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Kerala government tells SC it favours entry of women of all age groups into Sabarimala temple

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sabrimala-temple

New Delhi: Kerala’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it favours the entry of women of all age groups into the Sabarimala temple, effectively changing the state’s position on the issue.

The Kerala government’s U-turn comes just months after it filed an additional affidavit in the Supreme Court in July, supporting the ban on women’s entry into the historic shrine.

“On being asked as to what is the stand of the state, senior advocate Gupta states that the state intends to place reliance on its original affidavit (2007) and not on additional affidavit…women of any age group should not be debarred from entry into the temple to worship the deity,” a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan said on Monday. The next hearing will take place on February 13 next year, the Supreme Court bench said.

The LDF in 2007 had been in favour of women’s entry into the temple, but the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) which took over from it took a contrary stance, citing temple tradition.

Senior advocate K K Venugopal, who represents the Travancore Devaswom Board (which manages the Sabarimala Temple) today told the bench that the state government couldn’t afford to alter its stand as per its convenience.

The Kerala government’s+ U-turn comes just days ahead of the start of the three-month-long ‘mandala pooja’ and ‘makaravilakku’ pilgrimage season at the Sabarimala temple on November 15.

Nearly four crore devotees throng the temple, dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, during the festival period.

The Supreme Court says may refer the issue to a constitution bench. The Supreme court on July 11 indicated that it may refer to a five-judge constitution bench the issue of the centuries-old practice of barring entry of women between 10 and 50 years of age in the Sabarimala temple.

The apex court observed that women are conferred rights under the Constitution and it would pass a detailed order in case the matter is referred to a five-judge constitution bench.

“A temple is a public religious place. You cannot refuse entry to a woman who comes there … It violates the rights of women. We understand the seriousness of issue. Every right needs to be balanced but every balancing has its own limitations…” the court remarked.

The apex court had earlier questioned the practice of barring entry of women to Sabarimala temple, saying it would test whether “faith and belief” could differentiate among persons of same denomination.

The management of the Sabarimala temple, located on a hilltop in the Western Ghats of Pathanamthitta district, had earlier told the court that the ban on entry of women aged between 10 and 50 years existed because they can’t maintain “purity” while menstruating.

(PTI)

Shiv Sena calls for Human Rights violation case against Karnataka police

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Shiv-Sena

Mumbai/Belagavi: The Shiv Sena today called for Human Rights violation case to be filed against the Karnataka police, for the “inhuman” treatment meted out to those taking part in a Black Day protest rally in Belagavi on Karnataka Rajyotsava Day on November 1.

“Karnataka police and political goons in the state have been terrorising Marathi people staying at the border. Like every other year, the inhuman treatment meted out to those observing Black Day by the police cannot just be condemned. A Human Rights violation case needs to be filed against the police,” the Sena said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana.

It said that Maharashtra government should take the lead in filing the case.

In a veiled dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Sena said that those vying for an Independent Balochistan do not see the 60-year struggle of the people living at the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

“Where is Anna Hazare now ? If he would have fasted for justice to the Marathi speaking people, he would have earned the respect of the martyred,” it said.

It questioned under which law is Karnataka police committing atrocities against those who want to be a part of Maharashtra.

Youths and activists of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), a regional outfit in Karnataka, were arrested for taking part in a Black Day protest rally in Belagavi on Karnataka Rajyotsava Day on November 1.

MES leaders have alleged their activists are being beaten and tortured by Karnataka Police. MES observes Black Day on November 1, which is celebrated across Karnataka as Kannada Rajyotsava Day, the day on which the state was formed.

The MES wants 814 villages, where the Marathi-speaking population is dominant, to be integrated with Maharashtra. In its report 50 years ago, the Centre-appointed Mahajan Commission (under former Chief Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan) had recommended that these villages remain in Karnataka.

Maharashtra Government has been fighting the case in the Supreme Court for nearly 12 years to get Belagavi and adjoining areas back from Karnataka.

(Agencies)

NDTV India moves SC against Modi govt’s one day ban order

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ndtv

New Delhi: NDTV India today moved the Supreme Court against the government’s order banning its telecast for a day on November 9 for its coverage of the Pathankot terror attack.

The petition challenges the Constitutional validity of the government order, the channel said in filing to the stock exchanges.

In the filing, NDTV said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had directed stopping of transmission or re- transmission of its Hindi news channel, NDTV India for a day from 00.01 hrs of November 9, 2016 till 00.01 hrs of November 10, 2016.

“We now update that NDTV Ltd and others have filed a writ petition before the Hon’ble Supreme Court challenging the said order, inter-alia, challenging the constitutional validity of the said order and the provisions of law pursuant to which the said order has purportedly been passed,” the company said.

