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Jan 30, 2015
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Ukraine conflict: EU extends sanctions against Russia
EU foreign ministers have agreed to extend existing sanctions against Russia until September.
At an extraordinary meeting in Brussels, they also agreed to discuss names to add to the list of individuals targeted for EU travel bans and asset freezes.
However, they did not agree on imposing new economic sanctions against Russia.
The ministers met as fighting raged in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies any involvement in the conflict.
There has been further fighting in eastern Ukraine near the town of Debaltseve, the location of a strategic railway junction between Donetsk and Luhansk.
Thursday's meeting was called after the government-held port of Mariupol was shelled at the weekend, with the deaths of at least 30 people. Ukraine blamed rebels for the attack.
There was uncertainty over the position of the new Greek government - a Russian ally which says it wants to avoid a rift between the EU and Russia.
Nato says hundreds of Russian tanks and armoured vehicles are in east Ukraine.
Moscow denies direct involvement but says some Russian volunteers are fighting alongside the rebels.
The US, which has co-ordinated sanction moves with Brussels in the past year, said it was not planning an immediate new announcement itself.
At an extraordinary meeting in Brussels, they also agreed to discuss names to add to the list of individuals targeted for EU travel bans and asset freezes.
However, they did not agree on imposing new economic sanctions against Russia.
The ministers met as fighting raged in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies any involvement in the conflict.
There has been further fighting in eastern Ukraine near the town of Debaltseve, the location of a strategic railway junction between Donetsk and Luhansk.
Thursday's meeting was called after the government-held port of Mariupol was shelled at the weekend, with the deaths of at least 30 people. Ukraine blamed rebels for the attack.
There was uncertainty over the position of the new Greek government - a Russian ally which says it wants to avoid a rift between the EU and Russia.
Nato says hundreds of Russian tanks and armoured vehicles are in east Ukraine.
Moscow denies direct involvement but says some Russian volunteers are fighting alongside the rebels.
The US, which has co-ordinated sanction moves with Brussels in the past year, said it was not planning an immediate new announcement itself.
Source- BBC
Renowned singer, music composer, lyricist and actor Shekhar Sen appointed as Chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi
Shri Shekhar Sen has been appointed as the Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA). Shri Shekhar Sen is an eminent singer, actor, theatre director, composer and lyricist.
According to an order issued by the Union Ministry of Culture dated 28th January,2015 Shri Shekhar Sen has been appointed as Chairman of SNA for a term of 5 years with immediate effect.
Shri Sen has done many research oriented musical programmes and has rendered many significant Bhajan Albums since 1983 as singer, lyricist and composer. He is famous for his mono act musical plays “Tulsi”,” Kabeer”, “Vivekananda”, “Sanmanti”,”Saahab” and “Soordas” which have been highly acclaimed.
Shri Shekhar Sen has received prestigious awards including PadamShri and state level awards.
A brief bio-data of Shri Shekhar Sen is enclosed.
Shri Sen’s performances have been acclaimed in India and in countries such as US, UK, Belgium, Surinam, Singapore, Jakarta, Hong Kong, South Africa, UAE, Mauritius and Trinidad where he has performed.
Shri Sen has performed in many singing concerts and also performed his mono act musical play ‘Kabeer’ in the Lok Sabha. His Mono Act Musical Plays have received great acclaim in India as well as abroad.
Among the many honours conferred to him, Honble President of India has approved conferment of Padma Shri Award on Shri Shekhar Sen in the field of Arts. He was also awarded with Safdar Hashmi Puraskar in 2001 by the Sangeet Natak Academy of Uttar Pradesh for his contribution in the field of theatre and the V. Shantaram Samman by the Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy in 2008.
According to an order issued by the Union Ministry of Culture dated 28th January,2015 Shri Shekhar Sen has been appointed as Chairman of SNA for a term of 5 years with immediate effect.
Shri Sen has done many research oriented musical programmes and has rendered many significant Bhajan Albums since 1983 as singer, lyricist and composer. He is famous for his mono act musical plays “Tulsi”,” Kabeer”, “Vivekananda”, “Sanmanti”,”Saahab” and “Soordas” which have been highly acclaimed.
Shri Shekhar Sen has received prestigious awards including PadamShri and state level awards.
A brief bio-data of Shri Shekhar Sen is enclosed.
Bio-data of Shri Shekhar Sen
Shri Shekhar Sen is an accomplished singer, music composer, lyricist and actor. He started his career as a music composer and subsequently shifted towards composing Bhajans. He has rendered many Bhajan Albums as singer, lyricist and composer. Over the years as a playwright, actor, singer, director and composer, Shri Shekhar Sen has created many one man musical plays like “Tulsi”, “Kabeer”, “Vivekananda”, “Sanmati”, “Saahab” & “Soordas” and performed many shows of his Mono act Musical Plays. He has also undertaken research oriented musical programs like “Dushyant Ne Kaha Tha”, “Madhya Yugeen Kaavya”, “Pakistan Ka Hindi Kavya”, “Meera Se Mahadevi Tak”.
Shri Sen’s performances have been acclaimed in India and in countries such as US, UK, Belgium, Surinam, Singapore, Jakarta, Hong Kong, South Africa, UAE, Mauritius and Trinidad where he has performed.
Shri Sen has performed in many singing concerts and also performed his mono act musical play ‘Kabeer’ in the Lok Sabha. His Mono Act Musical Plays have received great acclaim in India as well as abroad.
Among the many honours conferred to him, Honble President of India has approved conferment of Padma Shri Award on Shri Shekhar Sen in the field of Arts. He was also awarded with Safdar Hashmi Puraskar in 2001 by the Sangeet Natak Academy of Uttar Pradesh for his contribution in the field of theatre and the V. Shantaram Samman by the Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy in 2008.
