RIVANCH

Kolkata : West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday faced protests by Left students for meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and allegedly "diluting the fight against CAA". The Left students were protesting against her meeting Modi at the Raj Bhavan and sharing the stage with him at a function later in the evening on the first day of his two-day visit to the state. They lanched a dharna at the Dorina Crossing at Esplanade and said it would continue as long as Modi is in the state. Members of SFI, AISA, IC of Presidency University students unions chanting 'Azadi' and 'Shame Shame' broke three barricades put up near the stage of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad's (TMCP) sit-in at Rani Rashmoni Avenue, not far from the Raj Bhavan, and demanded explanation from Banerjee as she rushed from a programme attended by Modi to the venue. They wanted to know why Banerjee met Modi, who, they said, is behind the implementation of the Citizenship Amendmen

Hum bhi dekhenge, hum bhi dekhenge Jab zulm-o-sitam ke koh-e-garan Rooyi ki tarah ud jayenge, hum dekhenge We, too, shall see. We also shall see When the mountains of oppression and cruelty. Will float away like carded wool. We will see. Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Hum Dekhenge (1979) is the anthem of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests nationwide. It doesn’t matter that it’s in Urdu, a language the majority doesn't read or speak. It's being sung late into the night by crowds in Delhi, Vadodara, Pune, and Mumbai. If you are a protest regular you will know that those demanding justice for Jawaharlal Nehru University and the repealment of CAA have a protest playlist. Bismil Azimabadi’s  Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna (1921), Makhdoom Mohiuddin’s Jang-e-Azadi , Amsi Narayanapilla’s Varika Varika Sahajare and Pash’s Sabse Khatarnak — works that were written during the freedom struggle are part of it. But there’s more. A thriving culture of protest in India is facilitating creation of

"Centre has merely amended a small portion of the existing Citizenship Amendment Act. The amendment will help us give citizenship, it does not mean that citizenship will be taken away from anyone," Prime Minister Narendra Modi explained at the Belur Math in Kolkata on Sunday at a time when West Bengal has been witnessing widespread protests against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act. Hundreds of protesters holding black flags demonstrated outside Kolkata airport gate number one crossing at the prime minister's arrival on Saturday. The police had put up a barricade to prevent them from crossing over to the airport side. Rallies were taken out in several parts of North and South Kolkata, Howrah, and North 24-Parganas district to protest the prime minister's visit to the state. Modi reportedly stayed at Belur Math on Saturday ahead of the Sunday morning address. He began his day attending a prayer meet at Belur Math to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivek

Editor's note: As India heads into the 2020s, there’s reason to believe we are heading into a new age of anxiety. Economic growth has been crippled; many economists argue recovery will take years of painful reform. Ethnic and religious tensions have sharpened. Even India’s core Constitutional values and institutions, many commentators have argued, are besieged. In this series , Firstpost examines what the 2020s will mean for India: for everything from politics and the economy, to our culture and communities. *** From mid-September to mid-October in 2019, tens of school teachers were absent from government high schools in New Delhi — teachers who taught Math, Science, Hindi, Social Studies, Sanskrit and English, including to those all-important ‘board exam classes’. The teachers had been called up, on the orders of the Election Commission, for ‘full-time election duty’ to update Delhi’s state electoral rolls. As many as 10-12 teachers were absent from a single school. Their stu

Minutes after holding a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata on Saturday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at a sit-in organised by Trinamool Congress students' wing against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 and the proposed National Register for Citizens (NRC). Taking centre stage among the agitating students who raised slogans against the amended Citizenship Act and the NRC, the TMC supremo said that she told the prime minister that the CAA will not be implemented in West Bengal. "We do not accept the notification issued by the government," she told demonstrators at the Rani Rashmoni Road in Kolkata, a few metres away from Raj Bhavan. "The CAA is anti-constitutional. We can't allow citizenship based on religion. The CAA notification will be only on paper, it will never be implemented. We would not allow it," Banerjee said during a dharna against CAA. "We do not accept NRC. We do not accept

New Delhi:  Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday termed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act a "discriminatory and divisive" law whose "sinister" purpose was to divide people on religious lines, and asserted that the NPR in form and content was "disguised NRC". Addressing the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, Sonia said thousands of young men and women, especially students have realized the "grave harm" that implementation of the new citizenship law will cause. They have taken to the streets braving the cold as well as police brutalities, Sonia said. "We demand that a comprehensive high-powered commission be constituted to enquire into the incidents connected with the anti-CAA protests and give justice to the affected persons," she said. As the students' protest gains momentum, it is clear that the government is digging in its heels. Not a day passes without the home minister and on some days the prime minister

