Shehanaz Gill Gushes Over ‘KGF: Chapter 2’

Yash has won many hearts with his action-packed performance in ‘KGF: Chapter 2’. Like others, singer Shehnaaz Gill could not resist praising the Kannada star after watching the sequel.

Shehnaaz recently took to Twitter and appreciated Yash and the whole team of ‘KGF’.

“Congratulations, I love you…..All…Loved the violence @TheNameIsYash peace out….. Great job @SrinidhiShetty7 @duttsanjay @TandonRaveena @prashanth_neel. Hats off KGF 2,” she tweeted.

Shehnaaz’s tweet caught Yash and his co-star Srinidhi’s attention.

“Thank You,” Yash commented.

“Thankyouuu,” Srinidhi responded.

Helmed by Prashanth Neel, ‘KGF: Chapter 2’, which was released on April 14, is a follow-up of the Kannada blockbuster ‘KGF: Chapter 1’. Starring Yash in the lead, the first part’s narrative follows an underdog who later becomes a dangerous gangster.

The sequel, which also stars Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, and Prakash Raj, has reportedly collected Rs 162 crore gross (as opposed to net, which is the actual earning for the studio excluding taxes and theatres’ share) in three days. (ANI)

Oppn’s Joint Statement Against BJP Isolates Telangana KCR

While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has been pitching as the anti-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) face, the 13-party joint statement by not including him appears to have poured cold waters on his national political ambitions, also thereby revealing division in the Opposition ranks.

The joint statement was issued by senior leaders of 13 opposition parties, including interim president of Congress Sonia Gandhi, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) patriarch Sharad Pawar, and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Opposition leaders in the joint statement expressed their concerns at incidents of communal violence in different parts of the country.

But the joint statement didn’t include leaders from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (Secular) even though their leaders N Chandrababu Naidu and HD Deve Gowda respectively had previously been active in the national politics.

The absence of the three parties from the joint statement is being seen as a blow to the Opposition’s unity in the political circles. That it’s in the backdrop of the Opposition parties holding parleys in the recent months to close their ranks in the run-up to the 2024 general elections makes the non-inclusion of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), TDP, JD (S) significant. It also signals the isolation of KCR from the national politics in the Opposition camp.

The Telangana CM in the recent past has shown his national political ambitions, making attempts to project himself as an alternative to PM Modi. He has also called on the ‘like-minded’ parties to come together to form a third front to take on the BJP.

In a bid to intensify efforts to bring together the anti-BJP parties on one platform, Rao met several Opposition leaders. He had met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar during his Mumbai visit in February.

Expanding his outreach to the ‘like-minded’ parties, KCR, in the recent past, had backed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over alleged derogatory remarks of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma against former PM Rajiv Gandhi.

On the contrary, in what could be seen as a major setback, Rahul Gandhi made it clear in a meeting with the Telangana party leaders that Congress would not forge an alliance with TRS. Pawar and Shiv Sena have also stated that no third front is possible without the inclusion of Congress.

While TDP contested Assembly elections with Congress in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the party failed to gain mention in the 13-party joint statement.

The JD (S), which had an alliance with Congress in Karnataka, too wasn’t included in the joint statement.

The exclusion of TDP from the list of ‘like-minded’ parties points toward a possible tussle between the party and Congress. The two parties have contested elections in alliance with each other in the past, hence the exclusion has raised eyebrows.

Imran’s PTI Says Pakistan Headed Towards Civil Unrest

Reacting to the violence that broke out in the Punjab Assembly between the Opposition and treasury benches on Saturday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry said that the country is heading towards civil unrest, reported local media.

Taking to his Twitter, the PTI leader said, “We are inches away from full fledge Civil unrest, @ImranKhanPTI has exercised utmost restraint very soon even he won’t be able to stop this very angry mob and we ll see Country plunging into a civil unrest.”

Terming his opponents ‘imported leaders’, Chaudhry said that they will not be able to leave the country.

Another PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari said that the only solution to this civil unrest is elections. “These are just a few MPAs, imagine if the awam [public] goes out of control and takes the matter in their own hands… only solution to this civil unrest is elections. Let the people decide their own fate. Call elections!,” The News International quoted Bukhari as saying.

