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AAP to field candidates against all ‘corrupt leaders’, says Kejriwal
Dharna by Delhi CM: SC clean chit to police
SC seeks Chief Secretary’s reply on Bengal gang rape
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Intricate artworks attract enthusiasts
China produced, sold 40% of global arms in 2012: SIPRI
Alto, i10, Nano ‘fail’ crash test
Conflicting NCP signals on tie-up with Congress
Mumbai Police chief quits, may contest LS polls
WB to withdraw cases against Singur activists
Arunachal student’s death:
ACHR wants fast-track trial
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AAP to field candidates against all ‘corrupt leaders’, says Kejriwal
New Delhi, January 31 Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party would field candidates against Suresh Kalmadi, Sushil Kumar Shinde, P. Chidamabaram, Kapil Sibal, GK Vasan, Salman Khurshid, Veerappa Moily, Prakash Jaiswal, Kamal Nath, Pawan Bansal, Naveen Jindal, Avtar Singh Bhadana, Anu Tandon, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi and other leaders including Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati, Union Minister P Chidambaram and former BJP president Nitin Gadkari. Kejriwal said AAP candidates would also be fielded against Union Minister Farooq Abdullah, DMK MPs Alagiri, former Minister A Raja, Kanimozhi and NCP leaders and Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel. Attacking the BJP, Kejriwal said the AAP would contest elections against BJP’s youth wing leader Anurag Thakur, BJP national secretary Ananth Kumar and former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, JD(S) leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy. When asked about BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, he said that AAP would field candidate against Narendra Modi also. He also took a jibe at Modi and the Congress vice-president for spending over “Rs 500 crore on branding” and image-building exercise. “They spent Rs 500 crore for image make over...To prepare brand Modi and brand Rahul, they are spending Rs 500 crore. Can these people, who spend Rs 500 crore for branding, give an honest government? After they come to power, they will recover that money from us,” he said. Addressing the National Council meeting attended by Aam Aadmi Party volunteers from across the country, Kejriwal said: “I have prepared a list of dishonest (politicians) of the country. If you come across any honest politician in the list then please tell me.” He asked the AAP workers to prepare a list of corrupt leaders and submit it the party. Kejriwal said the party’s motto was not to seize power, but to eradicate corruption.
Assembly session * The Delhi Cabinet on Friday decided to call a special session of Assembly to take up the Jan Lokpal Bill, which seeks life term as maximum punishment for corrupt babus, on February 16 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium instead of historic Ramlila ground as announced earlier. A meeting of the Delhi Cabinet, presided by the CM, deliberated on the draft bill that features various strict measures to contain graft like confiscation of assets of officials.
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Dharna by Delhi CM: SC clean chit to police
New Delhi, January 31 Accepting the explanation given by the police for letting Kejriwal and others to stage the sit-in protest, a Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and Shiva Kirti Singh remarked that the police had balanced its duty to disperse the demonstrators, who had gathered in violation of the prohibitory orders, and protect the fundamental rights of people. “Do you mean there must have been shoot-at-sight orders or a very severe coercive action by the police? It is not done,” the Bench told PIL petititioner, advocate N Rajaraman, who complained of inept handling of the situation by the police. Appearing for the city police, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sidharth Luthra told the court that the police was very cautious in dealing with the situation, but nevertheless had taken prompt steps to ensure normalcy in the area ahead of the Republic Day parade. Besides clamping prohibitory orders on the area to prevent the dharna, the police had deployed adequate security personnel. But Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues managed to gather in the area along with about 150 supporters as the police could not notice the persons sitting inside cars accompanying the CM. “The police have acted reasonably and were not lax in their duty” as contended by the petitioner, the Bench remarked. The right of individuals and the obligation of the state had to be balanced in a democracy. People’s rights could not be jettisoned. Just because some persons felt that police could have acted in a different manner did not mean what the security agency did was wrong, it explained while disposing of the
PIL.
