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EDITORIAL:
 Narmada:Continuing Tragedy The controversy over Narmada refuses to go away. The conventional wisdom, particularly among expatriate Gujaratis, is all for the dam. Yet thanks to a committed band of activists, the debate has refused to go away. The neglect and apathy for those dispossessed by this grandiose scheme have been brought home to us time and again as these protesters, working under the broad rubric of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, have cried foul. “Even in the few cases where families had been given land, the ministers heard from hapless evacuees that the land granted was either uncultivable, water-logged, subject to multiple claims, or that the land was distributed in such a way as to forcibly disperse family members to different areas,” writes Anu Mandavilli in this month’s cover story. “The ministers also heard, first-hand, complaints that the displaced families were being pressurized to accept cash (in direct violation of laws regarding land-for-land compensation) and that corrupt public officials were demanding bribes before releasing the compensation checks.” Will the dam really deliver on its promises? Activists charge that Sardar Sarovar Project engineers have taken to hyping false claims. “The builders of the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat, India are advertising unrealizable benefits in terms of power and irrigation and luring their nation to increase the dam’s height to 121.9 meters despite the fact that 35,000 families are still living in the submergence zone without rehabilitation,” according to a challenge issued by scientists and engineers. We carry this thoughtful essay for the sobering conclusion it provokes: What is touted as development in a starkly stratified society like India can often imply policies that benefit the already privileged elite at the expense of the underprivileged, and it is incumbent on us to cast a meticulous, critical eye on all such projects. India has been hitting headlines for its prowess in IT and outsourcing, but mountaineering? Well, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and mountaineer Gautam Patil is about to make the world sit up and take notice. Patil is all set to scale seven top summits of the world including the biggie, Mount Everest. And it’s not idle talk either, he has already scaled five of the seventh summits:— Denali (North America), Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Vinson Massif (Antarctica) and Elbrus (Europe). “In mountaineering as in life, human potential is vast, and in many ways it is truly unlimited,” he writes in this month’s issue. “Getting committed is the first imperative. Tenacity, physical and mental, conscious and focused efforts, shifting and expanding paradigms, continuous learning from one’s experiences, both big and not so big, can support in reaching avowed goals.” What does a Vietnamese ecological and human tragedy inflicted decades ago have to do with South Asians in America? To quote from an old African American spiritual song: “We’re in the same boat, brother.” Here we are, ethnic minority groups in this vast, multi-colored crazy quilt of a country. Notwithstanding the opportunities that are open to all immigrants, one of our pet peeves is the perceived lack of cultural and social sensitivity in a country which is predominantly Caucasian. Yet take a close look at almost any ethnic minority —Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African American — and you will discover an ethnic insularity that is no less hidebound than that of Caucasians. How can we, in good faith, ask Caucasians to respect our cultural and social heritage when we ourselves are unwilling to look beyond our own ethnic ghetto? It’s not enough to seek multicultural tolerance and respect, we need to live it. Siliconeer has started to take a look at issues that are important to other ethnic communities, and will, from time to time, inform our readers about our ethnic neighbors. Among the horrors of the U.S. war in Vietnam is the fallout from the millions of gallons of toxic Agent Orange dumped in Vietnam by the U.S. Thirty years after hostilities have ended between the U.S. and Vietnam, relations remain strained by one of America’s most notorious actions. The Vietnamese believe that the powerful weed killer - the use of which was intended to destroy crops and jungle providing cover for the Vietcong - is responsible for massively high instances of genetic defects in areas that were sprayed. Award-winning Vietnamese American author Ky-Phong Tran writes about his journey back to Vietnam after 27 years of separation from his family and the terrible toll taken by Agent Orange. As the victims of Agent Orange continue to struggle for justice, they deserve the sympathy of all people of good will. Do drop us a line with ideas and comments about how we can make Siliconeer better serve you. |TOP|
