A Million Dollar Indian Wedding that will Blow Your Mind -- Adii Dande

March 13, 2014, 6:25 am

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March 11, 2014

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A Million Dollar Indian Wedding that will Blow Your Mind
By Adii Dande

Indian weddings have always known to be big, fat and opulent. But these days, couples have pushed the envelope and taken it a notch higher. Well, while it is said that money cannot buy everything, it certainly can buy a royal wedding! If the breathtakingly beautiful wedding of Pankaj Malani and Avnie Patel is anything to go by, the affluent Indians are redefining the concepts of opulence, grandeur and magnificence. If you don't believe us, take a look at the video below to know what we are talking about. This is probably one of the most extravagant NRI weddings that we have ever seen!
Recommended Read: Big Fat Indian Weddings that Crossed the 100 Crore Mark

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Although it is true that anything and everything is possible in the wild party city of Las Vegas, Pankaj and Avnie’s wedding is one affair that the city shall definitely not forget for a really long time.


With $9 million (about INR 550 crores) spent over the entire extravaganza, this wedding had everything- from an elephant costing $10,000 to baraatis flown in a chartered jet- and much more beyond imagination.
It was a fairy tale romance for Pankaj Malani and Avnie Patel, both coming from reputed business families from Houston, Texas. When the young lovebirds decided to take the plunge, they were sure about having a destination wedding, and what better place than Vegas to have fun, splurge and go crazy all the way?
Recommended Read: Real Brides and their Dazzling Bridal Lehengas


So, the mind-baffling week-long celebrations began with an extremely happening weekend that was filled with music and dance, along with traditional Marwari and Gujarati rituals. The grandeur of the wedding that became the talk of America, can only be imagined.
Of the total 600 guests who attended the wedding, 200 were flown-in in a chartered jet from Houston, to the grand Cosmopolitan Hotel at the Bellagio, the wedding venue, which cost about $500,000. The venue came alive with colourful Indian festivities and splendour. Pankaj and the baraat flew to Vegas from Texas in a private chartered jet, where Avnie’s parents received them at the airport with much pomp and revelry, and a luxurious Limousine Hummer took them to the hotel.
Recommended Read: 5 Most Expensive Honeymoon Suites Around the World
The day of the wedding saw the groom making a true maharaja-style entry on a well-decked, bejewelled elephant that reportedly cost $10,000 to rent and was transported from Perris, California.

While the Asian elephant walked up the Bellagio driveway, the dancing fountains played Overture of All That Jazz, Luck be a Lady and Viva Las Vegas. But it was not that easy! Engineers had to actually inspect the Bellagio driveway to check if it could carry the weight of the 9,000 pound animal! As the royal baraat proceeded, an estimated 5000-8000 onlookers watched, completely awestruck.

Recommended Read: 5 Surprising Benefits of Holding Hands for Married Couples
Renowned pastry chef, Jean-Philippe Maury, of the Bellagio, required two weeks to meticulously construct a 10-tier cake with a crown at the top. But are we surprised? Not really! After all it had to match the splendour of the whole ambience, which had exotic flower decorations costing about $150,000!
Poker being the couple's passion, the wedding reception was a grand event with The Great Gatsby theme. They even had symbols from a deck of cards intricately designed in their mehendi!
After these mind-boggling celebrations, the couple flew to the exotic Maui, Hawaii, for their honeymoon.
If these dazzling facts have not amazed you enough, see the whole video below:

Recommended Read: 10 Bollywood Celebs Who Married the Not-so-Famous
The vibrant mandap, the opulent ambience, the unique reception, energetic music, dance, lovely costumes, or the mix of traditions, everything was larger-than-life and extraordinary. No wonder then, that it left even the flamboyant US stunned!
Image Courtesy: Mili Ghosh Photography; Video Courtesy: A&A Video Productions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6sV-z9PTuk

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Nilekani’s Aadhaar a danger to our privacy -- Sandhya Jain

March 13, 2014, 7:32 am

≫ Next: TOI manifesto: an agenda for the new government. Needed a chargesheet against SoniaG UPA for subverting Constitution.

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Nilekani’s Aadhaar a danger to our privacy

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Sandhya Jain March 13, 2014

Nandan Nilekani, who got the Congress ticket for the Bangalore South Lok Sabhaconstituency even before officially joining the party on March 9, continues to hold the post of Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), or Aadhaar. The project has been dogged by controversy since its inception in 2009 because of the cavalier fashion in which sensitive biometric data of citizens was collected by executive order, without Parliamentary mandate, and held by a private body with questionable links and shifting goals.

Now, in an interview to a television channel, Nandan Nilekani has revealed that the end goal of Aadhaar is very different from what was stated when it was being imposed upon the country by the UPA fiat. A leading economic daily has expressed concerns, first raised by a reader, that his election office may be using the data of his fully covered constituency to reach voters. While the Election Commission gives political parties copies of the list of registered voters in each constituency, the Infosys co-founders’ campaign office has been sending personalised letters to the heads of every household. The letter cover looks very much like the ones used to send the Aadhaar number cards to individuals and bears the name of the addressee and that of his/her father on it. Since Aadhaar has been executed with public funds, this may be akin to misuse of the Government symbols like the Ashok Chakra; the Election Commission should take a view on it.

The technocrat with a personal worth of $1.3 billion expressed gratitude to the Gandhi family for backing Aadhaar to the hilt, as a consequence of which 60 crore people have been enrolled despite lack of Parliamentary sanction to it. In a television interview, he claimed that it was “irreversible now”, possibly because so much public money has been spent. His interviewer did not ask the relevance of the project even after the Supreme Court declared it ‘non-mandatory’ and ordered delinking Aadhaar from the Government benefits and subsidies – making the project effectively a white elephant – but Nilekani confidently asserted that Aadhaar is the best “anti-corruption platform” and its end goal is a “cashless society”. This should ring warning bells in responsible quarters.

Why Mahatma Gandhi would have burnt Aadhar cards

Interestingly, the ‘unique identity’ can be manufactured by anyone with some equipment. On March 10, 2014, the Mumbai police busted a fake Aadhaar card and voter identity card racket in Byculla, which they believe is part of a much larger racket in creation of fake identities. Three persons were arrested for forgery of official records and their equipment including iris and fingerprint scanners were seized. Among the fake election cards seized, at least three had different names but a similar number (ZHS 4001377).

Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar had warned that Aadhaar is a colossal misuse of public funds. The very claim that Aadhaar gives an identity to all citizens is false, as the programme merely takes an existing ID (real or fake) of anybody (citizen, foreigner or illegal immigrant) and issues a number. Since there is no identity verification, there is no identity being issued. All that happens is that the fake or true ID information is linked to that ID holder’s iris or biometric information. Thus, there is no way to assess the number of fake entries in the Aadhaar database, and as the Mumbai police arrests show, both the fake voter ID and fake UID can be manufactured en masse without entering a Government office.

The issue of fraud in Aadhaar scheme can no longer be ducked. As the Mumbai arrests show, Aadhaar is a national security risk, and is being issued to non-citizens, illegal immigrants, and most likely even to terrorists in cities like Mumbai. Hence, the critical issue of citizenship must first be settled and the UPA diktat of forcing it on the citizenry for non-subsidy schemes like registration of property and opening of bank accounts must be discouraged forthwith. The Supreme Court has already directed (September 23, 2013) that the Aadhaar card cannot be given to illegal immigrants. The controversy over LPG cylinder subsidy has also proved that Aadhaar cannot prevent leakages or reach intended targets because it is fundamentally flawed.

 In Mumbai, Bangladeshis get Aadhar Cards for Rs 2500

The most serious concern regarding Aadhaar, which the Government of India admitted in the Supreme Court, is that the citizens’ biometric data is not secure, which is one reason why no European country has implemented such a scheme. In case of Aadhaar, the data is held by private operators, and hence is prone to dangerous misuse. One of the firms engaged in the project is the New York-based MongoDB, which is backed by the CIA and other intelligence agencies. It has access to the complete database. Former National Security Agency (NSA) employee turned whistle blower, Edward Snowden, has revealed that the US intelligence agencies routinely intercept communications in Europe and Asia, including India. This, as the Centre for Internet and Society has pointed out, means that secret courts and court orders can be used by the CIA to gain access to the UID data.

Aadhaar is an online database, which makes it vulnerable anyway. James Ball, Julian Borger and Glenn Greenwald have reported (The Guardian) that Edward Snowden’s leaked files show that the US NSA and its UK counterpart Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) have largely compromised the guarantees Internet companies give to consumers that their communications, online banking and medical records will be indecipherable to criminals or the Governments. Since then, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has accused telecom operator Vodafone of secretly sharing subscriber data with the British GHCQ by giving secret unlimited access to its network of undersea cables, which carry much of the world’s phone calls and Internet traffic. Vodafone has denied the charges.

Aadhar programme a fraud, will review if voted to power, says BJP

The UID is dangerous and needs to be urgently dismantled to protect Indian citizens. Any database of citizens must be secure and offline, at the very least. As a beginning, the move to force banks to move to biometric ATMs must be thwarted without further ado, as it will increase the risk of the theft of biometric data of citizens which can by misused in various ways. It will also sharply escalate banking costs as the burden is passed on to consumers. The UID is part of the globalisation project of the World Bank, NATO and WTO, which will be used to intrusively micro-monitor citizens’ employment history, health profile, rental and credit card history, bank accounts and savings – the frightening scenario of mind-crushing control foreseen by George Orwell, who linked the totalitarian State to the western capitalist State.

Comment

kalyanaraman • a minute agoHold on, this is waiting to be approved by NitiCentral.

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot...

If the report about Nilekani using aadhar official information (to canvass for his votes) is correct, he may be violating Official Secrets Act. Kalyan

http://www.niticentral.com/2014/03/13/nilekanis-aadhaar-a-danger-to-our-privacy-199690.html

TOI manifesto: an agenda for the new government. Needed a chargesheet against SoniaG UPA for subverting Constitution.

March 13, 2014, 5:19 pm

≫ Next: Aadhaar cards with Bangladeshi immigrants in Bengaluru sparks worry.

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TOI manifesto: An agenda for the new government

TNN | Mar 14, 2014, 04.26 AM IST

Government should be a force for good. Sadly, in India, it has become synonymous with corruption and intimidation, even as we as a society have become increasingly illiberal and fractious. What this nation desperately needs is a clean and caring, efficient and enlightened government. A government that serves the people instead of harassing them; that facilitates instead of obstructing; that creates opportunities for the greatest number instead of favouring a select few; that is fair and consistent, not vengeful and whimsical; that instils hope instead of spreading fear; that encourages initiative and entrepreneurship instead of killing it.

Five years ago, there was a buzz around India. We appeared to be a nation headed, almost inevitably, for superpower status. China and India were spoken of in the same breath. That promise has clearly been belied. Growth has plummeted from sub-10% to sub-5%. Corruption has become endemic, and is eating into the very soul of this nation. It's obvious that the priority of the next government should be to get growth back as close to double digits as possible. But will that alone put India back in the superpower sweepstakes? A nation that cannot provide basic healthcare or education or housing to large swathes of its people, and where millions go without a full meal a day, cannot claim to be 'developed'. Our socio-economic indicators are dismal — trailing, on several counts, even our neighbours Bangladesh and Nepal. We tend not to take sports seriously (except cricket), but our shameful record at the Olympics is emblematic of a deeper malaise.

Perhaps we should stop bothering about tags, and simply focus on doing the right things the right way.

The Times of India has put together a manifesto that it would like political parties to study seriously and perhaps even incorporate into their own; we would also urge the new government to debate it with an open mind and in a spirit of bipartisanship.

Broadly, the TOI manifesto makes a case for fiscally responsible policies and socially progressive laws. We believe an environment must be created for businesses to grow, but grow honestly and not through crony capitalism. We also believe in a pluralistic society, and that individual freedoms must be protected at all cost. Archaic laws, many of them dating back to our colonial past, should be consigned to oblivion because all they do is give corrupt government officers a handle to bully and extort. Education is modern India's greatest leveller and its redemption; it is the path out of the slum, the road to the high table. We are all prisoners of birth, but education has the power to snap the meanest bonds of economic and social enslavement. It's the best investment we can make in our youth and in our future.

Besides price rise and jobs, corruption is what exercises people most today — to the extent that a new party made a spectacular electoral debut on the back of it. So, what should be done about it? There are several bills pending in Parliament; they should be passed at the earliest. But that alone will not suffice. Most of these laws deal with catching and punishing the corrupt. There's a need for preventive measures that strike at the very roots of corruption. That will require a complete relook at the way just about everything is run: the economy, the bureaucracy, the police, the judiciary. Our manifesto is informed by this understanding of dealing with corruption by making all parts of the system more transparent and accountable, instead of merely cubby-holing it as an 'issue' or 'topic'. Government and the legislature have become a symbol of much that is wrong with India. Governance has all but collapsed at every level, and there is cynicism everywhere. Do our politicians have it in them to regain the trust and respect of the people? We hope that the 16th Lok Sabha will bury the unhappy memory of the 15th and do what the legislature is meant for: legislate and legislate well.

We do not claim to be the ultimate repository of wisdom; there are Indians of great integrity, knowledge and experience who should also be heard before policies are framed and laws made. But we will have achieved our objective if our manifesto serves as a starting point for a deep conversation that places the interest of the nation - and not narrow, partisan considerations - front and centre.
Over the next few weeks, we will bring you the thoughts of prominent Indians as part of a 'My Manifesto' series. And we welcome your feedback at www.timesofindia.com — The Editor

ECONOMY, BUSINESS, ENTREPRENEURSHIP

LOWER TAXES, SIMPLIFY TAX LAWS

The entire tax regime - both direct (personal and corporate income tax) and indirect - needs a revisit. Given that less than 3% of the population shows any taxable income at all, there's clearly a need to bring many more into the net instead of burdening the already taxed. It's also high time the field were levelled and rich farmers were made to pay income tax. Tax rates for personal taxpayers should be made more reasonable, in keeping with inflation, if nothing else. The salaried class would benefit from reintroduction of standard deduction (a flat amount that is deducted from income, with the balance subject to tax). The bulk of taxpayers comprise the salaried class and reintroduction of standard deduction, abolished from April 2005, is the simplest way to usher in an additional tax reform for this class. This will also usher in equity, as currently individual taxpayers who are professionals or businessmen are entitled to offset their business expenses against income. Salaried taxpayers only get certain tax sops - such as HRA, LTA, medical or transport allowance - but these in large cities translate into peanuts, such as the Rs 800 per month tax-free travel allowance.

INDIRECT TAXES: SEAMLESS, PAN-INDIA REGIME

On the indirect tax front, political compulsions have repeatedly delayed introduction of the streamlined pan-India goods & service tax (GST). Value Added Tax, which has replaced state specific sales tax in most states since April 2005, started off on the right note - with an intent to provide for uniform tax rates, an input tax credit mechanism to prevent 'tax on tax', and relatively standard processes. Today, because of local revenue compulsions, states have increased VAT rates and blocked or reduced input tax credit (which allowed a credit for taxes paid on intra-state purchases), thus hampering pan-India trade. India needs to be a seamless, not a fragmented, marketplace. VAT must be put back on track by bringing about uniformity in tax rates, rules and procedures in different states. In the long run, call it GST or by any other name (say, central VAT or consumption tax), but there needs to be an economically efficient indirect tax regime that promotes growth. Many developed countries have introduced a federal consumption tax. This is also emerging as the preferred alternative to customs duties in the context of trade liberalization.

NO RETROSPECTIVE CHANGES

Retrospective amendments to law must be introduced only in the rarest of rare occasions to correct a flaw in the tax provisions and not to earn revenue. Otherwise it will only add to pending litigation (worth Rs 2.7 lakh crore in 2012-13).

REVIEW APPEALS

A review of the appeals process may be worth undertaking. The first stage of tax appeal in India is the Commissioner (Appeals). Some countries ensure that the appeals division is independent and has no links with the tax department which is responsible for tax assessment, scrutiny and tax demands. In the US, the appeals division is an independent body, whose officers are evaluated based on their ability to settle cases without next-step litigation.

END WASTEFUL GOVT EXPENDITURE

Instead, focus on a handful of critical areas such as education, healthcare, infrastructure and law and order/security, but with a far stricter audit of performance and finances. Give taxpayers a clear, unambiguous idea of where and how their money is being spent. Several ministries, ranging from textiles and steel to culture and youth affairs can be disbanded. Also, the government should exit slothful, pereniallyhemorrhaging undertakings like Air India.

ALLOCATE RESOURCES IN A TRANSPARENT MANNER

Some of the biggest corruption scandals of the past several years have arisen out of either misconceived or rigged allocation of resources such as coal, ore, spectrum and land. The 1991 industrial policy of the Narasimha Rao government was meant to usher out the licence raj, but just the opposite has happened; sale of government-controlled resources has become the new frontier of crony capitalism. The process by which natural resources are allocated to the private sector must be made transparent and designed to serve public interest rather than the government of the day and its favoured few. This can be done once it is recognized that maximizing short-term revenues for the government does not maximize public interest. Public interest is best served when we ensure a healthy, competitive industry, which is then able to offer goods and services to consumers at a reasonable price. A one-step e-auction, conducted by an independent body, is the best means of addressing these multiple objectives.

BRING BLACK MONEY BACK

A report by Global Financial Integrity states that India has lost nearly $213 billion (about Rs 14 lakh crore) in illicit capital flight since Independence (till 2008). Even if, say, 20% of it can be brought back, through an amnesty scheme, that is close to Rs 3 lakh crore, which is more than the Centre's annual education and healthcare budgets. The repatriated funds could be taxed at 3-5% above current Indian rates, as a moderate penalty. Three-fourths of it (Rs 2.25 lakh crore) could be exclusively earmarked for spending on health, education and infrastructure, and the remaining one-fourth (Rs 75,000 crore) could be distributed as a onetime rebate among all individual taxpayers in proportion to their taxable income - as a reward for honesty (yes, it might be difficult to execute, but worth considering). Total income tax collections are budgeted at less than Rs 2.5 lakh crore in 2013-14. A large inflow of dollars would also help strengthen the rupee. In the US, the American Jobs Creation Act, 2004, offered a temporary tax sop to companies that repatriated dividends by imposing a tax levy of just 5% instead of 35%. However, the repatriated money was allowed to be spent on specific permissible activities like R&D and capital expenditure which would promote growth and job creation. (It could not be used for, say, declaring dividends or for share buybacks.)

CREATE JOBS THROUGH PRIVATE SECTOR INCENTIVES 

About 50% of India's 1.21 billion population is less than 25 years old. The government will need to ensure that the employment expectations of its skilled and educated youth are met - a need that cannot be fulfilled via government sector employment or funded schemes alone. The participation of the private sector is critical. Tax exemptions, grants for job creation, credits against tax payable, weighted deductions for the cost of new hires and their training costs are some of the variants used globally to encourage job creation in the private sector. Countries such as Hungary, Portugal and Switzerland offer tax breaks for investments that result in a specific number of new jobs. Luxembourg incentivizes both training and hiring - 10% of training costs and 15% of gross salary paid to persons who were earlier unemployed can be offset as a credit against corporate income tax. Direct incentive by way of a cash grant is available on newly created jobs in the Slovak Republic.

