My ‘objective’ of political career yet to be realised: Vajpayee

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had never thought of assuming the high office and said the "objective" of his political career remains to be realised. Mr. Vajpayee, who was responding to a volley of questions from a group of school students, said: "No, I never thought of becoming prime minister when I was young like you."

When a student asked him whether he was satisfied with the long political career, Mr. Vajpayee remarked, "the objective is yet to be realised." He, however, did not elaborate. On the country’s future, the Prime Minister told them that they should not worry about it. "There is no need for despondency. Your future is bright."

What kind of India did he visualise in the next millennium? an eager student asked. "A healthy, happy India contributing towards world peace," Mr. Vajpayee said.

The students from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, who presented a cheque of Rs.2,24,180 for the PM’s relief fund, put searching questions to Mr. Vajpayee on various issues.

After such a hectic campaigning, how did he remain physically fit at this age? asked another. "It is the work that keeps one fit", a smiling Prime Minister, who freely mingled with them, said. On the opposition criticism, he said, "in a democracy, criticism is accepted and this is part of political life. But one’s conscience should always be clear."

To a question on how he managed to speak on a variety of subjects, Mr. Vajpayee said, "It is through practice". "I don’t get any time," Vajpayee said when asked if he found time to write poetry. A student wanted to know what was his reaction when he spoke in Hindi in the UN General Assembly. Vajpayee said the reaction was very good. The UN had a very good system of simultaneous translation in seven to eight languages. Many leaders present in the UN were pleasantly surprised as for the first time an Indian leader spoke in an Indian language.

Pleased with the students queries, the Prime Minister said that it was his time to ask them certain questions. The what do you expect from prime minister and what he should be like? Mr. Vajpayee asked them. The children said the person at the top should consider the nation as his mother and should have the capacity to lead the government.

Mr.Vajpayee suggested that a serious thought should be given to utilise the services of teachers after their retirement in the stupendous task of nation building. "We should think of ways to utilise the services of teachers after they retire for the nation building," he said while addressing the award winning teachers from all over the country on the eve of Teachers’ Day.

"Teachers retire after a certain period but I don’t think they are ever tired," the Prime Minister made the remark amidst wide applause from the teachers gathered at his residence. Mr. Vajpayee, however, declined to elaborate on the issue saying, "main jyada nahin bol sakta hoon kyonki election commission ki nazar hamare upar hai’’ (I cannot say much on this as Election Commission is keeping a watch on us).

Stating that he was aware of the importance of teaching community in society as he was himself a son of a teacher, Mr. Vajpayee recalled that although his father’s salary was meagre his status was quite high. Now the emoluments of teachers had considerably increased though not up to the level it deserved, he said, adding that teachers would continue to be the guiding force and show path to the generations.

'Can inevitable coalitions ever give stable governments?'
-Surendra Mohan

While the BJP now heads an electoral alliance with a large number of parties than before the last general elections, the Congress Party, too, has started gradually to reconcile itself to the reality of the coalition era. Although in its election manifesto, it has once again called for one party rule and criticised coalition governments as basically unstable, it has now several electoral partners. In Tamil Nadu and Bihar, it is a junior partner, being led by the AIADMK in the former and the RJD in the latter, and in U. P., it has an understanding with the Rashtriya Lok Dal led by Ajit Singh. In Bihar, the RJD-led alliance includes the CPI and the CPI(M), while in Tamil Nadu, there is, apart from these two, the Indian National League. The number of parties with which the Congress Party shares direct or indirect electoral relationship is eight. Then, there are the parties which have shunned the BJP-led group as well as the Congress Party and its allies. In Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, they have set up their own alliances. The TMC has the Janata Dal (Secular), the Pothia Tamilagam, the Dalit Panthers and the Indian Union Muslim League as allies, while in Maharashtra, the NCP heads the Progressive Democratic Front which includes JD(S), PWP, Samajwadi Party, Sharad Joshi’s Azad Bharat Party and the RPI (Athavale group). In U. P. and some other States, the Samajwadi Party is contesting on its own, while the BSP is doing likewise, except in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. The BSP’s partners in the respective states are the HVP, the All India Shiromani Akali Dal led by G. S. Tohra and the Jat Mahasabha. In Kerala, the LDF and the UDF, captained by the CPI (M) and the Congress Party respectively, continue while the BJP ploughs its lonely furrow.

