François Hollande says ‘Paris is the capital of the world’ as estimated 3.7 million across France march in solidarity
Around 1.5 million people take to the streets of Paris on Sunday in a show of defiance and unity
It was the day Paris united. And with dozens of world leaders joining the millions of people marching to commemorate and celebrate the victims of last week’s terror attacks, it was also the day the world united behind the city.
“Today, Paris is the capital of the world. The entire country will rise up,” the French president, François Hollande, said.
It was the first time since the liberation of Paris in August 1944 that so many people – the interior ministry said there were too many to count but most estimates put it at somewhere between 1.5 million and 2 million – took to the streets of the city. An estimated 3.7 million took to the streets across the whole country.
As investigations continue into the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, which left 12 dead on Wednesday, the killing of a female police officer the following day, and the attack on a Kosher supermarket by Amédy Coulibaly on Friday in which four died, the mood among the crowds in Paris was one of unity.
This was a nationwide outpouring of grief, solidarity and defiance. Parisiens of all ages, religions and nationalities turned out en masse not only to show their respect for the victims but their support for the values of the Republic: “liberté, égalité, fraternité” – freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
“On est tous Charlie” (We are all Charlie), they chanted, waving French flags, singing La Marseillaise, brandishing pens, pencils, placards and banners in French, English and Arabic.
Some read “Nous sommes la République” (We are the Republic) and “Je suis Muslim”. One child held a banner reading: “I am Charlie, I am the police, and no Chérif will take away my liberty.” Another young boy carried a placard reading: “Later I will be a journalist. I’m not afraid!”
“We are united – Muslims, Catholics, Jews, we want to live peacefully together,” one woman told reporters.
A group of marchers carried a large model of a pencil with “NOT AFRAID” written on the side.
The noise along the route, where around 2,200 heavily armed police and gendarmes, including crack snipers on roofs, were deployed, rose and fell in waves, with songs and chants of “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie” punctuating the solemnity of the atmosphere and drowning out the helicopters overhead.
At regular intervals, the crowd stopped to applaud police and gendarmes shouting “merci police”; three police officers died in the attacks.
On a political and diplomatic level, it was unparalleled. Protocol rules were ignored as around 50 world leaders congregated in the French capital. Presidents, prime ministers, statesmen and women took buses from the Elysée palace to join the march from Place de la République to Place de la Nation, two of Paris’s best-known squares.
The occasion was sombre and heavy with symbolism. As the dignitaries left the Elysée, it rained. By the time they arrived, the grey clouds had parted, allowing a rare ray of winter sunshine.
Here were some of the most powerful people on earth jostling for space in the Paris boulevard named after Voltaire, the French Enlightenment writer, historian and advocate of freedom of religion and speech.
The leaders then set off, arm in arm, Hollande in the centre, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to his left. To his right, Ibrahim Boubacar Këita, the president of Mali – where French troops intervened to push back Islamist forces in 2013 – the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the British prime minister, David Cameron. As they marched, the crowds that lined the route broke into cheers and applause.
As a powerful mark of respect for those who died, the world leaders took second place, walking behind the families and friends of the victims of last week’s attacks.
Charlie Hebdo staff, including those who survived Wednesday’s attack, wore white headbands bearing the name Charlie.
In the leading cortege, tears streamed down faces etched with pain, grief and shock. Several mourners had to be gently supported as they made their way towards Place de la Nation.
In one poignant and profoundly emotional scene, Hollande hugged Patrick Pelloux, an A&E doctor who is also a journalist at Charlie Hebdo. Pelloux arrived late at the magazine office on Wednesday to find many of his colleagues had been slaughtered. He and other survivors have vowed to publish Charlie Hebdo next Wednesday despite the attack with a record print run of 1 million copies
Leaders of all the religions marched behind a banner bearing the slogan “We are Charlie”.
Earlier in the day hundreds gathered to honour Ahmed Merabet, 42, the police officer gunned down in the Charlie Hebdo attack. The hashtag #JesuisAhmed has become widely used on Twitter along with #JesuisCharlie.
Pierre-Yves Martin, mayor of Livry Gargan in the north-east of Paris, paid homage to a “calm and talented” man. The Muslim officer was killed at close range by the fleeing gunmen Saïd and Chérif Kouachi.
“Ahmed Merabet, your life was stolen and no one can give it back, and so it was not taken in vain we are here, united against barbarism and to uphold the values of the Republic,” Martin said.
The mayor asked those gathered to hold hands for a minute’s silence. Flowers were laid in front of a portrait of the assassinated man, and the crowd sang La Marseillaise.
On Sunday evening, after the march, Hollande was due at the Grande Synagogue in Paris to meet Jewish leaders. The Jewish community has been traumatised by Friday’s hostage-taking at the kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris.
Speaking to reporters before meeting Hollande and the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, Roger Cukierman, president of the Jewish umbrella group CRIF, condemned those who were using social media to express support for the Kouachi brothers killed in a shootout by police on Friday, around the same time a separate police assault killed gunman Amédy Coulibaly at the supermarket.
“It is intolerable that there is a hashtag on social media saying #IamKouachi,” Cukierman said. He branded the tweets as “an apology for murder” which should be pursued through the courts.
Government ministers, led by prime minister Manuel Valls, and representatives from France’s political parties, including the former president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, were part of another delegation at the march. The far right Front National, which has linked immigration with terrorism, was not invited to take part in the official cortege.
France’s Socialist government had called for a Republican march, but so many citizens responded to the call it became more of a crowded shuffle along the 3km route.
The events of last week have deeply shocked and scarred the French people who found a sense of collective comfort in coming together on Sunday to say “We are not afraid”. As night fell, they continued to march and gather, reluctant to leave the comfort of the crowd and the momentous occasion.

So Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic management team has entered 2015 with all guns blazing.

The process of auctioning 204 coal blocks has gotten under way. The constitutional amendment bill to usher in goods and services tax is all ready to be tabled in Parliament. Acquiring land for industry has become easier. The insurance sector looks all set to get a big infusion of funds.
So will all this, along with the several other measures taken earlier (liberalising foreign investment in various sectors, speedier environmental clearances, cutting down of red tape for businesses, scything the harassment potential of labour inspectors) put the zing back in the economy? Will 2015 be the Year of Revival?

It certainly could, but then there are wild cards lurking around that could crash the party.

– What could be a bigger wild card than Indian politics itself? The big bang reforms of end-2014 all involved legislative action. Bills weren’t passed, so the government brought in ordinances. But the ordinances will have to be regularised and get legislative sanction.

The government may fret and fume and call it irresponsible, but the opposition is unlikely to make things easy for the government. And investors are unlikely to bite the bait, without being assured that the steps taken will not be reversed or diluted in any way.

The government’s best bet would be to ensure that the Congress continues to genuflect to Rahul Gandhi and he continues in his clueless manner.

– Even if the government is able to manage the opposition, will it be able to duck friendly fire from within its ranks?

The fringe elements of the Sangh Parivar have shown no signs that they have even a modicum of concern for the development agenda of the government. But their antics could seriously derail it – investors and the business community will ignore things like ghar wapsi programmes and insisting on bans only so far as they do not lead to communal conflagrations or provoke the opposition into opposing much needed legislative changes.

If either of these two things happen, we can kiss goodbye to any economic resurgence.

– The world economy is getting back on track but things are still a bit subdued. Though the recovery in the United States appears broad-based, some doubts have been raised about its sustainability.

The European Central Bank has reduced the growth forecast for Europe from 1.6 percent to 1 percent. This could dampen the performance of Indian exports, which has just about started recovering. And of course, there is always the uncertainty of when the US Fed will announce its rate hike.

– Illogical as it may sound, declining oil prices can prove a spoiler. Falling oil prices are a huge boon to India, which imports close to 80 percent of its petroleum requirements. But it could throw the economies of the oil exporting countries into a tailspin.

Part of the crisis in Russia has been due to falling oil prices. If the declining prices affect shale oil production in the United States and if this hurts growth in that country in a big way, that could be bad news for India as well.
– Two commission reports could throw the Modi government’s calculations – and the state of public finances – completely out of kilter.
In the case of one, the uncertainty won’t continue very long – the report of the Fourteenth Finance Commission will be tabled in the budget session of Parliament. Successive Finance Commissions have hiked states’ share in tax revenues (it now stands at 32 percent) and it will be interesting to see the extent of the increase which this Commission has recommended. Technically, the extent of devolution should not matter much for the economy – money should get spent productively, whether in the Centre or in the states – but if the central government’s coffers are strained, then that has a host of related implications.

Far more worrisome will be the report of the Seventh Pay Commission, scheduled to be submitted in August. Earlier Pay Commission reports have wreaked havoc in the finances of central and state governments.

Of course, the biggest wild card, however, will be how the government deals with these wild cards as and when they appear.

Three weeks after approving probe into graft charges against senior NCP leaders, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra has now shifted its attention on allegations of graft against State Congress leaders.

The Home department, headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has asked the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe the role of former Congress Minister Harshwardhan Patil and Legislative Council member Amrish Patel in an alleged cooperative bank scam.

The file recommending an “open inquiry” into the matter has been forwarded to Chief Secretary Swadhin Kshatriya. After his approval, the proposal will be placed before Fadnavis for final clearance.

“We sent the file to the Chief Secretary two days ago. From there, it will go to the CM office,” Additional Chief Secretary Amitabh Rajan told PTI today.

However, the senior bureaucrat declined to disclose if the file contains names of Harshwardhan Patil and others.

The Chief Minister had earlier this month allowed ACB to launch probe into allegations of graft against former NCP ministers Ajit Pawar, Sunil Tatkare, and Chhagan Bhujbal.

Fadnavis had also cleared proposals placed before him for open inquiries against senior civil servants.

The ACB had sought permission for an open inquiry in the alleged cooperative bank scam in September after its preliminary investigations found merit in allegations of corruption raised on the issue.

Mumbai: BJP MP from Akola Sanjay Dhotre kicked up a controversy on Sunday when, addressing a conference, he said “…let the farmers die.”

