Patna: With the BJP and Shiv Sena on the verge of losing whatever little relationship they share after ending their 25-year alliance, Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi o n Monday empathised with the Maharashtra party and described BJP as an “unreliable” partner.

Manjhi justified his party JD(U) severing ties with BJP in June last year on this ground.

“BJP has been going against the agreed principles of bonding and is working against Constitution…considering this JD(U) took a decision to part company with BJP,” Manjhi told reporters on the sidelines of “Janata Ke Darbar Me Mukhya Mantri” programme.

Seeking to clear the impression that JD(U) severed ties with BJP due to former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s rivalry with Narendra Modi, the Bihar CM said, “It was not only decision of Nitish Kumar but a consensus view in the JD(U) National Executive to end ties with the saffron party.”

Criticising BJP for drum beating that there are eight ministers from Bihar in Narendra Modi cabinet, Manjhi said, “do not go by numbers, the state has been slighted by not being given any Cabinet berth in yesterday’s expansion.”

“First timers like Smriti Irani have been made Cabinet minister but seasoned politicians like Rajiv Pratap Rudy who had been a minister at the Centre earlier has not been given due honour,” he said.

Even Ramkripal Yadav, who is fourth term Lok Sabha member has been made minister of state, he said to drive home his point.

The Bihar CM pooh poohed BJP’s claims of not promoting dynastic politics and referred to the appointment of Jayant Sinha who is the son of former Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, in support of his argument.

Manjhi hit out at the Centre for cutting developmental fund to Bihar by around Rs 7,000 crore.

“I have sought an appointment with Prime Minister to draw his attention towards this lowering of fund flow under schemes like Indira Awas and others…I will also remind him (PM) about his promise to give special category status and special package to Bihar,” he added.

Jumping out of buildings, running through barbed wire, flying makeshift planes and digging secret tunnels — all desperate measures used by people to flee East Berlin after the wall went up.

Those images and memories flooded back into Germany’s collective conscious on Sunday, as the nation celebrated 25 years since the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.

On November 9, 1989, tens of thousands of Germans literally tore it down by hand — using their fists, pickaxes, sledgehammers and shovels.

Then East Germany’s communist government helped, heaving away chunks of it by crane, as its citizens streamed into the West and its one-party oligarchy collapsed.

Freedom and ultimately a united Germany emerged from the bitter Cold War that had separated Berlin since the first concrete barrier went up in 1961.

How ‘The Tiger’ fought the East German Stasi

Berlin today

In the years since the Wall came down, the city has undergone a massive transformation as people and money poured into the former East Berlin.

Berlin now shines as a crown jewel of central Europe. It’s a far cry from the city and the country that were bombed to ruins during World War II. And Germany is now the world’s fourth largest economy and the driving market in the European Union.

On Sunday, thousands of Berliners, dignitaries and visitors from around the world gathered around the city’s iconic Brandenburg Gate to remember the moment that many thought would never come.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the fall of the Berlin Wall sends “a message of hope and that dreams can come true, nothing has to stay as it is, even if it’s difficult.”

People are also visiting the East Side Gallery, the longest part of the wall still standing — measuring 2.2 kilometers or 1.6 miles.

Most of the Wall was dismantled in the immediate aftermath and much of it was sent to other countries. There are parts of the Wall at the United Nations headquarters in New York as well as U.S. embassies and presidential libraries.

25 things you love about Berlin

Grandiose work of art

Mayor: I’m proud of Berlin

The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall

Fleeing East Berlin at all costs

A grandiose performance art celebration on Sunday is to symbolize the disappearance of the wall.

The “Lichtgrenze” (Border of Light) was placed along the former path of the Berlin Wall. It comprises thousands of illuminated white helium balloons — to be released into the sky after a performance by the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.

In a more somber ceremony, candles will burn at the National Memorial for the Victims of the Berlin Wall. Two hundred people were killed while trying to escape, many of them shot by border guards, others succumbing to accidents.

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit says he hopes the ceremonies will spread hope to people around the world.

“When the wall came down it was a signal to the world that freedom is possible,” he said. “There are many other walls in the world and people who do not live free. We want them to watch these ceremonies and events and be inspired by them.”

