Slamming the way the contentious Telangana Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, YRS Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy said on Tuesday that it was a ‘black day’ in the history of the country.
Talking to the media in the national capital, Reddy said that the bill was passed undemocratically. “We were not let in the House. The bill was passed undemocratically.”
“The way the proceedings took place, it showed as to how democracy could be killed. This is a black day in the history of the country,” he added.
He also said that the YSR Congress was planning a bandh in Andhra Pradesh.
Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress is against the creation of a separate state of Telangana and has been protesting for a united Andhra Pradesh.
Tearing into the Congress, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the party has been left without any belief and ideals ever since ‘fake Gandhis’ took over the reins from Mahatma Gandhi.
Apparently referring to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Modi said, “A Congress leader says Congress is a thought. When Gandhi ji was alive that time it was so, but after fake Gandhis came, the party was left in thought.”
Addressing a massive rally – 2.5 lakh people as per party estimates – Modi said that the Congress leaders are adept in “coming out of a pond without getting drenched”.
“A Congress leader came to Karnataka recently and he said that there is no high command in the Congress. The whole party is in the hands of the one family. The whole country knows from years that there is not a trace of democracy in the Congress. They don’t have any trust in democracy. For them democracy has only one meaning and that is to capture power at all costs,” he said.
“I wonder why Madam Sonia and Rahul ji come to the south. They don’t have the time to go to Andhra Pradesh. People of Seemandhra and Telangana need to be healed, but the Congress, which has given them wounds, doesn’t have two kind words for them,” he said.
“It was the people of Andhra Pradesh who gave them power at the Centre but they can’t speak even two words for them. Politics can’t be this hard-hearted,” he added.
Referring to the continued ruckus in Parliament over the Telangana Bill, he said, “What is happening in Parliament? Who is creating the chaos? Even Ministers are creating chaos in Parliament.”
Rubbing it in, Modi said, “They don’t care for the common man, should we care for such a Congress? Should they be punished?”
“Now Congress can’t be dealt with small punishments. That’s why if we have to save the country, if we have to care for the future of the country, then there is only one mantra and that is to free the country of the Congress…it is such a disease that grows very rapidly and destroys the country,” he said.
“They think only they have ideas and we are empty headed. They should look within before they make such allegations,” Modi said.
“A Congress leaders says India is a honeybee, our belief is that India is our mother. Your idea is that poverty is a state of mind; we believe that service of poor is akin to serving God. The PM says money doesn’t grow on trees, our belief is that money grows in the fields and farms and grows in strength with the sweat of farmers,” he said.
In a major relief to three condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment, holding that the 11-year long delay in deciding their mercy petition had a dehumanising effect on them.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said that the delay was not only inordinate but also unreasonable and unexplained.
The court said that life imprisonment would mean life in jail till end.
The bench, also comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and SK Singh, rejected the contentions advanced by Attorney General GE Vahanvati on behalf of the central government.
The court said that though there is no time limit given in deciding the mercy petition by the President, but it was incumbent upon the government to decide the same at the earliest.
It rejected the Centre’s submission that there was no unreasonable delay in deciding their mercy plea and the condemned prisoners did not go through agonising experience as they were enjoying life behind the bars.
The bench said they are unable to accept the Centre’s view and commuted the death sentence of convicts – V Sriharan alias Murugan, AG Perarivlan alias Arivu and T Suthendraraja alias Santhan – to imprisonment for life subject to remission by the government.
It asked the Centre to give timely advice to the President so that mercy petitions can be decided without unreasonable delay.
“We implore the government to render advice in reasonable time to the President,” the bench said, adding that “the executive should exercise its power one way or other in reasonable time”.
It said the government should handle the cases of mercy petitions in a more systematised manner. “We are confident that mercy plea can be decided at much faster speed than what is being done now,” the bench said.
While rejecting the government’s contention that it was incumbent upon the death row convicts to prove that they have suffered torture and dehumanisation during the pendency of the mercy petition, the court said there is nothing in Indian law and international law that puts the burden of proving torture and dehumanising condition on the death row convicts.
