NEW DELHI (TIP): Stung by a spate of cases of financial plundering of Indian Financial institutions by unscrupulous people like Vijay Mallya and more recently, Nirav Modi, government of India has decided to tighten noose around fugitive economic offenders. The Cabinet on Thursday, March 1, approved the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill that provides for confiscating all assets of absconding fraudsters and loan defaulters to recover dues.
The Union Cabinet meet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved setting up of a National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) as an independent regulator for the auditors.
The proposed fugitive law aims to impound and sell assets of Nirav Modi-type escapees with a view to quickly recover dues. It also will apply to defaulters who have an outstanding of Rs 100 crore or more and have escaped from the country.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Bill, which will be taken to Parliament for approval in the second half of the Budget session beginning March 5, defines a fugitive offender as someone against whom a court has issued an arrest warrant for a scheduled offence and who leaves or has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or refuses to return to India to face trial.
The new law is different from the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which also provides for confiscation of assets of economic offenders, he said.
Under PMLA, only profit of crime is confiscated and that too upon conviction. The new law extends to all assets irrespective of whether it is acquired as a result of crime or not, he said. “This is triggered by the offender being a fugitive.”
“A trial of fugitive will never be complete,” he said, reasoning why confiscation of assets has been provided for. The new law will apply “the moment warrant is issued (and) the court decides the man is not submitting,” he added.
It provides for an application being made before a special court for a declaration that an individual is a fugitive economic offender, attach and confiscate his properties in India and abroad, including benami property, and disposing them off to recover dues. It provides for disentitlement of the fugitive economic offender from defending any civil claim.
“If at any point of time in the course of the proceeding prior to the declaration, however, the alleged Fugitive Economic Offender returns to India and submits to the appropriate jurisdictional Court, proceedings under the proposed Act would cease by law,” an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting said.
The Bill has been proposed to address the lacunae in the present laws and lay down measures to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.
The Bill makes provisions for a Court (‘Special Court’ under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002) to declare a person as a Fugitive Economic Offender.
The law, though it was announced in the Budget for 2017-18, has been hastened after Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly defrauded state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 12,700 crore and left the country and are refusing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.
The new law will allow quicker recovery of dues through a special court from such absconding offenders.
“In the last Budget, there was an announcement that the government bring law to confiscate assets of fugitives under economic offences. That has been approved by (the) cabinet today,” Jaitley said.
He said the law will apply to new and old cases of persons who have fled the country to avoid prosecution.
All assets, not just proceeds of crime, will be confiscated of an offender fleeing the country, he said, adding that offender cannot pursue any civil case in the country.
“There have been several instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts, anticipating the commencement, or during the pendency, of criminal proceedings. The absence of such offenders from Indian courts has several deleterious consequences — first, it hampers investigation in criminal cases; second, it wastes precious time of courts of law, third, it undermines the rule of law in India,” the statement said.
Most such cases of economic offences involve non-repayment of bank loans thereby worsening the financial health of the banking sector in India. The existing civil and criminal provisions in law are not entirely adequate to deal with the severity of the problem and so the new law provide an effective, expeditious and constitutionally permissible deterrent to ensure that such actions are curbed.
The jurisdiction of NFRA for investigation of Chartered Accountants and their firms would extend to listed companies and large unlisted public companies, the thresholds for which shall be prescribed in the Rules. The Central Government can also refer such other entities for investigation where public interest would be involved.
WASHINGTON (TIP): President Donald Trump called for speedy and substantial changes to the nation’s gun laws, criticizing lawmakers in a White House meeting for being too fearful of the National Rifle Association to take action.
In a freewheeling, televised session on Wednesday, February 28, that stretched for an hour, Trump rejected both his party’s incremental approach and its legislative strategy that has stalled action in Congress. Giving hope to Democrats, he said he favored a “comprehensive” approach to addressing violence like the shooting at Florida school earlier this month, although he offered no specific details.
Instead, Trump appeared to support expanded background checks. He endorsed increased school security and mental health resources, and he reaffirmed his support for raising the age to 21 for purchasing some firearms.
Trump also mentioned arming teachers, and said his administration, not Congress, would ban bump-stock devices that enable guns to fire like automatic weapons.
“We can’t wait and play games, and nothing gets done,” Trump said as he opened the session with 17 House and Senate lawmakers.
“We want to stop the problems.”
The president has previously backed ideas popular with Democrats, only to back away when faced with opposition from his conservative base and his GOP (Grand Old Party) allies in Congress. It was not clear whether he would continue to push for swift and significant changes to gun laws, when confronted with the inevitable resistance from his party.
Still, the televised discussion allowed Trump to play the role of potential dealmaker, a favorite for the president. Democratic lawmakers made a point of appealing to the president to use his political power to persuade his party to take action.
“It is going to have to be you,” Senator Chris Murphy told Trump.
Trump’s call for stronger background checks, which are popular among Americans, has been resisted by Republicans in Congress and the NRA.
Republicans have instead been leaning toward modest legislation designed to improve the background system already in place. Trump made clear he was looking for more and accused lawmakers of being “petrified” of the gun lobby.
“Hey, I’m the biggest fan of the Second Amendment,” Trump said, adding that he told NRA officials it’s time to act.
“We have to stop this nonsense.”
The White House meeting came amid fresh public debate over gun laws, fueled by student survivors of the massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who have been meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The school reopened yesterday for the first time since a Valentine’s Day assault killed 17.
Gun legislation has lost momentum in Congress as Republican leaders showed little interest in pursuing stricter gun control laws.
Democrats said they were concerned Trump’s interest may fade quickly. After the meeting, Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters: “I’m worried that this was the beginning and the end of the president’s advocacy on this issue. The White House has to put some meat on the bones. The White House has to send a proposal to Congress.” The White House is expected to reveal more on the president’s plans for school safety this week, though it has not announced any plans.
That announcement will likely include goals for background checks and bump stocks, though whether age restrictions will be specifically addressed remains unclear, according to an administration official who sought anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump rejected the way Republican leaders in Congress have framed the debate, saying the House-backed bill linking a background check measure with a bill to expand gun rights by allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines was not the right approach.
The concealed carry measure is the gun lobby’s top legislative priority. But “you’ll never get it passed,” Trump told lawmakers, reminding them that Democratic senators, including some in the room, strongly oppose it.
Instead, he suggested Republicans should focus on the background check bill, then load it up with other gun control and safety measures.
Ever the marketer, Trump suggested that the leading bill adjusting the National Instant Criminal Background Check System—now known as “Fix NICS”—could use a new name. “Maybe you change the title, all right? The US Background Check Bill, or whatever,” Trump said.
The hour-long meeting with lawmakers was reminiscent of one in January on immigration, when he told lawmakers to come up with a good bill and he would take the “heat” from critics.
That effort, however, ended in failure in Congress amid Trump’s shifting views and priorities in the debate.
Among those at the White House yesterday were Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who are pushing their bill—which failed twice in the Senate after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting—to broaden background checks to include pre-purchase reviews at online and gun show sales.
Trump asked Toomey if his plan to expand background checks included raising the minimum age for young people to buy an assault weapon. Toomey told the president it did not.
“You know why,” Trump scoffed.
“Because you’re afraid of the NRA.”
The meeting came after one major retailer, Dick’s Sporting Goods, announced it was halting sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and banning the sale.
Meanwhile, US retail giant Walmart announced on Thursday that it was raising to 21 its minimum age to buy firearms and ammunition, the latest US company to recalibrate its stance on weapons after a deadly Florida school shooting.
“In light of recent events, we’ve taken an opportunity to review our policy on firearm sales. Going forward, we are raising the age restriction for purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 years of age,” it said in a statement.
Sridevi, one of India’s most celebrated actresses, has died according to multiple reports coming in.
The 54-year-old Bollywood icon was attending a family wedding in the Dubai, United Arab Emirates when she suffered a fatal heart attack, the reports said.
Family members confirmed that the actress had passed away on February 24th morning.
“It is true that Sridevi passed away. I just landed here (India), I was in Dubai and now I am flying back to Dubai,” her brother-in-law Sanjay Kapoor said.
Born Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Sridevi started acting at the age of four with a role in the Tamil language film, Thunaivan.
She went on to become a fixture of the Indian film industry, appearing in more than a 100 movies, spanning six decades, and picking up scores of awards for her performances.
Her starring role in the 1987 adventure film, Mr. India, earned her superstar status in Bollywood.
The film was the highest grossing Indian film that year and is widely regarded as a cult classic.
Her death caused shockwaves on social media, with Bollywood fans in India and abroad expressing their disbelief.
“I have no words. Condolences to everyone who loved #Sridevi . A dark day,” wrote Bollywood actress, Priyanka Chopra.
“A legendary actress who many of us grew up watching,” wrote Noreen Khan, a British Asian radio presenter.
NEW DELHI (TIP): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s India visit kicked off with rather a cold reception by government of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been very warm to visiting heads of state and government who he received warmly on arrival, sent in a junior minister to receive the visiting Prime Minister of Canada, ostensibly to convey the displeasure of his government for his assumed close proximity to Sikh separatists in Canada. And, on February 22, Canadian Prime Minister’s maiden India visit plunged into yet another controversy over a dinner invitation to a convicted Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner to India.
Swiftly moving to control damage, High Commissioner Nadir Patel cancelled the invite for the dinner, hosted for Trudeau, while the external affairs ministry said it will “ascertain” how Atwal entered India.
“The High Commission has rescinded Mr Atwal’s invitation. We do not comment of matters relating to the PM’s security,” the Canadian mission said in a statement.
Reacting to the controversy, Trudeau told reporters “Obviously we take this situation extremely seriously. The individual in question never should have received an invitation and, as soon as we found out, we rescinded the invitation immediately… The member of Parliament who included this individual has, and will, assume full responsibility for his actions.”
The Canadian PMO also said in a statement that Atwal was not part of Trudeau’s official delegation.
Atwal was convicted for trying to kill the then Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver in 1986.
When asked how Atwal got a visa, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the government is “ascertaining” details how he got a visa to enter India.
“There are two aspects of this. One is his presence at the event. I think this is something which should be addressed by the Canadian side. They have said that it was an oversight. And that is the reason the invitation for the reception tonight has been withdrawn.”
“On the visa part, I cannot immediately say how that happened. There are different ways of people coming into India, whether you are an Indian national, or OCI card holder. We are ascertaining details from our mission. We will have to see how this happened,” Kumar told reporters.
