Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
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Police confirm that the symptoms of the patients are consistent with poisoning through organophosphate,a common pesticide. Samples of the food have been sent for analysis.
Eleven people died and around 90 are in hospital, with the condition of many, including around 10 children, critical after eating food served at the Kicchugathi Maramma temple. (HT Photo)
A posse of policemen sits in the shade, keeping an eye on the people gathered in front of the unimposing structure of the Kicchugathi Maramma temple. On farmland opposite the temple, three forest officials are trying to manage a crowd gathered to see the carcasses of dead crows, around 20 of them.
This is the scene at Sulawadi, 200 km from Bengaluru, a day after 11 people died after eating food served at the temple. Around 90 are in hospital, with the condition of many, including around 10 children, critical. The crows died when they ate the food that was thrown away. By Saturday afternoon, Sulwadi has become a magnet for people from neighbouring villages.
Police confirm that the symptoms of the patients are consistent with poisoning through organophosphate,a common pesticide. Samples of the food have been sent for analysis.
Japamalai, a former gram panchayat member of the village, which is located 5 km from the Tamil Nadu border, stands at the centre of the clearing in front of the temple, eager to tell all the outsiders about the politics of the village, which he believes is at the heart of the tragedy, and others pitch in to fill the gaps.
According to them, tensions flared up in the village over the control of the temple, highly revered in the area. It is one of the temples that believers of the Om Shakti cult visit on the way to Melmaruvathur in Tamil Nadu, which has traditions much like the Sabarimala temple, including vows of purity that range from one week to 48 days.
Chinnappi, one of five persons taken in for questioning, was the chief trustee of the temple and nurtured ambitions of building a new dome for the temple. This was opposed by Immadi Mahadeva Swamy, “who also wished to have control of the trust”, Japamalai said. Many claim it was this fight that led to one faction adding pesticide in the food.
On Friday, Chinnappi held a small feast for about 100 people as part of a stone laying ceremony for the construction of the new dome. Among those who were present at the time were a large number of Om Shakti devotees who were passing by and decided to partake of the meal.
Around 20 crows died when they ate the food that was thrown away. (HT Photo)
Murugappa, one of the locals, said there was a foul smell in the food, but people continued to eat it. “Only a few of us threw the food away because there is a belief that you can’t refuse temple food.”
The only problem with this conspiracy theory is that the three cooks ate the food and are in hospital. Dharmender Singh Meena, Superintendent of Police for the district, said the three, Eeranna, Lokesh and Puttaswamy are in critical condition in a hospital in Mysuru.
Puttaswamy’s daughter Anita died after consuming the food, he added. “While it is almost certain at this point that there was poisoning we cannot be sure if there was criminal intent involved because the cooks have taken ill,” Meena said.
Indeed, locals at Sulawadi find it hard to understand how the food could have been poisoned. The kitchen is located behind the temple, where the trust has built a shelter for devotees who wished to rest there. All three cooks were on the payroll of the temple trust for years, Japamalai said.
Japamalai and Murugappa said the trouble began around 1 pm when some people complained of feeling sick. “Soon, people were throwing up on the side of the road and others just fell down,” Murugappa said.
About 40 km from Sulawadi, a large group of people have gathered at the government hospital in Hanur town, waiting to collect the body of Shantaraju, a Dalit from nearby Bidarahalli, who was at the temple as part of the Om Shakti devotees’ group.
Nagaraj, Shantaraju’s brother-in-law, asks his other relatives who gathered at the spot to sit down for a flash protest. “We will not leave this place till the accused is produced in front of us and we are allowed to dispense justice,” he says, before the policemen present at the spot calm him down.
Currently, 93 people are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in Mysuru, the minister in charge of the district, C Puttarangashetty said. “It is clear that there is foul play involved and we have asked the police to bring the guilty to book at the soonest,” he said. Of the 93, 29 are said to be in a critical condition.
