Mr Sangma secured 32 votes against Mr Marak who got only 28 votes. The voting was held through casting of ballot papers. Ailing former Chief Minister EK Mawlong was among the 60 legislators who turned up to vote in the election held at MLA Hostel Conference Hall here.

Mr Sangma, who is the nephew of former Chief Minister Late Williamson A Sangma, is the first Garo to represent Meghalaya in the Upper House. He replaces Robert Kharshiing (NCP) whose term ends on April 12.

Soon after the result was announced, the newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP conveyed his thanks to the MPA legislators, particularly those from Khasi and Jaintia Hills, for his victory and said he would raised the various issues facing the State on the floor of Parliament.

"Now that I am going to represent the State in Rajya Sabha, I have a lot to learn. My priorities will be to raise issues concerning the State, including development schemes for the benefit of the people," Mr Sangma added.

Meanwhile, a jubilant NCP leader Purno A Sangma said the victory of Thomas Sangma was expected, adding the State had stepped into a new era of youth being in the forefront of political leadership.

The election process started at 9 am and ended at 4 pm with Assembly Additional Secretary Bina Rajee as the presiding officer. Counting of votes was taken up after receiving official permission of the Election Commission.

PTI adds from New Delhi: Three CPI-M and two JD (U) and BJP candidates each were among 13 elected to the Rajya Sabha as the results of biennial polls in four states for the Upper House poured in .

Forward Bloc, LJP and RJD bagged a seat apiece as two independents, a Reliance Executive and a journalist, also entered the Council of States.

Union Minister Premchand Gupta, former Revenue Secretary N K Singh and JD (U) spokesman Shivanand Tiwari were the notable candidates who made it to the House of Elders.

Urdu daily Editor A S Mahilabadi and Reliance Executive Parimal Nathwani, both independents, got Rajya Sabha berths from West Bengal and Jharkhand respectively.

This was disclosed by NIFT Director General Rajiv Takru after his meeting with State Chief Secretary Ranjan Chatterjee here on Wednesday. Mr Thakru said the matter would be discussed at the NIFT Board meeting at New Delhi on April 2.

"We are awaiting final approval of the Central Government for setting up of the institute in Shillong," Mr Takru.

The NIFT DG said he was keen on starting the Shillong NIFT Centre from a temporary campus for this year's academic session from July-August.

Expressing the hope that the proposed NIFT Centre would be set up in Shillong, which is regarded as the 'fashion capital of North-East', Mr Takru said various states of the region were interested in having centres of the fashion institute of international repute.

"We will put forward a comprehensive proposal for setting up of NIFT Centre in Shillong to the Union Textiles Ministry, and we are hopeful of getting it approved," he said.

NIFT, an autonomous body under the Union Textiles Ministry, was set up in 1986. The institute has been a pioneer in fashion business education in the country through a network of eight professionally-managed centres at New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Rae Bareli.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Mr Chatterjee termed the proposal for setting up the fashion institute in Shillong as a "win-win situation" for both Meghalaya and NIFT

"With the setting up of the NIFT Centre in the city, youth of the North-East in general and Shillong in particular will have the advantage of making fashion statement of sorts," Mr Chatterjee said.

He also said the presence of NIFT Centre in Shillong would open up job opportunities for youth interested in pursuing fashion designing as a profession.

The judge recently convicted lawyer Panger Anok and two others -- Kauser Alam and Kamal Chouhury -- under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. The accused tried to offer a bribe of Rs 20 lakh to former Khliehrait Sub-Division Circle Inspector TJ Synrem to get back about ten thousand kg of ganja, valued at Rs 1.90 crore in the international market, seized by police on December 29 2005. At present, Mr Synrem is officer in-charge of Lumdiengjri police station.

The amount was also meant to secure the release of a person arrested under the NDPS Act and three oil tankers which were used for transporting the ganja.

Meanwhile, police sources said the sentencing of the three persons to one-year jail term should serve as an-opener for individuals who would seek to bribe police in future, adding the Police Department still had honest officers who were ready to sincerely work for the society.

Cannabis seized: A large quantity of cannabis worth Rs 12.37 lakh was seized by personnel of Central Customs Preventive Department from a truck at Mawryngkneng village in Jaintia Hills on Tuesday. The driver and the owner of the truck were also arrested and book under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Official sources said Customs officials seized 495 kg of cannabis which was found concealed in old garments and plastic articles in the truck while on its way to Jowai.

