Indian Army develops serious differences with Govt

Gets defiant at orders of conducting operation in civilian border area
India Home Secretary holds special parleys to convince Eastern Commander Gen. Bikram Singh

From Christina Palmer

NEW DELHI- The Indian Army leadership has once again developed serious differences with the government and this time it is not over some amendments in Armed Forces controversial Act in Occupied Kashmir but now the Army leadership has straight away refused to obey the Central government’s orders to carry out a military operation in some districts in the areas bordering with Myanmar, reveal the latest findings of THE DAILY MAIL.

According to THE DAILY MAIL’S investigation last month, Indian Minister for Home Affairs, P. Chidambaram, directly approached the Commander of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army, Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh and directed him to carry out an operation to crush the clashing factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) in the border districts of Tirap and Changlang in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh.

These investigations further indicate that General Bikram straight away refused the directions and stated that he was there to follow the directions from Army Headquarters in New Delhi and not to follow any instruction from the Minister of Home Affairs.

Sources at the Army Headquarters here in New Delhi say that soon after this development, General Bikram Singh reported the matter to the Headquarters in New Delhi. Taking a serious notice of the development, Indian Army Chief, General V.K. Singh took up the matter with the government and showed his utter displeasure over the issue and very strongly refused to carry out any such operation.

These sources further said that General Singh made it clear to the government that an army operation in the said districts was not possible at all because the said areas do not fall under the Disturbed Areas Act.

THE DAILY MAIL’S investigations indicate that after this rude reply from General Singh, the Indian government decided to yield to the Home Secretary G.K Pillai, who is considered to be having deep relations with the Army top brass and the establishment as he proved it by making a controversial statement at the crucial stage of the Pak-India talks in Islamabad last year, at the behest of the Indian Army and the establishment while the foreign ministers of both the countries were holding negotiating in Islamabad.

The investigations also reveal that after Pillai’s involvement in the matter, the Army leadership asked Pillai to get a favourable report from General Bikram Singh to carry out an operation. The investigations further indicate that after this development, Home Secretary Pillai flew to Kolkata, to resolve the tricky situation.

The sources said that Pillai was holding a closed-door meeting with Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh, to find a way out to seek the Army’s help, without declaring the areas as “disturbed” under the Disturbed Areas Act.

The Home Secretary will also be seeking stepping up a vigil by the Assam Rifles on the India-Mayanmar border in the wake of reports of arms being supplied to insurgent groups from Thailand via Myanmar.

The government wants to ensure that there is comprehensive border patrolling by the Assam Rifles. A National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe has pointed out that the alleged chief arms procurer for the insurgent group NSCN (I-M), Anthony Shimray, had been conspiring with arms dealers in Thailand to procure large quantities of arms and ammunition to carry out “terrorist activities” in India.

Home ministry officials, however, stressed that Pillai was conducting a general review of the security scenario in the eastern region.

Government sources, meanwhile, pointed out that the Army holds the view that the NSCN clashes, resulting in more than 30 causalities, should be largely treated as a law and order problem. An official said Pillai is expected to work out a “solution” to the problem to restore peace in the area. An option under which the state government may requisition the Army “to aid the civil authorities” in the two districts is being looked at, the official said.

Over 35 cadres of the Isak-Muivah and Khaplang factions of the NSCN were killed on the night of February 24-25 on the Tirap-Burma border. This was the largest clash in the ongoing conflict between the two groups since December last year. The two factions are already observing a ceasefire agreement with the government where they are supposed to keep their cadres in designated camps and deposit their arms.

Al-Qaida routing money to India via Europe

Press Trust of India

NEW DELHI: European countries are being used as hot destinations by terror group al-Qaida to route money to India, according to a report by Peruvian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

The report said the FIU had found at least one case of such suspicious transaction by al-Qaida every month and shared them with the US investigators.

“The FIU also reports tracking cases similar to that of an OFAC-designated (US Office of Foreign Assets Control) of al-Qaida element moving money from Europe through Lima and on to India,” the report leaked by WikiLeaks, a non-profit media organisation dedicated to bringing important information to the public, quoting FIU head Enrique Saldivar disclosed.

“Asked if this al-Qaida case was the first of its kind or they had seen similar cases before, Saldivar told NASOff that they see about one case a month,” the cable said.

The FIU receives and analyses STRs, may request additional information relevant to cases or operations related to money laundering or terrorist financing, provides financial intelligence reports (FIR) to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, participates and/or requests joint investigations, and coordinates with foreign FIUs and entities.