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SC seeks Chief Secretary’s reply on Bengal gang rape
New Delhi, January 31 A Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, which went through the report of district judge of Birbhum on the incident, said it did not mention the police action taken in the case and asked the Chief Secretary to file a response within two weeks. The Bench had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident on January 24 and directed the district judge to visit the place and file a report before it. The gang-rape of the 20-year-old woman was allegedly ordered by a kangaroo court as punishment for seeing a man outside the community. The victim and her paramour were caught, tied to a tree and assaulted after which they were asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. The gang-rape took place after the girl expressed her inability to pay the amount. The victim and her family members in their complaint before the police had said among those who brutalised her were people old enough to be her father. The accused, including the village head (known in the area as “morol”), have been arrested. The rape allegedly took place inside the village head’s house. — PTI
Specify police action: Bench
* The SC had taken suo motu cognisance of the gang-rape in Birbhum on January 24 and directed the district judge to file a report *
The Bench that went through the report said it did not mention the police action taken in the case *
It has now asked the West Bengal Chief Secretary to file a response within two weeks.
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Intricate artworks attract enthusiasts
New Delhi, January 31 Among the melee of art works, the discerning art enthusiasts found art they could respond to. If at Bruno Art Gallery the interesting expressions of Charles Fazzino and Yaccov Agam stopped art lovers for more than a cursory glance to delve closely at three dimensional and intricate works, the vibrant works of Paris-based artist Sujata Bajaj not only found viewers but also buyers at Indigo Blue Art. Many of the gallery booths, including Art Chowk from Pakistan, Experimenter Kolkata, Vadhera and Scream London, struck gold on the VIP preview day itself. Besides other works, Art Chowk, exhibiting at the fair for the first time, sold a riveting work of Simeen Farhat who translates poetry of greats like Kabeer, Rumi and others into images cast in resin. At other booths, if big names like Sohan Qadri, Atul Dodiya and Anju Dodiya remained collector' favourites, there were takers for young upcoming artists too. Vinita Dasgupta's unusual, experimental and aesthetic portraits made out of bits of rolled canvases priced in a reasonable (less than a lakh) range had buyers like Vaishali Gharekhan gushing, only too happy to possess Dasgupta's work. All galleries might not sell all works, all enquiries might not transform into business, yet majority of the art works seemed to tickle the imagination of viewers. Be it the video "The Anatomy of Melancholy" of William Kentridge or "A Collectors Room" by Riyas Komu…, viewers engaged with myriad moods of art. Beyond commerce, the educational aspect of the fair pulsated at the speakers' forum. At a fair that attracts thousands of art lovers, distinguished men and women like Chris Decron Director Tate Modern, London, Homi Bhabha,director of humanities centre at Harvard University,Massachusetts,and Parul Dave, Mukherji Professor at JNU, threw light on what exactly is public in a highly globalised world. Decron spoke on the need to renegotiate with audiences. Viewers would respond differently to an exhibition of Amrita Sher-Gil in different parts of the world, he said. Bhabha talked of how the cultural citizen had been most neglected and hence a need of his resurgence at national and international level.
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China produced, sold 40% of global arms in 2012: SIPRI
New Delhi, January 31 In its report made available today on its website and released in Munich, SIPRI said global sales of arms and military services totalled $395 billion in 2012 and this does not include the figure of $268 billion of Chinese companies. In percentage terms, China’s share works out to be 40.2 per cent of the entire world’s defence arms production and sales. On China, the report explained: “Information is available on the 10 major state-owned conglomerates under which most of the Chinese arms industry is organised. These 10 companies had total sale of around 1608 billion yuan ($268 billion)”. The think-tank said Chinese companies are not listed in the list of ‘Top 100’ due to the lack of data to make an estimate of arms sales. The information is taken from their financial reports and represents only a minority of the total sales. China’s actual military budget is never made public. It officially listed $114 billion spending in March 2013. However, the US Department of Defence in its report in China’s military spending released in May 2013 said Beijing was spending much more on defence than it discloses.
Three Indian PSUs in ‘Top 100’
* Chinese companies are not in the ‘Top 100’ arms sellers due to lack of data to make an estimate of sales *
Among the ‘Top 100’ firms are three MoD-owned PSUs: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (rank 40), Ordnance Factory Board (47) and Bharat Electronics Limited (74) *
Global sales of arms and military services totalled $395 billion in 2012. This does not include the Chinese companies’ $268 billion.