He also said that the fact the ministry issued a visa means that Atwal is not an Indian national.
On whether Atwal can be arrested in India, Kumar said there were cases against him for which he has served his sentence. The ministry is not aware whether there are cases against him in India, that has to be checked with the law-enforcement agencies, he added.
Union home ministry officials said Atwal no longer figured in the government’s blacklist of Sikh extremists.
The invite cancellation comes at a time when Trudeau’s pro-Khalistan approach is being criticized by many including Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who raised the issue with the Canadian prime minister during a meeting.
On his part, Trudeau had assured Singh that his country does not support separatism in India or elsewhere.
Reacting to the controversy involving him, Atwal told Canada’s Postmedia that he did not plan to attend the dinner as he was in Mumbai on business, The Vancouver Sun reported.
He also said it was unfair to raise his criminal conviction for shooting a visiting Punjabi cabinet minister on Vancouver Island in 1986 given how long ago the crime occurred.
Trump mulls arming teachers, increasing age for gun purchases
WASHINGTON (TIP): A week after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in which 17 students were killed, President Donald Trump hosted a listening session with a group of survivors, parents and teachers. On hand were Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Trump held an emotional, hour-long meeting with students who survived the Florida shooting and a parent whose child did not. He said arming teachers and other school staff could help prevent future mass shootings, voicing support for an idea backed by the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby.
Trump sat in the middle of a semi-circle in the White House State Dining Room. Photographers captured images of his handwritten note card with questions and responses such as: “What would you most want me to know about your experience?” and “I hear you.” Trump said he wants to hear suggestions for addressing the issue, saying, “After I listen, we’re going to get things done.”
Trump listened intently to ideas from about 40 people, including those from six students who survived the Florida shooting.
The students, many weeping, described the trauma of the shootings and pleaded that the government bring an end to gun violence.
The Republican president, who has championed gun rights and was endorsed by the NRA during the 2016 campaign, said he would move quickly to tighten background checks for gun buyers and would consider raising the age for buying certain types of guns.
He said he had “many ideas” and promised, “We’re going to be very strong on background checks.”
Trump spoke at length during the televised White House “listening session.
“If you had a teacher … who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,” he said, while acknowledging the proposal was controversial. Some of the meeting participants indicated support. Others were opposed.
Mark Barden, whose son was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, said his wife, Jackie, a teacher “will tell you that school teachers have more than enough responsibilities right now than to have to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life.”
“I don’t understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war,” said Sam Zeif, 18, sobbing after he described texting his family members during the attack. “Let’s never let this happen again, please, please.”
PyeongChang (TIP): One of the toughest things in sports is to be an Olympian. On an average, every four years only 5,000 to 7,000 sportsmen and women qualify to be Olympians and less than 1 per cent of them distinguish themselves and become Olympic medalists.
Naturally, it becomes much tougher to be both Winter and Summer Olympian. Though there are not many instances when athletes have competed in both summer and winter Olympic Games, yet few sportsmen and women, with their hard work and dedication, have scripted success stories in these mega sports events held within two years of each other.
Most recent case is of Kaillie Humphries and Phylicia George of Canada who won a bronze medal at PyeongChang.
Pita Taufatofua decided immediately after finding out he would be Tonga’s flag-bearer that he would wear traditional Tongan dress instead of the usual team uniform at the opening ceremony. Photo / courtesy TODAY
Who does not remember Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua who became a global sensation overnight when he arrived shirtless in freezing cold of the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 winter Olympic Games. He belongs to a select band of those athletes who have competed in successive summer and winter Olympic Games.
He competed in Taekwondo event in the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Rio and finished 114th in 15 km Cross-country skiing here.
It may be more than a dream for those who make it. It is the reality for a number of athletes from Canada who are competing here at PyeongChang. Two of them, Phylicia George and Seyi Smith, moved from track and field to Bobsleigh, an event that has also attracted some African athletes, including all-woman Nigerian team, to Winter Olympic Games.
“I started cross country skiing in 2017 and the training was perhaps the hardest I have ever done in my life,” Pita told media. “Races where we hope we could do well were getting cancelled and we had to book last minute one way ticket to the race where myself and German Madrazo of Mexico could finally qualify for PyeongChang 2018.”
Pita’s story is for those who after setting a target stay determined to achieve it.
“I was one of those people who thought I could sort of walk on and continue doing what I was doing before,” says Canadian track and field star Smith, who competed in the 4 x 100m relay at London 2012. “The overlap between track and bobsled is not as much as people think.”
Phylicia George, who competed in the 100m hurdles at London 2012 and Rio 2016, echoes Smith’s sentiment about bobsleigh being a whole lot more than just running fast on ice.
“The biggest thing was getting stronger, lifting a lot heavier,” says George. “I think I did not respect how much strength played a role and how much stronger I needed to get to be able to find the positions that I needed behind the sled.”
Seyi Smith, moved from track and field to Bobsleigh
Beyond the need for physical strength, Smith and George also needed to dip into their reserves of psychological strength to overcome the inevitable obstacles of adapting to a whole new athletic discipline.
For Smith, though, there was never serious thought given to abandoning the quest.
“Everybody warned me when I first started out, saying, ‘You better watch out, Seyi, this is not track, there is not the glamour, you are going to be working in the cold and lifting sleds,’’” says Smith.
“It has been quite the opposite. Every month I have liked it more and more. I told one of the guys that the only time I actually said that I was having fun out loud is right before we crashed in training. So, I don’t say it out loud anymore. But inside, I am still enjoying myself quite a bit.”
George fared a bit differently, having competed at the Summer Games less than two years ago, and still being active in track and field. She says getting started in bobsleigh was “very rough” and she definitely second-guessed her decision.
But having been recruited to bobsleigh by Kaillie Humphries, the two-time reigning Olympic champion in the two-women event, it was perhaps inevitable that George’s competitive spirit would eventually win the day.
“There definitely were days when I was like, ‘man, what am I doing out here?’” says George. “But seeing myself get better and being a part of a team was a really cool and interesting aspect for me, where I’m used to being an individual. … I am really happy I stuck with it and saw my potential through.”
Kaillie Humphries (right), and Phylicia George after winning bronze in women’s bobsleigh on Wednesday, February 21
It is not a usual combination that would end on Olympic podium. While one had two Olympic medals to her belt, she gets a new partner who happens to be veteran of two summer Olympic Games, and the new combination ends with Olympic Bobsleigh bronze.
The pair is none other than mentor Kaillie Humphries and her new partner Phylicia George, otherwise Hurdler in Track and Field.
For Kaillie it has been her third straight Olympic bobsleigh medal.
With this medal, Canada has taken its tally to 21 with nine golds and is currently placed at overall number three position.
Humphries and George had been in fifth place after the first two runs, but were just four-one hundredths of a second out of a podium position. They made up that ground in their third run, moving into third place with a cumulative time of 2:32.12. That gave them a buffer of 0.05 on fourth-placed Americans Jamie Greubel Poser and Aja Evans.
In the final run, Humphries steered the sled down the track in 50.77 seconds for a four-run total time of 3:22.89, ensuring a podium finish with just the two leading tandems to go.
Humphries came to PyeongChang as the two-time reigning Olympic champion. She is now the first Canadian bobsledder to win three Olympic medals.
For George, it is her first Olympic medal and it comes in her Winter Olympic debut after she competed at two Summer Games in the 100m hurdles, making the final at both London 2012 and Rio 2016. She began bobsleigh training late last summer and competed in her first international race just this past November. She and Humphries won World Cup gold and silver together in January.
Slovenian Ice Hockey player tests positive for doping
As the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games are inching towards a close, another case of violation of doping controls saw a Slovenia Ice Hockey player voluntarily accepting the charge and offered to quit the Olympic village.
The Anti-doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS ADD) at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games (OWG) announced that it has registered a new case.
Further to a request from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and based upon the agreement of the parties, the CAS ADD has issued the following decision:
Zika Jeglic, Ice Hockey, Slovenia, tested positive in-competition test with fenoterol (beta-2 agonist; specified substance). He accepted an anti-doping rule violation. As a consequence, the athlete is suspended from competing in the remainder of the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018; the athlete will leave the Olympic Village within 24 hours; the procedure will continue and the CAS ADD will issue a final award after the conclusion of the Games.
At the start of the second week of the Games, the Anti-doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, started procedure involving the athlete Aleksandr Krushelnitckii (mixed curling; OAR).
Though a date has been fixed for hearing, yet no further information is being provided at this point.
Earlier, a Japanese athlete also tested positive for doping and was suspended.
NORTH CAROLINA (TIP): The Rev. Billy Graham, counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died at age 99.
Graham died on February 21st morning at his home in Montreat, North Carolina.
He had been treated in recent years for cancer, pneumonia and other ailments. His wife, Ruth, died in 2007. Graham reached more than 200 million through his appearances and millions more through his pioneering use of television and radio.
Unlike many traditional evangelists, he abandoned narrow fundamentalism to engage broader society. His message and service to U.S. presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush earned him the nickname “America’s Pastor.” In 1995 his Evangelistic Association designated his son William Franklin Graham III as the ministry’s leader.
“Do you see a correlation in getting the innocent Hindus to develop anti-Muslims sentiments through the communal riots, leading into to complete takeover of the Uttar Pradesh? The likes of which were done here in the United States. Did Russia pay for those riots through the Sangh Parivar organizations to weaken the Indian Democracy? Both Modi and Trump have a special affection for Putin; and both of them want to emulate Putin”, says the author.
Deepa Seetharam, a reporter from Wall Street Journal called me and asked if I spoke in a rally at White House in September 2016? I said no, and then she reminded me that my name was a listed as a speaker.
Seetharam wrote in WSJ’s October 30, 2017, publication, “Representatives from the Facebook page “United Muslims of America” asked Mike Ghouse, an interfaith activist, to speak at a Sept. 3, 2016, event in Washington, D.C. billed as “a peaceful rally, to make mosques and their neighborhood safe!”
The group sent Mr. Ghouse placards they intended to use that included anti-Trump messages, causing him to back out, he said. “I said they should be more pluralistic, more inclusive because there’s no need to attack Trump,” Mr. Ghouse said. “They wouldn’t, so I didn’t go.” Obviously, I did not speak there either.
“Some events stoked public discord. At the rally in front of the Islamic center in Houston, about a dozen protesters gathered, some waving confederate flags or holding a sign that said “#WhiteLivesMatter,” according to video footage.”
