“The interplay of the perspective of two travellers dealing with the years of the rule of Dara Shikoh and the rise of Aurangzeb makes for good reading,” said Tharoor who was making his appearance in the national capital after a break. The book set in the 17the century India is a narrative by two travellers Niccolao Manucci and Grancois Bernier who arrive in India and find their way into the innermost circles of the Emperor.

The narrative is about how the country braces itself for the brutal succession to the Peacock throne. “The book is about the rivalry between Aurangazeb and Dara Shikoh and Aurangazeb.

It is about rising Europe and declining India or in terms of adjectives it can be said as about the rising Euro and declining India,” said author Kakar, a psycho-analyst and novelist.

The author who wrote about the love of Dara Shikoh for his subjects asked Tharoor in the discussion following the release why there were no roads named after him in the capital even though there was one named after Aurangzeb. “Yes, there is a road named after him,” replied Tharoor

Name of Source: Yahoo

In his historic speech about India’s “tryst with destiny”, Nehru, speaking of his country’s dreams, said: “Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments”.
It was typical of that great nationalist that a time when the fires of Partition were blazing across the land, he thought not only of India, but of the world. In those six decades, the world has become even more closely knit together than Nehru foresaw.

Indeed, today it is fair to say that even those countries that once felt insulated from external dangers — by wealth or strength or distance — now fully realise that the safety of people everywhere depends not only on local security forces, but also on guarding against terrorism; warding off the global spread of pollution, of diseases, of illegal drugs and of weapons of mass destruction; and on promoting democracy and development.
Jobs everywhere, too, depend not only on local firms and factories, but on faraway markets for products and services, on licences and access from foreign governments, on an international environment that allows the free movement of goods and persons, and on international institutions that ensure stability — in short, on the international system that sustains our globalised world.
Today, whether you are a resident of Delhi or Dili, Bengaluru or Bangor — whether you are from Chennai or China! — it is simply not realistic to think only in terms of your own country. Global forces press in from every conceivable direction. People, goods and ideas cross borders and cover vast distances with ever greater frequency, speed and ease. We are increasingly connected through travel, trade, the Internet; what we watch, what we eat and even the games we play.

These benign forces are matched by more malign ones that are equally global. In my time at the UN, I learned that the world is full of “problems without passports” — problems that cross all frontiers uninvited, problems of terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, of the degradation of our common environment, of contagious disease and chronic starvation, of human rights and human wrongs, of mass illiteracy and massive displacement. Such problems also require solutions that cross all frontiers, since no one country or group of countries can solve them alone.

Let us not forget that 9/11 made clear the old cliché about our global village — for it showed that a fire that starts in a remote thatched hut or dusty tent in one corner of that village can melt the steel girders of the tallest skyscrapers at the other end of our global village.
In such a world, issues that once seemed very far away are very much in your backyard. What happens in North America or South Africa — from protectionist politics to deforestation and desertification to the fight against AIDS — can affect your lives wherever you live, in north or south India.
And your choices here — what you buy, how you vote — can resound far away. As someone once said about water pollution, we all live downstream. We are all interconnected, and we can no longer afford the luxury of not thinking about the rest of the planet in anything we do.

To my younger readers, let me say that you are likely to spend a lot of your adult lives interacting with people who don’t look, sound, dress or eat like you; that you might work for an internationally-oriented company with clients, colleagues or investors from around the globe; and that you are likely to take your holidays in far-flung destinations.

The world into which you will grow will be full of such opportunities. But along with such opportunities, you may also find yourself vulnerable to threats from beyond our borders: terrorism, of course, but also transnational crime syndicates, counterfeiters of currency, drug smugglers, child traffickers, Internet spammers, credit-card crooks and even imported illnesses like swine flu.
Wouldn’t you want your government to devise policies to deal with such challenges that would affect your, and one day your children’s lives? Should such policies, in an ever more interdependent world, even be called foreign? One of the reasons that foreign policy matters today is that foreign policy is no longer foreign: it affects you right here where you live. You want your government to seize the opportunities that the 21st century world provides, while managing the risks and protecting you from the threats that this world has also opened you up to.

