Pohela Boishakh – Bengali New Year: The Nabo Barsho of Bengal and Bohaag Bihu (Assam) is celebrated with great deal of enthusiasm and energy during the mid of April. This is the day of cultural programs, shopping, prayers and also considered as auspicious time for marriages. Pohela Boishakh celebrated by tribal people in hilly areas of Tripura and also in cities of other countries.

The hilly district of Darjeeling was filled with activity. People could be seen in their traditional attires dancing through the streets. In Assam Aflong, it was very special as Rewati Chetri went through the top ten finalist. The Grorkha community of Haflong Assam are very proud of her. In her Facebook Rewati has sent Greetings to all the Gorkhali community. Acccording to Gorkhali Calendar it enters Bikram Sambat 2072.

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The Delhi High Court today said it will not grant bail for the time being to two of the three convicts serving life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which five members of a family were killed.

A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta said it will first hear arguments on their appeals against their conviction before passing any order on suspension of sentence.

“We have to deal with the appeals related to death of five persons here, so we need to go through the evidence throughly, we will not give bail today,” it said.

The court’s observation came while hearing the bail pleas of convicts Girdhari Lal and ex-councillor Balwan Khokar who have also challenged their conviction and award of life sentence by the trial court in May last year.

The court also noted that the bail plea of co-convict Balwan Khokar, who was also awarded life term in the case, has already been dismissed by it and hence, it will not grant the relief at this stage.

It, however, said that two other convicts, ex-MLA Mahinder Yadav and Kishan Khokkar, who were awarded three years jail term in milder penal provisions, will remain out.

Meanwhile, the court asked the prosecution to provide the copies of testimonies of prosecution witnesses, including that of complainant Jagdish Kaur. The trial court has relied upon them while convicting the accused.

It also directed the prosecution to provide the copy of the affidavit filed by Kaur before the Rangnath Misra Commission within two days.

The court said it will hear the bail pleas on October 10.

Besides Girdhari Lal, the trial court had also awarded life term to two others, Balwan Khokar and retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, in the case.

Senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted in the case.

Girdhari Lal and Balwan Khokar, in their appeals, “The trial court has been pleased to reach the conclusion that the statement of prosecution witness (PW-1) Jagdish Kaur is untrustworthy, unreliable, contradictory and full of improvements while deciding the involvement of co-accused Sajjan Kumar.

“But while deciding their case and others (Gridhari Lal, Balwan Khokar and Bhagmal), the trial court took a different view and wrongly appreciated the statement of PW-1 to be credible and trustworthy against them.”

The case, in which the five persons were held guilty, relates to the killing of five Sikhs – Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh – by a mob in Raj Nagar area in Delhi Cantonment. They were members of the same family.

An inter-ministerial committee, headed by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, has been set up by the government to look at the possibility of declassification of all files related to death or disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose nearly 70 years back.

The first meeting of panel, which consists of representatives of the Ministries of Home and External Affairs, RAW, and Intelligence Bureau, is likely to take place tomorrow, official sources said on Wednesday.

The NDA government’s move came amidst growing demands for declassification of nearly 90 files which are yet to be made public. Interestingly, grandnephew of Bose, Surya Kumar Bose, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin on Tuesday and requested him to declassify all files related to events since his death or disappearance in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

The issue of Netaji related files came to the fore last week when a controversy broke out following reports that his family was kept under surveillance by the Intelligence Bureau for 20 years, much of it during the tenure of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sources said among nearly 90 classified files relating to Bose, around 27 are with the Ministry of External Affairs while rest with the Prime Minister’s Office.

There is no file related to the freedom fighter with the Home Ministry as all have already been declassified and handed over to the National Archives.

The committee will examine whether the declassification of the files will in anyway hamper India’s relations with some foreign countries and also review certain provisions of the Official Secret Act, sources said.

The founder of Satyam ComputerBSE 0.00 % Services, Ramalinga Raju, who was found guilty in an accounting fraud case and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment last week, has filed an appeal to challenge the court’s verdict.

Uma Maheshwar Rao, a lawyer for Raju, said the appeal was filed in a sessions court to “question the very finding of the case,” but did not give other details.

On Thursday, a court in Hyderabad pronounced Raju, a management graduate from Ohio University who founded Satyam in 1987, guilty of forging documents and falsifying accounts in what was among country’s biggest corporate frauds.

