23 May, 2004; 1 HOME NOW! SBILOANS Sunday, 23 May, 2004 Vol. 3 No. 52 Gangtok Rs. 3 CONSIDERING TO BUY A FLAT IN SILIGURI? Consider buying it on an SBI loan from Gangtok! contact Kumar Gajmer at SBI, Gangtok branch, or call 221165 21 May, 10:30 pm 22 May, 12:30 all Rhenock Fire pix: Joseph Lepcha A FREAK FIRE ROARED THROUGH THE HEART OF RHENOCK ON FRIDAY NIGHT AND SNUFFED OUT SEVEN HOUSES AND DAMAGED SEVERAL OTHERS. THE PHOTOGRAPH ON LEFT SHOWS THE BURNING EMBERS OF THE FIRE WHILE THE RESIDENTS SIFT THROUGH THE CHARS THE NEXT DAY [22 MAY] RHENOCKating the houses in danger, an LPG INFERNO a NOW REPORT cylinder exploded and soon even RHENOCK, 22 May: A shell- attempts at rescuing valuables from shocked Rhenock awaited visitors the houses were abandoned. The who made it to this east district inferno was simply too intimidating. border town today. The residents First detected at around 9 PM had not slept the entire night as they last night, the fire started from the battled flames licking the night sky house of Pawan Agarwal, who, as and which eventually razed nine mentioned earlier was in Siliguri on houses, partially damaged four oth- some personal work. The fire ers and caused some five houses to spread rapidly through the closely be dismantled to prevent the fire clustered houses and soon even the from spreading. A horror that had power went off, perhaps spiked by been giving Rhenock residents the flames and the heat. nightmares for a long time [see let- The Rhenock Police Station ter on pg 3], had finally come vis- sent out an SOS for help and fire iting. Thankfully, the inferno did tenders from neighbouring areas not cause any human casualties. were rushed to the spot. The first Speaking to NOW!, the DC to arrive were firefighters from [East] K Srinivas, who accompa- Rangpo followed by Singtam, nied the Chief Minister Pawan Kalimpong and Gangtok fire ten- Chamling to Rhenock earlier this ders. Nine houses had already been morning, disclosed that the fire was razed by that time, but the profes- triggered by an electrical short-cir- sional skill of the fire fighters cuit in a wooden house near the helped contain the fire from Rhenock Haat Bazaar [also known spreading. Army volunteers, who as Camping Ground]. Since the ten- were already on the spot, battled ant was away in Siliguri at the time, the fire alongside locals and were the fire could not be detected in helped along by a group of volun- time and started spreading rapidly. teers from Pedong in neighbour- Residents of nearby houses had ing West Bengal who had rushed barely enough time to evacuate be- to Rhenock’s aid. fore the flames engulfed their houses The newly elected Area MLA, too. Earwitness accounts suggest Bhim Dhungel, fought the fire that even as the people were evacu- turn to pg 3 MORE PHOTOGRAPHS ON pg 3 CMYK 2; NOW!; 23 May, 2004 ED-SPACE NOW! THE OTHER LAME FIRST WITH THE NEWS ‘TIMES’ f liberals won’t move on from by the paper’s liberal bias by servatives were getting to be a bore WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE OPPOSITION the prison abuse photos calcu putting Michael Kinsley, one of on the subject. Ilated to incite hatred toward the America’s leading leftists, in charge Carroll’s case-in-chief of Fox The immediate reaction to the results for the 7th Legislative Assem- very troops liberals loudly claim to of the editorial page. News’ “pseudo-journalism” is “The bly among many in Sikkim was of surprise, some of course were “support,” I’m not moving on from And this is the same L.A. Times O’Reilly Factor.” [Only liberals also shocked, maybe some were even dismayed and disappointed. the fact that the editor of the Los that pays unrepentant Castro fan could force conservatives into de- While few had doubted SDF’s return to power, there are many who Angeles Times, John Carroll, is in- and former North Korea defender fending Bill O’Reilly.] Carroll believe that more legislators should have been elected to the oppo- structing journalists on ethics. The Robert Scheer for his hysterical lyingly says of O’Reilly: “Where, sition bench. One wonders in which world this set of someone be- editor of the Los Angeles Times anti-American rants every Tuesday, he asked, was the L.A. Times on long. After all what has the Opposition done so far to deserve votes, leave alone a margin of victory. And one is not speaking of the last telling reporters how to behave after hiring him mostly because his the so-called Troopergate story?” term or even the last two terms. The Opposition has failed Sikkim ethically is a complete contradic- wife was on