NEW DELHI: As an expected fallout of the brawl in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Patiala MP Dharam Vira Gandhi -- who had raised his voice against the treatment meted out to now expelled Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan -- was removed as the party's leader in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. In his place, the party appointed stand-up comedian and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann to articulate its views in the lower House.
This is an unprecedented rise for an entertainer who rode his punchlines through his poll campaign and eventually to Lok Sabha, although the jury may still be out on whether it is a sign of the readiness of the political class to put satire on the same pedestal as serious criticism.
Even though Gandhi's removal was explained by AAP merely as a "party decision", it is hardly lost on anyone that he has paid the price for siding with rebels. The Patiala MP gave considerable grief to Arvind Kejriwal and his aides when he endorsed the version of Bhushan and Yadav that the dominant faction resorted to strong-arm methods to intimidate dissidents and stifle their protest. That Gandhi had till then kept himself aloof from the ugly factional fight lent credence to the rebels' narrative.
Party member Ashutosh, while confirming the development, refused to go into the reason why Gandhi had to be dumped. "This is a party decision and we need not explain it," he said.
Mann, who had defended Kejriwal and his group, was pleased with the development, and he attacked Bhushan and Yadav saying the two leaders were sacked for carrying out anti-party activities. "I have raised maximum questions, participated in maximum debates and raised concerns about various bills in the House. If the party wants to give me more responsibilities, then I am ready to shoulder them," Mann said.
Mann's rise is significant as a leg-up to entertainers in Indian politics which has seen many actors enter the fray but rarely any rising beyond a point.
As a stand-up comedian, Mann also joins the league of several such personalities across the world who have literally laughed their way to election wins and upset political calculations.
From Italy to Iceland and Miyazaki to Minnesota, comedians and entertainers have left a trail of political surprise. Italian comedian Giuseppe Piero 'Beppe' Grillo spent much of his career pillorying political parties until he launched the 'Five Star Movement' which went on to win over 25% votes in the 2013 general elections in Italy. Icelandic standup comic Jon Gnarr fought mayoral elections in the capital Reykjavik as a "fun thing" only to be declared the winner to his and the political establishment's horror.
In 2007, Japanese comedian Hideo Higashikokubaru decided to run a serious campaign for governor of the Miyazaki Prefecture and won it in an atmosphere of complete dejection among voters with the political class. Most famous of all, however, was the victory of WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Jesse Ventura's win in Minnesota gubernatorial elections in 1998 when he defeated both the Democratic and Republican candidates.
Mann's rise comparatively is circumstantial but given that he lost no minute in siding with Kejriwal after the quarrel broke out in the party shows that he is equipped, besides a sense of humour, with political smarts. The reward that he has received from the party will encourage him to further burnish his 'loyalist' credentials.
GANDHINAGAR: Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives of connecting NRIs across the world, leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul today said the BJP government at the Centre is moving in the right direction and doing everything to uplift the poor.
Paul, who called on Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel and pledged his support to the education sector in the state, said though one year is too early a period to assess the performance of a government, in his opinion the Modi government is moving in in the right direction.
"He (Modi) is moving in the right direction. He has raised the profile of India and Indians all over the world. From an NRI's point of view, he is the first PM after 35 years who has recognised the strength and ability of NRIs. For that, NRIs are proud of Modi," Paul said.
"He is having lots of ideas, dynamism and desire to take this country ahead. We wish him luck," he said.
Amidst the allegations that Modi is favouring only the rich and ignored the downtrodden people, Paul said the Modi government is doing everything it can to uplift the poor.
"I believe that this government does more for the poor than the rich. After a long time, people at least heard that something should be done for the poor. I think Modi is talking about the poor and paying due attention to their problems," he said.
To a question on what has changed on the ground during the Modi government's rule which will soon complete one year in power, Paul said that it is too early to rate the performance of any government.
"It is a general tendency to measure the performance of government after one month or one year. Let me tell you that no miracle happens in one year. But, there is buzz all around that something positive is happening, which is a good sign," said Paul.
During his meeting with chief minister Anandiben Patel, Paul offered all support to boost the education sector in Gujarat.
Paul, the Chairman of UK-based Caparo Group, also visited his company's manufacturing facility at Sanand after his meeting with the chief minister.
New Delhi, February 24 - In a big show of support for anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal shared the stage with him at Parliament Street where Anna has organised a rally, demanding that the government withdraw the land acquisition ordinance.
Kejriwal also invited Anna to the Delhi Secretariat to address a gathering of head of departments of the Delhi Government.
