India Today - 21 January 2013

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Editor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie Group Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga Group Synergy and Creative Officer: Kalli Purie Editor: Kaveree Bamzai Managing Editor: S. Prasannarajan Deputy Editors: Damayanti Datta, Dhiraj Nayyar, Sandeep Unnithan Senior Editors: Prachi Bhuchar, S. Sahaya Ranjit, Priya Sahgal, Devesh Kumar, Bhavna Vij-Aurora AHMEDABAD: Uday Mahurkar HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon Associate Editors: Abdus Salam, G.S. Vivek THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: M.G. Radhakrishnan Assistant Editors: Monalisa S. Arthur, Rahul Jayaram BANGALORE: Sowmya Aji CHANDIGARH: Asit Jolly MUMBAI: Kiran Tare GUWAHATI: Kaushik Deka JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava Special Correspondent: BHOPAL: Lemuel Lall Principal Correspondent: Nishat Bari CHENNAI: Lakshmi Kumaraswami Senior Correspondent: Shravya Jain Copy Desk: Ipsita Bhattacharya (Chief Copy Editor), Archana Pande, Bodhisattwa Maity (Copy Editors) Photo Department: Reuben Singh (Deputy Photo Editor), Subir Halder, Yasbant Negi, Vikram Sharma AHMEDABAD: Shailesh Raval CHENNAI: H.K. Rajashekar MUMBAI: Mandar Deodhar, Bhaskar Paul Infographics and Illustrations: Saurabh Singh (Chief of Graphics) Art Department: Ajit Bajaj (Senior Art Director) Madhu Bhaskar (Art Director), Vandana Nayar, Jyoti K. Singh (Deputy Art Directors), Vipin Gupta Production Department: Surinder Hastu (Chief of Production), Harish Aggarwal, Naveen Gupta Chief of Information Bureau: Rajesh Sharma Group Business Head : Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher: Anil Fernandes (Impact) IMPACT TEAM Senior General Managers: Kaustav Chatterjee (East), Jitendra Lad (West), Head (North): Subhashis Roy, General Manager: Shailender Nehru (Bangalore), Deputy General Manager: Velu Balasubramaniam (Chennai) Consumer Marketing Services: Poonam Sangha, Head - Consumer Services Sales and Operations: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager Vinod Das, Senior General Manager (National) Manish Shrivastava, Senior Manager (North) Joydeep Roy, Senior Manager (East) Rajesh Menon, General Manager (West) Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (South) Rakesh Sharma, General Manager (Operations)
Volume XXXVIII Number 3; For the week Jan 15-21, 2013, released from Friday onwards
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he overwhelming demand of those who took to the streets in the weeks after the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old student was to reform laws related to crime against women, particularly rape. An agitated India demanded severe punishments, including the death penalty for rapists. The Government is now working on a new legislation to respond to the public outcry. What has got less attention is the urgent need to re-examine the laws that govern crimes committed by minors or juveniles. That is because while existing laws are enough to send five of the six brutal rapists to the gallows, they are sorely lacking in punishing the sixth rapist who has claimed that, at 17 years of age, he is a juvenile and must be tried under separate laws. Under the Juvenile Justice Act, the sixth rapist, whose identity is concealed because he is a minor, can only receive a maximum sentence of three years detention, that too in a remand home, not prison. After that the police are bound by the law to destroy his criminal record, ostensibly to ensure a complete rehabilitation in mainstream society. There are several reasons why this is deeply problematic. The reason that countries have a separate jurisprudence for minors is because crimes committed by juveniles may often be in innocence. However, most countries have provisions where even minors (usually those below 18 years) can be tried as adults depending on the severity of the crime committed. In the case of Delhis sixth rapist, it can hardly be argued that his was an innocent crime. Sexual assaults and murders are fundamentally different from petty robberies or even minor drug peddling. The 17-year-old Delhi rapist was old enough to know how to rape. According to some reports, he was also the most brutal in assaulting the girl. He had the sense to help destroy the evidence after the crime. In the US or UK, for a crime of this nature, he would have been tried as an adult in a regular court of law. In the US, juveniles as young as 14 can be sentenced to life in prison for rape and murOUR JANUARY der. In the UK, even 10-year-olds can be tried as adults in 1999 COVER regular courts in particularly heinous crimes. In the event that a juvenile convict gets parole when he reaches adulthood, he only gets it on conditional terms and is constantly monitored to prevent a repeat offence. Our cover story, written by Senior Editor Bhavna Vij-Aurora and Assistant Editor Amitabh Srivastava, is a chilling reminder of how the Indian juvenile justice system is in tatters. There are a total of 815 remand homes across India with a capacity of 35,000. According to government statistics, there are 1.7 million juvenile accused in India. The system is rotten because it lets off serious offenders easily and does little to rehabilitate even those who have been convicted of lesser offences. Curiously, the Government raised the threshold age of a juvenile in criminal law from 16 to 18 in 2000. In retrospect that seems a mistake. In any case, whether an individual should be tried as a juvenile or an adult should always depend on the nature of the crime. A reformed law must ensure such a provision rather than laying down a blanket age threshold, whether 18 or 16. The Government also needs to reform the remand homes convicted juveniles are sent to. On present evidence, these awfully-managed places are breeding grounds for future criminals. India has a burgeoning youth demographic. Surely, they need to be deterred from becoming a danger to society.
All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only
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JANUARY 21, 2013 INDIA TODAY
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INSIDE
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N AT I O N
DMK
36
DMKReadies for Marshal Stalin
Karunanidhis succession plan for DMK puts the younger son at the forefront. Will siblings Alagiri and Kanimozhi stand in the way of generational change?
C OV E R STO RY D E A D LY T E E N S
N AT I O N
Delhi gang rape sparks nationwide debate on juvenile justice system as crimes by minors show alarming rise. Is reform better than retribution?
ASARAM BAPU
14 26
Y oung and Dangerous

Hate Mongers of Hyderabad
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8 10 62
Guru from the Dark Ages
T H E B I G STO RY
OWAISIS
Asaram Bapu adds sexism to the already long list of charges against him from murder to sexual abuse. UP FRONT GLASS HOUSE GLOSSARY
A vast empire spanning education and media in their pockets, the Owaisi brothers are now eyeing Muslims beyond Andhra Pradesh for their political gain.
SPORT
CRICKET
Cover design by: DEV KABIR MALIK Cover photo by: VIVAN MEHRA
50
Survivor of the Storm

Despite defeats, Dhoni has quelled threats to his captaincy and purged seniors in his quest to get the team he wants for the 2015 World Cup.
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S P EC I A L R E P O R T
BORDER ATTACK
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Pakistani Knives Draw Blood
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The beheading of two Indian Army soldiers threatens a shaky peace on the Line of Control.
02
INDIA TODAY JANUARY 21, 2013
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The Angry Indian

J A N U A R Y 7, 2 0 1 2
Inflation. Corruption. Ethnic Violence. Rape. An India disillusioned with a passive ruling Establishment erupted in moral rage in a year of multiple injustices.
The real battle is to change the way in which men relate to women and create a culture that does not involve subjugation of women. The Government must act wisely now or perish.
R A M E S H S.,
via email
Right to Protest
The large-scale protests following the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedic student in Delhi was absolutely justified (The Angry Indian, January 7). The nation-wide uproar and the outpour of anger was a natural reaction given the brutality of the crime and the callous manner in which authorities concerned continue to deal with the issue of womens safety. But in the name of security, the police sealed India Gate and Raisina Hill and also closed down 10 metro stations which was totally unnecessary. India Gate is the ideal place for martyrs of the nation and the young girl was no less than a brave soldier. Peaceful protest especially when its a nonpolitical oneat India Gate is a right.
M. KUMAR, Delhi
Police Must Buck Up
VIKRAM SHARMA/www.indiatodayimages.com
The Indian police forces inability in handling peaceful protesters at India Gate speaks volumes of their inefficiency and callousness (The Cost of Khaki Tape, January 7). The protesters were harassed by the very men who are supposed to be their protectors. It is high time that the police force across the country is trained adequately to handle different situations so that they do not use the lathi on peaceful citizens.
RITAM MUKHERJI, Pune
The atrocious ratio of police to public in India, along with the fact that they are mostly puppets in the hands of the corrupt political class, point to a very disturbing trend that raises questions about the security of common men in the country. Police reforms is the need of the hour. Among other things, they need to be gender-sensitised.
SOHAM BHATT, Mysore
When the state has failed in its most basic duty of protecting women, the rage beating down the barricade is understandable. But it is also the time for introspection. Can this anger be transformed into steely resolve? Firstly, would we resolve not to remain inert spectators when a girl is molested in public in broad daylight? Secondly, would we protest against and prevent gender discrimination within our families? Thirdly, would we refuse to offer or accept dowries? If we just protest and avoid bringing about changes in our homes and society around us, we will continue to get the administration we deserve.
ATANU MUKHERJEE, Kolkata
The UPA Government has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, ever since it was voted back to power
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police commissioner remained inactive and confused. They were clueless as to how to deal with spontaneous protests. All the top level authorities in Delhi should work in coordination while handling such issues. Psychologists, sociologists need to undertake a study of such protests and submit their recommendations to the Government as to how best the crowd could be handled. There is also an immediate need to set up fast-track courts to try rape cases with provisions in law even for death penalty.
R.D. DESHPANDE, Bangalore
35
YEARS AGO IN INDIA TO DAY
in 2009. It was criticised for economic mismanagement, high levels of inflation, corruption scams and policy paralysis. People were angry and this was reflected in the logjams in the Parliament. But the Government never realised the anger simmering in the hearts of people.The brutal gang rape in Delhi was the last nail in the coffin and the latent anger of people came out in full fury. Even that could not shake the Government which has set a new benchmark in non-governance. They deserve to be voted out.
A.S. BALANATHAN, Chennai
bearer of the common man. And if he succeeds, we may have a political star on the horizon that India has been starved of for a long time.
ANJUM M. SAMEL, Mumbai
J A N U A RY 1-1 5 , 1 9 7 8
Weathering the Storm

I must begin with the cinema not only because I know it best but also because its content is more liable to definitive interpretation than music or painting. The pattern has remained unchanged; the juggernaut of the commercial cinema rolls on and, like an advancing desert, nibbles at the edges of the regional film all the time. It is no longer possible to make anything but the run-of-themill Bengali cinema for instance. The bucket must descend deeper to draw any water from the drying well. Only the most intensive exploitation yields any profit, and few are prepared to risk their money on an unconven-
The raging campaign by the public against the Establishments ineffectiveness is unprecedented and reflects that people are sick of the Governments inability to address peoples problems promptly. Justice delayed is justice denied, and our system remains unchanged despite such public outrage. Its high time the Government responds to this public outcry and gears up to act.
K. CHIDANAND KUMAR, Chennai
Kejriwals Litmus Test

Arvind Kejriwal appears to have set the tone for citizens to take on the Establishment (The Arsonist, January 7). The fledgling Aam Aadmi Party honcho has certainly given a ray of hope to the aam aadmi who over the decades has been hopelessly subjugated by our political system and ironically, his own elected representatives. That Kejriwal chose to soil his hands by getting into the political cesspool with hopes of ridding it of corruption, misgovernance and nepotism is being perceived by many as a bold decision that requires a lot of self-belief and commitment. For Kejriwal, it shall now be a litmus test as to how he manages to sustain his own image as well as that of his party as a torch-
Arvind Kejriwals ploy to press allegations against public personalities without enough proof might keep him in the limelight, but will soon boomerang. His movement against corrupt politicians without concrete proof is a wasteful exercise, as the commissions of inquiry are helpless in the absence of evidence. Kejriwal is like any other politician whose eyes are fixed on the chair. The nation means nothing.
MAHESH KUMAR, via email
The Perfect Auditor

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Vinod Rai, is the right man for the post of top auditors job in the country (The Sum of All Fears, January 7). The fact that he has not stopped calling a spade a spade despite controversies, points to an upright man who is willing to do his work honestly without being influenced by the political bigwigs. His scathing reports in 2012 kept the Government on its toes, so much so that it has made our politicians uncomfortable. Rai should continue with his good work and not give in to the Governments pressure.
MONA MATHUR, Chandigarh
Clueless and Callous

The UPA 2 Government has failed in handling the protesters in connection with the recent Delhi gang-rape case (They Have A Lot To Answer For, January 7). The top-level authorities of Delhi including the home minister, chief minister, lieutenant governor and
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tional film in a shrinking market. Both Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen are working in Hindi and must use all the ingenuity in order to survive. The era of intelligent, smallbudget Bengali film in black and white is over. It has gone the way of Marathi cinema much earlier. In others regions, occasionally a wind rises and sparks fly, as in Karnataka beginning with Samskara and continuing with Chomana Dudi. by Chidananda Dasgupta
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BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. BEAUTIFUL PLACES.
UP FRONT
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TABISH KHAIR
CLASH OFTHE SUPERMEN
r India vs Shri Bharat. The battle of the usual super- damsels stopped wearing tight jeans they would not need to men. Rhetorical muscles being flexed. Pectoral and scream help. All Indian women need to do is to do nothing. spectorals. Biceps and precepts. All in the service of Or nothing new. Or at least live in those parts of India where the usual damsel in distress, this time desi, who has to be people do not speak English with a public school accent. Mr (Shri) Bharat forgets the long records of rape in Indian vilprotected from a fate-worse-than-death. Mr India, for instance, is convinced that rapes are lages and in spaces where people do not speak English at largely the consequence of the village mentality of many all; these facts do not exist for him because he refuses to see Indians. Mr India lives in metropolises; his costume has to them. He is a hard-headed mystic in this sense. Whats a be fashioned by designers of thought in places like London hope-trick or two to him? He can make more than a rabbit and New York (though it is mostly stitched by Indian vil- disappear, which he proved in Ayodhya some years ago. Mr India is convinced that basically what we need to do lagers), so I guess such conjectorals make senseto him. Mr Bharat, whose attire is meticulously designed at home is to learn from the rest of the world. As the only rest of but was mostly stitched in Berlin around 1940 (such miracles the world he knows lies in the West, he kind of feelsthough are routine to him), is convinced that rapes take place only in he may not say sothat a page or two (in English) out of the cosmopolitan spaces of India. It is the followers of Mr India Englandia will be a good idea. This page (in English or, at who are responsible for rapes, he claims. He is a bit uncer- times, any language) village India obviously lacks, alas, in tain whether he should blame Mr Indias male followers, Mr Indias view. Mr Bharat sees no need for all this. His dressed in tight jeans, or Mr Indias female followers, dressed hands often itch to burn a page of English as incense to in tight jeans; so he has decided, mostly, to blame tight jeans. his gods every morning, and there are only two reasons why The way Mr India sees the matter, village India, which he does not do so: 1. Because his son (but not his daughter) can be recognised easily as it does not speak English or does is studying in USA, and 2. Because his arch-enemy, not speak English with public school fluency, lurks in the Mussalmaan the Bearded, has turned the burning of books darker corners of the country, perpetually on the lookout for into his own personal trademark. So it goes on. And on. The flexing of muscles and women to rape. As Mr India has seldom been to villages, he feels justified in flexing his dicepts. He is used to such pub- bahscles, biceps and precepts, pectorals and spectorals. lic flexing of ideas in front of an admiring audience. It is a Women are either kept in place in the name of preventing class thing: He has been surrounded by people less edu- rapewhich of course is just another kind of rapeor cated than him and quite desperate to stay in his good women are freed to be marginalised producers and consumers in the capitalist market, where the production and books. Yes sir, wah sir, well said sir. The argumentative Indianas one of the very few argu- consumption of woman can lead to rape as well. Mr India mentative Indians around who is actually a genuine and and Shri Bharat both have a point or two right, but that is admirable intellectual once put itmight be the best thing not what they are after. Even the damsel in distress is just an excuse. Finally, they are engagabout our country, but unfortunately SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com ing in a very male act of flexing their Indian urban spaces are slowly filling muscles, joggling for space: after all, with simply (and loudly) opinionated they are super-yes!-men. middle class Indians who are convinced So, dear bewildered reader, do not that their privileges, education and narexpect a solution from either Mr India or row experiences make an unanswerShri Bharat. Look instead to less mythiable combination. If Mr India had really cal and more ordinary characters like gone around to the villages of India, he that obscured woman, Ma Hindustan. might have noticed that they vary as She does not talk much because her lanmuch as the cities do, and perhaps more guage does not exist, officially. It is not so: Some are safer for women than most Urdu, Hindi or English, and yet it is a bit Indian cities. Actually, at least until of each, and something else. Ma recently, in places like Jharkhand much Hindustan does not look for protection; of the actual raping was done by she can look after herself. She does not often sophisticated urban types, who generalise about villages or cities; she is saw no logic in stopping with just the rape of mineral riches. The way Mr India sees it, village part of all of it. She is not spoken; she is lived. Pay her some attention. Mr Bharat flexes a different set of bahscles; he believes that damsels are India lurks in the darker corners of the country, perpetually on not or have not been in distress in Tabish Khairs latest novel is How to Fight the lookout for women to rape. Indian villages. He implies that if Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position
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GLASS HOUSE
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by PRIYA SAHGAL
SYNERGY
OF THE WEEK
JAIRAMS EXTENDED FAMILY

abinet minister Jairam Ramesh shares an unusual relationship with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. Rameshs fathers cousin is married to the Chief Ministers cousin. But he makes sure he doesnt sound familiar, always addressing her as Honourable Chief Minister. This is a variation from his greetings to West Bengal Chief Minister whom he hails as Amaar Priyo Mamata Di (Our favourite Mamata Di). Hope Rameshs caution pays off. The last time he sought a meeting with the Chief Minister was in 2012. But it was called off by her at the last minute as she was miffed with the Congress for pushing the National Counter Terrorism Centre.
YASBANT NEGI/www.indiatodayimages.com
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram were seen together on January 9 during a visit to the Madhya Pradesh Gramin Bank headquarters in Chhindwara, Naths constituency. Chidambaram announced an amalgamation of the entire rural banking system to be run from the headquarters. Clearly, the synergy that brought the two rivals together to pass the Banking Bill in Parliament is now working overtime.
SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com
Rahuls Direct Benefit
Bansals Palace on Wheels

ravellers on the DelhiChandigarh Shatabdi Express are being treated BANSAL like royalty ever since city MP Pawan Kumar Bansal took over as minister for railways. On January 5, Bansal himself was on board. Passengers were welcomed into unusually clean coaches that smelt liberally of air freshener, the meal was piping hot, and the train, with priority over everything else on the tracks, was impeccably on time. Now if only Bansal extends his patronage to the rest of India.
10
At Mukesh Ambanis January 5 party in Mumbai to celebrate his niece Nayantaras forthcoming wedding to Shamit Bhartia, the list of politicians included Rajeev Shukla,Jyotiraditya Scindia, R.K. Dhawan, Salman Khurshid, Murli Deora and G.K.Wasan from the Congress, Piyush Goyal from BJP and Surpiya Sule from NCP.
SPOTTED
Stage Fright
ongress General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi is clearly calling the shots in planning the partys Chintan Shivir to be held in Jaipur on DWIVEDI January 18 and 19. He overruled his colleagues Ambika Soni and Mukul Wasniks plans to decorate the main stage in an artistic way. Instead, Dwivedi preferred to keep it simple.
he Direct Cash Transfer scheme is now referred to as the Direct Benefit Transfer. This subtle repositioning was done at the behest of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. He felt the cash transfer nomenclature restricted the benefits of the scheme. The renaming was first noticed at the December 2012 meeting that Rahul had with 42 district presidents at the Congress war room at Gurdwara Rakabganj Road. The press kits that were distributed had the scheme being referred to as Direct Benefit Transfer. Well, marketing is all very well but what about delivery?
RAHUL
PARVEEN NEGI/www.indiatodayimages.com
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Where Fashion Gets Personal
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GLASS HOUSE
FREE FOR ALL
by R. Prasad
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THE NO-SHOW
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had invited West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to his swearing-in ceremony on December 26. According to sources, Modi even offered to send a special aircraft for her. Yet Mamata did not attend. Guess Modi will have to work harder to win acceptability.
I
JOKES
OF THE
Twitter Tewari
nformation & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari is busy working on a social media policy to make the Government more responsive. The Precedent Tewari says the idea is to enable, not regulate. Er, does it remind anyone of Kapil Sibal? The Copy Chat He is planning to hold a news conference using Google+ Hangouts, a form of video chat. Only, Narendra Modi has beaten him to it. The Facelift Wooing journalists from private channels to Doordarshan. He wants more text in government advertisements instead of just mug shots of the entire party leadership.
Badals Advice
unjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, 86, isnt enamoured of youth.Tussi kadi jail katti hai (Have you ever done jail time)?he asked Minister for NRI Affairs Bikramjit Majithia at the Pravasi Punjabi Sammelan in Jalandhar on January 5, recalling the 17 years he spent in jail as a political prisoner. Badal BADAL (RIGHT) WITH MAJITHIA then advised the completely flummoxed minister,Majithia saab mehnat karo. Kalle NRIs ne sarkar nai banani, hethle lokkan da vi dhyan rakhna pau (Mr Majithia, work hard.The NRIs alone will not elect your government, you will have to look after common people). Is that a message to Badal Junior as well?
WEEK
Dear Rajinikanth, Please close your fridge door properly. Yours faithfully, Delhi. Its so cold that one is seeing politicians and policemen with hands in their own pockets.
Look Whos Talking

eepender Hooda ran into CPIs Gurudas Dasgupta soon after his speech on FDI. The veteran Left leader congratulated the young Congress MP on his speech but also added a word of advice, cautioning him against displaying anger and irritation while speaking. Sound advice, only its coming from Dasgupta who is renowned for losing his cool on the floor of the House!
DASGUPTA
United Singh Parivar
ongress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh was keen that brother Laxman Singh return to the Congress in time for the January 9 civic polls which Laxmans son,Aditya, is contesting from Ragogarh. Digvijaya wanted a united family campaign. But general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh, B.K. Hariprasad, first wanted Laxman to apologise for the anti-Congress comments he made when he left in 2004. In the end, Digvijaya had his way.
OVERHEARD
Lets see if Jaya Bachchan sheds copious tears for what party colleague Abu Azmi has just said, that fashion and nudity cause rapes.
with ASIT JOLLY AND ROHIT PARIHAR
SIPRA DAS/www.indiatodayimages.com
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SIGNATURE
B O T T O M
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DHIRAJ NAYYAR
L I N E
THE LOTUS IS WILTED

hat the Congress is in the doldrums is a well-known fact. Even senior party members do not deny it in private conversation. The reasons for the dismal state of Congress are not hard to pinpoint. Nine years of incumbency would fatigue even the most agile of parties. The lumbering, corrupt and inept Congress has gone totally numb. Still, the more startling political phenomenon is not the decline of the Congress, but the failure of BJP, its main opposition party, to seize momentum. That is because the BJP is even more disconnected from its potential voters than the Congress. The people of India are quite clearly tired of the weak leadership provided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They are equally tired of the reticent Sonia Gandhi and the absent Rahul Gandhi wielding power without accountability. Unfortunately, BJP presents an equally weak and incoherent leadership. It is not good enough for BJP to claim that they have several prime ministerial candidates. Such a stance reeks of indecision and infighting. They need to present one face, whether that is Narendra Modi or someone else. The party also needs a leader who can resist the unaccountable hand of RSS just like Atal Bihari Vajpayee did. The Congress is firmly wedded to its first family but the BJP needs to divorce its parivar. BJPs problems run deeper. Its natural constituency has always been the urban middle class, and not the rural poor who lean towards Congress or one of the regional parties. The partys message is hopelessly out of sync with this constituency which, furious with Congress, should naturally be gravitating towards it. Whether it is RSS chief Mohan
Bhagwat who believes that women should remain housewives, or Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj who perceives a victim of rape as a living corpse or Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya who says that women should not cross the Lakshman Rekha, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are hopelessly illiberal and instinctively anti-Western when it comes to the social sphere. The West is an aspirational role model for urban Indians of all classes. Sporting jeans is one small symbol of that giant aspiration. It is also increasingly obvious that a majority of women and men in urban India firmly believe that both genders are equal and must be treated thus. It is unacceptable to even suggest that women should obey red lines of any sort. That was the message from the streets of India after the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old student in Delhi. It seems the BJP did not get it. The BJP also doesnt seem to understand that its core constituency favours liberal economics. By opportunistically opposing policies like FDI in retail and more FDI in insurance, the party may be pleasing its swadeshi masters in RSS, but is hardly making itself attractive as an alternative to the still instinctively socialist Congress. Incredibly enough, just twenty years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, BJPs main problem isnt that it is communal. It is simply out of touch. There is an ocean of room for a forward-looking party of aspiration that does not pander to narrow populist interests in 2014. Congress will never be that party. For now, it looks like the BJP is driving in precisely the opposite direction. That is the last straw of opportunity that Congress is holding on to. Will the BJP oblige?
SAURABH SINGH / www.indiatodayimages.com
BY OPPORTUNISTICALLY OPPOSING POLICIES LIKE FDI IN RETAIL AND MORE FDI IN INSURANCE, BJP MAY BE PLEASING ITS SWADESHI MASTERS IN RSS, BUT IS HARDLY MAKING ITSELF ATTRACTIVE AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE STILL INSTINCTIVELY SOCIALIST CONGRESS.
S I G N P O STS
WON Brisbane International tennis tournament by Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The duo Singh, 30, a small intestine beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld from a cadaver donor. and Kveta Peschke 4-6, 6-4, 10-7. NAMED Justice D.K. Jain as the chairman of the 12th Law Commission of India. PERFORMED Indias first successful intestine transplant at MedantaThe HIKED Tuition fee for underMedicity. A team of 30 graduate students at doctors gave Himanshu IITs from Rs 50,000 to Rs 90,000 per year. SURRENDERED Himachal Congress MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary in a Panchkula court in Haryana. Chaudhary was wanted for the murder of a young girl. CHAUDHARY
SANIA WITH MATTEK-SANDS
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COVER STORY
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DEADLYMINORS
The Delhi gang rape sparks a nationwide debate on the juvenile justice system as crimes by minors show an alarming rise. Is reform better than retribution?
YOUNG
AND
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e should hang first. The law must not show any mercy to him because of his age. His deeds are not that of a child. My daughter told me that he was the most brutal. She would have been alive but for the damage he caused to her internal organs. Thats the father of the 23-year-old gang-rape victim, his voice choking with emotion, on the phone from his village in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. The boy, who raped her twice, violated her body with an iron rod and pulled out her intestines, is said to be five months short of 18. Though he called her didi while luring her onto the bus on the fateful night of December 16, and then did the unspeakable to her, he may well walk free after three years in a remand home. Even now, as his five fellow rapists get assaulted by Tihar Jail inmates every day, he is firmly
By Bhavna Vij-Aurora and Amitabh Srivastava
ensconced in Delhis LNJP hospital, having got his appendix removed. Counsellors of Haq: Centre for Child Rights, based in south Delhi, are working with the gangrape accused on orders of the principal magistrate of Juvenile Justice Board-2 Geetanjli Goel. Of the seven juveniles lodged at Majnu ka Tila, he is the only one who has access to counselling. Can you imagine, if he is like this at 17, what kind of a monster will he become when he is older? asks the victims father, his voice rising in anger now. He is not alone in his grief. It is shared by other parents who have been let down by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. Like Rajesh Kumar, 41, from Patna. He struggles to hold back his tears and wife Rakhi muffles her sobs, as he speaks about their only son, eightyear-old Satyam who was kidnapped,
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DEADLYMINORS
sodomised and killed by two 15-yearolds in Patna in May 2009. When Satyam started crying, the boys strangled him to death, stuffed his body in a polythene bag and then made ransom calls to Rajesh. They were arrested on May 30. Three years later, the two are out of the remand home, free after having served the maximum possible sentence period in a reformatory. The crime changed Rajesh and Rakhis lives forever. Can you find anything worse than this juvenile justice system? They brutally murdered my innocent son and they are free again after spending just three years in the remand home. What kind of a system is this that makes the victims suffer and sets free the perpetrators? Do you call it justice? The two killers roam around in Patna while I try my best not to see them. Its like a knife in my heart, he says. The focus of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act is on humane treatment of the juvenile in conflict with the law. The law acknowledges the culpability of juveniles for their crimes but gives them a second chance by rehabilitation. All this seems fine but where is the deterrent? asks Sanjeev Kumar, a lawyer in Patna High Court. The supposed reformation is usually worse than the crime. Indias 815 juvenile homes are overcrowded with delinquents and under-equipped with professionals. There are 1.7 million accused juveniles who need sustained counselling. Most juvenile homes do not have in-house counsellors and are severely crippled with the skeletal staff mortally scared of the juveniles. They try to arrange group counselling sessions on ad hoc basis, where even untrained sociologists pass off as counsellors. Juveniles usually end up forming gangs in these homes, graduating from petty cellphone snatchings and minor thefts to stabbings, murders and rapes in absence of any deterrence. Delhis notorious burgle and burn ganga group of minors who broke into houses and set them on fire after thefts in early 2011had come together inside Sewa Kutir observation home at Kingsway Camp. Led by a youth who escaped the home, the gang used to operate in the government colonies of Sarojini Nagar, Laxmibai Nagar and
CRIMINAL MINDS
Rajasthan
A bulk of juvenile crimes was committed
Madhya Pradesh
Total juvenile crimes* 1,836 Murders 71 Rapes 79

