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If Yogi loses in 2022, more chances are that Modi loses 2024

By
Vaidehi Taman
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bjp, bharatiya janata party, uttar pradesh, up elections, up elections 2022, uttar pradesh elections 2022, yogi, yogi adityanath, narendra modi, modi, narendra modi, modi in up, modi in uttar pradesh
If Yogi loses in 2022, more chances are that Modi loses 2024 2

Uttar Pradesh’s 2022 election result will be directly proportional to Lok Sabha’s 2024 results. If Yogi loses in 2022, more chances are that Modi loses in 2024. This will be a simulative package for the Opposition across the country. The efforts to unify the Opposition will get a boost. Also, if the defeat for BJP means Samajwadi’s victory, Akhilesh will become an important figure in the Opposition. If the BJP loses, that will be a setback for Adityanath since he was developing a hope to shift to the Centre in 2024. The BJP has made tall claims, high voltage market campaigns, but now everyone has seen everything about their marketing strategies repeatedly. The voters may teach lessons to these ignorant ministers who were found nowhere during public crises, be it pandemic or farmer’s agitation.

The biggest mistake of the Uttar Pradesh BJP is that they simply ignore people’s problems, there is no local connection. Even for election work, they trusted outsiders but not the locals.  They invited pandal walas from MP, IT cell guys from Mumbai and Bangalore, campaigners from other states, hardly any role is given to Local people, and this is the reason local workers refrained from coming out to support BJP. 100s of women from Gujarat were brought to Uttar Pradesh to convince people to vote for Yogi Adityanath so that he can make UP a Gujrat model, those BJP voters who were supposed to vote, turned down the BJP because Gujrat Model scams were exposed on social media frequently.

Modi’s credibility is now under scanner as he is the face of the campaign but will not be proved to be a real loser as his chair will not be under any threat at this hour. The real loser will be YOGI, someone will evacuate forever him but at the cost of dismantling the whole UP BJP administration. Yogi is a larger force to reckon with but somewhere he is side-lined by the Central BJP. Yogi’s team will blame Modi’s team & Modi’s team will blame Yogi for the failures. Above all the state BJP also has divided in several groups, most of the BJP cadres have silently voted for opposition to teach the lesson to the party dictators. Yogi has lost credibility since BJP lost Panchayat Elections.

Let us assume that BJP loses the 2022 UP assembly election, then it will be an enormous setback for Yogi Adityanath. He is emerging as the poster boy of BJP and any defeat in UP may derail his political journey for some years. It will make way for Amit Shah to become the successor of PM Modi in BJP. But Yogi has age on his side and he is younger than Rahul Gandhi. So, he can make a comeback but it would temporarily halt his rise in BJP. This loss will also put pressure on Modi and he will have to do some course corrections to win the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Many economic reforms (which are already slow) will be derailed and the Government will start many populous measures (like freebies etc.).

BJP will have to reach out to make a coalition for the 2024 election as without 50-60 seats UP, they can’t even cross the 250 mark. BJP will have to cede some space to allies. This may end the single-party domination in India for a few decades. Meanwhile, the opposition camp will get energized and BJP’s loss in UP will be a boost for them. Then the 2022 Nov-Dec Gujarat election will be done and die for BJP (the most important assembly election in the Modi era). If BJP loses the next Gujarat election after UP then the Modi story may well be over. Once BJP loses Gujarat, then they cannot recover. In 2019 BJP overcame defeat in Rajasthan, MP, and Chhattisgarh, but Modi can’t survive a loss in the Gujarat and Uttarakhand elections.

Modi may have to face combined opposition in some states in the 2024 election. A grand opposition alliance like 1977 may be out of the question, but the opposition camp will come out with some sort of nominal anti-BJP alliance. We may see more agitations like Shahen Bagh, farmers protest, etc. We may have many confrontations on caste and religious lines as the opposition will try hard to create momentum against BJP. BJP may go for all-out decisions like Uniform Civil Code etc. for the 2024 election. This will galvanize BJP supporters and BJP haters. In summary, if BJP loses the UP election, then it would make the 2024 Lok Sabha election wide & open.

