What makes an immigrant a British citizen? Not just a stipulated time spent as in other countries including India. You should at least be able to speak English like a Britisher and know that fish and chips is the national food (or is it curry?). The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill that the House of Lords is debating, requires those seeking British citizenship to pass tests in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic and show an understanding of British society and its civic structures. Then and only then will they deserve to be sworn in as citizens.

To set the syllabus for the wannabe citizens, a 12-member "independent" group headed by citizen expert Professor Sir Bernard Crick has been constituted. The group will advise Home Secretary David Blunkett on the conduct and implementation of a "Life in the United Kingdom" naturalisation test.

Blunkett seeks to give new meaning to being British. "Becoming a British citizen is a significant life event. The Government intends to make gaining British citizenship meaningful and celebratory rather than simply a bureaucratic process. New citizenship ceremonies will help people mark this important event," he says.

A fallout of the post-9/11 White Paper on immigration laws, "Secure Borders, Safe Haven", the bill stresses on integrating new citizens with the "liberal" society. Blunkett puts it less bluntly: "We want British citizens to embrace positively the diversity of background, culture and faiths that living in modern Britain involves."

Language skills have become a keystone to citizenship training as has practical knowledge about the UK so that those who become British citizens can "play an active role, both economic and political, in our society, and have a sense of belonging to a wider community", explains Blunkett. How to translate these notional concepts into practice is a problem the Sir Bernard panel has to wrestle with.

-Ishara Bhasi

GERMAN ELECTIONS
A Vote for Status Quo

Close Call: Stoiber (left) lost narrowly to Schroeder

It was the closest electoral battle since World War II and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder emerged the victor by a bit of sabre-rattling against the US plans to attack Iraq. His Social Democratic Party (SPD) and its ally, the Greens, secured 306 of the 601 seats. The sore loser, Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber, declared that the Red-Green Government would fail within a year due to its slim majority. But such foreboding did not cloud the ruling coalition's celebrations. "We're incredibly happy-incredibly," says Greens Chairwoman Claudia Roth. As for Schroeder, he is busy making up with George W. Bush, who had endorsed Stoiber's candidature after the SPD's justice minister compared the US President to Hitler for his blind hatred of Saddam Hussein.

Watson

Role Reversal

When US hip-hop star Shari Watson adopted the name Truth Hurts, she probably didn't know it would be prophetic. Record company Saregama (the erstwhile HMV) has slapped a $500 million (Rs 2,400 crore) suit on Watson and the producers for lifting a Bappi Lahiri tune, Thoda resham lagta hai, sung by Lata Mangeshkar for the film Jyoti in the 1980s. Addictive, one of Truth Hurts' chartbusters, is overlaid on the Hindi number using the same beats. Dr Dre who directed Addictive says that they did not know how to trace the owner of the track. Lahiri, whose works were mostly "inspired" by western tracks, might just win this case.

-Shilpa Nayak