Palash Speaks

Romancing with Life Dev style
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Since the calf Love days , I had been a fan of Dev Anand. And the admiration continues till this date! Anand has acted in, directed and produced more than 110 films -- most of the recent ones being such disasters that many call him master of "magnum flopus".
A vegetarian and a teetotaller, Anand, who turns 84 this month, says he never feels old because he retains all the elements of youth.
"I'm excited all the time about the things I do. So I feel young. Young people feel excited all the time," he said. "And what compensates me for my youth is my wisdom, my experience, whatever I have gained from life so far."
Evergreen Dev Anand is still a romantic at heart! Anand, considered the epitome of the suave, urbane gentleman, was seen as one of the most handsome men in Indian cinema and looked strikingly similar to Hollywood hero Gregory Peck. The puff in his hair and collared shirt became the rage among Indian men and his trademark singsong delivery and penchant for nodding while speaking were all heavily copied. Many accused his acting of being all style and little substance, but he produced some of the biggest cult hits in Bollywood, won best actor awards several times and was given India's highest award for cinema. His personal life was equally dramatic. He fell in love with Suraiya, a beautiful Muslim actress he saved from drowning while shooting a film. After her grandmother opposed the relationship, the actress retreated from public life and never married.
I was a student of class Nineth when I first saw a devanand film and it was not Hare Arama Hare Krishna. Neither it has been Guide or Gambler. I saw the legend first time in Asli Naqli starring Sadhana and Sandhya Roy. Due to involvement with Naxal Ideology, I was dreming to change the society and had not been enough studious, hence my father sent me 36 KM away in shaktifarm. shaktifarm was an isolated zone of resetlled Bengali Refugees. I used the opportunity of coming home during vacations and enjoyed films like Heer ranjha, Naya Jamana and Johny Mera Naam. I also saw CHHupa Rustam during this period . I became quite a fan of Devanand with his specil mannerism. It was in Nainital, during my GIC days I invented the Artist romancing with love when I saw Hare Rama Hare Krishna. he portrayed the changing generation so well! I knew the director with a purpose. I loved him. Later I saw his films with Zeenat, tina Munim and Parveen Bobby starring. but the man was quite amazing in Guide, Jwell Thief and Gambler.He had been always very positive and so fresh and young, Ever Green.

He may even consider making it into a film if he feels a good director will make it. Now that’s asking for too much, don’t you think? A good director means working on a good script. And working well. How can one prove his talent if all you need of the actor to do is swing trees with a suede jacket or corduroys and a woolen scarf and shake his head like he’s cleansing off all the dandruff? Not too hard I would say. We have many vertically deficit guys to portray him and a lot of lose heads too. Would there be a heroine, me wonders. What if it would be a much taller woman? They can use Yukta Mookhey. Anyway, Dev saab is also preparing his cast for his next movie and soon he will start a Croatian movie as well, which will be in English of course. Indians aren’t very well versed with Croatian (do they have a specific language? Maybe Russian). Whatever; it’s going to be all exciting. I can’t wait!

At 83, even the most flamboyant of celebrities retreat from public life, but if you are Dev Anand, the evergreen hero of Indian cinema, it's never too late for love. With a white scarf draped over a blue jacket, his hair dyed black and his skin still taut, Anand retains the charm of a mischievous romantic -- the image from his heyday that he has cultivated over a career spanning 60 years.
Credited with introducing several actresses to Bollywood, Anand lived his lover-boy image to the fullest, wooing heroines with songs late into his 50s. When he was too old for that, he turned to making romantic films.
"Romance is beautiful. I am always in love," the actor told reporters. "But it doesn't mean you are sleeping with women all the time. Even thinking about a beautiful girl or reading poetry is romantic."
Dev Anand, the ever green epitome of Indian Cinema, has finally launched his autobiography: Romancing with Life. Very typical of Dev saab to use such a colourful title; he has music in every stride. The book is all about him. Obviously! In and out all about him, him and him (in his words). He had so much to write, with a story for everyday rounding to a chapter. And he is 83 years old so that would mean a bigger volume than the Harry Potter AND the Britannica encyclopedia (five editions, full set) combined! But Dev saab isn’t as dumb as he may seem. He did a lot of editing and gave gory details only of what really pricked him in life. In other words, another whiney ol’ timer story. Romancing with Life is a carelessly structured, overwritten and often meandering book, but it has one thing going for it that most other star autobiographies in India lack: this is almost without question Dev Anand’s own work. It’s full of the cheerful, uninhibited floridity that marks everything the man does, and that no ghostwriter would have been able to simulate. (How could anyone but Anand himself have produced a sentence like this one: “Those I am closest to, those who like and love me and I them, call me ‘Dev’, just ‘Dev’, short and sweet and possessive, godly and sexy, and intimate to the extreme, in bedrooms, in drawing rooms, in the streets and in public squares.”) The reviewer’s stock complaint “it should have been better edited” is completely irrelevant in this case, for Romancing with Life represents Dev Anand on the page in a way that a better written, better edited book never could.
Well, I was studying literature, philosophy and ideologies during those days of Nainital and had been quite an antiestablishment individual. It was emergency while we were active against Indira Gandhi`s Absolute Regime. We invented another devanand who led the film industry against Emergency and supported JP full heartedly. Then Indira was defeated and Indian Polity faced so many transitions , Devanand never appeared in the political scene. since Amitabh Bacchan defeated Hemvati nandan bahuguna as a friend of Rajiv Gandhi, so many film personalities entered politics, but we never saw devanand, the original politician vying for political power.
Dev Anand always believed in creativity and his activism in the sphere of films always inspired me.We used to see lot of old movies during winter off season with reduced rates concessions and enjoyed every classic of Indian films. We also enjoyed the Hollywood Films ! But never I came through a second personality who may be compared with dev! I wonder how they compared him with a Peck!
At the age of 84 the man has more enthusiasm for life than many of his younger contemporaries. Ask him the secret of his never-say-die spirit, pat comes the reply, “I love what I do”. After being an actor for years and director for many more, Dev Anand has turned his attention to writing.
Recently dev Anand visited Kolkata. I saw him on small screen facing journalists like suman dey and Ranjan Bandopaddhyaya. We knew his experience with Prem Pujari while the Marxists in Bengal set the screen on fire. We also enjoyed two films strarring Dev Anand and the Ultimate bengali screen queen Suchitra Sen in sarhad and Bombai kaa Baabu. We expected him to be in nostalgia. Every Indian knows about Surraya Dev lovestory and his fantacy with Zinnie baby. But Dev Anand is a man who never looks back and always looks forward, for something new , something cahllanging like the shooting of Ishq Ishq Ishq near the everest on 14 thousands metres above sea level!
He said, ` No no, I work alone but I never feel loneliness!’ Simple logic while you are so busy with your creativty how loneliness may dare to touch you! he emphasised on restlessness for creativity. You have to assume yourself supreme in your field while creating something. Don`t imitate. Do something new, something original.
We read and hear so many things about negetive shades in a role and use to say that only sahrukh Khan dared to play the negetive roles as in the films like Bazigar and Dar. Why do you forget Guide? dev Anand also did that.
I loved Raj Kapoor for his romantic films, Dilip Kumar for his mastery in the medium, Raj Kumar for dialogue delivery, manoj kumar for Upkar and shaheed and Guru dutta for his vision and creativty. Dev Anand is the personality which intermingles all these love elements in itself!
Waiting to launch his autobiography on his birthday, he was thrilled by the fact that the Prime Minister and he shared birthdays and also that the PM consented to launch his book. “This book does not belong to me alone. It belongs to all those people who love me and to the whole world really.”
There’s so much fun to be had with Dev Anand’s new autobiography (assuming, of course, that you have a basic interest in the man’s life and work) that it’s almost pointless to read the book chronologically. Instead, you can randomly flip pages to chuckle at the elaborate prose, marvel at Anand’s many blithe descriptions of being chased around by crazed fans, mainly pretty young girls (“a sensuous mouth lunged forward to rub her lipstick on my laughing but bashful face”), or the conviction with which he defends the turkeys that he’s directed in the last couple of decades (Awwal Number was apparently “ahead of its time” because it alluded to LTTE terrorism a year before the Rajiv Gandhi assassination; further, its cricket theme “found some resonance years later in the Oscar-nominated Lagaan”).

Or you can scan sex scenes that incongruously combine Mills-and-Boon-style soft porn with a quaint, old-world reticence (“she offered me the opening to her ecstasy”) while noting how these passages are always about anonymous women (when it comes to public figures, he doesn’t kiss and tell to the same degree, which makes this a disappointing book for stardust-collectors). And you can roll your eyes while reading passages such as the one where, during a shooting, his red cap flew off and landed — wouldn’t you know it — on “the bulging breasts of a village belle”.

Which is as it should be, for no one is going to read it for its literary merits anyway. This is a memoir meant for Anand fans or for those who have, at least sporadically, admired certain things he has stood for over his career: the flamboyant screen persona (watch his best early films to see how his mix of style and substance holds up better than the often heavy-handed work of his two great contemporaries Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, both of whom were taken more seriously by critics at the time); the determination to keep going in the face of dissuasion and mockery; the willingness to throw his arms open and embrace the world, even when the world didn’t particularly want to be embraced.

And of course, the eternal optimism. A reader casually skimming through this book might get the impression that Anand has received nothing but love and adulation from everyone he’s ever met, but it would be short-sighted to see it as a mere litany of the peaks that he conquered (or imagined he conquered). The fact is that he’s equally candid about his failures —but since his default mode is sanguinity, since he so insistently looks at the bright side of things, the downbeat passages are brief and it’s easy to gloss over them.

Take the much-anticipated (and anti-climactic, for it tells us nothing we haven’t read in film magazines before) chapter about his relationship with Suraiya, which was ended by her domineering grandmother. Anand makes it clear that this was one of the most traumatic incidents in his life, but even here he ends on a positive note, with his elder brother Chetan telling him that the episode would make him stronger for battles ahead. The recurring imagery of a “special ray” that the sun reserves for Anand (to brighten his face when things are looking down) would be unbearably trite elsewhere, but it almost (almost) works here, because you can believe that the man is being sincere; this really is the way he’s lived most of his life.