Indians, therefore, have a growing stake in international developments. To put it another way, the food we grow and eat, the air we breathe, and our health, security, prosperity and quality of life are increasingly affected by what happens beyond our borders. And that means we can simply no longer afford to be indifferent about our neighbours, however distant they may appear. Ignorance is not a shield; it is not even, any longer, an excuse. This is the spirit in which I hope to approach this column in the fortnights to come.

* Shashi Tharoor is a member of Parliament from Kerela’s Thiruvananthapuram constituency

Name of Source: Deccan Chronicle

Tharoor, who visited the construction site on Thursday, told reporters that he would take up the matter with the Centre.

Air India officials told Tharoor that the delay in completing the works of the taxi way connecting the engineering base with the runway of the airport was one major constraint before the commissioning of the engineering base.

Tharoor said that the project assumed significance as it would boost the development of the State capital. Not only Air India, but foreign airlines would also make use of the engineering-base.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone for both the new international terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram airport and the engineering base on November 1, 2006. While the terminal building is ready for commissioning, only 75 percent works of the engineering base have been completed. The engineering base project is much small compared to the airport terminal project. Air India station manager M Jyothi Prakash briefed Tharoor about the project.

Name of Source: Indian Express

Sixteen of Gokul’s paintings were exhibited at the venue, all of which carry the artist’s apprehensions on the growing challenges the environment faces, as a result of the industrial revolution. He has used water colour, acrylic and oil painting in his works.

Kattoor Narayana Pillai, former principal at Fine Arts College, and Sasikumar, Shangrila Art Gallery, were present at the inaugural function.

The exhibition will continue till July 10.

Name of Source: Yentha.com

Ropes are attached on both sides of the fibre boat. By pulling the rope on the side
which one wants to go the boat can be taken to that side. Till recently, the residents
of Parathi had been using a raft made out of bamboo to undertake the crossing.
While crossing the lake from Parathi, Poonanickal Joy’s son Sajo, an eighth standard
student had fallen into the lake. The accident occurred when he was trying to
guide the raft on to the shore. Even though Sajo had been pulled out of the lake when he fell into
the water, his life could not be saved.

Shashi Tharoor, MP realised the difficulties being undergone by the residents of Parathi.
Funds were allotted from the Chandran Tharoor Foundation founded in his father’s name.
That was how the fiber boat which can accommodate four persons was made available
at the crossing.

The fibre boat will not overturn even in strong wind. One can cross to the opposite shore without fear.
The old bamboo raft is still tied to the wharf. It is being used to carry grass and firewood
across the lake.

When the Neyyar dam was built the paddy fields of Mayom area were submerged. The Parathi hill became
an island. With this the Parathi area was cut off from the Mayaom , Amboori areas. Ever since the Neyyar
dam was constructed the people of the Parathi area including adivasis have been clamouring
for a bridge. Whjen the Panthaplammoodu bridge was constructed linking the Mayaom and Amboori
areas thse on foot have been able to cross over.

Howver, the forest department has stood in the way of constructing a bridge which can allow vehicles.
At present only auotoricklshaws can use the bridge. When an auto is crossing, pedestrians cannot use the bridge.
Those people who have to walk long distances to access even this bridge now prefer to use the fiber boat instead.

Name of Source: The Deepika Newspaper (on 20/06/10)

The pilgrims, who will seek Manmohan Singh’s intervention on June 22, said last year was one of the best organised pilgrimages because Tharoor, then junior external affairs minister, had organised everything in advance. Around 160,000 pilgrims went on Haj last year.

“The Haj pilgrimage this year will end up as an utter fiasco if the Prime Minister does not intervene and take matters in his hand. There is no authority to take decisions and there is utter chaos. We will ask the Prime Minister to intervene at the earliest,” said Mujibur Rehman of the Karnataka Haj Committee. “It is sad that there is no person like Shashi Tharoor at the helm of affairs. But the government should not hesitate to make use of his expertise, otherwise pilgrims are going to suffer this year.’’

