India to boycott Commonwealth Parliamentary Union meeting in Pakistan

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August 7, 2015

Adopting a tough stand, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday said India will boycott the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in Islamabad in protest against Pakistan not inviting the Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for the meeting.

India’s decision comes amidst tensions between the two South Asian neighbours over two terror attacks in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

The 61st Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference will be held in Islamabad from September 30 to October 08, 2015.

“A meeting of Speakers of all states here today unanimously decided that India will boycott the meeting of the CPU if the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is not invited,” Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan told reporters after the meeting.

This follows Pakistan not sending an invitation to J&K Speaker to the Inter Parliamentary Union meeting in Islamabad while invitations have been sent to all the other Speakers in India.

The decision of the Speakers come against the backdrop of simmering tensions between the two countries over the recent terror attacks in Gurdaspur in Punjab and near Udhampur in J&K by terrorists, perpetrated by terrorists who had infiltrated from Pakistan.

Mahajan said this was against a rule in the CPU in which all the Speakers, who are members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), have to be extended an invitation to the CPU meeting.

“It is wrong (on the part of Pakistan). They cited an old rule of 1951-57 regarding their having raised an issue in the UN Security Council for not inviting J&K Speaker,” she said adding it had lost relevance.

The Speaker said Pakistan gave this reply when India took up the matter strongly with the CPA Chairperson and Secretary General against leaving out J&K Speaker.

“We (31 Speakers) reviewed this issue and felt this was wrong. We reject this decision (of Pakistan). We are writing to the CPA chairperson that if J&K Speaker is not invited, India will not attend the meeting or change the venue (for us to attend),” she said.

Welcoming the decision, J&K Speaker Ravindra Gupta, who attended the meeting, thanked the Speakers for the decision, saying it was a question of unity and integrity of the country. He called Pakistan a terrorist state. Gupta said Pakistan has done this (not inviting J&K Speaker) “deliberately” and added today’s decision is a strong message to that country.

‘I am glorifying and highlighting the life of a journalist’

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Afternoon Voice

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August 7, 2015

Nandita Singgha is an adfilmmaker turned director. She is presently writing, producing and even directing four films based on journalistic background. The films are Mid-Dey, J Returns, Mega Corp and Red. She has already shot 35 per cent of the first two films Mid-Dey and J. Returns in Delhi. Here are the excerpts of the interview.

How did the idea of making films with journalistic background come to you ?
The broad daylight murder of J. Dey was the most shocking thing to happen. I just started probing the life of a journalist. I found that the pen of the journalist is the most powerful weapon. When you compare a journalist with a lawyer or a policeman, we find that the journalist is doing far better service to mankind. A lawyer can lie. A policeman can file an FIR which can turn out to be fabricated too. But the journalist will write his story after conducting true research and then the whole society reads it and applauds it too. J. Dey who was writing a book on five gangsters and he paid his price to the bullet. That means a real journalist’s life is totally insecure. I am also fighting for the rights for journalists. There is no pension scheme for journalists. Why? Half of the courses in journalism in India have closed their shops as they say Journalism is not a paying job. I found that journalists very hardworking who write and have no regular duty hours. They even come late night to their house as they have to complete a deadline for their stories. The same journalists have made Modi jee the Prime Minister, Kejriwal the CM of Delhi, made Anna Hazare a national Hero and all the actors owe their stardom to journalists. It is now pay back time. In my own humble way, I am glorifying and highlighting the life of a journalist and that too with the eye of a lady journalist from U.K. who is shocked to see the life and times of an Indian journalist. I am the first woman filmmaker to direct an international film on Indian crime journalism.

You come from a corporate world and you have seen the rise and rise of corporates who have taken over the media in a big way. What is your take about it?
Yes, today corporates have understood the strength of the media and are investing in a big manner. The good old days of aristocratic journalism is also coming back. Some of my old friends have been great editors too. I was a child when I had met Khushwant Singh several times. I was only 13 years old when I first won a debate and won a prize of 30,000 US dollars in Durban. Two American companies Motorola and 3 M offered me training in technology and I brought the first video conferencing in the Asia-Pacific region. I even received several international awards for years together.

