India

The mortal remains of a jawan, who was found dead after a sting video on the "abuse" of buddy system in the army, were laid to rest here after a fresh autopsy was conducted following insistence of his family, who raised doubts over this demise.

Earlier, the body of the 33-year-old jawan, Roy Mathew, was brought to Thiruvanathapuram, the state capital, from Maharashtra by a flight this morning.

Mathew was found hanging from the ceiling of a room in an abandoned barrack in Deolali cantonment in Maharashtra's Nasik on Thursday. His relatives refused to accept that he would have ended his life.

Alleging that there were marks of beating on his feet and blood had clotted in some parts, his relatives, including wife Finy, refused to accept the body until a fresh post-mortem was conducted in Kerala.

Following the plea of the family, a re-post-mortem was conducted at the Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital after which the body was taken to Karuvelil in Ezhukon in Kollam district for the final journey.

Hundreds of people offered tributes to the soldier as the coffin draped in the Indian Tricolour was kept for public homage. The funeral was held later at a local church.

Earlier, the family alleged that disrespect was shown to the body as it was left unattended in a trolley for nearly half an hour at the airport.

Finy, who was at the airport to receive his mortal remains, said, "I need to get justice. I want to know how it happened. I want to see him."

Relatives have alleged that there were injury marks on his body.

Mathew had gone missing on February 25 after he purportedly figured in an expose by a news portal on the "abuse" in the orderly system in the army.

Army has said it had not questioned Mathew after the video surfaced, which showed soldiers, working as sahayaks, walking dogs of senior army officials or taking their children to school.

Mathew had joined the army 13 years ago and was working as artillery gunner with the Rocket Regiment 214 in Nasik camp since the last one year.

KPCC President V M Sudheeran laid a wreath on the body before it was taken to his home town, over 70 km from Thiruvanathpuram.

Former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer and parliamentarian Syed Shahabuddin, who was suffering from a prolonged illness, died at a hospital in this suburb of the national capital on Saturday morning, a close aide said.

"Shahabuddin, former President of All India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat left for heavenly abode this morning at 6.22 a.m., " close associate Navaid Hamid, who is currently President of the All India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat said.

He was admitted at the Jaypee Hospital, Noida.

84 percent turnout was witnessed in nearly three-fourths of the polling stations during phase one of Manipur polls. The Election Commission after providing the numbers said that details from remaining stations is yet to be received.

Brisk polling with a voter turnout of 69 per cent was recorded till 1 pm in the first phase of Manipur assembly election today.

Manipur Chief Electoral Officer Vivek Kumar Dewangan said 69 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in the first five hours of voting.

State Nodal Officer (Elections) W Chandrakumar Singh told PTI, "given the circumstances in the state and the nature of voting, turnout is likely to increase after 2 pm."

No report of violence has been reported from anywhere in the state.

The rise in voter turnout reflected a sense of responsibility among the voters, Singh said.

Rights activists Irom Sharmila cast her vote at a polling booth of Khurai assembly constituency.
Elections are being held today in 38 assembly constituencies in the first phase.

In all, 168 candidates are in the fray in this phase.

An electorate of 19,02,562 comprising 9,28,573 male voters and 9,73,989 female voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. There are around 45,642 new voters. Polling will end at 3 pm.

Polling in Kongpal in Imphal East's Khuria area witnessed participation of differently-abled and elderly people.

In the run-up to the polls, the political parties focused primarily on the continuing economic blockade in their campaigns. Polling will end at 5 p.m.

Hundreds of thousands of voters came out to cast ballots in the penultimate phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, registering 57.03 per cent voting in six hours, with the highest polling seen in Kushinagar, Mau and Maharajganj constituencies.

Till 1 p.m., 36 per cent was reported from Gorakhpur and Deoria, 39 from Ballia, and 42 per cent each from Maharajganj, Kushinagar and Mau, an Election Commission official said.

Azamgarh, the Lok Sabha constituency of Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, after recording the lowest turnout in the first four hours, picked up considerably and at 1 p.m. it registered 41 per cent polling. 

The SP patriarch did not campaign in his constituency following a fallout with his son Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who replaced him as the party President.

Mau where mafia don turned politician Mukhtaar Ansari was fielded by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) reported steady polling through the day. A minor scuffle was reported from the Sadar area in Mau where police had to resort to lathicharge.

Over 1.72 crore voters from 49 constituencies are deciding the fate of 635 candidates, of whom 175 are fighting independently. Polling was slow in the first two hours, which later picked up steadily.

There are several interesting contests in this phase as Swamy Prasad Maurya of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Surya Pratap Shahi, BJP, Shyam Bahadur Yadav, SP and others battle it out.

