legislation which was rapidly evolving toward full-blown apartheid. Despite his later claims, Gandhi did not immediately champion the rights of indentured laborers, the underclass of mainly low-caste South Indians who had been transported to labor in mines and on plantations in conditions of semi-slavery. He was also yet to become the staunch anti-imperialist of later years. Hoping to gain concessions from the British colonial authorities, he organized an Indian stretcher battalion to serve in the Boer War, and in an ignoble episode in 1906 assisted (also as the leader of a corps of stretcher-bearers) in the brutal suppression of a Zulu uprising.

Throughout Gandhi’s time in South Africa there is no sign of any attempt to make common cause with the black majority. Imprisoned with Zulu convicts, he reportedself-imposed celibacy, taken in 1906, was to become the foundation of his moral authority in the eyes of the Indian masses. Nearing 70, he had a wet dream. The “degrading, dirty, torturing experience” was shattering, he wrote. It “made me feel as if I was hurled by God from an imaginary paradise where I had no right to be in my uncleanliness.”

Gandhi returned to India in 1914 and threw himself into the struggle for self-rule. Repeatedly imprisoned by the British, he led a campaign of civil disobedience, culminating in the Salt March movement of 1930, which, as Mr. Lelyveld writes, “shook the pillars of the Raj” and resulted in 90,000 arrests after Gandhi defied a British tax by the simple act of going to the seashore and harvesting


— definitions that were both spiritual and political.

Mr. Lelyveld has restored human depth to the Mahatma, the plaster saint, allowing his flawed human readers to feel a little closer to his lofty ideals of nonviolence and universal brotherhood.

Hari Kunzru is the author of three novels. His next, “Gods Without Men,” will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2012.

A version of this review appeared in print on March 30, 2011, on page C6 of the New York edition.

How Gandhi Became GandhiBy GEOFFREY C. WARD

Published: March 24, 2011

Some years ago, the British writer Patrick French visited the Sabarmati ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat, the site from which Mahatma Gandhi led his salt march to the sea in 1930. French was so appalleda noteworthy book, nonetheless, vivid, nuanced and cleareyed. The two decades Gandhi spent in South Africa are too often seen merely as prelude. Lelyveld treats them with the seriousness they deserve. “I believe implicitly that all men are born equal,” Gandhi once wrote in the midst of one of his campaigns against untouchability. “I have fought this doctrine of superiority in South Africa inch by inch.”

It actually took a long time for the Mahatma to turn that implicit belief into explicit action, Lelyveld reminds us. When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi arrived in Durban from Bombay in 1893, he was a natty 23-year-old British-trained lawyer, hired to help represent one wealthy Muslim Indian trader in a dreary civil suit against another, and primarily interested in matters of religion and diet,


not politics: in an early advertisement he proclaimed himself an “Agent for the Esoteric Christian Union and the London Vegetarian Society.” But, Lelyveld writes, “South Africa . . . challenged him from the start to explain what he thought he was doing there in his brown skin.”

Initially, Gandhi was simply affronted that discriminatory laws and bigoted custom lumped educated well-to-do Indians like him with “coolies,” the impoverished mine, plantation and railroad workers who made up the bulk of the region’s immigrant Indian population. The nonviolent campaigns he waged to bring about equality between Indians and whites over the next 20 years would lead him — slowly and unsteadily, but inexorably — to advocate equality between Indian and Indian, first across caste and religious lines and then between richand poor. (His identification with the aspirations of black people would not come until long after he had left Africa.)

As Lelyveld shows, the outcomes of Gandhi’s campaigns in South Africa were neither clear-cut nor long-lasting: after one, his own supporters beat him bloody because they thought he’d settled too quickly for a compromise with the government. But they taught him how to move the masses — not only middle-class Hindu and Muslim immigrants but the poorest of the poor as well. He had, as he himself said, found his “vocation in life.”

Soon after returning to India in 1915, Gandhi set forth what he called the “four pillars on which the structure of swaraj” — self-rule — “would ever rest”: an unshakable alliance between Hindus and Muslims; universal acceptance


of the doctrine of nonviolence, as tenet, not tactic; the transformation of India’s approximately 650,000 villages by spinning and other self-sustaining handicrafts; and an end to the evil concept of untouchability. Lelyveld shrewdly examines Gandhi’s noble but doomed battles to achieve them all.

He made a host of enemies along the way — orthodox Hindus who believed him overly sympathetic to Muslims, Muslims who saw his calls for religious unity as part of a Hindu plot, Britons who thought him a charlatan, radical revolutionaries who believed him a reactionary. But no antagonist was more implacable than Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the brilliant, quick-tempered untouchable leader — still largely unknown in the West — who saw the Mahatma’s nonviolent efforts to eradicate untouchability as a sideshow at best. He even objectedsmolders just beneath the uneasy surface. Untouchability survives, too, and standard-issue polychrome statues of Ambedkar in red tie and double-breasted electric-blue suit now outnumber those of the sparsely clothed Mahatma wherever Dalits are still crowded together.

Gandhi saw most of this coming and sometimes despaired. The real tragedy of his life, Lelyveld argues, was “not because he was assassinated, nor because his noblest qualities inflamed the hatred in his killer’s heart. The tragic element is that he was ultimately forced, like Lear, to see the limits of his ambition to remake his world.”

Nonetheless, Lelyveld also writes, while he may have “struggled with doubt and self until his last days,” Gandhi “made the predicament of the millions his own, whatever the tensions among them, as no other leader of modern


times has.” And, for all his inconsistencies, his dream for India remained constant throughout his life. “Today,” Gandhi wrote less than three weeks before he was murdered by a member of his own faith, “we must forget that we are Hindus or Sikhs or Muslims or Parsis. . . . It is of no consequence by what name we call God in our homes.”

That was a revolutionary notion when he first urged Indians to unite against their oppressors in South Africa before the turn of the 20th century. It was revolutionary when he came home to India at the time of World War I, and still revolutionary in 1947 when India was simultaneously liberated and ripped apart by the religious hatred he had repeatedly risked his life toquell, and sadly, it remains revolutionary today — for India and, by extension, for the wider world as well.

Geoffrey C. Ward, a biographer and a screenwriter for documentary films, spent part of his boyhood in India and is currently writing a book about partition.

A version of this review appeared in print on March 27, 2011, on page BR1 of the Sunday Book Review.

Gandhi, India’s God-Like Founding Father, Was Bisexual, According to New BookNot Only Was Peace Maker Gay, But He Had Racist Tendencies, Says Pulitzer-Winning Author of ‘Great Soul’

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMESMarch 30, 2011

Was Mahatma Gandhi gay? A new book by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Joseph Lelyveld claims the god-like Indian figure not only left his wife for a man, but also harbored racist attitudes.

Gandhi, who led India to


independence and is a universal symbol of peaceful resistance, had another side — a more human one. In a biography that hit stores this week — “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle With India,” former New York Times reporter Lelyveld insists that Gandhi was gay, or at least bisexual.

His lover was Hermann Kallenbach, a German-Jewish architect and bodybuilder. The couple built their love nest during Gandhi’s time in South Africa where he arrived as a 23-year-old law clerk in 1893 and lived for 21 years, Lelyveld writes.

Much of the intimacy between the two is revealed in Kallenbach’s letters to his Indian friend. Gandhi left his wife, “Ba,” — an arranged marriage — in 1908 for Kallenbach, a lifelong bachelor, according to the book.

In letters, Gandhi wrote topolitical ambition,” said Chakrabarty.

The Wall Street Journal review of the book said it recast Gandhi as “a sexual weirdo, a political incompetent, a fanatical faddist, implacably racist, and a ceaseless self-promoter, professing his love for mankind as a concept while actually despising people as individuals.”

Lelyveld says in his author’s note that the book takes “a fresh look, in an attempt to understand his life as he lived it. I’m more excited by the man himself, the long arc of his strenuous life, than by anything that can be distilled as doctrine.”

At the age of 13 Gandhi had been married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji, but after four children together they broke up so he could be with Kallenbach.

As late as 1933 Gandhi wrote a letter telling of his unending


once to characterise comments by Gandhi early in his stay in South Africa, part of a chapter summarising his statements about Africans and his relations with them. The chapter in no way concludes that he was a racist or offers any suggestion of it.”

Psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar, one of the first to write on Gandhi’s sexuality in ‘Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality’ and later in ‘Mira and Mahatma’, is yet to read the book but has gone through an ocean of archives on Gandhi and says he never discovered anything that the reviewers claim the book consists of.

Kakar remembers finding references to Kallenbach during his research but not the way the reviewers have portrayed it. He says if the book has what reviewers claim then it is plain “stupid.”goal of establishing a ‘pure’ Hindu Rashtra. This, as well as the other sinister designs of the Hindutva terror brigade, are stored in recordings on Pande’s laptop, which was recovered by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) led by Hemant Karkare in 2008.

Another recording has Delhi Hindu Mahasabha chief Ayodhya Prasad Tripathi talking about his links with an anti-Islamic group based in the UK. “We are in regular touch with Stephen Gaus in England. He is a dreaded anti-communist and anti-Islamic. His units are growing rapidly in France, Germany, England and America,” Tripathi is heard saying. In yet another recording, Malegaon blast ‘mastermind’ Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit talks about contacting King Gyanendra of Nepal for the training and shelter of the Abhinav Bharat men.

Then, Pande mentions using the


of Mohan Bhagwat, the sarsanghchalak, ‘ Indreshji’ is one of the Sangh Parivar’s main strategists. He is alleged to have been the major force behind communalising the Amarnath agitation in 2008 and also mobilising the Madhesis in Nepal against the Maoists. He launched the Muslim Ekta Manch to rally together ‘ nationalist’ Muslims.

