Mizos Organize Peace Festival

Bangalore, Oct 3 : It was not too long ago that hundreds of people of northeastern states headed home in the wake of threats to the community . Many of them later returned to their adopted home. But memories of the exodus loomed large over the Vangpui Kut festival organized by the Bangalore Mizo Association.

The mood, though, was one of healing. Determined to set things right, the community earnestly threw open its doors to other communities at the event organized in Baldwin Boys High School Auditorium on Tuesday.

Over 2,000 Mizos are currently based in Bangalore and most of them are students . Vangpui Kut was held to spread the message of peace, unity and friendship among all communities of Bangalore.

PC Zoran Sangliana, minister for art and culture, government of Mizoram, said India's success story is in spite of its diversities and differences of communities. He observed that the exodus has only strengthened the resolve of the people of Mizo community and Bangalore to remain united. "We will not let those vested interests to spoil our relationship with Karnataka," he said.

As a gesture of goodwill, he invited the Karnataka government to send a delegation during the Chapchar Kut organized in Mizoram in March.

Chapchar Kut is celebrated in March to herald the arrival of spring. The seven-day festival is a celebration of fecundity.

DG and IGP of police Karnataka, Lalrokhuma Pachuau, assured the gathering that the government and his department will be all prepared to prevent any recurrence of the exodus.

The evening was a melange of cultural heritage of Mizos and Kannadigas. The Bangalore Mizo band, Mizoram cultural troupes, Mizo band 'boomaranag' , Dollu Kunitha and Veeragase troupes performed during the evening.

Delhi, The Melting Pot Of Flavours

By Tanu Datta


Amenla - One of the joint owners of The Nagaland Kitchen in Green Park and the Nagaland stall in Dilli Haat that serves delicacies like pork curry and Naga thali.

If one wants to savour the varied flavours of the Indian palate, then the obvious way is to take a tour of the country. But, if one is short on time, then just come to Delhi. Here, one can sample the classic dishes of each region, without having to travel every nook and corner of the country and blowing up a hole in the pocket.

What’s more? Such dishes are prepared by none other than people who are natives of these states. Rabi Sen, who calls himself a refugee from Bangladesh, serves up eclectic Bengali snacks at the most nominal prices at his Chittaranjan Park shop. As the sun sets, one can see visitors thronging in couples, groups and loners for a hog. Sen along with his wife Shobha manages the shop. Shobha contributes in overseeing that the recipes are true to Bengali tastes. “We have a lot of Bengali refugees staying nearby who love to eat at our shop. Food enthusiasts come here as CR Park market no. 1 is where you get all sorts of Bengali delicacies under one roof,” Shobha explains. As you walk out of the shop and go about, you find the Puchka vendor (selling the Bengali version of Golgappas), roam around a little more and you bump into a Ghugnee vendor called Shyamal, who sells the Bengali version of dried yellow peas curry spiced up in true Kolkata style. There are at least two Jhal Muri (Bengali version of Bhel Puri made with puffed rice, mustard oil, onions etc) vendors in market no. 1. There is also a shack selling all kinds of Bengali condiments from the quintessential Kasundi to prawn crackers to Badis and almost everything one can imagine.

Maharashtrian snacks are apparently very popular in Delhi and quite easily available. Deepak Wadhwa’s father came from erstwhile Bombay and presented Bhel Puri to Delhi’s tastebuds when he set shop at South Extension I in 1973. He still remains a hot-seller after all these years. His success can be recorded in his own words, “We sell Bhel Puri and Sev Puri. We also added Jhal Muri to the menu as there was a demand for it. The recipe of Bhel and Sev Puri is from Bombay and we learnt Jhal Muri from a Bengali guy,” says Wadhwa.

A slow but steady demand has increased the presence of Kashmiri food outlets in Delhi. The newest kid on the block is Kashmiri Kitchen near Ghitorni metro station. Owner Pearl Khan doles out “Lahradar kababs, Kokur Yakhni, Mutton Yakhni, Veth Chaman, Mutton Pulao besides the more famous Kashmiri delicacies. The spices are sourced from the state too for true authentic flavour.” Khan says, “Delhi becomes home to people from all states who come and settle here. We have Bengalis coming to Kashmiri Kitchen and liking our food as Kasmiris and Bengalis share a likeness for mutton. We also suit the palate of foreigners very well as we make mildly spicy food which they love.”

Move over to Dilli Haat opposite INA market and you don’t need to trod any further. You will find cuisines of many states here including Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha, Rajasthan, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and more. The little known cuisine of Uttarakhand is being made famous at Uttarakhand stall. “Chausa rice, Jhangoora ki Kheer (made from a special variety of rice), Til ki Chutney are a few of the many Uttarakhand delicacies we serve here,” says owner of the stall A S Rana. He has also been allotted the Dilli ki Dawat stall at Dilli Haat which rounds up many regional delicacies all of Delhi has to offer. “I thought Delhi is a melting pot of cultures and this is a good place to showcase all of them under one roof. So I have momos and Thukpa from the North-east, Tandoori specialities of Punjab, Chole Kulche of Delhi, Biryani of Hyderabad, Lemon rice of South India and a Sattu drink of Bihar.”

The Nagaland Kitchen in Green Park is owned by Chubamanen Longkumer and his sisters. They churn out smoked pork curry, Naga thali and other authentic Naga dishes. They also run a successful stall at Dilli Haat serving the same cuisine. Shiv, the manager at Nagaland stall at Dilli Haat, says, “People love the Pork ribs and Pork Thali. We have people from Nagaland, Delhi and even foreigners coming here to eat.”

Delhi indeed is the place where spices from all parts of the country come together to create an Indian blend.

Family Budgets Go Into Tailspin: Diesel Price Hike Of Rs 5.62 A Litre

The Manmohan Singh government has finally bitten the bullet. It has increased the price of diesel by Rs 5.62 per litre and capped the number of subsidised LPG cylinders for each family to six a year, in a move aimed at cutting the losses of oil companies and reducing the subsidy burden on its shoulders.
The price of diesel in Delhi has increased to Rs 46.95 per litre from Rs 41.32 a litre.

However, branded diesel such as Xtra Mile will be sold at the market price, which could be around Rs 15 more than normal diesel and, in fact, quite close to the price of petrol.

New diesel price - Rs 46.95 per litre. Old diesel price - Rs 41.32 per litre

The number of subsidised LPG cylinders available to each domestic household till March next year (end of current financial year) will be three cylinders.

While subsidised LPG will continue to be available at Rs 399 per cylinder in Delhi, the market rate of LPG cylinders at non-subsidised rates will be notified by the oil marketing companies on a monthly basis.

For a household it means more pain as it will grapple with a price spike across the daily purchase vector. For a family using diesel cars and gas cylinders, the cost of living has escalated all of a sudden.

But from an economic standpoint, the decision was imperative as oil marketing companies were bleeding profusely. Indian Oil registered a net loss of Rs 22,451 crore in the first quarter of this financial year. Similarly, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum piled up a loss of Rs 8,840 crore and Rs 9,250 crore respectively.

The daily loss on subsidised fuel for the oil marketing companies is a scary Rs 560 crore. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum claim that they are currently losing Rs 347 on each LPG cylinder sold to households.

Going by this estimate, the current market price of an LPG cylinder in Delhi would work out to Rs 746. The government had decided not to increase the price of petrol although the current underrecovery on petrol is about Rs 6 per litre.

The consequent loss to the oil companies will be offset through a reduction in excise duty on petrol by Rs 5.3 per litre. The difference in the price of petrol and diesel will now come down from around Rs 27 a litre to around Rs 21 per litre.

