Archives for 2023

Piyush Mishra |

New Delhi: One summer day some 50 years ago, a young Piyush Mishra faced sexual assault at the hands of a distant female relative. The incident scarred him for life, something that he has written about in his just released autobiographical novel “Tumhari Auqaat Kya Hai Piyush Mishra”.

Mishra says he has changed only the names and kept the truth intact in his book, published by Rajkamal Prakashan, as “revenge” was not his purpose.

“It left me shocked, I was surprised at what had happened,” Mishra told PTI while reflecting on the incident that had happened when he was studying in the 7th standard.

“Sex is such a healthy thing that your first encounter with it should be good, otherwise it scars you for life, it disturbs you for life. That sexual assault gave me complex throughout my life and it took me a long time and several partners to come out of it,” the multi-hyphnate personality said.

The book that traces his journey from narrow alleys of Gwalior to Delhi’s cultural centre of Mandi House and eventually to Mumbai.

“I wanted to hide the identity of some people. Some of them are women, and some men who are now well established in the film industry. I did not want to take revenge against anybody, or to hurt anyone.”

In the book, the noted actor, singer, and composer narrates his life through the autobiographical character of Santap Trivedi, or Hamlet, as he was known in his alma mater, the National School of Drama (NSD).

Hailing from a middle class family in Gwalior, Mishra showed promise as a multidimensional artiste from his childhood by quickly taking to vocal and instrumental music, paintings, sculptures, poetry and eventually theatre.

According to the book, even as his father pressured him to pursue a career in medical science, Mishra dropped out and decided to join NSD at the age of 20. It would start a lifelong romance with theatre and acting.

Initially reluctant to leave Delhi while friends went on to establish careers in Mumbai, Mishra eventually made the shift to the city of dreams in early 2000s.

He quickly made his mark as an actor, songwriter, singer, scriptwriter in films such as Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Maqbool” (2004), Anurag Kashyap’s “Gulaal” (2009) and most notably, “Gangs of Wasseypur in 2012, where he played the narrator.

Not just his acting, Mishra’s songs have also connected with listeners, especially the younger generation. And the lyricist and singer of music band ‘Ballimaaraan’ is surprised by the recall value some of his songs have.

“Maybe it is the way I say things that connects me with the youth, or that I talk about them, their issues… It is also possible that they see in me somebody who doesn’t use heavy words and that I don’t carry an air of superiority around me. And the more I can relate with them the better for me,” he said.

Mishra has written, composed and sung for films like “Gulaal” and “Gangs of Wasseypur”. His earlier songs “Ghar”, written for a theatrical adaptation of West Side Story – “Jab Shehar Hamara Sota Hai”, and “Husna” were later featured by international music franchise Coke Studio.

But, who does he listen to?

While Kishore Kumar is the top favourite, ghazal legends like Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh also feature in his playlist, the artiste said.

Having fiddled with and excelled at different aspects of film and theatre, Mishra has set himself a new milestone to achieve – film direction.

“I wanted to write a novel for a long time, but now it is out of the way. I don’t want to stay as a music director, neither do I want to sing. I don’t want to just act… Now, I have film direction on my mind. That is something I want to explore. Let’s see when that happens,” the 60-year-old theatre veteran said.

Mishra is happy that he has not been typecast as an actor and credits his selective nature for that.

“I don’t think I have been typecast because I have always done different roles no matter their size. I had small but different roles in ‘Tamasha’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Maqbool’, ‘Gulaal’ and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’.

“I don’t have a problem in getting roles. I keep rejecting a lot of stuff. I turn down roles that I feel I won’t enjoy.”

On a question about his days in NSD and how the institute is faring now, Mishra said like everything else, the premiere theatre school is also facing decline.

“What do I say, everything goes through a decline and that’s the case with every educational institute in India. What we had 30 years ago is no longer there… There are big walls around the campus now. That was not the case when we were studying.

“We would climb the wall for a tea outing or to eat ‘bhutta’. But these things have disappeared now. You don’t have that liberty now. But still it is our institute and we visit it whenever we feel like.”

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to interfere with the decision of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to withdraw its notification declaring February 14 as ‘Cow Hug Day’.

Justice Prathiba M Singh said the celebration of any event by AWBI was within the domain of the board and the government and the court cannot interfere with it.