Further, it is now becoming increasingly clear that India and Indians have to be content with BJP for many decades irrespective of whether or not you like it. As of now, there are no national parties to take BJP head-on. Losing the largest and dandiest constituency is always a setback and irreparable loss to the ruling party and person. Yogi will be most affected and the entire onus will come on him as he got the best 5 years terms to gain voters’ trust. BJP will definitely get a setback in the assembly election as people will get other options open. People are getting frustrated due to fuel prices which is the most important commodity after food (whose prices are again affected by fuel prices) and during the Pandemic when fuel prices across the globe were at lowest and people were cash strapped due to loss in livelihood BJP had hardly anything to offer to commoners. People are smart enough to judge in electronic social culture. Hindutva’s ill imitation and secularism have nothing to do with Socioeconomic India in day-to-day life. If a section of Hindus breaks out due to economic conditions, then that is a dent in BJP’s vote share.

India has recently witnessed how BJP stalwarts including PM and HM of India located themselves for an entire month in West Bengal just to defeat Mamata Banerjee and unleash Corona’s 2nd wave on a much larger nation especially economic superpower Maharashtra. For PM it was winning election in Bengal then lives of voters gasping for breath and voters well-memorized vaccine diplomacy failure. Just like the UPA govt collapsed under efficient MMS, so will BJP failing under MODI. Modi has just 2 years to perform to at least gain sizable votes to continue the 3rd term and it should be entirely in poor and middle-class favour. In election-going Uttar Pradesh, candidates and campaigns of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are being chased away by the people and their campaign vehicles are attacked. It does not limit these unprecedented incidents to western Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, youth protests which started in Patna against alleged irregularities in the Railway Recruitment Board – Non-Technical Popular Categories (RRB-NTPC) examination have spilt over to UP. Meanwhile, BJP campaigners, including Union Home Minister Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, are campaigning to polarize the voters along religious lines, but they have met with little success. Going by the viral videos posted on social media. So the change is inevitable.

MVA govt to unveil new women’s empowerment policy announces CM

By
PTI
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cm care fund, uddhav thackeray, thackeray, cm care, fund, anil galgali, rti activist, rti, galgali
MVA govt to unveil new women’s empowerment policy announces CM 4

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said his government is committed to ensuring that the schemes for women’s upliftment reach the targeted beneficiaries and said the new women’s empowerment policy will be unveiled soon.

Greeting women on the occasion of International Women’s Day at an event here, Thackeray said women are not just confined to the kitchen and child-rearing but have gone beyond these duties to be equal to men in all spheres.

”As political leaders, it is our duty to see how we can help and support women,” the chief minister said.

Laws, facilities and health infrastructure for women need to be adequate and awareness needs to be created about them, he said.

Thackeray further said that the new women’s empowerment policy will soon be unveiled and the MVA government is committed to the welfare of women by implementing schemes for them.

Women have all the abilities, but only need opportunities. Women police personnel, Anganwadi workers, health workers, doctors and nurses worked hard during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

The state government has reduced the working hours for women police officials to eight hours, the chief minister said.

India holds a better future for women 15 years from now

By
Vaidehi Taman
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women in india, females, girl child, children, women workers, National Commission on Population
Image: AFP

The National Commission on Population under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare showed that the Girl child has a better future and people’s mindset is drastically changing. In 1994 Indian government has passed the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) to ban and punish prenatal sex screening and female foeticide. It is currently illegal in India to determine or disclose the sex of the foetus to anyone. Then the abortion laws were made strict. Most of the abortion centres got closed. Governments campaigned to save female children and after so many years of efforts, India saw a historic change.

Those days, the population of women came down in the greed to have male children but no female child and save dowry money, and additional responsibilities. When the law became strict and abortion became illegal, the same families gave birth to several girls expecting at least one son. The increasing practice of female foeticide was clear by the decreasing male: female ratio in most parts of the country. These male-dominant power dynamics constructs the rationale which planned a kind of validation in the social psyche for gender disparity and even for gender-based crimes. It also created a social mindset that considered boys’ be an asset and girls nothing more than a burden.

In rural India, you will find many families having multiple daughters for one son. In many Indian states, there is an uneven number because the families won’t stop having children until they get a boy or are too old to have children. For a long time in those communities and states, men were the only ones who could work and bring honour to their families or many other things, so if they couldn’t have a Boy, then they were dishonoured. In other religions, it leads to a lot of families having multiple wives in order to have kids to try and get a boy, and having a ton of daughters and only 1 boy to carry on the family name.