Sources said a senior advocate is likely to mention the matter tomorrow, a day before the channel has been asked to keep away from broadcasting.

On its website, NDTV has mentioned that it has challenged the government’s one-day ban.

NDTV has refuted the allegations and pointed out that other channels and newspapers reported the same information.

The ban has been widely condemned by journalists and editors with all press councils drawing parallels to the Emergency of the 1970s when basic constitutional rights including the freedom of the press were blatantly violated, the channel said on its website.

(Agencies)

Chief information commissioner of Karnataka steps down

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Bengaluru: Karnataka’s chief information commissioner DN Narasimha Raju resigned, the first CIC to relinquish office before the end of his five-year tenure.

Raju sent his resignation to governor Vajubhai Vala on Thursday and the governor accepted it on Friday.

Sources said Raju may take up an important assignment in New Delhi. A 1984 batch IAS officer, he was considered close to CM Siddaramaiah; he was his principal secretary before retiring in April this year. He was appointed CIC in May.

(Agencies)

Ban on channels will lead to ‘second Emergency’ in country:DMK

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karunanidhi

Chennai: DMK on Saturday described the “violation of freedom of expression” the one—day ban on NDTV India over the Pathankot attack broadcast and said if such instances continue “it will lead to a second Emergency in the country“.

Party President M Karunanidhi also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to “guarantee” that the freedom of expression will not be affected in the BJP regime.

The 93-year-old leader said the latest action reminded him of the days of Emergency when his articles in party mouthpiece ‘Murasoli’ were “banned“.

“If the Central government continues with such activities, it will lead to a second Emergency and those black days will be etched in the minds of people,” he added.

“Therefore, the Prime Minister himself must intervene and come forward to give a guarantee that there will be no threat to the freedom of expression. Else, the accusation across the country that the BJP government at the Centre is implementing authoritarianism under the garb of democracy will be construed as true,” he said in a statement.

The decision of an inter-ministerial panel to take the leading Hindi news channel off air for a day over its reporting of the Pathankot terror attack has already come under severe criticism from media bodies and opposition parties such as Congress and AAP.

Karunanidhi said the move amounted to “violation of the freedom of expression.”

Referring to the One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue, the DMK chief took exception to the three-time detention of Congress Vice—President Rahul Gandhi over the suicide of an ex—serviceman on the matter.

He said expressing condolences and supporting a protest came under the purview of democratic rights and that “arresting (someone) is a violation of human rights“.

OROP was implemented during the UPA regime and was .“welcomed and supported” by all, Karunanidhi said, adding, the BJP government should remove anomalies and implement it without any hassles.

(PTI)

We are underdogs but up for India challenge: Cook

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alastair-cook

Mumbai: He has no qualms in conceding that England will be underdogs in the upcoming Test series against India but captain Alastair Cook feels that status itself will take a the pressure off his side and make it more competitive in the five-match rubber.

England, in spite of losing a Test against minnows Bangladesh inside three days before arriving here, will start the series from November 9 in Rajkot.

World No.1 India have not lost a home series since going down 1-2 in 2012 to the England led by the 31-year-old Cook.

“It’s a big challenge. Any time you play the No. 1 or the No. 2 ranked team in their backyard, who are very comfortable in their conditions, it’s a huge task for us. It’s a huge challenge to these guys who have not played a huge amount of cricket in the subcontinent as a group,” said Cook.

“What this side has done over the last couple of years is to exceed expectations in big series. We have played really good cricket in big series. Last year we went to South Africa and won away from home when they were No. 1.

“These are different conditions, but being underdogs takes a lot of pressure off us,” said the Lancashire player who has a superb record against India.

“We have got some big selection calls to make but the process has started like always when you know two games (in Bangladesh) have happened,” said Cook, who has scored four centuries and averages over 60 in eight Tests on Indian soil and 54 in 20 Tests overall.

Saying the team has regrouped well after its humiliating loss to Bangladesh in the second Test at Dhaka late last month, Cook recalled what he had said at a media conference four years ago after his side had lost the series opener in Ahmedabad by a big margin.

“I remember saying in the press conference after the first Test when talk was India will win 4-0 that we might turn around and win 3-1. Anything is possible.

“Whatever challenge we have thrown up to these guys in big games someone has stood up and played good cricket that’s the challenge we face here where we are the underdogs,” said the stylish left-handed opener, whose highest Test score of 294 was notched against India.

Gujarat Collaborates With NFDC’s Film Bazaar

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After a successful collaboration with the NFDC Film Bazaar in 2015, Gujarat Tourism returns as a State Partner this year to aggressively promote the state as a film friendly destination.

