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West Bengal: Police fire on students for protesting appointment of Urdu teachers, two dead

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Police fire on students for protesting appointment of Urdu teachers, two dead

As per reports, two persons have died and several sustained critical injuries after protests erupted at Dwaribhit High School in North Dinajpur district’s Islampur on Thursday. Rajesh Sarkar, a former student of the school, succumbed to bullet injuries and was declared dead on arrival at the Islampur hospital. Later, Taposh Barman, a student of class 11, who was in a critical condition succumbed to his injuries at the North Bengal Medical College. Another student Saurav Barman is undergoing treatment at the Islampur Hospital for bullet injury on his leg.

Rajesh Sarkar

Students and former students of the high school were protesting against the appointment of three new Urdu teachers in the school, as they were demanding Bengali medium teachers of other subjects like science and mathematics. When the three new teachers came to the school to join their jobs, students blocked their entry. Soon former students and people from the locality also joined the students.

Taposh Barman

According to some reports, there are no Urdu students at the school at present. Some reports mention that a Sanskrit teacher was also among them.

When the teachers were blocked from entering the school by protesters, local Police had to intervene as the students had blocked the road in front of the school, The police resorted to lathicharge, tear gas shells and rubber bullets after they were reportedly attacked by the students.

The Police, however, denies opening fire on the protesting students. “We fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells. We did not fire bullets. Our men were injured and the protesters vandalised police vehicles,” said district police superintendent Sumit Kumar.

Chairman of Islampur Municipality and Trinamool Congress MLA Kanhaiyalal Agarwal, said, “I have spoken to the officer-in-charge of Islampur police station. He categorically told me that the police did not open fire.”

District BJP president Sankar Chakraborty claimed that the Police did open fire. “It is quite natural that students will hold protests demanding proper education. But it astonishing that the police would open fire in a school. The chief minister, who is also the police minister, should reply why her men have become so trigger happy,” he said. The BJP has called for a 12-hour bandh in protest.

“Policemen attacked us, there were no women constables on the campus. They abused us and manhandled us. What were we doing that they had to resort to a lathi-charge? We were just protesting against something,” said a student of Dwaribhit High School.

Senior minister and Trinamool secretary-general Partha Chatterjee blamed the RSS for the clashes and accused them of trying to foment trouble while assuring a probe into the incident.  “Whether this (death) happened inside the campus….what was a former student doing inside the campus….whether bullets were fired by the cops, who organised this there… all of these have to be conclusively ascertained,” Chatterjee said.

Asia Cup 2018: The worst scheduled tournament ever?

Sandeep Singh
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Asia Cup 2018: The worst scheduled tournament ever?

July, August and September are the worst months to live in the Gulf. Temperatures are 40+ (Celsius, in case someone from the US reads it and wonders what is the big deal), humidity is high and it is a nightmare just to step outside.

Walking from your car in the parking lot to your office building can leave you sweating profusely. In such glorious weather, we are watching international cricketers play 100 overs of intense top-level cricket. Whoever organised this tournament must really hate the players involved and wants to punish them as much as possible.

If weather conditions weren’t difficult enough as it is, organisers have added another difficulty level by keeping matches on consecutive days as well. First India played Hong Kong and Pakistan on consecutive days and now we have Bangladesh playing Afghanistan and India one after the other. Bangladesh has had to travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai as well while playing 2 matches in 2 days.

It is better to chase if one looks at the pitch as it quickens up as the day progresses thanks to a bit of dew but nobody wants to field in the sun in this weather so Captains are choosing to bat to avoid that. It is absolutely brutal on the bowlers and we will be lucky if we don’t see a bowler collapsing due to the sheer exhaustion of playing in these conditions.

Many people have pointed out the empty seats during most of the matches, even during the evening after offices close. However, the temperatures don’t drop much even after sunset and the humidity levels rise. Going out to watch a meaningless tournament in high heat and humidity is not exactly a very attractive proposition. India-Pakistan is the only match that is going to bring the crowd in and that is why they came up with a format to maximise the number of India-Pak matches.

