THE TIMES, THEY ARE A CHANGIN’: The attire of Rajasthan Royals’ cheerleaders has seen a huge change from 2008 (left) to 2012Sunday, March 31, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
ANDHER NAGRI CHOPAT RAJA......
Two MLAs who thrashed cop get bail, victim suspended
Under Oppn Fire, Govt ‘Punishes’ SI
Sharad Vyas & S Ahmed Ali TNN
Mumbai: In a double blow to the state police, while home minister R R Patil on Monday suspended traffic sub-inspector Sachin Suryavanshi for misbehaving with a legislator, a court granted bail to MLAs Ram Kadam and Kshitij Thakur, who are accused of beating up Suryavanshi in the assembly premises.
Patil on Monday announced in the assembly that Suryavanshi had been suspended for being “rude and misbehaving” with Thakur, an MLA from Nalasopara. He said he had watched the CD of Suryavanshi’s “verbal duel” with Thakur on the Bandra-Worli sea link on March 18. “According to the preliminary inquiry by DCP S R Nilevad (DCP, traffic-south), Suryavanshi was rude to Thakur, which is unbecoming of a police officer,’’ Patil later told the media.
Meanwhile, a Pune-based activist has filed a PIL seeking an investigation into the alleged assault on Suryavanshi by MLAs.
The petition by Hemant Patil has urged the court to direct the government to produce relevant records of the assault and order a probe by the state director general of police or another independent agency.
On Monday, Suryavanshi had an argument with Thakur after he stopped the MLA’s car and fined his driver for speeding on the sea link. The argument was again fuelled when Suryavanshi reached Vidhan Bhavan on Tuesday after being called by deputy speaker Vasant Davkhare. Suryavanshi, attached to the Worli police station, was thrashed by around 10 to 12 MLAs, including Thakur and Kadam, inside the Vidhan Bhavan.
Under pressure from the opposition to take action against the injured cop, the home minister said, “A preliminary probe by a senior officer of the rank of a DCP has found Suryavanshi used language during the incident which was unbecoming of an officer on duty. I was informed of this report by police commissioner himself. I, therefore, suspended him from the force,” Patil informed the Lower House amidst thumping and cheer from members. Suryavanshi has already been sent on forced leave, the announcement for which was also made by Patil in the Upper House last week.
ON MONDAY
Under pressure from the opposition that the govt was employing double standards while acting against MLAs and policemen, home minister R R Patil said it was decided to suspend Suryavanshi for being rude and misbehaving with an MLA
Esplanade court granted Kadam and Thakur cash bail of Rs 15,000 each. It directed them to visit the police crime branch every Wednesday or whenever asked to do so
LEGISLATORS VERSUS POLICE LAST WEEK Traffic sub-inspector Sachin Suryavanshi fined MLA Kshitij Thakur’s driver for speeding on Bandra-Worli sea link. Suryavanshi, Thakur had a fierce argument. The next day, the cop was thrashed by a group of MLAs inside the assembly. Thakur and another MLA, Ram Kadam, surrendered and were remanded in police custody
A preliminary probe by an officer of the rank of a DCP has found Suryavanshi used language during the incident which was unbecoming of an officer on duty. I was informed of this report by the police commissioner himself. I, therefore, suspended him—R R Patil | HOME MINISTER
Last week, MLAs Kshitij Thakur and Ram Kadam (L) showed a video clip of Suryavanshi arguing with Thakur
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
5 MLAs suspended for thrashing cop.....why case was not registered???
5 MLAs suspended for thrashing cop
Sharad Vyas & S Ahmed Ali TNN
Mumbai: The Maharashtra assembly on Wednesday suspended five legislators for the rest of the year over Tuesday’s attack on a traffic policeman within the Vidhan Bhavan even as police tried in vain through the day to arrest some of them.
Cops fanned out to pick up MLAs Kshitij Thakur (Bahujan Vikas Aghadi) and Ram Kadam (MNS), and even came to the assembly but returned empty-handed amid negotiations between senior cops, the state government and
assembly administration.
The five suspended MLAs are Kadam, Thakur, Pradeep Jaiswal (Independent, supported by Shiv Sena), Rajan Salvi (SS) and Jaykumar Rawal (BJP). They cannot take part in assembly proceedings till December 31, 2013, and will be barred from entering the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai and Nagpur.However, the one-year suspension may not hold if past incidents are anything to go by. In November 2009, four MNS MLAs were suspended for four years for slapping SP’s Abu Azmi. However, the term was commuted in July 2010.
