Taking the 2009 election debate to a new low, J. Jayalalithaa, used strong words to attack Sonia Gandhi on Monday for her silence over the pro-LTTE remarks of her ally, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

In a clear attempt to drive a wedge between the ruling UPA partners, the AIADMK chief for the first time also revealed her mind on the post-poll scenario, openly backing the NCP chief Sharad Pawar (68) as her choice for the PM’s post.

Jayalalithaa (61) unleashed vitriol at the Congress on a day when Karunanidhi (84) backtracked on his remarks supporting the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), apparently under pressure from the Congress leadership in Delhi.

“Why is Sonia Gandhi silent? Is she not the Congress president? Is she not the widow of Rajiv Gandhi? Is she not the chairperson of UPA?” Jayalalithaa asked in an interview to the CNN-IBN news channel.

“She (Sonia Gandhi) should give a clear, explicit answer to the nation on what she feels about Karunanidhi’s statement on LTTE. She should also tell the nation on what she proposes to do,” the unrelenting AIADMK chief said.

Jayalalithaa also did not spare her bitter rival Karunanidhi and termed his statement as “irresponsible, coming from a man who is the chief minister of a state”.

In an interview to a TV channel on Sunday, Karunandhi had referred to the LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, (54) as “a good friend.” The DMK chief had also refused to describe him as a terrorist.

The Congress was quick to return Jaya’s fire in an equally hostile language. “She has used cheap words like a widow. The Congress is a large party where a spokesperson is authorised to speak on behalf of the president,” party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi responded.

Jayalalithaa also used the interview to mention her prime ministerial choice.

Asked whom would she support for the top post — Mayawati, Pawar or Lalu Prasad. “No one has specifically sought my support so far. I have said earlier there is nothing wrong in leaders aspiring to be prime ministers.”

Coming to her exact choice, Jaya said: “Pawar is a senior political leader. He has the necessary maturity, wisdom and experience to become the prime minister.”

Her remarks are likely to trigger a debate within the fledgling Third Front partners, majority of whom have maintained that the issue of prime ministership would be decided after the elections.

Veteran Congress leader and Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh has again stirred up controversy. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, the veteran Congress leader said that he is shocked at the price one has to pay for loyalty.
Arjun Singh’s daughter was denied a ticket from the Seedhi Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh and is now contesting as an Independent.
Even though Arjun Singh has assured the Congress High Command that he will campaign against his own daughter, the veteran party leader was furious that his daughter was denied the ticket, saying that for Congress, there is no difference between honour and humiliation.
Singh had made his displeasure public recently. Arjun Singh had said that though he would campaign against her, but had made it clear that he was unhappy over denial of tickets to his kin.
The Union HRD Minister had also expressed regret that there was not much debate or discussion in the party on ideological issues to throw up spontaneous solutions.
Meanwhile, reacting to Arjun Singh’s charges, Congress leader Jayanthi Natrajan said, “We do not agree with Arjun Singh’s views as loyalty has a different meaning for us.”

Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan’s previous film Guru with the talented filmmaker Mani Ratnam had garnered much appreciation both from the

Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai

critics as well as at the BO.

And now the trio have been shooting relentlessly in Kolkata for their second film together Ravana. Incidentally, the film happens to be both Abhishek and Ash’s third film with Mani, although it’s not the trio’s third film together.

Considering Abhi’s first with Mani was Yuva, in which his rustic character Lallan had helped the star get recognition as an actor, while Ash’s first film with Mani Iruvar too had given her talent prowess a mighty boost. And with the trio coming together again for Ravana, the expectations are naturally high. So, will the trio be third time lucky as well, only time will tell.

Minister of State for Home (Urban) Arif Naseem Khan is facing fresh controversy for his alleged links with the underworld.

Sena MP Mohan Rawle has written to the state government giving details of calls allegedly made between Khan and a Dawood aide on the morning of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Rawle claims to have acquired Khan’s phone records from the phone company. In his letter to the state, he alleges that Khan, a Congress MLA from Kurla, made and received at least 150 calls to and from Asif Dadhi since November 26. “The calls were made and received on a cellphone number acquired by Dadhi’s wife Reshma,” he said.

Rawle explained that he had first asked Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to probe the matter. “Surprisingly, the CM has ignored my demand and did not give a satisfactory answer,” he revealed, following which he decided to write to the state government.

In February, Khan’s alleged underworld links created an uproar in the state legislative assembly. BJP MLA Devendra Fadnavis had made allegations over the same issue in one of the sessions. Khan had then refuted the allegations stating the issue was politically motivated.

This time round too, he has said that the allegations against him are baseless and that he doesn’t know Asif Dadhi. “The opposition is resorting to political stunts during the Lok Sabha elections to malign my image,” he said.

Rawle said that Khan justified the calls saying that being a minister he gets calls from several people every day. “We can understand that. But Khan himself had called Dadhi on the morning of 26/11. No one will call a stranger,” Rawle alleged.

Naseem Khan denies knowing Asif Dadhi

Khan is at present campaigning for Milind Deora, who is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from South Mumbai. “If the state government genuinely conducts an inquiry, Khan will be exposed to the public and it will amount to fair elections in that area,” said Rawle.

Who is Asif Dadhi?