There are complications in respect of both major alignments. In the case of the Congress Party and its allies, the problem will arise if a coalition government is to be set up. The Congress Party will want to govern alone while the AIADMK, the RJD, the CPI and the Lok Dal could insist upon participation in the government. In case this alignment does not command a clear majority on its own, then, whichever parties it invites, might stake their own claims. As for the NDA, apprehensions have already been expressed by the hard-liners in the BJP, as also by those known for their understanding of the nitty-gritty of real politic, that the Janata Dal (United) could cause difficulties. A fore-taste of these difficulties was experienced by the alliance partners for a whole month in the negotiations for seat-sharing. Up to now, the three constituents of the JD (U) have not merged their separate identities in a single entity, although they will face the polls on a common symbol. Then, the BJP and the JD (U) will not campaign together. The BJP is still unreconciled that it was not invited to join the rally organised by the JD (U) in Bangalore while invitations were extended to the DMK, the TDP and the J&K National Conference. However, the first two did not attend.

In the case of the NDA too, problems could arise if the tally of seats is less than a clear majority. The search for partners could become frustrating, indeed. Then, there are the non-aligned parties which are secular-minded and may not join either of the two big camps even in the post-election scenario. But will they agree to come together, what with the long-standing hostility between the

Samajwadi Party and the BSP? In the next Lok Sabha, they together might claim more than fifty seats. In fact, they could be in a position to hold the balance. Their pull to the Left because of their secular character could bring about a new conglomeration of forces. If the friction between the JD (U) and the BJP’s hard-liners erupts, then, old associations could compel it to join its forces with this emerging third force. In any uncertain situations, permutations and combinations are likely to undergo several alterations.

It becomes therefore extremely necessary that certain codes of conduct among political parties be agreed upon, if the coalitions which are inevitable have to become stable. One of them is to accept that the era of negativism is over. For, negativism brings together strange bed-fellows which agree to oppose a common enemy on one particular issue, but may have serious disagreements on other issues. Therefore, such partnerships are short-lived. The second is that the practice of supporting a government from outside must also end, for it leads to enjoyment of power without responsibility. If this understanding develops, then whatever happened to the governments led by Charan Singh, V. P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral might not be repeated. Here, the Congress Party is not alone in this practice; the BJP and the CPI (M) have also been out of government while supporting it. Thirdly, if one particular ally in government wishes to change sides without much disagreement on the issue of public policy, the parties in the opposition need not encourage it to do so. Such parties, which switch their alignments off and on, might be directed to seek endorsement of such shifts from their general bodies.

However, the effort to create stable regimes by enacting some law to guarantee the life of Lok Sabha for five years in all circumstances is not desirable. It could create artificial situations and retain unrepresentative governments. Situations could arise when a government cannot be ousted even after losing its majority. We have already seen from the experience of the present care-taker government how fragile our political norms are and how easily our constitution can be manipulated. As for adopting the system of a constructive vote of no-confidence practised in Germany, the difference between the two politics needs to be understood. Defections in Germany have been very rare, even though there is no anti-defection law like ours. In the 1970s, a government was able to rule for a full term even with a majority of three. Secondly, regional parties are exceptional. There is the Christian Social Union, but it is a stable partner with the Christian Democratic Union.

A suggestion made by the Law Commission to adopt another German practice, which is prevalent in some other countries also, bears some examination. It is that the parties polling less than 5 per cent of valid votes are denied representation in Lok Sabha. Adoption of this practice as law would deprive most regional parties of their representation in Lok Sabha. We have some regional parties which lead the national parties in the alignments that have been struck. In Tamil Nadu, the three alliances have regional parties as main players and the national parties are much smaller players. In Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and now in Maharashtra, Haryana and Orissa as well, regional parties might prove much stronger than national ones, in their States. All the States in the Northeast are littered with regional parties. In India, all these parties have arisen from historic circumstances, and reflect unity in diversity. They have put forth concretely not only their regional aspirations, but have made the federal system much more meaningful. Unless the goal is to reestablish con-centration of political power in the hands of a few national parties ruling at the Centre alternately, which will be very dangerous indeed, this suggestion must not be entertained.

There is little doubt that with the ongoing experimentation with coalitions, serious debates are taking place among the intelligentsia and also among the political parties about evolving a coalition culture. It is best to let it evolve, and one might trust the wisdom of the electorate and their representatives that after some time, some suitable norms will get adopted.Any artificial reordering by statute could prove harmful in the long run.