New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS) Budget carrier AirAsia’s Indian arm Sunday launched a week-long sale offer for its entire network with one-way tickets at prices as low as Rs.699, including taxes.

The offer comes as part of the Malaysia-based parent company’s ‘Big Sale’ with three million promotional seats on its network from Kuala Lumpur, with the starting fare of Rs.2,599 for international flights operated by AirAsia Berhad and Thai AirAsia, the airline said in a statement.

AirAsia’s offer of Rs.2,599 would be available on flights from Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Tiruchirappalli and Hyderabad to Kuala Lumpur operated by AirAsia Berhad and Chennai to Bangkok flown by Thai AirAsia, the release added.

AirAsia India is offering an all inclusive one-way fare starting from Rs.699 for flights from Bengaluru to Chennai, Kochi, Goa, Jaipur and Chandigarh and vice versa.

Tickets can be booked on Airasia’s website from Sunday night till Nov 16, for travel period from June 10 next year to Jan 17, 2016, the company said.

“The ‘Big Sale’ offer would allow our guests to plan their travel early with extremely low fares,” said AirAsia India chief executive Mittu Chandilya.

If you’ve been wondering where ‘TV Queen’ Mona Singh has disappeared, we’ve got news. Last heard she was having ‘Zed Plus’ security cover as someone had splashed a bucket of cold water on her face!
Hang on; we are talking about Zed Plus a film by Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi in which Mona has a pivotal role. More importantly, for Mona it has been a dream come true to be part of a song in which water has been splashed on her face in slow motion.
“As a child, I was always mesmerized when water was thrown on a heroine’s face in slow motion. It has been my dream to feature in a sequence like that. It was a trend started by choreographer Bhushan Lakandri in 1942 A Love Story,” says Mona.
Not only has Mona been able to fulfil her dream but the song in which she has been featured, has been choreographed by Bhushan Lakandri himself! Working with the legendary choreography was an added bonus for Mona.
Zed Plus is not your typical Bollywood film with ‘zero plot’, dancing around trees and digitalized fight sequences; it’s a political satire in which the ‘Dancing Diva’ has a rustic role.

Mona is not saying anything more than this at this stage, but she assures us that this one is going to be a laugh riot.

New Delhi: Former president of India APJ Abdul Kalam`s office on Monday rejected reports of his ill health saying that the 82-year-old is absoutely fine.

A news report quoted Kalam’s private secretary saying that the rumours have been doing rounds about the nuclear scientist ill health. He rejected the reports and said someone is playing mischief.
Meanwhile, Kalam has been awarded an honorary degree by Scotland`s prestigious University of Edinburgh for his contribution to science and technology.

“The award presented by University Principal and Vice Chancellor Timothy O`Shea is in recognition of Dr Kalam`s outstanding contribution to science and technology, and his commitment to helping transform India into a developed nation by 2020,” it said.
Kalam, who served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007, received the degree during a dinner held in his honour on May 15, the varsity said.

The 82-year-old is regarded as the father of his country`s space programme and in recent years, has campaigned to highlight the plight of India`s rural poor, advocating the use of technology to address social and economic inequalities.