In September 2004, the Mumbai crime branch had arrested Asif, an important mediator of the Chhota Shakeel gang, who allegedly accepted huge sums of money from Fahim Machmach through hawala. He and Rubina Siraj Sayyed would then distribute the money among Shakeel aides. The crime branch arrested Asif after they caught Rubina, a mehendi designer from Byculla. However, during investigation, police failed to gather sufficient evidence against Dadhi and his name was dropped from the charge sheet.

Shah Rukh Khan signs Hollywood writer-director David Benullo to write an SFX film, Ra.1

Shah Rukh Khan has got Hollywood writer David Benullo for his next production, Ra.1, which is being directed by Anubhav Sinha. Ra.1 is an SFX film. Benullo has written the screenplay for Around the World in 80 Days and the script for Hallowed Ground, Cupid and Shadow Man, which had won the International Fantasy Film Award in 2006.
An industry insider said, “Since Ra.1 is not a run-of-the-mill film, it requires a unique treatment. It’s has loads of special effects, which is why it will be made differently from the usual commercial Hindi films. SRK wanted a writer who would do justice to the film. Which is why he got David Benullo to work on the script.”

“The writer has already started work on the film when he was he was in India recently. He was working from the Red Chillies office. He had several discussions with SRK when he was recuperating after his shoulder surgery,” added the source.

Director Anubhav Sinha confirmed the news and said, “Yes, David Benullo is one of the writers working on the script. It’s too early to tell you anything more since I can’t talk about the film.” Sinha refused to divulge any further details. The film is expected to release early next year.

India has come under unexpected pressure from the US; NDTV has learnt that the Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has been told that it’s India, and not Pakistan that should make the first moves towards restoring peace.

The US has asked India to pullback troops from the Pakistan border.

Outraged, India has told US that Pakistan is responsible for tension between the two countries. India has also told the US that it hadn’t deployed extra troops after the Mumbai attacks. Rather it was Pakistan which has sent thousands of troops.

However, India on Thursday also clarified the Mumbai terror attacks had nothing to do with its relationship with Pakistan.

But External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that India still believes terrorists used Pakistani soil and infrastructure in that country to launch the 26/11 attacks.

The reason for the latest US move is that President Barack Obama is gearing up to launch a bigger military offensive in Afghanistan.

For this, he needs more Pakistani troops to help along the volatile Afghan-Pakistan border, troops, which Islamabad moved to the Indian border.

It’s obvious that America has its own compulsions at this point that have led it to put pressure on India in this manner.

WASHINGTON: “We can’t afford our kids to be mediocre at a time when they’re competing against kids in China and kids in India,” US President Barack Obama has said.

Interacting with local residents at California’s Costa Mesa town hall Wednesday, Obama said, “It can’t just be a single high-stakes standardized test — but we do need to have strong, powerful measures of performance, because schools are like anything else.”

“We can’t afford our kids to be mediocre at a time when they’re competing against kids in China and kids in India who are actually in school about a month longer than our kids. So, there’s a whole bunch of reforms that we’re going to have to do,” Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying.

He exhorted American parents not to put “all the burden on a teacher”.

“If you’re not making sure your child does his homework, if you’re not reading to them, instilling a sense of excellence and a thirst for knowledge in them, then they’re not going to do very well, no matter how good your teacher is. Okay, so that’s very important,” he said.

Referring to the AIG bonuses, Obama said: “I know a lot of you are outraged about this. I’m outraged, too. It’s hard to understand that a company that is relying on extraordinary assistance from taxpayers to keep its doors open would be paying anyone lavish bonuses. It goes against our most basic sense of what is fair and what is right. It offends our values.”

He went on to say that these bonuses, “outrageous as they are”, are a symptom of a much larger problem.

“And that is the system and culture that made them possible – a culture where people made enormous sums for taking irresponsible risks that have now put the whole economy at risk. So we are going to do everything we can to deal with these specific bonuses.”

American pop girl group Pussycat Dolls has laid down some vocals on a remix of A.R. Rahman’s Oscar-winning song Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire.

With the song’s original beats and percussion in place, Pussycat Dolls’ version replaces the original tune’s Hindi words with English lyrics, say reports.

The group also filmed a Bollywood-influenced music video for the song You are my destiny.

“It’s such an honour to be able to collaborate with A.R. Rahman and be a part of the Slumdog Millionaire project in some way. I found the movie’s story and music

uplifting,” said Nicole.

On the night before the 26/11 charge sheet, more video evidence from the 60-hour siege has been released on Tuesday.

The new CCTV footage from the Taj Hotel shows the four attackers moving casually around the hotel corridors.

Three of them have been identified as Abu Ali, Bada Abdul Rehman and Abu Sohaib.

Some of them are seen with towels draped on their shoulders and walking around with AK 47s and backpacks.

Footage, which once again establishes how young the terrorists were and how unconcerned they seemed about the terror they had unleashed. The exact time of the footage is unclear.

There’s more to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s role in Pink Panther 2 than the rumoured two minutes of screen space, it

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

seems.

In fact, if the buzz is to be believed, the movie would be incomplete without her role. The actress is apparently playing the main villain in the mvoie! “She is actually the one who steals the Pink Panther diamond, and in the end, Steve Martin finds out,” says a source close to the unit of the movie.

Aishwarya plays the role of Sonia Solandres, a criminology expert, in the film. She is part of the team of detectives who are trying to find the Pink Panther diamond. But in the end, Inspector Clouseau figures out that Sonia, played by Ash, is the real culprit and no criminology expert. “The climax has a fight scene where Ash even kicks some butt and tries to flee. But eventually, she gets caught and is put behind bars,” says the source.