Describing the #MeToo movement in India as the beginning of a “wrong practice”, BJP MP Udit Raj on Tuesday supported actor Nana Patekar and questioned actress Tanushree Dutta for speaking up after a decade.

“The #MeToo campaign is necessary but what is the meaning of accusing someone of sexual harassment after 10 years? After years how can it be possible to verify the facts of the events?

“It must also be considered that it can ruin the image of the person who has been accused. It is the beginning of a wrong practice,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (MP) from northwest Delhi tweeted in Hindi.

His remarks came after Tanushree in an interview in September, in the context of the #MeToo Movement and sexual harassment of women in Bollywood, spoke out of her personal experience at the hands of Nana Patekar on the set of “Horn ‘OK’ Pleassss” in 2008.

Last week, Tanushree also filed a written complaint on the same at the Oshiwara police station here.

“Nana Patekar’s behaviour was inappropriate towards me, he was on the set despite (the fact) his work in the song was over. He grabbed me by the arm and pushed me towards him around on the pretext of teaching me how to dance,” read one part of the complaint.

On his part, Nana has consistently denied the accusation.

In 2008 too, he had held a press conference to dismiss the allegations.

Last week, on being confronted by the media, he said he had answered the questions about it 10 years ago. “Jhooth toh jhooth hi hai (a lie is a lie),” Nana said.

IANS

Attributing the violent attacks on migrant workers in Gujarat to frustration among unemployed youth, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the migrant workforce is “critical” for economic growth and must be curbed immediately.

“Across Gujarat, poor economic policies, demonetisation and poorly executed GST (Goods and Services Tax) have devastated industry resulting in the shutting down of factories and industrial units, leading to massive unemployment,” the Congress chief said in a Facebook post.

He said that amongst the “youth” there was “growing frustration and anger” with the government’s inability to create jobs.

“This anger and frustration is being manifested in violent attacks on migrants, across the state of Gujarat,” he added.

“The migrant workforce is critical to our economic growth. Attacks on them create an environment of fear and insecurity that is not good for business and our economy.”

Gandhi urged the state government to act “decisively”, “and do all it can to restore peace and ensure safety of every Indian”.

His remarks came amid the incidents of attacks on migrant labourers from north India spurred by rape of a 14-month-old girl in a village near Himmatnagar town, around 100 km from Ahmedabad.

After the rape of the toddler, there were widespread attacks on migrant labourer residents, especially from north India, believing that some from the community were responsible for the ghastly crime.

The police had arrested a labourer originally from Bihar, Ravindra Sahu, for the crime. Sahu was working in a ceramic factory.

Gujarat Police have filed 35 complaints and detained around 450 persons for attacking the migrant community residing in the state.

IANS

 Students on board a school bus escaped with minor injuries in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras on Tuesday when the vehicle was hit by a speeding truck, police said.

The bus belonged to the Delhi Public School (DPS) and was headed to school when the truck rammed into it at the Kevalgarhi turn on the Agra road.

Driver of both the bus and the truck have sustained serious injuries, while some students have sustained minor injuries, a police official said.

The injured drivers have been identified as Rajesh and Vijay. Parents of the children have been informed of the incident.

IANS

A Hindu seer who was on an indefinite fast to press for early construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya has been picked up from the temple town here in Uttar Pradesh and sent to a hospital in Lucknow, police said on Monday.

“He was picked up by the police after his condition deteriorated after midnight,” an official said. Mahant Praramhans Das’ pulse rate dropped alarmingly forcing the police to intervene.

He was admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) where doctors treating him said that his condition was critical as the ketone level in the body was very high due to prolonged fasting. He has also suffered acute dehydration.

SGPGI Director Rakesh Kapoor is supervising Das’ treatment, a doctor told IANS. He has been kept in the critical care ICU and nobody is allowed to meet him.

The seer has been on a sit-in protest for the last one week and had declared that he would not relent until assurances from the state and central government that the construction of the temple would be expedited.

On Sunday, state Industry Minister Satish Mahana had met the seer and asked him to give up his fast unto death.

He had also assured Das that he would soon arrange for a video call between him and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

There is anger against the police action and many from the seer’s community have converged at the venue of his fast. Former Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Praveen Togadia has reached here and is trying to appease the agitated seers.

IANS

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that bye-elections in Shivamogga, Ballari and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka will be held on November 3.

The bye-elections are being held after BJP MPs BS Yeddyurappa (Shivamogga), Sriramulu (Ballari) and JD(S) leader CS Putturaju (Mandya) vacated their positions after being elected as MLAs in the State Assembly elections earlier this year.

In addition, the ECI announced that elections for Ramanagara and Jamkhandi State Assembly constituencies will also be held on the same date.

The bye-polls for the State Assembly seats are being held since Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is relinquishing his seat in Ramanagara after he won from two constituencies – Ramanagara and Channapatna. Meanwhile, Siddu Nyamagowda, the MLA in Jamkhandi, passed away on May 28, two weeks after the elections.