Investigating agencies are examining his links with Devendra Gupta, key accused in the 2007 Ajmer Sharif bombing. Also being probed are his ties with Sunil Joshi, suspected to be the bomber behind the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif blasts.

The main suspect in the 2007 blasts, this RSS pracharak was a friend of Malegaon accused Pragya Thakur and also faced the charge of murdering a local Congress leader. He was close to Swami Aseemanand, who had warnedhim of the imminent threat to his life post the blasts. Joshi had said to his friends that his mentor was Indresh Kumar. Investigating agencies are probing Joshi’s hand in the Amritsar- Lahore Samjhauta Express blasts in February 2007.

Born Sudhakar Udaybhan Dwivedi, he has taken on many names. He started life as Swami Amrutnand Devtirth and then took on the more pious- sounding title of Shankaracharya and settled in Kashmir.

All the terror meetings were held in his presence and all the accused addressed him as ‘ swamiji’. His habit of recording all meetings and saving them on his laptop proved to be his undoing. The recordings are being used as evidence against him and his cohorts. Apart from these audio and video clips, cops have also found a


even RDX from an Army depot. Ironically, the man who wore Army colours is heard declaring in the Pande tapes that he doesn’t believe in the Constitution. The ATS says he knows about the other blasts and the people who carried them out, but he refuses to talk. Purohit was not averse to making money on the side. He was into gun-running as well.

8.Swami Aseemanand

Mastermind Ã¤nd good friend of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

The ATS does not list him as an accused, but he’s very much under the scanner. The Kolkata native, known as Jatin Chatterjee before he donned his ochre robes, came to the Dangs district of Gujarat for a campaign to bring Christian converts back into the Hindu fold. A respected leader of the RSS, Aseemanandmuslims accused of: One of Abhinav Bharat’s founders. Close to Pandey and Purohit

Also known as Prem Singh Sher after he embraced the Khalsa Panth in 1999, Sharma is a two-time BJP Member of the Lok Sabha. He was first elected from East Delhi in 1991 and then in 1996. He fought the last parliamentary elections in 2009 from Delhi North East, but lost to Jai Prakash Aggarwal. In a video recording accessed by Headlines Today, he is seen in discussions with Pandey and Purohit on starting a terror movement against Muslims. The meeting is believed to have taken place at a Nashik temple in 2007.

12.Rakesh Dhawade and Sharad Kunte

Linked with bomb making accused of: Dhawade, of imparting bomb training. He accuses Kunte of being engaged in the same


task

A research fellow at the Institute of Research and Development in Oriental Studies (IRDOS), Pune, Dhawade has been charged by the Maharashtra ATS with “imparting training and exploding a bomb in Parbhani and Jalna”. Dhawade is said to be a ‘weapons collector’ because of his vast collection of antique arms. In a statement recorded before a magistrate, Dhawade has named Sharad Kunte, a Pune professor who teaches at the Narsooji Wadia College, as the man who taught students to make bombs. Kunte was the VHP’s Pune unit president for many years. He has been questioned by the ATS, but not booked.

The Indore resident, who is among the 14 who have been charged with the murder of a local Congress leader in August 2003, was picked up by theRajasthan ATS from the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh on May 14. The ATS got wind of him after it had questioned the Ajmer blast accused, Devendra Gupta and Chandrashekhar Borad, who had been arrested on April 29. Sunil Joshi, deceased suspected bomber, was also one of the accused in the Congress leader’s murder. Sharma is out on bail in the case. The common link that binds all of them is their loyalty to the fiery sadhvi, Pragya Thakur.

United to divide BharatThe key people who were prepared to go to any length to wreck India for their dream to establish a Hindu Rashtra.

Read Surfers’ Comments

Posted by: C. K.Siliguri | August 25, 2010 | 13:16 IST

Terrorists do not have any religion, and therefore, the act of terrorism cannot be


violence spreadin entities r not humans but ANIMALS who fear peace for no reason….. SHAME ON U

Proud Indian, Hyderabad | July 18, 2010 | 22:26 IST

Initially, some SIMI activists were arrested in connection with the Mecca Masjid blasts. The court acquitted them saying that the prosecution could not prove their culpability. The court also admonished the Andhra police for carrying out the investigation in a most haphazard manner. Andhra was and is having a Congress government and the police there was receiving orders from the Congress government. Mumbai ATS arrested Sadhwi Pragya Singh in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast. To make the job of the ATS easier, Sadhwi Pragya, who was receiving advice from a senior military strategist, left a motorbike registered in her name at theanimosity towards citizens of India practicing religion other than theirs. However, The most alarming part of today’s RSS is how they are reaching out to Israel to develop international terror links to harm India. Remember Babuji had cautioned us about Israel and warned us about RSS by giving ultimate sacrifice with his life.

Samiruddin, USA | July 18, 2010 | 21:02 IST

Is India Today paid by missionaries and/or Sonia? If so, I expect India Today to have enough moral courage to admit it with details or does India Today believe that “Blessed are the cowards, for they shall inherit the earth”?

Indian, USA | July 18, 2010 | 19:00 IST

Public execution of all these people. Ban RSS, VHP and BJP. Peace peace peace

AK, USA | July 18, 2010 | 17:37


2,000 people there, no one was injured.

Madhav, however, asserted that though several newspapers had reported on the alleged involvement of Sangh leaders in terror activities, the news channel had “violated norms of decent journalism”.

Suspected Sangh Parivar activists had allegedly barged into the office of TV Today office in New Delhi on Friday and vandalised the lobby after it telecasted a sting operation on an alleged plot to assassinate Vice President Hamid Ansari.

The activists allegedly stormed into the building housing Headlines Today and its sister channel Aaj Tak. They damaged furniture in the office lobby, police said.

Read Surfers’ Comments

Posted by: ashkar kkdubai | July 18, 2010 | 16:39 IST

verygood ,,,,they know how to say sory

Posted by: DivyeshUSA | July 18, 2010 | 15:10 IST

BJP is risking of becoming aShiv Sena clone by thriving the communal hatred. It is also degrading the party by attacking the freedom of press and enjoying glories in violence. BJP leaders like Advani and Modi are the most arrogant people and they use abusive language for their political opponents particularly during election campaigns (Gadkari uses any time). Use of harsh and cheap language shows the culture of a person and the party discipline. BJP is becoming more of a regional party losing its status as the national party.

very good ,,,,they know how to say sory

ashkar kk, dubai | July 18, 2010 | 16:39 IST

BJP is risking of becoming a Shiv Sena clone by thriving the communal hatred. It is also degrading the party by attacking the freedom of press and enjoying glories


in violence. BJP leaders like Advani and Modi are the most arrogant people and they use abusive language for their political opponents particularly during election campaigns (Gadkari uses any time). Use of harsh and cheap language shows the culture of a person and the party discipline. BJP is becoming more of a regional party losing its status as the national party.

Divyesh, USA | July 18, 2010 | 15:10 IST

Ram Madhavji, why should we apologize people are appreciating attack on this bloody channel, these media people should learn a lesson from people lest they would continue to blackmail innocent with false propaganda, a cbi enquiry should be conducted on properties owned by media people.

chandra, hyderabad | July 18, 2010 | 12:12 IST

The Sangh’s behaviour confirms its fascist character. NoHigh Court, rail roko, Jat agitation

Posted: Mon Mar 28 2011, 21:30 hrs

Jaipur:

The Rajasthan High Court on Monday sought explanation within a week from the Centre and state government, as to why elected representatives participating in or supporting agitations which led to rail and road blockades, should not be booked for waging war against the country.

A single judge bench of Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari issued show cause notices to the Central Home Ministry, Chairman of Railway Board, Chief Secretary of Rajasthan, Director General of Police (Rajasthan) and General Manager, NW Railway, in the wake of agitations in recent past during the Jat stir as well as the Gujjar agitation that crippled train and road transportation in the state.

The Court passed this order on a writ petition filed by Kashi


Radia is allegedly heard in the tapes making a case for Raja to get the telecom portfolio and ensure that Dayanidhi Maran (also of DMK) is kept out.

Ratan Tata also figures in some of these purported conversations with Radia.

Representatives of four key players and alleged beneficiaries, namely Reliance (Anil Ambani Group), Airtel, Swan Telecom and Unitech, have been summoned on April 5.

BANGALORE: Beleaguered chief minister B S Yeddyurappa can heave a sigh of relief — at least for the time being. The Lokayukta police, who are looking into corruption and land grab cases involving Yeddyurappa, his sons and his son-in-law, have decided not to file an FIR against the CM immediately — but after they complete investigations, which may take a month or two.

“In consultation with legal experts,of metropolis. One piece was available around Tryambakeshwar, a famous Hindu pilgrimage center, 18 miles away. Luckily, I found that it belonged to my distant cousin. When I visited him after about fifty years, he was overjoyed. The first question he asked me as to why I wanted it? I quoted government’s permission. He, then, regaled me with stories about real estate agents offering government land parcels near Gangapur earthern dam. Several eager NRIs were duped with fake ownership land records. It seems to me that Karnataka case is not unique. I regret this anecdotal example. My cousin bought this parcel along with his friend from the government with proper papers. It was a forest land. The proceeds from that legitimate sale helped the government to stabilize the


is proud of her sexuality is not clear; to that extent, its scope is limited. Stories of women who work in the most depressing conditions in the unorganised sector would have made the study more interesting.

The tenor of the book gives an impression that nothing has changed fundamentally over the years. There is a certain finality in the tenor in many sections of the book, where the author articulates her own conclusions and views, which, in the absence of a logical trajectory of events, do not appear convincing.

For instance, in the preface, while describing the period of the 1950s and 1960s, the author says that “a silent, almost unnoticed revolution was taking place at the bottom end of the ubiquitous middle class where money was a problem. Educatedgirls were now viewed as economic assets.” Girls who had graduated from high schools, she writes, began to enter the job market as nurses, teachers, stenographers and bank clerks. But there are no data to support this. There is also no indication that this was region-specific and contingent upon the specific conditions of development and maybe social reform in some States.

