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REGIONAL BRIEFS
THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
N A T I O N
CM vows to stall AP bifurcation
Hyderabad, December 19
Refuting allegations that he was tacitly toeing the Congress high command's line on the state bifurcation issue, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today asserted he would continue his fight till the division process was stopped.
Telangana MLAs evicted by marshals from AP House
House marshals evicted about 40 MLAs from the Telangana region belonging to the Telugu Desam, Telangana Rashtra Samiti and BJP from the Andhra Pradesh Assembly tonight and drove them off to their respective party offices.
At IB lecture, President 'deviates' to praise Anna
New Delhi, December 19
President Pranab Mukherjee today made a 'diversion' from his lecture and talked about Anna Hazare's movement and mentioned how it has opened new dimensions in the democratic structure.
President Pranab Mukherjee at the 26th Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI
Widow's remarriage no ground to deny relief: HC
Mumbai, December 19
The Bombay High Court has held that remarriage of a widow would not deprive her from getting compensation for accidental death of her first husband. The ruling was delivered by a Bench headed by Justice Dharmadhikari recently.
EARLIER STORIES
Chin up, PM, Sonia tell party activists
No violation of diplomatic immunity, claims US
Uproar in AP House over Telangana Bill
Prez rule likely in Delhi as political deadlock continues
Draft Lokpal Bill in RS welcome, says Anna Hazare
Anna-AAP differences come into the open
Congress set to offer unconditional outside support to Kejriwal's party
No threat to govt, we have the numbers: Kamal Nath
No-trust move by own MPs embarrasses Congress
Furore in Parliament over JPC report on 2G allocations
BJP survives 'broom' attack, Cong swept under carpet
AAP to get more time to form govt: Shinde
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said the government was ready to give some more days to Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Admi Party (AAP) to explore the possibility of forming a government in Delhi where political uncertainty continues after the recent Assembly elections failed to give a clear verdict to any political party.
ganguly case
Govt may make Presidential Reference
The government today appeared to be moving towards making a Presidential Reference for removal of Justice AK Ganguly as chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission. The Law Ministry and the Home Ministry are learnt to be in agreement that prima facie a case can be made out against the former Supreme Court judge, sources said here. The matter has now been referred to Attorney General GE Vahanvati to work out legal details.
Diplomat's father threatens fast
The father of Devyani Khobragade today threatened to launch a fast if "fabricated" charges of visa fraud against his diplomat daughter were not dropped and her honour restored even as he dubbed as "blatant" attack on Indian judiciary US attorney Preet Bharara's remarks after the incident. Uttam Khobragade, a retired IAS officer, said the arrest of his daughter was part of a conspiracy and asserted no fraud was committed by Devyani and no false information tendered by her regarding the salary to be paid to her missing housemaid Sangeeta Richard.
Religious leaders hail SC verdict on Article 377
Religious leaders today welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on Article 377 of the Constitution saying it was in line with the tradition of the country, moral values and religious teachings. They said Article 377 has rightly described homosexuality as a punishable offence because it not only prevents evolution and progress of human race but also destroys family system and social relations.
LGBT people and supporters protest against the Supreme Court's recent verdict on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, in Kolkata on Thursday. PTI
5 months on, 2 Indian sailors jailed in Togo freed
Sunil James, a merchant navy Captain who had been languishing in a jail in Togo, western Africa, for five months has been released, the government said today. He is expected to be in India latest by tomorrow. Another sailor who had been imprisoned along with Captain James, Vijayan, has been released too."Sailors from India -- Capt Sunil James and Vijayan -- have been released from detention in Togo. Will leave for home later today," MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.
Sunil James' wife Aditi and mother in Mumbai on Thursday. PTI
Tejas set to get clearance for IAF induction today
Bangalore, December 19
The stage is set for the indigenous fighter-bomber LCA (light combat aircraft) Tejas being accorded the initial operational clearance (IOC) on December 20 paving the way for its induction into the IAF. K Tamilmani, chief executive, CEMILAC (Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification), will hand over the "Release to Service Document" of Tejas to Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne in a function to be held at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport here.
Narayan Sai in 14-day judicial custody
Surat, December 19 Self-styled godman Asaram's son Narayan Sai was today remanded in 14-day judicial custody by a local court in a rape case filed against him by one of the two Surat-based sisters.
CD case: 2 more officials quizzed
Dehradun, December 19
Two more secretariat officials were questioned by the police for their alleged involvement in blackmailing suspended Additional Secretary JP Joshi and conspiring against him.
College students create a portrait of Nelson Mandela out of Rubik's cubes in Mumbai on Thursday. PTI
40 inmates flee juvenile home
Lucknow, December 19
At least 40 inmates of Meerut's Juvenile Justice (JJ) Home escaped last night after snatching keys from the lone home guard on duty. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered by the district administration.
Cabinet panel approves Rs 6,600-cr interest-free loan for sugar mills
The government today decided to provide interest-free loans of Rs 6,600 crore to cash-starved sugar mills to make payments to cane farmers. The entire interest burden, estimated at Rs 2,750 crore over the next five years, will be borne by the government, according to sources.
SBI cuts home loan rates by up to 0.4%
The SBI, country's largest bank, today cut home loan rates by up to 0.4% for new borrowers, a day after RBI kept its key policy rates on hold. Women borrowers would get an additional 0.05% concession on card rates.
BJP turns focus on UP, Maharashtra, K'taka
With three out of the five states clearly going its way in the just concluded Assembly elections, the BJP is now turning attention toward the states still below the mark but crucial for helping it cross the 200 mark in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Cold relents, fog continues to trouble North India
Minimum temperatures registered a dip, bringing slight respite from mounting cold in north India where dense fog continued to throw normal life out of gear, hitting air and rail traffic. Delhi witnessed a marginal rise in the minimum, which stood three degrees above normal at 10.8°Celsius.
Gujarat snooping: Govt may order probe
A commission of inquiry may be ordered by the Centre into the alleged "snooping" on a woman in Gujarat allegedly at the behest of Amit Shah, a close aide of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Production warrant against Irom Sharmila
A Delhi court today issued production warrant for January 30 against rights activist Irom Sharmila after she failed to turn up in a case lodged against her for allegedly attempting suicide during her fast-unto- death here in 2006.
Pinaka rockets test-fired
Balasore (Odisha), Dec 19
India's indigenously developed Pinaka rockets were successfully test-fired from a multi-barrel rocket launcher from a base at Chandipur-on-sea near here today.