Raju admitted in January 2009 in a five-page letter that Satyam’s profits had been overstated for years and assets falsified in a fraud allegedly worth over $1.5 billion, bringing the company to the brink of collapse.

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Mumbai: As Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is set to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Hannover on Monday, he has several priorities in focus, including setting up a manufacture facility for German auto giant Volkswagen and attracting Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab to invest in the state.

Besides, Fadnavis will also meet top officials of bus manufacturing company VOLVO and Swedish engineering group Sandvik for expanding their base in Maharashtra.

The Hannover Trade Fair in Germany, to be held between April 13 and 17, will be jointly opened by Modi along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

India is partner country at Hannover Mess 2015, the world’s largest industrial trade fair.

“Till now, companies like Volkswagen used to be in a semi-knocked down state where they import every part of the car and assemble it in the country to save customs duty. This does not create value addition, nor does it bring in investments for us.

“Thus, we have asked Volkswagen to manufacture cars here. Maharashtra will be the place in India where Volkswagen will manufacture its car engines,” Praveen Pardeshi, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister told PTI.

Pardeshi said another important aspect of Fadnavis’s trip will be to pursue Volkswagen to set up a network of suppliers of automobile parts in India.

“We want all the sub-parts and ancillaries of the car to be made in Indian units,” he said.

Explaining the current working of Volkswagen, Pardeshi said the company is currently assembling around 1,30,000 vehicles a year and gives employment to about 3,500 people.

“They are now planning to expand by around Rs 38 billion, making it the largest German investment in the country. While this will also generate direct employment, companies making ancillary units which supply them parts, will thus enable further employment,” he said.

According to him, this trip is aimed at mobilising additional Rs 1,500 crore in the next 3-5 years.

He said aerospace and defence company Saab is being pursued to collaborate with Indian industries like Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Godrej Aerospace, TATAs, so that they can invest in Nagpur, Mumbai and Nashik.

“Saab is a big manufacturer of aero defence. They have collaborations in India. They produce aeronautics, dynamic electronic defence systems and security systems,” Pardeshi said.

“They have not yet invested in India. We are asking them to combine with Indian industries like L&T, Godrej Aerospace, TATAs, so that they can invest in Nagpur, Mumbai and Nashik. These are the places we have suggested to them but no decision has been made as yet,” he added.

Pardeshi claimed that Saab is likely to be the first major defence foreign collaboration after the opening of defence and aerospace sector in India.

“Along with Saab, we will manufacture advanced defence components in Maharashtra. We can then export aeronautics from here. Till now we have only been importing and not manufacturing. This will lead to import substitution,” he said.

Fadnavis will also be meeting top executives of Engineering company Bosch and visit retail giant IKEA.

“While IKEA sells products here, it does not source products from India. Our aim is that the company should not just open retail stores here, but source furniture and other products in India and thereby generate employment,” Pardeshi said, adding the Continental group is also looking forward to further investment in the state.

“We are also meeting VOLVO officials. The company is already based in Chennai and we now too are pursuing them. So there is a chance they will further expand their manufacturing in Maharashtra,” he said.

After the CM’s visit, the government may also see Swedish engineering group Sandvik expand its base in Maharashtra, he added.
PTI

Aurangabad (Mah): The city crime branch on Monday seized foreign liquor worth about Rs 10 lakhs stocked allegedly for distribution during municipal poll campaigning here, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided a godown of a bar in MIDC Waluj area in the wee hours today.

They seized the liquor stocked for being distributed during the campaigning for Aurangabad Municipal Corporation elections, scheduled to be held later this month, Deputy Commissioner of Police Sandeep Aatole said.

The owner of the bar, Rajendra Salampure, has been arrested and a case was registered against him, police Inspector Avinash Aghav said.

The CPI(M) wants a broad-based opposition unity to check the aggressive Hindutva campaign with the “patronage” of the BJP-led government and to oppose its ‘neo-liberal’ economic agenda.

Tipped to be the front-runner for the party’s top post of General Secretary at the six-day Congress beginning tomorrow in Vishakhapatnam, senior leader Sitaram Yechury is cautious about a truck with Congress at this stage. But he welcomes the coming together of the Janata Parivar and its implications on an anti-government front in Parliament.