In the wake of a huge number of complaints, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) wants to have a consistent, accountable and a more extensive mechanisms for swift resolution in all three uniformed services and various other departments, which directly comes under administrative control of the ministry. The MoD order and notes dated 30 December, 2019, reviewed by Firstpost reveals that between 1 April to 31 July, 2019, a total 4,256 complaints were received by the ministry. It was also the same period when  Firstpost published a series of investigative reports exposing alleged irregularities in construction of Air Force's Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). Documents revealed that the then defence secretary Sanjay Mitra ordered a detailed analysis in all the complaints including the IACCS project to identify systemic reforms needed to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism and to address the root cause. After Mitra's direction, 800 complaints were analysed inc

Delhi Police has identified 37 individuals of the 60-member WhatsApp group named 'Unity Against Left' which authorities believe is linked to last week's attack on Jawaharlal Nehru University students and faculty, according to a report in NDTV.   Delhi Police sources also told  NDTV  that of the 37 identified, 10 are from outside JNU. Manish Jangid, secretary of the ABVP's JNU unit, is among the identified individuals,  NDTV  further reported. Jangid  told  NDTV  he has no knowledge of being added to the group. "My phone had broken. When I got it repaired then I got to know that I had been added to the group," he claimed. According to the Delhi Police, the group was created against the Left parties on 5 January, the day when violence broke out in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) premises. Earlier, the Delhi Police Crime Branch identified and released photographs of nine suspects, including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh . The preliminary findings in the pro

Bhopal: A war of words has broken out between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and his predecessor Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Congress-led state government's move to allow the opening of 'sub-liquor shops' in the state. Chouhan, who was the chief minister of the state for three consecutive terms before his party- BJP- was dislodged from power in December 2018, on Friday wrote a letter to Nath, in which he opposed the idea of allowing 'sub-liquor shops', saying it would create problems for people in general and women in particular. In the letter, he claimed that due to the new policy, 2,000 to 2,500 new liquor shops will be opened in MP, which will ultimately lead to rise in crime. However, Nath shot off a counter-letter to Chouhan on Friday night saying that the "truth" is that maximum number of liquor outlets were opened during the BJP rule. Accusing Chouhan of misleading the people through his "wrong" claims, Nath said in the

16:22 (IST) JNUSU press conference to start at 4.30 pm The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union, from its official Twitter handle, said that it would hold a press conference about the 5 January attacks on students, teachers at the unviersity's Sabarmati lawns at 4.30 pm on Saturday.  "We urge you again to attend the press conference for a clear explanation of events, and the complicity of the VC and his allies," it said in another tweet.  JNUSU press conference Latest updates: A day after Delhi Police blamed the Left-leaning student organisation JNUSU and its president for the violence in the Jawaharlal nehru University, the students' body on Saturday invited the media for a press conference at 4:30 pm. The student body slammed the police for 'investigating the victims' instead of the perpetrators and offered to show video evidence of attack on its members at a presser to be organised in the varsity campus in Sabarmati Lawns. They slammed the BJ

Gandhinagar:  Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday alleged that falsehoods being spread by the Opposition parties against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) have created anarchy in the country.  Shah also dared Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Communists to show him any provision in the CAA which would take away the citizenship of Muslims in the country. "The Opposition does not have any other issue, so they are spreading misinformation and falsehood on CAA. This has resulted in anarchy in the entire country," Shah said. His statements comes in the wake of violent protests in parts of India over the CAA, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). Shah was speaking at the inauguration of various projects of the Gujarat Police here. "Persecuted minorities have to come to India to save themselves. However, the previous governments did not

Kolkata : The ruling Trinamool Congress students wing as well as Left Front activists have begun their protest separately against the amended Citizenship Act in various parts of West Bengal ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to the state starting on Saturday. Trinamool Congress students' wing, TMCP, began their dharna against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) on Friday at Rani Rashmoni Road in Kolkata. TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to spend an hour with the TMCP agitators during the day. She is scheduled to meet the prime minister in the evening. The Left Front activists staged protests on Saturday against the new citizenship law in various parts of North 24 Parganas district. West Bengal: Students' Federation of India protests against PM Narendra Modi's visit to Kolkata. PM Modi will be on a two-day official visit to Kolkata from

Vadodara : At least five persons were killed and several injured in a blast at an industrial and medical gas manufacturing company in Padra taluka of Gujarat's Vadodara district on Saturday, police said. The explosion took place at around 11 am at Aims Industries Limited near Gavasad village in Padra, an official from Vadu police station said. The company manufactures industrial and medical grade gases ranging from Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide and various mixtures associated with it. While five persons died on the spot, several were reportedly injured and have been rushed to a nearby hospital, he said. The fire brigade has been pressed into service, he said, adding that relief and rescue operations are underway. from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/2tOsipX Press Trust of India