Russians had an elaborate plan of pitting one American against the other, their end goal was to weaken democracies and create discord within each nation – their logic was; for Russia to shine, other countries have to be weakened, and Russia will stand out as the strongest nation in the world with a strong man running the nation. Putin is the Czar under his skin.
CNN reports that “80 times Trump talked about Putin.” Indeed, “Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump consistently broke from political orthodoxy in his effusive praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His glowing statements on Putin have become central in stoking the suspicion that he and his campaign were somehow connected to Russian interference in the election.”
Narendra Modi in Russia praises President Vladimir Putin’s family for sacrificing lives for the country. Modi praises Putin’s effort in convening 1st Tiger conservation Summit.
Both Modi and Trump think Putin is awesome, someone to be modeled after, as they want to dictate to the public.
Senator John McCain said in an interview that Putin is determined to prove to the world that Democracies don’t work. Indeed, that is what the fascists think about democracies – they get their devoted slaves to do whatever they want – attacking others as Sikularist and calling the news that goes against them as fake news. It’s amazing how many people buy that stuff in India and the United States.
Both Modi and Trump have resorted to divide and rule policies; they are determined to pit one Indian against the other in case of Modi, and one American against the other by Trump.
Russians staged “Anti-Trump rallies’ in the name of American Muslims. Perhaps, that may be the reason Trump is so anti-Muslim. Some of the rallies were held against Hillary to give the impression that it is the work of public, and some were devised against Trump just to make it look real.
What happens in India? Manohar Joshi writes in the Wire, “The fact that communal violence is rising in India is not hidden. Even the government acknowledges that there has been a steady uptick in communal incidents. In response to a question in parliament on Tuesday (February 6), minister of state Hansraj Ahir disclosed that as many as 111 people were killed and nearly 2,500 injured in 822 communal incidents in 2017, as compared to 751 incidents in 2016 that took the life of 97 people and 703 in 2016 when 86 were killed.”
Did the Russians stage these events? Did they pay these men to stage communal riots and murder people?
The fake encounters set up by the Gujarat police earned further support for BJP from an average innocent Hindu. Of course, Musharraf’s Kargil invasion strengthened the hold of BJP in power.
Putin failed in France and Germany but succeeded in Austria, India,United States and other nations.
Most Indians will resist the idea of an investigation; they simply do not want to believe that the Indian Elections may have been rigged. They are afraid of even exploring the possibilities. If they have lost their loved ones, they would want to know if Russia is paying the goons to create chaos. Is Yogi Adityanath paid agent of Russia? The purpose of the investigation is to find the truths if they are clean, that would be good news. What if they were not? Should they continue in governing India and continue to pit one Indian against the other?
Do you see a correlation in getting the innocent Hindus to develop anti-Muslims sentiments through the communal riots, leading into to complete takeover of the Uttar Pradesh? The likes of which were done here in the United States. Did Russia pay for those riots through the Sangh Parivar organizations to weaken the Indian Democracy? Both Modi and Trump have a special affection for Putin; both of them want to emulate Putin.
Neither Trump nor Modi was expecting to win; all the surveys, reports and polls indicated the win for Congress in India and Democrats in America. Both the men were surprised with the win, let alone land-slide wins.
The Russians publicized or financed at least 60 events – on all sides of most polarizing issues – before and after the 2016 election. What about India’s 2014 election?
Is it worth investigating Russian hand in the mess that is created in India? Should we save the nation from divisive men? These men will come and go in one or two terms, but it is the common men and women in India that will bear the brunt of their karma.
(The author is an Indian-American committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. As we learn to respect the “otherness” of others and accept the God-given uniqueness of each one of us, conflicts will fade and solutions emerge. He is the president of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC.)
COMMENTS
Dr. Ghouse’s article invited a quick reaction from a reader. Here is the unedited comment of Desh D Kapoor (desh.kapoor@gmail.com) received at 11.07 A.M., a few minutes after the article was published.
“This is just a piece of trashy writing based on nothing but conjectures and hyperbole! Amazed. In fact, if at all, with Cambridge Analytics (firm that helped Trump) working for Congress, 2019 will be where Foreign meddling (Mani Shankar Aiyar’s home meeting with Pakistani officials – a Trump Tower moment?!) will be tested.
“In fact, Modi has NEVER appealed on religious basis. Even the honest Pakistani commentators say that clearly (check Najam Sethi’s analysis post 2014). But how do you stop the ideologically compromised Indian Muslim commentators who would rather use religion for their own purpose than for the good of the community! Reminded of the Tata Nano move, where Mamata created issues and Modi brought that in to Gujarat. The villages near the plant were predominantly Muslim. And within 4-5 years, their land prices went up 25 times making everyone a millionaire. When indiscriminate development happens – there is no color. But who can explain to the ideologically compromised who still hold Mamata as the paragon of virtues as she keeps everyone poor.
So excuse me, but this Machiavellian piece is not even worth the paper it was probably published on.”
********
We received a rejoinder from Dr. Ghouse at 12.30 P.M. nearly an hour and a half after Mr. Desh D. Kapoor’s comment, which is being published here, without being edited.
Desh,
“I wrote the essay as an Indian, and not as a Muslim. I wish you learn to hold on to your communalism and see the validity of the argument.
“Thank God, none of your relatives or mine were killed by the extremists in Muzaffar Nagar and other riots, but you should be human enough to have empathy for those whose families have suffered. If Russia had paid the goons to lynch and harass fellow Indians, then don’t you think it should be investigated? Are you against finding the truth?
“The success of a nation hinges on its two solid feet; economic prosperity which brings sab ka Vikas, not just mitron ka Vikas, and the other is sab ka saath, every Indian should feel included – that is a cohesive India, where no Indian feels excluded or lives in apprehension. Both the economy and social fabric must remain intact, one will not happen without the other, otherwise what we will witness would a langda India and ultimately everyone will suffer. Injustice to one is injustice to all.
“Mani Shankar Aiyar’s meeting at his home has been clarified, you still give it a religious color to it and Modi was too eager to paint it for electoral gains.
“A true patriot is the one who criticizes the government incessantly to keep them on the toes, on the other hand, if you toe the line of the government and kiss-ass of the leaders, you are not serving the nation.
“We need to rise about the pettiness and start looking to every Indian as an Indian and be patriotic Indians who think of making India and all her people successful and included.”
Mike Ghouse
Mr. Desh D Kapoor commented at1.04 P.M. 02/19/ 2018. (Unedited)
“Mike, excuse me, but I don’t give you the right to create your own Halos and abuse others. From where I see, you are always talking as a Muslim and not as an Indian. Further, I don’t see you as a secular at all. I think this self-congratulatory stuff should end if you even want to hold any dialog. Just like ‘Allah is the ONLY God…” Or “Jesus is the ONLY Savior..” are a non-starter to any useful discussion and inherently Supremacist in ethos – your fetish for constructing your own halo and calling other communal is damning for any dialog and shows your real self. So, time to stop the tricks!
“Like I said, I have never ever seen Modi say anything even remotely communal. If you have any evidence, then talk. On the other hand, AIMIM, Congress, Samajwadi and Trinamool folks are rabidly communal.
“And that leads me to another point – criticizing someone’s Muslim appeasement is not communal. To be an apologist for Jihad and acting as apologist for communal people in India is inherently Hinduphobic.
“It is this realization that has led to the awakening in India. What you see in the US, is also something similar. Where the rabid apologists for Islamism in the US left are being trashed all over. The problem in the US is a little different – because the challenge to Islamic Supremacism (which is what you represent however you may try to camouflage) is actually now coming from the White Supremacists, because left has chosen to back one end of Supremacism (between White/Christian Supremacism and Islamic Supremacism).
“In India, most folks who feign Secularism like John Dayal and Taslim Rehmani – are either Christian fanatics (check his hinduphobic testimonies in US) or Islamic fanatics (check how Rehmani declares “We ruled over Hindus for 1000 years”). And, most common laymen who were not into any religious debate are now waking up to the war of boiling the frog slowly.
“So, nice try, Mike. but you cannot construct your own Halo and wear it.”
Dr. Mike Ghouse at 2.27 P.M. 02/19/2018 replied to Mr.Deepak. (Unedited)
“Desh,
“Here you go again, you are “assuming’ this, ” Just like ‘Allah is the ONLY God…” Or “Jesus is the ONLY Savior.”
“You also made an assumption I support ” AIMIM, Congress, Samajwadi and Trinamool folks are rabidly communal.” I don’t, they are indeed communal, except the Congress which has a few rats in it, but the party as such is secular.
“BJP, on the other hand, is very communal – of the 400 plus candidates they gave tickets to run as their member, there may be one or two Muslims. They found a way to dupe innocent Indians – play the religion card, they fooled once, but could not do it again, but they staged communal riots, ghar wapasi and other tricks to pit one Indian against the other. You are a journalist, track down the history – the communal riots have occurred with the clear presence of RSS in the town, where they are not, there are fewer clashes.
“Let me be clear – the problem is not with Hinduism or Islam, Hindus or Muslims, it is the extremist positions that BJP has taken with their fascist political ideology – they want to force what you eat and what you believe down the throats.
“Modi’s fake reference to Pakistan collusion was communal politics, he generated ill-will among Hindus by the way he presented Mani Shankar Aiyar’s meeting
Modi wore every headgear wherever he went but clearly refused to wear a cap given by a Muslim.
“Would you agree that a cohesive India is what we need to work for – that requires that everyone minds his own business, and every Indian would be free to breathe, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever he or she wants to. Is that the India you want?
“Mike Ghouse”
Mr. Desh D. Kapoor countered at 2.47 P.M. 02/19/2018 . (Unedited)
“Mike, Again – lots of assumptions and lots of “I am Good- You are bad” attitude.
I never said that you support those parties. I said they are communal because they practice appeasement and their politics is purely casteist and communal.
There is no reason to believe that BJP is communal. Looking at candidates purely from religious angle is a sickness and something that plays along with Jinnah’s idea of Equal representation which caused partition. So, not looking at representatives from their religious affiliation is the right and secular way.
Ghar Wapasi is Communal and Conversions / Evangelism is Secular? Really?!! like i said stop the tricks, please.
RSS and riots: I have read about the riots pretty carefully and I don’t know of a single evidence to say that RSS started any riot.
ban on Beef is a law that BJP did NOT create. It was and you are trying to say that someone should not follow the law? Are you for lawlessness? I think you need to clear your stand please.
