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Panneerselvam meets 15th Finance Commission Chairman

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Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Thursday met N.K. Singh, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, in New Delhi and put across the state’s views on the latter’s Terms of Reference (ToR), an official said.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Pannerselvam arrives to pay his last respects to political commentator Cho Ramaswamy at his residence in Chennai on Wednesday. PTI Photo (PTI12_7_2016_000269A)


The Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the Finance portfolio, led a delegation of 40 parliamentarians from the AIADMK, including Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambi Durai. He also handed over a memorandum signed by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami.

The state government’s major concern is the use of 2011 census data by the 15th Finance Commission, which is disadvantageous for Tamil Nadu when it comes to allocation of funds by the central government.

According to the Tamil Nadu government, the state has controlled population growth and therefore, share of funds by the Central Government based on 2011 census data will be less as compared 1971 census figures.

The delegation wanted the Commission to balance the need for fiscal transfers to less developed states with the growing aspirations of better performing states.

Singh assured the visiting delegation that the Commission would give the state a “careful consideration”, said a statement from the Ministry of Finance.

“A progressive state like Tamil Nadu which has contributed greatly to India’s prosperity would certainly receive the Commission’s careful consideration. Commission’s visit to the state of Tamil Nadu was finalised for end of September,” said Singh in the statement.

“Fiscal needs of each state will be individually assessed and their special characteristics will be kept in view,” Singh added.

(IANS)

Chandrababu Naidu on day-long fast to protest injustice to Andhra

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who turned 68 on Friday, began his day-long fast to protest what he calls the injustice being meted out to the state by the Central government.

Naidu launched the ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’ hunger strike at Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium in Vijayawada. The fast, which began at 7 a.m., will conclude at 7 p.m.

State ministers Kala Venkat Rao, D. Umamaheswara Rao, Nara Lokesh, Kollu Ravindra, MPs and state legislators and leaders of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) joined him in the fast at the massive programme organised by the state government.

Naidu garlanded statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, Jyotirao Phule and N.T. Rama Rao before reaching the stadium.

The TDP chief was blessed by Hindu, Muslim and Christian religious leaders before he began the fast. Prominent freedom fighters also called on Naidu to extend their support.

Naidu’s fast is to demand the Centre to accord special category status to the state and fulfil all commitments made at the time of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to carve out Telangana state in 2014.

Last month, the TDP pulled out of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to protest its refusal to give special status to the state. Naidu alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone back on the promises he made in 2014 elections.

Naidu has appealed to people to observe the fast against the Central government’s attitude, instead of celebrating his birthday.

TDP leaders say this is the first time in the country’s history that Chief Minister of a state is observing fast on his birthday.

Expressing solidarity with the Chief Minister, leaders and workers of TDP and various organisations are observing the fast across the state. State ministers were also on hunger strike in their respective districts.

(IANS)

I didn’t set out to be a regular hero: Rana Daggubati

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Rana Daggubati doesn’t see any project as a risk and likes to keep his creative spirit busy. The “Baahubali” star says he didn’t set out to be a regular hero as his mantra is to keep trying new things.

His career graph is filled with diverse projects — something he is proud of.

“I didn’t set out to be a regular hero. My mantra has always been, ‘Give me something new and I’ll do it with all my heart’. That is what I truly believe and look for in every project,” Rana told IANS in an email interview.

The actor says he loves to entertain people.

“I get restless if I don’t do something. I love to be in the entertainment space, and my aim is to create new content and entertain people, whether it’s in movies or on TV.

“I truly believe that cinema is a collaborative effort and as long as I get to tell, and be part of, interesting stories, and work with genuine people, I don’t see any project as a ‘risk’,” he added.

Rana is known for his portrayal of an evil king pitted against his cousin brother in the “Baahubali” franchise, and as a naval officer in “Ghazi”. He has also lent his voice to the character of supervillain Thanos for the Telugu version of Hollywood film “Avengers: Infinity War”.

Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War”, which features an ensemble of superheroes, will release worldwide on April 27.

The actor, who has worked in the southern film industry as well as in Bollywood, found dubbing as Thanos exciting.

“I felt the sheer power of Thanos while dubbing and tried my best to bring it through the voice. It was fascinating because the entire story is told from the point of view of Thanos. It is also good to be associated with one of the most successful film franchises in the world.”

The tall and handsome actor was ecstatic with the offer as he got associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe .

“I have grown up reading Marvel Comics and (watching) Marvel movies with their intricately woven story lines… They have been some of my favourite movies to watch. My early memories would perhaps be reading about Iron Man and watching that film first,” said the actor.

Be it “Baahubali” or “Avengers: Infinity War” — he is the main villain. So, what attracts him towards dark characters?

