Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said Union Home Minister Amit Shah is spreading lies about the situation in West Bengal while turning a blind eye to the communal violence and attacks on women in BJP-ruled states.

The Centre is dispatching teams of NHRC and others to West Bengal following various incidents, but not to violence-affected Jahangirpuri in Delhi and UP where women are allegedly being attacked, Banerjee claimed.

“Mr Amit Shah, are you the home minister of West Bengal, or the home minister of the entire country? From your acts, it seems you are solely obsessed with West Bengal,” she said.

Mr Shah only wants to cause divorce between Bengali and Hindi speaking communities, between Hindus and Muslims. Please don’t play with fire” she added.

Shah is currently on a visit to West Bengal, reports said. 

Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra

New Delhi: The apex child rights body NCPCR has sought action against comedian Kunal Kamra for tweeting a “doctored” video of a boy singing a patriotic song in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The NCPCR also sought immediate removal of the video.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), in a letter to Twitter’s grievance officer, said a complaint was received by it regarding Kamra tweeting the “doctored” video of a minor singing a patriotic song to further his own political agendas.

“The Commission has taken cognizance of the complaint and is of the view that using minors for propagating political ideologies is a violation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Further, the Commission is apprehensive that using children for such promotional purposes is harmful and detrimental to their mental well-being,” it said.

Therefore, the Commission said, the video should be taken off the platform immediately and appropriate action should be taken against the official account of Kamra for posting such content.

Kamra had shared the purported video of Modi’s interaction in Germany with the child but he replaced the song that the boy sang — ‘Hey Janmabhoomi Bharat’ — with “Mehengayi daayan khaaye jaat hain”.

The father of the boy lashed out at Kamra, saying “keep the poor boy out of your filthy politics and try to work on your poor jokes.”

Reacting, Kamra said the video is in the public domain posted by a news organisation.

“The joke is not on your son, while you enjoy your son sing for his motherland to the most popular son, there are songs that he should listen to from people of his country also,” Kamra tweeted.

Kamra, in another tweet, said the NCPCR has sought action against him for posting a “meme”.

Priyanka Mohite

Mumbai: Priyanka Mohite from Satara in western Maharashtra has become the first Indian woman to scale five peaks above 8,000 metre after she climbed Mount Kanchenjunga on Thursday.

Priyanka (30), the recipient of Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award 2020, successfully completed her expedition to Mount Kanchenjunga (8,586 m), the third highest mountain on the planet, at 4.52 pm, her brother Akash Mohite told PTI.

In April 2021, she had scaled Mt Annapurna (8,091 m), the 10th highest mountain peak in the world and had become the first Indian woman climber to achieve the feat.

Priyanka has also climbed the world’s highest peak Mount Everest (8,849 m) in 2013, Mount Lhotse (8,516 m) in 2018, Mount Makalu (8,485 m) and Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) in 2016.

Passionate about mountaineering since childhood, Priyanka started to scale mountains in the Sahyadri range of Maharashtra as a teenager and in 2012 scaled Bandarpunch, a mountain massif of the Garhwal division of the Himalayas, in Uttarakhand.

In 2015 Priyanka scaled Mt. Menthosa which at 6443 metres is the second-highest peak in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

The Bengaluru-based climber is also the recipient of the Maharashtra Government’s Shiv Chhatrapati State award for adventure sports for 2017-2018.

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Thursday approved the project for construction of Anubhava Mantapa at a cost of Rs 532 crore.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Basavakalyan Development Board chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

“The state government has given its approval for construction of Anubhava Mantapa, which has been taken up by Basavakalyan Development Board, at a cost of Rs 532 cr. The Chief Minister instructed for completion of the works within three years,” the government said in an official release.

Anubhava Mantapa is a revolutionary forum formed by 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara. He had tried to eradicate social inequities and discriminations through Anubhava Mantapa.

The Anubhava Mantapa would be built in an apt form to reflect the social revolution brought about by Basaveshwara, the statement said adding, the Mantapa would have facilities to exhibit short films and pictures on the life and ideals of the social reformer and other visionary social thinkers of that era who propagated their thoughts through Vachana Sahitya’ (poetic saying).

