"The BJP's battle for Bihar just got murkier with the party's own lawmaker and former Home Secretary RK Singh alleging that money has changed hands for tickets. "They are giving tickets to criminals. How will they give a clean government? This is injustice to the people of Bihar. Some people have sold tickets to criminals. Many BJP workers are angry over seat distribution," Mr Singh said in Patna today. "When the tickets were distributed, I called Sushil Kumar Modi, but he did not receive my call," he added.
"Almost a year after a complaint of rape was filed against Raghaveshwara Bharathi Swami of Sri Ramachandrapura Mutt, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday said it will file the chargesheet before the magistrate court in Bengaluru on Saturday. He was recently arrested, only to be released as he had already been granted anticipatory bail. CID DGP Kishore Chandra said the 680-page chargesheet is based on the complaint filed on August 28, 2014, by the daughter of the victim, who is a Rama Katha singer.
"It has made little difference to the lives of the state’s rationalists, writers and academics that one of their own heads the government in Karnataka. A self-avowed atheist, chief minister Siddaramaiah appears powerless as rightwing extremists publicly threaten and harass the state’s intellectuals. Siddaramaiah’s helplessness can judged from a recent public statement by his media advisor Dinesh Amin Mattu.
'An article that appeared in thehoot.org in November 2013 has suddenly been attracting considerable attention. Reason: the article was about how Peter and Indrani Mukerjea sold their stake in the INX/NewsX media group of companies and how India's biggest private corporate entity, Reliance Industries Limited, headed by the country's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, acquired control over these firms for a period of time in a convoluted manner.
"On Friday, on the 99th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, Sangh Parivar leaders will predictably lavish praise on him for creating the concept of Integral Humanism. They will hail him for his stellar contribution to the Indian intellectual tradition, and blame the lack of recognition for him on the dominance of Nehruvian ideas.
'In a first, the Gujarat police booked a Patidar leader and ceramic trader, under sedition charges in Morbi district of Saurashtra region for allegedly inciting public and using offensive language against Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah. The accused is said to be a close associate of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel.
"Two Asaram Bapu devotees have confessed that they were involved in two murders (out of three) and all the six assaults made on witnesses in rape cases lodged against their guru and his son across India. Basav Raju (28) and his wife Sejal Prajapati (26) also confessed that they planned fresh attacks on three witnesses who had survived earlier assaults..."
"Six years after that infamous battering of a group of girls inside a Mangaluru pub, cultural vigilantism is no more the preserve of a few lumpens. The inclination appears to have seeped into the very fabric of Karnataka's coastal society, with even young college students — often its victims — now donning the mantle of the moral police. A boy and a girl belonging to different religious communities were suspended by the government PU College in Sullia, around 70 km from Mangaluru, last month after sparking protests on campus. Their fault: they were seen together at a cyber cafe.
"A student leader in Kolar has been receiving threats from pro-Hindutva groups. K. Vasudeva Reddy, a law student and district unit president of Students’ Federation of India (SFI), received a call and the caller threatened that he (Mr. Reddy) will face “death on the streets” if he did not stop speaking against religion and god. The recording of the conversation between Reddy and the caller, who identified himself as Siddu, a supporter of pro-Hindutva outfits, was widely circulated on WhatsApp. “You are aware what fate (M.M.) Kalburgi has faced.
'Amid the murder of Karnataka rationalist Professor M. M. Kalburgi last month, the earlier death of anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar in Maharashtra in 2013 and sundry death threats meted out to journalists, an alarming trend can be discerned: those who attack Hindutva groups and their ideas can end up as targets of their hate campaigns and death threats. The even earlier death, in 2012, of journalist Linganna Satyampet in Karnataka is still shrouded in mystery.