*Other crimes range from attempt to commit murder, robbery and kidnapping to riots and criminal breach of trust
Total juvenile crimes 4,997 Murders 112 Rapes 271

Uttar Pradesh
Total juvenile crimes 959 Murders 81 Rapes 146
Gujarat

Maharashtra Chhattisgarh

Tamil Nadu

Andhra Pradesh

10-YEAR-OLD boy tried to sexually assault a five-year-old girl in Nedungandam, Kerala, in June 2011, but drowned her in a pond when she resisted.The boy was charged with murder and is in a juvenile home. 17-YEAR-OLD boy and his friend, 17, killed his grandmother, 63, in Mumbai in June 2011 and stole her jewellery worth Rs 6 lakh.They were sent to a remand home two days later but released after six months.
HORROR TALES
14-YEAR-OLD in a village in Karnataka raped a five-year-old on December 21, 2012. He told police he was curious about sex and rape after he heard about the Delhi gang rape. He has since been remanded to judicial custody. 17-YEAR-OLD driver raped a minor girl in Kila Mohammadi village, UP, for three successive days in April 2009. He was arrested but released on bail in March 2010.
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in nine states in 2011
Bihar
25,125
815
juvenile homes in the country
MINOR SCARE
Crimes committed by juveniles have risen steadily over a decade
24,535
23,926 798 25,125 1,149
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TOTALJUVENILE CRIMES IN 2011
19,929
18,560
are the only states where no rapes by juveniles were reported.
JAMMU & KASHMIR,MANIPUR AND ARUNACHALPRADESH

MURDERS BYJUVENILES
MADHYA PRADESH
16,509
17,819
No. of rapes by juvenile males

586
568 656
MAHARASHTRA
All figures for 2011
145 112 81
18,939
21,088
22,865
Total juvenile crimes 964 Murders 46 Rapes 17
1.7 mn
399
485
UTTAR PRADESH
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
BRUTALAND VICIOUS
US reported double the number of juvenile rapes of India
UNITED STATES
65.7%
651 888 2,071 1,149
2011 2011
INDIA CANADA
is the rise in juvenile crimes in a decade,from 16,509 in 2001 to 25,125 in 2011.However, arrests havent gone up proportionately.The figure was 33,628 in 2001 and 33,887 in 2011.
2010-11 24
UK
515**
Murder
Rape ** All sexual crimes
2010-11 14 42
NEW ZEALAND
2011
81**
13-YEAR-OLD boy killed his fouryear-old neighbour in June 2011 in a tea estate in Kumili, Kerala. Police said the boy subjected the girl to repeated sexual assaults and stabbed her when she resisted.The boy is in a juvenile home. 17-YEAR-OLD boy, along with and his friend, 16, suffocated his grandmother, 65, to death in Goa in May 2012 when she tried to stop them from stealing her money and
jewellery worth Rs 10 lakh.The boys were sent to a remand home in July 2012 but released after two months. 15-YEAR-OLD boys body,with 15 stab wounds,was found near a railway track in Chandigarh on July 12, 2011. Four juveniles, including one of the victims classmates, confessed to the crime.The classmate believed the victim had helped his sister elope.All four are serving time at a juvenile home in Chandigarh.
of all rapes by juveniles in union territories in 2011 took place in Delhi alonethat is,47 of 49 rapes.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
96%
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746
30-35%
juveniles delinquents are psychopaths.
858
776
22,740
juveniles accused of crimes
No. of crimes by juveniles
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DEADLYMINORS
REFORM SYSTEM THAT DEFORMS

shish (pseudonym), 14, calls his three-month stay at a Delhi government-run remand home a descent into hell. His stint at the observation home, one of the correctional systems prescribed by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act of 2000, was worse than the worst cold turkey he suffered while trying to kick his deadly habit of sniffing eraser fluid. A cluster of two-storey barracks spread over an acre in north Delhi, it is the capitals largest remand home for boys under 16 and holds over 70 children. Most of them, incarcerated for petty crimes like chain-snatching and pickpocketing, did it to fund a drug habit. A handful of boys were in for murder. Behind the 14-foot-high walls and series of six gates, the older boys hold sway. The smaller and weaker boys are terrorised. Drug abuse is rampant. The boys sleep on the floor in dormitories and spend most of their time locked indoors. Remand homesa thinly disguised euphemism for prisontransport hapless boys into something straight out of Lord of the Flies and brutalises them for life. In 2010, the Juvenile Justice Board directed the Delhi government to set up an NGO-run drug de-addiction centre in the remand home. The board was shocked to discover addiction rates as high as 70 per cent. The tiny de-addiction centre shares a wall with the home. It is the only one of its kind in the country and treats 25 boys at a timefor three monthsin comparatively salubrious surroundings. Children have clean beds and healthy food. Crime and addiction are interlinked, says Dr Rajesh Kumar, executive director of the Society for the Promotion of Youth and Masses that runs the centre. We have to break the cycle. Drugs, however, are still easily available in the observation home across the wall. Boys there either pay the 60-odd private security guards to obtain their drugs or act as drug mules for peddlers outside. They swallow little packets of drugs when they are taken to attend court hearings and vomit them
Inmates of a juvenile remand home in Delhi say its like living in a medieval dungeon
once they are back inside. Boys are savagely beaten inside. Social workers say remand home employees sometimes encourage groupism to keep the violence in check. Sodomy is rampant, says another observation home inmate. The bigger boys drug the weak and vulnerable and then do ganda kaam (bad things) to them, says Husain, 15. There is a tremendous apathy and contempt in dealing with juveniles, says Ananth Kumar Asthana, a lawyer and child rights activist. The children are seen as criminals and are treated thus. A magistrate who heard one of Asthanas petitions on the sorry state of the homes said it reminded him of Oliver Twist. The probation unit that is meant to monitor the progress of boys, once they are with families, is equally Dickensian. It has no pre-release and post-release followup plans. The remand home in Delhi is clearly only a symbol of a broken juvenile reform system. by Sandeep Unnithan
adjoining areas. They committed burglaries and set the houses on fire to erase evidence. The gang leader had been arrested several times earlier, and he also managed to escape at least thrice from the observation home. Having crossed the protective barrier of 18 years, he is now an undertrial at the high-security Tihar prison. The JJ Act allows the police not to register an FIR against a juvenile if the punishment for the alleged crime is
less than seven yearswhich would include practically all crimes barring murder, attempted murder and rape. The police prefer not to register an FIR in case of petty crimes, emboldening these gangs to commit bigger crimes. The result? Youngsters who could have had a chance at life fall deeper into the malaise, unable to escape the cycle of crime. Like the juvenile accused in the gang rape. Eldest among six siblings, he left his home, nothing more than a hut
with plastic sheet for roof, in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh 11 years ago. His father is mentally ill and his family is among the poorest in the village. He was also the most clinical. After dumping the gang-rape victim and her friend on the road, the boy made tea and cleaned the bus with another rapist, Akshay Thakur. He then spent the night watching television at Thakurs home in Ravi Das Colony. It was like any other day for him. Counsellors who
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HOWTHE WORLD TREATS JUVENILE CRIMINALS
Sentences range from beheading to detention
UNITED STATES
In 2011, Wisconsin teenager Brogan Rafferty, 16, was charged with two offences: Killing a man and attempting to murder another. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison. The same year, a 12-year-old Colorado boy shot to death his parents and attacked two younger siblings, the motives of which remain a mystery. He was sentenced in juvenile court to seven years in detention after pleading guilty.
the two were sentenced to custody till they became 18. Following public pressure, the minimum time to be spent in jail was increased to 15 years but that was struck down by the European Court of Human Rights. They were released in 2001 but Venables was re-arrested in 2010.
LAWON JUVENILES
Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, 1999, says children between ages 10 and 18 are capable of committing a crime and will be tried in a separate court for youth. In exceptionally severe cases, a youth can be tried as an adult in regular courts.
LAWON JUVENILES
Definition of juvenile varies from state to statethe lowest is 14 at which a youth can receive adult sentences for serious crimes.
SAUDI ARABIA
Sultan bin Sulaiman al-Muwallad, a Saudi, and Issa bin Muhammad Muhammad, a Chadian, were beheaded in 2009 for abduction and rape of a child, theft, and consumption of alcohol and drugs, which they had committed in 2004 when they were 17.
THE NETHERLANDS
Popularly known as the Facebook Murder , a 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl in Arnhem plotted a contract killing on Facebook after they had a spat with the victim, a 15-year-old girl, in January 2012. The accused were sentenced to two years in juvenile prison and three years of compulsory therapy. The killer, who was 14, was sentenced to one year in juvenile detention.
LAWON JUVENILES
There is no codified penal law. Instead, judges interpret and apply Sharia law in criminal cases at their discretion.
LAWON JUVENILES
Dutch courts allow a maximum of two years of detention for heinous crimes committed by youth aged 16-18. Sometimes accused aged 19-21 are treated under juvenile law. For children between 12-15, it is one year of detention. In extreme cases, juvenile court may apply adult criminal law for accused aged between 16-18.
VIKAM SHARMA/ www.indiatodayimages.com
have worked with him say he displays traits of a typical psychopath. It is the ones like him who are most difficult to handle. At least 30-35 per cent juvenile delinquents are psychopaths, including those as young as 10 years. They know how to hook an unsuspecting victim. They may even lull the counsellor into believing that they are reformed, says Delhi-based clinical psychologist Dr Rajat Mitra. Somewhat similar is the case of a
UNITED KINGDOM
In 1993, delinquents Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10, abducted, tortured and killed James Bulger, 2, and laid his body on a railway track in Kirby, England. Bulger had 42 injury marks on his body. Tried as adults,
DEATH PENALTY Since 1990, nine countries have given capital
punishment to juvenile offendersIran (46), US (19), Saudi Arabia (5), Pakistan (4),Yemen (2), Sudan (2), China (2), Congo (1) and Nigeria (1)
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COVER STORY
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DEADLYMINORS
WHO IS AN ADULT?
It is not easy to determine age as people have different time clocks
ill the youngest and most brutal predator of the Delhi gang- rape case get away with murder? Yes, to a large extent, says the law. He is a juvenile, going by his school records. Jurists have left the final call with medical professionals. Theres a catch here. Medically, its difficult to come up with a precise test to specify ones age to the month and day. All body systems do not reach adult-level function at a specific age. The medical evidence to the legal problemwho is a juvenile and who is an adultcan, at best, be a range of ages, and at worst, a grey zone. Forensic expert Dr T.D. Dogra of AIIMS has navigated this fuzzy interface between law and medicine for 30 years. In my first 10 years, there wasnt even a single case of violent sexual offence by minors. Now, the courts send us several cases where age is in doubt every week. A range of tests are conducted to check adult patterns of growth: X-rays for bone maturation, dental data and secondary sexual characteristics. Bone ossification is the standard test to measure age. Ossification is the process by which softer cartilaginous bones fuse together into hard, adult bones, says Dr Rajesh Malhotra, professor of orthopaedics, AIIMS. Different bones fuse at different times, some at 16, some at 18, most by 20. As cartilages do not show up on X-ray, we determine approximate age of a person by patterns of bone growth, he says. Dogra recalls a case where a boy charged with murder claimed to be a juvenile. He looked about 15, but his bones revealed he was around 23. Some bones take long to form fully, he says. The iliac crest, or the thick upper border of the hip bone, hardens at 21. Twenty-five is the cut-off for the joint between collar bone and chest bone. Cartilages turn into bones under the
influence of sex hormones that abound during puberty. But what happens to bones in an age when sexual development starts early? The main risk with early puberty is advanced bone age, says Dr Ambrish Mithal, endocrinologist with Apollo Hospital, Delhi. A girl who has her first period at eight will stop growing compared to others, but her bones will age to that of 12 or 13. Disorders of thyroid and growth hormones as well as very poor nutrition also change bone age, says Mithal. ore complex tests are coming up. This year, BCCI has instituted the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 bone test to check age fraud in junior cricket. It works out skeletal maturity from hand and wrist bones. But the test has not been given a green signal by the International Cricket Council. According to Dr Nikhil Latey, director of Sport Science for the Olympic Gold Quest, age tests based on chromosomes are being tried in some parts of the world. Biologically, the age 18 is an arbitrary number, says neurobiologist Dr Sumantra Chattarji of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore. Different body systems have different time clocks, The adolescent brain remains very plastic up to 15-16. Just as it allows young people to learn fast, it can also get messed up by stress. When a technically young person kills for a pair of sneakers, one can say its a brain badly rewired perhaps by constant exposure to violence. Adult time for adult crime is the slogan across America against juvenile crime. And there is no escaping the cold-blooded brutality of some juvenile crimes. To the medical world, the chances for a highly pathological brain changing its wiring entirely after age 15 or 16 are slim. Let the jurists take a call. by Damayanti Datta
INSIDE THE TEENAGE BRAIN
Adolescents are prone to high-risk behaviour
Prefrontal Cortex
Its functions include planning and reasoning; grows till 25 years Adults Fully developed Teens Immature, prone to high-risk behaviour
Amygdala
Emotional core for passion, impulse, fear, aggression. Adults Rely less on this, use prefrontal cortex more Teens More impulsive
DIFFERENTWAYS TO TELLAGE
There are many ways to determine a persons age but no test is foolproof
School records Sexuality
Simplest way to verify age.The police check if an accused is 18 according to school documents.
Doctors check sexual growth pattern.A new method, orchidometry, measures testicular volume.The test is available in India.
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Parietal Lobe
juvenile, recalls Bharti Ali of Haq, who was brought in for repeat offences. The first time, he was brought in for attempted murder but allowed to go home since there was no evidence against him. Sometime later, he was brought in for another case of attempted murder and was convicted. While he was serving his sentence at the juvenile home, he tried to escape after creating a ruckus there and breaking window panes. He was going to turn 18 in a few days and was sent to Tihar from there, Ali says. This youngster was extremely charming, and had the looks of a Bollywood hero, according to her. Juvenile delinquency is not limited to the lower strata of society. The teenage grandson of a Haryana MLA along with six adultswas accused of killing Prashant Veer, a third-year BTech student at Jaipurs Amity University in March 2012. Though the Juvenile Justice Board wanted to keep him in detention longer, the family of the accused managed to secure his bail. he age barrier too has obviously blurred. If anything, juveniles are taking advantage of the JJ Act. A lawyer associated with juvenile cases in Patna concedes that the Acts age criterion is one of the most abused provisions, with juveniles using it with impunity to escape harsher sentences. Violations have been found across the country. There is a demand for lowering the age of juvenile from 18 to 16 years from various quarters including legal experts, psychologists and law enforcers. However, the child rights lobby advises against it. Amod Kanth, former DGP and founder of Prayas, an NGO working with delinquent and neglected children, says that the law should not be changed for exceptional cases. One of the framers of JJ Act, Kanth says that the law was amended in 2000, when the juvenile age was raised from 16 to 18 years in keeping with global norms. It is not easy to again go back to 16 since India is a signatory to three international conventions including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Beijing Rules
Responsible for touch, sight, language; grows till early 20s Adults Fully developed Teens Do not process information effectively
Ventral Striatum
Reward centre, not fully developed in teens Adults Fully developed Teens Are more excited by reward than consequence
Hippocampus
Hub of memory and learning; grows in teens Adults Fully functional; loses neurons with age Teens Tremendous learning curve
Teeth Forensic experts check

teeth first.All molars are up by 18.
X-ray of elbow, hip, knee, wrist, TW3
shoulders and collar-bones are taken for bone ossification (hardening) test. Bone age is correlated to chronological age.
(Tanner-Whitehouse 3) bone maturation test has been introduced by BCCI to check age fraud in junior cricket. It works out skeletal maturity from hand and wrist bones. Age determination based on the length of telomeres, the protective cap of chromosomes, is about to be introduced in India.Telomere length varies with age.
Telomeres
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COVER STORY KID GLOVES

Law on juvenile crimes needs to be modified
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DEADLYMINORS
RAJU RAMACHANDRAN Senior lawyer
JYOTI MIRDHA Congress MP
Act, 1986, treated boys under the age of 16 and girls below 18 as juveniles.
NOW Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, brought both boys and girls on a par, treating anyone under 18 as juvenile. WHAT NOW?
The Delhi rape case has prompted calls for revisiting the law. Some options being discussed:
A Lowering the age of juvenile from 18 to 16 years. This may not be easy since India is a signatory to three international conventions on child rights which make it mandatory for juvenile age to be 18. B Handling individual cases on the basis of severity of crime and psychological assessment of the accused. This may find wider acceptability. C Repeat juvenile offenders between the ages of 16 and 18 should be treated on a par with adult criminals and face the same quantum of punishment. Child rights activists are bound to oppose it. D Strengthening Section 16 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000a tougher stand on a juvenile above 16, considering the seriousness of the offence and his conduct.
VIKAS PAHWA Senior advocate
RAJAT MITRA Clinical psychologist
For full text of Juvenile Justice Act 2000, go to www.indiatoday.in/jlaw
and the Riyadh Guidelines. Also, the age of recognised adulthood in India is 18. Before that, a person does not have the right to vote, drive, marry and of legal representation. Kanth says lowering the age is not the answer but proper implementation of the JJ Act is. The Government has failed to implement the Act, why blame the child? he says. The Act provides for, in each district of the country, a child welfare committee, a child helpline (1018), juvenile justice board, juvenile welfare officer, an observation home with proper counselling and an aftercare programme. Most provisions remain on paper, especially its most crucial aspect: Counselling. There are no figures to show how many juvenile accused actually get rehabilitated. According to government figures, about 10 per cent juveniles are repeat offenders. It is only an estimate since the police are supposed to destroy the records of a juvenile after completion of his sentence. If he commits a crime as an adult, his name will not figure as a repeat offender. In many cases, the crime itself gives a high to the juvenile, especially the attention it gets him when he is caught. Policemen who have interrogated juve-
nile delinquents immediately after their arrest share their shock at the complete absence of remorse. I have heard teenagers describing killings like how they held the hands and how a victim struggled in a semi-conscious state. It seems they almost enjoy reliving the murder, says a police officer. It is quite possible that Delhis gangrape juvenile took great pleasure in the pain he inflicted on his victim. If he is a psychopath, he will no doubt commit a crime again, as soon as he is freed at the age of 20. A Juvenile Justice Law which allows him to roam free so soon with his criminal record erased and no provision of supervision is in urgent need of reform. It is time for a new juvenile law which considers not just the age but also severity of an offenders crime. Society and government cannot afford to have dangerous criminals, whatever their age, roaming freely on the streets. There was nothing innocent or childlike in the acts of the 17-year-old Delhi rapist. Why then should the law spare him for his unparalleled brutality? with Rohit Parihar
To suggest a punishment for the juvenile in the Delhi gang rape, go to www.indiatoday.in/punishment
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THEN Juvenile Justice
Instead of prescribing a minimum age, what should be considered is the criminal bent of mind and intention to commit the offence. Juvenile age needs to be reduced.
Any punishment should consider the severity of the crime and should be based on psychological assessment of the juvenile. Age of a juvenile should be immaterial.
Juvenile age should not be lowered. A young accused should be tackled sociologically by counselling. Just because age of puberty has gone down, you cant lower age of marriage.
Juvenile age should be lowered. Puberty hits much earlier. With sexual development taking place at 10 and cognitive growth at 20, the huge gap has to be taken into account.
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OPI NION
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DELHI GANG RAPE
I AM LESS HOPEFULOFCONVICTION
Conflicting accounts and the lack of a Test Identification Parade may weaken the case
he Delhi gang rape is an unspeakable and unpardonable crime and tragedy. All of us want to see and ensure that justice is done to the memory of that brave girl and that the offenders are inflicted with due and just punishment that the law affords. Even while a big part of our national gaze was fixated on how the police and our courts would address this specific episode, two monumental errors have already been committed by the police, the court and the prime prosecution witness. These errors may very well strike at the heart of the case of the prosecution. To begin with, the braveheart and her friend encountered the accused for the first time in the bus. Anytime an FIR is lodged against persons who are not previously known to victims, it is expected of the police to conduct a Test Identification Parade (TIP). A TIP is generally presided over by an executive magistrate and the victim-witness has to identify the accused from a group of people comprising the accused as well as others not connected with the case but whose looks match the victims description of the accused given to the police. This exercise is largely done without interference or suggestion by the police. Consider also that it was night when the Delhi gang rape had taken place and the lights inside the bus were reportedly off. Added to it, the accused have also been charged with destruction of evidence as they were reported to have washed off forensic evidence from the bus. So, a human identification, in this case by the friend of the victim, is going to form crucial evidence for the prosecution. But that evidence, due to absence of a TIP, could be seen by the court as weak. A TIP was not done in this case as four of the accused did not agree. This is baffling to me because in India, an accused does not have the right to refuse a TIP. So it was unfortunate that the magistrate in this case unintelligently agreed the reluctant accused could not be asked to undergo a TIP. Our courts have set aside convictions and even death
penalties in many cases where a TIP was not done. Ten days prior to this ghastly episode, the Supreme Court had set aside a death penalty and acquitted an accused on the grounds, amongst others, that a TIP was never done. The next monumental error is the interview of the prime witness given to a news channel. Whatever was told by this witness to the channel has been categorically denied by Delhi Police. K.V. Most people think that the bravehearts friend is DHANANJAY indeed telling the truththat Delhi Police, at that moment of emergency, wasted time fighting over the issue of jurisdiction and not bothering about the dying girl and her bruised friend. Delhi Police has expectedly denied in public everything told by this witness to the channel. Unfortunately, when Delhi Police takes this very person who is their prime witness into the trial to testify for the prosecution, it has a duty to tell the judge to simply trust this witness. The law of evidence in our country allows the lawyer for the defence to ask questions designed to shake the credit of a witness. So, the judge who is going to be asked by the police to trust the witness is going to face a very hard time figuring out who between the two did not lie in this TV interview fiasco. If it is found that Delhi Police was lying, the task of the prosecution in this trial is simply going to get worse. If the police cant be truthful about their own conduct in how they rescued the victim, can their version about the acSAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com cuseds conduct inspire absolute confidence in the mind of a judge? On the other hand, if it is found during the trial that the interview by this witness was not very truthful, the very trial is bound to suffer immensely. And if it is found that money changed hands for this interview, the prosecutions case would suffer a massive blow. Thus with each passing day, I fail to retain the same level of hope that conviction will happen in this case in the way that the people of this country want to see. GUEST COLUMN
K.V. Dhananjay is an advocate with the Supreme Court of India
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THE BIG STORY
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OWAISIS
A vast empire spanning education and media in their pockets, the Owaisi brothers are now eyeing Muslims beyond Andhra Pradesh for their political gain
By Amarnath K. Menon
THE HATE MONGERS OF HYDERABAD

