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FDI in Retail Market will End Millions of Jobs in India

As was being expected Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is adamant to open the Indian retain market to the foreign direct investment despite of the oppositions of whole of the country. Under his leadership the UPA government has taken the decision of FDI in retail market even without consulting its allies in the government as well as the opposition parties. They have decided to allow the foreigners investors for 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. With it, the government has opened a back door for the foreigners to conquer the entire Indian retail sector by allowing 100 percent FDI in single brand retail.

It will be a golden chance for the foreigner Trade corporations to enter into the Indian retail market. These corporation are very powerful and have huge annul turnovers. The power of these retail trade corporations can be felt only in those markets where they do business. These corporations have their branches almost in the entire world . Some of them are Nietherland’s Ahold, Carrefour of France, Metro of Germany, Tesco of UK and Walmart of USA. These corporations have a common tendency of establishing their own control over the entire chain of buying, transport, storage and the selling to the customers. Local tradesmen cannot stay in market as their competitors because of their huge wealth and approach. They slowly disappear from the market. This does not happen only in large cities but also affects the villages. When these corporations wipe out the small traders from the market then they don’t have much competition. At one hand they have every kind of manufacturers, small and large, and at the other hand these corporations the only buyers.

In these circumstances these firms establish a strong relationship with the manufacturers which directly affects the economy. At one hand there are a large numbers of manufacturers and on the other hand a few or only a single buyer. The manufactures don’t have any direct link with the customers and thus have no other option rather than to sell their produce to these trade corporations and they sell the material to the customers in the retail market. Thus at one hand a large number of manufacturers and a single buyer and on the other hand a single seller and uncountable number of customers. These circumstances create a new opportunity to the trade corporations to increase their profit. They can buy the goods from the manufactures at very nominal prices and sell them to the customers at high rates. If these firms share their profits with the customers or their manufacturers then it, too benefits the firm as it controls all of the chain from production to selling in retail market.

With it the profit of small scale manufacturers decrease as they have a very few options to sell their produce. These small scale production units include the farmers and the handicrafts men. Indian agriculture and handicraft is already under great pressure. Farmers are doing agriculture because they don’t have other work to do. In this situation, FDI in retail will adversely affect the employment creation. In long-term these retail market giants will have their full control over deciding the prices of the goods. Thus government will be at their feet to put some check on the rising prices.

FDI will steal jobs from thousands of Indians. These unemployed people will include small scale retailers, shopkeepers, middlemen, wholesale dealers and the middle level shopkeepers. Because the foreign trade corporations have huge amount s to invest in the market, they establish direct link with the manufacturer. It will steal jobs not only from the middlemen and the traders but will also snatch jobs from the transporters. According to a survey conducted by a national agency, more are 40 crore people of India are working or are employed which includes almost 5 crore(50 million) employed in the retail market. In short we can say that there is a tendency of uncertainty in the Indian retail market as for as the employment is concerned but it is one of the main field that creates innumerable employment opportunities for the Indians.
Government parrots are propagating that FDI in retail market will not adversely affect the employment but will create thousands of jobs. Most of the government sources are speaking in the line of foreigner trade giants. They reinforce their words by using manipulated numbers. There are many associate work opportunities that keep even the families of the small tradesmen employed. Thus the number of indirectly affected people will be much more as compared to the directly affected.
This direct foreign investment in the Indian retail market will not benefit the Indians in any way. Neither it will bring any new technique with it and nor it will create any new kind of job opportunities. With the passage of time, Indians will become servants of the foreigners on their own land. To defend the FDI policy, Minister of trade and commerce, told that UPA’s FDI policy in retail market has its own kind of uniqueness. According to one of the sanction the trade corporation will have to buy at least 30 per cent of its material from the small scale industries. But it has not been mentions that from where this 30 per cent material will be bought? Whether it will be bought from Indian small scale industries or from out of India? If it is bought from within India then how it can be determined that this or that materials has been bought from an Indian small scale industry. Is there any kind of certificate issued by the Indian government which determines that this or that production unite is a small scale industry. There are innumerable loopholes and puzzles of words in the FDI policy in retail market that can be used by the foreign trade corporation for their advantage. There is no doubt that these government rules will be hugely overlooked by the trade corporations. Bald-headed notes can change the character of any one. And when these trade corporations are about to force their entry into the Indian retail market with the sheer use of money then who can assure that they won’t violate the terms of trade mentioned in the FDI policy with the use of money power. In short we can say that UPA government’s decision to give green signal to the FDI in retail market is a decision taken under pressure and in great haste and no one can prove it a right decision.
There is no doubt that UPA government is under tremendous pressure because of rising prices since it returned to the power for the second time. FDI in retail market is not the whole and sole method to control the rising prices. Strengthening of public distribution system and with some government attention towards the investment and production can definitely put a check on the rising prices. Indians, especially the tradesmen neither will accept the foreign direct investment in the Indian retail market nor they will allow the foreign trade corporations to enter into the Indian market. If anyone has doubt about this fact they they should remember the Ambani’s overture of entering into the retail market.