The police are awaiting the results of tests conducted by the forensics lab in Mysuru to see if it throws up any more clues. “At present, we are questioning five people, Chinnappi, Mahadesha, Mahadeva and two others, whose identities cannot be revealed at this moment,” Meena said. “We have sent viscera and food samples to the forensics lab and I personally asked them to expedite the process,” he added.
Karnataka Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the deceased.
Billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi, is ‘still alive’ and will stand trial at some point for corruption and bribery, according to a Saudi official, who asked not to be identified.
Billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi has been in touch with relatives and is reported to be in good health(Official Website)
More than a year ago, he vanished into the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, along with dozens of Saudi princes and businessmen.
Before long, rumors swirled: Was the billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi even alive?
Now, at last, comes the answer. Al Amoudi, is ‘still alive’ and will stand trial at some point for corruption and bribery, according to a Saudi official, who asked not to be identified.
What’s remarkable about his situation is that despite his prolonged detainment, a result of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s crackdown on graft in the Kingdom, the bulk of Al Amoudi’s global business empire has boomed.
Sales at his Sweden-based oil refiner Preem AB have surged more than 30 percent and his Stockholm office properties have risen in value. Since being seized by security forces in Riyadh last year, his net worth has climbed by about 6 percent to $8.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.
The situation highlights the contradictions and absurdities of being a wealthy Saudi under the de facto reign of the crown prince, whose embargo of Qatar, war in Yemen and alleged role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have shocked the world but prompted little apparent change in his agenda.
A Saudi official who asked not to be identified confirmed Thursday that the billionaire is in custody, though no trial date has been set. Al Amoudi has been in touch with relatives and is reported to be in good health, according to his spokesman, Tim Pendry. He disputed that Al Amoudi has been officially charged with any wrongdoing and declined further comment.
Al Amoudi, whose fortune can be traced to a Saudi government contract during the reign of King Fahd, has accumulated $7.6 billion of assets outside the Kingdom and owns businesses employing thousands of people in Europe and Africa. But as the past year’s events prove, his earliest benefactor — the Saudi royal family — still holds sway.
Saudi Crackdown
The Ethiopian-born businessman is one of several high-profile individuals still detained in the corruption crackdown. Among those believed to still be held include Prince Turki bin Abdullah, son of the late King Abdullah.
Most of the other businessmen and princes have been released after agreeing to hand over more than $100 billion in cash and assets. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who chalked up his detention to “a misunderstanding,” is once again making deals and borrowing huge sums. Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, the former head of the National Guard who forked over $1 billion in bail, was seen meeting with King Salman.
The veneer of normalcy betrays an anxiety quietly gripping wealthy Saudis who are increasingly looking to move money abroad or even leave.
“Liquid assets were shifted out quite quickly after the purge,” said Marcus Chenevix, an analyst at investment research firm TS Lombard in London. The crackdown targeted wealthy members of the business elite from Jeddah in particular, a group — Al Amoudi included — who prospered in part through ties to King Abdullah and King Fahd. King Salman was a former governor of Riyadh and things were “tense from the moment he came in,” Chenevix said.
Rosy Assessments
In Sweden, where Al Amoudi’s Preem is the country’s biggest fuel company, business is proceeding as normal, with a few adjustments. Last month, Preem announced it had replaced Al Amoudi as chairman with a former global head of corporate finance at Morgan Stanley, Jason Milazzo. The company’s statement acknowledged it had “no further confirmed information” regarding its missing sole shareholder.
Both Fitch and S&P Global, which rate Preem’s debt, have given rosy assessments of its credit health. Yes, the sole shareholder of the $5 billion company has been missing for months, but the operations haven’t been affected, the analysts wrote. Al Amoudi “was not really involved in the day-to-day management of the business,” Fitch analyst Vladislav Nikolov said.
Al Amoudi’s brother Hassan has been granted power of attorney, according to a June 30 presentation from Preem’s parent company, Corral Petroleum. The brother, who owns a furniture factory in Jeddah, isn’t otherwise involved in the business, spokesman Pendry said.
