National News

We apologize and seek forgiveness: Big B Mumbai, Sept 10: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan today apologized and sought “forgivenes” for certain remarks made by his wife Jaya, in an apparent bid to placate Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and his estranged nephew Raj Thackeray who attacked her for allegedly making anti-Marathi utterances. “Everything that we possess today is what came to us from this great state and city. We never have and never can look at Maharashtra with disrespect. If inadvertently this is what has been construed, then we apologise and are sorry and seek forgiveness for any sentiments that have been hurt,” he said. Bachchan said Jaya’s remarks did not in any manner sound ‘anti-Marathi’ and that there is no denigration but words have a funny way of being mutilated to suit a particular copy or expression in its interpretation.” Jaya, the actress-MP, who had attended a function on Saturday to promote her film Drona had said, Hum U P ke log hai, hume Hindi mein baat karni chahiye (we are from Uttar Pradesh and should speak in Hindi), triggering vehement protests from the Shiv Sena. Bal Thackeray warned her not to provoke Maharashtrians and an apology by Jaya for her remarks was rejected by Raj’s party MNS. “My first reaction in this matter is that the sentiments have been hurt...I’m not going into what has been said under what circumstances...Even if one person is disturbed...That disturbance be addressed. All else can come later,” Big B wrote in his blog. However, he said Jaya’s remarks made at a music launch function were without malice or deliberate intent. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by Raj Thackeray, has rejected Jaya’s apology published in an English daily here and asked her to tender a public apology on camera over her ‘anti-Marathi’ remarks. The MNS had said it will continue its protest by not allowing Bachchan’s films to be released. In a sharp reaction to Jaya’s remarks, Bal Thackeray said it was Mumbai that gave identity to the Bachchans bestowing fame when they were an “unknown commodity” and went on to add “if you rub us the wrong way and try to test our response, you will be on the run”. In her apology, Jaya clarified that she had no intention to hurt the sentiments of the Marathi people. Bachchan said “we are concerned and simple citizens of this great country of ours. God has been gracious to us and to the small contributions we as a family, starting from my illustrious father, have made. There has been respect and recognition both within and outside the country. We live a quiet and a non interfering life,” he said. “Our desire to remain within us has been judged incredulously as arrogance. Blessings have come in abundance from well wishers and fans. We are far removed from the exalted position that the outside world considers us to be in. I have but, just a simple observation to make.” “If we have reached where we have today in the eyes of the people. And survived. There must be something we are doing, that is right.” “I pray each day for peace and harmony and strength. And the will to continue doing what is right. So help me God,” he said. Bachchan, who returned from London after a two-month world tour, wrote on his blog that he had told wife Jaya to apologise for her remarks and was happy and satisfied that she had done so on her own. “I feel grateful and happy,” he wrote. In a veiled attack on Raj Thackeray, who has been targeting him in his ‘anti-North Indian’ tirade, Bachchan said: “Just because we remain quiet does not mean that you can label us with guilt and inconsideration.” “We are law-abiding citizens of this country. If and when I have wronged there has been admittance of it. I am ready to be punished if guilty. But you cannot punish us with wrongful accusation,” the film star said. The actor was in London when the controversy broke out. (PTI)

Aarushi’s parents meet CBI sleuths, demand justice New Delhi, Sept 10: Perturbed at the infructous efforts of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe their teenaged daughter Aarushi’s murder, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar Wednesday met the investigators at the agency’s headquarters and sought justice for her. The CBI on Tuesday conceded its failure to dig out material evidence in the murders of Aarushi and her family help Hemraj and said it was not charging anybody with the sensational crime. It also announced a reward of Rs 100,000 for clues leading to the evidence. “Aarushi’s parents today came to the CBI headquarters regarding the investigations in the case,” a CBI official said without divulging any details of the meeting. Nearly four months after Aarushi was found murdered in her Noida home on May 16 — Hemraj’s body was found a day later — the CBI on Tuesday conceded that it would not file a charge-sheet in the case anytime soon and would not oppose bail for the accused. The investigating agency was to submit its charge-sheet before Wednesday to meet the 90-day deadline since the first arrest in the case - that of Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar on May 23. Dentist Rajesh Talwar, once a prime suspect in the murder of his daughter and domestic helpn Hemraj, on Tuesday expressed disappointment over the CBI’s failure to file a charge- sheet. “We were hopeful that the CBI would file a charge-sheet on time,” Talwar told the NDTV news channel hours after the probe agency admitted