बृहस्पतिवार, २८ अक्तूबर २०१०
तीन बार तलाक टाइप कर भेजना भी तलाक !
(YEH KAISA KANOON HAI???)
Posted by Kusum Thakur Thursday, October 28, 2010
इस्लामी संस्थान दारुल उलूम देवबंद ने कहा है कि शौहर द्वारा बीवी के साथ इंटरनेट पर चैटिंग के दौरान मजाक में भी तीन बार तलाक टाइप कर भेजा जाना शरीयत के मुताबिक तलाक देना ही माना जाएगा।
दारुल उलूम ने कतर निवासी एक युवक के सवाल पर जवाब संख्या 26075 में यह बात कही है। युवक का सवाल था कि एक बार उसने अपनी बीवी के साथ इंटरनेट पर चैटिंग के दौरान मजाक में तीन बार तलाक टाइप करके भेज दिया था, तो क्या इसे तलाक माना जाएगा।
युवक ने सवाल में यह भी कहा था कि उसे इस्लाम के बारे में ज्यादा जानकारी नहीं है और न ही वह तलाक के तरीकों से अच्छी तरह वाकिफ है। उसका कहना था कि वह अपनी बीवी के साथ खुशी-खुशी रह रहा है और वह भविष्य में भी उसके साथ ही रहना चाहता है।
दारुल उलूम ने इस सवाल पर अपने फतवे में कहा जब आप तीन बार तलाक लिखते हैं तो उसे तलाक ही माना जाएगा। इससे कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता कि आप इस्लाम के बारे में ज्यादा जानते हैं या नहीं लेकिन अब आपकी बीवी आपके लिये हराम हो गई है।
फतवे में कहा गया है कि तलाक के बाद हलाला किये बगैर परित्यक्त पत्नी से दोबारा निकाह नहीं हो सकता। हलाला के तहत तलाकशुदा औरत को इद्दत के तीन महीने पूरे होने के बाद पति के अलावा किसी अन्य व्यक्ति से निकाह करना होता है और उससे तलाक पाने के बाद चाहे तो वह पूर्व पति से दोबारा शादी कर सकती है।
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Muslim choice in Bihar elections-Patna, October 26, 2010
Muslim choice in Bihar elections
Srinand Jha, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Patna, October 26, 2010
First Published: 23:21 IST(26/10/2010)
Last Updated: 09:32 IST(27/10/2010)
(MUST NOT VOTE ON THE BASIS OF JUST CASTE OR RELIGION. VOTE FOR A PERSON WHO THINKS IN TOTALITY FOR STATES BENIFT AND NOT JUST VOTE POLITICS AND VESTED INTEREST.YESTERDAY I SAW SOMEONE SAYING,SIRF SADAK SE KYA HOGA? BHOOK HAI,KHAANA CHAHIYE?....ITS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT FOR LONG TIME SOLUTIONS FOR ALL BASIC PROBLEMS DEVOLOPMENT LIKE SADAK,BIJLI,PANI,HEALTH,EDUCATION...CONSTRUCTIONS OF BASIC AMENITIES WHICH WILL PROVIDE EDUCATION, HEALTH,WELFARE,EMPLOYMENT TO ALL,WHICH MEANS PERMANENT SOLUTIONS FOR FOOD,CLOTHS,HOUSING..AND THEN ENTERTAINMENT. MUST VOTE FOR A PERSON AND PARTY WHO THINKS,TRY,AND CAPABLE OF PROVIDING THIS AND CAN MAKE A CHANGE OR MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!....LETS SEE SLOGANS OF OLD AGENDA'S OF NDA-BHOOK,BHAY,AUR BHRASTACHAAR KE KILAAF,EK SAMAARTH AUR SWABHIMANI BHARAT!!! OR CONGRESS'S-HUMARA HAATH GAREEBON KE SAATH!!!! ETC ARE HOW MUCH TRUE AS GROUND REALITIES.!!!....VIBHA)
“Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s commitment to minority welfare is unquestioned. In this election the Muslim votes will go to the Janata Dal (United)”. The seemingly innocuous comment from Edra-e-Shariat general secretary Haji Sayeed Mohammed Sanaullah provoked a furious response.
“Nonsense. The minorities have been used and abused by leaders of all political parties. Nitish Kumar’s protestations against the BJP’s Narendra Modi (Gujarat CM) are a sham. The minorities will vote for a secular government,” barked Bihar Jamait-e-Ulma general secretary Husne Ahmed Quadri.
The discussion was talking place in the spacious air-conditioned chamber of Patna’s Haj House chairman, Anis-Ur-Rehman. Walking out of Haj House that day, this reporter was constantly reminded of Patna’s Gandhi Museum director Razi Ahmed’s words: “Muslim votes are utterly fractured and they might end up voting for the winning candidates.
Despite the development factor, including law and order, being Nitish Kumar’s strong point during the Bihar assembly elections of 2010, there is a question as to whether the Muslims will stand by him. The Babri Masjid verdict of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, splitting the land on which the mosque stood, has not pleased many leading members of the community and hence they are likely to look for a political crutch. Nitish Kumar’s handicap here is his alliance with the BJP, the party committed to building the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Where the Muslim vote matters
Bihar’s 14 million Muslim voters — constituting 16.5% of the state’s population — will determine the poll outcome in 60 assembly constituencies (out of the 243 in the assembly) where they have a presence of anything between 18 and 74%. The statistics gleaned from the 2001 Census of India show that Kochadhaman and Amour (Kishanganj and Purnea districts, respectively) have the highest concentration of Muslim voters (at 74 per cent).
Other constituencies with a dominant presence of Muslims are in the bordering districts of Kishanganj, Araria and Bhagalpur; north Bihar districts of Supoul, Madhepura, Saharsa and Darbangha; and central Bihar districts of Gopalganj, Siwan, Biharsharif, Gaya and Nalanda.
In about 50 other seats, the Muslim voters have a presence of 10-17 per cent of the electorate, adequate to substantially influence the poll outcome.
Given the Muslims’ population proportion in the state, the Bihar assembly ought to have 38-40 Muslims. But, in most elections since 1952, 24-25 Muslims, have been elected while the state has sent, on average, just four-five Muslims to the Lok Sabha.
This time, the Congress has fielded the highest number (46) Muslim candidates, followed by 36 of the RJD-LJP combine and 17 of the JD (U)-BJP alliance.
“In the Muslim mind, the level of earlier hostility towards the JD (U)-BJP combine may have diminished, but they are unlikely to vote ‘en bloc’ for the ruling NDA alliance — or for any other party or grouping”, said Shaibal Gupta of the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI).
Local Congress leader Najmul Hassan Najmi says: “Aazmaye Ko Azmana Jihalat Hai” (trying out one who has already been tried out is obnoxious). People are fed up with the ‘nautanki’ (drama) of state leaders. The Congress will emerge strong this time.”
The go-it-alone strategy of the Congress is likely to marginally improve the party strength in the assembly.
Uncertainty on the voting pattern
“The poll outcome will be spectacular. This will be a landmark election”.
