTENTSBollywood ---------------------- 38-39

Classifieds ------------------------- 47

Community Post -------------- 12-19

Date Book -------------------------- 31

Edit Page --------------------------- 49

HealthScience Post --------- 34-37

Horoscope ------------------------- 20

Immigration Post ------------- 40-43

Life Style ----------------------- 24-25

Philosophy ------------------------- 48

Publisherís Diary ------------------ 4

Real Estate -------------------- 21-23

TechBiz Post ------------------- 44-46

Travel & Hospitality Post ---- 26-30

YES 63%

Last week’s result

NO 37%

This week’s question

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Can the new Myanmar govtbe trusted

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PBD awards are fair ?

Details on page 7

Details on page 5

Details on page 24

Oprah WinfreymeetsBollywood

Hindus welcomedismissal of Gitaban plea

Details on page 8

UN finds Franceviolated Sikhreligious right

Details on page 7

Martin LutherKing was called‘untouchable’

Details on page 18

Outrage overSan Jose hatecrime

Details on page 12

Arun Narote'skillers get 38years in prison

SIGN OF CHANGE: Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi registers to run as a candidate in upcoming by-elections at

the Thanlyin township election commission office on the outskirts of Yangon on January 18. Suu Kyi is contesting a seat in

parliament in the April 1 by-elections in the latest sign of change in the military-dominated country. -Report on page 6

SIKH AMERICAN ISVA. TOWN MAYOR

Details on page 5

India Post News Service

NEW YORK: The City Council ofCharlottesville, Virginia elected Sikh Ameri-can Satyendra Huja as Mayor, in a unani-mous decision early this month.

Although Huja has been in public ser-vice in Charlottesville for nearly four de-cades, his election as Mayor assumes his-toric significance for the Indian Ameri-

can community, more so because he isthe only Sikh resident in this city of lessthan 45,000 population, and at least threeAmerican presidents have calledCharlottesville home.

Satyendra Huja was elected toCharlottesville City Council in November of2007 and reelected to a second term in theNovember 2011 election.

Satyendra Huja

CWG scam: HCgrants bail toKalmadi, Verma

India rejects USthink tank reporton nuclear safety

Tata Steel bagsmulti-millionpound order

India Postwww.indiapost.com

January 27, 20122

January 27, 2012 India Post 3www.indiapost.com

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Bollywood:Heroine milestoneMadhur Bhndarkar is super excited withhis upcoming film 'Heroine' and his lead-ing lady Kareena Kapoor's performance.

1Cover Story:Sikh Mayor

12Community:Teaching Hindi

34Health:Falsifying dataAn Indian American researcher at theUniversity of Connecticut has been foundguilty of falsifying and fabricating data.

24Life Style:

Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey's firstday in Mumbai turned out to be a star-studded extravaganza.

44Techbiz:

India will not seek a waiver from the USagainst its fresh round of sanctionsagainst Iran.

26Travel:GoaGoa is known for its Gothic churches,crumbling forts, palm-fringed beaches,coconut groves, ferry rides.

India on Iran

Bensalem Township becomes the firstschool district in the state of Pennsyl-vania to teach Hindi.

The City Council of Charlottesville, Virginiaelected Sikh American Satyendra Huja asMayor in a unanimous decision.

Oprah in Mumbai

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There is fame and there is notoriety and then there is a certain celebrity thatone assumes just by being who they are made out to be by others. Withauthor Salman Rushdie, it's all of that and a bit of villainy too for the

many in the world who hate him, some who love to hate him and a few that hateto love him.

If Rushdie didn't merit mention in gossip columns for his penchant for girl-friends who are much younger to him in age and taller in height, he would just bea token progressive Muslim voice that routinely gains place on panel discus-sions.

But thanks to a cult of politicians in India, who zealously use religion as thebasis for their shenanigans, Rushdie becomes a poster boy for vote bank poli-tics, unfailingly ensuring his place in the headlines.

And so he is in the news once again because a certain Muslim cleric in Indiadecides to gain political mileage by demanding that Rushdie be banned fromspeaking at the Jaipur literary festival, because apparently Indian Muslims arestill hurting from what he wrote in the Satanic Verses.

And all it takes in India is a 'hurt religious sentiment' to bring the country tothe brink of a communal flare up.

It's ridiculous because Rushdie has been to India several times in the past. Hecan travel to India without a visa as the holder of a Person of Indian Origin(PIO) card. And we are not even talking about the democratic tenets of freespeech.

There are over 150 million Muslims in India and I cannot believe that most of themwould still care about what was said in that book published almost 25 years ago.

I am not a fan of Rushdie's writing but I have heard him speak and like whathe says on religious fundamentalism. He does make for a very sane voice in thecacophony of bigotry and blind faith around the world. So if anyone needs tospeak up, it is the Muslims in India - not against Rushdie but against their vestedleadership.

India PostJanuary 27, 2012 5

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Sikh American elected Charlottesville MayorIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: The City Councilof Charlottesville, Virginia electedSikh American Satyendra Huja asMayor, in a unanimous decisionearly this month.

Although Huja has been inpublic service in Charlottesville fornearly four decades, his electionas Mayor assumes historic signifi-cance for the Indian Americancommunity, more so because he isthe only Sikh resident in this cityof less than 45,000 population, andat least three American presidentshave called Charlottesville home.

Satyendra Huja was elected toCharlottesville City Council inNovember of 2007 and reelected

to a second term in the November2011 election.

He was selected to serve asCharlottesville's Mayor at the firstcouncil meeting of 2012.

Huja is the President of Com-munity Planning Associates, fo-cusing on planning, design, devel-opment, and management consult-ing. He was hired byCharlottesville in 1973 to serve as

director of city planning and com-munity development.

From 1998 to 2004, he was di-rector of strategic planning withexperiences in the area of Down-

town Revitalization, Housing, His-toric Preservation, TransportationPlanning, Art and Culture Activi-ties, and Neighborhood Revitaliza-tion.

Huja also has been a consult-

ant to the City of Pleven, Bulgariafor Economic Development andTourism Marketing.

Born 1942 in Kohat in what ispresent day Pakistan, Huja mi-grated to the US in 1960. He has aBA in Psychology and a Mastersin Urban Planning from MichiganState University. Huja retired ascommunity planner and Adjunctfaculty at University of VirginiaSchool of Architecture.

Huja is married to his wife Ireneand has two sons named Uday andAjai, as well as a step-son namedBen. He is also a grandfather.

In the last 38 years of publicservice in Charlottesville, includ-ing three years as a city councilor,he has been involved in manyprojects, programs and initiatives.Satyendra Huja

CWG scam: HC grants bail to Kalmadi, Verma

NEW DELHI: After remainingbehind bars for nearly ninemonths, former CWG OrganizingCommittee chairman SureshKalmadi has been granted bail bythe Delhi High Court in a 2010Games-related graft case.

The court also granted bail toOC former director general and co-accused V K Verma.

While granting them bail, Jus-tice Mukta Gupta directed themto furnish before the trial court abail bond of Rs 5 lakh each andtwo sureties of the like amount.

Justice Gupta said, "There is

no allegation that the petitionersare likely to flee from justice andwill not be available for the trial."

The court directed them not toleave the country without priorpermission of the trial court.

Kalmadi was arrested by theCBI on April 25, 2011 while Vermawas arrested on February 23, 2011in the Timing, Scoring and Resultsystem scam.

While allowing their plea for bailwhich cited Supreme Court's judg-ment in 2G spectrum case whereinit was held that "bail is rule and jailis exception", Justice Gupta said,

"There is no allegation of moneytrail to the petitioners.

There is also no evidence thatthe petitioner is threatening wit-nesses or interfering with evidence

during investigation or trial."Kalmadi had moved the High

Court in January, seeking bail cit-ing the Supreme Court's judgmentin 2G spectrum case and said ithas been held that "bail is rule andjail is exception". .

Kalmadi said only a chargesheet has been filed against himand there was remote possibilityof commencement of the trial inthe near future.

The CBI had, however, op-posed the bail pleas of Kalmadiand Verma and referred to the trialcourt's January 4 order submittingthat it has been decided that thecase would be heard on a day-to-day basis soon after scrutiny ofdocuments.

It had also said that there wasnothing new in the "bail-is-rule-and-jail-an-exception" remark ofthe apex court while granting bailin the 2G case.

Kalmadi, Verma and nine oth-ers have been accused of alleg-edly awarding a contract to aSwiss firm to install a Timing-Scor-ing-Result (TSR) system for theGames at an exorbitant rate, caus-

ing a loss of over Rs 90 crore tothe state exchequer.

The CBI had in its charge sheetfiled in May 2011 described Kalmadias main accused in the case.

Besides Kalmadi and Verma,others who are accused in the TSRscam include OC former SecretaryGeneral Lalit Bhanot, OC DirectorGeneral (Procurement) Surjit Lal,Joint Director General (Sports) A

Former CWG Organizing Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi

S V Prasad, Treasurer MJayachandran, Managing DirectorA K Reddy of Hyderabad-basedAKR Constructions and promot-ers A K Madan and P D Arya of aFaridabad-based firm Gem Inter-national.

Two companies AKR Con-structions and Swiss Timing arealso accused in the case.

The Special CBI court had onMay 23, 2011 given a go-aheadfor their prosecution under vari-ous provisions of the IPC dealingwith criminal conspiracy, forgingdocuments and using fake docu-ments as genuine and the Preven-tion of Corruption Act.

The contract was illegallyawarded to Swiss Timing whichfurther sub-contracted it to GemInternational. Gem Internationalthen sub-let the TSR work to AKRConstructions. -PTI

Chinese State Councilor, Dai Bingguo called on Prime Minister,

Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on January 17

Although Huja has been in public service inCharlottesville for nearly four decades, hiselection as Mayor assumes historic signifi-cance for the Indian American community,more so because he is the only Sikh residentin this city of less than 45,000 population

Kalmadi had moved the High Court in Janu-ary, seeking bail citing the Supreme Court'sjudgment in 2G spectrum case and said ithas been held that "bail is rule and jail isexception". Kalmadi said only a chargesheet has been filed against him and therewas remote possibility of commencementof the trial in the near future


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Karen army, Burma govt agree to ceasefire

Aung San Suu Kyi launches bid for ParliamentYANGON: Burmese opposition

leader Aung San Suu Kyilaunched her historic bid for a seatin parliament on January 18 in thelatest sign of change in the coun-try after the end of decades ofoutright military rule

The Nobel Peace Prize winneris standing in April 1 by-electionsseen as a major test of the regime'sreform credentials following a sur-prising series of conciliatory ges-tures by the new nominally civil-ian government.

The pro-democracy leader sub-mitted her registration to stand ina rural constituency in Kawhmunear Rangoon, an area devastatedby Cyclone Nargis in 2008, to thedelight of crowds of supporterswaiting outside.

"Aung San Suu Kyi was thefirst member of the NLD to regis-ter. She's going to run for the lowerhouse," said Win Htein, a seniorparty official.

The 66-year-old's NationalLeague for Democracy party hasalready been given approval toreturn to the official politicalarena, against a backdrop of bud-ding reforms including dialoguebetween the regime and the op-position.

The NLD was stripped of itsstatus as a legal political party in2010 because it boycotted a con-troversial national election, say-ing the rules were unfair.

Ms Suu Kyi was released from

years of house arrest shortly af-ter the vote, which was marred bycomplaints of cheating and easilywon by the military's allies.

A quarter of parliament's seatsare now taken up by unelectedmilitary officials while the UnionSolidarity and Development Party,which is packed with former mili-tary men, holds about 80 per centof the remainder.

Since coming to power inMarch, the new military-backedgovernment dominated by formergenerals has made a series of re-formist moves in an apparent at-tempt to reach out to political op-

ponents and the West.These included releasing hun-

dreds of political prisoners, sus-pending construction of an un-popular mega-dam and pursuingpeace deals with armed ethnic mi-nority rebels.

The NLD won an election in1990 by a landslide, while Ms SuuKyi remained under house arrest,but the ruling generals never al-lowed the party to take power.

A total of 48 seats are up forgrabs in the April vote - notenough to threaten the resound-ing majority held by the rulingparty. But the participation of Ms

Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi waves to supporters as she leaves the Thanlyin township election

commission office after she registered to run as a candidate in upcoming by-elections,

on the outskirts of Yangon on January 18

Suu Kyi would give a boost to thelegislature's credibility.

A top regime figure said thatBurma has "no other way" but toembrace democracy, and promisedthat the April poll would be demo-cratic.

"I guarantee the elections willbe free and fair," said lower housespeaker Shwe Mann.

Ms Suu Kyi hinted at the week-end that she could take a positionin the government but said it "de-pends on the circumstances".

The April by-elections are tofill places vacated by thoseelected in the 2010 polls who havesince become ministers anddeputy ministers in the govern-ment.

Burma's government releasedabout 300 political prisoners in itslatest amnesty, prompting the USto move to restore full diplomaticties for the first time in more thantwo decades.

The top Republican in the USSenate said the regime was seri-ous about change and voicedopenness for an eventual liftingof the sanctions which he haslong championed if Ms Suu Kyibelieved it was the right course.

"We are open to it," SenateMinority Leader MitchMcConnell said after talks withkey regime figures in the capitalNaypyidaw, describing thechange of direction in Burma as"quite remarkable".-AFP

A Karen National Union delegation who met with government officials for

ceasefire talks says they havereached an agreement for a truce inthe volatile eastern state ofMyanmar, according to the Demo-cratic Voice of Burma (DVB) website.

A reporter in the Karen town ofHpa-an said both sides had agreedto a four-point ceasefire. "There arefour points: the ceasefire itself, aswell as opening of liaison offices,freedom to move around in the re-gion without weapons, and to fol-low up with more talks".

It becomes the strongest signalyet that peace may finally come toa region devastated by the world'slongest-running civil war, althoughdeep skepticism still remains. TheKNU's vice-chairman, DavidThakabaw, told DVB: "Our pastexperience dealing with the gov-ernment has always been tricky.They're not very honest - they saygood words but today is just likebefore [when talks broke down]."

The 19-strong delegation willtravel to the Eastern RegionalMilitary Command headquarters

in the nearby Mon state capitalof Moulmein to discuss "militarymatters".

The Karen refused to join aceasefire process in the mid-1990sthat saw many of the country's armedethnic groups agree to truces, manyin exchange for business conces-sions from the government. This in-

cluded the Kachin IndependenceArmy in Burma's north, but that dealbroke down in June last year andfighting has since engulfed largeparts of the northern state.

The KNU enjoys widespreadsupport among the state's popu-lation, much of which has beensubject to decades of debased

treatment at the hands of Burmesetroops. Thackabaw said thatKaren people were wary of whatthe outcome of a ceasefire mightmean for the state.

"A quick ceasefire now would betantamount to surrender - that's whatthe people are worried about," hesaid. "We will be very cautious and

look at the problem from all angles."The KNU has also demanded

that the Burmese army end attackagainst ethnic minorities acrossthe country, although it is unclearif this formed part of the deal.

In addition to the conflict, thegovernment has neglected devel-

opment in eastern Burma, wherepoverty levels outstrip those inurban areas and where more than500,000 people are classed as in-ternally displaced persons (IDPs).

Karen officials told DVB priorto leaving that they would pressthe government to prioritize de-velopment there.

Representative of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) Saw Jawni - Johnny - (L) and a Myanmar government

official (R) exchange documents following ceasefire talks in Hpa-an, the main city

of the country's eastern Karen state on January 12

"I guarantee theelections will be freeand fair," said lowerhouse speaker ShweMann. Ms Suu Kyihinted at the week-end that she couldtake a position in thegovernment but saidit "depends on thecircumstances"

"A quick ceasefirenow would be tanta-mount to surrender -that's what thepeople are worriedabout," he said. "Wewill be very cautiousand look at the prob-lem from all angles"


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India rejects US think tankreport on nuclear safety

Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai (C), Gary Samore (2nd R), White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons

of Mass Destruction (WMD) Terrorism and South Koreas Deputy Foreign Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs

Kim Bong-Hyun (2nd L) at the meeting of the Sherpas for the Nuclear Security Summit 2012 in New Delhi

NEW DELHI: Strongly rejectingthe findings of a US-based thinktank which poorly rated India onnuclear safety index, New Delhihas said the findings were basedon "faulty methodology" and itused "unreliable information".

"We have seen the report butwe do not share its conclusionsas we believe it is based uponfaulty methodology especially onissues relating to India," ForeignSecretary Ranjan Mathai said.

The index, compiled by think-tankNuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) hadranked India very low, just aboveIran, Pakistan and North Korea.

Mathai said all nuclear materi-als in India were subject to strictoversight controls and that New

Delhi has an unblemished record.He said the index was based

on "unreliable information".While India scored good in

keeping with international com-mitments, on-site physical protec-tion, response capabilities and

accounting procedures, it fell be-hind when it came to political sta-bility and because of the lack ofdomestic legislation. -PTI

Tata Steel bags multi-millionpound order from Siemens

LONDON/NEW DELHI: TataSteel has bagged a multi-millionpound order from engineering gi-ant Siemens Wind Power for thesupply of 25,000 tonnes of highquality profiled steel plate for 150wind turbine towers, it said.

"The order - the largest to datefor the steel company's dedicatedwind tower hub in Scunthorpe,England - is worth an eight figurepound sum and establishes TataSteel as a key supplier to SiemensWind Power," the company saidin a statement.

Tata Steel will deliver the pro-filed plate, cut into the desiredshape, between April and Septem-ber this year, it added.

"Demand for steel in the renew-able energy sector will continueto grow and we are ideally placedto help our customers tap into thisimportant opportunity," TataSteel Commercial Manager forPower Generation Phil Knowlessaid.

Knowles added, "The agree-ment we have negotiated with Si-emens Wind Power is a strategiccustomer alliance that will help inour objective to be a key supplierin the offshore wind power mar-ket."

The multi-million pound orderfrom Siemens comes at a timewhen Europe's steel industry isstruggling to cope with lower de-mand amid economic uncertaintyin the euro zone.

Tata Steel Europe, in particu-

lar, has been hit severely by thecrisis, with its gross earnings(EBITDA) falling by 42.8 per centto USD 103 million in the June-September quarter of 2011. Thecompany has mothballed a blastfurnace in Scunthrope and a hotstrip mill in Llanwern in Wales inrecent times.

The company statement said ithas already supplied SiemensWind Power with 6,000 tonnes ofsteel plate for similar develop-ments in the UK and Europe.

The order is the largest so farfor its dedicated wind tower sitein Scunthorpe, UK, which wasestablished in 2010.

The plant can deliver up to2,00,000 tonnes of steel platesannually.

Following the announcement,shares of Tata Steel were tradingat Rs 433.70 apiece on the BSE at1400 hours, up 2.08 per cent fromtheir previous close. -PTI

Martin Luther King was called untouchable in IndiaATLANTA: A moment of his

trip to India initially left Americancivil rights activist Martin LutherKing Jr "shocked" and "peeved"but it probably later brought himface-to-face with the then darkreality of black people being "un-touchable" in US.

Yes, it is common knowledgethat King, one of the greatest iconsof universal peace, was a followerof Mahatma Gandhi, but a trip toSouth India in 1959, where he wasintroduced as an American un-touchable, also influenced histhinking.

Speaking at the historicEbenezer Baptist Church here onoccasion of the Martin LutherKing Day service, Raj Razdan,Executive Director of the SeniorCitizen Program of Georgia,brought out new facets of King'slearning ties with India.

She said King, who was assas-sinated in 1964, once describedhis visit to India to a congrega-tion here in the church.

"Dr King told the members ofthe church and I quote 'I remem-ber when Mrs King and I werein India we journeyed down oneafternoon to the southernmost

part of India to the city ofTrivandrum in Kerala. That af-ternoon I was to speak at a highschool. This particular schoolwas attended by and large by

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in New Delhi, India, 1959

students who were children offormer untouchables.

"The principal of the schoolintroduced me and then he cameto the conclusion of his introduc-tion. He said, 'young people, Iwould like to present to you a fel-low untouchable from the UnitedSates of America' and for a mo-

ment I was shocked and evenpeeved that I would be referred toas an untouchable'," Razdanquoted King as saying years back.

King said he then started tothink "about the fact that 20 mil-lion of my brothers and sisterswere still smothering in an airtightcage of poverty in an affluent so-

ciety. And as I thought about this,I finally said to myself, yes, I aman untouchable and every Negroin the United States is an un-touchable".

Razdan brought forward manycommonalities between King andGandhi, who has been describedby the American civil activist as

his "social and political mentor"."It is little wonder that one of

the books about the life of Dr Kingwas titled 'King, The AmericanMahatma'," Razdan said.

The Ebenezer Baptist Churchis where King honed his oratoryskills and found his spiritual fer-vor. -PTI

"We have seen the report but we do notshare its conclusions as we believe it isbased upon faulty methodology especiallyon issues relating to India," ForeignSecretary Ranjan Mathai said

"Demand for steel inthe renewableenergy sector willcontinue to growand we are ideallyplaced to help ourcustomers tap intothis importantopportunity”

King said he then started to think "about thefact that 20 million of my brothers and sisterswere still smothering in an airtight cage ofpoverty in an affluent society. And as Ithought about this, I finally said to myself,yes, I am an untouchable


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UN finds France violated Sikh religious freedomIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: The UN HumanRights Committee (UNHRC) hasconcluded that France had vio-lated the religious freedom of 76year old Ranjit Singh when he wasasked to remove his turban for hisID photograph. This was dis-closed recently at a media confer-ence, in Bobigny (near Paris), bythe United Sikhs legal team, whohad filed a communication on be-half of Ranjit Singh to the UNHRCin December 2008.

The media conference was toldthat the UNHRC observed that"even if the obligation to removethe turban for the identity photo-graph might be described as aone-time requirement, it wouldpotentially interfere with RanjitSingh's freedom of religion on acontinuing basis because he

would always appear without hisreligious head covering in theidentity photograph and couldtherefore be compelled to removehis turban during identitychecks."

The Committee said thatFrance had failed to explain howthe Sikh turban hindered identifi-cation since the wearer's facewould be visible and he would bewearing the turban it at all times,therefore, the regulation consti-

tuted a violation of article 18 ofthe International Covenant onCivil and Political Rights (ICCPR),which was entered into force forFrance on 4 February 1981. Theviews were adopted at the 102nd

session of the Committee's sitting."I had faith that truth and jus-

tice would prevail and I patientlywaited for this day. I pray thatFrance will now fulfill its obliga-tion and grant me a residence cardbearing my photo without baring

my head," said Ranjit Singh, whodespite his ill-health has had noaccess to the public health-caresystem or to social benefits since2005 because his residence cardwas refused due to his refusal toremove his turban.

"United Sikhs is heartened bythe Committee's observationsthat France is under an obliga-tion to provide Ranjit Singh withan effective remedy, including areconsideration of his applica-tion for a renewal of his resi-dence permit and a review of therelevant legislative frameworkand its application in practice.France, the Committee noted, isalso under an obligation to takesteps to prevent similar viola-tions in the future," saidMejindarpal Kaur, United SikhsLegal Director, who addressedthe media conference.

"We now look to France to ful-fill its treaty obligations under In-ternational law and its moral dutyto ensure that the freedom of reli-gion and belief is upheld for ev-eryone who lives within its terri-tory," she added.

"We are very pleased with theviews that the Committee adoptedand we welcome France's compli-ance with these findings. We alsolook forward to a similar resolu-tion for Shingara Singh, whosecase is still pending before theCommittee," O'Melveny & Myers,a New York law firm engaged byUnited Sikhs, said in a statementthrough their attorneys whospoke during a telephone inter-view. A decision is still awaited forShingara Singh, whose passporthas not been renewed by Francebecause he refused to remove histurban for his ID photograph.

Hindus welcome dismissalof Gita ban plea in Russia


NEW YORK: The World HinduCouncil of America (VHP America)has congratulated the judicial sys-tem in Russia in view of the recentdecision in Siberia for dismissinga plea to ban the Bhagvad Gita.

In view of the recent decisionof the state prosecutors in Siberiaon Jan 4, 2012, who dismissed aplea to ban the Bhagavad Gita, oneof Hinduism's holy treatises, theWorld Hindu Council of America(VHP America) congratulated thejudicial system in Russia, and Hin-dus around the world, for express-ing their faith in Universal knowl-edge and divinity, as representedby the Bhagavad Gita.

"We also thank Judge GalinaButenko of the Leninsky DistrictCourt in Tomsk for clarifying tothe prejudiced plaintiffs belong-ing to a section of the OthodoxChurch, that the Bhagavad Gita"did not advocate social discord,"as they had ridiculously claimed,"the Hindu organization said in astatement.

VHP America pointed out thatone of the most reputable sons ofRussia, Leo Tolstoy, was oneamongst many, who was greatlyinfluenced by the Bhagavad Gita.Milan Markovitch, author of"Tolstoi et Gandhi," wrote that:"There is not one of Tolstoy'sworks written after this period" ofhis life referred to in the Confes-sions "which is not inspired, in part,by Hindu thought…… His was aChristianity underpinned by thegreat Hindu doctrines.' Marcovitch

further adds that Tolstoy also "re-mains the most striking example,among a great many, of those whosought a cure for the western spirit,in Hinduism."

A better understanding ofHindu philosophies, both from atheological and sociological per-spective is critical to the removal

of religious and social biases,which lead to such cases. It is alsoimportant this remains an isolatedcase of zealous intolerance, theVHPA said.

The World Hindu Council ofAmerica (VHP America) looks for-ward to working with the RussianGovernment and their representa-tives in the United States, to de-velop educational initiatives,which would create a better un-derstanding of Hindu religiousscriptures and practices, the or-ganization said.

Birmingham murders: Lithuaniansuspect charged

LONDON: A 37-year-oldLithuanian national has beencharged with the murders of In-dian-origin Avtar Singh Kolar andhis British wife in Birmingham re-cently, the British police said andindicated that the couple waskilled during a robbery in theirhouse.

The West Midlands Police, thathad launched a major investiga-tion named Operation Tiler, saidthey were not looking for anyoneelse in relation to the case.

The suspect, named RimvydasLiorancas, 37, was to appear be-fore the Birmingham MagistratesCourt. He was taken into custodyin Birmingham.

The bodies of Avtar Singh, 62,and Carlole, 59, were found by

their police officer son, Jason,from their house in HandsworthWood, Birmingham.

The police ruled out theft of

gold as a motive for the murder,and said a number of items thatwere stolen from the Kolars househad been recovered.

There was also no link to thefact that the couple's son, JasonKolar, is a serving officer in theWest Midlands Police.

The couple's bodies werefound when calls to them wentunresponded. A post mortemshowed that the couple died dueto head injuries.

Sector Crown Prosecutor fromWest Midlands Crown Prosecu-tion Service, Martin Lindup, said:"I have advised West MidlandsPolice that there is sufficient evi-dence and it is in the public inter-est to charge RimvydasLiorancas, aged 37, with twocounts of murder following thedeath of Avtar and Carole Kolarat their home in HandsworthWood, Birmingham".-PTI

VISITORS TO URUGUAY: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar (C) and other members of the visiting Indian

Parliamentary delegation with Danilo Astori, Vice President of Uruguay at Parliament of Uruguay,

in Montevideo on January 16

I pray that France will now fulfill its obligationand grant me a residence card bearing myphoto without baring my head," said RanjitSingh, who despite his ill-health has had noaccess to the public health-care system or tosocial benefits since 2005

The couple's bodieswere found whencalls to them wentunresponded. A postmortem showed thatthe couple died dueto head injuries

"We also thankJudge GalinaButenko of theLeninsky District Courtin Tomsk for clarify-ing to the prejudicedplaintiffs belonging toa section of theOthodox Church, thatthe Bhagavad Gita"did not advocatesocial discord”


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India contributes $ 1 mnto UN women forum

India has made a contributionof $1 million towards the corevoluntary budget of the

United Nations Women (UnitedNations Entity for Gender Equal-ity and the Empowerment ofWomen).

Ambassador H S Puri, Perma-

nent Representative of India to theUN handed over the check of $1million to Dr Michele Bachelet,Under Secretary General and Ex-ecutive Director of UN Women onJanuary 12.

This contribution constitutesthe second installment of India's

multi-year pledge to provide fivemillion US dollars as core predict-able funding to UN Women's re-sources.

On this occasion, AmbassadorPuri also reaffirmed the Govern-ment of India's steadfast commit-ment to the goals of gender equal-ity, the empowerment of womenand gender mainstreaming en-shrined in the mandate of UNWomen.

India is currently one of themembers of the Executive Boardof the UN Women.

Pic Mohammed Jaffer-Snapsindia

Krishna lauds steps tocontain EU debt crisisBANGALORE: External Affairs

Minister S M Krishna has voicedhappiness over European leaders'decision to take steps to contain thedebt crisis in Europe and said hebelieved a revival of their economiesis in the interest of the internationalcommunity, including India.