“Of the 7,710 suspicious activity reports examined by FIU analysts in 2009, 781 resulted in financial intelligence reports sent to the public ministry for further processing and investigation.

“Based on these 781 intelligence reports, the FIU concludes more than 3 billion dollars moved illegally through Peru’s financial sector in 2009,” it said.

“83 per cent of this amount, according to the FIU, is related to drug trafficking. The other 17 per cent is reportedly related to fiscal fraud, corruption and illegal gun dealing. Currently, 308 of these intelligence reports are at various stages of investigation and prosecution in the legal system – as compared to four cases in 2008,” the cables read.

According to Saldivar, anti-money laundering efforts in Peru are hindered by several factors.

India’s Major Bulbul arrested in US

The Daily Mail

Former Indian Army Major accused of Kashmir HR activist’s murder

JAMMU(IOK) – A former Indian Army Major accused of the extrajudicial killing of a noted Kashmir human rights activist has been arrested in the US and would be handed over to the state police within a fortnight, Indian occupied Kashmir police said on Monday.

According to reports, fomer Major Avtar singh was arrested by the California police after his wife accused him of beating her. “It was the victim (wife) who informed the police in the US that he was also wanted in the murder case of one of the human right activists in Indian Occupied part of Kashmir ” the reports said.

On March 8, 1996, Major Avtar Singh, known as “Bulbul” (nightingale), of the 35th Rashtriya Rifles unit of the Indian army arrested Jaleel Andrabi, a human right activist near Barazulla on airport road when the activist was driving home along with his wife. The Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association filed a habeas corpus petition in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir High Court on March 9, and the court ordered the army to produce Andrabi. However, the Indian army denied that Andrabi was in custody. Over the next two weeks, the court continued to grant the government extensions for replying to the petition.

The trussed-up body of Jalil Andrabi, a prominent human rights lawyer was found in the Kursuraj Bagh area of Srinagar on the banks of the Jhelum river on the morning of March 27, 1996. Andrabi, who was forty-two, had been shot in the head and his eyes had been gouged out. An autopsy showed that he had been killed days after his arrest. As a result, the case for murder against the accused officer was pending adjudication in a Srinagar court.

Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar, Mohammed Ibrahim Wani on Febuaray 6, 2010 issued interpol red corner notice against Major Avtar singh. The CJM directed the Ministry of Home affairs to forward the arrest warrant to Interpol through its office in New Delhi. The accused army officer, it is now learnt, has been hiding in Calfornia, US. “Yes we located the accused former Major. The US police informed the interpol and in turn they communicated us,” said Raja Ajaz Ali Inspector General of Crime wing in occupied Jammu and Kashmir police. Raja Ajaz , who is also laison officer of interpol in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, said that the accused was in the preventive custody of the US police in California and would shifted to Srinagar in fifteen days.

“We were asked by the interpol and the US police to furnish fresh warrants against the accused and we have acquired the same from sessions court in Srinagar,” IG crime branch said. According to IG Raja Ajaz Ali, the ministry of home affairs has also been informed about the intimation by the interpol.

Why is Nupur Talwar suddenly an accused now?

CNN-IBN

New Delhi: After three years of playing the role of a supportive wife, Nupur Talwar has been named accused along with her husband Rajesh Talwar of murdering their daughter Aarushi.

But what are the incidents that pointed towards her involvement in the case.

May 2008: Rajesh Talwar being taken away by the UP Police after he was accused of killing his daughter. His wife, Nupur pleaded with the country saying her husband was innocent.

For three years she essayed the role of the grieving mother and supportive wife. Now, she is accused, along with her husband of killing her daughter.

So why is Nupur Talwar suddenly an accused now? According to the closure report filed by the CBI in December – the evidence against Nupur Talwar was enough to name her as a suspect as well.

Charge against Nupur Talwar

According to the Talwars’ maid, Bharti’s testimony to the CBI, Nupur was initially very calm but within minutes she was weeping and said Hemraaj had killed her daughter. The CBI question: how could Nupur know within a few minutes that Hemraj was responsible.

Two years after the murder, Nupur Talwar told the CBI that missing golf clubs had been found in their loft a year ago. The CBI wanted to know why they were not informed earlier. Also, two of the clubs seemed to have been cleaned by some chemical.

There were also major discrepancies in Nupur Talwar’s narco analysis tests.

The CBI also pointed at their joint involvement in several instances.

Charges against the couple

They could not explain why Aarushi’s door was locked and could not tell the police where the keys were.

The terrace door had never been locked before the night of the murder. The CBI asked in its report: why was it locked that night and why wasn’t the police informed.