With a month left for the polls, the model code of conduct comes into effect immediately in these constituencies.

The last date for parties to name nominations is 16 October. The BJP is reportedly planning to field Yeddyurappa’s eldest son Raghavendra for the MP seat in Shivamogga.

The Congress meanwhile is considering nominating Anil Lad or Santosh Lad as candidates from Ballari. Santosh has previously been an MP.

However, with only few months left for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, lobbying for seats within the party is expected to be limited.

PTI

Bengaluru police have booked Karnataka Water Resources Minister DKShivakumar for allegedly not taking down an advertisement banner,despite being issued a formal ban. Byatarayanapura Police Station has
registered a case against the minister and Congress’troubleshooter-in-chief based on a complaint by Muthuraj, an assistant revenue officer of RR Nagar Zone of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara
Palike (BBMP), according to the complaint.

The FIR has been filed under Section 3 (Penalty for unauthorised disfigurement by advertisement) and 5 (punishment for abettors) of Karnataka Open Place Disfigurement Act 1951 and 1981, under Sections
233 and 285 (prohibition against obstruction to streets) of Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act 1976 as well as Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code.

The FIR mentioned although Shivakumar was served notices on August 13, 15, 30 and September 1, he did not act on them and the police complaint was filed.

The banner in question was installed by the minister on land in Pantapalya off Mysore Road and according to the complaint, the minister refused to act or answer notices by the BBMP.

Although there was a ban on the use of flex banners in the city as part of the plastic ban, the use was rampant until the Karnataka High Court forced the BBMP to act while hearing a Public Interest
Litigation in August. The court had taken strong exception to the initial lackadaisical approach by the BBMP over the issue and even held the chief secretary responsible for its inaction. Following this,
the BBMP has been proactive in removing both flexes and billboards in the city.

After criticism by the HC, the BBMP finally passed its long-awaited ‘Outdoor Signage and Public Messaging’ bylaws that’s been in the works since 2015, and put an official ban on all forms of outdoor
advertisements in the city for a year.

Shivakumar, who visited in Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple in Ujjain,Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, could not be reached for a comment.

This FIR comes in the wake of four separate cases filed by the Income,Tax Department against Shivakumar and one case by the Enforcement Directorate. All the five cases are in connection with raids conducted
by the central agencies against the veteran politician in various locations in the country since August 2017. Shivakumar was first raided in August 2017 at the Eagleton resort in Bidadi near Bengaluru,

PTI

A team of international experts has arrived in Pakistan to examine the country’s efforts to block terror financing through money laundering and illegal remittances, a media report said on Monday.

The team of the Asia Pacific Group (APG), an arm of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), arrived here on Sunday night to begin a 12-day “on-site inspection” of the country, Dawn news said in its report.

The team will review systems, networks and mechanisms of various institutions and agencies to ascertain if Pakistan was following through on its global commitment to get out of the FATF grey list.

The on-site inspection will verify actions taken and progress made by Islamabad.

The APG delegation comprises experts from Britain’s Scotland Yard, US Department of Treasury, Financial Intelligence Unit of Maldives, Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Peoples’ Bank of China, and the Justice Department of Turkey.

The FATF decided in February to place Pakistan on its grey list in June on a campaign pushed through by the US and its European allies for allegedly not doing enough to ban UN- and Washington-designated religious organisations and rein in their activities.

The ministries of interior, finance, foreign affairs and law besides the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), Central Directorate of National Savings and provincial counter-terrorism departments would remain available for briefings and explanations.

Last week, the government announced that it had finalised amendments to relevant laws that would be presented to the Prime Minister and his cabinet for approval, Dawn reported.

The former government negotiated a 10-point action plan to meet about 40 standards of the FATF by September 2019 to get out of the grey list.

A former Sri Lankan Minister was arrested on Monday for calling for the return of the Tamil Tigers, a guerrilla group that waged a long civil war in the island nation.

Vijayakala Maheswaran, who was arrestedwhen she went to testify to the Organized Crime Division of Sri Lankan police, had made the comments at an event in June when she was the Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs, a police source told Efe news.

“When we consider our lives prior to May 18, 2009, today’s circumstances call for the re-emergence of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). To enforce the safety of our children and women, to see them come home safely from their schools, LTTE governance must come into operation,” Maheswaran had said.

According to her, crime was almost non-existent in northern Sri Lanka during the guerrilla regime but started to rise since the conflict ended almost a decade ago.

The comments had led to a political storm in the country, especially among Sinhalese nationalist politicians, including the supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who on July 3 interrupted a Parliament session demanding the ouster of Maheswaran.

Parliament had referred the incident to the attorney general and the police had started a parallel investigation to determine whether the ex-minister’s comments had jeopardised national security.

Maheswaran had entered politics after her husband Thyagarajah Maheswaran – only member of the ruling United National Party to have been elected from Jaffna – was murdered in 2008.

According to unofficial figures, the civil war in Sri Lanka between the army and the Tamil Tigers from 1983 to 2009, had killed between 60,000 and 100,000.