“Broad-based opposition unity is needed to prevent the ‘Trimurti’ of neo-liberal reforms, aggressive Hindutva and the authoritarian trend of the BJP-led government from becoming a ‘Trishul’ to damage common man’s interests and the country’s secular, democratic fabric,” the 62-year-old leader said in an interview to PTI.

The CPI(M), whose political importance has vastly reduced after the last year’s Lok Sabha elections, is expected to work out the strategy and tactical line on the opposition unity at its 21st Party Congress, the first after it lost power in its erstwhile bastion of West Bengal.

To questions on the decline of the party, Yechury said, “The basic question before the party is to strengthen itself by looking at the objective reality.

“Ten years ago, the party was deciding who will form government at the Centre and now we have been reduced to single digits in both Houses of Parliament. We have lost in West Bengal and Kerala and our political presence in these and other state assemblies have gone down,” he said.

Outlining the challenges before it and the national politics, Yechury said, “The biggest challenge is to stop this ‘Trimurti’ from becoming a ‘Trishul’ that can rupture the people’s livelihood and the foundations of the secular, democratic Indian republic.”

Yechury said the first challenge was to counter the Narendra Modi government’s moves to pursue the ‘neo-liberal’ agenda “more vigorously than the Manmohan Singh regime, posing more burdens on the common man.”

The second challenge was that the government was “providing state patronage for aggressive pursuit of the Hindutva agenda”, through campaigns like ‘ghar wapasi’, ‘love jihad’, replacing history with mythology which were being accompanied by attacks on religious minorities, he said.

Parliamentary norms and procedures are being distorted and violated. The latest instance is the reissue of the land acquisition ordinance. These are ominous authoritative trends,” Yechury said, adding that these three major challenges constituted what he termed as the ‘Trimurti’.

“Our primary focus will be to build a front of Left and democratic forces who are willing to join and strengthen people’s struggles on all these three counts,” he said.

He parried questions on joining hands with Congress on joint opposition campaign against the government, saying he cannot answer questions on the political line ahead of the party Congress.

In this context, he referred to the recent unity of opposition parties in Parliament over the Land Acquisition Bill when they jointly marched to meet the President and said, “On specific issues, we shall continue to unite with all parties in the Opposition as we did recently.”

Replying to a question on how his party viewed the unification efforts of the Janata Dal grouping, Yechury said historically, there have been two Left streams in Indian politics–the communist Left and the socialist Left.

“The socialist Left unfortunately got divided and became very disparate — from sections supporting the BJP to those supporting the Congress. Their disarray was much more than the divisions in the communist Left.

“If they are making efforts at reforging their unity, it is good. However, this unity should be based on policies, principles and a programme. Mere unity for tactical electoral considerations cannot meet this objective,” he said.

On beefing up the party, Yechury said efforts would be made, first to strengthen the organisation, second to strengthen the unity of Left parties and forces and thirdly, “on this basis, forge the unity of Left and democratic forces to eventually form a Left-Democratic front.”

Asked about speculation that he was the front-runner to take over the reins of CPI(M) as a General Secretary from Prakash Karat at the Congress, Yechury said, “I am a member of the outgoing Central Committee. Hence I can’t answer any questions concerning the new leadership.”

He said his party vigorously followed an intense procedure of inner-party democracy. “Not only are our resolutions subjected to thorough and intense inner-party discussion, comrades being assigned responsibilities are also decided on the basis of a thorough-going collective exercise.”

Observing that the party Congress is the highest decision-making body attended by delegates chosen from the lowest level onwards, he said “these delegates elect a Central Committee till the next Congress. The newly-elected CC in turn elects the General Secretary and the Politburo.
While CPI(M) membership has remained stagnant at around 11 lakh members, some of its mass organisations’ strength has declined in the past year.

“The challenge under these circumstances is to regain the strength of the party and reverse this situation, because it is only on the basis of CPI(M)’s independent strength and activities, can its Parliamentary strength exist,” Yechury said, adding that this challenge was formidable.

However, a “ray of hope” was that more and more youths were joining the party whose composition has started changing “which is natural and healthy. India is today predominantly young and more and more youths have come forward to take up responsibilities in the party,” Yechury said.

“These are encouraging signs which will also find reflection is the Party Congress,” the CPI(M) leader said.

While CPI(M) membership has remained stagnant at around 11 lakh members, some of its mass organisations’ strength has declined in the past year.

