After the Rashtriya Swaywamsevak Sangh moved to the Madras High Court against the Tamil Nadu government over some objectionable content against them in the state board textbooks, the HC had directed the state government to remove the mentioned content from the class 10 textbooks earlier this month.
As per reports, the Tamil Nadu government has informed the HC that they will proceed to remove the said content from the textbooks.
The petition was filed in the High Court by the secretary of RSS’ Tamil Nadu Wing, P Chandrasekaran. The controversial content was published in both the Tamil and English versions of the textbook. The petition was filed against the principal secretary (Government of Tamil Nadu), the director (Department of school education), the managing director (Tamil Nadu Textbook and education service Corporation) and the director (SCERT).
As per the RSS’ petition, the 10 standard Social Sciences textbooks had mentioned “RSS took an anti-Muslim stand” under the heading ‘Hindu Communalism’. The content was found in both Tamil and English versions of the textbooks.
Chandrasekaran’s lawyer, Dr G Babu argued in the HC that the claim that RSS took an ‘anti-Muslim stance’ during the freedom struggle is completely false. The counsel stated that RSS vehemently opposed the Partition of India on the basis of religion. He added that the textbook creates a wrong impression of the organisation in the minds of school students.
During the hearing, the government agreed to remove the controversial portion. The School Education Department stated that it had formed a team to inquire into the issue and will remove the said portion from textbooks.
The RSS counsel stated that the organisation was formed to serve for the people’s welfare and the textbook’s content were trying to create a false impression in the minds of students that the RSS is working against a particular religion.
The National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) has released its prison statistics report for the year 2018 (PSI 2018) shows that the highest number of foreigner undertrials and convicts were lodged in West Bengal prisons. It even shows that of the total number of foreigners imprisoned in India, the highest percentage is that of Bangladeshis.
The NCRB report on Prison Statistics 2018 says, “A total of 5,168 Foreign national inmates consisting of 4,381 Males and 787 Females were confined in various Indian jails at the end of the year 2018. Out of the 5,168 Foreign national prisoners, 2,108 were Convicts, 2,611 were Undertrials and 43 were Detenues. West Bengal has reported the highest number of inmates (2,316) followed by Maharashtra (587) and Delhi (416) accounting for 44.8%, 11.4% and 8.0% of the total inmates”.
State-wise number of total foreign prisoners
Further, A total of 2108 Foreign national convicts consisting of 1811 Males and 297 Females were confined in various jails in the country at the end of the year 2018. West Bengal has lodged the highest number of convicted prisoners(1379) followed by Uttar Pradesh(130) and Delhi(97) accounting for 65.4%, 6.2%, 4.6 of the total convicts.
Chart showing the number of foreign prisoners by nationality
According to the NCRB report, West Bengal has also lodged the highest number of Undertrial prisoners (576) followed by Maharashtra (508) and Delhi (306) accounting for 22.1%, 19.5% and 11.7 % of the total foreign undertrials.
Even among undertrials totalling 2611 foreign national the highest number of prisoners belong to Bangladesh (1044) followed by Nigeria (489) and Nepal (459).
Interestingly, the NCRB report clearly states that the state of West Bengal has refused to share data with NCRB and hence, the numbers in the report are from 2017. With the recent developments, it would not be surprising if the number of 2018 is higher than that of 2017.
According to The Hindu, State Minister of Prisons Ujjwal Biswas said that the number of foreign inmates was higher because of West Bengal’s border with Bangladesh. “This is because of the lacunae in guarding the border [by personnel] deployed by the central government that we have a high number of foreign inmates in our prisons,” asserted Mr Biswas.
It is pertinent to note that West Bengal shares a 2,216 km border with Bangladesh and those caught illegally entering the country are usually booked under The Foreigners Act and can be imprisoned for several years.
Mamata Banerjee, the CM of West Bengal has been opposing NRC, that the central govt intends to extend to the entire country. The NRC would essentially aim to identify illegal immigrants and ensure that they are returned to their country of origin.
Despite West Bengal having the highest number of foreign prisoners, most from Bangladesh, Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to NRC is baffling.
Five persons, including two teachers, were booked on January 18 (Saturday) for gang-raping a minor student in Nanded district of Marathwada region in Maharashtra. While the student is recuperating in a private hospital, the Nanded police have booked the accused under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act.
Apart from the two teachers who had allegedly raped the girl in the school, the principal, headmaster and a woman cook associated with the school’s midday meal scheme have also been booked for ignoring the complaint of the victim’s family. According to reports, all the five accused have been absconding.
