8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

1/32

New York: The UN declared

International Day of Yoga is being cele-

 brated the world over on June 21. The

Government of India too has lined up

and supported a wide array of events in

countries around the world, including

United States. In Washington DC, on

June 21, Embassy of India is organizing

a day-long event at the National Mall in

collaboration with various yoga organi-

zations. In New York, Times Square is

the leading official public site for IDY

and dignitaries from the UN and India

will attend the.

The South Asian Timese x c e l l e n c e i n j o u r n a l i s m

excellence in journalism SPIRITUAL AWARENESS 30

Vol.8 No. 3 May 23-29, 2015 60 Cents New York Edition Follow us on TheSouthAsianTimes.info

US AFFAIRS 9 BOLLYWOOD 18

Baghdad: The Islamic State terror group

now controls over half of Syrian territory

after seizing Thursday the village and

archaeological site of Palmyra, activists

monitoring Syria's civil war said.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told

the Associated Press the extremists overran

the archaeological site, just to the southwest

of the modern settlement on Palmyra. “But

the important thing also is they now control

50% of Syria,” he said.

The Washington Post added that ISIS forti-

fied its hold on Palmyra, seizing a prison and

airport while leaving behind a trail of decapi-

tated bodies in the city.

In Damascus, state TV acknowledged that

 pro-government forces had withdrawn from

the town.

An activist in the central province of Homs

who goes by the name of Bebars al-Talawy

said ISIS has taken over the ruins at the

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

arrived back in New Delhi on Tuesday night

after his six-day, three-nation tour that took 

him to China, Mongolia and South Korea.

Modi, who left on May 14, spent three days

in China. He visited Xi’an, Beijing and

Shanghai, and held talks with the Chinese

leadership.

Commenting on Modi’s China visit,

Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)

 president Sumit Mazumder said, "Both the

governments have demonstrated their com-

mitment to take bilateral economic relation-

ship to a new level. A wide array of opportu-

nities has opened up for Indian businesses in

China. Modi went to Mongolia on May 17, becoming the fir st

SPORTS 25

Continued on page 4

Continued on page 4

The Class of 2015 posing with the Board of Trustees, Deans, Faculty and Chief Financial Officer of Xavier University School of Medicine (Aruba) at its commencement ceremony held May 16 in Long Island.

A view of 2000-year-old Palmyra ruins, s UNESCO World HeritageSite. The archaeological site and town museum are now in danger 

of being destroyed and looted by ISIS.

Xavier holds graduation ceremony for Class of 2015

Report and more pictures on page 15.

ISIS controlshalf of Syriaafter Palmyra

takeover

Modi woos all, winds up three-nation tour

PM Shri Narendra Modi with the Chinese Premier,Mr. Li Keqiang, during the Ceremonial Welcome

at Great Hall of People in Beijing, China on May 15.See pages 11 and 16-17 for reports and

pictures on Modi’s 3 -nation tour.

Starting this issue The South AsianTimes will publish a regular page (seepage 2) on International Day of Yoga.

A Global Celebration of Yoga

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

2/32

By Parveen Chopra 

Yoga has been growing

exponentially – and organi-

cally - worldwide in the

 past few decades, but credit goes to

Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 

taking the initiative to get the

United Nations to declare June 21

as International Day of Yoga (IDY)

to be observed every year.

The resolution in the UN GeneralAssembly on Dec 11, 2014,

endorsed by a record 177 members,

recognized that “yoga provides a

holistic approach to health and

well-being, and that wider dissemi-

nation of information about the

 benefits of practising yoga would

 be beneficial for the health of the

world population.” The resolution

invited all nations, UN and world

organizations as well as civil socie-

ty and NGOs to observe IDY to

raise awareness of the benefits of 

 practising yoga.

The UN resolution followed

Modi’s call during his address to

UNGA on Sept 27 last year wherein

he stated: “Yoga is an invaluable

gift of India's ancient tradition. It

embodies unity of mind and body;

thought and action; restraint and

fulfillment; harmony between man

and nature; a holistic approach to

health and well-being. It is not

about exercise but to discover the

sense of oneness with yourself, the

world and nature.”

June 21 was picked beause it is

the Summer Solstice and marks the

transition in the Sun’s celestial pas-

sage from north to south. This year 

June 21 falls on a Sunday.

Lauding Modi, the Art of Living

founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who

himself had earlier lent support for a yoga day, said, “Official recogni-

tion by the UN would further 

spread the benefit of yoga to the

entire world.” Sri Sri and Sadhguru

Jaggi Vasudev (founder of Isha

Yoga) are girding the globe to head-

line events attended by thousands in

the run up to IDY.

Yoga is at least 5,000-year-old

and one of the six systems of Indian

 phi losop hy. It wa s codi fi ed by

Maharishi Patanjali in 200 AD as

Yoga Darshan, containing 195 Yoga

Sutras. At its core is the eightfold

 path or Ashtanga Yoga containing

observances and practices for the

holistic growth of a human being - physical, moral, mental and spiritu-

al. Yoga’s literal meaning of union

(of individual consciousness with

universal consciousness) lays out

its higher reaches. Yoga to most

 people today may mean the prac-

tice of asanas – physical postures,

 but Patanjali’s treatise has only one

sutra about postures- sthira-sukham

asanam, which translates from

Sanskrit as: posture should be sta-

 ble and comfortable. So where are

the numerous asanas practised inyoga classes coming from? The

answer is: from the age-old Hatha

Yoga tradition. The modern revival

of yoga can be traced to T.

Krishnamacharya, who started

teaching it from Mysore in 1924.

Among his students prominent in

 popularizing yoga in the West were

B.K.S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois

(Viniyasa Yoga). Another major 

stream of influence within India

and abroad has been Swami

Sivananda of Rishikesh and his

equally formidable disciples includ-

ing Swami Vishnu-devananda

(Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers)

and Swami Satyananda (Bihar School of Yoga). Lately Baba

Ramdev’s yoga-pranayama mix for 

curing ailments has taken India by

storm. Yoga also received a fillip

with the introduction of Indian spir-

ituality to the West starting with

Swami Vivekananda’s iconic

address to the Parliament of the

World’s Religions in 1893 in

Chicago. Followed meditation

movements of Yogananda

Paramahamsa, TM guru Maharishi

Mahesh Yoga, Swami Muktananda,Osho Rajneesh, Yogi Bhajan, and

more recently Sri Sri. Their sys-

tems had a yoga component.

Today, yoga is practiced by an

estimated 300 million people

worldwide. In the western coun-

tries, you can find a yoga studio

almost every few blocks. In the US,

the number of yoga practitioners is

estimated to be over 30 million. A

survey by the redoubtable National

Institutes of Health (NIH) reported

that in 2012, nearly 10% of US

adults and 3% of children partici-

 pated in yoga, almost double than

the number a decade earlier.

The purists can argue that in itscurrent form, yoga has been

reduced to a set of physical exercis-

es. But the practitioners must be

liking it, enjoying it and benefitting

from it enough to continue to spend

their time and money on the prac-

tice. Besides, the asana practice,

unlike gym workouts, does create a

sense of peace and equanimity – a

meditative state in short. Interest is

also kindled in practitioners about

yoga’s other dimensions and its ori-

gins. Yoga is part of India’s great

heritage.

UNESCO’s director general Irina

Bokova, who met PM Modi inParis earlier this year, affirmed that

yoga is in the list of elements to be

considered by the Intangible

Heritage Committee for inscription

on UNESCO's register. She added

that UNESCO's general conference

in October will also look to endorse

IDY Modi launched a portal

(www.Idayofyoga.Org) for the

International Day of Yoga on April

10 from Paris while addressing a

gathering at UNESCO headquar-

ters. The portal gives details of 

events and venues connected with

the IDY, besides videos on individ-

ual yoga postures. The Government

of India has planned to celebrate the

IDY in countries around the world,

including United States. In

Washington DC, on June 21,

Embassy of India is organizing a

day-long event at the National Mall

in collaboration with various yoga

organizations, and community bod-

ies. In New York, Times Square is

the leading official public site for 

IDY and dignitaries from the UN

and India are scheduled to attend.

Times Square Alliance has been

holding a mass yoga session on

Summer Solstice for the last 13years. Undoubtedly, the global

observance of the Yoga Day and

hundreds of related events will

make millions of people to become

aware of the tenets of yoga,

encouraging many to follow a yogic

lifestyle. IDY, one hopes, will pro-

vide an opening for the world com-

munity to realize human oneness,

and move beyond war and strife

towards peace and harmony.