The PTI leaders’ remarks come as violence broke out in the Punjab Assembly that gathered for the election of the Chief Minister on Saturday. Chaos ensued in the Assembly after the PTI and PML-Q lawmakers threw “lotas (round vessel)” at Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari as he arrived to chair the session.

The ruling coalition’s lawmakers threw the plastic lotas at Mazari, while some of them dragged him by his hair and even thrashed him, following which, he was taken back to his chamber by the Assembly guards, reported the Dawn newspaper.

Meanwhile, things did not settle down as the protesting lawmakers broke the Speaker’s chair, microphone and a side table, and threw around various articles, including files, in the House. Following this, a heavy contingent of anti-riot police was called to control the situation.

However, when several private guards of PTI-backed PML-Q candidate Parvez Elahi (wearing Assembly force’s uniform), as well as plainclothesmen, entered the hall from the rear entrance, the opposition lawmakers reacted as they thrashed the guards and threw them out of the House, according to the media outlet.

The mayhem reportedly left Elahi injured. However, after the police and anti-riot force took positions inside the House, the Deputy Speaker initiated the Assembly proceedings, following which, PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz was elected as the Chief Minister, according to the media outlet.

Meanwhile, the newly-elected Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz has announced his plan to hold an inquiry into the Assembly brawl incident.

“We will also hold an inquiry into whatever happened in the Assembly today and action will be taken against those held responsible. The conspiracy was not against me but it was hatched to target democracy and the Constitution,” ARY News quoted him as saying while speaking on the floor after assuming power. (ANI)

Jahangirpuri

Heavy Security In Delhi Jahangirpuri After Communal Tension

Delhi Police deployed heavy security after stone-pelting incidents were reported from the Jahangirpuri area in the national capital on Saturday evening, during a ‘Shobha Yatra’ procession.

According to police clashes broke out between two communities during the procession and stones were pelted in the area. Some people, including policemen have been injured.

“The situation is under control. We have deployed additional force where the incident took place,” Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana told ANI.

The Police Commissioner said there was a special deployment of police in sensitive areas all across Delhi.

“Two policemen were injured in this clash …we will take strict action against culprits,” Asthana said.

Meanwhile, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has appealed for peace

“I appeal to everyone to maintain peace as the country can not progress without it. Central government has the responsibility to maintain peace in the national capital. Appeal to people to maintain peace,” Kejriwal said.

While Dependra Pathak, Special Commissioner of Police, Law & Order said, “The situation is under control. We are trying to create a peaceful environment by holding talks with peace committees and appeal to everyone to maintain peace.”

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the Delhi Commissioner of Police and Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) over the Jahangirpuri incident and asked them to maintain law and order, according to official sources. (ANI)

Hizbul Mujahideen Terrorists Arrested

Pandits Killings: Bitta Karate Court Hearing Adjourned

A sessions court here on Saturday postponed the hearing of the case against terrorist Farooq Ahmed Dar also known as Bitta Karate, accused of killing many Kashmiri Pandits during the 1990s. The court will next hear the case on May 10.

Nearly after 31 years of the massacre, the trial proceedings of the case began following the petition filed by the relatives of Satish Tikku, one of the first victims of terrorism in the Kashmir Valley.

The first hearing of the petition seeking reopening of the case was held on March 30, which was allegedly disrupted by Bitta Karate’s lawyer. Following this, the court adjourned the hearing till April 16.

The next hearing of the case was to be heard today. But due to the judge hearing the case being on leave it has been deferred till May 10.

Advocate Utsav Bains filed the application on behalf of the family of victim Satish Kumar Tickoo in Srinagar Sessions Court for status reports of all the FIRs registered against terrorist Bitta Karate.

Notably, an NGO working for the Kashmiri Pandits on March 24 had filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe into the killings in the Valley in 1989-90, during the height of militancy.

The curative petition by the NGO, Roots in Kashmir, was filed against a 2017 order of the top court, which had dismissed the organization’s petition for probe citing a long delay.

On July 24, 2017, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea filed by the NGO saying it is difficult to hold any probe and collect evidence on incidents that are more than 27 years old after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.