Wherever one travelled — Purnea, Madhepura, Saharsa, Kishanganj and Patna — this was the common refrain. Nitish Kumar has taken measures for the benefit of the community.
He brought Kameshwar Yadav, the main accused in the Bhagalpur riots of 1989, to book, has provided lifelong pension to Muslim families affected by the riots, and hiked the salaries of madarsa (Islamic schools) teachers.
The RJD campaign hinges on the argument that former CM Lalu Prasad was the one to have powered the “social engineering” process — providing voice to the minorities. This time, he is promising free motorcycles to the Muslim youth!
Congress leaders including party president Sonia Gandhi say that egalitarian growth and true secularism can be brought to Bihar only when their party is brought to Bihar.
Whose bait will the Muslim voters bite?
This election, the minority voters are truly playing their cards close to their chest.
“Roads and infrastructure development is fine. But what about our villages? The schools have no teachers; government benefits do not reach us. ‘Afsarshahi’ (rule of bureaucrats) prevails and common people have to pay five times more as bribes to the ‘panchayat’, block and district-level officials”, says Rashid Khan at Sabutar, a Muslim-dominated hamlet in the bordering district of Purnea.
Another villager said: “All parties have failed us: From the Congress to RJD and the JD (U).”
So whom will they vote for? “Nobody, we cannot vote for anybody,” Khan says.
Then comes the afterthought: “We are the ones (Muslims) who hold the key to government formation this time. The results will astound you; wait for the outcome!”
The 16% factor
Srinand Jha, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Patna, October 26, 2010
First Published: 23:21 IST(26/10/2010)
Last Updated: 09:32 IST(27/10/2010)
(MUST NOT VOTE ON THE BASIS OF JUST CASTE OR RELIGION. VOTE FOR A PERSON WHO THINKS IN TOTALITY FOR STATES BENIFT AND NOT JUST VOTE POLITICS AND VESTED INTEREST.YESTERDAY I SAW SOMEONE SAYING,SIRF SADAK SE KYA HOGA? BHOOK HAI,KHAANA CHAHIYE?....ITS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT FOR LONG TIME SOLUTIONS FOR ALL BASIC PROBLEMS DEVOLOPMENT LIKE SADAK,BIJLI,PANI,HEALTH,EDUCATION...CONSTRUCTIONS OF BASIC AMENITIES WHICH WILL PROVIDE EDUCATION, HEALTH,WELFARE,EMPLOYMENT TO ALL,WHICH MEANS PERMANENT SOLUTIONS FOR FOOD,CLOTHS,HOUSING..AND THEN ENTERTAINMENT. MUST VOTE FOR A PERSON AND PARTY WHO THINKS,TRY,AND CAPABLE OF PROVIDING THIS AND CAN MAKE A CHANGE OR MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!....LETS SEE SLOGANS OF OLD AGENDA'S OF NDA-BHOOK,BHAY,AUR BHRASTACHAAR KE KILAAF,EK SAMAARTH AUR SWABHIMANI BHARAT!!! OR CONGRESS'S-HUMARA HAATH GAREEBON KE SAATH!!!! ETC ARE HOW MUCH TRUE AS GROUND REALITIES.!!!....VIBHA)
“Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s commitment to minority welfare is unquestioned. In this election the Muslim votes will go to the Janata Dal (United)”. The seemingly innocuous comment from Edra-e-Shariat general secretary Haji Sayeed Mohammed Sanaullah provoked a furious response.
“Nonsense. The minorities have been used and abused by leaders of all political parties. Nitish Kumar’s protestations against the BJP’s Narendra Modi (Gujarat CM) are a sham. The minorities will vote for a secular government,” barked Bihar Jamait-e-Ulma general secretary Husne Ahmed Quadri.
The discussion was talking place in the spacious air-conditioned chamber of Patna’s Haj House chairman, Anis-Ur-Rehman. Walking out of Haj House that day, this reporter was constantly reminded of Patna’s Gandhi Museum director Razi Ahmed’s words: “Muslim votes are utterly fractured and they might end up voting for the winning candidates.
Despite the development factor, including law and order, being Nitish Kumar’s strong point during the Bihar assembly elections of 2010, there is a question as to whether the Muslims will stand by him. The Babri Masjid verdict of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, splitting the land on which the mosque stood, has not pleased many leading members of the community and hence they are likely to look for a political crutch. Nitish Kumar’s handicap here is his alliance with the BJP, the party committed to building the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Where the Muslim vote matters
Bihar’s 14 million Muslim voters — constituting 16.5% of the state’s population — will determine the poll outcome in 60 assembly constituencies (out of the 243 in the assembly) where they have a presence of anything between 18 and 74%. The statistics gleaned from the 2001 Census of India show that Kochadhaman and Amour (Kishanganj and Purnea districts, respectively) have the highest concentration of Muslim voters (at 74 per cent).
Other constituencies with a dominant presence of Muslims are in the bordering districts of Kishanganj, Araria and Bhagalpur; north Bihar districts of Supoul, Madhepura, Saharsa and Darbangha; and central Bihar districts of Gopalganj, Siwan, Biharsharif, Gaya and Nalanda.
In about 50 other seats, the Muslim voters have a presence of 10-17 per cent of the electorate, adequate to substantially influence the poll outcome.
Given the Muslims’ population proportion in the state, the Bihar assembly ought to have 38-40 Muslims. But, in most elections since 1952, 24-25 Muslims, have been elected while the state has sent, on average, just four-five Muslims to the Lok Sabha.
This time, the Congress has fielded the highest number (46) Muslim candidates, followed by 36 of the RJD-LJP combine and 17 of the JD (U)-BJP alliance.
“In the Muslim mind, the level of earlier hostility towards the JD (U)-BJP combine may have diminished, but they are unlikely to vote ‘en bloc’ for the ruling NDA alliance — or for any other party or grouping”, said Shaibal Gupta of the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI).
Local Congress leader Najmul Hassan Najmi says: “Aazmaye Ko Azmana Jihalat Hai” (trying out one who has already been tried out is obnoxious). People are fed up with the ‘nautanki’ (drama) of state leaders. The Congress will emerge strong this time.”
The go-it-alone strategy of the Congress is likely to marginally improve the party strength in the assembly.
Uncertainty on the voting pattern
“The poll outcome will be spectacular. This will be a landmark election”.
Wherever one travelled — Purnea, Madhepura, Saharsa, Kishanganj and Patna — this was the common refrain. Nitish Kumar has taken measures for the benefit of the community.
He brought Kameshwar Yadav, the main accused in the Bhagalpur riots of 1989, to book, has provided lifelong pension to Muslim families affected by the riots, and hiked the salaries of madarsa (Islamic schools) teachers.
The RJD campaign hinges on the argument that former CM Lalu Prasad was the one to have powered the “social engineering” process — providing voice to the minorities. This time, he is promising free motorcycles to the Muslim youth!
Congress leaders including party president Sonia Gandhi say that egalitarian growth and true secularism can be brought to Bihar only when their party is brought to Bihar.
Whose bait will the Muslim voters bite?