Pak-US Relations at Crossroads

Tensions between Pakistan and America have increased to such an extent that was never witnessed in the past. It was such a tense time that PM Yusuf Raza Gilani had to come out of the marriage procession of his son to attend a crisis management meeting. On the other had USA bureaucratic establishment was trying to pacify the Pakistanis without any success? When US forces attacked Afghanistan it used Pakistan as a base for the war on terror. Pakistani establishment ignored the public rage and provided every kind of help to the invading military. Though the war was being fought in the neighboring country but it affected the Pakistani society very adversely. But America kept the Pakistani rulers blinded with huge financial grants and they kept on ignoring the public unrest. Thus US forces kept on fighting against Al-Qaeda even after conquering Afghanistan. During this war there were many instances when innocent people were brutally murdered by the invading forces but Pakistani ruler did not raise any voice because their mouths were choked with the US dollars.

Kill Osama Operation initiated the process of diminishing the warmth in Pak-USA relations. Pakistani establishment did not wanted to believe that world’s most wanted terrorist was sitting in the lap of its own secret agency and military. Instead of accepting this fact it tried to divert the world attention by saying that with kill Osama operation, Americans have violated its sovereignty. Though American operation inside Pakistan cannot be termed as a good one but they have their own observations about the success of the operation. It was for the first time that tensions among years old friends came to the surface as both of them got indulged in blame-game. According to some political thinkers it was the result of too much belief in each other and America’s indifference towards notorious secret agency ISI’s terrorist harboring activities. Attack of US embassy in Kabul was another nail in the coffin of US-Pak relations. After this attack America openly blamed ISI for helping Haqqani network which was responsible for most of the attacks on Nato security forces and US embassy in the area. But Pakistani establishment remained stick to its blackmailing statistics. After these accusations Pak government said that US will lose Pak as its ally and as a major factor in the ongoing war against terror in the region. Pakistan had warned that Afghanistan will be second Vietnam for US forces without Pak help. And President Obama had declined to meet with Pak PM Gilani in New York when the latter was to visit USA to take part in UNO session. In retaliation, Gilani canceled his US visit and sent Hina to attend the UNO meet as a Pakistani representative. But she too, had to listen to some strict words of Mrs. Clinton.

China came openly y in support of Pak and indirectly ‘advised’ USA to give respect to the independent and sovereign status of Pakistan. At one hand, it is not only Pakistan but whole of the Middle East that has risen against American interference in the region. On the other hand US defeat and Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in near is almost a clear fact. That is why USA wants to ‘get out’ of the region with some respect. US talks with some Taliban factions were the result of this changed US approach. But all this reached at the crisis point with killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a Nato helicopters’ raid.

