[Nasheman news] New DelhiResidents in the national capital woke up to a misty morning on Tuesday as the minimum temperature settled for 6 degreeS Celsius, a notch below the season’s average.

“It was cloudy in the morning along with mist. There will be haze and smog later in the day with no chances of rainfall,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

According to the IMD, the cold wave situation is going to continue for the day owing to which the maximum temperature in Delhi is likely to hover around 19.5 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average, while the minimum may settle at 5 degrees.

However, there was improvement in the air quality as the quality index improved to ‘poor’ from ‘very poor’ on Monday. 

According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Air Quality Index at 9 a.m was 213 which prominent pollutant particles being PM 2.5 and PM 10.

At least 13 trains headed towards the national capital were delayed due to fog.

On Monday, the minimum settled at 8 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season’s average.

[Nasheman news] Prayagra Thousands of devotees took a holy dip here at the Sangam — the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna and the mystical Saraswati rivers — on Tuesday morning, on the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti and marking the onset of the Kumbh Mela.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged devotees to participate in the Kumbh Mela, which is organised at a much wider scale this year than its previous editions, to witness India’s spiritual, cultural and social diversities.

Elaborate security arrangements were in place and pontoon bridges have been constructed to lead the visitors to the 5-km bathing ghat at Sangam. 

Security personnel have been deployed at all entry and exit points of these bridges to maintain law and order.

Soon after midnight, throngs of devotees who have gathered here for the fair from within the country and abroad, began proceeding towards the bathing ghats. Loud religious chantings as well as melodious singing of ‘bhajans’ reverberated through the by-lanes of the city for most of the night.

In an absolute electrifying setting, visitors reached the ghats that were lit up like Diwali in a hue of multiple colours, amid heightened security and waited for the “Shahi Snan” (royal bath) to begin.

The moment arrived just before dawn when, with prayers in their breath, the visitors took the holy dip in the water as cold as ice.

About 13 ‘akharas’ will be participating in the “Shahi Snan” on Tuesday with each being allocated about 45 minutes by the Kumbh authorities. The ceremonial bath is drawing huge crowds as devotees continue to arrive here in large numbers.

Prime Minister Modi posted a video on Twitter shortly after the “Shahi Snan” ceremony began, marking the official beginning of the fair.

The “Shahi Snan” is considered among the most significant components of the Kumbh Mela, and is supposed to begin at a certain hour.

The Kumbh Mela is held every six years, while the Maha Kumbh takes place every 12 years.

According to officials, about 15 crore devotees are expected to partake in the pilgrimage, which, according to legends, opens the doors to heaven.

Over 40,000 LED lights have been used by the administration to light up the bathing ghats as well as illuminate the historic city.

The Kumbh Mela will reach its culmination on March 4, which alo marks the Maha Shivratri, the last of the six dates for “Shahi Snan”.

[Nasheman news] SrinagarAn intense cold wave hit the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday, bringing down temperatures several notches below the freezing point

An official of the MET Department said the weather would remain generally cloudy during the next 24 hours.

The valley is presently witnessing the 40-day long period of harsh winter cold called the ‘Chillai Kalan’, which started on December 21 and is likely to end on January 30.

The minimum temperature was minus 5.8 degrees Celsius in Srinagar on Monday while in Pahalgam and Gulmargm it was minus 12.3 and minus 10.0, respectively.

Leh town recorded minus 17.5 degrees Celsius while Kargil had minus 19.2 as the night’s lowest temperature.

At minus 26.6 degrees Celsius, Drass was the coldest in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu city recorded 3.5 degrees Celsius, Katra 5.3, Batote 1.5, Bannihal 3.2 and Bhaderwah minus 1.8 as the minimum temperatures.

Nasheman News : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday questioned J. Srinivas Rao, an accused in the knife attack on YSR Congress Party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

A day after getting the custody of the accused, the NIA officials brought him from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam and questioned him at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) training centre in the port city. 

According to police sources, the 29-year-old accused was questioned for three hours in the presence of his lawyer. He is likely to be taken to Visakhapatnam Airport where the investigators will re-create the crime scene.

The NIA may later shift Srinivas Rao to Hyderabad or some other location for further questioning.

Jagan, as the YSRCP leader is popularly known, was injured when Srinivas, a worker at the airport canteen, attacked him with a knife used in cockfight. Jagan was attacked as he was waiting to board a flight to Hyderabad.

The leader of opposition, who sustained a bleeding cut on his left upper arm, continued his journey and got admitted in a hospital in Hyderabad.