Reference to Pakistan for Collusion by Congress – was “Communal politics”?!! Wow, Really?!! So you equate Pakistani with Indian Muslims? From how I and most people saw it was – Pakistan means PAKISTAN.. the COUNTRY! Period! You see how your slip shows through? :)
“I want a cohesive India. But like MLK Jr said “I want White man to be my brother, not Brother in law”. From where most Hindus see now – Kalma and the Creed are at the root of Communal violence in India and around the world. Change the supremacism and peace will follow. if you try to hood-wink and play such tricks and play vote bank politics (how many Muslims candidate type), then the vote bank of today will go against that politics.
“I want an India where development is indiscriminate and blind to the religion or caste. Where transformation is at the grass root. And that is where Modi is working on. So, I will back him to back the India that is the future of the world. Not one of Congress or pseudo-Seculars who see Muslim communalism in references to Pakistan. Amazed honestly!!!”
The Indian Panorama invites readers to participate in the debate.
In to the second week of competitions in biting windy cold, the 23rd Winter Olympic Games in the mountainous PyeongChang in South Korea are still without any sign of Punjabi flavor. Known for their quick adaptability and tremendous corporal endurance, the global Punjabi community, has not taken fancy to winter sports.
Canada is a strong contender for gold medals in Ice Hockey, both in men’s and women’s sections. But neither their men nor their women team has any player of Punjabi origin. Look at Canada’s men’s field hockey team. It is never complete without a Punjabi boy in it. Why not in Ice Hockey?
Interestingly, no other sporting event appears complete without Punjabi “tadka”. Though nearly 3000 athletes from 95 nations are here, there is hardly any one of Punjabi origin. There are four South Asians, including
India’s Shiva Keshavan, competing here. Besides Shiva, born to Indian father and Italian mother, there is Jagdish Singh in cross country skiing, representing India. And then there are two Pakistanis – Mohammed Karim and Syed.
If one looks at track record of Punjabi immigrants, they have done very well, making a mark for themselves, in the new countries of their residence. From trade, business, industry, agriculture, education, technology and politics, besides others, they have scripted many success stories.
Punjabis are credited with taking field hockey across all five continents but coming to Ice Hockey, they appear to be very late starters.
Last month, when Canada’s most successful and celebrated woman hockey player, Hayley Wickenheiser, came to India build a women’s hockey team, she went to Let and Ladakh and not Punjab. She was there for almost a fortnight and hopes to take Indian women’s Ice Hockey team to Canada to participate in a Hockey Festival.
With a mandate to make the Wickenheiser Women World Hockey Festival (Wickfest) tournament accessible to teams even in the most remote parts of the world, Hayley Wickenheiser considers the progress of humanity as a social responsibility and she is using hockey as the medium through which to unite the world and bring people together though sport. With the facilitation of Team India’s participation in WickFest, she and her team are tapping in to a nation which boasts a population of 1.324 billion and uniting it with a community that is among the largest visible minority presences here in Canada. This initiative also allows Canada to lead by example as a country that sets the global bar for equality and empowerment of women.
But when we come to men, Punjabi immigrants, who have made a mark in winter sports in general and Ice Hockey in particular, are countable on finger tips.
Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi, for example, has made Harnarayan Singh a popular name not only in Canada but worldwide.
Singh, whose great-grandfather one was one the first Sikhs to immigrate to Canada, says he’d always dreamed of becoming a hockey announcer.
“You know, I was obsessed with the sport, and you know, growing up in a small town in southern Alberta where there weren’t any other visible minorities, hockey was the icebreaker for me amongst my classmates,” he recalls. Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi has helped spread the sport in the country’s large Punjabi community. After English and French, it’s the next most common language in Canada.
“People find that they have more camaraderie amongst their colleagues at work because they’re able to participate in those conversations about last night’s game,” he told an interviewer, saying “We also have amongst the immigrant families, and the grandkids born here have a natural inclination to liking hockey. And because of the broadcasts now in Punjabi, they’re able to understand the game and three generations are watching hockey together, it’s a tradition now in their family household.”
Harnarayan Singh attended broadcasting school in Canada to become a hockey announcer.
“It’s amazing, I mean it proves that it’s not just fun and entertaining, it’s bridging the gap between immigrants and their new country, and it’s a great way to show how multiculturalism can work,” he says.
Like Singh, many in sports hope to see Punjabi players in the NHL as they have done in NBL. Minorities of any kind are a rarity in typical North American sports,but there is already an uptick of young Punjabi kids signing up for ice hockey, basketball and baseball. There is Jhujhar Khaira, a 24-yearold 6’4″ Punjabi boy playing for Edmonton Oliers as a Left winger. Another youngster Akash Bains is also knocking at doors of NHL after playing for Everett Silver Tips Hockey Club. S. Khaira is another Punjabi youngster on the horizon. Incidentally they all come from British Columbia.
Will 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing see Punjabi “tadka”?
ABU DHABI (TIP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Saturday as the two sides signed five agreements including a historic pact awarding a consortium of Indian oil companies a 10% stake in offshore oil concession.
Modi, who arrived in Abu Dhabi from Jordan on the second leg of his three nation tour, was received by Mohammed Bin Zayed and other members of the Royal family at the airport.
The Prime Minister thanked the Crown Prince for the special gesture of receiving him at the airport and said his visit will have a positive impact on India-UAE ties.
An MOU between Indian Consortium (OVL, BPRL & IOCL) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) was signed for the acquisition of a 10% participating interest in the Abu Dhabi’s offshore Lower Zakum Concession, a statement issued by the Indian embassy here said. The concession will be for 40 years from 2018 to 2057. 60% of the participating interest will be retained by ADNOC and remaining 30% will be awarded to other international oil companies, the statement said.
“This is the first Indian Investment in upstream oil sector of UAE, transforming the traditional buyer seller relationship to a long-term investor relationship,” it added. To cooperate in the field of manpower, India and the UAE signed an MoU that aims to institutionalise the collaborative administration of contractual employment of Indian workers in the Gulf country.
Under the MoU, both the sides will work to integrate their labour related eplatforms for ending the existing malpractices, combat trafficking and organise collaborative programs for education and awareness of contractual workers. An MoU for technical cooperation in railways was also signed between the two sides. The MoU aims at cooperation in infrastructure sector especially railways.
“The MoU will facilitate development of joint projects, knowledge sharing, joint research and technology transfer.
The MoU envisages formation of a Joint Working Group for institutionalising the cooperation mechanism,” the statement said.
To deepen bilateral cooperation in the field of finance, an MoU between Bombay Stock Exchange and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange was also signed. It aims at enhancing cooperation between both the countries in financial services industry. The MoU would facilitate investment in financial markets by investors from both the countries. An MoU between government of Jammu and Kashmir and DP World was also signed to establish multi-modal logistics park and hub in Jammu comprising warehouses and specialised storage solutions.
The author of Positive Thinking & Happiness prescribes a recipe to enjoy a harmonious life, day after days.
In order to face the stresses of life and emerge a winner in challenging situations, it becomes important for us to feed our minds with loving positive thoughts and nourish the body and soul with meditation. Wisdom lies in opening the heart and mind and embracing all that comes with life. But where does this wisdom come from? Our brains! How do we feed that wisdom into our brains? For me, the answer has been by practicing positive thinking. Having positive thoughts and being optimistic leads to relaxation and happiness in life.
The old proverb – Practice makes perfect – applies very aptly to our health and wellness, which is governed by our brains. If we learn to control our minds, we can guide our brains to perceive positive in everything, including the positive and negative situations. Negative emotions create havoc in our body. In order to be disease-free, we need to send positive messages to our bodies so that our brain-body connection can create a path of relaxation and let the flow of energy within our bodies run smoothly without any bumps. To move forward, we need to concentrate on positive thoughts and emotions, and break away from the thoughts that tax our nervous system.
To think positive, the mind has to be under an individual’s control, rather than controlling the individual. We control our minds. In any kind of situation, our thoughts are flooded with positive and negative emotions. Concentrating on the positive emotions leads to more self-control. When we are more in control of our emotions we are more stable emotionally, our senses are more alert, and we can look at things more positively. The mind can be trained through meditation to have faith in the positive energy and spiritual power within each one of us; it can be trained to look at the positive side of situations and individuals alike. What comes out of this training is a HAPPY and RELAXED person. When we are in a positive and happy state of mind, the positive energy itself guides all our life decisions and paves the way to success. The power lies within us. We use only one percent of the powerful energy we are bestowed with; the rest remains unused. The more we use this positive energy, the more power we get to control our thoughts and guide them towards positive outcomes. If we connect to positive energy by practicing relaxation techniques and meditation, we can attract good fortune.
Life is a journey filled with joys and sorrows. Throughout life we come across different and difficult situations which we cannot simply ignore. We have to look at what makes us happy and adopt ways of life that will lead to a satisfying and fulfilling journey. Would one lay more emphasis on that which leads to negative emotions and makes life miserable, or would one search for how to deal with the situation in a way that will solve our problems and help us avoid these in the future? Once we tackle a stressful situation, it will no more be a challenge for us. The secret lies in accepting the challenging situation and gearing our thoughts towards positivism so that we are more in control of ourselves. Only then we can enhance problem solving skills to make rewarding decisions.
Advantages of Thinking Positive
Individuals who think positive are able to deal better with stress since they approach every situation with an optimistic attitude.
By thinking positive, we gain insight into optimal living, which optimizes our ability to deal with challenging situations and enhance positivism in all spheres of life.
Positive thoughts help us understand our emotions and psychological concepts at a deeper level.
Increase in positive emotions leads to well-being and helps us to live life to the fullest by always being happy.
Positive thinking leads to mental, physical, spiritual, and financial wellness and helps in acquiring a better understanding of individual and cultural differences.
We keep learning throughout our life; with learning we acquire new traits and characteristics that further nourish our consciousness and soul. Be it joy or sorrow, every human being experiences the emotions involved. When challenging life situations arise, we have to make choices to deal with those situations. If we give in, we have already failed the test. If we accept the challenging situation, look at the positive and move forward to tackle it, we have half won the battle.
Acceptance
Accepting situations and people is the first step towards problem solving. If we learn to accept both the joys, and sorrows of life, we will be in a better position to maintain a balance in our lives. When distressed, we should gather our thoughts and devise strategies which will lead to positive outcomes.
Why fret when it will negatively affect our health and only lead to regret?
It helps to surrender to life itself by accepting and being compassionate in healing the wounds it gives us. If we treat the wounds with love, the healing will be faster.
