Timeline Refresh
As the number of critical polling booths has increased by 107 since the last Delhi Assembly elections, the number of security personnel has also gone up in the national capital.
In 2013 Assembly polls, there were 634 such critical premises, but this time around, 741 premises have been identified as critical.
Of these numbers, poll panel has identified 191 polling stations as highly critical. While 64,000 police personnel had been deployed on poll duty during last elections, poll panel has not disclosed the exact number this time.
Is Bedi doing a Kerjiwal? AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, who is bitterly against the ubiquitous "VIP culture", had taken the Delhi Metro to reach the Ramlila Maidan to take oath as Delhi's chief minister in 2013.
Campaigning, incidentally, may have ended for the Delhi polls yesterday, but this is a good way to draw attention.
"Film actors don't have political understanding. They talk in a filmy way and do not have an ear to the ground," state BJP chief, Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan, said in reply to a question.
"Kejriwal's image has been good.. he too is a decent and good person," Sinha had said yesterday, at a time when his party is going hammer and tongs at the AAP leader.
Also, over 800 voters belonging to the third gender are registered in the electoral rolls for the polling scheduled tomorrow.
"There are 311 electors over the age of 100 years in the national capital. These persons are eligible to cast their votes in the Assembly elections," Delhi Chief Electoral Office Chandra Bhushan Kumar said.
Over 1.33 crore electorate will decide the fate of 673 candidates in the fray for the Delhi Assembly elections.
"There are also 862 such voters who belong to the third gender in the city," Bhushan said.
According to the Election Commission, the number of total electorate in Delhi stands at 1,33,09,078 -- 73,89,089 males; 59,19,127 females.
There are 2,27,316 voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years while 36,93,975 electors are in the age group of 20 to 29 years.
According to the EC, polling will take place at 12,177 polling stations, of which 714 have been identified as "critical". Of these, 191 are "highly critical".
For the first time, indelible ink will be applied with brush instead of wooden stick.
"When I am asked how I feel about competing with Bachchan sahab, I tell them he is God. I cannot compete against God,' says the actor. He will be seen in a Marathi film after an eight-year gap. Shreyas and the cast of Baji were at the Rediff office for the film's promotion recently, when he found time to speak about a range of subjects related to the film.
Read the interview with Prasanna D Zore/ Rediff.com
Journalist Ashish Khetan also at the presser says the party rejects the "dangerous politics of Bukhari."
The Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari has "appealed to all Muslims to support AAP candidates and help form a secular government in Delhi."
The imam catapults himself in the news during each election by offering support to parties which have so-called secular credentials.
During the Lok Sabha polls, AICC president Sonia Gandhi met Bukhari, triggering a political row. The religious leader then announced his support to the Congress, the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar.
India Today Group chairperson and editor in chief Aroon Purie said, "He is the master who redefined the sport for the world's most passionate cricketing nation. A World Cup without him is nothing but unimaginable. His presence on the shows will help fill the void in cricket since his last match. It is an honour for the group to have the legend himself on our channels.'
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"We are against foreign countries interfering in China's domestic affairs under the pretext of Tibet-related issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
"The Dalai Lama is seeking support from foreign counties to realise his political end, but he cannot succeed," Hong said. "The Dalai Lama is a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the pretext of religion," he said. Obama yesterday welcomed the Dalai Lama at a prayer breakfast in Washington, but did not meet him directly.
Rajnath responds saying religious tolerance is inherent in Indian culture. "Sects of all Muslims/Parsi/Christians are found in India. In our nation we do not discriminate on the basis of caste/creed/religion," he said.
The US has been carrying out airstrikes against the terrorists, most commonly known as ISIS, in Iraq and Syria since August and September, respectively.
In doing so, Obama has been relying on congressional authorizations that President George W. Bush used to justify military action after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Critics have called the White House's use of post-9/11 congressional authorizations a legal stretch, though Obama has previously argued that a new authorization isn't legally necessary.
