India focus at literary festival in France

NEW DELHI, Nov 10: France is to toast the international success of Indian writers with French wine and a literary festival dedicated to India.

Twenty eminent Indian writers, a virtual who’s who of contemporary Indian literature, will travel to France next week to take part in the festival.

The writers, who include four Jnanpith winners, will attend the annual festival "Belles Etrangeres", to be held across France between November 18 and December 1.

Among them are Jnanpith awardees U R Ananthamurthy, Mahasweta Devi, Nirmal Verma and C Narayana Reddy. There are three Dalit writers - Tamil writer Bama, Marathi writer Kishore Shantabhai Kale and Mumbai-based economist-author Narendra Jadhav - in the contingent.

Indian writers in English make up the largest group with seven of them selected for the trip by the French national centre for the book, which is organising the festival.

US-based Shashi Tharoor, Akhil Sharma and Shauna Singh Baldwin, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Mukul Kesavan, Canada-based Anita Rau Badami and Chennai-based children’s writer Anushka Ravishankar represent the Indian writers in English.

Besides Nirmal Verma, there are three more Hindi writers -Krishna Baldev Vaid, Alka Saraogi and Udayan Vajpeyi. M Mukundan represents Malayalam literature and Esther David, Gujarati literature. There is also an illustrator, Pulak Biswas, among the visitors, who will gather in Paris on the first day of the festival on November 18 to kick off the event with a cup of French wine. "If the beginning of the 20th century was attributed to American literature and the latter half to Latin American literature, the beginning of the 21st century belongs to Indian literature," says French ambassador to India Bernard De Monteferrand, who announced the selection of India as the focus of the festival this year at a function held at the French embassy on Friday. Mukundan and Nirmal Verma were present at the function.

"Belles etrangeres" (roughly translated as the best works of foreign writers) was launched in 1987 by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication to promote literature in foreign languages.

The National Centre for the Book invites foreign writers whose works are already available in French. The invited authors tour France, attending public meetings and round table discussions organised by universities, bookstores and libraries.

Ananthamurthy’s best known novel "Samskara" was published in France in 1985 and Mahasweta Devi’s most famous novel "Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma" was translated into French last year and was included by the Lire magazine in its top 20 books of the year.

Shashi Tharoor’s "The Great Indian Novel" and "Show Business" are already available in French and the French translation of his latest novel "Riot" is ready for publication. The New York-based Akhil Sharma’s highly acclaimed first novel "An Obedient Father" was the newest of Indian writing in English to be published in French this year.

The festival this year will see the publication of an anthology of the writings of the 20 Indian authors. (UNI)

China’s Jiang plays numbers game in countdown to retirement

BEIJING, Nov 10: Chinese still struggling to fathom Communist party chief Jiang Zemin’s fuzzy "three represents" theory may do well to get the calculator and prepare for what could be his next big slogan: the "four News".

Jiang, a man with no shortage of buzz words — some catchy, many less so — rattled off his latest numerical call to action in a meeting with Shanghai’s delegates to a landmark party congress expected to culminate in his retirement.

State media today seized on his remarks, running banner headlines with all four planks of Jiang’s advice to the party rank and file.

"We must have new thinking on development methods, new breakthroughs in reforms, a new situation in opening up, and new measures in our work," blared the party mouthpiece People’s Daily and other papers — the character "Xin", or new, in each line.

Delegates to the five-yearly congress were already hard at work deciphering the latest code.

"There are lots of ‘news’," said a puzzled Li Guolin, a delegate from the northern city of Tianjin.

"It’s not something you can explain in one or two words, it’s much more complicated than that," fudged one of Li’s colleagues.

For Chinese the "three represents", and perhaps the "four news", are the latest baffling array of guiding slogans, nicknames and buzzwords that have peppered Chinese Communist history books with digits.

They may sound nonsensical, but a Communist party leader is not worth his salt without a good numbered slogan. Mao Zedong let 100 flowers bloom to signal political openness, then jailed or purged those who dared to be critical. In the 1966-76 cultural revolution he told the Red Guards there were "three wants and three don’t wants" — Marxism-Leninism and not revisionism, unity not splittism, and openness not scheming.

His successor Hua Guofeng dabbled with numbers by arresting the gang of four, blamed for excesses of the cultural revolution.

But he quickly stumbled, making the mistake of crafting the "two whatevers" — whatever Mao had decided was right, whatever directive Mao issued must be defended.

That maxim didn’t sit well with Deng Xiaoping who was twice purged by Mao and engineered Hua’s ouster in the late 1970s.

