Jallianwala Bagh.

Defending the renovation work, trustee S. Mukherjee says; “We are not destroying any historical site. In fact we are preserving and renovating the memorial so that more people can relate to it. Otherwise the old building would have crumbled.” However, one of the lanes demolished was the one in which patriot Udham Singh, who was later to kill General Dyer in England, had helped the injured and the dying. A new wall is being constructed at the main gate for a light and sound show that is to be introduced here.

However, ITDC engineer maintains that the bullet marks on the walls are being preserved carefully and red sandstone is being used to give the monument a heritage look. The ambitious project was proposed by Maninderjit Singh Bitta, former president of the Indian Youth Congress to late Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao. However, the project could see the light of the day only after a high-level meeting of the board of trustees was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The project also include making of videos and CDs of the proposed light and sound show and distribute it throughout the country as part of an awareness campaign. The next question is about an entry fee. “All the historical monuments in the country have an entry fee, the only exception being the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial entry for which is free for visitors," says Mukherjee. Baba Bilga says: “The government should not convert the historical monument into a tourist place.” But no one is listening, as the old order changeth, indeed, yielding place to the new.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Chartered accounts win!

The Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India (ICWAI), one of the last three All India Institutes still remaining at Kolkata, is all set to shift to Delhi. The shift, interestingly, is motivated by a strange logic: to be in closer proximity with the power lobby at the Centre! However, many of the members fear a hidden agenda behind amalgamating the ICWAI with The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) at Delhi, where now cost accountants will be swallowed by their bigger counterparts, the chartered accountants.

Since it is being felt increasingly difficult to feed the growing number of practicing chartered accountants, it is now necessary to substantially take away the market of practicing cost accountants, disclosed sources close to ICAI, speaking on condition of anonymity. The CAs will do all the work, including those earmarked for cost accountants, while the latter can be junior partners or employees of chartered accountants in multidisciplinary firms now being envisaged in the Limited Liability Partnership Bill 2008 tabled recently in the Parliament.

The Bill seeks to dilute, or eliminate, the provision of cost audit by cost accountants. For instance, in Clause 131(2) of the Bill on Statutory Cost Audit, the very ‘qualification’ of cost auditor has been omitted. Clause 131(5) of the Bill specifies that ‘qualification’ of general auditor (financial auditor) will also apply to cost auditors and such ‘qualification’ of auditor is specified in Clause 124(1). And what is that qualification? “A person shall be eligible for appointment as an auditor of a company only if he is a chartered accountant in practice”. It means chartered accountants will now do cost audit, replacing cost accountants!....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

The myth of freedomania

Do freedom and development go hand-in-hand in the context of undeclared province, region or territory? Both freedom and development are integral and are equally needed for overall growth. To make things clear, let’s consider the newly independent state of Kosovo – in Europe. Are average Kosovars happier after the independence?Are they economically, socially or psychologically better off than they were under Serbian rule? Issues like ethnic conflicts, corruption, economic hollowness, high unemployment rate along with dearth of investment, poor living standards, inadequate energy, food and basic amenities still loom large and are putting question marks on the hurried independence exercise. It continues to be the most underdeveloped state in Europe with per capita income being less than $1,565. GDP growth rate remains very low at around 2-3 per cent while the unemployment is over 40 per cent.

On this the World Bank had prophesied that even with six per cent annual GDP growth rate (which is double than the current growth rate), it needs at least 10 more years to cut the unemployment by half (from 40 per cent to 20 per cent). For most Kosovars, independence was a dream come true but unless the basics like electricity, safe drinking water, education and employment become norms than exceptions and unless the Kosovar polity meets every promises they made during the freedom struggle, freedom in its real sense would continue to be elusive.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Encounters in the Wild

I was woken just before dawn by the persistent calls of warblers and sunbirds. Emerging sleepily from the confines of the ancient forest bungalow, built during the British Raj at Dimbhum in Kerala's Satyamangalam forest block, the first sight to greet me through the light mist was a bevy of small minivets adorning the compound trees like so many scarlet and yellow Christmas decorations. The freshness in the air, the sounds and the ethereal ambience created by the mist enveloped me and transported me to days when all of India must have been as verdant, as invigorating.

