maulana yaseen akhtar misbahi

Delhi Police apologises, releases Jamia Nagar Imam after much furore DDN Correspondent Posted on 21 Jan, 2015 at 09:03:PM IST Delhi Police finally released Imam Yaseen Akhtar Misbahi of Jamia Nagar after huge protests outside the police station and apologised for the incident. It may be noted here that the Imam is 85 years old and was arrested for a book he had written in 2003 in which there was a reference to the word 'Jihad' that too was mentioned with the caution that Jihad should be taken up only after consulting one's conscience. The whole situation had gotten really tense and volatile after the old Imam was picked up by the police for questioning. Large scale protests against the Imam's arrest were led by Okhla's Aam Aadmi Party leader Amanatullah Khan which played a big part in his subsequent release. Also it is with the efforts of AAP's Amanatullah Khan that the situation could be diffused without any untoward incident. Khan spoke to locals and persuaded them to maintain calm. The elderly Imam remained in police custody for about four hours, after which he says that the police asked him whether he has helped any terrorists. He added that all this has been done at the behest of BJP and there are some local Congress leaders involved as well. If this is true then it is really sad that politics has stooped to such low levels. TwoCircles.net Delivering news, not profit Sufi Imam picked up by Delhi police; released after furor Submitted by TwoCircles.net on 21 January 2015 - 8:36pm By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net, New Delhi: Delhi police special cell on Wednesday picked up a renowned Sufi Imam from Jamia Nagar area for what they claimed to be “questioning” in connection with one of his books. Supporters along with local political leaders gheroed the police station demanding apology. The Maulana was later released. Maulana Yaseen Akhtar Misbahi, who runs the prestigious Darul Kalam madrassa and is also the founder of the Qadri mosque, was picked up from the mosque’s office at Zakir Nagar in Jamia area at around 3 pm, locals said. Almost touching 80, the veteran Barelvi teacher, could not even walk on his own and needs support. The police claimed to have picked him up for a recent English translation of his original Urdu book ’24 Ayat Ka Qurani Mafhoom’ – loosely translated as ‘The Real Meaning of 24 verses of Quran related to Jihad’. Among several of his book, Misbahi, who had been an Urdu journalist in the past, had also written ‘RSS Ke Agende’. As soon as the people from the locality came to know about the incident, they started gathering at the Jamia Nagar police station. Congress’ Asif Mohammad Khan, the sitting MLA from the area, and Amanatullah Khan, the Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate select for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections, too reached there. The gathering of about 200 people started sloganeering demanding the SHO to apologise. At around 7 pm, one of the police officials came out and announced that the Maulana was taken only for questioning and that he was returning only to be delayed because of traffic due to the crowd in front of the police station. He finally reached the area around 8 pm. Meanwhile, the SHO too had apologised to the people. Amanatullah Khan claimed police had not followed any laid down procedure before picking up the Maulana. The police have tightened security in view of the forthcoming visit of the US President Barak Obama next week and also ahead of the Delhi assembly elections on February 7. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in April - May 2014, two youth from the locality were similarly picked up.