The sources also said the truck bearing West Bengal registration was proceeding towards Kolkata from Agartala.

The contraband was loaded at a place between Karimganj district of Assam and Rattacherra area in Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya.

Mr Prajapti, who was abducted by LAEF militants on March 8, was set free on Tuesday. The rebels kidnapped him after they had failed to meet the owner of the business establishment and left a demand note for Rs 1 crore for him.

Police said the proprietor of the business establishment Ghanshyam Prajapti admitted that he had paid Rs 7 lakh to LAEF in exchange for release of Devender Prajapti.

After being released, Mr Prajapti reportedly went back to his hometown in Rajasthan.

Meanwhile, police said they could take up a case against the owner of the business establishment for giving money to the militant outfit.

In a teleconference interview with reporters here, Mr Ramamurthy said the proposed tie-up with Frontier Lifeline had been mooted after all attempts to get experienced cardiologists from other government-run health institutes failed as they were not interested to come and serve at NEIGRIHMS.

"Several attempts by the Health Ministry to get experienced faculty members for the Cardiology Department of NEIGRIHMS went in vain as none of them responded to the various advertisements for the vacancies," Mr Ramamurthy said.

He said under the proposal, poor heart patients from the State as well as the region would be given free heart surgery by experienced cardiologists at NEIGRIHMS and that government employees would get their reimbursement from the government for such surgery and treatment.

"No patient belonging to poor family would be charged even a single pie. Government employees will be charged, but whatever cost is incurred by them will be reimbursed by the government as per procedure," Mr Ramamurthy said.

Allaying fears of privatisation of NEIGRIHMS, the Union Health Secretary asserted that there would be no "sell-out" of the health institute.

According to him, existing cardiologists of NEIGRIHMS will be part of Dr KM Cherian's team to carry out surgery until they are experienced enough that the contract with Frontier Lifeline would no longer be required. Dr Cherian from Frontier Lifeline and his team of doctors are well-known for their performance in the field of heart surgery.

"We will take into account all your concerns so that NEIGRIHMS gets the best deal. We will not by any means sell out the institute," Mr Ramamurthy said.

He also said private hospitals in the country were charging Rs 2.25 lakh for heart surgery, Rs 40,000 for angioplasty and Rs 12,000 for angiogram, while the charges at NEIGRIHMS's Cardiology Department, proposed to be run by Frontier Lifeline, would be in line with those of AIIMS and PGI, Chandigarh.

Further, Mr Ramamurthy said Dr Cherian and his team of 14 cardiologist would be paid Rs 10.75 lakh as monthly remuneration for conducting 40 angioplasty and four open heart surgeries against the normal rate of Rs 1.76 crore for that amount of work. The Union Health Secretary also said Dr Cherian's team of cardiologists would conduct two open heart surgeries a month and five diagnostic angiograms a day and continue to do so for five days.

While asserting that the tie-up was needed to make NEIGRIHMS' Cardiology Department function as any other government health institute in the country, Mr Ramamurthy said Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had on October 23 2007 convened a meeting of heads of AIIMS, NIMHANS, PGI and Chistian Medical College (CMC), Vellore to discuss availability of experienced faculty for the Cardiology Department of NEIGRIHMS. "We have approached all the government health institutes in the country like PGI, JIPMER, Amy Medical Corps and even CMC, Vellore but all of them said they could not spare any cardiologist for NEIGRIHMS. Even the Union Minister was also concerned over the problem," he said.

Mr Ramamurthy also said the Centre had spent Rs 355 crore for NEIGRIHMS infrastructure, besides spending Rs 2 crore per month for staff salary, drugs, electricity, telephone and other expenditures at the institute.

"It is the first graduate medical course offered by any institute in the government sector," Mr Sawkmie said on Wednesday.

He said the graduate medical course would initially start with 50 seats the number of which would later be increased to 150.

"NEIGRIHMS will also start its nursing college soon, besides the post-graduate medical studies," Mr Sawkmie said, adding, "These facilities would benefit students of the State as also those from the North-East."

