Top News

Punjab Congress Should Clear Stand On Arvind Kejriwal: Akali Dal MP

admin 0

Punjab Congress Should Clear Stand On Arvind Kejriwal: Akali Dal MP

“The people of Punjab are ready to give them a befitting reply this time,” she said.

Bathinda:

Hitting out at the ruling AAP in the state and its INDIA partner Congress over the ‘friendly fight’ in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Sunday said the grand old party should come clean on whether it was standing with the people of Punjab or supporting the ‘corrupt’ Arvind Kejriwal.

Speaking to ANI on Sunday, SAD MP said, “I call on the Punjab Congress to clear its stand. They should clarify whether they were standing with the people of Punjab or supporting a corrupt (Delhi chief minister and AAP national convenor) Kejriwal.”

Scoffing at the Maha Rally of the AAP and its partners in the INDIA bloc at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, Kaur said all leaders in the Opposition alliance gathered to pledge support to a leader, who dodged repeated summons by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the excise policy case before being arrested.

“Despite repeated summons, Arvind Kejriwal did not appear before the ED. The court has refused to grant him bail. His ministers (Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain) have been languishing in jail over the last one-and-a-half years. They indulged in a similar liquor scam in Punjab as well,” Kaur added.

Despite the AAP and the Congress failing to clinch a seat-sharing deal for the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, she claimed that the two parties are together in the state and the people are being ‘misled’ for the sake of votes.

“The people of Punjab are ready to give them a befitting reply this time,” the SAD lawmaker said.

Also hitting out at the BJP over accepting deserters from rival camps, especially the grand old party, she called them the “new Congress”.

“The BJP is the new Congress. Leaders, who were with the Congress till the other day, switched over to the BJP and tickets to contest the Lok Sabha elections. The SAD, on the other hand, are not raiding rival camps and will fight the polls on its ideology and farmers’ interests,” she added.

Earlier in the day, INDIA leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, NC patriarch Farooq Abdullah, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, and Jharkhand CM Champai Soren, among others, headlined the mega show of strength for the embattled Kejriwal at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 and is currently in the custody of the central agency till April 1.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Top News

Video: Cop Chased, Punched, Dragged From His Bike By Mob In Telangana

admin 0

Video shows the tribals going after the cop even as his colleagues try and save him

Hyderabad:

A Circle Inspector of police was attacked by a mob in Khammam reserve forest area when a police team went to control a law and order situation near Chandrapalem village in Sattupalem mandal in Telangana on Sunday.

A group of local villagers went and claimed a saline patch for cultivation when another group of non-locals made a counter-claim.

As tensions rose and clashes broke out between the two groups, a team of 10-15 policemen as well as forest officers arrived on the scene.

Why the specific officer was targeted is not yet clear.

A video showed a group of them dragging down the recently-appointed cop, dressed in civilian clothes, from his bike and pummeling him with fists as another cop tries to pull him away.

The clip further shows the tribals going after him even as uniformed cops try and save the Circle Inspector.

A senior officer, who requested not to be quoted, said they are investigating why only the Circle Inspector was targeted and whether it was a conspiracy.

In November 2022, a forest officer Chalamala Srinivas Rao was attacked and killed using sticks and knives by tribals. The then Chief Minister KCR had announced Rs 50 lakh compensation for the family of the victims.

Two men involved in the murder of forest range officer Chalamala Srinivasa Rao were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Principal District and Sessions Judge Patil Vasanth in August 2023.

The incident had taken place on the outskirts of Errabolu Guthikonda village of Chandrugonda mandal on November 22, 2022.

The court found the accused, Madakam Tula and Podium Nanga, belonging to the Goti Koya community, guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. The court imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on the offenders.

Middle East

Al-Qassam commander calls on Palestinians to use all resources to fight Israel

admin 0

The commander-in-chief of the al-Qassam Brigades, which is the armed wing of the Hamas resistance movement, has called on Palestinians to use all resources at their disposal to fight against the invading Israeli forces in Gaza.

Mohammed Deif made the call on Palestinians both in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank in a video message published Sunday.

The remarks appeared to be from a recording of Deif published on October 7, 2023, when he announced the beginning of Operation al-Aqsa Storm against the Israeli regime.

“Today is the day. Whoever has a rifle should come out with it, for this is its time. And whoever does not have a rifle should come forth with their machete, their pickaxe, or a Molotov cocktail, with their truck or bulldozer or car,” Deif said in Arabic in the short video released by Hamas.

He added, “Today is the day history opens its brightest, most splendid, and most noble pages. So, who will inscribe their name, their family’s name, their town’s name in the pages of light and glory?”

The new message came after Hamas released a short audio from Deif’s October 7 message in which he urged all Muslims to “join the fight to liberate al-Aqsa.”

