Friday, December 14, 2012

Mom kills boy for not memorizing Quran

UNHOLY ACT

Mom kills boy for not memorizing Quran

London: An Indian-origin mother who beat her son “like a dog” for not being able to memorize passages of the Quran, has been found guilty by a British court of murdering him and setting his body on fire to hide evidence.
    Sara Ege, 33, a mathematics graduate from India, was found guilty at Cardiff crown court on Wednesday of beating her son Yaseen Ege to death at their home in Pontcanna, Cardiff, in July 2010 and setting fire to his body. She was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice at the court. Sentence was adjourned, the BBC reported.
    Sara also claimed at one point she believed the stick she used on her son had an evil spirit in it.
    The boy’s father, Yousuf Ege, 38, was acquitted of causing Yaseen’s death by failing to protect him, the Daily Telegraph reported.
    It was initially thought Yaseen had died in the blaze at the family home but tests later revealed he had died hours earlier.
    Sara had pleaded not guilty to murder and claimed her husband was responsible for Yaseen’s death. Sara said she feared her husband would kill her and target her family unless she confessed to the murder.
    That confession, made to police days after the death of her son, was captured on video and played to the jury during the five-week trial. During the hour-long footage, university graduate Ege described how the young boy collapsed after she had beaten him while still murmuring extracts of the Quran.
    Sara said back then that she decided to burn his body and ran downstairs to get a lighter and a bottle of barbecue gel. In police interviews she also confessed to beating her son for no reason and that her anger often led to her being out of control. PTI

Oslo books AP couple, Delhi stays away

TNN & AGENCIES

New Delhi/Hyderabad: India has ruled out intervening in the case of an AP couple, arrested in Oslo for allegedly scolding their son for wetting his pants. TCS techie V Chandrasekhar and his wife, Anupama, have been slapped with criminal charges and remanded in judicial custody.
    Prosecutors have charged the couple with “gross or repeated maltreatment” of their children by “threats, violence or other wrong” and proposed a minimum sentence of one year and six months for Chandrasekhar and one year and three months for his wife. In Delhi, officials said on Saturday that consular access had been provided to the AP couple.
    Now, the government will wait for the outcome of the court case before deciding course of action, if at all.
    Earlier, the family of the accused couple had sought government help to secure their release. On Saturday, foreign ministry officials said a counsellor from the Indian embassy had met the Chandrasekhar and his wife and helped them find a lawyer. Reports from Oslo said the couple have had problems with Norwegian authorities over child abuse allegations even in the past, one reason New Delhi has decided to be cautious.
    “In any case, the judgment in the case will be pronounced on Monday. Let’s wait and see; it is purely legal now,’’ a source in Delhi said adding there’s no question of India taking up the matter with Norway through diplomatic channels. The couple was arrested apparently because the police feared that they could flee to India to escape prosecution.
    Chandrasekhar works for software giant TCS, which deputed him to Oslo 18 months ago to handle a project. He took his wife and two sons with him. His older son, seven-year-old Sai Sriram, allegedly told his teachers that his parents had “threatened” to send him back to India unless he changed his ways, the software engineer’s nephew, V Sailender, said in Hyderabad.
TROUBLE AT HOME V Chandrasekhar and Anupama accused of “gross or repeated maltreatment” of their child by “threats, violence...”
Couple had allegedly “threatened” 7-yr-old son that he would sent back to India if he wet himself in school
If charges stand, minimum sentence of 18 months for techie, 15 months for wife Oslo couple arrest: Kin meet CM
Hyderabad: The worried family members of Chandrasekhar told STOI that during the conversation he inquired about his two sons -- Sriram and Abhiram. He also told them about the conditions at the Oslo jail.
    “Chandrasekhar said he is fine, but neither he nor we have any information about Anupama. Through some Indian diaspora in Oslo, we came to know that she has gone into depression after the unexpected sequence of events,’’ L Veerabadra Rao, Anupama’s father, said.
    The family members met chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday and requested him to help the couple return to India. However, sources said the chief minister failed to give them any assurance and promised to look into the issue. “CM gave us a very brief audience as he was busy
with Telugu Mahasabha arrangements. He told us that a lot of procedures were involved in the issue and directed the officials to take our representation,’’ a family member said.
    The arrested techie’s kin also faxed a letter to Union overseas affairs minister Vayalar Ravi requesting him to explain to Norway authorities about the cultural differences between India and other countries.
    V Satyanarayana and Veerabadhra Rao, parents of the arrested couple, in the letter said: “Sriram was counselled by his parents as per Indian culture and values.”
    “Both Sriram and his younger brother Abhiram are crying to see their parents… they are not eating food. So, we request you to interfere in this issue and take necessary action,'' Veerabadhra Rao said in the letter. He also narrated the sequence of events that led to the arrest of his daughter and son-in-law, who went to Oslo on deputation by TCS.

What ups partner-violence odds

Washington: Partner violence is two times more likely to occur in households where both partners are working compared to those where only one partner works, a new study has claimed.
    Researchers from the Sam Houston State University took telephone interviews with 303 women who identified themselves as either currently or recently in a serious romantic relationship.
    Based on the Fourth Annual Texas Crime Victimisation Survey, a total of 67% of these women, who ranged in age from 18 to 81, reported some form of physical or psychological victimization by their partner during the preceding two year period. The study found that more than 60% of women in heterosexual working couples reported victimization, while only 30% of women reported victimization in cases when only the male partner was employed.
    While differences in education levels appeared to have little influence on intimate partner violence, when both partners were working, intimate partner violence increased. “When both male and females were employed, the odds of victimization were more than two times higher than when the male was the only breadwinner, lending support to the idea that female employment may challenge male authority in a relationship,” said Franklin and Menaker. PTI

At last, BSY walks out of BJP, quits assembly

Negotiators Fail To Woo Him; No Threat To BJP Govt

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore/New Delhi: In the end, even a pledge to reinstall him as chief minister if BJP returned to power in the May 2013 Karnataka election did not deter B S Yeddyurappa from leaving the party he helped make a powerhouse in the southern state.
    Yeddyurappa’s exit from the saffron fold on Friday and his impending coronation as president of Karnataka Janata Party on December 9 is a heavy blow for BJP as it looks to mount a comeback bid for the 2014 national election seeking to ride on its powerful state satraps and UPA-2’s record on corruption and the economy.
    There is no immediate threat to the BJP government in Karnataka and the party’s Lok Sabha contingent is also unlikely to experience any ripples just yet, but the party is bound to suffer a crucial loss of momentum as Yeddyurappa was a key vote catcher in the state.
    Although the next national election is still some way off, BJP leaders would have been reminded of BJD chief Naveen Patnaik’s shock exit just ahead of the 2009 polls. With BJP banking on state bosses such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh, Narendra Modi, Vasundhara Raje and Prem Kumar Dhumal to pull in the votes, Yeddyurappa will be missed.
    Aware that his departure will blow a hole in its southern strategy and hobble it in a state that yielded a rich harvest of 19 Lok Sabha MPs in 2009, BJP negotiators tried hard to dissuade Yeddyurappa. But they found it hard to meet his demand to be made state chief while an IOU for the CM’s post did not work.
    Damage in Karnataka cannot be wished away as BJP is staring at the desertion of the Lingayat vote it carefully nurtured after the community’s disenchantment with Congress. Now, the politically significant community could leave BJP’s game plan in shambles.
    Chief minister Jagadish Shettar is a Lingayat too, but does not command the same support and is not likely to be a match for Yeddyurappa.
    BJP leaders rue that the bar was set high for Yeddyurappa after he was named in the Lokayukta report in illegal mining. But having made corruption a major issue, the party had to force Yeddyurappa to quit, something he never forgave the party bosses for.
    The party has not ruled out the possibility of Yeddyurappa returning to the fold after the 2013 state election, but this is a long shot. Powerful satraps who have parted ways with BJP have not always returned and those who did are often misfits.

