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Ananth Kumar helped build BJP in Karnataka (Obituary)

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 Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar, who died on Monday, was widely regarded as an able political organiser who helped build the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka to expand the party’s reach in the country’s south.

Along with the party’s state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda and others, Kumar built the BJP across the southern state into a formidable alternative to the Congress and the Janata Dal.

Kumar’s organizational skills and proficiency in Kannada, Hindi, Marathi and English caught the attention of the party’s top leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, who made him a BJP national General Secretary at a young age.

“Kumar rose from the ranks to the national level in the BJP and the government, first as a student leader and later as an able party organiser,” BJP Karnataka spokesman S. Shantaram told IANS.

He had another ability — winning friends across the political class.

An urban face of the BJP, the 59-year-old Kumar was a six-time parliamentarian from the high-profile Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency since 1996.

He became a Union Minister at a young age (37) in the Vajpayee’s governments of 1998-99 and 1999-2004.

Kumar again became a Union Minister in May 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave him the Chemicals and Fertilisers portfolio and, later, the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In 2014, he defeated Congress star candidate and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who entered the political arena after resigning as Chairman of the state-run Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADA).

Kumar’s tryst with politics began in college days during the 1980s when he was elected as the state and national secretary of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidhya Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Sangh Parivar.

He was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as an organiser at Hubli-Dharwad in the state’s northwest region before joining the BJP in 1988.

Kumar was among those who helped the BJP to take power in Karnataka on its own in 2008.

Born into a middle class Brahmin family in Bengaluru on July 22, 1959, Kumar went to school in the city and joined college at Hubli when his father H.N. Narayan Shastry, a railway employee, was transferred to the northwest town about 400 km from here. His mother Girja, was a home maker.

Kumar graduated in Arts from K.S. Arts College and in Law from J.S.S. Law College at Hubli with B.A. and LL.B degrees from Karnataka University in Dharwad.

Kumar’s siblings are younger brother Nand Kumar and younger sister Suhasini.

Kumar was the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Youva Morcha and became its national secretary before the 1996 Lok Sabha elections.

He was also the party’s state unit president in 2003 and contributed to making the BJP a powerful opposition after the 2004 elections.

IANS

Congress’ politics begins and ends with one family: Modi

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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday attacked the Congress, targeting its president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, saying the party’s “politics begins and ends with one family”.

Addressing a poll rally here ahead of the second phase polling in the state on November 20, Modi also made a strong pitch for development, saying the pace of development under the Congress regime in the state was “far slow” than the one under the BJP-led government.

Singling out the Gandhis, Modi said the “mother-son duo” were out on bail and hit out at them for questioning the government’s demonetisation move. “They forget it was due to demonetisation that they had to seek bail,” Modi said, adding “those seeking bail are giving a certificate to Modi”.

Modi asserted the BJP was for development and that it was due to this commitment that the opposition was unable to understand how to compete with the ruling party in elections.

He also targeted the Congress president, saying when Congress released its 36-point manifesto for Chhattisgarh polls, ‘Naamdaar’ (Rahul Gandhi) was referred to as ‘Sir’ 150 times which shows he is more important for them (Congress) than Chhattisgarh.

PTI

Sanjay Khan has ‘extraordinary stories’ for TV

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Veteran actor-filmmaker Sanjay Khan, popular for acting in and producing the television series “The Sword of Tipu Sultan”, says he is planning to make movies, but he also has some extraordinary stories that can be told on the small screen.

It was back in 1989 that a major fire accident took place on the set of “The Sword of Tipu Sultan”, based on the 18th century Mysore ruler.

After surviving near fatal burns, years later Sanjay produced shows like “The Great Maratha” and “Jai Hanuman”.

“The last time I faced the camera was for ‘…Tipu Sultan’. I have been busy doing other things like building a five-star hotel in Bengaluru. We are planning several motion pictures now. Three or four pictures in the coming months,” Sanjay told IANS in a telephonic interview.

What about TV shows?

“TV is making much more money than films these days. TV has a greater reach. I have some extraordinary stories for that. There is one on the British Raj. It’s called the ‘Beginning of an Empire’.

“I would like to make it as a long series of three or four seasons capturing the long duration of the British Raj in India,” said the “Haqeeqat” actor.

He has historical stories on mind for the big screen as well.

“There is one on a Brigadier, who died fighting for his country and I have another one on the 1965 war. I have always made stories that have a national appeal and are meaningful,” said the “Chandi Sona” actress.