Arvind Panagariya NITI

Honoured to be Appointed by PM Narendra Modi to NITI Aayog: Arvind Panagariya All India | Press Trust of India | Updated: January 06, 2015 13:00 IST New York: Indian-American economist Arvind Panagariya has said that he is "honoured" to be appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the first Vice Chairman of the newly created NITI Aayog, which replaces the 65-year-old Planning Commission. "I am honoured by this appointment, and I look forward to working with Prime Minister Modi and policymakers across India," Mr Panagariya was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Columbia University in New York yesterday. Mr Panagariya is the professor of economics and the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy in the Department of International and Public Affairs. He will take a leave of absence from Columbia to accept his position at the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. Related Arvind Panagariya: A Free-Market Economist and Supporter of Gujarat Model Columbia Economist Arvind Panagariya To Run PM Modi's Policy Panel Arvind Panagariya, PM Modi's New Planning Panel Chief The 62-year-old professor said he expects to continue to engage with Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) "when such opportunities arise" and will resume his work at the School when his assignment is completed. In his new cabinet position, Mr Panagariya will work closely with Modi, who will serve as chair of the renamed institution. Officials envision NITI Aayog as a government "think tank" that will provide strategic and technical advising on key issues. Mr Panagariya, who has been a strong supporter of PM Modi's Gujarat model of development, had said some months ago that he wants the BJP government's first budget to boost capital spending even at the risk of a higher fiscal deficit. He has earlier worked with various international bodies like World Bank, IMF and Asian Development Bank (ADB). Holding a PhD degree in Economics from Princeton University, Mr Panagariya has also worked for the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in various capacities. During an address at Columbia in September last year on what the PM Modi government must do to transform the Indian economy, he had said a replacement for the Planning Commission must be "lean and thin" and had termed as "brave" the decision by PM Modi to do away with the 1950-dated institution. Mr Panagariya had suggested that PM Modi should put in "as lean and thin a team" for the Commission's replacement with 10-12 people and "lots of resources so that they can draw on the experts as necessary" and then periodically that team should meet with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister. SIPA Dean Merit Janow congratulated Mr Panagariya on his new role and said his global perspective and broad experience would serve him well as the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog. Story First Published: January 06, 2015 12:54 IST

mock drill

After skull cap row, Gujarat police makes dummy 'terrorists' shout 'Islam Zindabad' Friday, 2 January 2015 - 9:15am IST | Place: Gujarat | Agency: PTI A video of police mock drill showing dummy militants shouting pro-Islamic slogan emerged on Thursday in Gujarat, a day after controversy erupted over men, playing the part of terrorists, being made to wear skullcaps in a similar exercise in Surat. Reacting to the Surat episode that came to light yesterday, Chief Minister Anandi Patel admitted it as a "mistake" to show people posing as terrorists in the drill in skullcaps. The latest video is of another anti-terror mock drill at Narmada dam site in Kevadia area of Narmada district. It shows policemen holding two dummy terrorists who were shouting "take our lives, if you want. Islam Zindabad (long live Islam)". When contacted by PTI, Narmada Superintendent of Police Jaypalsinh Rathore said an inquiry will be conducted into the issue. "I came to know about this incident (of projecting terrorists as Muslims) through media. If such an incident has happened, we will conduct an inquiry and take necessary actions against those responsible," he said. "The mock drill was a routine police exercise which was conducted a week ago in Kevadia area," Rathore added. As the Surat episode generated controversy and invited criticism from several quarters, including from the chief of Gujarat BJP Minority Cell, Patel told a TV channel it is wrong to link religion with terrorism. "It's wrong to link religion with terrorism. The issue has been resolved and the matter should be put to rest now. The mistake has been rectified," she said. The anti-terror drills were conducted ahead of the two high-profile events being held in the state - Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (January 7 to 9) and Vibrant Gujarat Investors Summit (January 11 to 13) - both in Gandhinagar.

