Daily News (In Short)-22-July-2015

#* Chaos in Parliament as BJP, Cong battle it out over Bagrodia, Vyapam scam

A relentless opposition on Wednesday refused to agree to the government's call for a discussion over various scams involving leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and continued to disrupt Parliament forcing both Houses to adjourn repeatedly.
Earlier, the Congress postponed a sit-in protest by its lawmakers outside Parliament to demand for action against three top BJP leaders after reportedly failing to get other political parties on board with its chief Sonia Gandhi saying her party will continue to protest.

Sonia and vice-president Rahul Gandhi were to participate in the protest as the party appeared in no mood to let the government pass key reform bills.

Rahul refused to speak to the media on external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's tweet alleging that a senior Congress leader approached her for a diplomatic passport for coal scam accused Santosh Bagrodia prompting the former minister to retort that his name was unnecessarily being dragged in.

"We will speak in Parliament," he said.

India Today TV reported quoting sources that the Congress changed strategy and decided to confront the government after it failed to get the support of parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Biju Janata Dal.

In a series of tweets, Swaraj, who is facing opposition heat for allegedly supporting tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi's bid for British travel papers, said she will reveal the name of the Congress leader in Parliament.

"A senior Congress leader was pressing me hard to give diplomatic passport to the Coal Scam accused Santosh Bagrodia...I will disclose name of the leader on the floor of the House," she tweeted.

Shortly afterwards, Bagrodia hit back saying that he himself had approached the foreign minister for a diplomatic passport.

"I am eligible for a diplomatic passport. I can't see why my name is dragged into this, " Bagrodia told India Today TV.

According to CNN-IBN news channel, Swaraj has said she will speak on the issue in Lok Sabha.

The opposition parties, however, continued their attack on the government demanding the resignations of Swaraj, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Chouhan, forcing an early adjournment of Lok Sabha.

Congress MPs protest in the House by wearing black bands only to be chided by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Some MPs were also seen carrying placards in the House after Opposition ruckus in the Lower House.

Amid the chaos, Mahajan rejected Congress' adjournment motion moved by Mallikarjun Kharge and Veerappa Moily on Lalit Modi issue and adjourned the House till 12pm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House when it was adjourned amid loud protests.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan warned Opposition that she would be constrained to take disciplinary action if members do not follow the due etiquette of the House. The House was adjourned again till 2pm.

While Swaraj and Raje are under fire for helping tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi, who faces an Enforcement Department probe for alleged money laundering and forex violations, Chouhan is under pressure to quit over the Vyapam admission and recruitment scandal.

Similar scene played out in Rajya Sabha as the Opposition stuck to its guns demanding Swaraj's resignation despite the government's stance that it is ready for a discussion on the controversy.

"You want to discuss Sushma Swaraj, start the discussion on the issue right now," said finance Arun Jaitley amid the ruckus.

Jaitley sought to turn the heat back on the opposition saying that any debate over scams in states should also involve Kerala and Assam, where Congress chief ministers Oommen Chandy and Tarun Gogoi are facing corruption charges.

The ruckus forced deputy chairman PJ Kurien to adjourn the Upper House for 15 minutes.

Soon after it reconvened, Rajya Sabha was again adjourned till 2pm as an relenting Opposition continued to protest over Vyapam and Lalit Modi controversies.

CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury dismissed Jaitley's arguement on discussion saying its not a substitute for investigation and demanded that Raje and Chouhan must quit.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati too joined in the chorus saying the Lalit Modi row and Vyapam scam are national issues.

On Tuesday, the monsoon session of Parliament began and ended on stormy notes amid signs of continued disruption over the demand for the resignation of Swaraj and BJP chief ministers in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Lok Sabha was adjourned immediately after it met as a mark of tribute to a sitting member who died away recently. Wednesday is the first working day of the Lower House in the session which concludes on August 13.

Rajya Sabha witnessed repeated adjournments with Congress members trooping into the well of the House to press their demand for foreign minister's resignation. It was supported by parties like CPI(M) as well as the Samajwadi Party.

#* Gold Futures Slide Further Amid Weak Global Cues

New Delhi: Gold fell by Rs 108 to trade at Rs 24,689 per 10 grams in futures trade on Wednesday, largely in line with a weak trend overseas.