PROMOTE FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

All industries, including retail, media and defence, should be opened up to FDI. The Indian retail market is expected to be worth $500 billion by 2020 and could create up to 100 million jobs in the next 10 years. Also, a decision taken by the Union Cabinet to allow FDI in a sector must be respected across the country; states mustn't be allowed to block entry.

PRIVATIZE AND DISINVEST AS FAR AS POSSIBLE

PSUs should be privatized as far as possible - especially in industries such as aviation, hotels and steel - but in a fair, transparent manner (just as with resource allocation). Elsewhere, the disinvestment route should be taken.

MAKE IT EASIER TO START A BUSINESS

India ranks 134th among 189 countries, according to a World Bank report on ease of doing business. On ease of starting a business, it ranks even lower: 166. The report says that 35 permissions/procedures are required to construct a warehouse, which takes an average of 168 days. One can only imagine the time and number of clearances it takes to build a factory. Small businesses, too, face frustrating hurdles: for instance, to open a bar & restaurant in Maharashtra, 38 licences are required, many of which date back to colonial times and are outright bizarre. This allows corrupt inspectors to make money at every turn; those who resist, are harassed till they pay up or shut shop. Why should it be so difficult to start a business? It provides employment, creates wealth and generates revenue for government. There's a crying need to drastically reduce the number of permissions required, set a tight time limit for them to be granted (if all the paperwork is in order) and penalize babus if they take longer. Also, the entire system should be online and transparent.

PROMOTE MICRO, SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

MSMEs generate the largest employment (nearly six crore) after agriculture. In terms of value, MSMEs account for 45% of total manufacturing output, 40% of exports, and contribute around 8% to GDP. But they find themselves stymied by their very regulatory definition. For instance, under the MSME Development Act, a small enterprise in the manufacturing sector is one whose investment is between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 5 crore, and for the service sector Rs 10 lakh to Rs 2 crore, which is too low. Those who wish to expand find themselves bereft of credit - which either flows to the 'well-defined' MSME sector or large companies. For growth to be encouraged there is a need to redefine what constitutes MSMEs. Across the European Union, three parameters are used to define what constitutes a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise: employee strength, turnover, balance sheet value. While employee strength is a fixed criterion, a company can chose to opt for either the turnover or balance sheet criterion. In the MSM ranking, a medium-sized enterprise is one which employs fewer than 250 persons and which has either an annual turnover of less than 50m euros (Rs 426cr) or a balance sheet value of not more than 43m euros (Rs 366cr). If enterprises fall in this range they are eligible for a variety of funding. Providing a tax credit or investment allowance to MSMEs is another solution.

FLEXIBLE LABOUR MARKET, BUT WITH A SAFETY NET

Innumerable surveys around the world have shown that labour market inflexibility actually hurts creation of jobs - employers are wary of hiring even in boom time if they are not allowed to trim their workforce in a downturn. A flexible labour market, on the other hand, gives employers the confidence to add staff. But this must be accompanied by a comprehensive social security programme, including unemployment benefits/insurance and assistance in retraining and finding alternative avenues of income generation. (Obviously, people who have no interest in working cannot be kept on a dole.)

EASE LAND ACQUISITION FOR INDUSTRY

Industry is complaining that the new law will make it very difficult for it to acquire land, even for important infrastructure projects. There is a need for better compensation, but the price of acquisition should not be so exorbitant that it hobbles industry. A middle path that is fair to all sides needs to be found.

LEGAL REFORMS

Implement CIC decision bringing parties under RTI: None of the six national parties has complied with the CIC's path-breaking decision in June 2013 to appoint information officers and appellate authorities under the RTI. The Representation of the People Act should be amended to make it mandatory for all recognized parties, national or state, to set up the necessary RTI machinery.

Sec 377 should apply only to non-consensual gay sex: The retrograde Supreme Court judgment on homosexuality needs to be overturned. In fact, the same verdict suggested legislative intervention to get rid of this bizarre notion of "carnal intercourse against the order of nature". The new provision should be clearly limited to penalizing non-consensual gay sex.

Gradation in punishment for rape: Much as some of the rape provisions enacted in the wake of Nirbhaya were necessary, there is a need to tweak the new law, especially to introduce gradation in punishment. While expanding the definition of rape to include all forms of penetration (and not just penile vaginal intercourse any longer), the 2013 law prescribes the same range of penalties (seven years to life) irrespective of the gravity of the crime committed. The new Section 376(1) IPC makes no distinction between, say, somebody who committed a full-blown rape and somebody who did not go beyond inserting his fingers in the victim's vagina before heeding her protests. The one who withdrew at an early stage of the sexual encounter and the one who did not give up till the end can't be rendered liable under the same clause.

Introduce a law against torture: Despite signing the Convention against Torture in 1997, India is yet to enact a law which would enable it to ratify the treaty. The Bill introduced in 2010 needs to be enacted at the earliest.

Turn adultery into a civil offence: The IPC provision drafted in the Victorian era treats adultery as a crime, which can be complained against only by the husband and never by the wife. Following the example of liberal societies, India should make adultery a civil offence — breach of trust — even as it remains a ground for divorce.

Decision to file charges should be prosecution's: Unlike advanced democracies like the UK and US, India empowers the police to decide whether a chargesheet should be filed and if so against whom. As a result, the prosecution is delivered with a fait accompli; it is entrusted with the responsibility of securing conviction although it has no formal role in drafting the chargesheet. This anomaly needs to be redressed through a radical amendment.

Overhaul sedition and blasphemy laws: The colonial provisions of sedition and blasphemy don't belong in the 21st century. In different ways, they hollow out the freedom of speech and expression. The sedition provision — section 124A IPC — needs to be amended to check the recurring misuse of sedition by state authorities against political malcontents. The amendment should incorporate the SC's liberal interpretation in 1962 that, no matter how much the accused spreads 'disaffection' against the government, sedition can't be invoked unless he incites people to violence. The blasphemy provision — 295A IPC — needs to be scrapped as the inbuilt safeguard has proved inadequate.

Get rid of obsolete laws: After over two decades of economic reforms, our laws have still not been rid of obscure and obsolete provisions. Whether they are central or state, the laws continue to offer ample scope to 'authorities' to harass law-abiding citizens. You can be arrested, your homes and establishments raided, your businesses shut down, and your reputation besmirched for reasons that no right-thinking person would consider criminal or immoral. For instance, a five-star hotel was harassed under the Sarai Act, 1867, which makes it mandatory for hotels to serve water to passersby. The Jain Commission, which reviewed administrative laws, admitted that multiplicity and complexity of laws and rules, as well as lack of information about them, leads to misuse (read facilitates corruption) and hampers growth. It sought repeal of over 1,300 central laws (including 11 British statutes). The Commission admitted that there isn't even a rough estimate of similar state laws, which could run into several thousand. The National Law Commission has, down the years, also been giving its recommendations for repeal or revision of laws. Yet, apart from a onestroke repeal of 315 Amendment Acts in March 2002, progress is pathetically slow. Owing to our legislative framework, a law or Act never dies unless specifically repealed. There is a need to institute a mechanism that makes it easier to repeal laws or read down provisions that have either lost relevance or are pernicious.

Stop relying on AFSPA to deal with 'disturbed areas': The strategy of controlling Kashmir and the North-East by conferring draconian powers on the Army has yielded diminishing returns. There is a need to look afresh at the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee's 2005 recommendation to replace AFSPA with a more humane approach, balancing security with human rights.

JUDICIAL REFORMS

Enact laws on judicial appointments and accountability: The existing system of appointments to the superior judiciary, through a collegium of senior judges in every high court and the Supreme Court, has proved to be ineffective because it is completely in-house and opaque. The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2013 to redress these two deficiencies, should be enacted. The older Bill relating to probity, the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, also needs to be revived, especially because of its virtue of giving a say to non-judicial voices without compromising on judicial independence.

Improve judge-population ratio: It is 12 years since the Supreme Court, with regard to the subordinate judiciary, directed an increase in the judge strength from 10.5 per 10 lakh people to 50 per 10 lakh people. Successive governments have made little budgetary allocations to achieve such a five-fold increase in the human resources and infrastructure of the subordinate judiciary, where the bulk of the 3.2 crore cases are pending. Since no government wants it to be strong, the judiciary must have a greater say in the allocation of funds for its needs.

Make the Supreme Court more accessible: The government should implement the 2009 Law Commission recommendation that the highest court in the land be split into a Constitution Bench in New Delhi and Cassation Benches in the four regions to deal with all the appellate work arising out of high court decisions. Though the Supreme Court has expressed reservations about such radical re- structuring, Parliament should give greater weight to the public interest involved in sparing litigants the trouble of approaching the Capital from distant states.

EDUCATION

Raise spending: India must meet the globally accepted norm of central and state governments spending at least 6% of GDP on education rather than the roughly 4% that states and Centre put together spend currently. This is essential if the shocking dropout rate of about 50% by class 10 is to be brought down, and the gross enrolment ratio in higher education raised beyond the current 16-17%. That number compares poorly with China's 24%, not to mention the OECD's 62%. The Centre must take the lead in this. The enhanced outlay should go not only towards beefing up infrastructure in schools, but also in ensuring decent salaries for teachers so that quality talent is attracted. At the same time, teachers should be made accountable through an effective monitoring body that includes parents of students from the school. To improve quality of education imparted, training of teachers at school level needs to be modernized.

Bridge skill gap: With just 2% of the youth having technical education, the skills gap is becoming a gigantic problem. A strong technical education stream linked to in- dustry must be put in place and fostered. Vocational/tech-nical curricula need to be up- graded and dynamically linked to labour market demands.

Incentivize private sector: In higher education, regulation - particularly of professional institutions like engineering and medical colleges - must be strengthened. (There have been far too many instances of fly-by-night operators and shady politicians setting up colleges without basic amenities and pathetic or non-existent faculties.) The government, on its part, must invest in setting up enough colleges to ensure that quality higher education is available at affordable prices. The private sector, especially reputed business houses, must be encouraged and incentivized to invest in education; but this must be accompanied by rigorous monitoring and regulation to ensure no corners are cut.

Make English education accessible: According to a recent report, those who speak English fluently earn up to 34% more and those who speak a little English earn about 13% higher on average than those who don't. But only 20% of Indians can speak English, and only 4% can do so fluently. English education is often expensive and difficult to access. In most government-funded schools, which account for about 70% of school education, the medium of instruction is Hindi or the local language. No wonder poor parents willingly opt for not-so-cheap private school education. The number of children enrolled in English- medium schools has more than doubled since the turn of the century. English as the medium of instruction, which was in fourth place behind Hindi, Bengali and Marathi in 2006, is now next only to Hindi, and will soon overtake it. The government must recognize and address this need by vastly improving the quality of English education in its schools. The benefits to society from this relatively small investment would be enormous. The hypocrisy of some politicians who advocate vernacular education for the masses while sending their own children to English-medium schools must not be allowed to derail this effort.

HEALTH 

Hike expenditure: India's public health spending barely accounts for 1% of GDP, among the lowest in the world. There are just a few countries like Chad, Eritrea, and Yemen which spend a smaller proportion. As a result, over 70% of all health expenditure is paid for by people from their own pockets. Barring a handful of African countries, Yemen and Myanmar, nowhere else is out-of-pocket spending on health a larger proportion than in India. In most of the developed world, private expenditure is well below 25% of total health expenditure. One fallout of this is that health expenses are the second most common reason for people's indebtedness in India. Public spending on health must rise manifold to counter this as well as ensure that crucial indicators such as maternal mortality rate (MMR), infant mortality rate (IMR) and the immunization rate for children do not remain abysmal. India's IMR is a shameful 42 deaths per 1,000 live births. Even Bangladesh and Nepal have cut IMR to 33 without the kind of economic growth that India has had in the last decade. MMR in India is 178 deaths per 100,000 live births; even Nepal is better off at 170. Only about 44% of kids are fully immunized compared to 84% in Bangladesh and 87% in Nepal.

Free medicines in public health facilities: More than 72% of the money people spent on healthcare is on buying medicines, and it is estimated that 50-80% of any treatment cost is on medicines. To prevent people from being impoverished by the cost of medicines, the government had promised distribution of free medicines in public health facilities. The planning commission calculated that the Centre would have to allocate over Rs 5,000 crore per year to fulfill its share (85%) of the cost of the free medicines for all schemes. This is a small price to pay for the potential benefits and must be paid.

More doctors in rural areas: There is an acute shortage of health personnel in rural areas, from nurses and technicians to doctors and specialists. Of the over 19,000 specialists needed, less than 6,000 are in place. Staff nurses required at the community health centres (CHC) level is over 14,000, but only about 6,300 are in place. These appointments need to be made.

Healthcare for urban poor: Urban public health, which has had no significant planning or allocation, is in a shambles. More than 50% of urban poor children are underweight, and almost 60% miss total immunization before completing one year. The under-five mortality rate among urban poor, at 72.7, is significantly higher than the urban average of 51.9. With increasing migration to the cities, the urban poor, estimated to be about nine crore, desperately need an efficient and functional public health system. This must be created.

Better pay for ASHAs: Almost half the children in India are chronically malnourished. Malnutrition among children is highest for those born of underweight mothers. Among under-five children, almost 70% suffer from anaemia. The midday meal and the ICDS scheme are the main schemes meant to tackle malnutrition and related disorders. But these and primary health services are mostly run by an underpaid army of women employed as contractual workers. Health schemes are implemented through eight lakh plus ASHAs who get paid Rs 400-1,200 per month. In a country where 27 million children are estimated to be born every year, there are just 1.3 million anganwadis meant to cater to those aged 0-6. They earn just Rs 1,500-3,000 per month. Those at the cutting edge of delivering the schemes must be paid better and given more job security.

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS

Enact public grievance redress Bill: It's an unwieldy the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011. But Parliament should not have allowed this Bill to lapse as it was very much part of the "sense of the House" resolution which had been adopted in 2011 in the wake of Anna Hazare's fast. This is a necessary complement to the Lokpal law that has since been enacted.

Appoint a second states reorganization commission: The formation of Telangana has reignited demands across the country for smaller states. This calls for the appointment of the second states reorganization commission to ensure that decisions are not made purely on political expediency but on the basis of empirical studies coupled with rational and variable principles.

Professionalize and modernize police: The police need to be professionalized, protect-ed from political interference, and given modern weapons and a more dignified life, with better housing. The police/population ratio should be increased from the present 106 per lakh population to the UN-recommended 222.

Insulate policemen from politicians: Way back in 2006, the Soli Sorabjee Committee submitted its draft of a model police law to replace the Police Act 1861, which has been the template for various state draft without further delay as it is designed to make at least the Delhi Police more professional and less susceptible to illegal political diktats. This may set an example for the states, which have been remiss in implementing in letter and spirit the 2006 Supreme Court judgment on police reforms. The judgment stipulates a mechanism to protect police officers hampered by undue political interference and another empowered to deal with complaints of citizens against police excesses. It also mandates a more transparent process for appointing DGPs and a minimum tenure of two years for them and officers on operational duties.

Hold the police accountable: Public confidence in our police force has never been lower, to the extent that most of us think twice before seeking assistance. There are countless stories of policemen acting criminally - running protection and extortion rackets, harassing the public, extracting bribes, bumping off people in custody and through encounters - instead of fighting crime. In the UK, there is an independent commission that evaluates complaints against the police for racism, bribe- taking, and other unethical/unlawful acts. At the risk of adding another layer, an independent regulator/ombudsman may help introduce an element of check-and-balance.

AGRICULTURE

Increase investment: Over 60% of Indians country's GDP comes from agriculture. Obviously, the farm sector is being forced to support far too many people. That is why over nine million people have left farming in the past decade. But agriculture is essential to feed the population. Hence it needs rejuvenation. The primary task is to increase investment in agriculture, both public and private, to realize untapped irrigation potential, catalyze scientific research and link producers with consumers.

Help farmers improve yields: Policy must prioritize enhancement of productivity of foodgrains as well as vegetables and other cash crops, which lag behind international benchmarks. In paddy, for instance, India's average yield of 3.6 tonnes per hectare is not only less than half the United States' yield of 8.4 tonnes per hectare, but compares poorly even with China's 6.7 or Vietnam's 5.6. As part of this effort, we must strengthen agri-extension services to deliver new technologies to farmers.

Link them to markets: Enabling farmers to produce more won't help if they are not linked to markets and are unable to get a good price for their produce. Hence, we must develop agricultural markets with deep linkages with small producers, including transport infrastructure, as well as infrastructure for storage and warehousing, including cold chains. The government must also ensure remunerative prices to farmers and competitive wages for agricultural labourers.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Indigenize defence production: Dramatic position as the world's biggest importer of weapons. Indian companies need to be trusted and given a bigger role in defence production while defence PSUs and the DRDO are overhauled for the emerging battle realities. Corruption and middlemen need to be fought, not just for transparency but also to protect India's war-fighting capabilities.

Integrate military: The Indian military should be integrated, under a Chief of Defence Staff. It needs to work towards theatre commands, where army, navy and air force are seamless war machines.

Strengthen intelligence: It may be time to consider parliamentary oversight for intelligence agencies. There is a need to strengthen human intelligence (boots on the ground) both at home and abroad, as well as our tech/cyber capabilities to deal with the diverse threats facing the country.

FOREIGN POLICY

Improve ties with neighbours: We should strive to integrate Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Myanmar into the Indian economic matrix. Open up Indian markets to them, and build trans-border economic projects that give them a stake in India's growth. Water is rarely thought of as a tool of linkage - build more inland waterways, cross-border water links. Pakistan's internal conditions will remain precarious for some time so our best bet is to encourage better trading and commercial links. Better fences make better neighbours. We should focus on settling three undemarcated boundaries. The India-Bangladesh boundary agreement is almost done and a constitutional amendment should go through. The India-China boundary deal requires political will for some exchange of territory. We should have a political overture ready by the time Xi Jinping visits India later this year. We should start serious boundary negotiations with Pakistan. Since it will be politically difficult to exchange territory here, formalizing the LoC into a boundary could be a start.

Reach out to southeast Asia: We should complete the Asian trilateral highway to Thai- land by 2016 as well as the Kaladan multi-modal transport corridor. Link a new port in Chennai with Dawei in Myanmar and on to Thailand. This is very important, because the more east-west connections we can build into southeast Asia, the easier it will be to project ourselves as a credible balancing power to China in the Indo-Pacifc region.

Cooperate with Japan: Japan has the ability to transform India's economy. It should be invited to build Indian infrastructure. India, on its part, should support Japan in its effort to rebuild its defence capabilities to tackle a resurgent China.

Ink investment treaty with US: India should complete a bilateral investment treaty with US as well as pitch for a place in the Trans Pacific Partnership. This will be important in the future because the global trading system is evolving into smaller arrangements.

Build energy corridor: Build an undersea energy corridor connecting oil terminals in western India to oil sources in Iran, Qatar etc. We should push Iran to let us complete building the Chahbahar port and the north- south corridor. Both these links not only open Central Asia and beyond to India, they allow India to help stabilize Afghanistan.