Andhra Pradeshs capital remains virtually unquestionable. At no time in its history has the party had such a large number of elected representatives. The Owaisis want to build and expand on this in 2014, to try and emerge as the leading Muslim voice, beyond Hyderabad and across India. Though AIMIM does not have the clout to win more than one Lok Sabha seat, it hopes to increase its Assembly tally with the backing of YSR Congress. Outside the state, it has made a dent by winning, in 2012, seats in the municipal polls in Nanded in Maharashtra, once part of the old Hyderabad state. Traditionally allied to Congress, they drifted away from the ruling party in the state and UPA at the Centre anticipating a poor showing by the ruling party in the next polls, but using non-allotment of land for their educational institutes as a pretext. While elder brother and party president Asaduddin Owaisi, 44, is the Hyderabad MP, Akbaruddin heads AIMIM in the Assembly. Asaduddin showed no remorse as protests against his brothers hate speech became intense. He didnt take calls from INDIA TODAY, but in an SMS on January 5, stated, Im not speaking to the media as they have reported in a onesided, biased manner. AIMIM was revived by lawyer Abdul Wahed Owaisi, Asaduddins grandfather, in 1958, by adding All India to the then MIM to alter the discredited anti-India image that led to its ban in 1948. In 1975, their father Salahuddin Owaisi took over the reins of AIMIM from Abdul Wahed on his death. He remained party chief and built AIMIM assiduously till his death in 2008. Elected to the erstwhile municipal corporation of Hyderabad as a councillor in 1960, Salahuddin made it to the Assembly in 1962 by trouncing then
kbaruddin Owaisi, 42, is no stranger to hate speeches. As the rabble-rouser of old Hyderabads most important political force, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), he has, in long, fiery speeches, whipped up emotions to build an enduring Muslim vote bank for the party. AIMIM has seven MLAs in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, two MLCs and 43 representatives in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), including the Mayor, Mohammad Majid Hussain, 33; the Owaisis also preside over a network of educational institutions and control prime real estate in the city. With Assembly elections due in 2014 and AIMIM eager to build an alliance with YSR Congress, Akbaruddin is again attempting to polarise the Muslim vote. His incendiary speech on December 22 at Nirmal in Adilabad district was only pushing the larger political project. The Internet nailed him. The 25 crore Muslims in India can take care of the 100 crore Hindus, if the police stay away for 15 minutes. He added: (Chief Minister) Kiran Kumar Reddy is Musalmanon ka dushman (enemy of the Muslims). The speech went viral, leading to his arrest on January 8 upon arrival from London. The police have booked him for promoting enmity between different groups, doing acts prejudicial to harmony as well as waging or attempting to wage war against the state, criminal conspiracy, sedition, threatening people to give false evidence, doing public mischief and disobeying official orders. Akbaruddin is lodged in the Adilabad district jail, but AIMIMS dominance in
BAND OF BROTHERS
The Owaisi empire extends from education to health, real estate to media
KRISHNENDU HALDER
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AKBARUDDIN OWAISI, 42
MLA, CHANDRAYAN GUTTA, HYDERABAD CHAIRMAN
SALAR-E-MILLAT
Educational Trust ESTABLISHED May 2006 RUNS Four primary schools, Owaisi Schools of Excellence, in poor areas of Hyderabads Old City. PLANS More schools in poor areas, integrated vocational training institute, industrial training institute, an old age home and an orphanage.
AKBARUDDIN OWAISI WITH SUPPORTERS AT HYDERABAD AIRPORT
ASADUDDIN OWAISI, 44
MP, HYDERABAD CHAIRMAN
BURHANUDDIN OWAISI, 35
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ETEMAAD Urdu daily LAUNCHED December 2005 CIRCULATION 65,000 in Andhra, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Online edition claims 3 lakh hits daily.
DARUSSALAM COOPERATIVE URBAN BANK Six branches, all in Hyderabad

FOUNDED By Salahuddin Owaisi in 1987 DIRECTOR Burhanuddin Owaisi (Asaduddin and Akbaruddin are unofficial patrons) CHAIRMAN Akbar Nizamuddin Hussaini TURNOVER (On March 31, 2012) Total deposits of Rs 217.96 crore, loans & advances of Rs 177.58 crore, profit of Rs 4.94 crore.
DAR-US-SALAM
Educational Trust ESTABLISHED By Salahuddin in 1974. Self-financing institution. RUNS Minority institutions, among them 10 colleges of engineering, medicine, management, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, architecture; two hospitals, and 12 health centres for the poor.
4TV Urdu TV channel

MD Jaffer Balala, brother of AIMIM MLA, jeweller and money lender Ahmed Balala. FOCUS Covers Assembly seats, reports on development.
A. PRABHAKAR RAO
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THE BIG STORY
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OWAISIS
SALAHUDDIN OWAISI, THE LATE AIMIM CHIEF
Congress minister Masooma Begum in Hyderabad. He went on to hold elected posts for 44 years in a political career spanning 50 years. Salahuddin relied on a tacit understanding with the Congress and a pragmatic mix of rabble-rousing with strong-arm tactics to ensure the growth of his party. He fought for the cause of the alienated Muslim poor, stepping into the vacuum left behind by the erstwhile rulers of Hyderabadthe Nizamswho kept away from politics. He did not hesitate to pad up electoral rolls, encourage rigging and use force to grow. At the same time, he sought more state funds for the welfare of Muslims, and started his own educational institutions under the Dar-us-Salam Educational Trust. Asaduddin and Akbaruddin have, however, shown more faith in acquiring wealth from real estate. The brothers monetised their property with minimal investments, in real estate and education, leveraging the fact that Hyderabad, where most of their operations are based, registered a boom through the 1990s and 2000s. This includes a chain of shaadi khanas (wedding halls) at different parts of the city. There are allegations of their proximity to Akbar Nizamuddin Hussaini, who manages the lands of Dargah Sha
SIPRA DAS/www.indiatodayimages.com
Khamosh and oversees other properties owned by the Wakf (Muslim charitable trust) in Hyderabad. Hussaini is also chairman of the Owaisi-controlled Darussalam Bank. There are allegations that the Owaisis have gained unlawfully by the transfer of Wakf land to developers for sale as plots in Karwan, Habib Nagar and Khanajiguda, all in
2012, Brothers Owaisi wrote several letters MEN OF LETTERS? In to the Chief Minister for land at cheap rates
AKBARUDDIN OWAISI
5 ACRES 3 ACRES
JULY 26
REPLY TO SEPT 7 LETTER
Request for vocational & industrial training institutes, old age home, orphanage.
SEPT 7
Instruction to state bureaucracy: Please examine and brief me.
Request for a new hospital under the aegis of the Deccan College of Medical Sciences.
ASADUDDIN OWAISI
5 ACRES
AUG 3
Request for expanding educational activities of Dar-us-Salam Educational Trust.
CM KIRAN REDDY
Instruction to state bureaucracy: Please examine and circulate.
REPLY TO OTHER LETTERS
BURHANUDDIN OWAISI
2-3 ACRES
AUG 18
Request to relocate his newspaper office.
and around Hyderabad. INDIA TODAY has accessed four letters the brothers wrote to Chief Minister Kiran Reddy in 2012 to try and get at least 18 acres from the government free of cost or at cheap rates. Akbaruddin, as the founder-chairman of Salar-eMillat Educational Trust, wrote on July 26 asking for five acres for a proposed integrated vocational training institute, industrial training institute, old age home and orphanage. On August 3, Asaduddin, as chairman of the Darus-Salam Educational Trust, again asked for the land. Not to be left out, on August 18, youngest brother Burhanuddin, 35, editor-in-chief of Urdu daily Etemaad, requested for two or three acres at any prime location in the city for the newspaper. A fourth letter, dated September 7, 2012, from Akbaruddin, asked for three acres of government land occupied by Mahavir Hospital and Andhra Pradesh Riding Club at AC Guards in Hyderabad, to be given to the Owaisis Deccan College of Medical Sciences for a state-of-the-art teaching hospital. This would be their third, after the Owaisi Hospital and Princess Esra Hospital in the Old City. Following
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OWAISIS
persistent demands by the Owaisis, a circumspect Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on September 8 wrote please examine and circulate on the first three letters, and please examine and brief me on the last, and sent them over to the state bureaucracy, without acceding to any request. The clout of the Owaisis and their supporters has enabled them to play with land banks of the Andhra Pradesh State Wakf Board (APSWB). Over the years, special officers and CEOS of Wakf boards were their appointees. They gave away Wakf land to the Owaisis, reassigning it as government land, and the brothers benefited, alleges Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, managing editor of Urdu daily Siasat. Those who did not agree to their demands were moved out in a few months, he adds, pointing to the case of IAS officer Mohammed Ali Rafat, the principal secretary of the Department of Minorities Welfare. He was removed seven months after taking charge, when he pointed out that Wakf board members were acting as touts of AIMIM. A nexus between the Owaisis and some Congress leaders, notably exWakf minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, is alleged to facilitate these transactions. Long after he ceased to be minister, Shabbir, in 2009, justified the Congress governments selling of 100 acres of Wakf properties for Rs 427 crore between 2004 and 2009 by pointing to the previous Telugu Desam Party governments sale of 729 acres of Wakf land for Rs 16.40 crore between 1999 and 2004. On this, the Owaisis have never offered any defence. The writ of the Owaisis runs large in Hyderabad, whether in the 32 acres of Vattepallys Masjid Moghal Faqueer, 4 km to the west of Falaknuma Palace, or on the shores of Himayat Sagar Lake, where Akbaruddins farmhouse is located, says former Rajya Sabha member Penumalli Madhu of CPI(M). Every year, Asaduddin and Akbaruddin tour the US, UK and West Asia to firm up admissions of NRI students in their educational institutions. Detractors allege that huge funds collected as capitation fee for seats in their medical or engineering colleges
ANSWERABLE TO NONE
Over the years, AIMIM leaders have become a law unto themselves AKBARUDDIN OWAISI, MLA MOHD MUQTADA KHAN, MLA
Slapped a constable in April 2010. Also named an accused in the attack on junior doctors at the state-run Niloufer Hospital for children. Charged under Section 353 of IPC in 2008 when he fired at GHMC officials demolishing illegal floor of multi-storey. Compromises were struck in all cases. Accused in the killing of Ibrahim Bin Yusuf Yafai during an attempt on his life by a breakaway AIMIM group in the Old City in April 2011. He is being probed by the police.
MOHD MUQTADA KHAN, MOHD MOAZZAM KHAN AND SYED AHMED PASHA QUADRI, MLAS
Stormed Hyderabad Press Club in August 2007. Charged with assault, rioting with deadly weapons, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation of author Taslima Nasreen. A chargesheet has been filed by Hyderabad Police.
Obstructed GHMC in 2008 with Muqtada, filed a false attempt-to-murder case against GHMCS Chief City Planner Purushotham Reddy and two other employees at nearby Abids police station. Protested to disrupt traffic, dispersing only after cases were booked against GHMC staff, who withdrew their own case against the MLA under government pressure.
MOHAMMED MOAZZAM KHAN, MLA
are kept abroad. Is MIM ready for a public inquiry into the donations collected from students admitted under quotas for NRIS, management and the convener of the common entrance test used to select the students? asks Syed Taraq Quadri, a lawyer and former member of the Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Commission. The strategy of the Owaisis is to control Hyderabads Muslims, particularly the poor. There is pent-up anger and fear of reprisals in vast areas of Old City which they control like a family fief, says Madhu. That bottled anger is possibly bubbling over. The family of Mohammed Bin Omar Yafai aka Mohammed Pahelwan, a freestyle wrestler, attacked Akbaruddin on
April 30, 2011, following differences over encroachment of government land at Balapur in the city. Other antiMIM forces, such as BJP, CPI and CPI(M), have consolidated their positions. Nevertheless, AIMIM leaders are optimistic that Akbaruddin will gain the Muslim communitys support, as he had after his violent diatribe against writer Taslima Nasreen in August 2007. Seldom does the law catch up with the Owaisis. Will it, this once?
To watch Akbaruddin Owaisis arrest, tap on your iPad edition For full text of Asaduddins Lok Sabha speech after 2012 Assam violence, go to www.indiatoday.in/asad-owaisi
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PAKISTANI BARBARISM AT THE BORDER

The beheading of two Indian Army soldiers threatens a shaky peace on the Line of Control
By Sandeep Unnithan
SPE CIAL REPORT
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SOLDIERSBEHEADING
ou dont need a machete. Once a soldier is shot dead, a boot is placed on his head and a combat knife is used to hack the head off. Watch the video of Daniel Pearls execution (the kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter decapitated by militants in Karachi in 2001). Its a cold, clinical explanation from an Indian Army officer of how Pakistani soldiers may have decapitated two Indian soldiers they killed in a January 8 raid in Poonch, 80 km south west of state capital Srinagar. Its the most serious violation of the September 2003 ceasefire signed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pervez Musharraf. Both sides agreed to end the frequent artillery and machine gun duels along the 740 km Line of Control (LOC). India blames the Pakistani army for the attacks, and lists 120 ceasefire violations in 2012, among the highest since the 2003 agreement. It says Pakistanis fire to cover infiltration by militants across the LOC before snow sets in. The guns havent fallen silent. The knives havent been sheathed either. Barbaric cross-border head-hunting
FLIP-FLOP ON PAKISTAN
December 13, 2001 TERROR ATTACK ON PARLIAMENT
INDIA HAS USED STRONG WORDS TO RESPOND TO CROSS-BORDER ATTACKS ORIGINATING
July 11, 2006 MUMBAI TRAIN BOMBINGS

What India said We will liquidate the terrorists and their sponsors whoever they are, wherever they are. L.K. Advani, home minister, December 15, 2001. What India did 2003 India agreed to a ceasefire on the Line of Control with Pakistan. What India said The war against terror will be won, no one can make India kneel. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 13, 2006.
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Border Flashpoints
Since 2000, a covert war along the LOC has exacted a grisly toll
AP PHOTO
(LEFT) INDIAN SOLDIERS CARRYTHE COFFIN OF LANCE NAIK HEMRAJ (ABOVE); (TOP) LANCE NAIK SUDHAKAR SINGH
raids, where soldiers are killed and heads brought back as trophies, are a Pakistani calling card. Such sneak attacks have till now been kept a secret by the Indian Army that has masked them through outright denials or attributed the deaths to border firefights. On January 8, this shadow war spilled out into the open when Pakistani troops from the Baloch regiment crossed the LOC in the Poonch sector and killed Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh of the Rajputana Rifles. Both soldiers were decapitated and one head carried across the border. A spokesman of the Armys Northern Command said the soldiers had laid down their lives to fight back a Pakistani intrusion. A senior Army official in New Delhi, too, said the bodies had been mutilated, but admitted in private that they had been decapitated. Defence Minister A.K. Antony called the incident highly provocative, even as Shiv Sena demanded his resignation. The Pakistan foreign office termed the charges as baseless and unfounded allegations. Pakistan is prepared to hold probes through United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan on the recent ceasefire violations on the LOC, the statement added. The same day, Pakistans foreign ministry in Islamabad summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner to lodge a protest over an unprovoked attack by Indian forces on a Pakistani post that killed one soldier and woun-
POK
July 30, 2011 Pakistani commandos cross LOC, kill 3 soldiers, behead 2, carry one head back.
AKSAI CHIN
Kupwara Poonch Rajouri
JAMMU & KASHMIR
January 8, 2012 Pakistani troops cross LOC, mutilate two soldiers, carry back one head as trophy.
February 2000 Pakistani troops cross into post in Rajouri. Kill seven Indian soldiers, behead one and carry back head.
ded another. The implication was, the beheading was a Pakistani retaliation. But more worrying are raids by Pakistani Special Services Group (SSG) commandos organised into Border Action Teams (BATS)dedicated forces tasked with crossing the LOC and killing Indian soldiers. The acronym is an Indian Army coinage and indicative of how frequent the raids are. BAT raids, say Army officials, are not impulsive, but come after careful reconnaissance of vulnerable spots along the LOC. Fidayeen attacks and cross-border head-hunting raids began after the Kargil War, which had its share of barbarity. A six-man patrol led by Captain
FROM PAKISTAN.AFTER EACH ATROCITY, HOWEVER, IT HAS QUICKLY CLIMBED DOWN TO RETURN TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE.
November 26, 2008 MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK

What India did 2006 PoonchRawalkot bus service, flagged off on June 20, 2006 by Sonia Gandhi, continued. What India said What we want from Pakistan is to dismantle the terror machine.That is the one demand. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December 2008 What India did Sharm el-Sheikh declaration,July 2009 Action on terrorism should not be linked to the composite dialogue process and should not be bracketed. Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs joint statement with Pakistan Prime Minister Y.R. Gilani.
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SPE CIAL REPORT
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SOLDIERSBEHEADING
Saurabh Kalia was captured by Pakistani soldiers in the Kaksar sector. Kalia and his men were tortured for 22 days, executed, and their mutilated bodies handed back to the Indian Army. In February 2000, seven months after the Kargil War, the Indian Army came face to face with this new brutality. A Pakistani BAT ambushed and killed seven Indian soldiers in Nowshera in Rajouri district. The Army was shocked to discover the headless body of a soldier. The inquiry into the incident omitted mention of the headless corpse of Sepoy Bhausaheb Talekar. Subsequent interrogation of a captured militant revealed that the head of the soldier was brandished as a trophy in Pakistan. The militant, who claimed he was part of the raid, said they had played football with the soldiers head. Pakistani scribe Hamid Mir wrote that the raid was led by Ilyas Kashmiri, a former SSG commando who later headed HUJIS 313 Brigade. Kashmiri was killed in a 2011 US drone strike. The 2003 ceasefire brought a lull in such incidents, but head-hunting raids are believed to have continued. In July 2011, Indian Army hushed up the brutal killing of Havildar Jaipal Singh Adhikari and Lance Naik Devender Singh of the Rajput regiment in Kupwara district. Their bodies were sent to their families in Uttarakhand in sealed caskets as they were badly mutilated, and cremated as such. Their deaths were attributed to a firefight with militants along the border. Last August, a story began doing the rounds in the Indian Army messes. Officers whispered of a ferocious crossborder raid by Indian troops in J&K that killed several Pakistani soldiers. The story goes that it was retaliation for the July 2011 beheadings. The Indian Army flatly denies the July 2011 incident or any retaliation to it. No reports from Pakistan suggest that the incident had occurred. Army officials say beheadingsan ancient wartime tacticterrorise troops and are used to collect war trophies and wage psychological warfare. Pakistani Taliban uses videographed beheadings against Pakistani army in Waziristan. Last June, Tehrik-
AP
INDIAN ARMY SOLDIERS PATROL OUTSIDE THEIR CAMP AT GUREZ IN KASHMIR
THE ROAD AHEAD

India issued demarches to Pakistan over the January 8 beheading of its two soldiers, but the Governments range of options is constrained Raise issue with International Court of Justice PROBABILITY Low. India does not want to internationalise anything in Jammu and Kashmir. Limited air strike on target in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) PROBABILITY Low. Could escalate situation. Artillery barrage against Pakistani post which launched the attack PROBABILITY Low. Violation of 2003 ceasefire. Covert crossborder raid using special forces PROBABILITY High. Undertaken by the Army at the command level. Can be denied.
e-Taliban Pakistan released a video that showed 17 decapitated Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan armys beheadings have now turned the spotlight on Pakistans sincerity towards the peace process. More so because the Indian Army decided to make the incident public. A senior Army official says the Army confirmed the incident as it had become increasingly difficult to conceal mutilated bodies from families. Pakistan army and civilian administration are not in sync with each other, says Lt-General B.S. Jaswal, former Northern Army commander. The Army has turned down suggestions of approaching the International Court of Justice over the beheadings, as it says this would amount to thirdparty mediation in J&K, something Pakistan favours. The Indian Government appears unwilling to escalate the incident. Whatever has happened should not be escalated. We cant and mustnt allow an escalation of a very unwholesome event that has taken place, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told a press conference. But there are indications an Indian retaliation is in the offing. Not here, not now, but at a time and place of our choosing, a senior Army official warns. It means the LOC is unlikely to be a quiet place anytime soon.
To watch the relatives of the beheaded soldiers speak, tap on your iPad edition To watch a ground report from Mendhar, tap on your iPad edition
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DMK
DMK READIES FOR MARSHALSTALIN

Karunanidhis succession plan for DMK puts the younger son at the forefront. Will siblings Alagiri and Kanimozhi stand in the way of generational change?
By R. Ramasubramanian
ll it took was a deceptively casual comment to spark a leadership struggle in one of Tamil Nadus most powerful political dynasties. On January 3, while addressing a crowd of Dalit leaders, the ageing DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi announced that after him, the development work of society would be carried on by his younger son M.K. Stalin. According to a Karunanidhi aide, he was merely referring to his social work. But the remark was immediately seized upon by his older son Alagiri, 62, who fancies himself as his fathers heir apparent. On January 4, Alagiri retorted that their party was not a religious order for the head pontiff to nominate a successor. According to the party constitution, it is the General Council that elects the party chief. Alagiri was challenging his fathers authority to nominate a successor. On January 5, Karunanidhis daughter Kanimozhis birthday, her father spent over an hour at the 44-year-olds Chennai home. It was followed by a visit from her half-brother Stalin. Alagiri did not visit but phoned in his greetings. Some say he didnt want his visit to coincide with that of his father or brother. The fissures in the family were showing. The next day came the rebuff. On January 6, Karunanidhi told reporters that if there is an opportunity to propose a name for the post of party president, I will make use of it to propose the name of Stalin. There are those in the party who believe that Alagiri scored a self-goal by forcing his fathers
hand. Others say it was the wily Karunanidhi who wanted the leadership struggle out of the way before the General Elections in 2014. The 59-year-old Stalin began his political career under his fathers careful watch. He cut his teeth as a Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) dtenue and braved custodial
M.K. STALIN 59
DMK treasurer, heir apparent SILENT OPERATOR Has quietly
worked to assume control of the party structure. Over 95 per cent of the 1,000-plus DMK General Council supports him.
STUMBLING BLOCK
ELDER BROTHER ALAGIRI, BUT CHANCES OFA COUP ARE DIM.
torture during the Emergency, even writing his BA examination from jail. He launched the DMKs youth wing in 1980 and became its president two years later. Its a position he never gave up. Stalins rise thereafter was swift. He went on to become party treasurer in 2008 and deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu in 2009. Soft-spoken and known for his persuasive skills, he handled DMKs state alliances during the 2006-2011 government in Tamil Nadu. Stalin, who was named after the communist leader Josef Stalin who incidentally died the week his namesake was born, is a contrast to Alagiri. He has been in active politics for more than four decades, unlike Alagiri, who started his political career only 15 years ago and never had either the mass appeal or the exposure of his younger brother. Despite Alagiris disgruntled mumblings, party sources say he does not stand any chance. At best, Alagiri may continue to have some nuisance value, but he can pose no challenge to Stalin, one affirms. Unfortunately for Alagiri, the leadership announcement has also come at a time when he is busy making frantic efforts to keep his only son Durai Dayanidhi out of jail. Durai is an accused in the granite scam in Madurai and was on the run for months before finally
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SHEKHAR YADAV/www.indiatodayimages.com
ALAGIRI 62
DMK South Zone organising secretary HOME ALONE Is disliked by
party cadre for his abrasive ways. Stalin has steadily chipped away at his home base, Madurai.
SECOND FIDDLE
LACKS STALINS SUSTAINED EXPOSURE TO POLITICS AND MASS APPEAL. KARUNANIDHIS ANNOUNCEMENT LEAVES HIM A MARGINAL PLAYER.
managing to secure anticipatory bail in December 2012. The taint has clearly eroded some of Alagiris swagger. The third, a lesser player in the succession opera is Kanimozhi, currently a Rajya Sabha MP. Her initial reaction to the announcement was a non-committal comment stating that she was happy as a sister for Stalin. Unlike the brothers, Kanimozhis interests are
JYOTI KAPOOR/www.indiatodayimages.com
KANIMOZHI 44
Rajya Sabha MP, no party post LOOKING NORTH She is happy
honing her skills as DMKs interface with Delhi. Maintains a cordial relationship with Stalin.
ODDS AGAINST HER

PULLS NO WEIGHT IN THE ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE OF TAMIL POLITICS.
national. Her fathers favourite, she is being groomed to be the partys face in Delhi. This is a task that was handled earlier by the Marans, their nephews. However, now it is Kanimozhi who is the conduit between the UPA Government in Delhi and the DMK leadership in Tamil Nadu. For instance, it was she who handled the negotiations during the recent FDI crisis. As a Cabinet minister in UPA 2, Alagiri represents the party in the Government, but lacks both fluency in English and a rapport with the Congress leadership to emerge as an effective troubleshooter. Moreover, he has made it clear he would rather operate at the state level. Stalins comfort level too is restricted to the state bordersince he, too, is not very fluent in English. Both brothers realise that they need a presence in Delhi to negotiate Central funds. Kanimozhi fits the role. Karunanidhis final nod for Stalin was actually a culmination of many years of careful strategising. Almost all the party leaders who were not keen to have Stalin at the helm have been expelled on one pretext or the other. One of the challenges to Stalins ascension was Vaiko, who now heads his own MDMK party. A firebrand speaker and parliamentarian for over 25 years, Vaiko was expelled from DMK in 1993 on a rather tenuous chargethat he was conspiring with LTTE to murder Karunanidhi. That sent out a message no DMK leader could ignore: Karunanidhi was not going to tolerate any challenges to his heir apparent. Actor Kushboo, who is the DMKs face in media debates, says she is sure Stalin will deliver. It will strengthen the party. Thalapathi (General) is very accessible. He is a great listener and does not jump to conclusions. It would be a joy to work under him, she says. The troops are marshalling around the General. Its clear that battlelines have been drawn for a full-blown Southern epic conflict.
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ASARAM BAPU
ASARAM BAPU
SHAILESH RAVAL/www.indiatodayimages.com
GURU FROM THE DARK AGES

during spiritual camps in seven states by Congress, BJP and other chief ministersamong them, Prem Kumar Dhumal, who lost the Himachal Pradesh polls recently, Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh and Parkash Singh Badal of Punjab. So overcome was Raman Singh by Asarams campaign against the Western concept of Valentines Day, which he believes is corrupting the
Asaram Bapu adds sexism to the already long list of charges against him from murder to sexual abuse
nations youth, that the Chhattisgarh government declared 2011 Valentines Day as a Parents Worship Day on his suggestion. The outrage over Asarams comments on the December 16 gang rape and murder incident has not left the victims grieving family untouched. Speaking to HEADLINES TODAY, the victims father said people should stone the godman for saying insensitive things about his daughter. From the pulpit of his camp at Tonk
By Uday Mahurkar
ontroversial spiritual guru Asaram Bapu shocked many when he pinned the blame for the Delhi gang rape and murder on the victim herself. Those familiar with the numerous charges against him are not surprised. After all, the charges include those of killing children for tantric purposes, sexually exploiting women, grabbing land, organising attacks on rebellious disciples and amassing wealth through questionable means. The charges against Asaram and his son Narayan Sailevelled between 2008 and 2010could not be proved and did not dent his image. If anything, his following only increased in this phase, politically as well as among ordinary devotees. Often seen in the company of VVIPS, in 2011 Asaram was accorded the status of a state guest
The godman has faced several serious charges, many of them unproved
HOLY SMOKE
MURDER of children to use their bodies for tantric rituals. ACCUSERS Parents of two children of Asarams Ahmedabad school whose bodies were found near the Sabarmati river in 2008. STATUS The state government ordered a probe but is yet to find tangible evidence.
SEXUAL ABUSE
Exploited his female disciples sexually. ACCUSER Raju Chandak, who was initially a devotee. He was supported by a few other followers of Asaram. STATUS No legal action has been initiated yet.
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SENSELESS SERMONS
Only five-six people are not the culprits.The victim is as guilty as her rapists... She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop...This could have saved her dignity and life.
by women of loose character the same way as legal provisions against dowry. However, media pressure brought an apology: I didnt mean what was reported. My comments were taken out of context. How can I say such words about a rape victim? I apologise if it has hurt sentiments. The rise of Asaram from a mechanic at a bicycle shop in Ahmedabad four decades ago to a spiritual capitalist with an empire worth Rs 8,000 crore has been incredible. His empire includes thousands of acres of land at prime locations in or around major cities, a flourishing business of over two dozen products such as Ayurvedic medicines, incense sticks, soaps and shampoos, besides spiritual magazines that net him crores of rupees annually. Asaram controls the empire through 400-odd trusts, of which the two most important ones, Sant Shri Asaramji Ashram Trust and Sant Shri Asaramji Mahila Utthan Trust, are based in Ahmedabad. Born Asumaal Thaumal Harpalani in Birani village near Nawabshah in Pakistans Sindh province, he fled that country with his father Thaumal during Partition, first to Kutch and then Ahmedabad. He was seven at the time. In his 20s, the non-matriculate Asaram went to seek the blessings of Leelashah Baba, a respected spiritual figure who died in 1973, at the latters ashram in Adipur, Kutch. Ever the faultless preacher, Asaram clearly has a way with followers and authorities alike, and a knack for getting in and out of controversies unscathed. Angry citizens may deplore his insensitivity towards a gang-raped and murdered daughter of India but it will be business as usual as far as his cult following goes.
Are the men alone responsible for the gang rape? Can one hand clap? I dont think so.
Having stricter laws against rape and crimes against women will not be of help.We have often seen such laws are made to be misutilised...The dowry harassment law is the biggest example.
in Rajasthan, Asaram, 73, said on January 7 that the girl could have avoided being raped and murdered by addressing her rapists and murderers as brothers instead of fighting to save her life and honour. Even the widespread condemnation of his remarksby politicians of all parties, citizens and the mediadid nothing to deter Asaram. Calling his critics barking dogs, he said there should not be stricter penalties for rape as such laws would be misused
LAND GRAB Got
government and private land in Gujarat by using violence. ACCUSERS Some of his disciples in Ahmedabad and Surat in 2008. STATUS Asaram had to surrender government land in both cities.
QUELLING PROTESTS Used
violence to suppress protests against him and his alleged malpractices. ACCUSERS Disciples who turned hostile. STATUS No legal action has been initiated.
religious appeal to run a Rs 8,000-crore business covering products from Ayurvedic medicines to cosmetics. ACCUSERS Some of his disciples. STATUS No legal action has been initiated.
UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES Uses his
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SEXISTPOLITICIANS
Delhi, for confusing Asaram Bapus comments with his. You said sex is a physical need like hunger and thirst. Dont you think you should withdraw the remark? asked a TV reporter. No, said Yadav. The reporter repeated the question, and Yadav ordered the mics to be taken off. I said sex is a basic need, but that doesnt mean I justify rape, he muttered. Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam doesnt think he created a fuss. On December 21, he had a verbal duel with BJP leader Smriti Irani on air over the Gujarat elections. He likened her to an erstwhile thumka bajane waali who had only recently entered public life. He still cannot fathom why people got so angry and falls back on the classic excuse: My comments were taken out of
LOOSE TONGUES, DATED MORALS

