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Was offered Rs 1,200 crore, plum position in BJP to withdraw stir: Hardik Patel

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Hardik Patel

Ahmedabad: Patel quota stir spearhead Hardik Patel has alleged that he was offered Rs 1,200 crore and a plum position in BJP’s national youth wing by the Gujarat government to withdraw the agitation seeking reservation for his community under the OBC quota last year.

The large-scale protests by Patidars had triggered violence in many parts of the state, culminating in the arrest of Hardik and his aides under the charge of sedition. The claim of “monetary offer” was made in a letter received on Friday by various media houses, which members of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), of which Hardik is convener, claimed is written by Hardik who is currently lodged in Surat jail. However, the letter did not bear any official stamp of authorities of Lajpore jail in Surat.

The letter is addressed to Hardik’s father Bharatbhai Patel and his mother. “I was offered Rs 1,200 crore by Gujarat government to withdrew the Patel quota agitation. The offer was made to me by an IAS officer of the government who had come to meet me in jail,” the letter alleged. “They also offered me that they will make me national youth president of the ruling party. However, I have rejected both the offers,” it said.

Repeated attempts to contact the state BJP leaders for reaction did not fructify.

Hardik (22) was booked in two cases of sedition, one in Ahmedabad and another in Surat, besides under sections 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) along with his aides by Ahmedabad crime branch. “I have full faith in the judiciary and I will come out of the jail by legal process and carry on the agitation,” the letter stated.

In the chargesheet filed last month, Ahmedabad Crime Branch termed the quota agitation as a “pre-planned conspiracy” hatched to put pressure on the state government to accept their “unconstitutional demand of quota.” A separate chargesheet was filed against him last month by Surat police for sedition and other charges for allegedly instigating a fellow Patel youth to kill policemen rather than committing suicide during the agitation.

(Agencies)

Bypoll to three assembly constituencies, first phase of ZP, TP polls begin

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(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Bengaluru: Byelections to three Assembly constituencies, Hebbal in Bengaluru, Devadurga in Raichur district and Bidar and election to 550 Zilla Panchayat (ZP) seats and 1,945 Taluk Panchayat (TP) seats across 15 districts is being held on Saturday.

District administrations and the police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure smooth conduct of the polls. Electronic voting machines would be used in both the elections. The voting would be held from 7 am to 5 pm.

The ZP/TP elections in Betadur in Dharwad district, where Lance Naik Hanmanthappa Koppad was cremated on Friday, has been put off to February 15.

The ZP/TP elections are being held in two phase. In the first phase on Saturday – Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Kolar, Chikaballapur, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Haveri, Bagalkot, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, and Gadag is going to polls.

Byelections to the three Assembly constituencies, including Hebbal in Bengaluru, and polls to 550 zilla panchayat (ZP) seats and 1,945 taluk panchayat (TP) seats across 15 districts, will be held on Saturday.

The polling will be held between 7 am and 5 pm. While the bypolls to the three Assembly segments of Hebbal, Devadurga, reserved for the Scheduled Tribe in Raichur district and Bidar will be monitored by the Election Commission of India, the ZP/TP polls will be held under the aegis of State Election Commission.

The district administrations and the police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure smooth conduct of the polls.

As many as 20 candidates are in fray for the high-profile the Hebbal seat, which witnessed high-voltage campaigning by political parties in the last 10 days. The Congress has fielded C K Abdul Rahaman Sharief, while two-time MLC Y A Narayana-swamy is contesting on a BJP ticket. Ismail Shariff is the JD(S) candidate.

Up north, Bidar is witnessing a pitched battle between Rahim Khan of the Congress and Prakash Khandre of the BJP with Ayaz Khan of the JD(S) in the fray. In Devadurga, it is an all-in-the-family fight between Rajashekhar Naik (Cong), K Shivanagouda Naik (BJP) and Karemma Gopalakrishna (JD-S).

The results of the three bypolls will be out on February 16.

ZP/TP elections

Saturday will also witness the ZP and TP elections being held in 15 districts in the first phase. These include Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagaram, Chitradurga, Davangere, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Haveri, Bagalkot, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, and Gadag.

