Producer Â– Mohan Pictures, Director Â– Sohrab Modi, Music Director Â– Mir Sahib, Cast – Prithviraj Kapoor , Sheela, Sadiq Ali, K. N. Singh, Meena, Shakir, Yakub, Jilloo, Vanmala, Sohrab Modi, Zahur Raja, Abu Baker

The epic, Sikandar ( 1941), directed and produced  by Sohrab Modi  remains till date one of the most lavishly mounted  Hindi films with  its sets and battle scenes competing in grandeur and sweep with the best of Hollywood epics like Ben Hur and Ten Commandments, which incidentally followed nearly two decades later. It was the third biggest hit of 1941, and 20^th biggest hit of the 40s. 

The majestic battle scenes were shot in open fields of Kolhapur with thousands of extras in costume. The deployment of tuskers, rows of cavalry and batteries of soldiers with spears, swords and shields, bows and arrows during the filming of the battle of Hydaspes makes you realize the width and depth of such a huge canvas and the strategy and discipline required especially when raging elephants stormed towards the camera!

The release of the film coincided with World War II at its peak and India following Gandhi’s call was grappling with Civil Disobedience. Sikandar further aroused patriotic feelings and national sentiment and though approved by the Bombay censor board, it was banned from theatres in army cantonments. The film was great at rousing patriotic fervour even after two decades when it was rereleased in Delhi during Goa’s liberation from the Portuguese in 1961.

Sikander dubbed in Persian version reached to huge audience with one of Prithviraj Kapoor’s best known roles, surpassed in popularity only by his role as Akbar in Mughal-e-Azam (1960). Rusi K Banker’s magnificent art design and backdrop settings, power-packed dialogues penned by Pandit Sudarshan, who also wrote the story and doubled up as the lyricist. The music was composed by maestros Meer Saheb and Rafiq Ghaznavi (grandfather of Salma Agha). Three of the seven songs in the film deserve mention- Menaka Bai’s Uth jag jawani aati hai, Sheela’s Jeete desh hamara and H Khan Mastana’s Zindagi hai pyaar se.

The leading lady of Sikandar Vanmala Devi or Vanmala (1915-2007) a double graduate, began her film career when she was already a teacher in Agarkar High School of Poona. She starred in several films produced and directed by Acharya Prahlad Keshav Atre – Payachi Dasi, Shyamchi Aai and Moruchi Mavshi. Shyamchi Aai (1953), was a film she produced besides being the female lead, and received the first ever Golden Lotus Award for Best Film at the National Film Awards in 1954. Vanmala had met Sohrab Modi at the premier of Marathi film Lapandav when he was was scouting for a new face for the lead role of Rukhsana in the film Sikandar. 

Sikandar’s tremendous success propelled Vanmala into stardom. But Vanmala’s foray into films was objected maximally by her father cutting off all ties with her and he barred her from coming to Gwalior. After Sikandar, Vanmala did about 22 Hindi films. Interestingly, late Shashi Kapoor’s first ever crush at six, was on Vanmala after he saw the first film of his life, Sikander (1941) in which she was the heroine. He would go on to ask her co-star, his father, for permission to marry her!

The film heavily inspired by Parsi theatre and the dramatic over the top dialogues for Prithviraj Kapoor and Sohrab Modi gave both future Dadasaheb Phalke awardees an opportunity to showcase their histrionic abilities blow for blow. The film was also the debut of Meena Shorey,who later became famous by her moniker the Lara Lappa girl. 

Modi besides working in the Parsi theatre, specialized in Shakespeare, and Prithviraj Kapoor had acted in Shakespearean touring companies. Both men had started their careers in silent cinema. Prithviraj remained primarily an actor, after Alam Ara (1931) he was in New Theatres before returning to Bombay to appear in films such as K. Asif’s Phool. 

Sohrab Modi, a Shakespearean actor, and his production company, Minerva Movie tone, gave epics like Pukar (1939), Prithvi vallabh (1941), Jhansi ki Rani (1953), and the biopic of the great Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib (1954). However, Sikandar is held to be his greatest film. Sohrab Modi according to his actress wife Mehtab rated Pukar amongst his best, in fact so famous was he for his dialogue delivery that when the couple would return from their trips abroad, the Customs Officers never touched their bags. They would make Mehtab and Sohrab Modi sit down and would start reciting the dialogues of Sohrab Modi’s films in front of the bemused thespian!