 In the run up to the International 

 Day of Yoga, this is the first in a

 series of articles written by Parveen

Chopra, Managing Editor of The

South Asian Times. He is also

 founder of Indi a’s fi rst spir itua l 

magazine, Life Positive, and a

teacher of meditation.

2 May 23-29, 2015   TheSouthAsianTimes.info YOGA

The global observance of the International Day of Yogawill make millions of people to become aware of the tenets of 

yoga, encouraging many to follow a yogic lifestyle,creating health and harmony.

Credit for UN declaration of International Day of Yoga goes to the initiative taken by Prime Minister Modi, himself a lifelong 

practitioner of yoga and pranayama.

Sri Sri at Lincoln Center

R enowned humanitari-

an & spiritual leader 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 

will speak on ‘Yoga: A New

Dimension’ at Licln Center,

 NYC, on June 21.

The event is pre-

sented by Sri Sri

founded Art of 

Living and

Global Citizen

F o r u m

launched by Dr 

B K Modi, a

t e c h n o l o g y

futurepreneur and an advo-

cate of global conscious-

ness, and Consulate

General of India, NY. The

event to be attended by

5,500 people, celebrates the

rich heritage of yoga

through dance, music and

meditation. Sri Sri is expect-

ed to elucidate that yoga is

more than just stretches,

 pose s and an elas tic body.

Yoga is more than a calm,

 peaceful state of mind. The

ancient secrets of hoga holdthe key to a new dimension

in your life - a dimension

 beyond body and mind.

Events galore at Ganesh Temple

The Hindu Temple Society of North

America will celebrate

International Day of Yoga on June

21 at the Ganesh Temple in Flushing with

a slew of activities. Bowne Street

 between Holy Avenue and 45th Avenue

in Flushing will be blocked, the area used

for education and publishing activitiestc.

Tents in the temple complex will hold

suryanamaskar/asana presentation and

 practice, lectures, video presentation, etcIn addition, there will be Satvic

(wholesome) food, consultations with

experts of Ayurveda, Nutrition, and Pulse

Reading. Lectures by eminent scholars

include: ‘Why Yogasana’ by Sharmila

Desai, ‘Karma and Reincarnation’ by

Prof Dr. Prasad and ‘Ayurveda and its

influence on Yoga’ by Dr. Naina

Marballi.

Tributes will be paid to the great yogis

like Swami Buaji, BKS Iyengar, Swami

Sivananda. A special feature will be desk 

yoga - for people in sedentary occupa-

tions and senior citizens. Starting from

May 24, one specific yoga posture will be

demonstrated every week. Participants

will be encouraged with guided practice,

explanation of technique, and benefits.

Ditto for one pranayama and one medita-

tion technique.

 For more information,

www.621yogaday.com.

Featured Events

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

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Washington: The Twin

Peaks restaurant in Waco,

Texas, at the center of an

epic shootout involving

 bike r gangs that kil led 9

and had over a hundred

arrested last week, is

owned by a Gujarati hotel

group.The Dallas-based Chalak 

Mitra Group that owned

the Twin Peaks franchise

outlet courted danger, said

the police, ignoring warn-

ings not to host the biker 

meeting that turned into a

 bloody tur f war. In fac t,

 biker meets were the spe-

cialty of the Twin Peaks outlet, one of 

dozens of franchises the group man-

aged across the country in an expand-

ing business said to be worth $ 500 mil-

lion. Dubbed ''Breastaurant'' because of 

its scantily-clad, well-endowed wait-

resses, the owners hyped the popularity

of the so-called ' 'man cave' ' with

aggressive marketing -- including sell-

ing a potent drink called ''Naked'' with

five different liquors in it, The Times of 

India reported.

Among the owners of Waco Twin

Peaks is Al Bhakta, 36, the CEO of the

Chalak Mitra Group. Other partners

include Chet Bhakta, 39; Nik Bhakta,

38; both are cousins of Al -- and Ron

Parikh, 36, and Jay Patel, 39.

These men met when they were busi-

ness students at the University of 

Dallas and founded the company in

1998 after selling a pool hall and game

room that they ran together. Among

their brands is the Genghis Grill, a

Mongolian-themed restaurant chain,

which they acquired and launched in2002 and now has more than 100 units

across the South.

Meanwhile, the Twin Peaks chain's

corporate office has revoked the Waco

franchise agreement, saying, they ''did

not uphold the high security standards

we have to ensure everyone is safe at

our restaurants.''

3May 23-29, 2015TheSouthAsianTimes.info  TRISTATE COMMUNITY

The Gujarati group owned Twin Peaks in Waco,TX had ignored warnings by police

on security concerns.

Jindal forms exploratory committee for presidential runWashington, DC: Louisiana's Indian-

American Governor Bobby Jindal has

taken another step towards a possible 2016

 presidential run by forming an exploratory

committee and launching a national web-

site, www.bobbyjindal.com.

Though Mr Jindal has said he isn't an

official candidate yet, he is expected to for-

mally enter the race after the Louisiana

Legislature adjourns on June 11, according

to local Times Picayune newspaper.

Forming an exploratory committee

allows a potential presidential candidate to

"test the waters" for a national campaign,

raise money, take out-of-state trips or con-

duct polling for a potential presidential

campaign.

Mr Jindal said in a statement, "If I run,

my candidacy will be based on the idea that

the American people are ready to try a dra-

matically different direction. Not a course

correction, but a dramatically different

 path." Jindal has made frequent visits to

key early voting states in recent months,

testing a message centered on the need to

"restore the American Dream." But despite

his experience as governor and a com-

 pe ll in g pe rs on al ba ckgr ou nd as th e

American-born son of Indian immigrants,

Jindal has struggled to make an impact in

national polls of potential Republican can-

didates, the Washington Post noted.

"Bobby Jindal would likely face an uphill

 battle for the nomination if he decides to

run with a Republican field already

extremely crowded with six declared candi-

dates and another half-dozen expected to

announce in the coming month," it said.

If Jindal does jump in, Indian Americans

appear ready to support him, overcoming

 past reservations. The community, which

has about 1.5 million votes nationally and

considerably more financial clout, has felt

aggrieved by, as seen by it, a studied

attempt by Jindal to distance himself

from it.

Many of them supported him in his previ-

ous races — for governor and Congress — 

irrespective of their party affiliations, and

felt “dumped”, as he cut himself loose.

“He is good man, a bright guy,” said K V

Kumar, who has worked with two

Republican presidents. “People misunder-

stand him for the way he speaks. He needs

to change that.’

Jindal famously said some weeks ago that

he was tired of hyphenated Americans.

That remark upset some in the community

who argued that he doesn’t have to give up

his heritage to look and become main-

stream. But there is a growing understand-

ing in the community of why, if at all,

Jindal moved away from the community.

He had to, they acknowledge, to broaden

his appeal.

That Jindal is also calculatedly appealing

to the Evangelical Christians is widely seen

in his executive order Tuesday to protect

those who do not support same-sex mar-

riage. The order came within hours after a

 bi ll to that eff ect was sid eli ned in the

Louisiana Legislature.

Bobby Jindal had alienated many inthe Indian community by his comment 

against hyphenated Americans,apparently to broaden his appeal.

By Arun Kumar 

Washington:A coalition of 

more than 60 Indian

American and other Asian-

American groups have

sought an investigation into

what they allege are "dis-

criminatory practices" in

Harvard University's

admission process.

In a complaint filed May

15 with the U.S. Justice and

Education Departments, the coalition asked that

Harvard be required to "immediately cease and

desist from using racial quota or racial balancing"

to admit students.

The authorities must also "ensure that Harvard

and other Ivy League schools will never again dis-

criminate against Asian-Americans or applicants

of any other races,” the complaint said.

The complaint has the support of a number of 

Indian American, Pakistani-American, Chinese

and Korean groups, according to Yukong Zhao,

one of the main organizers.Indian groups in the coalition include the

GOPIO, NFIA, BIT Sindri Alumni Association of 

 Nort h In di a, an d th e Amer ic an So ci et y of 

Engineers of Indian Origin.

Also included are the Chinese-American

Association of Orange County, Calif., and the

Pakistani Policy Institute in New York.

"We want to eliminate discrimination of Asian

Americans, and we want

 procedural justice for all

racial groups," Zhao told

 NBC New s. "Al l racial

groups should be treated

equal."

The 50-page complaint

alleged that "Harvard

University has engaged

illegally in direct discrim-

ination against Asian-

American applicants by

using stereotypes and

racial bias in its subjective 'Holistic Evaluation

Approach' and racial quota/rebalancing.”