Feb 16-17, 2002: Vikas and Vishal Yadav allegedly abduct Nitish Katara from a wedding of his classmate Shivani Gaur in Ghaziabad on the night of February 16, 2002. They allegedly kill Nitish for his intimacy with Bharti Yadav.
Feb 20: The burnt body of Nitish Katara is found near Hapur crossing in a village Khurja in Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh. The Police find Vikas and Vishal as immediate suspect. Bharti leaves for the United Kingdom.
Mar 11: The Tata Safari, which was used in the murder, is recovered from G T Road, Karnal.
Mar 31: The UP Police files a four page charge sheet in the murder case.
Apr 23: The police arrest both the accused Vikas and Vishal from Madhya Pradesh.
Aug 23: The Supreme Court directs transfer of Nitish Katara murder case from a Ghaziabad sessions court to a competent court of the same jurisdiction in Delhi when mother of the victim, Neelam Katara, appealed that she feared miscarriage of justice in Ghaziabad.
Nov 23: Court frames charges against the accused in the murder case. A separate trial starts against the third accused in the case, Sukhdev Pehalwan, who was arrested in 2005.
Apr 7, 2003: First summon issued for Bharti by court requiring her presence for recording her statement.
Nov 25, 2006: After three years of notice and summons, the prime witness in the murder case Bharti Yadav returns to India when the court threatens to declare her a proclaimed offender.
Dec 2007: Prosecution wraps up their final arguments in the case and claims Bhartis alleged proximity to Nitish is the cause for the murder of Nitish by Vikas and Vishal.
Apr 2, 2008: Trial court begins hearing the murder case on a day-to-day basis.
Apr 23: Trial concludes in the case.
May 27: Court fixes May 28 for pronouncement of verdict.
May 28: Trial court finds both Vikas and Vishal guilty in Nitish Katara murder case.
May 30: Court sentences both the convicts to life term.
July 1: Nitishs mother Neelam Katara approaches Delhi High Court seeking death penalty for Vikas and Vishal.
Sept 5: Vikas and Vishal files appeal in high court challenging the trial court verdict.
Jul 6, 2011: Trial court convicts Sukhdev Pehalwan in the case.
Jul 10: Court awards life imprisonment to Sukhdev.
Apr 16, 2013: High court reserves its judgement on appeals filed by Neelam, three convicts and prosecution.
Apr 2, 2014: High court upholds conviction of Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev, says it was a case of honour killing. High Court fixes Apr 25 to hear arguments on quantum of punishment.
Feb 6, 2015: HC strikes down death penalty plea, slaps a 25-year life term for the Yadavs.
Pic: Neelam Katara, the victim's mother, who has fought a long, hard battle to get justice.
convicts for destruction of evidence in the case.
The Yadavs also have to pay a fine of Rs 50 lakh each.
It may be recalled that in October last year, BJP chief Amit Shah had shared the stage with mafia don-turned-poltician DP Yadav (Vikas Yadav's father) at a rally in Haryana.
Yadav called the BJP president Amit Shah his "friend" and said that he might "definitely" join the party as he toured with Shah in Haryana which was then poll-bound.
DP Yadav was inducted into the BJP on February 20, 2004, but his membership was terminated after only four days following a hue and cry over his criminal antecedents.
"If people like DP Yadav have ache din ahead of him, then I wonder what is in store for the rest of us," Neelam Katara had said, adding, "Anyone who cares for his mother will stand by me."
The Yadavs, however get a 25-year jail term, without remission.
The court has instead slapped a 25-year-jail term, a rigorous imprisonment "without any hope of remission" for the Yadavs.
All the three men are serving a life term for abducting and killing Katara, a business executive and the son of an IAS officer, on the night of February 16-17, 2002, as they opposed the victim's affair with Bharti, the Yadav's sister.
A special bench of justices Gita Mittal and and JR Midha delivered the verdict in the 13-year-old case after concluding hearing arguments on sentence against the convicts on December 8 last year.
The court has been hearing arguments on the punishment to be awarded to the three convicts since April 2014.
