Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Please read,react,circulate and Write.Just Visit:
http://www.nandigramunited.blogspot.com/
Pl See Online Video Petition against Marichjahanpi Genocide:
http://indiainteracts.com/videos/2008/02/07/Marichjhanpi-genocide/
Maratha Manoosh was the first thing made scapegoat in Raj Thackeray riots against North Indian. It is quite symbolic Metaphor for the suicidal anti indigenous Vote bank Politics and idiologies representing Indian Polity of Sensex shining India. Valentine Global zionist white nationality has taken over as the plan to divide further this Indian geopoltics like Soviet Russia,Yugoslavia and Germany gets momentum with active roles for Indian Comradors including Centre and State Governments, Political leaders and Intelligentsia guided by uncontrollable corporate, MNC market foces.
Have you enjoyed valentine day? Have you watched all the TV shows round the clock? Rakhi sawant nautankee? Did not you see yesterday another drama involving Raj Thackeray`s arrest and release? have you not been watching the SEZ, Deport Bengali refugee drive, FDI, disinvestment, Privatisation, disinvestment, VRS, ERS, Lpg
What stupid we are? We are never agitated to see starvation! We allow to continue death Processions in Tea gardens! We are habituals of the news of peasants committing suicide countrywide! We tolerated MISA. POTA. Gujrat Genocide. Afpsa in North east and kashmir for almost five decades. Operation Blue star and so on. We have witnessed the Primeminister being planted by washington and babri Mosque demolition, Mumbai blasta> most of us enjoy the US presence in South Asia to curb Extrmism and they crush all popular Mass Mobilsations! They crushed Telengana, Shri kaulam, Dhiri Block and Naxalbari. ASny Muslim may be branded as Terrorist in this country as we are armed with Brahminical zionists heritage of intense Muslim Hatred! And we support War against Terrorism! We also are undisturbed to see US forces landing in pakistan and Benazir Bhutto killed. We had no reaction while Shaikh Mujib was killed. We silently watched continuous Refugee Influx and adjustment of Population in accordance with Vote bank Politics of colorful idiologies. We allowed them to launch Ram janma bhoomi movenment and Resurrection of Hindutva! We made Brands of Narendra Modi, Biju Patnaik and Buddhadev Bhattachary for their works of regress and depopulation. We allowed them to welcome the Butchedr Of Vietnam Henry Kissinger, Dows, Union Carbide and Salem! We are so stupid that they may provoke us to lose our sovereignity and freedom while accomodating Market forces to launch Modified Seed to destroy our Agricuture. We allowed the closure of all factroies countriwide. We saw how indigenous production system devastated. Jute and cotton Industries transformed into live graveyards. We allowed the Information Explosion to Create a consumer Blue Film culture of Valentine Nationality destrying our identity, mother languages, indigenous culture, metaphors and symbols!
Now, we dare to talk all nonsens on Martah Manoosh?
Who cares for the nationalities at all? They created jharkhand, uttarakhand and chhattisgargh to address the nationality movements there and these states became the best bases for hindutva forces which are resposible for enslaving all indigenous majority people all nationalities dividing them into six thousand castes!
Chhat Puja and Film star amitabh bacchan have become issues? Laloo Prasad challanges to celebrate CHHat in Mumbai. What chhat he was celebrating in Bihar as the Chief Minister of the most backward state? Feeder scam is an Example! Who created Amitabh Bachhan and Sachin tendulkar? Sharookh Khan and Dhoni? Deepika Padukon and sania mirza? All the Icons of Sensex Shining India!
We are ready to fight amongst us. We are always prompt to kill the soft Targets! Is raj ready to stop Anil Ambani, Muksh ambani,Tatas and all the corporates and MNCs destroying Maharashtra and maratha Manoosh! Is he ready to launch an agitation agianst privatisation of all public services requird from a Sovereign, Free, democratic wel fare state?
Who told that North Indians are responsible for dehumanisation of Maratha Manoosh?
Are outsiders responsible for the destruction of Indigenous Economy in Kolkata, New Delhi, Banglore, Gurgaon, Chandigargh, Guahati, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad and other Metroes and states of India? Is the Marath Manoosh based only in Maharashtra? Are Indian citizens not allowed to live and earn livelihood accross the Country?
Do we want to continue as a Nation or we have dicided us to disintegrate like soviet Union?