Coming back to your filmmaking journey, how has been the experience so far ?
I have already made eleven films in South in all the languages i.e. Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. I have even directed a Bollywood film in 2007. I was always passionate in my work and I found that technically we are now very superior, almost every big director is making good cinema but only a handful of them are really concentrating in the content of the film. I liked the way A.R. Murugudoss makes his films. He is more focussed towards the content and knows to thrill the audiences with good stories which caters to all age groups. I appreciate his style of filmmaking.

Dancing in the Rain

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Afternoon Voice

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August 7, 2015

Mumbai Rains are known to spoil many a things and disrupt a lot of events too. But very few events are made to be around the heavy rains of Mumbai. Last weekend, I was very fortunate to witness such an event. The silver jubilee celebration of Raindrop Festival of Classical dance by renowned Kathak Exponent and my dear friend Uma Dogra.

Uma Dogra who was recently honoured by the Government of India with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award heads the Sam Ved Society of Performing Arts which was established in 1990 after the demise of her Guru Pt. Durgalal. Till date my friend lives that moment of loss and pledges to keep the legacy alive brightly burning with all that she does. In these 25 years of Sam Ved society’s being, she has hosted many legendary artists through the platform of the Pt. Durgalal Festival and has given stage to approximately 200 talented young artists through the Raindrops Festival. This famous festival is a unique concept of celebrating young talent by revering the potential hidden within that impressionable artist and Uma Dogra for the very first time envisioned it and put it into practice through the Raindrops festival.

This 25th year of the Raindrops festival featured varied classical styles of Indian dances, namely Bharatnatyam, Mohinattam, Odissi, Kathak and Manipuri and I was fortunate to witness some seasoned young artists from the classical dance fraternity. It is a daring initiative to organise shows year after year during the mumbai monsoons, hats off to Uma Dogra for doing this, all the three days of the festival had jam packed audience and looking at them one would wonder if rains can really stop people from venturing out.

Each day the event started with traditional lamp lighting ceremony followed by the row of accomplished dancers who performed at the festival. Over the period of three days Kathak dancers Rina Mehta, Vishal Krishna and Anuj Mishra performed. Suhani Dhanki and Mrinalini Biswas danced the bharatnatyum and Namrata Gupta and Rajashri Praharaj danced Odissi. Shreya Ayyub danced the graceful Manipuri and Radhika Nair did the Mohiniattam.

The auditorium was filled with classical legends and dignitaries from Kanak Rele to Jhelum Paranjape, from Darshana Jhaveri to Mandakini Trivedi all were present. Dance critic Sunil Kothari, Arjun Mishra, Kalinath Mishra, Nadira Babbar, Ratikant Mohapatra, Deepak Majumdar, Vijayshree Choudhary, Nilima Azim, you name it and all the names of the dance world were present.

The name Raindrops, justifies the true essence of this wonderful festival. Emotional Uma said to me, “It was raining heavily outside each day but the festival had dance lovers pouring in. I am so happy that the rains have never hampered the festival ever and I am thankful to all for making the silver jubilee a grand success.”

Normally I have seen that when a dancer achieves heights of success they are only keen to promote themselves so as to get more and more awards and honours, very few are like Uma Dogra who provides a huge platform to new and upcoming talent. This festival shows the graciousness of Uma not as a dancer but even as a wonderful human being.

Artscape By Sandip Soparrkar

Take steps to prevent building collapse

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Afternoon Voice

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August 7, 2015

Thane building collapse opened up the Pandora’s box and give rise to the way we give importance to security in our housing societies in the Metro. Whether, it is pagri system or plain rented or owner occupied loss of life should be avoided. Municipal Corporations should be vested with enough powers by the courts so that such buildings are either repaired by levying repair charges on the tenant and or on the owner or completely demolished. A monthly cess or compulsory insurance on such old buildings above 30 years vintage will go a long way in mitigating such recurring human tragedies. The Municipal Corporations while issuing notices to the residents of structurally gone weak buildings to evacuate, should also make alternate temporary shelters to enable them to shift there immediately, as without having any alternate arrangements, where can they think of shifting their families with bag and baggage. In this case, those who had such an arrangement, vacated, left and saved their lives. But those who did not have said sort of arrangement to shift and stay, had to remain compulsorily in the said dilapidated building and ultimately pay price with similar tragedies.