More damningly, sub section 3 of the last paragraph of the closure report states, “the investigation reveals suspicious actions by the parents post occurrence but the circumstantial evidence collected during investigation has critical and substantial gaps. There is absence of a clear cut motive and incomplete understanding of the sequence of events.”

On February 28, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar will once against visit the Ghaziabad court premises, both of them as accused – accused of a role in the death of their only daughter.

Indian police arrest ex-telecom minister

By Adam Plowright
AFP

Indian police arrested former telecom minister A. Raja and other senior officials on Wednesday as part of a probe into one of the country’s biggest corruption cases.

Raja, a low-caste politician from a regional party in south India, was forced out of government in November as public outrage mounted over the sale of second-generation (2G) telecom licences in 2008 at knock-down prices.

A. Raja is accused of losing the Indian treasury up to $40 billion with his cut-price sale of 2G licences in 2008

The licences were sold on a first-come, first-serve basis instead of via an auction and the ministry is suspected of changing the rules to favour certain companies, many of which were ineligible, according to the national auditor.

A study by the auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General, found that losses from the cut-price sales could have cost the national treasury up to $40 billion, though this figure is disputed by the government.

“The CBI has today arrested the then union minister of communication and information technology, the then secretary telecom and the then private secretary of (the) minister,” police spokesman R.K. Gaur told reporters.

Raja had been questioned at police headquarters in the capital since 10:00 am (0430 GMT) on Wednesday.

The so-called 2G scandal has engulfed India’s Congress Party-led coalition government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, causing some of the strongest political headwinds since they came to power six years ago.

The Supreme Court has consistently pressured the government, asking why Singh failed to act against Raja earlier and querying why police had taken until December to question the minister.

The rules for selling the second-generation (2G) telecom licences had been changed “arbitrarily,” said Supreme Court judge A.K. Ganguly in November.

Raja, who denies any wrong-doing, belongs to a small regional party in the national ruling coalition called the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party, which draws support from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The 2G scandal and widespread graft allegations during the vastly over-budget Delhi Commonwealth Games in October have buffeted the government and led to soul-searching in India about the growing menace of corruption.

In a campaign for a cross-party investigation into the sale, the main opposition parties stalled parliament for the entire winter session, meaning almost no new legislation was passed.

In January, 14 prominent Indians, including business leaders, judges and economists, warned in an open letter to the government that rampant corruption was damaging the country’s social fabric.

They expressed concern that India’s rapid growth was being derailed by corruption, which they called “the biggest issue corroding the fabric of our nation” and one that needed to be tackled “on a war footing”.

Prime Minister Singh and his party chief, Sonia Gandhi, have promised to punish anyone found guilty of wrong-doing in the Commonwealth Games and the 2G licence sales.

In six decades, however, only one senior Indian politician, Rao Shiv Bahadur Singh, has been convicted of graft and served a jail term — for taking a bribe of 25,000 rupees back in 1949.

Indian Lt Gen PK Rath punished

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant General P.K. Rath, who was found guilty in the Sukhna land scam by an Army Court in New Delhi, was on Saturday handed down a sentence including a two-year seniority loss and forfeiture of 15 years of service for pension purposes.

Lieutenant General Rath was found guilty on three counts — firstly for providing a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the construction of the building next to the Army headquarters in Sukna, secondly for signing a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with the private builder and thirdly for not informing the Eastern Command headquarters while the process was being carried on by him.

“To take rank and precedence as if appointment as substantiating the Lieutenant General bore dated May 24, 2010, forfeiture of 15 years service for pensionary benefits and severely reprimand,” General Court Martial (GCM) Presiding Officer Lieutenant General I.J. Singh said in his verdict.

This verdict will now have to be confirmed by the Army Chief and the Defence Ministry.

The land scam came into the open in mid-2008 and the names of Lieutenant General Rath and Lieutenant General Avadhesh Prakash figured among the senior army officers who influenced the decision to issue the NOC to a Siliguri-based private builder to construct an educational institution on a 70-acre land adjacent to the Sukna military station in Darjeeling.

The private builder had floated a trust – Agarwal Geetanjali Education Trust – to set up an affiliate school of the prestigious Mayo College in the area.

Indian Lt Gen PK Rath punished

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant General P.K. Rath, who was found guilty in the Sukhna land scam by an Army Court in New Delhi, was on Saturday handed down a sentence including a two-year seniority loss and forfeiture of 15 years of service for pension purposes.