Indian, Afghan forces train for counter-terror ops
To strengthen its military ties with Afghanistan, India is now conducting a joint training between the Special Forces of the Indian Army and Afghan National Army at Jodhpur.
26/11: Briton wins right to sue Taj hotel
London, December 19
A British man paralysed during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks today won his claim to sue the owners of Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in a British court of law. Tata Group firm Indian Hotel Company Limited had argued that Will Pike's negligence claim should be heard in India but a High Court judge here accepted his argument that taking the case through Indian courts could run into years.
"I am committed to what I said earlier...that I will try to stop the (bifurcation) cyclone. I am a warrior and will continue the fight till the end," he told reporters during an informal chat on the Assembly premises this afternoon.
Reddy's assertion comes even as the Assembly gets ready to debate the draft AP Reorganisation Bill, 2013 that provides for creation of a new state of Telangana. Frequent adjournments and pandemonium are holding up the debate.
"I did not attend the House on Monday (when the draft Bill was tabled) only because I was unwell," he said, refuting allegations from various quarters that he deliberately skipped the session despite vowing to stall the legislation.
Using cricketing analogy, the Chief Minister, who once played for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, said the "last ball" over the bifurcation was not bowled yet.
"It is for the AP Legislative Council and Assembly to decide whether the state should remain united or be separated. The Centre should go ahead with the division process only as per the Constitution.
"In the bifurcation of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the (respective) Assemblies passed resolutions based on which the Centre carried out the division," he pointed out.
The Chief Minister said a debate was yet to start in the Assembly over the Bill sent by the Centre. "Only the Bill has been tabled in the House...debate has not started."
Members on both sides (Telangana and Seemandhra) should express their views on the draft Bill keeping in mind sentiments of the people of the respective regions, he said.
On the objections raised by Seemandhra legislators on the "lacunae" in the Bill, Reddy said the state government would write a letter to the Centre seeking information on certain aspects of the proposed legislation. — PTI
The MLAs had been sitting near the Speaker's podium in the House since afternoon, in protest against the manner in which the Assembly was adjourned till January 3 without taking up a debate on the draft AP Reorganisation Bill-2013 referred by the President.
As the legislators vowed to stay put through the night, the marshals evicted them on the instruction of the Speaker, Legislature sources said.
The Assembly was today adjourned till January 3 without taking up the crucial debate on the draft Bill.
President Pranab Mukherjee has given time till January 23 to the AP legislature to express its view on the state bifurcation and return the Bill.
The session will now be held in two phases —between January 3 and 10 and 16 to 23 — to discuss the draft Bill.
The Seemaandhra faction of the ruling Congress has said it would request the President to extend time beyond January 23, as every legislator has to express his/her views.
The Seemaandhra Congress legislators said they would meet the President during his southern sojourn here and present their case against the division of the state. — PTI
He was candid in admitting that these dimensions cannot be brushed under the carpet. Yesterday, the Parliament had passed the Lokpal Bill. Mukherjee made extempore remarks during the annual endowment lecture of the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi.
The President said, "Just 10 years ago, nobody could think of social activists and non-governmental organisations not only demanding a particular piece of legislation to protect the interests of the people, but also insist that you have to adopt this model, this structure."
The President, who has been the Finance, Defence and External Affairs Minister at various points in time in his long political career, said this in an apparent reference to the adoption of the Lokpal Bill for which a spirited campaign was mounted by Hazare over the past two years.
The President recalled that two years ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked him to head a Group of Ministers to have negotiations with the anti-corruption campaigner. He recalled that at that time he had gone on a trip to Vietnam.
"On being asked how he would respond to the movement, he had said: It is opening new dimensions in our democratic structure which we shall have to address," the President recalled.
He said that earlier it was thought that democracy meant people would choose their elected representatives who would make legislations for them and govern them. At the end of that stipulated period, "we shall have an account from them if we have been successful or not".
Speaking on the occasion, the President said that challenges to our security could come from many sources. "We have to fight against terrorism that receives support from outside our country. Both state and non-state actors inimical to the nation are continuously engaged in efforts to destabilise India."
He termed Left-wing extremism as a serious threat to social peace. The rapid change in technology has also resulted in new threats. The misuse of the social media was now a weapon that terrorists across the world and anti-nationals were employing with greater sophistication, he said. This has to be combated by adopting superior tactics and technology.
He said, "As new challenges emerge, we would also need to upgrade our skills and technological capabilities. For the security personnel to effectively counter these threats, timely and reliable intelligence is of utmost value".
"The law postulates grant of just compensation to the claimants. That she was married to deceased and had given birth to a daughter is undisputed. That she has lost company of her husband and will have to take care of her child even after remarriage ought to have, therefore, weighed with the tribunal while awarding compensation," the bench observed.
A tribunal had refused compensation to the wife on the ground that she had remarried, although it awarded the same to the victim's child.
Sandeep Purandare, a city resident working with L&T was killed on July 5, 2007, when a dumper truck hit his motorcycle on Western Express Highway near suburban Andheri.
The Accidents Tribunal awarded his family compensation of Rs 30 lakhs.
But on an appeal, the high court increased this amount to Rs 66.98 lakh along with interest observing that calculations were not proper and rise in income, if the deceased was alive, was not taken into account. The high court also ordered that the family be paid Rs 30,000 towards litigation costs.
The high court further ordered 20 per cent of the compensation amount of Rs 67 lakh should be paid to deceased's wife and 60 per cent to his 11-year-old daughter. The remaining 20 per cent was awarded to deceased's mother.
The court gave substantial share of compensation to the child as it felt that she will require this amount for education, day-to-day maintenance and marriage.
The bench ordered that this amount may be kept in a fixed deposit in a nationalised bank. — PTI
* Sandeep Purandare, working with L&T, was killed in an accident near suburban Andheri in Mumbai
* A tribunal had refused compensation to his wife on the ground that she had remarried, although it awarded the same to the victim's child
* The court gave substantial share of compensation to the child as it felt that she will require this amount for education, day-to-day maintenance and marriage.
Shinde said the Centre had asked Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung as to how much time the AAP had sought for the government formation in Delhi. "We will give some more days (to AAP) for government formation in Delhi. This is a democratic process," the Home Minister told reporters today.
Shinde indicated that the Central government was not in a hurry to impose President's rule in Delhi. It was ready to wait for some more days. With 28 MLAs in its kitty, AAP had announced its decision on form the government after eliciting views from people. The Congress with eight MLAs has offered outside support to AAP.