A few days ago 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a Nato strike in central administered state of FATA. Americans are saying that it were the Pakistani soldiers who attacked them and were killed in the retaliation operation conducted by the Nato helicopters. US foreign minister Mrs. Hilary Clinton, too, has expressed her grievances but took the side of her military by saying that Nato forces have to right to defend themselves from any kind of attack. But Pakistani government as well as their military is not ready to accept this US apology.
Sensing the public as well l as the military rage, the Pakistani government has ordered Nato to vacate its, Shamsi airbase within 15 days. With this warning Pak has closed all of its supply routes to Nato forces stationed in Afghanistan. Thus America is finding itself stuck in a very crucial situation. If an alternative supply route is not established within a very short time the Nato forces will have to face the shortage of every kind of material. There is not any other neighboring country that will offer suitable supply route like Pakistan. Iran is at loggerheads with America while Russia and China does not accept US interference in the region. Uzbekistan cannot ignore the Russian approach and thus all most all of the doors are closed for US to establish an alternative supply route to Nato forces in Afghanistan. In these circumstances some of the advisers have advised to find some alternative route to Afghanistan through sea to India.
All this shows that with increasing tensions between Pakistan and America, possibilities of change in power equations in the region have increased. This is a warning signal to the US supremacy over world. And USA is not ready to lose its supremacy.

Sirf Ek Thappad-Just One Slap!

A youth slapped Cabinet Minister Mr. Sharad Pawar while he was attending a public function in Delhi on Friday. This unfortunate incident has been criticized by almost all the politicians and social activists throughout the country. But more than 70 per cent people of the country are admiring Harvinder Singh with their hidden smiles for his ‘daring act’. This incident has become the hot issue among political and social circles. As this incidents has been connected to ‘rising prices’ so this debate automatically has become based on the hot issue of rising prices.

There is no doubt that price of ‘daily useable goods’ have increasing manifolds during the rule of Singh&Company And their ‘lack luster’ efforts to check the rising prices have produced no fruit. Prices of household goods have a certain tendency to increase and have increased during the rule of various governments. But they used to increase with a certain limit. But the price rise during the rule of UPA government has broken all type of limits and barricades. This is a very serious issue but no political party except the leftists is serious about the difficulties of the common people but is busy with their own ‘core issues’. When most of the political parties were ready for debate on this issue in the current Lok Sabha session on the notice of Left parties, BJP remained sticking to the issue of ‘black money’ and disrupted the proceedings of the house.

Both the main stream parties, Congress and BJP have started blame game as for as the incident of attack on Union Minister Sharad Pawar is concerned. Congress has blamed BJP that former cabinet minister Mr. Yashwant Singh’s statement instigated Harvinder Singh to do this ‘daring’ act. But on the other hand, BJP is saying that his statement has nothing to do with this incident. Harvinder Singh, the same boy who slapped Sharad Pawar’ , had attacked former telecom minster Mr. Sukh Ram when he was coming out of the court after being sentenced to the five year jail term for his involvement in a telecom scam committed during the rule of Narsimha Rao led congress government. Now it is being said that the attacker of Sharad Pawar is mentally unstable. But Harvinder Singh’s attacks on two veteran politicians indicate that he isn’t mentally ill man as for as he has expressed his reasons for attacking Pawar. But at the same time, he cannot be termed as a mentally stable man.

Team Anna’s initial reactions about this incident have also raised question about the standards of their social behavior. Because of their anti-corruption campaign they have become the public voice of the common people. People are always ready to halt their routine work and join Anna Hazare and his team at their very first call. Corrupt politics and politicians are main target of Team Anna campaign. That is why all the politician, corporate sectors and media houses have joined hands coming above their party lines to divide and detract the public voice led by Team Anna. When media persons contacted Anna for his initial reaction on the incident of Friday, he reacted with three words,”Sirf Ek Thappad” (only one slap). These three words cannot be explained even in three thousand words. Anna ,with these words, have said a lot what is not known to common people but Anna knows well as Pawar hails from his home state.

Corporate and political power housed backed Indian media is trying to create ‘pressurized’ public sympathy for Mr. Pawar as for as his slapping is concerned. Anna’s words have a lot in them which will be described in our next article but first we have to say some words of sympathy to Mr. Pawar because it is the common voice of ‘impartial’ Indian media and we cannot live in the same pool where big ‘octopuses’ are behaving in a very disciplined way. Anna should not have said these words as he is a big threat to Pawar in Maharashtra as for as his political interests are concerned. Another Anna Team member, Kiren Bedi’s tweating have raised the eyebrows of Pawar sympathizers. She too is being criticized for her social behavior as for as this particular incident is concerned.