COVER STORY: The Narmada Debacle: Bad News for Everyone? Not only are the dispossessed being shortchanged, engineers are now making false claims about the project, while the Indian government and the judiciary have completely abdicated their responsibility, writes Anu Mandavilli.  (Above): Bhagavati-behn from Nisarpur, Madhya Pradesh, on a hunger strike in New Delhi. Her village is threatened total submersion by the Narmada dam project. (Right): Indian activists protest in front of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco in support of the hunger strike in New Delhi. (Photo: Pei Wu) (Bottom): The village in Domkhedi, northern Maharashtra, is submerged by the Sardar Sarovar Project. (Photo: NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN) The struggle over the dams on River Narmada is a landmark in developmental politics that compels us to re-think our positions on several key issues — from the environmental sustainability of dominant developmental strategies, to the tension between our ethical responsibilities to the underprivileged and corporate notions of economic efficiency. But most important of all, recent developments in the Narmada struggle, including the Indian government’s silence in the face of large-scale collective civic action, highlight a breakdown in the mechanisms of accountability and a compromised democratic process. Over the last two decades, social scientists, policy makers and activists have presented various arguments, including irrefutable statistical evidence, showing that the supposed benefits of the dams are highly overstated and that the material and human costs of the dams largely exceed their putative benefits. Decades of struggle by people’s movements has provided ample evidence that the Adivasis and peasants of the Narmada Valley are resisting displacement from their ancestral lands, alienation from their traditional forms of livelihood and the disintegration of their social and cultural environments. The Narmada Bachao Andolan, in particular, has been quite successful in building mainstream public opinion on the issue owing to its significant support base among urban middle-class groups, students, professionals etc. Yet, the most recent actions of the Indian government and the Supreme Court reflect a complete abdication of their responsibility to the people and a repudiation of all concerns for social and economic justice. For example, why is the Narmada Control Authority allowed to blatantly violate judicial rulings regarding the rehabilitation process? Why is it acceptable for public officials, including engineers working on the Sardar Sarovar Project, to fabricate data in order to exaggerate the supposed benefits of the dam? Are these attempts to “persuade” the public through fake data not a violation of all norms of democratic public debate? Why has the press been silent about such cynical attempts by politicians to manipulate public opinion?
The state’s apathy towards the people’s needs is one thing — but how is one to explain the prime minister’s ignoring of the opinion of his own ministers, including that of Saifuddin Soz, the minister of water resources, and Meira Kumar, minister of social justice and empowerment? These two ministers were part of the group of ministers that toured resettlement and rehabilitation sites and whose report is a clear indictment of the rehabilitation process, and which exposes rehabilitation as being only “largely paperwork.” While the official status reports by the state government claim that resettlement is complete, the group of ministers found that on a majority of sites, there was no sanitation, no drinking water, no system of sewage, no roads, and certainly no other facilities like hospital, water reservoir, school, post office etc. Even in the few cases where families had been given land, the ministers heard from hapless evacuees that the land granted was either uncultivable, water-logged, subject to multiple claims, or that the land was distributed in such a way as to forcibly disperse family members to different areas. The ministers also heard, first hand, complaints that the displaced families were being pressurized to accept cash (in direct violation of laws regarding land-for-land compensation) and that corrupt public officials were demanding bribes before releasing the compensation checks. The inaction of the Prime Minister’s Office and the efforts to delay the publication of the ministers’ report are particularly inhumane given that several leaders of the NBA had already been on an indefinite hunger strike for 10 days specifically in regard to the resolution of the matter by the PM’s office. (The ministers’ report was published in The Hindu April 17, 2006 and can be accessed online here: http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/17/stories/2006041705231100.htm)
Recent events also raise grievous questions about the credibility and integrity of the judicial system as a whole. The NCA’s decision to raise the height of the dam to 121 meters on March 8, 2006 is in direct violation of the Supreme Court’s orders (issued in March 2005) that the height of the dam cannot be increased unless those subject to submergence are rehabilitated first. Further, the Narmada Tribunal award also required that rehabilitation should be completed 6 months before submergence. Yet despite the NCA’s failure to comply with the law, it was not the functionaries of the NCA that were arrested, but people like Medha Patkar and Jamsingh Nargave who were engaged in non-violent protest against the NCA’s decision! News that over 5,000 petitions are pending with the Grievance Redressal Authority and that the head of the office has never visited the affected village raises deeply troubling questions about the Adivasis’ access to the justice system and the ability of the system to respond to their concerns. The contempt for the judicial system and for the suffering of the people of the Narmada Valley shown by the NCA and the GRA is a violation of all democratic and humane principles of governance.