In the sectors mentioned in the book, women from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan were definitely not coming out in large numbers to work even in the 1950s and 1960s. They were mostly agricultural workers. Some statements obfuscate the repression and economic pressures in middle-class families. For instance: “The education and autonomy of middle class women had had a trickle down effect. Even working class families were


getting their daughters educated and many of these young women were entering the job market. They brought home pay packets that transformed the lifestyle of the family.”

PAUL NORONHA

Women labourers from Maharashtra and the border villages of Karnataka wait for jobs on a pavement in Mumbai. Stories of women who work in the unorganised sector would have made the book more interesting.

The discrimination in education continues even today. A recent national survey on primary education revealed that boys were more likely to be sent to private schools, while girls of the same family went to government schools.

The overall situation is clearly not in black and white and the author does bring out shades of grey occasionally. With a limited understanding of what gender actually means (even her respondents doera under Turko-Afghan and Mughal dynasties, colonial rule and the independent state after 1947”?

This comes after nearly half a century of debate on historiography among Indian historians with regard to periodisation, as well as the need to write history incorporating perspectives from below, apart from the subaltern encounter. The material presented is organised around four interrelated themes to focus on gender and female sexuality, that is, pre-modern social, religious, cultural, political paradigms of women in male-authored texts; their later resurrection by men and women for contemporary political and social purposes; women’s narratives in their social contexts; and the contentious issues of female agency and objectification.

TRAVERSING VAST GROUND

The book traverses a vast ground. There are pertinent and extensive quotes from classical texts. These are supplemented by and counterposed with


Commission.

ERA SEZHIYAN’S labours for freedom during the Emergency have not received the recognition that is their due. As Member of Parliament he won respect for his studiousness and dignity. Recently, he wrote a fine study on the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. It is very appropriate that he should have retrieved the three volumes of the Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice J.C. Shah, on Indira Gandhi’s proclamation of the fraudulent Emergency and the brutalities and the excesses that followed in its train and published them in full in this volume.

His preface explains why and how he undertook this task. He found on the Internet that Indira Gandhi had recalled copies of the report and had themdestroyed. It was a tribute to the quality of its censures. The National Library of Australia had the third and last volume; the School of Oriental and African Studies in London had all three. That is not unprecedented. A student of the Kashmir dispute or the boundary dispute with China will have to seek the records since 1914 from the British Library in London. The National Archives of India will not provide them.

Era Sezhiyan had preserved his copies of the three reports. He has published them here in full as a permanent record of the Emergency, together with some of the important cases that Justice Shah had investigated and commented on and an introduction by Sezhiyan. He raises a pertinent question: Have the records of the Shah Commission


totally committed to the concept of democracy, which is also true. There was Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan and others who believed in the concept of democracy as the only one that would keep the country together and take it forward.

Like true democrats they believed that dissent was an essential part of democracy, and that the country would only be enriched by debate and discussion, even by agitation if that became necessary. Their belief was complemented by their direct contact with the people; the trust that people had in them made it possible for them to persuade them to accept, enthusiastically, the beliefs and ideas they gave them.

But when such leaders and people are not there any more, what happens to the parties and institutions they have built andit must have been as surprised as anyone else. On the other hand, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) had a strategy that he had worked on for years – to give people the kind of development and security they had been yearning for – and his victory was no surprise, except perhaps to his opponents, and their surprise was more at the magnitude of his success than at the victory itself. It made their strategies and plans look comic in comparison.

Nitish Kumar is an exception, and a phenomenon confined to Bihar. At the national level, and in most other States, the structure of democracy is being subjected to forces that may well change it completely over time. To understand that one has, perhaps,


is in what appears to be an inevitable slide towards oligarchy, where an elite takes over power – political and economic. It is economic, too, of course. All the big corporate giants are busy grooming their sons and daughters to take their place among the power elite; Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani are only one instance of this. Even the much-revered Tata group is reportedly looking for a Tata to head it once Ratan Tata leaves; Rahul Bajaj has already inducted his son into his empire, so has Vijaya Mallya.

The German sociologist Robert Michels developed a concept that is common knowledge now – the iron law of oligarchy. He says, in effect, that democratic institutions, both political and economic, must inevitably transform themselves into oligarchic entities as thecare, within a span of a fortnight following infection caused by contaminated intravenous (IV) fluid injection and unhygienic conditions in a leading government hospital in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan has made a mockery of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the flagship health programme of the Union government. The goal of the mission, launched in 2005, is to provide “integrated comprehensive primary health care services, especially to the poor and vulnerable sections of society”.

The deaths would have gone relatively unnoticed had they occurred over a period of time. It became public only after relatives of one of the deceased women raised a hue and cry.

That the deaths took place at Umaid Hospital, one of the oldest and largest government hospitals, predating Independence, was even more shocking. The majority


of the women were poor or belonged to lower-middle-class families and had been admitted to the hospital in an advanced stage of pregnancy. They came from far-flung areas of Barmer, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur districts which lack facilities for obstetric care. Some of them had traversed more than 300 kilometres.

All the women who died were between 21 and 34 years of age. Fourteen of them died after giving birth to healthy babies. Women in Rajasthan are known to be vulnerable to maternal mortality owing to nutritional deficiency and the risk caused by complications during delivery. The State has the third highest maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the country, at 388 per 1,00,000 births. But the latest deaths are a scathing indictment of the state of maternal health care andthe public health system in general in the State.

As many as five committees, including one by the Central government, were constituted to inquire into the incident. According to Divisional Commissioner R.K. Jain, the conclusions drawn by a three-member team deputed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have not been made available to the State government or to the office of the Jodhpur Divisional Commissioner. A second viewpoint came from a three-member team, which included a microbiologist from Jaipur. The doctors commented on the lack of hygiene in the labour room and operation theatre of the hospital. Another inquiry, by the S.N. Medical College administration, confirmed contamination and unhygienic conditions as factors responsible for the spate of maternal deaths. A sample of the contaminated IV fluid


batch has been sent to the Central Drug Laboratory in Kolkata for verification. Two more inquiries, one by the Divisional Commissioner himself and the other by a four-member team of medical experts from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, were instituted. Meanwhile, the hospital administration suspended a storekeeper and the area drug inspector.

On the basis of the findings of the inquiry carried out by the Divisional Commissioner, the State government suspended three doctors for negligence and lapses in the procurement of medicines. This response came after repeated demands to fix responsibility on senior hospital authorities. The doctors against whom action has been taken are Sushila Boda, head of the gynaecology department at Jodhpur Medical College; Ajay Malviya, Chief Medical Officer (Stores), Mahatma Gandhi Hospital; andas basic as childbirth. They demanded that proper discharge papers be given to the patients (in fact, only a few families had any kind of papers with them) and that proper post-natal care be provided for the newborns of the women who had died.

Compensation

The government announced a compensation only after 13 deaths had taken place. Surprisingly, even after the government sealed the particular batch of IV fluids and blacklisted the Indore-based Parental Surgical India Limited and its local distributor, three more women, who were delivered of their babies, died owing to multi-organ failure and septicaemia. One woman, Sagar Kunwar, who was alive but was declared dead in the list issued by the hospital initially, finally succumbed to her illness on March 14. The previous day, Manu, the wife


any auxiliary nurse midwife or Chief Medical Health Officer if any negligence has been found on their part,” he said, adding that not all cases were referred ones. Even if the hospital was overburdened with patients, it was common knowledge that almost all the senior doctors had a flourishing private practice, which on many occasions was conducted when they were required to be at the hospital.

On March 13, when Prem, who was admitted to the ICU of M.G. Hospital, died, her relatives insisted that she was entitled to government compensation to which the medical superintendent, Arun Mathur, agreed in principle. She had been admitted to Umaid Hospital on January 31 and then referred to M.G. Hospital, where she died of multi-organ failure. Arun Mathur declined to comment whethercontaminated IV fluid was responsible for the death. “She had undergone dialysis and had low blood pressure. She had been put on ventilator as well,” he told Frontline.

Most of the women died owing to post-partum haemorrhage and septicaemia followed by multi-organ failure, or multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, the medical term used to describe this condition. In some cases, it was a combination of several causes, including disseminated intravascular coagulation. What was shocking was that some of the women had given birth to healthy children earlier and had survived childbirth.

Frontline spoke to five of the affected families, including those who were not on the government’s “compensation list”, and found that all of them were in deep debt owing to costs incurred during the period of medical treatment. They uniformly complained


of the attitude of the doctors, including the head of the gynaecology department of Umaid Hospital. Arif Chhipa, a resident of Khanda Falsa in Jodhpur town whose 20-year-old wife, Rukhsana, died on February 22 from a variety of listed causes, including renal failure and multi-organ failure, said the doctors in the ICU at M.G. Hospital were laughing when her haemoglobin level showed no improvement despite blood infusions. Rukhsana had a Caesarean section and gave birth to a baby girl on February 14. Her condition began to worsen subsequently.

“Her hands and feet were swollen. Her stitches were leaking. They took Arif’s consent to do a dialysis on her. She was perfectly healthy when she walked into the operation theatre,” said Shamim, a relative of Rukhsana’s who was with herhe said.

Ashish is another young man who lost his 21-year-old wife, Prem Sheela. The cause of her death was listed as renal failure, jaundice and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. He said they had taken her for check-up regularly at the government hospital at Paota and that no problem had been detected at any stage. She was to deliver on February 5, but then five days later she was referred to Umaid Hospital. On February 11, a healthy baby girl, weighing three kilograms, was born. “My daughter-in-law was educated and progressive. She had even taught in a nearby school and wanted to go back to work once things stabilised. She never used to cover her head like other women in Rajasthan,” said a distraught Shiv Rattan, an employee with Bharat


Rattan.

