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Hindu, Muslim leaders meet for settlement of Ayodhya dispute

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babri

Ayodhya: Hindu and Muslim leaders have met for a negotiated settlement of the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute with both sides saying a peaceful way to resolve the issue must be found.

Mahant Narendra Giri, the newly elected President of All India Akhara Parishad, met Hashim Ansari, the oldest surviving litigant in the Babri Masjid case.

Giri, along with other mahants and sadhus, had a half-an- hour-long meeting with Ansari.

“We are trying our best to reach a negotiated settlement in this dispute. The settlement must be peaceful and should be acceptable to both the communities. At the same time, we also want that the Supreme Court should conduct day-to-day hearing in this case,” Giri later said.

Ansari said, “We are always ready for talks and we must find a peaceful way to solve this dispute so that both the communities feel happy.”

(Agencies)

Sonia backs Robert Vadra on ‘owning’ benami property in London

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Sonia Gandhi

Rae Bareli/New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday backed her son-in-law Robert Vadra over the allegation that he owns a ‘benami’ property in London, saying the charge is a political conspiracy.

She also dared the government to investigate the allegation ‘unbiasedly’.

Senior BJP leader Kirit Somaiya on Monday sought detailed inquiry by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged involvement of Robert Vadra in the 2009 purchase of a ‘benami’ or proxy-owned mansion in London.

Reacting to the allegations, Sonia Gandhi said: “This is also a political conspiracy. What do you mean by Congress-mukt Bharat? Everyday they give excuses and level wrong allegations.”

“If this is true, then they should conduct an unbiased probe. Everything will become clear,” said an angry Sonia Gandhi, who was on a two-day visit to Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

On the completion of two years of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said: “I have never seen anything like this, Modi ji is the PM, and not a Shehenshah (King).”

“Our nation is facing drought, poverty, farmers are in pain. At these times, such a “show” is not appropriate,” said Gandhi, criticising Modi for organising a gala event on completion of NDA government’s two years.

(Agencies)

Major fire at arms depot; 17 killed

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Nagpur: At least 17 security personnel, including two young Army officers, were today killed in a major fire that broke out at the central ammunition depot in Pulgoan early this morning.

Two officers and 17 Defence Security Corp (DSC) jawans were injured in the blaze, some of them critically, an Army officer said.

“The main fire at one of the sheds has been extinguished. The situation is being stabilised. Secondary fire and explosions cannot be ruled out now,” the Army officer said.

The central ammunition depot at Pulgaon is one India’s biggest ammunition depot. Pulgaon is 110 kms from Nagpur.

PM Narendra Modi expressed grief over the incident saying he was pained by loss of lives caused by fire at central ammunition depot.

He has asked Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to visit the spot to take stock of situation.

(PTI)

328 bonded labourers rescued from brick kiln in Tamil Nadu

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brick kiln

Chennai: A raid by authorities rescued 328 bonded labourers, including 106 children, from a brick kiln in Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu.

The labourers rescued hail from Odisha and were allegedly made to work for 12 hours per day on a salary of Rs 20, officials said.

The raid was conducted by a district administration team led by revenue official S Jayachandran on Saturday based on inputs from an NGO, International Justice Mission, about the plight of the labourers.

Those have been provided Rs 1,000 each by the district administration which has requested the Southern Railway to attach three extra bogies in a train to send them to Odisha this evening, Jayachandran told PTI.

According to a bonded labourer, they were promised salaries of Rs 350-Rs 400 per day for construction work taken up at Pudhukuppam in Thiruvallur district.

“But, we were working (in the brick kiln) here on a mere salary of Rs 20 per day for 12 hours,” another bonded labourer said.

“We had to work for long hours. Most of us were not allowed to access basic food and toilet facilities,” the labourer said.

He claimed that some of the labourers were working for several months. Some of the rescued children were below the age of 15, he added.

The owner of the brick kiln, who had employed the labourers, is absconding and a case has been registered, an official said.

(PTI)

Video mocking Lata, Sachin: Sena, BJP seek action against AIB

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Tanmay Bhat

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena and BJP today demanded action against AIB and comedian Tanmay Bhat for a video in which he allegedly mocked singing legend Lata Mangeshkar and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

The Sena asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take stringent action against AIB and Bhat for allegedly seeking to vitiate social harmony through videos on Mangeshkar and Tendulkar.