We build our own personalities based on past experiences. What and how we think, feel and act become lasting traits and build our unique personalities. If our love is stronger than our negative feelings, we will develop a loving personality.
Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you have decided to look beyond the imperfections.
– Gerard Way
Forgiveness
Forgiving others and ourselves is the next step to take after acceptance. Almost all our emotional experiences involve others. Many times, knowingly or unknowingly, we hurt our loved ones and also get hurt ourselves by others. In instances like this, learning to forgive heals the emotional wounds faster. Forgiveness takes us closer to achieving fulfillment and connecting further to the positive flow of energy inside us.
To err is human; to forgive, divine
– Alexander Pope
When we ourselves make mistakes, we should not hold grudges against others. I believe, by forgiving others, we forgive ourselves.
Optimism
The best way to keep ourselves going and deal with the stresses before they overcome us, is to look at the positive in every situation. See the good in every situation and be hopeful of the best results. Sometimes, it becomes very difficult to look at something positive in a very stressful situation. In cases like that, we need to remember that dwelling on the negatives and worrying too much about the outcomes will only weaken us and lead to illness and disease. If we think and look for the positive in this kind of stressful situation, we are sending a positive message throughout our body as well.
For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
– Sir Winston Churchill
Train the Brain
One of the greatest treasures humans have is the power of thinking. We have no control over what life throws at us, but we do have control over how we receive and respond to it. What guides us in that? Our BRAIN! The brain has to be trained to form positive habits by regular practice. To form a new habit, we need to break the old ones. In order to break the old habits, we have to practice the new habit for at least a month or so, to bring about a permanent change in our behavior and make the new habits a part of our lifestyle.
We can shape our lives to a great extent if we train our brains to practice positive thinking techniques regularly. Practice mindfulness, meditation and relaxation; the more we practice, the more relaxed and accepting we will become. It should become a way of life. The practice should be regular; if we stop, our mind might start wandering again. Just as we eat, drink and sleep regularly, we need to meditate as well so that we can control our minds and relax our brains, which in turn will relax our bodies and pave the way to mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Sometimes, even with regular practice, our minds might wander. Being human, we go through emotions all the time. The success of meditation lies in not becoming desperate and vulnerable, but instead continuously practicing relaxation techniques to calm and control the negative emotions, and enhance positive emotions. When faced with challenges, we need to accept them, control our emotions and work towards achieving positive outcomes.
Creativity
Being creative is the ability to be innovative by conceiving an idea from our imagination. Humans are gifted with the power of thinking. By using the ability to invent ideas with our fertile brains, we can use our imagination and knowledge to come up with unique concepts. For example, if you like to cook, create innovative delicacies by trying new cooking techniques.
Making Dreams and Thoughts Come True
We all dream about achieving success in different spheres of life, but how many of us actually put these dreams and thoughts into action? Success comes to those who believe in fulfilling their dreams and working towards achieving their goals. Achieving fulfillment of dreams is easier than we think. In my experience, it is a simple process:
The first step is action. First and foremost, in order to tread the path of dream fulfillment, put thoughts into action. Get out of bed every morning with the thought: In order to achieve my goals, I need to first wake up and start working towards putting my dreams into action.
The second step is patience and persistence; keep working diligently till success is achieved, and even after you have reached your goals.
Motivation and Leadership
Leadership is a quality and process where an individual comes up with an idea, leads the way to action, convincing other people to follow. The leader, the person who starts the process takes the lead and influences others to follow, working together towards the attainment of a common goal or objective.
Most of us have come across situations in life where while in a group, someone poses a question to the group. Initially, people in the group might be reluctant to answer, but as soon as one person answers, others follow. The leader is this person who put his thinking into action and led the way to the discussion. We all have ideas, however, the leader is the person who puts that idea into action and leads the path, making way for others to tread.
Self Esteem
Abraham Maslow, a famous psychologist, came up with a pyramid where he placed needs according to hierarchy: physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness, self-esteem and self-actualization (Myers). The fourth need in this pyramid, self-esteem is the feeling of regard, approval, and respect for the self which may depend a lot on an individual’s environment. When we are surrounded by people who love and admire us, a feeling of love and belongingness is generated, which further raises our morale. When our self-esteem is high, awareness of self brings joy and freedom into our lives. Our focus and concentration increase, and we become more involved in what we do, thus achieving success in academic, home, social and occupational fields.
About the author
Dr. Manjeet Kaur PhD (Psychology) is an author of the book “Positive Thinking and Happiness” which is available at Amazon. She is a career consultant, speaker, trainer, professor, wellness consultant and an internationally known speaker on optimal wellness, happiness, laughter/humor, stress management, weight management, and positive thinking. She has spent the last 15 years researching, reading, learning, mastering and applying stress management, happiness, and positive thinking techniques to understand human wellness and helped clients to achieve their fullest potential by practicing these techniques. Dr. Kaur teaches Psychology at various colleges and universities in USA and is well versed in developing specific need-based programs for individual client requirements. Dr. Manjeet is a frequent speaker on a wide array of health issues, and is frequently featured in print, radio, and television interviews in India and the United States.
White Supremacy Group Claims Nikolas Cruz as Member
Indrajit S Saluja
PARKLAND, FLA (TIP): It was a horrific sight at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School here on February 14, the day of love, with 17 young students shot dead and another fourteen wounded, five with life-threatening injuries, according to hospital officials, in the worst shooting in a school in 2018. The shooting suspect-Nikolas Cruz- is said to be an expelled student of the school. Cruz used a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle which, according to officials, he had bought legally to snuff out precious lives of students from the school he had been to. A pall of gloom descended on Parkland which once was described as the most peaceful place with a small community.
The authorities said the AR-15 rifle that Cruz used in the attack was purchased legally, at Sunrise Tactical Supply in Florida, according to a federal law enforcement official. “No laws were violated in the procurement of this weapon,” said Peter J. Forcelli, the special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Miami. In Florida, an AR-15 is easier to buy than a handgun.
The 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, set off a fire alarm to draw students out of classrooms shortly before the day ended. The suspect was taken into custody without incident about a mile away from the school. He was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday, February 15. He appeared before a judge in Broward County via video conference, clad in an orange jumpsuit and shackled around his hands, feet and waist.
After Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2012 in which 20 first graders and six adults were killed, more than 400 people have been shot in over 200 school shootings. Since then, there have been at least 239 school shootings nationwide. In those incidents, 438 people were shot, 138 of whom were killed.
The data used here is from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that began tracking school shootings in 2014, about a year after Sandy Hook.
A white nationalist group claims the suspected gunman as a member.
According to The Associated Press, Jordan Jereb, the leader of Republic of Florida, said that his group wants Florida to become its own white ethno-state. He said his group holds “spontaneous random demonstrations” and tries not to participate in the modern world.
Jereb also said Cruz had “trouble with a girl” and he believed the timing of the attack, carried out on Valentine’s Day, wasn’t a coincidence.
The latest tragedy has made many demand stricter gun control laws. They are convinced that President Trump’s argument that a good man with gun can tackle a bad man with gun is not a solution to the problem. It remains to be seen how the movement to have some kind of gun control gets the support of lawmakers, many of whom depend heavily on National Rifle association (NRA) money.
Here are some Republican politicians sorrowing the shootings, who took money from NRA.
Marco Rubio: ‘Today is that terrible day you pray never comes’ – $3,303,355 reportedly accepted from NRA
Cory Gardner: ‘I am heartbroken for the students… in this tragedy’ – $3,879,064
Rob Portman: ‘Heartbreaking news out of Florida. Jane and I send our prayers’ – $3,061,941
Bill Cassidy: ‘Praying for the students, teachers and first responders’ – $2,861,047
Thom Tillis: ‘Tragic news out of Florida. Please keep the victims… in your thoughts and prayers’ – $4,418,012
Ken Buck: ‘Praying today for the students and all those impacted’ – $800,544
With lawmakers in the pocket of NRA, how do we expect a legislation which hurts NRA?
“The complacency that caused Japan and South Korea to lose their edge at the end of the last millennium is about to afflict India. This is not to denigrate the talent base in the Subcontinent – Indian digital expertise remains world-class. It is a question of attitude, an unwillingness to face the reality of the industrial shift that is coming.”
There are literally $100bn opportunities elsewhere in the digital space that India has the expertise and capacity to exploit – yet it shows no evidence that it is likely to take them. When I talk to Indian CEOs, they acknowledge the threats of digital transformation, and can see the opportunities for diversification. Yet they turn away from our conversations to focus on closing another legacy outsourcing deal – fiddling while Bangalore burns. (MINT)
You can see it in their faces, hear it in their voices. The Japanese and Koreans – on top of the world in the 1980s and 1990s – want the good old days back. When I meet Japanese and Korean companies these days I find their executives among the most attentive and determined of any in the world. Years of economic stagnation does that to you. Who doesn’t want to escape from a malaise? Willing alone won’t bring back the boom times – and I’m not yet ready to forecast a Northeast Asian renaissance. What I am ready to do is predict South Asian retrogression.
The complacency that caused Japan and South Korea to lose their edge at the end of the last millennium is about to afflict India. This is not to denigrate the talent base in the Subcontinent – Indian digital expertise remains world-class. It is a question of attitude, an unwillingness to face the reality of the industrial shift that is coming.
Much of India’s IT wealth comes from western outsourcing of IT services – managing new and old world corporate IT systems and mainframes upon which they run. Yet about a decade ago, the balance of computing power started to change to favor individual users.
With the advent of tablets, apps and cloud computing, users have direct access to better technology than their IT departments can provide them. They can download cheap, elegant, and powerful apps on their smartphones that make their corporate systems look primitive. These modern-day apps do not require internal teams of people doing software development and maintenance—they are user-customizable and can be built by anyone with basic programming skills. And with secure cloud computing, companies are doing away with servers, so corporate data centers are shrinking while Amazon, Google, and Microsoft’s data centers expand.
Gone are the multi-billion dollar outsourcing deals that the Indian outsourcers celebrated every month.
You can see the signs of stagnation in the layoffs that IT companies are making and in the slowdown in their hiring. You can see the agony in the faces of engineering graduates who are not getting job offers. Fortunately, the western contracts that are keeping the Indian IT sector alive will not disappear overnight. Company IT infrastructure takes decades to deconstruct and corporate IT strategy moves at the rate of molasses. There will be business for Indian IT for a few years more. But the eventual outcome is set, no matter how much they would like to wish it away: today’s IT industry will suffer a steep decline.
