Kumar, apart from the income from the royalty of an autobiography, has no other income and may be one of the poorest candidates to contest in this election. 

However, the lack of income or property hasn’t deterred his campaign. Huffpost India’s Pavan Dahat spent a day with Kumar on his campaign trail and here are some snapshots:

Tejasvi Surya is the youngest BJP contestant for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. His candidature was announced with much funfare on Tuesday. 

Nominated from the Bangalore South constituency, the 28-year-old took to Twitter to celebrate and promised to be a “committed ambassador of PM Narendra Modi”.

And ironically, that’s what got Twitter users interested in his old tweets.

Surya may be young, but tweets that Twitter users dug out from his past show that he is is not uncomfortable with the idea of being called a “communal fanatic”, a worrying sign in a candidate who will head to the Lok Sabha if he wins.

In these series of tweets from June 2018, Surya explains why BJP should be a “consolidated Hindu” party after the BJP lost the Jayanagar bypoll to Congress.

Just last week, he tweeted a link to a video of his speech, saying that those who are not with Modi are actually against India.

The News Minute reported that in a 2014 tweet, which has been deleted, Surya said that he approved of Modi’s agenda, except for the bit about reservations for women.  

To The News Minute, he said, “I don’t remember when I have said this. I have been busy with the nomination process all day. I don’t know how people have taken which old tweet out of context but I have the intelligence to give the answers to the questions from those who ask them.”

Also, here’s what he had to say about Sabarimala: 

While it can be argued that people’s thinking may evolve over time, as recently as last month, Surya was advocating for the need for a “Hindu rashtra”.

HYDERABAD — Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said on Wednesday that India had the anti-satellite missile capability more than a decade ago but there was no political will at the time to demonstrate it.

He said when China shot down an ageing weather satellite by launching a missile in 2007, India had the technology to undertake a similar mission.

″...now (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji has taken the initiative and he had the political will and courage to say that we will do this. We have now demonstrated this to whole world,” Nair told PTI.

He had headed the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), Space Commission and was Secretary in the Department of Space from 2003 to 2009.

Asked if India could have demonstrated the anti-satellite missile capability in 2007 itself, Nair said “certainly”, but it could not be done due to absence of “political decision” to go ahead with it at that time.

“Now, Modiji has courageously taken the decision,” he said.

The prime minister on Wednesday announced India had demonstrated the capability by shooting down a live satellite, describing it as a rare achievement that puts the country in an exclusive club of space superpowers.

India is only the fourth country to have such a specialised capability after the US, Russia and China.

NEW DELHI — BJP chief Amit Shah said on Wednesday that Union Minister Giriraj Singh would contest the parliamentary election from Bihar’s Begusarai constituency and all his problems would be resolved by the party. 

Singh had on Monday accused the party’s state leadership of letting him down by “violating” his self-respect after denying him a ticket from Nawada, a seat which he won in 2014.

The BJP has announced Singh as its candidate from Begusarai this year.

Extending best wishes to Singh, Shah in a tweet said he has heard all the issues raised by the Union Minister and “all his problems will be resolved by the party.”

“Giriraj Singh will contest from Beghusarai only,” Shah tweeted.

BJP is contesting on 17 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. An equal number number of seats are being contested by its ally JD(U).

Its other partner LJP is contesting on the remaining seats.

As per the seats arrangement between the three parties, the Nawada seat has been given to the JD(U).

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tore into the Green New Deal on Tuesday, stating on the Senate floor that the only thing needed to combat climate change is for Americans to “fall in love” and have “more babies.”

Lee, who has expressed doubt before over the climate science finding that human activity is the main driver of global warming, bashed a resolution laying out the tenets of the Green New Deal. The congressional resolution was introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) last month.

“I’m not immediately afraid of what carbon emissions unaddressed might do to our environment in the near future, or our civilization or our planet in the next few years,” Lee said during a Senate debate. “I’m mostly afraid of not being able to get through this speech with a straight face.”

“I rise today to consider the Green New Deal with the seriousness it deserves,” he said tongue-in-cheek, before displaying a series of fantastical images on a nearby easel meant to suggest that the Democrats’ proposal shouldn’t be taken seriously at all. 

One of the pictures featured a cartoon image of former President Ronald Reagan firing a machine gun while riding a velociraptor.

The Green New Deal is a set of policy proposals focused on job creation through the development of the U.S. renewable energy sector. The plan aims to ensure that all Americans have “a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security.”

“Climate change is no joke but the Green New Deal is a joke,” Lee said. “It is the legislative equivalent of Austin Powers’ Dr. Evil demanding sharks with frickin’ lasers on their heads.”

So what’s the best way to combat climate change? “Babies,” Lee declared.

“The solution to climate change won’t be found in political posturing or virtue signaling,” he said. “It won’t be found in the federal government at all. You know where the solution can be found? ... In churches, in wedding chapels, in maternity wards across the country and around the world.”

His anti-science word salad continued:

Climate change is an engineering problem ― not social engineering but the real kind. It’s a challenge of creativity, ingenuity and most of all, technological innovation. And problems of human imagination are not solved by more laws; they’re solved by more humans.

More babies will mean forward-looking adults, the sort we need to tackle long-term large-scale problems. American babies, in particular, are likely going to be wealthier, better educated and more conservation-minded than children raised in still industrializing countries.

Children are a mark of the kind of personal, communal and societal optimism that is the true prerequisite for meeting national and global challenges together. The courage needed to solve climate change is nothing compared with the courage needed to start a family.

The true heroes of this story aren’t politicians and they aren’t social media activists ― they’re moms and dads and the little boys and girls that they are at this very moment putting down for naps or helping with their homework, building treehouses and teaching them how to tie their shoes.

Lee concluded his nearly 15-minute speech by bizarrely claiming that the solution to almost every problem in the world is to “fall in love, get married and have some kids.”

Ocasio-Cortez quickly fired back at Lee on Twitter, mocking his eyebrow-raising remarks.

“If this guy can be Senator, you can do anything,” she tweeted

The Democratic freshman lawmaker wasn’t the only high-profile figure to weigh in on Twitter. Actor Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, bashed Lee’s use of his image.

“I was foolish to think this was photoshopped,” he tweeted. “Had I recognized that this guy was a Republican, I would have instantly realized this was his argument against Global Warming.”

“Spring cleaning” isn’t just about decluttering the garage or reorganizing your closet. It’s also about taking a closer look at the people in your life and seeing if those relationships could use some pruning, too.  

In a viral tweet, Twitter user pariahcar3y shared the four-point checklist she uses when assessing if a relationship is worth holding on to. Think of it as a friendship audit of sorts. 

Psychologist Andrea Bonior, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, told HuffPost that, although these questions are a strong starting point, when answering them you should think about the relationship in a larger context. Consider why this person might be a subpar friend at this time — perhaps because of something happening in his or her personal life — while also taking your history with them into account.

“Sometimes a friend may be going through a difficult phase — for instance, after the death of a parent — or a transition — for instance, having a child. Or even just going through depression or anxiety issues that prevent them from being there for you,” Bonior said. “So, even if the friendship seems a little off-balanced, it’s important to have a distinction between what might be a brief, understandable phase where you should still hang in there for the person versus a longer-term issue that means that the friendship may not be a good fit for you.

If you have a friend who is, indeed, a negative or toxic force in your life, how do you “break up” with them, so to speak? We asked experts to share their advice.

How to know if you should end a friendship  

The simple fact is that not all friendships are meant to last forever, and that’s perfectly fine. That said, no one is suggesting you casually discard friends over minor slights or squabbles. But you can give yourself permission to move on from certain people when the relationship no longer serves you. 

“You don’t need to stay friends with anyone who isn’t walking the same path as you or lifting you up while you’re striving to accomplish your goals,” therapist Deborah Duley, founder of Empowered Connections, a counseling practice that specializes in women, girls and the LGBTQ+ community, told HuffPost. “We outgrow each other sometimes. It’s normal and a natural progression as we continue to grow and change as people.”

Strong friendships have a healthy give and take. It may not always be a 50-50 split, but over time, there should be some semblance of balance. If this friend is self-absorbed and demanding of your time, attention and support but doesn’t offer the same in return, it might be an indication that it’s time to move on. 

Another sign? “You feel exhausted by the idea of just hanging out,” Duley said. “Or you dread seeing them when you used to feel excited. Maybe they’re engaging in behaviors that are against your moral compass and you’re starting to wonder if you even want to be friends with someone who does this.”

Also, pay attention to how you feel when you receive a text from this friend or when they reach out to make plans, said psychologist Marie Land. If you get anxious or a “sinking feeling,” as she puts it, that could also be a sign something is amiss.

How to break things off with a friend

When ending a romantic relationship, a slow fade is generally regarded as a callous move. But both Duley and Land said it may be permissible in the context of a friendship. 

“I don’t know if it’s always necessary to let the friend know that you want to break up with them,” Duley said. “A slow decline in seeking them out is oftentimes enough for them to ‘get the message.’”

Land agreed with this approach, saying, “Think of a tennis match when it comes to the way you communicate with your friend. Allow them to hit two balls in your court before you hit one back. Slowly send the message that you are busy and not available.”

If you want to repair the relationship, then airing your grievances makes sense. Otherwise, don’t feel like you need to give specific reasons as to why you’re not making an effort to spend time together anymore. 

“I’m all for honesty, but sometimes it’s OK to not make a big deal about letting go of a friendship,” Land added. “White lies like, ‘I’m really focused on work and hobbies and haven’t had much time for all my friends lately’ are fine.’” 

However, if this person is a close friend and you feel like you owe them an explanation, or if you have unresolved feelings you want to voice, Duley suggested meeting for coffee to talk things out. 

“Just let them know that you’re feeling you have outgrown each other and it’s better for everyone if you just stay in touch periodically,” Duley said. “Be prepared, though, that they might feel hurt or angry, so having a script in your mind about how to handle that will help you navigate it.”

And keep in mind that a slow fade is a lot different from suddenly cutting off contact with this person — effectively ghosting them.

“Don’t leave the person hanging if they don’t seem to be backing off as well,” Bonior told HuffPost. “In that case, you owe it to them to have a more direct (if awkward!) conversation about how you see your life moving in a different direction.”

Over 90 years after the enactment of the Indian Forest Act (IFA) 1927, a proposed amendment now plans to give more powers to the forest authorities, encourages large scale afforestation for carbon sequestration and enhances penalties for stronger protection of the forests. However, this amendment could also lead to an increase in injustice to forest dwellers.

Environmentalists, experts and organisations working on issues related to the rights of forest dwellers are already up in arms and plan to protest against the controversial amendment at all forums before the amendments are finalised. They also plan to go to court if the amendment is passed without addressing their concerns.

The issue could gain significance in India’s parliamentary elections scheduled for April-May 2019 as political parties are trying to attract the voters who are dependent on forests and of the tribal communities.

On 7 March, 2019, the central government’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) sent the draft of the proposed amendment to the IFA 1927, to all the states. It asked the state governments to hold state level consultations with all stakeholders including NGOs and civil society organisations on the proposed amendment within 90 days and send a consolidated reply based on the feedback and consultations.

This time period of 90 days overlaps with the timing of the national elections which indicates that the proposed amendments in the IFA 1927 would be finalised by the government formed after the Lok Sabha elections.

What are the amendments?

The preamble of the IFA 1927 notes it as an “Act to consolidate the law relating to forests, the transit of forest-produce and the duty leviable on timber and other forest-produce”. The new draft proposes to widen it substantially, recommending the new preamble to read, “An Act to provide for conservation, enrichment and sustainable management of forest resources and matters connected therewith to safeguard ecological stability to ensure provision of ecosystem services in perpetuity and to address the concerns related to climate change and international commitments.” It also noted that it is in line to “meet the national developmental aspirations and the various international commitments.”

The draft amendment proposed that, “state governments may declare any area as a conservation area for the purpose of enhanced carbon sequestration and such area shall be brought under active forest management for enhancing vegetational growth by reforestation and afforestation.”

In the commitment made to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015, the government had promised to create “an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.”

The draft amendments also proposed to enhance punishments for violation of the IFA including for offences like pollution. It said that anyone who “litters or dumps plastic or any other waste material on the ground, or poisons or dumps plastic and other waste material into the water bodies and streams within or flowing into them, or uses explosives or uses forest area as dumping ground for waste and undesirable substances so as to cause pollution in the forest” shall be liable to punishment.

Forest bureaucracy to get unchecked powers?

But, experts are wary about certain proposals in the amendment which they feel could result in repression of tribal people and forest dwellers and impact their rights over the forests.

For instance, the proposed amendment allows a forest officer to use firearms to deal with offences under the IFA 1927 and under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 like encroachment of forest area, permitting cattle to trespass, setting fire, removal of forest produce without any authority except under the recognised forest rights, disturbing or harming animals.

It also notes that no criminal prosecution would be allowed against any officer without the prior sanction of the state government. There was no such provision in the 1927 law.

There have been instances where forest dwellers end up facing cases for allegedly encroaching forest land, even when they state they have been living in forest areas for generations. The Forest Rights Act 2006 provides for recognising and giving forest rights to forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers residing in the forests for generations whose rights could not be recorded.

Another cause of concern is the power proposed to be given to state governments to take away the legal rights of tribal people and forest dwellers by arbitrary cash payments, forcing them to relocate. The draft mentions that the state governments could take away the rights of the forest dwellers if the government feels it is not in line with “conservation of the proposed reserved forest” by payment to the people impacted or by the grant of land.

It also held that “where the rules framed by the central government and the state government are in conflict, the former shall prevail.”

Amendments could mean injustice for the forest dwellers

A statement by the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of forest dwellers groups, stated that the goal of these amendments is to turn “India’s forests – almost a quarter of the country’s land area – into a police state where the interests of forest bureaucrats and private companies will reign supreme.”

“These amendments would give forest officials the power to shoot people without any liability (with the same legal protection as soldiers in disturbed areas under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act); allow forest officials to restrict or cancel legal rights and to relocate people against their will; presume that people they accuse of crimes are guilty if certain materials are claimed to be found on them (a provision similar to anti-terror laws); to hand over forests to private companies for afforestation and to grab other forests in the name of carbon sequestration,” said the statement.

“If passed, these amendments will make forest officials de facto dictators, with more powers than any other government official, more powers, in fact, than those that are given to soldiers, who are at least legally required to hand over anyone they arrest to the normal police. This is nothing short of a declaration of war in forest areas. Who then is the enemy? Is it the country’s tribals and forest dwellers?” the statement added.

“As the Forest Rights Act 2006 itself says, these areas were seized by colonial and post-independence governments in a “historical injustice” against forest dwellers. Now this government wants to double down on that injustice. This is a wholesale attack on the rights of India’s 200 million (20 crore) forest dwellers. But just as a backdoor attempt to get the Forest Rights Act weakened in court failed, this attempt too will fail. Protests are continuing and will intensify,” it added.

Penalties are enhanced and a forest development cess is proposed

The proposed amendment also said that the state governments may levy a cess not exceeding 10 percent of the value of mining products removed from the forests and water used for irrigation or in industries. The cess shall be used exclusively for reforestation, forest protection and other purposes connected with the tree planting, forest development and conservation.

As per the IFA 1927, people found violating the Act can be punished with imprisonment upto one month, or fine upto Rs. 500 or both. The proposed amendment enhances the punishment with provisions for imprisonment ranging from one month to seven years (and more) and fine of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 500,000.

The proposed amendments also stated that the state government “may recognise and notify private forest at the request of the owner” if the forest is used primarily for environmental conservation and preservation including, protecting water catchments.”

Independent researcher and member of the Community Forest Rights – Learning and Advocacy group Tushar Dash said the proposed “amendments violate Forest Rights Act and undermine democratic governance of forest in India by promoting privatisation of forests.”

“These amendments re-establish colonial approach by vesting more power with the forest bureaucracy (even to use force against tribal people and forest dwellers with impunity),” Dash told Mongabay-India.

The draft further stated that the central government shall constitute a National Forestry Board with the prime minister as chairperson and environment minister as vice chairperson which will meet at least once a year.The revision of the IFA 1927 has been on the cards since the current government came into power in May 2014.

The government had constituted a high level committee headed by the former cabinet secretary T.S.R Subramanian to assess the implementation, to recommend and draft specific amendments in six of India’s major environmental and forest laws including the IFA 1927. The committee had given its report in November 2014 but its implementation was put on hold after massive protests from organisations and experts across the country.

Dash stressed that this is not the first time that this government has taken or is proposing to take actions that are against the interests of the forest dwellers and supporting privatisation and takeover of land and forests. As examples he cited the central government’s inaction to defend the FRA in the Supreme Court, commercial diversion of forest areas and the the inadequate implementation of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act.

Last year, the central government brought the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Rules, 2018 which gives the control on funds of over Rs. 660 billion, to be spent on afforestation, in the hands of the forest bureaucracy rather than gram sabhas. The government also came out with a draft national forest policy which sought to privatise the forests and suggested a policy to leasing of wasteland to the corporate sector for re-greening.

“We are planning to take up the issue both at state and national level. It is a crucial issue which people should be aware about,” said Shankar Gopalakrishnan, who is the secretary of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity.

This was first published in Mongabay-India.

BEGUSARAI, Bihar — A large LED TV is a gift from a well-wisher, as are the five computers, the large square table and even the detailed constituency map of Begusarai pinned to a wall in a large room that serves as Kanhaiya Kumar’s makeshift election office in his uncle’s two-storey home near his modest house in Bihat town on the outskirts of Begusarai in Bihar.

“Even the vehicle you are sitting in is of Punjab number plate,” Kanhaiya said, as he set out to canvas for support, “It was given by one of our friends.”

On 24 March, the Communist Party of India (CPI) formally announced what many have been speculating for months now: Kanhaiya—the young Ph.D. in African Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University who most eloquently articulated the rising societal disaffection with Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) authoritarianism in his rousing 2016 speech about Azaadi or freedom—would be the party’s candidate from Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, where he grew up. 

The Azaadi speech, delivered soon after Kanhaiya was released after a month’s stint in prison on trumped-up charges of sedition, went viral—first as a YouTube remix and then as a song on the Gully Boy soundtrack—and turned him into a household name.

Kanhaiya formally joined the CPI national council in April 2018, and since then he has already addressed over 100 public meetings in almost every part of Begusarai Lok Sabha seat as a part of his public dialogues, or “Jan Samvad Karyakram”.

His keen political nous was visible earlier this year when he was the only public figure to offer a solemn salute at the funeral of Pintu Singh, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldier who died in the tragic bombing in Pulwama, Kashmir, on February 14 this year.

His opponents are taking notice.

The BJP has responded by fielding union minister Giriraj Singh from Begusarai — a controversial figure who epitomises the ruling party’s worst impulses.  Singh has often asked those who criticise the Modi government to go to Pakistan.

Singh, who contested from Nawada in 2014, has made his displeasure clear at the constituency change. Despite the central leadership announcing his candidature last week, he is yet to visit Begusarai.

Like in the JNU election, where he was not considered a contender for the post until he delivered a fiery speech in the presidential debate a couple of days ahead of voting, Kanhaiya is starting out as an underdog here as well. He will not have a powerful party backing him, and while he is the only one to have begun his campaign already, his opponents will be tough to beat.

The third major player in the election, Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, has kept its cards close to its chest. Initially, the CPI hoped the RJD would not support a candidate to make it easier for Kumar to win. While Yadav is yet to announce a candidate, political observers expect him to repeat Tanveer Hasan, who lost to the BJP in 2014 by a margin of 58,000 votes.

Win or lose, Kanhaiya makes it clear that Begusarai is home.

“I have decided that I will stay here only and will teach in a local college here,” he said. “I know everything about Begusarai because I belong to this place.”

Apart from the CPI’s official party structure to help Kanhaiya’s campaign, a team of over 200 people is already planning, strategising and campaigning for Kanhaiya for over a month now in Begusarai.

This team includes former JNU students like Nafis, research scholars from Begusarai and other universities like Sumit Kumar, people like Dhananjay who is Kanhaiya’s friend/secretary/driver, close friends like Varun and Saket Kumar and relatives.

Apart from the income from the royalty of an autobiography, Kanhaiya has no other income and may be one of the poorest candidates to contest in this election.

However, the lack of income or property hasn’t deterred his campaign.

“The people of Begusarai have attached themselves with my campaign and they are contesting it for me. This is why I think I will contest this election even with fewer resources and with crowdfunding. My election is completely contribution-based and the donation doesn’t have to be in cash. It can be in kind as well. People are donating small things from vegetables to diesel,” said Kanhaiya.

“Everyone from the people of Begusarai, his friends from JNU and well-wishers across the country is chipping in for this campaign,” said Sumit Kumar.

Kanhaiya’s family members are also chipping in in every possible way they can.

A makeshift kitchen has been set up outside his home, which runs throughout the day to feed the campaign volunteers and other visitors.

While Kanhaiya maintains that the campaign is not properly planned yet, there appears to be some method to the chaos.

A few months ago, some members of the Bajrang Dal had attacked Kanhaiya’s vehicle near Begusarai.

His campaign team is also taking care of his security now.

Six people accompanied him to the bank in an SUV on Tuesday to open a bank account.

Wherever he goes for the campaign, at least 20 people accompany him in a convoy of three identical Scorpios. All vehicles have walkie-talkie sets for co-ordination.

“We did not ask for identical SUVs. All the vehicles have been lent to us by our well-wishers and friends who are also managing our fuel expenses. But look at the coincidence. All three vehicles are of the same colour and company,” added Saket Kumar.

The CPI’s local unit decides Kanhaiya’s day-to-day campaign schedule and its local units in various parts of the constituency take care of the stage, pandal and loudspeakers wherever he goes to address public meetings.

While the BJP’s sway among Bhumihar voters in Bihar still makes Singh the favourite, his sulk at being denied the Nawada seat has thrown BJP workers into a tizzy. 

“Our workers in Begusarai are extremely demoralised now. This constituency already had a BJP undercurrent and any local candidate would have won it easily but they imposed an outsider who is now unwilling to contest when hardly a month is left for election,” said a senior BJP functionary from Begusarai on condition of anonymity.

Kanhaiya would have had a strong chance if he had been able to contest on the Mahagatbandhan ticket, but his team members are still hopeful—Begusarai is one of the rare constituencies in the Hindi heartland where the CPI has a large voter base.

“Even in the wave election of 2014, CPI managed to get close to 2 lakh votes and came third. Tanveer Husain was second and lost by only 58,000 votes. In 2009 elections, CPI was in the second position here and lost by a margin of 41,000 votes. So Kanhaiya is going to start with a base vote of two lakhs minimum,” an academician from Delhi who came to see Kanhiya’s campaign told HuffPost India.

Kanhaiya has got a rousing welcome from constituents as he goes on the campaign trail.

“He will win by a huge margin. He is our son,” said Sunita Devi, a resident of Bandhra village, who had come to listen to Kanhaiya along with her three-month-old baby.

However, the RJD and BJP are trying to maintain that Kanhaiya is third in the race and the main battle will be between the RJD’s prospective Muslim candidate and BJP’s Bhumihar candidate.

“But they are forgetting that Kanhaiya is also a Bhumihar. Do you really think no Bhumihar will vote for him?” asked one of his associates.

Muslims are also a prominent presence in Kanhaiya’s public meetings.

Mohammad Alam walked more than a kilometre in Kanhaiya’s padayatra in Veerpur village on Tuesday, carrying the red flag of CPI and shouting slogans.

“Kanhaiya will win with a big margin. All Muslims in this constituency will vote for him. It doesn’t matter even if the RJD fields a Muslim candidate,” Alam told this reporter.

When asked why is he supporting the CPI and its candidate when the party doesn’t believe in religion, Alam said, “They don’t believe in religion but they don’t even oppose it. All Muslims will consolidate behind CPI this election.”

Kanhiaya also pushes for an all-inclusive, secular theme during his speeches but has come down heavily on the RSS-BJP and Modi government for their communal and divisive agenda.

Another dominant mention of his speeches is that he is “Begusarai’s son”.

This indicates a carefully drafted strategy as Giriraj hails from Patna.

He doesn’t ask for votes but for blessings to the voters, “Neta Nahi, Beta Hai”.

“If I had a political career in mind then Kerala would have been simpler for me than Begusarai. Here CPI has two lakh votes but there we have five lakhs. There are people who are saying that I came to Begusarai since it’s a Bhumihar dominated seat. But what can I do about it? Wasn’t I born here?”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced that India had demonstrated anti-satellite missile capability by shooting down a live satellite.

Mission Shakti, which was led by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was aimed at strengthening India’s overall security, he said.

Soon after the announcement, some Twitter users said that this announcement “could have been an email”. Meanwhile, opposition parties took pot shots at the prime minister for taking credit for the achievements of scientists.

Mocking Modi, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi wished him “happy World Theatre Day” after the PM’s address to the nation. He also congratulated the DRDO. 

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted that Modi got himself an hour of free TV and diverted the country’s attention away from issues on ground.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati accused Modi of playing politics over anti-satellite missile capability and said that the Election Commission must take note.

The TMC criticised Modi for trying to “take the credit” for the achievement of scientists. Party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the credit goes to those who really deserve it, the scientists and researchers.

She also said the announcement “is yet another limitless drama and publicity mongering by Modi desperately trying to reap political benefits at the time of election.”

The Trinamool Congress also said this would not have any impact on the poll prospects of the BJP in the upcoming elections.

“Narendra Modi should stop taking credit of the achievement or job done by others. Shooting down a satellite is the credit of our scientists. The Modi government in the last five years has failed to provide any relief to the people of the country,” senior TMC leader and West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim said.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari also congratulated the scientists and the people of the country for the success of Mission Shakti. 