Basavakalyan is an important religious site in Bidar district of northern Karnataka bordering Maharashtra, for the dominant Lingayat community, to which Chief Minister Bommai and his predecessor B S Yediyurappa belong.

The move comes a year ahead of the assembly elections in Karnataka.

PUNE: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday said it was party founder late Bal Thackeray who gave Maharashtra its first Brahmin chief minister in the form of Manohar Joshi.

Raut was referring to the statement made by Union minister Raosaheb Danve during a rally organised by the Brahmin community in Jalna on Tuesday night, wherein he said he wishes to see a Brahmin community member as the chief minister of Maharashtra.

“I read a statement of (BJP leader) Raosaheb Danve that he wants to see a Brahmin chief minister in Maharashtra. Why are you dividing the state into castes and classes? The state belongs to the bahujan samaj (masses)…the state belongs to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, to Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar and to Balasaheb Thackeray who united the Marathi manoos,” Raut said.

If you want a Brahmin CM, let the people of the state decide and it is only Shiv Sena that will decide who will become the state’s CM, he said.

“And who are you telling this to…it was Balasaheb who gave Maharashtra its first Brahmin CM in the form of Manohar Joshi (in 1995). When people asked why a Brahmin CM is there in a state like Maharashtra, he said caste is not important, the work is important, and loyalty is important,” the Sena MP said.

He added that the state even had a Muslim CM – barrister Abdul Rahman Antulay – who was accepted by Bal Thackeray.

“In fact, Antulay was the dearest CM of Balasaheb. When Shiv Sena was coming to the power, Balasaheb was once asked what kind of CM he wants. He had said he wanted CM like Antulay, who could take the decision instantly and who has a good command over the administration,” Raut said.

Without taking the name of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, who has demanded removal of loudspeakers from mosques, Raut said that politics is going on over the issue of loudspeakers and some old clips of Bal Thackeray expressing his views on loudspeakers atop mosques are being shared.

“Those people who back-stabbed him are now telling us about his thoughts and ideology,” he added.

Raut added that Bal Thackeray used to say in his speeches that the moment he gets the power in the state, he will stop namaz from being offered on roads.

“These people have forgotten that today namaz is not offered on roads in Mumbai and Maharashtra. After the Shiv Sena came to power, Balasaheb had called a meeting of Muslim clerics and told them about his promise given to the people of Mumbai and asked them to stop the practice (of offering namaz on roads),” he said.

The Sena MP added that the clerics agreed, but told him that in the absence of enough space inside the mosque, they have to offer the Friday namaz on roads.

“Balsaheb then asked the clerics what can he do to help them. The clerics sought an increase in the space of mosques. Balasaheb immediately summoned CM Manohar Joshi and Deputy CM Gopinath Munde and sought to know how space inside mosques can be increased,” Raut said.

“CM Joshi gave a solution that FSI of mosques needed to be increased. Balasaheb immediately asked him to increase the FSI and a decision was taken immediately. Due to this decision, the space inside mosques went up and practice of offering namaz on roads stopped,” he added.

ZAPORIZHZHIA: Russia on Thursday said Western aid to Kyiv had slowed its offensive in Ukraine but would not thwart its victory, as conflicting reports emerged about efforts to rescue civilians from a besieged steel plant in the devastated city of Mariupol.

“The United States, Britain, NATO as a whole hand over intelligence… to Ukraine’s armed forces on a permanent basis,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“Coupled with the flow of weapons that these countries are sending to Ukraine, these are all actions that do not contribute to the quick completion of the operation,” he told reporters.

The outside help, nevertheless, was “incapable of hindering the achievement” of the goals of Russia’s military operation, he insisted.

Peskov was responding to a New York Times article on Wednesday that said intelligence provided by the United States has helped the Ukrainian military target “many” of the approximately dozen Russian generals who have been killed so far in the war.

Since failing to take Kyiv early on in its invasion, which Moscow launched on February 24, Russia has focused its efforts on the east and south of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has tirelessly campaigned for help from allies, on Thursday launched a global crowdfunding platform to help Kyiv win the war and rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

‘One click’

“In one click, you can donate funds to protect our defenders, to save our civilians and to rebuild Ukraine,” Zelensky said in English in a video on his Twitter page, launching the United24 platform. “Every donation matters for victory.” 