This differential was being exploited by those driving expensive diesel cars, leading to the increasing dieselisation of the economy. Over the last one year, the passenger car market has seen an upheaval with diesel cars accounting for 50 per cent of the market.

According to the official statement, the price of diesel has been increased by Rs 5 per litre, excluding VAT which is charged by the state governments.

Out of Rs5, as much as Rs 1.5 per litre is on account of an increase in excise duty. The balance increase of Rs 3.5 per litre will reduce the under-recovery of oil marketing companies by about Rs 15,000 crore for the remaining part of the current financial year.

The under-recovery on the sale of diesel during 2012-13, even after this price hike, is estimated to be above Rs 1,03,000 crore.

The restriction in the supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to each consumer will help in reducing the under-recovery of the oil companies by about Rs 5,300 crore for the remaining part of the financial year.

The under-recovery on sale of domestic LPG during 2012-13, even after this measure, is estimated to be above Rs 32,000 crore. Any number of cylinders will be available over and above the cap of six cylinders at market rate.

The decision, though inevitable, has exposed the UPA to the tirade of the Opposition and allies alike. Most Congress leaders have gone underground to avoid media queries.

A senior party leader declined to comment saying 'we do not have the details' while some others switched off their mobile phones. Trinamool Congress (TMC) has demanded an immediate roll back.
'We are unhappy and astonished that in spite of the formation of the UPA coordination committee after a long time, such a decision was taken without consulting us,' said West Bengal chief minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee.

She said she is ready to withdraw support to the UPA government but that would not serve the purpose.

'If people do not mind, I will be most happy to withdraw support (to the UPA). If I withdraw support then other parties will provide support to them. And, then ask why we left the UPA which led to its collapse. People had misunderstood us when we had withdrawn support earlier.

Therefore, we are having a detailed discussion in the party on these issues,' she said. DMK leader T.R. Baalu also said 'we will oppose the hike'.

Describing the hike in diesel prices as a cruel joke and a mortal blow to the common man and farmers, the BJP accused the government of conspiring with petrol 'mafia' and said it will take to the streets to oppose the hike.

Senior leader Yashwant Sinha said the hike will have a cascading effect on prices and will contribute further to inflation. 'Steep increase in diesel price is going to hit the common man, farmers and labourers.

The Congress has sprayed diesel in coal fire,' said party general secretary Ananth Kumar. CPM leader Basudeb Acharia said: 'This is an added burden on the people. We had suggested reduction in the taxes on petroleum products but instead the government has increased the rates. We condemn this move.'

Decision on 49% FDI in retail and airlines expected today

by SPS PANNU
The government is finally moving to break the deadlock over big bang economic reforms. Major announcements are expected on Friday for allowing FDI in multi-brand retail of up to 49 per cent, permitting foreign airlines to acquire 49 per cent share in Indian carriers and raising the FDI ceiling in direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting and cable service infrastructure to 74 per cent.

On what is scheduled to be an actionpacked day, the cabinet committee on economic affairs is likely to clear a proposal for the disinvestment of five major public sector companies as well.

These include blue-chip aluminum major Nalco, Oil India Ltd, Hindustan Copper, Neyveli Lignite and NMDC.

The finance ministry expects to rake in Rs 10,000 crore through the sale of shares of these companies to help it contain the runaway fiscal.

The government was forced to put the cabinet decision allowing foreign investors to own 51 per cent in Indian supermarkets on hold following protests from its allies.

To appease them, a notification is now expected to be issued permitting 49 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail.

The government has veered around to the view that states which are keen on going ahead with the decision should be allowed to do so. Several Congress-ruled states, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, have already written to the Union government expressing willingness to implement the decision.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has proposed that the FDI limit in broadcast carriage services providers, including DTH, Head-end in the Sky (HITS) and cable TV, must be uniform.

HITS is a satellite multiplex service that provides TV channels for cable operations. At present, 49 per cent FDI is allowed in cable TV and DTH, while it is 74 per cent in HITS. These will now be brought to the same level.

Drug Trafficking: 'Money Funds Terror Acts in India'

By Abhishek Bhalla

A nexus among Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Maoists and insurgent groups of North-East is using money earned from drug trafficking to fund terror activities in India, official sources have said.

Major drug seizures on the India-Nepal border in the past four months have put a spotlight on this revenue generation strategy adopted by terror groups.

Intelligence sources say that the ISI, Maoists and north-eastern groups are hand in glove. In the last four months, Custom officials have seized more than 10 kg of heroin worth `60 crore in international market from the India- Nepal border in Bihar's Araria district.

Indian Maoists watch as villagers dance in a forested area of Bijapur District in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh

Apart from this, 1,000 kg of marijuana and four kg of charas were also seized in the same area. 'The amount of seizure made in the last four months from the Indo-Nepal border drastically exceeds the seizure made in years from across the country.

In the past, not more than three-four kg of heroin was recovered during the entire year,' said a Custom official, who is a part of the team probing the seizures.

While only two arrests have been made in the five cases, counter-terror agencies suspect that the terror nexus is behind this international drug racket.

'This is definitely the most lucrative method of generating funds... The Maoists have managed to procure hi-tech weapons from the US and China.

Where is the money coming from?' an intelligence official said . The information about the big seizures has been shared by other agencies. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Intelligence Bureau have also been roped in.

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A detailed dossier, with all information on the drug syndicate and its links with terror outfits, is also being prepared.

The DRI has already prepared a detailed note on the ongoing probe and forwarded it to intelligence agencies. Even the National Investigation Agency (NIA) - probing the arms procurement of the Maoists - is looking into the financial aspect.

Sources say the entire machinery is well-organised. The procurement is being done by the ISI, while the stocking and distribution are done by the Maoists and N-E insurgents.

Many smugglers are former Maoists who facilitate the drug trade. The drugs being procured are from two blocks - the golden triangle: Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq; and the golden crescent: Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

What has shocked agencies is that unlike in the past, drugs are also being used in India.

'Traditionally India was only a transit route, but now the demand for various drugs is increasing within the country,' said an official from the Narcotics Control Bureau.

India's Womb Services

Our 'rent a womb' child from an Indian baby farm: British couple paying £20,000 for a desperately poor single mother to have their child

• Housewife Octavia Orchard describes the agreement as 'a business transaction'
• The Indian woman will live in a house with other surrogates, has children of her own, but no husband
• 'Her function is to sustain the foetus we have created,' says Mrs Orchard
• Of the £20,000, the Indian woman will earn between £3,000 - £6,000
• Around 2,000 births to surrogates took place last year

By Helen Roberts and Frances Hardy

Strictly business: Octavia and Dominic Orchard have paid for an Indian woman to be their surrogate

A couple tell today how they are expecting a child by a surrogate mother from an Indian ‘baby factory’.
Octavia and Dominic Orchard travelled to the Hyderabad clinic to get around a UK ban on commercial surrogacy. Their baby – due at the end of the year – will be theirs biologically while being born to an impoverished Indian ‘renting out’ her womb.
Mrs Orchard, a middle-class Oxfordshire housewife, admitted the £20,000 deal sounded ‘cold and clinical’ but insisted: ‘This is a business transaction.’
Describing the surrogate mother as ‘just a vessel’, the 34-year-old former estate agent added: ‘There is no altruism involved on the surrogate’s part: she is being paid to have our baby’.
At A clinic in Hyderabad, southern India, a surrogate mother is carrying Octavia and Dominic Orchard’s second child. The couple, who are as English as their bucolic-sounding name, know only the sparest of details about the woman who is pregnant with their baby.
They know she is 31 and has children of her own. They know her name, and that for reasons not explained — perhaps she has been widowed or deserted — she has no husband.
For the duration of her pregnancy she will live with other surrogates, away from her home and family, in a primitive dormitory within the clinic. It goes without saying that she is desperately poor.
Other than that, their surrogate’s life is a mystery to Octavia and Dominic. They chose not to become acquainted with the woman carrying the baby created from Octavia’s egg and Dominic’s sperm.
‘Our baby has no biological connection to the surrogate,’ says Octavia.
‘Her womb is just the receptacle in which it is being carried. Perhaps it sounds cold and rather clinical, but this is a business transaction.
‘There is no altruism involved on the surrogate’s part: she is being paid to have our baby. It’s a contractual arrangement.