Deng, architect of China’s economic reforms, of course went on to coin the "four modernisations" and "four cardinal principles".

China’s leaders don’t have a monopoly on numbers.

At the lower rungs, the people have come up with their own more colloquial versions. In the 1960s there were four precious things — a bicycle, sewing machine, radio and wrist watch.

The things changed, but the number didn’t: now people want a house, a car, a home theatre and a computer.

Playing with numbers is not just a Communist thing — for Chinese, it borders on a cultural and historical obsession.

The number eight is traditionally lucky, rhyming with the Chinese word for prosperity. Unlucky four is a homonym for death.

Digits are unavoidable in Beijing, which has towns and landmarks such as 10-mile fort, eight-mile village, six-brother town, three-mile river, two-mile ditch, and a 10,000 concubines’ tombs hamlet.

Nine dragons grace a wall on the massive forbidden city, home to the Ming and Qing dynasty emperors which, not coincidentally, has 9,999 halls.

A popular drinking game among Chinese, the "two good brothers" is played by shouting out numbers while throwing out fingers to either match or not.

According to one account, a British diplomat in Kashgar in Western China during the early 19th century recalled whenever official dinners drifted towards awkward silence, they would call upon their hosts to get the game, and the liquor, flowing. Not yet written in Gospel, Jiang’s latest numbers play comes as many in China are still unclear on his "three represents".

Steeped in Communist vagary, the awkward title disguises what is actually a bold concept for broadening the Communist Party’s traditional revolutionary base of workers and peasants.

Private entrepreneurs are beckoned to enter the party by a theory that never actually uses the words "private" or "entrepreneur", instead relying on rich businessmen to realise they too are included as "advanced productive forces".

Jiang, of course, didn’t stop at three.

His policy speech to party congress delegates on Friday included the "10 basic experiences" in building socialism with Chinese characteristics, and advised to carry out the "three represents" you have to adhere to the "four musts".

He mentioned the word "new" 90 times in his speech, noted the Beijing evening news.

There was also his eight-point plan for the reunification of tTiwan — which naturally means using deng’s "one country, two systems" formula and adhering to the "one China" principle.

"You need a dictionary to figure it all out," said one puzzled retiree.

Or perhaps a calculator. (AGENCIES)

India, Iran sign agreement on science and technology

DUBAI, Nov 10: India and Iran inked an agreement expressing commitment to promote scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries.

The agreement was signed by the Science and Technology Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Iranian Minister for Science, Research and Technology Dr Mostafa Moin in Tehran yesterday, the official Iranian news agency Irna said.

Information and Communication Technology, Energy, Industrial Technology, Food Technology and Environment have been identified as the priority areas for cooperation in the document which is likely to give new thrust to bilateral science cooperation, tardy over the past few years.

The two sides agreed to promote exchange of scientific information and documentation including patents, licenses and know-how between them, an official release said.

The two countries agreed to convene the next meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) at the earliest to discuss and finalise a new programme of cooperation, spelling out the specific areas of bilateral interest, mechanism, modalities, financial commitments and implementation schedule.

Dr Joshi, also the Human Resource Development Minister, met Iran’s first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref and discussed ways and means of boosting the all-out bilateral ties yesterday.

During the meeting, Aref said the policies of detente and development of mutual relations with the neighbouring countries are among th top priorities on Iran’s agenda.

He said Iran attaches great importance to the eastern countries including India.

"There are huge potentials in both Iran and India and these potentials should be identified and used to further mutual cooperation in the various domains," Aref noted.

He said inking an agreement between the two nations on the transport of commodities, the north-south corridor and export of gas through pipeline are all indicative of the good cooperation between the two countries.

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi touched on the breakthroughs achieved by the Islamic republic of Iran in the scientific and technological areas and voiced India’s readiness to share experience with Tehran in the said domains.

He called for cooperation between the two countries to remove the regional threats and to deal with the international issues in an effective way. (PTI)

India has edge over China in Russia’s defence ties: Report

MOSCOW, Nov 10: Even as Russia’s military-industrial complex is highly dependent on sale of arms to China for its survival, India has an edge over its neighbour in Moscow’s international defence ties, a leading daily here reported.

"It is noteworthy that Russia sells China only that military hardware, which the Russian armed forces already have. While India receives more modern weapon systems, developed jointly with the Russian Design Bureaux," `Kommersant’ daily said.

Explaining the logic behind India’s "privileged status", it said "obviously, the reason for this lies in Russia’s military-political doctrine, according to which, unlike China, India is not considered a potential rival in the long-term perspective."