Imagine living in a nation where you, a member of the majority, are unable to read the label of the medicine you must give your child, the menu at a local restaurant or even the warning signs of the road; a place where you are unable to comprehend the government document officiating your driver’s license, tax filing or marriage. This is the world that hundreds of millions of Indians live in simply because the elite prefer English. This discrimination has become so systemic that the elite and middle classes send their children to English private schools while the vast poor send theirs to the government schools of their mother tongue. One need not mention that universities and even government jobs require fluency in English, as mandated by the ruling elite. Therefore, a person’s socioeconomic status in Indian society is approximately in line with his or her fluency in the language. In other words: a new caste system.
It is incomprehensible that the majority of people in India are being oppressed by the mere lack of knowledge of a language. By not having medical instructions, food ingredient labels and nutritional information, government forms, access to the courts and politicians, street signs, and even movie tickets in their mother tongue, they are being harmed in the most discriminatory of manners. This goes beyond a basic democratic right to just being inherently illogical and prejudiced. Make no mistake, simply because an auto driver, a maid or a store employee knows his or her numbers, colors and a few other cursory words in English does not mean they truly speak it, let alone read it. Moreover, the academic conversation on this matter is controlled by those in the cities while the situation is much more dire in the towns, villages, hamlets and tribal regions.
Why English has become the language of the elite
There is an enormous range of nuanced reasons as to why English has become the language of the elite and of governance in India, even putting aside the original Macaulyism. It remains that Indians have come to believe that their nation’s prosperity, as well as their own, is wholly dependent upon not just learning English, but exclusively learning it as a first language. It began with the travelled elite, boomed within the middle class that was hired by multinational companies, and trickled to the vast majority hoping to escape their destitution but unable to afford private English education. Curiously, many states in India have attempted to make English the medium of instruction for all schools in an attempt to assuage the demands of the poor; however, the shortage of teachers who can even speak English is surreal. All of this while the vast majority is able to communicate in their respective mother tongues.
The most spoken languages in India, according to India’s census data, are Hindi (422m), Bengali (83m), Telugu (75m), Marathi (71m), Tamil (60m), Urdu (51m), Gujarati (46m), and Punjabi (29m). As such, the states in India are generally drawn on linguistic lines with each state having a history of literature, art, dance, politics and value system that is its own; being similar to the European Union in this regard. Take Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, for example, where Telugu is the local language: These two states combined have a larger population than France, South Korea and Turkey. However, unlike these nations, the language of the majority is falling into disarray because of strict English use with a prejudice due to governments and companies needlessly conducting intrastate business (with great difficulty) in English when they could reach far more people in the local language. While it is true that English is integral for communication between states, the Central Government and foreign companies, is it really necessary to use it within a state where most people have the same mother tongue? To be perfectly clear, no reasonable person could advocate that English should not be taught. In fact, it would be imprudent not to teach the modern lingua franca (or inglese if you so please) but there is no reason to believe that people could not be fluent if they learn it from their early years onwards as a second language. That is what is done in so many other nations like Sweden, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Greece, Finland, Italy, Egypt, and so forth.
Only about 30% can speak English
The statistics on English speaking ability tends to be unreliable for a host of political reasons, but it is generally accepted that somewhere in the range of 30% are able, to varying degrees, speak English—though only a third have some semblance of reading and writing aptitude. Still, it is unadorned disenfranchisement and an embarrassing plight for the other 70-80% of Indians. Contextually, this would mean anywhere from 770-900 million people are being oppressed on a daily basis. Even if one subtracts the 25-30% who are illiterate (another matter entirely), this is still about 577-630 million. For argument’s sake, let us say that this affects only 200 million people: this is still thrice the population of the U.K. Is this acceptable for a purportedly “socialist democracy?” Of the myriad of India’s social constructs this is possibly the simplest matter to amend and remedy.
To explore the matter at a more foundational level, all development begins with education, and education, of course, stems from language. Yet, language is much more than a means of communication; it determines the books one reads, the television programs one watches, the ideas one is exposed to, the values one holds, one’s personal interests, and one’s career opportunities. In essence, it defines our identities. Therefore, what is perhaps most damning is that because of this favoritism afforded to the English language the cultures of India are dying as they lose out on generations of authors, activists, actors, artists, playwrights, innovators, orators, and businesspersons who would have otherwise contributed to, and enriched, their own language.
What the private sector is doing to help
What is most fascinating in all this is that it is companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Samsung which are reaching out and providing the tools to the people and the state governments to advance the local languages. Consider that Google revamping Andhra Pradesh’s IT system to make it Telugu input friendly or that Samsung is leading the charge in providing phones with local language capabilities even while local leaders post their campaign signs in English.
It seems evident that in the case of India and elsewhere, multiple languages ought to be taught and be taught well to allow individuals not only to operate in a globalized world but to also bring together local communities that have been fractured and segregated by the economics of language. It remains the obligation of the local governments to guarantee the enfranchisement of the people, remove the artificial socioeconomic barriers of language, and encourage social mobility. In the mean time, Indians have private sector ingenuity to thank for the advancement of their languages.

Pirates of the Caribbean star Keira Knightley says she does not mind going topless in front of the camera at all.