Lieutenant General Rath was found guilty on three counts — firstly for providing a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the construction of the building next to the Army headquarters in Sukna, secondly for signing a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with the private builder and thirdly for not informing the Eastern Command headquarters while the process was being carried on by him.

“To take rank and precedence as if appointment as substantiating the Lieutenant General bore dated May 24, 2010, forfeiture of 15 years service for pensionary benefits and severely reprimand,” General Court Martial (GCM) Presiding Officer Lieutenant General I.J. Singh said in his verdict.

This verdict will now have to be confirmed by the Army Chief and the Defence Ministry.

The land scam came into the open in mid-2008 and the names of Lieutenant General Rath and Lieutenant General Avadhesh Prakash figured among the senior army officers who influenced the decision to issue the NOC to a Siliguri-based private builder to construct an educational institution on a 70-acre land adjacent to the Sukna military station in Darjeeling.

The private builder had floated a trust – Agarwal Geetanjali Education Trust – to set up an affiliate school of the prestigious Mayo College in the area.

No alternative to Telangana, Cong MPs tell high command

PTI

NEW DELHI: A group of Congress MPs from Telangana on Wednesday met the top central party leadership and made it clear that there was no alternative to a separate state.

Fourteen MPs including 11 from Lok Sabha told finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister A K Antony and law minister Veerappa Moily that the demand for state of Telengana was genuine and old and should be accepted by the party leadership.

In a brief memorandum to Mukherjee, they said, “With all humility at our command, we assert in one voice that there is no alternative to separate Telengana. We have made it abundantly clear in our last meeting while pledging our loyalty to the party. This is the inalienable demand of the people of Telengana and we resolve to stand by people to uphold Congress banner.”

Emerging out of the meeting, Rajya Sabha member and senior party leader from Telengana K Keshava Rao said, “We are absolutely hopeful. There is not even an iota of doubt.”

The meeting comes a day after the former party MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy organised a one-day fast here which was attended by two dozen congress MLAs of which some also belonged to Telangana region.

Congress high command appears to have adopted a wait-and-watch approach on the challenge thrown up by the Srikrishna Committee on Telangana which has given various options including keeping the state united as well as formation of a separate Telangana.

The party is banking heavily on newly installed chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to tackle the situation, giving more than hints that it was an acid test and if he could prove his leadership it would be better for him and the party.

Obama Glad to Meet Indian Communist

BY DOUG POWERS

Why India’s left-wing has been in protesting Obama’s visit is beyond me – maybe they just don’t know him well enough yet.

Unfortunately, this is not satire:

• New Delhi: The Left may have staged protests during his visit but US President Barack Obama was “glad” to meet an Indian communist leader last evening.
• “I am glad to meet an Indian communist. I am told that communists have been part of the (Indian) political mainstream,” Obama told CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury at the Rashtrapati Bhawan banquet as they were introduced and both shook hands.

Can you imagine Ronald Reagan saying he was glad to meet a communist? And yet, if the quote is anywhere near accurate, it seems to roll off Obama’s tongue with ease and comfort like he’s happy to have finally met the president of a local VFW or a Yooper (which wouldn’t be nearly as thrilling for him, by the way).

Communists in India obviously have intrigued the president. Earlier during his trip, he expressed curiosity at a dinner:

• Obama is learnt to have asked Mukherjee about the entry of communists in India into the parliamentary system in India. Mukherjee is understood to have pointed out that Indian communists were part of the mainstream and like social democrats.

Mukherjee then asked Obama about the entry of communists into the American political system… or so I imagine.

Indian pundit confesses bombing Samjhota express

NEW DELHI: Swami Aseemanand’s confession to his role in the Pakistan-bound Samjhauta Express train blast in 2007 has also exposed the hand of the ultra right wing in several other attacks.

In this 42-page confessionary statement in Hindi given to an Indian, Aseemanand has unravelled the inner workings of the terror network.

Aseemanand lays bare an explosive story about the involvement of a few ultra right-wing leaders, including himself in planning and executing a series of bombings. He confesses laying down the “bomb for bomb” revenge approach.

According to him, it was not just a group like the Abhinav Bharat that engineered the blasts. RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar allegedly handpicked and financed some RSS pracharaks to carry out terror attacks.

Aseemanand claims that Indresh had deputed Sunil Joshi a former RSS pracharak of Mhow district for this job. Joshi was expelled from the RSS after being accused in the murder of two Congress activists in Madhya Pradesh in 2006. In 2007, he was murdered under mysterious circumstances.