There is no doubt that Anna’s initial reactions about this incidents are not admirable, as for as the morality of social behavior of team Anna is concerned but in present situation when lower sections of the society along with the middle class is finding it difficult to earn their living and food for both the times, team Anna’s comments cannot be criticized. People of lower sections had very common statements when asked to react about this incident. Some of them are as follows. Bhut Badia(extremely good). Sab chor hain(all the politicians are thieves). Voh hero hai ( Harvinder is a hero).

Bollywood Actress Caught-Involved in Flesh Trade

Recently, Pune Police Force has brought a high profile sex racket to the lime-light. A few days ago, Pune police raided a five star hotle in the city and arrested some people along with a Bollywood actress and a spot-boy. This actress has worked in some films and some famous daily TV soaps. She belongs to the State of Jammu and Kashmir but presently she is living in Versova area of Mumbai. The spot boy, Nirka Wadani used to work as a middle man for her.

Pune police had raided the hotel on basis of a tip-off and arrested the actress along with the middle man. The police spokesman told that she used to take 1.5 lakhs for the time of one hour from each of her clients which included the commission of her agent. Police is trying to find out how many people are involved in this racket. Whether it is the group of only two people or is the tip of an iceberg. Police had got the tip-off almost a week ago and had started to spread its net in the area. That is why both of them were caught red-handed. An undercover police agent contacted them as a client and thus they were caught at the spot. This TV actress has worked in famous TV serial ‘Kasauti Zindagi Ki’ but her name has not yet been revealed by the police.

2G Spectrum Scandal-Airtel and Vodafone under Investigation

Problems have started to increase for India’s two top telecom companies Airtel and Vodafone as for as the investigation of 2G spectrum scandal is concerned. A few days ago Central Bureau of Investigation raided at Vodafone’s Mumbai and Airtel’s Gurgon offices. CBI has started to investigate the spectrum rights issued during Pramod Mahajan’s tenure as the telecom minister. At the same time CBI raided at the residences of two top telecom officers of the Indian telecom department. They are former telecom secretary Mr. Shiyam Ghosh and former D.G. Mr. J R Gupta.

CBI is investigating that Vodafone and Airtel had used malpractices to get the additional telecom rights when telecom rights were issued to private players by the Indian telecom department. It is noteworthy that Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA was ruling in the centre and late Mr. Pramod Mahajan was telecom minister at that time. Immediately after registering the FRI, CBI searched Airtel and Vodafone offices including the residences of Ghosh and J R Gupta. During Pramod Mahajan’s time, J R Gupta was Deputy Director of the telecom department. In this new case, CBI has said that government had to face a loss of 508 crores because of the telecom rights issuance scandal that happened during the years of 2001-2007. CBI has said that cases have been registered against Ghosh and Gupta, Bharti Cellular (now Bharti Airtel), Hutchinson Max and Sterling Cellular (now Vodafone air) under various acts of Indian Penal Code.

CBI has kept Parmod Mahajan out of investigations as the later is not alive now. But CBI has accused him of being involved in the scandal. Reacting to these raids, Airtel and Vodafone have said that they have used highest standards of the corporate world while providing their world class services to the Indian users.

Upcoming Hockey Event-Men’s Challengers Cup

Men’s sixth Challengers Hockey Cup will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26th November to 4th December. Eight teams are participating in these tournaments which have been divided into two pools. India, Belgium, South Africa and Poland have been kept in pool ‘a’ while the pool ‘b’ contains Argentina, Canada, Japan and Malaysia. 24 hockey matches will be played during this tournament which will be telecasted live on Ten Sports channel. The opening match will be played between the pool ‘b’ teams of Canada and Malaysia from 11am according the South African standard time.