A team of the crime branch, which is following up on the FIR against 15 MLAs for the assault, collected CCTV footage from five cameras on the assembly premises. “We have got the CCTV footage and are trying to identify people (involved in the assault) besides Kadam and Thakur,” said Mumbai joint commissioner Himanshu Roy. ‘Non-bailable section not applied on MLAs’
Mumbai: A top officer said though the police have applied various IPC sections like causing grievous hurt, wrongful assembly and threatening on the MLAs, they have not included the tougher and non-bailable section 332 — voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty.
In the House, a resolution for their suspension was moved by parliamentary affairs minister Harshvardhan Patil and adopted by voice vote. “Their action has lowered the dignity of the august House, and for it, the Vidhan Sabha expresses regret,” Patil said, adding that Suryavanshi, a sub-inspector with the Worli traffic division, was beaten up when he visited room no. 114 at 12.50pm during a breach of privilege hearing over an altercation he had with Thakur near the Bandra Worli Sea Link last week.
As cops sought to arrest the MLAs on Wednesday, it was learnt that Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh, Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil and chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had hammered out a formula whereby Thakur and Kadam would surrender on Thursday.
Singh later denied it. “There is no question of the MLAs offering to surrender. My teams are looking for them, but as of now, we have not made any arrest,” he said.
Sources said two teams of senior police officers, including a deputy commissioner, had gone to Vidhan Bhavan and another team was sent to Virar to arrest Thakur. But they were unsuccessful. Kadam and Thakur’s cell phones were switched off, and there were reports that they would file for anticipatory bail on Thursday.
The sources said the case against Kadam and Thakur was strongest as in the FIR as Suryavanshi said Kadam first slapped him and tried to strangle him while threatening that “wherever you go, I will kill you”. Thakur joined Kadam and kicked him in his groin and also threatened to kill him.
Kshitij Thakur (right) and Ram Kadam are among the five MLAs facing action for roughing up a policeman
HC: Women seats for open merit can’t be filled from SC/ST quota
HC: Women seats for open merit can’t be filled from SC/ST quota
READ MORE Women Seats|SC/ST Quota|HC
RELATED
A single bench that passed the judgment while deciding a bunch of 120 petitions on the subject last week, has even observed that the time has arrived to reconsider the country's existing reservation system to include "downtrodden citizen of any caste".
Women candidates who contested for different posts in at least three government departments, including the panchayati raj, education and medical, last year had challenged the government move to allow "migration" of reserved category women to fill the open category seats. The posts applied for included that of teachers Grade-II and III, school lecturers, headmasters and pharmacists.
Women in Rajasthan enjoy 30% vertical quota in their respective categories of SC, ST, OBC and open/general in government jobs. As per the single bench's judgment passed on March 15, a woman candidate who has applied for her respective reserved category quota will not be considered for the women seats "saved" in the open category.
On the basis of earlier judgments by the Supreme Court, Justice M N Bhandari has laid stress on clarifying that the 30% vacancies kept aside for women in each category is "not reservation" but a "special provision". Referring to the Constitution, the bench pointed out that reservation in public services is allowed only under Article 16. However, Article 16(2) prohibits discrimination in public employment on the ground of sex. A certain percentage of seats for the women are, therefore, "saved" invoking Article 15(3), which permits the state to make "special provision" for women and children.
"It can be, thus, safely held that so far as earmarking certain posts for women are concerned, it can be saved by Article 15(3), if considered special provision for women and not by reservation. ....Thus, applying the principle laid down in this judgment (Indra Sawhney versus Union of India) and difference made between 'reservation' and 'special provision', migration of reserved category to open category, as is permissible in reservation, cannot apply," Justice Bhandari ruled. Taking an overall view on the reservation system, the bench observed, "The time has now come to consider the pattern of reservation exists in the country. It should not be for the purpose to divide citizens on the basis of caste and at the same time to see that a downtrodden citizen of any caste is given benefit of reservation so as to give true meaning to "backward class" used under Article 16(4) of the Constitution of India."
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Is honesty the best policy? Look at the evidence
When society rewards lying and cheating, and punishes whistleblowers, how honest are we being about our values?