"We are happy to note thatEuropean leaders have decided totake the required steps to containthe crisis and are confident thatlasting remedies will be found andimplemented," he told reportershere after talks with EuropeanUnion High Representative forForeign Affairs Catherine Ashton.

He said India believes a revivalof European economies andEurope's continued growth is inthe interest of the internationalcommunity, including India.

He said India is committed towork with the EU as a true andreliable partner to contribute toworld peace and prosperity.

"Today we have concludeduseful and substantive discus-sions covering the entire spec-trum of our relations. We ex-changed views in a spirit ofwarmth and friendship," he said.

The relationship and engage-ment between India and EU in dif-ferent areas has expanded over theyears and would expand further asthe EU evolves, Krishna said.

Keeping in mind the importantroles India and EU play in the in-ternational arena, views were alsoexchanged on various regionaland global issues of common in-terest, he said.

He said Prime Minister ManmohanSingh's visit to Brussels for the India-EU Summit in December, 2010, has

strengthened the strategic partner-ship between India and EU.

In the past one year, India andthe EU have intensified dialogueon various aspects of the relation-ship, he said, adding, "We lookforward to the visit of the leader-ship of the EU to India for the nextIndia-EU Summit, scheduled to beheld shortly in Delhi."

Krishna said India and EU haveprepared to take the cooperationforward in the India-EU Summitmeeting. "The two sides also tookthis opportunity to review theprogress in the implementation ofthe Joint Action Plan, which re-mains the guiding force of our re-lations," he said. -PTI

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna

'FTA between India & EUwill take more time'

BANGALORE: A proposedFree Trade Agreement (FTA) be-tween India and the EuropeanUnion will take more time to mate-rialize as discussions on its tech-nical aspects are a long-drawnprocess, a top European Unionofficial said here.

"Discussions on technicaldetails of the FTA between In-dia and the European Union is along-drawn process and thereshould also be political inclina-tion for it," Catherine Ashton,the EU's High Representative forForeign Affairs and SecurityPolicy and the Vice-President ofthe European Commission, toldreporters here.

However, discussions on tech-nical details of the FTA are pro-gressing satisfactorily, she saidafter meeting External Affairs Min-ister S M Krishna ahead of theIndia-EU Summit to be held inNew Delhi shortly.

Ashton said there has beenconsiderable progress in talksbetween EU and Indian officialson technical details of the FTA inthe last three months. "FTA withIndia is of enormous importanceto the EU," she added.

With India aiming at a higherthan 7.5 per cent growth rate, itneeds investment and enhancedtrade with nations in the EU,Ashton said. -PTI

Guj govt challenges HC orderon Lokayukta in SC

NEW DELHI: The GujaratGovernment has approached theSupreme Court challenging thestate High Court order uphold-ing the appointment of Justice RA Mehta as the Lokayukta by thegovernor.

The Gujarat High Court hadupheld the appointment of Justice(Retd) Mehta as the Lokayuktawhile sharply criticizing ChiefMinister Narendra Modi for his"pranks" that had sparked a "con-stitutional mini crisis".

Rejecting the state government'splea, three months after the HighCourt gave a split verdict, Justice VM Sahai said the "pranks" playedby the Chief Minister on theLokayukta issue "demonstrate de-struction of our democracy".

Justice Sahai, who was giventhe task of hearing the challengeagainst the appointment ofLokayukta following the conflict-ing verdict of the two-memberbench, said Modi's "question-able" conduct of "stonewalling"the appointment of Justice Mehtathreatened the rule of law.

He said the Chief Minister'seffort to metastasise the proce-dure for appointment ofLokayukta by issuing the GujaratLokayukta (Amendment) Ordi-nance, 2011, were "deprave andtruculent" actions.

Holding that "extraordinarysituations demand extraordinaryremedies", he said, "Open resis-tance of the Council of Ministersheaded by the Chief Minister innot accepting the primacy of theopinion of the Chief Justice of theGujarat High Court in the matterof appointment of Lokayukta hascreated a crisis situation."

There was no good reason to

reject the name of Justice Mehtaonce the objections of the ChiefMinister had been overruled bythe Chief Justice, he noted.

Modi had insisted on Justice JR Vora to be appointed asLokayukta but this was not ac-cepted by the Chief Justice on theground that the judge had beenappointed as the Director of theGujarat State Judicial Academy.

If the Chief Minister's choicehad been accepted, it would haveset a "pernicious trend" andwould have propitiated the pub-lic functionaries who were likelyto fall within the scanner ofLokayukta and destroyed the in-tegrity of the institution as envis-aged, Justice Sahai said.

Gujarat Governor KamlaBeniwal had on August 25 lastappointed Justice Mehta to thepost of Lokayukta, which hadbeen lying vacant for the last eightyears.

The state government hadchallenged the appointment in theHigh Court the very next day, say-ing the governor had "bypassed"the state government.

Modi had maintained that thegovernor had acted unconstitu-tionally in selecting the ombuds-man as the state government hadnot been consulted.

On October 11, a divisionbench of the High Court had givena split verdict on the appointmentissue.

While one of the judges hadupheld the decision of the Gover-nor, another judge had quashedthe warrant of appointment issuedby him, terming it unconstitu-tional.

The matter was then referredto Justice Sahai. -PTI

Ambassador Purialso reaffirmed theGovernment ofIndia's steadfastcommitment to thegoals of genderequality

Gujarat GovernorKamla Beniwal hadon August 25 lastappointed JusticeMehta to the post ofLokayukta, whichhad been lyingvacant for the lasteight years

The relationship andengagement be-tween India and EUin different areas hasexpanded over theyears and wouldexpand further as theEU evolves,Krishna said


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Scuffle between journos and Winfrey'sguards at Vrindavan

MATHURA: On her maidentrip to India, American talk showqueen Oprah Winfrey's visit tothis holy town was marred whenher bodyguards were involved ina scuffle with journalists.

Three Indian bodyguards werearrested following the incident inwhich some video cameras wereallegedly broken following a com-

plaint filed by media personnelcovering Winfrey's visit. No onewas injured in the incident, policesaid.

The bodyguards were laterreleased after they wrote a let-ter of apology to the media,police said.

Two American securitymenand a dozen bodyguards from In-

dia were part of Winfrey's entou-rage when it reached Vrindavan.She is in India in connection witha shoot for her new show 'NextChapter'.

Earlier in the morning, shefilmed a documentary on widowsand also took part in a 'bhajan' atthe ashram situated in PattharPura. -PTI

US talk show host Oprah Winfrey walks with Australian author

Gregory Roberts through a lane in Mumbai on January 17

Bangladesh army says itfoiled plot to topple govtDHAKA: Bangladesh army has

said it has foiled a plot inside theforce to topple Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina's government andhave arrested two former officersbesides launching a manhunt fora fugitive officer while some 16others are being kept under strictmilitary vigil.

"We have already unveiled aplot to topple the democraticgovernment mounting inBangladesh army, in which sev-eral in service officers were foundto be involved," said an armyspokesman at a hurriedly calledpress conference.

Brigadier General MohammadMasud Razzak told the crowdedpress conference at Dhaka Can-tonment that 14 to 16 officers wereunder vigil as investigations wereunderway on their suspected in-volvement while the detained twoformer officers "bluntly admittedtheir role in the plot".

"Stringent legal measures willbe taken against the persons in-volved in the conspiracy afterproper investigations," Razzaksaid.

He declined to give detailsabout the plot or the suspects butsaid they all were officers of"middle level" and the officer onthe run was a major and of the ar-rested two one was a former Lieu-tenant Colonel and another was aMajor.

"Banking on the army in thepast, different evil forces availedpolitical gains and made abortiveattempts to do so but as an insti-tution, military still has to bear thestigma," Razzak said. The AwamiLeague led by Hasina assumedpower in 2009.-PTI

US camera pioneer Kodakfiles for bankruptcy

NEW YORK: US camera pio-neer Eastman Kodak, whichbrought photography to themasses over a century ago, hasfiled for bankruptcy.

"After considering the advan-tages of Chapter 11 at this time,the Board of Directors and theentire senior management teamunanimously believe that this is anecessary step and the right thingto do for the future of Kodak,"CEO Antonio Perez said in a state-ment, referring to US bankruptcyproceedings.

"Our goal is to maximize valuefor stakeholders, including ouremployees, retirees, creditors, andpension trustees. We are alsocommitted to working with ourvalued customers," he added.

The company, which datesback more than a hundred years,was a pioneer in popularizingphotography.

But it has been struggling tokeep pace with the digital age andyears of poor performance hadalready forced it to lay off 47,000employees and close 13 manufac-turing plants since 2003.

"Now we must complete thetransformation by further address-ing our cost structure and effec-tively monetizing non-core IP as-

sets," Perez said."We look forward to working

with our stakeholders to emerge alean, world-class, digital imagingand materials science company."

In its heyday Kodak sharestopped USD 80 in 1996 - just atthe outset of the digital photorevolution that eventually re-placed the need for consumers tobuy Kodak film, once a virtualmonopoly in the US market.

The bankruptcy filing placesthe jobs of Kodak's 19,000 remain-ing employees in question. At itsheight in the 1980s, it had 145,000workers. -AFP

'Don't be over-sensitive aboutIndia's ties with China'

ON BOARD SPECIAL AIR-CRAFT: India's relations withChina are on a strong footing andone should not be "over-sensi-tive" about it, External AffairsMinister S M Krishna said here.

"Well, let us not be over-sen-sitive about our relations withChina. The relationship betweenIndia and China are on a strongfooting," Krishna told reporters

accompanying him on his wayback home from Sri Lanka.

He was responding to a ques-tion whether the relations be-tween India and China were wit-nessing trouble again in the back-drop of the recent incidents likeIndian traders being held in Chinaand reports that Beijing refusedto give visa to a member fromArunachal Pradesh who was part

of an Indian military delegationvisiting the country.

"India has strategic partner-ship with China. We have goodbilateral relations with China,"he said.

Krishna's comments also as-sume significance in the wakeof the recent talks between thetwo neighbors on the borderissue.-PTI

BONHOMIE: Defense Minister A K Antony with Army Chief Gen V K Singh during an At Home organized

on the occasion of Army Day, in New Delhi

14 to 16 officers wereunder vigil as investi-gations were under-way on their sus-pected involvementwhile the detainedtwo former officers"bluntly admitted theirrole in the plot”

"Our goal is tomaximize value forstakeholders, includ-ing our employees,retirees, creditors,and pension trustees.We are also commit-ted to working withour valued custom-ers," he added


US says it is open to work with India on missile shieldWASHINGTON: Weeks after

offering to sell its F-35 fifth gen-eration fighter jets, the US has saidit was open to work with India onjoint development of a ballisticmissile shield.

The offer was made by DeputyAssistant Secretary of DefenseRobert Scher who said that theIndo-US defense ties were valu-able and critical not only for thesecurity and stability of the re-gion, but globally.

"We are really open to it. Andthis is something we ask to andask them if they are interested init," Scher said on collaboration onthe missile shield project in an in-terview to PTI, emphasizing thatUS "is and will be a dependableweapons supplier to India."

The top Pentagon official dis-closed that Washington and New

Delhi had been involved in cru-cial discussion on the ballisticmissile shield, adding that the USwas looking forward to "restart"the dialogue.

Reiterating that US was readyfor India to join in the multi-nationcollaboration on F-35 fighters,Scher said that Washington wasstill awaiting India's response.

Referring to President BarackObama's latest defense strategyin which the US commits itself toa long-term defense relationshipwith India, the Pentagon officialsaid the US would certainly wel-come discussion with New Delhion F-35 and anti-missile system.

He cited the sale of C-130Jtransport aircraft to India aheadof the schedule as an example ofreadiness of the US armament in-dustry to respond to India's need.

Scher said the US has receivedrequest for additional six C-130JSuper Hercules transport aircraft.

"I will say that C-130J programis a great example of valuable con-

tribution of both of our countries.It is proof, I think that the US is andwill continue to be a dependabledefense supplier and it is also goodexample program that we deliveredon time and on budget," he said.

Given that the defense relation-ship between the two countries isrelatively new, is not consideredto be even a decade-old in manysense, the Pentagon official re-ferred to defense ties with Indiaas a "learning curve".

He said Washington wanted tofocus on developing cooperativeresearch and development in weap-ons technology with India so thatboth the countries could benefit.

"Closer cooperation on tech-nology and research pieces withinthe military and that is where weare looking to expand upon,"Scher said.

The Pentagon official saidthere was commitment on the USside as well as India to break-downbureaucratic hurdles in defensecooperation as the two countriesunderstood "how important therelationship is and how more im-portant the relationship is goingto be in the future."

Responding to questions onthe progress made by India andUS on military pacts such as Com-munications Interoperability andSecurity Memorandum of Agree-ment and Mutual Logistic SupportAgreement, Scher said this issuehas not been discussed.

"I will be honest with you. Ithas not come up in discussionsthat I had recently and numerousinteractions. It is certainly some-thing that we did talk about a lot,"he said. -PTI

Musharraf delays plan toreturn to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan'sformer military ruler PervezMusharraf has delayed his plansto return home from self-exile af-ter warnings from the govern-ment that he would be immedi-ately arrested on his arrival in thecountry.

Leaders of Musharraf's All Pa-kistan Muslim League told themedia that he had delayed hisplans to return to Pakistan laterthis month after consulting friendsand party leaders.

"Musharraf may not return toPakistan this month," saidMuhammad Ali Saif, the formerPresident's spokesman.

"Close friends are advising himagainst returning now," Saif toldreporters.

He sought to put a positivespin on the development by say-ing that Musharraf had been ad-vised by his aides that his returnat this juncture would provide "re-lief" to the government which isgrappling with several crises.

68-year-old Musharraf had an-nounced earlier this month that heintended to fly into the port cityof Karachi between January 27and 30.

Days after his announcement,Sindh Home Minister ManzoorWassan said Musharraf would bearrested and sent to jail as soonas he arrived in Karachi.

Interior Minister RehmanMalik told the Senate or upperhouse of parliament thatMusharraf would be arrestedunder the law of the land when-ever he arrives in Pakistan.

"The moment he lands, he willgo to jail," he said.

Musharraf's spokesman Saifsaid the former President was notafraid of such threats or the cases

former President has never re-fused to appear before the courts.He will face the courts and thecases against him whenever hereturns," Saif said.

Musharraf seized power in1999 in Pakistan's third militarycoup but was forced to step downas President in August 2008 afterthe Pakistan People's Partyformed a government followingelections.

He has been living in Dubai andLondon since April 2009.

In October, a court issued awarrant for his arrest over the kill-ing of Baloch nationalist leaderAkbar Bugti in a military opera-tion in August 2006.

Another court declared him afugitive and issued a separatewarrant for his arrest for failingto cooperate with investigatorsprobing the 2007 assassinationof former premier BenazirBhutto.-PTI

that have been filed against himin Pakistan.

"Musharraf is not afraid of be-ing arrested. The authorities willhave to treat him according to hisstatus and the law," he said. . "The

I am a 'man of crisis': Gilanitells Indian MPs

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan PrimeMinister Yousuf Raza Gilani, cur-rently in the thick of political up-heaval, called himself a "man ofcrisis" when pointed out that hisIndian counterpart had rightlycalled him a "man of peace".

During a meeting with a visit-ing Indian parliamentary delega-tion last evening, the lawmakers,including former ministers ManiShankar Aiyar and YashwantSinha, noted that Prime MinisterManmohan Singh had "rightlysaid that Yousuf Raza Gilani wasa man of peace".

59-year-old Gilani respondedby saying that "in the context ofPakistani politics, he was a manof crisis," according to a state-ment issued by the premier's of-fice here.

Gilani said his government wascommitted to a "constructive,sustained and result-orientedprocess of engagement with In-dia".

He recalled his meetings withSingh at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt,Thimpu in Bhutan, Mohali and theMaldives on the sidelines of thelast SAARC Summit.

Referring to his visit to Mohalilast year to watch the semi-finalof the cricket World Cup betweenIndia and Pakistan, Gilani recalledhis meeting with Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi and other topIndian leaders.

These interactions "created anenabling environment" that pavedthe way for a meaningful dialogueprocess, he said.

Aiyar and Sinha told Gilani thatuninterrupted dialogue can bringpeace and stability to both coun-tries on a durable basis.

Such a development "couldentitle both the Prime Ministersfor a Nobel Peace Prize," they werequoted as saying. .

Gilani said it was his "mostcherished dream to see Pakistanand India moving forward to-wards friendly, cooperative andgood neighborly relations".-PTI

Pakistan Prime Minister

Yousuf Raza Gilan

Given that the de-fense relationshipbetween the twocountries is relativelynew, is not consid-ered to be even adecade-old in manysense, the Pentagonofficial referred todefense ties withIndia as a "learningcurve”

Referring to his visit toMohali last year towatch the semi-finalof the cricket WorldCup between Indiaand Pakistan, Gilanirecalled his meetingwith Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhiand other top Indianleaders

Interior MinisterRehman Malik toldthe Senate or upperhouse of parliamentthat Musharraf wouldbe arrested underthe law of the landwhenever he arrivesin Pakistan

www.indiapost.com January 27, 2012

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PA School District announcesHindi for high school students

HINDI AT BENSALEM: Dr. Surendra Gambhir, chairman, YHS addressed the Bensalem Township School Board meeting

held on January 11, when the board adopted a resolution to launch Hindi curriculum in its High School.

(Pic: Ashok Ojha)


NEW YORK: Bensalem Town-ship, located on the outskirts ofthe city of Philadelphia, becomesthe first school district in the stateof Pennsylvania to teach Hindi inits high school beginning Septem-

ber 2012.The School Board of Bensalem

Township, in its meeting held Jan11, unanimously adopted a reso-

lution to introduce Hindi curricu-lum for high school students. Thedecision came after a series of pro-motional efforts made by YuvaHindi Sansthan, a non-profit edu-cational and cultural institution,and supported by local Indianpopulation. "We are very happythat the school board has ac-cepted the long term demand ofour community," said Yagnesh

Choksi, one of the directors of theschool board. "We consistentlymade efforts to introduce Hindiso that our children grow up withknowledge of the national lan-guage of India."

The board's decision wasmade in the presence of dozensof Indian American communitymembers and office bearers ofYuva Hindi Sansthan. Dr. (Mrs.)

Heather Nicholas, president ofBensalem School Board, sup-ported the need of diverse popu-lation of Bensalem Township thatcomprised a variety of ethnic andcultural groups. "We are confi-dent that Hindi learning will openup new opportunities to familiar-ize our students about Indian cul-ture," she commented.

The board's decisionwas made in thepresence of dozensof Indian Americancommunity membersand office bearers ofYuva Hindi Sansthan.Dr. (Mrs.) HeatherNicholas, president ofBensalem SchoolBoard, supported theneed of diversepopulation ofBensalem Townshipthat comprised avariety of ethnic andcultural groups

Cont’d on page 15

Arun Narote's killers get 38 years in prisonIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: A woman accusedof killing an Indian graduate stu-dent in Connecticut in the sum-mer of 2010, has been sentencedto 38 years in jail.

Vanessa Ortiz, 21, was sen-tenced mid-December for thedeath of Arun Narote, a native ofAndhra Pradesh, who was work-ing part time at the Norman's Gro-cery and Delhi in Bridgeport, Con-necticut to support his graduatestudies at Stratford University, Vir-ginia.

On July 12, 2010 he was shotand killed during an attempted rob-

bery at the store where he worked.Ortiz pleaded guilty in Septem-

ber 2011 to charges of felony mur-der and conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery. She was one ofthree individuals charged inNarote's death. Luis Torres, 25,also pleaded guilty to felony mur-der and conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery and was, likewise,sentenced to 38 years in prison.Marisol Malave, who was con-victed of driving the getaway carduring the robbery, is awaitingsentencing.

According to prosecutors,Ortiz is the one who pulled the trig-ger and shot Narote.Arun Kumar Narote

Ortiz pleaded guiltyin September 2011 tocharges of felonymurder and con-spiracy to commitfirst-degree robbery.She was one of threeindividuals chargedin Narote's death

Indian Consulategets operationalin AtlantaIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: The Governmentof India has opened its Consulatein Georgia, Atlanta. It's the fifthIndian consulate in the UnitedStates.

Together with the first-everConsul General of India in Atlanta,Ajit Kumar, Georgia GovernorNathan Deal on Jan 5, announcedthat the Government of India hasopened its first consulate office inGeorgia as of the start of the newyear.

Sanskrit shlokasat King MemorialServiceIndia Post News Serviceb

NEVADA: The 26th Annual Dr.Martin Luther King Junior Inter-faith Community Memorial Servicein Nevada was concluded withMantras from ancient Hindu scrip-tures on January 15.

Rajan Zed, President of Univer-sal Society of Hinduism read fromBhagavad-Gita ,Upanishads andRig-Veda (oldest existing scriptureof mankind) besides Gayatri Man-tra, the most sacred mantra of Hin-duism, during his "benediction"on the occasion.

Rajan pointed out that bothMahatma Gandhi and MartinLuther King shared a common vi-sion on fighting injustice.

Indian FinanceMinister to visitChicago

HARISH RAO

CHICAGO: Indian FinanceMinister Pranob Kumar Mukherjeeis slated to come to Chicago onJanuary 28 and January 29 osten-sibly to meet members of IndianDiaspora and attend the inaugu-ration of a new plaque in honor ofSwami Vivekanand - The Last Har-vest: The Paintings ofRabindranath Tagore at the ArtInstitute of Chicago.

The Inauguration ceremony isscheduled on Saturday January28 at the Art Institute of Chicagoon Michigan Avenue at 6 p.m.The event is jointly organized bythe National Gallery of ModernArt, New Delhi, and the Ministryof Culture, Government of India,and the Consulate General of In-dia, Chicago.

HAF and SABAoutraged overSan Jose hate

crime

India Post 13January 27, 2012 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Nav Grah Puja at Manav Seva Mandir

Asian Media USA

CHICAGO: Socio religious no-profit organization Manav SevaMandir in Bensenville celebratedMakar Sankranti by performingNav Grah Puja on Saturday, Janu-ary 14. More than 25 couples par-ticipated in the Nav Grah Pujastarting from 5 p.m. and lasting tilllate evening

This sacred event was attended

by over 400 devotees and mem-bers of the MSM who were ac-tively involved in Puja ceremony.Donation for performing Puja was$51.00 per family.

Hindu Shashtras name nine(nava) major celestial bodies(Grahas) which have astrologicaland astronomical significance.These celestial bodies are Surya(Sun), Chandra (Moon),Chevvaai/Mangal (Mars),

Devotees involved in Navgrah Puja Acharya Sahshri Ji and MSM President at the Puja ceremony

Budhan (Mercury), Guru/Brihaspati(Jupiter), Shukra (Ve-nus), Shani (Saturn), Rahu (NorthLunar Node) and Ketu (SouthLunar Node).

The nine "grahas" or planetsin our horoscope are in tune withour past Karmas and have indi-cators of the shape of things tocome, according to ancient Indianbelief. Each of these nine planetsexerts positive and/or negative in-

fluence in our lives, which is called"dasa" and experts called Jyotishseek to give out predictionsbased on their reading of horo-scopes.

The puja for nine planets areperformed all over by Hindus inIndia and have special kshetras(place of worship) in South Indiaespecially in Kerala and TamilNadu.

The nine "grahas" orplanets in our horo-scope are in tunewith our past Karmasand have indicatorsof the shape ofthings to come

Cont’d on page 15

January 27, 2012India Post14 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Sanskrit shlokas at KingMemorial Service

India Post News Serviceb

NEVADA: The 26th Annual Dr.Martin Luther King Junior Inter-faith Community Memorial Servicein Nevada was concluded withMantras from ancient Hindu scrip-tures on January 15.

Rajan Zed, President of Univer-sal Society of Hinduism read fromBhagavad-Gita ,Upanishads andRig-Veda (oldest existing scriptureof mankind) besides Gayatri Man-tra, the most sacred mantra of Hin-

duism, during his "benediction"on the occasion.

Rajan pointed out that bothMahatma Gandhi and MartinLuther King shared a common vi-sion on fighting injustice. Recit-ing from Bhagavad-Gita, Zedstressed that action was better

than inaction and Gita advisedselfless action without anythought of personal profit.

Held at Second Baptist Church(SBC) in Reno with the theme "Re-membering the dream, Fulfilling the

mandate", this Service also includedmusical renderings by local artists.Lonnie Feemster, President of Reno-Sparks Chapter of National Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Col-ored People, delivered the keynoteaddress while Bishop Gene SavoyJunior, President of Nevada ClergyAssociation, Reverend William C.Webb, SBC Pastor Emeritus, MaryCooper of Northern Nevada MartinLuther King Junior Holiday Commis-sion (NNMLKJHC) also spoke onthe occasion. Reverend ClarenceBrooks of SBC gave the "invoca-tion".

Nevada Governor BrianSandoval's proclamation and mes-sage from United States SenateMajority Leader Harry Reid werealso read on the occasion by VeritaBlack Prothro.

Nobel laureate Dr. King (1929-68) is an American civil rights icon.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval's procla-mation and message from United StatesSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid were alsoread on the occasion by Verita Black Prothro

At Martin Luther King Memorial Service in Nevada, from left are Mary Cooper, Gene Savoy Junior,

Rajan Zed and Lonnie Feemster. (Pic: Debbie McCarthy)

Indian faiths to be representedat Mormon event

Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City


SALT LAKE CITY, Utah: Whilea Presidential hopeful Mitt Rom-ney is facing rough weather be-cause of his Mormon faith, it isinteresting to note that MormonTabernacle on historic TempleSquare in Salt Lake City, Utah ishosting an Interfaith Musical Trib-ute program on February 26 thatwould feature music/dance/bless-ings/readings of major faiths ofthe world.

Hindu dance will reportedly beheld at Mormon Tabernacle on his-toric Temple Square in Salt LakeCity (Utah, USA), which housesthe world headquarters of TheChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

The Temple Square is the worldheadquarters of The Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(LDS), and the Interfaith MusicalTribute, titled "Many Faiths OneFamily", will include Hindu, Mus-lim, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish, Pres-byterian, LDS, Unitarian, Gospel,Celtic, faiths. For Hindus it will befor the first time that there wouldbe musical and dance presentationat the Mormon temple.

Rajan Zed, President of Univer-sal Society of Hinduism, said thatserious and honest interfaith dia-logue was the need of the hour.Religion was the most powerful,complex and far-reaching force inour society, so we must take it se-riously. And we all knew that reli-gion comprised much more thanour own particular tradition/expe-rience.

Zed stressed that it was laud-able on the part of LDS to host aninclusive Interfaith Musical Trib-

ute in Temple Square, containingvarious religions and denomina-tions. "It is a step in the right di-rection," he pointed out.

Historic Mormon Tabernacle,completed in 1867, is a nationalhistoric landmark and contains an11,623-pipe Tabernacle organ.Photographs, however, will not bepermitted during this perfor-mance.

According to LDS sources,Jesus Christ is the head of TheChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which has been re-stored by God through theProphet Joseph Smith (1805-44).

The Church is led by 15 Apostles,which include President ThomasS. Monson who is also considereda prophet. One of the fastest grow-ing church, it has over 14-millionmembers in over 170 nations, over28,000 congregations and 166temples, and over 52,483 mission-aries serving at any one time innearly 340 worldwide missions.LDS is also known for its researchand storage of genealogicalrecords.

Republican American presiden-tial front-runner Mitt Romney is aMormon and so is United StatesSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Hindu dance willreportedly be held atMormon Tabernacleon historic TempleSquare in Salt LakeCity (Utah, USA),


"Bensalem school administra-tors were very receptive to ourproposal to introduce Hindi in itscurriculum," said Dr. SurendraGambhir, chairman of Yuva HindiSansthan, a retired professor whotaught linguistics at the Univer-sity of Pennsylvania for more than36 years. "Bensalem becomes thefirst school district in Pennsylva-nia to introduce Hindi in itsschool curriculum," he pointedout.

Promising to provide educa-tional resources for jump startinga Hindi curriculum at BensalemAshok Ojha, YHS president of-fered full support and help of his

PA School District announces Hindi for high school studentsCont’d from page 12 organization. "Indian American

community in Pennsylvania andNew Jersey is well equipped tosupport Hindi teaching inschools," he pointed out. Dozensof community leaders from NewJersey and Pennsylvania at-tended the meeting.

YHS president informed theaudience about varieties of activi-ties undertaken by the organiza-

tion including its summer pro-grams held in Atlanta, GA in June2010 and in Delaware in summer2011 where hundreds of Middleand High school students learnedHindi and Indian culture.

Dr. David Baugh, Superinten-dent of Bensalem School District,expressed his confidence thatHigh School students in his dis-trict will take advantage of the

'Hindi 1' course that will be of-fered for the first time. YagenshChoksi, Director of School Boardin Bensalem, PA, thanked theboard members for their support.

About ten percent ofBensalem Township, which hasa population of more than60,000, comprise people of In-dian origin, mostly from the stateof Gujarat.

Most of them are concentratednear the Thanjavur district.Navagraha puja will be helpfulwhen in one's horoscope the con-cerned planet dasa or sub-dasa isin operation or if the planet is as-sociated with malefics and is in the3rd, 6th, 8th, or 12th house.

There are individual mantrasone can chant on the basis of theday of the week like Surya (Sun)mantra on Sunday, Chandra(Moon) mantra on Monday,Mangal (Mars) Mantra on Tues-day, Buddha (Mercury) mantra onWednesday, Brihaspathi (Jupiter)mantra on Thursday, Shukra Man-tra on Friday and Shani (Saturn)mantra on Saturday. Rahu andKetu Mantra's can be chanted anyday on specific times of the day.

Executive Board oath cer-emony was performed after NavGrah Puja completed by devotees.Raja Krishnamoorthi, DemocraticCongressional candidate forIllinois's 8th District, gave a speechfor the March 20 election. Devo-tees enjoyed delicious food deliv-ered by Jay Hind restaurant.

The Manav Seva Mandir holdsevents like such as Bhajan-Satsang, Group Satnarayan Katha,Youth Classes, Children Classes,annual youth camp during thesummer holidays, flu vaccina-tions, health fair and medical fa-cilities. They have Daily Arti suchas Mangala Arti, Shringar Arti andSandhya Arti.

Upcoming event: VasantPanchmi - 5:30 pm, Friday, Janu-ary 27, Maha Shivratri - 5:30 pm,Sunday, February 19, Holika - 5:30pm, Wednesday, March 07, ChaitriNavratra & Ram Navami - 5:30 pm,Friday, March 23. HanumanJayanti - 5:00 pm, Friday, April 06.

Nav Grah Pujaat Manav SevaMandirCont’d from page 13

Ten percent ofBensalem Township,which has a popula-tion of more than60,000, comprisepeople of Indianorigin

January 27, 2012India Post16 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Yogathon begins withnationwide Sun Salutation

VASANT PANDAV

CHICAGO: HinduSwayamsevak Sangh (HSS), USAvolunteers and fitness enthusiastsin Chicagoland joined othersacross the nation commencing thesixth year of annual "Health forHumanity Yogathon" or "SuryaNamaskar Yajna (SNY)" by offer-ing 69190 Surya Namaskars in 88different places in 27 states.

In a nationwide wave or lehar,1984 participants performed total

5322 sets of Surya Namaskar (13Surya Namaskars per set) startingfrom the East coast and ending inthe West coast between 10:00 amto 12:00 am local time in one day

This fifteen day Yogathon thatbegan on January 14 will continuetill January 29. All participants andbeneficiaries of this unique eventwill continue exercise practice sunsalutation yoga individually athome or collectively at commu-nity centers or other public gath-ering places all across the UnitedStates.

While congratulating HSS fortheir leadership role in preserva-tion and promotion of the ancientHindu heritage and culture, Con-gressman Frank Wolf from 10thDistrict of Virginia also com-mended HSS for promotinghealthy activities such as Yoga.Mayors of Town of Morrisville,NC and that of City of San Anto-nio, TX also appreciated Healthfor Humanity Yogathon by pro-claiming in their respective townand city. Many more publicevents in schools, universitiesand other locations are plannedat various locations till the con-cluding day, January 29.

Surya Namaskar integratessimple Yoga postures in 10-steps

Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutatiaon for Health

that, along with easy breathingtechnique, can provide immensehealth benefits to both the bodyand the mind. HSS initiated thishealth awareness project in 2006.Since its inception, various Yogacenters, community organiza-tions, schools and colleges re-gardless of individual faiths andbeliefs, have participated allacross the United States.

Last year, over 10,000 peoplefrom 38 states participated in thisunique yogathon performingnearly one million SuryaNamaskar. A number of schools,universities, yoga clubs, commu-nity leaders and many volunteersexpressed their willingness toparticipate in this Yogathon.

All participants andbeneficiaries of thisunique event willcontinue exercisepractice sun saluta-tion yoga individu-ally at home or col-lectively at commu-nity centers

Indian Finance Ministerto visit Chicago

HARISH RAO

CHICAGO: Indian FinanceMinister Pranab Kumar Mukherjeeis slated to come to Chicago onJanuary 28 and January 29 osten-

Rabindranath Tagore at the ArtInstitute of Chicago.

The Inauguration ceremony isscheduled on Saturday January 28at the Art Institute of Chicago onMichigan Avenue at 6 p.m. Theevent is jointly organized by theNational Gallery of Modern Art,New Delhi, and the Ministry of Cul-ture, Government of India, and theConsulate General of India, Chicago.

Sara Lee Foundation is the LeadCorporate Sponsor of The LastHarvest: The Paintings ofRabindranath Tagore. Generoussupport is provided by Anita andPrabhakant Sinha and the SinhaKikeri Foundation; ElissaEfroymson, Adnaan Hamid, andthe Efroymson-Hamid FamilyFoundation; and the EfroymsonFamily Fund, a CICF Fund.

Additional support is providedby Charles and Kathleen Harper,and Penelope R. Steiner.

Pranab Mukherjee

Telugu Assn to celebrateSankranti & R-Day

HARISH RAO

'Coming Together in Skokie'highlights Assyrian culture

SURENDRA ULLAL

CHICAGO: Tri-State TeluguAssociation (TTA), a non profitorganization, has announced or-ganizing a major community event'Sankranthi and Republic Day cel-ebrations' on Saturday, Jan 29 atLemont Temple.

The three-hour program wouldstart at 5-30 p.m. and one of thehighlights is the submission ofentries for Rangoli competition.There would be cultural programand dinner following the submis-sion.

The event is jointlyorganized by theNational Gallery ofModern Art, NewDelhi, and the Minis-try of Culture, Gov-ernment of India,and the ConsulateGeneral of India,Chicago

sibly to meet members of IndianDiaspora and attend the inaugu-ration of a new plaque in honor ofSwami Vivekanand - The Last Har-vest: The Paintings of

CHICAGO: "Coming Togetherin Skokie" (CTIS) will honor theAssyrian culture this year. Theofficial kick-off of the six-weekseries of programs is Sunday,January 29 at Niles West HighSchool in Niles, a north sidesuburb of Chicago.

Members of the Indian com-munity are part of CTIS andhave welcomed wholeheartedlythe move. Assyrian communitywill present cultural and art ex-hibits at 2:30 p.m., followed at3:15 by a cultural program thatincludes a celebration ofAssyrian culture, a brief histori-cal summary, Assyrian wedding

Members of the Indian community are partof CTIS and have welcomed wholeheartedlythe move. Assyrian community will presentcultural and art exhibits

practices, dancing, and the per-sonal journeys of Assyrian stu-dents.

CTIS is a community-wide

celebration designed to promoteliteracy and to explore in deptha different culture each year,through reading and discussingselected books and enjoying a

host of cultural activities.In its first year, CTIS featured

the Asian-Indian communityand the novel Motherland. Au-

thor Vineeta Vijayaraghavancame to Skokie to speak to resi-dents and students.

Cont’d on page 17


Indian Community of Southern California (ICSC)Celebrates

India Republic DaySunday, January 29th • 7:30pm

Rupee Room Cuisine of India1170 N. Tustin Ave, Orange, CA 92867

Dr. Manmohan Singh

Hon. CongressmanEd Royce

Hon. Assembly MemberTony Mendoza

Hon. Mayor of CypressParkash Narain

INVITED GUESTS

Jatin PanditFamous Music Director

Bhangara & Ras GarbaCULTURAL PROGRAM

Dilip Butani (Chairman) • Amrit Bhandari (President)

Program Committee:Ramesh Ramnani, K.V. Kumar, Mohan Sharma, Ajay Khetani, Vijay Patil, Raj Walia, Lal Thakrar, KrisKakkar, Sunil Shah, Prakash Pancholi, Ramesh Bhatt, Siddharth Pathak, Nauzad Sadry, Amit Anand,Kishan Hingorani, Babubhai Gorajia, Mahendra Sanatra, Ashok Desai, Dr Manorama Sharma, NareshSolanki, Dr Ramesh Gokuldas, Amarjeet Dhamija, Tulsi Savani, Atul Ghadiali, Roshan Khandpur, KumarJawa, Dr Ramesh Kothari, Dinesh Gala, Dr Sinduri, Kamini Khare, Ravji Patel, Manu Patel, SureshBhatti, Harshad Mody, Dr Kailash Dhamija, Balbir Singh, Ritu Sehgal, Vinny Jindal and Kainaz Pandit.

New Indian Consulate gets operational in AtlantaIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: The Government of Indiahas opened its Consulate in Georgia, At-lanta. It's the fifth Indian consulate in theUnited States.

Together with the first-ever Consul Gen-eral of India in Atlanta, Ajit Kumar, GeorgiaGovernor Nathan Deal on Jan 5, announcedthat the Government of India has openedits first consulate office in Georgia as of thestart of the new year.

"This marks a significant milestone inGeorgia's international evolution," said Gov.Deal. "The Consulate General is the crown-ing symbol of the dynamic business andcultural connections India shares with ourregion and state."

In addition to Georgia, the Consulate willserve the states of Alabama, Florida, Mis-sissippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, aswell as the US Virgin Islands and the UScommonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Kumar, who has previously served as theIndian consul general in Frankfurt, Germany,and Durban, South Africa and as Ambassa-dor of India to the Republic of Zimbabwe,will lead a team of 20 full-time employees.

The consulate's primary focus, asidefrom consular services, will be trade andinvestment, which is expected to greatlyenhance and encourage opportunities forcommerce between Georgia and India. It will

also serve the approximately 100,000 Indiannationals living in Georgia and roughly290,000 across the Southeast with servicessuch as visas, passports and other docu-ments.

"This is a proud day for the State of Geor-gia, whose longtime efforts to locate an In-dian Consulate General for the Southeast-ern United States in Atlanta culminated inthe Indian government's 2008 announce-ment of its intentions," Deal said. "Despite

the worldwide economic crisis, all partieshave pressed forward vigorously to realizethis purpose. The Indian Consulate is a vi-tal addition to Atlanta's consular corps andcommunity of trade commissions and bi-national chambers of commerce, which al-ready represents more than 70 other coun-tries and is a key component of Georgia'sdiversity and international success."

The Georgia Consulate became a realityafter more than three years of discussionsbetween the US and India. In October 2008,

both countries had announced that the gov-ernment of India would open two additionalconsulates in Georgia and Seattle besidesits consulates in New York, Chicago, Hous-ton and California, in view of the increasingIndian American population in those partsof the country.

The decision was taken at a meeting be-tween the then US President George WBush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,in Washington.

However, the Obama Administration de-cided to give permission for opening of onlyone consulate. "On August 20, 2010, theDepartment informed the Government ofIndia that it could open a consulate in ei-ther Atlanta or Seattle. On February 25, 2011,the Government of India informed the De-partment that it had chosen Atlanta as thesite of its new consulate," the State Depart-ment said in a statement emailed to report-ers in response to a question asked at adaily press briefing

In addition to Georgia, the Consulate will serve the statesof Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina andTennessee, as well as the US Virgin Islands and the UScommonwealth of Puerto Rico

Last year CTIS showcased theFilipino-American community, andseveral books by Filipino authors.Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, authorof When the Rainbow GoddessWept and Almira Astudillo Gilles, au-thor of Willie Wins participated andshared their writing techniques andknowledge of Filipino history andculture.

The Village of Skokie is a commu-nity rich in diversity. Residents hailfrom many different countries andspeak more than 90 languages anddialects.

"We acknowledge this wonderfuldiversity as an opportunity to buildknowledge, awareness, and appre-ciation for the many cultures aroundus," said Mrs. Van Dusen, the FirstLady of Skokie village. "We hopethat residents and students will readthese books, take part in public dis-cussion groups, and enjoy the manyactivities we are offering."

'Coming Together inSkokie' highlightsAssyrian culture

Cont’d from page 16

January 27, 2012India Post18 Community/Californiawww.indiapost.com

HAF and SABA outraged overSan Jose hate crime


SAN JOSE: Almost two months since hewas viciously beaten in an apparent hateattack, Atul Lall, a resident of San Jose, Cali-fornia is yet to see his attackers beingbrought to justice.

The South Asian Bar Association ofNorthern California (SABA-NC) has joinedthe Hindu American Foundation (HAF) tocondemn the brutal attack of the 32-year oldHindu man who was assaulted while leavinga Lucky shopping center parking lot on thenight of November 21, after picking up gro-ceries for the family's Thanksgiving dinner.

Lall, who has a pre-existing disability, wasattacked by a group of three men, who re-peatedly punched him, broke his jaw with atequila bottle, poured alcohol and spit onhim, and called him a "terrorist."

"It is shocking and deplorable that thisyoung man was targeted and singled outbased on his ethnic/religious background orperceived background in what appears to bea violent hate crime," said Samir Kalra, Esq.,HAF's California based Director and SeniorFellow for Human Rights. "This type of big-otry is not only an affront to the Hindu,

Muslim, Sikh, South Asian, and Middle East-ern communities, but an egregious attack onthe values of American society."

Following the attack, Lall called 911 anddrove himself to the hospital, where he hadsurgery to repair his jaw. San Jose police,however, did not arrive at the hospital untilapproximately four hours after the incident.

According to an official from the San JosePolice Department, the incident is now be-ing investigated as a hate crime, but no ar-rests have yet been made in connection withthe case. Lall has expressed frustration withthe slow pace and lack of progress in theinvestigation.

"We urge the police to conduct a thor-ough and expeditious investigation andapprehend those responsible for this de-

plorable act," Kalra added.Lall has still not recovered fully from the

attack and continues to require medicaltreatment for his injuries. He is an industrialdesigner and a recent graduate of San JoseState University, whose family immigratedto Silicon Valley from the eastern Indian cityof Kolkata over 30 years ago.

"It is extremely disturbing to know thatcertain individuals actually believe that bythreatening and physically harming inno-cent people they are protecting our coun-try from terrorists," said Shaamini Babu, Co-

President of SABA-NC. "With hate crimescontinuing to occur throughout the coun-try, organizations such as SABA-NC andHAF must monitor such incidents and at-tempt to ensure that law enforcement holdsthose individuals accountable for their egre-gious actions. Anyone aware of a hate crimemay report it to SABA-NC by calling 1-888-99NO-HAT (E)."

HAF and SABA-NC expressed their sym-pathy and support directly to the victim andhis family and reiterated their hope for a quickresolution to the case. Anyone with informa-tion about the incident should call the SanJose Police Department's assault unit at 408-277-4161.

Those interested in assisting the victimwith his ongoing medical expenses can makecharitable donations to the "Atul Lall Fund"at any Wells Fargo Bank, or contactShaamini Babu [email protected] for more in-formation.

Lall has still not recovered fully from the attack and contin-ues to require medical treatment for his injuries. He is anindustrial designer and a recent graduate of San JoseState University, whose family immigrated to Silicon Valleyfrom the eastern Indian city of Kolkata over 30 years ago

Gov Jeb Bush endorsesRicky Gill


Former Florida Governor JebBush has endorsed RickyGill in his race for U.S. Congress,

praising both Ricky's experience and hisvision for the 9th Congressional District.Governor Bush's endorsement confirmswhy Ricky is the right candidate at theright time.

According to Governor Bush, Ricky "isprecisely the kind of candidate we need atthis critical moment in our nation's history."

Here's what Governor Bush had to sayabout Ricky:

"I support Ricky Gill because he under-stands that freedom and opportunity are theessence of this great nation. Ricky has theideas and experience needed to fight for thesmaller, smarter government that will restorethese American ideals. He also has the vi-sion needed to promote education reformsthat will ensure all Americans have the rightto rise to their fullest potential. He is pre-cisely the kind of candidate we need at thiscritical moment in our nation's history."

India Post 19January 27, 2012 Community/Californiawww.indiapost.com

Punjab Palace opens second branch

JS BEDI


Riverside's culinary icon,Punjab Palace, opened itssecond branch on Univer-

sity Avenue recently.Located at University and Chi-

cago, next to Rite Aid, the neweatery features a banquet hall anda restaurant with a seating capac-ity of 100. The cuisine is Punjabi

both veg and non veg. Being inclose proximity to UCR, the res-taurant is very popular with Indianstudents who crave for the tasteof home.

Punjab Palace is a family busi-ness that launched its first restau-rant on Tyler over a decade ago.The business is run by brothersAshok and Raj Sharma. Raj takescare of the Tyler branch whilstAshok and his son Vishal run the

University branch.There Vishal is at the front desk

whilst Ashok handles the kitchen.Punjab Palace has a distin-

guished record and has beenvoted # 1 Indian Restaurant byPress Enterprise Newspaper con-sistently since 2003.

Both branches have an A rat-ing by the health department - anachievement vary rare in Indianrestaurants.

Interior of the Restaurant

Ashok and Vishal Sharma

(March 21 to April 20)

Money wise it looks like a very promising week. Business trips

will be be fruitful and you will get results immediately. You will

be associated with a very hard working person and work on an im-

portant project. Your actions will reflect confidence and maturity. You

will make some interesting changes in diet.

Your Weekly FutureJANUARY 27TH - FEBRUARY 2ND

by Pandit Parashar

January 27, 2012India Post20 Horoscopewww.indiapost.com

Pandit Parashar, CEO & COO Astro Scan USA is also available for individualconsultations. He can be reached at: [email protected]

925-833-7170website: www.parashar.com

(November 23 to December 22)

A child giving you some stress will be on right path from now.

News about an addition in the family will cause lots of excite-

ment. You will continue to gain knowledge and wisdom. Dealing in

Stocks and playing lottery will be fruitful. Boss will take your side on

an important issue. You will make many good decisions.

(December 22 to January 19)

Search for an ideal property to move will continue. You will send

many applications and wait for response. Money wise you will

stay comfortable. Venus in second will bring an opportunity to make

quick money without making much efforts. You will buy some new

apparels or perfume for personal use and take family out for dinner.

(January 20 to February 18)

Strong Venus will help you overcome all obstacles and it will make

you cheerful and you will arrange a party and invite family and

friends. You will hear some very good news from a distant place.

There will be remarkable improvement in ongoing projects overseas.

You may make an appointment to have eye sight retested.

(February 19 to March 20)

Some one will come up with a nice looking deal but you should do

more research before making any commitments. You will be

close to finish an important project on hands and the boss will show

his appreciation by making the necessary recommendations for pro-

motion. Money will come but will go out fast on paying bills.

(May 21 to June 20)

You will continue to work on your plans. Progress will be slow but

steady. Overaggressive attitude will help get many issues re-

solved. You may spend time looking for better options to insure your

vehicles or home this week. Money wise you will be comfortable and

meet all commitments on time. You will finalize a short trip also.

(July 23 to August 22)

You will be more focused and overcome many hurdles in career.

Mind will stay sharp and you will be full of energy. Some of you

may start going back to health club to stay fit. People in business

will spend more on advertising in order to stay well ahead of their

competition. Do not take a chance with weather this week.

(September 23 to October 22)

It is going to be another exciting week. You will hear of couple

of encouraging news. Property related matters could get re-

solved. Money can pour in from many directions. It will be an-

other good week for people in real estate or food business. All

meetings will go well and you will be assured of the deals.

(April 21 to May 20)

Situation will become little challenging but you will gain an edge.

Some of you will be getting ready to appear in a very competitive

exam. Money wise planets looks alright and you will have couple of

opportunities to save or make quick money. Have patience at home

and listen to whole think before forming any opinion.

(June 21 to July 22)

Issues involving close family members will keep your mind occu-

pied most of the time and you will be looking for easy solutions

which will be hard to find. Loan application will get approved or credit

limit will be increased by bank. Search for better job will continue

and you will be working on several good looking leads.

(August 23 to September 22)

Financial pressure will keep increasing and you will be looking for

new avenues to improve revenues. You may use your savings to

meet new commitments. Boss will give you additional work and a

deadline. You should do more research before making any new fi-

nancial commitments. One of your vehicle will need minor repairs.

(October 23 to November 22)

Planet Sun in third will help you get a big clearance from a govern-

ment agency that can open a number of doors. You may arrange

a get together at your place and invite few friends. You will be work-

ing extra hours but enjoy the new assignment. People will benefit

from your expertise and foot traffic will increase.

Hrithik should be careful abouthealth & physical safety

Hrithik Roshan turned 38 onJanuary 10. The Budhadivtyayog and Gajkesari yog in his

horoscope makes him a popular figurein Bollywood. According to astrolo-gers, 2012 will prove to asuccessful year forHrithik Roshan. His filmswill score well at the boxoffice.

His movie, Agneepathwill prove to be a hitamong the youth.

Offers for advertise-ments will pour. He willtry his hand at film pro-ductions and he may buya house.

He will have a babygirl in 2013. The positionof sun and rahu in hishoroscope indicates that he will get un-favorable results in his work during Oc-tober 2013 to September 2014. Of late,Hrithik Roshan is not experiencing thesuccess in similar terms, as it used tobe.

The current Antardasa of Ketu, op-

erational from March 2011 to April 2012,is somewhat better for Hrithik profes-sional career in acting. Simultaneously,his latest release, "Zindagi Na MilegiDobara", have been reasonably better.

Though, this Antardasaof Ketu is not lookinggood for HrithikRoshan's health andphysical safety. Beforeend of April 2012, hemay suffer from severehealth problems, sud-den injury or legal dis-putes.

The chances of un-dergoing surgery andbeing hospitalized arequite prominent inHrithik Roshan horo-scope. The union of

Saturn with Ketu in fourth house mayalso generate problems for his socialimage and on family front; and his par-ents may also face some severe healthissues. Therefore, Hrithik Roshanshould be very careful and cautious tillApril 2012.

Hrithik Roshan

Indiabulls raisesRs 200cr fromIL&FS Trust

NEW DELHI: Indiabulls RealEstate has sold a 9.36 per cent stakein a subsidiary developing BharatTextile Mills land in Mumbai toIL&FS Trust for Rs 200 crore.

Indiabulls had bought 8.39acres of Bharat Textile Mills landin 2010 for Rs 1,580 crore fromNational Textile Corporation. Itswholly-owned arm, IndiabullsInfraestate Ltd, is developing theland.

In a filing to the Bombay StockExchange, Indiabulls Real Estateinformed that IL&FS Trust Com-pany and its group of investorshave invested Rs 200 crore to pickup a 9.36 per cent stake inIndiabulls Infraestate.

The deal was struck at a valua-tion of Rs 2,136 crore, which is at apremium of Rs 555.7 crore to theprice of Rs 1,580.3 crore paid byIndiabulls to acquire the BharatMills land.-PTI

India Post January 27, 2012www.indiapost.com

Real Estate21

Realty Tidbits

Gurgaon nowlooks to itsperiphery

Gurgaon realty has alwaysbeen centered on the Golf

Course road and the M-G road.The attraction offered by theformer is the mixed development ofhigh specifications both in the resi-dential and commercial segmentwhile the latter has been popularon account of the malls and alsofor its connectivity to the NH-8.

With saturation setting in alongthese locations, developers havenow focused their attention on theGolf Course Extension Road andthe Northern Peripheral Road. Inearly 2008, prices were in the rangeof Rs 3,000 a square foot. That hasrisen since then and today,projects command a price of Rs6,000 and above per sq ft.

Flat owners allegeproject delay byJaypee

NEW DELHI: About 150 flatbuyers in Jaypee Group's well-known 'Wish Town' housingproject in Noida has alleged thatthe builder has delayed comple-tion of the project causing themfinancial burden.

The buyers who booked theirflats in 2007 and early 2008 in fourprojects - Kalypso Court, ImperialCourt, Pavilion Court and PavilionHeights - have formed an associa-tion 'Jaypee Wish Town Flat Own-ers Association' (JPWTFOA) toexert pressure on the builder forearly delivery of their flats.

'Green' touch for affordable housing

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has de-cided in principle to support affordable housing in

the Rs 5-7 lakh range for the Indian lower-middle andless-affluent segments.

IFC, which has embarked on a major initiative in thehousing finance sector in India for the first time, is look-ing at supporting mass housing and 'truly affordable hous-ing'. Dovetailed with this initiative will be efforts to keepthe housing projects that it will support in line with appro-priate green building initiatives - environment-friendly,energy, water and other resources-efficient structures.

NRIs too can avail home loansNRIs too can avail home

loans for purchase of resi-dential property. They can

purchase a house and can eventake loan for self-construction ona plot and also for renovation/im-provement of an existing residen-tial property in India.

Like resident Indians, NRIs canavail up to 80-85 per cent of thecost of residential property as ahome loan. However, the downpayment should be directly remit-ted from abroad through normalbanking channels or from non-resi-dent external (NRE) account and/or non-resident (ordinary) (NRO)account in India. EMI paymentstoo should be remitted from anyof these accounts.

In the case of NRIs, however,there is a stress on certain pre-req-uisites such as qualifications, cur-rent job profile, past experience,probability of continuing abroadfor the loan tenure and probabil-ity of servicing the loan with anextended tenure in case of returnto India. The Loan-To-Value (LTV)

ratio for NRI customers variesfrom one bank to another, thoughthe manner of calculation is thesame in case of a regular home loan.

The income taken into accountfor calculating the home loan eli-gibility is the repatriable incomeplus any income in India. For NRIsworking in countries that restrictrepatriation such as African coun-tries, only the repatriable portion

of the income is considered forcalculating loan eligibility.

Though the regular home loantenures can be up to 25 years, loantenure for NRIs is normally 10-15years. Along with the standarddocuments required for a homeloan, NRIs need some additionaldocuments such as the appoint-ment letter and contract, labor card(if employed in the Middle East),

salary certificate, bank statementsand income tax returns filed in thecountry of residence.

Loan eligibility can be en-hanced by taking a joint loan withrelatives. However, for certain rea-sons banks allow only a select listof relatives to be joint owners ofthe property.

It is important that NRI providesGeneral Power of Attorney (POA)in favor of a trustworthy relativeas per the draft of the Bank whichshould be duly attested by theIndian consulate in the country ofresidence. In case the loan bor-rower is in India, the POA can belocally notarized. Most banks re-quire the POA to ease the processof dealing with the NRI borrower.The POA holder only gets thepowers that you give and does nothave the power of dealing with theproperty.

Like resident Indians there arecertain tax benefits too for NRIson interest payments which canbe useful if they have any taxableincome in India.

Mangalore real estatedevelopers seek fundsThe real estate developers'

body in Mangalore hasurged bankers not to com-

pare them with developers in megacities while extending funds tothem.

Speaking at the inauguration ofa home loan fest, organized by theState Bank of India (SBI) here, MrP.M.A. Razak, Chairman ofMangalore chapter of CREDAI(Confederation of Real Estate De-velopers' Association of India), saidloan sanctions are not materializ-ing because bankers compare themwith their counterparts in metros.

Stating that NPAs or sub-stan-dard assets are unlikely in Tier-2and Tier-3 centers in the country,he said a major portion of thepresent NPAs in real estate sectoris by a handful of big developersin the metros.

He said a major portion of thelocal economy in Mangalore isdriven by the real estate sector, asthe city lacks mega industries andinvestments in IT (information tech-nology) sector. More than 65 percent of jobs for un-skilled workers

in the region are generated by thereal estate sector, he said.

In such a situation, banksshould help the real estate sectorby extending adequate funds tothem, Mr Razak said.

Inaugurating the fest, the

Karnataka Minister for Ports, MrKrishna Palemar, said home loanand car loan 'utsavs' like thiswould help customers own theirdream house/car. Added to this,such loans will also help boost thegrowth of the city.

Stating that NPAs orsub-standard assetsare unlikely in Tier-2and Tier-3 centers inthe country, he saida major portion of thepresent NPAs in realestate sector is by ahandful of big devel-opers in the metros

Negative outlook onIndian real estate

NEW DELHI: Rating agencyFitch has assigned a negative out-look to the real estate sector forthis year due to weak demand andhigh cost of construction.

"Fitch Ratings says it has anegative outlook for the Indianreal estate sector in 2012 due toweak overall demand and higherconstruction costs, which arelikely to continue to squeeze mar-gins," the agency said in its re-port '2012 Outlook: India Real Es-tate Sector'.

It said high equated monthlyinstallments, resulting from sig-nificantly higher interest rates,besides lower household surplusdue to high inflation and high resi-dential unit prices, have reducedaffordability for properties.

"Both material and labor costsincreased during 2011.

Residential segment sales,which had improved in Q1 of 2011,moderated significantly and arelikely to continue at the lower lev-els during the first half of 2012,"Fitch said.

The report said that oversup-ply of commercial space contin-ues in some markets.

"However, the demand for of-fice space is likely to be main-tained at 2011 levels as the hiringmomentum of the IT/ITeS sector,the major driver of office space inIndia, continues in 2012.

Demand for retail commercialspace is expected to be low in2012," Fitch said.

According to Fitch the debt-equity ratio of most real estatecompanies continued to increasein the second half of last year.