 

‘Her function is to sustain the foetus we have created. Her blood is pumping around its body and she is feeding it through her placenta, but she is just a vessel. The baby she gives birth to on our behalf will carry none of her genes and bear no physical resemblance to her.
‘He or she will have white skin and, in all probability, red hair like my husband.
‘Of course I want her to do her best to have a successful pregnancy, and I’ll be very upset — quite devastated, in fact — if it doesn’t go full-term. But we do not want to get emotionally involved with our surrogate’s story. I’m not interested in her background. I don’t want to be part of her life.
‘She speaks a different language. She lives in a world culturally, economically and socially so remote from ours that the distance between us is unbridgeable.

Happy family: The Orchards are looking forward to giving their son Orlando another sibling

Happy memories: The Orchards pictured on their wedding day - they probably wouldn't have predicted the story that was to follow

‘You could also say this is part of my defence mechanism: I don’t want to become more emotionally involved than I already am because the pain will only be intensified if it all goes wrong.’
Some will find it disquieting that the miracle of birth is being reduced to a clinical commercial transaction by a growing number of British couples.
India’s burgeoning surrogacy industry — there are about 1,000 clinics providing surrogates for ‘fertility tourists’ — has been compared to a baby factory in which children are made-to-order for affluent couples who often use donated eggs and sperm to create their baby, and an Indian donor to carry it, choosing everything from their baby’s eye colour to its height.

'I hope my surrogate does something wonderful with the payment'
Mrs Orchard 

The Orchards have not been told how much their surrogate will earn from the £20,000 cost of the treatment — clinics are loath to specify sums — but estimates range from £3,000 to £6,000.
Many will struggle to understand Octavia’s lack of curiosity about the woman who is now 27 weeks pregnant with her child, but she is content knowing that the unspecified sum her surrogate will receive for her services will be life-transforming.
‘I hope my surrogate will do something wonderful with the payment,’ says Octavia.
‘She could educate her children with it; even buy a small house. It makes me feel good that we could help that happen.’
Octavia and Dominic are among a growing number of Britons using Indian clinics to circumvent UK laws that make commercial surrogacy illegal.

'Vessels': The Indian surrogate mothers at an Indian 'baby factory'

Around 2,000 births to surrogates took place in India last year, and Britain supplies the largest number of clients — estimates suggest as many as half are from the UK. The fact that just 100 surrogate births were recorded in Britain last year puts the scale of the Indian operation into perspective.
While some of the couples who attend the Indian clinics are homosexual and use sperm or egg donors, many, like Octavia and Dominic, are driven by infertility to put all their hopes into these clinics in teeming, impoverished cities like Hyderabad.
However, while the vast majority of these British couples choose to remain anonymous, the Orchards have decided to speak out about their own experiences with an Indian surrogate to encourage other British couples to consider the practice.

After 16 weeks of pregnancy, Octavia's amniotic sack failed to fill after her waters broke, and the baby died in the womb 

Octavia, 34, who had a comfortable middle-class upbringing in Oxfordshire, and Dominic, 35, a successful financial management consultant, have been married for six years and have a three-year-old son, Orlando, who was conceived naturally.
‘Orlando brought us such joy. I’ve loved every second of motherhood,’ says Octavia, who now works part-time in her recruitment job so she can spend more time with her son.
The Orchards knew they wanted more than one child, and were delighted when Octavia became pregnant 18 months after their son’s birth.
But after 16 weeks, Octavia’s waters broke prematurely, with catastrophic results: the amniotic sack failed to fill again and the baby died in the womb. She then had to endure an operation to remove the foetus.
‘I felt not only bereft, but completely worthless,’ she recalls. ‘I felt I’d let Dominic down. I couldn’t save our baby, I’d failed as a woman. I’m usually buoyant and positive, but I reached a very low ebb.’
The Orchards tried again for a baby. More sorrow ensued. Last January, Octavia’s obstetrician discovered that the remains of the placenta from her previous pregnancy were still in her uterus. A further operation to remove them followed.

All change: The art of conceiving has been taken to a new level now with the Indian baby-making factory

Then last October a fertility expert diagnosed Asherman’s Syndrome: the scars from Octavia’s successive operations had irreparably damaged her uterus, which had sealed up. She could no longer become pregnant.
‘I cried and cried,’ she says. ‘My confidence deserted me and though friends and family tried to tell me I had a perfect family already, I wouldn’t be consoled. I desperately wanted a sibling for Orlando and another baby for Dominic and myself.’
It was then they considered surrogacy. ‘As I could produce healthy eggs, I just needed a uterus in which our baby could grow,’ she explains. She and Dominic would provide the embryo and their surrogate would incubate it: it seemed simple.
So Dominic researched their options via the internet. He started in the UK — but was worried as the law does not recognise surrogacy as a binding agreement on either side.
‘Even when the baby is genetically related to both intended parents, and not to the surrogate — as ours would have been — there is very little we could do to make our position 100 per cent water-tight,’ she explains.
‘We’d heard stories of British surrogates refusing to hand over babies. We did not want to risk the heartbreak of that.’
Similar rules applied in Australia, while in the U.S. the cost was prohibitively expensive, at around £40,000.
They researched South Africa, and there, too, the law was obscure. But India, it seemed, had different and unequivocal rules. ‘The surrogate is paid. She does a job. You don’t have to become friends with her,’ says Octavia. ‘She carries the baby and hands it over. It’s very clear-cut.’
They chose a clinic in Hyderabad because it was cheaper than rival organisations, and because it also offered a lawyer to negotiate the convoluted bureaucracy involved in securing the baby’s British passport.
Soon after signing up, a box of medication to boost Octavia’s egg production arrived at their home, and in March — Orlando was left with his maternal grandmother — they flew to India for treatment.
Octavia knew what to expect from the subcontinent. Although she spent most of her childhood in Oxfordshire — she attended Samantha Cameron’s alma mater, St Helen & St Katharine School, Abingdon — she lived briefly in India when her father, a pilot, worked there. Dominic, too, had visited on business. Without this knowledge, they admit they would have been alarmed by the dizzying mix of abject squalor and wealth they encountered.
‘If we hadn’t been prepared for what we’d find, we would have been worried,’ concedes Octavia. ‘The clinic was basic and compact, but clean. It was three or four storeys high and the surrogates live on the upper storeys.