Every year, the government receives over 200,000 application for the Haj pilgrimage. It makes the arrangements for the pilgrims’ travel, their accommodation, food, safety and health facilities. The Haj pilgrimage starts in November.

The selection of pilgrims is in utter chaos, said Uttar Pradesh Haj Committee’s Naseemuddin Siddiqui. “The government is not serious this time and is treating things in a careless manner. They are changing schedules at the last moment thus delaying things. Last year, things were much better organised,” he said.

“Last year, for a change, everything was well planned and organised. This, despite the largest contingent and the looming threat of H1N1. It was possible because there was an efficient person like Shashi Tharoor at the top who coordinated everything well in advance,” said Firoze Ahmed Siddiqui, a member of the Jamiat Council that oversees Haj related work in Uttar Pradesh.

Name of Source: The Telegraph

Nearby Basheer, the Jamaat treasurer, shows me a weatherworn foundation stone laid by Rajiv Gandhi for a bridge to have been built across the lagoon connecting this village to the mainland. “Our children cannot go to school, our women die in childbirth without a bridge. Their souls wander this accursed shore,” he says. Suddenly overwhelmed by his own eloquence, he tells me, “Rajiv’s soul will hover over this beach unless the bridge is built.”
In the car, Tharoor, still bandbox fresh despite the buffeting wind and sea spray, says, “I am doing whatever I can, but my access to resources is limited. And one can never do things in a hurry given how our system has got used to this slow pace of functioning.”
Controversy has followed Tharoor in his political avatar as relentlessly as the Furies in a Greek tragedy. He got off the block to a flying start only to encounter several hurdles thanks to his tweets on various issues ranging from travelling cattle class to improving the work ethic. Many of these were seen as an insult to the party that elevated him to high office. The final obstacle was his ill-fated involvement in the Indian Premier League bidding.
It did not help him that he had many detractors in the political establishment, resentful of the fact that he had got things on a platter – the coveted Thiruvananthapuram seat, and the even more sought after external affairs portfolio. A Congressman who did not want to be named said, “It was unfair that not only did he sail into the ministry of external affairs while we have been working relentlessly for the party for years, but also that he took the whole thing so casually.”
Many supporters are bewildered over why he seemingly threw it all away by putting his foot wrong all too often. Said a well-wisher, “The next stop was a full-fledged ministership; he should have known when to maintain a discreet silence.” It is no secret that both the Prime Minister and Congress president had nothing but goodwill for Tharoor whom they considered an asset to the external affairs set-up. And indeed, he was a great favourite with the diplomatic circle. On his foreign trips, he was able to deal with leaders with the polished ease he picked up from his UN days, something that did not go unnoticed by his ministry bosses.
Tharoor’s breezy, informal style seemed to go against the grain in a political set-up known for its elaborate deceptions. But he seems to have learnt from experience. Today, he will not say one word about the past, will make no attempt to set at rest the speculation that whirls around him. He makes it crystal clear that he will not go there again. His cousin Sharad tells me that Tharoor spends at least 10 days a month in his constituency trying to engage with the people and problems of this sleepy town. And yes, he tweets but only on innocuous daily events.
Away from the razzmatazz of the Indian Premier League and the social whirl of Delhi, post his ministership, Shashi Tharoor seems to be back in touch with his Malayali roots. He thinks that the Malayali is smart enough to see that he was a victim of the Byzantine politics that rule both the IPL and the political establishment. Here in Thiruvananthapuram, the seat of the former Travancore kings, this former diplomat from Palakkad seems determined to reinvent himself.

“Of course, I know that people are still sceptical of how well I will be able to handle the change from the salons of the UN to the sands of Thiruvananthapuram, but I see no contradiction in this,” he says.
He drops by a fish market. The staunch vegetarian shows no discomfort when several fisherwomen, some holding silver mackerel, burst upon his elegant personage in an iridescent explosion of scales and complaints. “We sit here in the searing sun and scorching rain with no shelter. Tell him to do something for us,” they tell me. I take copious notes if only to comfort them. Tharoor immediately tells them that if it’s a shelter they want, shelter it will be from his MP funds.

