A Dream Dead Peacock

A Dream Dead Peacock

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- One Hundred Twenty SIX

Palash Biswas



Aamar Gram, Tomar Gram, Shobar Gram: Nandigram,
Nandigram

My Village; Your Village; Everybody's village.
Nandigram. Nandigram

Pl Visit this site to feel COLD HORROR:
http://nandigramlalsalam.blogspot.com/index.html

The nation today remembered Dalit icon Baba Saheb B R Ambedkar on his 116th birth anniversary recounting his contributions as a social reformer, jurist and a constitutional expert. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani and a host of other personalities paid floral tributes at his statue in Parliament House. Scores of men and women belonging to backward classes queued up outside Parliament since morning to pay respects to their leader, considered the chief architect of the country's Constitition.

Born on April 14, 1891 in Madhya Pradesh's Mhow town, Ambedkar had spent his life fighting against the caste system in Hindu society and is credited for having sparked the Dalit Buddhist movement.

POEMS Joy Goswami

A dream-dead peacock, moon
A mound of earth a heart
I have brought the sacrificial goat
Ma comes and stands
On the roof a senseless child. Grow...
Out the hull of the boat falls the ...
The heat prises open my eyes. Pushi...
There’s a bridge on the road – no w...
They are the ashen ones. They are t...
Wars march into the past

Joy Goswami

[India] 1954–

Joy Goswami is regarded as one of the finest poets in the ‘post-Jibananda Das era’ of Bengali poetry. He is the author of twenty-five collections of poetry, ten novels (one of which is in verse), and a book of critical essays. He is also assistant editor of the important literary periodical, Desh, and is in charge of the poetry section. Stylistically innovative, sensuous and imagistic, his poetry shot to prominence in the 1970s. Goswami has won numerous awards, including the Ananda Puraskar (in 1990 and 1998) as well as the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2000. However, he remains wary of such recognition and the false sense of entitlement it can bring. “When I return to my writing table,” he says, “no award will help me pen my thoughts.”

Goswami nurses no delusions about transforming the world with his poetry. “Will my poetry be able to change the world ravaged by the Gujarat riots?” he asks rhetorically. “My daughter once told me that she was becoming cruel . . . I just managed to stroke her hair. I knew my reaction wouldn’t help her be less cruel. My poems, like my strokes, . . . can only console, but not cure.”
http://india.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=2722


Religion in general and judeo christianity and manuvadism
in particular is false.

for more truth on this pls see :


www.infidels.org


www.nobeliefs.com


www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com


www.evilbible.com


www.islam-watch.org

Kendrapada (Orissa), April 14 (IANS) Around 1,000 Dalits in Orissa's Kendrapda district Saturday embraced Buddhism in protest against having been denied entry into a Hindu temple by upper castes and the local administration despite a court order.About 2,000 Dalits of Keradagarh and its nearby villages in the coastal district of Kendrapda congregated at Aul village, 30 km from here, to mark the 116th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar, who championed the cause of the depressed classes in the country.Around 1,000 of them embraced Buddhism in the presence of leading state Dalit leaders as some Buddhist monks performed rituals, Ashok Mallik, Dalit leader and president of Republican Youth and Students Front (RPSF), told IANS.


The Dalits embraced Buddhism saying that though they were Hindus they were not allowed to enter the 300-year-old Jagannath temple at Keradagarh village. There are around 400 Dalits in the village of 1,400.Dalits had attempted to enter the temple several times in the past but were barred by the upper castes. There were also clashes between Dalits and upper castes.


Agency report from Puducherry: Intensifying their opposition to the proposed special economic zone near here, residents of two villages have submitted a charter of demands as a precondition to the project and threatened to launch a massive agitation if the government chose to disregard their concerns. A 30-member delegation of villagers of Sedarapet and Karasur met Chief Minister N Rangasamy at his chamber here yesterday and expressed apprehensions about serious implications of the SEZ the government planned to set up by acquiring over 830 acres of fertile lands in their villages.

Another report from Bhubaneshwar

The Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa has to now re-examine its plan to acquire land for POSCO's 4000 acre SEZ near the Paradeep coast. The State Industries Minister told NDTV that the matter needs a review because of the new guideline set by the Empowered Group of Ministers with regards to acquisition of land for SEZs. But strangely, both Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and POSCO officials say the land acquisition process is on course.
People across three panchayats near Paradeep in Orissa fear that force could be used to acquire 4000 acres of land for the POSCO SEZ.But POSCO officials say the process should not be a problem as they were promised by the state government nearly two years ago when the MoU was signed.

