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Kashmiri Pandits protest to commemorate 25 years of their exile

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Kashmiri Pandits

Srinagar: A group of Kashmiri Pandits Monday staged a protest in Srinagar to commemorate the 25 years of their migration from Kashmir.

The protesting group urged the regional and federal governments to issue a white paper roadmapping their return to the Kashmir valley.

“We are holding a bigger protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to highlight our problems. Since we belong to Kashmir which is our homeland, we decided to hold a symbolic protest here also,” Vinod Pandit said.

The chairman of the all parties migrant coordination committee (APMCC), told reporters: “It was on this day in 1990 that a forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits began.”

Thousands of Pandits left Kashmir in 1990 when infamous Jagmoham Malhotra was sent by New Delhi as the governor of the region to contain the eruption of armed insurgency against India’s rule.

(With inputs from IANS)

Did RAW's Colombo chief play a role in Mahinda Rajapaksa's poll defeat?

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Photo: AP

Photo: AP

Colombo/ New Delhi: Sri Lanka expelled the Colombo station chief of RAW in the run up to this month’s presidential election, political and intelligence sources said, accusing him of helping the opposition oust the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman denied any expulsion and said that transfers were routine decisions. Rajapaksa, voted out of office in the Jan 8 election, told Reuters he did not know all the facts while the new government in Colombo has said it is aware of the reports but cannot confirm them.

But several sources in both Colombo and New Delhi said India was asked to recall the agent in December for helping gather support for joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena after persuading him to ditch Rajapaksa’s cabinet.

A sketchy report in Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times newspaper on December 28 said that “links with the common opposition” had cost India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) station chief his job in Colombo.

India has often been involved in the internal politics of the small island nation off its southern coast — it sent troops there in 1987 in a botched effort to broker peace between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Rajapaksa’s unexpected defeat after two terms in office coincided with growing concern in India that it was losing influence in Sri Lanka because of the former president’s tilt toward regional rival China.

The concern turned to alarm late last year when Rajapaksa allowed two Chinese submarines to dock in Sri Lanka without warning New Delhi as he should have under a standing agreement, the sources said.

Sirisena, the new president, has said he will visit New Delhi on his first foreign trip next month and has said India is the “first, main concern” of his foreign policy.

An Indian official said the RAW agent was recalled after complaints that he had worked with Sri Lanka’s usually fractious opposition parties to agree on a joint contender for the election. Then, he was accused of facilitating meetings to encourage several lawmakers, among them Sirisena, to defect from Rajapaksa’s party, the official said.

The agent was accused of playing a role in convincing the main leader of the opposition and former prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe not to contest against Rajapaksa in the election and stand aside for someone who could be sure of winning, said the officer and a Sri Lankan lawmaker who also maintains close contacts with India.

The agent was also in touch with former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was a key player in convincing Sirisena to stand, said the officer and the lawmaker, who also confirmed that the agent had been asked to leave.

“They actively were involved, talking to Ranil, getting those things organized, talking to Chandrika,” the lawmaker told Reuters.

Wickremasinghe, who is now prime minister again in Sirisena’s government, met “two or three times” with the man identified as the agent in the months before the vote, as well as with the Indian high commissioner, or ambassador, the prime minister’s spokesman said.

“They discussed the current political situation,” Wickremasinghe’s spokesman said, but he denied that the Indians had advised him. “He does not know if he advised other politicians.”

It was not clear if Wickremasinghe was aware at the time that he was meeting with an intelligence official. India’s RAW officers are usually given diplomatic posts when assigned to foreign missions.

Former president Kumaratunga did not respond to requests for comment.

Rajapaksa declined to confirm the involvement of India in the campaign against him.

“I don’t know, I won’t suspect anybody until I get my real facts,” he said at his party headquarters.

“There are certain things you don’t talk about,” a close associate of the Rajapaksa family said, but added that “there were clear signs of a deep campaign by foreign elements.”

Sri Lanka’s then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa — a brother of the former president — complained about the agent’s activities to Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in November when Doval was visiting the island nation for a defence seminar, the Indian official said.

Another Indian official, who monitors the region for security threats, said New Delhi had been watching Beijing’s growing influence and heavy investments in Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa, who visited China seven times since becoming president in 2005.

