"Sardar Khushwant Singh dead"

This is the headline of an obituary that one of India’s most prolific writers chose to write for himself in his twenties. Khushwant Singh would have turned hundred next year in February. But he didn't care about that. He had long reconciled with the concept of death. He did not think about it. “I am ready when it comes,” he would say.

Mr. Singh was born in the Pakistan part of Punjab on February 2, 1915. His father was a contractor who built much of Lutyen’s Delhi, including the Modern School that Mr. Singh went to. He pursued a law degree in London and practised law successfully at the Lahore High Court.

After 1947, he joined the foreign services and served as a diplomat for a few years in London, Paris and Ottawa. He would later describe his years of law-practising and diplomacy as “wasted years of my life.”

In 1951, Mr. Singh began his career as journalist with the All India Radio.

He later edited two major dailies and the Illustrated Weekly of India that he joined in 1969 and turned it from an artsy, apolitical publication into a “noisy rumbustious, jet-propelled vehicle of information, controversy and amusement.”

Courted controversy

The last two words pretty much describe his life. Through his columns, novels and essays, Mr. Singh aimed at entertaining people, often courting controversy in the process.

He did not mince words while speaking his mind, even for personalities like Tagore whom he called a writer of “no great merit.” But it was he who offered a reality check on Rushdie’s Satanic Verses to the Penguin publishers as their literary advisor.

Perhaps the only shadow cast on Mr. Singh’s otherwise illustrious career was his support for Indira Gandhi and the period of Emergency. He remained unapologetic for it, though in 1984, he returned his Padma Bhushan in protest of the army operation in Amritsar’s Golden Temple.

In one of his meditations on death, Mr. Singh quoted a couplet from Iqbal: “You ask me about the signs of a man of faith? When death comes to him, he has a smile on his lips.” Though Mr. Singh remained an agnostic, his friends and fans would like to imagine a smile on his lips when his time finally came.

India, Singapore win 2014 UN Water for Life award

India and Singapore won the 2014 edition of the UN-Water “Water for Life” Best Practices Award for their sustainable practices of water resources, authorities said on Friday.

The award was announced by the United Nations Office during an official ceremony to mark World Water Day 2014 on Friday, reported Xinhua.

“The winners this year are excellent examples of two organisations that tackle future challenges in a sustainable way,” said Michel Jarraud, chair of UN-Water at the ceremony held in the United Nations University.

The prize is awarded yearly for “best water management practices” and “best participatory, communication, awareness-raising and education practices”.

This year’s “best water management practices” went to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)-Tata Water Policy Programme, a project based on water scarce across India.

ITP has made progress in filling the gap between research and policy action by simultaneously engaging with scientists and policy makers to tackle the socio-economic environmental challenges related to the improvement of the energy-irrigation nexus, according to the jury.

Singapore-based “NEWater programme”, which can meet 30 per cent of Singapore’s daily water needs, won the “best participatory, communication, awareness-raising and education practices” for its strong social component and enduring partnerships in its manifold and remarkable water management practices.

“One of the merits of the winning projects is how they have been able to integrate and scale-up practices to be able to improve access, efficiency and sustainability in water and energy and to do so in partnership with local and national actors,” said Josefina Maestu, director of the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication.

Rahul flays Modi’s RSS background

Taps servicemen vote bank in Himachal

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were seeking to lead the secular country after having spent their lives in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Speaking at a rally here, Mr. Gandhi pointed out the irony in the bid by leaders such as BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to build a statue of Sardar Patel, who had categorically stated that the RSS was “a noxious organisation that can destroy this country”.

On a day-long visit to Himachal Pradesh, Mr. Gandhi addressed the rally after a “chaupal” meeting with ex-servicemen belonging to the State, at Tanda in Kangra district. Recounting the UPA government’s contributions, he emphasised the pushing through of the ‘one rank one pension’ scheme and said he was receiving thanks from former Armymen across the State. “I had only raised the issue since it concerned the brave soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in service of the country,” Mr. Gandhi said, thanking the Prime Minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for considering his demand on behalf of the servicemen, who are numerous in the BJP stronghold parliamentary constituencies of Kangra and Hamirpur. Terming the coming Lok Sabha elections a “battle of thoughts”, Mr. Gandhi claimed the Congress stood for empowering the people whereas the Opposition represented the country’s rich. Denouncing the NDA’s claims of enhancing infrastructure and roads as being a farce, he said the UPA had, in the past five years, constructed three times more roads than its predecessor had. He recalled that the BJP had criticised the telecom and computer revolution envisaged by his father Rajiv Gandhi, saying “it would lead to unemployment and ruin the farm sector.”