This election, the minority voters are truly playing their cards close to their chest.
“Roads and infrastructure development is fine. But what about our villages? The schools have no teachers; government benefits do not reach us. ‘Afsarshahi’ (rule of bureaucrats) prevails and common people have to pay five times more as bribes to the ‘panchayat’, block and district-level officials”, says Rashid Khan at Sabutar, a Muslim-dominated hamlet in the bordering district of Purnea.
Another villager said: “All parties have failed us: From the Congress to RJD and the JD (U).”
So whom will they vote for? “Nobody, we cannot vote for anybody,” Khan says.
Then comes the afterthought: “We are the ones (Muslims) who hold the key to government formation this time. The results will astound you; wait for the outcome!”
The 16% factor
Battle for Bihar: Rabri, Sadhu’s fate to be sealed today-Oct 28, 2010,
Battle for Bihar: Rabri, Sadhu’s fate to be sealed today
Law Kumar Mishra, TNN, Oct 28, 2010, 01.33am IST
(GOOD WISHES TO BIHAR AND ITS 'JANTA'. MUST COME OUT AND VOTE SO THAT DEMOCRACY SERVIVE LONGER,AND MUST GIVE VOTE TO RIGHT CANDIDATE AND PARTY,WHO THINK AND WORK FOR THEIR WELFARE AND NOT JUST INDULGED IN CRIME AND CORRUPTION....VIBHA)
PATNA: More than 10 million voters of Bihar's 48 constituencies will vote amid heavy security bandobast to decide the fate of former CM Rabri Devi and her 'famous' brother Sadhu Yadav, among others, on Thursday.
Rabri, who is RJD MLA from Raghopur, is trying her luck from Sonepur as well. Her brother, who has since parted ways with her, is contesting from Gopalganj as a Congress nominee.
Others whose fate would be sealed in the third phase of six-phase polls in the state include ministers Brishan Patel, Renu Devi, Ram Pravesh Rai, Gautam Singh, Vyasdeo Prasad, BJP general secretary Janardan Segriwal and jailed JD-U MLA Munna Shukla's wife Annu Shukla.
Chief electoral officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh on Wednesday said the administration is well prepared to hold the elections in these constituencies spread over West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran and Vaishali districts.
Though only some of the constituencies are "critical" owing to presence of Maoists there, armed forces will man all the 10,814 polling stations. Mounted police, river police and para military forces besides IAF choppers would patrol the areas going to the polls. Raids and searches have been on to prevent inflow of money and liquor in the constituencies, Rakesh said and added live webcast will be done from 293 polling stations.
The Congress and BSP have fielded candidates in all the 48 constituencies while Nationalist Congress Party has fielded 38 candidates, RJD 35, JD-U 24, BJP 24, LJP 13, CPI 10 and the CPM five nominees.
Of the 785 candidates, 65 are women with more than one women trying their luck from 18 constituencies. These include Patepur where four women are in the fray and Ramnagar, Bhore, Zeeradei, Marhaura, Vaishali, Maharajganj and Raghopur where three women each have thrown their hat in the ring.
Zeeradei and Marhaura have the highest number of 29 candidates each while the lowest number of seven candidates are in Raxaul.
The largest assembly constituency electorate-wise is Raghopur having 2.62 lakh electors and the smallest Kalyanpur with 1,77,368 voters.
Law Kumar Mishra, TNN, Oct 28, 2010, 01.33am IST
(GOOD WISHES TO BIHAR AND ITS 'JANTA'. MUST COME OUT AND VOTE SO THAT DEMOCRACY SERVIVE LONGER,AND MUST GIVE VOTE TO RIGHT CANDIDATE AND PARTY,WHO THINK AND WORK FOR THEIR WELFARE AND NOT JUST INDULGED IN CRIME AND CORRUPTION....VIBHA)
PATNA: More than 10 million voters of Bihar's 48 constituencies will vote amid heavy security bandobast to decide the fate of former CM Rabri Devi and her 'famous' brother Sadhu Yadav, among others, on Thursday.
Rabri, who is RJD MLA from Raghopur, is trying her luck from Sonepur as well. Her brother, who has since parted ways with her, is contesting from Gopalganj as a Congress nominee.
Others whose fate would be sealed in the third phase of six-phase polls in the state include ministers Brishan Patel, Renu Devi, Ram Pravesh Rai, Gautam Singh, Vyasdeo Prasad, BJP general secretary Janardan Segriwal and jailed JD-U MLA Munna Shukla's wife Annu Shukla.
Chief electoral officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh on Wednesday said the administration is well prepared to hold the elections in these constituencies spread over West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran and Vaishali districts.
Though only some of the constituencies are "critical" owing to presence of Maoists there, armed forces will man all the 10,814 polling stations. Mounted police, river police and para military forces besides IAF choppers would patrol the areas going to the polls. Raids and searches have been on to prevent inflow of money and liquor in the constituencies, Rakesh said and added live webcast will be done from 293 polling stations.
The Congress and BSP have fielded candidates in all the 48 constituencies while Nationalist Congress Party has fielded 38 candidates, RJD 35, JD-U 24, BJP 24, LJP 13, CPI 10 and the CPM five nominees.
Of the 785 candidates, 65 are women with more than one women trying their luck from 18 constituencies. These include Patepur where four women are in the fray and Ramnagar, Bhore, Zeeradei, Marhaura, Vaishali, Maharajganj and Raghopur where three women each have thrown their hat in the ring.
Zeeradei and Marhaura have the highest number of 29 candidates each while the lowest number of seven candidates are in Raxaul.
The largest assembly constituency electorate-wise is Raghopur having 2.62 lakh electors and the smallest Kalyanpur with 1,77,368 voters.
Soaring brand Saina gets Rs 1cr per ad deal-Oct 28, 2010,
Soaring brand Saina gets Rs 1cr per ad deal
M Ratnakar, TNN, Oct 28, 2010, 12.30am IST
Article
Saina Nehwal
(GOOD WISHES TO HER.ITS GOOD THAT PLAYERS OF OTHER GAMES EXCEPT CRICKET ARE ALSO GETTING RETURN MONETRY FOR THEIR HARD WORK AND BUSY SCHEDULE!!!....AS BEING 'SAMARTH' IS ALSO GOOD,ITS ADDITIONAL REWARD FOR HARD WORK.IT WILL INSPIRE NEWCOMERS AND UPCOMING PEOPLE,SPECIALLY GIRLS, TO JOIN SPORTS AND WORK HARD FOR IT TO REACH THE TOP!! I AM SURE NOW PARENTS WON'T FEEL THAT RELUCTANT TO LET THEIR KIDS GO FOR 'OFFBEAT PROFESSIONS',WHICH GIVES NAME,FAME,MONEY,JOB OFFERS,AD OFFERS ETC AND AWARDS,FANS,(I AM SURE MARRIAGE OFFERS AS WELL),IF ONE IS SUCCESSFUL.SPORTSPERSONS DO GET JOB OR WORK OPPORTUNITIES IF THEY ARE NOT ON TOP ALSO AND I AM SURE AS IT IS COMING UP AS PROMISING EVENTS AND BUSSINESS ALSO,AND NOT ONLY PASSION AND PROFESSION SO ITS FUTURE PROSPESTS WILL BE GOOD AND BETTER BY THE DAY TO COME!!! GOOD WISHES!!....VIBHA)
HYDERABAD: On October 15, reporting Saina Nehwal's thrilling victory in the Commonwealth Games women's singles final, TOI said she was now probably India's best loved sportsperson after Sachin Tendulkar. Corporate India seems to agree. India's badminton sensation, riding high after three consecutive tournanment wins, apart from the CWG triumph, is now being signed up by major brands for an annual fee which is touching the Rs 1 crore mark.