The English press in India, (despite its self-congratulatory cheering about its “free” status) remains largely pro-globalization and has had precious little support to offer to the people of the valley. For example, in a recent article in the Indian Express titled “Dam: Doable and must be done” the reporter bemoans the “waste of public funds” caused by the delay in building the dam but is unable to express any sympathy for the plight of the displaced families. No doubt emboldened by this further lack of accountability the politicians and the Sardar Sarovar Project technocrats have taken to fabricating data about the extent of the rehabilitation and the purported benefits of the dam, such as the one about the amount of power that will be generated by the SSP that overstates benefits by about 300 percent. In the absence of any challenges from the press to such falsification of data, various NGOs and other civil society groups have been working to expose the deceptive claims of the government, (See Box: An Open Challenge to Narmada Engineers).
|TOP|
MOUNTAINEERING: Seven Summits: Scaling the Top Peaks In mountaineering as in life, human potential is vast, and in many ways it is truly unlimited, so getting committed is the first imperative, writes Gautam Patil, the first Indian to have stood atop five of the world’s seven summits – the tallest point on each of the seven continents.  Silicon Valley entrepreneur and mountaineer Gautam Patil scaling Mount Denali in North America (above) and holding the Indian tricolor in Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica (below)
My father was one of seven siblings and their father was a tough disciplinarian. He bought them one pair of shoes in Dassera and by the time summer came, the shoes were worn out. But, the summer hikes at Patalpani near Indore were still mandatory. They tied leaves to their feet and went hiking. Immersing in nature was a part of growing up for us, too. Tulsi Lake and the Western Ghats were our favorites. Then, in 6th grade, I saw the Sherpa Tenzing documentary and also saw Everest from Tiger Hill in Darjeeling. I was awestruck and still am. Since then, I have used all the opportunities I got to hike and climb – this includes places like Gaumukh, the hills near Leh in India, the Adirondacks in New York State, and mountains in the Sierra Nevada in California. In 1998, I decided to start working on Mt. Everest as a goal. I figured I would climb the seven summits so I could gain more experience and training. If I traveled on my own, I would also get to connect with peoples of the world first hand. So the journey began – a journey to high mountains, new cultures, and self-realization. Little did know that I was going to be the first man from India on several of these. That is just a bonus. I am very proud of having grown up in Mumbai. I think growing up in a cosmopolitan place, with Hindu parents, a Jesuit school, and friends from all language groups and religions has a tremendous value to it. A Mumbaiite is a world citizen! My college was in Pennsylvania – those days were completely different. I studied finance and economics and spent most of my free time earning money to make ends meet. All jobs were fair game, from cutting lawns and washing cars in the summer, to working in the college computer lab year round. College life was a lot of hard work and character building. I am grateful for the opportunities America has given me and the scholarship that the university provided. Mountaineering is a mind based endurance game. How much can you take? The truth is a lot more than one really imagines. For the climber, the main strength is mental – tenacity and endurance – it continues over to cardiovascular fitness – there is no substitute for adequate training and then on the leg strength which is often part of cardiovascular training. Mountaineering begins with the mind. Might sound like you’ve heard it before but I’ve seen people live or die because of it. Hard decisions have to be made, one has to persevere in tough conditions, and moreover stay calm when life and death seem divided by a thin line. For example, when I was on Aconcagua in January 2000, for reasons beyond my control I had to solo to summit. After a long, hard climb I made summit and was returning when I faced one of those decisions. It was near summit at roughly 22,500 feet and an older German man was still climbing to the top. He had no business being there! Given his age and the lateness of the day (it was almost dark) and being alone - was incredibly unsafe. I knew he couldn’t make it back so I told him to return. He knew that I was the last person he would see between then and when he returned to camp and all he wanted from me was to take his photograph with the summit in the background. I did. Given the low levels of oxygen, I was having a hard time figuring out if I was talking to him or simply thinking it. He didn’t listen to my stern advice. It was 40 below zero, getting pitch black, and windy. The wind chill made it feel like -95 or so. This was no time to dally.  (Top): Gautam Patil on the summit of Mount Denali, Alaska. Mount Denali is the highest peak in North America. (Bottom, l): Patil on his way to fly towards base camp for Mount Denali. (Right): Patil heading towards Mount Denali. Lower on the Canaleta – a steep section of sandy rock – another man was struggling back. I had to choose – stand there and help the German man down to camp. And, risk losing life or make a dash back to camp and try and give the other guy a hand. I chose the latter. He turned out to be a Dutch guy in his early 40s. He was very afraid despite the fact that he had a headlamp. He wanted to take shelter in a resin coated emergency blanket and spend the night behind some rocks. There was no way he would make it – that was an absurd idea but people can be very irrational in these situations. I insisted that he kept moving. The night was clear and I was feeling very good. Perhaps that was a neuro-deficit too but it worked! To cut the story short, we miraculously got to camp around 2 a.m. and immediately sent for the rescue team for the other climber. (Rescue could not leave for another day due to bad weather. They reportedly found him collapsed above 22,000 feet, brought him to high camp, revived him and brought him to base camp. He was in borderline condition. On the third day, as I was leaving the mountain, I saw a helicopter pull the German man away. I hope they are both well.) I have an endless stream of such stories. These are the situations that mountaineering is all about. You never know! In mountaineering as in life, human potential is vast, and in many ways it is truly unlimited. Getting committed is the first imperative. Tenacity, physical and mental, conscious and focused efforts, shifting and expanding paradigms, continuous learning from one’s experiences, both big and not so big, can support in reaching avowed goals. Gautam Patil has climbed five of the top seven summits in seven continents — Denali (North America), Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Vinson Massif (Antarctica) and Elbrus (Europe). He now plans on climbing atop the final two by June 2006: Kosciusko (Oceania) and Everest (Asia). More information is available at his Web site: www.isummitworld.com |TOP| Agent Orange and Bhopal: Fight for Global Environmental Justice Continues Agent Orange and the Bhopal disaster reminds him of slash-and-burn farming, where land is deforested, farmed, and then abandoned after its nutrients have been depleted and it can no longer produce, writes Ky-Phong Tran.  A U.S. plane spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam (above). Millions of gallons of the toxic defoliant were sprayed, with harrowing results, like children born with birth defects (left)
In the fall of 2002, I journeyed to Vietnam for the first time and it changed my life. I met my family after twenty-seven long years of separation--dozens of aunts and uncles, cousins, and family friends. We hosted a banquet on the floor of my paternal grandfather’s house and the memory still lingers with me--the click and clack of spoons and chopsticks, the tipsy laughter of family, the blue tarp we all sat on. I also visited the aging white church my parents were married in, the dilapidated hospital where my siblings were born, and the three-story house where I was conceived. But on a trip to the War Remnants Museum in Saigon, my pilgrimage to reclaim my past took a significant, powerful turn. In an indiscreet corner, I was stunned by photos of mangled babies, twisted like pretzels, floating in jars of yellow liquid. Photos of teenagers with huge, bulging eyes and giant foreheads. Photos of limbless adults smiling, trying their best to look happy. I went back to Vietnam looking for myself and instead, I found a cause: Justice for the Vietnamese victims of chemical warfare. Justice from the manufacturers and the government that sprayed them. Justice for the victims of Agent Orange. Operation Hades During the Vietnam War, the US military sought to destroy dense jungle areas in South Vietnam to eliminate enemy cover and food supplies. The Pentagon commissioned a number of herbicides from manufacturers including Dow Chemical and Monsanto, but the most “successful” was Agent Orange, named after the orange stripe that was painted on the barrels it was stored in. Between 1964 and 1971, US forces sprayed an estimated 19 million gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. It was later discovered that the chemical mixture also produced dioxins, a deadly chemical that is a known carcinogen and teratogen. These were the chemicals responsible for the images of the deformed children I had seen in Saigon. The military operation had various names, including Operation Trail Dust and Operation Ranch Hand. For a time, it was also known as Operation Hades. I find that sickly fitting, as it did bring a