In that message, Deif addressed “our people in Jordan and Lebanon, in Egypt, Algeria, and the Maghreb, in Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia.”

“Start marching now, not tomorrow, toward Palestine, and do not let borders, regimes, and restrictions deprive you of the honor of waging Jihad and taking part in the liberation of the al-Aqsa Mosque,” he added.

Israel waged its brutal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after Hamas carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

More than six months into the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its objectives of “destroying Hamas” and finding Israeli captives despite killing nearly 32,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring about 75,300 others.

Top News

Sweet Baby Inc controversy: A return of Gamergate?

admin 0

Organisation under fire over their hidden agenda of making games political/woke

Updated On – 31 March 2024, 09:30 PM


Sweet Baby Inc controversy: A return of Gamergate?


Alan Wake II, Spiderman 2, God of War Ragnarök, and Sable are some of the notable projects that the narrative and consultation studio Sweet Baby Inc has worked on since its founding in 2018. A cursory look at the list tells you that for an organisation that is around six years old, that is a commendable roster of projects/titles to be a part of.

While their expertise lies in aspects such as narrative development, character design trajectories and arcs, and elements of diversity and representation, it is surprising that the organisation is being targeted by players who seem to have uncovered their hidden agenda of making games political/woke.

As game-makers from around the world have dubbed this moment ‘Gamergate 2.0,’ I can’t understand what the organisation has done wrong. In a time where global gaming organisations are shedding employees by the cartloads, here is an organisation championing diversity and plurality in a bid to make the medium more global and representative, yet the community is willing to conduct a witch hunt?

A cursory search for Sweet Baby Inc. on Google yields in its top five results, a Steam curation page whose only supposed function is to identify games the company has consulted on and flag them as “not recommended.”

This list includes games such as Assassins Creed Valhalla, The Crew Motorfest, and Gotham Knights and I can’t help but wonder: what purpose does boycotting a game that is supposed to offer players moments of joy and pleasure serve? Who does this form of cancel culture benefit when it undermines game makers, players, and the industry at large? How are video games to be considered a democratic and globally accessible form if we threaten people among us who champion diversity and inclusion?

One of the largest pursuits of the video game industry has been to shed the popular stereotype of video games being a medium of refuge for ‘young white teenagers of privilege, playing video games in their basements, secluded from the rest of the world.’ Here, in not taking a stand against the backers of the witch hunt against Sweet Baby Inc., we are undoing years of progress in one swift motion. We did the same when we refused to take a stand when misogynists questioned the accuracy of Abby’s body in The Last of Us II.

In monetary terms, because that is where the crux of the attack against Sweet Bay Inc lies, Spider-man II is a much better game due to the African American and Puerto Rican heritage of Miles Morales. The game shines when it highlights jazz and African American music cultures and, in the process, becomes much more than an action game. It represents modern-day New York and serves both as a site of learning and being.

How are you expected to survive if you don’t serve your largest markets? How are you expected to grow if you serve the same market over and over again over the fear of cancellation? This isn’t Gamergate 2.0; this is an industry-wide suicide out of close-mindedness.

Top News

Dhoni Slams 37* Off 16 On IPL 2024 Batting Debut, Internet On Overdrive

admin 0

Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) icon MS Dhoni batted for the first time in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) when he walked out in the middle during the side’s IPL 2024 game against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Visakhapatnam. Dhoni didn’t get the chance to bat in CSK’s first two matches, having demoted himself in the order. The player, however, came out to bat against DC when CSK went 6 down. Dhoni walked out to bat amid raucous reception from the crowd in Vizag and ended up slamming 37 not out off 16 balls, an innings that was laced with 4 fours and 3 sixes.

On the very first ball he faced, Dhoni hit Mukesh Kumar for a boundary and never looked back. Though CSK lost the match by 20 runs, Dhoni made sure the crowd got the perfect entertainment through his pyrotechnics.

Here is how the fans reacted to it:

During the IPL 2024 match against Delhi Capitals, Dhoni also became the first player to reach 300 dismissal mark in the T20 format.

Dhoni who is often hailed as one of the best wicketkeepers of the modern era once again showed his prowess behind the stumps by completing a clinical catch.

Ravindra Jadeja forced out an edge from Prithvi Shaw and Dhoni didn’t make a mistake behind the stumps as he held onto the ball to complete his 300th T20 dismissal.

The wicketkeeper who comes closest to Dhoni is former Pakistan cricketer Kamran Akmal with 274 dismissals in T20 cricket.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) veteran keeper who hasn’t taken the role behind the stumps this season is in the third spot with 274 T20 dismissals.

South Africa’s Quinton de Kock and England’s Jos Buttler are on the fourth and fifth spot with 270 and 209 dismissals respectively.