To put that in perspective, Saina now commands a fee that was earlier the preserve of only cricket superstars like Virender Sehwag. Only MS Dhoni and Tendulkar get significantly more than her. Dhoni, apparently, is now offering advertisers the option of paying him by the day, rather than charging an annual fee.
Interestingly, Sania Mirza, who was once eagerly sought after by advertisers, is now said to get a fee of around Rs 25 lakh. Industry sources say her brand value has been hit by her indifferent form as well as her marriage to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.
Barely a couple of years ago, Saina's brand equity was valued at a mere 10-15 lakh per endorsement and she didn't have any top brands in her kitty.
From being a brand ambassador of Cancer Society of India and a herbal product, Saina has come a long way to now have on her list companies such as Airtel, Adani Wilmar, Yonex, Jaypee Cements and Star Plus. And the word is that the queue is getting longer by the day, at the head of which is a famous noodle company.
According to sources close to the shuttler, Saina inked two deals - Adani Wilmar and Airtel - in July, each worth Rs 1 crore. She had earlier signed similar deals with Yonex and a City-based daily. Incidentally, a change in her fortunes came about after she switched from Globosport Management Group to Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures last year.
Sources close to the shuttler told TOI on Wednesday that the deal with Jaypee Cements is in the closing stages and that her management firm is in talks with Star Television Group, apparently for a foreword to 20-25 episodes of a serial titled 'Kali Ek Agnipariksha' which is all about a woman shuttler's travails. Saina is likely to be paid Rs 5 lakh per episode.
Apart from these major signings this year, Saina has received 20 gold coins weighing 10g each from Premium Brands, the official sponsor of Indian badminton team. At the bottom end of her endosements, however, is Aspire which fetches her Rs 2 lakh a year, a deal that runs through 2012.
Besides, Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures - who give her a guarantee fee of Rs 1 crore per year and do not take any percentage from the deals they get for her - are likely to hike her guarantee fee.
M Ratnakar, TNN, Oct 28, 2010, 12.30am IST
Article
Saina Nehwal
(GOOD WISHES TO HER.ITS GOOD THAT PLAYERS OF OTHER GAMES EXCEPT CRICKET ARE ALSO GETTING RETURN MONETRY FOR THEIR HARD WORK AND BUSY SCHEDULE!!!....AS BEING 'SAMARTH' IS ALSO GOOD,ITS ADDITIONAL REWARD FOR HARD WORK.IT WILL INSPIRE NEWCOMERS AND UPCOMING PEOPLE,SPECIALLY GIRLS, TO JOIN SPORTS AND WORK HARD FOR IT TO REACH THE TOP!! I AM SURE NOW PARENTS WON'T FEEL THAT RELUCTANT TO LET THEIR KIDS GO FOR 'OFFBEAT PROFESSIONS',WHICH GIVES NAME,FAME,MONEY,JOB OFFERS,AD OFFERS ETC AND AWARDS,FANS,(I AM SURE MARRIAGE OFFERS AS WELL),IF ONE IS SUCCESSFUL.SPORTSPERSONS DO GET JOB OR WORK OPPORTUNITIES IF THEY ARE NOT ON TOP ALSO AND I AM SURE AS IT IS COMING UP AS PROMISING EVENTS AND BUSSINESS ALSO,AND NOT ONLY PASSION AND PROFESSION SO ITS FUTURE PROSPESTS WILL BE GOOD AND BETTER BY THE DAY TO COME!!! GOOD WISHES!!....VIBHA)
HYDERABAD: On October 15, reporting Saina Nehwal's thrilling victory in the Commonwealth Games women's singles final, TOI said she was now probably India's best loved sportsperson after Sachin Tendulkar. Corporate India seems to agree. India's badminton sensation, riding high after three consecutive tournanment wins, apart from the CWG triumph, is now being signed up by major brands for an annual fee which is touching the Rs 1 crore mark.
To put that in perspective, Saina now commands a fee that was earlier the preserve of only cricket superstars like Virender Sehwag. Only MS Dhoni and Tendulkar get significantly more than her. Dhoni, apparently, is now offering advertisers the option of paying him by the day, rather than charging an annual fee.
Interestingly, Sania Mirza, who was once eagerly sought after by advertisers, is now said to get a fee of around Rs 25 lakh. Industry sources say her brand value has been hit by her indifferent form as well as her marriage to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.
Barely a couple of years ago, Saina's brand equity was valued at a mere 10-15 lakh per endorsement and she didn't have any top brands in her kitty.
From being a brand ambassador of Cancer Society of India and a herbal product, Saina has come a long way to now have on her list companies such as Airtel, Adani Wilmar, Yonex, Jaypee Cements and Star Plus. And the word is that the queue is getting longer by the day, at the head of which is a famous noodle company.
According to sources close to the shuttler, Saina inked two deals - Adani Wilmar and Airtel - in July, each worth Rs 1 crore. She had earlier signed similar deals with Yonex and a City-based daily. Incidentally, a change in her fortunes came about after she switched from Globosport Management Group to Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures last year.
Sources close to the shuttler told TOI on Wednesday that the deal with Jaypee Cements is in the closing stages and that her management firm is in talks with Star Television Group, apparently for a foreword to 20-25 episodes of a serial titled 'Kali Ek Agnipariksha' which is all about a woman shuttler's travails. Saina is likely to be paid Rs 5 lakh per episode.
Apart from these major signings this year, Saina has received 20 gold coins weighing 10g each from Premium Brands, the official sponsor of Indian badminton team. At the bottom end of her endosements, however, is Aspire which fetches her Rs 2 lakh a year, a deal that runs through 2012.
Besides, Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures - who give her a guarantee fee of Rs 1 crore per year and do not take any percentage from the deals they get for her - are likely to hike her guarantee fee.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Why I Quit The Media- Journalism outspaced, it was time to put my pen down.-Sumir Lal/outlook magazine-Special Issue: Media In Crisis
ESSAY
Why I Quit The Media
A mega sellout!
Journalism outspaced, it was time to put my pen down.
Sumir Lal
Special Issue: Media In Crisis
The Indian media formally abdicated from duty that morning in the early 1990s when the Times of India (TOI) threw aside any remaining pretences and put up for sale its own 150-year-old masthead. Readers were greeted with their trusted newspaper proclaiming “Let The Times of India Wait”—an advertiser had been lured to pay for the additional words, with a pointer to the page where the actual advertisement was placed. The Times of India had just done some straight talking: forget the news, the journalism, the matters of public interest; go directly to the ads because that’s the real purpose of your newspaper. More deliberately, it said, everything that the toi name embodies—credibility, integrity, impartiality—is available for a price.