The AAP’s 66 MLAs and other party leaders also reached Parliament Street to support Anna. Anna and Kejriwal were the two most-famous faces of the Lokpal movement in 2011. They later fell apart over Kejriwal’s decision to launch a political party.
Anna has been sitting on protest since yesterday at Jantar Mantar and today, he held a rally at Parliament Street against the Centre’s land acquisition ordinance.
Besides, CPI and MDMK leaders also shared the stage though Anna, in the morning, said that people from political parties were welcome to join the agitators, but would not share the stage with him. He made it clear that he would not allow the lending of any political colour to the agitation.
Kejriwal bowed to Hazare as he walked into the venue followed by the leaders of his party. He later joined Anna on stage and sat next to him.
As the BJP-led central government grapples with widespread political opposition to the changes it is seeking to make in the law on land acquisition for big projects, it also has to counter Anna Hazare’s protest on what he calls an “anti-farmer ordinance.”
Anna’s agitation today drew thousands of farmers from all over the country to Delhi who gathered at Parliament Street as well as Jantar Mantar.
Hundreds of farmers marched from Faridabad to Delhi to join Anna’s protest but they were stopped near the Boat Club. Later, they were allowed to go ahead after intervention by social activist Medha Patekar.
Addressing the gathering, 77-year-old Anna said he would not give up the movement. He would fight for the cause of farmers throughout his life. He appealed to the people to leave the venue this evening and launch ‘padyatra’ in their states and districts with an idea to launch “jail bharo andolan” (fill-jail movement) after four months.
He said, “No more hunger strikes for me. I will fight by living.”
New Delhi - AAP's victory in Delhi Assembly elections will definitely catapult the fledgling party into the national center stage with non-Congress parties likely to woo it assiduously to take on the BJP both at the national and the state level. However, AAP’s real strength will be challenged soon in days to come. The BJP, smarting from the defeat, will try its best to wreck the AAP government on every front, which shouldn’t be too difficult given the glorified municipality status of the Delhi government.
The BJP government in Haryana will definitely up the ante and refuse to give water to Delhi on some pretext or the other. Delhi produces practically nothing except services and the notable exceptions of pollution and noise. It is dependent on other states for its supply of water, power, vegetables and just about everything needed in the humdrum of daily life.
Full statehood to Delhi is now certainly not on the cards because doing that under the AAP regime would be suicidal for the BJP. BJP is already being pilloried for committing several blunders, including not holding the Delhi polls while still flush from the Lok Sabha victory, and it is not likely to commit one more by offering a prize that would make the AAP preen with pride.
With the status of a rump government, AAP would find it extremely difficult to deliver on its manifesto. Law and order is a serious issue in Delhi but the AAP government would be practically fighting crime and disorder with its hands tied behind its back. It is not as if the BJP would actively connive with criminals and lumpen elements, but at the same time it will not make life easy for its incipient national arch rival AAP.
Duck for Cong, top guns lose deposits, resignations pour in
New Delhi - On a vertical slide since May 2014, the Congress today hit the rock bottom in the Capital with all its 70 candidates losing the elections. Deposit of over 60 contestants was forfeited. Among them were top guns like Congress general secretary (media) Ajay Maken, former Lok Sabha MP from Delhi Mahabal Mishra, ex-education minister of Delhi Kiran Walia and daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee Sharmishtha Mukherjee. A wave of resignations was triggered by the scale of losses with Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, who had withdrawn from the contest at the last minute, being the first to send his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Maken, chairman of the Congress campaign committee for Delhi went next followed by PC Chacko, Congress general secretary in charge of Delhi. The party rushed to insulate the Gandhis from the defeat with Chacko saying, "Three of us were leading the elections, not the Gandhis." In his resignation to Sonia, Chacko said he could not gauge the mood of the people. The party was also forced to concede its disconnect with voters and said officially, "This loss has registered strongly with us and we will take steps to reconnect with the people." Sonia and Rahul for their part were silent today except when they congratulated AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal for his historic win. Back in Congress headquarters, anxieties of workers soared and the all-pervasive silence was shattered by Delhi Congress workers who demanded Priyanka Gandhi's installation to save a depleting party. Jagdish Sharma, one protester said, "Party is more important than sycophancy. Priyanka must be brought