Home Blog Page 4446

Concerns rise as men of Pakistani origin found sexually assaulting women in Greece with alarming frequency

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Concerns rise as men of Pakistani origin found sexually assaulting women in Greece with alarming frequency

There is a rising concern among the people of Greece after an increasing number of sexual assault cases are being linked to men of Pakistani origin. In the last few months, there have been several cases where Pakistani migrants were found committing unspeakable sexual atrocities against native women and children.

Recently, a Pakistani migrant was arrested in Ierapetra, Crete, for the assault and attempted rape of a local woman. The Pakistani migrant had approached a local woman named Despina Platanaki on Friday night near the old town hall and beat her while attempting to rape her.

A police complaint was filed by the victim and the assaulter was arrested. It was later learned by the police that the assaulter might have sexually harassed at least five other women.

Two days later, on Sunday, Ms Platanaki posted a picture of herself on Facebook and informed the world about the sexual attack on her. She urged other victims of sexual assault to come forward and speak up after she came to know that she was not the Pakistani migrant’s only victim.

In her appeal, Platanaki said, “On Friday night, I was brutally, sexually assaulted by a man of Pakistani descent. After many hours of security statements, we discovered that this ‘gentleman’ had attempted and sexually harassed five more girls who have not testified.”

“Fortunately for those girls, they did not experience the horror and pain that I feel. I know this is a delicate matter, and you may feel ashamed, but if any of you have been harassed and have not mentioned it, please go to the police and make a statement,” Platanaki said.

Alarming rise in the number of sexual assault cases reported in Greece that are linked to Pakistani migrants

For some time now, Greece has been afflicted by a series of sexual assaults involving Pakistani migrants. While the victims have been predominantly native women, in some cases, even children have been brutalised by men of Pakistani descent.

Just a day ago, on 26 March, a case of a Pakistani migrant trying to molest a 13-year-old boy came to the fore. In the Greek village of Messara, a Pakistani migrant reportedly attempted to kiss the minor boy on his lips. The boy had gone to the house of the Pakistani migrant, who was a neighbour of the boy’s relative. After the incident, the boy narrated the incident to his father, who in turn called the police and filed a complaint against the Pakistani migrant.

In February 2021, a court in Greece had extended the judicial custody of a man of Pakistani descent from 12 months to 18 months after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old minor girl. The incident occurred in April 2020 when the Pakistani migrant had raped the minor girl. The culprit had reportedly sexually assaulted the girl when she had come to her home.

While the Pakistani migrant defended himself saying that there was no sexual act between the two, the court had pressed charges for committing rape. Witnesses testified that the Pakistani met the 11-year-old outside a primary school and that the children had informed him that she was a student.

Again in February 2021, a case of a Pakistani man trying to rob and rape a young woman was reported from Pyrgos Kallistos, a village on the island of Santorini. The Pakistani migrant had reportedly threatened the girl with a knife and attempted to rape her in the small municipality of Koliri in the Peloponnese.

Sexual assaults by men of Pakistani origin has increasingly become a common occurrence in various cities across Greece. In January 2021, a horrifying case of attempted rape of a 5-year-old girl by a 20-year-old Pakistani was reported.

The Pakistani migrant, later identified as Ihtisham Al, who worked in an equestrian club in the area, dragged the child and attempted to rape her. However, he did not succeed and when the five-year-old returned to her mother, she described the scene of horror to her. The woman then immediately called the police following which Ihtisham was arrested.

Most of the Pakistani migrants arrested and accused in the sexual assault case are repeat offenders. A couple of months ago, the Greek police arrested a 29-year-old Pakistani in connection with a sexual abuse case of a 17-year-old teenage girl.

As per the complaint lodged by the girl, the accused chased her, stabbed her in the neck, and forced her to have sex with him on 23 August 2019 near Attiki Square. The girl claimed that the accused raped her again on September 2019.

In December 2020, an egregious case of minors being sexually assaulted was reported from Athens, Greece. As per the case, a Pakistani drug dealer had held two underage girls imprisoned in his apartment, drugged them and repeatedly raped them.

The girls somehow break free of their captor and escaped her apartment. The half-naked drug dealer ran after them to catch them but bumped into the police, who stopped him and handcuffed him. The girls complained that the Pakistani drug dealer was administering them drugs and sexually assaulting them. When the police raided his house, they 49 packages of cannabis, 70 pills and heroin.

