Press Trust of India
DEHRADUN/BHOPAL, 6 JULY: Relief operations were today badly hit by a fresh spell of rain at most places in Uttarakhand, including Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkhashi districts, with choppers carrying relief material not flying due to low visibility conditions.
Fresh showers in Uttarkashi district have swelled the Bhagirathi river once again prompting the administration to evacuate people living in the houses located on its banks to safe places as a precautionary measure, officials here said.
Chopper operations in Kedarghati in Rudraprayag district remain badly affected due to bad weather, delaying distribution of relief material in affected villages on the 20th day of the tragedy, District Magistrate Dilip Jawalkar said. It received fresh showers yesterday making the administration issue an alert and advise people inhabiting banks of the Alaknanda to move to safer places. Rain in Kedarghati has also slackened the process of disposal of bodies with only 72 of them having been cremated in over a week so far, DGP Satyavrat Bansal said.
Transportation of relief by air being the only option, the emphasis is now on repairing breached roads in affected areas so that the process could be expedited, officials said. Chief Secretary Subash Kumar, who visited the remote and cut off blocks of Chamoli District, instructed officials to make sure that the roads open by 15 July.
In view of the MeT department warning of heavy rains in the next 24 hours in parts of the state especially Nainital, Pithoragarh and Almora districts of Kumaon region, the administration is fully alert to deal with any emergency.
State Disaster Management Minister Yashpal Arya, who visited Pithoragarh, directed the officials to work on a war footing for relief and rehabilitation of affected people in the district.
Amid reports of ton of relief material stuck in government godowns at various places due to problems being faced in their transportation, a state government estimate claimed there is no shortage of food in any affected village.
Apart from the regular supply of civil supplies department more than 393 vehicles carrying relief material have been sent to various disaster-hit areas, it said.                                                                                              Meanwhile, a Madhya Pradesh-based welfare trust has donated Rs 5 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for helping people in the rain-ravaged Uttarakhand.
Rawatpura Sarkar Lok Kalyan Trust handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan yesterday at Raipur during his visit to Chhattisgarh, as reported by official sources.

Agence France-Presse
MEXICO CITY, 6 JULY: Frustrated passengers stood in long lines at Mexico City’s airport as US airlines cancelled flights for a second day after the Popocatepetl volcano spewed a new column of ash.
United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Alaska Airlines and AirTran voluntarily scrapped 15 flights yesterday as a precaution, but the airport did not restrict travel as it did not consider the ash a risk, as airport spokesman Jorge Andres Gomez said.
On Thursday, six US airlines had canceled some 60 flights, stranding 600 passengers, with many of them still looking for a way out of the Mexican capital yesterday afternoon.
“They can’t even give us chairs,” Mexican traveler Gabriela Garcia said as she stood in a long line at a Delta counter with some 200 other people. “Nobody knows anything, nobody says anything, we’ve been standing for six hours.”
Another Mexican traveler, Eusebio Pacheco, said that he had also been waiting in line for six hours with his wife, hoping to finally take off to the Canadian province of Quebec.
“We don’t know anything, they don’t tell us anything, we’re desperate,” he said, adding that two flights were canceled. They hoped to fly out today.
A Slovenian couple who were heading to Paris with Delta said they were advised to book a hotel and return in two days, with the airline saying it wouldn’t pay for food or lodging since it was a weather event.
The airport spokesman said operations were getting back to normal later in the day and that flights from Europe and other regions had been landing all day.
The National Disaster Prevention Center (NDPC) had reported early Yesterday the 5,452-metre (17,887-feet) high volcano had blown a 1.5 km (one mile) high column of ash that was heading west-northwest and produced low-intensity tremors in the last 24 hours.
In an evening bulletin, the agency said the volcano had spewed more gas, steam and ash which had dispersed as it blew west. Authorities flew over the crater and saw molten rocks that were blown one kilometre into the air before falling on the mountain’s slopes.
Volcanic activity at the snow-capped Popocatepetl, located 65 km (40 miles) southeast of the capital, has intensified since May.

