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Sajid Khan, who has brought together three veteran actors - Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty in Housefull 2, says his personal favourite is Mithun-da whom he has idolised ever since he was a kid. "Dada is my number one star since I was born. I have never ever hero-worshipped anyone more than Dada. Arguably, I am Mithun-da's biggest fan. I used to do his mimicry, I used to talk like him, I have seen every film of Dada," the 40-year-old said here in an interview.
"The only person in this entire film and in my all three films, whose first shot I took and touched his feet, that is my Dada. I love Dada so much," he added.Meanwhile, Sajid says the public sees him as a brand. That's why after delivering a hit like "Housefull", he feels a slight pressure of not disappointing his audience.
"There is always pressure. If you make a flop film then you are under pressure to make a hit film. If you make a hit film then you are under pressure to surpass your own standard or at least deliver another hit because the audience also has expectations.
"You know that Sajid Khan is a brand name and that you will get a family entertainer from him. I will never change that. The only pressure on me is that I should never disappoint my audience," he added.
Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, the film also features Boman Irani, Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, John Abraham, Shreyas Talpade, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zarine Khan and Shazahn Padamsee. It hits theatres April 5.
Stockholm: India is the world's largest recipient of arms while South Korea is second and Pakistan and China are tied in third place, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in a study on international arms transfers.
The volume of worldwide arms transfers in 2007-11 was 24 per cent higher than in 2002-06 and the five largest arms importers in 2007-11 were all Asian states, said a press communique.
The data revealed that Asia and Oceania accounted for a whopping 44 per cent of global arms imports, followed by Europe 19 per cent, the Middle East 17 per cent, and the Americas 11 per cent. Africa was the lowest with 9 per cent.
India was the world's largest recipient of arms, accounting for 10 per cent of global arms imports.
The other large recipients of arms in 2007-11 were South Korea (6 per cent of arms transfers), Pakistan (5 per cent), China (5 per cent) and Singapore (4 per cent).
"Major Asian importing states are seeking to develop their own arms industries and decrease their reliance on external sources of supply," Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme, was quoted as saying.
"A large share of arms deliveries is due to licensed production."
India's neighbour China was the largest recipient of arms exports in 2002-06, but it fell to fourth place in 2007-11.
Between 2002-06 and 2007-11, the volume of Chinese arms exports increased by 95 per cent and now China ranks as the sixth largest supplier of arms in the world.
"While the volume of China's arms exports is increasing, this is largely a result of Pakistan importing more arms from China," said Paul Holtom, director of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.
"China has not yet achieved a major breakthrough in any other significant market."
The study said that major suppliers continued to deliver weapons to countries affected by the events of the Arab Spring.
Despite a review in 2011 of its arms transfer policies towards the region, the US remains a major supplier to both Tunisia and Egypt. In 2011, the US delivered 45 M-1A1 tanks to Egypt and agreed to deliver 125 more, the communique said.
"The transfer of arms to states affected by the Arab Spring has provoked public and parliamentary debate in a number of supplier states. However, the impact of these debates on states' arms export policies has, up to now, been limited," said Mark Bromley, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.
The think-tank also noted that in 2011 Saudi Arabia placed an order with the US for 154 F-15SA combat aircraft, which was not only the most significant order placed by any state in 2011 but also the largest arms deal for at least two decades.
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Filmmaker Subhash Ghai has got a breather in the Haryana land case after a court dismissed a public suit filed by people of Badhsa village against his acquiring 20 acres of land for setting up a film institute. Dismissing the plea, the court vacated the stay on the land purchased from the panchayat in Badhsa village in Jhajjar district, the filmmaker's laywer Sanjay Sharma said Friday.
"The filmmaker had purchased 20 acres land from the gram panchayat for the construction of his institute with the permission of financial commissioner of Haryana, however, the villagers filed a PIL claiming that they are the proprietors of the land, which was not actually true," Sharma told IANS.
"However, now the Bahadurgarh court has dismissed the plea and we can begin the construction of our institute now," he added.
On March 1, after hearing the arguments of both sides, the court had reserved the order and was to be pronounce the verdict March 5, but later the date was fixed for March 16.
Ex-sarpanch of Badhsa Balbir Singh and former member of panchayat Rambir Singh filed the petition claiming that the land belonged to village communities and the gram panchayat and the government had no right to sell it to a private firm.
Ghai is equally delighted with the court's decision.
"I am glad that judiciary has given us justice and acknowledged the national importance for developing the skill based talent and technicians and media professionals nationwide," Ghai said in a statement.
The Badhsa Gram Panchayat had sent a resolution to the Haryana government January 6, 2010, to permit them to sell land to Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts. On September 22, 2010, the government allowed the panchayat to sell 20 acres of land at the rate of Rs 2,409,000 per acre. The deal was sealed October 11, 2010.
Earlier, Additional Civil Judge (Senior) Rajesh Sharma had issued notice to the Haryana government and Mukta Arts chairman Subhash Ghai and had stayed Mukta Arts from performing any type of activity on the 20 acres of land it purchased from the Gram Panchayat of Badhsa.
Bangalore: The BJP says that it is considering the demand made rather aggressively by BS Yeddurappa to be reinstated as Chief Minister of Karnataka. "We are a democratic party but we do not take decisions under pressure. We will come to the right decision and I would advise Mr Yeddyurappa to be patient and not do anything to malign the party," said the party president Nitin Gadkari today. Mr Yedyurappra earlier today allegedly rejected an offer to fly to Nagpur for peace talks.
Instead, the rebel leader is focussed on a five-star resort on the outskirts of Bangalore which has emerged as his centre of power. Here, 67 of the party's 120 MLAs are parked in a show of loyalty to Mr Yeddyurappa. Their camp is a clear message from Mr Yeddyurappra that unless he is reinstated as chief minister, the BJP could see a split in its Karnataka branch. 10 MPs from the BJP have also threatened to resign in support Mr Yeddyurappa.
Mr Yeddyurappa's group is demanding a legislature party meeting at which it can demonstrate its numbers. An additional pressure tactic lies in the fact that the dissidents are fielding their own candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections - Yeddyurappa loyalist B J Puttaswamy - in addition to the party's official candidates.
In July, Mr Yeddyurappa was forced by the BJP to quit office after a report on illegal mining indicted him for corruption. Last week, a court dismissed those charges. Mr Yeddyurappa says that's ground enough for his return to power.
But the man who was hand-picked by Mr Yeddyurappa as his successor, Sadananda Gowda, is reportedly unwilling to quit office. He said today that he is focussing on his job, and will respect whatever decision is taken by Mr Gadkari. One of the reasons why Mr Yeddyurappra has isolated his supporters at a hotel is to ensure the current chief minister cannot influence or woo them.
Mr Yeddyurappa and his family and he are accused of graft in other cases for buying land reserved for public use at bargain prices, allegedly made possible by Mr Yeddyurappa when he was chief minister. He was jailed in October last year for those cases and spent nearly a month in jail.
"After the HC order we are thinking about this. We are a democratic party but we do not take decisions under pressure. We will come to the right decision and I would advise Mr Yeddyurappa to be patient and not do anything to malign the party."
"Even earlier after the Lok Ayukta order we had replaced Yeddyurappa even though we had some reservations about it."
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A few years ago, a heavily-bearded Amitabh Bachchan was often spotted roaming around places like Shimla and Nashik. Soon it was revealed that the superstar was shooting for director Shoojit Sircar’s film, Johnny Mastana (earlier titled Shoebite).
But the film hasn’t hit the theatres as yet, apparently at the behest of Hollywood filmmaker Manoj Night Shyamalan.