Punjab: Anti-farm law protestors attack BJP MLA, strip him naked after thrashing him

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Punjab: Anti-farm law protestors attack BJP MLA, strip him naked after thrashing him

Anti-farm law protestors in Punjab attacked BJP MLA from Abohar, Arun Narang, and tore off his clothes after thrashing him. In visuals of the incident that have gone viral on social media, Narang can be seen in a nude state before the Police managed to carry him away.

The incident is reported to have occurred at Malout town in Punjab on Saturday. Arun Narang had reportedly reached the spot to participate in a press conference against the state government. However, the protesters were already waiting for him near the BJP office.

As soon as Narang reached the spot, they threw ink at him and blackened his car. BJP workers and the police somehow managed to take him inside a shop. However, he was attacked brutally when he came out. They stripped him naked with the police seemingly helpless to prevent the assault.

Punjab BJP leader Varun Puri said, “BJP’s Abohar MLA Arun Narang Ji along with two other party leaders were assaulted in Malout town. Attack on people’s representative under democratic state is punishable and shameless offence. I demand strict action with immediate results.”

Intriguingly, Arun Narang had opposed the farm laws as well and said that the laws were against farmers. His sympathetic views towards farmers do not appear to have earned him any concession.

Lawlessness has been a feature of the protests against the farm laws with things reaching a height on the 26th of January in Delhi. However, apart from the Republic Day riots, other instances of grave crimes have also been prevalent with one journalist saying that female reporters were sexually harassed at protest sites.

President Ram Nath Kovind to undergo bypass procedure on Tuesday on the advice of AIIMS doctors in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
-
0
President Ram Nath Kovind to undergo bypass procedure on Tuesday on the advice of AIIMS doctors in Delhi

President Ram Nath Kovind has been advised a bypass surgery by the doctors at AIIMS, Delhi, after diagnosing. According to reports, the surgery will be conducted on Tuesday morning in the AIIMS. A statement issued by the President’s secretariat said that it will be a planned bypass surgery, and the health of the president is stable.

The president of India, who is also the head of the armed forces, was shifted to AIIMS from Army Hospital today. President Kovind had visited the Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital in Delhi yesterday for a check-up after he had felt discomfort in chest. The doctors at the R&R hospital had kept him under observation after conducting routine tests, and today they had referred him to AIIMS Delhi after the test results were out. The doctors at the army hospital had said that the health of the president is stable.

“President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind visited Army Hospital (R&R) in New Delhi following chest discomfort this morning. He is undergoing routine check-ups and is under observation. His condition is stable,” a medical bulletin by Army R&R Hospital had said yesterday.

The specialist doctors at AIIMS conducted further tests on president Ram Nath Kovind today, and after that they advices the bypass procedure for him, which will be conducted on 30th March in the morning.

The officials have not divulged further details of the exact diagnosis of the president’s condition. However, bypass surgery is recommended when blood flow to the heart gets disrupted due to blockage in a coronary artery. Coronary artery provides blood to the muscles of the heart, and if they get blocked, blood flow to the heart gets reduced, which may have very serious consequences. In the bypass procedure, the surgeons use blood vessel from other areas of the body to restore blood flow to the heart, bypassing the damaged artery.

New leaked audio shows Mamata Banerjee allegedly instructing aide to bury BJP leader in a pit: Details

OpIndia Staff
-
0
New leaked audio shows Mamata Banerjee allegedly instructing aide to bury BJP leader in a pit: Details

BJP MP Arjun Singh has released an audio clip where he alleges that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is heard instructing the person at the other end of the call to kill a BJP leader and bury him. This is the second audio clip that has surfaced today regarding Mamata Banerjee.

In the audio clip, Mamata Banerjee can be heard telling the person that he should inform Alok, who is apparently a block president, that there is a threat to him from one BJP leader called Dilip Jatua. The Trinamool supremo alleges that Dilip Jatua has paid someone Rs 60000 to eliminate Alok. She asks for Alok to be informed about it so that he can beef up his security.

Then, Mamata Banerjee inquires about Dilip after which she is informed that Dilip has joined the BJP after losing two elections. Following that, she can be allegedly heard instructing the man to bury Dilip Jatua in a pit so that he can be ‘born later as a tree’.

