Bangladesh hopeful of river deal with India

Bangladesh said Sunday that a much-delayed deal over sharing water with India was making progress as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited from New Delhi to shore up damaged cross-border ties.

India announced that it will write off $200 million of the $1 billion line of credit offered to Bangladesh, and promised to implement all bilateral agreements, including those that have witnessed delays. 

The deal to share Teesta river water was meant to be a highlight of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka.

India had announced a $1 billion Line of Credit to Bangladesh, the largest it has offered to any country in 2010.

The deal to share Teesta river water was meant to be a highlight of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka last September, but it fell through after opposition from the chief minister of India’s West Bengal state. 

A genera Teesta River Projects view and bridge of India.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today that New Delhi had decided to consider $200 million of that amount as a grant rather than credit, and Bangladesh can utilise the fund for its priority projects.

"India will treat the amount as grant, not credit," Mukherjee told a group of senior editors as he wound up a 20-hour trip to Dhaka.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni.

The failure soured relations between India and Bangladesh, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has staked much political capital in resolving an issue crucial for farmers in the country’s drought-hit north.

"This $200 million will be utilised for projects that Bangladesh prioritises," he said.

“The Indian government is working on the Teesta deal. They are very sincere about it. So we are hopeful that it will be struck,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters after talks with Mukherjee.

 

Indian villagers catch fish with handmade fishing nets in the River Teesta in Jalpaiguri. Bangladesh says a much-delayed deal over sharing water with India is making progress as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits from New Delhi to shore up damaged cross-border ties.

Mukherjee also cited "ground realities" of coalition politics as the reason for India's failure to seal the Teesta water sharing deal during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Bangladesh last year.

"In a democracy such as ours... this process often becomes time consuming," he said.

"There are certain issues that need to be resolved," he said while referring to the Teesta issue as a "sensitive" one.

Mukherjee on Sunday concluded a two-day visit to Bangladesh, where he met with Hasina to review agreements signed during Singh’s visit, including one to end complex border territory disputes.

Earlier, during his meeting with Premier Sheikh Hasina, Mukherjee vowed to implement all agreements signed with the country during Manmohan Singh's visit last year.

"Although it was late, (all) these agreements (signed with Bangladesh) will be materialised soon," he was quoted as telling Hasina by a Prime Minister's office spokesman.

Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won independence in 1971 with Indian military help, but relations have been patchy ever since due to decades of mutual mistrust.

Obama Sings Al Green's At Apollo Theater In Harlem

Appearing at the Apollo Theater in New York Thursday night, President Obama sings Al Green classic 'Let's Stay Together.' He sounded good, but he's no Herman Cain.
President Obama sang an Al Green song at a fundraiser Thursday night, in case you haven’t heard. Well, “sang a song” might be exaggerating; he crooned a few words, really. President Obama has a message to his donors: Let's stay together. While speaking Thursday night during a fundraiser at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem, the commander in chief showed off some impressive singing abilities. After mentioning that soul legend Rev. Al Green was at the event, Obama belted out a short rendition of Green's classic hit 'Let's Stay Together.'

Net Media News explains that about 1,400 supporters attended the event, which included performances from Al Green and India.Arie. As Politico reports, Obama likely raised at least $3.1 million from his various New York fundraisers on Thursday.
"I...I'm so in love with you," sang the President.

 “Ahhhhm ... so in love with you,” went the leader of what used to be called the Free World.
He did not specify who “those guys” were, at least not on the video made public so far. Perhaps he was referring to Spike Lee and his wife, who earlier in the evening had hosted a dinner for Obama and donors willing to part with upwards of $35,000 per ticket in order to get close to the president.
Remember, we’re making this up – don’t send us emails about how we’re living up to Newt Gingrich’s vision of the news media. If you’ve got other suggestions for songs the president should have tried, please post them in comments. As for ourselves, we’ve gone about as far with this as Pundit Association guidelines allow. Enjoy the show.
Green, of course, is referring to Obama singing part of the first verse of the song last night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Green said, "I was thrilled that the President even mentioned my name, and if the President can get the economy going again and get everything going that he wants to, then we'll all be together." Politics aside, Obama's singing is beautiful or pretty awesome.

___ THOMAS JEFFERSON. He played the violin, and not just to meet women. When he wasn't writing the Declaration of Independence or rewriting the Bible or inventing a four-sided music stand for string quartets, he made music. He played the cello and clavichord, but the violin was his instrument, and he was a ringer for several orchestras. Though often in need of money, he always refused payment.
____ BILL CLINTON. William Jefferson Clinton, not yet president, took a giant step in that direction in June 1992 when he showed up with a saxophone and wraparound sunglasses to play "Heartbreak Hotel" on "The Arsenio Hall Show." ''It's nice to see a Democrat blow something besides the election," quipped the host.
____ HARRY TRUMAN. Nixon was referring to "Give 'em Hell Harry," a Democrat who could never pass a piano without sitting down to play a few bars. In 1952, Truman conducted a nationally televised tour of the newly renovated White House and played a bit on the 1938 Steinway. The building had been condemned when a leg of piano played by his daughter Margaret, a singer whose talent was of some dispute, crashed through the floor of the decrepit mansion.
_____ RICHARD NIXON. He was no Billy Joel. And yet twice in 1974, in the last months of his doomed administration, the President Who Was Not a Crook became the President Who Was the Piano Man. He played "God Bless America" at the Grand Ole Opry, and the same tune when he accompanied singer Pearl Bailey in the East Room of the White House. The two also conspired on "Home on the Range" and "Wild Irish Rose." ''You don't play as well as I sing," Bailey joked, "but I don't sing as well as you govern." She was half right.

Mother of India

Mother India, most powerful person in India

Sonia Gandhi, Congress party and head of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, America to undergo an operation has highlighted the extraordinary powers she enjoys and brought to the fore the question of her successor.

Hardened members of parliament in Delhi wept when, after leading the Congress party to a surprise victory in the 2004 general election, Sonia Gandhi announced that she would not become prime minister.

Those tearful MPs need not have worried: Sonia was not about to go away, to leave them leaderless.

And now every member of the ruling party, from the top down, is worried about whether Sonia will recover to continue leading them, and if not, how she will manage the succession.

When Sonia gave up the chance to become prime minister, she made it clear that she would still be the boss by choosing Manmohan Singh to do the job.

He is renowned for his honesty and his knowledge of economics, but has spent most of his life as a bureaucrat and politically he is entirely dependent on Sonia.

Sonia Gandhi's power derives from being the head of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which has dominated Indian politics since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister after India gained its independence.

Italian by birth, she became a member of the family by marrying the imperious Indira Gandhi's eldest son Rajiv.

Sonia always puts across the message she learnt from her mother-in-law - the message which says: "I am on the side of the poor".

Typically, there was no government announcement about Sonia's departure for America. The Congress party issued a bald statement bereft of any information about her illness or the hospital where she was being treated.