(With ANI Inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

India

Popular Odia Actor And Former BJD MLA Akash Das Nayak Joins BJP

admin 0

Popular Odia Actor And Former BJD MLA Akash Das Nayak Joins BJP

Odisha has 21 parliamentary constituencies. (File)

Bhubaneswar:

Popular Odia filmstar and former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Akash Das Nayak joined the BJP in the presence of Odisha BJP state president Manmohan Samal at party headquarters in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. 

Akash Das Nayak, an Ollywood superstar, quit Biju Janta Dal (BJD) on Saturday, expressing his resentment over the functioning of the party.

Akash Das Nayak said, “I have joined BJD for the development of the people of Odisha, to fulfill the vision of Viksit Bharat of PM Modi and for the development of my constituency, Korei. In 2019, I did not get the ticket, but still I worked honestly. After working for BJD for 10 years, I have taken this decision. I have taken this decision on the advice of my supporters and seniors.”

Akash Das Nayak had won the Korei assembly seat on the BJD ticket in the 2014 election. He didn’t contest the 2019 poll, and later, the state government appointed him as Chairman of the ‘Mo College’ programme.

Odisha has 21 parliamentary constituencies.

Notably, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Odisha, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) emerged as the dominant party, securing 20 out of the 21 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a single seat.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) got the maximum number of seats, followed by the BJP and the Congress.

The BJD won 12 seats, the BJP finished a close second at 8 seats, and the Congress bagged just a lone seat.

The Lok Sabha elections in Odisha, which comprise 21 constituencies, are set to take place in four phases. The voting dates have been scheduled for May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Top News

Israel Army Says Lebanon Strike "Eliminated" Hezbollah Commander

admin 0

Israel Army Says Lebanon Strike 'Eliminated' Hezbollah Commander

Hezbollah confirmed the death of Al-Zin in a statement (Representational)

An air strike in Lebanon “eliminated” a Hezbollah missile unit commander on Sunday, Israel’s military said, with Israel and the Iran-backed group exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for months.

The Israeli Air Force “struck a vehicle in the area of Kunin in Lebanon in which Ismail al-Zin was located,” the military said. “Al-Zin was a significant commander in the Anti-Tank Missile Unit of Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces.”

Hezbollah confirmed the death of Al-Zin in a statement which did not specify if he belonged to Radwan, an elite unit.

Hezbollah, which has a powerful arsenal of rockets and missiles, has exchanged regular fire with Israeli forces since its ally, Palestinian group Hamas, carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza.

The village of Kunin is about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Lebanon-Israel border.

The strike came two days after the Israeli military said they had killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s rocket unit in a strike on southern Lebanon.

Friday’s strike in the town of Bazuriyeh killed Ali Abdel Hassan Naim “one of the leaders for heavy-warhead rocket fire and responsible for conducting and planning attacks against Israeli civilians”, the army said at the time

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant later toured the army’s northern command and said the military would keep up its operations against Hezbollah.

“We will make them pay a price for every attack that comes out from Lebanon,” he said.

Also on Friday seven Hezbollah fighters were killed by an Israeli strike in Syria, according to a Britain-based war monitor.

Israel did not comment on that report, but at the northern command Gallant added: “We have turned from the ones who are repelling Hezbollah to the ones who are chasing them. We reach all the places that Hezbollah is present.”

Cross-border fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7 has killed at least 348 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, and at least 68 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

The fighting has displaced tens of thousands in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

Hezbollah says it is targeting Israel in support of Hamas.

Hamas’s October attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Top News

Arunachal's Porters – Vital Links Between Polling Parties, Electors

admin 0

Arunachal's Porters - Vital Links Between Polling Parties, Electors

ounting of votes for assembly polls is on June 2 and for Lok Sabha on June 4. (Representational)

Itanagar:

A remnant of the British Raj, the Auxiliary Labour Corps (ALCs), also known as porters, still act as vital links between election personnel and people in Arunachal Pradesh as they are tasked with carrying polling materials, ration items and transporting EVMs to remote areas of the mountainous state, officials said. Around 3,000 ALCs are being deployed this time to assist polling parties to reach 228 booths in the state, which are almost inaccesible they said.

“We are dependent on them to transport election materials to inaccessible polling stations where foot march is required,” Chief Electoral Officer Pawan Kumar Sain said.

Trekking the rugged and almost inaccessible terrains of the state, ALCs serve as a bridge between the government and the people and ensure that the polling process goes smoothly, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Liken Koyu said.

The ALCs were first appointed by the British to carry materials. After Arunachal Pradesh attained statehood in 1987, the regular appointment of ALCs was stopped. They are now recruited temporarily.

