Vajpayee like Mahatma, Modi like Bose: RSS leader

NEW DELHI: RSS leader Indresh Kumar on Friday compared BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to Subhas Chandra Bose and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Mahatma Gandhi.

He said Modi and Vajpayee were "just the same" and followed "secularism full of nationalism".

"Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Modi are just the same... one is like Mahatma and the other is like Subhas Chandra Bose," Indresh Kumar said in an interview to CNN-IBN.

He said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was running the BJP campaign in Uttar Pradesh as the organisation wanted to ensure there is high voter turnout.

"Yes, we are managing the election campaign in UP to ensure there is 100 percent voting... we are working on the ground to ensure people make the right choice," he said.

The RSS leader clarified that senior BJP leader L K Advani was not opposed to Modi being made the prime ministerial candidate but was only unhappy about the timing of the announcement.

"Advani's opinion was not against Modi. His dispute was about the time when the decision must be taken, before the assembly election or after," he said.

He dubbed as "fools" those criticising the RSS and said the Sangh has never endorsed communal politics.

"Those who have this notion are foolish... the Sangh has never been for a communal society or politics. The Sangh is for nationalism, humanitarian causes," he asserted.

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Fresh violence kills 10 in Assam, Army called in

NEW DELHI: At least 10 more people were killed in fresh violence in Assam's Baksa district on Friday. The attack comes less than 24 hours after heavily armed NDFB (S) militants unleashed violence in two districts of the state killing 11 and injuring many others.

According to Times Now, indefinite curfew has been clamped in Baksa district and Army has also been called in to take control of the situation.

Earlier, a group of 20 to 25 NDFB-Songbijit militants, armed with AK-47 rifles, swooped down on three houses at Balapara-I village in Kokrajhar district in the early hours of Friday and fired indiscriminately, killing seven persons on the spot, the police said.

IGP L R Bishnoi told PTI earlier in the day that two children and four women of the minority community were among the seven persons who were gunned down.

The body of a three-year-old child, who was also killed in the attack, was recovered from the area later this morning, Bishnoi said, adding that two men were also seriously injured.

Family members of the victims said the insurgents attacked one house after another, firing indiscriminately creating panic in the area.

Just a few hours earlier, three persons of a family, including two women, were shot dead and an infant was seriously injured by NDFB-S militants in neighbouring Baksa district on Thursday night.

The militants carried out the crime after entering the house near Ananda Bazar area in Baksa district also within BTAD, the police said.

In the same district one Bipin Boro was shot at and seriously injured in his house by two suspected militants at Nizdefeli on Thursday, the police said. He was admitted to the Gauhati Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.

The attacks are suspected to be in retaliation to the ongoing anti-insurgency operation in the Bodoland region, where some NDFB militants have been killed recently.

(With PTI inputs)

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Activists bemoan absence of “active” Pirate Party in India

NEW DELHI: As the 16th Lok Sabha elections enter a decisive phase, social media continues to pay a vital part in mobilizing public opinion nationwide. But online activists and blogger bemoan the absence of "an active" Pirate Party in India which could have become a political agency for critical internet issues such as digital freedom and web censorship.

The concept of Pirate Party originated in Sweden and it gets its name from a Swedish NGO Piratbyran, the NGO behind file-sharing torrent website The Pirate Bay. Piratbyran is against intellectual property. In 2006, the Swedish Pirate Party contested on the plank of defending privacy rights and reforming copyright and patent laws. In the 2009 elections in Sweden, they got over seven per cent of the total votes. Pirate Party Australia, registered in 2013, also focuses on these issues in addition to internet censorship and digital rights. The Pirate Party UK contested its first election in 2010. Around 60 countries have Pirate Parties today, with a widespread popularity in Europe.

In 2012, Praveen, a techie-turned-activist from Pune tried to establish a "Pirate Party of India" with about five others. Borrowing from the global phenomenon of pirate parties, the political outfit was to focus on free knowledge, transparent government and digital freedoms.