We would never know the facts in the darkness created by false Information and FALSE History written by ruling class! We would always worship the False national Leader comrador Brahmis and zionists for their struggle for False fredom. We would never know the real history of India Divided. We have not the heart to understand the struggles of the starving, dying brothers and sisters deprived of Citizenship, Purchasing power, Civil and Human rights and Mother Language! We would never fight to have jobs with our own mother tongue! We would never fight against centre and state governments depriving us of life, liberty and livelihood. It is rather very easy to cry for marathi Manoosh, Bengalies, Ahmias, Orias, Gujraties, Hindi People and kashmiries targeting outsiders in own`s Den!
So it is happening. All Political parties and leaders, so called Icons do promote Civil War and War. The forces of Peace, resistance are subverted like Nandigarm with nonissues like Rizwan love story or taslima Nasrin!
Friends , we are noty adult enough to celebrate Valentine day!
Thus, the Suicide Run goes on.
The Nation never addressed the nationality Issue! bunch of anti national feudal Hindutva forces hoisting colorful flags of all great Idiologies provoke us to fight against one another. And Lo! how the sensex goes upward after such a big Fall!
Awake! Awake my countrymen to save the Nation. Identify the Real foes of all Maratha Manosh and all Indians. We must fight this War United rock Solid!
Well!
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday apologised to the family of the man who died in stone-pelting during violent protests in Nashik against the arrest of the political leader on Wednesday.
Has Raj learnt any lesson? Bal thackeray did this all these days. Are the Maratha People liberated! narendra Modi talks all nonsense about Gujrati Nationality. So does the Killer chief Minister of West Bengal? What happened?
All SC ST OBC Minority leadres, Ministers, MPs and MLAs are so much so worried of their respective communities! Have we got any result? They get the adequate share. They have Swiss bank accounts. they get Commission and Cut Money. They have got the corporate non corporate Money power, criminal Muscle Power and almighty Media with them besides all the MNCs and Builders!
What have we got?
Nothing waits for future , our Children but Infinte darkness and Further Enslavenment. The Ruling Class divided the country.
Are we ready to allow them to make this country a disintegrated soviet Russia? Would it be the solution of all our problems and would Herald the Liberation of Maratha manoosh, Bengalies, hindi speaking people, sikhs, Muslims, Refugees, Tribals, Dalits and nationalities negelected and dipressed, repressed?
Just think! Attacking Raj thackeray won`t be a solution. it would further mobilise his Vote Bank as planned! Pin out the real culprits who condemn Raj but contribute to create situations like this countrywide!
With folded hands, I apologise to the family members of the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited employee who was killed", Raj said. He, however, denied his party had any hand in the killing and said anti-social elements were responsible for his death.
Virtually ruling out roll back of the petrol price hike, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the system would "collapse" if government continued to subsidise.
"You have to look at the country's interest," he told reporters at a function to mark the release of the Business India Year Book.He said this was done in a situation where crude import prices were rising.
"It is a marginal increase," he said on being asked whether government will roll back the hike in the wake of stout opposition by Left parties and the Opposition.
"If you go on subsidising, the fiscal system will collapse," he said.
Government on Thursday decided to increase petrol prices by Rs two and diesel by Rs one, triggering widespread criticism with Left parties and BJP saying it would hit the common man hard.The CPI(M) would organise protest rallies on Friday in West Bengal in protest against the hike in prices of petrol and diesel. Lovers across the country celebrated Valentine's Day today and expressed their feelings for their dear ones with cards, flowers, jewellery and chocolates, defying protests in several places by saffron and radical groups who dubbed the occasion as "alien culture".
What is all this about?
The concept of Maratha Manoosh is as genuine as the problems of Kashmir, North East, Tamilnadu and bengali dalit Refugees scattered countrywide!
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who has been leading the moral brigade in attacking Valentine's Day celebrations in Maharashtra, termed the occasion as "a rotten imported culture thriving on the neo-rich with easy money to squander" and asked his 'sainiks' to oppose the celebrations which are "encouraged by commercial considerations".
There were protests by the Sena, Bajrang Dal, Akhil Bhartiya Maratha Mahasangh and Students Islamic Organisation, among others, in Kolkata, Delhi, Indore, Mumbai and Coimbatore. The radical women's group Dukhtaran-e-Millat conducted "peaceful raids" in Srinagar's restaurants and shops and asked lovers to leave those places.
Nearly 44 saffron activists were arrested by police in Indore for staging protests against the celebration of Valentine's Day. However, despite all the opposition, lovers were undeterred.