Is Romancing with Life worth the Rs 695 it’s priced at? Not unless you’re a rabid fan (or one of the apparently millions of nubile young girls lining up to be cast in his next film). But if you get it as a gift, it’s as entertaining in its kitschy way as his mid-period movies were.

Called Romancing With Life, the book runs into about 455 pages. “Yes it is a bit long but I have so much to tell. It is about my 62 years in Mumbai, where I came as a non-entity from Pakistan.”
Though the book has taken a lot of his time, it was a “true and honest effort and is not ghost written. I have scripted it by hand; no computer. My only condition to the publishers was that nothing should be changed. They agreed and now it’s ready,” exulted Dev Anand.

He says the book mentions details even his family does not know.
"I'm getting old and there's so much to say," he said about his autobiography titled "Romancing with Life".
Anand will tour India with his 465-page book which he will also take to Frankfurt, London, Stockholm, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Canada.
"You see how busy I am," the actor said. "The secret is I enjoy what I do and I do what I enjoy."

Like all his mega projects, this one too is slated to hit the stores worldwide.
PM Manmohan Singh releases Anand's autobiography
Thursday, September 27, 2007
New Delhi (ANI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday released an autobiography of ‘evergreen’ Hindi movie star Dev Anand here. Interestingly, the book release ceremony coincided with both Anand's and Singh's birthdays. The actor's memoir titled “Romancing with Life” narrates tales of his journey through life from a young aspiring actor to becoming the evergreen hero of Indian cinema.
Singh lauded Anand calling him one of the India's most 'enduring romantics in the last half century'. "At 84, he is not only young at heart, but also youthful to look at. I am sure that for several generations of his fans, he will always be remembered as a delightfully romantic and endearing artist," Singh said.
A vegetarian and a teetotaler, Anand said: "A book which is in my hand, my autobiography I call it romance with life, romancing with my joy, with my sorrow, with my highs, my lows, an honest depicting of man, of himself, with all my strengths and weaknesses."

With a green scarf draped over a navy blue jacket, his hair dyed black and his skin still taut, Anand retains the charm of a mischievous romantic – the image from his heyday that he has cultivated over a career spanning 60 years. Credited with introducing several actresses to Bollywood, Anand lived his lover-boy image to the fullest, wooing heroines with songs late into his 50s. When he was too old for that, he turned to making romantic films.
Anand, considered the epitome of the suave, urbane gentleman, was seen as one of the most handsome men in Indian cinema and looked strikingly similar to Hollywood hero Gregory Peck. The puff in his hair and collared shirt became a rage among Indian men, and his trademark singsong delivery and penchant for nodding while speaking were all heavily copied.
Many accused his acting of being all style and little substance, but he produced some of the biggest cult hits in Bollywood, won best actor awards several times and was given India's highest award for cinema. His personal life was equally dramatic. He fell in love with a beautiful Muslim actress he saved from drowning while shooting a film. After her grandmother opposed the relationship, the actress retreated from public life and never married. Anand has acted in, directed and produced more than 110 films. Anand will tour India with his 465-page book, which he will also take to Frankfurt, London, Stockholm, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Canada.

Dev Anand an eternal optimist
For evergreen hero Dev Anand, life is an endless succession of fascinating tomorrows. Dev Anand became a name to reckon with in the early 1950s when the startling socio-economic changes in the nation after independence gave rise to hero-oriented films. During the period, he formed popular star teams along with Suraiya, Geeta Bali and Waheeda Rehman.
The actor, along with Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, held the fortunes of the production sector in the palms of their glorious hands for at least two decades. All of them left their own imprint on the history of Indian cinema.
He was the maker of India's first Indo-American co-production "Guide" in English and Hindi. His HUM DONO, which was an entry at the Berlin international film festival, was well received there. Described in Bollywood circles as an eternal optimist, Dev Anand after an endless series of flops in the last few years, still dreams of making one more super hit. The Hindi version of GUIDE, which was directed by his brother Vijay Anand with music by S D Burman, became a big box office success and saved him from financial disaster as the English version had flopped.
The Hindi version was the Indian entry in the foreign language category in Hollywood academy awards in 1965.
The sophisticated actor of today, who has consistently been one of the best dressed men of the country for over three decades and a sartorial stylelist who set trends in menswear, was a shy and reserved boy, never properly dressed, a skinny fellow always bullied by girls.
He was given to singing passages from the holy book and chanting the 'slokas'. The only habit of his childhood days, which Dev Anand remembers to this day, was his love for marbles. He had literally hundreds and hundreds of them in all colours and sizes and was quite adept at playing games with them.
Dev Anand, who went to college in Dharmsala in Kangra district, was specially fond of climbing the snow-clad peaks in winter and had shot films in the upper peaks of nature where man cannot easily reach. He graduated in arts in 1942 from the government college in Lahore, which has given Balraj Sahani, Chetan Anand, B R Chopra and Kushwant Singh to the world of Indian film and literature.
After studies, Dev Anand went to Delhi to work as a clerk for two months before he came to Bombay in search of a break in the film world. In Bombay, he stayed with his elder brother late Chetan Anand and took up a job in the wartime British censor office where he worked as a clerk for two and a half years. All through this period, he visited the studios and film offices of the city seeking the break which nobody was keen to give him.
Dev Anand has starred opposite all the top leading ladies of the 40s and 50s including Suraiya, Kamini Kaushal, Nargis, Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Nimi, Geeta Bali, Nalini Jayawant and Nutan.
The Suraiya-Dev Anand romantic team emerged as the most sought after by producers and distributors, a team whose charisma on screen could only emanate from a deep inner warmth. They starred in seven films together and almost all of them were successful at the box office.
The filmy romance reached its culmination when Dev pressed her to marry him and presented her with a diamond ring. But the ring was destined to land up at the bottom of the ocean bed off marine drive when Suraiya's grandmother took it off from her finger and flung it into the sea.
After Suraiya went out of his life, Dev met the girl who would become his wife. Her name was Mona Singha and she became his heroine in BAAZI directed by Guru Dutt. Mona was renamed as Kalpana Kartik for the screen. Their marriage took place on January 3, 1954, on the sets of TAXI DRIVER at Model studios. After her marriage Kalpana worked in two more films with her husband, HOUSE NUMBER 44 and NAU DO GYARAH.
In 26 years from 1950 to 1976 Dev Anand made 22 films under the Nav Ketan banner. His other notable films were JEWEL THIEF, HEERA PANNA, PREM PUJARI, HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA, JOHNNY MERA NAAM, SHARREEF BADMASH, TERE MERE SAPNE AND CHUPA RUSTUM, ISHQ ISHQ ISHQ and JANEMAN.
Dev has hobnobbed with kings and queens. The royal family of Nepal invited him as a personal and privileged guest to attend a wedding in the royal family few years ago in Kathmandu.
Summing up, Dev says, "I believe that the making of a motion picture should be brought as close as possible to the making of a newspaper. How can anybody live with the same old idea for five years? No. The world is moving so fast today that you either move it or get left behind."

At 83, even the most flamboyant of celebrities retreat from public life, but if you are Dev Anand, the evergreen hero of Indian cinema, it's never too late for love.
With a white scarf draped over a blue jacket, his hair dyed black and his skin still taut, Anand retains the charm of a mischievous romantic -- the image from his heyday that he has cultivated over a career spanning 60 years.
Credited with introducing several actresses to Bollywood, Anand lived his lover-boy image to the fullest, wooing heroines with songs late into his 50s. When he was too old for that, he turned to making romantic films.
"Romance is beautiful. I am always in love," the actor told Reuters. "But it doesn't mean you are sleeping with women all the time. Even thinking about a beautiful girl or reading poetry is romantic."
Anand, considered the epitome of the suave, urbane gentleman, was seen as one of the most handsome men in Indian cinema and looked strikingly similar to Hollywood hero Gregory Peck.
The puff in his hair and collared shirt became the rage among Indian men and his trademark singsong delivery and penchant for nodding while speaking were all heavily copied.
Many accused his acting of being all style and little substance, but he produced some of the biggest cult hits in Bollywood, won best actor awards several times and was given India's highest award for cinema.
His personal life was equally dramatic. He fell in love with a beautiful Muslim actress he saved from drowning while shooting a film. After her grandmother opposed the relationship, the actress retreated from public life and never married.
Anand has acted in, directed and produced more than 110 films -- most of the recent ones being such disasters that many call him master of "magnum flopus".
A vegetarian and a teetotaller, Anand, who turns 84 this month, says he never feels old because he retains all the elements of youth.
"I'm excited all the time about the things I do. So I feel young. Young people feel excited all the time," he said. "And what compensates me for my youth is my wisdom, my experience, whatever I have gained from life so far."
Anand's autobiography is due out this month. He says the book mentions details even his family does not know.
"I'm getting old and there's so much to say," he said about his autobiography titled Romancing with Life.
Anand will tour India with his 465-page book which he will also take to Frankfurt, London, Stockholm, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Canada.
"You see how busy I am," the actor said. "The secret is I enjoy what I do and I do what I enjoy."
When Dev Anand was desperately in love with Zeenat
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 21:28 [IST]
PTI
New Delhi: Evergreen hero Dev Anand was desperately in love with Zeenat Aman but was heart broken before a date with her to find Raj Kapoor throwing his arms around her at a party.
"My heart broken to pieces.... I wanted to leave the party at once and go off somewhere alone, to be just be myself, so that I could swallow the humiliation thrust on my ego," Dev Anand says in his autobiography Romancing with life.
The octogenarian Bollywood hero's autobiography is scheduled to be released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the capital on Wednesday.
"Zeenat and I started being linked to each other in the magazines and newspapers that people, hungry for gossip, love to read. In the subconscious, we had become emotionally attached to each other," Anand says. Time moved on and one day he felt that he was desperately in love with Zeenat and wanted to say so to her at a very special, exclusive place meant for romance.
"I pick her up and together we went to a party. The first person who greeted Zeenat was drunken Raj Kapoor with a gallant drawl who threw his arms around her," Dev says. "A struggle within me transformed itself into a to-hell-with-it-all attitude and prompted me to say goodbye to a relationship which, though it had been non-committal emotionally on both sides, had been honest all the same," he says.
The evening had delivered a blow to Dev's personality, and his dominating spirit. "I had decided on the spur of the movement to tell Zeenat for the first time how much I loved her. And that there was an idea in my mind of another story that would put her on a pedestal as never before, the highest so far. But that was never to be," the evergreen hero says.
In his autobiography, said to be the first ever full-fledged memoir by a leading Bollywood star, Dev Anand tells his remarkable life story, no less dramatic and gripping than any of his films. It carries recollections from Dev's youth in 1930 in Gurdaspur and Lahore, his years of struggle in 1940s in Bombay, his friendship with Gurudutt and his doomed romance with Surayya. The star also writes about his marriage to Kalpana Kartik, his relationship with his brothers Chetan and Vijay Anand as also his co-stars Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor.
Dev Anand however quickly detached himself from Zeenat. "And so be it! I quickly detached myself. I had blundered, taking too many things for granted. There was no need for me to let any rancour remain in my mind against Zeenat. I had prepared her for the world and she was free to go into the arms of anyone who would help her further her ambitious dreams," he writes.
"A group of chanting devotees was passing by my car -- Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.. I closed my eyes. Zeenat still remained beautiful in my eyes, with an honest soul. And Raj a passionate filmmaker...an idea of a new film was slowly coming into focus," he writes.
"Writing an autobiography is tougher when you are a public figure that the world has known and admired for over six decades and has looked up as a larger-than-life hero. Unless I take my readers to a plane of absolute adoration for me as they read my book, the attempt will not have been worth it. And yet, my life has been an open book to my fans, and they must not feel that I am hiding something or glossing over some unsavoury bumps now that I have set out to write my autobiography," Dev writes.
Being Dev Anand: Romance personified
Anuradha SenGupta / CNN-IBN
Published on Sunday , September 30, 2007 at 03:41 in Entertainment section
Tags: Being, Dev Anand
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Anuradha SenGupta: If a person is going through a heartbreak today, and you after having experienced life for 84 years and having symbolised romance, what would you tell that person?

