Manish Sisodia to be Delhi’s Deputy CM, 4 new faces likely in AAP Cabinet

By

-

February 12, 2015

Manish Sisodia is all set to be the deputy chief minister in Arvind Kejriwal government which is likely to have four new faces this time, Aam Aadmi Party sources said.

Barring Sisodia, who is a close confidant of Kejriwal, and Satyendra Jain, the rest four- Rakhi Birla, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Somnath Bharti, Girish Soni — who were in AAP’s earlier cabinet — are unlikely to make it this time.

The sources said the party has decided to induct Jitendra Tomar (Tri Nagar), Kapil Mishra (Karawal Nagar), Sandeep Kumar (Sultanpuri Majra) and Asim Ahmed Khan (Matia Mahal) – the only minority face – in the ministry. The four are also first time legislators. The new government may not have a woman member.

The list will be sent to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, they added. The new Cabinet will be sworn in on Saturday.
Sisodia was de facto number two in the previous AAP government and had handled important portfolios like education, urban development, PWD, land and buildings.

Jain, a two-time MLA from Shakur Basti who handled the health portfolio in the previous AAP government, is another minister who is likely to be retained.
“There is a lot of brain storming going on in the party. But it would not be right to talk about it until it is formally announced,” Sisodia told reporters, when asked about his appointment as the Deputy CM.

According to sources, the decision to make Sisodia the Deputy CM was taken at a meeting of AAP’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) last night at Kejriwal’s residence in Kaushambhi.

Sisodia is being given the responsibility so that Chief Minister-designate Kejriwal can focus on building the party at the national level, they said.

It was also decided that Shahdra MLA Ramniwas Goel will be the Speaker while Bandana Kumari, from Shalimar Bag constituency, will be Deputy Speaker in the Delhi Legislative Assembly. The latter is also heading AAP’s women wing.

Modi should work more tweet less

By

Mahendra Singh

-

February 12, 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted please now start working and stop tweeting. You are PM of a vast country and you must now start delivering. “Scared Arvind Kejriwal asks for restraint, is an apt comment in a newspaper. Friends, the matter is more serious. Our citizenry has become too vocal and is spoilt by the so called social networking sites. Are newspapers, radio and television not a social media?

Newspapers are largely a social media but the Indian television has become propaganda media. It has nothing to do with sociology except for a few channels. I saw Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar saying that people should have a right to breathe clean air. Why include the word “right” in this, only for big talk and no action. You are not repairing roads, allowing too many privately owned vehicles on the road, not taking any steps to curb growing population and talking so arrogantly.

BJP has lost credibility because of too much talk and very little action. Assemble these tweeters, make them run a mile every morning and ask them to undergo some vocational training. Let them learn to do something with their own hands instead of merely pushing an EVM button with one finger. Use both hands and all fingers gainfully. “Delhi ne tere ku ghas nahin dali aur tu duniya jeetne chala tha …”.

The entire central cabinet should be blamed for the BJP’s lackluster performance in Delhi polls. They are all enjoying at the cost of Modi. They don’t want to speak, fearing a backlash from him. Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti is a prime example. Earlier Uma used to speak too much to the annoyance of LK Advani but now she is keeping quiet as she might lose her job. Same is the case with Home Minister Rajnath Singh. A well respected doctor was shunted out from the Health Ministry. So, Modi people have now understood your true face. Start working sincerely from this day. The myth of BJP president Amit Shah has been demolished.

Kejriwal will have to face stiff opposition when he tries to eliminate corruption. They will say, “Are tere ku mofat bijli pane ko bheja tha, mere ko imandar banane thode”. People had not voted for AAP and had voted for freebies. Friends, as I said yesterday and have been saying regularly, the tweeting ministers should be asked to take their work seriously. There is no other solution. There are perverts who keep mobile phone in toilets to film women. Whole day watch pornography and then go to push “ jhadu” button for freebies.

Children have to bear the brunt of divorce-Part I

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 12, 2015

Joint custody initiation has somewhere bought hope to fathers in India. Let us discuss very simple things about joint custody and not any Hindu Marriage Act or Special Marriage Act. I mean to say let us talk about the child and not about bitter fights happening between parents.

When parents get divorced they have to face several hardships especially if it’s a female parent. Well divorce is such a phase of life where all the good memories are forgotten and bitter moments are remembered. No doubt, we remain more affected due to the bad things happening in our lives. I mean, parents got married and later they decided to separate but mistake did the child commit as he has to undergo suffering along with them? Well the child never asked his parents to get married right?