The Municipal Corporations and the Government of Maharashtra must think and act to save lives of poor people dying on this count and in view of the fact there are thousands of such buildings in Mumbai and suburbs remain insecure for occupation. However, the state of the buildings which are on the verge of falling down due to their life span has already expired, and still the people live there taking risk of their own life. Flat owners should strictly adhere to the rules and the warnings should be issued to the society and use their presence of mind to get out of their flats in time to make sure that they do not fall prey to the building crashes frequently happening to old construction.

Time-bound redevelopment of such dilapidated buildings is a must, otherwise, we will see more lives being lost in Mumbai and suburbs. It is indeed a very sad and shocking incident. Obviously, those who died continued to stay in a dilapidated building despite municipal warning, only because they had no other option. Where is affordable housing these days? My heart goes out to the families of the victims. The building should have been demolished long ago. I hope the families will get compensation.

Jayanthy Subramaniam

Jennifer-Justin head to Bora Bora for honeymoon

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Afternoon Voice

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August 7, 2015

After exchanging vows in a secret ceremony, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux are reportedly in Bora Bora celebrating their honeymoon.

Accompanied by Chelsea Handler and some other friends, the couple, who tied the knot at their 21 million dollars pad in Los Angeles on August 5, left for their honeymoon a day after their marriage, reported Us magazine.

Interestingly, the newlyweds, who fell in love on sets of the 2012 flick ‘Wanderlust’, will be celebrating Theroux’s 44th birthday during their honeymoon on Aug. 10.

Further, it has been revealed that the 46-year-old actress’ good friend Jennifer Meyer, who has created jewels for celebs like Beyonce, Emma Stone and Jessica Biel, designed the couple’s wedding rings.

Kim Kardashian’s selfie with Hillary Clinton

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Afternoon Voice

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August 7, 2015

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has shared a selfie with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on photo-sharing site Instagram.

The “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” took the selfie at a fundraiser held by Clinton in Los Angeles last night, reported Aceshowbiz. Clinton, 67, is a candidate in the 2016 presidential election.

The photo also features her rapper husband Kanye West. In the picture, Kardashian’s face was half-cropped.

Clinton smiled widely while the 34-year-old TV star was pouting. West, 38, flashed a smile behind them. “I got my selfie!! I really loved hearing her speak and hearing her goals for our country! #HillaryForPresisent,” she captioned it.

The event was attended by 250 guests at ticket prices of USD 2,700 per person. Other celebrities, who attended the event, included Kris Jenner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jessica Alba and Cash Warren, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Usher, Jason Collins and Mary Steenburgen.

Lara Dutta turns to ‘Azhar’ post ‘Singh Is Bliing’

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Afternoon Voice

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August 7, 2015

Actress Lara Dutta says she will be on her toes in August as she has to complete the shooting of Prabhudheva’s directorial ‘Singh is Bliing’ and start working on Tony D’Souza’s ‘Azhar’.

Lara shared on micro-blogging website Twitter on Friday: “Eeeyaaahhh!!!! Rolling up the sleeves and getting down to work in Aug! Finish @SIBTheFilm, start ‘Azhar’, and prep for @MissDiva2015!!”.

‘Singh Is Bliing’, which is a sequel to the 2008 hit film ‘Singh Is Kinng’ also features Akshay Kumar, Bipasha Basu and Amy Jackson apart from Lara. The film is releasing on October 2.

‘Azhar’, which stars actor Emraan Haashmi playing the role of former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, is produced by Balaji Motion Pictures and MSM Motion Pictures. The biopic is slated for a worldwide release on May 13, 2016.

OMG! Sofia Hayat goes nude to protest porn ban in India

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Afternoon Voice

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August 7, 2015

She has done it again! Controversial starlet Sofia Hayat has crossed all the barriers and gone a step ahead by posting her nude picture on Twitter against the recent hullabaloo over porn ban in the country.