After the attack, leaders of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) termed it as a ploy of YSRCP to gain public sympathy.

Jagan had refused to record his statement before the Andhra Pradesh Police saying he had no trust in agencies controlled by the state government.

YSRCP leaders had approached the Hyderabad High Court seeking a probe into the attack by a central agency. On the directions of the Union Home Ministry, the NIA booked a case on January 1 and took up the investigations.

The NIA Special Court in Vijayawada on Friday sent Srinivas Rao to NIA custody for a week.

In another development, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday came down heavily on the Centre for handing over the case to the NIA. He said the State would challenge the decision in a court.

Naidu vowed to protect the powers of the state. He alleged that this was the best example that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jagan had joined hands.

[Nasheman news] Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) Preparations were underway on Monday for the installation a goddess idol made of 2,500 kg of clarified butter in a famous temple in this Himachal Pradesh town, officials said.

The idol of Goddess Brajeshwari Devi, being prepared by using ‘desi ghee’ after purification with holy water 101 times by temple priests, will be open for the public from Tuesday morning, temple official Neelam Rana told IANS.

One of the busiest shrines in north India, the Brajeshwari Devi temple sees a large number of pilgrims from Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Rana said the idol would be removed from the ‘pindi’ or iconography of the goddess on January 20 and its ‘prasad’ would be distributed among the devotees.

It is believed the idol butter cures chronic skin ailments and joint pain.

According to a legend, when the goddess was injured during a fight with demons, her wounds were treated with butter by gods on Makar Sankranti, a major harvest festival celebrated in various parts of the country.

Every year the preparations for installing the butter idol begin on Makar Sankranti, which is celebrated as a week-long festival at the temple.

[Nasheman news] Hyderabad In a shocking incident, a minor girl was reported to being repeatedly raped here by a relative and a group of youths for the last three years, police said on Monday.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar entrusted the case to Assistant Commissioner of Police K. Sridevi, after the relatives of the victim on Sunday staged a sit-in outside a police station, alleging that an accused was made a witness in the case.

Police arrested a fourth accused in the case, following the protest.

The victim, now 16 and a student of 12th standard, alleged that besides four accused already named by her, seven more persons were also involved in the crime.

“Some more names were given by the girl. They will also be arrested very soon. No one will escape,” Kumar said.

The victim on December 24 lodged a complaint with the police that in 2015 she was subjected to rape by her own relative in 2015 and this continued in the subsequent years with his friends also joining in the crime.

Rajesh Mudda alias Raju, a cousin of the victim, who was staying with her family at Murali Nagar raped her after giving her a soft drink mixed with sedatives. He also took her nude photos and videos on his mobile phone.

Raju, who later shifted to another house, told his friends about this and also shared the pictures and videos with them. Shubham Vyas, Abhijit and others used this to blackmail the girl and rape her. They also allegedly gave pills to the girl to terminate her pregnancy.

It is strange how I never thought of Naseeruddin Shah as a Muslim until now when his religious identity is being used against him to prove he is anti-national.

But hang on. Why is Naseer anti-national? Because he expressed trepidation about the future of this country and, more specifically, his children.

Here is what Naseer said: “The poison has already spread. It will be very difficult to capture this djinn back in the bottle. There is complete impunity for those who take law into their own hands. In many areas we are witnessing that the death of a cow has more significance than that of a police officer. I feel anxious thinking about my children. Because they don’t have a religion. Tomorrow if a mob surrounds them and asks ‘Are you a Hindu or a Muslim’, they will have no answer. It worries me because I don’t see the situation improving anytime soon.”

I am a little lost after repeatedly reading this. Which part of the observation is anti-national? Have we all not felt the same terror grip our hearts in recent times as mobs decided to lynch alleged cattle-offenders? Or set on fire a rape victim who doesn’t withdraw her case against her offenders? Don’t we all worry about our children? Except maybe Anupam Kher, who thinks everything is hunky-dory in India today.

But you never know what will be deemed “anti-national” in today’s super-charged atmosphere of pseudo-patriotism, will you? Is it anti-national to say Vivek Oberoi playing the Prime Minister is a bit of a joke? Or is it seditious to suggest that demonetisation was a demoniacal disaster? Am I going to be branded anti-national for defending Naseer’s right to defend his family? Is it right to book him a ticket to Karachi because he spoke about his insecurities?