Indian team is being led by 27 year old Bharat Chetri who has the experience of playing 116 international hockey matches. P R Shrijesh, Manjeet Kulu, Rupinder Singh, B R Raghunath, Sandeep Singh, Gurbaz Singh, Sardara Singh, Arjun Halappa, Manpreet Singh, Sawaranjeet Singh, Yuvraj Valmiki, S V Suneel, Darnish Murtaba and Tushar Khandekar are the main members of the team. Except it, Shawinder, Birend er Lakda and C Kagjum have also been included into the Indian Hockey team squad while Rajpal Singh, Ignis Tirki, Bharat Chikara, Ravi Pal and Gurwinder Chandi have been rested.

This championship’s first opening match was played in2001 in Kualalampur and Indian team had won the championship by defeating South Africa by 2-1. 2003’s Hockey Challengers cup was held in Johannesburg and the trophy was won by Spain which defeated Korea by 7-3. Argentina won this trophy twice in 2005 and 2007. In 2005, it defeated the Korean team by 5-2 in Alexandria and in 2007 It won the final from New Zealand by 3-2 in Boom. But in 2009, New Zealand won the final by defeating Pakistan by 4-2. India remained at 3rd position in this tournament in the years of 2007 and 2009. New Zealand won the 2nd place in 2007 and 4th place in 2003. Pakistan could won the 2nd place only once in the year of 2009. South Africa won the 2nd place in 2001 and 3rd place in 2003. Belgium had won the 4th place in 2005’s championship. England had won the 4th position twice in the years of 2005 and 2007. In 2001 Malaysia had won the 4th position.

Only seven nations have played the final matches of this tournament which is held after two years. The upcoming match time table has been mentioned in the table below.

Date Pool-A Matches Time Pool-B Matches Time
26-Nov India Belgium 3.00pm Canada Malaysia 11.00am
South Africa Poland 5.00pm Argentina Japan 1.00pm
27-Nov Belgium Poland 3.00pm Canada Argentina 11.00am
South Africa India 5.00pm Japan Malaysia 1.00pm
29-Nov India Poland 3.00pm Canada Japan 11.00am
Belgium South Africa 5.00pm Argentina Malaysia 1.00pm
1-Dec Quarter final matches between top four teams of both pools.
2-Dec Matches will be played to decide winners of 5th and 8th positions
3-Dec Semifinal match will be played between the winners of quarter final matches.
4-Dec Final match will be played at 4.30 in the evening. It will decide the first and second position of the teams in the tournament. Three other matches will be held to decide the positions of the other teams.

Sukh Ram Case-A Warning to the Corrupt People

A few days ago a Delhi court sent former telecom minister Sukh Ram to five year jail term for his involvement in telecom scandal committed during Narsimha Rao’s tenure. This verdict is definitely a ray of hope for those who want to put a check on corruption prevailing at higher levels of Indian government and bureaucracy. Prior to this verdict Sukh Ram had been held guilty in two other corruption cases by the honorable judiciary but he escaped the jail by getting bail because according to Indian law bail is permitted to the guilty in case of three or less than three years of imprisonment. But this time he has been sent to imprisonment for five years so he will have to go behind bars as he cannot escape the jail by getting bail. This time he had no option of escaping the jail so has been put into Tihar jail where another telecom minister A Raja along with several of his accomplices is waiting for the justice.
This verdict is also a lesson to the political parties who do every kind of compromises to attain the power. When Sukh Ram was ousted from the Narsimha Rao Cabinet for his alleged involvement in telecom scandal the then opposition party BJP did not allow the Parliament session to go on for many days. Later on when CBI raided at his residence and other places owned by him millions of Indian currency was recovered . The opposition party BJP had accused the Narsimha Rao government for being involved in this scandal from foot to head. Another cabinet minister Kamalnath Rai,too, had to resign from the cabinet for being involved in the sugar scam.

But the future brought many surprises to the public. At one hand the BJP had sabotaged entire session of parliament and on the other hand it formed an alliance with Sukh Ram led Himachal Vikas Party to form a government in Himachal Pradesh under the leadership of Shanta Kumar. It did not end here but Sukh Ram was honored with a ministry in the HP cabinet and his son was elected Rajya Sabha member as a return of this political trading.

