Andhra Pradesh CM Dead in chopper crash.Centre gearing up to launch a major offensive against Maoists
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 363
Palash Biswas
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
SR dead, body recovered from crash site
It's
official. Twenty four hours after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S
Rajasekhara Reddy disappeared while on his way from Hyderabad to
Chittoor in AP, his body has been retrieved from the site atop a hill
in the thickly forested area of Nallamala where his helicopter
crash-landed.
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Charting the route YSR took - where did the chopper go?
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Agencies
Posted: Sep 02, 2009 at 1754 hrs IST
Hyderabad
Following is the blow by blow account of the missing helicopter of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy:
• 08:35 AM - Twin-engine Bell 430 AP government helicopter carrying the Chief Minister takes off from old Begumpet airport.
• The helicopter, also carrying Chief Minister's
Principal Secretary S Subramanyam and Chief Security Officer A S C
Wesley, heads for Chitoor district.
• 09:35 AM - Helicopter, flown by two
pilots, loses contact while possibly flying over Nallamala forest
ranges, a stronghold of the Naxalites, in the Rayalaseema region.
• Prime Minister's Office, Union Home Ministry and
Defence Ministry alerted. Office of Congress President Sonia Gandhi in
touch with the state government.
• Four helicopters, including three belonging to
IAF pressed into search operations, but no contact established because
of strong winds and inclement weather.
• Two helicopters from Hakimpet air command in
Secunderabad return because of inclement weather, while three from
Bangalore air command and one privatehelicopter from Nellore were
involved in search operations.
• An unmanned aerial vehicle from the Defence Ministry also pressed into service.
• 04:00 PM - Finance Minister K Rosaiah addresses press conference to say no word on the Chief Minister.
• Time for carrying out search operations running out as sunset approaches.
• Home Minister P Chidambaram personally monitoring the situation in Delhi.
• Congress President Sonia Gandhi expresses concern
in Delhi over the disappearance of the helicopter and monitors the
developments.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Charting-the-route-YSR-took-where-did-the-chopper-go/511441/
Last message: 'We are climbing 550...'
TNN
CHENNAI:
"Victor Tango Alpha Pappa Golf calling Chennai radio. We are from Hyderabad
heading for Chittoor. Departed Begumpet at. We are climbing
Expected time of arrival at Chittoor." "Roger."
That was the last radio
communication between the pilot of the fateful helicopter carrying Andhra
Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy and the Flight Information Region
(FIR) in Chennai. That was around 9.10 am. After a few minutes, the pilot
radioed the Hyderabad control that he would be in contact with Chennai,
following which Hyderabad handed over the control to the Chennai FIR.
"We haven't heard anything
from the chopper after that," an air traffic official privy to the last
communication told TOI, explaining the fire-fighting that followed. According to
protocol, if no communication is received from an aircraft 30 minutes after its
control is handed over to an FIR, the centre goes about plotting three phases:
Uncertainty phase, alert phase and distress phase, each at an interval of 30
minutes.
Hearing nothing from
the chopper, which was to communicate using a high frequency radio (HF), Chennai
FIR kept switching between two HF radios, 6655 KHz and 8909 KHz. "Chennai radio
calling Victor Tango Alpha Pappa Golf. Are you reading?" No reply. FIR then
tuned into the very high frequency (VHF) band of 123.4 MHz, usually used for
communication between pilots.
"We wanted to see if the pilot
lost our frequency and was trying some other pilot. When there was still no
reply, we tried the universal emergency frequency 121.5 MHz, to which any pilot
in an emergency situation is expected to tune in. That too drew a blank," the
source said.
FIR then
initiated the 'uncertainty phase' and sent out signals to all air traffir
control stations and airports in the vicinity such as Tirupati, Mangalore,
Visakhapatnam, Bangalore and Hyderabad about the missing chopper.
The 'alert phase' started
around 10.40 am and all the stations were called up to inquire about any signals
they received. The air traffir management and Airports Authority of India top
brass were then informed before going into the 'distress phase'. Subsequently,
the regional coordination centre attached to the FIR took over the case.
Did Naxals hit YSR's chopper?
ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: A snag in YSR’s
helicopter is not the only possibility on the security agencies’ mind as
they investigate the reasons behind the chief
disappearance over Nallamala forests en route to Chittoor. The presence of
battle-hardened Naxalites, who have had Mr Reddy on their hit list, in the
heavily-forested area is equally worrying for the agencies, especially with
reports suggesting that the Maoist rebels have of late acquired anti-aircraft
guns.
So the possibility of the Naxalites succeeding in laying hands
on the Andhra chief minister may well be a subject matter of probe behind his
going missing. The questions to be asked are: Were the Naxals in the know of
arrival of Mr Reddy and decided to lay a trap and target his chopper? Did the
extremists fire at the chopper, causing it to come down? Is Mr Reddy in the
custody of the Naxalites, or, worse still, a victim?
Mr Reddy was on
the CPI (Maoist) hit list for his tough stance in dealing with the Naxalite
elements in his state. In fact, Andhra Pradesh, with its highly successful Grey
Hounds model, was often cited by the Centre as an example for the other
extremism-hit states to follow in crushing the Naxalites.
Over the
years, Left-wing extremist violence has steadily declined in Andhra Pradesh.
Naxalism-related incidents recorded in the state until June 30, 2009, were just
34 and deaths 10, as compared to 92 incidents and 46 deaths in the whole of
2008. Even the 2008 figures of incidents and deaths were lower than 2007 at 138
and 45, respectively, which, in turn, was also a decline as compared to 183
incidents and 47 deaths in 2006.
In YSR’s own words —
spoken as part of his speech to the chief minister’s meet on internal
security here on August 17 — the successes of the Special Intelligence
Bureau (SIB) in securing information about top-ranking cadre and as the nodal
agency for anti-extremist policy and of the Grey Hounds “have been
significant”.
“Many top underground leaders were
arrested or killed in encounters with police due to efforts of SIB... Similarly,
the Grey Hounds could neutralise several armed squads in the forest
areas,” Mr Reddy had informed PM during his address to the CMs’ meet
last month.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4966177.cms
Naxalite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Map showing the districts where the Naxalite movement is active
Naxalite or Naxalism is an informal name given to communist groups that were born out of the Sino-Soviet split in the communist movement in India. Ideologically they belong to various trends of Maoism. Initially the movement had its centre in West Bengal. In recent years, they have spread into less developed areas of rural central and eastern India, such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist).[1] They are conducting an insurgency, typically called the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency. Naxals hold sway in about 180 districts across ten states of India[2] accounting for about 40 percent of India's geographical area,[3] They are are especially concentrated in an area known as the "Red corridor", where they control 92,000 square kilometers.[3] According to India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, 20,000 Naxalites were in April 2006 in operation,[4] and their growing influence prompted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare them as the most serious threat to India's national security.[5]
The CPI (Maoist) and some other Naxal factions are now considered terrorists by the Government of India.[6]
In February 2009, Central government announced its plans for
simultaneous, co-ordinated counter-operations in all Left-wing
extremism-hit states—Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, to plug all possible
escape routes of Naxalites.[7]
|
[edit] History
The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal
led a violent uprising in 1967, trying to develop a "revolutionary
opposition" in opposition to the CPI(M) leadership. The insurrection
started on May 25, 1967 in Naxalbari village when a peasant was
attacked by hired hands over a land dispute. Local peasants retaliated
by attacking the local landlords and the violence escalated.[6] Majumdar greatly admired Mao Zedong of China
and advocated that Indian peasants and lower classes must follow in his
footsteps and overthrow the government and upper classes whom he held
responsible for their plight. He engendered the Naxalite movement
through his writings, the most famous being the 'Historic Eight Documents' which formed the basis of Naxalite ideology.[8] In 1967 'Naxalites' organized the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
(AICCCR), and later broke away from CPI(M). Uprisings were organized in
several parts of the country. In 1969 AICCCR gave birth to Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
Practically all Naxalite groups trace their origin to the CPI(ML). A separate tendency from the beginning was the Maoist Communist Centre, which evolved out of the Dakshin Desh-group. MCC later fused with People's War Group to form Communist Party of India (Maoist). A third tendency is that of the Andhra revolutionary communists, which was mainly presented by UCCRI(ML), following the mass line legacy of T. Nagi Reddy. That tendency broke with AICCCR at an early stage.
During the 1970s the movement was fragmented into several disputing
factions. By 1980 it was estimated that around 30 Naxalite groups were
active, with a combined membership of 30 000.[9]
A 2004 home ministry estimate puts numbers at that time as "9,300
hardcore underground cadre… [holding] around 6,500 regular weapons
beside a large number of unlicensed country-made arms".[10]
According to Judith Vidal-Hall (2006), "More recent figures put the
strength of the movement at 15,000, and claim the guerrillas control an
estimated one fifth of India's forests, as well as being active in 160
of the country's 604 administrative districts."[11] India's Research and Analysis Wing, believed in 2006 that 20,000 Naxals are currently involved in the growing insurgency[4]
Today some groups have become legal organisations participating in parliamentary elections, such as Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. Others, such as Communist Party of India (Maoist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti, are engaged in armed guerrilla struggles
[edit] Bengal insurgency
The Naxalites gained a strong presence amongst the radical sections of the students movement in Calcutta.[12]
Large number of students left their education to join revolutionary
activities. Majumdar adjusted the tactics of CPI(ML), and claimed that
the revolutionary warfare was to take place not only in the rural areas
but everywhere and spontaneously. Thus Majumdar's 'annihilation line',
a dictum that Naxalites should assassinate individual "class enemies"
as a part of the insurrection was put into practice not only against
landlords, but also against university teachers, police officers,
politicians and others.
Throughout Calcutta, schools were shut down. Naxalite students took over Jadavpur University and used the machine shop facilities to make pipe guns to fight the police. Their headquarters became Presidency College, Kolkata. They are also presumed to have assassinated the vice chancellor of Jadavpur University, Dr. Gopal Sen.[13]
The Naxalites soon found ardent supporters among the educated elite,
and Delhi's prestigious St. Stephen's College, alma mater of many
contemporary Indian leaders and thinkers, became a hotbed of Naxalite
activities.
The strategy of individual terrorism soon proved counterproductive. Eventually, the Chief Minister, Siddhartha Shankar Ray,
began to institute counter-measures against the Naxalites. The police
are accused of several civil and human rights violations on the
Naxalites, including detention without counsel, torture, and staged
shootouts.
In a matter of months, the Naxal uprising was quelled. The view of
the police and the state was that the only language the Naxals
understood was that of deadly force. They also argued that effectively
the state was fighting a civil war with these communists and democratic
pleasantries had no place in a war, especially when the opponent did
not fight within the norms of democracy and civility. This insurrection
tarnished the image of the radical Maoists and their support dwindled.[6]
Moreover, the movement was torn about by internal disputes. Large
sections began to question Majumdar's line of struggle. In 1971 CPI(ML)
was split in two, as Satyanarayan Singh revolted against Majumdar's leadership. In 1972 Majumdar was captured and died in police custody in Alipore Jail. After his death the fragmentation of the movement accelerated.