India and China have 30 per cent share each in Russia’s defence exports and this ‘bi-polar’ approach "insures" Moscow from a sudden change of political conjuncture in any one of these countries, according to the daily.

"Besides this, being the main exporter of hi-tech weapons to the two largest (populated) states of the world, locked in rivalry for leadership in one region, Russia gets an opportunity to control the balance of forces in Southeast Asia," `Kommersant’ noted.

"The military-technical cooperation with China is really very important for the financing of the Russian defence sector. In the federal budget for 2003, about 31 billion roubles (USD 1 billion) are earmarked for the development and acquisition of weapons for the armed forces. As we know, China buys approximately the same amount of military hardware from russia ," `Kommersant’ said.

This dependency may prompt China to demand price cuts and expand the export basket by including futuristic weapon systems, which the Russian military doesn’t have, but which Moscow is developing for other customers, it fears. (PTI)

Pressure mounts on Iraq to accept UN demands

CAIRO, Nov 10: Baghdad came under mounting pressure today to accept a new UN resolution to disarm, with Arab ministers calling it Iraq’s best hope of avoiding a military strike by the United States.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in Cairo his country was still studying Friday’s unanimous vote by the 15-member United Nations Security Council demanding unfettered access to sites suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq’s official media said yesterday the resolution gave Washington an excuse to attack Baghdad, but in an apparent about-turn, newspapers said today the vote defeated US plans to wage war, a signal Iraq might accept the UN demands.

Iraqi television said today President Saddam Hussein had ordered Parliament to convene to discuss the resolution but gave no date for when lawmakers would meet.

The UN resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Britain, was approved after France and others persuaded Washington to remove an explicit authorisation to use force unilaterally.

Iraq has until Friday to agree to the resolution’s tough terms. Weapons inspectors are due to travel to Baghdad on November 18 to set up communications, transport and laboratories.

Arab Foreign Ministers and officials meeting in Cairo said the resolution offered hope for a peaceful alternative to war against Iraq. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said after talks today between Sabri and President Hosni Mubarak that the resolution "provides the opportunity for a peaceful settlement".

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara, whose country surprised the international community by backing Friday’s UN resolution, said it had "pushed the phantom of war into the distance for several weeks or several months.

"I am satisfied with that. Our goal is to spare Iraq and the region from a military strike. This was a principle which we were not prepared to abandon in any form," Shara told reporters in Cairo.

Moussa said the meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers would issue a resolution "concerning the threat to attack Iraq", Egypt’s state Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

MENA quoted Moussa as saying that Arabs had agreed at a summit earlier this year that any attack on an Arab state would be considered an aggression on all Arab states. While the new UN resolution gives the Security Council a central role before any possible attack, it does not force the United States to seek Council authorisation for war.

Iraq’s official press today praised the world community for choosing diplomacy over war by adopting the UN resolution, which they saw as defeating US plans to wage war.

Al-Jumhuriya newspaper said pro-Iraq demonstrations illustrated the world’s rejection of a US attack on Iraq.

More than half a million anti-war protesters from across Europe marched through the Italian renaissance city of florence yesterday to denounce any possible US attack on Iraq.

"The awareness of the world of the US objectives and motives has uncovered and exposed the evil British-American plan and foiled the first of its series — to automatically use force against iraq," the newspaper said.

In Washington, officials said US President George W Bush had approved plans for the invasion of Iraq if it failed to comply fully with the resolution.

The plan, based on the lessons learnt during the Afghanistan invasion to oust the ruling Taliban, calls for the quick capture of Iraqi territory to establish forward bases that would be used to thrust 200,000 or more troops deeper into the country. The officials said any attack would begin with a smaller number of troops while US heavy bombers pounded Saddam’s palaces, air defences and bases.

Former UN Weapons Inspector Richard Butler said he doubted Iraq would comply fully with the UN resolution, leaving the security council split over whether to take military action.

"I will predict iraq will not simply comply, they will give a version of compliance," Butler told Australian television today.

"The Americans will say, ‘that is not enough, that’s not full compliance’. The Russians will say, ‘let’s wait a minute, maybe they need a little more time’," he said.

"Then an argument will start in the Security Council on whether or not Iraq is in material breach. The clock is ticking this is not over."

Disarmament inspections originally started after Iraqi forces were expelled from neighbouring Kuwait by a US-led coalition in the Gulf war. Inspectors withdrew in 1998 in a wrangle over access to Saddam’s palaces. (AGENCIES)

Sri Lanka, Tamil rebels agree to expand fishing

COLOMBO, Nov 10: Sri Lanka’s warring parties agreed today to expand fishing rights as they met to discuss a key agreement reached at peace talks last week in Thailand, officials said.