Indian telecom ministry is one of the richest ministries in India so every political party craves for it. So many business houses and electronic media ‘icons’ used every kind of means to get A Raja elected as the telecom minister in the Manmohan Singh led UPA government. All this underground lobbying has become known to the world on the basis of recorded tapes. A Raja and many of his accomplices are languishing is Tihar Jail and waiting for their trial for their alleged involvement in the 2G Spectrum scandal. Because of this scandal billions of rupees had been siphoned off by the Raja&Party. That is why the opposition party BJP and some sections of Media has demanded a thorough and neutral investigation in the 2G Spectrum case. That is why Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh had to oust A Raja from his cabinet and had to issue orders of investigation against him and his accomplices. Later on the honorable Supreme Court of India took the reign of investigation into its hands and ordered the investigation agency to directly be responsible to the court. The court also ordered that the central government cannot interfere in the investigations in 2G Spectrum case. This was one of the biggest shames to the Manmohan Singh government but he is still sticking to the chair and is not wasting any moment to ‘sell India away’. It was also decided that this investigation will cover the period of NDA government also from when private companies were allotted the telecom rights.

When A Raja and his accomplices were put to investigation, the main opposition party BJP had termed it as first victory of its any-corruption movement. But now investigation agencies have registered an FIR and have started investigations against the then telecom minister late Mr. Parmod Mahajan for his alleged involvement in spectrum allotment rights to the private companies. When investigation agencies raided the offices and residences of the related private companies’ and government officials BJP termed it as an act of political vendetta. All this indicates that every political party whether it is in power or not takes false oaths of working against corruption only to befool the voters. In reality, most of the political parties are the ‘plague of locusts’ and financial loot is the main objective of their members. There is a huge difference between what they say and what they do. It is the necessity of the time that the public should be aware of the characters of these political parties. It is only the awareness that will protect our country from being looted by Sukh Ram type corrupt traitors.

Shammi Kapoor’s Life and Film Career

Shammi Kapoor is known for his unique kind of dance in Bollywood. During his era, there were a very few choreographers in the Indian entertainment industry. The film actors and actresses used to learn the classical Indian dance formats. But Classical dance could not be used in every film. Except it, all the actors and actresses were not acquainted with the classical dances of India. So Shammi Kapoor invented his own dance style. He used to dance in front of the camera changing his ‘body positions’ very quickly. At that time Bollywood was ruled by three super stars. Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. Shammi knew it well that it is only his dance style that differentiates him from the other Bollywood actors. He gave many musical hits with new heroines. Most of his films had simple plots with light story changes, sweet songs, romance, comedy and punishment of the villain in the end. Even today’s superstar Amir Khan was the fan of Shammi Kapoor.

Acting was in his blood as Prithvi Raj Kapoor was his father and Raj Kapoor was his elder brother. Raj Kapoor was a well established actor in the entertainment industry when he was to start his career. Shammi had worked in Prithvi Raj Theaters form his childhood and it was natural that he had learnt acting skills and was ready to start his career. But father Prithvi Raj and brother Raj Kapoor asked him ‘to go on his own way’. It was the era of Dilip, Raj and Dev trio so most of the film directors and producers preferred to make films with them. So it were the directors-producers of B-Grade films who first signed some films with him.

Some of his earlier films were- Rail Ka Dibba(1953), Chor Bazar(1954), Tange Wali(1955), Daku(1955) and Miss Coca Cola(1955). But all these films could not perform well on the box office. With these initial failures Shammi Kapoor learned that he can not succeed in the film industry while following his elder brother Raj. So he decided to invent his own kind of style.

With this change in his approach he gave his first hit Tumsa Nehi Dekha in 1957. In this film he adopted a new acting style and with it he was taken seriously in the entertainment industry. Nasir Hussain directed Tumsa Nahi Dekha became the most successful film of that year. After that Shammi worked in many Nasir directed films. The due of Shammi and Nasir gave many hit films to the industry. The Next decade Shammi ruled the box as he gave most of his hit films during that time. Jungly (1961), Professor(1962), Dil Tera Diwana(1962), China Town(1962), Bluf Master(1963), Kashmir Ki Kali(1964), Raj Kumar(1964), Janwar(1965), Teesri Manzil(1966), Lat Sahib(1967), In Evening in Paris(1967), Brahamchari(1968), Prince(1969) and Tumse Acha Kon Hai(1969) were his hit films that were released during that decade. These films perform very well on the box office. Shammi Kapoor was liked for his acting and dance in these films. It did not only establish him as a renowned star in the industry but also increased his fan following manifolds. Shammi is liked for his ‘youthfulness’ and ‘tensionless’ acting. Singer Rafi had a great roll behind his success in the industry. His fifty year old ‘yahu’ song puts the same effect on youth mind even today.