The university, it further alleged, is discriminat-

ing against Asian-American applicants by using

race as a major factor beyond what is allowed by

relevant Supreme Court decisions.

"Consequently, Asian-American applicants have

 become the largest group of victims of Harvard's

racially based admissions practices," the group

alleged.

In a written statement, Harvard University gen-

eral counsel Robert Iuliano said that HarvardCollege has a strong track record of both recruit-

ing and admitting Asian Americans to its school,

with the percentage of admitted Asian Americans

increasing from 17.6 % to 21 % in the last decade.

"The college's admissions policies are fully

compliant with the law and are essential to the

 pedagogical objectives that underlie its education-

al mission," Iuliano said.

The ‘breastaurant’ at center of bikers brawl

in Texas is owned by Indian AmericansIndian American, Asian groups allege

bias in Harvard admissions

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

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4 May 23-29, 2015 TheSouthAsianTimes.info TURN PAGE

Washington, D.C.: At an industry round-

table hosted by the U.S.-India Business

Council (USIBC) here, Piyush Goyal,

Minister of State with Independent Charge

for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy,

discussed the $250 billion investment oppor-

tunity in India's growing energy sector.

Addressing senior business executives

from the energy sector, Goyal said, "Since

assuming office, our Government has laid a

solid foundation for the ease of doing busi-

ness in the country. India's power generation

capacity has grown significantly - we have

seen 8.5% growth in power generation year 

over year. We aim to provide electricity to

all Indians by 2019."

USIBC Executive Vice President, Diane

Farrell said, "Power is the backbone of any

economy and vital to the Prime Minister's

Make in India initiative. It is encouraging to

see the tremendous strides being made by

the sector to place India on a firm growth

trajectory. USIBC member companies are

responsive to the Government of India's

commitment to ease of doing business and

remain optimistic about investment opportu-

nities."

The event was attended by senior execu-

tives from USIBC member companies: First

Solar, Oracle, GE, XCoal, Gasification

Technologies Council, Vermeer, AECOM,

International Paper, 3M, and Westinghouse.-

 ISIS controls half of Syria after...

Continued from page 1

UNESCO world heritage site,

Palmyra, famous for its 2,000-year-

old towering Roman-era colonnades

and other ruins and priceless arti-

facts. Before the war, thousands of 

tourists ever year visited the remote

desert outpost, a cherished landmark 

referred to by Syrians as the "Bride

of the Desert." Both activists saidThursday that ISIS had not damaged

the ruins so far. ISIS has previously

destroyed major archaeological sites

in Iraq that predate the founding of 

Islam. Sky News of UK reported

that hundreds of statues and artifacts

had been taken to safety ahead of 

the ISIS advancement, but larger 

items, such as stone tombs, could

not be removed in time. In

Damascus Ma’amoun Abdul-

Karim, head of the Antiquities and

Museum Department said Palmyra's

town museum had suffered "minor 

damages" during the ISIS onslaught.

“We hoped the international com-

munity wouldn’t fail to defendPalmyra, but we didn’t see any actu-

al reaction by it,” he lamented.

"We are in a state of anticipation

and fear" about what will happen to

"the archaeological site and the

remaining artifacts in the museum,"

he added. The fall of Palmyra came

days after ISIS seized Ramadi from

Iraqi troops, putting a question mark 

on US strategy against ISIS.

 Modi woos all, winds up three ...

Continued from page 1

Indian Prime Minister ever to visit

the northeast Asian country. The two

countries inked 13 agreements,

including in air services, cyber secu-

rity and transfer of sentenced pris-

oners. He was in South Korea on

May 18-19, during which he held

talks with President Park Gyeun-hye

and a number of agreements were

inked. Seoul offered to provide $10

 billion for infrastructure projects in

India, including smart cities and

railways.

Printed Every Saturday by: Forsythe Media Group, LLC, ISSN 1941-9333, 76 N Broadway, Suite 2004, Hicksville, NY 11801 P: 516.390.7847

Website: TheSouthAsianTimes.info Updated Daily

Energy Minister Piyush Goyal 

New York: Gita Rash made

her Broadway debut in an

off-Broadway play titled

“Send in the Ha Ha’s”, an

evening of laughs. It is a

collection of short stories.

She also played the lead in

“A Box of Ashes”, the play

directed by Alice Camarota

and produced by Adam

Roebuck.

Gita Rash has a double

Masters Degree in Business

Administration andHistory/Political Science.

She is fluent in five lan-

guages including French.

During her stay in Europe

she trained in ballroom

dancing; Salsa Flamenco.

Drawing from her vast

international travels, she has

developed a passion for the

visual and performing Arts.

The old medieval towns of 

France inspired her to

retrace the steps of the

Master artists and create

colorful landscapes in oil.

Some of her work can be

viewed on her website

www.gitaart.com.

As model-actress, Gita has

appeared in several televi-

sion and web commercials,

industrials, corporateTraining Videos, Print

advertisements, TV shows, a

sitcom and a few films. She

is passionate about promot-

ing a healthy lifestyle and

has authored a “Low fat

Indian cookbook” available

on Amazon Kindle.

Chennai: Accepting the resignation of Tamil Nadu

Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam

and his council of ministers on

Friday Governor K. Rosaiah invited

AIADMK general secretary J.

Jayalaltihaa to form the ministry at

the earliest, a Raj Bhavan statement

said. Rosaiah also requested

Jayalalithaa to send the list of peo-

 ple to be appointed as ministers with their portfolios. It

was a day of fast paced political development on the

expected lines within the ruling party.

At 7 a.m., the lawmakers of AIADMK at their meet-

ing at the party headquarters elected Jayalalithaa as the

leader of the legislature party.It is expected that Jayalalithaa would be sworn in as

the chief minister on Saturday, according to party

sources. Jayalalithaa had to leave the position of chief 

minister and assembly seat (Srirangam constituency)

after she was convicted and given a four-year jail term

along with Rs.100 crore fine by a trial court in

Bengaluru in a disproportionate assets case. She has

since been acquitted.

In US, Goyal discusses opportunities inIndia’s power & coal sectors

Actress ad artist Gita Rash

Gita Rash made debut in an off-Broadway play Jaya invited to form government

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

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New York: The annual India Day

Parade has remained controversial

for a few years now with two Indian-

American groups dueling over per-mits for organizing the same on the

Oak Tree Road, a predominantly

South-Asian neighborhood border-

ing Edison and Iselin section of 

Woodbridge.

Since 2011, however, one group

got a parade permit from Edison and

the other from Woodbridge.

 Now comes a new conf lict and the

 potential to further inflame tensions

 between parade organizers and offi-

cials in both townships.

The Edison-based Pakistan-

American Council wants to celebrate

its home country's independence

from the British. And they want to

do it on Oak Tree Road according to

a mycentraljersey.com report.

India celebrates its independence

on Aug. 15, a day after Pakistan. The

 problem is that Woodbridge has a

law banning more than one parade

that closes streets within a 60-day

 period the news report says.

Sam Khan, an executive commit-

tee member of PAC, says Edison

already has granted the group a per-

mit.

"We don't want to make it politi-

cal," mycentraljersey.com quotedKhan saying Tuesday. "There are so

many Pakistanis in the community.

They want to do an Independence

Day celebration, too. What is the

reason for this ordinance?"

Township spokesman John

Hagerty said the Township Council

adopted the rule many years ago on

the request of business owners who

did not want street closures keeping

customers away.

While Khan insists that the

 parade 's 1,000 marchers could be

escorted down the road with police

escort without having to close side

streets, township officials disagree.

The report quotes Hagerty saying,

"There is no way an event could be

held on Oak Tree Road or surround-

ing streets with that many people

without a street closure, without

 police patrols, without traffic con-

trols."

Khan said his group planned to

address the Township Council dur-

ing a public meeting Tuesday.

5May 23-29, 2015TheSouthAsianTimes.info  TRISTATE COMMUNITY

Washington, DC: India's new

ambassador to the US, Arun

Kumar Singh formally presented

his credentials to President

Barrack Obama at a ceremony in

his Oval Office at the White

House.

Obama warmly welcomed

Singh back to Washington and

wished him success in his new

responsibilities as India's envoy

to the US.

He fondly recalled his visit to

India in January and personal

friendship with Prime Minister 

 Narendra Modi.

Singh, in turn, conveyed warm

greetings from President Pranab

Mukherjee and Modi to him and

First Lady Michelle Obama.