The BJP MP, however, defended his comments and said the statement from his speech at an event was shown by television channels out of context.

The controversial remark came at a time when 12 farmers from Vidarbha have committed suicide in 72 hours.

Speaking at an agriculture exhibition and conference of farmers in Akola on Sunday morning where revenue minister Eknath Khadse was present Mr Dhotre said, “The farmers are in trouble due to our wrong policies. Sometimes I say angrily say, ‘Let the farmers die, do not pay attention. Those who can afford farming will do it, others will not do it.’”

The comment immediately sparked outrage.

Criticising Mr Dhotre, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said it showed the ruling alliance’s “perverted mentality”.

“If the BJP leadership is heading in this direction then we condemn it. The comment by Mr Dhotre shows their perverted mentality. It is sad that the comment was made on a public forum and in presence of senior leaders (sic),” he said.

AAP Leader Anjali Daminia has strongly spoken against such irresponsible statement made by a representative elected by the people.

Alleging BJP of indulging in spreading false propaganda against the party by painting it anti-Hindu, Karnataka Congress chief G Parameshwara today called on the Congressmen to raise their voice against such wrong information.

“BJP people are unnecessarily talking about the Congress,they are trying to project Congress as anti-Hindu, but the truth is Congress looks at all religions equally,” he said.
Speaking at the Congress Party’s 130th Foundation Day programme here, he called on the party workers to become the ambassadors of the party.

“We speak very little, we should all start speaking out because BJP is trying to convert lies into truth by repeatedly spreading such wrong information,” he said, adding, Congressmen have to raise their voice against any such disinformation campaign against the party.

Criticising BJP, Parameshwara said the government at the Centre has failed in taking steps that is development oriented and towards improving economic situation in the country.

“After seven months in power, Modi government’s achievements are zero,” he said.
On the BJP’s ongoing membership drive in the state, Parameshwara said, “BJP has claimed to make one crore memberships in the state, our party should make more membership than theirs.”

Calling the party workers across the ranks to work towards the success of the membership drive, he warned action against those who will not involve themselves in this activity.

On being asked about the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Amendment) Bill-2014 which was introduced in the just concluded legislature session at Belagavi, he said “Congress has nothing to do with this bill.”

New Delhi: After lunch and dinner, the AAP has organised a “Tea with Kejriwal”, to collect donations for the party ahead of the state Assembly polls.

The event has been organised by former Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti this Saturday.

“This High Tea is a fund-raising event to collect donations ahead of elections where attendees will be charged Rs 20,000 each,” Bharti said who also shared a video on social media appealing people to donate for AAP.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has already attended fund-raising dinners at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru in the recent past.

PTI

New Delhi, Dec. 22 — Celina Jaitley, who became popular with her roles in films like No Entry (2005) and Golmaal Returns (2008) is now enjoying her role as mother to twin boys.
Having experienced the various phases of womanhood, she has seen how one’s wardrobe evolves over time. From her modelling days and the acting phase to her pregnancy, Celina has seen it all. She says, “My wardrobe is an integral part of my identity. I have a planned wardrobe – a melange of various shades of my moods and roles as a woman.”
However, wardrobe makeovers are often difficult for Celina as she gets attached to her clothes. She explains, “Earlier, I used to be a victim of the exploding wardrobe syndrome. But I now realise that hanging on to clothes and other items is psychologically equivalent to not letting go.”
And now, she has found that charity is actually an opportunity to revamp her style with changing season. She says, “Hence I make a very strong effort to evolve every season, and I do give away everything twice a year.”
However, in a city plagued with the issue of space crunch, Celina is lucky enough to have a walk-in wardrobe. She says, “It is huge and has customised space for everything from gowns and saris to swim wear. It’s has a special walk-in area for my 800 plus shoes too.”

Demolition of houses and slums are a regular feature in Mumbai. In this context a slum area located at Kalina was recently demolished. Among them tenants lived a lady with her two children aged six months and four years. With no support from any concerned bodies she was compelled to live a life in the streets with her two children. The cold winter played hell with her and her children.

Some member of AAP from Kalina could not see the plight of the women and her children. They arranged a room her, paid her deposit for the room and now she has a decent living. She now with a shelter for her children is confident enough to earn a living and pay her monthly rent.

In another incident an AAP member Kumud had witnessed a lady on the streets whose son had recently died. Kumud thought of doing something for the lady. He started tweeting around seeking for help. Among those tweets he happened to get his attention a reporter of NDTV Saurabh Gupta. He covered the news and help started pouring in from all corners. Apart from the help what touched everyone’s heart is when Sourabh paid towards the meal for the street children and the lady. It showed a soft corner of a media man which is of course rare amongst this profession.

New Delhi, December 23 Elated over BJP’s good showing in Assembly polls, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today expressed confidence that his party would form government in both Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. “We will form government in both the states,” the senior BJP leader told reporters outside Parliament House on queries over election results. Early trends of counting of votes show that BJP was leading in more than 20 seats in Jammu and Kashmir and the party is emerging as a clear winner in Jharkhand, leading in more than 35 seats. — PTI