Later on Shammi started to do ‘character rolls’ with the entrance of new stars in the entertainment industry and because of his increasing age. Zameer, Mama Bhanja. Shalimaar, Meera, Rocky, Desh Premi, Prem Rog, Betaab and Hero are some of those films witch are known for his ‘character rolls’. In the later years of his life he distanced himself from the entertainment industry because of health problems. He had to stay in hospital for four-five hours daily because of health problems in last years of his life. But all these health problems could not affect his youthfulness. This famous Bollywood star breathed his last on August 14th 2011.

Shammi married twice in his life. His first wife was Geeta Bali. They fell in love while doing ‘Rangila Ratan’ in 1955. At that time Kapoor family did not allow their gents to marry the actresses. Shammi and Geeta Balli were very afraid of this fact. Some other facts were also against their marriage. Geeta was older than Shammi. Within four months of their love affair they married each other in a Hindu temple in Mumbai and told their family after the marriage. For some time Shammi was not welcomed in his family but later on everything changed. He had two issues from Geeta Bali, son Aditya Raj Kapoor and daughter Kanchan. Aditya tried his hand in acting but failed to do anything concrete while Kanchan has been married to Ketan Dessai.

Geeta died because of small pox in 1965. It was the biggest jolt Shammi ever faced in his life. He forgot everything in his life and ceased to pay any attention to his health. It had adverse affect on his film career. Because of family pressure he married Neela Devi , four years after the death of his first wife. Neela did not have any child because prior to their marriage she had promised him not to have any child. She looked after Aditya and Kanchan as her own children. We can say that Sammi Kapoor’s journey of life was very pleasant.

Who is Anna Hazare?

Anna Hazare is one of those leaders who wears white Khadi clothes and wears Gandhi Topi(cap). He was born on June 15, 1938 in a small village Maharashtra known as Bhingari. His mother Laxmi Bai Hazare and father Babu Rao Hazare was a farmer by profession. Anna has six brothers. His family was very poor and he had to face the harsh living conditions because of poverty. Because of poverty he migrated to Mumbai in search of better living conditions. There he studied up to 7th standard and after that decided to abandon his studies to share the burden of his family. He worked at a fruit selling shop for the monthly salary of 40 rupees.

In 1962 when he was a young man of 22 years old he joined the military on the appeal of Indian government in wake of the India-China war. He was appointed as a driver in the Maratha Regiment. During the 1965 India-Pakistan war he was stationed at Khemkaran border sector. During this war many of his fellow soldiers had died in the Pakistani air strikes on the bordering posts which totally changed his life. After 13 years of military service he retired from his service. During his military career he won five-six medals for his bravery and untainted service. He decided to live in Ralegaon Sidhi instead of going to Bhingari, his birth place after his retirement form the military. By 1990 Anna Hazare had become a well known social activist in Ralegaon Sidhi and the adjoining villages. He, with the help of the youth and the women folk led a social campaign again the menace of liquor and was very successful. This group used various tactics to ban the consumption of liquor. His village was one the most backward village of the state as it did not have a high school, had no helth centre. Less than 100 acres of land could be irrigated because of lack of water in the village.

His village did not have electricity or water supply facilities. So he motivated his social activists to build canals and check dams to store the rail water. Because of relentless hard work the water scarcity has become the matter of past and most the land in the area is irrigation possible. On his motivation thousands of plants were planted in the hills and the adjoining areas. Solar system and bio-gas plants were set-up for the supply of electricity in the village. Because of his enthusiasm he had become a well known person not only in his state but in the country. In 1990 he was awarded with Padam Shri and in 1992 with Padam Bhushan by the president of India. In 2002 World Bank awarded him with Jit Gill Memorial Award. By 1992 he was known as a social activist who worked for the progress of Ralegaon Sidhi and for the improvement of irrigation facilities in the village and the adjoining areas.