NEW DELHI : Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose politics of moderation in a hardline party propelled the BJP to power for the first time in the 1990s, died on Thursday after long illness.

The 93-year-old leader, who had faded from public life for more than a decade following health complications and was admitted to AIIMS with urinary tract infection on June 11, breathed his last at 5.05 p.m., the hospital said in a statement.

“It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

“Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support system. Despite the best of efforts, we have lost him today,” the statement said.

Vajpayee, a diabetic, was undergoing treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was said to be stable for the last nine weeks but his health suffered a setback on Sunday and worsened on Wednesday.

That things were getting worse could be gleaned from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made two visits to AIIMS in the last two days.

Rich tributes poured from across the political spectrum for Vajpayee who had the reputation of having no enemies in politics.

Modi described the passing away of Vajpayee as “the end of an era” and every Indian and the BJP worker would continue to be guided by his vision.

President Ram Nath Kovind said Vajpayee was a “true Indian statesman”.

“His leadership, foresight, maturity and eloquence put him in a league of his own.”

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said Vajpayee was loved and respected by millions. “Today, India lost a great son.”

Earlier, as news of deterioration of his health spread, national leaders, including Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, BJP brass — party President Amit Shah, veterans L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, cabinet ministers, chief ministers and opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee visited the hospital during the day.

The body was taken to Vajpayee’s house on Krishna Menon Marg in Lutyen’s Delhi for the public to pay last respects to the departed leader.

The former Prime Minister, whose birthday on December 25 is celebrated as Good Governance Day, was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 2014 at his home.

Vajpayee, whose more than six-year term was marked by peace initiative with Pakistan and the 1998 Pokhran nuclear test that invited US sanctions, was a bachelor and leaves behind a foster family.

Though his long-time associate L.K. Advani, credited for the rise of the BJP from the last 1980s on the Ayodhya temple issue with his hardline politics, it was Vajpayee’s moderate stance that took the party close to power.

He was the Prime Minister for 13 days in mid-1996 at the head of the first short-lived BJP government. He was forced to resign ahead of the confidence vote as he failed to muster the numbers.

However, Vajpayee again became the Prime Minister in March 1998 with improved numbers and new allies like the TDP, the AIADMK, the National Conference and the Samta Party.

But his government fell 13 months later on the floor of the Lok Sabha losing by one vote in the confidence motion after AIADMK headed by the late J.Jayalalithaa withdrew support to the BJP.

The BJP government headed by Vajpayee returned to power in 1999 and completed almost its full term till 2004 when the party lost in the polls called earlier than scheduled.

Vajpayee was known for his lavish praise of Indira Gandhi as Durga on India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war of Bangladesh independence.

He had a flair for foreign policy issues and the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao chose him to lead an Indian delegation to the UN Human Rights conference to counter Pakistan’s campaign for Kashmir. 

Vajpayee had a long association with the RSS and the Bhartiya Jana Sangh which merged to form the Janata Party in the post Emergency period when he was jailed along with numerous opposition leaders.

And in 1980, he, Advani, Joshi and other leaders founded the BJP of which he was the first President.

He was a man of moderation in a fraternity of jingoistic nationalists; a peace visionary in a region riven by religious animosity; and a man who believed in India’s destiny and was ready to fight for it.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (93), who died on Thursday, will go down in history as a person who tried to end years of hostility with Pakistan and put development on the front burner of the country’s political agenda. He was also the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete a full five-year term. 

Even though he lived the last 13 years of his life in virtual isolation, dogged by debilitating illnesses and bedridden, he has left an enduring legacy for the nation and the region where he was much loved and respected across the political spectrum and national boundaries, including in Pakistan. 

In the tumultuous period he presided over the destiny of the world’s largest democracy, Vajpayee stunned the world by making India a declared nuclear state and then almost went to war with Pakistan before making peace with it in the most dramatic fashion. In the process, his popularity came to match that of Indira Gandhi, a woman he admired for her guts even as he hated her politics. 

He also became the best-known national leader after Indira Gandhi and her father Jawaharlal Nehru.

After despairing for years that he would never become Prime Minister and was destined to remain an opposition leader all his life, he achieved his goal, but only for 13 days, from May 16-28, 1996, after his deputy, L.K. Advani, chose not to contest elections that year.