Gandhi was killed in 1991. His assassins were convicted by a TADA court in January 1998 and were awarded death sentence, which was confirmed by the apex court on May 11, 1999.
The three assassins sought the commutation of their death sentence to life imprisonment on account of the inordinate delay of nearly 11 years in deciding their mercy petitions.
In May and June when millions of pilgrims throng Rishikesh and Haridwar in Uttarakhand to take holy dip, levels of antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’ have been found 60 times greater than other times of the year, shows research.
After studying water samples taken from the upper Ganges river, experts from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (IIT-Delhi) and Newcastle University, Britain, revealed that the spread of antibiotic-resistance to one of the most pristine locations in Asia is linked to the annual human pilgrimages to the region.
“This is not a local problem – it is a global one,” said Professor David Graham, an environmental engineer from Newcastle University in Britain.
“We focused on pilgrimage areas because we suspected such locations would provide new information about resistance transmission via the environment,” he added.
The specific resistance gene called ‘blaNDM-1’ causes extreme multi-resistance in many bacteria, therefore, it must be understood how this gene spreads in the environment.
By comparing water quality of the upper Ganges, the team showed that levels of ‘blaNDM-1’ were 20 times higher per capita during the pilgrimage season than at other times.
Monitoring levels of other contaminants in the water, the team showed that overloading of waste treatment facilities was likely to blame and that in many cases, untreated sewage was going straight into the river where the pilgrims bathe.
“The bugs and their genes are carried in people’s guts. If untreated wastes get into the water supply, resistance potential in the wastes can pass to the next person and spiralling increases in resistance can occur,” the researchers warned.
“If we can stem the spread of such antibiotic resistant genes locally – possibly through improved sanitation and waste treatment – we have a better chance of limiting their spread on larger scales,” contended Grahem who has spent over 10 years studying the environmental transmission of antibiotic resistance around the world.
The concern is growing worldwide over the threat from bacteria that are resistant to the so-called ‘last resort’ class of antibiotics known as Carbapenems – especially if resistance is acquired by aggressive pathogens.
The research team are now calling on governments around the world to recognise the importance of clean drinking water in their fight against antibiotic resistance.
In what could turn into a major issue in the political season, the department of central excise has pulled up the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for non-payment of service tax on the money earned by sale of tickets during rallies by Narendra Modi.
The Ludhiana regional unit of Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) has issued a notice to the Chandigarh unit of the BJP seeking an answer on the matter.
Citing government rules, the DGCI has argued that the BJP has to pay tax on the tickets as political rallies don’t fall under the category of “amusement and entertainment”, which get tax rebates.
“Recently it was in news that Bhartiya Janta Party has collected amount by way of tickets for entry to the rally at different places in India where Mr. Narendra Modi had addressed the public at large,” reads the notice.
“As the entry tickets to the event were not for any admission to any entertainment event or access to amusement facilities (which are in the negative list) the same is taxable in the hands of the person collecting the amount of tickets. It appears that the BJP/Shri Narendra Modi has neither got registered under the Service tax nor paid tax on collection from tickets,” the notice says.
The notice, dated February 12, has sought a response from the BJP within ten days of receiving it. The BJP should intimate the details of amounts collected and service tax paid, if any, the notice reads.
Expectedly, the BJP has slammed the move. Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “ The government of India is so very worried that it has become mentally bankrupt in its hatred for Narendra Modi,” adding that it is beyond comprehension why the Ludhiana unit of the excise department sent a notice to the Chandigarh office of the BJP when no rally was held there.
I don’t want to take the level of this debate to a Class 8 school boys’ debate, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said dismissing criticism of his interim budget by Narendra Modi.
“What does he mean by a decade of decay? The fact is that we are delivering growth above the trend growth rate. I have pointed out that the growth rate in 1999-2004 was below the trend growth rate.”
