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New Delhi’s famous Safdarjung Tomb could soon be looked after by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM). This trade body will beautify the historical monument. The Delhi government is likely to approve the proposal to this effect soon. The Delhi government is in the process of taking up the issue with the Union Urban Development Ministry and the Ministry of Culture and a formal nod is expected shortly. ASSOCHAM, president, Mahindra K Sanghi said the estimated cost of beautifying the 300-sq m grounds, including the tomb and surrounding buildings, would be between Rs 5 lakhs and Rs 7 lakhs. The tomb, constructed in 1753-54, has an adjoining courtyard and a mosque. The tomb is made of red sandstone with marble. It is included in the ASI’s list of protected heritage monuments in the city.


After the death of Aurangzeb, the only significant structures raised were the Tomb of Safdarjung, who was the prime minister of Delhi under Muhammad Shah.


Described as the “last flicker in the lamp of Mughal architecture”, it is clearly decadent in style. The memorial was built by Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah who was the son of Mirza Muqim Abul Mansur Khan popularly known as Safdarjung (1739-54), who was the governor of the province of Awadh under Muhammad Shah (1719-48) and later became his prime minister. The tomb is roughly on the plans of Humayun’s tomb, though much scaled down. It is set in the middle of an extensive garden, which spreads over an area of over 300-sq-metre. The garden itself is on the pattern of the Mughal ‘Chaharbagh’ style. In the center, piling up with effortless arrogance is the massive gateway to the enclosure which rises to two levels. Inside there is the tomb, the courtyard and a mosque.
Conservationists and architecture experts, while welcoming the willingness of trade bodies to take over heritage sites, cautioned against putting the commercial aspect above conservation. ‘’This development is good, but there are several technical issues which need to be looked into in beautifying a heritage site,’’ remarked noted architect, urban planner and conservation consultant, Prof A.G.Krishna Menon.

Inside the court, Zaheera is grilled by the Special public prosecutor Manjula, and outside by the media.


Through the ups and downs of the past 20 months, the one constant, in prime witness in the Best Bakery retrial, Zaheera Sheikh’s life has been, the media. She was the face of the Godhra aftermath, her doe-eyes and school-girl plaits as instantly identifiable as Qutubuddin Ansari’s terror-stricken face.


Inside the court, she is grilled by the Special public prosecutor Manjula and outside by the media. Zaheera was grilled by the prosecution about her bank accounts. Manjula Rao asked Zaheera if she had opened a joint account with her brother Nasibullah in a bank at Bhayander.


Recently, a news channel revealed that Zaheera and her family had been receiving money regularly from unknown sources and it had been deposited in two bank accounts in Bhayander. The channel claimed that Zaheera and Nasibullah had a balance of Rs 2 lakh in their account. It said all the deposits, made between December 2003 and March 2004 had been made in cash. Interestingly, the bank had been burgled twice in November. But both the times, the thieves focussed on the record rooms, not the vault.


Referring to the controversy over her bank deposits,

Rejecting the national ambitions of Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Indians alike, Pervez Hoodbhoy’s film offers a vision of a shared future for all of South Asia built on a common humanity.


After dozens of screenings in Pakistan, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy’s documentary film ‘Crossing the Lines - Kashmir, Pakistan and India, with clips of mass pyres in Kashmir after massacres and voices from militants, Kashmiri Pandits, Hindu activists, is now doing the rounds of Mumbai. The film also has some of the stock-shots to document the course of Indo-Pak history in its true perspective as well.
The professor from the Quaid-e-Azam University at Islamabad has spent the last two years bent over his laptop, editing precious footage on Kashmir for a 45-minute documentary.


He confesses that some in Pakistan dismiss it as an ‘Indian propaganda’. ‘’This is the hardest film I ever made,’’ he told an audience at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) recently in Mumbai.


“But children in Pakistan are being brought up believing that the Kashmir issue is the greatest injustice.’’ On a budget of a few lakhs donated by the Eqbal Ahmad Foundation, his Indian friends pitched in to film the footage from India.


The film uses interviews of key figures and ordinary people from every side, rare archival footage and computer animations to chronicle the wars, the failed efforts at peace and the daily toll this failure takes on those caught in this tragic struggle. We hear leading Kashmiri militants voice the frustration of their hopes for democracy and their desperate rebellion.


We see how Pakistan’s relentless determination to confront India created an Islamic holy war that brought terror and death to Kashmir. Radical Hindu leaders in India, and Islamic militants in Pakistan, explain their shared conviction that Kashmir is part of a greater struggle that knows no limits. We discover how amid rising religious passions, governments in India and Pakistan seek to build national identity through cultivating prejudice and hatred towards the other.


Rejecting the national ambitions of Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Indians alike, the film offers a vision of a shared future for all of South Asia built on a common humanity. The film presents the urgent need for a dialogue to discuss other options, challenging the people, and civil and military establishments on both sides to break out of their own national versions of the Kashmir story. There are many who will remain trapped in these notions, and refuse to see the film in this spirit. They will attack Hoodbhoy because he presents both sides of the story in a way that the public in either country never sees.

The three-day interfaith dialogue conference organised by the K.J Somaiya Educational Trust was recently held in Mumbai to promote the moderate voice of world religions and to facilitate adequate representation of each religion at all levels. This Forum ultimately seeks to dissolve the barriers of bigotry, hate and communalism by the promotion of inter-faith dialogue across religions and cultures.
Islamic scholar, Prof. Farid Esack, director of the Center for Progressive Islam in Cape Town, South Africa, while delivering the speech at the conference wondered whether the approach to involve religious leaders in the inter-faith process was not too elitist. “Such a process should involve the grassroots at the very initial stages”, he argued.


Supreme mufti of Kazakhstan,Khaji Absattar Derbisali stressed on imbibing moral values in the minds and hearts of people and also to get rid of the growing fundamentalist attitude in the world. “People must learn to respect the views of other people,” the mufti said commenting on the spurt in religious fundamentalism. According to him, peace and harmony can be achieved only through constant dialogue between different religious faiths. “I, being the preacher of Islam, teach the people of my country that they should not discriminate between religions,” he said.