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Posts archive for: 21 July, 2007
  • Harry Survives Deathly Hallows! Would Rural India Survive ,Too?

    Harry Survives Deathly Hallows!
    Would Rural India Survive ,Too?

    Palash Biswas
    Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
    Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
    Please watch:
    Documentary on Nandigram in English
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3924953024386968311&hl=en
    India-US joint press statement on nuclear talks
    Washington, July 21 : Text of India-US joint press statement issued Friday after four days of meetings in Washington July 17-20, 2007
    http://www.newkerala.com/july.php?action=fullnews&id=48044
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Deathly_Hallows
    Unlike the first six books in J.K. Rowling's series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" doesn't have Hogwarts school as a friendly backdrop. No more Quidditch, Blast-Ended Skrewts or skiving snackboxes.
    From the outset, it's a struggle-to-the-death in a magical world of good versus evil. Rowling delivers a bloodbath. The death-toll rises alarmingly -- almost casually -- as Harry continues his struggle to rid the world of Lord Voldemort.
    The Potter epic has themes derived from Greek mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, "Star Wars," Tom Brown's "Schooldays" and Enid Blyton.
    The stage is now set for a classic, final confrontation of Sherlock Holmes versus Professor Moriarty or "The Matrix's" Neo versus Agent Smith proportions.
    The question is whether good must die to nullify evil. At what cost can The Greater Good be achieved? It's a question, we soon find out, that troubles Harry throughout "Hallows," as it did the prescient Dumbledore before him.
    The odds are stacked heavily in Voldemort's favor: The sixth book revealed he had taken unprecedented steps to make himself immortal.
    Before reaching a final showdown, Harry must first track down five remaining Horcruxes -- preserved soul-fragments -- and destroy them.
    Don't Miss
    I-Reporters show their love for Harry
    I-Report: Send in your magical photos, early reviews
    Readers have rarely seen Voldemort, the man described as the most powerful dark wizard of all time in action. "Hallows" gives him the leg room to, literally, cut to the chase. No more sending out mere minions to launch an assault. Indeed, the first few pages sees Voldemort fly -- no broomsticks needed, thank you -- in a blockbuster chase featuring at least a dozen of your favorite good guys.
    http://edition.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/07/21/potter.agrawal/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
    Who's afraid of Wal-Mart?
    1 Jul 2007, 0030 hrs IST,
    Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar

    Historically, MNCs have had high profit margins arising from quasi-monopolies in technology and finance, and political influence translating into protectionism. In the US, trade unions fought for a bigger share of the surpluses, and obtained the highest wages in the world. In effect, MNCs and the trade unions shared monopoly profits garnered at
    consumer expense.
    Wal-Mart has defied this model. Far from seeking high margins, it has relentlessly cut prices and kept profit margins so low that competitors give up. Its profit margin is just 3% of sales. Prices at Wal-Mart can be half or less than at major department stores. Wal-Mart quality is often poor, though that is improving.
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/Whos_afraid_of_Wal-Mart/articleshow/2164180.cms
    Selling in Rural India
    P. Balakrishna
    B Sidharth
    The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers a huge opportunity that MNCs cannot afford to ignore.

    TO expand the market by tapping the countryside, more and more MNCs are foraying into India's rural markets. Among those that have made some headway are Hindustan Lever, Coca-Cola, LG Electronics, Britannia, Standard Life, Philips, Colgate Palmolive and the foreign-invested telecom companies.
    Opportunity

    The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers a huge opportunity that MNCs cannot afford to ignore. With 128 million households, the rural population is nearly three times the urban.
    As a result of the growing affluence, fuelled by good monsoons and the increase in agricultural output to 200 million tonnes from 176 million tonnes in 1991, rural India has a large consuming class with 41 per cent of India's middle-class and 58 per cent of the total disposable income.
    The importance of the rural market for some FMCG and durable marketers is underlined by the fact that the rural market accounts for close to 70 per cent of toilet-soap users and 38 per cent of all two-wheeler purchased.
    http://www.blonnet.com/2004/02/16/stories/2004021600160900.htm
    Consumerist state called India
    Practically, the consumer services sector in India is the most competitive, because it boasts of the most sought after careers and growth charts for candidates and companies alike. Who doesn’t want to be a part of the new ‘consumerist state’ called India?
    Our search practice therefore becomes especially challenging in this secttechnology_advisoryfinancial_servicehospitality_servicesindustrial or, since case histories and personalities cloud the vision, and smartness and glib talk is sold by practically everybody in the industry. To bore beneath the surface of all that, takes Executive Access’ expert team handpicked from the industry with considerable knowledge gathered from people and processes in the Indian/Asian industry.
    http://www.executiveaccess.co.in/consumer_service.php

    Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has been named global 'FDI Personality of the Year 2007' by FDI magazine and Financial Times Business, published by London-based Financial Times Group. A proposal from European aerospace consortium EADS, the holding arm of Airbus Industrie, to set up a consultancy and training centre is among 17 foreign investment proposals cleared by the Indian government.
    Bangalore-based Real Estate Bank India Limited (REBI) plans to start operations in West Bengal to provide information on real estate transactions under one roof. In a new report, Goldman Sachs finds that India has 10 of the 30 fastest-growing urban areas in the world. India will have 36 mega cities with populations of over 5 million by 2051 and some cities are slotted for immense growth due to their locations as industrial hubs.

    The Weather forcast heralds new disaster for Rural India under Post Manusmriti US Galaxy Order in Indian Comrador led Brahminiccal system!With the monsoon continuing vigorously in most parts of the country, 26 more deaths were reported in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal during the past 24 hours. Harry Potter survives Death Hollows as the hackers fortold. Would the Rural India survive, too? Back from her record-making 195-day space odyssey, Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams said Friday the Bhagavad Gita and Lord Ganesha took care of her during the journey and said she will come to India this year to share her experiences. Indian Rural People also survive on religious faith. Without God, they would`nt be able to survive at all as the MNC Promoter Raj has deprived of Life and Livelihood in villages! After Gayatri Mantra recital in US Senate, there is something to chear about as the revered Vishwanath temple in Varanasi went online with the launch of an exclusive website to give information on day-to-day rituals! Here's a shortcut through cyberspace to the gods - instead of going all the way to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, one of India's most popular pilgrimage destinations, devotees can now offer prayers from their homes through a website created by the temple committee.
    Earthquake aftermath is worrisome, but nuclear power still a vital energy option.It wasn't the best week to have a nuclear plant in your backyard, not with an earthquake in Japan damaging a key nuclear plant there. But we can't afford to allow an old, unfounded fear to trump the historical record. This is official stance. West Bengal is set to get a Nuclear Power plant in Haripur area in Midnapur. Indo US Nuclear Deal has to open the floodgates of Nuclear option. Left opposes Nimitz but waits for the Nuclear Reactor to be imported from USA and it depends on the deal!So, despite the vocal and somewhat pseod ideological opposition to detoriation in Agro Sector,Nuclear power remains one of our best sources of clean, cheap energy, and it's a vital asset in the effort to minimize the buildup of carbon in our atmosphere that appears to be raising global temperatures.The facts about what happened at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant are still emerging . Meanwhile, officials from Southern California Edison, which operates San Onofre, are predictably assuring us that whatever happened in Japan couldn't possibly happen elsewhere.
    Nuclear is an important option. However, it probably doesn't belong on or near earthquake fault lines. Unlike Japan, which has far fewer options, the United States has a whole continent on which to select more suitable locations for nuclear facilities. Of course, building them will mean overcoming the objections of Americans who don't want a nuclear facility in their backyards and who will offer any reason ---- legitimate or otherwise ---- not to build them. That's why Yucca Mountain is stalled .
    From dawn to dusk, thousands of fans of Harry Potter thronged book stores in cities and towns across India to grab the seventh and possibly the final edition of the series by J.K. Rowling as the Potter magic cast a spell and held students and parents in its fantasy grip. Snaking queues, excited faces and an electric atmosphere. For the thousands of Potter fans across the country the moment they have been long waiting for has finally arrived - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the seventh edition of the Harry Potter series, has been released early Saturday morning.
    Government plans to invite private companies to develop SEZs, or industrial clusters, in some insurgency-prone areas of the country. The pilot project is proposed to be initiated in the north-eastern region, in the Bodo-affected areas of Assam. Later, similar projects will be initiated in areas like Chambal Valley and MCC-prone belts in Jharkhand and Telangana (Andhra Pradesh). The plan will come up for discussion at the parliamentary committee meeting of the ministry of tribal affairs early in August. Subsequently, proposals will be sent to home, finance and commerce ministries.
    In recent times, the government has given tax concessions to corporates setting up units in the north-east. However, only a few companies, such as Delhi-based DS group, have set up industrial base in the region.
    The ideology behind the move is clear: it’s an attempt to solve the problem of insurgency and youth restlessness in sensitive areas by creating economic activity and generating employment opportunities. It is learnt the tribal affairs minister PR Kyndiah, who himself hails from an insurgency-prone area on the Assam-Meghalaya border, is taking a keen interest in the matter and has met developers of some SEZ projects.

