The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Gay film poses tolerance test

• The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Gay film poses tolerance test

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  • TAPAS CHAKRABORTY

  • The Internet posters show two half-naked young men locked in passionate embrace.

    Bollywood movie Dunno Y...Na Jaane Kyun is set to test tolerance in Indian society after Delhi High Court last year legalised adult, consensual gay sex.

    The film, which promises to be Bollywood’s boldest portrayal of a serious and explicitly sexual relationship between two men, is months away from release but the excited Internet chatter it has generated has provoked strong emotions, especially among religious leaders.

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Dialogue between Islam & oriental religions must for peace in South Asia | TwoCircles.net

• Dialogue between Islam & oriental religions must for peace in South Asia | TwoCircles.net

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  • By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
  • To ensure peaceful life in South Asia it is necessary that dialogues are initiated between Islam and oriental religions. For India to emerge strong global power, such dialogues are must, said scholars and leaders of different religions today in New Delhi while informing the media about the “International Dialogue Between Islam & Oriental Religions” going to be held here on February 20-21.

• • L-R: Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan (Editor, The Milli Gazette), Mujtaba Farooq (Secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind), Dr J K Jain (owner, Jain TV), Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani (Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-e Hind), Pandit NK Sharma (former advisor to the Prime Minister of India) and Sardar Mukhtar Singh Assal (Chairman, International Sikh Council)

  • He gave details about the program and said that besides religious leaders and scholars of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism from within India, leaders of these religions will also come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Japan.

    The program to be inaugurated by Vice President of India Hamid Ansari and presided over by All India Muslim Personal Law Board president Maulana Muhammad Rabey Hasani Nadwi will be held at Ansari Auditorium of Jamia Millia Islamia.

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Government’s stand sought on plea for resolving Ayodhya tangle

• Government’s stand sought on plea for resolving Ayodhya tangle

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  • The Supreme Court Friday sought the government’s stand on a plea for reviving a 1996 order of the Allahabad High Court to help Hindu pilgrims visit the make-shift Ram temple at Ayodhya, built at the site of the demolished Babri mosque.
    A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice Deepak Verma issued the notices to the central and the Utar Pradesh governments, seeking their stand within six weeks on a lawsuit by former union minister Subramanian Swamy, who also sought an early resolution of the Ayodhya dispute.

    Pursuing his lawsuit, filed early last year and pending since then in the apex court, Swamy pleaded to the court to allow Hindu pilgrims to have “darshan” of the idol of Lord Ram from close quarters.

  • “The devotees are not allowed to take even a pen” with them (for security reasons), said Swamy, adding “they cannot even perform archana (worship) and are allowed to witness the Ram Lala from a distance.”

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महाजाल पर सुरेश चिपलूनकर (Suresh Chiplunkar): क्या? वीर सावरकर को “भारत-रत्न”?? तू साम्प्रदायिक संघी है…… Bharat Ratna, Civil Awards of India

• महाजाल पर सुरेश चिपलूनकर (Suresh Chiplunkar): क्या? वीर सावरकर को “भारत-रत्न”?? तू साम्प्रदायिक संघी है…… Bharat Ratna, Civil Awards of India