The convicts have sought leniency in sentencing as well as exemption from death sentence saying their act was not so brutal or gruesome that it deserved capital punishment and they can reform.
On the other hand, the victim's mother, Neelam Katara, and the Delhi Police have demanded death for the trio, terming their offence to be the rarest of rare. If not capital punishment, the convicts be handed down an enhanced life sentence, they have contended.
The High Court had on April 2, 2014, upheld the verdict of the lower court in the case by describing the offence as "honour killing" stemming from a "deeply-entrenched belief" in caste system.
Katara was abducted and killed by Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev as they did not approve of the victim's affair with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the court had said.
The High Court had dismissed the appeals of the convicts and kept pending two separate pleas of the state and Neelam Katara seeking death penalty for them.
Pic: A file pic of Bharti Yadav and Nitish Katara.
First Christopher Hitchens took her down, then we learned that her faith wasn't as strong as we thought, and now a new study from the Universit de Montral is poised to completely destroy what shreds are left of Mother Teresa's reputation. She was the winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, was beatified and is well on her way to becoming a saint, and she's universally admired." Read
Bhagat refers to the Taseer's interview with Rediff.com where he says, and we quote, "In other countries when they are having kind of a moment in which they are writing about significant things, you see some great literature come out.
"Chetan Bhagat is not great literature.
"So maybe, like, the Indian moment is not such an exciting moment. I mean, he represents an extraordinary phenomenon where he's writing about things everyone wants to read about.
"The material is good, he writes in a language that everyone can read but no one wants to read them outside India."
Read Aatish Taseer's interview with Nishi Tiwari/Rediff.com here
Pic: The picture tweeted by Chetan Bhagat of his books translated into other languages.
Rahul held a meeting with senior Congress leaders to discuss issues related to organisational election that is aimed at making the party fighting fit after a series of poll debacles including in the Lok Sabha.
The meeting was attended by party general secretaries and senior office bearers, besides Mullapalli Ramchandran, head of the Congress Central Election Authority, that has been given the responsibility of conducting the party polls.
Significantly, the meeting was convened just a day ahead of Assembly polls in Delhi.
As per the current schedule, the membership drive of the party is concluding by the end of this month following which the process for organisational elections will be set in motion.
The process will culminate with the election of a new party President by the year end.
Today's meeting could make some changes in the schedule. Organisational weakness has been cited one of the major reasons for the debacle of Congress starting from 2010 Assembly elections in Bihar and followed by Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh in 2012.
It was one of the factors responsible for the abysmal show by the party in last year's Lok Sabha polls, apart from price rise and perception of corruption. Congress tally plummeted to a mere 44 from 206 the previous time.
Pic: Sunita Krishnan's car was stoned minutes after her interview with NDTV.
This ire against the media is only going to be heightened by the latest edition of Outlook magazine, with Amit Shah on the cover.
Not for his stellar helming of the BJP in various elections, or for the challenge he is facing from a newbie party in Delhi. Outlook's cover headline says 'The curious case of Amit Shah', which it goes on to explain thus: 'The summary discharge of the BJP president - Accused no. 16 in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh false encounter case - by a CBI special court raises disturbing questions about the carriage of justice.'
Coming at the time of the Delhi elections, should make for a good read.
The videos on WhatsApp show five smiling men gang-raping a women. They take turns to rape the women even as she begs them to let her go.
Krishnan told NDTV, "Ten seconds into the video, I was overcome. I had to stop as I needed to throw up," she told NDTV.
She said an acquaintance alerted her to the videos after receiving them on WhatsApp.
Krishnan who is herself a gang-rape survivor said she is determined to find the men and get them arrested. She asked her husband, a filmmaker to edit the video to protect the woman's identity, but highlight the faces of the men who raped her.
The edited video was posted on YouTube yesterday to start a national campaign to shame the rapists.
This morning, minutes after she appeared on NDTV to announce the #ShameTheRapistCampaign, her car was stoned.
The video is believed to be at least six-months old, but if you have seen the men, Krishnan asks to be informed at sunitha_2002@yahoo.com.
