Patna lensman's murder mystery or capital murder?

THE TERROR WITHIN

By Manuwant Choudhary

When W joins X News Channel and dies mysteriously, journalists don't even ask Y?

News of W's death doesn't even make it to the scrolls of TV news channels.

Is this the Z of journalism in India??

This is not a lecture in a journalism school but real life in India.

Dablu, whose real name is Rajesh Singh, started out on his television career and joined NDTV as a tea boy some years ago when I was still with NDTV.
He then got a promotion and joined CNN-IBN as assistant cameraperson and then he was transferred to Nagpur in Maharashtra as a cameraman.

Just a few months ago I met a smiling Dablu after he secured a cameraman's job with the recently launched national English TV channel News X.
I asked him why he's back and he told me he wanted a job nearer home.

In fact, Dablu was always a happy smiling face. So on July 21 when I was told that Dablu committed suicide I could not believe it.
Why would Dablu, a cameraman with a decent salary in a national TV channel, commit suicide? And those who knew Dablu would confirm that he was never the sentimental sort.

His body was found on a railway track in Patna.

News of his death made me sad.

So it was natural for me to inquire why did Dablu do what he did? I asked some colleagues what did the FIR report say and I was told Dablu's father, a wireless operator in the Bihar poilce, and the News X reporter Shiv Pujan Jha had both said in the FIR that it was a case of suicide.

This was said even before the body was sent for a post-mortem.

It was late evening and we got a call that the post-mortem is over and Dablu would be cremated at Baans Ghat. I went along with a few NDTV staffers.

But to my shock, I did not find a single other cameraman or journalist at the funeral. No, not even the News X reporter Shiv Pujan Jha.

And no they were not busy with other stories since the trust debate in parliament meant a holiday for journalists in Bihar.

And yes, I saw Dablu's face.

A deep slash with a sharp weapon right in the middle of his face, probably with a meat chopper. His face on either side was perfectly normal. There were no bruises either on his face on either side, which he could have had had he jumped off a flyover.

And no suicide notes.

So I decided to pursue this story. From Dablu's friends I got to know that Dablu had got married to a girl just a month ago in Varanasi. Although the girl was also from his own Rajput caste, she came from a richer family. Dablu had fallen in love with this girl who studied at Patna's Women's College.

So why did Dablu choose to get married in a temple? Surely, he should have had the courage to meet the girl's father and ask for his daughter's hand.

You are right. That would happen in any normal civilised society.

But from the past cases in Bihar falling in love even within your caste is a crime greater than murder, kidnapping and dacoity. Its about `izzat'...`honour'.

So Dablu and the girl chose a temple wedding. In fact, a colleague of Dablu even spoke to his wife and asked her when she would be giving the reception and she replied that she would do so when she is in Patna.

The girl lives in Gopalganj.

But Dablu's death has changed all that. Now the girl says she never married Dablu.

So I inquired further.

On July 21 after finishing work Dablu took his news tape to book it on a flight to New Delhi at around 6 p.m. He returned home, dropped his camera and asked his taxi driver to drop him near Madhuban Bar, a place which he frequented regularly.
In between he was getting telephone calls.
The driver says he did drop Dablu at the Hartali More near Madhuban.

At 9 p.m. News X reporter Shiv Pujan Jha gets a telephone call from Gopalganj from the sister-in-law of the girl saying that Dablu called them and he was proceeding towards the railway tracks saying he was going to commit suicide.

Dablu's drinking partner is a Sanjeev, also a son of a wirelss operator, and Dablu's neighbour too, also an assistant at Asia News International.

Sanjeev denies he met Dablu that night as they were not on talking terms for the past four days.

No other friend of Dablu has come forward to claim he met Dablu at Madhuban Bar.

Another son of a wireless operator, also an assistant, searched for Dablu all night after he did not return home. Only in the morning did he get a police information that a body has been found near a railway track. When they reach there they identify the body to be that of Dablu.

So what happened to Dablu?

The post-mortem was completed on July 21 itself but the police have still not made that public.

Police say they are investigating the case.

The father of Dablu does not say anything.

And the girls father is a big railway contractor Magistrate Singh in Gopalganj. There is no word from him either.
Magistrate Singh's son is Rakesh Singh and he lives in Patna.

When TV journalists are busy counting cross-over MPs in parliament and now the bodies in Bangalore, Gujarat, does anyone have time for a Dablu?
Who is Dablu? Nobody knows him?
Will he get us TRP? He is just a tea-boy who became a cameraman and fell in love.

Forget Dablu, lets concentrate on the crime program Sansanee.....(Sensation) and the positive stories of chief minister Nitish Kumar's Junta Durbar or blame Pakistan.

Swaminomics or Rahulnomics?

An open letter to Swaminathan S Ankilesaria Aiyar

Dear Mr. Aiyar,
There isn't much to read in the Times of India these days except for the Sunday columns by you, Jug Suraiya and Gurcharan Das, Bacchi Karkaria, sometimes Shobha De as well.
But today after decades of reading your columns I felt disappointed.
So I write to you.
When you write...."I was gratified to find Rahul Gandhi taking this very line in parliament, " my heart sank as I will now have one less column to read.
Either you wrote Rahul Gandhi's parliament speech or Rahul Gandhi wrote your column this morning.
Only then would your readers appreciate your effort.
Unfortunately, many of India's great columnists have slipped before you. One of my favourite columnists was Tavleen Singh. I liked her because of her articles that she wrote like a reporter. You could see that it wasn't written from the comforts of an air-conditioned office, but written after travelling to a dusty Uttar Pradesh village.
She would take on the left, the right and the centre..always speaking for the India that she cared about.
But then one day I saw an article in favour of the BJP and then another and then another.
Now I do not know where is Tavleen Singh??
Ofcourse, there are others who sit in the Rajya Sabha but that is ok because I do not read them as a matter of habit and sometimes I glance through them if I really, really want to see a party viewpoint.
I do regard you and Gurcharan Das as leading supporters of India's economic liberalisation.
But when you speak about convincing Rahul Gandhi and Gurcharan Das speaks about how great SEZs are going to be for India, I can only pray for this country.
Yes, I know newspaper editors wrote how great Rahul's `I'm an Indian speech' was and how much he cares for Kalawati in suicidal Vidarbha, but on Live Lok Sabha TV Indian viewers (those who do not read and write) saw how non-serious Rahul Gandhi was.
Whoever his ghost speech writer may have been, his speech was best suited to some Doon School debating societies.
Today, I was expecting Swaminomics to be about the economics of buying a parliament!
Everything, Manmohan, Advani, Amar, Akali, Sonia, Italy, USA, Russia, Mulayam, Maya, and Bhagora!!!