The state of Gujarat, which bagged 3 awards in Tourism and the “Most Film Friendly State”, has been following an aggressive tourism policy approach in the area of developing & promoting tourism. Gujarat state Tourism participated in the Film Bazaar for the first time in 2012 and took up a Film Office in 2015 to promote Gujarat as filming destination. Gujarat awarded the National Award for being the “Most Film Friendly State” in 2015, which has been introduced as a new category under the National Film Awards & executed by the FFO.

The award was conferred to the State of Gujarat, for its effort in the direction of ease of doing business in respect of facilitation of shooting films in the state. Film Bazaar facilitated Gujarat in setting up one – on – one meetings with some of the prominent Bollywood filmmakers including, Rajkumar Hirani, Anurag Kashyap, Kabir Khan, Anurag Basu, Vikas Bahl, Rohan Sippy, & Karan Malhotra who gave constructive feedback to the state tourism department.

Battle for Mosul: Iraqi forces push into city’s east

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Iraqi forces say they recaptured six districts from ISIL in city’s east and open new front as fighting spikes.

Iraqi civilians have had to make the dangerous journey fleeing the violence on foot [Reuters]

Iraqi civilians have had to make the dangerous journey fleeing the violence on foot [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Iraqi special forces stepped up attacks against ISIL in Mosul on Friday, seeking to expand the army’s foothold in the east of the city after the leader of the armed group told his men there could be no retreat.

In a military statement, troops from the Counter Terrorism Service said that they had taken over the six neighbourhoods of Malayeen, Samah, Khadra, Karkukli, Quds and Karama. They raised the Iraqi flag over buildings in those neighbourhoods, and inflicted heavy losses on the fighters with ISIL, or ISIS, the statement said.

Columns of armored vehicles wound through open desert on Friday to open a new front, pushing through dirt berms, drawing heavy fire and calling in airstrikes to enter the middle-class neighbourhoods of Tahrir and Zahara – an area once named after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi television footage from the east of the city showed heavy plumes of grey smoke rising into the sky.

Iraqi regular troops and special forces, Shia militias, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and other groups backed by US-led air raids launched a campaign two weeks ago to retake Mosul, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group’s last major urban bastion in Iraq.

Winning it back would crush the Iraqi half of a crossborder caliphate declared by ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque two years ago.

ISIL also holds large parts of neighbouring Syria, but Mosul is by far the largest city under its control in either country, and the campaign to retake it is the most complex in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein and unleashed a decade of turmoil.

Baghdadi: No retreat from total war

In a rare audio message released on Thursday, Baghdadi – whose whereabouts are unknown – said there could be no retreat in a “total war” against the forces arrayed against ISIL, telling fighters they must stay loyal to their commanders.

The city is still home to nearly 1.5 million people, who risk being caught up in brutal urban warfare. The United Nations has warned of a potential humanitarian crisis and a refugee exodus, although Iraqi officials say ISIL fighters are holding the civilian population as human shields.

“A lot of people here are telling us that they’re happy that they’re no longer under ISIL, that their lives were so difficult. But some are very frustrated, particularly one man who was waiting for a tent and sleeping out in the open. He said ‘life for us has been stopped’,” said Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from a campsite for internally displaced people in Khazir, north of Mosul.

Mosul residents, speaking to the Reuters news agency by telephone, said ISIL fighters were deploying artillery and rocket launchers inside and near residential areas.

Some were hidden in trees near the Wahda district in the south, while others were deployed on the rooftops of houses taken over by the militants in the Ghizlani district close to Mosul’s airport, they said.

“We saw [ISIL] fighters installing a heavy anti-aircraft machinegun alongside a rocket launchpad, and mortars as well,” one Mosul resident said.

Shia militias attacked

People in the southern and eastern neighbourhoods reported on Thursday night that barrages of artillery shells and rockets being launched from their districts towards the advancing troops had shaken their houses.

As well as the ISIL resistance in Mosul itself, the fighters have launched a series of diversionary attacks across the country since the start of the offensive.

In the town of Shirqat, about 100km south of Mosul, fighters stormed a mosque and several houses early on Friday, a local police officer said, killing seven soldiers and fighters from the Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces, or Hashid Shaabi.

The fighters crossed from the eastern side of the Tigris river into the town at 3am, taking over al-Baaja mosque and spreading out into alleyways. Security forces declared a curfew and said reinforcements from the Popular Mobilisation Forces were being sent to the town.

Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have closed in on it for two weeks from the north, from the eastern Nineveh plains and up the Tigris from the south.

The Popular Mobilisation Forces of mainly Shia militia groups joined the campaign on Saturday, launching an offensive to cut off any supply or escape to the west.

A spokesman said that they had made progress but had not completely closed off the western flank, and their fighters had seen from a distance some cars leaving Mosul on Thursday.