It was in the year of 1991 when he became a well known face in all of the country for his anticorruption campaign against the then government of Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra. In that year he started his ‘Jan Andolan’ against corruption. He started the hunger strike and demanded the resignation of some corrupt ministers in the Maharashtra government. These ministers were Shashikant, Sooter Mahadev, Shivankar and Babban Gholaap. He accused them of having the property more than their declared assets. The Maharashtra government tried to persuade him but he did not compromise with his stand. As a result of his Jan Andolan two ministers-Sooter and Shivankar had to resign. But Gholaap went to the court and filed a defamation case against Anna. Anna failed to present any concrete evidence against Gholaap and was sentenced to three months of imprisonment. But the Maharashtra Chief Minister Murali Manohar Joshi preferred to release him only after one day’s imprisonment. A commission set up by the state government gave its verdict in favor of Shashikant, Sooter and Shivankar but Anna accused many Shiv Sena and BJP leaders of being involved in corruption.

In 2003, Anna once again sat on a hunger strike as a protest against the inclusion of four corrupt ministers in the NCP-Congress government. These ministers were Suresh Dada, Nawab Malik, Vijay Kumar Govit and Padam Singh Patil. As a result the Maharashtra government had to bow against his stand and a commission was set up for the investigation. As a result of Anna’s campaign some of those ministers had to resign. In 1997 he launched a campaign in support of ‘Right to Information Act’. It was in 2003 that his campaign bear the fruit as the Maharashtra government passed a very strong and strict draft as ‘Right to Information Act’. Later on this campaign became a national campaign and the Lok Sabha passed the ‘Right to Information Act’. In April 2011, he became a well known face not only in India but almost the entire world for his nation-wide anti-corruption campaign. He and his Civil Society members launched this nation wide anti corruption campaign as a method to put pressure on the centre government to pass a strong law against corruption. With in four days the government had to accept their demands in wake of increasing public support to Anna Hazare. A joint committee was formed to create a draft of anti-corruption law. But this was only a tactic used by the centre government to buy some more time to deal with the public anger. But within a few meetings of the joint drafting committee the differences between the government and the Civil Society Team went on increasing and Civil Society decided to boycott the meetings and launce the anti-corruption campaign from 16th August. But many hours prior to his hunger strike, Delhi Police arrested Anna Hazare and took his to Tihar Jail. But it put more oil on the fire and Lakhs of people came to streets in support of Hazare. In wake of the nation wide protests against his arrest the government decided to release him from the jail. But he along with his supporters left the jail when some of their demands were met by the government.

Presently Anna is sitting on an indefinite hunger strike along with thousands of his supporters all over India and abroad. But the ‘Andhi, Behri Sarkar(blind and deaf government)’ of ‘Italian puppets’ and ‘second hand British’ leaders are reluctant to accept the demands of the common people of India.

Vidya Balan A Heart Breaker

Rumors of Vidya Balan’s marriage have surprised her fans as well as the Indian Entertainment Industry. Rumors of her marriage with UTV Motion Picture head Sidharth Rai is the most talked-about issues these days. This news was drawn the attention of all of the Indian media and has been debated almost by all of the Indian newspapers and TV channels and the internet. It was being said that they got married secretly and are celebrating their honeymoon at some undisclosed place. Sensing it that the rumor have started to ‘brim-out’, Sidharth himself had to clear the air. He has said that all this issue is baseless and nothing has happened.

According to a close friend of Vidya Balan all this issue is a rumor that Vidya has secretly got married. She is in Mumbai these days and soon will complete the shooting of Milan Lathuria’s ‘Dirty Picture’ within two weeks. Her manager Sunjay, too, has termed this news only a rumor. But we know that we have stepped on the ‘tail’ of the ‘animal’ soon the ‘animal’ will come out. Whether this is a true or false but she has broken the hearts of her ‘lovers’.