Lalgarh,
West Bengal had emerged as a region close to coming completely under
control of the Naxalites after the group threw out the local police and
staged random attacks against ruling communist government in late May
2009. The region became increasingly under assualt by Maoist guerillas.
The state government initiated a huge operation with federal
paramilitary forces and state armed police to retake Lalgarh in early
June. Maoist leader Kishenji claimed in an interview that the mass
Naxalite movement in Lalgarh in 2009 aimed at creating a 'liberated
zone' against "oppression of the establishment Left and its police" has
given them a major base in West Bengal for the first time since the
Naxalite uprising was crushed in the mid-1970s and that "We will have
an armed movement going in Calcutta by 2011". [14]
[edit] Cultural references
| Organizations listed as terrorist groups by India |
|---|
| Northeastern India |
| National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) Naga National Council-Federal (NNCF) National Council of Nagaland-Khaplang United Liberation Front of Asom People's Liberation Army Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) Zomi Revolutionary Front |
| Kashmir |
| Lashkar-e-Toiba Jaish-e-Mohammed Hizbul Mujahideen Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Farzandan-e-Milat United Jihad Council Al-Qaeda Students Islamic Movement of India |
| North India |
| Babbar Khalsa Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan Communist Party of India (Maoist) Dashmesh Regiment International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) Kamagata Maru Dal of Khalistan Khalistan Armed Force Khalistan Liberation Force Khalistan Commando Force Khalistan Liberation Army Khalistan Liberation Front Khalistan Liberation Organisation Khalistan National Army Khalistan Guerilla Force Khalistan Security Force Khalistan Zindabad Force Shaheed Khalsa Force |
| Central India |
| People's war group Balbir militias Naxals Ranvir Sena |
The British musical group Asian Dub Foundation have a song called Naxalite. This song was part of the soundtrack to the 1999 film Brokedown Palace. In 2005 a movie called Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi directed by Sudhir Mishra was released with the backdrop of Naxalite movement. In August 2008, Kabeer Kaushik's Chamku starring Bobby Deol and Priyanka Chopra explored the story of a boy who takes arms against the state.
There is a reference to a character, in the novel, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, joining with the Naxalites.
The 1998 film Haazar chaurasi ki Maa (based on the novel, "Hazar Churashir Maa" by Mahasweta Devi) (Mother of 1084-the number assigned to her son) starring Jaya Bachchan
gives a very sympathetic portrayal of a Naxalbari militant killed by
the state.The 2009 malayalam movie 'Thalappavu' portrays the story of
Naxal Varghese, who was shot dead by the police during the 70s.
The Kannada movie Veerappa Nayaka directed by S.Narayan portrays Vishnuvardhan - a Gandhian with his son becoming a Naxalite. The 2007 Kannada movie Maathaad Maathaadu Mallige directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar again portrays Vishnuvardhan as a Gandhian, confronting a Naxalite Sudeep showing that although the ways adopted by naxals will lead to violence only and will not achieve its objective.
Eka Nakshalwadya Cha Janma, (Marathi: The birth of a Naxal), a novel written by Vilas Balkrishna Manohar, a volunteer with the Lok Biradari Prakalp, is a fictional account of a Madia Gond Juru's unwilling journey of life his metamorphosis from an exploited nameless tribal to a Naxal.[15]
[edit] Deaths related to violence
Violence has peaked in India from Maoist or Naxalite separatist
violence being more dangerous to India's national security than either
Pakistan, or insurgents in Kashmir and north-east states.
From the Ministry of Home Affairs it has been stated that:
- 1996: 156 deaths [16]
- 1997: 428 deaths[16]
- 1998: 270 deaths[16]
- 1999: 363 deaths[16]
- 2000: 50 deaths[16]
- 2001: 100+ deaths[16]
- 2002: 140 deaths[16]
- 2003: 451 deaths[16]
- 2004: 500+ deaths[16]
- 2005: 892 deaths
- 2006: 749 deaths
- 2007: (as of September 30, 2007) 384 deaths[17]
(related to Naxalite insurgency)[18]
- 2008: 938 casualties (including 38 Maoists).[19]
- 2009: Naxalites separatists struck at the first phase of elections
on 16 April, 2009 in Bihar, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand killing 18
civilians and security forces. Later, on 23 April, 2009, they also
struck in the second phase of polling in Jamshedpur and surrounding
areas in Jharkhand injuring several member of the polling party. May
2009: 16 police die in suspected Maoist attack [21]
The BBC maintains that upwards of 6,000 people have died in the Naxal uprising.[5]
[edit] See also
- Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
- Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)
- Salwa Judum
- Compact Revolutionary Zone
[edit] References
- ^ Ramakrishnan, Venkitesh (2005-09-21). "The Naxalite Challenge". Frontline Magazine (The Hindu). http://www.flonnet.com/fl2221/stories/20051021006700400.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ Handoo, Ashook. "Naxal Problem needs a holistic approach". Press Information Bureau. http://www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=50833. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- ^ a b "Rising Maoists Insurgency in India". Global Politician. 2007-01-15. http://globalpolitician.com/22790-india. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^ a b Philip Bowring Published: TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2006 (2006-04-18). "Maoists who menace India". International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/17/opinion/edbowring.php. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^ a b "South Asia | Senior Maoist 'arrested' in India". BBC News. 2007-12-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7151552.stm. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^ a b c Diwanji, A. K. (2003-10-02). "Primer: Who are the Naxalites?". Rediff.com. http://us.rediff.com/news/2003/oct/02spec.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ Co-ordinated operations to flush out Naxalites soon Economic Times, Feb 6, 2009.
- ^ Hindustan Times: History of Naxalism
- ^ Singh, Prakash. The Naxalite Movement in India. New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 1999. p. 101.
- ^ Quoted in Judith Vidal-Hall, "Naxalites", p. 73–75 in Index on Censorship, Volume 35, Number 4 (2006). Quoted on p. 74.
- ^ Judith Vidal-Hall, "Naxalites", p. 73–75 in Index on Censorship, Volume 35, Number 4 (2006). p. 74.
- ^ Judith Vidal-Hall, "Naxalites", p. 73–75 in Index on Censorship, Volume 35, Number 4 (2006). p. 73.
- ^ "Mrs. Gandhi's Gamble". Time Magazine. 1971-01-11. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876849-2,00.html. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8127869.stm
- ^ "Who's who of Indian Writers, 1999 By K. C. Dutt, Sahitya Akademi". Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=QA1V7sICaIwC&pg=PA723&lpg=PA723&dq=vilas+manohar+writer&source=web&ots=iZo851RPGh&sig=uEHP-KtmRvUV1iO8KLsoKHx9ccU&hl=en&ei=e-ucSeCrOo_akAWtjPiiBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^ "Asian Centre for Human Rights". Achrweb.org. http://www.achrweb.org/ncm/ncm.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^ "Reuters AlertNet - Indian Maoist violence". Alertnet.org. http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/IN_MAO.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^
Govt. of India " the number of incidents of violence and
police/civilian casualties were 1435 and 658 as compared to 1420 and
636 for the corresponding period of the year 2007"[1] - ^ www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/IB93-Kujur-Naxal.pdf
- ^ [2]
[edit] Further reading
- Naxalite Politics in India, by J. C. Johari, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, New Delhi, . Published by Research Publications, 1972.
- The Naxalite Movement, by Biplab Dasgupta. Published by , 1974.
- The Naxalite Movement: A Maoist Experiment, by Sankar Ghosh. Published by Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1975. ISBN 0883865688.
- The Naxalite Movement in India: Origin and Failure of the Maoist Revolutionary Strategy in West Bengal, 1967-1971, by Sohail Jawaid. Published by Associated Pub. House, 1979.
- In the Wake of Naxalbari: A History of the Naxalite Movement in India, by Sumanta Banerjee. Published by Subarnarekha, 1980.
- India's Simmering Revolution: The Naxalite Uprising, by Sumanta Banerjee. Published by Zed Books, 1984. ISBN 0862320372.
- Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement, by Edward Duyker. Published by Oxford University Press, 1987.
- The Naxalite Movement in India, by Prakash Singh. Published by Rupa, 1995. ISBN 8171672949.
[edit] External links
- Edward Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement
- naxal terror Watch
- Naxal Revolution
- 'History of Naxalism', Hindustan Times
- Maoist Resistance (pro-Naxal Blog - The former blog at Resistance India has been hacked )
- Naxal Terror Watch (anti-Naxalite, alleges that Naxalites are supported by both Pakistan and China)
- India's Naxalite Rage (neutral blog that provides analysis of the tactics and strategy of the Naxals by Shlok Vaidya)
- India's Forgotten War (neutral blog analysing Naxalite insurgency)
- Status Paper on the Naxalite problem - South Asia Terrorism Portal
- West Bengal, districts affected by Naxalite violence - South Asia Terrorism Portal
- Economist magazine article
- Guardian article
- Vice article
- Naxal Issues page of Peoples Website of Chhattisgarh
- Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country (Hardcover)
- Stop the Battle, Start the War by Samar Halarnkar, Hindustan Times, April 19 2009
Is government over-pricing PSU IPOs? 3 Sep 2009, 0545 hrs IST, Reeba Zachariah & Partha Sinha, TNN |
MUMBAI: The market gave
a lukewarm response to NHPC when its listed on Tuesday. This came despite the
buzz created around the issue which was in the true sense of the term a PSU
divestment after a gap of over 18 months. Compared to its IPO price of Rs 36,
the scrip was listed at Rs 39 on BSE and finally settled at Rs 36.70, a
listing-day gain of just about 2%.
Although merchant bankers
associated with the issue said it is a long-term bet, the not-so-enthusiastic
listing of NHPC is also leading to doubts in some quarters if the issue was
priced aggressively. If you consider one of the most widely accepted valuation
parameters — price to earnings (P/E) ratio — the answer is yes.
A look at the record of the
past seven years, starting from the now-famous Maruti divestment in 2003, one
sees that NHPC shares were offered at a P/E of 38.3, the highest in the 24
divestments, including follow-ons and bank IPOs, during the period under
consideration.
The Oil India
IPO, which opens next week in the Rs 950-1 ,050 price band, is at a P/E of a
little over 10 at the higher end of the band.
A TOI analysis of PSU
divestments since the Maruti issue in 2003 indicate that the government's
pricing strategy has been changing with time and it doesn't want its enterprises
to be undervalued . Says Dina Mehta, former BSE president and MD of Asit C Mehta
Investment Intermediaries , ‘‘ Since public sector units are created
out of taxpayers' money, the benefit (its IPO) should also benefit them. Their
issues should not be fully priced in a bid to attract mass participation.''
An IPO, especially
from the government stable, is mainly intended to give people , mainly retail
investors, ownership of state-run units and leave something on the table for
investors. In India, bulk of an issue is dominated by qualified institutional
buyers with 60% of an issue allotted to this group as against 30% for retail
investors , if the dilution is less than 25%.
Merchant bankers say
investment horizon and pricing preference for QIBs appear to be at odds with the
preference of retail investors. Among other things, pricing is determined by the
feedback of institutional investors during the issue's premarketing exercise.
