The National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday demanded a report from the Maharashtra government on the suicide of an RTI activist who had alleged that harassment by officials had driven him to end his life.
RTI activist, Vilas D Baravkar, 53 was found hanging on March 25 at his residence in Chakan, 33 km from Pune.
Police also recovered a suicide note on a stamp paper alleging that around four dozen prominent politicians, serving and retired bureaucrats and police officials were harassing him since long, driving him to take the extreme step.
On March 24, Baravkar had visited the office of the Khed tehsildar for some work and returned home in the evening. He then sent away his bodyguard Suresh Jadhav and wrote a two-page suicide note on Rs 100 stamp paper.
The NHRC issued notice to Maharashtra chief secretary and director general of police for a report on the incident within a fortnight.
It said that if the contents of the incident were true, it raised serious concerns about the human rights violation of an RTI activist.
Over the past few years, Baravkar had gained a formidable reputation as a whistle-blower against unauthorised building activities in the area.
Several RTI activists working in the fields of real estate, environment, sand mining and other fields have either been attacked or killed across the state in the past few years.
Among those who lost their lives in such attacks are Satish Shetty and Arun Sawant (both in January 2010), Vitthal Gite (April 2010), Dattatray Patil (May 2010), Ramdas Ghadegaonkar (August 2010), Premnath Jha (February 2012) and Rajesh Bobade (September 2012).
A day after Shiv Sena candidate from Thane Lok Sabha seat Rajan Vichare alleged District Guardian Minister Ganesh Naik of NCP was misusing his position in the constituency; Rashtravadi Congress Party has filed a similar complaint against Naik and his son.
In a complaint to the Election Commission and the district election office, RCP general secretary and party candidate from Thane Lok Sabha seat, Vinod Gangwal has alleged that Ganesh Naik and his son and sitting MP from the constituency, Sanjiv Naik, had earlier got cheques from contractors.
He said these cheques worth several crores have surfaced now and are being “donated” to various organisations, associations and self-help groups to woo them and seek their votes.
Gangwal urged the EC to take stern action against the Naiks in this connection. The Sena nominee’s aide Vijay Nahata had yesterday said that Vichare has lodged a complaint with the District Election Officer, alleging just before announcement of polls, NCP-ruled Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) had passed tenders worth Rs 650 crore and 5 per cent of their value was collected in form of cheques from the contractors by the Naiks.
Nahata had also said that no names of beneficiaries were written on the cheques.
Claiming that there was no ‘Modi wave’ in the country, Union Home Minister Sushil kumar Shinde expressed confidence that the Congress-led UPA would once again form government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls.
“There is no Modi wave in the country. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had launched ‘India Shining’ campaign. But it was all false. Now, a few electronic channels are claiming that there is a Modi wave, which is totally wrong,” said Shinde.
“If you want to know if there any Modi wave in the country, better ask BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi,” Shinde quipped referring to Joshi’s reported remarks that there was no Modi wave, but only a BJP wave.
The Union Minister, who is seeking to retain his Solapur seat, took out a procession in the city following which he held a rally at the Congress Bhavan. Polling will be held in Solapur on April 17.
Shinde said he was confident that the Congress-led UPA would once again form the government at the Centre with the help of the alliance parties.
“In Maharashtra, the alliance between NCP and Congress is going well,” the former Maharashtra Chief Minister said.
Expressing displeasure over the standard of the election campaigns, Shinde said, “Instead of discussing development issues, political leaders are targetting each other over personal issues.”
Vajpayee-Advani partnership has been replaced by Modi-Adani one, Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday, taking a jibe at Gujarat Chief Minister and his alleged favours to the Adani group.
Addressing a rally here, he said Modi had given land equal to the size of Aurangabad in Maharashtra to Adani just for Rs 300 crore at the rate of Re one per square metre.
“Today there is ‘raj’ (rule) of Adaniji (in Gujarat). Earlier, there used to be (Atal Bihari) Vajpayeeji-(L K) Advaniji partnership. Now there is (Narendra) Modiji and (Gautam) Adaniji partnership. And that is a ‘toffee model’,” the Congress Vice President said, attacking the Gujarat Chief Minister.
