News18.com Daybreak : Karnataka Campaign Peaks, Five Killed in Kashmir Encounter & Other Stories You May Have Missed
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Out of the 2,560 candidates in the Karnataka elections fray, 391 have self-declared criminal cases against them while 254 of them have “serious criminal cases” in their names, shows a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The ADR report says, among all major parties contesting the elections, BJP has the most number of candidates with criminal cases, followed by Congress and JD(S).
Shabrin is the youngest candidate contesting this year’s election in Karnataka, if we go by affidavits filed by the candidates. She is one of the thirteen candidates contesting from the constituency, which will also see Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy trying his luck from the same. The affidavit says she’s 20 years old.
Days after a killer dust and thunderstorm ravaged several states in north and eastern India, leaving a trail of destruction, including 124 dead, the weather department on Sunday issued another warning alerting several states of possible storms in the next 48 hours.
While asserting that a 20-year-old Kerala woman, whose marriage had been annulled, could choose whom she wanted to live with, the Supreme Court said that an adult couple has a right to live together without marriage. The top court held that live-in relationships were now even recognized by the Legislature and they had found a place under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
"I am sorry if I have hurt you,” Mohammed Rafi Bhat had told his father before he was gunned down in an encounter with security forces at Shopian in South Kashmir on Sunday. It was the first call of the day that Fayaz Ahmed Bhat received from his sociologist son — and the last ever.
Rafi Bhat, an assistant professor at Kashmir University, was one among five terrorists killed in Shopian encounter. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah used him as an example to say that providing jobs and ensuring development is not the solution that will end "violence and alienation" in the state. Rafi Bhat, a 33-year-old professor on contract with the Kashmir University's Sociology department, had left the varsity premises on Friday and had been missing since then. Reports had suggested he had joined the terror group, but his father had repeatedly told the police Rafi would not pick up arms.
As tension grips Aligarh Muslim University over Jinnah portrait, former students of the varsity say that at the time it was installed, “circumstances were different” and vote bank politics was not a part of the university. Ninety-four-year-old Riaz-Ur-Sherwani, who was 12-years-old when Jinnah was accorded life membership of AMUSU in 1938, says that it was a “personal affair” of the students, and it still is. Sherwani is known to vehemently oppose Jinnah and his policies, however, he says that when the portrait was put up, the “circumstances of the country were different” and no outsider can dictate what is to be hung in the university hall.
Fatima (name changed) spends her nights gazing at the skies and thinking if she can ever afford to return to Kathua after six months, where bitter memories of her minor daughter’s brutal death and a hostile neighbourhood awaits her. Fatima feels betrayed and emotionally broken over the events that followed the rape and murder of her 8-year-old daughter by people who had been her neighbours for years in Rasana village of Kathua district. The apex court will hear the Kathua rape-murder case today in the backdrop of multiple pleas being filed both by families of the victim and the accused. Fatima wants the case to be heard in a fast track court and accused hanged. “If they are set free, all four of us — me, my husband and two other children — would be shot dead,” she said.
Vandals on late Friday morning defaced the door of the chapel inside Delhi University’s prestigious St Stephen’s College with a pro-Hindutva slogan that read, “Mandir yahin banega” (The temple will be constructed here). The cross outside the chapel was also defaced.
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Over 50 winners boycotted the National Awards this year after learning that President Ram Nath Kovind will be presenting awards only in 11 categories while the rest of the winners will receive their trophies from I&B Minister Smriti Irani, and MoS Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Academy Awards, like most award shows, also happens to begin with the technical awards saving the 'big' awards like ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Director’ and the ‘Best Picture’ for the last. On most occasions, the Academy picks out the presenter of an award based on the 'importance' of the award. In fact, it is not just the Academy, closer home, pick any award show be it the Filmfare Awards, Stardust Awards or IFFA, they all follow the same pattern. Unfortunately, the presenters for technical awards in these shows are mostly obscure B-grade actors/actresses or worst still, sponsors of these shows. It's a sad truth that not just in India, but across the world, film technicians always get a raw deal when it comes to getting recognition for their work. The red carpets are rolled out for stars and as they pose and smile and hundreds of cameras zoom in and focus on them, the technicians are reduced to dressed-up unknown faces in the background.
It's official: Narendra Modi is the most followed political leader on social media (97 million) and has twice as many Facebook fans as Donald Trump. Conventional social media is thus a readymade platform for the BJP's 2019 electoral campaign. But the cutting edge of voter outreach this time could well be the controversial NaMo app. In Karnataka, conventional wisdom says the Congress has a definite edge, but will the Wizard of Apps pull a rabbit out of his pagdi?