Somewhere down the line parents forget about the emotional turmoil which the child has to undergo. When we were kids the entire world revolved around our parents, mother the softest person to rely on and father to look up to.

Maximum divorce cases happen in India on account of violence, one parent is good while the other is portrayed as bad. However, child is mature enough to distinguish between good and bad hence let them take decision irrespective of their age.

In India a single parent disallows the child from meeting his other parent. He or she also doesn’t allow the child to have minor conversation. Such incidents happen due to the parent’s ego, anger and rage.

In India the law is far biased and is in favour of mother. It shuts out father from the lives of the child which proves detrimental not only to him but also to the society at large. In these cases don’t you think that both mother and father should be offered equal opportunity and responsibility to raise a child?

For instance, if a single mother has taken all steps to fulfill the needs of her child but the father remains unaware about it. Eventually, at one stage the father completely becomes a stranger with no information about his whereabouts and he remains completely disconnected with the child. The child even fails to recollect how his father looked. Thus the mother becomes a superhero for the child. When it comes to father the child will always remember the bitter fights which occurred between his parents. The child will also remember the bad qualities about his father as he has never got an opportunity to spent time with him. He remains unaware about the good qualities of his father.

(This is a first part of the article and the remaining part will continue tomorrow)

Hazare shed his ego after Kejriwal’s win

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 11, 2015

Anna changes his stance and praises Kejriwal after his party’s remarkable victory in Delhi.

Social activist Anna Hazare has congratulated AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for sweeping Delhi polls. Hazare who had earlier criticised Kejriwal has now changed his stance against the latter after his party’s victory. The anti-corruption crusader never had expected Kejriwal to make a fighting come back after he had quit CM’s post last year. He had criticised Kejriwal for misusing his name during election campaign. All that is history now after AAP defeated BJP in the capital. Kejriwal who was a member of Team Anna had parted ways with Hazare for establishing AAP. On the other hand, Anna has always mentioned that he won’t enter politics and will only work for the elimination of corruption.

Anna has asked Kejriwal not to forget about the 2011’s crusade against corruption which had brought the entire nation together. He urged Kejriwal to refrain from repeating the mistakes committed by him during his previous reign. AAP has been reaching out the common man and had conducted a massive door to door campaigning. The other factor which worked in the party’s favour is that the Modi government had failed to deliver and has only been making false promises.

“I extend my best wishes to Kejriwalji. Arvind had won because he had reached out to the people. This [Delhi election] is Narendra Modi’s defeat. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s rout should not be blamed on Kiran Bedi alone,” said Mr. Hazare.

Expressing pride that Mr. Kejriwal’s political genesis had its origins from his avowedly non-political ‘India Against Corruption’ movement, the 77-year-old activist however said he was not likely to attend Mr. Kejriwal’s swearing-in ceremony. He said that as yet he had not received any communication from Mr. Kejriwal.

When asked whether he had any advice for Mr. Kejriwal, the septuagenarian activist quipped: “Arvind knows how to run a government. He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. He is extremely clever and skilful. Who am I to give him any advice?”

Hazare criticized the Narendra Modi government for enacting a legislation that makes it easy for authorities to take over land from the farmers.

“What sort of an ordinance is this? Snatching fertile farmlands from farmers and giving them to corporates. People have been betrayed by the actions of the BJP government. Its tall promises of ‘Achche Din’ have proven utterly hollow,” said Mr. Hazare, flaying the Central government.

“The public earlier thought that ‘ache din aane wale hain’ but the good days came only for industrialists and that’s why AAP’s acceptability increased among the people.”

“I would like to tell Bedi that winning or losing is part of a game. Whatever good work she has been doing for the country and society, she should continue doing that,” he said, referring to the former Team Anna member and BJP chief ministerial candidate.

Shiv Sena wants repeat of Delhi in Maharashtra

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 11, 2015

The Shiv Sena on Wednesday attacked its ally BJP and asked the people of Maharashtra “to take lessons” from the results of the assembly poll in Delhi where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “popularity” and BJP chief Amit Shah’s “election strategies were at stake but a virtual non-entity” like Arvind Kejriwal uprooted them.

“Delhi has embraced ‘Paanch Saal, (Arvind) Kejriwal. The people of Maharashtra must learn from this. They should ponder and move ahead in that direction, that is the outcome of Delhi,” the Shiv Sena said in a sharp edit in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ Wednesday, virtually asking the people of the state to reject BJP.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal bagged 67 of the 70 assembly segments in Delhi, while the BJP got just three seats in the results that were announced Tuesday. The Congress failed to get even a single seat.