Back in mid- '80s, the UK
government under Margaret Thatcher applied the popular saying, you attract
‘more' bees with honey, to her privatisation programmes. It set the IPO
price of British Telecom — UK's first government entity to go public
— artificially low so that it benefited its citizens. The result: Over two
million small investors applied for the company's shares. Some, have a different
take. Mehul Savla, who runs his own transactions advisory firm, RippleWave
Equity, said, ‘‘ It is a notion. Pricing of an issue is more to do
with market timing.''
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Is-government-over-pricing-PSU-IPOs-/articleshow/4966304.cms
Prime Ministers Office declared on Thursday that Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy died in an air crash.The bodies of 60-year-old
Reddy, who led his Congress party to a spectacular second consecutive victory in
the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, and his Special Secretary P Subramanyam, chief
security officer A S C Wesley, pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot M S
Reddy were found on Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles east of here, besides the
mangled remains of the helicopter.
Highly placed Congress sources in
Delhi said that the bodies have been found and an official statement is expected
shortly.
The bodies of 60-year-old Reddy, who led
his Congress party to a spectacular second consecutive victory in the
Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, and his Special Secretary P Subramanyam,
Chief Secretary A S C Wesley, pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and
co-pilot M S Reddy were found on Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles
east of here, besides the mangled remains of the helicopter.
There was no official confirmation of the deaths,
but highly placed Congress sources in Delhi said that the bodies have
been found. An official statement is expected shortly.
The news of the tragedy filtered out after a
meeting of the Congress core group at the Prime Minister's house but
fears grew since last night when search operations to locate the
chopper were unsuccessful.
Exactly 24 hours after it went missing losing
radio contact at 0930 hrs, Air Force helicopters from Bangalore on
Thursday located the wreckage of the chopper on the Rudrakonda Hill, 70
kms from east of Kurnool.
The helicopter took off at 0835 hrs from the old Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad yesterday.
Air Commodore Sagar Bharti of the Bangalore air
command announced the location of the chopper but gave no indication of
the fate of passengers.
He said two helicopters were making attempts to land in the area.
However, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai gave
indications that the 11-year-old Bell 430 helicopter could have
crashed. The Air Force rescue team were attempting to land para
commandos through ropes to access the area.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, senior ministers Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P
Chidambaram and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel met in the core
group to discuss the situation in the wake of the death of the powerful
Congress leader in Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S.R Reddy was killed after his
helicopter crashed in a dense swathe of forest known to be a stronghold
of Maoist rebels, Indian television channels reported.
Rescuers on Thursday found the helicopter after it went missing for almost 24 hours, officials said.
"I am extremely shocked…," Andhra Pradesh Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari told the Times Now news channel.
"It is a very sad day," he said.
Reddy was on a tour of a rural district when his Bell-430 helicopter went missing on Wednesday over a dense jungle.
The Union Cabinet is meeting to discuss the matter.
With the Centre gearing up to launch a major offensive against Maoists in
coordination with the states, Union home minister P
next week and review the operational strategy chalked out by security forces for
Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand.
Chidambaram in consultation with
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is likely to give the go ahead to the much
awaited joint operation planned by central security forces for the state and
Jharkhand when the duo will meet in Patna.
Sources in the ministry
said the home minister held detailed discussions on the joint operation strategy
with CRPF chief A S Gill and other senior officials here on
Thursday.
It was decided in the meeting that the forces in Jharkhand,
which is being currently ruled by the Centre due as President's rule is in force
there, would seek help from the Bihar Police in keeping a close watch on the
state border so that the Red ultras cannot flee during the proposed offensives,
the sources said.
Similar operations against CPI (Maoist) -- termed
by the home ministry as an organised group of terrorists -- are simultaneously
planned for neighbouring West Bengal and Orissa, involving CRPF personnel,
anti-naxal force (CoBRA) battalions and the respective state
police.
Meanwhile, reacting to the ongoing mayhem created by Red
ultras in Jharkhand where they have been brutally killing civilians including
women and children, the home ministry on Friday said that it would take strong
action against the perpetrators of violence and terror.
The ministry
in a statement said: "The incident shows the true face of the Naxalites who
resort to indiscriminate and motiveless killing including the killing of
innocent children to achieve the goal of their so-called `armed-struggle'. Such
wanton killings are intended to instill fear in the minds of the common
people."
Strongly condemning such wanton and brutal acts of killings
of innocent civilians in the past few days, it said: "These are to be seen as
desperate attempts by the Naxalites to take control of common citizens. We
should be aware that the true face of the CPI (Maoist) is that of an organized
group of terrorists."
Apart from such inhuman acts, the Naxalites
remain anti-development and continue to target the very instruments of
development -- school buildings, roads, mobile phone towers and railway
stations, it said.
Trade ministers will meet in New Delhi this week to inject new
impetus into the faltering Doha round trade talks in the run-up to the
G20 summit in Pittsburgh.
The aim, according to host India, is to "re-energise" the Doha
talks, now in their eighth year, and set a timetable for completion,
rather than engaging in substantive negotiations.
"As the objective is to resume and intensify the Doha Round
negotiations, technical discussions are not envisaged. The discussion
will mainly focus on the best way to spark the multilateral
negotiations to move the round to a quick closure," India said in a
position paper obtained by Reuters.
But some of the main players may use the Sept. 3-4 meeting,
preceded by talks on Sept. 2 by senior officials, to try to make
progress on some of the thorniest issues in the talks, launched in late
2001 by World Trade Organisation (WTO) members to boost the world
economy and help poor countries grow through trade.
The Pittsburgh summit is likely to see a Doha deal as part of the
cure for the global economic crisis as well as a bulwark against
protectionism.
Many self-imposed deadlines have come and gone in the Doha talks as
rich and poor states and exporters and importers fought over opening
markets and protecting sensitive industries.
But diplomats said the most likely outcome of the Delhi talks would be an agreement to aim for a deal some time in 2010.
For the major trade players one challenge is to align the
contentious Doha talks with the political cycle -- such as the U.S.
midterm elections and Brazil's presidential election in 2010, the
arrival of a new European Commission this year and the impact of the
possible adoption of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.
The government would dilute
22 per cent of its stake in Oil India Ltd which is coming out with an Initial
Public Offer.
OIL Executive director N Bhalla told reporters at the
company's roadshow here today that post IPO, government holding in the PSU would
come down to 78 per cent.
The PSU is hitting the market on September
seven with 26,449,982 equity shares on an offer within a price band of Rs 950
and Rs 1,050 per equity share.
Bhalla said the company would start
drilling operations in Libya in October this year. Production at the Iran
oilfield would start in 2013, he said.
The issue would close on
September 10.
The helicopter carrying YSR Reddy, two of his staff and two pilots
went missing in pouring rain Wednesday morning over the Naxal and tiger-infested
Nalamalla forests.
Nearly 24 hours after YSR's chopper went missing,
it was located atop Serai Salem hill, at a distance 40 nautical miles (70 kms)
east of Kurnool.
The CM left Hyderabad on a six-seater Bell chopper
at 8.35am for Chittoor accompanied by his secretary and chief security officer.
After 9.27am, radio contact was lost with the helicopter.
Soon after
the chopper lost contact, multiple agencies of the state launched a massive hunt
for possible wreckage in the desolate terrain. By evening, it expanded into the
country's biggest-ever search operation with satellites in the sky joining
remote sensing aircraft, fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, troops on the
ground and even barefoot deer-hunting tribals with bows and arrows.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday
convened an emergency meeting with Home Minister P. Chidambaram and
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee after the helicopter carrying Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was traced in the state's
Nallamalla forest.The
Union Home Ministry has ordered paratroopers to immediately airdrop
themselves at the location where the missing chopper carrying Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajshekhera Reddy and four others is
stationed about 40 nautical miles east of the Kurnool mountaineous area.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said he talked to
Andhra Pradesh's Finance Minster K.Rosiah regarding the tragic incident
of the State CM Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy.
Details of the
meeting were unavailable but senior home ministry officials told IANS
that the prime minister was briefed on the operation in the tough
terrain and the difficulty of search parties in reaching the spot where
the mangled Bell helicopter 430 was found.
The fate of the chief minister and four others remain uncertain.
"It is going to take some time to reach the hilltop and to find out if there was indeed a crash landing," said an official.
Para commandos have also been roped in the search operations.
The
helicopter was traced Thursday morning, 24 hours after it went missing
in the dense Nallamalla forests in Kurnool district, according to
defence officials.
The helicopter, carrying the chief
minister, his special secretary, chief security officer and two pilots,
took off from Hyderabad at 8.35 a.m. Wednesday for Chittoor district.
Around 9.45 a.m., the chopper lost contact with air traffic control.
The Chhattisgarh Government on
Wednesday placed a demand for grant of Rs 94.22 crore from the Central
Government to develop educational facilities in the Maoist- affected
areas.
According to State Government sources, Chief Minister Raman Singh
himself put the demand before Union Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal
Bhuria when the duo met here.
According to sources, Singh also submitted the details of assistance anticipated by the State Government to Bhuria.
Singh
informed Bhuria that Chattisgarh needed central's assistance mainly for
construction of some 218 ashram schools, sources said.
State
Government is also looking for the assistance to the programmes of
job-oriented training to the unemployed tribal youths and constructing
houses for the tribals," sources added.
The State Tribal Welfare
Department-run ashram schools are basically residential schools where
all the needs of the students will be looked after by the state
government.
Unfortunately many of the Ashram Schools became the
victims of Maoist attacks, especially in the Bastar region where the
red ultras are in dominating position.
The red rebels demolished
dozens of such school buildings in the interiors of Bastar region,
which is spread out over 40,000 sq km.
The Maoist claims that
they blow up the school complexes because they provided shelter to the
forces involved in anti-naxal operations, sources said.
While fighter
jets and low-flying aircraft of Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) are hovering over the forest area to capture images, on the
ground the tribals have joined army and police personnel in the search
operations.
Familiar with the difficult terrain in one of the
biggest forests in India, tribals are lending a helping hand to the
authorities. The government had already made an appeal to people living
in the forests to help in the search.
At least 14 teams of
Chenchu tribals who inhabit the forest area in Kurnool district have
fanned out in different directions to trace the missing chopper.
"The
tribals are more familiar with the exit routes. They can help the chief
minister and others who might have been stranded in the dense forests
after landing," said Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K. Rosaiah, who is
overseeing the search operations.
Even some surrendered Maoists
among the tribals are helping the authorities. Since the forest area
was a key stronghold of Maoists till about four years ago, they know
the inhospitable terrain better than anybody else.
The tribals
are accompanied by the personnel of Greyhounds, the elite anti-Maoist
force of the state police and the anti-terrorist force OCTOPUS.
These
forces were pressed into service to deal with any Maoist movement in
the forests. Though the Maoist activity in the region has come down
drastically in recent years due to successful operations by police, the
authorities did not want to take any chances.
Nallamalla forests are spread over four districts - Kurnool, Mahabubnagar, Guntur and Prakasam.
