Hazare told Khurshid 'he had no choice'

New Delhi, Aug 3: Anna Hazare had nothing against the Congress and was aware of the shortcomings of some of his Team Anna colleagues but “had no choice because the movement would be damaged”, union Law Minister Salman Khurshid said the social activist told him during a “secret meeting” between the two on June 23.

Hazare seems to speak one language when he is alone and another in the company of India Against Corruption (IAC) members, Khurshid said about the activist.  Giving a detailed account of their meeting, Khurshid told the Tehelka news magazine that it had been arranged by their common friends who felt the two should meet “in national interest” as they shared similar sentiments on the issue. The two spent two hours discussing the issue over breakfast that day, says Khurshid.

“Anna volunteered that he had decided not to tour the country and would not fast on 25 July and 9 August,” writes Khurshid.

When the minister asked Hazare what he was demanding, “he repeated the three issues of the Sense of the House Resolution” - a citizens’ charter, placing the lower bureaucracy under Lokpal, and establishment of Lokayuktas in the States.

When Khurshid explained that the three were “all included with the adjustment on Lokayukta because of objections on State legislatures having jurisdiction, he expressed satisfaction. He merely wanted that very formulation to be expressed in a letter.”

He then said if the UPA government did this, any dent to its standing in public would quickly be repaired.

“When I expressed doubts about the intentions of his colleagues, he said he knew of their shortcomings but had no choice because the movement would be damaged. But if they did something very wrong, he was prepared to desert them.”

He specifically said Kiran Bedi has full faith in him and would listen to him and that Justice Santosh Hegde was very reasonable and good. About Baba Ramdev, he said that the Baba used Anna’s name for support but that their agendas were entirely different.

“Before leaving, I wondered what to say if I was asked about the meeting. He said there was nothing wrong in saying an untruth for the good of the country. I think he relied on some allusion to Gandhiji. He also said that Gandhiji had said that you cannot always get complete satisfaction in an andolan and should be happy with the substantial success. So not everything sought in the Lokpal was to be insisted upon. Furthermore, the Lokpal was no guarantee of eliminating corruption but it is a good beginning. Even campaigning against a political party is not necessarily successful and he pointed to the Uttar Pradesh poll results. Two weeks later, we sent a draft letter to Anna and received some suggestions of minor changes. The letter that was finally sent was therefore already approved by him. At the draft stage, he even told his friend that he no longer cared if Team Anna got to know of the meeting,” Khursid added.

However, when Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V Narayanasamy put the three issues in a letter, based on a draft that Hazare had seen and accepted, the social activist did not agree.

“We still don’t know if there is anything in the letter he disagrees with, except to say he does not accept that he helped in trying to reach a consensus. He seems to speak one language when he is alone and another in the company of IAC members,”V Narayanasamy said. (IANS)

Hegde opposes Hazare move to float political party

Bangalore, Aug 3: Social activist Anna Hazare should not form a political party to fight for his just cause as entering politics would be an expensive proposition, former Supreme Court justice N Santosh Hegde said on Friday.

He was speaking to reporters at the Freedom Park in the city centre where about 100 activists of India Against Corruption have been on a week-long fast in solidarity with Team Anna’s hunger-strike in New Delhi.

Welcoming Team Anna’s decision to call off the indefinite fast and explore an alternative strategy for a strong Lokpal law, the former Karnataka Lokayukta (ombudsman) said he would not, however, oppose if any member of the team wanted to contest elections.

Noting that Hazare had said he would not fight elections or vie for political power, Hegde said it would be unfair to link the crusader with the alternative move as Hazare was neither forming a political party nor was keen on contesting elections. “As Anna said in his speech on Thursday, do not link his name with politics or elections as it is important to keep his identity separate as he stands for fight against corruption and cleansing the system of its ills,” Hegde observed.

Noting that the need of the hour was to bring about a revolutionary change in Indian politics and governance at all levels, Hegde said the grave situation the country was facing warranted honest and clean people to enter politics.

Admitting that forming a political party and contesting elections were a Herculean task in the absence of cadres, infrastructure and financial support, Hegde said though there was no wrong in going for an alternative system to fight corruption and improve governance, the Anna Team would require massive support of the people across the country and resources to sustain the proposed political platform.(IANS)

Party , government or both for Rahul?

New Delhi, Aug 3: Will it be party, government or both for Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in his enhanced role ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election? No answers yet to that most asked question but most Congress members say they want him to enter the government and also play a more central role in the party.

There is a sense of anticipation in India’s oldest party since Rahul Gandhi announced he was ready to play a more proactive role in both the party and the government.

Congress members at various levels said that they wanted Rahul Gandhi (42) in the government to hone his administrative skills and also assume a more enhanced role in the party. But many of them refused to be quoted considering the sensitivity of the issue.

A Congress member said the party scion joining the Manmohan Singh government will spur it into taking faster decisions and improve its image.