Samir Jain knew his times if not his Times. He took over his father’s company in 1982, and spent the 1980s remaking Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCLl) into a ferociously aggressive and innovative marketing company. He had sensed the zeitgeist, and was perfectly poised when the liberalisation reform in 1991 unleashed a new Indian with money to spend and immediate desires to gratify. His business proposition was simple: he would connect sellers of goods to this vast market of consumers. To corral and expand this market, he did not need distractions like news journalism, but marketing strategies like undercutting and brand-building. BCCL and TOI have laughed all the way to the bank ever since. Awestruck and lemming-like, Samir’s generation of proprietors has aped his every move, so that today the Indian media industry has unapologetic clarity about the nature of its business: it sells the media platform to commercial clients, not news to readers.
With proprietors not interested in selling what good journalists produce, the crisis in India is not one of the media industry, but of the profession of journalism. This is the reverse of the West, where proprietor, journalist and recipients all agree on the relevance of the journalistic product, but the existential challenge before traditional media houses is how to take—in an economically viable manner—that product to the electronic spaces and mobile devices where today’s generations prefer to receive and interact with it.
India’s media barons are no longer in the news business, but news is unavoidable: after all, you do need something to fill the space between the ads, and must dupe enough consumers into picking up your ‘newspaper’ (or tuning in to your ‘news’ channel), else your real customers—advertisers—will not be interested. So ‘news’ today is sleight of hand: paid news by politicians, private treaties with advertisers, celebrity coverage for a fee, PR feeds masquerading as reportage, the business story slanted to serve the stockmarket, the deserving story not done. Alongside, since the Sensex must never fall, the tone is frothy, jingoistic and feelgood so as to keep the middle classes in permanent chest-thumping and optimistic mode. When—surprise, surprise—reality strikes and an inconvenient aspect of India shows up, then news coverage either reduces it to political sensation or morphs to orchestrate middle-class outrage. Investigation and expose, when it happens, is because someone had a score to settle. Instead of agenda-setters, journalists have become handymen, well-paid but increasingly adrift from the craft and ethics of their trade.
So where does that leave news as we knew it—you know, the story followed for its objective worth? The one based on verified fact and authentic source? That required legwork, questioning and research? That explored the human condition outside of the middle-class consumer bubble? That connected citizen with state?
Such a vision wasn’t so implausible in 1982. That year, while Samir was taking over TOI in Mumbai, the Telegraph was launching in Calcutta. I was 20 and all set to change the world. I had done some thinking, and had concluded that journalism was the most noble calling there could be. If you were intensely curious, concerned about what ailed your country, wanted to make a difference, were intrigued by why things happened and people behaved as they did, preferred to see things for yourself, and revelled in the elegance of connecting word with fact, passion and thought, then journalism alone was it. And in 1982 there were genuine heroes—Arun Shourie, M.J. Akbar, Aroon Purie, Vinod Mehta and S.P. Singh comprised a new generation of editors who had been blooded during the Emergency, and were now shaking the Indian press out of its stodginess with a new investigative, irreverent, attractively packaged journalism.
His Dancing Shoes: M.J. as editor of the Telegraph in his room at the ABP House in Calcutta, 1983. (Photograph by Anand Bazar Patrika)
Akbar launched the Telegraph with a handful of experienced colleagues and 40 wide-eyed kids. With breathtaking audacity, we took on the venerable Statesman, a newspaper generations of Calcuttans had grown up on and which was basking in the afterglow of its heroic stand during the Emergency. And what heady days those were. Akbar—choleric, foul-mouthed, intimidating, inspirational, genius—enabled those of us who could survive his high-stress style to live every ideal. Pursuing the story because it was a story and with no other interest, we investigated crime mafias, exposed government wrongdoing, travelled to fields and slums, and reported in a vivid, urgent manner the big events of the time: terrorism and separatism in Punjab, civil war in Sri Lanka, Indira Gandhi’s cynical politics, elections, riots, excesses by the state, assassination. The Telegraph was India’s first modern newspaper, speaking to its readers with a refreshing modular design, a strong emphasis on features, coverage of topics beyond politics, and a willingness to defy convention. Who can forget Akbar’s immortal headline: “Indira Gandhi Shot Dead, Nation Wounded”.
It was too good to last. Carried away by his own stardom and political ambition, Akbar subverted the paper to ingratiate himself with Rajiv Gandhi. Meanwhile, Samir was luring journalists to TOI (in Delhi) where he needed fresh blood to dislodge the editors he had inherited. I spent a desultory year there, observing from the middle ranks the big changes under way at BCCL.
The senior editorial team had an air of impotence, its discussions infused with second-guessing what management might want. Marketing managers clearly had more clout—each one’s worth could be measured in revenue numbers, but other than cartoonist R.K. Laxman, not even the most famous byline among the journalists could directly be linked to circulation figures. BCCL’s corporate interests tailored and constituted news. While company-sponsored cultural events got coverage, there were explicit instructions, for instance, to underplay the death of a famed classical musician. Nostalgia and a sense of community were out, you see, because there was no longer a reader with whom you had a psychological connection, only a statistic.
I reported from Ayodhya in 1990 on a storming of the Babri Masjid, the police firing, the many deaths, the mayhem. After filing my story, I called my wife to let her know I was safe. While BCCL was raking in record profits, the accounts department refused to reimburse me the few rupees for that call. The expense statement went all the way up to the general manager, who did not approve. On another occasion, a colleague covering an election in a sprawling constituency had his taxi bill turned down on the ground that he could have used a rickshaw. That epitomised the contempt for the newsgathering process of a paper that the BBC mysteriously certified as one of the world’s six greatest.
As a tribe we were still self-deluded. “How can you leave the best address in Indian journalism?” senior colleagues asked in surprise when I quit TOI for the uncertainties of the Pioneer. There, Vinod Mehta bravely created a space where we could still practise professional journalism. It was a welcome prolonging of innocence.
Gentleman-businessman: Aveek Sarkar, the proprietor of the Telegraph, had a reputation of being an editor first. (Photograph by Indiatoday Images)
Aveek Sarkar, proprietor of the Telegraph, persuaded me to return to Calcutta in late 1993 as his deputy editor. Aveek had the reputation of being the best proprietor to work for because of his endearing self-image, at least in those days; that he was an editor first and businessman second. The Telegraph was just over 10 years old, and was now nipping at the heels of the Statesman. It needed a final push. And there was a potential threat: Akbar was back in town, launching his own paper, the Asian Age. In a great example of how I think editorial and marketing teams can work together, Aveek, the ABP’s senior managers and I revamped the paper with a new set of daily feature sections focused on assessed reader needs, expanded pagination, a redesign, technology upgrade, and yes, investment in the training of our younger journalists. The Asian Age never took off, and in 1995, the Telegraph went past the Statesman.