OpIndia could not verify the authenticity of the clip. Arjun Singh said, “Who leaked this audio tape, only Mathurapur MP CM Jatua or Mamata Banerjee can answer.” The first audio clip leaked today showed Mamata Banerjee pleading with a BJP leader in Nandigram to help her win but the Pralay Pal said that he will not betray the Adhikari family.

USA: CDC chief under Trump admin says he believes the novel Coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab

OpIndia Staff
-
0
USA: CDC chief under Trump admin says he believes the novel Coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab

Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control in USA during Donald Trump’s presidency, has said that he believes that the novel Coronavirus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The former CDC chief also speculated that the virus was already in transmission in China’s Hubei province by September or October 2019.

“That’s my own view. It’s only an opinion. I’m allowed to have opinions now,” Robert Redfield said. “I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human, and at that moment in time that the virus came to the human became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission,” he added.

Robert Redfield said, “I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory. Escaped. Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It’s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect the laboratory worker.”

The comments made by Robert Redfield is consistent with some of the earlier reports in the media. A paper published by Chinese scientists in April 2020 suggested that the virus ‘probably’ originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The report detailed the tracing of COVID-19 to the intermediate host Horseshoe bat, a bat that they confirmed was not available at the Wuhan wet market and did not live locally. In fact, the report noted that native populations were no closer than 900kms away from the first known cases, making a natural transmission from bat to human appear more unlikely.

According to the Chinese research paper, the only place those particular bats existed locally was inside a research facility which was just several hundred yards from the Wuhan wet market. The paper strongly concluded that the coronavirus pandemic had likely been the result of a leak from the lab.

The same month, another Fox News report said that the virus was leaked accidentally by an intern working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The report said the intern contracted the virus accidentally before transmitting it to others. A Chinese virologist had said that she has evidence of the claim that the virus was manufactured at the Wuhan lab.

Days before moving out of the White House, the Trump administration had released a factsheet alleging that the virus was possibly accidentally released from Wuhan Institute of Virology and demanded a thorough probe. However, throughout all of this, the WHO, which was accused of helping China cover up its role in spreading the pandemic, has maintained that it is extremely unlikely that the virus originated from a lab.

‘I had to drag my husband like dead animal’: Victim of Mumbai hospital fire narrates ordeal, says hospital didn’t help them after the incident

Jinit Jain
-
0
‘I had to drag my husband like dead animal’: Victim of Mumbai hospital fire narrates ordeal, says hospital didn’t help them after the incident

An elderly couple suffering from COVID-19 had a hard time escaping the violent fire that swept the Sunrise Hospital in Mumbai, with the wife having to drag her husband out through the dark corridor.

“I can never forget the horror of the last night. I had to drag my husband like some dead animal through a dark corridor,” recounted Madhuri Godhwani in her interview to the Indian Express. However, Madhuri’s ordeal did not just stop there. After surviving the major blaze that broke out at Mumbai’s Sunrise hospital on Friday, she and her husband had to wait for hours before they got a hospital bed.

The couple, Madhuri Godhwani (67) and her husband Chetan Godhwani (78), was admitted to the Sunrise Hospital in the Dreams Mall on Thursday evening after being tested positive for the coronavirus. At 11 pm on that night, Madhuri saw the smoke billowing inside the room where the duo was admitted. Chetan was on oxygen support and too feeble to move. “I called for help…a ward boy asked me to run and pointed in a direction and left…I kept shouting for help for my husband,” the woman recalled.

Realising that there was no help coming and the smoke was rapidly enveloping inside the room, Madhuri dragged her husband through the dark corridor. She remembers taking a lift that was working on backup power to reach the first floor and then came down the stairway.

As the couple emerged out of the hospital, there was chaos and disorder along the street. In the ensuing commotion, Madhuri’s husband’s saline tube snapped and his hand started bleeding. She called up her son and waited for him to arrive.

When their son Lalit arrived, he saw his father bleeding and mother wailing on the road. “There were no ambulance available. I called a private ambulance which charged us Rs 8,000. We tried multiple hospitals, but they all denied having beds…Finally, by 4 am, we reached Viraj Hospital in Thane where we got beds,” Godhwani said.