But I am happy to inform you that Naseer is not going anywhere. He is not wrong in feeling anxious about the future. And if he speaks up about his insecurities and is slammed for it, then isn’t it proof that he’s right in feeling insecure?

As the outspoken Swara Bhaskar said to me: “Quite simply, the attack on Naseeruddin Shah proves his point more than anything else. Intolerance is a government-approved malaise in this new Hindustan of ours.”

My dear Shabana Azmi is right in saying there should be some amount of distinction between the government and the national identity. If one criticises the government, one is not being anti-national. If one doesn’t watch Anupam Kher play Manmohan Singh, one is not pro-Congress. And if one disagrees with Mrs Kirron Kher that “The Accidental Prime Minister” (which coincidentally stars her husband) should be sent to the Oscars, one is not anti-national either.

The country is in the grip of an unprecedented culture of conformity. Everybody must love certain politicians to qualify as a true Indian. And if you have any reservations about any of the government’s policies (including reservations) you will be booked an air ticket to Pakistan. Or worse, forced to watch Vivek Oberoi play our Prime Minister on the day the film releases.

I threw away my Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Mehndi Hassan CDs the day Mrs Kher declared her husband’s film Oscar-worthy without seeing it. Am I a good Indian?

[Nasheman news]

KolkataUrging everyone to remember Swami Vivekananda’s message of peace and brotherhood, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday observed the great thinker’s 156th birth anniversary.

“Today is the birth anniversary of the great preacher and philosopher, #SwamiVivekananda. We must always remember the message of peace and brotherhood that Swami Ji stood for,” Banerjee tweeted.

“We are observing #VivekUtsav in his memory across the state.”

Mentioning the importance of the day across the country she wrote: “#SwamiVivekananda’s birthday is also celebrated as #NationalYouthDay. The youth of the country should come together to dispel the climate of hatred and uncertainty and work for the greater glory of this great nation”.

Vivekananda was born as Narendranath Datta in the then Calcutta on January 12, 1863. He died on July 4, 1902.

[Nasheman news]

[Nasheman news] New DelhiIt was a foggy morning in the national capital on Saturday with the minimum temperature recorded at 7.1 degrees Celsius, the season’s average.

The weather office predicted light rain towards the night which may bring some improvement in the air quality levels “which have already improved in the last few days due to high wind speed”.

“There was moderate fog in the morning. The sky will remain partly cloudy becoming generally cloudy towards the afternoon and evening, with a possibility of very light rain towards the night,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The air quality in Delhi was recorded in the ‘very poor’ category with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 382, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research.

The visibility in the morning was 300 metres at around 8.30 a.m. which improved to 400 metres by 9.30 a.m.

Humidity at 8.30 a.m. was recorded at 100 per cent — a highly unfavourable condition for pollutants to disperse. 

The maximum temperature during the day is expected to hover around 22 degrees Celsius.

On Friday, the minimum temperature was recorded at 4.8 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season’s average, while the maximum settled at 22.3 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average.

 Nasheman News : India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 with a lander and rover will be attempted in mid-April, a top space official said on Friday.

“We are targeting mid-April to launch Chandrayaan-2 as there were certain tests which could not be done in time for the earlier scheduled January 3 launch,” Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan told reporters here.

The details of the tests, which were yet to be performed for the mission, were not disclosed by the space agency.

The window to land on the lunar surface is open between March 25 till the end of April, Sivan said.

The Rs 800-crore Chandrayaan-2 mission comes a decade after the maiden mission Chandrayaan-1 was launched on October 22, 2008 from the country’s only spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 90 km northeast of Chennai.

The 3,890-kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, to be launched onboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk-3, will orbit around the moon to study its conditions and collect data of its topography, mineralogy and exosphere.

After reaching the 100km lunar orbit, lander with rover will separate from the spacecraft and gradually descend to soft land on the moon at a designated spot. The rover’s instruments will observe and study the lunar surface.

The lander has been named “Vikram” as a tribute to the pioneer of India’s space programme and former ISRO chairman (1963-71) Vikram Sarabhai.

While Chandrayaan-1 reached the lunar orbit on November 8, 2008 and its impact probe crashed onto the moon on November 14, 2008, the 675kg spacecraft was lost on August 29, 2009 after orbiting at 100km away from its surface and mapping its chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic properties for over nine months.

Meanwhile, Israel, which is planning to launch its lunar mission in February, will most likely be the fourth nation to land a spacecraft on the moon, after China in December 2013, the US in 1969 and then Soviet Union in 1959.