When it met the Lieutenant Governor on December 15, AAP had sought 10 days to arrive at a decision.
AAP had set 18 conditions for the Congress and the BJP before it could decide on taking their support to form a government. The Congress had put the ball in AAP's court, saying 16 of its 18 demands needed administrative decisions and had nothing to do with Parliament or Assembly.
'Govt ready to wait'
* Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the government was not in a hurry to impose President's Rule in Delhi
* AAP had announced its decision to form the government after seeking views from the people
* The Congress with eight MLAs has offered outside support to AAP
The government today appeared to be moving towards making a Presidential Reference for removal of Justice AK Ganguly as chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission.
The Law Ministry and the Home Ministry are learnt to be in agreement that prima facie a case can be made out against the former Supreme Court judge, sources said here.
The matter has now been referred to Attorney General GE Vahanvati to work out legal details.
The procedure of referring the matter to a senior law officer ensures that the case presented in the Presidential Reference is watertight to withstand the scrutiny of the apex court.
The Home Ministry had recently referred the matter to the Law Ministry.
The move came after President Pranab Mukherjee referred to the Home Ministry a letter by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking Ganguly's removal from the post following a woman law intern's allegation of sexual harassment against the former judge. Justice Ganguly has strongly denied the charge and refused to quit his post.
The Presidential Reference to be made to the apex court will first be cleared by the Union Cabinet before it is sent to the President.
The Protection of Human Rights Act is clear that a Chairperson or member of the NHRC or a state human rights commission can only be removed "by order of the President of India on the grounds of proven misbehaviour or incapacity after the Supreme Court, on reference being made to it by the President, has, on enquiry... reported that the Chairperson or the member, as the case may be, ought on any such ground to be removed."
"Papers have come to us. I can say as of now that we have sent to legal department and then after obtaining their opinion, we will go ahead," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told mediapersons here earlier today.
The chairman of State Human Rights Commission can only be removed on the orders of the President following the receipt of the Supreme Court's inquiry report that would be vetted by the Union Cabinet.
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking Ganguly's removal. She has also written an article bringing out excerpts from the intern's statement before the Supreme Court panel.
Ganguly has questioned how the confidential statement made by the young woman has been made public. — PTI
Weighing legal options
* The Law Ministry and the Home Ministry are learnt to be in agreement that prima facie, a case can be made out against the former SC judge
* The matter has now been referred to Attorney General GE Vahanvati to work out legal details
* This is being done to ensure the case presented in the Presidential Reference is watertight
The father of Devyani Khobragade today threatened to launch a fast if "fabricated" charges of visa fraud against his diplomat daughter were not dropped and her honour restored even as he dubbed as "blatant" attack on Indian judiciary US attorney Preet Bharara's remarks after the incident.
Uttam Khobragade, a retired IAS officer, said the arrest of his daughter was part of a conspiracy and asserted no fraud was committed by Devyani and no false information tendered by her regarding the salary to be paid to her missing housemaid Sangeeta Richard.
He castigated Bharara for his comments which he said were against the Indian judicial system and "scandalised the process of justice in India". "I will try to meet Sonia Gandhi, I will try to meet Manmohan Singh. If this justice is simply not acceptable, then I will go on fast," he said.
"I have no purpose in staying in this world... If my daughter cannot be secured, her honour cannot be restored, if false criminal cases cannot be withdrawn even by such a strong country of 100 crore," he said.
"They have made a false deposition in the FIR that we mentioned USD 4500 as the salary of the servant. It was the salary of Devyani. The FIR is a false document. It was fabricated to arrest Devyani," he said.
Khobragade said if at all any fraud had been committed, it was by Sangeeta. "Sangeeta made the application for the visa. Sangeeta put her signature on the application, she was twice interviewed by the US officials. Who got the benefit? Sangeeta got the visa. If there is any fraud, it has been done by Sangeeta Richard," he said. — PTI
Religious leaders today welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on Article 377 of the Constitution saying it was in line with the tradition of the country, moral values and religious teachings.
They said Article 377 has rightly described homosexuality as a punishable offence because it not only prevents evolution and progress of human race but also destroys family system and social relations. It is also a great danger to public health. Medical research has also found it as a basic reason for the spread of AIDS, they said.
Appreciating the Supreme Court's verdict at a joint press conference of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian religious leaders, president of the Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, said homosexuality was against nature. "When homosexuality is not even visible in the animals, how it can be practical in human beings which are considered the most developed creatures," he said. Maulana threatened that any amendment by Parliament in the Article 377 to make the law lenient for homosexuality would not be tolerable.
Jagat Guru Swami Omkar Anand of Sanatan Dharm said with its decision, the apex court had prevented the country from going on to the path of destruction. Late marriage is the cause of homosexuality, he claimed. Christian religious leader Father Dominic Emmanuel said in Bible it was clearly mentioned that a man could only marry a woman. It is natural and beneficial for the society, he said.
Chief granthi of gurdwara Bangla Sahib, Gyani Ranjit Singh, also hailed the Supreme Court order saying that same-sex marriage should not be allowed.
Sunil James, a merchant navy Captain who had been languishing in a jail in Togo, western Africa, for five months has been released, the government said today. He is expected to be in India latest by tomorrow.
Another sailor who had been imprisoned along with Captain James, Vijayan, has been released too.
"Sailors from India -- Capt Sunil James and Vijayan -- have been released from detention in Togo. Will leave for home later today," MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.
He said the two men were released after India's High Commissioner in Ghana K Jeeva Sagar met Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe. "The two sailors are with the Ghana High Commissioner right now," he said.
"It came as a surprise. We didn't have hope until yesterday. We are relieved," said Captain James' wife Aditi.
Captain James was arrested by Togo in July on charges of helping pirates who had attacked and looted his ship, MT Ocean Centurion, near the tiny African country that borders Ghana. His family had been making desperate attempts to secure his release ever since.
Earlier this month, his 11-month-old son, Vivaan, died of septicemia. The family has refused to perform the last rites of the infant till his father has seen him one last time. The baby's body has been kept in a morgue in Mumbai and the last rites are expected to be conducted after Captain James' arrival.
Shubhadeep Choudhury
The stage is set for the indigenous fighter-bomber LCA (light combat aircraft) Tejas being accorded the initial operational clearance (IOC) on December 20 paving the way for its induction into the IAF.
K Tamilmani, chief executive, CEMILAC (Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification), will hand over the "Release to Service Document" of Tejas to Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne in a function to be held at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport here.