Arimbrathodiyil says that while the talk around forming a party had been going on for about three to four years, lack of coordination among participants got the better of it. Today it is an online group of about 30 active members. "Some people were impatient to register while some of us wanted to build a base of supporters first," says the 30-year-old, who has been holding workshops on privacy, data security and the monopolization of the social networking industry in Kerala's colleges.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based research organization Center for Internet and Society, says that low internet penetration and a limited appeal of issues typically associated with the Pirate Party could have been the deal breakers in India. "In countries like Germany and Sweden, internet penetration is a lot higher than in India. Digital and online freedoms are still not a mainstream issue. Other areas like intellectual property rights and privacy are not yet developed policy areas in India," says Abraham. Internet penetration in India stood at 12 % last year. Sweden by comparison, stands at 94%.

Mumbai-based blogger and activist Vidyut Kale became active with the Indian Pirate Party last year; its members connected only by the Internet. "They weren't focused on mainstream politics per se, but more into issues like, say, free and open source software," recalls Kale, who says that those associated with the Pirate Party of India have not given up the idea completely. "It's still at the back of everyone's mind," says Kale, adding that in the face of increased online surveillance by governments, the pirate party agenda remains relevant.

Low awareness is still something they are trying to battle, Arimbrathodiyil says. "Most people still don't think of online freedoms as a right. There is still a lot of fear about the internet, in terms of data theft and other issues. There is still a long way to go," he says.

In the last two years, the debate on online freedoms and censorship has intensified. Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi's website "cartoons against corruption" was taken down in September 2012. In November that year, two Palghar college students were arrested for a Facebook post protesting the state-wide bandh that followed the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. A Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra was arrested for lampooning Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee online.

Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, formerly a software engineer, feels that the discourse on internet freedom has not reached the critical mass for it to become a mainstream movement. "The issues that the pirate parties address are sophisticated. There may not be space for a non-mainstream party, but there is space for these issues in the agendas of mainstream political parties today," says Chandrasekhar.

Both Kale and Chandrasekhar find resonances of the pirate party movement in the Aam Aadmi Party. Kale says she is trying to urge AAP through Twitter to adopt certain issues like privacy rights, which are integral to pirate parties across the world. "Both the parties were born out of a protest, have crowdsourced their manifestos and touched a common sentiment," says Kale. "AAP is the closest that comes to it (Pirate Party)," says Chandrasekhar. As for Arimbrathodiyil, he says that personally he supports AAP. "They too seem to believe in the idea of participative democracy, which is something the pirate party also endorses," he says.

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Gas pricing row: RIL moves Delhi HC for quashing of FIR

NEW DELHI: Terming the FIR by erstwhile AAP government on gas pricing as "motivated" and a "political" gimmick, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) today moved the Delhi high court seeking its quashing on the ground that the issue fell within the domain of the Centre and is well beyond the power of the state government.

A bench of Justice Manmohan has fixed the plea of RIL, which also challenges a 1993 notification according power to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Delhi administration, for hearing on May 20.

"The very act of registration of an FIR by the state government to inquire into the policy decision taken by the Union government is ultra-vires to the Constitution...and the respective field of their jurisdiction in the matters relating to the legislation and executive are clearly demarcated under the same.

"It is submitted that it does not permit encroachment by one authority upon the jurisdiction earmarked for another.... any attempt by the state to inquire into the affairs of the Union (both on its legality or alleged criminality) is thus against the basic tenets of federal structure of Indian Constitution," the plea said.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government had lodged an FIR naming petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily, Mukesh Ambani and others on gas pricing issue and had alleged that the Congress-led UPA government "favoured" RIL with an eye on 2014 general elections and BJP maintained "silence" hoping to gain corporate funding for the polls.

RIL, the Mukesh Ambani-led flagship company, in its plea, alleged the FIR was "motivated and malicious" and was part of the "political gimmicking" as the AAP, before and during the state election campaign, had made "false and frivolous" allegations against the firm.