    Indian and US negotiators kept looking for a formula to seal their civil nuclear deal Thursday with Vice President D. Cheney getting into the act to save the day, but did not seem any closer. Two years after President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set out on their "historic initiative", India and the United States have finalised an agreement to implement their path-breaking civil nuclear deal. With global brands flooding the Indian market, it is time the country became a creator of intellectual property rather than merely using it, said Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath. The spread of financial literacy is a must among all classes of society so as to achieve inclusive growth, said Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram here today.
    India and Australia Thursday agreed to conclude a mutual legal assistance treaty even as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee conveyed New Delhi's concerns over "fair treatment" of Haneef, an Indian suspect in the foiled UK attack, to his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer.
    India and Japan Thursday reviewed their bilateral trade issues and discussed progress of the ambitious Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor (DMIC) project, to be jointly developed by the two countries, ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit next month.
    Heavy to very heavy rains are likely to occur at most places in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, and Kerala.Heavy rains are likely to occur at many places in Gangetic West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
    A survey conducted across several districts in West Bengal has indicated that a rising awareness against dowry is fuelling the incidence of child marriage and trafficking.The survey was conducted by Women’s Studies Research Centre (WSRC); the Department of Sociology, Burdwan University; and Centre for Women’s Studies, University of North Bengal, supported by the West Bengal Government’s Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
    “We found that the traffickers approach the villagers in the guise of grooms without any dowry demand and lure them into marrying off even minor girls,” said Ishita Mukhopadhyay, Director, WSRC, Calcutta University. “The girls are then sold and sent to other places like Mumbai, Dubai or Kashmir,” she added.

    The Southwest Monsoon has been active over Bihar and active over Orissa and Kerala.It has been subdued over Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidarbha, Telangana and north interior Karnataka.
    Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at most places in Lakshadweep, and at many places in south Tamil Nadu, and coastal Karnataka.
    Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at a few places in Uttar Pradesh, east Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Chattisgarh, Konkan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, north Tamil Nadu, interior Karnataka, and at isolated places in Uttaranchal, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, west Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Maharashtra and Marathwada.
    Heavy to very heavy rains have occurred at most places in Assam, Meghalaya, and Lakshadweep.
    Heavy rains have occurred at most places in Orissa, Bihar, Kerala and at a few places in south interior Karnataka.
    Rain or thundershowers have occurred at most places in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, West Bengal, Sikkim, Jharkhand, and at many places in Arunachal Pradesh, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
    Rain or thundershowers have occurred at a few places in Uttar Pradesh, Konkan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and at isolated places in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Maharashtra and coastal Karnataka.
    No talks with Buddhadeb: Mamata
    Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said there would be no talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee on the Nandigram and Singur stand-off as he lacked "credibility".
    "When I was on fast in December last year on the Singur issue, the chief minister had written to me for talks. But six months have passed and he has made no commitment that unwilling farmers would be given back their land. There can be no talks with a person who has no credibility," Banerjee said.
    She was addressing a massive rally to commemorate 'Martyrs Day' in memory of 13 Youth Congress (YC) activists killed in police firing heralks, the TC supremo said, as the chief minister's hands were stained with the blood of the 14 victims of police firing at Nandigram.
    Till her party's demands for justice for the victims of the March 14 firing at Nandigram were met and land "forcibily acquired" for the Tata Motors' project at Singur were returned, there could be no talks, Banerjee said.
    "It is a decision of the party," she said, adding that the CPI(M) could purchase most, but not the Trinamool.
    "As long as we live, we will live with our heads held high and never surrender to the CPI(M)," she said.
    Maya echoes Centre on quota in pvt sector
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Maya_echoes_Centre_on_quota_in_pvt_sector/articleshow/2222130.cms
    NEW DELHI: Barely days after the Centre conceded the option of private sector quota, BSP chief Mayawati on Friday made a strong plea for introducing job reservation in private sector, setting up the possibility of using it during election time to corner what is now an extremely friendly Congress.
    Given a new constituency she has cultivated with 'sarvjan' slogan, Mayawati took care to demand job quota for poor among upper castes. She said quota for SC/ST and OBCs be filled across the country.
    The demand for private sector quota, which Mayawati said she had discussed with the Prime Minister during her meeting, is significant as an indicator to a future political strategy.
    Mayawati is expected to step up Dalit rhetoric. Sources said there have been uncomfortable signals from the ground after her increasing emphasis on Brahmins during elections as well as during her first two months of government. This has created doubts in the minds of her core voters.
    The dramatic decision to raze the Gomti Nagar cricket stadium in Lucknow was interpreted by political observers as an attempt to demolish the doubts among Dalits. Coming within a week of the PM’s panel ruling out quota and instead plumping for skill development to increase the share of SCs/STs in the private sector, Mayawati has made a clear bid to stand distinct from Congress.
    Her forays into poll-bound states of HP, MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, which have stro-ng presence of tribals and Dalits, could see the twin, balancing demands being raised to mobilise votes. That these assembly polls would mark a countdown to Lok Sabha battle makes it a threat both for BJP and Congress.
    Mayawati's forceful demand that the Constitution be amended if needed to fulfill her demand and that reservation policy be put in the 9th schedule to make it immune from legal challenge, sits well with her directive to party workers to carry out a LS campaign "to make her the PM".
    BSP has begun the groundwork not only in UP but also Maharashtra and MP to work up a tally which makes it an indispensable player at the Centre.
    The Legacy of the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh – Part V
    Sat, 2007-07-21 02:32
    By Rabindranath Trivedi - for Asian Tribune from Dhaka
    Part-V: Pundit Nehru, Indira Gandhi Visit Bongoan Refugee Camps in March 1950
    Dhaka , 21 July, (Asiantribune.com): Pundit Nehru visited West Bengal on March 6, 1950 along with Mridula Saravai and daughter Indira Gandhi (Later Prime Minister of India). He visited Bongaon along with Chief Minister Dr Bidhan Roy and Indira Gandhi and saw for herself the pitiable condition of the Hindus of East Bengal. (this experience on Hindu exodus from East Bengal may help Indiraji in 1971). In a public meeting at Bongaon, Pundit Nehru said “partition of the country brought many evils at its train...”
    Later on March 10, 1950 Pundit Nehru wrote a letter to Liaquat Ali Khan stating that,’ I returned from Calcutta last night after four days stay there. These four days were very exhausting, not physically so, for I am used to physical exertion. They were exhausting for other reasons. As more and more facts came to my knowledge and the effect that those facts and occurrences had produced on people’s minds, I was greatly depressed ... I had suggested to you that you and I should visit East and West Bengal.... I am so anxious to do something in my individual capacity that I have been thinking repeatedly of visiting some of these places, not as Prime Minister but as a private individual... I would gladly give up my Prime Minister ship and go to East and West Bengal entirely as a private citizen and stay for while there...When I was in Calcutta, I had a message from Basanti Devi ( Mrs.. C.R. Das) saying that she would like to go to Dacca, if her visit could do any good... Perhaps you know that her family originally came from Dacca. Her suggestion was that she might go there with her daughter (Mrs. Arpana Roy, mother of Sirdhartha Shankar Roy) and one or two companions and stay quietly in Dacca for a while, hoping that her presence itself and meeting a few old friends might be helpful. ”
    On the same Prime Minister J L Nehru in a cabled message to Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan mentioned that ‘The Dacca trouble started on February 10th by a procession and a meeting of secretariat employees. Fiery speeches were delivered and immediately after, arson, looting and killing commenced. It is significant that government servants should have taken the lead and organised this.”
    A number of correspondences were exchanged between Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan. Meanwhile, it is learnt that Indian Army in disguise entered East Bengal with the consent of President Rajendra Prosad and Ballav Bhai Patel. Prime Minister was in dark. Pakistan could guess the consequences, the Bangla press and Pakistani print media, as usual, carried the palm for its inventive genius and vitriolic and malicious attacks. India issued a note of warning, Indian army was silently withdrawn, and Pakistan did not say anything regarding the presence of Indian forces.’ Prime Minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru asked Pakistan to stop the communal disturbances; otherwise he would take ‘other steps’ this warning produced good results. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali of Pakistan visited India, and the famous “Delhi Pact”, commonly known as “Nehru-Liaquat Agreement”, was signed on April 8, 1950.
    http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/6628
    Jyoti Basu hopes of a Left win in Haldia
    Communist patriarch Jyoti Basu Friday said the ruling Left Front in West Bengal will win the July 22 election to Haldia municipality in East Midnapore despite its debacle in the Panskura civic poll in the same district following the Nandigram wave favouring the opposition.
    'We will win. Though last time we won all the seats, this time I am not sure if we would win all but we will win the municipality,' Basu told reporters after a meeting of the state Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) secretariat.
    Elections in Haldia, the port town and growing industrial hub in West Bengal located about 125 km from Kolkata, will be a harbinger of people's mood following the land acquisition controversy that rocked the state and put the communists on the defensive.
    Haldia has also been chosen as an alternative destination for a chemical hub project that was planned in Nandigram. Trinamool Congres chief Mamata Banerjee, however, said she would not allow the hub even in Haldia.
    The communists had swept the last polls by winning all 25 wards.
    The Trinamool Congress and the Congress have formed an alliance to contest the Haldia civic polls.
    Ambedkar
    In the religious field, Ambedkar at first encouraged attempts to join in religious festivals, to enter temples, to perform marriages with Vedic rites. Later he called the caste to a conference on conversion and asked them to leave the fold of Hinduism. For twenty years following that decision in 1936, Ambedkar played with the possibilities of entering Islam, Sikhism, Christianity or any one of India’s numerous sects within Hinduism. The final decision was to convert to Buddhism, which meant literally to revive a religion long dead in India (1992:61).
    The conference in 1936 called to determine the matter of conversion was announced as a Mahar conference. Ambedkar held that each caste must determine its own religious destiny by itself (1992:74).
    In the political field, Ambedkar at first supported special representation for the Depressed Classes, then joint electorates with Hindus, then separate electorates, and toward the end of his life denied the workability of the reserved seats for the Scheduled Castes for which he had spent so much time and energy.
    The list of candidates reveals something of the nature of the Mahar political movement in the 1930s. The majority of tickets were given to Mahars, although there were at least two candidates from other Untouchable castes, a Mang and a Gujarati Scheduled Caste man. The absence of Chambhars, the wealthiest, ritually highest group among the Scheduled Castes in Maharasthra, is striking (:106).
    Ambedkar seems to have attempted to win these castes over, frequently appearing at Chambhar or Mang meetings. He gaved a detailed reply to criticism raised at a Chambhar conference in 1939 and devoted space in Janata in 1941 to a long letter from a Mang accusing him of being only a Mahar leader, but by this time the Mahar conversion announcement had further alienated other castes. Neither group was active to a large degree in the Independent Labour Party, founded in 1936 or its successor, the Scheduled Castes Federation, in 1942; or later in its successor, the Republican Party in 1957. Nor was the attempt to make the Independent Labour Party a working class party successful. Caste Hindu labor was not ready for Untouchable leadership, nor could the identification of the Congress with Independence be overcome (:107).
    Addendum to Part II
    Prakash Ambedkar, Ambedkar’s grandson, has moved from a quiet leadership of the Buddhist movement into the spokeman for the Bhartiya Republican Party, and for the first time a Brahman woman, Neelam Gorhe, has joined the ranks. In the North, Kanshi Ram has secured some success with his Bahujan Samaj Party, but his support in Maharashtra is not strong.
    The most interesting socio-political development among Ambedkar’s followers is the rise of the Dalit Panthers, a militant group of young educated Buddhist formed in 1972. The Panthers offered a challenge to the politicians in Ambedkar’s movement and attempted to counter violence against Untouchables in the village. They also brought to public attention the emerging Dalit Sahitya, the literature of the oppressed, an important cultural contribution to Marathi literature.
    Now, in the late 1980s, the united power of the Dalit Panthers is much reduced by splits, but local efforts continue and the literary movement which accompanied the rise of the Panthers is still blooming. Ramdas Athvale of Bombay and Gangadhar Gadhe of Aurangabad lead an important faction of the Panters. Jogendra Kavade of Nagpur speaks for unity among Dalits and Muslims. Arun Kamble of Bombay have formed an alliance with the Socialists (now the Janata Party). Bhai Sangari leads a faction of the Dalit Panthers in Bombay in alliance with one of the founders, Namdeo Dhasal, still a formidable force as a recognized innovative poet. Raja Dhale, co-founder with Dhasal of the Panthers, has established a group called Mass Movement, and continues his artistic efforts and his translation of the Buddhist text, the Dhammapada. It is a disunited but active scene! There is also a group of Dalit Panthers in Gujarat (Zelliot 1992: 179-180).
    Ghanshyam Shah, Jawaharlal Nehru University
    The traditionally deprived groups such as Dalits, lower castes, other backward castes, and Adivasis (tribals) joined hands with the Hindutva forces and actively participated in committing violence against Muslims during the 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat, A question arises: what made these groups participate in violence and how have they been mobilized by the dominant Hindutva forces? The question is relevant because the Hindutva ideology perpetuates the traditional hierarchical Brahminical social order. It is not only dominated by upper castes but also serves their interests against the interests of the deprived communities. This paper is an endeavor to probe into this question.
    Three caveats are in order. One, the deprived groups are not homogeneous. They not only vary in their numerical strength but socially and economically each group is stratified. Two, even the reported participation of these groups is confined to certain areas and not of the whole region. For instance, participation of Dalits is mainly confined to certain localities of Ahmedabad and not of other cities, not to speak of rural areas. Similarly, participation of the Adivasis was confined to certain blocks of a few districts. Three, participation in riots varies from silent support to involving in killing, maiming, and burning property. The 2002 communal carnage was to a large extent planned and not spontaneous. It had four types of actors: the organizers, skilled operators, agent provocateurs, and silent spectators.
    In this paper I argue that the trajectory followed by the dominant non-Hindutva social reformers for social transformation/empowerment of the poor has not challenged the hierarchical social order, though it opposed caste-based discrimination. And, in the course of time, ruling elites and scholars have legitimized the growth of caste-based identity politics within sanskritization model as the inevitable consequence of parliamentary democratic politics. The Hindutva forces have skillfully hijacked the democratic process of rising aspirations of the deprived communities to translate their agenda. They floated various organizations and carried out activities to build unity and harmony among the upper and lower castes against the "others" (Muslims). Systematic propaganda reinforcing enmity against Muslims has been skillfully carried out. Fear psychosis and a sense of injustice among the Hindus has been repeatedly hammered. Time and again, Muslims are branded as anti-national, fundamentalist, conservative and backward, terrorists, and spies for Pakistan. The Hindus are reminded that they are apostles (Upasak) of Shakti—the worshippers of Maha-Shakti with Trisul in the hands of Shiva, sudarshan in the hands of Krishna, bow and arrow in the hands of Ram. Hindus are cajoled to take arms against their enemies. They are reminded that weakness, timidity, and unmanliness are great sins and bravery and masculinity are great punya (virtues). Various new Hindu religious sects that came up in the last four decades, though not necessarily in alliance with the Sangh parivar, facilitated the Hindutva forces to carry out their agenda.