The 29-year-old actor has recently gone topless for a magazine cover, reported E!Online.

“I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters.
“And that (shoot) was one of the ones where I said, ‘OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch’.  Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are,” she said

PUNJAB, India — Here in Khem Karan, a bustling town of 12,000 on the border with Pakistan, young men speed down narrow roads on motorbikes, stopping at street corners where they linger in groups, chain-smoking cigarettes for hours.

This is Punjab’s future — the next generation of husbands and fathers, and three-quarters of the workforce.

These young men suffer from two serious and interconnected problems: unemployment and drug abuse — the latter fueled by cheap, synthetic opiates and heroin smuggled over the border.

Punjab state now has the second most underemployed workforce in the country. Only 448 of 1,000 people are fully employed, according to the Labor Ministry. And experts believe a lack of jobs is feeding rampant drug use, creating a vicious cycle that renders young men incapable of working if jobs ever materialize.

The state government estimates that at least half of its youth are affected by addiction. A study by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies found that 65 percent of the families in the district that includes Khem Karan count at least one drug addict among their members.

Rahul, a good-humored 23-year-old Khem Karan resident, represents this demographic.

A former athlete, he started using heroin at the age of 20, while toiling at a monotonous job at the nearby wheat processing plant. Rahul, whose last name was withheld for protection, said his co-workers were nervous that he — then the only non-user in the group — would report them and eventually convinced him to try heroin.

“I just became happy, I just wanted to sleep,” he said, recalling his first hit.

Sitting in his modest home, old sports awards and medals arranged behind him, Rahul said his personal habit soon turned into a profession. Like his friends, he would sell 15 to 20 grams of heroin daily, taking in up to 25,000 rupees (about $415) per day — more than what he earned in a month selling grain. But that didn’t help his financial status. He habitually squandered his earnings on drugs and new clothes.

Meanwhile, his goal of getting a government job was sidelined.

“I used to think of drugs first thing when I woke up in the morning,” he said.

Young people like Rahul are easy prey for major drug dealers, who are sometimes from wealthy or political families, said Satinder Vir Singh, a district officer for secondary education.

For generations, families in Punjab sustained themselves through the lucrative agriculture industry. As they grew wealthier and children attended school, communities started to place more value on jobs that require less labor. Parents urged the next generation to work in an office or with the government.

But at a town hall meeting in the village of Valtoha, about 8 miles from Khem Karan, the handful of young men present said they couldn’t find a job after graduation. Nineteen-year-old Manpreet Singh said he was asked to give a 500,000-rupee (about $8,300) bribe for a government job. And 22-year-old Lakvinder Singh has been waiting for a response about a Forest Department job for eight months.

Singh, the education officer, said most students are searching for “white-collar jobs” but that the current market can’t absorb the influx of graduates with these goals. Being stuck in this limbo, he said, makes them vulnerable.

“If you’re idle and don’t have a job, if you’re not going to school and not looking for any future prospects, then frustration will come to mind. Idle mind is a devil’s workshop — so this is when drugs step in.”

Many citizens blame the government. There are currently ten government addiction treatment centers in a state of nearly 30 million people, and there’s little education or awareness about the problem.

Law enforcement also falls short. Police only take action to recover large amounts of drugs. Avtar Singh, a police inspector in Valtoha, said his staff don’t file paperwork for anyone they catch selling or using less than five grams of heroin. Singh said most of the reported crimes, like theft or violence, are now related to addiction. And a study from Guru Nanak Dev University found that narcotics-related crimes in Punjab are nine times the national average.

“Parents come to the police when it’s extreme. Usually they try to protect their children at first and then talk about it after it’s out of control,” Singh said.

While communities are pessimistic about the government’s ability to rebuild a faltering generation, some citizens are trying to find solutions.

Pawan Sharma, 26, started volunteering for a nonprofit anti-drug organization, Smile for Life, when his older brother became addicted to heroin after a bad breakup with his girlfriend. Sharma’s middle-class family eventually paid 50,000 rupees — about half the per capita annual income of a Punjab resident — to send his brother to a rehabilitation center.