He said that during the 10 years of UPA rule, “at least 15 crore people were brought up from under the poverty line and given the right to employment and food”. He said he envisioned raising to the middle class level the 70 crore people who remained just above the poverty line.

Local leaders had, he said, informed him that a number of educational and industrial projects were set up in the State, which had progressed in spite of the erstwhile BJP government’s anti-Statehood stand. He said the UPA had established special freight and manufacturing corridors between Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. He promised that the Congress would ensure women got increased participation in the government as well as party. He blamed the Opposition for not bringing the Women Reservation Bill in the Parliament.

He said the Opposition had no right to talk on corruption when it was the Congress which had brought the Right to Information Act and the Lokpal Bill. The Congress had, he asserted, given the general public vital information of the activities that took place behind the closed doors of bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, the State BJP has called the Congress rally of Rahul Gandhi a “complete flop show” since the party was able to draw very few people compared to the huge turnout at Mr. Modi’s rally in Sujanpur last month. It added that Mr. Gandhi failed to raise State-specific issues and kept repeating the clichéd lines of the speeches he had already made elsewhere, said the Opposition.

Chidambaram makes way for Karti

Ghulam Nabi Azad will contest from J&K’s Udhampur

It’s official: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will not be contesting elections this time; instead, his son Karti Chidambaram will try his luck from Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga constituency.

While Mr. Chidambaram, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha for a record seven times, has decided to hang up his boots, his Cabinet colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was a Lok Sabha MP in 1980 and 1984 from Maharashtra’s Washim district, has agreed to contest the Udhampur seat in Jammu and Kashmir (currently held by the Congress).

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar — currently in the Rajya Sabha — will contest once again from Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, while Youth Congress leader Mohan Kumaramangalam, son of P.R. Kumaramangalam, who was a minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government but later joined the BJP, has got the ticket from Salem.

Laxman Singh, brother of Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, will be the candidate from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, pitted against Sushma Swaraj(BJP). Mr. Laxman Singh has been an MP five times in the past, four times on a Congress ticket and once on a BJP ticket from Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress has renominated Ramesh Kumar (South Delhi) and Mahabal Mishra (West Delhi).

Fall in rubber price main poll issue in Kottayam

Kottayam Lok Sabha constituency, home to a large number of rubber cultivators and one of the primary trading centres of natural rubber, is all set to witness a fierce fight between sitting MP and UDF candidate Jose K. Mani, and the LDF’s JDS nominee Mathew T. Thomas in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The election is a prestigious one for UDF as Mr. Mani, who is seeking a second term, is the son of K.M. Mani, Finance Minister and Chief of KC(M), the third largest partner in the ruling Congress-led UDF.

Victory for UDF is all the more important as Puthupalli, the Assembly segment of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, falls in this constituency.

“I am 100 per cent confident of victory as people will recognise the development works initiated by me,” Mr. Mani said.

On the rubber price issue, he said, “I have carried out protests inside and outside Parliament on the matter.”

Mathew T. Thomas is presently the MLA representing the Thiruvalla Assembly segment and was also a minister in the previous LDF government headed by V.S. Achuthanandan. He is the JD(S) state president.

“Campaign is going on in full swing and soaring prices of essential commodities and fall in rubber price are some of the issues being highlighted in election meetings,” he said.

People of the constituency have shown an interesting preference in electing candidates to the Parliament.

Congress candidates won in the elections in 1989, 1991 and 1996, while the CPI(M) nominee of the LDF won in the polls in 1998, 1999 and 2004.