Son of Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi came into electoral politics in 2004. He was appointed a general secretary in 2007 and given charge of the Youth Congress and the NSUI. The younger Gandhi now represents Amethi, formerly his mother’s constituency, in parliament. (Sonia Gandhi has shifted to Rae Bareli.)

Rahul Gandhi’s participation in the government would enable him to take a closer look at the inner dynamics of a coalition government, say many.

Party general secretary Digvijay Singh has suggested that the young leader should take on bigger responsibility in the party and indicated that this would come about by September.

Party leaders feel that Rahul Gandhi should go beyond his present role in the frontal organisations and take a role in the party’s mainstream. Many party functionaries insisted that a bigger role for Rahul Gandhi was the best hope for the Congress, whose influence across the country has rapidly shrunk in recent years.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid stunned everyone last month when he said the party had seen only cameos of thoughts from Rahul Gandhi and was waiting for a new ideological direction from him.

Ten Congress MPs have urged Sonia Gandhi to make her son the leader of the house in the Lok Sabha in succession to Pranab Mukherjee, now the country’s president.

Congress Seva Dal chief Mahendra Joshi said Rahul Gandhi should work both in the party and the government as “both will be strengthened by his work”.  He rejected criticism that the Nehru-Gandhi family scion had failed to deliver in recent state elections.

Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav said Rahul Gandhi had transformed the organisation into one that is democratic, performance driven and has greater rural orientation. “Senior Congress” will benefit from the experience, he believes.

But Gandhi, who is perceived to be the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2014 elections, is unlikely to find the going easy in his task to transform the fortunes of the Congress, given the Central Government’s credibility deficit over corruption and poor economic growth.

The party faces major problems in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Rahul Gandhi's critics in the opposition have sought to raise questions over his leadership ability by pointing to his limited interventions in parliament and his perceived shy nature but Congressmen say their leader has his own way of working.  (IANS)

'Want to take contemporary folk to next level'

New Delhi, Aug 3: Assamese singer Papon says he is on a mission to take his native State’s folk music to a “different level” by mixing it with electronic beats to create what he calls “folktronica”.

Born to Assamese music legends Archana Mahanta and Khagen Mahanta, Papon was introduced to local sounds in his childhood.

“My father is a folk legend, so I could understand folk and liked it myself. I thought folk should go somewhere, because it was not heard everywhere. I wanted to take our music to the next level. So now, I’m trying to make contemporary folk happen in a new sound state,” Papon said.

The singer began to work on his aim seriously when he formed the band Papon and The East India Company in 2007. The market for folk was not too big back then, but the scenario is brighter now, he says.

Papon’s discography also includes popular Bollywood songs like Jiyein kyun (Dum Maaro Dum) and Zindagi aisi waisi (I Am Kalam). Lately, he has developed a fan following with his association with MTV Coke Studio, where the youth get to connect with his new age sounds that are deeply rooted in his native culture.

He has faith in his music, and says: “It’s not yet big, but it is going to be bigger.”

His art has also bagged him a nomination at the annual Global Indian Music Academy Awards (GIMA) for his first Hindi album The story so far.., and he is excited. But what is it that excites him more - a live stage performance or a studio recording? “I enjoy both equally. There are two sides of me - one side loves interacting with people, because music is all about human stories. If you’re doing human stories, then you should connect with humans around. I love doing live and I connect with the people. I’m possessed when I’m on stage,” he said. “And while making music in the studio, it’s you and your world. When you close your eyes there, everything around you is everything you want it to be. So that is another stage. It’s heavenly,” he added. (IANS)

Censor board becoming more liberal: Director Dibakar Banerjee

New Delhi, Aug 3: Even as many filmmakers feel the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has become more strict about content, critically acclaimed director Dibakar Banerjee begs to differ. He says the board has now adopted a more liberal attitude.

Lately, the censor board has been especially particular about letting explicit, intimate, abusive and titillating content make it to the big screen - either as part of a sequence in a film or even as part of a movie trailer.

Banerjee says his last film Shanghai was passed without any cuts, except “just a voluntary cut.” But what troubles the 43-year-old are the motives of several public activists, who try to impose self-censorship prior to any film’s release.

“I don’t think censors are censoring films as much as the other public activists’ self-appointed censorship. It’s our own society and we are proscribing ourselves. I don’t think we could lay the blame on the government’s role and absolve ourselves from being conservative, reactionary and fearful of our own descent,” he said.

Asked if this was planned or it just happened, Banerjee said: “It depends on your own personal growth or personal decline, whichever way you want to take it. Nothing was planned.”

“In fact, when Khosla Ka Ghosla came out, a lot of people said that it is very refreshing and intense; a lot of people also said that they enjoyed it, though it was not light comedy at all. Oye Lucky... was darker, Love Sex Dhoka was even darker. I would agree, somewhere compromises are getting lesser and lesser, but at the same time the pressure to deliver a bigger project started building up. So it’s the fight between two impulses,” he added.