The same technology advances that have decimated the Indian advantage, however, offer a new opportunity that could allow the Indian information technology sector to reinvent itself, even gain the support of Americans who have been rallying against it: to help America modernize its aging infrastructure and enable it to bring manufacturing back from China. Technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and inexpensive and powerful sensors enable development of smart cities and automated factories and a wholesale upgrading of national infrastructure. Artificial Intelligence technologies can help analyses massive amounts data and improve decision making in every industry sector.
There are literally $100bn opportunities elsewhere in the digital space that India has the expertise and capacity to exploit, yet it shows no evidence that it is likely to take them. Instead, many Indian executives seem happy to plough on with more of the same, listening to the warnings without changing course. They claim to be using artificial intelligence tools and entering new markets—but these are just press releases, for marketing purposes. There is a fundamental lack of understanding of the new technologies and appreciation of the emerging market opportunities.
The dramatic changes to strategy needed to take advantage of the new opportunities and the large-scale retraining of the workforce are not happening. What really worries me is that India IT companies face becoming the Kodaks of tomorrow – anchored to an outdated business model that is destroyed by disruption.
What I have been teaching executives of companies in Japan and Korea as well as the US and Europe is that to survive the disruptions that advancing technologies are about to cause, and to take advantage of the new trillion-dollar opportunities, companies need to disrupt themselves. They need to do to themselves what startups from other industries are about to do to them: take the offensive with new technologies and business models and enter new markets. They need to challenge the status quo and question the past; behave like startups rather than lumbering giants.
When I talk to Indian CEOs, they acknowledge the threats of digital transformation, and can see the opportunities for diversification. Yet they turn away from our conversations to focus on closing another legacy outsourcing deal – fiddling while Bangalore burns.
(The author is a Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University at Silicon Valley and author of The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future)
Law Enforcement Dismantles Forum Used to Victimize Millions in all 50 States and Worldwide in One of the Largest Cyberfraud Enterprises Ever Prosecuted by the Department of Justice
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (TIP) – A federal indictment was unsealed on February 7th charging 36 individuals for their alleged roles in the Infraud Organization, an Internet-based cybercriminal enterprise engaged in the large-scale acquisition, sale, and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifiable information, financial and banking information, computer malware, and other contraband.
Following the return of a nine-count superseding indictment by a Las Vegas, Nevada, grand jury alleging racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, federal, state, local, and international law enforcement authorities arrested 13 defendants from the United States and six countries: Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Kosovo and Serbia.
Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson of the District of Nevada, and Acting Executive Associate Director Derek N. Benner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made the announcement.
“Today’s indictment and arrests mark one of the largest cyberfraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan. “As alleged in the indictment, Infraud operated like a business to facilitate cyberfraud on a global scale. Its members allegedly caused more than $530 million in actual losses to consumers, businesses, and financial institutions alike—and it is alleged that the losses they intended to cause amounted to more than $2.2 billion. The Department of Justice refuses to allow these cybercriminals to use the perceived anonymity of the Internet as a shield for their crimes. We are committed to working closely with our international counterparts to identify, investigate, and bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes, wherever in the world they operate.”
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is steadfastly committed to protecting America’s national and economic security,” said U.S. Attorney Elieson. “Criminals cannot hide behind their computer screens. We are working vigilantly with American and international law enforcement partners to identify and disrupt transnational cybercrime organizations, such as the Infraud Organization.”
“Criminal cyber organizations like Infraud threaten not just U.S. citizens but people in every corner of the globe,” said HSI Acting Executive Associate Director Benner. “The actions of computer hackers and identity thieves not only harm countless innocent Americans, but the threat they pose to our financial system and global commerce cannot be overstated. The criminals involved in such schemes may think they can escape detection by hiding behind their computer screens here and overseas, but as this case shows, cyberspace is not a refuge from justice. HSI will continue working with our law enforcement partners in this country and around the world to aggressively target cyber thieves to ensure the perpetrators face the full weight of the law.”
According to the indictment, the Infraud Organization was created in October 2010 by Svyatoslav Bondarenko aka “Obnon,” aka “Rector,” aka “Helkern,” 34, of Ukraine, to promote and grow interest in the Infraud Organization as the premier destination for carding—purchasing retail items with counterfeit or stolen credit card information—on the Internet. Under the slogan, “In Fraud We Trust,” the organization directed traffic and potential purchasers to the automated vending sites of its members, which served as online conduits to traffic in stolen means of identification, stolen financial and banking information, malware, and other illicit goods. It also provided an escrow service to facilitate illicit digital currency transactions among its members and employed screening protocols that purported to ensure only high quality vendors of stolen cards, personally identifiable information, and other contraband were permitted to advertise to members.
According to the indictment, Infraud members held defined roles within the organization’s hierarchy. “Administrators” managed day-to-day operation of and strategic planning for the organization, approved and monitored membership, and meted out punishments and rewards to members. “Super Moderators” oversaw and administered specific subject-matter areas within their expertise. “Moderators” moderated one or two specific sub-forums within their areas of subject-matter expertise. “Vendors” sold illicit products and services to Infraud members. Finally, “VIP Members” and “Members” used the Infraud forum to gather information and to facilitate their criminal activities. As of March 2017, there were 10,901 registered members of the Infraud Organization.
During the course of its seven-year history, the Infraud Organization inflicted approximately $2.2 billion in intended losses, and more than $530 million in actual losses, on a wide swath of financial institutions, merchants, and private individuals, and would have continued to do so for the foreseeable future if left unchecked.
The defendants indicted for their alleged roles in the Infraud Organization’s transnational racketeering conspiracy include:
Svyatoslav Bondarkeno of Ukraine;
Amjad Ali aka “Amjad Ali Chaudary,” aka “RedruMZ,” aka “Amjad Chaudary,” 35, of Pakistan;
Roland Patrick N’Djimbi Tchikaya aka “Darker,” aka “dark3r.cvv,” 37, of France;
Miroslav Kovacevic aka “Goldjunge,” 32, of Serbia;
Frederick Thomas aka “Mosto,” aka “1stunna,” aka “Bestssn,” 37, of Alabama;
Mena Mouries Abd El-Malak aka “Mina Morris,” aka “Source,” aka “Mena2341,” aka “MenaSex,” 34, of Egypt; and
John Doe #6 aka “Goldenshop,”aka “Malov.”
In addition, Novak and “Goldenshop” are charged with three counts each and “Deputat” and Musliu one count each of possession of 15 or more counterfeit and unauthorized access devices.
The superseding indictment is the result of an investigation conducted by the Las Vegas Office of Homeland Security Investigations; the Henderson, Nevada, Police Department; the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section; and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada.
The international operation to dismantle the Infraud Organization would have been impossible without the significant efforts and timely cooperation of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center; Interpol Rome; Interpol Tirana; the Italian National Police (Postal and Communications Police); the Australian Federal Police and the International Crime Cooperation Central Authority, Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department; the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, Regional Security Office at U.S. Embassy Tirana, Albania; the City of London Police, DCPCU; the French Ministry of Justice, the Paris Prosecutor, L’Office Central de Lutte contre la Criminalité liée aux Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication; the judicial and police authorities of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; the Directorate for Organized Crime Investigation, Sector for Cyber Crime Investigation; the Basic Prosecution Office Pristina, Kosovo; and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kosova, Department for International Legal Cooperation and the Special Prosecution Office for High-Tech Crime of the Republic of Serbia.
The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Trial Attorneys Kelly Pearson and Chimaobim Nwachukwu of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad W. McHenry of the District of Nevada are prosecuting the case.
WASHINGTON DC (TIP): A Democratic lawmaker is taking aim at his Republican colleagues following reports that White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter was able to continue to work in the West Wing despite being denied a permanent security clearance due to domestic abuse allegations made against him.
In a letter released on Thursday, February 8, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, slammed Republicans for stonewalling his efforts to obtain information about the security clearance process at the White House.
“If you had agreed to any of our previous requests for information on these matters, the White House would have been required to answer key questions about why Mr. Porter was denied a final security clearance, who at the White House was aware of this information, and how Mr. Porter was allowed to remain in his position,” Cummings wrote in his letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina.
“In this and many, many other areas, it appears that the Oversight Committee has constructed a wall around the White House in order to prevent any credible oversight whatsoever,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for Gowdy declined to comment on Cummings’ letter.
Porter, who as White House Staff Secretary controlled access to the president and the flow of information into the Oval Office, resigned Wednesday after his two ex-wives went public with multiple allegations of domestic violence.
According to reports, Porter served in the White House without a full security clearance. Sources tell ABC News that senior White House officials were aware of the allegations against Porter while he worked in the Oval Office.
Cummings has repeatedly pressed Gowdy to subpoena the White House – and asked the White House directly – for information regarding the security clearances Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. He and other Democratic leaders have asked the administration to explain the status of Kushner’s clearance given reported omissions on his security clearance questionnaire.
Cummings recently revealed that the Department of Defense approved 165 interim security clearances over a three-year period, giving access to the government’s sensitive and secret information to people who later failed background checks.
Cummings is not alone in calling for a congressional inquiry into questions about Porter’s security clearance. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-New York, who served as President Bill Clinton’s White House staff secretary and as a deputy staff secretary, wrote to Gowdy on Wednesday asking for an investigation.
“Mr. Porter’s history made him a primary target for blackmail while serving in the role,” he wrote. “Allowing him to handle sensitive national security documents without conducting a background check is cause for bipartisan concern.”
NEW DELHI (TIP): Amid claims and counter-claims by various Hindu and Muslim leaders over the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, the Supreme Court on Feb 8 refused to be drawn into religious arguments, saying it was only a property dispute.
“We are treating it only as a land dispute. There are appeals and crossappeals,” a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said after an advocate, who wanted to intervene in the matter, said it involved sentiments of 100 crore Hindus.
The Bench chose to keep pending all intervention applications filed by those who were not parties to the dispute before the Allahabad High Court. “We are not allowing the intervention application… We are not dismissing them… The applications for impleadment and intervention shall be considered at the appropriate time,” said the Bench, which also included Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.
One such intervention application pending before the Bench is from BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The top court asked all parties to file English translation of documents relied upon in two weeks and posted the matter for March 14. It did not commit to a “dayto- day” hearing of the case.
The top court is seized of crossappeals challenging the Allahabad High Court’s September 30, 2010, verdict dividing the 2.7-acre disputed land at the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site equally between Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and Sunni Wakf Board. All three chose to challenge the order before the top court. Besides, there are more than 10 other appeals as well.