The Tiger of Bengal
sudipta chatterjee

WHEN then Viceroy and Governor-General of India Lord Curzon peremptorily requested Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee to visit England so that Britons could get some glimpses of the scholars produced by British education in India, he declined. All because his mother refused to allow him to make that sea voyage. Even when Curzon decreed, “Tell your mother the Viceroy and Governor-General of India commands her son to go,” Asutosh didn’t hesitate and replied, “Then I will say that Ashutosh Mookerjee refuses to be commanded by any other person except his mother, be he Viceroy or be he somebody higher still.”
   Perhaps this instance of his characteristic defiance of the powers-that-were was based on the strength of his enormous devotion to his mother. For his distinctive uncompromising attitude towards the British government, his exemplary courage, profound self-esteem and enduring academic integrity, this celebrated Bengali academician and illustrious educator – born on 29 June 1864 — came to be dubbed the “Tiger of Bengal”.
   The Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Institute, established in 1927, is overseeing the celebration of his sesquicentennial birth anniversary from June 2013 in collaboration with Calcutta University and the state Government. Sir Asutosh&’s massive ancestral residence — a heritage building at 77, Asutosh Mookerjee Road — presently houses the Memorial Institute under whose aegis the Asutosh Memorial Library was established in 1927 and Asutosh Memorial Hall was set up in 1935, adjacent to the library.
   One of the most dynamic entities of the evolution of Indian education, Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee (1864-1924) was of a towering personality and remarkable managerial acumen. Son of the well-known doctor, Ganga Prasad Mookerjee, founder of South Suburban School in Kolkata, and father of the famous Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, he was born in Bowbazar in the heart of the city. Brought up in an atmosphere of science and literature at home, the young Asutosh exhibited an early aptitude for mathematics.
  When he was still young, he met Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who was a source of major inspiration. In 1879, when he was just 15, he passed the entrance exam of Calcutta University. In 1880, he was admitted to the widely famed Presidency College and had luminaries like PC Ray and Narendranath Dutta (later Swami Vivekananda) as classmates. In 1883, he came first in the BA examination at Calcutta University and was awarded the Premchand-Roychand scholarship to complete a postgraduate degree in mathematics. In 1885, he majored in mathematics and also acquired a postgraduation in physics, becoming the first student to be awarded a dual degree from Calcutta University. In 1886, he did his Masters in physical science. Rejecting a job offer in the Department of Public Instruction for the purpose of completing his Bachelor of Law degree, he found the time to publish prolific papers on issues in mathematics and physics.
   Lord Curzon&’s education mission in 1902 identified the universities, and Calcutta University especially, as centres of sedition where young people formed networks of resistance to colonial domination. The cause of this was considered to be the granting of autonomy to these universities in the 19th century. Thus, during 1905-1935, the colonial administration tried to reinstate government control of education.
   At the age of 24, Ashutosh Mookerjee had become a Fellow of Calcutta University and soon transformed it into a great teaching and research institution. He had an eye for talent and among his “discoveries” were Dr CV Raman and Dr S Radhakrishnan. He became the Indian vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta for four consecutive two-year terms (1906-1914) and a fifth two-year term (1921-23), dominating university affairs throughout his life. In 1923, however, when Lord Lytton tried to impose conditions on his reappointment as vice-chancellor, Mookerjee indignantly refused the post.
   Mookerjee was responsible for the foundation of the Bengal Technical Institute in 1906 and the Calcutta University College of Science in 1914. The Calcutta Mathematical Society was also founded by him in 1908 and he served as its founder president during 1908-1923. He was the first president of the inaugural session of the Indian Science Congress in 1914 and South Suburban College was renamed Asutosh College in 1927.
   Mookerjee had an innovative vision about the kind of education youth needed and he had the insight, tenacity and grit to wrest the requisite resources from his colonial masters. He set up several new academic graduate programmes, like comparative literature, anthropology, applied psychology, industrial chemistry, ancient Indian history and culture as well as Islamic culture. He also made arrangements for postgraduate teaching and research in Bengali, Hindi, Pali and Sanskrit. The diverse range of subjects offered by Calcutta University today is evidently the harnessing of his concerted efforts. Scholars from all over India, irrespective of race, caste and gender, came to study and teach in the university. He even persuaded European scholars to teach at his university. For his contribution to education, the government of India issued a stamp in his honour in 1964.
  Mookerjee was a member of the 1917-1919 Sadler Commission, presided over by Michael Ernest Sadler, which investigated the status of Indian education. He was three times president of the Asiatic Society and in 1910 of the Imperial (now National) Library Council. He donated his entire personal collection of 80,000 books to the library. Learned and conversant in Pali, French and Russian, he was awarded the titles of “Saraswati” and “Shastravachaspati” by the pandits of Bengal for his service to Indian education. Mookerjee was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India in June 1909 and knighted in December 1911.
The fight never went out of Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee, in spite of all the opposition he faced because of his innovative dreams. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds,” Einstein had once remarked famously.
   Sir Ashutosh died suddenly in 1924 at Patna, soon after losing a fiercely contested Hindu law inheritance case to the Shia Bihari barrister, Syed Hasan Imam. The epitaph beneath his marble bust at the Ashutosh Museum of Arts at the University of Calcutta reads, “His noblest achievement, surest of them all/A place for his mother tongue — in his stepmother&’s hall”. French scholar Sylvan Levi&’s observation makes fitting conclusion, “Had this Bengal Tiger been born in France, he would have exceeded even Georges Clemenceau, the French Tiger.”
 

Associated Press
TOKYO, 6 JULY: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc is set to secure a majority in the Upper House in this month’s election, newspaper polls indicated.
Victory would give Abe control of both Chambers of the legislature and he would not have to face a public vote for three years.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition ally should comfortably win more than half of the 121 seats that are up for grabs in the 242-seat Upper House election on 21 July, according to separate polls in the Nikkei newspaper, Kyodo News and the Asahi Shimbun.
The ruling bloc needs to win 63 seats to secure a majority in the chamber. In the last session the Opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was the biggest single grouping.
A poll by the liberal-leaning Asahi Shimbun estimated that the conservative LDP was likely to win 63-73 seats.
Supporters say Mr Abe will use his renewed political clout to force changes on cosseted and inefficient industries such as agriculture, and to cut a swathe through labour laws that businesses say make it too difficult to hire and fire workers.
Detractors say he will abandon the economic project of his first six months and get back on his hobby horse revising the constitution, boosting the military and re-assessing Japan’s wartime history.
Opposition parties have so far struggled to find a coherent message to sell to voters, who have on the whole warmed up to Mr Abe’s big-spending, easy-money policy blitz, often termed as “Abenomics”, which has nurtured the green shoots of economic growth.
 

