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Bengaluru: The BJP conducted a signature campaign against the state govenrment on Sunday in Bengaluru. The campaign was to highlight the infirmities in the cobbling up of an alliance by the Congress and the JDS against what they called the mandate of the People.
Union Ministers Ananthkumar, Sadanandagowda, BJP National Vice President B.S.Yediyurappa, BJP State President Prahalad Joshi, and other senior leaders of the Party were present during the campaign.
(Agencies)
AFP PHOTO/Aamir QURESHI
Rawalpindi: In an obvious reference to India, the Pakistani Army chief, General Raheel Sharif, has said the force is “fully capable” of dealing with any kind of threat” and that any “misdaventure” would come at an “unbearable cost”.
“(The) armed forces of Pakistan are fully capable of dealing with all types of internal and external threats, may it be conventional or sub-conventional; whether it is cold start or hot start. We are ready,” Dawn quoted Gen. Sharif as saying at the Defence Day ceremony at the General Headquarters here to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war with India.
“If the enemy ever resorts to any misadventure, regardless of its size and scale – short or long – it will have to pay an unbearable cost,” the army chief said.
“Gen. Sharif’s curt comments came against the backdrop of Indian Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag’s remarks (that) his troops were ready for the ‘swift, short nature of future wars’. Indian Army’s 2 ‘Kharga’ Strike Corps had, in April, also carried out large-scale war games codenamed ‘Brahmashira’ to rehearse ‘swift multiple offensives’,” Dawn said.
Gen. Sharif paid rich tributes to the nation’s martyrs, saying that their sacrifices will not go in vain.
“I am honoured that soldiers from that war are present among us today,” he sid.
The army chief said in the past 50 years, Pakistan has seen many ups and downs.
“But I can say with certainty that today we are stronger than before and the nation is more hopeful than ever,” he said.
Gen. Sharif also said that Kashmir is an unresolved regional issue since the partition of the subcontinent.
“There can be no peace in the region without resolution of the Kashmir issue according to the UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he said.
(IANS)
Bangkok: Two Indians have been taken into custody for questioning by Thai police after they were seen on CCTVs talking to a foreign suspect wanted in Thailand’s deadliest bombing at a Brahma temple here, a media report said today.
The two Indians have been taken to a military camp for questioning, Nation quoted police as saying.
“Nothing is really known so far about the Indians and it is not clear what the questioning is about,” sources told PTI.
The two Indians, whose names were withheld, were taken away for questioning after Assistant Police Commissioner General Prawut Thawornsiri led 20 police and troops to search the Maimuna Garden Home apartment in Minburi at 9 pm last night.
The two Indians were staying in the room next to the one where police found bomb making materials, Nation said.
A foreigner who lived at the room and a Thai woman who rented the room for him are now wanted in the case.
Thai police is closely combing areas in search of people behind the August 17 bomb blast at the popular Erawan Brahma Shrine which killed 20 people and injured more than 100 others.
A combined force of police and army officers yesterday raided several apartment buildings and rented houses in Min Buri district.
Coloner Wattana Yichin, deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police overseeing Min Buri police station, said the raid was part of crime suppression measures as many foreigners rent apartments and houses in the area.
Police so far have issued arrest warrants for ten suspects in connection with the case.
Two foreign suspects have been arrested. One of them was carrying a Chinese passport.
Meanwhile, a suspect who was arrested near the Cambodia border identified as Yusufu Meralli, told military interrogators he assembled the bomb for the actual bomber, who is yet to be nabbed.
The first man arrested, Adem Karadak, also known as Bilal Mohammed, has been shifted from military custody to prison.
Meralli admitted he assembled the bomb before handing it to a yellow-shirted suspect who was seen on CCTV at the shrine leaving behind a backpack which would have had the explosive device.
Mieraili had told the military that he was asked to assemble the bomb, he did not elaborate on who told him to make the explosive, Bangkok Post quoted police sources as saying.
Mieraili claimed he had never met the yellow-shirted suspect before.
Mieraili was carrying a Chinese passport which mentioned his place of birth as China’s western region of Xinjiang, but it is not known if it was forged.