certain kind of hell to the innocent people it was sprayed on and the land that continues to sprout its poisons to this day. Judgment Day In 2004, three representatives of the Agent Orange Victims Association in Vietnam brought suit in a Federal New York court against the chemical companies, claiming that they were responsible for the human and environmental damage caused by Agent Orange. A year later, Judge Jack Weinstein of Brooklyn Federal Court dismissed the lawsuit filed against the chemical companies that produced Agent Orange which they knew was tainted with high levels of dioxin. Judge Weinstein ruled that the use of these chemicals during the war, although they were toxic, did not in his opinion fit the definition of ‘chemical warfare’ and therefore did not violate international law. Ironically, in 1985, the same Judge Weinstein presided over a $180 million settlement between US Veterans and the same companies to assist with the veterans’ medical needs caused by Agent Orange. The truth of the ruling is this: If the billion-dollar, globally powerful, and politically connected chemical companies lost and were forced to make amends for their war crimes, it would have opened up a Pandora’s Box of litigation for companies all over the world who had done harm to war time civilians and in this current political system, that is unacceptable. I guess corporations need justice too. After the ruling, a delegation of Agent Orange victims and supporters was organized by the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign and toured eleven US cities to highlight their struggle An appeal has been filed with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Brooklyn and arguments began in April 2006. Bhopal  The Agent Orange campaign bears an ugly, striking resemblance to the Bhopal disaster in 1984, where a Union Carbide pesticide plant released toxic chemicals that killed over 15,000 Bhopal residents and injured another half million.Though the victims were compensated financially in an out of court settlement, the land is still infected to this day. Because of the plant’s central location and rain run-off that pollutes underground water supplies, toxics are responsible for kidney, liver, and nervous system problems among many Bhopal residents. And in a coincidence that would be Hollywood movie-laughable if it were not true, Dow Chemical, the manufacturer of Agent Orange, is also the owner of Union Carbide. Slash and Burn The use of Agent Orange and the Bhopal disaster reminds me of slash-and-burn farming, where land is deforested, farmed, and then abandoned after its nutrients have been depleted and it can no longer produce. The Union Carbide plant manufactured pesticides in India for cheap profits with shoddy regulations. After the explosion, after Bhopal could not produce, the plant was sold. Unfortunately, environmental clean-up is expensive and produces no profit for shareholders. Vietnam was about something more than profit, it was about power. According to the Domino Theory, if Vietnam fell to Communist forces so would all of Southeast Asia. Or maybe, the dominoes were all the other colonized regions of the world that were fighting for their own self-determination. After the Vietnam War, Vietnam was no longer useful politically or environmentally, literally de-forested by chemicals, and thus abandoned. The United States lost that battle, and again, clean up is expensive, especially for the little ‘S’ shaped country that blemished this country’s previously unbeaten war record. Privilege in the New World The other day, my roommate asked me if I was a Democrat or Republican. I laughed at him and told him I was neither, though I vote Democrat. I told him, elections rarely affect me. I am an English-speaking, college educated, US Citizen. I have direct access to steady work, health insurance, and a home. I vote Democrat because their policies tend to aid people whom I am related to or those whose struggle I support: the poor, working families, the uninsured, immigrants. It’s the same with the Agent Orange Campaign. In truth, it does not directly affect me, but somehow knowing that it could have been me contaminated with Agent Orange, that there are people who look like me, talk like me, and have the same name as I do who are suffering--I feel committed to them. For me, what’s the point of having all this privilege if I don’t use it for something good, something bigger than me? Sometimes, I wonder if this campaign is possible. Can the victims of Agent Orange win justice 11,000 miles away in a New York court? Can justice be had from an unjust war? But history tells us it can happen. After decades of organizing, Japanese Americans won reparations and a national apology for internment. A few weeks after the dismissal of the Agent Orange Victims’ case, the US government paid 25 million dollars to compensate for losses after US soldiers looted a train and warehouse that contained Jewish family heirlooms