Singh said that he was commit-ted to work towards making the

India-US strategic partnership

global in outlook, strategic in

content and transformative for 

India's development, as decided

 by the leaders of the two coun-

tries in the summits held in

September 2014 and January

2015. Singh was first of the

seven new ambassadors to pres-

ent his credentials at the tradi-

tional ceremony that marks the

formal beginning of an ambas-

sador's service in Washington.

Singh, who takes the place of 

S. Jaishankar following the lat-

ter's elevation as foreign secre-

tary in January, had assumed his

new assignment April 30 after 

 presenting a copy of the creden-

tials to the State Department.

New York: A 33-year-old American

woman has been sentenced to 24

years in prison for pushing an

Indian man to death in front of a

subway train in an attack apparently

motivated by religious animus.

Erika Menendez had pleaded

guilty in March before Queens

Supreme Court Justice Gregory

Lasak for shoving Sunando Sen, 46

to his death as the subway train

entered the station on the night of 

December 27, 2012.

Menendez however insisted that

she could not remember why she

had pushed Sen onto the path of an

approaching train.

A report in the New York Post

said Lasak expressed his outrage

over Sen's death before sentencing

her.

"For whatever reason, when you

gave your statement to police after 

you were arrested, you said, 'I hate

Muslims and the Hindus.' Do you

remember that?" the judge asked.

Menendez replied she did not."You picked out Sen, who was on

that platform and you stood behind

him and you followed him," the

 judge said.

"This was a particularly brutal

homicide. I can only imagine his

final thoughts. That's a horrible,

horrible way to die," Lasak said

adding that Menendez's act terror-

ized the whole city.

"Millions of people take the trains

every day in New York City to go to

work or to go to school or other 

destinations, and they want to feel

safe," Lasak said. "And this put a

chilling effect on all the ridership."

Sen, an immigrant from India,

had lived in Queens for years and

had opened his own printing and

copying business near Columbia

University.

He was unmarried and his parents

were dead, according to roommates

who lived with him in a small apart-

ment. Following Menendez's guilty

 pl ea , Quee ns Di st ri ct At to rn ey

Richard Brown had said she com-

mitted "what is every subway com-

muter’s worst nightmare – being

suddenly and senselessly pushed

into the path of an oncoming train."

He had said Sen was shoved from

 behind and had no chance to defend

himself.

Piscataway, NJ: Direct Relief andthe U.S. Fund for UNICEF have

 been selected by BAPS Charit ies

as the recipients of $25,000 and

$30,000 respectively in support of 

disaster relief aid in the aftermath

of the earthquake in Nepal. BAPS

Charities is in communication with

these organizations, as well as the

 Nepa l Embassy and One Hear t

Worldwide, to determine greatest

needs for further funding designa-

tion. “Safety and livelihood are pri-

mary concerns in the face of devas-

tation from mega-earthquakes,”

said Nilkanth Patel, President of 

BAPS Charities. “

Health and education are two

focus areas that significantlyimpact a community’s ability to

rebuild, and so we felt the need to

address those challenges in Nepal.”

Since news of the earthquake

reached the United States early

Saturday morning on April 25th,

BAPS Charities has been raising

funds to support the response

efforts on the ground. BAPSCharities has a long history of 

relief aid in South Asia, particular-

ly in 2001 following the earth-

quake in Gujarat, India, where vol-

unteers reached Kutch within min-

utes.

The most recent situation report

from the United Nations in Nepal

cites urgent needs for 

orthopedic equipment and sup-

 pl ie s in Ka th ma nd u Val le y in

assisting injured patients who need

 post-operation follow-up and reha-

 bilitation.

BAPS Charities has supported

Direct Relief with the procurement

of portable X-ray machines and

ventilators, materials specificallyrequested from the organization by

the Ministry of Health Partners in

 Nepal. Approximately 178,000 lbs

of requested medical materials

including IV solutions, antibiotics,

gloves, IV tubing, and other sup-

 pli es dep art ed the Dir ect Rel ief 

warehouse for Nepal on May 5th.

Now Pakistan group also wants India-day like parade on Oak Tree Road

Ambassador Arun Singh with President Obamaat the White House

BAPS Charities donates to Direct Relief and

UNICEF for Nepal Earthquake Relief

India's new envoy Arun Singh presentscredentials to Obama

American woman gets 24 years forpushing Indian man to death

Erika Menendez (left) pushed Sunando Sen in front

of a subway train

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

6/32

6 May 23-29, 2015 TheSouthAsianTimes.info TRISTATE COMMUNITY

IN BRIEF

Acclaimed Indian American film-

maker Prashant Kumar Bhargava

died of cardiac arrest in Manhat-

tan, New York, May 15 at the age of 42 af-

ter a history of heart disease, his sister 

Anurima Bhargava told the New York 

Times.

Bhargava released his first and only fea-

ture-length film “Patang,” which followed

the lives of six people during a kite-flying

festival in Ahmedabad, in 2012 to high

 praises.

He most recently collaborated with

composer Vijay Iyer on “Radhe Radhe:

Rites of Holi” based on composer Igor 

Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”The rising filmmaker from Chicago

spent his career uniting the cultural influ-

ences from his Indian background with

the American culture in which he was

 brought up, including in his movies.

President Barack Obama hasnamed an Indian-American pro-

fessor from Yale University as a

member of the prestigious National

Council on Humanities. The nomination

of Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of 

Law and Political Science at the univer-

sity since 2008, was announced along

with other key administration positions.

"I am confident that these outstanding

individuals will serve the American

 people well, and I look forward to work-

ing with them," the President said in a

statement.

Amar has been a professor at both

Yale Law School and Yale College since

1985 and has held various professor-ships. He is co-editor of a constitution-

al law casebook, 'Processes of Constitu-

tional Decision-making', and has writ-

ten several other books on constitution-

al law.

Amar is a member of the Board of Di-

rectors of the Constitutional Accounta-

 bility Center and the Coalition of Free-

dom Advisory Board of the National

Constitution Center.

He was elected a Fellow of the Amer-

ican Academy of Arts and Sciences in

2007 and was named a Senior Scholar 

 by the National Constitution Center in

2000.

At a glittering event held at the In-

dian Consulate in New York and

attended by top dignitaries includ-

ing the Indian Minister of Power & Coal,

Touchdown Media Inc., the leading multi-

cultural advertising firm, May 19 an-

nounced the launch of the eighth season of 

the MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee.

MetLife, a leading global provider of life

insurance, annuities, employee benefits

and asset management, returns as the title

sponsor of the contest.

The event is open to children of South

Asian descent up to 14 years of age. It will

give South Asian children a chance to test

their spelling skills in their core peer 

group. Interested spellers need their parent

or guardian to register them online at

www.southasianspellingbee.com.

Organized by Touchdown Media Inc.,

the 2015 MetLife South Asian Spelling

Bee will be conducted in 12 locations

across the United States starting on June

13. Regional level events will be held in

Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Dallas, Hous-

ton, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte,

Washington, D.C. Metro, New Jersey,

 New York and Boston. All events will be

free to attend and open to the public.

The top two spellers of each regional

competition will advance to the finals to

 be held in New Jersey in August. Similar 

to previous years MetLife has once again

funded the $10,000 champion’s grand

 prize that will be awarded to the winner at

the finals.

Obama names Yale professorAkhil Amar to key admin post

In keeping with its practice of bringing

the best of Bollywood entertainment as

a part of its annual fund-raising con-

certs Ekal Vidyalaya is hosting an enchant-

ing musical event on June 7. Billed as ‘Ek 

Shaam Ekal Ke Naam’ - an unforgettable

 journey of Bollywood melodies that would

take you back to your youthful days, this

concert will be held at the state-of-the-art

 Nicholas Music Center of Rutgers Univer-

sity (85 George Street), in New Brunswick,

 N.J. at 3 PM. The headlining artistes are'Rana Chatterjee & Sangeeta Melekar' with

their talented group of instrumentalists.

The June 7 concert contributions are $30

(Gold Section - almost sold-out) & $25

(Silver-section) per person.

Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation - USA is a

nationwide non-profit, tax-exempt organi-

zation devoted to uplifting tribal-rural

masses of India, with emphasis on func-

tional education, healthcare training, and

social empowerment. According to Satish

Karnik, the President of Central N.J. Chap-

ter, “It takes only $365 to sponsor one Ekal

School of 35-40 children, for one complete

year. We want people to kindly sponsor as

many 'Ekal schools as they possibly can.”

