Four years on, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar may have suffered a setback in the recent by-elections, but he appears to be well on course for a second term in office, reports Onkareshwar Pandey
Last month’s Bihar bypoll results were a huge setback for chief
minister Nitish Kumar. The political combine of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP wrested nine of the 18 seats contested, leaving only five for the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance. The Congress won two seats. Most of these 18 seats were previously with the ruling NDA alliance.
So is Nitish Kumar’s magic waning? On the face of it, if these results are an indication, the CM would be hard-pressed to retain power when Bihar goes to the polls next year. But political equations in the state are complex and with the Opposition likely to remain splintered, Nitish might just sail through.
The question that is being asked is: what went wrong in the bypolls? Earlier this year, the NDA alliance had won 32 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. RJD-LJP managed only four. Do the bypoll reverses mean the electorate is losing faith in Nitish four years after he stormed to power, ending 15 years of the RJD regime?
Political observers aren't ready to read too much into the results although they accept that several aspects of Nitish’s rule have led to disenchantment.
When Nitish pulled off a resounding victory in the November 2005 Assembly elections, the people’s expectations were very high indeed. They wanted to see an end to the misrule that marked the the Lalu-Rabri tenure.
On many counts, Nitish lived up to the expectations. He put his best foot forward on the law and order front. Criminals and musclemen were quickly brought to book. Perpetrators of the massacres that occurred in the past were punished irrespective of caste and political considerations. Bihar saw 6,839 convictions in 2006, 9653 in 2007, 12,007 in 2008 and 10,125 in 2009 (as of September).
In a 60-page progress report on his government’s performance, Nitish claims: "On the law and order front, the task was to build confidence among people and in the law enforcing machinery. We succeeded to a great extent in taking out the fear factor from the minds of people, both from inside and outside the state... Women can be seen moving around in cities and towns till late in the evening. A number of national and international events are taking place here, which is a clear indication that we have been able to instill confidence among people".
The Khagaria massacre, which claimed 16 lives in the first week of October this year, was the biggest blot on Nitish Kumar’s relatively ‘peaceful’ four-year track record in a caste-conscious state. But In this case, too, Nitish acted with alacrity and suspended the Khagaria SP and DSP for dereliction of duty. The police have already arrested the alleged mastermind and are claiming to have cracked the case on the basis of the interrogation.
Last month’s Bihar bypoll results were a huge setback for chief
minister Nitish Kumar. The political combine of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP wrested nine of the 18 seats contested, leaving only five for the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance. The Congress won two seats. Most of these 18 seats were previously with the ruling NDA alliance.So is Nitish Kumar’s magic waning? On the face of it, if these results are an indication, the CM would be hard-pressed to retain power when Bihar goes to the polls next year. But political equations in the state are complex and with the Opposition likely to remain splintered, Nitish might just sail through.
The question that is being asked is: what went wrong in the bypolls? Earlier this year, the NDA alliance had won 32 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. RJD-LJP managed only four. Do the bypoll reverses mean the electorate is losing faith in Nitish four years after he stormed to power, ending 15 years of the RJD regime?
Political observers aren't ready to read too much into the results although they accept that several aspects of Nitish’s rule have led to disenchantment.
When Nitish pulled off a resounding victory in the November 2005 Assembly elections, the people’s expectations were very high indeed. They wanted to see an end to the misrule that marked the the Lalu-Rabri tenure.
On many counts, Nitish lived up to the expectations. He put his best foot forward on the law and order front. Criminals and musclemen were quickly brought to book. Perpetrators of the massacres that occurred in the past were punished irrespective of caste and political considerations. Bihar saw 6,839 convictions in 2006, 9653 in 2007, 12,007 in 2008 and 10,125 in 2009 (as of September).
In a 60-page progress report on his government’s performance, Nitish claims: "On the law and order front, the task was to build confidence among people and in the law enforcing machinery. We succeeded to a great extent in taking out the fear factor from the minds of people, both from inside and outside the state... Women can be seen moving around in cities and towns till late in the evening. A number of national and international events are taking place here, which is a clear indication that we have been able to instill confidence among people".