Known as a people's leader for his several initiatives for their welfare, Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was on
another mass contact programme when the helicopter carrying him went missing in
the dense Nallamalla forests, before it was found nearly 24 hours later
Thursday.
It was only around 5 a.m. Wednesday that senior police
officials in Chittoor district were informed by the chief minister that he would
be visiting Anuppalle village to launch 'Racchabanda' programme.
A
day after the budget session of state assembly concluded, YSR, as the chief
minister is popularly known, chose a remote village in Anuppalle to launch the
programme of surprise visits to villages to know people's
problems.
"I want to know the problems in village through this
surprise visit and want to have a direct interaction with the villagers. I told
them (the officials) only at 5 a.m. that I will be visiting the village as they
have to make security arrangements," YSR said in his last interview before
boarding the helicopter here at 8.35 a.m. Wednesday.
"If I tell the
officials in advance about my visit they will rectify some problems and hence
this programme is being launched. The basic aim is to see whether the delivery
mechanisms of the government are working or not," he told Sakshi television
channel, which is run by his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.
"I want to
know how the concerned departments are working to deal with drought, whether
farmers are getting the required assistance, whether the village has drinking
water supply. I also want to see if there is any poor person who has not got a
ration card, house or pension. We have promised that every poor will get a house
and ration card," he said.
"This is a representative sample as I
can't visit all 20,000 villages in the state. I will go on such visits for three
to four days in a month and will cover four to five villages in a day," YSR had
said.
It was various such programmes taken up by him during last five
years that helped him retain power in the recent elections despite facing a
strong and united opposition alliance led by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Praja
Rajyam floated by actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi.
India on Soviet Union’s Path of Disintegration |
|---|
Kashmir Watch, Sep 2 By Sajjad Shaukat The former Soviet Union which had subjugated the minorities and ethnic groups in various provinces and regions through its military, disintegrated in 1991. Even its nuclear weapons could not save its collapse. One of the important causes of the disintegration of the Russian Empire was that its greater defence expenditure exceeded to the maximum, resulting in economic crises inside the country. In this regard, about a prolonged war in Afghanistan, the former President Gorbachev had declared it as the “bleeding wound.” However, militarisation of the Soviet Union failed in controlling the movements of liberation, launched by various ethnic nationalities. On the other hand, while learning no lesson from its previous close friend, India has been acting upon the similar policies in some other way, which led to the demise of the Soviet Union. For the last 25 years, India has been providing its military and intelligence agency RAW with huge funds in order to support insurgency, separatism and lawlessness in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhuttan, Sikkim and China. Although these covert activities vary from country to country, yet the same intensifies in case of Pakistan. In this respect, a well-established network of Indian army and RAW has been working to destabilise Pakistan by supporting insurgency in the Frontier Province and separatism in Balochistan. New Delhi has been spending huge money to train and equip the militants who have been entering Pakistan on daily basis and have been conducting suicide attacks in our country, and assaults on our security forces. Besides other regional countries, Indian secret operations inside Pakistan are being conducted with great professional skill, having mutiple tactics like propaganda, political dissent, ethnic divisions, economic backwardness and criminal elements to foment subversion so as to weaken our country in conssonance with Indian regional ambitions. Indian anti-Pakistan plan has also been endorsed by a 72-page white paper handed over to its Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the aftermath of Mumbai carnage. The paper, titled, War on Terror: The Agenda for Action, (Also available on the website of India Today) advised New Delhi to “exploit the divisions within Pakistan and expose its weaknesses in Balochistan, FATA and Azad Kashmir” including building of pressure on Islamabad especially by the US. Although, New Delhi has been backing the forces of separatism especially in Pakistan and China (Chinese Tibetan regions), yet like the former Soviet Union, it has been rapidly moving towards the destruction of the Indian union. No doubt, the former Russia was a totalitarian state which had controlled other ethnic minorities through various techniques of force. But under the mask of democracy and secularism, Indian subsequent regimes dominated by politicians from the Hindi heartland�Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) use brutal force ruthlessly against any move to free Assam, Kashmir, Khalistan, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Tripura where wars of liberation continue in one or the other form. Recently, Maoist intensified their struggle, attacking official installments. In this context, Indian media admitted that Maoists have now entered the cities, expanding their activities against the Indian union. In this connection, on August 24 this year, they blew up another railway track in Latehar, and bombed a mobile tower in neighbouring Palamu district. Train services were disrupted between Barwadih-Barkakana route following the incident. The CPI (Maoist) has claimed in a release that they have enforced the two-day shut down in Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh due to the arrest of its two senior members. As regards the Indian-held Kashmir, since 1947, India forces have been intermittently been employing all the possible techniques of military terrorism such as curfews, crackdowns, sieges, massacre, targeted killings etc. to maintain their alien rule. However, under the new puppet regime in the occupied Kashmir, Indian brutalities keeps on going against the current phase of Kashmiri uprising which began on August 12, 2008 when Indian forces killed Hurriyat Conference leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz. Post-Napoleonic era in Europe proves that it is not possible to suppress the wars of liberation through military terrorism. In that context, Prince Metternich, emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire did what he could by subjugating the alien peoples by employing every possible techniques of state terrorism. According to Indian historian, Mahahin, Matternich had to admit that he was fighting for a useless cause, and the empire disintegrated, resulting in the independence of Italy, Bulgaria and other states whose secret societies had been waging wars of liberation. In the recent past, despite the employment of unlimited atrocities by the President Milosevic, collapse of the former Yugoslavia could not be stopped. Every entity of South Asia is well-aware that even under the rule of Congress which claims to be a secular party, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shev Sina and Bajrang Dal have missed no opportunity to communalise national politics of India. Although violence against the other communities has been used by Hindu fundamentalists as a normal practice since partition, yet anti-Christian and anti-Muslim bloodshed in the last decade coupled with the dissemination of Hindutva has increased. Besides previous genocide of Muslims and destruction of the Babri Mosque, more than 2500 Muslims were massacred in 2002 in the BJP-ruled Indian state of Gujarat. On September 13, 2008, the communal riots in Uttar Pradesh killed more than 200 Muslims. In one of the most tragic incidents in Assam, Hindu extremists burnt alive six members of a Muslim family on October 12 last year. Similarly, assaults on Christians and their property have continued by the Hindu mobs in Orissa, Assam, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Even the year of 2009 witnessed a number of incidents of religious intolerance. In this respect, at least 60 Christians have been assassinated in the recent past by Hindu fundamentalists in the state of Orissa. Other minorities of India are also target of Hindu terrorism. It is notable that ideology of Hindu nationalism prevails in every field at the cost of other minorities groups. It is even supported by Indian defence forces clandestinely. This fact could be judged from the recent past, when on April 6, 2008 in the house of Bajrang Dal fundamentalists in Nanded, a bomb went off. The investigations proved that the militants belonging to the Bajrang Dal were found in the bomb-making and attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra arrested a serving Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit and a retired army Major Samir Kulkarniand along with two other culprits, indicating that these army officers were helping in training the Hindu terrorists, providing them with the military-grade explosive RDX, used in the Malegaon bombings and terrorist attacks in other Indian cities. ATS further disclosed that Lt. Col. Purohit confessed that in 2007 that he was involved in bombing of Samjhota express, which brunt alive 69 Pakistanis. Leaders of the Indian extremist parties, Shiv Sena, BJP, VHP and RSS are now pressurising the Congress regime to release the fugitives. Indian fundamentalism and mistreatment of religious minorities could be judged from a latest development. After serving the BJP for 30 years, Jaswant Singh was expelled from the party for praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah and echoing the pain of the Indian Muslims in his book, “Jinnah�India, Partition, Independence.” While pointing out the BJP’s attitude towards the minorities, Singh wrote: “Every Muslim that lives in India is a loyal Indian…look into the eyes of Indian Muslims and see the pain.” He warned in his book, if such a policy continued, “India could have third partition.” It is mentionable that provincial and regional disparities have been widening in India day by day as majority of Indian populations are living below the poverty level, lacking basic facilities like fresh food and clean water. While yielding to acute poverty, every day, some persons commit suicide in India. On the other side, New Delhi which recently decided 34 percent increase in its defence budget, signed the pact of civil nuclear technology with the US last year has been importing latest versions of arms and ammunition from Israel, America, Russia, Germany and other western countries. In the past, New Delhi which incurred huge amounts on advancement of its nuclear weapons and successfully tested missile, Agni-111in May 2007, has been extending its range. On July 27 this year, India launched its first nuclear-powered submarine. Returning to our earlier discussion, just like the Soviet Union, the artificial union of India which is maintained through militarisation of the country by incurring too much expenditure for importing arms, for subjugating minorities through force, for crushing wars of liberations with brutal tactics and for sponsoring insurgency in Pakistan, China, and other regional countries, is bound to result in disintegration. Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations. Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com Posted on 02 Sep 2009 by Webmaster http://www.kashmirwatch.com/showexclusives.php?subaction=showfull&id=1251937765&archive=&start_from=&ucat=15&var1news=value1news |
| Maoist's on & off honeymoon with India | |
|
Maoists were not part of the prime minister’s (PM) entourage; yet thanks to their on and off honeymoon with India, unofficial talks between the two sides mostly revolved around the Maoists during the PM’s recent India visit. Maoist’s relation with India was the warmest four years back when they entered into an alliance with the then seven parties at India’s behest. The alliance was formed to fight the direct rule of King Gyanendra who, defying the dictates of geo-politics and common sense, had antagonized India. In retrospect, the Indian establishment had provided safe haven to Maoist insurgents, albeit covertly. Indian policymakers knew that Nepali politicians were too weak, divided and inept to politically counter the Maoists. So, it was only prudent to recognize and use a force that was bound to emerge in the backyard rather than to confront, reject or ignore it. One may ask why then did India publicly tag the Maoists as terrorists. Well, that was to preclude international shame. The fact that the “terrorists” barely harmed or sabotaged Indian business interests in Nepal when they spared no other during their decade-long guerilla war speaks for itself. During their offensive, Maoists needed sanctuary as well as availability and safe passage of arms and ammunitions and India was the only country that could provide both. Anti-Indian rhetoric aside, the Maoists also realized that Indian cooperation was vital to reach and remain in Singha Durbar; thus the marriage of convenience. India had its own reasons to broker peace back in 2005; the main objective behind the 12-point peace accord was to bring the Maoists into the peace process, which was also anticipated to create a favorable demonstration effect on the Indian Maoists. Indian policymakers rate Maoist insurgency in India as the #2 security threat after Kashmiri separatism-Islamic terrorism nexus. They envisaged and analyzed that because of the socio-cultural homogeneity, politico-economic similarity and geographical proximity – success or course of Maoist movement in Nepal was bound to have significant impact on its Indian equivalent. Therefore they decided to steer Nepali Maoists on the road to peace and democracy with the expectation that their Indian counterparts would follow suit. When stronger and far more successful Nepali insurgents would switch to peaceful and democratic methods, the much weaker and less successful Indian equals would have no choice other than to follow the example, thus envisioned the Indian leaders. Despite their earlier successes, Nepali Maoists in the later stages craved for a dignified exit from their ‘people’s war’ as they were losing the battle to Nepal Army. On the other hand, weakened by their own incompetence and witch-hunted by King Gyanendra, leaders of Nepal’s seven mainstream parties were willing to join hands with Maoists to avenge the monarch. But this was not possible without Maoists renouncing violence, thus the signing of the peace accord between seven parties and the Maoists through the good offices of India. The Maoists were in the good books of India till they formed the government one year back. That they are not anymore and that they are out of power is not a coincidence. Meanwhile, many explanations, most of them China-centric, have surfaced with regard to India’s unhappiness with the Maoists—China’s increasingly active role in Nepal, closeness between China and the Maoists and the latter’s distancing from India are the popular theories doing the rounds. However, the most prominent theory – the demonstration effect – has not been properly discussed so far. Even after being voted to power through free elections, the Maoists continued their effort to seize absolute power. They made no secret of their mission to establish a one-party communist rule. Indian leaders did not like the course which was against the deal and democracy. Although anti-democratic regimes in neighboring countries are not unwelcome for Indian policymakers (for instance, Bhutan and Myanmar), one with a radical ideology is. For fear that extremism would transcend to Indian soil through porous borders, a communist takeover is always the last thing India wants in Nepal. Perceived ‘demonstration effect’ backfired in two ways. On the one hand, Nepali Maoists turned their back both on democracy and India. On the other hand, Indian Maoists not only condemned Nepali Maoists for ‘surrendering’ but also escalated their violence. CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury and other erstwhile mediator’s weakened position in Delhi’s power equation since the last parliamentary elections and similar changes of intelligence, security and diplomatic personnel are cited as reasons for the now changed relationship between the Maoists and India. However, they are secondary factors only. Strange but true, unlike in other issues of security or foreign policy, political mainstream in India is now sharply divided over the issue of Nepali Maoists into different camps of BJP, Communists and the Congress-led coalition. Anyways, whatever it is, the India-Maoist honeymoon is over, at least for now. |
No emergency signals received from YSR's missing chopper
IANS
HYDERABAD:
With the helicopter carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy,
which went missing Wednesday morning, not emitting
authorities here are hoping that he is
safe.