Most educational institutions, parks, malls and restaurants played cupid to dreamy-eyed pairs as they took the opportunity to express their feelings.
Shops and restaurants also tried to lure in the lovers by offering special schemes while television and radio channels played love songs and special programmes throughout the day to mark the occasion.
India's external ministry has informed Taslima Nasreen that her visa will be extended but restrictions on her movements would continue says the Bangladeshi author who has been confined to a "safe house" in New Delhi.
Nasreen's visa - or residential permit - would be extended further when it expires on February 17, the writer said on Thursday.
"An external affairs ministry official told me that my permit would be extended. But I would not be allowed to move out of this place, meet friends, accept guests or return to Kolkata," Nasreen told IANS.
"I am myself surprised that I am living like this. My only hope is that one-day I will be able to return to Kolkata where I have set up a home over the years. But that is like hoping against hope going by the developments.
"I am pretty confused about the objective of the government. What purpose would it serve if I live like this?" she asked.
"I am not happy. I am living in stress. But I want to live in India and return to Kolkata. So I am bearing it all."
Nasreen, who virtually leads a prisoner's life after she was shunted out of Kolkata and then kept in a safe house in New Delhi, said her request for granting her some freedom in movement in India's capital was also shot down by the government.
A section of intellectuals continue to mobilise support for the writer whose fearless expressions on the state of women in Islam and the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh antagonised clerics and governments, forcing her to live in exile and under heavy security since the 1990s.
The international community and leading Indian intellectuals, including writers Arundhati Roy and Mahasweta Devi and theatre personalities Girish Karnad and Habib Tanvir, besides many others, are campaigning for Nasreen's freedom and Indian citizenship for her. But the government has been unmoved so far.
Nasreen, who was recently conferred the Prix Simone de Beauvoir by the French government for her writing, was not allowed to receive the award from French President Nicolas Sarkozy when he visited India last month.
The ruling Left Front in West Bengal, which is going all out to garner Muslim votes, shunted out Nasreen on November 21 last year after street riots in Kolkata over her extended stay in India.
Nasreen, who was already living confined in a Kolkata apartment, was taken first to Jaipur and then to New Delhi by the central government and has since been kept in confinement at a safe house.
In an earlier interview the 45-year-old Nasreen had said impassionedly: "I am only breathing. I don't think I am alive like you are. Can anybody live like this? It was beyond my imagination that in a secular democracy like India, such a thing could happen to a writer."
On November 30, 2007 Nasreen had agreed to expunge controversial portions from her biography "Dwikhandita" (Split in Two).
Though patriarch of the state's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Jyoti Basu said on December 25 that Nasreen was welcome to return to Kolkata, the Left Front government has chosen to remain silent on her plight, keeping Muslim sentiments in mind.
The CPI(M) leadership is holding discussion with allies of the Congress at the national level to work out a Left secular alternative, CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu said on Tuesday on the sidelines of his party's state committee meeting.
Significantly, Basu's statement came a day after general secretary Prakash Karat told delegates at the Kerala state conference in Kottayam that the Congress would have to seek fresh mandate from the people if it wanted to go ahead with strategic partnership with the US. CPI(M) sources here said Karat mentioned that his party was in favour of forming an alternative coalition — commonly referred to as the third front since the United Front government came to power in 1996 — only to contest elections but to promote a real alternative to Rightist parties promoting open market economy and globalisation. In public, however, Karat has been maintaining over the past two months that the UPA government will complete its full term.
Basu indicated on Monday that the process is on. "Karat is talking to allies of the Congress. However there is no possibility of forming a third front immediately," he said.
This is not the first time that CPI(M) leaders, including Basu, have talked about third front. The matter even came up for discussion at the party's last central committee and politburo meetings held in Kolkata last year. But that was the time when the CPI(M) was opposing the 123 Agreement in totality. Since then the Left parties have revised their stand significantly and allowed the UPA government to go ahead with the talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The CPI(M) is calling for registering protest against the hike in the prices of the petrol and diesel and the abnormal high prices of essential commodities. Protest processions will be organised all over the state on Friday," a statement issued by the party said.
It noted that the party's proposals to cut excise and customs duties to minimise the burden on the people had been completely ignored by the central government.
The party also urged all its units to organise the rallies in such a way so that those sitting for their Madhyamik examinations, beginning on Friday, does not face any inconvenience.
