A 20-year-old man was injured when his friend accidentally shot at him from a country-made revolver in Maharashtra, police said on Wednesday.
A group of friends was chatting on a roadside at Kisan Nagar locality in Wagle Estate area on Tuesday night when one of them took out his revolver to show it to them, senior police inspector SM Patil said.
While the man was showing the gun, he allegedly pulled the trigger accidentally and shot his friend Vijay Yadav in the stomach, the official said.
Yadav was immediately rushed to a private hospital where he was undergoing treatment, Patil said.
One person, whose identity was not revealed, was arrested and was booked under IPC section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act.
A probe was on into the incident and the police were also trying to ascertain how the man got the weapon and whether he had a valid licence for it, the official said.
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court it would not make appointments in any of its departments under the new legislation providing quota to the Maratha community till January 23, when the court will hear petitions against the reservation.
The high court had earlier this month chided the government for issuing an advertisement for job recruitment even as petitions challenging the legislation are pending.
Government counsel V A Thorat on Wednesday assured a division bench of Chief Justice N H Patil and Justice M S Karnik that the state will not make any appointments till the next date of hearing (January 23).
“The state’s General Administration Department shall issue necessary directions to all local bodies and institutions under its control asking them not to make any appointments under the new legislation till then,” he said.
The court had on December 10 asked the government if it was willing to make public the report submitted by the State Backward Class Commission, on whose recommendations the government introduced the legislation.
To this, Thorat and state Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said while the government was duty-bound to submit a copy of the report to the court, it had some apprehensions about giving the report to lawyers, who have filed petitions, and making it public.
Thorat said those portions are “volatile” in nature.
The bench then suggested the government to consider giving the lawyers a truncated version with the said portion deleted.
The bench was hearing a bunch of petitions on the Maratha quota issue.
While a few of the petitions challenged the government’s decision to provide 16 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to the Maratha community, several others were filed in support of it.
Thorat on Wednesday told the court that the entire process of recruitment will take over a year to complete.
The government in an affidavit submitted on Wednesday said it would not be proper for the court to stay the entire recruitment process, considering large number of vacancies in state departments and the issue of unemployment in society.
The bench on Wednesday accepted the contentions of the government and its assurance that no appointments would be made till the next date of hearing.
The court directed the government to file its detailed affidavit to the petitions and posted the matter for further hearing on January 23.
Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao had last month approved and signed the Maratha Reservation Bill after the state Assembly unanimously passed it.
NOT following the curriculum – One of the biggest mistakes the aspirants commit is not to follow the syllabus given by the UPSC. Many of them start their preparation without referring to the syllabus and within no time find themselves in ‘no progress zone’.Though, the topics may be vast, but not completely unlimited. CSE aspirants need to break this myth as this may prove fatal in the long run costing you with time, money, energy and resource. In their course of preparation, consider the UPSC syllabus as your roadmap to start with and continue referring it at all points of preparation.
Missing to go through previous years – Aspirants do not realise that the previous year papers can help them prepare in accordance with the latest trend followed by the UPSC. While preparing, refer to previous years after each step in order to co-relate with the topics finished, as this is a good indicator of whether you are moving in the right direction or not.
Piling up irrelevant books – Flooding the room completely with UPSC preparation books does not always land you in success. For effective preparation, choose handpicked books that are genuinely relevant. Though there are several marketplaces in the city that is the hub for such preparation books with various authors and publications available, scrutinise for the relevant book to idealise your preparation. It is preferable for the aspirants to seek advise from their seniors, experienced mentors or reliable sources before going for a book purchase.
Not getting basic reference – Most of the aspirants do this by going for heavyweight books instead of getting the basics clear. The NCERT books up to 12 standard are a good source of knowledge to initiate steadily. This is the most atomic sized mistake that can compel your preparations to fall.
Writing skills deficiency – the mains exams is the criteria for the selection process that includes writing essays. One lacking writing skills may not be well efficient in clearing the selection process. The aspirants should be well equipped with facts and wisdom, fluent flow of knowledge in a very precise and skillful manner. Being one of the toughest task, if not rectified on time, failure is guaranteed. Aspirants should be focusing on exam pattern oriented writing rigorously rather than blogging to improve writing and typing skills.
Way of Choosing optional paper – Aspirants opt for the optional paper based on the subject scores and marking trends, length and extent of the curriculum and subject that covers almost the GS paper. These insights and estimations can prove fatal during results. Optional paper should be chosen in such a way that it should also suit the aspirants interest and inclination towards it.
