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Will behead Siddaramaiah if he eats beef in Shivamogga, says BJP leader

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SN Channabasappa

Shivamogga: A local BJP leader has dared Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to eat beef at Gopi Circle here but gave an ominous warning: if he did so, he would be beheaded.

“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is behaving like a dictator. He has stated he would eat beef if he chooses to do so and nobody could stop him. Let him eat beef at Gopi Circle in Shivamogga. If he does so, he will be beheaded,” S N Channabasappa, a former president of the erstwhile Shivamogga City Municipal Council, said on Monday at a protest organised by the BJP against the chief minister’s remark on beef.

“We won’t think twice about that. By making such a statement, the Congress leader has hurt the sentiments of Hindus. We have all grown up drinking cow’s milk,” he added.

M Shankar, spokesperson for the BJP’s Shivamogga district unit, said Siddaramaiah was talking like the owner of a meat shop. “If he eats beef, then Congress workers will eat dog, fox and so on to appease him and get the posts of chairmen of boards and corporations.”

(Agencies)

Manmohan, Sonia, Rahul Pay Tributes to Indira, Patel

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Sonia-Gandhi

New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday paid tributes to former prime minister Indira Gandhi and India’s Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

They paid tribute to Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary at the Shakti Sthal memorial site dedicated to her.

“We pay tribute to Indira Gandhi today (Saturday). A leader with courage and compassion. She protected the poor and died for India,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984 by her bodyguards a few months after the Indian Army took action in the Golden Temple in Amritsar to remove militants from there as part of a move to counter the insurgency in Punjab.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari also visited Shakti Sthal to pay floral tributes to Indira Gandhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute and said: “Tributes to former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary.”

She was born on November 19, 1917.

She held the office of prime minister from January 1966 to March 1977. She also became the prime minister from January 14, 1980 till her death.

The three Congress leaders also paid tribute to India’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his birth anniversary.

Sardar Patel, known as India’s Iron Man, played a major role in the country’s struggle for independence and subsequently guided its integration into a united, independent nation.

Patel was born on October 31, 1875 in Gujarat’s Nadiad town. He died on December 15, 1950.

In his tweet, Rahul Gandhi said: “My tribute to Sardar Patel on his birth anniversary. One of the founding fathers of our nation, a patriot and a great Congressman.”

“His contribution to unifying India and guarding against fundamentalist forces will always inspire us,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi said Sardar Patel was truly India’s Iron Man as he believed in a strong, united India where every Indian is equal.

(IANS)

Anupam Kher calls Tata Literature Festival audience paid, gets booed

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Bollywood actor Anupam Kher. (Photo by Waseem Gashroo/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Bollywood actor Anupam Kher. (Photo by Waseem Gashroo/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Mumbai: Actor Anupam Kher was booed by the audience as a debate at a literary festival here on freedom of speech heated up, with the actor wondering aloud if it was a paid audience.

Kher was among the panel of speakers at the debate on ‘Freedom of expression is in imminent danger’ organised as part of the Tata Literature Live Festival.

Kher along with BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli spoke for the motion whereas former BJP ideologue Sudheendra Kulkarni and noted writer Shobha De spoke against the motion.

Soon after Kher rose to speak, he was booed after he recalled Shobha De’s past as an editor of a film magazine “which printed gossip about which film star slept with whom.”

Undeterred, Kher went on saying “people have an agenda and cannot handle a chaiwala becoming a PM.”

As the booing continued, Kher said he had spoken to the festival organiser Anil Dharker in the morning and expressed his apprehensions of a paid audience at the debate.

This infuriated several members of the audience who kept on booing the actor.

His wife Kirron Kher, a BJP MP, who was in the audience rose to his defence but the audience did not stop booing Kher who said being a theatre artist he was used to such booing.

Dharker said it was ridiculous to suggest that the audience at the debate which ended at around 10 PM, was paid.

Moderator Nik Gowing former BBC anchor declared the motion carried after a show of ‘ballot pamphlets’ by audience.

(Inputs from PTI)

Moody’s warns Modi: Rein in BJP members or risk losing credibility

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modi-sword

New Delhi: International rating agency Moody’s Analytics on Friday cautioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India might lose domestic and global credibility if he did not rein in controversial members of his Bharatiya Janata Party.