Dev Anand: I would tell him to proceed further and to move on or else he will die. And I am sure that nobody wants to die as life is worth living.

Anuradha SenGupta: But shouldn’t we hang on to that grand romance and the great passion?

Dev Anand: Why should you? If you do that than you would die and you would be good for nothing. That happens only in the books.

Anuradha SenGupta: Playback singers including Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar and Mohammad Rafi all sang for you. All of them gave you big hits.

Dev Anand: Rafi, Kishore, Hemant and even the modern singers who are singing today have sung for me in different films.

Anuradha SenGupta: Out of these three singers whose voice do you think fit you like a glove?

Dev Anand: Kishore had a wonderful resonant voice and when he sang at his best then he was superb. He was not a trained singer. Rafi was a trained singer and sang classical songs and gahazals very well. Hemant’s voice was also very melodious.

Anuradha SenGupta: Yeh raat, yeh chandni phir kahan, right?

Dev Anand: Yes, tuned in Bengali music style. I am fond of Bengali music. S D Burman also used to compose great notes. I think ultimately it is the composition that matters. I go in for melody more than rhythm. Rhythm is of course there all the time but melody survives and stays longer in your mind.

Anuradha SenGupta: I have all your music and whatever is available in the public domain. The moment we realised that were going to meet you, I have been listening to your music with utmost pleasure. Do you listen to your own music?

Dev Anand: No, only for a simple reason. It is rarely with a sense of nostalgia that I listen to my songs. Things are happening for me and there is no time to listen to the songs.

Anuradha SenGupta: You are missing out on a lot if you are not listening to the music of your films.

Dev Anand: Why should I be missing out on them as I given them to the world.

Anuradha SenGupta: Can you tell me of a couple of songs that you listen to from your own films?

Dev Anand: The songs from Guide, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Jewel Thief, Amir Garib and Swami Dada.

Anuradha SenGupta: What could you leave out?

Dev Anand: There is a lot left out because I have suddenly realised that I have sung so much on screen.
Devdutt Pishorimal Anand dreamt of becoming a film star; but even in his native Gurdaspur, Punjab, he realised Dev Anand would be more appropriate as a screen name. It had a starry, dashing, urbane ring that would soon reflect his own persona.
An Arts graduate from Lahore, Dev first came to Mumbai in 1943 to pursue his dreams of becoming an actor. Riding out of Bombay Central station in a tonga, he was struck by the dazzle of the city. Yet, he was confident he would soon be an ineluctable part of the elite circle of glamour. He stayed as a paying guest at inexpensive lodges and with obliging friends like Raja Rao, the famous novelist.
Famous songs picturised on Dev Anand
Song Film Singer
Jaaye to
jaaye kahan Taxi Driver Talat Mehmood
Jeevan ke safar mein rahee Munimji Kishore Kumar
Chhod do aanchal Paying Guest Kishore Kumar,
Asha Bhosle
Jiya o, jiya kuch bol do Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai Mohammed Rafi
Dil ka bhanwar Tere Ghar Ke Saamne Lata Mangeshkar
Abhi na jao chhodke Hum Dono Mohammed Rafi,
Asha Bhosle
Gaata rahe
mera dil Guide Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
Yeh dil na
hota bechara Jewel Thief Kishore Kumar
Phoolon ke
rang se Prem Pujari Kishore Kumar
Pal bhar ke liye Johnny Mera Naam Kishore Kumar
Dev began his career in the military censor office at Churchgate, Mumbai, for a princely salary of Rs 160. He was soon offered a break as an actor by Prabhat Talkies to star in their Hum Ek Hain (1946).
While shooting for the film in Pune, Dev struck a friendship with fellow actor Guru Dutt. Soon, they were swapping shirts, double dating and sharing dreams. They made a pact: if Dev produced a film, Guru Dutt would direct it; if Guru Dutt produced a film, Dev would act in it.
Dev made the grade first. By a strange coincidence, Dev was offered his first big break by Ashok Kumar, his favourite star. Kumar spotted Dev hanging around in the studios and picked him as hero for the Bombay Talkies production, Ziddi, costarring Kamini Kaushal (1948).
Dev never looked back. He bought his first car, a black Hillman. His dream of working with his teenage idol, actress Snehprabha Pradhan, was also fulfilled.
In 1949, Dev and his elder brother Chetan Anand launched their home banner, Navketan, with Afsar. Dev fell head over heels in love with his heroine, star-songstress Suraiya. But Suraiya's strict granny nipped the romance in the bud.
As promised, Dev gambled on Guru Dutt as director for the crime thriller, Baazi (1951). The dice rolled in favour of this creative collaboration; the Sahir [Ludhianvi, lyricist] song, Tadbeer se bigdi huyee taqdeer bana de, proved prophetic and Dev became a true blue star. I

Contempt Petition and Judicial Activism to Help Hindutva
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
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CBI questioned for giving clean chit to Zee News
CBI Clears Mastermind of 1984 anti-Sikh Genocide Panthic Weekly
CPM to launch dalits temple entry movement tomorrow
Chennai, Oct 3 : In a pioneering initiative aimed at eradicating the menace of untouchability from the society, the CPI(M) will launch a mass temple entry movement for dalits tomorrow.

Former Member of Parliament and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ram Vilas Vedanti on Thursday said he stood by his statement that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi should be punished for his anti-Ram utterances in accordance with what has been "prescribed" in religious scriptures.Meanwhile,The AIADMK today filed a contempt petition against the DMK Government for "defying" the Supreme Court's directive against going ahead with the October one state-wide bandh on the Sethusamudram project issue. The AIADMK's move comes in the wake of the apex court's directive to it to file the contempt petition so as to examine whether there was any breakdown of the Constitutional machinery warranting imposing President Rule in Tamil Nadu. A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and P Sathasivam, had sought filing of the contempt petition following allegations that its order on September 30, restraining the ruling party and its constituents from going ahead with the bandh call was ignored by the contemnors. Severely pulling up the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government, the Supreme Court had warned that if it did not comply with its order on the bandh, it would not hesitate to direct the Centre to impose President's rule.
Meanwhile, local court on Thursday extended till October 15 the interim bail given to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh in three cases of murder and sexual harassment, in further reprieve for the embattled sect head.Special Judge for CBI cases R K Saini adjourned the hearing on the regular bail plea filed by the chief of the Sirsa-based Dera in connection with the murder of Dera manager Ranjit Singh, Sirsa journalist Ram Chander Chatterpatti and the alleged sexual harassment of a woman disciple.Gurmit Ram was directed to furnish a bail bond of Rs 5 lakh. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had recently granted interim bail to the Dera head till the trial court decides on the plea for a regular bail moved by him in the three cases.The court had directed that the Dera chief should be released on interim bail when he appears in the court.
Thousands of landless farmers and tribal people in India are setting out on a massive protest march to the capital, Delhi. BBC reports. The march begins on a national holiday marking the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the man who introduced the idea of non-violent protest to the nation. It is intended to raise awareness about land rights and due to last for nearly four weeks. The organisers hope 25,000 people will take part in the march. Thousands of people began gathering in the city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, chanting and singing. Most of them are low caste and landless labourers or tribal people demanding legal rights over their land. They are calling for a national authority to oversee land reform and a system of fast track courts to deal with the long delays in resolving land disputes.
Land reform is a huge issue in rural India. The system is often corrupt and unjust.
So over the next few weeks these protestors will walk more than 300km (180 miles) to Delhi, where their leaders hope to meet, among others, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Congress president Sonia Gandhi [Images] is behind whatever Karunanidhi is saying. Sonia Gandhi wants to convert the country into a Christian land," Vedanti said.
Terming the wordy duel among central ministers on the affidavit filed by the Archaeological Survey of India before the Supreme Court as farce, he alleged that the affidavit was prepared by the ASI officials in the presence of Sonia Gandhi, Union Ministers Ambika Soni and T R Balu.Vedanti warned that the Hindus would march to New Delhi and give a befitting reply if Karunanidhi did not withdraw his utterances on Lord Ram by November 20.Justifying his statement on penalty for Karunanidhi, he said it was in accordance with the provisions of the shastras. He also recited some slokas from Ram Charitra Manas and Bhagawat Gita.
Vedanti said the Ram Raksha Samiti would launch a countrywide agitation and the Hindus would march to Delhi if the proposed Sethusamudram project was not scrapped and Karunanidhi did not withdraw his statement.
"If there is no compliance with our order, it is complete breakdown of Constitutional machinery. We will then have to direct the government to impose President's rule," a bench headed by acting Chief Justice B N Aggarwal and Justice P Sathasivam, had said in its earlier order.

