Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for News & Politics

Bommai in Delhi today to meet PM Modi, decision on Cabinet likely next week

by

HUBBALLI, BENGALURU: Two days after taking oath as Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai will be visiting New Delhi on Friday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other Union ministers and MPs from Karnataka. However, the issue of cabinet formation may not be on the discussion table for now, as the CM, who is currently heading a one-man government, indicated that it will take some time and he will visit Delhi again to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, his predecessor B S Yediyurappa told reporters on Thursday that he will not interfere in the cabinet formation or administration. “Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is capable and he will decide on it. I have even told my followers not to contact me for any work and to approach Bommai himself as he is now the CM of Karnataka,” Yediyurappa said. 

Regarding the apprehensions among the turncoats who had joined the BJP to help the party form its government, Yediyurappa said he will talk to Bommai, but added that the latter will decide on it. He also said will visit Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar district on Friday and call on the family of Ravi who committed suicide a day after Yediyurappa resigned.

CM to discuss pending K’taka projects in Delhi
“It’s my responsibility, I am going there to console the family,” the former CM added. On his future role, Yediyurappa quipped, “Even without power and post, one can do good deeds”.In Delhi, the CM is also holding a meeting with Union ministers and MPs from Karnataka to discuss pending projects and other issues related to Karnataka. He is scheduled to reach Delhi by 8.55 am and after meeting the PM and Union ministers, he will hold a meeting with MPs at 1 pm.

In related developments ahead of the CM’s visit to Delhi, many BJP leaders are too are rushing to the national capital and ministerial aspirants are lobbying hard to be part of the new government. On one hand, senior leader and former CM Jagadish Shettar’s refusal to join the cabinet has sent ripples among other senior leaders in the party while on the other, MLAs are resorting to intense lobbying to be part of Bommai’s Cabinet.

Bommai said that after Shettar made his opinion public, he had spoken to the latter about meeting him personally and added that after understanding his (Shettar’s) feelings, the matter will be taken up with the party leadership to try and find a solution.

WILL NEW CM GET NEW TEAM WITH NEW FACES?  
With Karnataka getting a new CM , the question now remains who will make it to the Basavaraj Bommai cabinet. Several MLAs, who were ministers in the Yediyurappa cabinet, are unlikely to make it. “Leaders are keen on bringing those who were denied berths earlier,” a source said.  

Biden asks states to offer the unvaccinated USD 100 to get Covid jabs

by

President Joe Biden speaks about a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, in the Cross Hall of the White House.

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden is asking states and localities to offer unvaccinated residents $100 to get their COVID-19 shots.

The cash reward for vaccination was one idea in Biden’s latest plan to boost lagging vaccination rates in many parts of the nation.

Rolled out Thursday, the core of his new plan is a requirement for federal workers to disclose their vaccination status to their agencies.

Biden is pointing to anecdotal evidence that a $100 reward will get results.

The White House says the Kroger grocery store chain tried it and saw vaccination rates jump to 75% from 50% among employees.

New Mexico, Ohio and Colorado have also experimented with the idea.

Biden says states and localities can use money from his COVID relief law to pay for the incentive programmes.

Kerala assembly ruckus case: Opposition boycotts session demanding resignation of minister V Sivankutty

by

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition front on Friday boycotted the assembly proceedings for the day demanding resignation of General education minister V Sivankutty in connection with the assembly ruckus case.

When the House convened at 9 am, the Opposition front disrupted the proceedings by raising slogans seeking the removal of Sivankutty. Though Speaker MB Rajesh appealed the opposition to remain calm, his efforts went in vain. 

However the proceedings started amidst slogan rising from the opposition benches. Forest Minister AK Saseendran started giving answers to the written questions from Congress legislators PT Thomas and Roji M John on the Muttil tree-felling case. The opposition legislators disrupted and Thomas said he won’t ask the question until the chair allow Opposition leader V D Satheeshan to speak. Other UDF legislators too seconded him. 

Following this Speaker allowed VD Satheeshan to speak. The Opposition Leader wanted to know why the government was protecting the minister, even after he is accused in a criminal case. Satheeshan  pointed out the Chief Minister’s action amounts to disrespect to the Supreme Court verdict, as the verdict of the apex court is considered to be the ‘law of the land’.

To which chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan once again made it categorically clear that minister V Sivankutty will not be replaced. He accused the UDF of going for a police complaint rather than not letting the incident getting resolved under the purview of the assembly rules and proceeding. The police case in the assembly ruckus was unprecedented, he pointed out.

Responding to Chief Minister, Satheeshan said Chief minister was wrong and there were police cases registered before also, in the erstwhile assembly in the state and in other states like Punjab.