"On the other hand, decliningprofits resulted in leverage (debtto EBITDA) at high levels in2011... and this is expected to con-tinue in 2012, negatively impact-ing the creditworthiness of realestate companies," the reportsaid.

Fitch added that the depen-dence of realty firms on opera-tional cash flows to fund growthand service debt is likely to in-crease. -PTI

22 India Post Real Estate Post January 27, 2012

www.indiapost.com

The company pro-vides holistic andtailor-made financialplanning for individu-als having annualincome of over Rs 20lakh, she said

Supertech to invest Rs 2,250 cron housing project

NEW DELHI: Real estate com-pany Supertech has said it will in-vest Rs 2,250 crore to develop aluxury housing project in Noidaand has roped in Twinkle Khanna,former film actress, as the interiordesigner.

The Noida-based company willdevelop 650 flats in 'ORB' project,a part of 50-acre integrated town-ship 'Capetown'.

"We are launching three tow-ers which are circular in shape atan initial price between Rs 1.5 croreand Rs 2.5 crore. The total projectcost is estimated at Rs 2,250 crore,"Supertech Chairman and Manag-ing Director R K Arora told report-ers here.

"Twinkle Khanna has designedthis project and she is master inthis field," he added.

The project has been designedin a way to create maximum inte-rior space and the circular shapeof towers would provide uninter-rupted supply of air and 180 de-gree view.

The investment would befunded through debt and internalaccrual, Arora said, adding that theconstruction has started andwould be completed in the next 42

months.Addressing the conference,

Khanna said, "We are creating aglobal contemporary modernhomes with absolute unique de-sign."

It is a blend of four things --space, structure, color balance andunexpected element, she added.

"Twinkle Khanna hasdesigned this projectand she is master inthis field."The projecthas been designedin a way to createmaximuminterior space

Sobha Developers launchestwo projects in Chennai

CHENNAI: Bangalore-head-quartered Sobha Developers hasannounced its foray into Chennairesidential market by launchingtwo ventures with a combinedproject size of over Rs 400 crore.

Company Managing Director JC Sharma announced the launchof Sobha Merrita and Sobha Se-

rene at Kelambakkam and Porur onthe city outskirts respectively.

This was the second residentialproject by the developer in the stateafter its projects in Coimbatorethough the company was execut-ing "contractual projects" for ITfirms Infosys and Dell in Chennai,he told reporters here.

Coming up over six acres with

various amenities, Sobha Merittahad a project size of Rs 300 crore,TP Sanjaya Sarathy, Regional Di-rector of the firm said.

He added that Serene was of aproject size of Rs 120 crore andcoming up at Porur over 3.15acres. There was "overwhelmingresponse to the soft launch and

good buyer interest," he said add-ing the company was looking atimplementing various projects, in-cluding Villas in Chennai.

A company release said SobhaDevelopers had completed 73 realestate and contractual projects asof September 30, 2011 with a totaldeveloped area of 47.37 millionsq.ft. -PTI

Mr J.C. Sharma, Managing

Director, Sobha Developers

This was the secondresidential project by thedeveloper in the stateafter its projects inCoimbatore though thecompany was executing"contractual projects"for IT firms

Ameriprise sets up officesin Delhi, Mumbai

NEW DELHI: Ameriprise Finan-cial Inc, the US-based financialplanning solutions provider, hasbegun operations in India.

Ameriprise India Private Ltd,Indian subsidiary of AmeripriseFinancial has set up offices inDelhi and Mumbai and plans toexpand its reach to other metrosin the future.

"With the 34 per cent savingsrate, India offers great opportunityin the space of financial planning,"Ameriprise Financial president (fi-nancial planning and wealth strat-egies) Kim M Sharan said.

The company provides holis-tic and tailor-made financial plan-ning for individuals having annualincome of over Rs 20 lakh, she said.

The USP of the company is goingto be comprehensive unbiased ad-

vice at competitive fee through thewell-trained advisors, she added.

Ameriprise India Private Ltd

Chairman Bimal I Gandhi said,"The company will provide a per-sonalized financial plan that exam-

ines cash flow, liabilities, insur-ance and investment needs."

The company has already gotinsurance brokerage license frominsurance regulator IRDA.

"For other products such asequity, real estate and tax, we arein the process of tying up with dis-tributors," he said.

"We have two revenuestreams? fee and commissions.Our model is not transaction-based but advisory based. How-ever, we do implement the finan-cial plans and we make full disclo-sure regarding commissions thatwe get from products," he said.

Ameriprise Financial, a Fortune500 company, manages assets ofover USD 600 billion through itsmutual funds and life insurancecompanies in US and Europe. -PTI

Khanna said she has been inthis business for last 10 years andhas no plans to return toBollywood. "I have worked withmany developers and hospitalitychains like Marriott and done a lotof homes for Bollywood stars."

Asked whether she has saidgoodbye to Bollywood, Khannaquipped "I think so". -PTI

DLF's KP Singh tells his life storyHaving cheated death on

five occasions, switchedalmost overnight from the

rural backwaters of Uttar Pradeshto being chauffeured around in aRolls-Royce, rubbed shoulderswith the English high society andalmost married into it - but fate in-tervened and sent me back to In-dia and to a cavalry regiment ofthe Indian Army."

On that racy note, DLF Chair-man K.P.Singh plunges into a nar-rative about his life in his autobi-ography 'Whatever The Odds: TheIncredible Story Behind DLF'.

The book comes at a time whenland acquisition issues are underintense public scrutiny and farm-ers' agitations have led to the craft-ing of a new land acquisitionpolicy. But, controversies aside,the book offers a first-hand ac-count of how a real estate barongrappled with a maze of archaiclaws and town planning norms,persuaded lawmakers to changesome obsolete ones, and went onto build, brick-by-brick, what istoday India's largest real estatecompany.

The book is punctuated withgripping anecdotes on the decid-ing moments in Singh's life and theturning points both on his profes-sional and personal fronts. Thebook documents the journey ofDLF, its early setbacks, the happymilestones and the constant battlefor survival. Singh reveals howhis father-in-law, ChaudhryRaghvendra Singh, pained bythe slow progress of his realestate venture, had almost closedDLF down after private sector de-

velopers were forced out of thebusiness of urban land develop-ment because of Government regu-lations.

In 1975, nudged by ChaudhrySaheb, Singh himself came closeto selling shares in DLF but thenquickly decided against it, afterbeing advised by two DLF loyal-ists.

"It was January 1975. I pickedup my pen to sign a share transferform. I was about to sell all myshares in DLF. On the desk before

me was a cheque in my favor forRs 26 lakh…It was the amount Iwould get for severing my linkswith DLF forever," he writes.

The flow and rhythm of the nar-rative offers readers a glimpse ofSingh's persona as a businessman,a doting husband, a loving father,and a devoted son. And it under-lines his versatility. Singh admitsthere were times when he wouldstart his day chasing different lev-

els of bureaucracy to navigatecomplex regulations and laws, anda few hours later, with equal ease,trudge the dusty lanes of Haryanavillages to share a meal with thefarmers.

He would chat with them in thelocal dialect, in an attempt to per-suade them to sell land. The sameafternoon, he would play golf withthe elite before dressing up fordinner with the global CEOs.

That said, the journey from therural belt of Uttar Pradesh all theway to the billionaire club was notan easy one for Singh. He de-scribes how Bansi Lal, an influen-tial politician and then Union De-fense Minister, unleashed a relent-less campaign to destroy his com-pany. Singh admits that Bansi Lalmanaged to keep the company incheck for almost 20 years, from1970s to the 1990s.

From the difficult decisions tothe most daunting personal mo-ments, the book has it all. Singhtalks with emotion about his wifeIndira's miraculous escape after achopper crash in the hills ofMussoorie in December 2000 andher subsequent battle with smallcell lung cancer. "Indira was thewind beneath my wings," he says.

Between the covers, Singh alsotalks of his own near-death expe-riences. Woven subtly into this322-page narrative is Singh's man-tra for success: doing thoroughgroundwork and background re-search before crucial meetings;building long-term relationshipsand maintaining them; dreamingbig; and never losing sight of thegoals even in the toughest of times.

KP Singh

23India PostReal Estate PostJanuary 27, 2012

www.indiapost.com

Finally, flat buyers will also be owners

Delhi, Mumbai slip inAPAC realty rankings

NEW DELHI: To ensure that apartmentbuyers do not have to struggle to sell theirproperty, obtain loan on it or leave it to theirchildren as legally recognized legacy, theDelhi High Court has set the ball rolling toguarantee buyers "exclusive ownershiprights".

A bench headed by Acting Chief JusticeA K Sikri has noted that the authorities mustexecute for flat buyers a "deed of apart-ment" as per the Delhi Apartment Owner-ship Act - which allows "heritable right".

The court also said it was "unfortunate"that despite a 2010 court ruling and a law inplace, flat-owners had to seek court's helpto hold, use, enjoy, transfer and mortgagetheir flats,

Till now, owners use a power of attorneyto transfer their property as they do not havethe absolute right on an indivisible land.

The deed, as suggested by the High

Court, will also give an owner undividedinterest in the common areas and facilitiesappurtenant to such apartment, besides aright to form own association, membershipon a par with original allottees, voting rightsand right to fix maintenance.

At present, the title of such property restswith the society, making securing bank loanstough. The directive seeks to change this.

In its draft judgment, the court saiddeputy commissioners (DCs) of each dis-trict in Delhi should be given the task of

gathering required information and docu-ments from the owners, builders and gov-ernment agencies to execute deeds of apart-ments.

Justice Sikri, who had passed the 2010judgment, is adjudicating the plea of peti-

tioner O S Bajpai to ensure implementa-tion of the verdict, whereby the land own-ing agencies - L&DO and DDA - wereasked to appoint competent authoritiesin accordance with the Act to register thedeeds.

During the hearings, the court noted thatthe number of such officers appointed wasnot sufficient. The court was not impressedby the authorities plea that execution of thedeed was not possible in cases where pro-moters or builders did not hand out the re-quired documents.

"We are of the view that effective stepshave not been taken so far (as) exploringthe possibility of compelling the promot-ers/builders without the need for filing ofsuits or arbitration proceedings," the courtsaid.

It also took note of the fact that the lawdid not prescribe any penalty for the pro-moters who do not execute the deeds.

The parties in the case have been askedto respond to the draft judgment - the pointsin which were made during the hearings -following which the court's verdict wouldbe made final.

In its draft judgment, the court said deputy commissioners(DCs) of each district in Delhi should be given the task ofgathering required information and documents from theowners, builders and government agencies to executedeeds of apartments

NEW DELHI: Delhi andMumbai have slipped in an Asia-Pacific real estate investment op-portunities list for 2012 owing toeconomic and inflationary issues,says a joint report by the UrbanLand Institute (ULI) and PwC.

The report, titled, 'EmergingTrends in Real Estate Asia-Pacific2012', found Delhi and Mumbaidropped from fifth and third placein last year's list of real estate in-vestment prospects to 12th and15th position, respectively, in 2012.

However, Bangalore maintainedits position as the 10th most fa-vored investment destination inthe Asia-Pacific real estate space.

"Bangalore continues to be astable play. It never crashed whenthe sub-prime crisis hit and it didn'trocket up even when the marketswere doing well in 2006-07. It's avery organic, growth-driven mar-ket," the report noted.

In terms of development pros-pects, Bangalore gained two po-sitions to rank seventh in 2012,while Mumbai dropped dramati-cally from first to 10th place andDelhi fell from second to 13th place.

The report said vacancy ratesare likely to remain stable inMumbai in 2012. Furthermore,while absorption will be positiveagain, rental values remain ques-tionable, as economic and infla-tionary issues linger.

About Delhi, the report said,"Inflation has continued to spikecosts and it may not be economi-cally feasible to build there... On-going funding problems do pro-vide investment opportunities forprivate equity investors."

The report said, "India'seconomy continues to produce thesecond-fastest growing gross do-

mestic product in the Asia-Pacificregion, just behind China, but de-velopers face great difficulty rais-ing capital through the nation'sbanking system."

"Within the country, invest-ment prospects are brightest forBangalore; however, respondentsnoted concern about the economyin general. Rankings plummetedfor New Delhi and Mumbai, bothaffected by inflation concerns," itadded.

Meanwhile on the Asia-Pacificlevel, Singapore and Shanghaihave retained their first and sec-ond ranking, respectively, as prop-erty investment hotbeds.

Sydney replaced Mumbai asthe third-most preferred destina-tion, followed by the fast-growingChinese city of Chongqing andBeijing.

In the development category,Shanghai bagged third rank, fol-lowed by Chongqing, Beijing andJakarta. -PTI

Slow down may hit Realty sectorDemand for commercial

space has declined in thecountry with a slowdown

in economic growth. This clearlysuggests that creation of fresh jobwill take a hit, which, in turn, willimpact the demand for residentialspace.

In a report, CB Richard Ellissays that with a weak globaleconomy and slowing of eco-nomic growth on the domesticfront, the Indian office market isexpected to navigate choppy wa-ters for the next few quarters.

"The IT / ITeS segment is ex-pected to witness supply pres-sures, with demand not being ableto match new supply addition,which might have an adverse im-pact on rental values in this seg-ment," the report says.

Absorption figures wentthrough a decline in 2011. The re-port says the prevailing marketconditions led to an approximate12% decline in overall absorptionof office space in leading cities ofthe country, in 2011. According tothe findings of the report, approxi-mately 28 million sq ft of prime of-fice space was absorbed in 2011,against 32 million sq ft in 2010,across key cities. The October-December quarter witnessed ab-sorption of almost 6.5 million sq ftof office space across leading cit-ies in the country, compared tonearly 5 million sq ft in the previ-ous quarter. Bangalore, the NCR(National Capital Region), Chennaiand Hyderabad were the leadingcities accounting for almost 80%of the entire space getting ab-sorbed in the country.

Anshuman Magazine, the man-aging director of CB Richard Ellis,South Asia, says the subduedsentiment was indicative of alarger scenario of uncertainty

within the corporate sector, in In-dia and in the global market, whichimpacted demand. The reduceddemand for office space due toeconomic downturn led to an in-creased accumulation of vacantspace. The condition forced de-

velopers to postpone the con-struction of office space which ledto a decline in supply addition in2011.

The report says that supplyaddition in leading Indian cities

declined sharply, by almost 50%,touching about 30 million sq ft in2011, compared to more than 55million sq ft added in 2010.

While the NCR and Bangaloreled supply addition, most citieswitnessed a drop in the number ofcompleted projects, with delays onaccount of rising vacancy levelsand appreciating input costs im-pacting construction timelines,especially in the last two quartersof 2011, the report says.

"The tight liquidity situation,high interest costs and uncertaindemand were deterrents for devel-opers to construct. It would besafe to say that this sentimentwould remain, till the global andthe Indian economic situation sta-bilizes," Magazine says.

Gurgaon continued to be thehub of office transaction activityin the NCR, with an addition of al-most 1.2 million sq ft of Grade Asupply, largely in the commercialand IT/ITeS segments. Almost5,20,000 sq ft of commercial stockwas added to the market.

SEZ pace continued to attractoccupier interest, with approxi-mately 5,00,000 sq ft office spacegetting leased.

The report says theprevailing marketconditions led to anapproximate 12%decline in overallabsorption of officespace in leadingcities of the country,in 2011

"Bangalore continuesto be a stable play. Itnever crashed whenthe sub-prime crisishit and it didn't rocketup even when themarkets were doingwell in 2006-07. It's avery organic, growth-driven market," thereport noted

www.indiapost.com24 India Post January 27, 2012

MUMBAI: Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey's first dayin Mumbai turned out to be a star- studded extravaganzawith the creme de la creme of Mumbai making an appear-ance to welcome her in the city.

Within few hours of arriving in Mumbai, Oprah headedtowards the Bachchan residence, perhaps to meet the newarrival in the Bachchan family. After spending an hour there,superstar Amitabh Bachchan himself drove the lady to aprivate party hosted in her honor by acclaimed Indian so-

cialite Parmeshwar Godrej.Clad in a beautiful orange saree, believed to be gifted

and then draped by Aishwarya, Oprah was accompaniedby the entire Bachchan clan including son Abhishek andmother Jaya.

The party saw almost every big celebrity of tinsel townincluding Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Priety Zinta,Lara Dutta, Shilpa Shetty, Anil Kapoor, Imran Khan, NehaDhupia, Sameera Reddy, Hrithik Roshan, Kangna Ranaut,

Dino Morea, Ashutosh Gowariker, JavedAkhtar along with wife Shabana Azmi andchildren Farhan and Zoya Akhtar, ArjunRampal among others.

Also present were novelist Shobha De,business tycoon Anil Ambani along withwife Tina Ambani and jewelry designer FarahKhan Ali etc.

"The gracious Oprah Winfrey visitsour home, to meet us and bless thebaby...warm hearted, endearing...drive herto the party in her honor. And Oprah insari..looking lovely!!," Amitabh Bachchanwrote on twitter.

Mom-to-be Lara Dutta went one step ahead and evenposted a picture of her along with Shahrukh Khan andOprah. She tweeted "@Oprah and @iamsrk, two people Iabsolutely adore! Thankyou for making my day! Now cango into labour happily!,"

"Tonight was dinner at the Godrej House with OprahWinfrey . Nice to see her wear a beautiful Sari. Also nice tosee Ash out after so long!," said Priety Zinta.

Shobha De in her ever so sarcastic style tweeted, "Oprahconquers Mumbai! SRK tells her she is the biggest star inIndia. Country's A-list queues up for pics with sari-cladceleb.O is WOW!".

Cont’d on page 25

“The gracious Oprah Winfrey visitsour home, to meet us and bless thebaby...warm hearted, endearing...drive her to the party in her honor.And Oprah in sari..looking lovely!!”

January 27, 2012 India Post

www.indiapost.com

25

A whodunit and the tale of contemporary Afghanistan

SRIREKHA CHAKRAVARTY

It's one thing to spin off a fic-tional story set against a historical backdrop but quite an-

other to fictionalize life in a con-temporary war zone. You see, itleaves little scope for imaginationto run wild. But author RajeshTalwar makes it harder on himselfby donning a reporter's cap to givea unique if not a factual perspec-tive on war ravaged Afghanistanin his latest book "An AfghanWinter" unraveling as he does, amurder mystery that keeps oneturning the pages.

Anzan Safri is an Indo-Tibetanjournalist based in Dubai who

lands in Kabul to train local jour-nalists. Unwittingly, however, hefinds himself embroiled in a surrealmurder of an American army officerand sets about to find the killer(s).For an American in Afghanistanthere is no dearth of enemies, thepossibilities ranging from the AlQaeda, Taliban, the army, vested in-terests and mercenaries, to thescores of innocent civilians whoare dismissed off as collateral dam-

age by violence seekers.Anzan's friend and US Army of-

ficer, Michael, has been murderedin a bomb attack. There are threepotential suspects - the EnglishmanGreg West who worked withMicahel in the ammunitions depot;the German Kurt Kainzer, a pedo-phile who ran a charity as a front;and the Iranian head of a media or-ganization, Mansour Hashimi.

The protagonist's keen deduc-tive instincts and easy-going na-ture bring him into contact withmany mundane yet interesting

characters. There are charactersthat give the feel of the connect-edness of the sub-continent andthere are the perfunctory love-in-terests, who, if it were a movie,would be considered eye-candy.

As he investigates, Anzan trav-els north and south of the coun-try, risking his own life throughundulating and unapologetic ter-rain where if bombs or landmineslaid out by terrorists do not kill

you, then you could get killed byso much as just sneezing as youpass by the automatic weapons ofmoving American convoys.

But then, it's not the quaint who-dunit that keeps you riveted - it's thestories of ordinary Afghans, their frail-ties, strengths and complexities asthey struggle to lead a life of quietdignity in the face of foreign occu-pying forces, fundamentalists, mer-cenaries, and unscrupulouswesterners that tug at your heart.

What you don't get is hyperboleand overstatement that fiction writ-ers may sometimes fall victim to.With brevity as his essential style,

Talwar manages an almost objec-tive reportage of scenes as if com-ing straight from a reporter's notes.What you get is - although nothighly sophisticated - a fast-pacednarrative with contemporary rel-evance and a political dimension.

Although fictional, Talwar'scharacters seem as real as the ac-

tual locations and situations de-scribed. Much as you sense thethird world squalor in a survivingcity like Kabul, you get a feel of themade-for-foreigners-only opulencein its hotels and restaurants, thesights, sounds and smells of localbazaars as also the warm hospital-ity of the tradition-bound Afghans.

But then, the author has hadthe advantage of getting a ring-side view of the country as a warzone veteran and United Nations

BOOK REVIEW

staff member who spent yearsworking in Afghanistan.

Having studied at Delhi Univer-sity and Nottingham, he practicedlaw for many years and hasworked for the United Nations inSomalia, Liberia, Kosovo, Timor-Leste and Afghanistan.

Talwar, who has written a dozenodd books ranging from novels,plays, children's books to 'how to'guide books on divorce law andchoosing a lawyer, believes hisyears spent as a diplomat in Af-ghanistan contribute to theunique plot of An Afghan Winter.

He believes that his book givesreaders an accurate, informativeand entertaining window into Af-ghanistan life. "By combining thedistinctive location of Afghani-stan and making the narrator halfTibetan, there is an unparalleleddimension and non-stereotypicalviewpoint to the tale in an exoticlocation," Talwar says.

If you have ever watched im-ages of Afghanistan on televisionand wondered who those facelesspeople are that live through all thatdeath and destruction and theirdynamics with the people whocause that destruction and thosewho bring those images to you,read An Afghan Winter. It tells youthe stories behind at least some ofthose faces.

An Afghan Winter is availablefor sale online at Amazon.comand other channels.

Author Rajesh Talwar

"Butterflies in my stomach as Iget ready to meet my inspiration@Oprah. Did not feel this wayeven when I met my first boyfriendhaha," jewelery designer FarahKhan Ali tweeted.

On the other hand, the 'lady infocus' tweeted, "@FarahKhanAliwas so great meeting you and allthe beautiful Bollywooders. Direc-tors, poets, screenwriters, what anite!" and "@FarahKhanAli justopened your gift..WOW! What afun nite , eh?.

The next day Winfrey toured aslum in the Colaba neighborhoodclose to the Taj Palace hotel whereshe is staying. This visit was anendeavor to get a broad view ofall facets of the country.

The traffic came to a standstilland people gathered to see thelady even though when many ofthem didn't know who she actu-ally was.

She was taken around by Gre-gory David Roberts, the Australianauthor best known for his novelShantaram in which he talks about

Oprah meets Bollywoodthe tumultuous life in Mumbai.

Oprah is in India for her newshow 'Oprah's Next Chapter' inwhich she would travel around theworld, interviewing celebrities,news-makers and others.

In India, she would interviewthe internationally acclaimedwriter and public speaker and spiri-tual guru Dr. Deepak Chopra. Ap-parently, a part of her show wouldbe shot at Taj Mahal and Agra Fort.

Oprah is also expected to visitthe upcoming Jaipur Literary Fes-tival commencing from Jan 20.

Oprah said she wore a sari forthe first time. Designer QueenieSingh, who was on the exclusiveguest list, reveals, "Oprah wasquite comfortable in the sari, con-sidering she had worn it for thefirst time. She carried it off quiteelegantly. She was so excited tobe in India and had wonderfulthings to say about the country."

Oprah, who mingled with every-one, was seen sampling a few In-dian dishes as well. She gave avote of thanks speech at the endof the party, thanking the hosts

and the people who turned up towelcome her."

Gifted a sariSameera Reddy who was at the

party said, "Oprah was humbleand very down to earth. Shemingled with everyone at the party.She was surrounded by manypeople at the party and I waitedfor my turn to meet her. When wefinally met, the beautiful lime greenShantanu-Nikhil sari that I waswearing caught her attention. Sheexclaimed, 'oh my god! What abeautiful sari! I love the color. It'smy favorite'.

"I offered to get a similar sarifor her but she hesitated, 'no… no,that is not necessary' but I in-sisted. I immediately toldShantanu-Nikhil to design a simi-lar sari. It will be sent to Oprahwhen she is in Agra.

"I also told her that I was veryplump earlier and she inspired meto lose weight. She couldn't be-lieve it and said that I looked gor-geous! My day was made. I'd sayshe's one of the most humble ce-lebrities I've ever met."

Sunny Leone to playnew-age Helen

Pooja Bhatt has revealed thatshe has signed on SunnyLeone. She says, "Sunny

will play a woman caught in thecrossfire of two men trying to se-duce her and are in turn being se-duced by her. The best part of cast-ing Sunny is that she didn't haveany background of the film or ourbody of work. She responded tomy father's offer with an energythat was spontaneous. However,I will not reveal who that womanis under the sheet in the "Jism 2"poster. Just as no one knows who

the voice of "Bigg Boss" is, let themyth under the sheet remain."

About Sunny's role Pooja says,"It is the story of a girl whoemerges from darkness to light.I've great respect for Sunny be-cause she doesn't sell her profes-sion as one being born out of trag-edy. In the film, she works in theentertainment industry. Sunnyplays a new-age Helen in "Jism 2".Helen was a great combination ofsensuality and grace. One doesn'tget that combination in the so-called item girls of today's cinema.Sunny's character is a combinationof dazzling beauty, intelligenceand vulnerability."

So, will it be Emraan Hashmi orRandeep Hooda opposite Sunny?"By the grace of God, Emraan isdoing very well now. I can't expectthat he will be sitting at home wait-ing for me to sign him on. Besides,I'm not interested in following apattern of Mahesh Bhatt orShagufta writing the lines andEmraan mouthing them. I wantbrand "Jism" and brand "Murder"to be different. I am consideringRandeep for another film."


But then, it's not the quaint whodunit thatkeeps you riveted - it's the stories of ordinaryAfghans, their frailties, strengths and com-plexities as they struggle to lead a life ofquiet dignity

www.indiapost.com January 27, 201226 India

Goa is the most popular touristplace of India. "The pearl ofthe east" is known for its

Gothic churches, crumbling forts,palm-fringed beaches, coconutgroves, ferry rides, bubbly folk mu-sic… the list is endless! With its 131-km-long coastline, Goa is an importantlocale in every tourist's itinerary. Sun,sand and sea being the major attrac-tions, Goa trip is a perfect heaven forthe ones who need and want relax-ation. Goa Beach Resorts always addto the fun. Christian pilgrimage toursto Goa are extremely popular.

Besides pilgrimages Goa is famousfor honeymoons, specially the honey-moon packages.

Location: Situated on the westerncoastline of India, the Union Territoryof Goa is sandwiched between thestates of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The capital Panaji is at a distance of592 km from Bangalore and 593 km fromMumbai. The waters of the Arabian Seawash the coastline of Goa. It is splitinto two districts - North Goa and SouthGoa. North Goa includes the city ofPanjim, the former capital of Old Goa,Fort Aguada and Candolim, Chapora,Vagator, and the beaches Calangute,Anjuna, and Baga. South Goa includesVasco da Gama Bogmalo, Margao,Colva and Benolem.

Being near to the sea, Goa enjoys amaritime climate, with April and Maybeing very hot. The Goa Beach Resortssituated on the beach ides are the bestway to enjoy Goa. Christian Pilgrim-age tours to Goa are usually taken uparound Christmas and New Year.

Best time to visit is October to MayHistory: Goa has been a key desti-

nation for Christian pilgrimage toursin India. Goa was a part of the MauryanEmpire, around 3rd century BC.

Goa is the most populartourist place of India.

"The pearl of the east" isknown for its Gothic

churches, crumbling forts,palm-fringed beaches,coconut groves, ferry

rides, bubbly folk music

Cont’d on page 28

India PostJanuary 27, 2012 27Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

International Circus Festivalin Monaco

Monaco International Cir-cus Festival 2012 willhost the first circus com-

petition for young artistes on 4thand 5th February in Monaco. This"new generation" festival is aunique competition for youngartistes, to be held in a real cir-cus ring, the ring of the Mo-naco International Circus Fes-tival.

Prince Rainier III created theInternational Circus Festival ofMonte Carlo in 1974 to providesupport to the art he loved theCircus, and especially to thefamilies of Cirque. In this spirit,the Organizing Committee hasdecided to give birth to a newInternational Festival for YoungArtists under the HonoraryPresidency of HSH PrincessStephanie and together with hiseldest daughter, Pauline, Presi-dent of the Jury.

The "new generation" festi-val will showcase the sheer tal-ent of artistes like Piste d'Azur Cir-cus School (France), MonacoFemina Sports team, gymnasticacrobats (Monaco), and many

more.Clowns, tightrope walkers, ac-

robats, magicians and animals willappear before an international juryto win the junior gold, the junior

silver or junior bronze on Satur-day 4th February at 3pm and 8pmand Sunday 5th February at 3pmat the Chapiteau De Fontvieille

(Fontvielle Big Top) in Monaco.About Monaco:Monaco is one of the world's

most desirable destinations withover 300 days of sunshine a yearand mild temperatures, it cel-ebrates with enthusiasm the arts,culture, sumptuous cuisine, spas,beautiful surroundings, spectacu-lar landscapes and high-adrena-line activities like the Formula OneGrand Prix, casino gaming, landand water sports and excitingnightlife.