The handing-over ceremony will be preceded by a 20-minute flying display. At least two LCAs will take part in the exercise. Defence Minister AK Antony will be the chief guest at the function.
"Tejas is among the few fighter planes in the world that went from the drawing board to the IOC stage without a single incident or accident," Air Marshal P Rajkumar (retd), who was instrumental in creating the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) in Bangalore for Tejas trials, said.
The accordance of IOC to Tejas may not lead to IAF pilots immediately flying the LCAs. HAL - the contractor for manufacturing the fighter-bomber jets - is slated to roll out two fully equipped planes by March-April next year. Only then, IAF pilots will be flying the planes. By 2015, the HAL is supposed to roll out eight planes each year. It has an order from the IAF to supply 40 planes initially to replace the IAF's ageing fleet of MiG 21 and MiG 27 fighter jets.
The LCA version being given the IOC can carry two laser-guided 500 kg bombs, besides missiles for air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks and has a helmet-mounted display system.
The next LCA version, which is supposed to be ready by 2015, will have additional features like "beyond visual range" (BVR) missile-launching capabilities, air-to-air refuelling and 23 mm guns. All this will entail a lot of work on the airframe of the aircraft and a more powerful engine.
"I wrote in my book that from the first flight in 2001 to getting the IOC, it will take 10 years. It has taken 13 years instead of 10. I won't call it much of a delay. Those familiar with aircraft production knew that it would take time. It is the DRDO scientists who kept setting up optimistic targets," Rajkumar said.
Himself a MiG 21 pilot, Rajkumar said the LCA Tejas was "much, much superior to the MiG 21". "I shall call it 65 per cent indigenous. The engine is American and the radar is Israeli. But most of other things, including the mission-control computer, the flight-control computer and the design, are all Indian", he said.
LCA was earlier given IOC in January 2011. But the then IAF chief Air Chief Marshal PV Naik expressed his reservations about the jet at the IOC function itself, necessitating a second IOC for the jet.
Surat, December 19
Self-styled godman Asaram's son Narayan Sai was today remanded in 14-day judicial custody by a local court in a rape case filed against him by one of the two Surat-based sisters.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Jatin Thakkar sent Sai to judicial custody till January 2 after his remand, which was granted yesterday, ended this afternoon.
Police had yesterday sought Sai's custody to question him about 21 SIM cards recovered during the course of the probe.
The police also wanted to find out the source of Rs 5 crore recovered from Sai's aides. The police had detained six persons, including a police sub-inspector, in connection with an alleged conspiracy to bribe cops, doctors and judicial officers to weaken the case against Sai.
Sai and two of his aides were arrested by the Delhi Police on December 4 from the Delhi-Haryana border. His two aides have already been remanded in judicial custody.
Two Surat-based sisters had accused Sai and his father Asaram of rape. — PTI
Their names had cropped up during the interrogation of other accused in the case. However, they have not been arrested. "We still don't have adequate evidences against them for effecting their arrest," said an officer.
The 26-year-old girl, who had levelled allegations of physical assault against JP Joshi, did not surrender in the court today. Her lawyer sought one more day for it saying the girl was not keeping well.
Ritu Kandiyal arrested in the case will have to remain in judicial custody for some more time as the sessions court today deferred hearing on her bail plea to January 2. Bail plea of Neeraj Chauhan would be heard on December 21.
The police managed to trace 24 of the missing inmates, two returned on their own while the police are on the lookout for the remaining 14 absconding inmates of the Surajkund JJ home in Meerut.
Taking advantage of the thick fog in the bitterly cold night the inmates brutally thrashed the Home Guard Sushil Kumar to take hold of the keys after which they unlocked the gates and walked out into the deserted streets. When a police patrol tried to stop the group of adolescents roaming the streets, they ran away raising police's suspicion.
The injured home guard also informed the police that managed to round up 24 of the inmates.
"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved Rs 6,600 crore interest-free loans to the sugar industry. The interest subvention will be 12 per cent, which will be borne by the Sugar Development Fund," Food Minister K V Thomas said.
The Food Ministry proposal before the CCEA was based on the recommendations of the informal group of ministers, which was set up by the Prime Minister under the chairmanship of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to address the industry's cash crunch.
The loans will be provided by banks to sugar mills exclusively for making payments to sugarcane farmers, including arrears. The loans are equivalent to the excise duty paid by the mills in the past three years.
Mills have to repay the loans in five years and can avail of a moratorium on repayment for the first two years.
The ministry had originally proposed that 7 per cent of the interest burden would come from the Sugar Development Fund and the rest from the exchequer, which the CCEA revised.
The Rs 80,000 crore sugar industry has been facing a cash crunch due to higher cost of production and lower selling prices in the wake of surplus output over the past few years.
Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Director General Abinash Verma hailed the government's decision to provide interest-free loans.
"The loans will have to be used to pay cane price of farmers, will ensure timely payment to the farmers to that extent at least, including the clearance of past cane arrears of Rs 3,000 crore," Verma said.
"It's a wonderful gesture by the Central Government for both the farmers and the industry at the same time. It will help the industry reduce around Rs 500 crore annually of interest burden in the next five years," he added.
The CCEA also extended sugar exports without quantitative restrictions for the year that started in October 2013.
Other recommendations of the ministerial panel that are yet to be considered include the recasting of loans taken by mills, sops to produce 4 million tonnes of raw sugar, setting up a buffer stock and doubling of ethanol blending in petrol to 10 per cent. — PTI
The SBI home loans will now be available under two slabs - under Rs 75 lakh and above Rs 75 lakh.
Loans of up to Rs 75 lakh would be available to fresh borrowers at 10.15% against the existing rate of 10.50%. For women borrowers, the rate of interest after an additional concession of 0.05% would be 10.10% for home loans of up to Rs 75 lakh. The new rates would be effective from tomorrow, the State Bank of India (SBI) said.
With regard to loans above Rs 75 lakh, the new rate would be 10.30%. For women borrowers it is 10.25%. The revised EMI per lakh for a loan tenure of 30 years will be Rs 885 (for women) and Rs 889 (for others). The prevailing EMI for Rs 1 lakh is Rs 900 for 30 years, it said.
The RBI in its monetary policy review yesterday kept short-term lending rate unchanged at 7.75%, while the cash reserve ratio (CRR) remained at 4%. — PTI
Vibha Sharma
Senior leaders explain that the party is confident of getting more seats than it currently holds in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi — states either ruled by the BJP or its allies.
But Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra — holding a massive chunk of 80, 28 and 48 seats, respectively — have been perceived to be the ones sitting on the fence. "In these states the party will have to perform well if we want to cross the 200 mark," a leader said.
While Maharashtra and Karnataka are with the Congress, UP — the state with the maximum number of seats — is with the Samajwadi Party. It is also the state where the BJP has planned the maximum number of Narendra Modi rallies in the coming days. Starting his run with Belgaum in Karnataka where Modi attended a valedictory function at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College-a non-political event-his next stop is Varanasi on Friday.
A BJP bastion, Varanasi is being held by the saffron party but the rest of the region is predominately with the SP.
Varasnasi is also one of the constituencies shortlisted for Modi for the general elections, sources say. Lucknow, the seat of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, is also being actively considered in internal deliberations of the party, they add. The final decision on the issue is expected in January.
With 80 Lok Sabha seats, UP will play an important role in the formation of government at the Centre and the party has planned rallies key regions like Bareilly, Gorakhpur and Lucknow. However, the next in line is the 'mahagarjana' rally in Mumbai on December 22. The rally, the BJP claims, will be attended by 5 lakh people.
The maximum was 22.4 degrees in the national capital, which is normal for the time of the year.
Delhiites also got some respite from foggy conditions today after witnessing a dense fog cover for the past three days, which severely affected road, rail and air traffic.
There was some relief from the chill for the northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir as well with mercury in most parts of the Valley, including in the summer capital of Srinagar, improving to settle near freezing point.
The minimum in Srinagar was at -0.4°C as against the -1.2°C recorded yesterday.
But Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a dip of three degrees as the mercury settled at -3°C as against 0.1°C the day before.
Leh in Ladakh continued to be the coldest recorded place in the state with a low of -12.2°C.
Lower down, Punjab and Haryana were under a dense fog cover, which posed problems at several places across the two neighbouring states even as both recorded a slight increase in temperatures.
The common capital of Chandigarh saw the minimum settling at 7.8°C and experienced heavy night-time fog.
Visibility levels dropped to below 50m in the morning in Patiala, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Phagwara, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Hisar, Karnal, and Ambala, among other places.
Train schedules were thrown out of gear with the New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi delayed by close to 90 minutes. Meanwhile, an undertrial died in the Gurdaspur Central Jail in Punjab as a result of the cold, the police said. The undertrial, Haqim Singh, breathed his last at a hospital to where he was shifted after complaining of uneasiness due to cold, the police added.
Uttar Pradesh, too, complained of dense fog which affected visibility in the early hours of the morning.
Night temperatures fell in the Meerut division but changed little in the remaining parts of the state. However, the Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra and Faizabad divisions registered a rise in the mercury.
The lowest recorded minimum in UP was 5°C at Bijnore. Rajasthan reported a dip in night temperatures with the Erinpura area near Jawai Dam in Pali recording a minimum of 6°C. — PTI
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said many women organisations and NGOs had given representations to President Pranab Mukherjee demanding a probe into alleged "snooping" on the woman and the President had referred the applications to the Home Ministry.
"My department is examining them. There are some formalities too that have to be completed. It should not happen or look like as if we are taking a haphazard decision against a party. Hence, our department is going into details and once that is done, very soon we will take a decision on that," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Shinde was replying to a question on the possibility of ordering a probe into the alleged "snooping" incident.
Two news portals, Cobrapost and Gulail, had claimed on November 15 that Amit Shah had ordered illegal surveillance of a woman in Gujarat at the behest of one "saheb".
They had released purported taped conversation between Shah and IPS officer G L Singhal to support their claim but said the authenticity of the tape could not be confirmed. But the woman's father had told the National Commission of Women that his daughter did not want any probe. — PTI
The Manipuri activist, who has been on a fast for over 12 years demanding repeal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in her home state, did not appear before the court despite its October 30 direction in that regard. Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain issued the production warrant for January 30, next year. The matter is fixed for recording of prosecution evidence in the case.
During the proceedings, Sharmila's counsel appeared before the court.
On March 4, the court had put 40-year-old Sharmila on trial after she had refused to plead guilty for the offence of attempting to commit suicide (Section 309, Indian Penal Code). — PTI
"Six rounds of Pinaka rockets were successfully tested from the proof and experimental establishment at Chandipur," defence sources said. — PTI
The joint training, the focus of which is counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, will culminate on December 29.
The aim of the training is to promote lasting military relationship between the two countries through jointness and mutual exchange of 'special operations tactics', primarily in a 'sub-conventional scenario'.
Lt Gen Ashok Singh, GOC-in-C, Southern Command, viewed the conduct of the training at Jodhpur today and interacted with the participants. He also witnessed various operational exercises executed jointly by the forces of the two nations.
"In summary, my estimation is that the time this case would take to reach the probable end stage in India is some 20 years...I am persuaded that it is clearly the case that England is the appropriate forum for the trial of this action," Justice Stewart said in his ruling at the Royal Courts of Justice.
The Indian Hotel Company was given the right to appeal against the ruling and the case will now go to the Court of Appeal for a final decision.
Pike was seriously injured when he jumped out of a window of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel after it was stormed by some of the 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who carried out the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008. — PTI
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text:
The Little King (nota in Italia anche come Piccolo Re, Re Puccio o Re Bombolo) è stata una serie a fumetti ideata da Otto Soglow nel 1929. La serie venne pubblicata negli Stati Uniti d'America fino alla morte dell'autore nel 1975 divenendo una delle serie più famosa e amata della storia del fumetto americano e, oltre a essere pubblicata anche in altri paesi del mondo, ispirò varie serie di cartoni animati e i personaggi vennero impiegati come testimonial per campagne pubblicitarie della Standard Oil. La serie venne premiata nel 1966 dalla National Cartoonists Society. Il protagonista era un piccolo uomo baffuto e barbuto e vestito di velluto e ermellino, largo quanto era alto, sempre allegro quanto infantile che viveva per divertirsi. In quanto monarca, ottiene tutto ciò che vuole.

Storia editoriale

Il personaggio esordì in alcune vignette realizzate da Soglow pubblicate sul New Yorker e presto divenne protagonista di una serie regolare che esordì il 7 giugno 1930, sempre sul New Yorker, raggiungendo presto il successo. La serie venne pubblicata anche in formato comic book dal 1933. Il successo della serie attirò l'attenzione di William Randolph Hearst che la volle per la sua syndication, la King Features Syndicate, ma gli obblighi contrattuali di Soglow impedivano la rescissione del contratto col New Yorker. Soglow quindi produsse per Hearst una nuova serie con caratteristiche e personaggi principali simili, The Ambassador, che venne distribuita così dal King Features fino a che non si estinsero gli obblighi contrattuali. Una settimana dopo la conclusione della sua pubblicazione sul New Yorker, The Little King riprese le pubblicazioni distribuita dal Features esordendo sui quotidiani di Hearst il 9 settembre 1934. La serie continuò con successo fino alla morte dell'autore nel 1975.