Sharing an example, he said: “When I made ‘Jai Hanuman’, I got great satisfaction. Hindu ladies said ‘We are grateful to you Sir for showing us the childhood of Hanuman’. Even Muslim people loved it. I felt great that I had communicated something.”

But what about going beyond mythology and historical genres?

“In the larger packaging of my work, there would be stories of romance, etc.,” he said.

He doesn’t want to focus just on a love story.

“The value of love between a man and a woman is eroding. All kinds of things are happenning. The mood of the world is different so, the best bet is catching historical and social-economic problems, which are perennial. Those are the problems that we can address,” said Sanjay.

Talking about the content of films made by young Indian filmmakers, he shared: “I like some of them. Indian cinema is coming-of-age though the music is suffering. The lustre of music is gone.

“The technical quality has come up. Some very good films like ‘Dangal’ have come out.”

He is also interested in the digital medium.

“If there is an offer, subject or big companies come to me then I can talk to them,” he said.

At the moment, he is focussing on promoting his new autobiography, “The Best Mistakes of My Life”, which takes the readers to his world of films, family, his near-death accident and more.

“I am happy that it has come out the way it has. I worked really hard on it. I had gone into my past and relived all those glorious times,” said the actor in his 70s.

 

IANS

Tata Group’s total investment in Odisha to cross Rs 1 lakh cr soon

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 Tata Group’s total investment in Odisha will soon cross Rs one lakh crore, said its Chairman N. Chandrasekaran here on Monday.

For the Tata Group, the association with Odisha is “very long, more than 100 years old”, he said.

Chandrasekaran also said Tata Steel was given its first iron ore lease by the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj in the early part of 20th century. Since then, the group has significantly expanded in the state.

“Already, we have made investments worth Rs 75,000 crore and with the announcement of expansion of (Tata Steel’s) Kalinganagar plant, another Rs 25,000 crore would be invested. Total investments will soon cross Rs 100,000 crore in the state,” he said at the Make in Odisha Conclave here.

Not only Tata Steel has a large capacity, Tata Motors has a significant presence with its 30 service stations and dealers network and Tata Power has four generation units here, he said, adding that the TCS is the largest IT company in the state with about 5,000 professionals and the second phase would take it to a total of 12,000 professionals.

The group’s companies in retail and services sectors have engagements in the state, Chandrasekaran said.

He said the group’s experience in the state has been extremely “satisfying”.

The state is blessed with a lot of resources with stable government, proactive bureaucracy, ready infrastructure, strong mineral reserve, large pool of skilled manpower and secured social environment, he said.

The state produces 1.8 lakh technical graduates from over 950 institutions, who are excellent resources for development of any part of the country.

IANS

Taking ‘multi-variable’ steps to curb fake news before 2019 India polls: Twitter CEO

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Twitter is taking “multi-variable” steps, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, to curb the spread of misleading information on its platform ahead of 2019 general election in India, Co-Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said here on Monday.

Addressing a Town Hall-style meeting at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D), Dorsey said fake news is a way too big category.

“The real problem is not misinformation per se as jokes can also be categorised as misinfomation. But misinformation that is spread with the intent to mislead people is a real problem,” stressed the Twitter CEO who is in India on a week-long maiden visit.

Dorsey, who got a rousing reception at IIT-D with the students wildly cheering the young entrepreneur, likened solving the problem of misleading information to that of addressing a security issue, or building a lock.

“No one can build a perfect lock, but we need to stay ahead of our attackers. AI could probably help,” Dorsey told the audience.

Earlier in the day, the Twitter CEO met Congress President Rahul Gandhi and discussed various steps the social network was taking to curb the spread of fake news and boost healthy conversation on its platform.

Dorsey also met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama over the weekend. He was also expected to meet Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the wake of the growing criticism over Twitter’s role in the spread of misinformation and fake news as India faces Assembly polls in five states in November-December ahead of next year’s general elections.

Twitter, along with other social media platforms, including Facebook, came under intense scrutiny of policymakers in the US for their failure to stop the spread of misinformation by Russia-linked accounts on their platforms during the 2016 Presidential election.

The micro-blogging site since then has stepped up its efforts to curb the spread of divisive messages and fake news on its platform.

To further protect the integrity of elections, Twitter recently announced that it would now delete fake accounts engaged in a variety of emergent, malicious behaviour.

As part of the new rules, accounts that deliberately mimic or are intended to replace accounts that were previously suspended for violating rules may be identified as fake accounts, Twitter said recently.

However, according to a Knight Foundation study released in October, more than 80 per cent of the Twitter accounts linked to spread of disinformation during the 2016 US election are still active.

