world's largest aircraft can fly for three weeks

Thanks to technology, the world is becoming a darker place.

No, I'm not suggesting that we're becoming less and less enlightened, as we sacrifice our minds to the robots.

Instead, I'm merely indicating that we will soon not be able to see that thing we currently call the sky.

There'll be Jeff Bezos's drones flying around all day, delivering dictionaries and diapers to the distressed. There'll be journalistic drones all around, capturing every aerial detail of multiplecar crashes.

And then there'll be the HAV 304 Airlander, which is so large that it will block the view of several planets as it waddles through the heavens.

I confess I hadn't heard of this plane before the Telegraph told me it was the world's largest aircraft.Indeed, when you look at the promotional video above, it's got massive green credentials, can fly for three weeks, and is a marvelous hybrid of airship, plane, and helicopter.

It's 300 feet long and doesn't need an airport to take off. Yes, if you have a large garden, it can take off from it.

Some might be disturbed, though, by its potential uses. Though it can be used to deliver vast amounts of humanitarian aid, I was moved by the words of Hybrid Air Vehicles' technical director, who says in the video: "You can put 7 or 8 tons of surveillance equipment on board."It can land on water, sand, or ice.

Honestly, we can never have enough surveillance. What fun to have it being transported in a vehicle the size of Vegas.

Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of metal band Iron Maiden, is one of those involved in this fine project, which has been given 2.5 million British pounds (about $4.2 million) to prepare itself for a maiden flight in the fall.

Some, though, have observed that its rear end resembles, well, a large human rear end.

That would surely be one more discombobulating sight in the skies of the future.

Just so beautiful.

NARENDAR MODI -Authors and able allies

Are these biographies or hagiographies, asks the writer of the latest crop of books on political leaders.

In the year of the general elections, hagiographies seem to be in. Barring occasional rays of hope, authors today increasingly resemble medieval courtiers.

Pick up the latest biography of Narendra Modi, Sudesh Verma’s The Gamechanger and you could be excused for thinking that the Gujarat Chief Minister is the panacea for all the maladies afflicting the nation. The title of Verma’s book, though, seems tame when one comes across D.P. Singh’s Narendra Modi: Yes, He Can… Only He can save India from Impending Doom. The cover leaves no room for speculation. Or try Akhilesh Yadav: Winds of Change by Sunita Aron. Then there isRahul by Jatin Gandhi and Veenu Sandhu that tells us the Gandhi scion is a patient man ready to bide his time for final success. But, Rahul Gandhi being both inaccessible and inscrutable, the husband-wife team had a mountain to climb.

Add other books on our leaders, their economics, their politics and it seems there is no dearth of modern-day Chanakyas! We are spoiled for choice. Some of the books attempt to woo slinking shadows, others prop up individuals squandered in a maze of narcissism. Our media is often accused of being both pliant and given to predilections. But authors? In the season of elections, nobody, it seems, minds a good harvest. And some authors have turned into able allies. They paint their subjects with a halo — men who never sinned, were only sinned against. Alternately, they build a myth around them.

Sample this: On the failed marriage of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Verma writes, “Narendra was able to defend his action by remembering Gautama Buddha. Narendra’s friends recall his explanation in private talks that even Buddha had left his wife, son and all pleasures and luxuries of a royal life in search of Truth….”

And how is this for an anecdote from childhood to embellish the narrative: “Once, Narendra was badly injured when a crocodile hit his left foot with its tail. A croc’s tail is strong; a hit by it can be fatal… Narendra was an eighth grade student then. He got nine stitches on his left foot near the ankle and was bed-ridden for more than a week… This incident would have scared any other child for the rest of his life, but not Narendra. Within a month, he was back in the lake.” Later Verma adds, “While coming back from his swimming routine, he found a baby crocodile lying alone at the side of the lake. It was more than a foot long. ND took the baby croc to his residence to nurse it…”

Verma claims he gleaned these details because of his team of five members. “I took leave for eight months to write the book. I spoke to his relatives, his neighbours. I was privileged enough to meet Modi more than half a dozen times. It changed my perception of him. He was more sinned against.”

Aron, on the other hand, does not attempt to invest Akhilesh with a halo; she gets help from unexpected quarters. Akhilesh, in a direct reference to the much-hailed sultan, was called Tipu in childhood. However, when talking of his birth, Aron cannot resist painting a picture that reminds readers of the birth of Krishna, replete with songs, bhajans and gaiety. Aron writes, “…There was anxiety in the air as a frail Malti Devi moaned with labour pains…The midwife tried to comfort Malti, who was in her early thirties, in a room faintly lit by a lantern. An infant’s first cry around 5.30 a.m. triggered a flurry of activity in the house. An excited midwife announced the birth of a baby boy and triggered celebrations. There were smiles all around and sweets were distributed even as people started pouring in to bless the boy. The sound of dholak reverberated as women with their faces covered in ghunghats sang jachchaand jananas to welcome the new arrival in the family of an ordinary farmer.”