Beef up foreign office: India has one of the smallest foreign offices in the world - a bench strength of around 1,800 officials. China has three times this number and the US over 20,000. Adding to India's official strength is crucial. We also need to find a new way to recruit and train diplomats - picking them up directly from campuses, bringing experts in from various fields, and making employment flexible so people can move between academia and government.

WOMEN

Improve job opportunities: Data shows that Indian women's work participation rate is one of the lowest in the world — a mere 29% of the 15+ female population — and unemployment among women graduates is the highest, about 60%. One reason is that only about 7.4% have had or were undergoing any kind of training. Clearly, we need not just more vocational education for women but one with a more modern approach that does not merely train them in vocations assumed to be for women like tailoring and cooking. But providing women skill sets will help only if they can find jobs. Private sector firms must be incentivized through tax breaks if they employ, say, 35% of the workforce. Government needs to legislate and implement equal pay for equal work.

Lower taxes: Tax incentives should also be provided directly to women - from lower I-T rates to concessional stamp duty if properties are registered in their name (yes, husbands may use their wives as fronts to lower their own tax burden, but once a property is officially in the name of the wife, it empowers her).

Creches for working women: Since women are saddled with child-rearing work, their participation in the workforce can happen only if legislations mandating widespread availability of creche and daycare facilities are passed and implemented stringently. Creches also prevent young girls from being pulled out of school to look after their younger siblings.

POWER

Prioritize alternate energy: An economy cannot grow fast if it is power-starved. One important step is greater public investment in setting up power generation capacity, with particular focus on alternate energy.

Single-window clearance: Create a single-window clearance mechanism for all power projects and bid out projects to private players only after all approvals and fuel linkages have been finalized.

Strengthen national grid: Invest to strengthen a high-capacity national transmission grid for smooth flow of power from surplus areas to those with deficit. Create a vibrant spot market for power.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Develop employment avenues in rural areas: Cities are vibrant hubs of economic and cultural activity. Yet, urban enclaves in India are today virtually unlivable due to large-scale environmental abuse, high population density, poor infrastructure, and rampant corruption. At the time of Independence, barely 15% Indians lived in cities. Now, urban centres hold 31% of India's people (roughly 377 million) of which around a quarter reside in the eight urban agglomerations of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. According to the 2011 census, there are 53 cities in India with a population of a million or more; by 2031, that number will rise to 87. With major cities bursting at the seams, long-term attention must be paid to developing employment avenues in rural areas and providing basic amenities to rural residents so that they aren't forced to seek shelter in urban centres for survival or advancement.

Make masterplans for all cities, towns: With people's participation, develop masterplans with zoning laws for all cities and towns, taking into account future expansion. Ensure that these plans are rigorously implemented under close monitoring by designated committees of experts and local residents. The plans should include housing for economically weaker sections and employment centres along with green spaces, natural features and heritage sites.

Check corruption in local bodies: Strengthen local bodies, give them more powers and financial clout but put in place comprehensive monitoring mechanisms to check incipient corruption.

Make the commute shorter, easier: Establish a modern public transport system in all cities and towns. Also develop transport linkages with suburbs. Decentralize workplaces to reduce commutes.

SPORTS

Make sports compulsory in schools: No other large country has as little to show by way of sporting achievements as India. This needs to change not only for reasons of national pride, but because developing a sports culture is as good a way as any of keeping the populace fitter and reducing healthcare costs. One way of doing this is by making sports a compulsory part of the school curriculum. The government must ensure that all government schools have basic sporting facilities and mandate the same for private schools.

More public facilities: Build public sports facilities in residential neighbourhoods (along the lines of the DDA sports complexes in Delhi).

Clean up sports administrataion: We need a law to clean up sports administration, by mandating, for instance, professional CEOs and a mechanism of accountability to stakeholders and the public.

Give tax breaks: Firms willing to invest in promoting sports at the grassroots level should be given tax breaks in order to incentivize them.

ENVIRONMENT

Improve public transport: On the issue of climate change, while India must stick to its principled stance of equity in international talks, it must simultaneously take proactive measures at home to check the demand for fossil fuels. Unless excessive consumption by some is curbed, it will mean depriving those who need to consume more of their legitimate share. As part of this, much more focused attention is needed for promoting renewable energy sources. A combination of fiscal incentives and mandatory norms would be required. Also, in order to reduce petroleum demand, reduce traffi c jams and improve air quality in cities and towns. Public transport needs to vastly improve to encourage people to shift from private vehicles.

Make polluters pay: We must build many more sewage treatment plants to reduce pollution of ground and river water. We must also mandate strict effluent control laws in line with the 'polluter pays' principle and ensure rigorous enforcement.

Eco-audits a must: Sustainability and ecological impact must be instituted as part of cost audits of all projects, both at the conceptualization and monitoring stages.

DISABLED

Make public places accessible: There are an estimated 70m persons with disability of whom about 27m were counted in the 2011 census. There is sufficient evidence that a large proportion of this population has enough ability to actively participate and contribute to the economy instead of simply receiving charity their entire life. That can become a reality only if they are provided equal opportunity by removing barriers that prevent them from reaching their full potential. All public places and transportation, irrespective of ownership, should be made accessible because education facilities, employment opportunities and reservation will make no sense without accessibility. With the bulk of employment, education products and services being in the private sector, government will need to ensure that the private sector implements the law of the land, which rules against discrimination of any kind. It is their right as citizens to enjoy all the rights granted to the rest of the population and it is the responsibility of the state to ensure this happens.

(With inputs from Lubna Kably, Manoj Mitta, Subodh Varma, Rema Nagarajan, Indrani Bagchi, Sidhartha, Surojit Gupta, Josy Joseph and Nauzer Bharucha)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/specials/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/TOI-manifesto-An-agenda-for-the-new-government/articleshow/31973967.cms?

Aadhaar cards with Bangladeshi immigrants in Bengaluru sparks worry.

March 14, 2014, 3:37 am

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Aadhaar Cards With Immigrants Sparks Worry

By Merlin Francis - BANGALORE

Published: 14th March 2014 08:07 AM

Last Updated: 14th March 2014 08:15 AM

Investigation into the arrest of nine Bangladeshi nationals by Cubbon Park police has revealed that one of them, who had been living in Bangalore for the last one year, had even managed to get an Aadhaar card.

City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar has noted that the commissionerate will look into whether the process of providing Aadhaar cards can be made more foolproof.

“I don’t know how these people got Aadhaar cards so easily. I myself had to go at least thrice to the centre and provide various documents and proofs before I got an Aadhaar card,” he said.

“There is no police verification required to get an Aadhaar card or an EPIC card, at present. We will look into whether we can suggest a better verification process to make the process foolproof,” he said.

According to the police, Mohammad Masoom (28), son of Mohammad Anwar, was the first to come to Bangalore. He later brought eight others to the city, along with their families, the investigation revealed.

“During the investigation, he showed us his Aadhaar card. He said that he had applied for the card showing his rental documents as address proof. Another immigrant too said he has an Aadhaar card, although he did not furnish it,” police said.

According to officials in the Army headquarters for the Karnataka and Kerala sub-area, where the immigrants were working, Masoom had been employed with them for over three years while the others were relatively new.

“During police verification, we asked them where they are from. They told us the group was from Bangladesh, which is when we handed them over to the police. Apart from an Aadhaar card, he also had loan documents with which he was planning to purchase a vehicle,” a police official said.

The group had entered the country through Assam and Malda in West Bengal. From Malda, they took a train to Kolkata and from there to Bangalore, the official said.

While the fact that the illegal immigrants were able to receive Aadhaar cards, is of concern, the local police inspector claims that they are not investigating the issue, but are focused on deporting the immigrants.

However, considering that Masoom was able to get an Aadhaar card using his rent agreement as address proof, concerns have been raised with regard to the possibility that if he tried, he could have got an EPIC card too and registered as a voter.

Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha noted that an Aadhaar card can be used as age or address proof. “We usually depend on educational certificates as age proof, but Aadhaar cards can also be produced as age proof and rental documents as address proof,” he said.

While someone could get away with this, he added that stringent verification, especially with regard to physical address verification, is necessary to ensure that miscreants did not get into the system. “We also call for public notices to check authenticity of applicants before electoral registration,” he said.

Nandan Nilekani, who quit as UIDAI chairman  on Thursday, noted that Aadhaar was never proof of citizenship, but only a proof of identity. “Aadhaar only proves that you are you, not that you are a citizen of India. Even if you have to get an EPIC card or register as a voter, you need to have other supporting documents.”

Police officials have ruled out the possibility of a security threat from the illegal immigrants.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bangalore/Aadhaar-Cards-With-Immigrants-Sparks-Worry/2014/03/14/article2108204.ece#.UyK0rD-Syrs 

Dirty tricks and irresponsible critique of constitutional institutions SC & EC by a Cabinet Minister in a foreign country

March 14, 2014, 4:11 am

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It is irresponsible for an External Affairs Minister to critique his own country while speaking abroad. It is worse when the critique is about two pillars of Indian democracy, constitutional institutions: SC & EC.

Is the Dirty tricks dept. trying to influence the EC the way it used Navin Chawla in 2009 to rig the EVMs in about 100 constituencies?

Eternal vigilance is the price of swarajyam. Anything can happen with EVMs to get the desired (undesirable) results. 

It is unfortunate that SC order declaring constitutional principle of transparency did not result in acquisition of paper trail printers for all 9 lakh booths.

As a measure of abundant caution, it is good to build up protective measures such as getting affidavits from voters from select election booths in select constituencies and tally them with the results read out from EVM displays by election officials.

Kalyanaraman

Published: March 13, 2014 16:40 IST | Updated: March 13, 2014 22:36 IST

Leaders deplore Khurshid’s comment on SC, EC

PTI

Khurshid had said Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct makes it difficult for parties to win elections

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s alleged comments in London in which he is said to have questioned the role of Supreme Court and Election Commission have drawn flak in various quarters here.

BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said that the comments had been made out of desperation. “Khurshid’s diatribe against Election Commission is nothing but their [Congress’s] desperation. His other senior colleagues are opting out of the election race.

“Khurshid has not opted out, but is sure to lose; therefore, he is now blaming it not on the Congress but on the Election Commission,” he said.

The former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami said that Mr. Khurshid’s criticism was unfair.

“I think in criticising Supreme Court, he has picked on the issue of SC deciding what will go into the affidavit. I think that is totally uncalled for because, after all, the Supreme Court is only trying to help the voter to understand what are the credentials of candidates,” he said.

CPI (M) leader Nilotpal Basu said it was important to remember that the model code of conduct had resulted not because of any legislation but was based on a consensus between political parties.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that the party considered the model code as well as the orders of EC to be the law and followed the same religiously.

Mr. Khurshid reportedly questioned the role of the Supreme Court and the EC while mocking them in his comments during a speech on the ‘Challenges of Democracy in India’ at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

In an apparent reference to the Supreme Court judgement disqualifying convicted lawmakers, Mr. Khurshid said it was “a judge-made law.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/leaders-deplore-khurshids-comment-on-sc-ec/article5780690.ece?css=print

Mentor Wendy Doniger teaching Hindus to psecularatti

March 14, 2014, 4:45 am

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Subject: India: Audio recordings from ’Speaking of the Hindus’ Delhi seminar - 6 March 2014

Date: March 6, 2014 12:57:00 PM PST

Audio recordings from ’Speaking of the Hindus’ Delhi seminar - 6 March 2014
with Profs. DN Jha, Kunal Chakrabarti, Apoorvanand, Chair: Prof. Romila Thapar.
(on the withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s book, shriking secular space and
the freedom to read)

http://www.sacw.net/article7868.html

Posters for the second AK Ramanujan lecture and seminar at Delhi University 6th March 2014

by Harsh Kapoor, 1 March

See related content at: http://www.sacw.net/article7809.html

Harsh Kapoor sent the links and material to Steve Farmer who posted on the anti-hindu hate group. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/indo-eurasian_research/conversations/messages/16623

THE WITHDRAWAL OF WENDY DONIGER’S BOOK, SHRIKING SECULAR SPACE AND THE FREEDOM TO READ

India: Audio recordings from ’Speaking of the Hindus’ Delhi seminar - 6 March 2014

WITH FULL TEXT OF STATEMENTS BY WENDY DONIGER AND BY KUM KUM ROY READ OUT AT THE SEMINAR

by Harsh Kapoor, 6 March

The following statement by Prof. Wendy Doniger was read out at the seminar:I would love to greet the speakers at your seminar and lecture, and to thank them for doing the work that they are doing.
You might add that although the fate of my books, and all the other books that have come under fire, and will now come under fire, is still uncertain, the unexpected scale and power of the protest against the suppression of books in India is most heart-warming.
I am confident that this movement will ultimately succeed in mobilizing Indian sentiment to the point where it will be possible to change the laws that protect such suppression.
I am hopeful that the widespread awareness, in the rest of the world, that India is no longer a true democracy will shame its leaders into restoring it to its true, democratic self. And this seminar in Delhi is one of the hopeful beginnings of that process. I am so grateful to you, and I am with you in spirit.
Yours, Wendy (5 March 2014)

see also: Text of statement by Prof. Kum Kum Roy addressed to participants at ’Speaking of the Hindus’ seminar and the 2nd AK Ramanujan Lecture in Delhi on 6 March 2014

’Speaking of The Hindus’ with Profs. DN Jha, Kunal Chakrabarti, Apoorvanand, Chair: Prof. Romila Thapar. The organiser Prof. Mukul Mangalik led the event with introductions and a note of thanks. The seminar was organised by Ramjas College History society, University of Delhi on the 6th of March 2014.
[These audio recordings in English and Hindi were done as part of South Asia Citizens Web Digital Archive initiative - sacw.net and are made available here for access to wider society beyond ivory towers]

EVM - Is there accountability? -- Vicky Nanjappa

March 14, 2014, 6:07 am

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EVM- Is there accountability

March 14, 2014
Vicky Nanjappa

Accountability of the vote that a citizen polls became a matter of debate in the 2009 elections. This time too that is likely to be an issue since the much needed voter verified paper audit trail or the VVPAT will not be seen in a majority of the constituencies. Despite a Supreme Court ruling in a ruling given last year had directed the Election Commission of India to introduce VVPAT for the 2014 elections. It also observed that VVPAT is indispensable for free and fair elections.

While both the Election Commission of India and the Government of India made all the right noises, the fact is that it has not been implemented.

The ECI says that it would be done only by 2019. What brought about this delay? Activists from Save India Democracy who had exposed the frauds being committed through EVM’s point out that it is due to a blame game that the VVPAT was not introduced and more importantly the government has not yet sanctioned the required Rs 1860 crore to the ECI which is required for this project.

What is VVPAT?

VVPAT provides a feedback to the voter using the EVM. Basically it is a print out of the vote that a person has cast. It allows an independent verification system for electronic voting machines that allows voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended and can serve as an additional barrier to changing or destroying votes.

In order to implement VVPAT, the Election Commission had to ensure that the existing EVM’s were connected to a printer. When a vote is caste, a receipt is printed which shows the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate. It confirms the vote and the voter can verify the details. The receipt, once viewed, goes inside a container linked to the EVM and can only be accessed by the election officers in rarest of rare cases. It was decided to implement this system after allegations of EVM tampering in the previous elections where it was found that some of the votes cast to a particular candidate by a voter were polled to another. The chip inside the EVM was allegedly tampered with in some constituencies to suit some parties and the biggest allegation was made in the case of the elections in Andhra Pradesh.

After a lot of deliberation and debate the proposal to introduce VVPAT was finallycleared in February 2013. The government of India too amended the Conduct of Election Rules which enabled the commission to use VVPAT with the EVM’s.

The ECI then pointed out that in order to introduce the VVPAT system in 543 constituencies, it would need 14 lakh machines. However the ECI had apprehensions and stated that in such a short span of time it would not be possible to manufacture so many machines and also have them tested. Hence this would be a possibility only by 2019, the ECI contended.

G V L Rao who was part of the team which exposed the frauds committed through EVM’s tells rediff.com that the bigger issue was that the government dragged its feet on sanctioning funds for the introduction of VVPATdespite  the Supreme Court passing its order one year back. The ECI could not proceed further without these funds.

Rao says that since 5 years they have been fighting to make the entire voting process transparent. To begin with every EVM needs to be kept in a secure environment so that it is cannot be tampered with. However what we had found is that these machines were dumped in an open yard which made it vulnerable to tampering. As a result of dumping these machines in the open, many had gone missing and the ECI has not yet revealed these details to us.

Rao says that the most important part of this machine is the chip which contains the source code. We suggested was that since these machines were kept in the open, it would be advisable to at least change the chip. These chips cost not more than Rs 100 each.

The other suggestion that we made and was not taken was regarding the maintenance of the machines. These machines are manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India. These companies send engineers to carry out a maintenance check or a first level check. 

Shockingly these are not employees of the above mentioned two companies. They are agents hired on a contract basis and they conduct the inspection of these machines before the elections. We suggested that that the job of the first level check be given to the National Informatics Centre so that the person doing the job has accountability. We had pointed out that some of these persons who were hired to conduct this check belonged to software companies that were being run by politicians. The chances of tampering is higher in such cases. However the ECI did not agree with us, Rao says. 

The problem is that there is a leap of blind faith in technology and the ECI blindly trusts everything that the manufacturer does.We have always pointed out that elections cannot be based on trust. It is necessary to ensure safeguards and more importantly the ECI should have implemented VVPAT by now. It took them almost four years to acknowledge that EVMs could be hacked. When a person votes there ought to be a valid receipt of the same, just the way one would get a statement when cash is drawn out of an ATM. Without a valid record one cannot go back and check in case there is a problem.

http://vickynanjappa.com/2014/03/14/evm-is-there-accountability/

Psecularatti Poirot Tejpal bail plea rejected. He has to assist investigations from Sada subjail, Vasco.

March 14, 2014, 6:22 am

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Tarun Tejpal's Bail Plea Rejected

• Tejpal is presently lodged in the Sada sub jail located in Vasco | PTI/File

Former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal's bail plea in a case of sexual assault was Friday rejected by the Bombay High Court bench here which said it apprehended that the senior scribe would flee from justice and tamper evidence.

Justice Utkarsh Bakre also said that calling business associates and friends over mobile phonefrom his prison cell, as well his daughter's visit to the rape victim's house were two key reasons why bail could not be granted to the 50-year-old journalist.

Tejpal has already spent over three months in police and judicial custody since his arrest November 30, after a nationwide police hunt.

A junior woman colleague accused Tejpal of rape during ThinkFest, a high profile conference organised by the Tehelka founder in Goa which was attended by Hollywood star Robert de Niro. 

The victim claimed that she was sexually assaulted twice November 7 and 8.