A total of 2,087 candidates are in the fray for 550 ZP seats and 6,288 candidates for 1,945 TP seats. The second phase of the ZP/TP elections for the remaining 15 districts will be held on February 20.

Election officials said carrying the electoral photo identity card (EPIC) or documents specified by Election Commission of India is mandatory to exercise franchise. Taking photographs using camera or mobile phones inside the polling stations is prohibited. Counting of votes for both the first and second phase of the ZP/TP elections will be taken up on February 23. For both the Assembly byelections and the local body elections, electronic voting machines would be used.

The outcome of both the bypolls and the ZP/TPs will once again prove to be a litmus test for the popularity of the Siddaramaiah government. The Congress, after managing to gain control over the BBMP despite the BJP emerging the number in terms of seats, is facing the polls with more confidence.

(Agencies)

DMK, Congress join hands for Tamil Nadu assembly polls

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Congress-DMK

Chennai: Congress and DMK today entered into an alliance to face the coming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, joining hands after three years.

Senior Congress leader and leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad met DMK president M Karunanidhi at his residence and announced the tie-up with the regional party which he described as “the most dependable partner”.

Azad told reporters after meeting the DMK patriarch here that issues such as seat sharing and being part of the DMK led government were not a priority now and that the main goal was to ensure that DMK comes to power.

He said that the election would be fought under the DMK leadership and put on Karunanidhi’s party the responsibility of roping in more constituents into this alliance, including DMDK.

As to what had changed between 2016 and 2013 when DMK snapped ties accusing the Congress of betraying Sri Lankan Tamils, Azad said that there were “compulsions and pressures” in politics and that the two parties had won elections together in the past also.

The DMK-Congress split had also come against the backdrop of the arrests of former Union Minister A Raja and Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP, in the alleged spectrum allocation scam.

Congress had contested the last Lok Sabha elections on its own and had drawn a blank. It had contested the last Assembly elections along with DMK but secured just five seats. Assembly strength in the state is 234.

Congress is out of power in the key southern state for nearly five decades and has generally been aligning with either of the Dravidian party- DMK or AIADMK. It has contested alone too but without much success.

(PTI)

Devadasi system still prevalent among Hindus; stop it: Supreme Court

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devdasi

New Delhi: Condemning the prevalence of the illegal practice of “dedicating” young girls as Devadasis in Hindu society, the Supreme Court on Friday described the practice as an “evil” done to women, who were later even subjected to sexual exploitation and pushed into prostitution.

Taking a stern view, a Bench of Justices F.M.I. Kalifulla and S.A. Bobde directed all States and Union Territories, especially Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, to strictly enforce the Centre’s to check “undesired and unhealthy” practice of forcing young girls to serve as Devadasis.

A devadasi is a girl “dedicated” to worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. The dedication takes place in a ceremony which is similar in some ways to marriage. In most of the cases devadasis are being used as prostitutions.

(Agencies)

Report: Death toll from Syrian conflict now 470,000

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Syrian girls react following a reported Syrian regime air strike in a rebel-controlled area in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8, 2016. (AFP/Ameer al-Halbi)

Syrian girls react following a reported Syrian regime air strike in a rebel-controlled area in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8, 2016. (AFP/Ameer al-Halbi)

by Andolu Ajansi

A report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research has said that nearly 12 percent of the Syrian population have been killed or injured in civil war.

According to the report released on Thursday, 470,000 Syrians were killed and 1,900,000 others injured in the war which has entered in its fifth year, following the involvement of other actors such asRussia, Iran and Hezbollah.

This is far above the United Nation’s last death-toll figure of 250,000. The UN stopped collecting statistics about the casualties of Syrian stalemate 18 months ago.

In addition, the conflict-hit country’s infrastructure and health system were nearly decimated, researchers said. It added that 400,000 people were killed directly by the violence and another 70,000 lost their lives due to lack of food and medicine plus disease and sanitation problems.

Thursday’s report also said life expectancy had dropped from 70 to 55.4.

The report said that 45 percent of the Syrian population had been displaced, more than four million have become refugees in other countries and six million others were internally displaced. The report also touched upon economic losses in Syria, saying the war had cost $255 billion and that almost 14 million people had lost their livelihoods.

It also added that poverty increased by 85% in 2015 and health, education and income standards have sharply deteriorated.