While Aseemanand was known for his vitriolic anti-minority position, in his confession it was the massacre of Hindu devotees at Akshardham temple in 2002 that was the real reason for their retaliatory terror attacks.

In 2003, Aseemanand came in contact with Joshi and Pragya Singh Thakur. Finally, according to him, it was the terror attack on Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi in March 2006 which was the real flashpoint for them.

New Delhi, We Have a Problem: India’s Space Program Hits Turbulence

If the history of modern rocketry teaches anything, it’s that sooner or later, stuff will blow up. When you pour thousands of gallons of combustible fuel into 15-story machines and then ignite the whole stack, the occasional explosion is simply going to be the cost of doing business. What you have to hope is that no one gets hurt, and if at all possible, no one’s watching.
The spectacular Christmas-day explosion of India’s new Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) – a gleaming 167-ft. (51m) tower of rocket – spared the country the deaths that sometimes accompany space disasters, but the public humiliation was another matter. Crowds swarmed the Satish Sahwan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh in anticipation of the launch and millions more watched live on TV as the GSLV’s engines were lit at 4:04 PM. Forty-seven seconds later, engineers on the ground lost control of the vehicle. Sixteen seconds after that, they blew the haywire rocket up. A booster that was supposed to carry a critical telecommunications satellite into high-Earth orbit instead met its end just eight miles (13 km) over the Bay of Bengal.

More was lost in the GSLV disaster than a $39 million (1.75 billion rupee) rocket and its satellite payload. Also badly damaged was India’s long-pursued rep as a major player in the commercial rocket game. This is not the first GSLV that has failed to fly; the booster has a record of four disasters in seven tries over the past 10 years – the most recent just last April.
“The GSLV has had only a 50% success rate,” says Ajey Lele, space expert at the Institute of Defense and Security Analysis in New Delhi. “India has wanted to have the technology and the facility [to launch heavy payloads] on its own soil. Now that will not happen in the near future.” But with China, Japan, the U.S. and other countries all chasing the same global business with their own fleet of rockets, the near future may be all the time the Indian program has.

India has had a big – if unheralded – presence in the space community for a long time. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) – essentially India’s NASA – was established in 1969 with the mission of focusing exclusively on launching communications and Earth observation satellites, programs that have immediate benefits for people on the ground and were seen as the only legitimate business a country as poor as India had in space.

ISRO did well with its limited portfolio, but things changed in 1999, when the country – puffed up after a series of successful nuclear tests the year before – decided to aim higher, planning for unmanned missions to the moon and manned missions into Earth orbit. In 2008, the Chandrayaan-1 lunar spacecraft made good on part of that promise, not only successfully orbiting the moon, but making a significant – indeed, landmark- discovery about the surprising quantity of water mixed in with the lunar soil. Meantime, the smaller predecessor of the GSLV was making a name for itself as a reliable commercial launcher, with a string of 16 successful launches against no failures. The GSLV was seen as the next logical step in a rapidly advancing program: a three-stage, heavy-lift rocket suitable for bigger payloads and crews.

But the ambitious design of the rocket may be its undoing. The problem that led to the explosion occurred in the first stage – a giant liquid-fueled engine surrounded by four, strap-on solid fuel rockets. Strap-ons, as designers know, are a great way to add oomph to a booster; the more power you need, the more solids you attach. But multiple engines mean increased complexity – not to mention the need to coordinate the exact amount of thrust each motor is producing, the exact moment ignition takes place and the tricky acoustical business of controlling vibrations. The fact that it’s that stage that failed this time was not surprising but it was disappointing, since in the April launch it worked perfectly; it was the second, simpler stage that failed that time. Another former ISRO chief called the nature of this most recent accident nothing short of “a national setback.”

For the moment it’s unclear whether it’s a setback the space agency can recover from in time. Sorting out multiple glitches in multiple stages is a time-consuming business, and even one more failure could irreparably destroy the GSLV’s image. Ultimately, the global market for heavy-lift flight could simply leave India behind. Uncertain too will be the scheduled 2015 launch of the Chandrayaan II, a joint Indian-Russian moon mission that’s intended to carry both a lunar satellite and a rover and was slated to be launched on a GSLV. Even less certain is the launch of the first Indian astronauts – or vyomanauts – a mission that did not yet even have a target date and is less likely than ever to get one until the big booster proves itself.
India’s economic and technological growth have been extraordinary over the past ten years, but as the U.S. and Russia learned over the previous fifty, there is nothing that challenges a country’s scientific and industrial base like trying to take those first steps into space. The GSLV may yet recover, and vyomanauts may yet ride it to glory, but the path won’t be easy. It never, ever is.