the editorial board. In fact, O’Reilly never men- throughout its history as a democracy. In fact, the one consistent tion, like ... oh, I don’t know ... giv- The title of Carroll’s speech tioned “Troopergate.” He didn’t feature of the last six Assemblies has been the absence of an Op- ing Yasser Arafat a Nobel Peace was “The Wolf in Reporter’s Cloth- mention the Arkansas State Troop- position, except that brief period of two years when the present Prize or something. You know, just ing: The Rise of Pseudo-Journal- ers. And he certainly didn’t men- Chief Minister treated Sikkim to an experience of what a determined patently silly. ism in America.” One has to admit: tion “so-called Troopergate.” He Opposition leader can do even in a State where the people are This is the same LA Times that If you wanted an expert on the compared the L.A. Times coverage generally considered mild and non confrontationist. engaged in desperate, 11th-hour practice of partisan pseudo- of Schwarzenegger’s alleged inap- Many remember just the last incident of a crossover when SSP MLAs attempts to sabotage Arnold propriate behavior decades earlier joined the ruling Front earlier last year. In fact the trio were an excep- Schwarzenegger during the Cali- elsewhere with that paper’s coverage of the tion in having warmed the Opposition bench for more than three years fornia recall election with lurid sex USA scandals of various Democrats - before crossing over and leaving Mr. Bhandari as the sole Opposi- stories from anonymous assistant among them the stunning, contem- tion leader in the State. Others before them had jumped ship much crudite girls who worked the craft journalism, you could do a lot poraneous sexual assaults by Bill earlier and more frequently. The last trio joined the ruling party claim- services tables on Arnold’s mov- worse than the editor of the Los Clinton on identifiable women. ing that their voters wanted them to make the switch-over. Their claims ies from the 1980s and were still Angeles Times. I suppose it’s easy to confuse might be correct and, anyways, one cannot fault them either. It is the trying to break into show biz 20 Alas, Carroll’s speech wasn’t sex scandals involving Bill Clinton precedence set into place from the first elections onwards. People years later. the “how-to” lecture dozens of - I keep a “Women Bill Clinton Has just refuse to stay in the Opposition. This hesitancy is not seen in This is the same L.A. Times would-be yellow journalists were Raped or Groped at a Glance” file bigger parties with more thought-out ideologies. The reason why Op- position MLAs develop cold-feet after an extended stay in the Oppo- where reporters had to be told in expecting when they showed up for on my Blackberry, just as a time- sition is because parties here are identified by the “person” who heads an internal memo (from Carroll his presentation. Like the “ombuds- saver - but O’Reilly was referring the party and not really the ideology it espouses. To take the argu- himself) to stop injecting opinion man” at The New York Times, not to the 1993 allegations from ment further - what such a power structure does, is that it takes away in news stories, specifically the Carroll chastised his own newspa- Arkansas State Troopers, but to the the individuality of the elected leader. Such leaders know that it is the practice of prefacing the term “pro- per for some small, irrelevant in- 1998 Clinton sex scandals involv- party ticket and not their individual charisma or worth which wins life” with the term “so-called.” fraction no one would ever com- ing allegations from specific them the elections. What also forces their hand is the fact that they This is the same L.A. Times that plain about while ignoring the pa- women, such as Kathleen Willey. do not see themselves doing anything in the Opposition. Even an in recent years instituted racial and per’s consistent Soviet-style report- We know this because while the exaggeration cannot save the Opposition of the last five years from gender quotas for sources on “so- ing that has led thousands of read- word “trooper” never passed being branded as somnolent. One can expect the ruling party to get called” news - oops, I mean, news ers to cancel their subscriptions. O’Reilly’s lips, he did expressly relaxed and casual, but those in the Opposition should be working stories - which puts reporters in the Instead, Carroll’s speech was an refer to “Kathleen Willey.” towards the next elections from the moment the results are declared. position of having to round up a attack on Fox News Channel.