Pakistan foils plot to free Daniel Pearl’s killer

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Brazen Hyderabad jailbreak plan halted by intelligence agents with arrest of 97 “hardcore terrorists”, military says.

Mugshots of arrested suspects who planned to free the alleged murderer of a US journalist in 2002 [Reuters/PTV]

Mugshots of arrested suspects who planned to free the alleged murderer of a US journalist in 2002 [Reuters/PTV]

by Al Jazeera

Pakistani intelligence agents arrested 97 insurgents, including three commanders, who planned a prison break aimed at freeing the killer of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

Army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa said in a conference in Karachi on Friday that three armed groups – al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – were working together on the plot to free British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, currently on death row for the 2002 murder of Pearl.

“A deputy leader of al-Qaeda in the Subcontinent named Mussanah was mastermind of the plan and was arranging all the finances while he was aided by the deputy chief of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Naeem Bukhari,” Bajwa said.

“These arrests were made over a period of time, starting from the first arrest made a few months ago.”

The suspects had been involved in several major attacks in the southern port city of Karachi and elsewhere, and planned to killed 35-40 hostages and break about 100 inmates out of a prison, he added.

Defense and security analyst Talat Masood told Al Jazeera that freeing “their companions” from jail was only to prove their power.

“Pakistan army is doing their best to eliminate terrorism and these arrests are one of their big achievements,” he said.

“However, arresting militants and busting their attacks is not the only solution to eradicate terrorism in the country. Pakistan needs to work on cross-border relationships, especially with Afghanistan, which will help them track terrorists very easily,” said Masood.

Pearl’s death

Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted and beheaded in Karachi in 2002, while researching a story about Islamist fighters.

A graphic video showing Pearl’s decapitation was delivered to the US consulate in the city nearly a month later.

British-born Sheikh was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court, while three other co-accused received life imprisonment.

In January 2011, a report released by the Pearl Project at Georgetown University in the US following an investigation into his death made chilling revelations when it claimed the wrong men were convicted for Pearl’s murder.

The investigation – led by Pearl’s friend and former Wall Street Journal colleague Asra Nomani and a Georgetown University professor – claimed the reporter was murdered by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, not Sheikh.

Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and is being held in Guantanamo Bay.

Syria: Russian PM warns of world war if troops sent in

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Dmitry Medvedev tells German paper proposal to send Arab ground forces to fight ISIL “draws everyone” into war.

Dmitry Medvedev

by Al Jazeera

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the deployment of foreign ground troops in the Syrian conflict could result in a world war.

Medvedev was quoted as saying in an interview published late on Thursday by the German newspaper Handelsblatt that “a ground operation draws everyone taking part in it into a war”.

When asked about a recent proposal from Saudi Arabia to send in ground troops to Syria, the Russian prime minister answered that “the Americans and our Arab partners must consider whether or not they want a permanent war”.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said Medvedev’s comments were an explicit warning to the United States and its regional allies, including Saudi Arabia.

“He basically told them to back off on sending troops because if they did, this might result in some sort of interminable or even a world war,” Challands said.

Medvedev also criticised Western powers’ refusal to collaborate with Russia in Syria. The prime minister said ties at the level of defence departments were only sporadic.

US defence chief Ashton Carter, meanwhile, welcomed a commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand its role with ground troops in Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

At a gathering of more than two dozen defence ministers at NATO headquarters, Carter said on Friday key ally the United Arab Emirates agreed to send special forces soldiers to Syria to assist in the development of local Sunni Arab fighters focused on recapturing Raqqa, ISIL’s de facto capital.

Carter declined to say how many Emirati commandos would go to Syria. He said they would be part of an effort led by the US and bolstered by Saudi special forces to train and enable local Arab fighters who are motivated to recapture Raqqa.

Saudi Arabia’s Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said his country was ready to send troops into Syria if there was a consensus in the anti-ISIL coalition. But he declined to elaborate, saying: “It is too early to talk about such options. Today we are talking at the strategic level.”

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intends to meet with his Saudi counterpart Adil al-Ahmad al-Jubayr in Munich, Germany on Friday, a Russian news report said.

Vyacheslav Matuzov, a former Russian diplomat, told Al Jazeera that Russia was not fuelling the Syrian conflict, rather it had prevented it from spreading.