According to the Sample Registration System statistical report of 2008, the MMR in India is 254 deaths for every 1,00,000 live births. Recently, the fourth Common Review Mission (CRM), an assessment of the NRHM, reviewed 14 States, including Rajasthan. It identified gaps in infrastructure and a lack of human resource, especially shortage of specialists, second auxiliary nurse midwives and multi-purpose health workers. It also observed the need for proper procurement systems and the establishment of laboratory services at peripheral levels at affordable rates.

The fourth CRM has recommended contractual appointment under the NRHM, which, given the state of the health care system, may not be a good idea. A Planning Commission study of the NRHM has indicated uneven progress in the implementation of the programme in States such asof teaching posts for men, in Rohtak district.

THE Haryana government claims it has a slew of schemes and policies aimed at empowering women, but one of its policy decisions relating to the recruitment of teachers has angered women in the State. In 2005, the government issued an order reserving 33 per cent of the teaching posts for women and 67 per cent for men. The decision was widely criticised as grossly unconstitutional, but it was never cancelled. Following protests by the School Teachers’ Federation of India and women’s organisations against the notification, the government modified it in 2006 by reserving at least 33 per cent of seats for women.

The HPSC conducted screening tests on December 19 and 26, 2010. The number of candidates who qualified for interviews was


three times the number of vacancies. Against the number of vacant posts in each subject at the time of advertising, a 33:67 division was done, restricting the total quota for women at 33 per cent. For instance, if the total number of vacancies for chemistry was 33 with 21 in the general category, 14 were “reserved” for men and seven for women in this category. In the reserved categories too, a higher proportion was “reserved” for men. This was challenged in court, and a corrigendum was issued following this. But the approach remained the same at the time of screening.

In order to ensure that more men were selected, the cut-off marks for women who had appeared for the screening tests for the posts of lecturers (school cadre) werekept a few marks above those for men in the general as well as reserved categories. For the post of English lecturers in the general category, the cut-off mark for men was 50 and for women 62. For posts in Hindi, the cut-off score for men was 71 and for women 76; for the Scheduled Castes, parity was maintained at 71 for both men and women while for the Backward Classes category, the cut-off score for women was 78 and for men 75. Even for the physically handicapped, the cut-off score for women was higher by a few marks.

The difference in the cut-off marks for the reserved categories, ex-servicemen and physically handicapped persons in all the subjects was obvious. Worse still, women candidates who had qualified with “higher”


cut-off marks were not called for interviews.

In response to a query under the Right to Information Act about the total number of female candidates selected to the 627 posts in the general category, the Haryana Staff Selection Commission replied in September 2010 that no female candidate had been selected in the general category for the posts of physical education instructors.

Court verdict

The issue was brought to the notice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by one Ruchi Manglik and other petitioners. The court took cognisance of the matter and was critical of the manner in which the HPSC conducted the recruitment of lecturers in the school cadre. The two-judge Bench comprising Justices M.M. Kumar and Ritu Bahri directed the department concerned to issue a corrigendum and correct thethe open category,” said Inderjit Singh, State secretary, CPI(M). He said that he had written to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda about this but was yet to hear from him. The CPI(M) has also appealed to the Governor to look into this blatantly unconstitutional order.

Surprisingly, other mainstream parties in the State, including the opposition Indian National Lok Dal, have not reacted to the order. Though there are several Congress Members of Parliament from the State, including Kumari Selja, who are part of the Central government, none has bothered to discuss the issue. The matter was ultimately raised by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat on March 1 and she was joined by other members, including a few from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Brinda Karat, who began with the


nefarious acts were exposed, the complainant women took recourse to this law, “deflecting the needle of crime on the innocent husband and his family… this law being an exception in Criminal Law presumes the accused as guilty until proven innocent; hence the woman’s word is taken as a gospel of truth. And there from begins the saga of unending trials, tribulations and destruction of an innocent man and his family.”

The law, it says, is being misused “to enable divorce so as to revive any pre-marital relationship that the wife has had [ sic] as she may have unwillingly given her consent for marriage to satisfy her parents”; to deny custody of children to the husband and his family; and to inflict “sufferings on husband and his family toa law can be misused only if there is a fair degree of knowledge about it. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India conducted a survey of 10,000 women, including working women, housewives and college girls in Delhi and the National Capital Region, and found that despite over 20 constitutional provisions for women, 70 per cent of those surveyed were not aware of their legal rights. Another questionnaire-based survey, on 2,460 young women, done by AIDWA last year in 13 States revealed that violence at home was an endemic and commonplace phenomenon. The respondents were all in the 16-30 age group.

In some States such as Tamil Nadu, all the married women surveyed admitted to violence by their husbands and in-laws. The survey findings from Uttar Pradesh


were equally shocking. Of the 239 women surveyed, 132 reported domestic violence, and the trend was common across educated and uneducated families.

The majority of respondents from Mumbai and Pune revealed that remaining single was not an option; similarly, 33 of the 40 women surveyed in Rajasthan felt that marriage was essential. While most of the married women shared their experiences of domestic violence with their parents, none of them reported sharing such experiences with their in-laws. Of the 100 women surveyed in Haryana, 44 reported violence at the hands of their natal and marital family members.

The findings of various surveys conducted only reaffirm what has been known all along – that women do suffer a lot of violence in this country. The virtual absence of any marital rightsmakes women even more vulnerable in contemplating action against their husbands or in-laws. The latest NCRB data, which are for 2008, revealed that dowry deaths had gone up from 6,975 cases in 1998 to 8,093 in 2007; cases registered under Section 498A had risen from 41,375 to 75,930 (almost doubled), while reported sexual harassment cases had gone up from 8,053 to 10,950 in the 10-year period. There has been a steady escalation in the violence against women, that too dowry-related violence. If there had been a real decline, it would be reflected in the number of dowry deaths.

In a socio-cultural milieu that encourages a culture of silence as far as women are concerned, where getting married and staying married are extolled values, and where marriage is perceived as


providing security and social respect, the possibility of a large number of women faking and falsifying incidents of violence and harassment against them is not only remote but almost improbable.

COLUMN

Socialist & feminist?

JAYATI GHOSE

True emancipation of women requires a politics that has been shed of its masculinity to pave the way for socialism for women and men equally.

AJAY VERMA/REUTERS

At a rally on International Women’s Day in Chandigarh on March 8.

THIS year, March 8 marked a century of the celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD). But aside from a few publications and websites of women’s movements, this event went largely unremarked in the mainstream press and also in the public consciousness.

The idea of International Women’s Day was born in the socialist movement in the first decade of the 20th century.Clara Zetkin, socialist leader and head of the Women’s Office of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – to be known as Women’s Day – to recognise the social contribution of women and to press for their demands.

As a socialist and an early (but not self-acknowledged) feminist, Clara Zetkin saw this as part of a broader anti-capitalist movement that would also foster cooperation between women in unions, women’s organisations and socialist parties so they would unite and fight jointly in the class struggle for a more progressive society.

This suggestion was accepted unanimously at the second international conference of working women in Copenhagen in 1910, which included over 100 women from 17 countries,


representing unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs, as well as the first three women elected to the Parliament in Finland.

The first International Women’s Day was honoured in some European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland) in 1911 on March 17. Rallies were held involving more than a million people (both women and men), raising demands for women’s right to work and be given equal wages, to vote, to hold public office and to end other forms of discrimination. The Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai described one of these rallies as composed of “one seething, trembling sea of women… certainly the first show of militancy (in Europe) by working women” (www.leftwrite.wordpress.com).

The demands raised at those first demonstrations still resonate today: an end to imperialist wars; better social and economic conditionsfor women and children; controls on rapidly rising food prices.

In the United States, in March 1908, socialist women and women workers from the clothing and textile trades had organised a mass meeting for an eight-hour day and women’s suffrage. But less than a week after the first IWD in Europe in 1911, on March 25, the tragic “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” in New York City in the U.S. led to the deaths of more than 140 working women, mostly recent migrants into the U.S. This led to greater attention to working conditions and labour legislation for women in the U.S. and other developed countries, and these also became important rallying points for the demands made for women on IWD in later years.

The reason that the date was shifted


to March 8 is of great relevance for the global women’s movement. In 1917, in tsarist Russia, Russian women went on strike for “bread and peace”, partly in response to the death of over two million Russian soldiers in war. The strike began on the last Sunday of February (which was March 8 by the Gregorian calendar used throughout most of the world).

The strike continued despite state repression and personal hardship endured by the women. This was the catalyst for – and effectively became the first stage of – the Russian Revolution. Four days later, the tsar was forced to abdicate and the provisional government granted women the right to vote. Ever since, IWD has been celebrated on March 8 not only to press for demands for genderemancipation of all has often been sidelined.

This reflects a general tension that, unfortunately, still remains between feminism and other progressive Left movements – a tension that persists all the more because the Left is the natural and inevitable home of those aspiring to the liberation of women.

Women have been part of the working class since the beginning of capitalism, even when they have not been widely acknowledged as workers in their own right. Even when they are not paid workers, their often unacknowledged and unpaid contribution to social reproduction and to many economic activities is absolutely essential for the functioning of the system.

However, it did take a long time for women’s struggles to be accepted as an integral part of working class struggles for a better society. For


many decades, even after the first IWD was celebrated to highlight the demands of women, trade unions and other worker organisations tended to be male preserves based on the “male breadwinner” model of the household in which the husband/father worked outside to earn money, while the wife/mother did not earn outside income and handled domestic work.

It has taken prolonged struggle and determined mobilisation to generate greater social recognition of the role of women as wage workers in different forms, as well as to bring out the crucial economic significance of unpaid household labour and community-based work that is dominantly performed by women.

