HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELOVED MOTHER…WHEREVER YOU ARE!
26 August 1910 – Mother Teresa, Macedonian-Indian nun and missionary, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997) was born.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, MC,commonly known as Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was a Roman Catholic religious sister and missionary who lived most of her life in India. She was born in what is today Macedonia, with her family being of Albanian descent originating in Kosovo.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries.
Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, she was beatified as “Blessed Teresa of Calcutta”.

By Suraj Mani Pradhan

After a mammoth rally organised by Gujarat’s economically and politically powerful Patel community demanding reservation in government jobs and education, the police cracked down on the organisers, briefly detaining 22-year-old Hardik Patel, the spearhead of the agitation, while severely beating up his supporters and media persons.

In a late-night operation, the police swooped down on the agitators led by Mr. Patel who were sitting on an indefinite fast after the rally, which had already turned violent with several incidents of group clashes and stone-throwing across the city.

“He has been arrested because the organisers had not taken permission to hold the fast. The police permission was only for the rally and the gathering during the day,” a senior police official told The Hindu.

The arrest sparked violence in the city, with Patel community members clashing with police and six buses being torched.

During the day, the police resorted to baton-charge and tear-gas as clashes broke out between members of the Patel community and local residents in several parts of the city.

Earlier, over half a million Patels thronged the Gujarat University ground for the rally, bringing the entire city to a standstill. “The lotus will not bloom in 2017 if the demand [for quota] is not heeded,” Mr. Patel warned the BJP government, which depends on support from the community.

Watch: Hardik Patel goes on hunger strike post ‘lathi charge’

Rally galvanises Patel community

Launched at a rally in Visnagar town of North Gujarat on July 6, the agitation of the Patels for OBC status has become a mass movement as thousands of people in Surat, Vadodara, Mehsana and in Ahmedabad filled the streets pressing the demand for quotas.

The movement appears as much against the government as against the established leaders of the community who are dominating the show in the ruling BJP. The Chief Minister, top seven Ministers, State party chief, half a dozen MPs and more than three dozen MLAs of the party belong to the Patel community, considered as affluent and influential in Gujarat.

After the rally, government spokesperson Nitin Patel said that except for a few untoward incidents, the entire rally was peaceful. However, the government did not say whether Chief Minister Anandiben Patel would go to meet Mr. Hardik Patel as demanded by his outfit, the Patel Andolan Anamat Samiti (PAAS).

In Gujarat, 146 castes including over a dozen castes from the minority community, are identified as socially and educationally backward castes, also known as OBCs, and enjoy 27% quota in the government jobs and education.

Rift comes to the fore

PTI reports:

A rift between the two major groups of the Patel community seeking reservation came out into open on Tuesday with the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), led by Lalji Patel, distancing itself from the decision to go on a hunger strike by Mr. Hardik Patel, who is spearheading the agitation.

The SPG is the biggest Patel community social group in the State which had earlier supported Hardik’s Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti for organising Tuesday’s mega rally in support of their demand for inclusion of the community in the OBC category for reservation.

Mr. Hardik Patel had earlier on Tuesday said that he would sit on a hunger strike after the rally at the venue till Chief Minister Anandiben Patel came to accept a memorandum from them.

“Hardik’s decision of sitting on a hunger strike until the Chief Minister comes and takes memorandum from him is his individual decision, which is not supported by others,” Mr. Lalji Patel said.

When asked if his group was ready for talks with the government, he said, “We are always ready for it and we will go if the government invites us.”

Mr. Hardik Patel had earlier said that Patels would not hold any talks with the government.

Tuesday’s rally was marked by the young leader’s speech whereas Mr. Lalji Patel did not address the gathering.

Asked why he was not allowed to speak at the rally, Mr. Lalji Patel said, “The programme was planned by Hardik and his team and I don’t want to make any comment on this.”

Another leader of the SPG, Vinod Patel, termed Mr. Hardik Patel’s decision to sit on a hunger strike as “kiddish” and said his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Minister were “improper”.

