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Lakhs keep date with salvation
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We are not Taliban: Khaps tell SC
A missed opportunity for cleaner Ganga
‘Oversight’ deprives 2 disabled soldiers of pension benefits
Martyred soldier’s family ends fast
Mumbai police to apologise for ‘anti-Muslim’ poem in journal
Bansal hints at IT industry on railways land
Fog returns to Capital, disrupts 150 flights
One killed in stampede
Hindu leader arrested for hate
speech
Jharkhand Guv recommends Prez rule
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Lakhs keep date with salvation
It's an unending human caravan. The nearly 2-month-long Mahakumbh
brings with it VIPs, sadhus and anyone wanting to be a part of the biggest global congregation. Special Correspondent
Aditi Tandon and senior photographer Mukesh Aggarwal
mingle with moksha-seekers to capture the mood
The exuberant hordes that bathed today in the sole “sun festival” of Hindus (all other Hindu festivals except Makar Sankranti depend on the movement of the moon) were foreigners. One among them was Swami Jagraj Puri, an Australian, who left his home in Sydney 40 years ago to settle in India. A follower of Hinduism, he is now the chief of an important Hindu sect. He led a procession to the ritual bath today. “Which other religion would show such acceptance?” he says, adding that Mahakumbh was a magnificent meeting of hearts, synonymous with the meeting of the three rivers. There were thousands of poor pilgrims who undertook days of journey for the holy dip. “We carry ration and wood sticks with us for cooking. We have been saving for three years for this journey,” says Girish Mandeha, a fisherman from MP, accompanied by him. They sleep under the sky on the Ganga banks. Such is the faith of the people in the purity of Ganga, now battling pollution, that a family, which yesterday saw a body floating in the river, drank its waters. Murari Lal from Bangalore told this correspondent, “We saw a body yesterday when we went boating. But that cannot deter us from taking a bath. We are also taking home the Ganga water.” It’s this faith that makes Mahakumbh, the oldest festival in the world, bring together people from diverse religions - Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, who all took bath today as did Buddhists from Thailand. This sense of divine union found a reflection in every event - be it the grand arrival of Hindu akhara leaders in processions to the ghats; the magical trance of naked Naga sadhus who made the atmosphere electric or the dance of foreign yogis to Ram bhajans. As a Naga Sadhu Swami Saraswati, an IAS-turned-sanyasi, explained, “The message of Mahakumbh is simple - in faith we are one.” Aiding the festive spirit was the fact that the day remained event free. No vehicle plied in the city. Suddenly, it seemed as though the complex jigsaw puzzle called humanity had fallen in place, thanks to the faith the Ganga inspires.
Female nagas steal the show
Security agencies breathe easy
Security agencies were relieved that the 13 akharas did not come to blows during the first holy bath. The entry of akharas had been staggered to ensure a gap of 15 minutes between the arrival of two. The most aggressive, Juna Akhara, with maximum naga sadhus, was placed fifth for entry. The first to arrive were the milder Mahanirvani and Atal Akharas. Akharas have violently clashed during baths in the past
Thousands of Hindus, including those from Nepal, had haircuts on the day of Makar Sankranti, ensuring the barbers of Prayag had a field day. One barber said the donation of one strand of hair during Mahakumbh is considered equal to one cow. That’s the reason for the haircutting spree in which several foreigners also took part
Shankaracharyas boycott bath
Shankaracharyas of the four peeths did not take the holy dip in protest against the denial of allotment of land to them at a crossroad in Prayag. Earlier, the Shakaracharya of Dwarka peeth Swami Saroopanand had asked the administration to keep the camps of four Shankaracharyas together on one crossroad. The demand was opposed by all 13 akharas
Freezing Ganga tests devotees
The temperature ahead of the holy dip fell significantly and the waters were icy cold when the pilgrims started to take the holy dip. Some said it was around 4 °C in the morning, which made the task of pilgrims difficult. But several women were seeing braving the cold in their urge to wash away sins
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The flipside: Over 7,000 separated from families on Day 1
The reality of people getting separated from their families during the ritual bath of Mahakumbh is darker than the celluloid has ever shown.