Aron, however, says that she wrote the book like a journalist. “I don’t know how the book is going to be positioned in the election year. It is up to the publishers. It has formally not been released yet as the CM is busy. Incidentally, I found him very reticent in my talks and I spoke to a lot of relatives and others to take the story forward. I used a novel-like narrative, built the story on anecdotes.” But winds of change? “Yes, there are winds of change; there is a generational shift in U.P. politics,” she insists.

Not too different in mood and spirit is Arun Sinha’s Nitish Kumar and the Rise of Bihar. Sinha, a college-time friend of the Bihar CM, writes like a friend too. No uncomfortable questions, no sneak asides.

Then there are others who have revisited a political subject. For instance, veteran M.V. Kamath and Kalindi Randeri with The Man of the Moment: Modi, or Sameer Kochhar withModiNomics. Kamath and his co-author had earlier authored another book on Modi, The Architect of a Modern State.

Many of these works are not easy to read. Their prose is laboured, tainted with pedantry, breathless with stuffiness. Life is not linear; a single-strand narrative cannot render it accurately. These days, as we have discovered, the language of political discourse is both banal and inaccurate.

Some works, when they shift focus from the immediate subject, make interesting reading, like Aarthi Ramachandran’s Decoding Rahul Gandhi, but where is the bravura, that dash of irreverence? Certainly not in Pappu Yadav’s Hindi autobiography, or even Sutanu Guru’s more nuanced Beyond Rahul versus Modi.

However, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay’s and Kingshuk Nag’s books — Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times and The NaMo Story respectively — are a breath of fresh air. Neither seeks to impart a halo to Modi nor run him down unnecessarily. Mukhopadhyay says, “On Modi there is tremendous polarisation; either you are 150 per cent with him or against him. It is difficult to be nuanced. I was taking a risk of being isolated by either camp. I spoke to Modi many times. Fortunately, there has been a huge response from the market. But, yes, Modi has stopped speaking to me. Probablybecause he found the style offensive as I have taken small jabs at him. No bookstore has had an event in Ahmedabad.”

A Hindi version of the book has been brought out by Yatra and several Malayalam books have borrowed from his biography, but no Marathi or Gujarati publisher has come forward.

Nag did not interview Modi. He says, “You can love him, or hate him, but there is no way that you can ignore Narendra Modi.” Interestingly, Nag had the idea for the book from 2002 but when he approached a publisher, he was advised, “Write a book from the Hindu point of view.” It took another 10 years before a publisher (Roli Books) agreed to a biography that would neither “demonise” nor “lionise” the subject.

Another similar case is Sankarshan Thakur’s well-researched, persuasively-argued book on Nitish Kumar Single Man. Incidentally, Thakur had, much earlier, written about Nitish’s main rival Laloo Prasad Yadav in The Making of Laloo, the Unmaking of Bihar.

These are, however, exceptions in an age keen to rewrite its times.

RJD Lalu sticks to 11-seat offer to Congress

Sticking to his offer of 11 Lok Sabha seats to Congress and one to NCP, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Sunday appealed to Ms. Sonia Gandhi to agree to the seat-sharing formula asserting that he would deliver results in Bihar and Jharkhand in the general elections.

“Through you (media), I appeal to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, to agree to 12 seats being offered to the Congress and NCP in Bihar, and leave it to me to deliver the results in Bihar and Jharkhand in the general elections,” he told reporters here.

Mr. Lalu was briefing media after nearly two-hour meeting of the RJD parliamentary board meeting at former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi’s official residence in Patna.

“I have no feeling of disrespect toward Sonia Gandhi,” he said, appealing to her to ink an alliance with his party.

“I promise to you I will stop the communal forces from coming to power at the Centre,” Mr. Lalu said.

Defending the 12-seat offer, the RJD supremo argued that he had to accommodate his party leaders and workers who too wanted to contest the elections.

Mr. Lalu, in a veiled threat to the Congress, in the eventuality of it not concurring to the proposals, said, “It is not my responsibility alone to stop the communal forces...others too should be accommodating.”

Mr. Lalu said that he went by winnability of the candidates before arriving at his formula for the seat sharing with the Congress and the NCP and this idea should be accepted by the allies too.