Services of ALCs are required at the time of transporting public distribution system (PDS) materials and opening new administrative centres during polls, Koyu said.

In 2019, the election office hired 2,100 ALCs, while 1,400 were deployed during the 2014 elections, the officials said.

“Around 3,000 ALCs will be inducted this time to assist polling personnel in 228 polling stations in the state,” he said Besides, casual labourers would also be deployed to assist election personnel.

The ALCs are being deployed by the respective district election officers (DEO), depending on the requirement, Koyu added.

Declaration of results gets delayed in several seats as EVMs are transported by ALCs to the counting centres, which generally involves more than three days of arduous trekking.

Arunachal Pradesh has 228 remote and almost-inaccessible polling stations, where election officials have to undertake extensive journeys on foot.

Of these, 61 will require a two-day walk, while seven will need three-day trekking.

In response to the logistical challenges, the state election machinery has planned to deploy a minimum of four ALCs for each of the 228 polling stations, Koyu said, acknowledging the pivotal role the unsung heroes play in facilitating the democratic process in the state.

Arunachal Pradesh will go to simultaneous polls for two Lok Sabha and 60 assembly constituencies on April 19.

Counting of votes for assembly polls would be held on June 2 and for Lok Sabha on June 4.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Top News

Manipur BJP MLA Jabs Congress With Rahul Gandhi's 2019 Tweet On NRC, CAA

admin 0

Manipur BJP MLA Jabs Congress With Rahul Gandhi's 2019 Tweet On NRC, CAA

Manipur BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh speaks to party supporters in the state capital Imphal

Imphal/Guwahati:

This election season, the ruling BJP in the border state Manipur has opened a new front against the Congress over the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA. The Manipur assembly on March 1 passed a resolution that asked the Centre to begin the process of carrying out the NRC exercise to identify illegal immigrants and deport them.

Continuing the offensive from where he left last week, BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh told supporters in Imphal that not a single Congress MLA was present inside the assembly when the resolution on the NRC was passed.

“All five of them were outside, posing for photos and talking on camera. Later, we came to know why,” Mr Singh said.

He took out his phone in front of party supporters and showed a 2019 post by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the microblogging website X, formerly Twitter, which criticised the NRC and the CAB – a bill then, CAB in short – as “weapons of mass polarisation”.

“And why did the Congress MLAs walk out of the assembly during the NRC resolution? In 2019, Rahul Gandhi tweeted ‘CAB and NRC are weapons of mass polarisation… I stand in solidarity with all those protesting peacefully against the CAB and the NRC’. Rahul Gandhi was Congress president that time. The Congress has always opposed NRC and CAA,” said Mr Singh, who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

Mr Gandhi stepped down as Congress chief in July 2019 after taking responsibility for a second straight national election defeat. He won from Wayanad seat in Kerala, but lost his second seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani. Until then, Mr Gandhi had been winning from Amethi since 2004.

In Manipur, where tensions have been high between the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis since clashes erupted in May 2023, the Meiteis and other major communities except the Kuki-Zo tribes have been demanding the NRC exercise to be carried out. The NRC exercise aims to identify illegal immigrants based on a cut-off year and deport them.

Assam was the first state to implement the NRC, and the process faced several challenges including 19 lakh people among three crore left out of the list. Many whose names did not appear in the list had filed appeals saying there has been a mistake. The process of analysing the appeals and taking decisions on them is going on.

The CAA, whose rules were notified on March 11 in line with the Centre’s promise on enforcing the rules before the national elections this year, will help minorities from three neighbouring Islamic nations fast-track their Indian citizenship process if they fled due to religious persecution.

The Meiteis, who are dominant in Manipur’s valley areas, want NRC to be implemented, while the Kuki-Zo tribes, who are dominant in the hill areas of southern Manipur and a few other districts, have alleged the Meiteis want to grab their lands by calling them illegal immigrants since the Kuki-Zo tribes share familial and ethnic ties with the Chin people in neighbouring Myanmar. Thousands of people from Myanmar’s Chin State and other regions of the junta-ruled nation have entered India after fleeing from the conflict between the junta forces and pro-democracy rebels.

Home Minister Amit Shah last year told parliament one of the factors behind the Manipur crisis was the huge influx of illegal immigrants.

Opium poppy farming, illegal immigrants, and ethnic tensions are among the biggest issues ahead of the Lok Sabha election in Manipur, to be held in two phases on April 19 and 26.

Inner Manipur’s Congress candidate is Dr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, a professor in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and the BJP candidate is Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh, the state Education Minister.

Manipur has two Lok Sabha seats – Inner Manipur, and Outer Manipur. The entire Inner Manipur constituency and some areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 19. The remaining areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 26. Votes will be counted on June 4.