“Let’s see, we’ll believe it when we see it,” says Selena from behind a mound of spindly prawns. As he leaves this malodorous market, a thunderstorm breaks. The swollen raindrops leave the rest of us bedraggled and wrecked. Not so Tharoor, who shakes off the damage and smoothly glides on.
Does he miss the adulation and power of ministership? “I certainly miss the sort of work I was doing, but being an MP means I have to deal with so many different things. I was able to use my skills from a previous life in the UN. But I feel that I can make so much difference to the lives of these people if I can function the way I want to.” We are now motoring down a smooth as silk road, a rarity in Kerala, which Tharoor has helped to build with funds he got cleared from the Centre.
Now and again, he whispers fondly into the phone. I cannot help but ask about the reported object of his affections. He will not comment on his personal life, he says, citing the fact that he was scalded by it earlier. But, from all accounts, despite the somnolent grapevine in Thiruvananthapuram, the Palakkad pin-up boy’s heart has been lost to the much-covered Sunanda Pushkar.

However, his aides are emphatic that his itinerary is open to all the world to see that he will be nowhere near Bangalore this month, where according to some press reports, he is to marry the winsome Ms Pushkar. He will be away in Hong Kong to celebrate the 26th birthday of his twins, Kanishk and Ishaan, apart from attending a host of other engagements. He seems resigned to the fact that there will always be media interest in his extracurricular activities but will not confirm or deny any speculation.
The next day, he is more in his element at the Taj where he releases a book, Shabdatharapadham, by Oscar winner Resul Pookutty. Eulogising Tharoor as one of the great supporters of Slumdog Millionaire, Pookutty drones on about his life story. I sit at the back of the hall sipping a coma-inducing squash, listening to Pookutty’s broad Malayalam-accented account of his journey to the Auskaar awards. Tharoor breaks out in an alphabet soup of Malayalam, his cut glass accent never far from the surface. “People likes it,” says Pookutty of his book, reminding me of Javed Jaffrey in Salaam Namaste.
Earlier, it was a visit to a palliative care centre for Tharoor. In this place of pain and sadness, Shashi of the Sorrows seems to come into his own. He is genuinely at ease among the patients, mostly suffering from terminal cancers, reassuring them and chatting with their families. They ask for nothing, but he offers help, his cousin Sharad who runs his office taking down details. The nurses look at him with covetous eyes as he swishes past in starched splendour. In between, he stops to chatter in Bengali to a doctor from Kolkata. “I grew up in Kolkata,” he says almost apologetically while the doctor looks dazed with happiness.