in." Privately, some Congress leaders admitted that the Delhi shocker would exert pressurize Rahul to deliver as the leader considering starting May 2014 Lok Sabha loss, the Congress today registered its 12th consecutive defeat. Congress candidates lost heavily even in Delhi segments where Sonia and Rahul canvassed aggressively such as Badarpur and Kalkaji in South Delhi, Seelampur in North East Delhi, Sultanpur Majra in Northwest Delhi and Chandni Chowk. Worse still - Chandi Chowk went to Congress' ex leader Alka Lamba who won on AAP ticket and Sultanpur Majra, a Congress bastion of 20 years, fell despite Rahul's successful road show here. Sultanpur Majra, Asia's largest resettlement colony, was set up by Rahul's grandmother Indira Gandhi. But that also didn't help. The Congress vote share in Delhi has now fallen by 14.8 pc since the 2013 polls, coming down from 24.5 pc in 2013 to 15 per cent in Lok Sabha to 9.7 pc today. Even in this annihilation, only some Congress leaders like Chacko were talking introspection today while the rest were finding solace in BJP's loss. "What went so wrong is the question we are asking ourselves. This loss is so humungus that a Congress Working Committee meeting is likely to be called to discuss it. Our failure was our inability to gauge the erosion of our votes," Chacko said, as leaders like Digvijay Singh and Sanjay Jha used the occasion to attack BJP. While Singh tweeted, "Did RSS not help the BJP this time?" Jha mocked the PM's "Bazaaru survey" remarks. Chacko, however, said it would not help to attack the BJP and the Congress needed to put its own house in order. He was candid enough to admit that the Congress went into Delhi elections without an organisation (all committees were dissolved 10 months ago and not reconstituted); that Lovely's last minute withdrawal from the fray harmed the party and that the candidates could not find booth managers in many segments. Rahul Gandhi is, meanwhile, expected to call a meeting on Delhi results tomorrow.
Bigwigs bite the dust
Deposit of over 60 contestants was forfeited. Among them were top guns such as Congress general secretary (media) Ajay Maken, former LS MP from Delhi Mahabal Mishra, ex-education minister of Delhi Kiran Walia and daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee Sharmishtha Mukherjee
As the results poured in, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely sent his resignation to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi followed by Maken and PC Chacko. The resignation are yet to be accepted by Sonia.
Delhi election results 2015: List of AAP candidates who won by a margin of over 20,000 votes
Celebrations take place outside Aam Aadmi Party office in Patel Nagar
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has not only won an unprecedented landslide victory in the Delhi assembly election, but 45 of their candidates, out of 67 who won, decimated their opponents by a margin of 20,000 votes or more to storm into the 70-seat assembly.
The following is the list of AAP candidates who won by this margin:
Resolved to bring Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill on coming to power. Delhi Lokpal will have the power to investigate and prosecute those charged with corruption.
2.
Swaraj Bill
AAP will also bring the Swaraj Bill to devolve powers to the people.Decisions affecting the local community will be taken by citizens and implemented by their secretariat.
3.
Full statehood for Delhi
AAP will push for full statehood for Delhi. This will make bodies like DDA, MCD & Delhi Police accountable to the elected Delhi government.
4.
Electricity bills to be cut by half
AAP will ask CAG to do an audit of discoms, and convinced that they are fattening the costs, AAP will reduce electricity bills by half.
5.
Discom portability
AAP has promised to provide consumers the right to choose between electricity providers.This, they say, will create competition, leading to better services and lower tariffs.
6.
Delhi to be made a solar city
AAP will facilitate a phased shift to i renewable and alternate 5 sources of energy.
7.
Water as a right
AAP will provide universal access to clean drinking water at an affordable price. This, they say, is every citizen's right.
8.
Free water
AAP to give free 'lifeline' water of up to 20 kilolitres (20,000 litres) per month to every household. But once consumption exceeds 20 kilolitres, full amount to be charged. Annual 10% tariff hike will be abolished & hikes will be after due consideration.
9.
Reviving Yamuna
Will ensure 100% collection and treatment of Delhi's sewage through an extensive sewer network and construction of new functional sewage treatment plants.
10.
Public loos
AAP will build 1.5 lakh toilets in slums across the city and 50,000 toilets in public spaces.Of them, 1 lakh toilets will be for women.
11.
New schools
AAP will build 500 new schools with a special focus on secondary and senior secondary schools to ensure that every Delhi child has easy access to quality education.
12.
New colleges
AAP will open 20 new colleges under Delhi administration on the outskirts of the city in partnership with the villages of Delhi.
13.
Regulate fees
AAP to regulate private school fees by publishing the fee structures & accounts online.Capitation fee will be abolished.
