A large number of foreign scholars and teachers are keen to join the upcoming Nalanda University in Bihar as its faculty members, an official said on Thursday.

The process of appointing faculty for the varsity has begun and 500 applications have been received for the 20 posts that will initially be filled.

“Around 22 percent of the applicants for faculty posts, including professors, assistant professors, are foreign scholars and teachers,” vice chancellor Gopa Sabharwal said.

The university plans to start with two schools – School of Historical Sciences and the School of Environment and Ecology – by August-September.

“The recruitment is for 20 faculty members posts – 10 in each school,” she said.

Sabharwal said the recruitment process will be complete by March-end or early April.

The university will then advertise for student enrolments.

“Initially, only 15 to 20 students will be enrolled in each school,” she said.

The university is set to come up on 446 acres in Rajgir, 10 km from the site of the ancient university in Nalanda, about 100 km southeast of Patna.

The university will be fully residential, like the ancient Nalanda University. It will offer courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism and social sciences.

An Army jawan shot dead five of his colleagues at point blank range when they were sleeping at a camp in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir in the wee hours Thursday. He later turned the gun on himself.

A court of inquiry has been ordered into the incident, informed Lt Col NN Joshi, public relations officer at Army’s Srinagar-based 15 corps.

According to reports, the jawans belonged to 13 Rashtriya Rifles.

According to sources, the soldier, who was posted on sentry duty at the Safapora (Manasbal) camp, entered one of the barracks at around 2:00 AM and opened indiscriminate firing on his sleeping colleagues.

Incidents of fratricidal firing have been occurring in security forces deployed in Jammu and Kashmir during the last 24 years.

These incidents are attributed to built-up tensions among soldiers doing their duties in extremely hostile conditions, long periods of separation from families, lack of recreational facilities and poor command and control structure.

Counsellors have suggested various measures to address the problem.

These suggestions include periodic holiday to troopers so that they can join their families, recreational facilities at places of posting and an effective command and control structure.

Former Lok Sabha member Karuna Shukla, the niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who quit the BJP last year, joined Congress on Thursday.

In an embarrassment to the BJP ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Shukla slammed Narendra Modi and called Congress a democratic party, the one which works with people. “I appreciate that and therefore decided to join Congress,” added Shukla.

Shukla had met Congress president Sonia Gandhi here on Wednesday.

Shukla had resigned from the BJP last year, alleging she was being “continuously neglected” by senior leaders.

Shukla, also a former national president of BJP Mahila Morcha, sent her resignation to party chief Rajnath Singh ahead of Assembly Elections in Chhattisgarh.

Shukla had said she was not consulted on party affairs for the last few years and BJP president Rajnath Singh and national general secretary in charge of Chhattisgarh JP Nadda had even refused to grant her audience.

Bihar politician Ram Vilas Paswan met senior BJP leaders ahead of a widely expected announcement that he will revive an alliance with the party he had distanced himself from 12 years ago, over the 2002 riots in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.

His son, Chirag Paswan, confirmed that by saying, “Officials talks with BJP for alliance have started”, after a follow-up meeting with other BJP leaders where he reportedly gave last-minute touches to the deal on seat-sharing in Bihar in the general elections due by May.

The BJP leaders who met Mr. Paswan – Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Shahnawaz Hussain – are all from Bihar and have worked with him in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet.

“We had good talks with him. We also had sweets and tea. We will speak in more detail later,” Mr. Prasad had said.

Chirag Paswan said, “They are good friends of my father. They worked together as ministers.”

Mr. Paswan had on Wednesday hinted at walking away from long-time partner Lalu Prasad, saying he was keeping all options open, including a tie-up with the BJP.

For the BJP, the return of Mr. Paswan will be an important part of its campaign to demonstrate that Narendra Modi, its prime ministerial candidate, enjoys more acceptability and can draw allies.

Mr. Paswan had quit the BJP-led government at the Centre in April 2002, criticizing Mr. Modi for his handling of the communal violence that tore through Gujarat in the aftermath of the killing of Hindu train riders in Godhra earlier that year.

Last year, the BJP had lost one of its oldest allies, the Janata Dal (United), when it became clear that it would project Mr. Modi as its face in the 2014 general elections. The two parties were partners in the Nitish Kumar government.

