Indholdsfortegnelse for June 25, 2018 i India Today

The last time India looked closely at the Korean peninsula was back in the 1990s when clandestine transfers of North Korean rocket technology allowed Pakistan to build missiles targeting all of India with its nuclear weapons. Korean missile technology was bartered for Pakistani uranium enrichment knowhow, used to build North Korea’s bombs. The transfer was allegedly facilitated by notorious nuclear black marketeer Dr A.Q. Khan. This week, the attention of the world, and indeed that of India, was on the landmark summit between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore. Just last September, Trump called Kim Jong-un ‘Little Rocket Man’ and threatened to ‘totally destroy North Korea’ after it acquired thermonuclear bombs and the intercontinental range ballistic missiles to lob them at the US.…

Wholesale prices for sugar have plunged following a marked increase in production over the last financial year, forcing the government to step in with a bailout package. The government plans to limit supply to forestall further price drops, impose limits on stocks held by sugar mills and implement a minimum selling price. These are temporary measures, insist authorities, intended to help farmers clear their arrears without overburdening consumers. But critics, including ratings agency Crisil, argue that the bailout neither goes far enough nor addresses fundamental structural issues. Sugar prices have risen, though this is likely just an immediate reaction to the government bailout rather than any sustainable rise given low global prices and a glut in supply that will likely last well into next year. 22,000 CRORE Owed to sugarcane…

“Have you heard the name of the Coca-Cola company? Is there anybody who has not heard of Coca-Cola? Everybody has. Now, you tell me who started the Coca-Cola company. Who was he? Does anybody know? I will tell you. Coca-Cola was started by a person who sold shikanji . He sold shikanji in America. Used to mix sugar in water. His experience was honoured, his skill was honoured.” Speaking in front of a crowd in Delhi, Congress president RAHUL GANDHI made some folksy remarks seemingly intended to generate ridicule. If that was the goal, he succeeded. Rahul added that McDonald’s was founded by the owner ofa dhaba andFordbyamechanic.Lost among the laughter and the social media memes was Rahul’s point. For all the talk…

Priyanka Grovels It’s rare that you feel sorry for Priyanka Chopra, who has parlayed her limited ability into mainstream success in India and the United States—a crossover star without parallel. “I’m a proud Indian,” she was forced to clarify last week. The hysterics were calling her a ‘dhimmi’, an historical term used by present-day Islamophobes to refer to anyone who does not share their paranoia. Her sin? Starring in (not writing) an episode in which suspected Pakistani terrorists turn out to be Hindu. Like chauvinists everywhere, the Hindu variety have tracing paper thin skin. They trolled a Bangladeshi-American writer who helped write a Quantico episode. She is Muslim, so singling her out unfairly when you’re angry about being singled out unfairly makes sense. Right? Fertility Guru Sambhaji Bhide—said to be…

The reduced tally of 99 Vidhan Sabha seats appears to have prompted a major ‘course correction’ by Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani. In his second term, Rupani is keen to project himself as a reformer and is taking measures to curb corruption and improve his government’s efficiency. The optics have been most effective in the ‘Sujalam Sufalam Jal Abhiyan’, a public-private campaign to deepen 13,000 lakes and rejuvenate 32 dried-up river courses to deal with water scarcity from deficient rainfall. The campaign was launched from Shukaltirth in Bharuch district on May 1 with an army of men and machinery—over 250,000 people, mostly from the rural areas, and some 4,000 excavators and 10,000 tractors. By the end of the month, about 11,000 lakh cubic feet of additional water storage capacity had…

n India’s bid to get full membership of the NSG unlikely to get unconditional US support as in the past n Trump’s transactional approach may see him demand concessions on trade or expect conclusions in defence deals in return n If the Korean deal succeeds, it may embolden Trump to push for denuclearisation in South Asia, meaning India and Pakistan n India-Russia arms deals worth over $12 billion now at CAATSA mercy. US opposed to India buying S-400 missiles from Russia…

June 1994 North Korea withdraws from IAEA after the agency discovers evidence of its N-weapons programme. Kim Il Sung dies that year, son Kim Jong Il takes over January 2003 North Korea withdraws from the NPT after several years of negotiations aimed at halting its missile and nuclear weapon programme. Admits it has nuclear weapons October 2006 First North Korean nuclear test. Followed by nuclear tests of varying intensity in 2009 and 2013 December 2011 Kim II Sung dies, succeeded by son Kim Jong-un who steps up nuclear and missile development projects July 2017 North Korea tests its first ICBM, the Hwasong-14, its 14th missile test that year. With 10,000 km range, first North Korean missile capable of reaching mainland US September 2017 North Korea tests a hydrogen bomb and…