Another reason is that because of incomplete birth registration, sex ratios in young children are used as a proxy measure, showing that improved health care and general conditions for females have been offset by increased recourse to sex-selective abortion. However, distinct geographical differences in sex ratio have appeared across the country; several states in the north and west have very high population sex ratios.

Women always played an important role in shaping the destiny of our civilization, yet the girl child, very often, not only faces disregard and disparity but sometimes the gravest forms of violence/crime. Even today, nothing would change much despite their growing numbers. In India, traditions/rituals undermine the very existence of girl children. Despite tremendous hue and cry about gender equality and the enforcement of laws for achieving the same, numerous newborn girls are still being dumped in the garbage, while the unborn female foetuses continue to be sniffed in the womb.

Our society has often dealt the young girls/women with a rough hand, beginning even before their birth and following through infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood (including pregnancy and lactation) until the last leg of their life. The long-standing tradition of son preference will never allow most of the families to stop production after one or two female children; they will keep on giving birth until they have one male child to their kitty. These growing numbers of females are coming from this want of a son and unwanted approach for them. Tomorrow, they will have fresh challenges; the deprived male population may try many cases of abuse to overpower the outgrown female population. Many women have touched heights in various fields, both at the national and international levels. Urban India has already settled with female children but ruler India has yet to change a lot. We can celebrate gender equality when abuse of women stops when no acid attacks and rape cases. India is amongst the most unequal countries in the world to be a woman.

The latest annual Global Gender Gap Index released by the World Economic Forum places India 17th from the bottom, with Afghanistan being the lowest. Unlike most nations in India, discrimination starts in the embryo, and each year over 46 million “missing women”. Every day, it reminded us in no uncertain terms that India is no country for women — within or outside the home. How can one really celebrate the growing number change in the female population?

Any suggestions, comments or disputes with regards to this article send us at feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com

More girls abandoned, remains hugely as a choice for adoption

By
Afternoon Voice
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girl child, girls education, children, adoption, beti padhao, beti padhao beti bachao, modi
Image: Pixabay

The latest government data says approximately 60% of couples going for adoption in the Thane district have shown an inclination towards a girl child. We can see this as a big shift in the orthodox Indian mindset that preferred a male child to carry a family legacy. While international celebrities such as Mandira Bedi, Sushmita Sen, Raveena Tandon and Sunny Leone, have adopted girls, parents from the Thane district, too, are increasingly opting for adopting daughters.

Aditi Vinay who adopted two daughters said, “Becoming a parent is a lifelong assurance. If you don’t already have kids, be sure you are ready for all that is involved with adoption. If you do have kids, be sure you have the time and the space to care for another child. The number of homeless children will decrease to zero if each family adopts one child.”

Five-year data compiled by the Thane district women and child welfare department and accessed by Times of India shows that of the 213 child adoptions registered and executed since 2016, around 122, or roughly 60%, were for a girl child. Social workers engaged in counselling prospective adoptive parents said a majority of couples, including those who are childless or already have boys in their families, preferred a daughter believing that girls are more likely to settle in easily with the family and look after them when they’re old. Officials also said there were almost negligible cases of adopted girls being returned over not being able to bond with their foster families.

CARA CEO, Lt. Col. Deepak Kumar, said Indian couples desired girls for adoption. If 10,000 people want to adopt boys, there are 15,000 who want to adopt girls”.

Child rights activists claim that more girls are available for adoption, and subsequently, more girls are being adopted. Nothing much has changed in society.

Zenobia Khodaiji a social worker said, “There are many more girl children that are abandoned than male children. Most of the orphanages have more girls than boys. So, the modern couple chose a girl for adoption. Remember, people’s mindset has not changed but the availability of choices forces them to adopt girls.”

Vandana Patil, deputy director of Janani Ashish charitable trust in Dombivli, one of the registered agencies for adoption in Thane said, “Not just childless couples, even those who already have sons in the family go for adopting a baby girl as they feel she will be more emotionally attached to parents. Surprising as it may seem, it’s a welcome change.”

While citing case studies, experts said a few years back, an affluent family had insisted on a girl child despite having three baby boys, while another couple working in the IT industry adopted a baby girl even after they already had a boy. A childless couple from Thane also adopted two girls back-to-back recently. “The family told us they were keen on adopting a second daughter within a few years of bringing home their first,” said Patil.