The curative petition sought direction from the apex court to decide the case afresh on merit by way of providing hearing opportunities to the parties.

It also said that the apex court “completely failed to appreciate that more than 700 Kashmiri Pandits were murdered during 1989-98 and FIRs were lodged in more than 200 cases, but not even a single FIR reached the stage of filing of Chargesheet or conviction.”

The petition filed in 2017 by the NGO had sought that separatists like Yasin Malik and Bitta Karate, named in the FIRs, be investigated and tried for the murders. (ANI)

Delhi Reports One Covid Death, 83 New Cases In 24 Hours

Delhi Reports 461 New Covid-19 Cases In Last 24 Hours

Delhi on Saturday witnessed another spurt in COVID-19 cases for the month as it reported 461 new infections and two deaths in the last 24 hours.

As per the Delhi health bulletin, the active caseload in the national capital now stands at 1,262 while the positivity rate increased to 5.33 per cent, the highest since January 31. The infection rate was at 6.20 per cent on 31 January.

A total of 269 COVID patients recovered from the disease taking the total number of recoveries since the onset of the pandemic in the city to 18,40,611.

During the last 24 hours, two people succumbed to the virus. The death toll due to the virus in the city stands at 2,6160.

As per the bulletin, Delhi recorded 18,68,033 positive cases of infections far. The cumulative positivity rate is 4.97 per cent.

There are currently 59 patients admitted in the hospitals in the national capital, with 30 being suspected to have COVID-19 and 29 being confirmed cases of the virus. 772 COVID-19 patients are currently in home isolation.

In the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination, 9,508 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the last 24 hours. Of these, 1,724 took the first dose and 2,534 took the second dose.

Meanwhile, India reported 975 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours with a daily positivity rate of 0.32 per cent, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

The weekly case positivity rate is 0.26 per cent.

The active caseload in the country stands at 11,366 which is 0.03 per cent of the total cases. (ANI)

Pak Troops Force Baloch Drivers To Walk Through Desert

Pakistani forces allegedly forced several drivers from the ethnic minority areas of Balochistan to abandon their vehicles and march through the desert to their homes in the Chagai district near the border with Afghanistan, local media reported.

According to reports, the Frontier Corps, one of Pakistan’s paramilitary forces, harassed and tortured the drivers before forcing them to leave their vehicles and march in the desert, leading to many of them dying of dehydration and starvation.

The reports emerge after violent protests were held in the Nokkundi and Dalbandin areas of the Chagai district against the killing of a driver allegedly by security forces after he tried to speed away despite being signalled to stop in the Panch Raik area near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Dawn reported.

Protestors expressed concerns about those left to fend for themselves and demanded that the authorities bring them back amid extremely hot weather.

“I with my few other friends travelled for six hours on foot and luckily found a vehicle in midway which brought us to Nokkundi. We were told by the security forces to leave the border area and go back,” Habib, one of the protesters, told Dawn.

One video that reportedly belongs to the area, depicts at least three people lying in the sands in the middle of a desert.

Notably, the Chagai district is home to the Chairman of the Pakistani Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani who belongs to the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP). The district is also known for hosting the Pakistani nuclear test sites.

“The billion-dollar Reko Diq and Saindak copper-gold projects are located in Chagai. Still, poor people are dying of starvation and thirst in Chagai. This is how Balochistan is,” Kiyya Baloch, a freelance journalist said in a tweet. (ANI)

‘Hanskhali Rape Case Doesn’t Bode Well For Bengal, Mamata’

Ashok Choudhary, a social activist working for forest people, points out the stark parallels between the Hanskhali and the Hathras rape cases

The brutal rape of a schoolgirl in Hanskhali village of Nadia district (West Bengal) has arrived as a big shock to the people of the region and state, even as stray incidents of violence have rocked the state. Significantly, in at least two of the major cases of violence, local Trinamool Congress leaders of the ruling government have been allegedly involved. These are obviously extremely disturbing signs for the government led by Mamata Banerjee who has won with a resounding mandate.

Indeed, it has been reported that the father of the child was compelled at gun-point to part with the body of his brutalized daughter. She was allegedly raped by a TMC leader’s son and his friend and bled to death.