SUDHIR DHAWALE Editor of magazine Vidrohi. He founded the Republican Panthers after the Khairlanji killings of 2006 SHOMA SEN Professor of English at Nagpur University. Suspected of links with left wing extremists RONA WILSON Public relation secretary for the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners. Believed to be a close aide of Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba, who is serving a life term for indulging in Maoist activities SURENDRA GADLING Lawyer from Nagpur. Known to have handled legal matters for Maoists MAHESH RAUT Former fellow, PM’s Rural Development Fellowship Programme. Allegedly a link between forest operatives and urban Maoists…

THE HIMALAYAN ARC: JOURNEYS EAST OF SOUTH-EAST Edited by Namita Gokhale HARPERCOLLINS In a new anthology, Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South-east, editor Namita Gokhale aims to highlight the literature that’s thriving in the subcontinent’s mountainous margins, beyond the literary hubs of Delhi and Mumbai. Representing a region as diverse as the Himalayas is an uphill task. Ranging from Assam to Sikkim to Nepal to Burma, it’s almost impossible to speak of the Himalayas in singular terms. They are not only divided by nationality but also by language, culture, customs and religion. Gokhale, who was born in the Kumaon hills bordering Nepal, deserves credit for putting together an admirable collage of writing about the Himalayan region. She presents works from an exhilarating range of writers—novelists, poets, journalists, business executives, diplomats,…

India’s ongoing highway revolution hasn’t been kind to the rich cultural legacy of the dhaba. In the north of the country in particular, a roll-call of legendary highway halts have succumbed to the bland ‘food court’ aesthetic. Fortunately the No. 1 state for fine dining on the go seems immune to this scourge. Yes, that would be Assam, whose food leavens the complex but overbearing classicism of neighbouring Bengal with the freshness and diversity of Northeastern ingredients. Assam’s dhabas will delight you with elaborate thalis, an unexpected range of meats (fish, duck, squab!) and a unique emphasis on the acid-alkaline spectrum. After a highly scientific survey (of one local expert), we’re giving the prize for India’s best dhaba to the Baideo Hotel just off NH 52 in Biswanath Chairali, established…

Of course, there’s a snobbery among travellers. And one form it takes is the ‘you should have been here yesterday’, rather like a fisherman or a surfer. If I had a Peruvian peso for every time that someone has told me they went to Machu Picchu ‘way back when, before the crowds and almost had it to ourselves…’, I could afford to stay at one of the luxury new five-star hotels that line the route to the Inca citadel. Yes, Machu Picchu gets almost 1,000,000 visitors a year now. Yes, that means that the Peruvian government has had to manage both the situation and the site—particularly given that it is only accessible by rail or foot down a narrow valley. Daily visitor numbers are limited, both to the ruins and…

HEALTH AND LEISURE Divine Destress KINTSUGI YOG STUDIO It’s a warm summer evening. Bright pink bougainvillea line the grassy patch at the Kintsugi Yog Studio in east Delhi where the batch of ten is rising from meditative stillness. Lotica, founder and teacher, breaks the silence as she announces the upcoming yoga retreat to her class, “Let’s drop the mind for 3 nights-4 days.” Her class is delighted at the prospect. Lotica, a Yoga Siromani (teacher) from The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre says, “Your relationship with anything—be it a thing, person or place—if counter-productive, will rob you of ‘prana’ (vital energy), which leads to disease, and we all are prone to this.” The Kintsugi yoga retreats are designed to help you identify what is blocking your life energy and how…

Yoga, classical music and the presence of Indians in the Silicon Valley have done much to raise India’s standing in the US It was during his landmark visit to India in the year 2000 that the then US President Bill Clinton described the Indian subcontinent and the Line of Control in Kashmir as “the most dangerous place in the world today”. Clinton was voicing a sentiment deeply ingrained in American perceptions about South Asia, exacerbated by India and Pakistan coming out of the nuclear closet with back-to-back nuclear tests in May 1998. Srinath Raghavan’s well-researched book picks on this enduring element in the US narrative on South Asia as a template to examine the drivers of its engagement with our region since the birth of the American republic. In this…

It would have been better if the lateral entry selection had been left to the UPSC. This would have avoided the critique about subjectivity The first thing to understand about the ‘new’ move by the government to recruit talent from outside the civil service is that it is not new. It has happened in countless—and some high profile—cases in the past. All governments have sought to reinforce the bureaucracy by lateral intrusion and justified it on the ground that those so brought in have an expertise that is not available in the existing system. In principle, what the government is seeking to do is neither without precedent, nor unwarranted. With the rapid development of technology and the increasing complexity of the economic and international ecosystem, experts with proven domain experience…