(PTI)
Observers say the U.S. is not only lagging in its humanitarian response, but also driving the war and conflict behind ongoing displacement
Children rest on the ground at Piraeus harbor in Greece. (Photo: Michael Debets/Pacific/Barcroft )
by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams
As refugees are stranded at train stations, attacked by riot police, and killed during the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, Europe’s failure to address the rising humanitarian crisis is being met with global outrage and sorrow.
Now, many are also looking across the Atlantic to the United States, where observers say key responsibility for the crisis lies—not only because the country is lagging in its humanitarian response, but also because its war policies lie at the root of the ongoing displacement.
“Iraqis, Syrians, Palestinians, and Libyans are not running away from their homes because of a natural disaster,” Raed Jarrar, expert on Middle East politics and government relations manager for the American Friends Service Committee, told Common Dreams. “The U.S. should see this crisis as partially caused by its own actions in the region.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at a press briefing on Thursday that the United States sees no “impending policy changes” in light of the worsening crisis. He indicated the U.S. plan will remain focused on lending assistance from afar while letting EU nations take the lead on confronting the crisis. “There is certainly capacity in Europe to deal with this problem,” Earnst said, “and the United States certainly stands with our European partners.”
Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in March 2011, the U.S. estimates it has contributed over $4 billion in aid to those impacted by the conflict. That figure, Earnest declared, is “certainly more than any other country has done.”
But Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Common Dreams that such claims are factually true, yet misleading. First of all, explained Bennis, the European Union donates money as a group. “But more significant,” she continued, “is the fact that the U.S. is—by a high margin—the largest economy in the world, representing somewhere near 25 percent of the global economy. We should be paying 25 percent of whatever the United Nations says it needs, just as a starting point, without blinking. We don’t do that.”
What’s more, many have pointed out that aid dollars pale in comparison to U.S. military spending. Yacoub El Hillo, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Syria, recentlynoted to the New York Times that while the U.S. government spends $68,000 an hour on warplanes targeting ISIS, the UN grapples with dramatic funding shortfalls in which it has less than 50 percent of what it needs to care for Syrians uprooted by war.
Oxfam America is calling on the United States to immediately boost the amount of money it sends to the World Food Program, which warned in mid-August that it is facing “critical funding shortages that forced it to reduce the level of the assistance it provides to some 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.”
And then there is the matter of the refugees themselves. The U.S. has admitted roughly 1,500 Syrian refugees since 2011 and says that it will resettle no more than 8,000 by the end of 2016. In 2013, the last year for which Homeland Security statistics are available, the U.S. granted asylum to just 36 people from Syria.
This puts the U.S. far behind Germany, which has committed to accepting up to 800,000 refugees by the end of this year.
However, even Germany’s commitments pale in comparison to the roughly 4 million Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq—where a refugee crisis has long been brewing. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees now comprise one quarter of the population.
“This is getting attention now because refugees are trying to flood into Europe,” said Bennis. “But this should not just be about how do we support the Europeans.”
The aid group International Rescue Committee is circulating a petition for the the U.S. to resettle at least 65,000 Syrian refugees by 2016, and it has so far garnered nearly 12,000 signatures. And 14 Senate Democrats have joined in the call to “dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement.”
But many insist the ultimate solution lies in creating the conditions that will allow refugees to return home—where U.S.-led policies laid the groundwork for the ongoing violence, including the rise of ISIS.
“The U.S. should consider some immediate humanitarian solutions to ease the suffering of millions of refugees fleeing the Middle East, but we should also keep in mind that humanitarian assistance is not the solution to this crisis,” Jarrar emphasized. “The ultimate solution to the onging refugee crisis is a political solution that will stabilize the region and give refugees the option to go back home.”
Germany and France will reportedly take in 50,000-plus additional refugees as Hungarian PM Orban dismisses quota plan.
by Al Jazeera
France’s President Francois Hollande has announced his country will take in 24,000 refugees over the next two years, while it is understood Germany will take 31,000 additional people under a European plan which is strongly opposed by Hungary.
The figure revealed by the French leader on Monday represents France’s share of a European proposal to relocate 120,000 refugees.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is due to unveil new proposals on Wednesday.
