Washington, April 12 — At the Blair House in Washington on Sunday the bilateral relationship bond between India and United States may have become more strong when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met U.S. President Barack Obama. I say ‘may be’ because very little was said publicly about the meeting because neither of the two countries wants to draw attention to just how strained the relationship has become in past few years.

In the meeting, however, the biggest sticking points was about how to deal with Afghanistan. We have seen over the period of a year or few months that the Obama administration had openly said about the withdrawals of U.S. troop from the land commencing 2011. Here, New Delhi differs. The long history of India in dealing with terrorism suggests that this approach of United States won’t work.

In the Afghan policy, India seems to be hedging its bet and enhance relationships with Russia and other neighbors of Afghanistan like Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Another issue; how Washington and New Delhi will be prosecuting 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks’ plotters. There is incontrovertible evidence about American national David C. Headley’s involvement in planning the massacre. Headley is in U.S. custody and has also entered into a plea bargain.

Washington is flip-flops on giving direct access to Headley to Indian investigators and this has infuriated New Delhi. Suspicion rises that Obama administration may want to prevent any access of information by India about the Pakistan security services involvement in the 26/11 attack.

Well, one more fact. President Obama didn’t take questions after the meeting from reporters.

By Saadia Azim

Kolkata, Jan. 17 – Ninety six year old Marxist leader Jyoti Basu struggled for life for sixteen days before breathing his last at 11.41 a.m on Sunday at the AMRI hospital at Kolkata. His struggle for life was evident from the tough fight he gave before the last. He was deeply loved and highly popular leader amongst people all over the country which was evident with concerns for his health from all quarters, be it supporters or detractors.

 Critics though questioned his bourgeois mannerism yet his flawless English, his Bengali ‘bhadrolok’s’ appearance, his love for scotch did not anyway hinder his popularity amongst masses and he still remains the only democratically elected communist leader for more than two decades of the world.  

Jyoti Babu as he was popularly known was born on 8^th July 1914 in Kolkata. One of the pioneers of the Communist movement in India since 1945, he was the founder member of the CPIM since its inception in 1964. He remained the central committee member and politburo member till his last.
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BREAKING NEWS: Veteran Marxist Leader Jyoti Basu Passes Away
Jyoti Basu’s Eyes Donated, Condolences Pouring In
End Of An Era In Indian Politics, 1914-2010
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He participated in the first general elections in the Indian subcontinent after independence in 1951 thus legitimizing the communist movement which was opposed to parliamentary democracy until then. A believer in Lenin’s philosophy to participate in the parliamentary system in order to expose parliamentary “cretinism” from within, and prepare the masses for participation in revolutionary antiparliamentary politics, he continued to be the first ever democratically elected chiefminister of an Indian state, continously for twenty three years.

He was a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) that was banned until 1951. He became the president of the board of editorial board of ‘Swadhinta’ the bengali mouth piece of the CPI. Later in 1964 he was suspended with 31 members of the National council of CPI. It was then that the CPI split and CPIM was formed with Jyoti Basu as the central committee and politburo member. Though he at times offered to vacate the post on grounds of his deteriorating health conditions he remained a special invitee in the politburo because of his stature.

 He became the Chiefminister of the state in 1977 and remained so till he willingly announced to leave his chair on health grounds onNovember 6th 2000, a very rare trait amongst politicians. He had been the leader of the Opposition from 1957 till 1967 when the United front government came to power and he became the deputy chiefminister of the state. 

 A son of a Nishikant and Hemlata Basu he went to Loreto Convent Dharamtala in Kolkata. He later completed his secondary education from St. Xavier’s School and completed English Honours from Presidency College, Kolkata. Later on he  went to U.K to study law. It was there that he got impressed by the communist movement and on his return in 1940 joined the Communist party of India to work as a trade union leader of the Railway workers Union.

He was married to Basanti Ghosh first who passed away in 1942. Later in 1948 he married Kamal Basu in 1952.

 He is survived by his only son Chandan Basu. With his demise a complete era of Indian politics has comes to an end.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Rubina Ali Qureshi, the child-actor of Oscan-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire gets a new flat as New Year gift by director Danny Boyle through the Jai Ho Trust. The cost of this Mumbai suburb flat is Rs 3.2 million.

BLUE MOON
It was a doubly special evening to celebrate. It was New Year’s blue moon that will happen again in 2028. Last time a decade ended on a blue moon was in 1819 when Napolean Bonaparte was most famous resident of Saint Helena.

A P J ABDUL KALAM
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam pledges to keep public places clean. He said in New Delhi, “Let us all resolve to keep the public places clean, neat and tidy.” Kalam also said that every citizen should undertake plantation of fruit-bearing trees so that India can have one billion trees for one billion people at the end of 2010.

BIHAR BANDH
The RJD decides to kick-off the New Year with a Bihar bandh. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav announced a ‘Chakka Jam’ in Bihar on January 28 against steep price rise. Next the RJD will announce ‘jail bharo andolan’.

COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit’s New Year wish is to make the 2010 Commonwealth Games a grand success. She said, “The New Year will bring happiness, prosperity, peace and tranquility. I request people to render their constructive cooperation in making Commonwealth Games 2010 a grand success.”

BRITNEY IN KERALA
Pop sensation Britney Spears was in Kerala, God’s Own Country in the last two nights of 2009. She was on a luxury houseboat in the backwaters of Kerala. Britney is very particular about privacy during her holidays. After the holidays she will be shooting for her new album in different locations in Kerala.

FORD PRICE HIKE
Ford India is hiking the prices of all its models from Jan 1, 2010. The price hike is due to increase in input costs and also due to exchange rate fluctuations. The hike is in range of Rs 6,000 to Rs 40,000.

AIIMS FACULTY SALARY HIKE
All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) decides to bring the salaries of the faculty on par with that of IIT and IIM professors. The hike is effective from January 1.

PRESIDENT PRATIBHA PATIL
President Pratibha Patil said to the nation on New Year Eve, “On the occasion of New Year, I extend my greetings and best wishes to all my fellow citizen.”

PM MANMOHAN SINGH
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “As we welcome the dawn of a new decade, we should build upon the achievements of the past in striving for the realization of our dreams.”

WORLDSPACE GOES SILENT
A sad news for all radio lovers. Satellite radio WorldSpace became silent from this New Year. Thursday midnight onwards they stopped their service.

GOOGLE GSM PHONE
Happy New Year with Google GSM smart phone. The phone is expected to come in the market by 5th of January.

US President Barack Obama: We join India in remembering the victims of the 26/11 attacks.

Mumbai residents: Enough is enough, there is a need to take steps to avenge the attacks on our people and democracy.

Ratan Tata: You can hit us…we cannot be knocked down. – (On the occassion of reopening of Taj Hotel in December 2008)

Rick McElrea of Canada: I don’t feel any fear. I feel hope. The terrorists failed and Mumbaikars won. – (First to check-in to Trident on reopening just three weeks after the attack)

It’s India’s first Doodle. Totally ‘made in India.’ 90 days, above 4,000 entries and yes, more than 60,000 votes. This has made India proud. This has made India to get its first ‘made in India’ Doodle. Based on ‘innovation and creativity,’ Dennis Hwang, the Master Doodler, selected this first-ever young doodler for India.

Oh! Yes. So, what is a Google Doodle?

“Doodles” are the creative Google logos. You might have seen sometimes, and of course frequently these days, that appear on some special days to commemorate.

Commemorate what?

Commemorate scientific and artistic achievements, historic or seasonal events, and other local occasions.

The Doodles are eye-catching in designs and surely it teaches us something new about a day, that day. Thanks to this great effort of Google. Whenever an occasion or event takes place, they happen to take place also on Google homepage.

Google started doodling a decade before. It has been designing innovative ‘Doodles’ for its homepage and the main driver behind all the doodling designs is Dennis Hwang, well known as the master doodler,

This year in the month of August Google India planned to unleash the creativity of children in India and announced their India’s first ever doodling competition, the Doodle4Google™.

All the students from Grade 1 to 10 were invited to imagine their own version of the Google logo. The theme was “My India”. Renowned cartoonist, N. Ponnappa, internationally acclaimed artist Raghava KK and the faculty of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad – India’s premier design institute were among the panel of judges. They evaluated the doodles on the basis of artistic merit, creativity and yes, how well the vision of doodle has been explained.

A Class 4 student of Gurgaon (NCR of Delhi), Puru Pratap Singh, was the best in the parameters of the judges. His doodle was chosen the best from more than 4000 doodles.

Let’s open up the home page on November 14 with his doodle of the theme ‘My India – Full of Life.’

He devised his own path, his own principles and his own revolution to redeem India from slavery of imperial power. The essence of his strength, ego-less and weapon-less, can still be felt, leaving oneself to follow it. It is a collective wisdom of humanity. For him there were no barriers of class-color-religion.

Gandhiji… As we celebrate his 140th birth anniversary, let us celebrate the victories of his silent battle. He was a warrior of truth who trained a batch of learned men who shaped India, even after independence – Nehru, Patel, Maulana Azad and others.

He earned the title of ‘saint’ – Mahatma, even though Churchill said him ‘The Naked Fakir (hermit).’ His simplicity took him from the usual to saint in various stages, started from a qualified barrister in South Africa.

Mahatmaji knew his mind and he had strong beliefs on his inner strength. His first legal instinct was fight for equality of all races. He chose to suffer long, a concept of spirituality, to change the mindset of opponent to embarrassment from rivalry. He chose the path of ‘non-violence.’

His strategy to free India was simple – Civil Disobedience (refusal to obey certain laws), Swadeshi (depleting the rulers’ revenues) and Dandi March (setting aside illegal ‘salt tax’). In 1942 he started ‘Quit India Movement,’ a knock-out for the British Raj, which the Britishers were forced to invite him for talks, promising independence.

The last strategy: Prevent wars for greed, hegemony or revenge in independent India – ‘Part as Friends.’ It was birth of two nations, India and Pakistan, united by history and divided by geography.

Do we respect his path, principles and revolution?

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