His second term came on March 19, 1998, and lasted 13 months, a period during which India stunned the world by undertaking a series of nuclear tests that invited global reproach and sanctions.

Although his tenure again proved short-lived, his and his government’s enhanced stature following the world-defying blasts enabled him to return as Prime Minister for the third time on October 13, 1999, a tenure that lasted a full five-year term. 

When finally he stepped down in May 2004, after an election that he was given to believe he would win, it marked the end of a long and eventful political career spanning six decades. 

Vajpayee had gone into these elections riding a personality cult that projected him as a man who had brought glory to the nation in unprecedented ways. The BJP’s election strategy rested on seeking a renewed mandate over three broad pillars of achievement that the government claimed — political stability in spite of the pulls and pressures of running a multi-party coalition; a “shining” economy that saw a dizzying 10.4 percent growth in the last quarter of the previous year; and peace with Pakistan that changed the way the two countries looked at each other for over 50 years.

The results of the elections could not have come as a greater shock to a man who was hailed for his achievements and who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 influential men of the decade. 

Success didn’t come easily to the charismatic politician, who was born on Christmas Day in 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, into a family of moderate means. His father was a school teacher and Vajpayee would later recall his early brush with poverty.

He did his Masters in Political Science, studying at the Victoria College in Gwalior and at the DAV College in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, where he first contested, and lost, elections. He began his professional career as a journalist, working with Rashtradharma, a Hindi monthly, Panchjanya, a Hindi weekly, and two Hindi dailies, Swadesh and Veer Arjun. By then he had firmly embraced the ideals of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

But even as he struggled to win electoral battles, his command over Hindi, the lingua franca of the North Indian masses, his conciliatory politics and his riveting oratory brought him into public limelight.

His first entry into Parliament was in 1962 through the Rajya Sabha, the upper house. It was only in 1971 that he won a Lok Sabha election. He was elected to the lower house seven times and to the Rajya Sabha twice.

Vajpayee spent months in prison when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency rule in June 1975 and put her political opponents in jail. When the Janata Party took office in 1977, dethroning the Congress for the first time, he became the foreign minister. 

The lowest point in his career came when he lost the 1984 Lok Sabha polls, that too from his birthplace Gwalior, after Rajiv Gandhi won an overwhelming majority following his mother Indira Gandhi’s assassination. And the BJP he led ended up with just two seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha, in what looked like the end of the road for the right-wing party. In no time, Vajpayee was replaced and “eclipsed” by his long-time friend L.K. Advani.

Although they were the best of friends publicly, Vajpayee never fully agreed with Advani’s and the assorted Hindu nationalist groups’ strident advocacy of Hindutva, an ideology ranged against the idea of secular India. Often described as the right man in the wrong party, there were also those who belittled him as a moderate “mask” to a hardline Hindu nationalist ideology. Often he found his convictions and value systems at odds with the party, but the bachelor-politician never went against it.

It was precisely this persona of Vajpayee — one merged in Hindutva ideology yet seemingly not wholly willing to bow to it — that won him admirers cutting across the political spectrum. It was this trait that made him the Prime Minister when the BJP’s allies concluded they needed a moderate to steer a hardliner, pro-Hindu party.

He brought into governance measures that created for India a distinct international status on the diplomatic and economic fronts. In his third prime ministerial stint, Vajpayee launched a widely acclaimed diplomatic initiative by starting a bus service between New Delhi and Pakistan’s Lahore city. 

Its inaugural run in February 1999 carried Vajpayee and was welcomed on the border by his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif. It was suspended only after the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament that nearly led to a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The freeze between the two countries, including an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation on the border for nearly a year, was finally cracked in the spring of 2003 when Vajpayee, while in Kashmir, extended a “hand of friendship” to Pakistan. That led to the historic summit in January 2004 with then President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad — a remarkable U-turn after the failed summit in Agra of 2001. Despite the two men being so far apart in every way, Musharraf developed a strong liking for the Indian leader.

His unfinished task, one that he would probably rue, would be the peace process with Pakistan that he had vowed to pursue to its logical conclusion and a resolution of the Kashmir dispute. 

He was not known as “Atal-Ji”, a name that translates into firmness, for nothing. He could go against the grain of his party if he saw it deviate from its path. When Hindu hardliners celebrated the destruction of the 16th century Babri Mosque at Ayodhya, he was full of personal remorse for the apocalyptic action and called it — in a landmark interview to IANS — the “worst miscalculation” and a “misadventure”. He even despaired that “moderates have no place — who is going to listen to the voice of sanity?”