PERSONAL RIVALRIES, IT IS EVIDENT, LED TO THE BJP’S UNDOING IN KAIRANA The Bharatiya Janata Party’s ignoble defeat at the hands of a united opposition in the all-important Lok Sabha byelection in Kairana appears to have blown the lid on the hotpot of disaffection that is brewing within the saffron party. When the debacle became obvious during the counting of votes on May 31, Bharatendu Singh, the party’s MP from Bijnor, promptly blamed Bhupendra Chaudhary, Uttar Pradesh’s panchayati raj minister and the election in-charge in Kairana. “Individuals with experience in winning [elections] should have been entrusted with the election,” he said, alluding to the fact that Chaudhary was made a minister despite losing three elections. Only hours later, the party’s Hindutva flag-bearer in western UP and Sardhana (Meerut) legislator Sangeet…

Donald Trump had referred to Kim Jong-un as a “sick puppy”, “a maniac” and “little rocket man”. Kim, in turn, not to be outdone, had quipped, calling Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard”. Despite these mutual insults, quite miraculously, the two had agreed on holding the summit in Singapore on July 12. Worse still, even after agreeing on the date for the event, Trump, for reasons that still remain mostly unfathomable, had called it off. However, for reasons that can only be speculated upon, the plans for the meeting were restored. While few statements ensued from the North Korean side, Trump, in a manner that is all too characteristic of him, stated that he did not need to “prepare very much” for the summit as it was all “about attitude”…

The June 12 statement of the external affairs ministry welcomed the US-North Korea summit as paving the way for peace in the Korean peninsula, but reminded the world of the dark history of a Rawalpindi-Pyongyang nexus that saw one of the worst cases of proliferation of nuclear weapons technology. ‘We also hope the resolution of the Korean Peninsula issue will take into account and address our concerns about proliferation linkages extending to India’s neighbourhood,’ the MEA said in the statement. At first, it appeared to be a case of cash-strapped North Korea hawking its missile arsenal. On June 29, 1999, suspicious Indian customs officials in the port city of Kandla discovered that, in addition to a shipment of sugar, a North Korean merchant vessel was carrying road and rail-mobile short-range…

IF 70% OF OUR POPULATION STARTS DOING ASANAS AND PRANAYAM REGULARLY, INDIA’S HEALTH BUDGET WILL COME DOWN DRASTICALLY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA codified yoga into four main streams. First, Gnan Yoga that teaches ways to imbibe knowledge. Second, Raj Yoga that enhances willpower. Third, Bhakti Yoga or the science of emotion. Fourth, Karma Yoga or the path of action. Gnan Yoga is experimental in nature, not a blind faith, rather it is questioning in nature. In fact, modern science and Gnan Yoga are similar because both are ways of finding the fundamental reality. Raj Yoga is about using willpower to change, grow and become great human beings. Patanjali prescribed eight steps of Raj Yoga. Bhakti Yoga is all about making emotions divine and controlling them. Karma Yoga converts daily actions into yoga—be…

Malaika Arora ACTOR I WASN’T A VERY spiritual person. With yoga, that’s changed. I am able to connect with myself and be by myself. Your mind can be all over the place with kids and work but yoga makes you a calmer person. I started five years ago to deal with a hamstring injury I had sustained while dancing. I wanted to do something that would be a little less aggressive on my body. What I love about yoga is that it is such an internal way of looking at health. It’s not superficial as in developing some abs and muscles. The healing and goodness of yoga is for everybody to see. From a five-year-old to an 85-year-old—all can avail the benefits of yoga. The good thing is that once…

Berlin’s Tempelhof Flughafen was once the grandest airport in the world and you can see the traces even before you quite get to what is now an unusual museum. The closest metro station is Platz der Luftbrucke, or ‘Air Bridge Place’, and one of the exits points you to Manfred von Richthofen Strasse, named after the most famous of the German World War I air aces. At the huge traffic circle in south Berlin you notice the block-like buildings from the Nazi era, their grimness underlined by large, pugnacious-looking high-relief plaster eagles protruding from the walls. Adolf Hitler meant this airport to be the centre of his intended world capital of ‘Germania’. When coming into shape between 1934 and 1941, Tempelhof, with its towering shell limestone façade, was literally concrete…

SHIVANI MEHTA, 37 FOUNDER, THE ART OF COOKING A three-layered baked dish that she rustled up for the finale show of Masterchef India Season 3 catapulted Shivani Mehta to instant fame in Gujarat. Cooking shows, endorsement for food products and events started pouring in, turning this passionate home cook into a chef-entrepreneur. “For Masterchef, I studied like I would for a board exam. I went to libraries to research recipes from different cuisines and that helped because I was among the top 13 in that season,” she says. She went on to become a coordinator for Gujarat for the same show, identifying contestants and conducting auditions. With cooking shows becoming increasingly popular, Mehta conducts workshops with visiting chefs across the state. artofcooking.co.in WHAT’S ON THE PLATE “Gujaratis love Italian; anything…