http://www.dnaindia .com/report. asp?NewsID= 1125313
CPM sheds atheism to woo Muslims
Kay Benedict
Wednesday, October 03, 2007 23:59 IST
NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) is discarding atheism to woo Muslim voters.
Reason: For the first time, the CPI(M) unit in Kochi allowed its
Muslim members to leave a party meeting for namaaz.
On Monday, the Lanthaparambu branch committee of the party also served
refreshments to its Muslim members to break their Ramzan fast. With
Christians turning against the CPI(M) in the wake of the LDF
government's attempts to take control of convent schools and colleges,
the party is assiduously wooing the Muslim community.
Pro-Left Muslim organisations in Kerala like People's Democratic
Front, Indian National League and Jamat-e-Islami have now trained
their guns on the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is part of
the UPA at the Centre and the LDF in the state. The leaders of these
parties feel the IUML did not articulate Muslim sentiments about the
US attack on Iraq.
The Marxist leadership has already started campaigning on issues dear
to Muslims such as implementation of the Sachar Committee and Sri
Krishna Commission recommendations. The Muslim-centric campaign is
also expected to help its anti-Congress regional allies such as
Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party in Andhra
Pradesh, who are part of the Third Front that CPI (M) general
secretary Prakash Karat is envisaging.
__._,_.___

Gujarat: Dalit-Muslim Unity versus Hindutva
Yoginder Sikand
‘Modi Sahib has wrought a revolution in Gujarat’
announced the glum-looking corpulent businessman
sitting on the berth next to mine on the train to
Ahmedabad recently. He proudly introduced himself as a
Nagar Brahmin, even though I did not ask him his
caste. ‘We now have regular electricity for our
industries, new superhighways and massive shopping
malls’, he went on excitedly. ‘Modi ji is the
saviour of the Hindus of Gujarat. He taught the bloody
Muslims a lesson in 2002 and now they dare not raise
their heads’, he belligerently asserted as I
squirmed in my seat.
A young Sindhi man sharing our compartment, also a
businessman based in Ahmedabad, winced and hurriedly
changed the topic. A while later, when the Nagar
Brahmin was not within hearing range, he whispered,
‘Not all Gujarati Hindus think like this man,
although many do. I, for one, don’t, but we can’t
openly counter such views, such is the climate of fear
in Gujarat’.
The man was right, I discovered during a recent short
trip to the state. Public opposition to Modi and to
the Hindutva lobby is muted, not just because of fear
but also because the claims of the Hindutva forces
have become received truths for many Gujarati Hindus,
thanks to years of carefully-planned indoctrination.
The BJP and allied Hindutva fronts have made deep
inroads among sections of communities such as Dalits
and Adivasis, who form a large chunk of Gujarat’s
‘Hindu’ population, who were traditionally opposed
to the ‘upper-caste-controlled Hindutva groups and
were once earlier strong Congress vote-banks.
‘The Congress is totally ineffective as an
opposition force in Gujarat’, says Raju Solanki, a
well-known Dalit activist, who works with the Centre
for Social Justice in Ahmedabad. ‘In the last six
decades, the Congress did precious little for the
Dalits and Adivasis besides taking their votes and so
the BJP has taken over. There’s no difference, as
far as Dalits and Adivasis are concerned, between the
two—they both represent broadly the same dominant
caste-class groups. Hinduvta fronts are desperately
trying to Hinduise the Dalits and Adivasis, to use
them as foot-soldiers against the Muslims, setting
them against each other so that ‘upper’ caste rule
remains unchallenged’, he argues.
Unity between Dalits, Backward Castes, Adivasis and
Muslims, who together form the overwhelming majority
of Gujarat’s population, is the only way to
challenge the BJP and the Congress, Solanki says. Yet,
he laments, hardly any efforts are being made in this
regard. In the wake of the state-sponsored anti-Muslim
genocide in 2002, scores of NGOs entered Gujarat to
provide relief, but today, he says, few of them are
involved in anti-communal work. ‘Many of them made
tall promises of working for empowerment, for
Dalit-Muslim unity, for taking on the Hindutva lobby
and so on. They got lots of money to fund big projects
but nothing much has come of this’. ‘And then
there are so many stories of corruption in the NGO
circuit’, he wryly adds. ‘And so’, he goes on,
‘the only effective opposition I see today is within
the BJP itself, among dissidents opposed to Modi’.
‘But that’, he explains, ‘in no way challenges
the ideology and caste-base of Hindutva’. ‘
Solanki speaks of how the focus solely on communalism
in Gujarat has led to an obscuring in secular
political discourse of the widespread oppression of
Dalits and Adivasis in the state. ‘The secularists,
self-proclaimed secularists such as the Congress, and
the Hindutva lobby all focus only on the issue of
Hindu-Muslim relations, thus effectively ignoring the
Adivasis and Dalits’, he notes. ‘Of course we need
to work for communal harmony, for the rights of the
Muslims and Christians, but that must go along with
strengthening of the struggles of the Adivasis and
Dalits. Hindutva forces seek to whip up anti-Muslim
sentiments precisely to sabotage the growing awareness
of the Adivasis and Dalits about the oppression that
they suffer at the hands of the caste Hindu
establishment’. ‘Hence’, he insists,
‘communalism cannot be defeated without taking up
the caste issue, without working to unite the
oppressed castes and the Muslims at the political and
social level against the system of caste-class
oppression of which they are the common victims’.
‘We need to make Dalit and Adivasi issues, along
with the plight of Muslims, the centre of a new
social, cultural and political movement, which alone
can challenge the ‘upper’ caste Hindu hegemony
which both the BJP and the Congress represent and
defend’, he tells me.
Solanki talks of the work of his Centre in taking up
numerous cases related to these communities. He speaks
of widespread discrimination being practiced against
Dalits in Gujarat—for instance, in this state which
the Hindutva lobby touts about as about as its most
successful experimental ground, a veritable ‘Hindu
Rashtra’, Dalits continue to be refused entry into
temples in many villages. He cites figures about rape
of Dalit and Adivasi women by ‘upper’ caste
landlords, many of them firm BJP supporters; of
increasing land alienation among these groups; of the
squalid slums, deprived of even the most basic
amenities, to which the ‘low’ castes have been
confined in Gujarat’s towns; and of the rapid
impoverishment of Dalits and Adivasis communities in
the face of the government’s economic policies.
*
Godhra, a town located in Gujarat’s Panchmahals
district, a two hours’ journey from Ahmedabad, has a
roughly equal Hindu and Muslim population. This
obscure town shot into the limelight when, in 2002, a
coach of a train caught fire near the town’s railway
station, triggering off a massacre of Muslims
throughout Gujarat on an unprecedented scale. Today,
Godhra, like many other towns in Gujarat, is
geographically completely polarized. A narrow river
divides the town into two clearly Hindu and Muslim
areas.
A semblance of ‘normality’ prevails in the town,
although, its residents are quick to point out that
the massacres of 2002, which, curiously, left Godhra
itself largely untouched, have severely impacted on
inter-communal relations. Almost all the NGOs that
appeared in Godhra in the wake of the genocide to
extend relief to Muslim victims in scores of villages
nearby have now departed. Only a couple or so remain,
with much trimmed budgets and staff. ‘As a
result’, says Ilyas Bhagat, a local social activist,
‘the victims of the massacre, including families of
over 80 men arrested under the deadly POTA law, have
been left to fend for themselves’.
Bismillah Behen works with an NGO in Godhra and
outlying villages. Her house in Himmatnagar was burnt
down by Hindu mobs in 2002. Her husband has taken a
second wife, and so she now lives by herself. Her own
trauma, as a victim of both the anti-Muslim pogrom and
of an insensitive husband, she says, has made her even
more committed to working for communal harmony and
women’s rights. ‘Women are the worse sufferers in
riots’, she explains. She tells me of the efforts
she and some of her colleagues, including Adivasis and
Dalits, have made to bring women of different
marginalized communities in Godhra to fight for their
rights. She sees this as important not only in itself
but also as one way of countering communalism. ‘We
face opposition from patriarchal conservative forces
in all our communities. Some Adivasi and Dalit men
tell our non-Muslim sisters who are with us that they
should not associate with us because we helped Muslim
victims of the massacres. Likewise, some maulvis
oppose the Muslim sisters in our group because they
refuse to cover themselves in burkhas. They are angry
with us because they insist that women must not come
out of their homes’. ‘But’, she emphatically
adds, ‘we women have undergone so much suffering
during the riots. We have to come out and speak
out’.
Bismillah Behen has not read any arcane feminist
texts—what she speaks reflects her own personal and
collective struggle, along with that of other women
like her, who have experienced what it means to live
through a genocide. ‘We have to join hands with
sisters from other marginalized communities to fight
for women’s rights and also against communalism’,
she insists. ‘We have to explain to our sisters in
other communities that communalism poses a major
threat to women’s rights and to our freedom. The
issue of women of all socially marginalized
communities must be made a central part of the
anti-communal struggle’.
Lakshmi Parmar, 26, is Bismillah’s colleague. She is
the only female graduate in her village. Hailing from
a poor Dalit family of the Vankar or weaver caste, she
faces considerable opposition from her villagers,
including some fellow Dalits, for working with Muslim
women and for communal harmony. She tells me about
how, in many villages around Godhra, Dalits were
literally forced by the ‘upper’ castes to join
them in attacking and killing Muslims in 2002. ‘They
searched Dalit houses to see if any Muslims were
hidden there. They threatened to boycott them if they
helped the Muslims flee. Many Dalits yielded to this
pressure as, being mostly landless labourers, they are
dependent on the ‘upper castes for work’, she
says.
Lakshmi speaks of how in these villages Dalits
continue to suffer humiliation at the hands of the
‘upper’ castes, who consider them as fellow
‘Hindus’ only at the time of anti-Muslim violence,
when they are generally used to attack Muslims. ‘In
my own village’, she says, “Dalits cannot enter
the local temple. A Dalit bridegroom cannot sit on a
horse like ‘upper’ castes do. Last year my
brother, who was getting married, tried to do that but
we were forcibly stopped�.
‘Those days were really harrowing for all of us’,
Lakshmi recounts of the brutal events of 2002. ‘I
had to stay in a village, where Muslims had been
driven out from. We started meetings to bring the
different communities together, to facilitate the
return of the Muslims to their homes, to rebuild their
houses. But, eventually, due to the opposition of a
local BJP politician, I had to flee’, she says.
‘However, we carried on working. We tried to bring
together Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis through cultural
activities, such as observing the anniversary of
Babasaheb Ambedkar, Women’s Day and so on’.
‘We need to widen the scope of the movement for the
unity of marginalized communities from just aiming at
the political level to the wider social level’, she
explains. ‘We have to work to unite our people
through new forms of culture of resistance and
struggle’.
*
‘This is, of course, may be easier said than
done’, says Raju Solanki, ‘but we have to make it
our main focus. From ancient times to this day,
‘upper’ caste forces, including today the Congress
and the Hindutva lobby, have used culture, including
religion, to oppress us. We now must use those very
tools to challenge our oppression’.
Solanki shows me a book he’s written celebrating a
fellow Gujarati Dalit activist who recently died, who
opposed the entry of Hindutva activists into his slum
and also prevented attacks on Muslims in his locality.
‘I’m preparing a book about such unsung heroes’,
he informs me. ‘These voices of resistance, be they
of Adivasis, Muslims, Backward Castes or Dalits, have
been deliberately invisibilised from our history by
the Brahminical establishment’, he notes. ‘We need
to retrieve their memory, and build up a culture of
resistance based on this’. ‘You cannot counter
caste Hindu chauvinism without this’, he insists.
Solanki reads to me from a booklet that he has just
published, titled ‘Blood Under Saffron’, to make
his point about the dire need for marginalised
communities in Gujarat to join hands to counter caste
Hindu chauvinism, of which he says they are fellow
victims. The booklet speaks of Gujarat’s panchayat
rules that specify that disposing off dead animals and
unclaimed corpses is a responsibility particular to
the Scheduled Castes, a continuation of Manu’s
ancient code; of the deaths of numerous sweepers
belonging to the ‘lowest’ castes from suffocation
while cleaning manholes; of the continuing practice of
Valmikis in Gujarat being forced to carry human
excreta on their heads; of ‘upper’ castes denying
Dalits access to burial grounds; of mounting Dalit
impoverishment, and, in the face of this, of
continuing neglect by the state, and so on.
‘We need to bring the Dalits and other marginalized
communities, besides the Muslims, back into
Gujarat’s political discourse’, Solanki
reiterates. ‘We need to shift the discourse from the
secularism versus communalism debate to bring to the
centre issues of caste-class domination and
subjugation’, Solanki concludes. ‘Only then can
Hindutva be effectively challenged, not just in
Gujarat, but in the rest of the country as well’.
Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye
Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye

The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping
The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping
In Conversation with Mr Bhagwan Das
'It is good to break and bad to continue with a tradition that has subjugated the Dalits'
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Mr Bhagwan Das is one of the most reputed scholar on Ambedkarism and the issue of Human Rights of Scheduled Castes. Widely traveled, Mr Bhagwan Das has spoken at various national & international platforms on the conditions of Dalits in India and what is the best way of their emancipation. In freewheeling conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat, he speak of the state of Dalit movement as well as political parties in India.
Political Power is the Master Key
Well, there was time when Baba Saheb Ambedkar said that. When you speak to different kind of audience's particularly political leaders, it makes sense. But you will also have to get rid of the weakness with in the society. He also said promotion of education. What is being done on that side? It is wrong to say that he laid emphasis on political power. Political power with out right kind of ideology means nothing. I think people are misquoting Ambedkar that political power is the master key. He might have been speaking at Scheduled Caste Federation and with political leaders. But why we not talk about his other work. It is not enough.
Globalization has banged on our door. There are movements against it in various parts of India. Many of our friends have written positively on it suggesting that it would benefit the Dalits. Your take on it.
This government would have different complexion, if we had the 10% people in the civil services. Now with the judgment of the Supreme Courts they are going to suffer more. in the years to come. This globalization does not get attraction by the weaker section, at the moment. But then if in the globalization, the international movement on the issue of Dalits is properly handled, then even here in globalization they can have a share, if it is correctly done. Globalization has a political model and an economic model and it leads to empowerment but behind these ideas are people who want to solve their problems, find the market, create new market and create new classes. In western countries people are trying to create consciousness and awareness in the down trodden communities to develop leadership.
Dr Ambedkar was a truly humanist leader of our time but it look different castes have made him look like as if he was a caste leader. How do you describe Ambedkar?
He was a rationalist in thinking with the interest of SCs in mind. He never considered British to be the friend. But he got an opportunity because British wanted to expand the elected council but they elected other progressive people also. I think he was the most capable and learned person among his contemporaries. He had economic programmes which he could implement through Ministry of labor which was considered as orphan Ministry and through that he tried to promote industrialization of India and tried to create a class of the technically trained people. No body had done that earlier.

--
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
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Sethu project: A strategic blunder

By Col (retd) Anil Athale |
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14533111
Col. (retd) Anil A Athale is a Fellow at the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research. A former Joint Director (History Division) and infantryman, he has been running an NGO, Peace and Disarmament, based in Pune for the past 10 years. As a military historian he specialises in insurgency and peace process.
The Sethusamudram project to link Palk Strait with
Gulf of Mannar by dredging a deep channel in sea and cutting the Ram Sethu has evoked controversy on several grounds. It destroys the Ram Sethu, a land bridge described first in Rishi Valmiki written Ramayana around 200 BC, a cultural heritage for not just India but many South East Asian countries as well (it is also a national epic of Muslim majority Indonesia).
Ecologists and environmentalists object saying it will destroy the fragile eco system in Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar and rich marine life there. Many express fear that the breaching of Ram Sethu will subject the western coast to tsunami threat since Indonesia and sea around it are prone to earthquakes. While it may be argued that only a small channel is being cut in the natural (or manmade) land formation of Ram Sethu, marine and hydraulics engineers will testify that the largescale transfer of water in an uncontrolled manner (there is no proposal to install any kind of underwater gates etc) will eventually erode the entire Ram Sethu barrier in course of time. What that will do to the rich thorium, monazite, zircon and other mineral deposits on Kerala beaches is a huge question mark.
Full coverage: Ram Sethu controversy | War of words over Ram
But most surprisingly and regrettably, the military strategic aspects of the whole project have not even entered public discussion. By the accounts in the media, the channel passes very close to Talaimanar coast of Sri Lanka, far to the South East of centre line dividing the sea between India and Sri Lanka. It is most likely within the Sri Lankan territorial waters. The reason why Sri Lanka has not forcefully objected to this is because the Talaimanar area is in LTTE’s control (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam). In any case the channel, if completed on the lines planned now, the South Eastern end will be controlled by Sri Lanka. Control and ownership of this channel will be a new point of dispute between India and Sri Lanka. Since it appears to be clearly inside the Sri Lankan territorial waters, at some point, Sri Lanka (with the help of an outside power, obviously) will not only claim control but also may decide to deny us the use of this channel.
By the same author: Indian Marxists and their evil designs| N-deal serves the US better
There is likelihood that under the existing regime of law of the sea, this will fall under the category of ‘International Waterway’, like the Suez and Panama Canals or Dardanelles and Bosporus straits. Thus it will not be farfetched to see the Chinese moving their warships through this, establishing their right. The Americans regularly do this in case of Hormuz Strait joining Gulf of Oman with Persian Gulf defying the Iranians.
The alternative proposal of dredging a channel to the North West of the current alignment and cutting a link channel through the Rameswaram makes eminent strategic and ecological sense. By creating a controlled water body with inlet gates, there will be no surge of waters from one ocean to other, thus saving the marine ecology as well as ore deposits of Kerala. But most importantly, the canal will be well within our territory and control. Strategically this will be most useful in time of tensions. It will also make sure that another point of friction with Sri Lanka is avoided. Obviously there will be some cost escalation and even extra time. But looking at the long term benefits and payoff, it is a price worth paying.
In any case the extra cost can easily be recovered from fee levied on shipping, both domestic and international. Canal management and associated works will create jobs for the locals, thus getting their support.
India has a history of committing strategic blunders in last 60 years! The loss of Skardu in 1947, the famous ‘throw out the Chinese’ remark by Nehru on 12 September 1962 and disastrous ‘forward policy’ that led to the 1962 humiliation at the hands of the Chinese or failure to push for severing the land link between Pakistan and China during the 1971 war. The list is long and seemingly unending. It was the hope and expectation of think tanks like Inpad that a formal structure like the NSC (National Security Council) that we lobbied for over 10 years, will cure us of this disease. But the episode of Ram Sethu project that seems to have ignored the military strategic factors puts a question mark on the efficacy of the government apparatus.
The second possibility is that the political leadership overruled the strategic experts and decided to go ahead with its plans! In that case, is it the pressure of Secularist Taliban that forced the government to go ahead with the plan not so for the sake of easing the problems of navigation between India’s East and West coast but with an aim to further consolidate its vote bank? The denial of historicity of Ram seems to show that this is an attempt to woe back the vote bank that seemed to be drifting away due to Indo-US nuclear deal. In the second part we will deal with this deep-seated mindset of Secularist Taliban of India.

IDENTITY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION-INCLUSION – A MUSLIM PERSPECTIVE
Asghar Ali Engineer
(Part (1)
(Secular Perspective October 1-30, 2007)
In multi-religious, multi-cultural democracies problem of identity and social exclusion-inclusion become extremely important. Under authoritarian societies due to suppression problem of exclusion remains hidden and does not surface until it is gravely aggravated. But a democratic society, being open and based on rights, question of identity and social exclusion and inclusion becomes very important and even determines its very dynamics. A vibrant democratic society always remains sensitive to the question of exclusion of any section of society.
For social exclusion several factors play their role. A caste hierarchy can account for neglect of those at the bottom; a class society may ignore those who belong to lower classes. A multi-religious society may work against those belonging to religious minorities and multi-ethnic or multi-cultural societies may marginalize ethnicities which do not constitute core culture or ethnicity.
In economically backward and under-developed countries the problem of exclusion becomes much more acute in view of scarce resources. Even in advanced economies like those of Western countries exclusion both on the basis of race and class is a well-known phenomenon. The African Americans in America are victims of racial prejudice even today and incidence of poverty among them continues to be very high. America is not only a highly developed country but also economically most advanced. It has highly developed democratic institutions. And yet it cannot claim total inclusion of all sections of society. White majority monopolizes major chunk of all resources.
The western countries were mono-religious and mono-cultural for centuries. The very concept of pluralism and multi-culturalism was unknown among them. The term multi-culturalism was coined by western social scientist only in post-colonial era when large number of workers from ex-colonies began to migrate to metropolitan countries. The western countries like U.K., France, Germany, Sweden, Holland etc. became multi-cultural as migrants were from African and Asian countries.