SC fumes at FB arrest; govt tries to curb IT Act abuse

PIL Seeks Repeal Of Sec 66A

Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday echoed the public outrage over the high-handed night-time arrests of two girls by Maharashtra policefor posting their views on a social networking site, entertaining a PIL seeking the repeal of the controversial Section 66A
of Information Technology Act which has turned out be a source of harassment and attempts to muzzle freedom of speech.
    Thecourt,whichurged attorney general G E Vahanvati to express his views on the plea for dispensing with the section, suggested that it was eager to remedy the situation, while wondering whether the police excess against the two girls — Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan — from Palghar near Thane in Maharashtra was the result of mob pressure.
    “We were wondering why no one was approaching the court and were thinking of taking suo motu notice of the incident,” said a bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J Chelameswar no sooner than senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi sought an urgent hearing on a petition by 21-yearold student Shreya Singhal.
FIRST BABY STEPS
    Govt introduces ‘guideline’ for booking anyone under Sec 66A of ITAct: permission of a senior police officer required for booking someone under controversial law that’s got even SC worried. The step may be a useful interim check on the abuse of 66A but not lasting solution. ‘Guidelines’ don’t have the force of law or rules written under it. Therefore police and courts not bound by it
WHAT’S STILL WORRYING Govt step doesn’t address substantive issue of the clauses being ‘vague & unconstitutional’. Here’s how: 1 Any message sent as email, FB post or tweet may fall foul of Sec 66A if it causes no more than “annoyance or inconvenience”. False information is punishable for causing ‘danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill-will’. This is far too loosely-worded 2 Punishment for defamation is up to 2 years but 3 years under Sec 66A for sending “offensive messages” 3 Defamation case can be taken only before a magistrate but police authorized under Sec 66A to book cases & make arrests
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
Sec 66A should be repealed or amended by Parliament
SC should strike down or read down Sec 66A SC to hear AG’s views before ruling on PIL
New Delhi: “The way things were done needs some kind of consideration though the serious charges against the two girls appear to have been withdrawn,” the bench said. It added that the arrests were in violation of the apex court’s guidelines prohibiting the arrest of women after sunset.
    “They were arrested after sundown and for a bailable offence? So the might of police was activated by a mob,” the bench said. It seemed to have many questions to ask, but decided to keep them for Friday when Vahanvati is to appear.
    Although the court also took note of the arrest of a professor in Kolkata for circulating a cartoon which took a dig at WB chief minister Mamata Banerjee, its focus was clearly on the arrest of Dhada and Shrinivasan at Palghar just after they disapproved of the shutdown in Mumbai after the death of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. Pegging her PIL on the Palghar arrests, Singhal argued that Section 66A was loosely worded, thus leaving police and authorities with enormous discretion to misuse it and make arbitrary arrests.
    The CJI said the court would like to hear the views of a cross-section of people and wanted to know if others would like to intervene and put forth their views. Senior advocate Harish Salve said he would. “We have a fundamental right to give our opinion on a public platform on political issues. We also have the fundamental right to annoy a politician if he is perceived to be not doing his job or is corrupt. Section 66A is not meant to arrest people for expressing opinion on a public platform,” Salve said.
    Rohatgi said Section 66A was replete with so many words such as ‘offensive’, ‘menacing’, ‘annoyance’, ‘inconvenience’ without the Act defining their meaning. “This is unacceptable in a criminal law as it allows the police to act arbitrarily,” he said.
    Singhal said mere acquittal after a snail-paced prosecution was not enough to compensate the trauma of arrest and loss of reputation linked to it. “The very fact that the machinery of criminal law is set in motion against citizens on frivolous grounds amounts to harassment which is inadequately mitigated by the eventual discharge or acquittal.”

Car bombs kill 54 near Syrian capital, rebels down aircraft

State Media Blames ‘Terrorists’ For Blasts In Pro-Assad Neighbourhood

Jaramana (Syria): Simultaneous car bombings killed 54 people and left a trail of destruction in a town near Syria’s capital on Wednesday, as rebels downed a military aircraft for a second straight day. The explosives-packed cars were detonated at daybreak in a pro-regime neighbourhood of the mainly Christian and Druze town of Jaramana, residents, state media and a rights watchdog reported.
    The blasts ripped through a central square near a petrol station, sending residents fleeing in panic.
    There was a ball of fire at the end of a narrow lane, and the impact of the explosions brought walls down onto cars, crushing them and scattering debris over the ground. Pools of blood and severed body parts were on the streets.
    The death toll mounted as the morning wore on, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights giving tallies of 20, then 29 and later at 54 The interior ministry put the count at 34. “Activists and residents in the town said most of the victims were killed when a suicide attacker blew up his car, just after an explosive device was used to blow up another car,” said the Observatory.
    Residents rushed with the dozens of wounded to hospital, or to visit the homes of bereaved families. “What do they want from Jaramana? The town brings together people from all over Syria and welcomes everybody,” one of them said. Jaramana has now been targeted by four such bomb attacks in three months. It is home to predominantly Christians and Druze, an influential minority whose faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam. Sectarian divides are a key factor in Syria’s armed rebellion, with many in the Sunni Muslim majority frustrated at more than 40 years of Alawite-dominated rule.
    SANA reported that “terrorists” blew up the two car bombs at the same time, as two separate explosive devices were set off without claiming any lives.
    Also on Wednesday, rebel fighters shot down a fighter jet in the embattled northwest on the Syria-Turkey border . The warplane came down in a massive explosion, leaving behind a plume of smoke, a journalist said, reporting several kilometres away from where the jet was downed.
    The aircraft was hit by a missile and crashed at Daret Ezza, said the Observatory, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground for its information.
    It came a day after rebels downed an army helicopter for the first time with a newly acquired ground-to-air missile, in what the Observatory said had the potential to change the balance of military power in the conflict.
    The gunship was on a strafing run near the besieged northwestern base of Sheikh Suleiman, the last garrison in government hands between Syria’s second city and the Turkish border. Little more than a week ago, the rebels seized tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, 120mm mortars and rocket launchers when they took the government forces' sprawling Base 46, about 12km west of Aleppo.
    Elsewhere on Wednesday, regime warplanes carried out five raids in 15 minutes on Maaret al-Numan, a rebelheld town on the strategic Damascus-Aleppo highway.
    Fighter jets also bombarded anti-regime town Daraya southwest of Damascus and the besieged, rebel-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs. AFP