it had no proof against the three men — Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal — who were accused of involvement in the double murder. Krishna was a medical assistant to Rajesh Talwar, Rajkumar was the domestic help of Talwars’ family friends, and Mandal worked as a domestic help in the same neighbourhood. Mandal was granted bail by a CBI court in Ghaziabad last week. The CBI, which has been unable to trace the murder weapon and the mobile phones of Aarushi and Hemraj, has now declared a reward of Rs.100,000 for anybody leading it to the crucial pieces of evidence. Aarushi’s mobile phone was a black Nokia N-72 with the number 9910520630. Hemraj owned a Tata Indicom mobile set with number 9213515485. The premier investigating agency has also sent letters rogatory to probe the Nepal links of the accused to locate some witnesses and the mobile phones of the deceased. The CBI, which took over the case May 31, has accused the three in the double murders on the basis of their narco-analysis tests - the only basis of its probe that is not admissible as evidence in the court. (IANS)

Indian connection in Big Bang experiment Mumbai, Sept 10: The world’s most powerful physics experiment that completed its first major test today in Europe breathes an Indian link with 30 scientists from India including a couple also behind the attempt to replicate the “Big Bang” that created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago. The Indian flag flew high when the world’s largest particle collider successfully fired a beam of protons all the way around a 27-km tunnel on the France-Switzerland border near Geneva in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the universe and study its formation. Around 200 of the 2,000 scientists involved in the ten billion dollar multi-nation ‘mother of all experiments’ are of Indian origin. India has made major scientific and technological contribution to this new atom smasher also called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), according to scientists of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). LHC is expected to answer several facts of fundamental nature of the universe that remains a mystery after the World’s costliest experiment. Indian laboratories, led by Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) at Indore, have contributed substantially towards construction of the accelerator (LHC) itself, with many components being fabricated by Indian industry and supplied to CERN, Prof Atul Gurtu, senior scientist, department of high energy physics, TIFR told PTI. In the scientific side, two Indian teams are involved in different experiments. They included a scientist couple — Sudhir Raniwala and his wife Rashmi— from Jaipur. They are Associate Professors. Sudhir Ranawala allayed safety fears about the high-speed collisions in the tunnel. “Cosmic rays in the universe send particles with much greater energies than those being achieved in the lab. So there is nothing to worry about,” he said. Sudhir Raniwala said the ‘Big Bang’ experiment is a great technological advance. “No matter what the results are, either it confirms certain things that we believe today or it refutes certain things that we believe today.” “It is an intellectual stimulation that goes on that we try to unravel what the nature had unfoled for us,” he said. Prof Raghav Verma of Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, representing Indian scientists, has carried an Indian flag, IIT sources said. Asked about the role of Indian scientists, Gurtu said they have been active in this field and had collaborations with their counterparts at CERN and Fermilab. However, it is for the first time that a concerted, coordinated and comprehensive contribution has been made by India towards such a huge international scientific program, he said. One Indian team is participating in the CMS experiment with TIFR as the nodal institution and includes scientists from BARC, Delhi, Punjab and Vishwa Bharati universities. The other team is in the ALICE experiment with VECC/SINP (Kolkata) as the nodal institutions and IOP, IITB, Jammu, Rajasthan, Aligarh and Punjab universities. (PTI) Government denies Sonia snub to Chinese minister New Delhi, Sept 10: Having conveyed India’s disappointment to China over its “questionable” role in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the government on Wednesday did not want to stretch the issue further and denied that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was denied an appointment with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. “We have seen these reports. These are unfounded as there was no meeting scheduled to be held between the Chinese Foreign Minister and Chairperson, UPA (United Progressive Alliance),” external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said. He was responding to reports in a section of the media that said Gandhi snubbed the Chinese minister by not meeting him — thus registering India’s disappointment over Beijing’s attempt to block consensus over a waiver for India in the NSG. “There was no attempt to snub him. He met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee hosted a dinner for him,” an official source said in a bid to correct the growing impression in the media that Yang, who wrapped up his three-day visit to India on Tuesday, was cold-shouldered by the powers-that-be in New Delhi. Mukherjee raised India’s concerns and conveyed New Delhi’s