 (With PTI inputs)

HYDERABAD — An FIR was filed against BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao and eight others for allegedly cheating a man of Rs 2.17 crore by promising him a nominated post in the central government, police said Wednesday.

However, Muralidhar Rao refuted the allegations and said he has nothing to do with the case.

Based on a court-referred complaint lodged by the man’s wife, a case was registered Tuesday against Muralidhar Rao and eight others on charges of cheating, forgery, criminal intimidation and other relevant IPC sections, they said.

The complainant alleged that she and her husband were induced by Muralidhar Rao and others by showing a purported letter with forged signature of Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

She alleged they took Rs 2.17 crore after promising that her husband would be appointed chairperson of Pharma Exil, police said.

Denying the allegations, Muralidhar Rao in a series of tweets said, “Regarding the FIR filed - have nothing to do with the present dispute. The FIR involving me reportedly is sequel to a private complaint in a court by those who actually are facing criminal charges in the same matter.” 

In November 2015, Eswar Reddy, who claimed to be closely associated with prominent personalities in the BJP, approached the woman and her husband.

Eswar Reddy had said he knew one A Krishna Kishore, the “shadow” of Muralidhar Rao, who was capable of getting a nominated post in any department of the central government, the woman said in her complaint.

The complainant said she and her husband were reluctant to acquire the post by spending a huge amount.

“Later, Eswar Reddy and others again approached us and put pressure on us to accept their proposal by making false promises that they would be able to procure a nominated membership of Pharma Exil which functions under the control of Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Government of India,” the complainant alleged.

She also alleged that Eswar Reddy and others with the active connivance of Muralidhar Rao showed a photocopy of an appointment letter of her husband as chairperson of Pharma Exil, which was purportedly signed by Nirmala Sitharaman, and took Rs 2.17 crore for the post.

When the complainant and her husband approached Eswar Reddy and others over the appointment they dragged the matter and when they sought return of the money there was no response, police said based on the complaint.

The woman alleged that Muralidhar Rao also started to threaten them.

Reacting to the FIR, BJP Telangana chief spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao in a statement said, “The frivolous FIR filed against our National General Secretary Muralidhar Rao by few detractors is with a clear motive to tarnish his image and the party’s.”

Muralidhar Rao’s lawyers will take appropriate legal action, he said, adding that “we are very certain that our leader has done no wrong”.

The BJP also warned of dire legal consequences if anyone conspired against the party.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox. Zach Braff and Donald Faison: Some celebrity friendships are so well-documented, it feels like they’ve practically been shouting their love from the rooftops. Other famous friend duos, however, have been flying (at least somewhat) under the radar. 

Below, we’ve rounded up 12 pairs of celebrity BFFs that you may not have known about.  

Adam Levine and Jonah Hill

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and “Superbad” actor Jonah Hill were friends long before either of them was famous. The two grew up together in Los Angeles. 

“Our dads met in the principal’s office in junior high,” Hill told Howard Stern in 2014. “We were in carpool. We lived at each other’s houses.”

When Levine married model Behati Prinsloo in 2014, Hill officiated the ceremony. Hill’s late brother, Jordan Feldstein, who died in 2017, was also the manager of Maroon 5. 

Ruby Rose and Ellen Page

“Orange Is the New Black” star Ruby Rose and “Umbrella Academy” star Ellen Page have the deep, loving friendship we all dream of.

Rose has called Page her “rock” and expressed gratitude for helping her navigate a career in Hollywood.

“When your best friend is the most talented, funny, beautiful, generous, humble human being it’s hard to not smile until it hurts,” Rose wrote in an Instagram birthday post dedicated to her BFF. “I am so proud of you and will always be grateful for everything you are and will always be to me.” 

David Beckham and Snoop Dogg

Soccer superstar David Beckham and rapper Snoop Dogg became friends while filming an episode of the reality show “Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood” in 2007. Since then, the two have stayed close — in fact, Beckham said that they still “talk all the time.” Apparently, they’ve bonded over music, too. 

“Whenever I make a record, I give him a copy before it’s done,” the “Gin and Juice” singer said back in 2011. “He’s like a brother.”

Jack McBrayer and Alexander Skarsgård

Turns out Jack McBrayer, best known for his role as Kenneth Parcell on “30 Rock,” and “Big Little Lies” actor Alexander Skarsgård are low-key besties. According to McBrayer, the two first met in New York but became close when they were neighbors in L.A. 

They often ran into each other at various industry events and hit it off instantly.  

“He is the sweetest guy in the world,” McBrayer said of his buddy. 

Last year, Skarsgård brought McBrayer as his date to the SAG Awards, taking their bestie-dom to new heights. 

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire’s longtime friendship began when they were both child actors going on auditions in Hollywood. 

As DiCaprio tells it, he was driving home from school when he spotted Maguire filming something on the street and told his mom to pull over: “I literally jumped out of the car,” “The Revenant” actor told Esquire in 2014. “I was like, ‘Tobey! Tobey! Hey! Hey!’ And he was like, ‘Oh, yeah — I know you. You’re... that guy.’ But I just made him my pal. When I want someone to be my friend, I just make them my friend.”

DiCaprio and Maguire later co-starred in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film “The Great Gatsby.”

“We have a close friendship, and I definitely have an affection for Leo,” Maguire told People at the premiere.

Jennifer Lopez and Leah Remini

J. Lo and Leah Remini recently co-starred in “Second Act,” but their friendship dates back to 2004, when Marc Anthony, Lopez’s now ex-husband, introduced them at the premiere of the movie “Man on Fire.”

“It was one of those instant chemistry things where you just feel like, ‘I love this person. I love being around this person. This person makes me laugh,’” Lopez told Entertainment Tonight in December. “She’s cool and we also have very similar upbringings. That’s why we work well together.”

Andy Cohen and John Mayer

“Watch What Happens Live” host Andy Cohen and Grammy winner John Mayer are close friends — so close, in fact, that rumors have swirled that the two were romantically involved. But, as Cohen told CNN, they do love each other, but only as friends. 

“Listen, we have a very sweet friendship, and we are together all the time,” Cohen said in June. 

Over the years, the two have vacationed together, taken a road trip to follow the Grateful Dead and celebrated big milestones together, like birthdays and the birth of Cohen’s son. 

Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow

Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow have been publicly gushing about each other for a while now, and yet somehow we missed the memo that they’re best friends. 

“B is wise beyond her years. She has taught me the value of speaking your mind. She is clear and honest and true to herself while being respectful,” Paltrow told Harper’s Bazaar in 2011. “She will be an incredible mother because she is so full of love and she knows who she is.”

Bey also showed the Goop founder some serious love in an interview for the U.K. edition of Bazaar, saying, “She pushes her boundaries all the time. You go to her house and she makes you feel like you never want to go home. She is what I strive to be one day.”

Courteney Cox and Ed Sheeran

Move over, Jennifer Aniston. Courteney Cox has added a new BFF into the mix, and it’s none other than singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. In fact, the “Shape of You” singer even lived in Cox’s Malibu beach house while he was working on his album “x.” 

“There was no rent, but I made the bed and cups of tea and things like that. If you’re staying at your friend’s house, you should treat it like your own,” he told The Sun. 

Sheeran, who reportedly married his childhood friend Cherry Seaborn in December, was responsible for introducing Cox to her now-partner, Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol. The two couples have been seen on double dates. 

Tom Hardy and Prince Harry 

Tom Hardy was among the famous faces at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding in May 2018. But when asked how he scored an invite, the “Venom” actor told Esquire that the nature of his friendship with the Duke of Sussex is “deeply private.”

Hardy did, however, tell the magazine in no uncertain terms that “Harry is a fucking legend.”

It’s not clear how the two first met, though Hardy is an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust, a charity founded by Harry’s father, Prince Charles. 

Katy Perry and Allison Williams

Pop star Katy Perry and “Get Out” actress Allison Williams were first introduced through mutual friends years ago, and the two “just clicked.” In 2013, Williams attended the Grammys as the “Teenage Dream” singer’s date.

“She’s the hottest date,” Williams told Anderson Cooper. “She’s a friend of mine and she’s nominated, as she should be. I can’t wait to go. Obviously she’s awesome. She’s the best.”

In 2017, the two discovered they share some serious BFF telepathy when they both happened to dye their hair blond on the same day.   

“We just couldn’t believe it,” Williams told PeopleStyle at the time. “We weirdly ended up going blonde on the same day. I was texting her, and I was like, ‘I’m going to be blonde next time I see you.’ And she was like, ‘Me too!’ It was hilarious.”

Justin Theroux and Jonathan Van Ness

“Leftovers” actor Justin Theroux is enjoying his burgeoning friendship with “Queer Eye” grooming guru Jonathan Van Ness. It all started with an Instagram DM in which Theroux invited Van Ness over for some quiche. 

“I was with some friends, it was Easter, and I was just like, I’m just gonna DM them because I saw in [Jonathan’s] Stories that he was in New York,” Theroux told Jimmy Kimmel in July. “I was making a quiche. That’s how we celebrate. And I sent him a little [message] — I was like, hey, you probably won’t get this, this is Justin, but I’m making a quiche this Easter and if you want to come by. 

Van Ness responded with a resounding, “OMG, yes,” and the rest, as they say, is history. 

“Then it turned into kind of like a regular clutch hang out,” Theroux told “Entertainment Tonight.” 

Two other members of the Fab Five, Tan France and Antoni Porowski, have also gotten to know Theroux. 

“They’ve sort of included me in their little wolf pack,” Theroux said.

When Lucie-Colombe Chailan goes clubbing with her friends she always makes sure the screensaver on her phone – a photograph of her and her boyfriend – is visible. She says it’s the only way to stop men trying to flirt with her or ask for her number. Telling them she isn’t interested isn’t enough, says the 22-year-old. Unless she shows physical proof, they keep on trying.

“It works”, says Chailan. “But I’m frustrated because a clear ‘no’ from me is less meaningful than implying I am the ‘property’ of another man.”

Chailan isn’t the only one – Helen McStravick, 40, previously had to ask a male friend to put his arm around her when she was hit on by a stranger. “The only way to stop him harassing me was to show I was ‘owned’ by another man.” She says lesbian friends of hers have also had to pretend they have boyfriends because mentioning their girlfriend is not enough to send men on their way.

If someone made an advance on you in a night out but you weren’t interested, how would you go about saying no? Would you keep it simple or feel forced to make an elaborate excuse that involved a partner or another commitment?  Women have told HuffPost UK they have had to make up fictional partners – or even pregnancies – to make it clear that a stranger’s approach is unwelcome.

This week, actress Jameela Jamil shared a story on Twitter about a similar situation that ended in her being physically assaulted.

“I once said no thank you to man when I was 19 and didn’t have an excuse and he punched me in the face. After that whether or not I have a boyfriend, I say I do. Being a woman is truly, constantly scary. It’s like existing on thin ice.”

Jamil’s story resonated with Shannon Murray, 42, who was called a “moody bitch” after telling a man she didn’t want a drink because she had a partner.

“Women shouldn’t have to tell men that they’re taken in order for them to leave us alone,” says Almara Abgarian, 29. “It sets a dangerous precedent because why is it not enough that I’m single and not interested? These days I’ll only lie if I feel unsafe in the situation, such as when I’ve had Uber drivers hit on me. It’s atrocious we feel the need to do this.”

Sometimes even saying you are in a relationship is not enough: “Even when you say you’re taken they will still try and pursue,” says Lateefah Jean-Baptiste, 25, And Lucy Elisa, also 25, agrees.

“I was with some friends at a bar once a couple of years ago and a guy came up to me and started flirting so I told him I had a boyfriend, which was true,” she says. “He was super apologetic, and I thought, for once, that was relatively painless. Then he took my hand quite forcefully and led me around the corner of this bar away from my friends, put his hand on my waist and tried to kiss me.

“When I reiterated that I had a boyfriend, he was confused and said ‘yeah, but your friends can’t see us now, so they won’t tell him... ’ Then when I was just straight up, ‘I do not want to get with you, I only want to get with my boyfriend’, he was so perplexed, like he did not compute what I was saying at all.” 

Liv Cassano, 25, said: “I’ve had guys reply with ‘your boyfriend is lucky’ and then proceed to ask me out anyways. I’ve decided to implement a new technique and tell guys I’m pregnant. Maybe that will work?”

Other women have gone further – Rae Radford, 56, says she used to wear an engagement ring on nights out. “I’d gone through a rough patch with men and just wanted to go out and dance without idiots springing their dreadful one lines on me, so the ring worked well.”

Meanwhile, Grace Cassidy, 29, not only has a fictional backstory but a fake name: Emily. “I’ve been doing it for years, since university – I’m not sure why but I think there’s something really committal in a conversation when you open with your name and who you are to a stranger,” she says.

CHENNAI — The Congress party’s minimum income guarantee scheme will be rolled out in phases and the five crore beneficiary families will be covered in phases, senior leader P Chidambaram said Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, the former Finance Minister said ‘enough’ economists and experts in the subject had been consulted and they broadly agreed that India has the capacity to implement the scheme.

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said the implementation of the scheme is possible, Chidambaram added.

“Our calculation shows that it will not cross 2 percent of the GDP, it will be 1.8 percent of the GDP at any given point of time,” he said.

“The scheme will be rolled out in phases and we will cover the five crore families in phases,” he said.

The senior party leader said the scheme has to be tested in the field and then rolled out.

An expert committee will be set up for its implementation and it will design the scheme at every stage and “we will consult the committee before we move to the next stage,” he said.

There is enough data to identify the five crore families, Chidambaram said. 

When the 100 days employment scheme (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) was implemented in 2009, BJP leader Arun Jaitley had said it was not possible to implement the scheme.

Jaitley, however, forgot to say that doubling income for the farmers was not possible when Modi announced it, he said.

“I don’t wish to reply to anyone who criticises a programme intended to wipe out poverty,” he said answering a question on criticism of the scheme.

“MNREGA eradicated hunger income scheme will root out poverty.”

The Congress alone cannot be blamed for not eradicating poverty, he said adding the party had taken several measures to root it out and succeeded in several of them as well.

“To eradicate poverty, a minimum income is needed otherwise poverty will not end.”

Like the Minimum Wages Act which stipulates minimum wages, every family should have a minimum income and the government cannot provide the entire income and that was why the scheme is called the “Minimum Income Support Scheme.”

An amount of Rs 72,000 a year, a standard amount Rs 6,000 per month is proposed to be transferred to the account of beneficiaries if the Congress is voted to power in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

He said his party was aware of the challenges involved in implementing the scheme and added that “we will overcome these challenges.”

“We will insist that every family should open an account in the name of the woman in the family and the money will be transferred to her account.”

Poverty eradication should be accepted as an “aram (meaning dharma in Tamil), it is dharma, it is a moral duty of every government in the 21st century,” he said.

To a question, he said,“don’t compare Kisan Samman Scheme with this scheme and trivialise our scheme,” he said and alleged the BJP rolled out the farmers plan “for elections.”

Had the scheme been important for the BJP-led NDA, Chidambaram asked why it did not implement it in “full five budgets,” and rolled it out at the fag end of its tenure.

He indicated that the Congress manifesto is likely to be released on April 2.

On March 25, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Monday said 20 per cent families in poorest of the poor category will be given Rs 72,000 each annually as a minimum income.

Gandhi had touted the promise as a “groundbreaking” measure to end poverty.

The Congress president had said: “The time for change has come”. Five crore families and 25 crore people will directly benefit from the scheme, he claimed, terming it is a “final assault” to eradicate poverty in the country.

Prithviraj Sukumaran was 19 and partway through his bachelor’s degree at the University of Tasmania when he got a call from director Ranjith, asking him to appear for a screen test. Son of actors Sukumaran and Mallika, he was eventually chosen as the male lead in Ranjith’s fantastical love story Nandanam, where he played Manu, an ambitious, sophisticated young man whose US immigration plans hit a hurdle when he falls in love with the orphaned maid at his grandmother’s house during a vacation.

Though Nandanam eventually only released a few months after his films Stop Violence and Nakshathrakkannulla Rajakumaran Avanundoru Rajakumari, at the end of 2002, it was his technically debut and the first movie in which his acting skills were on display. His performance wasn’t flawless—he was raw and learning the ropes, but there was an honesty to his acting that was endearing.

“I had no immediate plans to stick around. But then I started getting more offers and I thought, just one more or two more and I will return to Australia. Then I realised that I was lying to myself and this was what I wanted to do all my life and I loved the unpredictability of it. I was as good as my last Friday. That epiphany happened during the middle of director Bhadran’s Vellithira,” the actor had recalled during an interview with journalist TN Gopakumar on Asianet’s Kannadi.

In the early 2000s, the Malayalam film industry was groaning under the weight of big-budget superstar films, with a few light-hearted, forgettable movies starring the likes of Dileep and Kunchacko Boban thrown in. Many new faces, both men and women, tried their luck in films around this time, only to fade away soon (fun fact: one of these unlucky aspirants was the talented Fahadh Faasil, who also made his disastrous debut in 2002, took a break and then came back to become a star). While some of this was down to the quality of the films they starred in, it was also a time when Malayalam cinema had not opened up yet to embracing change and fresh perspectives by way of narratives, actors and ideas.

Prithviraj’s entry at this point, when the industry had not yet transitioned from its dependence on ageing superstars and uninspiring directors, meant that his early career graph is a mixture of sensible, thoughtful films and a few repetitive star ventures that don’t bear watching even once.

But there was something different about Prithviraj even then—maybe it was his quiet, thoughtful answers to routine questions, his initial perplexity and then acceptance of the many memes and jokes aimed at his “English accent”, his calm demeanour even when his career wasn’t going well, and willingness to speak out even when it meant being shunned by powerful actors.

This week, 17 years since Nandanam, Prithviraj is making his directorial debut with Lucifer, starring Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Tovino Thomas and Vivek Oberoi, a movie that Malayalam moviegoers are eagerly anticipating not just for its talented cast, but also because of the high expectations from its director.

The rise, and then the rut

Post Nandanam, Prithviraj was hailed as a “rising superstar” and “the new hope of Malayalam cinema” on magazine covers, but he seemed to fall into a pattern after some time. Even when he chose movies helmed by veteran directors, they often didn’t appeal to viewers or critics. Be it the lorry driver in Lohithadas’s Chakram (a role initially written with Mohanlal in mind), the angry policemen in Sathyam, Kaakki and Krithyam or the over-the-top spoilt ‘Achayan’ character in AvanChandiyudeMakan, he was stuck in the “angry young man” mould in the mid-2000s. It was also clear that he required a skilled director and a well-written character to guide him—given a free rein, the actor in him was struggling to fine-tune his craft. Everything seemed to be off the mark at those times—be it the body language or voice modulation.

But that is not to say that he didn’t have his moments. There was Swapnakoodu (2003), a multi-starrer and Prithviraj’s first attempt at comedy, where he pulled off the character of a rich, spoilt playboy. The role required a flamboyance and playfulness that the actor managed to deliver on. He was effective in Lal Jose’s campus hit Classmates (2006) as the young, hot-headed student political leader Sukumaran; Vaasthavam (2006) where he played Balachandran Adiga, a manipulative bureaucrat (which got him his first Kerala State Award for best actor); Thalappavu (2008)a semi-biographical film on Naxalite Varghese, where he played the Naxalite; and Thirakkatha (2008), a meta film loosely based on veteran actor Srividya’s life in which he played a film director.

In between, he experimented with other languages—in Tamil, apart from a few remakes of Malayalam movies, his big break was landing the role of the cop with shades of grey in Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan (2010), but that journey sort of petered off after that. His sojourn into Hindi with three films—the unconventional Aiyyaa (2012), Aurangzeb (2013) and Naam Shabana (2017)—also made some headlines, but once again, didn’t really translate into a wave.

Speaking up off screen

Prithviraj can be described as a journalist’s delight—his articulate responses ensured that you would come away with at least one great headline for your story.

“Today it’s difficult for a superstar to gaze at a young heroine and say ‘I love you’ to her,” (in an interview to Journalist Sreekantan Nair in Asianet) was how he hinted that Mammootty and Mohanlal should play their age instead of starring opposite increasingly younger women.

When actors were barred from being part of director Vinayan’s films, around 2004, Prithviraj defied AMMA by acting in the director’s Sathyam. He was thrown out by the influential organisation but taken back again after he tendered an apology. 

When the tide turned

Prithviraj swung away again from making forgettable movies after 2009’s PuthiyaMugham, directed by Diphan. The middling commercial potboiler, where he played a quiet, studious boy forced to fight a set of bullies, was propelled by its slow-motion scenes and rousing music, became a big hit, making the actor bankable again.

“Prithviraj was the first young actor who seriously gave the impression to Malayali viewers as a prospective hero capable of carrying the superstar mantle forward from Mammootty and Mohanlal. From Day 1, he was anointed as a “hero” or, let’s say, a superstar for the future. And more than anyone else, Prithviraj knew it himself,” said Vijay George, a film critic.  

In 2010, the actor, along with cinematographer Santosh Sivan, producer Shaji Nadesan and actor Arya, began a production and distribution company called August Cinema. Their first venture, an extravagantly shot fantasy period drama called Urumi,about a young boy who sets out to assassinate Vasco da Gama, the first European explorer who reached Kerala in search of its spices, was a commercial and critical success. 

For Prithviraj, this was his first attempt at building a brand. For the audience, August Cinema was synonymous with Prithviraj and the films it produced and distributed were seen as ones that had his stamp of approval. And the association has led to some great films—IndianRupee (2011), the Ranjith-directed satire on the real estate mafia which also won a National Award for the best Malayalam feature film, Anjali Menon’s debut Manjadikuru (2012)and Biju Menon-starrer AnuragaKarikkinVellam (2016)—along with a few duds.

Evolving with each film

The actor was also evolving along the way, slowly shedding his stiffness, arrogance and impetuousness and slipping into roles that required him to be vulnerable and flawed. In Lal Jose’s AyalumNjanumThammil (2012), his Dr Ravi Tharakan was brusque but humane and the actor brought him to life with ease.

“He takes cinema very seriously and is someone who completely invests himself in the character given to him. Raju never interferes in the scripts. He asks questions, though. I would love to collaborate with him again,” said Sanjay, the co-writer of AyalumNjanumThammil.

Many of the writers and directors who have worked with him vouch for his “incredible photographic memory.” Sanjay agrees: “He doesn’t need prompting on the sets. Even during dubbing.”

Murali Gopy, actor and writer of Lucifer, said that Prithviraj is a skilled director.

“It is phenomenal the way he memorises the screenplay, down to the last written word of it. As a writer, I could not have asked for anything better than that.”

In 2013, Prithviraj played Kerala’s first filmmaker, JC Daniel, in Celluloid, directed by Kamal. That role, along with the one in AyalumNjanumThammil, won him his second State award for best actor.

Then came a role that most Indian heroes would have balked at at that point—a gay cop in the Rosshan Andrrews-directed thriller Mumbai Police (an innovative mystery with problematic subtext).

“Actually, it was that gay part that hooked him in the entire story. Anthony Moses is someone who projects an aggressive macho image to shield his sexuality from the world. And he also had to play a sober version of the character post the memory loss. Of course, a lot of it was on paper, but Prithviraj brought in his own nuances to the character,” said Sanjay, who co-wrote the film. 

Between 2012 and now, the actor has treaded carefully, picking roles with caution and experimenting with genres. In Picket43, he played an army soldier who guards a picket alone in Kashmir, in Shyamaprasad’s Ivide, he was an Atlanta-born police detective with an identity crisis, in Memories a drunken cop with a bitter past investigating a series of murders, the unlucky lover Moideen in the tragic EnnuNinteMoideen and a sailor awaiting his lover in Anarkali.

“He has gone through his own share of highs and lows but never has he settled for a notch below. He seems to believe in doing more numbers when compared to most of his peers and that is a tactic which has worked in his favour, ensuring hits at regular intervals,” said George. 

In an industry where fortunes and loyalties turn every Friday, he is one actor who has always owned up to his failures. When the much-feted gangster comedy DoubleBarrel, which his company produced and distributed, flopped, the actor said in an interview: “We all knew what we were getting into. However, it did not do well the way we expected it to. I have no qualms in admitting that it was a failed experiment. But I don’t do films just so they become box-office hits.”

He has been a troll favourite for a while, especially over his Facebook posts written in English, which his fans maintain require the help of a dictionary to understand. But when most industry bigwigs refused to stand up for their colleague who was abducted and molested in a moving car in 2017, Prithviraj wrote a poignant Facebook post declaring his support for her and apologising for acting in films that “celebrated misogyny”.

“NEVER AGAIN..never again will I let disrespect for women be celebrated in my movies!” he wrote.

Turning independent producer and director

Though his recent spate of movies (Ezra, Adam Joan, Tiyaan, Ranam, Nine) have come under the scanner for their obsession with recreating a Hollywood-like feel, they also seemed like genuine attempts to experiment, at least on paper.

But last year’s Koode (directed by Anjali Menon)is testament to how much Prithviraj has grown as an actor. In the film, adapted from the Marathi movie HappyJourney, Prithviraj played the complex and emotionally disturbed Joshua who hides years of abuse and loneliness behind a silent and unhappy exterior. He doesn’t have much dialogues, but the actor internalised the character, making us feel for him.

“Prithviraj is prolific and always seems to be open to experimentation. His passion for cinema is apparent in how much energy he’s invested in the field, getting into production and direction, apart from jumping across industries. As an actor, too many directors have used him for style and bombast, but I like him in more vulnerable roles. For someone who seems so ready to step out of his comfort zone, it’s a pity that he doesn’t get enough of these roles,” said Sowmya Rajendran, film critic for The News Minute.