that were stolen by Nazi-allied Hungarian soldiers. I was pleased that they won, but the proximity of the cases broke my heart. To me it only confirmed that justice in this country is not just about justice, it is about influence. As Vietnamese America grows, as it elects government officials and churns out millionaires, as it produces college graduates and white-collar professionals, I hope it can remember its own brothers and sisters across the Pacific Ocean. I hope it can balance its ambition with its sense of community and consider people over profits. I believe that there will be a settlement and that it will add further closure to the Vietnam War. But most of all, a settlement might make life a little bit easier for a crippled child back in Vietnam and cleanup will prevent further suffering. It can be done because it must be done. For more information, contact The Fund for Reconciliation and Development (www.ffrd.org) and Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign (www.vn-agentorange.org) |TOP| NEWS DIARY: April Roundup  Academic Decathlon | U.S., Pakistan Relationship Strategic: Pak Envoy | Space Mission | Pramod Mahajan Dies | Say it Ain’t So, Kaavya | Trouble in Baroda | Lodi Man Convicted of Terrorism Charge | Mobile Phones Boosts Bangla | Maoists Name Peace Team | Ex CEO Pleads Guilty | ‘Build-a-Bear’ in India | Taliban Kills Indian Engineer Academic Decathlon  Atish Sawant, a senior at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Calif., led his school team to a first-place finish in the 2006 United States Academic Decathlon, held April 26-29 in San Antonio, Texas. The Taft team scored 51,659 points out of a possible 60,000, beating Plano Senior High School of Plano, Texas, which finished second with 48,720 points. The 18-year-old Stevenson Ranch, Calif., native posted the top individual score in the competition — 9,062 out of possible 10,000. This was also the second highest ever score in his category. Sawant received nine medals and three extra awards: highest scoring student, speech showcase and top score in his academic category. Students are tested in 10 categories: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech. This year’s topic was “The European Renaissance: Renewal and Reform.” There were 337 students competing this year representing 38 states. A recipient of the Caltech Signature Award, the National AP Scholar with Distinction award and the Academic Achievement Award, he is also a National Merit finalist. He is the son of Suresh and Hashuka Sawant. Also on the Taft team was Bangladeshi American Farhan Khan, 18, of Encino, Calif. |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| U.S., Pakistan Relationship Strategic: Pak Envoy  Pakistan’s U.S. envoy Jehangir Karamat made a whirlwind tour of Northern California recently during which he addressed gatherings at the University of California at Berkeley, the World Affairs Council in San Francisco and at Stanford. Both introductions of Ambassador Karamat, by Prof. Neil Joeck in Berkeley and Douglas Bereuter (president of the Asia Foundation) in San Francisco, mentioned his distinguished career as a soldier-diplomat and as a scholar. Karamat retired as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and chief of army staff of Pakistan in 1998. He has also been a visiting fellow at Stanford University and Brookings Institution. Karamat said that there are two different perceptions to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. One is that the U.S. is going to leave after the War on Terror is over (like in the past after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan). The other perception is that the relationship between the two countries is for the long-term. “We think that it is a strategic relationship,” he said. He said that Pakistan was focusing a great deal on economic and trade issues with the United States. “We were looking at a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Pakistan. This has not happened yet,” he said, but added that the dialog has been moving forward. On Pakistan’s own foreign policy, Karamat said that it has a relationship with Iran, its own policy on Iraq and has opened up a dialogue with Israel which will go further when the Israeli-Palestinian peace process makes progress. The Pakistani-American community will soon bid farewell to Karamat as he is slated to leave his post in Washington in the next couple of months. He will be remembered as a humble, articulate and soft-spoken figure, a well-read soldier and a credit to the military profession. He once chose to uphold democracy in Pakistan in spite of being in a situation where he could have taken over. — Ras H. Siddiqui |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| Space Mission  Three years after Kalpana Chawla’s tragic space expedition, another Indian American, Sunita Williams, will make her maiden journey to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s six-month mission.The U.S. space agency’s 14th expedition to ISS would begin this fall and the U.S.