displeasure over China’s reported negative role in the NSG to the visiting Chinese minister. Yang, however, sought to clear what he called “the NSG misunderstanding”, saying Beijing had played a constructive role in the nuclear cartel and the decision to back consensus for India was taken much before the Sep 4-6 meeting of NSG in Vienna. The Congress, which leads the ruling UPA, Wednesday also made it a point to deny such reports. “The story was incorrect and without basis as no such meeting was scheduled,” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said. “It is unwarranted and unfortunate that it has been connected to the developments at the NSG. The Congress party and the Communist Party of China have a long-standing relationship and they recently signed a memorandum of understanding too,” Ahmed told reporters here. According to reports, Yang, here since Sunday on his maiden India visit as foreign minister, had sought a meeting with Gandhi on Tuesday morning but he was denied an appointment. The reports quoted official sources as saying that though the Chinese side had set aside a slot between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. in Yang’s schedule for the meeting with Gandhi, the Indian side did not finalize it. Instead, the Chinese foreign minister went on a short tour of Delhi, visiting some museums. Asked if the Chinese foreign minister had made a request for a meeting, Ahmed said such requests are made to the foreign ministry, which would be able to comment on this. (IANS)

Madrassas to be integrated into formal education system New Delhi, Sept 10: Bringing madrassas into the mainstream education system, the Government is all set to affiliate the Islamic seminaries with the National Institute of Open School (NIOS). After the affiliation of madrassas offering primary and secondary education to the NIOS, the students will get certificates which will help them to go ahead with further studies. “Till today, the madrassa students are not able to come to the formal educational stream as their certificates are not accepted for admission in colleges and universities. Once the madrassas are affiliated to NIOS, the students can capitalise the certificates for further studies,” a senior official in the Ministry of Human Resource Development told PTI. The madrassas, which mainly focus on imparting religious teaching to the students, will have to expand their course content as per the NIOS syllabus in areas of science, technology, humanities, languages and art and craft, the official said. The NIOS will provide certificates to students at class III, V, VIII, X and XII levels. The move assumes significance in view of the findings of the Sachar Committee that 25 per cent of Muslim children in the age group of six to 14 years either never went to school or else dropped out at some stage. The committee had found only one out of 25 under graduate and one of 50 post graduate students in premier colleges were from Muslim community. The government has also asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to find out ways for granting equivalent certificates to students pursuing higher studies in madrassas. The official said that a committee of UGC is looking into how to give equivalent certificates to the students pursuing higher studies. The report is expected very soon. The government has prepared a scheme for providing quality education in madrassas. The scheme, which has been approved by the Expenditure Finance Committee, envisages Rs 325 crore investment under the 11th Plan for the Islamic seminaries. Three teachers for teaching science, mathematics and language subjects will be provided by the government to each madrassa depending on the students’ strength. The students will get an honorarium of Rs 6,000 each at primary and elementary level while for teachers at secondary and higher secondary level, the honorarium is Rs 10,000 per month. Earlier, teachers at the primary level were getting Rs 3,000 while the remuneration was Rs 4,000 at secondary and senior secondary levels. The existing teachers will get the revised package from this year, the official said. The madrassas will be provided computer and advanced facilities in sports and games. Each madrassa will be given Rs one lakh towards science and computer lab while Rs 50,000 will be provided for starting libraries at these institutes. Students above 14 years of age will be provided vocational education at the accredited vocational institutions of the NIOS. The government will provide Rs five lakh assistance to 10 madrassa boards for strengthening their infrastructure. In-service training will be provided to teachers in every two years. About 6,000 madrassas, including 4,000 alone in Uttar Pradesh, will be covered under this scheme. The scheme will come up for cabinet approval this month. (PTI) India has sovereign right to conduct N-tests: Mulford New Delhi, Sept 10: India has the sovereign right to conduct nuclear test and that issue was never debated, the United States said today. “If you ask me can India conduct (nuclear) test, my answer is India has had and will always have the sovereign right to conduct a test. That has never been debated,” US Ambassador to India David C Mulford told Karan Thapar on ‘India Tonight’ programme of CNBC-TV18. India has got a “clean” waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to participate in global nuclear trade, he said. “But it is very important and understandable that a group