A desperate Congress
-S. Sadanand

There is a sense of deja vu when the Congress Party in Election ’99 tries and plays a desperate game in order to ward off what appears to most independent observers and psephologists its certain defeat at the hustings. First, it surreptitiously funds an opinion poll of its own the results of which run counter to all others done so far. Two, realizing that Vajpayee is the winning mascot of the National Democratic Alliance it concocts cock and bull stories to tarnish his image though not with much success. Since Sonia Gandhi’s campaign is a non-starter while Vajpayee is the overwhelming choice of the people for prime ministership, the Congress Party necessarily feels obliged to try and besmirch his reputation. Having failed to make much of the so-called telecom scam, which, if it was a scam, had the Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee and CPI (M) leaderSomnath Chatterjee as co-scamsters, the Congress Party spokesmen have moved on to other and far more spurious concoctions.

The so-called sugar scam involving the import of sugar from Pakistan was such a horrendous lie that it was exposed as such even before the word about it could get out of the precincts of the AICC headquarters. The import of sugar at payment of nil customs duty was allowed under Open General License (OGL) by the then Congress regime headed by Narasimha Rao. Contrary to the claim by the Congress Party, the Vajpayee regime slapped a customs duty of over 27.5 per cent on imports of sugar in order to protect the indigenous industry. But weaving a whole miasma of lies and untruths the Congress Party spokesman would have you believe that there was a connection between the OGL imports of sugar and the rise in the ISI activities against India. While giving Congressmen full marks for their capacity to conjure up charges out of thin air, one would strongly advise them to seek help for they seem to have lost their mental equilibrium in the face of a certain defeat.

Meanwhile, the self-same newspaper in the capital, which incidentally is owned by a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, was guilty of plain distortion and then flaunting its invention prominently on its front page. Mahajan is categorical in denying that he ‘equated’ Sonia Gandhi with Monica Lewinsky. But the alacrity with which the Congress Party latched on to the so-called slur on Sonia Gandhi was a give-away. Besides, the paper had another reason to work in concert with the Congress Party: the party’s ‘raja’ was its ‘raja’ too. Of course, election time rhetoric is normal.

But shouldn’t it be kept within limits? The flinging of baseless and wholly unsubstantiated charges in the hope that some of the muck so thrown would stick lowers the quality of campaign. It should be avoided. Therefore, Mr Kapil Sibal desist, or else, get yourself a better brief.

Electing a stable Govt:Ball in voters’ court
-R.L. Pathak

The political scene on the eve of the general elections to the 13th Lok Sabha appears to be well-nigh similar to the 1998 elections with all political parties being unable to cut ice with the voter. They are making false promises and indulging in false propaganda. Subjecting the body politic to repeated fractures. One should still hope the 13th Lok Sabha will be one ‘with a qualitative difference’.

Any party whatsoever forming the next government will bring self-supporting majority and be able to address to the urgent problems of the people in the socio-political context. The voter must assert his power this time with extra care and aim at the installation of a stable government. Here and now is really the time to think and act thus. George Fernandes’ threat to admit a faction of the JD into NDA is a pointer to the divisive trends.

Electioneering is now picking up with each passing day and the political machines are doing overtime to forge tie-ups and alliances yet again for the third time in three years. While every time the elected representatives seemingly endeavour hard to avoid elections and in a way try to impress upon the voters that they are all nationalists to the core, yet in effect, and by sheer contrast, it all turns out to be a damp squib - a whimper!

The fact of the matter is, however, totally the opposite of what they pretend. The ball is once again in the court of the voter who must show extra-maturity this time in returning such people/parties, who/which could provide a stable government at the Centre without having to depend upon splinter groups or regional outfits which are guided merely by instant considerations and gainful opportunities, coming the easy way. The voter has already had a bitter experience in the past and feels badly let down but for their utter failure to rise above narrow/personal and selfish motives at the expense of national interest constituting the quint essential bane of political governance.

The voter enjoys the privilege of being a real force to reckon with as far as the success or otherwise of a democratic form of government is concerned. It is but he who should be called upon to show a sense of maturity to the extent possible to ensure a full term for the 13th Lok Sabha.