The West Bengal government on Thursday said that Justice (retd) Narayan Chandra Sil of the Calcutta High Court would head the one-man judicial inquiry into the February five Dinhata police firing that killed five Forward Bloc activists recently.
The panel has been asked to submit its report to the government within six months, Home Secretary P R Roy said.
The terms of reference would be announced on Friday, he said.
Immediately after the incident, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the firing.
The police fired about 30 rounds during violence at a law violation programme by the Forward Bloc at Dinhata, a stronghold of the party's late stalwart Kamal Guha in Cooch Behar district.
Strongly opposing government`s decision to hike the prices of petrol and diesel, Left parties on Thursday demanded its roll back and called for nationwide protests saying the move would contribute to the overall inflation which has already hit the common man badly.
"We protest this decision and will organise widespread protests against it. This hike was not necessary and should be withdrawn," CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told a news agency here.
He said the government`s "initial idea" was to hike petrol prices by Rs 12-16, diesel prices by Rs 12, kerosene by Rs five and LPG cylinder by Rs 150 to meet the under-recoveries. But the increase announced by the Union Cabinet on Thursday was only by Rs two for petrol and Rs one for diesel.
Maintaining that the outside supporters would demand a roll back of this hike, he said even this rise would not have been necessary if the government had restructured the ad valorem tax structure on import of petro products.
"As global oil prices rise, government`s tax revenue also grows. The extra earnings of the government due to this could have been returned to the oil companies to improve their financial position. Then there would have been no need to raise the prices and burden the already burdened common man," the CPI(M) leader said.
He said since the UPA came to power four years ago, the government had decided to hike prices twice but was forced to roll back due to Left pressure.
"So the prices of petro products today stand at the same level as before the UPA came to power. It has been forced to retreat earlier. Now too, we hope that the government will reconsider its decision," Yechury said.
Echoing similar sentiments, leaders of the CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP also called for nationwide agitation against the decision, saying their suggestions to cut excise and customs duties to minimise burden on the people had been "completely ignored" by the government.
CPI national secretary D Raja said his party was completely opposed to the decision which will have a cascading effect on the already overburdened common man.
The Left parties` suggestions not to burden the people by reducing taxes and duties to meet the hike in global prices was "completely ignored", he said, adding the CPI has directed all its units across the country to plan agitations against the government`s move.
"One fails to understand why government refuses to accept the (Left) proposals and instead obstinately persists in hiking the prices," a CPI central secretariat statement said.
Strongly condemning the increase, RSP leader Abani Roy said the government "which has come to power with the slogan of the `aam aadmi` has completely ignored the people. The people should rise against this decision".
He said Finance Minister P Chidambaram has "not at all cared for the people and the decision reflects his adamant attitude".
Protesting the hike, Forward Bloc leader G Devarajan said the government should immediately set up a price stabilisation fund to control the increase in prices of petro products.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs today decided to raise petrol and diesel prices by Rs two and Rs one a litre respectively from midnight tonight
Cupid came calling at the bourses on Thursday, with shares of jewellery firms and others engaged in the business of flowers, gifts and entertainment soaring by over 12 per cent.
But strangely, world's biggest rose grower Karuturi Networks stock dipped to lowest permissible level for the trading session.
While Tata Group's retail arm Trent witnessed a jump of nearly two per cent, shares of Titan Industries soared over 12 per cent.
Among other gainers, Greetings and gift products company Archies Ltd, leisure and infrastructure company Country Club, film distributor and exhibitor Pyramid Saimira and discount retailer Vishal Retail witnessed a surge of over four per cent each in their share prices.
Jewellery, one of the top three gift items during this special day, and this was very much evident from the share movements of leading jewellery firms. Gitanjali Gems, Vaibhav Gems and Rajesh exports each rose nearly three per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Anil Ambani-controlled entertainment company Adlabs Films registered a jump of over eight per cent while the country's leading chain of multiplexes PVR Ltd jumped as much as five per cent and multiplex operator Inox Leisure surged nearly six per cent.
The Shiv Sena has now accused the Congress and the NCP of using Raj Thackeray to weaken the Sena.
''The Congress and the NCP has used Raj Thackeray against the Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena was growing in popularity because of its stand in the Urban Land Ceiling Act, the power shortage and farmers suicides in Maharashtra,'' said the Shiv Sena said in a statement.
''These issues had increased its popularity and the congress government wanted to counter that,'' it added.