SHILLONG: Workshops discussing rural poverty and livelihoods are often held in air-conditioned locales where the people who are treated as beneficiaries do not get to hear what is being planned for them.

The Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF) in collaboration with BASIX a financial institution engaged in livelihoods finance organised a stakeholder's workshop at Mawlynnong village, 90 kms away from Shillong.

Inaugurating the workshop Mr VS Oberoi, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Forests etc, government of Meghalaya stated that he was bowled over by the acreage taken over by broom grass in the Mawlynnong area. The workshop was held principally to work out ways and means of alternative livelihoods to wean people away from broomstick cultivation, which is now encroaching into forest lands and is depleting water sources in the area.

Mr Oberoi further observed that Meghalaya has the potential for tourism, horticulture and sericulture. These three areas, he said, should be leveraged for maximum benefit of people. Stressing that Meghalaya should strive towards organic farming, Mr Oberoi said places like Mawlynnong and surrounding areas need to think of alternative crops instead of depending on broomstick which is a 'lazy man's crop.

Referring to the tourism sector, he said that scenic beauty alone is not enough. "It is the comprehensive packaging that is important in selling a destination", Mr Oberoi said. Expressing concern about the fast depleting water sources, Mr Oberoi observed that it is a pity that a state which has surplus water five months in a year cannot have a second crop due to water shortage during the winter months.

Speaking about the great dependence of urban areas on water sources in the rural watersheds, he asked, " Will our urban centres will get enough water in the days to come?"

Lamphrang Khongtho-hrem, a school teacher from the village gave a graphic presentation of the genesis of Mawlynnong village and how it developed into a tourist destination. He informed that the concept of cleanliness was embedded in the psyche of the people and it is a matter of pride that this cleanliness has today become a selling point and is drawing tourists from all over the country and the world. Taking advantage of the presence of senior government officials, Mr Khongthohrem 

listed out the urgent requirements of the village which included better footpaths and improved water supply system. He informed that gathering that Mawlynnong has a high literacy rate. "Out of four hundred people in the village only two were illiterate," he said.

Mr PD Rai, NE consultant for BASIX, outlined a revenue model for Mawlynnong which would include skill upgradation and establish a livelihoods promotion institution. Basix's strength lies in its ability to manage risks in its financing through life, livestock and rainfall insurances and a buy-back arrangement through farmers' own initiatives.

Interestingly Dr O Rangad of the Agriculture Department expressed an urgency to conduct a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) in Mawlynnong and surrounding areas of Ri War to assess the peoples' needs before designing any intervention programmes for them. He admitted that the Department had neither technical ability nor manpower to conduct such surveys and should therefore outsource such studies.

He urged the NGOs engaged in Mawlynnong to train the farmers in book-keeping since they lacked a business perspective. Haphazard cropping patterns and lack of scale posed a problem for marketing the crops. Dr Rangad said that under the new Horticulture Mission a series of cold chains linking the producing areas to the marketing hubs would be set up soon to overcome the problem of marketing. Correcting the perception that Meghalaya was into organic farming by default, Dr Rangad said people here practised organic farming by tradition.

Mr DP Wahlang, Secretary, Tourism was also present.

Also present at the stakeholder's workshop were faculty members of the Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU). They presented a model for alternative livelihoods and offered to assist the villagers in taking the idea forward.

The North East Development and Finance Institute (NEDFI) is providing a ten-day training programme for value addition of broomsticks. This they said would fetch at least four times the amount that villagers were earning at present.

Other issues discussed at the workshop included the carrying capacity of Mawlynnong and setting benchmarks for niche tourism. Mr RG Lyngdoh, Chairperson MTDF presided over the function. Winding up the workshop Lyngdoh said that people in Meghalaya suffered not from poverty of resources but of ideas. "We have brought the workshop here mainly to open people's eyes to the vast resources they own. With collaborative effort from all stakeholders, I am sure we can bring major changes in the profile of Mawlynnong not only as a tourist destination but as a horticulture and floriculture hub as well", Lyngdoh added.

A high point of the workshop was that lunch was served in organic plates made out of the arecanut palm. The venue of the workshop was a unique tent made of bamboo and palm leaves. It provided an idyllic ambiance with Bangladesh overlooking the venue just three kilometres away. Besides broomsticks, Mawlynnong and the surrounding areas also grow arecanut, oranges and bay leaves which envelope the whole area with their fragrance.