Yes, there is a limited window for tournaments like Asia Cup thanks to the nonstop cricket most of these players are playing. Yes, the tournament had to be relocated to UAE from India because of India-Pakistan tensions, but surely there is a better way than making them play in a desert during the summer.

‘Urban Naxal’ letters planned six ambush on security forces, four of which happened: Police

OpIndia Staff
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‘Urban Naxal’ letters planned six ambush on security forces, four of which happened: Police

As Maharashtra police deepen its investigation on the link between ‘Urban Naxals’ and Naxal terrorists, more purported evidence has come to light. On Thursday the police claimed that they have evidence to prove that of the five arrested ‘activists’ had helped the banned CPI (Maoist) to plan an ambush on security forces at six locations.

This was revealed by police in the Supreme Court during a hearing on a petition filed against the arrest of the left-wing activists. Arguing on behalf of the police additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta said there is a “clear link between them and CPI (Maoist)”. He said that one of the letters recovered from the arrested activists revealed the sinister plan. This letter referred to government security as “enemy” and discussed ways to lower the morale of the forces by ambushing them.

The additional solicitor general read out a portion of the letter where the recipient of the letter was asked to provide logistics support on force deployment and movement of road opening parties. “Please take note how the author of the letter is telling about cadre not being able to move freely because of checking by security forces and seeks guidance from the recipient on conducting bigger attacks. Please note the six places they are talking about carrying out an ambush on security forces, and actually four ambushes places took place,” Mehta told the court. In another letter, a central committee member of CPI(Maoist) was ‘scolding’ the arrested the activist for not sending money.

Reiterating government’s position, Mehta told the apex court that the arrests have nothing to do with dissent as alleged by the petitioner and police had clear proof of a link between the arrested and Naxal terrorists. Anyone can dissent against the government, calling government security forces as the enemy, planning ambush on them surely cannot be termed as dissent, Mehta added.

The SC bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra gave the state police time till Saturday to submit the entire case diary and evidence gathered against the arrested activists, before reserving its verdict on the case.

Another Priest arrested for sexual abuse, was on ‘house arrest’ after ‘internal inquiry’ by Polish ‘religious authority’

OpIndia Staff
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Another Priest arrested for sexual abuse, was on ‘house arrest’ after ‘internal inquiry’ by Polish ‘religious authority’

A Priest, who is also a principal in a reputed English medium convent school in Pune, has been arrested from Mumbai for allegedly sexually abusing a student, according to Times of India. According to the reports, the police has booked the priest under the stringent Pocso Act for allegedly showing an adult video clip to a 14-year-old student twice and touching him inappropriately.

Interestingly, the police have said that priest had claimed that he had already been awarded punishment by a ‘religious authority’ in Poland. The police said that the religious authorities had asked the priest to be under ‘house arrest’ for three years.

According to the Indian Express, the police demanded the priest’s custody and submitted his statements before the court, where he claimed that an ‘internal inquiry’ had been conducted by a bishop from a school in Solapur, following which the punishment was awarded to him. The police said that there are still verifying about the religious authority and the punishment that the priest was claiming to. The police also said that the investigation has revealed that two more boys had been similarly abused by the priest.

The reports say that the abuse had occurred in March this year on class 8 student allegedly at the principal’s chamber. Two days later, the priest had allegedly shown a porn clip to the student at the restroom of the school. The boy then went on to report it to the female school counsellor at the end of the academic year.

However, the counsellor had asked the student to stay silent about the abuse, as she feared about the possibility of losing the job if she spoke against the principal, said the police officials. The police further added that the family initially chose to remain silent fearing that hat his education will be affected, but finally lodged a complaint against the priest under section 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso Act).