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    Karnataka: State sponsored decoit in the name of Maoist party
    CPI (Maoist) statement on state sponsored decoit

    Respected editors,representatives of the media and progressive and democratic organizations and individuals. Struggle greetings to you. We are sending this release on dacoit of 4 houses near Agumbe, for your kind information and requesting to publish the same in the esteemed media with due consideration.
    Yours in struggle
    Gangadhara
    For the state committee
    CPI(Maoist)
    karnataka

    Wide news are conspicuously spread that we did dacoit of 4 houses and taken kilos of silver, tens of thousands of rupees and snatched ear rings and thali and chains from the women by thrashing them e t c.
    This is stage-managed dacoity by the bajarangadal,bhaaratheeya janatha party leaders and police combine. Police themselves participated with sophisticated weapons and wearing masks with baja ranga dala goons in dacoity as they and bajarangadala are good experienced ones on this by their routine practice of running theft,loot and sandal wood smuggling. This is for diverting public attention from cowardly atyadka fake encounter of theirs and imposing fascist terror and killings on people further.They trying avoid any enquiry of their crimes of cold blooded murders. They earlier also did these type of dacoity nearby kallugudde and other area in smaller level in the name of us. They also burnt government bus in nearby sringeri and tried to charge it on us, but their intention was not fulfilled.They exposed themselves before the public.Police kept silence on those matters.No heroic! Arrests, no heroic! encounters were made for that.
    They and so-called law keepers did not shout for action on bus burners and looters at that time. The leaders of bajaranga dala and police officials jointly planned this shameful dacoity. They looted gun only for charging blame on us.
    We never do dacoity,we only sieze looted belongings of common people with criteria of social justice. We do any thing with open declartion. we never hide those things from the people.
    We did not sent any threatening letter to BJP MLA of theerthahalli Aaraga jnanendra and others.We are not indul

  • It is Raiseena Revolution!

    It is Raiseena Revolution!

    Palash Biswas
    Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
    Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
    Please watch:
    Documentary on Nandigram in English
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3924953024386968311&hl=en
    Pratibha Patil
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Pratibha Devisingh Patil (born December 19, 1934) is the President-elect of India. She is a member of the Indian National Congress and was the nominee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance and Indian Left. She won the last presidential election, held on July 19, 2007 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by over 3 lakh votes.[1][2][3][4] She will take office as India's first female president on July 25.
    A lawyer by training, Pratibha Patil was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, representing Edlabad constituency in Jalgaon District from 1962 to 1985. From 1986 to 1988, she held the post of deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. As a member of parliament, she represented Amravati in the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996. She later became the 16th Governor of Rajasthan and, notably, was also the first female governor of this state.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratibha_Patil
    http://www.answers.com/topic/pratibha-patil

    President of India
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian armed forces. The President's role is largely ceremonial, with real executive authority vested in the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. The powers of the President of India are comparable to those of the monarch, king or queen of United Kingdom. The president is also called Rashtrapati. The president of India resides in a mansion known as the Rashtrapati Bhavan, which roughly translates as "President's Home".The President is elected by the elected members of the Vidhan Sabhas, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha, and serves for a period of 5 years (although they can stand for re-election). A formula is used to allocate votes so there is a balance between the population of each state and the number of votes assembly members from a state can cast, and to give an equal balance between State Assembly members and National Parliament members. If no candidate receives a majority of votes there is a system by which losing candidates are eliminated from the contest and votes for them transferred to other candidates, until one gain a majority. The Vice President is elected by a direct vote of all members elected and nominated, of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_India
    Profile: Patil -- from governor to India's first woman President
    NEW DELHI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Pratibha Patil, former Rajasthan Governor, was elected India's first woman President after beating Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Saturday. Full story
    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/21/content_6410777.htm
    It is Raiseena Revolution!
    Will the shame of Gang Rape in Nandigram Genocide and rape of murder of Tapasi Malik in Singur be reversed by electing a woman President?
    Because the president, a largely ceremonial post, is expected to uphold the Constitution and show no bias toward any political group, parties often try to forge a consensus on the candidate. Patil's predecessor, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, was such a consensus candidate.
    However, there was no agreement on Patil and the opposition ran their own candidate, current Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