Almost 16 hours after the
chopper went missing somewhere in Nallamalla forests in Kurnool district, the
state ministers are hoping that he is safe. They believe that the chopper might
have been forced to land in some inaccessible area due to bad weather.
Officials in the chief
minister's office are also hopeful. Their hopes are based on the fact that an
Indian Air Force aircraft which flew over the area did not pick up any signals
which indicate a crash.
According to chief secretary
P. Ramakant Reddy, the helicopter was equipped with Emergency Locator
Transmitter (ELT), capable of automatic transmission on a frequency of 121.5 and
243 mega hertz which would have activated in crash landing or in case of any
unforeseen eventuality.
The Dornier 228
aircraft which took off from air base, air command, Yelahanka near Bangalore and
capable of picking up ELT frequency signals, did not pick up such signals
despite flying over the area where the helicopter went missing.
Tribals join search operations for missing YSR chopper
Hyderabad, Sep 3 : It is not just state-of-the-art technology that
is being deployed to trace the missing helicopter carrying Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the authorities are also
using the services of the tribals living in the dense Nallamalla
forests.
YSR's chopper goes missing over dense Naxal & tiger-infested Andhra jungle
HYDERABAD: A helicopter carryingAndhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy, two of his staff and two
pilots went missing in pouring
 A file photo of Andhra Pradesh CM YSR Reddy. |
tiger-infested Nalamalla forests and with no contact until early Thursday,
experts and officials feared the worst.
Soon after the chopper lost
contact, multiple agencies of the state launched a massive hunt for possible
wreckage in the desolate terrain. By evening, it expanded into the country's
biggest-ever search operation with satellites
aircraft, fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, troops on the ground and even
barefoot deer-hunting tribals with bows and arrows. The Air Force pressed its
topline Sukhoi 30 MKI into a night search and flew in Dornier and Avro
reconnaissance aircraft. US ambassador to India Tim Roemer and Union home
minister P Chidambaram spoke several times through the evening and the US
volunteered to provide information picked up by its satellites.
The
search operation is now focussed on a 5 km radius, news channels reported early
Thursday morning. Rains and bad weather are hampering the search operation.
It was a flight that should not have taken off at all. The Met
office had forecast not only heavy rainfall but the likelihood of fierce
lightning and thunderstorms. But the 60-year-old politician was adamant. He was
to kickstart a new village mass-contact programme called Rachabanda from
Chittoor district (better known for housing the Tirupati temple) at 10.30am and
there was no way that he was missing his appointment.
The Bell 430
took off at 8.38am from Begumpet airport, not more than 2km from Reddy's
residence, on its 500-km journey. For about 30 minutes, things were fine and the
pilot was in touch with the air traffic control (ATC). But soon after entering
the space over the Nallamalla forests, it ran into problems. Rain was thick and
visibility was zero. What happened thereafter remains a mystery so far but in
all probability, the helicopter went down. The helicopter was last in contact
with the ATC at 9.12am. The chopper had fuel to fly for 2.45 hours, enough to
make it to Chittoor.
Apart from Reddy, the chopper was carrying
principal secretary to CM S Subrahmanyam and YSR's chief security officer ASC
Wesley. The craft was being piloted by group captain S K Bhatia and captain M S
Reddy.
"It was last sighted by villagers between Atmakur and
Bandiatmakur close to Rollapenta entering the Nallamalla forests from Kurnool
district towards Prakasam district between 9.15 am and 9.30 am," chief secretary
P Ramakanth Reddy said.
In New Delhi, there was a flurry of activity
in the Congress and the home ministry went into a tizzy, setting in motion all
emergency procedures possible. Minister of state for defence P Raju said the
emergency locating transmitter (ELT) had not been activated and this gave hope
that the chopper had made a safe landing.
What is causing immense
worry is that Nallamalla, or 'Black Hills' in Telugu, is a dense, hilly, forest
that is an extension of the Eastern Ghats. It was once the main area of
operation for AP Naxals and armed cadres are still suspected to be hiding out in
the forest camps. But what is known for sure is that the forest is tiger
territory.
"For the last three days, the forest region has seen heavy
rains and zero visibility. The Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers are overflowing
and the Srisailam reservoir is full. The area is full of water," A V Rao, a
Kurnool resident, told TOI. The area is sparsely populated with Chenchu tribals.
"It is an inaccessible area with no cellphone towers, radio signals," Rao added.
Strangely enough for a helicopter carrying the chief minister, the Bell 430 did
not have a satellite phone connection.
Alarm bells started ringing in
the state government headquarters from mid-day but police parties which were
sent out drew a blank as they could not venture out too far in pouring rain.
Meanwhile, the rumour mill was active with stories flying thick and fast about
how the chief minister had been rescued. Faced with a barrage of queries,
finance minister K Rosiah called a press conference to deny that Reddy had been
found.
Later in the day, chief secretary Ramakanth Reddy said two
IAF helicopters from Bangalore and one private chopper from Krishnapatnam in
Nellore district scoured the area but found no sign of the CM's chopper.
"Earlier, two IAF choppers from Hakimpet had set out but had to return halfway
because of the inclement weather. The state has now deployed an aircraft
belonging to the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) which is operating
throughout Monday night at a height of 1.5 km over the forest area where the
helicopter was last sighted," the chief secretary said.
Teams which
entered the Nallamalla forests during the day on foot had to return because of
adverse weather conditions. "We went upto 20 km into the forest but had to
return as the rivers are in spate," K Subba Reddy, a local resident of Velgodu
village, told TOI over phone after returning to the village.
Late on
Wednesday night, hundreds of Greyhound personnel, raised to fight Naxals, moved
into the Nallamalla forest riding on tractors borrowed from Nallakaluva village
in Kurnool district as part of the search operations. Officials from the revenue
and forest departments, AP Special Police and tribals were also pressed into
service, the chief secretary
said.
Race against time: missing
since Wednesday
morning
8.38am:
Chopper takes off from Hyderabad for Chittoor (approx 500 km), where YSR was to
launch mass contact plan. Accompanied by principal secy S Subrahmanyam &
chief security officer ASC Wesley
9.35am:
Copter declared missing.
Last known coordinates: 168°, 79 nautical miles from Hyderabad. Around
10.15am, private choppers pressed into search
operations
1.30pm
: Defence
Chetak choppers join search but are forced to return within an hour because of
bad weather
2.30pm:
2 IAF
MI-8 choppers mobilized. Dornier and Avro planes called in. Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle put on
stand-by
5.30pm:
5 companies
of CRPF (600 men) enter Nallamala forest with night vision devices. By sunset,
20 teams, including 3 columns of Army, state police (including anti-Naxal
squads), forest and revenue officials enter 1,000 sqkm area
Primitive tribe of Chenchus, who hunt with bows and arrows,
approached for
assistance
6.30pm:
Chopper
search called off due to poor light & bad weather. After sundown,
IAF’s Sukhoi-30 MKI with thermal imaging devices used
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/YSRs-chopper-goes-missing-over-dense-Naxal-tiger-infested-Andhra-jungle/articleshow/4965809.cms
Bodies of YSR, 4 others found at the crash site
Evidence
emerging from the interior jungles of Nallamalla forests on Thursday
morning indicates that the BEL 430 helicopter in which Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was travelling crash-landed in the
dense forests. The copter’s parts have been found strewn across a large
area and initial reports indicate that the copter had crashed. All the
five bodies, inclding that of YSR, have been found.
Reliable
sources in the Congress office in Hyderabad told India Syndicate that
the chances of anyone surviving the crash is very remote. The sources
said that initial reports indicate that all the five passengers did not
survive the crash. But official confirmation is awaited.
Since it is difficult to land rescue copters at the site, commandos are being dropped to locate for survivors.
There
is no word about survivors, but one piece of bad news was that the
Chief Security Officer Wesley did not respond to repeated cell phone
calls. BSNL had established signals to the area and official in
Hyderabad were able to call and SMS the CSO.
More details are awaited.
Source: India Syndicate
Related reports
YSR's chopper traced close to Kurnool
Mysterious silence of AP Chief Minister's copter
No trace yet; ISRO images do show copter or its debris
ANDHRA CM'S HELICOPTER MISSING
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Rescue teams comb Naxal areas in search of YSR
Published on Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 07:31, Updated on Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 10:19 in 
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Hyderabad:
India's biggest search and rescue operation to locate Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy in the dense Nallamalla forests
and hills stretching across Kurnool, Prakasam and Kadapa districts
resumed at the crack of dawn on Thursday.
Helicopter
search operations had been called off in the night because of poor
visibility and bad weather conditions. But state police and 5,000
personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) conducted search
operations on foot throughout the night with help of forest officials.
Andhra's
Greyhound commandos, raised to fight Naxals, are also helping in the
search operation along with specialised anti-terrorist force
Organisation for Counter Terrorism and Operations (Octopus) teams.
The
newly-formed anti-Naxal force Combat Battalion for Resolute Action
(Cobra), which are under the command of the CRPF have also been
deployed for the search operations.