Matuzov said he understood that a “cessation of hostilities” pact that world powers had arrived at in Munich on Thursday meant the only solution for the conflict had to be political.

“I think all groups would understand there is no solution but a political solution. Those who do not agree to stop fighting will be enemies, and will be destroyed, as I understand to be the result of Munich,” he said.

CM to be under I-T dept spotlight after ‘gift’ claim

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Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: After making a statement that the expensive wrist watch that he used to wear until recently was a gift, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appears to be in a soup.

According to the Income Tax Act 1961, a person has to pay tax if he or she receives a gift costing more than Rs 50,000. However, tax exemption can be availed if the gift is from one of the family members.

It is said that now Siddaramaiah has to prove whether he has paid the tax if the expensive watch was a gift from a friend or “somebody” else. If it is within the family, he must have the bill. Spouse, brothers and sisters of one’s parents, one’s lineal descendants (including spouse) and lineal descendants (including spouses) of one’s spouse come in the bracket of family members according to the Income Tax Act.

Even if the gift is within the family, taxmen normally verify the source of money for the purchaser, official sources in the I-T department said.

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy has been claiming that the chief minister’s watch was a diamond-studded Hublot costing a whopping Rs 60 lakh to Rs 70 lakh.

Besides, he charged that the chief minister’s sunglasses cost Rs 1.5 lakh and claimed that he had proof to substantiate his charges. But Siddaramaiah has been dismissing the charges as not true and offered to sell them to the JD(S) leader at Rs 5 lakh if he was ready to buy them.

It is however not clear whether Siddaramaiah has declared having received these expensive gifts in his affidavit of assets and liabilities before the Karnataka Lokayukta.

Public servants have to file the affidavit every year according tothe Karnataka Lokayukta Act. And the chief minister has not revealed as to when he received the gifts. However, the details have not been made public.

Sources in the JD(S) said the party would soon come out with more details as to when and who gifted the watch to Siddaramaiah.

The JD(S) had released a video clipping of Siddaramaiah sporting the watch when he visited former MP H?Vishwanath at a hospital in Mysuru.

According to party sources, Siddaramaiah visited the hospital about 8 to 10 months ago. But the watch he offered to auction was a gold watch and not the diamond-studded watch.

(Agencies)

Movie Review: ‘Deadpool’ is a sheer exercise in boredom topped with unlimited violence

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Deadpool

Producer: Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg and Ryan Reynolds
Director: Tim Miller
Star Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrien, T. J. Miller, Gina Carano, Brianna Hildebrand & Stefan Kapiac
Genre: Action Adventure
Verdict: POOR

Debutante director Tim Miller has made a sheer mess of his debut directorial offering, namely Deadpool. It happens to be the 8th instalment in the X – Men series of movies, which are primarily based on the globally famous Marvel Comics.

Plot: Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti – hero, Deadpool tells the original story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson Ryan Reynolds), who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humour, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.

Aces: The brilliantly coordinated non – stop action scenes throughout the movie which may prove to be a real visual treat for fans of actions movies.

Minuses: Too much of blood and gore topped with bedroom scenes and in your face blatant male nudity.

Last Word: The brutal violence in Deadpool has crossed all the limits of boredom. So much so that you feel like reading marvel comics at home rather than taking a trip to cinema halls to watch Deadpool. A statutory warning, even if you are a die – hard fan of action movies watch Deadpool at your own risk and it is certainly not recommended for weak hearted persons.

JNU students union president arrested for Afzal Guru event

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Kanhaiya Kumar

New Delhi: JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on Friday in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy over holding of an event at the prestigious institute against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The case was registered yesterday under Section of 124 A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC against unknown persons at Vasant Kunj (North) Police station following complaints by BJP MP Maheish Girri and ABVP.

“Kanhaiya Kumar has been arrested in connection with the case,” a senior police official said.

Two policemen in plain clothes came to the JNU campus today and picked up Kumar for questioning. He was later arrested, sources said.

A group of students on Tuesday held an event on the JNU campus and allegedly shouted slogans against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in 2013.

The event occurred despite varsity administration having cancelled the permission following a complaint by ABVP members, who termed the activity as “anti-national”.

(Agencies)

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