There&’s little you can hide from them
IS a dog sensitive to your emotions? Or is it just a coincidence that he seeks you out when you are emotionally distressed? Plenty of pet owners are comforted by a pair of puppy-dog eyes or a lick of the tongue when their dog catches them crying. Now, research suggests that dogs really do respond uniquely to tears.
Dr  Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer of the Department of Psychology at the University of London Goldsmiths College, developed a procedure in 2012 to examine if domestic dogs could identify and respond to emotional states in humans. In their finding, published in the journal Animal Cognition, 18 pet dogs of different ages and breeds were exposed to four separate 20-second scenes in which either the dog&’s owner or an unfamiliar person pretended to cry, hummed in an odd manner, or carried out a casual conversation.
The dogs responded in a way that made it quite clear that they knew the difference and they knew which human was in trouble. Significantly, more dogs looked at, approached and touched the crying humans. They nuzzled and licked the person, the canine version of “there, there”. Some went to the odd-humming ones. No dogs responded to the talking ones. The dogs approached the crying person in a submissive manner consistent with empathic concern and comfort-offering.
The humming was added because it was new to the dogs and the researchers wanted to gauge whether the dogs were motivated by curiosity at the noise or whether they understood human distress. The experiments proved “the crying carried greater emotional meaning for the dogs and provoked a stronger overall response than either humming or talking”.
The study also found that the dogs responded to the person who was crying, regardless of whether it was their owner or a stranger: Initially, it was thought that dogs would respond only to their owners. According to the researchers, “No such preference was found. The dogs approached whoever was crying, regardless of their identity. Thus they were responding to the person&’s emotion, not their own needs, which is suggestive of comfort-offering behaviour without discriminating among familiar and unfamiliar people.”
In another study, researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, put 90 dogs through their paces — showing some recorded images of babies laughing, crying and babbling. Professor Ted Ruffman said the dogs’ responses indicated that they could understand, they could tell the difference between a happy and an angry person, and a laugh from a cry. He said dogs that saw the crying baby searched behind the television screen to “find” the baby, cocked their heads and expressed concern.
That dogs can understand us is something that every dog owner knows. They have been bred over centuries to be companions in every way to humans. Are they sensitive to our moods? Look at the phenomenon of yawning: if a human yawns, so does a dog.
Almost every dog owner has found out that when they are really sad, their dogs act differently toward them. A dog may approach its disturbed owner with a concerned look and, quite out of character, hunker down next to him/her as if to provide some emotional support. It is as if they are saying, “I know there&’s something wrong, I don’t know what it is but I’m here for you, anyway.”
Many dogs slink away and hide or sulk when their human “parents” argue. A major fight between adults really seems to take its toll on some dogs. It appears from the dog&’s behaviour that he understands discord and does not want to be around it. Of course, it can be argued that raised voices might drive the dog away, but there are dogs that fret even when their owners purposely keep their voices low. It&’s almost as if you can’t hide anything from a dog.
If an owner comes home and finds the home trashed by his/her dog, the guilty party will often be found hiding, perhaps with a hangdog look. Owners believe their dogs are feeling guilty about what they have done. If you accept the guilt explanation, you must also accept that the dog is able to understand your feelings of disappointment or anger.
In another study done on 84 dogs and published in Animal Cognition in February 2013, Dr Juliane Kaminski, of the University of Portsmouth&’s Department of Psychology, has shown that when a human forbids a dog from taking food, the dog is four times more likely to disobey in a dark room than a lit room, suggesting they take into account what the human can or cannot see. The study shows dogs understand that humans can’t see them, meaning they understand the human perspective and realise that it is safer to steal food in the dark.
Can dogs read emotion on human faces? When people look at a new face, their eyes tend to wander left, falling on the right hand side of the person&’s face first.
This “left gaze bias” only occurs when we encounter faces, and does not apply any other time, such as when inspecting animals or inanimate objects. A possible reason for the tendency is that the right side of the human face is better at expressing emotional states. Researchers at the University of Lincoln have now shown that pet dogs also exhibit “left gaze bias”, but only when looking at human faces.
The more tests that take place, the more we realise that dogs are like humans. It seems odd that so many people want to be mean to them.

To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org
 

Serpentology
m krishnan

THERE are other breeds of venomous serpents besides the cobra, some with looks more arresting or venom more potent. The thick, squat-headed Russell&’s viper, blotched with heavy black rings, has always struck me as a more formidable-looking snake – one look at it and you know at once that it is virulent, just as you know by looking at them that some people are cantankerous — and though normally sluggish it can move like lightning when it wants to. The saw-scaled viper is smaller and less vivid, but not less venomous. And the modest, deadly Southern krait is more at home in human dwellings than the cobra and much more poisonous. But it is the cobra that has captured human imagination and compelled worship from time immemorial.

Motive of fear
Psychology, however Freudian, may not tell why this snake should have been preferred above all others for worship, but I think I can. Of course, the motive of fear is there, and the deeply dimly-felt urge to placate that which is feared, possibly there is psychological significance in snake-worship being connected with the concept of fertility. But all this does not explain the choice of the cobra. The belligerent territorial feelings of this snake, its intelligence and readiness to live at peace with humanity, are the bases, I think, of the real explanation.
Cobras get attached to their grounds and will challenge intruders — and their hissing, spread-hooded challenge can be impressive! When they have long had the run of a disused house, they will dispute the right of humans to occupy it again. I have been assured that if treated with firm kindness they will retreat to a far corner of the compound and give up their claim to the house — that the right thing to do, in the circumstances, is to offer them milk and burn camphor in their presence (burning camphor does seem to discourage them considerably) — but on the one occasion I had to reclaim a cobra-haunted house I slew my co-tenants, out of fear.