    But Mrs sonia Gandhi has done it! It is rather a La Coup in Zionist Hindu feudal Imperialist Brahminical regime of Post Modern Galaxy order! What India has done, America could not do since 1979, thanks to Mrs Gandhi`s political pragmatism and ideological jugglery plus political gimmic of Male dominated Indian society and Polity. The new Woman President has her roots in rajsthan, the land of sati Roop Kunwar and she belongs to non Brahmin Rajpoot community while the Left wanted a Brahmin President - these equations are quite intresting as it will be more interesting to see how Empowerment of Woman gets momentum in India after such an achievement!
    Thursday's presidential poll followed campaigning described by analysts as the most vitriolic in India's six decades of independence. India is banking on private equity inflows and an annual use of $5 billion from its foreign exchange reserves to meet the investment needs of its creaky infrastructure, the finance minister said on Saturday.
    "This is a very special moment for us women, and men of course, in our country because for the first time we have a woman being elected president of India," Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, said.Supporters hoped Patil's candidacy would help bring issues that plague women in India, like dowry-related violence, into the public spotlight. A woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India.Her presidency also reflects the growing power of some women in India, where an increasing number are taking part in the workforce and in schools and hold senior positions in corporations.
    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has dismissed accusations against her as "mud-slinging", said on Saturday her victory was "a vote against the politics of divisiveness".
    Patil is from the Congress party and her candidature was seen as a reward for her 45 years of service to the Congress.She managed to offend many minority Muslims, and anger some historians, by saying Indian women first veiled their heads as protection against 16th century Muslim invaders.Then she dismayed modern India by claiming she had experienced a "divine premonition" that she was destined for higher office from a long dead spiritual guru.Critics also dug up a comment she was said to have made as Maharashtra's health minister in 1975, saying people with hereditary diseases should be sterilized.
    Harish Khare, political editor for The Hindu newspaper, said: "She is a Congressman, an old Congressman. She belonged to the old Indira Gandhi loyalist group. One can say that she is an old Congress loyalist."
    Seema Mustafa, political editor for The Asian Age newspaper, said: "They bring out this lady from the back or beyond, her own party ... didn't know who she was.
    "And then they finally said, well look here, we've got a woman as president - regardless of the qualifications, regardless of whether she's done anything for the woman cause."
    Hundreds of delighted Congress supporters danced in the streets, banging drums and setting off firecrackers outside Pratibha Patil`s home in New Delhi and in her hometown in the state of Maharashtra.While India has had several women in positions of power — most notably Indira Gandhi, who was elected to the more powerful position of prime minister in 1966, and her daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi_ many women still face rampant discrimination.Many Indian families regard daughters as a liability due to a tradition requiring a bride's family to pay a groom's family a large dowry of cash and gifts. As a consequence their education is often neglected, and many don't get adequate medical treatment when ill.International groups estimate that some 10 million female fetuses have been aborted in the country over the last two decades.
    It was not clear how much impact Patil will have as president.Opponents derided her nomination, saying she lacked the national stature for the job and her only qualification was her unswerving loyalty to the powerful Gandhi family.
    Her emergence onto the national stage also highlighted several scandals involving family members, two of who are under investigation by police.
    The president's office is largely seen as a ceremonial one.
    Under the constitution, the prime minister holds the executive reins but the president plays a role in forming governments at state and federal levels, making the post hotly contested.
    Elected for a term of five years, the Indian president is the supreme commander of the armed forces. The chiefs of the army, navy and air force report to the president.The president can also grant pardons or reduce sentences, particularly in cases involving the death penalty.

    India's president is not elected by popular poll but chosen by national and state legislators. India has elected the country's first woman president after one of the bitterest political campaigns in the nation's history.India has elected its first female president, in what supporters are hailing as a boost for the rights of millions of downtrodden women, despite a bitter campaign marked by scandal.Pratibha Patil, the ruling coalition's 72-year-old nominee, has easily beaten 84-year-old Opposition-backed challenger and standing Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in a vote by the national Parliament and state politicians.On the other hand, President Bush transferred the powers of the presidency to Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday just before being sedated for a screening to detect colon cancer. With two signed letters to leaders in the House and Senate, Bush temporarily transferred his authority at 7:16 a.m. EDT to Cheney, who was at his home on the Chesapeake Bay in St. Michaels, Md., about 30 miles east of Washington.
    Violence has intensified again in Pakistan, with three separate suicide bomb attacks killing at least 52 people on the worst day of a wave of violence that has gripped the country.Pressure is also mounting from outside Pakistan.Relations with the US have deteriorated over General Musharraf's handling of insurgencies in tribal areas.Pressure could grow there for direct intervention if Pakistan's Army is unable or unwilling to take on offensive military operations.
    On the othe hand, Pakistan's chief justice has resumed his official duties, a day after Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, lost a bid to dismiss him.
    Earlier this week, White House spokesman Tony Snow said striking actionable targets was an option the US Government would not rule out.Yet another concern for President Musharraf are Pakistan's ties with China.
    Ms Patil has won by a large margin, securing 66 per cent of the votes.The election of a woman to the largely ceremonial post continues an Indian tradition using the presidency to bolster disadvantaged communities.
    Developed world 'having second thoughts' about globalisation
    By business editor Peter Ryan

    Strong investment in China and a record trade surplus have buoyed the economy. For the past decade, one of the big economic buzzwords has been "globalisation" and its critical role in tearing down trade barriers around the world.
    But the seemingly unstoppable rise of China and India as challengers to the domination of the United States and Europe has started a debate on whether globalisation has gone too far.
    In particular, the current economic superpowers are worried about control of oil and other resources being sapped by China's demand.
    Mark Thirlwell, head of economics at the Lowy Institute, says as a result the developed world is now having second thoughts about globalisation.
    "I think there's a really interesting irony here in that the second thoughts are coming not this time because of globalisation's failures, it's not for example, we're back in the late '90s and we're worrying about an Asian financial crisis, but there coming precisely because of its successes," he said.
    "Globalisation did what it was supposed to do - what it said on the tin if you like - and what it did was, we told developing countries if you integrated, if you do trade liberalisation, you let in foreign capital, you tie into global markets, it's going to make you richer, it's going to make you bigger and more successful economies.
    "That's exactly what it's done, but the economies in the rich world are turning around and thinking, 'well, we sort of knew it was going to do this, but we didn't know it was going to do this quite so successfully - and wait a minute, this is having some unforseen implications that maybe we're not that comfortable with'."
    http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/21/1984551.htm
    Hindu-majority India has had three Muslim presidents, including incumbent A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, since winning independence from Britain in 1947. It has also had a president from the minority Sikh community, and Kalam's predecessor, K. R. Narayanan, came from the bottom of the society's complex social hierarchy.
    Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman President of IndiaPresidential poll 2007
    Pratibha Patil, elected as the first woman President of India, says hers is a 'victory of principles the people in the country have upheld.' Indo-Asian News
    India has got its woman president in Pratibha Patil who won one of the bitterest political campaigns to the top post in the country's 60-year-old post independence history.President APJ Abdul Kalam, who demits office next week, was given a farewell at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and other apex court judges.Mohd Hamid Ansari, a seasoned diplomat and a distinguished academic, was on Friday unanimously chosen as the UPA-Left candidate for the Vice Presidential election in a smooth process that contrasted sharply with the one witnessed during the selection for the President's post.
    Ms Patil, a lawyer and the Governor of the north-western desert state, Rajasthan, emerged on the national stage when the Congress-led coalition and its communist allies failed to agree on a joint candidate.
    Congress leader Sonia Gandhi plucked Ms Patil from relative political obscurity, saying her election would boost the cause of gender equality and would be a historic moment.Supporters hoped Ms Patil's nomination would help bring issues that plague women in India, like dowry-related violence, into the public spotlight. A woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India.And her comments ahead of the election calling on Indian women to abandon wearing headscarves was roundly denounced by Muslim leaders and by historians — who disputed her assertion that women only started wearing them in India to save themselves from 16th century Muslim invaders.
    The nomination of Patil also surprised many, given her lack of national recognition despite more than four decades in politics.
    Patil was a lawyer before she joined politics and became a member of the state legislature in 1962. She was appointed a minister several times in the Maharashtra state government between 1962 and 1985. In the following decade, she served as a member of Indian Parliament.
    Her most recent post was as governor of the northern state of Rajasthan.

    Pratibha Patil, elected on Saturday as the first woman President of India, said hers was a "victory of principles the people in the country have upheld."
    "It is the victory of principles the people of this country have upheld," Patil told reporters in English immediately after she was declared as the winner in the July 19 presidential election.
    Patil, clad in red-bordered yellow silk saree with her head covered in traditional style, thanked the people of the country.
    "I thank every one. I am grateful to men and women of the country," she said. She was accompanied by senior Congress party leaders Motilal Vora, Janardhan Dwivedi and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, the information and broadcasting minister.
    She earlier said in Hindi that her victory was a "victory of right thinking".
    Congratulatory messages poured in even as Congress leaders arrived with bouquets and jubilant party supporters dancing on the street in front of her 11, South Avenue residence in New Delhi.
    Rise of Pratibha Patil reminds us another powerful lady of India, Ms Mayawati!
    It has taken Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) undisputed leader Mayawati 23 years to leapfrog from being an unknown entity to the demolishing queen in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh.Although she has been the Uttar Pradesh chief minister thrice, this is the first time the BSP has ended up as the single largest outfit in the 403-member assembly, thanks mainly to the 51-year-old Mayawati who came from nowhere to take everyone by storm.