There are times when people get lost and never find a way back home. Among these are old women, mostly widows, deliberately abandoned by wards at the largest religious gatherings of the world where the most direction savvy people can feel intimidated, thanks to the sheer swell of crowds along the banks of the Ganga where millions gather at the same time to bathe. At the end of the first holy bath of Mahakumbh today, over 7,000 — women, men, children — had lost company of their kin. The police control tower at Sangam ghat made six announcements per minute of lost people. “We have been making announcements since 2 am today. And we will go on. The numbers are too huge. People have been flocking to the tower area waiting for their families to return,” the sub-inspector in charge of the tower at Sangam ghat said. Till 7 pm today, 6,120 announcements had been made from here. Sixty-year-old Shakuntala Devi had been waiting for six hours when this reporter met her at the tower. “Can you tell the police to find my husband Murari Prasad. He went for the bath and did not return. His mobile is also with me,” says a desperate wife. A young Rani Devi with a naked toddler in arms was found weeping in a corner. “My husband Ajay Pal Singh had gone for a bath. He has all our clothes. My son and I have no clothes to change. We don’t know where to go. He has been away for seven hours,” says an inconsolable wife. In the heart of the city, a camp run by NGO Bharat Sewa Dal has a board saying, “Bhoole Bhatke Shivir”. Inside over 100 people are waiting to report their separation from families. NGO head Umesh Tiwari says over 6,500 complaints have been registered till 5 pm today. One of them has been made by, Sophie, a class-XII student from Garhwal, whose sister-in-law Hemlata went to the akhara of Bhaiya Das to have langar on January 10. “She has not returned. No one is helpful,” says the girl, whose family has been camping in the city in the hope of finding the 17-year-old lost girl. Across this camp stands another meant exclusively for lost women and children. Manned by UP Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the camp has managed to reunite 195 people but still has over 50 complaints pending. A child named Krishna was separated from his uncle at 5 am today. He has since been waiting to reunite with him at this camp. Both camp managers admit mostly old women who get left behind or are forced to brave abandonment. “There is this trend of wards abandoning old women. Mostly these women are too poor and illiterate to communicate anything. So we are also unable to help,” says Tiwari. The Bharat Sewa Dal offers free food to lost people and even pays for their travel back home. That’s in case they are unable to find their families, which is quite common!
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We are not Taliban: Khaps tell SC
New Delhi, January 14 Supporting their contentions, top police officials from the two states assured a Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai that the Khaps had not been fomenting any law and order problem. “In the last 4-5 years, no Khap or its member was directly or indirectly involved in any crime” against people going against community norms, Haryana’s Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) MS Mann told the Bench. The Bench had summoned the ADGP and the Superintendents of Police of Rohtak and Jind districts, besides the police chiefs of Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, to have their views on the feasibility of putting in place a pilot project to prevent the Khaps from taking law into their own hands. A UP police officer told the court that there was an incident of a Khap panchayat banning the use of mobile phones by girls, but no force was used to enforce it. The Bench remarked that perhaps “it is just the tip of the iceberg” and wanted to know “what is there below the surface.” The UP police, however, maintained that they were not facing any problem from the Khaps. Unwilling to take the assertion on face value, the Bench told them that they need not try to defend the state government and asked them to just narrate their experience. The Khaps had fielded a battery of lawyers today, including Balraj Malik and Baljit Singh Malikh, to defend their stand. At one stage, Baljit Malikh said an attempt was being made to paint the Khaps like Taliban. However, the PIL petitioner, NGO Shakti Vahini, contended through its counsel Ravi Kant that the Khaps had nowhere been described as Taliban in any of the documents filed by it in the SC. At this, the Bench remarked that “maybe, it is a Freudian slip” (sub-conscious wish). At the last hearing on January 4, the SC had asked the Khaps to present their views, if they so wished, on the PIL which has sought an end to honour killings. The Khaps, however, maintained that they were, in fact, doing a lot of good work like creating awareness against female foeticide. Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who is helping the Bench in the case in his capacity as amicus curiae, said the families of couples going against the wishes of the Khaps were left with no option but to kill them. “This is the atmosphere.” The Bench wanted to know whether the Khaps were creating such an atmosphere. In an affidavit filed in the SC today, Sarv Khap Panchayats of Rohtak has contended that the “main culprits for honour killings are not the representatives of Khaps but the near and dear ones of the affected couples and more so the relatives of the girls when they cannot resist the social pressure of the locality and taunts of the relatives.” Therefore, any effort to regulate the Khaps’ conduct and role would not have any impact on the incidents of honour killings, it was contended. The Khaps were not against marriages involving couples from different castes, religions, creed or regions. The Khaps were only against intra-gotra marriages for which they had made a representation to the Central government seeking an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 which was a democratic act, they contended. Religious scriptures had prohibited such marriages and as such it should become part of law, they reasoned. The Law Commission had recommended steps to curb the activities of Khaps without consulting them, they said. The Bench directed all the parties involved in the case to file their assertions in writing by February 25 and posted the next hearing for March 5.