The story goes like this: In 1994, Shyamalan sold the rights to his story Labour Of Love to Fox Studios for a reported sum of $750,000, but the movie wasn’t made. Years later, UTV bought the rights of Labour Of Love to make into Johnny Mastana since Shyamalan was apparently not keen on turning the story into a film.
So UTV Motion Pictures — after buying the rights — almost completed the film with Bachchan in the lead. “But as Johnny Mastana neared completion, Shyamalan changed his mind and stated that he wanted to make the film based on his story. Later, Shyamalan, along with Fox, informed UTV that they shouldn’t release the film until the Hollywood filmmaker made his own version in the US and released it. But since there’s no talk of Shyamalan’s film based on Labour of Love, the Big B’s film is stuck indefinitely,” says an industry insider.
At the moment, Shyamalan is busy shooting the adventure/sci-fi film After Earth, that toplines actors Will Smith and Isabelle Fuhrman.
While UTV officials were unavailable for a comment, Sircar stated: “I hope UTV figures (things) out and completes whatever negotiations they have to do with Fox. It’s a good film not only for the actors and the director, but also the technicians. We have put our blood and sweat into it.” He confirms that Johnny Mastana’s storyline is based on Shyamalan’s original idea. “Rensil D’Silva has developed our script. M Knight Shyamalan never made it into a film. UTV needs to figure out everything because my job was to just direct it.”
Early roadblock Shoebite is the story of a man in his early 60s named John Pereira. He sets out on a journey of self discovery and penance, which leads him to rediscover his love for his wife in the twilight years of their marriage.
The film had hit headlines in 2008 after the Delhi High Court granted an order restraining director Shoojit Sircar and producers UTV from infringing Percept’s copyright on their film, Johnny Walker. Reportedly, Sircar was to make Johnny Walker for Percept but later approached UTV with the same subject, renamed Shoebite. Percept approached the High Court, which ruled in their favour.
Mumbai: After arranging the marriage of his 15-year-old son to a 12-year-old girl, a 42-year-old man started coveting the girl himself. He has now been arrested by Ulhasnagar cops for abducting and raping her.
Cops have revealed that the accused, identified by the Hill Line police as Abdul Shaikh, a resident of Rohidas Nagar in Kalyan, took the girl to a guesthouse, promising her that she would meet his son, and then raped her. Shaikh had earlier met the victim's family, and the two parties had mutually agreed to get their children married five years later.
"On Saturday, the victim had set out from her residence in Camp V for her school, when Shaikh intercepted her and asked her to board a waiting auto, luring her with the promise of meeting his son," said Narendra Jadhav, senior inspector of police, Hill Line police station.
"Shaikh then took the minor to Netaji Chowk and thereafter to Surya Lodging and Boarding. He persuaded her to don a burqa before entering, saying that her school dress could make others question her presence at the lodge," added Jadhav.
Once they entered one of the rooms, the girl started inquiring about Shaikh's son, as she couldn't see him around. He then raped her, and threatened her with dire consequences if she exposed him to any of their acquaintances.
"After having his way with her, Shaikh dropped the minor near her residence, and fled. The incident was revealed when the victim's younger sister complained to their mother that the 12-year-old girl had not made it to school that day. The worried mother questioned her daughter, who disclosed the day's events to her. The mother then registered a case with us," said Jadhav.
The police then inquired with the lodge, and tracking Shaikh with the help of his phone number, they arrested him. "Shaikh has been booked for kidnapping, rape and criminal intimidation," said Jadhav.
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Ahmedabad: The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Gujarat Government and the Nanavati Commission on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The PIL seeks issue of summons to chief minister Narendra Modi for his examination before the probe panel.
The PIL was filed by an NGO called Jansangharsh Manch, which had earlier approached the Nanavati Commission. It had pleaded that Mr Modi should be summoned and examined in the 2002 riots cases as there are 'evidences of his complicity.' But the Nanavati commission had rejected its plea.
Later, they moved the High Court, which too rejected the plea.
The NGO then moved the Supreme Court, which today issued a notice to Nanavati commission and the Gujarat government.
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Toulouse, France: A motorcycle gunman opened fire on Monday in front of a Jewish school in the southwest French city of Toulouse, killing a father, his two sons and one other child, the prosecutor's office said.
It was the latest in a week of motorcycle shooting attacks in France. Two separate motorcycle gunman attacks have killed three paratroopers and left one other in critical condition in the same area.
Prosecutor Michel Valet said a 30-year-old man and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons were killed in the attack just before classes started at the Ozar Hatorah school. He said another child, between 8 and 10 years old, was also killed, and a 17-year-old seriously injured.
French authorities were stepping up security at all Jewish schools in France, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said, adding the suspect made his getaway on a dark-colored scooter.
The school behind a high white wall with few external markings was cordoned off on Monday by police, who then escorted other children out. One officer held a distraught girl, her face in her hands. A mother and son wearing a yarmulke walked away from the site, their faces visibly pained. A video camera was visible at the school's entrance.
"The drama occurred a bit before 8 a.m. A man arrived in front of the school on a motorcycle or scooter," Valet said, adding that the man got off his scooter outside the school and opened fire.
"He shot at everything he had in front of him, children and adults," he said. "The children were chased inside the school"
The prosecutor said the suspect probably used two weapons, including one of a large caliber.
A gunman on a motorbike opened fire on three uniformed paratroopers at a bank machine on Thursday in Montauban in southern France, killing two and critically wounding the other. Four days earlier, a gunman on a motorbike shot and killed another paratrooper in Toulouse, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.
The Paris prosecutor's office said on Monday it will investigate eventual terrorist links to Monday's killing and the two killings of paratroopers last week. The prosecutor's office, in a statement, did not indicate any evidence so far of any form of terrorism.
Both the prosecutor and Brandet said there were similarities with the attack four days ago in Montauban. Brandet noted that in both cases scooters were used and both suspects were apparently very determined.
A week ago in Toulouse, there was a deadly attack on another paratrooper.
In each case the assailant was on a scooter. Authorities said at the time that forensic analysis showed the same weapon was used in the shootings in Montauban and Toulouse.
President Nicolas Sarkozy accompanied by Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella group representing Jewish organizations, were heading to the school.
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New Delhi:What does a centurion do after a mammoth knock of 183 against arch-rivals Pakistan? India's Virat Kohli on Monday, chose to unwind with a movie and a session at the spa.
The hero from Sunday's Asia Cup match tweeted his activity a day after leading his team to a sensational win against Pakistan, chasing 330 for a win. "what a game it was for the team. good win for us. had a good spa day and a great time watching movies with team mates," he wrote on the micro-blogging site.
While his name has been trending on Twitter and congratulatory messages have been pouring in from politicians (Rajya Sabha members congratulate) to Bollywood celebrities (Pics: Bollywood, Yuvraj wish Kohli), a relaxed Kohli spent Monday re-energising himself after batting for close to four hours at Mirpur. With a place in the final almost assured, he and his teammates will however, keep an eye out for the match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. If Sri Lanka win, Kohli may well get a chance to stage an encore against Pakistan in the final on Thursday.
They may be a couple in real life, but on screen Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor are about to clash over item numbers in the film Agent Vinod. Who does it better?
Many are asking if Kareena's mujra song, Dil Mera Muft Ka, will be overshadowed by Saif's Pyaar Ki Pungi. The latter is described as a number that catches your attention in the first 20 seconds because of its comic, cheeky notes and free footsteps.
When asked about the song, Saif told IANS: "There is a sequence in the film where Agent Vinod is being watched by CCTV cameras...and he is behaving in a certain way, so we thought we should do an extension to that and we did the song."