Mr. Vinod Patel said they would make a representation to the State OBC Commission over the issue while Mr. Hardik Patel in the rally had said the decision of hunger strike was taken unanimously by the community and that he would stick to it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hardik Patel said that he had the support of the people who want him to go ahead with the hunger strike.

“Some people (referring to Mr. Lalji Patel), who are separately addressing press conferences, must know that lakhs of people here (at GMDC ground) told us to sit on a hunger strike until our demand is fulfilled and until the Chief Minister comes and takes our memorandum of demands,” he said

NEW DELHI: Fresh details have emerged adding a bizarre twist to the alleged murder of Sheena Bora.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Sheena was the daughter, and not the sister of Indrani Mukerjea, wife of top TV honcho Peter Mukerjea. Mikhail Bora, Sheena Bora’s brother speaking to TV channels confirmed he and Sheena were Indrani’s children. He told CNN IBN, “Have no doubt my mother Indrani killed my sister Sheena Bora.”

“Whenever I asked Indrani about my sister, she would tell me that she was abroad and too busy to speak to me,” he added.

Peter Mukerjea, Indrani’s husband, also spoke to CNN IBN. “Sheena was having affair with my younger son and Indrani did not approve of their relationship,” he said.

Cops have arrested Indrani Mukerjea, wife of one of India’s most high-profile broadcast media executives, for the murder of Sheena in a case that is sensational for at least two reasons: the dramatis personae involved and the way in which the alleged killers covered their tracks and escaped all suspicion for three years.

The case would have remained one more of Mumbai Police’s unsolved cases had an informer not tipped off the cops about the murder that occurred three years ago. He told cops that he had information about the murder of Sheena Bora that occurred in 2012 and could also lead them to the murderer and the victim’s body.

Khar cops picked up Mukerjea’s driver a few days ago based on this information and started grilling him and he confessed to having murdered Bora at Mukerjea’s behest. He also told the cops that he dumped Bora’s body in the forests of Raigad. Mumbai cops then got in touch with their counterparts in Raigad, who confirmed that the remains of an unknown woman were found from the same spot.

Khar police then arrested the driver and then, based on his confession, asked Mukerjea to present herself for questioning on Tuesday. She was arrested after a three-hour grilling session.

Both of them were produced in the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate’s court on Tuesday and cops got their custody till August 31. Both have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 363 (kidnapping) and 201 (destroying evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

Mhow, (MP), Aug 25 (PTI) BJP MLA from Dhar, Kalu Singh Thakur, was allegedly manhandled by employees of a toll booth following which five employees have been booked by the police in Indore district, police said today.

Trouble started last night when employees of the toll booth under Manpur police station limits refused to let Thakur’s vehicle pass the toll gate without paying the tax.

An altercation took place between the two sides in which the MLA was allegedly manhandled, Manpur police station inspector Kamlesh Sharma said.

Public representatives, including MLAs among others, are exempted from paying the toll tax, he said.

A case under IPC sections 294 (obscene act or words) and 323 (causing hurt) and relevant sections of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 has been registered against five persons by Manipur police, Sharma said.

Three accused have been identified as C P Upadhyay, Santosh Dixit and Chetan.

A manhunt has been launched to nab the accused, the police inspector said.

This is for the second time that employees of the toll booth in Manpur have been booked following complaint by a legislator.

Piror to this, Dhar district’s Kukshi constituency Congress MLA Honey Singh Baghel, also a tribal legislator, had lodged a police case against this toll booth’s employees when they allegedly misbehaved with him in 2014.

He moved HC through 2 sisters, seeking protection of assets in event of his demise

For almost a decade, the Mafatlal family fought bitterly for the family heirloom but it was the last suit filed by Ajay Mafatlal’s two sisters on his behalf that is perhaps the most poignant.

The suit was filed on August 13 and the liberal use of the phrase “upon his demise” or “immediately thereafter” raises one important question. Was Ajay Mafatlal preparing for the worst? Ajay passed away on August 22 at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai.