Fresh clashes plunge Egypt into deep crisis

Cairo: Egypt on Wednesday plunged deeper into its worst political crisis since Islamist President Mohamed Morsi took office in June, with massive opposition rallies nationwide signalling a new “revolution” nearly two years after Hosni Mubarak was toppled.
    Police early on Wednesday fired tear gas into Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where several hundred protesters spent the night after a mass rally to denounce Morsi’s power grab. Clashes that have been erupting on streets just off Tahrir near the US embassy spilled into the square, with canisters falling into the crowd forcing protesters to run and sending clouds of tear gas over the tents housing the demonstrators.
    The outskirts of the square have seen sporadic clashes now entering their ninth day, in what started as an anniversary protest to mark one year since deadly confrontations with police in the same area. Clashes also raged through the night between supporters and opponents of Morsi in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla and the canal city of Port Said.
    In Mahalla, 132 people were injured while 27 were hurt in Port Said, medical sources said. According to a security official, calm in both towns had been restored by morning. Tuesday’s huge turnout for a protest rally in the iconic square in the heart of Cairo, as well as in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and most of Egypt’s 27 provinces, marked the largest mobilisation yet against the president.
    “The revolution returns to the square,“ headlined the state-owned daily Al-Akhbar. “Revolution to save the revolution,” said the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. Protesters are furious at the decree that Morsi announced last Thursday allowing him to “issue any decision or law that is final and not subject to appeal”, which effectively placed him beyond judicial oversight. AFP

Fighters in Hyd to avenge Kasab hanging: Pak Taliban

Group Says It Has Many Fighters In City, Amritsar

Omer Farooq Khan TNN

Islamabad: A Pakistani Taliban faction has claimed that its fighters were holed up in Amritsar and Hyderabad to carry out attacks to avenge 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab’s execution last week.
    “We will avenge the death of Ajmal Kasab on Indian soil within a month,’’ Ahmed Marwat, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Jundullah group told TOI from an undisclosed location on Wednesday. “His death will not go waste. (Our) group has a number of fighters in Amritsar and Hyderabad Deccan, who will soon take revenge of Ajmal Kasab. With the death of one Kasab, scores of his other comrades are ready for martyrdom.’’
    Marwat spoke in what seemed like Pashto language’s tribal accent spoken in Pakistan’s tribal northwest bordering Afghanistan. The region has long been an al-Qaida and Taliban safe haven.
    The fresh threat comes days after another Taliban faction threatened to avenge Kasab’s hanging by “striking Indian targets anywhere’’.
    The Pakistani state and minority Muslim sects – Shiites and Sufis -- have so far been the group’s prime targets. Thousands of people have been killed since it launched a wave of destabilising attacks on the country’s armed forces, spy agencies, market places and mosques since 2009.
    The group had taken responsibility for the failed Times Square car bombing attempt in 2010, but retracted days later. Experts doubt its ability to strike overseas, saying the group lacks the sophistication to do so.
    Jundullah has been closely tied to al-Qaida and responsible for sectarian bloodbath across Pakistan. It has claimed responsibility for most of attacks on Shiites across Pakistan in the last two years. The group was blamed for September attacks on Karachi’s Dawoodi Bohra community that killed 11 people. Earlier in February, Jundullah massacred 18 Shiites from Gilgit-Baltistan after pulling them out of a bus near Rawalpindi. The slain were on their way from Kohistan region. Marwat had then claimed responsibility for the attack while claiming to be the group’s Karachibased commander.
    Media reports say the group has entrenched itself in Karachi. “Among the most feared militant groups is Jandullah's Karachi chapter, led by Fasihur Rehman, which is responsible for most of the sectarian attacks in the city,” said Umar Khitab, a Karachibased police officer.
    Sources said Jundullah's chief Hamja Jofi alias Haji Mumtaz founded the group in 2003 in Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The group’s former Karachi chapter head Amir Arif alias Raza was killed in a missile attack in August.

4 Tibetans set selves on fire, 3 die

Saibal Dasgupta TNN

Beijing: The number of self-immolation cases by protesting Tibetans has reached a record level of 21 in the month of November with four more people setting themselves on fire since Sunday. Three of them have died.
Overseas human rights groups said the suicidal moves were accompanied by protest demonstrations by students in a medical college in Qinghai in northwest China indicating that the unrest, which initially begun with monks, is spreading among the country’s students.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Two Zee editors arrested

Raj Shekhar TNN

New Delhi: Delhi Police’s crime branch arrested two editors of the Zee group on Tuesday, acting on a complaint by Congress MP Naveen Jindal who had accused the two of trying to extort Rs 100 crore worth of advertisements from his
company in return for dropping stories linking the Jindal group with Coalgate.
    The arrested journalists are Sudhir Chaudhary and Sameer Ahluwalia, editorial heads of Zee news and Zee business channels, respectively, a senior police officer said. “Prima facie evidence of criminal conspiracy and extortion has been found against the two leading to their arrest,” said S B S Tyagi, DCP, crime branch on Tuesday.
    The editors had earlier denied the charges, calling it an attempt to target investigative journalism.
    Police said the arrests came after forensic experts submitted a report stating the CD submitted by the MP which contained audio and video recording of conversations between the Zee editors and Jindal’s officials, was “not doctored”. Jindal had claimed to have done a “reverse sting” on the journalists to expose them.
    The inter-state cell of crime branch said it had found other conclusive evidence against the Zee journalists.
    “The two editors were called for questioning on Tuesday during which they could not give satisfactory answers to our questions,” a senior cop said. Jindal targeting investigative journalism, says TV channel
New Delhi: “They were informed around 8.30pm about their arrest after four hours of questioning. They will be produced in a Saket court at 2pm on Wednesday,” he added. Earlier, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) had provided the police with audio recordings of telephone conversations and video recordings of three meetings held on September 13, 17 and 19, between Zee and officials of Jindal’s company, JSPL, at Hyatt Regency hotel in Delhi. In its FIR, JSPL had also named Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka as co-accused, alleging criminal conspiracy, extortion, criminal intimidation and defamation by Zee News Ltd and its officials, police sources said.
    In mid-October, the Broadcast Editors’ Association had removed Sudhir Chaudhary from the post of treasurer and from primary membership of the body.
    The crime branch had registered an FIR against Chaudhary, Ahluwalia and others for allegedly trying to extort Rs 100 crore from the Jindal company. The FIR was lodged under sections of extortion after the HR head of JSPL gave a written complaint to the police.
    The complainant alleged that the two had met officials of the Jindal group and told them that reports against them could be dropped if the amount was paid. Several phone calls were exchanged on the issue. When JSPL declined to pay the money, Zee ran a series of malicious news items targeting the company, the complainant alleged.
    Reacting to the move, Sudhir Chauhary earlier told TOI that the allegations were false and fabricated. “Jindals were the biggest beneficiaries in the coal block allocation scam and we had exposed them. If they are targeting us, they are targeting investigative journalism. It’s an attempt to malign us and seems aresult of their frustration after being exposed,” he had said.