According to a press release,tourists will be more than happyenjoying luxurious accommoda-tion, family restaurants and excep-tional landscape in Monte Carlo.The place is gorgeously clean, thehotels are a marvel, the people arebeautiful and the food is delicious.There are wonderful restaurants,shops, attractions, coast, nightlife,sports facilities and culture allwithin walking distance. You canhave a fulfilling romantic experi-ence with the world class spas, setin gorgeous surroundings and of-fering a variety of therapies andtreatments from around the world.

Sound and light shows at20 centres across India

KANYAKUMARI (TN): Soundand light shows at tourist centers,such as the one set to come up atthe Poombuhaar Shipping Corpo-ration here, will be arranged in 20locations across the country, In-dia Tourism Development Corpo-ration (ITDC) Chairman Lalith KPanwar said.

Arrangements for the show,which are being made by the com-bined effort of ITDC and the TamilNadu Tourism Department at thecost of about two crore rupees,would be complete by the end ofthis month, Panwar said after in-specting the venue.

It is planned to implement thesekinds of shows in 20 tourism loca-tions across the country at cen-ters such as Delhi, Jaipur andAndaman and Nicobar islands, hesaid.

The sound and light show wasbeing arranged as the number oftourists visiting Kanyakumari hadbeen increasing day by day andthe show would both entertainand educate them, he said.

Panwar added that the showwould feature, in different lan-guages, the life histories of Swami

Vivekananda, Tamil poet and phi-losopher Tiruvalluvar and the leg-end behind the BhagavathiAmman temple here.

Panwar said that after the ar-

rangements for the show are com-pleted, its management would behanded over to the Tamil Nadugovernment. -PTI

The sound and lightshow was beingarranged as the num-ber of tourists visitingKanyakumari hadbeen increasing dayby day and the showwould both entertainand educate them,he said

India Post January 27, 201228 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Goa: Beaches & churches major attractions The Satvahanas of Kolhapur,

and later the Chalukyas of Badami,took over the governance. Otherdynasties followed, including ashort-lived Muslim invasion, untilthe Vijaynagar Empire establisheditself for almost a century. This era,too, ended with the arrival of theSultans of Gulbarga, from whomthe rule passed on to the Adil Shahof Bijapur. Soon, the Dutch, En-glish, French and Portuguese, allbegan struggling for its posses-sion. Ultimately, in 1510, the Por-tuguese conquered Goa, withAlfonso de Albuquerque leadingthe invasion. Having ruled foraround four centuries, in 1961,fourteen years after the country'sindependence, the Portuguese hadto leave Goa.

Tourist attractionsBeaches and churches are the

key attractions in Goa. Christianpilgrimage tours and Goan Carni-val attract numerous visitors. Inthe local dialect, Goa is often re-ferred to as "Goa Dourada," (mean-ing "Golden Goa") because of itsbeaches, forts, churches, water-falls, seminaries, and caves. Today,Goa Beach Resorts are attractionsin themselves.

"The queen of Indian beaches,"Calangute is a stretch of 7 km.Baga beach is a handy commutingpoint to Anjuna. At a distance of 7km from Panaji is the beach of DonaPaula, which is a good site for re-laxation and sunbathing. At a dis-tance of 6 km from Margao is an-other beach, Colva, which offersgood accommodation.

Calangute, Baga, Candolim,Colva are dominated by packagetourism. Anjuna, the traditional ravecenter is popular with the bag pack-ers. Benaulim falls between hype andhip, and is filled with beach shacksand low-key Goa beach resorts.Arambol in the north and Palolem inthe south are idyllic by nature. Otherfamous beaches include Miramarand Agonda. Goa Beach Resortsalong these beaches in Goa are ex-cellent accommodation options.

The Dudhsagar waterfall andArvalem waterfall attract many

tourists every year. The rock-cutcaves of Khandepar and Arvalemare also worth mentioning. ThePilar monastery, Saligao seminary,and Rachol seminary attract thereligious minded travelers.

While nature has been gener-ous to Goa, man too has contrib-uted a lot to Goa's beauty. Thestrong Roman Catholic commu-

nity, with the active support of theerstwhile Portuguese rulers, hashad a number of churches built inthis picturesque locale. In Panaji,one must visit the church dedi-cated to our Lady of ImmaculateConception, and the Chapel of St.Sebastian. No doubt that ChristianPilgrimage tours to Goa are so

Parasailing on the Calangute beach, Goa.

Taj Hotelís Fort Aguada Beach Resort.

popular. The Goa State Museum,the Secretariat, the statue of AbbeFaria in the capital is a must seefor lovers of art.

The largest of the churches inGoa, the Se Cathedral is in Old Goaand is flocked by thousands oftourists every year. The holyshrine of Basilica of Bom Jesus,also in Old Goa, houses the mortal

remains of St. Francis Xavier. It isa famous pilgrimage center amongthe Roman Catholic world. MostChristian pilgrimage tours includevisits to these churches of Goa.Other famous churches are theConvent and Church of St. Francisof Assisi, Church of St. Cajetan,Church of St. Augustine Ruins,Church and Convent of St.

Monica, Church of Our Lady ofRosary, Chapel of St. Anthony andChapel of St. Catherine-all of whichare in Old Goa. Fort Aguada isworth a visit to savor the nostal-gia of the Portuguese regime, es-pecially in its lighthouse and theAguada jail.

Terekhol Fort in the Arambolbeach has been now converted toa hotel. The Museum of ChristianArt in Rachol Seminary and churchand the Braganza House nearMargao are also worth a visit.

Besides these, to get a glimpseof the Hindu population in Goa,one has to visit Ponda. The KerkarArt Complex in south Calangute isalso an important tourist center.The Wednesday flea market atAnjuna is an important tradingcenter for handicrafts from Kash-mir to Gujarat.

Fairs & festivalsBeing a predominantly Roman

Catholic society, most of the festi-vals of Goa are Christianity-spe-cific. Feast days, thanksgiving,monsoon celebrations, proces-sions-all mark the Goanese calen-

dar. Shigmo, the Goanese versionof Holi, is celebrated in the monthof February and March. The Feastof Our Lady of Miracles, celebrated16 days after the Easter, is secularby nature and is celebrated withpomp and show by both Hindusand Christians.

Igitun Chalne, held at Sirigaotemple in Bicholim during May, is

one of Goa's most distinctive fes-tivals. The main attraction of thefestival comes when devotees ofGoddess Lairaya walk across burn-ing coals to prove their devotion.The Feast of St. Anthony in themonth of June is also significant asit marks the beginning of monsoon.Besides such religious festivals,Goa is also known for its arts andcrafts fairs, and food festivals.

How to reachAir - Goa's international airport

is Dabolim, at a distance of 29 kmfrom Panaji, on the coast near Vascoda Gama. Most domestic airlinesoperate here apart from the char-tered private airlines operating fromUK and Germany. Getting roundthe place is quite easy. Several ferryservices are also available

Rail-The major railway stationsin Goa are Margao and Vasco-da-gama. These stations are in theKonkan railway line and are wellconnected to Mumbai.

Road-Kadamba bus stand ofPanaji is the main bus station. Thestate owned bus services of Goa,Maharashtra and Karnataka operate

from this station. These buses con-nect cities in Goa to in and out of thestate Goa. Super deluxe A/C busesare available from Mumbai (580 km)and from Bangalore (650 km).

Sea- Shipping services fromMumbai to Panaji are available.Vacation cruises are offered bysome tourist companies for enjoy-ing the marine life of Goa.

The Dudhsagar water-fall and Arvalemwaterfall attract manytourists every year.The rock-cut caves ofKhandepar andArvalem are alsoworth mentioning. ThePilar monastery,Saligao seminary,and Rachol seminaryattract the religiousminded travelers


Indian tourism road shows in Saudi ArabiaNEW DELHI: Aiming at tapping into tour-

ism potential of Saudi Arabia, the TourismMinistry organized road shows in the citiesof Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah there be-tween January 7 and 11.

A strong Indian delegation comprisingofficials from the tourism departments ofJammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra, mem-bers of the Indian Association of Tour Op-erators (IATO), Air India, Jet Airways, TajGroup of Hotels, Medical and Wellness fa-cilities were present to showcase India's

tourist attractions to the Saudi Arabian trav-elers. While the Indian delegation was ledby Union Tourism Secretary RH Khwaja, thestate delegation of Jammu and Kashmir wasled by Minister of Tourism & CultureNawang Rigzin Zora and Minister of Statefor Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani. Ambassa-dor of India Hamid Ali Rao was also presentduring the event in Riyadh.

The road show in the city of Dammam onJanuary 7 witnessed the presence of over154 participants representing the members

of the Travel Trade, Media and opinionmakers of this sector.

During the event held in Riyadh on theJanuary 9, as many as 172 members of thetravel industry and media participated andgot a glimpse of Indian tourism products andits rich cuisine. The final leg of the road showwas held in Jeddah on January 11.

One of the highlights of the road showwas the focus on "Medical & Wellness"Tourism potential of India. India's vast po-tential as a health and wellness tourism des-

tination, backed by its medical facilities andworld-class doctors, staff and hospitals,ancient healing systems such as 'Ayurveda'and other rejuvenating programs wereshow-cased. .

The cost of medical services in India isalmost 30 per cent lower to that in westerncountries and is most cost-effective in theregion. According to travel statistics, 4.5million Saudis representing nearly a quarterof the population, traveled abroad and spentabout USD 33 billion last year. -PTI

India PostJanuary 27, 2012 29Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Switzerland eyes 20% growthin Indian visitors

Thailand authorities claim Bangkok safeBANGKOK: Thailand has

sought to assure foreign touristsabout the safety of its capitalBangkok after an alleged terror plotwas busted and the US and othernations issued warnings of pos-sible attacks in the tourist hotspot.

Yingluck Shinawatra, whowithin months of becoming theThailand's first woman premier,had to deal with the worst floodsin the nation's history and its im-pact on the economy, is now coor-

dinating with security agencies torule out any potential threat to thepopular tourist destination.

Shinawatra said authoritieswould continue to monitor the situ-ation closely and that she had alsoasked the foreign ministry to ex-plain the situation to other coun-tries so that the tourism sector isnot affected.

A Lebanese national, who is asuspected member of theHezbollah militant group, has been

arrested in the wake of terror alerts,authorities said.

The US Embassy in Thailandthrough its website had warned itscitizens that foreign terroristsmight be looking to carry out at-tacks in Bangkok. Few other coun-tries, including Israel and Austra-lia, also issued travel alerts.

Deputy Prime Minister KowitWattana, who is in charge of se-curity affairs, said all security agen-cies were closely watching the situ-

ation and possible terror threats,and assured that the situation wasunder control.

Defense Minister YutthasakSasiprapa said the US and Israelhad informed Thailand on Decem-ber 18 of a report obtained by anIsraeli intelligence unit that mem-bers of a terrorist group wouldtravel to Thailand and might carryout terrorist attacks.

Intelligence units had sincebeen keeping certain individuals

suspected of being Hezbollah mili-tants under watch but there wasno evidence to make any arrests.

Yutthasak said the US, Israeland Thailand initially agreed tohandle the situation secretly incase news leaks scared people inBangkok and affected tourism.

Thai officials were not veryhappy when the US unilaterallyrevealed there might be terroristattacks in the country, as Thailandwas not a terrorist target, he said.

NEW DELHI: Switzerland Tourism saidit is targeting a 20 per cent growth in over-night visitors from India this calendar yearand will make an additional investment of 1million Swiss francs (over Rs 50 crore) tomake it possible.

"Because of stagnation in the key mar-kets, the Swiss government decided to allo-cate more funds to distant markets like In-dia and China to boost tourism," Switzer-land Tourism India MD Michael Maedertold PTI here.

In 2012, the new initiatives and cam-paigns of ST will focus on water and its rolein the lives of Swiss people and it has dedi-cated 2012 to the 'Year of Water'.

"This year, we plan to have 5,50,000 over-nights spent by Indians in Switzerland. In-dia is a very important market for us," headded. Switzerland Tourism is a federal pub-lic corporation. Its mission, as decreed by aFederal Resolution, is to promote Switzer-land as a holiday, travel and conferencedestination, both at home and abroad.

On being asked about the strategies hethought will make this growth possible,Maeder added: "It is quite feasible. Theamount of packages and products we havecan make it happen."

Switzerland tourism is planning majormarketing initiatives targeting travelersacross age groups both through joint mar-keting drives with tour operators in India and

consumer promotion programs, he added.The drive will also see participation by

new partners such as Engadin St. Moritzand the Glacier Express & Bernina Expressrailways, ST said. "Already 22 Swiss sup-pliers are here and after Delhi, they will goto Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad andMumbai to meet the tour operators,"Maeder said.

For consumer promotion, Switzerland

Tourism will undertake billboard campaignsat Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi in March-April, advertising campaigns on leadingchannels and online marketing, he added.

On the growing number of partners fromSwitzerland, Switzerland Tourism IndiaDeputy Director Ritu Sharma said: "It is ex-citing to have new Swiss partners coming toIndia to showcase their products to the trav-elers here. We have almost doubled the num-ber of partners to 22 from 12 last year."-PTI

In 2012, the new initiativesand campaigns of ST willfocus on water and its rolein the lives of Swiss peopleand it has dedicated 2012to the 'Year of Water'

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India Post30 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

January 27, 2012

Ahmedabad to renovate 600-yr-old fortAHMEDABAD: In a bid to pro-

mote heritage based-tourism, theAhmedabad Municipal Corpora-tion (AMC) has finalized an ambi-

tious project to renovate and beau-tify the 600-year-old Bhadra Fortand its adjoining areas in the heartof the city.

AMC, which has already bid forthe UNESCO World heritage sta-tus for the city, signed a memo-randum with the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI) to restorethe splendor of Bhadra Fort builtby the founder of the city, AhmedShah, in 1411 AD.

The project aims to beautifythe half a kilometer stretch fromthe fort where Sultan AhmedShah used to hold his royal courtto the Teen Darwaja in the nexttwo years.

The area between Bhadra Fortand Teen Darwaja will be an ex-clusive pedestrian zone with aspecially designed walkway be-sides various landscape and de-sign elements like fountains,lighting, swanky street furniture,signage and public amenities tobeautify the Bhadra Plaza.

"The entire project aims toboost the heritage tourism in thecity, which is home to many fa-mous monuments of the Mughalera," Municipal Commissioner,Guruprasad Mohapatra told PTI.

The project is being imple-mented under the JawaharlalNehru National Urban RenewalMission (JNNURM), and has

been designed by the CEPT Uni-versity here, he said, adding thatRs 74.39 crore have already beenapproved for it.

The project includes develop-ment of the public plaza and a pe-destrian space from Bhadra Fortto Teen Darwaja, restoration of

the fort itself, development ofAzamkhan Sarai area, a pedes-trian bridge connecting Bhadrafort to the Sabarmati riverfront,and multilevel parking space.

"Work on the public plaza andthe pedestrian space fromBhadra Fort to Teen Darwaja willcommence from January 26 andis likely to be completed within

10-12 months," Mohapatra, said.Once the project is completed

it would become easier for thetourist to know aboutAhmedabad, its history, presentand the future, he added.

When asked about the ven-dors who presently do businesson the stretch between theBhadra fort to Teen Darwaja,Mohapatra said that they wouldbe coming up with a vendor'spolicy soon which would takecare of that issue.

The Bhadra fort once includedroyal palaces and a garden in-side the fort but now houses citycivil and sessions court.

To the east of the fort standsthe triple gateway or TeenDarwaja, from which sultansused to watch processions fromthe palaces to the Jama Masjid.The royal entrance is triplearched and richly carved.

The fort campus has been putto a variety of uses in the past -from a 'musafirkhana' (inn) dur-ing Moghul period and a jail dur-ing British rule. During Maratharule, a temple dedicated to god-dess Bhadra Kali was establishedthere. -PTI

The Bhadra fort onceincluded royal pal-aces and a gardeninside the fort butnow houses city civiland sessions court

IRCTC specialpackage forBuddhist circuit

NEW DELHI: Aiming to wooBuddhist pilgrims, the Indian Rail-way Catering and Tourism Corpo-ration (IRCTC) has announced aspecial tour package for those trav-eling on the Mahaparinirvan Ex-press from January 21.

The Buddhist circuit specialtrain will cover all major Buddhistsites including Bodhgaya,Nalanda, Rajgir, Sarnath, Varanasi,Kushinagar, Sravasti and Agra."Tourists will also have opportu-nity to visit the world famous Bud-dhist site Lumbini in Nepal. -PTI

Leopard rescue centreplanned for Bangalore

BANGALORE: In backdrop ofincreasing number of man-animalconflicts in the state, theKarnataka government plans toestablish a leopard rescue centreat the Bannerghatta National Parkhere, a top forest official said.

Leopards from "vulnerable ar-eas" will be caught with the helpof tranquilizers and shifted to thisproposed centre, Principal Chief

Conservator of Forests and Headof Forest Force A K Varma said,responding to a question on a leop-ard reportedly attacking a man inHassan district few days back.

Varma said the state is also plan-ning to establish "Siri ChandanaVana" (mini sandalwood forests)at 50 to 60 places across the state.

Admitting that the long-pend-ing proposal of an elephant corri-

dor in the state needed to be takenup proactively and aggressively,Varma said the state governmenthas approached the Centre forfunds for the project as it is notpossible to bear the entire esti-mated cost of Rs 500 crore alone.

Varma expressed hope that theCentre will start Elephant Conser-vation Authority on the lines ofTiger Conservation Authority inthe 12th plan and added thatKarnataka will soon come up withan eco-tourism policy and disal-low "uncontrolled tourism." -PTI

January 27, 2012 India Post 31

www.indiapost.com

DatebookNEW YORK

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U p c o m i n g

WASHINGTON DC

Upcoming

Sat Feb 4• Kartik Seshadri-Masters of In-

dian MusicVenue: Peter Norton Symphony Space 2537,Broadway@ 95th Street, New YorkTime: 8pmContact: 212-545-7536

Sat Feb 18• Thyagaraja AradhanaVenue: PS 115, 80-51, 261st Street, Glen Oaks,New YorkTime: 3pmContact: 631-462-2814

Sat April 7• Best of the Best 2012Venue: Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199Chambers Street, New YorkTime: 6:30pm

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAU p c o m i n g

Sat Feb 4• Pongal Vizha-2012Venue: Littleton High School Auditorium, 56King Street, Littleton, MATime: 3pm

Sat April 7• Swar BahaarVenue: Littleton High School Auditorium, 56King Street, Littleton, MATime: 4pmContact: 617-905-4305

Sat April 21• Yamandu Costa, Classical GuitaristVenue: 8000 York Road, Towson MD, Balti-more, WDCTime: 8pmContact: 443-296-2247

Sat Jan 28• Dhol Di Awaaz

Venue: Center of Performing Arts 255 AlmadenBlvd, San Jose, CATime: 6pm

Sat Jan 28• Radio Zindagi and Associa-

tion for Kids and Youth Programs

Presents: 5th Annual India

Republic Day Kids and Youth Cel-

ebrationsVenue: Lake Elizabeth Park .Community Cen-ter , Fremont, CATime: 9am to 12pmContact: 510-378-0698Highlights: Painting Competition: Open fromAge Group 3-14 Theme : India Culture ,IndiaDances ,Music, Religion,Festivals , Nature ,Great Man of India and US and any theme ofYour Choice. Paper Provided , You Bring Col-ors/ Pencils etc. Award/Trophies/Certificatesby age Groups. Public Speaking CompetitionOpen Age Group 5-14, Theme: India Culture,India Dances ,Music, Religion,Festivals , Na-ture , Great People of India and US and anyrelevant theme of Your Choice.

Sun Jan 29• Workshop on Spiritual Practice

of Chanting

Venue: Dublin Library, 200 Civic Plaza,Dublin, CATime: 2pmContact: 408-329-2428

Sat Feb 4ï Teacher Workshop: New Year

Celebrations

Venue: Asian Art Museum 200 Larkin St. SanFrancisco, CATime: 9:30am

Sat Jan 28• Garba with AttitudeVenue: Segerstrom Center of the Arts, 600 TownCenter Drive, 92626Time: 1pmContact: http://www.garbawithattitude.com

Sun Jan 29• ICSC celebrates India Repub-

lic Day

Venue: Rupee Room Cuisine of India, 1170 M.Tustin Ave, Orange, CATime: 7:30pmHighlights: Bhangara & Ras Garba. Guests:Hon. Congressman Ed Royce, Hon. AssemblyMember Tony Mendoza, Hon. Mayor of CypressParkash Narain, Jatin Pandit famus MusicDirector.

Fri Feb 3 to Sat Feb 25• Buddha: Triumph & Tragedy in

The Life of the Great SageVenue: Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd,Los Angeles, CA 90057Time: 7:30pmContact: 800-838-3006Highlights: Written & Performed by EvanBrenner, Directed by John C. Reilly, Presentedby the Bootleg Theater

Sun Feb 05• South Asian Wedding Expo

2012 InformationVenue: Pacific Palms Hotel & Conference Cen-ter, 1 Industry Hills Parkway, CATime: 11amContact: 714-493-7900

Sun Feb 11• Passage Meditation Retreat in

EncinoVenue: Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 LanaiRoad, Encino, CATime: 9amContact: 800-475-2369

Sat Feb 4• Fusion Beats Presents Ladies

Night Out!Venue: Ramada Inn, 999 Route 1 South NorthBrunswick, New JerseyTime: 7pmContact: 732-422-6480

Sat Feb 4• Gujarati Comedy Play- ìVar

Maro Lagne Lagne KuwaroîVenue: Forum Theatre, 314 Main Street,Metuchen, New JerseyTime: 8pmContact: 732-283-0256

Sat March 31• Arif Lohar/Sanam Marvi EnsembleVenue: Pollak Theater, 400 Cedar Ave, WestLong Branch, New JerseyTime: 8pmContact: 732-263-6889

Sat Jan28• 2012 Sankranthi and Republic

Day Celebrations

Venue: Samaradhi Auditorium, Hindu Templeof Greater Chicago (HTGC), Lemont, ILTime: 5pmContact: 630-403-8342Highlights: Registration and MembershipRenewals, Submission of Rangoli Competi-tion, Dinner, Cultural program

Wed March 7• Loves Got a hold on meVenue: Freedom Hall, 410 Lakewood Boule-vard, Park Forest, ILTime: 7pmContact: 312-572-9373

India Post32www.indiapost.com

January 27, 2012

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www.indiapost.com34 India Post January 27, 2012

Health ScienceHealth Line

Indiana student'sTB is drug-resistantstrain

FORT WAYNE, Ind.: Northeast-ern Indiana health officials say aFort Wayne student whose tuber-culosis diagnosis prompted thetesting of nearly 150 classmatesfor the illness has a drug-resistantstrain of the disease.

The Journal Gazette reportsthat testing shows that thestudent's tuberculosis is a virulentstrain that doesn't respond to themost powerful first-line drugs usedto treat the illness.

Fort Wayne-Allen County De-partment of Health departmentspokesman John Silcox said thatit's the first known case ofmultidrug-resistant tuberculosis inAllen County. -AP

Ashland Countyhas 10 whoopingcough cases

ASHLAND, Wis.: AshlandCounty now has 10 cases ofwhooping cough.

Cyndi Zach, the public healthadministrator for the county healthand human services department,says the cases include nine stu-dents in the Ashland School Dis-trict and one adult.

She tells The Daily Press thatfour others are being watched as``suspects'' for whooping cough,or pertussis as it is clinicallyknown.

The first reported case in-volved a student in the AshlandMiddle School in December.

Whooping cough is an ex-tremely contagious bacterial dis-ease that brings on uncontrollable,often violent coughing, which canmake it hard to breathe. -AP

Indian American researcher allegedto have falsified data


NEW YORK: An Indian Ameri-can researcher at the University ofConnecticut Health Center hasbeen found guilty of falsifying andfabricating data of his nearly de-cade long research with regard tothe benefits of resveratrol foundin red wine.

According to UConn Today, acampus publication, an extensiveresearch misconduct investigationhas led the University of Connecti-cut Health Center to send lettersof notification to 11 scientific jour-nals that had published studiesconducted by Dipak K. Das, amember of its faculty.

Das, Ph.D., a professor in theDepartment of Surgery and direc-tor of the Cardiovascular ResearchCenter, was at the center of a far-reaching, three-year investigationprocess that examined more than

seven years of activity in Das'slab, the publication said.

"We have a responsibility tocorrect the scientific record andinform peer researchers across thecountry," Philip Austin, interimvice president for health affairswas quoted as saying.

The investigation was sparkedby an anonymous allegation ofresearch irregularities in 2008.The comprehensive report, whichtotals approximately 60,000pages, concludes that Das is

guilty of 145 counts of fabrica-tion and falsification of data. In-quiries are currently underwayinvolving former members ofDas's lab; no findings have beenissued to date.

As a result of the investigationthe Health Center has frozen all

externally funded research in Das'slaboratory and declined to accept$890,000 in federal grants awardedto him. Dismissal proceedings, inaccordance with the University'sbylaws, are currently underway.

The US Office of Research In-tegrity (ORI) is now reportedlyconducting an independent inves-tigation.

"While we are deeply disap-pointed by the flagrant disregardfor the University's Code ofConduct, we are pleased theoversight systems in place wereeffective and worked as in-tended," Austin said. "We aregrateful that an individual choseto do the right thing by alertingthe appropriate authorities. Ourfindings were the result of anexhaustive investigation that, byits very nature, required consid-erable time to complete.

Das had gained attention in re-cent years for his work into thebeneficial properties of resveratrol,which is found in red wine. He hasbeen employed by the Health Cen-ter since 1984, and was awardedtenure in 1993, UConn Today said.

India reports new TB strain resistant to all drugsMUMBAI: Indian doctors

have reported the country's firstcases of ``totally drug-resistanttuberculosis,'' a long-feared andvirtually untreatable form of thekiller lung disease.

It's not the first time highly resis-tant cases like this have been seen.Since 2003, patients have been docu-mented in Italy and Iran. It hasmostly been limited to impoverishedareas, and has not spread widely.But experts believe there could bemany undocumented cases.

No one expects the Indian TBstrains to rapidly spread elsewhere.The airborne disease is mainlytransmitted through close personalcontact and isn't nearly as conta-gious as the flu. Indeed, most ofthe cases of this kind of TB werenot from person-to-person infec-tion but were mutations that oc-curred in poorly treated patients.

What's more, there's a debatewithin the public health commu-nity about whether to even labelTB infections as totally drug re-sistant. The World Health Orga-nization hasn't accepted the termand still considers the cases to bewhat's now called extensivelydrug-resistant TB, or XDR. How-ever, Dr. Paul Nunn, a coordinator

at the WHO's Stop TB Departmentin Geneva, said there is ampleproof that these virtuallyuntreatable cases do exist.

The Indian hospital that sawthe initial cases tested a dozenmedicines and none of themworked, a pretty comprehensiveassessment. A TB expert at theU.S. Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention said they do ap-pear to be totally resistant to avail-able drugs.

`Ìt is concerning,'' said Dr.Kenneth Castro, director of theCDC's Division of TuberculosisElimination. `Ànytime we seesomething like this, we better geton top of it before it becomes amore widespread problem.''

Ordinary TB is easily cured bytaking antibiotics for six to ninemonths. However, if that treat-ment is interrupted or the dose iscut down, the stubborn bacteria

battle back and mutate into atougher strain that can no longerbe killed by standard drugs. Thedisease becomes harder and moreexpensive to treat.

In India, doctors in Mumbaihave reported a total of 12 patientswho failed initial treatment andalso didn't respond to the medi-cines tried next over an average

of two to three years. Three havedied. None of the others have beensuccessfully treated.

The doctors detailed the firstfour cases in a letter to a U.S. medi-cal journal last month, blamingprivate doctors for prescribinginappropriate drug plans thatsparked greater resistance in threeof those four patients.

``These three patients had re-ceived erratic, unsupervised sec-ond-line drugs, added individuallyand often in incorrect doses, frommultiple private practitioners,''

wrote the doctors from P.D. HindujaNational Hospital and Medical Re-search Center in the journal ClinicalInfectious Diseases.

One of the doctors, ZarirUdwadia, in a phone interview,said there is little hope for the sur-viving nine patients, all poor slumdwellers living in the community.He said he has detected one caseof a mother passing the strain to adaughter living in close quarters.One of the patients was also in-fected with HIV, which typicallyresults in faster death.

Udwadia criticized the testingand treatment methods of the In-dian government's TB program,which he says forces patients toturn to private doctors, many ofwhom do not understand how toproperly treat TB or the risks ofincreasing drug resistance by pre-scribing the wrong drugs.