Petitioner Kolisetty Shiva Kumar said in his plea that being a spiritual person and a cow lover, he “made arrangements for conducting the event in a massive manner in Hyderabad and the entire Telangana State” and the sudden withdrawal of ‘Cow Hug Day’ without specifying any reason was unjust, arbitrary and contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of India.

“The celebration of any event by AWBI clearly is within the domain of policy of board and government. The same cannot be interfered with in a petition under Article 226,” said the court.

Besides assailing the withdrawal, the petitioner –represented by lawyer Sravan Kumar, also sought a direction to the authorities to take initiative for the implementation of the February 6 notification on celebration of Cow Hug Day’ on February 14.

February 14 is observed as Valentine’s Day across the world.

The petitioner had submitted that the Supreme Court has in certain cases emphasised the importance of cows and held that protection of cow progeny was needed in the interest of the nation’s economy.

The plea argued the revocation of the decision on celebrating Cow Hug Day’ was illegal.

“The notification dated 6.2.2023 was issued for protection and promotion of cows in the country in accordance with the Article 48 of the Constitution of India after due consultation and approvals from the authorities. The Cows being sacred in India holds importance very much but they are also beneficial in other manners,” the plea asserted.

“No reason was stated in the revocation notification for the withdrawal of cow day announcement. The act of the Respondent is illegal and contrary to the law,” it added.

The AWBI, which is under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, had issued a notice appealing to people to celebrate ‘Cow Hug Day’ on February 14 to spread “positive energy” and encourage “collective happiness”, saying “All cow lovers may celebrate February 14 as Cow Hug Day keeping in mind the importance of mother cow and make life happy and full of positive energy.”

The notification was withdrawn on February 10 following directions from the government amid widespread criticism on social media.

The board, established in 1962 under Section 4 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, provides grants to animal welfare organisations and advises the Centre on animal welfare issues.

It is a statutory advisory body on animal welfare laws and promotes animal welfare in the country.

Noida: Three employees of a city-based pharmaceutical firm, whose cough syrup is alleged to have led to the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan last year, were arrested on charges of manufacturing and sale of adulterated drugs, officials said.

The arrests were made after an FIR was lodged late Thursday night against five officials of Marion Biotech, including two of its directors, over a complaint by a drugs inspector of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), they said.

Police said the directors are at large and a search is underway to apprehend them.

Central and Uttar Pradesh drug authorities had checked samples of Marion Biotech products and found 22 of them to be “not of standard quality” (adulterated and spurious), according to the complainant drug inspector.

“Three people associated with Marion Biotech, which is located in Sector 67, were today arrested by the local Phase 3 police station officials. These people were engaged in preparation and sale of fake drugs which caused serious harm to public,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Rajiv Dixit said.

“Besides the three suspects who have been arrested, there are two more directors of the company for whom searches are underway and they will also be arrested soon. With their act, these people were endangering human life and human health,” Dixit said.

The officer added that a comprehensive legal investigation in the case will be carried out.

Phase 3 police station in-charge Vijay Kumar said those arrested have been identified as Tuhin Bhattacharya, head operation; Atul Rawat, manufacturing chemist; and Mool Singh, analytical chemist.

The absconding directors of the firm who have been booked are Jaya Jain and Sachin Jain, Kumar said.

The FIR was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 274 (adulteration of drugs), 275 (sale of adulterated drugs), 276 (sale of drug as a different drug or medical preparation) as well as under section 17 (misbranded drugs) and related violations of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

Marion Biotech had come under the scanner in December last year for its cough syrup Dok-1 that is suspected to have led to the death of 18 children who consumed it in Uzbekistan after which the CDSCO launched a probe into the matter.

The production licence of the firm was suspended in January after inspections at its site by the central and the state drug authorities in the wake of the controversy.

On January 12, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued a ‘medical product alert’, referring to two substandard (contaminated) products, identified in Uzbekistan and reported to it on December 22, 2022.

“The two products are AMBRONOL syrup and DOK-1 Max syrup. The stated manufacturer of both products is MARION BIOTECH PVT. LTD, (Uttar Pradesh, India). To date, the stated manufacturer has not provided guarantees to WHO on the safety and quality of these products,” the WHO had said then.

“Laboratory analysis of samples of both products, undertaken by national quality control laboratories of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan found both products contained unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol as contaminants,” it had noted.