At a five-hour meeting at Omanthai in the war-torn Northern Peninsula of Jaffna, representatives of the Government and the Tamil Tiger rebels agreed to allow fishing on the northern coast as part of the de-escalation process.

"The Navy identified four regions in which to lift fishing restrictions and a document was also exchanged between the two sides," a defence official told AFP.

The "military affairs subcommittee" that met in Omanthai was headed by Defence Secretary Austin Fernando and included senior military commanders from the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The two sides will discuss other security issues at four more meetings scheduled to be held at different areas in the island’s war-torn north and east.

Three panels — on military, political and economic issues — were agreed to at the talks in Thailand, the second between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Government and the rebels.

The Norwegian peace brokers said the two sides agreed in Thailand to "significant steps to restore normalcy, improve security and address political issues".

The tigers also said they were willing to join the political mainstream. At the first round of talks in september, they said they were no longer fighting for an independent state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. (AFP)

Sikhs arrive in Pak for birth anniversary of Guru Nanak

LAHORE, Nov 10: Nearly 100 Sikhs arrived in Pakistan today for a two-week tour of religious sites to mark the 533rd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

The group of 94 people - all British nationals of Indian descent - flew from England to the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, said Dr Sardar Gulab Singh, an official of the Pakistan Sikhs Gurdwara Parbandak Committee.

Special trains from India have brought hundreds of Sikhs to Pakistan for the annual celebration in past years. But travel links between the two countries have been cut amid recent tensions.

The Sikhs who arrived today plan to visit religious sites in Nakana Sahib, near Lahore, and in the northern city of Hasanabdal, where a temple claims to mark Guru Nanak’s birthplace in 1469, Singh said. (AP)

Saddam convenes Parliament on new UN arms resolution

BAGHDAD, Nov 10: President Saddam Hussein has called an emergency session of Iraq’s Parliament to debate the new UN Security Council Disarmament Resolution 1441, state television reported today.

"President Saddam Hussein has ordered the convening of an urgent session of the National Assembly to discuss Security Council resolution 1441 issued on November 8, debate the position (that should be taken) on it and submit its conclusions to the (ruling) revolution Command Council," it said.

Iraq has not yet officially responded to the US-drafted resolution imposing sweeping new arms inspection terms but hinted that it may accept the document in order to avert a US strike even though the resolution is "bad and unfair." (AFP)

US does not need UN sanction to act against Iraq: US officials

WASHINGTON, Nov 10: The United States does not require UN permission to act against Iraq, US officials said today.

"The United Nations can meet and discuss, but we don’t need their permission" to act if Iraq fails to comply with the UN-mandated weapons inspection program, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told NBC television.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice also hit that point on other talk shows.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously Friday to demand Iraq’s full cooperation in allowing UN Weapons Inspectors access to any site in Iraq in their search for banned nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Rice was explicit about the US threat to use military right to enforce the declaration.

President George W Bush "has reserved all of his options to use the full authority granted to him by the US Congress," allowing him to use military force if necessary, she told fox television.

"This President has been deadly serious about the intention and insistence that Iraq will face serious consequences should they not comply again."

But she appeared to think it would not come down to unilateral US action, saying: "In the Security Council resolution, it says that in this meeting, serious consequences will be recalled, ... So I expect that we will be able to do this in a quite multilateral way." (AFP)

Bangladesh expresses concern at Advani’s comments

DHAKA, Nov 10: Bangladesh today expressed its "deep concern" to India at the recent remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani about the activities of Al-Queda and ISI in the country, official BSS news agency reported.

This was conveyed by Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury to Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Monilal Tripathy who was summoned to the foreign office here.

An aide memoir to this effect was handed over to the indian High Commissioner, the news agency said.

Bangladesh has rejected the comments of Indian Deputy Prime Minister as baseless, incorrect, if not motivated," the Foreign Secretary was quoted as saying.

The statement is different from the comment by a Government spokesman on November 7, who said Advani’s observations were "totally baseless, motivated and irresponsible".

Chowdhury said all allegations of insurgency and intelligence activities allegedly carried out against India from Bangladesh soil had been thoroughly investigated and were found to be without any basis.

He refuted the allegation that Al-Queda elements were being given shelter in bangladesh and reaffirmed Dhaka’s consistent position against terrorism in all its form.

Indian High Commissioner was requested for assistance for increased vigilance at the border as also to nab criminals crossing the border.

Tripathy has asked Bangladesh to take serious and immediate action to stop misuse of its territory by Indian insurgent groups and against those who are aiding and abetting them, High Commission sources said. (PTI)

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