“Each character, be it the antagonist or the protagonist, brings with himself his own personality… and I have tried to stay true to each one of them; each is enjoyable in their own way! Be it ‘Baahubali’ or Thanos, what draws me towards the character is the way they have been etched out,” he added.

Explaining the psyche of Thanos, the actor added: “Thanos is undoubtedly the most powerful entity and villain the world has ever seen — he is virtually indestructible. Imagine a villain so menacing that all the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and their allies have to come together in a hope to defeat this one guy; such characters come to you once in a lifetime!

“Apart from being fun, it was fascinating because the entire story is told from the point of view of Thanos.”

What’s next?

“I have two movies — ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ and ‘Hiranya Kashyap’ coming up.”

(IANS)

India is paying a price for losing its grasslands

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Wiry shrubs and clumps of brown-green fill the semi-arid landscape of Kutch in western India. Many of these patches have, over the years, made way for “more productive” agricultural land. This greening of “wasteland” is, however, degrading a precious and largely ignored ecosystem — the grasslands. And, as a result, some species of animals that depend on grasslands are being pushed to the brink of extinction.

Not just that. Nature has a way of linking all its elements. So grasslands play a big role in ensuring fodder security for livestock, thereby having a direct impact on the dairy industry. Another largely ignored ecosystem, the wetlands, along with grasslands, also play a crucial role in water table management; agricultural lands near their vicinity are usually fertile and productive.

Grasslands are an important ecosystem. But to quote the first line of the Task Force report on Grasslands and Deserts (2006) submitted to the Planning Commission, “Grasslands and deserts are the most neglected ecosystems by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, which looks after biodiversity conservation in India.”

This is significant, because more than a decade after that report, the Draft National Forest Policy 2018, while encouraging an increase in forest and tree cover, still does not give grasslands their due importance.

The draft policy — an upgrade of the National Forest Policy of 1988 — which was open for public comments till the second week of April, had a promising note two years back, when, in addition to reiterating its goal of having one-third of India under forest cover, it had said that, instead of an exclusive focus on trees and tree-cover, efforts should be made to preserve other ecosystems too, like the grasslands, deserts, marine and coastal areas, etc.

Two years hence, however, that crucial point is missing in the draft. Branding grassland as wasteland, says Sutirtha Dutta, scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), is the prime reason behind undervaluing its importance and its degradation.

“It is a remnant of the colonial policy that treated grasslands as unproductive, of no economic value. And the stigma has stayed on,” Dutta told IANS.

There is a general lack of awareness about the immense value that an ecosystem like grassland (or deserts, for that matter) holds; for instance, its role in water table management.

“In south Manas (Manas National Park in Assam), grasslands have been allowed to thrive, and therefore agriculture around its vicinity has also been very productive. It’s a boon to the farmers. On the other hand, in east Assam, where there are no grasslands, there have been long dry spells,” says Dr Goutam Narayan, project advisor of the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP) in Assam.

The Pygmy Hog, a critically endangered species, itself rapidly lost numbers mainly because of the degradation of grasslands — its main habitat. Narayan says that the Pygmy Hog is a flagship species that denotes the health of the grasslands on which many other “bigger” animals are dependent, like the one-horned rhino, tiger, and Eastern Barasingha.

The Bengal florican, another species that is endangered, also has grassland degradation to blame for its depleting numbers. It’s a similar scenario is Kutch, Gujarat, where the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard is facing the threat of extinction for the same reason. It is estimated that only 150 such birds are left in the world today, of which barely 10 remain in Kutch, one of its last few abodes.

Devesh Gadhavi, member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and deputy director of the Kutch Ecological Research Centre, has been working on the conservation of Great Indian Bustards for many years now. Unhindered grazing of livestock on grasslands, he feels, is a primary reason for grassland degradation.

“If one were to draw linkages, Gujarat’s dairy industry that the government has been promoting for so many years now is dependent on the grasslands in terms of livestock fodder,” Gadhavi told IANS. India has more than 500 million livestock, and more than 50 percent of its fodder comes from grasslands.

Dutta says that only policy-level changes can bring about some change in the current scenario.

“There needs to be a regulation on grazing of animals (on grasslands). The 2006 Task Force report on grasslands and deserts was well-meaning and, among other things, mentioned the urgent need for a national grassland policy. It also suggested fixing ownership for grasslands,” Dutta said.

Barring some of its suggestions — like conservation programmes for some of the flagship species of the grasslands — being implemented, the report remained largely ignored.

“Grasslands are ‘common’ land of the community and are the responsibility of none,” the report had said ominously, the manifestations of which are increasingly felt across regions now.

(IANS)

Karnataka’s richest Congress nominee worth Rs 700 cr

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The ruling Congress party’s richest nominee for the ensuing state Legislative Assembly polls D.K. Shivakumar has declared assets worth over Rs 700 crore, as per the poll affidavit filed on Thursday.