Lalit said that his family had paid Rs 1 lakh in advance to the Sunrise hospital. Now, their savings are completely depleted. Lalit has asked his company to pay his salary in advance to help him tide over the financial crisis looming over his head. Lalit also mentioned that Sunrise hospital has neither reached out to them nor responded to their calls.

The violent conflagration broke out at the Sunrise Hospital in the Dreams Mall building in the Bhandup area around Thursday midnight. The temporary hospital is situated on the top floor of the four-storied mall building. 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited the spot in the afternoon and assured strict action against those who were responsible for the fire. He apologised to the families of the victims and announced Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each deceased.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, BMC sources said. Thirty fire tenders, 20 water tankers and ambulances were rushed to the spot to control the fire and shift the patients to other hospitals.

The blaze came in the midst of surging coronavirus cases in Mumbai. On Thursday this week, Mumbai registered 5,504 new infections, the highest daily count since the pandemic began.

10 people died in the fire that broke out in Mumbai. All the 10 people were coronavirus patients.

Thousands of students and parents express solidarity with British teacher who was suspended for showing Prophet Muhammad cartoons in class

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Thousands of students and parents express solidarity with British teacher who was suspended for showing Prophet Muhammad cartoons in class

A day after Islamists in the United Kingdom stormed near a school to protest against a school teacher and got him suspended for showing satirical cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad to students, students and parents have come in support of the suspended teacher. They also have launched an online campaign demanding the school to reinstate him.

According to the reports, students and parents have now expressed solidarity with the teacher who was suspended for allegedly showing students a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed in his class. The unnamed teacher was suspended by the school authorities this week after a mob of Islamists had protested outside the school for showing the cartoons taken from the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo during a religious studies lesson this week.

The protests by Islamists had created a security scare in the town of West Yorkshire, resulting in the deployment of the police officials. The school authorities succumbing to the pressure and security threat of Islamists had suspended the teacher and had initiated an inquiry.

However, a day later, students and parents have now demanded that the teacher should be brought back to school. An online petition has been launched to save the teacher’s job even as furious Muslim parents have called for his sacked and continue to protest outside the school despite being condemned by the government.

The petition launched by a student at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire said the teacher had “pure intentions”, adding, “He is not racist and did not support the Islamophobic [sic] cartoons in any manner.”

Thousands sign petition, ask authorities to recall teacher

The petition said, “The religious studies teacher was trying to educate students about racism and blasphemy. He warned the students before showing them the images, and he had the intent to educate them. He does not deserve such large repercussions. He is not a racist and did not support the Islamophobic cartoons in any manner.”

The petition has been signed by thousands of people and is gathering momentum despite protesters calling for the teacher to be sacked.

Liz Haste, whose daughter, 15, and son, 12, have been taught the religious studies course by the same teacher, said, “It is a vigilante hunt on (him). He shouldn’t be sacked. I have stood in support of the suspended teacher and have also launched an online petition calling the Batley school authorities to reinstate the teacher,” she said.

The unnamed teacher, who is now under police protection, has been suspended from his role with Batley Grammar School on Thursday after school authorities issued an apology to parents who have been protesting outside the school gates.

On Thursday, the headteacher of a school in the United Kingdom was forced to apologise to Muslims after a massive protest was organised outside the school on Thursday morning, calling for the teacher’s resignation. Imam Mohammed Amin Pandor, the director of the ‘Peace Institute’, and a few others gathered outside the school to condemn the use of the images as “totally unacceptable” and demanded that the teacher involved has been suspended.

Mob continue to protests, Government criticises such protests

Meanwhile, the angry Muslim mob have gathered outside Batley Grammar School for a second day on Friday, forcing the school to close at the last minute this morning.

Following the scare, the school’s headteacher Garry Kibble suspended the school and put students on online studies after more than 50 protesters turned up at the school gates.

The protests launched by the Muslim mob outside the West Yorkshire school has generated a massive controversy in the country. Several people have condemned the protests carried out by Muslims against the teacher, saying such protests are “completely unacceptable.”

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said he was “disturbed” by the protests, adding there had to be an “appropriate balance” between free speech and behaving in a tolerant way. He added that there was a “balance to be struck by teaching professionals” between free speech and respecting different cultures.

“What I would also add is that I was disturbed to see scenes of people protesting outside the school. That is not right. We shouldn’t have teachers, members of the staff of schools feeling intimidated. The reports that a teacher may even be in hiding is very disturbing. That is not a road we want to go down in this country,” Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said.