Beware, smoking rots your brain, damages memory

London: Smoking ‘rots’ the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to a new study.
    Researchers from the King’s College London in brain tests and analysis of health and lifestyle data of a group of over-50s found that smoking affects the brain negatively even more than high blood pressure and obesity. Participants took brain tests like learning new words or naming as many animals as they could in a minute, the BBC News reported.
    They were all tested again after four and then eight years. Researchers found a “consistent association” between smoking and lower scores in the tests.
    The study of 8,800 people also found that high blood pressure and being overweight also seemed to affect the brain, but to a lesser extent. Scientists involved said people needed to be aware that lifestyles could damage the mind as well as the body.
    The results showed that the overall risk of a heart attack or stroke was “significantly associated with cognitive decline” with those at the highest risk showing the greatest decline.
    “Cognitive decline becomes more common with aging and for an increasing number of people interferes with daily functioning and well-being. We have identified a number of risk factors which could be associated with accelerated cognitive decline, all of which, could be modifiable,” researcher Dr Alex Dregan, said.
    “We need to make people aware of the need to do some lifestyle changes because of the risk of cognitive decline,” he said. Researchers do not know how such a decline could affect people going about their daily life. PTI

Tech overuse tied to ‘semi-somnia’

People Now Suffering From ‘Fizzy Sleep’ As The Brain Is Still Active: Experts

London: A growing number of people are now suffering from a newly identified sleep disorder called ‘semi-somnia’ triggered by stress and technology use, sleep experts say.
    Rather than having totally sleepless nights, sufferers of semi-somnia experience short bouts of sleep disruption — perhaps on particularly busy or stressful days, experts claim.
    An Indian-origin expert has even coined a phrase ‘fizzy sleep’ to explain sleep difficulties faced by sufferers.
    “It’s not a scientific term, but clients say that’s what their head feels like. They are asleep but it’s not restful. It’s a jangly, information-filled sleep where the brain is still highly active,” said Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, a sleep coach at London’s Capio Nightingale hospital, and author of the book Tired But Wired.
    The condition is being called insomnia’s irritating little sister, but despite not sharing the full agonizing symptoms of acute sleeplessness — which has been linked to weakened immune systems, depression, high blood pressure and even heart disease — semi-somnia is far from harmless, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.
    Victims may wake every night for 30 minutes, or find it impossible to sleep for an hour because their minds are racing. Experts are of the opinion that semi-somnia started plaguing people now because of excessive use of technology.
    “We’ve spent five years researching this with 30,000 sufferers and technology is probably the main cause,” said Jean Gomes, chairman of The Energy Project — a consultancy to help people counteract tiredness issues. PTI

Kejri names party after aam admi, mocks Cong

Intellectual Property Theft: GOP

Himanshi Dhawan TNN

New Delhi: With ambitious plans of systemic change while outfitting themselves as an alternative to “corrupt” political establishment, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan on Saturday launched themselves as a political party, calling it the Aam Admi Party (AAP).
    Although unveiled in the modest setting of a press conference, the AAP aims high, promising empowermentof thecommon man, decentralisation of power, law-making through referendum, devolution of decision-making powers to gram sabha and an accessible judicial system.
    Pitching the party as the platform for aam aadmi, Kejriwal said that therewillbe men andwomen representatives from the village or college level up to the national level.
    The constitution that was adopted on Saturday betrayed a conscious effort to address the concern of Anna Hazare and others that the transformation of the anti-graft movement into a political party would lead the activists to make compromises for survival’s sake. Thus, as part of a lengthy list of do’s and don’ts, the party has decided to have an internal Lokpal, provision for right to recall and for denial of posts and tickets to more than one in a family. The party will also make its donor andexpenselist public.
    The AAP, which plans to make its maiden electoral foray in next year’s Delhi polls, is moving with urgency. On Monday, the activists are launching a membership driveinviting all “aam admis” to join the new party as “founding members’’. An event has been planned at Jantar Mantar, the landmark that hasbeen an integral partof the anti-graft stirs, for what will be the first instance of a political platform soliciting membership in public.
IN NAME OF COMMON MAN
Aam Admi Party to begin electoral fight in Delhi, where assembly elections are due in 2013-end
National council of 320 members, 30-strong national executive, besides state, district councils. Relatives of these members will not be part of any council at any level
    Promises law-making through referendum. Gram sabhas to be involved too, except on foreign policy, external security. Accessible judicial system BSY set to break away on Dec 9
    After months of ultimatums, B S Yeddyurappa is set to break away from the BJP and launch his own outfit, Karnataka Janata Party, on December 9. The exit of the Lingayat strongman, credited with installing the first BJP-led government in the south, will deal a blow to the BJP’s hopes of staging a return to power in 2014. P 6 First electoral battle will be Delhi New Delhi: It was in the fitness of things that launch of the party of the activists who have been a gadfly for the political establishment should spark a controversy right at the outset. Congress accused them of Intellectual Property Rights theft, saying that the AAP was a rip off on their “Aam Aadmi” platform.
    This was just before Kejriwal and Bhushan have mocked their “aam credentials” by parodying Congress’s “Aam Aadmi ka haath Congress ke saath (common man is for Congress)” claim. “Congress ka aadmi Robert Vadra ke saath”, snickered Sanjay Singh of AAP, in a reminder that the just-launched party will keep targeting political parties for corruption.
    On the criticism from Congress, Kejriwal said, `They are just rattled-….Congress could never hijack the aam aadmi despite using the term ``aam aadmi’’. Now they have lost the word too.’’
    The launch of the party came after a day-long meeting of over 300 people during which its constitution was adopted and a 23-member national executive elected. The party’s first electoral battle will be Delhi but it appeared to be woefully short of representations from the south and eastern India as of now. The executive has so far only two women members. Admitting to the gender imbalance Kejriwal said that they hoped to bring in more people to make the national executive more representative of women, youth, minorities and diverse sections.
    Incidentally, names of former Army chief V K Singh and other eminent people who had urged Team Anna to take a political plunge were missing from the list of supporters. When asked about their absence Bhushan said, ``It is true that there were several eminent people who felt that participating in electoral politics was the only way forward. However, one does not have to be a member of the party to support it.’’