But India was stunned and angry last year when the Chinese submarines docked in Sri Lanka on two separate occasions, a step New Delhi saw as part of Beijing’s “string of pearls” strategy to secure a foothold in South Asia and maritime access through the Indian Ocean.

“The turning point in the relationship was the submarines. There was real anger,” the Indian security official said.

Indian military officials said that New Delhi reminded Sri Lanka it was obliged to inform its neighbours about such port calls under a maritime pact, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with Rajapaksa at a meeting in New York.

In a possible sign of shifting allegiances, India’s top envoy in Colombo, high commissioner YK Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China’s ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.

(Reuters)

3 burned to death in Hindu-Muslim clash in Muzaffarpur, Bihar

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Representational image: Photo: Rahi Gaikwad, The Hindu

Representational image: Photo: Rahi Gaikwad, The Hindu

Patna: At least three Muslim villagers were burned to death Sunday when their thatched huts were set on fire during a clash between Hindu and Muslim groups in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, a government official said.

Atul Prasad, a Bihar state administrator, said the violence erupted after the body of a young Hindu boy was found in Sarayian village more than a week after he went missing.

Prasad said Hindu fishermen blamed Muslims for killing the boy who was friendly with a Muslim girl from the village, 105 kilometers (65 miles) north of Patna, the capital of Bihar state.

The charred bodies of three Muslims were found in the burned huts in the poor community, he said.

Police arrested eight Hindu men, and Prasad said the situation remains tense but under control in the village.

As many as 400 policemen, including 40 police officers, were camping in the village to monitor the law and order situation which was tense, but under control, the SSP said. Kumar had gone missing from the village on January 9.

(With inputs from AP)

Growing religious 'intolerance' has to be 'nipped in the bud', observes Delhi High Court

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Bajrang Dal

New Delhi: Growing instances of religious “intolerance” have to be “nipped in the bud” as the country can “ill-afford” that they spread like “wild fire”, Delhi High Court has observed.

Dismissing a PIL against Aamir Khan’s block buster ‘PK’, a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice RS Endlaw said “the present petition is an instance of a growing tendency in the country of intolerance and which tendency has to be nipped in the bud and unless done so, is likely to spread like wild fire and which the country can ill-afford.” The bench also observed that just as the Constitution protected the right of an artist to portray social reality in all its forms, seeing a film was a conscious choice of the spectator and those offended by the content or the theme of a particular film were free to avoid watching it.

The High Court said the film, which broke the box office records with over Rs 600 crore global business, illustrated the social evil prevalent and cannot be considered as contemptuous of the essential tenets and beliefs of Hindu religion or as promoting communal attitude.

“We are unable to hold the film or any sequence thereof being contemptuous of the essential tenets and beliefs of Hindu religion or as promoting communal attitude. The said sequences have to be necessarily shown to illustrate the social evil prevalent,” it further said in a recent order.

The bench dismissed the PIL seeking directions to delete “objectionable” scenes from ‘PK’ claiming that the contents of the film have hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

“The petitioner is assuming that the faith and belief of persons in their religion, whether it be Hindu or any other, is so frail as to be shaken or be scandalized by the depictions in the film to which objection is taken. The said assumption in our view is totally mistaken.

“The sequences of the film to which objection is taken are in the nature of a satire bordering on parody on certain Hindu customs and practices. The said sequences in the film can thus also be seen as socially beneficial, helping a better understanding of the religion,” the court said.

The bench further said that “in a diverse country as ours, citizens and residents profess nearly all religions, people are used to a high level tolerance in the matters of religion”.

“The Constitution protects the right of the artist to portray social reality in all its forms. Some of that portrayal may take the form of questioning values and mores that are prevalent in society,” it said.

The High Court also said that watching a film is a conscious choice of the spectator and those offended by the content or the theme of a particular film are free to avoid watching the film.

The High Court was hearing a PIL filed by a local priest Ajay Gautam seeking directions to delete “objectionable” scenes from the movie ‘PK’ claiming that the contents of the film have hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

(PTI)

Protect novelist Murugan's freedom of expression: Sahmat

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Perumal Murugan

New Delhi: The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) Saturday called upon the Tamil Nadu government to protect novelist Perumal Murugan’s constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression from extra-constitutional cultural censors.

Tamil novelist Murugan Jan 13 announced his decision to give up writing, saying there will be continuing controversy over his novels and short stories fanned by various outfits and individuals.