Talking to newsmen here on Monday, Mr Kharshiing said he decided to stand for parliamentary elections after a meeting of traditional heads, including Syiems, Dolois, Sadars, Rangbah Shnongs and Nokmas, had advised him to do so and see that the real issues of the people were dealt with in a better manner.

He also said he would hold talks with ruling MPA partners, especially regional parties, on projecting him as a consensus candidate for Shillong parliamentary seat.

Meanwhile, Grassroots Democracy Advisory Council has been renamed as Grand Council of Chiefs of Meghalaya with Robert Kharshiing as chairman.

In a statement released here on Monday, it also urged the present MPA Government to take up prompt measures to start work on the decades old Shillong Bye-pass project to remove traffic congestion in Shillong city.

Further, the MCTOOA demanded the newly installed Government to terminate all illegal toll gates run by the KHADC, the Syiems, Municipal Board, etc as these gates are merely 'extortion gates' used by some vested interests.

It also blamed the presence of too many toll gates for escalating price rise in the State.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, KSU general secretary Hamlet Dohling alleged that BSF had not only forcibly occupied some portions of the orchard belonging to the villagers but also started digging holes for construction works.

The KSU leader said he had taken up the matter with Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner Frederick Roy Kharkongor who had assured to send magistrates to verify the matter.

Speaking at the released of a film title 'Human Trafficking" here on Wednesday, Mr Chatterjee pointed out that women are being exploited and abused, smuggled from one place to another, with an objective of sexually exploiting them.

He called upon every community to come together and fight against this social problem. Mr Chatterjee also lauded the Impulse NGO Network for taking up the fight against women abuse seriously and called for concerted efforts to combat it.

Similarly, NEHU Vice-Chancellor Prof Pramod Tandon said human trafficking is a global problem and needed to be addressed collectively to stop it.

Mr Tandon also called for cooperation with various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in different regions in this regard.

Later, both the Chief Secretary and the Vice-Chancellor jointly released a poster and T-shirt bearing messages on anti-human trafficking respectively at the function.

The programme was part of the initiative against cross border trafficking of women in Meghalaya and the North East region taken by the Impulse NGO Network.

Other dignitaries present during the screening were American Centre Deputy Director Moulik D Berkana and UNIFEM Regional Programme Director Anuradha Sen.

The HPSO, in a release issued here on Wednesday, said rise in prices of essential commodities has badly affected the common man and low-income groups.

The statement also called on the newly elected MPA Government headed by Dr Donkupar Roy Dkhar to maintain good governance, transparency and accountability to the people for over all development of the State.

Organised by the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), the festival was inaugurated by Member of the North Eastern Council (NEC) PP Srivastav on Monday last.

He lauded the efforts of the CCRT in bringing all the young talented artists on a common platform to prove that India is united despite of its diversities and multi-plurality of its prosperous culture.

Various performing and visual arts were being presented which include vocal music such as Hindustani, Borgeet of Assam and Nazrul Geeti, instrumental music, painting, sculpture and crafts, dances like Sattriya, Manipuri, Kathak, Odissi, Bharatnatyam, Mohiniyattam, Bihu, Gaudiya and folk dances of Assam. The festival also consists of lecture, demonstrations by eminent scholars and artists like Prof Helen Giri, Prof Prabodh Jhingan.

Further, Shillongites interested in arts, will be delighted with various art performances every day between 5 pm and 7 pm at the SAIIC auditorium.

The valedictory function will be held on March 30 at 4 pm at the same venue. Productions by various artists of different streams like Dr Lapynshai Syiem, Ashish Bhattacharjee, Marami Medhi, MH Barbhuiya will be presented on the concluding day.

Among the participants, 27 were from Assam, one each from Bihar, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, two each from Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipuri, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, four from Orissa, eight from West Bengal and nine from the host State.

The deceased, who were close friends, were identified as Sujata Barnal and Resham Sunar. Sujata Barnal committed suicide at 4.30 pm and Resham Sunar at 9.30 pm. Their bodies were taken to Shillong Civil Hospital for post-mortem.

According to the shop owner, Glorita Lyngdoh, the incident occured in wee hour of March 26. The miscreants also tried to set on fire the shop but failed.