It is safe to say that the Telegraph defeated the Statesman with its editorial package—unlike the fierce battle in Delhi, where TOI took on the Hindustan Times (HT) on the basis of a price war and marketing gimmicks. But Samir’s mouthwatering commercial success made his formula contagious. Aveek at ABP, Shobhana at HT, and a savvy new generation of regional media proprietors all adopted his model.
To Market, To Market: Faced with a ruthless onslaught from TOI, HT’ S Shobhana Bhartia replicated her adversary. (Photograph by Jitender Gupta)
Through the mid-’90s, I observed the ABP management’s snobbery about Samir’s methods turn to grudging admiration, then sheer awe. The Telegraph now went in for the kill. Pandering to the new dictum that news must only entertain, I colluded in trivialising the front page. My greatest day of regret was one of the Telegraph’s best days of sale: a front-page banner headline I wrote during the 1996 cricket World Cup that screamed, “India Forces Pak to Surrender”. The headline could not have been any different or any bigger had it been a story on an actual war. The internal equations quickly shifted. The marketing department, represented by an empowered executive, was now directly advising Aveek on editorial strategy, while he reduced the stature of the editorial side by slicing the paper into sections to be managed by departmental editors. Branding events replaced newsroom initiatives as the means to expand readership, and advertiser imperatives routinely trumped over editorial sensitivities.
Instead of looking at the many aspects of an unequal nation in transition, the media indulged in petty deceit.
Shobhana had offered me the executive editorship of HT in 1996, which I had turned down for no other reason than Calcutta hubris. Now, in 1998, she asked me to edit her Sunday edition. Shobhana faced a ruthless onslaught from TOI even while contending with an entrenched bureaucracy, active unions, and much else internally. Her response was to replicate whatever TOI did, editorially or marketing-wise, so that very quickly there was little to differentiate the two papers except that TOI moved first. Shobhana, however, was gentler on her journalists and lacked, at the time, a well-oiled marketing department; this meant that I could push the envelope with the Sunday paper as long as I kept clear of the family’s traditional holy cows.
Say Cheese: Vir Sanghvi, left, with Samir Jain of TOI at the 75th anniversary celebrations of HT in 1999. (Photograph by Gireesh G.V.)
Then she brought in Vir Sanghvi as chief. Not a newspaperman, his career had been built around his access to Delhi and Mumbai’s A-listers, his celebrity talk show, and his column that delectably celebrated wines, cheeses, fine food, glamour and power. This was possibly Shobhana’s counter to the BCCL’s marketing arsenal, and her hope presumably was that Vir would attract high-end readers for high-end advertisers.
By now I was marking time. The space to practise genuine journalism depended too much on quirk of circumstance—a momentarily benevolent proprietor, or refuge in a niche not yet in the sights of the marketers. The choices were to swim with the tide, go guerrilla like Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka, or opt out. When an opportunity came, I withdrew—from the Indian media, but not from the attributes that made me a journalist. I am now more deeply immersed than before in the intersection of development, public policy and current issues, but free of the tyranny of the 500-word limit and the shrill headline. I am still the journalist, using my skills to assess political risk and stakeholder concerns in order to help improve the quality of development projects.
The Indian media has expanded exponentially—newspapers have opened editions all over, TV and cable have taken off, the web and social media are in. In a booming sector of a blossoming economy, proprietors would have made their money anyway. All the more tragic then that they had the most exciting, saleable story on their hands, but have missed it entirely: this unique historical moment when India is at once a rising power and a poor, misgoverned country. Instead of examining, probing and deliberating on the many fascinating aspects of an unequal nation in bold transition, they indulged in petty deceit of their public. (‘Consumers’, I firmly believe, never ceased being citizens, and have craved credible explanation and context; just load those market surveys with the right questions!) Nifty marketing of quality journalism—what a winner that would have been.
Why I Quit The Media
A mega sellout!
Journalism outspaced, it was time to put my pen down.
Sumir Lal
Special Issue: Media In Crisis
The Indian media formally abdicated from duty that morning in the early 1990s when the Times of India (TOI) threw aside any remaining pretences and put up for sale its own 150-year-old masthead. Readers were greeted with their trusted newspaper proclaiming “Let The Times of India Wait”—an advertiser had been lured to pay for the additional words, with a pointer to the page where the actual advertisement was placed. The Times of India had just done some straight talking: forget the news, the journalism, the matters of public interest; go directly to the ads because that’s the real purpose of your newspaper. More deliberately, it said, everything that the toi name embodies—credibility, integrity, impartiality—is available for a price.
Samir Jain knew his times if not his Times. He took over his father’s company in 1982, and spent the 1980s remaking Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCLl) into a ferociously aggressive and innovative marketing company. He had sensed the zeitgeist, and was perfectly poised when the liberalisation reform in 1991 unleashed a new Indian with money to spend and immediate desires to gratify. His business proposition was simple: he would connect sellers of goods to this vast market of consumers. To corral and expand this market, he did not need distractions like news journalism, but marketing strategies like undercutting and brand-building. BCCL and TOI have laughed all the way to the bank ever since. Awestruck and lemming-like, Samir’s generation of proprietors has aped his every move, so that today the Indian media industry has unapologetic clarity about the nature of its business: it sells the media platform to commercial clients, not news to readers.
With proprietors not interested in selling what good journalists produce, the crisis in India is not one of the media industry, but of the profession of journalism. This is the reverse of the West, where proprietor, journalist and recipients all agree on the relevance of the journalistic product, but the existential challenge before traditional media houses is how to take—in an economically viable manner—that product to the electronic spaces and mobile devices where today’s generations prefer to receive and interact with it.
India’s media barons are no longer in the news business, but news is unavoidable: after all, you do need something to fill the space between the ads, and must dupe enough consumers into picking up your ‘newspaper’ (or tuning in to your ‘news’ channel), else your real customers—advertisers—will not be interested. So ‘news’ today is sleight of hand: paid news by politicians, private treaties with advertisers, celebrity coverage for a fee, PR feeds masquerading as reportage, the business story slanted to serve the stockmarket, the deserving story not done. Alongside, since the Sensex must never fall, the tone is frothy, jingoistic and feelgood so as to keep the middle classes in permanent chest-thumping and optimistic mode. When—surprise, surprise—reality strikes and an inconvenient aspect of India shows up, then news coverage either reduces it to political sensation or morphs to orchestrate middle-class outrage. Investigation and expose, when it happens, is because someone had a score to settle. Instead of agenda-setters, journalists have become handymen, well-paid but increasingly adrift from the craft and ethics of their trade.
So where does that leave news as we knew it—you know, the story followed for its objective worth? The one based on verified fact and authentic source? That required legwork, questioning and research? That explored the human condition outside of the middle-class consumer bubble? That connected citizen with state?