Composed by Pritam Chakraborty, Pyaar Ki Pungi has been written by lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya and choreographed by Jasmin Oza. Mika has sung it.
Since Agent Vinod, a sleek spy thriller, is full of actions and thrills, director Sriram Raghavan didn't give much attention to the songs as it can shift people's interest and the essence of the movie.
So Pyaar Ki Pungi has been especially created and used as a promotional number. The song plays in the background during one of the scenes in Agent Vinod with a punchline saying, "Catch the other side of (Majnu) Vinod."
If you are wondering who taught such funny steps to Saif, it's none other than Jasmin Oza, who worked with Saif on an ad for Amul innerwear. She wanted to make the dance moves the actor's signature steps.
"It's a song full of naughty steps, I call it Indian contemporary tapori steps. This song is full of groovy steps, full dhamaal song with a high energy. These are the fresh and unique steps which are never done by Saif. Overall steps and the choreography were taught to Saif, but at the same time he added his own steps," Ojha told IANS.
"My job was to make him comfortable and to get him into that different kind of funny dancing style. When any actor does such steps, people start thinking about stars like Govinda. To make it exclusive and Saif's own style, we put his steps while making the song," he added.
Pungi is a word derived from the snakecharmer's instrument - known as 'been' in Hindi and 'pungi' in Marathi.
Usually item numbers are associated with actresses and their 'jhatkas' and 'matkas'. In fact there is a mujra number picturised on Kareena Kapoor and it was the first one to hit the screens. But "Pungi" has become more popular.
Lyricist Bhattacharya says the definition of item numbers is changing and added: "It's difficult to explain the phrase. Usually any song that stands out in a movie or a song where a female protagonist performs in a different manner is called an item number. I feel a song that attracts viewers' attention towards a movie and rises on the popularity chart is called an item number."
Bhattacharya is the man behind the unconventional lyrics of Emotional Atyachar in Dev D.
"Emotional Atyachar was a big hit and was an item number for the movie. It had such power that they ran a campaign over this song which really helped in the opening of the film.
"So, the song that catches the whole focus of the movie is an item number. There is not any compulsory rule that an item number should be performed only by a female protagonist."
The "pungi" word has caught on with youth.
The song's popularity has been bogged down by rumours of plagiarism, but Pritam said: "Melodically and lyrically it's no way similar to the song (Soosan Khanoom by Iranian pop band Barobax) in question, and I'm not even bringing up the element of creative coincidence which is largely prevalent in the day and age we exist in."
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh amid reports that she was allegedly upset with the latter expressing regret over the departure of Dinesh Trivedi as the Railways Minister.
While insisting that her party abstained from voting on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) instead of what is being dubbed as a walkout, in an exclusive interview to NDTV's Group Editor Barkha Dutt, Ms Banerjee also made it clear that there can be no compromise on the anti-terror body in its current form.
The Trinamool Chief said that she shares a good relationship with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Here are the highlights of her interview: I do not think this (Dinesh Trivedi's resignation) is an issue for me.I just came because for 9 months I did not get the time.I have decided whenever Parliament is on I will come down for a day or two.Issue with Congress not a matter of ego; allies must get repect. I think sometimes the Delhi people do not understand local issues, so there should be some mechanism to sort this out.I have a good relation with Soniaji. The Prime Minister is also a nice man. Maybe, some communication gap.Congress party has its manifesto; we have our manifesto. There are some issues like FDI, where we will take a stand.We are in favour of Lokpal, but when it was discussed they included the Lokayukta. They should not have included Lokayutka.Some issues are created necessarily. There is a tendency to bulldoze the state governments.Like NCTC, if you want to work against a terrorist, you have to work together. You have to take the state governments into confidence.On NCTC, we thought it was better to abstain. If we voted against the government, it would not look nice; if we voted for then we weould go against the federal structure.It should not have been included in the President's address.We cannot compromise on some issues.Law and order is a state issue; I do not care if it is a Congress state or a BJP state.Partial rollback is the prerogative of the Rail Minister. On Rail budget, it was not necessary to hike fares and freight rates together.It is not about Rajdhani class; you have to leave 3-tier and sleeper for the common people; these 2-3 areas we have to think over.Its customary for the PM to praise the budget.Dinesh Trivedi is with us. In today's meeting also, he said he wants to continue in the party.Some people may have played a foul role, I do not want to comment on that.From our side, we are very transparent, we are a very pro-people party.I cannot speak good English, that is why you cannot bulldoze me everyday. I consider speaking good English not enough to belong to the 'elite' class.There are critics; let them be, they cannot fight me politically.Do not consider us like any other political party; we come from the grassroots.We were not born with a golden spoon; our papas were not in politics. I want to continue with respect in the UPA. We are insulted more than we are respected. Whenever I raise an issue, they (the bigger parties) say we are blackmailing.I am happy if I get izzat from the people. I believe in Ma, Maati ManushRespect means...if I have an issue, how can I compromise on it?Sometimes I feel hurt when I am misunderstood.We are not beggars; we have held our heads high. We are facing the legacy of the Left Front rule of 35 years. We are facing economic problems.Instead of help, they (Union Government) are taking away Rs 22000 crore. My income is Rs 21000 crore. We are not asking for money; we need a 3-year moratorium. Why is the government bulldozing us? It is not a one-party government. I want to continue with the UPA but with respect.In alliance politics, if you trust you must trust 100%.
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Jerusalem: All 80,000 items in Albert Einstein's archives, including personal correspondence with half a dozen lovers and a poignant postcard to his ailing mother, are going online.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which owns the Einstein collection, is slowly uploading high resolution photographs of scientific papers, letters on social issues including nuclear disarmament and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and other texts.
Archivists said Monday's launch of the online repository will give scholars around the world direct access to Einstein's papers.
Most have been locked in storage at the university and only half of the collection appears online.
The university has also published a complete inventory of all 80,000 items in the Einstein collection.
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The Delhi jazz music lovers were once again treated to a dose of world class jazz on Friday at the second edition of the Delhi Jazz Festival, organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in collaboration with Seher at the Nehru Park in New Delhi.
Last year this time, almost 10,000 music lovers had gathered at the same venue for the first edition of the festival.
On Friday, three bands from Poland and India performed on the first day of the 3-day (March 16th to 18th) jazz music extravaganza.
Right after a brief inauguration by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) president, Dr Karan Singh, the stage was thrown open to the Wojtek Mazolewski Qintet from Poland. The five piece band led by Wojtek Mazoewski, composer and bass player of the band, took off instantly with their lively music of casual yet nicely blended elements of punk rock and folkish concoction. Their sax and trumpet runs were truly something new for Delhi audience. They also performed their album titled number 'Smells like Tape Spirit', which has been making quite a wave at the Polish radio charts.
The second band on stage was India's HFT, with the Great Society famed greats - guitarist Arjun Sen and bass player Lew Hilt, along with Suchet Malhotra (drumcussion) completing the lineup. Their music was a soothing fusion of experimentation with the percussion, using rainsticks (a percussion instrument made from a long hollow tube filled with pebbles or beads), flutter-tonguing and guitar chord progression melody. Lew Hilt's bass lines inspired numbers were also well received by the audience. Their last piece, 'No Room to Move', from their album Acquired Senses, inspired by the Delhi traffic scene, was a bit 'noisy' with heavy bass lines and guitar overdrives.
The highlight of the day's event was that of the Louiz Banks Matrixx, led by jazz virtuoso Louiz Banks, where the father-son duo (Louiz (keyboard) and Gino Banks(drums) along with bass player Sheldon D'Silva and saxophonist Tara left the crowd spell bound and asking for more. Louiz's rippling moves on the keys and Tara's searing and rich tone of the sax was simply mesmerizing. When asked how he found the experience of performing in Delhi in this festival, Louiz said, " It was just amazing. I hope the crowd just grows and grows from strength to strength and be aware of the beautiful music such as jazz."