This year, he turned independent producer (he left August Cinema last year) with the sci-fi-horror flick Nine, directed by Jenuse Mohammed. And then there is the big leap as a director with Lucifer, one of the most anticipated films of this year.

It was only a matter of time before Prithviraj stepped behind the camera, said his brother, actor Indrajith Sukumaran.

“I have seen his passion for cinema, his hunger to learn about the different departments of cinema. More than acting, his passion was always filmmaking,” he said.

Prithviraj told this writer in a recent interview that he picked up directorial skills by being an actor and observing the process of filmmaking from close quarters.

“I think as an actor, when you direct, you strike a chord with your actors because you can understand what is happening in their personal space. When a very emotionally challenging scene is shot, you know what the ideal set-up for an actor would be. There are times you have been in front of the camera and thought, ‘I wish this were not happening right now’,” he said.

And his actors seem to agree.

“It’s like working with a seasoned director,” said Mohanlal in a recent promotional interview.

Will the ambition translate on screen? Whatever the verdict is on Lucifer, one thing is certain: Prithviraj will keep reinventing himself, which is great news for Malayalam cinema.

India was glued to screens — on their phones, laptops, TV — when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he would address the nation between 11:45 am and 12:00 noon. 

Now, since the only time Modi addressed the nation in an impromptu address was during demonetisation, speculation was rife on what he was likely to announce. Will it be another demonetisation? Will he declare emergency? Is it war with Pakistan? — these were some of the jokes doing the rounds of social media. 

After a nail-biting 45-minute wait, Prime Minister Modi announced that India successfully targeted a live satellite on a low earth orbit. He said that India had become the fourth country after Russia, US and China to get this technology.

However, after the long wait, Twitter users seemed extremely unmoved by Modi’s announcement. 

Here’s what they said: 

One Twitter user took a sentence out of Modi’s previous remarks to show how displeased they were: 

Some said that this could have been an email. 

People also took made fun of ‘bhakts’ 

‘April fool banaya’ was a popular one. 

Many others pointed out DRDO should have made the announcement. 

There were also those who were just left confounded. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that India had established itself as an elite space power after it successfully tested an anti-satellite missile on Wednesday.

The A-SAT successfully targeted a live satellite on a low earth orbit, the prime minister said as he congratulated the DRDO for the achievement.

Till now, only United States, Russia and China had this honour, Modi said.

The operation, called ‘Mission Shakti’, was successfully carried out in just three minutes.  

Modi also said this was a rare achievement. 

“It shows the remarkable dexterity of India’s outstanding scientists and the success of our space programme,” he said.

He said that India’s mission is not directed against any other country. ‘Mission Shakti’ is an important step towards strengthening India’s security, Modi said.

The prime minister further said that today, India has enough satellites that were contributing to various sectors such as agriculture, disaster management, communication, weather and navigation among others.

Watch his address:

Actress Jameela Jamil of “The Good Place” shared on Twitter about an upsetting encounter she had while shopping with a friend.

The actress said Sunday that during the outing, a man ogled her and approached her to give her his number. When she declined and explained she has a boyfriend, the man responded defensively. 

“Man then threatens my career, saying I better remember that I rejected him. And then Shouts at me that I’m low class...” she wrote.

As the star tweeted, dudes should really just ... 

While the encounter sounds extremely upsetting, it’s a scenario familiar to many women, as social media users pointed out. Many shared their own stories of being harassed and subsequently shamed when they attempted to stand up for themselves. 

According to Kimberly Resnick Anderson, a sex therapist and a clinical instructor of psychiatry at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, women are socialized to deal with rejection in a more internal way. However, men are conditioned to externalize rejection. 

“Young men often assume that malice is involved in the rejection,” Resnick Anderson told HuffPost last year. “It’s easier to justify an aggressive reaction if you can convince yourself that you were intentionally ‘wronged.’”

Dudes, do better. 

PATNA — BJP candidate from Patna Sahib, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is the BJP nominee from Patna Sahib was on Tuesday shown black flags by alleged supporters of another party leader on his first visit to the city after being announced candidate for the seat.

Prasad was shown black flags by alleged supporters of R K Sinha, a Rajya Sabha member, who was hopeful of a ticket for the seat. It lead to a clash with the party workers who had gathered at the airport to welcome the union minister.

The two groups shoved each other and exchanged blows and were quelled by security personnel deployed at the airport. It was not known if any of them were detained.

The state unit of BJP in a statement later in the day asserted that the protesters had “no past or present relation” with the party and expressed suspicion that they were “hooligans” sent by “vested interest groups in the rival camp” to provoke the party workers who were in a “festive mood”.

The Patna Sahib seat is currently held by dissident MP Shatrughan Sinha, who has often openly criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

An embarrassed Prasad before leaving the airport told the waiting newsmen, “I thank my party for considering me for this great responsibility. I will give my best shot. The BJPs commitment to nationalism and good governance will help Narendra Modi return to power”.

RK Sinha is the founder of SIS, which is said to be the largest private security provider in the country. He is claimed to be immensely popular among the Kayastha community to which Prasad and Shatrughan Sinha too belong.

An office-bearer of the Akhil Bharatiya Kayastha Mahasabha had recently issued a statement stating that the community, which has remained steadfastly with the BJP post-Mandal Commission, would not vote for Prasad and that only RK Sinha was acceptable to it as a candidate.

Shatrughan Sinha, who is completing his second consecutive Lok Sabha term, is expected to be fielded as a candidate of the opposition Mahagathbandhan comprising RJD, Congress and other smaller parties from the seat after being inducted into Congress.

The Bihar BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand in a statement said, “We condemn this attempt to create chaos and pandemonium during the welcome of our union minister by some hooligans.

These people have no past or present relationship with BJP and it seems that some groups with vested interests in rival political camp had tried to cause disruption by provoking festive party workers.””

Let them be sure that Ravi Shankar Prasad is going to win the election with a record margin while his rival Shatughan Sinha will be made politically khamosh(silent),” he said using the Bollywood actor’s stock-in-trade expression.

Sophie Turner may be engaged to Joe Jonas at the age of 23, but the “Game of Thrones” star recently admitted that she never thought she’d get engaged so young. Or at all.

Turner, who plays Sansa Stark on the hit HBO series that will return for its eighth and final season in April, told Rolling Stone in an interview published Tuesday that she was “fully preparing myself to be single for the rest of my life.”

But all of that apparently changed once she met her 29-year-old fiance.

“I think once you’ve found the right person, you just know,” she said of Jonas. “I feel like I’m much older a soul than I am in age. I feel like I’ve lived enough life to know. I’ve met enough guys to know — I’ve met enough girls to know.”

In regard to her comments about “girls,” Turner told the magazine with a shrug:

“Everyone experiments … It’s part of growing up. I love a soul, not a gender.”

Last year, Turner told Marie Claire that she doesn’t see marriage as an achievement.

“There’s this weird misconception that being married is the greatest thing that’ll ever happen to you,” Turner said. “But I’ve always found that my career is something I work for, and when I achieve something, there’s a sense that this is the greatest thing I’ll do in my life.”

She added:

“It’s lovely to be engaged. Not like I achieved anything, but I found my person, like I’d find a house that I love and want to stay in forever. There’s a sense of peace that comes with finding your person. But there’s a drive that comes with your career.”

Cheers to that.

AHMEDABAD—Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday courted controversy when he hit out at Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, saying that having identical features like former prime minister Indira Gandhi did not ensure that one gets power. 

“It is being talked about in the Congress that she (Priyanka) has the nose like her grandmother (Indira),” Mandaviya said.

“If you get power by having a nose like your grandmother, then won’t there be a president in every household in China?” the BJP leader asked at the party’s ‘Vijay Sankalp’ rally at Anand in Gujarat.

Many leaders of Congress had openly said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reminded them of her late grandmother.

Vadra, who is the Congress’s incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, had reportedly said she was often likened with Indira Gandhi because people loved the former prime minister.

Last month, BJP MP Harish Dwivedi had also made personal comments on Vadra.

Dwivedi had said Vadra wears “jeans and top” in Delhi and “saree and sindoor (vermilion)” when she is on an election campaign. 

President Donald Trump is suggesting that former President Barack Obama was involved in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

He pushed a similar theory on Twitter in early 2017, accusing Obama of having his “wires tapped” in Trump Tower before the election. There was no evidence then, nor has any come to light since, yet Trump indicated to reporters Tuesday he still believes it’s true:

It’s a baffling talking point that high-ranking officials in his administration continue to repeat. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did just that in an interview with CNN on Monday, blaming unnamed Democrats for being “behind the wiretapping.” 

The accusation has repeatedly been rejected by other high-ranking officials, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. A long NBC News report published Tuesday details how Coats, who was recruited for the job by Vice President Mike Pence, has repeatedly found himself frustrated by the president’s intransigence:

Twelve days before Coats was sworn in by Pence as DNI in March 2017, Trump accused Obama of wiretapping him during the 2016 campaign. “Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” he wrote on Twitter on March 4. Coats would find it was a subject Trump raised repeatedly. ... 

Coats found it particularly hard to hide his exasperation with Trump’s insistence in the weeks after taking office that Obama had wiretapped him during the 2016 campaign, according to the officials. Over and over again Trump raised the issue, and over and over Coats told him he wasn’t wiretapped, officials said, but the president didn’t want to hear it.

“It was a recurring thing and began early on,” a senior administration official who observed the exchanges said. “You could tell that Coats thought the president was crazy.”

Then again, hard evidence has rarely ― if ever ― stopped Trump from clinging to blatant falsehoods. 

NEW DELHI — The Election Commission is learnt to have decided to seek details of remarks made by Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar in which he had attacked Congress over minimum income guarantee promise.

Sources in the poll panel said, since Kumar is part of “bureaucratic executive”, such remarks may be violative of the model code.

“It is not a case of one politician attacking the other or one party attacking the other,” said a functionary.

Kumar had accused the Congress of promising the moon to win elections.

He had also tweeted, saying “The proposed income guarantee scheme fails the economics test, fiscal discipline test and execution test”.

In another tweet, Kumar had claimed,

Kumar is reported to made similar remarks in an interview also.

At a press conference here on Monday, Rahul Gandhi announced that 20 per cent families belonging to the poorest category will be given Rs 72,000 each annually as minimum income if Congress comes to power.

Officials in Chicago have dropped the charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself.

Earlier this month, Smollett pleaded not guilty to 16 felony counts for allegedly staging the January attack and lying to officials.

“Today, all criminal charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped and his record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic complaint against him,” his lawyers said in a statement Tuesday, continuing to maintain that Smollett was “a victim” and “vilified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public causing an inappropriate rush to judgement.”

“We’re very happy for this result and we are very anxious for Jussie to get on with his career and his life,” Smollett attorney Patricia Brown Holmes said during a press conference shortly after the statement. 

Holmes declined to comment about the details of the case, saying that it “had spiraled out of control.”

“We have nothing to say to the police department, except to investigate charges and not try cases in the press,” Holmes said.

The case has been sealed, and the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said it had reached an “agreement” with Smollett and his attorneys rather than a plea deal, so Smollett will not be required to perform community service.

“After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case ... we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case,” the office said in a statement.

In explaining the decision to drop the charges, Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Magats told The New York Times that “we work to prioritize violent crime and the drivers of violent crime. Public safety is our number one priority. I don’t see Jussie Smollett as a threat to public safety.”

“We stand behind the investigation, we stand behind the decision to charge him and we stand behind the charges in the case. The mere fact that it was disposed of in an alternative manner does not mean that there were any problems or infirmities in the case or the evidence,” Magats continued, saying the decision does not mean Smollett has been exonerated.

Holmes said Tuesday that Smollett had “forfeited” his bond, meaning the city would keep it.

Protesting the decision to drop the charges, an angry Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) called it a “whitewash of justice,” saying that Smollett’s $10,000 bond “doesn’t even come close to what the city spent in resources” to investigate Smollett’s attack.

He also argued that Smollett was being “let off scot-free” because of his fame.

“You cannot have, because of a person’s position, one set of rules apply to them, and another set of rules apply to everybody else,” Emanuel said, comparing it to the college admissions bribery scandal and calling Smollett’s attack “all in the name of self-promotion.”

Foxx recused herself from the Smollett investigation last month “out of an abundance of caution” based on her “familiarity with potential witnesses in the case,” her office had said in a statement.

Text messages obtained by ABC 7 allegedly showed the Smollett family reached out to Foxx to say they were concerned about potential leaks in the investigation. The family wanted Foxx to ask Chicago police to hand over the investigation to the FBI, ABC 7 reported.

Smollett’s family said Tuesday that “he has been vindicated.”

“Our son and brother is an innocent man whose name and character has been unjustly smeared,” the family said in a statement. “Jussie is a son, a brother, a partner, a champion for human rights, and a genuine soul who would never be capable of what he was falsely accused of. He was the victim of an assault and then falsely blamed for his own attack.”

In January, Smollett claimed that two men attacked him in Chicago, alleging that they shouted racist and homophobic slurs and wrapped a noose around him. But police later said the “Empire” actor hired the two men to stage the attack in order to obtain a pay raise.

Of the brothers whom Smollett allegedly hired, Holmes said Tuesday that “they attacked him,” and the $3,500 payment was for exercise and fitness training.

A Chicago Police Department representative told HuffPost “no comment” when asked about the charges being dropped and referred questions about the case to the Cook County State Attorney’s Office.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson claimed last month that there’s more evidence on the case than what’s been released to the public.

“There’s a lot more evidence that hasn’t been presented yet, and does not support the version he gave,” he told ABC’s Robin Roberts on Feb. 25. “There’s still a lot of physical evidence, video evidence and testimony that just simply does not support his version of what happened.”

On Tuesday, Johnson said he stood by the investigation.

“Do I think justice was served? No. What do I think justice is? I think this city is still owed an apology,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, it is Mr. Smollett who committed this hoax, period. If he wanted to clear his name, the way to do that is in a court of law so everyone can see the evidence.”

Smollett had been represented by celebrity attorney Mark Geragos. On Monday, Geragos was accused as an unnamed co-conspirator in a case involving attorney Michael Avenatti.

Following the initial charges, Fox, which airs “Empire,” said the show’s producers and writers had removed Smollett from the final two episodes of the season.

In a statement Tuesday, the network said: “Jussie Smollett has always maintained his innocence and we are gratified on his behalf that all charges against him have been dismissed.”

This story has been updated with details from the Tuesday press conference and reactions from Fox, Emanuel, Magats and Johnson. Hayley Miller contributed reporting.

JAIPUR — Congress president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said his party consulted “big economists” including former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan before it came up with the idea of minimum guaranteed income to the poorest 20 per cent households in the country.

Addressing a meeting of his party workers at the Ramlila ground here, Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to transfer Rs 15 lakh to every bank account but did not keep the promise.

“We thought it was a good idea...Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts. But the promise was not fulfilled by Modi. We started our work six months back to make such a thing reality,” he said.

He went on to say that his party consulted “all big economists, without telling anyone, without giving any speeches” on the Nyuntam Aay Yojana or Nyay.

“We were engaged in this work for six months. Take the list of all big economists of the world, we consulted them...Raghuram Rajan...one by one,” he said.

“First thing, we came to know was that there should be a minimum income line. We calculated and the result was that the minimum income line should be Rs 12,000 per month,” he said.

He attacked the BJP, saying it wants a Congress-free India but the Congress will fight it with love and defeat it.

“Ek baar tukka lag gaya 2014 mein, wo alag baat hai (By chance they won in 2014. That was a fluke). Look at Indian history. Whoever spreads hate loses and one who spreads love wins,” he said.

Gandhi said his party will fulfil the promise of minimum guaranteed income to the poor.

On Monday, Gandhi had announced in New Delhi that Rs 72,000 per year will be given as minimum income to poor families, benefiting around 25 crore people, if his party is voted to power in Lok Sabha polls, and asserted it will be the “final assault” on poverty.

Gandhi had said 20 per cent or five crore families belonging to the poorest category with monthly income less than Rs 12,000 would come under the scheme.

On Tuesday, he said that if his party comes to power, young entrepreneurs will not require any permission for first three years for running a business, unlike under the Modi government, which he alleged, mandates various permissions and bribe is demanded for granting them.

“Just start your business and after three years, take whatever permission is required,” he said.

Gandhi said truth is the weapon for Congress workers.

Twitter lost its collective mind Monday when news seemingly ripped straight from The Onion went into orbit.

The first all-female NASA spacewalk, which had been scheduled for March 29, was canceled because of ― wait for it ― a lack of properly sized suits. Astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch, who were scheduled to participate in the walk, both needed a size medium hard upper torso, which the agency described as “essentially the shirt of the spacesuit.” And only one was available. 

NASA clarified Tuesday in a tweet that it has more than one medium-size suit but, because of time constraints, it would be “safer and faster” to switch out McClain for a male astronaut.

But that didn’t stop expert suit wearer Hillary Clinton from offering a solution: 

NASA’s spacesuit problem dates much farther back than this would-be history-making walk. NPR reported in 2017 that the organization has only 11 spacesuits, or extravehicular mobility units, which were all designed more than 40 years ago. It added that the cost to build a new suit from scratch would be $250 million. 

So, not quite as easy as just making a new one. But a challenge that maybe should have been dealt with more than a few days before a giant leap for womankind was scheduled? 

Worst case scenario, NASA could always send out the bat signal to fashion designer Christian Siriano. He has a way of making outfits magically appear that others deem impossible. 

We all deal with different stresses, whether related to our jobs, our families, the cities we live in or the constant struggle to do it all.

But as Dr. Joshua Zeichner, the director of Cosmetic and Clinical Research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told HuffPost, “Stress is not our friend, neither for our mind nor for our skin.”  

Our skin is the largest organ in our bodies, and it can show signs of stress in a number of different ways, such as psoriasis and eczema flare-ups, seborrheic dermatitis and even acne. 

Of course, everyone’s body and skin will react to stress in different ways, as we all have different genetic makeups. However, according to Dr. Whitney Bowe, a New York City-based dermatologist and the author of The Beauty of Dirty Skin, our skin can’t tell the difference between different types of stress — physical, emotional, psychological and environmental. 

“To the skin, stress falls into one of two categories: acute or chronic,” she told HuffPost via email. “The more detrimental form of stress for the skin is the chronic kind of stress. The longer you endure stress, the more it takes a toll on your skin.” 

Read on to find out the different ways stress can affect your skin and the rest of your body. 

1. Stress triggers inflammation

To better understand how stress might affect and inflame the skin, Bowe said she looks at the “deep and powerful connection” of the skin, mind and gut. According to her, when the mind perceives stress, it can slow down digestion in the gut. The longer the stress lasts, the more of an impact it can have on your digestion, and when your digestion is slowed, it can affect the bacteria in your gut. A recent study found that high levels of stress can affect the gut bacteria much like a high-fat diet. 

“That slowed motility allows for an overgrowth of unhealthy strains of bacteria, and the natural balance of gut microbes is disrupted, leading to something called dysbiosis,” she said. “This in turn causes the lining of your intestines to become ‘leaky,’ or more permeable, which triggers a bodywide cascade of inflammation.”

As a result of the internal inflammation, she said, the skin may break out in acne or experience flare-ups of psoriasis or eczema. 

Dr. Forum Patel of Union Square Laser Dermatology in New York City echoed Bowe’s point, explaining that when you’re under stress, “Your body thinks it’s under attack, and it’s going to form all these inflammatory markers or inflammatory cells to help treat that attack.” 

Because these inflammatory cells have increased in number, it can trigger flare-ups of any skin conditions people may be predisposed to. 

2. Stress can dry your skin out

Whenever our body feels it’s under stress, our fight-or-flight response kicks in, Patel noted. As a result, we experience a spike in adrenaline and cortisol.

An increase in adrenaline causes us to sweat more, she noted. It activates the eccrine glands, the sweat glands, which “cause you to become dehydrated, because you’re losing a lot more water very quickly,” she said.

“If your body thinks it’s under some sort of stress, it’s trying to cool itself down,” she said. “If you’re not replenishing your body with water, you’re going to dry out.” 

Those who have dry skin in general are more prone to eczema, Patel said. Dr. Michael Eidelman, a dermatologist also based in New York City, added that stress is a known trigger for eczema, which brings us to our next point.

3. Stress hormones can trigger existing conditions to worsen or flare up

The theory is that the immune system is directly affected by stress, Eidelman said.

He noted that stress releases hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline into our systems — “chemical messages that trigger certain physiological responses” in our bodies. For instance, adrenaline increases the heart rate and elevates blood pressure, and cortisol increases sugar in the bloodstream, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

In terms of the skin, when the body produces too much cortisol, the immune system is weakened, causing an inflammatory response such as an eczema or psoriasis flare-up. This factor is particularly relevant for individuals who are predisposed to these skin conditions, Bowe said, as stress can “exacerbate or unmask those conditions.” 

4. Stress can also make you oilier, which could lead to acne breakouts

That shift in hormone levels ― cortisol in particular ― caused by stress can also be a contributing factor to pesky acne breakouts. 

“Stress stimulates the brain to produce a specific set of hormones that prepare the body for the stressful environment,” Zeichner said. “As a side effect, these hormones rev up activity of sebaceous glands in the skin, leading to higher than normal levels of oil, blockages in the pores and acne breakouts.”

5. Stress can also take a toll on your scalp and hair

When it comes to your scalp and hair, there are a couple of ways stress can manifest.

According to Patel, some people might find their hair is oilier or drier than normal during times of stress, depending on the way their bodies react to the shift in hormone levels. 

“Everyone’s response is going to be different in severity, she said. “Your scalp and your hair will definitely feel the effects of stress.” 

Some individuals might experience flare-ups of seborrheic dermatitis, a cousin to psoriasis and dandruff, Eidelman said. The condition could result in redness and flaking of the scalp. 

In some cases, stress can even lead to hair loss, Patel said. For example, when your body experiences a major stressor, like a severe illness, your body stops producing hair, which isn’t crucial for healing or surviving. The effects of such stress might not be noticeable until months later, she added. 

She also said that hair often starts shedding even after minor stresses. She pointed to the keto diet ― which she called a crash diet ― as one example, noting that when you put your body through a significant change, it’s essentially a stressor. 

6. Stress can wreak havoc on your nails

The same way your body stops producing hair in times of prolonged stress, it also stops making nails, Patel said. Again, she said, nails are not necessary for survival, so when it comes time for the body to distribute energy to promote healing, nails aren’t a top priority. 

Additionally, nails can become brittle or start peeling during times of stress, according to Science Daily. 

So how should you take care of your skin when you’re stressed out? 

Zeichner said it’s best to keep your skin care routine simple by using gentle cleansers and moisturizers to remove excess oil and keep the skin well hydrated (particularly important for those with eczema). 

For individuals who are acne prone, he suggested regular use of retinoids to “keep the follicles clear so that oil does not become trapped, causing breakouts.” 

In Bowe’s opinion, managing stress is a multifaceted effort. She said she recommends that her patients aim to get a solid seven to nine hours of sleep, exercise three or four times a week and consider meditation or deep breathing exercises. 

Eidelman agreed, saying there isn’t one single method for treating skin that’s under stress. 

“I think the first thing is being aware that your body is under stress and trying to find ways to either ameliorate the stress or find ways to release the stress,” he said, adding that exercise and meditation have been known to help some individuals feel less stressed. 

“There isn’t one right answer for each person, but there are different things that will work for each individual, depending on what their stress triggers are,” he said. 

NEW DELHI — Veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi was on Tuesday dropped as a BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha elections, while Union minister Maneka Gandhi and her MP son Varun Gandhi swapped their seats as the party announced its 29 more nominees from Uttar Pradesh. 

BJP general secretary Arun Singh announced that Union minister Manoj Sinha has been fielded from Ghazipur, a seat he had won in 2014, and Uttar Pradesh government ministers Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Satyadev Pachauri from prestigious Allahabad and Kanpur seats respectively.

Joshi, 85, had won from Kanpur in 2014 but was told by the party leadership that he would not be fielded in the coming elections. The party has not given the ticket to veterans like LK Advani, BC Khanduri and Kalraj Mishra among others.

Actor politician Jaya Prada was fielded from Rampur hours after she joined the party on Tuesday.

UP BJP president Mahendra Nath Pandey has been repeated from Chandauli, Singh said.

Maneka Gandhi will contest from Sultanpur and Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.

The BJP also announced its 10 candidates from West Bengal.

NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Tuesday termed as “very very serious” the revelations made by CBI in its fresh status report relating to the recent interrogation of the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam case. 

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it cannot “close its eyes” if some “very very serious facts” are disclosed to it and directed CBI to file an application seeking appropriate relief against Kumar, who had earlier headed the state SIT on the chit fund scam.

The bench, which also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, granted 10 days to the probe agency for filing the application.

Kumar and others can respond to the plea seven days thereafter.

Supreme Court said that as the CBI’s status report was filed in a sealed cover, it cannot pass any order at the moment without hearing the other side.

The apex court was hearing the CBI’s contempt application against various senior officials of the West Bengal government including state’s DGP and then Kolkata police chief on the ground of non-cooperation in its probe and alleged destruction of evidence.

NEW DELHI—Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan Tuesday expressed doubts over Indian economy growing at 7 per cent when not enough jobs were being created and said the current cloud over the GDP numbers must be cleared by appointing an impartial body to look at the data.

Rajan, who has also served as Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said he had no idea what statistics are pointing at currently and “a revamp” was needed “to really figure out what India’s true growth rate is”.

