Aarti at Varanasi draws crowds

VARANASI, UP, Nov 6: ‘Dev-Deepavali Mahotsava’ marking the slaying of demon Tripurasur by Lord Shiva would be held at the Dasaswamedh ghat here in this ancient temple city on Kartik Purnima in the Hindu calender falling on November 13.

Aarti would be performed on a one kilometre stretch with 25,000 earthern lamops to be lit on the steps of the ghat.

"The aarti will be performed by 42 disciples, 21 of them women to pay obeisance to the river goddess as well as other deities," the organizers Ganga Nidhi President Satinder Mishra told PTI.

All the disciples have been interviewed and their understanding of the scriptures and prowess in performing rituals considered, he said.

The disciples will be dressed in Benarasi silk robes and saffron ‘patta-bastra’ to enact synchronised mudras beside the river during the aarti, Mishra said.

Pooled from Hindu gurukul institutions in Varanasi these disciples have been imparted the Nidhi’s motto to preserve the purity, sanctity, and divinity of Ganga, its ghats and Kanshi, the oldest religious place in the world besides Jerusalem.

Jhamar-aarti, Kapur aarti, Rumal aarti, Mayurpankha aarti, Chamar aarti would be performed on the bank of the river, he said.

While an estimated Rs one lakh is spent for holding the aarti every month, it will shoot up to Rs 15 lakh for the Dev-Deepavali’ ceremony, he said.

The aarti popularised in 1999 during the millennium ceremony at the ghat, has become a hit with tourists both from home and abroad. It has also found prominence in the ‘Incredible India’ posters by the Union Ministry of Tourism.

The aarti has removed barriers of class, caste and creed with thousands of people taking part in the grand spectacle sitting on ghats and in boats in the river.

There is a sense of involvement and participation as all chant, clap and raise hands as mantras are chanted.

Several dignitaries including the Dalai Lama, politicians like Amar Singh, film personalities like Jaya Bachchan, VHP leader Ashok Singhal, Guru Sarvanand and others have attended the show in the past, Mishra said.

The Nidhi has created an email account gangasevanidhi@gmail.Com and info@gangasevanidhi.Org and the feedback has been phenomenal.

"Every day we receive hundreds of queries, over half from abroad, about various aspects of the aarti, including Dev-Dipavali, and you can see how Europeans are sold on the concept."

Mishra said while the Nidhi holds the show with donations from members of public, corporate entities like Hindalco and Taj Hotels have also chipped in.

He said that the aarti also paid tribute to martyrs who had fought for India and for whom special lamps were lit.

A German tourist, Adrian, and his English companion, Creola, said "we have been watching the daily aarti for past three days and plan to stay here till mid-November for the mega event." (PTI)

Agreement on transfer of sentenced persons to be inked

NEW DELHI, Nov 6: The Centre today approved the signing of an agreement on transfer of sentenced persons with Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

The ratification of the agreement would enable the sentenced persons to be near their families and help the process of their social rehabilitation, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chavan told reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet.

HKSAR’s convicted prisoners can be transferred to their home country and prisoners of Indian origin can be brought back to serve the remaining part of their sentence, he added. (PTI)

Of Gandhi, spirituality and sexuality!

NEW DELHI, Nov 6: To Mahatma Gandhi the greatest obstacle in his spiritual striving was the promptings of his sexuality, says psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar.

"The manner in which he conceived the struggle and the weapons he chose to employ in a lifelong conflict with the god of desire have earned him the derision of many, especially in the West, who have discerned crankishness, if not worse, in his ideas that relate to sexuality," writes Kakar in "Mad And Divine: Spirit And Psyche In The Modern World".

"For an explanation of his failure to influence people and the course of events, Gandhi would characteristically probe for shortcomings in his sexual abstinence, seeking to determine whether Kama, the God of desire, has perhaps triumphed in some obscure recess of his mind, depriving him of his spiritual powers," the book, published by Penguin, says.

According to the author, in the midst of widespread political turmoil and religious frenzy, Gandhi wrote a series of five articles on celibacy in his weekly newspaper.

"But more striking than his public evidence of his preoccupation were his private experiments wherein the aged Mahatma sought to reassure himself on the strength of his celibacy by having close women associates (his 19-year-old granddaughter among them) share his bed and try to ascertain in the morning whether any trace of sexual feeling had been evoked, either in himself or in his companions.

"In spite of criticism by his co-workers, Gandhi stubbornly defended these experiments which he regarded as exercises in self-purification and tests of his celibacy and insisted that they be public even if they met general condemnation from his close associates."