Neeti Ayog

Planning Commission renamed 'Neeti Ayog' Last Updated: Thursday, January 1, 2015 - 11:54 Zee Media Bureau New Delhi: Following up on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day announcement that the Planning Commission would be replaced, the government, Thursday, renamed the plan panel as 'Neeti Ayog'. The renaming of the Planning Commission is being seen as the first step towards replacing it with a new-age institution. The Prime Minister had called meeting of all chief ministers recently to deliberate on the structure of the new body which would replace the Commission. The majority view that emerged after the meeting was in favour of decentralisation of power. Congress-ruled states, however, had reservations about dismantling an institution which was set up by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and they suggested restructuring of the existing body, rather than a complete replacement. Incidentally, Nehru himself is said to have faced resistance to the idea of setting up of the Planning Commission, but it went on to become a major platform for successive governments to formulate and push forward economic policies and other development plans. Finance Minister had then said that a principle of 'cooperative federalism' is being followed in setting up the new body in place of Planning Commission. "Our government stands by the principle of cooperative federalism, empowering states, least number of central schemes and more state schemes," Jaitley said while replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha. The Planning Commission was set up by a simple government resolution in March 1950 and has withstood many political and economic upheavals, as also some occasional controversies, including those related to its poverty estimates as also about a huge toilet renovation bill and foreign tour expenses of its last Deputy Chairman. The plan panel has commissioned 12 five-year plans and six annual plans involving fund outlays of over Rs 200 lakh crore in its 65-year-history. It was set up initially as part of the government's declared objectives to promote a rapid rise in the standard of living of the people by efficient exploitation of resources, increasing production and offering employment opportunities. The Commission was charged with the responsibility of assessing all resources of the country, augmenting deficient resources, formulating plans for the most effective and balanced utilisation of resources and determining priorities. The first Five-year Plan was launched in 1951 with total outlay of little over Rs 2,000 crore and two subsequent five-year plans were formulated till 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan Conflict. Two successive years of drought, devaluation of currency, a general rise in prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-year plan was started in 1969. The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing political situation at the Centre and the years 1990-91 and 1991-92 were treated as Annual Plans. The Eighth Plan was finally launched in 1992. For the first eight Plans, the emphasis was on a growing public sector with massive investments in basic and heavy industries, but since the launch of the 9th Plan in 1997, the emphasis on the public sector has become less pronounced and the current thinking on planning in the country, in general, is that it should increasingly be of an indicative nature.

Bharat Ratna 2014

Vajpayee deserves the Bharat Ratna, but then so does PV Narasimha Rao

by R Jagannathan Dec 24, 2014 14:28 IST

The announcement of the Bharat Ratna to Atal Behari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malaviya by the NDA government will partly be seen as the BJP’s effort to pander to its favourite heroes – one living, one long dead.

Neither name is a surprise (their birth anniversaries being 25 December), but if the BJP truly wanted to make a mark with its political choices for Bharat Ratna, it should have named PV Narasimha Rao as well. Rao’s was the hand the steered India out of economic bankruptcy in 1991. But that is another story.

While Vajpayee’s name will be seen as less controversial given his avuncular, “secular” image, Malaviya’s choice will inevitably be seen as linked to the Sangh parivar as he was a member of the Hindu Mahasabha which espouses Hindu nationalism. He was also founder of the Benares Hindu University.

The award to Vajpayee is non-controversial, but Malaviya’s name will surely raise hackles in the “secular” crowd.

Modern historian Ramachandra Guha has already tweeted his dissent, though he posed the argument as one about living and dead awardees. “Giving Bharat Ratna to Vajpayee is fine, but one should not award it to people dead or long dead. Awarding Malaviya is a mistake”, he tweeted.

But then, by this yardstick we should not have awarded BR Ambedkar, Sardar Patel or Maulana Abul Kalam Azad either, for they were towering personalities of pre- and post-independence India who made huge contributions to nation-building.

In fact, the award of the Bharat Ratna to living legends – or non-legends – can equally be questioned, especially given the varying quality of awardees over the years.

What is worrying is that the award has been tweaked for political ends from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru and worthy awardees have been consistently mixed up with not-so-worthy ones.

For example, nothing beggars the mind more than the fact that Nehru awarded himself a Bharat Ratna in 1955, when he was Prime Minister. This sucks.

'Atalji a living Bharat Ratna': Who said what on award given to Vajpayee, Malaviya

Former PM Vajpayee may be chosen for Bharat Ratna

LK Advani backs Bharat Ratna for former PM Vajpayee
The award to Indira Gandhi in 1971 also happened when she was Prime Minister; the only reason why it didn’t seem so bad then was because of her stellar role in the creation of Bangladesh, for which Vajpayee himself called her a “Durga”.