Banerjee admits his films don’t cause a flutter at the box office, but says he feels content with audience reactions.

“When people come to me and say they have liked my film or they have understood my film, I feel less lonely and less scared because being at odds can be a scary situation. People make films to make money and be famous, and I am no different. I want to be different, but there is something that needs to be derived by making films like Shanghai or LSD,” he added.

After Shanghai, Banerjee revealed he is working on two scripts, one of them a detective thriller. (IANS)

Shinde is new Leader of House in Lok Sabha

New Delhi, Aug 3: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will be the new leader of the house in the Lok Sabha, replacing Pranab Mukherjee, who is now the country’s president. Parliamentary Affairs Minister PK Bansal said here on Friday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had nominated Shinde to the post.  Shinde (70) is a Congress MP from Solapur in Maharashtra and is a former chief minister of the state.  Shinde was on Monday shifted from power ministry and appointed home minister in place of P Chidambaram, who became the finance minister.  Party sources said Shinde’s seniority and his cool temperament had worked in his favour for a post that requires constant interaction with the opposition to sort out contentious issues.  Lok Sabha rules state that the leader of the house “shall be the Prime Minister or otherwise a minister nominated by Prime Minister”. Speculation had been rife about Shinde’s appointment as the leader of the house in the Lok Sabha though 10 Congress MPs had petitioned party president Sonia Gandhi last month that party general secretary Rahul Gandhi should be appointed to the post.  A party MP had suggested that Sonia Gandhi herself should take over the post.  (IANS)

Sanjeev Nanda's sentence reduced in BMW hit-and-run case

New Delhi, Aug 3: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Delhi High Court order reducing the prison sentence of Sanjeev Nanda, the main accused in the January 1999 BMW hit-and-run case in the national capital, from five years to two years. Six people were killed in the January 10, 1999, accident. An apex court bench of Justice Deepak Verma and Justice KS Radhakrishnan said that Sanjeev Nanda will undergo two years of community service, failing which, he will have to undergo a simple imprisonment of one year. The court asked the ministry of social justice and empowerment to decide within two months on the community service that Nanda will be asked to perform. The court directed Nanda to deposit Rs 50 lakh with Central Government, which in turn will create a fund to pay the victims of the 1999 road accident. The court, describing Nanda’s action of speeding away from the spot of accident as “reprehensible”, said that he was interested in his own safety than saving lives of the victims. (IANS)

Team Anna cannot be alternative to BJP: Gadkari

New Delhi, Aug 3: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Nitin Gadkari on Friday welcomed Anna Hazare and his team’s announcement to enter the political arena but stressed that it could not become an alternative to his party. In an interview to NDTV news channel, Gadkari said the BJP supports “anyone who’s against corruption, be it Anna Hazare or Baba Ramdev. If Anna seeks our support, we will help”. He said Team Anna could not become an alternative to the BJP but the Congress could.  He also said his party did not face any threat from this new group. To a question whether all was well with the National Democratic Alliance, which his party heads, especially with Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Nitish Kumar taking a different stand on various issues, Gadkari said NDA was “intact”. He added that he was confident that Nitish Kumar would stay with the coalition. (IANS)

Aamir asks Nitish Kumar to popularize generic medicines

Patna, Aug 3: Bollywood star Aamir Khan has urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to make available generic medicines in the State widely. Aamir had first highlighted the issue on his TV show Satyamev Jayate. An official in the chief minister’s office on Friday said Aamir had written a letter to Nitish Kumar in this connection. An official in the health department said Aamir requested Nitish Kumar after Health Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey sought the actor’s help in creating awareness and popularize generic medicines among the people. Aamir said in his letter that generic medicines would make a huge difference to the middle class, lower middle class and the poor. Aamir wrote to Nitish Kumar that Rs 35,000 crore of generic medicine manufactured in India were exported annually to other countries. Choubey said the Bihar government had already decided to provide generic medicines in all government hospitals and health centres, but the policy was yet to be implemented. (IANS)

PETA India to sensitize children towards animals

New Delhi, Aug 3: In a bid to develop respect and compassion among children towards animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has advocated the introduction of humane education in schools across India, an official said on Friday. PETA has forwarded the ‘compassionate citizen humane-education resource material’ for children aged 8-12 years to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. “We will be meeting him next week to discuss the issue further,” Guru S Nair, PETA India supporter and vice chairman of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) cultural cell said. “We will also be meeting CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) chairperson Vineet Joshi soon,” he added. According to PETA India’s senior education coordinator Puja Mahajan, teaching the importance of tolerance and compassion to a child will stem violence in society at large. “Lack of respect for other species can translate into insensitivity and cruelty towards humans too. It is well documented by psychologists, sociologists and law-enforcement officials that violence against animals by children is often an early warning sign of future acts of violence towards humans,” she explained. (IANS)