Pakistan fails to seal F-16 deal after financing row with US: report
However, Pakistan’s Ambassador to U.S. Jalil Abbas Jilani, told the daily that “a dead-end has not been reached as yet.”Initially, the $700 million deal for eight F-16C/D Block-52 multi-role fighters, was to be partially financed through the U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) programme but the Congress disallowed subsidising the sale.The subsidising was disallowed over concern that Pakistan had not done enough to end the dreaded Haqqani network’s terror sanctuaries on its soil as well as fears over Islamabad’s nuclear programme.
Pakistan, which expected to get the fighters at the subsidised rate of $270 million, was subsequently asked by the U.S. administration to make the full payment for the eight aircraft from its national resources.This was not acceptable to Pakistani authorities, who remained adamant that the offer must come without any preconditions.The aircraft were required by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, the report said.The jets would have come with “all-weather, non-daylight environments and self-defence/area suppression capability.”
It was unclear why Pakistan missed the opportunity despite pressing requirement for the jets, although it had originally desired to acquire 18 F-16s, the daily said.Some quarters believe that providing the Letter of Acceptance would have kept the window open for re-negotiating the financing arrangement at a later stage, it said.Pakistan Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said last month that Pakistan could look to buy the aircraft from some other country if the deal did not go ahead.
He also said earlier this month that Pakistan’s ties with the U.S. had witnessed a “downward slide” amid the row over the Congress’ decision to block the sale of the jets.Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had said last week that Pakistan will explore other options to meet its defence needs if the deal for F-16s did not materialise with the U.S.Analysts believe Islamabad could consider Russian or Chinese fighters to meet its defence requirements.
Pragmatic CBN Will Count On Modi Government
Tirupati: At the annual convention of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) here, one couldn’t miss the mood of grassroots party activists: it was anti-Centre, if not anti-BJP. Still, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is pragmatic enough to realise that negative vibes with the centre won’t do.Even as the Narendra Modi government celebrated its two years in office, the TDP cadres in Andhra Pradesh made it clear that they want the central government to deliver on the commitments made when the state got bifurcated.
The TDP is a partner in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), but the cadres at the three-day ‘Mahanadu’ are not parroting the Modi government’s “achievements” and schemes. They are much more concerned about the development of the state, which hinges on how the Centre supports the Chandrababu Naidu government’s agenda. “The division of Andhra Pradesh was mishandled. The Congress-led UPA government went ahead with the reorganisation in an undemocratic manner and in a hurry for political gains. Now the Centre is not sure about giving special category status,” one Andhra Pradesh minister told IANS.
“The state administration is seriously burdened with several challenges, all of them resulting from omissions, commissions, contradictions and inadequacies in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014,” the minister added. In their speeches, the district-level TDP activists also talk of challenges facing the state government. Their list is a lengthy one — from the state being without a capital city to the problems in the economy, and the need to create jobs and wealth as has been the people’s expectation. And in that respect, TDP seems to be putting the ball in the Centre’s court, playing up the ‘Telugu pride’ to the hilt.
While the TDP leaders are backing their supremo Chief Minister Naidu, they argue that there’s growing disenchantment among the people and the Centre must immediately step in to fulfil the commitments in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. “Despite financial constraints, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has mobilised the public and activated the government machinery. He is making tireless efforts to achieve faster economic growth that is sustainable. However, there is lack of institutional and financial resources,” TDP farmers’ wing chief V. Pratap Reddy told IANS.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should support Andhra Pradesh till we achieve a level playing field with our neighbours in terms of development and human resource indices,” Reddy added.”The people of Andhra Pradesh never wanted bifurcation of the state. Now everyone knows that development of the state is dependent on the central government fulfilling the commitments made with reference to the Reorganisation Act,” said E. Sujatha, a TDP leader from Visakhapatnam district. In this context, she said the message from the TDP’s annual convention ‘Mahanadu’ is not favourable for the BJP which is “too much busy in celebrating two years of the Modi government”.