Joe Darby, the US soldier who exposed the prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, was called a traitor and taken into protective custody.
In 2004, Army Specialist Joe Darby came forward and turned over photographs of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, sparking an investigation into what would become an iconic part of the Iraq war. As a result, Darby and his family spent months at an undisclosed location under continuous security – not because of threats from the enemy, but because of threats from his fellow Americans.
The soldier with the integrity to step up and report criminal conduct was dubbed "a borderline traitor" and "a rat", and many took shots at his patriotism. Darby said:
"People are pissed because I turned in an American soldier for abusing an Iraqi. They don't care about right and wrong."
If the merit of a policy can be measured by the extent society tends to reward compliance and penalize non-compliance, then the premise that honesty is the best policy is itself dishonest. Instead, as Joe Darby suggests, it is not so much a question of right or wrong, honesty or cheating, as it is a question of whether people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see. In a tangible sense, it can be more rewarding to give the masses a false sense of well-being or pander to their preconceived notions than it is to be honest and potentially cause them doubt or disappointment.
In his farewell address, President George Washington said:
"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy."
Maybe, some day, Washington will be right, but today, he is not
Friday, March 15, 2013
No escape from caste prejudice even in UK
FIGHTING FOR EQUALITY
No escape from caste prejudice even in UK
Victimized NRIs Seek Strict Law To End Bias
Anahita Mukherji TNN
London: If you happen to be of Dalit origin, or from the socalled lower castes, migrating out of India may not help you escape discrimination. India’s infamous caste system has reared its ugly head in the United Kingdom.
School children from the lower castes have been taunted with casteist slurs like “bhangi” and “chamar” from other Indian school children of a higher caste. Many Indians in the work place say they have faced a great deal of harassment from other Indians on grounds of caste. This has resulted in widespread protests across England. Human rights activists and Dalit organizations in thfige UK are campaigning for the enforcement of a clause in UK Equality Act that mentions the Indian caste system. One of the worst instances of discrimination took place in central England, in a city called Coventry. “An elderly Dalit lady was receiving home care from the city council, who would send a council worker to her house to bathe her. One of the council workers happened to be an Indian of a higher caste. When she discovered the lady was Dalit, she refused to give her a bath,” says Lekh Pall, an activist with the Antidiscrimination Alliance.
Harbans Lal Bali, a retired employee of UK’s Royal Mail, who lives in the suburbs of London, recalls the harassment he faced at the Post Office when he was temporarily promoted to the post of supervisor.
“I got to know that some of the people under me, who were Indians of a higher caste, complained to the management about my promotion. They said that they were not used to taking orders from people of my caste,” he says.
There has also been an instance where an Indian of a lower caste was in a relationship with another Indian from a higher caste in the same office. Both were asked to leave their jobs by their employer, who was an upper caste Indian.
Lekh Pall was amongst those who campaigned for the inclusion of caste under the Equality Act 2010, as a form of racial discrimination.
“We presented the House of Lords with a great deal of evidence when the Bill was being passed. They made an amendment to the Bill and included caste as an aspect of race. When the Bill was sent to the House of Commons, ministers were in favour of conducting their own study on the subject before including it in the law,” he adds.