The Delhi Jazz Festival was started in 2011 with an attempt to bring together jazz music players from different countries on one platform.
The next 2 days will features bands from Georgia, France, India, Germany and Mexico.
Actor Sonam Kapoor has landed the role of a Varanasi girl, who studies in the capital's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), in Raanjhanaa. She is cast opposite southern star Dhanush. The decision was taken after intense discussions between director Aanand L.Rai of Tanu Weds Manu and Sonam.
As per the script, Dhanush plays a local Varanasi boy, and Sonam essays a Varanasi girl educated in Delhi.
Sonam will now spend time on the JNU campus to grasp the conduct and ideology of students there.
"The culture of education at the JNU is radically different from other universities in Delhi and across the country. At JNU students, both male and female, are very politically aware," said a source from team of Raanjhanaa.
"They talk intelligently on national issues. They dress sensibly, hang out at specific cafes in Delhi, attend seminars and protest actively on national issues. The director Aanand Kumar wanted Sonam to imbibe all of these traits. And they also speak fluent Hindi," the source added.
When it comes to her spoken Hindi, Sonam, according to the source, needs to work as hard as Dhanush.
Dhanush is in Mumbai working on the dubbing of the Hindi version of his wife's film 3. He has been working with a Hindi coach, trying to get the language right.
For Sonam too, it's been decided that her accented Hindi and the haute-couture look just won't do for the film.
However, Sonam does not really play the quintessential Varanasi girl. Her character is that of a local girl who has been to college in Delhi for three years, and returned to her home town as quite the sophisticated small-towner with an acquired metropolitan air, says a source close to the project.
At first the director was not sure if Sonam could carry off the role. But after meeting her, he was convinced.
"I am bowled over by her commitment to get the nuances of the role right. I've found my lady," said Rai.
She took the classy route for last year’s blockbuster Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD). And now Kalki Koechlin is set to don a desi avatar in Wake Up Sid (2009) director Ayan Mukerji’s next, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (YJHD). She stars alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in this Karan Johar production.
“Ayan narrated the script to me about a month ago. So by my standards, I’ve jumped into doing this movie very quickly. In fact, I am very nervous right now because I am suddenly going to work hard after a quite some time,” she says.
Kalki says Daayan will go on the floors only by mid April. “Isliye main aaram se baithi hui thi ghar pe (so I was chilling out at home). But now, all of a sudden, I will be working on two films at the same time. It’s going to be a bit hectic, but I am happy that I am doing YJHD,” she says, adding that she is going to meet
Ranbir and Deepika in a couple of days.Ask Kalki what her role is and she says, “I can’t reveal much at the moment, but it’s a very desi and tomboyish character. Also, it’s very different from how I was seen in ZNMD. In Zoya’s film, I played a posh south Mumbai girl, but YJHD will have me in a very happy-go-lucky avatar. I am sure this movie will surprise people.”
She isn’t worried about the presence of stars like Ranbir and Deepika in the film. “If you look at my body of work, you will realise that I am the last person to want the lead role. I have done Shaitan, which was an ensemble film, while My Friend Pinto saw me in a small role. I believe in doing diverse performances, so it’s not about the size of the role, but the quality of it,” says Kalki, who is also excited about Vishal Bhardwaj’s Daayan.
New Delhi: The government won a vote today on its proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), but that victory, according to the BJP, exposes that the government is in a minority. The opposition has also highlighted that ministers of the Trinamool Congress, headed by Mamata Banerjee, walked out of the House before the vote.
After the vote, the BJP's Sushma Swaraj tweeted, "There were 227 votes in favour of the Government. It is 45 less than the majority. The Government's majority claim has been exposed." She added, "They have been saying - 'We have the number, we have the number'. Mr Prime Minister Where is the number?" Referring to the fact that the Trinamool did not vote in favour of the government, she said, "It is for the first time that even Ministers of alliance partner (TMC) walked out of the House. It is huge embarrassment for the Government."
The BJP and the Left had pushed for votes against the government for violating the federal structure of the country via the NCTC. A simple majority is 272 in the Lok Sabha which has 543 seats. The government came in under that mark, but members of the Trinamool Congress and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) walked out during the vote, reducing by 40 the number of MPs present and voting. Mulayam Singh Yadav, who today denied reports that he will formally join the ruling coalition, also lent assistance by voting along with the government. But 60 MPs from the UPA - including 12 from the Congress, which leads the ruling coalition - were absent during the vote. The Congress had issued a whip to its MPs, ordering them to be present. Those who were missing are likely to be served a showcause notice with the party demanding an explanation.
Ms Banerjee, who is both Trinamool chief and West Bengal chief minister, has led a contingent of 10 chief ministers who objected to the NCTC. By walking out during the vote, her MPs were not forced to vote against the government alongside the BJP and the Left. At the same time, they avoided voting in favour of a policy that they have criticised fiercely. Sources in the Trinamool Congress say that this was part of a strategy worked out with the Congress this morning. But the BJP was quick to point out that Trinamool ministers like Mukul Roy and Sudip Bandyopadhyay were among those who left the House.
The vote on the contentious NCTC today was held in the form of amendments moved by the Left and the BJP to the Motion of Thanks given by the Prime Minister this morning for the President's address. Last week, President Pratibha Patil inaugurated the Budget session of Parliament with her speech in which she outlined the agenda of the government. The NCTC was mentioned. The opposition wanted that reference to be deleted. The Prime Minister in his Motion of Thanks said that consultations with state governments will continue about the plans and powers for the NCTC.
He also reiterated that the Home Minister will meet with all chief ministers on April 16 to discuss their concerns. The NCTC has the right to arrive in any state, conduct searches for suspects, and make arrests. State governments say this impedes upon their right to handle law and order, and that the state police force must play a larger role in the NCTC's operations.
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Actor Shilpa Shetty’s The Desire: The Journey of A Woman, which has been ready since 2009, doesn’t have a distributor to take it to the cinema halls. Producer Sunanda Shetty can’t find takers for her daughter’s last project, despite great efforts to market the film.
The Indo-Chinese venture was left half done by its original producer. However, after Sunanda stepped in as a producer and completed the project, it bagged the Best Feature Award at The Geneva Film Festival last year.
“I’m looking for distributors. The film can’t have a theatrical release in India till I find one. I hope I find someone soon,” sighs Sunanda.
The Desire: The Journey Of A Woman revolves around a girl’s search for spiritualism through dance. Shilpa, who plays an Odissi dancer in the movie, has even posed as a bald monk in a portion of the film. Chinese actor Yu Xia also has a leading role, playing a painter. Anupam Kher and Jayaprada have pivotal roles too.
Sunanda, who was attending FICCI Frames 2012 now on in the city, admits she was there to interact with producers and distributors from across the world.
Without stating whether she’s finally found a distributor or not, she says, “It’s a wonderful platform for everyone. There are people here from all fraternities including the top-of-the-line names from various film industries. Needs meet needs here and I’m hoping to get what I’m looking for.”
Shillong: A photojournalist who had taken a picture of a Congress MLA dozing off during the Assembly session last week was today allegedly assaulted by the legislator inside the House.
Walton Lytan, was assaulted within the Assembly premises by Founder Strong Cajee after Chief Minister Mukul Sangma delivered his budget speech.
A photograph taken by Lytan which shows the Mawlai MLA taking a nap had appeared in a couple of local newspapers.