14.
E-governance
All govt services & forms to be available online & on cellphone.Data on govt projects, progress, accounts & personnel will be posted online.
15.
Smart Delhi
AAP promised free Wi-Fi in city. It will also install 10,000 CCTVs in DTC buses, bus stands and in crowded places as a deterrent against crime.
LUBBOCK, TX – Sunday marks the 12th Anniversary of fallen Space Shuttle Columbia mission that killed all seven crew members on board. Pilot William "Willie" McCool's family remembers the tragedy. The space shuttle crashed on it's way back home on February 1, 2003. William McCool's parents, Barry and Audrey McCool, said they remember watching the news and that's when they knew, they had lost their son. “We remember the day every anniversary we think about Willie and we think about the rest of the crew,” Barry McCool said. “And the fact that these are seven heroes that are honored not just by the United States, but they are honored by the world." The Coronado High School graduate dedicated his life NASA Space Program and was the youngest crew member on Columbia. Barry McCool said he wears his son's Naval Astronaut gold wings, instead of his own, in honor of his son's memory. Barry and Audrey McCool said their son's legacy lives on through the McCool Foundation, a scholarship fund to help students pursue a college degree and the Willie McCool Memorial Half Marathon on April 11, 2015.
What caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster?
On 1 February 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia began its descent back to Earth after a 16-day mission. The crew of seven – five men and two women – had carried out some 80 experiments during their time in Earth’s orbit.
Now, they donned their pressure suits and prepared for a return to Earth.
They never made it back.
Their fate had been sealed 16 days before, when the Shuttle lifted off from Cape Canaveral. A piece of foam insulation the size of a briefcase fell off the spacecraft’s external fuel tank, cracking some of the heat-resistant tiles on the Shuttle’s left wing. The crew carried out the subsequent mission unaware their return to Earth was already doomed.
Raining debris
Just before 0900 EST, as the Shuttle re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere 200,000 feet above the United States, Mission Control suddenly lost contact. There was a chilling silence for some 20 minutes before the truth dawned; 38 miles above Texas, the Shuttle had broken apart, and all seven crew were dead.
Nasa then carried out the largest-ever ground search ever undertaken, to try and find pieces of the Shuttle. Pieces were recovered from Texas and the neighbouring states of Louisiana and Arkansas. Only around 40% of the Shuttle has been recovered – the rest remains missing, 12 years later.
But what was recovered was enough to piece together the Shuttle’s final minutes. As the spacecraft descended to Earth, travelling thousands of miles an hour, super-heated atmospheric gases rushed through the breach in the heat-resistant tiles. These tiles were designed to withstand temperatures as high as 1,650C (3,000F) as the spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Super-heated atmospheric gases forced their way into the Shuttle’s airframe through the hole in the wing, causing the Shuttle to destabilise and then disintegrate.
It turned out that the fateful collision between the insulation foam and the Shuttle had been noticed, but such incidents had occurred before without any cause for concern. But in his personal blog, former flight director Wayne Hale, who was assigned to the ill-fated mission, says that concerns about possible damage to the Thermal Protection System (TPS) had been flagged up.
He says the decision taken by Jon Harpold, the director of mission operations, was that there was no point in telling the crew their concerns, because there was nothing the Columbia’s astronauts could do about it. “He had spent his early career in shuttle entry analysis,” Hale writes. “He knew more about shuttle entry than anybody; the guidance, the navigation, the flight control, the thermal environments and how to control them. After one of the MMTs [Mission Management Teams] when possible damage to the orbiter was discussed, he gave me his opinion: 'You know, there is nothing we can do about damage to the TPS. If it has been damaged it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out?'”
In 2008,a full reviewinto the deaths of the crew ruled that they may have been aware for as long as 41 seconds that they were not in control of the ship. And while nothing could have been done to prevent their deaths – the depressurisation and extreme conditions were too much – the 400-page report suggested future spacecraft should be designed so that, when they do begin to break up in an accident, they experience the "most graceful degradation of vehicle systems and structure to enhance chances for crew survival".
The report was also highly critical of the culture within Nasa that ignored problems with the foam insulation and allowed shortcuts to be taken on other safety issues.
Columbia grounded the remaining Space Shuttle fleet for three years. On 4 July 2006, the space Shuttle Endeavour, one of the three remaining Shuttles, blasted off from Cape Canaveral to complete a successful 13-day mission in space. For the next four years, until the Shuttle fleet bowed out in 2011, the spaceships completed their missions without mishap.