“I know one minister (in the Narendra Modi government) has said (that) how can we be growing at 7 per cent and not have jobs. Well, one possibility is that we are not growing at 7 per cent,” he told CNBC TV18.

He did not name the minister.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been stoutly defending the growth data saying an economy cannot be growing at 7-8% without creating jobs. He has also stated that no major social agitation indicates it hasn’t been jobless growth.

Rajan, who was Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor between September 2013 and September 2016, said a stronger broad-based growth is needed that creates more jobs.

On doubts being raised by some over economic data after revision in growth rate, he said a clean up act is needed and an impartial body appointed to look at the numbers.

“I just think that we need now to essentially clean up, find out what in fact is the source of confusion with the new GDP numbers, with the revisions etc. I would say setting up an impartial body to look at it is an important step to resorting confidence,” he said.

The impartial body may throwback the same numbers but “we absolutely need better confidence in our GDP numbers now given the back and forth we have had”.

In November 2018, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) lowered the GDP growth for previous Congress-led UPA by recalibrating national accounts. After this, the four years of the current government showed higher average growth than that achieved during the UPA.

Last month, the government revised the economic growth rate upwards to 7.2 per cent for 2017-18 from 6.7 per cent estimated earlier.

Questions have been raised about the government not making public the NSSO labour survey that reportedly put unemployment rate in 2017 at a 45-year high.

Earlier this month, a group of 108 economists and social scientists said that lately, the Indian statistics and the institutions associated with it have however come under a cloud for being influenced and indeed even controlled by political considerations.

“In fact, any statistics that cast an iota of doubt on the achievement of the government seem to get revised or suppressed on the basis of some questionable methodology,” the group had said in a statement.

Jaitley had countered them saying 70 per cent of them were compulsive contrarians, a term he had coined to thrash opponents of Prime Minster Narendra Modi-led government earlier.

Rajan, who is on a tour to promote his new book ‘The Third Pillar’, said a broad-based growth that creates meaningful jobs for people was needed.

“We need stronger broad-based growth, which primarily for most people means good jobs. What we need to do is focus on how do we create good jobs for the vast number of people who are leaving schools, who are leaving agriculture, who are leaving universities, in such a way that they can expand India’s growth,” he said.

“Lot of people have said the population dividend should not become a population curse. This is the time when we need to make sure that in fact doesn’t happen,” he added.

Speaking to NDTV, he suggested that the government should introspect on some of its decisions like the controversial note ban.

“Enough time has now passed by for us to look back at demonetisation and ask what the learning has been from it? Did it work or not? And what were the positives and negatives... Self-examination is something that every government must do for better governance and efficiency,” the renowned economist was quoted as saying by NDTV.

On the question of lack of jobs, indicated by the data of the NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) recently, he said there was a need for credible data.

“Given that kind of anxiety, it is important, just to convey to the world, that we are not manipulating anything... this is our data, to actually have an independent group look into it and certify that our data indeed is fine or suggest the changes needed,” he said.

Rajan said India has had a good record with credible data.

“We need to take a fairly clean, independent look at our statistics process. What I would think might be useful is to get a panel of independent experts to go through that... and think very carefully about the processes we follow,” he said.

Food is delicious, fun, emotional, imperative and ― stressful as all hell. For many people, trying to maintain a healthy diet and exercise routine is a constant rollercoaster of successes, failures, “cheat days,” resets, guilt and confusion.

Why, even when we try our best, is it so difficult to just be healthy all the time?

Well, for starters, see above. Food is delicious. Temptation abounds, labels lie and our bodies all work in mysterious ways. When a man starts eating oatmeal and stops drinking brown liquor for three days to lose weight and it works, well, that’s enough right there to send a person (me) into a tailspin.  

We know at our core what it means to be healthy. It doesn’t mean fad diets and it doesn’t mean quick fixes ― it means eating nutrient-filled foods and taking care of our bodies mentally and physically while maintaining balance and allowing ourselves things we love in moderation. 

Sounds like a real piece of cake, eh?

But it’s more than that. When you take a look at the many elements fighting against us at all times, you might just find it’s time to give yourself a break. Of a Kit Kat Bar. Or an apple ― whatever. So, why is it so difficult to eat well?

Because junk food is scientifically irresistible. 

We are born with a taste for both sweet and savory foods, and as Julie Kendrick reported for HuffPost in March, brands are quick to capitalize on that bodily fact. “Junk foods have picked up on that manufacturer-original-equipment we’ve been issued and figured out how to give us more and more of exactly the tastes we’re born wanting,” she wrote. 

Because fast food ads are pulling a fast one on you. 

Fast food ads have an impact on your brain not only through straight-up advertisements, but through product placements and on social media as well, and you might not even be aware of it.

The Food and Addiction Science and Treatment Lab at the University of Michigan is currently running a study on 180 teenagers to determine how fast food ads have an impact on the reward center of the brain. The ads for fast food they were shown proved more effective than other advertisements, and those who were most impacted were more likely to gain weight. “It’s hard for people to defend against because it’s not a conscious process,” Ashley Gearhardt, who is conducting the study, told HuffPost. 

Because, duh, it’s expensive.

A slice of pizza costs less than $5. A fancy make-your-own salad can cost upward of $13. You do the math. 

Because there’s a new “it diet” every other day. 

Keto! Paleo! Whole30! Cabbage soup! It seems like everywhere you look, there’s a new way of eating that’s supposedly the best. It’s overwhelming, and it’s impossible to prove one way or the other. Keto, for example, has doctors and nutritionists torn between its effectiveness as a weight loss tool and its potential negative long-term impact. 

Because even the healthy choice isn’t always that healthy.

When it comes to sugar, soda and candy are the most obvious culprits that come to mind. But sugar is hiding in healthier choices, too ― from sandwiches to smoothie bowls to coffee orders. Add to that the research that suggests sugar is more addictive than cocaine and the fact that too much sugar leads to health problems and, welp, you really can’t win. 

Because honestly, some healthy foods are gross. 

Cottage cheese is one of the healthiest foods you’re not eating ― call it a texture thing. Luckily, there are plenty of healthy, less bumpy foods to incorporate into your diet right this way. 

Because you’re fearing the wrong things. 

We’ve come a long way from the diet food craze, but there are still some foods ― namely fats ― that seem scary. “Good” fats like avocado, coconut oil and salmon are not only good for you, they’re important to eat in order to have a balanced diet. 

But there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. 

According to one nutritionist, the right amount of avocado eaten per day ishalf of one. Excuse us while we re-evaluate every avocado toast we’ve ever eaten.  

Because it’s hard to do on your own.

Making a choice to eat a healthier diet involves planning, willpower, time and commitment. Going it alone can feel overwhelming, and can actually be scientifically less effective. A 2013 Washington Post piece examined a study involving overweight and obese people with type 2 diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to coaching and expertise either weekly or just three times in a year, and the results showed that those who participated weekly lost more weight and lowered health risks than those who had less coaching and support.

Time to phone a friend, folks. 

Because it’s in your blood.

We can’t blame our parents for everything, including cravings, but studies show there is some evidence that suggests some genes influence a preference for sweet flavors while others influence a preference for savory. And those taste receptors, along with other genetic factors like metabolism and body mass index, have an impact on our cravings. Say it with me: THANKS, MOM AND DAD.

Ultimately, it takes time and dedication to eat well, and eating well looks different to everyone. The hope is that in laying out the road bumps ahead, you can not only be a little kinder to yourself, but also be mindful of them as they come up in your journey. 

Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday and reports say that she may contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur. 

The BJP is the fifth political party for Prada, who began her political career with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1994 at the invitation of its founder NT Rama Rao. She was nominated to Rajya Sabha in 1996, representing Andhra Pradesh. However, Prada quit the party following differences with Chandrababu Naidu, according to DNA. 

She later joined the Samajwadi Party and successfully contested election from Rampur in 2004 and 2009 on the party’s ticket. In 2010, she and close associate Amar Singh were expelled from the party following differences with Mulayam Singh Yadav, according to NDTV. 

Singh floated his own political party, called the Rashtriya Lok Manch, in 2011. During the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Rashtriya Lok Manch drew a blank as none of its 360 candidates were able to win any seat.

Then in 2014, ahead of the general elections, she joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and fought the Lok Sabha election on the party ticket from Bijnor. She, however, lost the seat.

Prada has now joined the BJP ahead of this year’s general elections. Speculations are rife that she will contest from Rampur and take on SP leader Azam Khan.

After joining the party on Tuesday, she was quoted as saying by NDTV, “I am a part of a national party and I’m in a party where the leader leads on issues of national security... I’m honoured to work under PM Modi’s leadership.”

(With PTI inputs)

The dismissal, named after India bowler Vinoo Mankad who ran out Australia’s Bill Brown in similar fashion in 1947, is permitted under cricket’s laws but viewed by some as going against the spirit of the game. 

 Buttler departed after an angry exchange with Ashwin and his exit condemned the Royals to a 14-run defeat in their IPL opener in Jaipur.

Ashwin’s defence

“On my part, it was very instinctive,” Indian off-spinner Ashwin told a post-match news conference. “It wasn’t planned or anything like that. It’s there within the rules of the game.

“I don’t understand where the spirit of the game comes (in). Naturally, if it’s there in the rules it’s there.”

When reminded of a past incident when former West Indian skipper Courtney Walsh let off Pakistan’s Saleem Jaffer in crucial 1987 World Cup match at Lahore in a similar situation, Ashwin retorted sharply.

“Neither was Jos Buttler playing then nor was I playing. So it is very very pertinent to just not compare two people,” he said. 

When probed further on whether it affects the ‘spirit of the game’, the irritation was palpable on his face.

“I don’t understand the point because it’s rules. What applies for one man doesn’t apply for everyone else?” he asked.

There has been a debate on whether Ashwin deliberately delayed while loading up on his delivery stride having apprehended that Buttler backs up too far.

“I didn’t even load and he left the crease. It’s always been my take on the crease, because it’s my half of the crease,” he said.

Royals coach Paddy Upton said, “I think we’ll leave it up to the IPL fans to decide if that’s the kind of things they want to see, and we’ll leave it up to the cricket world to judge R Ashwin’s actions tonight.”

“But for us, we’re certainly here to play cricket and entertain the fans and be good role models for people who love the game.”

Cricket world divided

Former Australia spinner Shane Warne said Ashwin had committed a “low act”.

England limited overs skipper Eoin Morgan said Ashwin had set a “terrible example” for young players, while former England skipper Michael Vaughan suggested the rules should be changed.

Ashwin received support from former Australian players Mitchell Johnson and Dean Jones. 

Dean Jones wrote, “Don’t blame Ashwin here. As it’s allowed in the Laws of the game.. how is it disrespectful or against the spirit of the game if it’s allowed within the Laws of game? Blame the administrators for making the Law.”

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which is the custodian of cricket laws, had made subtle changes to the rules on running out of non-strikers by bowlers in their run-up in 2017. The law gives bowlers the right to run out the non-striker up to the instant at which they “would be expected to deliver the ball”.

England batman Jason Roy expressed shock at Ashwin’s action.

“Ashwin, that’s shocking behaviour! Very disappointed to see that,” he wrote in his twitter handle.

South African pacer Dale Steyn was also critical of Ashwin.

Former New Zealand cricketer Scott Styris felt the TV umpire didn’t make the right call.

Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle came to Ashwin’s defence.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said a decision on ‘Mankading’ during league matches had been made earlier at meeting at which MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli were present.

(With inputs from PTI and Reuters)

JAIPUR — Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday promised a “surgical strike” on poverty and said his party had been working on how to eradicate it for the last six months.

Addressing a rally in Suratgarh a day after declaring his party would roll out a minimum income guarantee scheme for the poorest 20 percent households if voted to power, Gandhi said only the rich could dream under the Narendra Modi rule.

“We will eradicate poverty in the country. This is a ‘dhamaka’. No country has done this in history. There should not be a single poor person in the country,” Gandhi said.

He said his party would work to reduce unemployment if it comes to power.

“If Modi gives money to the rich, the Congress will give money to the poor,” Gandhi said.

Alleging that Modi had helped those who had black money, the Congress president said those lifted from poverty by the UPA government had again been made poor in the last five years.

According to him, 14 crore people were lifted from poverty by the UPA government.

“It is a shame that there are still 25 crore poor people in the country,” Gandhi said.

“You will get the right price for your labour and product,” he told the gathering.

The UPA government had launched schemes over 10 years but Modi ended them all, the Congress chief said, adding that the prime minister had failed to understand the MGNREGA job scheme.

Taking a jibe at Modi, he said the prime minister was indeed a “chowkidaar” but of industrialist Anil Ambani.

MUMBAI — Music maestro AR Rahman has teamed up with Marvel India to create an all-new anthem for Avengers: Endgame in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

The track, to be released on 1 April, is a treat for Indian fans of the Avengers franchise, which is massively popular in the country.

“Being surrounded by Marvel fans in my own family, there was too much pressure to come with something really satisfying and apt for ‘Avengers: Endgame’. I hope Marvel aficionados and music lovers enjoy the track,” Rahman said in a statement.

″Avengers: Endgame is not just a movie, it’s an emotional journey for fans everywhere in India. An original composition by Oscar winner A R Rahman was the perfect way to celebrate the love for Marvel among fans in the country. This is our small way of thanking the fans here for their extraordinary support,” said Bikram Duggal, Head - Studios, Marvel India.

Joe Russo, the co-director of ’Avengers: Endgame”, is also visiting India to interact with the fans ahead of the film’s release, which follows the course of events set in motion by Thanos that wiped out half the universe and fractured the Avengers ranks.

Remaining Avengers take one final stand in “Endgame”, Marvel’s grand conclusion to twenty-two films, created in last one decade.

Produced by Kevin Feige and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the movie releases in India on April 26.

NEW DELHI — Former BJP president and Lok Sabha MP Murli Manohar Joshi has been asked by his party to not contest the coming general election, a development in line with its decision to not field many of its veterans, including its founding member and longest serving chief LK Advani, in the polls.

Joshi’s office confirmed the development. It said Joshi has issued a brief statement for voters in Kanpur, from where the 85-year-old leader had won in 2014.

The statement said BJP general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal, a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) appointee, had conveyed Joshi the party leadership’s decision that he should not be contesting the elections.

He had vacated Varanasi seat, which he had won in 2009, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. 

It, however, remains to be seen if the former Union minister, who along with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani, was seen as BJP’s face for more than two decades, will reconcile to the decision or not.

Joshi heads Parliament’s Estimates Committee and some of its observations, including on jobs, the GDP and non-performing assets, embarrassed the government.

BJP leaders said the party has taken a “principled decision” that veterans should make the way for younger leaders.

The BJP has also not given tickets to likes of BC Khanduri, Kariya Munda, Kalraj Mishra, Bijoya Chakravarty — all many term MPs and over 80 years of age - besides Advani (91).

BEIJING — Customs officials in China have destroyed nearly 30,000 world maps printed in the country for not showing Arunachal Pradesh and Taiwan as part of its territory, according to a media report.

Almost 30,000 “incorrect” world maps, showing Taiwan as a separate country and “wrong” depiction of the India-China border, were destroyed by the customs authorities in Qingdao province, state-run Global Times said.

China claims the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet and routinely objects to Indian leaders visiting the state to highlight its stand.

India says the State of Arunachal Pradesh is its integral and inalienable part and Indian leaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other parts of the country.

The two countries have so far held 21 rounds of talks to resolve the border dispute covering 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).

China also claims the estranged island of Taiwan as its part.

The maps, which were shredded in a secret location, were manufactured by a company in the province of Anhui and were in English, reported the Hindustan Times.

“A total of 803 boxes of the 28,908 wrong maps were seized and destroyed, the largest amount to be disposed of in recent years,” the province’s Natural Resources ministry said at a press conference, news website Dazhongwang Qingdao quoted.

“Maps reflected national sovereignty and were a political statement”, Ma Wei, from the Natural Resources ministry’s geographical information centre, was quoted as saying.

The maps were meant for export to an unspecified country, the Global Times reported on Tuesday.

“What China did in the map market was absolutely legitimate and necessary, because sovereignty and territorial integrity are the most important things to a country. Both Taiwan and South Tibet are parts of China’s territory which is sacred and inviolable based on the international law,” Liu Wenzong, professor from the department of International Law of China Foreign Affairs University said. 

(With PTI inputs)

Not celebrating the infinitely quotable teen classic “Clueless” ahead of its 25th anniversary? Ugh, as if! 

Brush up your ’90s slang because the cast of the hit 1995 movie, including stars Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer, reunited over the weekend at a panel during the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. 

Now that they’re all non-virgins who can drive — we presume — the stars gathered to reflect on this film’s cultural impact, spill some behind-the-scenes tea and honor their late co-star Brittany Murphy. 

Silverstone, whose memory of working on the film is admittedly a bit spotty, recalled just how different she felt at the time from her on-screen alter ego, who became a template that many future teen movie heroines would borrow from. 

“I loved playing Cher,” Silverstone said at the panel, which is available in its entirety on YouTube. “It was such a fun character and working with these guys — every one of them was so much fun. I didn’t know who that girl was, so it was really fun to be her. Because it wasn’t, like, how I lived my life.”

Rudd, who somewhat creepily played Silverstone’s onetime-sibling-turned-love-interest, was keen on reuniting, as the cast members have only appeared together sporadically over the years.

“It does feel cool to be in something that is an important movie for a lot of people,” the “Ant-Man” star said. “We meet people now that say, ‘I grew up loving your film and now I watch it with my kids,’ which makes all of us, especially me, feel really old.”

Rudd, of course, is at the center of a long-running internet joke about how he doesn’t age.

When an audience member asked about his age-defying secrets, he joked, “I’m 80 years old on the inside. In here, pure darkness. And a little moisturizer.”

The cast also remembered their “ridiculously talented” late co-star Brittany Murphy, who died in 2009 at the age 32, with Silverstone even revealing she was in the room during her audition. 

“That was incredible. I remember just being blown away by what she did in the room and thinking I had to tell [writer/director Amy Heckerling] just in case she didn’t know that Brittany Murphy was the one that had to play the part,” Silverstone recalled, adding. “I’m sure they figured that out on their own.”

“She was so good,” Silverstone continued. “I love when she says, ‘You’re a virgin who can’t drive.’ It’s just one of my favorite moments of the whole movie.”

After the panel, the actors shared some snaps on social media about the reunion that left fans totally buggin’.

Silverstone said she caught up with Rudd over dinner the night before the panel, adding that “he ordered vegan for both of us..... Swoon 🤗.”

When it comes to a child’s body image, it should come as no surprise that parents play a major role. The research ― and countlesspersonal essays ― back this up. 

“Parents influence how their children come to think about their bodies in a number of ways. These include the feelings, attitudes and conversations that parents have about their own bodies and appearance ― also, comments from parents about their child’s body and appearance,” said Amy Slater, an associate professor at the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol. 

Of course, there are other important societal factors at play, but parents can be a crucial source of positive or negative messaging from a young age. 

“It is vital that we try to develop positive body image in our children, as we know that positive body image is associated with higher self-esteem and healthy behaviors, whereas negative body image is associated with a wide range of negative outcomes, including lowered self-esteem, depression, disordered eating, poorer academic achievement, and lowered engagement in healthy behaviors,” Slater explained.

To help prevent those negative outcomes, HuffPost spoke to Slater and other experts to identify everyday ways parents can foster healthy body image in kids:

1. Banish Negative Body Talk

“Children learn how they should think and feel about their own bodies from listening to the adults around them,” said Renee Engeln, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University and the author of Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession With Appearance Hurts Girls and Women. “If they hear adults engaging in negative body talk ―  always focusing on ‘problematic’ body areas ― kids get the impression that bodies can never be good enough as they are. If they hear adults disparaging other people’s bodies, they learn to apply that same sort of criticism to themselves when they look in the mirror.”

While it’s almost inevitable for children to absorb negative body talk from peers and other adults in their lives, parents have the power to combat these harmful messages by banishing this kind of communication at home. 

Parents should be mindful of the way they communicate about weight and body size with and in front of their children and refrain from making disparaging comments about bodies, which sends the message that personal value stems from physical appearance.  

2. Stop Criticizing Your Own Body

Not only should parents stop speaking negatively about others’ bodies, but they should also do the same about their own. Slater advised parents to be aware of their attitudes and beliefs about bodies and appearance. 

“Try to avoid making any negative judgments and comments about your own body,” she said, offering “I’m so fat” or “I don’t have the ‘right’ body to wear X” as examples. 

“Think specifically about how we communicate with our children and in front of our children about our own weight or physical appearance,” said Rebecca Puhl, a professor in the department of human development and family sciences and the deputy director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut.

“As parents, we need to communicate respect for people of diverse body sizes,” she continued. “This means working on our own body image and feeling comfortable with our own bodies as well and being mindful of how we express these feelings to our children.”

3. Share Positive Body Messages

Just as it’s important to stop negative body talk, it’s also helpful to replace those harmful messages with positive ones. 

“As parents, we need to give ourselves and our children permission to feel good about themselves, regardless of their body shape or size or physical appearance,” said Puhl. 

“As I remind my daughter often, ‘All bodies ― including yours ― are good bodies,’” said Joslyn Smith, a policy and communications associate at the National Eating Disorders Association.

4. Emphasize Other Values

Engeln suggested committing to having a “body talk free” household, which shows children there are much more important things to discuss than how we look or how other people look. 

“When you shut down all that body talk, you leave room for healthier, more affirming and more interesting conversations,” she said. “You also send your children the message that what matters is not how people appear but what they do and what they say.”

Slater echoed this sentiment, saying that parents should emphasize other qualities. “Encourage valuing aspects of self that are not related to appearance, like being a good friend,” she said. 

5. Focus On What Bodies Do

“Teach children to appreciate bodies for what they can do rather than how they look,” said Slater. “You can model this by valuing and respecting your own body for all the amazing things it does.”

Instead of discussing weight or shape, talk to kids about what their bodies are capable of and how they feel, not how they look. 

“When my daughter says things to me like, ‘My belly is getting big,’ or ‘Mommy, you’re fat,’ I tell her she’s right. She’s growing, and her belly is getting bigger, and I self-identify as fat,” Smith said. “[I say] that it’s so cool she’s noticing how she’s growing and getting older and stronger, that bodies come in all different shapes and sizes and are almost always changing in some way, that some bodies are able to do things other bodies aren’t and that every single person’s body is equally good and valuable.”

6. Model Healthy Behaviors 

“Some parents may be worried about their child’s eating behaviors or sedentary activity. But communicating these worries as critical comments about weight or appearance can be harmful and can backfire,” Puhl explained.

Instead, kids are more likely to eat nutritiously and engage in physical activity if parents foster a home environment that makes these behaviors accessible and inclusive of the whole family. 

“All parents want their children to be healthy, but this is more likely to happen if parents model the healthy behaviors they want to see in their children,” she added. 

7. Be Aware Of Food And Fitness Talk

Rather than use weight as a peg, parents can encourage healthy habits by avoiding that topic. 

“Focus on how exercise is great for keeping your body flexible and strong ― and that it’s a fun stress reliever. Focus on teaching your children to listen to their bodies’ own cues about hunger and satiety,” said Engeln. “Teach them to be intuitive eaters instead of sending the message that some foods are good and some foods are bad.”

The ways in which parents talk about food, health and physical activity can be just as critical to the development of a child’s body image as direct discussion of weight and shape. 

“Because our eating and exercise patterns affect our mental health, developing a positive body image also requires a relaxed, open attitude to these issues. For example, parents can encourage children to enjoy a diverse range of foods and help them be able to navigate choices and celebrations involving, sometimes, food without it impacting on their self-worth,” said Laura Hart, a psychology and public health research fellow at La Trobe University in Australia and an author of the Confident Body, Confident Child study.

“If parents can find ways to enjoy being physically active with their kids without mentioning weight, this can help children to enjoy lifelong healthy movement without feeling guilty or ashamed about it,” she added. 

8. Call Out Others

It’s not enough to simply stop negative body talk in your home. There may be situations when others in a child’s life promote these harmful messages. 

“Point out examples of weight stigma or fat-shaming that you see, and explain to your child why shaming or stigmatizing people about their body is unacceptable and should not be tolerated,” Puhl said. “Do not allow family members to engage in weight-based teasing or negative comments about other people’s bodies or physical characteristics.” 

9. Be Mindful Of Media

Outside the home, children are bombarded with messages from mass media and the fashion and diet industries that emphasize extreme ideals of thinness and buffness.

“Think about the media messages that their children are exposed to. What media are they consuming? What messages about bodies and appearance do these media promote?” said Slater. “Try to encourage media that promotes diverse appearances and that do not focus solely on beauty and appearance.”

There are many body-positive books for children, including Your Body Is Brilliantby Sigrun Danielsdottir and What I Like About Me! by Allia Zobel Nolan. Slater also recommended online resources like the Confident Body, Confident Child website. 

10. Promote Diversity

Modeling healthy body esteem in front of your child involves showing respect for yourself and for others, regardless of how they look, said Puhl. “Point out to your child people of diverse body sizes who are successful, kind, athletic, ambitious, talented, leaders or helping their communities,” she advised. 

These kinds of habits will teach children to value diversity by appreciating the many ways people can look.

“Practicing nonjudgment of others and ourselves is not easy. It takes practice. After all, we certainly aren’t socialized to be accepting or appreciative of all the different forms bodies take,” said Smith. “But I’m hopeful that if we start with rewiring our own brains to appreciate bodies, in all the ways they show up, and make sure that what we model that acceptance of others and self for our children, we can raise children to embrace all bodies and help build a more inclusive world, one where they know they are welcome as they are and take the initiative to welcome others.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in a late night update on Monday, announced the candidates for four more Lok Sabha seats. Tejasvi Surya, a 28-year-old Karnataka High Court lawyer, fielded from the Bangalore South constituency is the most surprising name on this list. 