-born Williams will serve as a flight engineer, NASA announced. NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will be the commander of the expedition and the station science officer while Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin will serve as flight engineer and Soyuz commander. Williams will join Expedition 14 in progress after traveling to the station on space shuttle mission STS-116. Born in Euclid, Ohio Sept. 19, 1965, Sunita is married to physicist-turned-U.S. deputy marshal, Michael J. Williams. She is the daughter of Deepak Pandya, a physician from Gujarat who migrated to the U.S. in the 1960s and now works at a veterans hospital. A graduate of Florida Institute of Technology, she received her commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy from the U.S. Naval Academy in May 1987. She was designated a Naval Aviator in 1989, and graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School in 1993. Williams was selected for the astronaut program by NASA in June 1998, in part because of her extensive experience on more than 30 different aircraft. She has logged more than 2,770 flight hours in 30 different types of aircraft. |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| Pramod Mahajan Dies  Pramod Mahajan, one of the brightest luminaries in India’s main opposition Bharatiya Party’s Generation Next constellation and a cabinet minister in the previous government, died at the Hinduja Hospital 12 days after he was fatally shot at by his younger brother who pumped three bullets into him.The 56-year-old BJP general secretary is survived by his wife Rekha, son Rahul and daughter Poonam who were at his bedside when he died. Mahajan was shot at by his youngest brother Praveen at the BJP leader’s Worli residence on April 22. He underwent a four-hour emergency surgery to deal with critical injuries to his liver, lower chest, abdomen and pancreas. Three bullets that caused extensive damage to his vital organs and massive bleeding were not removed. Mahajan had been on life support and dialysis for the last few days. He was cremated at Shivaji Park crematorium. Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and party president Rajnath Singh cut short their political tours and flew to Mumbai. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other party leaders also rushed to Mumbai. Both President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said Mahajan’s death was a personal loss for them. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as other leaders across party lines recalled Mahajan as a great leader. |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| Say it Ain’t So, Kaavya  Amidst fresh charges of plagiarism against Indian-American author Kaavya Viswanathan, the publishers of her first novel finally decided to withdraw the book permanently and cancel the deal for her second work.“Little, Brown and Company will not be publishing a revised edition of `How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life’ by Kaavya Viswanathan, nor will we publish the second book under contract,” Michael Pietsch, Little Brown’s senior vice president and publisher, said in a statement. This was a dramatic comedown after a flurry of adulatory publicity that greeted the Harvard sophomore after she got a $500,000 advance for a two-book deal when she was 17. Her novel came out in March to widespread attention. Earlier, similarities were reported between the teenage author’s novel and Megan F McCafferty’s novels “Sloppy Firsts” (2001) and “Second Helping” (2003). In the aftermath of the allegations surfacing, Kaavya asserted that she had read the books of McCafferty and had “borrowed” from her two books “unconsciously and unintentionally.” Now there are reports that at least three portions of her novel has striking resemblances to a second book, “Can You Keep a Secret,” by Sophie Kinsella. While the plots of the two books are distinct, the phrasing and structure of some passages is nearly identical, reports say. Meanwhile, New Jersey’s Record newspaper is saying that it is investigating the articles she wrote when she was an intern in the paper in 2003-2004. |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| Trouble in Baroda  The recent violence in Baroda in Gujarat, has led to an increase in tension between the city’s Hindus and Muslims. Six people died in the violence which followed the demolition of a 200-year-old Muslim shrine by the city’s authorities, who said they needed to demolish it for a road-widening project. The demolition led to widespread protests by Muslims. The controversy illustrates the sharp divisions that exist between the two communities, who have lived together for centuries, Suvojit Bagchi reported in the BBC online news site BBC News. Many of the city’s Muslims now say they are living in constant fear. Sabera Biwi, who lives in the heart of