Temple guardian
In a celebrated temple at Kerala, where the worshippers enter barefooted (as in all temples) the ground literally crawls with cobras, but I believe no one has been bitten so far. I can attest, from personal knowledge, to a much less impressive instance of the willingness of these useful snakes to live and let live. For years I knew a Siva temple beside a main road, which had its resident cobra. I have sometimes seen the snake on the roadside, a few yards away, and have slowed my steps to admire its handsome repose; many others have seen and admired it likewise. One felt no tear at all then, in spite of its splendid proportions and proximity, it was only the temple cobra, it belonged there and had been there for years without doing anyone harm. I have entered the temple when its guardian lay close by the pathway. At times, it moved away and at times it was apathetic to the humans on the road. In September 1953, I revisited this temple and learned, to my sincere regret, that the snake was no longer to be seen, having been killed by some natural enemy, presumably.
In many parts of rural India where snakes are common, snake-worship is equally common and one can see many wayside shrines. These may be quite elementary, a slab of stone bearing the incised figure of a cobra stuck in the ground beneath a tree, or may be a stone palisade around a peepul featuring carved snakes. However, I have seen serpentine figures of considerable finish and beauty at such wayside shrines, intertwined snakes and many-headed cobras carved with much skill and sometimes, instead of cobras, superbly rhythmic figures of Nagas and Naginis — perhaps these belonged, originally, to temple ruins nearby famous for their classical richness.
It is amazing how quickly and unquestioningly these images are accepted in the countryside. Once I had a very fine Nagini removed from her obscure hiding place and publicly installed along with a few “snake stones” in the dreary compound of a courthouse, of which I was the presiding authority. I was surprised and delighted to find my court popular within the week, its compound meticulously maintained by all visitors, including the handful of litigants who had business with me, and my “honour” infinitely secondary in presiding authority.

Naga-folk
These fascinating snake-people, semi-human and subterranean inspir many folk legends, tales and mythological dramas in the South — I dare say, even in the North sometimes, in these stories, they are cobras which can assume human form at will and sometimes they are semi-serpentine Naga-folk. Often they are presented sympathetically, not at all as dreadful figures — in fact, I know authentic folktales where it is the wholly human characters that betray the trusting serpents. It is a feature of these legendary snake-people that the very mention of the word “Garuda” terrifies them. The “Garuda” is the “vahana” of Vishnu and a traditional killer of snakes; the name is specifically used in Tamil to denote the Brahminy Kite (which occasionally does kill small snakes, mainly water snakes) but no doubt it also connotes a number of powerful eagles and hawk-eagles which can and do kill large serpents.
As a tailpiece to this note I may mention a popular saying based on this traditional snake dread of the “Garuda” — my rendering is from a Sanskrit stanza, but the saying in a compressed, pithy form is common to many Indian tongues
Do not associate with the
lowly.
If you must, with the mighty
make friends
For the great cobra, having
God&’s protection,
Enquired fondly about the
Garuda&’s health.

This was first published on 8 August 1954  in The Sunday Statesman

Press Trust of India
BEIJING, 6 JULY: Calling for closer military ties between India and China, Defence Minister A K Antony today said: “If the military leadership on both sides from the top to the ground formations can maintain both trust and mutual respect, and confidence, then it is easy to maintain peace and tranquility at the border areas.” As told to political commissar of National Defence University General Liu Yazhou.
Antony visited the academy of People’s Liberation Army here today on the second day of his official visit.
During the meeting, the defence minister and Mr Liu agreed to enhance military exchanges between the two countries.
Mr Antony yesterday held wide-ranging discussions with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Defence Minister General Cheng Wanquan on a host of issues including maintaining peace and tranquility at the borders.
In his interaction with Mr Liu, Mr Antony recalled his meeting with Premier Li and Gen. Cheng.
“India and China are close neighbours. Our relations are expanding in many areas,” he said, adding that he had a detailed discussions with the Chinese leadership on bilateral ties.
“Both sides are and have clear consensus that we must maintain peace tranquility and stability at our borders. In that endeavour military-to-military cooperation is an important aspect,” he said.
Accompanied by a high-powered delegation consisting of top officials from Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, Mr Antony went round the sprawling 15,000 square meters varsity campus evincing keen interest in China’s defence forces’ training programmes for the officers of all its three forces.
Officials said Mr Antony had expressed interest to visit the top military academy to study the Chinese pattern as India has recently launched its National Defence University in New Delhi which was expected to be ready in the next few years. Indian officials said that efforts are on currently to evolve combined training programmes for all the forces.

Indo-Asian News Service
DHARAMSALA/BYLAKUPPE, 6 JULY: Thousands of Tibetan exiles assembled on today morning, in Dharamsala and Bylakuppe to celebrate the 78th birthday of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
"Exiles, monks and well-wishers are joining the birthday celebrations. Prayers for the well-being and long life of our spiritual leader began," an official of the Dalai Lama’s office said in Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
He said the Dalai Lama would be participating in functions in Bylakuppe, one of the largest settlements of the exiles in India.
Special prayers began at the hilltop Tsuglagkhang temple close to the official palace of the Dalai Lama at McLeodganj near Dharamsala.
Born on 6 July, 1935 at Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognised at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso. He fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, basing his Tibetan government-in-exile here.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 for his non-violent campaign for democracy and freedom in his homeland. Ever since he fled to India, he has spent his time in exile pushing for autonomy for Tibet.
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has been following a "middle-path" policy that seeks "greater autonomy" for Tibetans rather than complete independence.
The Dalai Lama has increasingly voiced his frustration with the ongoing self-immolations in Tibet and said, "these drastic actions are the symptom of a cause, which the Chinese authorities should investigate and take steps to resolve".