Later, the Speaker decided to proceed with the question hour amid protest slogans from the opposition side. At 9.30 am, the Opposition leader requested the Speaker to allow him to speak and announced that the Opposition has decided to boycott the session for the day.

India score late winner to keep QF hopes alive in Olympic women’s hockey

by

Tokyo: The Indian women’s hockey team scored a late goal to eke out a narrow 1-0 victory over Ireland in a must-win penultimate pool match to stay alive in the Olympics here on Friday.

Needing a win to keep their hopes alive after three consecutive losses, India waited anxiously for 57 minutes before Navneet Kaur scored the winner to keep her side in the hunt for a quarterfinal berth.

India will now need to win their final Pool A match against South Africa on Saturday and hope for Ireland to face defeat at the hands of Great Britain to seal their quarterfinal berth.

The top four teams from each pool qualify for the knockout stage.

20 injured as oil leak causes blast at poultry feed plant in Kerala’s Palakkad

by

Palakkad: Twenty people, including fire fighters, were injured on Thursday when an oil leak triggered a blast at a poultry feed plant in Kerala’s Palakkad district, police said.

The incident took place around 5 pm at an isolated hilltop in Thiruvizamkunnu, they said.

Three people, including a fire department personnel, were seriously injured and admitted to a nearby hospital, they said.

“The plant, owned by an NRI, was conducting a trial run today but a fire broke out due to oil leak. They sought help from the fire force department. As the fire fighters were trying to douse the fire, the temperature of the oil tank increased and resulted in a blast,” a police official told PTI.

Police said the oil tank contained a liquid similar to furnace oil and exploded due to high temperature.

“According to the preliminary assessment, 20 people got injured and they have been admitted to various hospitals nearby. The fire has been doused,” the official said.

Australia to return 14 stolen or illegally exported artworks to India

by

Melbourne: Australia will return to India another 14 culturally significant artworks, including bronze and stone sculptures, a painted scroll and photographs, some of which were likely stolen, illegally excavated or unethically acquired from the country.

The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) on Thursday announced it will return these works of art from its Asian art collection to the Indian Government.

The works of art being repatriated include 13 objects connected to Indian art dealer Subhash Kapoor through Art of the Past and one acquired from art dealer William Wolff.

It is the fourth time the NGA has handed the Indian government antiquities it bought from Kapoor, ABC News reported.

The works include six bronze or stone sculptures, a brass processional standard, a painted scroll and six photographs.

Kapoor is awaiting trial in India after being accused of running a global smuggling ring for artefacts.

Another three sculptures sourced from Art of the Past have also been removed from the collection.

Further research will be undertaken to identify their place of origin before they are repatriated.

Following this action, along with the repatriation of works in 2014, 2016 and 2019, the National Gallery will no longer hold any works acquired through Kapoor in its collection, NGA said in a statement.

“The decision to return the works is the culmination of years of research, due diligence and an evolving framework for decision-making that includes both legal principles and ethical considerations,” it said.

The National Gallery has introduced a new provenance assessment framework that considers available evidence about both the legal and ethical aspects of a work of art’s history.

“If on the balance of probability, it is considered likely that an item was stolen, illegally excavated, exported in contravention of the law of a foreign country, or unethically acquired, the National Gallery will take steps to deaccession and repatriate,” it said.

National Gallery of Australia Director Nick Mitzevich said these actions demonstrated the National Gallery’s commitment to being a leader in the ethical management of collections.

With these developments, provenance decision-making at the National Gallery will be determined by an evidence-based approach evaluated on the balance of probabilities, anchored in robust legal and ethical decision-making principles and considerations, he said.

As the first outcome of this change, the Gallery will be returning 14 objects from the Indian art collection to their country of origin,” he said.

This is the right thing to do, it’s culturally responsible and the result of collaboration between Australia and India. We are grateful to the Indian Government for their support and are pleased we can now return these culturally significant objects.

Mitzevich said the Gallery would continue its provenance research, including for the Asian art collection and resolve the status of any works of concern.

The Indian High Commissioner to Australia, Manpreet Vohra, welcomed the decision by the Australian Government and the National Gallery to return the works.

The Government of India is grateful for this extraordinary act of goodwill and gesture of friendship from Australia, Vohra said.

These are outstanding pieces: their return will be extremely well-received by the Government and people of India, he said in a statement.

This latest move follows years of significant research to determine the provenance of works in the Asian art collection, including two independent reviews conducted by former High Court Justice Susan Crennan.

This collection is the largest yet to be repatriated by the gallery.