 

IANS

Growing nationalism behind spread of fake news in India: BBC research

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 A BBC research has revealed that fake news is fast spreading in India owing to a “rising tide of nationalism” where right-wing networks are much more organised than on the left, pushing “nationalistic fake stories” further.

The research found that in India, “facts were less important to some than the emotional desire to bolster national identity”.

“There was also an overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the findings showed.

The research, commissioned by the BBC World Service, was part of “Beyond Fake News” — a series across TV, radio and digital where users gave the BBC unprecedented access to their encrypted messaging apps in India, Kenya and Nigeria.

In its bid to fight the menace of fake news, the BBC last week said it would launch on November 12 a project with a major focus on global media literacy, panel debates in India and Kenya, hackathons exploring tech solutions and a special season of programming.

“In all three countries, distrust of mainstream news outlets pushed people to spread information from alternative sources, without attempting to verify it, in the belief that they were helping to spread the real story. People were also overly confident in their ability to spot fake news,” the researchers noted.

The worrisome part is that participants in the research made little attempt to query the original source of fake news messages, looking instead to alternative signs that the information was reliable.

“Widespread sharing of false rumours on WhatsApp has led to a wave of violence in India, with people forwarding on fake messages about child abductors to friends and family out of a sense of duty to protect loved ones and communities,” said the report.

More than 30 people have been killed so far in incidents involving lynching rumours on various social media platforms.

“We examined one case in detail – the deaths of Nilotpal and Abhishek in Assam – while another reporter travelled to Mexico to see how WhatsApp rumours fuelled similar deadly violence there,” said the BBC report.

To reach the conclusion, the researchers spent hundreds of hours with 80 participants across the three countries. Nearly 16,000 Twitter accounts and 3,000 Facebook pages were analysed.

The “Beyond Fake News” season will include “Fake Me”, a documentary revealing how far young people will go in pursuit of social media perfection, as well as the in-depth story of what happened when WhatsApp turned one Indian village into a lynch mob.

“Poor standards of global media literacy, and the ease with which malicious content can spread unchecked on digital platforms mean there’s never been a greater need for trustworthy news providers to take proactive steps,” Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service Group, said in a statement.

“We have put our money where our mouth is and invested in real action on the ground in India and in Africa,” Angus added.

There will also be reports on Russia’s disinformation campaign, how Facebook is being exploited in the Philippines to spread false information, and a debate with the world’s big four tech firms on what role they play in stemming the spread of fake news, the BBC said last week.

 

IANS

Woman editor comes out in support of Akbar

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 The Sunday Guardian Editor Joyeeta Basu on Monday put up a strong defence for former Union Minister M.J. Akbar, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women journalists

Appearing in a Delhi court as a complainant witness in the defamation case filed by Akbar against woman journalist Priya Ramani, Basu said the defamatory tweets by Ramani had irreparably damaged Akbar’s reputation.

Basu told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal: “…after reading these tweets by Priya Ramani, I feel that they were made intentionally with a purpose to harm Akbar’s reputation and goodwill in the eyes of the society.”

Basu, who has worked with Akbar for around 15 years, said that his behaviour with her was impeccable.

“He was a perfect professional and a tough task-master with the entire office. I have not heard anything untoward from the staff of the organisation in which we have worked together,” she said.

Basu told the court that she had always held Akbar in high regard.

“Akbar has always been a thorough professional and a brilliant teacher who taught me all aspects of journalism,” she said.

The court will take up the case again on December 7.

The court was hearing the defamation case against Ramani filed by the former Minister of State for External Affairs, a journalist-turned-politician who is now with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Ramani was the first in a long list of women journalists to accuse Akbar of sexual harassment.

A Rajya Sabha member, Akbar, has denied all the charges against him as “false, wild and baseless”.

Akbar has listed names of two senior women journalists — Joyeeta Basu and Veenu Sandal — besides four others as his witnesses to prove his defamation charges against Ramani.

IANS

SC declines early hearing Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title case

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The Supreme Court Monday declined early hearing of petitions in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case. A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice SK Kaul said it had already listed the appeals before the appropriate bench in January.

“We have already passed the order. The appeals are coming up in January. Permission declined,” the bench said while rejecting the request of early hearing of lawyer Barun Kumar Sinha, appearing for Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.

I’m a newcomer for pan-India audiences: ‘KGF’ actor Yash

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 Kannada film actor Yash, who will soon be seen in “KGF” – Kolar Gold Fields – that will release in five languages including Hindi, says he is quite excited to see how cine-goers across India accept him as a performer because he is a newcomer for a majority of the audiences.