Politicians insist on airing their perverse opinions about women in public. Its time for a quote martial.
By Rahul Jayaram
hen Abu Azmi, 57, went campaigning to Govandi and Bhiwandi in October 2009 for the Assembly elections, his daughter-inlaw, Bollywood actor Ayesha Takia, 27, was in tow in western clothes. The Azmi family has accepted someone like me. It shows how modern they are, gushed Takia. Almost threeand-a-half years later, on January 8, the Maharashtra unit chief of the Samajwadi Party (SP) suddenly realised that fashion and nudity are responsible for women feeling unsafe in cities. He proclaimed that girls in rural India do not go out looking for boyfriends but conveniently forgot that his own son Farhan, 35, a restaurateur, had chosen to marry Takia. On January 9, Takia tweeted to distance herself from what her fatherin-law said: Comments made by anyone, even sumone close to me, when they r regressive, they do not reflect my thoughts n mindset. Azmi isnt the only holier-thanthou politician around. Indian politicians have a penchant for misogyny, and miscommunication. On December 24, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Botsa Satyanarayana, 54, sitting in his office in Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad, said women should consider the timing and conditions while going out late when TV reporters from Telugu stations sought his opinion on the gang rape in Delhi. He even dismissed the violation as a minor incident. Minutes later, he was flooded with calls on his mobile phone. One woman describing herself as a family lady shouted at him asking if he was
a male chauvinist. Satyanarayanas face turned pale. He tried explaining his point, but the woman hung up. On January 7, MP and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav barked at media persons on the lawn of his official residence at 7, Tughlak Road,
You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang rape or sex crimes.They are prevalent in some urban belts. Mohan Bhagwat RSS chief
January 3, 2013, Silchar (Assam)

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SEXISTPOLITICIANS
context. And there is nothing vulgar about thumka bajaana. A Delhi court took cognisance of Iranis defamation complaint against him on January 8 but Nirupam is unaffected. Only those who have something wrong in their mind will be cautious. My comments were against Irani as a professional politician, not on her as a person. Ask the itinerant Shahid Siddiqui, who recently quit SP, on what brings out the chauvinist in the Indian politician. He says they dont mind meeting women attired in modern clothes in private, but in public they become wary. Very senior politicians would insist that their office door be kept open when they meet a woman. They dont want any gossip spreading, he says. The contemporary Indian woman confuses the male politician, says Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh. When I was in SP, I was also good friends with (actors) Sridevi and Dimple Kapadia. SP leaders thought it cheapSAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com
RULES FOR WOMEN TO LIVE BY ACCORDING TO INDIAN MEN

YOUR ASSAILANTS BHAIYA #1 CALL The girl should have called her rapists brothers. DONT CROSS YOUR LIMITS Asaram Bapu, spiritual guru January 7, 2013,Tonk,Rajasthan
#2 Everyone must stay within Lakshman rekha.
Ravana grabs and takes away those who cross the line just as he kidnapped Sita. Kailash Vijayvargiya, Madhya Pradesh industries minister January 5, 2013, Bhopal
WEAR MAKE-UP #3 DONT Most of the protesters are not students.They are
dented and painted women chasing two minutes of fame giving interviews on TV. Abhijit Mukherjee, Congress MP December 27, 2012, Kolkata
GO OUT AT MIDNIGHT #4 DONT Just because India achieved freedom at midnight, is
it necessary for women to move on the streets at night? Botsa Satyanarayana, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee chief, December 24, 2012, Hyderabad
BORN RICH #5 BE Only girls and women from the affluent class can move up in life... our rural women are not so attractive. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief November 8, 2012, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh
Adapted from a Facebook post
Arvind Kejriwal is like Rakhi Sawant.They both try and expose but with no substance.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singhs tweet on November 11, 2012
ened the image of the party, he says. The language of Indian politics is fast becoming impossibly male and chauvinistic. Even a party like CPI(M), with its long history of fighting for womens issues, is not immune to it. On December 28, CPI(M) MLA Anisur Rahaman asked Mamata Bannerjee what her fee would be if someone got Rs 20,000 after being raped. Brinda Karat regrets what happened. But it was our male leaders like Biman Bose who condemned the statement first, she says. On January 1, the party announced that Rahaman is now barred from addressing public gatherings. Sociologist Shiv Visvanathan says we are unable to resolve the role of women and men in our politics. Therefore, we may seem progressive with ministers carrying laptops or
tweeting till kingdom come. But once theyre on the big stage, they slip back to older ways of thinking, he says. In the aftermath of the Delhi rape, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told the nation they have three daughters each. This was their way of showing that they care. It wasnt enough. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who briefed the media on December 27, was more emotive, stating that as a man, he felt ashamed. While the Government gropes with a comprehensive plan of action, the sexist politics of lightweights hits home every other day. Clearly, the male politician is caught between platitudinous comments and misogynistic remarks. He has to find an in-between language to deal with the reality of women in public life.
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DELHI GANG RAPE AND MURDER
THE GIRLWHO STIRRED THE NATION

By Karuna John
Hard working student, dutiful daughter, caring sister, the Delhi gang-rape victim was Everywoman
he was always a warrior. The 23-year-old gang-rape victim did not turn into a fighter only on the night of December 16 when she kicked and clawed to defend herself during the brutal attack. She had been fighting every day of her young life. She fought against poverty and the thick glue of constraints that it coats its prey with. She clawed through its vicious grip and gasped for air, grabbing at any opportunity that could take her and her family away from lower middle-class life to a better place. This is why when her friends would gather for a gossip session, the 23year-old would give it a miss, to instead prepare for tuition lessons for neigbourhood children. Having started giving tuition while still a teenager, at 23 she was a senior, looked upon with awe and respect by her students, some even hoping to be physiotherapists like her one day. If only they studied hard enough like didi, their parents would tell them. For this 40-year-old southwest Delhi neighbourhood, once nicknamed Mirzapur Gaon, the 23year-old was always a hero. To some her dreams were often too big to be nurtured in the familys 25-square-yard house. Yet, they made room for their girl, giving her space to spread wings and prepare for the big flight to success. My daughter would kiss my hand and promise she would change our life, says her father. His first born child, his saviour and strength was the beacon that lit the modest interiors of the familys two-room house and he would do anything to support her dreams. In her corner of the tiny home, she pored over books, helped her two younger brothers study and then taught children from the neighbourhood. She
QAMAR SIBTAIN/www.indiatodayimages.com
THE HOUSE (LEFT) WHERE THE VICTIM LIVED IN A SOUTHWEST DELHI COLONY, AND A DOLL (ABOVE) THAT BELONGED TO HER.
She often used to kiss my hand and promise she would change our life and lift us from lower class to middle class. She had promised that her brothers would stop giving tuition and concentrate on their education once she was employed.
FATHER
Life is going to be so difficult without her.Without her guidance, I dont know what to do or how to go about life.
BROTHER
Her family imagined moving up economically though her aspirations. She was a dreamer and was translating her dreams into reality.
A BATCHMATE
dreaded the idea of discontinuing studies, and would get dizzy at the thought, a friend recalls. A bright future was all the two talked about when they cycled to their government school in west Delhi every day. She drew strength from her father, who himself worked double shifts each day, as a loader at the airport during the day and a security guard at night. She was enrolled in a course at an institute in Dehradun and was soon to qualify as a certified physiotherapist. She was applying for her final internship in Delhi and while at Dehradun attented classes from noon to 5 pm and then worked at a call centre from 7 pm to 4 am. Her friends recalled how she read Chetan Bhagats novel One Night @ the Call Center cover-to-cover. Life of Pi was the movie she saw on December 16. Her brothers would have got her review the next day. They miss her the mostshe was their friend, their role model, the one they shared secrets with during hour-long conversations over the phone during her commute to work.
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Their sister had told them they could stop tuition classes and concentrate on their studies the day she got a job. She had it all planned out for them all. She used to kiss my hand and promise she would change our life and lift us from lower class to middle class, her father keeps repeating, She had just got her four-year degree certificate in physiotherapy last month, I was hopeful she would get a nice job and support her brothers. Her first job as a physiotherapist promised a salary of Rs 30,000 per month, around four times her fathers. I earn Rs 5,700 a month and work overtime to earn Rs 5,000 extra. My daughter used to give tuition and earn Rs 3,000 a month. My sons also give tuition and earn about Rs 1,500 a month each, says the father.
Bankrolling to Power
Congress mum as details surface of how it funded ally Muslim League in the 2011 Assembly elections
ministry, made Calicut University gift its property to private trusts held by League leaders. While the Congress remained mute spectator, the decision was ultimately scrapped in June after it led to a public outcry. The financial largesse for IUML emerged when AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora submitted details to the central election commission of the Rs 14 crore the Congress donated to all 140 UDF candidatesRs 10 lakh to each member of its nine constituent parties. None of the 24 IUML candidates mentioned this amount in their statement filed to the chief electoral officer. IUML General Secretary and Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty however said, We have mentioned the amount under the head of donation, though we may not have mentioned that it was from AICC. The Congress and the League give money to each other often. We have accounts for every penny received and spent. The Opposition has demanded the disqualification of IUML legislators. There should also be a probe as to whether IUML leaders pocketed the amount without handing it over to its candidates, said V.S. Achuthanandan, leader of the Opposition. Kerala Congress (M), the third largest party in UDF with nine seats, has also been cornered following AICCs revelation. The partys 15 candidates have mentioned that the funds they received from AICC were their only revenue for their poll campaignwhich was not the case. Action on the revelations will have to wait. If there is any discrepancy in the statements of the candidates, we will convey them to the chief election commissioner, said Nalini Netto, Keralas chief electoral officer.
by M.G. Radhakrishnan
KERALA
he made another promise, this time to herself. One day she would apply for a scholarship and go abroad for higher studies, perhaps to become a doctor. Of course, once she had made enough money, she would build a big house and buy a car, an Audi. For now, a Samsung smartphone was to be bought as soon as possible. Money was never to be a problem again. Her fight against poverty would end. She would be the winner. The Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit, told me that compensation of Rs 15 lakh was ready and Id get it on my return. I dont know how Ill return, I have no money in my pocket to do so, says the father, now in his village in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. The small village on the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar border may get its first real road and even a helipad, as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to arrive on January 12, the date of the girls mrityubhoj, the thirteenth day ceremony for the departed. Her mother faints at the sight of the invitation card to the mrityubhoj. Her father is angry. I have heard Akhilesh Yadav wants to hold a function and give me Rs 20 lakh but I will not go. If he is really trying to help me, he can come here to the village, he says. His daughter would have been proud of him.
With Hakeem Irfan, Piyush Srivastava and Piyush Babele
P. K. KUNHALIKUTTY, IUML GENERAL SECRETARY
ith the 19-month-old United Democratic Front (UDF) government hanging on to power by a slender six-seat majority, the Congress continues to swallow more embarrassment on account of the second largest constituent of the coalition government, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). The latest is the revelation that IUML did not mention the Rs 2.40 crore it received as donation from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) during the 2011 Assembly elections to the states chief electoral officer. Holding 20 of the 73 seats that UDF has in the 140-member legislature, IUML had earlier arm-twisted the Congress in April 2012 into giving it a fifth berth in the 20-member Cabinet. In May, the Muslim League, another ally which controls the education
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JHARKHAND
JMM chief pulls the plug on the BJP government.Will Congress play ball with him now?
SOMNATH SEN
SON BIGGER THAN STATE
GOVERNOR SYED AHMED FLANKED BY SHIBU SOREN (LEFT) AND HEMANT SOREN
n January 8, 2013, when Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren, 69, withdrew support from the 28-month-old Arjun Munda-led coalition government, he was merely acting on the advice of his son Hemant Soren, the deputy chief minister. The 18-member JMM pulled the plug following assurance of support from Congress for Hemant as Jharkhands ninth chief minister. But more than Congress, Hemant needs Shibu. The JMM patriarchs presence gives legitimacy to his manoeuvres. On January 8, when Hemants earlier announcement of withdrawal of support from the Munda government was taken lightly, he had his father make the same announcement. But all their well-laid plans may go to waste if Governor Syed Ahmed recommends Presidents Rule. Shibus unofficial handing over of the baton to Hemant can be attributed to his overwhelming love for his son. Shibu may be shrewd, but his biggest weakness is his son, says a JMM leader. Always fond of his sons, a section of
Jharkhand leaders believe Shibu surrendered his free will to Hemant after the May 2009 death of his elder son Durga, who he had groomed as his heir. Hemant is desperate for the chief ministers post. A stint at the top office, he hopes, would be the grand finale to his plans of superseding several senior JMM leaders who are not ready to accept him as their boss. The young man-in-ahurry suits Congress, which is desperate to find an alliance partner in the state in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Its partner for 2009 Assembly polls, the Babulal Marandi-led Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, has already spurned it. Congress may piggyback on JMM to win a few more Lok Sabha seats from Jharkhand in 2014. Of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the
THE CONGRESS MAY PIGGYBACK ON JMM TO WIN A FEW MORE LOK SABHA SEATS FROM JHARKHAND IN 2014.
state, Congress only has Ranchi, manned by Subodh Kant Sahay, in its kitty. But Congressmen are doubtful about Sahays capacity to retain the seat, after his younger brother Sunil forfeited his deposit in the June 2012 by-election for the Hatia Assembly seat that falls in Sahays Lok Sabha constituency. Forming a government will be a fractious exercise. JMM needs 42 votes to muster a majority in the 82-member House, but it will be six short even after adding Congress and RJD votes. It can always get the votes of six independents, but Congress may have reservations about MLAs like Anosh Ekka and Harinarayan Rai, who face disproportionate assets cases. JMM will also need the vote of Geeta Koda, wife of jailed former chief minister Madhu Koda. The spotlight is now back on Soren Senior. The wily old fox of Jharkhand politics will have to do everything to keep Congress happy, the independents on a tight leash, and son Hemant from antagonising the JMM hierarchy. That will be easier said than done.
by Amitabh Srivastava
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By G.S. Vivek
small temple in Deori on the RanchiJamshedpur national highway no. 33 is a busy tourist spot. Red and yellow threads tied around trees for peoples wishes to come true complement the colourful temple facade. Its famous for a rare, undated four-handed idol of Goddess Durga but local tour operators often refer to it as Dhoni ka temple to add glamour. Its a spot cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been visiting since his teens. Its priests and flower shops in the vicinity are keenly awaiting the India captains arrival ahead of the January 19 ODI in Ranchi. Dhoni has said in the past that the deitys
UNDAUNTED DESPITE
DEFEAT
M.S. Dhoni has quelled threats to his captaincy and purged seniors in his quest to get the team he wants for the 2015 World Cup
blessings have helped him rise to lofty heights. Its difficult to fathom how a pragmatic man, who decides everything based on logic, can be so deeply religiouseven to the extent of offering animal sacrifice sometimes. But thats typical Dhoni. He wont wake up in the early hours like Sachin Tendulkar to satisfy his urge to race fast cars. Dhoni will just put on a helmet and go driving through the streets of Ranchi or Chennai enjoying the helplessness of policemen trying to tail his Hayabusa on 100cc bikessharing a laugh about it with friends later. While India fans were still in shock over the recent home series loss to England, he took to Twitter to express deep sorrow over the loss of Sam, his pet German Shepherd. He has openly expressed his desire to serve the Army after retirement and took the
VIKRAM SHARMA /www.indiatodayimages.com
honorary position of Lt-Colonel even as he declined an offer to be part of their annual parade. He angered the Government by skipping the Padma awards ceremonybusy, allegedly, with commercial engagements. There are two facets to Dhoni. A captain protective of his team and players, preferring not to expose them when the team loses but always happy to let the best player get the accolades. But while hes busy building a new team for his World Cup title defence in 2015, hes also ruthlessly clearing long-standing reputations like cobwebs. Dhonis grey sideburns are already talk of the town, and he says, Its the result of facing so much pressure and suppressing it under a calm exterior. But captain Dhoni has several other streaks of grey. Hes enjoying the uninterrupted patronage of BCCI President
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MISSION 2015
Dhoni is looking to build a fresh team for Indias World Cup title defence in 2015. A look at how his team is shaping up.
OPENING BLUES India need a solid opening pair. Gautam Gambhir is steady at one end.Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan are options for the other slot. STRONG IN THE MIDDLE Virat Kohli,
Suresh Raina and Dhoni himself are locked. India need to explore options like Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary and Cheteshwar Pujara.
ALL-ROUND ISSUE Irfan Pathan and

Ravindra Jadeja are the only options available. Dhoni is looking to pitch Bhuvneshwar Kumar and R.Ashwin in the all-rounders slot.
FASTAND FURIOUS Plenty of options in hand but

injuries can take a toll. Dhoni has Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shami Ahmed, Parvinder Awana and Ashok Dinda along with swing bowlers like Kumar and Pathan.
M.S. DHONI
SPIN IN THE TALE Unlikely to have more than one specialist in the XI and two in the squad.Ashwin looks a certainty with parttimers likely to fill in.Jalaj Saxena and Amit Mishra are other options.
N. Srinivasan, coincidentally also the franchise owner of the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings. The captain has survived two whitewashes in England and Australia, a humiliating home Test series loss to England and a home ODI series defeat to Pakistan. He has proved hes untouchable.
LEGENDARY GIANT-KILLER
For a nation starved of great victories and obsessed with minute statistical details, Dhoni gave India its first ever World T20 championship, a rare ODI series victory in Australia, the first ever ODI series win in Sri Lanka, the numberone Test ranking and, of course, the
World Cup after 28 long years. That makes him nothing short of a legend in Indian cricket. But, at the same time, all the other legends who have lent a big hand in his achievements have fallen by the wayside. Dhonis name has done the rounds whenever a legendary player such as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar or Virender Sehwag has retired or been dropped. That qualifies him as not just a giant but also a giant-killer. Ganguly was left out of the 2008 CB series in Australia, forcing then Cricket Association of Bengal president Prasun Mukherjee to openly question Dhonis
role. According to sources, Laxman announced his retirement despite being selected for the New Zealand Test series because Dhoni, according to sources, wanted him to announce his retirement plan before the series or risk being left out. Laxman added to the intrigue by saying he could not get through to Dhoni over the phone. The same week, he invited Team India members for dinner at home and left Dhoni out of the guest list. Tendulkar announced his ODI retirement just minutes before the selectors met to pick the squad for the Pakistan series, and released a statement to that effect, adding it was time to build a team for the future. Former
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Dhonis vice-captains have been clinically sidelined
returned as vice-captain from time to time. NOT SO SERIOUS Once a serious candidate but his chances now are next to impossible.
DILEMMA OF BEING DEPUTY

YUVRAJ SINGH
Was first named vicecaptain for the World T20 in 2007. Continued to be Dhonis deputy in limited overs till he was eased out in 2008 but
VIRENDER SEHWAG
Became vice-captain at the same time Dhoni took over as Test skipper against Australia in 2008. TWIST OF FATE Selectors considered him after the 2011 Australia Test loss but he has since lost his place in T20s and ODIs.
GAUTAM GAMBHIR
SURESH RAINA
Vice-captain for the ODI leg of the England tour in 2011. LOST CHANCE Once seen as a promising candidate, he lost his place in the Test side and only has an outside chance.
VVS LAXMAN Was vicecaptain for the 2011 West Indies Test series. RETIRED HURT The affable Hyderabadi could have been a consensus captaincy candidate for Tests but was forced to retire early.
VIRAT KOHLI
Vice-captain in ODIs and T20s since 2009-10. HANGING ON Led India to a 5-0 sweep against New Zealand. But has shot himself in the foot with a sustained bad patch.
The last of Dhonis deputies, named as a one-off for the 2011 Asia Cup to sideline Gambhir and Sehwag. WAITLISTED Not experienced enough to take Dhonis place. Buys the captain time.
Pakistan great Hanif Mohammad, during the third ODI in Delhi, questioned the timing of Tendulkars retirement, suggesting there was more to it than what meets the eye. Reports of a SehwagDhoni rift have surfaced often and the skipper has never shied away from dropping the opening batsman from his playing XI at the first opportunity.
CURIOUS CASE OFVICE-CAPTAINCY

Apart from their being vital cogs in the Team India line-up, another interesting aspect binds Laxman, Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir. They have all been vice-captain at some point under Dhoni and even challenged him as contenders with good shows captaining IPL sides. By coincidence or by design, they have all been systematically dumped from the team. Of all potential captains Team India developed under Dhoni, only Gambhir has managed to survive in all formats of the game. Laxman was pushed into retirement. Yuvrajs Test career is firmly over and his ODI career is hanging by a thread. Rainas place in the XI has been repeatedly questioned and theres no immediate chance of a Test
recall. Sehwag, the most recent contender to assume Test captaincyas revealed by ousted selector Mohinder Amarnath in Decemberhas been dropped for the first three of the forthcoming England ODIs. Gambhir, Dhonis potential ODI successor under the former selection panel, has been struggling to justify his place in the team. Dhoni started his famous rotation of Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gambhir during the Australia tour in FebruaryMarch 2012 immediately after he lost the Test series and the selectors first contemplated a change of captain. Immediately, in Bangladesh at the Asia Cup, Sehwag was dropped and Gambhir demoted from vice-captain. Suddenly, Virat Kohli was elevated as Dhonis deputy. Sources say it was a tactical decision to ensure no immediate threat to Dhonis captaincy as Kohli was too young then to lead.
ONE-MAN SELECTION PANEL