 For more info visit 

www.ekal.org/event/ekaledison or 

www.sulekha.com/ekalnj.

Charlotte to replace Orlando center

Eighth season of MetLife South AsianSpelling Bee announced

The Syosset Varsity Girls golf 

team won the 2 day Nassau

County Championship held at

Bethpage Golf course. This was the

second win two years in a row. In the

individual event Liz Choi a Syosset

senior won her individual champi-

onship a record 4 times, and tied for 

runners up was Malini Rudra, 8th

grader from Syosset's Harry B

Thompson middle school. Both along

with six others who qualified from

various high schools will represent

 Nassau County at the NY State PublicSchools golf championship to be held at

SUNY Delhi on June 13&14.

Anjali Mehta of Princeton, NJ receivesFulbright Award

Filmmaker Prashant Bhargava

dies of heart attack

Anjali Mehta, resident of Princeton, NJ of American Uni-

versity in Washington, DC has been offered a Fulbright

U.S. Student Program grant to Brazil for an English

Teaching Assistantship, the United States Department of State

and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board an-

nounced recently. Mehta is one of over 1,900 U.S. citizens who

will travel abroad for the 2015-2016 academic year through the

Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Recipients of Fulbright grantsare selected on the basis of academic and professional achieve-

ment, as well as demonstrated leadership potential.

Time Warner Cable last month announced the addition of India to its growing

list of international destinations as part of the Unlimited Home Phone Nation-

al calling plan. This means that unlimited calls can be made to India at no ad-

ditional charge and are treated the same as long-distance calls anywhere in the U.S.,

Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mexico, China and Hong Kong.

Currently, the Home Phone National plan offer is $10 and Times Warner Cable will be deploying street teams in communities with a large Indian population, beginning

in NYC along with holding special store events in two NYC locations featuring Bol-

lywood dancers, Henna artist, Indian Food truck and giveaways.

Anjali Mehta 

An Ekal school in rural India 

Eighth grader Malini Rudrapart of winning golf team

Time Warner Cable adds India to list of unlimited home phone calling plan

Malini Rudra with her golf team

Prashant Bhargava 

Ekal’s annual fundraiser on June 7to feature music concert

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

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7May 23-29, 2015TheSouthAsianTimes.info  NATIONAL COMMUNITY

Washington, DC: The 2016

Presidential candidate Hillary

Clinton has added one more Indian

American to her campaign team.

Mini Timmaraju will be newDirector of HRC’s Women's

Outreach. Currently as the

 National Director for NCAPA, a

coalition of thirty-four national

Asian Pacific American organiza-

tions, Mini Timmaraju represents

the interests of the greater Asian

American (AA) and Native

Hawaiian Pacific Islander (NHPI)

communities and strives to provide

a national voice for their issues.

She is also a partner in Strategic

Infrastructure LLC a Houston,

Texas based, women owned, small

 busine ss working with state and

local governments, as per her pro-

file put up on About.me.She most recently served as

Chief of Staff for Congressman

Ami Bera M.D. Congressman Bera

is the only Indian American serv-

ing in the U.S. House of 

Representatives. As Chief of Staff 

she was responsible for the man-

agement of the DC and district

offices as well as the legislative

and outreach strategy of the office

striving to maximize services and

effectively represent the con-

stituents of California’s 7th

Congressional District. She was

also the primary staff member 

focused on the US India relation-ship and the larger Indian

American community.

Prior to this role, she served as

Director of the Office of the

President at Planned Parenthood

Federation of America partnering

with President Cecile Richards and

the PPFA executive team to facili-

tate fast-moving projects with the

highest-level view of the strategic

direction of Planned Parenthood.

She also managed the staff and

resources of the Office of thePresident and Board Affairs. This

 position was the culmination of a

five year career with Planned

Parenthood which included serving

as Vice President of Public Affairs

and Government Relations for 

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.

Mini received her Bachelor's

degree at the University of 

California-Berkeley and completed

her J.D. at the University of 

Houston Law Center where she

was the recipient of the Joan

Garfinkle Glantz award for out-

standing work in the field of civil

rights and the Class of 1999

Distinguished Service Award. Over her 20 year career she has held

numerous senior positions with

state and local political and advo-

cacy campaigns and organizations.

Her hobbies and interests include

cooking, travel, karaoke and the

study and performance of 

Hindustani classical music.

Washington, DC: A 13-year-old

Indian-origin boy, who made

headlines for inventing a low-

cost Braille printer, has found a

new partner in Microsoft whichis helping the teenager to realize

his dream of improving life for 

the blind.

Shubham Banerjee, 13, is now

working with a team of the tech-

nology giant to bring an updated

version of his Braille printer,

which he calls Braigo 2.0, to

market. The invention has been

hailed as the first low-cost, IoT-

enabled, silent and lightweight

Braille printer.

At the age of 12, Shubham,

who is from Santa Clara,

California, became the youngest

entrepreneur ever to receive ven-

ture capital funding when IntelCapital invested in his startup,

Braigo Labs.

"Our relationship with

Microsoft will help Braigo

achieve a seamless experience

for a visually impaired person

who wants to use a computer at

home or at the office to print doc-

uments for offline reading," the

eighth grader was quoted as say-

ing on a Microsoft Windows

 blog. His invention was featured

at the first ever "White House

Maker Faire" in June last year to"celebrate a nation of makers and

help empower America's students

and entrepreneurs to invent the

future". Banerjee was invited to

the White House for developing

an accessible solution for blind

and disadvantaged people across

the globe.

New York: An Indian American

student won the prestigious Intel

Foundation Young Scientist

Award Friday, while nine students

from across India won awards in

various categories and five US

students were awarded science

trips to India at the Intel

International Science and

Engineering Fair (IISEF) in

Pittsburgh.

The IISEF honors the world's

most promising high school stu-

dent scientists, inventors and

engineers selected through rigor-

ous competitions held around the

world. Many past winners have

gone on to win Nobel Prizes and

other prestigious awards.For his work on refining a sys-

tem to help protect the seas from

oil-drilling disasters, Karan

Jerath, 18, of Friendswood, Texas,

received the $50,000 Young

Scientist Award, the second high-est prize at the IISEF.

Jerath was also one of the five

students selected for the Intel and

Indo-US Science and Technology

Forum Visit to India Award. They

will receive a weeklong visit to

India to showcase their research

 project s, vis it research leading

institutions and interact with top

scientists.

Onkar Singh Gujral, 18, of La

Martiniere for Boys in Kolkata,

won the Association of 

Computing Machinery first award

and the second award in the

System software category for his

entry on image processing algo-

rithms for detecting nanomateri-

als. The other Indian winners

came from Delhi, Kozhikode,

Mangalore and Panipat.

An Indian American foundation,

gave ten awards at the Fair.Sanjana J. Rane, 17, of Louisville,

Kentucky, received the first award

for work relating to renal fibrosis

from the Ashtavadhani Vidwan

Ambati Subbaraya Chetty

Foundation based in Georgia.

Five American students of Indian

descent were among those who

received the foundations second

awards.

About 1,700 students who par-

ticipated at the IISEF in

Pittsburgh were the top perform-

ers at 422 affiliated fairs held in

75 countries. At the IISEF their 

 projects went through rigorous

evaluations by about 1,000 judges

with PhDs or equivalent qualifica-

tions from across scientific disci-

 plines.

Seventeen students from India

were selected for the IISEF from

the National Science Fair held byInitiative for Research and

Innovation in Science.

Maya Ajmera, who is Indian

descent and heads the Society for 

Science and the Public that con-

ducts the IISEF, congratulated the

winners and said, "These talented

young students are the problem

solvers and innovators of their 

generation."

The top prize, the $75,000

Gordon E. Moore Award, went to

Raymond Wang, 17, of Canada.

Scores of Indian American stu-

dents won awards in various cate-

gories, five of them getting the

first award in their specializations,

 biochemistry, behavioral sciences,

environmental engineering, math-

ematics and energy physics. More

than 200 Indian American stu-

dents were among the finalists at

the IISEF, having won regionalcompetitions across the US. In

addition, students of Indian

descent came from South Africa,

Malaysia and Singapore.