In the evening, the rich and powerful of the city have gathered in a tony hotel. The Spanish ambassador Ion de la Riva who has come for the Barcelona festival spearheaded by Tharoor, drops in, his dark, brooding good looks adding to the glamour quotient of the evening. The event is a Thiruvananthapuram Citizens’ Action Network (T-Can) or as the MP puts it modestly, “Tharoor-Can” initiative that seeks to upgrade the decaying capital to make it a world class destination. While the congregation listens to Tharoor’s mellifluent tones, the appam pans warm up in the background.
Several worthies are spurred to oratorical heights by the presence of the MP and the Spanish diplomat. Thiruvananthapuram must be the next Bali, no Krabi, no Barcelona, says a spirited gent who is clearly as well travelled as he is eloquent. Ion de la Riva pours cold water on this peroration by chiding him and telling him to capitalise on Thirvananthampuram’s unique qualities. And what are these, you may well ask. Its immensely intelligent people, its unbeatable location and, of course, its man-on-the-move MP, says de la Riva. Tharoor accepts this without demur.
He is trying to build more roads, bridges, a homegrown Bono come to the aid of his people. So what about a spot of leisure? “Oh there is no time for that,” he says somewhat joyously. But, when he can he listens to classical music and watches movies. “I used to read a 100 books a year, now I just read when I can.” At his mother’s well-appointed home in Thiruvananthapuram with its Burma teak carvings and eclectic décor, he works next to a gigantic Ayurvedic massage table and his cross trainer. A quick round through the wringer with his trainer, a vigorous massage and he is ready for breakfast. It is always idlis and an incendiary chutney made of onions and chillis.
“I used to make this even during my UN days,” says the man who enjoys a good wine and single malt. On another occasion, we are at the Flora Family Home, a restaurant close to the rainswept Arabian seaboard. A bizarre meal materialises, the star of which is gobi mutter, not a well known Kerala delicacy. As Tharoor struggles to eat a soggy ice-cream for dessert, he is set upon by diners nearby. They are a doctor couple from Gujarat on holiday with their children. Immediately, the discontent with the dripping ice-cream melts, and he becomes Shashi of the Smiles.
Was it all too sudden for him? The first time voter, the first time MP and instant ministership? In the Medici-like world of Indian politics, this cannot have won him too many friends. He is circumspect on this but it is no secret that many in the establishment ensured that the negative spotlight stayed focused on him. “I had an advantage as a minister especially in the Francophone countries as I can speak French,” he says. He is a believer in morality in foreign policy. “It is in our enlightened self-interest to stand for certain values. But foreign policy is all about flexibility and adaptability.”
At this point, as if fearing more questions about the Brutuses who may have stabbed him in his Savile Row-clad back, he changes the topic to that of an island off the Thiruvananthapuram coast that was accessible only by a rope-raft, a dangerous contraption prone to toppling over. Fed up by bureaucratic delays, Tharoor sprung the cash for a boat from his Chandran Tharoor foundation, named after his father. “He was my hero, I really looked up to him.”
At home he is his Mummy’s boy, fussed over and chastised in equal measure by her. The matriarch Tharoor is immensely proud of her patrician son. “Have you come to write about his girlfriend?” she asks with disarming candour. I assure her that this is not so. She warms up and tells me about Tharoor’s sisters, who are apparently super-achievers too like her son who got his Ph.D from the US at the age of 22. “My children don’t really know Kerala culture, never having grown up here. But they fit in when they are here,” says the mother of the MP from Kerala’s most prestigious constituency. She is none too pleased by his Ayurvedic inclinations at home. “I don’t like the smells of all this medicated oil.” Sharad tells me that the Ayurvedic ministrations have done Tharoor a world of good.
The son of the soil image does not fit Tharoor despite his love for avial and appams and his appreciation of Malayalam films. He will never be able to master the marbles-in-the-mouth Mallu accent nor wade elbow deep into the Kerala sadhya. “I will be here more and more though I will keep my base in Delhi since I have to attend Parliament,” he says. Home in Delhi is near Lodi Gardens, a place where he hopes he can be partly rooted after a nomadic life in the UN.
On the promontory, the monsoonal tempest whirls around Tharoor. For a moment, I imagine he is Moses about to part the sea and walk to a promised land. Far away, the lights on ocean liners blink like fireflies. The tide roars impotently in the wind as Tharoor makes for his car. He might have just stepped out of the changing rooms of the Ritz in Paris if it were not for the lungi-clad gaggle of fishermen crowding around him. “I wonder when I’ll ever get home today,” says Shashi of the Sighs.

Name of the source: Hindustan Times

“Hindi cinema embodies India’s diversity and pluralism and film world should built a Ram Sethu of imagination,” said the Congress MP, who here to participate in the India International Film Awards (IIFA).

Tharoor also made a point about the condition of Tamils, saying that it was an emotional issue in India.

Sri Lanka as a venue for IIFA has angered many Tamil supporters in India, who accuse the Sri Lankan army of killing Tamils civilians during the peak of the conflict between army and LTTE last year.