NOT perceiving the bottom line of the newspapers – if the newspapers and the magazines are not understood about ‘what and how to read’, the results will yield low in the long run. A newspaper has three segments from an exam point of view – events (that gives facts and figures), Issues (provides views and reviews that helps in developing an individuals understanding and opinion on contemporary subjects) and gossips. In addition articles on various other segments also helps aspirants to frame and write well-structured essays. Hence, utilise the newspapers with persistent efforts.
Improper analysis of your strengths – SWOT analysis is undertaken to identify the internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. As the nature of the UPSC exam demands high dynamism and adaptability, candidates miss to analyse their inbuilt strengths and weakness along with the posing opportunity and threats. This takes them in a wrong direction during preparation leading to loss of tempo and zeal. Aspirants should therefore keep a consistent grip over their strong areas and at least a loose fist over weaker section.
Not prioritising the task – improper management of time can lead to undesirable outcomes. As aspirants put years together for UPSC preparation, managing time and prioritising their work is a must. Any ambition without a time frame is nothing more than a fantasy. Understand the difference between urgent and important to achieve fruitful benefits.
Circumventing regular reviewing – To retain the information stored during the preparation it is necessary to revise consistently. There has to be a very well maintained cohesion between what you read and ‘revise’ what have you read till date. Video Lectures, Subject Audios and Group Discussions (Group Study) can prove to be a boon for an aspirant of UPSC CSE.
(The author of the article is the Founder and CEO, Chanakya IAS Academy)
Videos produced by environmental groups to be shown to thousands of participants in a major UN climate summit were banned by organisers for mentioning fossil fuels, in a move campaigners say amounts to censorship.
AFP has obtained emails sent by the United Nations to NGOs asking them to remove frames referring to “dirty energy” and “pipelines”, claiming that they breached the UN climate convention’s rules of participation.
The COP24 climate talks, which wrap up Friday in Poland, bring together more than 20,000 officials, ministers, activists and business representatives from across the world.
Among those accredited to observe the process are a host of pressure groups whose goals vary enormously.
Green campaigners complain that so-called “business-interest NGOs” — known as BINGOs — representing big energy firms are allowed to participate with very little oversight.
They allege these groups use their industry connections to influence national negotiators in the process of hammering out a global plan to limit temperature rises and avert runaway planetary warming.
Environmental NGOs prepared a series of short films that were destined to be shown on large screens near the entrance to the sprawling COP24 complex in the Polish mining city of Katowice.
But after submitting the films for what they thought would be a pro-forma review, the UN objected to several frames mentioning fossil fuel-related activity.
In one email the UN liaison body asked for a shot containing the words “dirty energy” to be removed.
It also asked that the phrases “prohibit participation of fossil fuel corporations” and “why are politicians still approving pipelines, coal plants and fracking” be cut.
The climate convention prohibits “activity derisory to the UN, any of their member states, organisations or any individual or criticism that would go against basic rules of decorum”.
But campaigners say their videos did not contravene these guidelines, as no specific country or company was named.
“The videos are otherwise of excellent quality and it would be a shame to exclude these high-quality videos on the basis of one or two short frames,” the UN emailed.
A day after BJP-ruled states of Assam and Gujarat waived off farm loans and electricity bills in rural areas respectively, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said his party has managed to wake them up from their “slumber” and insisted that he will rouse a “sleeping” Prime Minister Narendra Modi too.
“The Congress party has managed to wake the CMs of Assam and Gujarat from their deep slumber. PM is still asleep. We will wake him up too,” the Congress chief wrote on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Gandhi revived his attack on the Narendra Modi-led central government and made it clear that the farm loan waiver is going to be one of their main poll planks for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He said the Opposition would mount pressure on PM Modi and would not let him sleep until all farm loans have been waived.
In the recently-held assembly elections, Congress had vowed to waive off farmers’ loans in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh within 10 days of coming to power. In MP and Chhattisgarh, the Congress declared waivers on the first day of forming the governments.
On Tuesday, the BJP government in Assam announced the approval of Rs 600 crore farm loan waivers, which it said will benefit around eight lakh farmers of the state. Similarly, the party’s government in Gujarat announced a complete waiver of Rs 625 crore in unpaid electricity bills, under its one-time settlement scheme for over six lakh people living in rural parts of the state.
Personal information of some current and former employees of NASA were stolen in a data breach in October.
