10th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to begin today in Pink City

From exclusive “NRI lanes” on the Delhi-Jaipur highway to decorative streetlighting, the city of Jaipur is all set to host the three-day 10th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), beginning Saturday.

Coming at a time when doubts are being raised on the growth of the economy, the event expects to promote India as an investment destination and find answers to the Indian growth story from over 1,300 delegates who have come from over 54 countries to attend the annual congregation of non-resident Indians (NRIs) and persons of Indian origin. According to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, India has the second-largest diaspora in the world.

The overseas Indian community is estimated at around 25 million. The high level committee on Indian diaspora in its report in 2001 had termed India’s diaspora as having “great potential for national development”. Apart from projecting India as a favourable investment destination, the debates and discussions at this year’s PBD are expected to focus on how to maintain growth without compromising on inclusivity.

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad Bissessar, will be the chief guest of this year’s PBD, which has been given the theme of “Global Indian-Inclusive Growth”.

The annual flagship event will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday. President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will deliver the valedictory address on January 9 and confer the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards.

The highlights of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas are expected to be the three plenary sessions which will begin on Sunday. The first of the session, titled “Two decades of liberalisation”, will be moderated by the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi and will have environment minister Jayanti Natarajan and road transport and highways minister CP Joshi as participants. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the keynote address. The second plenary session, “partnering for prosperity”, will have speakers such as former minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor, CPI(M)’s leader Sitaram Yechury and minister for corporate affairs Veerappa Moily.

The last plenary session, ‘Shared connections: Message of Mahatma Gandhi’, will be moderated by Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister, public information infrastructure and innovation.

Another keenly watched event would be the ‘Global Indian state initiative and opportunity’, which is moderated by the overseas minister, and will have the chief ministers of Goa, Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as participants. Besides, there will be three pre-conference seminars on ‘Solar Energy- Investment and R&D’, ‘Social Entrepreneurship-Water’ and ‘Health’. The PBD oration this year will be given by economist and management expert Kishore Mahbubani, dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

Juhi Parmar wins Bigg Boss 5

MUMBAI: Popular TV actress Juhi Parmar won the fifth season of controversial reality show Bigg Boss tonight. 

The show, spread over 14 weeks, came to an end with Juhi beating Amar Upadhyay, Mahek Chahal, Siddharth Bhardwaj and Akashdeep Saigal. Towards the end, her sole rival in the fray was Mahek. 

"I am happy and thankful to the audience....I supported the truth since the start of the show and everyone has seen it. My family was my biggest support system. Whenever I was weak, I used to think of my parents, my husband and my in-laws," Juhi said. 

She received Rs one crore in prize money. The reality show has celebrity contestants staying in the `Bigg Boss House' for 14 weeks, cut off from the outside world and under continuous camera surveillance. 

The winners of previous four seasons were Rahul Roy, Ashutosh Kaushik, Vindu Dara Singh and Shweta Tiwari. 

The grand finale tonight saw performances by Indo-Canadian porn-star Sunny Leone, Rakhi Sawant, Malakia Arora, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan. 

The fifth season started with one male and 13 female contestants. Bollywood's bad man Shakti Kapoor entered the house with much funfare, along with actress Pooja Bedi, Nihita Biswas, wife of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, singer-actress Raageshwari Loomba, wrestler Sonika Kaliraman, model-VJ Pooja Mishra, Bhojpuri actress Shraddha Sharma, model-actress Shonali Nagrani, actress Mahek Chahal, Afgani beauty Vida, celebrity transgender Laxmi Tripathi, Rajasthani dancer Gulabo, anchor Mandeep Belvi and TV actress Juhi Parmar. 

Amar Upadhyay, Akashdeep Saigal and Siddharth Bhardwaj entered later on. The Big Boss house this time had moved from Lonavala to Karjat. 

International and national personalities who came on the show as guests were Swami Agnivesh, filmmaker Mahesh Bhaat, Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds and Japenese sumo wrestler Yamamotoyama. 

There were cat-fights, physical and verbal abuses and romance in the house. Pooja Mishra took the centre-stage, by picking up fights with almost every contestant. She was ousted after a fight with Siddharth Bhardwaj.