In his full five-year term, he successively carried forward India’s economic reforms programme with initiatives to improve infrastructure, including flagging off a massive national highway project that has become associated with his vision, went for massive privatisation of unviable state undertakings despite opposition from even within his own party.

While his personal image remained unsullied despite his long innings in the murky politics of this country, his judgment was found wanting when his government was rocked by an arms bribery scandal that sought to expose alleged payoffs to some senior members of his cabinet. His failure to speak up when members of his party and its sister organisations, who are accused of killing more than 1,000 Muslims in Gujarat, was questioned by the liberal fraternity who wondered aloud about his secular proclamations. He wanted then Chief Minister — now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi — to take responsibility for the riots and quit but was prevailed upon by others not to press his decision. 

A day before his party lost power, Vajpayee was quoted as saying in a television interview that if and when he stepped down he would like to devote his time to writing and poetry. But fate ruled otherwise. The man who once rued that “I have waited too long to be Prime Minister” found his last days in a world far removed from the adulation and attention — though across the nation people prayed for his well-being — surrounded only by care-givers and close family whom he even failed to recognise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the country was on a new trajectory of growth due to initiatives in the last four years of his government and asserted that he was impatient to take the country ahead of many others in the world.

Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 72nd Independence Day, he took a dig at the previous UPA rule, saying if his government had continued with the same pace of development, the country would have taken decades to reach where it was today.

“Yes, I am impatient because many of the countries have moved forward. We have to move forward too. Malnutrition is a big problem in the country’s development. I am anxious to eradicate it.

“I am impatient to provide health cover to every poor person so that they can fight diseases. I am anxious to provide quality life to all citizens. I am eager because we have to lead knowledge-based fourth industrial revolution. I am eager because I want that the country uses its resources and potential,” he said.

Promising sanitation, housing, electricity, water, LPG, skills, health insurance and connectivity for all, Modi said towards the end of the speech that he wanted to create a new India for a better future.

“We have to make a new sunrise and take the country ahead of the skies and create a new India. We want to move ahead with the dream of reaching the crescendo of development. We want to progress more. There is no question of stopping or getting tired on the way,” he said.

The Prime Minister said India was earlier seen among the fragile five nations but now it had turned itself into a “land of reform, perform and transform”.

“We are all set for record economic growth. India’s voice is being heard effectively at the world stage. We are integral part of forums whose doors were earlier closed for us,” he said.

“The demand for higher MSP (minimum support price for farmers) was pending for years. From farmers to political parties to agriculture experts, everybody was asking about it but nothing happened. The decision was taken by our government to provide the MSP of 1.5 times of production cost.”

He said the armed forces veterans were demanding one rank, one pension but no one listened to them before the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.

He talked about the Goods and Services Tax (GST), saying it had given new confidence to small and big traders who “wholeheartedly embraced” the new tax regime despite “initial problems”. 

“Who did not want the passage of the GST? Yet, it was pending for years. Last year it became a reality. The OROP demand was pending for decades. The people of India, our brave Army personnel had faith in us and we were able to take a decision on OROP.”

Drawing a parallel between the pace of works during UPA and the NDA governments, he said: “If we had continued at the same pace at which toilets were being built in 2013, the pace at which electrification was happening, LPG gas cylinders were being distributed and optical fibres were being laid in 2013, then it would have taken us decades to complete them.

“The country is now feeling the change. As a result, we are making highways with a double speed, houses are being made in villages with four times more pace, there is record production, we are manufacturing record mobiles. Today we are buying more aeroplanes.

“It is the same land, same sky, sea, government offices and the country. But in the last four years, India has moved with a new zeal and therefore today India is constructing twice the highways and producing record crops.”

Cyber security experts on Tuesday questioned the preparedness of the Indian banks in case of a massive security breach involving funds, stressing that state-of-the-art security systems are the need of the hour.

Hackers siphoned off a whopping Rs 94.42 crore from the Pune-headquartered Cosmos Cooperative Bank Ltd — the second oldest and second biggest cooperative bank in India — to foreign and domestic bank accounts.

According to Nikhil Bedi, Partner, Deloitte India, robust security systems and incidence response capabilities are imperative for all companies and financial institutions that are custodians of customer data and customer assets, including funds. 

