Forty-nine people were injured on the first day of the traditional Jallikattu festival in Tamil Nadu that has attracted the ire of animal activists, officials said on Wednesday.
Nearly 500 bulls and a similar number of “tamers” were involved on the opening day of the festival in Madurai, said S Natarajan, district collector of the city.
The Supreme Court outlawed Jallikattu in 2016 after a plea by animal rights groups but Tamil Nadu insisted Jallikattu was a crucial part of its culture and identity.
Growing tensions in the state capital Chennai, and other cities, led Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue an executive order that the centuries-old festival a go ahead.
During the festival in Tamil Nadu bulls festooned with marigolds are released from pens and men try to grab their horns to win prizes such as scooters and whitegoods.
Critics say the bulls are fed alcohol and chilli powder is thrown in their faces to agitate them before the clash. Organisers insist the animals are not mistreated.
The bodies of a 28 years old man and a 19 years old woman were found on Wednesday in a well in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district, police said.
The man was identified as Rajesh and the woman was his neighbour, Guda police Station House Officer Ashok Chaudhary said.
He said that both of them apparently had an affair. The duo had been missing since Tuesday night and their bodies were found in the well in Sigror village on Wednesday.
No suicide note was recovered and a case was registered under CrPc section 174 (unnatural death). The bodies were handed over to the family members after post-mortem, the SHO added.
The high-powered Selection Committee is likely to meet on January 24 to appoint the new CBI Director, sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads the committee, in which the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge are the other members.
The sources said that the government had proposed the meeting on January 21 earlier while Kharge wanted the meeting on January 24 or 25.
After mutual consultations, the government has finalised January 24 as the date for the meeting to select the new CBI Director, a post which is lying vacant ever since the government removed Alok Verma and appointed him as Director General Fire Service.
IPS officer M Nageswara Rao was named the interim director of the CBI. The Congress has been attacking the prime minister for not appointing a regular CBI Director.
Kharge had also written to the Prime Minister demanding early holding of the meeting of the high powered committee to appoint a regular CBI Director.
Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha on Wednesday said that he was surprised to know that a junior judge was recommended for elevation to the Supreme Court, superseding senior judges.
“What I always feel is that the Collegium should act in a transparent manner, and reasons must be forthcoming why the decision was an upturn. There must be transparency. I have always believed that the Collegium works as an institution. It is an institutional body; it is not an individual’s decision. If the consultation or communication between the Collegium was lacking, that could have been done. A junior judge was superseded to the Supreme Court, it surprises me,” former CJI Lodha said in an exclusive interview to agencies.
Talking about the Collegium, he said: “The Collegium is a matured body, comprising of the CJI and four senior-most judges. It is a very strong, powerful, matured and intellectual body and every decision taken by the Collegium must reflect its maturity.”
“The question is after Justice Nandrajog, there are two more judges, Justice Gita Mittal, the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Justice S Ravinder Bhatt. The Karnataka High Court Judge, who is from Rajasthan, was superseded six weeks ago, was not found to be, as per reports, deserving for being elevated to the Supreme Court,” he added.
“Look, it is little disturbing,” he said while replying to a question as to how unfortunate it is for the judiciary that junior judges are being recommended for elevation to the SC prior to their seniors.
Reportedly, Supreme Court judge Justice SK Kaul wrote a letter to CJI Ranjan Gogoi against the elevation of Justice Sanjeev Khanna, ignoring the seniority of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, the CJ of Rajasthan High Court.
As per reports, Kaul said that while he had nothing against Justice Khanna but he could wait for his turn to be elevated.
Recently, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended the elevation of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, a judge of Delhi High Court, as judges of the apex court.
The top court is presently functioning with 26 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 31, leaving five clear vacancies.
While recommending the names of Justice Maheshwari and Justice Khanna, the Collegium took into consideration the combined seniority on an all-India basis of Chief Justices and senior puisne judges of High Courts, apart from their merit and integrity.
With Aadhaar cards becoming ubiquitous, the country needs to marshal its defensive and offensive capabilities, former national security adviser M K Narayanan said on January 16.
At a seminar on cyber security organized by BCCI and CENERS-K, he said India is listed among top five nations affected by cyber attacks.
“The country is on the threshold of a digital age. And the use of Aadhaar cards is becoming more ubiquitous every day.
“It is also getting increasingly easier to mask an identity online. Once a code used in a malware comes into the open market, it could be bought and repurposed by hackers and nations across the world,” the former West Bengal governor asserted.
Narayanan also said that growing inter-connectivity has effectively demolished the traditional perimeters.
Cyber attackers, he noted, have made inroads into the entire spectrum of critical infrastructure like banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), energy, shipping, power and other utilities.
“Businesses in India are among the largest victims of targeted attacks, and with the Internet of Things (IoT) coming into play, the problems would multiply,” he added.
As the allegations and counter-allegations of poaching have cast their shadow on the state government led by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, the Congress has called a meeting of its legislators on January 18 to take stock of the prevailing political situation.
The decision to hold the meeting of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) was taken after the party leaders alleged that three of their MLAs were taken to Mumbai by the BJP in an attempt to lure them to their fold.
However, the BJP has dismissed the Congress allegations, claiming that the ruling party was making attempts to poach their MLAs. BJP has parked its 104 party MLAs at a hotel in Gurugram in Haryana.
Talking to media persons on Wednesday, Congress MP KH Muniyappa has assured the three party MLAs of addressing their grievances. “I urge them to come back. They don’t need to worry at all.”
“The second generation Congressmen who won election must not feel insecure. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal are aware of your grievances. Your concerns will be given a serious thought in the next Cabinet expansion,” added Muniyappa.