`Ìt was a given that this wouldhappen,'' Udwadia said. ``Theyhave had no help from the IndianTB system. They are the untouch-ables, so no one is making a fuss.They don't have the power to vo-calize. There's going to be morefamily contacts. It's going tospread for sure.''

Cont’d on page 37

Radioactive tissueboxes removedfrom NY stores

ALBANY, NY: New York HealthCommissioner Nirav Shah says 12decorative metal tissue boxescontaminated with radioactivematerial have been removed fromfour Bed, Bath and Beyond storesin the state.

The retail chain says no otherstores in New York had the item,called Double Ridge Boutique.

Shah says the products werenot distributed to the public.

The Nuclear Regulatory Com-mission notified the retailer onJan. 10 that the shipment of metalboxes was found to contain Co-balt-60. The low-level radioactivematerial has numerous industrialand medical uses, including can-cer radiation therapy. -AP

Details on page 36

Court clearsimmediate enforcementof abortion law

AUSTIN, Texas: A federal ap-peals court cleared the way forTexas to immediately begin enforc-ing a new law requiring doctors toconduct a sonogram before per-forming an abortion.

The investigation was sparked by an anony-mous allegation of research irregularities in2008. The comprehensive report, whichtotals approximately 60,000 pages, con-cludes that Das is guilty of 145 counts offabrication and falsification of data

Indeed, most of the cases of this kind of TBwere not from person-to-person infection butwere mutations that occurred in poorlytreated patients

India PostHealth Science Post 35

www.indiapost.com

January 27, 2012

Babies try lip-reading in learning to talkWASHINGTON: Babies don't learn to

talk just from hearing sounds. New researchsuggests they're lip-readers too.

It happens during that magical stagewhen a baby's babbling gradually changesfrom gibberish into syllables and eventu-ally into that first ̀ `mama'' or ̀ `dada.''

Florida scientists discovered that startingaround age 6 months, babies begin shiftingfrom the intent eye gaze of early infancy tostudying mouths when people talk to them.

``The baby in order to imitate you has tofigure out how to shape their lips to makethat particular sound they're hearing,'' ex-plains developmental psychologist DavidLewkowicz of Florida Atlantic University,who led the study. ̀ Ìt's an incredibly com-plex process.''

Apparently it doesn't take them too longto absorb the movements that match basicsounds. By their first birthdays, babies startshifting back to look you in the eye again -unless they hear the unfamiliar sounds of aforeign language. Then, they stick with lip-reading a bit longer.

`Ìt's a pretty intriguing finding,'' saysUniversity of Iowa psychology professorBob McMurray, who also studies speechdevelopment. The babies ̀ `know what theyneed to know about, and they're able todeploy their attention to what's importantat that point in development.''

The new research appears in the Pro-ceedings of the National Academy of Sci-ences. It offers more evidence that qualityface-time with your tot is very importantfor speech development more than, say,turning on the latest baby DVD.

It also begs the question of whetherbabies who turn out to have developmen-tal disorders, including autism, learn tospeak the same way, or if they show dif-ferences that just might provide an earlywarning sign.

Unraveling how babies learn to speakisn't merely a curiosity. Neuroscientists

want to know how to encourage that pro-cess, especially if it doesn't seem to be hap-pening on time. Plus, it helps them under-stand how the brain wires itself early in lifefor learning all kinds of things.

Those coos of early infancy start chang-ing around age 6 months, growing into thesyllables of the baby's native languageuntil the first word emerges, usually justbefore age 1.

A lot of research has centered on the

audio side. That sing-song speech thatparents intuitively use. Scientists knowthe pitch attracts babies' attention, andthe rhythm exaggerates key sounds.Other studies have shown that babieswho are best at distinguishing betweenvowel sounds like ̀ àh'' and ̀ èe'' shortlybefore their first birthday wind up withbetter vocabularies and pre-reading skillsby kindergarten.

But scientists have long known that ba-bies also look to speakers' faces for impor-tant social cues about what they're hear-ing. Just like adults, they're drawn to theeyes, which convey important nonverbalmessages like the emotion connected towords and where to direct attention.

Lewkowicz went a step further, won-dering whether babies look to the lips forcues as well, sort of like how adults lip-read to decipher what someone's sayingat a noisy party.

So he and doctoral student Amy Hansen-Tift tested nearly 180 babies, groups of themat ages 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months.

How? They showed videos of a womanspeaking in English or Spanish to babiesof English speakers. A gadget mounted ona soft headband tracked where each babywas focusing his or her gaze and for howlong.

They found a dramatic shift in attention:When the speaker used English, the 4-

month-olds gazed mostly into her eyes. The6-month-olds spent equal amounts of timelooking at the eyes and the mouth. The 8-and 10-month-olds studied mostly themouth.

At 12 months, attention started shiftingback toward the speaker's eyes.

It makes sense that at 6 months, babiesbegin observing lip movement, Lewkowiczsays, because that's about the time babies'

brains gain the ability to control their at-tention rather than automatically look to-ward noise.

But what happened when these babiesaccustomed to English heard Spanish? The12-month-olds studied the mouth longer,just like younger babies. They needed theextra information to decipher the unfamiliarsounds.

That fits with research into bilingualismthat shows babies' brains fine-tune them-selves to start distinguishing the soundsof their native language over other lan-guages in the first year of life. That's onereason it's easier for babies to become bi-lingual than older children or adults.

But the continued lip-reading shows the1-year-olds clearly still `àre primed forlearning,'' McMurray says.

Babies are so hard to study that this is`à fairly heroic data set,'' says Duke Uni-versity cognitive neuroscientist GregAppelbaum, who found the research socompelling that he wants to know more.

Are the babies who start to shift theirgaze back to the eyes a bit earlier betterlearners, or impatient to their own detri-ment? What happens with a foreign lan-guage after 12 months?

Lewkowicz is continuing his studies oftypically developing babies. He theorizesthat there may be different patterns in chil-dren at risk of autism, something autism ex-perts caution would be hard to prove. -AP

Preliminary deal reached inhealth care cutbacks

BATON ROUGE, La.: Attorneys say apreliminary settlement has been reached ina dispute over cutbacks in state fundingfor home health care for disabled Louisi-ana residents.

Nell Hahn, an attorney for the nonprofitAdvocacy Center, told U.S. District JudgeJames J. Brady that the state Departmentof Health and Hospitals officials haveagreed to expand the number of waiver slotsfor people who were receiving more than32 hours of home assistance prior to cut-backs announced in 2010.

The Advocate reports the nonprofit suedthe state on behalf of those residents, ar-guing that cutbacks against the blind andpeople with other disabling conditionscould force them into nursing homesagainst their wishes.

Kimberly L. Humbles, a DHH attorney,also told Brady a settlement has been

reached. But both Humbles and Hahn notedthat the settlement is preliminary.

A second court hearing will be neces-sary when final arrangements have beenreached for notification of affected resi-dents, the attorneys told the judge.

But right now, Hahn told Brady, peoplewho were receiving more than 32 hours ofhome assistance per week in 2010 ``don'thave to have a showing of need to be inthe class'' that will have access to the waiv-ers.

Brady signed the preliminary settlement.`Ì think this is in the best interest of all,''

the judge said.Neither Hahn nor Humbles would com-

ment on the preliminary settlement or dis-cuss its details after the hearing.

Humbles and other DHH attorneys saida joint statement by both sides will be re-leased soon. -AP

A lot of research has centered on the audio side. Thatsing-song speech that parents intuitively use. Scientistsknow the pitch attracts babies' attention, and the rhythmexaggerates key sounds. Other studies have shown thatbabies who are best at distinguishing between vowelsounds like ̀ àh'' and ̀ èe'' shortly before their first birth-day wind up with better vocabularies and pre-readingskills by kindergarten

India Post Health Science Post36

www.indiapost.com

January 27, 2012

Court clears immediate enforcement of abortion law

Food stamps, indigent fundshow Idaho under stress

AUSTIN, Texas: A federal ap-peals court cleared the way forTexas to immediately begin enforc-ing a new law requiring doctors toconduct a sonogram before per-forming an abortion.

The three-judge panel agreedto a request by the state's Attor-ney General Greg Abbott to cutshort the typical three-week wait-ing period between a ruling andits implementation. Earlier in theweek, the judges had lifted a tem-porary stay issued by a districtcourt judge who found the newlaw potentially unconstitutional,but did not at that point issue alegal mandate that would make thelaw enforceable.

Texas' new law requires doctorsto conduct a sonogram before per-forming an abortion, to show thewoman the image, to play the fetalheartbeat aloud and describe thefeatures of the fetus, at least 24hours before the abortion. There

are exceptions in the case of rape,incest, fetal deformities and forwomen who have to travel greatdistances to reach a doctor.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Ap-peals order means doctors fight-ing the law do not get the oppor-tunity to appeal the decision byChief Judge Edith Jones before itgoes into effect. Under normal cir-cumstances it would not havetaken effect until Jan. 31.

That clears the way for theTexas Department of State HealthServices to issue rules for comply-ing with the law and to prosecutedoctors who do not obey it. Aspokeswoman for State HealthServices said agency officials aredeveloping a schedule for enforc-ing the law as soon as possible.

``Given today's order we aremoving forward with legal guid-ance from the attorney general'soffice,'' said Carrie Williams, anagency spokeswoman. ``We're

working toward full implementa-tion and we are moving quicklyto comply with the order. We'vebeen preparing for this since thelegislation passed during thelast session.''

The Center for ReproductiveRights, which supports the doc-tors' lawsuit against the state,complained that it was not given achance to respond to Jones' order

or the attorney general's requestfor an immediate mandate, beforeJones decided to grant the attor-ney general's request to immedi-ately enforce the law.

``There is no justification forTexas to have insisted on the im-mediate enforcement of this intru-sive and demeaning law, nor thecourt of appeals to have grantedit without giving us an opportu-nity to be heard,'' said NancyNorthup, president of the center.``Texas reproductive health pro-viders and the women they servedeserve to be treated the same asanyone else seeking a fair hearingfrom our courts.''

The appeals court's opinionhad disagreed with District CourtJudge Sam Sparks in Austin, whois hearing arguments on the over-all constitutionality of the statespecifying how a doctor talks tohis or her patients. Jones foundthe doctors' objections insuffi-

cient to block enforcement of thelaw pending a final outcome of thetrial in Sparks' courtroom.

One of the conservative sup-porters of the law, the Liberty In-stitute, welcomed the court's de-cision not to delay the law anyfurther.

``This court order means thatthe Texas sonogram law is to beenforced effective immediately, asit should be,'' said Jonathan Saenz,the institute's legislative director.

The question of whether thelaw is constitutional, though, stillresides with Sparks. No matterwhat he decides, both sides areready to appeal the case back tothe Fifth Circuit.

Jones made clear in her rulingthat she finds nothing wrong withthe law, even though federaljudges have objected to similarlaws in other states. The issue islikely to end up before the US Su-preme Court. -AP

BOISE, Idaho: Despite a slowlyimproving economy and fallingunemployment rate, the agencythat cares for Idaho's poor anddisabled residents said there'splenty of evidence to showpeople are still struggling.

Food stamp recipients hit arecord in November, with 235,000people receiving the federal aid.The monthly payout, to 16 per-cent of Idaho's 1.5 million resi-dents, is now $30 million.

There are so many people get-ting help, grocery stores havecomplained the deluge on the firstday of every month the day whenrecipients get their food stampdebit cards loaded has interruptedtheir business.

What's more, the fund thatpays the medical bills for Idaho'sindigent population expects tospend nearly $40 million throughJune 30, a 14 percent spike overfiscal year 2011.

To top it off, Department ofHealth and Welfare Director DickArmstrong told budget writers onthe Joint Finance-AppropriationCommittee that some of his bestemployees are quitting, lured byprivate-sector salaries that can be40 percent higher. With a 13.6 per-cent turnover rate at the agency,Armstrong suggested one anti-dote is a pay increase.

``We cannot afford to lose ourhigh-performing and skilled work-ers,'' Armstrong told the panel. ̀ `Achange in employee compensa-tion is vital to us.''

Armstrong said demand forfood stamps is due to rise 6.3 per-cent in the fiscal year that endsJune 30, adding another 14,000people to the rolls, comparedwith 2011.

``Food stamps are a good ba-rometer of what's happening in theeconomy and poverty,'' he said.

With so many people now get-ting this help, Idaho grocerystores have struggled to keep upwith demand on days the benefitsare issued, Armstrong said. Con-sequently, his agency is working

with the Northwest Grocery As-sociation, an industry lobby, tostagger the days, instead of do-ing it on the first day of the month.The tentative plan would be to payout benefits over the first 10 daysof the month.

While changes may help gro-cers, a multiple-day system will bemore expensive - as much as$220,000 more annually for fourstate staffers who will have to

answer phone calls and alleviateconfusion from recipients won-dering why their rechargeablefood stamp debit cards are empty.

``Every state will tell you,there's no ignoring the ongoingcosts of multiple-day payouts,''Armstrong said.

An unemployment rate that'sat 8.5 percent it hit 9.7 percent, arecord, last February has impactedmore than just food benefits.

Providing medical care forIdaho's indigent population willcost Idaho nearly $40 million thisyear, up from about $35 million thestate spent on the CatastrophicHealth Care program in fiscal year2011.

Program director RogerChristensen told budget writersthat the ̀ `CAT fund,'' as it's called,has seen a ``significant'' 2012caseload increase.

Last session, lawmakers setaside $22.3 million for the state'sshare of the program. ButChristensen is back at the Legis-lature, asking for $17.6 million moreto keep the program from runningout of cash in February.

Christensen said expensescould have been even higher, ifIdaho hadn't made changes sev-eral years ago. Then, it boostedcounties' share of indigent medi-cal bills to the first $11,000, from$10,000, and began screening ap-plicants seeking indigent aid forMedicaid eligibility where the fed-eral government picks up 70 per-cent of costs. -AP

No major health impactsfrom turbines

BOSTON: Wind turbines donot pose serious health risks topeople living nearby, thoughnoise from some turbines couldbe annoying and cause sleep dis-ruption, a state-appointed panelof experts says in a report.

The report was commissionedby Massachusetts public healthand environmental agencies afterresidents who live near existingor proposed wind energy projectsraised concerns.

``There is no evidence for a setof health effects ... that could becharacterized as `Wind TurbineSyndrome,''' the report concluded.

But the panel urged that morestudy be done on the sleep issueand also recommended that Mas-sachusetts adopt noise limits forwind turbines similar to guidelinesin place in Germany and Denmark.

Three public meetings arescheduled next month to hearcomments about the report, inBoston, the Berkshires and onCape Cod. Officials insist the find-ings will not be adopted or imple-mented until after the meetings.

In the report, the panel said itfound no scientific evidence thatlow-frequency sound emitted byturbines affects the inner ear andbalance, or the vestibular system.It also said the ``weight of evi-dence'' didn't point to any linksbetween the turbines and diseasesincluding diabetes, high bloodpressure and migraine headaches.

``The strongest epidemiologi-cal study suggests that there isnot an association between noise

from wind turbines and measuresof psychological distress or men-tal health problems,'' the reportcontinued, but added that ``lim-ited evidence'' exists that noisefrom louder turbines could causeannoyance or disrupt sleep.

Scientists on the panel said thelink between turbine noise andsleep disruption was tenuous andbased primarily on people whoself-reported trouble sleeping.

A coalition called WindwiseMassachusetts called last year fora statewide moratorium on con-

struction of industrial wind tur-bines until potential health effectswere studied. Representatives ofthe group questioned the findingsof the report. They said the panelrelied on pre-existing data andstudies rather than holding pub-lic hearings or speaking directlyto people who claim to have beenadversely affected by turbines.

``There is definitely a total lackof transparency here,'' said VirginiaIrvine, a member of the coalition'ssteering committee. -AP

Three public meet-ings are schedulednext month to hearcomments about thereport, in Boston, theBerkshires and onCape Cod

The fund that paysthe medical bills forIdaho's indigentpopulation expectsto spend nearly $40million through June30, a 14 percentspike over fiscalyear 2011

The Center for Repro-ductive Rights, whichsupports the doctors'lawsuit against thestate, complainedthat it was not givena chance to respondto Jones' order

India PostHealth Science Post 37

www.indiapost.com

January 27, 2012


India reports new TB strainresistant to all drugs

India's Health Ministry did notrespond to phone calls and writ-ten requests for comment.

Similar highly resistant caseshave been noted before. In 2003,two Italian women died and therewere 15 cases reported from Iranin 2009. That same year, The As-sociated Press reported on a caseof a Peruvian teenager who wasinfected at home but diagnosedwhile visiting Florida. He was suc-cessfully treated for a year and ahalf with experimental high dosesof medicines not typically usedfor TB, costing about $500,000.

Those resources are unthink-able in the developing world,where TB remains a menacingkiller and where few hospitals canperform tests to find out which an-tibiotics might work.

``For there to be another reportcoming out from India is no sur-prise at all. Indeed, in a sense, it'ssurprising it's taken so long,'' saidWHO's Nunn. This is ``yet an-other alarm call for countries andothers engaged in TB control todo their jobs properly.''

Tuberculosis is an age-oldscourge that lies dormant in anestimated 1 in 3 people world-

wide. About 10 percent of thosepeople eventually develop activeTB, which kills roughly 2 million ayear, according to the WHO. Eachvictim infects an average of 10 to15 others every year, typicallythrough sneezing or coughing.

If a TB case is found to be resis-tant to the two most powerful anti-TB drugs, the patient is classified

as having multi drug-resistant TB(MDR). An even worse classifica-tion of TB - one the WHO accepts -is extensively drug-resistant TB(XDR), a form of the disease thatwas first reported in 2006 and is vir-tually resistant to all drugs.

An estimated 20 percent of theworld's multi-drug-resistant casesare found in India, which is hometo a quarter of all types of tuber-culosis cases worldwide. -AP

NC health secretary leavingPerdue's Cabinet

RALEIGH, NC: Health and Hu-man Services Secretary LanierCansler will leave Gov. BeverlyPerdue's Cabinet at the end of themonth after three years runningone of the largest and most com-plicated departments in stategovernment and return to the pri-vate sector.

Perdue announced thatCansler, a Republican in a Demo-cratic administration, would heada new commission that the gover-nor has yet to assemble on afford-able health care in the state.

The governor's senior policyadviser Al Delia will become act-ing HHS secretary early nextmonth. The department receives$4.5 billion in state funds, or nearlyone-quarter of the state's budget,to run Medicaid, mental healthfacilities, social services and otherhealth programs.

Cansler's last day will be Jan.31, according to departmentspokeswoman Renee McCoy.Cansler was quoted in Perdue'srelease as saying he had been hon-ored to serve on Perdue's staff ̀ `asshe steered the state through in-credibly difficult times and stabi-lized North Carolina's fiscal house.''

``We cut spending, eliminatedwaste and consolidated agenciesall to make state government moreefficient without neglecting ourcore mission of serving thepeople,'' Cansler, 58, said in a pre-pared statement.

Cansler's department had takenheat recently from Republican leg-

islators for managing the Medic-aid program and the costs relatedto a new claims processing sys-tem. Cansler and other Perdue ad-ministration members had been atodds with the Legislature in thepast few months over how to closea Medicaid budget shortfall ofnearly $150 million.

Cansler largely had taken a

more moderating tone while deal-ing with the GOP leaders at theLegislature compared to Delia andothers, who had been speakingout more forcefully against Re-publicans about the Medicaidhole and the blame for it.

Perdue said in the statementshe will miss Cansler's ``calm,wise advice'' but that she would``continue to rely on his counsel.''

``The state is better for his ser-vice,'' she added.

Cansler, from Asheville, servedin the state House for three fullterms before leaving in 2001 to be-come deputy HHS secretary in Gov.Mike Easley's administration un-der then-Secretary Carmen HookerOdom. He left in 2005 and started aconsulting business that was in-volved in department issues.

Cansler's consulting clients in-cluded Computer Sciences Corp.,which landed a contract an-nounced in late 2008 to completean overhaul of North Carolina'sMedicaid billing system. Theproject has yet to be completed, anda state audit finalized for release thisweek said a Medicaid agency didn'tfully document details on how thedelays came about. -AP

Perdue announcedthat Cansler, a Re-publican in a Demo-cratic administration,would head a newcommission that thegovernor has yet toassemble

Those resources areunthinkable in thedeveloping world,where TB remains amenacing killer andwhere few hospitalscan perform tests

January 27, 2012India Post www.indiapost.com38

TOP TENHINDI FILM SONGS

1 Jhoom Jhoomta Hun Main: Players

2 Dil Yeh Bekarar Kyu Hai : Players3 Zara Dil Ko Thaam Lo : Don 24 Chikni Chameli : Agneepath5 Jis Jagah Pe Khatam : Players6 Hai Yeh Maya : Don 27 Hosanna : Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu8 Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu

: Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu9 Aromale (My Beloved)

: Ek Tha Deewana10 Kal Chalna Shuru Tu

: Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu

Looks like filmmaker Madhur Bhndarkar is super excited with his up-coming film 'Heroine' and his leading lady Kareena Kapoor's performance in the film. He says that the film and her performance will not

only be fabulous, but also a shocker for her fans."Her character Mahi Arora is very contemporary, very edgy, very hard-

hitting and very real like my other cinema. Kareena will definitely be ashock element to the people because of the way she has worked in thefilm," the 43-year-old producer-director said here at the launch of photog-rapher Dabboo Ratnani's calendar.

"I am looking at the film because I know the story, I know the screen-play, I know the dialogues. She will be fabulous," he added.

"'Heroine' is 25 percent over. The next schedule is in February, Marchand April and the picture will release in September. The way you people arewaiting for the film, so am I. I hope it finishes really soon," he said.

Bipasha Basu's crazy birthdayparty is out there on the internetfor all to see. But the leaked

video has left the actress miffed as shefeels her privacy has been invaded.

"I'm still in shock that my privacyhas been invaded! These were privatemoments from my birthday that wereleaked and I am very upset," tweetedBipasha.

The actress has turned 33, and trueto her latest song "Ho gayi tunn" fromher new release, "Players", Bipashaseemed to be high in the video. Shecan be seen dancing around with ce-lebrity friends like Milind Soman, AftabShivdasani, Sikander Kher and AbhayDeol, amid a lot of drinks and cheers.

She even cut a quirky cake, with spe-cial candles on it, and looked fabulousin a nude-colored gown. She can evenbe seen dancing in the washroom witha couple of girls, and later grooving onthe dance floor with Sikander.

No wonder Bipasha is so upset.

Leakedvideo

It is well known that Jacqueline Fernandezlost out on Krrish 3 because she refusedto lock lips with Hrithik Roshan. Later she

opted out of Race 2 because she was con-cerned with overexposure. Now, it is learnt thatshe is out of Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt'smuch talked about Raaz 3, which is ready togo on the floor. Predictably, she was uncom-fortable about the costumes in the film anddid not want to be seen in revealing clothes.Strangely enough, this is the same Jacquelinewho made a huge impact with the Bhatts' run-away hit Murder 2, where she seemed to haveno problems donning scant clothes.

When contacted, producer Mahesh Bhattconfirmed the news. How come Jacquelinehad no issues with the costumes in Murder 2,he was asked. Mahesh replies, "That's thebeauty of it. We are yet to find the replace-ment. When we were making Raaz, Lisa Rayhad a similar issue and Bipasha replaced herand went on to became a huge star. Let's hopethat's what happens with the actress who re-places Jacqueline."

Whether she is really a throwback in anage of showing more skin or is her fiance film-maker Sajid Khan, who has been known tocome in the way of her doing steamy scenes,to blame, it is not yet clear.

India Post 39January 27, 2012

www.indiapost.com

Bollywood

Anushka Sharma is often in the news and that too for all thewrong reasons, one of them being her relationship withRanveer Singh. There was a time when Ranveer wanted to

date Anushka. But now we hear that, the couple are already in arelationship, but its a little complicated.

While chatting with a daily, Anushka Sharma revealed that theon-screen relationship she and Ranveer shared in Band BaajaBaaraat is very similar to that of their real life relationship. She alsosays that there are times when they can't stand each other even fora second.

Talking about her professional life, Anushka said that she worksfor good scripts and not for production houses. And till she isbeing respected and offered good scripts by Yash Raj Films, shedoesn't mind working for them over and over again.

Currently the actress is working on Vishal Bharadwaj's Matru KiBiwi Ka Mann Dola.

Priyanka Chopra was rescued by her former sweet heart, Shahid Kapoor, after she got nearly mobbedon the sets of their tentatively titled Teri Meri Kahaani in Aurangabad. A stampede like situationoccurred as the crowd got uncontrollable.

A source says, "On an average there were nearly 8,000 to 10,000 people on the sets. On the day we shotat Daulatabad Fort, over 30,000 people bought tickets to visit the place. On the last day we were shooting atthe lake, which was surrounded by hills.

"Two of those were completely filled with people. It was madness. Some people tried to get too close toPriyanka and that's when Shahid came forward and took her aside."

Adds the source, "They both were pretty cool and took a break every two hours to wave to the peoplewho had come all the way to see them. Shahid even said it would have been depressing if no one had cometo see them."

Rani Mukherjee was written off by the Indianaudiences. However, she proved her worthyet again with her amazing performance in

'No One Killed Jessica'.The latest buzz has it that Rani Mukerji is being

considered for Yash Raj's Dhoom 3. Well, yes! youheard it right. Rani might join the cast of Dhoom 3,as well.

A source close to the project informed, "Ranimight be seen in a role similar to Aishwarya Rai inDhoom 2. In Dhoom 3, Aamir is playing the villainand Rani shares a fabulous rapport with him. In fact,she had once mentioned on a chat show how Aamirhad been her best co-star among all Khans."

"YRF has three big films with the Khans - Salman,Shah Rukh and Aamir. Two of these projects arealready on floors. This leaves only Dhoom3 openwith a challenging female role. Rani too is keen onbeing a part of the film. She will take a call soon,"added the source.

Complicatedrelationship!

Totherescue

New Dhoom

girl?

40 India Post January 27, 2012www.indiapost.com

In Brief ImmigrationIndian and Vietnamese immigrants

become American over time

NM Gov pushes toend immigrantdriver's licenses

SANTA FE, N.M.: Highlights ofpublic safety issues before theLegislature:

BACKDROP: New Mexico andWashington are the only statesto allow illegal immigrants andothers without Social Securitynumbers to get a driver's license.Utah issues a driving permit toimmigrants but it can't be used asidentification, such as to boardan airplane. Republican Gov.Susana Martinez says NewMexico's policy is a security riskand contends the state is a mag-net for illegal immigrants whofalsely claim to be residents justto get a driver's license.

PROPOSALS: Martinez pro-poses to stop the state from grant-ing licenses to illegal immigrants.Some Democrats suggest an alter-native approach of requiring fin-gerprints from applicants who areforeign nationals, renew their li-censes every two years and in-crease penalties for license fraud.Licenses currently can last up toeight years before renewal. Thegovernor, who is a former pros-ecutor, supports ending the stat-ute of limitations on the prosecu-tion of homicides such as second-degree murder and manslaughter.

OUTLOOK: The governor's li-cense proposal should pass theHouse, as it did last year, but itwill be a close vote in the Senate ifthe measure makes it that far. -AP

Details on page 42

SURENDRA ULLAL

CHICAGO: A study of Indianand Vietnamese communities inNorth America by Dr. CarolineBrettell and Dr Deborah Reed-danahay of Southern MethodistUniversity in Dallas reveals manyinteresting aspects of their char-acteristics relating to their conver-gence into the new communitiesthey embrace.

In North Texas, immigrants fromIndia and Vietnam develop andembrace their American identityover time - without shedding theirculture of origin, as some say theyshould, according to a new anthro-pological study.

"A key contribution of our re-search is its emphasis on the factthat the civic incorporation of new-comers does not necessarily meanabandoning who you are," saysBrettell, an anthropology profes-sor at SMU in Dallas.

"Immigrant communities havespaces and places that are alreadyoperating as viable arenas for ex-

pressing civic and political pres-ence and for becoming American,"she says.

Brettell and Reed-Danahay un-covered how North Texas Vietnam-ese and Indian immigrants de-

velop their identity as Americansby engaging first within their owncommunities, where they practiceand develop citizenship skills,which they then use in a broaderAmerican context.

"We view citizenship as the

ways in which immigrants partici-pate in the civic and political lifeof America," Brettell says, "sothey move over time from the pe-riphery to the core of Americancivic and political life."

Authors carried out three yearsof oral interviews and direct ob-servation.

Brettell and Reed-Danahayreport the study results in theirbook, "Civic Engagements: TheCitizenship Practices of Indian &

Vietnamese Immigrants"(Stanford University Press,2012).

The authors interviewed 67first-generation Indian and Viet-namese parents, many but not allof whom are naturalized U.S. citi-zens. They also interviewed col-lege students in their early to mid-20s whose parents were immi-grants from either India or Vietnamand who either were born in theUnited States or arrived as youngchildren.