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A missed opportunity for cleaner Ganga
New Delhi, January 15 Rajendra Singh, a member of the NGRBA - the financing, planning, implementing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Ganga - said the last time the high-level body met was in April 2012. While officials claim several steps have been taken to ensure the river stays clean for the holy dip, the NGBRA member says "nothing much" has happened on the ground. The high-level body, with PM, Cabinet ministers, state CMs and experts on board, claims to have taken several "good" decision to keep the Ganga clean and free-flowing but apart from one - scrapping of Pala Maneri, Bhaironghait and Lohari Nagpala projects - most of the other resolutions have remained unattended. Even the Central Pollution Control Board, which will collect data from different points on the river just as it had during the Ardh-Kumbh in 2007, has not held any consultative meeting with its member from Allahabad, former mayor Chaudari Jitendra Singh. Jitendra Singh says the overall responsibility of saving the river lies with the CPCB. "This just shows the lack of seriousness of those responsible for keeping the Ganga clean and flowing," Jitendra Singh told The Tribune from Allahabad. Every day around 2,900 million litres of sewage is discharged into the main stream of the river from municipal towns located along its banks. The existing infrastructure has a capacity to treat only 1,100 million litres per day, leaving a huge deficit. Most of the waste water comes from tanneries, distilleries, paper mills and sugar mills along the banks and in this case even the UP State Pollution Control Board has proved ineffective. While the UPPCB was required to monitor compliance of effluent discharge standards, the industry did not even bother to comply with its directions for the Mahakumbh. It had recommended the 350 tanneries to neither use water at their units nor release their effluents into the river till the pilgrimage was in progress. But Kanpur Electricity Supply Company Limited today filed complaint against the owners of 29 tanneries for illegally drawing electricity despite their connection having been snapped by authorities.
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‘Oversight’ deprives 2 disabled soldiers of pension benefits
Chandigarh, January 14 Exposing the hollowness of the claims of military authorities with regard to treatment accorded to ex-servicemen and disabled veterans, a commissioned officer and a soldier today approached the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), stating that their pensions and benefits had not been released even 10 and six years, respectively, after leaving the service. Lieutenant Amit Vasudev from Gurdaspur was invalided out in 2002 as a young officer with a disability that was declared to have been aggravated due to military service for life. Running from pillar to post for the past 10 years, he was not given any reason for Army’s failure to sanction his disability pension. When questioned under the RTI Act, the Army Headquarters recently replied that his disability pension had not been released to date due to an “oversight” on the part of the
authorities. Naik Govinder Singh, a brain-damaged soldier from Hoshiarpur with disability assessed at 100 per cent, was invalided out of the Army in 2007 after having rendered 14 years of service with the entitlement of pension but the benefits have still not been released to him by the Army. The medical board’s declaration attributing his disability to military service was overturned by the Army Headquarters, for which his appeal remains pending. In his petition, he has contended that even by treating his disability as non-attributable he remained entitled to invalid pension that is granted to soldiers with non-service related disabilities having more than 10 years of service. The soldier is from the Sikh Light Infantry, which happens to be the Army Chief’s regiment. Both disabled veterans, who remain without pension, have pointed out that in the absence of release of pension, which was their rightful claim, they were not even entitled to medical facilities under the Ex-serviceman Contributory Health Scheme. The AFT has issued a notice to the government, asking it to respond to the petitions.