Source - PIB
[PIB] Two day consultations with states on smart cities from tomorrow
Policy issues, implementation and financing issues to be discussed
States to be briefed on competition based selection of cities for making them smart
Postal Stamp on Swachh Bharat to be released tomorrow
As per the directions of the Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu, 10 critical issues will be discussed with the states for a clear standing of the issues, challenges and the road ahead. These include:
1.Competition based selection of cities for inclusion under smart cities programme;
2.Support and hand-holding the cities need to participate in the Smart City Challenge;
3.Policy issues in respect of area based strategy for development through retrofitting, redevelopment and green field smart city development;
4.Innovative financial tools for funding smart city development and making urban local bodies self-reliant;
5.Credit rating of cities and kick-starting issue of municipal bonds;
6.Promoting citizen participation in identifying project priorities, decision making and implementation;
7.Review of progress achieved under JNNURM with regard to implementation of reforms;
8.Leveraging primary economic activity of each city to augment employment generation;
9.Integrating Smart City Mission with National Urban Development Mission for 500 Cities; and
10. City sanitation and action taken under Swachh Bharat Mission.
Four Working Groups will take up focused discussion on Conditions Precedent and Selection Criteria for Smart City Challenge Competition, Reforms Agenda, Innovative Funding and Pan-City Development and Exemplary Developments.
During the inaugural session on January 30, 2015, a Postal Stamp on Swachh Bharat will be released. Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of Communications & IT Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of Drinking Water & Sanitation Shri Chaudhary Birendra Singh will attend the inaugural session.
Source- PIB
University of Hyderabad wins visitor’s award for ‘Best University’
The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will present Visitor’s Awards for Central Universities in the categories of ‘Best University’, ‘Innovation’ and ‘Research’ for the year 2015 at a function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 4, 2015. This function will coincide with the third Conference of Vice Chancellors of Central Universities scheduled to be held from February 4-5, 2015.
The Visitor’s Award for the ‘Best University’ will be awarded to University of Hyderabad.
Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’ will be given to Prof. Vijay K. Chaudhary and Dr. Amita Gupta of University of Delhi who have invented ‘TB Confirm’, a rapid diagnostic test for Tuberculosis.
The Visitor’s Award for ‘Research’ will be presented to Cosmology and Astrophysics Research Group, Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia for path breaking research carried out in the field of Astrophysics and Cosmology.
The ‘Best University’ will receive a Citation and Trophy while winners of Visitors’ Award for ‘Innovation’ and ‘Research’ will receive a Citation and cash award of Rs. one lakh.
The President had announced institution of these awards at the Vice Chancellors’ Conference last year with the aim of promoting healthy competition amongst Central Universities and motivating them to adopt best practices from across the world.
For selecting the winners, online applications were invited from all Central Universities for each category. A Selection Committee comprising of Smt. Omita Paul, Secretary to the President as Chairperson and Secretary, Department of Higher Education, MHRD; Secretary, Department of Science & Technology; Chairman, UGC; Chairperson and Vice Chairpersons of National Innovation Foundation; Director-General, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Director IIT Delhi as members chose the winners of the Awards.
The Visitor’s Award for the ‘Best University’ will be awarded to University of Hyderabad.
Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’ will be given to Prof. Vijay K. Chaudhary and Dr. Amita Gupta of University of Delhi who have invented ‘TB Confirm’, a rapid diagnostic test for Tuberculosis.
The Visitor’s Award for ‘Research’ will be presented to Cosmology and Astrophysics Research Group, Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia for path breaking research carried out in the field of Astrophysics and Cosmology.
The ‘Best University’ will receive a Citation and Trophy while winners of Visitors’ Award for ‘Innovation’ and ‘Research’ will receive a Citation and cash award of Rs. one lakh.
The President had announced institution of these awards at the Vice Chancellors’ Conference last year with the aim of promoting healthy competition amongst Central Universities and motivating them to adopt best practices from across the world.
For selecting the winners, online applications were invited from all Central Universities for each category. A Selection Committee comprising of Smt. Omita Paul, Secretary to the President as Chairperson and Secretary, Department of Higher Education, MHRD; Secretary, Department of Science & Technology; Chairman, UGC; Chairperson and Vice Chairpersons of National Innovation Foundation; Director-General, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Director IIT Delhi as members chose the winners of the Awards.
Source - PIB
[Ed] Borrow in India
While the Centre has been cautious about borrowing overseas, corporate India has been most imprudent
As an appreciating dollar worsens sovereign debt problems across Europe, there seems to be a sense of relief — even complacency — in India about the Centre’s limited reliance on foreign borrowings to finance its spending. True, India’s external debt to GDP ratio at 23 per cent is comfortable by international standards (Greece’s ratio is 175 per cent) and the sovereign share in this debt has been steadily falling. But to conclude that India is insulated from threats of a possible runaway appreciation in the dollar is to be short-sighted. While the Centre may have been frugal with its foreign currency borrowings in recent years, Corporate India has shown no such prudence. A recent Finance Ministry report reveals that while the Centre’s overseas borrowings expanded modestly, from $82 billion to $88 billion between March 2012 and September 2014, corporate borrowings vaulted from $120 to $161 billion, amounting to 8.5 per cent of GDP. This calls for regulatory vigil.
The private sector’s voracious appetite for foreign loans is a cause for concern. Indian companies seem to view both External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) as ‘cheap’ loans, but the truth is that their costs are vastly underestimated. Consider how, after going through one bout of restructuring three years ago, highly leveraged corporate groups such as Suzlon and Jaypee are currently engaged in frantic parleys to meet upcoming FCCB dues. Unhedged or partially hedged foreign loans can bloat and substantially impair a company’s balance sheet, if there are adverse exchange rate movements. Yet it is an open secret that most Indian companies like to skimp on hedging costs, preferring to adopt an optimistic view based on the rupee’s recent performance. This problem is best remedied by companies themselves. Today, managing forex fluctuations is as integral to corporate profitability as managing input costs. Company Boards therefore need to insist on better risk management practices that call for routine hedging. The other problem is that the real magnitude of foreign loan problems for Indian companies tends to be hidden from public view. Currently, companies have the leeway not to take note of exchange rate impacts in their quarterly results, and to record them directly in their balance sheets. They are also not required to create specific reserves towards loan repayments. Looming ECB or FCCB repayments can often catch investors or other stakeholders by surprise. On this score, a tightening of accounting standards for better disclosures on forex loans is required.
The recent turmoil in many currencies should be a wake-up call for Indian policymakers to maintain a closer watch on corporate foreign loan exposures. After all, even if the country’s external debt is within manageable limits, loan defaults or frequent restructuring efforts by domestic companies can do damage to India’s standing in the global credit markets. This is undesirable, all the more so when the country is looking to foreign capital to fund its infrastructure building exercise.