In the incident that took place around two months back but came to light recently, a class six student was lured by the two teachers into a room under the pretext of showing her a video of a cultural program in the school. After taking her inside, the teachers allegedly locked her up and forced her to watch a pornographic video, thereafter gang-raped her. Gravely injured, she was later found abandoned near the school by her parents.
“The incident happened around two months back but a police case but a police complaint was lodged only on January 18,” said deputy superintendent of police (Biloli) Siddheshwar Dhumal, investigating the case. “We have registered an FIR and have launched a manhunt for the five. They have been booked under various sections of the IPC and POCSO Act. The girl has been admitted to the hospital,” furthered the SP.
The parents had initially lodged a complaint with the school headmaster who asked her to give in a written complaint. However, instead of initiating any action against the two teachers the principal asked them to pay her to pacify her. “The teachers met the girl’s mother and threatened her with dire consequences is she spoke about the rape with anyone,” the sources said, quoting the complaint.
Only after being encouraged by her relatives to speak up against the crime against her minor daughter did the mother muster up the courage to approach the police, said a member of a students’ organisation, which is based in Nanded, Maharashtra.
On Monday, January 20 the village observed a bandh to show solidarity with the minor and demanding justice for her.
As per a Right to information (RTI) reply given by Jawaharlal Nehru University, it does not have information about nationality of as many as 82 foreign students. As of now 301 foreign students are registered in the varsity.
As reported by news agency PTI, the RTI was filed by Kota based activist Sujeet Swami and provided information as on 1st September, 2019. Out of total 8805 students studying in JNU, about 48 per cent are pursuing MPhil or PhD degrees. The 82 foreign students, whose details about nationality are not known to the university, are enrolled in 41 courses of graduation, post-graduation, MPhil and PhD courses that are offered by the university.
From the remaining students, 35 students are from Korea, 25 from Nepal, 24 from China, 21 from Afghanistan, 16 from Japan and 13 from Germany. JNU also has 10 students from US and seven from Bangladesh and Syria each.
Update:
The Jawaharlal Nehru University today denied media reports regarding the above foreign students.
Jawaharlal Nehru University: JNU Administration strongly denies the media reports that it does not have information on the nationality of 82 foreign nationals studying at the University. JNU has all relevant information regarding foreign students studying at the University.
Former actress Soni Razdan, who is the wife of Mahesh Bhatt and mother of actress Alia Bhatt, today took to Twitter to claim that the SC’s judgement parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was wrong and Guru was made a ‘scapegoat’.
Quoting an article published on ‘The Print’ about a possible connection between recently arrested DSP Davinder Singh and parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru, Razdan asserted that it was “travesty of justice” when an “innocent man” like Afzal Guru was hanged. Furthermore, Razdan stated that Guru was made the ‘scapegoat’ and demanded that a solid enquiry into the matter is needed.
This is a travesty of justice. Who is going to bring back a man from the dead if he is innocent. This is why the death penalty is not to be used lightly. And this is why there also needs to be a solid enquiry into why Afzal Guru was made the scapegoat https://t.co/UUVV2Z9UGU
The article cited by Razdan mentions a letter allegedly written by Afzal Guru wherein he alleges that Davinder Singh and other Jammu and Kashmir officials introduced him to one of the men who attacked the Parliament and asked him to arrange for logistics.
In another tweet, Razdan shared a video and wrote that there should also be an enquiry as to how people like Afzal are ‘tortured and forced to carry out terrorist activities’ for criminals and then get the death penalty.
In the mentioned letter, Afzal also reportedly claimed that Singh and other officers from the J&K police not only tortured him and extorted money, but also acquainted him to one of the men who later attacked Parliament. Afzal stated that it was Singh who asked him to arrange for a car and a place to stay for the assailant.
Razdan later added that she is not making claims that Guru was innocent, but merely saying that his claims should have been investigated and it is a travesty that nobody took his allegations about the now arrested cop Davinder Singh seriously.
Last weekend, Davinder Singh was arrested along with Naveed Babu, a district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a new recruit Atif and an advocate Irfan Mir. The four were caught with arms and ammunition while they were travelling in a car near Qazigund on the national highway in south Kashmir. Following Singh’s arrest with the terrorists, it was widely speculated that Singh had an illicit connection with the notorious Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and was involved in enabling and helping terrorists in the valley. The NIA has now been entrusted with the responsibility of probing the charges levelled against Singh.
With questions being raised over Singh’s integrity, Razdan went ahead and exonerated Afzal Guru of his crimes, considering everything written in the letter by a convicted terrorist, as gospel truth. Notably, Afzal was awarded the death sentence for his role in the Parliament attacks and his punishment was upheld by multiple courts.