Yours Sincerely,
Manuwant Choudhary

MANMOHAN SINGH CRAWLS TO CONQUER

SINGH IS NO KING
SOM IS KING!

By Manuwant Choudhary

Singh is no king, Som is king, by Som I mean our grand old Speaker Somnath Chatterjee just expelled from his party the CPI (M) for upholding the Indian constitution and not upholding the Communist party constitution.

For the entire country watching the spectacle on Live TV, the past fortnight has been a shame.

But in all this one man who stood above the rest and performed his duties towards his country and constitution, it was Somnath Chatterjee.

Mr. Chatterjee proved his point that there are some things which are above even party interests.

On the other hand I wonder whether our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh can sleep at night after all the cash placed on the table of parliament.

If you ask me Dr. Singh should have resigned after winning the trust vote or even before and he would have truly gone down in Indian history as a great man.

But Dr. Singh is a mere `Congressman'.

He wants to stay in power (not nuclear) at any cost.

Surely, Amar Singh cannot be a greater ally to the Congress than the Left or he can be worse?

Indiavikalp exposed the PMs politics last May and in October and Indiavikalp said that its the Communists and Harkishen Singh Surjeet in particular who made Dr. Singh PM, and not the Congress Party or Sonia Gandhi.

So on the floor of the parliament when the PM thanked the Communists for being the architects to this alliance, it came as no surprise.

As for the opposition parties, they are also on the offensive even attacking their own MPs who voted against, and even expelling them.

The allurement offered by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress Party must be condemned but also the opposition must soul search why their honourable MPs are purchasable so easily.

As for Jharkhand, both the NDA and Congress offered the State as a bribe to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Shibu Soren!

Whatever, our TV editors may say, we have no government till the next elections.

As for nuclear power for electricty, I thought Enron was supposed to solve that long ago.

The Great Indian Journey 9

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

Day 7 – WAR AND PEACE

By Manuwant Choudhary

Napoleon said an army marches on its stomach.

So even while driving in India food and water is a great concern.

The dhabas are the best bet. They are simple and cleaner than the restaurants you may come across in India’s smaller towns. The cheapest food we had was near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, a full meal for just Rs.32 for two persons.

But the dhaba dal-roti can get monotonous and so while we were back on the highway, we decided to take a de-tour of 20 kilometres just to have lunch at Bodh Gaya. We were real hungry.

Bodh Gaya is my favourite place in Bihar and Buddha my favorite story since I was a child. In fact, as a student of history in the exams I would always answer the Buddha question amongst the choices given and I would get 20/20. I remembered because I liked.

So I was never a good student. I liked only a few historical characters!

The story of Buddha has influenced the world like very few stories. A prince Siddharth (protected by his father all the time and never allowed to see the miseries of the world) of a small kingdom in Nepal sneaks out on a chariot ride in his town and happens to see a sick man, and asks his charioteer who is this man and why is like this.
The charioteer replies, “Your Lord, this man is sick. He is unwell.”

As the chariot proceeds, he sees an old man, and asks why is he bent from his hips and why does he need a stick?”
The charioteer replies, “Lord, he is old, every human being born in this world gets old with every passing year.”

Then Siddarth sees a dead man..a corpse.... with family members crying, and troubled by this he again asks why is this, “Sir, that which is born must die one day.”

Siddarth is troubled and sad. Just then he sees a holy man in saffron robes without a worry on his face. He asks why is this man so free of worry? He looks so happy.
“Sir, this man is a holy man. He understands how the world is and is enlightened.”

The four sights transforms Siddarth who becomes a seeker of truth, questioning everything.
Many years later after doing every kind of meditation Buddha while sitting under a banyan tree in today’s Bodh Gaya receives enlightenment…. The Four Truths he calls them….Siddharth become The Buddha or One who is enlightened.

There is suffering in this world.

The cause of suffering is desire.

To overcome suffering one must overcome desire.

To do this one must follow the eight-fold path….(a moral code of beliefs and action)

While Budhism itself spread across India and many emperors became Buddhist, today Buddhism has a small presence in India.

But at Bodh Gaya itself you can see that Buddha’s message has spread across the world…

As I sat there under the peepul tree behind the temple and watched little monks grab every leaf that fell off the Bodhi tree, I found peace.

We had Chinese food beside some Israeli tourists, one of them resembled Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif.

And then we were on our final leg of our journey and the toughest. The roads at Sasaram are non-existent.

But I had to visit one more historical site…Sher Shah’s tomb at Sasaram. Sher Shah, an Afghan, was the Governor of Bengal & Bihar and he overthrew the Mughals but he died when a bomb accidentally went off.

To this day I admire Sher Shah as India’s best ruler and administrator since he built the Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Peshwar (now Pakistan), the Sarai’s (guest houses), planted trees, a postal service by horses besides introducing land measurement. All this he did within 5 years while fighting battles all the time.

In fact, his finance minister was a Hindu, Todar Mal, whom Akbar continued with after the Mughals returned, and Akbar became Akbar the Great. Akbar for the next 60 years consolidated on the foundations laid by Sher Shah.

However, few tourists visit Sher Shah’s tomb and Hindus and Muslims have encroached in the area. There are 55 cases in the Patna High Court.

The tomb itself is a great monument. Surrounded on all sides by a lake which is naturally filled by underground pipes coming from the surrounding hills, it’s a marvel. It even had semi-precious stones and paintings on its walls but with age all that is gone.

To me it did not look like a tomb at all. It could be anything – a parliament, a durbar hall, a garrison, but not a tomb.

A private security guard on duty agreed with me. He said Sher Shah was not Shah Jahan who would build his own tomb. Sher Shah fought the Mughals to rule India. Its just that when he was killed accidentally, they buried him here. “If you visit any village nearby you will see tombs of Hindu soldiers loyal to Sher Shah killed in the battles. He recruited all his soldiers from these villages.”

