"Hated and mocked in much of the world, the Nazi leader has developed a strange following among schoolchildren and readers of Mein Kampf in India... My wife teaches French to tenth-grade students at a private school here in Mumbai. During one recent class, she asked these mostly upper-middle-class kids to complete the sentence “J'admire …” with the name of the historical figure they most admired. To say she was disturbed by the results would be to understate her reaction.
"...But in the heat and dust of accusatory politics and competitive journalism, there is one shady deal involving a precious natural resource worth billions of dollars that has escaped public scrutiny. The deal involves the Narendra Modi government and a dubious company incorporated in the Caribbean island of Barbados. In perhaps what would qualify as one of the most scandalous contracts ever signed, the Modi regime gave away a 10 percent participating stake in an expansive gas field it had won in a bidding process to a company named GeoGlobal Resources that existed only on paper.
"A seemingly harmless post on Facebook questioning Mumbai shutdown after the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has landed two girls in trouble. The Palghar police in neighbouring Thane on Sunday arrested Shaheen Dhada and her friend Renu charging them with hurting religious sentiments, apparently under pressure from Shiv Sainiks. The police action has evoked widespread outrage. The girls were also charged under the IT Act.
'When Bal Thackeray, a one-time cartoonist turned Hindu fundamentalist leader of India, died on Saturday, the entire city of Mumbai came to a standstill. Over a million people came out to watch the procession, thousands of police, including the Rapid Action Force, were deployed to maintain calm, and commercial businesses chose to shut down. So who was Bal Thackeray and how did his death rally millions to his procession and shut down one of the biggest financial capitals in Asia?
"BJP MP Ram Jethmalani on Wednesday rejected the party's clean chit to Nitin Gadkari over the alleged dodgy business practices of a group of companies linked to him, reinforcing doubts that the party chief, already diminished, may not be able to limp into a second term after his current tenure ends in December. "It is a betrayal of the people," Jethmalani said rejecting the testimonial of innocence that Gadkari secured from the party on the basis of the findings of S Gurumurthy, a chartered accountant-turned-Hindutva ideologue..."
"On 4th September afternoon at Dr. Shivaram Karanth Government First Grade College, Bellare, in Sullia Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, a group of students hurled abusive words against Muslim girls, who were sitting in their classrooms, and assaulted one of them in college campus. The victim Sajida (name changed), claimed a group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists dragged her in front of other students, thrashed and pushed her to the ground.
"A high profile institute-cum-think tank in the heart of New Delhi's diplomatic area in Chanakyapuri.., a clutch of former intelligence officials running the place, and a group of well-known RSS swayamsewaks — they are the silent force behind the recent anti-corruption movements in the country, especially the one led by Baba Ramdev. In fact, it was at the Vivekananda International Foundation last year that a decision was taken to form an anti-corruption front under Baba Ramdev — this was just days before Anna Hazare sat on his first fast.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice PB Sawant, who conducted an inquiry into the 2002 Gujarat riots and found Chief Minister Narendra Modi guilty, has said that he does not agree with the report on the case submitted recently by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). [Transcript]
Anchor: The SIT panel's conclusion has come in for sharp criticism, even from Justice Sawant - remember he was part of an enquiry in 2002 where they found Chief Minister Narendra Modi guilty and also ordered his prosecution.
"..For a while, there has been a buzz in legal circles that the SIT chief and former CBI director R K Raghavan, who has given a report which is very favourable for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the Zakia Jafri case, was being pampered by the state government. While he had a salary of Rs 1.5 lakh and was entitled to executive-class travel by air, there were murmurs about personal trips at Gujarat government expense to London.
"A beef-eating festival at a university in the Indian city of Hyderabad has led to clashes between rival sets of Hindu students, police say. They say that Hindus who regard cows as sacred fought with low caste Dalit groups who organised the event. About 1,500 people were fed beef biriyani as part of the festival late on Sunday evening. Dalit groups want beef on the campus hostel menu. Right wing Hindu groups say eating beef is not Hindu practice. Last year's event at Osmania University also ended in violence.