If nothing else, the voter must reject such candidates whose track has been one of changing loyalties too often particularly in the wake of personal ambitions in utter disregard of party discipline. How can the country afford to play the second fiddle to them? Voter should just not bother for opportunists who play antics with the serious business of administration just for the fun of it. It has already been seen how the Aya Rams and Gaya Rams have caused incalculable damage to the political system in our country.

The voter has reasons to be disappointed with the tribe of Aya Rams and Gaya Rams (ARs/GRs) who toppled the duly elected government for the simple reason that "duplicity" reigned supreme in their psyche. They begged and/or borrowed numbers for doing the trick. The voter feels the ARs/GRs will never learn to serve the national interest at the cost of personal gains.

In that event where and how to search an alternative so as to obviate such possibilities? True, the politicians belonging to any party cannot be expected to give up their egoes, prejudices, and high ambitions. It is the voter who will have to put them where they actually deserve to be. He ought not to be swayed by the local problems, regionalism, casteism, groupism. Instead he should be guided by the supreme national interest. He should remember what Nawaz Sharief said, "bilateral talks" with India can just not be fruitful at all because they (India) switch over from one Prime Minister to the second and the third. Instability does send weak signals across the borders which is construed as an inherent weakness by the hostile neighbours.

Deserters/betrayers once, they stay on as deserters/betrayer for ever. The latest drama in Haryana with Om Prakash Chautala taking over as CM indicates how vulnerable our leaders are to "grind their axe" when they see the iron is hot. Voter does not appear to be any wiser and could be misguided by vested lobbying by the political parties. For instance, the Congress and the BJP which have an All-India base are sharply divided. The Rashtravadi Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar is an example of betraying the parent Congress for the sake of personal gratification. RSP seems hell bent to keep equidistance from both, Congress and BJP, like the BSP.

The happenings in Karnataka do not augur well by the ‘real’ and the ‘unreal’ Janata Dal. TMC, though willing to merge with Sonia Congress is allergic to the tie up with AIADMK for disliking of the lady of the Poes Garden. Mamata Banerji, the fire brand leader of the erstwhile Congress (I), finds Atal Bihari Vajpayee to be the fittest Prime Minister, though at one time she was highly critical of the BJP as a communal party. Now such permutations and combinations are in the process of making and breaking which has confused the voter much the worse. CPI-M, CPI and other parties are also busy in playing the same game.

The voters have a historic responsibility to analyse the situation/scenario with a sense of maturity and refuse to be guided by Bhai-bhateeja-vaad, Bhasha-vad, kshetra-vad or by and other kind of divisive or the breakaway role being played by the political parties.

The kind of uncertainty that gripped the nation over the past 4-5 years has disillusioned the voter down-to-the-earth.The country expects of him to exercise his right or franchise freely, without fear but at the same time weigh the pros and cons in terms of patriotism and nationalism and nothing else. He must discard criminals and goons from the political arenas, summarily reject Aya Rams and Gaya Rams, so as the strengthen democracy in India keeping only the national problems in view and leaving the regional ones for the respective states.

This general elections coming in the wake of the Kargil crisis should be good enough eye-opener for the voter who may return any national party with good majority leaving no role for splinter breakaway groups/outfits to fiddle with the governmental business for a full 5-year tenure.

This will dissuade the enemy and terrorist countries like Pakistan to stay put in their side of the LoC and dare not venture out ever again for "more Kargils", as threatened by the Pak Premier.

The voter has two clear choices - say, one led by the Congress and the other by BJP. Instead of fighting the war of words, both the parties should present their manifestoes as they deem fit and should not join hands with the ‘fair weather friends’ wooing either of them. Other parties on the Right and the Left will have enough role to play by way of checks and balances so as to consolidate their positions. Seat-sharing etc. in both pre-electoral tie-ups or after should be dismissed as an exercise in futility. The voter must assert himself as the ‘sole sovereign’ in the dwindling conditions out to wreck democracy in Inida and restore India’s glory from the infamous unstable governments any more.

Villagers pledge to fight militancy

A backward village near the Line of Control (LoC) which was transformed into a modern one by the development programmes of the Army has decided to repay the benevolence by helping the troops in combating militancy in the border areas.

Sumwali, hardly a kilometre from the LoC, has changed from an underdeveloped hamlet to a modern village thanks to a series of welfare measures initiated by the Army in the area.