In an internal memo sent to all employees, NASA admitted on Wednesday to getting hacked, almost two months after the breach was discovered, the report said.
The people behind the hacking have not yet been identified as NASA said that an unknown intruder got access to one of the agency’s servers holding the personal data of the employees.
The scope of the breach and the number of affected employees are also not known, according to the report.
But the agency took the step of notifying all employees so they could take preventive action.
NASA discovered the hack on October 23 and informed that it was working with federal cybersecurity partners “to examine the servers to determine the scope of the potential data exfiltration and identify potentially affected individuals.”
“Those NASA Civil Service employees who were on-boarded, separated from the agency, and/or transferred between Centers, from July 2006 to October 2018, may have been affected,” Bob Gibbs, NASA Assistant Administrator was quoted as saying in the memo.
NASA also suffered similar security breaches in 2011 and 2016, the ZDNet report said.
The number of complaints received by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has gone down over the last three years, the government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Minority Affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, in a written response to a question, said that on receiving complaints, the NCM takes appropriate action as per provisions of the NCM Act, 1992, and the procedure adopted by it.
As mandated under Section 9 of the Act, the commission has been taking up cases regarding deprivation of rights and safeguards of the minorities with the authorities in the concerned state governments or the central government, he said.
There has been no increase in complaints received by the NCM over the last three years, Naqvi said to a question on whether there has been an increase in the number of complaints to the minority panel.
The minister also gave details of the complaints received by the NCM in the last three years.
In 2015-16, a total of 1,974 complaints, including 1,437 by Muslims and 144 by Christians, were received, and out of those 1,960 were disposed off.
In 2016-17, a total of 1,647 complaints, including 1,231 by Muslims and 102 by Christians, were received, and out of those 1,607 were disposed off.
A total of 1,498 complaints, including 1,128 by Muslims and 100 by Christians, were received in 2017-18, and out of those 1,384 were disposed off.
In 2018-19 till December 13, a total of 1,342 complaints, including 952 by Muslims and 106 by Christians, were received, and out of those 253 were disposed off.
A journalist, who had criticised the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Manipur on social media, has been sentenced to one year in detention by a local court, according to a statement issued by the state home department.
The chief judicial magistrate of Imphal West district passed the order on December 14.
The statement was accessed by agencies on Wednesday.
The Advisory Board of the National Security Act (NSA), in its sitting held on December 11, had examined the allegations levelled against the journalist, Kishorechand Wangkhem.
On December 13, the board recommended that there were “sufficient grounds” to detain Wangkhem under the provisions of the NSA, the statement said.
Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla approved the advisory board’s recommendation to detain the journalist for a maximum period of 12 months under the NSA.
The 39-year-old Imphal-based journalist was detained under the NSA on November 26 for allegedly uploading videos criticising the BJP-led governments in Manipur and at the Centre for observing Rani Jhansi’s birth anniversary.
Wangkhem works with a local TV channel and the videos that he had uploaded on November 19 in English and Meitei were not related to his official work, officials had said earlier.
In the video clips, Wangkhem had purportedly said he was saddened and shocked to learn that the present government in Manipur was observing the birth anniversary of Rani of Jhansi, according to media reports.
He reportedly said Rani of Jhansi’s deeds had nothing to do with Manipur and the state was observing her birth anniversary because the Centre had asked it to. In this context, he allegedly called Chief Minister Biren Singh a “puppet of the Centre” and a “puppet of Hindutva”.
Hitting back at the opposition which stalled the proceedings of the Uttar Pradesh legislature over the issue of law and order, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday the Bulandshahr violence, was a “political conspiracy” hatched by those who have lost political ground.
The entire Question Hour was washed out in both the Houses of the state legislature amid uproar and sloganeering by the opposition Samajwadi Party and the Congress over various issues, including the plight of farmers and the law-and-order situation in the state that led to repeated adjournments.
“The December 3 (Bulandshahr) violence is a political conspiracy (hatched) by those who have lost political ground,” he told reporters after the Assembly was adjourned for the day amid opposition ruckus.
“It was a political conspiracy which has been exposed… peace and order will be maintained at all cost.. the administration and government have repulsed the designs (of conspirators) sternly,” Adityanath said.
The Chief Minister had earlier termed the Bulandshahr incidents an accident.
The Bulandshahr violence, which occurred over an incident of alleged cow slaughter, claimed two lives including that of a police inspector.