“Earlier there used to be Advaniji. If you remove ‘v’ from Advani, it will become Adani,” he said. Explaining why he was calling Gujarat’s model as ‘toffee model’, Rahul said, “In Gujarat, Adaniji is given land at the rate of Re one per square metre. For Re one, you get a toffee. This is why I say it is not Gujarat model but ‘toffee model’ of development.”
His reiteration of ‘toffee model’ barb came on a day Modi took a jibe at him for such comments.
Rahul alleged that while 40 lakh people in Gujarat were below poverty line and suffering, Modi was extending benefits to few industrialists like Adani.
“Modiji, the leader of ‘toffee’ model, has given 45,000 acres of land to one industrialist. It is of the size of Aurangabad. Do you know for how much money it was given? Rs. 300 crore. The whole Aurangabad was sold for Rs. 300 crore,” he charged.
He talked about the Congress’ plans for development, including creation of industrial corridors, in the country.
Campaign for the second phase of polling in Maharashtra where nearly 3.25 crore voters will be sealing the fate of 358 candidates including stalwarts like Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, ex-Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and BJP leader Gopinath Munde, came to an end.
About 3,24,27,558 electorate in 19 constituencies of western Maharashtra, Marathwada, Konkan will cast their votes in the state on April 17.
Ten constituencies of Vidarbha went to polls in the first phase on April 10 and more than 60 per cent electorate have cast their votes.
In the second phase, there are 358 candidates in fray, including 24 women and 201 independents.
The voters in the second phase include 1,69,54,391 men and 1,53,77,605 women. There are 306 voters in the others category and 95,256 in the service category.
The constituencies which will go to polls are – Hingoli, Nanded, Beed, Parbhani, Osmanabad and Latur in Marathwada, Pune, Baramati, Shirur, Maval, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Hathkanangale in Western Maharashtra, Shirdi, Ahmednagar in North Maharashtra and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg in Konkan.
The generation next of Maharashtra politics – Supriya Sule (Baramati) and Nilesh Rane (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg) – are seeking a second term.
Indian Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav, who is currently a legislator, is seeking to enter Lok Sabha from Hingoli.
Vishwajit Kadam, who is the state Youth Congress chief and son of Congress veteran Patangrao Kadam, is also making foray from Pune.
Beed constituency has maximum 39 candidates, while Baramati has the lowest nine.
The largest constituency electorate wise is Maval with 19,46,127 voters. The smallest constituency electorate wise is Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg (13,63,957).
NCP dismissed as baseless allegation of corruption levelled by Shiv Sena against the party Minister Ganesh Naik and his MP-son Sanjeev, who is seeking re-election from Thane Lok Sabha seat.
Addressing a news conference here, NCP Thane city chief Manoj Pradhan and his Congress counterpart Bal Purnekar said the allegation of distribution of blank cheques to the tune of Rs. 35 crore by the Naiks was totally baseless.
The two said they were taking legal advice on filing a defamation suit against Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nahata, who made the allegation at a press meet here last evening.
Nahata, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, had alleged the father-son duo had distributed the cheques as “donations” to various organisations, associations and self-help groups to seek their votes. Sena has also filed a complaint with the District Election Officer in this regard.
Ashok Pohekar, campaign chief of Sanjeev Naik who was also present at the conference, said NCP would expose the “misdeeds” of Nahata when he was Commissioner of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC).
A 25-year-old woman, in search of a suitable match for herself, was duped by a 50-year-old conman who tricked her into giving him her gold chain on the pretext of marrying her, police said.
The trickster Prashant Manjire was arrested yesterday from a lodge in Dadar of central Mumbai on a tip off, said Deputy Police Commissioner Dhananjay Kulkarni.
According to police, the young victim gave a matrimonial advertisement in a Marathi newspaper mentioning that she was looking for a suitable groom.
“The victim provided her residential address and mobile number so that eligible matches can approach her,” the DCP said.
The accused, identifying himself as Manoj Wani contacted her saying that he too had been looking for suitable match. He posed as a ‘single’ although he was married and has a child.