EU officials have said Juncker will propose adding 120,000 people to be relocated on top of a group of 40,000 the commission previously proposed relocating.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a gathering of foreign ambassadors on Monday, however, that the plan could not be discussed while the EU’s outer borders were not secured.
“Our problem is with the timing. As long as we can’t defend Europe’s outer borders, it is not worth talking about how many people we can take in,” he said.
“What does that solve if we divide up 100,000 people, while in the meantime millions are coming?”
The Hungarian leader instead wants the EU to provide funds to Turkey to keep refugees there, explaining refugees were coming to the EU for financial gain.
“If they want to continue on from Hungary, it’s not because they are in danger, it’s because they want something else,” he said, adding the wanted “a German life”, not physical safety.
Unchecked, the stream of refugees would place an intolerable financial burden on European countries, he said, adding that this would endanger the continent’s “Christian welfare states”.
The plan is backed by countries including Germany, Austria, and Sweden, but former Eastern Bloc countries like Hungary, have been reluctant to accept the mainly Muslim influx of refugees.
Hungary has struggled to cope with more than 150,000 refugees entering the country this year, including 50,000 in August alone with several thousand arriving each day. The vast majority of those are heading for northern European countries such as Germany and Sweden.
Orban’s criticisms of the EU plan came as Austria said it planned to end emergency measures that have allowed thousands of refugees to flow into the country since Saturday.
In an announcement on Sunday, Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann said his country would move gradually “towards normality”.
“We have always said this is an emergency situation in which we must act quickly and humanely. We have helped more than 12,000 people in an acute situation,” Faymann said, according to the Reuters news agency.
Vienna had suspended its random border checks after photographs appeared online of a Syrian toddler lying dead on a Turkish beach. The images sparked global outcry and calls within Europe for governments to do more to help those trying to reach the European Union.
Vienna had agreed with Germany to waive rules requiring refugees to register an asylum claim in the first EU country they reach.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Nickelsdorf in Austria, said refugees “are concerned about the remarks they’ve been hearing” from Prime Minister Orban and the Austrian chancellor.
“Austrian officials have told us there won’t be border controls, but there will be spot checks because they’re trying to stem the tide of human trafficking,” he said.
Leaders from Merkel’s governing coalition also agreed to speed up asylum procedures and facilitate the construction of asylum shelters in a meeting on Sunday.
The agreement also included widening the list of countries deemed “safe”, meaning their citizens generally have no claim to asylum, to include Kosovo, Albania, and Montenegro. Among those already in that category are Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia.
The aim is to speed up asylum and extradition procedures for those from southeastern Europe, in order to focus on refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
European leaders have faced pressure domestically to do more for refugees in light of a series of deadly incidents [AP]
Bengaluru: Seven international and domestic flights were delayed on Saturday, at Bengaluru and Delhi, by a bomb hoax, which was the result of a love triangle. A city-based sales executive was in love with his ‘friend’s’ wife and wanted to get him into trouble.
He got a Sim card in his friend’s name and used the number to send warnings on WhatsApp of bombs going off in the two airports. The Bengaluru International Airport Limited management was rattled after receiving a series of WhatsApp messages about bombs. They stepped up security and checked the entire area, which led to postponement of flights. Meanwhile, the city police swung into action. The police picked up the sales executive, M.J. Gokul (37), based on the tower location, from a residence in HSR Layout, from where the messages were generated, within few hours of the incident.
Though the SIM was registered in the name of a software engineer, the timing of the WhatsApp messages and the tower location did not match that of his movements. Police were puzzled on learning that the man was not even in the city when the messages were sent. This led to them to suspect Gokul who stays in the same residential complex. Call records showed that he was in touch with the man’s wife.
When questioned, Gokul claimed that he wanted to get his friend arrested, as he was in love with his wife. Hence, he sent messages about bombs from a SIM registered in his friend’s name. He claimed that his friend’s wife knew of the plan and helped him gather the documents necessary to procure the SIM. According to sources, Gokul also admitted to murdering his wife in June and making it appear as an accidental death.
(Agencies)
New Delhi: The Income Tax department has brought out new guidelines to award secret informers providing actionable clue about “untraceable” assesses who owe huge taxes and money to government including in TDS and self assessment tax category.
