Archives for September 2016

Chandigarh: Music composer Vishal Dadlani today met Jain monk Tarun Sagar and apologised to him in person for his sarcastic tweet on the spiritual figure that had kicked up a storm.

The monk asked him to seek forgiveness from the Jain community for hurting their sentiments.

After the composer apologised as per the Jain community’s tradition of seeking “Panch Mafee” that included holding of ears, Sagar said though he had already forgiven Dadlani, now he would appeal to the community to forgive him and withdraw protest against him and treat the matter as closed.

“I have been saying this right from the start when these events unfolded (when controversy broke out after Dadlani’s tweet) that personally I don’t feel hurt or sad. I was talking to Vishal today and I told him that Jain community has been hurt, it was their demand that he should come to me in person and apologise only after which they will stop protests against him.

“He came from Mumbai today and brought ‘shriphal’ from there to seek apology,” Sagar said on Dadlani apologising for the tweet on the address made by the monk to the Haryana Assembly last month.

Sagar said, “Anyone can make a mistake, even me, it is not a big thing, but realisation of the same is important and one should forgive such a person.”

“It was Jain community’s request that if Vishal appears before me, he should be asked to seek Panch Mafee and the matter will end there,” Sagar said.

After this, Vishal stood before Sagar with folded hands and was even made to hold his ears and apologised as directed that also included the composer saying that in future he will never hurt anyone’s religious sentiments.

Afterwards, Sagar appealed to the Jain community to forgive Dadlani.
Sagar also appealed to those who had registered FIR against the composer to end the matter against him.

Dadlani later told reporters, “I apologised over Twitter 32 times and Tarun Sagarji also forgave me, but only thing is that I appeared in person now. I wanted to come personally earlier, but there was a FIR registered, so I did not want that people should feel that I have come here just because a case has been slapped against me.”

“I felt it from my heart that my remarks generated so much controversy and people felt hurt.

“What I had wanted to say is that religion and governance should not be mixed together.

What people understood from that tweet of mine was unfortunate. It was not my intention to hurt anyone’s sentiments. What I had said was as per Constitution, religion and governance should not be mixed because we are a secular nation..,” Dadlani said.

Dadlani said after meeting “Guruji, I felt like we are friends. Before coming here I watched many of his pravachans and realised the good message he was sending across to the world.”

Earlier today, Dadlani reached the Digambar Jain Temple, Sector 27 here and held a close door meeting with the monk that lasted for about 20 minutes.

Recently, a court in Ambala had directed music composer Dadlani to join investigation at Ambala Cantt Sadar Police Station today in connection with a case registered against him by Haryana Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with his alleged sarcastic tweet on the Jain monk Tarun Sagar.

Ambala Cantt Police had registered a case over three weeks back against Dadlani and one more person under relevant sections including 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 295A (maliciously insulting the religion or religious beliefs of any class) and 509 IPC (uttering any word or making any gesture to insult the modesty of a woman etc).

The case was registered on the complaint filed by Punit Arora, a resident of Ambala Cantonment and he is stated to be a follower of Jain monk.

The complainant said that the accused had hurt religious sentiments intentionally with his sarcastic tweet.

Dadlani came under sharp criticism from several quarters including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his sarcastic tweet

After a barrage of criticism, Dadlani had tendered an apology for his tweet and also deleted it.

The Jain monk had delivered a lecture ‘Kadve Pravachan’ at Haryana Assembly last month on the invitation of the state government.

(PTI)

Bengaluru: BJP has decided to boycott the all-party meeting called by Chief Minister Siddaramaih today to discuss the future course of action following Supreme Court’s order directing Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu till September 27.

The party has demanded that the government should call the Assembly session immediately to decide the issue.

“I have already spoken to Jagadish Shettar, Ananth Kumar, Sadananda Gowda, we have decided not to attend any meeting called by the Chief Minister on the Cauvery issue,” State BJP Chief Yeddyurappa told reporters in Shivamogga.

“Immediately Assembly session should be called where the issue should be discussed in detail, the decision taken there should be informed to the Supreme Court,” he said.

“Despite calling cabinet meeting, floor leaders meeting, all party meeting for three or four times you (government) did not take any specific decision keeping interest of farmers in mind. At least now immediately assembly session should be called and a clear decision should be taken, there by respecting the public opinion…” he added.

Karnataka will have to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 27, the Supreme Court had yesterday said while raising the 3,000 cusecs fixed by the Supervisory Committee.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit has also directed the Centre to constitute within four weeks the Cauvery Water Management Board as directed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in its award.

Chief Minister Siddaramaih who, has termed the Supreme Court’s order as “unimplementable”, is currently chairing Council of Ministers meeting at Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat to decide on the further course of action.

While JD(S) is expected to attend the all-party meeting, party’s Mandya MP Puttaraju and few legislators from Cauvery basin region have said that they will resign from their posts in protest against the Supreme Court order.

Sporadic protests have continued in the river basin districts, especially Mandya, the epicentre of the Cauvery agitation since morning, where the agitators have blocked Bengaluru-Mysuru road at various places.

Government, which has appealed for peace, has made elaborate security arrangements in the city and southern districts to ensure that no untoward incidents happen.

State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force and Quick Reaction Teams have been deployed all over city, where prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrpC is in force. City police has prohibited sale of liquor and opening of bars, wine shops and pubs from 6 AM today to 1 AM tomorrow in the commissionerate limits.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday announced the third list of Smart Cities. According to the third list, 27 cities have been selected under the project.

Varanasi, Kanpur, Agra, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Thane, Nashik, Nagpur, Kalyan Dombivali, Aurangabad, Gwalior, Ujjain, Kota, Ajmer, Vadodara, Hubbali-Dharwad, Mangaluru, Shivamogga, Tumkaru, Rourkela, Madurai, Salem, Thanjavur, Vellore, Tirupati, Namchi and Kohima have been selected under the third list.

Of the 27 cities, ten cities are from states where the BJP is in power while four cities have been selected from Karnataka where the Congress is in power.

The Centre is expected to spend about Rs 66,883 crore for developing these 27 cities. The Centre will give Rs 48,000 crore for five years for the programme and each city will be given Rs 100 crore per year. A matching fund of Rs 48,000 crore will have to be contributed by states from their internal resources/market borrowing and through private sector.

India plans on having 100 Smart Cities by 2022. So far 60 have been chosen while the remaining will be chosen by 2018.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: A 21-year-old woman was brutally stabbed to death in broad daylight by her 34-year-old stalker, who attacked her nearly 22 times as passersby looked on in north Delhi’s Burari area.

The accused, identified as Surender Singh, carried out the frenzied attack when the victim, Karuna, was walking through the area at 9 AM. She was a teacher at Novel Reaches School, police said.

Scooterists and passersby looked on as Singh dragged the girl, who fell down as she tried to save herself, and relentlessly attacked her. Singh stabbed the woman 22 times.

A man tried to approach but backed off and left from there.

Some onlookers later caught Singh and handed him over to the police.

Singh had been stalking the girl for a year but she resisted his advances, said a senior police officer.
The victim used to learn computer at a training centre owned by the accused and he fell in love with her, police said.

The victim’s family had lodged a complaint against the stalker six months back but both the families reached a compromise and the accused had stopped stalking her, said the victim’s family.

However, he attacked her today and brutally killed her, police said.

(PTI)