Jose Mani recaptured the constituency from LDF in 2009 by a huge margin of more than 71,000 votes defeating the CPI(M) firebrand leader Suresh Kurup, now an MLA in the Assembly.

Fitch cuts outlook for Russia's credit rating

Rating agency Fitch has downgraded the outlook for Russia’s credit rating fearing an economic fall-out from the Crimean crisis.

Fitch said in a statement released on Friday that it has revised the outlook for Russia’s debt to reflect the potential impact of sanctions on Russia’s economy. On Thursday, S&P warned of a potential downgrade, too.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week signed the treaty to annex Crimea following Sunday’s hastily called referendum which overwhelmingly supported that move. The West considers the vote illegitimate.

The Russian stock market has lost more 10 per cent this month, wiping out billions in market capitalisation.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered economic sanctions against nearly two dozen members of Mr. Putin’s inner circle and a major Russian bank that provides them support.

Discord in Chhattisgarh Congress over ticket distribution

Infighting and protests have broken out within the Congress in Chhattisgarh over the distribution of tickets for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

While supporters of former Union Minister, the late Vidyacharan Shukla are enraged over the denial of ticket to his daughter Pratibha Pandey, some senior leaders have parted ways with the party following the declaration of candidates.

Although nobody wants to speak about it openly, some party cadre feel that the rift within the Congress over the issue of ticket distribution may add to its woes, especially after its losses in three consecutive state Assembly elections.

Congress has declared nominees for all 11 parliamentary constituencies in the state, but speculation is now rife about a possible change of candidates for some seats.

After the deadly Jiram valley Naxal attack of May 25 last year, the party had given priority to the victims’ kin in ticket allotment for recent Assembly elections.

Given the above position, supporters of Shukla were confident that his daughter Ms. Pandey would be handed a ticket for the upcoming polls. And, their hopes rose when Deepak Karma, the son of the late Mahendra Karma, who was also slain in the attack, was declared as the candidate for the Bastar Lok Sabha seat.

All eyes were on the Mahasamund seat for Ms. Pandey as her father had represented the constituency for several years.

But the expectations faded when former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi was made the party’s nominee for the seat. Now, a section of Congress workers are opposed to his candidature. Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) general secretary and former minister Vidhan Mishra claimed that the sacrifice made by V.C. Shukla “had gone in vain”. “The martyrdom of the victims of the Jiram valley attack was honoured by giving election tickets to their relatives, then why was Pratibhaji was ignored?” asked Mr. Mishra.

Mr. Mishra, who was a close aide of Shukla’s, had earlier written to the party high command pressing Ms. Pandey’s candidature. Kin of Shukla and former minister Amitesh Shukla, too, said that, “Pratibha should have been given the ticket.”

However, he added that, “If the party high command has decided to go with Jogi then all party workers will together fight to make him victorious.”

The state leadership, however, claims they had recommended Ms. Pandey’s name in the proposed list of candidates. The party high command had taken the final call on the choice of candidates, the state Congress leadership said.

“We had recommended Pratibha’s name... (But) the final decision in this connection was taken by the central election committee,” PCC chief Bhupesh Baghel said.

Motilal Sahu, who was injured in the Jiram valley Naxal attack, was also seeking a ticket from the Mahasamund seat.

But, after the announcement of Mr. Jogi’s candidature, he resigned from the party along with hundreds of his supporters.

Prior to that, Mr. Sahu had also staged a protest at the Congress headquarters in Raipur opposing Mr. Jogi’s selection.

In a similar move, the supporters of veteran party leader and MLA Satyanarayan Sharma ransacked the party headquarters after he was replaced as the candidate for the Raipur Lok Sabha seat.

Earlier, Chhaya Verma, who had been initially nominated as the Congress candidate for Raipur, was replaced by Mr. Sharma.

However, Ms. Verma, who belongs to the Kurmi community, was later reinstated as the nominee for the seat.

When asked to comment on the rift within the party over the list of candidates, leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, T.S. Singhdeo, said that all party workers and leaders should show unity in contesting the polls and leave behind all issues.

“It’s not possible to make all the ticket aspirants in the party happy. This is the time to show sportsman spirit and together contest the elections,” Mr. Singhdeo said.