Terming the incident as "unfortunate", Leader of Opposition Conrad K Sangma said, "It is unbecoming of an elected representative to behave in this manner and that too within the premises of the Assembly".
"We will be taking up this matter and ensure that the Speaker takes action against the erring legislator," he said.
An FIR has been lodged in the matter and the Opposition has assured Lytan that the matter will be raised on the floor of the House on Tuesday.
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New Delhi/Kolkata: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used his Motion of Thanks on the President's address today to meet at least one demand of the Opposition - clarity on the status of Dinesh Trivedi, who was Railways Minister till he quit last night. Dr Singh confirmed that last night, he had received first an email and then a formal letter of resignation from Mr Trivedi. He said that he had accepted Mr Trivedi's resignation and has forwarded the former minister's letter to President Pratibha Patil. He also said that he regrets the departure of Mr Trivedi, who belongs to Mamata Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress. Minutes later, Ms Banerjee retorted outside Parliament that the PM's remarks reflect "a personal opinion" and one that her party does not share. She also indicated that the hike in passenger fares, proposed by Mr Trivedi last week, will be rolled back, at least for the cheaper trains and coaches used most by the aam admi or common man. She said that while pricier tickets for AC and super-class fares was alright, but passengers traveling in the lower class should not suffer.
"We should do what is needed, but will not do anything that will disturb the aam janta. This is our policy," she said.
Ms Banerjee, along with party leader Mukul Roy, met with the Prime Minister. Mr Roy is Mamata's candidate for the new Railways minister and may be sworn-in as early as tomorrow.
While sharing that he has accepted Mr Trivedi's resignation, Dr Singh highlighted the difficulties of coalition politics and with some irony lauded Mr Trivedi for having presented a "Railway Budget which promised to carry out the vision 2020 that was outlined by his predecessor." Mr Trivedi's predecessor in Rail Bhawan was Mamata Banerjee, who is his party's chief, and demanded Mr Trivedi's resignation for proposing a hike in passenger fares.
As soon as the Lok Sabha convened after the weekend, the BJP said the Prime Minister must address Parliament to explain the chain of events that led to the Rail Minister's exit. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee replied that Mr Trivedi's resignation had been received and that the Prime Minister was considering it. "When a decision is made, it will be shared with the House," he said.
The BJP's Yashwant Sinha said, "The PM is the head of the Cabinet. He has the right to give a portfolio to someone else. But he is also obliged to share information with Parliament. But we are discovering everything in the newspapers," he said.
"Dinesh Trivedi is in the House. He should also clarify the situation to Parliament," Mr Sinha added.
Gurudas Dasgupta of the Left also said the Prime Minister owes parliament an explanation. "A backstage drama is taking place. Parliament is in session and we don't know what is happening," he said.
Mr Sinha brought a smile to the Finance Minister's face when he took a swipe at the PM saying he had great respect for Mr Mukherjee, who is Leader of the Lok Sabha; "the PM should have been leader but couldn't make it," Mr Sinha said. Dr Manmohan Singh is a rare Indian PM who is not a member of the Lok Sabha. He is a Rajya Sabha member from Guwahati. Meanwhile, Mr Trivedi will come face-to-face with Ms Banerjee for the first time today at a meeting of MPs of their party. He has not seen her since he presented his budget. He said last night that he continues to think of Ms Banerjee as his leader and has no plans to switch parties. Ms Banerjee simply said last night before leaving Kolkata for Delhi that she plans to meet "with all my people."
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New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) lost 33 combat jets in the last four years, 27 of them MiGs of various variants, parliament was informed on Monday. Ten helicopters also crashed during this period.
Twenty-six defence personnel, including 13 pilots, lost their lives in these crashes, Defence Minister A.K. Antony told the Lok Sabha during question hour.
From April 1, 2008 to March 13 this year, 27 MiGs - 16 of them MiG-21s - three Sukhoi SU-30s, two Mirage-2000s and a Jaguar had crashed, he added.
Ten helicopters had also crashed during this perid.
Six civilians were also killed in the crashes.
"From 2008-09 to March 13, 2012, 33 fighter aircraft including a Jaguar, two Mirage-2000, three Sukhoi-30 and 27 MiG series aircraft (including 16 MiG-21 series) and 10 helicopters of IAF have crashed. In the above accidents, 26 defence personnel, including 13 pilots have lost their lives. In addition, six civilians have also lost their lives," Antony said.
He also noted that a majority of the accidents were on account of human error and technical defects.
Every IAF aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated by a court of inquiry (Col) to ascertain its cause of accident. Remedial measures are taken to prevent their recurrence in future, he added
"However, improvement of skills of pilots is a continuous process. Several steps have been taken by the government in this regard," Antony said.
These include increased use of simulators to practice procedures and emergency actions, focused and realistic training with additional emphasis on the critical aspects of mission, introduction of crew resource management and operational risk management to enable safe mission launches, aviation psychology courses and introduction of aerospace safety capsules in the initial phases of training of aircrew.
"The decisions to phase out aircraft are taken based on various factors including residual life of the aircraft and operational considerations and is reviewed by the government from time to time. This is a continuous process," Antony added.
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Ipswich, England: The Duchess of Cambridge has delivered her first public address, giving a confident albeit brief speech at a children's hospice in eastern England.
The former Kate Middleton spoke clearly and deliberately as she addressed staff and volunteers at East Anglia's Children's Hospice in the English port town of Ipswich.
She glanced frequently at her notes at first but seemed to make a good impression on Monday, drawing chuckles when she said she was sorry that her husband, Prince William, could not join her. He is on military assignment in the Falkland Islands.
Public engagements are a huge part of royal life and Ms Kate's address will be closely scrutinized by royal-watchers for signs of how easily she is adapting to her new role.
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Direction: Rajshree Ojha Actors: Victor Banerjee, Arundhati Nag, Soha Ali Khan Rating: **
An English film with a smattering of Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam, Chaurahen is based on four short stories by acclaimed Hindi litterateur Nirmal Verma and is set in Mumbai, Kolkata and Kochi. Each story is built around a writer and deals with characters struggling to come to terms with death and loss. I haven’t read the original stories but something was obviously lost in translation. Chaurahen is a stilted, dramatically inert film that even at approximately 90 minutes feels much too long.
Aisha, Rajshree Ojha’s reworking of Jane Austen’s Emma, was released first, but Chaurahen is the director’s debut film. It lay in the cans for almost five years before PVR’s Director’s Rare banner, a great initiative to bring independent cinema to theatres, picked it up.
Chaurahen has good intentions but erratic execution and few insights. Ojha has gathered some wonderful actors here -- from Victor Banerjee, who plays an aging man in an adulterous relationship with a girl young enough to be his daughter, to Arundhati Nag and Nedumudi Venu, who play grieving parents who have lost their son in war. But then, these actors are saddled with dialogue that strains to be poignant and piercingly deep. So in one bed, a couple has the following discussion: “Games, it keeps things balanced.” “What things?” “Games of relationships, love, power.” While in another bed across the country, the post-coital conversation goes like this: “What is the closest you have ever come to dying?” “One dies a little every day.”
There is death in each story but the only one with genuine emotion is the Kochi episode. Ojha handles tricky scenes well, including one in which the protagonist, played by Karthik Kumar, reveals a difficult secret. Nag, Venu and Kumar imbue their grief with a quiet grace. Their anguish is palpable.
But Ojha’s good work here is undone by the Mumbai saga, in which Ankur Khanna plays a writer holding on to his dead parents – and by that I mean literally. He still keeps his father’s dentures in the house, for instance. The writer and his partner, played by Soha Ali Khan, wander around Mumbai saying things like “Happiness does not exist. It is only remembered in times of agony” and “D minor is the saddest of all chords.” Kiera Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter, makes a largely forgettable appearance in the Kolkata chapter as an object of desire. Zeenat Aman also drops in, playing a mysterious woman at a bar. I’m sure there is a sub-text here but it eluded me.