"The entire exercise of filing the FIR by respondent no. 1 (Delhi government) is motivated and malicious and same is evident from the fact that before and during the campaigning for the election..., the erstwhile ruling political party (AAP) has been raising false and frivolous allegations, which now forms part of impugned FIR ... it is completely motivated political exercise," it said.

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Literature records but doesn’t reform: Gulzar

NEW DELHI: Literature records and reminds but doesn't reform, said acclaimed film director and lyricist Gulzar on Friday. He was speaking on the occasion of Doordarshan releasing the DVDs of Godan and Nirmala, two acclaimed novels by renowned Hindi writer Premchand, which were adapted for television by the director.

Gulzar, who will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in the capital on Saturday, said it is important to present literature on television without the normal song and dance routine as is done in feature films. "Doordarshan can help literature expand its reach," he said.

The 79-year-old film director, known for adapting literary works by a host of writers ranging from Saratchandra to Shakespeare, also highlighted the need to preserve regional literature through television. "We should have 500 hours of such films on every language in the country," he said. Making Nirmala and Godan, he said, were his own contribution to the idea.

The maker of Koshish, Achanak, Mausam, Namkeen and Ijaazat recalled travelling through the hinterland of Maharashtra in search of a village that could provide a realistic flavour for Godan, a novel set in early 20th century pastoral north India. He finally found a bunch of them on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border.

"It made me happy at one level. But it also made me sad to think that nearly 70 years after independence, some villages are untouched by development," he said.

The poet revealed how the meaning of Premchand's works evolved for him over the years. He spoke of the master storyteller's heart-wrenching tale, Idgah, where a small boy wants to buy a chimta (iron tongs) for his grandmother because her fingers often got burnt pulling rotis out of the fire. "I saw my mother's fingers getting burnt pulling rotis out of the tandoor," he said. Life was imitating art.

After he went to college, his interpretation of Premchand's works changed. The budding writer could see how Premchand's characters were located in a feudal society and how his works sought to address them. "When I became a filmmaker, I could again see how he had detailed rural India. Premchand knew how a lantern was lit, how a chulha's fire was doused," said Gulzar.

In a celluloid journey that began over 50 years ago, Gulzar said he was guided by many film personalities. He singled out masterclass filmmaker Bimal Roy, whom he assisted, as the person who really held his hand during the early part of his career. Gulzar's first film song, Mora gora ang le le, was for Roy's Bandini in 1956.

In reply to a question why he relies more on stories written by others to make a film, Gulzar first pointed out a few of his films, such as Maachis, were written by him. He then added, "Main bura to nahin likhta par main jaanta hoon mujhse behtar likhne wale bahut saare hain. (I am not a bad writer. But I am aware that there are many are better writers than me.")

Gulzar also explained why he had used the word chaddi (underwear) in the title song of The Jungle Book TV series. "That's the only thing Mowgli wears. The usage was apt," he said.

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India slips in the global rankings for freedom of the press

LONDON: India has slipped down the global rankings for freedom of the press, thanks to what The Annual Index of Media Freedom called "increased interference in content by media owners in the run-up to the 2014 elections".
Global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade with India ranked 78th and belonging to countries with "partially free media".
India's press freedom score declined by a point to 39 "reflecting an increased interference in content by media owners in the run-up to the 2014 elections".
The Index said the interference also saw "dismissal of key editorial staff in several instances" just before the elections started.