NGA director Nick Mitzevich said the gallery believed six of the artworks were likely stolen or illegally removed from India.

While the gallery could not establish the provenance of another two items and did not have any evidence the six photos were stolen, Mitzevich told the ABC that they would also be returned to India because the NGA had no faith in Kapoor’s ethics.

“We have strengthened our processes and have zero-tolerance now for any inconsistencies in the provenance of a work of art,” he said.

“This is another step towards us building an ethical approach to managing our collections.”

The NGA spent 10.7 million dollars on 22 works from Kapoor’s “Art of the Past” gallery over several years, including a stunning 11th century Chola bronze sculpture, Shiva Nataraja, which the NGA purchased for more than 5 million dollars in 2008.

When Indian police arrested Kapoor in 2012 they listed the Dancing Shiva as one of the stolen items, and it soon became clear the sculpture had been ripped out of a temple in southern India.

In 2014 then-prime Australian minister Tony Abbott handed the Dancing Shiva to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.

Since then, the NGA has returned another five artworks it purchased from Kapoor to the Indian government, including a third-century rock carving and a series of exquisite stone sculptures.

Lovlina Borgohain assures India of first boxing medal at Tokyo Olympics

by

print sharing button

Lovlina Borgohain assures India of first boxing medal at Tokyo Olympics

Tokyo: Debutant Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) assured India of their first boxing medal at the ongoing Olympic Games when she upstaged former world champion Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei to enter the semifinals here on Friday.

The 23-year-old Assam boxer prevailed 4-1 to make the last-four where she will square off against reigning world champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, who hammered Anna Lysenko in her quarterfinal bout.

Borgohain, a two-time world championship bronze-medallist, displayed tremendous calm in the face of a plucky opponent, who had beaten her in the past.

She was aggressive to start with, followed it up with a tremendous counter-attacking game and kept her defence tight in the final three minutes to emerge triumphant.

The youngster, who was laid low by COVID-19 last year and missed a training trip to Europe because of it, let out a huge scream after the referee raised her hand, pent up emotions finally getting the better of her.

India’s previous boxing medals have come through Vijender Singh (2008) and M C Mary Kom (2012). Both of them had won bronze medals and Borgohain would look to better that.

Earlier, Simranjit Kaur (60kg) lost to Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee in the pre-quarterfinals to make an early exit from the Games here.

The 26-year-old Indian, seeded fourth, went down 0-5 despite a gritty performance.

She was impressive in the opening round and seemed to have caught Seesondee on the back-foot with her measured approach, sticking to a counter-attacking strategy.

However, the judges ruled unanimously in favour of the Thai, causing Simranjit to be a tad reckless in the second round.

The Indian paid for the hyper-aggressive approach in the first few seconds itself when Seesondee managed to connect some eye-catching left hooks.

The defensive errors in the second put paid to Simranjit’s chances and even though she gave it her all in the third round, it needed nothing short of a demolition job to get over the line.

However, that was not to be as she bowed out following a unanimous verdict.

The 29-year-old Thai is a two-time world championships medallist and also won a silver in the 2018 Asian Games.

Archer Deepika Kumari seals last-eight berth, ousts former world champion Russian Perova

by

Tokyo: World number one archer Deepika Kumari held her nerves to pip former world champion Ksenia Perova of the Russian Olympic Committee in a thrilling one-arrow shoot-off to advance to the women’s individual quarterfinals of the Olympic Games here on Friday.

Locked 5-5 after the regulation five-setter, the 27-year-old Indian delivered a perfect 10, hitting the bull’s eye, to topple the Russian, a team silver medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Starting off the one-arrow shoot-off, the Russian crumbled under pressure as she misfired a 7 while a composed Deepika sealed the issue 6-5 (10-7) without any fuss.

For the three-time Olympian Deepika, this was her first win from three matches against the 2017 world champion as she became the first Indian to make the last-eight in an individual event of the Olympics

In the quarterfinals, Deepika will face 20-year-old Korean top seed An San who bounced back from a set behind to oust local favourite Ren Hayakawa 6-4.

The Korean, who had broken a 25-year-old Olympic record en route to topping the ranking round, displayed incredible shooting of three 10s in her last three arrows to set up a clash against the Indian.

Deepika had faced the Korean once earlier, in the final of the ‘Tokyo 2020 Test Event’ at the same venue of Yumenoshima Park in 2019, and the Indian had lost to her younger opponent in straight sets.

“Now it’s going to be tougher and tougher ahead,” said Deepika, who is chasing the country’s first ever Olympic medal in archery.