Baroda, asks angrily: “The police are telling us to go to Pakistan - and you are asking me whether I am safe?” Taxi driver Rathod Firoz says many issues have divided the two communities. “Communities are sharply polarized here. It gets flared up easily,” he said. Baroda police commissioner Deepak Swarup echoed his thoughts. “Even a simple neighborhood problem is termed here as a communal clash now.” Isaqbhai Chinwala lives in the old city’s Mogulwara area and is a well-known social worker. “After the 2002 riots in Gujarat, we moved to this area. There used to be a few Hindu families here. They moved out,” he said. He says he never wanted to stay in a “Muslim ghetto.” “I am a disciple of Gandhi. How can I accept this kind of geographical polarization within a city? “To me it’s not merely physical - it is an emotional and moral question too,” he says. But Chinwala was forced to move out by his family from his ancestral home, which was in a predominantly Hindu area, after his house was ransacked. |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| Lodi Man Convicted of Terrorism Charge  In a case cited by America’s top intelligence official as an example of a “homegrown jihadist cell,” a federal jury in Sacramento April 25 convicted a Lodi man on terrorism charges.Hamid Hayat, 23, was found guilty on one count of providing material support to terrorists by attending a training camp in Pakistan in late 2003 and three counts of lying about it to the FBI. Earlier, the case against his father, Umer Hayat, 48, a Lodi ice cream truck driver, ended in a mistrial when a separate jury couldn’t reach a verdict on whether he lied to the FBI about his son’s alleged training. Hamid Hayat’s defense attorney Wazhma Mojaddidi said, “I’m disappointed in the decision the jury has come to. I believe they are wrong. Hamid Hayat never attended a terrorist training camp. The fight is definitely not over.” She said she would file a motion for a new trial. Hayat faces up to 39 years in prison when he is sentenced July 14. In the elder Hayat’s case, the jury of eight women and four men deliberated nearly eight days before saying it could not reach a verdict. The jury sent a note to U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell stating they were “decisively deadlocked.” Defense attorney Johnny L. Griffin said he was “very pleased that the jury did not find our client guilty. Our position from day one was that Umer Hayat was not a terrorist.” Later, federal prosecutors announced they will retry Umer Hayat. Judge Burrell has set June 5 as the new trial date for Hayat. |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| Mobile Phones Boosts Bangla  Bangladesh’s booming mobile phone industry has emerged as a key driver of the cash-strapped nation’s economy, creating nearly 240,000 jobs and adding $650 million to gross domestic product. “The cell phone industry in Bangladesh employs 237,900 people directly and indirectly. These are well-paid jobs with salaries many times the national average,” said a study by the international consultancy firm Ovum. Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest nations with nearly half its 140 million population surviving on less than a dollar day. Around 70 percent depend on agriculture to make their living. The study commissioned by the GSM Association, a global industry body of 690 operators, found that the mobile services industry contributed $650 million to Bangladesh’s GDP annually. Bangladesh has witnessed explosive growth in mobile telephony over the last few years with the number of subscribers leaping from 200,000 in the first quarter of 2001 to 11 million in early 2006. Analysts say the boom will continue amid falling mobile phone prices. Last year alone call charges fell by 30 percent, injecting faster growth to the industry. Over seven percent of the population now has a mobile phone, up from a mere 0.2 per cent four years ago, the study said, describing the growth as “extraordinary.” |Back to NEWS Diary| |TOP| Maoists Name Peace Team
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If you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country.” Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister told villagers protesting displacement from the Hirakud dam, India’s first major river valley project. It is by now clear that what are presented as national interests in such exhortations are interests of the urban-industrial elite, and that such appeals to patriotism and to the greater common good are based on a cold calculation that the submergence and destitution of marginalized tribal populations is a fair price to pay for “development.” Nehru also famously declared that dams are “the modern temples of India,” and it is a sad but entirely accurate extension of the metaphor to claim that the 40 million persons displaced by India’s hydroelectric dams are the sacrificial offerings on an altar of “progress.” 
The Association for India’s Development (