Reports have emerged the family wasn’t allowed to touch the girl’s body. The accused set it on fire in front of the victim’s father and threatened him with dire consequences if he raised his voice or informed others.

My response about the Hanskhali rape and murder case is very straight. This seems to be a repetition of the 2020 Hathras rape and murder case of a Dalit girl in Uttar Pradesh. Such grueling incident in TMC-ruled West Bengal is a terribly bad sign. There was also an attempt to protect the rapists and murderers as the family of the killer is linked to the ruling party. Any such political protection has to be condemned strongly. Otherwise, it will open the gate for such brutal rapes and murders.

The Rapists and murderers are criminals and criminals have no politics except that of doing crime — organized and random. Undoubtedly, there is no option but to be deal with them with a strong hand. The Trinamool Congress government and leadership in Kolkata and the regions need to take it with utmost seriousness and without any prejudice, bias or vested interest.

ALSO READ: A Harsh Rape Law Is Only The Beginning

The Trinamool Congress is trying to become one of the main opposition parties at the national level. They are already under serious watch while pressure has been mounted from the central government in Delhi. Any reluctance in part of the leadership to deal with such happenings at the local level where Trinamool leaders are involved will, in fact, help the central government and provide an opportunity to create a more hostile situation for Trinamool both in West Bengal, and, in India.

Although the BJP leadership has proved to be a failure in maintaining law and order in most of the states where it rules, they are old masters in using this issue against the opposition government in various states. Hence, clearly, the Trinamool leadership, and, especially the chief minister, who is the only woman chief minister at present in India, must take decisive and corrective action against such cruel and criminal activities, so that such grotesque enactments of crime against women and children are not repeated again.

As told to Amit Sengupta

Kartik, Kriti Wrap Up ‘Shehzada’ Schedule

Actors Kriti Sanon and Kartik Aaryan have wrapped the Mauritius shoot schedule of their upcoming film ‘Shehzada’.

Taking to her Instagram handle, Kriti confirmed the same by sharing a group selfie with her team.

After wrapping up the shooting schedule in Mauritius, the duo will reportedly land tonight at Mumbai airport.

Directed by Rohit Dhawan, ‘Shehzada’ is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Allu Arvind, S Radha Krishna and Aman Gill.

‘Shehzada’, which is touted as an action-packed family musical film, will hit theatres on November 4, 2022. (ANI)

Pulling India Out Of Poverty Pit

‘Hungry India Prays for Rain’, a headline in The Times, London, deeply embarrassed me during my first trip out in the 197Os. The reality was not unknown. But it hit hard as it needed explaining to foreign friends who would wonder: India won a war in 1971, but how come its people remain hungry?

Half-a-century hence, India still prays for rain. Dependent on the monsoon cycle, it swings between droughts and floods, at times visited by both in some regions. Home to rivers, big and small, but divided into adversarial states, India has failed to share available water resources.

But India is no longer ‘hungry’. Two ‘revolutions’, ‘Green’ (food and farm), and ‘White’ (milk) have made all the difference. No reports of starvation death have come for many years. ‘Extreme’ poverty, it is now claimed, has reduced to less than one percent.

India is better-off in a world where over 735 million people live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.90 a day. But, extreme poverty isn’t just about economic hardship and lack of opportunity. It also leads to malnutrition, chronic illness, disease, violence and abuse. India’s record is mixed.

In the 2021 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 101st out of the 116 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2021 GHI scores. With a score of 27.5, India has a level of hunger that is still serious.

Poverty persists, no matter how high India flies with its burgeoning list of billionaires, its economy growing, its trade scaling top positions of many items, including in food et al. 

From a country that imported and even received free food (remember the American PL 480?), India’s food grain exports are impressive enough to make it a food-giver to the world. Wheat exports alone have risen from 200,000 tons to hit record 7.85 million tonnes in 2021-22. There is food security, even though the consumer does not always benefit as several factors determine retail prices.

No longer left to “God’s will” poverty remains a sensitive issue. India grappled with it even when colonized. Dadabhai Naoroji damned the British rule in his scathing book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, something Shashi Tharoor does today, embarrassing Britons – only slightly, if at all. Naoroji, who died in 1917, would have damned the British again had he witnessed the Great Bengal Famine of the 1940s, caused by just one man – Winston Churchill.