Meanwhile, Cabinet minister in Chief Minister Kumaraswamy led Congress-JDS government, Zameer Ahmed Khan said: “Who is scared today? Had we been scared, then we too would’ve been sitting with our MLAs in a resort.”
“It is the BJP which has parked its MLAs in a hotel. Yes, two to three MLAs of the Congress party are in Mumbai. All of them are coming back. They will return by Thursday,” said Khan.
On Tuesday, two independent MLAs in Karnataka Assembly-R Shankar and H Nagesh–withdrew their support to the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state.
These two MLAs had gone incommunicado two days ago before announcing their decision at a press conference in Mumbai.
In the 224-member Assembly, JDS has 37 MLAs and the Congress 80. The Congress-JDS alliance has the support of some Independents in the House where the majority figure is 113 stay in power.
Singer Rihanna filed a lawsuit against her father, Ronald Fenty, for exploiting her name in million-dollar business deals.
Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, has sued her father and his business partner, Moses Perkins, for an invasion of privacy and “egregiously and fraudulently” misrepresenting that their company, Fenty Entertainment, is affiliated with the singer.
According to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, the singer has nothing to do with her father’s company.
“Although Fenty is Rihanna’s father, he does not have, and never has had, authority to act on Rihanna’s behalf,” reads the suit.
Fraudulent bookings, the lawsuit states, include a USD 15 million tour in Latin America, along with two concerts in Los Angeles and one in Las Vegas for USD 400,000.
In the lawsuit, Rihanna claims that she has nothing to do with those bookings.
She added that the lawsuit that she has used the name Fenty for her cosmetics and other businesses since 2012; Fenty Entertainment was started in 2017.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently shared a heartwarming moment with some blind royal fans.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry spent some time walking around Hamilton Square in Birkenhead, Merseyside and were spotted chatting with fans and well-wishers along the way.
The couple had one special moment with a fan that instantly went viral on the internet. One attendee shared on Twitter an interaction that her blind niece had with the Royals. The person named Tracey Marie posted two pictures near Meghan and Harry. In one of the pictures, the prince gently held onto a girl in a purple parka and black beanie. The second photo featured Meghan touching a card written in Braille.
“The little girl with the grey hat with a black bobble (My niece who is blind) Harry held on to her ensuring she was safe. Meghan went down on the floor to take a card she had made for her in braille.” Tracey described on Twitter.
She also added that “They’ll make great parents.”
According to an leading portal, some blind children were also allowed to touch the Duke and Duchess’ face. Frank Field, a Member of Parliament from the area, told the magazine a bit more about the special moment shared by the blind fans.
“In the square, there were some blind children who wanted to touch the royal faces because they couldn’t see them. Both of them went down on their haunches so the children could touch their faces,” he explained.
Paris Jackson has recently entered a treatment facility seeking help for issues related to her emotional health.
The daughter of the late Michael Jackson is currently living in a health facility in the hopes of improving her emotional health.
A source told an online portal, “After a busy year of work engagements that took her all over the globe, Paris decided that she needed to take some time off to reboot, realign and prioritise her physical and emotional health.”
“She checked herself into a treatment facility to aid in her wellness plan and is looking forward to coming out of this revitalised and ready to tackle the exciting new projects that await her,” the insider shared.
Followers of the young star started worrying and speculating that the 20-year-old model was facing issues when she suddenly stopped sharing photos on social media in mid-December. Furthermore, she did not appear to have joined her family for a vacation to Tokyo, Japan over the holidays either.
Paris has had a whirlwind year filled with photo shoots, public appearances and the start of her music career. The year also saw her losing her grandfather Joe Jackson.
Paris had made headlines in September 2018 for calling out the paparazzi who were clamouring to get a shot of her face as she left New York Fashion Week show.
She told fans on Twitter, “I just got yelled at in a really mean way outside the tom ford show because paparazzi didn’t get a chance to shoot my face. (For those of you that don’t know, paps don’t get paid unless my face is in the shot.)”
Through the years, Paris has been quite open about her battle with depression and anxiety. She has previously touched upon her struggles with self-confidence, which drove her to attempt committing suicide when she was just 13-years-old.
The online portal cited a Rolling Stone interview from 2017 where she said, “I was going through a lot of, like, teen angst. And I was also dealing with my depression and my anxiety without any help.”
Baldev Singh, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Jaito, resigned from the primary membership of the party on Wednesday.
In his letter, Baldev cited, as a result of your dictatorial, arrogant and autocratic style of functioning, pioneers of AAP like Prashant Bhushan, Yogender Yadav, Medha Patikar, Kiran Bedi, Dr. Gandhi, H.S.Khalsa, Sucha Singh Chottepur, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Ashish Khetan, Ashutosh, H.S.Phoolka etc. have all left the party or have been thrown out in a humiliating manner.
Baldev said that he was deeply shocked when the AAP chief “unceremoniously and undemocratically” removed an honest Sukhpal Singh Khaira from the post of as Leader of Opposition (LoP), without taking Punjab MLA’s into confidence.
He further added, your meek apology to the drug tainted former Minister Bikram Singh Majithia further revealed your double standards in politics. Your duplicity on the vital issue of Punjab river waters also puts you on the same pedestal of cunning leaders of India. You have blatantly gone back on the most important promise of Swaraj, by centralising all powers with yourself. You have also thrown to winds the constitution of the party merely to remain Convenor and continue your grip on the party.
Singh said that Kejriwal’s hobnobbing and flirting with the Congress is yet another example of sheer political opportunism that has left the people of India bewildered.