Microsoft partners with Braigofounder Shubham to realize his dream

Hillary adds Mini Timmaraju to her teamas director of Women’s Outreach

Karan Jerath

Shubham Banerjee, 13 is working with Microsoft to 

bring updated version of his Braille printer to market 

He received the prize for his work on refining a system to plug oil spill in seas

Karan Jerath wins $50000 Young Scientist Award

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

8/32

8 May 23-29, 2015   TheSouthAsianTimes.info NATIONAL COMMUNITY

Washington, DC: The U.S.-

India Business Council (USIBC)

concluded its Digital Economy

Executive Mission to New Delhi,

India. The delegation expressed

its commitment to the Indianmarket, called for further dia-

logue with the government on

issues related to ease of doing

 business, and discussed strategies

for achieving the Government of 

India's priorities, particularly the

Digital India and Make in India

initiatives. The delegation was

chaired by Joe Alhadeff,

Chairman of USIBC's Digital

Economy Executive Committee,

and included participation from

Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Corning,

Ericsson, Facebook, Google,

Hughes Networks Systems, IBM,

Intel, Nvidia Graphics, Oracle,

Symantec, Texas Instruments,and Uber.

"We had productive meetings

with the Government of India,"

said Joe Alhadeff, leader of the

USIBC delegation. "We dis-

cussed ways in which the indus-

try can support the government inturning their ambitious goals into

tangible results by pursuing these

initiatives and continuing to

improve the ease of doing busi-

ness."

During the visit, the Digital

Economy delegation met with

government officials across all

areas of the Digital Economy and

attended the Department of 

Telecommunication's National

M2M Roadmap Conference.

"We were pleased to participate

in the roll out conference of the

M2M Roadmap. M2M, IOT and

Cloud are essential technologies

of a Digital India and a prosper-ous India", said Alhadeff, who

spoke on the panel with members

of DoT and DeitY."

The delegation also hosted a

 briefing on e-commerce issues in

India, chaired by the Department

of Investment Policy andPromotion and featured experts

from PwC and internet start-ups

such as Karma Recycling and

 Nykaa . They also attended the

Minister of Commerce's consul-

tation on FDI for e-commerce.

"USIBC is encouraged by the

government's decision to revisit

the FDI policy in the e-commerce

sector," said Gaurav Verma,

Senior Director at USIBC.

"Opening FDI in e-commerce

will spur manufacturing, enhance

supply chain efficiency, and pro-

vide greater access to consumers

throughout India," he said.

Harish Krishnan, ExecutiveDirector of Public Affairs at

Cisco India and Vice-Chairman

of USIBC's Digital Economy

Committee said, "We commend

the Government of India's seriousapproach to enhancing the ease of 

doing business in the country and

we are encouraged by the frank,

action-oriented approach the

Government is taking to achievethis goal."

Cancun, Mexico: Cancun was

named the number one tourist desti-

nation in Mexico for Hindu wed-

dings by Dream Weddings Mexico,

one of the destination’s top wedding

 planning firms. The announcement

was made by the Cancun

Convention & Visitors Bureau

(CVB) during the second edition of the South Asian Wedding

Certification press conference on

May 6. The creation of a South

Asian Wedding Institute located in

Cancun, the first in all of the

Americas, was also announced.

With almost 350 Hindu cere-

monies performed in Cancun every

year, the destination seeks to contin-

ue to cater to this segment and

therefore invests in wedding certifi-

cation programs to offer local

experts in Hindu weddings. Cancun

certification programs will take

 place July 14, 15 and 16 at Live

Aqua Cancun Hotel & Resort.

During the press conference,Brenda Fernandez, CEO of Dream

Weddings Mexico and the only

India-certified Mexican wedding

 plan ne r fo r Hi ndu Wedd ings ,

announced that in the last four years

Cancun has become a favorite wed-

ding destination for Hindus living in

the U.S. and Canada. This increase

in popularity is mostly due to the

destination’s beautiful beaches,

renowned service, modern hotel

offerings, and its broad international

flight connections.

According to Fernandez, with the

number of certified specialized wed-

ding planners in the Mexican

Caribbean increasing yearly, the

number of Hindu ceremonies in

Cancun is expected to increase 30

 per cen t in the coming years . The

three-day South Asian Wedding

Certification Program will host 50wedding planners in Cancun to pre-

 pare them to organize Hindu wedding

ceremonies, a training that is being

supported by the Indian embassy’s

Cultural Center and includes topics

such as culture, ceremonies, cuisine,

floral design, religion, dress, music,

decoration, & more.

Houston: A 44-year-old

Indian-American police-

man has been awarded

the prestigious "Top

Civilian Supervisor of the

Year" award for his effi-

cient services to the

Houston Police depart-

ment in Texas.

Harkeert Singh Saini

received the award from

Police Chief Charles AMcClelland and Houston

Mayor Anise Parker dur-

ing a function held at the

Hyatt Regency Hotel here earlier 

this week.

Saini, a police records supervisor 

has been working for the Houston

Police department for the last 15

years. "Harkeert Singh Saini is a

very efficient officer and very wor-

thy of this award. Houston police

department is proud of Saini"

said Muzaffar Siddiqi, senior 

 pol ice off ice r of cit y Pol ice

department.

Various community leaders

including Gurdip Singh Buttar,

S Gurnam Singh Sandhar,

Ajinder Singh Dhatt were pres-

ent during the occasion and

congratulated Saini for his

achievement.

Saini, a graduate fromDeshbandu College in New

Delhi, hails from Hoshiarpur 

in Punjab. He came to the city

in 1998, joined Houston Police

Department in March 2000 and was

subsequently promoted as an office

supervisor in the following years.

Washington, DC: An Indian

man, who was working as a

clerk at a convenience store in

Florida has been shot dead by a

teenager in an apparent robbery

attempt, the second such inci-

dent in just over a month.

Manav Deshi, who was in his

30s, was shot in the face by a

16-year-old teenager Mau 20 in

St Augustine. The incident has

sent shockwaves among the

small but vibrant Indian-

American community in

Florida.

Deshi, who recently moved to

St Augustine in Florida from

 North Carol ina, died instantly

inside the store after he was shot

 by the teenager who had cov-

ered his face with a handker-

chief, local media reported cit-

ing eyewitnesses.

The accused along with his

accomplice has been arrested by

the police after a long high-

speed chase. They face multiple

charges.

Deshi had moved to Florida

only two months ago and was

excited for his upcoming wed-

ding, media reports said.

Deshi's parents were on their 

way to Florida from India. In

April, 39-year-old Sanjay Patel

was shot dead by two masked

men during an apparent robbery

attempt at a gas station in

Connecticut.

USIBC concludes successful digital economy mission to India

USIBC Digital Economy Delegation with Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha 

Almost 350 Hindu wedding ceremonies are performed 

each year in CancunHarkeert Singh Saini (center) with the award 

Cancun named #1 Mexicandestination for Indian weddings

Indian-American policeman wins police award

One more store clerk shot dead in robbery attempt

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

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9May 23-29, 2015TheSouthAsianTimes.info  US AFFAIRS

Washington, DC: After months of negoti-

ations, Takata Corporation has agreed to

recall 34 million airbags that can explodeand spray shrapnel into cars' passengers

compartments. Six deaths and 100 injuries

have been attributed to the defect so far.

The agreement between Takata and the

 Na ti on al Hi gh wa y Traf fi c Sa fe ty

Administration (NHTSA) comes after 

Takata at first denied the airbags were

defective and at one point even questioned

 NHTSA's authority to order a recall.

“From the very beginning, our goal has

 been simple: a safe airbag in every vehicle.

The steps we’re taking today represent sig-

nificant progress toward that goal,” said

 NHTSA administrator Mark R. Rosekind.

He added that the $14,000 per day fine that

the agency has been levying against Takata

would be lifted now that it has agreed to

cooperate.Rosekind acknowledged that it could

take years to recall and replace all of the

defective airbag inflators and to thorough-

ly test replacements. He said consumers

should continue to drive their cars while

checking with their dealers on the progress

of the recall for their particular vehicle.

While conceding the fix is not perfect,

safety officials tried to put the best face on

the situation by stressing that Takata wasnow cooperating and auto manufacturers

are dedicated to conducting recall cam-

 paigns as effectively as possible.

Pressured by Feds, Takata to recallairbags in 34 million cars

Cancer charities exposed forpocketing $187 mn

Washington, DC: The Federal Trade

Commission (FTC) and the attorney gener-

als of all 50 states and the District of 

Columbia in the US have filed a joint law-

suit against four anti-cancer charities for 

defrauding donors of $187 million.

According to the suit filed in an Arizona

court on Tuesday, Cancer Fund of America,

Children's Cancer Fund of America, Cancer 

Support Services and The Breast Cancer 

Society are all fraudulent beneficent organi-

zations that swindled its donors between

2008 and 2012, the New York Attorney

General's Office said in a communique.