उदयपुर में वकीलों ने पुलिसवालों को पीटा
उदयपुर में वकीलों ने पुलिसवालों को पीटा
उदयपुर। जयपुर में वकीलों पर हुए लाठीचार्ज व 14 सूत्री मांगों को लेकर वकीलों के राज्य व्यापी आन्दोलन के तहत उदयपुर कोर्ट परिसर में शुक्रवार को पुलिसकर्मियों की मौजदूगी ने अधिवक्ताओं को उग्र कर दिया। वकीलों ने एक एएसआई व सिपाही के साथ जोरदार मारपीट की व कपडे फाड़ दिया। जिला पुलिस अधीक्षक के निर्देश पर वकीलों पर राजकार्य में बाधा डालने का मामला दर्ज किया गया है।
वकीलों के क्रमिक अनशन के दौरान अम्बामाता थाने के सहायक उप निरीक्षक मांगीलाल मेनारिया व सिपाही संतराम प्रोडक्शन वारंट के लिए एसीजेएम कोर्ट-2 में आए तो वकीलों ने उसे वहां से जाने का कहा। एक बार तो एएसआई वहां से चला गया लेकिन थोड़ी बाद वापस लौटा तो फिर उग्र वकीलों ने उस पर हमला कर दिया।
सिपाही संतराम वहां से भाग गया लेकिन एएसआई गुस्से का शिकार हो गया। आखिरकार वरिष्ठ वकीलों ने उसे कोर्ट में बंद कर बचाया। थोड़ी देर में भूपालपुरा थानाधिकारी सतीश मीणा एएसआई को लेने के लिए आए तो उनके साथ सादी वर्दी में आए थाने के सिपाही संग्राम सिंह ने गेट खोल दिया।
इस पर वकीलों ने उसके मंुुह पर थप्पडें मारते हुए कपडे फाड़ दिए। वकीलों ने एएसआई पर गालियां देने व उकसाने का आरोप लगाया है। जिला पुलिस अधीक्षक एच पी शर्मा के अनुसार वकीलों पर राजकार्य में बाधा डालने व मारपीट का मामला दर्ज किया गया है।
उदयपुर। जयपुर में वकीलों पर हुए लाठीचार्ज व 14 सूत्री मांगों को लेकर वकीलों के राज्य व्यापी आन्दोलन के तहत उदयपुर कोर्ट परिसर में शुक्रवार को पुलिसकर्मियों की मौजदूगी ने अधिवक्ताओं को उग्र कर दिया। वकीलों ने एक एएसआई व सिपाही के साथ जोरदार मारपीट की व कपडे फाड़ दिया। जिला पुलिस अधीक्षक के निर्देश पर वकीलों पर राजकार्य में बाधा डालने का मामला दर्ज किया गया है।
वकीलों के क्रमिक अनशन के दौरान अम्बामाता थाने के सहायक उप निरीक्षक मांगीलाल मेनारिया व सिपाही संतराम प्रोडक्शन वारंट के लिए एसीजेएम कोर्ट-2 में आए तो वकीलों ने उसे वहां से जाने का कहा। एक बार तो एएसआई वहां से चला गया लेकिन थोड़ी बाद वापस लौटा तो फिर उग्र वकीलों ने उस पर हमला कर दिया।
सिपाही संतराम वहां से भाग गया लेकिन एएसआई गुस्से का शिकार हो गया। आखिरकार वरिष्ठ वकीलों ने उसे कोर्ट में बंद कर बचाया। थोड़ी देर में भूपालपुरा थानाधिकारी सतीश मीणा एएसआई को लेने के लिए आए तो उनके साथ सादी वर्दी में आए थाने के सिपाही संग्राम सिंह ने गेट खोल दिया।
इस पर वकीलों ने उसके मंुुह पर थप्पडें मारते हुए कपडे फाड़ दिए। वकीलों ने एएसआई पर गालियां देने व उकसाने का आरोप लगाया है। जिला पुलिस अधीक्षक एच पी शर्मा के अनुसार वकीलों पर राजकार्य में बाधा डालने व मारपीट का मामला दर्ज किया गया है।
Monday, March 11, 2013
CBI court convicts 6 cops in Patiala
CBI court convicts 6 cops in Patiala
Ajay Sura TNN
Patiala:A special CBI court in Patiala on Monday convicted and sentenced six Punjab police personnel, including IPS officer Preetpal Singh Virk, in a20-year-old case of the abduction of a man—brother of a suspected Khalistani militant.
While holding the cops guilty, special CBI judge Hemant Gopal sentenced SSP Virk to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment along with three other cops—Shamsher Singh, Avtar Singh and Balbir Singh. Two other cops — Rajinder Singh Sohal, who is presently posted as DSP (city), Mohali, and Ganda Singh — were awarded three years in jail.
The court held the six cops guilty under sections 364, 365 (abduction), 342, 343, 346 (wrongful confinement) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. All the cops were immediately taken into custody by the CBI and sent to Central Jail Patiala.
The CBI had registered a case against Virk and five other cops in 1993 for picking up Tejinder Singh alias Billu, who was the brother of Jagdeep Singh alias Pilli, a suspected Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) militant. The police at that time had suspected that Jagdeep Singh had a hand in the kidnapping of Romanian diplomat Liviu Radu from Delhi in October, 1991. A month later, Radu was released unharmed.
According to the prosecution, Tejinder Singh was picked up from Kolkata by Virk, who was an SP at that time, and five other cops, as a pressure tactic to force his brother Jagdeep into giving himself up. Tejinder Singh was not seen again and is presumed dead.
