Agartala: Intellectuals, singers, writers and political activists staged a protest here on Sunday to denounce the killing of a Bangladeshi-American blog-writer in Dhaka last week
“We strongly condemn the killing,” said youth leader Amal Chakraborty, one of the organisers.
Avijit Roy (42), a bio-engineer working in the US, was hacked to death by two attackers wielding machetes in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on February 26, when he was leaving a book fair with his wife Rafida Ahmed Banna, who was also seriously wounded in the attack.
Religious radicals had been threatening Avijit for his active campaign against Islamist extremism and for improving secularism in Bangladesh.
IANS
Taking cue from a Delhi-based lawyer who has appealed with a city court against online sale of vibrators in the country, another lawyer from the city has come up with an appeal that even sale of teddy bears should be banned in India.
“At a time when the court is seriously considering stopping women of the country to have a right to pleasure, how can little girls be allowed to play with teddies? Kids like to hug their teddies, take them to bed. They are comforters for them that last long after they have left the mother’s lap,” advocate Myopia said.
“An adult woman who can access the internet and order a vibrator for pleasure… is a potential threat to the country’s already tumultuous gender balance. How can a woman be allowed to be independent in seeking pleasure? It is all wrong,” said Mardana Singh, chief of Rashtryia Andolan Of Purush Equality, in a rejoinder to the Teddy Bear case.
Upholding Mardana Singh’s re-joinder, advocate Myopia said, “Teddy bears are not even bears. To begin with they are not even Indian. This is a twisted method used by western parents to spoil girls and ingrain a sense of self-indulgence. Toys like teddy bears should be banned for girls all across India. Girls should rightfully only be allowed to play with kitchen sets.”
The two parallel cases lying with the city court will be heard consecutively later this month. So ladies, whether you want to buy a vibrator, a teddy bear or whatever else you think you should solely for comfort or fun, do it by March.
The Teddy Police is getting armed with arsenal.
NEW DELHI: Retail prices of leafy vegetables like spinach and other winter staples such as carrots, cauliflower and peas have shot up as much as 67 per cent in the national capital over the last five days due to unseasonal rains.
Retail prices of vegetables are expected to be under pressure for the next two days due to tight supplies as the WHOLESALEmarkets will remain closed for Holi on Friday, traders said.
However, there is no supply constraint for potato and onion, and their prices are stable, a senior Union agriculture ministry official said.
Los Angeles: Heavily pregnant reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian has posed nude for an online site, baring her baby bump.
In the pictures, the 35-year-old mother of two proudly shows off her famous curves in looks styled by Monica Rose, reported Us magazine.
One shot features the ‘Kourtney & Khloe Take the Hamptons’ star in a soaking wet, see-through white dress, revealing her blossoming baby bump.
Another photo shows the sultry brunette cradling her belly while draped in a satiny white robe. And in a third picture, she poses in nothing but a feathered bib.
“I had done a nude shoot when I was pregnant with Mason, really last minute just for myself, and I love it. To me, nudity is not something to be ashamed of,” she said about the shoot.
“I’m not embarrassed of my body. I’m at my best when I’m pregnant. It’s such an amazing feeling, the transformation that your body goes through. There’s something about that that’s so empowering and beautiful, and I just really embrace it,” she added.
The occasion of Holi is a colourful one. It signifies the end of evil, and the triumph of truth. It also signifies love between Radha and Krishna – the couple with eternal love.
Here are some messages that you can send to your loved ones this Holi.
May this Holi be the harbringer of love, colours and sweetness in your life.
Khaa key gujiya, pee key bhaang, laaga k thora thora sa rang, bajaa ke dholak aur mridang, khele holi hum tere sang. Holi Mubarak
Lagake thoda gulaal ka rang, Khushiya manao sab sang-sang, Gaana bajana dhol mridang, Holi manao khoob malang. Happy Holi.
If wishes come in rainbow colours then I would send the brightest one to say Happy Holi.
Bright colours, water balloons, tasty gujiyas and melodious songs are the ingredients of perfect Holi. Wish you a very happy and wonderful Holi.