Thursday’s hearing was in sharp contrast to the one held on December 5, which was marred by a heated exchange after senior counsel Kapil Sibal, Rajiv Dhawan and Dushyant Dave — representing Muslim appellants — insisted that the case should be heard only after the 2019 Lok Sabha poll as it might impact the electoral outcome.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Uttar Pradesh Government, told the Bench that 504 exhibits, including scriptures such as the Ram Charit Manas and the Bhagavad Gita, their excerpts and 87 depositions along with the translations had been filed.
Advocate Ejaz Maqbool, appearing for one of the appellants, gave an overview of the documents already filed and those required to be filed. The Bench directed the Registry to make available copies of two video cassettes to advocates for various parties on payment of actual cost.
The otherwise peaceful proceedings witnessed some banter after senior counsel representing Ram Lalla, CS Vaidyanathan, said the other side should submit a synopsis of their legal propositions to make it easy for all concerned to assist the court.
“The High Court’s verdict is an insult to justice,” Dhawan said. He requested day-to-day hearing, but the Bench didn’t appear inclined. “There are 700 cases pending where citizens are crying for justice,” said CJI Misra, clarifying he was not commenting on the importance of the Ayodhya case.
Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, NJ is the recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award under the direction of Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director), and Todd Schmidt (Managing Director). The Playhouse is one of the country’s leading regional theatres.
The Playhouse shares the wonder of creation in its 2017-2018 season with an astonishing 4 premieres: The Honeymooners, the major revival of a cherished holiday classic Annie, A new musical: Half Time, and the current new play The Outsider.
Paper Mill has been consistently recognized for the high-quality artistry of its re-imagined classic musicals as well its commitment to development of new works and careers of New York Broadway’s best talent and emerging artists both onstage and behind the scenes.
Along the way, some of today’s best classical singers, dancers, directors, choreographers, actors, playwrights and designers share their talents to transport you with captivating, human and funny American stories.
It’s all part of what has placed Paper Mill Playhouse center stage in bringing the new American musical theater to life, and it’s why anyone looking for what’s truly next and noteworthy subscribes.
In politics, the less you know, the higher you’ll go!
(From L to R): Burke Moses (Arthur Vance) and Lenny Wolpe (Ned Newley Photo Credit /Matthew Murphy(From L to R): Manoel Felciano (Dave Riley) and Lenny Wolpe (Ned Newley). Photo Credit / Jerry Dalia
At once a razor-sharp satire and an inspirational tribute to democracy, The Outsider by Paul Slade Smith is a timely and hilarious send-up of modern American politics.
Completely fictional, the story begins in the midst of a political scandal, Ned Newley, the ultimate policy wonk, is unexpectedly thrust into the position of Governor. A complete unknown, with no political instincts and a paralyzing fear of public speaking, to his ever-supportive chief of staff, Ned seems destined to fail. But a political guru, Arthur Vance sees things a little differently: Ned might be the worst candidate to ever run for office. Unless the public is looking for… the worst candidate to ever run for office!
In March 2016 at a successful reading of the play attended by top Broadway (NY theater) insiders, “declared it one of the funniest – not to mention topical – plays in years” quipped Mark S. Hoebee, Producing Artistic Director and Todd Schmidt, Managing Director of Paper Mill Playhouse.
Governor Phil Murphy, and 7 former governors of NJ teamed up to promote The Outsider in an unusual video. The 2-minute video, which went live a few days before the start of the performances, got over 150,000 views on YouTube in its first 3 days. You can view it at https://youtu.be/JORleE_3jYE
“We’ve had hundreds of shares, tons of views,” says Hawley Abelow, director of communications, marketing and membership for Paper Mill. “I think when all is said and done, this is going to be extraordinarily successful for getting attention and selling tickets.”
Book: Paul Slade Smith
Starring: Kelley Curran, Julia Duffy, Manoel Felciano, Erin Noel
Grennan, Mike Houston, Burke Moses, Lenny Wolpe
Directed by: David Esbjornson
The production team includes set design by Michael Schweikardt, costume design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy, lighting design by Ben Stanton, hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe, and sound design by Randy Hansen.
The Outsider runs from January 24 to February 18, 2018.
The following link is a hilarious promotional video for The Outsider
WASHINGTON (TIP): The Indian American community in the US celebrated the 69th Republic Day of India with much enthusiasm. From a small township in mid-West or down South to mega cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, Republic Day celebrations were organized by the Indian missions, Indian community activists and organizations.
In Washington, Indian Embassy celebrated Republic Day at Embassy premises. Ambassador Navtej Sarna paid floral tribute to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of the Embassy. Thereafter, Ambassador unfurled the National Flag. The National Anthem was sung. Ambassador addressed the guests and read out the Address of President of India. This was followed by singing of patriotic songs by young Indian Americans. Over 200 members of the Indian American community attended the celebrations.
Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty unfurls the National Flag at the Indian Consulate in New York
In New York, Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty unfurled the National Flag and read out the President’s address to the nation. A cultural program was also presented. The over 150 guests included Consul Generals of Italy, Mexico, Israel, Nigeria and Lithuania.
Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Chakravorty highlighted the growth story of India and valuable contribution in it of the Indian diaspora. He praised the Indian American community for their hard work and love of both the country of their origin and of their adoption.
He assured the community of the best services by the Consulate General.
Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin speaking at the Permanent Mission of India Photo / Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndia
The Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations also held a celebration to mark the 69th Republic Day of India. Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin unfurled the national Flag at the Permanent Mission of India in midtown Manhattan in the presence of a large number of staff and guests. Later, in the evening a reception was organized at the United Nations which was attended by a large number of guests which included, besides the Indian American community members, diplomats from various countries. The highlight of the reception was presentation of Indian traditional music and dance.
Lighting of the lamp ceremony with guests at the United Nations Reception in celebration of Republic Day Photo / Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndiaGlimpses of the Reception organized by the PMI at the UN Photos / Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndiaGlimpses of the Reception organized by the PMI at the UN Photos / Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndiaGlimpses of the Reception organized by the PMI at the UN Photos / Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndiaGlimpses of the Reception organized by the PMI at the UN Photos / Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndiaGlimpses of the Reception organized by the PMI at the UN Photos / Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndia
Various organizations in New York organized Republic Day celebrations. India Association of Long Island organized one with great enthusiasm. Nassau county Executive Laura Curran and Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino were among the several guests at the event. IALI President Mrs. Gunjan Rastogi honored Veterans of Indian Armed Forces Wing Commander S.H Butani, Squadron Leader D. K Nagia, Major D. Gulati and Mr. P. Shilagani.
A Cultural program presented on the occasion featured patriotic songs by IALI members and admirably enacted performance by seniors of Happy Seniors Home, dances by young children from Arya Dance and Krishna Arts dance schools.
The Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of the Tristate (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut), celebrated the Republic Day with its annual dance competition, “Dance Pe Chance”, at the prestigious State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
FIA has been celebrating Republic Day for over 40 years now, meticulously promoting the opulent culture and various dance styles of India.
The FIA’s incoming executive committee of 2018 was administered the oath of office by Sandeep Chakravorty. The committee included Srujal Parikh (President), Alok Kumar (Executive Vice-President), Chhavi Dharayan (Vice President), Daxa Amin (Secretary), Himanshu Bhatia (Treasurer), Haresh Shah (Joint Secretary) and Andy Bhatia (Immediate Past President). Photos / Paresh Gandhi- Official PhotographerWinners all
“Pakistan, Trudeau and Khalistanis need to be engaged not pilloried, while detoxifying the nation of bigotry and falsehood”, says the author.
“The one issue that still rankles bilateral relations is the activities of “Khalistani” elements in Canada and their links, if any, with Pakistan’s ISI. It played last year into the visit of Canadian defense minister, Lt Col Harjit Sajjan, when Capt Amarinder Singh literally boycotted him, piqued over the Canadian government denying him a visa before the Punjab election last year.”
India-Pakistan relations under the Modi government are in a cryogenic state. A muscular response, advocated by PM Narendra Modi, has become not a means, but an end in itself. Despite “surgical strikes” and periodic cease-fire violations, the Pakistan army remains defiant. With elections around the corner in Pakistan and rumors Modi may advance the Lok Sabha elections, the scope for any meaningful dialogue appears bleak.
India draws much solace from President Donald Trump’s periodic verbal assaults on the duplicity of Pakistani state and military. The US withholding military aid, amounting to $2 billion, including $900 million in coalition support funds to compensate Pakistan for its counter-terrorism operations along the Durand Line (Pak-Afghan border), is a first step to ratchet up pressure on Pakistan. US government sources are telling the media that there is an escalation plan if Pakistan does not heed the warnings. The action that the US seeks is Pakistan severing links with the Taliban and the deadly Haqqani network. The same source told Washington Post that there was “immense” frustration over Pakistan continuing to deny that there were any Pakistani safe havens for these groups.
Senior US officials touring India recently displayed guarded optimism over change in Pakistani attitude. They take the cue from Pakistan not threatening to disrupt US supply routes via Pakistan. But recent terror attacks in Kabul, where an ambulance bomb caused severe casualties, negate that finding. Earlier a hotel was attacked, frequented by Afghan government officials and foreigners, in which among others, a senior police commander and a member of the High Peace Council were killed. The hotel attack on the topmost floor indicated that the attackers were well briefed as that floor normally is reserved for officials holding sensitive positions.
Meanwhile, Pakistan blocked access to Hafiz Saeed when a team deputed by the UN Security Council sanctions committee arrived to assess Pakistan’s handling of a listed terror mastermind. Reports keep resurfacing that Pakistan was in the process of allowing the India-specific terror syndicates to enter the political field. This could be a double-edged sword to both legitimize the groups and undercut the Sharif brothers, who control the Pakistan Muslim League (N), in the forthcoming parliament election. China has been more forthrightly defending Pakistani credentials as a nation fighting terror and not abetting it.
Against this background, two events invite attention. First, the Economist carried a story earlier this month on the reform of Pakistan’s school education. This has gone unnoticed in India as the dominant narrative is that Pakistan is a collapsing state which will soon end up in a big Islamic heap. The story holds a lesson for our Punjab. Under the direct leadership of chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, a private-public partnership (PPP) has successfully developed to rectify the skewed school completion data. The richest Pakistanis have 60 per cent completing nine years of schooling. For the poor, the number is 5 per cent and for the middle income group, a mere 25 per cent. A donation-based citizens’ foundation today has over 2 lakh students in its schools. Similarly, the Punjab Education Foundation, a quasi-independent body, is doing the same work even on a larger scale.
