Three students have died after a motorcycle accident on campus at Delhi’s famous Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The students, all male hostellers, were riding a bike which collided first with a divider on the road and then a tree, said the police.
One died immediately, while the other two died after being moved to hospital, the police said.
The students were in their mid-20s and were studying Korean at the university.
A bike is worshipped by devotees in a temple called ‘Om Banna’s Bullet Baba Mandir’ near Pali district in Jodhpur, that is named after a boy called Om Singh Rathore. The motorcycle is a 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet.
Anybody who crosses the temple should stop by and worship and offer ‘prasad’, otherwise its believed the person will meet with an accident and die. People offer flowers, incense sticks, camphor and even liquor bottles.
For the past twenty years, the temple is being maintained by a girl called Poonam, who is now considered to be Bullet Mandir’s priest.
The mystery of Om Singh Rathore dates back to 1991. He was driving his bullet and died in a road accident. The police took the bike with them. The next day, they again found the bike at the same spot where Om had died.
Police would take the bike, but the next morning they would find the bike at the accident spot. The news spread far and wide and people started believing that it was Om’s spirit who was behind the mischief.
As their blind faith grew, they gathered and started worshipping the bike.
In no time, a temple was built in Om’s name, which now is famously known as Om Banna’s Bullet Baba Mandir. The temple was constructed at the same place where he had died. The bike and Om’s photo were placed inside and ever since, devotees, particularly bike riders bow their heads in honor of temple and leave an offering whenever they pass by it.
The opposition PDP in Jammu and Kashmir has blamed union minister Farooq Abdullah for the killing of a sarpanch, or village head, by militants on Thursday.
Three suspected terrorists shot dead PDP activist and sarpanch Amin Pandit in Awantipore in South Kashmir on Thursday night. Pandit was taken away at gunpoint from outside his home and killed.
The PDP alleged that the killing was linked to a controversial statement made by Farooq Abdullah a few hours before, about using violence against the opposition party if he had the backing of militants.
“Why not? If I could resort to. I don’t have the guns, the bombs…I don’t have anything. I am going to attack them with a bloody thumb, that is called the vote,” the National Conference leader said. He was reportedly speaking in connection with an attack on National Conference youth leader Yawar Massodi on Sunday, which he has blamed on the PDP.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has asked the Election Commission to take action against Mr Abdullah.
“The Election Commission should go through the inflammatory statement of Farooq Abdullah. He says I would have attacked PDP leaders if I had bombs and guns. It was followed by violence on the ground,” Ms Mufti said.
Several militant groups have called for a boycott of the national election in Jammu and Kashmir, which has six parliamentary seats.
A local court rejected the bail plea of three persons accused of killing two brothers during the riots here last year.
District sessions judge Vijay Laxmi rejected bail plea of Sehdev, Ajit Singh and Amardeep, accused of killing brothers Shahid and Nawab on September 9 last year, during communal riots that hit the district, said district government council Dushyant Tyagi.
The duo had gone to fetch milk for their shop at Matheri village in the district where they were attacked by the rioters, Tyagi said.
Deceased’s father Akhtar Hasan had loged a complaint with police against six people.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing into the riots had also confirmed their involvement in the crime.
Dalits who used to vote for Congress is upset with the party for failing to work for its upliftment. The party only considers them as vote bank and make some announcement for their welfare but fails to implement it. Today every party is busy trying to woo Dalit voters who comprise around 10.5% of the state’s population. Several factions among Dalit communities, the RPI has enough support to be potentially able to determine the outcome for up to 18 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. The community will be supporting the BJP in the ongoing Lok Sabha election. Due to prevalence of the anti-incumbency factor Dalits are looking for a change this time. The BJP-Shiv Sena has adopted social-engineering formula to woo the Dalits for regaining power in the state.
Arjun Dangale, a Dalit leader, says, “Price rise and corruption are the two major issues which affect Dalits the most. Their economic well-being was compromised during the Congress-NCP rule. They will not vote for the UPA.”
“Besides, the Indu Mill land has not been actually given for the Ambedkar Memorial despite all rhetoric, which has further angered Dalits. They will support the BJP-Sena-RPI alliance,” adds Dangale, who hopes the alliance wins up to 30 seats out of 48.