NDTV-IMRB Exit Poll projects a 3-way split
The Samajwadi Party looks set to get between 110 and 120 seats. That's down from the 143 seats they won in 2002. So that isn't very good news for Mulayam Singh Yadav.


Now the BSP could get between 115 and 125 seats, a significant gain from the 98 seats the party won in the 2002 elections.


The BJP also looks set to gain and could end up with about 95 to 105 seats, up from the 88 in 2002.


The Congress would get between 35 and 45 seats. It is again up from the 25 it had in the last elections.


And the Independents would get between 20 and 30 seats. The last time they got 49 seats.
NDTV-IMRB Exit Poll projects a 3-way split

Hurdles & betrayals facing Dalit movement
V.T. RAJSHEKAR
I have chosen the subject of “Hurdles & betrayals facing Dr. Ambedkar mission” for my keynote address. “Independent” India has not produced a thinker, scholar, and philosopher of the stature of Dr. Ambedkar.

M.K. Gandhi, described by Brahminical people as the “Father of the Nation” was discarded by the Hindus themselves for whom he worked and died after making them rulers of India. History has finally thrown him into the waste paper basket.

Babasaheb Ambedkar has emerged as the country’s tallest intellectual titan and history has given the highest place, calling him the “Father of India”, meaning the father of all the castes and communities of the country. But Gandhi remains merely as the “Father of nation” — meaning just one among India’s many nations. But this one ungrateful nation, the nation of Hinds, itself has rejected him.

Our considered opinion is that the Dalit community, comprising the country’s single largest population of 20%, could not make use of Babasaheb’s burning thoughts because of the serious failures on the part of the Dalit leadership.

For want of time we are citing only the three important “betrayals” committed by us:
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/april2007/articles.htm


French queen Marie Antoinette was not so bad. After all, she innocently told starving peasants “If you don’t have bread, eat cake”. In any case, it has to be granted that cake is routinely eaten by human beings all over the world. But Sonia Gandhi’s pet dog Jairam Ramesh asked leaders of Left parties to eat dog food if they did not like Palaniappan Chidambaram Chettiar’s bullshit budget. Business Standard (March 2, 2007) reported this incident in “Chinese Whispers” on page 14. We must welcome this very practical suggestion because Left (kept) parties also wag their tails and support this dog-forsaken government which believes in eliminating poverty by killing the poor systematically.

So henceforth all of us should eat dog food which we rightfully deserve. Looks like people get the food and governments they deserve. Ordinary food like bread and milk are meant only for the pet dogs of foreign pedigree residing at Pali Hill, Napean Sea Road and Malabar Hill... But let us first feed some dog biscuits to the cheating Chettiyar from Kandanur ... live on TV... After all, the Chettiyar family must lead by example... Samir Jain’s Times Now TV must cover this grand event live just like the Times of India (March 2, 2007) has carried exclusive photographs of the cheating Chettiar’s ancestral house in Kandanur, Sivagangai, on p.19.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/april2007/articles.htm


Post-Nandigram, even commerce ministry the prime driver of the SEZ policy is conscious of the perils of going overboard with the experiment, especially when public mood is not favourable. Finance ministry has, in any case, been complaining of large revenue loss estimated at over Rs 100,000 crore if 70 SEZs were to come up. In the note for the last EGoM meeting, commerce ministry had suggested that the panel allow it to turn down applications submitted after April 5. But the ministers skipped the issue, forcing commerce ministry to voluntarily put a freeze of sorts. So far, government has cleared 234 SEZs, of which 90 can start operations, while 162 proposals have received first-stage clearance. Government's new measures on SEZ are seen as reflecting recognition that the steps announced by the Empowered Group of Ministers may not have sufficed to calm down the agrarian passion over SEZs which are perceived as a concession to the industry. Protests against SEZs have continued in Haryana and Maharashtra, besides the renewed flare-up in Orissa. Sensing the defiant mood, government did not even wait to route the fresh proposals through EGoM, and let commerce ministry do the honours. Sources said that with state governments being kept out of land acquisition, developers will have to either give up their plans or reduce the size of the zones since even isolated tracts of land within the designated areas can't be acquired through state assistance.