The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC) has said it would boycott Bollywood actors participating in the event. “India wants focus on relief, rehabilitation and reconciliation for Tamils in Sri Lanka’s war-torn north. India wants political consensus over the Tamil issue.

“India wants Tamils to have an honoured place in their own country within the frame work of united Lanka,” Tharoor said.

Sri Lanka’s deputy minister of Economic Development, Laxman Yapa Abeywardene said, “Sri Lanka is influenced by Indian culture, tradition and language. Hosting of IIFA is dawn of a peaceful era.”

The country, which saw a violent end to three decades of civil war, is hoping to repair its image and revive tourism by hosting the event.

But this year’s IIFA saw some of the big names in Bollywood opting out of the event. Amitabh Bachchan, who is the brand ambassador of IIFA, did not attend the ceremony for the first time in 11-years.

His actor son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai too cited a busy schedule for not attending the event.

Shah Rukh Khan, who last performed in IIFA in 2005, opted out. The actor is busy shooting his superhero flick ‘Ra.One’.

Arjun Rampal, Kamal Haasan, Rajnikanth and director Mani Ratnam too gave the event a miss.

name of source: movies.ndtv.com

Aayu Bovan, Vanakkam, Namaskaram, Good evening!
At one level it might seem a little odd for me to be addressing you all at the inauguration of the International Indian Film Awards. After all, I am a writer, and as a writer my attitude to our popular Hindi cinema can best be summed up in the tale of the two goats at a garbage dump outside a Bollywood studio, who are chewing away at discarded cans of celluloid. The first goat, chewing slowly, says, “you know, this film’s not bad.” The second goat, also chewing the celluloid, replies, “yeah, but the book was better.”

So I believe the book is always better. That’s why I even wrote a novel about the film world twenty years ago, called “Show Business”. But in fact I’m here because I’ve realized that Hindi cinema is perhaps India’s most successful brand ambassador internationally. Bollywood is bringing its brand of entertainment not just to the Indian diaspora in the US or UK but around the globe, to the screens of Sri Lankans, Syrians and Senegalese. During my years at the United Nations, I lost count of the number of African leaders who told me of their memories of growing up in little towns and villages looking forward to the arrival of a Hindi movie in the big city. A Senegalese friend told me of his illiterate mother who takes a bus to Dakar every month to watch a Hindi film – she doesn’t understand the Hindi dialogue and, since she’s illiterate, she can’t read the French subtitles, but these films are made to be understood despite such handicaps; she can still catch their spirit and understand the stories, and people like her look at India with stars in their eyes as a result. There’s an Omani in this audience here tonight who owns all the movie theaters in Muscat and shows mainly Bollywood movies. When I asked him, “oh, you have lots of Indians there, hanh?” he replied, “no, my audiences are 80% Arab”. An Indian diplomat friend in Damascus a few years ago told me that the only publicly-displayed portraits in that city that were as big as those of then-President Hafez al-Assad were those of Amitabh Bachchan. And here in Colombo, I was discussing politics with a senior Sri Lankan, talking about whether his kids knew both the Sinhala and Tamil languages, and he replied: “thanks to your movies, they’re speaking Hindi!”

So our films are part of India’s soft power in the world, and today they are reaching ever-wider international audiences: during the last year three of them, including Kites last week, opened in the US amongst the top ten grossing films of the week. Indeed, it’s Bollywood that has helped India demonstrate that is a player in globalization, not merely a subject of it.

And while our films are primarily about entertainment, their themes enshrine the values of diversity and pluralism that embody the best of what India is. Our cinema industry embodies the very idea of India’s diversity in the way in which it is organized, staffed, and financed and in the stories it tells. People of different backgrounds and upbringing are shown to be brothers; good and bad are always shown as being found in every community. These are the values which India stands for. And our popular films offer all of us in India a common world to which to escape, allowing us to dream with our eyes open.

Today we celebrate Indian cinema in Sri Lanka, a country just recovering from the ravages of civil war. The end of the conflict with the LTTE has presented Sri Lanka with an opportunity to heal the wounds created by decades of protracted conflict, to make a new beginning and to build a better future for all its people. It has also opened up greater options for India and Sri Lanka to cooperate and enlarge our areas of engagement.