Even so, it must be admitted that a major problem for many women activists has been the fundamental inequality in the alliance between feminism and socialism. DonaldSassoon notes in his magisterial history of the European Left in the 20th century ( One Hundred Years of Socialism, The New Press, New York, 1996, page 419): “It was accepted by socialists only on their own terms, namely that the social struggle between capital and labour was to be recognised as fundamental; the emancipation of women as women depended on the victory of the working class.”

Partly this reflected a concern that “bourgeois” feminism would distract from the critical question of class struggle, which is why even someone like Clara Zetkin could insist that socialist women should avoid cooperating with other feminist groups. But the social reality of the experience of socialist countries in the 20th century has also shown that the breaking of gender stereotypes and domestic


through the NREGA that should be counted as the SCP. Here, a tank being desilted under the NREGS in a village in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh.

THREE decades ago, in the early years of the Special Component Plan (SCP) for Scheduled Castes – very recently renamed inappropriately as Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) – Indira Gandhi on her return as Prime Minister wrote two historical D.O. letters dated March 12, 1980, one to Central Ministers and the other to State Chief Ministers, regarding the SCP in the Central and State government sectors respectively. These letters are of great significance for the Scheduled Castes (S.Cs) and also for the Scheduled Tribes (S.Ts).

She asked Central Ministers to take up new need-based programmes and reorient existing programmes to suit the specific developmentalrequirements and handicaps of the S.Cs so that benefits reach them through individual, family and group-oriented programmes. She wanted all departments and Ministries to take initiatives within their respective sectors for the development of the S.Cs. She reiterated the responsibility of each department to execute programmes relevant to the S.Cs and ensure that an optimal SCP for the S.Cs was prepared expeditiously by each Ministry as part of the Annual Plan as well as the Five-Year Plan.

In the letter, she admonished the Central Ministries that while the State governments had made a beginning, most Central Ministries were yet to prepare their SCPs. She underlined the concept of a Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) to ensure the integrated development of the various S.T. communities, with the aid of pooled financial resources


of the Centre and the States, keeping in view their different economic socio-cultural backgrounds. The letter pinpointed the dual disabilities of severe economic exploitation and social discrimination that the S.Cs suffer from and the exploitation of the S.Ts and their confinement to remote, inaccessible areas with poor infrastructure, and wanted every Central Minister to ensure that each Central Ministry made its due contribution to the task of development of the S.Cs and the S.Ts.

In her letter to Chief Ministers and Governors, she underlined that it was particularly important to take note of the developmental needs of the S.Cs in each occupational category, identify the available opportunities suitable for them, formulate appropriate developmental programmes in their light and build these programmes and corresponding outlays into the SCPs. This letterbe done this year and ultimately to fulfil the primary goal of the SCP and the TSP as laid down in the Constitution and repeatedly emphasised. Most recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his address on June 27, 2005, to the 51st meeting of the National Development Council, said the gap in the socio-economic development of the S.Cs and the S.Ts should be bridged within a period of 10 years, which obviously meant that the S.Cs and the S.Ts should reach the level of the advantaged castes/classes of Indian society in all parameters within this period.

Shortly before the Budget, the plight of the SCP came into the limelight, incidental to and thanks to the exposure of controversies regarding malpractices in the Commonwealth Games 2010, including diversion of large


amounts of the SCP of Delhi State to totally irrelevant infrastructural programmes of the CWG. A diversion of Rs.678.91 crore was admitted by the Home Minister himself in the Rajya Sabha on August 31, 2010.

Incidentally, what was highlighted in Delhi is also true in varying degrees of other State governments and Union Territories (U.Ts). A task force appointed to review the guidelines on the SCSP and the TSP, under the chairmanship of Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, submitted its first report in the context of Central Ministries on November 29, 2010.

The Plan Expenditure in Budget 2011-12 is Rs.4,41,546.75 crore, which is 35.1 per cent of the total Budget. The Plan outlay for schemes exclusive to the S.Cs is Rs.4,639.34 crore and for the S.Ts it is Rs.4,245.55 crore,about the real character of the BJP. This also proves that they are neither sincere about any of their issues, nor do they love the country. It was this very BJP, which had escorted several terrorists to Kandhar, and set them free. The BJP was also responsible for the Kargil intrusion, and the untimely death of hundreds of our soldiers. After Mulayam killed hundreds of innocent Karsewaks in Ayodhya, in1990, the BJP had roamed the whole country with their ashes (which is wrong as per religion as they are meant to be immersed in the Ganges only), and vowed repeatedly to punish the perpetrators of the heinous crime, once in power. After have ruled the center, as well as UP, for so many years, they did not even


scam, had deposited Rs 4.5 crore in the bank account of the son of Congress MLA Kripashankar Singh, facing a court case for allegedly amassing huge illegal wealth.

According to bank documents annexed to a PIL filed in Bombay High Court against the MLA, the statement of Samata Sahakari Bank account in the names of his son Narendra Mohan Singh and daughter-in-law Ankita, showed four deposits made by Dynamix Reality, totalling Rs 4.5 crore during 2008-2009.

The first deposit of Rs 50 lakh was made on August 23, 2008, in the joint bank account of Narendra and Ankita. The second entry of Rs 2 crore was made on January 1, 2009 in Narendra’s account, while the third and the fourth deposits of Rs one crore each (also in account ofstates in growth, whereas the states in South India are witnessing a slump in growth, according to a report.

Gujarat has witnessed growth at the rate of 11 per cent as compared to the all Indian growth average of nine per cent, states the report by Mckinsey & Co.

However, South India has seen a slow down in GDP growth rate, despite its overall strong position, McKinsey & Co Partner Ananth Narayan said.

Ananth Narayan was present at the conference “The Next Wave of Growth- South India”, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, where the McKinsey report was released.

In the recent years (2005-10), the real GDP growth in Gujarat has been 11.3 per cent as against 11 per cent in Haryana, 9.6 per cent in Bihar, 8.5 per cent in


region to factors such as rising land prices, significant shortage in the availability of labour, infrastructure bottlenecks including port capacity and growing urban congestion in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, for the slump.

While on one hand government policies — particularly on land acquisition — are still an issue, paucity of employees at all skill levels is the main concern for the industry, he said.

The constraint on labour supply and low employability due to lack of skills drives up wage levels. This is growing into a major concern in Tamil Nadu and metro areas of Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Though South India has the highest number of professional college seats, the quality of graduates from these colleges has not been at par with industry expectations, he said.

Overall, talent availability and management isa top priority for South India in the coming years, he said.

Regarding the power generation situation in South India, he said its total power demand is 26 GW base, peaking to 37 GW, while available capacity is 30 GW.

Above all, policy-making and implementation has not been conducive to growth with cumbersome and time-consuming business processes and slow pace of policy execution and project implementation, being the major constraints.

He further pointed out that there was a need for the industry to move up the value chain across sectors.

While the first wave of growth in many sectors has been at the lower end of the value chain, such as contract manufacturing, IT-offshoring, voice and data BPOs, the next growth phase requires industry to move to higher value-add segments in each


fly a commercial aircraft only when he or she secures a CPL, which is given out after a person completes 200 hours of flying during the training.

However, the 14 pilots whose licenses have been revoked had allegedly not flown the mandatory hours and are alleged to have got fake certificates from a Rajasthan flying training institute.

DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan had recently said that the CPLs of around 10,000 pilots was under the scanner, besides about 4,000 holders of Airlines Pilots Training License (ATPLs).

He had also said that DGCA would conduct third-party audit of all the 40 flying schools in the country in the wake of cases of forgery behind securing of licences coming to light.

Describing as serious the issue of some pilots getting licenses on the basisburnt by the police in Dantewada.

But he still could not get there. Along with his co-travellers, two teachers of ‘Art of Living’, he was physically obstructed and abused by a crowd on Saturday morning at Dornapal town, roughly 50 kilometres short of the villages.

“He was pulled out his car, his turban dislodged, eggs were hurled at him,” said an eyewitness.

A correspondent of The Indian Express, Joseph John, brought out his camera to take pictures. His camera was snatched. His mobile and laptop were also taken away (the belongings were returned later).

Eyewitnesses said special police officers in civilian clothes were present in the crowd, which also included women.

“The crowd shouted slogans ‘Pagadi waale waapis jao’. (Go back, the man with the turban). They said why don’t those who talk


of human rights visit the area when people and policemen die in Maoist violence?,” recounted a journalist. “Agnivesh tried to explain to them that he has always condemned Naxal violence, but they did not allow him to speak”.

“This was a stage managed attack,” said Agnivesh. He said it was apparent the police wanted to obstruct any investigation into its excesses and had propped up the demonstration.

On March 23, two newspapers, The Hindu and Patrika, published images of homes reduced to ashes in three villages, Tadmetla, Morepalli, Teemapuram. According to testimonies of villagers, special police officers burnt down nearly 300 homes, sexually assaulted three women and killed five men between March 11 and 16, coinciding with a week long security operation against the Maoists, which left three policemen dead.

Everpeople and nobody elected them to represent or defend Hinduism.

New Delhi, March 24, 2011Tehelka comes in handy for defensive CongressSmita Gupta

Days after being on the defensive on the WikiLeaks disclosures of a possible cash-for-votes scam back in 2008, a belligerent Congress went for the jugular, bringing cheer to the ruling party. In the Lok Sabha, it was a combative Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal; in the Rajya Sabha, Home Minister P. Chidambaram held the fort.

Emboldening the Congress on Wednesday was the publication of a news story in Tehelka, suggesting that the BJP had masterminded a cash-for-votes sting operation through the CNN-IBN channel in 2008, to destabilise the government.

Indeed, the Tehelka report came in handy, with Mr Chidambaram emphasising that the sting operation


wait for another three-and-a-half years.”