In a similar case, ten mobile handsets worth Rs 2 lakh was stolen from Communique Mobile Shop, Nongpoh on Tuesday night.

In another incident, miscreants entered into a church building belonging to Assemblies of God (Khasi Section) at Riatsasim, Jowai and took away church assets including sound systems. They broke the lock of the main door and entered the building.

Separate complaints have been lodged at Jowai Police Station for both cases and investigation is on.

If there's one thing on which there exists across-the-board agreement about the Congress, it's not the party's political character, performance or its future prospects. It's the proposition that Ms Sonia Gandhi has grown in her job as party president. If her installation in that post on March 14, 1998 was an unseemly event that occurred amidst fractious circumstances and raucous sloganeering against the then incumbent, Sitaram Kesri, her continuation today is seen as natural, well-deserved and dignified by many of her detractors, as well as supporters.

The churlish, narrow-minded and xenophobic demand that Ms Gandhi should hold no major public position in this country because of her "foreign origins" hasn't exactly died down. But it has certainly got muted—and become irrelevant for a majority of Indians. Her voluntary choice to obtain Indian citizenship, live and work in her adopted homeland, and assimilate herself within its plural and multicultural milieu, is widely accepted and respected.

That said, Ms Gandhi's tenure at the party's helm has had many ups and downs. The Congress won a handsome victory in the 1998 assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, held immediately after the Pokharan-II nuclear blasts, which were supposed to give the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance a decisive edge.

The victory rejuvenated the Congress. But it spent the next 5 years deluding itself, on the basis of the 1998 Pachmarhi resolution, that the people would get fed up with coalition politics and return to the once-familiar "one-party dominance" system under the Congress.

It's only in July 2003, after the Congress lost the 2002 Gujarat assembly elections on top of the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, that it acknowledged at Shimla that it must form a broad-based secular coalition to take on the NDA. These shock defeats also taught Ms Gandhi not to trust the old courtiers and sycophants who influenced the party's strategies.

Shimla marked another major shift. The Congress's attempted break with its middle class-obsessed, "soft-Hindutva", conservative, free-market orientation under P. V. Narasimha Rao. It coined the Left-of-Centre slogan, "Congress ka haath, garib ke saath", expressing solidarity with the poor—although soon, "aam admi" or common man replaced "garib". The Congress promised food and nutrition security for all, and help for the underprivileged through extensive public services and a National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Spring 2004 witnessed Ms Gandhi's finest moment. With single-minded determination, she built what was to become the United Progressive Alliance by reaching out to every conceivable secular party, including the DMK—whom Congressmen accused after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination of colluding with the LTTE—and other Congress opponents. She was thus able to break the back of the politics of "anti-Congressism", developed by Ram Manohar Lohia four decades ago. This proved a resoundingly winning strategy.

Ms Gandhi further enhanced her moral and political stature in May 2004, when she renounced the Prime Ministership in a display of statesman-like acumen. She has since remained the pre-eminent figure in Indian politics.

But she had to pay a price for keeping away from day-to-day governance by conceding autonomy to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team, including arch-conservatives like Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, not to speak of lesser, but no less dogmatic neoliberals like Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.

With single-minded determination, she built what was to become the United Progressive Alliance by reaching out to every conceivable secular party, including the DMK—whom Congressmen accused after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination of colluding with the LTTE—and other Congress opponents. She was thus able to break the back of the politics of "anti-Congressism", developed by Ram Manohar Lohia four decades ago. This proved a resoundingly winning strategy. Ms Gandhi further enhanced her moral and political stature in May 2004, when she renounced the Prime Ministership in a display of statesman-like acumen.

In 2004, the UPA's neoliberal proclivity was reined in to some extent by the National Common Minimum Programme, negotiated with the Left parties to secure their support. In addition, Ms Gandhi legitimately tried to influence policy through the National Advisory Council, consisted of progressive intellectuals and public-spirited administrators. But this became virtually defunct after she resigned as an MP on the "office of profit" issue. Her subsequent re-election to Parliament hasn't revived the NAC.

On the credit side of Ms Gandhi's record is her success in ending the disastrous 6 years-long spell of Hindutva, creating hope for a just and plural society, and putting the Congress back into power after long years in the wilderness. On the debit side are her reluctance to intervene in the shaping of the party's economic and foreign policy stances, and her failure to break the dynastic mould of its organisational culture.