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Egypt erupts as prez turns ‘pharaoh’

Morsi Assumes Sweeping Powers That Even Mubarak Didn’t Enjoy, Triggers Violence

Cairo: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi assured his supporters that the country was on a path of “freedom and democracy” even as thousands of people staged rival rallies across the polarized nation to both support and oppose his move to assume sweeping powers.
    Morsi’s detractors dubbed him the ‘new pharaoh’, a day after he issued a declaration granting himself what many said were more powers than even the ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.
    Thousands of his supporters and opponents on Friday took to streets to stage rival rallies across Egypt, leading to sporadic violence and burning down of offices belonging to the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.
    Amid much concern over the move, Morsi told his supporters that Egypt was on the path to “freedom and democracy,” and stability was the need of the hour.
    “Political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for,” he told an Islamist rally outside the presidential palace.
    Morsi’s new powers are supposed to be temporary, to last for the transition period, and the decree will expire when a new constitution is approved by the middle of February. However his opponents see the move as endangering the gains of the popular uprising which ousted Mubarak’s dictatorial regime.
    “I have always been, and still am, and will always be, God willing, with the pulse of the people, what the people want, with clear legitimacy,” Morsi said.
    The president’s declaration also ordered retrials of officials involved in the killing of protesters during the 2011 mass uprising against the Mubarak regime.
    Protesters marching from various city points converged in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square chanting slogans such as “Down with the Supreme Guide”, “Wake up Mursi, it’s your last day,” and the popular “The people demand the fall of the regime”.
    The protesters held banners denouncing the Muslim Brotherhood and its intervention in the state policy, as well as banners rejecting Thursday’s constitutional declaration. During the protests, offices of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, were set ablaze in Ismailiya and Port Said, state television said.
    It was also reported that the party’s office in Alexandria was also stormed. Eyewitnesses said 15 were injured in the clashes as both sideshurled stones at each other, and at least five cars were smashed. The protesters arrived in Tahrir about an hour after Islamist supporters of Morsi came out in the tens to demonstrate against the Constitution Party’s anti-Mursi protest march. The two groups engaged in verbal sparring matches, shouting slogans at each other.
    Political forces including the Wafd Party, Tagammu Party, Constitution Party, Democratic Egyptian Party, Free Egyptians Party and Popular Trend Party, and the April 6 Youth Movement, the Revolutionary Youth Union, the Free Egyptian Movement, the No to Military Trials group and the Bring them for Trial campaign announced participation in the protest.
    Islamist forces including the Muslim Brotherhood, Jama’a al-Islamiya, and Salafi Dawah as well the Freedom and Justice Party, the Noor Party, Asala and Wasat were in support of the new constitutional declaration. PTI
BIRTH OF ANOTHER AUTOCRAT?
    President Morsi exempts all his decisions from legal challenge until a new parliament is elected
    Gives himself sweeping powers that allow him to sack the unpopular general prosecutor and open the door for a retrial of Mubarak and his aides
    Empowers himself to enact any measure he deems necessary to deal with a ‘threat’ to Egypt’s ‘revolution’
    The powers are supposed to be temporary — until a new constitution is adopted and new parliamentary polls take place
Morsi’s aides say the steps will help in speeding up a protracted transition process that has been hindered by legal obstacles
    But his critics say the decree puts Morsi in the same category as Mubarak, who argued his autocratic powers were necessary to shepherd Egypt to a new democratic future

Varanasi blast: HC slams UP govt for withdrawing cases

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow: The Allahabad high court lashed out at the Uttar Pradesh government for withdrawing terror charges against those accused of the 2006 Varanasi serial blasts.
    Expressing displeasure at the move, the court on Thursday asked how does the government decide whether an individual can be accused of terrorism or not. The court said, “Who will decide if a person is a terrorist or not? Since the cases in question are pending before the court, it should be left for the courts to decide.”
    The court also observed, “Today the government wants to withdraw cases against terror accused. Tomorrow they will be decorated with Padma bhushan.” The bench of Justice RK Agarwal and Justice RSR Maurya wondered if the government’s move will end up encouraging terror activities.
    The judges made these observations while hearing a public interest litigation by social activists Nityanand Chaubey and Rakesh Nayayik of Varanasi questioning the government’s move to withdraw the cases.

Terror hits Pak as summit starts

Taliban Kill 23 Shias, More Attacks Feared During Muharram

Omer Farooq Khan TNN

Islamabad: At least 23 people were killed and 62 injured in a suicide bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession in the country’s garrison city of Rawalpindi late on Wednesday. The attack came after twin blasts against Muharram procession of Shias in Karachi left three dead and a remote-control blast in Queatta city killed at least five.
    Eyewitnesses at Rawalpindi’s blast scene said a suicide bomber was intercepted by law-enforcement personnel when he was trying to join a Muharram procession.
    “The bomber was trying to join the procession by crossing barbed wires and breaking the security cordon. The bomber detonated himself the moment he was intercepted by security personnel,” said Sadaqat Hussain who was injured in the blast.
    Deeba Shehnaz, police rescue spokeswoman, said: “A total of 23 people, including the bomber, have died and 62 injured, eight of them are children.”
    The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the Karachi and Rawalpindi blasts. “We carried out the attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi because the Shia community is engaged in defiling our Prophet,” said Ehsanullah Ehsan, the Taliban spokesman. The banned Balochistan Republican Army claimed responsibility for a blast in Quetta region targeting security personnel.
    Pakistan intelligence officials said the extremist groups have escalated bombings and shootings of Shias to trigger violence that would pave the way for further sectarian violence. They also warned of more attacks in the coming days of the month of Muharram.
    The violence also coincided with Islamabad hosting a summit of developing eight countries, attended by the leaders of Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and other countries. Observers said largescale sectarian or militant violence could hurt Pakistan’s efforts to show that it has improved security situation as it hosts a summit of the leaders of eight developing countries in Islamabad.
    “The ongoing sectarian violence could hurt Pakistan’s efforts to show that it has improved security as it hosts the leaders of eight developing countries,” said Amir Mateen, an analyst.
    Home minister Rehman Malik said the attacks were designed to create the impression that the government is incapable of providing adequate security for the summit. “We are trying to build relationships, get investment in Pakistan and these groups are trying to derail the process,” he said.
    Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf condemned the bombings in a statement, vowing that the country was united and would never submit to