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Martyred soldier’s family ends fast
Khairair (UP), January 14 The end of the protest came in the evening when Akhilesh met the family and offered juice to Hemraj's fasting wife Dharamwati, mother Meena Devi and cousin Narendra, offering all help to the family as well as for the development of the village. Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh visited the family of the martyred soldier and announced that the government would give Rs 46 lakh to the
family. "We are also talking to other ministries so that the family get a petrol pump," he said. Akhilesh promised to take steps to meet the family's demands, including development of the road for the village and take up with the Centre the allotment of a petrol pump for them. "The family have shown the strength to face this (tragedy). We have to stand by them. We should all support the family of Lance Naik Hemraj. We have assured that whatever demands they have made for village." The day began with the family refusing to take "even liquid", demanding that the Army Chief meet them personally and give an assurance that Hemraj's head severed by Pakistani troops last week be brought back or else they will continue the fast. However, the family decided to end the fast after a string of leaders, including Akhilesh, Jitendra Singh and top BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh visited them and offered support.
— PTI
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Mumbai police to apologise for ‘anti-Muslim’ poem in journal
Mumbai, January 14 The poem on the riots at Azad Maidan last year, in which several policemen and women were attacked by participants at a rally organised by Raza Academy, called for the severing of rioters’ hands. The poem written in Hindi went on to say that those who had desecrated the Amar Jawan Memorial at Azad Maidan should have been shot. “The police should have played ‘goliyon ki Holi’,” the poem, which referred to the rioters as snakes, said. While no community was identified in the piece, the work clearly had communal overtones. Following the publication, a Mumbai lawyer, Ijaz Naqvi, filed a complaint and demanded an FIR against the author and the editor of the publication for hurting religious sentiments. After much hue and cry, Hemant Nagrale, Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration), who is the publisher and chief editor of the publication, said an apology would be published in the next edition of the journal.
Inflammatory content
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Bansal hints at IT industry on railways land
Chandigarh, January 14 Indicating that there will be no increase in rail fares in the coming budget to be presented in Parliament on February 26, Bansal said his ministry was looking for other options like setting up information technology industry on the land belonging to the Railways to enhance revenue. He stated that the project for setting up IT industry on the 700 acre of land in the city was being looked into. Likewise, there are other states where such proposals were in the pipeline. Another area, which has to be looked into the coming budget, will be funds for putting up signals. Even though a number of projects were mooted for anti-fog collision devices, most of them were shelved due to lack of funds. Meanwhile, third New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi was flagged off by the railway minister today. The train originates from and terminates at Chandigarh. As per schedule, the train will begin journey at 11.40 am and reach New Delhi at 3 pm. From New Delhi, the train would start at 7.15 pm and reach Chandigarh at 10.35 pm.
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Fog returns to Capital, disrupts 150 flights
New Delhi, January 14 Operations at the IGI airport were affected after dense fog brought air services to a standstill for about one-and-a-half hours affecting the schedule of over 150 flights, including that of External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid. Flight operations at the airport came to halt between 5:00 AM and 6.30 AM as the runway visibility dropped below 50 metres. The Weatherman has forecast mostly clear skies for tomorrow with fog or mist in the morning. The maximum and minimum temperatures would be around 20 and nine degree Celsius respectively, it added.
— PTI
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One killed in stampede
Khagaria (Bihar), January 14 Eyewitnesses said a large number of people gatecrashed her house when blankets were being distributed among citizens by the MLA after the feast. In the melee, the elderly woman and three others fell on the ground and people ran over them.
— PTI
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Hindu leader arrested for hate
speech
Hyderabad, January 14 The police arrested him in Srisailam, about 250 km from here. He is being brought to Hyderabad, police said. Two cases were booked against him by the police in two police stations in the old city. Bharati has served as president of Hindu Devalaya Parirakshana Samithi, a committee fighting for the protection of Hindu temples. He was arrested for allegedly making offensive remarks at a rally in Hyderabad January
8. — IANS
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Jharkhand Guv recommends Prez rule
New Delhi/Ranchi, January 14 Governor Syed Ahmed is learnt to have recommended President's rule in the state by keeping the Assembly under suspended animation. The recommendation was made in his second report to the Centre on the political situation in the wake of the resignation of Chief Minister Arjun Munda who also sought dissolution of the Assembly after JMM withdrew support to his Government.
— PTI
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For the first time in any Kumbh, little-known female sanyasins of the largest Hindu akhara, Juna Akhara, independently entered the Sangham Ghat area of the Ganga riverbank to take part in the first ritual bath. Led by a Sanyasin Debyagiri, who heads this female wing, the sanyasins posed a tough competition to the male sadhus in resplendence and decoration of their convoys
Barbers have a field day