“While there is growing awareness to regularly update an organisation’s cyber preparedness and defence mechanisms, a large number of institutions wake up to this reality only post an incident which often leads to a loss of reputation and/or financial misappropriation,” Bedi said in a statement.

In 2016, a malware-related security breach was reportedly detected in the non-SBI ATM network, following which the public sector lender blocked around six lakh debit cards.

An estimated 30 lakh-plus debit cards issued by various public or private banks were exposed to a potential risk of data breach.

Cyber attacks today are multi-pronged and can start with a malware being downloaded into a system or via a web application being hacked. 

“This is a big challenge specially for banks, where it is no longer sufficient to protect just your data centres and your headquarters, you have to protect ATMs and branch offices in addition to securing incoming data even from affiliated organisations,” cautioned Anshuman Singh, Senior Director, Product Management at Barracuda Networks Inc. 

US-based Barracuda Networks is a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions.

In the case of Cosmos Bank, a proxy switch was created and all the fraudulent payment approvals were passed through the proxy switching system. Normally, the Core Banking System (CBS) receives debit card payment requests via its “Switching System”.

According to bank officials, the malware attack was on the Switch System which is operative for the payment gateway of Visa/Rupay debit cards and not on the Cosmos Bank’s CBS so the customers’ accounts and their balances were not affected.

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) domain remains most vulnerable to cyber threats.

“Regulators need to develop a risk management framework, including adequate threat response strategies and define the chain of command in case of a security breach,” said Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer at Pune-based Quick Heal Technologies Limited.

“Hiring chief information security officers must be made mandatory for players in the BFSI domain. The sector should also run regular security protocols and simulations to test their incident response capabilities,” Katkar.

State-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will fly an Indian astronaut into space for the first time by 2022, an official said on Wednesday.

“All the critical technologies for the human space mission are being developed. We will pursue it to put an Indian astronaut in space by 2022,” a senior ISRO official told IANS, citing the space agency Chairman K.Sivan’s statement.

Addressing the nation on the occasion of Independence Day earlier in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that an Indian would be sent to space by 2022.

So far, only the US, Russia and China have launched human spaceflights.

ISRO Chairman Sivan earlier said a mission document for India’s human space programme was in the making.

“Critical technologies are being developed for our human space programme, as it is India’s dream to put a man in space. A mission document is in the making,” Sivan had said on July 7 at an event here.

The space agency on July 5 carried out a successful maiden pad abort tests at its spaceport Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh for the safe escape of the crew in an emergency.

“The technology is very essential for our manned missions in the future,” Sivan had said.

The crew escape system is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.

The ISRO Chairman, however, admitted that the space agency was “not close” to a human spaceflight yet.

“We are not close to that. We need to work a lot towards achieving the dream of putting a man in space,” Sivan added.

NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court will hear on August 20 a plea by a group of serving Army officers against the dilution of AFSPA that gives immunity to military personnel from prosecution for actions in disturbed and insurgency-hit areas.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra agreed to hear the plea after advocate Aishwarya Bhati sought an early hearing.

The petitioners have sought specific guidelines to protect military personnel from criminal proceedings for bona-fide actions done in the discharge of official duties in areas infested with insurgents and witnessing proxy wars against India.

The petitioners range from Section Commanders to Commanding Officers who lead section, platoon, company, battalion made of 10 to 1,000 men each.

They contended that the protection provided by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) does not confer any special right to a soldier for himself, but facilitates his functioning and operations in extraordinary circumstances of proxy war, insurgency, armed hostility, ambushes, and covert and overt operations.

Drawing a distinction between routine policing and military operations in disturbed areas, they contended that absolute protection for bona-fide actions of soldiers in extraordinary situations is imperative to enable them to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently.

This protection from criminal prosecution for bona-fide actions of a soldier in the course of military operations in disturbed areas, the petition says, is sine qua non for the protection of the country’s sovereignty and integrity.

The officers sought a court direction that “protection of persons acting in good faith under the AFSPA is sacrosanct with the sovereignty and integrity of the nation” and that “no prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central government….”

They further averred that it was the Army alone which is familiar with the dynamics of these operations, and was capable of probing into allegation of criminality, misuse, abuse, or of excessive use of power by men in uniform.