The department last week issued a set of new instructions to all its offices in the country stating any person who provides credible inputs against a declared defaulter would be rewarded a 10 per cent booty of tax realised from such an entity, but upto a maximum limit of Rs 15 lakh.
The new guidelines, effective from the last and current financial year, have been issued by the CBDT keeping in mind the huge challenge of tackling black funds in the country and at the same time boosting the revenue kitty.
The informant, whose identity would be kept secret except in cases where law requires, will just have to give inputs “supported by facts and documents”.
The department has, at the same time, made it clear that no “speculation, vague or inputs of general nature and educated guess” will be entertained in this regard.
The guidelines state that any information about such assesses who are either not traceable or have stated inadequate assets to pay due taxes will be covered under the scheme brought out after high-level deliberations in the government including with the Special Investigation Team on black money.
For the first time, the guidelines accessed by PTI state, any default of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) or self assessment tax by an entity for over 6 months and about which the I-T department has publicly declared the default, will be covered under the scheme for ‘informers’ or people in the know to inform the taxman about.
“Any specific or credible information of the whereabouts or assets of the person, on or after March 31, 2015 which results in the collection of taxes, penalities, interest or other amounts not exceeding 10 per cent of the tax realised which is directly attributable to the information or documents supplied by the informant, subject to a ceiling of Rs 15 lakh” will be covered under the new guidelines.
A provision has also been kept to enhance this reward in exceptional cases after the approval of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body of the tax department.
The I-T department, beginning this year, had also begun the practise of ‘naming and shaming’ big tax defaulters in the country by publishing their names, addresses and income tax dues in newspapers.
Till now, a senior officer in the department said, names of about 50 such large defaulters have been publicised who have a pending tax liability of close to Rs 2,000 crore.
“More such names, including those under the TDS and self assessnent tax category, are in the offing,” the officer said.
The department has been told to ensure the secrecy of the indentity of the informer by allotting a unique number to them for communication.
The department, the officer said, is leaving no stone unturned to mount additional measures in combating stash funds of Indians both within and outside the country and hence these newer strategies and methods are being undertaken.
(PTI)
It is strange but true that Hindi Cinema (Bollywood) & South Indian Cinema (Tollywood), in spite of being a part & parcel of one nation India, are poles apart from each other.
This difference between the two film industry, namely the Hindi Cinema & the South Indian Cinema is not only in terms of language, but also the people working in both the industry like the producers, the directors, the artistes, the music composers, the singers et al, are always troubled & tensed up because of this wide gap between the two ever flourishing film industry.
Besides the South Indian films, which are run on the big celluloid silver screen or even on the idiot box’s small screen of the Hindi belt, are always in its dubbed versions. And more or less it is the same case with the Hindi films which are run in the Southern belt.
And that’s the main reason why such films fail to leave any impact on the audiences of other language segment, the way do in their original language versions. And maybe the biggest reason for not leaving an impact on the audiences is because the two language films are never made or produced simultaneously. One or more additional versions are just dubbed.
But now the age old widest gap, between the two, namely the Hindi film industry (Bollywood) & the South Indian film industry (Tollywood), is all set to be over once & for all. Yes! Now whoever hears this good news will be shocked & surprised all rolled into one. It so happens that Manoj Sharma, Bollywood’s youthful & full of energetic beans, nowadays is trying his level best to create a friendly & creative bridge between the two film industry namely Bollywood & Tollywood. And lending him a friendly helping hand in making this bridge stronger as well as impactful, is none other than Praveen Bhardwaj – the internationally acclaimed & Bollywood’s most popular music composer & singer. The duo of director Manoj Sharma & music composer & singer Praveen Bhardwaj have willingly taken up this job of creating a path to connect the two industry namely Bollywood & Tollywood.
Manoj Sharma, in this particular regard, averred, “You see after toiling for years together, we have come up with a project in which not only the two industry will be able to connect with each other but both the industry’s producers, directors, artistes, music composer, singers et al will be able to work with each other to give off their best. And of course they will get this golden opportunity because of our newly launched bilingual film ‘Raju Bajrangi’ (Hindi & Tamil) which will be made & produced, mind you not dubbed, simultaneously.”