Thanking those who stood in his support in connection with the controversy surrounding his novel “Madhorubhagan”, he said the issue was not going to end with this.

“We call upon the state government of Tamil Nadu to protect the writer, his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression and his creative integrity from such extra-constitutional cultural censors,” Sahmat said in a statement.

“We call upon artists, writers, intellectuals, readers and the concerned public at large to rise to the defence of democracy imperiled by this unwarranted and vile abrogation of an author’s right to write,” it said, adding that it was a “shocking and serious blow to the freedom of expression”.

According to Delhi-based Sahmat, Murugan was bullied, blackmailed and harassed by “anonymous vested religious elements led by the Hindutva right, in collusion with the police and the state administration of Tamil Nadu, into helpless submission – so much so that he has, in pain and frustration, announced that he is giving up writing altogether”.

It said “Madhorubagan” was published in 2010 in Tamil and an English translation was published in 2013 under the title “One Part Woman”.

“As if on cue to an orchestrated campaign initiated by the RSS and the BJP in the state, the work has, over the last few weeks, suddenly come under attack for allegedly being offensive to the local dominant caste of Tiruchengode (near Erode in Tamil Nadu), where the story is set,” it said.

Various organisations, caste outfits in Murugan’s home town Thiruchengodu, 410 km from Chennai, protested against the novel, whose story revolves around the problems faced by a childless peasant couple and the woman’s attempt to get pregnant following a tradition of consensual sex with a stranger.

(IANS)

More Censor Board members resign in support of chief Leela Samson

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Leela_Samson

New Delhi: Nine other members of the Censor Board have reportedly quit their posts following the resignation of the Board’s chief, Leela Samson.

One of the board members, Ira Bhaskar, had earlier on Friday revealed her plan to resign over the state of affairs in the running of the statutory body.

Bhaskar, a professor of cinema studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, sent her resignation Friday night. “I have decided to resign. My resignation has to do with Leelaji’s decision to step down. We were working together and as a group. We had discussed about resigning earlier but we held on as she attempted to help the ministry in running the board.

“But things were clearly not in order. There was no meeting in the past one year though it was mandatory for board members to meet every three months. The last meeting was in January 2014. The censor board CEO said there were no funds to hold the meetings so the board is clearly not required,” Bhaskar told PTI on Friday.

Samson, who headed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), a statutory body under the information and broadcasting ministry, since 2011, resigned amid controversy surrounding the overnight clearance of controversial film “Messenger of God” featuring Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The censor board had referred the issue of clearance to “Messenger of God” to FCAT. The film, which was slated to hit the screens on Friday, is now releasing on Sunday.

Asked why she decided to quit, Samson did not specifically refer to the reported clearance to the film but cited alleged “interference, coercion and corruption of panel members and officers of the organisation who are appointed by the ministry.”

Petrol price cut by Rs 2.42/litre, diesel by Rs 2.25

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petrol-price-oil

New Delhi: Petrol price was on Friday cut by Rs 2.42 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.25 a litre after an excise duty hike limited the benefit of global crude prices slumping to six-year low.

The reduction would have been almost double but for the government also raising excise duty by Rs 2 per litre on both petrol and diesel on Friday.

This is the ninth straight reduction in petrol prices since August, and fifth in diesel since October.

New rates will be effective midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, announced here.

In Delhi, petrol will cost Rs 58.91 a litre, the lowest in 44 months, as compared to Rs 61.33 a litre now. Similarly, diesel will cost Rs 48.26 a litre in Delhi, the lowest since April 2013, as against Rs 50.51 currently.

This is the fourth hike in excise duty since November and cumulatively customers have been denied the benefit of Rs 7.75 per litre reduction in petrol and Rs 6.50 a litre cut in diesel rates that was warranted due to the slump in oil price to USD 46 per barrel.

A Finance Ministry notification said the excise duty on unbranded petrol is being hiked to Rs 8.95 per litre and that on unbranded diesel to Rs 7.96 per litre.

The four excise duty hikes will result in about Rs 20,000 crore in additional revenue this fiscal and will help the government meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of the GDP.

Petrol and diesel prices were last cut on December 16 by Rs 2 per litre each.

Including Friday’s reduction, petrol price have been cut by Rs 14.69 per litre on a cumulative basis since August, while diesel rates in five downward revisions have been slashed by a total of Rs 10.71 a litre.

Crude oil price in June was at USD 115 per barrel.

