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Comrades out for crumbs
Remember ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy). ANHAD, a front organisation of SAHMAT, had organised a controversial exhibition in Ayodhya depicting Ram and Sita as brother-sister in 1992 when Arjun Singh was the HRD minister in P.V. Narasimha Rao govern-ment. With the UPA government in-charge at Centre and Arjun Singh back in HRD, ANHAD is back with a bang. Now, they have prepared a package of 15 docu-lectures, four documentray films and one audio CD on ?communalism?, which they claim covers almost every issue on communalism. Gauhar Raza has converted the lectures into documentaries of 25-minute duration each.
The package named In Defence of Our Dreams contains the following: Legacy of the Freedom Movement by Prof. Mridula Mukherjee, Secularism as a Constitutional Right by Mihir Desai, History of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by Pralay Kanungo, Civil Society and State: Lessons from Gujarat by Harsh Mander, Caste, Dalits and Fascism by Prof. S.K. Thorat, Gender: Issues, Movement & Interrelation with Communal Politics by Nivedita Menon, The Urgency to Resist Fascist Forces by Prof. Bipin Chandra, Media: An Arena for Struggle by Rajdeep Sardesai, Communalisation of Education and History by Rizwan Qaisar, Is Ayodhya Just a Physical Site by Dr. K.M. Shrimali, Cultural Roots of Communalism by K.N. Panikkar, Facts & Myths by Ram Punyani, Formation of Indian Identity by Sohail Hashmi, Gujarat before and after Carnage by Digant Oza, Communalism, Nationalist Chauvinism & India-Pakistan Hostility by Praful Bidwai.
The package also contains four documentaries: Final Solution: Documentary on Gujarat by Rakesh Sharma, In Dark Times and Evil Stalks the Land by Gauhar Raza, Unheard Voices by Saeed Mirza.
All for a job
There is a great imbalance between registration and placement of the Central and state governments services filled during 2003 through the Employment Exchanges. As a consequence, the number of job-seekers on the Live Register witnessed a continuous increase over the years. An analysis of Employment Exchange statistics by the Employment Directorate in the Central Ministry of Labour has revealed that there were about 4 crore 14 lakh persons waiting for jobs on December 31, 2003. The number of job-seekers varied between 50.6 lakh to 64.2 lakh from 1994 to 2000. The number of vacancies notified also varied between 2.2 lakh to 4.2 lakh.
The interesting fact is that the Employment Exchange notified maximum number of vacancies (68.3 thousand) in Gujarat, even after the misinformation campaign against the state government and the law and order situation by Congress and Left parties. On the contrary, the so-called red bastion topped the list of unemployed persons with the maximum number of 67.2 lakh job-seekers in West Bengal, whereas Kerala was on fourth rank with 36.4 lakh job-seekers during 2003.
Is Sonia Gandhi unhappy?
Congress President Sonia Gandhi is annoyed with recent bureaucratic changes in the Government of India. This is evident from her reported remarks, ?Why the blue-eyed boys of the previous government were given soft-landing.?
Enquiry against former Bada Babu?
There is a strong rumour in the power corridors of Delhi darbar that the UPA government has instituted an enquiry against a former Cabinet Secretary, Kamal Pande. Although picked by NDA government and made Home Secretary and later Cabinet Secretary, Pandey turned down the last-day requests made by PMO and Finance Minister by keeping some matters pending for next government. With this he tried to maintain the so-called balance and his image of a non-partisan person but the new regime dumped him unceremon-iously from the coveted post of Cabinet Secretary in one stroke.
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