News18.com Daybreak | Pathhargarhi, India's War Within and Other Stories You May Have Missed
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Thousands of men, women and children from 30 villages are swarming all over Sonpur, a tribal hamlet located deep in forests, around 100 km from the nearest city—Ranchi. The village is hosting a Patthargarhi (installation of stone) ceremony, at the conclusion of which it will constitute a gram sabha, swear to boycott elections, stop sending its children to government schools and promise not to enroll for any government identification, including voter ID and Aadhaar. Besides, state police and elected representatives will not be allowed in these villages anymore.
Mathematics and science are not taught at the schools of ‘Adivasistan’ in a district in Jharkhand since the tribal leadership is still deliberating on their syllabi. Three such schools, in Udburu, Jikilata and Uldi, are running in Khunti right now. These schools now have students from over a dozen villages. The government schools and the teachers teaching there have been left with barely any students.
News18 takes you inside the Adivasi-led exclusionist movement spread across hundreds of tribal villages in several states, including Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
A television journalist was killed in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind when a speeding truck strayed from the road and mowed him down on Monday. The deceased, Sandeep Sharma, had conducted a few sting operations on the local sand mafia and the alleged involvement of the police.
The Congress found itself on a sticky wicket after it had to take down its app amid allegations that the data captured by it was being sent to Singapore servers. The Congress has been targeting the ruling BJP over the Narendra Modi app - the official mobile app of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – alleging that it sent user data to a US-based company without consent.
The Congress will not only return to power in Karnataka but will also end up improving its tally in the 224-member Legislative Assembly, a pre-poll survey conducted by C-Fore predicted. The survey was conducted between March 1 and 25 and spoke to 22,357 voters across 154 assembly constituencies. The respondents were spread across 2,368 polling booths covering 326 urban and 977 rural locations. BJP, the survey said, will have 31% of the vote and JD (S) will have 16%.
The Supreme Court extended the interim protection against arrest to Karti Chidambaram, granted by the Delhi High Court in the INX Media money laundering case, till April 2.
As the most famous resident of their village continued his indefinite hunger strike in Delhi, people in Anna Hazare's Ralegan Siddhi replicated actor Dharmendra's protest atop a water tank in the iconic film "Sholay" to support the social activist's demands. A group of residents of the village, located in Parner tehsil of Ahmednagar district, climbed atop the water tank, and shouted slogans demanding that the government should accept Hazare's demands, which include the appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta in states.
The Kerala government has ordered a departmental inquiry against the professor who likened Muslim girl students’ chests to sliced watermelons on display. Speaking in the Assembly, Minister A K Balan said, “The collegiate director have been told to conduct a departmental inquiry against professor Jauhar Munavar. His statements have brought disgrace to profession of teaching.”
The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the prevalent practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims and sought responses from the Centre and the Law Commission.
In a disturbing incident reported from MP university, a woman warden allegedly strip-searched 40 girl students after a used sanitary pad was found dumped in the hostel premises.
After tasting success in Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may go for a pre-poll alignment with the Congress for Assembly elections in BJP-led states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Five-year-old Asna was playing with her younger brother Anand when an explosion rocked the courtyard of her house in Poovathur in Kannur on September 27, 2000. The explosion happened after alleged RSS workers hurled a crude bomb that ripped her right leg off, not her determination. Now, 20 years after the fatal incident, Asna has graduated as a doctor.
BJP President Amit Shah took on Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah in a direct attack and said that the Congress veteran must be the only socialist leader to wear a watch worth Rs 40 lakh. He further maintained that the Congress government's move to give separate religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats was aimed at preventing BS Yeddyurappa from becoming the chief minister in Karnataka.
Agree or disagree?
Taking a cue from Uttar Pradesh bypoll results, the Opposition may tweak its electoral strategy to knit state-specific alliances for 2019 Lok Sabha elections instead of building a grand national coalition against the BJP. The SP-BSP experiment could serve as the template for the anti-BJP mobilisation in the days ahead, prompting opposition parties to de-centralise Lok Sabha elections to avoid a direct 'Modi Vs Others' contest which tends to suit the BJP. The signs of the changing algorithm were apparent in the understanding reached between the Samajwadi Party, BSP and the Congress in the last one month.
S Durga, (its pre-censored name being Sexy Durga), the much-mauled and much-awaited film by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan is finally out on the big screens, thanks to a parallel campaign done by its creators. To say that it was slashed by the Censor Board only in respect to its title would be wrong, going by the beeps on the soundtrack that outnumber the beeps from my cell phone on any given day. The movie doesn’t let the viewer get used to a comfortable story or socially emotional package or message. It expresses in the form of the suddenly exploding visions of the van lit up with LED illumination and blasting music and the masks and the beheaded doll that keeps swinging.
On reel
This is what happened when music maestro Amit Trivedi remixed his famous song. Take a look.