“Prime Minister Modi talks about being a catalyst of development. But in Andhra Pradesh the need of the hour is creation of an ecosystem for development and provide appropriate financial package to help us achieve the state’s potentials.” Sujatha told IANS.So will the TDP jump the boat and quit NDA? The question hangs heavy here at the ‘Mahanadu’. However, senior leader and TDP representative in Delhi K. Ramamohan Rao rejected such a possibility. “We do not want to be like a complaining partner in the BJP-led NDA. Granting of ‘special category’ status to Andhra Pradesh is a pending issue. But we want to look beyond and we will continue to cooperate with the Centre. We want their assistance for the backward regions of coastal north Andhra and Rayalseema,” he told IANS.
It may be noted that even as the demand for central assistance grows in Andhra, a BJP document claimed that a lot of funding was provided to the state. “Even for bridging the revenue deficit, the Centre has released Rs.2,304 crore in 2014-15 and later Rs.500 crore,” stated the BJP document which was released in Andhra Pradesh on the occasion of Modi government’s two years. The document also stated that the central government has further released Rs.7,430 crore as part of Rs.22,113 crore deficit that the 14th Finance Commission projected for 2015-20. While the tone of the BJP document is not hostile, there’s an undercurrent of antagonism between the two sides at the grassroots level.
For example, a few days back a section of BJP leaders criticised Chief Minister Naidu for planning a Rs.52,000-crore capital city in Amravati. The plan should have been more realistic, they said. But the maze of demands, claims and counter-claims doesn’t seem to have any effect at the top level of leadership. According to observers here, Chandrababu Naidu is a pragmatic leader, who understands the political reality clearly. Naidu knows that confrontation with a powerful Centre won’t serve any purpose, the observers said. And that’s the message which the TDP chief is also sending across to party workers, urging them “not to fall in the trap of confrontation” with the Modi government over ‘special category’ status to Andhra.
The chief minister keeps referring to his May 17 meeting with the prime minister and says that Modi has “assured” him to look into the requests of the state.Party insiders say that the TDP was founded on a strong anti-Congress plank. Therefore, the party cannot join hands with the Congress. According to these TDP leaders, nothing will happen in the next two-three years in the so-called Third Front. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is an ally of the Congress and TDP cannot go with him. Only Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal has had a good equation with the TDP in Parliament. So in these circumstances, Chandrababu Naidu will remain in the NDA and continue to cooperate with the Centre. And in return, he would try to extract maximum benefit for Andhra Pradesh.
Cruise Along Vizag-Chennai With AP Tourism
In its latest move to promote beach tourism in the state, the AP Tourism is all set to flag off a cruise liner between the two important beach cities down south, Visakhapatnam and Chennai. A proposal has been submitted already and is awaiting a green signal.Apart from the Vizag-Chennai sea route, the AP Tourism Department also has plans for another cruise line along the Vizag-Kakinada route to develop beach tourism along the Kakinada coastline.
Two firms, India Extreme and Livein have been entrusted with the job to develop water sports facilities, including speed boats, scuba diving and water scooter rides, sprawling landscaped lawns and four spacious food courts, in four beach areas in Vizag, Thotlakonda, Sagarnagar, Mangamaripeta and Yendada.
In Kakinada, sea planes, helicopter trips, water sports and special tourism packages were given prominence at the Kakinada Beach Festival this year to attract more tourists to the flourishing port city.
Harish Rao’s Punch: ‘Bullet Diginda Leda’
Telangana state’s Minister for Irrigation Harish Rao vented his ire on the irrigation department’s engineers for their negligence in providing water to farmers in the region. Speaking at an irrigation engineers conference, Harish Rao demanded prompt action from the engineers towards the farmers’ water woes.
In his typical style, Harish Rao uttered Mahesh Babu’s famous punch dialogue from Pokiri and said, “gone are the days of cock-and-bull stories. CM KCR and I want our targets to be fulfilled. The blind want eyes, I want water. Bullet diginda leda. Did we provide water to 4.60 lakh acres in Mahabubnagar by July or not? This is all that I ask for”, said Harish.