As an appreciating dollar worsens sovereign debt problems across Europe, there seems to be a sense of relief — even complacency — in India about the Centre’s limited reliance on foreign borrowings to finance its spending. True, India’s external debt to GDP ratio at 23 per cent is comfortable by international standards (Greece’s ratio is 175 per cent) and the sovereign share in this debt has been steadily falling. But to conclude that India is insulated from threats of a possible runaway appreciation in the dollar is to be short-sighted. While the Centre may have been frugal with its foreign currency borrowings in recent years, Corporate India has shown no such prudence. A recent Finance Ministry report reveals that while the Centre’s overseas borrowings expanded modestly, from $82 billion to $88 billion between March 2012 and September 2014, corporate borrowings vaulted from $120 to $161 billion, amounting to 8.5 per cent of GDP. This calls for regulatory vigil.
The private sector’s voracious appetite for foreign loans is a cause for concern. Indian companies seem to view both External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) as ‘cheap’ loans, but the truth is that their costs are vastly underestimated. Consider how, after going through one bout of restructuring three years ago, highly leveraged corporate groups such as Suzlon and Jaypee are currently engaged in frantic parleys to meet upcoming FCCB dues. Unhedged or partially hedged foreign loans can bloat and substantially impair a company’s balance sheet, if there are adverse exchange rate movements. Yet it is an open secret that most Indian companies like to skimp on hedging costs, preferring to adopt an optimistic view based on the rupee’s recent performance. This problem is best remedied by companies themselves. Today, managing forex fluctuations is as integral to corporate profitability as managing input costs. Company Boards therefore need to insist on better risk management practices that call for routine hedging. The other problem is that the real magnitude of foreign loan problems for Indian companies tends to be hidden from public view. Currently, companies have the leeway not to take note of exchange rate impacts in their quarterly results, and to record them directly in their balance sheets. They are also not required to create specific reserves towards loan repayments. Looming ECB or FCCB repayments can often catch investors or other stakeholders by surprise. On this score, a tightening of accounting standards for better disclosures on forex loans is required.
The recent turmoil in many currencies should be a wake-up call for Indian policymakers to maintain a closer watch on corporate foreign loan exposures. After all, even if the country’s external debt is within manageable limits, loan defaults or frequent restructuring efforts by domestic companies can do damage to India’s standing in the global credit markets. This is undesirable, all the more so when the country is looking to foreign capital to fund its infrastructure building exercise.
Source - Business Line
‘Sharp rise in heat waves in urban areas’
Over the last 40 years, the world’s cities and towns have seen a sharp rise in heat waves they experience while cold snaps have become more infrequent, according to research just published.
A team of scientists from India and the U.S, which examined data from 217 urban areas across the globe, found that such prolonged periods of high temperature had increased significantly between 1973 and 2012. The largest number of heat waves had occurred in the most recent decade.
Moreover, extremely hot days had become significantly more frequent in almost half of those urban areas. Two-thirds of them had to endure more extremely hot nights, reported a paper by Vimal Mishra of IIT-Gandhinagar in Gujarat and the other scientists in Environmental Research Letters.
The analysis suggested that urban areas were affected by the warming occurring as a result of climate change as well as the ‘urban heat island’ effect whereby built-up places trapped heat more than surrounding rural areas, Dr. Mishra told this correspondent.
However, the study also found that although heat waves over urban areas in India had gone up over the 40-year period, the increase was not statistically significant. Similarly, the increase in the number of hot nights was also not significant over India.
High levels of fine particles in the atmosphere (known as aerosols), which reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the ground, may be partly responsible for a slower rate of warming over this country, Dr. Mishra said.
Over half the world’s population already lived in urban agglomerations, which were centres of wealth and infrastructure as well, he pointed out. It was therefore important to understand how such places would be affected by a changing climate and climatic extremes.
“Vulnerability of mega cities is clearly something to worry about,” remarked Raghu Murtugudde of the University of Maryland in the U.S., who was not involved in the study, in an email. “While they are typically hotspots of innovation, are they also growing to be hotspots for the worst of climate impacts?”
A team of scientists from India and the U.S, which examined data from 217 urban areas across the globe, found that such prolonged periods of high temperature had increased significantly between 1973 and 2012. The largest number of heat waves had occurred in the most recent decade.
Moreover, extremely hot days had become significantly more frequent in almost half of those urban areas. Two-thirds of them had to endure more extremely hot nights, reported a paper by Vimal Mishra of IIT-Gandhinagar in Gujarat and the other scientists in Environmental Research Letters.
The analysis suggested that urban areas were affected by the warming occurring as a result of climate change as well as the ‘urban heat island’ effect whereby built-up places trapped heat more than surrounding rural areas, Dr. Mishra told this correspondent.
However, the study also found that although heat waves over urban areas in India had gone up over the 40-year period, the increase was not statistically significant. Similarly, the increase in the number of hot nights was also not significant over India.
High levels of fine particles in the atmosphere (known as aerosols), which reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the ground, may be partly responsible for a slower rate of warming over this country, Dr. Mishra said.
Over half the world’s population already lived in urban agglomerations, which were centres of wealth and infrastructure as well, he pointed out. It was therefore important to understand how such places would be affected by a changing climate and climatic extremes.
“Vulnerability of mega cities is clearly something to worry about,” remarked Raghu Murtugudde of the University of Maryland in the U.S., who was not involved in the study, in an email. “While they are typically hotspots of innovation, are they also growing to be hotspots for the worst of climate impacts?”
Source - The Hindu
Banks free to decide NPA norms, says Supreme Court
Apex court upholds a 2004 amendment
Dealing a blow to borrowers, especially in the industrial sector, the Supreme Court upheld a 2004 amendment enabling banks to follow different guidelines for declaring bad loans as “non-performing assets.”
Noting that quick recovery of bad loans was essential to keep the financial health of the country intact, a Bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and S.A. Bobde upheld an amendment to Section 2, which defines non-performing assets (NPA) under the Securitisation and Re-constitution of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interests (SARFAESI) Act, 2002.
The Act allowed a secured creditor bank to determine a bad debt as NPA and proceed to seize and sell the assets to recover the amount due to it as loan.
The 2004 amendment classified borrowers into two categories. One, those who got secured loans from institutions which followed RBI guidelines framed on the declaration of NPAs. Two, those who borrowed from institutions governed by guidelines set by their own regulators.
The court was deciding a batch of petitions filed by borrowers, contending that the amendment discriminated against between two classes of borrowers. Especially, when RBI guidelines gave only 60 days before a bad debt can be declared an NPA, while individual regulators were allowed up to 180 days to lapse before the secured loan is declared an NPA.