The PPP works with the Shahbaz government handing over public schools to private partners and then closely monitoring their work while providing some subsidy. A Harvard University study shows that village schools saw 30 per cent higher enrolment after private parties were brought in. It has also been discovered by other studies that teachers on contract, who are paid less, produce as good or better results. A similar revamp of the primary and secondary school education in our Punjab is long overdue. CM Shahbaz takes a three-monthly meeting of all stakeholders to monitor the progress of this reform. Can the Punjab CM, Capt Amarinder Singh, do likewise?
The other event is the expected arrival of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a five-day visit on February 17. Among other cities he would be visiting Amritsar. The one issue that still rankles bilateral relations is the activities of “Khalistani” elements in Canada and their links, if any, with Pakistan’s ISI. It played last year into the visit of Canadian defense minister, Lt Col Harjit Sajjan, when Capt Amarinder Singh literally boycotted him, piqued over the Canadian government denying him a visa before the Punjab election last year.
Trudeau’s visit provides a good opportunity for Capt Amarinder to bury the past. Sikhs constitute almost 40 per cent of the total population of Indian diaspora in Canada which numbers over a million. That huge number needs to be engaged and their energies channelized to contribute to Punjab’s development. The population profile of the Canadian Sikh diaspora is different from that in the US. The Canadian Sikhs are more closely linked to peasantry in Punjab. A number of episodes have riled Delhi as the Canadian government is seen as handling mischief-makers with kid gloves. When I dealt with them in 2006-07, the Canadian explanation was that they monitor the goings-on but would only step in if violence or terrorism was imminent. Slogans in favor of Khalistan are really solitary cries for attention. The Canadian Sikh fringe needs to be politically dealt with. Banning their entry into India will only exacerbate the situation.
If Punjab was the laboratory of the Green Revolution, it now needs to reinvent itself. A revamped education system, a shift away from the rice-wheat agrarian model, laying of food-chain supply network and conservation of water aquifers and adoption of sustainable development goals. It is not a surprise that a recent study showed that South Indian states, which have the advantage of coastlines for connectivity, have cornered the export businesses of India. A new Punjab model could become the 21st century template for the land-locked and largely agrarian economy states of the North.
The Modi government, having largely ignored rural distress, has awakened post-Gujarat election. Udayan Mukherjee wrote in another newspaper that the Modi government’s strategy was: “more wealth for the rich, Hindutva for the poor”. Religion may be, as Karl Marx quipped, the opiate of the masses. But when used to polarize for electoral gains it can be catastrophic. Thus Pakistan, Trudeau and Khalistanis need to be engaged not pilloried, while detoxifying the nation of bigotry and falsehood.
(The author is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs)
Immigration, border wall, infrastructure, strong military among priorities
WASHINGTON DC (TIP): In his lengthy State of the Union address on January 30 night, Trump doubled down on themes which he has embraced since his campaign for the presidency. He again pushed for stricter immigration laws and the building of a “great wall” along the U.S. border with Mexico. He also repeated his call for an end to family-based immigration, connecting immigration to crime, saying that “loopholes” in the immigration system had allowed gangs to proliferate. Democrats and many in his own party may not agree with this view though.
But in a marked departure from his earlier rhetoric, Trump also tried to sound enthusiastic about working with Democrats. At times, the speech even took on the feel of a pep rally for America, with Republicans briefly chanting “USA!” as the president spoke.
“To every citizen watching at home tonight — no matter where you have been, or where you come from, this is your time,” Trump said. “If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America, then you can dream anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.”
At the top of the speech, Trump celebrated the booming economy, attributing the bullish stock market of recent months to his policies. He also took time to advertise the recent tax cuts championed by his administration, arguing that it would soon pay dividends for working Americans.
“And just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history,” Trump said. “Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses. A typical family of four making $75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by $2,000 — slashing their tax bill in half. This April will be the last time you ever file under the old broken system — and millions of Americans will have more take-home pay starting next month.”
As expected, the president also called for a massive infrastructure package, which he said he hopes will attract bipartisan support.
“America is a nation of builders,” Trump said. “We built the Empire State Building in just one year – isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a minor permit approved for the building of a simple road?”
“I am asking both parties to come together to give us safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure that our economy needs, and our people deserve.”
The tail end of the speech, which lasted over an hour, was devoted to military issues, with Trump calling for an end to spending caps for the military and the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He also promised the final defeat of ISIS.
“We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated,” Trump said after touting recent victories in the war with the terror group.
Trump also discussed North Korea’s nuclear provocations and its treatment of both its own citizens and Otto Warmbier, an American student who was arrested in the country. Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly taking a political sign from a hotel and died shortly after he was released from captivity.
Various polls post the address indicated that Trump’s speech was well received by Americans. 72% Americans who watched the speech said they approved of it, with just over a quarter saying they did not.
The days ahead are quite crucial. The DACA issue, the impending release of Republican Memo on FBI and Department of Justice, the budget approval, Mueller investigation -are some of the knotty issues to be tackled. Given the tough postures adopted by both the Republicans and the Democrats, the coming days indicate some interesting fireworks.
NEW DELHI (TIP): In his last budget before general elections, India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Feb 1 unveiled a slew of measures for agriculture as well as the rural sector and announced a new health insurance scheme for the poor but provided little relief to the middle class.
With chaotic implementation of the Goods and Services Tax and demonetization causing distress in the economy, Jaitley announced massive spending on rural and urban infrastructure as also lower tax rates for small and medium enterprises.
While continuing the 10-15 per cent surcharge on super-rich, he raised the health and education cess, levied on all taxable income, to 4 per cent from 3 per cent at present.
Keeping the income tax rates and slabs unchanged, he introduced a Rs 40,000 Standard Deduction for salaried employees and pensioners in lieu of the present exemption in respect of transport and medical expenses.
Presently, no tax is applicable on Rs 19,200 of transport allowance and medical expenditure of up to Rs 15,000. This has now been subsumed into the new Standard Deduction of Rs 40,000 which may mean very little benefit in tax saving considering that health and education cess has gone up.
Senior citizens will get higher exemptions on income from interest on bank and post office deposits, health insurance premium and critical illness expense.
Jaitley, however, made import of a host of products – from cellphone to perfumes and toiletry, from watches to parts of automobiles, sunglasses to truck and bus tires, footwear to diamonds and edible oils to fruit juices — costly by raising customs duty.
Fourteen years after it was scrapped, he brought back tax on gains made from sale of shares to offset revenue losses.
Capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh from shares held for more than a year will be taxed at 10 per cent. Presently, gains from equity investments held for more than 12 months are exempt from tax.
In July 2004, the government had abolished long-term capital gains tax on shares and replaced it with the securities transaction tax (STT) – a same-day tax credit system that continues.
In the 110-minute speech, in which he kept switching from English to Hindi for wider mass appeal, Jaitley announced plans for agriculture, rural housing, organic farming, animal husbandry and fisheries with a total allocation of Rs 14.34 lakh crore.
“My government is committed for the welfare of farmers,” he said announcing that his party’s election promise of fixing a minimum support price (MSP) at 150 per cent of the cost will be implemented for all kharif crops this year.
Also, credit to agriculture would be raised to Rs 11 lakh crore in the coming fiscal from Rs 10 lakh crore and kisan credit card extended to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers. Rs 2,000 crore will be provided for development of agri market and export of agriculture commodities will be liberalized.
In a bid to provide universal healthcare, he announced a ‘National Health Protection scheme’, providing a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for second and tertiary care hospitalization to 10 crore poor and vulnerable family (about 50 crore beneficiaries).
This, Jaitley said, will be world’s largest health protection scheme.
He committed an expenditure of Rs 1.38 lakh crore on health, education and social protection.
But to fund these, he let go of the fiscal consolidation roadmap. As a result, fiscal deficit for the current fiscal will be 3.5 per cent of the GDP as against the previous target of 3.2 per cent, and 3.3 per cent in 2018-19, as opposed to 3 per cent set earlier.
Fiscal deficit in 2016-17 was 3.5 per cent of the GDP.
Jaitley, who had in 2015 promised to reduce corporate tax from current 30 per cent to 25 per cent over four years, proposed lower tax rate of 25 per cent for companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore in 2016-17.
The Union Budget 2018-19 was the last full budget before the general elections next year, when a vote on account would be presented. The next full budget will be presented by the new government.
With GST and demonetization pulling down GDP growth rate in Asia’s third largest economy to its lowest level in three years, he said economic growth was picking up and “firmly on path to achieve 8 per cent plus growth soon”.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 6.5 per cent to 6.75 per cent in 2017-18.
“Indian economy is now USD 2.5 trillion – seventh largest in the world. India is expected to become the fifth largest economy very soon,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the Budget as “development-friendly” and said it will strengthen the vision of a ‘new India’.
The budget is “farmer friendly, common citizen friendly, business environment friendly” and will add to ‘ease of living’ and ‘ease of doing business’, Modi added.
A 100 per cent tax deduction will be given for the first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs 100 crore and above.
“While making the proposals in this year’s budget, we have been guided by our mission to especially strengthen agriculture, rural development, health, education, employment, MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) and infrastructure sectors of Indian economy,” Jaitley said.
He put revised expenditure for 2017-18 at Rs 21.57 lakh crore and projected Rs 24.42 lakh crore expenditure in 2018-19.
Railway capital expenditure has been put at Rs 1.49 lakh crore in 2018-19.
Gross market borrowing is seen at Rs 6.06 lakh crore and net borrowing at Rs 4.62 lakh crore in 2018. Government will also switch Rs 28,000 crore of bonds next fiscal.
Customs duty on import of mobile phones is proposed to be increased to 20 per cent from 15 per cent, on some of their parts and accessories to 15 per cent and certain TV parts to 15 per cent.
Jaitley said measures to address bad loans of small and medium enterprises would be announced soon. He proposed setting up Rs 3 lakh crore target for lending to small enterprises.
Three government-owned non-life insurers – National Insurance Co, United India Assurance Co and Oriental India Insurance Co — will be merged into a single entity and listed subsequently.
The process of strategic sale in 24 state-run companies including privatization of Air India has begun and more exchange-traded fund offers including debt ETFs will come.
Special schemes for states around Delhi will be implemented to address air pollution, he said adding removal of crop residue will be subsidized in order to tackle the problem of pollution due to burning of crop residue.
(Source: PTI)
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