‘PWF will decide CM candidate after polls’

Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol. Thirumavalavan broke his silence on his party leader’s demand for announcing a Dalit as a Chief Ministerial candidate, saying that the issue of electing a Chief Minister on behalf of the People's Democratic Front (PWF) would be decided after the outcome of the 2016 Assembly polls.

He, however, justified the aspirations of his partymen, including general secretary Ravikumar, who first wrote about the issue on Facebook in 2014.

“They have initiated a debate on making a Dalit Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and it has nothing to do with Thirumavalavan, the leader of the VCK. When States like Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have made it possible for a Dalit to become a Chief Minister, why we are not able to even initiate a debate on the subject? We are actually posing the question to the two Dravidian parties – the DMK and the AIADMK – that have alternatively ruled the State,” Mr. Thirumavalavan told The Hindu .

The VCK leader, who is part of the People's Democratic Front (PWF), said his party leaders did not have any ulterior motive in raising the issue, since the question of projecting a Chief Ministerial candidate on behalf of the PWF was already discussed.

“We decided that there was no need to announce it before the elections. We may reopen the issue if a new party comes forward to join our alliance. But so far we are firm that the Chief Ministerial candidate should be elected only after the elections,” Mr. Thirumavalavan said.

He said in a democracy, the selection of a Chief Minister should take into consideration the number of seats won by the political parties that came together to contest the election on a common platform. “We are not going to contest in an equal number of constituencies and even if we follow the procedure, we may not win an equal number of seats,” he explained.

Mr. Thirumavalavan, however, wondered why Dalits, who accounted for 20 per cent of the population and whose participation in polling has always been enthusiastic, were never considered for any important portfolios by the Dravidian parties and for the district secretary post, while members of other communities enjoyed Cabinet berths disproportionate to their population.

‘An exploited lot’

“Dalits are exploited like the landless agriculture labourers in politics and their work and contributions are never duly rewarded by political parties,” he charged.

His point of view is that said that the Congress, if they had a chance to continue in power in State, might have made a Dalit Chief Minister. “The party had nominated two Dalits as its State presidents – L. Ilayaperuman and Maragadham Chandrasekar – and allotted important Ministries to the members from the Dalit community: Kakkan for Home and Parameswaran for the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department.

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When the superstar waited

Anything about Rajinikanth is news. Here is fresh evidence.

On Monday, there was a lot of buzz that superstar Rajinikanth was waiting at the Chennai airport for his passport.

According to Airport sources, the superstar waited a little while, as someone had to go to his house and fetch his passport for him.

A source at the superstar’s public relations office however denied that the superstar had forgotten his passport.

“Normally, whenever the superstar travelled, his people would head to the airport with the necessary things before the he did. This time, he was there before them and was waiting for them to bring the necessary things, including the passport.”

The superstar had to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur for shooting the final leg of his upcoming film Kabali.

Airport sources said the flight left with the superstar at noon.

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Let’s register sex of foetus, says Maneka

Striking a startlingly contrarian note on the social evil of prenatal sex determination and resultant female foeticide, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, speaking at a media event in Jaipur, suggested the determination of the sex of the foetus from the moment pregnancy is detected.

“It is really not feasible to go around trying to catch every ultrasound technician for revealing the foetal gender to parents in violation of the PCPNDT Act,” said Ms. Gandhi.

“Rather, why not reverse the strategy? The moment a woman gets pregnant, we should find out the gender of the child, tell the mother about it, and immediately register it in public records. Then we can track which pregnancies are carried to full term.”

“Since the gender is already known, and given the law, families would be compelled to go through with the pregnancy especially when the foetus is female,” Ms. Gandhi said.

Currently India’s strategy to combat declining sex ratios hinges on the PCPNDT Act (the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994), which prohibits ultrasonography for the purpose of determining the sex of the foetus. Ms. Gandhi’s suggestion contradicts this law, and the principle of not determining the sex of the foetus.

She was speaking to the media at the All India Conference of Regional Editors in Jaipur, on Monday. Organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the event aims to highlight the achievements of the NDA government in the social and infrastructure sectors by getting the concerned Union Ministers to interact with the media.

In response to a question from The Hindu on the proposed plan to extend paid maternity leave from the current 3 months to 6.5 months, she said, “I was pushing for 7 months maternity leave but the Labour Ministry would only agree to 6.5 months. Everything is cleared from my Ministry. The paperwork is pending with the Labour Ministry. Unless they clear it, I can’t say when this will become a reality.”

On the recent changes in adoption procedures, which have made it a web-based, photograph-driven process, Ms. Gandhi, responding to a query on whether the new system works to the detriment of children with special needs, told The Hindu that it had not affected their rate of adoption.

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Priyanka Chopra to be on the Oscars stage

Guess who has been added to the list of presenters at the Academy Awards this year?

Our very own Priyanka Chopra, that’s who.

After conquering American television last year and dazzling at the People’s Choice Awards earlier this year, Ms. Chopra will be one of the presenters at the biggest Hollywood event of the year.
She will be seen sharing space with artistes like Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Andy Serkis, Julianne Moore, Charlize Theron and Ryan Gosling among others.
Ms. Chopra became one of the first Indian actors to break into mainstream American television with Quantico, in which she played the lead character Alex Parrish.