Team sources say Dhoni is a one-man selection panel. The point is illustrated by how a visibly underprepared R.P. Singh gets into the Test team mid-tour during the England 2011 series or how Piyush Chawla keeps returning de-
spite doing nothing of note or how Ravindra Jadeja suddenly becomes a constant in all formats. The problem is Dhoni has barely played domestic cricket and doesnt know the players. So he keeps asking for the same guys, says former spinner Maninder Singh. Much of Dhonis strength, insiders say, comes from Srinivasans backing. Such a rapport is not unheard of in Indian cricket. Ganguly and Jagmohan Dalmiya had formed a potent combination as captain and chief administrator until they fell out. But what happens beyond September 2014, when Srinivasan hands over control of BCCI to his successor? With the World Cup scheduled for FebruaryMarch 2015, will the Srinivasan-Dhoni combine continue to decide Team Indias future? Will Dhoni be at the vanguard of the defence of the hard-won title? It is unlikely that there will be a twist in the Dhoni fairytale.
To choose your pick for Dhonis replacement as captain, go to www.indiatoday.in/skipper To read INDIA TODAYs special issue on Mahendra Singh Dhoni, go to www.indiatoday.in/dhoni-spl
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TELEVISION
Pavan K. Varma takes inspiration from Chanakya to provide specific solutions on issues like governance, corruption and security
ndias crisis of governance is not new. It has plagued the Republic since Independence. Governments have got more things wrong than right. The crisis has only become more acute over the last 18 months as the thin veil which obstructed a clear view of the deep rot within the system was pulled away. That was when public anger spilled out onto the streets. The response of the political establishment has been slow and unconvincing. The people of India are looking for concrete action. Several mass protests have identified the problems but nobody has seemed to have a concrete set of solutions. In his new book, author and former diplomat Pavan K. Varma takes inspiration from the wisdom of Ancient Indias greatest thinker on statecraft, Chanakya, to provide specific solutions To Resolve the Crisis within India. Chanakya famously strategised to overthrow the corrupt Dhana Nanda, ruler of Pataliputra, and replace him with Chandragupta who eliminated misgovernance and ruled what was the first pan-Indian empire. Unlike Chanakya, Varma does not suggest an overthrow of the system. Varmas New Manifesto (even if he modestly calls it Chanakyas) is full of ideas within the constitutional framework of India. The following extracts capture some of those ideas in the five different spheres of government he identifies for overhaul: Governance, Democracy, Corruption, Security and Inclusive Society.
ANCIENT INDIA HAS THE ANSWER
E X C E R P T S
All political parties that propose to be part of a coalition grouping or front must declare their intention to do so prior to elections taking place. Coalition groupings, such as the UPA, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and a putative Third Front already exist so this would only require their constituents, and any other party that wishes to be part of them, to make a choice, not after, but before votes are cast. Along with unattached political parties, each coalition must publicly announce a common Governance Agenda, with indicative timeframes for specific deliverables. This must be worked
Constitutional panel to appraise governance
CHANAKYAS NEW MANIFESTO: TO RESOLVE THE CRISIS WITHIN INDIA

byPavan K.Varma Aleph Price: RS 295 Pages: 248
out prior to the elections so that voters know what rival political groupings are offering. Such a carefully worked out document is an important part of coalition arrangements in many other parts of the world. Following elections, pre-identified coalition partners would be compulsorily committed to the declared Governance Agenda for a lock-in period of at least three years. Further, during the minimum lock-in period of three years, no coalition partner will be allowed to withdraw support to, or defect from, the coalition partnership. Far from being an infringement of democratic rights, this would considerably enrich the demo-
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Illustrations by SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com
cratic process. First, voters would know of coalition groupings in advance of the elections, rather than finding out subsequent to the elections that parties they did not support, or were openly opposed to, have become partners solely for the pursuit of political power at any cost.
42nd amendment to the Constitution introduced by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. This amendment bound the president of India to act in all matters only on the advice of the Cabinet, and even after it was diluted subsequently, still seriously curtails the legitimate constitutional powers vested in an elected head of state. For independent constitutional bodies which are directly under the president and report only to that office, it is essential that the president exercises powers to protect the jurisdiction and authority of such bodies from interference, subversion or infringement by the government of the day. The GAP will consist of a leading economist (or a senior representative from the corporate sector), a distinguished member of the media, a respected former administrator, an academic of eminence in the area of public affairs and governance, and a retired chief justice of India or a retired Supreme Court judge. Its members will be selected by a threemember committee consisting of the PM, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the chief justice of India. The committee will select the members of GAP by consensus. The GAP will have a five-year term and will submit its report annually to the president of India. The report will make an independent assessment of the governance performance of the government on the basis of the objectives it had promised in its Governance Agenda. It will also devise its own criteria for the measurement of the ruling governments performance and will be guided in its endeavours by the measurement indices of World Government Indicators or WGI, which has been working in this field for more than two decades. A report on the WGI rightly states that all modern democratic societies require independent evaluation, which is possible with a good set of indicators, and public debate on the quality and improvement of governance. The current practice which allows parties not to identify donors contributing less than Rs. 20,000 must be scrapped. This is the principal (but not only) channel for parties to collect vast amounts of undeclared funds. Every paisa given as a donation to political parties must be accounted for and transacted through auditable and transparent bank transactions. Conversely, all payments made by political parties, exceeding Rs. 20,000 must be made by crossed account payee cheques. This has also been recommended by the Core Committee on
Disqualify legislators if they flout norms
A five-member Governance Appraisal Panel (GAP) should be set up as an independent evaluation body. It will be provided a compact secretariat, will have constitutional status, and report to the president of India. The presidents role in preserving the authority and autonomy of bodies with constitutional status needs to be strengthened. In this context, consideration should be given to modifying the
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FA S H I O N
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TELEVISION
Electoral Reforms sponsored by the EC [Election Commission] and the ministry of law and justice. All political parties must compulsorily make public their audited accounts every year. Currently candidates are required to disclose their assets and liabilities but not political parties. As far back as 2004 the EC recommended that political parties should be required to publish their accounts (or at least an abridged version) annually for information and scrutiny of the general public and all concerned, for which purpose the maintenance of such accounts and their auditing to ensure their accuracy is a pre-requisite. The auditing may be done by any firm of auditors approved by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).The audited accounts must be made public. The CEC [Chief Election Commissioner] and the CAG must be given powers to scrutinize and monitor all party funds. Currently political parties merely obtain a certificate from the EC that they have submitted their annual audited statement of accounts. This is completely inadequate.
It is imperative that, through the enabling legislation of the union government, all states mandatorily adopt a Right to Public Services (RTES) Act immediately. This act, even allowing for variations in each state, must have the following compulsory elements: clearly identified services encompassing as many areas as feasible where the ordinary citizen needs to interact with the government; multiple modalities, including online access, to apply for or to avail of these services; a clearcut time frame for the services to be rendered by a clearly designated authority; not more than one appellate authority for the final disposal of the service requested and a specified time frame for disposal by the appellate authority; a computerized tracking method to monitor the status of each application; in case of failure to deliver, exemplary deterrent punishment for the official responsible for providing the service; annual evaluation by a third party of the working of the act.
Transparency between public and government
Whatever the reasons, the time has come to take some clear and resolute decisions with regard to the proper functioning of our Parliament and state assemblies. To begin with, any member who flouts the rules or breaks the decorum of the house should, after being warned, be named by the presiding officer and asked to withdraw from the house. If a member who has been suspended, again infringes the rules of established decorum of the house in a manner sufficient to attract the notice of the presiding officer, he should be disqualified from membership of the house for the balance period of the life of the house, or three years, whichever is more. No member shall ever enter the well of the house. This has become routine practice now and is a blatant violation of the rules and decorum of the house. Such behaviour is not about the expression of democratic freedoms but contempt of democratic practices. Any member who violates this absolute injunction should be expelled for the balance period of the life of the house.
The bedrock of Indias foreign policy must be the understanding that until they prove, without a shadow of doubt, their good intentions UNTIL THEY PROVE THEIR towards India, Pakistan and GOOD INTENTIONS TOWARDS China must be classified as INDIA, PAKISTAN AND CHINA hostile or potentially hostile states. This does not mean MUST BE CLASSIFIED AS that attempts to improve bilatHOSTILE OR POTENTIALLY eral relations with them HOSTILE STATES. should be jettisoned; nor does it preclude negotiations and dialogue where required, or the furtherance of people to people contacts where desirable; clarity of vision enables the use of a variety of approaches without losing sight of the truth. Any nation that enhances our security must be cultivated; any nation that is allied or close to nations that threaten us, must be contained, by co-option, seduction, engagement or other means. A real threat to our security is the collusion between China and Pakistan. We must, therefore, be prepared for a war against both, in a worstcase situation. A principal
Break nexus between China and Pakistan
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tenet of our foreign policy must be to break, weaken or dilute the nexus between the two countries. If this requires us to sow discord or to create mistrust or encourage suspicion between them, we must do so. If we can weaken the nexus by providing to any one of the two greater dividends through engagement with India, this too should be pursued, but as conscious policy, not through policy drift.
To take care of internal security effectively, a separate ministry of internal security headed by a cabinet minister should be hived off from the ministry of home affairs. A minister with this portfolio has been a feature of some previous cabinets but without specific focus or clout and always subordinate to the minister of home affairs. The new ministry will have two primary wings: one, an antiterrorism unit which will unite under one umbrella to direct the nations war against this threat; and two, an anti-insurgency department, which will single-mindedly tackle the threat of left wing extremism and other insurgencies. With the creation of these two wings, the need for the IB [Intelligence Bureau], as it currently exists, must be seriously reviewed. If the economy grows rapidly, it helps the underprivileged. However, governments should especially focus on increasing growth in those sectors of the economy that impact the poorest the most. With this in view, the government must adopt a new National Mission on Agriculture with the aim of tripling national agricultural growth rates in the next five years. The vast sums of money that are being mismanaged in populist schemes would be redeployed for attacking the root of the problem, viz, low productivity, except in drought affected areas where special state interventions are required. A quantum jump in agricultural productivity will make an unprecedented dent in the numbers of those below the poverty line, apart from providing spin off benefits to all other sectors of the economy.
A QUANTUM JUMP IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITYWILL MAKE AN UNPRECEDENTED DENT IN THE NUMBERS OF THOSE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE, APART FROM BENEFITS TO ALL OTHER SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY.
development services enterprises. These will be run by passionate, young professionals who will use the best of management principles with a focus on efficiency and outcomes. They will partner with the government for one-time subsidies for capital investment or for tapping budgetary allocations in order to reach deliverables to the poor. He cites several examples where this is working very well. Partnering with the government, and with the support of corporate donations, these entrepreneurs are efficiently running kitchens in urban areas and remote drought-hit regions which have brought the mid-day meal to 5 million children. The Haryana and Punjab governments have also taken the initiative to float tenders to provide safe drinking water to villages at a fixed price. These post-reform development entrepreneurs, says Reddy, got a one-time subsidy from the state governments for the capital cost, and run their enterprise with the efficiencies reaped in management and service delivery mechanisms. When the Andhra Pradesh government outsourced water treatment plants to tackle the rampant problem of fluorosis, a thousand micro-entrepreneurs responded, leading to a near-complete eradication of the disease.
Partner with NGOs in rural areas
The government has almost never tried to partner with nongovernmental agencies to implement its welfare programmes. But the few attempts that have been made have succeeded beyond all expectations. K. Anji Reddy, the founder chairman of the Naandi Foundation and Dr Reddys Laboratories Ltd, moots the idea of what he calls post-reform
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DELHI RAPE CASE
REUTERS
YANN MARTEL
I Stand in Sorrowwith the Victims Family

Life of Pi author Yann Martel is horrified at the death of Delhis gang-rape victim, who had just watched the movie based on his life-affirming novel
i Patel, the hero of Life of Pi, Yann Martels much-loved Booker Prize-winning novel, and more recently of Ang Lees film based on the book, is a survivor. He survives the sinking of his ship near the Philippines where the ocean is the deepest; 227 days adrift in the Pacific on a lifeboatwith or without a Royal Bengal tiger for company, depending on what you believealong with fear, hunger, loneliness, and the might of nature, before washing up alive on the shores of Mexico, thousands of miles away. Shortly after watching his story on December 16, a 23-yearold student boarded a bus in Delhi for
what should have been a regular journey home, but did not ultimately survive a distance of around 20 km. In an exclusive interview from England, where he was travelling, Martel said his first thoughts upon learning that the Delhi gang-rape victim had been watching Life of Pi before being brutalised by her six attackers, were rather more prosaic. But the Canadian writer came to believe she had survived, in a way. To be honest, I was too literalminded and horrified to think of that sort of subtletythat Pi is a survivor and that the victim attempted to survive, although she didnt quite
make it, Martel said. Unfortunately in India, many women are attacked and Im sure some are killed, and you never hear about it. This is a case where the horror has rung around the world. So in some sense she has done what many other victims couldnt, shes somehow managed to make her sad fate known to others. For the writer, the victims last happy activity had hit home especially hard. Martel explained, In a very small, tenuous way, I was linked with her. She was someone who had chosen to watch my story. So somehow, that made it more personal. The author spent 13 months in India between 1996 and 2000, working on the book that first catapulted him to global fame. He remembers watching Bollywood movies with incredibly raunchy dancing, highly sexualised, but no kissing. That was part of Indias weirdly schizophrenic nature, a curious mixture of the prudish and the very sexual. The irony is that Life of Pi, at its core, is a story about God. The attack endured by the gang-rape victim, on the other hand, is something that could shake the faith of the strongest of believers. Not so, says Martel, faith is strengthened only upon being tested. Faith is something to overcome the horrors of life, including this one, somehow. Linked to the victim through his work and a random circumstance, the author says its now time for action. I stand in sympathy and sorrow with her familyI shout my outrage with themat her appalling fate. If India does not treat the assaults upon her women more seriously, then India not only denigrates half of its citizens, it also diminishes the countrys prospects. Because how can a country thrive, how can it bloom, if half of its citizens are confined by fear, if half of its citizens cannot trust the police or the judiciary or, indeed, its men? India must act to right this wrong, and it must act now, Martel declared in a statement drafted in sorrow.
by Indira Kannan in Toronto
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NET FLUX Cover
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by LAKSHMI KUMARASWAMI
WHOS GOT KLOUT
Klout Score* of the most influential Net-savvy Indians in 2012
90.2
Dalai Lama
88.2
Amitabh Bachchan
86.2
Sachin Tendulkar
86.1
Narendra Modi
85.94
Salman Khan
85.27
Anupam Kher
85.22
Akshay Kumar
84.83
Priyanka Chopra
84.65
Abhishek Bachchan
84.33
Mahesh Bhupathi
* Klout Score determines a persons online clout based on activity on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+
FEMINISM WITH ATWIST

Imagine what actor Shah Rukh Khan would be like if he was a feminist? And because that requires a pretty active imagination, feministSRK, a Tumblr blog can help you out. Started by an anonymous blogger, it consists of photos of SRK along with feminist views and puns on his movie dialogues. Each post starts with the dialogue Hey Larki. One of the most popular posts is the actor looking morose in Devdas with the caption Hey Larki, bell hooks has identified patriarchy as the single-most life-threatening social disease assaulting mens spirits causing them to abuse and inflict power. Maar Dala.
app alert
Top of the Lot

Pickie suggests thoughtful gift ideas in a catalogue format based on a persons Facebook likes. Postagram takes your Instagram or mobile pictures and converts them into postcards you can print and send via snail mail. Battery Status gives you a detailed log of your phones battery life every 30 minutes.
appwatch
viral video
This weeks most watched video was of a woman dancing by herself in the baggage claim section at Los Angeles International Airport. Other popular videos included a German robot band playing heavy metal music and a noisy chemical reaction when a red hot ball of nickel was dropped in water.
Red hot nickel ball in water 0.65 million Dance like nobodys watching 2.1 million
Make presentations that get you noticed with Deck, an app developed by Bangalorean Sumanth Raghavendra.The app costs $1 (Rs 53) and allows you to make presentations anywhere. Deck has templates with animated charts and transitions, thus converting a boring presentation into something dynamic and engaging.
Make Me Asian is an Android app that alters your photos to make you look Japanese, Chinese or Korean. The app makes your skin yellow and slants your eyes. Since its launch in December 2012, the app has been called racist and widely criticised, particularly by the Asian community.
net fail
tech knowlogy
blogroll
knowyourmobile
You can also use your smartphone as a:
Spirit Level Hang pictures, align shelves with the iHandy app. Measuring Tape Measure distances through your camera lens with the Dot Measure Pro app. Cardiometer Check your heart rate by merely placing your finger on your phone screen with the Azumios Instant Heart Rate app.
Going Strong
Writer and activist Sohaila Abdulali wrote a harrowing piece I Fought for My Life and Wonon her gang rape in 1983 for Manushi,a Delhibased magazine devoted to feminism.We must stop shrouding it (rape) in secrecy,and must see it for what it isa crime of violence in which the rapist is the criminal, she ABDULALI wrote.Thirty years later,Abdulalis piece has been reproduced by the blog Kracktivist and has received over 200 comments.
Robot band playing heavy metal music 1.6 million
* Views from when videos were uploaded
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Photographs by ATUL KASBEKAR
by NISHAT BARI
Q& Thanks to whacky A aunties,I reconnected with my Parsi roots

American actor Satya Bhabha, 29, who plays the lead in Deepa Mehtas on screen adaptation of Midnights Children, speaks about revisiting his Indian roots and relishing kebabs in Mumbai. Q. How did you get the role of Salim Sinai? A. I first met Deepa at a social lunch in New York where we bonded over our love for Mumbai. Three days later at the screening of Heaven on Earth, she pointed out to the audience that I will be Salim. Q. What do you think of the book? A. I first read Midnights Children when I was 10 years old. Thanks to the whacky aunties and weird uncles, I reconnected with my Parsi roots. Q. Do you identify with Salim as a person? A. Yes. Salim is a forward-thinking man with a chin-up attitude in times of adversity just like me. Q. One thing you like about Mumbai? A. Kebabs at Ayubs at Cuffe Parade are my favourite.
(As told to Prachi Rege)
GETTY IMAGES
DATES
Save the
Its that time of the year again, when the Kingfisher Calendar flaunts its bikini-clad models and Dabboo Ratnani unveils the top pick of Bollywood actors in his calendar
ON A SONG
Music director Nikhil Kamath, the man behind the poll campaign songs for Akhilesh Yadav, is making music with politicians again. This time he is jamming with Kapil Sibal. The minister came on board to pen the lyrics for a song in Aditya Oms forthcoming film Bandook while Kamath provided the music. Titled Tu Jaldi Batade, the song has already got over 81,000 hits on YouTube. An alternative career for Sibal?
FOTOCORP
Kanishtha Dharkar is a former Miss India and was a regular at fashion weeks from New York to Mumbai till she landed in the Kingfisher Calendar.
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New Kingfisher Calendar girl, Bengali model Kyra Dutta is already eyeing the film industry and may debut opposite Telugu actor Pawan Kalyan.
FALSE ALARM
International celebrities have often been declared dead in false reports but the trend comes closer home with a website reporting that Gul Panag died in a jet-ski accident in Turks and Caicos Islands. She was quick to respond on Twitter, Alive and kicking I am. But yes if I had to die it would be something like this. Or a bungee cord snapping. Good to know she is alive, and how shed like to go.
FOTOCORP
London-based lawyer, GoanPeruvian Elena Fernandes has also done lingerie modelling in New York and London before she shot for the Kingfisher Calendar.
WEEK
O F T H E
RGV shows me a rough cut of his latest Attacks of 26/11... stunned, shocked, angered... but choked with tears...! Amitabh Bachchan
WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?

Jacqueline Fernandes appeared at the Umang Police Show in Mumbai looking like she was trying for the part of a warrior princess in a B-grade film in what seem to be chainmail tights. She even went on to perform on stage in the ghastly ensemble. Is this her way of saying she isnt very fond of the Mumbai Police?
Priya Emmanuel, a former Miss Malaysia, is of Indian and Irish descent. Emmanuel, also a co-founder of a refugee education centre, debuts in the 2013 Kingfisher Calendar. Varun Dhawan, son of director David Dhawan, amazed Ratnani with his agility during the shoot.
DABBOO RATNANI
A QUIET AFFAIR
Who would have thought Ram Gopal Varma would have a discreet ceremony for daughter Revathis engagement to Pranav, a doctor, in Hyderabad? He would have got away with it too if it wasnt for Telugu director S.S. Rajamouli tweeting about it with Had the pleasure/privilege of watching @RGVzoomin playing a dutiful father at revathis reception. What a sight!!!! Ha ha ha.
DABBOO RATNANI
Alia Bhatts calendar debut made Dabboo Ratnani reminisce about Pooja Bhatt, her stepsister and the first actress he shot.
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YOGEN SHAH
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In the Spotlight
Suraj Sharma, 19, came out of the blue to make a phenomenal debut on the international screen as Pi in Ang Lees Life of Pi. And the lucky streak continues. He is the only male actor nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star award this year.
LOOK WHOS BACK

Nargis Fakhris was amongst the most awaited debuts of 2011. Scintillating pictures of her from the Kingfisher Calendar, an Imtiaz Ali film opposite Ranbir Kapoorshe had everything going for her.That was till Rockstar released. One look at the lack of coordination between her lips and facial expressions and no filmmaker wanted her. But her days of languishing on the side and being better known as Uday Chopras arm candy are finally over as Shoojit Sircar has cast her opposite John Abraham in Madras Caf. Just one piece of advice: No pouting please.
WHATS UP
American hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg, now Snoop Lion, will perform at Gurgaon on January 13. To support Save The Girl Child initiative,Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra joins Shankar Mahadevan and Sunidhi Chauhan for a music video titled Betiyaan.
Luck by Chance
Sunmeet Kaur Sawhney, 37, became the first woman to win the jackpot on Kaun Banega Crorepati, taking home a prize money of Rs 5 crore. A homemaker from Chandigarh, she has been living in Mumbai with her two daughters and actor-husband Manmeet Singh who has done small roles in Band Baaja Baarat and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.
WHATS DOWN
Vishal Bhardwaj.The director fell flat on his face while promoting his film Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola at a mall in Delhi. Pooja Bhatt had to file a police complaint after receiving obscene calls and threats on the phone.
PTI FOTOCORP
Over to Mom
Amrita Singh is gearing up for a busy year ahead. After picking a role in Atul Sabharwals Aurangzeb that has Arjun Kapoor in the lead, she is doing yet another film with the new actor. She plays Kapoors mother in Abhishek Vermans 2 States, based on Chetan Bhagats novel by the same name.
FOTOCORP
Compiled by Nishat Bari
64 Volume XXXVIII Number 3; For the week Jan 15-21, 2013, released from Friday onwards
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JANUARY 2013
Not for sale. To be circulated free with India Today in Mumbai, Delhi & NCR, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Supplement to India Today issue dated January 21, 2013
DCP No.: F. 2. (I - 20) Press / 2007
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
WEVE HAD ENOUGH
Roundtable talk on why its time to end sexual violence
RAISING THE BAR
Star litigator Pallavi Shroff on what it takes to make it
MOM
MILLION DOLLAR
With a series of endorsements and new films in her kitty MADHURI DIXIT is having the time of her life
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Face Value
With two big films releasing this year and a slew of endorsements in her kitty, actor Madhuri Dixit is on a roll
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Raising The Bar
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Walking, Tasting
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Bizzare Beauty
Leading corporate lawyer Pallavi Shroff talks about work, family and what it takes to be, and stay, the best.
Exploring a citys culinary history through food walks is fast finding many takers among tourists and locals alike.
From bird poop to snail slime, no ingredient is too weird for those determined to turn back the clock.
8 18 36 38 42 48
SNAPSHOTS CONVERSATIONS MOUTHPIECE STYLE SPEND IT LAST WORD
Harish Aggarwal, Naveen Gupta

Layout Execution: Ramesh Gusain Group Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga Group Synergy and Creative Officer: Kalli Purie Editor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie Editor: Kaveree Bamzai Assistant Editor: Sharla Bazliel Senior Correspondent: Supriya Sharma Photo Department: Reuben Singh (Deputy Photo Group Business Head: Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher: Anil Fernandes (Impact)
Volume 7 Number 1; January 2013
Copyright Living Media India Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Printed and published by Ashish Bagga on behalf of Living Media India Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd., 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana) and at A-9, Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, District Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001. India Today does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited publication material.
IMPACT TEAM
Senior General Managers: Kaustav Chatterjee
Editor), Rajwant Rawat, Chandradeep Kumar, Ved Pal (Photo Researcher)

Art Department: Ajit Bajaj (Art Director),
(East), V Somasundaram (Chennai), Jitendra Lad (West)

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Chetan Singh, Lilly Nandra

Production: Surinder Hastu (Chief of Production),
Please send your letters and suggestions to feedback.woman@intoday.com or via snail mail to India Today Woman, India Today Mediaplex, FC-8, Sector 16-A, Film City, Noida- 201301, (UP)
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THE JOY OF GIVING
Spare a thought for the less fortunate as you bundle up against the winter cold. You can donate blankets, bedsheets, woollens, stationery or even books. Have five minutes to spare? Call some of the numbers below and enquire if they could use some help: GOONJ J-93, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi Ph: 011- 26972351, 41401216 PRAYAS (juvenile home) 59, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi Ph: 011-29956244 011-29051103 Cheshire Homes Bethleham House, Mahakali Road Andheri (East) Mumbai Ph: 022-28324515 Thelma J R D Tata Anand Kendra Trust Dr A B Road Worli, Mumbai Ph: 022- 24922552 BOSCO - Yuvodaya 91, B Street, 6th Cross, Gandhinagar, Bangalore 560009 Ph: +918022253392
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QUESTIONS FOR LAKSHMI PRATURY

you an example of how an idea translated into concrete action. Sunita Krishnan runs an organisation called Prajwala in Hyderabad where they rescue women from prostitution and give them homes. Now these people keep getting evicted every 2-3 years as no community wants them as neighbours. Krishnan wanted to build a home for these women. Her talk was so inspiring that a person in the audience committed $10,000. And then 20 more people came forward to help. Eighteen months later, Krishnan built a 3-acre campus outside Hyderabad, where all the women now live.
Lakshmi Pratury co-hosted TEDIndia in 2009 and motivated by the response, founded The INK Conference in partnership with TED. A former marketer and entrepreneur, Pratury narrates how she found her calling in bringing great ideas, and people, together.
1. HOW DID INKTALKS HAPPEN? I have seen how TED has grown over the years and what an impact it has made. So I thought why not do something like that here with an Indian twist. Our goal is to inspire 4. BASED ON WHAT CRETERION the youth by introducing LAKSHMI PRATURY DO YOU SHORT-LIST SPEAKERS? them to new role models Over the years I have developed the instinct so that they can gain the confidence to try outto choose the right people to tell their story. of-the-box things. Im looking for whether the person behind the idea is passionate about creating an impact 2. IS INKTALKS THE INDIAN VERSION OF in the world. TED TALKS? We follow the ethos of TED in terms of time limits, crisp articulation and re5. SOME CRITICS SAY THESE FORUMS ARE hearsing with speakers, but at the same time JUST NETWORKING PLATFORMS WHERE we customise it to suit India and use different THE ELITE LET OFF A LOT OF HOT AIR. We formats. For instance, we try to make sure curate our audience to ensure the right balthere are enough rural speakers. At times, ance of ideas and people. Most of the people there are people with amazing ideas but they who attend INKtalks are accomplished and do may not be able to give a compelling 18-minute talk. So, we do more interviews than TED does. not need to network. I believe that by putting the talks out there we are creating a democracy of ideas. But no matter what you do in life 3. DO THESE IDEAS TRANSLATE INTO there will always be critics. REAL ACTION ON THE GROUND? I will give
Know your rights: Three facts every woman must know
A woman cannot be summoned to a police station for interrogation. Police can question a woman only at her house and that too only in the presence of her family and a woman constable. (Section 160, Criminal Procedure Code 1973)
According to a Supreme Court (SC) ruling a woman cannot be arrested after sunset. Even if there is a woman officer present, the arrest cannot be made unless the police have a written letter from a magistrate stating that the woman has committed a grave offence and arrest is necessary.
The SC has ruled that all employers must set up Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee.
by Supriya Sharma
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INDIA TODAY WOMAN JANUARY, 2013
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Huma Qureshi
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TOP 5 POPULAR NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS
1. Studies show that most people feel its important to make lifestyle changes in order to spend more time with friends and family. 2. Getting fit and losing weight is right at the top on everyones list. But few have the discipline to stay the course. 3. Making a concrete decision to quit smoking at the dawn of the new year is common but studies say only 1 in 5 smokers manage to kick the butt for good. 4. Tired of being in debt? Youre one of the many who have decided that this is the year to put your financial house in order. 5. Live in the present. Be Happy. Laugh.
My Book shelf A
n avid reader who claims she has more books than clothes, Huma Quereshi says her favourite author is Joyce Carol Oates. Its difficult for me to choose favourites as I keep going through phases. Right now Im reading a lot of autobiographies. Qureshi, who shot to fame playing a smalltown Muslim girl, Mohsina, in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) is a much-in-demand actor today. Next up she will be seen in the psychological thriller Ek Thi Daayan opposite Emraan Hashmi, produced by Vishal Bhardwaj and Ekta Kapoor and Nikhil Advanis D Day. Heres what shes reading now: THE GREATEST: MY OWN STORY The autobiography of Muhammed Ali
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Myth Buster
Older decision makers are more careful and organised as compared to those in a younger age group, a new study has revealed. Contrary to conventional wisdom that suggests cognitive function begins to decline in the mid-40s, a recent study by MetLife Mature Market Institute and the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas indicates that aging does not correlate with deteriorating ability to think for ourselves.
ITS NOT ABOUT THE BIKE: The autobiography of Lance Armstrong ESCAPE TO NOWHERE: STORY OF AN INDIAN ESPIONAGE AGENT By Amar Bhushan NORWEGIAN WOOD By Haruki Murakami MIDNIGHTS CHILDREN By Salman Rushdie
WHATS HOT
SPEAKING OUT The aam aurat now seems comfortable with the idea of speaking up to ensure her voice is heard. GEEK CHIC When will beautiful people stop wearing nerdy glasses? From the looks of it, not any time in the near future.
COLOUR BLOCKING Were glad to see the back of this annoying trend. The only person who could pull it off was Govinda, in the 80s.
WHATS NOT
HOAX CALLS No longer considered mischievous after the death of Nurse Jacintha, this prank now has few takers
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WITH TWO NEW FILM PROJECTS AND A SLEW OF ENDORSEMENTS IN HER KITTY, BOLLYWOOD ACTOR AND MOM-OF-TWO MADHURI DIXIT IS CLEARLY HAVING THE TIME OF HER LIFE. BY PRACHI REGE
illion Dollar Mom