Altri media
Cinema

 The Little King (1933-1934): serie di cortometraggi animati realizzati dai Van Beuren Studios.
 Betty Boop Meets The Little King (1935): cortometraggio realizzato dai Fleischer Studios.

Note

Bibliografia

Altri progetti

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Change the name of the FontSize Dropdown list in TinyMCE So I'm using TinyMCE and I'd like to allow the user to change the Font Size to one predefined size (larger).
I've managed to do that with this custom setting:
font_size_style_values: "large,x-small,small,medium,large,x-large,xx-large",
theme_advanced_font_sizes: "1",

However, in the font size select drop down list, the text that appears is "1 (8pt)", which is not very user friendly.
I'd like to change this to "large", or anything really. Any ideas?
Here are my complete custom settings, if that helps:
tinyMCE.init({
    mode: "exact",
    elements: "Details", // "EventDetails_Directions, EventDetails_Details"
    width: "673",
    height: "320",
    theme: "advanced",
    plugins: "paste, media",
    autocomplete: "off",
    convert_fonts_to_spans : true,
    theme_advanced_buttons1: "bold,italic,underline,justifyleft,justifycenter,fontsizeselect,link,unlink,image,bullist,separator,undo,redo,code",
    theme_advanced_buttons2: "",
    theme_advanced_buttons3: "",
    font_size_style_values: "large,x-small,small,medium,large,x-large,xx-large",
    theme_advanced_font_sizes: "1",
    paste_auto_cleanup_on_paste: true,
    paste_remove_styles: true,
    paste_retain_style_properties: "none",
    paste_strip_class_attributes: "all",
    paste_preprocess: function(p1, o) {
        o.content = replaceWordChars(o.content);
    },
    content_css: "/ClientControlRoom/assets/css/tinymce_custom.css"
});

A: The theme_advanced_font_sizes config option since TinyMCE 3.2 has allowed you to map a text value to the font size (pixel or relative) or a class.
So if you only want one option ("large") for you users in the drop down, you could have
theme_advanced_font_sizes : "large=30px"

or, if you are using relative sizes simple
theme_advanced_font_sizes : "large"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
I don't trust Signal
Published 2018-08-08 on Drew DeVault's blog — Permalink
Occasionally when Signal is in the press and getting a lot of favorable discussion, I feel the need to step into various forums, IRC channels, and so on, and explain why I don't trust Signal. Let's do a blog post instead.
Off the bat, let me explain that I expect a tool which claims to be secure to actually be secure. I don't view "but that makes it harder for the average person" as an acceptable excuse. If Edward Snowden and Bruce Schneier are going to spout the virtues of the app, I expect it to actually be secure when it matters - when vulnerable people using it to encrypt sensitive communications are targeted by smart and powerful adversaries.
Making promises about security without explaining the tradeoffs you made in order to appeal to the average user is unethical. Tradeoffs are necessary - but self-serving tradeoffs are not, and it's your responsibility to clearly explain the drawbacks and advantages of the tradeoffs you make. If you make broad and inaccurate statements about your communications product being "secure", then when the political prisoners who believed you are being tortured and hanged, it's on you. The stakes are serious. Let me explain why I don't think Signal takes them seriously.
Why do I make a big deal out of Google Play and Google Play Services? Well, some people might trust Google, the company. But up against nation states, it's no contest - Google has ties to the NSA, has been served secret subpoenas, and is literally the world's largest machine designed for harvesting and analyzing private information about their users. Here's what Google Play Services actually is: a rootkit. Google Play Services lets Google do silent background updates on apps on your phone and give them any permission they want. Having Google Play Services on your phone means your phone is not secure.1
For the longest time, Signal wouldn't work without Google Play Services, but Moxie (the founder of Open Whisper Systems and maintainer of Signal) finally fixed this in 2017. There was also a long time when Signal was only available on the Google Play Store. Today, you can download the APK directly from signal.org, but… well, we'll get to that in a minute.
There's an alternative to the Play Store for Android. F-Droid is an open source app "store" (repository would be a better term here) which only includes open source apps (which Signal thankfully is). By no means does Signal have to only be distributed through F-Droid - it's certainly a compelling alternative. This has been proposed, and Moxie has definitively shut the discussion down. Admittedly this is from 2013, but his points and the arguments against them haven't changed. Let me quote some of his positions and my rebuttals:
No upgrade channel. Timely and automatic updates are perhaps the most effective security feature we could ask for, and not having them would be a real blow for the project.
F-Droid supports updates. If you're concerned about moving your updates quickly through the (minimal) bureaucracy of F-Droid, you can always run your own repository. Maybe this is a lot of work?2 I wonder how the workload compares to animated gif search, a very important feature for security concious users. I bet that 50 million dollar donation could help, given how many people operate F-Droid repositories on a budget of $0.
No app scanning. The nice thing about market is the server-side APK scanning and signature validation they do. If you start distributing APKs around the internet, it's a reversion back to the PC security model and all of the malware problems that came with it.
Try searching the Google Play Store for "flashlight" and look at the permissions of the top 5 apps that come up. All of them are harvesting and selling the personal information of their users to advertisers. Is this some kind of joke? F-Droid is a curated repository, like Linux distributions. Google Play is a malware distributor. Packages on F-Droid are reviewed by a human being and are cryptographically signed. If you run your own F-Droid repo this is even less of a concern.
I'm not going to address all of Moxie's points here, because there's a deeper problem to consider. I'll get into more detail shortly. You can read the 6-year-old threads tearing Moxie's arguments apart over and over again until GitHub added the feature to lock threads, if you want to see a more in-depth rebuttal.