This was not the first time in his parliamentary career that he was facing an Opposition onslaught of this type. “I have had to go through that as Finance Minister and as the Prime Minister. The main Opposition party, right from 2004, adopted the attitude that we are a usurper.”

On the WikiLeaks cables, he said it was not possible for the government to confirm the veracity or the contents of such communication. “If they exist, they would be communications from U.S. diplomats stationed in Delhi to their government in Washington. It is not open to us to enquire from either of the two regarding the communications they exchanged among themselves.” Many persons referred to in those communications had strongly denied their veracity, he said.

Ondisplayed in the House, was actually sent by the persons who were alleged to have sent it for the purpose of winning over Shri Ashok Argal, Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste and Shri Mahavir Bhagora to vote in favour of the Motion of Confidence. The Committee have, however, found the evidence given before the Committee by three persons involved in this episode as unconvincing, and the Committee have suggested that their role in the matter needs to be investigated by investigating agencies.”

Later the matter pertaining to the three MPs was referred to the Union Home Ministry for appropriate action. Subsequently it was sent to Delhi police for a probe which was on the job now.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to leave it to the good sense of the


militants including Masood Azhar, who went on to form the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

In exchange, the government secured the freedom of all but one — the hijackers killed him — of the 178 passengers and 15 crew on board the aircraft. The Taliban government in Afghanistan provided safe passage to the five hijackers and the three released militants.

India registered a case and began investigations into the hijacking. The U.S. too registered a case as there was one American citizen among the passengers.

When U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, ousted the Taliban government and detained many of its leaders, India asked the Americans for access to those linked to the hijacking. New Delhi also wanted access to records the U.S. may have seized in Afghanistan that could helpUPA government faxed a letter to U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns on September 10, 2008 — just hours before the White House sent the deal to the U.S. Congress for ratification — committing India to import a minimum of 10,000MW of nuclear-generating capacity from the U.S.

As the WikiLeaks’ revelations, published by The Hindu, underscore, the U.S. has a big stake in the nuclear deal and went to unusual lengths to drum up support in India and ensure the outcome it desired. And although the deal is loaded with largely one-sided and irrevocable conditions for India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh staked his premiership on getting the deal through.

The WikiLeaks’ disclosures over the cash-for-votes scandal during the consummation process only confirm the role mucky money played in lubricating the


track record of implementing a number of welfare measures. On the other side, the AIADMK led by a charismatic and strong leader has roped in the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) led by actor Vijayakant, whose ambition to emerge a leading player in the State political stage has been tempered by experience and is now a willing ally in the project to oust the DMK regime. With the Left parties on her side, the alliance leader, former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, will seek to cash in on the DMK’s 2G-related travails and other embarrassments, besides anti-incumbency ingredients such as the price spiral, the power shortage, and allegations of corruption and ‘family rule.’

With DMK-Congress ties coming under strain in the shadow of the Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the 2G spectrumbe more chargesheets, given the scope and number of conspirators in the case. CBI sources said the subsequent chargesheets could name DMK patriarch Karunanidhi’s daughter MK Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP and promoter of Kalaignar TV, and many others. Several companies directly or indirectly involved in the scam and many officials involved in allocation of 2G spectrum and licences would also be named, sources said.

The CBI is still investigating the role of Anil Ambani’s Reliance group, Loop Telecom , Essar group, Tata group, Videocon , S Tel , Shyam Mobile , Alliance Infra , Dishnet and others. It is also looking at the role played by individuals, including many corporate leaders, DoT officials and others.

The market regulator is cracking the whip on manipulators who use internet blogs, chat


numerically strong most backward class (MBC) Vanniyar community and founded by Dr S Ramadoss. They comprise nearly 30 per cent of the population. The community has leaders in all parties, yet the poor among its members remain so.

The social outfit Vanniyar Sangam was born in 1980, and from it the PMK was formed nine years later. Though its vote share has remained single digit, the party has two advantages: its votes are considered transferable en bloc, and its votes are concentrated, in the north.

Also dominant in these districts is the Dalit party Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, led by Thol Thirumavalavan, MP. The party, earlier known as Dalit Panthers of India, has considerable influence among the Paraya sub-sect of Dalits, and was involved in a series of communal clashes withhas the All India Muvendar Munnani Kazhagam, a Thevar party that has been allotted one seat. A splinter group of the MMK has also sided with her, while yet another Thevar organisation, Pasumpon Desiya Kazhagam, has extended support.

The All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) floated by actor-politician Sarathkumar got two seats from the AIADMK as it has the backing of the Nadar community. Soon after the deal was signed in the opposition camp, the DMK president allotted one seat (on a DMK ticket) to the little known Perunthalaivar Makkal Katchi which claims support of the same community.

Perunthalaivar is a sobriquet of legendary late Congress leader K Kamaraj — the national party still enjoys support from the Nadars.

After the PMK changed its alliance for yet another time — following


the Lok Sabha disaster where it won none of the seven seats it contested along with the AIADMK — a rival group, Vanniyar Federation, moved closer to Jaya’s party.

Incidentally, minister of state S Jagathrakshakan merged his Jananayaga Munnetra Kazhagam with the DMK before the general election, a move that helped him return to Parliament. He defeated the PMK’s R Velu.

If the VCK can help bring in Dalit votes to the ruling front in the north, the opposition front has Puthiya Thamizhagam, a party of another sub-sect of Dalits, the Pallars who represent several votes in the south. The party has been allotted two seats.

With only three weeks left for polling, Jaya has got the support of a confederation of Dalit outfits which includes Parayar Peravai, Dr Ambedkar Peravai,and newly-formed Samooga Samathuva Padai founded by former bureaucrat and Dalit activist A Sivagami who quit the BSP.

There are also caste-based organisations like Dalit outfit Puratchi Bharatham and Muthiraiyar community-backed Singa Tamilar Munnetra Kazhagam, not part of any front yet.

Among religious groups, the Indian Union Muslim League, a UPA partner, has been allotted three seats; their intra-community opponent, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi got a similar deal from AIADMK.

A new entrant is the Indian Christian People’s Party (ICPP), launched on Sunday by Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore A M Chinnappa. For the record, there already exists an All India Christian Makkal Katchi.

Whether the tie-ups would help is anybody’s guess. For instance, a decade ago, Karunanidhi had cobbled up an alliance comprising 18 outfits, both political and casteist, but had to sit in


Opposition as the citizens preferred to vote against his government rather than in favour of their community organisations.

Although the Commonwealth Games ended more than five months ago, owners of around 400 apartments in the Games village have still not got possession of the flats they have already paid for.

“After paying 95 per cent of the flat cost, no one in the government or Emaar-MGF (the developer) is giving us any indication on the timing of the possession of the flats,” said a flat owner.

The owners of these flats say that according to the Project Development Agreement, which was signed between the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Emaar-MGF, the apartments were to be handed over by the DDA to Emaar-MGF within two months of the Games and subsequently tolevel because of his role in the 2002 Gujarat communal violence and anti-Muslim pogrom, U.S. diplomats found themselves, in 2006, facing the possibility of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi assuming a leadership role at the national level. Conscious that the United States would have to deal with him at a later stage if he rose in stature on the national stage, the State Department evidently sanctioned meetings at the level of the Mumbai Consul General on the understanding that such interactions would also enable the U.S. to deliver a “clear message on human rights and religious freedom in Gujarat.”

In a cable dated November 2, 2006 (84043: confidential), the Consul General in Mumbai, Michael S. Owen, underscored the importance of interacting with Mr. Modi “whose B1/B2 visa we revoked


in 2005, at the level of the Consul General” over the Chief Minister’s role in the 2002 communal violence. Such interaction, Mr. Owen said, “will also shield us from accusations of opportunism from the BJP that would invariably arise if we ignored Modi now but sought a dialogue with him in the likely event that he makes it to the national stage.”

On the basis of discussions with leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Mumbai Consulate concluded that Mr. Modi had set his sights on national politics. Interestingly, many in the BJP leadership believed that the Gujarat Chief Minister was the “only person of the BJP’s many aspiring leaders who can reinvigorate the party and stop its further slide into oblivion.”

While there wassmall group of advisors. This inner circle acts as a buffer between the Chief Minister and his cabinet and party. He reigns more by fear and intimidation than by inclusiveness and consensus, and is rude, condescending and often derogatory to even high level party officials. He hoards power and often leaves his ministers in the cold when making decisions that affect their portfolios.”

(This article is a part of the series “The India Cables” based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)

America is a superpower. However, America has not kept a balanced view over Indo-Pak relations. Havining kept a closer relationship with Pakistan for one or other reason, America has neglected a fast rising India. Part of this complex relationship can be blamed on India’s


during a recent trip to Ahmedabad told us that Modi will use an expected state election victory next year to make a bid for the national presidency of the BJP. RSS and BJP leaders in Delhi echo these sentiments. Many in the party leadership believe that Modi is the only person of the BJP’s many aspiring leaders who can reinvigorate the party and stop its further slide into oblivion. No one doubts that Modi will be reelected as Chief Minister of Gujarat in elections scheduled for late 2007, since he remains immensely popular among Gujarat’s largely Hindu voters. Modi has successfully branded himself as a non-corrupt, effective administrator, as a facilitator of business in a state with a deep commercial culture, and as a no-nonsense, law-and-order politician whoconcession to his supporters on the Hindu right. Both supporters and critics of Modi confirm that the state government continues to use administrative tools to marginalize and ghettoize the Muslim minority.

