IDBI Bank staff on strike against privatisation plan

Over 30,000 employees of IDBI Bank are on a one-day strike to protest government’s plans to privatize the lender by creating a Axis Bank-like structure for it.

The employees are protesting under the banner of United Forum of IDBI Officers and Employees, supported by All India Bank Officers Association.

At present, the government holds 76.5 per cent stake in IDBI Bank.

The government indirectly controls 29.19 per cent in Axis Bank through the administrator of the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI), Life Insurance Corp and four other public sector general insurance companies.

“We are against the government plans to sell its stake to private players. It wants to achieve its disinvestment target of Rs 69,500 crore through this,” a union member said.

However, an IDBI official said the lender so far has not received any formal communication from the government on the issue.

IDBI Bank came into existence, with Parliament passing the IDBI Repeal Act in 2003.

In terms of provisions of the Repeal Act, IDBI has been functioning as a bank in addition to its earlier role of a financial institution.

Earlier in September, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Jayant Sinha had spoken about the government’s plan to privatise IDBI Bank.

“We’ll consider transforming IDBI Bank in a manner similar to the way Axis Bank was done,” Sinha had told reporters last month.

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Inter-caste camaraderie, from the hills

For an Indian, the nebulous term ‘world cinema’ evokes fond memories of cinema from the distant Europe. However, at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI), cinemas of our immediate neighborhood — from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka — have got some much-deserved attention. Among them, one movie that garnered the greatest round of applause was Nepali director Min Bahadur Bham’s Kalo Pothi (The Black Hen).

The film is set in a Maoist-dominated region, Gamgadhi, of northern Nepal, at the height of the ‘People’s War’ in 2001. Centred on the lives of Prakash and Kiran, two primary school children from divergent castes, and their attachment to a hen, who they fondly name ‘Karishma’ (after the actress), it is reminiscent of the old children’s movie Kuk Doo Koo.

When Karishma, a gift for Prakash from his sister who has joined the Maoists, gets sold, the children’s journey through Maoist-inhabited jungles brings them a greater awareness of their backgrounds. Kiran’s brother-in-law has been abducted by Maoists and Prakash’s elder sister is an accomplice.

Prakash’s love for Karishma is not unlike Tahaan’s love for Birbal, a donkey, in Tahaan or Biniya’s love for an umbrella in The Blue Umbrella. However, The Black Hen, more than the hen, is about the friendship between the two children. While caste divides them, class unites. The biggest political statement the film makes is neither through the revolutionary songs sung by Maoists nor the paeans to the King the villagers are forced to sing. It is when Prakash and Kiran, having smeared themselves with blood to avoid being killed by the rebels, both go naked to take a dip in the pond. Beneath the veneer of the clothes that mark their castes, their souls are the same.

Speaking to The Hindu in Hindi after the screening of the movie the director, who hails from the Karnali region of northern Nepal, said it was a tale of his own childhood and his friendship with a lower-caste school friend. “It was really hard for me and for us to play together. We used to ask: why can’t we play? Why can’t we have food together? I started writing the story keeping that in mind,” the 31-year-old director said.

Speaking about his experience with Maoists, Bham said, “I had to quit my school. I had to leave my village and come to the city. Most of the children [as also shown in the movie] were joining Maoists.” He added that Guru Dutt and Satyajit Ray were the Indian filmmakers he took the greatest inspiration from.

When asked about the recently-passed Nepali Constitution and how it has impacted the lives of lower-caste children like Prakash (the film’s character), Bham said people from the hill areas, including those from his own region, were generally happy with the Constitution.

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Tamasha dwells on finding the inner self

In contemporary Bollywood, love stories have undergone a far-reaching, fundamental transformation: from fighting the cruel world and family till the 1990s, lovers have been battling their own inner demons circa 2000. Have I fallen in love or is it just friendship? To commit or not to commit?

Tamasha goes a step ahead, leaving behind these seminal questions to dwell on something even more significant: finding your true, inner self that has been lost to a robotic work life, to discover and embrace the clown lurking behind the automaton in you. In that sense, Tamasha could well be the next part in the Ranbir Kapoor-in-evolution series of Hindi cinema that boasts of films like Wake Up Sid, Rockstar and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani.

There is definitely a good thought that Imtiaz Ali invests in Tamasha and some moments do come alive and reach out strongly. After all, a lot of us have been burning ourselves out; are caught in a rut, that too out of choice. Even the entire facade Imtiaz employs – of theatre, role-playing and storytelling – while referencing his own raconteur-filmmaker self, places Ranbir in a nice art and aesthetics context as against the mechanical mode.