But perhaps the biggest irony of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's recent hate campaign was that four MNS workers are now charged with the murder of a Maharashtrian, a man belonging to the very community they claim to protect.
Ambadas Dharrao, an employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in Nashik was hit by a stone as he was returning from work. He was a victim of the blind rage unleashed by Raj Thackeray's politics of hate.
The four Navnirman Sena workers, accused of murder, have gone missing.
A silent protest was held in the victim's village in Niphad and people in the area shut shop as a mark of silent mourning.
''How would Raj Thackeray feel if this happened in his family? How will the victim's family cope now?'' Amar Dharrao, victim's relative.
Meanwhile, MNS chief Raj Thackeray issued an apology to the victim's family.
''I apologise to the family of the man who died in Nashik violence. I apologise with folded hands even though I'm not responsible for the death,'' he said.
Raj Thackeray claimed that unscrupulous elements, and not MNS, were responsible for the ensuing violence in Mumbai.
Ten days after a handful of streetfighters aligned with a struggling young political scion slapped two men on a local train and trashed three taxis, a political reality show fuelled by a 24/7 media ended in the arrest — and mass recognition — of Raj Shrikant Thackeray.
Its cosmopolitan image dented, India’s global city remained at peace as the emerging cities of Pune and Nashik absorbed the fallout of Raj’s bash-the-northerners campaign. Ambadas Dharao, a mechanic with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, and ironically a Maharashtrian, died in a barrage of stones hurled at a company bus in Nashik.
Experts said this would help him do what he could not in the two years that he has formed the MNS: to project himself as a young militant leader.A cartoonist-turned-politician, Raj (39), his face grim, was arrested at 4.20 pm from his terrace flat in the upper-middle class central Mumbai area of Shivaji Park, from where his estranged and aging uncle Bal Thackeray (81) has delivered diatribes against south Indians, Muslims and north Indians since 1966.
President of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Raj was squeezed into a police van and driven in a heavily guarded convoy to Vikhroli in Mumbai’s north-east and released on conditional bail.
Police and paramilitary units kept Mumbai secure, but his arrest created a fog of fear over the city. Taxis, largely driven by north Indians, went off the roads and the evening rush hour was a shadow of its usual self.
Wednesday’s arrest indicated how Raj adroitly used a 24/7 mass media in a state where television now reaches over 50 per cent of all households to gain maximum impact with minimal violence — a technique that is now being perfected in the new India by the new Indian politician. “It is rather unfortunate that some channels kept on repeating old clippings that created panic. Panic then led to rumour mongering and sporadic incidents of violence. We made more than 2,000 arrests across the state,” said state police chief PS Pasricha.
On the day of his arrest, Raj turned into a household name across India, with more than a dozen new channels playing the story through the day.
Experts said this would help him do what he could not in the two years that he has formed the MNS: to project himself as a young militant leader. The party has so far managed to bag just 31 seats in civic bodies of five cities including Mumbai.
To create that same image, Bal Thackeray and his original Sainiks had nearly shut down Mumbai in the past. "With the drama and the media hype, he (Raj) has created a household image and an identity for himself," said Mumbai University political commentator B Ventakesh Kumar. "Though it remains to be seen how long he can maintain the image, with elections around the corner he will try to create a constituency for himself on the basis of that."
In a state that is 42 per cent urban and has a population of which nearly half is below the age of 30, Raj Thackeray needs an image and agenda that will attract restless young voters unsettled by the breathless pace of economic change and globalisation.
It was that image that the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government wanted to deny Raj, so it took five days to decide on his arrest.
It was essentially a political enmity between two Thackeray cousins-Uddhav and Raj-that took another turn as Raj targeted north Indians. However, the political games have damaged Mumbai's reputation as an aspiring global city. As billions of rupees being pumped into city's booming service sector and infrastructure, can Mumbai afford to have a reputation of a city that can be brought to a halt over parochial politics?
When Ratan Tata added a touch of sarcasm while unveiling 'Nano' on Thursday saying it could have been named "Buddha" after West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya or "Despite Mamta" after Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, he may have missed out a point unwittingly.
If he knew what was happening at the Tata Motors plant at Singur where Nano is to be produced, he could have thought of another not-to-be-used title - "Despite CITU" - after the Marxists-led Centre for Indian Trade Union.
The trade union, an arm of Bhattacharya's Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was spearheading the anger against the 935-acre Tata Motors plant at Singur, some 40 km from Kolkata, where the world's cheapest car will be mass-produced.