“Merely contesting the polls should not be the motto, but winnability should also be given due consideration,” the RJD supremo said, adding that the allies should also ensure transfer of votes to the winning candidates among them.

He lashed out at local Congress leaders for misguiding the party leadership, including Ms. Sonia Gandhi, against alliance with RJD in Bihar and appealed to Congress’ national leaders to read through the designs of local leaders and convince the party.

The RJD supremo recalled that the secular parties had lost badly in 2009 general elections due to split of votes.

On the status of alliance with Congress, Mr. Lalu admitted that as of the day he had not got any reply from Congress leadership, but the chapter was not closed as yet.

Mr. Lalu rued that the LJP had walked out of the alliance and joined communal forces.

The RJD supremo said that as far as he was concerned he was hopeful of an alliance with Congress and will continue to woo its leadership about firming up pre-poll tie in the days to come.

Modi asks Mulayam-"Why so many riots in UP"

"Congress, SP and BSP are misleading the people by wearing the veil of secularism to conceal their failures," the Gujarat Chief Minister told a massive rally in Lucknow on Sunday

Unleashing a scathing attack on the troika of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday accused them of covering up their failures by creating a hype over "threat to secularism" and said their "extermination" was certain in the upcoming general elections.

"SaBKa vinaash tay hai (their extermination is certain)" he said while accusing the three parties of "divide and rule" and relegating secularism to a mere "election slogan." Secularism for the BJP, he said, was an "article of faith" which placed "India First" and "united people" on the path of development.

Personally directing his attack on SP supremo Muyalam Singh, Mr. Modi said: "There have been 150 riots in the one year rule of your son (UP CM Akhilesh Yadav). In Gujarat, in the last 10 years there have been no riots. You try and compare with us? Our heads bow in shame due to your politics and goondagardi." To correct Mr. Modi, the SP came to power in 2012 making it two years of Mr. Yadav's rule.

"Netaji conceded defeat"

Addressing the last of his party's eight rallies in UP at the massive Ramabai grounds in the State capital, Mr. Modi took the SP chief head on, claiming that Mr. Singh had "conceded defeat" in his address in Allahabad. "Netaji says don't compete on the size of the crowds at the rallies. It means he has already admitted defeat. He is asking me to fight on development issues. I'm glad he has been forced by us to talk about development and leave his old ways. I am in favour of development politics and have been urging political parties to end their votebank politics.

From a stage that adorned a huge poster of Atal Bihari Vajpayee with "272 plus" imprinted on it, the Gujarat Chief Minister evoked the former PM's Lucknow connection.

Continuing his attack on the SP, Mr. Modi said the party was divided into two camps, the "Samajvirodhi Party" (anti-social) and the "Sukhvadi Party," which indulged in fun. "(Ram Manohar) Lohia's soul will not be at rest. He would have been pained by the SP's acts."

Poking fun at the power situation in UP, Mr. Modi said "you have reservation in electricity supply as well, only in Netaji's area."

Alleging that Mr. Singh was spreading lies (on Gujarat's development), he said: "Don't criticise Gujarat, first give an account of your work and progress in UP."

Mr. Modi hit out at the alleged Muslim appeasement policy of the SP and compared the number of applicants for the Hajj pilgrimage in UP and Gujarat saying the minority community was better off in his State.

"Despite only having a quota for 4800 persons, Gujarat receives Hajj 38,000 applications. In UP, which is ten times bigger, there are only 35000 applications. If Muslims were in good shape under you, even they would perform the Hajj."

Mr. Modi also targeted the SP's most prominent Muslim face, Urban Development Minister Azam Khan, mocking him on a recent incident when the State police machinery was set into action to retrieve the Rampur MLA's lost buffaloes. Though he attacked Union Ministers Salman Khurshid and Sri Prakash Jaiswal for corruption allegations against them, Mr. Modi avoided mention of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who flayed the Gujarat development model in his rally in Kanpur.

With the elections coming up, the BJP's chief strategy in UP is the consolidation of the non-Yadav OBC votes. Mr. Modi did not miss out on raking up his own background as an OBC while contending that the coming decade would belong to the "OBCs, Dalits and the suppressed classes."

Along with senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, and Party president Rajnath Singh, Mr. Modi shared the dias with Dalit leader Udit Raj, former Army chief V.K Singh and former RAW chief Satish Tripathi, all of whom joined the party recently.

Kalyan Singh back in BJP

The BJP also formally inducted the posterboy of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Kalyan Singh, who, the BJP chief said would be given "some top responsibilities" and not be restricted to the post of a common worker. There are speculations that the BJP chief could be fielded from Lucknow and Mr. Modi could contest from Varanasi.