Another term coined was pluralism, which signified multi-religious and multi-cultural nature of these post-colonial western countries. Post-Second World War there was great demand for workers in these European countries to meet requirement for human resources as due to war large number of Europeans were killed resulting in shortage of human power and reconstruction of economies needed more and more human power. However, later on children of these migrant workers were borne and educated in these metropolitan countries and became their natural citizens with awareness of their rights and privileges.
They began to demand equal rights and equal job opportunities, though not equal share in power as they were mostly tiny minorities. This resulted in racial tension, particularly in U.K., France and Germany. These countries continue to experience these racial and cultural conflicts and the question of exclusion and inclusion has become very important. In France there was revolt by some youth last year and the violence, including burning cars and stoning police went on for several weeks and police found it very challenging to control it.
The sociologists pointed out that the reason for this violence by the youth was their marginalization, high rates of unemployment among them or generally getting low paid jobs which other French people refuse to take up. These young African Muslims were mostly borne in France though their parents had migrated from Algeria, Morocco etc. The Government had to announce series of measures to contain th

Talks On Desbite Marxist Barking Worthless
Left parties on Thursday ruled out any reconciliation with the Government till it puts on hold the agreement and said its support should not be taken for granted
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
STILL A DILEMMA
To less cluttered minds, the Marxists’ strategy sessions are all about going round in circles. The meetings of its politburo and central committee in Calcutta were supposed to indicate which way the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will go about the controversy over the India-US nuclear deal. After four days of hair-splitting on the choice between the ideological and the tactical line, the party has left the country no wiser on the issue. Instead, Prakash Karat, the party’s general secretary, only reiterated his earlier warning to the United Progressive Alliance government against going ahead with the deal. The previous meeting of the party’s central committee had done exactly this in August. Between the two sessions, a committee comprising leaders of the UPA and the Left discussed contentious issues relating to the deal. But even those parleys do not seem to have had any effect on the CPI(M)’s position. If the sessions in Calcutta prove anything, it is that the party continues to be as confused as ever over the deal in particular and the India-US relations in general. Its argument that the nuclear deal is an assault on India’s sovereignty is as specious as the objections it had once raised on the same ground to the country joining the World Trade Organization. The UPA government cannot afford to stall India’s progress and its integration into the international community by submitting to the Left’s blackmail.
Yet, the party conclave in Calcutta seems to have had one significant fallout. Unlike in the past, the party’s leaders in Bengal are reported to have put up a united resistance to Mr Karat’s adventurism. Between them, Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee have ruled Bengal long enough to know that practical politics is more important than theoretical nitpicking in winning the people’s confidence. Also, the leaders in Bengal have a mandate that Mr Karat does not have. It is the mandate to govern the state. The CPI(M) may be in a dilemma to marry its strategic and tactical lines. But that means little to the people of Bengal who want the party to fulfil its commitment to revive the state’s economy. Mr Karat has not spelt out if the party would withdraw its support to Manmohan Singh’s government if New Delhi “operationalizes” the deal. A political party sometimes has a historic duty to rein in its overreaching leader.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071003/asp/opinion/story_8387338.asp

The United Progressive Alliance-Left stand-off on Indo-US nuclear deal notwithstanding, the Indian Atomic Energy department is holding consultations with International Atomic Energy Agency for working out a safeguards agreement under the deal.Foreign capital is flooding the country. Our experience is by no means unique. There has been a surge of capital into emerging markets in recent years following the dramatic fall during the east-Asian crisis of 1997-98. Official flows have been substituted by private flows; debt by equity. But the Indian experience departs from that of emerging markets as a group in two respects. Net capital flows to emerging Asia and Latin America are off their highs of a decade ago. As the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report (September 2007) points out gross flows are close to their historical highs but capital outflows too have risen sharply, hence net capital inflows are lower than their historical highs. In India, however, both gross and net capital flows are higher than in the past. Secondly, in emerging markets as a whole, FDI contribution to total flows has declined. In India in contrast, FDI has overtaken portfolio flows for the first time in the post-reform period.
A day ahead of the crucial meeting of the joint mechanism on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties on Thursday ruled out any reconciliation with the Government till it puts on hold the agreement and said its support should not be taken for granted. On the eve of the meeting, the outside supporters also sent a note to the UPA on their concerns over the implications of Hyde Act on India's foreign and security policies.
Government had earlier sent its views on various points raised by the Left on the agenda items of the second round on September 19.
CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's statements in New York indicated that the government would go ahead with operationalising the deal and cautioned the UPA not to take its differences with the Left lightly. He warned that Left support should not be taken for granted.
"UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has admitted the differences during her speech in New York but preferred to remain silent on how to resolve them," he said in Patna, adding that unless the government puts the deal on hold, there could not be any reconciliation.
As strong remarks emanated from the Left quarters, AICC General Secretary and Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan expressed hope that the issues would be resolved. "We are trying our best to resolve the issues. We are trying to convince our Left friends," he said, but declined to hazard any guess whether any middle-ground would be found soon. He said even the Left leaders were saying the nuclear issue was "a matter which requires a long-haul".
Equating communalism with imperialism, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has said that while it supports the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in order to fight communalism, it is opposed to the government's leaning towards 'imperialist' US.
'The CPI-M and the other Left parties had extended outside support to this UPA government precisely to prevent the communal forces from holding the reins of state power,' the CPI-M said in an editorial in the latest issue of party mouthpiece 'People's Democracy'.
'This support, however, was based on the CMP (Common Minimum Programme). Surely, no one can expect the CPI-M to support this UPA government, which in violation of the CMP is pursuing to continue the direction of India's foreign policy that was begun in the first place by the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government.'
It blamed the BJP-led NDA for taking the country into a 'direction of subservience to US imperialist strategic interests in the world today' and alleged that it had established an 'illegitimate nexus between imperialism's trimurti (trinity) - the World Bank, IMF (International Monetary Fund) and WTO (World Trade Organisation)- and the communalism's trishul (trident).'
'The interests of India as a nation and the livelihood of our vast millions of people need to be protected from being squeezed between the trimurti and the trishul,' it said.
The party said both communalism and imperialism were dangerous.
'Both (communalism and imperialism) are dangerous, both need to be fought and at no cost can the struggle against one be given up leave alone weakened in the name of struggling against the other.'
The article pointed out that the CPI-M had an 'unblemished record' of protecting the Indian social fabric from communalism and 'safeguarding the country's sovereignty from being eroded by imperialist incursions'.
Taking exception to allegations that the CPI-M was no longer fighting against communalism but confined to its protest against imperialism, the editorial said: 'The Indian people simply do not have a choice. Both communalism and imperialism need to be fought against. Those who pit one against the other are doing disservice to both the country and our people and are in fact aiding both these forces that seek to erode our sovereignty and therefore our strength as a strong independent nation in the world.'
The CPI-M, which has been opposing the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government's foreign policy as pro-US, also alleged that US imperialism was seeking to 'impose a unipolar world under its tutelage'.

"Since the process has to go on, we are holding consultations as we cannot wait till the last moment to make the agreed text ready, which is the pre-requisite for the draft agreement," a top source at the Department of Atomic Energy told PTI.With intricacies involved in the negotiations on the safeguards issues, "it is expected that simultaneously several things had to be taken up and thus we have to go ahead with the continuous discussions/negotiations with the agency officials," the sources said.
The Left parties may be screaming themselves hoarse against a strategic relationship with the US but an unfazed external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said India and the US shared deepening convergences based on "values and interests." The relationship, he said, was for "mutual benefit," denying the Left stand that India would be strategically squashed by the superpower. Addressing a premier US think tank, Council for Foreign Relations, Mukherjee gave a public thumbs up to the nuclear deal, in the face of Left criticism as well as uncertainty in many quarters about the future of the deal.
"The bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement that India and the US have finalised indicates the way forward, which should lead to lifting of technology restrictions and opening up of cooperation in this field with several countries," he said.

Kollam (Ker): Accusing the Congress party of misleading the people on the India-US nuclear deal, Forward Bloc general secretary G Devarajan today said the Left parties should withdraw support to the government. Since the government had declined to take Parliament into confidence on the issue, the Left parties should withdraw support to the government, he told reporters here. The government's contention that the Hyde Act would have no bearing on the agreement was contrary to facts. As leading partner of the UPA, the Congress was misleading the people, he said. The move to go ahead with the agreement would amount to naked violation of CMP which had stated that the country would pursue its independent foreign policy, he said.

Meanwhile, Insisting that the UN structure should reflect "contemporary realities", External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said India should get a seat in the Security Council as it has all the "ingredients" to be a permanent member. The international system has undergone changes since the inception of the world body in 1945, he said on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS.
"We do believe that India should get a seat in the Security Council, because first we believe -- not only we, we believe certain other countries should also have its place in the Security Council, because in 1945 when these institutions were created, since then world has undergone major changes," Mukherjee said.
"...All over the world, changes have taken place. Therefore, in the functioning of the United Nations, in its structure and in its contents, it should reflect the contemporary realities," he said.
"That's why the reforms of the United Nations is necessary, and, of course, India considers it qualifies all the ingredients necessary to be a permanent member of Security Council," the Minister added.