Mumbai: Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s estranged wife on Friday informed the Bombay High Court that she and her two minor kids have been thrown out of her mother-in-law’s residence in suburban Mumbai and they have no financial support.

Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, appearing for the actor’s wife, told a bench of Justices A S Gadkari and P D Naik that the situation between the estranged couple was hostile.

The bench was hearing a habeas corpus (produce the person) petition filed by Nawazuddin Siddiqui seeking a direction to his estranged wife to produce his children before the court.

The 48-year-old actor had claimed that his wife had brought the children from Dubai to India without informing him and the change of location was affecting their education as they were not attending school.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s wife had been living with the children at her mother-in-law’s residence in Mumbai.

Last week, the high court had suggested the couple to amicably resolve issues related to the children and sought to know from the wife about their education.

On Friday, advocate Siddiquee told the court that the actor’s wife and her two children — a 12-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son — have been thrown out of the home with just Rs 81 in her possession.

The three are now living with a relative, he said, adding that while the boy was too young to say anything, the girl has categorically refused to meet her father.

The court directed advocate Siddiquee to put all these details in an affidavit and posted the matter for further hearing after a week.

Congress leader Pawan Khera

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended till March 17 the interim bail granted to Congress leader Pawan Khera in a case related to alleged objectionable remarks he made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Assam Police had arrested Khera in the case.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala adjourned the hearing to March 17 as it had run out of time.

The bench also pointed out that the replies of Uttar Pradesh and Assam were not on record and it will hear the plea after the Holi vacation.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Assam government, told the bench that the state has filed the reply to the petition of Khera and would like to argue the case whenever the court deems it fit to hear.

The court made clear that the interim bail granted to Khera will be extended till March 17 when it will hear the matter.

Earlier, on February 27, the court had extended the protection to the Congress spokesperson till Friday.

Khera was arrested from the Delhi airport after he was de-boarded from a plane that was supposed to take him to Raipur in connection with his alleged remarks against Modi made at a press conference in Mumbai on February 17.

The Congress leader obtained bail from a magisterial court here on February 23 after the CJI-led bench granted him the interim bail during an urgent hearing earlier in the day.

“In order to enable the petitioner (Khera) to apply for regular bail before the jurisdictional court, upon the FIRs being transferred to one jurisdiction, we direct that the petitioner shall be released on interim bail by the court of the competent magistrate at Delhi where he is to be produced this evening,” the apex court had said.

“The above order shall remain in operation till February 28,” it had said.

The apex court, which had listed the matter for hearing on February 27, had issued notices to Assam and Uttar Pradesh, seeking their responses to Khera’s plea for transferring and clubbing together three separate FIRs lodged against him in Assam and in Uttar Pradesh cities of Lucknow and Varanasi.

After dictating the order, the CJI had apparently expressed his displeasure with the Congress leader’s remarks and observed: “We have protected you (Khera), but there has to be some level of discourse.”

Senior lawyer A M Singhvi, appearing for Khera, had said the words taken at their face value, as reflected in the FIRs, do not establish any offence punishable under the sections invoked.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the state of Assam, had played the offending video in the court and claimed that Khera’s statement on Modi was a “deliberate attempt to denigrate a constitutional functionary”.

Singhvi, however, had also told the apex court that Khera had already apologised for his remarks and the offences alleged against him in the cases did not require arrest.

CHENNAI/HYDERABAD: In a span of two months, leaders of various political parties descended south to join two anti-BJP gatherings with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, although the central characters differed a lot.

While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already on the national scene and used  on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.

Rao and Stalin have proved to be regional satraps who can take on the might of the BJP and both were seen in the company of top national leaders recently.

If the January 18 meeting convened by Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), the erstwhile Telangana Rashtra Samiti, in Khammam saw a  change in New Delhi next year, the Chennai rally organised to mark Stalin’s 70th birthday, harped on opposition unity.

While the BRS-led meeting stood determined on the need for a change of government at the Centre, the speakers at the Chennai event underlined the common connection of a socialist vision that binds them together while leaders including Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah batted for Stalin to take up a bigger national role.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said his party and the DMK shared a common social vision. It is anybody’s guess that the parties have set their eyes on making a rich harvest of the 40 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Incidentally, in 2004, under then DMK chief, the late M Karunanidhi’s leadership, the alliance won all 40, giving UPA-I the much-needed numbers to form a government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Political analyst Ramu Suravajjula said the meeting organised in January by KCR, as Rao is popularly known, at Khammam was seen as the Telangana Chief Minister’s mega show of strength projecting his national ambitions. However, his political dilemma was on display at the public meeting, Suravajjula opined.