Tender time: Octavia and Dominic Orchard, pictured at the birth of their son Orlando

Growing up fast: The Orchards at Orlando's six-month Christening

Three set to be four: The Orchards always wanted a sibling for Orlando - and now their dreams are coming true

‘We did not want to see their quarters: by Indian standards they would have been comfortable; by ours, they would not be considered remotely homely. But we knew our surrogate would be treated well and would be given food and nutritional supplements to help the foetus develop.’
Many believe such arrangements are exploitative, and question whether it is morally right to use uneducated, impoverished women to fulfil wealthy couples’ dreams of parenthood. But Octavia insists the arrangement is mutually beneficial. For her, the quid pro quo is the financial recompense — huge by the standards of impoverished Indians —_ the surrogate will have received.
Octavia and her surrogate were treated within the clinic, but in separate areas. Around ten British couples a year currently use its facilities.
There are 90 surrogates on its books, and it has produced 218 successful deliveries in the past four years.
Octavia’s eggs were harvested and fertilised with her husband’s sperm, before being implanted in the surrogate’s womb, where one embryo is now successfully developing.
Other fertilised embryos produced by the treatment are being stored by the clinic and the Orchards may use them for a third child in the future.
Octavia and Dominic were flying home when the operation to transplant the embryo took place.
They said they weren’t even tempted to glimpse the woman who would transform their lives by carrying their second child.
Now they are back in Hong Kong, where Dominic works. They hope to return to the UK soon — to live in Wimbledon where Octavia worked at an estate agent, or their native Oxford — to raise their two children.

Money talks: Wealthy Westerners are turning to surrogate mothers, and importantly eggs from beautiful Europeans

Meanwhile, all they can do is put their faith and trust in the expertise of the clinic, and fervently hope for a successful outcome to their venture. They are sent videos, photographs of their baby’s scans and details of its development.
They do not know its sex. Gender-testing is illegal in India because so many female foetuses are illicitly aborted. As the pregnancy progresses, they feel a little more relieved. But there is no euphoria: they are too wary to celebrate yet.
‘When we found out our surrogate was pregnant we couldn’t quite believe it, but as every stage is passed — the 12-week scan; the 20-week scan — we feel a little more relieved and the knot of tension in our shoulders starts to ease,’ says Octavia.
‘We thank God for our success so far, but we’re not jubilant yet. I’m itching to get the baby’s nursery organised, but I daren’t. This whole thing feels a little like an out-of-body experience. I do think about the baby but I try not to be consumed by it. To an extent I shut off.’
Orlando has been told he is to be a big brother, and is excited by the prospect. ‘He knows babies come from mummies’ tummies, but we haven’t told him any more yet,’ says Octavia. ‘At this stage he just needs to know he’s loved.
‘Eventually he’ll know mummy’s tummy was not working properly so we borrowed another lady’s tummy. My parents are writing a little book for him, setting it all out in simple language.’

Is it right? The baby-making factory in India gives a whole new meaning to the words 'surrogate mum'

When their baby is born in November, Octavia and Dominic will fly to Hyderabad. ‘We will not be at the birth. It’s a private thing as far as I’m concerned,’ she says.
‘I’m assuming that once the baby has popped out and been bathed, he or she will be handed to us. I’m sure the surrogate will see the baby, but she won’t breastfeed it or cuddle it.
‘We may briefly see our surrogate, too, and I will thank her. I’m certain she will have formed a bond with the baby — no woman who has carried a baby for nine months could fail to do so — but I do not anticipate there will be any problems handing it over. I’ve no worries. She certainly won’t want to extend her own family.
‘I know that we will treat our new baby exactly as we have Orlando. It will be born in a different country and carried in a different body, but it will be no less special, no less of a miracle. It will just have come to us via a very different route.’

The ‘Kannadiga Born in Mizoram’ Feels Bangalore Trouble Was An Exception

By Y P Rajesh

New Delhi, Aug 27 : It is both an irony and reassuring when H T Sangliana, a Mizo-born, Karnataka-cadre former IPS officer, says “we Kannadigas” have always been accommodating and welcoming of outsiders, and the recent events that forced people from the Northeast to flee Bangalore are an exception. In fact, the panic could have been nipped in the bud if the Karnataka police had been more responsive, he said. He should know.

Arguably Karnataka’s most famous police officer, Sangliana is also the most well-known among people from the Northeast who made Karnataka their home. A tough officer who became a legend while in service, he has served as the Bangalore police commissioner and was tasked to nab forest brigand Veerappan. He was the theme of three Kannada hit movies — the second and third were sequels — named after him.

Stories about him and his exploits, real and apocryphal, abound. Among them is one that three non-Mizos in Karnataka legally changed their names to Sangliana, taking him as their role model. The 1967-batch IPS officer became known as a “giant killer” when he defeated Congress veteran C K Jaffer Sharief in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket from Sharief’s bastion, Bangalore North.

Based in Delhi since the end of 2009 after he was appointed vice-chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities, Sangliana said he was in Bangalore on August 15 on a private visit when people from the Northeast began fleeing the city. “Some trouble had started on August 12 itself,” Sangliana told The Indian Express, citing calls he got from northeastern people in the city as well as information passed on by a daughter who lives in Bangalore.

“Besides the rumours about imminent attacks, there were complaints of some Muslim boys stopping Mizo students and asking where they came from. Some others were teased or verbally threatened. One man called me up and said that some boys on a bike had shouted expletives at his wife,” Sangliana said. “Many such incidents were reported from several localities. In some places, swords and clubs were brandished, I am told.”

Many complained to the police verbally or by phone but local officers did not take them seriously, Sangliana said. “Even entries were not made in the station house diary saying there is no evidence,” he claimed. “It seems the police could not gauge the seriousness of the situation. If they had verified these complaints and taken some proactive steps, thousands from the Northeast could have been saved all the hardship.”

While some of the blame should rest with the inexperience of Karnataka’s political leadership, much of it is due to the lack of alacrity of the police, Sangliana said, even though the acting chief of Karnataka police, Lalrokhuma Pachau, is a fellow Mizo, 10 years junior and a good friend.

The episode though, Sangliana adds, has not shaken his faith in what he says is the “friendly and easily accepting” nature of Kannadigas even as he joins the national discourse and admits ignorance about people from the Northeast is widespread and they continue to be branded variously.

“When I joined and came to Karnataka in 1968, people thought I was Chinese,” he said. “When I went to villages in South Canara as a probationary officer, children would make fun of me by calling me ‘chi chi’ or ‘chu chu’. But I was confident they would grow up to understand that I am an Indian and a Kannadiga.”

Sangliana, 69, has spent 31 years in Karnataka — he retired as DGP (Prisons) in 2003 — and his four daughters were raised in the state, studying Kannada in school and learning Kannada songs from his orderlies. “They all speak Kannada. This sense of belonging has to be there, a sense of ownership,” he says, referring to the need for people from outside to integrate into the local culture.

He says he will return to Bangalore after his NCM term ends in December and is willing to return to politics if the people of Karnataka and his party, Congress, want him to. “One day, I will be buried or cremated in Bangalore,” he said. Sangliana was expelled from the BJP in 2008 after he voted in favour of the UPA government in the confidence motion linked to the civilian nuclear deal. He contested the 2009 polls on a Congress ticket from Bangalore Central but lost to the BJP candidate.

For now, Sangliana is writing to Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and other senior officials, requesting them to improve the efficiency of the police so that it is better prepared. He also wants the state government to appeal to educational institutions, employers and landlords to take back people from the Northeast who are returning to Bangalore. “Our friendliness has been the reason for people to come and work peacefully (in Bangalore). We have a mindset of accommodating people,” he said.

Karnataka DGP Tries To Boost Morale Of Northeast People

Guwahati, Aug 26 : Karnataka DGP Lalrokhuma Pachau, who hails from Mizoram, said his NE origin should be used as a morale booster for those from the region who had left Bangalore in the wake of panic triggered by SMS threats.