    Meanwhile, in Washington,The United States and India has finalised on Friday an implementing agreement for their landmark civilian nuclear deal after extensive talks in Washington, officials said.The draft accord allowing the United States to provide atomic technology and fuel to India will still require a final nod by the leaders of the two countries, the officials said.The implementation agreement, or "123 agreement," is intended to capture all operational aspects of the nuclear deal, which was agreed upon by US President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two years ago to highlight strategic ties between the world's two biggest democracies.After government approval, the pact will have to be cleared by the Democratic-controlled US Congress, where lawmakers have vowed tight scrutiny.The US Congress already approved the nuclear deal in principle last year and a bill to that effect was signed into law by Bush.But the law requires a comprehensive implementation agreement that has to be approved again by the Democratic-controlled Congress.India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.The deal could open up a whopping 100 billion dollars in opportunities for American businesses, according to the US Chamber of Commerce.
    The deal would reverse three decades of US sanctions imposed over nuclear tests carried out by India, which is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.For the nuclear deal to be implemented, India should separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and set up a regime of international inspections to allay concerns that material and technology received are not diverted to boost its nuclear weapons arsenal.
    "The agreement has been finalised but it awaits review by both governments," Rahul Chhabra, the spokesman for the Indian embassy, told AFP at the end of four days of talks late on Friday.
    The talks were led by US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
    "The discussions were constructive and positive, and both Under Secretary Burns and Foreign Secretary Menon are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement," a joint statement said.
    "We will now refer the issue to our governments for final review," the statement.
    The United States and India "look forward to the completion of these remaining steps and to the conclusion of this historic initiative," said the joint statement.
    The talks in Washington were supposed to end Wednesday but extended by two days after the two sides broke the "logjam" that had blocked an accord for the last two years, officials had said, without elaborating.The extended talk showed "there really is goodwill on the part of both sides to resolve outstanding differences and finish this key piece of the US-India civilian nuclear arrangement," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.
    He rejected any notion that the talks were troubled, amid some reports that Washington and New Delhi were desperately trying to salvage the deal.

    Will the Congress have to pay a political price for the Supreme Court’s verdict declining to vacate the stay on the implementation of the 27 per cent OBC quota in central educational institutions? There are apprehensions of this, particularly after its debacle in the recent municipal council elections in Delhi even though the sealings and demolitions carried out in the Capital were done at the Court’s behest.But leaders like Digvijay Singh do not believe that it will have any political implication on the party. "The government’s intention to address the concerns of the OBCs is now known," he said.
    However, he indicated, the party could go to the people to "explain" that its intention was to address the concerns of the OBCs but the apex court’s ruling has come in the way. But when quizzed whether a plan was being chalked out to convey the message, he maintained that it was for the party to decide.
    The decision to weave quotas into educational institutes was seen as a political move on the Centre’s part to try and steer the OBCs - who have so far remained resistant - into the Congress camp. But party leaders denied any political motive to the move. The purpose, they claimed, was purely social and an expression of the UPA’s "social obligation" towards the weaker section.
    Officially, the party refused to react to the court order. "We want to study the contents of the order before coming out with our view," said spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi.
    He played it safe by refusing to blame either the Government for not doing its homework properly or the Court for not vacating the stay. He refused to buy the observation that the Supreme Court was biased in favour of upper caste. "I would suggest not to make such insinuations against the court," he said.
    But privately Congress leaders have a different take on the matter. "People have not been able to understand why does the Court’s decisions go against the underprivileged and the deprived sections," said a well-placed leader, adding that he was not attributing any motives to anyone.
    Patil, 72, was voted on Saturday as the 13th president of the country. She won by 306,810 votes against her rival Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who contested the July 19 presidential election as an independent backed by opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA).Immediately after the results were announced, Patil came out of her temporary residence in the Capital to describe it as a "victory of principles, victory of right thinking" by the people.
    Patil, a nominee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Left and Bahujan Samaj Party, got 325,180 votes from the state legislators and 442 of the total 682 MPs who cast their votes, paving her way to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the president.
    An MP's vote value is 706 and an MLA's varies from state to state according to its population.
    Patil, who had been haunted by unsubstantiated opposition charges of corruption, fraud and improprieties, has won almost 11,000 more votes than expected. Shekhawat got 331,306 votes.
    Congress party supporters erupted in jubilation across the country, bursting crackers, distributing sweets, dancing to drums and raising slogans in favour of Patil and party president Sonia Gandhi.
    Patil's native Jalgaon village in Maharashtra and her husband Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat's native place in Rajasthan's Sikar have been in celebration mood since morning as her victory was a foregone conclusion against her 84-year-old rival, Shekhawat, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran.
    Counting began 11 am on Saturday with Election Commission officials unsealing ballot boxes that arrived from 30 assemblies and the Parliament House.
    Thursday's poll had been preceded by the most acerbic campaign, which many political analysts said had dented the prestige of the country's highest office.
    The ruling Congress party had in turn charged Shekhawat of protecting his family members in a land scam and of serving the colonial police when India was fighting against the British rule in the pre-1947 era.
    While a reticent Patil denied the charges during her national tour for campaign, Shekhawat's party went on raising fresh charges against the former Rajasthan governor.
    The legislators in Kerala, Mizoram and Tripura voted only for Patil as Shekhawat drew a blank in both the states. It was a sweep for Patil in her home state Maharashtra, where she won the support of 223 MLAs leaving 58 for Shekhawat.
    It was a similar story in Haryana with her getting 74 to Shekhawat's 6, Himachal Pradesh (47-20), Manipur (55-5), Meghalaya (49-6) Andhra Pradesh (223-2), Arunachal Pradesh (58-1), Assam (92-20, four votes were invalid), Jharkhand (49-28) Delhi (50-19), Goa (25-14), Nagaland (40-12), Sikkim (31-1) and Tamil Nadu (171-59).
    In Karnataka it was a close fight as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s ruling ally Janata Dal-Secular abstained from voting. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate got 83 and her rival, 82.
    Shekhawat got more votes in NDA-ruled states. In Bihar he got 145 to Patil's 89, in Chhattisgarh (51-37), Gujarat (123-57), Madhya Pradesh (163-56), Punjab (66-45), Orissa (100-46) and Rajasthan (134-63). The vice president belongs to Rajasthan.
    The new president will be sworn in on July 25.
    Scandals
    But Ms Patil was buffeted by accusations that she protected her brother in a murder probe and shielded her husband in a suicide scandal, in a campaign described by analysts as the most vitriolic in India's post-colonial history.
    There were also claims of nepotism and involvement in a slew of financial scams.
    Ms Patil, a demure figure who dresses conservatively in a sari pulled over her hair, has denied any wrongdoing.
    She was also mocked for telling television viewers that a dead spiritual guru gave her a "divine premonition of greater responsibility".
    India's top news magazine, India Today, put her on its front cover with the headline: "Embarrassing Choice".
    Analysts say Ms Patil has a tough act to follow in the form of India's popular outgoing President Abdul Kalam.
    Congress rebuffed his bid for a second five-year term because, analysts say, it wanted a party loyalist.
    The silver-haired, shaggy-locked missile scientist, who became a national hero after overseeing successful tests in 1998 that turned India into a nuclear