“The challenge under these circumstances is to regain the strength of the party and reverse this situation, because it is only on the basis of CPI(M)’s independent strength and activities, can its Parliamentary strength exist,” Yechury said, adding that this challenge was formidable.

However, a “ray of hope” was that more and more youths were joining the party whose composition has started changing “which is natural and healthy. India is today predominantly young and more and more youths have come forward to take up responsibilities in the party,” Yechury said.

“These are encouraging signs which will also find reflection is the Party Congress,” the CPI(M) leader said.

Lucknow: Flaying Shiv Sena leader’s remarks on voting rights of Muslims, two prominent Muslim bodies in the city on Monday said that such statements will create differences between Hindus and Muslims and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify his stand on the issue.

Spokesman of Shia Personal Law Board Maulana Yasoob Abbas told PTI that it was right that political parties were using Muslims as vote bank, but revoking voting rights was not a solution.

“The edit written by Sanjay Raut smells of killing people to cure the disease,” Abbas said.

He alleged that there were ill-intentions behind such a statement and as Shiv Sena was an ally of BJP-led NDA government, the Prime Minister should clear his stand.

“Such statements divide the country. The Constitution has given right to vote as the citizen of the country and talking about revoking the right will be injustice. It will create differences between Hindu and Muslim. It is unfortunate that ally of the PM is making such statements,” Abbas said.

Member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board Maulana, an apex Muslim body, Farangi Mahali Maulana Abdul Rasheed said the Constitution has given right to all Indians to vote and it could not be revoked from the Muslims.

He termed vote bank as a word coined by the media.

“The priority of every community changes with the elections, adding, earlier Hindu community voted for Congress, but now it was supporting BJP,” Mahali said.

He said similarly choice of Muslims had changed with time, but to describe it as vote bank politics was not correct.

Shiv Sena had stoked a controversy over its demand that voting rights of Muslims should be revoked as the community has often been used to play vote bank politics.

The Sena also compared All India Majlis-e-Ittihadul- Muslimeen (MIM) and Owaisi brothers with “poisonous snakes” who spew venom to “exploit” the minority community.

“Vote bank politics is being played in the name of fighting against the injustice meted out to Muslims. Their educational and health status is being used politically. This politics was once played by the Congress and now every other person calls himself secular.
PTI

RAIPUR: Five security personnel were killed and seven injured, two of them critically, in back-to-back attacks by Naxals in insurgency-hit districts of Chhattisgarh, which has seen a string of strikes by the red ultras in the past three days.

The ultras today blew up an anti-landmine vehicle in Dantewada district, killing four security men and injuring seven, while a BSF jawan lost his life in Kanker district.

The blast occurred on Cholnar-Kirandul Road under Kirandul Police Station limits when the security personnel were patrolling along a road construction route, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) S R P Kalluri told PTI.

The mine-protected vehicle, with 11 state police jawans aboard, was dispatched from Cholnar camp for security of the construction work in the region, around 450 km from state capital Raipur.

The rebels triggered the blast, leaving four personnel dead and seven others injured, Kalluri said. “Of the injured, two are said to be in a serious condition.”

Soon after the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured admitted to a local hospital, he said. A combing operation has been launched to nab the attackers, the IG added.

A BSF jawan was killed as a group of ultras opened indiscriminate fire on security personnel patrolling in the proximity of Chhote Baithiya Border Security Force camp under Bande Police Station area late last night, said Jitendra Singh Meena, Kanker Superintendent of Police. A gunbattle ensued between the security forces and the ultras, who soon fled to the core forests, he added.

This is the fourth attack by insurgents in the state in the last three days. Seven Special Task Force (STF) personnel were killed and 10 others injured on Saturday when Naxals ambushed them in the forests of Pidmel village in Sukma district.

The rebels yesterday set ablaze at least 17 vehicles engaged in mining work in Kanker district. No one was hurt in the incident, police said.

The deceased BSF head constable has been identified as Ramesh Kumar Solanki, hailing from Uttrakhand.

“He succumbed to bullet injuries, sustained during the gunfight, while being taken to a local hospital,” the SP said.

The body of a suspected Naxalite, in police combat fatigues, was recovered from the encounter spot with three Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) placed near it to target the security personnel.

Meanwhile, BSF chief D K Pathak will review security arrangements in the district and other areas.
PTI