The Supreme Court had upheld Guru’s death penalty after appeals. The court had noted that there was clinching evidence against Afzal Guru regarding his nexus with the terrorists who carried out the “terrorist act of most diabolical nature”. “All evidence unerringly point to Afzal Guru, a key conspirator, who played an active role”, the Bench had said observing that by no standards his act could be termed innocuous.
The Indian restaurant aggregator Zomato on 21 January, announced it’s acquisition of Uber Eats, the food delivery app of Uber, the US-based ride-hailing giant. The all-stock transaction gives Uber 9.99% stake in Zomato. Zomato will not absorb Uber Eat employees, which means they will either be absorbed in Uber’s other verticals or could face lay-off, reports Business Today.
The entire deal cost Zomato Rs 2,485 crore. While Swiggy is ahead of Zomato in market space, Zomato along with Uber Eats aims at cracking Swiggy’s stronghold in the market. Uber Eats India tweeted a goodbye note stating that it will be taking a different route after its acquisition by Zomato and will not be longer available with immediate effect.
We entered food delivery in India in 2017 and today is when our journey takes a different route. Zomato has acquired Uber Eats in India and we’ll no longer be available here with immediate effect. We wish all our users more good times with great food on the road ahead pic.twitter.com/WEbJNaJY8M
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal has stated that Uber Eats users would now become Zomato users and that the user experience won’t be compromised.
The Indian restaurant aggregator Zomato has earlier been in news several times for all the wrong reasons. Last year in an effort to grandstand it had tweeted that ‘food has no religion’ after a Twitter user called Amit Shukla had announced that he did not want a ‘non-Hindu’ deliveryman since it was the month of Shravan and it went against his faith. It had created a quite a storm, and Uber Eats, the food delivery arm of Uber, had further fuelled the controversy by expressing its support for Zomato.
Moreover, after facing severe backlash for delivering ‘moral science’ lectures to social media users instead of food, food aggregator Zomato was caught in a losing battle against its customers and partners.
The winners of the Ramnath Goenka Awards for excellence in journalism were declared on Monday where four journalists associated with far-left propaganda website The Quint were the recipient of three awards. Poonam Agarwal’s reports on electoral bonds, Asmita Nandy and Meghnad Bose’s documentary ‘Lynchistan’, and Shadab Moizee’s documentary on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, five years on, received the recognition.
Meghnad Bose is the same reporter who was accused of sexual harassment at the height of the MeToo movement. As per the woman who leveled the allegations against Meghnad, she was under the influence of alcohol one night when she returned to her campus and was having fun in the company of friends on the lawn. Soon, they were joined by Meghnad.
After a while, her friends left for their room upstairs leaving the two of them alone. She claims that she had put her head on his lap as she was feeling light-headed. Soon, she felt him touch her lips, her mouth and even put his finger inside her mouth. She got up and left the scene. Her account was shared through an independent journalist. Her account was supported by another person who claims that Meghnad’s inappropriate behaviour was being discussed behind closed doors.
Another woman had claimed that Meghnad had asked her if she wore a push-up bra in front of everyone in the canteen. After these multiple allegations, The Quint journalist apologised for his behaviour on social media. He tendered an unconditional apology to any woman he might have made uncomfortable. While he apologised unconditionally, he also said that he doesn’t recall him pushing his finger in anyone’s mouth, an allegation that was mounted against him through a journalist.
Another The Quint journalist Poonam Agarwal, meanwhile, is the journalist who was booked in a case of abetment to suicide in the matter of an Army Jawan’s death due to a piece of ‘sting’ journalism. Poonam had entered the Deolali cantonment in Nashik, Maharashtra with hidden cameras concealing her identity as a journalist, and recorded videos that showed army jawans employed as sahayaks (helpers) indulged in doing menial jobs that they should not be doing.
She talked to a jawan Lance Naik Roy Mathew in particular, who allegedly had no idea that he was talking to a journalist, and the conversation was used to prove that jawans were not happy with the sahayak system and that they were being exploited. A few days later, Roy Mathew was found dead in an abandoned barrack in the cantonment. A diary was recovered from the barrack, which suggested that the jawan was under pressure and it was a case of suicide. Roy Mathew’s family members also confirmed that he was scared and under pressure as his identity was reported to have been revealed due to the “sting operation” and subsequent media coverage. The charges against Poonam were subsequently quashed by the judiciary.
In an unprecedented turn of events, a young couple who were set to marry each other had to call off their wedding, after the groom’s father eloped with the bride’s mother in Surat, Gujarat.