    power, was dubbed the "People's President" for his populist style.
    Under the constitution, the Prime Minister holds the executive reins but the President plays a role in forming governments at state and federal levels, making the post hotly contested.
    Ms Patil's presidency reflects the growing power of some women in India, where an increasing number are taking part in the work force and in schools and hold senior positions in corporations as India enters the globalised economy.
    India has had a few female icons in the past, most famously Sonia Gandhi's mother-in-law, Indira, who was one of the world's first female prime ministers in 1966.
    In 1984, when BSP was born, few gave the party that aggressively championed the Dalit cause a great future. Mayawati had just resigned as a teacher from a state owned school in Delhi. Nobody knew her.
    Daughter of a telecommunication employee, her ambition had been to become a district magistrate. She passed out from the universities of Delhi and Meerut, studying law and then took a course in teaching.
    BSP's founder leader Kanshi Ram was the one who spotted Mayawati and decided to groom her. It was a turning point for the BSP.
    In no time, Mayawati proved more than a good pupil. She was the perfect oxygen for a grouping that was growing in a state where the Hindu upper castes had held sway for centuries and where Dalits were traditionally held in contempt.
    Mayawati was a powerful speaker in Hindi. She combined her boundless energy, commitment to Dalit society and loyalty to Kanshi Ram to unleash a campaign that numbed the upper castes.
    It helped that she was a Jatav, the most upwardly mobile sect among Dalits.
    If Kanshi Ram was soft spoken, Mayawati could scream. And she would raise her lungpower to thunder before tens of thousands that she was a Dalit and proud to be one -- and to hell with the upper castes.
    Mesmerized, millions of Dalits and even Muslims in Uttar Pradesh deserted the Congress, a party they had supported for decades, and drifted to Kanshi Ram and Mayawati.
    Once she became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1995, the first Dalit to run a state in India, she refused to dilute her pro-Dalit stance, immensely pleasing her humble supporters who had got used to seeing Dalit politicians losing steam once in office.
    The 1995 stint lasted just four months, and a second tenure at the head of the Uttar Pradesh government in 1997 ended in six months. By then, the "Bahenji", or sister as she was known, had become an icon of Dalit politics.
    Blessed by Kanshi Ram, Mayawati returned to rule the sprawling state of Uttar Pradesh - population 166 million, equivalent to two Germanys - in 2002. Now she ruled for about a year.
    By then, the once simple woman who was seen in oily plaits and ponytails had switched over to bobbed hair. She dressed well. Somewhere along the road she even eclipsed Kanshi Ram, whose death left her the supreme master of BSP.
    She bought a bungalow near New Delhi's diplomatic enclave. But she still avoided the media and the upper crust - unless she needed them.
    Her 2003 birthday in Lucknow was a gala affair, involving a 51 kg cake, 100,000 ladoos, 60 quintals of marigold flowers and 5,000 bouquets.
    Corruption charges followed. But Mayawati only grew in popularity, deftly dropping her anti-upper caste vitriol in a bid to embrace everyone to build a large social umbrella like the Congress had for decades.
    It was a masterstroke. Mayawati made it clear that she would shake hands with the support base of her opponents over the heads. Instead of begging for support from parties of the upper castes, she would herself go to the upper castes.
    It is this that has made Mayawati the most powerful politician in the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh ballot that ended on May 8.
    "Mayawati has pursued power with a single minded devotion," political analyst GVL Narasimha Rao told. "She does what she says and unlike other parties does not dilute her politics once in power."
    Like almost everyone else, Rao predicts a long innings for Mayawati.
    "She is going to be around for a very long time, indeed as long as she is alive," he said. "Today, minus Mayawati, the BSP is a big zero. She is going to be a major player in Indian politics for a long, long time."
    Myths of Origin and Heroism
    The Mahar myth of origin, as do those of other Untouchable castes, reflect the idea that an innocent , misunderstood or mistaken action caused their untouchability. Unlike many other myths, however, they concern not occupation but the eating of forbidden food (1992:54).
    A number of myths trace the Mahar fall from grace to the time of the Peshwas, chief ministers of the Maratha kingdom. The Peshwas were Chitpavan Brahmans, and are remembered as having introduced especially limiting strictures on Mahars, such as carrying pots for their spittle and brooms to erase their footsteps from the road (1992:75). The Marathas were Turks; the Chitpavan Brahmans were Barbary Jews; and the high castes of south India were mixed Australian-semitic non-Aryan Africans.
    The most important Mahar ledgend is that of its hero, Amrutnak (the nak ending indicates a Mahar name), a story of a soldier-courtier at the court of the Muslim king of Bidar. It is a loyalty-castration story of Amrutnak bringing back the captured queen and making the ultimate sacrifice to insure her chastity. He refused jagir for his service, instead he asked for fifty-two rights for his people, the Mahars. The theme of sacrifice, trustworthiness and caste loyalty is also stressed in numerous ledgends of Mahars offering themselves as sacrifices (1992:55).
    The obvious duty of a caste reformer is to call for an end to eating carrion, and this the early Mahar leaders did, loudly and clearly through the first decades of the twentieth century (1992:56).
    The Bhakti movement, begun traditionally by Dnyaneshwar, an outcast Brahman in the thirteenth century, was joined by the Mahar poet Chokhamela in the fourteenth. The Maharashtrian Bhakti movement, like the Bhakti movement throughout India, was anti-orthodox, inclusive of both women and Shudras, and based on the experience of God rather than on traditional piety or formal ritual. Its radical stance and its inclusiveness, however, were largely confined tp the religious plane, and little action for social equality came from it (:270).
    Ambedkar
    Ambedkar returned to India in 1923 after nearly ten years of study in the US and England. In my opinion, he presented the Mahars with a new Amrutnak in his own person, a hero who won rights for them, but who did not have to castrate himself to show his absolute loyalty to his sovereign. He was seen as a savior, as a giver of rights, as one who sacrificed for his people. The image of Ambedkar is often depicted as that of a westernized man, complete with coat, shirt, tie, shoes, fountain pen and usually a book (representing the constitution) (1992:59).

  • It is Raiseena Revolution!

    It is Raiseena Revolution!

    Palash Biswas
    Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
    Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
    Please watch:
    Documentary on Nandigram in English
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3924953024386968311&hl=en
    Pratibha Patil
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Pratibha Devisingh Patil (born December 19, 1934) is the President-elect of India. She is a member of the Indian National Congress and was the nominee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance and Indian Left. She won the last presidential election, held on July 19, 2007 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by over 3 lakh votes.[1][2][3][4] She will take office as India's first female president on July 25.
    A lawyer by training, Pratibha Patil was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, representing Edlabad constituency in Jalgaon District from 1962 to 1985. From 1986 to 1988, she held the post of deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. As a member of parliament, she represented Amravati in the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996. She later became the 16th Governor of Rajasthan and, notably, was also the first female governor of this state.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratibha_Patil
    http://www.answers.com/topic/pratibha-patil

    President of India
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian armed forces. The President's role is largely ceremonial, with real executive authority vested in the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. The powers of the President of India are comparable to those of the monarch, king or queen of United Kingdom. The president is also called Rashtrapati. The president of India resides in a mansion known as the Rashtrapati Bhavan, which roughly translates as "President's Home".The President is elected by the elected members of the Vidhan Sabhas, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha, and serves for a period of 5 years (although they can stand for re-election). A formula is used to allocate votes so there is a balance between the population of each state and the number of votes assembly members from a state can cast, and to give an equal balance between State Assembly members and National Parliament members. If no candidate receives a majority of votes there is a system by which losing candidates are eliminated from the contest and votes for them transferred to other candidates, until one gain a majority. The Vice President is elected by a direct vote of all members elected and nominated, of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_India
    Profile: Patil -- from governor to India's first woman President
    NEW DELHI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Pratibha Patil, former Rajasthan Governor, was elected India's first woman President after beating Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Saturday. Full story
    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/21/content_6410777.htm
    It is Raiseena Revolution!
    Will the shame of Gang Rape in Nandigram Genocide and rape of murder of Tapasi Malik in Singur be reversed by electing a woman President?
    Because the president, a largely ceremonial post, is expected to uphold the Constitution and show no bias toward any political group, parties often try to forge a consensus on the candidate. Patil's predecessor, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, was such a consensus candidate.
    However, there was no agreement on Patil and the opposition ran their own candidate, current Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

    But Mrs sonia Gandhi has done it! It is rather a La Coup in Zionist Hindu feudal Imperialist Brahminical regime of Post Modern Galaxy order! What India has done, America could not do since 1979, thanks to Mrs Gandhi`s political pragmatism and ideological jugglery plus political gimmic of Male dominated Indian society and Polity. The new Woman President has her roots in rajsthan, the land of sati Roop Kunwar and she belongs to non Brahmin Rajpoot community while the Left wanted a Brahmin President - these equations are quite intresting as it will be more interesting to see how Empowerment of Woman gets momentum in India after such an achievement!
    Thursday's presidential poll followed campaigning described by analysts as the most vitriolic in India's six decades of independence. India is banking on private equity inflows and an annual use of $5 billion from its foreign exchange reserves to meet the investment needs of its creaky infrastructure, the finance minister said on Saturday.
    "This is a very special moment for us women, and men of course, in our country because for the first time we have a woman being elected president of India," Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, said.Supporters hoped Patil's candidacy would help bring issues that plague women in India, like dowry-related violence, into the public spotlight. A woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India.Her presidency also reflects the growing power of some women in India, where an increasing number are taking part in the workforce and in schools and hold senior positions in corporations.
    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has dismissed accusations against her as "mud-slinging", said on Saturday her victory was "a vote against the politics of divisiveness".
    Patil is from the Congress party and her candidature was seen as a reward for her 45 years of service to the Congress.She managed to offend many minority Muslims, and anger some historians, by saying Indian women first veiled their heads as protection against 16th century Muslim invaders.Then she dismayed modern India by claiming she had experienced a "divine premonition" that she was destined for higher office from a long dead spiritual guru.Critics also dug up a comment she was said to have made as Maharashtra's health minister in 1975, saying people with hereditary diseases should be sterilized.
    Harish Khare, political editor for The Hindu newspaper, said: "She is a Congressman, an old Congressman. She belonged to the old Indira Gandhi loyalist group. One can say that she is an old Congress loyalist."
    Seema Mustafa, political editor for The Asian Age newspaper, said: "They bring out this lady from the back or beyond, her own party ... didn't know who she was.
    "And then they finally said, well look here, we've got a woman as president - regardless of the qualifications, regardless of whether she's done anything for the woman cause."
    Hundreds of delighted Congress supporters danced in the streets, banging drums and setting off firecrackers outside Pratibha Patil`s home in New Delhi and in her hometown in the state of Maharashtra.While India has had several women in positions of power — most notably Indira Gandhi, who was elected to the more powerful position of prime minister in 1966, and her daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi_ many women still face rampant discrimination.Many Indian families regard daughters as a liability due to a tradition requiring a bride's family to pay a groom's family a large dowry of cash and gifts. As a consequence their education is often neglected, and many don't get adequate medical treatment when ill.International groups estimate that some 10 million female fetuses have been aborted in the country over the last two decades.
    It was not clear how much impact Patil will have as president.Opponents derided her nomination, saying she lacked the national stature for the job and her only qualification was her unswerving loyalty to the powerful Gandhi family.
    Her emergence onto the national stage also highlighted several scandals involving family members, two of who are under investigation by police.
    The president's office is largely seen as a ceremonial one.
    Under the constitution, the prime minister holds the executive reins but the president plays a role in forming governments at state and federal levels, making the post hotly contested.
    Elected for a term of five years, the Indian president is the supreme commander of the armed forces. The chiefs of the army, navy and air force report to the president.The president can also grant pardons or reduce sentences, particularly in cases involving the death penalty.