Besides the contemplative and ecstatic spiritual traditions, Gandhi was a pioneer of a new spirituality, Kakar writes.

"This is practical spirituality, a mode of being spiritually engaged with the world which may be uniquely suited to address the challenges of our times and the worlds still to come. With Gandhi as the model, we can say that in a state of spiritual grace the practical spiritual man combines sublime fearlessness with robust humour.

"Gandhi’s emphasis on altruistic action, which he regarded as the law of life in accordance with divine will, has at its base the development of empathy as the supreme human virtue, an achievement higher than all other forms of human creativity, artistic or scientific," he writes.

Kakar has for long tried to infuse the pre-eminently Western discipline of psychoanalysis with ideas and views from the East in both his practice and his best-selling books.

In "Mad and Divine...", he takes on the separation of the spirit and the body favoured by psychoanalysis, as he cautions that a focus on the body, to the exclusion of the spirit, is a denial of a person’s wholeness.

In his elucidation of the part played by sexuality in the making of a saint, Kakar examines the life of Drukpa Kunley, who through overtly scandalous parables, songs and actions vigorously pushes against the boundary of all that is taboo.

And to rethink the role of the spiritual in collective life, Kakar examines Gandhi’s practical spirituality—his vision of how we need to engage ourselves in our political and social worlds.

Ever respectful of and sympathetic to a person’s spiritual life and strivings, Kakar takes us on a tour through the many rooms of the mansion of spirituality.

He looks at the interplay, at times playful, at others deadly serious, between spirit and psyche, and the moments of creativity and transformation when the spirit cools the fire of desire or thaws the ice of self-centredness.

He looks at this interplay and these moments in religious ritual and in healing traditions, both Eastern and Western, as also in the lives of some extraordinary men. The first peek is into the well-documented childhood of Rajneesh, ‘a pioneer in the globalisation of spirituality’, but the focus here is on the vision of the spirit’s soaring and not the oft-repeated tragedy of its fall.

(PTI)

Poonam Azad resigns from party after ticket denial

NEW DELHI, Nov 6: Piqued over not being made a party candidate for the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections, BJP State Vice-President and former cricket player Kirti Azad’s wife Poonam Azad today resigned from the party.

Ms Azad submitted her resignation to party president Rajnath Singh’s personal secretary, in his absence, at his Ashoka Road residence.

Mr Rajnath Singh is presently in Jaipur to participate in the party’s ‘Vijay Sankalp Rally’ there today.

Ms Azad later went to the party headquarters, along with her numerous supporters, to lodge her protest over denial of ticket, saying ‘Purvanchalis’ were being shortchanged.

Senior Vice-President of state BJP’s JJ Cluster Wing, Sanjay Singh, who was accompanying Ms Azad, complained that despite a population of 20 lakh ‘Purvanchalis’ in Delhi, they were always ignored and sidelined by the party.

He also said that during the elections he would take out ‘Purvanchal Samman Rath’ (Purvanchal Honour Rath) to expose the sidelining of ‘Purvanchalis’ by both the BJP and the Congress.

Ms Azad’s supporters also raised slogans against party’s chief ministerial candidate V K Malhotra, party general secretary Arun Jaitley and state party president Harshvardhan. (UNI)

Indian Army’s prestige has been hurt: Deputy Army Chief

NEW DELHI, Nov 6: Army’s "prestige has been hurt" after the arrest of its serving officer in connection with the Malegaon blasts, the Deputy Army Chief said today, but stressed that it was a "freak" incident.

"Indian Army’s prestige has been hurt after our officer’s name came up in Malegaon blast case," Lt Gen S P S Dhillon told reporters on the sidelines of Sainik Sammelan on 3/3 Gurkha Rifles representation in UN peacekeeping mission in Congo.

Lt Col Srikant Purohit was yesterday arrested in Mumbai for allegedly supplying money and explosives in the September 29 Malegaon blast. The officer was posted at the Army Corps Training College and Centre at Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh.

The Deputy Army Chief said Army will take action after it receives a report from the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS).

Lt Gen Dhillon said that involvement of its serving Lieutenant Colonel was a "freak" incident and Army had its own mechanism for keeping a check on these kind of activities by its officers.

"This is a freak incident. We have our own mechanism for keeping a check in these kind of things," he added. (PTI)

Jaya asks PM, FM to reveal truth on stock market liquidity

CHENNAI, Nov 6: Launching a scathing attack against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram for the share market crash, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and the AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa today asked them to "come clean" as to why LIC, GIC and Public sector banks were being forced to pump in excess liquidity in the stock market.