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adhuri Dixit Nene walks into the room wearing a little black dress all ready to face a bank of cameras as part of her duties as the brand ambassador of Olay. Her hair is set in perfect place and her make-up is flawless. Between extolling the virtues of Regenerists Wrinkle Revolution which she recommends women her age use day and night she flashes her trademark smile and the assembled scribes, like her innumerable fans, melt as surely as an ice cube in summer. The 45-year-old, who was once the reigning queen of Bollywood in the 90s is back in focus once again. Now that she is done with judging the TV dance reality show Jhalak Dikhla Ja Season 5, she has moved on to other commitments, mainly endorsing a slew of big-ticket brands. For over 35 per cent of our market segment Madhuri Dixit is the It girl. With her huge fan following she brings with her a nostalgic edge to whatever she endorses. She charges anything between Rs 1 to 2 crore per brand, says Prahlad Kakkar, a leading ad film director. Post the launch ceremony and two hours of non-stop interviews and shoots for online videos later, Dixit is tired and jokes that she just wants to head straight home and relax. But a quick twominute-break later, she settles down on a couch ready to be interviewed. It wasnt like this back in the 90s. Actors hardly did any product endorsements, she says referring to todays hectic schedule. So how does it feel to be back in the limelight where actors are better known for the brands they represent than their films today? I love how organised and disciplined our entertainment industry has become of late, she points out, adding. Its a welcome change. Dixit says she likes to divide her time between working in television and films, The only thing is TV has a wider and farreaching viewership whereas films are a longer process, with a restricted audience, she says.
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Dixits rise to the top was partly due to her excellent skills as a dancer
Tezaab (1988) Ek do teen
MAGIC MOVES
Sailaab (1990) Hum ko aaj kal hai intezaar
Beta (1992) Dhak dhak karne laga Khalnayak (1993) Choli ke peeche kya hai Aaja Nachle (2007) Aaja nachle Pukar (2000) Ke sera sera
Devdas (2002) Maar Dala
Hum Apke Hai Kaun (1994) Didi Tera Devar Diwana
Anjaam (1994) Channe ke keth mein
She sounds almost amazed about the presence of bound film scripts, and that dialogues are rehearsed before you do the shot in front of the camera and there are set schedules for shooting the film. And yes the multiplexes just add to the variety an audience can get, she quickly adds. Although Indian audiences saw her only at sporadic intervals in films like Lajja, Devdas and Aaja Nachle after her marriage in 1999 to USbased cardiovascular surgeon Dr Shriram Nene, Bollywoods dancing diva is back after almost a decade. And this time around she seems all set to pursue a full-time career in films. Ask her why she decided to return lock-stock-and-barrel to India and she says, This is the best time to be here. Besides the booming economy, it is also the quality of our entertainment that has improved, says Dixit. But she clar14
ifies that the decision to return wasnt just about making a comeback in Hindi films but rather about providing her children Arin, 9, and Ryan, 7, roots in the city that has given her so much. I believe that being raised in Mumbai will broaden their horizons, unlike in Denver where they would have had an insular upbringing, says the doting mother, who when not busy with her appointments is happy to stay at home reading Eragon and Percy Jackson books to her sons. Dixit considers herself a combination of a hands-on and tiger mom who doesnt interfere much in her kids life. I want them to grow up to be independent individuals who can think and make decisions for themselves, she says. So is she looking for any signs of a potential actor in the next twenty years? I am not the kind who would look for any
signs. Both I and Shriram want them to be their own person, she says. Dixit was an unlikely candidate for stardom. She grew up a middle-class Maharashtra girl who wanted to study microbiology from Mumbai University and pursue a career as a genetic researcher. But post her Class 12th exams she signed up for an audition with Rajshri Productions just to explore her deep love for the art of acting. I firmly believed that if I passed the audition I had the talent in me to become a good actor, she says. This belief kept her going through a series of flops in the beginning of her career from 1984-87. The jinx was broken with the release of Tezaab in 1988 afterwhich there was no looking back. Madhuri aka Mohini stole the nations heart with the chartbuster number Ek do Teen. She credits her success to only one thing: hard work.
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YOGEN SHAH
BACK IN FOCUS: (Clockwise) Dixit with her co-stars Anil Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan; dancing with Saroj Khan, with her family everyone is asking these days: How does she manage to look so good at 45? Beauty depends on inner happiness. If you love what you do it will reflect on your face, she says. I dont have any strict beauty regime. I just use Olay day and night creams and think positive all the time, she adds. Dixit doesnt believe it is difficult for female actors over 40 to get meaty roles thanks to the changing mindset of Indian filmmakers and audiences who finally seemed to have warmed up to unconventional subjects and storylines. However, she says, actors above 40 need to be careful while selecting films so they can do justice to their role. Talent doesnt have an expiry date. Your ambitions are more important than your age which is just a number to label you with, she says. Kher seems to speak for many in the industry when he says, Madhuri is a sharp and intelligent actor who is in competition with herself. While the average age of heroines in the industry is getting younger by the day, Im sure she is going to redefine that trend with her forthcoming films.
When asked how she would describe her journey to the top of the Bollywood pile Dixit doesnt hesitate for a second: Work, work, work and more work, she says. But adds she considers herself lucky for having met and worked with some of the best people in the industry. I earned respect from the people I worked with because I gave my best to whatever I did, she says. Actor Anupam Kher, her co-star of several films agrees. We shared a great friendship while working together and it will be a pleasure to work with her again. She has an amazing sense of humour and is a delight to work with on the sets, he said. With her contemporary (and some say main competitor) Sridevi making a stellar return to the big screen with English Vinglish, this seems to be the season of comebacks; Dixit will be seen in two films in 2013. What made her sign Anubhav Sinhas Gulab Gang and Dedh Ishqiya, produced by Vishal Bharadwaj and directed by Abhishek Chaubey? I love playing strong characters that make a mark on the screen,
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says the actor who counts her role in Mrityudand (1997) among her favourites . Until then I was the baby of commercial cinema, she quips. Ask the dancing queen if she is nervous about her comeback and she says, There will be butterflies in my stomach for sure. But if Im a good actor I have to be one when I was 18, now and when Im 100 years old. Dixit is excited about sharing screen space with Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi in the much-anticipated sequel to Ishqiya in which she plays Shahi Begum who is fond of reciting Urdu poetry. When we finally get to the question
WHEN ASKED HOW SHE WOULD DESCRIBE HER JOURNEY TO THE TOP OF THE BOLLYWOOD PILE DIXIT DOESNT HESITATE FOR A SECOND: WORK, WORK, WORK AND MORE WORK.
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WOMEN ARE TIRED OF BEING TOLD TO POLICE THEMSELVES.

THE BRUTAL GANG-RAPE OF A 23-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN DELHI LED TO NATION-WIDE OUTRAGE. AS A SHAKEN GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES MEASURES AND REVIEWS LAWS, WE ASK FOUR EXPERTS WHAT STEPS CAN BRING ABOUT REAL AND LASTING CHANGE. BY SUPRIYA SHARMA
n the night of December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped and tortured by six men in a moving bus in the Capital. The gruesome incident sparked angry protests across India with the youth in Delhi pouring on to the streets to demand answers from the Government. The determined protesters braved water cannons, police lathis, tear-gas shells and stood their ground. Although the girl succumbed to her injuries after a 13-day struggle, she seems to have awakened young India to unite for a better future. We invited four professionals Kiran Bedi, social activist and a former police officer; Meenakshi Lekhi, Supreme Court advocate and activist who has handled several rape cases; Ayesha Kidwai, JNU professor and member of JNUs gender sensitisation committee against sexual harassment and Kamna Chhibber, who heads the department of clinical psychology at Fortis Hospital in Delhi to discuss
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the recent protests and define a practical way forward. Q. Why do you think this particular case resonated with so many? Kiran Bedi: I think the last two years have fortunately put citizens in the mode to protest. There have been several reasons for outrage and I think all this accumulated anger finally came to a tipping point. Besides, the brutality of this case was beyond anybodys acceptance. Im proud and glad that the youth have spoken up and they must not stop until we find solutions, which hasnt happened yet. Ayesha Kidwai: Its not a PLU issue, as many have claimed. You can call it the proverbial last straw. Also in this case, the victim had no political or cultural tags attached to her and the people who took to the streets, students from across city universities, identified with her. We are well into the 21st century and women are tired of
MAKING A POINT: (clockwise from left) Kiran Bedi, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ayesha Kidwai and Kamna Chhibber
being told to police themselves. Certainly the brutality shocked many but I also noticed that this protest became a means for the collective recounting of all the brutal rapes that we know about. Also the victim fought so bravely for her life until the very end. It was as if she was saying, dont fight for me, fight for yourself. This incredible message resonated with everyone. Kamna Chhibber: This is one of the first times everyone was able to relate to the victim; she was not only talking about herself, she was talking about a system. People suddenly realised that things were going out of hand and they said, enough is enough. Meenakshi Lekhi: The administration
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crime prevention plans or support and counselling to rape victims and their families. Most people dont know where to go and arent even aware that help is available. Meenakshi Lekhi: First of all we need reforms in place, at all levels from the law to administration and politics and even the judiciary which needs to be kept insulated from any intervention and political pressure. We need to fight stereotypes. As the dented painted comment showed people coming from supposedly erudite backgrounds can conduct themselves in a cheap and regressive manner. I feel serious changes are also needed in the public transport system. Nothing much has changed from 25-30 years ago. Then also college students carried com-
WE NEED TO FIGHT STEREOTYPES. AS THE DENTED PAINTED COMMENT SHOWED PEOPLE COMING FROM SUPPOSEDLY ERUDITE BACKGROUNDS CAN CONDUCT THEMSELVES IN A CHEAP MANNER.
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failed, the transport department is not performing, every day lakhs of women use public transport to get to work, whether its by metros or buses. They work day after day and put up with constant harassment. Their lives have become a kind of living hell and I think these protesters were responding and reacting to that. The fact that there were so many men in the crowd shows that men have also finally understood that it is no longer about women but a societal issue that affects us all. Q. Some possible solutions? Kiran Bedi: Its important to have crime prevention plans in place, which means setting up a primary social prevention model, bringing family and educational institutions into focus.
Universities need to educate and respond, families need to educate, prevent, and if need be, punish. If this still is not a deterrent enough then I advocate crime prevention where the police now takes over and then we have community policing and patrolling which hopefully prevents a ruffian from becoming a rapist. This is why some states have a Goonda Prevention Act, which acts as a check, ensuring an eve teaser is caught before he becomes a rapist. If we are talking about a crime which has already been committed then we need maximum punishment. Kamna Chhibber: Its important that this rage is channelised and the momentum is not lost. A proper system has to be put in place, whether it is
passes to protect themselves from rogue elements and the same happens today as well. Q. Are Delhi Police equipped to handle rape cases in terms of training and sensitisation? Kiran Bedi: Before one speaks of police reform what about family reform? Are families equipped? Has anyone told parents: handle your boys? Ive not heard one appeal. Why should we tell girls to go for self-defence classes? Why arent mothers and fathers and teachers of boys not told to educate and counsel them instead, find out whats psychologically troubling them. The police should be handling only 10 per cent of the fallout not 100 per cent. The police is like a frog in the ocean, theres only so much
JANUARY, 2013 INDIA TODAY WOMAN
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they can do. It is only when the police is fully supported by the community before a crime takes place and supported by the courts afterwards, that they can do their job well and make real change possible. The police is just one spoke in the wheel of justice. But I do feel that its time there is an independent impartial CAG for the police and the courts. There needs to be an annual social audit for these public services. Until this happens we will continue to debate and discuss, but find no long-term solutions. Ayesha Kidwai: The police are definitely not equipped mostly because sexual crimes against women have been given very short shrift by our lawmakers. Its been sixty-five years since Independence and we still dont have a law on sexual molestation or sexual assault passed by the Parliament. The statistics in NCR are troubling out of every 100 complaints made by women, only 10-15 per cent go from police diary to FIR of which 26 per cent is your conviction rate, so certainly there is a great apathy in our political class. About 25,000 rapes happen in India every year (these are the recorded ones that is the FIRs). According to police, 96 per cent of the accused are known to the victim. But if they are known to the victim why are they not apprehended? That means cases like the one that we are discussing today, falls in the 4 per cent category. When the police has no established protocol to handle cases where the victim knows the accused, how are they going to handle cases where the accused is a stranger? Also its bizarre that only the rape victim, who has just been physically violated, has to undergo another physical violation during the medical examination while the accused, does not have
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to undergo a physical examination despite the fact that his body should show signs of resistance as well. Another shocking statistic is that in 2009-10, the government allocated only 53.5 crore for the rehabilitation of rape victims. By 2010-11 the figure had come down to 7.5 crores out of which only 9 lakh was spent and the rest of the money was returned. So the government spent Rs 42 per rape victim. So while police reforms are essential, we need to ask where is the political will? Q. Could the protests have been handled better by the police? Kiran Bedi: All the Delhi Commisioner of Police had to say to the protestors was: I am assuring you the LG and CM will come and speak to you and so will I. Here are the buses, lets move to the Ram Lila grounds, we are there to speak to you. But that didnt happen. Q. Will it always take a case like this for the government to sit up and take notice? Why is our so government apathetic? Ayesha Kidwai: The young women on the street have broadened the debate on rape. Instead of just speaking about sexual assault they have tried to establish that there is a chain sexual harassment, an institutional and public tolerance of sexual harassment, and an incitement to sexual violence. Sixty years ago if an incident of this kind of happened Im quite confident that political leaders would have joined the protest, they would have sat on dharna and said look we cant tackle this sort of thing by policing and laws alone. This government should have been sitting with us, not acting against us. Meenakshi Lekhi: It was important
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for politicians to meet the protestors. The huge disconnect between the polity and the public was highlighted during these protests. Q.How do we bring about a change in the social mind-set? Ayesha Kidwai: One part of changing mind-sets is quite simply to allow young people to love; they have been told time and again that if they do make their own choices in love, they will be killed. Mothers and fathers are exercising control over their childrens sexuality. There is a huge transformation taking place in this society and that change should be acknowledged. The government still hasnt pushed the womens reservation bill through because they dont want women in public spaces. Most people are content to see women in the home or
Its time there is an independent, impartial CAG for the police and the courts. Until this happens we will continue to debate and discuss, but find no long-term solutions.
KIRAN BEDI, Former cop and social activist
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hasnt stopped murders from taking place. The only thing that will work as a true deterrent is for a speedy trial to take place. The only time a speedy trial on rape took place was for a German tourist (Biti Mohanty case, who has now absconded) in 16 days. If death penalty is not made in the rarest of rare case, then the 96 per cent of women who know the accused may no longer come forward to complain as they would not want to be responsible for the death of their father, uncle or cousin. Most of the changes in our law in favour of women have actually been possible due to rape survivors like Bhanwari Devi etc. If rapists knew that they would be
SPEAKING UP: Women protesters at Raisina Hill in Delhi
SIXTY YEARS AGO IF AN INCIDENT OF THIS KIND OF HAPPENED IM SURE THAT POLITICAL LEADERS WOULD HAVE JOINED THE PROTEST, THEY WOULD HAVE SAT ON DHARNA AND SAID LOOK WE CANT TACKLE THIS SORT OF THING BY POLICING AND LAWS ALONE.
killed for their crime then they would ensure the victims dont survive. So in a way by asking for capital punishment we are signing the death warrant of rape victims. Kamna Chhibber: Justice should be delivered swiftly, whether it is a death penalty that is awarded or a life imprisonment. Death penalty should be given depending on the circumstances of case. Kiran Bedi: Death penalty should be given for such gruesome crimes. The trial should be time-bound and the death sentence executed while the case is still fresh in the minds of people.
Watch excerpts of the conversation at www.indiatoday.in/women-safety 21
working as domestic workers, but it is these women who are most vulnerable to abuse. Among those women who do work, many face sexual harassment. Everyone should congratulate these youngsters for raising such important questions and now the government must play a socially enabling role and laws must be put in place so women can go and reclaim what they have. Its time for the administration to respond. Kamna Chhibber: Our education system is failing our children, our system doesnt encourage debate or discussion even about on-campus issues like bullying. If children arent taught about personal boundaries and social behaviour in school or by their parents of course he is going to go out in public and make a nuisance of him-
self. There is a lot of desensitisation happening, whether in the media or on the internet as a result there is a lack of awareness of consequences among the youth. Also, we need to create awareness about what kind of punishment has been meted out to the perpetrators, so that people know that there are consequences attached to acts of aggression and violence. Ayesha Kidwai: The media should cover rape trials and not just incidents of rape. Q. Is capital punishment the answer? Meenakshi Lekhi: Death penalty should be given in any case where a woman has been grievously injured. Ayesha Kidwai: Death penalty has been given to murderers as well but that
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Pallavi Shroff at her New Delhi office
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FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS PALLAVI SHROFF HAS PROVIDED LEGAL ADVICE TO INDIAS HIGH AND MIGHTY. IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, THE STAR SOLICITOR TALKS ABOUT WORK, FAMILY AND WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED AT BOTH. BY SUPRIYA SHARMA
t took four months of exhaustive work for Pallavi Shroff and her team to put the Satyam-Tech Mahindra deal together. Most had written the IT firm off, but it managed to prove everyone wrong and recuperate under a new leadership. The Satyam case was a big challenge for me which I so enjoyed, says Shroff, 56. It was particularly special as it was one of the few cases on which my husband Shardul and I worked together. The couple headed a team of legal advisers appointed by the Government-nominated board of directors of Satyam Computer Services Limited. From advising and assisting the company on the sale of a controlling stake and induction of a strategic investor to putting the entire bid process together and securing loans, Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co assisted the beleaguered company on all critical matters. The case threw up fresh challenges everyCHANDRADEEP KUMAR/www.indiatodayimages.com
Raising theBar
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day, but what Shroff still finds bemusing to this day is how greed can make smart people self-destructive. It still amazes me how individual greed can be so great that you destroy something which you built yourself, says Shroff. Though she remembers the Satyam case as one of her most satisfying accomplishments, Shroff has a number of highprofile representations (Coca-Cola, Indian Oil Corporation) to her credit. She has received several awards for her work and is counted among the best corporate lawyers in the country today. Yet she wears her success lightly. My father-in-law Suresh Shroff taught me that one should learn to put ones success in a box and forget about it. Thats done. If you rest on past laurels you will never grow is what he used to say, she recalls. Today a senior partner at Amarchand & Mangaldas, Shroff says while growing up she had no plans to become a lawyer even though her
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THREES COMPANY: Shroff with her daughters Shweta and Natashaa (left) father was former Chief Justice of India P.N. Bhagwati. He wanted her to study law, but placed no pressure on her so Shroff pursued an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute in Mumbai after graduating in economics. It was only after I was engaged to Shardul that I realised that law was a very time consuming profession. Since I always wanted to work I felt being in the same profession as my husband would help me understand him better and hopefully allow us to spend more time together. But that doesnt happen though, she laughs. But I am happier for having joined this profession. Soon after marrying into a family of high-profile lawyers, Shroff found she had a lot to live up to. When she started her career in 1981, law wasnt exactly considered an ideal profession for women who had to put their careers on hold to run homes and raise children. One had to work extra hard to be taken seriously, she says. There were sceptics and critics to be won over not just among the clients, who preferred her husband over her, but even some judges who put little faith
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in a woman counsel. Clients would tell me oh we will wait for Mr Shroff and they would wait for hours. But Shardul would tell them, No, Pallavi has been assigned this case, and only she will handle it. Like most women who choose to build a career, Shroff, too, divided her time between home and office and she tells you frankly that it wasnt a cakewalk. Work-life balance is a day-today struggle. If anybody tells you Oh I manage beautifully and keep aside these many hours for work and these many hours for family, it is utter rubbish. You have to make some sacrifices; I cut out my social life completely, she says. Instead I tried
IT IS A DAILY STRUGGLE TO FIND A WORK-LIFE BALANCE. IF ANYBODY TELLS YOU OH I MANAGED BEAUTIFULLY, IT IS UTTER RUBBISH. YOU HAVE TO MAKE SOME SACRIFICES; I CUT OUT SOCIALISING
to spend all my free time with my daughters. Few women have to contend with a situation in which your husband is also your colleague but Shroff has managed this balancing act as well, which must have brought its own share of challenges. Did they often disagree? We always disagree, laughs Shroff, that is never an issue. There are a few things to keep in mind when you are both in the same profession. You need to respect each other if you work together. If you dont, it is not possible to get along. You must give space to each other and support each other for your respective careers to flourish. The fact that her husband handles the corporate and commercial divisions and she heads the litigation team helps. This way I can offer objective advice to him on matters without becoming too involved and likewise so can he, she says. That Shroff loves art and is an avid collector is quite evident once you enter her firms tastefully decorated Delhi office where a series of eclectic paintings define the decor. But not
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who need it. We have CCTV cameras in the crche that are connected to the laptops of the mothers. This way they can check on their children every now and then. But beyond these facilities, Shroff says no other special treatment is accorded to women employees and she expects them to work as hard as the men, if not more. When there is no distinction in the allocation of work and I am treating both sexes at par, I expect the quality of work to be at par too, she says. Shroff feels grit and determination are essential qualities for women to make it big in the legal profession. You have to stick it out and be dogged. And you cannot afford to be erratic in your performance. You have to be there day in and day out because it is still a mans world. If you are not there one day, people will say Oh, her kid must be sick. It is very easy for men to be dismissive and write off a woman. I had to work very hard to prove that I was as good as the rest and I still work hard. On the subject of liberalising the legal sector, Shroff says she is not against the move as such but feels that it should be done in a phased manner. The Government should ensure that the Indian legal profession becomes more competitive and can stand up to global competition. For starters, the fetters placed on law firms in India should be done away with. Look at the restriction on the size of the firms. We cannot have more than 20 partners, we cannot advertise, we cannot put our names in the directory. Remove these. Create a level playing field, she says. Talking about her firms plans for the future, Shroff says the goal certainly is to grow. Amarchand Mangaldas opened offices in Ahmedabad and Chennai this year. The firm has over 800 employees at present and plans to touch a 1,000 by 2017. It is not an easy thing to do while maintaining the standards and ethics of the firm and given the current dip in the market. But for 2013 our motto will definitely be growth, she signs off.
TWO-GETHER Shroff with her husband Shardul many people know that Shroff is also a trained Kathak dancer. I first learnt Kathak from Kumudini Lakhia in Ahmedabad for ten years and then for three years from Birju Maharaj after that. I used to perform in their dance troupes while in college, she says. Shroff unwinds by cooking and gardening and loves spending time with her two-year-old grandson Yohan. Shroffs daughters Shweta, 31, and Natashaa, 28, are also lawyers who work for the firm. While Shweta (a partner) handles competition law, Natashaas (a senior associate) field of practice is private equity. With the entire family in the same profession, Shroff says it is often hard to separate home life from the office. Shop talk is not banned at our dinner table, says Shroff. I do try to dicuss other subjects with my family, but sometimes its impossible. Either there is much joy because we got a good order or you want to share some achievement with the family. And sometimes there are usual work issues that need to be discussed. You cant be all gung-ho at work and then
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go home and completely switch off, she points out. On the question of the fourth generation of Shroffs taking charge, Shroff maintains her children will first have to prove themselves. They started from the scratch like everyone else. Even the partnership wasnt handed down to them on a platter. They had to earn it, so leadership would be tougher, she says. Having faced these particular hardships years ago, Shroff says she has ensured that her firm provides an enabling environment for its women employees. We have a crche for children of employees, a concierge service, and a flexi-time option for those
YOU HAVE TO BE THERE DAY IN AND DAY OUT BECAUSE IT IS STILL A MANS WORLD. IT IS VERY EASY FOR MEN TO BE DISMISSIVE AND WRITE OFF A WOMAN. I HAD TO WORK VERY HARD TO PROVE MYSELF
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Photographs by RAJWANT RAWAT/www.indiatodayimages.com
All aboard: Foodies on an Old Delhi food walk organised by Delhi By Foot
Tasting
WHAT BETTER WAY TO DISCOVER A CITY AND ITS CUISINE THAN TO SIGN UP FOR A FOOD WALK. BY SUPRIYA SHARMA
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Walking,
group of people are standing in a huddle outside Gate No 3 of the Chawri Bazaar Metro station in Old Delhi. Oblivious to the hustle and bustle characteristic of the Old City, they listen with rapt attention as a man in the centre explains how the architecture of Asias biggest market reflects its rich history. This was not intended to be a bazaar. These were the havelis and houses of nawabs who were driven out by the British after the Revolt of 1857, he says. In keeping with their divide and rule policy and to further humiliate the Muslims, the British moved Hindu merchants, Marwaris and Jains from Rajasthan into this area. They then set up businesses here, he explains. You may be forgiven for thinking you have stumbled upon a group of tourists
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The Delicacies of Old Delhi: (clockwise from left) Haji Muhammad Hussain Chicken and Fish Fry, Shyam Sweets and Hiralal Chaat Corner.
exploring the city with a trusted guide. In fact this is a group of hard-core foodies who are enjoying a history lesson or two while wolfing down plates of the unusually crunchy Kalmi Vade Ki Chaat from the famous Ashok Chaat Corner. Once done, they move on to savour another decades-old delicacy of the area Bade Mian Ki Kheer. These foodies are on a food and heritage walk organised by Delhi By Foot. And they have a lot of eating and walking to do this afternoon as they explore the cuisine and bylanes of Chawri Bazaar. Food walks are a unique way to explore a city and its culture and are fast becoming a rage. The idea finds favour not only with tourists eager to explore a new city, but even locals eager to rediscover their citys culinary heritage. Delhi with its rich history and culture
is home to a wide variety of cuisines and can perhaps boast of having the maximum number of food walks in the country. Started in September 2011 by Asif Khan and Ramit Mitra, Delhi By Foot initially organised weekly heritage walks but soon, on popular demand, arranged a monthly food walk. We make our food walk announcements through our Facebook page, and now a website is in
FOOD WALKS ARE A UNIQUE WAY TO EXPLORE A CITY. THE IDEA FINDS FAVOUR NOT ONLY WITH TOURISTS, BUT EVEN LOCALS EAGER TO RE-DISCOVER THEIR CITYS CULINARY HERITAGE
the works, says Khan, a student of history. The size of the group depends upon the number of people who show up on that particular day, which could range from 15 to 35 people for the four-hour walk. We charge Rs 700 for vegetarians while non-vegetarians have to shell out Rs 850, says Khan. Food spots are decided through a process of trial and error. We ourselves first explore the market and try food at various stalls. The aim is to always include new experiences for the tour participants, says Mitra. The food walks organised by art curator Himanshu Verma of Red Earth in Old Delhi and Paharganj are also quite popular. Old Delhi is a treasure trove of food, spices and fabrics. With some establishments being as old as 60 to 200 years, the area offers food items not
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Mistress of spices: Deepa Krishnan (in sari) on a tour of the spice market in Null Bazaar, Mumbai. available in other parts of the city, explains Verma. Similarly, Paharganj has a variety of foods on offer thanks to its cosmopolitan nature. This is where all the foreign tourists hang-out so you get to try all sorts of international cuisines. From Amritsari naan to Korean cuisine to German confectionary, it is all available in Paharganj. Encouraged by the response he has received,Verma now plans to start more food walks in Lajpat Nagar, Karol Bagh and Green Park this year. Foreign tourists do join these walks on rare occasions but Vermas customers are mostly Delhiites or expats who have lived in the Capital city for years. Verma conducts these walks himself and charges Rs 1,500 for a 4-hour walk. Other than informal food walks around the city, there are also groups that organise regular and customised tours, which cater mostly to expats and foreign tourists. Delhi Food Adventure and Delhi Food Tours (DFT) are two of the best known ones in Delhi. Started by Prashant and Ayesha Kalra in January 2011, who worked as a
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lawyer and a corporate trainer before they quit their jobs to work on their food venture full-time, DFT guides tourists around the city, allowing them to savour different types of Indian cuisines. This is a personalised tour. Guests are asked beforehand about their food allergies and preferences, says Kalra. They are picked up from their hotel and taken to different eateries across the city. We also organise a tea-tasting ceremony under the guidance of professional tea taster, says Kalra. The tour lasts for three to four hours depending on how much the guests can eat. The tour costs Rs 4,000 per person and includes transport, food and non-alcoholic drinks. Old Delhi does not feature very highly on their food map as most foreign tourists are unwilling to try out street food due to hygiene issues. While food walks in Delhi find takers around the year, those in Chennai reach a fever pitch in December dur-
WHILE FOOD WALKS IN DELHI FIND TAKERS AROUND THE YEAR, THOSE IN CHENNAI REACH A FEVER PITCH IN DECEMBER DURING THE MUSIC SEASON
ing the music season. Music halls here hold Carnatic music fests from December to mid-January. We organise Sabha trots around this time, relishing breakfast, lunch and dinner at different canteens, says GVS Mani, member, Chennai Food Guide. Canteens in music halls are run by specialised food caterers of Chennai during December till Pongal in January where they serve the old, rare and now forgotten delicacies of Tamil Nadu at economical prices, says Mani, a marketing and business development head with a company in the city. The canteen-hopping group comprises of usually 10-20 people who split the bill. The trotting programme is announced through the groups Facebook forum. During the rest of the year, Chennai Food Guide organises food walks in places like Parrys Corner or Mylapore or T Nagar. While Mylapore has eateries serving typical south Indian food, Parrys Corner with its Rajasthani, Gujarati and Marwari joints offers a wider variety from dhoklas to pheplas and kulfi, says Mani. The Chennai Food Guide was started in 2004 by hardcore foodies Mohammed Ali and Nishanth and has over 9,000 members at present. The
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forum also works as a database of information about restaurants and eateries in the city. It is a one-stop shop to know all about the Chennai food scene, says Mani. If you need a caterer for an event, just post your query and you will be flooded with references in no time, he adds. Magic Tours started by Deepa Krishnan provides two walks in Chennai and a day trip to Mamallapuram. Krishnan, who provides food-related tours in eight cities, started her journey with Chennai Magic back in 2004 when she moved to the city with her family and launched the Filter Coffee Tours. Krishnan, who completed a masters in business administration from IIM Calcutta, was a banking consultant before she quit in 2008 to focus solely on Magic Tours. She is based in Mumbai but has teams in each of the cities on the Magic Tours map. Krishnan sensed a business opportunity when she took her international corporate guests around Chennai. She frequently found herself fielding questions on Indian history and architecture and began reading up on these subjects. When she moved to Mumbai with her husband in 2007, she started the Mumbai Magic chapter. Magic Tours conducts food walks through Matunga market, Ranade and Dadar market in the city. We do food-related tours in Agra, Delhi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, Chennai. Even what we call our bazaar walks are in largely about food, says Krishnan. These walks are mostly conducted by local women and a few talented men, says Krishnan, who like sharing their culture and cuisine with visitors. Some are specialists, like our resource person for the Story of Chai Tea Trail. Some are cookbook writers, food critics, or just plain foodies who love to experiment with food. Next, Krishnan plans to start food trails in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Krishnan feels food walks are becoming popular as the very nature of travel is changing. People want more immersive experiences. For example,
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Gastronomic delight: Kulle Ke Chaat from Hiralal Chaat Corner in Old Delhi. India is associated with many rich smells spices, incense, sandalwood, the fresh smell of coriander as you walk around a market. When you stop and linger to experience these fragrances, then you are really seeing the country. Walking through a local bazaar, embracing it with all your senses, is the most elemental way of immersing yourself in a new culture, says Krishnan. And not just food tours, Krishnans Magic Tours also entails an engaging story of chai. A lot of the food walks in Delhi are just the usual ghisa-pita Old Delhi street food tasting masquerading as a cuisine tour. Whereas the Story of Chai has real content, real expertise and depth. And it is something travel agents typically dont offer. So tourists like the idea. We are now offering this tour in both Mumbai and Delhi, says Krishnan. Food consultant and writer Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal also conducts spice tours in Mumbai. She started Masala Trails with her Melbourne-based sister three years ago. I always wanted to do something related to food trails for the expat traveller. We currently have fourfive tours in Mumbai. Ghildiyal focuses mainly on expats and foreign nationals interested in Indian cooking, spices and ingredients. Masala Trails conducts Tadka Workshops and also does market tours to introduce the travellers to Indian cooking and the basic recipes. The street food walks usually cost Rs 1,500 depending on the area in which it is being held. Ghildiyal also launched a cooking studio in August last year where participants are given hands-on training by a specialist. Food tours are the easiest way to understand the culture of a place. And it helps when you have a local taking you around, she says. So what drives this enthusiasm to pay up to learn about the food culture of a city? Our clientele comprises of overseas visitors to India, including chefs, foodies, or anyone who wants to learn about India and Indian communities through regional cuisine. For many overseas visitors who have business partnerships in India these walks offer a chance to learn more about the country and what makes it tick, Krishnan explains. And for the home-bred food enthusiasts, it is the joy of rediscovering their city that draws them to these walks. I love food and with a little bit of history and culture thrown in, it sounded like a lot of fun. Also, such excursions are a great way to meet new people and make like-minded friends, says Anshul Bajaj, a firsttimer on the Delhi By Foot food walk.
WALKING THROUGH LOCAL BAZAARS, EMBRACING IT WITH ALL YOUR SENSES, IS THE MOST ELEMENTAL WAY OF IMMERSING YOURSELF IN A NEW CULTURE, SAYS KRISHNAN
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WorldMags.net BEAUTY
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Squalene Ambergris
TRULY BIZARRE COSMETIC INGREDIENTS