Of the 197 countries assessed during 2013, around 63 (32%) were rated free, with Sweden having the world's most independent press. Each country received a numerical score from 0 (the most free) to 100 (the least free) on the basis of combined scores from three subcategories: the legal environment, political environment and the economic environment. For each category, a lower number of points is allotted for a more free situation, while a higher number of points is allotted for a less free environment.
India's score stood at 39. In comparison, China's score stood at 84, Pakistan 64 and Sri Lanka 76.
The global decline of press freedom was driven in part by major regression in several Middle Eastern states, including Egypt, Libya, and Jordan; marked setbacks in Turkey, Ukraine, and a number of countries in East Africa; and deterioration in the relatively open media environment of the United States.
The share of the world's population with media rated "Free" remains at just 14%, or only one in seven people. Far larger shares live in "Not Free" (44%) or "Partly Free" (42%) media environments.
"We see declines in media freedom on a global level, driven by governments' efforts to control the message and punish the messenger," said Karin Karlekar, project director of the report. "In every region of the world last year, we found both governments and private actors attacking reporters, blocking their physical access to newsworthy events, censoring content, and ordering politically motivated firings of journalists".
"In 2013 we saw more cases of states targeting foreign reporters and media outlets," Karlekar added. "Russian and Chinese authorities declined to renew or threatened to withhold visas for prominent foreign correspondents, but the new Egyptian government went a step further by detaining a number of Al-Jazeera staff on charges of supporting terrorism."
The world's eight worst-rated countries remain Belarus, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Only 5% of the Asia Pacific region's population had access to free media in 2013. China, rated Not Free, continued to crack down on online speech, particularly on microblogs, and also ramped up pressure on foreign journalists. Press freedom deteriorated in Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and several Pacific Island states, including Nauru, which was downgraded to Partly Free.

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Over 350 passengers stranded in Jeddah after AI plane develops snag

NEW DELHI: Over 350 passengers, including IUML MP E T Mohammed Basheer, were stranded at Jeddah airport after a Boeing 747 of Air India suffered a technical problem on Wednesday. The airline dispatched two aircraft from Mumbai and Delhi to bring them back today.

The passengers of the Jeddah-Kozhikode flight AI-962 spent several hours at Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport before they were provided with accommodation by the airline at nearby hotels, an airline official said here.

They said two Airbus A-320 aircraft were flown from Delhi and Mumbai on Thursday to bring back the stranded passengers. A Boeing 747-400 of Air India can accommodate over 400 passengers, while a B 747-300 has 342 seats.

Due to the problem suspected in the hydraulic system of the aircraft, Air India rescheduled the departure of flights to Kozhikode and Hyderabad.
The stranded passengers included several elderly Umrah pilgrims besides women and children, according to reports from Jeddah.

They said one of the two aircraft sent on Thursday would return later tonight while the other would return Friday early morning.

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Now, UP CM Akhilesh calls Mayawati 'buaji'

AZAMGARH: Amid controversy over his father's remark against Mayawati, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday called the BSP chief "buaji" (paternal aunt) even as her party moved the Election Commission demanding a ban on Mulayam Singh Yadav over his comments.

"All those in BSP call her (Mayawati) 'behenji' irrespective of their age. But I call her buaji ", Yadav said while addressing an election rally here.

In a public meeting at Faizabad yesterday, SP chief Mulayam had said, " Ab ise srimati kahen ya kunwari beti, kya kahen behen kahen" (should I term her (Mayawati) Mrs, unmarried daughter or sister."

Mayawati had retorted, "He (Mulayam) has lost his mental balance due to fear of defeat in Lok Sabha elections. Such type of person in his family can term his grandson and granddaughter as 'Sriman and Srimati' (Mr and Mrs) in place of brothers and sisters."

Taking a dig at Narendra Modi's Gujarat model of development, Akhilesh said his model meant "model of dividing India".

Claiming that there was a "SP wave", Akhilesh said only his party could prevent communal forces from coming to power.

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Election Commission could extern Beni Prasad from UP

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has hinted at the possibility of externment of Union minister Beni Prasad Verma from Uttar Pradesh, in case he does not desist from repeated personal attacks and insulting remarks targeted mainly at Narendra Modi. In an order issued on Thursday, the poll panel condemned his remarks, made at Kanpur as well as Lucknow, alleging that Modi had, at the age of 20 years, absconded after committing a serious crime. The EC has censured him for the "misconduct".