like this (NSG), when an exceptional decision is being made, then there will be a continuation of exchange of views between parties,” Mulford said. Asked whether India has given a commitment not to conduct tests, the Ambassador said “it does not have to.” On the time-table for wrapping up the Indo-US nuclear deal, he said the 123 agreement will be placed before the US Congress for final nod “today, tomorrow (or in a) few hours” as it was “virtually ready” to be put up before it. However, Mulford said the US Congress does business according to its own timetable. “The administration is in touch with senior Congressmen,” he added. Noting that there are reasons to be “hopeful” about getting a clearance from the Congress soon, the US diplomat said many US lawmakers would like to see that the agreement is cleared during the time of Bush administration itself. (PTI) ‘N-deal will bring in restricted technologies’ New Delhi, Sept 10: With India gearing up to a new era of nuclear commerce, scientists at DRDO and ISRO say the NSG waiver will not only address the country’s energy needs but also help in getting critical technologies in diverse areas which have been denied for decades. They believe apart from the nuclear energy, the waiver will result in flow of advanced technologies and a range of dual use items to India’s way which would help various strategic programmes in many sectors including aerospace and defence. Expecting the nuclear deal to go through at the US Congress, Chief Controller of Research and Development at DRDO W Selvamurthy said the strategic partnership with the US will result in an environment that will encourage them to share with India critical technologies that were out of bounds for the last three decades. “I think the strategic partnership with the US will result in an environment which will encourage them to share with us critical technologies whether they are in the civilian or military domain,” the distinguished scientist told PTI. He said “softening of attitude” towards India will lead to lifting of restrictions on advanced technology which will also help various programmes of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in many ways. “When the denial regime is lifted in one sector it will have ripple effect in other sectors,” Selvamurthy said. ISRO’s Director of Public Relations S Satish said the Indo-US nuclear deal will result in a change of approach towards India by the US and other developed countries which will help in easing restrictions on dual use items and controlled technologies. “The nuclear deal reflects recognition of India’s scientific capability. Things will improve now. It should help our scientific programmes as key components for various strategic projects have been denied so far to India under the denial regimes,” he said. (PTI) ‘We are lucky to be part of changing times of cinema’ l New Delhi, Sept 10: Versatile actor Irrfaan Khan, known for his power-packed performances in films like Maqbool, Haasil, and The Namesake, believes the face of Indian cinema is changing and finds the current lot of actors lucky to be part of the golden phase. “The current phase of Indian cinema is very interesting. Change in audience mindset has set the popular demand for more experimental and different kind of roles which were not essayed in the past. I found myself fortunate enough that my contribution is also being counted in this change in the industry,” the actor, who also got appreciation for his acting skills in Hollywood films, told PTI. There are no set patterns to make a commercial successful movie, the Filmfare award winner says. “One can’t fool discerning audience that has the understanding of the cinema. And in the present scenario, repetition of the old definitions of hero and villain will not work. There should be something to match viewer’s’ imagination,” he says. “Even a large part of audience are not ready to compromise and want to see what they have seen all life. So the perspective needs to be changed and the visual medium can be of a great help by making films with a realistic approach,” the Metro actor says. Talking about his just released Mumbai Meri Jaan he says, “The story is very touching. We have tried to depict that how a miscreant doesn’t understand about the impact they create in the minds of innocent persons by doing irresponsible acts.” Irrfaan is also hopeful about his film with Shahrukh Khan named Biloo Barber.“ His another movie is based on a real life character Paan Singh Tomar with director Tigmanshu Dhulia. This is a story about an athlete who won award for the country and later turned dacoit and was killed in an encounter. “In my forthcoming films, I am working with Sanjay Gupta in Asset Factory and Alibagh. In movie Dil Kabaddi Hai I am doing an interesting character where “dishonesty in relationships” is the key subject,” says Irrfaan. Tigmanshu Dhulia, the director who cast him in Haasil and now Paan Singh Tomar, says, “He is basically a method actor who believes in being realistic. He has given life to the characters in my films and got rave reviews too.” Irrfan, however says, “Everybody has some kind of method. Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) has one method and Dharamji has other kind of method. The important thing for an actor is that how he portrays his character and in how many layers of him is being brought forward and how smoothly it has been transferred to audience’s mind.” (PTI)

source: sentinel assam