Archives for 2023

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Friday detained 24 students from the Delhi University’s Arts Faculty for planning to screen the controversial BBC documentary on the 2002 Godhra riots, a senior police official said.

The action comes days after a similar ruckus at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia over the documentary’s screening.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said, “Around 4 pm, some 20 people came outside the Arts Faculty gate to screen the banned BBC documentary. As it can cause disturbance of peace and tranquility in the area, they were asked to disperse from there. When they did not, they were peacefully detained. A total of 24 people were detained

Earlier in the day, the varsity authorities wrote to Delhi Police about the proposed screening.

Delhi University Proctor Rajni Abbi said they would not allow the screening and stressed that the students’ outfits had not sought the administration’s permission.

There was heavy police deployment at the north campus after students’ outfits gave a call to screen the documentary.

The police have also banned large gatherings on the north campus. When asked, another official said Section 144 was imposed on the campus in December.

“Section 144 was imposed in December till February 28 to prevent any law and order problems at the university,” the official said.

The Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union has announced a screening of the documentary at 4 pm on the north campus while the Bhim Army Students’ Federation said it would hold a screening outside the varsity’s Arts Faculty at 5 pm.

Delhi Police personnel entered the Ambedkar University campus to stop Students’ Federation of India (SFI) activists from screening the controversial documentary, several students alleged, even as the outfit made alternative arrangements to watch it on phones and laptops.

Police officials, however, said they were visiting all college and university campuses in the district to ensure peace and tranquility in the area.

The Left-affiliated SFI alleged that the screening could not be held as the administration of the government-run varsity disconnected the power supply but a QR code with a link to the film was shared with students so that they could watch it on their personal devices.

Jamia Millia Islamia became the centre of a kerfuffle on Wednesday after the SFI’s plans to organise a screening of the documentary were thwarted by the varsity and the police.

Jawaharlal Nehru University also witnessed a ruckus and protests over the screening on Tuesday.

BENGALURU: globally in recent weeks, reports suggest that 60,000-80,000 Indian IT professionals in the US have lost their jobs. A majority of them are said to be on H-1B and L1 visas, who will have to find another job within 60 days or pack up. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet together have laid off 51,000 employees.

Till now, 312,600 employees have lost jobs, according to Layoffs.fyi, which compiles data from public reports and tracks layoffs. In 2023 alone, 174 tech companies laid off 56,570 employees. Many affected Indians have shared their stories on various social media platforms.

Monambigha M, one of the impacted Google employees, said in a LinkedIn post that she must spring back into action as being an immigrant on an H-1B visa does not give her the flexibility to take time off. She joined Google only 10 months ago. After working with Google for three years and six months, Kunal Kumar Gupta received the termination mail.

“I am immediately open to work and would need immediate assistance to find a role as I am on an H-1B visa which gives me 60 days to find a job,” Gupta said. Meanwhile, Swedish music streaming firm Spotify on Monday announced that it is reducing its employee base by 6%, or about 600 employees. In a note to employees, CEO Daniel Ek said, “While we have made great progress in improving speed in the last few years, we haven’t focused as much on improving efficiency… And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance. So, in an effort to drive more efficiency, control costs… I have decided to restructure our organisation.”

According to HR experts, it is not difficult for those who lost jobs in the US to find one in India. Vijay Sivaram, CEO of Quess IT Staffing, expects hiring intent for IT professionals across tech and non-tech companies to revert to its pre-pandemic levels. “Hot skills such as full stack engineers, data analysts and scientists, DevOps specialists, and cloud engineers will be sought after,” he said.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tension prevailed in Thiruvananthapuram city on Tuesday after BJP-Yuva Morcha workers attempted to disrupt the screening of BBC documentary Modi: The India Question organised by the DYFI-SFI and the Youth Congress activists. The screenings were held in four places in the city.

While the screenings organised by the SFI units in the Government Law College and the University College ended without any issues, the screenings on the Manaveeyam road and at Poojappura, organised by the Youth Congress and the DYFI, respectively, were met with protests by the BJP-Yuva Morcha workers.

At Poojapura, the police had to resort to water cannons after the BJP workers tried to remove the barricades erected by the police to prevent them from reaching the venue.

A similar protest was witnessed on the Manaveeyam road, where the Youth Congress screened the documentary.

The police had anticipated protests from the right-wing outfits and were ready to thwart any attempt from their side to sabotage the programme.

When the BJP workers tried to rush to the venue, the Museum police cornered 11 agitators and whisked them away. They were later charged with unlawful assembly.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Veteran Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony’s son, Anil, on Wednesday resigned from all his posts in the party following widespread criticism of his tweet against the controversial BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Anil Antony announced his resignation via a tweet in which he said that he was getting “intolerant calls” to retract his tweet against the documentary and the “wall of hate/abuses” on Facebook over the same issue have prompted him to take the decision

In a portion of the redacted resignation letter, he posted on his Twitter handle, Anil said, “Considering the events from yesterday, I believe it would be appropriate for me to leave all my roles in the Congress — as the Convener of KPCC Digital Media, and as the National Co-coordinator of AICC Social Media and Digital Communications Cell.”