Inside, Sher Shah lay alongside his bodyguards, his wife, his cook and all his servants – all of whom had died in the bomb blast.

When I began my journey in the west of India, I saw the sun kiss the horizon from the east and now in the east from the archway of the tomb I could see the sun set in the west.

I stood alone.

I prayed at the tomb of India’s forgotten emperor.

* I would like to thank all my friends and relatives without whose support this journey would not be possible and my readers who've been with me on my journey for the past week, leaving useful comments.

The Great Indian Journey 8

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

DAY 6 - THE GANGA AT BENARES

By Manuwant Choudhary

I am not religious. And when I bought my car I did not take it to a temple as is the practice in India.
Yet, I decided to visit Benares, the most sacred place for Hindus.

An uncle lives there so I decided I must go see him. Also, a holy man (who is no more) had predicted my birth, so Benares interests me.

Benares is about mystics and saints and those who care for the unknown.

It is said if you die here you get `moksha’ or you escape from the cycle of birth and death or simply put you go straight to heaven. Many Hindus buy houses and live here all their lives. And when they get old they don’t even travel anywhere lest fate come in the way and they die elsewhere and miss the chance to go to heaven.

I have been here several times. Benares is always congested – an ancient city of gulley’s with cows blocking them!
So you cannot really drive around. Take a rickshaw early morning and you will see Benares and life and death, everything.

My uncle is a very religious man governed by religious views, views of pundits, society, planets, the sun and the moon….you name it, and despite being a doctor all his life, he is God-fearing.

Yet, to my surprise while he spoke to me on the verandah of his home, he told me something I did not expect hearing from him. He told me how he had once as a young man gone to meet Bihar’s first chief minister Sree Babu at his residence. There were no portraits in his office except a quotation,
“They Say.
What They Say.
Let Them Say.”

When in Benares I always visit the ghats and the Ganga. They have started a Ganga aartee here just like in Haridwar. I rushed to make it for the aartee at 7 p.m.

In saffron satins, pundits chant ancient Sanskrit mantras (I did not fully understand) but yes a few lines were how our world is one.

The waters of the Ganga reflect the lights from the aarti, you could start looking for the meaning of life itself.

You remember those who have loved you and those who still do.

PS: A backpackers view of India can be read here but its not for the faint-hearted or children.
http://wherethehellismatt.typepad.com/blog/india/index.html

The Great Indian Journey 7

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

THE GREAT HIGHWAY ROBBERY

By Manuwant Choudhary

Huen Tsang, the great Chinese traveller, was robbed several times on his journey in India but thankfully I wasn’t.

Of course, we saw a cavalcade with beacon lights and police escort overtaking us at great speed and stopping at every hamlet on the roadside, descending into the huts and getting back into their cars, never wasting a minute. They all wore white kurta-pyjamas.

Yes, you got that right. They were the Indian politicians at work.
I can tell you it was menacing. Imagine, what India’s voters have to bear with.

And today as parliament debates the 123 nuclear deal and other deals in a free for all where even one vote could bring down a government, our democracy is neither mature nor healthy.

Yet, ever since the Golden Quadrilateral Project to connect India’s four metropolitian cities Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai was begun I had hoped this would change India.
It was former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s dream project.

But this was the first time I got to travel on this route and all I can say is that it’s a great highway robbery!

But when I drove I could not help but remember Satyender Dubey who was killed in Gaya for daring to write to India’s Prime Minister exposing corruption in the highway project.
In fact, recently even the main accused in the murder escaped from a Patna court and that too for a second time. He is still to be arrested.

Howver, after my journey I would like to report that not just in Gaya, across India this project is mostly incomplete and ill-conceived.

In most places its just a two-lane highway. On one lane you have autos and the other has trucks so even if you have car that can travel at higher speeds its just not possible on these highways. You’ll have to brake every few minutes.

It should have been eight-lane, four on each side.

And some stretches are just incomplete, and with just a few labourers I saw it could take a hundred years to complete this project. Of course, Mr. Vajpayee is long gone and now our current Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is also on his way out, yet I see no urgency in completing this project. Wish Dr. Singh was as concerned about this as he is about India’s nuclear deal. (we would have saved 6 per cent energy just because there would be lesser traffic hold-ups)

Besides, there is no barricading. Animals, people, just about anything could step on to the motorway. Wish Mrs. Maneka Gandhi did something for the sake of the dogs whom she cares about so much.

Worse, on a one-way highway you could have vehicles appear suddenly from the other side, no traffic rules or signs, it’s a free for all and you better be careful. Just drive carefully.

Finally, we were at Kanpur, and I can tell you it represented a forgotten, decaying industrial town. With great difficulty we got ourselves a hotel for the night – Hotel Bliss. Hardly.

The Great Indian Journey 6

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

The Real India

By Manuwant Choudhary

Real India is not on the tourist map.

It’s not even on India's national agenda.

Real India still lives and suffers in its villages.

Many Indians are still poor, others just manage to survive on basics and governments do everything to drive people away from the land by making agriculture unviable, resulting in rural unrest, even violence and a politics of a kind that undermines the very existence of this country.

For people in this real India, there is nothing `Special’ about the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), even the land reforms imposed in the sixties were a policy to drive out agricultural entrepreneurs from their land.

This policy continues to this day and farming becomes unattractive and unviable.

So when world food prices are high one should not blame the farmers, blame the politicians you elect and worship.

As a journalist I have met many people but a few encounters are extraordinary.

My journey is nothing compared to a German whom I had interviewed in Bombay who had walked all over India and Pakistan within a year!

I had interviewed him when he completed his journey. I asked him what next, and he replied, “I plan to walk similarly in every continent in the world.”
But after the interview he told me something I did not publish then, “You know India will break-up.”

This one line has worried me more than any and in every act of the politician I see a design that could prove the German right. I hope he is wrong. So how does India exist?

When you look at our public services, roads, airports everything wherever the government has a hand, I’m sure you will cry for your country.
How is it that governments cannot even fill the potholes on our roads when the Indian farmer can cultivate, plant and irrigate every inch of land he owns?

Between Agra and Kanpur we stopped for lunch at a dhaba. After lunch I chanced to look at the agricultural fields behind and what a sight. I had never seen such well-cultivated farms in India.