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  • चूंकि गाँधी को तो “राष्ट्रपिता” का दर्जा मिला हुआ है, इसलिये इस नाम को छोड़ भी दें, तो अंधे को भी साफ़ दिखाई दे सकता है कि भारत रत्न सम्मान प्राप्त करने के लिये सिर्फ़ निस्वार्थ भाव से देश की सेवा करना जरूरी नहीं है, इसके लिये सबसे पहली शर्त है नेहरु-गाँधी परिवार की चमचागिरी, दूसरी शर्त है “सेकुलरिज़्म का लबादा” और तीसरी तो यह कि या तो वह कलाकार इतने ऊँचे स्तर का हो कि कोई भी समिति उसका विरोध कर
  • चूंकि गाँधी को तो “राष्ट्रपिता” का दर्जा मिला हुआ है, इसलिये इस नाम को छोड़ भी दें, तो अंधे को भी साफ़ दिखाई दे सकता है कि भारत रत्न सम्मान प्राप्त करने के लिये सिर्फ़ निस्वार्थ भाव से देश की सेवा करना जरूरी नहीं है, इसके लिये सबसे पहली शर्त है नेहरु-गाँधी परिवार की चमचागिरी, दूसरी शर्त है “सेकुलरिज़्म का लबादा” और तीसरी तो यह कि या तो वह कलाकार इतने ऊँचे स्तर का हो कि कोई भी समिति उसका विरोध कर ही न सके, जैसे कि लता मंगेशकर, रविशंकर या पण्डित भीमसेन जोशी।
  • आज़ादी के बाद सभी रियासतों को अपने बल, बुद्धि और चातुर्य के बल पर भारत संघ में मिलाने वाले सरदार वल्लभाई पटेल को भारत रत्न दिया गया 1991 में। इंदिरा गाँधी, मदर टेरेसा और एमजीआर के बहुत बाद। कारण सिर्फ़ एक – उनकी विचारधारा कभी भी गाँधी परिवार से मेल नहीं खाई, नेहरु की उन्होंने कई बार (चीन के साथ एकतरफ़ा मधुर सम्बन्धों तथा हज सबसिडी की) खुलकर आलोचना भी की।
  • संविधान के निर्माता के रूप में सबसे महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाने वाले अम्बेडकर को यह पुरस्कार मिला 1990 में, वह भी इसलिये कि तब तक देश में “दलित आंदोलन” एक मजबूत वोट बैंक का रूप ले चुका था, वरना तब भी नहीं मिलता, क्योंकि ये महानुभाव भी देश की वर्तमान परिस्थिति के लिये नेहरुवादी नीतियों को जिम्मेदार मानते थे, तथा देश में ब्राह्मणवाद फ़ैलाने के लिये कांग्रेस की आलोचना करते थे।
  • मौलाना आज़ाद ने खुद ही भारत रत्न लेने से इसलिये मना कर दिया क्योंकि उनके अनुसार सरकार में मौजूद प्रभावशाली लोगों तथा समिति के सदस्य होने के नाते यह उनका नैतिक अधिकार नहीं था, जबकि नेहरु ने 1955 में ही भारत रत्न “हथिया” लिया। उनकी बेटी ने भी इसी परम्परा को जारी रखा और 1971 में (पाकिस्तान के 90000 सैनिकों को मुफ़्त में छोड़ने और बकवास टाइप शिमला समझौता करने के बावजूद) खुद ही भारत रत्न ले लिया, और पायलटी करते-करते “उड़कर” प्रधानमंत्री बने, इनके बेटे को भी मौत के बाद सहानुभूति के चलते 1991 में फ़ोकट में ही (“जब बड़ा पेड़ गिरता है तो धरती हिलती ही है” जैसे बयान और शाहबानो मामले में वोटबैंक जुगाड़ू, ढीलाढाला और देशघाती रवैया अपनाने तथा अपनी मूर्खतापूर्ण विदेशनीति के चलते श्रीलंका में शान्ति सेना के नाम पर हजारों भारतीय सैनिक मरवाने के बावजूद) भारत रत्न दे दिया गया।
  • जिस तरह से “भड़ैती मीडिया” सोनिया मैडम के “त्याग और बलिदान” के किस्से गढ़ रहा है, जल्दी ही उन्हें भी भारत रत्न देने की नौबत आ जायेगी, पीछे-पीछे देश के “कथित युवा भविष्य” राहुल गाँधी हैं ही, एक उनके लिये भी…।
  • हिरण मारने वाले सैफ़ अली को वरिष्ठ अभिनेता धर्मेन्द्र और सनी देओल पर भी तरजीह दे दी गई (क्योंकि धर्मेन्द्र भाजपा सांसद रहे)।
    
    आश्चर्य तो इस साल घोषित सम्मानों की लिस्ट में अमेरिकी NRI होटल व्यवसायी चटवाल का नाम  देखकर भी हुआ है। जिस व्यक्ति पर स्टेट बैंक ऑफ़ इंडिया के करोड़ों रुपये के गबन और हेराफ़ेरी का मामला चल चुका हो, जो व्यक्ति एक बार गिरफ़्तार भी हो चुका हो, पता नहीं उसे किस आधार पर पद्म पुरस्कार के लायक समझा गया है (शायद अमेरिका के राष्ट्रपति चुनाव में अच्छा चन्दा दिया होगा, या मनमोहन-चिदम्बरम की उम्दा खातिरदारी की होगी इसने)।

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Marathas back with demand, ask for reservation in phases - dnaindia.com

• Marathas back with demand, ask for reservation in phases - dnaindia.com

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  • Ashutosh Shukla / DNA

  • The Marathas have reiterated their demand for reservation. The Maratha Arakshan Sangharsha Samiti (Mass), Maharashtra, an umbrella organisation of 15 Maratha bodies, has demanded reservation for Hindu Marathas in two phases. This was stated by Mass chairperson Suresh Patil while addressing the press after a meeting with home minister RR Patil on Wednesday.