Anil had on Tuesday tweeted that despite large differences with the BJP, those who support and place the views of the British broadcaster and of former UK foreign secretary Jack Straw, the “brain behind the Iraq war” (involving the US-led coalition in 2003) over Indian institutions are setting a dangerous precedence.

NEW DELHI:  The buzz around the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has sent waves across India’s borders too. Nepal is in the process of sending two large rocks from the banks of the Gandaki river to Ayodhya to be used in making idols of Ram and Sita.

Former deputy prime minister of Nepal, Bimalendra Nidhi said that the exchange of Himalayan stones will strengthen religious ties between Nepal and India. It was his idea that the people of Janakpur also gift a metallic shiv dhanush to be displayed in the temple.

Legend has it that Sita was the daughter of King Janak from Nepal. Every year, Janakpur not just celebrates the birth of Lord Ram, and the wedding anniversary of Ram and Sita. “We have a bond with Ayodhya that goes back centuries.

It is for the same reason that we put a proposal of sending these shilas and also a bow, which we will make subsequently. The two shilas weigh about 18 tonnes and 12 tonnes each. We have done a shilapujan of these stones and will be bringing them to Ayodhya on February 1,” Nidhi told this newspaper. Nidhi, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress, has been in touch with the authorities in India for over two years now to take this initiative forward. 

In 2020, during the wedding anniversary celebrations of  Ram and Sita in Janakpur, the then Indian ambassador (Manjeev Puri) was also invited. That’s when we first spoke about strengthening the cultural ties between the two nations and proposed sending the shiv dhanush that was symbolic of the wedding. Subsequently we proposed sending the rocks to the Ram temple,” he said.

Nidhi said he met the head mahant of Ram Janmabhoomi trust, Champat Rai, and Nripendra Misra, who heads the nirvan samiti of the temple trust, last year.  “In December 2022, we got clearance from Nepal government to send the two shilas and a bow to India.

On January 15, we did the shilapujan. These two shilas will first be sent to Janakpur for public viewing. We expect them to reach Ayodhya on February 1,” Nidhi said, revealing that they will make an ashtadhatu (eight-metal) bow for the temple in Ayodhya that would last at least a 1,000 years.

JAMMU: Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra as it resumed from the garrison town of Nagrota on a cold Tuesday morning.

Matondkar, a popular Bollywood stars of the 1990s, joined Gandhi shortly after the march started from near the army garrison around 8 am amid tight security, with Congress workers and supporters lined up on the road along the route to welcome them.

Matondkar (48) had resigned from the Congress in September 2019 after a short association of six months, and joined the Shiv Sena in 2020.

Dressed in a cream-coloured traditional Kashmir Pheran (loose gown) and beanie cap, Matondkar was interacting with Gandhi as they marched along.

Noted author Perumal Murugan and J&K Pradesh Congress committee president Vikar Rasool Wani, his predecessor G A Mir and former minister Abdul Hamid Karra also joined them alongside hundreds of other carrying the tricolor in their hands.

The yatra, which started from Kanyakumari on September 7, entered Jammu and Kashmir from Punjab on Thursday and reached Jammu city on Monday.

The march is scheduled to make two night halts at Ramban and Banihal along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway before its culmination in Srinagar with a grand rally at the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium on January 30.

A 65-member strong Ladakh delegation led by Ladakh Territorial Congress President Nawang Rigzin Jora joined Gandhi at the start of the yatra and briefed him about the issues and concerns of their people, one of the delegation members said.

A group of Kashmiri Pandit migrant women, wearing their traditional attire and carrying flower petals, were waiting outside the famous Kol-Kandoli temple to welcome Gandhi.

“We are wandering in Jammu for the last three decades after our migration from Kashmir. We have come here to welcome Gandhi as he could help in our rehabilitation back in the Valley as it was Congress which worked for the community in the past by providing employment package to our youth,” Geeta Koul told PTI.

She said the biggest issue for them is the rehabilitation of the community and the BJP has miserably “failed” in this mission and “ignored us”.

After walking for over one-and-a-half hours, the yatra is scheduled to make a stopover and will resume near the Army gate Rehambal in Udhampur district at 2 pm.

NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has slapped an additional penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Air India for not reporting an incident, that happened on a Paris flight, and delaying in referring the matter to its internal committee which is a violation of application DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements.

“This refers to two incidents that happened on an Air India on December 6th, 2022 on flight AI 142 from Paris to New Delhi.  DGCA learnt that one passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory, he was also drunk and not adhering to crew instructions and on the same flight another passenger relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of a fellow female passenger,’’ according to the DGCA.

The DGCA had issued a show cause notice to the accountable manager and asked why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations.

Air India had submitted a reply to the show cause notice on January 23rd and the same was examined, following which the DGCA as an enforcement action imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Air India.

This is the second time in less than one week that the DGCA has imposed a penalty on Air India.  In an episode regarding not being able to handle an unruly passenger on board a New York-Delhi flight, the DGCA had imposed two penalties which totalled Rs 33 lakh .