13. (C) At the same time, most interlocutors tell us that Modi cannot gain anything more by openly pursuing an aggressive Hindutva agenda. He already has the backing of those who applaud his firm stand against Muslims, and he risks alienating swing voters in Gujarat by being too openly communal. Modi understands that, outside of Gujarat, his role in the 2002 riots has damaged both his reputation and that of the state. He also realizes that outbreaks of communal violence in Gujarat will harm both his chances in the state and nationally, and hence he has given law


cabinet and party. He reigns more by fear and intimidation than by inclusiveness and consensus, and is rude, condescending and often derogatory to even high level party officials. He hoards power and often leaves his ministers in the cold when making decisions that affect their portfolios. His abrasive leadership style alienated much of the state BJP leadership in 2005. He was able to quell their subsequent rebellion by branding them as corrupt opportunists who were angry because he denied them the tools of political patronage and corruption (ref C). Modi maintains the support of most MLAs in the state because they understand his popularity with voters. His leadership style has created many enemies within the state party, however. This opposition could

MUMBAI 00001986 004 OF 005

come back to haunthim at the national level, some critics hope. In any case there is consensus that Modi has failed to attract a sustainable, loyal cadre of followers within the state party, and that his few confidants will likely be pushed out of power and influence if and when Modi leaves the state for New Delhi. At the national stage, he will have to depend on opportunists who want to latch onto his bandwagon, some believe.

Modi and Caste

————–

15. (C) Caste resentments exacerbate the bad feelings between Modi and much of the state party’s leadership. Modi heralds from a so-called Other Backward Caste (OBC), while many of his opponents are from higher castes, and in particular from the Patel caste that dominates public life in the state. The Chief Minister is


Chief Minister on the margins of our recent visit to Gujarat. While paying a personal visit to a family friend who works in Modi’s office, she was quickly whisked through the several perimeters of security surrounding the Chief Minister and introduced to Modi himself. Modi was pleasant and, conversing only in Gujarati, asked her the purpose of the USG visit to the state (Note: The local edition of the Times of India speculated earlier that day why USG officials were in Gujarat and indicated they might be on a “”secret”" mission. End note) After Econoff clarified the purpose of the visit to meet with contacts to assess Gujarat’s political, economic, and social environment, Modi seemed surprised that U.S. officials would travel to Gujarat, saying the USG had warnedan expansion of his Cabinet in 2005, the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai reported.

The August 10, 2005 cable (38300: confidential; only partial extract accessible), which was issued under the name of Public Affairs Section Director Linda C. Cheatham days after the expansion, took a close look at its timing and the allocation of portfolios.

Mr. Modi’s moves, the cable explained, were the result of a direction from BJP president Lal Krishna Advani following criticism from party members. According to the cable, “Modi consented under the condition that the BJP appoint a state party president loyal to him. In early June, Advani kept his part of the bargain when the BJP appointed Vajubhai Vala as Gujarat BJP president.”

The Gujarat Chief Minister made the most of the development, the cable said, explaining


diplomats, “Indians have expressed overwhelming support for the US decision.” Initial shock at the denial was now turning to embarrassment and “Modi harmed himself by making vitriolic anti-American statements that are not resonating well.” One former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the cable said, told DCM that “Ninety five percent of India stands with you.”

(This article is a part of the series “The India Cables” based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)

AP EYES WIDE SHUT: While the State looked on, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, and 223 more people were reported as missing in over four weeks of rioting. A 2002 file photograph of rioters in Ahmedabad.

When an American diplomat raised the horrific Gujarat communal violence of 2002 withChief Minister Narendra Modi in November 2006, he got more than what he had bargained for: a lecture on the “horrific human rights violations” by the United States.

Michael S. Owen, Consul General in Mumbai, was the diplomat at the receiving end of Mr. Modi’s tirade during a November 16, 2006 meeting in Gandhinagar. This was the first such meeting since the March 2005 revocation of Mr. Modi’s U.S. visa on account of his role in the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat — in which (according to an official ministerial statement made in Parliament in 2005) 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, and 223 more people were reported as missing. The genocidal attack on Muslims by mobs of Hindu extremists and fanatics followed the burning of a coach


of the Sabarmati Express by a local mob of Muslim extremists and fanatics at Godhra on February 27, 2002. The coach was carrying kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya. The police failed to quell the post-Godhra anti-Muslim pogrom that went on for several weeks, which lent credence to reports of state complicity in the violence. Mr. Modi was questioned on March 27, 2010 by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team headed by R.K. Raghavan, former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, in connection with the Gujarat riots.

In a revealing Mumbai Consulate cable, which was sent on November 27, 2006 to the State Department and copied to an interesting selection of U.S. embassies, consulates, and other destinations (87085: confidential), Mr. Owen recounted what followed after “a relaxed” Chief MinisterAnyone around major college athletics knows it's becoming more and more like a business. Like a large public company.

The NCAA, of course, is the board of directors for this Fortune 500 firm. Each university is its own entity/division (see General Motors for a similar organizational structure). The presidents of said divisions are, naturally, the various university presidents. The vice presidents of operations are the athletic directors, and the business directors, or project managers if you will, are the head coaches of individual sports.

Recently, a significant corporate restructuring transpired in the company's southeast region. Now, the Wharton School hasn't yet made a case study of this occurrence, but it still warrants examination.

Jim Donnan was the football coach at the University of Georgia. Donnan was the first football coach at


Georgia to win bowl games in four consecutive years. Donnan was only the second football coach at the UGA to win eight games or more four consecutive years. Overall, Donnan won 96 D-I games in the '90s (fourth behind Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, and Joe Paterno) and 71 percent of all college games in which he was headman.

Jim Donnan was the football coach at the University of Georgia.

Was.

In a press conference on December 4, 2000, Georgia President Michael Adams announced Donnan's termination, primarily because Adams didn't "think the program is heading in the right direction" and because Donnan failed to meet "reasonably high expectations."

Oh. Let's inspect the numbers.

Well, prior to start of Donnan's tenure in 1996 Georgia hadn't won more than six games since 1992.

But since Donnan's arrival,for Donnan's firing.

In his comments at same press conference, Vince Dooley, UGA Athletic Director, tried to explain: "While I personally had recommended that Coach Donnan come back next year...the consensus was that it [Donnan's firing] was in the best interest of the university...there was a lack of confidence in the program."

"Best interest of the university...lack of confidence in the program".... In light of all Donnan's accomplishments, those statements, like Adams' above, don't sound capable of holding much water.

However, combine those statements with Dooley's claim that Donnan didn't associate well with the fans. Add that to Adams' comment that he listened to "a number of constituencies" before deciding Donnan's fate, and things start making more sense.

Jim Donnan was fired for being a very good coach. Very good, but not


WILLIE Rioli's supporting role in Dom Sheed's unforgettable Grand Final goal was dissected from every angle after West Coast broke Collingwood hearts on the last Saturday in September.

Did he illegally block Brayden Maynard's attempt to spoil Sheed's mark?

That question will never be answered to everyone's satisfaction, especially not for Pies fans.

However, Rioli also had a less-examined influence in the frantic moments after Sheed's 'impossible' set shot, when the livewire small forward joined his teammate for the contest's most crucial restart.

CLUB LISTS COMPARED Oldest? Youngest? Most experienced?

It was the only centre bounce Rioli attended for the entire Grand Final.

Whether it was down to good luck or good management we don't know, but one suspects the latter, given Adam Simpson and his coaching staff were feverishly planning for the aftermathof Sheed's kick even before he lined up from the boundary.

Officially, neither team was credited with a clearance win from the final bounce with 105 seconds to go.

However Rioli, and Sheed for that matter, played a part in keeping the footy pinballing around until Jamie Cripps found space in the maelstrom of bodies to hit up Josh Kennedy with a careful 15m chip, as the Eagles clung on to a five-point lead.

For a first-year player to be handed such responsibility in the biggest moment of his football life speaks volumes about the trust West Coast's hierarchy has in Rioli, and where his career might be headed.

FULL FIXTURE Every round, every game

Stats supplied by Champion Data reveal that Rioli ranked second, only behind spring-heeled ruckman Nic Naitanui, for centre


clearance differential amongst his team's top 15 attendees last home-and-away season.

The Eagles might not always win the stoppage battle when Rioli is part of the starting four, but it's an area of the game in which his innate footy smarts come to the fore.

It adds weight to the belief that the Eagle with the famous bloodlines offers much more than just a threat around goals and will keep adding strings to his bow.

With West Coast's hunters set to become the hunted in 2019 and searching for ways to stay ahead of the pack, it's reasonable to expect the 23-year-old will boost his midfield presence, perhaps adopting the pinch-hitting role his cousin Cyril mastered at Hawthorn.

WHO MAKES FINALS? Dothe 2019 Ladder Predictor

Track-watchers have spied a trimmer and more tonedRioli this summer, and his improved condition hasn't gone unnoticed by teammates after he spent his off-season break training with now-retired Cyril and fellow cousin, Rivcmond's Daniel, back home on the Tiwi Islands.

"All we can ask is you keep improving in your off-season every year, and it's his third year now and he's come back in better shape again, that's all we can ask of Willie," Lewis Jetta said at a pre-Christmas training camp in Dunsborough.

"He has a bright future.

"He can set himself up to be an elite midfielder or an elite forward-line player."

Rioli only spent 9 per cent of matches running through midfield last season, according to Champion Data's tracking, and drilled 28 majors in 24 games.

However, he also ranked in the top five players on the


not only hate it, but ought to hate it. They cannot love him for what he is, they can only try to turn him into what he is not. In the meantime, though the boy is most unfortunate in having been so brought up, you cannot quite call his character a "misfortune" as if he were one thing and his character another. It is he -- he himself -- who bullies and sneaks and likes doing it. And if he begins to mend he will inevitably feel shame and guilt at what he is just beginning to cease to be.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

-- Here's an interesting (and long) series of quotes by political pundits on their reactions in the lead-up to, in the midst of, and in theaftermath of, the 2016 Presidential election. I couldn't focus on the election because I was still too overwhelmed by the flat-out miracle of the Cubs winning the World Series a few days earlier.