Preem Stake
Preem, whose bright signs adorn hundreds of gas stations throughout Sweden, is responsible for almost a third of the Nordic region’s refining capacity. Al Amoudi’s 100 percent stake is worth $5.1 billion. He also owns an $835 million oil explorer, a home builder, commercial real estate and various industrial businesses, making him one of Sweden’s largest private investors.
While Al Amoudi delegated day-to-day management to other executives, his deep pockets were helpful in the harshly cyclical energy industry. A 2016 bond prospectus by Corral Petroleum highlighted Al Amoudi’s ranking on global wealth lists and “continued commitment” to the company in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder loans and contributions.
‘National Issue’
None of the billionaire’s business associates has publicly sought answers from Saudi Arabia on Al Amoudi’s predicament. The only outspoken advocate for Al Amoudi’s release has come from Ethiopia, where the billionaire is the largest single private investor. His assets there, which include land holdings, gold mines, coffee plantations, a fuel company and hotels, are conservatively valued at $1.2 billion.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told state media in May he was confident Al Amoudi’s release was imminent after he made a personal appeal to the crown prince. In August, Ahmed told reporters he’d gotten word from Saudi officials that the industrialist’s release was being postponed for “some proceedings” and vowed to keep up the pressure.
“Sheikh Al Amoudi’s detention is a national issue,” Ahmed said.
JP president Amit Shah, finance minister Arun Jaitley and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday launched an attack on Congress, which has attacked the Centre for months over the Rafale fighter jet deal, and demanded an apology from the part…
BJP president Amit Shah, finance minister Arun Jaitley and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday launched an attack on Congress, which has attacked the Centre for months over the Rafale fighter jet deal, and demanded an apology from the party.
“Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the country,” Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narendra Tomar demanded in parliament soon after the Supreme Court dismissed petitions that had sought a probe.
Bride Isha Ambani, the daughter of the Chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, and her groom Anand Piramal, heir to a real-estate and pharmaceutical business, after they got married in Mumbai, India, December 12, 2018. Reliance Industries/Handout via REUTERS
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The daughter of India’s richest man got married on Wednesday in a traditional ceremony in Mumbai attended by Bollywood stars and former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The marriage brings together two of India’s most influential families. The bride, Isha Ambani, 27, is the daughter of Mukesh Ambani, head of the vast Reliance conglomerate whose net worth Forbes put at $43 billion.
Her groom, Anand Piramal, 33, is heir to a real-estate and pharmaceutical business.
The wedding bash took place at Ambani’s Mumbai residence, an extraordinary 27-storey structure known as one of the most expensive homes in the world. It was covered in red roses and decorated with lights and flowers for the occasion.
The groom and his family arrived in vintage cars as security guards onlookers and photographers from the narrow lane in south Mumbai that leads to the residence.
India’s Filmfare magazine said 600 guests were expected at what media have dubbed the “the big, fat Indian wedding”.
The festivities were a culmination of lavish pre-wedding celebrations in the desert city of Udaipur over the weekend which featured a private concert by American singer Beyonce.
As well as Clinton, who according to Indian media reports has an association with the Ambanis that goes back more than 18 years, attendees included newly-weds actress Priyanka Chopra and singer Nick Jonas, former Indian finance minister P. Chidambaram, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actor Aamir Khan.
Many in India, where millions of people live in dire poverty, have closely followed the wedding preparations, including the couple’s engagement at a luxury hotel on Italy’s Lake Como.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s monthly oil imports from Iran plunged to their lowest in a year in November with Tehran dropping two places to become only the sixth biggest supplier after New Delhi cut purchases due to the impact of U.S. sanctions, according to ship tracking data and industry sources.
Last month, the United States introduced tough sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s oil revenue-dependent economy. Washington did, though, give a six-month waiver from sanctions to eight nations, including India, and allowed them to import some Iranian oil.
India is restricted to buying 1.25 million tonnes per month, or about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).
In November, India imported about 276,000 bpd of Iranian oil, a decline of about 41 percent from October and about 4 percent more than the year-ago month, ship tracking data obtained from shipping and trade sources showed.
After abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to force Tehran to quash not only its nuclear ambitions and its ballistic missile program but its support for militant proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.
India’s imports from Iran in November, included some parcels that were loaded in October. In November, Iraq and Saudi Arabia continued to be the top two oil sellers to India.
The UAE, which was the sixth biggest oil seller to India in October, became the third top seller to India in November, knocking down Venezuela by a notch to fourth position.
Nigeria continued at No. 5 position, while Iran slipped to sixth place.
“Iran do not have vessels to export oil on time … some November loading vessels will arrive in December,” said an industry source, with knowledge of the matter.
Local and international shippers are not carrying Iranian cargoes despite India winning a waiver, this source said. The key problem is that while India can import Iranian oil without falling foul of Washington, that may not apply to a shipping company signing a new delivery contract.
Instead, India is relying on Iranian tankers for crude imports and Iran is using many of its vessels for crude storage.
The sources declined to be identified citing the confidentiality of the numbers.
Indian refiners, wary of the impact of U.S. sanctions, had boosted imports from Iran ahead of their introduction, with imports averaging about 563,000 bpd in April-November, a growth of about 32 percent from a low base in the previous fiscal year, the data showed.
(For an interactive graphic on ‘India’s Oil Imports From Iran’ click tmsnrt.rs/2SIFkfF)
In the previous financial year to March 2018 India had cut oil imports from Iran due to a dispute over development rights of a giant gas field.
Iran was hoping to sell more than 500,000 bpd of oil to India in 2018/19, its oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said in February, and had offered almost free shipping and an extended credit period to boost sales to India.
Government sources say Reuters’ calculations showing India’s oil imports from Iran in this fiscal year would be higher than the 452,000 bpd, or 22.6 million tonnes, it imported in the previous year, are correct.
During January-November this year India’s oil imports from Iran rose by an annual 18.4 percent to 552,000 bpd, the data showed. [L3N1YI38M]
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP will try to canvass and galvanise its activists across India before a general election due next May, after losing power in three heartland rural states, senior leaders said after a meeting on Thursday.
Disgruntled voters blamed the slow pace of job creation and weak farm prices for the Hindu nationalist party’s defeat in the states, two of which it had ruled for three straight terms.
“We realise that rural distress and employment generation are the key issues and we are working on them,” said BJP spokesman Gopal Krishna Agarwal, who attended the meeting. “They’ll have to be tackled, and we will take suggestions from wherever needed.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) various wings – representing women, farmers, lower castes, Muslims and young members – will all hold deliberations after losses in the supposed stronghold states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
“These meetings are aimed at preparing for the 2019 election and spreading the party’s message in various sections of society,” Bhupender Yadav, a BJP national general secretary, said after the meeting, which he said had been scheduled before the state election results came out on Tuesday.
He also announced that a planned national convention would be held in New Delhi on Jan. 11 and 12.
Senior BJP minister Nitin Gadkari told the ET Now business channel on Thursday that the agriculture sector may have been neglected under their government.
JOBS AND FARM PRICES
Agarwal, a chartered accountant who is also a director in a state-run bank, said increasing lending for job-generating small businesses was a key focus, as was enhancing procurement of grain from farmers by government agencies at state-mandated prices so there are no distress sales.
The government announces so-called minimum support prices for most crops to set a benchmark, but state agencies mainly buy limited quantities of staples such as rice and wheat at those prices, restricting benefits of higher prices to only around 7 percent of India’s 263 million farmers, according to various studies.
Following the state election setbacks, Modi’s government is expected to announce loan waivers worth billions of dollars to woo farmers, government sources told Reuters this week.
Agarwal said the party’s loss in Madhya Pradesh, known for multiplying agriculture production under three BJP governments, has reinforced its realisation that higher output helps consumers by bringing down prices, but can badly hurt farmers.
“The focus has so far been on consumers, like importing onions when prices shot up,” Agarwal said. “Now we need to look at the producers, not just the consumers.”