Botcha: We will win back Seemandhra people

“Efforts will be made to convey the message that package for the region is due to our leaders’ efforts”

Admitting that the Congress party was on the back-foot in Seemandhra after division of the State, Pradesh Congress Committee president Botcha Satyanarayana has said that senior leaders would now go all out to convince the aggrieved people about the special package for all round development of the residuary Andhra Pradesh.

The onus of taking the decisions of the Centre to the people now lies with the State Congress leaders, who will take the lead and work hard. “Although it will be a Herculean task, party seniors will make efforts to reach out to the people and highlight the package given to the region,” he noted. He said never in the history had the Union Government announced a massive package for a State that was being divided.

In an interview to The Hindu on Saturday, Mr. Satyanarayana spoke at length about the party’s position in Seemandhra after bifurcation, action plan to revive the party’s fortunes, impact of proposed new party by former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Pointing out that bifurcation had angered people, the PCC chief said it was a tough decision for the Congress too. “The decision became inevitable,” Mr. Satyanarayana said adding that two days before the AP Reorganisation Bill 2014 was taken up in the Lok Sabha, a large delegation of Seemandhra leaders, including Union Ministers, had met the high command and tried to seek a fair deal for the region. “We raised six issues of which four were conceded and demand for making Hyderabad as Union Territory and merging Kurnool and Anantapur in Telangana were turned down,” he said.

Defectors

Asked about defections, he said only those leaders, who had vested interests were ditching the Congress. “On the eve of elections, it is a general phenomenon. We had already drawn a list of Ministers and MLAs, who were planning to quit the Congress. There could be few more leaders,” he said.

He refused to comment on proposed new party of Kiran Kumar Reddy but faulted him for defying the high command on the bifurcation issue. “We had insisted that all the Ministers and MLAs should have resigned to put pressure on the Centre. What is the use of resigning now after the entire process is completed,” he remarked.

To a question, he said it was the Congress party alone that gave due recognition to the weaker sections and the backward classes in term of position.

On President’s Rule

On President’s Rule, the PCC chief said had the State Congress leaders convinced the high command earlier about formation of a new Government, President’s Rule would not have been imposed. “We did have the numbers to form the Government. But we did not put the right efforts for installation of a popular Government,” the PCC chief said when asked why the Centre preferred to go for President’s Rule.

AP Governor says peace, order top on priority

With President’s rule being imposed in Andhra Pradesh, Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Sunday asserted that maintenance of public peace and order would be top priority for him.

He said that normal life would go on as usual when President’s rule is in force and investor confidence will be held high.

“My topmost priority would be maintenance of public peace and order... everything else follows on if there is peace and order,” he told reporters in his maiden press conference here, a day after President’s rule was imposed.

He said all the development programmes would be carried on uninterrupted and the bureaucracy is expected to ensure that the fruits of development reach the last man.

He also plans to undertake visits to the districts.

The investor confidence would be maintained at a high level to ensure that Andhra Pradesh remains a favourite destination for investments, the Governor said.

“In the last four years, questions that have been raised by anybody who came to meet me was ‘Sir, how safe it is to invest in Andhra Pradesh?’ ‘Will the state be bifurcated or not?’ This one question has been raised again and again. Now that the event has happened, we know exactly what is in store for us.

“I think we will ensure that investor confidence is maintained high. Unless the investments come, our development is going to suffer. We would like to keep the investor confidence at a very, very high level. We will be talking to investors also and tell them that Andhra Pradesh is a very secure destination for investments. This is actually a ‘Swarnabhoomi’,” he said.

Replying to a query, he said 15 sub-committees have been formed to go into various aspects of state’s bifurcation and those panels would coordinate with the committees set up at the Central level.

There would be an apex committee and he would go into all aspects and try to satisfy the aspirations of the people, Mr. Narasimhan said.

Asked if he would conduct any ‘Janata Darbar’ to listen to the grievances of the people, he said he would consider the idea.

Replying to a question about the extension given to Chief Secretary P.K. Mohanty, to which some senior bureaucrats reportedly took exception, he said various aspects have been taken into consideration in the decision to give extension of tenure to the CS.

Observing that education, particularly higher education, would be a focus area for him, he said steps would be taken to ensure that quality of education is maintained and quality manpower is turned out.

Health care, especially provision of medical care in rural areas by equipping government hospitals, would be another focus area, he said.

He stressed on making health care affordable to the people, saying if possible uniform charges would be maintained across the state so that people know how much to spend.

Agriculture, the mainstay of state’s economy, would get due attention, the Governor said.

Upcoming Lok Sabha polls likely to begin from April 2nd week

Polling in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is likely to commence in the second week of April and may be spread over seven phases, the longest so far, highly placed sources said on Sunday.