"I am from the northeast which should be the biggest moral booster for those who left Bangalore to come back to the city and resume their work and studies," said Pachau, who accompanied Karnataka deputy chief minister R Ashoka here on Saturday. Ashoka and Pachau met some of the Assamese youths who left Bangalore to instill confidence and appeal them to return to the cyber city.

Pachau told the youths that even during the height of exodus, no NE native was attacked or harmed apart from some threats issued by rumour-mongers and SMSs. "The Karnataka government promptly swept into action, patrolling in sensitive areas was heightened and sufficient security forces were deployed in places were people of NE reside," said Pachau .

To ensure a sense of safety among NE youths, the DGP said he would be available to solve any of their grievances at his office and residence. "I appeal to you (NE natives) to return to Bangalore. If you face any problem, come to my office or residence," he said.

The DGP felt that there is a need for various NE organisations in Karnataka to be in touch with government agencies. He added frequent interactions and exchanges of information between the government agencies and NE bodies will help the administration to ensure more security.

How Incompetent Are Indian Security Analyst?

By Sinlung

The recent banning of sites due to Northeast India Exodus shows how incompetent Indian IT Security Analysts are. Its 2012 and India claims itself to be an IT powerhouse - yet they can't even do a simple task of filtering traffic.

I would have fired these guys for sure... (its high time to privatize everything from foreign policy to National security at least someone is doing it for profit openly and can be held accountable - instead of corruption and incompetents running the show.)

Why wordpress.com or blogger.com amazes me...its beyond my comprehension. Do they even know what a domain and a sub domain is? My Goodness...

You can read an analysis by Prakash here.



A pie chart of India’s blocked site.

The Loneliness of Karnataka DGP: Lalrokhuma Pachau

By Johnson T A

Bangalore, Aug 21 : For 57-year-old Lalrokhuma Pachau, the flight of hundreds of people belonging to the Northeast from Bangalore has been a particularly painful experience. As Karnataka’s acting police chief, the 1977-batch Indian Police Service officer from Mizoram is sad that even his presence and assurances were not able to stop 28,000 people of his region from leaving Karnataka’s capital in fear between August 15 and 18.

“I feel really bad for what is happening,” he said with pain etched on his face at the sidelines of a press conference last week where he tried once again to send out the message that the Karnataka police under his leadership was doing all it could to ensure the safety of people from the Northeast, who were fleeing from fears that they would be targeted by Muslims after Ramzan.

“I have been sending letters and talking to the DGPs of Northeast states telling them that all the people of the Northeast who are here for various reasons will be protected. Anybody spreading messages against them, posing threats to them or indulging in verbal or physical threats will be arrested,” Pachau who has been the acting police chief of Karnataka since June 1, said.

A soft-spoken, reticent man compared to another Mizoram police officer who served as Bangalore’s police chief, H T Sangliana, Pachau is little known outside of police circles. Sangliana’s high-profile, publicity-driven tenure, in comparison, had seen him all the way to a Parliament seat.

Pachau in fact returned to Karnataka only early this year when the opportunity to become the state DGP opened up following the retirement of his seniors Abdul Rehman Infant and Shankar Bidari. In October 2007, he had taken an inter-cadre transfer to go to home state Mizoram to become the DGP there.

A legal battle being fought by Bidari over his removal as DGP — currently in the Supreme Court — has meant that Pachau has only held concurrent charge as the Karnataka police chief along with a regular position as head of the Criminal Investigation Department in the state. Bidari had been removed over alleged human rights violation during a special operation in the 1990s against sandalwood smuggler Veerappan.

According to officers within the Karnataka police, Pachau, who will have three years of tenure if made the full-fledged DGP and IGP, has been hindered in his functioning due to the temporary nature of his appointment. This lack of full authority has played a role in the police chief not being able to come out with authority in the media and other forums to assure safety of people of the Northeast in the current crisis, a senior IPS officer said.

“With full authority, work efficiency can increase by 25 per cent. In the present condition, Pachau is hesitant to come forward fully because he may worry over the government applying the brakes on his moves. Until he is declared the police chief, it is natural that he will have apprehensions,” a senior police officer said.

Over the last week, many people have suggested that Pachau should have been more voluble in addressing the fears of the Northeast people. The acting police chief however has always acted within the chain of command at his disposal.

Known to be a clean, upright, non-controversial officer, Pachau is also known in the police ranks as someone whose mettle has never really been tested in Karnataka.

“He is a very nice gentleman. He holds no bias. He adheres strictly to chains of command. He is perceived as being soft however. He would not like to get into complex problems and he likes to see things go smoothly,” said an officer who served under Pachau in a posting a few years ago.

Another reason for Pachau not engaging with complex problems may be a lack of grip over the local language, culture and politics, with local caste affiliations playing a major role in all realms. “When you are not from the state, you cannot be perceived as being too harsh and strict and that works for and against people like Pachau,” the officer said.

However, the chances of Pachau being made a permanent DGP soon have increased since fleeing of people from the Northeast. Last week, the Karnataka government affected long-pending mass transfers of police officers. Appointment of a full-time DGP is expected to follow.

“It is a strange coincidence that since Pachau became the acting police chief, we have seen issues involving people from the Northeast being among his chief challenges. First there was the Richard Loitam case (involving the death of a Manipuri boy after a fight at his college hostel) and now there is this flight of people,” a senior police officer said.

India: The Land Of The Largest Number of Separatist Movements in The WORLD

India – The White Elephant, The land of the largest number of Separatist Movements in The World.

English: Map of the British Indian Empire from Imperial Gazetteer of India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you ever questioned why India is spoken positively in Western Media in this last decade. This last decade where the world was once more bi-polar, the Western world looked to the loyal Hindus and extended a hand of friendship very similar to the East India Company.

Beyond the marketing, glam of silos of investments in Delhi & Mumbai the nation is not held together and nor is it stable. With the worlds most poorest and systematic segregation of communities, ethnicities and religions it is far from the secular and democratic utopia it declares itself to be. This is a very schizophrenic nation where the power is held in silos within a selected historic Brahmin & upper caste Hindu strong holds.

Violence against minorities and what these Hindus term the minority commuities continues even today, against Dalits, Muslims, Christians & Sikhs. This is a nation of many but ruled by a few holding the vast majority captive and at gun point. India has much to do if it wishes for progression and equality.

Flag adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1931. First hoisted on 1931-10-31 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is a little known fact, an unwrit law that if your Dalit or Muslim you will find it 10 times harder to find employment or place to live including rent, it is 10 times harder for Muslim and Dalit children to secure a place in a reputable university.

This is a nation that promotes itself as being modern, progressive but is still very much holding onto it’s colonial past and plagued with traditions and cultures stemming from a prehistoric faith that treats fellow humans as bi-products. An extremely zealot, religious nation where the upper class Hindus see himself closest to God and others as insects that they would see crushed.

Soon after India’s independence it was a given assumption that India, because of its diversities, will not survive as a single state, but will break up into separate states. In the brutal manne rin which Independent India crushed many separtist movements for legitimate nations seeking to reclaim their nations from The British.

India Gate (Photo credit: aroris)

Since India’s independence in 1947 there were many attempts by different communities in India to establish independent countries and this continues to this day. These calls for indpendence are legitimate born out of Indian opression and occupation but subsequent neglect of some once very resource rich and hihgly skilled nations that had fell to the British Raj.

In Kashmir, in north India, there were organizations and underground organizations which demanded first to attach Kashmir to Pakistan and later on started demanding an independent Kashmir state.
In Punjab, to the south of Kashmir, the Sikhs demanded an independent Sikh country to be called Khalistan.