Responding to questions on the issue, Adityanath said those whose political ground has receded are embracing each other to hide their shortcomings.
Wednesday was the second day of the brief winter session of the state legislature spread over four sittings.
Both the Assembly and the Legislative Council were adjourned on the first day of the current session on Tuesday after condoling the deaths of former chief minister N D Tiwari, BJP legislator Patel Ram Kumar Verma and Union minister Ananth Kumar.
Weeks after Bulandshahr violence that resulted in the death of a Uttar Pradesh police inspector Subhod Kumar, Over 80 former bureaucrats have written an open letter demanding the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. According to the media reports, the bureaucrats have alleged that the CM ‘refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the incident and its communal intent and instead asks authorities to focus attention on those responsible for illegal cow slaughter’.
The letter has also been written in a bid to remind those in positions of power, like the “Chief Secretary, the Director General of Police, the Home Secretary, and all other members of the higher civil services”, of their “constitutional duty to fearlessly implement the Rule of Law rather than the perverse dictates of their political masters”.
Below is the text of the letter:
We are a group of retired civil servants from the All India and Central Services who, having spent long years in the service of the Constitution of India, have come together to express ourselves on issues of governance and public policy that have a bearing on constitutional principles, conduct and ethics. Since June 2017, when we first came together, we have spoken out on several occasions when we felt that constitutional values were under threat and that it was incumbent on us to voice our concerns publicly. As a group we have no affiliations with any political party nor do we subscribe to any ideology other than the values enshrined in the Constitution.
It is a measure of the rapid erosion of constitutional values that we, as a group, have felt a compelling need to speak out as many as nine times in the last eighteen months. The pace of erosion has been frightening and with each slip we seem to sink further into a lawless abyss.
The mob violence in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh (U.P), on 3 December 2018, instigated and engineered with malicious intent, which led to the cold blooded murder of a police officer brave enough to step forward single-handedly to pacify the mob, marks the most dangerous turn yet in the direction taken by the politics of hate in recent times. It shows that in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, fundamental principles of governance, of constitutional ethics and of humane social conduct stand perverted. The Chief Minister of the state acts as a high priest of the agenda of bigotry and majoritarian supremacy – an agenda which now seems to take precedence over everything else.
Why is this incident such a frightening indicator of the complete collapse of constitutional values? This is not the first instance of a situation intentionally created to foment communal tension. The history of U.P. is replete with such instances. This is not the first time that a policeman has been killed by a frenzied mob. This is also not the first time that the politics of cow protection has been used as a means of isolating and cornering the Muslim community and deepening the social divide.
All this we have seen before but, so far, we had the confidence that whenever a political party actually forms a Government it keeps its partisan political agenda at bay and begins to exercise power with a sense of responsibility so as to gain wider political acceptability. The Bulandshahr episode, which follows a succession of events aimed at isolating and intimidating Muslim communities in U.P., shows that, under Yogi Adityanath, that confidence is misplaced and that hooliganism and thuggery have been mainstreamed into governance not just to intimidate minorities but to teach a lesson to anyone, including police personnel and others in the administration, who dare to be evenhanded in their approach to minority communities.
While it may be premature to come to conclusions about the murder of Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh before the investigations are over, there is no doubt that there was nothing spontaneous about the violence that led to his killing, nor is there any doubt as to who the political elements were that aided and abetted the violence. This was a deliberate attempt to display majoritarian muscle and send a message to the Muslim communities living in the region that they have to live in fear, accept their subordinate status and conform to the cultural diktats of the majority community.
Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh’s reputation of being independent and even-handed and his refusal to act in haste on the complaint of illegal cow slaughter that allegedly took place under his watch, was obviously seen as defiance of the majoritarian will. The local BJP and Sangh Parivar elements had already complained about his anti-Hindu conduct and sought his transfer. He was an impediment to their communal plans and had to go. Much as the Chief Minister may try to mislead by calling it an accident, this was murder with intent. It was murder most foul.
As horrifying as the brazen, daylight murder of a courageous police officer is the response of the administration to the event. The Chief Minister refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the incident and its communal intent, condemn the perpetrators of violence or direct the police to take action against them but instead asks them to focus attention on those responsible for illegal cow slaughter. The police authorities themselves draw an equivalence between the killing of a police officer and the illegal slaughter of cows and claim that unless both crimes are investigated together it will not be possible to come to any conclusions about the violence of the mob and the murder of a colleague.