Although, after receiving much flak for banning porn sites in the country, the ban has been lifted. However, former ‘Bigg Boss’ contestant could not stop herself from protesting against the ban in her own ‘nude’ style. She captioned the image as: “Sorry for the porn ban, here is a pic to make you feel better. on my new app..launching soon.”

Has Yakub’s execution prompted Indian youth to join ISIS?

By

Afternoon Voice

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August 6, 2015

There have been several posts on social media where in youth had criticised the execution of Memon.

Indian youth are getting attracted to the ISIS which is becoming a huge cause of concern for the government. ISIS has been luring youth to join the outfit through social media. The government had called a high level meeting to stop the radicalisation of youth towards ISIS. The Mumbai Police are searching for a journalist Zuber Ahmed Khan who expressed his desire to become the spokesperson of ISIS. Khan reportedly works with a magazine called ‘International Peace’ and he posts his blogs at zuberahmed.blogspot.com. Zuber had sympathised with Yakub Memon on social media and addressed him as a patriot. There have been several posts on social media where in youth had criticised the execution of Memon. Many of them feel that injustice has been meted against Memon who had himself come forward to surrender before the law and hence are attracted towards ISIS.

Crime branch officials believe that Khan lives in Navi Mumbai. On Tuesday, the police came close to arresting him when he was traced to Bandra, but the man managed to evade arrest.

Zuber’s controversial post was reported to police a few days ago. He had written that “he wished to give up his Indian citizenship and become a spokesperson for the ISIS”, in a post addressed to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

BJP-Shiv Sena led Maharashtra government has been keeping a track on the internet and social media activities to make sure that the hate messages on different platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp did not stir up passions in connections with the execution of Yakub Memon. Messages that were expected to spread hatred amongst different sections of the society were blocked following the hanging of Yakub Memon.

A retired ACP spoke to AV on the condition of anonymity and said, “After the execution of Yakub Memon Muslim youth have expressed their anger. Many of them have posted several comments in support of Yakub. Today Muslims are thinking that injustice is being meted against their community. We have many links of social media websites where Muslim youth have criticised the execution of Yakub. Since some of them may also disturb the communal harmony hence we can’t share them with the public. The cyber-crime officials are monitoring the comments posted by youth on social networking sites and removing those which may provoke violence.”

Delhi Police on alert meanwhile, Police is questioning his friends. A source said that he (Khan) had told his friends he would be go to Delhi by Rajdhani Express on Saturday, Aug 1. “From there, he wanted to go to Iraq embassy, to ask for the Caliphate citizenship”, his friends said. Mumbai police has alerted Delhi Police about the same. The Delhi Police is keeping a tab on whether he would visit the Iraq embassy.

“Attraction towards radical ideology of any religion is a matter of concern. We will have to put in place a system as there are inputs that many Indian youths are attracted to different extremist ideologies, including the one promoted by ISIS,” a Home Ministry official said.

According to an official estimate, around 25 youngsters have been identified across the country “as having been attracted to the idea of ISIS and wanting to join the group.” In Telangana, 17 youths have been prevented from travelling to Syria and, recently, four from Maharashtra were also stopped from travelling to the Middle-East.

Last year Arib Majeed, an engineering student from Kalyan near Mumbai, had fled to Iraq, along with three friends, to join ISIS but later he returned to India.

The charlatans in spiritual world has blotted the “Faith”

By

Vaidehi Taman

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August 6, 2015

They say, “Open door tempts a saint.” However, the danger is when doors are closed. It is important for people in highly respected positions to have no doors so that the five elements can be their friendly witnesses. It is essential for the various ‘Godmen’ of India to return to the Vedic principles of simple and austere living. As Godmen, God women are assumed to be highly trusted and revered by folks, if and when they betray such trust and stoop to demonic activities, the punishment should be several times of what mere mortals get.