Ex-NSG commando claims non-payment of 26/11 dues

Himanshi Dhawan TNN

New Delhi: A former NSG commando, who had killed two terrorists at the Taj Mahal Hotel during the 26/11 siege but was rendered completely deaf due to injuries he suffered, came on Arvind Kejriwal’s platform on Thursday to allege that he had been handed a raw deal and deprived of pension and disability benefits due to him despite risking his life for the country.
    Haryana resident Naik Surender Singh, who was compulsorily retired following injuries he suffered during Operation Tornado, alleged that he was forced to run from pillar to post for the past 13 months for money due to him.
    Talking to reporters, Singh and Kejriwal demanded an inquiry into the funds given as donations by the public post-Mumbai terror attack alleging that the money was selectively distributed among commandos leaving many out. The two said that a callous government had left heroes to beg, and demanded to know the amount of money NSG had received from the public and what had been done with cheques signed by contributors such as Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni, Rohan Motors, Royal Western India Turf Club in favour of the commandos.
    Government denied the charge of insensitivity towards the commando, but acknowledged that there was a delay of 13 months in the disbursement of pension to Singh who was originally from the Grenadiers’ unit of the Army.
    Singh, the sole earning member of a family of five and now completely deaf, will start getting his pension only from this month. He forcefully countered ministry of defence’s (MoD) claim that Rs 19 lakh of the total Rs 31 lakh due to him in benefits had already been released. He produced bank statements to show that the account into which the money was supposed to be credited never got any. The account has only Rs 10 lakh. He maintained that he has so far received only Rs 4 lakh from various sources.
    `Even the citation certificate given to me is worthless since it did not have the signature of the Director General of NSG,’’ said a dejected Singh.
    The timing of the press conference, underlining Kejriwal’s growing ability to attract people with diverse grievances against the government, was significant. The allegation of indifference to heroes who had combated the Mumbai attackers comes a day after terrorist Ajmal Kasab was executed, and days before the fourth anniversary of the terror attacks, and sought to tap into the mood in the wake of Kasab’s hanging. The tactic worked too, forcing the government to come up with a prompt and detailed response and to argue, in a first, its case on micro-blogging site, Twitter.
    The emotive nature of the allegation knocked the ministries of defence and information and droadcasting, and the NSG into a team as they tried to fend off Singh’s charges. “I left for the Operation without seeing my newborn son. I gave my 100% to the country but this government has left me with nothing. I don’t want money…I want an inquiry into the money.”
    Singh suffers from 100% hearing disability diagnosed as sensory neural hearing loss in both ears and has splinters in both legs after a grenade thrown by the terrorists blew up on Nov 29, 2008. “Jo w a h a n l a d a a i t h i , w h o b a h a r w a l o n s e t h i . A p n e a a d m i y o n s e l a d n a m u s h k i l h o r a h a h a i. (The fight in Mumbai was against outsiders, but fighting with my own countrymen is proving difficult.),’’ he lamented.
    He denied the government’s claim that his failure to get a Contributory Health Insurance Scheme Card was the reason why he had to spend Rs 1 lakh from his own pocket for the treatment of injuries he sustained while battling the terrorists holed up in Taj Mahal Hotel.
    Government agreed to investigate the charge that money donated by Royal Western India Turf Club for the NSG commandos who fought the 26/11 attackers, was given to only four of them.
    “This is a country where a cricketer gets Rs 1 crore just to swing his bat but we force people who have risked their lives to beg for their rights. Who will send their husband, wife or son to fight for the country,’’ Kejriwal and his colleagues said.
    He claimed that both Taj and Oberoi hotels received $28 million in insurance money by August, 2009.
    Charging the government to prove that he had even received a “single paisa’’ from them, Singh said that he and his colleagues had been threatened not to air their grievances publicly or they would lose the funds they had received. Singh said that he was declared medically unfit 14 years three months and 10 days in to service and thrown out of the army forcing him to lose pension benefits due after 15 years of service.
26/11: Four years on, Mumbai fire brigade yet to receive President’s medals
Mumbai: Three years after the President’s medals were announced for seven of Mumbai’s firemen for rescue operations during the 26/11 attacks, they are yet to receive the medals. Several firemen bravely saved over 400 people from the Taj Mahal and Trident hotels.
    The prestigious fire service medal for gallantry was announced on August 15, 2009, for seven of them: former chief fire officers A V Sawant and P D Karguppikar, assistant divisional fire officer S G Amin, station officers K F D’souza and S W Rane, fireman Yuvraj Pawar and driver-operator Moses Pugaonkar.
    Senior fire brigade officials said the medals have arrived and are with the state government. According to protocol, the medals are to be handed over to them by the governor in a special programme. Strangely, senior state government officials said they want to give away the medals at a big function and hence are waiting to organise a collective function for all other firemen who have got these medals in the past and will do so in the near future.
    In fact, fire brigade officials said the President’s medals named for different fire brigade officers have not been handed over to them since 1997.
    “We were rescuing people during continuous firing and grenade explosions. We were happy that our efforts were recognised when the medals were announced,” said a fire brigade official who was one of the first few firemen to reach Taj hotel when the terrorists set it on fire. The people recommended for the award however said they have been receiving the financial benefit of Rs 450 per month that comes with the medal. TNN

Six-yr-old forced to drink his urine

Parents Protest, Lodge Police Complaint; Teacher Absconding

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Anaparthy (East Godavari):
In yet another horrific act of child abuse, a teacher of a private high school allegedly forced a six-year-old student to drink his own urine. The victim, a first standard student of Satyabhama High School, was forced to drink urine as punishment by his teacher Gowri who suspected him of leaving a mug full of urine in the bathroom, said sources.
    Though the incident took place on Wednesday afternoon, it came to light only on Thursday. The incident sparked off a public outcry after parents and relatives of the boy staged a protest in front of the school and lodged a complaint with the police. The teacher has been absconding from the school soon after news of the incident spread across the town.
    This is the third such incident to have come to light this year, after a fifth standard girl was allegedly forced to drink her urine by the hostel warden after she wet her bed in Viswa Bharathi School in West Bengal on July 10 and around the same time, a 14-year-old student in Perambalur of Tamil Nadu was subjected to a similar punishment by three teachers, who were later arrested, on July 21 this year.
    While sources said the teacher beat the child before allegedly meting out the inhuman punishment, other students said the teacher had asked them to hold him while she tossed the mugful of urine at him.
    However, the boy’s parents insist that their child was made to drink. “The statements of other children are false. My son told me he was forced to drink the urine. How can a teacher do this to a small child?” said an angry Ananta Reddy, the boy’s father and businessman.
    Anaparty police, on the other hand, said the boy gave them two versions. While he first said he was dragged by other students from the bathroom to the classroom before they poured urine on him, he reportedly changed his version within a few minutes to say that the teacher had asked the other children to pour the urine on him.
    Education department authorities, who recorded the version of students on tape, said it was another boy who allegedly urinated in the mug, but the students following the instructions of the teacher dragged the victim instead. “This is only a preliminary report. An officer has been put on the job to verify the facts and prepare the report,’ said district education officer (DEO) Srinivasa Reddy said.