Chaurahen brims with tortured souls, pensive silences, meaningful looks and meals left unfinished. Not surprisingly, it’s a slog of a film.
Bangalore: Of the trio of former ministers accused of watching porn in the Karnataka Assembly, two have reason to exhale. A committee, set up by the Assembly, has found there is evidence to merit action against only one of them - Lakshman S Savadi.
On February 7, three ministers were seen watching porn on a cellphone. The incident was captured by the camera crew of a private TV channel that was covering the proceedings in the Assembly that day.
The trio - Lakshman S Savadi, CC Patil and J Krishna Palemar - were forced to resign. All three said they were innocent and were watching a news report on an incident of rape. The phone, it would later turn out, belonged to Mr Palemar.
A committee comprising seven MLAs was set up to investigate the incident. The opposition MLAs refused to participate in the inquiry, because they said that the former ministers should be expelled as MLAs. So the former ministers were questioned only by four members of their own party.
During the probe, it also emerged that over a dozen other MLAs may have also been viewing porn inside the Assembly. But ten of them were not in the terms of reference for the panel that submitted its report today.
The committee's report has been handed over to the speaker, KG Bopaiah.
The fact that two of the three men allegedly involved will be excused comes as huge relief to the BJP which is currently dealing with a revolt in its Karnataka branch. Former chief minister BS Yeddyurapa wants to return to office. He has 67 MLAs - more than half of the party's elected representatives - on his side.
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New Delhi: Mamata Banerjee has met with the Prime Minister after he allegedly upset her by stating in Parliament that he regrets the departure of Dinesh Trivedi from his cabinet. Mr Trivedi is from Ms Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress, which is a key member of the ruling coalition at the centre. Ms Banerjee asked for him to be removed as soon as he proposed hiking passenger fares in the Railways Budget he presented in Parliament last week. "I had a good meeting...we discussed a lot of issues," said Ms Banerjee after seeing the PM. She flew into Delhi from Kolkata last night after Mr Trivedi finally obliged her by submitting his resignation. For four days after she asked the PM to remove him, Mr Trivedi said neither the PM nor his party chief had directly asked him to step down. In Parliament this morning, the Prime Minister used his Motion of Thanks on the President's address today to meet at least one demand of the Opposition - clarity on Mr Trivedi's status as minister. Dr Singh confirmed that last night he had received first an email and then a formal letter of resignation from Mr Trivedi. He said that he had accepted Mr Trivedi's resignation and has forwarded the former minister's letter to President Pratibha Patil. He also said that he regrets the departure of Mr Trivedi, who belongs to Mamata Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress. Minutes later, Ms Banerjee retorted outside Parliament that the PM's remarks reflect "a personal opinion" and one that her party does not share. The Congress, meanwhile, said that Trinamool shouldn't object to what the PM said as he didn't say anything political.
According to sources, the PM's remarks also provoked Trinamool MPs to walk out during a vote on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). Allies are expected to vote along with the government. The vote on the NCTC was prompted by the Left and the BJP, who had moved amendments to the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address. Basically, they asked for references to the NCTC to be deleted from the speech made by President Pratibha Patil in parliament last week.
While sharing that he had accepted Mr Trivedi's resignation, Dr Singh highlighted the difficulties of coalition politics and with some irony lauded Mr Trivedi for having presented a "Railway Budget which promised to carry out the vision 2020 that was outlined by his predecessor." Mr Trivedi's predecessor in Rail Bhawan was Mamata Banerjee, who is his party's chief, and demanded Mr Trivedi's resignation for proposing a hike in passenger fares.
As soon as the Lok Sabha convened after the weekend, the BJP said the Prime Minister must address Parliament to explain the chain of events that led to the Rail Minister's exit.
The BJP's Yashwant Sinha said, "The PM is the head of the Cabinet. He has the right to give a portfolio to someone else. But he is also obliged to share information with Parliament. But we are discovering everything in the newspapers," he said. "Dinesh Trivedi is in the House. He should also clarify the situation to Parliament," Mr Sinha added. Gurudas Dasgupta of the Left also said the Prime Minister owes parliament an explanation. "A backstage drama is taking place. Parliament is in session and we don't know what is happening," he said.
Mr Sinha brought a smile to the Finance Minister's face when he took a swipe at the PM saying he had great respect for Mr Mukherjee, who is Leader of the Lok Sabha; "the PM should have been leader but couldn't make it," Mr Sinha said. Dr Manmohan Singh is a rare Indian PM who is not a member of the Lok Sabha. He is a Rajya Sabha member from Guwahati.
Meanwhile, Mr Trivedi will come face-to-face with Ms Banerjee for the first time today since the controversy at a meeting of MPs of their party. He has not seen here since he presented his budget. He said last night that he continues to think of Ms Banerjee as his leader and has no plans to switch parties. Ms Banerjee simply said last night before leaving Kolkata for Delhi that she plans to meet "with all my people."
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Chennai: Seeking to end the impasse over the Kudankulam nuclear plant issue, the Jayalalilthaa government in Tamil Nadu today gave the go ahead to the controversial project and announced a Rs 500 crore special development package for the area where it is located.
"In accordance with (today's) cabinet decision, immediate steps will be taken (to facilitate commissioning) of the plant," Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said in a statement, breaking her silence over the issue.
She also sought the cooperation of political parties and all concerned to immediately resume work at the plant in Tirunelveli district, stalled following protests since September 2011, spearheaded by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE).
The cabinet decided to allocate Rs 500 crore for locals to set up among others, a cold storage to store fish catch, construct houses, laying of roads and repairing mechanised fishing boats of local fishermen, she said.
The decision comes a day after completion of polling at Sankarankoil, which falls in the same district.
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Apple is finally putting its cash hoard to work, introducing a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share and starting a $10 billion share buyback program.
Apple says the dividend will start in its fiscal fourth quarter, which begins July 1. The buybacks will begin in its next fiscal year, which starts September 30.
Apple is sitting on $97.6 billion in cash and securities. For years, it has resisted calls to reward shareholders with some of that money. Since the death of CEO Steve Jobs, management has signaled that it's been considering options for the money.
The expectation of a dividend has already helped send the stock up 37 per cent since Apple's latest earnings report. In pre-market trading, the shares touched a record level of $600.23, up 2.5 per cent from Friday's close.
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Mumbai: L T Marg police arrested a bank manager from Canara Bank for allegedly stealing Rs 24 lakh from his own branch. According to the cops, the accused, Chandrashekar Laxminarayan Appa Yemnul was arrested for theft after he walked out of his branch with two briefcases filled with cash after office hours.
Taking advantage of the absence of his senior manager, who was on a leave, Yemnul planned the robbery thinking nobody would suspect him, as he was the bank manager. But the long arm of the law caught up with him on Saturday, five days after the audacious robbery.
Cops said that they received a complaint on March 12 from the Canara Bank head that Rs 24 lakh was missing from their lockers. "At first we thought it to be a theft, but after inquiring with all the employees, we found that Yemnul who was responsible for the bank operations had gone on leave since March 10," said a police officer from L T Marg police station.
"He was responsible for day-to-day operations, as the senior branch manager had gone on leave. Only when the senior manager returned, he found out that the cash was missing and informed us," said the cop. Cops suspecting that the theft was an insider's job started probing all the employees.