Harish also breathed fire on negligent and underperforming engineers and warned them of terminating their services if found negligent in performing their duties in supplying water to the farmers, his party’s election promise.Reminding the officers that only 40 days are left before the Kharif season, Harish asked the officers to buckle up or face stringent action in view of the suspension of several senior engineers and officers in the state.
Bunny Continues Publicity Blitz Even After A Month!
These days, any Telugu film is a one-week affair. The strategy is to make as much money as possible in the first week itself; this is applicable even to the hit films.These are the days when the next film supercedes the first film released earlier week. So, the producers are planning their publicity only for a few days before and after the release, since it is a matter of crores of rupees to publicise it.
Whether it was Sardar Gabbar Singh or 24 or even Brahmotsavam, the publicity for the film was there only for a week, since they knew that there would be no significant improvement in revenues after one week despite massive publicity.But Allu Arjun’s latest film Sarrainodu is going differently from this trend. The film was released on April 21 and so, it has been nearly five weeks since it hit the screens.
But even now, the publicity blitzkrieg for this film has been going on in full swing, notwithstanding the fact that the film had average talk on the day one itself. Lakhs of rupees are being spent on the promotion of Sarrainodu in television channels. The publicity campaign for Brahmotsavam which was released later did not last even for four or five days, but Sarrainodu is still catching the attention of the audiences!
Varma Now Targets Bollywood Heroes!
Maverick film maker Ram Gopal Varma has the habit of troubling film stars with his tweets. In Tollywood, he had to bear the brunt of fans of mega family with his irritating comments against Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan on twitter.The other day, he tweeted that Pawan Kalyan’s fans were illiterates, evoking sharp reaction from them. He also created rift between fans of Mahesh Babu and Pawan Kalyan, by belittling the latter compared to the Prince.
Of late, he has started focussing on Bollywood heroes by making similar controversial comments on twitter.He is trying to create rift between Sharukh Khan and Salman Khan, saying that Sharukh does not deserve to be called no. 1 hero.He has tweeted that compared to Sharukh, Salman has higher success rate of films making huge revenues. So, Salman should be No. 1, he argued.
Surprisingly, Ramu has also been targeting Tamil heroes. He tried to draw comparison between Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth, saying Kamal has lost his place in doing experimental characters and conceded his ground to Rajini.God only knows why Ramu is trying to be so judgemental these days.
Bunny to embark on his new mission
Stylish Star Allu Arjun in one of the interviews in Sarainodu promotions, revealed that his target is to become a South Indian Star hero with market in entire South. The actor who already enjoys a sizeable popularity in Kerala, is target Tamil Nadu with his next project. His next film will be a bilingual made simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil.
The movie will be directed by Tamil director, Linguswamy and will start rolling from June 15th in Hyderabad. The makers are currently busy finalizing the rest of the cast and crew and will very soon come up with a formal announcement. Allu Arjun’s father, Allu Aravind will be producing the Telugu version on his Geetha Arts Banner while the Tamil version will be produced by KE Gnanvelraj under his Studio Green Banner.
Allu Arjun just delivered a blockbuster with Sarainodu. The movie had even amazed the trade pandits as it cruised to become only the fourth film in Telugu film history to cross 70 Crore Share mark. This feat is very special especially after every one wrote off after so much of bad talk on the release day.
Superstar Rajinikanth enjoying a US Holiday
Superstar Rajinikanth flew to USA for a brief holiday along with his family. The actor for more than an year is busy in the shootings of his Kabali and 2.0. He finally decided that he needs to take a break to rejuvenate. He will be resuming the shoot of his 2.0 in the second week of June. The US Holiday is about two weeks. On the other side, Kabali is being planned for July 1st release.