Tejpal is presently lodged in the Sada sub jail located in Vasco, 35 km from here.By IANS - PANAJI

Published: 14th March 2014 03:04 PM

Last Updated: 14th March 2014 05:05 PM

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Tarun-Tejpals-Bail-Plea-Rejected/2014/03/14/article2108866.ece#.UyMBuj-SySo

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Missing Plane Possibly Hijacked

March 14, 2014, 6:44 am

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• Missing Malaysian plane’s “systematic” communication shutdown suggests foul play

U.S. OFFICIALS SUSPECT FOUL PLAY ON MISSING PLANE The investigators think the plane's redirected flight route to the Andaman Islands and the deliberate turning off of the communications systems 14 minutes apart suggests a possible hijacking. As we enter day seven of the plane’s mysterious disappearance, we learn more about the lives of the passengers aboard. And if you feel like this plane should’ve been found by now, here’s avisualization of how truly vast the search area is. [ABC News] 

ABC Entertainment News | ABC Business News

MH370: Radar suggests plane deliberately flew west – live updates

LIVE

• Malaysia open minded to claims plane changed course
• Search extended into Indian Ocean
• Operation now involves 57 ships 48 aircraft
• What to believe? Clarifying conflicting media reports
• Plane disappearances: a brief history
• Malaysia Airlines missing plane: one week on - in pictures
• Read the latest summary

• • Matthew Weaver
  • theguardian.com, Friday 14 March 2014 13.54 GMT
  • Jump to comments (722)
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11m ago

Indian aircraft have searched over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, after suggestions that the missing plane last headed towards the heavily forested archipelago, according to Reuters.

Popular with tourists and anthropologists alike, the islands form India’s most isolated state. They are best known for dense rainforests, coral reefs and hunter-gatherer tribes who have long resisted contact with outsiders.

Two sources told Reuters the unidentified aircraft appeared to be following a commonly used navigational route that would take it over the islands.

The Indian Navy has deployed two Dornier planes to fly across the island chain, a total area of 720 km (447 miles) by 52 km), Indian military spokesman Harmeet Singh said in the state capital, Port Blair. So far the planes, and a helicopter searching the coast, had found nothing.

“This operation is like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Singh, who is the spokesman for joint air force, navy and army command in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The Defence Ministry said the Eastern Naval Command would also search across a new area measuring 15 km by 600 km along the Chennai coast in the Bay of Bengal.

The shape of this area, located 900 km west of Port Blair, suggested the search was focusing on a narrow flight corridor.

39m ago

The USS Kidd is en route to the western tip of the Strait of Malacca to aid the search at the request of the Malaysian government, writes the Guardian’s US security editor Spencer Ackerman. 

It left from the Gulf of Thailand yesterday and the Navy expects it will be in the Strait by Saturday, according to navy spokeswoman Lauryn Dempsey. 

Additionally, a P8 Poseidon surveillance plane is also on its way to the area, flying from Kadena Air Force Base in Japan. 

These are the only planned US military assets aiding the search at the moment. The USS Pinckney, which was in the Gulf of Thailand to aid the search,
has now returned to the Strait of Singapore for pre-planned maintenance.

1h 38m ago

The French aviation site Air Info has a more detailed map of the missing plane possible flight path based on that Reuters story. 

1h 44m ago

The Chinese are joining the westward focus of the search. The marine patrol ship Haixun 31 is heading for the Strait of Malacca, according to the state news agency Xinhua. 

1h 56m ago

Summary

Here’s a roundup on the latest on the search operation for the missing plane.

• The Malaysian authorities have indicated they are open minded to reports which cite US officials, suggesting the missing plane change course and headed west. The acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed that the search has extended into the Indian Ocean.

• Radar and satellite information from other countries, including the US, is now being shared with Malaysia. This is currently being “digested,” Hussein said. 

• Military radar-tracking evidence suggests the plane was deliberately flown across the Malay peninsula towards the Andaman Islands, according to Reuters. Its sources said the plane appeared to have flown between navigational waypoints west of Malaysia indicating it was being flown by someone with aviation training. 

• Rolls-Royce has issued a statement denying that its engines sent out signals from the missing aircraft after it vanished from air traffic control screens. A team of experts from the UK, including staff from Rolls-Royce is due to arrive in Malaysia to help with the investigation. 
  

• The Wall Street Journal claims the search is now focused hundreds of miles west from the plane’s original flight path based on “pings” picked up by satellite. The White House said that an unspecified “possible piece of information, or pieces of information, has led to the possibility that a new search area may be opened up over the Indian Ocean”.

• There has been no confirmed sighting of debris from MH370 almost a week after it disappeared with 239 passengers on board. The search operation now involves 57 ships, 48 aircraft, and 13 countries. 

2h 40m ago

Transponder

Hishammuddin confirmed that the investigators are examining the possibility that the plane’s transponder was deliberately shut down. 

Asked about the transponder he said: “There are four or five possibilities which we are exploring. It could have been done intentionally, it could be done under duress, it could have been done because of an explosion. That’s why I don’t want to go into the realm of speculation. We are looking at the all the possibilities.”

He confirmed that crew were being investigated. 

Updated 1h 43m ago

2h 56m ago

Data sharing

Malaysia now appears to have access to military data from other countries, particularly the US, which might help explain why the authorities now seem more open to reports that the missing plane was detected hours after it lost contact with air traffic control.

The Wall Street Journal claims the search is now focused hundreds of miles west from its original flight path based on “pings” picked up by satellite. 

New data from other countries is being “digested”, Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed. He added that he hoped to have more confirmation of the data over the next couple of days. 

The WSJ reported: 

The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent “pings,” the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. They added that it was unclear why the pings stopped. One of the people, an industry official, said it was possible that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.

The people, who included a military official, the industry official and others, declined to say what specific path the transmissions revealed. But the U.S. planned to move surveillance planes into an area of the Indian Ocean 1,000 miles or more west of the Malay peninsula where the plane took off, said Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the US Seventh Fleet.

Updated 1h 43m ago

3h 23m ago

Singapore Today has retweeted a map plotting the possible flight path as detailed by military radar cited by Reuters sources.

In their press conference the Malaysian authorities stressed that this possible data was not confirmed. Hishammuddin said: “If we can confirm that is actually MH370, then we can move all our assets from the South China Sea to the strait of Malacca. At the moment I’m not in a position to do that.” 

Updated 1h 43m ago

3h 29m ago

UK experts due in Malayia

The civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told the press conference aviation experts from the UK, including from Rolls-Royce, were due to arrive in Malaysia to help in the investigation. “They indicated that they are studying the possibility of satellite communication, and will share it with us,” he said. 

Updated 3h 26m ago

3h 42m ago

Rolls-Royce

As Hishammuddin mentioned, Rolls-Royce has issued a statement denying that its engines sent out signals from the missing aircraft after it vanished from air traffic control screens.

The statement, which was also sent to the Guardian, said:

Rolls-Royce continues to provide its full support to the authorities and Malaysia Airlines. Rolls-Royce concurs with the statement made on Thursday 13 March by Malaysia’s transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, regarding engine health monitoring data received from the aircraft.

During that press conference Hishammuddin quoted Rolls-Royce saying that a report in the Wall Street Journal claiming the plane had sent signals hours after it lost contact with air traffic control were inaccurate. The WSJ has since published a correction saying the signals came from a separate communication device from the engines.

In a preamble to its statement Rolls-Royce also said:

We are treating this as if it were already a formal investigation and that means we are unable to share the information with you that we have shared with the authorities in Malaysia as it must be treated as confidential. It also means that we needed to ensure that the authorities were aware before we made any statement.

Updated 1h 44m ago

3h 51m ago

Full text of press statement

Here’s the full text of acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s opening remarks: 

We are now entering the seventh day of the search for MH370. There are currently 57 ships and 48 aircraft in the search. Thirteen countries are now involved.

Our priority remains finding the plane. We are following all leads, and we continue to work closely with our international partners. We are grateful for the support of our friends and neighbours, who continue to assist us by sharing their data and their resources as we search for MH370. I speak for the Malaysian people when I say that our hearts are with the families and the friends of those on board the plane.

New information

There has been a lot of media speculation today after comments from unnamed US officials suggested the plane may have travelled for some time after losing contact.

As is standard procedure, the investigation team will not publicly release information until it has been properly verified and corroborated with the relevant authorities. Nor do we want to be drawn into specific remarks that unnamed officials have reportedly made to the media.

Since Sunday, we have worked closely with our international partners, including the US team, whose officials have been here on the ground in Kuala Lumpur.

Since Wednesday, the Malaysian investigating team have shared more detailed information, as it became available, for verification.

The international team are currently working on verifying that detailed information, but we have nothing to confirm at the moment. 

Widening of the investigation

The aircraft is still missing, and the search area is expanding. Two days ago, the search area was widened to include the Andaman Sea.

Together with our international partners, we are now pushing further east into the South China Sea, and further into the Indian Ocean.

We want nothing more than to find the plane as quickly as possible. But the circumstances have forced us to widen our search.

A normal investigation becomes narrower with time, as new information focuses the search. But this is not a normal investigation. In this case, the information we have forces us to look further and further afield.

Engine data

Yesterday, we rejected a media report in which unnamed officials said that engine data showed the plane had kept flying for hours after last contact. We checked with Boeing and Rolls-Royce, who said the reports were not true. Today Rolls Royce released a statement saying, and I quote, ‘Rolls-Royce continues to provide its full support to the authorities and Malaysia Airlines. Rolls-Royce concurs with the statement made on Thursday 13 March by Malaysia’s transport minister regarding engine health monitoring data received from the aircraft.’ 

Oil slick

Yesterday authorities sighted two oil slicks in the South China Sea, 60 nautical miles south of the last point of contact with MH370.

The first slick was investigated and analysed and found to contain tiny traces of jet fuel. No debris was found in the vicinity. We do not believe the slick is linked to MH370.

Samples from the second slick were investigated and analysed and did not contain jet fuel.

Concluding remarks

The investigation team is following all leads that could help locate the missing aircraft. When we receive new information, and it has been verified, we act accordingly. Wherever there is a possibility, we have a duty to investigate it.

From the beginning of the crisis, we have worked hand-in-hand with all the relevant authorities, including international agencies, experts, and the aircraft manufacturers.

We have daily technical meetings with all the key players. We have followed the protocols set out by the International Civil Aviation Authority. We have been in regular contact with our neighbouring countries. And we have welcomed all international offers of assistance. We are committed to one aim: finding MH370.

Updated 1h 42m ago

3h 56m ago

The press conference has come to an end. Once again the Malaysian authorities offered little new information about the search for the plane and no breakthrough. 

But today the acting transport minister appeared more open minded to new theories, in particular the suggestion that the plane may have been heading for the Indian Ocean. 

Updated 3h 33m ago

4h ago

Hishammuddin has not ruled out raiding homes of crew members of the missing plane. “If investigation requires searching the pilots’ homes, it will be done,” the acting transport minister said. 

Updated 1h 47m ago

4h 2m ago

Hishammuddin insisted conflicting information about the missing plane was coming from external speculation, not the Malaysian government. 

Updated 1h 47m ago

4h 11m ago

This map shows the possible new flight path of the missing plane if Reuters sources are correct. 

Updated 2h 48m ago

4h 20m ago

Hishammuddin again said the investigators could not rule out hijacking. All possibilities are being examined, he repeated. 

Updated 1h 47m ago

4h 24m ago

On the possible turn back, Hishammuddin repeated that this was still only a “possibility”. He said: “That has not changed.”

Updated 1h 48m ago

4h 26m ago

Malaysia’s defence and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein has confirmed that the search has been extended into the Indian Ocean.

Speaking at a press conference he reiterated that the missing aircraft’s engines did not send out signals after it lost contact with air traffic control. 

Updated 1h 48m ago

5h 31m ago

Radar shows plane flew west

Reuters has an intriguing new story which might explain why the search is currently focusing on the Indian Ocean. It says radar suggests the plane was deliberately flown west after losing contact with air traffic control. Under an exclusive tag, it says: 

Military radar-tracking evidence suggests a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown across the Malay peninsula towards the Andaman Islands, sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters.

Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints – indicating it was being flown by someone with aviation training – when it was last plotted on military radar off the country’s north-west coast.

The last plot on the military radar’s tracking suggested the plane was flying towards India’s Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, they said. 

Waypoints are geographic locations, worked out by calculating longitude and latitude, that help pilots navigate along established air corridors.

A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight, with 239 people on board, hundreds of miles off its intended course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

“What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards,” said that source, a senior Malaysian police official.

All three sources declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media and due to the sensitivity of the investigation.

Officials at Malaysia’s ministry of transport, the official point of contact for information on the investigation, did not return calls seeking comment.

Malaysian police have previously said they are investigating whether any passengers or crew had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.

The comments by the three sources are the first clear indication that foul play is the main focus of official suspicions in the Boeing 777’s disappearance.

As a result of the new evidence, the sources said, multinational search efforts were being stepped up in the Andaman Sea and also the Indian Ocean …

The fact that the aircraft – if it was MH370 – had lost contact with air traffic control and was invisible to civilian radar suggested someone on board had turned its communication systems off, the first two sources said.

They also gave new details on the direction in which the unidentified aircraft was heading – following aviation corridors identified on maps used by pilots as N571 and P628. These routes are taken by commercial planes flying from south-east Asia to the Middle East or Europe and can be found in public documents issued by regional aviation authorities.

In a far more detailed description of the military radar plotting than has been publicly revealed, the first two sources said the last confirmed position of MH370 was at 35,000 feet about 90 miles (144km) off the east coast of Malaysia, heading towards Vietnam, near a navigational waypoint called Igari. The time was 1.21am.

The military track suggests it then turned sharply westwards, heading towards a waypoint called Vampi, north-east of Indonesia’s Aceh province and a navigational point used for planes following route N571 to the Middle East.

From there, the plot indicates the plane flew towards a waypoint called Gival, south of the Thai island of Phuket, and was last plotted heading north-west towards another waypoint called Igrex, on route P628 that would take it over the Andaman Islands and which carriers use to fly towards Europe.

The time was then 2.15am. That is the same time given by the air force chief on Wednesday, who gave no information on that plane’s possible direction.

The sources said Malaysia was requesting raw radar data from its neighbours Thailand, Indonesia and India, which has a naval base in the Andaman Islands.

Updated 4h 8m ago

5h 49m ago

Bomohs

In its statements Malaysia’s transport ministry also insisted the government had nothing to do with “bomohs” or shamans at Kuala Lumpur airport who have prompted much interest on social media. The bomohs have been performing rituals at the airport to help find the plane. 

Updated 4h 8m ago

5h 56m ago

Malaysia 'following all leads'

The Malaysian authorities now appear to have a more open mind to reports that the plane sent out signals hours after it lost contact with air traffic control. In yesterday’s press conference they tersely dismissed such reports as “inaccurate”. But now the ministry of transport has tempered that stance.

In its latest statement it said:

Regarding overnight reports in the US media, quoting unnamed US officials:

The investigation team is following all leads that may help locate the missing aircraft. We continue to work closely with the US team, whose officials have been on the ground in Kuala Lumpur to help with the investigation since Sunday.

As is standard procedure, the investigation team will not publicly release information until it has been properly verified and corroborated.

The statement also confirmed that the Indian air force was participating in the search, and that Vietnam was still involved.

And the ministry released a statement from the Chinese embassy confirming that satellite images from Sunday of possible ”debris” from the plane were released in error. No trace of the plane was found at the site. The embassy said:

The publication of the satellite image is an accident – a personal behaviour to put it on the website of SASTIND. The government neither authorised nor endorsed the behaviour which is now under investigation. The image is not been confirmed as connected with the plane. 

Updated 4h 7m ago

6h 18m ago

Opening summary

Welcome to our continuing coverage of the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane almost a week after it disappeared over the South China Sea with 239 people on board.

Here’s a summary of the latest developments: 

• The US has suggested that the search has been extended to the Indian Ocean after the Pentagon said it was sending a destroyer to the area. The White House said that an unspecified “possible piece of information, or pieces of information, has led to the possibility that a new search area may be opened up over the Indian Ocean”.

• Unnamed US officials continue to be quoted insisting that flight 370 sent out automatic status transmissions for hours after the plane lost contact with ground control. The Malaysian authorities say such claims are inaccurate.

• The Wall Street Journal has issued a clarification to point out that its claim that the plane may have flown on for hours is based on a different signals system from the plane’s Rolls-Royce engines. In a correction to its original story it said: “An earlier version of this article incorrectly said investigators based their suspicions on signals from monitoring systems embedded in the plane’s Rolls-Royce PLC engines and described that process.”

• Vietnam has “downgraded but not stopped” its search effort for the plane. A Vietnamese spokesman, Lt Col Nguyen Ngoc Son, said the status of the hunt had been switched from “emergency to regular”.

Updated 4h 5m agohttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/14/mh370-search-for-missing-plane-extends-to-the-indian-ocean-live-updates

The internet is actually controlled by 14 people who hold 7 secret keys

March 14, 2014, 8:25 am

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The internet is actually controlled by 14 people who hold 7 secret keys

Business Insider | Mar 14, 2014, 05.51 PM IST

This sounds like something out of a Dan Brown book but it isn't: The whole internet is controlled by seven actual, physical keys.

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• Why ICANN is pushing for domain names in era of mobile apps
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This sounds like something out of a Dan Brownbook but it isn't: The whole internet is controlled by seven actual, physical keys. The Guardian's James Ball was recently allowed to observe the highly secure ritual known as a key ceremony. 

The people conducting the ceremony are part of an organization called the Internet Corporationfor Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is responsible for assigning numericalinternet addresses to websites and computers and translating them into the normal web addresses that people type into their browsers. 

For instance, type 64.27.101.155 into your browser and you'll be taken to Business Insider'sweb page. But www.businessinsider.com is easier for people to remember. ICANN maps the numbers (easier for computers to use) with words (easier for humans to use). 

If someone were to gain control of ICANN's database that personwould control the internet. For instance, the person could send people to fake bank websites instead of real bank websites. 

On the other hand, if a calamity happened, the ICANN database could need to be rebuilt. So ICANN came up with a way to do that without entrusting too much control to any one person. It selected seven people to be key holders and gave each one an actual key to Internet. It selected seven more people to be backup keyholders: 14 people in all. 

The physical keys unlock safety deposit boxes stashed around the world. Inside those boxes are smart keycards. Put the seven smartcards together and you have the "master key." The master key is really some computer code, a password of sorts, that can access the ICANN database. 

Four times a year since 2010 the seven keyholders meet for the key ceremony where they generate a new master key, i.e. a new password. 

The security to be admitted to the ceremony is intense, Ball reports, and involves passing through a series of locked doors using key codes and hand scanners, until entering a room so secure that no electronic communications can escape it. 

The group conducts the ritual, then each person files out of the room one by one, and then they all head to a restaurant and party.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/The-internet-is-actually-controlled-by-14-people-who-hold-7-secret-keys/articleshow/32017644.cms

Books, lies and videotape: Wendy Doniger's mirepresentations about Hindu history -- Padma Kuppa

March 14, 2014, 3:55 pm

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Books, Lies and Videotape: Wendy Doniger’s Misrepresentations about Hindu History

 By Padma Kuppa F Feb. 17, 2014 9 Comments

I am a big fan of public funding for various things – public education, public television, and public radio. And I am usually impressed with the way National Public Radio((NPR) presents news, providing a multifaceted and balanced perspective on the news – the underlying dharma or justice of presenting more than one perspective is very much in line with the pluralism that is inherent in the way that I live my day to day life. No one way is necessarily “The Right Way.” Yet I was horrified to find that NPR did the exact opposite when interviewing University of Chicago professor Wendy Doniger about her controversial book.