In a report titled India Outlook: Searching for Potential, Moody’s Analytics said for the country to reach its growth potential it has to deliver the promised reforms.

“Undoubtedly, numerous political outcomes will dictate the extent of success,” it said. The ruling BJP does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha and crucial reforms bills has been met with an obstructionist opposition.

“But in recent times, the government also hasn’t helped itself, with controversial comments from various BJP members.
While Modi has largely distanced himself from the nationalist gibes, the belligerent provocation of various Indian minorities has raised ethnic tensions.

“Along with a possible increase in violence, the government will face stiffer opposition in the upper house as debate turns away from economic policy. Modi must keep his members in check or risk losing domestic and global credibility,” Moody’s said.

It projected that India’s GDP growth for September quarter at 7.3%, while for the full fiscal it would be 7.6%.
“Key economic reforms could deliver greater potential GDP, as they would improve India’s productive capacity. These include the land acquisition bill, a national goods and service tax, and revamped labour laws. They are unlikely to pass through Parliament in 2015, but there is an even chance of success in 2016,” Moody’s said.

As regards interest rates, it said low rates will buttress the economy in the short-term but reforms are needed to reach long-term potential growth.

The Reserve Bank kick-started the recovery by cutting the repo rate by 1.25% this year.

It said positive signs are emerging with the State Bank of India, the nation’s largest bank, cut its base lending rate earlier this month.

“Capacity utilisation has been low across industries this year. The capital expenditure pipeline is running dry. However, interest rate cuts should encourage investment, as will the softer inflation profile,” it added.

(PTI)

Now RBI chief Rajan raises voice against intolerance in India

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RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan

New Delhi: Amid the raging debate over intolerance, Reserve Bank Chief Raghuram Rajan today said excessive political correctness stifles progress and called for an improved environment for tolerance and mutual respect.

Rajan also said protection of right to question and challenge was essential for India to grow.

Speaking at the convocation of IIT Delhi, the RBI Governor said actions that physically harm anyone or show verbal contempt for a particular group, so that they damage the group’s participation in the marketplace for ideas, should certainly not be allowed.

“Sexual harassment, whether physical or verbal, has no place in society. At the same time, groups should not be looking for slights any and everywhere, so that too much is seen as offensive; the theory of confirmation bias in psychology suggests that once one starts looking for insults, one can find them everywhere, even in the most innocuous statements,” he said.

On whether ideas or behaviour that hurt a particular intellectual position or group be banned, he said: “Possibly, but a quick resort to bans will chill all debate as everyone will be anguished by ideas they dislike. It is far better to improve the environment for ideas through tolerance and mutual respect.

(Agencies)

Uddhav Thackeray calls BJP ‘arrogant’, threatens to withdraw support from Maharashtra government

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uddhav thackeray

Mumbai: After Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis compared Shiv Sena to a drama company, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday threatened to bring down the state government.

“People taught lesson to Indira Gandhi then what is BJP? If the government keeps behaving in this way, then we will have to bring it down. I will ask all my ministers to resign from the government,” Thackeray, whose party is a junior ally of the BJP-led government in Maharashtra and at the Centre, said.

Earlier, addressing a public gathering in Dombivali, Fadnavis compared Shiv Sena to a drama company while referring to Eknath Shinde’s resignation. Shinde had publicly tendered his resignation from the government in a rally in presence Uddhav Thackeray. However, Thackeray refused to accept his resignation.

Referring to the incident, CM Fadnavis described it as mere theatrics by Shiv Sena to attract attention of the people ahead of local body elections.

riday was the last day of campaigning for the upcoming Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) elections. BJP and Shiv Sena are fighting the polls separately.

Relations between the Sena and the BJP have deteriorated rapidly ever since the Ghulam Ali concert was cancelled under pressure from Sena activists and then ink was smeared by Sena activists on former Vajpayee aide Sudheendra Kulkarni.

The BJP believes that this is a deliberate attempt by the Sena to embarrass the BJP amid of the all important Bihar assembly elections, where the BJP is locked in a dead heat with the Grand Alliance led by Nitish Kumar.