According to the nomination papers filed at the Kanakapura Assembly segment in Ramanagara district, about 55 km from Bengaluru, Shivakumar, 55, declared his income and assets and that of his wife, Usha’s, to be Rs 730 crore.

The state’s Energy Minister’s income and assets have nearly tripled since the 2013 assembly elections, when he had declared assets valued at Rs 251 crore.

Through the affidavit, Shivakumar declared cash and bank deposits worth Rs 95 crore, immovable assets including commercial buildings and land valued at over Rs 635.8 crore and gold, diamonds and silver valued at over Rs 1.5 crore, among other assets.

In addition, he also disclosed the assets and income of his daughter Aisshwarya to be over Rs 100 crore.

The Congress leader was raided by the Income Tax (IT) Department in August, 2017 for alleged tax evasion.

Over 100 IT sleuths had raided Shivakumar’s aides and kin at over 60 locations in the state, and in Delhi and Chennai, and seized several documents and cash.

A special court in March granted Shivakumar conditional bail after the IT Department had found the Minister allegedly destroying evidence in three tax evasion cases.

Weapon snatched from bank guard in J&K, recovered from ‘miguided youth’

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A group of unidentified attackers snatched the weapon of a bank guard in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district and fled on Thursday but it was later recovered from “miguided youth”, police said.

The unarmed assailants overpowered the guard of a J&K Bank branch in Pinjora village of Shopian and took away his 12-bore, cartridge-firing gun, a police official said.

According to police, the local police swung into action and started “meticulous investigation” and on “basis of accurate human and technical inputs, the boys were identified”.

“However, police decided to adopt a humane approach as the boys involved were found to be only misguided youngsters from the village.

“Parents and senior citizens of the area were contacted and the search for boys was carried out. The said gun was recovered and boys were let off after proper counselling,” said police, adding that the general public hailed police for a “people-friendly approach and assured cooperation in maintaining peace in the otherwise militancy-affected area”.

Queen Elizabeth II wants son Charles to lead Commonwealth

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has asked Commonwealth leaders gathered at Buckingham Palace for the opening of a major summit to appoint her son Prince Charles to succeed her as their head.

She said it was her “sincere wish” that Prince Charles takes over “one day”, as she opened the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) attended by 53 member countries in London on Thursday, the BBC reported.

The Queen said that her son should follow her and lead the organisation which her father, King George VI, founded after the end of the British Empire.

The role is not hereditary and will not pass automatically to Charles, the Prince of Wales, on the Queen’s death. The Commonwealth leaders will make a decision on the succession on Friday, No 10 Downing Street said.

“It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations, and will decide that one day the Prince of Wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949,” she told the leaders.

Over 100 officers and soldiers from the Coldstream Guards were in honour guard outside the venue, wearing scarlet tunics and bearskins, as a 53 gun salute marked the formal opening.

Issues under discussion at the two-day summit included ocean conservation, cyber security and trade between the countries.

Prime Minister Theresa May told the leaders the summit would “take on some of the 21st Century’s biggest questions”.

Speaking in the ballroom, which was decorated with the flags of the 53 nations, May said: “There have been difficulties, successes, controversies, but I believe wholeheartedly in the good that the Commonwealth can do.”

She also thanked the Queen for hosting the event, calling her a “steadfast and fervent champion” of the Commonwealth.

The ceremony was attended by 46 Commonwealth heads of government, out of the 53 member states, with the remaining attendees being Foreign Ministers.

In his speech, the 69-year-old Prince said: “For my part, the Commonwealth has been a fundamental feature of my life for as long as I can remember, beginning with my first visit to Malta when I was just five years old.

“The modern Commonwealth has a vital role to play in building bridges between our countries.”

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and Prince William were among the other royals in attendance.

(IANS)

Pakistan calls India’s claims on surgical strike ‘baseless’

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Pakistan on Thursday rejected as “false” and “baseless” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of having launched a surgical strike on terrorist camps in Pakistani territory.

At an interactive session at the Central Hall Westminster in London, Modi said on Wednesday that Islamabad was informed about the 2016 surgical strike before this was made known to the media.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal told the media that the claims about the surgical strike by the Indian military was a “lie” and “repeating it doesn’t turn it into the truth”.

India said its special forces conducted the surgical strike across the Line of Control (LoC), which divides Jammu and Kashmir between the two countries, on September 29 and inflicted heavy casualties on terrorists preparing to infiltrate into Indian Kashmir.

In a veiled message to Pakistan, Modi said in London that “antics of those exporting terror and trying to backstab us will not be tolerated” and “they will be answered in a language they understand”.

Spokesperson Faisal said: “Repeating a lie doesn’t turn it into the truth… It is the other way around and India is backing terrorists in Pakistan.