Manoj Sharma continued further by stating that, “Perhaps ‘Raju Bajrangi’ will prove to be the first ever film that is being made & produced, mind you not dubbed, by the producers of the two film industry simultaneously. The artistes from both the industry are also working in ‘Raju Bajrangi’.”
On the other hand Praveen Bhardwaj, the man with the ever smiling countenance, enlightened further that, “And to sustain the musical impact of the film which may have effected the film due to a change in languages, I have made the same singer to croon the title song of ‘Raju Bajrangi’ in both the Hindi & the Tamil version. This is one of the unusual experiment ever tried before in the musical history.”
The point to be noted here is that just recently Praveen Bhardwaj’s debut musical album both as a music composer & singer titled “Desires – Mohabbat Mein Kya Milega” has been acclaimed & ranked as #1 on a global level. One sincerely hopes & pray that after his experimental musical step in ‘Raju Bajrangi’, he gets the same acclaim & musical popularity in South Indian films just as Allah Rakha Rahman has got in Bollywood films.
As a parting shot and as per director Manoj Sharma their production house is equally important than the South Indian producer’s production houses. And in their own production house they will keep on making scores of good films, through which hundreds of people will get a golden chance to connect & work with both the Hindi film industry (Bollywood) as well as the South Indian film industry (Tollywood).
Srinagar: Several leaders of trade bodies were detained here to thwart planned protests against alleged inadequate rehabilitation efforts for victims of last year’s floods in Kashmir, which observed a shutdown today.
The Opposition National Conference, which had given the call for bandh besides the separatists on the first anniversary of the floods that left nearly 300 persons dead and caused massive destruction, hit out at the Mufti Sayeed Government for the crackdown, saying it was scuttling legitimate democratic protests.
Police took into preventive custody leaders of Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) including Mohammad Yasin Khan and Showkat Chowdhary in a pre-dawn swoop ahead of their planned protest at Lal Chowk. Several separatist leaders including moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were also put under house arrest.
A police official said the area around Lal Chowk’s historic Clock Tower has been sealed and no one will be allowed to proceed in that direction.
Police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in numbers to prevent any law and order situation, the official said.
KEA had called for a shutdown today to mark the first anniversary of the floods and was also planning a symbolic protest.
NC leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah slammed the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir government, saying they had made “tall promises” of providing relief to the people “but till this day, we have got nothing”.
He warned that such actions will only alienate the people and accused the ruling PDP of “sabotaging” the relief package for the state.
“In a series of midnight raids Mufti Syed has ensured the arrest of all the Trade Body leaders. Their crime? Unhappiness over flood relief.
“All these people wanted to do was register their dissatisfaction at the absence of any meaningful flood relief. Shame on Mufti the Dictator,” Omar said in a series of tweets.
He also took a dig at Mufti Mohammed Sayed Government’s plan to mark the floods anniversary as revival day.
“If Mufti Sb was so sure people were going to celebrate as his Govt has planned today he wouldn’t have ordered these arrests (sic),” Omar tweeted.
“Shows just how desperate they are for their “celebration” to succeed,” the NC leader said on microblogging site Twitter.
The opposition National Conference marked the day by holding a blood donation camp. Omar inaugurated the camp by donating blood.
Meanwhile, normal life came to a standstill across the Valley due to the shutdown call by traders bodies, mainstream parties and separatists.
Business establishments, shops, schools and other educational institutions remained closed due to the strike while most of the public transport was off the roads.
Kashmir University has postponed all the examinations which were scheduled to be held today.
The attendance in government offices was thin while the roads wore a deserted look.
Shahidul Islam, a close aide of the Mirwaiz, and JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik were also placed under house arrest.
A Hurriyat spokesman said Mirwaiz and Islam were put under house arrested early this morning.
Barring for few days, hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been under house arrest since his return from New Delhi in April this year.
The previous state government headed by Omar had sent a rehabilitation package of Rs 44,000 crore to the Centre but so far the state has received only Rs 5,000 crores, including the Rs 1,100 crore which was in the state Disaster Relief Fund kitty when the tragedy struck last year.
Omar said that a large chunk of the money was deducted by the Centre even before it reached the state.
“They took money for many things in the name of the floods. But those, who suffered losses, did not get anything. Helicopters were used (but) the money was taken from us. Their boats were used here, but the money was taken from us.