“The soft spoken educated man, who did not disclose his age, impressed her with his behaviour in a first meeting near Kotwal garden in Dadar area on March 7. He convinced her to give him her gold ornaments for preparing jewellery for their wedding. Falling prey to his tactics, she handed over her gold chain but the accused never returned,” said another officer.
Realising that she was duped, she registered an FIR at Shivaji Park police station the next day.
Preliminary probe suggested that one more woman was conned in a similar fashion.
“After the second case, we verified if similar cases were reported in any other police stations in the city and found that Mulund police had arrested accused Prashant Manjire, a resident of Pune, in a similar case earlier. Accordingly, the victim was shown Manjire’s photograph when she identified him as the same person who approached her to marry her.”
While hunting down for the accused, a tip off was received that the accused had been hiding in a lodge in Dadar.
Accordingly, he was nabbed and gold ornaments weighing 110 grams estimated to be valued at Rs three lakh, have been recovered from a jewellery shop where he sold the valuables.
Police said some of the recovered gold ornaments also belonged to the victims fooled by him earlier.
Son of Maharashtra industries minister Narayan Rane, approached the Bombay High Court, seeking to quash a case of attempt to murder, which was lodged against him by the CBI, for allegedly opening fire at his NGO member Chintu Shaikh.
Nitesh, who is also chief of the NGO called Swabhiman Sanghatna, sought the quashing of the FIR lodged in 2011, on the ground that he had arrived at a settlement with the complainant, Shaikh.
An FIR under Section 307 (attempt to murder) and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered against Nitesh by the CBI after the Bombay High Court transferred the probe to the agency in March 2011, after inexplicable circumstances which created doubts about the probe were observed.
However, in March 2012, the CBI filed a closure report before a magistrate’s court, stating that there was no evidence or eyewitnesses to prove the case against Nitesh.
After Shaikh challenged the CBI’s closure report in August 2013, the magistrate court rejected the CBI’s report and directed the agency to re-investigate the case.
“In a recent judgement, the Supreme Court said that even serious offences like attempt to murder charges can be quashed if a settlement has been arrived at between the parties. The case was a fallout of political rivalry and nothing more,” Nitesh’s counsel Mahesh Jethmalani argued.
A division bench comprising Justices N H Patil and Anuja Prabhudesai directed the CBI to file a reply, posting the petition for hearing after two weeks.
On September 23, 2010, Shaikh had filed a complaint with the Powai police, alleging that Nitesh, who was upset that day for some reason, had shot at him twice at NGO’s Khar office.
Shaikh had also alleged that a bullet grazed his cheek, causing an injury.
Priyanka Gandhi shook everyone’s conscience by giving a very upfront statement that if anybody, even blood relations are going to be on the other side of the ideological spectrum, then these are my beliefs towards them. I feel it is a betrayal of my family, my father died for the unity of this country; I will not even let my children cross his ideology. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra conveyed a contemptuous appraisal of her younger cousin Varun, who filed his nomination papers as the BJP candidate from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Varun Gandhi has been acquitted of charges of spreading communal hatred which he had given in last general elections by a local court in Uttar Pradesh.
BJP follows Hindutva agenda and Congress follows secular ideology. However, today secular ideology is being limited to appeasing minorities which many Hindus won’t like. India is divided between Communal and Secular ideologies. BJP expresses a commitment to Hindutva, an ideology developed by Hindu politician Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. It asserts that Hindutva is cultural nationalism, which favours India’s heritage, civilisation and culture over Westernisation. While critics allege that the party is antagonistic to religious minorities, the BJP asserts that cultural nationalism naturally extends to all Indians, including Muslims and Christians.
Priyanka’s mother, Sonia is the Congress president. Her brother, Rahul is fronting the party’s campaign for the national election. Priyanka is managing their campaigns in their constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi. Varun Gandhi has relocated his constituency from Pilibhit to Sultanpur, which brings him next door to his estranged family. A statement posted on Twitter offered his counter to Priyanka’s comments. “In the last few days, a few statements have been made. …my inherent decency and large-heartedness should not be construed as weakness by anyone.