The bride and groom were reportedly preparing for their marriage for the last one year, soon after they got engaged, however, this disappearance of their parents barely one month before the marriage has left the families reeling from the shock.
The couple’s wedding was scheduled for the second week of February, but their parents have reportedly been missing for the last 10 days now. While the man disappeared from his house in Katargam area, the woman left her house in Navsari, leaving the family members in an extremely embarrassing situation.
The groom’s father, a textile businessman who also deals in property, went untraceable around January 10. The man who is also a member of a political party is a native of Amreli district. He apparently knew the bride’s mother since their young age as they were reportedly neighbours in Katargam area and good friends too.
“They knew each other since they lived in the same society. Some of their close friends informed us after they eloped that they had a relationship in the past too. However, the woman got engaged with her current husband in Navsari,” said a relative of both the families. Both the families have filed missing persons’ report with the police.
A complaint was filed against superstar Rajnikanth for his comments on Periyar at the Thuglak magazine’s 50th-anniversary event on Friday. It was filed by members of the Dravidar Vidhuthalai Kazhagam, a splinter group of the Dravidar Kazhagam. The Dravidian outfit claimed that the hugely popular actor had defamed Periyar when Rajnikanth reminded people that Periyar had disrespected Shri Rama and Sita Mata.
Rajinikanth had said on the 14th of January, “In 1971, at Salem, Periyar took out a rally in which undressed images of Lord Sri Ramachandramoorthy and Sita -with a garland of sandal-featured and no news outlet published it.” “Cho strongly condemned the event by Periyar immediately and Thuglak was the only magazine to do so. This brought a bad name to the ruling DMK who did not want the magazine to be circulated. The issue was seized by the government but Cho reprinted it and the magazine was sold in black. What was sold for Rs 10, was then sold for Rs 50 and Rs 60. Dr Kalaingar had (inadvertently) promoted the magazine in that way and in the next issue Cho had thanked him as its publicity manager…” he had added.
DVK chief Kolathur Mani claimed that Rajinikanth had uttered a “blatant lie that the images of Lord Ram and Sita were taken nude to a rally, which was held as part of a superstition eradication conference in 1971 in Salem”. The DVK sought action against Rajinikanth under IPC Sections 153 (a) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.) and 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief). “If the government does not take action, we may be constrained to look into aspects including launching a campaign against Rajinikanth, his films, or we could hold protests in front of movie halls that screen his movies,” Mani said.
Subsequently, on Monday, effigies of Rajnikanth were burnt in Tamil Nadu by ‘activists’. Five of them were arrested in Madurai for the same. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Rajnikanth declared that he won’t be tendering any apology for his comments on Periyar. He said, “I did not makeup what I said, there are even published stories in media on it. I can show them. I will not apologize.”
One of the stories on the event was published by The Outlook on the 20th of November, 2017 in a report with the headline “The Tamil Gag Raj”. The report spoke of the legacy of assaults on freedom of expression and the press by the state government. The report said, “The first stone was thrown by the DMK and its leader Karunanidhi in February 1971 when Thuglak, edited by Cho Ramaswamy, came under fire for publishing photographs of a Dravidar Kazhagam’s procession in Salem that had depicted Hindu gods Rama and Sita in the nude with a garland of slippers around their neck.”
The report continued, “Karunanidhi had initially denied that any such denigration had happened at Salem, but Thuglak countered his claim with photographic evidence. Even as the police came to the Ananda Vikatan press to seize the copies, bundles of the fortnightly were flung over the compound wall and found their way to the market, where they were sold at a premium. The irrepressible Cho published a cartoon in the next edition that showed Karunanidhi as the circulation-cum-advertising agent for Thuglak for having created a demand for his fledgeling magazine.”
The Indian and West Indian legends, Sachin Tendulkar and Courtney Walsh are signed for the Bushfire Cricket Bash as the coach of two teams. The game will be played on 8th February between two teams led by Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne. All match profits and funds raised on the day will go to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.
“We are absolutely honoured to be welcoming Sachin and Courtney back to Australia where they both enjoyed a lot of success as players, and we can’t wait to have them involved in what is going to be a special day,” said Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts.
“We’re looking forward to our people at CA and the entire Australian cricket family coming together for the Big Appeal.”
In 2005, a match was played between World XI and Asia XI for the Tsunami relief match at MCG. Tendulkar was part of the game but unfortunately couldn’t play due to Tennis elbow injury.
28 people died and over 2000 homes were burnt due to the Australian bush fire in December. Around 500 million animals lost their lives in this tragic incident.