Bhaiyyuji Maharaj, a popular and politically connected guru, was found dead in his Indore home on Tuesday, June 12, around lunchtime. Just 50, he had apparently shot himself in the head, leaving a suicide note that hinted at depression, an inability to cope any longer with the mundane tasks and responsibilities of life. “I am leaving,” he wrote, “to[o] much stressed out, fed up.” He married for the second time in 2017, his first wife having died, and had a daughter, whom he was visiting in Pune in 2016 when he and some followers were attacked after a truck collided with their car. In April, he had been accorded ‘minister of state’ status by the Madhya Pradesh government, alongside four other ‘godmen’, and nominated to a committee set up to…

On June 3, Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath, former chief minister Digvijaya Singh and poll campaign committee chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia collectively complained to the Election Commission of India (ECI) that there were some 6 million “duplicate, false, illegal and invalid” names on Madhya Pradesh’s electoral rolls. The leaders handed in 101 CDs bearing details of such voters in 101 assembly constituencies, drawing considerable media attention. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), curiously, had no response to the apparently serious charges. Cleverly acknowledging that the revision of electoral rolls is done under the EC’s supervision, the Congress leaders dared BJP leaders to join them in demanding a probe. Acting swiftly, the commission dashed teams to Seoni Malwa, Hoshangabad, Narela and Bhojpur, four randomly selected constituencies for verification of voter lists. Five…

IT WAS WITHOUT DOUBT HISTRIONICS of the grandest scale. Donald Trump looked smug as he made history by shaking hands with Kim Jong-un on June 12 at a Singapore luxury resort. In doing so, he became the first American president to hold a summit meeting with a North Korean head of state. The two leaders were a study in contrast—Trump at 72 with his wavy blond hair and Kim a portly 34 with his dark hip-hop bouffant. One was the leader of the free world, the other an epitome of the unfree one. But they had much in common too. Apart from their affluent upbringing, both have displayed their megalomaniacal impulses as rulers of their respective countries. To be fair to Trump, he is only a bully and has never…

What Kim has agreed to Reaffirmed his firm commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula (a commitment his father made in 2005 and his grandfather in 1991) What the US means by denuclearisation Complete Verifiable Irreversible Dismantlement of the North Korean nuclear weapons programme. IAEA inspectors will have to enter North Korea and certify it no longer possesses nuclear weapons and can’t restart them Timelines Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expects ‘major disarmament by the end of Trump’s term in 2020’ Incentives to ensure North Korea complies Agreement commits the US to provide security guarantees to North Korea. Trump has announced halting military exercises with South Korea. Later tweeted North Korea did not constitute a nuclear threat Ball in North Korea’s court Kim needs to take visible steps to…

AS YET ANOTHER International Yoga Day approaches, the spotlight is on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is well-publicised that he wakes up at 4 am, does a spell of Surya Namaskar or the 12 different spinal positions that tone muscles and joints, help blood circulate faster, quicken metabolism, beat anxiety and bring a healthy glow to the face. We don’t know which yogic tradition he follows—Hatha, Ashtanga or Vinyasa. But going by the personality profiles formulated by psychologists Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers, we would say that it’s either Ashtanga or Hatha. Both are preferred by people who pay attention to reality, notice facts and details, are practical, disciplined and organised. Ashtanga is favoured by those interested in going deeper into yoga philosophy and spirituality and do not mind…

Jairam Ramesh’s new book examines the long and complicated relationship between Indira Gandhi and her legendary advisor—and longtime Principal Secretary—P.N. Haksar. ‘PNH’ has now faded from political memory but his exceptional career was marked by extraordinary proximity to and influence on the government—mostly Indira herself. He was at the core of her ‘kitchen cabinet’ and a paid-up member of the so-called ‘Kashmiri Mafia’ (with D.P. and P.N. Dhar) and a fellow traveller of the leftist ‘ginger group’ within the Congress. While his star was ascendant, Haksar would make a unique and lasting impact on the country and the region. He is regarded as one of the prime architects of the bank nationalisation of 1969—and the sidelining of the finance minister who opposed it, Morarji Desai. He was both a witness…

Timeless Art Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is presenting a special exhibition of modern and contemporary Indian masters, displaying new acquisitions for the first time alongside vignettes from the permanent collection, at their Noida outpost. Featuring several important works such as Krishen Khanna’s Pieta (1988), Mrinalini Mukherjee’s Van Raja (1991-94) and KK Heb-bar’s The Tile Factory, alongside Nalini Malani’s Ecstasy of Radha and early works by Ram Kumar, the exhibition will also provide a platform for participation and dialogue with the collection. On Till July 31 At Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Plot 3A, Sector 126, Noida…