She simultaneously juggled filming Quantico and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus, Bajirao Mastani, which released in late 2015.

Her next offering in Bollywood is Prakash Jha’s Jai Gangajaal, while back in the U.S., she’s busy filming the season two of Quantico.

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India’s ultra rich lose Rs 47,000 cr in Jan

India’s ultra rich, barring Dilip Shanghvi, Sun Pharmaceuticals founder, have borne the brunt of the equity market slowdown, losing Rs 47,000 crore or about $7 billion between them in January alone, according to Bloomberg ’s Billionaire rich list.

Mr Shanghvi, who added $489 million to his personal wealth to Rs 16.9 billion, became the second-richest Indian after Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.

Only last year, Mr Shanghvi had seen a $926-million erosion in his wealth, but the buoyancy in the pharma sector helped him recover.

Mr Ambani, on the other hand, lost $144.6 million in January, but is still the fourth-richest Asian billionaire, with a global ranking of 31.

Pune-based Cyrus Poonawala, promoter of the closely-held Serum Institute of India, saw his wealth fall by $1.4 billion to $8.7 billion in January. After he had added $4.9 billion to his wealth last year, doubling it to $10.2 billion.

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani become poorer by $959 million to $4.5 billion, but is ahead of Eicher Motors promoter Vikram Lal, who saw a $161-million erosion in his wealth to $3.7 billion. Mr Lal has overtaken Pankaj Patel of Cadila Pharma and Benu Gopal Bangur of Shree Cement.

Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, promoter of Shapoorji Paloonji Group, lost $919 million, taking his wealth to $13 billion as growth in the real estate sector continued to be subdued. In 2015, he had lost $1.98 billion.

Steel baron Laxmi Niwas Mittal, promoter of Arcelormittal, continued to see erosion in his wealth with global steel prices falling on the back of lower demand and Chinese dumping. Mr Mittal lost $556 million in January, taking his wealth to $8.8 billion. He had become poorer by $4.6 billion to $9.5 billion in 2015. However, Mr Mittal overtook Mr Poonawala as the sixth richest Indian, with the latter seeing a faster erosion in his wealth.

Dubai-based Micky Jagtiani, promoter of Landmark Group, continued to see erosion in his wealth to $5.5 billion in January, becoming $268 million poorer. However, Mr Jagatiani improved his ranking to become the ninth richest Indian.

Desh Bandhu Gupta of Mumbai-based Lupin Ltd, who added $1.1 billion to his wealth last year, became poorer by $534 million in January , slipping to the 10th slot.

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Death toll up to 70 from Damascus attack: monitor

The death toll from a suicide attack in Damascus on Sunday that was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) militant group has risen to more than 70, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A car bomb and two suicide bombers attacked the Sayeda Zeinab district, home to Syria’s holiest Shiite shrine, as representatives of Syria’s government and its divided opposition began converging in Geneva in an attempt to start the first peace talks in two years.

The Syrian state news agency SANA has put the death toll from the attack at more than 50.

42 were from the forces

The British-based Observatory, which monitors the war using contacts on the ground, said the attack had targeted a military bus carrying Shiite militiamen who were changing guard, and that 42 of the dead were fighters allied to the government.

Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and other Iraqi and Iranian militias have a strong presence in Sayeda Zeinab, which is a site of pilgrimage for Shiites from Iran, Lebanon and other parts of the Muslim world.

While much of the Syrian leadership is drawn from an offshoot of Shiite Islam, the IS espouses a radical version of Sunni Islam and considers other sects to be heretical.

Witness to heavy clashes

The area witnessed heavy clashes in the first few years of the war, prompting the army and allied Shiite militias to tighten security, notably with roadblocks.

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Urine to Dettol is our only progress: Lalu

Urine and Dettol are both antiseptic and the only progress we’ve made today is that we now wash our hands with Dettol, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav told homeopathy doctors at a function here on Saturday.

“Earlier we were using urine as antiseptic on cuts or bruises on our body… now we use Dettol, with which we can also wash our hands. This has been the only progress in medical science through the ages,” he said at the Homeopathic Science Congress in Patna. Mr. Prasad was not invited to the function. He had turned up in place of his elder son, State Health Minister Tej Pratap.

“Our chief guest, Tej Pratap Yadav, had another engagement. So Laluji agreed to grace the occasion in his place,” said an official.

Mr. Prasad said homeopathy was the real medical stream. “In allopathy, they only do chir-phad (surgery). But it is only because of homeopathy that people have now started living up to the age of 80,” said Mr. Prasad amidst laughter.

The RJD chief did not restrict himself to medicine. He regaled the audience with his take on other issues as well. “Internet marriages are not durable. People fall in love and get married. But they separate after a while… it is better to accept the choice of your parents and marry in the traditional way,” he said.

Mr. Prasad said he was against increasing the retirement age. “Young boys will not get a chance,” he said. And he demanded “smart villages” instead of “smart cities.”

State BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said Mr. Prasad’s presence at the homeopathy doctors’ conference showed who was running the government and the health department. “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should officially declare Lalu Prasad the Super CM of Bihar,” Mr. Yadav said.

However, some of the doctors who attended the congress told The Hindu on Sunday that “they were amazed by his knowledge and the tips he offered on everything from medical science to social science.”

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