He also said there was a case for fiscal stimulus, given that inflation fell to a 17-month low in November. Food inflation sank to a negative 2.61 percent from a negative 0.86 percent in October, according to official data released on Wednesday.
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian forest rangers have launched a hunt for a leopard that killed a monk meditating under a tree deep in a jungle.
The monk, Rahul Walke Bodhi, had been meditating in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in the western state of Maharashtra for the last month, and was attacked while offering morning prayers on Tuesday, a forest official said.
Two other monks who were on their way to give him food said they witnessed the attack but Walke was dead by the time they reached him, according to a second forest official.
“I would like to tell everyone not to go into the forest,” Gajendra Narwane, deputy director of the reserve, told the BBC Marathi-language service.
Forest rangers have set up two cages and a camera trap to try to capture the animal. It was not clear what they would do with it if they caught it.
The forest, some 825 km (510 miles) east of the city of Mumbai, is in a reserve for big cats where four other fatal attacks have occurred in the last few weeks, according to media.
Forest officials have cordoned off the area where the monk was killed and are restricting the timing of visitor access to a Buddhist temple there.
Lecturers and students told the BBC that the statue, originally located at the university’s recreational quadrangle, had been removed on Wednesday.
The university confirmed this, saying that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration was responsible.
Law student Nana Adoma Asare Adei told the BBC: “Having his statue means that we stand for everything he stands for and if he stands for these things [his alleged racism], I don’t think we should have his statue on campus.”
Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most celebrated figures of the 20th Century. He is best known for leading non-violent resistance to British colonial rule in India.
However, as a young man he lived and worked in South Africa, and although he has inspired people throughout the world his comments on black Africans have been controversial.
In his early writings he referred to black South Africans as “kaffirs” – a highly offensive racist slur. He also said that Indians were “infinitely superior” to black people.
Image captionKhazanchi Nath was born two years ago as his mother Sarvesha Devi stood in a bank queue to withdraw cash
He arrived in the world with a bang. His birth in a bank queue made global news. But two-year-old Khazanchi Nath is now at the centre of a bitter fight between the two sides of his family and two villages because of his celebrity status. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey travels to rural Kanpur in northern India to piece together the toddler’s story.
Khazanchi, which means “treasurer”, was born in the state of Uttar Pradesh on 2 December 2016, less than a month after the Indian government banned 1,000 and 500 rupee notes overnight.
The decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, locally called demonetisation, led to a major cash crunch and for weeks millions of Indians were seen queuing outside banks to withdraw new currency notes.
A very heavily pregnant Sarvesha Devi had walked from her home in Sardar Pur village to the bank in Jhinjhak town and taken her place in the line – along with her mother-in-law Sashi Devi, her eldest child, 10-year-old daughter Priti, and hundreds of others – when she went into labour.
Her story made headlines and tiny Khazanchi became the poster boy in the state election campaign against India’s ruling BJP. When he was just over two months old, I travelled to their dusty village to see him.
Image captionKhazanchi’s birth made global news
Four months before his birth, his father had died from tuberculosis. Describing the trauma of giving birth in the bank, his mother told me she too would have died if it wasn’t for her mother-in-law.
But last week, when I wanted to see Khazanchi again, I had to visit another dusty village – Anantpur Dhaukal, where his mother moved last year after a bitter row with her in-laws. It’s where Sarvesha Devi’s parental home is, where her mother and three brothers live with their families.
Khazanchi is curious about me – he fixes his kohl-lined eyes on me and, at his mother’s prompting, shakes my hand. I ask him who painted his nails deep pink. He smiles and points at Priti, his sister.
Unaware of the bitter battle being fought over him, he seems more interested in my glasses and tries to snatch away my phone when I get close to him to take a photo.
Sarvesha Devi borrows two wobbly plastic chairs from a neighbour’s house and we sit facing each other to chat. Within minutes, Khazanchi begins to get cranky. “He’s hungry,” she says and starts breastfeeding him. By now, word has spread about my visit and we are soon joined by her mother, her brothers and a few neighbours.