The judgment, authored by Justice Chelameswar, upheld the validity of the 2004 amendment and dismissed any notion that the classification of the borrowers was “unreasonable.” The apex court reasoned that borrowers could not expect creditor banks to function as a “homogenous” unit, all guided by the same set of guidelines for determining NPA.
It cited how “recovery of money from a debtor by resorting to the filing of a suit takes painfully long time in this country, for various reasons. Huge amounts of money are lent by various banks and other financial institutions.”
‘Quick recovery of bad loans essential for the financial health of the country’
Dealing a blow to borrowers, especially in the industrial sector, the Supreme Court upheld a 2004 amendment enabling banks to follow different guidelines for declaring bad loans as “non-performing assets.”
Noting that quick recovery of bad loans was essential to keep the financial health of the country intact, a Bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and S.A. Bobde upheld an amendment to Section 2, which defines non-performing assets (NPA) under the Securitisation and Re-constitution of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interests (SARFAESI) Act, 2002.
The Act allowed a secured creditor bank to determine a bad debt as NPA and proceed to seize and sell the assets to recover the amount due to it as loan.
The 2004 amendment classified borrowers into two categories. One, those who got secured loans from institutions which followed RBI guidelines framed on the declaration of NPAs. Two, those who borrowed from institutions governed by guidelines set by their own regulators.
The court was deciding a batch of petitions filed by borrowers, contending that the amendment discriminated against between two classes of borrowers. Especially, when RBI guidelines gave only 60 days before a bad debt can be declared an NPA, while individual regulators were allowed up to 180 days to lapse before the secured loan is declared an NPA.
The judgment, authored by Justice Chelameswar, upheld the validity of the 2004 amendment and dismissed any notion that the classification of the borrowers was “unreasonable.” The apex court reasoned that borrowers could not expect creditor banks to function as a “homogenous” unit, all guided by the same set of guidelines for determining NPA.
It cited how “recovery of money from a debtor by resorting to the filing of a suit takes painfully long time in this country, for various reasons. Huge amounts of money are lent by various banks and other financial institutions.”
‘Quick recovery of bad loans essential for the financial health of the country’
Source - The Hindu
Coal unions to protest on Friday against disinvestment
Following the government’s decision to disinvest 10 per cent shares of Coal India Limited’s (CIL), five central trade unions have announced protest demonstrations on Friday across the country. Representatives of the central trade unions had earlier declared a five-day strike from January 6 till 10 against the government’s move to introduce the Coal Ordinance permitting commercial mining and against disinvestment in CIL
They had aborted the five-day strike after two days as Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had promised to set up a committee with government and unions’ representatives to examine the workers’ demands.
The January two-day strike, the biggest industrial action since the 1980s, had left a third of the thermal power plants in the country with no coal stocks left. The committee proposed on January 7 with representatives of government, CIL, central unions as members was expected to submit its findings by March but it is yet to be set up.
“The committee proposed to be set up under Joint Secretary is yet to be set up. But before holding even a single discussion with the workers’ representatives, the government has declared the disinvestment of 10 percent in CIL,” said Rajya Sabha MP and General Secretary CITU Tapan Sen. The unions have proposed to hold protest demonstrations at collieries across the country, and will burn effigies of the CIL officials, the unions said in a statement.
“We received communication from the government yesterday after it had already announced the disinvestment asking us to nominate members to the committee. First they went ahead with their announcement and later, contacted us. There is no spirit of consultation. We have thus decided to hold a protest on January 30 across the country,” said Pradeep Kumar who represents coal workers’ union in Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s wing, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh.
The government decided to go for the biggest share sale of CIL by offloading 10 percent stake in it, expecting it to fetch upto Rs. 24,000 crore. The government will sell 315.8 million shares, or five per cent stake, through an offer of sale, with an option to sell another five per.cent later.
Earlier, the Coal Ordinance and the subsequent Bill on the same proposed that 204 coal blocks be allotted through e-auctions and private companies be allowed to sell the coal without restrictions on end purpose.
They had aborted the five-day strike after two days as Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had promised to set up a committee with government and unions’ representatives to examine the workers’ demands.
The January two-day strike, the biggest industrial action since the 1980s, had left a third of the thermal power plants in the country with no coal stocks left. The committee proposed on January 7 with representatives of government, CIL, central unions as members was expected to submit its findings by March but it is yet to be set up.
“The committee proposed to be set up under Joint Secretary is yet to be set up. But before holding even a single discussion with the workers’ representatives, the government has declared the disinvestment of 10 percent in CIL,” said Rajya Sabha MP and General Secretary CITU Tapan Sen. The unions have proposed to hold protest demonstrations at collieries across the country, and will burn effigies of the CIL officials, the unions said in a statement.
“We received communication from the government yesterday after it had already announced the disinvestment asking us to nominate members to the committee. First they went ahead with their announcement and later, contacted us. There is no spirit of consultation. We have thus decided to hold a protest on January 30 across the country,” said Pradeep Kumar who represents coal workers’ union in Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s wing, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh.
The government decided to go for the biggest share sale of CIL by offloading 10 percent stake in it, expecting it to fetch upto Rs. 24,000 crore. The government will sell 315.8 million shares, or five per cent stake, through an offer of sale, with an option to sell another five per.cent later.
Earlier, the Coal Ordinance and the subsequent Bill on the same proposed that 204 coal blocks be allotted through e-auctions and private companies be allowed to sell the coal without restrictions on end purpose.
Source - The Hindu
[Ed] Gita, Gandhi and Godse
Both Nathuram Godse and Mahatma Gandhi read the Bhagavad Gita but one became a martyr and the other a murderer
January 30 reminds us of the fact that even the holiest of texts can have subjective and differential meanings.
The sacred Indian verses of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita has been in the news for various reasons in recent months. Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to United States President Barack Obama when he visited the White House last year and one to Emperor Akihito of Japan. He has declared that the Gitawould be the gift that he would carry for all world leaders. More controversially, Union Minister Sushma Swaraj advocated that the Gita may be declared the national book of India. Most recently, the BJP government in Haryana declared its intention to teach the Gita as part of the school curriculum.
To say that religion and politics should not be mixed has not only become a cliché, but may be missing the point altogether. Many tall leaders found the reason for their political action in their religious faith. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are examples. President Obama mentioned in his town hall speech in Delhi last week that his faith strengthened him in his life. It is also true that many kings and emperors of the past used religious faith to justify killings and destruction.