New Delhi: Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Saturday said that if Indian Army gets an order then it will take appropriate action to reclaim Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). He pointed out that a Parliamentary resolution states that the entire Jammu and Kashmir region is a part of India. "There is a parliamentary resolution, that entire Jammu and Kashmir region is a part of India. If Parliament wants it, then that area (PoK) also should belong to us. When we get orders to that effect, we will take appropriate action," the Army chief said while speaking to the media in Delhi. He also said all the complaints filed against Army officers in the Kashmir valley have been proved to be unfounded. The Army chief emphasised that the "judgment call" of the commander on the ground has to be respected. "The judgment call of the commander on the ground has to be respected. All the complaints that have been filed have proved to be unfounded," the Army chie

New Delhi : The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curative petition of two death row convicts in 2012 Delhi gangrape case on 14 January. Four death row convicts will be hanged on 22 January. PTI A five-judge Bench of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petition filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh. The duo had moved a curative petition in the top court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced 22 January as the date of their execution. Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises. They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the National Capital on the night of 16 December, 2012. The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment. A curative petition is the last j

Kochi : A high rise apartment complex was brought down through controlled implosion method as authorities began implementing a Supreme Court order to demolish four illegal waterfront structures in Maradu municipality in Kochi on Saturday. #WATCH Kochi: Alfa Serene complex with twin apartment towers in Maradu also demolished.2 out of 4 illegal apartment towers have been demolished through controlled implosion,final round of demolition to take place tomorrow.Sec 144 of CrPC is enforced on land, air&water in the area pic.twitter.com/WsadhqPuDF — ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2020 The residential complex was demolished at 11.18 am. The 60-meter high 19-storey building, known as "Holy Faith H20, was levelled in seconds in a spectacular implosion. Thousands of people watched the demolition from outside the evacuation zone. A total of 343 waterfront flats were built in the complexes, violating the Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The apex court had in September 2019 directed demoli

Shimla: While over 800 roads in various parts of Himachal Pradesh including a majority in Shimla zone remain blocked following heavy snowfall on Wednesday, the meteorological department has issued a fresh orange warning of heavy rain and snowfall on  13 and 16 January. Many parts of the state including Kufri and Manali continued to reel under biting cold at sub-zero temperatures with the lowest in the state recorded in Lahaul and Spiti district's administrative centre Keylong at minus 14.3 degrees Celsius, the Meteorological Centre Shimla Director Manmohan Singh said. Normal life in many parts of the state has been thrown out of gear since the snowfall. As per data provided by a State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) official on Friday evening, as many as 835 roads including 642 in Shimla zone are still blocked. However, the director said as many as 440 machines including 381 earthmovers, 16 bulldozers and 43 tippers were on the job to clear snow from roads. Yet, the snow

New Delhi: Army Chief General MM Naravane on Saturday termed the creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff a "very big step" towards the integration of the three forces and said the Army will ensure its success. He also asserted that allegiance to Constitution should guide "us in all times". "Justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as enshrined in Constitution must guide us," he said. Addressing a press conference, General Naravane said the focus of the training will be on preparing the Army for future wars which will be network-centric and complex. "We are prepared to deal with challenges along the northern border," the Army chief said when asked about China enhancing military infrastructure."We are initiating rebalancing of preparedness along the northern border, including moving advanced weapon systems," he said. He said the focus will be on integration within the Army and among the three services. "The formation of

Kolkata : The Railways claimed to have suffered losses of properties worth Rs 84 crore in violence related to protests against CAA and NRC in West Bengal from 13 to 15 December, according to reports filed by it before the Calcutta High Court. The Eastern Railway said in an affidavit before a division bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice A Banerjee on Friday that it suffered the brunt of the protests with losses amounting to Rs 72.2 crore, with the maximum being in the Sealdah division, which suffered damages worth Rs 46 crore. The Malda division of ER suffered losses worth nearly Rs 24.5 crore, while the Howrah division's losses were more than Rs one crore, it said in an affidavit before the court on Friday in connection with a PIL seeking compensation to people and the railways for losses suffered in violence during the anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests. The South Eastern Railway, in a separate affidavit, said that it suffered losses to its properties wort

A day after Delhi Police blamed the Left-leaning student organisation JNUSU and its president for the violence in the Jawaharlal nehru University, the students' body on Saturday invited the media for a press conference at 4:30 pm. The student body slammed the police for 'investigating the victims' instead of the perpetrators and offered to show video evidence of attack on its members at a presser to be organised in the varsity campus in Sabarmati Lawns. They slammed the BJP-led Centre for investigations, saying: "From JMI to Jama Masjid to JNU, the standard tactic of the home ministry investigating the victims and not the perpetrators continues." This comes a day after the Delhi Police named JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and eight others as suspects in the violence that took place between 3 to 5 January. However, the police didn't name any group for the brutal attack by masked goons on students and teachers in the evening on 5 January. From JMI to Jama Mas