Jassi honour killing: Mother, uncle held in Canada after 11 years

Kaunke Kalan (Jagraon), January 7
Eleven-and-a-half years after Jassi Sidhu, a Canadian girl of Indian origin, was killed and her husband Sukhwinder Mithu left for dead near Narike village in Malerkotla by a group of contract killers allegedly hired by Jassi’s Canada-based mother and maternal uncle, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) finally arrested the duo from their house this morning in Maple Ridge, British Columbia.

Jassi’s mother Malkiat Kaur and uncle Surjit Singh were allegedly evading arrest and extradition to India all these years. The RCMP has, in a press release, announced that Malkiat Kaur and Surjit Singh were being questioned and would soon be extradited to India.

Of about 10 alleged contract killers, only three, including former sub-inspector Joginder Singh, Anil Kumar and Ashwani Kumar, are behind bars at present.

“Justice has finally been done to some extent. I am waiting for the day when Jassi’s mother and uncle will be brought to India and punished. I don’t know whether I would meet them or not. But I may not like to see such faces. I have always wished for exemplary punishment for Jassi’s mother, who ordered her killing,” said Mithu’s mother.

“It was due to immense media pressure that the case remained alive and forced the Canadian police to act. Justice was delayed, but not denied,” said Mithu, who did not remarry.

The murder was a rude end to a love story that transcended continents but could not overcome the barriers of caste and society. It was the first international instance of the menace of honour killing prevalent in North India.

DSP Swaran Singh, the investigating officer in the case, said he was elated at the arrest of Malkiat Kaur and Surjit Singh. “It was my duty as well as my life’s purpose to see justice done to Mithu and Jassi. We are eagerly awaiting the extradition of the duo.” 

Murder Most Foul

Dec 1994: Jassi meets Mithu in Jagraon.

Mar 15, 1999: They marry in secret at Baba Bakala gurdwara in Amritsar district.

May 1999: Jassi returns to Canada. Prepares documents for Mithu’s migration to Canada, but is exposed in early 2000. Kept in house custody illegally by her parents.

February 2000: Mithu booked for kidnapping and forcible marriage of Jassi.

May 19, 2000: Mithu acquitted after Jassi reaches India and gives a statement in his favour.

June 8, 2000: Contract killers attack them late evening near Narike village in Malerkotla. Jassi dies, Mithu injured.

June-July 2000: Most of the accused arrested. Police books Jassi’s mother Malkiat Kaur and uncle Surjit Singh for conspiracy to murder. Extradition proceedings begin.

Mid-2004: Mithu booked for rape of a village girl, arrested, sent to jail.

April 2008: Ludhiana court acquits Mithu of rape charge.

January 2012: RCMP arrests Malkiat Kaur and Surjit Singh Badesha.

Intel warns of Chinese terror threat to Dalai Lama

Mumbai, January 7
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama may be harmed by six Chinese nationals who are likely to sneak into India, intelligence inputs received by Mumbai police have warned.

According to city police sources, the inputs reveal the name of one Chinese national of Tibetan origin - Tashi Phuntsok - who was waiting to sneak into India with the intention of gathering intelligence on the Tibetan administration in exile and to cause harm to the Dalai Lama.

Besides, Mumbai and Delhi could come under fresh attacks by home-grown terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, sources said, adding that Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), under intense pressure from Pakistan’s ISI, is planning to target important political leaders in poll-bound Punjab, including a minister.

“Dalai Lama keeps visiting Mumbai and other places in the state. The threat to Dalai Lama need not be underestimated. Loss of Chinese passports and recovery of Chinese passports need to be reported promptly, so that the concerned agencies could question them thoroughly. In this regard, the activities of the followers of ‘Shugden’ cult (an anti-Dalai Lama group) need to be kept under strict vigil,” the intelligence report said.

The six suspects, in all likelihood, were from China’s secret service, the sources said. “Some Tibetans may be inspired by Chinese to harm Dalai Lama. A good number of Chinese youth enter India on business visa, ostensibly for some clandestine activities. It is likely that they may try to visit certain areas prohibited for Chinese like Tibetan camps,” they said.