The Khagaria massacre, which claimed 16 lives in the first week of October this year, was the biggest blot on Nitish Kumar’s relatively ‘peaceful’ four-year track record in a caste-conscious state. But In this case, too, Nitish acted with alacrity and suspended the Khagaria SP and DSP for dereliction of duty. The police have already arrested the alleged mastermind and are claiming to have cracked the case on the basis of the interrogation.
over the issues of alleged suicides by farmers and the mining scam last week. With pandemonium continuing, the House was adjourned thrice for ten minutes each.
government at the Centre has failed to have much of an influence on the party's government in Puducherry.
know so far of the Sri Lankan Tamils’ agony is almost nothing when compared with the reality. On October 10 I was in the country to attend a literary function at Mathalai in the Central Province. Having been invited by my friends, I decided to forsake the hospitality of the Sri Lankans – which in any case is hard to accept – and let my friends take care of my expenses. This mountainous province has a high concentration of plantation Tamils of Indian origin, whose forbears the British had transported to Lanka for working in the tea gardens. The Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian-origin Tamils are separate units out there, and it is only the former who fought for a separate state and were traumatised by the war.
Delhi about the vote. And the good news is that both countries have agreed to vote in favour of the Sundarbans. Chief minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told reporters: “This is indeed good news for both the countries. It will be great that the people of both the countries will vote to put Sunderbans in the top tier.” Other contenders from India include the Ganges and the Kaziranga National Park. Mount Everest, K2, Chitwan National Park, Baikal Lake and the Dead Sea are the nominations from Asia. The nomination process is on with 261 entries received for the top 77 slots. The results will be announced in 2011. The New7Wonders Foundation said the campaign would surely renew people’s interest in nature.
Mujib? Those involved in the plot or those who stood to benefit from this act will invariably say that the murder of Sheikh Mujib helped Bangladesh get rid of being subservient to Delhi and Moscow. It is true that Mujib and his party Awami League had and still has a pro-India image. India extended her hand of cooperation to Bangladesh’s struggle for independence. India gave shelter to 10 million refugees, trained the Bangladeshi liberation fighters, provided all sorts of supplies to them and finally, the Indian Army fought against the occupying Pakistani forces. So the good relations between Bangladesh and India during Mujib’s time was an obvious and logical conclusion of the nine months of bloody war.
has become a major player in global markets. In terms of volume it ranks first, though where value is concerned it is placed second after citrus fruits. According to statistics released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), world exports of bananas in 2006 totalled 16.8 million tonnes ($ 68.1 million). Now consider this: While India accounts for nearly 22 per cent of the world’s banana output and stands number one, it figures nowhere in the list of top exporters. Ecuador, Costa Rica and the Philippines, says the FAO, produce 6, 2.08 and 7.48 per cent of the world’s fourth most widely cultivated food item respectively. But, even though exports from India are steadily rising, set against Ecuador which supplies 29 per cent of the world’s bananas and Guatemala which contributes 7 per cent, India’s share of 0.01 per cent is negligible. Also, on the list of banana exporters, India’s position is a miserable 41st.
dotcom bust in 2001, pundits were quick to predict a lengthy recovery period on the floor for Asian countries. The stress and turbulence that began to develop in world financial markets in early 2007, and which finally collapsed, plunged the world economy into recession in the final quarter of 2008. That again provided the pundits a perfect platform to come up with the stereotype predictions. Unaware of the resilience of the Asian economies (led by China and India, which are indeed leading the way out of recession) they put forth the argument that export dependent economies could not revive unless customers in the rich world did. Nevertheless, the rebound that the world is witnessing today has largely been ‘Made in China.’
lapses in the country and one had assumed that after an attack of this magnitude the Government of India would leave no stone unturned to avoid such mishaps in future. But it does not seem that way as numerous warning calls from Home Ministry in regards to security concern on using Chinese equipments in the telecommunications sector have fallen on deaf ears so far. In India there are currently more than 470 million wireless subscribers and as wireless communications are on an unsecured network, the security agencies have raised issues in regards to Chinese vendors like ZTE and Huawei supplying equipments to various telecom operators in the country.
be 300-years-old without the body ageing – will women suffer from menopause at 55 or can they go on bleeding (sic!)? We don’t know the answer to that one. At the moment, there is a mechanism which stops women from bleeding when they are 55 and males produce less sperms when they are older and can’t become fathers. Now, whether those factors will change – I don’t know. It is possible if you make genetic changes that can actually extend the bleeding period, so that you can have children when you are 200-years-old. But I don’t know. That hasn’t been discussed as far as I know. All they are looking at is the way of stopping the increased inefficiency of cell replacement in very old people so that your body stays younger. Whether it stays younger reproductively – I don’t know.