I saw some farmers and I asked them did they do this themselves? And they told me, “No, we use machines.”

Three locally manufactured machines were used to cultivate, plant and harvest potatoes, with only 7 labourers. The machines could plant 20 acres of potato in a day and the three machines together cost less than Rs.1.5 lakhs.

This was the farmers way of overcoming the farm labour shortage and thereby making agriculture a viable occupation.

I understood how India survives.

The Great Indian Journey 5

PIC: By Manuwant Choudhary

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

DAY 5: MADHURASHA – A Beautiful Hope!

By Manuwant Choudhary

Unless you are an Indian communist, you can skip the breakfast in Delhi for a breakfast at McDonalds on the Delhi-Agra Highway.

By now comfortable with the Sonata I decided to drive from New Delhi to Bihar myself, giving me company was my bodyguard Deben. It’s best to leave Delhi early morning, in fact that’s what we did throughout our journey to miss rush-hour traffic.

There are some hilly terrain on way to Faridabad and when you turn a corner - what a sight - a haze hangs across the valley which has a few tall under-construction buildings.

Inspite of our politicians, India is beautiful.

I say inspite because when India completed its 50 years of Indian independence there were no celebrations in India.

As a reporter in Bombay with the Afternoon Despatch and Courier I had interviewed Mitesh Seth, just 18 and an NRI student from the London School of Economics, who planned a musical extravaganza at the Royal and Albert Hall in London to celebrate 50 years of Indian independence.

I had published his interview but I had my doubts whether a person so young could achieve such a feat. It was November and the play was to take place in March.

By some fate I happened to visit London in April and not knowing anyone else in the city I called up Mitesh and asked him to recommend a budget bed and breakfast place where I could stay.
A friendly voice on the other end, Mitesh said, “If you don’t mind you could stay at the LSE hostel as I’m on vacation. But only on one condition. First you must join me for a Kathak-Bharatnatyam performance in London.” (anything for a place to stay I said)

In fact, I had never been to a Bharatnatyam performance even in India but I joined Mitesh, he gave me the keys to his room. When I opened his room (to my surprise) I saw my newspaper article pasted across the wall.

Mitesh invited me home for a dosa dinner and introduced me to his parents. I asked Mitesh whether his musical took place at all.
He replied, “Yes.”
I said, “I didn’t believe it would.”
And I could see the horror on his face, “When things were not happening I used to tell my parents that there is only one person in the world who believes I can do it. And that was you!”

Madhurasha (A Beautiful Hope) was about a youth travelling across India looking for a beautiful girl and through his journey he discovers the beauty of India, the cultures, the people, the diversity…and hope.

The reason I narrate this is because I felt I was actually on this beautiful journey. I had never planned to visit the Taj Mahal and that too alone. Yet, as I neared Agra I decided to see the Taj.

Agra is a busy, congested and forgotten town. Without the Taj Mahal Agra would be any other dusty north Indian town.

With some difficulty I did reach the Taj only to find that at this World Heritage Site the parking space is scarce. If you do find one it can take you hours to get out since someone else would have parked their cars in front of yours.

There was a long queue and a tourist guide said if I did not want to wait for hours there was another entrance meant for foreigners but Indians too could enter for a higher fee. I paid.

As you enter the gateway, you realize the Taj Mahal is a monument of love. The Mughal ruler Shah Jahan wanted to build a monument in fond memory of his loving wife Noor Jahan, who had passed away. His brief to the architects was the monument must be like `Jannat’ or `heaven’ on `Judgement Day’

Ofcourse, such are the crowds at the Taj Mahal these days that I would choose not going to `heaven’. (But this Shah Jahan had not imagined)

The gardens, the fountains and the minarets ….and the location with the Yamuna flowing takes you to another world. But it also inspires us that the human spirit can achieve beyond the ordinary.

It is said that Shah Jahan wanted to build another Taj Mahal across the Yamuna in black stone, like a yin and a yang. But that was not to be as Aurangzeb imprisoned him at the Agra Fort where he eventually died.

There is a story that Aurangzeb granted Shah Jahan two wishes in prison and Shah Jahan said he wanted chana (gram rich in protein) to eat and that he wanted to teach Aurangzeb’s son (so that he doesn’t become like his own son Aurangzeb).

I sometimes wonder why we since independence have not built a single building that can stand the test of time.

Do we love India or anyone?

We still have the marble.

The Great Indian Journey 4

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

DAY 4: Delhi Durbar - India's Seat of Power

By Manuwant Choudhary

Driving into New Delhi is more difficult than a camel entering an eye of a needle.
Thousands of trucks try to enter a bottleneck on the outskirts of Gurgaon.
Instantly, you get the answer why India is a mismanaged and poor country.

I wished India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh tried driving into New Delhi. But alas, Prime Minister’s fly.

Except, when they become former PMs again. Like the late former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, who had a farm at Bhondsi, spent hours at traffic jams personally negotiating with truckers to free traffic hold-ups, with his armed security in tow, and then he would finally make it to parliament!

If I was PM I would have first sacked India’s transport minister and then all planners who have planned, built and executed the toll booths near Gurgaon. They have simply not seen how toll booths are built worldwide. Even South Korea has a better motorway!

Gurgaon in Haryana you could say is a satellite town for New Delhi where several multinationals have set shop in modern glass buildings. Its also a shoppers paradise for the people of Delhi, tired of doing the rounds of an old Cannought Place which has mostly suitcase shops. The supermarkets or the airconditioned `Mall’s’ have caught the imagination of a young India, and most just hang around there even if it is to escape Delhi’s heat.

Not dams (as Nehru had said) but these malls are the temples of modern India.

Gurgaon represents `India Shining’.

But at midnight as I entered Gurgaon I was entering a ghost-town. There was no electricity!

Having stayed in New Delhi for a few days I could see the electricity supply was as bad as in Bihar.

Gurgaon is an address for the rich from across India. But many just build fancy homes here and live instead in Canada, the US or Canada, leaving their palaces to their security guards and dogs!

But despite the affluence one only has to observe the road names to see what people here don’t have.
So when my driver Shankar stopped at a road and simply smiled, I wondered why?
The road was named. “Sukh-chaayn Marg.” (Happiness and Satisfaction Road)

And in New Delhi roads are called Satya Marg, Neeti Marg, Ahimsa….etc..everything our politicians are not.