“Civil police or even the Central Bureau of Investigation can’t even be expected to be in the know of complete picture,” they claimed.

The petition by Col Amit Kumar and others is rooted in a spate of complaints and FIRs against military personnel deployed in disturbed areas of the northeast and trouble- torn Jammu and Kashmir and the same being entertained by courts.

In a virtual election speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday projected himself as an impatient agent of change against the backdrop of “docile and inefficient” governance during the Congress-led UPA rule and promised housing, power, water, sanitation and healthcare for all in his mission to take the country to new heights.

He also announced that the ambitious Prime Minister’s Jan Aarogya Abhiyan (PMJAA), dubbed “Modicare”, for health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh each to 10 crore families will be launched on September 25 on the 102nd birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP’s predecessor.

Making his last Independence Day address to the nation ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modi said there was “senseless” criticism against him but asserted he was impatient and restless to take the country ahead of many others which had overtaken India. 

And breaking his silence in the context of recent cases of rape and sexual exploitation in welfare homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Modi said there was a need to attack such a mindset by putting the fear of the law that had been made stringent. He said law was supreme and no one could take it into their hands. 

Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Modi repeated the lines from his last year’s August 15 speech that the Kashmir problem can be resolved only by embracing its people, not with bullets or abuses. He recalled former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s line `Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat, Insaniyat’ (eclectic Kahmiri culture, democracy and humaneness) and said this was the only way forward.

Reaffirming his mantra of “sabka saath, sabka vikas” (take everyone along, development for all), the Prime Minister said there would be no discrimination against any section and there would be no nepotism and favouritism.

“I want to reiterate my pledges – housing for all, power for all, cooking (gas) for all, water for all, sanitation for all, skills for all, insurance for all, connectivity for all. We want to go ahead with these programmes.

“People make senseless criticism against me. But whatever may be said, I want to publicly acknowledge that I am restless because several countries have marched ahead and I want to take the country ahead of them. I am impatient because children are still suffering from malnutrition. I am eager to provide quality of life and ease of living to country men. I am impatient to provide health cover to each of the poor so that they can fight against diseases. I am eager because we have to lead knowledge-based fourth industrial revolution,” he said.

Modi turned poetic before winding up his nearly 80-minute speech, saying that the country’s fortunes were being transformed.

“We have to make a new dawn and create a new India. We want to move ahead with the dream of reaching the crescendo of development.”

Attacking the Congress but not by name, he said if comparison was made of the speed of governance in the last four years, people would be surprised.

“If toilets were built at the speed of 2013, several decades would have gone to reach the present stage. Rural electrification would have taken two decades. Taking LPG connection to poor women would have taken 100 years. Generations would have gone to take optical fibre to its present levels. There are a lot of expectations, a lot of needs. The country is feeling a change in the last four years. There is new awareness, new enthusiasm.”

He said four times more rural houses had been built, there was a record number of mobile manufacturers, record number of aeroplanes had been procured and record number of tractors sold. 

“The demand for higher MSP (minimum support price) for farmers was pending for years. From farmers to political parties to agriculture experts, everybody was asking about it but nothing happened. The decision was taken by our government to provide the MSP of 1.5 times of production cost.”

Modi said the Army, which reaches out to people in case of natural calamities, also conducts surgical strikes to give a befitting replies to its enemies, an apparent reference to the surgical strike conducted on terror launch pads across Line of Control in 2016. 

In a strong election pitch, Modi reached out to Dalits, poor, youth, farmers, women, fishermen, security forces, middle class and upper middle class by referring to the work done by his government and his endeavour to improve their lives.

Modi also attacked the opposition over the non-passage of triple talaq bill in the just-concluded monsoon session of Parliament and promised to do justice to Muslim women by getting it passed early. 

Alleging that the previous governments had allowed a climate of corruption to thrive, the Prime Minister said his government had eliminated power brokers from Delhi and plugged loopholes in various schemes like Public Distribution System that had led to savings of Rs 90,000 crore. “The corrupt will not be forgiven.”

The measures initiated by the government had also led to near doubling of direct tax assesses from nearly four crore to 6.75 crore and indirect tax assesses from 75 lakh to 1.16 crore on account of introduction of GST apart from barring over three lakh suspicious companies in the anti-black money drive. 

He announced that India would launch a manned mission in space by 2022 — it could be a man or woman — and a satellite dedicated to help fishermen.