Robert Siegel recently interviewed Doniger on All Things Considered, because Penguin Books India has agreed to recall and destroy all copies of her book The Hindus: An Alternative History. Doniger, an academician whose scholarship has long been cause for concern and controversy over the years and had particularly aggravated those within the Hindu community for her misrepresentations, innuendos, and plain mistakes. In the interview she glosses over the inaccuracies, and focuses on how she offended the feelings of the Hindu community, and is almost gleeful that her book sales have risen due to continued controversy. Penguin too was more concerned about “the protection of creative freedoms in India” – something that should be relevant to a work of fiction, not the book in point.  

A few years ago, I went looking for Doniger’s book in the local bookstore right after it came out, because an interfaith colleague asked me disturbing questions based on what he had read.  I also knew that Doniger’s scholarship and that of her students has permeated academia, and their misrepresentations trickle down to what is taught about Hinduism.  I had been concerned about how Hinduism was portrayed in my daughter’s middle school text books; I was even more appalled at the sections I read in The Hindus. Even today, I shudder, thinking of her invalidation of simple faith, as embodied by the story of Draupadi.

Draupadi is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. The stories in this epic have been told for hundreds of years, by grandmother to grandchild and through plays, movies, comic books, all to explain that even in the most drastic of situations, one should let go of fear and have faith that God will protect you. In the specific episode that Doniger references, Draupadi’s husband, the king Yudhishthara  is gambling. He is playing a game of dice and not winning – as in most stories, there are the bad guys and the good guys, and the bad guys weighted the dice. He loses all his kingdom and then some. Draupadi is also part of the losses, and she is dragged into the court where all the men are:  Someone (a bad guy) begins to pull her sari off – the multi-yard garment that is even today worn by women in India. Even as she is terrified and ashamed, Draupadi initially holds on to her sari so that she is not disrobed, but suddenly throws both hands up in surrender and puts her faith in God. She cries out for help to Krishna, the avatar (manifestation of God) in the Mahabharata. Krishna is elsewhere, but miraculously, the bad guy is unable to come to the end of the sari, and faints in exhaustion before he can even lay a finger on Draupadi. This story of simple devotion – keep your faith in God, no matter what is happening to you – is etched in my mind and many others through a scene in the 1950s Telugu film classic, Maya Bazaar. Doniger however, speaks of the “gambler’s wife” who is raped, desecrating more than my memory.

After reading excerpts of this book and several others in the same mold, I made sure to have a conversation with my kids about what they would learn and what their experience might be vis a vis Hinduism as they went through high school and college. They needed to know that work like Doniger’s creates stereotypes and can even generate Hinduphobia that is difficult to dispel. On Stormfront.org  (the white nationalist, supremacist and neo-Nazi Internet forum that was the Internet’s first major hate site), Doniger is praised as a White Nationalist soldier from the left,  “because using authoritative works by Professors always convinces most students“ to hate on Asians – hate that might someday be directed at my kids. I told them aboutAditi Banerjee, who decided to co-edit Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in North America, because of the Hinduphobia she faced. Hinduism is a pursuit for Truth, and I encourage my kids to seek it – and we should encourage anyone who wants to learn about Hinduism not to look for an alternative, either.

One way to learn about Hinduism is to visit the Hindu American Foundation’sHinduism 101 page. As an advocacy organization promoting human dignity, mutual respect and pluralism, we (disclaimer, I sit on the Foundation’s Board)  have sought academicians and religious scholars to help create material for someone seeking basic understanding about Hindus and Hindu practices. The materials on the site – along with other recommendations like the Idiot’s Guide to Hinduism, the Chinmaya Mission’s Q & A about Hinduism, India Unveiled by Robert Arnet, and  A Survey of Hinduism by Klaus Klostermaier – seek to capture the diversity of Hinduism, focusing on the wide range practices and beliefs under the Hindu umbrella.

While defending Doniger’s right to be published, we have long spoken out about her work, with a distinctly American Hindu voice. My fellow Board member and co-founder, Aseem Shukla,questioned the book’s accuracy not too long after it was published. A recent addition to our staff, the Director of Education and Curriculum Reform, Dr. Murali Balaji, recently put the censorship issue front and center in the Huffington Post. A former journalist and academician, he easily explains the nuances of the issue: preventing people from reading the book also prevents them also from seeing for themselves how it misrepresents a living tradition. Hopefully the furor over the publisher’s decision to withdraw the book dies down, and NPR and others refer to our official statement to hear another side of the story.

About Padma Kuppa

Padma Kuppa is a Hindu American and community activist working for social justiceand understanding. She is a co-founder of both the Troy-area Interfaith Group and the Bharatiya Temple of Metropolitan Detroit's Outreach Committee, an Advisory Board Member of WISDOM, a metro-Detroit women’s interfaith organization. Padma focuses on inter-religious cooperation as an Executive Council member of the Hindu American Foundation. Views expressed here are those of Padma Kuppa and do not necessarily represent those of any organization of which she is a part.

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  Grotoff • 18 days ago

  
  

  AskHistorians has a high opinion of the book. If her straight forward descriptions of religious "mysteries" unnerve you then you need to fix that about yourself.

  Also, stop comparing those who disregard religion as racist. I've always thought that Hinduism is nonsense, but I have nothing against South Asians. Many of them aren't even religious! It's stereotyping to claim that Hindu=Indian.

  
  

  
  
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    M Raghavan  Grotoff • 9 days ago

    
    

    Hinduism is a misnomer for the people living on the other side of the banks of the Sindhu (Indus). So, it is the indigenous religion of India. I would agree most Hindus are not religious - most Hindus have never read a Hindu scripture, but almost all would hold some pride in being Hindu.

    
    

    
    
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    Ankur Sethi  Grotoff • 16 days ago

    
    

    Her book has inaccuracies from the start, but it fits into the preconceived notions of people like you, so they accept it.

    
    

    
    
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  Mihir Meghani • 21 days ago

  
  

  Very interesting part about Wendy Doniger and White Supremacists.

  
  

  
  
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    froginthewell  Mihir Meghani • 17 days ago

    
    

    Exactly. Why is this not highlighted enough by others? It should go viral.

    
    

    
    
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  M Raghavan • 24 days ago

  
  

  As a Hindu American of Indian origin, I am pleased to see our Hindu community finally uniting and standing up for its rights in cases of Hindu-phobia. I can recall how, not so long ago, I faced little more than a shoulder shrug when I spoke to other Hindus about anti-Hindu sentiments in media and education.

  Be that as it may, I think it is important to recognize Wendy Doniger as an academic, a professor of religion whose conclusions are drawn from sincere academic study. Most people in India have never spent the time and dedication required to engage in such a study with an objective eye. Instead our experts would rather draw largely upon popular sentiment, rather than educated analysis.

  While I am not suggesting that her work not be argued against, such argument should be based on a similar level of academic study, rather than what Ms. Kuppa presents above, a story from her grandmother and a scene from Maya Bazaar, a classic Telugu film.

  In the case presented above, any form of public abuse of a woman, especially with the intention to sexually abuse her, would, in literary context, be considered rape. I recall reading Rajagopalachari's rough prose of Mahabharatha, in which he also uses rape to refer to this incident. It is no doubt that this word was excluded from children's stories and family-oriented movies, but this in no way prevents us from recognizing that this was exactly what Duryodhana was attempting to do.

  I am hoping that others who would seek to challenge The Hindus would be those of similar qualification who would respect Prof. Doniger's professional and educational qualification.

  
  

  
  
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  m p • 24 days ago

  
  

  Origin of Indian hate speech law Section 295A:
  In 1860, Muslims were upset against Rajpal publications
  for publishing a book. Publisher Mahasha Rajpal was arrested and
  later acquitted because there was no hate speech law. Publisher was
  killed by Muslim fundamentalist. British enacted section 295A to
  appease Muslims. The law puts publisher on the hook not author.
  
  History of Section 295As application: 
  Since 1947, India's Nehruvian socialist establishment has
  routinely invoked Section 295A to ban stuff offensive to Muslims
  (e.g. Satanic Verses, Lajja, stop demolition of illegal mosque,
  varun gandhi speech, cartoon), and Christians (e.g. Da Vinci Code,
  Jesus Portrait in Vadodara). Nehruvian Socialist establishment has
  rarely invoked section 295A to ban stuff offensive to Hindus;
  More-over, they cry wolf when their license to mutilate Hinduism is
  threatened, in court, by same section 295A. Keep in mind that Hindu
  group peacefully and patiently pursued it's case in court for 4 long
  years. Section 295A should be repealed but as long as it is on books
  it should be equally applicable in all cases.

  Wendy's mutilation a.k.a quasi-lie about Section 295A:
  Wendy said "They were finally defeated by the true villain of this piece-the Indian
  law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offense to publish a
  book that offends any HINDU... "
  
  No Free Speech in Academia:
  Laws against hate speech are found in most European
  countries. Wendy's mutilation of Hinduism, intolerance in academia,
  and censorship in Religion in South Asia academic club, has been
  brilliantly captured in book 'Invading the Sacred', by Aditi
  Banerjee, Antononio de Nicholas, & Krishnan Ramaswamy. It all
  started when Rajiv Malhotra read a newspaper article in the
  Philadelphia Inquirer, dated November 19, 2000, entitled "Big-screen
  caddy is Hindu hero in disguise" written by David O'Reilly,
  Inquirer Staff Writer: "…..”The Bhagavad Gita is not as nice a book as some
  Americans thinks....The Gita is a dishonest book....,” Doniger
  told the audience of about 150”. Next, Rajiv was censored by Wendy & Co. Those who stifle free speech of others are crying wolf.

  
  

  see more

  
  
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  HARRY • 25 days ago

  
  

  I understand your concern, But Sanatan Dharma is based on truth and as you know truth always prevail.

  Jaysi Drastee, Taysi Srustee. The world that you see today depends on the colour of your personal lens, If you wear pink lens then you will see pink world but you and I know world is not pink. I wouldn't worry about Wendy Doniger.

  
  

  
  
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  Narayana Swamy • 25 days ago

  
  

  Well articulated.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/seekingshanti/2014/02/books-lies-and-videotape-wendy-donigers-misrepresentations-about-hindu-history/

Monday, April 27, 2009

To Read or Not to Read

Reviewing the Reviews - THE HINDUS: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger 

In Passages From India By Michael Dirda, a book review that appeared in the Washington Post on March 19, 2009, it says, “In tracing the evolution of Hinduism, the author has a specialized focus unsuited to readers seeking an introduction to the subject.”

In Another Incarnation by Pankaj Misra, a book review that appeared in the New York Times on April 24, 2009, it says, “As Wendy Doniger, a scholar of Indian religions at the University of Chicago, explains in her staggeringly comprehensive book, the British Indologists who sought to tame India’s chaotic polytheisms had a ‘Protestant bias in favor of scripture.’”

I tend to agree with these statements, as well as Doniger’s words in March 2009 in the Newsweek blog, On Faith: “And so I tried to tell a more balanced story, in "The Hindus: An Alternative History," to set the narrative of religion within the narrative of history, as a statue of a Hindu god is set in its base, to show how Hindu images, stories, and philosophies were inspired or configured by the events of the times, and how they changed as the times changed. There is no one Hindu view of karma, or of women, or of Muslims; there are so many different opinions (one reason why it's a rather big book) that anyone who begins a sentence with the phrase, "The Hindus believe. . . ," is talking nonsense.

“My narrative is alternative both to the histories promulgated by some contemporary Hindus on the political right in India and to those presented in most surveys in English--imperialist histories, all about the kings, ignoring ordinary people.”

But in linking to the book excerpt, I took issue with this parenthetical sentence:
“(The gambler's wife who is fondled by other men reappears in the Mahabharata when the wife of the gambler Yudhishthira is stripped in the public assembly.)” Draupadi, Yudhishthira’s wife, is not stripped, there is only an attempt to do so. Any child who has heard this Mahabharata story can tell you this Draupadi’s faith in Krishna – love incarnate – is rewarded by Krishna’s protection. Dushshasana, the person who attempts to strip her, becomes exhausted as he pulls and pulls at her clothing, and it is he who is shamed as he collapses on the ground, while Draupadi retains her modesty.

In the Post, Dirda writes, “Although Sita proves and proves again her innocence, Doniger underscores the crassness of Rama's jealous-husband behavior but also notes certain textual hints that Sita is more sexual than she appears and that her feelings for Rama's brother Lakshmana might well be more than familial. As Sita is the classic model of Indian womanhood, such sacrilegious speculation once led to Doniger being egged at a London lecture.” I wring my hands at this simplification of Indian womanhood, and am left speechless at the implications of a relationship between Lakshmana and Sita.

My friend John Maunu, who sent me the link to the NY Times review, understood EM Forster to be anti-Hindu and Euro-centric, based on what Misra says: “Forster, who later used his appalled fascination with India’s polytheistic muddle to superb effect in his novel ‘A Passage to India,’ was only one in a long line of Britons who felt their notions of order and morality challenged by Indian religious and cultural practices.” Forster said in 1915 in “The Mission of Hinduism” that “it preaches with intense conviction and passion the doctrine of unity… these two contradictory beliefs do really correspond to emotions that each of us can feel, namely, ‘I am different from everybody else’ and ‘I am the same as everybody else.’”

I too have completely contradictory emotions – I should read this book and I should not read it. I don’t know the complete history of Sanatana Dharma, but as a practicing Hindu, I wonder whether I can rely on this book as the source for it. These concluding thoughts from the April 2009 review by Prof. V. V. Raman, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Humanities at Rochester Institute of Technology, helped me decide that I should read it (some day)…

Every Non-Hindu, whether scholar or lay person, who has any interest in the Hindu world is likely to read and benefit from this book. Many English-educated Hindus may also skim through the book, even if only reluctantly. Wendy Doniger who has devoted a lifetime to the study of Sanskrit and to (her own) elucidation of Hindu culture has written a semi-popular, but erudite treatise on aspects of classical India, drawing largely from original texts. The book is certainly a solid contribution to a global understanding of the Hindu world from interesting perspectives, tracing, as it does, the roots of Hindu worldviews to the vast corpus of literature, lay and religious, oral and written, in Sanskrit and in Tamil, ranging from Vedic hymns and the great epics to the Upanishads, Puranas, and more that have breathed life into Indic culture. Though interspersed with tongue-in-cheek comments which are not likely to sit well with all readers, the book is a delight to read. It brings together the many strands that weave traditional Hinduism into a rainbow richness, with its dichotomies and marvelous contradictions. There are not too many social histories of classical India, certainly none of this sweep and subtlety. What is sorely missing in the book is a narrative on the independent India of the past six decades and more, which has become oh so different, for the good and for the bad, from the purana India she has painted so well and in such detail.
Not all Hindus will be thrilled by the tone of the book here and there, but it is difficult for any objective reader to deny that Wendy Doniger has worthily executed the task she had set for herself: to capture the evolution to Hindu culture with emphasis on the perspectives of the underclass. In the process she educates everyone, or at least enriches the eager reader in countless ways.

http://padmakuppa.blogspot.in/2009/04/to-read-or-not-to-read.html

Academic Integrity: It's What's Missing at the AAR -- Suhag A. Shukla, Esq.

March 14, 2014, 4:06 pm

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≪ Previous: Books, lies and videotape: Wendy Doniger's mirepresentations about Hindu history -- Padma Kuppa

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Suhag A. Shukla, Esq. Become a fan 

Co-Founder/Executive Director, Hindu American Foundation

Academic Integrity: It's What's Missing at the AAR

Posted: 03/14/2014 2:41 pm EDT Updated: 03/14/2014 2:59 pm EDT

The American Academy of Religions (AAR), the largest body of professionals pursuing the academic study of religion, issued a statement this week in response to Penguin Books India's decision to withdraw and destroy copies of Wendy Doniger'sThe Hindus: An Alternative History. In part, the AAR Board states:

...But to pursue excellence scholars must be free to ask any question, to offer any interpretation, and to raise any issue. If governments block the free exchange of ideas or restrict what can be said about religion, all of us are impoverished. It is only free inquiry that allows a robust understanding of the critical role that religions play in our common life. For these reasons the AAR Board of Directors fully supports Professor Doniger's right to pursue her scholarship freely and without political interference.

As a Religious Studies major before law school, and now an advocate engaged in promoting an accurate understanding of Hinduism and countering misrepresentations on a near daily basis, four words in the AAR statement -- to offer any interpretation -- leap out at me. To a lay person who deeply respects my religious tradition, it is this unconditional and self-proclaimed right "to offer any interpretation" which lies at the root of what is wrong with religious studies today. The Penguin decision is invoking all sorts of arguments supportive of free speech and academic freedom, and even against Hindu nationalism (as Doniger claims in the New York Times), but the principle that has not been raised by the AAR -- but must be -- is that of academic integrity.

The academic study of religion is considered to be an interdisciplinary endeavor which draws upon a variety of methodologies including sociology, psychology, history, and anthropology. What is interesting is that each of the major professional organizations in these fields privileges academic integrity. They assert the importance of academic freedom, but also clearly articulate academic integrity as a core value. The AAR does not. And the results of this glaring lapse are visible to all.

In a college class on Women and Religion, I was assigned an essay by the then Wendy O'Flaherty. I remember going to my professor after reading the piece, perplexed by the interpretations completely alien to my experiences of the tradition through family and swamis, the Hindu communities I was a part of, trips to India, and my own reflective readings. What my professor, also a former president of the AAR, said to me has stuck with me ever since -- being published or being lauded as an expert doesn't mean one's work isn't just speculation.

As my studies progressed, I soon realized that much of what I was reading about Hinduism from the Academy was just that -- speculation, or in the case of Doniger-O'Flaherty, wild, erotic, and random speculation. Or to put it rather bluntly, she was just making the stuff up!

This was the late 80s and early 90s -- arguably the peak of Doniger's career -- a time when she wielded great influence over the field and was churning out a large number of doctoral students or "experts" in Hinduism. It was when I came across Tales of Sex and Violence or her earlier Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva that I began to wonder why Doniger seemed obsessed with an ostensible intersection of spirituality and fetish that few practicing Hindus would recognize. Where I found the answers to spiritual liberation, Doniger only saw sexual liberation! Hinduism, contrary to her "alternative" readings, isn't only about sex (or blood and gore), and qualifying whether an interpretation is based in the realities of any group of believers or simply academic conjecture is central to academic integrity.

The AAR might consider what the American Historical Association reminds its members:

"Professional integrity...requires awareness of one's own biases and a readiness to follow sound method and analysis wherever they may lead."