On Thursday, the Department for Education has condemned the protests and threats, saying such protests are “completely unacceptable”. The spokesperson also said the protests were in violation of coronavirus restrictions.

BJP leader Pralay Pal speaks up after Mamata Banerjee begged him to help her in Nandigram, says he will remain loyal to Suvendu Adhikari

OpIndia Staff
-
0
BJP leader Pralay Pal speaks up after Mamata Banerjee begged him to help her in Nandigram, says he will remain loyal to Suvendu Adhikari

Hours after a stunning audio clip of an alleged conversation between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and a BJP district Vice-President in Nandigram went viral, the latter has confirmed the authenticity of the call recording. The BJP leader Pralay Pal has reiterated his loyalty to the party and his leader Suvendu Adhikari, saying he will remain loyal to him.

In a video uploaded by the West Bengal unit of BJP, Pralay Pal said, “Mamata Banerjee is the candidate from the Nandigram constituency. And somehow she thought of me today and gave me a call. She wants my support. She wants me to return to her party and work for it (TMC). We work for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and are even ready to sacrifice our lives for it. Our party candidate is Suvendu Adhikari. My family is connected to his family for several years.”

He emphasised, “When the Communist party (CPIM) committed atrocities on people and TMC workers, it was the Adhikari family which stood by them. When I joined the BJP, I did not point fingers at the Adhikari family. We neither found anything against them nor showed the audacity to point fingers at them. Because they stood by helpless people from the very onset.”

“And this time Suvendu Adhikari is a candidate of the BJP. And I will have to stay loyal to him. I have told Didi (Mamata Banerjee) that her party did not give me a resident certificate, despite being a party member. We don’t betray other parties and will refrain from doing so, even in the future. Irrespective of what she says, we are fighting for Suvendu Adhikari. I have taken the responsibility of sending him to Nabanna from the Nandigram constituency. And I will ensure that it happens,” Praloy Pal concluded.

Leaked audio clip shows Mamata Banerjee pleading BJP leader for help

On Saturday, the audio clip of the conversation between West Bengal CM and Pralay Pal surfaced, wherein Mamata Banerjee could be heard pleading for Pal’s help ahead of polling in Nandigram on April 1.

“You are a young man, you do a lot of work, I know. Please help us out a bit here, you will see, you will not experience any difficulty,” Mamata Banerjee said during the conversation. Pralay Pal responded, “My family engaged in politics because of you, didi. The day when election results were announced, when we realised that you will become the Chief Minister, we invited 5 Brahmins for pujo and organised a rally.”

“But what hurts is, even after all such sacrifices, when Pralay Pal does not get receive a resident certificate, there is nothing more humiliating than that,” he added. Mamata told him that she was not allowed to visit Nandigram by the TMC leader there, taking a dig at Suvendu Adhikari, the former TMC stalwart who is now BJP’s candidate from the constituency.

Pal continued, “I shouldn’t receive a resident certificate, can it happen? I have been beaten by your Mahadev.” Mamata Banerjee defended herself saying that she did not receive information earlier but now she has come there, she is learning of it. Pralay Pal, nevertheless, despite much cajoling, refused to betray the BJP. “Whatever you think, Didi, I have quit the party now (TMC), I will not be able to betray the trust of the party I am in now,” he said.

Rajasthan: Corrupt Tehsildar burns cash worth Rs 20 lakh on gas burner after ACB officials knocked on his door to raid his house

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Rajasthan: Corrupt Tehsildar burns cash worth Rs 20 lakh on gas burner after ACB officials knocked on his door to raid his house

In a bizarre incident in Rajasthan, a corrupt government official burnt around Rs 20 lakh in cash in the kitchen after officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau arrived to raid his house. The incident happened at Pindwara in Pali in Rajasthan on Wednesday, when ACB officers had arrived at the residence of Tehsildar Kalpesh Jain to arrest him on corruption charges.

The ACB had launched a probe against Tehsildar Kalpesh Jain and Revenue Inspector Parbat Singh Rajput after several allegations were registered against them. ACB had caught Rajput red-handed taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh for tender, after which he had revealed that a total of Rs 5 lakh in bribe has been asked by the Tehsildar for award of the tender.