The constituency was represented by late union minister Ananth Kumar. Surya was reportedly chosen over Kumar’s wife Tejaswini, who on Tuesday expressed shock but urged her supporters to abide by the decision of the party’s central leadership.

Surya himself seemed shocked by the announcement. He profusely thanked the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS. 

He also said Kumar and Tejaswini had groomed him in politics from his high school days. 

Who is Tejasvi Surya?

Surya is the general secretary of the BJP Youth Wing in Karnataka and part of the BJP’s national social media campaign team for 2019. He will contest against Congress’ BK Hariprasad in Bangalore South. He is the nephew of BJP lawmaker Ravi Subramanya, and according to NDTV, is the party’s youngest candidate.

According to The Indian Express, what appears to have worked in Surya’s favour are his oratory skills and experience in politics.

Last year, Surya had tweeted that the BJP should “unapologetically” be the party of Hindus and dubbed the Congress as the “party of Muslims.”

Why is Bangalore South important?

The BJP has held the seat since 1991. Ananth Kumar had represented the constituency from 1996 and had won in 2014 by a margin of over two lakh votes against Congress candidate Nandan Nilekani.

Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa had suggested Tejaswini’s name for the seat this time and reports suggest that she is hugely popular because of her NGO Adamya Chetana. 

However, after her name was not included in the first list of candidates put out by the BJP, speculations were rife that Modi himself could contest from the constituency in 2019. 

Throughout my life, I’ve struggled with my weight. I’ve ranged from a size 8 to a size 28, the former having been achieved only by means of a strict low-carbohydrate diet and hours at the gym daily. My size doesn’t bother me too much these days, having settled at a fairly comfortable size 12/14 and also having decided that, really, all the most interesting people are at least a little fat.

But in all my fluctuations, one thing I have never struggled with is getting laid. At every size, I’ve easily found partners casual and romantic to bring to my bedroom (or kitchen counter or bar bathroom). I’ve slept with many men who would be defined by societal standards as “hot.” I have always received regular sexual attention and interest from potential partners.

And I don’t think I’m some magical exception. Despite the dominant cultural narrative, there are no shortage of men of all sizes out there who are attracted to fat women. 

Which is probably why I was so thrilled by the moment on Hulu’s new series “Shrill,” which is loosely based on writer Lindy West’s memoir of the same name, when Annie, played by the plus-size Aidy Bryant, clad only in a pair of panties, straddles her boyfriend during a steamy make-out. “You’re so hot,” he breathes, in a moment that felt both true to life and totally revelatory. 

It wasn’t the only time Annie has been in a sexual situation on the show, but for me, it was the most impactful, representing her beginning to let go and celebrate her sexuality. I don’t even know if it could properly be called a sex scene, but a fat girl was almost naked, her body on display, and sex was about to happen. For many people, Episode 4’s pool party was their “holy shit this show is important” moment and deservedly so. But for me, it was Annie’s boyfriend removing her bra. I immediately posted a screenshot to my Instagram with the caption “Fuck yes, more of this please.” 

Because when was the last time we saw a fat woman starring in a sex scene on television?

There was Lena Dunham and her not-model-perfect body on display through a series of sexual adventures on “Girls.” But she was far from plus-size, although that didn’t stop a backlash that saw the New York Post’s Linda Stasi refer to Dunham’s “blobby body” in a review and viewers to insist Dunham would never be able to sleep with a man who looks like actor Patrick Wilson, as she did in a Season 2 story arc. 

Similar backlash followed Gabourey Sidibe’s groundbreaking sex scene on “Empire,” as Twitter exploded with memes and jokes.

Of the scene, Sidibe told People, “I was really happy to be part of something that’s never been seen on primetime television before. And you don’t notice it because you don’t have to notice it, but there’s never been someone of my skin color, my size, with somebody else of the same skin color in a love scene on primetime television.” 

Plus-size actresses have started to make humble strides in being portrayed as romantic interests without their size being a plot point ― Paula from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and Miranda Bailey from “Grey’s Anatomy” come to mind, and Aidy Bryant herself had a small role on the aforementioned “Girls” in which she starred in a romantic storyline.

But for the most part, pop culture continues to retread the stereotype of the lonely, sexless fat girl that’s so contrary to my experience of being a woman in this body in the real world. 

The dichotomy is echoed by Episode 6’s troll-hunting plotline, where Annie hunts down the man who has been trolling her with body-shaming comments online, only to find that he seems to harbor a self-hating attraction to her. Both the internet and TV seem to operate like fun-house mirrors, taking women who are perfectly desirable and attractive in their day-to-day lives and reflecting them back as grotesque stereotypes for commentary. 

The idea that you must have a thin body to be sexually attractive is just not true, and trotting it back out for another tired storyline is boring and lazy. 

And beyond that, it’s actively harmful. The reason that images like the screenshot I took resonate so deeply with people is because we’re starving for them. While there are plenty of confident, sexual plus-size women like me out there, most of us have had to fight to claim our sexuality because we live in a society that tells us our bodies are a punchline. The sheer transformative joy of a TV show like “Shrill” is that it’s rewriting that narrative. And the power is that it can change the way we feel in our own skin. Fuck yes, more of this please, indeed. 

Fat people have sex. Fat people are desirable. For that matter, so are older people and disabled people and a whole range of others whose sex lives are rarely a part of mainstream discourse. Seeing this reflected in our pop culture shouldn’t be an anomaly. 

Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch!

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated Patrick Wilson’s last name as Williams.

When we talk about women, do we actually talk about women? Debates on misrepresentation of women in fiction have been doing the rounds for an embarrassing number of years. Last year, writer Whit Reynolds challenged her followers to describe themselves as a male author would, drawing many hilarious responses and opinion pieces. The number of movies and novels that pass the Bechdel test is still a pitiable low, so it is a joy that the new short story collection, Waiting, is by a woman, and of women.

Waiting celebrates womanhood in myriad forms. There is a woman who goes away to spend a month in Dharamshala, a depressed woman who fears she might jump to her death like her neighbour, and women who leave husbands to stay with their step daughters. Gandhi, whose idea of home is fluid and comprises Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, dedicates her anthology to ‘my city that will always be Allahabad’. However, the stories are set over different regions, often unnamed. Such an ambiguous setting is a silent proclamation in itself, that the lives of women remain the same, wherever they live. Here, a girl’s izzat (honour) is ’fragile as china and a man’s indestructible like steel.’

Gandhi establishes her penchant for humour and sarcasm early into the collection. In her first story, Lingerie, a new mother is unable to feel attracted to her husband. Her therapist, a man, suggests candle light dinners and dressing sexy and she thinks to herself “How can I explain the connection between housework and sex?”  In Aab-e-Hayaat, a woman is at a mental block and longs for a quiet morning all to herself only to be interrupted by her family and domestic help. She is annoyed that she, not anyone else, has to respond to ′Will yesterday’s bhindi be enough for today’s lunch’, point out the hair on the bathroom floor to the cleaner and switch off the water pump. Gandhi teases our pretentious masks — one woman utilises the first class waiting room though she isn’t eligible because ’she looked respectable enough’; another woman dresses down to attend a lower middle class wedding. Some find friendships that help them endure, some, like the woman in Goodies, falls in love with a man who showers her with Guccis, Bulgaris, and Chanels and is ’respectful, never tried to talk over her, never attempted to mansplain and sounded sophisticated in his Oxford Cambridge English’ but has something to hide.

The stories glitter with details – women pouting to phone cameras, jhumkas dangling and devotees sweeping the floor of a sacred shrine littered with paper and plastic wrappers from emptied incense packets. While the protagonist of Lingerie thinks her obituary might read ’Her life was made up of details. Disgusting, unavoidable details,′ Gandhi’s fascination with the little things adds colour to ordinary lives in all her stories. Her teenage girl in Shaming, Shaving, longs to talk to her friends about periods, shaving and bra straps but is chided by her mother because these are shameful topics. Gandhi divulges the inadequacy of sex and menstrual education through snatched conversations between women.

Often the precision to detail numbs the reader into the deepest reality. The lesbians of Afghanistan in Panjpir Chowk are grateful for no electricity and TV. They’d rather savour the silence of freshly brewed coffee and caramelized French toast while the outside world is in chaos after the capture of Osama bin Laden. The security guards in Ladies Waiting Room, comb their hair, apply kajal and straighten their creases before they resume their shift. The hawkers on railway platforms shout out ‘Brade, Omlette, Cutlate, Cheeps’ to earn their daily wages.

Music oozes into many stories as does religion. There are poems, Urdu verses, qawwalis and Bollywood hits. Gandhi is a Sufi wanderer and repeatedly advocates saints as those who love mankind without discriminating on the basis of religion. Her women remark that fanatics ’are only interested in bombing the famous shrines. Whatever gets them in the news’. Gandhi ridicules the double standards where a man can leave his wife for another woman, but the abandoned wife is shamed if she helps a homeless beggar (Sluts).

Gandhi’s women have ‘other women in them’ who plead, protest and spurt out in fury. “Her protests have to be silenced. Life can’t be allowed to become totally chaotic”, says the woman who chooses to put her husband’s career ahead of her own. A twice-divorced woman decides to heed her inner voice, which she had ignored in her previous marriages, and walks away from her third wedding when she discovers her would-be-husband is a fraud. The Rapist’s Wife follows the wife offering support to the victim, reflecting on the solidarity among women in the #MeToo movement

Waiting stands out from other women-centred books because it is a depiction of not only strong women, but also weak, meek and flawed women. These stories offer no morals, but exist like lacunae, frozen in time. Gandhi’s characters are as real as the woman next door. They stir hearts, they are waiting to be read.

Style icon Tan France says he didn’t always want to be on hit Netflix show “Queer Eye.” 

In a recent interview with Manny Jacinto of “The Good Place,” France admitted that he initially “had no desire” to be involved with the popular series but a conversation about the Hollywood landscape convinced him otherwise. 

“My husband convinced me to, and let me tell you why,” France said during the interview. “I had gone on and on and on for years, harping on the fact that I have never seen people like me on TV. And he was like, ‘Finally you can be that person that you don’t see in the media.’” 

France ― who was a business owner and fashion designer and said he retired “five days before” Netflix reached out to him about the opportunity ― said his husband’s words ultimately persuaded him to audition. The rest is history. 

Jacinto is also involved in a role that’s lauded as a win for representation. The actor, who on “The Good Place” portrays Jason Mendoza, an airheaded failed EDM DJ who pretends to be a monk, explained that his character was intended to challenge the Asian nerd trope. 

“They wanted to see the complete opposite ― an Asian who gets B’s rather than A’s,” Jacinto said. 

France and Jacinto agreed that they’re grateful to be involved in the industry at a time when Hollywood is beginning to open its eyes to diversity. France said that in his role, he’s able to “represent my community in a way that has never been represented before. 

“I’ve seen brown people on TV before who are from South Asia, but they are always playing a part. It’s always a character that someone’s come up with, and it’s often a character that is a stereotype,” he said.

He added that he will begin playing scripted characters on TV and is determined to responsibly represent his community. 

“I will never play a terrorist. I will not play a taxi driver,” he told Jacinto. “I do not want to play into that stereotype. I love that I’m in a position to be able to show people a very different side of who we are.” 

Asians continue to be underrepresented on the small screen. A 2019 UCLA study examining the 2016–17 season in the U.S. showed that just 4.6 percent of roles went to Asians in broadcast scripted shows, rising slightly to 4.9 percent in digital scripted shows. Asians and Pacific Islanders accounted for 6.0 percent of the U.S. population in 2017, according to the Census Bureau. 

France, a South Asian Muslim, revealed that he has been asked if he is a terrorist, and he underscored how important an Asian face is on his wildly popular program.

“There’s a massive ... misperception of who we are,” he said. “That’s why I feel so proud to be on this show.”

WASHINGTON— Fifty-five percent of Indians are happy with the way things are going in the country even as the public satisfaction level has gone down by 15 points to 70% in 2017, according to a Pew survey released late Monday night.

Conducted among 2,521 respondents in India between 23 May and 23 July 2018, the Washington-based Pew Research Centre study said majority of the Indians voiced concern about terrorism and the threat posed to their country by Pakistan.

According to the survey conducted much before the ghastly Pulwama terrorist attack, about 76% of the Indians believe that Pakistan is a threat to the country. Only 7% do not see Pakistan as a danger to India.

Roughly two-thirds (65%) said the financial situation of average people in India is better today than it was 20 years ago. Only 15% said things are worse.

The survey said lack of employment opportunities is seen by the public as India’s biggest challenge. Seventy-six per cent said employment is a very big problem and little has changed over the past year. While just one in five persons (21%) said job opportunities have become better, 67 per cent believed it has gotten worse.

In 2018, despite an estimated 3.5% formal unemployment rate, 18.6 million Indians were jobless and another 393.7 million work in poor-quality jobs vulnerable to displacement, according to estimates by the International Labour Office.

The study said 73% believe inflation is a very big problem in India. As many as 65% said prices have gotten worse.

Noting that Indians voiced strong frustration about elections and elected officials, the study said nearly two-thirds (64%) of the Indians said most politicians are corrupt (including 43% who very intensely hold this view). Notably, nearly seven in 10 (69%) of both BJP and Congress supporters share the view that elected leaders are corrupt, it said.

Another 58% opined that no matter who wins an election, things do not change very much. This includes a majority of both BJP and Congress supporters, it said.

According to the survey, 71% believe trade is good for India. While 59% of youths aged between 18 and 29 believe that trade generates new employment, 50% of older Indians (aged 50 and above) shares similar view.

KOLKATA — At an election rally in West Bengal, a local leader from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) described how workers from the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) had disrupted a public meeting in January by destroying their vehicles.

“So, we thrashed them in retaliation, smashed their vehicles and burnt their party office,” Arup Das, a district secretary of the Hindu nationalist BJP, roared at the rally in the town of Kharagpur.

“Stand up and protest,” Das said to the crowd. “Trinamool Congress will run away in fear.”

Political differences have been erupting into tension and sometimes violence across India ahead of the general election in April-May, but it’s particularly bad in West Bengal. Both the BJP and the TMC are accusing each other of killings, beatings, vandalism and making false allegations to the police.

After losing three state elections in 2018, and with weak farm incomes and slow jobs growth undermining his backing in the BJP’s traditional Hindu base in the north, Modi is driving hard to pick up support in West Bengal.

The push has set him and the BJP on a collision course with firebrand politician Mamata Banerjee, the TMC leader and the state’s chief minister.

For Mamata Banerjee, popularly called ‘Didi’ or elder sister, defeating the BJP’s challenge is vital to cement her power base and bolster her image as a possible future prime minister if opposition parties win enough seats to form a coalition government.

“BJP is rising in West Bengal,” said Udayan Bandyopadhyay, head of the political science department at Bangabasi College in Kolkata, the state capital.

There is a sense of anti-incumbency that is working against Mamata Banerjee, who has won the previous two state assembly elections, Bandyopadhyay said. BJP did well at village council polls last year and a recent survey showed the party winning eight out of the 42 parliamentary seats in Bengal, up from two currently.

To be sure, Modi could win the national election without taking many seats in West Bengal. What could have been a close contest has changed in recent weeks because of a suicide car bomb attack in Kashmir that killed 40 CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel. That led to a warplane attack on what the government said was a “terrorist” training camp in Pakistan, and subsequent retaliation by the Pakistanis.

Pollsters say they expect Modi to get a boost because of the sense of nationalism stirred by the events in Kashmir. And the disarray among parties opposed to the BJP will also play in its favour.

Save democracy

The BJP has been holding a series of mega rallies in West Bengal headlined by top BJP leaders, including Modi himself.

Rather than emphasising its national agenda, such as driving economic growth and providing affordable housing, the BJP in West Bengal has been focusing more on accusing TMC of corruption and Mamata Banerjee of running a dictatorship.

The BJP said it had to cancel several visits by senior leaders to address rallies as Mamata Banerjee’s administration denied permission for their helicopters to land.

The BJP’s West Bengal President Dilip Ghosh said police and other government officials were being used by Mamata Banerjee to thwart democracy in the state.

“I’ve announced openly everyone should carry batons, bamboos and if goons attack you, you hit back. So we are fighting back. Now goons are afraid to turn up,” said Ghosh.

On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress party, also accused the TMC of regularly harassing and beating up its workers in Bengal.

Still, it will be an uphill task to defeat 64-year-old Mamata Banerjee, an aggressive and strong-headed politician with grassroots appeal. Posters of Mamata Banerjee in a quintessential Bengali lower middle-class cotton sari and rubber flip flops are seen across the state.

In January, she brought together more than 20 regional parties, including the Congress, on one stage in Kolkata under the ‘United India’ banner. It was a show of opposition to the BJP that drew hundreds of thousands from rural Bengal.

The Muslim vote

Mamata Banerjee has announced government subsidies and incentive schemes aimed at benefiting the poor. But critics say she is attracting voters by funding local clubs and organising events, such as mass marriages, where gifts can be made.

Hindu groups linked to the BJP also accuse her of appeasing Muslim voters, who make up about one third of the electorate, by providing separate schools, hospitals and training institutes for the community and handing out stipends.

“Since independence there has never been a bigger anti-Hindu government in West Bengal,” said Jishnu Basu, the general secretary in charge of south Bengal for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu nationalist parent of the BJP.

Mamata Banerjee did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article.

Derek O’Brien, TMC’s parliamentary party leader, said the allegations from the BJP were “shameless” and that Modi’s party aimed to divide communities. “They use their dirty tricks department to create this conversation of polarisation. It is sickening,” he said.

Although elections are still weeks away, some voters are already saying the BJP could bring prosperity to the state.

“The verdict of the general public is to give BJP a chance this time,” said 71-year-old Gour Majhi, a potato farmer, at the Kharagpur BJP rally.

After dominating this weekend’s box office, Jordan Peele’s “Us” left audiences with a lot to process and discuss. Starring Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, who meets and battles her and her family’s doppelgängers while on a beach vacation, the horror movie contains a trove of pop culture references that shape the twisted tale.

According to Peele, whose 2017 hit “Get Out” also drew on a wealth of cultural influences, the references in “Us” work “on two different levels and hopefully more,” he told The Associated Press — before adding that “there are many of these things that only I will ever know.”

Here’s an attempt at unpacking at least some of them. (Minor spoilers ahead, but we’ve done our best to be as vague about the plot developments as possible.)

Hands Across America

The film opens in 1986 with young Adelaide (Madison Curry) watching TV. She sees a commercial for a charity event called Hands Across America, in which participants were instructed to form a human chain and hold hands from coast to coast.

Referenced again in the film’s subsequent present-day scenes, the event really existed and featured some famous participants, including then-President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan. Organized by Ken Kragan, who was also behind “We Are the World,” just under five million people lined up on May 25, 1986, at 3 p.m. ET. 

The chain stretched from Battery Park in New York City to Long Beach, California, with participants filling in some of the gaps in more sparsely populated areas of the country by using banners, ropes, ribbons, and paper dolls — another motif in “Us.”

The event fell short of its $50-100 million fundraising goal, raising only about $15 million, according to news reports from the time.

Peele has described Hands Across America as a representation of the political and cultural “duality” of the era, a theme that binds together the movie.

“There was a very sort of specific duality of the ’80s where television that I was watching had this sincere-but-hollow sense of optimism and goodness,” the director told Polygon last week. “It was the Reagan era, which was kind of like this return to those ’50s ideals. And now we’re back to that. But that sort of the sitcom, ‘aw shucks’ thing, when juxtaposed with the fears of the Cold War, the wealth disparity, and the Challenger disaster, and these kinds of things, was just, as a kid, I knew something was fucked up.”

Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’

Peele is an unabashed fan of the 1980 horror classic, citing the film as an inspiration for his work and even dressing as Jack Nicholson’s character Jack Torrance during some recent interviews promoting “Us,” delighting fans. (The director’s sartorial tributes to famous horror characters also recall the doppelgängers and the theme of duality in “Us.”)

“Us” pays homage to “The Shining” in multiple ways. The film’s opening and closing sequences resemble that of Kubrick’s movie, both featuring aerial shots of forests and mountainous roads. 

In “Us,” the Wilsons’ friends and vacation companions, Kitty and Josh, have twin daughters, Lindsey and Becca, who resemble the Grady twins in “The Shining.” 

Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’

In some of the film’s present-day scenes, Adelaide’s son Jason (Evan Alex) wears a shirt emblazoned with the iconic logo of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” which like “Us,” is a horror movie set on a seemingly idyllic oceanfront. 

“It builds up this generational myth and also cements [the setting] in California, Hollywood, movies and horror,” costume designer Kym Barrett said in an interview with Fashionista.

The movie captures a similar terror as that of “Jaws” when Jason wanders off from the rest of the family while at the beach, and when dad Gabe (Winston Duke) gets into a heart-pounding fight in a lake with his doppelgänger.

After the fight, Gabe, who had initially looked forward to resurrecting his family’s old boat during the vacation (to the annoyance of Adelaide and their kids), declares: “Boats are done! I’m done with boats!” — a callback to the famous “Jaws” line: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Other ’80s Horror Movies

Next to the TV in young Adelaide’s living room, the camera pans to the family’s VHS tapes, which include 1980s classics such as “The Right Stuff,” “The Goonies” and “C.H.U.D.” The latter film bears more than a passing resemblance to “Us.” The film’s title stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers — who, like the doppelgängers in “Us,” come out from underground tunnels to attack their human counterparts.

Gabe’s fight with his doppelgänger also contains an allusion to “Friday the 13th,” when his doppelgänger emerges from underwater and pulls him back under. A similar scene occurs at the climax of the 1980 film.

‘The Twilight Zone’

Peele has said that the movie was loosely inspired by a 1960 episode of “The Twilight Zone” entitled “Mirror Image,” in which a woman becomes convinced that she has a doppelgänger.

“There’s something about this idea that the doppelgänger that has this creepy smile ... they know more than you know,” he said in an interview with Polygon. “I was sort of connecting that to, first and foremost, our fear — our societal fear — of terrorism, of an attack, of an invader coming in who has been plotting something mysterious. Besides the fact that this is an awful event is the idea that there is a well-oiled plan. And the only other thing that’s more terrifying than that is the suppressed feelings of what our part in these tragedies is, even if we are the victim.”

Fittingly, Peele just finished a reboot of “The Twilight Zone,” premiering in April on CBS All Access.

N.W.A.’s ‘Fuck Tha Police’

Among a lot of iconic songs featured in the movie — from The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” to Luniz’s “I Got 5 On It,” to Minnie Riperton’s “Les Fleurs” — N.W.A.’s “Fuck tha Police” plays in an unforgettable moment of dark comedy. When Kitty (Elisabeth Moss) is being attacked by her doppelgänger, her Amazon Alexa-esque device Ophelia mishears her directive to call the police, blasting the song instead.

Black Flag

Early in the movie, a young Adelaide and her parents attend a boardwalk carnival, where another man at the carnival wears a shirt featuring the logo of the ’80s band, who broke up in 1986,  the same year as the events depicted in the scene.

In the present-day scene at the beach, one of the twins also wears a Black Flag shirt, but the reverse color scheme of the 1986 shirt: a white design on a black shirt.

Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’

Young Adelaide wears a “Thriller” T-shirt, won by her father in the film’s opening carnival scene, where she first encounters her doppelgänger in a house of mirrors. Throughout the movie, the doppelgängers’ (also known as the Tethered) red jumpsuits and single glove are also clear homages to Jackson and the 1984 hit, as Peele confirmed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“It’s no mistake, it’s no coincidence, that the Tethered are wearing red and have one glove,” he said.

“Us” is all about duality, a darkly fitting connection to Jackson, as Peele noted, calling Jackson “a person with a great duality attached.”

Jackson’s cultural legacy contains dual images as both a singular cultural icon and as an accused sexual abuser, with allegations of molesting at least five young boys whom he befriended and mentored. Further contributing to the competing images, culture and media at the height of his career often dismissed his behavior as “eccentric” and “bizarre.”

Jackson’s duality is back in the public eye due to this month’s searing HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland,” featuring the stories of two of those accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who describe Jackson as simultaneously an icon and a monster.

“The irony and relevance is not lost on me now that the discussion has evolved to one of true horror,” Peele said of Jackson, in an interview with Mashable.

In an interview with BET, Duke aptly summarized the parallels between Jackson and the film’s themes.

“That topic right now after the documentary is so… complicated right now, on how to consume legacy,” Duke said. “But I think that follows us into the movie. Because the movie is about what legacy do we leave? And if your legacy could visit you at your door, with your face, are you prepared to see it and deal with the repercussions?”

Hasan Minhaj went all in on his desi identity. 

The “Patriot Act” host answered questions on a popular Facebook group for young South Asians, “Subtle Curry Traits.” Minhaj hit topics including his favorite type of biryani (any with no black balls in it) and his favorite Bollywood banger (“Kabhi Kabhi”). But he also touched on how he came clean about doing stand-up comedy. 

The host explained that the best and worst thing about being desi is being able to “live at home as long as you’d like.” Problem is, Minhaj lived with his parents during college and often he’d tell them he was “going to the library” when he was going to comedy shows. 

During one “trip to the library,” Minhaj got into a car accident, and his father was forced to pick him up. 

″It’s a really far distance you went to go to the library,” he recalls his father remarking. “I told my dad, ’Dad, I didn’t go to the library. I’ve been doing stand-up comedy.” 