Such a vision wasn’t so implausible in 1982. That year, while Samir was taking over TOI in Mumbai, the Telegraph was launching in Calcutta. I was 20 and all set to change the world. I had done some thinking, and had concluded that journalism was the most noble calling there could be. If you were intensely curious, concerned about what ailed your country, wanted to make a difference, were intrigued by why things happened and people behaved as they did, preferred to see things for yourself, and revelled in the elegance of connecting word with fact, passion and thought, then journalism alone was it. And in 1982 there were genuine heroes—Arun Shourie, M.J. Akbar, Aroon Purie, Vinod Mehta and S.P. Singh comprised a new generation of editors who had been blooded during the Emergency, and were now shaking the Indian press out of its stodginess with a new investigative, irreverent, attractively packaged journalism.
His Dancing Shoes: M.J. as editor of the Telegraph in his room at the ABP House in Calcutta, 1983. (Photograph by Anand Bazar Patrika)
Akbar launched the Telegraph with a handful of experienced colleagues and 40 wide-eyed kids. With breathtaking audacity, we took on the venerable Statesman, a newspaper generations of Calcuttans had grown up on and which was basking in the afterglow of its heroic stand during the Emergency. And what heady days those were. Akbar—choleric, foul-mouthed, intimidating, inspirational, genius—enabled those of us who could survive his high-stress style to live every ideal. Pursuing the story because it was a story and with no other interest, we investigated crime mafias, exposed government wrongdoing, travelled to fields and slums, and reported in a vivid, urgent manner the big events of the time: terrorism and separatism in Punjab, civil war in Sri Lanka, Indira Gandhi’s cynical politics, elections, riots, excesses by the state, assassination. The Telegraph was India’s first modern newspaper, speaking to its readers with a refreshing modular design, a strong emphasis on features, coverage of topics beyond politics, and a willingness to defy convention. Who can forget Akbar’s immortal headline: “Indira Gandhi Shot Dead, Nation Wounded”.
It was too good to last. Carried away by his own stardom and political ambition, Akbar subverted the paper to ingratiate himself with Rajiv Gandhi. Meanwhile, Samir was luring journalists to TOI (in Delhi) where he needed fresh blood to dislodge the editors he had inherited. I spent a desultory year there, observing from the middle ranks the big changes under way at BCCL.
The senior editorial team had an air of impotence, its discussions infused with second-guessing what management might want. Marketing managers clearly had more clout—each one’s worth could be measured in revenue numbers, but other than cartoonist R.K. Laxman, not even the most famous byline among the journalists could directly be linked to circulation figures. BCCL’s corporate interests tailored and constituted news. While company-sponsored cultural events got coverage, there were explicit instructions, for instance, to underplay the death of a famed classical musician. Nostalgia and a sense of community were out, you see, because there was no longer a reader with whom you had a psychological connection, only a statistic.
I reported from Ayodhya in 1990 on a storming of the Babri Masjid, the police firing, the many deaths, the mayhem. After filing my story, I called my wife to let her know I was safe. While BCCL was raking in record profits, the accounts department refused to reimburse me the few rupees for that call. The expense statement went all the way up to the general manager, who did not approve. On another occasion, a colleague covering an election in a sprawling constituency had his taxi bill turned down on the ground that he could have used a rickshaw. That epitomised the contempt for the newsgathering process of a paper that the BBC mysteriously certified as one of the world’s six greatest.
As a tribe we were still self-deluded. “How can you leave the best address in Indian journalism?” senior colleagues asked in surprise when I quit TOI for the uncertainties of the Pioneer. There, Vinod Mehta bravely created a space where we could still practise professional journalism. It was a welcome prolonging of innocence.
Gentleman-businessman: Aveek Sarkar, the proprietor of the Telegraph, had a reputation of being an editor first. (Photograph by Indiatoday Images)
Aveek Sarkar, proprietor of the Telegraph, persuaded me to return to Calcutta in late 1993 as his deputy editor. Aveek had the reputation of being the best proprietor to work for because of his endearing self-image, at least in those days; that he was an editor first and businessman second. The Telegraph was just over 10 years old, and was now nipping at the heels of the Statesman. It needed a final push. And there was a potential threat: Akbar was back in town, launching his own paper, the Asian Age. In a great example of how I think editorial and marketing teams can work together, Aveek, the ABP’s senior managers and I revamped the paper with a new set of daily feature sections focused on assessed reader needs, expanded pagination, a redesign, technology upgrade, and yes, investment in the training of our younger journalists. The Asian Age never took off, and in 1995, the Telegraph went past the Statesman.
It is safe to say that the Telegraph defeated the Statesman with its editorial package—unlike the fierce battle in Delhi, where TOI took on the Hindustan Times (HT) on the basis of a price war and marketing gimmicks. But Samir’s mouthwatering commercial success made his formula contagious. Aveek at ABP, Shobhana at HT, and a savvy new generation of regional media proprietors all adopted his model.
To Market, To Market: Faced with a ruthless onslaught from TOI, HT’ S Shobhana Bhartia replicated her adversary. (Photograph by Jitender Gupta)
Through the mid-’90s, I observed the ABP management’s snobbery about Samir’s methods turn to grudging admiration, then sheer awe. The Telegraph now went in for the kill. Pandering to the new dictum that news must only entertain, I colluded in trivialising the front page. My greatest day of regret was one of the Telegraph’s best days of sale: a front-page banner headline I wrote during the 1996 cricket World Cup that screamed, “India Forces Pak to Surrender”. The headline could not have been any different or any bigger had it been a story on an actual war. The internal equations quickly shifted. The marketing department, represented by an empowered executive, was now directly advising Aveek on editorial strategy, while he reduced the stature of the editorial side by slicing the paper into sections to be managed by departmental editors. Branding events replaced newsroom initiatives as the means to expand readership, and advertiser imperatives routinely trumped over editorial sensitivities.
Instead of looking at the many aspects of an unequal nation in transition, the media indulged in petty deceit.
Shobhana had offered me the executive editorship of HT in 1996, which I had turned down for no other reason than Calcutta hubris. Now, in 1998, she asked me to edit her Sunday edition. Shobhana faced a ruthless onslaught from TOI even while contending with an entrenched bureaucracy, active unions, and much else internally. Her response was to replicate whatever TOI did, editorially or marketing-wise, so that very quickly there was little to differentiate the two papers except that TOI moved first. Shobhana, however, was gentler on her journalists and lacked, at the time, a well-oiled marketing department; this meant that I could push the envelope with the Sunday paper as long as I kept clear of the family’s traditional holy cows.
Say Cheese: Vir Sanghvi, left, with Samir Jain of TOI at the 75th anniversary celebrations of HT in 1999. (Photograph by Gireesh G.V.)
Then she brought in Vir Sanghvi as chief. Not a newspaperman, his career had been built around his access to Delhi and Mumbai’s A-listers, his celebrity talk show, and his column that delectably celebrated wines, cheeses, fine food, glamour and power. This was possibly Shobhana’s counter to the BCCL’s marketing arsenal, and her hope presumably was that Vir would attract high-end readers for high-end advertisers.