WHEN IT COMES TO FIGHTING AGEING MANY WOMEN WILL TRY ANYTHING, INCLUDING TURNING TO COSMETICS THAT CONTAIN THE MOST BIZARRE ANIMAL BY-PRODUCTS
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or shark liver oil. A common ingredient used in scores of cosmetic products from lip balm to sunscreen, squalene is easily absorbed into the skin and it is said to improve its appearance. The most common use appears to be in facial moisturiser.
also known as whale vomit. Throughout history ambergris has been used as a food flavouring, an aphrodisiac and incense, and today is a popular fixative in perfume. One of the worlds most popular and iconic perfumes, Chanel No. 5, is said to still list ambergris as one of its key ingredients.
> >B E AU T Y
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Guanine
also known as fish scales, is used by many beauty firms to add luster to products such as nail polish. Brands who use guanine in their products include Maybelline. Look for the words CI 75170 on the back of your shampoo or nail polish bottle.
Snail Slime
Escargot/Snails mucus is a new miracle beauty treatment whose success has inspired several beauty companies in South America to come out with a Escargot line of products. Snail slime is said to contain enzymes which treat skin problems such as acne, blemishes and also prevent wrinkles.
Nightingale Poop
Aka the Geisha Facial, the use of Nightingale bird droppings as a beauty cream goes back centuries to a time when Japanese entertainers used a mask containing Nightingale droppings as a remedy to soothe skin damaged from the high level of lead in their white makeup. Todays modern version which comes in a jar is a huge hit especially with stars such as Tom Cruise.
Cow Dung
Its been used since ancient times in skin care products and today you can find cow dung in the pricey Crme de la Mer skin care line. Recently scientists in Japan announced they had found a way to produce a vanillascented fragrance out of cow dung by heating it under high pressure.
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34 56 78 910
Bee Venom
Also known as the Camilla facelift after the Duchess of Cornwall who is a fan, bee venom facials are considered the latest it thing in the world of beauty treatments. Thought to be an organic alternative to Botox, cosmeticians claim that the venom stimulates the production of collagen.
Snake Venom
Used by the likes of Cheryl Cole, Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss, snake venom serum is a popular cosmetic craze. Most serums contain syn-ake (a new peptide inspired by viper venom) which claims to firm skin, erase wrinkles and imitates the effects of Botox. It retails for Rs 9,000 online.
Human Placenta
The human placenta is high in protein and minerals and also contains amino acid glycine which is said to give skin a healthier and younger appearance and help stimulate tissue growth and reduce wrinkles. Pop divas Madonna and Jennifer Lopez are said to be huge fans of placenta-tissue facials.
Bull Semen
Want shiny healthy-looking hair? Try to get hold of some bull semen which is supposed to provide amazing results. Bull sperm is also used in beauty products and some European salons offer bull semen hair conditioning treatments to clients.
by Mary Rai
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HPIECE > >M O U TWorldMags.net
Marriage
FORGET 3G AND 2G, THE MOTHER OF ALL SCAMS HAS ONLY ONE G AND IT IS CALLED MARRIAGE. BY MARY E. JOHN
Working The Shift
hether or not they work, marriages are mostly about work. But this does not seem likely at first glance. Violence, as in honour killings, for example, is a far more traumatic issue and gets a lot more attention. The most recent case may be exceptional because of the link to Aamir Khans show Satyamev Jayate, but it is part of a depressingly familiar story. Marriages that incur the wrath of kin and community provoke threats, harassment and all too frequently, murder. It is not only in states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that couples are losing their lives because of whom they want to marry. Some months ago an honour killing was reported in Karnataka, where a girl was killed by her own father for having secretly married a boy from a lower caste. And lest we think only backward rural families do such things, let us remind ourselves that the dowry deaths and bride burnings that made headlines
in the 1980s happened in metropolitan cities. Nowadays this sort of crime is buried in the inside pages, but that need not mean that it is any less frequent. There is nothing medieval about such crimes. The killing of a couple for choosing to marry against community norms is no more or no less barbaric than burning a young bride with kerosene because her family cannot meet escalating dowry demands. Both highlight the extraordinary levels of violence that modern marriage and family relations are capable of. Moreover, this is not an oriental
STATISTICS SAY 85% OF INDIAN WOMEN, HOWEVER LONG OR HARD THEY MAY BE WORKING, WHETHER AT HOME OR OUTSIDE ARE DEPENDENT ON THEIR MARITAL FAMILIES FOR THEIR LIVELIHOOD
but a global phenomenon the statistics on spousal violence and women being killed in their homes in the United States are no lower than ours. But despite its obvious importance, I believe that violence should not be our main focus in understanding contemporary marriage. By paying most attention to acts of violence, we run the risk of believing that this is the real problem. This then encourages us to think that a marriage without explicit violence is the solution. But to think thus is to remain blind to the greatest challenges faced by the institution of marriage today. Simply put, marriage is mandatory for women in countries like ours. This means that as a compulsory norm, marriage is the destiny of Indian women. (Only about 2 per cent of adult women have never been married.) But though it is a norm for men as well, marriage has very different implications for men than for women, and the differences have to do with the realm of work, whether inside or outside the home.
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BARELY 15% OF INDIAN WOMEN ARE ENGAGED IN ANY KIND OF PAID WORK, THAT IS, WORK FOR WHICH WAGES OR SALARIES ARE GIVEN
Even those of us who are otherwise well informed have hardly any inkling about the enormous disparities between men and women when it comes to the work that they do. Though this information is publicly available, I wonder how many readers are aware that barely 15 per cent of Indian women are engaged in any kind of paid work, that is, work for which wages or salaries are given. If almost all women must marry, and if only 15 per cent can find paid work, then marriage is the only job that the vast majority of women can hope to get. Given the average age of marriage, women would spend most of their adult life in marriage. This means that 85 per cent of Indian women, however long or hard they may be working whether at home or outside, are dependent on their marital families for their livelihood. Dependence is further intensified by the near absence of any actual inheritance
rights for women. So, while almost all men are also expected to work and to marry, work comes first for them, in the sense that it both precedes and is more important than marriage. It is only against this background that we can see just how allencompassing marriage is for women. Whether considered in economic, social, or psychological terms, marriage is the defining horizon for most girls in contemporary India; it is their only future. But such a broad strokes picture can also mislead. Once we look more closely at what kinds of jobs are available to women and which women are entirely dependent on marriage, a rather unusual pattern emerges. At the bottom are the poor women who have to work to survive and are often the breadwinners on whom their families depend. Then there is a large majority, which includes women from a wide range of classes, who are dependent on their fami-
lies because they lack paid employment. Only at the very top of the spectrum do we find a small proportion of women who have jobs and careers that can, at least theoretically, offer independence. If the media is to be believed, women are finding ample opportunities in IT, in export industries, in entertainment and in the media itself. But the numbers speak otherwise in urban India the only two significant sources of employment for women are as school teachers or domestic servants. In spite of all the hype about its diversification and its rates of growth, the Indian economy in the twenty-first century is reinforcing conventional views about a womans place being in the home. Forget 3G and 2G the mother of all scams has only one g and it is called marriage. John is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Womens Development Studies in New Delhi.
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Cover Up
Grace Avenue Trench Coat ` 12,000
Nothing says January like a warm winter coat thats as comfortable as it is stylish.
Finding the perfect winter coat is less trouble than it may seem but there are some factors that come into play. When selecting a coat ask yourself whether its for office use or casual wear. Choose a coat with clean lines in a sober colour like black or brown if you expect to wear it to work everyday. For casual use, choose from a range of colours and styles to find the perfect staple which will get you through those cold winter days.
Price on Request
BURBERRY
TOMMY HILFIGER
Arkansas Shearling Long Coat ` 10,000
` 1,70,000
ZARA
Leopard Print and Colour Block Coat, ` 9,990
BENETTON
AW12 UCB Woman ` 9,999
Structured Coat with Frills ` 5,990
AW12 UCB Woman ` 12,999
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Compiled by Supriya Sharma
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` 14,000 ` 8,000
Turquoise pendant `7,650
Silver and glass pendant `5,400
Amrapali
Turquoise and Marcasite Pendant `5,400
Vasundra Mantri
`8,500
Purple Agate Necklace, `4,500
Making a Statement
Worn over a sweater, a chunky neckpiece is a great accessory to have especially during winter
Mansi Choksi Zariin

Blue Topaz Gold Necklace ` 4,80 Made by M ` 3500
Green Pink Agate Gold Necklace, ` 9,600
Made by M ` 3300
Made by M ` 4000
Compiled by Supriya Sharma
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WorldMags.net IT
SITTING PRETTY Braided Rug, ` 6,999 Raitan Ikat cushion, ` 825 15 Raitan Lampshade, ` 2,990 15 Raitan Blue Striped cushion, ` 1,150 -15 Raitan Printed cushion, ` 875 15 Raitan Red Striped cushion, ` 1,150 -15 Raitan Floor Cushion, ` 3,215 Red Glass Luminary, ` 380 -Star Shaped glass Votive part of Box of Ornaments, ` 999 On Suzanne: Dress-Donna Karan; shoes-Jimmy Choo
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SIMPLY SUZZANE
FASHION IS ALL ABOUT FEELING CONFIDENT IN WHAT YOU WEAR, SAYS SUSSANE ROSHAN. THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF A NEW ONLINE HOME ACCESSORIES BRAND CALLED THE HOME LABEL, TALKS ABOUT HER STYLE MANTRA, AND HOW TO KEEP IT SIMPLE, ELEGANT AND STYLISH
Text by PRACHI REGE Photographs by SHIVANGI KULKARNI
FFORTLESS IS THE ONE WORD that comes to mind when Sussane Roshan thinks of style. To be comfortable and confident in your everyday world, thats what style means to me, she explains, making it a point to add that she isnt an actor or a model so she doesnt believe in dolling up. Im a business woman, she states firmly. Two years after the launch of her store The Charcoal Project, Roshan is excited about her latest venture as creative director of The Label Corp, a start up holding company for lifestyle e-commerce brands which has launched its first private label brand in the home dcor space: www.thehomelabel.com. The Label Corp will soon launch another label but youll have to wait to see with whom and how, she says when asked about her future plans. Meanwhile, there are expansion plans in the offing for The Charcoal Project as well so it looks like 2013 will truly be an exciting year for Roshan. A doting mother of two, Roshan says, My boys are like my left artery and right artery they energise me, and make me the person I am. So which one is a Mammas boy and which ones taken after Daddy? Hrehaan is more like Hrithik, very focused and hard working, with a heart of gold. Whereas my younger son Hridaan is, completely like me, a victim of a curious mind and spontaneous. When it comes to unwinding after a hard days work, Roshan says she loves to doodle and sketch. Most of my ideas come to me while Im alone with my notepad and a pencil, she says with a smile. Ask her what it is it to be Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshans wife and she quips, My work, my family and my husband keep me busy and I havent had time to dwell on this question. But now that youve asked me, maybe Ill think about it when Im away on holiday.
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WorldMags.net S P E N D
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IT
AFTER GLOW Antique Gold Tray, ` 1,898 Infinite Reflection box, ` 1,950 Red Wine Glasses, ` 1,500 Pattiyaan Wall Art, ` 7,999 Glass Decanter and glass set, ` 560 Dress-Christian Dior Dress; Shoes-Manolo Blahnik
MAKING A STATEMENT Let Them All Listen Cushion, ` 1,100 Absorb and Strain Cushion, ` 950 Relax and Sparkle cushion, ` 950 Victim of a Curious Mind Cushion, ` 950 Shirt and Trousers-Dolce and Gabbana; Shoes-Manolo Blahnik
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A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS FAVOURITE DESIGNERS My favourite international designers are Dolce and Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Dior, Gap and Banana Republic. Among home I swear by the designs of Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. FAVOURITE HIGH STREET BRANDS I shop almost everywhere and am not fussy at all when it comes to dressing up. My favourite brands are Abercrombie and Fitch. BEST DRESSED IN BOLLYWOOD Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif are undoubtedly Bollywoods best dressed ladies. Among the men l think Arjun Rampal, Ranbir Kapoor and, of course, my husband make the cut. FAVOURITE FASHION TREND I believe in the mantra of Less is more. I prefer solid colours rather than prints. Fashion should be effortless, you can put together vintage or high street brands to create an ensemble thats uniquely you. Complete no-nos for me is anything with frills and definitely no bling. COMFORT CLOTHING Tracks jeggings from Abercrombie MY FAVOURITE ACCESSORY I adore my key-shaped pendant even more now as it was an inspiration for our logo here at thehomelabel.com. I don't leave home without my bracelets. MY FAVOURITE MUSIC My favourite band is Cold Play while Jack Johnson singer is my favourite artiste. I play music on my Ipod at work. I love progressive house, electric dance music and a fusion of remixed world music. MOTTO Whatever floats your boat.
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> >S P E N D
WorldMags.net IT
LET THERE BE LIGHT Antique Jaali lantern, ` 1,345 Copper Hurricane Lamp, ` 1,650 Mosaic Tiled Gold Platter, ` 1,850 Dress-Ralph Lauren; Sweater-Louis Vuitton; Shoes-YSL wedges
FASHION STYLIST PRAGNYA RAO HAIR STYLIST RITA SHUKLA MAKE-UP ARTIST SHAYLI NAYAK FOR MAC LOCATION COURTESY 15 RAITAN, MUMBAI
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QUIET CORNER Paper coaster doily, ` 250 Paper doily, ` 350 Vintage Cake Stand, ` 6,100 Whiskey tumbler set of 6, ` 1,500 Jute Table Runner, ` 450 Hammered cutlery 18 pc set, ` 2,500 Dress-Miu Miu
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> >L A S T
WorldMags.net WORD
Tillotama Shome
My New Year resolution is to be like the sun: bright and punctual. To rise up in every way, everyday without fail. I hope its a year of reading books over watching films.
My New Year Resolution

Sonakshi Sinha
I am too punctual. I always get everywhere earlier than the expected time, and almost every time I end up becoming the person who has to wait for others to arrive. So I would like to change that about myself. Instead of arriving before time, I would like to begin arriving exactly on time.
MANDAR DEODHAR / www.indiatodayimages.com
SRIDEVI The one thing I would like to do this year is become a bit more punctual and improve my time management skills.
SUZANNE ROSHAN In 2013 Im going to go with a never-say-never attitude. Spread love and joy and give back to the universe for all it has given me.
Bipasha Basu
In 2011, I took a resolution that I am going to learn (the art) of lying a bit as it sometimes helps. I am a pathetic liar. So I think, I will try to learn to say a few harmless lies to get out of sticky situations.
TWEET OF THE MONTH
Running has many benefits. Cardiovascular fitness apart, its great for self defence. I am confident of out-running any prospective assailant.
CHANDRADEEP KUMAR/ www.indiatodayimages.com
WORD OF THE MONTH
GUL PANAG
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Photographs by YOGEN SHAH/ www.indiatodayimages.com
Tech-Life Balance: The use of technology in such a way that it does not interfere with or reduce the quality of ones personal life or relationships.
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FEBRUARY 2013
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A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE
HOUSE
A WALK THROUGH THE CITYS MOST STYLISH ADDRESSES WorldMags.net
THAT!
SIMPLY CHENNAI Inside WorldMags.net