I have never liked New Delhi.

And do not plan to buy a house here. But yes, a house does interest me.

The Prime Minister’s House!

But not even that, I just wanted to drive into Pakistan and maybe Afghanistan.

The Great Indian Journey 3

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

DAY 3 – Picturesque Rajasthan

A needle and a thread

By Manuwant Choudhary

We had to cover at least 800 kilometres that day so we had a proper breakfast and left early for New Delhi, via Udaipur and Jaipur. Every Indian state has its own beauty but when one is living in todays India where every second all you hear on television, both Indian and foreign, India’s growth story, one is struck by the quiet in India’s countryside.

You can drive for hours and all you can hear is the hum of your own car - look into the horizon, roll down your windows and breathe easy. Occasionally, you see a man near his hut and you wonder what India means to him.

Old forts atop hills, ancient gates on highways and as one drives past yellow mustard fields and arid rocky landscape, it’s a treat.

Soon Shankar says we’ve arrived at Udaipur. I had been to Udaipur many years ago but I still wanted to have tea near the Lake Palace Hotel. So we drove to the HRH Group of Hotels for a cup of tea. Cost Rs.180 per cup! But overlooking the Udaipur Lake it was still worth it.

We noticed a few foreign tourists finishing breakfast but what caught my attention was a rather largish man in white kurta-pyjama (traditional Indian dress) and a traditional cap, eating cornflakes under a white garden umbrella.

I’m not sure what he saw but as I went to the freshroom I noticed he was talking to my driver. When I came back he introduced himself as a Mr.M.M. Gupta from Mumbai. We got talking. A Rajasthani youth came and touched his feet. Mr. Gupta said, “Udaipur is where I originally come from but now I’m here for charity. Udaipur has a centre for polio victims.”

Mr. Gupta is a Marwari and in India Marwari’s have played a vital role in trading and charity works. If you dig deep, every Marwari is a growth story.

Most Marwari’s left their homes in Rajasthan with nothing and wherever they went one thing they knew was how to do business. A close-knit society they helped one another but at a larger level they were religiously charitable.

Mr. Gupta asked me where I was going.

I told him I was going from Bombay to Bihar.

He said, “Like Gandhiji”.

I said, “Not quite, I am travelling in an air-conditioned car.”

He replied, “Few would do so these days.”

“Did you visit the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad?”

I replied, “Yes.”

Mr. Gupta, “IS GANDHI DEAD OR ALIVE?”

I said Gandhiji was shot dead in 1948 but if you ask me whether he is alive through his principles I would say he is still alive.

“Did you find Gandhi at the Gandhi Ashram?”

I said, “ No.”

A smile, “Exactly, you must have seen those old Gandhians lying around the place. I tell them they do not know Gandhi’s true worth.”

Then to me, “There is only one organization which understood the true worth of Gandhi. Do you know which one?

I said, “No, I couldn’t guess.”

Then with a broad smile on his face he says, “It’s the Reserve Bank of India. See this Rs.500 note it has Gandhi on it and a billion people do everything you can imagine chasing Gandhi and (folding the currency and putting it into his kurta’s upper pocket) see they even keep Gandhi close to their heart.”

A hearty laugh. Mr. Gupta has many sides to his personality. He is also a poet. For 15 minutes he recited a politically loaded poem on a needle and a thread and what it has done to India.

As we shook hands, exchanged cards and took photos, he invited me to Bombay, “Tumhein Gandhi Chahiye?” (You want Gandhi?) ☺

I drove from Udaipur to Jaipur and took a shorter picturesque route rather than the highway.

And lunch at a Rajasthani dhaba . Aah! the smell of desi ghee with hot chapatees was amazingly appetizing. But the dal and curry were so red that at first we thought it may be too spicy for our liking but they were not as spicy as they looked, just some Rajasthani colour. And yes, the tomatoes in the salad had just been plucked from a farm minutes ago and they were so tasty that I would prefer them to any supermarket vegetables available in Europe.

It’s a pleasure driving in Rajasthan, except for the trucks carrying large unfastened marble boulders that could just roll over onto your car! At the roadside, we could see hundreds of shops selling marble and stone.

I wonder what they do to our mountains.

The Great Indian Journey 2

BOMBAY TO BIHAR - A ROAD LESS TAKEN

DAY 2: LOOKING FOR GANDHI IN NARENDRA MODI’S GUJARAT

By Manuwant Choudhary

The 100 kilometer stretch before entering Ahmedabad is perhaps the only road patch closest to an expressway. Our Sonata cruised at 160 kmph!

But do refuel your vehicle at the start since you will only see another petrol pump at the end of a 100 km. (both were Reliance-owned so now they must be shut!!)

Ahmedabad … waking-up to another noisy day …could pass off for any small town in India. But we did find our hotel Nayeeka, our stay booked by my college friend Paranjayaditya Parmar (I think he has a longer name since his ancestors were the former Maharaja of Santhrampur). He was at the time contesting the assembly seat from Santhrampur.

Nayeeka is a clean and comfortable hotel but its in Gujarat so all meals are vegetarian only and no alcohol.

Reading a local newspaper I read how corporate Gujarat chose to drive 200 kms into bordering Maharashtra resorts for seminars where they could serve alcohol for their delegates. And so chief minister Narendra Modi had been kind to the corporates in an election year by relaxing the rules. Now hotels in Gujarat holding such conferences for corporates could get special drinking `licences’ for the seminar. Wow only corporates allowed to drink alcohol!

I am sure a state ban on anything was not Gandhi’s idea.

So I visited Gandhi Ashram on the river Sabarmati. The ashram is in an open area and when Gandhiji was still around and the mad concrete constructions had not taken place and the Sabarmati still had enough water, this place must have been pretty. But even now there was a nice breeze here and a certain solitude existed at the spot where Gandhiji would hold his evening prayers.

Old photographs, a spinning wheel and memorabilia were interesting but as the cities boundaries grow, its mindset become narrower. So in entire Ahmedabad for those in love the Gandhi Ashram provides the only cover.

In a country where the Gandhi name is so very important politically I would have expected governments doing a lot for the upkeep of the ashram. But sadly, the Gandhi Ashram lies in neglect. A few foreign tourists and lonely Gandhians dot the ashram but something is missing.