The UPA/Congress has recently drifted in a neoliberal direction. Its policies have worsened the conditions of life of a majority of the population. This will create a serious incumbency disadvantage for it in the next election. So course correction, much of it radical in nature, has become overdue. But the UPA seems unwilling to go far enough—despite the economic adversity confronting the people.

Inflation has breached the 5-per cent mark. With rising global oil prices and domestic food prices, it could soon exceed 6 per cent. The poor are bitterly complaining of the high prices of grains and vegetables. The decline of the dollar, and the stock market meltdown, are slowing down exports, domestic investment and growth. All this calls for reflation through huge public investment in the infrastructure. But the UPA, a prisoner of monetarist dogma and the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, has fought shy of such investment.

True, the UPA's budget did take some pro-people measures with an eye on elections, like writing off Rs 60,000 crore in farmers' loans, and modestly increasing spending on an expanded NREGA and on education. The loan waiver must be warmly welcomed as a moral acknowledgment, albeit belated, of the gravity of the agrarian crisis, which has driven 150,000 farmers to commit suicide over the past decade.

However, the waiver is unlikely to become another "Garibi Hatao"—the "one big thing" that transforms the Congress's image and its relationship to the masses. As this Column predicted two weeks ago, its limitations are becoming obvious to Congress leaders themselves.

The waiver excludes the majority (58 per cent) of farmers, who lack access to organised credit. The 2-hectare ceiling is far too low for the most acutely distressed rainfed regions like Vidarbha, Telengana and Saurashtra, where the average holding of heavily indebted farmers is over 3 ha. The 25 per cent write-off for higher-than-ceiling holdings shouldn't be made conditional upon the pre-payment of the rest of the loan. The December 2007 cut-off date is unrealistic. The amnesty must take account of different crop cycles, which vary regionally.

So, unless the UPA rectifies these flaws in the loan-waiver, it may end up creating, not relieving, discontent among farmers. Already, in Vidarbha, an average of 7 farmers have committed suicide every day since the budget. Similarly, unless much more money, and political and administrative commitment, is put into the NREGA, it won't meet the target of creating 100 person-days of work every year for each rural poor household.

The UPA has to go beyond short-term measurers. If it's to make a lasting contribution to reviving agriculture and combating mass poverty, it must make big investments in the infrastructure, irrigation, equitable water-sharing, prevention of land erosion, and agricultural extension. It must make economic growth inclusive and more labour-intensive. And above all, it must provide public services as a matter of right, including universal healthcare, safe drinking water supply, education, labour welfare and social security.

On social policy, the UPA must identify itself with marginalised social strata which are now asserting themselves, including Dalits and OBCs, especially the most backward among the latter. It must launch a serious affirmative action programme for Muslims in keeping with the Sachar Committee's recommendations. It isn't enough that Mr Rahul Gandhi spends a night in a Dalit's village house, as he recently did in Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress must establish a programme-based image as a staunchly pro-Dalit party.

On foreign policy and security issues, the UPA has developed a skewed relationship with the West, in particular, the United States, while ignoring India's broad-horizon global agenda with an emphasis on balance, justice and peace in the conduct of international relations. India has become far too US-obsessed. It often fails to pull its weight where it can—e.g. on Burma and Tibet—, and to take stands which matter: on ending Palestine's occupation, and stopping NATO's eastward expansion and the militarisation of space.

Ms Gandhi is inarticulate on these matters because she's often "advised" to keep silent in view of her "origins". This must change if Ms Gandhi wants the Congress/UPA to change policy course and cultivate a strongly plebeian social base different from its upper-caste middle class core following, supplemented by sundry layers.

Organisationally, Ms Gandhi will do the Congress a service if she stops promoting her son and instead revives long-moribund democratic decision-making structures, such as the Congress Parliamentary Board, district- and state-level committees, and policy forums which generate popular feedback which can help the party fine-tune its approaches. This is a big, wide-ranging agenda. Ms Gandhi doesn't have much time left to implement it. (IPA Service)

Islamic clergy at Deoband have given a call to their followers to treat India as their motherland. As it is Muslims should discard rejectionism of the pre-partition days and prove to be good nationalists. The Hindu community also should not consider all "Muslims as terrorists as not all Jews are misers, or not all Blacks are criminals".