Recently the Congress and BJP have been criticising each other for disrespecting Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on the occasion of his 123rd birth anniversary. Both parties accused each other for neglecting Dalits.
“New-generation Dalits no longer want to remain trapped in ideological debates, which were the most convenient tool that the Congress and the NCP used to exploit to corner the Dalit voters for their own interests,” says Dalit writer Arjun Dangle. “Until the late 1990s, Dalits were caught in this secular-versus-communal debate. But the BJP-Shiv Sena is no longer perceived as untouchable.”
The Congress-NCP stands to lose the most in Mumbai, where it holds all six seats. In the other three regions, it has half the 12 seats that are marked by an RPI influence — three of the eight in Marathwada, both in Vidarbha (Nagpur and Bhandara-Gondia) and one of the two in the west (Pune, the other being Shirdi that is held by the Shiv Sena).
The anti-incumbency mood may also benefit the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which entered into the state in 2004 and has altered the political landscape since then. The party has influence in Vidarbha and may affect the outcome of at least six seats in the region. Also, a few Aam Aadmi Party candidates, like Medha Patkar, are likely to get considerable Dalit votes.
A failure to strike an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of B R Ambedkar, is another setback to the Congress-NCP, though it has lower stakes in the four seats where his Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh has an influence. It is the BJP-Shiv Sena that holds Akola, Buldhana, Amravati and Yavatmal-Washim in Vidarbha, where polling took place on April 10.
Today, who is responsible for the growing atrocities against Dalits in Maharashtra? Whether it is the misuse of police force or the denial of caste certificates to Dalits, the government is responsible. How can you expect Dalits to remain loyal to the Congress-NCP?” Ambedkar says.
Arthur Road Prison’s Superintendent of Police Vasudev Burkule and his deputy have been arrested for allegedly accepting bribe of Rs. 35,000 from a jail officer to clear him in the Maharashtra prison manual exam, the ACB said on Thursday.
Burkule and his deputy Pradeep Pathrikar were arrested from Central Prison Police Officials’ Residential Colony in South Mumbai, after a trap was laid on Wednesday night, Additional Police Commissioner (ACB), Vishwas Nangare Patil told.
Pathrikar was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs. 35,000, which was the first installment of the total demanded sum of Rs. 40,000, whereas Burkule was apprehended as his subordinate was taking the bribe on his behalf, he added.
Burkule, the SP of Central Prison, known as the Arthur Road jail, was found in possession of Rs. 70,000 cash while his house search resulted in recovery of Rs. 40 lakh, the IPS officer added.
According to ACB, a jail officer had appeared for the Maharashtra Prison Manual exam on March 25. The paper had come before Burkule for checking.
“Pathrikar approached the victim saying that his paper has come before Burkule but he (Pathrikar) has been checking it. Pathrikar told the victim that he is scoring less marks and may not clear the exam but the marks can be increased if he pays Rs. 40,000 to them,” Patil said.
Not willing to bribe the police officers, the victim approached the Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday.
Without wasting time, the ACB directed the victim to meet Burkule at his office so that a trap can be laid. Accordingly, the victim met Burkule, who instructed him to hand over Rs. 35,000 to his deputy. The victim was told to give the remaining Rs. 5,000 later.
The complainant then went to the residential colony and handed over Rs. 35,000 to Pathrikar last night where ACB officials caught him red handed.
Subsequently, Burkule was arrested under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Voters made a beeline in front of many polling stations here as people in large numbers turned out on Thursday morning to exercise their franchise.
Among early voters were Union Home Minister and Congress candidate in neighbouring Solapur Sushilkumar Shinde and NCP nominee in Pune district’s Baramati constituency Supriya Sule, daughter of party chief Sharad Pawar.
Young voters as well as senior citizens were seen lining up enthusiastically since early morning in the city which experienced a drizzle in the wee hours.
In Pune, much depends on whether sitting Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi remains true to his word not to harm the electoral prospects of party candidate Vishwajit Kadam.
Kadam is pitted against his BJP rival Anil Shirole, who had lost the 2009 election to Kalmadi with a narrow margin of around 25,000 votes.
Also in the fray are Deepak Paigude of MNS and Subhash Ware fielded by Aam Aadmi Party. Rahul Narvekar of the NCP is fighting election from Maval after leaving Shiv Sena recently. Pune district consists of four Lok Sabha constituencies – Pune City, Maval, Shirur and Baramati.
