Three candidates in fray for two Assam Rajya Sabha seats

Guwahati, March 16 (IANS) The Congress Tuesday fielded two candidates for as many seats for next week’s Rajya Sabha elections, while the opposition pledged its support to a media baron as its common candidate for one seat.

On the last day of filing of nominations, the Congress fielded Nazneen Farooq and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Silvious Condopan, while the opposition backed proprietor of the Asomiya Pratidin group of newspapers, Jayanta Barua, as its common candidate.

Election for the two Rajya Sabha seats is scheduled March 26. Both the seats are now held by the ruling Congress.

While the Congress took a gamble by fielding the second candidate, the lone opposition candidate is facing a challenge with several MLAs belonging to the main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) openly revolting against the decision to support him as its candidate.

‘The party didn’t take our opinion and never discussed the name of Jayanta Barua while endorsing his candidature. I am unhappy and don’t support his candidature,’ said a visibly perturbed Abdul Aziz, an AGP legislator.

The AGP apart, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Asom United Democratic Front and the Left parties supported Barua’s candidature.

‘Since there are some problems within the opposition, we thought of fielding the second candidate,’ Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.

The opposition is confident there would be no cross voting and all the legislators would vote for their common candidate.

‘We are confident our candidate would win,’ AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said.

But already there are hints of the Congress trying to woo disgruntled opposition legislators to vote for their candidate.

Van Heusen India Mens Week to start Sep 11: FDCI

New Delhi, July 5 (IANS) The Van Heusen India Mens Week – the first fashion extravaganza for men in India that will showcase the best designers in the country – will be held here Sep 11 to 13, the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) announced.

The three-day event will have 15 shows, where designers will cover the widest range of men’s fashion – menswear and accessories under one roof.

Van Heusen, one of the leading lifestyle brands, has tied up with FDCI, the national body that promotes fashion and design, for the conclave for men’s fashion in India. It will be held as an annual event, a spokesperson said.

“Men’s fashion is an area of great interest to Van Heusen, and being the leading player in the market it was the most natural progression to create with FDCI India’s leading men’s fashion event. We are truly excited being part of such a pioneering idea,” said Pranab Barua, CEO Textile & Apparel Business, Madura Garments, Aditya Birla Group, in a press statement.

Sunil Sethi, president of FDCI, said: “The Van Heusen India Mens Week will provide a platform for young and upcoming designers.”

Van Heusen, the 128-year-old international brand, was launched nearly 20 years ago in India. It has over 65 exclusive stores and 25 more are planned to be opened across the country in the next 12 months.

Amal Allana gets second term as NSD chief

New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) President Pratibha Patil Monday appointed veteran theatre personality Amal Allana as chairperson of the National School of Drama (NSD) for a second term with immediate effect.
“Allana, an alumnus of the NSD, is the daughter of Ibrahim Alkazi, the founder of the NSD. She joined NSD four years ago as the chairperson,” NSD public relations officer Anup Kumar Barua told IANS.

Allana has directed several plays, including “Aadhe Adhure”, “The Exception and the Rule”, “Khamosh, Adalat Jari Hai”, “Ashadh Ka Ek Din”, “Mahabhoj”, “King Lear”, “Himmat Mai” and “Begum Barve”.

She has received many honours, including awards from the Delhi Natya Sangh (1994), Sahitya Kala Parishad (1996), Czech TV for the tele-play “Wapsi” (1983) and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for direction (1998).

One of the important changes during Alana’s tenure was the re-christening of NSD’s annual theatre festival as Theatre Utsav from the National School of Drama Bharat Rangmahotsav.

Allana is currently abroad.

Obama effect: Web-lobbying takes off in India

With the largest democracy of the world going to polls this month, campaigning for the 15th Lok Sabha election has ventured into a new dimension of
web-lobbying. And, the virtual world is not just limited to serious poll business but the fun quotient is also present in the run-up to the election. The trend of using social media to create awareness and promoting candidates and parties is fast catching on in India, this time.