While Maurya is contesting from Padrauna, former state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Surya Pratap Shahi is fighting from Pathardeva.

Among the early voters was BJP's MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath.

Maximum number of candidates are in Gorakhpur city where 127 candidates are in fray for its nine seats, while the minimum number of candidates - seven - are in Mohammadabad Gohna seat in Mau.

The Congress today urged the Election Commission to book Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders for alleged violation of the model code by holding a road show in Varanasi without prior permission.     

The EC, on its part, has sought a detailed report on the issue from state poll authorities.     

In a complaint to the EC, the Congress alleged that Modi took out the road show in Varanasi from BHU (Banaras Hindu University) "without the necessary permission from the competent authority".     

"It is requested that action may be taken and FIR registered against all BJP leaders including Narendra Modi who were part of the road show," said K C Mittal, AICC secretary incharge of legal and human rights cell.      

The Election Commission said it is ascertaining the facts and will act further on the basis of the report.     

"We are ascertaining the facts. We have asked the state poll authorities to send a detailed report on the issue," Deputy Election Commissioner Vijay Dev told PTI.     

The opposition party said the entire video recording of the road show has been shown by various channels and election authorities must also have recorded the same.     

Mittal said the road show covers three assembly seats of Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt and Varanasi North and Modi also visited the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Kaal Bhairo Temple during the event.    

 "All this was done without any requisite permission for conducting the road show from the competent authority of the Election Commission," Mittal told PTI.     

On a whirlwind day in his Lok Sabha constituency to rally voters around the BJP in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Modi took out a road show, offered prayers at the two historic temples and paid tributes to Hindutva ideologue Madan Mohan Malviya today.      

His road show was held on a day when 49 constituencies went to polls in the sixth phase of UP Assembly elections and people in large numbers turned out as Modi's cavalcade moved at a snail's pace.      

BJP leaders believe the event, broadcast live on most regional TV news channels, will help their cause when the 40 remaining seats go to polls in the final phase on March 8.     

The seven-phase assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh end on March 8 and results will be out on March 11.

It was a super Saturday in Varanasi as both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav-Rahul Gandhi combo took each other head-on with road shows while BSP supremo addressed rallies on the outskirts of the ancient city, which goes to polls on March 8, the seventh and final phase of the high voltage Uttar Pradesh election. This even as the sixth phase of polling is underway in parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Varanasi, PM Modi's constituency, appeared completely immersed in the ''Modi wave'' right since morning when Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the Banaras Hindu University as people, in thousands, welcomed him and the entire city was filled with ''Modi..Modi'' chants.

His rally started from BHU and crisscrossed through the narrow streets of Varanasi, passing through Ravidas gate Lanka, Assi, Madanpura, Sonarpura, Gudaulia and Basphatak areas to reach the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple where he performed a puja.

All along, massive crowds on either side of the road cheered and waved at PM Modi, many rained flowers on him and he reciprocated with his traditional ''namaste'' till his convoy reached Kashi Vishwanath where he performed a puja along with the temple priests.

His road show came to an end at ''Kaal Bhairav'' temple where he reached by 1.55 p.m. It is believed that without a 'darshan' of Kaal Bhairav temple, a visit to this historic city is incomplete. Modi would then head to Jaunpur to address a public meeting. He then returned to Varanasi where he addressed a public meeting later in the day.

On the other hand, Akhilesh Yadav-Rahul Gandhi combo were set to start their road show in the city and amid a sea of saffron flags, one could see several supporters of Akhilesh Yadav waving the Samajwadi party flags.

With focus shifting to the final phase of Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, all parties are pulling out all stops to woo the electorate. Besides Modi, a dozen of his cabinet colleagues besides BJP President Amit Shah are also camping in Varanasi to galvanize public support in favour of BJP.

The SP and BSP too mobilised their supporters in large numbers from Varanasi and adjoining districts.

Reports of mass copying during school and college examinations in several states, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, are common. But a blog post by a computer science professor indicates that students at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, and other engineering colleges, indulge in it too.

Earlier this month, Dheeraj Sanghi, a professor at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi, wrote a blog post on the quality of the country’s information technology engineers, which corporate recruiters also seem to be concerned about.

In the post titled, CS education is poor because of copying, Sanghi referred to a statement by Srinivas Kandula, chief executive of information technology major Capgemeni India, at a business event in Mumbai earlier this month.

At the event, Kandula said: “I am not very pessimistic, but it is a challenging task and I tend to believe that 60-65 per cent of them (IT recruits) are just not trainable.”

Sanghi attributed this to alleged copying in engineering institutions across the country. The professor, who has also taught at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, wrote that information technology and computer science students in India are falling behind because they have not learnt much in engineering college.