A malfunctioning electronic voting machine (EVM) reportedly “transferred” all votes cast to the Congress candidate in Sindhudurg district, in the second incident of its kind on Thursday.
The incident came to light when voters in Padve-mazagaon village complained that when they pressed their chosen candidate’s button, only the Congress light blinked.
Angry voters boycotted the elections for nearly three hours before frantic election officials ordered a replacement EVM and resumed voting around 1 pm.
At least 68 voters claimed that their vote may have been wrongly credited to Congress candidate Nilesh Rane contesting from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency in the Konkan region.
A similar incident happened at a polling booth in Pune city when voters found that whichever button was pressed on the EVM, only the Congress light blinked.
Alert voters brought this to the notice of the election officials, who immediately stopped voting.
Voting resumed after a delay of nearly 90 minutes after a new EVM was acquired.
The Election Commission also permitted around 28 voters who had already cast their votes in the malfunctioning EVM to vote afresh.
Political activists of all parties have demanded an extension of voting hours by three hours in Sindhudurg and 90 minutes in Pune to compensate for the time lost due to the defective EVMs.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan alleged that if Narendra Modi were to become the Prime Minister of the country, the history of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler would be repeated. Chavan was addressing a campaign rally for NCP’s sitting MP from Thane, Sanjeev Naik.
BJP would change the constitution if it came to power, Chavan claimed.
He also accused BJP of manipulating the media and reminded that in 2004 the party had claimed it would get a clear majority but it actually lost power.
The person whom the United States had refused to give the visa after Gujarat riots cannot become the Prime Minister, Chavan said.
Chavan claimed Maharashtra had in fact seen much more development than Modi’s Gujarat. Chavan also said Modi had virtually hijacked BJP and senior leaders such as Jaswant Singh and L K Advani had faced humiliation.
Later, talking to reporters, Chavan said Modi’s refusal to apologise for 2002 Gujarat riots was a serious matter.
An appeal from several Bollywood actors, directors and scriptwriters to Indian voters has split the film industry down the middle.
The open letter addressed to Indians says, “The need of the hour is to protect our country’s secular foundation. Undoubtedly, corruption and governance are important issues, but we will have to vigilantly work out ways of holding our government accountable to that. However, one thing is clear: India’s secular character is not negotiable! Not now, not ever.”
The letter adds, “As Indian citizens who love our motherland, we appeal to you to vote for the secular party, which is most likely to win in your constituency.”
Among the sixty film personalities who have signed the letter are Imtiaz Ali, Vishal Bhardwaj, Nandita Das, Govind Nihalani, Saeed Mirza, Zoya Akhtar, Nandita Das, Kabir Khan, Mahesh Bhatt, Shubha Mudgal and Aditi Rao Hydari.
Actor Nandita Das told NDTV, “In many ways it is a call to vote against Mr Modi…not only him but all other parties that have in the past and continue to profess and divide people on communal lines.”
Scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali, who drafted the letter told NDTV, “Our sense of India comes from the fact that we are a secular country and if that notion is challenged…if that itself is vulnerable at this moment, that is what has compelled people to speak up. It is the right wing fundamentalist forces within the BJP that are making young people feel very insecure.”
But another section of the fraternity emphatically rejected this view. Veteran scriptwriter Salim Khan, who inaugurated Narendra Modi’s Urdu website today in Mumbai said, “My relationship with Modi sahab is on the basis of my Urdu articles. When he had come to Mumbai, he expressed his desire to meet me. I met him. For me nobody is untouchable.”
Others call the appeal a conspiracy and “unwarranted paranoia”. Director Madhur Bhandarkar tweeted, “Shocking to see some colleagues, under garb of stopping so-called divisive forces, are themselves dividing a secular place like Bollywood.
“Let’s hope better sense prevails and our film industry elects Narendra Modi with a thumping majority. It’s time India got a visionary leader,” he said in another tweet.
Actor Tusshar Kapoor tweeted, “To cover up for corruption & bad governance, the ‘secular’ card is being stretched a bit too far! No party can claim the secular prize!”.
For an industry that has often been accused of being indifferent to elections, the fierce war of words is unprecedented.