However, officials and experts also pointed out that while the volume of girls being adopted is encouragingly high, the count of daughters being abandoned or surrendered by their biological parents is also quite high. Though no official data was available, experts said approximately 65% of children at various child care institutes in the district were girls.

These days, even transgender couples and those single parents who have a desire to have children are adopting a female child from various sources. They believe daughters need care; boys have little challenges.

Gauri a Trans-female told Afternoon voice, “I and my partner adopted a girl child since our PM said “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao“. We will raise our daughter and educate her.”

Money laundering case: Special PMLA court gives Nawab Malik 14-day judicial custody

By
Web Team
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nawab malik, malik, ncp, malik, ed, enforcement directorate, ed court, pmla court, pmla, money laundering
Money laundering case: Special PMLA court gives Nawab Malik 14-day judicial custody 8

A special court on Monday remanded Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik in 14-day judicial custody in a money-laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.

Malik was arrested on February 23 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after being questioned for about five hours at the probe agency’s office in south Mumbai.

The NCP leader was produced before special judge R N Rokade at the end of his ED remand on Monday.

The court sent him in judicial custody as no further remand was sought by the probe agency. The ED’s case is based on an FIR filed recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Dawood Ibrahim and others. The NIA had filed its criminal complaint under sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Mumbai civic body issues notice to Narayan Rane for ‘unauthorised’ alterations in his bungalow

By
PTI
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narayan rane, bmc, mumbai civic body, narayan rane bungalow
Mumbai civic body issues notice to Narayan Rane for 'unauthorised' alterations in his bungalow 10

The Shiv Sena-controlled BMC has sent a notice to Union minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane’s bungalow in Mumbai for alleged unauthorised alterations carried out there, sources in the civic body said on Monday.

In the notice, issued on Friday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked the bungalow owner to show “sufficient cause” within seven days as to why such alterations should not be removed.

The BMC’s notice has mentioned an “unauthorised” change of use in the basement and seven of the eight floors of the bungalow (except the seventh floor).

A team of civic officials had last month inspected the bungalow, named ‘Adhish’, in the upscale Juhu area here for alleged violation of the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) norms.

The notice has been served under section 351(1) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1888. In the notice, issued by a designated officer of the K-West ward, the BMC said the changes carried out at the bungalow were not in line with plans approved by the civic body.

“…I, in the exercise of powers conferred upon me by section 351 (1A) of the said act, direct you to show sufficient cause, by a statement in writing subscribed by you or by an agent duly authorised by you in that behalf and addressed to the undersigned and delivered within 7 days from the receipt of this notice, as to why the said building or work shall not be removed or altered or pulled down or the use of restored,” the officer said.

The notice asked the bungalow owner to show sufficient cause to prove that the work/s mentioned is/are carried out in accordance with provisions of sections 337/342 and 347 of the MMC Act.

“It should be noted that if you fail to show sufficient cause as directed above, the said building or work will be removed/altered/pulled down/use of premises restored, at your risk and cost, and you may be prosecuted under section 475A of the said Act, which is punishable with imprisonment and fine,” the notice said.

Narayan Rane, a former Shiv Sena leader, is a bitter critic of his former party and its head, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Russia to open humanitarian corridors in Ukraine on March 7

By
Web Team
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ukraine, russia, flee, humanitarian corridor, russia ukraine conflict
Image: Reuters

The Russian military will hold fire and open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv at 1000 Moscow time (0700 GMT) on Monday, Russia’s defence ministry said.

The corridors, which will also be opened from the cities of Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy, are being set up at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron and in view of the current situation in those cities, it said.

According to maps published by the RIA news agency, the corridor from Kyiv will lead to Belarus, and civilians from Kharkiv will only have a corridor leading to Russia. Corridors from Mariupol and Sumy will lead both to other Ukrainian cities and to Russia.

Those who want to leave Kyiv will also be able to be airlifted to Russia, the ministry said, adding that it would use drones to monitor the evacuation and “attempts by the Ukrainian side to deceive Russia and the whole civilised world… are useless this time”. Two planned evacuation operations from Mariupol and the nearby city of Volnovakha have failed over the last two days as the sides accused each other of failing to stop shooting and shelling. In Mariupol alone, Ukrainian authorities have said they planned to evacuate over 200,000 civilians or half of the city’s population.

