No Significant Change In H1B Visa Regime For India, Says US

The United States has conveyed to India that there is no significant change in the H1B visa regime, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

Sitharaman said in Lok Sabha that India is articulating its concerns regarding the visa policy vigorously with the new administration in the US.

However, the Minister said, there is no significant change in the H1B visa regime.

"The fear, at least for 2017, is not proved to be correct. They (US authorities) are saying their current priority is to deal with the illegal immigrants," she said during Question Hour.

Sitharaman said the issue was also taken up by the Commerce Minister recently with visiting Congressional delegation led by Bob Goodlatte and during the visit of Commerce Secretary and Foreign Secretary to the US during first week of March 2017.

The Minister said India's concerns on visa issues were articulated during the Strategic and Commerce Dialogue 2016 and Trade Policy Forum 2016 held in October, 2016.

She said India had decided to continue their engagement on visa issues and reiterated their shared resolve to facilitate the movement of professionals.

Sitharaman said a number of industry bodies have raised concerns on visa policies of the US and these concerns were conveyed to the US authorities by the government.

The Minister said the US monitors policies of 73 countries and India may be one of them.

"But we don't recognise any monitoring by any countries. No unilateral policing is acceptable for India," she said.

Anna Hazare Slams Kejriwal's Suggestion, Says Ballot Paper Time Consuming Process

Slamming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for putting the onus on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), social activist Anna Hazare on Wednesday told ANI that the use of ballot paper is time consuming and outdated.

"World is progressing at a fast rate and here we are discussing of going back in time to ballot papers. Entire world is using EVMs and it is a better option than ballot voting," Hazare asserted.

Explaining his statement he added, "First of all, the voters either sign or give finger prints on the ballot paper which is a time taking process. Secondly, the voter folds the ballot paper and puts it inside the box then at last comes the counting process which is again time consuming."

He further said that through EVMs comparatively less time is consumed, but advised to use totaliser machines that would ensure no mistakes in counting of the votes.

"We have written to the Election Commission for a number of times and the Commission has also asked the government to buy the totaliser machines but no initiative has been taken," he added.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener on Wednesday alleged that the EVMs were tampered during the recently conducted assembly polls in the five states that ultimately resulted in his party's dismal show, especially in Punjab.

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal suggested that the Election Commission needs to relook at the use of EVMs in the electoral process until faith is restored in it.

"Many said that there is anger against the Akalis and AAP is sweeping polls, still AAP got 25 percent votes and SAD got 31% votes.

How is it possible? Even in Malwa, we got thrashed and Congress won there. How is it possible?" Kejriwal asked.

He further said is it possible through the EVMs that 20-25 percent vote share meant for the AAP was transferred to the SAD-BJP alliance.

Kejriwal further asked the Election Commission to count slips of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail or VVPAT and match it with the figures of EVM results.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati had earlier also put the onus on the EVMs for her loss in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, saying the machine accepted votes only in favour of the BJP.

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WHERE IS OBAMA RIGHT NOW??

Barack Obama's post-presidency life is way more glamorous than you could imagine.

Back in Washington, President Donald Trump continues to suggest, without proof, that Obama wiretapped him and Republicans are busy trying to dismantle his signature health reform law. Nevertheless, former President Barack Obama is unwinding nicely from the most important job in the world.

He's been to sunny California for some golf, a private island in the Caribbean, where he kite-surfed with billionaire Richard Branson; he went to New York to take in a Broadway play, and then again, to dine with U2's Bono.

He lunched in Omaha last week with Warren Buffett and then hopped a flight to California, and then on to Hawaii (more golf). And today, Obama may be sitting pretty, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on a tiny French Polynesian island called Tetiaroa.

There are reports,  that Obama is going to spend a month on the island, which is north of Tahiti and features only one luxury hotel, aptly named "The Brando" because the Island was once owned by Marlon Brando. The eco-friendly hotel has one-, two- and three-bedroom villas, according to its website. It's been a favorite destination for more current celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio. Prices range from $2,000 per night, depending on accommodations and date. Their Instagram feed makes the place look quite nice.

An Obama spokesman tells CNN that the former president is now a private citizen and his schedule, therefore, is also private.

Whether or not life after the White House includes an island respite, it also likely now includes writing a book. Penguin Random House last month announced it had won the bidding for memoirs from both Barack and Michelle Obama, a deal that could net the former first couple tens of millions of dollars.