After Mexicans and Salvador-ans, Indians and Vietnamese arethe largest groups of immigrantsin DFW. The 2000 Censuscounted 47,090 foreign-born Viet-namese and 49,669 foreign-bornIndians in DFW.

Brettell and Reed-Danahayfound that for the most part bothIndian and Vietnamese immigrantsto the region first arrived else-where in the United States, andthen moved to DFW, often settlingin suburbs.

Waiver rule for those facing 3- or 10-year barsCYRUS D. MEHTA & DAVID A. ISAACSON

In the raging immigration debateconcerning the millions of un-documented immigrants in the

US, one important issue has re-ceived scant attention. We haveyet to meet a person who has rootsin the US who desires to chooseto remain undocumented. Mostare forced to remain undocu-mented even though they have apathway to a green card due to aperverse Catch 22 effect in ourimmigration law as a result of the 3and 10 year bars imposed underINA § 212(a)(9)(B).

Those who have remained un-lawfully present in the US for 1year or more face a 10 year bar toreentry if they depart the US. Simi-larly, those who have remainedunlawfully present for more than180 days face a 3 year bar to reen-try if they depart the US. It shouldbe noted that the term "unlawfullypresent" is a complex legal termand a discussion of this term isbeyond the scope of this article.

These individuals, if they are thebeneficiaries of an approved im-migrant visa petition filed by a UScitizen spouse or parent or a UScitizen child (who is over 21), mayoften be unable to adjust their sta-tus in the US.

Under INA § 245(a) one has tobe inspected or paroled in order

to qualify to adjust status to per-manent residence in the US. Thus,a non-citizen spouse of a US citi-zen who previously surrepti-tiously crossed the border fromMexico into the US would be in-eligible to adjust status becauseshe was not inspected under §245(a). Of course, there are excep-tions to this rule too, which is be- Cont’d on page 43

yond the scope of this article.This spouse would need to

leave the US and apply for an im-migrant visa at the US consulatein her home country. However, ifshe was unlawfully present in theUS for 1 year or more, it would re-sult in her triggering the 10 yearbar to reentry. Although, under the

current regime, she can apply fora waiver under INA § 212(a) (9)(B) (v), she can only do so aftershe has departed the US.

Obtaining the waiver is nosmall matter because she has todemonstrate extreme hardship tothe US citizen spouse if the waiveris denied. The emotional angst re-sulting from the separation of two

spouses is not enough. She willneed to demonstrate, in additionto the emotional issue, financial,cultural, political and health con-ditions, among many others, aswell as the balancing of ties withinand outside the US. See Matter ofCervantes, 22 I&N Dec. 560 (BIA1999), aff'd, Cervantes-Gonzales v.INS, 244 F.3d 1001 (9th Cir. 2001).

Thus, this spouse will be roll-ing the dice if she departs the USto chance winning the waiverwhile outside the US. If the waiveris denied, she will be stuck out-side the US and will be separatedfrom her loved ones. Moreover,she can only demonstrate extremehardship to a limited universe ofqualifying relatives, which includea spouse or a parent. If she hasUS citizen children, under INA §212(a) (9) (B) (v), she cannot dem-onstrate extreme hardship to themif she is separated.

Cont’d on page 42Immigrationcourtrooms silentduring ICE review

DENVER: U.S. prosecutors inDenver and Baltimore are review-ing thousands of deportationcases to determine which illegalimmigrants might stay in the coun-try - perhaps indefinitely - so offi-cials can reduce an overwhelmingbacklog by focusing mainly ondetainees with criminal back-grounds.

Federal deportation hearingsfor non-criminal defendants re-leased from custody were sus-pended Dec. 5 for the review andresume. Similar reviews areplanned across the country to al-low U.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement to target deporta-tions of illegal immigrants withcriminal records or those whohave been deported previously.

Officials are reviewing the filescase by case to determine where``prosecutorial discretion'' mightbe applied.

Republicans have decried thepolicy as a back-door way ofgranting amnesty to people whoare living in the U.S. illegally. -AP

POST rescinds ruleson immigrationstatus checks

NASHVILLE, Tenn.: After be-ing sued for creating rules in se-cret, a state commission has re-scinded a policy that directed lo-cal jailers to check the immigrationstatus of detainees.

Dr. Caroline Brettell

"A key contributionof our research is itsemphasis on the factthat the civic incor-poration of newcom-ers does not neces-sarily mean aban-doning who youare," says Brettell

Most are forced to remain undocumentedeven though they have a pathway to agreen card due to a perverse Catch 22effect in our immigration law

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India Post 41January 27, 2012 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

Debate heats up over Illinois jailed immigrant policyCHICAGO: Controversy over a

Cook County ordinance that for-bids the sheriff from notifying fed-eral officials when they're about torelease suspected illegal immi-grants from jail is heating up aftera suspect charged in a fatal hit-and-run posted bail and disap-peared.

Amid reports that Saul Chavez,an illegal immigrant, hasn't beenseen since late last year when hisfamily posted bail, the nation's topimmigration official and the boardpresident of the county that in-cludes Chicago have squared offwith dueling statements about theordinance passed last September.

``This ordinance underminespublic safety in Cook County andhinders (the Immigration and Cus-toms Enforcement's) ability to en-force the nation's immigrationlaws,'' wrote the agency's director,

John Morton, in a letter to CountyBoard President Toni Preckwinkle.``In addition to undermining localpublic safety, the Ordinance mayalso violate federal law.''

Preckwinkle, though, re-sponded in a news release that it

isn't fair to link Chavez's immigra-tion status with his disappear-ance, calling it a ̀ `red herring.''

Preckwinkle said she is both-ered by the case, not because ofChavez's immigration status, butbecause his bail was set too low

for someone with a prior felonyconviction and who posed a flightrisk.

``Some have tried to blameChavez's immigration status, butwhat allowed Chavez to escapeprosecution was an attainable

bond that didn't take into accounthis criminal history and flight risk,''she said in the news release.

Cook County has been at thecenter of the debate over the treat-ment of illegal immigrants for sev-eral months. While other places,

such as San Francisco, havepassed similar measures in re-sponse to the Obamaadministration's program that aimsto pursue more criminal deporta-tions, Cook County was the firstto forbid a sheriff from holdingsuspected felons as well as thoseaccused of misdemeanors.

Proponents say the county'sprevious practice of holding im-migrants in jail after they servedtheir time or posted bail until fed-eral agents could pick them up wasunfair and unconstitutional.

``By refusing the detain peoplewho are entitled to their freedom,based merely on a request from (im-migration agents) we are uphold-ing our system of justice,'' JesusGarcia, a commissioner who sup-ported the measure, said in a state-ment at the time.

But critics have said the ordi-nance is a disaster waiting to hap-pen, that ultimately an illegal im-migrant who otherwise could havebeen held by federal authorities isgoing to walk out of jail and com-

mit another crime.``This is our Willie Horton mo-

ment in Cook County,'' warnedCommissioner Timothy Schneiderat the time he voted against theordinance, referring to the con-victed killer who raped a womanafter being released as part of aMassachusetts program.

In her news release,Preckwinkle said the problem hasnothing to do with immigration andeverything to do with an over-whelmed criminal justice system.Judges, she said, have to makedecisions ``in an instant, withoutaccess to the appropriate level ofinformation upon which to basetheir decision.''

As a result, Preckwinkle hascalled for the Cook County Judi-cial Advisory Council to conducta six-month study on how bail isset in the county. According to astatement by Preckwinkle, one ofthe goals is to provide judges withmore complete information aboutdefendants before they decide onbail. -AP

Cause questioned in deathof ground zero worker

NEW YORK: Friends of a Mexi-can volunteer firefighter whospent three months doing cleanupwork at ground zero after 9/11 saidthey are skeptical of and disap-pointed with a medical examiner'sconclusion that he died of naturalcauses.

Rafael Hernandez, 49, whoemerged as an advocate for immi-grants exposed to thick layers ofdust at ground zero, died Sept. 25of obesity with obstructive sleepapnea and cardiac enlargement,said the city's medical examiner'sspokeswoman, Ellen Borakove.Hernandez also suffered from anacute and chronic alcohol abuse,she said.

``The government has turnedits back on him,'' said JaimeMunevar, a Colombian immigrantwho says he is also sick from hiscleanup work at ground zero. ̀ `Hetold me before he died how muchhis back and lungs hurt. The painis common among us, the immi-grants who worked in the area.''

Hernandez, who came to theU.S. illegally in 1999, died in hisQueens apartment. He held a bi-weekly support group for otherimmigrants with illnesses they be-lieved were related to their work atground zero. Many of them ex-pressed dismay that the death ofHernandez was not officially linkedto his exposure to the clouds ofdust at the disaster site _ a findingthey believe may have strength-ened his claim for victims' medicalcompensation. His name wouldhave been placed on the memorialto 9/11 victims that now sits at the

World Trade Center site.Thousands of people have

blamed health problems on tradecenter dust, but evidence linkingdeaths to the dust has been in-conclusive. The New York Citymedical examiner's office rarelycategorizes deaths as related tothe toxic dust.

Hernandez had been diag-nosed with respiratory problemsafter 9/11 and often went to a hos-

pital. Obesity is a common causeof sleep apnea and cardiac en-largement.

His lawyer, Jorge Anzola, saidHernandez settled a lawsuitagainst the city in 2010 over thedisaster cleanup work done with-out adequate protective gear.

``Rafael was a wonderful per-son. He did a lot for a lot of people,''Anzola said. ̀ `But he was sick. Hewas on the go all the time, and Itold him he had to take care of him-self.''

Hernandez also suffered fromasthma and slept with a machine

to aid his breathing, said ConsueloTrujillo, a Colombian immigrantwho also suffers respiratory prob-lems she blamed on her cleanupwork at ground zero.

``He would suffocate when hetalked and he had to stop for asecond, to breathe,'' Trujillo said.

New York City's Hispanic com-munity has reacted negatively tothe medical examiner's decision,said Rosa Duque, a Guatemalanimmigrant who knew Hernandez.

``This has stained his legacy,''the former cleanup worker said.``Rafael used to say that if one dayhe was no longer around, weneeded to keep fighting for com-pensation.''

Hernandez led a biweekly sup-port group called Frontiers of Hopewhere the workers discussed theirillnesses. They also sought tocope with the long-term psycho-logical effects of their time near thedisaster site.

Before he died, he was expect-ing to receive his last check fromthe city and then move back toMexico to be with his family,Anzola said.

Though the number of Hispan-ics who were part of the groundzero cleanup crews is unknown,leaders of the immigrant commu-nity agree that Hispanics repre-sented a large percentage ofcleanup workers. Many were inthis country illegally, they say, andcontractors normally did not askthem for immigration papers, pay-ing them low wages, in cash.

Cont’d on page 42

``The governmenthas turned its backon him,'' said JaimeMunevar, a Colom-bian immigrant whosays he is also sickfrom his cleanupwork at ground zero

Proponents say the county's previous prac-tice of holding immigrants in jail after theyserved their time or posted bail until federalagents could pick them up was unfairand unconstitutional

India Post42 January 27, 2012Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

Before Sept. 11, Hernandezworked at a Queens shop, hisfriends said. As a professionalparamedic firefighter in Mexico, heworked for the Red Cross thereuntil he moved to New York in1999, leaving behind two daugh-ters and one son. He became avolunteer firefighter for the cityfire department.

`Ì am not surprised by themedical examiner's decision but Ifeel he did not receive the medicalhelp he needed,'' said BrendaOlvera, his wife, who lives inMexico.

The medical examiner's conclu-sion does not change anything,Anzola said. Hernandez's family

will receive his last city check andhope to benefit from a fund to com-pensate people who might havebeen sickened by exposure totrade center dust and ash.

Hernandez's body was sent toMexico for cremation but his or-gans stayed in New York to beanalyzed by the medical examiner,his family said. During his wake inthe fall, dozens of immigrants gaveemotional speeches and paid trib-ute in song.

``He was deteriorating fast,''said Virginia Villa, 63, a Colombianimmigrant who said she also wassickened by the 9/11 cleanup work.`Ì am worried about this medicalconclusion because we are in thesame situation. This is not dyingby natural causes.'' -AP


Cause questioned in deathof ground zero worker

POST rescinds rules onimmigration status checks

NASHVILLE, Tenn.: After be-ing sued for creating rules in se-cret, a state commission has re-scinded a policy that directed lo-cal jailers to check the immigrationstatus of detainees.

The Peace Officer Standardsand Training Commission was re-quired to develop the policy by arecent state law, but a suit filed lastmonth claimed they did so by emailand in meetings that were not an-nounced to the public.

State attorney Joe Underwood,speaking at the commission'smonthly meeting, recommendedthat members rescind the rules.They did so unanimously.

Underwood said that detaineeswill still have their immigration sta-tus checked as part of a federalprogram called Secure Communi-ties that is now active in all 95counties.

He told the commission thatunder Secure Communities, federalimmigration authorities will re-ceive electronic copies of the fin-gerprints of all detainees. It willthen be up to the U.S. Immigrationand Customs Enforcement to de-cide whether to request an immi-gration hold on someone.

``Basically, this takes local lawenforcement out of the process,''he said.

Underwood said that shouldremove the concern that some lo-cal jailers are engaging in racialprofiling _ questioning only thosedetainees that they perceive to beforeign because of the way theylook or talk.

Attorney Elliott Ozment, whofiled the suit against POST, saidhe was satisfied with the vote andwould sign paperwork to drop the

suit later.``This (decision) is important

because we have run into prob-lems with how these POST Com-mission regulations are beingimplemented in the counties,'' hesaid.

Ozment has filed a separate suitin federal court claiming theWilliamson County Sheriff's Officehas violated immigrants' rights bydetaining people without a re-quest from ICE to do so.

Ozment said he expects caseslike that to continue to come upunder Secure Communities, but hewill wait to hear from clients abouttheir experiences before challeng-ing the program.

Stephen Fotopulos, director ofthe Tennessee Immigrant andRefugee Rights Coalition, also at-tended the meeting. He said hewould like to see the POST Com-mission take further action to edu-cate jailers about when they arelegally allowed to detain someonesuspected of an immigration vio-lation and for how long.

As for the POST Commissionproviding notice of its meetings,`Ì think it's learned its lesson onthat,'' Ozment said. -AP

Anti-immigration tone ofRepublicans alienating Hispanics

ALBUQUERQUE, NM: TheRepublican Party is beefing up itsminority outreach nationwide andpreparing to put its rising Latinostars on the campaign trail amidconcerns that tough immigrationrhetoric in the presidential primaryis taking on an increasingly anti-Hispanic tone.

But immigrant-rights groupsand some political watchers say thedamage may be irreversible. Theyargue that the GOP has severelyhampered itself as it looks to woothe critical Latino voting bloc thatcould decide who wins key stateslike New Mexico, Nevada, Coloradoand Florida next fall.

Mitt Romney `ìs done,'' saidDeeDee Blase, founder of SomosRepublicans in Arizona. ̀ `He'll belucky to get 8 percent of the His-panic vote'' after saying he wouldveto legislation that would createa path to citizenship for some ille-gal immigrants and accepting theendorsement of anti-immigrationactivist Kris Kobach, architect oftwo of the strongest immigrationcrackdown laws in the country.

The GOP front-runner, Romneyhas referred to the legislationcalled the DREAM Act as a hand-out. The measure would allowsome young illegal immigrantsbrought to the US as children toearn legal status if they went to

college or joined the military. Chal-lengers, including Texas Gov.Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen.Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, havealso taken tough anti-immigrationstances in the campaign.

Language from them has beenso sharp that even New MexicoGov. Susana Martinez, a Republi-can, has warned the candidates to

watch their tongues.``What we have to do is this:

We have to tone down the rheto-ric, and we have to have a sincere,honest conversation with the vot-ers,'' Martinez said shortly afterthe Republican National Commit-tee announced that it had hired adirector of Hispanic outreach andwas expanding its Latino-focusedefforts. She's among the popular

Hispanic politicians Republicanswill deploy to battleground statesin the coming months.

There's a reason for the urgenttone coming from Republican lead-ers on this matter.

The government projects His-panics will account for roughly 30percent of the population by 2050,doubling in size and boosting theirpolitical power. Overall, Hispanicstraditionally tilt Democrat, meaningthe Republican Party is looking ata threat to their future power if theydon't work to make inroads with thispolitically pivotal group now.

Democrats have strengthenedtheir standing with Hispanics in themost recent presidential electionyears. While much was made dur-ing the Democratic primary of 2008of President Barack Obama's per-ceived weakness among Hispanics,he won 67 percent of their vote inthe general election to 31 percentfor Republican John McCain. It wasa huge jump from 2004 when Demo-cratic nominee John Kerry wonHispanics by 53 percent to 44 per-cent for Bush, a Texan who focusedheavily on Hispanics.

Some worry that this year'seventual GOP nominee won't faremuch better than McCain fouryears ago and may fare worse ifcandidates don't soften the waythey talk about immigration. -AP

Typically, Indian immigrantscame voluntarily, seeking educa-tion, jobs and economic opportu-nity, although some came to joinfamily members. Generally theyhave high levels of education andincome, and typically alreadyspeak English, says Brettell, whoconducted the Indian research.

The Vietnamese came as refu-gees, primarily to escape commu-nism and in search of freedom anddemocracy. More recently they'vealso come to join family members,says Reed-Danahay, who con-ducted the Vietnamese research.

On the surface there are a greatmany differences between thesetwo Asian immigrant populations,say the authors. But the anthro-pological research revealed sig-nificant similarities in the way im-migrants from both India and Viet-nam engage in civic and politicalactivities.

Despite a desire to belong andovercome feelings of otherness, In-dian and Vietnamese immigrantsreported that fellow Americans

sometimes exclude them on thebasis of their accent, their skin colorand their ethnic characteristics.

While there hasn't been anysweeping anti-immigrant legisla-tion in Texas such as in California,there have been a number of billsproposed at the state level aimedat illegal immigration, as well assome ordinances at the local level.

"Both Indian and Vietnameseimmigrants have learned to 'talkthe talk' of civic engagement,"Brettell says, "as they refer to their'teamwork,' 'good neighbor ship,''giving back' and 'entering themainstream' says Margaret Allen

Historically, relationship be-tween India and Vietnam is one ofgreat antiquity for the interactionbetween these countries precedesthe beginning of the Christian era,perhaps predates the connectionof Indian culture, religions andcivilization prior to all far easternHindu-Buddhist countries. It isbelieved that Indian mercantileclass set up their earliest colonyin Vietnam. It will not be an exag-geration to say that unlike many

invasions to India especially sincethe Mohammedan era, the mostunique feature of this interactionis that it has been entirely peace-ful.

Americas happens to be thenext most important place wherethese two cultures came into con-tact again after a thousand years.Immigrants in North Texas developAmerican identity by participatingin ethnic community activities,then branching out to broadercivic and political life.

Whether contributing moneyto Boy Scouts, donating a statueof Gandhi for a Dallas city plaza,or successfully lobbying againstflying Vietnam's communist flag ina citywide international celebra-tion, a new study shows that im-migrants in Texas are involved intheir communities.

SMU is a nationally ranked pri-vate university in Dallas founded100 years ago. Today, SMU en-rolls nearly 11,000 students whobenefit from the academic oppor-tunities and international reach ofseven degree-granting schools.

Indian and Vietnamese immigrantsbecome American over time


“What we have todo is this: We haveto tone down therhetoric, and wehave to have asincere, honestconversation withthe voters,''Martinez said

State attorney JoeUnderwood,speaking at thecommission'smonthly meeting,recommended thatmembers rescind therules. And they did

India Post 43January 27, 2012 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

* Cyrus D Mehta, may be contactedat 212-425-0555 or

[email protected]

It is not hard to see why therehas been such a huge build up ofthe undocumented population inthe US. Even while people may beeligible for permanent residence,they are unwilling to leave andchance a waiver from outside theUS. While Congress enacted INA§ 212(a) (9) (B) to deter overstays, ithas had the exact opposite effect.People overstay, despite being ap-proved for a green card, because offear of facing the 3 or 10 year bars.

It is thus heartening that theObama administration has proposeda rule that will be published in theFederal Register on January 9, 2012in the form of a Notice of Intent topublish such a rule, which will per-mit intending immigrants to applyfor a provisional waiver in the USprior to their departure from the US.This rule, if published, will removethe uncertainty in leaving the USand being barred for 3 or 10 years ifthe waiver application is denied.

Under the proposed rule, thewaiver can be applied for while inthe US. With the waiver in hand,the individual departing the US canmore readily hope to reenter the USwithout facing the 10 year bar. Thismove has received thunderous ap-plause from the immigration advo-cacy community and rightly so.

In a time when Congress is vir-tually paralyzed and cannot evenmake small tweaks to improve theimmigration system, the proposingof a smart administrative rule suchas this one is consistent with theintent of the law.A child who has turned 21, and whomay not be protected under theChild Status Protection Act, still re-mains very much part of the nuclearfamily especially in hard economictimes when their parents are still thelifeline.

People subject to the 3 or 10 yearbars still need to apply for the waiverand meet the rigorous "extremehardship" standard, except thatthey can apply for it in the US priorto their departure. If they obtain thewaiver, they can at least be assuredof not triggering the 3 or 10 yearbars upon their departure.

Apparently, if and when the ruletakes effect, which under the for-mal rule making process may takesome time, it will be limited to imme-diate relatives of US citizens whoare seeking a § 212(a)(9)(B)(v)waiver of unlawful presence basedon hardship to a US citizen, al-though the petitioning US citizenand the one to whom extreme hard-ship exists need not be the same(so that, for example, it appears thatthe parent of a 21-year-old US citi-zen petitioned for by that son ordaughter would qualify if seeking awaiver based on extreme hardshipto a US citizen parent, the grand-

parent of the petitioning relative).It appears that the rule will not

cover people who are not immediaterelatives of a US citizen (such as theover-21-year-old son or daughter ofa US citizen who is petitioned for bytheir parent and not protected by theChild Status Protection Act), orwhose qualifying relative for thewaiver is a lawful permanent resi-dent.

It also will not cover people whoneed some other sort of waiver inaddition, such as a waiver under INA§ 212(i) for fraud. It is not entirelyclear whether the proposed rulewould cover people who in additionto a waiver under § 212(a)(9)(B)(v)need to obtain permission to reap-ply for admission because their de-parture will execute an order of re-moval and create inadmissibility un-der INA § 212(a)(9)(A), but it wouldseem that it should, since such ap-plications for permission to reapplycan already be filed in advance un-der existing regulations - the actualproposed rule may clarify this whenit comes out. We do urge the USCISto at least include sons and daugh-ters of US citizens who do not qualifyas immediate relatives.

A child who has turned 21, andwho may not be protected under theChild Status Protection Act, still re-mains very much part of the nuclearfamily especially in hard economictimes when their parents are still thelifeline. These adult children, techni-cally referred to as sons and daugh-ters, would otherwise qualify underDREAM Act legislation, and may atleast be able to take advantage ofthis provisional waiver if the pro-posed rule is adjusted to allow themto do so.

Although this new proposed rulemay be portrayed as some sort ofradical innovation by immigrationrestrictionists, it is actually nothingof the sort. The governing regula-tions, specifically 8 C.F.R. § 212.2(j),have long provided that one who isconsular processing an immigrantvisa, and will need permission to re-apply for admission because his orher departure will execute an orderof deportation or removal and createinadmissibility under INA §212(a)(9)(A), can file the Form I-212application for permission to reap-ply in advance of departing from theUnited States, and "shall receive aconditional approval depending onhis or her satisfactory departure."

That is, people who will be sub-ject to the 5- and 10-year bars basedon executed removal and deporta-tion orders (the length of the bar canvary depending on the circum-stances of a removal order) have longbeen able to apply for advance waiv-ers of those bars before they leavethe US to consular-process an immi-grant visa.

This new proposed rule wouldsimply update the regulations to cre-

ate a similar procedure for the paral-lel 3- and 10-year bars created byIIRIRA (the "Illegal Immigration Re-form and Immigrant ResponsibilityAct of 1996"), for people who re-move themselves from the UnitedStates after being unlawfullypresent even though there mayhave been no removal proceedingsagainst them.

It can therefore be seen as a longoverdue technical fix. However, itremains to be seen how long the rulemaking process will take, which in-cludes notice and comment. Thereis also bound to be opposition tothe rule.

The USCIS still has to publishrules from the enactment of IIRIRA

provisions in 1996! Hopefully, theObama administration will give thishigh priority as the promulgation ofsuch a rule may even reduce theundocumented population in theUS.

This technical fix could also re-duce inefficiency in the era of Mat-ter of Quilantan, 25 I&N Dec. 285(BIA 2010), especially if accompa-nied by an additional change in theproposal relating to potential issuesof fraud.

Under Quilantan, entering theUnited States at a port of entry withthe permission of an immigration of-ficer is sufficient to create eligibilityfor adjustment of status as an im-mediate relative of a U.S. citizen, re-gardless of whether one's entry wasprocedurally proper, as long as theentry did not involve a knowingfalse claim to U.S. citizenship.

Many people who were wavedthrough the border as passengersin a car or the like have little cor-


Waiver rule for those facing 3- or 10-year barsroborating evidence of their man-ner of entry. Absent this regulation,if such a Quilantan entrant is mar-ried to a U.S. citizen and is deniedadjustment because USCIS rejectstheir testimony regarding manner ofentry, they will effectively be forcedto request that removal proceedingsbe commenced against them so thatthey may testify before an Immigra-tion Judge and seek to establish theirmanner of entry by credible testimonyas Ms. Quilantan did in her case.

Under the new procedure, somesuch Quilantan entrants may decidethat it is simpler to seek an advancewaiver of inadmissibility, as long astheir qualifying relative's particularform of extreme hardship is such thata brief trip abroad to pick up an im-migrant visa will not be intolerable.

If the advance waiver is ap-proved, the already overcrowdedimmigration court system would thenbe spared the necessity of hearingtestimony regarding the applicant'smanner of entry.

One caveat, however, is that thecurrent version of the proposal,which excludes waivers of fraud-re-

lated inadmissibility under INA §212(i), could lead potential appli-cants and their attorneys to fear apotential finding of fraud inadmis-sibility by a consulate where the cir-cumstances of the applicant's priorentry into the United States aremurky and difficult to prove (mak-ing it hard to refute an inaccurateconsular suspicion that some fraudmay have been committed).

The potential efficiency would bemuch greater if the USCIS proposalwere modified to allow either ad-vance waivers under INA § 212(i),or at least an advance finding thatno fraud was committed by an appli-cant. Otherwise, Quilantan entrantswithin the U.S. may be reluctant togive up their right to have an Immi-gration Judge (and if necessary theBIA) adjudicate their contention thatthey did not commit fraud in theirentry, and to instead be at the mercyof an effectively unreviewable deter-mination by a consular officer.

A child who hasturned 21, and whomay not be protectedunder the Child StatusProtection Act, stillremains very muchpart of the nuclearfamily especially inhard economic timeswhen their parents arestill the lifeline

44 India Post January 27, 2012www.indiapost.com

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India not to seek waiver fromUS sanctions on Iran

Foreign Secretary, Ranjan Mathai

NEW DELHI: India will not seeka waiver from the US against itsfresh round of sanctions againstIran even as a multi-disciplinarydelegation is visiting Tehran todiscuss financial and other as-pects to ensure continued supplyof oil from that country.

Under the new American sanc-

tions, made on December 31, fi-nancial institutions dealing withIran's central bank will be penal-ized, which may result in more dif-ficulty for India to pay Iran for oilimports. However, the US allowswaivers for those buyers from

countries that significantly reducedealings with Iran.

"We have accepted sanctionswhich are made by the United Na-tions. Other sanctions do not ap-ply to individual countries.

We don't accept that positionand we continue to buy oil fromIran," Foreign Secretary Ranjan

Mathai told reporters when askedif India would seek waiver from theUS against the sanctions.

He also cited examples of otherEuropean countries such asGreece which continues to importoil from Iran.

In a bid to ensure uninterruptedsupply of oil from Iran, a multi-dis-ciplinary team is currently visitingTehran to discuss financial trans-action issues that may arise out ofrecent sanctions.

“We don't accept that position and we con-tinue to buy oil from Iran," Foreign SecretaryRanjan Mathai told reporters when asked ifIndia would seek waiver from the US againstthe sanctions

India currently pays Iran aboutUSD 1 billion every monththrough Turkey for the 370,000barrels per day of crude oil it buysfrom the world's fourth-largest oilproducer.-PTI

US court rejects blocking ofbank loans to Air India

NEW YORK: Paving the wayfor a crucial loan guarantee by theUS Exim Bank to Air India, a fed-eral court has rejected a bid by anindustry body of major US airlinesto block USD 3.4 billion loan tothe national carrier to purchasenew Boeing planes.

Trade body 'Airlines forAmerica' had filed a lawsuit inNovember last year against the USExim Bank opposing the loan guar-antee to Air India to buy the much-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliners,

saying the financial support wouldput US carriers at a commercial dis-advantage.