Senior inspector Sayaji Gaware told that the priest had been staying at a place ‘Carmel Heaven’ in Wagholi, under house arrest, but fled the spot as soon as he got aware of the FIR. He said that the priest was arrested at Chembur while he was travelling to Ahmedabad. The Mumbai police had detained him and the Pune police took the priest to their custody for further questioning. The special court has remanded the priest to police custody till September 23.

US Government report praises Indian leadership for its resolve to fight terrorism

OpIndia Staff
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US Government report praises Indian leadership for its resolve to fight terrorism

The Narendra Modi government has received appreciation from the Trump administration for its significant counter-terrorism actions. The US government also said that Pakistan-based militant groups continued their terror attacks in India.

In its annual ‘Country Report on Terrorism‘, the US State Department said that the Indian leadership has expressed resolve to prevent terrorist attacks domestically and to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism, in cooperation with the US and other like-minded countries.

The report also states that “India continued to experience attacks, including by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations as well as tribal and Maoist insurgents. Indian authorities blamed Pakistan for cross-border attacks in the state of Jammu and Kashmir”. The report said that India has sought to deepen counterterrorism cooperation and information sharing with the United States, as both countries initiated the first-ever Designations Dialogue to combat terror.

According to the report, the region most impacted by the terrorism in 2017 included the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast Indian states, and parts of central India, which is impacted by the left-wing terror. The report praised the efforts of India in combating terror and said that the government has constantly put pressure to detect, disrupt, and degrade terrorist organisations’ operations within its borders.

“Counterterrorism cooperation between India and the United States increased in 2017. The two pledged to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups including al-Qa’ida (AQ), ISIS, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), and D-Company”, said the report.

The report mentions the recent summit between the US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Modi in which a new mechanism was established to cooperate on terrorist designations.

The report by the state department also mentions some of the weakness of Inda. It says that despite rigours training of NSG, its rapid response capability is limited, mainly due to its limited size. It also points weakness in intelligence and information sharing between state and central law enforcement agencies in the country.

In June, US State Department had designated Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) senior leader Mohammad Yusuf Shah, also known as Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist, and in the August designation, it had designated Hizbul Mujahideen as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

A record 9.5 Lakh jobs were created in July, 61.81 lakh since September 2017: EPFO data

OpIndia Staff
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A record 9.5 Lakh jobs were created in July, 61.81 lakh since September 2017: EPFO data

The present government’s initiatives to create jobs seems to have yielded results, as the new payroll data by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) reveals that more than 9.5lakh jobs have been created in the formal sector in the month of July alone.

The new data released by the EPFO on its website on Thursday says that 9,51,423 jobs were created in the month of July and it is the highest growth of employment generation in any month since September last year. The data said that the total count of new enrolments has reached 61.81 lakh since September 2017.

According to the reports, the new set of data released by the EPFO has been calculated with the help of enrolment data of new members in various social security schemes of EPFO such as pension, provident fund and insurance.

The EPFO has put up revised data of new enrolments from September 2017 to June 2018, as 52.30 lakh jobs were created from 47.13 lakhs as estimated earlier, a rise in almost 5.1 lakh jobs. The EPFO has also released revised month-wise job creation from September 2017 and data of every month has seen an upward revision except for September 2017, which has shown a slight downward revision.

 

Source: Hindu Business Line

 

The new payroll data states that the maximum number of enrolment of 2,68,021 were recorded in the age bracket of 18 to 21 years followed by 2,54,827 in 22 to 25 age group.

The data also explains the nature of jobs created and also state-wise numbers on the job creation. According to reports, the Export sector has employed more people of the age between 22-25, while Electrical and Mechanical Engineering products occupy the further positions. Maharastra stands at the top in job creation for the people of same age bracket, while  Karnataka and Tamil Nadu stand second and third respectively.

The EPFO, under the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MOSPI), releases employment-related statistics in using data on the number of beneficiaries enrolled under schemes like EPFO, ESIC and NPS. The data is provisional and subjected to periodic revision as updating of employees records is a continuous process and gets updated in subsequent months.