New Delhi:  The walls of Sabarmati and Periyar hostels in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were on Friday found plastered with a slew of posters accusing three varsity professors and one of Delhi University of being behind the 5 January violence on the campus by masked hooligans. The four professors who have been accused in the posters of being behind the violence are Tapan Kumar Bihari and Prakash Chandra Sahoo of JNU besides its chief proctor Dhananjay Singh. The fourth professor blamed in posters is DU's Abhinav Prakash, a former JNU student. Dubbing the four academics as 'traitors', the posters proclaimed, "Nothing will be forgotten, nothing will be forgiven." Professors Prakash and Singh denied their involvement in the incident. "I was on the campus trying to stop the violence and protect students. My family stays on the campus and I fear for their safety. I have never been biased towards students from any ideology," Singh told PTI . Prakash

Pune : Lamenting that many students can not read and write Marathi, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said on Friday that the government was thinking of making Marathi compulsory in all schools till class 10. He was speaking at a felicitation program at Baramati, his Assembly constituency. File image of Ajit Pawar. PTI "The number of children studying in English-medium schools is increasing and they speak very good English. But they are not able to read and write Marathi properly," the NCP leader said. "Very soon we are going to take up one issue, and that is to make Marathi a compulsory subject in schools, be it Urdu-medium, Hindi-medium or English-medium, from class 1 to Class 10," Pawar said. "We all live in Maharashtra and every child should read and write Marathi properly," he said. Some students may feel that their marks in class 10 and 12 will suffer if they are forced to study an additional subject, he said. "But I would like

New Delhi: During the approval process for 737Max planes in India in 2017, Boeing executives used terms such as "fools" and "stupid" for the Indian aviation regulator DGCA, according to internal documents released by the company. In early 2019, regulators across the world banned flying 737Max planes after two fatal accidents involving the aircraft that killed 346 people. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also ordered grounding of these planes in March last year. The latest batch of internal Boeing documents were provided to the US aviation regulator FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and US Congress last month and released on Thursday. In one of the conversations, a Boeing executive is recorded as stating, "The DCGA in India is apparently even stupider, if that's a word. I am drinking obviously." In another conversation, a Boeing executive says the following about DGCA: "I just Jedi mind tricked this (these) fools." Spi

Editor's note:  As India heads into the 2020s, there’s reason to believe we are heading into a new age of anxiety. Economic growth has been crippled; many economists argue recovery will take years of painful reform. Ethnic and religious tensions have sharpened. Even India’s core Constitutional values and institutions, many commentators have argued, are besieged. In  this series , Firstpost examines what the 2020s will mean for India: for everything from politics and the economy, to our culture and communities. *** In the 2007 Hindi movie, Chak De India , there is a poignant scene between the coach of the Indian women’s hockey team Kabir Khan (played by Shah Rukh Khan), and the captain and goalkeeper of the team Vidya Sharma (played by Vidya Malvade). Vidya must choose between staying on in the team for practise sessions against the wishes of her husband and in-laws (who want her home for what they consider a crucial family engagement where she as daughter-in-law must be present)

A curse shall light upon the limbs of men; Domestic fury and fierce civil strife shall cumber all the parts of Italy; Blood and destruction shall be so in use and dreadful objects so familiar That mothers shall but smile when they behold their infants quarter'd with the hands of war; All pity choked with custom of fell deeds: And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge, with Ate by his side come hot from hell, Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war; That this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial. Julius Caesar: Act 3 Scene 1 India is passing through turbulent times. The above speech made by Mark Antony before Caesar's body in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar  portents the days to come in India. I do not wish to frighten anyone or sound alarmist, but it is time someone told Indians the truth: terrible times are coming in this country. The anti CAA agitation and the at

As many as 20 passengers travelling in a private sleeper bus were feared burned to death in Kannauj district of Uttar Pradesh  after the bus collided head on with a truck near Chiloi village on Friday night. There were around 70 passengers in the bus which was on its way to Jaipur from Farrukhabad, police said. According to The Times of India , the truck involved in the accident was carrying some inflammable material. The Inspector General, Kanpur range, Mohit Agarwal said that the damage to the vehicle was so extensive that a DNA test needed to be conducted to ascertain the passengers’ identities and the exact toll. "The bodies are badly burned, their bones are scattered so, only a DNA test will determine the death toll. Prima facie bodies of 8-10 people seem to be on the bus but the damage is so extensive that casualties can be determined only through DNA test," said Agarwal. IG (Kanpur range) Mohit Agarwal: The bodies are badly burned, their bones are scattered,so on