7-yr-old loses genitals after circumcision, fighting for life

Rajendra Sharma TNN

Alwar: A seven-year-old boy is battling for life after a circumcision went horribly wrong at a private hospital in Alwar on Thursday. The boy’s genitals had to be cut off in an attempt to save his life, said sources. An FIR has been lodged against the hospital authorities after the relatives of the boy created a ruckus.
    The boy, Imran, was admitted to Sania hospital in Alwar on November 10 for circumcision. According to sources, after the operation, some equipment was used to prevent bleeding. However, electric current accidentally passed into his private parts and the boy suffered serious injury.
    On November 13, the boy was referred to a private hospital in Jaipur. After investigating, the doctors in Jaipur advised the boy’s relatives to remove his genitals as it was necessary to save his life. The operation was conducted and his genitals were removed. Three days after the operation, the boy was again admitted to Sania hospital in Alwar. The boy is now fighting for life while his relatives are protesting outside the hospital in Alwar.
    Imran’s grandfather Ayub Khan said, “The circumcision was carried out by Tayyab Khan, a physician at Sania Hospital. He is not a surgeon. The licence of the hospital should be cancelled.” However, Tayyab Khan denied the allegation. The hospital administration assured the boy’s relatives that it would bear the expenses of the treatment.

Pakistan Taliban threaten to attack Indians ‘anywhere’

Seek Kasab’s Body For Islamic Burial

Omer Farooq Khan TNN

Islamabad: The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday vowed to attack Indian targets “anywhere” to avenge the execution of Ajmal Kasab, the lonesurvivor of the terrorist squad responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. The outfit demanded that Kasab’s body be returned to Pakistan for an “Islamic burial”.
    Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the TTP would mount attacks in India and anywhere to avenge the hanging of Kasab, without elaborating. The TTP, linked to al-Qaida, operates from Pakistan’s ungoverned tribal belt along the Afghanistan border.
    Ehsan warned, “If India does not return Kasab’s body to us or his family, we will capture Indians and not return their bodies.” He criticized Pakistan for not asking India to return Kasab’s body after Indian authorities said on Wednesday that the terrorist had been buried in the Yerawada jail premises in Pune where he was hanged. Indian authorities did not specify what burial rites were performed.
    Pakistan has tightened security at the Indian embassy in Islamabad following Delhi’s request for extra cover for its diplomats. Indian deputy high commissioner Gopal Baglay met his counterpart in the Pakistan foreign office Zohra Akbari, DG, South Asia, a day before Kasab’s hanging, and handed a ‘note verbale’ requesting extra security.
    Diplomatic sources confirmed that security measures at the Indian high commission had been tightened further.
    Foreign secretary J A Jillani said, “I am not aware of the threats that you are8 referring to, but as far as we are concerned, our position on the issue of terrorism has been consistent — we have condemned terrorism in Pakistan or in any part of the world . As far as the question of security is concerned, the government of Pakistan is doing everything despite all the challenges to provide security not only to our own people but also to members of the diplomatic community.”
I was denied 26/11 dues: Ex-commando New Delhi:A former NSG commando, who had killed two terrorists at the Taj Mahal Hotel during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks but was rendered deaf due to injuries he suffered in the rescue operation, came on Arvind Kejriwal’s platform on Thursday to allege that he had been handed a raw deal and deprived of pension and disability benefits. Haryana resident Naik Surender Singh, who was compulsorily retired following injuries he suffered during Operation Tornado, alleged that he had been forced to run from pillar to post for the last 13 months for money due to him.

Kasab’s Life Ends On A String

In A Top-Secret Operation Executed With Surgical Precision, LeT Terrorist Ajmal Kasab Is Hanged At Pune’s Yerawada Jail At 7.30am Wednesday After Being Moved From Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail In The Dead Of Night

Prafulla Marpakwar & C Unnikrishnan TNN

Mumbai: Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab exited this world as stealthily as he had entered Mumbai four years ago. The lone surviving gunman of 26/11 was hanged to death in Pune’s Yerawada jail at 7.30am on Wednesday in an extremely hush-hush operation.
    Asked for his last wish, the 25-yearold terrorist from Faridkot village in Pakistan’s Punjab province said: “Gharwalon ko milna hai (I want to meet my family members).” He was told the Islamabad government had been informed about his hanging but had failed to respond. As his hands and legs were tied, his last words, according to officials who witnessed the hanging, were: “Allah kasam maaf karna. Aisi galati dobara nahi hogi…(Allah, please forgive me, this mistake won’t happen again).”
    Sources said Kasab was babbling incoherently before the hangman pulled the lever at Yerawada, about 150km from Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail, his home for four years. His body was buried in a pit in the prison premises as there were no claimants. He was convicted in May 2010 by a special judge for murdering seven people directly with his AK-47 and 65 others in common intent with fellow terrorist Ismail. He was also found guilty of being part of a Lashkar-eTaiba conspiracy that led to 166 deaths. The Mumbai high court in February 2011 and the Supreme Court in August this year upheld the sentence.
    How Kasab came to be hanged as most of India slept is as dramatic a tale as the unfortunate cycle of terror he and his nine other terrorists unleashed across Mumbai landmarks on November 26, 2008.
    On November 7, two days after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Kasab’s clemency petition, Shinde, home secretary R K Singh and sleuths from the Intelligence Bureau drafted ‘Operation X’ to execute him. “It was a top-secret operation. Only a few bureaucrats and high-ranking IPS officers were involved,’’ Shinde told TOI.
Even PM, Sonia didn’t know, claims Shinde
    Kasab’s execution was kept such a closely guarded secret that neither the PM, nor Congress president Sonia Gandhi was told about it, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Wednesday. “My Cabinet colleagues got to know from television this morning,” Shinde said. “The UPA president was not part of the decision. This is the depart-ment’s work, my routine work. It is my nature to keep work a secret, I have a police background.” Shinde was a policeman before joining politics.
Pak govt dodges execution note, citizens say it’s OK
    Pakistan stuck to its script of denial on Kasab even in his death as the foreign office refused to acknowledge a note on his execution from the Indian mission. The expected queasiness, in fact, was one of the factors in the cancellation of interior minister Rehman Malik’s proposed visit to India on November 22-23, sources said. In contrast, netizens in Pakistan openly welcomed the hanging, saying, “all terrorists must face the same treatment”.
2nd fastest execution in India; first for a foreigner
    Kasab’s execution — exactly five days ahead of the fourth anniversary of his crime — is the second fastest in the country, after that of Ramchandra alias Raoji who was hanged in 1996, within three years of murdering his family. Kasab is also the first foreign national to be hanged in India, among 55 executed so far. Interestingly, both 26/11 and Kasab’s execution were on Wednesday, in November, in a leap year. P 10
    THE LAST DAYS Oct 16 | Union home ministry recommends rejection of Kasab’s mercy plea to President
Nov 5 | Pranab Mukherjee rejects petition for clemency
Nov 6 | President’s rejection is conveyed to Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde
Nov 7 | Shinde approves execution and sends file to Maharashtra govt
Nov 8 | Maharashtra govt receives file with advice to execute Kasab on Nov 21
Nov 12 | Prison officials inform Kasab about the rejection of mercy plea
Nov 13 | Additional sessions judge issues death warrant
Nov 17 | Arthur Road jail officials inform Kasab about hanging on Nov 21
Nov 20 | Indian high commission informs Pakistan about decision