Agitating temporary guards, many of whom lost their land to the project, stalled operations at the plant, after halting work at the vendor park when Nano was unveiled before the world in a blaze of glory.
And Bhattacharya's party was caught on the wrong foot over the agitation, since its own people disrupted work and reportedly threatened workers at the plant.
"Everything would be settled. These things happen. We have to talk. We have to explain things to the workers," said the CITU state president and CPI-M central committee member Shyamal Chakraborty.
"We will try to find out some alternative for these people," he told IANS, even as those willing to work at the factory felt intimidated.
"I was shoved out. They didn't allow me to unload the material. I have never come across such a situation," contractor Mohammed Yakub told reporters.
In fact, the ruling party had to appeal to its own government to rehabilitate the temporary workers who were hired to protect the boundary wall while it was being built and now being shown the door.
As Chakraborty tried to simplify the situation and said: "it happens", the local population, holding the same red flag as the CITU leader were clearly not amused and sought an explanation from the government.
"Outsiders cannot work here when we are being sacked," said Golok Santra, even as leaders of the local governing body admitted some of their supporters had threatened others at the project site.
While Singur remained on the boil over retrenchments, Ratan Tata was more vocal about West Bengal's industrialisation and warned that the state would remain farm-based if development was halted.
"Lack of industrialisation has hurt the people of West Bengal. If people do not want industrialisation, then it is easiest for anyone not to go to the state." The soft-spoken chairman of the Tata group said Friday.
"People of West Bengal should choose what they want. Will they like to see more prosperity of the state and more job opportunities? Industry is required and will play a role but not at the cost of the farmers. They should be adequately compensated."
Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said people of West Bengal should feel proud of the car since it will come from their state, alluding to the global headlines the Nano has grabbed as being the world's cheapest car.
His team of over 3,500 people is racing against time to meet two deadlines: one to get the plant in shape by June and then to prime it up for production by the year-end.
They hope to finally deliver the car within the deadlines so that Tata well say: "Despite Mamata, Medha, Maruti and Marxists"
Migrant workers flee Pune in hundreds
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14604999
Thursday, 14 February , 2008, 19:09
Pune: For Vishnu Singh, a construction worker from Bihar, and hundreds like him, Pune is no more the safe haven it used to be to stay and work in. Migrants like him are leaving the city in droves in the wake of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) campaign "Maharashtra for Maharashtrians."
The MNS' chauvinistic campaign has dashed Singh's dreams of setting up home in the city with his family of four kids and wife. Now he is arranging for tickets for his family and himself to leave the city as soon as possible.
"I am the sole bread winner of the family, and life comes first. Anybody can harm us, I do not want to take any chances, so leaving Pune is best for us," Singh told IANS.
Hundreds of construction and factory workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata are preparing to leave the city they had made their home.
According to Pune Railway spokesperson Y.K Singh, 8,369 people booked tickets to leave the city in the general category on Wednesday between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.
In all 15,598 passengers took trains to return to their native places in northern India on Wednesday. Pune Railway Station saw sale of tickets to the tune of Rs.1.5 million as against Rs.500,000 sold last Wednesday.
According to Singh, the trains running jam-packed are the Poona-Darbangha to Bihar, Jhelum Express to Jammu-Tavi via New Delhi and the Azad Hind Express to Howrah.
The revolt against north Indian workers by the MNS has left a deep sense of insecurity among migrants like Singh though the police have beefed up security.
Meanwhile, the reaction among Maharashtrians in Pune over the backlash on migrants from north India is mixed.
Shankar Deshmukh, 56, a painter by profession, says: "It's wrong, we are one country, such thoughts are not justified."
However, Sumant More, a government employee, opines: "I fully support the cause, after all Maharashtra also has lot of talented people."
MNS chief Raj Thackeray's remarks 10 days ago triggered violence by his party workers against north Indian migrants, particularly from Uttar Pradesh and Biahr, settled in Mumbai.
Market expects a neutral budget, hopes for tax cuts
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=07cc0afd-92b5-480c-8c5d-e1b8612779fb&&Headline=Market+expects+a+neutral+budget%2c+hopes+for+tax+cuts
MC Vaijayanthi, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, February 14, 2008
It is the last budget before the incumbent government goes to polls and stock markets and investors expect it to be a benign budget. There has been enthusiasm over the possibility of a reduction in income tax rates.
"Though it may not be economically possible to have a tax
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