Martyr and murderer
Many individuals and organisations advocate and indulge in violence today, and justify it on the basis of religious texts. January 30, the day Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi, is the starkest reminder in the history of humankind of how the same text can be read differently. Both read the Bhagavad Gita. One became Gandhi. The other became Godse. One became a martyr. The other became a murderer. Jawaharlal Nehru, for whom the Gita was “a poem of crisis, of political and social crisis and, even more so, of crisis in the spirit of man,” wrote in the Discovery of India: “... the leaders of thought and action of the present day — Tilak, Aurobindo Ghose, Gandhi — have written on it, each giving his own interpretation. Gandhiji bases his firm belief in non-violence on it; others justify violence and warfare for a righteous cause ...”
What is curious is the fact that the two opposite interpretations of the Gita that Nehru refers to were responses to the same shared reality that their respective proponents encountered — colonialism and Christianity. Two strikingly different responses emerge to the same situation. The divergence is evident from the debate between Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. In 1920, Tilak wrote to Gandhi: “Politics is the game of worldly people and not of Sadhus, and instead of the maxim, ‘overcome anger by loving kindness, evil by good,’ as preached by Buddha, I prefer to rely on the maxim of Shri Krishna, ‘In whatsoever way any come to me, in that same way I grant them favour.’ That explains the whole difference.” Gandhi replied: “For me there is no conflict between the two texts quoted by the Lokamanya. The Buddhist text lays down an eternal principle. The text from the Bhagavad Gita shows to me how the eternal principle of conquering hate by love, untruth by truth can and must be applied.”
For Tilak, the Gita was a call for action, political and religious. He declared that the Gita sanctioned violence for unselfish and benevolent reasons. While Tilak’s interpretation of the Gita that he wrote while in prison inspired a generation of warriors against British colonialism, it also informed Hindutva politics. Godse used similar arguments to justify the killing of the Mahatma, and quoted from the book during his trial. For Gandhi, the Gita and all religious texts were not excuses for exclusion and bigotry, but inspiration for compassion and confluence. In The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi — incidentally, the book that Mr. Modi gifted Mr. Obama — the Father of the Nation wrote: “But there is nothing exclusive about the Gita which should make it a gospel only for the Brahmana or the Hindu. Having all the light and colour of the Indian atmosphere, it naturally must have the greatest fascination for the Hindu, but the central teaching should not have any the less appeal for a non-Hindu as the central teaching of the Bible or the Koran should not have any less appeal for a non-Christian or a non-Muslim.”
Challenged by Christian missionaries, Gandhi learned more about his own religion, but more importantly, he imbibed Christian values rather than rejecting them. “Gandhi integrated several aspects of Christianity in this brand of increasingly redefined Hinduism, particularly the idea of suffering love as exemplified in the image of crucifixion. The image haunted him all his life and became the source of some of his deepest passions. He wept before it when he visited Vatican in Rome in 1931; the bare walls of his Sevagram ashram made an exception in favour of it; Isaac Watts’s ‘When I behold the wondrous Cross,’ which offers a moving portrayal of Christ’s sorrow and sacrifice and ends with ‘love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,’ was one of his favourite hymns...” Bhikhu Parekh writes. Gandhi was accused of being a ‘closet Christian’ and ridiculed as ‘Mohammad Gandhi’ by Hindu radicals.
Support for Godse’s reading
Godse’s reading of the Gita appears to gather more supporters in contemporary India. BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj knew what he was talking about when he praised Godse. Several individuals and organisations have become active in propagating the ideas of Godse. There is also a move to build a temple for him.
After gifting the Gita to the Japanese emperor, Mr. Modi wondered whether his act would irk secularists. The greatest of Indian secularists, Nehru, had this to say: “During the 2,500 years since it was written, Indian humanity has gone repeatedly through the processes of change and development and decay; but it has always found something living in the Gita...The message of the Gita is not sectarian or addressed to any particular school of thought. It is universal in its approach for everyone… ‘All paths lead to Me,’ it says.”
But then, it is all about reading it like Gandhi.
January 30 reminds us of the fact that even the holiest of texts can have subjective and differential meanings.
The sacred Indian verses of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita has been in the news for various reasons in recent months. Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to United States President Barack Obama when he visited the White House last year and one to Emperor Akihito of Japan. He has declared that the Gitawould be the gift that he would carry for all world leaders. More controversially, Union Minister Sushma Swaraj advocated that the Gita may be declared the national book of India. Most recently, the BJP government in Haryana declared its intention to teach the Gita as part of the school curriculum.
To say that religion and politics should not be mixed has not only become a cliché, but may be missing the point altogether. Many tall leaders found the reason for their political action in their religious faith. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are examples. President Obama mentioned in his town hall speech in Delhi last week that his faith strengthened him in his life. It is also true that many kings and emperors of the past used religious faith to justify killings and destruction.
Martyr and murderer
Many individuals and organisations advocate and indulge in violence today, and justify it on the basis of religious texts. January 30, the day Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi, is the starkest reminder in the history of humankind of how the same text can be read differently. Both read the Bhagavad Gita. One became Gandhi. The other became Godse. One became a martyr. The other became a murderer. Jawaharlal Nehru, for whom the Gita was “a poem of crisis, of political and social crisis and, even more so, of crisis in the spirit of man,” wrote in the Discovery of India: “... the leaders of thought and action of the present day — Tilak, Aurobindo Ghose, Gandhi — have written on it, each giving his own interpretation. Gandhiji bases his firm belief in non-violence on it; others justify violence and warfare for a righteous cause ...”
What is curious is the fact that the two opposite interpretations of the Gita that Nehru refers to were responses to the same shared reality that their respective proponents encountered — colonialism and Christianity. Two strikingly different responses emerge to the same situation. The divergence is evident from the debate between Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. In 1920, Tilak wrote to Gandhi: “Politics is the game of worldly people and not of Sadhus, and instead of the maxim, ‘overcome anger by loving kindness, evil by good,’ as preached by Buddha, I prefer to rely on the maxim of Shri Krishna, ‘In whatsoever way any come to me, in that same way I grant them favour.’ That explains the whole difference.” Gandhi replied: “For me there is no conflict between the two texts quoted by the Lokamanya. The Buddhist text lays down an eternal principle. The text from the Bhagavad Gita shows to me how the eternal principle of conquering hate by love, untruth by truth can and must be applied.”