Two of the organizations implicated and

the three individuals who direct them have

accepted the basis of an accord previously

offered by the plaintiffs that includes pay-

ment of $137 million, dissolution of the

organizations and a strict rule that their 

directors may never again work for charita- ble organizations.

The lawsuit continues for the rest of the

defendants.

The complaint considers the case to be

dealing with a massive nationwide fraud,

since the accused spent most of the dona-

tions they received for their own benefit,

hiding their underhanded activities from

donors with accounting records designed to

show that medications and other materials

were being sent to developing countries.

"Cancer is a debilitating disease that

impacts millions of Americans and their 

families every year. The defendants' egre-

gious scheme effectively deprived legiti-

mate cancer charities and cancer patients of 

much-needed funds and support," Jessica

Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of 

Consumer Protection, said.

The note said that some 85 percent of donations went to professional fundraisers,

while the rest went to pay salaries for the

directors, who hired friends and family

members to help simulate charitable opera-

tions.

The suit says that among the ways the

accused spent their ill-gotten gains were on

Caribbean cruises, trips to Disney World,

tickets to concerts and dating site member-

ships. The defendants used a mere three per-

cent of the funds for charity work.

The Children's Cancer Fund of America and Breast Cancer Society 

have agreed to shut down.

Six deaths and 100 injuries have beenattributed to Takata airbag defect so far.

Washington: A US federal

 jury in Boston on Friday

sentenced 21-year-old

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to

death for his role in the

2013 Boston marathon

 bombing atta cks and the

killing of a police officer 

when on the run, media

reported on Saturday.The federal jury unani-

mously chose death by

lethal injection for 

Tsarnaev, a Kyrgyzstan-

 born US citizen, over the only other option:

life in prison without possibility of release,

Xinhua news agency reported.

The same panel of seven women and five

men convicted Tsarnaev last month of all 30

charges against him, including 17 counts

that carried the death

 penalty.

Tsarnaev had no expres-

sion as a court clerk read

the verdict sentencing him

to death, local media The

Boston Globe reported.

The sentence came down

exactly 25 months after the

April 15, 2013 bombings,one of the bloodiest attacks

in America since the Sept.

11, 2001 attacks.

Tsarnaev was 19 when

carried out a twin deadly bombings with his

older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the

crowded finishing line at the signature event

of Boston Marathon.

Three people were killed in the bombings

and 264 more were severely injured.

170 charged after 9 die in

bikers gangs shootout in TexasWaco, Texas: Texas police say

170 people are to face organizedcrime charges after a bike-gang

shooting that left nine people dead

and 18 others injure Waco city on

Sunday.

The shootout occurred in a park-

ing lot near the Twin Peaks restau-

rant. All the dead were members of 

rival motorcycle gangs. The fight

 broke out in the Twin Peaks after 

an argument, with the brawlers

spilling outside into the parking

lot, police said. Police were on the

scene when the shooting started

and officers fired on some of the

 bikers to put an end to the clash

and prevent further bloodshed.

Afterward, law enforcementauthorities found chains, knives,

garrots, firearms and other 

weaponry scattered around the

area.

Corporate Office: 385 Seneca Avenue, Ridgewood NY 11385

718.821.3182, www.AtlanticDialysis.com

Boston bomber sentenced to death

A sketch of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Letterman’s Late

Show leaves a legacyNew York : As he had planned

over a year ago, David

Letterman has retired from host-

ing The Late Show on CBS. His

last star-studded show aired on

May 20, culminating a remark-

able 33-year run, with over 6,000

episodes. He is credited with breathing new life into

the talk show genre, with an array of innovative,

often outlandish antics, and became a role model for 

a generation of comedians. He turned signature seg-

ments like Stupid Pet Tricks and his Top 10 list into

American cultural institutions.

One blemish on his career appeared when in

October 2009 Letterman announced that he had been

the victim of a blackmail attempt by someone threat-

ening to reveal that he had had sex with several of his female employees, and at the same time, he con-

firmed that he had had such relationships.

Comedian and political satirist Stephen Colbert

succeeds Letterman on The Late Show.

8/9/2019 Vol 8 Issue 2 - May 23-29, 2015

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10 May 23-29, 2015 TheSouthAsianTimes.info US AFFAIRS

By Minhaz Merchant

Congress partymen in India

can't stop smiling. "Did

you read," one said glee-

fully, "even in the United States

they've gone back to dynasty?" He

was referring to the likelihood of a

US presidential contest in

 November 2016 between Hillary

Clinton and Jeb Bush. So, are

 po li ti ca l dy na st ie s ba ck ? No t

quite. The Clinton-Bush face-off,

if it does take place, will prove the

exact opposite. But the superficial

atmospherics of a Clinton and a

Bush fighting a US presidentialelection have seduced many into

 believing not only that dynastic

 politics is back in the world's most

 powerful and egalitarian democra-

cy but that dynastic politics is

actually good for democracy.

The Economist was among

those thus seduced. In a recent

cover story on dynasty, it wrote

 breathlessly (and inaccurately ):

"In politics the Clintons and the

Bushes hardly count as excep-

tions." In India, the Congress and

other family-led parties are equal-

ly excited. "It's Rahul's time now,"

they say. "If America can justify a

second Clinton and a third Bush as

 president, why can't India justify a

fourth Nehru-Gandhi as prime

minister?"

Mani Shankar Aiyar, the

Congress' Rajya Sabha MP whose

unshakeable loyalty to the Nehru-

Gandhi family would embarrass a

lesser man, has already anointed

Rahul Gandhi as prime minister in

2019. Speaking in Kumbakonam

on May 3, he declared: "The

Congress will win the next Lok 

Sabha elections and Rahul Gandhi

will become the next prime minis-

ter."

The Economist is wrong:

Dynastic politics is bad, not good,

for democracy. DelightedCongressmen too are wrong. The

 putative Bush-Clinton presidential

contest is not an endorsement of 

dynastic politics. Here's why.

The first US president, George

Washington, took office in 1789.

Since then, in 226 years andthrough 44 presidents, only thrice

has a single family produced more

than one president: John Adams

(1797-1801) and his son John

Quincy Adams (1825-29);

William Harrison (who died in

office after serving for just a

month in 1841) and his grandson

Benjamin Harrison (1889-93);

and, of course, most recently the

two George Bushes - exceptions

who prove the centuries-old rule

in American politics: dynasties

don't work. (Presidents Theodore

Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt

were only fifth cousins.)

The candidacies of Republican

Jeb Bush and Democrat Hillary

Clinton will demonstrate the

opposite of what dynastophiles

imagine: In the US, the world's

most egalitarian democracy,

dynasty does not succeed and has

not succeeded for more than 200

years.

Only 6% of US senators come

from political families. In Britain,

less than 10% of the new House of 

Commons has previously had a

family member in politics. There

is no Churchill dynasty. In France,

there is no de Gaulle dynasty. In

Germany, there is no Adenauer 

dynasty. The Kennedys are a sto-ried example of dynasty's fading

appeal. There has been no

Kennedy president after JFK.

Anti-dynasty sentiment in the US

is so strong that John Kennedy's

daughter Caroline was denied a

 bid for a New York senate seat bythe Democrats. (That's like

Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra being

denied a Congress ticket from Rae

Bareli.)

In India there are of course

many dynasties. All of them look 

to Hillary and Jeb for their raison

d'etre. It started with the Nehru-

Gandhis in the 1960s. The infec-

tion spread. Soon there was a

Pawar dynasty, a Karunanidhi

dynasty, a Thackeray dynasty, a

Badal dynasty, an Abdullah

dynasty, a Mufti dynasty, a Yadav

dynasty. The infection is now a

full-blown epidemic.

Why are political dynasties bad

for democracy? Because they nar-

row electoral choice instead of 

widening it - as a healthy, vibrant

democracy should. The result:

Forced to choose between incom-

 pet ent dynast s, cor rup t dyn ast s

and rogue dynasts in a typical con-

stituency, voters are left with a

Hobson's choice. Whoever they

vote for is connected with one

 powerful family or another. T he

 preponderance of MPs with crimi-

nal records - around 30 per cent

across parties - shows how badly

such a feudal, dynastic political

ecosystem has served India. It

leads to corruption and chronic

misgovernance and creates a sys-tem of entitlement.