“The trendsetter is definitely Barack Obama. Indian politicians have realized web-lobbying will help them garner more support and a wider base,” said Pulak Barua, product development manager of V-empower, regarding the growing acceptance of web-lobbying in India.

Incidentally, his firm has done web-lobbying for politicians in the UK and the US. In India, V-empower has done that for L K Advani, Renuka Chowdhury and Chandrababu Naidu to name a few. “The popularity is such that we are getting offers for web lobbying from various quarters every single day,” said Barua.

There is a difference though between international political clients and the Indian leaders. “International politicians know their target audience and have the data in place. Initially, politicians here did not want the site and once they get it, they do not use it. In 2004, too, we created a couple of sites but it never picked up because the response from the politicians was poor,” he said.

A French e-lobbying site based on blogs, incidentally, features the forthcoming Indian elections. The website is seeking prospective clients (read politicians) interested in

web-lobbying. Shifting from serious election business, many sites have also come up to create awareness through sheer fun. For instance, citizens can write manifestoes and decide them for the government through http://www.election.lordsofodds.com/! The popular ones get voted by the other members also.

The Hyderabad-based 7Seas Technologies have launched five online games based on the polls. Within a fortnight of its launch, the games have got more than 3 lakh hits. “We had created a game before the US presidential election, which was highly successful. We tried the same this time anticipating similar popularity. Majority of the players are Indian young adults in the age group of 18-20 years,” said Maruthi Sanker, managing director of 7Seas.

Though offers have poured in for ads and web lobbying as part of the online games from various parties, Sanker and his team want to keep it fun-based. While national parties are going all out to make the most of the new phenomenon, the regional ones are yet to get off the blocks. “India still has a long way to go for web lobbying,” said Barua.

Bangladesh says will not allow terrorists to use its land against India

Dhaka, Feb.9 (ANI): The newly elected Sheikh Hasina government has reassured India that it will not allow its territory to be used for spreading terror in India.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters here: “They (terrorists) don’t have any borders, don’t have any religion. They don’t have any nationality, they are terrorists, and, whoever tries to use our territory to harm anyone, we will put a stop to it and be vigilant.”

Moni held extensive discussions with her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee on the issue of terrorism during his day-long visit to Dhaka.

“If concrete information is provided to us, then we will take action against terrorists operating on our soil,” Moni said.

This reassurance from Dhaka comes as India continues to bear the brunt of terrorism emanating from its eastern and western neighborhood.

Over the years, the Bangladesh-based HUJI in alleged connivance with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, has orchestrated a series of attacks on Indian soil.

The most recent attack were the blasts in Assam in which over 65 people were killed.

According to the Indian Home Ministry, there are more than 100 terrorist training camps that are still actively operating from Bangladeshi soil, fuelling insurgency in India’s North East and elsewhere.

These fundamentalist forces thrived under the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition regime headed by former Prime Minister Khaleeda Zia.

Discussions on proposed South Asia joint task force to counter terrorism also took place. It may be recalled that such a proposal was mooted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai.

Mukherjee affirmed that such a discussion took place with Foreign Minister Moni.

“Of course, we discussed the concept of regional architecture. There is no conflict between the regional architecture and within the regional architecture, the bilateral architecture. What is more important is the sincerity to fight against the menace of terrorism,” said Mukherjee.

He further said ” What is more important is the sincerity to fight against the menace of terrorism. It can be achieved if we have bilateral mechanism, if we have regional mechanism, or a global mechanism”.

“But if there is inability, incapability or unwillingness to tackle with the problem and fight against terrorism as a global issue, then the problem comes,” he added.

No headway was made on the transit issue which remains a very sensitive political Issue in Bangladesh.

However India and Bangladesh also signed two agreements to further strengthen the framework of trade and investment between the two countries.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Bangladesh Commerce Minister Mohammad Farukh Khan signed the Trade Agreement to further boost bilateral trade which amounted to USD 3.631 billion for 2007-08.

Mukherjee and Bangladesh Industry Minister Dilip Barua inked the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement which is expected to help a large number of Indian firms working on various turnkey projects here. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)