Raj Thackeray walks the talk, Maharashtra’s ‘Blueprint’ ready

By
Afternoon Voice
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raj thackeray blue print
Raj Thackeray walks the talk, Maharashtra's 'Blueprint' ready 13

Raj Thackeray’s Political Party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has launched its ‘Blue Print’ of its political vision. The MNS party has created a website www.mnsblueprint.org ahead of BMC elections.

The Blue Print consists of

  • Basic needs are food, water, shelter and tribal uplifting.
  • Women’s Safety and their financial security and Law and order in the State.
  • Focusing on Town planning, his priorities are health, sports and recreation, Child Parenting, Primary Education and employment, Transport, electricity, Water Canalization, Metro creations, solid waste management, sanitize, recreation grounds, internet connectivity and Biological Environment.
  • The administration part focuses on developing Strong local admins, public work projects, people initiatives, union and state relations, State taxation policy, digital governance, law commission, foreign policy, regional balance, public representative progress card.
  • Progress opportunities will have provincial Industrial policy, Trade and Merchandising, building government organizations, Agro-advantage, Tourism, High Education, Business diplomacy.
  • Marathi language and Forts, as well as sports education, would be given priority. The blueprint is youth-centric.

Madhav Bhandari, Spokesperson of Maharashtra BJP told Afternoon Voice, “Our Agenda is Hindu and our motto is to keep India Shining.  We are a National Party and our Hinduism is glazed from our work for the Country.  The Campaigns of a tie-up with MNS is not new by now, in politics, no one is a friend or foe forever. Hinduism should not be taken for granted. Otherwise, you won’t be able to recognize yourself. Our activists have laid their lives for the formation of Religious National. We won’t change our thoughts. We befriend once and for all time.”         

Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi said, “Mumbai isn’t only of Marathi Manoos or Maharashtrians it’s a Universal city.’ They take the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Rajashri Shahu. They should know that 50 % of reserves include 35% of Muslims of Phule and Ambedkar. I am working only to outclass the BJP because their Politics is not nationalist but is religious politics. Hindu- Muslim politics play for elections by dividing people. Chanting the name of Lord Ram and doing no work is unacceptable.”

Member of Legislative Council of NCP Vidya Chavan quoted, “Raj Thackeray has vision and he should unite with Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi. The Thackeray brothers should put aside their differences & come together with INC and NCP. Shiv Sena has grown in the rural politics of Maharashtra. So, they should stay away from the BJP. Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city. The labourers are from UP and Bihar the MNS should show fluctuation in thoughts and be Liberal. Raj Thackeray can expand his views and express his thinking mindfully.”

The former CM of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan doesn’t like to comment on Raj’s personality. He said that “I do not like personal politics. Raj isn’t a Statesman as yet. To win the Maharashtra CM’s Cabin one needs a lot of hard work. Looking at him I don’t think he is ready for that. I don’t like this local level group politics. It takes years to gain the governance of a State. A Party should put efforts to grow from Rural to Urban. The Metro politics remain Metropolitan and the province is regional. Party Chief expands his Party across the length & breadth of a State.”                 

The Shiv Sena official spokesperson and Lok Sabha MP Arvind Sawant remarked on this blueprint saying, “Raj Thackeray an MNS has no consistency of thought. They wanted to be with the BJP then why don’t they go with them.  MNS had no calculations or planning of the electoral process. They eat some votes and try to make pressure groups, what kind of Politics is this? This is just a blind game without ambition or aim. No target in the local booths. For over a decade MNS has been sullying without a compass.”

Underworld period dramas outlived political efficacy

By
Vaidehi Taman
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underworld, dons, dawood ibrahim, dawood, chhota rajan, rajan, bal thackeray, thackeray, bjp, modi, narendra modi, 1993 bomb blast, 1993 mumbai blast
Underworld period dramas outlived political efficacy 15

In 2013, during the election campaign, Narendra Modi announced if he wins the elections, he would bring Underworld criminal Don Dawood Ibrahim to India to be tried for the 1993 blasts in Mumbai. Dawood stands convicted in India for 1993 blasts, together with several Mumbai abettors. Several pro-Modi analysts, including former diplomats, are showing interest in targeting Pakistan-based clerics and other extremists allegedly involved in terror activities in India.