Russian forces are on the verge of taking full control of the strategically important port of Mariupol, where Ukrainian troops holed up in the besieged Azovstal steelworks are making their land stand.

Hundreds of soldiers and civilians have been trapped in the factory’s Soviet-era underground tunnels in what has become the last pocket of resistance in the area. 

Russia was “trying to destroy” the remaining Ukrainian units at the sprawling complex, Kyiv’s army said in a statement. 

“With the support of aircraft, Russia resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” it said.

Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday announced a daytime ceasefire for three days at the steelworks to evacuate civilians from the plant, starting Thursday morning.

Peskov said on Thursday that humanitarian corridors to get civilians out of Azovstal “are functioning today”. 

But there was no confirmation of the evacuations by the Ukrainian side.

‘Bloody battles’

Some 344 people were already evacuated in a second rescue operation at the plant earlier this week and taken to the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia, Zelensky said on Wednesday.

Some 200 civilians are still believed to be stuck inside the huge plant, according to the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko.

Zelensky on Wednesday said Ukraine was “ready” to support a ceasefire, and that women and children were among those awaiting rescue. 

He also asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to help “save” wounded troops in Azovstal.

Capturing the southern port of Mariupol, battered by relentless Russian bombardment, would allow Russia to create a land bridge between separatist, pro-Russian regions in the east and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

A commander of the Azov battalion, leading the defence of Mariupol, said late Wednesday that Russian soldiers had entered the Azovstal plant and there were “ongoing, bloody battles.” 

“The situation is extremely difficult but despite this we continue to execute the order to hold the defence,” Azov commander Denys Prokopenko said in a video on Telegram.

Elsewhere, the governor of the Donbas region Pavlo Kyrylenko said at least 25 civilians were wounded in an overnight Russian strike on the city of Kramatorsk.

The Ukrainian army meanwhile said it had retaken control of “several settlements on the border of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions”.

As well as sending money and weapons to Ukraine, Kyiv’s Western allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia to punish it for the invasion.

Oil embargo 

The European Union on Wednesday proposed a gradual ban on Russian oil imports, in what would be the bloc’s toughest move yet over Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would “phase out Russian supply of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year”, a move that would still not touch its huge gas exports.

Hungary — whose populist leader Viktor Orban is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s few European partners — said it could not support the plan “in this form”, as it would “completely destroy” the security of its energy supply.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said EU countries blocking an oil embargo would be “complicit” in Russia’s crimes in Ukraine.

As May 9 approaches, the day when Russia marks the Soviet Union’s victory over the Nazis in World War II, Ukraine suspects that Russia is planning to hold a military parade in Mariupol.

EU chief Charles Michel meanwhile told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency that the bloc should confiscate and sell Russian assets it has seized and use the proceeds to rebuild Ukraine.

He is the first high-ranking EU official to propose the confiscation of oligarchs’ assets, his spokesman confirmed to AFP.

The suggestion echoes an idea already floated in the United States and comes as EU and US task forces hunt down and grab yachts, mansions, bank accounts, helicopters and artworks owned by Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the West.

Ukraine’s government in April estimated the cost of rebuilding after the war to be at least $600 billion (565 billion euros).

NEW DELHI:  India saw 4.7 million more Covid- 19 deaths by 2021-end, which is 10 times the official figures of half a million and almost a third of Covid deaths globally, according to estimates put out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday.

Excess mortality is calculated as the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would be expected in the absence of the pandemic based on data from earlier years. Excess mortality includes deaths associated with Covid- 19 directly or indirectly due to the pandemic’s impact on health systems and society. India saw the largest absolute excess mortality numbers as compared to any other country in the world.

The estimates put around 8,30,000 excess deaths in 2020 and 3.9 million in 2021 — most of them during the second wave. Men accounted for 57% of the estimated excess deaths. As many as 78% of the excess deaths were in the 60- plus age group. The health ministry strongly pushed back, saying “Despite India’s objection to the process, methodology, and outcome of this modelling exercise, WHO has released the excess mortality estimates without adequately addressing India’s concerns.”

India told the WHO that in view of the availability of authentic data published through Civil Registration System by the Registrar General of India, mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality data. Most of the excess deaths (84%) are concentrated in South-East Asia, Europe, and the Americas.