The CBI had registered a case after Tejinder’s father Budh Singh in a habeas corpus petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1993 had said that the Punjab police cops had taken his son into their custody. After seven years, the CBI in 2000 had filed achargesheet against the cops before the special CBI court in Patiala.
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, film stories and scripts. Huxley spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.
Aldous Huxley was a humanist, pacifist, andsatirist, and he was latterly interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychologyand philosophical mysticism.[1][2] He is also well known for advocating and takingpsychedelics.
By the end of his life Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950),[1] known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.[2][3]
Considered perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture,[4] Orwell wroteliterary criticism, poetry, fiction andpolemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four(1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author.[5] His book Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerousessays on politics, literature, language and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[6]
Orwell's work continues to influence popularand political culture, and the term Orwellian— descriptive of totalitarian or authoritariansocial practices — has entered the language together with several of his neologisms, including Cold War, doublethink,thoughtcrime, Big Brother and thought police.[7]
Hunter Stockton Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American author and journalist. Born in Louisville, Kentucky to a middle class family, Thompson went off the rails in his teens after the death of his father left the family in poverty. He was unable to formally finish high school as he was incarcerated for 60 days after abetting a robbery. He subsequently joined the United States Air Force before moving into journalism. He traveled frequently, including stints in Puerto Rico and Brazil, before settling in Aspen, Colorado in the early 1960s.
Thompson became known internationally with the publication ofHell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1967), for which he had spent a year living and riding with the Angels, experiencing their lives and hearing their stories first hand. Previously a relatively conventional journalist, with the publication in 1970 of "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" he became a counter cultural figure, with his own brand of New Journalism he termed "Gonzo", an experimental style of journalism where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. The work he remains best known for is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972), a rumination on the failure of the 1960s counterculture movement. It was first serialized inRolling Stone, a magazine with which Thompson would be long associated, and was released as a film starring Johnny Depp and directed by Terry Gilliam in 1998.
Politically minded, Thompson ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, in 1970, on the Freak Power ticket. He was well known for his inveterate hatred of Richard Nixon, who he claimed represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character"[4] and who he characterized in what many consider to be his greatest contribution to American letters, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Thompson's output notably declined from the mid-1970s, as he struggled with the consequences of fame, and he complained that he could no longer merely report on events as he was too easily recognized. He was known also for his lifelong use of alcohol and illegal drugs; his love of firearms, and his iconoclastic contempt for authoritarianism, and remarked that, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
While suffering a bout of health problems, Thompson committed suicide at the age of 67. As per his wishes, his ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by his friend, Johnny Depp, and attended by a host of friends including Senator John Kerry and the actorJack Nicholson. Hari Kunzru wrote that, "the true voice of Thompson is revealed to be that of American moralist ... one who often makes himself ugly to expose the ugliness he sees around him."[5]
Saturday, March 9, 2013
HARSH MANDER
Harsh Mander is an Indian social activist and writer. He came into prominence after accusing Modi for 2002 Gujarat riots[citation needed], though he was unable to prove the same[citation needed]. He heads "Aman Biradari" which works for communal harmony. He became member of National Advisory Council of the UPA government in 2010 and special commissioner to the Supreme Court.[1][2] He is removed from the NAC in 2012 for unknown reasons.[3] He has written a collection of essays titled Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives published by the Penguin Books (2001) and Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre(2009).[4]
Thursday, March 7, 2013
DCP Don K Jose’s jaw fixed with plate & screws
DCP Don K Jose’s jaw fixed with plate & screws
RELATED
Meanwhile, the lawyers' strike entered second day on Thursday with 12 of them being admitted to SMS hospital after fresh clash between the lawyers and the police ensued at the Collectorate Circle. The hospital administration said it admitted 12 lawyers, 11 of them in the polytrauma ward and one to the cardiothoracic surgery ward.
Altogether six policemen, including deputy commissioner of police (north) Mahendra Singh, were also brought to the emergency ward. A hospital official said Singh suffered injuries on his head and nose.
The 108 ambulance services remained alert and transported the injured from Collectorate Circle to SMS hospital. Since, trolley pullers at SMS hospital's emergency were on strike, members of the Scouts and Guides helped the injured in getting treatment at the hospital. The injured kept pouring in till afternoon.
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