Just last month, Mr. Paswan had announced that his party, along with the RJD and the Congress, will contest the next Lok Sabha elections jointly in Bihar. But he was reportedly not satisfied with the seat-sharing talks were shaping.

Hundreds of women and children are standing against bulldozers at a colony in west Delhi where shanties will be torn down to make way for multi-storey housing. Some 3,000 families of the ‘Kathputli (puppet)’ colony, home to puppet makers, drummers, magicians and artisans from 13 states, are protesting against a move to shift them for the construction.

Colourful life-size puppets are also part of the protest.

“Nobody is helping us. Leaders ask us to entertain foreign guests, we represent the country. I have been given an award by (former president) APJ Abdul Kalam but I have no place to keep it. We are being driven out for the benefit of one person,” said Puran Bhatt, a puppeteer.

They say their home of six decades has been sold to builders for a throwaway price of Rs. 6.11 crore, though the national auditor’s report has valued the land at Rs. 1043.2 crore.

According to a deal between the civic body Delhi Development Authority and private developer Raheja in 2007, the residents will be shifted to transit camps until multi-storey flats are constructed for them. But they say they don’t want the flats; just the land.

“The project was signed without consulting people living here. People who run small businesses here don’t want to shift to these buildings, it will ruin their lives,” said Sunaina, an activist who has joined the protests.

Last week, the families made an appeal to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.
“If we are shifted into flats then how will all the wood workers, singers who practice their skills, idol makers, puppeteers who make 15 feet tall puppets, those of us who walk on 15-foot tall stilts, rickshaw pullers, weavers, tailors, painters, construction workers, rope makers, toy makers, magicians, sanitation workers, drummers who play dhols that weigh 50-60 kgs and many others workers and artisans who live here be able to sustain our work and livelihood?” they asked in a letter.

Senior lawyer Fali Nariman has refused to participate in the process of selecting India’s first ever Lokpal, or national anti-corruption ombudsman, weeks after a controversy over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s nominee for the Lokpal selection committee.

“I decline the honour. In my humble view this is no way in which an institution as vital and as important as the Lokpal (should) be constituted,” Mr. Nariman said in a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office. He had been asked to join the Lokpal Search Panel last week.

The search panel is a second layer in the process of selecting a Lokpal, and is to work under the Lokpal Selection Committee headed by the Prime Minister.

Mr. Nariman said he feared that in this selection process, “the most competent, the most independent, and the most courageous will get overlooked.”

Earlier this month, the BJP had opposed the Prime Minister’s choice of Supreme Court lawyer PP Rao as a jurist for the Lokpal selection committee.

The Lokpal Bill, passed by Parliament last December, provides that the national ombudsman and his team will be selected by the selection panel comprising the PM, Lok Sabha Speaker, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Chief Justice of India or his nominee and a fifth member, a jurist, picked by these four.

A 19-year-old fashion designing student has alleged that she was raped by her uncle in Delhi. The girl has lodged a complaint with the police in which she has said that the incident took place on February 13 at the Gymkhana Club in Chanakyapuri area.

The girl filed the complaint on February 19. She said that her uncle Sandeep Kohli, who lives in Lucknow and is a professional photographer, came to Delhi for some work. He is a friend of the girl’s father.

He called her to meet at the Gymkhana Club, where he raped her and also threatened her with dire consequences if she told anybody about the assault, the girl alleged.

A case of rape has been registered based on her complaint and a police team was sent to Lucknow, but Kohli could not be traced. The police has now got non-bailable warrants from the court.

Telugu Desam Party requested the Centre not to fix an “appointed date” for formation of Telangana state in haste and wait till the Supreme Court fully disposes petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill.

“Many petitions are pending in the Supreme Court against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Constitutional and legal experts have already expressed the view that the AP Reorganisation Bill is unconstitutional. Let the Supreme Court first pronounce whether or not the Bill is constitutional,” TDP politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said in a statement.

Only the Supreme Court was empowered to determine whether any law passed by Parliament is legal and constitutional, the Leader of Opposition in AP Legislative Council pointed out.

Noting that the AP Reorganisation Bill was not an ordinary one, Yanamala said the Centre should tread cautiously while sending it to the President for assent.

“The Centre should not hurriedly fix the appointed date for the new state to come into being. It should go ahead only after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Bill,” Yanamala said.