Ample video graphed evidence exists to show that those engaged in violence and their leaders, as well as those who egged them on, are allowed to roam scot-free while, at the same time, alleged cow killers, against whom not a shred of evidence exists, are taken into custody, just because they are Muslims. Three of the main accused in the mob violence leading to the death of the police officer flaunt their affiliations to the Sangh Parivar and one of them openly declares that the slain police officer was corrupt, friendly with Muslims and anti-Hindu, implying thereby that he deserved his fate.
World over, in any civilized society, the killing of a policeman is a more serious offence than any other crime, because it represents an assault on the very basis of that civilisation. It brooks no tolerance and even the most fractious of social and political groups come together to ensure that the perpetrators of such a crime are given exemplary punishment so that no one ever dares to attack the authority of law. In U.P. on the other hand we are witness to the entire administration, presided over by a Chief Minister who flaunts his bigotry as his badge of identity, preparing the ground not for bringing the perpetrators to book but for protecting them as defenders of faith and culture. This is the Rule of Lawlessness.
Our colleagues in service, in the Police and the Civil Administration appear, with honourable exceptions, to have capitulated readily to this perverted political order. They seem to have forgotten that their primary allegiance is to the Constitution and the Rule of Law, and that their constitutional status provides them an armour of such extraordinary strength that, had they taken steps to check the growing menace of the Hindutva brigade, they could certainly have prevented the outbreak of violence. Instead they not only allowed these hooligans to grow in confidence and gather political strength, they helped them gain impunity in their lawless actions. .Even now if they – the Chief Secretary, the Director General of Police, the Home Secretary, the District Magistrate and the district police authorities – stand together to uncover the insidious political agenda, identify its masterminds and bring the hooligans involved in the violence to book, they stand a chance to redeem their pledge to the Constitution and live up to the expectations that citizens have of the higher civil services.
Our Prime Minister, who is so voluble in his election campaigns and who never tires of telling us of how the Constitution of India is the only holy book he worships, maintains stony silence even as he sees a Chief Minister handpicked by him treat that same Constitution with sheer contempt. It is evident that, for the Sangh Parivar, constitutional morality is of no value and is necessarily subordinate to the ideals of majoritarian supremacy.
Never before in recent history has the politics of hate, division and exclusion been so dominant and the poisonous ideology which informs it penetrated so deep into the body politic. Never before has hate been directed with such calculated intent against minority communities, hate which is nursed, aided and abetted by those in power. Violence has been given social and political sanction and perpetrators of violence have been treated with kid gloves while victims have been punished and harassed.
This is a critical moment and we cannot take it lying down anymore. We call upon all citizens to unite in a crusade against the politics of hate and division – a politics which aims to destroy the fundamental principles on which our Republic is founded. We ask all citizens to whom constitutional values matter to join us in reasserting our sovereignty as citizens to:
Demand the resignation of the Chief Minister for his failure to abide by the Constitution to which he has sworn his allegiance. We know that this can happen if together, we build a groundswell of public opinion by which we hold him accountable for his conduct and compel him to resign.
Remind the Chief Secretary, the Director General of Police, the Home Secretary, and all other members of the higher civil services concerned, of their constitutional duty to fearlessly implement the Rule of Law rather than the perverse dictates of their political masters.
Request the High Court at Allahabad to take suo motu cognizance of this incident and order a judicial enquiry supervised by them to uncover the true facts, expose the political collusion, fix responsibility and recommend action.
Work towards a citizen-led national campaign against the politics of hate and violence – in particular, the structural violence directed against Muslims, Adivasis, Dalits and women – violence which finds sustenance in the structures of political power.
Salute Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh for his bravery in standing up for constitutional values and refusing to yield to political pressure even at the cost of his life and for setting an example to his children and the younger generation that values matter more than career success. We also acknowledge and applaud the dignity with which his family has faced this crisis and their quiet resolve to uphold the principles for which Subodh Kumar Singh sacrificed his life. His martyrdom will not be in vain.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court it would not make appointments in any of its departments under the new legislation providing quota to the Maratha community till January 23, when the court will hear petitions against the reservation.
The number of complaints received by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has gone down over the last three years, the government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Weeks after Bulandshahr violence that resulted in the death of a Uttar Pradesh police inspector Subhod Kumar, Over 80 former bureaucrats have written an open letter demanding the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. According to the media reports, the bureaucrats have alleged that the CM ‘refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the incident and its communal intent and instead asks authorities to focus attention on those responsible for illegal cow slaughter’.