However, to better comprehend the confrontation and violence witnessed in Muslim societies require a more complex understanding of the various streams of Islamism itself, of how a certain opposition of ideas within it is playing itself out.

Political Islam—and its extreme versions, which are the font of the Al Qaeda affiliated groups—is a modern reactionary movement. In its social, economic and political content, it is the result of an aborted project of modernisation, and the decline of the secular-nationalist movement which would have delivered this modernisation, mainly in the Muslim countries in West Asia. This political Islam spans varied forces—the reformative flexibility of a Khatami in Iran, the stridency of Islamic Jihad in Palestine, the social/democratic credentials of Hamas, and even the tribal atavism of the Taliban.

While political Islam continues to hold the west responsible—with its interventionist policies in Muslim countries—for the loss of agency of Muslims, the anti-western currents of the movement are not necessarily the most fanatical. The US, until a point, at least tolerated the Taliban and certainly remains a staunch ally of Saudi Arabia. Political Islam found a state and became a regional force with the 1978-79 developments in Iran. Here, the Arab-Israeli conflict remains central to any understanding of this movement and its claims to power.

Indeed, if this conflict did not exist it is likely that the problems of this region would have been similar to other parts of the developing world. Islamic extremist forces, would, in all likelihood, have still existed but probably more as a peripheral, largely sectarian fringe that could hardly hope to capture the political centrestage in these countries and beyond. Just as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict sustains rightwing, reactionary forces in Israel and the US, it also adds to the lifespan, stridency and disproportionate strength—in comparison to actual space in the people’s culture and beliefs—of the jihadi variety of political Islam.

The fanatics in the Lal Masjid, and their exact counterparts—from the shadowy Fatah al Islam group—in the Nahar al Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, who have been battling the Lebanese army for almost two months now, might both indirectly or directly draw on the strong incentive provided by US occupation. Both might seek to deploy a rhetoric of combating economic and political dispossession (the masses left out in the failure of the feudal-industrial-military state in Pakistan, and the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon), and both may have enjoyed the patronage of either the state itself or other players, but significantly, these Al Qaedites seem to be increasingly isolated.

While there has been criticism of the army action in both instances, and Pakistan likely to witness bloody times in retaliation, public opinion in both cases seems to broadly converge on the necessity of confronting the Islamist extremists. Even in Palestine itself, the political Islamist party Hamas moved decisively against fanatics of the Army of Islam who had kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston, helped in part by the campaign for Johnston’s release mounted by the civil society of trade unions and associations. It wasn’t just political expediency on Hamas’ part, its leaders have many a time warned against the "isolationist and destructive" thinking of Al Qaeda and its groups.

Political Islam has certainly led to terror incidents, but the jihadi version seems to be now veering away sharply from the movement itself, for the latter, unlike Al Qaeda, understands the need for political work and regional alliances. While being reactionary, political Islam does not perceive modernity as purely an ontological threat, like the jihadis do. Islam itself, for that matter, contrary to stereotype is not monolithic, but is re-articulated by Muslims under different historical and national conditions, leading to widely different cultural Islams in, say, Kashmir and Indonesia.

Even within political Islam, the problem of defining democracy, individual freedom and civil society is being addressed by a new breed of widely-known "Islamic Protestant" intellectuals like the Iranian Abdul Karim Soroush, who seeks to dislodge the definition of Islam as a social and historical heritage, a set of overwhelming external conventions defining views and behaviour. There is a great deal of political history, and ferment, at work behind the scenes—none of which is apparent in the image of a closed, violent community and religion. INAV

Madam,

Malaria - the dreaded disease that has taken thousands of precious lives and still continues to do so. Comes the month of May and Garo Hills witnesses the maximum number of malaria cases every year, with no sign of decline. The death report is merely a tip of the actual figures because most cases are unattended and hence go unreported. One tends to wonder why malaria never sees an end? It is often seen that the medicine shop owners take up the role of a physician and prescribe medicines on their own. The medicines range from pain killers, antibiotics, malarial drugs, blood pressure drugs and those for children depending on the customer's budget. In such a situation, there will be no respite from malaria. Blood test for malaria shows a negative result if the patient has taken anti-malarial drugs prior to testing, not to mention the drug-resistance that have emerged due to rampant use of anti-malarial drugs courtesy the pharmacist who sells the medicines without restriction.