For Tilak, the Gita was a call for action, political and religious. He declared that the Gita sanctioned violence for unselfish and benevolent reasons. While Tilak’s interpretation of the Gita that he wrote while in prison inspired a generation of warriors against British colonialism, it also informed Hindutva politics. Godse used similar arguments to justify the killing of the Mahatma, and quoted from the book during his trial. For Gandhi, the Gita and all religious texts were not excuses for exclusion and bigotry, but inspiration for compassion and confluence. In The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi — incidentally, the book that Mr. Modi gifted Mr. Obama — the Father of the Nation wrote: “But there is nothing exclusive about the Gita which should make it a gospel only for the Brahmana or the Hindu. Having all the light and colour of the Indian atmosphere, it naturally must have the greatest fascination for the Hindu, but the central teaching should not have any the less appeal for a non-Hindu as the central teaching of the Bible or the Koran should not have any less appeal for a non-Christian or a non-Muslim.”
Challenged by Christian missionaries, Gandhi learned more about his own religion, but more importantly, he imbibed Christian values rather than rejecting them. “Gandhi integrated several aspects of Christianity in this brand of increasingly redefined Hinduism, particularly the idea of suffering love as exemplified in the image of crucifixion. The image haunted him all his life and became the source of some of his deepest passions. He wept before it when he visited Vatican in Rome in 1931; the bare walls of his Sevagram ashram made an exception in favour of it; Isaac Watts’s ‘When I behold the wondrous Cross,’ which offers a moving portrayal of Christ’s sorrow and sacrifice and ends with ‘love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,’ was one of his favourite hymns...” Bhikhu Parekh writes. Gandhi was accused of being a ‘closet Christian’ and ridiculed as ‘Mohammad Gandhi’ by Hindu radicals.
Support for Godse’s reading
Godse’s reading of the Gita appears to gather more supporters in contemporary India. BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj knew what he was talking about when he praised Godse. Several individuals and organisations have become active in propagating the ideas of Godse. There is also a move to build a temple for him.
After gifting the Gita to the Japanese emperor, Mr. Modi wondered whether his act would irk secularists. The greatest of Indian secularists, Nehru, had this to say: “During the 2,500 years since it was written, Indian humanity has gone repeatedly through the processes of change and development and decay; but it has always found something living in the Gita...The message of the Gita is not sectarian or addressed to any particular school of thought. It is universal in its approach for everyone… ‘All paths lead to Me,’ it says.”
But then, it is all about reading it like Gandhi.
Source - The Hindu
Over 38,000 Somali children facing starvation: UN
Over 38,000 Somali children are at “high risk” from dying from starvation despite hunger levels improving by almost a third across the war-torn nation, UN experts have said.
The grim assessment, based on the latest data collected by the UN, comes just over three years since intense drought and war sparked famine in the Horn of Africa nation, killing more than a quarter of a million people.
In total, over 7,31,000 people, including 2,03,000 children who are severely malnourished, face “acute food insecurity,” according to a joint report released by the UN’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit and the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network.
The grim assessment, based on the latest data collected by the UN, comes just over three years since intense drought and war sparked famine in the Horn of Africa nation, killing more than a quarter of a million people.
In total, over 7,31,000 people, including 2,03,000 children who are severely malnourished, face “acute food insecurity,” according to a joint report released by the UN’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit and the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network.
But the total number affected is a drop of 29 per cent from last assessments covering the past six months, with “relatively good rains” in late 2014 helping farmers. — AFP
Source - The Hindu
[Ed] An unfair allegation
It is untrue that the position the BJP took on the nuclear deal in 2005 was L.K. Advani’s alone; it was arrived at after detailed discussions within the party at every stage
I was a little surprised to read Sanjaya Baru’s article published on January 28, 2015 (“After the nuclear step, the big leap”). In this article he has talked about Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), L.K. Advani’s BJP and Narendra Modi’s BJP and has unfairly blamed Mr. Advani for a shift in the BJP’s position on the nuclear deal when he was leading the party. This is completely untrue. The position that the BJP had taken on the nuclear deal, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inked it in July 2005, was not Mr. Advani’s alone. It was arrived at after detailed discussions within the party at every stage under the leadership of Mr. Vajpayee. Some people even then had tried to float the rumour that the BJP was divided on the issue, and only a few of us had hijacked the party as far as opposition to the deal was concerned. As a direct and active participant in this whole process within the BJP throughout this period, I would like to assert that the BJP leadership then was fully united in its opposition to the deal, as also later, as far as the provisions of the civil nuclear liability law were concerned.
Vajpayee’s role
There is no doubt that Mr. Vajpayee was the architect of the new policy of friendship towards the U.S. It was under his guidance and leadership that Jaswant Singh worked hard to improve relations with the U.S. after the nuclear tests of 1998, which culminated in the visit of President Bill Clinton in 2000. It is also true that it was in his regime that the ‘first steps’ and the ‘next steps’ in the strategic partnership between India and the U.S. were formulated. But nowhere did they envisage the kind of nuclear deal that Dr. Singh finally concluded with the U.S.
Mr. Vajpayee genuinely believed in improving and intensifying India’s relations with the U.S., which he described as a natural ally, but he also believed that it should be a relationship between equals. Just as he did not submit to U.S. sanctions following the nuclear tests, he was loath to having a relationship with the U.S. which was unequal or tilted in favour of the U.S. Anyone who has closely studied the Hyde Act and the bilateral ‘123 Agreement’ would agree that they are prescriptive in nature and unequal. Mr. Vajpayee, with his sense of international relationships, saw this imbalance in the deal immediately and therefore felt that the BJP should oppose it.
India has so far had a consistent position on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), irrespective of the political persuasion of the party/parties in power. The kernel of our opposition to these two international agreements is that they are discriminatory. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, who also happen to be the five nuclear weapon states, are recognised as such by the NPT. The rest are barred from having nuclear weapons. As a threshold power, we always felt that this was unfair and unacceptable. The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal has elements which are equally discriminatory and was therefore unacceptable to us, including to Mr. Vajpayee.