    They want 25% reservation for Marathas in schools, colleges, and jobs in the first phase which they want implemented this year. In the second phase, they demand political reservation and reservation in promotions.

    “Marathas comprise approximately 35% of the total population in Maharashtra. Of these, 90-95% is socially and economically backward. We have asked the government for reservation,” said Patil.

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The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Saffron party goes green

• The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Saffron party goes green

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  • Kumar Uttam
  • BJP to set up eco-friendly camp for national council meet
  • His idea to hold the party’s national council meeting in tents raised many eyebrows within the BJP. Here comes another novel idea from BJP president Nitin Gadkari — an eco-friendly camp for the meeting venue.
    
    Gadkari, whose election as BJP president would be ratified in the meeting at Indore between February 17 and 19, had suggested this eco-friendly theme to the organsiers.
    
    Plastic would be completely banned at the meeting venue — named after former president Kushabhau Thackeray — and handmade products, recycled papers, jute bags and other eco-friendly articles would be used. Smoking would obviously be not allowed inside the meeting venue and the camp would have wireless Internet and telephone connectivity.
    
    “We are also making arrangements for bio-diesel and battery operated vehicles to ferry leaders from one point to the other at the meeting venue. Bicycles would also be made available to those who would prefer to work out a little bit,” Madhya Pradesh’s Commerce & Industries Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya told The Pioneer here on Wednesday.

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The legacy of Jyoti ‘candlelight’ Basu

• The legacy of Jyoti ‘candlelight’ Basu

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  • Ramdas Menon
•  
• • We who grew up as children in Jyoti’s Bengal, called him Jyoti ‘The Candlelight’ Basu. We do not remember using electric lights during the endless night which lasted 23 years. I say this because I lived there from my birth in 1965 to middle age in 1995, and endured 18 years of his misrule.
  • There was not a single day when we could sit or study or sleep in peace. I remember sleepless mornings and nights in the hot summers, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year — he merely sipped his scotch on the rocks in air conditioned comfort when we had 14-hour power cuts. Yes sir, he was a pucca sahib. When he was asked in the late Sixties why West Bengal was not investing more in the power sector, he famously replied “What shall we do with more power, eat it?” The great man thought that the hungry and the dispossessed whom he ruled would eat it. He went on to eat crow, but let’s move on.
  • Gokhale’s “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow” became Basu’s “What India does today, Bengal ain’t gonna do in my lifetime”.

     

  • The other thing I recall vividly is violence, the blood curdling violence his goons would unleash at the slightest pretext, in the hallowed tradition of Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot. I remember in 1982, 17 Anand Margis (including a nun) were battered to death by his goons in broad daylight.
  • And the best part was that this bhadralok managed to convey a sense of decency when he spoke in his quaint British-accented English about the rights of the working classes, and how his heart bled for them all.
  • The Nandigram incidents only highlighted this aspect of his murderous legacy, and poor old Buddhadeb carried the can for the murder and mayhem that followed. He was the man who said ‘Erom to hoye thake’ (these things keep happening) when a woman was gang raped in broad daylight (Bantala incident) by his goons.
  • While the Mulayams and the Lalus rigged the elections on election day, our barrister babu abhorred such crudities. He started the process five years in advance by tampering with the voters’ lists. There wasn’t anyone like T N Seshan in those days, so he could do whatever he liked. Hundreds of thousands of people suddenly found themselves struck off the rolls. The cadre systematically infiltrated every area of the establishment — the teaching fraternity in the primary schools, the colleges, the universities; the lower level judiciary; the panchayats; the lower rung government officers; and yes, the police. The entire government machinery was taken over by the apparatchiks. And so they went from strength to strength while the rest of India watched and congratulated the man who gave a new meaning to the word panchayati raj. And yet, people still say he was a gentleman. By his own admission, “I’m not a gentleman, I’m a communist”.

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The glory of Hampi - The glory of Hampi

• The glory of Hampi - The glory of Hampi

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  • This year’s Hampi Festival celebrates the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Tuluva Sri KrishnaDeva Raya, the famed emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire.

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