Since 2003, my colleagues at the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and I been attending the AAR's annual conference in our effort to follow the state of Hindu studies. While there always have been and now are a growing number of scholars who are committed to presenting emic understandings of Hinduism, we find each year that the "in crowd" created by Doniger at the AAR has yet to shift in terms of power and influence. Freudian analysis, tenuous and selective translations, conjecture, Orientalism, and political baggage from India reign supreme and are the basis of far too many sessions about Hinduism which have little to do with the beliefs and practices of every day Hindus.

Should scholars be free "to offer any interpretation" as the AAR holds, or would the purpose of religious studies be better served if they are free to study any interpretation grounded in religion as it is lived? Is any translation and any interpretation supporting foregone conclusions, or foregone obsessions as with Doniger, fair and ethical? What of the role of a scholar as a teacher? Would my professors have accepted just any interpretation I offered? As a student, I was instructed to read the texts with a concern for meaning, the author's possible intentions, and historical context, amongst other factors. As one scholar friend said, "However creative an interpretation, it cannot be completely divorced from the text and a good reading of text is self-critical, aware of one's own presuppositions, and made with a diligence to not read into the text."

The AAR must also realize that what scholars of religion study and publish is not in a vacuum -- there are real people who are affected by the absence of a code of ethics and professional responsibility. The wild conjectures about Hinduism by some AAR scholars have ended up at best on the placards of museum exhibits misinforming millions of American visitors about Hindu traditions, and at worst, White supremacy web boards putting in harms way non-white Hindu Americans.

The Statement of Ethics of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) offers a perfect model for the AAR. It says simply and poignantly:

1) Do no harm. 
2) Be open and honest about your work.

To do no harm is proclaimed to be a "primary ethical obligation" of researchers who are urged to "think through the possible ways that the research might cause harm," including harm to dignity. They are also to weigh carefully "the potential consequences and inadvertent impacts of their work." 

While the AAR Board waxes part poet and part martyr in defense of Wendy Doniger's academic freedom and reaffirms its commitment to the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, it fails to reflect on whether Doniger, who has been described by the BBC as "known for being rude, crude and very lewd in the hallowed portals of Sanskrit Academics," is abiding by the principles of that very statement. It says, in part:

"Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject."

"...their [college and university teachers] special position in the community imposes special obligations....Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others." 

Indeed there are the scores of scholar members of the AAR who abide by the ethical standards set forth by their respective institutions. They are guided not by sensationalism or any personal crusade, but by their own ethics and commitment to study religion in a way that is both reflective and respectful of religion as it is lived. As a governing body for professionals seeking to understand the interplay between religion and humanity, however, the AAR must recognize the importance and need for its own self-reflection, self-regulation, and self-policing, even if only for a few bad apples.

And if a few bad apples aren't reason enough for the AAR to adopt its own Code of Ethics, perhaps the reminder that a scholar is not just a researcher, but a mentor to future generations will be.

Comments:

Philip Goldberg

HUFFPOST BLOGGER·270 Fans·Philip Goldberg is a writer, public speaker and in

An important, coherent and well argued piece. I would add something that many readers won't know: scholars also write about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in ways that followers find objectionable, inaccurate and misleading. But those traditions are quite well represented in academia, with scholars raised in those traditions - or at least cultures in which those traditions are prominent - representing a variety of perspectives, and with theologians who are well qualified to respond to interpretations they consider flawed. Hinduism does not enjoy that kind of representation in the Western academy, because religious studies as a specific discipline does not exist in India, and those most qualified to counter misinterpretations - gurus, swamis, pandits, et al - do not have the kind of credentials that would allow them to join the conversation. This leaves a vacuum that Hindu laypersons like Suhag try valiantly to fill, but being heard within academia is an ongoing challenge.

15 MAR 2:58 AM

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Mihir Meghani (mihirmeghani)

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Great blog. The Hindu American Foundation has taken a wise stand - not one against free speech, not one for censorship by government, but a stand for academic integrity.

15 MAR 1:05 AM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suhag-a-shukla-esq/academic-integrity-its-wh_b_4961453.html

Academic freedom and tenure. Responsibility of the state to enforce civic responsibility of academe.

March 14, 2014, 5:02 pm

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I made the following comment in response to a piece by Suhag A. Shukla, Esq. on the Huffington Post raising the issue of academic integrity of AAR in the context of L'affaire Wendy Doniger. I think the issue goes beyond a professional association like AAR. It is time for the Capitol Hill and White House to step in. The situation is such that the scholars in the academia cannot be trusted to correct themselves and enforce the loosely structure correction procedures to call to order scholars like Wendy Doniger who have clearly caused hurt to an entire Hindu religious community.

"A remarkable piece. I read through the self-regulated 1940 statement of academic freedom and tenure. Paragraph 5 states: "As members of their community, professors have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Professors measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject, to their students, to their profession, and to their institution." There are two key operative tenets for academia scholars here: obligations and responsibilities. I find a glaring omission of responsibilities extending to the community outside of the academe. On matters related to Hindu religious studies, in the absence of adequate representation in the academia of practitioners of Hindu religion, shouldn't an institution like the AAR have an investigative body in place to review transgressions of the academic ethic as formulated in the 1940 statement? Did AAR look into the serious concerns raised by scholars and also the Hindu practitioners against biased and erotic speculation repeatedly engaged in by Wendy Doniger and followers of her faulty methods of Freudian analysis, selective translations, conjectures and political baggage? Shouldn't Capitol Hill get concerned about the hurt expressed by Hindus in America -- parents of middle school going children in particular -- who now number over 2 million and remedy the present dismal state of Hindu studies in American academia? Does AAR realize that something is broke with Wendy Doniger and needs fixing?"

There is a miscarriage of justice by not including in the 1940 statement a clear statement on ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITY to the community which supports the institution or academia. Academics cannot be blamed for taking care of their own self-interests and protecting their tenures. It is the responsibility of socially responsible bodies like the Capitol Hill and White House to institute corrective measures if need be by elaborating on the concepts of Public Order and Public Decency mentioned in the US Penal Code. I find it amazing that there is emphasis on rights and no precise statements about ethics and social responsibility. Vietnam Constitution is entirely premised on Responsibilities and not on Rights. Even Indian Constitution now has a section on Fundamental Duties of citizens (though not justiciable unlike the section on Fundamental Rights).

The track record of institutions in correcting violations of the 1940 academic freedom statement in USA is dismal. When the institutions and academic groups like AAR fail, who is to bell the cat? I think the state represented by Capitol Hill and White House occupants have to step in.

In the case of judges who have tenure positions, there is a procedure for impeachment and removal. Shouldn't there be similar remedial, protective provisions while treating the 1940 Statement of academic freedom as inviolate?

S. Kalyanaraman

Sarasvati Research Center

March 15, 2014

1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure

Download: 

 principles-academic-freedom-tenure.pdf

In 1940, following a series of joint conferences begun in 1934, representatives of the American Association of University Professors and of the Association of AmericanColleges (now the Association of American Colleges and Universities) agreed upon a restatement of principles set forth in the 1925 Conference Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure. This restatement is known to the profession as the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

The 1940 Statement is printed below, followed by Interpretive Comments as developed by representatives  of the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges in 1969.The governing bodies of the two associations, meeting respectively in November 1989 and January 1990, adopted several changes in language in order to remove gender-specific references from the original text.

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The purpose of this statement is to promote public understanding and support of academic freedom and tenure and agreement upon procedures to ensure them in colleges and universities. Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. ¹ The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.

Academic freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching andresearch. Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth. Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student to freedom in learning. It carries with it duties correlative with rights.[1] ² 

Tenure is a means to certain ends; specifically: (1) freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities, and (2) a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability. Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society.

Academic Freedom

1. Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties; but research for pecuniary return should be based upon an understanding with the authorities of theinstitution.
2. Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject.[2] Limitations of academic freedom because of religious or other aims of the institution should be clearly stated in writing at the time of the appointment.[3]
3. College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution.[4]

Academic Tenure

After the expiration of a probationary period, teachers or investigators should have permanent or continuous tenure, and their service should be terminated only for adequate cause, except in the case of retirement for age, or under extraordinary circumstances because of financial exigencies.

In the interpretation of this principle it is understood that the following represents acceptable academic practice:

1. The precise terms and conditions of every appointment should be stated in writing and be in the possession of both institution and teacher before the appointment is consummated.
2. Beginning with appointment to the rank of full-time instructor or a higher rank,[5] the probationary period should not exceed seven years, including within this period full-time service in all institutions of higher education; but subject to the proviso that when, after a term of probationary service of more than three years in one or more institutions, a teacher is called to another institution, it may be agreed in writing that the new appointment is for a probationary period of not more than four years, even though thereby the person’s total probationary period in the academic profession is extended beyond the normal maximum of seven years.[6] Notice should be given at least one year prior to the expiration of the probationary period if the teacher is not to be continued in service after the expiration of that period.[7]
3. During the probationary period a teacher should have the academic freedom that all other members of the faculty have.[8]
4. Termination for cause of a continuous appointment, or the dismissal for cause of a teacher previous to the expiration of a term appointment, should, if possible, be considered by both a faculty committee and the governing board of the institution. In all cases where the facts are in dispute, the accused teacher should be informed before the hearing in writing of the charges and should have the opportunity to be heard in his or her own defense by all bodies that pass judgment upon the case. The teacher should be permitted to be accompanied by an advisor of his or her own choosing who may act as counsel. There should be a full stenographic record of the hearing available to the parties concerned. In the hearing of charges of incompetence the testimony should include that of teachers and other scholars, either from the teacher’s own or from other institutions. Teachers on continuous appointment who are dismissed for reasons not involving moral turpitude should receive their salaries for at least a year from the date of notification of dismissal whether or not they  are continued in their duties at the institution.[9]
5. Termination of a continuous appointment because of financial exigency should be demonstrably bona fide.

1940 Interpretations

At the conference of representatives of the American Association of University Professors and of the Association of American Colleges on November 7–8, 1940, the following interpretations of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure were agreed upon:

1. That its operation should not be retroactive.
2. That all tenure claims of teachers appointed prior to the endorsement should be determined in accordance with the principles set forth in the 1925 Conference Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure.
3. If the administration of a college or university feels that a teacher has not observed the admonitions of paragraph 3 of the section on Academic Freedom and believes that the extramural utterances of the teacher have been such as to raise grave doubts concerning the teacher’s fitness for his or her position, it may proceed to file charges under paragraph 4 of the section on Academic Tenure. In pressing such charges, the administration should remember that teachers are citizens and should be accorded the freedom of citizens. In such cases the administration must assume full responsibility, and the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges are free to make an investigation.

1970 Interpretive Comments

Following extensive discussions on the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure with leading educational associations and with individual faculty members and administrators, a joint committee of the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges met during 1969 to reevaluate this key policy statement. On the basis of the comments received, and the discussions that ensued, the joint committee felt the preferable approach was to formulate interpretations of the Statement in terms of the experience gained in  implementing and applying the Statement for over thirty years and of adapting it to current needs.

The committee submitted to the two associations for their consideration the following “Interpretive Comments” These interpretations were adopted by the Council of the American Association of University Professors in April 1970 and endorsed by the Fifty-sixth Annual Meeting as Association policy.

In the thirty years since their promulgation, the principles of the 1940 Statement of Principle on Academic Freedom and Tenure have undergone a substantial amount of refinement. This has evolved through a variety of processes, including customary acceptance, understandings mutually arrived at between institutions and professors or their representatives, investigations and reports by the American Association of University Professors, and formulations of statements by that association either alone or in conjunction with the Association of American Colleges. These comments represent the attempt of the two associations, as the original sponsors of the 1940 Statement, to formulate the most important of these refinements. Their incorporation here as Interpretive Comments is based upon the premise that the 1940 Statement is not a static code but a fundamental document designed to set a framework of norms to guide adaptations to changing times and circumstances.

Also, there have been relevant developments in the law itself reflecting a growing insistence by the courts on due process within the academic community which parallels the essential concepts of the 1940 Statement; particularly relevant is the identification by the Supreme Court of academic freedom as a right protected by the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court said in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589 (1967), “Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.”

The numbers refer to the designated portion of the 1940 Statement on which interpretive comment is made.

1. The Association of American Colleges and the American Association of University Professors have long recognized that membership in the academic profession carries with it special responsibilities. Both associations either separately or jointly have consistently affirmed these responsibilities in major policy statements, providing guidance to professors in their utterances as citizens, in the exercise of their responsibilities to the institution and to students, and in their conduct when resigning from their institution or when undertaking government-sponsored research. Of particular relevance is the Statement on Professional Ethics adopted in 1966 as Association policy. (A revision, adopted in 1987, may be found in AAUP, Policy Documents and Reports, 10th ed. [Washington,  D.C. , 2006], 171–72.)
2. The intent of this statement is not to discourage what is “controversial.” Controversy is at the heart of the free academic inquiry which the entire statement is designed to foster. The passage serves to underscore the need for teachers to avoid persistently intruding material which has no relation to their subject.
3. Most church-related institutions no longer need or desire the departure from the principle of academic freedom implied in the 1940 Statement, and we do not now endorse such a departure.
4. This paragraph is the subject of an interpretation adopted by the sponsors of the 1940Statement  immediately following its endorsement which reads as follows:
   
   If the administration of a college or university feels that a teacher has not observed the admonitions of paragraph 3 of the section on Academic Freedom and believes that the extramural utterances of the teacher have been such as to raise grave doubts concerning the teacher’s fitness for his or her position, it may proceed to file charges under paragraph 4 of the section on Academic Tenure. In pressing such charges, the administration should remember that teachers are citizens and should be accorded the freedom of citizens. In such cases the administration must assume full responsibility, and the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges are free to make an investigation.
   
   Paragraph 3 of the section on Academic Freedom in the 1940 Statement should also be interpreted in keeping with the 1964 Committee A Statement on Extramural Utterances , which states inter alia: “The controlling principle is that a faculty member’s expression of opinion as a citizen cannot constitute grounds for dismissal unless it clearly demonstrates the faculty member’s unfitness for his or her position. Extramural utterances rarely bear upon the faculty member’s fitness for the position. Moreover, a final decision should take into account the faculty member’s entire record as a teacher and scholar.”
   Paragraph 5 of the Statement on Professional Ethics also deals with the nature of the “special obligations” of the teacher. The paragraph reads as follows:
   
   As members of their community, professors have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Professors measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject, to their students, to their profession, and to their institution. When they speak or act as private persons, they avoid creating the impression of speaking or acting for their college or university. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, professors have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom.
   
   Both the protection of academic freedom and the requirements of academic responsibility apply not only to the full-time probationary and the tenured teacher, but also to all others, such as part-time faculty and teaching assistants, who exercise teaching responsibilities.
5. The concept of “rank of full-time instructor or a higher rank” is intended to include any person who teaches a full-time load regardless of the teacher’s specific title. ³ 
6. In calling for an agreement “in writing” on the amount of credit given for a faculty member’s prior service at other institutions, the Statement furthers the general policy of full understanding by the professor of the terms and conditions of the appointment. It does not necessarily follow that a professor’s tenure rights have been violated because of the absence of a written agreement on this matter. Nonetheless, especially because of the variation in permissible institutional practices, a written understanding concerning these matters at the time of appointment is particularly appropriate and advantageous to both the individual and the institution. ⁴
7. The effect of this subparagraph is that a decision on tenure, favorable or unfavorable, must be made at least twelve months prior to the completion of the probationary period. If the decision is negative, the appointment for the following year becomes a terminal one. If the decision is affirmative, the provisions in the 1940 Statement with respect to the termination of service of teachers or investigators after the expiration of a probationary period should apply from the date when the favorable decision is made.
   The general principle of notice contained in this paragraph is developed with greater specificity in the Standards for Notice of Nonreappointment, endorsed by the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors (1964). These standards are:
   
   Notice of nonreappointment, or of intention not to recommend reappointment to the governing board, should be given in writing in accordance with the following standards:
   1.  Not later than March 1 of the first academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of that year; or, if a one-year appointment terminates during an academic year, at least three months in advance of its termination.
   2. Not later than December 15 of the second academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of that year; or, if an initial two-year appointment terminates during an academic year, at least six months in advance of its termination.
   3.  At least twelve months before the expiration of an appointment after two or more years in the institution.
   
   Other obligations, both of institutions and of individuals, are described in the Statement on Recruitment and Resignation of Faculty Members, as endorsed by the Association of American Colleges and the American Association of University Professors in 1961.
8. The freedom of probationary teachers is enhanced by the establishment of a regular procedure for the periodic evaluation and assessment of the teacher’s academic performance during probationary status. Provision should be made for regularized procedures for the consideration of complaints by probationary teachers that their academic freedom has been violated. One suggested procedure to serve these purposes is contained in the Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure, prepared by the American Association of University Professors.
9. A further specification of the academic due process to which the teacher is entitled under this paragraph is contained in the Statement on Procedural Standards in Faculty Dismissal Proceedings, jointly approved by the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges in 1958. This interpretive document deals with the issue of suspension, about which the 1940 Statement is silent.
   The 1958 Statement  provides: “Suspension of the faculty member during the proceedings is justified only if immediate harm to the faculty member or others is threatened by the faculty member’s continuance. Unless legal considerations forbid, any such suspension should be with pay.” A suspension which is not followed by either reinstatement or the opportunity for a hearing is in effect a summary dismissal in violation of academic due process.
   The concept of “moral turpitude” identifies the exceptional case in which the professor may be denied a year’s teaching or pay in whole or in part. The statement applies to that kind of behavior which goes beyond simply warranting discharge and is so utterly blameworthy as to make it inappropriate to require the offering of a year’s teaching or pay. The standard is not that the moral sensibilities of persons in the particular community have been affronted. The standard is behavior that would evoke condemnation by the academic community generally.