Mr. Vajpayee’s position did not change even after Dr. Singh won over Brajesh Mishra. Dr. Singh personally invited a few BJP leaders for a discussion on the deal when the bilateral 123 agreement was under negotiation, some time before Mr. Vajpayee suffered the debilitating stroke in 2009. I had also been invited to this meeting at 7 Race Course Road. The evening before, I received a telephone call from Mr. Vajpayee in which he asked me whether I was fully prepared for the meeting the next day. When I assured him that I was, he said I would have to hold the fort — a clear indication that he had stopped depending on Mr. Mishra on this issue. I have witnesses to support this statement because they were present when the call came. The next day’s meeting, which was attended by Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Advani, party president Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie, Mr. Mishra and me, proved to be futile because we refused to lend our support to the deal.
Changing world
Mr. Vajpayee has an understanding of foreign policy and international relations which is unmatched. Some people believe that he erred on occasions. Subsequent events have shown that he was absolutely right in his approach; only the others could not see the future as clearly as he did. I can recall many incidents to prove this point. But we live in a changing world. People change, situations change, points of view change and relationships change. What does not change is the written word like the Hyde Act, the ‘123 Agreement’ and the civil nuclear liability law. Maybe, some day, they will also change, hopefully for the better. For the time being, we live with them and hope for the best. Meanwhile, let us not put the blame where it does not lie.
(Yashwant Sinha is a former External Affairs Minister.)
I was a little surprised to read Sanjaya Baru’s article published on January 28, 2015 (“After the nuclear step, the big leap”). In this article he has talked about Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), L.K. Advani’s BJP and Narendra Modi’s BJP and has unfairly blamed Mr. Advani for a shift in the BJP’s position on the nuclear deal when he was leading the party. This is completely untrue. The position that the BJP had taken on the nuclear deal, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inked it in July 2005, was not Mr. Advani’s alone. It was arrived at after detailed discussions within the party at every stage under the leadership of Mr. Vajpayee. Some people even then had tried to float the rumour that the BJP was divided on the issue, and only a few of us had hijacked the party as far as opposition to the deal was concerned. As a direct and active participant in this whole process within the BJP throughout this period, I would like to assert that the BJP leadership then was fully united in its opposition to the deal, as also later, as far as the provisions of the civil nuclear liability law were concerned.
Vajpayee’s role
There is no doubt that Mr. Vajpayee was the architect of the new policy of friendship towards the U.S. It was under his guidance and leadership that Jaswant Singh worked hard to improve relations with the U.S. after the nuclear tests of 1998, which culminated in the visit of President Bill Clinton in 2000. It is also true that it was in his regime that the ‘first steps’ and the ‘next steps’ in the strategic partnership between India and the U.S. were formulated. But nowhere did they envisage the kind of nuclear deal that Dr. Singh finally concluded with the U.S.
Mr. Vajpayee genuinely believed in improving and intensifying India’s relations with the U.S., which he described as a natural ally, but he also believed that it should be a relationship between equals. Just as he did not submit to U.S. sanctions following the nuclear tests, he was loath to having a relationship with the U.S. which was unequal or tilted in favour of the U.S. Anyone who has closely studied the Hyde Act and the bilateral ‘123 Agreement’ would agree that they are prescriptive in nature and unequal. Mr. Vajpayee, with his sense of international relationships, saw this imbalance in the deal immediately and therefore felt that the BJP should oppose it.
India has so far had a consistent position on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), irrespective of the political persuasion of the party/parties in power. The kernel of our opposition to these two international agreements is that they are discriminatory. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, who also happen to be the five nuclear weapon states, are recognised as such by the NPT. The rest are barred from having nuclear weapons. As a threshold power, we always felt that this was unfair and unacceptable. The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal has elements which are equally discriminatory and was therefore unacceptable to us, including to Mr. Vajpayee.
Mr. Vajpayee’s position did not change even after Dr. Singh won over Brajesh Mishra. Dr. Singh personally invited a few BJP leaders for a discussion on the deal when the bilateral 123 agreement was under negotiation, some time before Mr. Vajpayee suffered the debilitating stroke in 2009. I had also been invited to this meeting at 7 Race Course Road. The evening before, I received a telephone call from Mr. Vajpayee in which he asked me whether I was fully prepared for the meeting the next day. When I assured him that I was, he said I would have to hold the fort — a clear indication that he had stopped depending on Mr. Mishra on this issue. I have witnesses to support this statement because they were present when the call came. The next day’s meeting, which was attended by Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Advani, party president Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie, Mr. Mishra and me, proved to be futile because we refused to lend our support to the deal.
Changing world
Mr. Vajpayee has an understanding of foreign policy and international relations which is unmatched. Some people believe that he erred on occasions. Subsequent events have shown that he was absolutely right in his approach; only the others could not see the future as clearly as he did. I can recall many incidents to prove this point. But we live in a changing world. People change, situations change, points of view change and relationships change. What does not change is the written word like the Hyde Act, the ‘123 Agreement’ and the civil nuclear liability law. Maybe, some day, they will also change, hopefully for the better. For the time being, we live with them and hope for the best. Meanwhile, let us not put the blame where it does not lie.
(Yashwant Sinha is a former External Affairs Minister.)
Source - The Hindu
[Ed] Sending the right signal
The government’s decision not to appeal against the adverse verdict of the Bombay High Court in its Rs.3,200-crore tax case against Vodafone is the first concrete demonstration of its resolve to do away with what Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed “adversarial” taxation policies of the erstwhile UPA government. Though the BJP had during its election campaign, referred to “tax terrorism” in its election campaign there was little that happened in the first eight months of the new government to show that such policies would be reversed. The latest Cabinet decision sends out a strong signal to foreign investors that this government will be fair in its tax policies and avoid needless litigation. The decision not to appeal has implications for other such similar cases involving multinationals and is, in that sense, a significant one. It is also an acknowledgment that the Income Tax Department’s assessment of the case was erroneous. The Vodafone case was about wrong classification of a capital receipt as taxable income at the hands of the company. Applying transfer-pricing guidelines, the I.T. Department held that Vodafone had underpriced its shares issued to the parent. So it revalued the shares and deemed the difference to be a loan given to the parent. This was clearly high-handed and a wrong application of transfer-pricing regulations.