He said his father told him he “really was hoping you were just smoking weed.”

“It was the first time I knew my dad was 4/20 friendly. It was a really cool moment ― a really cool rad brown dad moment.” 

NEW DELHI — The Delhi Chief Electoral Office on Monday said it was awaiting a reply from the makers of a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scheduled to be released on April 5, after it felt that the film violated the model code of conduct. 

East Delhi Returning Officer K Mahesh, had on March 20, suo motu issued notices to the production house and music company behind the film “PM Narendra Modi” and two leading newspapers for publishing advertisements of the film.

Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said the concerned parties have been given time till March 30 to respond.

He said the broad position is that any political advertisement circulated on electronic media or social media has to be pre-certified by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee.

“If any pre-certified political or surrogate advertisement is circulated, it is violation of model code of conduct. Whosever has done it is given an opportunity to explain their stand,” the official said.

The returning officer also suggested that the Election Commission of India (ECI) could form guidelines for political films released during elections.

“We are looking into it. We will send the recommendations to the poll body,” Singh said.

Congress moves EC

The Congress had on Monday moved the EC to stall the release of the film on the grounds that it is a politically-motivated film aimed at getting extra mileage for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

A Congress delegation comprising Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, R P N Singh, and Randeep Singh Surjewala, went to the Election Commission with a representation seeking stalling of the film’s release just ahead of the polls.

“The purpose of this film is only political ― to get some extra mileage in the elections. We believe, it is not just a corrupt practice, but the very launch of the film is motivated,” Sibal told reporters outside the Election Commission (EC).

He alleged that three of the producers belonged to the BJP and actor Oberoi was also from the ruling party.

“So, the whole purpose is to gain advantage. This is violative of all norms. This is no artistic venture. It is a political venture and that is what we have told the Election Commission and should not be allowed. It does not allow for a level playing field,” the senior Congress leader said.

“It violates the spirit of article 324 of the Constitution, it violates the cable network rules, it violates section 126 of the representation of people act,” he said. 

“The content, timing and motive (of the movie) is political,” Sibal said.

NEW DELHI — Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar alleged on Monday that the varsity students forcibly entered his house and confined his wife inside for several hours.

Police, however, said there was a call for a march by some students, but security personnel stopped them when they tried to gain entry.

“This evening few hundred students forcibly broke into my JNU residence and confined my wife inside home for several hours while I was away in a meeting. Is it the way to protest? Terrorosing (sic) a lonely lady at home?” Kumar asked on Twitter.

A student from a Left outfit rejected the allegation and said a group of students had gone to meet the vice-chancellor, but they were allegedly manhandled by the security personnel.

Seven students have been on a hunger strike since last week in protest against the online system of entrance exam that will be implemented from this academic session.

According to sources, students from Left outfits went to the vice-chancellor’s residence to demand an audience with him since he had not been meeting them. When they went to meet him last week, he offered them sweets rather than addressing their concern.

On Monday evening, the students allegedly barged inside Kumar’s residence while he was away and surrounded his wife. Police were called in and the wives of other university professors rescued her, a professor said. Kumar’s wife was rushed to a hospital as she was in a state of trauma.

“We had gone to his residence to meet the V-C. We were manhandled by security personnel and many students have sustained injuries, including JNUSU president N Sai Balaji,” a student said.

The police said the situation was under control. The university professors were patrolling the campus to ensure that no untoward incident happened.

The card offers a not-exactly-groundbreaking 2 percent cashback reward for most purchases, and 3 percent on Apple products — if you use Apple Pay for them. If you use the titanium card, you get 1 percent back. The “Daily Cash” cashback feature differs slightly from the norm by offering the funds instantly, instead of on a monthly basis.

With iPhone sales flagging, Apple has been looking for other service-based ways to grow its business, and this prestige credit card is a clear play. With Apple’s trademark user-friendliness, the company spies an opening for disruption.

But being sleek and user friendly may not be enough, given the stiff competition from JPMorgan and American Express, masters of the premium credit card space.

In lieu of generous reward points and benefits (like those offered by the Chase Sapphire Reserve card or the American Express Platinum), Apple is betting on less-flashy features. In its presentation, the company’s vice president of Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey, trumpeted low interest rates, fewer fees, as well as a new statement view that encourages people to choose payment options that limit interest, such as payments more often than monthly and a live-interest calculator. Apple Card’s app will also break down spending into categories for budgeting purposes, similar to a variety of personal finance apps, like Mint.

However, the lower fees leave a lot of questions. Bailey said Apple Card would have no late fees, no annual fees, no international fees, and no over-the limit-fees. How this actually works in use is yet to be learned, as is what would happen in the event of an unpaid bill, chronically late payments, or other credit issues (though presumably your late payments would impact your credit score.)

Early reviews are in

The company is also putting security and privacy at the forefront, as the payment service will have FaceID and fingerprint technology to authenticate purchases. Apple also promises that it does not have information on what you buy, and that Goldman Sachs will never sell your data.

While the card is pretty and a nice step up from many banking services, the two biggest players in the space, JPMorgan Chase and American Express, already have at least decent user-friendliness and far more to offer when it comes to benefits.

Ted Rossman, an analyst at CreditCards.com said, “People will sign up for it, but that will be mostly because they love Apple, not because this card is better than anything that already exists.”

Furthermore, Rossman added that the Apple Card won’t even give you the best rewards using Apple Pay. The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite card, when used with Apple Pay, shoots back 3 percent for mobile wallet spending. “That’s really interesting: U.S. Bank offers better Apple Pay rewards than Apple,” he said.

This seems to be the emerging consensus. NerdWallet’s credit card expert Sara Rathner said the credit card’s 3 percent cash back on Apple products was good, but the 2 percent was “mediocre” compared to the competition.

“For those who routinely shop at local neighborhood bodegas or other establishments that don’t have Apple Pay, you can expect only 1 percent back on your purchase ― an amount easily beaten by other cash back cards with no annual fee,” she said. “This is similar to the Citi Double Cash card, which offers 2 percent cash back on all purchases and also charges no annual fee.”

From Apple’s perspective, the company is maneuvering itself to be a payments middleman, adding another layer of its involvement past simply Apple Pay. By putting this card out, Apple Pay use, which has not been embraced nearly as much as many thought it would, could see a spike in usage.

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Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, personal finance, retail, airlines, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

Read more coverage of the Apple event:

Apple unveils games subscription service with Apple Arcade

Apple unveils Apple TV Plus streaming service with Hollywood heavyweights

Apple reveals Apple News Plus for $9.99 a month at March 25th event

After unveiling a credit card, news subscription service, long-awaited streaming-video product and a handful of star-studded series, Apple saved the best for last: Oprah Winfrey.

The queen of daytime TV made a surprise appearance at the tail end of Apple’s event at its campus in Cupertino, California, on Monday, where the company announced a slew of new features for its products, including details about its partnership with Winfrey. 

“I’m joining forces with Apple,” Winfrey said on stage to huge applause. “They’re in a billion pockets, y’all.”

The company announced an exclusive and multiyear deal with the former talk show host in June 2018 to bolster its already impressive lineup of original content, featuring stars such as Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and Jason Momoa.

The press release at the time promised that Winfrey, who already runs her own network, would “create original programs that embrace her incomparable ability to connect with audiences around the world.”

Now, Winfrey has revealed that she’s already hard at work on two upcoming documentaries tackling social issues for the newly announced streaming service Apple TV Plus, which is set to debut in the fall.

The documentary “Toxic Labor” will explore sexual harassment in the workplace and the currently untitled second project will be a multipart series focused on mental health. 

“There has never been a moment quite like this one,” Winfrey said during the live announcement. “We have this unique opportunity to rise to our best selves in how we use and choose to use both our technology and our humanity.”

Winfrey added that the Apple platform “allows me to do what I do in a whole new way.”

The media mogul also revealed that she intends to bring the “biggest, most vibrant, most stimulating book club on the planet” to Apple devices, with plans to host conversations with authors that will be accessible to all users.

“I want to reach that sweet spot where insight and perspective, truth and tolerance actually intersect,” Winfrey said.

Naturally, social media was rocked by Winfrey’s appearance and the promise of more content from the producer on the horizon. 

Apple has announced details of its new TV streaming service, Apple TV+. 

The subscription service will be a rival to Netflix, boasting hours of high quality, original content.

Apple said it will be “the new home for the world’s most creative storytellers featuring exclusive original shows, movies and documentaries”, as the news was announced at Monday’s Apple Event in the US.  

They have already been working with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston among others on a new raft of shows and films. 

Hollywood director Spielberg appeared on stage at the event, saying: “I’m so grateful to be here today. This is my first time at Apple, the place where imagination and technology join forces.”

Reese and Jennifer were also joined on stage by Steve Carell to talk about their series The Morning Show. 

Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard also announced details about their project, See.

JJ Abrams, M Night Shyamalan, Sofia Coppola, Ron Howard and Octavia Spencer also appeared in a preview video for the company’s new service.

Apple TV Plus will be ad-free, available on demand, and be available to watch both online and offline. 

It will roll out in 100 countries in the autumn, but it is not yet know exactly where or what cost subscribers will have to pay for the service. 

Apple is also rolling out an update to its Apple TV app in May that will allow people to access programmes from other channels and providers, such as HBO and Amazon Prime.

News of Apple TV+ follows the announcement of another new streaming service, BritBox, which is a joint venture between the BBC and ITV. 

Launching in the UK later this year, it will become a library to hundreds of favourite BBC and ITV shows, as well as hosting a range of original new series. 

NEW DELHI — Danish and his father, Mohammad Akhlaq, threw themselves against the door, but it was of no use. There was no bolt on the inside. A Hindu mob armed with rods and hockey sticks burst into the small room on the top floor of their house.

Danish felt the blows raining down on him. He fell flat on his back and covered his face with his hands. He could not see his father, but sensed that he too was writhing in pain, close by.

Then, a sharp pain ripped through his left arm, forcing him to drop his hand. Seconds later, a heavy stick came barreling towards his eye. He passed out.

“There was no time to say anything to them. I was thinking how can I save my face. I was thinking how can I stay alive,” Danish said in a recent conversation with HuffPost India.

On 28 September, 2015, a mob alleging cow slaughter lynched Akhlaq, an ironsmith from Bisada village located in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. Danish, his younger son, who was thrashed within an inch of his life, survived.

Two brain surgeries and more than three years later, Danish, now 25 years old, is trying to make sense of the past, even as he looks with apprehension to the future.

He has lost his father and his childhood home. The injuries to his brain have weakened his memory. There was a time he spent hours studying for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) examination, but now he cannot retain a lot of what he reads. He has found work as a graphics designer.

For Danish, whose life and liberty was threatened as a consequence of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Hindutva politics, the 2019 general election is more than just an exercise in universal adult franchise.

BJP’s re-election for another five years first and foremost is a threat to his physical safety and security, and second, a question mark on whether Muslim citizens can live and work as equals in India. In other words, will he have to continue looking over his shoulder, holding his tongue and living with fear.

It would be “better,” Danish said, if the BJP were not to come back.

Referring to incidents like the missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, Najeeb Ahmed, and 15-year-old Junaid, who was murdered in a Mathura-bound train, Danish said, “Itis a question of life and death. Muslims are afraid. A crack between Hindus and Muslims has been created. Will this get cemented? What if there is no going back?”

In the next few weeks, the sheer scale and pageantry of the world’s largest election are likely to eclipse these questions.

While there are debates over political stratagems, charismatic personalities, clever alliances and caste calculus, Danish — and other lynching survivors that HuffPost India spoke with —  are wondering whether and how it could get worse for minorities.

“You want to make India a Hindu country? Would you kill all the Muslims or turn them out of the country? Please tell us to what extent you would go to finish Muslims?” said Danish.

“Why are you doing all this, yaar? Besides religion, do Muslims not do what Hindus do for this country. On what basis do you want to keep Hindus first and Muslims second. Are we not equal citizens?” he said.  

Even with the specter of the BJP hanging over him, Danish, who intends to vote in the upcoming poll, is struggling to find a party or a politician that he actually wants to see in power.  

He would have liked to vote for someone.

“I wish I could form the government and bring some peace. I cannot think of anyone whom I want to vote for,” he said.

Five years of lynchings

Akhlaq’s was not the first lynching after the Narendra Modi-led BJP government came to power in May, 2014. Two months later, in June, a 28-year-old engineer, Mohsin Shaikh, was lynched by right wing goons in Pune. Shaikh’s father, Sadique Shaikh, who ran from pillar to post trying to get justice for his son, was a broken man when he died of a heart attack in December, last year.

Akhlaq’s murder was the first to be carried out by cow vigilantes, increasingly emboldened in the months after the Modi government took over.

If there were any doubt as to whether the BJP would rely on religious polarization even after it won, Akhlaq’s lynching laid that to rest. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to condemn the lynching in a timely and emphatic made it clear that a violent brand of Hindutva would be tolerated.

Since 2014 to 2018, forty six people, the majority of them Muslims, have lost their lives in cow-related violence, according to the IndiaSpendHate Tracker. Not only has cow related violence increasedtenfold in the past five years, but spread from the cow-belt in northern India to other parts of the country.

Last year, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its latest reportplaced India in the Tier 2 countries of particular concern along with Afghanistan and Iraq.

“India’s history as a multicultural and multi-religious society remained threatened by an increasingly exclusionary conception of national identity based on religion. During the year, Hindu-nationalist groups sought to ‘saffronise’ India through violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindus and Hindu Dalits,” itsaid.

Some have called the upcoming election a battle for the soul of India, but it is well worth asking if there would even be a battle if the Modi government’s economic policies had not hurt millions of Indians across social strata.

With Modi seemingly recovering lost ground in the wave of post-Pulwama nationalism, and the Opposition not quite bringing the job crisis home, a second term for the BJP suddenly seems very real those who dread it.

“I’m very uneasy. I have a feeling that if the BJP comes back then something big will happen. I cannot say what it is. I feel as if something will break in our country and we will not be able to fix it,” said Danish.

A few days after this conversation, a Muslim man in Varanasi waskilled by a Hindu mob when he tried to stop them from destroying a holy structure, which was under dispute. A day later, a Muslim family in Gurgaon wasattacked with sticks and rods by a group of assailants.

There was no allegation of cow slaughter in this case, just Muslim boys playing a game of cricket outside their home, and some goons who felt entitled to yell, “goto Pakistan and play.”

A changed life

The dark patch on his forehead reminds Danish of the violence that his family had suffered at the hands of their neighbors on 28 September, 2015. His heart and mind are healing slower than his body.

It does not help that the men accused of killing his father are out on bail, while his family has been slapped with charges of cow slaughter.

“Where is the justice?” he asked.

For a month after he came out of hospital, Danish was kept in the dark about his father’s passing. His family kept telling him that Akhlaq was traveling for work. It was only when he suspected something was seriously wrong, and insisted on speaking with his father, his elder brother was forced to tell him the truth.

He did not cry then, Danish recalled. It was the next day, while he was offering namaz, did he feel tears falling on his raised palms. It was then that he remembered everything in a flash.

“It was like a video playing out in my head. I felt that I did not want to live anymore,” he said. “If I see any movie or song, which has something about fathers, I cannot stop crying. I will feel his loss all my life.”

It is not often that Danish talks about the night of 28 September, and in the interest of self preservation, he actively tries not to think about it.

“There are times when I’m sitting and my eyes fill with tears. Work is my biggest distraction. If I’m not working, then I will plug in my earphones so that I’m not alone with my thoughts,” he said.

The biggest blow that Danish has suffered is having to set aside his dream of becoming an IAS officer.

At age 25, Danish knows the clock is ticking for him to take the exam, but he feels unprepared and unsure.

The injuries to his brain, compounded by the mental trauma, have changed his abilities to retain. He reads, but he cannot remember.

It was his father’s dream that he become an IAS officer.

There are times when Danish thinks that his family was targeted because they were challenging the traditional role of Muslims in the village ecosystem — ironsmiths, carpenters, butchers and farm labourers.

With the elder son a technician in the Air Force, and Danish preparing for the civil service, Akhlaq’s family was looking to expand its horizons.

Rattling off the names of neighboring villages like Narauli, Rasoolpur and Rajatpur, Danish said there was no other family with a member in the Air Force.

“Our behavior and our presence was one of a family that was rising. My father only wanted one thing for me and that was to clear the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission). I was going to the library, every day, and preparing for the civil service,” he said. “People don’t like seeing other people doing well.”

If true, this fits in with a certain psyche that believes that Muslims should stay “within limits.”

It would also explain why UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathrails against Muslims rulers and grand monuments from the past, but has no problem claiming that minorities werereceiving more than their population share in welfare schemes.

The BJP is banking on the Modi government’s welfare schemes, providing LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), crop insurance, bank accounts, and electrification, to win the 2019 election.

Neighbors and school mates

It’s been three years, and Danish is still struggling to understand why men he had called his neighbors and schoolmates attacked his family. He cannot make sense of their rage.

Rattling of the names of the men in the crowd, Danish said, “I would not say that we were friends exactly, but it was like ‘hi, hello.’ It was all good, yaar.”

“There are all kinds of bizarre thoughts in my head. We had lived with these people. They had come to wish us on Eid. We had gone to wish them on Holi and Diwali. I cannot say what happened,” he said.

Danish recalled that his family was having dinner and he had asked his mother for more rotis when there was an announcement from the village temple loudspeaker. It said that a cow had been slaughtered and people should gather.

“That announcement said that people should gather on the street. Then, why is it that everyone came out our house in a matter of minutes,” he asked. 

Danish has internalized fear, he said.

Other than taking the bus to work and back, he does not travel more than 10 kilometers away from his home when he is on his own. His mother and sister worry every time he leaves the house.

“When I take the bus, I plug in my earphones and don’t talk to anyone. What if someone says or does something — what will I do? I have to inform my family of my every move. I have to call and tell them that I have reached here, I will be here for this much time and then I will leave,” he said.

In Bisada village, Danish recalled the house that his great-grandfather built was surrounded by Hindu homes for a radius of at least a kilometer. His family would have never dreamt of slaughtering a cow, and not just out of fear, but it was also not part of their tradition.

Returning to his village, Danish explained, is impossible. Not only are the accused out on bail, but the family is charged with cow slaughter.

The UP Police has failed to say whether the meat recovered from Akhlaq’s home was beef. The authorities first said that the tested sample was mutton, then said it was beef, and then it was beef but not from Akhlaq’s refrigerator.

After he returned home from hospital, Danish removed everyone with any links to Bisada village, including his two best friends, Kapil and Lalit, from Facebook. (Kapil and Lalit are not among the accused). It was like erasing his childhood, he said, but it had to be done for safety reasons.

Suddenly overwhelmed, Danish shared stories about his friends.

“Kapil was a really serious guy. He would go for coaching and go back home. Nothing else. Lalit was the same. I say it today as well, Kapil is a great guy,” he said. 

Like Akhlaq’s family, Bisada too has changed. Those who live in the mostly Rajput village tell reporters that Hindus and Muslims still visit each other on festivals and during marriages, but it’s not the same as before.

There is so much resentment against Akhlaq’s family, that villagers, especially the kin of the accused, say that it was Akhlaq’s family who orchestrated the attack on themselves. It is after all Akhlaq’s family that wound up with compensation worth Rs. 45 lakh and four flats in Noida courtesy the Akhilesh Yadav-led state government. 

Shaking his head, Danish said, “Are Muslims responsible for everything wrong in the world? Are Muslims the only people who do wrong? Isn’t there anyone else? This is a ajeeb fanda, yaar.”

After villagers from Dadri started visiting their house in Noida, Akhlaq’s immediate family decided that it was too dangerous to move in.

What he had hoped for was a job from then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, but the state election rolled around in 2017, and it never happened. 

“I think he would have somehow got me a job, but he did not do it because of the election. Then, the BJP came to power,” he said.

Living in a Hindu country

On the one hand, Danish believes it is “only a few Hindus” who are resorting to violence against Muslims. On the other, he sees that it isn’t just the BJP that is resorting to majoritarian politics. 

Muslims, he believes, will have to fight for the rights enshrined in the Constitution.

“Whether it is the Congress or the BJP, even if all parties favor Hindus, fine, but can Muslims at least ask for their basic rights through the Constitution? Where does it say in the Constitution that Hindus can live without fear, but Muslim cannot?” he said. “We need to fight for our rights.”  

Danish loathes thinking of himself as a “victim.” He does not feel like a second class citizen yet, and it is not something he intends to submit to.

“I have fear inside me, but I want to finish off the fear. I have one life. If I live in fear, that is no life. I want to live with a free heart and mind. I want to do it in India.”

Hope floats

Danish has not given up on his dream of cracking the civil service. There is a part of him that still wants to fulfill his father’s dream, but after the time he has spent recuperating, he feels the need to relax his mind and stand on his own feet.

He dreads spending time alone with his thoughts, and would prefer not to locking himself for hours to study.

Still, during the course of conversation, what Danish really wants became apparent.

“Say I’m a DM (District Magistrate) and I’m getting a regular salary, I want to take some amount and do something that could help others. I don’t know what it is yet, but something,” he said. “These are some of the thoughts in my head.”

Then, after speaking of other things, he returned to the topic.

“If I’m a DM, then whether I’m dealing with a minister or not, I will stand my ground for the truth. I want to be empowered and I want to empower others,” he said.  

Arnold Schwarzenegger has had an incredibly varied career: champion body builder, move star, author, California governor and now ... mini pony workout partner.

Schwarzenegger, 71, has taken to social video app TikTok (where his user name is “arnoldschnitzel”) and Instagram to chronicle some of his fitness routines. His most popular post by far is a clip in which Schwarzenegger, sporting a cowboy hat, rides his bike after the mini pony Whiskey in a backyard. “Whiskey has a morning fitness routine, too,” he noted on the post.

Schwarzenegger, who had open heart surgery last year, apparently thinks the odd scene is like a roundup because the video is set to Toby Keith’s song “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” His Instagram post had nearly 2 million views as of Sunday.

He feeds Whiskey a carrot at the end as his dog Gustav looks on.

Besides the views, the video got lots of social media love, including from Toby Keith himself, who responded: “Hell yeah!”

NEW DELHI — Deepa Malik, a noted para athlete, on Monday joined the BJP with the party asserting that her presence will strengthen the organisation.

She joined the BJP in the presence of the party’s Haryana unit chief Subhash Barala, and general secretary Anil Jain, who is in charge of its affairs in the state.

She is the first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games.

“We welcome her into the party. She is an inspiration for all of us. She has made the country proud,” Jain said.

With the BJP yet to announce all its candidates in Haryana for the Lok Sabha elections, Malik may be in the reckoning for one of the seats, sources said.

NEW DELHI―Nearly five crore poor families will get an income support of Rs 72,000 per year to ensure that no family in India earns below Rs 12,000 per month, announced Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday afternoon. Gandhi was addressing a press conference in New Delhi to reveal details about his much talked about Minimum Basic Income guarantee scheme proposal. 

According to an official statement released by the Congress party on Tuesday morning, the proposal is not for a ‘top up scheme’ but “every poor family shall be rightfully entitled to ₹72000 per annum.” This means, unlike the previous idea of only paying a top amount that bridges the difference between the actual income and its difference from the sum of Rs. 12, 000, the government will pay a pre-defined amount of Rs. 72, 000 per year.

Only poor families, estimated by the Congress party to be five crores, will be eligible to receive cash transfers under this scheme. “Rs. 72, 000 would be deposited directly into the bank accounts of the women of the family,” the statement said. 

Interestingly, speaking about the scheme on Monday, Gandhi had said, “Let’s assume if your income is Rs. 6, 000, then the difference in the income from (the amount of) Rs.12,000 will be topped up.” Tuesday morning’s statement is, therefore, an important clarification as the fiscal implications of a top up vis-a-vis lump sum transfer are different.

Full details of the scheme are expected to be disclosed in the party’s manifesto that is likely to be released in the first week of April. 

HuffPost India reached out to some economists to get their opinion about Gandhi’s scheme. This is what they had to say:

1. Reetika Khera, associate professor (Economics), IIM Ahmedabad:

“There are two reasons to welcome Mr Gandhi’s announcement today — first, it initiates a (semi) serious debate on the manifesto ahead of the upcoming elections and second, it puts the focus on the disadvantaged sections of society. To the extent that it makes a commitment of 2% of GDP to the poor, the announcement is welcome.” 

In the context of a targeted programme: “The experience with targeting, not just in India, but the world over, has been disappointing. If the Congress wishes to do a targeted cash transfer programme, the only sensible option is to beef up the non-contributory social security pensions. These are given through the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) to the elderly, single women including widows and persons with disabilities. These are very vulnerable people, often cannot work to earn a living, and they are easy to identify.”

Problems with cash transfers: “I have reservations about cash transfers. 
The main problem is that its value erodes with time - for instance, the 
central government’s contribution to the elderly pension given through 
the NSAP has been stuck at Rs. 200 per person per month since 2006.  
When the government indexes these transfers to inflation, it does so 
inadequately. Last year or so in the name of indexation, in Jharkhand 
the NREGA wage was increased by Re 1/day only!”

Some other issues: “There is another problem with what Mr. Gandhi says: he says that we will bridge the difference between your actual income and the minimum income level (Rs 12,000) - but how will they know what my income is? What stops me from lying about it

If there has to be an income transfer, targeted ensures equity, but raises implementability issues (how do you identify) unless you do what we’re proposing. It may yet be true that the same 2% of GDP (which is roughly what this will cost), might be better spent on primary healthcare, rather than a cash transfer.”