Following this, the ACB officials had arrived at the residence of Kalpesh Jain on Wednesday evening. But on seeing the officials, Jain shut his door, and started burning bundles of Rs 500 currency notes on the gas burner in the kitchen with the help of his wife. He told the waiting officials outside that he is making tea, but the officials saw through a window what was actually happening. The officials also video recorded the act of Jain through the window.

The ACB kept asking Jain to stop burning notes, but he wouldn’t stop. Left with no other choice, the officials broke the door with the help of local police officials, and stopped the destruction of bundles of the notes. The officials recovered several bundles of partially burnt notes, and according to them, almost Rs 20 lakh in case were destroyed by the Tehsildar Kamlesh Jain. The officials seized the partially burnt notes, along with the gas burner used to burn them.

During the raid at the house, ACB recovered around Rs 2.5 lakh in case, documents for several properties, documents of bank lockers, and more than 16 bank accounts in the name of Jain’s wife. Although bank statements from all the banks are yet to arrive, according to preliminary probe, at least Rs 20 lakhs are deposited in the accounts. It is suspected that the bank lockers contain cash and jewellery obtained through corruption. The ACB has frozen all the bank accounts.

Both Jain and Rajput have been arrested, and they were presented before a special court on Friday, and they were sent for ACB’s remand. The ACB is questioning them separately to find out the extent of the corruption. Along with the relevant charges of corruption by a government, charges for destroying Indian currency notes also have been registered against Kamlesh Jain.

Remember the Tamil Nadu candidate who promised a trip to the moon in election manifesto? Here’s why he promised the freebies

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Remember the Tamil Nadu candidate who promised a trip to the moon in election manifesto? Here’s why he promised the freebies

Political parties in Tamil Nadu often tend to promise a host of freebies in their election manifestos. From washing machines to television, the Dravidian parties – AIADMK and DMK for decades now, have indulged in extreme populist measures to woo voters in the state.

However, one man surprised them all last week by making bizarre and next to impossible promises. Ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Thulam Saravanan, an independent candidate from the Madurai South constituency, had taken the promises to another level by promising mini-helicopters, trip to the moon and robots if voted to victory.

Thulam Saravanan had also promised an annual deposit of Rs.1 crore for every home, gold jewellery for weddings, a 3-storey house, a boat for every family, a 300-foot high artificial snow mountain to keep the constituency cool, a space research centre and a rocket launch pad, should he be elected.

The poll promises made by Saravanan became a hot topic in the country as people debated over the logic of making such populist claims.

However, a day after becoming an internet sensation, Thulam Saravanan has himself clarified the rationale behind making such bizarre premises.

Speaking to the media, the 33-year-old Thulam Saravanan said that his aim was to spread awareness and caution voters against voting for political parties that lure people by offering vague freebies. “I want them to choose good candidates who are ordinary humble people,” he said in a TV interview.

“It’s not that it is impossible to fulfil these promises, but you have to spend a lot of money. My aim is to create awareness among people. In election time, political parties promise this and that to get votes, and they don’t do anything after that. I have made these promises to create awareness among the people of Tamil Nadu, particularly the youth,” he said.

I chose dustbin as my symbol to depict the dirty political system: Independent candidate Thulam Saravanan

Saravanan, who works as a reporter for a local daily, said that he chose his symbol as a dustbin to symbolise the dirty politics prevailing in the state. “I chose the dustbin because we need to get rid of the garbage of bribery and corruption in the system,” he reportedly said.

Raising awareness through his unique poll promises, Saravanan said that people should come out of the freebie culture and introspect on what the political parties have done to improve their living conditions. “Various parties make tall promises during elections and seldom meet the people once they get elected,” the independent candidate from Madurai said.

Unhappy with political parties not working for the welfare of people, Saravanan said he has taken a loan of Rs 20,000 to contest elections. Mindful of the fact that he might not win, Saravanan said, “But my WhatsApp message has gone viral, and people are thinking about my tall promises and the thought behind it”.

The 234-seat Tamil Nadu Assembly will go to polls on April 6, with results to be declared on May 2. The ruling AIADMK has joined hands with the BJP to fight the Congress-DMK alliance in the assembly elections. One has to wait and watch whether Saravanan’s awareness campaign works for him or not.

1...4,4454,4464,447...7,656Page 4,446 of 7,656