After sex sting, AP governor Tiwari ejects prematurely

TNN

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: A day after his pictures in a sex romp were flashed in the media, the Centre got veteran Congressman N D Tiwari to step down as Andhra Pradesh governor, disregarding his claim that he was a victim of a frame-up.

Sex tape: Andhra governor N D Tiwari resigns

An embarrassed UPA government decided to ask Tiwari to vacate Raj Bhavan after a high-level meeting held that pictures purportedly showing Tiwari in, to put it mildly, the “intimate” company of three women had rendered his continuation as governor untenable.

The Centre did not even wait for the report that it has sought from the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary Ramakanth Reddy. The decision was conveyed to the governor. For his part, Tiwari tried to argue that he had done no wrong and spoke of a conspiracy — in line with the version put out by Raj Bhavan on Friday — to malign him. He, however, gave in after realising that the leadership was in no mood to relent.

Curiously, in his resignation to the President, the stalwart cited “health grounds” as the reason for putting in his papers.

The quick action by the central leadership was designed to put a lid on the controversy which landed streams of women protesters at the gates of Raj Bhavan while triggering an avalanche of demands for his resignation from across the political spectrum.

Coming at a time when passions are running high in Andhra over the Telangana issue, the unsavoury controversy over the purported peccadilloes of the governor would have undermined the firefighting the Centre has been engaged in.

The additional charge of Andhra Raj Bhavan is likely to be given to the Chhattisgarh governor. The final name may be decided as part of a larger exercise involving the vacancies in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Punjab next month.

The media in Hyderabad had flashed purported pictures of the governor in a compromising position with three women, which created a furore. While Raj Bhavan denied it and secured a high court injunction against public airing of footage, it had stirred a controversy which Congress could not ignore.

A relieved Congress welcomed the resignation. AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters, “I think he has taken an appropriate decision keeping in view the high standards of public life. We welcome it.”

While Tiwari has stepped down, the report of the chief secretary will determine whether there is need for any inquiry into the incident.

Tiwari’s exit from the Raj Bhavan is being seen as an unsavoury end to a glittering career, which has seen him become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh thrice and the first elected chief minister of Uttarakhand besides holding key positions in AICC and at the Centre.

His positioning as a “loyalist” became his calling card over the years. The gubernatorial assignment was a post-retirement arrangement for him after Congress lost elections in Uttarakhand.

Tiwari, hailing from Uttarakhand, is expected to proceed to his native Nainital soon. “The chances of him being rehabilitated elsewhere by Congress president Sonia Gandhi are very slim right now,” said Congress sources. The party chief was said to be very embarrassed over the alleged episode and wanted to take immediate damage-control steps, the sources added. Tiwari had been rehabilitated in Hyderabad’s Raj Bhavan to keep him away from Uttarakhand where he was working against the local Congress leadership.

His two-year stint as AP governor was largely quiet and non-controversial. “Tiwari confined himself to functions mostly at Raj Bhavan and would venture out only when absolutely necessary. He used to operate through his officer on special duty Aryandra Sharma whom he had brought along from Uttarakhand. Every file to Tiwari had to be routed through Sharma and this led to a lot of friction in the governer’s secretariat,” sources said.

Tiwari’s successor is going to have his hands full because of the political uncertainty that has prevailed in the state since the death of chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, with the Telangana agitation only aggravating the situation.

While Central rule in AP is ruled out at the moment, sources said the option would have to be explored if Telangana activists refuse to withdraw their stir and the administration remains paralysed. In such an event, the UPA has to look for a “political person” who can steer the administration in a tough situation.

Radia not spy but economic terrorist: Praful Patel

OneIndia News

New Delhi, Dec 15: The Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has slammed corporate lobbyist Nira Radia over the leaked tapes which allegedly described him as the person who “destroyed” the aviation sector.

Praful Patel, on Tuesday, Dec 14, accused that Niira Radia has some “vested interest” and “personal agenda.” He equated her as an “economic terrorist.”

“You want me to comment on lobbies and their agents and what they have said. They have vested interests and a personal agenda,” Patel said.

Read: Praful Patel working for Vijay Mallya, Radia tapes

The latest Radia tapes published by Outlook has exposed the conversation between Nira Radia and NCP leader NK Singh. In the tapes NK Singh said to Radia that Praful Patel has worked for the Naresh Goyal (Jet Airways) when she told Patel has destroyed the aviation sector.