“For a pan-India audience, I am a newcomer and I know that. So far, I have only worked in the Kannada entertainment industry. Though my films are dubbed in Hindi and watched by many people on TV and on online platforms, we never had a Kannada film that was released in theatres in Hindi. So there is a feeling in my mind of being a newcomer to the maximum audience,” Yash told IANS here.

Having started his career in Kannada television, Yash made his debut in cinema in 2013 with the film “Googly” and delivered some commercially successful films like “Mr and Mrs Ramachari”, “Gajakesari” and “Santhu Straight Forward”.

Elaborating on the advantage that he gets by acting in a Kannada film, he said: “In the Kannada film industry, when a film is successful, we tend to carry some element, style and dialogue to a new film just to keep our fans stay with the characteristics of an actor that they already loved.

“Since ‘KGF’ is trying to reach an audience that will be watching my performance for the first time, they won’t be having any reference point to understand my talent from my previous works. As an actor, I have to show my strength and power of performance to win the heart of my new audience.”

The film will be releasing in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam languages.

While the actor believes “KGF” will be a great opportunity for the homegrown talent of Karnakata to present their work to the national audience, Yash said: “Our Kannada film industry has no dearth of talent, but we need more exposure.

“That is the sole reason for us to venture into different language release so that we can share our potential to the world. I am confident that the production value and content of our film will surely match up to the global standard.”

Set in the 1970s, the story of the film revolves around a young man named Rocky (Yash), who is born on a special day and has a desire to rule the gold mines of Mumbai city.

Asked if the Mumbai backdrop will make the story more relatable for the Bollywood audience, Yash said: “That could be an advantage because in the film we have shown the 70s’ era and how the city Mumbai used to look and feel… The colour, people, society… we tried to capture the time frame on-screen.

“Having said that, we did not do that intentionally, but organically. Back in the 1970s, 1980s, people from the southern part used to go to Mumbai to achieve their dreams. There were more job opportunities, business and money. Since the film also revolves around the gold mine, the city plays a role,” added the award-winning actor.

He grew up watching Salim-Javed’s superhit Bollywood films like “Sholay”, “Deewaar” and “Don”, and says he admires Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

Interestingly, “KGF” is releasing on the same day as Shah Rukh’s much anticipated “Zero” on December 21.

Does he have Bollywood dreams?

“I love watching Bollywood films, especially of Rajkumar Hirani. But I am not exactly desperate to work in Bollywood. I love my acting and given a good script I will work in any film industry.”

Directed by Prashanth Neel, the film will be released in two parts. The Hindi version of the film will be distributed by Excel Entertainment and AA Films.

Akshay Kumar in big trouble, may be jailed

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The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan on sacrilege issue, has summoned former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and actor Akshay Kumar.

While Parkash has been asked to appear before the SIT of Punjab Police on November 16, Sukhbir has been summoned on November 19 and Akshay has been asked to come on November 21 to the Circuit House in Amritsar.

The summon orders have been issued separately for the three by SIT member and IG rank officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, according to an official release issued here.

The SIT is probing police firing incidents at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in Faridkot in 2015 after a series of sacrilege incidents in the state. In police firing at Behbal Kalan, two persons were killed.

Notably, the actor’s name was mentioned in Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents.

According to the report, a meeting between former deputy chief minister Sukhbir and Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in connection with the release of latter’s movie ‘MSG’ was held at Akshay’s flat in Mumbai.

The meeting was held before the pardon given to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a blasphemy case. However, Akshay had denied all the claims.

Kunwar Singh said the summons relate to investigation of cases originating from the various incidents of sacrilege in the year 2015.

The summons have been issued under Section 160 of the CrPC, requiring attendance at investigation, relating to the Bargari sacrilege case and the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents, the release said.

The notice says the presence of the aforesaid person is necessary for the purpose of inquiry into the above-mentioned offence and the person summoned needed to give such information relating to the said alleged offence as he may possess.

The SIT had earlier examined ADGP Jitendra Jain, then IG Bathinda; IGP Paramraj Singh Umaranangal; then Commissioner Ludhiana; IGP Amar Singh Chahal, then DIG Ferozepur Range; MS Jaggi, then DC Faridkot; SS Mann, then SSP Faridkot; VK Syal then SDM Faridkot, besides Mantar Singh Brar, then Kotkapura MLA.

In addition, 50 private persons and more than 30 police officials of junior rank have also been examined.

The five-member SIT was set up by the state government in September this year, soon after issuance of the notification to withdraw investigation of sacrilege incidents of the Guru Granth Sahib from the CBI.

PTI

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