A few kilometers away is the Akshardham temple but it was shut. Amidst huge iron barricades I could see independent India is about temples and how the state spends more resources protecting temples and mosques than people.

By evening Ahmedabad’s streets come alive as thousands of young Gujaratis play the popular `dandiya’, a dance using sticks, the music of course would be from traditional Gujarati folk songs to lilting Bollywood item numbers.

But we were tired so we skipped the dandia for an early dinner. Next morning we were up and ready for the day trip to India’s capital New Delhi via picturesque Rajasthan.

Thanking my friend Paranjay for booking our stay I offered to campaign for him, he replied, “No yaar, what will you do? Send the goondas from Bihar!”

The Great Indian Journey 1

BOMBAY TO BIHAR – A ROAD LESS TAKEN

A journey I thought I could share with readers of indiavikalp so travel with me all through next week everyday as I take you on a nearly all-India tour through eight Indian states.


DRIVING THROUGH THE NIGHT

By Manuwant Choudhary

Going on a journey is like starting life afresh and so it has been for me.

On an unscheduled visit to Bombay I land up buying a Hyundai Sonata Gold for a steal. Perhaps, I am a beneficiary of the high real-estate prices in Bombay where parking space could cost Rs.15 lakh. I live in rural India where we have enough parking space but few cars.

Like my father would often tell me a story of an American farmer who visited India once and when he visited a farm here he told the Indian farmer, “Back in America on my farm it takes an entire day to drive from one end of the farm to the other.”
The Indian farmer replies, “I know what you mean. Even I own a car like that.”

One reason I bought the car was because that is exactly what my father would have done if he was around. He passed away four years ago. So I dedicate this journey to him.

But I am not my father and buying the car was the easy part, the tough part was how to drive up north to Bihar – a three thousand kilometer journey!

Of course , Bombay has been home to me and I think it is India’s best city but its politics has gone all wrong. Now Bombay isn’t cosmopolitan as it was. Even when I was a journalist the Shiv Sena government changed the name of the city from Bombay to Mumbai and few protested. I did. So to this day I call Bombay, Bombay.

What I like about Bombay is its professionalism, respect of the individual and friendships. A few friendships can last a lifetime.

So in Bombay I can say there are free dinners! At the Taj Mahal Hotel I met up with college friends and over dinner I was asked what brings me to Bombay. As I explained that I’ve bought this second hand car and tomorrow I drive back to Bihar, I could feel the nervousness in the air.

Just then at the table a friend confessed, “I don’t know where Bihar is?”

We just laughed.

We were at the Taj Mahal Hotel whose founder Jamsetji Tata a hundred years ago found out where Bihar is, built his Steel Plant and an entire city at Jamshedpur and from a single venture built an empire, including the Taj Mahal Hotel where we were dining. But yes, Bihar has gone down. A person I met in the UK even called it a `Black Hole'.

I had just two days to arrange a driver who would get me out of the city and with the help of friends at Mercury Travels my driver arrived at 4 p.m.

I was on the road and even as the sky-rises faded in the background, I asked my driver his name. “I am Shankar. I actually work for Madame who is the Times London correspondent in Bombay. But since she is away and I am on leave so I agreed to drive you.”

When I introduced myself that I too was a former television journalist, our conversation wouldn’t stop. I knew this journey would be short.

Getting out of Bombay on a Sunday was relatively easy and within an hour we were on the Bombay-Ahmedabad Highway. The road was bumpy and pot-holed but periodically we came across toll booths where they would charge anything from Rs.5 to Rs.50!

I was expecting to be travelling on the Golden Quadrilateral from Bombay to Delhi but the only thing that made me feel I was on such a freeway were the payments at the toll booths.

We crossed Surat while it was asleep. Memories came flooding back when I had taken a train journey to Surat in 1994 when Surat reported a plague outbreak and an entire people fleeing their city.

By midnight we were hungry and spotting a roadside dhaba having a Punjabi name we stopped but when we got inside all the waiters were Muslims in their white skull caps. We were happy that at least we could get chicken here. I called a waiter and placed my chicken order. The waiter came beside me and after looking around suspiciously he said in a very hushed tone, “Sir, we don’t serve chicken. It’s a pure vegetarian restaurant!”

We realized we were not in free India but in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.

After our vegetarian meal in a Muslim restaurant we were on the road again and my telephone messages would not stop until I stopped , a dear friend protested I must stop somehere. Its not safe! Robbers!!!

But as our car moved through the darkness we could not see a single hotel and at 2 a.m. we came across a well lit dhaba. I could see my driver needed rest so we pulled up alongside the dhaba, put on central locking, pushed back our seats and just crashed for two hours.

4 a.m. we were up and on our way to Ahmedabad. It was still dark and I was worried we may still come across the robbers. Suddenly, we saw Tata Sumo vehicles drive speedily ahead and safari suit clad men get out from them and force highway trucks to stop, demanding money in threatening loud voices. Robbers!

As our car slowed down we saw them in the headlight and they seemed a little embarrassed at seeing us. They were cops!

But one of the most beautiful sights in India is the sunrise. Light cutting away the darkness and slowly an orange flooding the fields amidst the happy chirping of the birds. A new dawn.

It reminded me of Mahatma Gandhi’s India.

CARLA BRUNI - SKIPPING G-8 FOR A SONG

Jharkhand is a failed State: Nitish Kumar

Jharkhand is a failed State, says Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar, after his party MLA Ramesh Singh Munda was killed by naxals in the most recent violence.
But its an irony that Nitish Kumar says this only when his MLA is killed especially since Nitish alongwith the BJP spearheaded the bifurcation of Bihar.
And another irony is that Nitish Kumar made this statement on the occasion of a book release by BJP politician Saryu Rai, a key beneficiary of Jharkhand.
I recall how hordes of politicians and IAS officers left Bihar for Jharkhand when the new state was formed in the year 2000. It was a gold rush but some just escaped pending corruption cases in an old and decaying Bihar.
One IAS Mithilesh Kumar an ADC to Bihar Governor Vinod Chandra Pandey belonged to the Jharkhand cadre but he overstayed in Bihar, and as the Bihar politicians upped their campaign against him I asked him why he was not going to Jharkhand and he replied, "The waters of the river Falgu has become murkier than the Ganga!"
Now one can say its become `bloody'.
Nitish Kumar calls upon all politicians to do something about Jharkhand.
I would say instead all politicians who supported the division of Bihar should just resign from active politics and take full moral responsibility for what is happening in Jharkhand.