In response to this, Radia said that now Patel was working for “Vijay Mallya (Kingfisher airlines) at the cost of the national carrier.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of Radia’s Vaishnavi Corporate Communications said that Praful Patel’s comments were “irresponsible and baseless.”

“It greatly pains and offends us when persons of higher authority makes such irresponsible and baseless comments. However, we have no intention to enter into any meaningless war of words on the issue,” the spokesperson said.

Getting Ahead in India Means Getting Out

By VIR SINGH

NEW DELHI – Parth Vaishnav can’t wait to graduate, but he doesn’t think very much of the bachelor’s degree he will receive from the University of Mumbai next summer. And he believes employers won’t value it, either.

Indian students listened to President Obama at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai in November. More Indians are looking abroad for educational opportunities.

He is applying to engineering schools in the United States, which he has been told offer the flexibility, diverse courses and hands-on experience he seeks.

“Basically, all of us in my class, we were pretty disappointed with our systems,” Mr. Vaishnav said. “In the last three years, we have learned absolutely nothing. Everything was pretty theoretical. Courses in the U.S. offer practical experience. In India, as far as the syllabus goes, you have absolutely no flexibility.”

Mr. Vaishnav is among a rising number of students in India’s rapidly expanding younger population who want, and can pay for, a better education. Yet they know that in a country where thousands apply for each spot at a handful of top universities, the chances of this happening are remote. These students say a good foreign degree will get them a better job and a better life. And if the potential return on investment appears worthwhile, they will put their money on it.

In interviews with students around India recently, most said they wanted to strengthen their credentials outside of the country and voiced hope for growth in India after returning. They also spoke of the usual fears and concerns of students headed overseas.

“One thing that is common across students going to any country is, ‘Look, I am making this investment, what are my returns?”‘ said Ruchika Castelino, the head of Indian operations of Study Overseas, a company that advises students. “That’s such a huge question that students have. Then everything else follows: ‘Where shall I go, what is the kind of course, job placements, etc.’ “

She estimates that the number of Indian students going overseas annually has doubled in the past six years, reaching more than 200,000.

For those students who have made the decision to head overseas, several issues must be addressed. For Shivanika Gyani, finding a way to pay more than $150,000 for a two-year master’s in business administration is not the biggest challenge. The first hurdle, she said, is getting into a top American business school, which means scoring well on the Graduate Management Admission Test, or G.M.A.T.

“For the U.S., I need to break into the 700s to get in to a good school,” she said, referring to a grading system in which 800 is the maximum. “These days I don’t socialize at all, and I talk to people only if they want to discuss G.M.A.T. and business schools.”

Why did she choose the United States? “If I go to America, there is more chance of my network being more global because more people from around the world go to America,” said Ms. Gyani, 29, who worked at a head-hunting company in Mumbai after college.

She has looked at some programs in Europe, but feels it is “not really the best place to go right now, because employment opportunities are limited and you have to learn the language if you want to work.” The location and courses offered by the London Business School are attractive, but Ms. Gyani has one big problem with Britain: “The weather depresses me. It’s a huge factor. I had a long chat with someone. He said: ‘Keep weather as a consideration. Your cost of living will go up in a cold place.”‘

Shivam Arora, a high school senior in Mumbai, has the same problem when he considers living in Canada. Even though he has been told that the country offers scholarships to students like him who are enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program, he is planning to apply to Canadian colleges mainly “as a backup.”

For students where money is more of an issue, they cannot be choosy. For many of them, one-year programs at British universities are a big draw. Vishal Gill, a supply-chain specialist at Tata Motors, said a two-year business degree at a well-regarded Indian institution costs about $34,800. For the same money, or less, if he considers the cost of a yearlong program at the Indian School of Business, he can spend a year studying at a good British university. And he can choose courses that focus on his specialization. “Why not go abroad, compete on a global platform and pay less?” he said.

After completing his degree, Mr. Gill would also like to work overseas. He is familiar with Singapore because one of his employer’s suppliers is there. “It is a country where all of the big corporates have situated,” he said. “No racism is there. It is a good place to be in.”

But even if his plans to go overseas don’t work out, he is confident Tata Motors will reward him. “After doing my master’s, they will give me a salary hike,” he said. “For sure.”

That’s what Saurabh Parihar, an electronics engineer, has heard from his cousins who work at global companies in India. He says that in the past 5 to 10 years, raises for workers who return with degrees earned overseas have made even conservative families less reluctant to send children abroad. His father, a government employee in the northern town of Jodhpur, will have to get a loan to send him to a year of graduate studies in Britain. But Mr. Parihar is “somewhat confident” that a British degree will allow him to repay the loan.