Party leader Neelam Gorhe has written to Fadnavis seeking action against those behind the video which she alleged was made by people with “deranged mentality”.

“Such people try to misuse the popularity of icons like Sachin and Lata tai for their own publicity,” Gorhe told PTI.

“I have also written to Mumbai Police Commissioner seeking action against Tanmay Bhat and AIB,” the Sena leader said.

Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar spoke to the Police Commissioner and requested that a police complaint be filed against Tanmay Bhat and AIB.

The MNS had also earlier said it will lodge an FIR against Tanmay and demanded that the video uploaded by him be removed immediately.

Titled “Sachin v/s Lata Civil War”, Tanmay is seen in the video taking jibes at the 86-year-old melody queen and the 43-year-old cricketing legend.

Actors Anupam Kher, Riteish Deshmukh and Celina Jaitly had yesterday criticised Bhat for roasting Tendulkar and Mangeshkar, calling the video “not funny”.

(PTI)

Narendra Modi’s govt 2nd anniversary “Ek Nayi Subah” starts at India Gate

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modi-amitabh

IANS: A gala event “Ek Nayi Subah” was being held at the India Gate lawns here on Saturday to mark the completion of two years of the Narendra Modi government. The event is being held in “talkathon” format with ministers answering queries put to them.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore were among the ministers to take part in the initial part of the programme.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to come towards the end of the event.

The Talkathon format allows participants in the social media space to post questions on Twitter which are answered by the guests in real-time.

The programme is being telecast live on various channels of Doordarshan including DD National and mediapersons have not been invited for the coverage.

“Media has not been invited for coverage. The event is being held in a studio format,” an official of the Information and Broadcasting ministry said.

The government has hired Geometry Global Encompass Network, an event management company, for the programme.

The government had also organised a “Talkathon” last year to mark its first anniversary.

(IANS)

V Narayanasamy to be new Puducherry Chief Minister

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V Narayanasamy

Puducherry: Former union minister V. Narayanasamy on Saturday was elected as the Congress Legislature Party leader in Puducherry and will be the union territory’s next chief minister.

Congress’s central observers – former Delhi chief minister Shelia Dikshit and general secretary Mukul Wasnik – announced the decision after holding discussions with the newly-elected party legislators here.

The Congress, which fought the May 16 elections in alliance with the DMK, won 15 seats in the 30 member assembly. The DMK won two seats.

Since there were three contenders for the chief minister’s post – former chief minister V.Vaithilingam, party chief A.Namassivayam and Narayanasamy – there was a delay in choosing the next Chief Minister.

According to the party’s central observers, Narayanasamy was elected unanimously by all the Congress legislators.

Meanwhile, disappointed at the outcome, supporters of Namassivayam shouted slogans and also attacked buses on the East Coast Road.

Narayanasamy, who is also a party general secretary, did not contest the elections. Now he has to get elected after one of the sitting legislators resigns.

The All India N.R. Congress (AINRC) won eight seats and the AIADMK grabbed four. An independent candidate was also elected.

(IANS)

Person who never lived in Kashmir has started a fight for Kashmiri Pandits: Naseeruddin Shah on Anupam Kher

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naseeruddin-shah-and-anupam-kher

Mumbai: As Narendra Modi government celebrates two years in power, veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah says citizens of the country should give more time to it before making perceptions though he feels a bit worried by the “changes made in few textbooks”. He, however, says the government is not “stupid” enough to turn the nation towards “dark ages”. He also hit out at fellow actor Anupam Kher saying that someone who’d never lived in Kashmir suddenly started fighting for Kashmiri Pandits.

“People are taking decisions and making perceptions too fast. I think we should give the government more time. But, there are few things which make me concerned, like the kind of alterations in the text books those are the things to worry about,” Shah said in an interview here.

The 66-year-old actor was in the capital to promote his film “Waiting” which released today. “I believe the people in the government are not stupid to understand the choices in front of them, either to build a modern India or to take us back into the dark ages. I think they are not stupid to take the second choice.

“Not for anything else but to at least be in power. I am not leaving the hope. If we will leave the hope it means we have lost the battle,” he added.

The three-time National award-winning actor also took potshots at Anupam Kher, who has been vocal about his fight for Kashmiri Pandits, especially their rehabilitation in the Valley, saying, “A person who has never lived in Kashmir has started a fight for Kashmiri Pandits. Suddenly, he became a displaced person.”