“The funds meant for liabilities under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme were taken in the name of floods. Additional special plan assistance, which is given to us by the Planning Commission every year to balance our plan, that money was also added to the flood account and taken,” he said.
(Agencies)
New Delhi: A section of historians and scholars have criticised the rechristening of Aurangzeb Road in Lutyens’ Delhi, saying it is a result of a “slanted view” of history and cautioned that such renaming exercises will “open a can of worms”.
On August 28, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) gave its nod to a proposal to rename the historic stretch in the heart of the national capital after former President A P J Abdul Kalam, a move that many even felt “belittles the stature” of the celebrated scientist.
Noted historian Narayani Gupta says issues like these arise because people don’t have a sense of history.
“Aurangzeb Road, alongside a cluster of others named after Mughal rulers like Akbar and Shahjehan, were given by the British when they designed the new imperial capital of New Delhi.
“This and Ashoka Road and Firozshah Road, besides King George V and Queen Mary and Hardinge and Wellesley were suggested by noted historian Percival Spear, who was teaching history at St Stephen’s College then.
“So, just removing a historic name doesn’t augur well. Moreso, when it has history behind the naming. And, a true tribute to Kalam would have been a science museum for children, and not some renamed signpost,” Gupta said.
New Delhi was designed by British architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens along with Sir Herbert Baker from 1911-1931.
Post-independence, after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and later after Jawaharlal Nehru’s death, a series of renaming exercises began across the country, including in the national capital, where British names were rechristened after Indian leaders.
Delhi’s famed chronicler and author R V Smith, who grew up in Agra, says, “One Drummond Road, a long stretch in Agra, named after its district magistrate was renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Road soon after independence.”
In Delhi also, the historic names were changed like Kingsway (Rajpath) and Queensway (Janpath) and Hardinge Avenue (Tilak Marg), but history is not something to be corrected.
“We must learn to respect the history and with this Aurangzeb Road renaming, we are allowing a dangerous trend to be started. People who want his name removed have either no understanding or skewed view of history.
“He ruled for nearly 50 years from Central Asia to Rangoon, and every emperor has had good or bad qualities. But, it is wrong to judge him from a contemporary prism,” Smith said.
Smith, author of ‘Delhi That No one Knows’ and ‘Capital Vignettes’ says, by renaming the British-era places and landmarks in Delhi, history has been “destroyed”, and future generations would grow up with a “slanted view of history”.
“They renamed the historic Willingdon Crescent, Willingdon Hospital, and, then there was the Victoria Memorial Zenana Hospital in Old Delhi, which was rechristened as ‘Kasturba Gandhi Hospital’ by the municipal corporation.
“Why can’t we make new roads and new institutions and give them the names of our leaders and heroes and people whom we love. Renaming old places is not just an insult to history, but also to the people they are being renamed after,” he said.
Conservation architect A G K Menon, also convener of INTACH’s Delhi Chapter, terms the renaming of Aurangzeb Road as “unfortunate” and said it will start a trend that the country would find hard to contain.
“First we purged our cities of British rulers names and now the Moghuls. I mean how far back do we go then? And, was this renaming needed at all? Now Wheelers Island has been renamed, and voices are being raised in Maharashtra to rename the entire city of Aurangabad…. This is a bad trend, and it will open a whole can of worms,” Menon said.
UK-based scholar Saleem Khan, who did his MA thesis on ‘Portrayal of Aurangzeb in Modern history Writing’ at the University of London, says, Aurangzeb has been “much-maligned” over time without an impartial understanding of his life and times.
“He was a great Mughal emperor, which cannot be ruled out, and even though the British fought him, they chose to name a street after him.
“As per notions surrounding him that he was cruel and anti-Hindu, well Aurangzeb employed more Hindus in absolute and percentage terms than any other emperor.
“We can have an informed debate over his character but erasing him out like this is unfair,” Khan said.
Historian Gupta says, after the renaming spree in 60s and 70s, “There was a committee in the late 1970s under the Delhi Archives, of which I was a member, which passed a resolution that roads should not be renamed. But we have no sense of the history of policy on road names”.
(Agencies)