Once Khazanchi has quietened down, I ask Sarvesha Devi about her relationship with her mother-in-law. This time, she has nothing complimentary to say about Sashi Devi. In fact, the relationship has soured so much that she talks about threats to life – her own and Khazanchi’s.
After her baby was born, Sarvesha Devi was awarded 200,000 rupees ($2,990; £2,395) as compensation from the government for having to give birth in a bank queue.
Image captionKhazanchi lives with his mother and four siblings
The previously life-saving, loving mother-in-law is now described as the dreaded monster-in-law whom she accuses of hitting her regularly and demanding half the compensation money.
It’s a significant amount of money for a family steeped in poverty with no fixed sources of income. And it was then that the family relations began unravelling.
So what happened that tore the family apart like this? That’s the question I posed to Sarvesha Devi – and to her mother-in-law when I visited her later in Sardar Pur. And their family members and villagers.
In the claims and counterclaims, sometimes it’s difficult to sift the truth from falsehood, to understand who’s being honest and who’s just exaggerating.
Khazanchi’s family belongs to the Baiga tribe, which is among India’s poorest and most deprived communities. They have little education, own no land and most make a living through begging.
Traditionally though, the Baigas were snake-charmers, and even though catching snakes was outlawed a long time ago, every time I’ve visited them, they’ve proudly shown off reptiles.
Image captionKhazanchi’s family belongs to the Baiga tribe, who have traditionally worked as snake-charmers
This time too, one villager asks me if I want to see the latest catch and even before I can respond, an angry baby cobra is brought out of a basket. He prods and pokes the reptile which begins to crawl on the ground, less than a metre from me. It’s defanged, he assures me.
It’ll grow up to three times its current size, he explains before packing it back in the basket. I keep a wary eye on it as we resume talking.
Uttar Pradesh, where Sardar Pur and Anantpur Dhaukal villages are located, is India’s most populous state. It’s home to more than 200 million people and more than 15,000 babies are born here daily, so it’s difficult to imagine that the birth of one child could generate much excitement.
But Khazanchi was catapulted to stardom because of the circumstances of his birth, and that it came at a time when the state was getting ready to hold key regional elections. The then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav used the “birth in the bank queue” to point out what a misadventure demonetisation had been.
He invoked the infant at every political rally, insisting that PM Modi’s currency ban had hurt the poor most, the sort of family that is Khazanchi’s.
A few months after his birth, Mr Yadav presented his mother with the compensation money.
Image captionJust after Khazanchi’s birth, Sarvesha Devi (right) said she would have died if were not for her mother-in-law
Sarvesha Devi says she spent a part of it clearing debts her husband had left and on the treatment of her eldest son, who also suffers from tuberculosis. The remainder has been secured in a bank deposit.
But then, she says, her mother-in-law demanded half the reward money and when she refused, “the family threw me on the ground and beat me up”. And that’s when she decided to leave.
The 37-year-old mother-of-five, who walks with a very pronounced limp, says she refused to part with the money because “I’m disabled and with my husband gone, there’s no-one to look after my children and I have to secure our future”.
Relations further deteriorated after she moved. Malkhan Nath, her eldest brother, says he’s come under pressure from the community to send her back.
“We keep telling her that’s your family, your home, please go back, but she refuses because she says they beat her and treat her badly. We don’t know what to do. She’s my sister: how can I tell her to go if she doesn’t want to?”
The family dispute is now in the community court that Malkhan Nath calls their “high court”. It comprises prominent community elders who adjudicate in matters involving Baigas. Their rulings are not legally binding, but they’re rarely ignored because the defiant can face a social boycott and have to pay monetary fines.
Malkhan Nath says that in the past year he’s had to appear before the “court” three times, and that once he had to pay 650 rupees as a fine because his sister defied the order to appear along with Khazanchi.
Image captionMalkhan Nath says he’s come under pressure from the community to send his sister back to her in-laws’ home
Matters came to a head earlier this month. On 1 December, a day before Khazanchi’s birthday, Sarvesha Devi says two car-loads of officials turned up late at night at her home.