The Prime Minister said India was earlier seen among the fragile five nations because of policy paralysis but now it had turned itself into a “land of reform, perform and transform”.

“We are all set for record economic growth. India’s voice is being heard effectively at the world stage. We are integral parts of forums whose doors were earlier closed for us.”

NEW DELHI : Asserting that India was at the cusp of achieving many of its long-awaited goals, President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday said “contentious issues and extraneous debates” should not distract the people.

In his address to the nation on the eve of 72nd Independence Day, he referred to various issues and said these may have held true 10 or 20 years ago or even earlier to some extent but “even so we are at a juncture in our history that is different from any period that we have so far experienced”. 

“We are at the cusp of achieving many of our long-awaited goals. Universal access to electricity, the elimination of open defecation, the elimination of homelessness, the very elimination of extreme poverty is achievable and attainable. We are at a pivotal moment. Let contentious issues and extraneous debates not distract us,” he said.

Kovind said if freedom was defined in narrow political terms, then August 15, 1947 marks a closure. 

“But freedom is a broader concept. It is not fixed and finite. Freedom is a constant and relentless endeavour. Even decades after 1947, each one of us can contribute in the manner of a freedom fighter. We can do so if we expand the frontiers of freedom and of opportunity for our fellow Indians and our beloved India.”

Referring to the resolve of various sections in nation building, the President said that the reality was that every Indian who does his or her job with sincerity and commitment, who contributes to society by being true to a professional ethic, be it the doctor’s ethic, the nurse’s ethic, the teacher’s ethic, the public servant’s ethic, the factory worker’s ethic, the business person’s ethic, the ethic of those who have to care for ageing parents – each of these and many others are in their own way upholding the values of freedom. 

“They are providing the fruits and goods and services of freedom to fellow citizens. Every citizen of India who does his or her duty sincerely, fulfils a personal and professional obligation and keeps to a given word is, at a fundamental level, upholding the principles of our freedom struggle,” he said. 

“I would argue that every Indian who does not jump the queue and respects the civic space and rights of those ahead in the line also lives up to the principles of our freedom struggle. It’s a very small gesture. Let us try and abide by it.” 

Kovind said the freedom that came at midnight on August 14-15, 1947 was the result of years and decades and centuries of sacrifice and valour on the part of India’s ancestors and freedom fighters. 

“They could easily have compromised and settled for some personal benefit, but they did not. Their commitment to India – to a free, sovereign, plural and egalitarian India – was absolute. It was my privilege to honour these freedom fighters on the anniversary of ‘Quit India Day’ on August 9 in Rashtrapati Bhavan.”

The President said after four years India would be marking the 75th anniversary of Independence and in less than 30 years the people would celebrate the 100th anniversary of India as a free nation. 

“The decisions we take today, the foundations we lay today, the projects we undertake today, the social and economic investments we make today – whether for the immediate future or for the medium term – will determine where we stand. The pace of change and development in our country is rapid and appreciable. And as per our civilisational traditions, it is driven by our people, by civil society and by a partnership between citizen and government. Its focus, again in keeping with the essence of Indian thought, is on a better life for the less fortunate,” he said. 

He also referred to the beginning of commemoration of the 150th birthday on Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 and said Gandhi did not just lead India’s freedom struggle. 

“He was and still is our moral compass. In my capacity as the President of India, I have been fortunate to have travelled around the world, particularly to a few countries of Africa. Everywhere, across continents, Gandhiji is mentioned, cherished and remembered as an icon for all humanity. He is the embodiment of India,” he said.

Recalling Gandhi’s cleanliness campaign along with his wife Kasturba in Bihar’s Champaran even in the middle of struggle for freedom, the President quoted him as saying: “Struggle was not just for political power but for empowering the poorest of the poor, educating the uneducated and ensuring the right to a dignified life.”

He also referred to Gandhi’s principle of non-violence and said each Indian should adopt his ideas and maxims in everyday work and conduct.

“Together we can eliminate, illiteracy and inequality. We can and we must do this together. The government has a leading role but not the sole role. Let us use the government’s programmes and projects to further our own efforts. Let us make that sense of ownership our motivation,” the President said.

It is often said Chhattisgarh lives in two eras—modern and traditional. The North and the South of the State are dominated by indigenous groups who preserve their culture fiercely, and the fast developing Central plains. 