The suit in question was filed in the Bombay HC by Gayatri Jhaveri and Malavika Taktawala, who were “on his side” in the war within the family. The siblings on the other side are Ajay’s brother, Atulya, and sister, Kunti Shah.

The suit seeks “protection of” Ajay’s assets in the house he always lived in — second floor of the Mafatlal Bungalow at Altamount Road. Only Atulya Mafatlal — Ajay’s only brother — lives on the same floor, which was divided between the family because of the internal dispute. Ajay stayed with his mother Madhuri in one half and Atulya stayed with his now estranged wife Sheetal in the other, with both the “factions” sharing a common living area. The suit filed by Jhaveri and Taktawala as “heirs of Ajay Mafatlal” is directed against Atulya and Kunti — a resident of Mayfair building at Malabar Hill.

It reads, “The plaintiffs are constrained to prefer the present proceedings against the defendants (Atulya and Kunti), their agents, servants and employees since the plaintiffs apprehend that pending the hospitalisation of Ajay Yogindra Mafatlal, or immediately thereafter, the defendants their agents, servants and employees would take forcible possession and occupation of the movable and immovable assets of Ajay Yogindra Mafatlal.”

The suit continues, “The plaintiffs submit that Ajay Mafatlal never intended and would never intend that even a small fraction of his said suit assets be enjoyed by the defendants in any manner whatsoever during his life time or upon his demise.”

It later on adds, “The only desire is that the said suit assets of Mr Ajay Mafatlal be protected for his use and enjoyment during his lifetime and in a worst case scenario upon his demise be put to use and enjoyment by any person/legal entity whom Mr Ajay Mafatlal may have chosen by making his last will and testament or in its absence by the law of succession governing him.”

The suit and an application seeking urgent relief ask for a court receiver or court commissioner to be appointed, after which Jhaveri and Taktawala be accepted as agents of the court receiver/ commissioner so that no one disturbs the belongings valued at about Rs 1.10 cr in the suit. It provides a detailed list of cases between the two factions to spell out the acrimony.

The suit says that after he was hospitalised (on July 30), Ajay instructed Jhaveri and Taktawala to post guards in his portion of the house to protect his assets as well as belongings, since there was no one occupying that portion. On August 4, three people in plainclothes, claiming to be from the Mumbai Police’s crime branch, visited the Breach Candy Hospital, making enquiries about the whereabouts of Ajay Mafatlal and in fact managed to reach his bed outside the usual visiting hours of the ICU, allegedly without any documentation from the hospital.

The suit further alleges that later on August 9, Atulya made a “false and frivolous complaint” with the Gamdevi police station about the presence of security guards inside the bungalow and asked for removal of those guards “through police” though they were posted “only to protect the movable and immovable assets of Ajay in the house”.

The Parsi Dairy Farm on Princess Street, Marine Lines is hard to miss. The bright blue building with its aroma of milk, ghee and a variety of sweets is considered to be one of Mumbai’s most iconic food establishments, coming from the erstwhile Irani café era of the city.
However, the 99-year old dairy seems to be nearing its end. The family is planning to to sell its 300-acre land at Talasari, an agricultural land in Warvada village on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border, according to a a report by The Times of India. The Nariman family, which founded the dairy, bought the land back in 1968 for livestock and to support its dairy activities. The reports also suggests that the family may look to shut shop or sell the brand in the near future.