Ranbir and Deepika Padukone work well together, be it communicating that buddy spirit, resisting love or giving in to it or facing up to the break-up. They belong to each other. But the telling of the tale becomes too turgid, ponderous and protracted. It’s then that the initial identification with the characters lapses into sheer disinterest and boredom.
The conflict in the story works but the resolution is way too easy and pat. The music, too, doesn’t rise to the occasion.

The film is essentially about Ved (Ranbir) and his soulmate Tara (Deepika Padukone) – about their togetherness as strangers and their loneliness in familiarity.

The focus, however, is on Ved, a product manager who needs to break free. Those around him, even family members, are rather inconsequential or are caricaturised (boss Vivek Mushran) and over-the-top (storyteller Piyush Mishra) or just shoved in as a pointless layer to the narrative (the singing auto driver).

In between, there is the familiar ‘romanticisation’ of journeys (in this case, we go to Corsica via Delhi, Shimla and Kolkata) – the moment when you get familiar with yourself, when you connect with strangers and find your soulmate.

Live for the moment

Travel typifies ‘carpe diem’, when you live for the moment. However, as a viewer who has travelled a lot, it can also leave you feeling utterly frustrated – why doesn’t this happen to me? Why does the seat next to yours in the plane always get taken by the grumpiest guy?

The woman is confined to playing the supporting role. The one who invests in a relationship, the one who expresses her feelings and seeks direction in love. She is also the trigger, the mirror in which the hero will eventually spot his real reflection, the one who will make him realise that he is much more than regular and mediocre. Which is all very fine. She is clearly less confused and more evolved than the man; more so, if she happens to be played by the lovely Deepika.

The film might be Ranbir’s and he might be good and earnest and all that, but Deepika makes a bigger impact.

So, for a change, next time, turning the tables won’t be such a bad idea either. Questions of career, competition and success, and of commitment are as big dilemmas for women in modern, urban India as they are for men. Why not have the heroine grapple with them for a change and let the hero become her mirror? High time our filmi boys became men and moved on, leaving the stage for women.

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Indian Muslims follow real Islam, says Mehbooba Mufti

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said Indian Muslims practiced real Islam because there was tolerance in Hinduism and lashed out at those who responded with calls of “go to Pakistan” every time there was an ideological disagreement.

She was speaking in the Lok Sabha during the discussion commemorating the Constitution and its architect, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

“To those who ask [Muslims] to go to Pakistan, I want to say that the nation owns us and we own the nation,” she said. The statement was made in reference to recent incidents where those protesting against what they perceived as rising intolerance in the country were asked to go to Pakistan by right-wing elements and in some cases, even by members of the ruling BJP.

She was, however, generous in her praise for the country’s pluralistic ethos compared to other countries like Pakistan and Syria, where she said, “Muslims are killed but no one can open their mouth.”

Ms. Mufti cited the incidents of scientists, authors, artistes and historians returning their awards in protest as the biggest proof of India’s tolerance. “Indian Muslims follow the real Islam. This is also because the Hindu majority [community] is very tolerant. Babasaheb must have taken tolerance from Hinduism. The way Hinduism has the tolerance, perhaps no one else has. The historians, authors and scientists have been protesting and returning their awards. The way they came out in protest keeps the nation alive,” she said in an impassioned speech.

Referring to the Dadri incident, where Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched over rumors of eating and storing beef, she said it reflected systemic failures and not the spirit of the people.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma also spoke during the discussion and demanded that the Constitution be amended to ensure that only a person elected to the Lok Sabha was eligible to be made the Prime Minister. “Only an elected member of the Lok Sabha should be allowed to be the Prime Minister,” he said.

He is the third person, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Biju Janata Dal MP Baijayant Panda, who have spoken of Constitutional reforms with regard to the powers of the Rajya Sabha.

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France vows to destroy the ‘army of fanatics’

A subdued France paid homage on Friday to those killed two weeks ago in the attacks that gripped Paris in fear and mourning, honoring each of the 130 dead by name as the President pledged to destroy the army of fanatics who claimed so many young lives.

With each name and age read aloud inside the Invalids national monument, the toll gained new force. Most, as French President Francois Hollande noted, were under the age of 35, killed while enjoying a mild Friday night of music, food, drinks or sports. The youngest was 17, the oldest 68.