“In the last 33 years, the last decade (under UPA) has been the best decade for growth. Now these are facts. Now he (Modi) likes fake encounter with facts. I don’t think the media should join and repeat his tweets,” Chidambaram told.
He was asked about Modi’s reaction to his interim budget yesterday calling it “a final act of misery after a decade of decay.”
The BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate had tweeted: “The only solace one gets from the vote-on-account is that this was UPA’s final act of misery after a decade of decay & policy paralysis.”
When asked about the other comment of Modi that it was “upto the people to decide whether the Economist PM & FM have been ‘hard working’ or ‘hardly working’,” Chidambaram shot back, “I don’t want to take the level of this debate to a Class 8 boys’ debate.”
Chidambaram and Modi have been locked in a war of words over economy. The Finance Minister was critical of Modi’s knowledge of economy when he said it can be written on back of postal stamp.
Asked about this comment, the minister said, “What he (Modi) had said on that day betrayed a lack of understanding and therefore I used that phrase about writing on the back of a postage stamp.”
“But if he articulates himself, then we can engage him in a debate. If a person refuses to spell out his views on economics, what else can you say.”
A man died after he was attacked by a cobra and couldn’t be taken to the hospital as the snake refused to move from the door entrance for the entire night.
The incident was reported from Indore where a cobra bit a man in the middle of the night while he was sleeping. His wife and family members were unable to take him to the hospital as the cobra sat at the door entrance and refused to move until next morning.
Looking at husband’s deteriorating condition, wife broke the wall of the house but by the time they reached the hospital, husband had succumbed to his injuries.
In what can termed as complacency and reprehensible laxity on the part of Dehmi Kalan village administration, Bhagwansahay Kumawat’s family was taken aback after they read extremely inaccurate and misleading information on their new ration cards.
According to the details printed on the ration card, Bhagwansahay’s wife Santosh Devi is just an year elder to her daughter and 2 and 3 years elder to her two sons.
While Bhagwansahay’s age was printed as 33 years, Santosh Devi’s age was shown as 16 years and the daughter’s age in the card read 15 years. The age of Bhagwansahay’s two sons read 14 and 13 years. Moreover, the names of family members were missing and BPL was mis-spelt as APL.
If this was not enough, Hiralal Kumawat, Bhagwansahay’s younger brother, who is married to Santosh Devi’s sister, also witnessed similar errors. While his age read 33 years, his wife’s age read 30 years which was almost 14 years more than that of her sister Santosh Devi.
The village head Om Parkash accepted that the information in the ration cards were extremely misleading and that forms were being filled to issue new ration cards with correct information, he told.
Actress KareenaKapoor Khan feels her actor husband Saif Ali Khan should venture into Hollywood as he perfectly fits the bill for being there.
“He is an evolved man and an actor. I think he will make a great actor in Hollywood because he has immense talent. I think he is fit to be there… He has the looks, talent and attitude,” Kareena said.
However, Kareena would not like to try her luck in the west.
“I am happy being here. I have no dreams of going there,” Kareena said. Despite a lot of newcomers coming in, Kareena still seems to be one of the most sought after actresses and she feels privileged about the fact.
“It feels great and is a compliment. I think it is all about talent. Acting is something I have always been passionate about. New people will come and those who are talented will be here for a long time,” she said.
Kareena enjoys the work of actresses like Mahie Gill and HumaQureshi.
“I think there are too many talented actresses around, even newcomers are doing great work. People from small towns are coming in films and leaving a mark like HumaQureshi and Mahie Gill. Everyone is doing fine,” she said.
Kareena has been in the industry since quite sometime and she considers herself as an actor first and not a star. “I don’t know how it feels being a star. I never look at myself as a star, people feel it that way. I think I am an actor. I am a normal girl who likes to spend time with family and close friends and that is what I enjoy the most,” she said.
Slamming the way the contentious Telangana Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, YRS Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy said on Tuesday that it was a ‘black day’ in the history of the country. 