To give a glimpse into lives of the tribal communities of Bastar, Southern part of the State, and Surguja, the northern part, the Chhattisgarh government has created an open air museum in the heart of Naya Raipur.  

Purkhauti Muktangan, a creation of artisans portraying the cultural heritage of Chhattisgarh, has become a centre of attraction for the locals, particularly the youth, with hundreds visiting the place every day. 

Visitors are greeted to a huge entrance Singh Dewdi—a replica of the Jagdalpur palace– leading to Maria Path depicting the rich tribal art and culture. There is an ornamental Chhattisgarh Park and an entertainment park dotted with statues of freedom fighters.

Once completed, the museum will have two distinct parts depicting the rich richness of Bastar and Surguja regions. Purkhauti also has space for a workshop for demonstrations of living traditional knowledge system of the State.

The exhibits created so far include a traditional dwelling of Rajwar community of Surguja with clay walls painted in bright colours.  The boundary wall of the museum depicts local and traditional myths. 

“We are in the process of developing Aamcho Bastar (Our Bastar) to showcase the cultural heritage of tribal communities. Aamcho Bastar is being developed to display the glimpses from the life-style of the tribes of Bastar– the region known for its indigenous groups people and culture, not just only in India, but also throughout the world,’’ says Ms  Niharika Barik Singh, Secretary, Department of Culture. 

Till a few years back, Bastar district was larger than Kerala in area, but now it has been divided into seven administrative districts — Bastar, North Bastar (Kanker), Kondagaon, Sukma, Bijapur, South Bastar (Dantewada) and Narnyanpur. This division has been done more for better administration, otherwise as far as the cultural spectrum is concerned, Bastar still remains a singular cultural region. 

Aamcho Bastar is being developed with the co-curation of the tribal and folk artisans of region. In the first phase, nearly one and a half dozen exhibits have been created including those of archaeological importance. Traditional tribal dwellings, youth houses, and tribal shrines exhibiting the traditional and cultural patterns of the folk and tribal communities of Bastar give a real life experience of the tribal living. 

The world’s longest celebrations of Bastar Dussehra – spread over 75 days–has also been created, with the area landscaped by baked clay tiles made by the traditional potters of the region.

“We want to develop Muktangan as an important tourist destination in the coming years,’’ Ms Singh says adding that this would not only help to keep the tribal art and craft alive but also promote it. 

All the exhibits put up at the museum have been prepared on the basis of the myths, epics, traditional folk-history and knowledge-system as known and expressed by the respective folk and tribal artisans who have created these. 

Of particular interest at the museum are Ghotul – Maria youth house—where young girls and boys informally received knowledge on economic, social and cultural life. This is particularly common among the Maria tribes in Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts of Bastar region. Ghotul is also used as a place for night stay. 

The Ghotul has also promoted the artistic creativity of the Maria artists and artisans. There are two rooms and one veranda in this structure, which is made of wooden pillars. The roof is of the clay tiles. Gedi dance stilts and musical instruments used by the inmates have also been displayed at their respective places.

The Bastar Dussehra festival is one of the finest examples of the mutual affection and collaboration between the king of Bastar and his subjects. The kings have attached the local people from various parts belonging to different social communities of this area with this festival, basically a ritual devoted to the Bastar royal family’s deity, Danteshwari. 

This festival is believed to be festival running for 75 days –longest duration anywhere known in the world. This festival is not only famous as a festival of the king, but also as the festival of entire Bastar region. Various rituals of Bastar Dashahara have been displayed at the museum by artisans from Kondagaon as per the folk beliefs and myths known to them, and to their other community members. 

The annual budget for the years 2015-16 & 2016-17 was Rs. 3.25 crore that was increased to Rs 5.10 crore in the current financial year. 

The Department of Culture is now focussing on the northern part of Chhattisgarh known as a Surguja region. Surguja has five districts — Surguja, Koria, Balrampur, Surajpur and Jashpur. These districts are famous for their tribal culture, heritage, forests, high lands and various festivals. The replica and models are prepared by the artisans from these regions which ensures that the money goes to them. 

Uraon, Pando, Korwa, Kudukh, Majhwar, Birhora are some of the primitive tribe of Surguja. They live in the forest and high land villages of the district. Rajwar and Kanwar are famous for their terracotta craft. 

They decorate their houses with different kind of terracotta work such as decorated frame work and terracotta figurine of animal and birds in their residents.