During the questioning of Jaya Pujari, an employee, they discovered from her that she had witnessed Yemnul leaving the office with two briefcases on March 10. Sensing something amiss as the timing coincided with Yemnul's leave, the cops started looking for him. Cops traced Yemnul, and during a grilling he acknowledged stealing the money, and sending it to his native place in Bangalore. "We have sent a team to Bangalore to recover the money from Yemnul's native place. Yemnul has been granted police custody till March 30," said the police officer.
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Mumbai: The eight-member Judicial Commission from Pakistan, in Mumbai to record statements of four key witnesses in the 26/11 terror attacks case, raised questions yesterday when it expressly sought post-mortem information for 15 of the 166 victims who were killed in the November 2008 attacks.
The members of the Commission presented post-mortem files of 15 victims to the team of forensic doctors, asking them to explain the nature in which they had been killed. Of the 15 cases that were explained by the forensic doctors to the Commission, one was that of Amar Singh Solanki, captain of the vessel Kuber, which was hijacked by the terrorists to reach the shores of Mumbai. He was eventually beheaded.
Also on the list was the post-mortem report of Tukaram Omble, the assistant sub-inspector who captured Qasab, but was shot dead by him in the process. On Saturday afternoon, the Commission recorded the statements of two forensic experts -- Dr Ganesh Niturkar from JJ hospital, where a majority of autopsies for 26/11 victims were conducted, and Dr Shailesh Mohite, head of the Forensic department at Nair hospital. As most of 26/11 victims died after sustaining bullet injuries, doctors had recovered bullets from their corpses. The ballistic examination of each bullet will shed valuable light on the weapon it was fired from.
One of the possible rationales behind examining post-mortem reports could be the intention of determining the number of victims claimed by each of the terrorists, by taking into account the bullets fired from the weapons wielded by each member of the terror squad. However, officials dealing with the Commission appeared befuddled by the logic behind choosing only 15 reports, over the 151 others.
"There were over 166 deaths in the attack, and the fact that the Commission has handpicked 15 for explanation is strange. There was no clarity on why these particular cases were discussed," said a source.
The Commission is headed by Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali and includes prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar, Deputy Director of Federal Investigation Agency Azad Khan, and defence lawyers Khwaja Haris, Riyaz Akram Choudhary, Fakhar Haayat, Raja Ehassan Ulhakhan and Isaam Bin Haris. While the Commission was denied permission to cross-examine the Indian witnesses, the team of forensic doctors was asked to give their opinions on 15 cases, each of which were presented by the Commission. The Commission's POA in Mumbai The Judicial Commission is in the city on behalf of the Pakistani anti-terror court, which is hearing the case against LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and six others in connection with the 26/11 attacks.
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Lucknow: Mulayam Singh Yadav has said his support from the outside to the UPA government will continue, but says the Samajwadi Party is not joining the government. "We have not asked anyone and no one has asked us to," the Samajwadi Party chief said emphatically in Lucknow today.
Mr Yadav said his support continued to be based on keeping communal forces away from the Centre. There has been much speculation that the 72-year-old, who has just installed his 38-year-old son Akhilesh Yadav as Chief Minister of UP after a spectacular electoral performance, might join the Union Cabinet as the Congress looks for new political alignments to bolster its very fragile coalition at the Centre. The SP gives outside support to the UPA government and has bailed it many times during Parliament votes. It voted in support of the UPA today too in the Lok Sabha on the issue of the National Counter Terrorism Centre. The government won those votes. The Congress is reportedly keen that the SP join the coalition formally - Mulayam Singh Yadav has 22 MPs in the Lok Sabha, which would more than offset the 19 MPs that the troublesome Trinamool Congress threatens to withdraw regularly.
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New York: She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She described the knot she got in her stomach from missing him. She wrote of her disappointment after he was passed over for a promotion.
But mostly, Karilyn Bales - the wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week - relayed the simple anguish of life as a military spouse, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments.
"Bob left for Iraq this morning," she wrote in her family blog on Aug. 9, 2009. "Quincy slept in our bed last night."
Though much of the family's online presence appears to have been removed in recent days, the fragments that remain capture the daily travails typical of any family with a loved one stationed abroad.
A little less than a year ago, in March 2011, Ms. Bales wrote on her blog that her husband had not received a promotion to E-7, sergeant first class. The family was disappointed, she said, "after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends."
But Ms. Bales was also relieved, she wrote, because she hoped that the Army might allow the family some autonomy in choosing its next location, after Sergeant Bales had spent years at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State.
She listed her top choices: Germany ("best adventure opportunity!"); Italy ("2nd best adventure opp"); Hawaii ("nuff said"); Kentucky ("we would at least be near Bob's family"); and Georgia ("to be a sniper teacher, not because it is a fun place to live").
In some of these locations, Sergeant Bales's chances of being deployed to a war zone would probably have been lower. Wherever they went, Ms. Bales said, she hoped to rent out their house in Lake Tapps, Wash., she wrote, "so that we would have it to come back to when our adventure is over."
More often, Ms. Bales focused on ordinary struggles. She described surprise phone calls and solo doctor's appointments, attempts to clean the house while Sergeant Bales was gone and the "bad dreams" she woke from after a nap on the day he left in 2009.
She recalled discussions of baby names with him while he was away, and celebrating Easter one Sunday early, so that Sergeant Bales could decorate eggs with their daughter, Quincy, before leaving home again.
In 2006, while she was pregnant with Quincy, Ms. Bales wrote that though she was careful not to wish the days away, "I only want the days to go by fast when it comes to Bob coming back home."
A few days later, Ms. Bales wrote about a common tic she shared with her unborn child: "I get the hiccups all the time these days, I always think that Bob is thinking about me."
One morning, she continued, she could feel the baby hiccupping in her belly. "I guess Bob was thinking about her too," Ms. Bales wrote.
When Quincy was born in December 2006, Ms. Bales wrote, she received a call at the hospital. "It was Bob calling from the airport in Kuwait!!" she wrote. "It was so good to hear his voice. I told him how the birth went and he got to hear Quincy squeaking in the background."
In August 2007, she described some of the child's first words. "Much to Daddy's happiness," she wrote, "she now says 'D' as in Dadadadadada."
Ms. Bales's post from March 2011, about the Army promotion, appears to have been the blog's latest entry. In it, she seemed to hint at why she maintained the site in the first place. The collection of posts was a "time capsule," she wrote, and she hoped that her children would one day "enjoy reading about the decisions that Mom and Dad went through during their lives."
With a relocation expected, she said, the family's coming months would be full of change. "I am hoping to blog about it and look back in a year," she wrote, "to see how far we have come from right now."