    India's president is not elected by popular poll but chosen by national and state legislators. India has elected the country's first woman president after one of the bitterest political campaigns in the nation's history.India has elected its first female president, in what supporters are hailing as a boost for the rights of millions of downtrodden women, despite a bitter campaign marked by scandal.Pratibha Patil, the ruling coalition's 72-year-old nominee, has easily beaten 84-year-old Opposition-backed challenger and standing Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in a vote by the national Parliament and state politicians.On the other hand, President Bush transferred the powers of the presidency to Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday just before being sedated for a screening to detect colon cancer. With two signed letters to leaders in the House and Senate, Bush temporarily transferred his authority at 7:16 a.m. EDT to Cheney, who was at his home on the Chesapeake Bay in St. Michaels, Md., about 30 miles east of Washington.
    Violence has intensified again in Pakistan, with three separate suicide bomb attacks killing at least 52 people on the worst day of a wave of violence that has gripped the country.Pressure is also mounting from outside Pakistan.Relations with the US have deteriorated over General Musharraf's handling of insurgencies in tribal areas.Pressure could grow there for direct intervention if Pakistan's Army is unable or unwilling to take on offensive military operations.
    On the othe hand, Pakistan's chief justice has resumed his official duties, a day after Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, lost a bid to dismiss him.
    Earlier this week, White House spokesman Tony Snow said striking actionable targets was an option the US Government would not rule out.Yet another concern for President Musharraf are Pakistan's ties with China.
    Ms Patil has won by a large margin, securing 66 per cent of the votes.The election of a woman to the largely ceremonial post continues an Indian tradition using the presidency to bolster disadvantaged communities.
    Developed world 'having second thoughts' about globalisation
    By business editor Peter Ryan

    Strong investment in China and a record trade surplus have buoyed the economy. For the past decade, one of the big economic buzzwords has been "globalisation" and its critical role in tearing down trade barriers around the world.
    But the seemingly unstoppable rise of China and India as challengers to the domination of the United States and Europe has started a debate on whether globalisation has gone too far.
    In particular, the current economic superpowers are worried about control of oil and other resources being sapped by China's demand.
    Mark Thirlwell, head of economics at the Lowy Institute, says as a result the developed world is now having second thoughts about globalisation.
    "I think there's a really interesting irony here in that the second thoughts are coming not this time because of globalisation's failures, it's not for example, we're back in the late '90s and we're worrying about an Asian financial crisis, but there coming precisely because of its successes," he said.
    "Globalisation did what it was supposed to do - what it said on the tin if you like - and what it did was, we told developing countries if you integrated, if you do trade liberalisation, you let in foreign capital, you tie into global markets, it's going to make you richer, it's going to make you bigger and more successful economies.
    "That's exactly what it's done, but the economies in the rich world are turning around and thinking, 'well, we sort of knew it was going to do this, but we didn't know it was going to do this quite so successfully - and wait a minute, this is having some unforseen implications that maybe we're not that comfortable with'."
    http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/21/1984551.htm
    Hindu-majority India has had three Muslim presidents, including incumbent A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, since winning independence from Britain in 1947. It has also had a president from the minority Sikh community, and Kalam's predecessor, K. R. Narayanan, came from the bottom of the society's complex social hierarchy.
    Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman President of IndiaPresidential poll 2007
    Pratibha Patil, elected as the first woman President of India, says hers is a 'victory of principles the people in the country have upheld.' Indo-Asian News
    India has got its woman president in Pratibha Patil who won one of the bitterest political campaigns to the top post in the country's 60-year-old post independence history.President APJ Abdul Kalam, who demits office next week, was given a farewell at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and other apex court judges.Mohd Hamid Ansari, a seasoned diplomat and a distinguished academic, was on Friday unanimously chosen as the UPA-Left candidate for the Vice Presidential election in a smooth process that contrasted sharply with the one witnessed during the selection for the President's post.
    Ms Patil, a lawyer and the Governor of the north-western desert state, Rajasthan, emerged on the national stage when the Congress-led coalition and its communist allies failed to agree on a joint candidate.
    Congress leader Sonia Gandhi plucked Ms Patil from relative political obscurity, saying her election would boost the cause of gender equality and would be a historic moment.Supporters hoped Ms Patil's nomination would help bring issues that plague women in India, like dowry-related violence, into the public spotlight. A woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India.And her comments ahead of the election calling on Indian women to abandon wearing headscarves was roundly denounced by Muslim leaders and by historians — who disputed her assertion that women only started wearing them in India to save themselves from 16th century Muslim invaders.
    The nomination of Patil also surprised many, given her lack of national recognition despite more than four decades in politics.
    Patil was a lawyer before she joined politics and became a member of the state legislature in 1962. She was appointed a minister several times in the Maharashtra state government between 1962 and 1985. In the following decade, she served as a member of Indian Parliament.
    Her most recent post was as governor of the northern state of Rajasthan.

    Pratibha Patil, elected on Saturday as the first woman President of India, said hers was a "victory of principles the people in the country have upheld."
    "It is the victory of principles the people of this country have upheld," Patil told reporters in English immediately after she was declared as the winner in the July 19 presidential election.
    Patil, clad in red-bordered yellow silk saree with her head covered in traditional style, thanked the people of the country.
    "I thank every one. I am grateful to men and women of the country," she said. She was accompanied by senior Congress party leaders Motilal Vora, Janardhan Dwivedi and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, the information and broadcasting minister.
    She earlier said in Hindi that her victory was a "victory of right thinking".
    Congratulatory messages poured in even as Congress leaders arrived with bouquets and jubilant party supporters dancing on the street in front of her 11, South Avenue residence in New Delhi.
    Rise of Pratibha Patil reminds us another powerful lady of India, Ms Mayawati!
    It has taken Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) undisputed leader Mayawati 23 years to leapfrog from being an unknown entity to the demolishing queen in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh.Although she has been the Uttar Pradesh chief minister thrice, this is the first time the BSP has ended up as the single largest outfit in the 403-member assembly, thanks mainly to the 51-year-old Mayawati who came from nowhere to take everyone by storm.

    Meanwhile, in Washington,The United States and India has finalised on Friday an implementing agreement for their landmark civilian nuclear deal after extensive talks in Washington, officials said.The draft accord allowing the United States to provide atomic technology and fuel to India will still require a final nod by the leaders of the two countries, the officials said.The implementation agreement, or "123 agreement," is intended to capture all operational aspects of the nuclear deal, which was agreed upon by US President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two years ago to highlight strategic ties between the world's two biggest democracies.After government approval, the pact will have to be cleared by the Democratic-controlled US Congress, where lawmakers have vowed tight scrutiny.The US Congress already approved the nuclear deal in principle last year and a bill to that effect was signed into law by Bush.But the law requires a comprehensive implementation agreement that has to be approved again by the Democratic-controlled Congress.India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.The deal could open up a whopping 100 billion dollars in opportunities for American businesses, according to the US Chamber of Commerce.
    The deal would reverse three decades of US sanctions imposed over nuclear tests carried out by India, which is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.For the nuclear deal to be implemented, India should separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and set up a regime of international inspections to allay concerns that material and technology received are not diverted to boost its nuclear weapons arsenal.
    "The agreement has been finalised but it awaits review by both governments," Rahul Chhabra, the spokesman for the Indian embassy, told AFP at the end of four days of talks late on Friday.
    The talks were led by US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
    "The discussions were constructive and positive, and both Under Secretary Burns and Foreign Secretary Menon are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement," a joint statement said.
    "We will now refer the issue to our governments for final review," the statement.
    The United States and India "look forward to the completion of these remaining steps and to the conclusion of this historic initiative," said the joint statement.
    The talks in Washington were supposed to end Wednesday but extended by two days after the two sides broke the "logjam" that had blocked an accord for the last two years, officials had said, without elaborating.The extended talk showed "there really is goodwill on the part of both sides to resolve outstanding differences and finish this key piece of the US-India civilian nuclear arrangement," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.
    He rejected any notion that the talks were troubled, amid some reports that Washington and New Delhi were desperately trying to salvage the deal.