In a statement here, Ms Jayalalithaa, citing reliable information, said financially sound institutions like the LIC, GIC and some Public Sector Banks were being forced under direct instructions of Mr Chidambaram to pump in excess liquidity created by the RBI.

"This is how the excess liquidity makes its way into the stock markets and from the stock markets to the foreign investors. Why are these institutions being bled to save some investors? Who are

the beneficiaries?", she asked.

She said the questions were many and asked whether the Prime Minister, (who is considered to be an expert economist) and the

Finance Minister, (who claims Harvard to be his alma mater) would come clean?".

Ms Jayalalithaa said when country’s growth rate was relatively robust midway through the UPA regime, Mr Chidambaram had claimed full credit for it, attributing the same to his "visionary" fiscal management and in the budget speech, he attributed this growth in the economy to the fact that the Nation had a "lucky Finance Minister".

However, when the monster of inflation reared its head in the beginning of this year, the Finance Minister promptly blamed it on global factors, she said and blamed him for the country becoming a victim of double-digit inflation.

Similarly, when the share market index rose from 5,000 points when the UPA assumed office in 2004, beyond 20,000 early this year, Mr Chidambaram gleefully claimed that it was a natural by-product of his stewardship, she said.

When the global players withdrew the steroids from our stock markets, the very same share markets crashed from 20,000 points to less than 9,000 last month and predictably, Mr Chidambaram promptly blamed it on the global economy, she added.

Ms Jayalaithaa said when the prices of essential commodities rose to unprecedented heights early this year, the Finance Minsiter came out with an explanation that it was part of an international trend and advised the people to be patient. But even after six months of patience, the prices of especially essentials, continued to be beyond the reach of the common man.

"In effect, it is this unique habit of Mr Palaniappan Chidambaram of appropriating credit where none exists and distancing himself from problems that seek his immediate intervention, which reminds me of juvenile school children with bad habits", she said.

"What sort of a Finance Minister have we elected?. It is indeed remarkable that we have put up with such an individual for the last five years. Or for that matter, what sort of a Prime Minister have we had, who has put up with a weather cock as Finance Minister for all of five years? Surely, this unlucky nation can no longer afford to have such a "lucky" Finance Minister", she said.

She said every day the newspapers carried reports of the Government infusing massive funds running into several thousands of crore (more than 100,000 crores according to one estimate) into the share market to shore it up. "In spite of this, the share market continues to slump. Why? What funds are being injected into the market? And what is happening to it?", she asked.

The common perception was that the share market falls whenever there was large-scale selling. "Who is selling shares in such large quantities as to cause a slump, even after thousands of crore of rupees have been pumped into the market by the Government?", she asked.(UNI)

Vaiko, Kannappan released

CHENNAI, Nov 6: Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) General Secretary Vaiko and party Presidium Chairman M Kannappan, arrested on October 23 on charges of sedition for supporting the outlawed LTTE, were today released as the Tamil Nadu government did not press for their extention of remand.

Seventh Metropolitan Magistrate K Ravi ordered their release, taking on record the petition filed by the proseuction that their further remand was no more required as the police had completed the investigation and examination of witnesses.

The Magistrate directed the duo to appear before the court whenever summons were issued in connection with the case. Mr Vaiko and Mr Kannappan, who were brought from the Puzah central prison, set at liberty after the Magistrate’s order.

They were arrested on October 23 under sections 124(a) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 13(1)(b) of the Unlawful activities (prevention) act for openly supporting the LTTE at a party function here on October 18.

Tamil Film Directors Ameer and Seeman, who were arrested under the same charges for the speeches at the rally taken out by the Tamil film industry in Rameswaram, have already been released on bail.

Unlike the directors, Mr Vaiko and Mr Kannappan made it clear to their partymen that they would not seek bail and left it to the government, whether to keep them in prison or release them.

As expected, the prosecution did not press for their extention of remand, following which, the two were released today.

Mr Vaiko was arrested at his Anna Nagar residence and Mr Kannappan at his residence at Alampalayam, near Pollachi in Coimbatore district. The latter was brought here on the night of October 23 and remanded in custody. Both were lodged in the Puzhal Central prison.

The party leaders were charged under Section 124 (A) IPC (whoever brings or attempts to fan hatred or contempt or excites disaffection towards the government) and Section 13 (1) (b) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (whoever advocates, abets, advises or incites the commission of any unlawful activity).

The charges are based on the speeches made at a party meeting on "what is happening in Sri Lanka" here on October 21. Addressing the meeting, Mr Vaiko warned that India extending help to protect Sri Lanka’s integrity would jeopardise India’s own unity and integrity.