English: KLF Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In north- east India as in Kashmir to this day there are demands for separate states by different groups. North -east India was, during British period, province of Assam. In this region which borders China, there are many communities which are referred to under Indian law as tribes. These tribal people have Chinese appearance and speak in languages from the Sino-Tibetian family. Since India’s independence, many tribal communities in this region, in the beginning with Chinese support, tried to establish independent states apart from India and witnesed very recent just how volatile this reason is. In the 1960s rebellions from Mizoram region even declared independence. The Indian army brutally suppressed these rebellions with great attrocities.

The north east of modern India and South East continue to strive for independence and continue to wage a organised freedom struggle.

Flag of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In south India, before India’s independence there was a demand for an independent Dravidstan for the whole of south India. After India independence, this demand was mild down for autonomous Dravidian states within the Indian union. But the Tamilians who emigrated from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka demand an independent state in north Sri Lanka and it is presumed they receive lot of support from Indian Tamilians.
India always quick to point the finger at others often forget that it is a damning insult to secular and democratic ideals. Many Westerners are oblivious to the poverty and displacement of wealth / investment in India. India is a white elephant – a facade and continues to be very unstable.

Flag of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With an alignment with USA to contain or harm Chinese interests in Asia pacific and to destabilise Pakistan through Afghanistan. India also gets lost in the glam and marketing in its new found accolades emanating from the West and does not realise just how a volatile game she plays. India is not a stable nation, far from it be this socially or economically and its communal differences can very easily be its downfall.
A rise in Hindu terror groups tareting Muslims, Sikhs & Christians as seen in Gujerat, Punjab and Orissa can stoke the fire that can engulf the nation.

Unable to resolve its issues internally it uses the Hindu right wing organisations to crush dissent from within not realising this self flagellation can cost her daily. Unable to provide for its many homeless and poor and lost in the marekting of shining India and is knowingly being pushed to support an American agenda in Central Asia but also Asia Pacific that will have long term repercussions on its very fragile and volatile federation.

English: Photograph showing cadres of the cadres of the armed separatist group, PREPAK (People’s Revolutionary Party, Kangleipak) of Manipur. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is a list of just some of these sepratist movements;
1. National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)
2. United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS)
3. Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO)
4. Bodo Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF)
5. Dima Halim Daogah (DHD)
6. Karbi National Volunteers (KNV)
7. Rabha National Security Force (RNSF)
8. Koch-Rajbongshi Liberation Organisation (KRLO)
9. Hmar People’s Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
10. Karbi People’s Front (KPF)
11. Tiwa National Revolutionary Force (TNRF)
12. Bircha Commando Force (BCF)
13. Bengali Tiger Force (BTF)

Banner of the UNLF (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

14. Adivasi Security Force (ASF)
15. All Assam Adivasi Suraksha Samiti (AAASS)
16. Gorkha Tiger Force (GTF)
17. Barak Valley Youth Liberation Front (BVYLF)
18. United Liberation Front of Barak Valley
19. United National Liberation Front (UNLF)
20. People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
21. People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK)
22. The above mentioned three groups now operate from a unified platform,

india kerala boat people (Photo credit: FriskoDude)

23. the Manipur People’s Liberation Front (MPLF)
24. Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP)
25. Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL)
26. Manipur Liberation Tiger Army (MLTA)
27. Iripak Kanba Lup (IKL)
28. People’s Republican Army (PRA)
29. Kangleipak Kanba Kanglup (KKK)
30. Kangleipak Liberation Organisation (KLO)

English: JKDLP flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

31. Revolutionary Joint Committee (RJC)
32. National Socialist Council of Nagaland — Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM)
33. People’s United Liberation Front (PULF)
34. Kuki National Army (KNA)
35. Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA)
36. Kuki National Organisation (KNO)
37. Kuki Independent Army (KIA)

Kashmiris dont think of themselves as Indians.English: Location of Jammu and Kashmir in India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

38. Kuki Defence Force (KDF)
39. Kuki International Force (KIF)
40. Kuki National Volunteers (KNV)
41. Kuki Liberation Front (KLF)
42. Kuki Security Force (KSF)
43. Kuki Liberation Army (KLA)
44. Kuki Revolutionary Front (KRF)
45. United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF)
46. Hmar People’s Convention (HPC)
47. Hmar People’s Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
48. Hmar National Army (HNA)
49. Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA)
50. Zomi Revolutionary Volunteers (ZRV)
51. Indigenous People’s Revolutionary Alliance(IRPA)
52. Kom Rem People’s Convention (KRPC)
53. Chin Kuki Revolutionary Front (CKRF)
54. Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC)
55. Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC)
56. People’s Liberation Front of Meghalaya (PLF-M)
57. Hajong United Liberation Army (HULA)
58. National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) – NSCN(IM)
59. National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) – NSCN (K)
60. Naga National Council (Adino) – NNC (Adino)
61. Babbar Khalsa International (BKI)
62. Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF)
63. International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF)
64. Khalistan Commando Force (KCF)
65. All-India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF)
66. Bhindrawala Tigers Force of Khalistan (BTFK)
67. Khalistan Liberation Army (KLA)
68. Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF)
69. Khalistan Armed Force (KAF)
70. Dashmesh Regiment
71. Khalistan Liberation Organisation (KLO)
72. Khalistan National Army (KNA)
73. National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT)
74. All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)
75. Tripura Liberation Organisation Front (TLOF)
76. United Bengali Liberation Front (UBLF)
77. Tripura Tribal Volunteer Force (TTVF)
78. Tripura Armed Tribal Commando Force (TATCF)
79. Tripura Tribal Democratic Force (TTDF)
80. Tripura Tribal Youth Force (TTYF)
81. Tripura Liberation Force (TLF)
82. Tripura Defence Force (TDF)
83. All Tripura Volunteer Force (ATVF)
84. Tribal Commando Force (TCF)
85. Tripura Tribal Youth Force (TTYF)
86. All Tripura Bharat Suraksha Force (ATBSF)
87. Tripura Tribal Action Committee Force (TTACF) Socialist Democratic
88. Front of Tripura (SDFT)
89. All Tripura National Force (ATNF)
90. Tripura Tribal Sengkrak Force (TTSF)
91. Tiger Commando Force (TCF)
92. Tripura Mukti Police (TMP)
93. Tripura Rajya Raksha Bahini (TRRB)
94. Tripura State Volunteers (TSV)
95. Tripura National Democratic Tribal Force (TNDTF)
96. National Militia of Tripura (NMT)
97. All Tripura Bengali Regiment (ATBR)
98. Bangla Mukti Sena (BMS)
99. All Tripura Liberation Organisation (ATLO)
100. Tripura National Army (TNA)
101. Tripura State Volunteers (TSV)
102. Borok National Council of Tripura (BNCT)
103. Mizoram
104. Bru National Liberation Front
105. Hmar People’s Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
106. Arunachal Pradesh
107. Arunachal Dragon Force (ADF)
108. Left-wing Extremist groups
109. People’s Guerrilla Army
110. People’s War Group
111. Maoist Communist Centre
112. Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)
113. Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Janashakti Other Extremist Groups
114. Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT)

Money Spent By Army on Northeast Pictorial Trilogy Under Scrutiny

By Shyamlal Yadav & Ritu Sarin

New Delhi, Aug 14 : A three-volume work on the Northeast published by the Indian Army last year is under scrutiny over the money spent on the exercise. In reply to an RTI application by The Indian Express, the Army revealed that the pictorial volumes had cost it Rs 93.15 lakh, possibly the highest ever amount spent on a publication project by it.