2. Laveesh Bhandari, economist and director of Indicus Foundation:

“This is a completely irresponsible act by the Congress party. It is only going to worsen the whole political debate. The only way to identify income is by asking people or telling some government servant to do that. Obviously, there will be under reporting and corruption. It will lead to stresses in urban and local context―wherever it is implemented.

Even if somehow they are able to identify, there will be very serious movement away from investment towards consumption. Either you will have to reduce investment and reallocate funds towards consumption and spend much more and create inflation. It will harm the poor and create inflation.”

3. Dipa Sinha, assistant professor, Ambedkar university: 

“For India, the priority should be universal provision of basic services like health and education. The money would be better spent in public services. There can’t be anything that takes away resources from these sectors.

In today’s announcement, they said they are going to adhere to fiscal standards. So we need to know where is the money going to go away from? Also, identification of income is an impossible task. There are exclusion errors. 

If there is any cash transfer scheme, it should be in the case of schemes for socially vulnerable groups like the aged, disabled, single women and maternity entitlements in the informal sector. Schemes for these groups are presently in the form of a cash transfer and need to be topped up.” 

4. Lekha Chakraborty, associate professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy:

“As the government’s ‘employer of last resort’ policies failed, the narrative has now shifted to the government providing ‘guaranteed income’ to the poor. This basic income announcement can be a real game-changer in the forthcoming elections if this is pitched as providing enabling economic support to poor women and men for their “participation” in the unpaid care economy work ( where they are not remunerated) and giving them social justice and dignity through basic income transfers. This will turnaround the mandate in the elections, if the policy is designed with ‘autonomous individuals’ (and not households) as the unit of analysis. The fiscal implications need to be worked out carefully and a relook is needed at the numbers; how they arrived at them.”

Elections in India are just months away, and fake news on social media is a major concern. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is visiting the country, and has met Congress President Rahul Gandhi. He plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well, and sources said that fake news is likely to be a subject of discussion. However, Dorsey said that solving fake news is not going to be a single-step solution, but an evolving process.

"There will be no simple fix, but rather an evolving solution," Dorsey said, while speaking at IIT Delhi. "It's a lot like security, where no one can build a perfect lock, you just need to be 10 steps ahead of the people trying to break in. Maybe an AI will build a perfect lock someday."

Facebook, which has also struggled to deal with fake news, has a similar position on the issue.

ALSO READ: Facebook Can Fight Porn, Sex, and Spam, But Not Hate Speech

The challenge, according to Facebook, is that artificial intelligence has difficulty identifying hate speech, which is very contextual. "Hate speech is often much more contextual, and you need to have a person reading to make the decision," explained Varun Reddy, a public policy manager for Facebook based in New Delhi.

Similarly, Twitter wants to reduce the scope of misinformation in order to properly tackle the question of fake news. "It's become very important to scope the problem, because misinformation is too broad a topic," said Dorsey. Quoting from the book Sapiens, Dorsey said that misinformation has been a critical part of human evolution. "We need to answer, what's the critical problem with misinformation? It's when it misleads people to take an action," he said.

ALSO READ: Shehla Rashid On Why She Broke Up With Twitter

Dorsey then gave an example of a tweet that included a phone number for people in the US to call, in order to register to vote. "This was dangerous, because people were not actually getting registered," which would have meant that their votes would not be counted, he pointed out. Therefore, he argued, "our job is not to identify misinformation, but to make sure it doesn't spread beyond its earned reach".

Dorsey did not, however, talk about whether a tweet which does not directly call for negative action, but helps create an atmosphere of violence, would be a concern for Twitter.

"We need to identify not misinformation, but misleading information, and there will be no single fix," he said.

Will Twitter ever get an edit button?

While speaking at IIT, Dorsey also addressed some popular questions about Twitter. For one thing, he said that making follower counts prominent was a mistake that the founders made in the early days of Twitter, and one that created unhealthy tendencies on the platform.

"It was okay 12 years ago, but it's not good today. The question that you need to ask instead is, 'how many healthy conversations do you have on the platform?'"

This is something that Twitter co-founder Ev Williams has also said in recent interviews. "It really put in your face that the game was popularity," he told ReCode. "I think showing follower counts was probably ultimately detrimental." But follower counts were a huge reason why Twitter succeeded in the early days, Williams acknowledged.

Dorsey also took on the perennial question of when Twitter will get an edit button, and replied that Twitter can't just "rush" it.

"You have to consider the question behind the question. Most people just want to make a quick correction, and that's not a bad thing," he said. "But you shouldn't be able to edit all tweets across time, otherwise I could tweet something, and you retweet it, and then I edit it. And then you've retweeted something you did not believe in."

"There are a bunch of things we can do, but are we solving a real problem? We have to make sure we're not making something that takes away from the public record," he added.

NEW DELHI — The white wall at the entrance to Facebook’s New Delhi office sums up the technology giant’s frenetic, but ultimately failing efforts, to somehow undo the tribalised political hate it has spawned in countries as diverse as the United States, Brazil, Myanmar and India.

Nestled amongst the anodyne handwritten shout-outs by passing visitors (Sample: APAC Accounting is here!) are more sinister messages scrawled in All-Caps and shouty exclamation points — “HUM HINDU HAI”, “Mandir Yahi Banega!!!”.   

On the bottom left is a short platitude by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) former education minister-turned-textiles minister Smriti Irani. “Technology is a great leveller. Facebook helps bridge divide of language, gender, demographies. Grow strong with each passing year.” On the bottom right is a slogan adopted by many of the current regime’s critics, “Love beats Hate!”

Much like in the digital realm, banality far out-numbered politics and extremism, but it was the latter that caught the eye.

In a conference room across from the wall, this Monday, Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s global Director of Product Management, Civic Engagement and India Vice President Ajit Mohan met with journalists to list all the many things Facebook was doing to ensure its vast, built-for-virality, network was not used to subvert India’s pivotal and polarising general election.

The stakes are high, and the numbers staggering: 900 million Indians are eligible to vote in the polls starting 11 April, and over 200 million Indians use Facebook and WhatsApp. The sheer number of online users has transformed political campaigning in India, with political parties and their affiliates of all stripes generating vast amounts of fake news.

“There has been a tremendous amount of effort over the last two years to get ready for the Indian elections,” Mohan said. “This conversation about India has been in the works for a long time.”

“The Indian election in particular is one that we are really committed to as a top priority,” Chakrabarti echoed. “I’ve staffed a particular product team dedicated to the Indian election for over a year. This is extremely unusual for Facebook.”

Over the next 40 minutes, Chakrabarti laid out a series of steps intended to arrest the spread of fake news from its point of origin to when a given bit of fake news attains virality. Yet when it came down to the specifics of the quantum of resources Facebook was throwing at the problem,  Chakrabarti and Mohan steered clear.

There’s also some scepticism about Facebook’s commitment to the issue. “When a non-local entity like Facebook decides it will fight fake news in India, the first question is whether this is an organic process initiated as part of company policy or is it externally motivated,” said Raghu/ Godavar, a social activist who has played a prominent role in the Rethink Aadhaar collective.

“I believe there is a concern that Facebook is acting under political pressure. Given that the current dispensation has been trying to woo voters through every medium possible, the monitoring of social media immediately becomes suspect as another opportunity.”

“The second aspect is the outsourcing of such fact-checking to external, potentially local entities. If this is a public-spirited effort, there needs to be transparency about the process of selecting fact checkers,” he added. “Potentially, Facebook could make this a data-gathering exercise: what sources do people trust?”

“I believe Alt News had pointed out how some of these fact checkers were themselves fooled into carrying fake news. Such an incident only makes transparency and public trust more vital.”

Can Facebook AI detect fake news?

Facebook’s war on fake news begins at the source, where the company says it blocks millions of fake accounts each day at the point of creation.

“Using machine-learning we have been able to get much better at detecting signals for what could be a fake account that might be created by a real human being,” Chakrabarti said, explaining that “real” accounts have a particular usage pattern that begins with a few messages, a few friend requests, and occasional posting activity as genuine new users grow accustomed to the network.

“Often times when a human being is creating a fake account, they may send a hundred friend requests, they may send a thousand friend requests, they may join 300 groups, they may start posting in a lot of different places,” he said, describing the typical usage pattern of troll accounts. “Any one of these things may not be useful, but thanks to machine learning we can combine tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of these signals to get a fingerprint of what’s likely to be a fake account.”

Facebook has also worked to make fake news less profitable by down-ranking accounts that use inflammatory content to lure readers to ad-farms.

However, in November, Facebook has admitted that its AI is of limited use at detecting the content of hate speech, or determining the difference between biased messages and ‘fake news’. While AI can detect behaviour that is out of the ordinary, it still requires a lot of human intervention to deal with an issue like fake news, which means that progress is going to be slow. 

The company has also appointed seven media organisations and fact checking sites — the India Today group, the Jagran Group, Factly, Boom Live, Newsmobile, Vishwas.news and Fact Crescendo — to fact check objectionable posts. The partnership will fact-check news in English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi.

Chakrabarti and Mohan pointed out that these organisations had been certified by the International Fact-Checking Network, a unit of the respected Poynter institute, but declined to answer some fairly basic questions about this fact-checking operation:

• Are the fact checking organisations required to commit a minimum number of fact-checkers to the initiative?
• Has Facebook mandated a minimum team size each fact-checking organisation must commit to be eligible?
• Do they commit to fact-checking a certain minimum number of content pieces each day?
• How many shifts do they work in?
• How much money is Facebook paying these organisations to fact check?
• How did they zero-in on these seven organisations?

 (HuffPost India has forwarded these queries to Facebook’s comms team and will update the copy once they reply.)

Chakrabarti said all fact checkers were provided with an online dashboard of stories that needed fact checking and each fact checking organisation could choose the stories they want to fact check, raising the prospect of fact-checking organisations seeking to dismiss or debunk rumours directed at a particular party in line with the political convictions of the organisations.

Chakrabarti sought to assuage these concerns, stating, “All the ones that are credited with the IFCN are eligible to work with us.”

Why Facebook could struggle against fake news

Chakrabarti and Mohan insisted that while the fact-checking initiatives had understandably attracted more attention from the public, the company’s automated systems were far more likely  to spot, and kill, fake news posts than human fact checkers.

“The behavioural signals that we look at when it comes to integrity actions are actually much more powerful — what’s the structure of a friend network, what’s the pattern of posting behaviour etcetera, those are the things that end up being much more powerful signals,” Chakrabarti said.

However, there is no way to independently verify Facebook’s claims. “The AI for anomalous behaviour will stop badly coded automation, but not real humans engaging in abusive behaviour,” said Kiran Jonnalagadda, co-founder and CTO at HasGeek, who describes himself as a ‘social technologist’. “The fact is our family groups are still full of fake news. WhatsApp has done nothing to stop it.”

Apar Gupta, a lawyer and executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation added, “Platforms are only showing the deployments from their side in terms of the expected outcome, but they don’t share the guidelines and process followed by the fact-checkers. They won’t give a practical demonstration of their tech or show the source code. They are not transparent in what they do, and there is no real, meaningful accountability as opposed to a buzzword.”

“These are the two main problems with how platforms are approaching this problem. Nobody expects Facebook to do a miracle, and we are also to a large extent thinking of Facebook as an entity to which we should extend good faith, but for that, they need to be completely transparent, which they are not doing.”

In May 2018, HuffPost India reported how Facebook-empanelled fact-checker BOOM Live could only check a total of 30 pieces of content in the course of the month-long election campaign. The partnership, BOOM Live executives told HuffPost India,meant they could hire just two additional fact checkers who worked single shifts to sift through the endless torrent of lies, misinformation, and communally inflammatory content posted on the Facebook platform each day.

Chakrabarti also declined to provide any specific details on how the company’s WhatsApp messaging service hoped to curb fake news, noting that he did not work on the product.

“At a high level, I think the WhatsApp team has made substantial changes to the platform, starting in India,” Chakrabarti said. “India was the first place the WhatsApp team restricted messaging forwards to just five messages, labeling messages that have been forwarded.”

The forwarding protocols started in India and has since been rolled out globally, he said.

“She is going to hate me for this because she is all posh in her country house and her husband, but it’s a fact,” Mel said (via MailOnline) during filming on Friday. 

“It just happened and we just giggled at it and that was it. She had great boobs. 

“We were best friends. It just happened.”

Piers was shocked by the revelation, asking if it happened more than once, which Mel denied. 

“This is a bombshell. A Spice Girls bombshell,” Piers said. “You have never admitted this before have you? People are going to be fascinated!”

Mel said: “Yeah and I have said it now. All done. She is going to kill me and so is her husband.

“Hopefully when Geri gets asked that, which hopefully she will after this, she won’t deny it, because it was just a thing, a fun thing,” she added. 

Fellow Spice Girl Mel C was in the audience of the show, and said the information was “all new” to her. 

Geri’s representatives declined to comment when contacted by HuffPost UK.  

Mel and Geri will be reuniting with Mel C and Emma Bunton in the coming weeks as they prepare for their reunion tour, which kicks off in two months time. 

Mel recently published a book about her life called Brutally Honest, but admitted she left the story about her and Geri out of it as it was “brutally honest in a different way”. 

It focused on her marriage to Stephen Belafonte, who she accused of being abusive during their 10 years as husband and wife, before she left him in 2017. He has denied all the allegations.  

CHANDIGARH — Four Chinook heavy-lift helicopters made in the US were inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday.

After inducting the helicopters, IAF chief BS Dhanoa said induction of Chinook will be a game changer the way the Rafale is going to be in the fighter fleet.

The first four of the 15 CH-47F (I) Chinook helicopters, which were ordered from Boeing in September 2015, were commissioned into the IAF’s 126 Helicopter Unit (HU) at a ceremony.

The Chinook, twin-engine, tandem rotor, is multi-role, vertical-lift platform, which is used for transporting troops, artillery, equipment and fuel.

The helicopter can carry out military operations not only during the day but at night too.

Speaking at the function, Dhanoa said, “Our country faces a multitude of security challenges, we require vertical lift capability across a very diversified terrain.”

“The IAF operates from bases which are from sea level to very high altitude advance landing grounds. The helicopter will give the IAF quantum leap in terms of ability to transport cargo to precarious high altitude locations. The aircraft is one of its best in its category,” he said.

The all-weather capable aircraft can also be used for humanitarian and disaster relief operations and in missions such as transportation of relief supplies and mass evacuation of refugees.

“It is a red-letter day for the Air Force as we are inducting the Chinook helicopters which gives us a tremendous capability, primarily in the inter-valley troop transfer. In inter-valley troop transfer, what is very important is ability to operate from high altitudes to take acclimatized troops from one valley to another valley,” he said while interacting with reporters.

Asked about Pakistan Air Force chief Mujahid Anwar Khan Saturday leading a fly-past at the Pakistan Day joint military parade in Islamabad, Dhanoa quipped, “The Pakistan Air Force chief was flying from rear cockpit, just look from where he was flying.”

Citing an example about how Chinooks can be helpful in non-military roles, he said, “After the floods which occurred in Uttarakhand earlier and natural disaster in other hilly areas, there is a requirement to lift heavy loads, especially re-construction equipment so that we can open roads and communication can be re-established.”

“The helicopter is not only with the Air Force for the military role, it is a national asset,” he said.

Named after the courageous American-Indian tribes, the aircraft outperforms in its mobility, agility, flexibility and endurance, the IAF chief said.

He said all the 15 Chinook helicopters will not be stationed at Chandigarh Air Force Station’s 12 Wing as another unit of heavy-lift choppers will be created in Dinjan (Assam).

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command Air Marshal R Nambiar, Major General Robin Fontes from the US, Boeing India head Salil Gupte and Haryana’s Director General of Police Manoj Yadava were among others present on the occasion.

Even Rajinikanth’s entry onto Tamil movie screens, in 1975, was larger than life. Confidently pushing open a gate and striding into the frame in Apoorva Raagangal, the swag that would define his career was unmistakable even beneath the ill-fitting suit and scruffy exterior (his character had returned to apologise to his estranged wife Bhairavi (Srividya) after being diagnosed with blood cancer). And the first person he speaks to? Kamal Haasan’s Prasanna, an ebullient young man hopelessly in love with Bhairavi.  

By the time Rajnikanth made his debut, Kamal Haasan had already been working in films for more than a decade. But Rajini only got his first lead role in K Balachander’s cult classic, which brought together two powerful actors who would dominate the Tamil film industry for the next few decades. It was only fitting that many years later, both would formally announce their political ambitions at almost the same time. 

While this may seem like a coincidence, it was the absence of the biggest Dravidian leaders in Tamil Nadu that had set the stage for uncertainty and political churn by then—AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa had died in 2016, and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, her bitter rival who had been suffering from various illnesses for a couple of years, succumbed in 2018.

While both Rajini and Kamal’s entry into politics sent fans into a frenzy, as the general elections draw nearer, the state seems to be settling back into the familiar pattern of alliances and partnerships. Adding to this, both stars have announced that they won’t be contesting the election themselves—while Rajinikanth, whose political party is still an amorphous entity that doesn’t even have a name yet, made this clear last month, Kamal Haasan, whose Makkal Needhi Maiam is contesting all 39 seats in the state, broke the suspense on Sunday while releasing the party’s ambitious manifesto which promises 50 lakh jobs.

Tamil Nadu is no stranger to popular film stars making a successful shift to politics—AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran (MGR) and his protégé Jayalalithaa are the biggest examples. But political observers say there is little chance that Rajini and Kamal can hope to establish their political footprint on the state at this point. And their film journeys, which briefly converged and then branched out into radically different directions, can give us some clues into what their political performances may be like. 

On and off screen

After their successful outing in Apoorva Raagangal, both Rajini and Kamal forged a unique friendship that was not affected by their professional rivalry. The two have acted in 16 movies together, including some cameos. While Rajini made his mark in the beginning by playing the villain, Kamal would experiment with a variety of roles. So in 16 Vayathinile (1977), while Kamal played the naive, disabled Chappani, Rajani was the ruthless Parattai, who lusts after Mayil, played by Sridevi. In Moondru Mudichu (1976), Rajini’s Prasath, consumed by jealousy towards Kamal’s Balaji, refuses to save his doting friend from drowning (in one of those delightful cinematic connections, in the original Malayalam movie, Kamal had played the role done by Rajini in the Tamil version). In Aval Appadithan (1978), Sripriya is a heroine who fights for the cause of women’s liberation, while Rajini is an opportunistic and chauvinistic boss and Kamal a sensitive filmmaker. 

Rajini’s roles as a villain gave him the opportunity to actually display his acting skills, something that took a back seat once the star began overshadowing the performer. But even in big-budget films like Chandramukhi (2005) and Enthiran (2010), the actor seems to have more fun tackling the villainous alter egos— his ‘lakalakalakalakalaka’ from Chandramukhi would have spawned a thousand memes today.

It was in 1978 that Rajini finally managed to play a hero in Bairavi, a film that many producers had reportedly refused to take on, doubtful of how much draw a villain-turned-hero would have at the box office. After the film became a hit, Rajini got more ‘positive’ roles, and his performances in Mullum Malarum (1978) and Johnny (1980) are still fondly remembered by cinemagoers.

In 1979, after Ninaithale Inikkum, Rajini and Kamal decided to stop acting in movies together, but the camaraderie continued through guest appearances in each other’s movies.

Kamal continued to choose roles that let him push boundaries, while Rajini slowly shifted tracks to feature in movies where he was the hero and saviour. As writer and film observer Devi Bharathi puts it, the two were like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan.

“Like Sivaji Ganesan, Kamal focused on acting and chose roles that would give him scope to perform, to show his talent. Like MGR, Rajini chose roles that would show him as a saviour to commoners. It was perhaps not so conscious in the beginning but realising its impact, Rajinikanth made a deliberate choice of such roles. He used cinema to consolidate his image as a do-gooder,” said Bharathi. 

If in 1989, Kamal played a dwarf in Apoorva Sagodharargal, Rajini in Mappillai played the role of the poor Aarumugam who ‘brings around’ his dominant and arrogant mother-in-law Rajarajeshwari. Rajini’s grand entry scene in the movie involved riding a bullet and crashing through a glass wall to enter a marriage hall and stop a wedding.

“Films did them a lot of good, and vice versa,” said veteran director SP Muthuraman, who has directed both the actors. “As you know, they have been immensely successful and created an unimaginable fan base. There are fans who would give up their lives for Rajinikanth. Kamal’s fan base is no less loyal.”

So would this massive fan base help their political careers? The director wouldn’t comment. 

Political impact?

Bharathi perhaps rightly points out that Kamal’s traditional fan base might not have been prepared for his political plunge.

“Rajinikanth has been dropping hints since 1996 (when he criticised Jayalalithaa during the election campaign). He kept his fans waiting—often the talk about his political entry would be timed around a new release but he kept the fans in constant anticipation. Kamal’s might come as a surprise to his own loyal fan base. They were not expecting it.”

Besides delivering politically loaded dialogues that both enthused and confused fans, Rajinikanth was also the invincible macho onscreen hero who could nonchalantly take on any kind of villain. Examples abound, from Baashha (1995) to Baba (2002).

But even in politically loaded films like Varumaiyin Niram Sivappu (1980) where he played an unemployed, rebellious young man or Anbe Sivam (2003) in which he was a Left activist, Kamal allowed his characters’ vulnerabilities to flow through.

Bharathi, who has doubts over whether Kamal will be a successful politician, thinks Rajini, too, has delayed his entry too long.

“The time, after 1996, was perhaps ripe right after the deaths of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi. The AIADMK has got its act together now. The DMK was anyway equipped to handle the vacuum created by Karunanidhi,” he said.

R Kannan, Dravidian commentator and author of MGR: A Life, has no hopes from either. Drawing parallels between MGR and Rajinikanth in politics, Kannan points out that MGR worked really hard and took years to taste political success.

“Not all superstars can be MGR, right? He put in 25 years of hard work into his success. Besides cultivating a do-gooder image on screen, he also built an organisational base and was willing to risk indignities of politics,” he said.

Unlike Rajini, MGR also cultivated a bond with his fans. Old-timers recall how fans who mobbed MGR’s house were rarely turned away without meeting him. There is a legendary story about how MGR almost impulsively bought raincoats for about 5,000 rickshaw pullers after he saw one of them riding the vehicle drenched by rain.

Rajini, on the other hand, has always kept his personal life behind a strict wall. He has not been very accessible to his fans—after a long gap, he began holding interactions with fans only in the last two years—and almost always spends his birthdays away from his residence.

Like MGR, Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa also put in a lot of hard work. Months before she died, Jayalalithaa campaigned for the 2016 state assembly elections, addressing 22 major rallies and covering all 234 constituencies. Karunanidhi was no less active, even when he was past 90 years of age, addressing 17 public meetings and 18 speeches from his van.

“Will Rajinikanth be able to or will he be willing enough for that kind of commitment?” asked Kannan.

Kamal’s advantage, says Kannan, is the energy driving his politics.

“He has been hands-on since he announced his party. He has been vocal and has registered his views on different events. He has also traveled the state widely, showing up at Sterlite in solidarity with the protesters for instance. However, his Tamil appears convoluted and it is not clear if this is not making it more difficult for him to communicate or connect with the masses. He does not appear to command a mass following like Rajini who is all announcements but (remains) coy. A grass-roots level organisation appears missing. I would be surprised if he makes an impression in these elections,” he said.

Kamal’s politics also comes across as confused sometimes. While he initially said the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation move should be lauded, he later apologised and said Modi should accept his “mistake”. He has also backtracked on comments about Kashmir.

Neither Rajini nor Kamal were able to generate the kind of initial excitement that actor Vijayakanth managed to do when he launched his party Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) in 2005. Even the DMDK could not keep up its initial promise due to Vijayakanth’s deteriorating health and family politics.

While Vijayakanth’s meteoric rise and sharp fall may be a warning to both Kamal and Rajini, what is heartwarming is that both the stars have been nothing but gracious about their political rivalry. Recently, when Rajini wished Kamal on his decision to contest the polls, the latter responded by seeking his support.

People with borderline personality disorder struggle to process and regulate emotions, meaning they may fluctuate from feeling happy and elated one minute, to sad or aggressive the next – and it’s completely out of their control.

Compared to mental health issues like depression and anxiety, awareness of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is low and, as a result, stigma is rife.

A diagnosis certainly doesn’t spell the end of ‘normal life’. In a bid to reduce some of the stigma and increase understanding around BPD, we asked several people who live with it what they want others to know.

People misunderstand BPD. Most people have a fairly good understanding of anxiety and depression, but sadly this isn’t the case for BPD – and it can lead people to assume the worst. “The term is heavy with negativity,” says Nicole, 38, from Brighton. “It’s so close in name to anti-social personality disorder, so people are often scared of it – and because people with BPD are intensely emotional, it can be a lot to comprehend.”

People assume BPD is just “feeling a lot” – but there are so many other things they experience, says Beth Gibson, 22 from Sheffield. “Sometimes when I tell people I have BPD they say: ‘oh maybe I have it too’ because I feel quite intense sometimes. And that can feel quite invalidating.”

Having BPD is never a choice. A big misconception around BPD is that people choose to act this way. “Just because the development of the disorder is different to other mental health conditions, doesn’t mean I’m behaving the way I am out of choice,” says Lorna, 25, from Shropshire. “I’d give anything to be normal, and be able to regulate my own emotions – but I can’t. I’m doing the best I can.”

Those with BPD feel emotions more intensely. Those intense emotions can last from a few hours to a few days – and can fluctuate very quickly. “Someone living with BPD might feel an overwhelming sense of rejection, if their partner goes out with friends at night for example,” Emma Carrington, advice and information officer at Rethink Mental Illness, tells HuffPost UK. 