NAXALS KILL JHARKHAND JD (U) MLA

NAXALS KILL 5 IN JHARKHAND

By Manuwant Choudhary

Ramesh Singh Munda, a JD (U) MLA from Tomar assembly segment, killed by AK 47 alongwith his two bodyguards in a shootout at a school, two children are also dead in the gunfire.
India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had called the naxals as the biggest threat to India, and the Congress Party rules India and Jharkhand but it does nothing to contain the naxal menace.
And when the maoists came to power in Nepal they called a Nepal-India meet in Patna, Bihar, where the planning commission members justified the existence of naxals.
You should be aware of Indian politicians calling this a socio-economic problem. If you meet anyone who says that just know that he supports the naxals.
Earlier a Jamshedpur Member of Parliament , Sunil Mahato, had been similarly killed in Jharkhand.
And last year former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi's son was killed.
This was one of the main reasons why I opposed the bifurcation of Bihar.

LEFT WITHDRAWS SUPPORT TO INDIAN GOVERNMENT

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

By Manuwant Choudhary

After months of threats and holding the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh literally hostage to left whims, the left parties finally have withdrawn support, even as Congress claims to have mustered up the numbers from other parties like the Samajwadi Party and even individual MPs have suddenly become more powerful than the Indian PM himself.
I am not a supporter of the nuclear deal but the withdrawal is unprecedented since the PM is in Tokyo and its for the first time in Indian history that on a foreign tour a Prime Minister has lost his support.
It says a lot to the extent the left parties can go to for their self-serving poilitcs.
Propriety demanded that they wait for the PM to return and then they could have withdrawn support.
But forget propriety, left leaders say its the PM who shot his mouth while airborne 30,000 feet in the air.
But as Congressmen point out that the PMs statement that India will be going to the IAEA was nothing new and in fact the sixth Congress-Left talks on the issue agreed that India could go to the talks but the outcome must be reprted back to the committee before the final go-ahead.
Then why were the left parties threatening the PM against opening his mouth.
Surely, if Mr. Prakash Karat was the PM and a journalist would ask a question, would he not reply?
But yes the Congress too has failed to live up to the coalition `dharma' by behaving as a majority party (something its used to for decades).
The UPA-Left alliance happened for the sake of a secular agenda for the country.
Both the PM and the Left parties should have stuck to it.
I do not buy the argument that a nuclear deal is a now or never deal!!!
The current political untertainty if it benefits anyone it benefits the communal BJP and Mr.L.K. Advani, who is responsible for the violence in the Ayodhya movement which led to more Indians being killed than America's or George Bush's policies.
But the Congress Party has been sleeping with the left since independence and this has led to India becoming one of the poorest countries of the world.
If you have a friend like the Indian Left, who needs an enemy?
The Congress manifesto spoke of helping the `aam aadmee' or common man, but in their struggle for power they went nuclear.
Let prices soar.
I would vote for a leader who can tell me how to bring down oil prices.
So I would like to ask you whether this government is IAEA (aayeye) or JAYEYE (jaayeye)?

JAMMU AND KASHMIR CHIEF MINISTER RESIGNS

TOUCHING A RAW NERVE IN KASHMIR

CONGRESS PARTY FAILS KASHMIR YET AGAIN

By Manuwant Choudhary

Jammu and Kashmir is burning again thanks to the irresponsible step of the Congress Party chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to hand over a hundred acres land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, despite protests from its coalition partner the PDP, which has led to the J & K government falling and Ghulam Nabi Azad has handed his resignation.
For the Kashmiri militants it was time to strike back and for the communal BJP it was time to call Congress a communal party.
Communal strife grips not just the valley but other parts of the country as well.
And with elections anytime within the next year this marks the polarisation of comunal politics again in India.
Yet, I do not subscribe to the politics of todays political parties and I would like to say that the current failure in Kashmir is more grave than being understood now.
After 9/11 the Kashmir situation had changed, even the last elections which brought in PDP-Congress to power was free and fair and with terrorists forced to lie low it was India's best chance to solve Kashmir.
We lost that one chance by touching a raw nerve.
The tourists have left the valley. The Hindu pilgrims will visit Amarnath Shrine under great threats.
So I do not belive the BJP has Hindu or national interests in their heart either.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI CELEBRATED ANOTHER BIRHDAY ALONE

TIME TO FREE AUNG SAN SUU KYI

REAL DISASTER IN BURMA IS NOT THE CYCLONE BUT ITS MILITARY RULERS

By Manuwant Choudhary

13 years under house arrest and on June 19 Burma's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, celebrated her 63 birthday, alone.
But the larger question is why is an entire military, an entire government, scared of one woman Aun San Suu Kyi?
Now its not difficult to see and understand why, the world witnessed how lakhs of people got killed in cyclone Nargis and the Burmese military government did not allow foreign aid to reach its people.
So its not that its one woman Aung San who is under house arrest, the military junta have placed the entire Burmese people under house arrest. And after the cyclone, many dont even have a house.
When the UN and the US take action against countries for lesser known crimes, it challenges one's understanding how the top leaders of the world do nothing in Burma.
Aung San is not allowed to see her family or friends and all visitors are banned. Her telephone line is cut and all posts intercepted.
The story of Burma is the same. The Indian government is freinds with the Burma's military regime and they even want to link India by road to Burma but I would like to ask all Indians where they would be going to spend their next vacations. Definitely, its not going to be Burma.
Forget governments and oil companies, ordinary people around the world have begun asking why a beautiful woman is kept under house arrest in a country called Burma.
So join the global campaign to free Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi is now serving her third term of house arrest. She was arrested on 30 May, 2003 after the regime's militia attacked her convoy and killed up to 100 of her supporters.
FOR CAMPAIGN DETAILS VISIT: burmacampaign.org.uk

INGRID BETANCOURT FREED FROM LEFT GUERILLAS

"FIRST FREEDOM MUST BE RESPECTED, THIS IS COLUMBIA'S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD," SAYS INGRID BETANCOURT