The US Exim Bank had in Octo-ber last approved loan guaranteesof USD 1.3 billion to support AirIndia's fleet acquisition fromBoeing and another USD 2.1 bil-lion preliminary commitment tosupport future deliveries of the USaerospace company's planes tothe Indian national carrier.

Rejecting the plea, Judge JamesBoasberg of the US District Courtfor Columbia said the trade grouphad failed to show that Americancarriers will suffer significant fi-nancial loss if the Boeing jets aredelivered to Air India.

"Because plaintiffs have notdemonstrated a likelihood thatthey will suffer irreparable harmduring the pendency of the law-suit in the absence of an injunc-tion, the court will deny their re-quested relief," Boasberg ruled.

The judge further noted that"none of the airlines participating inthis lawsuit currently offers a directflight between the US and India."

Maintaining that only twoplanes were scheduled to be de-livered to Air India by March, hepointed out that it was "whollyspeculative" to assume that thesedeliveries would cause financialinjury to US carriers. -PTI

Google, Facebookwarned of beingblocked in India

Google India and Facebookhave been warned that they

could be "blocked" in India if theyfailed to remove objectionablematerial from their web sites.

The Delhi High Court warnedthe two websites and said thatwebsites that carry objectionablematerials could be blocked like it'sdone in China.

Former Additional SolicitorGeneral Mukul Rohatgi, appearingfor Google India, said that it wasimpossible to monitor billions ofpostings even if some of themwere obscene, objectionable anddefamatory.

He added that Google India is asubsidiary of Google Inc and has aseparate legal identity and is notbound by the acts or offences com-mitted by its holding company.

However Judge Suresh Cait re-fused to accept Google India's ar-gument and said that that as a ben-eficiary that did business in India,Google India could be liable for it.

Now an app tofollow Great WhiteSharks

California based Marine Con-servation Science Institute

has launched an iPhone app thatenables users to track the greatwhite sharks as they roam in thePacific Ocean.

The app has been described asthe first shark tracker of its kindand has been launched to raisefunds for the institute's research.

Users can watch the sharks ontheir smartphone screens. Thesharks were tagged by the insti-tute in recent years.

Apple store facescustomers' wrathin China

Apple Inc was at the receivingend of its customers' wrath

after a botched introduction of thelatest iPhone 4S in China.

Customers who had waitedthroughout the cold night got an-gry after Apple's main store inBeijing's Sanlitun district failed toopen.

Apple had earlier announcedthat the store would open at 7 a.m.However people lost their patienceafter a man without any explana-tion announced that the phonewouldn't go on sale that day.

They then started pelting thestore with eggs and the Beijingpolice had to temporarily cordonoff the store.

Ministry to deferDatwind's AakashProject

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development

(HRD) may put on hold the projectof Datawind's Aaksah tablet. Re-cently, the users have complainedsome technical faults owing to itsslow processor speed and lessbattery life.

With effect to this, the govern-ment has shelved the supply orderof 70,000 tablets. Earlier, 1 lakhAakash tablets were supposed tobe distributed amongst the studentsin which 30,000 has already beensupplied in order to bridge the digi-tal divide between the rich and poor.

The Government is now plan-ning to make new spectrums forthe Aakash project.

45India PostTechBiz PostJanuary 27, 2012

www.indiapost.com

India-Japan to examine highspeed rail corridor

NEW DELHI: India and Japan,a pioneer in bullet train operations,have decided to set up a high-levelworking group to examine variousissues related to establishment ofhigh speed rail corridors in thecountry.

The decision was taken during

a meeting between Railway Min-ister Dinesh Trivedi and JapaneseMinister for Land Infrastructure,Transport and Tourism TakeshiMaeda here.

"We have taken a decision thatat a very high level of decision mak-ing there is going to be a workinggroup between Japan and India. We

The Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Govern-

ment of Japan, Takeshi Maeda meeting the Union Minister for Railways,

Dinesh Trivedi to discuss bilateral issues in the field of rail transportation

and various aspects of high speed train corridors in India, in New Delhi.

have to find out where do we be-gin," Trivedi told reporters here.

He was asked about the progressof the proposed high speed corri-dor project in the country.

Stressing the importance ofhigh speed trains for the countryand its economy, Trivedi said hehas discussed the issue with PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh andwith the Japanese Prime Ministerand they are "very serious" aboutthe project.

Known for its expertise in run-ning bullet trains, Japan hasshown keen interest in India's am-

bition to run high speed trains.Japan's External Trade Organi-

zation and Oriental Consultancyalong with Parsons Brinkhoff In-dia have recently bagged a con-tract to carry out pre-feasibilitystudy of the Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai corridor, oneof the six corridors identified byIndian Railways for high speedtrain operations.

To a pointed question if highspeed train operations are possiblein India, President of East JapanRailway Company Satoshi Seinoreplied in the affirmative. -PTI

Stressing the impor-tance of high speedtrains for the countryand its economy,Trivedi said he hasdiscussed the issuewith Prime MinisterManmohan Singhand with the Japa-nese Prime Ministerand they are "veryserious" about theproject

Jet Airways orders 17 Boeing 737sWASHINGTON: Jet Airways

has converted its options to buyBoeing 737 mid-range from the USaircraft manufacturer into a pur-chase agreement.

"Jet Airways of India has placedorder for 17 Boeing 737 aircraft," aspokesman of Boeing told PTIhere.

The spokesman, however, didnot give any further detail, sayingthat it is up to the Jet Airways tomake the announcement.

Indian aviation industrysources said the premier privatecarrier could have converted itsoptions to acquire 10 of these

planes into purchase agreements.The airline, which had given

firm orders almost four years agofor 11 Boeing 737-800s with op-tions to buy ten more, had re-ceived the first of these planes inSeptember last year.

As per list prices, the deal islikely to be around USD 1.4 bil-lion. However, airlines generallynegotiate for major concessionsfrom the makers.

Jet Airways spokespersonswere not available for comments.

The sources said the airlinecould also convert its wide -bodyaircraft order to acquire more nar-

row-body ones.However, there was no confir-

mation on the issue.The new Boeing 737-800s, for

which additional orders have beenplaced, have significantly quietercabin and are fitted with a decorcalled Sky Interior which has in-spired shape, color, decor and tex-ture.

The LED lighting, fitted in thenew aircraft, can portray differentcolor schemes like a soft blue skyand a relaxing pallet of sunset col-ors. -PTI

UN report pegs India growth at7.7% in 2012, 7.9% in 2013

NEW DELHI: India's economicgrowth rate will remain subduedat 7.7 per cent in 2012 and 7.9 percent in 2013 as downside risks haveincreased, mainly on account ofproblems in Europe and the USA,says a UN report.

"India's economy is forecast toexpand at a pace similar to 2011 inthe following two years... at 7.7 percent in 2012 and 7.9 per cent in2013," the UN report on 'WorldEconomic Situation and Prospects2012' said.

The report cautioned, "Thedownside risks to the regionaloutlook have sharply increased inrecent months particularly in case

of India. Double-dip recessions inEurope and the United Stateswould have a significant impact oneconomic activities across SouthAsia."

The government recently low-ered the GDP growth target for thecurrent fiscal to 7 per cent fromthe earlier estimate of 8.5 per cent.

However, the study gave apositive outlook on South Asia'seconomic growth prospects andprojected that the region's econo-mies will grow by 6.7 per cent and6.9 per cent in 2012 and 2013, re-spectively, accelerating beyondthe 6.5 per cent growth rate expe-rienced in 2011. -PTI

46 India Post TechBiz Post January 27, 2012

www.indiapost.com

ONGC in talks with US company for oil explorationNEW DELHI: State-run Oil and Natural

Gas Corp (ONGC) is in talks with US energyfirm ConocoPhillips to explore possibilitiesof joining hands for exploration of oil andgas in Indian deep sea and shale gas inNorth America.

ONGC is proposing to sign a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MOU) withConocoPhillips for cooperation in explora-tion and development of shale gas anddeepwater opportunities, a company offi-cial said.

The company in a statement said "dis-cussions with ConocoPhillips to explorepossibilities of any business partnership areat a very nascent stage."

The state-owned firm is keen to rope in aforeign major with technology to developdeepwater finds like the ultra deep sea UD-

1 discovery in KG-DWN-98/2 block inKrishna Godavari basin. ConocoPhillipslast October visited data room for 19deepwater blocks of ONGC.

The official said ONGC had approached

12 companies working in South East Asiaincluding ConocoPhillips of USA for poten-tial farm-in and a deep water flyer for east-coast blocks was sent to them.

ConocoPhillips has shown interest inONGC deep water blocks, he said addingthe draft MOU provides for potential explo-ration and development of shale opportu-nities in India, North America and elsewhere

and potential deepwater opportunities off-shore India.

ONGC has expressed interest in joininghands with ConocoPhillips, or its affiliates,

in shale assets in North America.This is ONGC's fourth attempt to get a

credible foreign partner in its explorationacreage after Petrobras of Brazil, Statoil ofNorway and BG Group of UK walked out ofits ventures for various reasons.

While Petrobras and Statoil walked outbecause of delays in getting regulatory ap-provals for picking up stake in blocks suchas KG-DWN-98/2, BG withdrew as part ofits global portfolio realignment.

If talks with ConocoPhillips succeed,ONGC is looking at bringing to produc-tion dozens of deep sea finds it has madein the Krishna Godavari and Mahanadibasin.

ConocoPhillips is the third-largest inte-grated energy company in the US and thefifth-largest refiner in the world. -PTI

ONGC is proposing to sign a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) with ConocoPhillips for cooperation inexploration and development of shale gas anddeepwater opportunities, a company official said

Exports up 6.7 pc in Dec, mayachieve $300 bn FY'12 target

Videocon to withdraw SEZ projectin W Bengal

NEW DELHI: A Videocongroup firm has approached theCentre to withdraw its IT/ITESSEZ project at Jalpaiguri due to"latest business outlook" in thenorthern region of West Bengal.

"...Now, the developer has re-quested for withdrawal of formalapproval stating that the companyis not able to implement the projectowing to the latest business out-look of the region," according to aCommerce Ministry document.

An inter-ministerial Board ofApproval (BoA), chaired by Com-merce Secretary Rahul Khullar, willconsider this request on January 24.

The project was to be imple-mented by Videocon Realty andInfrastructure Ltd which had beengranted a formal approval for set-ting up 10-hectare Special Eco-nomic Zone (SEZ). The preliminary

approval was given in May 2009.Even as Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee recently held a meetingin Kolkata with industrialists, sev-

eral projects relating to steel andpower are stuck in the state fordifferent reasons including certain

regulatory and land issues.Infrastructure major Larsen and

Toubro has also approached theCommerce Ministry to surrenderits IT/ITeS SEZ which was to comeup at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu,due to "economic unviability" ofthe project.

"The developer has requestedfor de-notification of the SEZ...inthe changed economic scenario,"the agenda papers of the BoAmeeting said.

Besides, 11 developers includ-ing that of Parsvnath SEZ Ltd andTaneja Aerospace and AviationLtd have extension of time for ex-ecution of their projects.

However, India's largest soft-ware firm, TCS remains bullish onthe sector and has sought ap-proval for its new SEZ project atIndore in Madhya Pradesh. -PTI

"The developer hasrequested for de-notification of theSEZ...in the changedeconomic scenario,"the agenda papersof the BoA meetingsaid

NEW DELHI: India's exportsgrowth remained subdued at 6.7per cent year-on-year in Decem-ber on account of poor demand inEurope and the US, but the gov-ernment is hopeful of achieving itsUSD 300 billion target for the cur-rent fiscal.

Though growth during themonth under review was not ro-bust, it was higher than in Novem-ber, when overseas shipmentsgrew by just 3.8 per cent.

In sharp contrast, imports grewat a faster pace of 19.8 per centyear-on-year to USD 37.8 billionin December, translating into atrade deficit of USD 12.8 billion,Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullartold reporters here.

During the April-December pe-riod this fiscal, exports aggregatedto USD 217.6 billion, a year-on-

year growth of 25.8 per cent,thanks to the surge witnessed inthe early months of the fiscal.

From a peak of 82 per cent inJuly, export growth slipped to 44.25per cent in August, 36.36 per centin September and 10.8 per cent inOctober.

"If you get USD 80 billion ex-ports in the remaining quarter(January-March, 2012), you arelooking at close to USD 300 bil-lion. And imports may touch aboutUSD 460 billion," Khullar said.

Experts opined that thecountry's exports growth for theentire fiscal will stand at about 20per cent. During the first threequarters of the current fiscal, im-ports were up by 30.4 per cent atUSD 350.9 billion. The trade defi-cit stood at USD 133.3 billion dur-ing the period. -PTI

Bangladesh to abandon 8 projects under Indian creditDHAKA: Bangladesh has

planned to abandon eight of the21 projects to be implemented un-der the Indian USD 1 billion creditline due to complexities arising outof lender's "tough conditions",reports said on Tuesday.

An inter-ministerial meeting onMonday decided that the eightprojects might be dropped and re-placed with "easily executable"fresh ones, if agreed by the lender,media reports said.

The 'Samakal' and several othernewspapers reported that the de-cision came as the ministries con-cerned reported that it became dif-ficult for them to execute projectsas the credit conditions requiredthe recipient to procure 85 per centof the goods and services fromIndia, which were available in thecountry, in many cases, at a muchcheaper cost.

"If the goods and services par-ticularly like sands, bricks andworkforces are to be procured fromIndia, which are available inBangladesh at a much cheaperprice, the project cost will be very

high," a senior finance ministryofficial said.

The official said the inter-min-isterial meeting on Monday dis-cussed the problems as the execut-ing ministries and governmentagencies raised the issue of harder

conditions attached to the loan.The Samakal newspaper quot-

ing Economic Relations Division'ssenior assistant secretary ZinatRehana said Bangladesh wouldconvey the plan to a visiting In-

dian delegation which was ex-pected in Dhaka next week.

Bangladesh earlier undertook20 projects under the Indian creditfor upgrading its infrastructureafter the Indian government inAugust 2010 confirmed USD 1 bil-

lion loan for Bangladesh.The Financial Express newspa-

per reported the largest recipientsof the loan - the railway and thecommunications ministries - haveso far failed to receive funds fromthe Indian credit line as they tookup 17 projects under the credit, butthey are yet to complete tenderprocess for most of the schemes.

The report said BangladeshRoad Transport Corporation(BRTC) is the lone governmentagency, which was able to startspending some Indian credit toprocure buses from India.

"Only one project has beenrunning smoothly. The money forthe rest 19 schemes under theUSD 1 billion credit could not beutilised due to procurement com-plexities," a joint secretary at thefinance ministry told the newspa-per. -PTI

"Only one project has been runningsmoothly. The money for the rest 19 schemesunder the USD 1 billion credit could not beutilised due to procurement complexities," ajoint secretary at the finance ministry said

Haryana's milkproductiongoing up

CHANDIGARH: The annualmilk production in Haryana hasreached 62.67 lakh tonnes in thecurrent fiscal so far compared to52.22 lakh tonnes during 2004-05.

Stating this here, a spokesmanof the Animal Husbandry andDairying Department said percapita per day availability of milkin the state is 680 grams comparedto national average of 262 grams.

A target for doubling the milkproduction in the next 10 years hasbeen fixed, the spokesperson added.Further, he said the government hasopened 133 veterinary hospitals and291 veterinary dispensaries. Thetotal number of veterinary institu-tions in the state have now gone upto 2,790 for providing veterinary andbreeding services to the livestockin the state, he said. -PTI

India Post 47

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Philosophy

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Training of spirit dependson character of teacher

MAHATMA GANDHI

Long before I undertook theeducation of the young-sters of the Tolstoy Farm I

had realized that the training of thespirit was a thing by itself. To de-velop the spirit is to build characterand to enable one to work towardsa knowledge of God and self-real-ization. And I held that this was anessential part of the training of theyoung, and that all training withoutculture of the spirit was of no use,and might be even harmful.

How then was this spiritualtraining to be given? I made thechildren memorize and recitehymns, and read to them frombooks on moral training. But thatwas far from satisfying me.

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ploys. It is a light which issuesforth to do service under the guid-ance of the Spirit. The Divine Lightpermeates the soul, and lifts itabove the turmoil of temporalthings to rest in God. The soulcannot progress except with thelight which God has given it as anuptial gift; love works the like-ness of God into the soul.

The peace, freedom and bless-edness of all souls consist in theirabiding in God's will. Towards thisunion with God for which it is cre-ated the soul strives perpetually.Fire converts wood into its ownlikeness, and the stronger thewind blows, the greater grows thefire.

Now by the fire understandlove, and by the wind the HolySpirit. The stronger the influenceof the Holy Spirit, the brightergrows the fire of love; but not allat once, rather gradually as thesoul grows.

Light causes flowers and plantsto grow and bear fruit; in animalsit produces life, but in men bless-edness. This comes from the graceof God, Who uplifts the soul, forif the soul is to grow God-like it

must be lifted above itself.To produce real moral freedom,

God's grace and man's will mustco-operate. As God is the PrimeMover of nature, so also He cre-ates free impulses towards Himselfand to all good things. Grace ren-ders the will free that it may doeverything with God's help, work-ing with grace as with an instru-

ment which belongs to it.So the will arrives at freedom

through love, nay, becomes itselflove, for love unites with God. Alltrue morality, inward and outward,is comprehended in love, for loveis the foundation of all the com-mandments.

All outward morality must bebuilt upon this basis, not on self-interest. As long as man lovessomething else than God, or out-side God, he is not free, because

he has not love. Therefore thereis no inner freedom which doesnot manifest itself in works of love.

True freedom is the governmentof nature in and outside manthrough God; freedom is essen-tial existence unaffected by crea-tures. But love often begins withfear; fear is the approach to love:fear is like the awl which draws

the shoemaker's thread throughthe leather.

As for outward works they areordained for this purpose that theoutward man may be directed toGod. But the inner work, the workof God in the soul is the chief mat-ter; when a man finds this withinhimself, he can let go externals.

No law is given to the righ-teous, because he fulfils the lawinwardly, and bears it in himself,for the least thing done by God is

better than all the work of crea-tures. But this is intended forthose who are enlightened byGod and the Holy Scriptures.

But here on earth man neverattains to being unaffected byexternal things. There never wasa Saint so great as to be immov-able. Some people wish to dowithout good works. I say, "This

cannot be." As soon as the dis-ciples received the Holy Ghost,they began to work.

I can never arrive at a statewhen discord shall be as pleas-ing to my ears as harmony.

When Mary sat at the feet ofour Lord that was her schooltime. But afterwards when Christwent to heaven, and she re-ceived the Holy Spirit, she be-gan to serve and was ahandmaid of the disciples.

It would be idle for me, if I were aliar, to teach boys to tell the truth.A cowardly teacher would neversucceed in making his boys val-iant, and a stranger to self-re-straint could never teach his pu-pils the value of self-restraint.

I saw therefore that I must bean eternal object-lesson to theboys and girls living with me. Theythus became my teachers, and Ilearnt I must be good and live

straight, if only for their sakes. Imay say that the increasing disci-pline and restraint I imposed onmyself at Tolstoy Farm was mostlydue to those wards of mine.

One of them was wild, unruly,given to lying, and quarrelsome.On one occasion he broke out mostviolently. I was exasperated. Inever punished my boys, but thistime I was very angry. I tried toreason with him. But he was ada-

mant and even tried to overreachme. At last I picked up a ruler ly-ing at hand and delivered a blowon his arm. I trembled as I struckhim. I dare say he noticed it.

This was an entirely novel ex-perience for them all. The boy criedout and begged to be forgiven. Hecried not because the beating waspainful to him; he could, if he hadbeen so minded, have paid meback in the same coin, being a

stoutly built youth of seventeen;but he realized my pain in beingdriven to this violent resource.

Never again after this incidentdid he disobey me. But I still re-pent that violence. I am afraid Iexhibited before him that day notthe spirit, but the brute, in me.

I have always been opposed tocorporal punishment. I rememberonly one occasion on which Iphysically punished one of my

sons. I have therefore never untilthis day been able to decidewhether I was right or wrong inusing the ruler.

Probably it was improper, for itwas prompted by anger and a de-sire to punish. Had it been an ex-pression only of my distress, Ishould have considered it justi-fied. But the motive in this casewas mixed.

This incident set me thinking

and taught me a better method ofcorrecting students. The youngstersoon forgot the incident, and I donot think he ever showed great im-provement. But the incident mademe understand better the duty of ateacher towards his pupils.

Excerpted from My Experi-ments with Truth

The 64th death anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi will be ob-served on January 30

Mahatma Gandhi

Meister Eckhart

Never again after this incident did he dis-obey me. But I still repent that violence. I amafraid I exhibited before him that day not thespirit, but the brute, in me

Love often begins with fear; fear is the ap-proach to love: fear is like the awl whichdraws the shoemaker's thread throughthe leather

49Edit Pagewww.indiapost.com

January 27, 2012 India Post

India Post

India's Iran policy dilemma:nuclear fuel or crude oil?

J JEGANAATHAN

In a move to enervate Iran theUS has recently imposed fresheconomic sanctions that

would stifle Iran's financial insti-tutions. Unlike in the past the USseems to be keen on persuadingkey oil importers such as India,China and Japan to implementsanctions against Iran. The pro-posed sanctions will severelyhamper Iran's oil revenues.

While Japan has already de-cided to reduce its oil dependencyon Iran, China has expressed an-guish about US' decision. The In-dian position, however, remainsunclear. India confronts a policydilemma in choosing whether tobandwagon with the West or tobefriend Iran. India wantsto strengthen the strategicpartnership with the USand at the same timewishes to maintain goodrelations with Iran.

As a corollary, the in-advertent dilemma now iswhether to choose nuclearfuel and lose crude oil orvice-versa. This article ar-gues that the energy ques-tion is fueling India's Iranpolicy dilemma and explores op-tions for India to overcome it.

In general, economic sanctionsare considered to be an element ofcoercive diplomacy in interna-tional politics. However, in Iran'scase it has proved to be a sign oftimid diplomacy. The so-calledwestern approach of 'carrots andsticks' has failed to persuade Iranto forgo its nuclear weapon pro-gram. Moreover, neither the E3/EUnuclear diplomacy nor the IAEAnegotiations could prevent Iranfrom pursuing the uranium enrich-ment program.

Despite the US' campaign ofinternational isolation and Israel'ssaber-rattling, Iran is brazenly fur-thering its uranium enrichmentprogram. Technically, Iran's en-richment capability illustrates thatnuclear weapon is within Iran'sreach. Whether the proposed eco-nomic sanction will bite Iran orboost the regime's conviction is amoot question but the perplexingquestion is how it impacts India -a traditional friend which turnedout to be a situational foe.

The India-Iran-US triangularrelationship emerged as an inevi-table phenomenon after the Indo-US nuclear deal steering the secu-rity dynamics of the region. India'sinterest in this complicated trioseems to be driven largely by itsenergy security interests thanother factors. As a third largestimporter of crude oil from Iranamounting to 12 per cent of its

overall import, India will face atough time ahead if the economicsanctions against Iran are imple-mented as well, if Iran blocks theStrait of Homruz. Therefore, thereis no doubt that it will severelyupset India's energy securitywhich is sine quo non for its al-ready sluggish economic growth.

India needs crude oil as well asnuclear fuel for its fast growingeconomy. The former is suppliedby Iran and the latter is ensuredby the US under the Indo-USnuclear agreement. Thus India issituated in a very awkward posi-tion when it is asked to supportoil sanctions on Iran. The eco-nomic sanctions will jeopardize

India's oil import from Iran.With the rising global oil price,

booming inflation and increasingdomestic energy consumption In-dia cannot afford to lose oil sup-ply from Iran. At the same time,India cannot stop the US or thewest from exercising military op-

tion against Iran. India should, inthe meanwhile, avoid any sym-bolic hostility and protect its en-ergy security interests in this un-ending nuclear impasse.

India's vote against Iran at theIAEA in 2005 was a symbolic ges-ture to show to the world that it isa responsible nuclear power andalso to secure US help to ensurenuclear fuel supply from Nuclear

Supplier Group (NSG). Nuclearenergy contributes to 3 per centof its electricity generation. How-ever, crude oil and natural gashave become essential commodi-ties without which the country'seconomic engine will cease tofunction. Securing the supply andproduction of these energysources have become top priorityfor the government in India.

Three plausible scenarios arelikely to emerge in the future: Iranwill be air-raided, Iran will test anuclear bomb and the currentnuclear stalemate will continue.None of these scenarios will be fa-vorable to India and rather wouldendanger India's energy security.

To avoid a stalematethe following can beconsidered:

First, India needsto de-hyphenate itsrelationship with theUS on Iran by articu-lating its energy secu-rity interests. This re-quires a 'deft diplo-macy' from the Indianside and the presentinternational security

environment stormed by globaleconomic crisis favors implemen-tation of this option. This wouldhelp India to overcome a catch-22situation vis-à-vis oil imports fromIran.

Second, India can stage-man-age the present nuclear stalematebetween Iran and the west by sug-gesting an alternative non-west-ern approach similar to that of Bra-zil-Turkey initiative to strike a con-sensual deal with Iran. This wouldat least prolong the Iranian planto test a bomb, thus avoid anynuclear domino effect in the re-gion.

Third, India should prepare fora nuclear weapons-armed Iran. Sofar, there is no official statementfrom India stating nuclear-armedIran is a threat to its national se-curity. When India could live withthe nuclear-armed Pakistan, it cansimply do the same with Iran. But,securing India's interests, in caseIran is attacked is going to be abig challenge for India.

The possibility of war on Iranor Iran testing a nuclear weaponis minimal at least in the short-term due to global economic cri-sis and the forthcoming nationalelections in the US and Iran.This provides ample space forIndia to maneuver and exercisediplomatic skills to protect itsvital energy security interests inthe region.

The writer is Research Officer,IPCS

With the rising globaloil price, boominginflation and in-creasing domesticenergy consumptionIndia cannot affordto lose oil supplyfrom Iran. At thesame time, Indiacannot stop the US orthe west from exer-cising military optionagainst Iran

Dithering UPA

It is not as if the UPA government was caught on the wrong footby the Anna Hazare movement alone. Even on minor issues ithas been found dithering resulting in small matters being blown

up into a crisis. The date of birth of the Indian Army Chief is sucha matter which has been allowed to grow up into a confrontationbetween the Army and civilian leadership. The issue has beensimmering for the last four years but instead of taking a firm deci-sion the government has allowed the issue to be referred to differ-ent bureaucracies leading to a perception of lack of trust by theArmy Chief.

Political leadership is about taking decisions. The present In-dian leadership is so lacking in this faculty that it seems frightenedof taking decisions. That is why the Prime Minister, supposedlythe supreme executive authority, keeps referring vital issues to thiscommittee or that committee, displaying a lack of ability to decidefor himself. Trained as a bureaucrat he is unable to function as apolitician thus leading to a whole lot of problems compounded byindecision. Blaming alliance partners all the time is no way to run agovernment. The decision about the Army Chief's date of birth hasnothing to do with the UPA's allies.

Army Chief General VK Singh says his hand was forced tomove the Supreme Court on the issue of his date of birth as hewanted to prevent an adverse decision after a Public Interest Liti-gation by ex-armymen was coming up in a court. He fears insidiousmotives behind the PIL. Adding to his discomfiture were storiesslandering the Army Chief being highlighted in the media allegedlyleaked by the Defense ministry.

Another factor that undermined the compromise efforts beingworked out between the government and the Army Chief was thehabit of UPA functionaries of talking in multiple voices. While theArmy Chief was given assurances that his honor and integrity willbe protected, there were other voices saying different things whichshook the confidence of the Army Chief.

The relationship between the Army and the government is quitedifferent from what transpires in Pakistan. There the government issaid to function under the directions of the Army whereas in Indiathe Army is belittled at the hands of bureaucrats, what to speak ofthe politicians. The insecurity among army people has only in-creased in the tenure of the present Defense Minister A K Antony.Under his watch the Army has bee functioning under inadequatefacilities and in the name of preventing corruption in procurement,he has blocked infusions of arms into the Army. He also allowedthis issued to fester resorting to a bureaucratic approach insteadof resolving it quietly with the Army Chief. BJP leader JaswantSingh, a former army officer himself, went to the extent of saying hewas "amazed at Antony's incompetence and sheer folly of treatingsuch a sensitive matter in an insensitive manner."

Antony, who is highly regarded by Sonia Gandhi, is now at thereceiving end of adverse voices from the Congress party and thegovernment although they are not willing to come out in the open.

It is tragic that the matter had to go to the Prime Minister andeven he has not been able to resolve it. It is obvious that this casehas also been spoiled by too many cooks in the broth and nonewilling to exercise authority leaving the matter in the hands of thebureaucracy.

Nuclear facility in Arak, Iran


January 27, 201250

January 27, 2012 India Post 51www.indiapost.com


January 27, 201252

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