He had also said he would be ready to take up arms and fight for the Tamils in the island nation. Mr Kannappan, who presided, warned the Centre not to force Tamils in Tamil Nadu to struggle for a separate state.

Their arrests came, two days after AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa demanded that the DMK Government take action against those who offered open support to the LTTE. She, however, described the arrests as political vendetta.

This was the second time, Mr Vaiko was arrested for supporting the LTTE. He was arrested in July, 2002, during the previous AIADMK regime under the now repealed POTA. He was released in February 2004, after being in prison for 19 months.

(UNI)

NSU(I) to seek votes for Congress candidates in
Delhi polls

NEW DELHI, Nov 6: Activists of Congress-backed NSU(I) will land up at doorsteps seeking votes for their "senior" leaders in the Delhi Assembly polls but the BJP may have to look for other options for youth power as its student wing ABVP says it will not involve in the campaigning process.

With three weeks to go for the elections, the NSU(I) has charted out an elaborate plan for campaigning which includes door-to-door campaigning, specially targeting first time voters and students.

The NSU(I), which claims having a membership of 40,000 students in Delhi, is expected to field around 20,000 of its cadre in "grassroot campaigning".

"We will work with a specific goal this time. Leaders and cadre will address our target group of students and youths. Our block and college units have been instructed to work in support of Congress candidates in their respective areas," NSU(I) spokesperson Anand Pandey said.

However, ABVP says it will not involve in the campaigning process in an organisational level.

"We will not involve into the elections on the organisational level as our mandate is to work for the welfare of the students," ABVP Delhi unit president Raj Kumar Sharma said.

However, he said, there are no restrictions over the members to work for BJP candidates. "It will be their individual decision," he added.

NSU(I) leaders feel that achievements by the Congress Governments in Delhi and at the Centre especially in the field of education, will help them in pursuing voters into their fold.

Right to Education Bill, setting up of new Central Universities, IITs, IIMs and UGC pay panel report to increase salary packages of university teachers are some of the achievements that would give it an edge over other parties, NSU(I) leaders said.

"These are the initiatives that would help us in connecting with the young voters instantly and would also motivate other sections to vote in favour of Congress," Pandey said. (PTI)

ISRO’s new satellite to take images through clouds

BANGALORE, Nov 6: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed a new satellite that could take images through the clouds, enabling space-based application in such scenarios to manage cyclones, floods and agriculture related activities.

India’s current earth-observation satellites are working in visible and infrared bands, which means they can take pictures only when the sky is cloud-free. "Often, during cyclones and floods the entire sky will be clouded. To see through the cloud, the new Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) will be important. In fact, we have got a tie-up with Canadian space agency...We are now using their satellite images to assess floods and other problems," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

"Once our satellite (RISAT) is put into orbit, we will be able to use this for all purposes. And that will also help us in assessing the agriculture during monsoon season - how much sowing has been done and how much harvesting," Nair, who is also Secretary of Department of Space said here.

According to ISRO officials, RISAT mission would have a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, operating in a multi-polarisation and multi-resolution mode.

SAR, an active sensor, operated in the microwave range of electromagnetic spectrum, provides the target parameters such as dielectric constant, roughness and geometry. With its unique capability for day-night imaging and in all weather conditions, including fog and haze, provides information on soil moisture.

SAR payload is based on an active phased array technology using Transmit/Receive (T/R) modules, which would provide necessary electronic agility for achieving the multi-mode capability, providing spatial resolutions of three metres to 50 metres, and 10 to 240 KM swath modes to cater to different applications.

Nair said the development of 1,780 KG spacecraft is more or less completed, and its "standing in the queue" for the launch.

Terming its launch as the "most important one" in the next one year, he said, "before the middle of next year, we want to make a flight." (PTI)

350 BJS workers resign after Uma slap row

CHHINDWARA, MP, Nov 6: A day after Bharatiya Jana Shakti (BJS) Party President Uma Bharati slapped a party worker here, about 350 others, supposedly angered by her behaviour, resigned from the party.

BJS Chhindwara District President Nemi Chand Verma today resicned from the party along with 350 workers including several office bearers.

Bharati had slapped the party’s district general secretary Anil Rai yesterday and later addressed a press conference with him claiming they were like brother and sister and that she had the right to "love him or hit him".

Uma also sent a written apology to Rai, who is believed to be close to BJS’s breakaway faction led by Prahlad Patel, but he resigned.

Those resigning along with Verma include Sanjay Konar, Kishor Munjare and Om Kumari. (PTI)