Book on Sonia Gandhi Finally Out In India

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sonia_saree

New Delhi: A ‘dramatised biography’ of Sonia Gandhi, which could not be published in 2010 following protests from the party’s cadre, is all set to hit the stands soon. According to a report on The Indian Express, the publisher, Roli Books, has said that they though there was no official ban on the book, a slew of protests made the atmosphere in the country unfavourable for publishing the book in India.

Interestingly enough, it seems that Sonia Gandhi‘s lawyers have themselves cleared Roli to publish the biography now.

“After the change of government in May 2014, we wrote to them (Gandhi’s lawyers), asking them if they wanted to publish it now, and they gave us their consent,” Pramod Kapoor, publisher, Roli Books told The Indian Express.

PTI reports that The Red Sari, written by Javier Moro, was ready in 2008. “Originally published in Spanish in 2008, The Red Sari, written by author Javier Moro, had created a controversy when Congress spokesperson and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said it contained ‘untruths, half-truths, falsehoods and defamatory statements’ and threatened legal action.”

The book, first released in Spain seven years ago, was not available in India till now as no publisher invested in its English translation, apparently reluctant to take on the Congress, which was in power for 10 years till May last year. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi had threatened a lawsuit against the author.

Mr Moro, who had no access to the Gandhi family, writes that Rajiv Gandhi’s announcement that he would be prime minister was like a “death sentence” for Sonia Gandhi.

“Rajiv took her hands in his as he continued whispering the reasons that were forcing him to accept the post. ‘Oh no! Oh my God, no!’ Sonia sobbed in a flood of tears…Her whole body contracted as if she had received an electric shock, and from the depths of her soul, a harsh, guttural cry arose.”

“Seven years after the conversation she had had with Rajiv in the hospital where Indira lay dying, in which she begged him not to accept the post that his mother had left vacant, her grim fear was finally realized,” the author writes.

After Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991, the book says, “Priyanka ran to her mother’s room and searched feverishly for her inhaler and antihistamines. When she came back into the living room, she saw Sonia sitting on an armchair with her eyes almost turned up, her mouth open and her head thrown back, trying to get air. She thought she was dying.”

Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi joins BJP

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Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi (right) meets BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday. Photo: ANI

Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi (right) meets BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday.

New Delhi: Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi Friday joined the BJP “for the rest of my life,” but said she is not keen on contesting the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

“After being defeated in last assembly elections and subsequently in general elections, I don’t want to fight this election. However, I will follow the party’s instructions, but I want my party to respect my wish,” said Ilmi, a long-time associate of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

She admitted she had had differences with the BJP and the Congress in the past.

“But in the last six months I have realised that the prime minister is doing a good job. The way he invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s name for the Swacch Bharat (Clean India) campaign is very impressive,” she said.

Ilmi had contested — and narrowly lost — the December 2013 assembly elections on AAP ticket.

Meanwhile, on the issue of alleged conversions carried out recently by some groups, Ilmi said she does not support “forced” conversions and that the BJP has nothing to do with the matter.

Ilmi joined the BJP a day after former Team Anna member and ex-Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi entered the ranks of the saffron outfit with the BJP saying that she will contest the February 7 assembly polls.

“Tension as Ram Rahim's followers gather for MSG in Gurgaon”

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Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

Gurgaon: Thousands of fans of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Friday gathered at Leisure Valley Ground here to watch the screening of MSG amid protests by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) workers.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is currently in Gurgaon and is the leading man of the film, will be present during the screening. The district administration has made special arrangements for regulating traffic movement in and around the venue.

Meanwhile, INLD workers and the party’s student wing Indian National Student Organisation (INSO) activists were detained by police while they were heading towards Leisure Valley Ground at Sector 29 here where MSG was scheduled for screening.

The protesters were holding black flags and shouting slogans.

“About 60 workers of INLD and INSO have been detained by Gurgaon Police in order to maintain law & order in the city and to avert clashes with the supporters of Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa who are collecting in large numbers at Leisure Valley Ground in Sector 29 Gurgaon for the planned premiere show of the movie “MSG – The Messenger of God”,” Police commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk’s office told reporters.

In all, nearly 500 INLD workers were detained by police in various police stations.

Later, 38 workers, including the party’s vice president Anantram Tanwar and others were booked at Sadar Police station. The rest of the workers were let off.

(IANS)

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