By Manuwant Choudhary

This is a script better than any blockbuster hollywood film you may have watched. A Presidential canditate Ingrid Betancourt, founder of the Green Party Oxigeno de-Columbia, kidnaped six years ago while campaigning in a rebel-held region, is finally rescued from leftist Farc guerillas, fighting to overthrow the Columbian government for the past 40 years, in just 12 minutes!
The military operation `Check' as in `checkmate' takes months of planning but they succeed in penetrating the highest levels of the Farc guerillas and convince Farc Front leader alias `Cesar' to put the hostages onto a helicopter saying they were to be taken to the guerillas top leader `Alfonso Cano'.
BBC reports say a military helicopter painted in white and claiming to belong to an NGO lands in the forest, rescuers wearing "Che" Guevara T-shirts convince the leader to board the helicopter and soon after take-off the leader `Cesar' is forced onto the ground, tied and stripped naked. The rescuers then tell the hostages, "We are from the army. You are free."
Ingrid Betancourt says, "We jumped so hard with such joy that the helicopter nearly went down."
14 other hostages including 3 American hostages were also released.
Columbian President Alvaro Uribe, whose father was also killed by the Farc rebels, thanked his military personnel for the mission.
But General Freddy Padilla, Commander-in-chief, said, "I am not a journalist to put things so simply like the headline you will see `Freed without a gunshot'. I would say it was a very complex operation. I would like to thank the family members of our personnel who undertook such a risky mission. Our plan was to penetrate and infiltrate..."
Credit was also given to French President Nicolas Sarkozy who made `Freeing Ingrid Betancourt' a part of his foreign policy.
And when news came of their mother's release Ingrid's children addressed the press along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy before flying back to Columbia to reunite with their mother after 6 years.
An airport tarmac never looked so beautiful as the mother kissed her children again and again, never forgetting the remaining 700 hostages in Columbia's jungles. "We will go on a walk so that all hostages are released."
"I survived in the jungles only because I wanted to see my beautiful children again."
"Look at my son. Look at what he is wearing. I asked him what he was wearing and he says its Fashion!"
And Ingrid's 22-old-daughter, Melanie, said, "We always hoped it would not be a military operation. This was not a military operation, it was an intelligence operation."
BBC says Farc's leadership is in disarray as in March a top leader Raul Reyes was killed when his rebel camp was bombed. A week later another top rung leader Ivan Rios was killed by his own bodyguard, who claimed the bounty offered by the government.
And finally, Farc's founder leader 78-year-old Manuel Marulanda, died of a heart attack.

NOT A NUCLEAR DEAL, ITS A `SAMAJWADI DEAL'

BUT DR. MANMOHAN SINGH, YOU ARE A LOSER

By Manuwant Choudhary

India's Nuclear Deal may be finally through and India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh may be finally going to attend the G8 meet in the next few days.
But ironically this crucial support to the Congress Party comes from the Samajwadi Party, a Uttar Pradesh based party which has in fact been at the recieving end of Congress victimisation in the past four years. From Sahara to Amitabh Bachan, to Jaya to Amar Singh....somehow the Samajwadi individuals have always been in the news.
But it all started with the foriegn origin issue with Mulayam Singh refusing to allow Sonia Gandhi to become Prime Minister when the 13 month Vajpayee government fell following Subramanian Swami's tea party, and then of course the BJP returned to rule India for a full 5 year term.
For the people of India its not been a Nuclear Deal but a Not Clear Deal. Shrouded in secrecy the Congress Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh signed the deal although he did not enjoy the support on the issue in India's parliament.
When I say its a Not Clear Deal I say it with some reason. After all the hoopla which led to countless Left-Congress meetings and even debates in parliament even Amar Singh had to still even at the last minute try and understand the nuclear deal from India's security advisor!
And after all this trying this is what Amar Singh tells the media "We are not for the nuclear deal but we are against the BJP."
In Indian politics the Samajwadi (Socialists) have always been self-serving opportunists and do you know what Samajwadi means "Pehle Hum, Samaj Baad Mein." (First I, then society).
Of course, the BJP is equally self-serving. When Vajpayee tested the bomb at Pokhran they celebrated but when India's entire nuclear program is threatened since India does not have enough of its own uranium reserves, the BJP has been rather coy. Forget national interests!!!
In fact, I am not a nuclear expert. Nor am I an Indian commie claiming to understand every letter in the 123 agreement and even American laws like the Hyde Act.
I am just an Indian.
And of all the TV shouting programs I have watched its only Karan Thapar whom I believe could ask the right questions and decipher the nuclear code. A former security advisor Dr. Subramanian was on his program and his cellphone kept ringing throughout the program (Was it George Bush on line? I wonder how such people can keep India secure)
But Dr. Subramanium clearly stated that India's civil nuclear program could not go ahead without this deal as India did not have enough uranium in its reserves. Current estimates are for 10,000 MW, but what is needed is for 50,000 MW before India can reach the third stage of the Bhabha program when thorium can replace uranium as a fuel).
When Karan Thapar asked him what percentage of energy would be nuclear if this happens he said `6 per cent'.
Signing the deal means that India will no longer be a nuclear pariah and can shop for uranium from the world suppliers.
Also, the deal implies that India will open its civil program for inspections but its military program will not be open.
THE BIG RIDER HOWEVER IS THAT IF INDIA TESTS A NUCLEAR BOMB AGAIN THEN THE URANIUM SUPPLIERS GROUP RESERVE THE RIGHT TO STOP SUPPLIES.
Now I would like to ask our Congress politicians whether they embarked on the nuclear journey purely for enery needs or for a military deterrent.
If it was for only civil purposes then we needen't have tested the bomb and become a pariah in the first place.
But if we want to become a nuclear bomb state then why pursue this civil nuclear agenda? (Of course, its another debate whether India can use its nuclear bomb. We did not in Kargill)
IF WE DO TEST ANOTHER BOMB THE URANIUM SUPPLIES WILL STOP AND SO OUR NUCLEAR PROGRAM WILL ANYWAY BEEN IN RISK.
So if Manmohan Singh is so desperate to sign the deal then its a reversal of 60 years of Congress Nuclear policy and a failure of their NUCLEAR POLICY, if there was one.