India could then blame the British, but felt responsible post-Independence to have what is called the “Great Indian Poverty Debate.” It remained a hotly contested topic in the statistical as well as the political realm. Garibi Hatao was the slogan on which Indira Gandhi won her parliamentary election in 1971.

The debate accelerated through the 1990s, post-liberalisation. The claim that India’s extreme poverty reduced from 36 per cent to 26 per cent of the population thanks to the economic reforms generated several academic studies.

In 2009, economist Suresh Tendulkar’s report furthered the debate by including expenses on healthcare and education as part of poverty determination. This report set ₹4,824 and ₹3,904 as the urban and rural monthly income levels for a family of five as the poverty baseline. It triggered one of the earliest loud discussions in the then-nascent Indian social media.

Narrating the evocative debate’s time-line, economist-diplomat Aashish Chandorkar quotes late journalist Anil Padmanabhan who wrote in the Mint newspaper in 2013 – “The business of fixing poverty runs into billions of dollars and there is obviously a lot at stake if poverty is no longer the country’s primary social and developmental challenge.”

The “great Indian debate” has been revived this month. Two different estimates of poverty and inequality were published by authors affiliated to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). The IMF one, co-authored by its Executive Director for India, Surjeet Bhalla, with Karan Bhasin and Arvind Virmani, places the population still suffering extreme poverty at 0.8 percent, while the one for WB says it is 1.4 percent.

The World Bank paper’s title is self-explanatory. “Poverty in India has declined over the last decade but not as much as previously thought,” Sutirtha Sinha Roy and Roy van der Weide argue in their paper. While the levels may vary, the conclusions on the trend in poverty reduction, although reached through the use of varying data and methodology, are not very different.

Both conclude that poverty reduction has slowed down in the last seven years of the present NDA government compared to the 10-year period of 2004-2014 of the UPA. While Bhalla reports 26 million people moving out of poverty every year during the UPA regime, this number is one third at 8.6 million for the NDA government. In terms of percentage point per annum (PPA) reduction in poverty, it is 2.5 PPA for the UPA declining to one fourth at 0.7 PPA for the current NDA.

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Both are being hotly contested on several counts. Most controversial, perhaps, is in IMF study that concludes that India eradicated extreme poverty even before the 2020-21 Corona-19 pandemic.

Those who disagree, argue that the economic growth had declined well before the pandemic, from 8 percent in 2016-17 to 3.6 percent in 2019-20. Unemployment had increased. Ten million people turned jobless migrants. Real wage growth declined. How could the poverty have declined at the bottom?

While the broad conclusion of a sharp slowdown in poverty reduction during the present NDA government compared to the UPA period may be valid, there are differences in the level and extent of poverty reduction claimed, with some studies actually showing a rise in poverty. The real issue is not just what happened to poverty and inequality but also what factors contributed to poverty reduction.

There appears to be a consensus that many of the initiatives during the UPA era, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREG) programme and the Food Security Act have contributed to improvement in the lives of the poor, pulling them out of poverty pit. Bhalla also agrees and documents the stellar role of the in-kind transfers through the subsidised food scheme under the Public Distribution System (PDS).

The expansion of the PDS during the pandemic certainly contributed to reducing the misery of the poor who suffered through a sharp slowdown of the economy and the subsequent disruption in economic activity during the pandemic. This calls for strengthening the social safety nets and expenditure on food and livelihood schemes given the challenge of economic recovery coupled with rising inflation.

The IMF study assumes that the ‘in-kind’ food grain transfers to the poor can be tabulated in monetary terms since those who have food in surplus can barter it or sell it. Is this really possible when economic conditions are adverse for a rural beneficiary?

Finally, one is tempted to make a political comment. Much of the poverty alleviation is attributed to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), which is currently in its fourth edition. Welcoming that with a hearty applause, one is tempted to recall rejection by the present rulers of past poverty alleviation welfare measures, named after one set of leaders, as ‘doles’ that denied the recipient ‘dignity’. Does the change of label now ‘dignify’ a ‘dole’?

The writer can be reached at mahendraved07@gmail.com