    Will the Congress have to pay a political price for the Supreme Court’s verdict declining to vacate the stay on the implementation of the 27 per cent OBC quota in central educational institutions? There are apprehensions of this, particularly after its debacle in the recent municipal council elections in Delhi even though the sealings and demolitions carried out in the Capital were done at the Court’s behest.But leaders like Digvijay Singh do not believe that it will have any political implication on the party. "The government’s intention to address the concerns of the OBCs is now known," he said.
    However, he indicated, the party could go to the people to "explain" that its intention was to address the concerns of the OBCs but the apex court’s ruling has come in the way. But when quizzed whether a plan was being chalked out to convey the message, he maintained that it was for the party to decide.
    The decision to weave quotas into educational institutes was seen as a political move on the Centre’s part to try and steer the OBCs - who have so far remained resistant - into the Congress camp. But party leaders denied any political motive to the move. The purpose, they claimed, was purely social and an expression of the UPA’s "social obligation" towards the weaker section.
    Officially, the party refused to react to the court order. "We want to study the contents of the order before coming out with our view," said spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi.
    He played it safe by refusing to blame either the Government for not doing its homework properly or the Court for not vacating the stay. He refused to buy the observation that the Supreme Court was biased in favour of upper caste. "I would suggest not to make such insinuations against the court," he said.
    But privately Congress leaders have a different take on the matter. "People have not been able to understand why does the Court’s decisions go against the underprivileged and the deprived sections," said a well-placed leader, adding that he was not attributing any motives to anyone.
    Patil, 72, was voted on Saturday as the 13th president of the country. She won by 306,810 votes against her rival Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who contested the July 19 presidential election as an independent backed by opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA).Immediately after the results were announced, Patil came out of her temporary residence in the Capital to describe it as a "victory of principles, victory of right thinking" by the people.
    Patil, a nominee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Left and Bahujan Samaj Party, got 325,180 votes from the state legislators and 442 of the total 682 MPs who cast their votes, paving her way to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the president.
    An MP's vote value is 706 and an MLA's varies from state to state according to its population.
    Patil, who had been haunted by unsubstantiated opposition charges of corruption, fraud and improprieties, has won almost 11,000 more votes than expected. Shekhawat got 331,306 votes.
    Congress party supporters erupted in jubilation across the country, bursting crackers, distributing sweets, dancing to drums and raising slogans in favour of Patil and party president Sonia Gandhi.
    Patil's native Jalgaon village in Maharashtra and her husband Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat's native place in Rajasthan's Sikar have been in celebration mood since morning as her victory was a foregone conclusion against her 84-year-old rival, Shekhawat, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran.
    Counting began 11 am on Saturday with Election Commission officials unsealing ballot boxes that arrived from 30 assemblies and the Parliament House.
    Thursday's poll had been preceded by the most acerbic campaign, which many political analysts said had dented the prestige of the country's highest office.
    The ruling Congress party had in turn charged Shekhawat of protecting his family members in a land scam and of serving the colonial police when India was fighting against the British rule in the pre-1947 era.
    While a reticent Patil denied the charges during her national tour for campaign, Shekhawat's party went on raising fresh charges against the former Rajasthan governor.
    The legislators in Kerala, Mizoram and Tripura voted only for Patil as Shekhawat drew a blank in both the states. It was a sweep for Patil in her home state Maharashtra, where she won the support of 223 MLAs leaving 58 for Shekhawat.
    It was a similar story in Haryana with her getting 74 to Shekhawat's 6, Himachal Pradesh (47-20), Manipur (55-5), Meghalaya (49-6) Andhra Pradesh (223-2), Arunachal Pradesh (58-1), Assam (92-20, four votes were invalid), Jharkhand (49-28) Delhi (50-19), Goa (25-14), Nagaland (40-12), Sikkim (31-1) and Tamil Nadu (171-59).
    In Karnataka it was a close fight as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s ruling ally Janata Dal-Secular abstained from voting. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate got 83 and her rival, 82.
    Shekhawat got more votes in NDA-ruled states. In Bihar he got 145 to Patil's 89, in Chhattisgarh (51-37), Gujarat (123-57), Madhya Pradesh (163-56), Punjab (66-45), Orissa (100-46) and Rajasthan (134-63). The vice president belongs to Rajasthan.
    The new president will be sworn in on July 25.
    Scandals
    But Ms Patil was buffeted by accusations that she protected her brother in a murder probe and shielded her husband in a suicide scandal, in a campaign described by analysts as the most vitriolic in India's post-colonial history.
    There were also claims of nepotism and involvement in a slew of financial scams.
    Ms Patil, a demure figure who dresses conservatively in a sari pulled over her hair, has denied any wrongdoing.
    She was also mocked for telling television viewers that a dead spiritual guru gave her a "divine premonition of greater responsibility".
    India's top news magazine, India Today, put her on its front cover with the headline: "Embarrassing Choice".
    Analysts say Ms Patil has a tough act to follow in the form of India's popular outgoing President Abdul Kalam.
    Congress rebuffed his bid for a second five-year term because, analysts say, it wanted a party loyalist.
    The silver-haired, shaggy-locked missile scientist, who became a national hero after overseeing successful tests in 1998 that turned India into a nuclear

    power, was dubbed the "People's President" for his populist style.
    Under the constitution, the Prime Minister holds the executive reins but the President plays a role in forming governments at state and federal levels, making the post hotly contested.
    Ms Patil's presidency reflects the growing power of some women in India, where an increasing number are taking part in the work force and in schools and hold senior positions in corporations as India enters the globalised economy.
    India has had a few female icons in the past, most famously Sonia Gandhi's mother-in-law, Indira, who was one of the world's first female prime ministers in 1966.
    In 1984, when BSP was born, few gave the party that aggressively championed the Dalit cause a great future. Mayawati had just resigned as a teacher from a state owned school in Delhi. Nobody knew her.
    Daughter of a telecommunication employee, her ambition had been to become a district magistrate. She passed out from the universities of Delhi and Meerut, studying law and then took a course in teaching.
    BSP's founder leader Kanshi Ram was the one who spotted Mayawati and decided to groom her. It was a turning point for the BSP.
    In no time, Mayawati proved more than a good pupil. She was the perfect oxygen for a grouping that was growing in a state where the Hindu upper castes had held sway for centuries and where Dalits were traditionally held in contempt.
    Mayawati was a powerful speaker in Hindi. She combined her boundless energy, commitment to Dalit society and loyalty to Kanshi Ram to unleash a campaign that numbed the upper castes.
    It helped that she was a Jatav, the most upwardly mobile sect among Dalits.
    If Kanshi Ram was soft spoken, Mayawati could scream. And she would raise her lungpower to thunder before tens of thousands that she was a Dalit and proud to be one -- and to hell with the upper castes.
    Mesmerized, millions of Dalits and even Muslims in Uttar Pradesh deserted the Congress, a party they had supported for decades, and drifted to Kanshi Ram and Mayawati.
    Once she became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1995, the first Dalit to run a state in India, she refused to dilute her pro-Dalit stance, immensely pleasing her humble supporters who had got used to seeing Dalit politicians losing steam once in office.
    The 1995 stint lasted just four months, and a second tenure at the head of the Uttar Pradesh government in 1997 ended in six months. By then, the "Bahenji", or sister as she was known, had become an icon of Dalit politics.
    Blessed by Kanshi Ram, Mayawati returned to rule the sprawling state of Uttar Pradesh - population 166 million, equivalent to two Germanys - in 2002. Now she ruled for about a year.
    By then, the once simple woman who was seen in oily plaits and ponytails had switched over to bobbed hair. She dressed well. Somewhere along the road she even eclipsed Kanshi Ram, whose death left her the supreme master of BSP.
    She bought a bungalow near New Delhi's diplomatic enclave. But she still avoided the media and the upper crust - unless she needed them.
    Her 2003 birthday in Lucknow was a gala affair, involving a 51 kg cake, 100,000 ladoos, 60 quintals of marigold flowers and 5,000 bouquets.
    Corruption charges followed. But Mayawati only grew in popularity, deftly dropping her anti-upper caste vitriol in a bid to embrace everyone to build a large social umbrella like the Congress had for decades.
    It was a masterstroke. Mayawati made it clear that she would shake hands with the support base of her opponents over the heads. Instead of begging for support from parties of the upper castes, she would herself go to the upper castes.
    It is this that has made Mayawati the most powerful politician in the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh ballot that ended on May 8.
    "Mayawati has pursued power with a single minded devotion," political analyst GVL Narasimha Rao told. "She does what she says and unlike other parties does not dilute her politics once in power."
    Like almost everyone else, Rao predicts a long innings for Mayawati.
    "She is going to be around for a very long time, indeed as long as she is alive," he said. "Today, minus Mayawati, the BSP is a big zero. She is going to be a major player in Indian politics for a long, long time."
    Myths of Origin and Heroism
    The Mahar myth of origin, as do those of other Untouchable castes, reflect the idea that an innocent , misunderstood or mistaken action caused their untouchability. Unlike many other myths, however, they concern not occupation but the eating of forbidden food (1992:54).
    A number of myths trace the Mahar fall from grace to the time of the Peshwas, chief ministers of the Maratha kingdom. The Peshwas were Chitpavan Brahmans, and are remembered as having introduced especially limiting strictures on Mahars, such as carrying pots for their spittle and brooms to erase their footsteps from the road (1992:75). The Marathas were Turks; the Chitpavan Brahmans were Barbary Jews; and the high castes of south India were mixed Australian-semitic non-Aryan Africans.
    The most important Mahar ledgend is that of its hero, Amrutnak (the nak ending indicates a Mahar name), a story of a soldier-courtier at the court of the Muslim king of Bidar. It is a loyalty-castration story of Amrutnak bringing back the captured queen and making the ultimate sacrifice to insure her chastity. He refused jagir for his service, instead he asked for fifty-two rights for his people, the Mahars. The theme of sacrifice, trustworthiness and caste loyalty is also stressed in numerous ledgends of Mahars offering themselves as sacrifices (1992:55).
    The obvious duty of a caste reformer is to call for an end to eating carrion, and this the early Mahar leaders did, loudly and clearly through the first decades of the twentieth century (1992:56).
    The Bhakti movement, begun traditionally by Dnyaneshwar, an outcast Brahman in the thirteenth century, was joined by the Mahar poet Chokhamela in the fourteenth. The Maharashtrian Bhakti movement, like the Bhakti movement throughout India, was anti-orthodox, inclusive of both women and Shudras, and based on the experience of God rather than on traditional piety or formal ritual. Its radical stance and its inclusiveness, however, were largely confined tp the religious plane, and little action for social equality came from it (:270).
    Ambedkar
    Ambedkar returned to India in 1923 after nearly ten years of study in the US and England. In my opinion, he presented the Mahars with a new Amrutnak in his own person, a hero who won rights for them, but who did not have to castrate himself to show his absolute loyalty to his sovereign. He was seen as a savior, as a giver of rights, as one who sacrificed for his people. The image of Ambedkar is often depicted as that of a westernized man, complete with coat, shirt, tie, shoes, fountain pen and usually a book (representing the constitution) (1992:59).

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