Agence France-Presse
SEOUL, 6 JULY: North and South Korea held rare talks today on re-opening a joint industrial zone seen as the last remaining symbol of cross-border reconciliation.
The talks ~ delayed by nearly two hours ~ follow months of friction and threats of war by Pyongyang after its February nuclear test attracted tougher UN sanctions, further squeezing its struggling economy.
Kaesong was the most high-profile casualty of the elevated tensions on the Korean peninsula but neither side has declared the complex officially closed, instead referring to a temporary shutdown.
Both nations say they want to re-open the Seoul-funded industrial zone on the North Korean side of the border but blame each other for its suspension.
“There are a multitude of issues to discuss but the issue of preventing damage to facilities from monsoon rains should take precedence”, the North’s chief delegate Pak Chol-Su was quoted as saying at the start of the meeting by a press pool report.
His South Korean counterpart and senior Unification Ministry official, Suh Ho, said: “We’ve come here with a heavy heart as the Kaesong industrial zone has been shuttered down. I hope we settle the issue through mutual trust and cooperation.”
Pyongyang, citing military tensions and the South’s hostility toward the North, in April withdrew its 53,000 workers from the 123 Seoul-owned factories at the Kaesong park.
Until then the industrial park ~ a valuable source of hard currency for the impoverished North ~ had proved remarkably resilient to the regular upheavals in inter-Korean relations.
Technical problems delayed the start of the talks at the border truce village of Panmunjom today as telephone lines to the South needed repairs, the unification ministry in Seoul said.
Seoul is expected to call for a written guarantee aimed at preventing a recurrence of the unilateral shutdown, a demand which the North would find it hard to accept as it would amount to Pyongyang swallowing its pride and accepting full responsibility for the suspension.
On the agenda are issues of checking on mothballed factory facilities and equipment, moving finished products and raw materials held up at Kaesong to the South and the reopening of the zone.
At an access road to Panmunjom, Suh encountered a group of businessmen with plants in Kaesong. They carried banners expressing hope that the talks would be successful. One read: “We want to work again. Restart Kaesong.”

President gives assent to order, Opp criticises govt move
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
New Delhi, 5 July
Two days after the Union Cabinet cleared the National Food Security Ordinance, the President of India, Mr Pranab Mukherjee today gave his assent to it, even as the ruling Congress went all out to showcase this “historic” welfare measure as the “world’s biggest public food security law” that is set to become the party’s showpiece, “game-changer” issue in the coming general elections. 
Barely three weeks before the normal resumption of the monsoon session of Parliament, the Congress-led UPA government went ahead to take the ordinance route, in the teeth of fierce protests from the Opposition, to give effect to the legislation.  The legislation seeks to provide legal entitlement to 67 per cent of the country’s 1.2 billion population ~ 75 per cent in rural and 50 per cent in urban India ~ to get 5 kg of foodgrains, rice, wheat and coarse grains, per person every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 3, 2, 1 respectively through ration shops. 
About 2.43 crore poorest of the poor families covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme under the PDS would also get legal entitlement to 35 kg of foodgrains per family per month. 
The Opposition, including the BJP and the SP, have cried foul, questioning the government’s “tearing hurry” in adopting the ordinance route just ahead of a Parliament session, and describing it as a “political gimmick with a clear eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections”.  
Rejecting such allegations, the Congress general secretary Mr Ajay Maken, accompanied by the food minister Mr K V Thomas, told media persons at their party’s headquarters here that the Opposition’s “persistent disruption of Parliament” and its “stonewalling of the Food Security Bill in the last session” had left the government with “no option” but to press ahead with such a crucial social welfare intervention in “larger public interest”. 
Mr Maken dismissed the charge that the Congress was eyeing early Lok Sabha elections after clearing the “populist” food security legislation. He claimed it was not linked to elections, asserting that it was part of the Congress manifesto for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and a “dream of the Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the vice-president Mr Rahul Gandhi and the Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh” which, he added, has “now come true”.   
Both Mr Maken and Mr Thomas gave a chronology of the food legislation’s progress through executive and legislative domains over the past four years, maintaining that the states, which are required to identify the beneficiaries and implement this law, had all along kept in the loop. A six-month period has been provided for implementation of the legislation in states. 
“This legislation is aimed at ensuring food security for 81 crore poor and aam aadmi (common person) across the country, it will help fight hunger and malnutrition, benefit women and children…With this we are fulfilling our key manifesto pledge, so obviously when we go to the people (in coming polls) they will be able to judge our credibility and performance,” said Mr Maken. The Congress tried to refute the Opposition’s charge that it had bypassed Parliament and had shown “contempt” to it. 
The ordinance will be placed before Parliament when it meets soon for its monsoon session, and will get replaced by a regular law. From the reassembly of Parliament, an ordinance ceases to operate at the “expiration of six weeks.’’