BJP’s opponents are harping on the cancelation Ghulam Ali concert and the Kulkarni ink attack incident in a big way and highlighting this as proof of the intolerant face of BJP’s friends and the PM’s inability to rein in the fringe.

(Agencies)

JD(U), Congress approach EC, demand ban on Amit Shah’s entry in Bihar

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Amit_Shah

New Delhi: Upping the ante against Amit Shah after his “fireworks in Pakistan” remark, JD(U) and Congress today approached the Election Commission demanding that the BJP chief be barred from entering Bihar for “inciting communal tension” till the election process ends.

Taking strong objection to BJP’s poll advertisements in the state, they accused the party of using “lies and false propaganda” to vitiate the atmosphere and demanded that an FIR be registered against Shah as well Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his quota remarks.

Slamming Shah’s yesterday remarks that if BJP loses in Bihar, there will be fireworks in Pakistan, JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi said, “Shah’s remarks are inflammatory.

“A case should be registered against him and he should be debarred from entering Bihar till the poll process is over. He is a habitual conspirator. He was earlier also debarred from entering Gujarat by the court.”

A delegation of Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, spokesperson Ajoy Kumar and JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and submitted a memorandum, accusing the BJP of “vitiating” the electoral process by “promoting communal tension” through its advertisements.

It sought action including “complete withdrawal” of these ads and “prosecution” of the perpetrators.

Submitting a list of advertisements issued by the BJP in Bihar including one which accuses Nitish Kumar-led of “snatching the plate of dalits” and accuses it of trying to carve five per cent reservation for a particular community from the quota for SC/ST/OBC, the delegation demanded quick action from the poll watchdog.

The parties complained to the EC on this matter on a day when Prime Minister Narendra raised the pitch on this issue addressing a rally in Lalu Prasad’s home turf Gopalganj and citing a speech of Nitish Kumar in Parliament allegedly favouring sub quota for Muslims.

Tyagi also said that the Election Commission should register a case against Modi for the repeated reference of his belonging to Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) in the same manner as the Election Commission had lodged a case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad for his forward versus back election remark earlier.

They also cited two more ads. While one alleges that Lashkar-e-Toiba and ISI terrorists are “thriving in Bihar due to negligence” of JD-U leaders, the other talks of Bihar government’s role in “delayed” arrest of Yasin Bhatkal from Nepal border.

The delegation alleged that it is a “shameless” attempt by the BJP at spreading “false propaganda” and “creating communal tension”.

The Nitish Kumar-led alliance claimed that one of the ads say that RJD, JD(U) and Congress leaders are “giving sanctuary” to terrorists to appease a particular community for votes.

The name of the particular community becomes clear when seen in context to previous day’s ad, which spoke about Muslim community appeasement by RJD-JD(U) and Congress by ‘robbing the plate of dalits’, the delegation alleged.

On the ad regarding Bhatkal arrest issue, the delegation said that it questions whether the ‘delay’ was to make a particular community feel the “government’s benevolence”.

“The connection between letting Bhatkar escape and a community is done to connect Bhatkal with the Muslim community,” they alleged.

“In the on-going elections in Bihar, the BJP has been promoting lies, false propaganda and communal tensions through its advertisements. This has resulted in vitiating the electoral process by promoting communal tension….

“As you will see from these ads, it is a shameless attempt at spreading false propaganda and creating communal tension by use of misuse of select words in ambiguous contexts that could be interpreted for multiple factions for inciting violence between the two communities,” the delegation said in its memorandum.

Terming these ads as “blatant violation” of the provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and several provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the delegation said, “The EC must demand a complete withdrawal of the advertisement and prosecution should be initiated against the perpetrators at the earliest.”

(Agencies)

Historians join hands protesting against rise in ‘intolerance’

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Romila Thapar

Hyderabad: Hopping on the bandwagon of eminent personalities who have been protesting against the rising intolerance in the nation by returning the honours bestowed on them by the government for their work, are historians including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib and M G S Narayanan who have come out in protest describing the situation as a “highly vitiated atmosphere of intolerance in the country.”

“Differences of opinion are being sought to be settled by using physical violence. Arguments are met not with counter arguments but with bullets. And, when it is hoped that the head of government will make a statement about improving the prevailing conditions, he chooses to speak only about general poverty; and it takes the head of the state to make the required reassuring statement, not once but twice,” a joint statement issued by the historians stated.