-- Here's an article on "The Poisoned Will of Jean Meslier", an 18th century French priest, who wrote a book condemning all religion as evil, and which was only found after his death. If you want to read the poison itself, here ya go.

-- I know about the philosopher Sally Haslanger because I very briefly reference her husband in my book, but I don't know that much about her. This account of her career frustrates me. Immensely. Right out of her doctoral studies in the mid-1980s, she got a tenure-track position at UCal Irvine. Then a


year later, she got a tenure-track position at Princeton. At this point, she hadn't published anything. Three years later she went to a tenure-track position at U Michigan, and in 1992, was offered a tenured (not tenure-track, but tenured) position at Cornell. At this point she had only published three articles. I assume things were different then, but I find that account nearly miraculous. I've published several articles and a book and I'm only an adjunct. I can't even find a non-tenure-track but full-time position. But that's not what frustrates me about the account of her career. Again, I assume that it was easier to get a tenure-track position then, and I strongly suspect that she knew the right people and knew how to network, two areas whereI am sadly lacking. No, what frustrates me is that Haslanger says she has "a deep well of rage" inside her because of how shabbily she's been treated. Her career is proof of miracles and she says she's been mistreated. I have no words.

-- This is cool. Going over old astronomical photographic plates, scientists discovered evidence of planets orbiting other stars a hundred years ago, but the scientists of the time just didn't understand what it meant.

-- This . . . seems weird. A student group at a Catholic university (Georgetown) is being condemned by the university for defending and upholding official Catholic teaching on the nature of sexuality. I mean, I can understand why the topic would be controversial, but they're only promoting official Catholic teaching on


[Analysis of possibilities of pharmaceutical care elements implementation in Lithuanian community pharmacies].
Objective of this survey--possibilities of implementation of pharmaceutical care elements in daily work of Lithuanian community pharmacies. All pharmacists have to ensure the best quality of pharmaceutical services which they render to their patients. Pharmacists also must improve the quality of pharmaceutical services, according to recommendations of pharmaceutical care. For a start they should implement at least separate elements of pharmaceutical care if they are going to provide pharmaceutical care services in their community pharmacies in the future. That's why this survey was designed to clarify the possibilities of implementation of separate pharmaceutical care elements in to daily work of community pharmacies. Material of this survey--pharmaceutical services rendered in Lithuanian community pharmacies. This survey has an analyticalaging city bus was transformed into a comfortable platform
where citizens could voice their opinions in their own communities,”
said Marie L. York, FAICP, APA Board Director and 2012 Awards
Jury Co-Chair. “It was an innovative way to engage citizens in
transportation planning discussions and eliminate barriers between
local government and citizens.”
The National Planning Award for Public Outreach will be presented at a special awards
luncheon held during APA’s National Planning Conference in Los Angeles on April 16,
2012. The FAST Forward Mobile Outreach Bus will also be featured in an upcoming issue
of Planning magazine, APA’s flagship publication.
For more information, contact James Wagner AICP, Transportation Projects Coordinator,
at jwagner@incog.org or 918.579.9447.
In this Issue:
INCOG Recognized with National
Award for FAST Forward Mobile
Outreach Bus
Public Recognition Remains High for
INCOG's Ozone Alert! Program
Area Seniors to Benefit
from Emerging Partnership
Redistricting Effort a
Benefit to


armament is optional. 1× 30 mm ADEN cannon, in centreline pod
 Up to 6,800 lb (3,085 kg) of weapons on five hardpoints, including:
 4× AIM-9 Sidewinder or ASRAAM or A-Darter on wing pylons and wingtip rails
 2x Umbani or Al Tariq
 1,500 lb (680 kg), limited to one centreline and two wing pylons (Hawk T1)
}}

See also

References
Citations

Bibliography

 Donald, David. Warplanes of the Fleet. AIRtime Publishing Inc, 2004. .

 Frawley, Gerard. The International Directory of Military Aircraft, Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, 2002. .
 Field, Hugh. "Hawker-Hawk: In The Air." Flight International, 3 April 1976. pp. 834–843.

 Hoyle, Craig. "World Air Forces Directory". Flight International, Vol. 180 No. 5231, 13–19 December 2011. pp. 26–52. ISSN 0015-3710.
 Jackson, Paul. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 2003–2004. Coulsdon, UK:Jane's Information Group, 2003. .
 Phythian,George Gissing (1857-1903)

As with many Victorian writers, George Gissing’s life (1857-1903) reads rather like one of his novels. In some spooky cases, his life actually imitated his art, the fates suffered by some of his characters later befalling the author. Born in Wakefield in 1857, George Gissing’s existence was one of eternal struggle. Although a gifted scholar, the early death of his pharmacist father left Gissing perennially short of money. His extraordinary talent won him a prestigious scholarship to Owen College (now the University of Manchester) and it looked as though his troubles were over, with a distinguished academic career virtually guaranteed. However, his weakness for a prostitute called Nell was to be his undoing. Initially her client, they soon became lovers, but she still demanded increasing sums


of money from him to fund her alcohol addiction. With very limited means, he was forced to steal on her behalf and was eventually caught when the suspicious college authorities laid a trap for him. He was expelled in disgrace and his family wanted nothing more to do with their black sheep.

Although he tried to put this ignominy behind him, Nell’s continual reappearances threatened both his mental equilibrium and his precarious financial situation. Despite these considerable challenges, in 1879 Gissing manged to complete his first novel – Workers in the Dawn. Although it showed great promise, Gissing further marred his fortunes by marrying Nell. His belief that marriage would provide a moral framework which would help Nell improve herself was entirely misplaced, and he was forced to separatelowest classes were irredeemably hopeless, and that any intervention in their miserable lives would be entirely pointless. Gissing believed that class was an indelible mark, and that any attempt to rise above one’s station in life would end in disappointment, or worse.

Although Nell’s death meant freedom for Gissing, he struggled with solitude and soon lurched into another imprudent marriage. This major life event coincided with the publication of perhaps his greatest novel, New Grub Street. The novel describes the collision between the creative impulse and material circumstances, a situation with which Gissing was only too familiar. His second marriage was no more successful than his first, and again he separated from his wife, claiming that she had “behaved like a maniac”. When he met Gabrielle Fleury, the first


woman with whom he declared himself to be compatible, he was thwarted by his wife’s refusal to grant him a divorce. His egregious solution was simply to move to France and marry Gabrielle anyway, keeping the news secret from those back home. Divine retribution came in the form of an infuriating mother-in-law, who made his life a misery and practically starved him. Although he was finally happy in a relationship, his continuing impecuniosity forced him to endure yet another unsatisfactory domestic situation.

His health deteriorated and he decamped to the home of his friend, H G Wells, for some much-need peace and nourishment. His struggle finally ended in 1903, with his friend and wife squabbling over his deathbed. Although loyal to Gissing during his life, Wells became positively vituperativeafter his death. He embarked upon a campaign to undermine Gissing’s reputation, which had risen to the end of his career with the successes of Born in Exile, The Whirlpool, In the Year of Jubilee, and the largely autobiographical The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. In his obituary, The Times remarked that his “purity and solidity may win him a better chance of being read a hundred years hence than many writers of greater grace and more deliberately sought charm.”

One critic has said that Gissing’s name is “apt to frighten nineteen out of twenty publishers.” We at Victorian Secrets are fearless and have published three of Gissing’s novels: Workers in the Dawn, Demos, and Thyrza.


speed of the ball at this height? If there's any other way anyone suggests I could do this question, please ...

A:

At any instant while the ball is in its circular "orbit" around
the fixed point, the force of gravity on the ball can be
broken down into two perpendicular components,
one component in the direction of travel (tangent to the circle)
and one perpendicular to the direction of travel
(along the radius of the circle).
When the ball is in the lower half of the circle, the radial
component of gravity pulls the ball away from the fixed point.
The tension in the string has to be enough so that after canceling
the radial component of gravity, there is just enough force to
keep the ball traveling along the circle.
But in the upper half of the circle, thenumerous contacts between Russian intelligence and President Trump’s campaign people and associates, he knew it was not true.

He first double checked with the intelligence community and then alerted both Republican and Democratic senators not to believe the Times.

It was a rare public moment in Washington. A former FBI director was totally discrediting a major investigative story by the nation’s most influential newspaper and, in doing so, backing President Trump.

That February, FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe disclosed to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that the Russian probe, by then eight months old, had not turned up evidence of collusion. Mr. Priebus obtained FBI permission to release the information and did so on a Sunday political-talk show.

The Times story took on enormous importance since the political Left, and


the viewer a glimpse of the human soul?

Taquilla 2

Death Race

Starring Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane, Joan Allen, Natalie Martinez, Max Ryan and Jason Clarke.
Terminal Island: The very near future. The world's hunger for extreme sports and reality competitions has grown into reality TV bloodlust. Now, the most extreme racing competition has emerged and its contestants are murderous prisoners. Tricked-out cars, caged thugs and smoking-hot navigators combine to create a juggernaut series with bigger ratings than the Super Bowl. The rules of the Death Race are simple: Win five events, and you're set free. Lose and you're road kill splashed across the Internet. International action star Jason Statham leads the action-thriller's cast as three-time speedway champion Jensen Ames, an ex-con framed for a gruesome murder. Forced to donthe mask of the mythical driver Frankenstein, a Death Race crowd favorite who seems impossible to kill, Ames is given an easy choice by Terminal Island's ruthless Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen): Suit up and drive or never see his little girl again. His face hidden by a hideous mask, one convict will enter an insane three-day challenge in order to gain freedom. But to claim the prize, Ames must survive a gauntlet of the most vicious criminals - including nemesis Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) - in the country's toughest prison. Trained by his coach (Ian McShane) to drive a monster Mustang V8 Fastback outfitted with 2 mounted mini-guns, flamethrowers and napalm, an innocent man will destroy everything in his path to win the most twisted spectator sport