Alleging that Dow Chemicals is secretly pressurising Indian government to help rid the company of its legal liabilities related to Bhopal gas disaster, Amnesty International has sought inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into, what it calls, failure of the company to disclose to the shareholders the information about its liabilities regarding the disaster. Thousands of people died when about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocynate (MIC) gas was released from the Union Carbide plant on December 3, 1984. The Union Carbide has since been taken over by the Dow Chemical.

In a statement, Amnesty said it has requested that the SEC investigate Dow's failures to disclose pertinent information to shareholders, and called on Dow investors to demand increased disclosure by supporting a shareholder resolution that requests the Company to report on any steps taken by it to address the needs of the survivors of the Bhopal chemical disaster. The resolution, Amnesty said, was filed by some shareholders led by the New York City Pension Funds.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200704140940.htm

What CPIM says:
The central committee of the CPI(M) has decided to immediately conduct a countrywide campaign to counter the disinformation and anti-CPI(M) propaganda on the Nandigram issue. The Left Front government’s implementing land reforms, developing agriculture and on that basis building industry will be taken to the people in this campaign.

Expressing concern at the growing trend of judicial encroachment in the spheres of the executive and parliament, the central committee underlined the need for judicial accountability and reforms in the judiciary. It also called upon Party units to wage struggles against price rise and for the proper implementation of the NREGA in the concerned districts.

Actually, there was among the people a great deal of discontent against the INC-NCP state government which has been ruling the state for the last 7 years since 1999.

The deep-rooted agrarian crisis and the continuing spate of suicides of debt-ridden peasants in Vidarbha and elsewhere despite the prime minister’s so-called package; the unbearable load-shedding of power of up to 14 hours per day in the countryside, 6 hours in the towns and 3 hours in the cities; the new proposal to impose a power tariff hike on top of this load-shedding; the miserable plight of agricultural labourers and unorganised workers; the continuing price rise of essential commodities; the collapse of, and corruption in, the public distribution system; the thoroughly unsatisfactory implementation of the NREGA and the EGS; the closure and sickness of thousands of factories; the privatisation of education and health services; the reckless drive to set up SEZs all over the state; the horrific massacre of dalits in Khairlanji and the callous reaction of the state government; the targeting of hundreds of innocent Muslim youth after the recent serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and Malegaon while soft-pedaling the Nanded bomb blasts set off by the RSS-Bajrang Dal; and, of course, the lacklustre performance of the local bodies themselves over the last five years – all these factors clearly went against the state government and the INC and NCP that lord over it.
CPI(M) Website at

http://www.cpim.org

Ganashakti Website at:

http://www.ganashakti.com

Deshabhimani (Malayalam)

http://www.deshabhimani.com

Prajashakti (Telugu)

http://www.prajasakti.com

Theekkathir (Tamil)

http://www.theekkathir.in


Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, cast her vote along with her husband Robert Vadra and asserted that power was "not important" for her mother and other family members.

Officials from India and China will hold fresh talks next week to resolve a decades-old border dispute, an official said Saturday. Acting on an RTI application of a senior ifs officer seeking access to file notings on the appointment of Foreign Secretary, the Central Information Commission has issued notices to PMO, External Affairs Ministry, DOPT and the Cabinet Secretariat.

Fifteen days have passed since the Supreme Court stayed the law providing for 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes in centrally run educational institutions, but the Centre is yet to move the court to get the stay vacated for implementing the OBC quota from this academic year.This is even more intriguing as Union Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh himself went on record on Wednesday that the UPA Government would approach the apex court within two days.On Friday, during mentioning of an impleadment application filed by the All Indian Yadav Mahasabha and Akhil Bhartiya Gurjar Parishad, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subhamaniam told a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan that the Centre’s application would be filed during the day but it did not happen.

Singh on Friday met President APJ Abdul Kalam fuelling speculation about the Government’s next move.

The opposition Congress in Rajasthan described the BJP's 'Samrasta' rally today to mark Ambedkar jayanti as a "political gimmick" to woo Dalit voters who knew the shades of the saffron party's "feudal governance".


Parents are often silent witnesses to abuse of their children due to conservative views about sex in India, Renuka Chowdhury said on Friday. A study earlier this week revealed that two-thirds of children in India are physically abused while more than half have faced some form of sexual abuse.