Shah supported noted lyricist Javed Akhtar’s statements during his farewell speech in Rajya Sabha saying nobody has the right to question a person’s love for their motherland.

“I am sad that statements like these (referring to AIMIM MP Asaddudin Owaisi) are made and then they are not even condemned. Like Javed sahab said, ‘It is his right to say ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. I will say it with my choice not because somebody asks me to,’ I support him. Nobody has a right to question my love for my country,” he said.

Akhtar had slammed Owaisi for saying that he won’t chant ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ because the Constitution does not ask him to do so. He had also condemned right-wing extremists who say Muslims should go to Pakistan.

(PTI)

Advertising watchdog raps Ramdev’s Patanjali ad claims

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Mumbai: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has rapped yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. for “false and misleading” advertisements that also “denigrate” rival products.

The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of the ad watchdog, which has released a statement on the complaints it dealt with in March, also found three of Patanjali’s product advertisements indulging in “ambiguity” and making claims that were described as “gross exaggeration”.

The CCC received 156 complaints against ads during the month, and upheld 90 – including those by Patanjali – under categories such as “education”, “healthcare and personal care”, “food and beverages” and others.

Under the “healthcare and personal care” category, the CCC pulled up the ad for Patanjali Kesh Kanti Natural Hair Cleanser & Oil, describing as “false and misleading by ambiguity” and “gross exaggeration” its claim that “mineral oil is carcinogenic in nature and may cause cancer”.

In the “food and beverages” segment, it found that the ad for ‘Patanjali Kachi Ghani Mustard Oil’ made claims that were “misleading” and “not substantiated”.

The ad had claimed that, “Other than Kacchi Ghani process most of the other edible refined oils and mustard oil are made using neurotoxin Hexagon solvent extraction process. To make profits at the cost of consumers’ health many companies mix cheap palm oil in mustard oil”.

The CCC ruled that the ad “unfairly denigrates other oils/mustard oil”.

The ad had prompted the edible oil industry body, the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEAI), to file complaints with the food regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and ASCI.

In its letters to FSSAI and ASCI, the SEAI requested the regulators to “take action” against Patanjali, and alleged that the company’s ad for ‘Kacchi Ghani Mustard Oil’ was not in good taste.

The CCC also found issues with the ad for ‘Patanjali Herbal Washing Powder, Cake and Dishwash Bar’, which claimed they were used by “millions of housewives”. The watchdog said the claim was “not substantiated”.

It further said that there was little evidence of the cleaning benefit of its professed ingredients, and declared the claim as “misleading by ambiguity”.

The CCC also said that “the claim, ‘Dish wash bars made with chemicals do clean the utensils but they end up damaging the hands’, was not substantiated and unfairly denigrates dish wash bars directly”.

Patanjali’s ads have come in for criticism in the past. In a recent article, Pushpa M. Bhargava, former vice chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, made a detailed critique of the claims made by a Baba Ramdev ad about treatments for high blood pressure and diabetes.

Bhargava, who founded the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, described as “scientifically absurd” the “implication in the ad that blood pressure and diabetes are caused by viruses”.

(Agencies)

‘Rs 48 lakh Jaguar most affordable option for Lok Sabha Speaker’

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Sumitra Mahajan

New Delhi: The purchase of a Rs 48.25 lakh swanky Jaguar XE as the new official car for Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has raised eyebrows with the opposition Congress on Friday asking her to reconsider using the luxury vehicle.

The Lok Sabha secretariat, however, cited security considerations behind the purchase of the Jaguar car.

When queries on the issue were put at the Congress briefing, Party spokesman Manish Tewari said the Speaker should reconsider the matter.

Tewari said it was for the Speaker to decide whether it would be “prudent” to go for such a vehicle when one-third of the country was facing acute agricultural distress.

D Bhalla, Secretary in the Lok Sabha Secretariat, sought to downplay the purchase, maintaining that it was the “most affordable option” among the four-five cars suggested on the basis of security manoeuvrability.

He insisted that the Rs 48.25 lakh vehicle has been bought because of security considerations.

“This is not an overnight purchase. It is a decision of the LS secretariat after advice by the security. All information is available on our files. It is a transparent decision,” Bhalla added.

(Agencies)

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