statesman news service
Siliguri, 5 July
The prime accused in Saradha Group default case, Mr Sudipto Sen and Ms Debjani Mukherjee were produced before the Siliguri additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) court today. The court remanded them in jail custody for 14 days.
Mr Sen and Ms Mukherjee were produced before the ACJM, Dr Madhumita Basu. A resident of Siliguri, Ms Uma Pal Majumdar, had lodged a complaint against the Saradha Group at Siliguri police station on 22 April, stating that she had deposited Rs 1 lakh in January with the group, expecting the assured sum of Rs 1.23 lakhs in six months.
“Both  were produced in the court in connection with a case lodged at Siliguri police station. The duo has been remanded in jail custody for 14 days. The court has also ordered that police can grill them in the Siliguri Special Correctional Home," said the assistant public prosecutor, Mr Sudip Roy Basunia.
Tension gripped the Siliguri court premises as over a hundred Saradha agents and depositors thronged the place. They demanded back their hard-earned money.
“They were using invectives and we apprehended that they would pounce upon the duo. We were alert and so nothing untoward happened,” said a police official. 
Ms Marzina Begam, an agent, said her life had been ruined. "There are around 40 people working under me. I had invested around Rs 10 lakh and altogether, I had raised around Rs 10 crore. I still receive threats from the investors. I am the lone earner of my family. I want our money to be returned or Sudipto Sen be hanged, “she said.
An investor, Mr Bikash Kumar Joardar, said he had invested around Rs 5 lakh. "I know I would not get back my money, but today I have come here to vent my anger,” he added.

statesman news service
Siliguri, 5 July
The Trinamul leadership in north Bengal approached its state leadership so that the state government&’s initiative for extra voting time, at least an hour at dawn, to facilitate minority people who will observe Ramzan fasting during rural polls in the fourth and fifth phase.
At a time when the state Left Front leadership has decided to appeal to the state and state election commission to start the time of voting from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m., keeping the total duration of voting time intact, the Trinamul Congress leadership here has demanded extra time. 
The present polling schedule is 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The LF&’s proposal is 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
But the Cooch Behar district Trinamul Congress president, Mr Rabindranath Ghosh, said: “We requested to our state leadership over phone today to demand an extra time for an hour at dawn for the people belonging to the minority community. We are demanding extra time for an hour for the people, who will observe fasting during holy Ramzan month, particularly in Murshidabad, Malda and adjoining districts, including some districts of north Bengal like Cooch Behar where more than 30 per cent people will observe fasting.”
According to the Trinamul leadership in Jalpaiguri, the state leadership has not yet conveyed instructions regarding the rural polls and on how to deal with the people, who will observe fasting, at the polling stations.
However, Mr Ghosh said: “We have already instructed all our party workers to request the elderly people, belonging to the minority community, to come to the polling stations early in the morning.”
“We have also asked party workers and supporters to line up at polling stations on time. Party workers and supporters will sacrifice their positions to accommodate voters, who will observe fasting,” he also said.
“We have also planned to arrange some foodstuff like puffed rice, chickpea, molasses, dates and water near the polling stations so that minority voters waiting for a long queue can break their fast,” said Mr Ghosh adding, “A section of people come to polling stations in the later half of the day.”
The political leaders belonging to other parties think that the state election commission should formulate specific guidelines regarding queue system in front of the polling stations.
Even the administrative officials suspect that the situation may turn chaotic if all political party activists try to facilitate those people competing with others.

statesman news service
Kurseong, 5 July
The GNLF leadership based in Kurseong threatened that they would pay the GJMM back in their own coin if the preponderant party of the Hills continues with their strategy of muscle-flexing vis-à-vis the Opposition.
Mocking at the GJMM&’s avowing by the canons of Gandhism, a senior leader of Subash Ghising&’s party said they would also practice the same variety of Gandhian non-violence the GJMM has been doing and would not hesitate to retaliate. “We know how to reciprocate attack with attack,” the GNLF leader said.
He further said that his party had never disturbed the GJMM rallies or meetings since the GJMM emerged in 2008. “We initially supported them as the goal of both the parties was the same ~ Gorkhaland. But later, when they betrayed the paramount aspiration of the people and accepted GTA which is unconstitutional, we have revived the demand for the 6th Schedule status for the Hills as this is the best option for the Hills presently,” he added.
The GNLF leader further said the GJMM activists have not just assaulted them but have ransacked and torched their residences at several places. “And they have been doing this in the name of the Gandhian postulates of non-violence. But ours is a party wedded to democracy. However, things are going beyond the threshold of tolerance,” he added.
The GNLF spokesperson, Mr Daya Dewan, said their party is not as powerful as it formerly used to be.
“However, things are looking up for us now, as the GJMM has let the people down,” he said.
“People disenchanted with the GJMM are swarming back to our party which they think as the only credible platform left in the Hills,” he added.

soma mookherjee
soma@thestatesman.net

Kolkata, 5 July:
The state is going to be in the grip of financial uncertainty because of the panchayat poll schedule which has put the state’s Budgetary exercise virtually in the doldrums.
In April, the state finance minister Amit Mitra passed a vote-on-accounts for four months till June as the ruling party had no clue about when the panchayat poll would be held. But, now that the five-phase rural poll will continue from 11 July to 25 July, departmental Budgets can’t be passed in the House till the poll process is over, while different departments are to face financial constraints, state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said today.  The state government is really in a fix after the state election commission today "unilaterally" declared that counting of votes of the rural poll would take place on 29 July, Speaker of the state Assembly Biman Banerjee said.
He told The Statesman: “We thought the SEC would fix the date of counting on 27 or 28 July in which case I could convene the House on 29 July and pass some departmental Budgets from 29 to 31 July.”
“But as the SEC has fixed the day for counting on 29 July, it will be impossible for me to summon the House in the last two days of the month and pass the departmental Budgets,” the Speaker said.
The session can’t be convened before the commencement of the rural poll, Mr Banerjee said, since it would be a futile exercise with most of the MLAs except those from the city busy with campaign.
He also said the finance minister hadn’t informed him whether he would seek another vote-on-account for the next four months, so that the state government has adequate time to pass the departmental Budgets.