Analysts said gold retreated amid a weakening trend in the overseas markets for the tenth straight day as Goldman Sachs Group predicted further decline in its prices and holdings.

Growing expectations that the US Fed may raise interest rates later this year and subdued demand from jewellers at domestic spot markets, weighed on the gold prices.

At Multi Commodity Exchange, gold for delivery in August was trading lower by Rs 108, or 0.84 per cent, at Rs 24,689 per 10 grams in a business turnover of 262 lots.

Also, the metal for delivery in October fell by Rs 108, or 0.83 per cent, to Rs 24,910 per 10 grams in 24 lots.

In the national capital, gold recorded a fall of Rs 150 to hit nearly four-year low of Rs 25,550 per 10 grams in yesterday's trade.

Globally, gold fell as much as 0.8 per cent to $1,092.20 an ounce in Singapore.

Meanwhile, the precious metal slid to $1,086.18 on Monday, the lowest level since March 2010.

#* Indian Railways comes of age, KFC will be served to you during travel

People travelling in trains can now enjoy KFC’s meals on board as the fast food chain has tied up with Indian Railways to start a delivery system for passengers.
Now a person travelling on train can order KFC meal, while booking ticket through IRCTC from July 20 onwards, under e-catering service initiatives, KFC said in a statement.
Presently, this facility is available only on 12 trains passing through New Delhi railway station.
However, it will be expanded to Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad (Kacheguda) and Bangalore (Yeshwantpur) stations over the next 10 days, the statement added.
“Consumers will have to visit the IRCTC website or call on 18001034139 (Toll Free) to place their order. A password will then be sent by KFC to the consumeru2019s mobile phone which will have to be mentioned at the time of delivery,” it said.
The service will initially be limited to trains which do not have pantry cars and subsequently would be expanded to trains like Rajdhani and Duronto.
E-catering service is a joint effort from KFC and IRCTC to provide fresh food to the passengers on trains.
“As a much-loved restaurant brand, we think that this initiative gives us a great opportunity to bring the craveable taste and quality of KFC to our fans, even when they are travelling. We intend to expand the service to other stations over the next few days,” KFC India Chief Marketing Officer Dhruv Kaul said.
KFC Corporation is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands and has 19,400 outlets in 120 countries.

#* Teradata gets behind Facebook’s Presto SQL engine | #HadoopSummit

By announcing a commitment to contribute to Presto’s open-source development, Teradata Corp. created new opportunities for the next-generation, open-source SQL query engine developed and used by Facebook, Inc.
“We saw this as an exciting opportunity for Teradata to put its weight behind this project and become a stronger member of the open-source community,” Teradata Center for Hadoop VP and General Manager Justin Borgman told theCUBE during Hadoop Summit 2015.
Companies such as Airbnb, DropBox, Gree, Groupon and Netflix have already adopted Presto.
Engineering culture focuses on open source

“We have a strong engineering culture focused on open source,” said Jay Tang, lead of Interactive Analytics Infrastructure for Facebook, who also joined theCUBE. “When we started a project on Presto a couple years ago, we knew from the beginning that we would like to open-source the project.”
The Presto project can be found here.
Teradata’s support of Presto comes about a year after the company acquired Big Data startup Hadapt, Inc.. “Teradata has a view of the unified data architecture, where you have multiple data platforms within your enterprise,” said Borgman. “Hadoop is an increasingly important part of that view. We want to have the biggest impact we can, and open source is playing a major role.”

#* What sexual harassment case? RK Pachauri back in charge at TERI after court lets him attend office

Five months on, Rajendra K Pachauri is reportedly back in office at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), even as an investigation against him in a case of sexual harassment filed by an employee continues.
According to a report in The Business Standard, Pachauri has taken over an active role as the head of TERI after a court passed an order allowing him to “physically attend” all offices of TERI except the head office and the one at Gurgaon.
In February, he had resigned as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change following the accusations of sexual harassment. The Indian Express had then reported that he had also “proceeded on leave for the time being” from TERI.
The Business Standard in its report quoted minutes from a meeting held on the day the court’s order was passed. The minutes said that the DG (Pachauri) chaired the meeting, and that the committee of directors extended a warm welcome to him.
The report quotes Pachauri’s lawyer saying that he did not require re-appointment, as he was merely on leave. However, it is not clear why then was a court order required if he had not stepped down in the first place.
In February this year, a junior associate at TERI filed a police complaint accusing Pachauri of sexual harrassment.

#* Unrealism and incompetence at Ufa

The lop-sided Pakistan-India joint statement issued at Ufa, which tilts heavily in favour of India, is the outcome of unrealism on the part of the Pakistani side compounded by incompetence. It reflects inadequate understanding by the Pakistani leadership of the Indian strategic goals in the region, the chauvinistic character of the Modi-led Indian government, and the challenges that they pose to Pakistan’s security. As the famous Chinese scholar, Sun Tzu, pointed out, “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

What are India’s strategic goals in South Asia? The answer to this question has been conclusively provided by the Indian policy makers and writers. The foremost Indian strategic goal is to establish its hegemony in South Asia so that it is able to exercise veto power over what happens in the region. Indian security analyst C. Raja Mohan unequivocally stated in an article in the Foreign Affairs issue of July-August, 2006 that “India’s grand strategy divides the world into three concentric circles. In the first, which encompasses the immediate neighbourhood, India has sought primacy and a veto over actions of outside powers.”

Foreign scholars and observers have taken note of Indian hegemonic designs. Zbigniew Brzezinski in his recent book “Strategic Vision—-America and the Crisis of Global Power” mentions, “Indian strategists speak openly of a greater India exercising a dominant position in an area ranging from Iran to Thailand. India is also positioning itself to control the Indian Ocean militarily.” Indian hegemonic designs have also been acknowledged by Henry Kissinger in his latest book, “World Order”. He points out that on the pattern of the Monroe Doctrine which laid down a special role for the US in the Western Hemisphere, India is striving to carve out a special role for itself in the Indian Ocean region between the East Indies and the Horn of Africa. He stresses that “India in the region of its special strategic interests conducts its policy on the basis of its own definition of a South Asian order” obviously with India at its centre as the determining factor.

For the foreseeable future, New Delhi’s hegemonic designs in South Asia will remain a constant factor that Pakistan’s policy makers will have to contend with in the formulation of its India policy. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his foreign policy team seem to believe that by appeasing India they would be able to persuade it to give up its hegemonic ambitions and deal with Pakistan on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect. This is likely to remain a pipe dream. In fact, as ample historical evidence shows, our current policy of appeasement of India will embolden it to raise its demands on Pakistan. This is precisely what has happened in Pakistan-India relations since Pervez Musharraf’s virtual capitulation, on the rebound from Agra, in the form of the Pakistan-India joint statement of 6 January, 2004.

While the Lahore Declaration of 21 February, 1999 had given the pride of place to Kashmir in the first operative clause, the Pakistan-India joint statement of 6 January, 2004 consigned the issue to the second last paragraph. The issue of terrorism instead was given much more prominence in that statement. Even worse, the wording of the fourth paragraph dealing with terrorism was such as to leave the impression that Pakistan in the past had permitted its territory to be used for terrorism contrary to its declared policy. Nevertheless, the joint statement contained the agreement of the two sides to commence the process of the composite dialogue in February, 2004.

The Pakistan-India joint statement of 10 July, 2015 issued at Ufa carries the process of Pakistan’s capitulation and compliance with India’s one-sided demands a step further without any corresponding concessions from the Indian side. While mentioning the willingness of the two countries to discuss all outstanding issues, the joint statement avoids any reference to Kashmir, obviously to take into account Indian sensitivities. Mumbai case trial is the only issue which is specifically mentioned in the statement. In line with India’s unwillingness to resume a structured bilateral dialogue to discuss all outstanding issues until its demands concerning the Mumbai terrorist attacks are met, there was no agreement to resume the bilateral dialogue. Even in the context of the issue of terrorism, while Mumbai was specifically mentioned, no reference was made to Pakistan’s officially made allegations regarding India’s involvement in terrorist activities in Balochistan, Karachi and FATA. There was a reference in the joint statement to the holding of the meeting of the National Security Advisers of the two countries in New Delhi but only to discuss terrorism. The joint statement in effect reflected India’s point of view on bilateral relations while Pakistan’s well known position on issues of special interest to it got short shrift.

There is no doubt that peace between Pakistan and India is a strategic imperative because of their de facto status as nuclear-weapon states and the urgent need in both countries to allocate most of their resources to the acceleration of economic progress and the eradication of grinding poverty. It is in their common interest to keep the door of dialogue and negotiations open to defuse tensions, adopt CBM’s, resolve outstanding disputes particularly Kashmir, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields. Contrary to what Nawaz Sharif’s foreign policy team appears to believe, resumption of the bilateral dialogue is not a favour to be granted by India to Pakistan. In fact, India’s decision to make it subject to its unilaterally decided conditions betrays its hegemonic mindset. By pandering to India’s unreasonable attitude at Ufa and neglecting its own reasonable position on such issues as Kashmir, Siachin and terrorism, the Pakistani side has merely whetted India’s appetite for more extremist demands in the future, thus, ironically vitiating the long-term prospects of Pakistan-India relations.

Pakistan faces an uphill task in dealing with India’s hegemonic designs in South Asia, its continued hostility towards Pakistan as reflected by its opposition to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, its intransigence in settling the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, and its support to acts of terrorism in different parts of Pakistan. The chauvinistic character of the Modi-led BJP government, Modi’s own militant background, and his anti-Pakistan bias as reflected in his recent speech at Dhaka aggravate the difficulties in managing Pakistan’s relations with India. What we need is a long-term strategy within the framework of which we should decide our policies concerning India in the short-term.

Our long-term India strategy must be based on a realistic assessment of both the limitations and the potential of our relations with India. We must realise that India because of its hegemonic designs and continued hostility towards Pakistan will continue to pose a serious threat to Pakistan’s security. Therefore, genuine friendship between the two countries would remain elusive in the foreseeable future. Still, for reasons given earlier, our diplomacy must focus on maintaining peace and tension-free relations with India in the best interest of the two countries. We must keep the door open for the unconditional resumption of the bilateral dialogue. Efforts to defuse tensions, undertake CBM’s, resolve outstanding disputes, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation should continue. Finally, while conducting our relations with India on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect, we should avoid both adventurism and provocations.

#* VD Satheesan slams govt stance on Kasthurirangan report

Kottayam: KPCC vice-president and MLA V D Satheesan strongly criticised the Kerala government’s stance on the Kasthurirangan committee constituted for the protection of Western Ghats. Slamming the report he has said that the report is both anti-farmer and anti-environment.

The Congress MLA in a Facebook post said that the methods adopted by the committee to determine ecologically-sensitive areas are ‘unscientific’.

Even though he praised the Kerala government’s efforts to resolve the issue, Satheesan pointed out certain lapses in the part of the State in his post.

The MLA said that Kerala’s move to classify only forest regions as ecologically sensitive areas would have an adverse impact on other forest-related cases in court.

A high-level meet chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had the other day decided to constitute special committees in 119 villages to demarcate agricultural land that falls within forest areas. The committees will conduct survey in the villages on July 23, 24 and submit report to the Centre on 29.

#* Govt issues passport with nine months validity to Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani

New Delhi: Hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was on Tuesday issued a passport by the government that is valid for nine months, two months after his application was rejected on the grounds of incomplete information.
"Geelani has been issued a short-duration passport with nine months validity," official sources told PTI.
An official in the Regional Passport Office(RPO) in Srinagar also said that the Hurriyat leader was on Tuesday issued a passport.
Geelani's application for a passport was rejected in May on the grounds of incomplete information provided to the government.
In May, Geelani had applied for the passport online apparently for his travel to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to visit his ailing daughter.
The External Affairs Ministry, which issues passports, then had said that "the application could not be processed in its present form".
As per the new rules, an applicant must visit the passport office in person to give biometric details and click the photograph.
"An incomplete passport application was received from him. Fees were not paid and the biometric details and photographs not submitted," Spokesperson in MEA Vikas Swarup had said.
Jammu and Kashmir's ruling coalition partners PDP and BJP were sharply divided over the Geelani passport issue.
PDP had said it would approach the Centre for giving passport to Geelani on "humanitarian" grounds while BJP was of the view that he should not be given the travel document till he "apologises" for his anti-national activities.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had said the Centre should give passport to Geelani on "humanitarian" ground so that he could travel abroad to meet his ailing daughter. Other separatist leaders like Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also have passports, she had said.

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