12
MEDIAWATCH
www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews
Asian Voice | 15th August 2015
Parliament has been reduced to a jostling bazaar. No serious business has been done during the Monsoon session due to the riotous behaviour of Congress MPs, led by the mother and son duo of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan named five Congress MPs, who were suspended for a week and were barred from entering the House for that period. The uproar hasn’t abated at time of writing. The suspension brought the opposition parties together, but the prolonged impasse is doing their public image considerable damage. Hence a number of non-Congress groups have offered to mediate between the Congress party leadership and the government front benches. However, Congress and opposition parties are resolutely opposed to the Congress demand that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister resign as a pre-condition for the restoration of normal parliamentary functioning. The very idea is utterly preposterous, the antics of arrogant bullies. From afar, Odisha Chief Minister Naeen Patnaik has called for an end to the tumult. It has to be said that the BJP, whilst in opposition, sowed the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind. Their once obstructive methods are now being repeated by opponents who were then the government. However two wrongs do not make a right; and Congress which was trounced in the last general election had their numbers in the Lok Sabha shrunk from 206 to the present paltry tally of 44 MPs in the House. The party has a long and arduous road ahead; and have yet to make a serious start on the journey to full recovery from the electoral debacle. Congress party heir apparent Rahul Gandhi’s apparent belief that jumping on the nearest bandwagon show in town will lead to salvation is clearly out of touch with reality. He hasn’t uttered a serious word on the nation’s economy, on national security, or on anything that truly matters. He is clearly out of his depth, deficient in brains and character. He is a living reminder to the Indian people of how unfit he is to hold the reins of power.
Jihadi caught at border
Captured terrorist Usman Naved opened thus: “Seven years after the Mumbai cop Tukaram Omble captured Ajmal Kasab, two unarmed villagers overpowered an AK-47 wielding terrorist who had sneaked in from across the border to kill Amarnath yatris [pilgrims] and attack military targets.” Their courage averted a greater tragedy, but jihadi Usman Naved’s capture leads once more to Pakistan. Unabashed and smiling, Naved told his interrogators: “I came to kill Hindus. Had I been killed, it would have been Allah’s doing. It is fun doing this.” (See comment, page 3). The disturbing news is that the captured jihadi and his associates had slipped into Kashmir more than a month ago and were given refuge in safe houses by sympathizers (Times of India August 8).
lence; in Sindh province it is the Hindus. In Bangladesh, Hindus and Chakma Buddhists have borne the weight of Islamist intolerance (Hindu August 5). Another Bangladeshi blogger, Niloy Chatterjeei, was hacked to death at his home in Dhaka by Islamists, the fourth such person, and the third Hindu to die in this gruesome fashion (Hindu, Telegraph, Times of India August 8).
Naga peace accord
The government signed a landmark peace accord with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, one of the largest Naga insurgent groups, one that has been operational over the past six decades. Earlier, in March this year, the breakaway Kaplang faction, operating out of Myanmar, mounted an attack on an Indian Army convoy, killing 20 soldiers. The present accord was signed in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence in New Delhi in the presence of Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval (Hindu, Times of India August 4).
India-Bangladesh enclave swap
It was front-page news: “LeT militant captured in repeat of 26/11,” screamed the Hindu headline; the Times of India (August 6) was equally dramatic: “Pak Caught Red-Handed, Again.” The opening paragraph of the Hindu reads: “A Pakistani militant was captured [by an unarmed village self-defence unit and handed over to the police]and another killed after they attacked a Border Security Force convoy in Udhampur. Two BSF jawans [Rocky from Haryana and Suvendu Roy from Bengal] lost their lives.” Their courage saved 44 of their unarmed colleagues in the bus from certain death.