The government’s decision to accept the High Court verdict is also a signal to assessing officers that they should refrain from making unreasonable tax demands, relying on aggressive and faulty interpretations of rules and sections. Yet, it is also true that the government turns the heat on these officers when it decides that tax collections need to be augmented. If the tax official is confused he cannot be blamed. What is needed is a stable policy that sends out the signal to both assessing officers and taxpayers that the government will crack down on evasion but within the framework of the law; there will be no extraordinary interpretations of rules and sections even in times of revenue distress. The focus will now shift to whether the government moves to neutralise the mischief caused by the retrospective tax amendment; this is a major demand of foreign investors who were disappointed that it was not addressed in the first budget of this government in July last year. The General Anti Avoidance Rules, or GAAR, are a cause for worry for taxpayers and foreign investors as they confer wide discretionary powers on the I.T. Department. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Jaitley makes a Budget announcement to postpone its implementation once again as per the recommendations of the Parthasarathi Shome Committee.
The government’s decision to accept the High Court verdict is also a signal to assessing officers that they should refrain from making unreasonable tax demands, relying on aggressive and faulty interpretations of rules and sections. Yet, it is also true that the government turns the heat on these officers when it decides that tax collections need to be augmented. If the tax official is confused he cannot be blamed. What is needed is a stable policy that sends out the signal to both assessing officers and taxpayers that the government will crack down on evasion but within the framework of the law; there will be no extraordinary interpretations of rules and sections even in times of revenue distress. The focus will now shift to whether the government moves to neutralise the mischief caused by the retrospective tax amendment; this is a major demand of foreign investors who were disappointed that it was not addressed in the first budget of this government in July last year. The General Anti Avoidance Rules, or GAAR, are a cause for worry for taxpayers and foreign investors as they confer wide discretionary powers on the I.T. Department. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Jaitley makes a Budget announcement to postpone its implementation once again as per the recommendations of the Parthasarathi Shome Committee.
Source - The Hindu
Preamble row: Differences surface, RSS silent
Govt. committed to secularism, says Venkaiah Naidu
A day after Union Telecommunications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad indicated that the Government wanted a debate on whether the words “socialist, secular” should be in the Preamble to the Constitution, another Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said there was no plan to remove them.
According to a PTI report from Chennai, Mr. Naidu said the Government was “committed to secularism and there is no thinking to remove” it from the Preamble.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Naidu added that “secularism is in the blood of Indians and it’s a part of our culture.”
Meanwhile, the RSS has chosen to steer clear of the debate triggered by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry using a watermark of the original Preamble — which did not have the words “socialist, secular” — in two Republic Day print advertisements. “We don’t think this deserves any comment from the RSS; we don’t think those who are debating this issue have any depth or right intentions; so it’s better that we don’t speak at this time,” said a senior RSS functionary.
Reacting to Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad seizing upon Shiv Sena’s demand for dropping the two words “ Secular and socialist” from the Preamble to call for a debate, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: “Mr. Prasad’s open defence of Shiv Sena’s demand is proof positive that the BJP is using ally shoulder to fire gun and test waters.”
Referring to the rather heated debate triggered by the advertisements, Mr. Singhvi noted that it was “fatally wrong to suggest omission of the two words shows they are not basic’’ to the Constitution. The “1976 amendment only codifies what is inherent.” he tweeted.
Critical of Mr. Prasad’s call for a debate on the two words, the Communist Party of India said: “secularism symbolises the character of our state while socialism symbolises the goal India has to achieve.”
Of the view that the advertisement was part of the “Government’s conspiracy to wipe out secularism in India’’, the CPI noted that the BJP has now come out with its real intention of creating a communal divide in India.
On Wednesday, Mr. Prasad had told reporters that “we do not need these two words to be a secular country; even without them we are secular.” Also, he saw no harm in debating whether these two words should remain in the Preamble; pointing out that they were a legacy of the Emergency and not included at the time the Constitution came into force. He had also indicated that the Government planned to continue using the original Preamble for official purposes.
Source - The Hindu
A day after Union Telecommunications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad indicated that the Government wanted a debate on whether the words “socialist, secular” should be in the Preamble to the Constitution, another Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said there was no plan to remove them.
According to a PTI report from Chennai, Mr. Naidu said the Government was “committed to secularism and there is no thinking to remove” it from the Preamble.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Naidu added that “secularism is in the blood of Indians and it’s a part of our culture.”
Meanwhile, the RSS has chosen to steer clear of the debate triggered by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry using a watermark of the original Preamble — which did not have the words “socialist, secular” — in two Republic Day print advertisements. “We don’t think this deserves any comment from the RSS; we don’t think those who are debating this issue have any depth or right intentions; so it’s better that we don’t speak at this time,” said a senior RSS functionary.
Reacting to Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad seizing upon Shiv Sena’s demand for dropping the two words “ Secular and socialist” from the Preamble to call for a debate, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: “Mr. Prasad’s open defence of Shiv Sena’s demand is proof positive that the BJP is using ally shoulder to fire gun and test waters.”
Referring to the rather heated debate triggered by the advertisements, Mr. Singhvi noted that it was “fatally wrong to suggest omission of the two words shows they are not basic’’ to the Constitution. The “1976 amendment only codifies what is inherent.” he tweeted.
Critical of Mr. Prasad’s call for a debate on the two words, the Communist Party of India said: “secularism symbolises the character of our state while socialism symbolises the goal India has to achieve.”
Of the view that the advertisement was part of the “Government’s conspiracy to wipe out secularism in India’’, the CPI noted that the BJP has now come out with its real intention of creating a communal divide in India.
On Wednesday, Mr. Prasad had told reporters that “we do not need these two words to be a secular country; even without them we are secular.” Also, he saw no harm in debating whether these two words should remain in the Preamble; pointing out that they were a legacy of the Emergency and not included at the time the Constitution came into force. He had also indicated that the Government planned to continue using the original Preamble for official purposes.
Source - The Hindu
MH370 passengers ‘presumed dead’
Malaysia on Thursday formally declared the passengers and crew of missing flight MH370 to be presumed dead, a step that it said opens the door for compensation payments but which was angrily rejected by distraught relatives.
Malaysian authorities and the airline had until now refrained from drawing firm conclusions about the fate of the plane and its 239 passengers and crew, as many desperate next-of-kin continue to insist it may have landed safely somewhere.
But Thursday’s declaration that MH370 was an “accident” was essentially a formal announcement that the plane had indeed crashed somewhere.
Malaysian authorities and the airline had until now refrained from drawing firm conclusions about the fate of the plane and its 239 passengers and crew, as many desperate next-of-kin continue to insist it may have landed safely somewhere.
But Thursday’s declaration that MH370 was an “accident” was essentially a formal announcement that the plane had indeed crashed somewhere.
Source - The Hindu
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