In return, the villagers, who migrated en masse to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1994 and returned to the Indian side in 1997, have pledged to continue their cooperation in fighting militancy in the border areas, which is one of the infiltration routes of Pakistan-trained militants into the valley.

With the aim of improving the quality of life of the villagers, the Army undertook a number of developmental projects including construction and repair of bridges, improvement of roads and tracks, repair of schools, provision of running water, medical aid and adoption of poor and needy families. In addition, scholarships to deserving students and provision of stationery and sports equipment to various schools are part of the programme. The Army also created an Army Development Group Project (welfare project) at Sumwali.

The project comprises a community hall, a fully equipped medical aid post and veterinary clinic, provision of electricity to all houses of Sumwali and Chotali villages through two 15 KVA generators and supply of running water to all houses of both villages.

The Army has also provided two television sets, dish antenna and books to the villagers for entertainment and educational purposes.

Rare birds, animals perish in Pak shelling

Several hundred wildlife species and rare birds have perished in the Pak shelling between May and July in the Kargil, Drass and Batalik areas.

Though the government agencies concerned have yet to carry out a survey of the extent of damage caused to the flora and fauna in the Kargil and Drass sectors due to over two months of the Indo-Pak armed conflict, reports revealed that among those perished in the Pak artillery shelling included some rare species of birds and wildlife.

While Pak troops and infiltrators are said to have fed themselves on some wildlife animals including Himalayan marmot and Indian hare, several hundred birds and animals migrated to the safer areas and have been spotted in the Minimarg and Sonamarg belts.

The State Wildlife Department has decided to improve the habitat in a high altitude national park near Hemis monastery in Leh for which the Centre has agreed to pay Rs 1.36 crore.

While parts of Ladakh are famous for pashmina goats other areas in Leh and Kargil are known for a wide range of wildlife animals and birds. Most of these species are local and more than six species of birds are migratory. The Kargil area is famous for ibex, Himalayan bear, Indian hare, Himalayan wolf, Himalayan marmot, Himalayan mouse, snow leopard, Himalayan snow cock, chakore, tufted duck, tadwell, booted eagle, etc.

The national park will have four watch towers to check poaching and illegal grazing. The authorities plan to build six pen houses where rare species of birds and wildlife would be reared and saved from attacks by predators.

Informed sources said a proper survey regarding the extent of destruction caused to flora and fauna in Kargil by the Pak shelling would be carried next summer. Since Pak shelling continues from across the border the Wildlife Department surveyors will not be able to visit the far-flung areas to assess the loss.

E. Railway officers kidnapped
Six senior officers of the Eastern Railway (ER) were kidnapped by a local gang when they went to conduct an inquiry into the derailment of a goods train near Barkakhana in the Richuguda-Chatar section of the Dhanbad division, ER sources said. Four officers were later released unhurt, but their two colleagues — Eastern Railway’s Chief Safety Officer David Topno and Senior Divisional Engineer Dhanbad Mukesh Jain — were kept hostage by the gang under ‘certain conditions,’ the sources said quoting preliminary reports. "We still don’t know what the conditions are," they said.

BJP condemns priest’s murder
The Nagaland unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strongly condemned the brutal murder of Father Arul Doss in Mayurbhunj district of Orissa. In a statement here, BJP spokesman Johny G. Rengma said that the party state unit held the Congress fully responsible for the brutal killing. The state unit also demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits.

International Silk Assn’s conference
The 23rd conference of the International Silk Association (ISA) will be held in Bangalore in 2001. The directing board of the ISA had accepted the invitation of India extended by Central Silk Board chairman H. Ekantaiah to hold the conference. "Taking into professional and climatic considerations, the best time for the conference would be the first week of December," the ISA said in its special newsletter on the 22nd conference of the ISA held in Lyon in France recently.

Comedian makes fun of own nominee
Enter Mamu Koya, a popular comedy actor on the Malayalam silver screen. And there certainly is scope for some entertainment. This was painfully realised by UDF leaders who roped him to campaign for KPCC vice-president K. Muraleedharan at two centres in Wayanad district the other day. In his characteristic Muslim dialect, the actor reeled off a variety of complaints against the Congress before the large crowds that had gathered at Kambalakkad and Kalloor to the utter discomfiture of Congress leaders present there. Apparently forgetting that he was to win votes for Mr Muraleedharan, contesting the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat, Mamu Koya even described Congressmen as ‘unreliable’ citing his personal experience.