AARKRITI Art Gallery is currently holding an exhibition of Dipak Kundu&’s array of paintings on tales of love, life, divinity and death. A closer look would inform one of a borrowing from Eros and Thanatos, theorised by Sigmund Freud at the beginning of the 20th century who tried creating the same essence and whose work is surely intriguing – a face-to-face interaction with the human instinct of life, love and sexuality on one hand and death and aggression on the other.
The combination of the two as a reflection of each other makes Kundu&’s acrylic works “a breeding space of the human psyche exploring the dichotomy of male-female relationship in its different dimensions”. The figurative and semi-figurative elements form an imagery and are inter-related, one image standing “as the reflection of the other in a symbolic way”. The artist uses his skill, knowledge and wisdom to portray the social construct of the “Yin and Yang concept”, transcending the limitations bound by the societal code of conduct. He rather elevates the human erotic urge to the plane of “divine union”, where the broader message expressed is of the mystification of “true love” bound by no worldly or materialistic forms.
Tales from Indian mythology, epics and folklore acquire the basis of dealing with the narrative that eventually is built up in Kundu&’s tales. The indigenous aspect of his paintings, both in content and in treatment, make them more identical to the audience as well as more apt of their times.
Kundu is a professional painter who has postgraduated in fine arts from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, and has showcased his works across India and abroad.
The exhibition is on till 27 July
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After Cannes, it&’s Toronto for Rituparna Sengupta. In conversation with shoma a chatterji, she gives her take on contemporary Bengal cinema
RITUPARNA Sengupta, the numero uno among actresses and stars in contemporary Bengali cinema, has pushed the envelope and walked the red carpet at Cannes earlier this year. As this goes into print, she will be in Toronto for the opening of her film, Mukti, directed by Reshmi Mitra and slated to release in India in August. Rituparna is currently doing mainstream films with out-of-the-box themes and storylines with veteran directors, contemporary directors and new directors. But let us hear this from the star herself. Excerpts:
– What was your first Cannes experience like?
Mind-blowing. One of my films I am looking forward to, Alikh Sukh, had a market screening in Riviera 1, a respectable venue inside the Palais de Festivals. Cannes is soaked in cinema, screens the most outstanding films in the world and is attended by some of the greatest international names gracing cinema today. Alongside Vidya Balan, the Indian member, the International Jury comprised names like Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christopher Waltz. The Bombay Talkies team invited me to their dinner party.
– Let us have a few details about Alik Sukh.
The screening drew a very positive response from the audience. Alikh Sukh is based on a Suchitra Bhattacharya novel and has been jointly directed by Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy. It is a socially and morally uplifting story that questions the ethics of a doctor who is torn between the responsibility of his profession on the one hand and the lure of money on the other. I play his wife, who is a strongly principled woman. Alikh Sukh is the first Bengali film in years to get a market screening.
– You are doing out-of-the-box roles in every film you appear in. Let us hear about some of them.
At this stage of my career, I do not wish to do run-of-the-mill films with boy-meets-girl storylines. So I am all for very different roles in every single film. Thankfully, my directors are giving me just what I want. In A Political Murder, directed by Agnidev Chatterjee, I play a college lecturer who suddenly finds herself trapped in a scam expose that becomes a life-threatening thing. In Raja Sen&’s Khacha, I portray a high-flying corporate woman who lives alone in a posh flat in Kolkata. The script is inspired by what is happening to women in our country. In Kaushik Ganguly&’s Apur Panchali, I play the saviour of a village girl who falls prey to trafficking. I have also done Sudeshna Roy and Abhijit Guha&’s BA Not Out that is a wonderful take on modern marriages. Ready for release is Gautam Sen&’s Jangal Mahal. Reshmi Mitra&’s Mukti will have been screened in Toronto by the time you read this.
– What is your take on contemporary Bengali cinema?
Things are brighter than they ever were for the past three decades, one can say. Bengali cinema is not exclusive to Bengali sentiments and culture but is getting international recognition despite being rooted in its Bengali identity. Bengali cinema today carries appeal also for those who are not Bengali. The market is widening and expanding and there is a rising demand from the international market for Bengali films. Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak&’s films once brought honour to Cannes. Today, it can make a big breakthrough in the global market while also guaranteeing that the producers get their money back.
– Which actresses do you admire in Western cinema?
Who will I name first? There are so many that one tends to lose count. My choicest pick are names like Meryl Streep, Anne Bancroft, Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet. But Indian cinema, especially regional cinema, does not provide the space and time to prepare for a single role because we are paid peanuts compared to what they get and cannot afford to take time off from current work just to prepare for a single role in one film. But I see to it that I do not work in more than three films at a time. It crowds my style.