Endnotes:

1 The word “teacher” as used in this document is understood to include the investigator who is attached to an academic institution without teaching duties. Back to text

2 Boldface numbers in brackets refer to Interpretive Comments that follow. Back to text

3 For a discussion of this question, see the “Report of the Special Committee on Academic Personnel Ineligible for Tenure,” Policy Documents and Reports, 9th ed. (Washington, D.C., 2001), 88–91.Back to text

4 For a more detailed statement on this question, see “On Crediting Prior Service Elsewhere as Part of the Probationary Period,” Policy Documents and Reports, 10th ed. (Washington, D.C., 2006), 55–56. Back to text

Endorsers

The 1940 Statement of Principles has been endorsed by more than 200 scholarly and education groups. 

http://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure

Devyani Khobragade whose arrest and strip-search in NYC drew protests is indicted again

March 14, 2014, 6:13 pm

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New indictment filed against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in U.S. visa fraud case

Saturday, March 15, 2:24 AM

NEW YORK — An Indian diplomat was reindicted Friday on U.S. visa fraud charges that touched off an international stirafter she was arrested and strip-searched last year.
The new indictment, filed Friday, essentially reinstates the charges against the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, who has left the country. A judge dismissed last year’s virtually identical indictment Wednesday on diplomatic immunity grounds, but the ruling left the door open to federal prosecutors to revive the case, and they suggested that they would.
Khobragade’s lawyer, Daniel Arshack, had no immediate comment Friday. He said Wednesday that reindicting his client “might be viewed as an aggressive act and one that [prosecutors] would be ill-advised to pursue.”
Khobragade is back in India, and it is unclear when, if ever, she might appear in court in New York again. There was no immediate response to messages left at the Indian Embassy in Washington and the Indian Consulate in New York.
The State Department had filed court papers opposing Khobragade’s bid to get the charges dismissed and stands by that action, spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Friday in Washington.
Khobragade was a deputy consul general in New York when she was arrested in December near her children’s school in Manhattan. Prosecutors said she lied to the government to get her Indian housekeeper a work visa, claiming she was paying the maid $500 a month while actually paying her less than $3 an hour. She pleaded not guilty while also arguing that she was immune from prosecution.
The arrest sparked an outcry in India, particularly because of the strip-search. U.S. Marshals said Khobragade was treated no differently than others who are arrested, and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said she was afforded courtesies that most Americans would not get, such as being allowed to make phone calls for two hours to arrange child care and sort out personal matters.
Bharara, who was born in India, also said Khobragade was not handcuffed, restrained or arrested in front of her children, and she was given coffee and offered food while detained.
Still, many in India saw the arrest as deeply disrespectful. Indian officials also said that the housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, had tried to blackmail the diplomat. Richard’s advocates disputed that.
Safe Horizon, an anti-human-trafficking group that represents Richard, said this week that it hoped Khobragade would be reindicted, calling the case “a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate our nation’s commitment to fighting exploitation of workers.”
The arrest roiled U.S.-Indian relations, with India taking such steps as removing concrete traffic barriers around the U.S. Embassy and revoking diplomats’ ID cards. After she was indicted, Khobragade complied with a State Department request that she leave the country, and the Indian government then asked Washington to withdraw a diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. The United States complied.
When Khobragade was arrested, U.S. officials said her status as a consular officer provided immunity limited to acts performed in the exercise of official functions. She disagreed.
Then, on the day before her indictment Jan. 9, she was accredited to India’s U.N. mission, a role that conferred wider immunity.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin decided in a ruling Wednesday that the later appointment gave Khobragade immunity and meant that the indictment had to be dismissed, without settling the question of whether the alleged crimes would have been considered “official acts” covered by the earlier, more limited immunity.
But the judge wrote that there was “no bar to a new indictment against Khobragade,” whose immunity ended when she left the country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/new-indictment-filed-against-indian-diplomat-devyani-khobragade-in-us-visa-fraud-case/2014/03/14/0074dd80-abb0-11e3-adbc-888c8010c799_story.html

World's #9 Most Powerful Person Now Accused of Corruption -- Will She Fall? -- Cleo Paskal

March 14, 2014, 7:14 pm

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World's #9 Most Powerful Person Now Accused of Corruption -- Will She Fall?

Cleo Paskal

Associate Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs

Posted: 04/25/11 07:17 AM ET

New Delhi. Some of India's biggest fish are getting caught up in the country's fast-growing wave of anti-corruption activity. In what could be India's equivalent of a judicial jasmine revolution, previously invulnerable politicians, business icons, and pillars of the community are all nervously keeping their lawyers on speed-dial.

The anti-corruption push is an unprecedented coming together of myriad facets of Indian society. Religious leaders are concerned about the effects on morality and spiritual growth. NGOs speak of the effects on the poor. The middle class is angry about its future being stifled by a smothering blanket of day-to-day corruption. The intelligence services see corruption a clear threat to national security. And the business community, thanks to globalization, has seen how efficiently things can operate without having to constantly pay bribes or be tangled in red tape, and they want the same thing at home.

Even the Supreme Court is fed up, with Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy saying about the vast sums of Indian money being illegally hidden away in Liechtenstein Bank:

We are talking about the huge money. It is a plunder of the nation. It is a pure and simple theft of the national money. We are talking about mind-boggling crime.

The scandals are bursting on to the front pages fast and thick. Suresh Kalmadi, a Congress Party politician and the former head of the corruption-plagued Commonwealth Games, was arrested April 25. According to a report by the Indian Comptroller and Auditor General, the 2G spectrum scam alone, in which 2G licenses were sold off in a manner that was, to say the least, less than transparent, cost close to $40 billion in lost revenue.

All across India, people are saying enough is enough. And suddenly the unthinkable is starting to happen. People considered above reproach, or at least untouchable, are coming under the judicial cross-hairs. 2G alone has seen charges laid against one former government minister and several captains of industry.

And the latest high profile target is one of the biggest fish of all, Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, currently #9 on Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People.

Sonia Gandhi has one of the most remarkable life stories in international politics. Born Edvige Antonia Albina Maino into a family of modest means in rural Italy, she didn't even get a chance to complete high school before heading to the UK for work. There she met Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She eventually married him and the young family moved in to Indira Gandhi's New Delhi's home, putting her literally in the heart of Indian politics.

After Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, Sonia's husband Rajiv became Prime Minister. Following Rajiv's 1991 assassination by Tamil terrorists, there were rumors that Sonia was going to put herself forward as Prime Minister.

As she herself later said, she "could not walk past the portraits of my husband, my mother-in-law and her father and not feel that I had some responsibility to try and save the party they had given their lives to."

Given her focus on the party, it was fitting that instead of becoming Prime Minister, she ended up as President of the powerful Congress Party. Politically, it proved to be a smart move as it gave her power without direct responsibility -- while she is #9 on Forbes list of power people, the actual Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, is only #18. According to Forbes, "Gandhi remains the real power behind the nuclear-tipped throne [...] she has cemented her status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty."

Her image is of a dutiful, submissive Indian wife, now widow. When her husband was alive, she would walk behind him. In public she wears saris. Although a devout Catholic, she is often photographed at Hindu Temples. And like a good Indian mother, though she has decorously pulled herself out of the race for Prime Minister, she is happy to encourage her son, Rahul, to take the job.

However there have been growing, persistent murmurs about questionable business deals and inexplicable exponential jumps in the personal wealth of her and her family.

The allegations came out in the open in 1995 when M. D. Nalapat, then Resident Editor (Delhi) of the world's largest English language newspaper, the Times of India, began a groundbreaking series of articles about Sonia.

The articles made the controversial (at the time) claim that the public docility was just a ploy, and that Sonia actually had serious political ambitions (later confirmed by her role in Congress). Also, crucially, the series said that her desire for power wasn't simply altruistic and that the wealth not only of her, but of her Italian relatives, rose stratospherically after Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1984.

Nalapat's articles could not be ignored as he was one of India's most respected journalists and had, throughout his career, taken on corrupt politicians, social inequity and institutionalized discrimination.

This however was a 'topic too far'. While the facts in the article were never refuted, Nalapat was forced out of journalism in 1998 and moved into academics.

Next came public questions from another highly reputed source, Sten Lindstrom, Sweden's special prosecutor investigating the pay-offs associated with the sale of weapons by Bofors to the government of India. His investigation showed that a close friend of Sonia's, Ottavio Quattrocchi, has received kickbacks in the millions.

In 1998 Lindstrom gave an interview in which he said:

the Gandhis, particularly now Sonia, should explain how Quattrocchi-owned companies got such fat sums as payoffs from the Bofors deal. After all, what is the connection of Sonia and the Gandhi family to Quattrocchi? Who introduced Quattrocchi and his AE Services to Bofors? At least one thing is certainly known now. A part of the payoffs definitely went to Quattrocchi. [...] the papers all pointed to the Gandhi family.

Not only have the questions not been answered by Sonia, but in spite of substantial evidence against him, Quattrocchi has managed to evade prosecution in India, and has even had his kickback funds unfrozen from overseas accounts.

Part of the genius of Sonia Gandhi is her ability to present herself as a helpless victim, convincing even her political rivals not to fear her as she is fatally flawed. In 1998, India was being led by BJP Prime Minister Vajpayee. When Nalapat spoke with him about Sonia, he was bluntly told to lay off, as, "so long as a white Christian lady is head of the Congress Party, I [Vajpayee] and my party will always be in power". Vajpayee and his party lost power to Sonia's Congress in 2004.

But the most serious threat to Sonia -- and, as she is at the apex of the Congress Party, and so to Congress itself -- is now lying on the desk of #18, the Prime Minister of India.

On April 15, former Law and Justice Minister and Harvard Professor Dr. Subramanian Swamy asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for leave to lay corruption charges against Sonia Gandhi. In a meticulously researched 200+ page submission Dr Swamy alleges Sonia Gandhi has been involved in corruption in India since 1972 and personally benefited from the Bofors scam (1986), has held billions in non-Indian bank accounts since at least 1991, illegally profited from the Iraqi oil-for-food deals (2002), and even accessed KGB payoffs during the Cold War.

The Prime Minister has three months to decide whether or not to grant sanction to prosecute. If he doesn't, Dr. Swamy can take the case directly to the Supreme Court, which under Chief Justice Kapadia is showing a definite proclivity towards facilitating corruption cases.

While, so far, the corruption cases in India have caught up some pretty big fish, if charges are laid against Sonia Gandhi, it won't just be part of a wave, it will be a sea change.

Sonia Gandhi is not just an individual, she is the steely core of a pillar of Indian politics. If she crumbles, it will shake the foundations of the venerable Congress Party, and possibly leave a gaping hole in the political scene. Meanwhile, a range of polarizing and regional parties are ready to rush in and stake their claim. Given the growing importance of India in our heavily globalized world, this is not just an Indian story, this is one all should be following very closely indeed.

Follow Cleo Paskal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cleopaskal

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cleo-paskal/worlds-9-most-powerful-pe_b_853132.html

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Breach of trust. Fischer and Rietberg Museum asked to wthdraw book

March 15, 2014, 3:46 am

≫ Next: Wendy's academic honesty and moral integrity -- Vishal Agarwal. Will AAR ask her to explain, make amends?

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Wronged in name Dr Jyotindra Jain

CONTROVERSY: BOOKS

Lost In Translation

A German Padmashri ignores co-authors

PRIYADARSHINI SEN 

March 24, 2014

After the pulping of a Wendy Doniger book, here’s another storm in publishing. This time it’s not over content perceived as offensive but over authorial rights. Tem­ple Tents for Goddesses in India, an illustrated monograph on the painted canopies used by the Devipoojaks and some other communities of Gujarat to create sacred spaces, was first publi­shed in German in 1982, with Dr Eber­hard Fischer, Haku Shah and Dr Jyo­­­­­t­indra Jain as co-authors. But the Eng­lish version that was published some months ago by Niyogi Books, Delhi—a near-replica of the original, barring some editing, an extra chapter, and the additional word ‘Gujarat’ in the title—makes no mention of Shah or Jain.
It’s an egregious omission, for all  three have impeccable credentials and such credit-sharing breaches are not exp­ected at that level of scholarship. Fischer is a former director of the Mus­eum Rietberg, Zurich. His association with aspects of Indian culture—tex­tiles, murals, miniature art and rel­­­ig­ion—runs more than four decades, and he’s among the few foreigners who have won a Padma award, a Padmashri for literature and education in 2012. Jain is a former director of the National Crafts Museum, Delhi. And Shah, a renowned artist who also set up a tribal museum at the Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahm­e­­dabad, is an expert on the folk and tribal arts of western India. He too is a Padmashri.

“This is a flagrant violation of intellectual property rights,” says Jain, who worked with Fischer for over five years on the original book. “I did extensive research on Gujarati and English texts on folk goddesses, recorded songs, documented the invocation ceremonies and the production of the fabrics used in the canopies.” Shah could not be reached for comment. Fischer did not respond to phone calls or e-mails.

The disputed book in its two versions

Doesn’t ignoring the contribution of Shah and Jain amount to plagiarism or at least misrepresentation of the work they have put in? “No,” says Bikash Niyogi of Niyogi Books. “We signed an agreement with Fischer and the Rie­tberg Museum when he was its director at that time. It was he who approached me and I can therefore work only on his instructions.” In fact, partial reparation has begun. After a flurry of e-mails between Fischer and Jain, the former agreed to ask Niyogi Books to stop selling copies that mentioned only him as the author and come out with a version that bears all three names.

There has been no formal resolution, though, and Jain is certainly not satisfied with what has been done. He says it was agreed in January that the publisher would withdraw all copies from circulation, but so far only 30 have been retrieved, and if more than 500 are at large, the entire exercise is pointless. Another problem is that online stores like Amazon and Flipkart continue to sell the book bearing only Fischer’s name, something over which the publisher claims he has no control. “We’ve sent a mail to all dealers that copies have to be returned. The book has stopped selling for the last two months. But we don’t have a hand over online stores,” says Niyogi.

Jain is galled at how Fischer wanted to resolve the whole issue “over a cup of tea in Switzerland”. He says that if all errant copies of the book are not withdrawn from all kinds of bookstores,  he’ll take Fischer and the publisher to court. After all, it amounts to breach of trust, not a misunderstanding that can be set right with a tete-a-tete.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?289806

Wendy's academic honesty and moral integrity -- Vishal Agarwal. Will AAR ask her to explain, make amends?

March 15, 2014, 5:16 am

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Methinks 1940 academic freedom and tenure statement is the culprit. The legally unenforceable concepts of academic freedom and tenure are self-serving criteria drawn up by scholars in the academia to protect their pecuniary interests with little regard to adherence to ethical standards serving their institution or the community which supports the institution. The legal tenability of the 1940 statement should be tested; Capitol Hill should intervene in the larger interests of safeguarding civil rights of the Hindu community in USA and to ensure that academics, in the course of their free inquiries, do not violate reasonable standards of Public Order and Public Decency. A good test for such standars is Chapter 43 of US Penal Code which defines harmful material which may arouse prurient interests of minors.

Kalyanaraman

Academic Integrity: It's What's Missing at the AAR

Comment

Vishal Agarwal (Vishal_Agarwal)

The article hits the nail on the head. Doniger's "The Hindus" has literally hundreds of instances where she has invented passages that do not exist in the original, has cherry picked verses out of their context, has given wrong translations, has quoted non existent references to secondary works in addition to the factual errors rampant. It is not just a question of the right to interpret, but of the scholar's academic honesty and moral integrity. And it is not just the Hindus, but other scholars too who have criticized her work. Hans Bakker has called her books "fast food" that 'sell and attract a lot of publicity but lack scholarship.' Rahul Peter Das has written that any insights that she gains from the Hindu texts are 'accidental' and that she really does not understand them. D N Jha (Marxist historian) writes that her works are naïve from a historian's perspective. Nicholas Kazanas writes that she is obsessed with 'defloration, seduction, sex' and the like. Even Witzel, who is often regarded as a Hindu hater, terms her translations as grossly wrong. Doniger has been made aware of the criticisms of her book even 4 years ago, but she never responds to them and choses to term them as Hindu Nationalists. The judge in India hearing the case between Penguin and Shiksha Bachao Andolan said that the book is 'vulgar.' Penguin, with deep pockets, thought it would lose because her book was indefensible. No wonder it settled out of court.

15 MAR 9:34 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suhag-a-shukla-esq/academic-integrity-its-wh_b_4961453.html

Electronic tracking of EVMs reported by ECI. This calls for detailed explanation by ECI to ensure transparency.

March 15, 2014, 7:38 am

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Here is a disconcerting report from ECI on the use of Information Technology. The last sentence ends with a curt statement: "EVM tracking through software etc." 

This is NOT a transparent statement and not consistent with the SC order specifying Constitutional mandate of transparency in election process.

Wonder what "tracking" is ECI doing through software + etc???

A lead is provided by a detailed expose during Lok Sabha elections of 2009. The details may be see at 

http://government.wikia.com/wiki/Review_the_2009_Lok_Sabha_Election_Process:_Promises_and_Reality

This detailed report should be read by every political party functionary to realize the many loopholes which exist in the computer systems of EVMs to tamper with election results WHOLESALE. Here are some excerpts from this report:

...the final counting of the votes was to be undertaken and completed on the 16th of May 2009. Election Commission had specifically given the impression that it had formally disallowed any preemptive counting of votes including sampling either through Exit Polls or by downloading EVM data. The data on the final votes polled would be expected to be uploaded/made available on thehttp://eci.nic.in/candidateinfo/frmcandidate.aspx on the 16th of May 2009. The nature of these data would concern names of the candidates, individual party affiliation, name of the constituency, the voting phase, votes polled by each candidate. It is only a matter of serendipity that, in order to obtain the information on the names of candidates their constituencies and party affiliations that on May 6th 2009 Prof Madhav Nalapat and Dr. Anupam Saraph went to the site and must have been amazed to discover the results of the votes compiled forall five phases although the election/voting were yet to take place in phase iv and v. It thus appears that either this was mischief by some hacker or that some data was actually uploaded. The site was visited again on the7th and 11th with the same result. In conclusion, contrary to the rules set up by the election commission, not only was the voting data for the first three phases available but surprisingly data for the two subsequent phases (before actual polling took place) appeared.

The report pointed out that while the counting was to be done on 16 May 2009, Election Commission had electronic access to EVMs and could compile election results and tabulate them on 6th, 7th and 11th May 2009, that is, from 10 days before the announced date of counting.

Unfortunately, the serious report was not properly investigated and no information was provided by ECI as to how ECI could establish such ELECTRONIC TRACKING which is clearly violative of the constitutionally mandated transparency principle and behind the backs of the political parties and contenders in the election process.

If there was a proper enquiry into the report of electronic tracking, a more serious concern which would have been revealed if such ELECTRONIC TRACKING could also have options for tampering with the counted tallies and to arrive at desired results in select constituencies and select EVMs used in select polling booths.

After all, all it takes is a leak in the bucket to empty its contents. If there is a lapse in the cyber security systems and if there is any violation of the cyber security mandates of the Information Technology Act 2000 (which is the cyberlaw of the land) remedial measures should be instituted FORTHWITH.

I suggest the SC order mandating the constitutional principle of transparency should be enforced in letter and spirit. It is a matter of concern that Voter Verifiable Printed Audit Trail is NOT being introduced on a large scale for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls even though SC indicated the imperative. ECI has said that it trying out VVPAT only in Mizoram. This means most of the Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls without such a mandated Audit Trail.

Alternative systems can be trailed to record voter verified poll to countercheck the results announced from EVM display tallies of the vote count on each EVM. Such a display of the tally of votes on EVM should be veriable with externally, independently compiled audit trails -- in the absence of a print out of the voter's preference.

I am sure ECI recognizes the trust the people of India have placed in the Constitutional body to manage the most sacred process in a democracy -- abiding by the expression of the sovereign voters' choices.

This is a process which has a long history in Indian civilizational history. Uttaramerur inscription of Parantaka Chola of the 12th century records how balloting and elections were held using secret ballot (with palm leaves and pots as ballot boxes) for electing public officials. This fact was also mentioned with pride by Tanguturi Prakasam, former Chief Minister of composite Madras Presidency during the Constituent Assembly debates.

Eternal vigilance is the price of swarajyam in a democratic system.

S.Kalyanaraman

March 15, 2014.

USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 

25. Commission uses Information Technology (IT) in a big way for three 

important purposes. These are - providing easier access to electors for service delivery, greater transparency and better election management. Examples of use of IT for easier access to service delivery include on-line application forms for inclusion of names and modifications and deletion of entries in electoral rolls; facility for electoral search on the website of CEOs and through SMS; Polling Station locations on maps on ECI website; use of Call centre with 1950 as the phone number for public grievances, etc. IT will be used to increase transparency by putting affidavits of candidates on website, electoral rolls in PDF form on the website, use of webcasting from Polling Stations, etc. Commission will use IT for better management of elections by applications such as SMS based poll monitoring, Election Monitoring dashboard for officers at all levels, EVM tracking through software, etc. 

http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/GE_2014_15032014_for_Publicaton.pdf

Diego Garcia or Gobi desert? Many theories about the missing MH 370 flight

March 15, 2014, 8:22 am

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Carr, the Florida professor, held out the slender hope that hijackers had landed the aircraft on a remote island.

“There’s a lot of World War II airfields left over,” he said. “They might want to hold the plane for ransom or hold the passengers for ransom, or they might want load the airplane up with high explosives and fly the airplane into a target someplace.”

See also: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/missing-flight-mh370-chinese-satellite-spots-suspected-crash-site/story-fnizu68q-1226853071747

The missing Malaysian airliner..........

Missing airliner may have flown on for 7 hours


Mystery surrounds missing Malaysia Airlines flight: Days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing over the Gulf of Thailand, Malaysian authorities said they have made little progress in a search that is becoming more difficult by the day. 

By Chico Harlan, Ashley Halsey III and Annie Gowen, Updated: Saturday, March 15, 3:55 PM

Some very strange shit going on with this flight..............I'm not convinced one way or the other BUT its scary that it can vanish in this day and age.............

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that a missing passenger jet was steered off course after its communications systems were intentionally dismantled and could have potentially flown on for seven additional hours.

In the most comprehensive account to date of the plane’s fate, Najib drew an ominous picture of what happened aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, saying investigators had determined there was “deliberate action by someone on the plane.”

Najib said the investigation had “refocused” to look at the crew and passengers. A Malaysia Airlines representative, speaking to relatives of passengers in Beijing, said the Malaysian government had opened a criminal investigation into the plane’s disappearance.

The plane’s whereabouts remain unknown one week after it disappeared from civilian radar shortly aftertakeoff from Kuala Lumpur. But Najib, citing newly analyzed satellite data, said the plane could have flown along two paths: one stretching from northern Thailand toward the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border, the other stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Though previously U.S. officials believed the flight could have remained in the air for several extra hours, Najib said Saturday that the flight was still communicating with satellites until 8:11 a.m. — seven and a half hours after takeoff. There was no further communication with the plane after that time, Najib said. If the plane was still in the air, it would have been nearing its fuel limit.

“Due to the type of satellite data,” Najib said, “we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane when it last made contact with the satellite.”

The new leads about the plane’s path, though ambiguous, have drastically changed a search operation involving more than a dozen nations. Malaysia on Saturday said that efforts would be terminated in theGulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, the spot where the plane first disappeared from civilian radar.

Malaysian authorities are now likely to look for help from other countries in Southeast and South Asia, seeking mysterious or unidentified readings that their radar systems might have picked up. Malaysia has confirmed that a previously unknown blip picked up by its military radar was indeed MH370. That blip suggests the plane had cut west, across the Malaysian peninsula, after severing contact with the ground.

Malaysia received help in analyzing that radar data from the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, and the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

Malaysian investigators now believe that the Boeing-777 jet, bound for Beijing with 227 passengers, deliberately cut a series of communications systems as it headed toward for the boundary of Malaysian airspace. U.S. officials and aviation experts say the plane could have been hijacked or sabotaged by somebody with aviation knowledge.

Indian officials said Saturday morning that they were still awaiting new orders in response to the Malaysian prime minister’s statement that the official search focus shift from the South China Sea to the two “corridors” west of Malaysia.

“Nothing is certain. These are all probabilities,” said Captain D.K. Sharma, a spokesman for the India Navy. “Let the new orders come. Let’s see how we respond.”

They have now expanded their search from the area around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — where five vessels and four planes have been deployed — to the north and west, by adding four additional aircraft to scour the massive Bay of Bengal — two P-8I anti-submarine and electronic intelligence planes and three other military aircraft, including a C-130J and two Dorniers. Search teams from the Indian military had spent much of the day Friday searching the jungles on remote islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, most of which are uninhabited, but so far came up empty.

Other nations along the Bay of Bengal are now the expanding search as well. Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina, said that country had deployed two aircraft and two frigates in the Bay of Bengal.

Suspicions of a hijacking hinged on the erratic behavior of the plane after it stopped sending radar signals and an indisputable fact: Despite an exhaustive search of the waters that straddle Malaysia and farther into the Indian Ocean, no trace of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 has been found.

“It’s looking less and less like an accident,” said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s looking more like a criminal event.”

If the flight continued after the transponder fell silent, officials and experts said, it must have been turned off in the cockpit.

“You’ve got an airplane that’s continuing to fly; you’ve got systems that are becoming non-operational. It had to be a deliberate action to turn them off,” said Ron Carr, who spent 39 years flying for the U.S. Air Force and American Airlines before becoming a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. “Somebody’s clearly operating the aircraft. I have a hunch it was hijacked.”

A second U.S. official said the jet’s path was unusual after it disappeared from radar. The senior official said that the plane reached an altitude of about 45,000 feet and “jumped around a lot.”

U.S. officials provided new details Friday about how they knew that the plane continued to fly well after its transponder stopped transmitting.

They said that an automatic stream of data from the plane ended at about the same time the transponder stopped. But a satellite that had been receiving the data continued to reach out to the plane on an hourly basis, and received confirmation that the plane still was flying.

“It is telling us the airplane continued to operate” for several hours, said a third U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so that he could speak candidly about a politically sensitive investigation.

Significantly, the transponder and the data flow did not stop at the same time, as they would if the plane had exploded or crashed into the ocean.

“They both did stop, and they did not stop simultaneously,” the official said. “A simultaneous stopping is something that we have seen before in in-flight breakups, airplanes that have exploded or come apart in the air.”

The data stream that was interrupted shortly after 1 a.m. on March 8 flows through a two-way onboard computer system known as ACARS, the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System.

“It is very possible for you as a pilot in the cockpit to turn off the ACARS system,” the official said. “If you knew what you were doing in the cockpit, you could shut off ACARS transmission.”

But the ability of the satellite to locate the plane — which he referred to as a “handshake” in which no information is exchanged — cannot be terminated from the cockpit.

“There’s no push button,” he said. “There’s no circuit breaker that would allow you to shut off the handshake.”

That satellite handshake took place on a system operated by Inmarsat, a British satellite company that provides global mobile telecommunications services.

U.S. officials declined to say how closely that handshake allowed them to track the path of the missing plane.

The search spread late this week from the relatively shallow waters around Malaysia to the much deeper Indian Ocean after Malaysia’s military reported that its radar showed that the plane veered sharply off course after its transponder stopped working and its radio went silent.

The plane continued to maneuver as if under control from the cockpit and changed altitude serval times, the New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper said that Malaysian military radar showed it climbing to 45,000 feet and then dropping to 23,000 feet as it approached the Malaysian island of Penang.

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 now involves 13 countries and more than 100 ships and aircraft. Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, emphasized Friday that the search was expanding not because of any particular leads but because the initial search had turned up no evidence or debris.

“A normal investigation becomes narrower with time,” Hishammuddin said. “But this is not a normal investigation. We are looking further and further afield.”

The FBI is working with the Malaysian government and has sent more personnel to Malaysia to complement agents posted there. So far, the Malaysian government has not officially accepted any operational assistance, officials said.

Sharma, the Indian navy spokesman, said Malaysia has given India a massive search grid of about 13,500 square miles, an area about the size of Maryland.

In India, Adm. Arun Prakash, a retired naval chief of staff who was posted in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said that 1,000 Indian seamen, five vessels and four aircraft were involved in the search.

“We are looking for little pieces that can float, pieces of human body, life jackets, seat cushions in that vast stretch. It is very difficult,” Prakash said.

“So far, the information that has been made available to us is quite vague, even though the direction in which they say it flew falls within our jurisdiction,” Prakash said. “It is inadequate. We can keep searching till next year. It is like looking for a needle in the haystack.”

When communications ceased, the airliner was flying at 35,000 feet on a course for Beijing.

“At 1:21 a.m. we lost the signal from the transponder off the Malaysian coast,” said Mikael Robertsson of FlightRadar24, a Stockholm-based flight service that sells its tracking data to airports and airlines.

The company uses a system that captures GPS signals with land-based receivers located around the world. The signals are received once each second, but the Malaysia Airlines flight dropped its signal when the transponder went dead.

“Up until then the flight looked completely normal. There was nothing strange, nothing suspicious,” Robertsson said, adding that his company normally tracks that flight until it gets north of Vietnam. “We have never lost a signal because there has been an accident or a hijacking. This is the first time we see such a thing.”

Robertsson said the aircraft was not carrying a full load of fuel.

“The B777-200ER can fly up to about 16 to 18 hours,” he said. “This flight was six hours, so it was probably fueled for about seven or eight hours of flying time.”

That gave it the capacity to have landed or crashed anywhere between Mongolia in the north to Australia to the south, or from the west coast of India to hundreds of miles east of the Philippines.

Carr, the Florida professor, held out the slender hope that hijackers had landed the aircraft on a remote island.

“There’s a lot of World War II airfields left over,” he said. “They might want to hold the plane for ransom or hold the passengers for ransom, or they might want load the airplane up with high explosives and fly the airplane into a target someplace.”

It’s also possible that the passengers revolted against a hijacking like those aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a farm field in Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001.

If the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean or other waters which were not searched immediately after the plane disappeared, he said, it could take a longer time to locate it.

“They shouldn’t be missing for a week,” Carr said. “But then again, Amelia Earhart has been missing for many, many years. That ocean’s big, and it can swallow things up rather quickly and rather completely and hardly leave a trace at times.”

Harlan reported from Kuala Lumpur, and Gowen reported from New Delhi. Adam Goldman and Sari Horwitz contributed to this report from Washington and Rama Lakshmi contributed from New Delhi.

http://www.w54.biz/showthread.php?2758-The-missing-Malaysian-airliner

Caution: Violence Ahead

March 15, 2014, 8:45 am

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SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2014

Caution: Violence Ahead

http://www.mediacrooks.com/2014/03/caution-violence-ahead.html#.UyRzVvldVy7

“On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody”. That tagline is not the introduction to ambitious, ladder-climbing college graduates. It’s the introduction to one of the most psychotic vigilantes ever put on film. We lately have some of these nobodies who want to be somebodies and they are going about it the vigilante way. Arvind Kejriwal, Somnath Bharti, Manish Sisodia, Ashish Khetan, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh etc are men most people had not heard much about till about 2-3 years ago. A couple of them being in the media may be recognisable but weren’t top of the mind for anyone.

I’m a big fan of Martin Scorsese movies (He’s often called the greatest director for good reasons) and often refer to his movies in my posts. “As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster” is the opening introduction from his classic mafia true story “Goodfellas”. But the line is not just in the movie but it’s a line from Scorsese’s own life. As a youngster, Scorsese wanted to be a gangster or a priest. Fortunately for the world he became a film director. Sometime back MS explained thatpeople are fascinated by violence and lives of these gangsters. They don’t want to be gangsters but they love the lifestyle of these scumbags. MS handles the violent nature of humans in an astonishing manner and quite graphically. People are fascinated how the goondas move around in style, break all laws, instant revenge, and wear clothes to suit their crime and all that. Naturally, our media feeds and breeds violent behaviour and criminals. I’m not joking; a long time back I wrote the post “Media loves criminals, makes crime attractive” and there is abundant evidence media thrives on violence and criminal behaviour. AK and his gang know this quite well. Politically AK is no more as relevant as before the Delhi elections, which is why the frequency of violence, ruckus and verbal outrage has gone up. Gone also is the decency from his public conduct.

Let’s see the sequence of events since AK resigned as CM. He decides to protect the Congress scams by diverting attention and attack only Narendra Modi and the BJP. The Congress is now mentioned only as a casual reference. Never mind that. He rushes to Gujarat, creates ruckus, seeks to be arrested for his theatre. His gang creates more nonsense at toll booths and drive past without paying the charges at Gandhidham. His goons spread rumours of his arrest and violence follows in Delhi. Then he lands up in Mumbai and the Congress govt organises a special local train for him. His goons go on a rampage which is more theatre for media and his AAP goons like Prashant Bhushan blame the police. He lands up at Nagpur and makes bogus claims of Modi-media nexus and issues threats to media promising to send some to jail. Clearly, the idea is to trash those channels which have carried the reports about AK’s pimping withPunya Prasoon Bajpai of AajTak. Following this his goons call another presser tooccupy media and accuse Zee TV, TimesNow, and IndiaTV as “paid media”; a term that SM generally uses for most media outlets. Are the tactics clear?

Note that AK creates ruckus in Gujarat and then in Mumbai (the Sena HQ). Then he skips all other meetings in Maharashtra (a Congress state) and lands up in Nagpur. Why Nagpur? Well, doesn’t take Einstein to tell you it’s the RSS HQ and also Nitin Gadkari’s home town. So the erstwhile fake corruption-fighting superman has his action plan very clear: protect Sonia Gandhi and Congress scams from being discussed in the public domain by repeated ruckus in public places, violence by his party and outrageous statements thrown at the media almost every hour by him or any of his party members. Clever! It would take an extreme moron to even claim that any media channel has or is being friendly to Modi. Everyone knows that the media hangs on every utterance of Modi to rip him apart. Some folks like Barkha Dutt andRajdeep Sardesai have actually built their entire career abusing Modi and nothing has changed there. And who are some of AAP candidates for elections? The biggest Modi-haters like Ashutosh, Ashish Khetan, Shazia Ilmi and the like. Here’s a tweet from Anubha Bhonsle, a journalist from CNN-IBN:

Anubha speaks the absolute truth when she says journos themselves have taken away resources from what is in public interest and given more time to the thuggery of the likes of AK & Co. Some like Manisha Priya, frequent panellist on TimesNow, also says AK’s actions and utterances seem indicators for another Emergency. Maybe that is what AK and Congress want sensing they are likely to face a political thrashing although I would think that is far-fetched in this day and age. But not entirely impossible either. What Anubha doesn’t acknowledge is that her own boss at CNN-IBN has been an active participant in promoting this anarchy of AK. Both Rajdeep and Sagarika have actively encouraged AK to a point of no return. Let’s catch up on a video of Rajdeep’s speech at a media event where he claims credit for advising AK and Kiran Bedi to carry out a Tahrir Square-like agitation in Delhi. Video (2.30 mins, some subtitles added):

Wow! Rajdeep rightly inspires AK, a genius who understands media he says, to carry out a Tahrir like campaign. Err… do it in Delhi, not in Mumbai.  Nothing wrong, except for the fact that having made that grand inspirational suggestion to AK,Rajdeep wouldn’t want his own agitation-idea to fail. Why? He would naturally want and back AK to succeed in everything he undertakes because Rajdeep grandly claims the idea was his own. So even when the monster AK acted horrendously Rajdeep chose to gently defend him with devious tweets and excuses. It is natural that Rajdeep had to back “his idea” to succeed which explains both CNN-IBN’s and its sibling IBN’s extraordinary backing for AAP over the last many months, before and after the Delhi elections. AK was at interviews with Rajdeep at the drop of every topi. Not just Rajdeep but even Bajpai and Anjana Om Kashyap were pimping heavily for AK all through the last few months. Their videos are out in the public too. So, the “paid media” nonsense of AK and his goons is directed at those channels that criticise them. Timesnow has already been boycotted by AK and AAP and only a sorry excuse called Kamal Chenoy appears as an unofficial spokie for them. The sequence of violence or threats of violence backed with outrageous statements is not accidental as smooth Commie Yogendra Yadav proves:

Alright, so if Modi becomes PM India will burn he says. Question is who is going to do the burning part? My answer is clearly the AAP goons. The danger is that the violence that Yogi promises may not happen after Modi becomes PM but before and during the nine phases of elections. The AAP members have Naxal sympathisers and the Naxals too have taken a strong liking to the party. Some of the members of AAP are underground or overt Naxals. Therefore, Yogi’s warning is a clear threat of violence that is being scheduled or being planned by the AAP thugs. The media loves this. The media loves that AK and AAP bring so much violence, ruckus and outrageous nonsense to the public domain and to the streets. It’s not unique to India, it’s a universal phenomenon. “Natural Born Killers” is an Oliver Stone movie from 1994. It’s a story of a young couple who simply go around the country killing people because they love it and there’s the media chasing them making them heroes. The couple even have fans who want to be killed by them. Let’s watch a quick video (1.17 mins):

The media delights in violent crimes. Their reporters will go any length to gain TRPs from violent incidents and mob behaviour. In the movie above a media crook even goes to the extent of covering the young killers’ escape from jail LIVE. Such is media’s fascination with violence and street thuggery. The movie is fictional but don’t dismiss it as not being relevant to real life. Here’s what a report about “Natural Born Killers” says:

Is it any surprise that right from the beginning Rajdeep and his ilk wanted to make AK and his goons cult heroes? Rajdeep and Barkha may scream and tweet “we are independent” but that won’t wash anymore. The people know their lust for theatre, drama and excessive love for the theatre of AK and will condone anything he does with more coverage because it not only gets them TRPs but AK also happens to be constantly ranting against Modi which suits their political agenda too. Expect more violent events from AK and AAP. It is not going to stop. It will not stop as long as media excessively covers him and if in the unlikely event of media blacking out his violence, expect even greater violence of gigantic proportions. Why? The answer lies here:

That’s the agenda of CPI (ML) which has a great appeal for Naxals and Maoists. Their agenda is to overthrow the State by violence. Many AAP members and supporters subscribe to this agenda. This is no fairy tale. Extreme events of violence invariably start the way AAP has progressed and that too with the support of many educated celebrities. These celebrities are bimbos who cannot think deeply. It is not that they have to support Modi or Congress but I have to consider them dunderheads if they think AAP is their answer to anything except destruction. In the pic above there is a mention of one Sandeep Pandey. In case you don’t know, he is the one who lobbied for AK’s Magsaysay award and that should tell you all about the connections of AAP and violent anti-India Naxals.  

Arvind Kejriwal is no ignoramus. He is a psycho who is progressing exactly as arranged. He is hurtling towards his finale as I mentioned in “Reincarnation of AK”. There will be more violence. There were bomb blasts at Modi’s Patna rally in October 2013. There was a Naxal attack in Chattisgarh a few days back killing some 18 CRPF jawans. Expect more. If at all there is an incident which kills. There have been loud protests in the media over his latest threats to media but it is also being used by the likes of Rajdeep and Barkha to grandly claim they are being targeted by all parties so they are “independent”. Don’t buy that BS. There are still folks in the media who will back AK to the hilt and possibly even the death of Modi in some violent act. The Congress too has mildly protested the latest outrage by AK but secretly they would be rejoicing AK is creating daily ruckus to divert from real issues in this election. For once, I hope to be wrong in sounding this caution: Violence Ahead!