Rajiv Gandhi, whose achievements in one term as PM can be written on the back of a postage stamp, got one in 1991 because he died a terrible death at the hands of an LTTE suicide bomber. It was his death that got him the award, as the country mourned him for the way he died. He was worthy of national mourning, not a Bharat Ratna.

What this shows is that the nation’s highest award is often given for reasons of hubris, politics or sentimentality. In fact, politics is also the reason for denying some equally worthy candidates of the award like the late Narasimha Rao.

If we want to move away from this situation, the award procedure has to be taken out of political hands and a permanent body of eminent persons set up to figure out the right criteria for a short-list from which the government can take a final pick. One could exclude dead persons, or create another category – a Bharat Jyoti, maybe - for honouring those who did not get their due when they were alive.

Coming to the Vajpayee-Malaviya awards announced today (24 December), it is obvious that Vajpayee truly deserved it as he was one of India’s best non-Congress prime ministers, with respect flowing to him from across the political spectrum. With his genial exterior and easygoing ways, Vajpayee steered the country ably from 1998 to 2004 – a period of economic turbulence following the Asian meltdown, the post-Pokharan sanctions, the post-dotcom bust, and the Kargil war. Vajpayee’s government enabled both reforms and economic rejuvenation in difficult circumstances as head of an unwieldy coalition.

As for Malaviya, his selection is the BJP’s tribute to its Hindu constituency and not unlinked to Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency – Varanasi.

You can rubbish this selection or praise it, but if we accept political decisions on the Bharat Ratna as legitimate, you can’t also say that the BJP has no right to honour its own heroes.

However, a truly political – and genuine – act the BJP could have done (as we noted briefly earlier) was to add Narasimha Rao to the Bharat Ratna list this year. Maybe, this can be rectified next year.

If any prime minister post Nehru, Indira and Shastri deserved this award, it was Narasimha Rao (apart from Vajpayee). A churlish Congress party will never honour Rao, with the Gandhi family even denying him a cremation in Delhi.

The BJP would have done yeoman service to the nation by honouring Rao – which would have both made sensible politics and genuine recompense for services rendered to the nation.

Nobel Prizes

All you need to know about Nobel prizes
PTI

The 1936 Nobel Peace Prize
SLIDESHOW
From 1913 to 2014: Indian Nobel Prize winners

From 1901 till this year, Nobel prizes have been awarded 567 times to 864 Laureates and 25 organisations with the youngest winner being Peace Prize awardee Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan at 17 years.

By winning the Peace Nobel at this tender age along with India’s Kailash Satyarthi, Ms. Yousafzai beat the previous record of Lawrence Bragg, who won the Physics Nobel in 1915 at the age of 25.

Kailash Satyarthi (left) and Malala Yousafzai

The word “Laureate” signifies the laurel wreath awarded to winners of athletic competitions and poetic meets in Ancient Greece. In Greek mythology, god Apollo is represented wearing on his head a laurel wreath, a circular crown made of branches and leaves of the bay laurel.

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation say, “If none of the works under consideration is found to be of the importance indicated in the first paragraph, the prize money shall be reserved until the following year.”

“If, even then, the prize cannot be awarded, the amount shall be added to the Foundation’s restricted funds.”

On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace.

In 1968, Sweden’s central bank Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Nobel.

At the Nobel Award ceremonies on December 10, the Laureates receive three things: a Nobel Diploma, a Nobel Medal and a document confirming the Nobel Prize amount.

Each Nobel Diploma is a unique work of art, created by foremost Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers.

The Nobel Medals are handmade with careful precision and in 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold.

The Nobel Prize amount for 2014 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 8.0 million per full Nobel Prize.

Interesting facts

The average age of all Nobel Laureates in all prize categories between 1901 and 2014 is 59 years.

Two most common birthdays among the Nobel Laureates are May 21 and February 28.

Since 1901, prizes have not been awarded 50 times, most of them during World War I (1914-1918) and II (1939-1945).

Leonid Hurwicz has the distinction of being the oldest Nobel recipient at the age of 90 for Economics in 2007.