Ban on NDTV: Country heading towards dictatorship, says Lalu Prasad

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lalu prasad yadav

Lucknow: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Saturday hit out at the BJP-led central government for the one-day ban handed over to NDTV India, terming it an attack on democracy and said the country is “heading towards dictatorship”.

“Today you have seen what has happened to NDTV, they (government) said that you (channel) showed the Pathankot terror attack,” Lalu said, addressing the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Samajwadi Party here.
 
“Ban on NDTV is an attack on democracy. This country is heading towards dictatorship,” he stressed.

Lalu also said that since the NDTV channel “exposes certain people”, it has been targeted by the government.

The RJD leader’s remarks came after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting directed the Hindi news channel to go off air from the midnight of November 8 to midnight of November 9 for allegedly breaching broadcast norms in its coverage of the January 2 terror attack on the IAF base in Pathankot.

The RJD chief also asserted that there is no rift in the Samajwadi Party.

“There is no rift in the Samajwadi Party, and we gave proof by bringing Akhilesh Babu (Yadav) and Shivpal Babu (Singh Yadav) together on stage,” he said. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal, the SP state unit chief, are not on amicable terms.

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lalu said, “We have seen the condition of Jammu and Kashmir for the last 100 days.”

“Someone had told us about their ’56-inch chest’, but look what is happening at the (India-Pakistan) border now?” he said.

He also said that cross-border surgical strikes were first carried by the Indian Armed forces when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Defence Minister.

“They are claiming that they had carried out surgical strikes across the border, but they must know that the surgical strikes were first carried out by the forces when Mulayamji was the Defence Minister,” Lalu said.

He also said that people were feeling betrayed for voting the BJP to power. Lalu said that once again the BJP was trying to fan communal passions, and was starting to rake up the Ram temple issue as state assembly polls had neared.

“Whenever elections come in Uttar Pradesh they remember Ram Mandir. And as elections are again due in the state, they are remembering Ram Temple to do politics over it,” he added.

Reminding the BJP of having stopped its Rath Yatra in Bihar in 1990, Lalu said, “We have stopped their rath in Patna, Samastipur. And again we will unitedly stop them.”

Lalu Prasad had stopped BJP leader L.K. Advani’s “Rath Yatra” in Samastipur in Bihar when he was traversing across India to gather momentum to construct a temple in Ayodhya.

The former Bihar Chief Minister said that time had come for all secular parties to come together and oppose the BJP.

Lalu Prasad later called Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav near him and asked him to take his ‘Rath Yatra’ forward and ensure victory for his party. He also asked him to respect his elders and take their blessings.

(PTI)

Pxercise restraint while reporting on Tipu Jayanti, RSS worker muder: Police Commissioner

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TIPU

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Police Commissioner has advised television channels to exercise “restraint” and “sensitivity” while reporting on events like sensational murder of RSS activists in the city and celebration of the controversial Tipu Jayanti.

Issuing the advisory by exercising powers as an authorised Officer under Section 2(a) (iii) and in terms of Section 19 of the “Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, city police Chief N S Megharikh has said violating the advisory may lead to prosecution of offenders as per provisions of the Act.

The advisory said it has come to the notice that in the wake of recent murder of RSS activist Rudresh and subsequent arrest of the accused of this case belonging to Popular Front of India and celebration of Tipu Jayanti on November 10, some TV channels had been telecasting provocative and inciting news reports/programmes.

“These provocative news reports and programmes may cause disaffection amongst the members of public, igniting communal tensions resulting in serious law and order situation in the State of Karnataka specifically in Bengaluru city,” it said.

The advisory said news, views or comments relating to the murder case and celebration of Tipu Jayanti should be telecast only after proper verification of facts and presented with due caution and restraint in manner which is in the public interest to maintain harmony 35-year-old RSS worker Rudresh was hacked to death by two motorcycle-borne men on Kamaraja Road on October 16 when he was with his friends after attending a Sangh event. Five persons, including the PFI Bengaluru president, have been arrested in connection with the case.

Also, the Congress governments decision to observe the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan, 18th century ruler of erstwhile Mysore kingdom has stirred a major row, with opinion sharply divided among intellectuals, academia and various communities and organisations, who have differing views on his reign.

The event which had led to clashes in Kodagu district last year, had even reached the High Court.

The advisory. signed by Megharikh, has asked all TV channels to follow provisions of the Programme Code and Advertising Code “scrupulously” and exercise “restraint” and “sensitivity” while reporting such news and “refrain” from telecasting any material which could ignite passions and create law and order problem in Bengaluru.

The advisory issued in public interest states that care may also be exercised in the choice of words.

(Agencies)

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