May God gift you all the colours of life, colours of joy, colours of happiness, colours of friendship, colours of love and all other colours you want to paint in your life. Happy Holi!
Just like a red rose that fills the world with beauty & fragrance… You have made my life so beautiful by being in it. On Holi, the festival of colours & joy I want to say thank you for all the love & smiles you’ve brought to my life. Happy Holi.
May god gift you all the colours of life, colours of joy, colours of happiness, colours of friendship, colours of love n all other colours you want to paint in your life. Happy Holi.
When love is in the air, you know it is time to celebrate Holi!Happy Holi!
Holi is not only about colours and sweets. It reminds of the divine and eternal love of Krishna and Radha. May this Holi be filled with love and blessings from the divine. Happy Holi
May the colours of love, and the fragrance of gulaal fill you life with joy. Happy Holi.
Even though we can’t meet this Holi, here is a wish full of colours to fill you life with joy. Happy Holi.
Holi mein rang barsao, kuch phoolon ka, kuch pyaar ka. Sangeet mein sab doob jaao, yehi maza hai tyohaar ka. Happy Holi
Rango aur paar se bharpoor rahe aapki zindagi. Holi ki shubhkamnayein.
Dhol, thakake, rang aur pyaar. Mubarak ho aapko Holi ka tyohaar.
We wish all our readers of Real News of India a very HAPPY HOLI!!!!!
Play clean Holi
Perth: Not too impressed with Virat Kohli’s abusive behaviour towards a journalist recently, former Indian cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and V V S Laxman on Thursday called on the star batsman to resolve the row amicably with the concerned scribe.
Gavaskar and Laxman admitted that dealing with the media was never easy but they have never lost their cool in public even at the worst of times.
“I just try to see myself in front of the mirror and try to remove from my system all those which bother me and try to be cool under severe pressure. I wish I could be as cool as M S Dhoni or a Laxman. May be a Bjorn Borg (legendary tennis player), so cool under immense pressure,” Gavaskar told NDTV.
“Media plays an important role. All the stakeholders — the players, administrators, media, fans and then the sponsors, they should work together to take cricket forward. Having said that the media should report as they see, the facts and not what they have heard, not speculative stories,” he added.
Laxman said the best way to end the row would be for Kohli to apologise to the concerned journalist.
“I think that is the mutual way to lay the matter to rest. Kohli can go up to the concerned journalist and say that ‘I mistook you as some other journalist’. Then the matter can be done and dusted,” he said.
“I have never lost my cool except on one occasion and that incident is known to everybody. But that was within the four walls of the dressing room, never in public,” Laxman added.
West Indian legend Brian Lara also felt that Kohli and the media should move ahead.
“It (relationship with the media) is very tough, never easy. I had run-ins with the media. These things may happen but I think both the parties should move ahead for the good of the game and concentrate on the World Cup,” he said.
“I am a West Indian and from the perspective of our team, I hope it distracts the Indian team. Kohli may be either perturbed or get more determined and I hope it (the row) affects him,” Lara said in a lighter vein.
PTI
New Delhi: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who had recently drawn attention over his comments on AIB Knockout session, has now reportedly once again spoken about the issue. According to a leading daily, the actor has defended his previous statement by saying that although people who sign up for the AIB Roast are aware about the kind of insult which would be hurled at them, but here who didn’t even sign up for it were being targeted.
The actor in an interview with a daily said that sexist jokes were being said about a girl I know and adore, who doesn’t even know about all of this. Aamir further added that this act can be termed as ‘violent’. He said that senior actors such as Farida Jalal, Reema Lagoo were being targeted when they hadn’t even sign up for the Roast.
The 49-year-old actor had received criticism on social media platform after he opposed the kind of show, AIB presented.
AIB had filmmaker Karan Johar, actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh taking up the centerstage.
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and national executive member Mayank Gandhi has strongly objected to the way senior PAC leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were removed from the PAC.
In an aggressive blog, Gandhi said he decided to go by his conscious and break the National Executive diktat of not speaking to anyone outside about what transpired in Wednesday’s meeting.