An Army column from Bangalore has also been also called in to assist in the search and rescue operations.
The
Indian Air Force (IAF) has also sent three helicopters from Bangalore
for the search operation while one private helicopter from Nellore is
also scouring the area for any signs of the missing Chief Minister and
his entourage.
IAF
will also press into service Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft with synthetic
aperture radar for high resolution ground mapping in and around Kurnool.
Satellite
imagery is also being used to trace the missing helicopter. Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also provided special low flying
aircraft and remote sensing equipment and satellite imagery to aide the
search operation.
Search
and rescue teams are also looking at the possibility of Reddy's
helicopter landing at Sri Sailam Dam which is situated 98 km from
Markapuram. The dam is across the Krishna River at Srisailam in the
Kurnool district.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/search-and-rescue-operation-to-locate-andhra-cm-resumes/100535-37.html
YSR planned sudden visit to check out ground reality
Hyderabad:
Known as a people's leader for his several initiatives for their
welfare, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was on
his way to launch yet another mass contact programme when the
helicopter carrying him went missing in the dense Nallamalla forests,
before it was found nearly 24 hours later Thursday.
It
was only around 5 a.m. Wednesday that senior police officials in
Chittoor district were informed by the chief minister that he would be
visiting Anuppalle village to launch 'Racchabanda' programme.
A
day after the budget session of state assembly concluded, YSR, as the
chief minister is popularly known, chose a remote village in Anuppalle
to launch the programme of surprise visits to villages to know people's
problems.
"I want to know the problems in village through this
surprise visit and want to have a direct interaction with the
villagers. I told them (the officials) only at 5 a.m. that I will be
visiting the village as they have to make security arrangements," YSR
said in his last interview before boarding the helicopter here at 8.35
a.m. Wednesday.
"If I tell the officials in advance about my
visit they will rectify some problems and hence this programme is being
launched. The basic aim is to see whether the delivery mechanisms of
the government are working or not," he told Sakshi television channel,
which is run by his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.
"I want to know
how the concerned departments are working to deal with drought, whether
farmers are getting the required assistance, whether the village has
drinking water supply. I also want to see if there is any poor person
who has not got a ration card, house or pension. We have promised that
every poor will get a house and ration card," he said.
"This is
a representative sample as I can't visit all 20,000 villages in the
state. I will go on such visits for three to four days in a month and
will cover four to five villages in a day," YSR had said.
It
was various such programmes taken up by him during last five years that
helped him retain power in the recent elections despite facing a strong
and united opposition alliance led by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and
Praja Rajyam floated by actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi.
Other VIP crashes and the miraculous one
There
have been a few helicopter and aircraft crashes involving VIPs. But the
most miraculous escape was the one involving the late Prime Minister
Morarji Desai.
The
incident happened on November 4, 1977 when the Tu-124 jet, V-643
Pushpak, crash landed at Jorhat in Assam. The aircraft had taken off
from Palam Airforce Station at 5.30 pm carrying Morarji Desai and
others. Some two-and-a-hours later, the engine developed a snag and
began flying dangerously low.
The pilots realised that the
aircraft was about to crash and they took it to a paddy field and
crashed in Tetlagon village by directing the nose of the aircraft
first. The cockpit and the pilots took the maximum impact and saved the
lives of Morarji Deasi and other VIPs.
A calm Morarji reportedly
stepped out of the aircraft, inspected the wreckage and tried to find
out the fate of the pilots and walked to a nearby village to seek help.
Five
of IAF'S elite Communication Squadron made the supreme sacrifice in
saving the life of then Prime Minister. The pilots were Wing Commander
Clarence D'Lima, Wing Commander Joginder Singh, Squadron Leader Mathew
Cyriac, Squadron Leader V V S Sankar Flight Lieutenant O P Arora. All
of them were killed in the crash.
The other crashes:
Sept
30, 2001: Senior Congress leader from Rajasthan Madhavrao Scindia dies
in a plane crash near Mota village in Mainpuri district of Uttar
Pradesh. Bad weather conditions caused the crash.
March 3, 2002:
GMC Balayogi, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, dies in a helicopter crash in
Kaikalur in Andhra Pradesh. His chopper went down into a pond after it
developed technical snag and its blades hit an overhead wire.
March
31, 2005: O P Jindal dies in a helicopter crash at Menghi village in
Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Cause: Engine malfunction.
Source: India Syndicate
Pak going "beyond nuclear deterrence": Army Chief
Pune:
Pakistan is "going beyond nuclear deterrence" if reports of it having a
large stockpile of nuclear missiles with India specific delivery system
are true, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor said today. "It is a matter
of concern for us," Kapoor said reacting to an article published in the
latest issue of ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist'' about enhanced
nuclear arsenal of Pakistan.
"There
were certain degrees of deterrence and the figure of 70-90 nuclear
warheads directed against a country certainly goes beyond the concept
of deterrence," the army chief said. In the article, US experts Robert
S Norris and Hans Kristensen estimate that Pakistan''s nuclear
stockpile has jumped to an estimated 70-90 warheads from a previous
figure of 60.
"A new nuclear-capable ballistic missile is being
readied for deployment, and two nuclear capable cruise missiles are
under development. Two new plutonium production reactors and a second
chemical separation facility also are under construction," they wrote.
On
the Chinese incursions along the border, the army chief said there was
no cause for "alarm". "The level of incursions was the same as it was
last year," he said adding that Indian troops also carry out patrolling
along the border which "could be perceived differently".
Source: Agencies
World power rankings: Anil slips, Mukesh knocked out
London:
A sharp erosion in his wealth and a long-running sibling rivalry
notwithstanding, Indian billionaire Anil Ambani has retained his
position in the list of the world’s 100 most powerful people, but is
down 30 places since last year, while his brother Mukesh has made a
total exit. Ranked 97th in the latest edition of the annual ranking
compiled by British fashion magazine Vanity Fair, Anil is the only
Indian in the list, which is topped by financial services behemoth
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
Anil was ranked at 67th position jointly with Mukesh in the previous year's list.
The
current list, described as "The New Establishment 2009" by the
magazine, also figures names like Apple's iconic chief Steve Jobs and
legendary investor Warren Buffett and these 100 people have been
described as the world's most powerful in today's information age.
"Ambani
was the biggest loser when Forbes published its annual wealth ranking
in March: his fortune fell by $32 billion, to $10 billion. But that
still left him with plenty of cash to close a Bollywood-meets-Hollywood
deal with Steven Spielberg to make a $500 million investment in
DreamWorks (along with the rights to distribute its films in India),"
Vanity Fair said about Anil.
The magazine further noted that
"Anil, 50, and his billionaire brother, Mukesh, (they grew up in a
communal building in a distressed neighbourhood) foolishly hurt their
image by perpetuating a long public feud: they frequently sued each
other but rarely talked."
"In one of their biggest battles,
Mumbai's high court ordered Mukesh's company to make good on a deal
from 2005 (when the two brothers split their late father's empire) to
sell natural gas to Anil's company for 17 years at a price 44 per cent
lower than that set by the government. That could mean billions of
dollars worth of savings for Anil and losses for Mukesh, who appealed
to India's Supreme Court."
In his "latest act of do-goodery," the magazine said, Anil opened a 730-bed hospital in Mumbai.
The
magazine, in its last year rankings, had said both Mukesh and Anil
together held a large combined net worth and they inherited their
father's sprawling industrial conglomerate in 2002, "but never figured
how to play together nicely".
Source: PTI
THE NEW FIZZLE DEBATE - The nuclear question concerns everybody, not just scientists | |
| Amitabh Mattoo & Rajive Nayan | |
The The At The On India First, In But In Finally, of course, there are institutional interests. No organization will seek to undermine its own raison d’être. The | |
Downturn in US economy 'ending'
 Mr Bernanke has said interest rates will stay low for some time |
US Federal Reserve policymakers are
increasingly confident the downturn in the US economy is ending,
minutes from their latest meeting show.
The assessment by
recently re-appointed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues
struck a more upbeat tone than the last assessment in late June.
But there was uncertainty about how quickly the economy would grow in 2010.
Unemployment, which is set to move above 10% this year, may impact on consumer behaviour, they warned.
 |  At least there are signs we are bottoming out - that's the first step  David Wyss Standard & Poor's Ratings |
Falling property and share values, along with the difficulty in
getting credit also meant that consumers still faced "considerable
headwinds", they added.
'More upbeat'
However the
Fed said that consumer spending appeared to be levelling out and that
the housing market was becoming more solid, while manufacturing was
stabilising.
The prospects for US exporters will also brighten, as the economies of other countries improved, the policymakers added.
These factors led them to believe that "the downturn in economic activity was ending", the minutes said.
The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the US economy
will expand by 0.75% next year, after earlier predicting no growth.
"The
economic data look more upbeat. It doesn't mean we will get out of this
any time soon. At least there are signs we are bottoming out - that's
the first step," said David Wyss, chief economist of Standard &
Poor's Ratings.
"Financial conditions have also improved with the some recovery in credit default swaps and in particular financial stocks."
Stimulus impact
Last
month the central bank decided to keep US interest rates on hold at
between 0% and 0.25%, as widely expected by commentators.
And
it added that the current low levels of interest rates will likely
continue "for an extended period" to aid the continuing recovery.
The
Fed and the US government have carried out a number of measures to help
stimulate the US economy since the end of last year.
The main
two have been President Barack Obama's $787bn economic stimulus
package, which was signed into law in February, and October's $700bn
Troubled Assets Relief Programme for the banking sector.
In
March, the Fed also announced a $1.2 trillion programme of buying
government debt to boost lending and promote economic recovery - a
policy known as quantitative easing.
US interest rates were cut
to the current level of between 0% and 0.25% in December last year,
where they have remained ever since.
Before then rates had fallen steadily from a high of 5.25% in September 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8235069.stm
Many a peril in Nallamalla
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 Print |
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Hyderabad: While it might be early to conclude on
the fate of chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and his three
co-passengers in the government Bell helicopter, the terrain where it
disappeared leaves little scope for hope for several reasons.
The Nallamalla hills, stretching across Kurnool, Prakasam and Kadapa
districts, while being extremely inhospitable, have also been the
hotbed of Maoist activity. The forest range is home to varied wildlife
like tigers, leopards, panthers, bear, and black buck. It has also been
the staging ground for battles between Maoists and the state's
anti-Maoist strike force, the Greyhounds.
Though their numbers
has declined in recent times, some Maoist groups still exist in the
forests, an easy hideaway from the Greyhounds. Not surprisingly, the
state administration has included Greyhounds, familiar with the
terrain, in the search operation.
Immediately on coming to power
in 2004, the YSR administration sought to strike a different cord from
the previous N Chandrababu Naidu government by involving Maoists in
peace talks. The Maoists had suffered several body blows under the
Naidu administration. The YSR government lifted the ban on the then
PWG, which merged with the Maoist Communist Centre of India in
September 2004 to form the CPI-Maoist just hours before the peace talks
began.