The statement comes in the backdrop of octogenarian biologist P M Bhargava’s decision to return his Padma Bhushan award in solidarity with the protesting writers and filmmakers as he accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to turn India to a “Hindu religious autocracy.”

“The ruling party today, is deviating from the path of democracy and is on its way making India a Hindu religious autocracy and I object to it,”  Bhargava told Deccan Herald.

He received the Padma Bhushan in 1986. Bhargava, founder-director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), is one of the signatories of another statement from scientists in which they asserted that “India will not accept attacks on reason, science and our plural culture. We reject the destructive narrow view that seeks to dictate what people will wear, think, eat and who they will love.”

Over a 100 senior scientists from across the country have signed a petition addressed to President Pranab Mukherjee against growing religious intolerance. The infamous Tandoor murder case brought CCMB into limelight for matching victim Naina Sahni’s DNA.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley described the surge in protests as “manufactured rebellion”, while he dubbed the scholars and intellectuals returning their awards as “rabid anti-BJP elements”.

The finance minister wondered if the conscience of protesting scholars and intellectuals had pricked when corruption and scams to the tune of lakhs and crores of rupees were taking place in the UPA era.

The historians, however, took on the Modi government, saying, when writers were returning their awards in protest, no comment was made about the conditions that caused the protest.

“Instead the ministers call it a paper revolution and advise writers to stop writing. This is as good as saying that intellectuals will be silenced if they protest. This is particularly worrying for us as historians as we have already experienced attempts to ban books and expunge statements of history despite the fact that they are supported by sources and the interpretation is transparent,” they said.

(Agencies)

Chandrabhan Sanap gets death in TCS techie rape-n-murder case

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Chandrabhan Sanap (right) is seen with Esther Anuhya in the CCTV footage at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on January 5. (File photo)

Chandrabhan Sanap (right) is seen with Esther Anuhya in the CCTV footage at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on January 5. (File photo)

Mumbai: A special women’s court here today awarded death sentence to Chandrabhan Sanap, prime accused in the rape and murder of a Andhra Pradesh-based software engineer in suburban Kurla here last year.

“The case falls under the category of the rarest of rare, hence the accused is awarded death sentence…he must be hanged by his neck till he is dead,” said Special Women’s court judge Vrushali Joshi pronouncing the verdict.

The prosecution demanded death for Sanap, saying that sympathy to him would send a wrong signal and neither the victim’s parents nor the society would feel that justice has been delivered.

On the other hand, pleading for mercy, the defense lawyers had argued that the convict had undergone reformation while in prison.

On October 27, the 29-year-old driver was convicted under IPC Section 302 (murder), Section 376 (rape) and Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) for raping and killing the 23-year-old techie, after the court agreed with the prosecution, which had examined 39 witnesses in the case.

Mumbai Police’s crime branch had arrested Sanap in early March last year about two months after the murder of the young techie, who was a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh and was employed as assistant system engineer with IT major TCS at its office in suburban Goregaon.

Investigators caught Sanap after an exhaustive scrutiny of 36 CCTV footages at the railway station and grilling of about 2,500 people. The victim went missing from Lokmanya Tilak terminus near Kurla after arriving by train from Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of January 5, 2014.

According to police, Sanap spotted her sitting alone at the railway station and offered to drop her off at Andheri on his two-wheeler. Subsequently, he took her to an isolated spot and strangled her when she resisted his attempt to rob her.

The decomposed body of the techie was found off the Eastern Express Highway in suburban Bhandup on January 16, 2014. Sanap, who worked as a porter here and then as a driver in Nashik, is a history-sheeter.

(Agencies)

I will eat beef, who are you to question, asks CM Siddaramaiah

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siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has joined the beef row contending that unnecessary issues are being raked under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I haven’t had beef. But I will eat. Who are you to question? Whatever is comfortable for me, I will eat.” he said referring to the BJP leaders’ objection to beef consumption while interacting with the media in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Admitting that the situation across the country had turned “insecure” with the kind of issues taking centre stage, Siddaramaiah said the focus of the Union government should be on the development of the nation.

(Agencies)

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