Chhota Rajan, a sworn rival of Dawood, stated that some years ago he had sent a hit squad, including Farid Tanasha and DK Rao, to Karachi to eliminate Dawood. Almost after the seven years of Modi rule, he never tried to bring back Dawood. Rather ahead of the Mumbai civic election this year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the arrest of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) minister Nawab Malik to invoke memories of the deadly 1993 Mumbai blasts and slammed the Shiv Sena for indirectly supporting the masterminds of the blast. Now Chhota Rajan is in Indian jails and he can happily help PM Modi to trace Dawood.

It is believed that Chhota Rajan assisted intelligence agencies in getting a low down on the activities of the D-Company and its members by using his vast knowledge of the criminal and its operations from his involvement. To reinforce his reputation as a patriotic gangster, Chhota Rajan threatened to kill those accused of engineering the 1993 Mumbai bombings. Saleem ‘Kurla’ in April 1998 followed by Mohammad Jindran in June 1998 and they shot Majeed Khan on 1 March 1999 dead.

The Shiv Sena, which ruled Maharashtra in a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 1994 to 1999, was speculated to have sympathized with Chhota Rajan. They reported that selective police action against the Ibrahim crime syndicate during the Shiv Sena administration and its subsequent decline through encounter killings helped strengthen Chhota Rajan’s position in the underworld. The Shiv Sena laid bare its affection for Chhota Rajan in an editorial in the Saamana newspaper, its mouthpiece, edited by Bal Thackeray. The editorial heaved a sigh of relief, attributing Chhota Rajan’s survival to “good fortune” resulting from divine grace.

In 2016, Rajnath Singh made a similar statement. He said they will nab Dawood soon and be brought back to India on any condition. This annual statement-making on Dawood continued for the third year when Rajnath Singh on February 4, 2017, said that nabbing fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who is supposed to be hiding in Pakistan, was just a matter of time. While the government was making repeated statements of bringing back Dawood, in September news agencies reported that Dawood’s wife had visited Mumbai in 2016.

The Police said, quoting the fugitive gangster’s brother Iqbal Kaskar, that Mehjabin Shaikh had visited Mumbai to meet her father in 2016. BJP was in power in Maharashtra. Kaskar was nabbed by the Mumbai police and held in an extortion case. After meeting her father Salim Kashmiri and other family members who live in Mumbai, Mehjabin Shaikh quietly left the country with nobody knowing anything. While the Modi government was boastful about its commitment to bring back Dawood to India, they failed to trace his wife.

Nobody knows whether Dawood is alive or dead. Recently, a Pakistani reporter reported that Dawood and his wife tested positively for COVID. Since Modi came to power, he visited Pakistan frequently, but never negotiated with Dawood. Narendra Modi blatantly failed on his promises of bringing back Dawood but his party leaders created unrest in state politics linking the state leaders with Dawood.

Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar had given several addresses used by Dawood in the country. If later Ram Jethmalani had to be believed, Dawood wanted to return to India and was negotiating a settlement with the BJP-led government at the centre. Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena supremo Raj Thackeray made the sensational claim. He said Dawood Ibrahim is now very sick and crippled. He is very keen to return to India and breathe his last in his motherland.

Pakistan consistently denies that they hold the global terrorist up there. But bringing him back is nearly impossible because Dawood is under protecting Pakistan’s ISI. If this is to be believed a direct attack by Indian intelligence on ISI stronghold will force them to show their power on Indian soil. This will be done to ascertain their masses of ISI’s efficacy. This will start a vicious circle which the Indian governments try to prevent at any cost. Moreover, India lacks political willpower. That’s the reason we still cannot nab Dawood. We keep on blaming RAW and IB for this but never realize that these government agencies are helpless, due to the political leadership. Not everyone can be like Indira Gandhi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Back in 2005 IB chief made a plan with some senior IB officials to assassinate Dawood Ibrahim during his daughter’s marriage in Dubai. A professional shooter and a member of the Chhota Rajan team,” Vicky Malhotra” was contacted. Somehow Dawood came to know this whole plot; Vicky was on the wanted list of Mumbai police. Mumbai police got information about Vicky’s stay in Delhi. Mumbai police arrested him from Delhi and it washed this whole covert plan out, just before execution. This golden opportunity slipped from the agency’s hand to assassinate Dawood just because of a lack of coordination between intelligence and security forces.