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faced a barrage of calls Friday to resign over a deepening pay scandal involving his girlfriend, but won fresh backing from the US government.Negotiators striving for a global trade deal must have a clear idea of a final agreement before a summer break in August if they are to meet a year-end deadline, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso ...If you’ve been preoccupied with the fate of digital movies lately, as well as with information about the upcoming types of optical support, then surely you have found out about the open conflict between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray or, ...RBI today relaxed the asset classification and provisioning norms for infrastructure sector projects keeping in view unexpected delay caused in execution of large projects with long gestation period. Under the modified RBI norms, bank-funded infrastructure projects will be treated as a sub-standard asset only if they fail to commence production within a year of the specified date of commercial production, said an RBI notification.

Capping the size of special economic zones (SEZ) to 5,000 hectare may help governments quell social unrest caused by compulsory land acquisition for such projects. But it may force governments to create some of the infrastructure needed by such projects, said sources close to Mumbai SEZ Pvt Ltd, which is developing the country’s largest SEZ in Raigad district of Maharashtra.

In an SEZ like Reliance Industries’ in Raigad, which was to be spread over 10,000 hectare, the promoters had planned to develop a captive power plant of 2,000 MW, a residential complex for employees, sewage plant, water supply and transport systems, schools, a hospital, recreational facilities etc.

However, with the cut in its size, the promoter would not be able to develop all such infrastructure. It would have to ask the government to take care of some of the needs. Wanting to attract investment and create employment, the government would perforce have to spend money on such infrastructure.

Pointing out that Left parties were against capping the size of SEZs and disallowing state governments from acquiring land for SEZ projects, the sources claimed many state governments were of a similar view. Also, no industrial house would be able to acquire 5,000 hectares of land without a state government’s intervention, they said.

Amid reports of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal being in trouble, the US has said that there has been little movement forward on the 123 agreement even after three rounds of technical-level talks.

A deadline for North Korea to begin dismantling key nuclear facilities passed on Saturday with no sign of movement from Pyongyang and the transfer of frozen North Korean funds apparently still unresolved. coalition of Sunni insurgent groups loyal to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility yesterday for a bomb blast that killed a member of Iraq's parliament, but legislators, many bearing wounds ...

The controversy over Infosys chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy's remarks on the national anthem issue today snowballed with Karnataka police registering a case against him and the state government condemning them as an ...

When President Kalam recently visited the Mysore campus of Infosys, little did anyone know that the playing of the national anthem at the Infy facility would snowball into a major debate.What happened was that instead of singing Jana, Gana, Mana, the national anthem was played out on an electronic instrument. This raised the hackles of many who questioned Murthy the reason behind not singing the anthem. Explaining the reason, Murthy said: "We have a lot of foreigners. We didn't want them to be embarrassed, when they are silent and others are singing. So this was fine."

And this led to a flood of protests, angry reactions from politicians, writers, social activists and bloggers. Some demanded Murthy's arrest, others wanted him expelled from Karnataka. . .
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/13sld1.htm


Venue of hearing of Nandigram violence shifted

Bowing to a demand by the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) that the hearing of the executive probe into the police firing here be shifted from Tamluk, the administration today decided it would be held in nearby Chandipur.
East Midnapore's District Magistrate Anup Agarwal said it was decided at a meeting with the BUPC that the next hearing will be held at the Chandipur panchayat office, about 25 km from Nandigram. The next hearing is expected to be held on April 18.

Trinamool Congress MLA Subhendu Adhikary said though the BUPC was in favour of holding the hearing in Nandigram, it had no objection if it was held in Chandipur.

Besides Trinamool Congress, representatives of SUCI, Congress, BJP, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and other parties were present at the meeting while a written submission was given on behalf of PDS supporting the stand taken by BUPC.

The move followed parleys between higher authorities and Burdwan's Divisional Commissioner Balbir Ram, who is conducting the executive inquiry into the police firing in Nandigram on March 14.

The inquiry was ordered on March 19 to determine whether outsiders were involved in the firing and under what circumstances police had opened fire. Fourteen people were killed in the firing and violence.




Cong snubs, BJP abandons Mamata

Still, Esplanade rally manages to cause the usual traffic jam

Express News Service

Kolkata, April 13: The West Bengal Congress on Friday signalled that it would not do anything to rock the boat it shares with the CPI(M) in Delhi, even though it was willing to stand by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee in Left-ruled West Bengal.

Friday’s farmers’ rally was called by Mamata Banerjee to commemorate the Nandigram killings of March 14, when 14 people fell to police bullets. The farmers’ body was opposing the Left Front government’s acquisition of farmland for industry and Banerjee’s aim was to liken Nandigram to Jallianwallah Bag .