Sonia Gandhi asked people to choose path of progress and shun the one propagated by BJP where only caste and religious identity will matter. On the other side, she is right in saying BJP claims only their followers are patriots while the rest is not. All those who oppose BJP and Modi or disrespect them are addressed with many adjectives such as Pakistani agent, anti-national etc. They claim that you will be ‘desh bhakt’ (patriot) only if you go by BJP ideology. Taking on Modi, she wondered if he has got some magic wand to change the condition of the country within days. On the other hand, there is a political party (BJP) that drives a man towards a route where individual’s qualification and identity would not matter. And he would be known by his caste, religion or the particular group he belongs to.
Social policy of the INC is officially based upon the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya (up-lifting of all sections of the society.) In particular INC emphasises upon policies to improve the lives of the socially underprivileged sections of society. The INC strongly supports the highly controversial ‘Reservation’ system. Initially and for a long time, the economic policy of the INC was centered around the public sector and aimed at establishing a “socialistic pattern of society”. However, after the recent adoption of ‘Economically Liberal’ policies started by Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister in the early 1990s, the economic policy of INC has been changed somewhat and it has now adopted free market policies. At the same time, it is favouring by taking a cautious approach when it comes to liberalising the economy.
The BJP and its predecessors opposed Marxism and the socialist economic policies of the Congress party, which has ruled the Republic of India for most of its history. However, it espoused Swadeshi, or the promotion of indigenous industries and products as opposed to foreign imports and the establishment of friendly trade relations with foreign nations, thus remaining protectionist. During its tenure, the Vajpayee government continued the free-market reforms and economic liberalisation that was initiated in 1991, and oversaw a period of rapid economic growth. However, Modi has refuted this ‘Swadeshi’ claim by inviting foreign investors to Gujarat.
Historically, the BJP has criticised the Congress-led governments that brought India closer to the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc, although non-aligned on paper. During its tenure, the Vajpayee government oversaw major improvement in Indo-U.S. relations, precipitated by the visit of U.S. President Bill Clinton to India. After the September 11th attacks, India expanded its cooperation with the United States in fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and in turn received greater investment, trade and military aid. Although expected by most of the observers to take a hardline approach in foreign policy, the Vajpayee government took steps to improve relations with India’s traditional rivals, Pakistan and the People’s Republic of China.
Both parties have vast ideological differences and country too is divided on these issues. Modi with the Hindutva agenda also have backing. Let’s wait and watch till May 16 which ideology gets majority of votes, secularism or communalism.
Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday fired yet another salvo at her cousin Varun Gandhi, saying the Lok Sabha elections is “an ideological war and not a family tea party”.
Even as Varun hit back at her for her remarks that he has gone “astray” and should be shown the right path, Priyanka said she would not have forgiven her child if he had did something like this.
She was apparently referring to Varun contesting on a BJP ticket in the elections.
“This is not a family tea party. It is an ideological war. Would not have forgiven my child, if he did something like this,” she told on a day Varun filed papers as BJP candidate from Sultanpur adjacent to Amethi Parliamentary seat represented by Rahul Gandhi.
Priyanka said she was “not upset” over the leak of the video in which she had spoken about Varun and maintained that those were her views.
She said she did not speak to Varun after her remarks were leaked.
Varun hit back at Priyanka, suggesting that she crossed the “lakshman rekha of decency” with her remarks that he has gone “astray” and stressed that his “decency and large-heartedness” should not be construed as a weakness by anyone.
Asked about the BJP attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her appeal to people, Priyanka said, “That’s because they don’t like what she says and it is very clear, what the election is, as it is the fight for the heart of India and they don’t like to hear that.”
The National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday demanded a report from the Maharashtra government on the suicide of an RTI activist who had alleged that harassment by officials had driven him to end his life. 
A day after Shiv Sena candidate from Thane Lok Sabha seat Rajan Vichare alleged District Guardian Minister Ganesh Naik of NCP was misusing his position in the constituency; Rashtravadi Congress Party has filed a similar complaint against Naik and his son. 
Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday fired yet another salvo at her cousin Varun Gandhi, saying the Lok Sabha elections is “an ideological war and not a family tea party”.