In September during the IAEA general conference, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar could not formally take up any negotiations on the safeguards agreement due to political situation in India, although a few rounds of informal talks were carried out, sources said.
Early this week, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi [Images] in New York played down the Left's concerns on the Indo-US nuclear deal saying they were not a cause for "alarm" and said in a democratic process it was important to listen to all points of view to arrive at a consensus.
Since the nature of the safeguards for India has been decided and could be placed under the agency's safeguards system of 1966, it is better that the "agreed text" is being kept ready, sources said.
The IAEA safeguards agreement is one of the pre-requisites for commencement of international nuclear commerce.
Meanwhile, IAEA sources said last month that the provisionally extended safeguards system of 1966 is a revised system with additional provisions for reprocessing plants. All future Indian nuclear plants under the civilian domain could be placed under the agency's safeguards mechanism that could be at par with that for the five declared nuclear powers.
Without creating India-specific safeguards, IAEA sources indicated that in all probability, they could be placed under the agency's safeguards system of 1965, as provisionally extended in 1966 and 1968.
This could be essentially on the same line as that of the safeguards arrangement made between India and IAEA for two units of the Tarapur atomic power plant set up in 1969 and two units in Rajasthan in 1971 and the two Russian plants, which are under construction at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.
DAE officials said the actual safeguard agreement may conform to safeguards system of 1966 and additional protocol may not be required by IAEA itself.
It is not clear whether the US Congress will accept an agreement which does not subscribe to additional protocol which has been made conditional to the bilateral understanding.
CPI(M)-led LF, Stop This Nonsense
http://www.cpiml.in/071001.htm
It is high time that somebody should tell CPI(M) and its LF cronies to stop their barking when they have decided for ever not to bite. First of all they continued to prop up the UPA government for three and half years when pooh-poohing the CMP it continued to indulge in any number of anti-people, anti-national activities, unprecedentedly speeding up imperialist globalisation. It has increased the countries debt to $ 155 billion, subverted the agrarian field as a result of which peasants continue to commit suicide, indulge in import of wheat at Rs. 16.50 per kilo when the Indian farmers is paid Rs. 8.50 per kilo, thereby subverting self-reliance in this field, snatched away lakhs of acres of land from peasantry for corporate farming, SEZs and similar projects, thrown out lakhs of families from urban areas in the name of beautification, casualisation and contractualisation of labour field is made rampant, even pension funds are used for speculation in share markets, going to introduce liberalisation of capital account, opened defence industries also to private sector, indulged in numerous joint exercises with US forces as part of developing ‘strategic relations’, voted against Iran under US orders, created conditions of spiralling prices of essential commodities and unemployment and what not. It also refused to legislate for agricultural workers, casual workers and women as promised in CMP. All these days Karat and company were barking non-stop while the thiefs were doing whatever they wanted to enslave the people and the country. The thiefs, the dacoits, the mafias in power did not bother at all about their barking. Or, were not these barking dogs providing protection for the thiefs!
At last when the Nuke Deal came, as if it is a bolt from the sky, as if they are waking up from a long slumber, they shouted, if it is operationalised they will bite. Though it looked comical, especially after Manmohan’s interview with The Telegraph, it was a change. After allowing the imperialist lackeys like Manmohan, Chidambaram and Ahluwalia to run the show according to the comprador agenda of Sonia’s Congress without hindrance all these years, even any talk about biting was a change!
But now Budhadev says he is for nuclear energy. Jyothi Basu okays it. Jyothi Basu who has never looked beyond Bengali middle class all these years, is now insisting that Bengal want nuke power and CPI(M) in Bengal want Manmohan’s government, so Karat should tone down his talk about biting. As if waiting for the cue Karat announced that criticising nuke deal does not mean destabilising the government.
Meanwhile US has demanded speeding up of the nuke deal finalisation. It has arranged IAEA and NSG meetings in November to clear India’s applications and finalisation of the deal in December by US Senate. Meanwhile the UPA-LF joint committee has taken up the ritual of convincing LF that there is no harm in going ahead with the deal. The picture is clear. Whatever the LF may say or do, the Congress leadership has decided to go ahead with the deal. Knowing it full, CPI(M) leaders are preparing ground to tell their followers that after all the deal is not so bad so as to withdraw support to UPA government.
The dilemma faced by the CPI(M) is becoming clearer to more and more people. If a by-election takes place it will loose number of seats and the privileged position enjoyed as a prop of this government. As far as CPI is concerned, it is almost certain that it will loose the national party status. So at any cost both want completion of the full term by this government. It is not the people’s interest, not the national interest, but the crumbs of power they enjoy that matters. So the social democrats are changing their tones to justify the swallowing of their previous out bursts..
What they are doing in the name of ‘Left’ is a shame to the left movement, it is ridiculous and hypocratical. It is meaningless to expect that they will stop this mockery. They shall continue it till their dooms day. Still it is the responsibility of the revolutionary left and patriotic-democratic forces to ask them to stop this nonsense.
Delhi: Meeting Against SEZs, Nuke Deal
As the culminating programme of 100th birthday observations of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Navjawan Sabha, Delhi organised a well attended hall meeting on 23rd September from 2 PM to 5 PM at Shahabad Dairy area on the SEZs, Nuke Deal and Problems of People in the context of reiterating the relevance of the teaching of Bhagat Singh.
Speaking on the occasion com. K.N. Ramachandran explained in detail what is SEZ and Nuclear Deal in continuation of imperialist globalisation and how such policies are devastating the people lives and enslaving the country to imperialist, especially US imperialist, domination. He called upon the youth to get organised inspired by Shaheed Bhagat Singh and work for revolutionary transformation of the society. Com. Jagdish presided, com. Amresh welcomed the participants and com. Anil master conducted the meeting. Com. P.K. Shahi, secretary, Delhi state committee of CPI(ML), called on the youth to get prepared to fight the ruling system which is making life impossible for all toiling sections.

Conspiracy to Make Executive Supreme
When the question of subjecting the Indo-US Nuke Deal to parliamentary approval came up, the speaker of Lok Sabha had ruled that ‘no discussion with voting’ can be allowed as parliament has no such power. The UPA government took shelter under it, the LF repeated it and even BJP-led NDA joined the chorus. We are reproducing the joint statement of three eminent jurists who have challenged this interpretation of the Constitution.(see page 9). From what they have explained, it is clear that the Executive has no power to sign agreements of such importance without getting parliament’s approval. It shows that the lackey or running dog of the establishment Somnath Chatterjee, the nominee of CPI(M), is serving the ruling class not only to throw out whatever sovereignty the country has through this deal, but also becoming a party to subverting whatever democratic content the Indian Constitution has.
In the 60 years of Indian parliament, Somnath Chatterjee, the CPI(M) leader, has shown that he is most loyal running dog of the establishment among all speakers to this day. The way he is disturbed when the ‘santity’ of this pig’s den is affected, the way he is ‘sincere’ to his post, exposes the total degeneration of his party to parliamentarism. And he has cheated Indian people by ruling that Lok Sabha has no right to vote on the agreement. The jurists statement exposes this running dog, his party and the whole ruling system engaged in making the Executive the Supreme.
Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Powers of the Executive
[Statement of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer and Justice P.B. Sawant, former judges of Supreme Court, and Justice Suresh, former judge of Bombay High Court — Red Star]
1. The Executive has no power to enter into any agreement, either with a foreign government or a foreign organization , which is binding on the nation. The agreement will be binding only when it is ratified by the Parliament. There is no provision in the Constitution which gives such authority to the executive. We have a written Constitution and, therefore, we must have a written provision in the Constitution which gives such authority to the Executive.
2. Articles 73 and 253 and entries 6, 13 & 14 in the Union List of the Constitution refer to the powers of the Executive. Article 73, among other things, states that, — “the executive power of the Union shall extend (a) to the matters with respect to which Parliament has powers to make laws, and (b) to the exercise of such rights, authority and jurisdiction as are exercisable by the Government of of India by virtue of any treaty or agreement.” This means that the matters on which the Parliament has no powers to make laws are also matters on which the Union Government cannot exercise its executive power. It also means, conversely, that the Union Government cannot exercise its executive powers beyond the legislative powers of the Union. Both these propositions have an underlying assumption that, before the Union Government exercises its executive power, there is a law enacted by the Parliament on the subject concerned. Some argue that the provisions of Article 73(1)(a) gives power to the Executive to act on subjects within the jurisdiction of the Parliament, even if the Parliament does not make a law on those subjects. This is both a distortion and a perversion of the said provision and a subversion of Parliament’s supreme control over the Executive. If this interpretation is accepted then the Union Executive can act on all subjects on which the Parliament has to make law, without there being any law made by the Parliament. You can thus do away with the Parliament and the Parliament’s duties to make laws. We will then have a lawless Government. Democracy presumes there should be a rule of law and all Executive actions will be supported by law and that there shall be no arbitary action by any authority, including the Union Executive. It may also be necessary in that connection to remember that it is for this very reason that when the Parliament is not in session and, therefore, unable to enact a law, that the power is given to the President to issue an ordinance (which is a law), so that the Executive may act according to its provisions. These ordinances are to be placed before the Parliament within six weeks of its reassembly, and if Parliament approves they become law. The Constitution-makers were, therefore, clear in their mind that the Executive cannot act without the authority of law and it has no power independent of law made by the Parliament .
3. Article 253 , which is relevant in the context of the present Indo-US nuclear deal, is very specific on the subject. It says, “Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this chapter, Parliament has power to make any law — for implementing any treaty, agreement or convention with any other country or countries or any decision made at any international conference , association or other body.” This Article gives specifically the power to the Parliament to make laws on treaties , etc. with other governments or even on decisions made in international conferences , etc. This makes it clear that even the treaties , etc. entered into with other countries or decisions made at international conferences have to be translated into laws and read with the provisions already discussed above , before they are acted upon by the Executive .
4. The Union List Entry -6 makes “Atomic energy and mineral resources necessary for its production” a subject matter of legislation of the Parliament. Similarly, Entry -13 which reads, “— participation in international conferences , associations and other bodies and implementing of decisions made there at” and Entry-14 which reads, “entering into treaties and agreements with foreign countries and implementing of treaties, agreements and conventions with foreign countries” make them also subject matters of legislation by the Parliament.
5. All these provisions make it abundantly clear that the present Indo- US nuclear deal cannot be implemented by the Union Government unless it is translated into a law enacted by the Parliament. Any action, therefore, taken by the Union Government to implement the said deal without the authority of the Parliament is un-Constitutional, because it amounts to the usurpation of power of the Parliament by the Union Executive. It is also undemocratic because the Union Executive will be acting arbitrarily, trampling both the rule of law and also the wishes of the people of India. It will be nothing short of an arbitrary rule by the Executive, leading to an un-Constitutional government in the country, because what is arbitrary is also un-Constitutional.
6. With regard to the Indo-US nuclear deal, it may be stated that, on the face of it, it is subject to the internal laws of both the countries, namely India and the US Article 2.1 of the 123 Agreement states in the clearest possible terms, “Each Party shall implement this Agreement in accordance with its respective applicable treaties, national laws, regulations and licence requirements concerning the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.” This means that the 123 Agreement is subject to all the present internal laws of the US government, right from the US Atomic Energy Act 1954 to the Hyde Act 2006, all inclusive. Not only that, but it will be subject to amendments to these present laws and to any new law that may be enacted in the future. This position is further made clear also by Articles 3.3 and 5.2 of this agreement. Article 3.3 states, “This agreement does not require the transfer of any information regarding matters outside the scope of this agreement, or information that the Parties are not permitted under their respective treaties, national laws , or regulations to transfer”. Article 5.2 states, “— Transfers of dual-use items that could be used in enrichment , reprocessing or heavy water production facilities will be subject to the Parties’ respective applicable laws , regulations and license policies.” What holds good for Article 2.1 holds also good for these two provisions as well.
7. Furthermore, Article 5.6(a) of the agreement clearly states that “ As part of its implementation of the July 18, 2005 Joint Statement, the United States is committed to seeking agreement from the US Congress to amend its domestic laws and to work with friends and allies to adjust the practices of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to create the necessary conditions for India to obtain full access to the international fuel market, including reliable, uninterrupted and continual access to fuel supplies from firms in several nations.” In view of this statement in the 123 Agreement dated August 2007, it is clear that before the US is obliged to act under this agreement in so far as assured and continual fuel supplies are concerned, the US Administration will have to approach the US Congress to get their present laws, including the Hyde Act 2006, amended. It is unfortunate that the Government of India is rushing through this deal even before the US has got its laws, including the Hyde Act 2006 , amended to assure life-time uninterrupted fuel supplies, under all circumstances, for the nuclear reactors we intend to import. As it stands, the 123 Agreement of August 2007 does not in anyway provide binding fuel supply assurances.