Lost in thought, I was shaken from my reverie by a bird which flew low over my head from behind me to settle on a nearby banyan tree. Through my binoculars I saw its flaming-orange and black coloration and leafed through the Salim Ali's Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent to discover its flycatcher identity. I quickly added another `tick' to my lifetime tally of 210 species of birds and settled down in the short grass, a steaming flask of tea for company, to observe the bird from a distance of less than 20 metres....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Assam Blasts - Ominous Bloody Thursday

Harekrishna Deka
ex-DGP, Assam & Sr Journalist

India has increasingly become the target of terrorist bombings in the recent past, with blasts in Jaipur, Gujarat, Bengaluru and Delhi taking the lives of scores of people. Had the explosives not been recovered in Surat in time, and had the conspiracies in Mumbai and Chennai not been detected, the catastrophe would have only been greater. That organisations such as Indian Mujahideen that could in reality be a form of SIMI, and that there is a form of jihad that a section of communal extremists now subscribes to as a means of revenge is becoming more apparent by the day.

So, is there a foreign hand that now extends from a neighbouring country, in so far as the blasts in Assam on October 30, 2008 are concerned? One must mention in this context that the needle of suspicion in India’s blasts over the past months has often pointed to Harkat ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI), an organisation that has its roots in neighbouring Bangladesh. The blasts in Assam have meanwhile been claimed by an outfit called the Islamic Security Force of India (ISFI-Indian Mujahideen). The IM suffix, one gathers, could link the outfit to both HUJI and SIMI.

Significantly, the ISFI is not an organisation that has appeared suddenly out of nowhere. It was way back in the year 2000 that the Special Branch (SB) of Assam Police had gathered evidence regarding the existence of such a group. There is enough such evidence to establish that the ISFI at that point in time attempted to organise the Muslim community against Bodo ultra groups such as National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), which operated in the lower Assam districts. It was then that the name of Muhammad Mushtaqil, the secretary of ISFI, first surfaced as a terror element who had the support of the al-Qaida and was associated with the al-Omar, an outfit that operates in Pak Occupied Kashmir (POK). One could analyse that the ISFI, which then kept itself beyond the radar of the country’s intelligence agencies used its time to broaden its base of operations. While there were then no established links of the ISFI with HUJI, one shouldn’t overlook the fact that Bangladesh’s HUJI is a creation of the al-Qaeda and that the HUJI called itself the “Bangladeshi Taliban”. One, hence, could believe that the ISFI comprises a sleeper cell of the al-Qaeda.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Faced with near total isolation, DMK is trying to woo PMK

IIPM Publication
Inside DMK, there are intra-party and family feuds. Meanwhile, continuing power shortage in the state is a thorn in DMK’s flesh. Karunanidhi took an aggressive stand in the Lankan issue and even he won the support of PMK. Ramadoss participated in the human chain organised by DMK and both leaders met each other briefly then. But after that the softer line on the Lankan issue – penned by a Central diktat – found Karunanidhi become the whipping boy of all state parties, including the PMK. Perturbed by all these, there was a strong rumour last week that Karunanidhi might quit Chief Ministership!

This is why the PMK is now crucial for DMK. Ramadoss has not immediately extended the olive branch. The ongoing Assembly session, perhaps will throw some answers to the future course of the party. “There is speculation that our leader would like to meet the Assembly elections midway, along with the general elections. Meanwhile AIADMK wants to upset us in the Assembly by causing defections. Till parliamentary elections, it is tough time for us,” a senior DMK functionary told TSI. But Karunanidhi has weathered many a storm in his career. He may come out successfully this time too!....Continue

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The Sunday Indian