Sacred Games: petitioner demands a regulatory board after Netflix refuses to censor dialogues

OpIndia Staff
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Sacred Games: petitioner demands a regulatory board after Netflix refuses to censor dialogues

India’s first Netflix series ‘Sacred Games’ has been in news for quite some time now. Nikhil Bhalla, the advocate petitioner who filed a plea before the Delhi high court to remove certain dialogues from this series, has now amended his petition to ask the government to create a regulatory board for online streaming companies. Bhalla confirmed the amendment to MediaNama.

The next hearing for this case will be held on October 20.

This development, however, took place after a legal counsel for Netflix, made it clear last month that the streaming service had no intention of removing the ‘objectionable word’ used to describe former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the show Sacred Games.

In April this year, the I&B Ministry, then headed by Smriti Irani, did set up an online content regulation committee, which was later, under the current I&B Minister Rajya Vardhan Rathore, who took a softer approach to online content regulation, disbanded in July. An RTI filed by Medianama revealed that the committee which was formed under the former I&B Minister, Smriti Irani since its inception hadn’t met even once.

As per latest reports, after the committee formed by Smriti Irani was disbanded, an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on ‘investment in critical national infrastructure and digital broadcasting’ was set up by the new I&B minister replacing the I&B Ministry’s committee would look into the issue of framing regulation for online media/news portals.

The online series, which released in July this year, had almost immediately made the headlines for allegedly ‘defaming the Congress party’. The Congress party’s workers from West Bengal, a party that pretends to be the bearers of freedom of expression, had filed a complaint against the show for ‘showing the leaders of the party in a negative light.’ The complaint mentioned that in the show, Nawazuddin Siddique has called Rajiv Gandhi a “fattu” (coward) and misrepresented facts.

Rajeev Sinha, the Congress member from West Bengal, who had filed the petition, however, withdrew the complaint later.

Incidentally, the web series had also angered an organisation named All India Cine Workers Association (AICWA), which openly endorses the Congress party, which has lodged a similar complaint demanding an FIR against the actor and producer of Sacred Games.

The outrage had invoked the advocate and petitioner Nikhil Bhalla, who is a Congress member, to file a PIL in the Delhi HC asking for certain scenes to be deleted from the series. Bhalla said that these scenes were ‘derogatory to former PM Rajiv Gandhi.’ In one line, for instance, the character Ganesh Gaitonde calls Rajiv Gandhi a wimp in Hindi, which a previous version of the subtitles translated as ‘pussy’.

Bhalla petitioned for the scenes with such dialogue to be removed and has now has asked the court to amend the petition by asking the government to create a regulatory board for the online streaming companies.

Murder of Sadhus: soon after arresting the mastermind, UP police guns down two criminals in encounter

OpIndia Staff
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Murder of Sadhus: soon after arresting the mastermind, UP police guns down two criminals in encounter

On Tuesday, the Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested a former councillor from Etah named Sabir Ali and four of his associates for committing six murders, including that of 3 Sadhus. 3 more criminals were absconding and the police had declared a cash reward of Rs. 25,000 each on Afsar, Mustakeem and Naushad. Yesterday in the Harduaganj area, the UP police have gunned down two of the absconding criminals in an encounter.

Media outlets have covered the encounter while it was taking place near an abandoned area in Harduaganj. Aligarh ASP Ajay Kumar Sahni was also reportedly present on the spot.


According to reports, the police got information of Mustakeem and Naushad hiding in an old building in Harduaganj area. When a police team arrived, the criminals allegedly fired upon the police personnel and escaped. The police team chased the criminals and cornered them in an abandoned house. In the encounter that ensued there, a police official SI Pradeep Kumar has been injured and both the criminals were shot.

According to reports, the criminals had fired a total of 34 rounds at the police officials before being gunned down. Two country made pistols and some rounds of cartridges have been recovered from them. The encounter took place in the Machua village, about 25 Km away from the district headquarters.