Turning point in history
Akash Bisht Delhi
http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2007/10/1266
If farmers in Nandigram feel that the CPI(M) has betrayed them, they can find solace in the fact that farmers from different parts of the country are up in arms against the brutal police action in West Bengal. More than 2,50,000 people from different parts of the country were in Delhi from March 21 to March 23, to protest the new pro-business and pro-multinational economic policies of the UPA and West Bengal governments, the Nandigram massacre.
Adding his voice to the protest, which was organised by the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist-Liberation (CPI-ML), was Chhagan Lal, a dalit farmer from the Sitamarhi district of Bihar: “There is a sense of insecurity among the farmers and we feel that if today it’s Nandigram, tomorrow it might be Sitamarhi, Sivan or Saupal. My grandfather fought against the British to save our land and the day doesn’t seem far away when we will be fighting the government and multinationals to save our forefathers land.”
On March 14, policemen stormed Nandigram to suppress protests against the state government’s plans to seize 10,000 acres of land. The police shot dead innocent villagers and wounded many. For the farmers and peasants of the state, who have earlier looked to the CPI (M) party for protection against communal and casteist forces, Nandigram came as a shock.
“Reports indicate that more than 15 people were killed. Numerous cases of missing persons and rapes have also been reported. This was state-sponsored terrorism, with the police and the CPI(M) cadres acting hand-in-glove,” said Manisha Sethi of the Forum for Democratic Initiatives.
Most of the farmers, who gathered in New Delhi to protest against SEZs, accused the Left Front government of betraying the poor to protect the interests of big industries and multinationals in India. “Till Nandigram and Singur happened, the CPI (M) was perceived as a workers’ and peasants’ party. But they have turned their backs on the people who supported them wholeheartedly. Their men are killing innocent farmers, raping women and forcibly taking away fertile land,” said Madan Mohan, a dalit farmer from Mathura. The March 14 incident, which is looked on by many as a ‘massacre’ perpetrated by the CPI (M), has also been forthrightly condemned by activists, artists and intellectuals who have long supported the party.
Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of CPI-ML (Liberation), condemned the incident and said, “Nandigram, like Naxalbari, will be a turning point in the history of West Bengal and India. In the early 1970s, Charu Majumdar, along with several others, was killed by the CPI (M) and Siddharth Shankar Ray of the Congress to suppress the Naxalbari movement. Today the CPI (M) is killing innocent peasants in Nandigram, backed by a corporate government and multinational corporations, for land acquisition.” He also demanded that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, as chief minister of West Bengal, should take the responsibility and resign.
After her visit to Nandigram, social activist Medha Patkar roundly criticised the Left government: “State terrorism by the CPI(M) cadre and the police have to be opposed through non-violent struggle. The fight against the SEZs and forcible displacement of the people of West Bengal and others is because of neo-liberal globalisation. The prevailing situation in West Bengal is no different from the one in Gujarat where thousands of Muslims are being displaced and ghettoised by the state government. What happened is not right and the ruling party in the state is at fault. In this case, women were targeted. We never expected that the Left would behave in such a heartless manner. The police is not normalising the situation. Instead they are causing the disturbance in the area.”
However, the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat has defended the police action and denied any involvement by his party people in the incident at Nandigram.
Jammu and Kashmir Zero Violence
BY: PAUL BEERSMANS
http://www.jkreporter.com/guest_column.html
As early as 13 August 1948 the UN Commission for India and Pakistan requested Pakistan to withdraw its troops from the State as a pre-condition for organising the plebiscite. The same Commission in its resolution of 5 January 1949 repeated this request. Until this date, Pakistan has not withdrawn its armed forces and consequently the plebiscite has not been held.
Following conclusio

Lady Opportunism Jumps into the Arena with 'Second Food Movement'
CID officers have indicated that Rizwanur Rahman may have committed suicide
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Lady Opportunism Jumps into the Arena.Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today launched a 'second food movement' in West Bengal to weed out corruption from the public distribution system, the first being started by the Marxists in 1959. In a reference to the agitation against ration dealers in Bankura, Birbhum and Burdwan districts that turned violent, Banerjee said at a rally here that her party would stand by the people. Demanding action against CPI (M) leaders and food inspectors allegedly involved in the ration scandal, she announced that the party men would demonstrate before all SDO's offices in the state on October eight and a procession would be taken out in Kolkata on October 11. She appealed to Left Front partners to join the agitation by opposition parties against corruption in the public distribution system.

Mob violence against dealers of government-licensed "fair-price shops" has spread to at least three districts in the Indian state of West Bengal.Thousands of dealers have surrendered their licences after the protests. Birbhum in West Bengal continued to remain on the boil Thursday, three days after a youth was killed in police firing, as protests against corruption in the public distribution system (PDS) rocked the district. Irate villagers set ration shops on fire, ransacked the houses of ration dealers and attacked their families in Rampurhat and Ranjnagar in the district, around 250 km from here. The villagers also looted property and food grains. Protests were also reported from Magdagram, Kurumbad and Gabpur in the district.The police have arrested 72 people from the district on charges of rioting and arson.

RIZWANUR REHMAN DEATH
CID slams none, nails none in Muslim man's death
ibnlive.com
The probe report on the death of Rizwanur Rehman, who was found dead after the Kolkata police allegedly harassed him to leave his Hindu wife, doesn’t implicate police officers and is silent on how he died. A senior state government officer acknowledged the Criminal Investigation Department’s report does not “accuse anyone specifically”. Rehman’s family alleges he committed suicide because of police harassment.
http://ibnlive.com/
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today alleged a "got up game" was being played around the mysterious death of the Muslim computer graphics teacher and the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee could not shirk his responsibility when his police officers were "involved" in the case.
"A got up game (fixed game) is on, considering the state government's inaction in ordering an immediate probe into the case," Banerjee, who has already demanded a CBI inquiry into the death of Rizwanur Rehman after his marriage to Priyanka, the daughter of a Hindu industrialist, told reporters here.
She said whenever any incident takes place, "an immediate enquiry is ordered but in this case, it was not done and it gives enough scope to tamper with evidence".
To a question, Banerjee alleged the CPI(M) had engaged Md Salim, MP, "to create confusion and for damage control".
She alleged that the chief minister, who also holds the Home (police) portfolio "is no less guilty".
The Trinamool supremo said the judicial probe was ordered by the state government which did not seek names from either the High Court or the Supreme Court and instead "selected its own choice to head the probe".
Banerjee said "some persons" were being made scapegoats in the case.
CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose, meanwhile, said no one in the police and administration would be spared if found involved in Rizwan's death.
Referring to the alleged involvement of senior police officers, he said it did not matter whether anyone continued to hold office or not.
MAMATA BANERJEE known to come up with strange forms of protests to draw attention to her cause has decided to take a leaf out of Manipur to shame the ruling Left Front in West Bengal over the Singur issue. She has threatened to launch a "Manipur style" protest if the state government does not return the land it "forcibly acquired" from people for the contentious Tata Motors project.

A section of women in Manipur had marched in the nude in mid-2004 with banners asking the Indian Army to rape them. It was their form of protest against the alleged rape and murder of a woman by jawans of the Assam Rifles. The protests had created uproar in the country.

CID officers have indicated that Rizwanur Rahman may have committed suicide.The revolt over the demand for a corruption free public distribution system is spreading like wildfire across West Bengal. The escalating violence over protest against corruption in the PDS system has already claimed three lives in Burdwan, Bankura and Birbhum districts in police firing. The series of violent protest against the corrupt ration dealers were sparked off after people complained that they were not supplied wheat, rice or sugar for last few months, though the distributors were issued the supplies from the state food department.Angry people are now demanding that the Left concentrate less on stepping up the ante over the Indo-US nuke deal and more on ensuring that people are given food.As the movement against corruption in public distribution system turned violent in three districts in West Bengal, opposition Trinamool Congress and congress today demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged `food scam`. With violent protests against unscrupulous ration dealers spreading like wildfire the state government started a damage control exercise with the chief minister appealing for peace and the food supplies minister announcing that action has been taken against two food department officials.
The chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who had summoned the food and supplies minister for a meeting this morning, Thursday issued a statement assuring that the state government would ensure that the economically backward section get supplies regularly from the public distribution system. Faced with threats of mass resignation from ration dealers Mr Bhattacharjee co