Author Kunal Verma, however, pointed fingers at the change of guard from General V K Singh to General Bikram Singh, saying “Phase Two” of his project had been put on the backburner since the former Army chief demitted office on May 31. Verma’s father, Maj Gen (retd) A K Verma, was among those who filed a PIL in the Supreme Court against Bikram Singh’s appointment along with retired Navy Chief L Ramdas, former IAS officer M G Devasahayam and four others.

Under Phase Two, the trilogy would have been translated into major vernacular languages and distributed in schools throughout the country. The estimated cost of publishing 10,000 sets for each state: Rs 30 crore.
Officials in the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the money spent on the publication was currently under “scrutiny”. In addition, the RTI reply stated, the Army spent approximately Rs 50,000 on each of the six functions held to release the book, while Verma was paid approximately Rs 25,000 to attend each of them.
V K Singh had attended three of these functions, including on January 15 in New Delhi on Army Day and in Kolkata on May 19, a few days before his retirement.

In the RTI reply, the Army said the volumes “have been published under arrangements of the Indian Army to promote the Northeastern region”. “The Indian Army periodically undertakes publication of books and miscellaneous literature for strategic and national security purposes and for consumption of internal environment — the details of which are exempted from disclosure under RTI.”

Questioned about the money spent on his project, Verma (the volumes were co-authored by his wife Dipthi Bhalla) said it was hardly exorbitant given the “scope”. Of the over Rs 90 lakh, he said, Rs 57 lakh was paid to the printing press for 6,000 sets of the volumes, and he and his wife had spent almost three years working on them.

According to Verma, the funds, in all probability, came from the “perception management” funds of Military Intelligence.

He added that the proposal discussed with V K Singh (when he was posted as Eastern Army Commander in Kolkata) also conceived a “Phase Three” — including an exposition and exhibition on the Northeast in several cities and a few foreign countries.

Claiming there had been complete silence from the Army the past few months, Verma said: “I am happy I achieved Phase One and that the trilogy was published by the Army. Now the ball is in the court of the new Army Chief. I feel if they do not move on the original plan of bringing out vernacular editions, the money spent on Phase One will all be wasted.”

Indians, Geography, Northeast India & Mary Kom

By Sinlung

Amitabh Bachchan's Twit: which he later clarified....

Where do we start? geography, politics, under-development, unrepresented?

The twit says it all...Assam, Manipur, Northeast India. Where is it? China? Maybe in Katmandu.

Mary Kom, thank you for giving mainland Indians a lesson and good luck with the fight today.

POWERLESS: Northern Grid Fails Again in India

India's northern and eastern power grids fails, leaving about half the country without power.





For a second day running the Northern power grid collapsed today leaving the national capital in the dark but this time the Eastern power grid also buckled.

The national capital went black today with passengers aboard the Metro services having to patiently wait in the trains until electricity supply resumed. Train services across states in the north and east were badly hit.

Yesterday seven states stopped receiving electricity early in the morning as the Northern power grid collapsed and was restored only after a few hours. Today the Northern power grid collapsed around 1.07 pm and the Eastern power grid collapsed soon after.

CNN-IBN reported that the fault could take five to six hours to resolve.

2.09pm: It has now been confirmed that 12 states have been affected by the grid collapses. Meanwhile a statement from the power ministry has said that essential services be restored in the next two hours. This would translate to power for hospitals, VVIP areas, trains etc. There is still no word on when power to homes and offices will be restored.

As many as 300 trains in North India alone have been affected by the collapse of the Northern and Eastern grids, with many more trains likely to have been impacted in the Eastern states.


The CPRO Northern Railways, Neeraj Sharma, speaking to CNN-IBN, said they will try to run some trains and make alternative arrangements like diesel power. The Delhi and Kolkata Metros are also not running.

The reason for the grid failures in the North and East have reportedly been caused because frequency has dipped below the optimal level. However officials have been unable to identify exactly where the fault has occurred., so it will take more time for them to get the grids back up and running. Meanwhile officials have said that Delhi’s VVIP areas will receive 100 MW of emergency power.

Massive power failure in North India: Delhi metro services hit

New Delhi, Jul 30 : Seven states in North India have been facing a long power cut since late Sunday night. Due to a massive breakdown in the northern grid, the main power source for the affected states, there has been a massive power outage.

The affected states are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

There is no power in Delhi and its neighbouring states since 2 am reports IBN-Live. According to the report, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that it’ll take another one and a half hour’s time to restore power. “My officers are on the spot. The fault is found near Agra. It will be corrected in one and a half hour time,” he said.

Thousands of commuters in the Delhi Metro will face a harrowing time on Monday morning as services of all the lines of the Metro have been disrupted due to tripping of power supply.

Train services on the 190-km Metro network connecting length and breath of the national capital were affected due to The Northern Grid failure also caused power cuts in large parts of Delhi.

“Metro service will not be available today (Monday) till the supply is restored as it is a major Northern Grid power failure,” a Delhi Metro official said.

The Delhi Metro normally operates over 2,700 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 1.8 million passengers on week days.

PA Sangma: A Chair too far?

Sangma is pinning his hopes on the support of his fellow tribal members of Parliament, state lawmakers, “conscience votes” and even miracles to become President

By Liz Mathew

New Delhi: When P.A. Sangma was demitting office as labour minister in 1995, his office staff wanted to give him a going-away present. Asked what he wanted, Sangma replied he would like to take away his office chair.

The staff duly completed the formalities and presented Sangma the cane and wooden chair—a gift he has preserved until now.

Sangma as chief minister of Meghalaya in 1988 .(India Today images)

The anecdote may illustrate Sangma’s love for positions of power, which the chair, known as kursi in Hindi, has come to symbolize in Indian politics.Like the Congress’ Pranab Mukherjee, the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA’s) candidate in Thursday’s presidential election, Purno Agitok Sangma rapidly climbed up the power ladder after he entered national politics in his 30s.

Born in the village of Chapathi in West Garo Hills, Meghalaya, a fortnight after India won independence, Sangma was politically savvy enough to grab the opportunities that came his way in the Congress party, which was eager to project him as a symbol of its pan-India presence.

Always directly elected to Parliament (he has been elected to the Lok Sabha for eight terms), Sangma was minister of state for industry, commerce, home and labour before becoming chief minister of his state in 1988.Re-elected to Parliament in 1991, he served as minister for coal, labour, and information and broadcasting before becoming speaker in 1996. Interestingly, Sangma was unanimously elected speaker at a time when his party, the Congress, was in the opposition. He was expelled from the party in 1999 for raising the issue of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins, and went on to found the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar, who were expelled from the Congress for the same reason.

As an MP in 1998 (Hindustan Times)

But now, at 64, Sangma is no party’s candidate in the presidential election he is fighting as an independent, winning the support of some opposition parties with sheer political enterprise.With his daughter Agatha Sangma, a Lok Sabha member and minister of state in the Congress-led coalition government, and a few close aides lending him support, Sangma began his campaign from Bhubaneswar, where he secured the support of Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal.

As an independent presidential candidate drumming up support in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh .(Rajeev Gupta/AP)

His next stop was Chennai, where he won the backing of Tamil Nadu CM and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J. Jayalalithaa. Neither Patnaik nor Jayalalithaa are part of a broad alliance at the national level.The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was clueless about its strategy in the presidential election, had no option but to back Sangma after it failed to persuade former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to join the race.
In his pursuit of the president’s office, Sangma hasn’t hesitated to play the tribal and Christian cards. At his meeting with Patnaik, he presented his credentials as a tribal with aspirations to become India’s first citizen, aiming to strike a chord with Patnaik’s main support base of tribals.