But the Maoists walked out of talks, accusing the
government of bad intent. Subsequently, the administration re-imposed
the ban on them. Both sides used the lull before and after the talks to
build on their resources. But the Maoists have weakened considerably in
the last four years, losing over 400 cadres.
In the search for CM, the Maoist spectre adds a menacing element | |
| G.S. RADHAKRISHNA | |
Hyderabad, Sept. 2: Aviation Police National “Naxalite Although The Next, The Through the morning, the government kept giving out conflicting information. The Reports However, The “We The Andhra | |
 |
Blueprint ready for ATS debut in Bihar - Maharashtra model to overpower Maoists |
| NALIN VERMA |
Patna, According Currently, only Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have anti-terrorist squads. Sources The The The Bihar ATS will treat the outlawed Maoist guerrillas “on a par with other terrorists”. “There As of now, Bihar has a special task force (STF), which deals with cases of organised crime and Maoist-sponsored rebellion. Additional Of At Earlier, they had their operations limited in Jehanabad, Gaya, Aurangabad and Rohtas districts of central Bihar. In |
Jumbo illusion in Lalgarh ‘lab’ | ||
| SUJAN DUTTA | ||
| BACK TO LALGARH | ||
Lalgarh, Sept. 2: The men and women of Kantapahari were raising a hue and cry because the animals were too close to their homes. As Kantapahari, A The It In “Lalgarh In This If Life in a laboratory flask is constantly on the boil. Take Kantapahari, for instance, where The Telegraph correspondent was on August 26. The By “How would they like it if we men do this in front of their wives and mothers and sisters?” asks a shopkeeper. “We have repeatedly asked them to stop but this is the scene here from morning till evening.” There For Pratihar Inside The It On the other hand, it may be a dud, a dummy. In Lalgarh, you never know till it explodes. | ||
|
Maoists gunned down in war zone - Security forces find bodies of slain guerrillas for the first time since operation began, duo held after fight | |||
| OUR CORRESPONDENT | |||
Salboni, Sept. 2: After Three Scores Today, the police said at least 10 Maoists took bullets, but their comrades managed to drag them away. Over At
Around “We beat a planned retreat. The Maoists thought they were chasing us,” said a CRPF officer. There Unaware The police on either side of the field then opened fire along with those in the canal. “The The encounter ended around 7pm with most of the Maoists slipping into an adjoining forest. “We found the bodies on the edge of the forest,” said Verma. The police identified one of the two killed as Haradhan Mahato but did not say which rung of the Maoist squad he belonged to. Late |
Durgapur, Sept. 2: Maoists
tried a forest officer in a kangaroo court last night and fined him Rs
25,000 for allegedly turning a blind eye to felling in the Ayodhya
hills of Purulia.
“We
will return in a week, the money should be ready,” a guerrilla leader
shouted at beat officer Naresh Kumar Shit before ransacking his office
and setting documents on fire.
Some
of Shit’s juniors were also herded to the “trial” under a tree outside
the Balarampur beat office and accused of irregularities in the
distribution of “pattas (tilling rights)” for forest land, but only he was fined.
Fifteen
armed men in olive green fatigues arrived at the single-storey office
at the foothills of Ayodhya around Tuesday midnight. The guerrillas
called a forest guard, Jawaharlal Majhi, by his name and asked him to
wake up the others. “They told us we’ll be tried for our faults,” said
another guard, Rabilochan Hembram.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090903/jsp/bengal/story_11444912.jsp
Andhra was warned of naxal hit | |||||
| |||||
Secret document on VVIP security states Maoists had enough military intelligence to bring down 'Enemy' aircraft |
WAR-LIKE HUNT FOR YSR Forces sweep forest tied to Maoists | |
| G.S. RADHAKRISHNA | |
Hyderabad, The YSR, The A copter ride from Hyderabad to Chittoor usually takes around two hours. A Chief What Through The By Eleven Commandos The search has narrowed to a 10km by 20km forest area spread over Guntur, Kurnool and Mahboobnagar districts. Isro At State A On | |
| With inputs from Nishit Dholabhai and Ananya Sengupta |
Prized asset with Midas touch | |
| SANJAY K. JHA AND RASHEED KIDWAI | |
Sept. 2: YSR is gifted with many skills a politician requires — mass appeal, resources, political acumen and administrative experience. The It was YSR’s famous padyatra Even The At Since Post-Babri By Outside The Since In Although an MBBS, YSR engrossed himself so deeply in politics that he hardly practised medicine. Tonight, |
Fit to fly, says govt amid airworthiness debate | ||
| JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY AND G.S. RADHAKRISHNA | ||
Sept. 2: The Earlier Officials A While Capt. Bhatia had flying experience of more than 5,600 hours, Capt. Reddy had logged more than 3,200 hours of flying. Official Officials However, The Sources Bell The It The 6,400kg helicopter, which can fly at a cruise speed of 306kmph, can land in an area as small as a tennis court. The Aviation | ||
| WITH AGENCY INPUTS | ||
|
An eye on the groomed son | ||||
| G.S. RADHAKRISHNA AND SANJAY K. JHA | ||||
Hyderabad, Sept. 2: One name doing the rounds is that of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy. Jagan, However, But
This year, by when YSR’s In In private, some Congress leaders said YSR’s relentless rise had ensured there was no clear-cut number two. The Other senior leaders Janardhan Reddy and Hanumantha Rao have virtually been cut off from state politics. |
South Asia |
|
| |
 | | A helicopter carrying a powerful Indian politician has been found a day after it disappeared during a flight, officials say. |
A suicide bomber near Kabul kills Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence and 22 others. | | Pakistan's minister for religious affairs is wounded and his driver killed in an attack in Islamabad. |
FEATURES, NEWS, ANALYSIS
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MORE FROM SOUTH ASIA BUSINESS | | FEATURES
A GUIDE TO SOUTH ASIA
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From South Asia in the past week
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Select a city: Calcutta Colombo Dhaka Islamabad Kabul Karachi Kathmandu Mumbai New Delhi |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/default.stmFemale gorillas use sex as a tactic to thwart their rivals
London, September 3 : A new study has shown that female gorillas use sex as a tactic to thwart their rivals.
Doran-Sheehy, a primatologist at Stony Brook University in New York,
has found that pregnant apes court their silverback male to stop other
females conceiving.
"It seems to us that mating is another
tactic that females use to compete with each other – in this case to
gain favour with another male," New Scientist magazine quoted her as
saying.
She and her colleagues studied the sex lives of five
female western lowland gorillas and one silverback, almost every day
for over three years.
"We wondered if, basically, (pregnant)
females can mimic (ovulating) females and dupe the male into mating
with them and distract him from what those other girls are doing,"
Doran-Sheehy said.
She believes that such a competitive
behaviour in gorillas may help understand how humans evolved into a
mostly monogamous species.
Her team recorded most copulations
and all births among a human-habituated group of gorillas at the
Mondika research centre in the Republic of Congo for 1147 days between
September 2003 and January 2007.
According to the researchers,
all five females gave birth to one infant during the study, and all
engaged in sex after pregnancy.
However, females seemed to time such post-conceptive romps with the fleeting fertility of another female, the researchers said.
Tara
Stoinski, a primatologist at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia, said that delaying
the pregnancy of others could give females a reproductive advantage
over competitors.
"I agree with Diane''s assertion that
females are competing with each other," said Stoinski, who found that
pregnant female gorillas in captivity also time their sexual advances
to coincide with those of other females.
A research article on the study has been published in the American Journal of Primatology.
--ANI
Maoism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Maoism |
 |
| Part of the Politics series on |
| Communism |
 |
 Communism PortalPolitics portal |
Maoism, variably and officially known as Mao Zedong Thought (traditional Chinese: 毛澤東思想; simplified Chinese: 毛泽东思想; pinyin: Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng), is a variant of Marxism derived from the teachings of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong (Wade-Giles Romanization: "Mao Tse-tung"), widely applied as the political and military guiding ideology in the Communist Party of China (CPC) from Mao's ascendancy to its leadership until the inception of Deng Xiaoping Theory and Chinese economic reforms
in 1978. It is also applied internationally in contemporary times.
Maoist parties and groups exist throughout the world, with notable
groups in Peru, India, and Nepal. Notably, in Nepal they won the country's first free elections in 2008.[1]
The basic tenets of Maoism include revolutionary struggle of the
vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state
structures, termed a People's War. Usually involving peasants, its military strategies have involved guerrilla war
tactics focused on surrounding the cities from the countryside, with a
heavy emphasis on political transformation through the mass involvement
of the basic people of the society. Maoism departs from conventional
European-inspired Marxism in that its focus is on the agrarian
countryside, rather than the industrial urban forces. Notably,
successful Maoist parties in Peru, Nepal and Philippines have adopted
equal stresses on urban and rural areas, depending on the country's
level of development.
In its post-revolutionary period, Mao Zedong Thought is defined in the CPC's Constitution as "Marxism-Leninism applied in a Chinese context", synthesized by Mao Zedong and China's first-generation leaders. It asserts that class struggle continues even if the proletariat has already overthrown the bourgeoisie,
and there are capitalist restorationist elements within the Communist
Party itself. It provided the CPC's first comprehensive theoretical
guideline with regards to how to continue socialist revolution, the
creation of a socialist society, socialist military construction, and
highlights various contradictions in society to be addressed by what is
termed "socialist construction". The ideology survives in name today on
the Communist Party's Constitution; it is described as the guiding
thought that created "new China" and a revolutionary concept against imperialism and feudalism.[2]
Maoism broke with the state capitalist framework of the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev and dismisses it as modern revisionism,
a traditional pejorative term among communists referring to those who
fight for capitalism in the name of socialism. Some critics claim that
Maoists see Joseph Stalin
as the last true socialist leader of the Soviet Union, although
allowing the Maoist assessments of Stalin vary between the extremely
positive and the more ambivalent.[3] Some political philosophers[who?] have seen in Maoism an attempt to combine Confucianism and Socialism - what one such called 'a third way between communism and capitalism'[4]
|
[edit] Maoism in China
 | The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please help improve the article with a good introductory style. (March 2009) |
Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, and the capitalist reforms of Deng Xiaoping starting in 1978, the role of Mao's ideology within the People's Republic of China (PRC) has radically changed.[5] Although Mao Zedong Thought nominally remains the state ideology, Deng's admonition to seek truth from facts
means that state policies are judged on their practical consequences
and the role of ideology in determining policy has been considerably
reduced. Deng also separated Mao from Maoism, making it clear that Mao
was fallible and hence that the truth of Maoism comes from observing
social consequences rather than by using Mao's quotations as holy writ, as was done in Mao's lifetime.
In addition, the party constitution has been rewritten to give the
capitalist ideas of Deng Xiaoping prominence over those of Mao. One
consequence of this is that groups outside China which describe
themselves as Maoist generally regard China as having repudiated Maoism
and restored capitalism,
and there is a wide perception both in and out of China that China has
abandoned Maoism. However, while it is now permissible to question
particular actions of Mao and to talk about excesses taken in the name
of Maoism, there is a prohibition in China on either publicly
questioning the validity of Maoism or questioning whether the current
actions of the CCP are "Maoist."