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Moscow: India's diplomatic efforts to resolve a controversy relating to Russian state prosecutors' bid to get a Russian interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita banned and branded extremist literature will be put to test again with a high court in the Siberian city of Tomsk set to deliver its final verdict on Tuesday. Anxiety and frustration has gripped Hindus in Russia as they feel there was a state-sponsored effort to proscribe "Bhagavad Gita As It Is", written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Prosecutors have gone in appeal against a Tomsk lower court's dismissal of their plea December 28 last. Indo-Asian News Service(IANS) had brought the case to global notice in December when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Moscow for a summit meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, resulting in an uproar back home in India. Parliament was rocked for two days over the Russian prosecutors' attack on their supreme religious text and philosophical treatise. This led to External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna making a statement in parliament on the Tomsk city case that was filed in June 2011 and the Indian government mounting a diplomatic effort at the "highest levels" with the Russian government to get the matter resolved. "Anxiety is mounting. The appeal by the state prosecutors is coming up for a final hearing on March 20 at the higher court in Tomsk," Bhakti Vijnana Goswami, the international chief of ISKCON, told IANS over the phone. He is currently on international tour and was somewhere in West Asia. "This is the final hearing in the state prosecutors' appeal beginning on Tuesday. The verdict in the case may be pronounced either on Tuesday or Wednesday," ISKCON devotee Sadhu Priya Das told IANS from Moscow. The appeal came up for hearing March 6 and, after hearing the prosecutors, the court fixed March 20 to hear the Hindus on their defence before the verdict is delivered. Tomsk region prosecutor general Vasily Voikin, in his appeal, demanded that a Russian interpretation included in 'Bhagavad Gita As It Is' be banned. "The prosecutor has demanded that a Russian translation of a comment in this book, earlier published in English, be banned as extremist, not the canonical text of the scripture," Tomsk region deputy prosecutor general Ivan Semchishin argued. "The bid to ban the Russian translation of the Bhagavad Gita has been misunderstood," Tomsk region prosecutor general Alexander Buksman said. "It's important to discern gems from the chatter in this very case; the society's perception of this issue is that prosecutors are standing against the concepts of this religion (Hinduism). However, the problem is that the Russian translation has paragraphs that could be seen as promoting extremism; prosecutors started the case for that reason," Buksman said. "The prosecutor (Voikin) is now maintaining his claims in an appeal court for that very reason," Semchishin added. However, Hindus have dismissed the prosecutors' claim, saying these were "twists" being given for public consumption. "The prosecutors have based their appeal on the lines of the same arguments they placed before the lower court -- that the book is extremist and spread hatred against non-believers," Mikhail Frolov, the advocate for Hindus in the case, told IANS from Moscow. He pointed out to Semchischin's remarks that the prosecutor is maintaining his claims on Bhagavad Gita in the appeal too. "In reality, the prosecutors are seeking a ban on Bhagavad Gita. They do not want to see the tradition related to commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita," Mr Goswami said. Interestingly, Krishna devotees in Russia held a conference on Bhagavad Gita in Tomsk on March 1, ahead of the appeal in the case coming up before the higher court. Scholars, a majority of them Russian, came out strongly in support on 'Bhagavad Gita As It Is' and condemned the prosecutors' attempts to ban it. In another effort to drum up support, a group of 20 Russian scholars on India wrote an open letter to Kremlim duo, Dmitry Medvedev and president-to-be Vladimir Putin, to take personal interest relating to the controversy and get the prosecutors' attempts to get Bhagavad Gita ban dropped. "The book does not contain any signs of extremism and does not incite hatred on ethnic, religious or any other grounds. On the contrary, the book written in the commentary tradition of Bengali Vaishnavism, one of the most popular branches of Hinduism, is considered sacred by a section of believers," the scholars said. The scholars warned that the trial "discredits Russia's cultural and democratic credentials in the eyes of the civilised world and is driving a wedge in Russian-Indian relations."
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New Delhi: The Prime Minister said today in Parliament that India is inclined to vote against Sri Lanka at a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. A resolution against the Sri Lankan government for alleged war crimes and human rights violations has been moved by the US, Norway and France. "We do not yet have the final text of the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka. However, I may assure the House that we are inclined to vote in favour of a resolution that we hope will advance our objective, namely the achievement of a future for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka that is marked by equality, dignity, justice and self-respect." Sources say that the resolution, to be balanced, could include criticism of the LTTE too.
Dr Manmohan Singh's comments have placated his ally, the DMK, which has threatened to pull out of the coalition at the centre if India either abstained or supported Sri Lanka at the vote. The DMK has 18 Lok Sabha MPs and is needed for the government's survival. "We welcome the announcement if it's true," said the party's president, M Karunanidhi, adding "(but) we will wait for the final decision."
All parties from Tamil Nadu have been urging the Centre to take a strong stand on the atrocities allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan government in ending the country's civil war and extinguishing the LTTE. The deaths of Sri Lanka Tamils - 40,000 according to some reports - has been an emotional issue in Tamil Nadu.
In a statement today, the Ministry of External Affairs stressed that Foreign Affairs Minister SM Krishna is "giving great importance to views expressed by MPs from Tamil Nadu" and that India will study the draft of the resolution against Sri Lanka and then take a call on its vote.
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Actor Asin’s rumoured relationship with actor Neil Nitin Mukesh has been in news for a while now, but the latest reports doing the rounds is that the two have split, as Asin’s father did not approve of Neil.
“These are all baseless speculations. It does not bother me, as these reports will die down eventually. But yes, it definitely makes for a good read,” says Asin, who is busy promoting Sajid Khan’s upcoming film Housefull 2, in which, she plays the female lead opposite actor Akshay Kumar.
The 26-year-old actor’s role in the sequel was essayed by actor Deepika Padukone in the first film. So, is Asin vary of the comparisons? “Not at all, as the entire film and my role is different. Also, I was the first choice for Housefull, but could not do it due to date issues,” she says.
Rubbishing reports that she lost 10 kilos for her role in Housefull 2, Asin says, “I did lose three to four kilos, but not because Sajid asked me. It was more of a personal thing.” She adds, “I am not at all size zero”.
Asin, who has been part of films such as Ghajini, London Dreams and Ready, is tight-lipped about working with actors Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor in her next films. “I never talk about a film or my co-star before the production house makes an official announcement,” she says.
The Supreme Court tomorrow will hear the government’s appeal in the $2.2 billion Vodafone tax case. The government has, with a review petition, asked the court to reconsider its verdict delivered in January which sided with Vodafone and helped improve foreign investor confidence.
But last week, in the union budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed changes to tax laws retrospectively to 1963. That move, analysts believe, is the government’s attept at getting around the court’s decision that the government cannot tax a deal between two foreign entities, even if the transaction includes an Indian asset.
India had sought $2.2 billion from London-listed Vodafone in tax after its purchase of Indian assets from Hong Kong-listed Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.
Vodafone is the largest overseas corporate investor in India, but its long-running dispute has come to symbolise the perils foreign firms face doing business in the country. The Finance Minister’s proposal will allow the country to retrospectively tax cross-border transactions in which the underlying assets are located in India.
Business figures have criticized the amendment, which the head of the Confederation of Indian Industries said would "create an impression of India being an investor unfriendly country especially at a time when we need urgent investment."
"This is most retrograde. Our policymakers should realize we do not live in isolation. We need FDI, foreign technology and capital," said Deepak Parekh, chairman of Housing Development Finance Corp, India's biggest mortgage lender.
Mr Mukherjee has sought to allay industry worries by asserting that the new amendment would not duplicate tax paid in other jurisdictions, and only seeks to ensure tax is paid on deals involving the transfer of Indian assets.
Vodafone's deal is not unique. Various other acquisitions involving overseas deals that appeared closed after the Supreme Court ruling could be affected by the proposal.
Kraft Foods Inc's 2010 acquisition of Cadbury's Indian business and deals involving Indian assets sold by AT&T Inc and SABMiller Plc's purchase of Fosters would be at risk under the new amendment.
"The proposal...raises a question as to whether foreign investments are protected in India," wrote Nitish Desai Associates, a legal and tax advisory firm, in a research report.
Legal and tax experts say that while the amendment will see foreign investors act more cautiously in future deals involving Indian assets, the government's decision to throw past deals back into turmoil will only sour overseas investment appetite.
"The government is saying it is clarifying its position," said Amrish Shah, national leader, transaction tax, Ernst & Young India. "But on past deals, it has muddied the water.”
(Reported by A Vaidyanathan with inputs from Reuters)
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What does a centurion do after a mammoth knock of 183 against arch-rivals Pakistan? India's Virat Kohli on Monday, chose to unwind with a movie and a session at the spa.