With Congress MPs (from left) S. Krishna Kumar, Maharani Bibhu Kumari Devi and former governor of Meghalaya M.M. Jacob in 1991. (Hindustan Times)

Accused by some of being an opportunist in taking the Hindu nationalist BJP’s support for his presidential race while being a Christian, Sangma turned the argument on its head by stating that being Christian made it easy for him to forgive. “Forgiveness is the essence of Christianity... We don’t go by small incidents here and there,” he told reporters in New Delhi, in response to critics who pointed to the perceived anti-minorities stance of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP.Though he has always held positions of power and been popular in his constituency Tura—from where he won the first of his eight Lok Sabha terms in 1977—the one possible black mark against Sangma is that he abandoned leaders who trusted him and held him in high esteem.
Many Congress politicians still can’t forgive Sangma for what they see as his betrayal of Sonia Gandhi. “She had full trust in his ability to lead the Congress in the north-eastern region. She was deeply hurt by what he had done,” said a Congress general secretary, who did not want to be named.

Spinning a wheel at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on 6 July.(Ajit Solanki/AP)

In pursuit of his presidential election, he has left the NCP and Pawar, who didn’t back his candidacy. “He can’t accept any leaders nor can be a disciplined leader. He gives too much importance to himself, which will not work in politics and when you have to work in a party framework. If you are in politics, you will have to learn to respect leaders,” said Kumar Gyanendra, general secretary of the NCP youth wing. The youth wing has launched an internal party campaign to put pressure on the party leadership to eject his daughter Agatha from the NCP.“It shows Sangma’s dual political stand. He lets his daughter campaign against the UPA candidate while she continues to be a minister,” Gyanendra said.

Another NCP leader, who has worked closely with Sangma for almost a decade, said he would be a better president than Mukherjee because he knows “the pulse of the people and he is thorough with the legislative process and the Constitution”. The leader declined to be named.

The BJP, which surprised everyone by throwing its weight behind the former Congress leader, has several reasons for supporting him.

“Sangma has got everything that makes a president virtuous and deserving enough to get our support. He is from the North-East and belongs to a minority community. He has...done a lot for the poor in his own state Meghalaya. Sangma has vast political experience and his acceptance is beyond the boundary of ideology,” BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay said.

“We may admire the personal quality of Mukherjee, but it is our democratic dharma to support those fighting corruption and air their disapproval of UPA alliance of corrupt governance. Hence, Sangma stand(s) out as the tallest leader in the presidential election,” Vijay said.

His cherubic face, hearty laugh, quick wit, boundless enthusiasm and a spotless political career have won him many friends and admirers. A chain smoker until a few months ago, Sangma also loves his food and drink. The family home is open to all.

“I think people love his simplicity, his nature as an approachable person,” said James Sangma, one of his two sons. Although his father has been a disciplinarian, life at home is fun when he is around, James said. “I have always been impressed by his integrity, principles and sincerity,” added James, a legislator in the Meghalaya assembly.

The numbers in the electoral college do not favour Sangma; Mukherjee has already been assured of more than 60% of the votes.

Sangma is pinning his hopes on the support of his fellow tribal members of Parliament, state lawmakers, “conscience votes” and even miracles. “Yes, miracles can and do happen in this world,” Sangma said, when a suggestion was made that only divine intervention could help him win.

Elizabeth Roche and Sahil Makkar contributed to this story.

Pranab Mukherjee 2 Set of Signature

Indian Mainstream Media News channels are not considering enough Pranab Babu's two sets of signature.

If that's Sangma's, the image would appear on TV screen day and night.

And Pranab should say he uses two set of signatures.

Simply asking, 'Can I forge my own signature?' is insufficient.

Sangma needs clarification regarding these two sets of signature.

North-East Faces Flood Fury, North India Left Parched

New Delhi, Jun 3 : The monsoon has wreaked havoc with its presence as well as absence in different parts of the country. While many areas in the North-East have been flooded, leaving thousands of people homeless, there are no signs of rains in North India, which is reeling under the heat wave along with unprecedented power cuts and water crisis.

Floods and landslides have left 77 people dead and six are reportedly missing in Assam and all of its 27 districts are facing monsoon fury. The Kaziranga and other wildlife sanctuaries haven't been spared either.

The Army, the IAF and National Disaster Relief Force personnel are involved in rescue and relief operations.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi have reached Jorhat to oversee relief operations in the rain-hit areas.

Floods have also rendered 75,000 people homeless in Meghalaya. The Brahmaputra and the Kapili rivers are flowing above the danger mark at various places.

Meanwhile, North India is dry and has been awaiting the rains hoping for some relief from the scorching heat. It was a sultry Sunday in Delhi at 43.5 degrees Celsius and temperatures in other states were way above normal too. The minimum in Delhi stayed four notches above normal to settle at 31.4 degrees Celsius, the Met office said. The Bhakra Nangal Dam has critically low level of water in its reservoirs.

Uttar Pradesh continued to bear the brunt of searing heat with Allahabad recording the highest at 45.1 deg C. The temperature was largely above normal in Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Moradabad, Jhansi, and Agra divisions, however, the day temperatures fell in Faizabad division, according to MeT.

The data released by the weather office shows that rainfall has been 31 per cent deficient so far, 83 per cent of the country, including the granary states of Punjab and Haryana, have received deficient or scanty rainfall.
Heat wave in Rajasthan also showed no signs of abating as temperature in Churu district touched 46 degree Celsius followed by Sriganganagar at 45.8 deg C.

But the Met department insists that rains are on the way and are likely to hit North India and revive in the South by later this week. Met officials also say that the temperatures will drop drastically in the north.

For now, however, North India is struggling to get power and water with no drop of rain. The farmers are now frequently taking their protests to the streets in Kurukshetra where there is an acute power shortage. Dozens of villages there get only just over four hours of power per day.

This year has seen a delayed onset of monsoon rains over Kerala and they have been making a sluggish progress drawing concerns from the farming community.

It still remains to be seen whether the Met department's claims for North India are accurate even as the North-East continues to be flooded.

BJP Supports PA Sangma For President

Sangma thanks BJP, says I'm very much in Presidential race

NEW DELHI: Reconciling with division within NDA over presidential poll, BJP today announced its support to P A Sangma to pit him against UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee.

The party, which failed to persuade allies like Shiv Sena and JD(U) to support Sangma, argued that it was its duty as the main Opposition party not to allow a "walkover" to Congress which did not "consult" it.

Announcing the decision at a press conference, BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley said the main opposition party could not support a government which is using "various manoeuvres", including investigative agencies, to rope in parties to stay in power.

"BJP has decided to support the candidature" of Sangma, whose candidature has been proposed by AIADMK and BJD, Swaraj said.

Describing Sangma as "the country's tall leader" as also northeast's "tallest leader", she appealed to allies like Shiv Sena and JD(U) to give up their opposition to his candidature.

Swaraj and Jaitley regretted that BJP could not persuade its allies and have a consensus in the NDA over the issue but insisted that it would have no impact on the "mature" coalition.

To press her point, she noted that Shiv Sena had earlier also voted for UPA nominee Pratibha Patil during the last presidential poll even though NDA had opposed her candidature but still remained part of the alliance.

Swaraj and Jaitley said BJP was trying to bring Trinamool Congress on board but refused to reveal how it was being done.