The APK direct download
Last year Moxie added an official APK download to signal.org. He said this was up for "harm reduction", to avoid people using unofficial builds they find around the net. The download page is covered in warnings telling you that it's for advanced users only, it's insecure, would you please go to the Google Play store you stupid user. I wonder, has Moxie considered communicating to people the risks of using the Google Play version?3
The APK direct download doesn't even accomplish the stated goal of "harm reduction". The user has to manually verify the checksum, and figure out how to do it on a phone, no less. A checksum isn't a signature, by the way - if your government- or workplace- or abusive-spouse-installed certificate authority gets in the way they can replace the APK and its checksum with whatever they want. The app has to update itself, using a similarly insecure mechanism. F-Droid handles updates and actually signs their packages. This is a no brainer, Moxie, why haven't you put Signal on F-Droid yet?
Why is Signal like this?
So if you don't like all of this, if you don't like how Moxie approaches these issues, if you want to use something else, what do you do?
Moxie knows about everything I've said in this article. He's a very smart guy and I am under no illusions that he doesn't understand everything I've put forth. I don't think that Moxie makes these choices because he thinks they're the right thing to do. He makes arguments which don't hold up, derails threads, leans on logical fallacies, and loops back around to long-debunked positions when he runs out of ideas. I think this is deliberate. An open source software team reads this article as a list of things they can improve on and gets started. Moxie reads this and prepares for war. Moxie can't come out and say it openly, but he's made the decisions he has made because they serve his own interests.
Lots of organizations which are pretending they don't make self-serving decisions at their customer's expense rely on argumentative strategies like Moxie does. If you can put together an argument which on the surface appears reasonable, but requires in-depth discussion to debunk, passerby will be reassured that your position is correct, and that the dissenters are just trolls. They won't have time to read the lengthy discussion which demonstrates that your conclusions are wrong, especially if you draw the discussion out like Moxie does. It can be hard to distinguish these from genuine positions held by the person you're talking to, but when it conveniently allows them to make self-serving plays, it's a big red flag.
This is a strong accusation, I know. The thing which convinced me of its truth is Signal's centralized design and hostile attitude towards forks. In open source, when a project is making decisions and running things in a way you don't like, you can always fork the project. This is one of the fundamental rights granted to you by open source. It has a side effect Moxie doesn't want, however. It reduces his power over the project. Moxie has a clever solution to this: centralized servers and trademarks.
Trust, federation, and peer-to-peer chat
Truly secure systems do not require you to trust the service provider. This is the point of end-to-end encryption. But we have to trust that Moxie is running the server software he says he is. We have to trust that he isn't writing down a list of people we've talked to, when, and how often. We have to trust not only that Moxie is trustworthy, but given that Open Whisper Systems is based in San Francisco we have to trust that he hasn't received a national security letter, too (by the way, Signal doesn't have a warrant canary). Moxie can tell us he doesn't store these things, but he could. Truly secure systems don't require trust.
There are a couple of ways to solve this problem, which can be used in tandem. We can stop Signal from knowing when we're talking to each other by using peer-to-peer chats. This has some significant drawbacks, namely that both users have to be online at the same time for their messages to be delivered to each other. You can still fall back to peer-to-server-to-peer when one peer is offline, however. But this isn't the most important of the two solutions.
The most important change is federation. Federated services are like email, in that Alice can send an email from gmail.com to Bob's yahoo.com address. I should be able to stand up a Signal server, on my own hardware where I am in control of the logs, and communicate freely with other Signal servers, including Open Whisper's servers. This distributes the security risks across hundreds of operators in many countries with various data extradition laws. This turns what would today be easy for the United States government to break and makes it much, much more difficult. Federation would also open the possibility for bridging the gap with several other open source secure chat platforms to all talk on the same federated network - which would spurn competition and be a great move for users of all chat platforms.
Moxie forbids you from distributing branded builds of the Signal app, and if you rebrand he forbids you from using the official Open Whisper servers. Because his servers don't federate, that means that users of Signal forks cannot talk to Signal users. This is a truly genius move. No fork of Signal4 to date has ever gained any traction, and never will, because you can't talk to any Signal users with them. In fact, there are no third-party applications which can interact with Signal users in any way. Moxie can write as many blog posts which appeal to wispy ideals and "moving ecosystems" as he wants5, but those are all really convenient excuses for an argument which allows him to design systems which serve his own interests.
No doubt these are non-trivial problems to solve. But I have personally been involved in open source projects which have collectively solved similarly difficult problems a thousand times over with a combined budget on the order of tens of thousands of dollars.
What were you going to do with that 50 million dollars again?
"But how is AOSP any better?" This is a common strawman counter-argument. Fact: There is empirical evidence which shows that Google Play Services does silent updates and can obtain any permission on your phone: a rootkit. There is no empirical evidence to suggest AOSP has similar functionality. ↩
No, it's not. ↩
Probably not, because that wouldn't be self-serving. But I'm getting ahead of myself. ↩
See LibreSignal and Silence, particularly this thread. ↩
See Reflections: The ecosystem is moving. Yes, that's the unedited title. ↩
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Articles from blogs I follow around the net
Status update, January 2020
This month's status update will be a little lighter than usual due to Christmas holidays. I've still got the chance to send a patches to quite a few projects, and… do a lot of releases! Weston, Wayland, Sway, mako and grim all have or will get a r…
via emersion January 16, 2020
Inspired by Peter Watts' The Freeze-Frame Revolution and The Island. Each birth is violent in the same way. I erupt into the void, my mirrored surface riotous with gamma radiation, parafluid sheeting from my forced extremities, ripped away by gravitational sh…
via Aphyr: Posts January 15, 2020
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Daraz Turns Five, Daraz's Unique Opportunity And Challenge
Ruhul Kader
Alibaba owned ecommerce giant Daraz Bangladesh has turned five this month. Daraz was founded in 2012 by Rocket Internet. The company started its operation in Bangladesh as Daraz Bangladesh in 2014. Currently, Daraz has operations in Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Last year, Chinese tech giant Alibaba bought Daraz in an undisclosed deal.
Since the acquisition, Daraz has expanded its growth push in Bangladesh. The company says it currently has hubs in 33 districts in the country. It has built the largest sorting center of the country in Dhaka and collection points across the country.
The company claims to have over 5 million products and 15,000 sellers on its platform.
Over the past five years, Daraz Bangladesh went through many changes. When it was first started operations in Bangladesh in 2014, the company's primary focus was on big brand and authentic products. First few years of Daraz was relatively low key and slow and steady in nature.
In 2017, Daraz merged with another Rocket ecommerce entity Kaymu and expanded its platform to non-brand small sellers. Daraz Bangladesh has since expanded and evolved both in terms of coverage of products and types of services.
Over the past two years, the company has pushed growth through a combination of the expansion of its coverage and a torrent of relentless offers, vouchers, and discounts. As a result, it has been able to achieve growth numbers that are greater than almost all other ecommerce players in the market.