He wrote, “I have always been amazed at the Indian software industry. That it can grow so fast and become so big despite the absolutely abysmal quality of education in our colleges…

“A lot of people have talked about poor quality curriculum, poor quality faculty, poor infrastructure, poor school education, and so on. I disagree. There is a much simpler explanation for this: Copying in our colleges, besides laziness.”

Sanghi said, “In many colleges, even in some of the IITs but to a lesser extent, students either copy the code for a programme from the net, or one student writes it, and the others copy. The code is tested in the laboratory. If it runs – and it does – the student is awarded marks even if the lines are not original.” He added that these shortcuts are adopted as early as the first semester.

His blog post received many approving responses on social media.

Sanghi added that one reason for such laziness is that a large section of students do not join the engineering sector after they graduate. “They plan on studying management,” he said. “Their lack of skill is never discovered because they do not join the sector.”

Sanghi said that he had always suspected that students were not applying their minds in engineering college. He said that his suspicions were confirmed when he once accessed Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering data through which admission into post-graduate programmes of the IITs is regulated.

“About a decade ago, I had set the paper for the test and data for previous years had been shared with me,” said Sanghi. “The median score for the previous year was zero. Basically, I can train a five-year-old to do better than 50% of the applicants and all he has to do is submit a blank paper.”

In his blog post, he recounted that he was recently part of a selection committee to recruit programmers for a government department. He found that most applicants he interviewed, including those who had “several years of experience in industry”, could not perform a variety of tasks they ought to have learnt at engineering college. “These (were) all the programmes we ask our first semester students who have never programmed before,” he wrote.

After government claims that demonetisation process is almost over, the Congress is readying with ammunition to expose NDA government’s game-changer. The ‘Untold Stories of Demonetization’ will be unveiled by the grand old party on Friday, March 3.

The Party has decided to field big names including former finance minister P Chidambaram, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal and Montek Singh Ahluwalia to present another side of demonetisation and its impact on Indian economy.

According to the sources, Congress' high-powered seminar will focus on difficulties faced by the poor in the hinterland, job cuts, impact on artisan, farmers, trade along with its overall impact on national economy.

Earlier Congress party had asked ''each party worker to take at least 4-5 photos and videos which captures sufferings of people in their local area because of central government’s anti-people policies.''

The Congress plan was to create a mosaic of collated photos and a million of stories from the grassroots to depict tangible damage done by Modi Sarkar. The Congress’s drive had continued till February 20.

The Congress had also conducted grassroots public meetings under a month-long campaign covering all assembly constituencies across the country.

The selected state leaders for the campaign were told to train at least 1000 workers to hold anti-government campaigns at the block level.

A state level conclave was also held by Congress leaders between January 20-25 to brief the state wide party workers about objectives of Jan VednaAbhiyan.

While the Congress is demanding that Rs. 25,000 should be deposited in the account of at least one woman belonging to each BPL family as compensation for the immense suffering caused to women due to demonetisation, it has also put the pressure on central government demanding number of guaranteed work days and the wage rate under MNREGA be doubled for the next one year.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had earlier attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move claiming it had robbed poor and farmers' off their hard earned money. Gandhi had mocked PM saying that Modi came up with an idea on November 8 last year and he announced ban of Rs 500 and Rs1000 denomination notes.

''He (PM) said bhaiyo aur behno I have an idea.? The money you have in your pocket. The money farmers have in their pockets. I will make them redundant,'' Rahul had said.

Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalhiko Pul's wife on Tuesday petitioned the Vice President of India Hamid Ansari for a probe into the suicide note left behind by her husband.
 
Dangwimsai, in her petition, sought probe by the special investigation team. Her move comes days after she withdrew her plea from the Supreme Court. She had written to the Chief Justice of India seeking a CBI probe.
 
CJI J S Khehar then constituted a bench to hear the matter. However, her counsel Dushyant Dave made some sensational allegations in court following which they withdrew the petition.

Dave said that since the note makes allegations against the judiciary, it cannot be heard by the apex court.
 
Dave also cited a Supreme Court judgment which said the Supreme Court and High Court judges could be probed for corruption with prior permission from the CJI.

Delhi police on Tuesday arrested two alleged ABVP activists for attacking two AISA supporters on the North Campus of Delhi University.

The AISA activists, Raj Singh and Utkarsh Bhardwaj, alleged that they were strangulated by Prashant Mishra and his friends, who followed them while they were returning from Arts Faculty around 5.20 PM.

Victims claimed that they were attacked by seven-eight people near Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College and strangulated with belts.

Police managed to nab two persons -- Prashant and Vinayak Sharma - from the spot.

They have been booked under IPC sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and arrested, said a senior police officer.

Police are trying to identify the other students who were involved in the alleged attack on the AISA activists.