Look at the Congress front

 bench in the Lok Sabha: Rahul

Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin

Prasada, Deepender Hooda. Not

one of them would have got wherehe is without his surname. As

Jamini Bhagwati, the RBI chair 

 pro fes sor at Ind ian Coun cil for 

Research on International

Economic Relations, wrote on the

origin of political dynasty in the

Congress: "Commentaries that

trace independent India's econom-

ic development often use the

expression Nehru-(Indira) Gandhi

legacy and suggest that the

Congress was always synonymous

with this family. This does great

injustice to the Congress leaders

of the freedom struggle who held

senior positions in central and

state governments post-1947."The BJP is not immune either.

Anurag Thakur, son of the former 

chief minister of Himachal

Pradesh, Prem Kumar Dhumal, is

 just one example. Varun Gandhi is

another. But of the BJP's 282

MPs, very few are dynasts in stark 

contrast to the rest.

The ecosystem of entitlement

that dynasty builds around it is an

iron wall. It's tough to break 

through and get in. Once in, you

 become beholden to the privilege

and pelf inside. As an outsider,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

was aware of this iron wall within

Lutyens' Delhi. He was deter-

mined to demolish it. But there

was always the danger that he

would be co-opted by it. There are

those in the BJP, founding mem-

 bers of the Lutyens' iron wall, who

would like the ecosystem of enti-

tlement to stay that way. Elections

come and go. Out-of-power UPA

minister-lawyers make in legal

 pract ice as much money as they

did in government. Their counter-

 parts in the BJP have noted this

and will do the same - in or out of 

government.

It is these elements in the gov-

ernment the prime minister must

 be ware of . Th ey may no t be

dynasts themselves but their sym- pathie s lie with those who are .

The Lutyens' ecosystem, like rein-

forced concrete, is difficult to

crack open. Outsiders either get

converted or stay out. Can Prime

Minister Modi break this iron wallof privilege? He must or it will co-

opt him. A second term will then

slip away from his grasp.

It will take four more years to

fix the scorched-earth economy

left behind by the UPA's decade in

 power. The last thing Modi needs

is the economy purring smoothly

in 2019 at a growth rate of nine

 per cent but the Lutyens' ecosys-

tem conspiring to ensure he does-

n't get a second term by winning

the perception battle. The

Congress, in this greatest irony of 

all, will then inherit in 2019 a

robust economy that it itself so

 badly damaged in 2004-14.

The Lutyens' ecosystem has

 powerful friends: Foreign-funded

 NGOs who prefer pliable prime

ministers. Foreign envoys inter-

vene in matters that are not their 

 business. And an unholy cabal of 

assorted power brokers, who've

fed off the Congress largesse for 

so long that they've become a part

of this incestuous ecosystem, are

cogs in this treacherous wheel.

A common thread unites them:

self-interest. National interest is

an idealistic concept, unworthy of 

attention from the Lutyens' nou-

veau elite, most of whom have

clambered up the socioeconomic

ladder in the past two decades and

value above all else their new-

found status which provides them

access and privilege.

The prime minister will com-

 plete a year in office next Tuesday

(May 26).

He has four more years to break 

the deadlock the ecosystem of 

entitlement and dynasty has on

India. It is a deadlock that has kept

India backward and poor for six

decades. If Modi fails to break it,

it will be business as usual in

2019.

The author is biographer of  Rajiv Gandh i and Aditya Birla;

and media group chairman and 

editor.

Washington: A statement of 

accounts that is part of the Osama

 bin Laden documents declassified

 by the US intelligence shows that

the Al Qaeda chief received at least

two payments running into hun-

dreds of thousands of Pakistani

rupees from a man identified onlyas “the Indian brother in Madinah”.

The spreadsheet for receipts and

expenditure for 2009 was part of 

more than 100 documents seized

from bin Laden’s compound in

Abbottabad that were released by

the Office of the Director of 

 Na ti onal In te ll igen ce on

Wednesday.

There are no details about the

“Indian brother” or any information

in the spreadsheet that can identifyhim. This is probably the first time

that an Al Qaeda document has

identified an Indian as one of the

terror network’s financiers.

According to the statement of 

accounts, an amount of Pakistani

Rs 292,400 was received from the

“Indian brother in Madinah” in

May 2009. Another payment of 

Pakistani Rs 335,000 was received

from the same man in July 2009.

The Indian community in SaudiArabia is 2.5 million-strong and a

sizeable number of Indians live and

work in Medina (Madinah).

The statement of accounts shows

the Al Qaeda chief received money

from several Arab countries,

including the UAE and Kuwait.

Other documents declassified on

Wednesday show that funds

received by bin Laden were distrib-

uted to several terror groups based

in Pakistan, primarily the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Haqqani

 Network, which has been accused

 by the US of havi ng close link s

with the Inter-Services Intelligence.

Documents show 'Indian brother' donated lakhs to Osama bin Laden

Why Hillary Clinton vs Jeb Bush in 2016 isn't a validation of dynastic politicsIn the US, the world's most egalitarian democracy, dynasty does not succeed and has not succeeded for 200 years.

OPINION

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11May 23-29, 2015TheSouthAsianTimes.info    DIPLOMACY

Kolkata: Industry body Confederation of 

Indian Industries (CII) said the recent visit

of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China

has opened up an extensive range of oppor-

tunities for Indian businessmen.

"What I find heartening is that both the

governments (in India and China) have

demonstrated their commitment to take

 bilateral economic relationship to a new

level. A wide array of opportunities has

opened up for Indian businesses in China,"

CII president Sumit Mazumder said at a

 press meet here.

Welcoming the initiatives taken by Modiduring his visit to India's neighbour, the

CII also noted that the "path-breaking

reforms" carried out in six key areas - eco-

nomic and fiscal management, ease of 

doing business, transparency and pre-

dictability of the tax system, allocation of 

resources, openness to foreign investments

and foreign trade - have generated "posi-

tive sentiments".

Mazumder noted that since coming into

 power in May 2014, the Modi government

has adopted several measures to reinvigo-

rate investor interest and there are visible

results on the ground.

He said that focus on Make in India, skill

development, agricultural investment and

infrastructure can be part of a definitive

strategy for reaching double-digit GDPgrowth.

The association has predicted the nation-

al economy to grow 9-10 percent in the

medium-term.

Seoul/Ulsan: Prime Minister 

 Narendra Modi outlined his vision

of an inclusive Asian century

fueled by India's progress and

wooed South Korean businesses to'make in India' in a big way.

Winding up his two-day visit to

South Korea, the final leg of his

three-nation visit, Modi addressed

the Asian Leadership Forum and

also the India-Republic of Korea

CEOs Forum.

He visited the Hyundai Heavy

Industries (HHI) shipyard, one of 

the biggest ship construction com-

 panies in the world, in Ulsan where

he spent over an hour.

Modi held talks with top South

Korean CEOs, including LG

Electronics' Kim Jin-hong and

POSCO chief Kim Jin-il and

Hyundai Motor Co's ChungJinhaeng.

Modi had held talks with

President Park Geun-hye after 

which the two sides inked seven

agreements, including for avoid-

ance of double taxation.

Seoul also offered to provide $10

 billion for infrastructure projects in

India, including smart cities and

railways.Addressing the Asian Leadership

Forum, that was also attended by

President Park, UN Secretary

General Ban Ki-moon and Sheikha

Mozah of the Qatar royal family,

Modi said India "is the new bright

spot of hope" for the region and the

world and India's progress will

help make the Asian dream "a big-

ger reality".He said India's growth has

rebounded to 7.5 percent per year,

and it was poised to grow further.

Modi said "Asia will succeed

more when all of Asia rises togeth-

er" and said the prosperous coun-

tries must be prepared to share

their resources and markets with

those who need them.

"India is located at Asia's cross-

roads. And, we will assume our 

responsibility to build an inter-con-

nected Asia," Modi said."An Asia of rivalries will hold us

 back. Asia of unity will shape the

world," he said.

Later, addressing the India-

Republic of Korea CEOs Forum,

Modi praised the spirit of entrepre-

neurship of the Korean people.

"We in India want to achieve a

lot of what Korea has already done.

The good news is that India-Korea

 bilateral trade has risen after sign-

ing of Korea-India CEPA in

January 2010," Modi said.

The prime minister said there

was a lot of scope for improvement

in bilateral trade.

He assured of the renewed com-mitment of his government for 

changing the face of the country,

and said there was potential for 

cooperation between India's soft-

ware and Korea's hardware indus-

try. Modi travelled to Ulsan, a

South Korean city located on the

southeastern tip of the Korean

Peninsula, to visit the Hyundai

Heavy Industries Shipyard, one of 

the biggest ship construction com-

 panies in the world.

"Shipbuilding is a top priority for us," Modi told Hyundai chai