Miscreants set ablaze 6 cars in Old City

Hyderabad: Even as normalcy was returning to the violence-hit Old City, miscreants again tried to create trouble by setting ablaze six fourwheelers in the surrounding areas of Charminar in the early hours of Monday.
    At about 3.30 am, five miscreants, riding on two bikes, started setting ablaze fourwheelers parked on the streets in Ghansi Bazar, Golla Galli and Tagari Ka Naka areas near Charminar.
    The miscreants set ablaze a Honda City (AP 12 J 1890), Scorpio (AP 12 G 1800) vehicles belonging to Satya Prakash Agarwal, his brother Kiran at Tagari Ka Naka, and then they torched a Honda Brio and Honda City belonging to Subodh Agarwal at Ghansi Bazar. Immediately, they went to Golla Galli and set ablaze a Maruti Swift (AP 12 L 8892) owned by Baglekar Sham Kumar and a Ford Ikon (AP 10 AM 8061) owned by Sainath. Among the vehicles torched, Swift was completely gutted, while other vehicles suffered partial damage, the Charminar police said. Among the victims, except Sham, all others are into textile, steel and jewellery business. Sham is a student, police said.
    As the flames engulfed the cars, their owners quickly came out of the houses and doused them. Traffic and surveillance CCTV cameras at Ghansi Bazar captured the images of five miscreants travelling on two separate bikes committing the offence.
    “In the video, it is clearly visible that the pillion rider getting off the bike, sprinkling inflammable material on the four-wheelers, which he was carrying in a pouchlike thing, and then lighting it up with a match stick. All the vehicles were set ablaze in less than five minutes,” a Charminar police officer said.
    With the help of the video, police are trying to zero in on the offenders. All the victims belong to a particular community and some of them reportedly have close ties with certain political parties. Police have booked a case under section 435 (Mischief by fire) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and launched investigation.

THE MAN WHO CHANGED MAHA POLITICS

BA L T H AC K E R AY | 1 9 2 7 - 2 0 1 2

THE MAN WHO CHANGED MAHA POLITICS

No other leader in Maharashtra evoked the extreme reactions that Bal Keshav Thackeray did — hero worship on one hand, outright hostility on the other. The Shiv Sena founder, who admired Hitler and promoted a divisive sons-of-the-soil policy, leaves behind an ambiguous legacy

Ambarish Mishra | TNN

    For over four decades, Bal Keshav Thackeray dominated Maharashtra’s political stage, courting controversy, riding storms, earning credit and criticism — and punctuating all this with biting, often crude, humour. The Maharashtra politician, who passed away on Saturday, was the first among free India’s homespun leaders. Neither an Inner Temple lawyer nor a khadiclad Gandhian, Thackeray never carried the baggage of colonial politics.
    His sons-of-the-soil agenda changed Maharashtra’s political culture and eroded Congress’s once-impenetrable base in the state. He upheld the cause of Mumbaikar Marathis — blue-collar workers and chawlwallas — and demanded their pre-eminence in the country’s commercial capital. Little wonder, he was an icon for many Marathis though among his critics in later years were also Marathis.
    Thackeray’s socio-political thought was shaped by his father, writer-crusader K S Thackeray, also known as Prabodhankar because he edited a periodical called Prabodhan (Renaissance). Bal Thackeray never followed a cohesive political ideology. He advocated Hindutva but stayed away from casteist politics and religious dogma. Unlike DMK or Akali Dal, he didn’t allow his regional agenda to eclipse national issues. He made anti-Muslim statements but allied with Muslim parties. He loved contradictions.
    The Shiv Sena he founded in 1966 was an extension of the 1950s Samayukta Maharashtra Samiti which fought for a state for Marathis. The Samayukta stir brought Thackeray, then a Samiti activist, in contact with the Marathi manoos. He espoused their cause through speeches, activism and Marmik, his publication launched in 1960. This was when locals were getting restive about the influx of migrants into Mumbai, especially from South India, and Marmik, packed with Thackeray toons, published lists of South Indians holding government positions in Mumbai. This fanned Marathi ire. Thackeray had a cartoonist’s eye for symbolism and used this to great effect, standing on an Ambassador at the Gateway of India and demanding that the Gateway be shut to outsiders.
    It was the February 1969 Sena agitation to demand a peaceful settlement of the Maharashtra-Karnataka border row that gave Thackeray greater clout. After 56 people died in police firing on a Sena morcha and Thackeray was sent to Yeravada Jail, Sainiks made Mumbai burn for five days. Chief minister Vasantrao Naik urged Thackeray to issue a peace appeal from prison. He did, emerging the uncrowned king of Mumbai.
    Bandhs became the Sena’s weapon of mass destruction. Such was the fear of Sena gangs that none ventured out on those days. The Congress used this street power and patronised the Sena to crush communist trade unions in Mumbai and Thane. Fights between foot soldiers of both parties culminated in the murder of CPI MLA Krishna Desai. Thackeray used the state machinery to overthrow the left unions and ensure his party’s expansion.
    Long before coalition dharma became fashionable, Thackeray made and unmade poll alliances without batting an eyelid. In sealing electoral pacts he covered Maharashtra’s political spectrum — from left-secular Socialists to the right-wing BJP to the Muslim League. He could gauge the mood of the moment. In 1987, with the Ayodhya issue gathering steam, Thackeray switched from Mee Marathi to Hindutva. After the Babri Masjid demolition of December 1992, he brandished his Hindutva agenda with greater belligerence.
    The ’90s were a period of troughs and crests. If his partymen were indicted for triggering one of the worst communal conflagrations in Mumbai after the Babri demolition, what followed was victory in the 1995 assembly polls. It was also when intra-party bickering battered Sena’s monolithic structure. Thackeray’s blue-eyed boy, former Mumbai mayor Chhagan Bhujbal defected to the Congress in December 1991. This, in a way, triggered Sena’s democratisation.
    Thackeray lost his wife, Meenatai, in 1995 and eldest son, Bindumadhav, in a road accident a year later. His brother Shrikant died in 2003. Trusted colleagues Pramod Navalkar, Dattaji Salvi and Sharad Acharya, too, passed away. The biggest political blow came when nephew Raj snapped ties with the Sena in December 2005 and launched Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in 2006. “Yet, Balasaheb took everything in his stride. He bore personal tragedies and rebellion with courage — and with a hearty laugh,” said former CM and Thackeray confidante Manohar Joshi.
    Thackeray retained his wicked sense of humour till the end. When a Mumbai BJP functionary called on him at Lilavati Hospital this July, Thackeray asked him if Nitin Gadkari, the roly-poly BJP chief, was dieting to lose weight. When the visitor replied in the affirmative, Thackeray shot back: “But the BJP is already fast losing its political weight!”