In other places not a single tablet is sold without a doctor's prescription. This not only allows the ailing person to avail proper checkup from the doctors but also the correct medicine, dose and duration of drugs. People in general prefer to go to private clinics for a check-up. One reason could be the non-availability of medicines in most government hospitals. Our hospitals are not equipped to deal with the most common life threatening disease ie malaria. Malaria tablets and injections have to be bought at peoples' own expenses and those who cannot afford are left to the mercy of God. Also there is a general notion that medicines supplied to most government hospitals do not work. In many instances doctors prefer to prescribe medicines from outside, admitting that medicines supplied to the government hospitals are not effective. It is also worth mentioning that many pharmaceutical companies have emerged and are marketing their range of medicines most of which are spurious but with attractive packaging so as to lure customers. The chemist gains a high profit by selling these medicines. Since these drugs are ineffective many lose their lives. At whose expense are these lives lost? Is there an authority to check the efficacy and genuineness of these medicines? Or do these drug companies pay the concerned authority overlooking the prevailing situation. A lot is happening behind the curtain but who bothers...No one cares...

Where have all the NGOS and social organisations gone? Each individual has the right to good health, the right to purchase genuine medicines and the right to demand at least the most common and needed malarial medicines from government hospitals and health centres. As malaria season approaches, much is needed to be done. Perhaps the present Health Minister being a doctor himself would understand and make malaria a priority so as to prevent or rather decrease the number of deaths due to malaria.

Yours etc,
Rosemerry Sangma
Via e-mail

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has stated that his Goverment was ready was to "go extra miles" to facilitate direct talks with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

"We are ready to facilitate any person with credibility either politicians or civil society members, for organizing direct talks with the Bangladesh-based leaders of the proscribed ULFA. However, we are not going to spare anyone found helping the outfit in carrying out illegal activities in the state," he said in the floor of the House while replying to the debate on a cut motion related to the Home Department on Tuesday.

He expressed apprehension about fructification of any peace process with the ULFA if the outfit's top rung leaders continued to stay in the ‘safe haven’ in Bangladesh.

The Chief Minister agreed that insurgency problem in the state could be solved only through negotiations with the militants, not only through counter-insurgency operations by the Army and police. Said counter-insurgency operation though capable of containing militants’ activities, it could hardly bring about lasting peace.

Clarifying on the controversial arrest of human rights activist and an appointed peace negotiator of the ULFA, Lachit Bardoloi by Assam police, Mr Gogoi said , "Bordoloi was not arrested for his contacts with the ULFA, which was known to the government for a long time. He was arrested because he had helped the outfit in carrying out violence."

NEW DELHI: The pro-monarchy party, which had a landslide win in the just concluded elections in Bhutan on Wednesday, reaffirmed that the Himalayan kingdom would not allow its territory to be used by forces inimical to the interest of India and would repeat flushing out North East militants if needed.

The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), which will form the first elected Government in Bhutan, said there won't be much changes to the erstwhile kingdom's foreign policy with its two giant neighbours India and China with whom it had "excellent" relations.

"Both India and China are important neighbours and we will continue to maintain excellent relations with them," party spokesman Palden Tshering said.

"Our foreign policy is very clear. Our relations with India for decades have been of bonhomie and there won't be any change in that approach," former foreign secretary Ugyen Tshering said.

But he denied reports of presence of camps of northeast rebels in southern Bhutan. "These are not true and even if militants try to sneak into our country, we will not hesitate to do what we did in 2003," he said.

Bhutan had evicted ULFA, NDFB and KLO militants through a military operation in 2003 and destroyed nearly 15 of their camps during the "Operation All Clear".

Among the prized catch were senior ULFA adviser Bhimkanta Buragohain and publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary.

Former Prime Minister Yeshey Zimba, who won from the South Thimphu constituency, said Bhutan will never allow Indian insurgents on its soil.

Security experts were worried since another neighbour Bangladesh is not cooperating fully in tackling the NE militants despite several attempts by New Delhi.