While the continuous push of offers and discounts helped Daraz to grow its numbers, the company suffers from a lack of reputation in the market. Complaints against product and service quality are rampant.
To address these challenges, Daraz has introduced DarazMall, a category on its marketplace for which the company provides product quality, service guarantee, faster delivery, and better return policy. It has also been investing in improving its overall service quality through various measures. The company introduced its logistics operation Daraz Express in 2018 in order to bring greater control over its logistics and customer experience. Daraz plans to move to 100% in-house logistics and has already started working towards that goal.
Daraz sees an opportunity in Bangladesh. Rightly so. Ecommerce is still in its early days in this South Asian country. There is not much competition in the space. It is not that there are not enough ecommerce companies. There is a long list of ecommerce players in Dhaka but a lack of proper venture capital ecosystem makes it harder for local players to raise investment and compete against deep-pocket competitors such as Daraz which is now owned by Alibaba. Alibaba has also bought a minority stake at local MFS giant bKash in 2018. Many digital entrepreneurs complain about a lack of clear policy guidelines in the space and fear a competitive disadvantage in the long run. They are pushing technology policies favorable to local initiatives, at least for time being when local players gain enough muscle. There is the other camp of entrepreneurs who think that when international players come into the country they bring in knowledge and expertise. They are in favor of progressive policies and in favor of international players coming into Dhaka. At the same time, they propose policies that would help create a level playing field for all players and limit the undue advantage of international players.
However, it does not seem like customers or the regulators care about these issues, not at least in the short-run. Over the past years, Daraz has managed to build a user base and it continues to grow. Today, the company is the most dominant player in Dahak's ecommerce space.
That being said, competition is likely to intensify in the coming days as companies like Ajkerdeal, Chaldal, Deligram, Evaly raise more money and invest more for market dominance. Since the ecommerce adoption remains relatively low across the country, the room for multiple players remains open.
Any regulatory challenge is unlikely for Daraz, at least in the short-run. The real challenge will remain more or less the same: ensuring superior customer experience as well as rapidly growing the ecommerce adoption across the country.
The deep pocket plus years of insight into building ecommerce across markets of Alibaba puts Daraz in a different league in Dhaka's ecommerce space. However, the advantage comes with its limitations as well. The more progressive policy push in the digital space that has happened in markets like India to ensure a level playing field for everyone and limit the undue advantage of multinational players could prove a challenge for Daraz in the long-run. The competition in the ecommerce space is also slowly growing. Unique consumer behavior of Bangladeshi shoppers remain a puzzle that ecommerce players are yet to solve. However, for now, Daraz is in a unique position and is likely to continue to dominate Dhaka's ecommerce space.
Ruhul Kader is a technology business and technology policy analyst based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Future Startup and author of Rethinking Failure: A short guide to living an entrepreneurial life. He writes about internet business, strategy, technology, technology policy, and society. He can be reached at [email protected]
Daraz, Future Of Commerce
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Every Business is an eCommerce Business
Deligram Acquires Shopway, Pivots to B2B
How Pickaboo Has Put Superior Customer Service at The Heart of Its Operation


text:
Is America Strong Enough to Confront Its Racist Past?
Trump's promotion of patriotic education is based on the idea that we're too weak to admit our shortcomings.
White House Photo by Andrea Hanks
For the last couple of months, Donald Trump has been promising to restore patriotic education in our schools. He mentioned it during his speech at the Republican Convention, during a press conference, and at his campaign rally in Nevada this week. In the midst of his attacks on the 1619 Project—a series published by the New York Times documenting the impact of slavery on our country's history—it hasn't been difficult to guess what the president means by that promise, even though his references have been fairly cryptic.
But during a speech at the National Archives on Thursday, the president clarified his intentions. He directly attacked the 1619 Project by calling it "ideological poison" that would "dissolve the civic bonds" in America. In addition, he claimed that critical race theory is "toxic propaganda," suggesting that it is an effort to impose tyranny and a "new segregation." He even went so far as to claim that it was abuse to teach it to children.
That is the context in which Trump proposes to restore patriotic education. He announced the formation of a "1776 Commission" (a direct hit on the 1619 Project) to promote the effort. But as is often the case with the president, his remarks were long on attacks and short on his proposed alternatives, although he did say that, "We want our sons and daughters to know that they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world." The crux of the matter for him is to ensure that school curriculums are stripped of the perspective of people of color and that American history is viewed as white history.
It is important to keep in mind what Trump is referring to when he talks about critical race theory. According to the UCLA School of Public Affairs, it was developed by legal scholars in order to provide an analysis of race and racism from a legal perspective.
CRT recognizes that racism is ingrained in the fabric and system of the American society. The individual racist need not exist to note that institutional racism is pervasive in the dominant culture. This is the analytical lens that CRT uses in examining existing power structures.
In other words, it is a theory that examines the role of systemic racism, which has been embedded in institutions and affects people of color in almost every aspect of their lives—including housing, employment, education, health, and wealth—regardless of the racist attitudes of individuals.
Trump presented a straw man when he suggested that teaching critical race theory to children was akin to child abuse. No one is suggesting that we immerse six-year-olds in all of that any more than we would expect them to be able to handle a course in macroeconomics. Instead, CRT informs how we teach children in a way that "perpetuates the marginalization of people of color."
That is precisely what threatens both Trump and his supporters. To confront the role that racism plays in our society is a two-step process. First of all, we must recognize that, since our founding, U.S. institutions have been grounded in white supremacy. Secondly, in order to ensure that our principles of equality and justice apply to everyone, those institutions have to change.
That first step presents an obstacle for people like Trump, who view any admission of error as a sign of weakness. During his speech on Thursday, the president said that the narratives being pushed by the left resemble the anti-American propaganda of our adversaries, concluding that "both groups want to see America weakened, derided and totally diminished."
But Trump's approach is the one that broadcasts weakness. It takes strength to examine ourselves, identify shortcomings, and correct them to the best of our ability. It is at moments when we've been able to do that as a country that we have demonstrated our exceptionalism. As Barack Obama said during his speech at the 50th anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, that is what it means to be patriotic.
What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this, what greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?…
For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That's why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction — because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.
In many ways, what is on the ballot in November are these two views of what it means to be an American. Are we a country that is too afraid to even admit our shortcomings, or are we strong enough to be self-critical and seize our power to continue the process of aligning the country with our highest ideals?