The movie has generated tremendous hype after that super successful first look teaser. The teaser bashed all the records left right and center. Rajinikanth will be seen playing an ageing gangster. The film’s story is rumoured to be based on the real-life story of a Chennai-based don. Rumours are rife that Abhishek Pictures bagged the Andhra and Nizam rights of the film in Telugu paying a whopping 31 Crore.
This is a sensational price offered for any dubbing film in Telugu which only indicates the hype and expectations on the film in the trade and audience. Ranjith Pa is wielding megaphone for the movie in which Radhika Apte is the female lead. In Shankar’s 2.0, a sequel to blockbuster Robot, Rajinikanth will return as the popular scientist, Vaseekar, and will lock horns with Bollywood Superstar, Akshay Kumar who is playing the baddie of the film which marks his South debut. Rajinikanth do not have proper success after his 2010 film, Robot and so he is keen to bagging success with both these films.
After Disaster, Hero Sacks Manager!
After disaster run of Soukhyam, hero Gopichand said to have sacked his manager. Gopi is of the opinion that the manager was one of the reasons for his previous failures and doesn’t letting him explore different subjects, stories. Apparently, many directors, writers have approached Gopi’s manager with good stories in the past and the manager apparently turned down many without bringing them to Gopi’s notice.
Learning of such high-handed practices, Gopi finally removed him from the role recently. Though it’s not something new and very common practice for heroes, heroines to dismiss managers after failures, but this has become topic in industry circles as the manager had been working closely with Gopi from long-time.
Villain-turned-hero Gopi has come a long way. He’s now focusing on his next film Oxygen after he which Gopi signed another film Loukyam director Sriwass. – See more at: http://www.gulte.com/movienews/49486/After-Disaster-Hero-Sacks-Manager#sthash.HTcqlhed.dpuf
China revises textbooks to focus more on traditional culture
Beijing: China’s primary and secondary school Chinese language textbooks have been revised on popular demand to focus more on traditional culture which was largely destroyed in Mao era, especially during the decade-long Cultural Revolution.Starting this autumn, more than four million first and seventh graders from Hunan, Henan, Guangdong, Liaoning and other provincial-level regions will use the new books.Forty per cent of the content in the previous edition has been changed, said Wang Xuming, president of the Language and Culture Press under the Ministry of Education.
Traditional material makes up 30 per cent of the revised primary school textbooks, while it increases to about 40 per cent for secondary school textbooks.”We did so to address the needs of parents, who want their children to learn more about traditional culture,” said a senior editor surnamed Zhu in charge of the middle school textbooks.”Now many people cannot even understand the language in classical Chinese books, and parents compete to send their children to commercial training centres for traditional culture,” she said.
The changes coincided with the 50 years of Mao’s Cultural Revolution this month which was largely ignored by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) which discarded his hardline Communist ideology.For 10 tumultuous years from 1966, China underwent massive sociopolitical upheaval that saw countless politicians and intellectuals driven to their deaths, civilians killed in armed conflicts, and cultural relics and artefacts destroyed.”The Cultural Revolution era is long over…We have bid farewell to the Cultural Revolution. We can say it once again today that the Cultural Revolution cannot and will not come back. There is no place for it in today’s China,” state-run Global Times said in its editorial on 50th anniversary of Cultural Revolution.
China has seen a renewed interest in traditional education.”Demand for private education grows when teaching of traditional culture in public schools is not enough,” Zhu said.The poetry and essays in the new books were selected not only so that students can learn the language, but also to instruct them on philosophy, Zhu told sate-run Xinhua news agency, adding that 16 excerpts from the Analects of Confucius were included in the middle school textbooks.Zheng Weizhong, director of the primary school department at the press said that students now begin learning classical articles starting in third grade.
“We also added stories about Chinese folk art and ethnic culture, such as paper-cutting and the Tibetan Shoton (yogurt banquet) Festival,” he said.The change was welcomed by many teachers, but some people questioned the revision. This is the first revision the press has made in more than a decade.