Citizenship for persecuted
Fun and games
The Times of India (August 5)
One of the earliest pieces of legislation awaiting the attention of Parliament (and hopefully will be debated prior to the Independence Day celebrations) is an amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955, which will make it easier for those persecuted for their faith in Pakistan and Bangladesh – Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Jains – to apply for, and be granted, Indian citizenship. This should send out a message to the world and the region: that, whatever its faults and shortcomings, India is not forgetful of the ideals of its birth. In Pakistan, it is the Christian community in Punjab which suffers grievously from Islamist vio-
Derailed trains in Madhya Pradesh with caption See page 3 cent without government underlines our continued comapproval except in the defence mitment to the market as well as and banking sectors (Business our alignment with the (Indian) Line July 31). Government’s Made in India programme,” said Sony India Managing Director Kenichiro Indian IT in key Dell role Hibi. “Manufacturing here decreases our time to market ... US global major, Dell Inc CEO, We see huge potential in the TV Paul Walsh, on a recent visit to business,” he said (Hindu India, told a media interlocutor: August 4). “The innovation we are driving out of Dell IT in India is second to none. The team of 2,400 engiBajaj Auto zooms neers (a third of its global workforce of 6,500 engineers) is Not to be outdone by its comworking on the e-commerce petitors, Bajaj Auto, a major side, ensuring that Dell.com is two-wheeler manufacturer, prothe best place for our customers, duced a high 37 per cent net delivering next-generation sales profit in the first quarter (Apriltools for our internal sales team June). Pune-based Bajaj sold ... India is truly a core hub of 389,000 motor bikes and 87,000 innovation and many of the three-wheelers in overseas marinnovations from India are being kets, posting export revenues of used globally as best practices.” Rs 2,634 crore from Rs 2091 for (Business Line August 5). the same quarter of the previous year (Business Line July 24).
IIT Hyderabad magnet for top talent
Indian flag in [Bangladesh] border enclave
Policemen Rocky and Suvendu Roy who died in encounter
AsianVoiceNewsweekly
India and Bangladesh swapped enclaves along their border at midnight July 31 as per the agreement reached and signed between the two countries during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Dhaka for talks with Prime Minister Hasina Wajed. India had 111 Bangladeshi enclaves, and Bangladesh 51 Indian enclaves. India has acquired 15,193 new citizens. These hitherto stateless people were given a choice of citizenship. As the bulk of the population consists of poor Muslim farmers, the numbers opting for Indian citizenship were surprisingly large. There were passionate celebrations when the Indian Tricolour was raised and candles and lamps lit (Times of India, Telegraph, Hindu August 1).
Tata brand India’s No 1
Indian Institute of Technology IIT) Hyderabad, among the latest arrivals in the elite group of institutions, is attracting talent of stellar quality over some of the most reputable IITs that have had a head start. The Hyderabad facility has an ambience that is markedly cosmopolitan, while the city itself is the best job market around. Among the newer IITs, Hyderabad has the largest numbers of faculties and more than 100 laboratories, of which 50 are for research (Hindu August 1).
The Tata brand, 65th in the global league, has retained its top spot in India. For the first time, the brand value of Tata has exceeded $15 billion, $100 billion by revenue, a notable achievement surely. “Tata is the world’s 65th most valuable brand. Tata is India’s leading brand by a long way on almost every measure. It is the only truly global mega brand originating in India, but there is a new generation of Indian brands following in Tata’s footsteps,” said Brand Finance, a leading global brand valuation and strategic consultancy (Hindu July 31).
Global retailers like Walmart and Carrefour will be permitted to invest in India’s multi-brand retail through the foreign portfolio investment route. In a major reversal the BJP-led NDA government, which had once attacked the measure in opposition, has decided to support Foreign Portfolio Investment which means that foreign investors can bring in 49 per
The Indian Air Force base at Panagarh will be the new Himalayan home for its USmade C-130 heavy lift Hercules aircraft. It’s unique capacity to lift large numbers of fully equipped troops and material to forward areas along the India’s northern border with China on relatively small airfields gives India’s armed forces significant strategic reach and strengthens national security (Times of India, Hindu August 5).
Foreign investment in multi-brand retail
Hercules in Panagarh
Made in India Sony TV sets
Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony will start production of its TV sets at the Indian facility in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, from the latter half of August. “India has been an important strategic market for Sony, and this development
Indian C-130 Hercules aircraft