“I’ve to fight and shoot better. I hope to do better in the next round. Right now, I need extra focus.

“I can’t win if I’m nervous. I’m trying my best to regain my touch as quickly as possible,” Deepika said of her nervy outing against the Russian.

She had failed to close out after taking 4-2 and 5-3 lead in the third and fifth sets respectively.

“I’m really nervous. Yes, I started off well but it was all about Olympic pressure. It really became difficult (afterwards) to find the yellow-ring (that gives scores of either 9 or 10).”

Deepika had a flying start and raced to a 2-0 lead, drilling a perfect 10 in her second arrow as the experienced Russian faltered with a 7 in the last arrow to concede the set by three points (28-25).

Up 19-17 after two arrows in the second set, the Indian needed a 9 to take a 4-0 lead but only to misfire a 7 as the Russian gained control by one point (26-27) with a 10 for a 2-2 overall score.

It was some tight shooting from both archers from there on as Deepika edged out narrowly (28-27) courtesy a 10 in her first arrow.

A 10 eluded Deepika in the fourth set as both players hit an identical 9-8-9 to take the match to the fifth set with the Indian in the driver’s set with a 5-3 lead.

But pressure got the better of Deepika once again as she could not capitalise her lead and misfired a 7 in her first arrow, conceding the set to her world number 8 opponent (25-28) to force a shoot-off after being 5-5.

Call it a stroke of luck or something else for Deepika, Perova misfired a 7 to start off the one-arrow shoot-off and the Indian held her nerves to seal the issue by hitting the bull’s eye.

“I just tried to live in the present. I was very much relieved after she hit a 7. It definitely boosted my confidence,” Deepika said of the shoot-off.

The sequence of the shoot-off follows the sequence of the start of the match, something that was chosen by the higher seed player.

Perova was a seed higher than Deepika who had finished ninth in the ranking round.

Deepika’s husband Atanu Das is the only other Indian in contention for a medal as he made the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday with a stunning shoot-off win over two-time Olympic champion Oh Jin Hyek.

“Obviously it boosted my morale. The pressure gets divided,” Deepika said of her husband as the duo are the first Indian couple to take part in the same discipline in the Games.

In his last-16 match slated on Saturday, Das will face home favourite Takaharu Furukawa, an individual silver medallist at the 2012 Olympics and a team bronze winner here.

Indian men’s team and mixed team were earlier knocked out by the Koreans in their respective quarterfinals.

Shilpa Shetty’s mother lodges cheating complaint in Rs 1.6 crore land deal case

by

Mumbai: Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s mother Sunanda Shetty has registered a complaint of cheating and forgery here against a property agent in a Rs 1.6 crore land deal in adjoining Raigad district, a police official said on Thursday.

According to the official, the case was registered against the accused, Sudhakar Ghare, on Wednesday at the Juhu Police station in suburban Mumbai on directions of a city court.

The accused allegedly forged documents to claim that the land in question was in his name and executed the Rs 1.6 crore deal with Sunanda Shetty, he said, quoting from the complaint.

However, when the fraud came to light, Sunanda Shetty asked Ghare to return her money, but he failed to do so, the official said.

He has been charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, he said.

A senior inspector from the Juhu Police station confirmed registration of the case, but said no arrest has been made and further investigation was underway.

During initial probe, the police found the matter is two years old when Sunanda Shetty had purchased the relevant land in Karjat taluka, around 100km from Mumbai, from Ghare.

Using forged papers, the accused had claimed the land belonged to him and fraudulently sold the property to the complainant, police said.

When the complainant learnt about it, she immediately asked Ghare to return the money. When he failed to do so, Sunanda Shetty approached the local court seeking its intervention for registration of a case, they said.

The incident has come at a time when Shilpa Shetty is in limelight following the arrest of her husband, businessman Raj Kundra, in connection with alleged production of pornographic films.

Sri Lanka thrash India by 7 wickets to win series 2-1

by

Colombo: Sri Lanka spinners led by leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga rattled a depleted Indian batting to engineer a 2-1 series victory with a seven-wicket win in the third T20 International here on Thursday.

Batting first, India playing with at least two batsmen short were restricted to their third lowest total of 81 for 8 with Hasaranga getting 4 for 9 in 4 overs.

In reply, Sri Lanka reached the target in 14.3 overs with Dhananjaya De Silva (23 ) scoring bulk of the runs. Rahul CHahar finished with 3/15 in 4 overs.

Brief Scores: India 81/8 in 20 overs (Wanindu Hasaranga 4/9). Sri Lanka 82 for 3 in 14.3 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 23 batting, Rahul Chahar 3/15).

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives