INDIA SUMMARIZED

New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) The curtains came down on Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi Friday after it failed to table the Jan Lokpal bill in the assembly, ending 49 days of rule. The following are the achievements of the short-lived government:* Free supply of 667 litres of water daily for households with metered connections. * Fifty percent subsidy in electricity bills for households which consume up to 400 units of power a month. * No red or blue beacons on official cars, bringing an end to 'VIP culture' * All government schools surveyed for infrastructure deficiency and given Rs.1 lakh each for immediate repairs. * Some 24,000 people exempted from paying 50 percent of their power bills during the period they took part in an AAP campaign against inflated electricity bills. * Launched anti-corruption and nursery admission helplines. * New permits given to 5,500 autos. * Registered first information reports (FIR) against former Delhi...

NEW DELHI: SEVEN weeks of sound and fury that signified nothing came to an end in the Capital on a rainy Friday evening as Kejriwal and his Council of Ministers quit, seeking dissolution of the Assembly and fresh elections. AAP's great escape moment came at the end of a long day that saw the Arvind Kejriwal government lose a vote on tabling the Jan Lokpal Bill in the House. AAP's wild success, however, was hogging the national news space with a martyr act devised to slingshot the Aam Aadmi Party into the Lok Sabha elections that are less than 100 days away. Meanwhile, Delhi's immediate political future slipped back into a flux of questions. The two big parties- Congress and BJP- reacted with I- told- you- so contempt. Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely called the AAP move "scripted" and "pre- planned", while Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel said the resignation was "political drama orchestrated by AAP to prepare for Lok Sabha polls". Kejriwa...

Photo credit: PTI File photo of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal London:    Two persons said to be members of the UK arm of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are embroiled in a student visa scam in Britain uncovered by the BBC.  An undercover operation by the BBC programme Panorama showed purported AAP worker Varinder Bajarh, also director of Studentway Education, telling a student how she can get a compulsory English language certificate required for her visa without actually giving the exam. Another purported AAP UK member Hemant Kumar, referred to as a former director of Studentway, was shown handing over fake academic qualifications in a sealed envelope to a student who worked with the producers of the programme. However, the UK arm of AAP said it was not aware of these two persons being members of the party. "The photo will be yours," Bajarh was seen telling the student in the Panorama programme which aired on February 10. The student was then sent to Eden C...

February 4, 2014   Magh Shuklapaksha 5, Kaliyug Varsha 5115 Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police arrested a 70-year-old Imam (preacher) after catching him red handed molesting an eight-year-old school girl in his car. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were on a routine patrol in the southern Saudi province of Aboarhish when they saw a car parked in an isolated area with its engine running. “When they came near the car, they saw the old man and a little bare-footed girl sat next to him…as they opened the door, he was confused while the girl burst into crying and said to them ‘please take me away from this crazy man,” Sabq daily said. It quoted Commission members as saying the preacher begged them to close the case to prevent a scandal but that they refused and handed him over to the police. “The girl was taken to hospital to undergo tests to check whether she has been raped by the Imam,” the paper added.

Swami Aseemanand's interview to  The Caravan magazine's February issue  has stirred up a controversy. The terror attack accused was quoted by the magazine as saying that some top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders knew about the plots to attack the Samjhauta Express, the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah in 2007. The magazine report has claimed that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, then a general secretary, and another senior leader Indresh Kumar, had told Aseemanand that "you have our blessings" when informed about the terror attack plots. Aseemanand is an accused in the three terror attacks that killed scores of people. He is currently lodged in an Ambala jail. However, sources in the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case against Aseemanand, said he never named any RSS leader during questioning. NIA sources said that chargesheet in the case has been filed and Bhagwat has not been named. The RSS, too, has rubbished the allegations and...

With general election only three months away, it is in a way good that Rahul Gandhi showed the courage to make his television debut. Monday night saw the release of the much hyped Arnab Goswami versus Rahul Gandhi blockbuster on the television screen. The angry young man Arnab Goswami had to change his role from that of a rabble-rouser to an indulgent younger brother to give a wider canvas to soft-spoken debutant Rahul Gandhi. But it is heartening to note that Rahul Gandhi disappointed the whole country by exhibiting his confusion with respect to the pressing issues that our country has been facing. His lack of that burning desire to do anything for his party let alone for the country is evident in his demeanour and the way he communicates. From no angel, he comes across as someone who is a natural leader comfortable with the hurly burly of the politics. What is noteworthy is his hard work to inform those who have lots of hopes in the 43 year old Congress heir that he simply lacks ...

So much has been written and discussed about Rahul Gandhi’s interview to Arnab Goswami – with most of them focussing on how the whole interview was a disaster. There’s always two sides for a coin, so I wanted to focus on reading/listening to those who liked or were in awe of Rahul Gandhi’s (unrelated) responses to Arnab Goswami’s questions. Three arguments stand out (in order of their priority): 1. At least he gave an interview, unlike Narendra Modi who walked out of an interview. He held his head high and did not run away despite being cornered. 2. He is earnest, honest, sincerest, best(est) etc (Abhishek Singhvi used many more adjectives, difficult to mention all of them here!) 3. This article by  Farzana Versey – “How Rahul Gandhi turned the tables” . The first point is the proof enough of the depths to which our public discourse has fallen to. The Congress has maintained this line of argument moments after the interview was over – be content that he sat through the in...