While it is unclear whether the family will actually sell the store as well, if it does happen, it will be the end of yet another iconic Parsi establishment in Mumbai. The Parsi Dairy Farm was founded in 1916 by Parsi entrepreneur Nariman Ardheshir, and has since been run by the Nariman family. It was included in CNN Travel’s 10 vintage Bombay brands in 2010 and is one of the most frequented sweet shops in South Mumbai.
However, this may not be the end of the establishment, as it has faced other problems in the past but managed to sail on. In 2006, the store was shut for months due to a labour strike. The shop remained closed from November 2006 to June 2007 after workers went on strike protesting non-payment of dues, according to this Mumbai Mirror report. In 2008, the workers planned another strike over wage issues, continues the report. The overall production of the farm has also gone down, over the past decade-and-a-half, with the business plummeting from supplying 15,000 litres of milk a day to barely 2,000 litres today, says The Times of India.
The establishment was then revamped a few years later thanks to brothers Bakhtyar, 31, and Sarfaraz K Irani, 28, who joined the family business in 27. A Mumbai Mirror interview quotes them as saying that they focused on marketing, advertising, packaging and new product creation.
Parsi Dairy Farm is not the only iconic eatery from the bygone era struggling to stay afloat. The once popular joints are being fazed out, especially in South Mumbai, as the city moves from ‘brun maska’ to burgers. The Bastani and Co bakery, very close to Parsi Dairy at Dhobi Talao, shut a few years ago. Merwans, a traditional Iranian café at Grant Road was on the verge of shutting down in 2014, however it managed to continue running, along with a handful of other iconic Iranian establishments in the vicinity.
While the future of the dairy as it approaches its centenary year remains to be seen, hopefully we can enjoy a few more years of the malai kulfi and sutarfeni there.

New Delhi, Aug 24 (IANS) Col. Pushpender Singh (retd), one of the three ex-servicemen on a fast-unto-death here on the One Rank One Pension issue, was on Monday rushed to hospital after his health deteriorated on the eighth day of the indefinite fast.
United Ex-Servicement Front spokesman Col. Anil Kaul (retd) told IANS that the armed force veteran was taken to Rockland hospital in south Delhi.
Retired Havildar Tej Singh replaced Col. Pushpender Singh. The health of the other two veterans, Major Singh and Ashok Kumar Chauhan, both retired havildars, is fine, Col. Kaul added.

Kathua (JK), Aug 24 (PTI) Police today arrested one person and recovered 280 kilogram of a rare banned medicinal herb Nag Chatri from his possession at Lakhanpur inter-state toll plaza.

“A joint team of police, excise and forest department Lakhanpur seized 280 kilograms of rare forest herb Nag Chatri from a truck during checking at Lakhanpur toll plaza today and arrested Sabzar Ahmed of Bijbehara in South Kashmir”, a police officer said.

Acting on a tip-off, the truck which was on its way to Delhi from Kashmir was subjected to checking and 280 kg of Nag Chatri packed in gunny bags was recovered, Deputy Commissioner of Excise at Lakhanpur toll post, Rajesh Sharma said.

A case has been registered in this regard and investigation is underway, he said.

A UN tribunal on Monday asked both India and Italy to “suspend” all court proceedings involving two Italian marines charged with killing of two Indian fishermen in 2012 and also refrain from initiating new ones that might “aggravate or extend” the dispute.

Hearing Italy’s appeal in the case, the President of the International Tribunal on Law of the Sea (ITLOS), Vladimir Golitsyn asked the two countries to submit the initial report in the entire incident by September 24.

The judge said pending a decision by the arbitral tribunal, “Italy and India shall both suspend all court proceedings and shall refrain from initiating new ones which might aggravate or extend the dispute submitted to the…
arbitral tribunal or might jeopardise or prejudice the carrying out of any decision which the arbitral tribunal may render.”

He further said, “Italy and India shall each submit to the Tribunal the initial report…not later than 24 September 2015, and authorises the President, after that date, to request such information from the Parties as he may consider appropriate.”

The 21-member UN-mandated court located in this German city issued the order with 15 in favour and six against. Unhappy over India’s handling of the marine’s issue, Italy took the matter to the ITLOS challenging Indian jurisdiction in the case.

It has pleaded that India must cease to exercise any form of jurisdiction over the Enrica Lexie Incident and the Italian Marines, including any measure of restraint with respect to Sergeant Latorre and Sergeant Girone.

The two marines, who were on board ship ‘Enrica Lexie’, are accused of killing two Indian fishermen on February 15, 2012 off the Kerala coast. ITLOS is an independent judicial body established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas to adjudicate disputes arising out of the interpretation and application of the Convention.