KCR neither spelt out the BRS agenda nor did he leave a hint about his political friends at the national level. The visiting leaders, which included Chief Ministers of Kerala and Delhi, Pinarayi Vijayan and Arvind Kejriwal, respectively, besides CPI top leader D Raja, also did not declare KCR as their leader, he said.

An observer of Tamil Nadu politics said a Third Front may not have its desired impact and pointed out the ambitious ‘Makkal Nala Kootani’ (People’s Welfare Front), headed by actor-politician Vijayakant’s DMDK, coming a cropper in the 2016 Assembly polls in that state, even as the AIADMK secured a rare successive term in a close fight involving the DMK.

The DMDK-led alliance included MDMK and the two Left parties, who are now part of the DMK-led bloc.

Suravajjula said, Stalin, during his birthday celebrations in Chennai, displayed political pragmatism. KCR got alienated in his fight against the BJP with Kharge and Stalin sending out a message loud and clear that no coalition meant to effectively take on the BJP can succeed without the Congress, he said.

Some insist that the Rao-led meeting largely spoke about dethroning the BJP-led Central government while the participants of the Chennai gathering made a conscious push to brand the bloc as pro-social justice and ideologically oriented.

Chennai-based political observer Sathyalaya Ramakrishnan said both groupings wanted to see the back of Modi in 2024 but were confused about who should lead. “There is a lot of confusion among the opposition parties on who should lead an alliance. These kinds of confusions and non-cooperation will lead Modi to form his own government for the third time next year,” he said.

Ramakrishnan indicated that even after the Khammam meeting, national leaders did not show interest in projecting KCR as a PM candidate, but that Abdullah had even supported the “Stalin for PM” slogan emanating mainly from Tamil Nadu and the DMK leader’s supporters.

Another political analyst Telakapalli Ravi said Congress was the major contrast between the two meetings. While the grand old party is a rival of the BRS in Telangana, Stalin gave a respectable place to Congress by inviting it to his birthday celebrations in Chennai, he said.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram

New Delhi: Congress MP Karti Chidambaram has termed as “untrue” Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s statement that the parliamentary IT committee has given a “thumbs up” to the revised draft of the data protection bill, and said the bill has not been formally sent to the panel.

Karti Chidambaram’s party colleague and former chief of the parliamentary IT panel Shashi Tharoor called for widespread consultation on the bill.

Vaishnaw on Thursday said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has given a “thumbs up” for the revised draft of the data protection law.

Vaishnaw, a bureaucrat turned politician who presently handles the IT portfolio, said an advanced copy of the revised bill on data protection was shared with the committee.

Reacting to Vaishnaw’s remarks, Congress’ Lok Sabha MP and member of the IT panel Karti Chidambaram said, “IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said the Standing Committee on Communications and IT has approved the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022. As a Member of the Committee, I would like to categorically state that the Bill has not been approved.”

The draft bill was released for public consultation in November 2022 and in December, during a discussion on citizens’ privacy and data security, the Committee also held a preliminary discussion on the draft bill, he said, adding that members raised a number of issues with the draft.

Parliamentary procedure mandates that a bill after introduction in the House, the Speaker or Chairman may recommend it for examination to the Committee, Chidambaram said on Twitter on Thursday night.

“The DPDP Bill has not been formally sent to the Committee & hence a ‘big thumbs up’ claimed by Ashwini Vaishnaw is untrue,” he said.

Vaishnaw, while speaking in Mumbai had said, “I would like to share some good news that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and Communications… before this bill is taken to the Parliament, they have given a big thumbs up.”

In 2021, the government withdrew an earlier version of the same bill after a slew of changes suggested by a Joint Parliamentary Committee and promised to come up with a new bill, which it did late last year.

Reacting to Chidambaram’s remarks, former chief of the IT panel and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, “That’s worrying. A Bill of this importance should benefit from widespread consultation & support to be effective.”

“Hope it is formally referred to the Committee. After so many delays a couple of months won’t matter,” Tharoor said Friday.