“I was just sitting down for dinner and Khazanchi was asleep. They insisted that we go with them to Sardar Pur for his birthday celebrations the next day. I refused, so they picked him up and took him to the car. He woke up and started crying. We raised an alarm and chased them. All our neighbours came over and helped us rescue him. They were trying to kidnap him,” she insists.
Though Mr Yadav didn’t win last year’s regional election, he has maintained contact with Khazanchi. Local journalists say he had planned to use the toddler as his mascot for the general elections due in the summer and had announced that he would be gifting him two homes on his birthday – one each in Sardar Pur and Anantpur Dhaukal.
The plan was for the former chief minister to visit Sardar Pur on his birthday and hand over the keys to Khazanchi. With local journalists invited to cover the celebrations, it was meant to be a perfect photo-op.
But when Mr Yadav arrived at Sardar Pur, Khazanchi wasn’t there so the keys were handed over to Sashi Devi.
Clearly disappointed at the toddler’s absence, Mr Yadav said he didn’t know about the “battle between his maternal and paternal grandmothers” and sacked two senior party colleagues for “embarrassing” him.
Image captionSashi Devi’s relations with her daughter-in-law have turned bitter in the last year
A few days later when I visited Sardar Pur, I found the spanking new house right by the roadside. Sashi Devi had gone to the market, so I chatted with her relatives and neighbours as I waited for her return. The marigold flowers used to decorate the house had nearly wilted, and the mood was downbeat too.
“A lot of people had gathered to see Khazanchi, but his mother chose to stay away,” says his great-uncle Asharfi Nath. “Mr Yadav had come laden with presents, but he took it back. Sarvesha Devi could have come for an hour. By refusing to attend the celebrations, she humiliated Mr Yadav.”
The villagers say all was well until Khazanchi’s birth and they blame “the greed and jealousy of his mother’s family and her village” for ruining things. They allege that her family wants her money and her village believes that if the boy stays there, they will see development.
The villagers also darkly hint at a wider political conspiracy – Sardar Pur supports Mr Yadav’s Samajwadi Party while Anantpur Dhaukal is dominated by upper-caste Thakurs who support Mr Modi’s BJP.
Mulayam Nath, a villager, says if Sarvesha Devi doesn’t want to return, she can stay on in her parental village but “she must send Khazanchi back because he is our baby, he belongs to our village. The progress and the benefits the authorities have promised must come to us”.
By the time Sashi Devi returns, it’s beginning to get dark. She squats on the ground outside the newly constructed house as I ask her to respond to the allegations against her.
“It’s all lies,” she says. “I never asked my daughter-in-law for any money. She’s been coached to say what she’s saying.”
Sashi Devi talks about how Sarvesha Devi and her five children were fed and clothed by the family when her son was too sick to work. And in the months after his death, how the little money her husband and other sons brought home was shared with her even though no-one was obliged to do so.
She rejects allegations that they ever hit Sarvesha Devi. “I have four more daughters-in-law and 16 grandchildren. How come no-one else gets hit?” she asks.
She has her own stories of assault and abuse: “I went to her village twice to bring her and the children back. Each time, they hid Khazanchi, and the women there assaulted me.”
Sashi Devi also rubbishes the charge that she or any of her family members could hurt Sarvesha Devi or Khazanchi. “How can we kill our own daughter-in-law and grandchild?”
As I prepare to leave, I ask her if there’s any chance of a reconciliation, but she’s not very hopeful.
“I’ve met her thrice recently and asked her to come back and live in her new house, but she has refused,” she says, wiping a tear with the corner of her sari. “Earlier, I lost my son. Now I’ve lost my grandchildren too.”
In a big victory for the Narendra Modi led NDA government, the Supreme Court on Friday gave a clean chit to the Centre on the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
A three-Judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed all the petitions, and said no Rafale probe was required.