“The whole world knows who the terrorists are and who their head is. Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav is a proof of Indian state-sponsored terrorism,” he said.

(IANS)

Rape as a political tool in India

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The brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl from a Muslim minority group is not just about gender violence.

The gruesome rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Kathua district of Indian-administered Kashmir is a chilling reminder of how sexual assault is used as a tool to instil fear among those belonging to the minority communities in India.

There have been many Indians, especially on social media platforms, who have repeatedly claimed that one must look at this rape as a gender violence crime. But to turn a blind eye to the events that took place before and after her murder and to her belonging to the Bakarwal nomadic minority would be grossly unfair.

The official investigation has already shown that there is a hate crime element to the rape and murder – in other words, the victim being attacked by her murderers had a lot to do with her being a Muslim Bakarwal.
In the course of investigation, it transpired that [one of the accused] was against the settlement of Bakarwals in Rasana Kootah, and Dhamyal area, and always kept on motivating the members of his community of the area not to provide land for grazing or any other kind of assistance…

[Two of the accused] were also against the settlement of Bakarwals in Rasana, Kootah and Dhamyal area who had already discussed this issue […] to Chalk out a strategy for dislodging the Bakarwals from the area. They were blaming the Bakarwals on one pretext or the other and used to threaten them…

This apart during investigation it transpired that a particular community had a general impression that the Bakarwals indulge in cow slaughter and drug trafficking and that their children were turning into drug addicts…

Thus during investigation it has become abundantly clear that the accused had a reason to act against the Bakarwal Community and hence the conspiracy ultimately resulting into the gruesome rape and brutal murder …”

One could easily see in these lines elements of the demonising stereotypes that have provoked attacks on minorities across India in recent years. In 2017 alone, accusations of cow slaughter (forbidden in most Indian states) against minority communities resulted in dozens of mob lynching and 11 deaths.

Furthermore, tensions between the Hindu majority and minorities have also resulted in communal violence in the past in which women and girls have been specifically targeted, as was the case in Gujarat in 2002 and Uttar Pradesh in 2013.

In this sense, it is difficult to see the sexual assault and murder in Kathua only in the framework of gender violence. Unfortunately, we live at a time when rape has become a political tool to instil fear among minority groups in India.

Support for the suspect rapists
Before this brutal case made to national and international news, the Bakarwal community struggled with pressure from members of the Hindu majority not to make noise about it. The family and their lawyer were repeatedly threatened not to speak out; some members of the community left early for the mountains. Her parents were forced to take her brutalised body to another village to bury because baton-wielding locals did not allow them to lay her to rest in the place where she used to live.

But even more disturbingly, after the suspects in the case were arrested, locals organised protests in their support. On February 15, thousands joined the demonstrations in Kathua to demand the release of special police officer Deepak Khajuria – one of the accused.

READ MORE
After girl’s rape and killing, fear engulfs Muslim nomads
The march was organised by the newly created right-wing Hindu Ekta Manch (Hindu Solidarity Platform, based in Jammu) and was backed and attended by officials from the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including two ministers in the state government.

After much outrage, the ministers submitted their resignations, but one cannot but wonder why they were not expelled by the party immediately for being part of the protests. Similarly, Congress Party member Ghagwal Vijay Tagotra, who was also in the front line of the protest, was suspended but not expelled from the party.

It took national public outrage and the release of gruesome details of the violence unleashed on an 8-year-old girl in temple premises for the prime minister to come out and issue a general statement four months after the murder. This says a lot about how seriously a crime committed against a Muslim girl belonging to a nomadic community in a state like Jammu and Kashmir is treated.

But it hasn’t only been Kathua locals and politicians who have reacted disgracefully to the brutal murder.

Public figures like Indian feminist and academic, Madhu Kishwar have gone as far as claiming that the crime was committed by “jehadi [sic] Rohingya” refugees.

Support for the Bakarwal community from tribal organisations has also been conspicuously absent.

“The inherent bias against the Muslim minority community also displays itself in the fact that there have not been any joint statements made by de-notified/nomadic tribal organisations across the country condemning the incident faced by the nomadic family let alone standing in solidarity with them,” told me one leader of an alliance of denotified tribes, who did not wish to be named.

As protests around the country take place to demand justice for the eight-year-old victim, we must ponder two points.

One, in the December 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case, the family of the victim did not have to beg and plea for their safety and security; there were no protests in support of the six suspects and rightly so.

Two, not one of those named as the suspects in the gang rape of seven Muslim women during the Muzaffarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh in 2013 are behind bars today. Society and media both forgot the women soon after they received a small amount of compensation as rape survivors.

With this in mind, we should continue to demand not only that justice is served for the Kathua victim and her family, but also that it is seen as a hate crime.

We need to acknowledge that there is a problem with both gender and communal violence in our country.

Aljazeera

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