The edit pointed out that the trend started three months ago when the Modi ‘wave’ was halted by Maharashtra, but now the ‘tsunami’ has reached Delhi.

The Delhi assembly results proved that a ‘tsunami’ is more powerful than a ‘wave’ and emphatically reiterated Gandhian Anna Hazare’s view that it was “a debacle for Modi”, it said.

“The BJP leaders claim this is not Modi’s defeat. Kejriwal has won – then who has lost? After all, the entire elections were carried out in Modi’s name without the presence of any other BJP leader,” the edit said.

Not accepting the contention blaming BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi for the BJP rout, the Saamana said all BJP leaders labeled the AAP leader as ‘bhagoda’ (deserter) during the campaign, but entire Delhi solidly supported Kejriwal.

“Modi now lives in Delhi, but his ‘brahmastra’ failed to work at such close quarters, even Amit Shah’s magic didn’t work,” the Sena said, in a direct attack on the two BJP bigwigs.

It conceded that the BJP was an old friend of Shiv Sena, and it succeeded all over India, barring the national capital where the lotus failed to bloom and added that even US President Barack Obama couldn’t breath life into its wilted petals.

“You can’t win elections with only promises and speeches. Modi’s popularity and Shah’s election strategies were at stake here, but a virtual non-entity like Kejriwal uprooted and threw them away. How was this possible?” the edit asked.

It listed the reasons as: the unemployed have still got no jobs, inflation has not been curbed, people without shelter continue to remain homeless, and poll promises have not been fulfilled.

Even the party workers were unhappy that an outsider leader like Bedi was thrust upon them and the electorate, besides the totally negative campaign against Kejriwal and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi which rebounded on the BJP.

On the other hand, Kejriwal went around with folded hands and sought peoples’ forgiveness for past mistakes — “I only quit the government. I did not become corrupt,”, which the people accepted, the Saamana pointed out.

It said in 2014 Lok Sabha election, Modi ensured there was no opposition left in Parliament, but despite his presence in Delhi, the BJP failed to get a decent strength as an opposition party in the assembly.

“The people of Delhi have given three seats as ‘charity’ (daan) to BJP and the Congress has been wiped out.”

The Shiv Sena advised BJP that just as it celebrated victory (in elections) till now, its must accept defeat too, and learn some lessons from it.

Authorities shirking responsibility on parking issue: HC

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 11, 2015

Observing that authorities are passing on the buck to each other on the car parking issue in the city and other parts of Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court directed the state government to set up a high-power committee to find a solution to the problem by March 4.

A bench of Justices Naresh Patil and Ajay Gadkari said the committee shall consist of principal secretaries of Urban Development Department and Law and Judiciary, chief of Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and joint commissioner of Police (traffic).

Parking has always been an issue in Mumbai and many other cities for the last 25 years and the nodal authorities have been passing on the buck to each other without resolving the problem, the bench noted while hearing a public interest litigation filed by activist Bhagwanji Riyani.

This is a serious issue and the authorities must find a solution by putting their heads together, the bench said.

The PIL said the number of vehicles had increased manifold and as a result they are parked on road sides in a careless manner. There was an urgent need to allot sufficient parking lots in the cities. Also, there should be a restriction on purchase of vehicles by individuals and law should be enacted to allow only one vehicle per person, it said.

Earlier, hearing the same petition, the court had suggested that the authorities should introduce a rule requiring a person registering purchase of his car to submit proof to the RTO that his housing society had allotted him parking space. In the absence of parking area, registration of vehicle should not be allowed, the court had observed.

PIL alleges obscenity in AIB Knockout, HC tells state government to file reply

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 11, 2015

The Bombay High Court asked the Centre, Maharashtra government and I&B Ministry to respond to a petition seeking action against organisers of All India Bakchod (AIB), a roast show, held on 20 December last year in which allegedly obscene and vulgar words were used by participants and women’s dignity was tarnished.

Hearing a public interest litigation, a bench, headed by Justice VM Kanade, asked the authorities to file their reply before 3 March when the matter would be heard again.

The court also allowed AIB to intervene and reply to the allegations made in the PIL.

The PIL filed by Dr. Sharmila Ghuge, a social activist and law college faculty member, alleged that the show was viewed by more than ten million people after it was telecast on video sharing website YouTube on 28 January.