The petitions seeking probe into the deal were filed by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, advocates M.L.Sharma and Vineet Dhanda, and AAP lawmaker in Parliament Sanjay Singh.
Taking up the petitions on Friday, the CJI said the court studied the materials carefully and interacted with defence officials, and was “satisfied” with the NDA government’s decision making process.
Here’s what the Supreme Court said in its order:
“The court does not find substantial matter to interfere with issue of procurement, pricing and offset partner in Rafale jet deal.”
“We studied the materials carefully, interacted with defence officials and we are satisfied with decision making process.”
“This is not court’s job to deal with pricing details of Rafale fighter jets.”
“We are satisfied that there is no occasion to doubt the procurement process. A country cannot afford to be under-prepared. Not correct for the court to sit as an appellant authority and scrutinise all aspects.”
“There is no reason for interference in the choice of offset partner and perception of individuals can’t be the basis for roving inquiry in sensitive issue of defence procurement.”
“We do not find any material to show that it is commercial favouritism.”
“We cannot compel the government to purchase 126 aircraft.”
“There has been necessity of fighter aircraft and country cannot remain without fighter jets.”
The bench had on November 14 reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking a Rafale probe.
Reserving its verdict, the Supreme Court had said the pricing details of Rafale jets could only be discussed once it decided on whether to make it public.
The observation by the apex court had come after the government refused to publicly divulge pricing details of the deal, saying the Rafale deal pricing details are a matter of “national security” and cannot come under judicial review.
The verdict comes as a major boost for the Narendra Modi government that had been cornered over the Rafale deal ahead of the five-state Assembly elections.
Manufactured by aerospace company Dassault Aviation, the Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft.
India has signed an agreement with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft, costing approximately Rs 58,000-crore (about USD 8 billion), in a fly-away condition for Indian Air Force equipment upgrade.
The verdict comes as a major boost for the Narendra Modi government that had been cornered over the Rafale deal ahead of the five-state Assembly elections.
SNS Web | New Delhi | December 14, 2018 12:27 pm
n a big victory for the Narendra Modi led NDA government, the Supreme Court on Friday gave a clean chit to the Centre on the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
A three-Judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed all the petitions, and said no Rafale probe was required.
The petitions seeking probe into the deal were filed by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, advocates M.L.Sharma and Vineet Dhanda, and AAP lawmaker in Parliament Sanjay Singh.
Taking up the petitions on Friday, the CJI said the court studied the materials carefully and interacted with defence officials, and was “satisfied” with the NDA government’s decision making process.
Here’s what the Supreme Court said in its order:
“The court does not find substantial matter to interfere with issue of procurement, pricing and offset partner in Rafale jet deal.”
“We studied the materials carefully, interacted with defence officials and we are satisfied with decision making process.”
“This is not court’s job to deal with pricing details of Rafale fighter jets.”
“We are satisfied that there is no occasion to doubt the procurement process. A country cannot afford to be under-prepared. Not correct for the court to sit as an appellant authority and scrutinise all aspects.”
“There is no reason for interference in the choice of offset partner and perception of individuals can’t be the basis for roving inquiry in sensitive issue of defence procurement.”
“We do not find any material to show that it is commercial favouritism.”
“We cannot compel the government to purchase 126 aircraft.”
“There has been necessity of fighter aircraft and country cannot remain without fighter jets.”
The bench had on November 14 reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking a Rafale probe.
Reserving its verdict, the Supreme Court had said the pricing details of Rafale jets could only be discussed once it decided on whether to make it public.
The observation by the apex court had come after the government refused to publicly divulge pricing details of the deal, saying the Rafale deal pricing details are a matter of “national security” and cannot come under judicial review.
The verdict comes as a major boost for the Narendra Modi government that had been cornered over the Rafale deal ahead of the five-state Assembly elections.
Manufactured by aerospace company Dassault Aviation, the Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft.
India has signed an agreement with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft, costing approximately Rs 58,000-crore (about USD 8 billion), in a fly-away condition for Indian Air Force equipment upgrade.
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