The probable dates for the commencement of polling are between April 7 and 10, the sources in the Election Commission told PTI while emphasising that the poll schedule was still being “fine tuned”.

As of now, the plan is to have voting, involving over 81 crore voters, in seven phases but efforts are on to reduce that to six phases. The 2009 polls were held in five phases from April 16 to May 13.

The much-expected announcement of the schedule is expected in the middle of this week. The Model Code of Conduct for governments and political parties will come into force from the date of announcement.

However, the Election Commission has ruled out advancing the schedule or compressing it to avoid the summer heat, a demand put forward at the all-party meeting convened by the Commission last month.

The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31.

Along with the Lok Sabha polls, Andhra Pradesh, including the regions comprising the newly-carved out Telangana, Odisha and Sikkim will go to polls to elect new assemblies.

Highly placed sources in the Commission said finishing touches were being given to the schedule. Consultations with the Union Home Ministry, state governments, para-military forces and Chief Electoral Officers of states have already been completed.

There was speculation that the announcement may be slightly delayed for the Centre to promulgate some of the ordinances it plans to bring out against corruption and on some other issues but there is no confirmation of it.

If a six or a seven-phased schedule is finalised, it would be the first time the country would witness elections over such a long period.

The sources said that the attempt is to “maximise” use of forces and the polling days. In the first phase, polling is expected to be held in some of the naxal-hit states and in some North-East states.

For the first time in parliamentary polls, a system of paper trail for electronic voting will be introduced in some constituencies on a trial basis.

There have been demands that a paper trail should be in place so that a fool-proof record is created and controversies avoided in case of a dispute or an election petition filed in courts.

In a bid to create a level—playing field, the Model Code of Conduct bars governments in the Centre and in the states from making any kind of announcements regarding new schemes or promises so as to lure voters.

The Commission has also issued guidelines to political parties asking them to explain the rationale of financing the promises they make in their election manifestos. The guidelines that followed Supreme Court directions in this regard have now been made part of the Model Code.

An estimated 81.4 crore voters will be eligible to vote in the coming elections after 9.71 new voters have been added to the rolls since the last elections.

From the coming elections, candidates in a Parliamentary constituency in bigger states can spend up to Rs 70 lakh on their campaign, up from Rs 40 lakh in 2011. In the 2009 elections it was Rs 25 lakh.

Another first in the Lok Sabha elections will be the introduction of “None of the Above” (NOTA) option in voting, which was put in vogue in the assembly elections a few months ago.

The electoral rolls are ready after being updated with January one this year as the cut-off date.

A total of 1.1 crore poll personnel, half of them being security forces will be deployed for the smooth conduct of polls and to ensure that they are free and fair.

Poll officials said the database of the civilian staff to be deployed for conducting polls has been prepared and at least 5.5 million civilian staff would be deployed.

The list of central government employees to be deployed for poll duty as micro observers in sensitive polling stations has also been prepared.

About 8 lakh polling stations have been set up across the country keeping in view the convenience of both the voters and the poll staff.

Preparations have been made for deployment of around 12 lakh electronic voting machines with the addition of another 2.5 lakh new EVMs which it had ordered with various public-sector companies.

During the 2009 polls, there were 714 million voters against 671 million voters in 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

The Commission favours a multi-phased election for a country of India’s size and electorate because it is better that there is “complete satisfaction” of voters.

Otherwise, it can lead to “discontentment” in case of any shortcomings, they said.

Some states will be accorded special treatment due to their being affected by extremism.

The EC sources said the Commission has not conducted any election in a single go in one phase after 1971 as the size of the electorate in the world’s largest democracy has grown considerably over the years.

The officials also said that the entire poll process takes around three months time. But there is a limit of six weeks time from the announcement of the schedule to the first date of poll in view of the Supreme Court direction that the Model Code of Conduct inhibiting government decisions cannot be an unduly long period.

They said the Commission has to give around two weeks’ time for government formation before the term of the Lok Sabha or a state assembly expires. In the states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim, which will have assembly polls along with the Lok Sabha polls, the Commission will place two EVMs alongside for voters to vote in both the elections.

Andhra Pradesh has 42 Lok Sabha constituencies and a 294-member Assembly. Out of this, 25 Lok Sabha constituencies and 175 Assembly constituencies will remain with the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh, while Telangana will have 17 Lok Sabha seats and 117 Assembly seats.

Odisha will also elect its 147-member assembly while Sikkim has a 32-member state assembly.

The terms of Andhra Pradesh assembly is till June 2, that of Odisha is till June 7, and of Sikkim till May 21.