"...the Commission...further records that in case of any more violation by him, hereafter, the Commission shall take strict view against him, which may include, but not restricted to, denial of permission to carry out on any campaign related activity by him," the EC warned in the order. Though the order did not specify what this action would be, a senior EC functionary told TOI that the poll panel would not hesitate to extern him from UP, thus making the state out of bounds for the Union minister until completion of the poll, if his persistent violation of the model code of conduct did not stop.

Verma has been issued a couple of EC notices for using intemperate language against Modi and the RSS. A notice was served to him on April 10 over an April 1 speech in Gonda during which he alleged that RSS had assassinated Mahatma Gandhi and that Modi was "the biggest gunda of the RSS". EC subsequently expressed displeasure over the remarks and warned him to be more careful in the future. However, in another speech delivered in Kanpur on April 20, the Union minister got even more personal, terming Modi an "absconder" who had committed a major crime at 20 years of age. A similar statement was also made by him in Lucknow on April 19.

Expressing "deep concern" at the repeated poll code violations, the EC in an order issued on Thursday warned that yet another violation would invite severe action against him, and may even go beyond the punishment meted out to repeat offenders like Azam Khan, Amit Shah and Giriraj Singh, all of who were barred from campaigning in the relevant states.

In the event of Verma being externed for another poll code violation, he will be first leader in this election to be debarred from entering a state.

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Chennai bomb blasts: Tamil Nadu govt refuses Centre's help

NEW DELHI: The Tamil Nadu government has refused to take any help offered by the Centre in the probe into the two explosions in a train at Chennai Central railway station and it appears that the state is not treating it as a terror attack "as of now".

The Centre had to abort its plans to send in forensic experts and investigators from NSG and NIA to Chennai in the wake of the blasts as the state government, whose chief minister J Jayalalithaa is strongly opposed to any interference from central agencies on the subject of law and order, refused to take any help from the Centre, saying its police was well equipped to handle the blasts' probe.

READ ALSO: TCS employee who lost her life was to get married soon

In a terse reply to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government merely gave few details of the incident that took place inside Bangalore-Guwahati Express train at the busy Chennai Central Railway station on Thursday.

The reply, which was sent in response to a request from the home ministry for a complete report on the incident, said the explosions took place at 07:05am in train number 12509 at platform number nine.

The two blasts took place in coach number S-4 and S-5 in which one woman died and 14 others were injured who were being treated at Rajiv Gandhi General Government Hospital.

The reply also said that a case had been registered by Tamil Nadu Police and the matter was handed over to CB-CID of the state. The case has been registered for murder, causing grievous injury, attempt to murder, theft after causing murder or injury, damage to railway property of IPC and three sections of Explosives Substance Act.

READ ALSO: TCS techie killed, ISI's role suspected

Union home ministry sources said the Tamil Nadu did not appear to be treating the explosion as a terror attack and were also silent about an offer for joint probe of state police and a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

"What to do when the state government is not treating it as a terror case as of now," a senior home ministry official said.

The home ministry officials still decided to send a team of forensic experts on Friday to ascertain the nature of the blasts as well as the triggering mechanism used to detonate the explosives.

A 24-year old woman techie was killed and 14 others injured when two bomb blasts rocked the Bangalore-Guwahati Express at the busy Central Railway station today, an act which was condemned by President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as Jayalalithaa.

The two low-intensity bombs that went off in quick succession in S4 and S5 coaches about ten minutes after the train chugged into the platform in the morning, triggered of chaotic scenes with panic stricken passengers running for safety.

The home ministry had earlier directed the National Investigation Agency, National Security Guard and forensic experts to get ready to go to Chennai. While the NIA team was supposed to go from Hyderabad, the NSG and forensic experts were being readied in New Delhi.

On record, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he has directed his officials to provide all assistance to the state government.

Union home secretary Anil Goswami also said that the central government was in regular touch with the Tamil Nadu government and was ready to provide it all possible help.

NSG's bomb data centre is mandated by to collect forensic evidence of all explosions in the country.

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