Peon’s gesture to Kargil heroes
Moved by the heroism of jawans during the Kargil crisis, Dashrat Kadam, a peon in the office of Maharashtra Governor P.C. Alexander withdrew Rs 5000 from his Provident Fund to donate the amount to The Army Central Welfare Fund. Kadam and his wife Rukmani called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai and presented him with the cheque.

Another BMW case witness retracts
The prosecution in the BMW hit-and-run case in which six persons were killed here in January, recently suffered a setback with an eyewitness claiming that he was hit by a truck and not the car. The lone survivor in the accident, Manoj, told Additional Sessions Judge P.K. Bhasin, said that he already had become unconscious when the police reached the spot. Manoj is the second prosecution witness to become hostile in the case.

Death term for killing tenant
A Delhi court recently sentenced a man to death for murdering his father’s tenant as the latter was not vacating the premises "on demand". Additional Sessions Judge L.D. Malik ordered the accused Rajbir Singh to be hanged by neck till death after he found him guilty of stabbing to death the tenant Samson Massey.

TV serial reunites boy with parents
Eleven-year-old Kartik Selvan, who had run away on January 20, fearing punishment on misdemeanour, was reunited with his parents in Mumbai after seven months. He had accidentally landed in Mathura, where he was adopted by a Muslim family. This family happened to see an episode "Missing" on Sony Television on August 2, where Kartik’s story was shown and his photograph flashed. They then made a call to Mumbai, and the child was reunited with his family.

Vajpayee visits Satya Sai Baba
Taking time off his hectic election campaign schedule, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee paid a brief visit to Shri Satya Sai Baba. After addressing a public meeting at Bellary, Mr Vajpayee flew in by a helicopter. He was with Baba at "Prasanthi Nilayam", the latter’s abode, for about 15 minutes, before leaving for Bangalore to address another public meeting.

Pope to visit India in Nov
Pope John Paul-II will pay a state visit to India from November 5 to 8, an External Affairs Ministry press note said. He would arrive in New Delhi late in the evening on November 5 and leave early in the morning on November 8. During his visit, the Pope would call on the President and have meetings with other Indian dignitaries.

Protest against ‘obscene’ Buddha statue
Hundreds of Buddhist monks and activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Buddhaleni Bachav Aamiti on Thursday went on a day’s fast at the collectorate here protesting against the display of an alleged obscene statue of Lord Buddha at a five-star hotel in Aurangabad. The police said nine idols of Lord Buddha which had women sitting on their lap were seized by the Cidco police from Aurangabad Emporium, which is housed at the five-star hotel. The owner of the emporium was arrested.

Villagers kill wolf
Seven persons were injured at Nashirabad in Maharashtra when a wolf attacked them. The victims were later taken to the civil hospital for treatment. Enraged villagers later came together and killed the wolf.

Award for ‘honest’ Khushwant
Khushwant Singh, eminent journalist and author, has been selected for the Sulabh International "honest man of the year award 1998" for his honesty and moral courage to speak out the truth through his brilliant and readable writings. The award, which carrries Rs 10 lakh in cash, a golden plaque, a gold pendent and a citation, has been instituted by the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation. It is awarded annually to an outstanding personality who has shown the highest level of public honesty and commitment in his (or her) work. The award will be presented sometimes at the end of this year.

‘Palace on Wheels’ redesigned
Palace on Wheels — India’s major tourist attraction, is all set to roll this autumn donning a new look, boasting a beauty parlour and a gym. The luxurious train, perhaps the longest in the country, has been redecorated to suit the taste of tourists, a majority of them foreigners, by a city-based interior design agency. Rajasthan Tourist Development Corporation has used the summer months to carry out the redesigning task. The train runs from September to March.

Anti-cancer drug from herb
Scientists favour further research on the ancient herb "Ashwagandha" that has emerged as the Indian Ginseng with its remarkable aphrodisiac properties. Latest studies have revealed that withaferin A, present in the plant’s leaves, had anti-tumor effects without any noticeable toxicity. This could prove a good source of a potent and relatively safe radio sensitiser or therapeutic agent. Further studies were required to explore the plant’s potential for cancer therapy, says Dr Sushil Kumar, Director, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.