Shraddha Kapoor apparently has courage of conviction, so she fearlessly says what she feels about pairing off with someone not of her age group. But most young actresses who have yet to rise to the top won’t benefit from that lead, writes ac tuli
IF your entry into the film industry as actor is comparatively of recent origin and you’re still to make your mark in order to enter the charmed circle of top stars, you’re of course always wary about what you say to the press lest you make a slip that could harm your career. But this is not what actress Shraddha Kapoor thinks. It appears the young woman has courage of conviction, so she fearlessly says what she feels. She recently signed for Mohit Suri&’s film, Villain, in which her co-star is Siddharth Malhotra. She is reported to have refused to be part of Umesh Shukla&’s next film, in which Abhishek Bachchan is the leading man. Kapoor says she is more interested in working with comparatively young heroes like Siddharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Ayushmaan Khurraana and Ranbir Kapoor than with a “senior” actor like Abhishek Bachchan.
Curiously, if Kapoor thinks the 37-year-old Abhishek Bachchan is a “senior” actor, one wonders what adjective she would use for Bollywood&’s three most popular Khans. Would it be “veterans” or “venerable oldies”? Anyhow, it would be rather unfair to find fault with Kapoor for being so candid about the choice of actors she would like to be paired with in films.
She says she “doesn’t want to tread the same path as other actresses”. By “other actresses” she obviously means Sonakshi Sinha, Asin, Anushka Sharma, Kangana Ranaut and a few more. All of them have been paired with actors almost twice their age. But then one may ask: Is it not a calculated risk for an actress, who is still in the initial stage of her career, to decide to only do films with young but as yet not so well known actors? And especially when she knows that the star system, good or bad, is so firmly entrenched in our film industry that it would be naïve on the part of a new entrant to ignore its power and fascination. Doubtless, a budding starlet benefits if she gets the opportunity to work in a film with a big star and that film becomes a big box office hit.
For instance, Sonakshi Sinha began with Dabangg opposite Salman Khan, who is almost a quarter century older than her. In fact, she was just a one-year-old toddler when Salman Khan made his debut in films with Biwi Ho To Aisee (1988). But her pairing with Salman Khan in Dabangg proved very lucky for her because the film was a superhit of 2010 and Sonakshi achieved star status with her very first venture. Now imagine if she had refused to sign for Dabangg because Salman was a “senior” actor and she preferred to work with someone of her age group. Would she have reached where she is today?
Anushka Sharma&’s debut in Aditya Chopra&’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) opposite Shah Rukh Khan proved a landmark for her. Even though the film was not exactly a smashing box office hit, it gave a big fillip to her budding career as an actress. It was obviously because of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi that she went on to work in films opposite other big stars of Bollywood. Aditya Chopra was so impressed with her performance that he once againcast her opposite Shah Rukh Khan in his film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
What proved a boon for Sonakshi Sinha and Anushka Sharma naturally stood Asin in good stead when she came to work in Hindi films. Her entry commenced with Aamir Khan&’s Ghajini, which was a box office superhit. It was obviously her pairing with Aamir Khan in this film that later paved the way for her pairing with Salman Khan in Ready, also a box office hit. Had she been finicky about the age of “senior” actors and made an off-the-cuff statement that she preferred working with heroes of her own age group, it is doubtful she would ever have emerged from the obscurity of anonymity to live forever in the sunshine of popularity.
Now, whatever we may say in praise of “senior” actors and their charisma, the truth is the truth and it is futile to deny it. It is, of course, natural for an actress of 20-something to feel far more comfortable working with an actor who is of her age group than with a “senior” who might have started acting in films before she was born. Here are a few instances to illustrate the point. Hema Malini was born in 1948 and made her debut with Raj Kapoor in Sapnon Ka Saudagar (1968). Raj Kapoor, born in 1924, made his debut as a hero in Kidar Sharma&’s Neel Kamal, which was released in 1947. Similarly, Kangana Ranaut, born in 1987, has now been paired with Sunny Deol in I Love New Year, which is to be released shortly. Sunny Deol, born in 1956, began his career in films with Betaab, which was released in 1982.
So this younger-heroine-much-older-hero phenomenon is not of recent origin. In fact, it has been the reality of Bollywood right from the inception of talkies in India. For instance, the three top heroes of the ’50s and ’60s — Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor — were often cast opposite actresses much, much younger than they were. Similarly, in the late ’70s and ’80s, Sridevi was perhaps not very comfortable opposite actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna and others who were two decades older than she was. But she was shrewd enough to understand that it was only when she was cast opposite such top actors that she could achieve stardom. And she did.
Similarly, Dharmendra also appeared opposite actresses like Mumtaz, Sharmila Tagore, Asha Parekh, Rekha, Sadhana and others, who were much younger than he was. But what was far more important than Dharmendra&’s age was the box office success of films in which he worked with these young heroines. Most of these films were box office hits that earned mega bucks for their makers.
So, taken all in all, this fuss about “senior” actors is not going to benefit young actresses who have yet to rise to the top. If working with young heroes of their age group appears to them a very comfortable idea, they have to be professional and hard-headed enough to willingly work with “seniors” too when the chance for doing so comes their way.
But when all has been said about stars and their undeniable box office pull, one must concede that Shraddha Kapoor does have a point when she says she is interested in working with young actors rather than with “seniors”. In fact, it is not unnatural for a 20-something actress if she, in her quiet and solitary moments, is slightly perturbed by a passing thought that the man who is romancing her in films could very well have been her father&’s classmate if both of them had lived in the same town and gone to the same school.