Describing himself as a disciplined soldier of the party, Mayank Gandhi said that the removal of both Yadav and Bhushan from the PAC went against the volunteer spirit of the AAP, and was downright dishonest in both thinking as well as in action.
“My presence in the National Executive is only as a representative of the volunteers. And I would be dishonest to accept the gag order. The volunteers cannot be removed from the equation; they are the source of the party. Rather than get information from selective leaks and stray statements, I have decided to give some factual details of the meeting in the public domain,” Gandhi said in his blog.
He said that he was warned about disciplinary action being taken against him if he revealed anything about Wednesday’s national executive meeting.
He said, “My first allegiance is to the higher truth.”
Gandhi said that during the Delhi campaign, Prashant Bhushan had threatened multiple times that he will hold press conference against the party, because of his concerns on candidate selection, but the threat was staved off till the elections.
“It was alleged that Yogendra Yadav was conspiring against Arvind and some evidences were produced. There were also operational irreconcilable differences and trust deficit between AK, PB and YY,” he added.
He confirmed that Kejriwal had said that he would not be able to work as convenor as long as both Bhushan and Yadav were part of the PAC.
He said that Yadav had said that he understood that Kejriwal did not want them in PAC, and had suggested that while both should not be singled out, two formulas could be considered to resolve existing differences.
That the PAC be reconstituted and new PAC members be elected through voting. PB and YY will not put their candidature. That PAC continues to function in the present form and YY and PB would not attend any of the meetings.
Gandhi said that Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others conferred with the Delhi team of Ashish Khetan, Asutosh, Dilip Pandey and others, and they proposed a resolution that Yadav and Bhushan be removed from the PAC.
This, Gandhi said, was seconded by Sanjay Singh.
Gandhi said that he abstained from the voting process citing two contrary reasons
1. Arvind needs a smooth working in the PAC. So, I agreed that PB and YY may be out of PAC and take some alternate important roles.
2. I was taken aback by the resolution of removing them publicly, especially as they themselves were willing to leave. Also, this decision to sack them was against the overwhelming sentiments of volunteers from all over the world.
“So, while I agreed that they can step down from the PAC, the manner and intention behind the resolution was not acceptable. Hence, the decision to abstain,” Gandhi said.
“This is not a revolt, nor is this some publicity ploy. I will not go to the press. There may be some repercussions overt and covert against me. So be it,” added Gandhi.
ANI
United Nations: The remarks by one of the Delhi gang-rape convict blaming the victim for the assault are “unspeakable”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson has said, stressing the need for men to get involved in halting violence against women.
Ban’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric refused to further comment on the remarks made by Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped by six men on December 16, 2012.
“I’m not going to comment on the unspeakable comments that were made by the person accused of raping this girl, but I think the Secretary-General has spoken very clearly on the need to halt violence against women and on the need for men to get involved in halting violence against women and decrying it loud and clear every time it occurs,” Dujarric told reporters.
In an interview for a BBC documentary on the rape of the girl, Singh appeared unrepentant for the abhorrent crime.
Amid wide public outrage over Singh’s controversial remarks, the Indian government has banned the documentary on the 2012 gang rape ‘India’s Daughter’.
The government has secured a court injunction to stop the airing of the documentary across all media platforms in India.
When asked to comment on the Indian government’s decision to not air the documentary and freedom of the press, Dujarric refused to make any comments.
“I’m not going to get into it. Our position on freedom of the press is clear. Some countries have different rules regarding the viewing of evidence during judicial proceedings. I’m not aware of the full details of it, so I’ll leave it at that,” he said yesterday.
PTI
New Delhi: A controversial BBC documentary featuring one of the December 16, 2012 gang-rape convicts has been uploaded on video sharing website YouTube by an individual.
However, the BBC site says “BBC iPlayer TV programmes are available to play in the UK only”.
The Home Ministry on Wednesday said orders were obtained from court to restrain the broadcast of the documentary.
The documentary “India’s daughter” by British film-maker Leslee Udwin has kicked up a storm over the interview of one of the six men who raped the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist on December 16, 2012 on board a moving bus in Delhi. She later died in a Singapore hospital where she had been airlifted for specialised treatment.
IANS
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