The self-styled God woman Radhe Maa has been booked under the Dowry Prohibition Act for instigating husband and in-laws of a woman to demand dowry from her. The 32-year-old victim alleged that Radhe Maa demanded Rs. 7 lakh cash, golden ornaments and other perks. The victim also revealed shocking truth about Radhe Maa. Meanwhile, pictures of Radhe Maa in mini skirt have gone viral on the internet. A criminal offence was registered against seven people, including the woman’s husband, at the orders of a magistrate court. Moreover, Radhe Maa was found kissing, and hugging several of her followers which created controversy as public display of affection is considered obscene and largely unaccepted in India, warranting imprisonment up to 3 months or a fine, or both. Gupta’s complaint says that Radhe Maa was involved in arranging her wedding in 2012 and had placed a demand for a huge dowry. When her parents could not meet the demand, Gupta has alleged, her in-laws began harassing her. At one point, as a punishment, she was sent to serve at Radhe Maa’s ashram in Borivali, where, she has alleged, she was made to do menial tasks. She kicked and punched if anybody opposed her.

Radhe Maa, known for her lavish lifestyle and high-profile ‘devotees’, has stirred a fresh controversy after several objectionable pictures of this self-proclaimed spiritual leader surfaced in the media. Radhe Maa, who is said to be a big fan of porn star-turned-actress Sunny Leone, recently posed as a model in a mini skirt and asked devotees to pick her up. She is possibly the most decked-up of all spiritual gurus in the country and her hoardings are omnipresent in Mumbai. Film personalities to business men all are her devotees and she has the capacity to hypnotize people, she is fond of men and men are fond of her. She is very famous for blessing her devotees with a dancing and giving them warm hugs. Online videos of her satsangs show her dancing while devotees, hugging them, and presenting them with gifts. In a strange ritual, she often gets physically carried around by her followers.

Recently this controversy went viral when, Rahul Mahajan, who is famous for his stints in reality TV, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan and brother of BJP MP Poonam Mahajan who tweeted pictures of a lady in a mini skirt and asked his followers to guess who she was. Rahul had apparently tweeted pictures of the Radhe Maa. This self-styled godwoman has been banned from visiting Nashik during the ongoing Kumbh Mela.

There are several videos of the controversial godwoman, which has shocked the entire nation and kick-started a debate on how a woman like her can be attributed the status of a saint. Radhe Maa is a spiritual guru from Dorangala Village in Gurudaspur, Punjab, who currently resides in Mumbai. As a child, she was drawn to the teachings of Hindu traditions and used to spend most of her time in a Maa Kali temple near her residence. At the age of 23, Radhe Maa was introduced to the world of spiritual practice by her guru Shri Shri Mahant Ramdeen Das 1008 of Paramhans Bagh Dera Mukerian, Hoshiarpur, Punjab. Radhe Maa dedicated herself to Shiva and Maa Parvati after her meeting with the guru. She lives with her husband and two sons, 1 daughter and 1 son in law. She is living a happily married life.

India is a single land where religion and spirituality are highly saleable commodities. That is why, we have so many marketing executives for this, a number that could far exceed in the rest of the world. The interesting point is that, these self-proclaimed spiritual Gurus live a princely life. Their lavish lifestyle and business-like activities are enough proof that there is something wrong with them. For many Indians, these gurus play an integral role in a daily life; taking their place in the country’s vast spiritual supermarket to be handpicked as a pathway to enlightenment. Going by spiritual path is fine, adopting spirituality is also a necessity but choosing the right guru is the need of the hour. There are many spiritual leaders, doing excellent work towards the upliftment of mankind. They are the strength of this society and human values.

Fake Hindu swamis, sanyasis, babas, gurus and godmen thrive in a society which has not understood the true teachings of Religion. We, who are the providers of opportunity for these fraudsters who use this naiveness of the public as a fertile ground. Ignorant, miracle and fortune-seeking followers are the one who help such fake swamis to prosper. An interesting observation is that these fake swamis and god men only talk about the future, money and predictions. Majority of those who go after swamis are fortune seekers. Daily, we get to hear about such fake swamis and their notorious activities which include rape, illicit relationships, and amassing wealth through dishonorable means but this has not deterred many Hindus from approaching fraudsters in the guise of swami. Why?