It is notable here that the gang led by Sabir Ali, the former councillor, had reportedly confessed that they targeted the Sadhus in order to frame the four key witnesses in a murder case where Sabir Ali was the prime accused. Sabir Ali had allegedly killed a maulvi in 2016 and served prison time before being granted bail in 2017.

Sabir Ali, along with his associates had then planned to attack and kill Sadhus living in isolated localities because, as per the police, since Yogi Adityanath is the CM of UP, the murder of Sadhus would attract attention and prompt action by the police. Starting from August 12, the gang had killed six persons and injured many others. On September 15, the gang had killed a Sadhu and a farmer couple near the same Harduaganj area. The gang used to leave vital clues that pointed towards the four witnesses testifying against Sabir in the 2016 murder case.

According to reports, the police had asked the media persons to maintain a safe distance from the encounter site while filming. It is notable here that after Yogi Adityanath came to power, the UP police has taken a visibly stronger stance against criminals. More than a thousand encounters have reportedly taken place in the state so far. Many dreaded criminals had even surrendered for the fear of getting killed in encounters while many had cancelled their bails.

Firstpost image leaves Twitter guessing: Are they women or bus seats?

OpIndia Staff
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Firstpost image leaves Twitter guessing: Are they women or bus seats?

A couple of days ago the central government approved an ordinance that criminalised Triple Talaq where Muslim men can ‘instantly divorce’ their wives. Many media outlets have been coming up with opinions or reports related to them. As is the usual practice, articles on digital publications are often accompanied with a ‘featured image’ that is either directly related to the event being talked about or is ‘representational’.

Often for triple talaq related news, images of burqa-clad women have been used by various portals, and the same was done by Firstpost today, except that it left people guessing if they were women or, wait.. bus seats!

image by Firstpost

Though Firstpost soon deleted the tweet, it had been picked up by many Twitter users and their opinion was divided on whether it was women in the image or bus seats.


While the opinion on social networking website Twitter was divided, if one looks closely, the image is clearly that of bus seats and not burqa-clad women.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that particular image has confused people. In August last year, a Norwegian group named ‘Fedrelandet Viktigst’ had used the image in a post that asked its readers ‘what do people think of this’. Comments from people were mixed where many had mistaken the image to be that of burqa-clad women.

While liberals had slammed the group for propagating Islamophobia, many people had expressed concern over the striking resemblance with burqa-clad women.

US: ‘Donkey or an elephant?’ Republican Party draws flak for Ganesh Chaturthi themed campaign

OpIndia Staff
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US: ‘Donkey or an elephant?’ Republican Party draws flak for Ganesh Chaturthi themed campaign

The Grand Old Party in the US has drawn a lot of flak for using the image of Lord Ganesha for a campaign with a tagline, “Would you worship a donkey or an elephant? The choice is yours.”

Republican party campaign in the US

Democratic party in the US is represented by a donkey and Republican party’s logo is an elephant. The Fort Bend County in Texas posted an ad in local newspaper, Time India Herald, during Ganesh Chaturthi where it likened Lord Ganesha with the Republican party symbol and compared the same with the donkey from the Democratic party.

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) sought clarification regarding its intentions for using the image of Lord Ganesha in the ad.

Rishi Bhatuda, HAF board member and Ford Bend County resident said, “While we appreciate the Fort Bend County GOP’s attempt to reach out to Hindus on an important Hindu festival, its ad — equating Hindus’ veneration of the Lord Ganesha with choosing a political party based on its animal symbol — is problematic and offensive.” He even said that such imagery which uses religious symbols for political parties should be avoided by any political party.

Republicans in Texas have since apologised for the ad. Claiming they wanted to reach out to the Hindu community and pay respect to the festival, Republican party Chairman Jacey Jetton said, “This highlights the difficulty in outreach that can be positive for one group but not for another in the same community. We offer our sincerest apologies to anyone that was offended by the ad. Obviously, that was not the intent.”

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