But the state unit of the Congress, in response to Mamata’s invitation to attend, sent two second ranking leaders. Kanak Debnath and Subhankar Sarkar, two little-known members of the West Bengal PCC, turned up at the rally, organised at Esplanade where Mamata had gone on her marathon fast last December. To add insult to injury, the Bharatiya Janata Party, Trinamool’s big brother in the NDA, was conspicuous by its absence. Naxalites leaders, who are backing Mamata and her farm front, were present. So was former CPI(M) leader Saifuddin Choudhury, who had parted ways with the Marxists to form the Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS), and other anti-CPI(M) elements and intellectuals. “Whether this anti-CPI(M) people’s front will last or not depends on how it recognises and tackles the hurdles before it,” Saifuddin said. He did not name the BJP, but was clearly warning the motley gathering that he would quit if the BJP, being Mamata’s official ally, stepped into the picture. Kabir Suman was more explicit — singing a song that, translated, runs: “I want to see Salman Khatoon as the daughter-in-law of a Hindu leader.”

Mamata herself steered clear of the reefs on either side, keeping her sight focused on the CPI(M) and Bhattacharjee. “I shall not let the government grab farmland for industry. The government must return the land at Singur that it took from farmers who were forced to sell.”

She admitted that her Save Farmland Committee was composed of diverse political opinions. “But, if we have to oppose the CPI(M)’s oppression, this unity is essential.”


India, a superpower? Yeah, of the dark ages!

India will be a superpower, screamed all: - from the economists, to our politicians and those crafty business men of the West, who have realized that India is a good enough dumping ground, and a little praise would do no harm. And how many among us would be alive in 2050? For, that is when we are supposed to beat the US and China and become a superpower.
http://nmallik.rediffiland.com//scripts/xanadu_diary_view.php?postId=1176455586

India is all set to enter the big league of commercial spaceflight with the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - C8 at Sriharikota on April 23.

CBS added new deals for its shows with Joost, Microsoft's MSN and AOL--some of which will offer the content for free. CBS Corp.

Indian economy has been expanding at over eight per cent for the past three years and is set to clock a growth rate of nine per cent in 2006-07, the second-fastest pace among major countries in the world after China. The booming economy, robust stock and commodity markets, growing consumer class and rising incomes have attracted a large number of foreign investors in a host of sectors ranging from automobile and other manufacturing areas to financial services such as banking.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the country jumped nearly three-fold to $15 billion in 2006-07 as the world's second-fastest growing economy lured investors from across the world. Bouyed with the surge in FDI flows, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said the Government has set a target of attracting $25 billion of investment in 2007-08.

"Last fiscal, FDI touched $15 billion as against $5.5 billion in 2005-06," Nath said at a CII interaction with Japanese Trade Minister Akira Amari.

"If reinvested earnings are taken into account, FDI in 2006-07 totalled $18 billion as against $7.5 billion in the previous financial year," he added.

FDI target for the 2006-07 was $12 billion and for this fiscal it has been pegged at $25 billion.

He said, healthy foreign investment flows reflect India's growth and confidence of investors in the country.


Veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu said the Centre was deviating from the Common Minimum Programme and his party would raise the matter in Parliament so that the 'real situation' became clear.

"We have said again and again that the Centre is not following the CMP. We will raise the matter in Parliament so that people know what the real situation is and how our stand is different from the Centre," Basu told newsmen after emerging from his party's state committee meeting.

The CPI(M) patriarch's remarks came close on the heels of another Left party CPI's advice to the Centre to effect mid-course corrections in its economic policies and control price rise.

The Left parties lend outside support to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Asked about the CPI's reported warning to the Centre not to take its support for granted, Basu, a member of the CPI(M) politburo, said "I have seen it in the papers. But the matter had not been discussed in our party, nor was it discussed in the politburo."

Videocon to establish new SEZ in West Bengal

Kolkata, April 14: Videocon India Limited (VIL) will set up another IT and biotech SEZ at Guptamanipur in West Midnapore district, said VIL Chairman Venugopal Dhoot.

Besides the proposed SEZ, company will also set up a 32-lakh square foot IT tower in salt lake which will provide employment to 30,000 people, he said. Adjacent to the IT tower, VIL will also open a "finishing school" for semi-skilled technicians to increase their employability.

The company will invest Rs 200 Crore to expand its television manufacturing plant in Taratala to manufacture LCD TV’s for the first time in the country, he said.