Sharma said he recognized that few families in Khem Karan could afford the hefty fees of the remote centers. So in recent years he has worked to organize temporary rehab camps focused on counseling and educating youth.

“There is awareness only in cities,” he said. “It should be in villages too.”

Brij Bedi, a longtime activist and educator based in the city of Amritsar, said both Punjab’s drug epidemic and unemployment are symptoms of the same, much larger disease — one rooted in poor governance.

Grey-haired and gruff, Bedi founded the Citizen Forum Vidya Mandir in 1999, an elementary and middle school in Maqboolpura, a neighborhood called the “locality of widows” because of the number of men lost to drug-related deaths. Political greed, he said, had left dismal schools and poor health care in Punjab.

“It’s not drugs that’s affecting the youth,” he said from his office, the noise of children resounding behind him. “It’s lack of infrastructure which is hindering in creating more jobs and opportunities.”

Even so, there are some signs that the government is finally listening: In mid-June, the state government of Punjab announced a plan to offer free medical treatment and to create 22 more detox centers. And within the next year, India will introduce a new education curriculum, the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework, to offer tangible skills training such as retail management and automobile maintenance to anyone enrolled in a public high school.

Meanwhile, young men like Rahul will continue to fight a battle between their broken dreams and the reality they see every day on the street corners and alleys of their neighborhood. After receiving treatment at a nearby drug rehabilitation center, he is back at home and sober. But he has yet to re-enter the workforce.

“I want to go abroad because there’s no good job here,” he said. “The only jobs available here are drugs-related jobs. That’s where the money is.”

NEW DELHI — India is a fast-moving country where millions adopt new technologies overnight, but where age-old problems like human trafficking, bribe paying and female harassment are still rife.

Now campaigners have harnessed the power of smartphones and the internet to solve India’s social problems and help to right the country’s many wrongs.

Take child trafficking, an evil India has not been able to shake off despite years of policing effort, government legislation and the dogged work of NGOs. Every hour, at least 11 children go missing in India, according to the Home Ministry. Millions end up as beggars, prostitutes or modern-day-slaves.

Two techies have come up with Helping Faceless, an app to help combat child trafficking and kidnapping. The idea is simple: Click a picture of a child you see roaming the streets and upload it on the app. Once the picture is uploaded, a search engine tries to match it with any previous records. It uses a mixture of face recognition and crowdsourcing as its tech backbone.

“The matching is handled by the app itself. If a match is found, the app forwards the information about the child’s whereabouts to the relevant NGO who then helps connect these children with their respective families,” says Shashank Singh, one of the app’s creators.

Apps have been created to help keep women safe as well, particularly after the horrific gang rape and death of a young woman in Delhi in December 2012.

A website called safecity.in was set up soon after to help women document their experiences of sexual harassment in public spaces. The perps are not named and women can report the incidents anonymously.

“Most women have faced with some form of harassment or abuse, yet many do not talk about it. They do not even go to the police to make an official complaint. Safecity aims to capture this information and make the problem — which is currently invisible — visible,” says the website’s founder Elsa D’Silva.

Social media, GPS and simple web design tools have been the key drivers of the good Samaritan.

Location tools help to identify patterns, says D’Silva.

“Our website aggregates the data into hotspots or location-based trends, which in turn help to find solutions for women. If we were able to find trends, we can prevent it from happening,” she says.

Bribery is another of India’s long-standing problems. Every year billions of rupees change hands in exchange for getting things done. Ordinary citizens are forced to pay money for almost anything — from doctor’s certificates to police dealings.

People power has been harnessed to combat the issue. A website called ipaidabribe.com invites people to pipe up on any bribe they paid, where they did it and how much it cost.

The site aims for social change on a wider scale.

“We are trying to give an opportunity for Indian citizens to report on bribes they have paid, which has [previously] been in the realm of speculation,” said K Venkatesh, one of the people behind the site.

“We are trying to collect data from citizens so that we can use it push for process reforms and change in attitudes across the board,” said Venkatesh.

It appears that the dream of Gandhian India is well and alive in the 21st century.

“I want to take the spirit of helping others and really scale it on a level where millions of people are looking out for each other,” says Singh.