West Bengal by-elections has become 70:30 – with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) gaining at the expense of the Congress. Now out of the 10 assembly seats where by-elections are to be held on November 7, the TMC will contest seven seats and the Congress three. Earlier, TMC leaders had planned to leave all four north Bengal seats to the Congress, while keeping the six in the south for itself.
its share of popular hill stations. Darjeeling and Shillong in the east, Shimla, Nainital and Mussoorie in the north, Ooty and Kodaikanal in the south and Mahabaleshwar and Lonavala in the west, to name a few, attract travellers and leisure-seekers virtually round the year. These corners in the mountains are surrounded by awesome natural beauty. They are dotted with streams, waterfalls, neo-Gothic churches, elegant bungalows and awe-inspiring vice-regal lodges.
barriers to success. Lord Ganesha is invoked before one starts anything new in life or business. Praveen Jaganath Naik, Trustee, Siddhivinayak Temple, says, “We don’t remember our grandparents'names. But we can never forget the name of Ganesha." Ganesh Chaturthi has its origins at the beginning of Sanatana Dharma, usually known as Hinduism. However, the festival took its present form in 1893 when Lokmanya Tilak, the social reformer, initiated it. “Tilak recognised the wide appeal of Ganesh and popularised Ganesh Chaturthi as a national festival," says Naik. Tilak wanted the festival to facilitate community involvement in the form of intellectual discourse, poetry recitals, plays and concerts at a time when the British rulers prohibited political and social gatherings. 
freedom struggle. The first revolutionary who fasted to death was Jatindra Nath Das. In 1929, he was being tried in Lahore Jail, where demanding equal jail rights for Indian prisoners, he started his Fast Unto Death. He continued his struggle despite all odds and finally died after 63 days of fasting. 
then you must pay a visit to Dharward. In Lokapur, 30 kilometres from Dharwad, lives the ‘Narasinganavar Family’. This family, which traces its lineage back to the 16th century, consists of as many as 140 members. All of them stay in a single house. Speaking to TSI, Manju Narasinganavar, one of the family members, says “It is fun to be at home. It is like celebration every day”. Agriculture is the main source of income for this family and they together own about 300 acres of land. As they live far away, they have taken a house in Dharwad exclusively for their children’s education. Here they don’t feel suffocated, neither do they yearn for privacy. Though many of the in-laws stay here, as Manju says, “patience is the key to the success of our family ties”.
forever. Distinguished by their fabric, weaves, prints and embellishments, the first definite mention of saris in the written form comes in the Mahabharata in the episode of Draupadi’s disrobing while the bust of a priest wearing a drape dated to the Indus Valley civilisation is the foremost pictorial depiction of the garment. The sari can be draped variously (Dravidian, Kodagu, Gond, Bengali to mention a few) but the most popular variant is the modern nivi which originated in Andhra Pradesh. Saris bear strong regional identification (Chanderis of Madhya Pradesh, Aranis of Tamil Nadu, the self explanatory Benarsi silk, the Balucharis of West Bengal and the Gadwals of Andhra Pradesh) and have even crossed over to foreign lands to inspire some truly weird designs (think Zandra Rhodes).
be comfortable with the term Bollywood. Its roots lie in an event that goes back a couple of decades. Ram Lakhan was ready for release when a devastating earthquake struck a part of India. The government requested me to turn the premiere of the film into a fund-raising show. I readily agreed. The Mumbai premiere was a runaway success, so we decided to replicate it in other cities. The event took on the dimensions of a full-fledged road show with high doses of glitz and glamour thrown in. The stars would appear in full finery, in tuxedos and bow-ties. The ladies, too would be designer togs topped off with sparkling jewellery and striking accessories.
I had the dream to capture these amazing camel scenes from above. But I had to wait for the last two days of my last trip to achieve that goal. It was always too hot, too dusty, without any wind. But the thrill was always there. Hanging around these beasts, from the first ray of the sun till the last, expecting some breeze to lift my kite. Finally that magic moment came, and my flying camera could become an unusual and privileged witness. A few feet above the heads, as silent as a butterfly.