“All you need is that initial break,” said Deepak Krishnakumar, an engineering student who is applying to doctoral programs in America. “That you get there.” A student at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, he said there were now many more jobs in research and development.

Rajeev Varma, who is earning a master’s degree in organic chemistry in Mumbai, agreed. “The pharma companies in India are coming back like anything,” he said. “It’s booming. Even if there’s a financial crunch, pharma companies are never at a loss.”

He said science students who go overseas get opportunities not widely available in India, like working with researchers from the leading companies in the world.

“If you work with good international labs, you get very good opportunities,” he said. “You get very good exposure.”

“Exposure” is a word that came up in nearly all of the interviews, no matter what a student was studying.

For Mr. Vaishnav, the engineering student in Mumbai, exposure is more than a buzzword. He saw his classmate transform completely after transferring to a Canadian university and benefiting from the academics there.

“He has learned 10 times as much in the last three years, even though he’s a year behind,” he said. As part of his engineering degree, the friend built an electronic drum set and a sprinkler system for farms. “He has enjoyed everything.”

Mr. Zardari, Your Friend Sarkozy Is Bashing Pakistan

Pakistan-It is becoming easy to fool India and grab some of its money. If you are a world leader, this is what you should do:

Announce you’re coming to New Delhi for a ‘landmark’ three- or four-day visit, hurl a few curses at Pakistan while you’re on Indian soil and then sit back and watch India dole out your share of some of the billions of dollars that India is saving for military armor that it won’t spend on ending poverty, the world’s largest.

That’s what British prime minister and the US president did. The latest one to follow this line is Nikolas Sarkozy, the French president. He dashed this week to the Indian capital, spent four days cursing Pakistan, and then begged the Indians to give French companies a few deals. Cameron and Obama left with the booty. But not Sarkozy. This time around the Indians smelled a rat when the French president announced he’s coming for another ‘landmark’ visit. ‘Na babu, not again!’ This is how an Indian website quoted Indian foreign office officials whining about Mr. Sarkozy’s trip. Another ‘landmark’ visit to India means New Delhi will have to dish out money to reward the latest foreign leader to bash Pakistan on Indian soil.

Sarkozy was sent off with an Indian promise it would ‘consider’ buying two nuclear reactors worth a little over nine billion dollars, and some change thrown in to generate favorable headlines for the Frenchman and his celebrity wife as they returned home on Tuesday.

French president’s insulting remarks about Pakistan were astonishingly ignored in Islamabad. Almost no coverage whatsoever in the entire Pakistani media. This says a lot about France’s weight in the region. It also says a lot about how Pakistan-bashing has become business as usual for the Pakistani ruling elite.

What drew my attention was his visit to a memorial in Mumbai for 18 Indian policemen killed in the Mumbai attack in 2008.

I remembered some 61 innocent Pakistanis who perished on Indian soil in 2007. That’s triple the number of Indian policemen and more than a third of Mumbai attack victims. They believed in India’s peace pledges and traveled to that country on a train called ‘friendship’, or Samjhota Express. It was blown up inside India. Three Indian military intelligence officers and a Hindu terrorist organization were arrested for executing the attack. They wanted to create an opportunity to blame Pakistan’s ISI and Kashmiri freedom groups, hoping the pressure would force Pakistan into concessions during peace talks.

Today, everyone visits the memorial of 18 Indian policemen but no one remembers 61 Pakistanis burned alive in India.

The reason is that Pakistan’s pro-American ruling elite has sold Pakistan cheap into someone else’s war in exchange for US dollars. A former army chief General Musharraf did this first and now a pro-US Zardari government along with almost the entire Pakistani political elite, from Nawaz Sharif down to the rest of them, is doing the same thing to win the favor of the US embassy here.

Sarkozy is President Zardari’s buddy. They allegedly raked in a few millions from kickbacks on a submarine deal back in the early 1990s. In July, when half of Pakistan was under water in epic flooding, Mr. Zardari refused to cut short his visit to France because, in his words, the visit was important for Pakistani diplomacy. But despite Mr. Zardari’s robust diplomacy Mr. Sarkozy hascondemned Pakistanon Indian soil and there isn’t even as much as a whisper from Mr. Zardari’s government. So much for diplomacy.

Pakistan’s ruling elite, civilian and military, is incapable to tell other countries not to make Pakistan-bashing a ritual for anyone visiting India. Interestingly, all those slamming Pakistan are our government’s and our military’s allies in Afghanistan.