He further mentioned that trial production in the factory was ON and the commercial production will begin from October.

With the company`s small TV manufacturing plant Kanchan in North Bengal making a profit, VIL has decided to invest another Rs 20 Crore there for a light engineering project, Dhoot said.

He, however, declined to give an estimate of the company`s total proposed investment in West Bengal, saying that it was being worked out.





Why we are angry with RBI

T N Ninan


April 14, 2007
One reason why there is anger at the Reserve Bank of India today is that most people who had taken housing loans at bargain basement rates of interest (as low as 7.25 per cent) did not work out the likelihood of such low rates of interest continuing for the life of the loans (typically, 15 years). In other words, they did not assess risk. If they had, they might have decided that the cost of paying an extra percentage point on a fixed (as against floating) interest loan was worth the cost, in order to hedge against interest rates climbing in the future. After all, it would be unreasonable to expect that an unusual circumstance (7.25 per cent interest) would prevail for 15 long years.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/14guest.htm


High-tech sector eyes India's rural market
By Indrajit Basu

KOLKATA - The roads are dusty and unpaved; electricity is erratic and its quality inferior; the residents seldom finish school and to most the use of hi-technology starts with a television and ends with a mobile phone - just for talking. Yet ask the heads of dozens of technology companies in India and they will tell you that foremost on their list of strategic moves is to head into rural India.

From multinational high-tech consumer durable companies to Chinese mobile-phone makers; from global information



technology giants such as Microsoft to back-office service providers; global telecom and biotechnology companies, and even India's IT-sector lobbyist, the National Association of Software Services Companies (NASSCOM), are stepping out of the cities and moving into the villages and towns of rural India.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ID13Df06.html

Jay Hind.


Arvind Amin.
Your obedient servant of India,
without salary.
India has China in its range
By Siddharth Srivastava

NEW DELHI - Even as India celebrates the successful test-firing on Thursday of its home-grown Agni-III intermediate-range ballistic missile - capable of delivering a 1.5-tonne nuclear or conventional payload over much of Asia - officials admit that the test had the tacit approval of the United States.

The US is striving to build India as a strategic counterweight to China, along with Japan and Australia.

Last May, during a period of frenzied negotiations on a civilian nuclear deal with Washington, New Delhi postponed testing of the



Agni-III so as not to invite the ire of nuclear hawks in the US Congress, which was deliberating the nuclear pact that now stands approved.

According to reports last year, Washington put pressure on New Delhi to agree to a future moratorium on testing of dual-use missile technology that could be used to deliver a nuclear payload and testing another atomic bomb as a quid pro quo for the civilian nuclear deal.

India, however, rejected such a commitment as a back-door entry to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. India has not signed the CTBT as it feels that the treaty came into existence after those who possessed nuclear weapons had developed the know-how.

Strategic equations have obviously changed now, with a combination of business interests, India's record as a responsible democratic nation, and the China factor coming into play.

Agni-III, given its range of 3,000 kilometers, has been specifically designed to build a minimum nuclear deterrence against China, with cities such as Beijing and Shanghai very much in the radar. Agni-III is said to possess a high degree of accuracy with a medium-to-large nuclear payload.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ID14Df01.html

Hindi Speaking Dalits at the receiving end in West Bengal By V.B.Rawat




"Kamane wala khayega, Lootne wala jayega, Naya Jamana Ayega…"



(The worker will rule, the looter will have to go, Soon there will be a new dawn)



These slogans are not just a matter of past. The rhetoric's are still visible in Bengal even today but hollowness of this slogan is visible when you watch the condition of Dalits who migrated from Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and Haryana and living in utterly miserable conditions. One wonders why the displacement and disenchantment of these people did not become an issue for any of the political outfits of Bengal. The façade of the slogan of proletariat is exposed once you visit the bustees of the Hindi speaking Dalits, share their pain and anguish as an isolated community.



While slogan like that were loud in the air, the famous Belllilius Park was ready for inauguration of biotech 'Dhobighat' on 16 th of November 2005. Local Member of Parliament from the Communist Party of India along with the Mayor of Howarh were being welcomed by the Marxist supporters. Both of them talked about the importance of this biotech Dhobighat for their 'dhobi' brethrens. I was wondering of a slogan raised by the Dhobi community in Uttar-Pradesh a few years back in which they said 'nahi chahiye dhobighat, hame chahiye rajpat'!