Till now, 47 women have won the Nobel while two Laureates declined the prize.

Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined it as he had consistently declined all official honours.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord, said he was not in a position to accept the award, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.

Four Laureates were forced by authorities to decline the Nobel.

Adolf Hitler forbade three Germans Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk, from accepting the Nobel Prize.

They, however, received the Nobel Prize Diploma and Medal later but not the prize amount.

Boris Pasternak, the 1958 Nobel Laureate in Literature, initially accepted the Prize but was later coerced by authorities of his native country the Soviet Union to decline the award.

Three Peace Laureates — Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky, Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and Chinese rights activist Liu Xiaobo — were under arrest at the time of the award.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was given the Nobel Peace Prize thrice while its founder Henry Dunant won the first Peace Prize in 1901.

Linus Pauling has the distinction of being the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes — the 1954 Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Peace Prize.

Why is Nobel Peace Prize given by Norway?

Since 1901, when Nobel Prizes were first given, Peace Prize has been awarded by a committee of five, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament Storting in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s will.

Alfred Nobel never disclosed why he didn’t give the task of awarding the Peace Prize to a Swedish body.

The reasons are speculative.

One argument is that Nobel admired Norwegian patriot and leading author Bjornstjerne Bjornson while another is that the Storting was the first national legislature to vote in support for the international peace movement.

Nobel may also have favoured distribution of the tasks related to the Nobel Prizes within the Swedish-Norwegian union or he may have feared that given the highly political nature of the Peace Prize, it might become a tool in power politics thus reducing its significance as an instrument for peace.

“It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not,” Nobel wrote in his will.

During the 20th century, eight Scandinavians have won the Peace Prize — five Swedes, two Norwegians and one Dane.

In the nomination and selection process, the committee has the assistance of a secretary and since the establishment of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in 1904, this person is also the institute’s director.

There have been several criticism and protests against decisions of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1901.

The selection process

The Peace Prize award ceremony on December 10 is the culmination of a long selection process.

According to rules, there can be a maximum of three Laureates in a category every year.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee begins the whole process by inviting nominations which can be submitted by February 1 each year.

Who are entitled to nominate candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize?

Present and past members of the Nobel Committee and advisers at the Nobel Institute; members of national assemblies and governments, and members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice at the Hague and members of the Commission of the Permanent International Peace Bureau.

Besides them, members of the Institut de Droit International and present university professors of law, political science, history and philosophy; and holders of the Nobel Peace Prize can also nominate.

After reviewing their qualifications, a shortlist of the candidates is made.

The announcement of the Laureate’s name is often made on a Friday in mid-October at the Nobel Institute building and the award is presented annually on December 10, the day Alfred Nobel died in 1896.

astrology is superior to science

Science a pygmy when compared to astrology, says BJP MP Ramesh Pokhriyal
Last Updated: Thursday, December 4, 2014 - 10:48
Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Former Uttarakhand CM and BJP MP Ramesh Pokhriyal courted controversy after he declared that astrology is superior to science.
Speaking during a debate in the Parliament on a Bill to give more powers to the School of Planning and Architecture, Pokhriyal said, “Jyotish is a science to make calculations lakhs of years in advance. All other sciences dwarf in front of astrology. It should be taken forward as Jyotish science is number one in the world. There should be a debate on the subject.” The bill was passed by a voice vote.
Pokhriyal added that lakhs of years back, Sage Kanad had conducted a nuclear test. “Our knowledge and science do not lack anything,” he said.
Nishank also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s earlier remarks on the existence of genetic science during prehistoric times. Modi had said that genetic science and plastic surgery explains the the creation of Karna and Lord Ganesha.
“People raised questions on Modiji’s comments on Ganesh’s surgery. It was actually a surgery. The science or knowledge to transplant a severed head existed only in India,” said Nishank.
His comments elicited strong response from opposition benches with MPs protesting against what they termed as 'regressive remarks'.

First Published: Thursday, December 4, 2014 - 10:39