Although Mao Zedong Thought is still listed as one of the four cardinal principles
of the People's Republic of China, its historical role has been
re-assessed. The Communist Party now says that Maoism was necessary to
break China free from its feudal past, but that the actions of Mao are
seen to have led to excesses during the Cultural Revolution. The official view is that China has now reached an economic and political stage, known as the primary stage of socialism,
in which China faces new and different problems completely unforeseen
by Mao, and as such the solutions that Mao advocated are no longer
relevant to China's current conditions. The official proclamation of
the new CPC stand came in June 1981, when the Sixth Plenum of the
Eleventh National Party Congress Central Committee took place. The
35,000-word "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our
Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China" reads:
"Mao Zedong is the Chinese people's savior!", an old slogan painted on the brick wall of a temple
"Chief responsibility for the grave `Left' error of the `cultural
revolution,' an error comprehensive in magnitude and protracted in
duration, does indeed lie with Comrade Mao Zedong . . . . [and] far
from making a correct analysis of many problems, he confused right and
wrong and the people with the enemy. . . . Herein lies his tragedy."[6]
Both Maoist critics outside China and most Western commentators see
this re-working of the definition of Maoism as providing an ideological
justification for what they see as the restoration of the essentials of
capitalism in China by Deng and his successors.
Mao himself is officially regarded by the CCP as a "great
revolutionary leader" for his role in fighting the Japanese and
creating the People's Republic of China, but Maoism as implemented
between 1959 and 1976 is regarded by today's CPC as an economic and
political disaster. In Deng's day, support of radical Maoism was
regarded as a form of "left deviationism" and being based on a cult of personality, although these 'errors' are officially attributed to the Gang of Four
rather than to Mao himself. Thousands of Maoists were arrested in the
Hua Guafeng period after 1976, with prominent Maoists sentenced to
death.
[edit] Maoism outside China
From 1962 onwards, the challenge to the Soviet hegemony in the World Communist Movement made by the CPC resulted in various divisions in communist parties around the world. At an early stage, the Albanian Party of Labour sided with the CPC. So did many of the mainstream (non-splinter group) communist parties in South-East Asia, like the Burmese Communist Party, Communist Party of Thailand, and Communist Party of Indonesia. Some Asian parties, like the Workers Party of Vietnam and the Workers Party of Korea attempted to take a middle-ground position.
In the west and south, a plethora of parties and organizations were
formed that upheld links to the CPC. Often they took names such as Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) or Revolutionary Communist Party
to distinguish themselves from the traditional pro-Soviet communist
parties. The pro-CPC movements were, in many cases, based amongst the
wave of student radicalism that engulfed the world in the 1960s and
1970s.
Only one Western classic communist party sided with CPC, the Communist Party of New Zealand. Under the leadership of CPC and Mao Zedong, a parallel international communist movement emerged to rival that of the Soviets, although it was never as formalized and homogeneous as the pro-Soviet tendency.
In the United States, the Black Panther Party, especially Huey Newton, was profoundly influenced by Maoist thought.
After the death of Mao in 1976 and the resulting power-struggles in
China that followed, the international Maoist movement was divided into
three camps. One group, composed of various ideologically nonaligned
groups, gave weak support to the new Chinese leadership under Deng
Xiaoping. Another camp denounced the new leadership as traitors to the
cause of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The third camp sided with
the Albanians in denouncing the Three Worlds Theory of the CPC (see Sino-Albanian Split.)
The pro-Albanian camp would start to function as an international group,[7] led by Enver Hoxha and the APL, and was able to amalgamate many of the communist groups in Latin America, including the Communist Party of Brazil.
The new Chinese leadership showed little interest in the various
foreign groups supporting Mao's China. Many of the foreign parties that
were fraternal parties
aligned with the Chinese government before 1975 either disbanded,
abandoned the new Chinese government entirely, or even renounced Marxism-Leninism and developed into non-communist, social democratic
parties. What is today called the "international Maoist movement"
evolved out of the second camp – the parties that opposed Deng and
claimed to uphold the legacy of Mao.
During the 1980s two parallel regrouping efforts emerged, one centered around the Communist Party of the Philippines, which gave birth to the ICMLPO, and one that birthed the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, which the Shining Path communist guerrilla group and the Revolutionary Communist Party USA played a leading role in forming.
Both the International Conference and the RIM tendencies claimed to
uphold Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, although RIM was later to
substitute that ideology with what they termed
'Marxism-Leninism-Maoism'.
[edit] Maoism today
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Today, Maoist organizations, grouped in RIM, have their greatest influence in South Asia. They have been involved in violent struggles in Bangladesh and, until recently, Nepal.
The Nepalese Maoist militant struggles have ended and the Maoists have
peacefully negotiated to become the majority party in the newly formed
republic. There are also minor groups active in Afghanistan, Peru[8] and Turkey[9][10].
In the Philippines, the Communist Party of the Philippines, which is not part of the RIM, leads an armed struggle through its military wing, the New People's Army.
In Peru, several columns of the Communist Party of Peru/SL are fighting a sporadic war. Since the capture of their leadership, Chairman Gonzalo
and other members of their central committee in 1992, the PCP/SL no
longer has initiative in the fight. Several different political
positions are supported by the leadership of the PCP/SL.
In India, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have been fighting a protracted war.[11]
Formed by the merger of the People's War Group and the Maoist Communist
Center ("notorious for its macabre killings") originating from the 25
May 1967 peasant uprising.[12],
they have expanded their range of operations to over half of India and
have been listed by the Prime Minister as the "greatest internal
security threat" to the Indian republic since it was founded.[13][14][15]. The central government declared them as banned terrorists as of June 22, 2009.
In Germany, the ICMLPO-affiliated MLPD is the largest unambiguously-Marxist group in the country.
A Nepalese Maoist insurgency fought a drawn out insurgency against the Royal Nepalese Army and other supporters of the Shah Dynasty of Nepal. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN (M)), a RIM member, has conditionally halted its armed struggle under a UNMIN. It participated and won the largest number of seats in the 2008 Nepalese Constituent Assembly election[16] and now leads a coalition government under Prime Minister and party chairman Prachanda. The party led the successful effort to arrange for a peaceful dissolution of the monarchy and formation of a republic.
[edit] Military strategy
Mao is widely regarded in China as a brilliant military strategist even among those who oppose his political or economic ideas.[citation needed] His writings on guerrilla warfare, most notably in his groundbreaking primer On Guerrilla Warfare,[17] and the notion of people's war are now generally considered to be essential reading,[citation needed]both for those who wish to conduct irregular revolts and for those who oppose them.[citation needed]
As with his economic and political ideas, Maoist military credo
seems to have more relevance at the start of the 21st century outside
of the People's Republic of China
than within it. There is a consensus both within and outside the PRC
that the military context that the PRC faces in the early 21st century
are very different from the one faced by China in the 1930s. As a
result, within the inner circle of the People's Liberation Army
there has been extensive debate over whether and how to relate Mao's
military doctrines to 21st-century military ideas, especially the idea
of a revolution in military affairs.
[edit] See also
- Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong
- History of the People's Republic of China
- Cult of Personality
- New Democracy (concept)
- Deng Xiaoping Theory
- Three Represents
- Chinese New Left
[edit] External links
[edit] General
- Marx2Mao.org Mao Internet Library
- The Encyclopedia of Marxism Mao Zedong Thought.
- The Encyclopedia of Marxism Mao's life.
- Monthly Review January 2005 Text of the leaflets distributed by the Zhengzhou Four.
- World Revolution Media Maoist revolutionary film, music, and art archive
- Maoismo.org Maoism is the Third, New and Superior Stage of Marxism!
[edit] Selected organizations
- The Kasama Project
- Chinese Communist Party *in Chinese*
- Freedom Road Socialist Organization
- Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
Committee of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties from around the world
- Revolutionary Communist Party, USA Revolution newspaper online
- www.cpnm.org Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
- www.sarbedaran.org Communist Party of Iran (MLM) *in Persian*
- Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
- Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada (PCR-RCP)
- Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers PCTP/MRPP (Portugal)
- Monkey Smashes Heaven, Journal of Maoism-Third Worldism
[edit] Revolutions
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.india-defence.com/reports-2361
- ^ Xinhua: Constitution of the Communist Party of China
- ^ Graham Young On Socialist Development and the Two Roads The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 8 (Jul., 1982), pp. 75-84 doi:10.2307/2158927
- ^ Political Philosophy from Plato to Mao, by Martin Cohen, page 206published 2001 by Pluto Press, London and Sterling VA ISBN 0745316034
- ^ UC Berkeley Journalism - Faculty - Deng's Revolution
- ^ http://www.country-studies.com/china/the-four-modernizations,-1979-82.html
- ^ ROMA OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Author: Judith Latham DOI: 10.1080/009059999109037. Published in:
journal Nationalities Papers, Volume 27, Issue 2 June 1999 , pages 205
- 226 - ^ The Shining Path: The Successful Blending of Mao and Mariategui in Peru
- ^ RW ONLINE: First Congress of the Maoist Communist Party of Turkey
- ^ [09-04-96] FRANZ SCHURMANN, MORE DESTABILIZING THAN SADDAM HUSSEIN - TURKEY'S KURDISH LEADER SPREADS MAOIST INSURGENCY
- ^ Reuters AlertNet - Indian Maoist violence
- ^ Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) Maoist Coordination Committee (MCC)
- ^ Jo Johnson, Leftist Insurgents Kill 50 Indian Policemen. Financial Times, March 15, 2007.
- ^ Impasse in India - The New York Review of Books
- ^ The biggest threat to Indian elections
- ^ Nepal (11/07)
- ^ On Guerrilla Warfare
In need of cash, Hollywood looks to India, China
By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Disney's $4 billion purchase of "Iron Man"
moviemaker Marvel Entertainment signals a possible wave of media
industry consolidation, but the cash to do deals may come from India or
China, not Hollywood or Wall Street.
Even before Walt Disney Co and Marvel Entertainment Inc made their
announcement on Monday, Hollywood watchers said Indian firm Reliance
ADA Group's recent $325 million investment in Steven Spielberg's
DreamWorks movie studio was a sign that opportunity exists for similar
deals.
As the recession took hold in late 2007, Hollywood saw financing
from U.S. hedge funds and banks dry up, and experts say Indian and
Chinese firms are now in a better position to invest. For its part,
Hollywood needs overseas cash to continue expanding globally where
growth opportunities are strongest.
"If you have capital to invest, you can probably cut a better deal
now than any time in the last ten years," said Larry Gerbrandt,
principal at consultancy Media Valuation Partners.
"A lot of Indian and Chinese companies have excess capital these
days and Hollywood, aside from the fact there's a certain glamour
factor, those (Indian and Chinese) markets also need content, so
there's interesting deals to be made."
Sky Moore, an attorney who worked with Reliance as it put together
the DreamWorks financing package, said a bigger deal could be in the
offing within two years.
"I think the bigger move is buying a studio, and I don't know if it
will be (a company from) India or China, but I think somebody is going
to buy a studio," Moore said.
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