I’ve come this far because I never got lost in trappings of fame, says Kirti Kulhari

By
PTI
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kirti kulhari, kirti, actress, pink actress, Nayeka
I've come this far because I never got lost in trappings of fame, says Kirti Kulhari 17

Her love for acting and incredible stories has helped her sustain in the entertainment industry for over a decade, believes actor Kirti Kulhari. Kulhari made her debut in 2010 with the comedy ”Khichdi: The Movie” but had a breakthrough a year later with Bejoy Nambiar’s crime-thriller ”Shaitaan”.

The actor then went on to garner widespread acclaim with her National Award-winning drama ”Pink”, which translated into big-budget ensembles like ”Uri: The Surgical Strike’‘ and ”Mission Mangal’‘.

She also ventured into the digital space with the International Emmy Award-nominated Prime Video hit series ”Four More Shots Please!” in 2019.

”The reason why I am still here after a decade is that I truly love acting. I love being a part of incredible stories. If acting was just another thing, I would not have done it, it is not a job for me. It has helped me grow as a person with every character I have chosen. It has changed my perspective, broken my conditioning, and made me question things around me,” Kulhari told PTI in an interview.

The actor said her journey in films has not only been ”fulfilling” but also incredibly enriching.

”I don’t think I ever sat down and had a conscious discussion about consent before ‘Pink’ despite being aware of it. No one talked about it. Same with a show like ‘Four More Shots’, which is packaged as a fun, comedy series but talks about so many important things.

”Just doing the kind of roles I do has given me a voice, turned me into someone who is becoming more courageous and bolder in terms of expressing what I feel. I can’t separate acting from my life anymore. It is so beautifully intertwined,” she added.

Kulhari, born and brought up in Mumbai, said she didn’t grow up dreaming to be an actor. No one in her family was connected to art and appearing in films was ”not even an option”, she added.

But at the age of 17, Kulhari got a call from the Films Division of India for a woman-oriented film. It was a Sushant Misra movie, which never saw light of the day. Kulhari took that offer ”just to see how it goes”, she said.

According to the 36-year-old actor, the process of being in front of the camera changed her completely.

”It opened my eyes to a world I had not known before. The film got made but it never came out. I wanted to give acting a proper try after that as it felt right, there was a calling from within. I finished my post-graduation and asked my parents to give me two years to pursue acting in 2007,” she added.

The actor began with TV commercials and quickly became a known face in the ad world. But Kulhari didn’t want to get complacent, so she enrolled herself in an acting workshop by ”Paatal Lok” actor Neeraj Kabi, she said. She followed it up with more workshops with the theatre group Yatri Theatre and filmmaker-playwright Om Katare.

”I knew I wanted to act in films, so for two years, I just learnt the craft. I was serious about acting. The purity of intentions that I had with me when I started out is what has brought me this far. I have never messed with that core. ”I haven’t got lost in the idea of fame or its trapping, to do something for the sake of it. I was always only focused on bettering my skills as an actor, which is how I have come so far,” she added.

In 2016, Kulhari found her biggest success in ”Pink”, which also featured Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu and Andrea Tariang.

”I became an overnight actor. Everyone took notice of me. It felt like all the hard work that I had done silently over the years had paid off,” she added.

”Pink” gave Kulhari the confidence to headline films, as she signed projects like the Madhur Bhandarkar-directed ”Indu Sarkar” and Irrfan Khan-starrer ”Blackmail”. But both the films didn’t do well at the box office.

”I experienced a lull after these films didn’t do as well as they were expected to. I had to figure where I was heading. Then ‘Four More Shots‘ came my way. I had apprehension, but I was open. That changed the game for me,” she added.

The series, which chronicles the stories of four women, gave Kulhari a wide reach.

”The show changed things for me. It also released around ‘Uri‘ and ‘Mission Mangal‘, so my credibility as an actor just kept growing,” she added.

The actor has since featured in three series, Netflix’s ”Bard of Blood’‘, and Hotstar Specials ”Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors” and ”Human”.

”I owe a lot to OTT for giving me my due, giving me a chance to showcase what I can do as an actor,” she added.

Kulhari will be next seen in the dark comedy thriller movie ”Nayeka”, which marks her debut as a producer.

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