Throughout Paris, French flags fluttered in windows and on buses in uncharacteristic displays of patriotism in response to Paris’s second deadly terror attack this year. But the mood was grim, and the locked-down ceremony at the Invalides national monument lacked the defiance of January, when a million people poured through the streets to honor those killed by Islamist extremist gunmen.

The night of November 13, three teams of suicide bombers and gunmen struck across Paris, beginning at the national stadium where Mr. Hollande was among the spectators and ending in the storming of the Bataclan concert venue. In all, 130 people died and hundreds were injured. The crowd at the stadium shakily sang French national anthem as they filed outside that night; a military band played the Marseillaise again on Friday.

Mournful celero

The courtyard went silent after the reading of the names finished, broken finally by a mournful cello. Mr. Hollande stared straight ahead, before finally rising to speak.

“To all of you, I solemnly promise that France will do everything to destroy the army of fanatics who committed these crimes,” Mr. Hollande said.

The speech was dedicated above all to the dead and the youth of France. “The ordeal has scarred us all, but it will make us stronger. I have confidence in the generation to come. Generations before have also had their identity forged in the flower of youth. The attack of November 13 will remain in the memory of today’s youth as a terrible initiation in the hardness of the world. But also as an invitation to combat it by creating a new commitment,” he said.

“It was this harmony that they wanted to break, shatter. Well, they will not stop it. We will multiply the songs, the concerts, the shows. We will keep going to the stadiums. We will participate in sports gatherings great and small. And we will commune in the best of emotions, without being troubled by our differences, our origins, our colours, our convictions, our beliefs, our religions. Because we are a single and unified nation, with the same values,” said the President.

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Modi mobbed by scribes for selfie

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke of the message of non-discrimination and equality as he reached out to journalists at a ‘diwali milan’ at the BJP headquarters here.

Hailing Indian festivals as occasions which give a new inspiration to society, he said “The festival of lights (Deep Parva) is also a part of it. There is no discrimination in it. It also strengthens the value of equality.”

Speaking about mass connect of festivals including the Kumbh fair, Mr. Modi said “In our society, festivals in themselves are a big strength, which give the society a new momentum, energy and enthusiasm.

“A number of stories can be generated if its social and economic aspects are analysed. For instance the gathering on the banks of the Ganges during the Kumb Mela is so huge as if there some small European country there,” he said.

After his brief remarks from the podium, the Prime Minister stepped down to go around freely shaking hands with the assembled journalists, some of whom took selfies with him.

It was a repeat of the scenes like last year when Mr. Modi reached out to journalists on a similar occasion. Again, he was literally mobbed by them during the informal interaction.

The Prime Minister said that this year’s diwali milan got delayed due to his busy schedule. “Had it not been done now, one may have had to wait till Christmas.” BJP Chief Amit Shah wished a great year for the country’s democratic traditions.

Referring to the two-day long debate in Parliament to commemorate the Constitution Day and the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, Mr. Shah said that Parliament has unanimously placed the supremacy of the Constitution above all.

“Our effort will be to take this spirit down the line to people and make even the weakest person in the society aware of the Constitutional rights by next year along with the help of all parties and media,” Shah said.

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HSBC to shut down private banking business in India

HSBC Holdings Plc is shutting its private banking unit in India, marking the exit of another foreign bank from the cut-throat wealth management business in Asia's third-largest economy.

"After a strategic review of the global private banking operations in India, we have decided to close the business," an India spokesman said on Friday. "This marks further progress in the HSBC group strategy to simplify business and deliver sustainable growth."

Many foreign wealth managers had scrambled to open up shop in India a few years ago and aggressively ramped up operations to take advantage of robust economic growth, only to find themselves struggling.

Even though India's economy has been minting millionaires at a strong pace, it has failed to translate into profits for the foreign wealth managers that have set up teams of well-paid bankers to help manage those riches.

Banks including Royal Bank of Scotland and Morgan Stanley have sold their onshore India private banking units in the recent past, as part of their global business restructuring.

The Mumbai-based HSBC spokesman said it would offer private banking clients the choice to move to HSBC Premier, the bank's global retail banking and wealth management platform. The process is likely to be completed in the first quarter of 2016.

HSBC's private banking business in India has about 70 staff, a source with direct knowledge of the development told Reuters. The bank employs about 32,000 people in India, where it also offers corporate, retail and investment banking services.

It was not immediately clear how much assets HSBC's private banking unit managed in India, but wealth management industry sources said the bank was not one of the top three players in this segment.

The bank, Europe's biggest lender, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on its private banking staff in India and its market position.

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