COVER STORY
Home Truths
s- 4
Join us as SIMPLY CHENNAI steps into the finest and most stylish celebrity homes in the city
PREVIEW
A sneak peek into the sixth edition of the DSC Jaipur Literary Festival
HOME DECOR
Are you booked yet? s-16
Home Affairs
BUZZ
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Accessories that add flamboyance to your home
In the City
A checklist on where to eat and what to shop for
ELSEWHERE Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie Group Chief Executive Officer Ashish Bagga Group Synergy and Creative Officer Kalli Purie Senior Editor Karuna John Correspondent Saranya Chakrapani Editorial Team Rewati Rau, Ekta Alreja, Ekta Marwaha, Marcia Rodrigues Photo Department H.K. Rajashekar Design Associates Madhu Bhaskar, Vandana Nayar Production Surinder Hastu (Chief of Production), Harish Aggarwal, Naveen Gupta Layout Execution Ramesh Gusain Group Business Head Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher (Impact) Anil Fernandes IMPACT TEAM Senior General Managers: Kaustav Chatterjee (East) V. Somasundaram (Chennai) Jitendra Lad (West) Head (North): Dipayan Chowdhary
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Out and About
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Heading out of the city? Try these places for a bite, a bargain or just a visit
CELEB SPEAK
Star Ideas
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HK RAJASHEKHAR/www.indiatodayimages.com
Celebrities on what they love about their homes
Haute in town
OUR PICKof the month
The city now gets a high street, accessible, luxury store with Evolvs brand new retail outlet on Chamiers Road. Here it introduces Desigual, a leading Spanish brand known for its patchwork design, intense print and flamboyant splashes of colour. Designers such as Manish Arora, Rohit Gandhi & Rahul Khanna, Abraham & Thakore and Malini Ramani have created a unique range for the store. You can also treat yourself to some steaming coffee and snacks at Caf Evolv, a collaboration of Evolv and Cupcake Company. Where 21/1, Co-operative Colony, Off
Chamiers Road, Teynampet Tel 4204 2474
Want to tell us about an event?A new store? A restaurant?People doing interesting things?Anything newsworthy? Please email us at: simplychennai@intoday.com
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WorldMags.net SIMPLY CHENNAI
Home is where I feel secure
terracotta horses, sun figures and dolls bask in the soft golden luminance of ceiling lights playing up on walls, Rojas home is where Indian sights, sounds and sensi- painted in a rich burnt orange. She is proud of her cherished bronze idol collection, bilities meet. This ground floor apartment is a tributary of a bigger bungalow that once housed the Kannans' the best of which is a majestic interpretation of joint family. We now have an entire apartment build- the Ardhanareeswar (a manifestation of Siva and Sakthi ing to ourselves; housing a big happy family, says Roja, in a single form), which she brought home from a Bharatanatyam dancer. This house is where her Swamimalai in Thanjavur. I love bronze idols and lamps. Poompuharthe friends and extended family love to congregate for impromptu get-togethers. Her handpicked collection of Tamilnadu Handicrafts Development Corporation has the best, she says, pointing out to a HK RAJASHEKHAR/www.indiatodayimages.com line of kuthuvilakus (ceremonial lamps) lined on the living room table. Roja's loyalty to traditional Indian art forms is reflected in her choice of colour, and dcor of the house. An intricately carved puja shelf, passed on to her by her mother gets the pride of the place. I designed everything else around this puja shelf. While I do appreciate contemporary art, my heart is loyal to the traditional, which is why youll find more Tanjore paintings than abstracts. To me, a home is where I feel safe, secure and wanted. And the Indianness in my environment gives me this.
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Allusively traditional
Theres no room for a glum day at Aishwarya Srikkanths house. The daughter-in-law of cricket veteran Krishnamachari Srikkanth, accessory designer Aishwarya and her husband Adithya live in a plush three-bedroom apartment in Besant Nagar. Inside her home, Aishwaryas love for colour is reflected in the vivid, ornamental artwork on her walls, vibrant, multicoloured accent cushions and warm yellow light flooding the space. The highlight of her art collection is a painting of Balaji, where the deity is painted on an elaborate red background by artist Nitin Utge. This is special, it was a gift from my in-laws, says Aishwarya. Her collection has works by Ramesh Gorjala, Vaikuntam, Yusuf Arkkaral, Nitin Utge, Santhana Krishna and Anand Panchal. Roman blinds on the windows and bold Thai motifs add to the confluence of art forms her home boasts of. The highlights of her house are her heirloomsa silver jug used to wash hands, inherited from her great grand mother Indira Raj Lakshmi Raje, given to her by her parents at the time of her marriage; an intricately carved rosewood table and silver table runner with zardozi embroidery from the 1880s . I like to call my style of designing Future Present or 'New Indian Chic'. It is a radically modern, and distinctively stylish approach, says Aishwarya.
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HOMEAFFAIR
Accessories that add flamboyance to your home
Cosy cot
Add quirkiness to your home with this funky recliner. Fall back and relax into it, as its raw rustic feel takes you back in time. Price Rs 85,099 Available at designemporia.in
Lion king
Venerated by many cultures and hailed as a royal symbol, a crouched lion may be a perfect match for your home. Lladros classic porcelain with signature colours adds lustre to this luxury ornament. Price Rs 61,300 At 270/2 Krishnamachari Road, Alwarpet Tel 43129440
Designer decoded
Furnish your space with Zolijns new al fresco collection. Choose from a variety of outdoor furniture, all delivered at your doorstep. Price On request Available at zolijns.com
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IN THE CITY
RESTAURANT
Royal feast
Khansama, the newly opened finedining restaurant is all about opulence, and fairly so, considering it serves you time-tested recipes of the flamboyant Mughal era. This newbie should tingle your curiosity, because its not just about the swanky ambience, but also about the lavish food it has to offer. This leads it to steer clear of pretentious portions, unpredictable service and the lack of choice! Ornate brass cutlery replaces the fine bone china, and adds to the regal charm of the restaurant. The Mughals are known for their sumptious food, served with oodles of ghee, and expect no less when youre at Khansama. Heres
the warning: theres no dish thats devoid of generous amounts of ghee, paneer, butter or dry fruits! If youre particularly choosy about rich food, you might have a problem picking the least sumptuous dish of the lot. The best way to start your meal would be with Chhene Se Bhare Khumb (button mushrooms stuffed with cottage cheese, and cooked in a tandoor). Signature starters like Chatpate Pudine Wale Jhinga (tiger prawns in fresh mint paste and cooked in a clay oven) and Paneer Dum Roll (stuffed cottage cheese roulade crumbled and pan-fried with papaya and dry fruits) are a less richer option, but equally delectable. The best thing about Khansama is that vegetarians wouldnt feel ignored, as there is much in store for them as
well. Sample delights like Katliyan Aloo (sliced potatoes spiced with chili, asafetida and curry leaves) or Kehkashan (a mlange of fresh vegetables and corn nibblets tossed with cumin and red chili in Khandhari anar gravy)a musttry for its rich, explosive flavours. Clearly, the star dish of the Mughlai cuisine here is the Martabaan Ka Meat (lamb cooked with special chilies, cooked in a clay pot) and it is highly recommended that nonvegetarians treat themselves to it. Cooked and served in a simmering brass pot, this technique is used to retain the fresh flavours. If, after all this, you manage to save room for dessert, do make sure you try a spoonful of their Baked Anjeer Halwa (fig pudding) caramelised on top and sinfully creamy undera fitting end to a feast. Average meal for two Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 including taxes At Khansama, Khadar Nawaz Khan Road, Nungambakkam Tel 43168111 by Saranya Chakrapani
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PRODUCT
SPA
Indulge! Best Foot forward

Language has introduced a new collection of footwear, exclusively designed for children. Claiming to be made of Italian leather, the shoes have soft cushioning, and come with a removable and washable Aloe Vera insole. The outsoles are embedded with a puff print that acts as an anti-slip layer. Price On request At Language, 17, Rutland Gate, Nungambakkam Tel 32210400.
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Aura, the luxury spa at The Park, has introduced some exotic spa packages. You could rejuvenate yourself with with the time-tested goodness of the traditional Indian head oil massage, followed by a foot reflexology session (Priced at Rs 2,500). Or replenish your skin with the refreshing musk melon body massage and an express pedicure (Priced at Rs 3,000). You could also customise a package to your choice. At Aura, The Park, 601, Anna Salai Tel 42676000
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JANUARY 2013
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A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE
HOUSE
A WALK THROUGH THE CITYS MOST STYLISH ADDRESSES WorldMags.net
THAT!
SIMPLY DELHI
Inside
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COVER STORY
Home Truths s-4 Join us as we explore some of the finest and most stylish homes in the city
PREVIEW
Are you booked yet?

PROFILE
A sneak peek into the sixth edition of the DSC Jaipur Literary Festival
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Lights, camera, reaction
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Budding filmmakers Rohit Gaba and Nijo Johnson talk about life after being shortlisted for Anurag Kashyaps project The Last Act
BUZZ
In the City
ELSEWHERE
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Achecklist on where to eat and what to shop for
Out and About

CELEB SPEAK Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie Chief Executive Officer Ashish Bagga Group Synergy and Creative Officer Kalli Purie Senior Editor Karuna John Editorial Team Rewati Rau, Ekta Alreja, Ekta Marwaha, Marcia Rodrigues Photo Department Reuben Singh (Deputy Photo Editor), Vikram Sharma, Vinod Singh Design Associates Madhu Bhaskar, Vandana Nayar Production Surinder Hastu (Chief of Production), Harish Aggarwal, Naveen Gupta Layout Execution Ramesh Gusain Group Business Head Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher (Impact) Anil Fernandes IMPACT TEAM Senior General Managers: Kaustav Chatterjee (East) V. Somasundaram (Chennai) Jitendra Lad (West) Head (North): Dipayan Chowdhary
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Heading out of the city? Try these places
Star Ideas
Design tips from the experts
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OUR PICKof the month

Beauty alert!
With more than 1,600 stores worldwide, French cosmetic brand Sephora, finally opened its doors in India, last month. Located on the ground floor of Select CityWalk, the store is a paradise for beauty junkies. On offer are a wide range of skin care products, make-up, fragrances, and body care products. The Beauty Studio at Sephora, offers complementary one-on-one beauty consultancy, and advice on makeup application. Featured brands include Make Up For Ever, Benefit, Stila, Bliss, StriVectin, Peter Thomas Roth, Zihr, The Face Shop, among others. At Sephora, Ground Floor, Select CityWalk, Saket
Want to tell us about an event?A new store? A restaurant?People doing interesting things?Anything newsworthy? Please email us at: simplydelhi@intoday.com
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SIMPLY DELHI
Cover story
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SIMPLY DELHI STEPS INTO THE FINESTAND MOST STYLISH CELEBRITY HOMES IN THE CITY
HOME TRUTHS
SIMPLY DELHI JANUARY 2013
Q
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uirky, trendy and sophisticated, Delhis finest homes today are a statement in cutting-edge design, panache and bespoke luxury. As we surveyed some of the most luxuriant homes in the city, we found interesting features unique to each home that took us by surprise.
However, what all the homes had in common was the home owners personal touch, charm and glamour. SIMPLY DELHI takes you on a walkthrough to discover some of the citys most extravagant celebrity homes that inspire colourful whims and lush fancies.
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Eclectic imprints
Large open spaces that invite air, light and positive vibes seem to embrace all those who walk into designer Payal Jains two acre home in Chhatarpur Farms. The Balinese themed house has been built by architect Rajesh Dongre who planned its minimal earthy interiors using stone and wood to add textural
dimensions. The stone which leaves none unturned is the 3,000 kg natural sea boulder brought from Bali, which has been topped by clear glass to create a stunning table in the living room. My husband and I pretty much did everything on our own here. Everything was designed by me and it is still a constantly evolving space, where we experiment and reinvent, says Jain.
Leather furniture from Italy, stone and burl pieces as well as outdoor furniture from Bali and a massive bronze Natraj in the lobby, a gift from Payals parents add an eclectic imprint. A bronze dancing girl resting one hand in a water body, welcomes guests to this house. This sculpture by KS Radhakrishnan, is one of her prized possessions
by Rewati Rau
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JANUARY 2013 SIMPLY DELHI
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SIMPLY DELHI
Cover story
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Hemi Bawas one-and-a-half level bungalow on Hailey Road is an eclectic mix of modern and minimalist elements. An absorbing lush green lawn welcomes you to this spotless white bungalow. Inside, the interiors are a mix of neutrals and biege hues complemented with clutter free rooms, neat lines for furniture, open spaces and sufficient natural light. A double-panelled glass door opens into a spacious hall, which is separated into three seating areas. In the living room, while one of the walls has a huge grey and white canvas done by Hemi Bawa, the other element that adds colour to the room are two deep blue glass plates created by a Czechoslovakian artist mounted on a wall. An ornate mother of pearl chair with abalone shells on its arms is an eye-catcher. As the house follows an open plan, the seating areas from here lead us into the dining area, where the centre of attraction is a 12-seater table and 10 mirror frames in different sizes on the wall behind India Today Home the table.
Class apart
White house
Most of us stress at the thought of maintaining an all-white dcor, but for Rajiv and Amita Kanwar, it is a breeze. The Kanwars, founders of Window Passions, known for dressing up show windows of the Oberoi group, Ananda Spa in the Himalayas and the luxury train Palace on Wheels, have redone their family home in Gulmohar Park, many times over. Whenever we design something new, our home is the first place from where we start, says Amita Kanwar. The bungalow is glowing in its white avatar for now. A short flight of stairs leads to the lobby where a colourful Buddha painting breaks the white vastness of the main wall and artworks by Satish Gujral and Kamre Alam enrich the living room walls. As does the Kanwars collection of artifacts brought back from their travels across the world, Amitas most treasured ones are an ivory Ganesha and a wall clock picked up from London that runs counterclockwise. The 3,150 square feet house is divided into eight levels to accommodate a living room, bedrooms, an entertainment den, a study room, an outdoor area and a cosy bar. Rajiv Kanwar finds solace in his studys leather sofas, wooden bookshelves interspersed with quirky mementos. by Ekta Alreja
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Design marvel
A sleek and clutter free space, designer Shantanu and wife Rima Mehras 3,000 square feet home in New Friends Colony was planned by artist and interior designer Alex Davis. The idea was to play around with geometrical shapes and forms of furniture that were both contemporary and minimalistic and can last us a lifetime, says Shantanu. A brick-walled arch divides the living room from the dining area. A walk around the first floor house that the couple share with their two sons, Ayan and Rishan radiates an at-home feel that lends credence to the fact that this is not a run-of-the-mill house. The spacious formal living room follows a modern Japanese aesthetic, and is dipped in natural light, as the bay windows have been kept bare. The linear steel and wood furniture by Alex Davis upholstered in black and chequered marble flooring enhance the rooms minimal dcor.
With inputs from India Today Home
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Treasure trove
Designer Niki Mahajans home in Sainik Farms is a mlange of things old and new. Here you have a Portugese writing desk finished to give an old world feel to it, an art-deco style wooden seat salvaged from Mumbais Mehboob Studios and a wall-mounted collection of four century-old miniature paintings finished in gold-leaf, sharing space with a large contemporary black-and-white artwork. The living room opens up to a manicured lawn with a koi pond, a bamboo grove and yes, another multi-hued wall, this is where the family prefers to entertain their guests. There is a conspicuous lack of drapes here as the house uses a lot of colour. It looks best in natural daylight. I find heavy curtains and drapes fussy and unnecessary, says Mahajan. The Mahajan bedroom has a huge wooden bed embellished with intricate brass inlay work, I have paired very different hues in the house. Some of my walls are orange, some yellow and some white, says Mahajan. Another striking piece in her house is a wall panel showcasing momentoes from around the world and the family just keeps adding to it. India Today Home
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SIMPLY DELHI
Preview
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Are you booked yet?

he sixth edition of the DSC Jaipur Literature festival is expected to have a major Buddhist influence. Apart from the regular book readings, talks, debates, performances and workshops, there will be sessions on Buddhism, Buddhist Literature with Buddhist hymns playing at the venue during the day. After last years fireworks revolving around Salman Rushdies session, this would be a welcome change, hope the organisers. Scheduled to take place from January 24-28 at Jaipurs Diggi Palace, this time the JLF aims to accommodate 6,000 people per hour at the venue. And if Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork and organizer of the DSCJLF is to be believed, then the inaugural session has been replaced by a friendly cricket match. Before you pack your bags and head out to DSCJLF, here are a few tips: Register online This saves you from the trouble of standing in the long queues for on-the-spot registration. Do carry a printout and a photo identity card. Buy music show pass You need to buy an entry pass for Rs 250. Check online for the list of performers and book tickets in advance. Be on time Keep yourself updated on session timings, last minute rescheduling can happen. Make prior reservations Hotels get sold out around this time of the year. Carry a snack The food stalls at the venue get sold quickly. For details log onto http://jaipurliteraturefestival.org by Ekta Marwaha
I hope there are no controversies this time

Sanjoy Roy tells Marcia Rodrigues what to look forward to at the DSCJLF for this year. Q. What is new at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year? A. A range of Buddhist writings will be presented at the festival and there is also a large line-up of writers from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. My colleague Namita Gokhale has put together works from 16 regional languages which will definitely add to the exuberance of the festival. This year we will pay tribute to writers such as Sunil Gangopadhyay. We also have 10-15 book releases and sessions on the 100 years of Indian cin-
ema. We will also have a discuscussion on women not being safe in the country, and how the mindset needs to change. Q. JLF was controversial last year, how will you prevent fireworks this time? A. Its not the festival that revolved around controversy, but the media created such a hue and cry. I hope there are no controversies this time. I always say, authors write not to please but to present themselves and their opinions. It is absolutely the other persons choice whether they want to subscribe to that opinion or create their own. Q. The festival has no entry restrictions; is security a concern? A. Yes it does become a problem but we like to welcome everyone. I have interacted with many people who come to let their children hear stories as they would never be able to afford education for them. Such aspects dont allow us to restrict the event to a certain kind of public. Q. Some say that JLF can be overwhelming, with so many celebrities at the venue. A. Everyone can have an opinion irrespective of whether they are a celebrity or a non-celebrity. Since, the festival is open to all we also welcome everyone who comes and welcome all opinions. The literature festival is a platform for people from all walks of life to interact; opinions are shared and not forced upon anybody.
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SIMPLY DELHI
Profile
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Lights, camera, reaction

A tte--tte with Delhis young director duo, Nijo Johnson and Rohit Gaba
They are not the industrys celebrated stars yet but Nijo Johnson, 27 and Rohit Gaba, 27, have made two short films and worked as Assistant Directors in films like Slumdog Millionaire, The President is Back and Black and White. They have also made music videos and documentaries under their year-and-half-old banner, Puranidili TalkiesNo Escape (music video), My Friend Human and Lifting Hope (documentaries) to name a few. They were among the 12 directors shortlisted from across India, for Anurag Kashyaps collaborative project called, The Last Act (released on December 11, 2012). Gaba and Johnson share their experiences with Simply Delhi Q. What sort of an audience is The Last Act aimed at? A. Dont watch it if you love a standard procedure Bollywood flick. If you still decide to go for the film, dont dismiss it as a documentary, says Johnson. You can call it an experiment. Where else would you see different characters try and solve a crime, with clues interspersed across 12 short films? A psychopath commits a murder and leaves 12 clues behind. Each clue is de-constructed through these 12, 10-minute stories, explains Gaba. Q. Is it more difficult to write short scripts than full fledged features? A. Yes it is, says Gaba. We were
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given one of the clues, which was a mobile phone, and we had to take the story forward from there. Needless to say, there were endless discussions, thinking and rethinking. We finally came up with a script and circulated it among our friends for a test run. There were some rave reviews and we started working on it. We had a tight deadline of 20 days, and everything from finalising a script, shooting the film to editing had to be done fast, says Gaba. Q. You were short on time, what about money? A. Money was a constraint too. We were given a budget of Rs 75,000. So, we ended up spending quite a bit from our pockets, laughs Johnson. There were practical problems while shooting the movie. The kind of shots you take tells the audience and critic how brilliant your filmmaking is. For example we needed a shot of a big crowd and only one actor was supposed to look into the camera. Once, all of us were engrossed in a shot, which had to be taken in the middle of the Ring Road, suddenly an old man stopped his car, looked into the rolling camera and he says, bhaiya shooting chal rahi hai kya? laughs Gaba. Q. So, are you the popular guys on Facebook now? A. Quite a few friend requests pops up in a day, if thats what you think makes us famous, says Gaba. Those who are open to experiment have liked the film but there are also people who havent understood it, adds Gaba. Q. What projects are you working on next? A. We are working on a childrens film and it is for Starman Productions, which is based in the US. The storyline revolves around two young boys, one from Pakistan and the other from India. How they become friends after they both get lost in a jungle and help each othertoget out of there, by Ekta Alreja explains Gaba.
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SIMPLY DELHI
Buzz
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IN THE CITY
NEW IN TOWN
Slice of Cavalli
The much awaited label Roberto Cavalli finally arrived in India last month. And ever since its grand launch that saw Cavalli accompanied by his Bollywood friends Sonam Kapoor, Raveena Tandon and Zaheer Khan among othersthe showroom and caf (located next door) have become the talk of the town. To savour what Cavalli Caff has to offer, we made a quick visit for brunch. Located in DLF Emporio,
the caf spells opulence, elegance and true Cavalli styleleopard prints, and zebra stripes dominate the dcor. The cheery staff greets you into this moderately sized caf. The menu seems rather run-of-the-mill until the food arrives on your table. Order a hot cup of cappuccino or sit back and enjoy a signature Cavalli cocktail. Pictures of Cavalli with his celebrity friends Paris Hilton, Beyonce, Halle Berry and more dawn the wall of fame. We started our meal with the Caprese, as boring as it may sound the presentation was elegant, beautifully smoked tomatoes, placed between perfectly sliced mozzarella, topped with fresh basil leaves and caviar. The Margherita Pizza, followed nextsuperbly thin, crunchy,
and full of flavour (the pizzas here will definitely turn you into a regular). A must try is the Chicken Cacciatorebraised chicken with sauted potatoes and green beans. A visual delight, the chicken was soft and tender, the potatoes and beans mildly flavoured and perfectly cooked. Saving space for dessert, we tried the warm pecan and honey tart, mildly sweet and delicateit was the best way to end on a sweet note. As we wrap an indulgent meal in a larger than life ambience, we realised that it doesnt burn a huge hole in the pocket. Average meal for two Rs 2,500 including taxes (without alcohol) At Cavalli Caff, 133, Ground Floor, DLF Emporio, Vasant Kunj by Ekta Marwaha Tel 46950000
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Buzz
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STREET FOOD
Crme de la crme
We know, it takes major effort to get out the quilts warm embrace early on a winter morning, and take yourself over to the Walled City. However, this trip will have a sweet ending, we promise. Once you reach Delhi 6, ask around till you find Daulat ki Chaat. Hire a rickshaw, they know the best spots. Look for where a crowd may have congregated around a small wooden cart. You will see a fluffy mountain of lightly whipped milk cream, on a platter balanced on it. The seller will scoop out a portion, dust it with some powdered sugar and sometimes chopped nuts and serve it in the blink of an eye. Ask him about the legend of the delicacy and tales of milk foam collected and cooled on moonlight nights will add a lingering sweetness to ethereal feel and flavour of this rare dessert. At Chandni Chowk, Available on early winter morning at Rs 10 onwards
KIDS CORNER
Junior jamboree
While you may love taking your little one to the mall over the weekends, shopping with them can often be stressful. This is where Club Fledge at Gurgaons Ambience Mall comes to your aid. The place offers several attractions for children, between three to 10 years. A synthetic ice skating rink, artificial snow, stimulating games, interactive storytelling sessions, movie screenings and video games are some of the exciting activities your child can enjoy and if your notorious one likes scribbling on walls, the club has a special space dedicated white board for it. Enroll your child for a session that lasts for an hour where they can participate in the activities that help them learn, play and do a bit of socialising with other children. While activities are the focus, the club also provides meals during their special lunch and dinner sessions.
Cost Rs 300 per session (Monday to Thursday); Rs 400 per session (Friday to Sunday); Rs 600 to Rs 700
(including lunch or dinner) At 6th Floor, Ambience Mall Gurgaon Tel 0124 4610606 by Marcia Rodrigues
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SIMPLY DELHI
GETAWAY
Buzz
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FEB 13-18
Note worthy
Plan a weekend trip to Pushkar to attend the very first Blue Lotus Festival, a unique festival of Indian music and culture. It is a confluence of 350 artists from across India including the stunning Sufi qawwali singer Raza Khan, whose voice has been described as supernatural (by WorldMusic.co.uk) and the langa singer Bachu Khan. Another added atrraction is that you can also participate in workshops with the performing artists, play unique instruments and learn more about the inspiration behind these unique art forms. There will be a lot more activities like yoga and meditation sessions, film screenings , food carnival, live art and craft fair, camel safaris and much more. At Ananta Spa & Resorts, Village Leela Sevri, four km before Pushkar, Ajmer Pushkar Road Log on to bluelotusfestival.com
EVENTS
FEB 1-3
Art attack!
A visit to India Art Fair should be on your top priority this month. The fairs focus is on providing a bridge building platform to spread deeper awareness, and creating wider access to art in India. The art fair will include 106 exhibitors from 24 countries in the general exhibition area and solo projects. It will also include a video lounge, an art bookstore, art projects and a Speakers' Forum with over 40 speakers. Ticket Rs 300 At NSIC Exhibition Grounds, NSIC Bhawan, Okhla Industrial Estate
JAN 26-MARCH 31
Cultural fiesta
Bonjour India-Festival of France is back with a bang. Art, literature, cinema, education, sports, fashion, architecture, photography and performing arts will be the focus of Bonjour India that continues till April this year. The festival begins with the Ballet Preljocaj, a contemporary ballet created in collaboration with the Bolshoi Theatre and
artist Subodh Gupta. Another highlight is an Indo-French play Gates to India Song, which has actor Nandita Das in the lead and French author Marguerite Duras, who will be presenting his work to the Indian audience for the first time. There will also be a grand closing show, Flying Angels, an acrobatic dance show recently seen at the London Olympics. At Various locations Log on to bonjour-india.in
ONGOING TILL JAN 20

Following fish
Mantra Amaltas is offering a specially crafted menu called, A Fiesty Fish fare. The menu includes dishes like Mahi curry, fish and chips, golden fried fish and prawns and fish and prawn risotto served with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy! At 23, Friends Colony West Tel 49664966
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SIMPLY DELHI
Elsewhere
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PUNE Mix@36
If its year-old sister nightclub Kue Bar at The Westin is for the young reveller who likes to dance the night away, Mix@36 targets the older lot that prefers a Scotch or a cocktail over retro music and comfortable couches. The lounge puts you in rewind mode with music from the seventies, eighties and nineties. The nightclub serves predominantly Oriental fare with dishes such as chicken satay and salt-pepper prawns coming recommended. As expected, the bar selection is extensive and boasts of some of the best brands from across the world with expensive single malts, Rmy Martin cognac and world wines. Average meal for two Rs 2,000 plus taxes Where The Westin, 36/3-B Koregaon Park Annexe, Ghorpadi Tel 020 67210000
OutandAbout
HEADING OUT OFTHE CITY? TRYTHESE PLACES
MILIND WADEKAR
KOLKATA Someplace Else

When it comes to live music, its got to be at Someplace Else. Practically synonymous with the best musical nights in the city, Someplace Else has hosted big names like Louis Banks, Jonas Hellborg, Gary Husband and Andreas Marsechini along with the finest Indian performers. The regular roster of bands including Hip Pocket, Krosswindz, The Saturday Night Blues Band and Orient Express that perform here ensure a steady stream of music lovers who sway to the popular numbers at the British-style pub done up with exposed brick walls, wooden accents and a stained glass ceiling. The Open Mic nights and Open Mind Mondays are the perfect launch-pads for young musical talents. Meal for two Rs 1,100 plus taxes At The Park, 17 Park Street Tel 033 22499000
BANGALORE
SANDESH RAVIKUMAR
Noodle Bar
Head to Noodle Bar to sample some of the best dishes from the Oriental region think Chinese, Thai, Burmese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean. Onion pancakes, barbecue roast lamb, crystal prawn dumplings, peppery corn fritters and burnt garlic mushrooms are just the beginning of a fun roster of dishes. But just like at a bar, customers can mix things up to get the exact dish they want. So diners can get creative, pairing noodles with meats, vegetables and sauces. Meal for two Rs 1,000, plus taxes Where Phoenix Market City, Whitefield
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SUBIR HALDERK/www.indiatodayimages.com
SIMPLY DELHI
Celeb speak
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STAR Ideas
DESIGN TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS
DIMPLE KOHLI,
Owner, Qboid Design House
I prefer fusion when it comes to furniture; mixing contemporary and traditional styles. One of the greatest ways to capture the essence of a room is to add an element that can be the centre of attention. It may be colourful or visually appealing and one can also use contrasting colours and enhance its look with soft lighting.
EKANSH BANSAL, Interior Designer
The individual shouldn't be forgotten amongst the masses, yet the masses should not dissipate into individuals. This is exceptionally important with respect to designing a space, since, it is important that every single piece and item with that space, is good to look at individually, but they should also compliment each other. A space with several mismatched pieces look messy and disorienting.
HEMANT CHAWLA/www.indiatodayimages.com
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ANKUSH AGGARWAL,
The latest trends in home dcor are contemporary with a classic touch. One can use fabrics like silk and tussar with Swarovski for their upholstery. Special effects on the walls with embellishments are a rage catching on in the city.
CEO Ansa Interiors
RASEEL GUJRAL,
Interior Designer
A year ago I worked on a farm house and it was a good experience. It had a lot of contemporary elements that I have never used before. Keep in mind things you cant change often like flooring. Art and furniture can be played with easily while flooring helps you build aesthetic value to your home. Investing in it is a better option.
ADITYA GUPTA,
A high-end residence uses luxury creatively. It is not just about opulence, but the use of materials and furniture which adds a timeless touch. Every home should synchronise with the owners personality and not talk only about latest trends and conceptual ideas.
Co-Founder, The Furniture Republic
Compiled by Marcia Rodrigues
WorldMags.net

India Today - 21 January 2013

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Total juvenile crimes 4,997 Murders 112 Rapes 271

Total juvenile crimes 959 Murders 81 Rapes 146

Total juvenile crimes 1,618 Murders 43 Rapes 16

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