Kejriwal says, "The PM will answer Obama, they are good friends."
During Obama's visit to Delhi over the Republic Day weekend Prime Minister Narendra Modi went beyond protocol when he, more than once referred to the US president, as Barack at the joint media appearance.
President Obama, for his part, either referred to his host as either Prime Minister Modi or Modi.
Harvard said in a statement released Thursday the change came as part of a formal review of its policy on Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures determined the university's language on "relationships of unequal status' was not strong enough.
Vikas, his cousin Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehelwan are serving life term for abducting and killing Mr Katara, a business executive and the son of an IAS officer, on the night of February 16-17, 2002, as they opposed the victim's affair with Bharti, daughter of DP Yadav.
A special bench of justices Gita Mittal and and JR Midha will deliver the verdict in the 13-year-old case after concluding hearing arguments on sentence against the convicts on December 8 last year.
The court has been hearing arguments on the punishment to be awarded to the three convicts since April 2014.
The convicts have sought leniency in sentencing as well as exemption from death sentence saying their act was not so brutal or gruesome that it deserved capital punishment and they can reform.
On the other hand, the victim's mother, Neelam Katara, and the Delhi Police have demanded death for the trio, terming their offence to be the rarest of rare. If not capital punishment, the convicts be handed down an enhanced life sentence, they have contended.
The High Court had on April 2, 2014, upheld the verdict of the lower court in the case by describing the offence as "honour killing" stemming from a "deeply-entrenched belief" in caste system.
Katara was abducted and killed by Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev as they did not approve of the victim's affair with Bharti because they belonged to different castes, the court had said.
The High Court had dismissed the appeals of the convicts and kept pending two separate pleas of the state and Neelam Katara seeking death penalty for them.
"Today Delhi has seen that every paper has a front page advertisement given by BJP. In my opinion this is clear-cut violation of the EC guidelines and the Model Code of Conduct," AAP leader Ashutosh told reporters.
"My question is that if such ads are not allowed on TV after the campaigning process has ended, why should they be allowed in newspapers? The law should change. If widely circulated papers carry such ads then it will certainly influence minds of people," he said.
Ashutosh also took to Twitter to question BJP's source of funding behind these advertisements."From where BJP gets money to give front page AD in every newspaper. These ads are most expensive and costly," he said in a tweet.
"Every paper in Delhi is carrying front page BJP AD. What is the source of money ? AAP's fight is Ag money power," said Ashutosh in another tweet.
Responding to the allegations, BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha said, "AAP's claim that the advertisement is violation of poll code, I believe is ignorance from their side. Either they do not know about the law or Model Code of Conduct or they are making such statements deliberately to remain in news."
"The ad just talks about the positive agenda of BJP which the party wants the public to know. There is no violation of any kind. Such ads can be given till the day of polling," he added.
In a 25-minute address to the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama who last month visited India with First Lady Michelle called it "an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity".
But it was also "a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs", he said. These, Obama said, were "acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation," he said.
"So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith," he told the meeting, attended by several international leaders including the Dalai Lama.
"We see faith driving us to do right. But we also see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge - or, worse, sometimes used as a weapon," Obama said.
"From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith, their faith, professed to stand up for Islam, but, in fact, are betraying it," he said.
Earlier this week, a senior aide of Obama had said that Obama's last speech in New Delhi referring to the need for religious tolerance in India had been misconstrued by some commentators as a kind of a parting shot.
The BJP could, and should, have called for early elections in Delhi to take advantage of the support demonstrated in the Lok Sabha elections, where it won all of Delhi's seven parliamentary seats, taking a clear lead in 60 of the city's 70 assembly segments.
Instead, the party dithered though nobody in the BJP could explain quite what it hoped to achieve. Did the BJP think that given time it could do better than winning 60 out of 70? Or was it hoping for defections from the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress?
Read more on Rediff.com
Pic: With campaigning ending yesterday, Arvind Kejriwal limbers up at his home in Kaushambi, Delhi.
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