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Alto, i10, Nano ‘fail’ crash test
New Delhi, January 31 As per the tests done by Global NCAP, an independent charity based in the UK, focused on consumer orientated vehicle safety initiatives, these cars received zero for adult protection ratings in a frontal impact at 64km/hr. India is now a major global market and production centre for small cars, so it's worrying to see levels of safety that are 20 years behind the five-star standards now common in Europe and North America, he added. — PTI
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Conflicting NCP signals on tie-up with Congress
Mumbai, January 31 "News of my meeting with Narendra Modi in New Delhi on January 17 appeared in a newspaper. (It) is completely mischievous, baseless & false," the Agriculture Minister said on micro-blogging site Twitter. Pawar's tweets followed a front page report in a Marathi newspaper that the NCP chief is understood to have secretly met Modi in New Delhi on that day. "During state visits or in Chief Ministers conferences in Delhi, I meet CMs and barring these occasions, never met Modi in the last one year," Pawar, whose party is the second largest constituent of the Congress-led UPA, said in another tweet. The newspaper report had claimed that the meeting had lasted nearly 30 minutes and that even senior leaders of the NCP and the BJP were not aware of it. Reflecting the unease in Congress-NCP ties in Maharashtra, Patel said Congress has delayed the seat-sharing talks for "far too long". — PTI
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Mumbai Police chief quits, may contest LS polls
Mumbai, January 31 Singh told mediapersons today he had applied for the voluntary retirement scheme and wanted the government to accept his resignation at the earliest. “I want to do something big for my country. I will let everyone know of my next move in the coming days,” he said. Sources in the state government say Singh has asked Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil to relieve him by mid-February. Singh’s retirement was due in 2015. Singh’s meeting with Gadkari and Rajnath Singh ahead of his resignation has given rise to speculation that he has been promised a BJP ticket. BJP sources say the police officer, a native of Uttar Pradesh, may be fielded from that state. But a section in the BJP wants Singh to be fielded from Mumbai because of his clean image and familiarity among the people here. The Maharashtra Government had short-listed him for promotion as Director General of Police when he tendered his resignation, sources said.
* Music director Bappi Lahiri joined the BJP in Mumbai on Friday * "After giving 42 years of my life to performing art, now I want to work for the country and the people," he said.
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WB to withdraw cases against Singur activists
Kolkata, January 31 “Of the cases filed by the previous Left Front government against activists in Singur and Nandigram, the government has decided to withdraw cases against 303 in Nandigram and 122 in Singur on the basis of merit of those cases,” Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee said. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting presided over by the CM, a day after she hit out at the CBI for giving a clean chit to the erstwhile Left Front government in the Nandigram police firing. — PTI
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Arunachal student’s death:
ACHR wants fast-track trial
Guwahati/New Delhi, Jan 31 Calling for a fast-track trial of the accused, ACHR director Suhas Chakma said, “There have been increasing racial attacks on people from the North East in Delhi. In addition to provisions of the IPC, the Delhi Police must invoke the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the murderers as well as the Delhi Police personnel who failed to protect Taniam, a member of a scheduled tribe, from being beaten to death.” In New Delhi, Arunachal MP Takam Sanjoy told a TV channel, "We will protest against the humiliating discrimination against North-eastern students and other people either in Delhi or elsewhere. The North East Students' Forum in Delhi will be protesting tomorrow and MPs of the North-East will also be reaching Delhi soon," he said. Sanjoy said the protesters will meet the Prime Minister, Delhi CM and the Home Minister on the issue.
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Five cops jailed for helping murder accused flee
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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said the party would field candidates in General Election against all candidates against whom corruption charges were laid. 
The interest and enthusiasm witnessed on the VIP preview day continued on Day 1 of the three-day India Art Fair 2014 at the NSIC grounds today. While serious collectors kept gallery owners happy, interactive works like those of Princess Pea had viewers participating with gusto.
Bappi Lahiri joins BJP 