The show featured actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh and producer-director Karan Johar.

The petitioner said that the show featured a galaxy of film stars and participants allegedly used obscene words and shared indecent jokes, “which was extremely offensive not only to the dignity of women but also to the basic values cherished in our country.”

The content, repeated several times during the show, violates the provisions of section 292 and 294 of the Indian Penal Code as well as other provisions of law. Moreover, adverse comments passed on various communities not only violate section 295-A of IPC but also deeply hurt the sentiments of public at large, the petition alleged.

Similarly, the use of “smutty and vulgar gestures during the show and indecorous and undignified remarks” on women with reference to rape violates section 23 of Indecent Representation of Women’s Act, the PIL alleged.

The petitioner sought action against the organisers and participants of the show and also urged the authorities to issue guidelines to monitor such video programmes on the YouTube and similar network so as to ensure that youths are not distracted and their minds are not corrupted with obscene views.

Senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for AIB, argued that the programme was full of humour and entertained the audience. A few words alleged to have been obscene should not deter authorities from banning the show, he said.

The counsel for the petitioner, Sham Devan, said though the show had a lot of humour content, it transgressed all the limits of decency and allegedly had the tendency to deprave the minds of young people. If such shows are allowed to be telecast it would bring a decline in the cultural values of the society and hurt dignity of women, he argued.

HC extends relief to Urdu Editor in Prophet’s cartoon row

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 11, 2015

The Bombay High Court extended by a week the interim order for protection from arrest granted to the Editor of an Urdu daily caught in a row over publishing the cover of French magazine Charlie Hebdo that featured a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad.

A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudesai said the protection granted earlier to Shirin Dalvi, Editor of Urdu newspaper Awadhnama, would continue till February 17 when the matter would be heard again after the public prosecutor in the case did not turn up.

The public prosecutor was scheduled to present the government’s stand on the relief sought by 46-year-old Dalvi to quash all FIRs registered against her in connection with reproducing of the cartoon of the Prophet, considered blasphemous in Islam, or club the cases together.

In an interim order on Monday, the court had restrained the state government and the police from taking any coercive action, including arrest.

The Mumbai edition of the newspaper was shut down following publication of the cartoon last month for fear of violence even after its management and the Editor had tendered apologies.

‘Charlie Hebdo’, a French satire magazine, was recently the target of an attack by Islamist militants.

Altogether, five cases have been filed against Dalvi under section 295 A of IPC for outraging religious feelings with deliberate and malacious intent. The cases include two in Mumbai, as many in Thane and one in Malegaon.

Dalvi had secured a regular bail soon after her arrest in the first case filed in neighbouring Mumbra town, while she got anticipatory bail in the one filed at N M Joshi Marg police station in Mumbai.

Dalvi had said she was being “hounded” and faced threats of physical attacks.

Sena minister’s resignation: Colleague demands meeting under CM

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 11, 2015

Amid reports of Shiv Sena junior minister Sanjay Rathod quitting over ‘non-allocation’ of work, his colleague RavindraWaikar asked chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to convene a meeting of all ministers of the rank of cabinet and the ministers of state.

“The chief minister should convene a meeting of all ministers to ascertain their views so that there is a clarity on the work allocation and responsibilities to ministers of state,” Waikar, minister of state for Housing, said.

Rathod, the minister of state for Revenue, yesterday said he had submitted his resignation to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray alleging that he had not been allocated any work.

“Vidarbha is facing drought and despite being a minister I am unable to do anything since I have no powers,” he had said.

Jewellery shop robbery foiled; four dacoits held

By

Afternoon Voice

-

February 11, 2015

Police today claimed to have thwarted an armed heist on a jewellery shop in suburban Khar with the arrest of four robbers, who possessed firearm and sharp weapons.

The accused, identified as Bhausaheb Supekar (28), Deepak Sapte (24), Sandeep Gawde (25) and Santosh Pavane (32) were apprehended when they reached near the target in Khar yesterday afternoon, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, a team led by Crime Branch Senior Inspector Mahesh Desai laid a trap near the shop when the four reached the place in a Scorpio vehicle and were found moving suspiciously in the area.

When the sleuths caught the accused, they were found in possession of a country-made revolver, a live cartridge, chopper and sickle.

The four accused have a criminal record, Desai said adding, “Criminal cases were registered against them in Ahmednagar, Pune and Panvel on charges of extortion and kidnapping.