The announcement also indicated the Obamas would donate a "significant portion" of that money to charities, including the Obama Foundation.

When not on vacation, the Obamas are living in Washington; they've moved into a posh $5.3 million home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Northwest DC. They intend to stay until their younger daughter, Sasha, graduates high school in 2019. Older daughter, Malia,18, is taking a gap year and scheduled to attend Harvard University this fall.

In The End, This Is What Worked In Yogi Adityanath's Favour

In a surprising choice, 45-year-old Yogi Adityanath (born, Ajay Singh Bisht), a five-time member of the Parliament, has been chosen as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Adityanath, BJP's representative from Gorakhpur, is also the head priest of the Gorakhnath temple. In 1998, he was elected to 12^th Lok Sabha when he was just 26 years old.

Adityanath is a hardliner who is known for his unapologetic pro-Hindutva views, and has often been at the centre of controversies. Memorably, he was also key mover and face of the controversial ghar wapsi plank. In 2002, he founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini. An alleged socio-cultural outfit, the volunteers of the group are known to use strong-arm tactics in riots, cow-protection drives and to stop 'love jihad.' Adityanath's 2014 affidavit before the Election Commission lists charges of rioting, attempted murder and intimidation against him.

Announcing the decision after a meeting of legislators in Lucknow, Union Urban Development Minister and Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu said that the UP result was a "watershed moment" in the history of BJP.

Sources indicated that Adityanath wasn't the choice of some senior BJP leaders and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The hands of such leaders appeared to have been forced by him.

In choosing Adityanath, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma -- two leaders from the upper castes and one from the backward caste -- the BJP has balanced the caste considerations. However, in choosing these leaders, the BJP has also ignored western and north-western Uttar Pradesh, from where it swept the 2017 elections.

MAIN FACTOR THAT GO WITH YOGI ERA:

Adityanath's appointment indicates that BJP is interested in developing another rung of Thakur leadership -- a caste that decides elections in several states. Interestingly, the newly appointed Uttarakhand chief minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat, is also from the same community.

By appointing Adityanath, the BJP appears to be indicating that it will go ahead with a strong pro-Hindutva and developmental agenda in 2019.

In UP, Many Voters Resolutely Defied Labels And The Rules Of Identity Politics

In the days following the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh, journalists who covered the Assembly polls were asked how they had failed to detect the "Modi wave". 

When the results came out and it was clear that Narendra Modi had carried the election, many were quick to conclude that people had once again voted along caste and communal lines. To say that is selling short the UP voter. While it is true political parties campaigned for the 2017 polls along caste and religious lines, there were voters on the ground who refused to play by the rules of identity politics.

Consider the following examples.

A Muslim woman from Bareilly, who is a survivor of triple talaq, expressed her support for the BJP. A BJP loyalist conveyed his dissatisfaction with the development work done by the local BJP candidate.

A student in Bundelkhand questioned why Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had not done more to improve the quality of education in his village. A father in Ayodhya held that sidelining Mulayam Singh Yadav was a huge mistake, even as his son voiced his faith in Akhilesh as a youth icon.

There were many who saw through the BJP's attempts at polarisation. They shrugged at some of the offensive utterances by BJP firebrands, such as Sangeet Som and Yogi Adityanath, dismissing their rhetoric as "drama" and reducing the two leaders to caricatures of themselves rather than hailing them as saviours of Hindutva.

For example, the BJP's highlighting the issue of the triple talaq, the tradition of unilateral oral divorce available to Muslim men, was more important to 23-year-old Nida Khan than any anti-Muslim rant like "love jihad" or "ghar wapsi".

The post-graduate student reasoned that Som and Yogi Adityanath said whatever they did because they were playing to a small group of people "who still believed in such things" and that it was "mostly for show."

"If there is Yogi Adityanath on the Hindu side who divides people, do we not have people like [Asaduddin] Owaisi on the Muslim side?" she said. "Has he not spoken against the Hindus? I think it is all said and done just to get votes."

In backing the BJP, Khan had broken her family convention of supporting the Samajwadi Party. It did not bother her that the BJP did not field a single Muslim candidate from UP or that there could be a hidden agenda in the background.

"They know Muslims won't vote for them, so why should they put up such candidates?" she said pragmatically. "I'm supporting them because of [their opposition to ] triple talaq."