We all know that there are some in India who would rather have preferred that we were not here. The condition of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka is both an emotional and a political issue in our country. But India has never shirked from making known its legitimate concerns, and our engagement on this issue has been received in a very constructive spirit by the Government of Sri Lanka.

India had strongly supported the right of the Government to act against terrorist forces. At the same time, India has emphasized the importance of focusing on issues of relief, rehabilitation, resettlement and reconciliation, and the Indian people are proud that our Government is working actively in assisting in these “four Rs” in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. A fifth “r” – the redevelopment of the war-affected areas – is the next priority.

Though I speak in a purely personal capacity, I am confident that India will continue to remain engaged with the task of helping people to resume their lives which had so cruelly been interrupted by conflict. And we would all want to see a political consensus here to give the Tamil people of Sri Lanka an honoured place in their own country, within the framework of a united Sri Lanka, consistent with democracy, pluralism and respect for human rights. We wish Sri Lanka well in its efforts to accomplish this.

Today, World Environment Day, is an occasion for celebration. India and Sri Lanka need to look to the future, to a future in which our geographical proximity becomes a reason for closeness rather than controversy, where the past reminds us not of recent pain but of ancient commonalities, where religion and culture bring us together in a celebration of our common heritage. Lord Rama came to Lanka to reclaim Sita and left; Ashoka’s envoys brought Buddhism to Lanka and stayed. These ancient links unify us in spirit, in the spirit of the timeless tides that wash our shores and that have tied us together for millennia. It is now the film world’s turn to build a new bridge to Lanka, a Rama Setu of the imagination.

I wish IIFA and all of you a memorable evening.

Explaining the facts further, 54 year old Shashi Tharoor who previously served as the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information and the Indian Minister of State for the Ministry of External Affairs and who is also known as a prolific author, columnist, journalist and a human rights advocate, stated that the CEPA has to be compared with another agreement, the Sri Lanka- India Free Trade Agreement which was signed several years ago.

Mr. Tharoor was in Kandyto pay homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic at the Sri Dalada Maligawa. He met the media at the Central Province Chief Minister’s office where Chief Minister Tikiri Kobbekaduwa was also present.

The Free Trade Agreement between Indiaand Sri Lanka turned out to be extremely beneficial not only to India but to Sri Lanka as well, Mr. Tharoor said.

Adding further, he said, “It must not be forgotten that there are some trade agreements which turn out to be ‘trade creation agreements.’ This is what happened to SFTA. Not only did trade go up in the first year of agreement where Sri Lanka’s exports to Indiawere worth 45 million US dollars. That was in dollar terms. Equally important was that it went up as a percentage of India’s total imports. So during a period where India’s share of imports enjoyed by the United States, Europe and Japan was going down – every major country’s, except China’s was going down – Sri Lanka’s share went up. That was because of the FTA.

“It was also because the Indian government had genuinely accepted the position that there should be what we call an asymmetrical obligation where the larger country must accept a certain imbalance in the term of trade in order to benefit the smaller country to enjoy mutual benefit. CEPA too is based on the same principles.

“When I met President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he also told me that part of the problem in the criticism against CEPA is that the critics do not know what is in the document. The draft has not yet been made public in Sri Lanka. It is of course the government’s prerogative when to make it public. I am sure that in due course when the public is fully aware of what the draft contains, and they can be informed of the merits in the CEPA, I am confident that public opinion will change and Sri Lankans will see that the CEPA in Sri Lanka’s interests.”

Mr. Tharoor was among those who attended the Indian International Film Academy (IIFA) awards ceremony.

On IIFA, Mr. Tharoor said that holding such an event proved that Sri Lankawas well on its way to normalcy and was recovering from the effects of a near 30 year long conflict. Prospects for development were better as the process of healing is continuing, he added.

source of link: www.tops.lk