The NHRC rejected the DGP’s response into the crackdown on SP workers in Lucknow during a protest. The Commission asked the DGP to get an inquiry done by the officer of not below the rank of DIG.
The writer who planned to contest the election
Well-known writer Mudra Rakshasa announced to contest the assembly election. I met him at his residence and talked at length about his literary work and idea behind venturing into politics. He died in Lucknow in June 2016.
http://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/this-candidate-hopes-just-his-words-count/
Chief Minister Mayawati drops sitting MLAs from the list of candidates for 2012 Assembly Elections
Those losing their seats are mainly the MLAs who won by a slim margin in 2007. They include a number of ministers.
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/lucknow/slim-victory-margin-behind-mayas-sacking-spree/
The struggle of a father to get the autopsy of his son done
The page 1 story for The Indian Express about a father fighting the bureaucracy to get his son’s postmortem done.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi’s pitch for getting support from Muslims of Uttar Pradesh
Hyderabad MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi gained prominence after his controversial speech in Hyderabad. He later emerged as a leader for young Muslims, frustrated with mainstream parties who pay only lip service to the community. His party made unexpected gains in 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections, expanding its base from tiny Hyderabad.
At his programmes, his supporters show the excitement which is not there for any Muslim leader in UP. His address to party workers at Lucknow’s Convention Centre in old city was attended by mostly young Muslims who responded to his taunts against mainstream Muslim politicians and his calls for Muslim unity to improve their condition.
I am half satisfied by what I have achieved, says Lokayukta
Lokayukta NK Mehrotra’s interview in which he says he is not fully satisfied with the government’s action against corruption.
An organisation of Barelvi Muslims shows its strength
All India Ulama and Mashaikh Board starts holding public meetings as its tries to counter the hold of Darul Uloom Deoband and Deobandi clerics on the discourse among Muslims.
Complaints flood Lokayukta, the anti-corruption body catches people’s attention
More and more complaints came to the office of Lokayukta after Justice(retd) NK Mehrotra submitted reports against Mayawati’s ministers and she subsequently took action on them. The office, which had very little importance for so long, was suddenly hogging the limelight.
The men who complained to Lokayukta against Mayawati’s ministers, leading to their indictment for corruption
Four ministers had gone by this time. They were indicted by Lokayukta and then sacked by Mayawati who was trying to present her government as tough-on-corruption, months before she faced the assembly elections. Most complainants against the ministers were people linked to opposition parties, mainly Samajwadi Party.
US wanted to woo influential Islamic seminary Darul Uloom of Deoband
In the cable,dated February 27,2008,the Embassy said,The influential conservative Dar-ul-Uloom madrassa in Deoband,Uttar Pradesh,viewed by some as the ideological home of the Taliban (a claim Dar-ul-Uloom refutes),hosted an All India Terrorism Conference on February 25. The gathering of roughly 10,000-15,000 clerics from all sects of Islam jointly issued a declaration condemning terrorism as un-Islamic. With the cable was sent full text of the Deoband declaration.
Three stories on Mayawati as described in US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks
First story I wrote was based on the cable that talked about Mayawati’s cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh. He had said that Mayawati’s opposition to Indo-US nuclear deal was rhetoric and said that he did not think she would become the prime minister. Mayawati has long nourished the dream of becoming the first Dalit prime minister of India. Off course, Singh denied having said any of these things in an evening statement.
In another story I wrote about another cable which described Mayawati in detail and called her “a first rate egomaniac” who runs the state like a fiefdom,and acts on her eccentricities,whims and insecurities. A cable dated January 16,2009,says though the chief minister had ostensibly suspended her birthday celebrations on January 15 because of the Mumbai attacks,earlier she used to celebrate her birthday,throwing large parties in Lucknow and Delhi where ranking party official vied for a chance to feed Mayawati piece of her birthday cake.
The third story was the most important and most damaging to the Mayawati regime. In this, her close aide and general secretary of her party, Satish Chandra Misra, was described as having told the US officials that she has a “penchant for personal corruption”. Mayawati reacted angrily at a press conference and said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange needs to be sent to the mental hospital in Agra.
BY RAMENDRA SINGH 