By now I was marking time. The space to practise genuine journalism depended too much on quirk of circumstance—a momentarily benevolent proprietor, or refuge in a niche not yet in the sights of the marketers. The choices were to swim with the tide, go guerrilla like Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka, or opt out. When an opportunity came, I withdrew—from the Indian media, but not from the attributes that made me a journalist. I am now more deeply immersed than before in the intersection of development, public policy and current issues, but free of the tyranny of the 500-word limit and the shrill headline. I am still the journalist, using my skills to assess political risk and stakeholder concerns in order to help improve the quality of development projects.
The Indian media has expanded exponentially—newspapers have opened editions all over, TV and cable have taken off, the web and social media are in. In a booming sector of a blossoming economy, proprietors would have made their money anyway. All the more tragic then that they had the most exciting, saleable story on their hands, but have missed it entirely: this unique historical moment when India is at once a rising power and a poor, misgoverned country. Instead of examining, probing and deliberating on the many fascinating aspects of an unequal nation in bold transition, they indulged in petty deceit of their public. (‘Consumers’, I firmly believe, never ceased being citizens, and have craved credible explanation and context; just load those market surveys with the right questions!) Nifty marketing of quality journalism—what a winner that would have been.
Gogoi: technical team must study Subansiri dam safety made by NHPC-26/10/10
Gogoi: technical team must study Subansiri dam safety
Sushanta Talukdar
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Centre or the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) set up a technical team, consisting of internationally acclaimed seismologists, to examine the safety of the dam of the 2000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric project.
Such a technical team should also include members of the expert group set up by the NHPC and the government, Mr. Gogoi said in a letter to Dr. Singh.
Mr. Gogoi, while sharing a copy of the letter with journalists, said here on Friday that the State government was also of the view that a Steering Group should be set up by the NHPC to advise it on measures for flood and erosion control in the downstream areas.
The State government has also suggested that the Central Water Commission immediately start a comprehensive study of the Subansiri, Lohit, and Siang basins. This should be based on the norms given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to determine the cumulative impact on bio-diversity and the eco-system of the region. Over 150 hydel projects are proposed to be set up in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra.
“These projects have given rise to widespread concern and anxiety in Assam. It is apprehended that once these projects are completed, there would be flash floods in the downstream areas when there is sudden and excessive discharge of waters after heavy rainfall. Besides, there are apprehensions that these projects would have adverse impact on erosion situation, bio-diversity and ecology of the region,” Mr. Gogoi said in the letter, while referring to the proposed mega dams in Arunachal Pradesh, including the Subansiri project.
Reiterating his stand on the mega river dams in general and Subansiri project in particular, Mr. Gogoi said he was not opposed to big dams but felt that the issues raised by the expert group must be addressed.
Referring to the expert group report, Assam Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said the group did not recommended scrapping of the Subansiri project and only made a set of recommendations, which the government, wanted the NHPC to address.
Mr. Gogoi accused the Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and NGO Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) of raking up the mega dam issue only to divert the attention of the people from development ushered in during the Congress rule.
He also referred to a memorandum submitted by the former Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, during the first tenure of the AGP government to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on September 14, 1988 demanding that the scheme prepared by the Brahmaputra Board for multipurpose hydel projects be implemented.
Sushanta Talukdar
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Centre or the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) set up a technical team, consisting of internationally acclaimed seismologists, to examine the safety of the dam of the 2000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric project.
Such a technical team should also include members of the expert group set up by the NHPC and the government, Mr. Gogoi said in a letter to Dr. Singh.
Mr. Gogoi, while sharing a copy of the letter with journalists, said here on Friday that the State government was also of the view that a Steering Group should be set up by the NHPC to advise it on measures for flood and erosion control in the downstream areas.
The State government has also suggested that the Central Water Commission immediately start a comprehensive study of the Subansiri, Lohit, and Siang basins. This should be based on the norms given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to determine the cumulative impact on bio-diversity and the eco-system of the region. Over 150 hydel projects are proposed to be set up in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra.
“These projects have given rise to widespread concern and anxiety in Assam. It is apprehended that once these projects are completed, there would be flash floods in the downstream areas when there is sudden and excessive discharge of waters after heavy rainfall. Besides, there are apprehensions that these projects would have adverse impact on erosion situation, bio-diversity and ecology of the region,” Mr. Gogoi said in the letter, while referring to the proposed mega dams in Arunachal Pradesh, including the Subansiri project.
Reiterating his stand on the mega river dams in general and Subansiri project in particular, Mr. Gogoi said he was not opposed to big dams but felt that the issues raised by the expert group must be addressed.
Referring to the expert group report, Assam Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said the group did not recommended scrapping of the Subansiri project and only made a set of recommendations, which the government, wanted the NHPC to address.
Mr. Gogoi accused the Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and NGO Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) of raking up the mega dam issue only to divert the attention of the people from development ushered in during the Congress rule.
He also referred to a memorandum submitted by the former Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, during the first tenure of the AGP government to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on September 14, 1988 demanding that the scheme prepared by the Brahmaputra Board for multipurpose hydel projects be implemented.
Bihar election: Advani for open debate between Nitish, Lalu-26 October, 2010
Bihar election: Advani for open debate between Nitish, Lalu
26 October, 2010
By NDChronicle.Com Correspondent,
Patna: The former deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said that it would have been a much better idea had the Election Commission organized several open debates between Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and the Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Lalu Yadav and telecast it before the public.
Addressing public meetings in Hajipur and Begusarai he said that the media should be given an opportunity to put up questions in such debates.
Advani said that earlier roads were non-existent in Bihar as those who used to rule would say that there is no need for good roads for the poor. It is only those with cars, who need good roads.
He patted the Nitish Kumar government for the improvement in law and order condition and said that earlier the only industry in Bihar was the kidnapping industry.
He narrated how he too started his career as a journalist, when in the name of electronic media we used to just have radio. Then by the time he became the Information and Broadcasting minister in late 1970s some Black and White televisions started coming in. Now we are in the age of information technology revolution and political debates between the top leaders can take place on the televisions.
He said Pundit Deendayal Upadhyaya used to say that a good voters always reward the good government and punish the bad one. As Nitish Kumar has done good work he deserves to be rewarded.
Readers comments(0)
26 October, 2010
By NDChronicle.Com Correspondent,
Patna: The former deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said that it would have been a much better idea had the Election Commission organized several open debates between Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and the Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Lalu Yadav and telecast it before the public.
Addressing public meetings in Hajipur and Begusarai he said that the media should be given an opportunity to put up questions in such debates.
Advani said that earlier roads were non-existent in Bihar as those who used to rule would say that there is no need for good roads for the poor. It is only those with cars, who need good roads.
He patted the Nitish Kumar government for the improvement in law and order condition and said that earlier the only industry in Bihar was the kidnapping industry.
He narrated how he too started his career as a journalist, when in the name of electronic media we used to just have radio. Then by the time he became the Information and Broadcasting minister in late 1970s some Black and White televisions started coming in. Now we are in the age of information technology revolution and political debates between the top leaders can take place on the televisions.
He said Pundit Deendayal Upadhyaya used to say that a good voters always reward the good government and punish the bad one. As Nitish Kumar has done good work he deserves to be rewarded.
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