Hannah Davis, 27 from Shropshire, says it’s like her emotions are “amplified 10 times” – whether that’s pain, love, stress or joy. “If something stresses me out at work, it can spiral into suicidal thoughts and self harm – or if I have a crush, it’s life-ending and completely consumes me,” she explains.

Paranoia is not uncommon. In some cases, people with BPD might experience paranoia or dissociation, where they feel disconnected from the world. “I’m really attuned to people’s tones or the way they text or act,” says Beth Gibson. “If it feels out of tune with how they usually are around me, I notice it and become really paranoid.” It’s helpful when people are patient with her, she says, and when they don’t take things personally. 

Those with BPD can hold down relationships. But it can be hard. The NHS says people with BPD may have “intense but unstable relationships” with others. Joanna Earle, 35, from Kent, admits BPD has a huge impact on her relationships – whether romantic, friendships or family – as she is always in need of reassurance. But since seeking therapy, things have changed. “I was able to give [people] the tools they needed to speak to me in the right way and make them understand my triggers,” she explains.

Hannah Davis wants people to know that although navigating relationships can be hard, it is possible. “We’re scared of being abandoned and every little problem feels like it’s world-ending,” she says. “But with support, love and understanding, relationships can be the biggest source of comfort.” 

It’s not all bad. When Billie Dee Gianfrancesco was first diagnosed with BPD, the results that appeared on her screen after a Google search frightened her. “I read accounts about how girlfriends with BPD were a nightmare, with advice on how to leave them,” recalls the 29-year-old from Walthamstow, London. “Everything I read just said: get these toxic people out of your life. I was mortified.”

But a lot of what she found online was incorrect. “I am a kind person who can’t do enough for others,” she says. “I can be a bit emotionally intense or irrational at times, but I am loyal, charismatic, friendly and have an enormous capacity for love. I can be difficult during an episode, but I am high functioning – and stable, with the help of medication.”

BPD can be managed. Billie Dee Gianfrancesco says three years after her initial diagnosis of BPD, she has improved so much. She goes to therapy one or two evenings a week, and attends group recovery meetings. She had to completely change her lifestyle and cut out unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as alcohol, drugs, co-dependent relationships and self-harm – and worked to replace them with healthy ones like self-love, mindfulness and reflection.

“I know I’ll always have to manage aspects of my illness, but my immense progress has showed me that recovery is possible,” she says.

MUMBAI — Jet Airways Founder and Chairman Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal will resign from the board of the crisis-hit airline, according to a regulatory filing.

The decision was taken at the airline’s board meeting held here Monday.

In a filing to the stock exchanges, Jet Airways said Naresh Goyal, Anita Goyal and one nominee of Etihad Airways PJSC would step down from the board.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad is a strategic partner with 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways.

Naresh Goyal would also cease to be the chairman, the filing said.

Jet Airways, which has been operating for more than 25 years, is grappling with financial crunch and is also looking to raise fresh funds.

The airline has suspended operations on at least 14 international routes till end-April and over 80 planes are on the ground. As many as 54 aircraft have been grounded due to non-payment of lease rentals.

Nick Jonas has suddenly found himself back in the spotlight ― on all fronts. Shortly after his whirlwind marriage to actress Priyanka Chopra in December, Jonas, along with his two brothers, Joe and Kevin, announced they were reuniting, complete with new music. The new single, “Sucker,” surfaced in February, and a new Jonas Brothers album is expected this year, marking the trio’s first studio album since 2009. A tour is also in the works. 

Jonas, who has Type 1 Diabetes, is also spending time getting the word out about staying in good mental and physical health. He’s part of an initiative with Cigna to encourage people to schedule an annual check-up with their physician. 

We caught up with Jonas about his own health, married life with Chopra and what’s next for Jonas Brothers.

How do you and your wife, Priyanka Chopra, make sure that you are keeping each other in check when it comes to health and emotional support?

Well, I think that we both obviously look out for each other in every way that we can. And I think as we’re continuing to navigate married life together, we’re figuring out exactly what and how we can be the best support for each other. And so far, it’s been amazing and having that partner, that life partner, is just an incredible thing and makes everything way better. So, I’m just hopeful that I can continue to be a good partner to her and whether that’s emotional or physical health, I want to be that teammate in everything.

You have Type 1 Diabetes, so staying healthy and this initiative you’re involved in I’m sure are particularly close to you. What do you do to ensure that you’re taking care of your own physical and emotional health?

There are a lot of things that I do. And you’re right, this is particularly close, I think, close to my heart because of my Type 1 Diabetes and then the journey I’ve taken there. And as far as the steps I take, I think being physically active, doing my best to be physically fit, is incredibly important to me. You know, I’m in a way better state of mind after I’ve had a great workout. In addition to that, eating well, eating clean to the best of my ability while on the road or running around or whatever I’m doing is another thing that I try to make a priority.

Then also just time with family and friends and I think the thing that I’m so connected to about this message ... simplifying this idea and this message, to say that your emotional health is wholly connected to your physical health.

If you take that time, spend some time with family and friends, prioritize your emotional state of mind, you’re going to be in a way better spot physically. That’s for sure been true in my life and I hope it to be true in my family as well.

You recently revealed that the Jonas Brothers actually went to therapy for about a year before deciding to reunite as a group. What was that like and what was the biggest takeaway you got personally from that experience?

I think the thing that was so great about this next chapter was that it really began with us getting to the healthiest place we could be as brothers and as family before we decided to work together at all, given that the way it ended before was not the best. We just thought, let’s dive in, let’s really open up and pull this thing apart and see what would need to be different for this to work this time around for a healthier relationship. I think that honesty, that transparency, really was the key factor. And I built the foundation now to where those things that used to be hiccups before for us, are no longer a problem and we’re able to really enjoy this ride and the reaction so far to the new music and everything that’s going on has just been incredible.

How would you describe the reaction since coming out with the new Jonas Brothers single?

It’s not to be believed. We wake up in the morning and pinch ourselves. We didn’t know what to expect when launching this new chapter, and coming back as the Brothers, but to have this outpouring of love and support for this song and this video, and just for us, feels incredible and we don’t take it for granted for one minute. We’re thankful just to our fans who have stuck with us for so long. I just can’t wait to get out and play for them this year, at some point.

What do you think like a tour would look like these days ― with kids and partners? 

I think it will be a lot of fun. I don’t know what it will look like. Part of what makes it so exciting to us is that we’ve all had these experiences over the years, whether together, or now solo, or Joe would do with DNCE. And suddenly these things that we’ve done before have become brand new again. Just by way of coming back together, we’re adults now. We obviously all have our families and seeing what that would look like in this modern era is just really exciting. And I’m anxious to get out on the road and we’re building a plan now, so please stay posted.

What can you tease about the rest of the music that we can expect?

I think that for us we were really fortunate to work with [producer] Ryan Tedder on the big picture way to oversee the project as a whole is great. And he just breathes amazing life into it ... And the fact that we got to make the songs and that they came out the way they did was just the icing on the cake. So, I think the fans can expect a really good combo of Joe’s sounds and DNCE’s meets my solo sounds, and I think “Sucker” is a good kind of stepping-off point. But I’ve got more and more favorites on the album that I’m really excited for them to hear.

Actor Radha Ravi has been temporarily suspended from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam after he made sexist remarks about actress Nayanthara and joked about the Pollachi sexual abuse case, NDTV reported.

Ravi made the comments on Saturday at the trailer launch for the film Kolaiyuthir Kaalam in which Nayanthara plays the lead role. The actress was not present at the event.

According to The NewsMinute, Ravi said, “Nayanthara acts as a ghost, and then she goes on to act as Sita as well. She acts as Sita! Earlier, to play the role of a goddess, they would look for [someone like] KR Vijaya. Now, anyone can be cast to play a goddess. They can cast someone who you want to pray to when you look at them, they can also cast someone you want to call towards you when you see them!”

In another comment, Ravi also referenced the Pollachi sexual assault case “What is the difference between a big film and a small film? If you rape one girl at once, it is a small film. If you rape 40 people at once, like in Pollachi, it is a big film,” he said, quoted TNM.

“Radha Ravi’s comments are unacceptable in DMK which puts women’s rights in the forefront. Party cadre should express without indignity and action will be taken on those who violate,” DMK president MK Stalin tweeted.

The actor was first called out by singer Chinmayi Sripada on Saturday. 

Director Vignesh Shivan, who is in a relationship with Nayanthara, said no one from the Nadigar Sangam, the union for film and television actors in Tamil Nadu, would take action against Ravi.

On Monday, actor Vishal, Nadigar Sangam general secretary, said the union had sent out a letter condemning Ravi’s remarks.

DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan said Ravi was being temporarily suspended “from primary membership of the party and all party posts for breaching party discipline and acting in a manner that brings disrepute to the party.”

MP Kanimozhi called the comments “unacceptable”.

SRINAGAR — National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah Monday filed nomination papers from the prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha seat which is going to polls in the second phase of the general election on 18 April.

Abdullah, who is seeking re-election from the constituency, was accompanied by his son and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah and other party leaders to the office of Returning Officer, Srinagar, where he filed his nomination papers.

There was no pomp and show as only few vehicles of the NC leaders were allowed inside the deputy commissioner’s office complex in Tankipora area in Srinagar.

The police has barricaded the entire area as part of security arrangements to prevent any untoward incident and did not allow any supporters at the venue.

The returning officer had earlier issued guidelines, saying the maximum number of people allowed at the time of filing of nomination by a candidate would be five, including the candidate, whereas the maximum number of vehicles allowed would be three.

The Srinagar Lok Sabha seat is spread over three districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal. It has 12,90,318 voters who will cast their votes at 1,716 polling stations set up in the constituency.

The last date for filing nomination papers for the second phase is March 26 and the scrutiny of the papers will be conducted on March 27. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 29 and the polling will be held on April 18, from 7 am to 6 pm.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday announced the details of his party’s minimum income promise. He said that India’s 20 percent of the poorest families will be given Rs 72,000 each year as minimum income if Congress comes to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Five crore families and 25 crore people will directly benefit from the scheme, Gandhi added while promising to eradicate poverty from the country. “Final assault on poverty has begun,” he said.

Gandhi called it an “extremely powerful, ground-breaking and well-thought through idea”, according to PTI. He said the Congress has studied the fiscal implications of the scheme and consulted renowned economists and experts before finalising the scheme.

“People have suffered in the last five years and we are going to give justice to them,” the Congress president added. The scheme, he said, is called ‘NYAY’.

He had first announced the scheme in January this year and called it a “historic” decision.

(With PTI inputs)

NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court Monday directed the Election Commission (EC) to reply by 28 March, if it can increase the number of VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) sample survey from one in each assembly segment at present for the upcoming general and assembly elections.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta sought the response of the poll panel by 4 pm on 28 March and directed it to apprise whether number of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) can be increased for the satisfaction of the electorate.

The bench indicated that it wanted the number of VVPAT to be increased, saying it was not the question of ’casting aspersions” rather it was a matter of “satisfaction”.

The bench has now posted for 1 April, the plea of 21 opposition leaders, led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, seeking that VVPAT slips of at least 50% voting machines in each assembly seat be checked randomly in the Lok Sabha elections.

NEW DELHI — Air India has decided to “roll back” its boarding passes bearing photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani after they came in for criticism.

The airline had earlier said the passes, featuring the photographs which were third-party advertisements, would be withdrawn if they are found to be in violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

“Air India has decided to roll back the boarding passes of Vibrant Gujarat which had photos of the prime minister and the Gujarat chief minister,” said Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar

Former Punjab DGP Shashi Kant on Monday tweeted a photograph of his boarding pass issued at the New Delhi airport, questioning how pictures of the two leaders could be on it.

“At New Delhi airport today March 25th, 2019. My Air India Boarding Pass, prominently flashes Narendra Modi, “Vibrant Gujrat” & Vijay Rupani. Picture of boarding pass is below. Wonder why we are wasting public money on this Election Commission, which doesn’t see, hear or speak...,” he tweeted.

The Air India spokesperson said the boarding passes seemed to be printed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit held in January and the photographs were part of the advertisement from ‘third parties’.

“The rolls seem to be the ones left over from the boarding passes printed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and the photos are third-party advertisements. It has nothing to do with Air India. These boarding passes are not just for Gujarat, but are in use across India,” Kumar said.

On 20 March, tickets with photos of the prime minister were withdrawn by the railways after the Trinamool Congress complained to the Election Commission about them.

The railways had also said that it was a third-party ad and leftover from a pack of tickets printed a year earlier. The national transporter had instructed zones to withdraw the tickets.

US Attorney General William Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress on Sunday summarizing, in his opinion, the key points of special counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly two-year inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Long story short: Barr said Mueller did not find that President Donald Trump or any member of his campaign conspired with Russia to influence the election. But a single line from the special counsel’s report regarding the possibility that the president acted to obstruct the FBI investigation, which Barr quoted in his letter, caused both sides of the political spectrum to erupt.

Here’s what you need to know about Barr’s letter, the future of Mueller’s report and how Trump himself has already claimed his own total exoneration.

Why did Barr release his summary and what did he conclude?

The attorney general has the ultimate say over what information from the special counsel’s report is released to Congress and the broader public. He spent the weekend reading through Mueller’s findings alongside Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed the special counsel. Rosenstein oversaw much of the probe, which ensnared several high-profile members of Trump’s team, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Barr wrote Sunday that he believed it was in the “public interest to describe the report” and to summarize its main conclusions. According to Barr, Mueller found that Trump and his campaign did not conspire with Russian efforts to wage an influence campaign during the 2016 election, although Mueller supported the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that the Kremlin had ordered a multi-pronged disinformation attack. Barr said that Mueller did not draw a conclusion, “one way or the other,” on the issue of whether Trump sought to obstruct justice ― he merely laid out the evidence.

Then Barr wrote, “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.” He also said that their determination was not related to established Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

What else did Mueller uncover?

We don’t know much, and there are still many unanswered questions.

Very few members of even the Justice Department have seen the full report and Barr quoted only a few lines from Mueller’s report in his letter on Sunday.

According to Barr, Mueller wrote that the “investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

The special counsel also stated that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

What’s next for Democrats?

Democratic leaders previously demanded that Mueller’s report be released in full. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pledged to oppose any classified briefings for members of Congress and said that any information provided by the Justice Department must be unclassified so that lawmakers are free to speak about Mueller’s findings.

On Sunday, Democrats continued that call and expressed some frustration with Barr’s letter and his past comments in which he critiqued Mueller’s efforts to investigate possible obstruction of justice.

“Attorney General Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers,” Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a joint statement. “The fact that Special Counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay.”

The pair lambasted Barr as “not a neutral observer” and said he was in no position to “make objective determinations about the report.”

Other Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) have vowed to fight to see the full report. Nadler said he would take the issue to the Supreme Court, if necessary, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said he’d consider bringing Mueller in front of Congress to testify. 

What’s next for Republicans?

Republicans are overjoyed.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that Sunday was a “good day for the rule of law” and that the “cloud hanging over President Trump has been removed.” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that the case was now “closed” and that the country welcomed “this long-overdue conclusion.”

The GOP has already begun attacking Democrats and using Barr’s letter to push Trump’s re-election. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) accused Democrats of peddling lies and conspiracy theories “in a shameless effort to discredit” Trump. The president’s children have been evenmoreunbridled.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took a more muted tone, thanking Mueller’s office but warning of an ongoing Russian effort to “interfere with our democracy.”

“I look forward to the continuing work of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the threats posed to our democratic institutions by foreign interference,” McConnell wrote. 

Is Trump really exonerated?

The president took to Twitter shortly after Barr’s letter was released, declaring himself vindicated after nearly two years.

“No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION,” Trump wrote. “KEEP AMERICA GREAT.”

He also continued to lash out at the fact that there ever was a special counsel inquiry, calling Mueller’s probe an “illegal takedown that failed” and saying it was “a shame that our country had to go through this.”

“To be honest,” Trump tweeted, “it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this.”

But by its own words, the special counsel’s report did “not exonerate” the president on the matter of obstruction of justice. It’s unclear what evidence Mueller may have gathered during his investigation. And obstruction of justice requires evidence of Trump’s intent to thwart the law, which The Washington Post notes his regular public outbursts against any and all criticism may have made more difficult to prove.

There are also several ongoing major investigations into Trump and his associates, and more could be yet to come.

THRISSUR — The body of a 27-year-old woman from Kerala, who was among the 50 people killed in a terror attack on two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand, was brought to the state Monday and laid to rest.

Prayers were held at the Cheraman Juma mosque at Kodungallor before the body of the woman, Ancia Alibava, was laid to rest. The mosque is said to be the oldest in the Indian subcontinent.

Police sources at Kodungallor said the last rites were held at the mosque around 11 am.

The body was airlifted to the international airport at Kochi from New Zealand early Monday morning and brought to her native place at Kodungallor.

It was taken to the house of Ancia’s husband, Abdul Nazar and her parents’ house before being kept for public homage at a hall in Kodungalloor.

Hundreds of people from various walks of life, including state Education Minister C Ravindranath, Thrissur district Collector, TV Anupama, were among those who paid homage to the woman.

Ancia was pursuing her M.Tech degree in an agricultural university in New Zealand.

She had gone to the mosque to offer prayers along with her husband Abdul Nazar when the shooting took place on March 15 during Friday prayers.

PUBG said the error had been fixed and players would be able to continue playing the game uninterrupted.

A popular battle royale game, PUBG has been criticised for being addictive and for promoting violence. 

Last week, two people engrossed in playing the game were run over by a train in Maharashtra.

The game has been temporarily banned in parts of Gujarat, where 10 people were recently arrested for playing it. 

In response to the ban, PUBG said it would work with authorities for a solution. “We are working on the introduction of a healthy gameplay system in India to promote balanced, responsible gaming, including limiting play time for under-aged players,” the company said.

NEW DELHI— Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit and other leaders of the unit Monday discussed the possibility of an alliance with the AAP for the Lok Sabha polls in the city in a meeting with party chief Rahul Gandhi.

The opinion on the issue remained divided and everyone in the meeting was unanimous that Gandhi should take a final call on it in the larger interest of the party, said a participant of the meeting.

Sources said four former Delhi Congress presidents ― Ajay Maken, Subhash Chopra, Tajdar Babar and Arvinder Singh Lovely ― favoured an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi.

“AICC in-charge of Delhi Congress PC Chacko also handed over signed letters of 12 district Congress presidents, leaders of the party and councilors in three municipal corporation, in favour of the alliance, to Gandhi,” they said.

Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit and three working presidents Devender Yadav, Rajesh Lilothia, and Haroon Yusuf maintained their stand against the alliance, sources said.

KULGAM — Kashmiri farmer Yusuf Malik learned that his son Owais, a 22-year old arts student and apple picker, had become an armed militant via a Facebook post.

Days after Owais disappeared from his home in this picturesque valley below the Himalayan ranges, his picture appeared on the social network, posted by a user the family said they did not recognise. The short, thin, curly-haired young man in casual jeans and a T-shirt stared resolutely at the camera, both hands clutching an AK-47 rifle.

In blood red font on the photo was scribbled his new allegiance: the Hizbul Mujahideen, or ‘The Party of Warriors’, the largest of the militant groups fighting to free Kashmir from India.

“He was a responsible kid who cared about his studies,” said Yusuf, 49, staring down at the carpeted floor of his brick home where he sat on a recent winter morning, clasping his folded hands inside his traditional pheran cloak.

The family said it has not heard from Owais since.

Owais is one of a rising number of local militants fighting for independence of Kashmir — an insurgency being spread on social media.

Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and armed police are stationed in this lush region at the foot of the Himalayas. India and Pakistan have always disputed the area and in the past three decades, an uprising against New Delhi has killed nearly 50,000 civilians, militants and soldiers, by official count.

Historically, that insurrection has largely been led by militants from Pakistan, who have infiltrated into the valley.

But now, an increasing number of locally-born Kashmiris are picking up arms, according to Indian officials. About 400 local Kashmiris have been recruited by militants since the start of 2016, nearly double the number in the previous six years, according to government data. India says Pakistani groups continue to provide training and arms — a claim Islamabad rejects.

Just a month before Owais Malik showed up on Facebook, another young man, Adil Ahmad Dar, left his home in a nearby part of Kashmir to join a militant group. This February, his suicide attack on a paramilitary convoy killed 40 Indian policemen, and took India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

After Dar’s attack, Indian security forces launched a major crackdown, searching Kashmiri homes and detaining hundreds of supporters, sympathisers and family members of those in armed groups. At least half a dozen gunbattles broke out between Indian police and militants.

The families of Dar and other young militants, as well as some local leaders and political experts, say run-ins between locals and security forces are one of the main reasons for anger and radicalisation. After the recent crackdown, they expect more young people to take up arms.

“FREEDOM, MARTYRS”

Dar’s family claims he’d been radicalised in 2016 after being beaten up by Indian troops on his way back from school for pelting stones at them.

“Since then, he wanted to join the militants,” said his father Ghulam Hassan Dar, a farmer.

India’s home and foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

In news conferences since the suicide bombing, Lt. Gen. K.J.S. Dhillon, India’s top military commander in Kashmir, has dismissed allegations of harassment and rights abuses by Indian troops as “propaganda”. He said the recent crackdown by security forces has resulted in the killing of the masterminds of the attack, and militant recruitment has dipped in recent months.

Syed Ata Hasnain, a retired army general who has served in Kashmir for over 20 years, said the rise in homegrown fighters does not surprise him.

“Those who were born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the conflict started, have now come of age,” he said. “This is a generation that has only seen the jackboot. The alienation of this generation is higher than the alienation of the previous generation.”

A 17th century Mughal emperor called Kashmir “paradise on earth”. But violence has ebbed and flowed in the valley since the subcontinent was divided into India and Pakistan after independence from Britain in 1947.

The question of Kashmir was never resolved, and it has been the catalyst for two wars and several violent clashes between the countries.

Tensions have risen after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in New Delhi in 2014. Modi promised a tougher approach to Pakistan and gave security forces the licence to retaliate forcefully against the insurgency.

CULT FOLLOWING

Around that time, many young Kashmiris started rallying around Burhan Wani, who had left home at the age of 15 to join the insurgency. Wani had a large following on social media, where he appeared in videos dressed in military fatigues and armed with an assault rifle, calling for an uprising against India.

He and his brother were beaten by security forces when they were teenagers, his family told local media. Wani was 22 when he was killed by security forces in 2016 and thousands attended his funeral despite restrictions on the movement of people and traffic.

The United Nations said in a report last year that in trying to quell mass protests in Kashmir since 2016, Indian security forces used excessive force that led to between 130 and 145 killings, according to civil society estimates.

Thousands were injured, including around 700 who sustained eye injuries from the use of pellet guns by security forces, it said. Thousands of people had simply disappeared since the insurgency began, it said.

The Indian government has rejected the report as false. Indian forces have long been accused of rights abuses and torture in custody in Kashmir, but officials routinely deny the charges.

Instead, India points the finger at Pakistan. Officials say the rebellion in Kashmir is being funded and organised by Pakistan and if they cut off those resources, the insurgency will weaken and it can then focus on building Kashmir’s economy. The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group claimed responsibility for the latest attack, which was the deadliest in the insurgency.

Pakistan says it only provides moral support to the Kashmiri right to self-determination.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Muslim spiritual leader of Kashmir who is considered a moderate separatist, contests that India has true plans to engage politically with the people of Kashmir.

“In the past five years we have seen that the government of India has only spoken to Kashmiris through the barrel of the gun, that’s it. There is no political approach,” he said.

“Nobody is dying in Kashmir for lack of roads, electricity and water.”

LOSING ANOTHER SON

A few miles south of Owais Malik’s home in Kulgam lives Masuma Begum, who said her son and brother had been called in to an army camp two days after the latest bombing and have been held since then.

A military spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Behind the glass panes of a wall shelf above her were photos of a smiling young man, an assault rifle slung on his shoulder.

“That’s my other son, Tausif,” Masuma Begum said. The 24-year-old had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen in 2013 and been killed by the army the same year, she said. “I don’t want to lose another son.”

Diana Ross, a longtime pal of Michael Jackson’s, decided Saturday was the day to come to his defense amid new sexual abuse claims against the late pop star.

“This is what’s on my heart this morning,” Ross tweeted. “I believe and trust that Michael Jackson was and is A [sic] magnificent incredible force to me and to many others. STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE.”

A devastating HBO documentary released earlier this month, “Leaving Neverland,” put forth detailed claims from two men who say Jackson molested them over a span of years when they were children and he was much older. The documentary is just the latest in a long history of rumors and lawsuits alleging similar abuse.

Jackson, who died in 2009, was said to idolize Ross from his days as a child performer with the Jackson 5 when she was already an established star. The two later became good friends, appearing and performing together over the years.

Jackson even went so far as to name Ross in his will as a secondary caretaker for his three children in the event that his first choice, his mother, died. 

Ross’ comments come just one day Barbra Streisand’s tone-deaf remarks about “Leaving Neverland” were published in the London Times. In the interview, Streisand said the children were “thrilled” to be at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, where they say he repeatedly abused them. 

“They both married and they both have children, so it didn’t kill them,” Streisand added of the men who appeared in the HBO documentary. She later walked back her comments.

While “Leaving Neverland” has attracted criticism from Jackson’s family ― and from select music industry idols, it seems ― it has also prompted many fans to question how to approach the King of Pop’s collected works in light of the searing accusations against their creator.

BJP MLA Surendra Singh is at it again. Known for making sexist and bizarre remarks, this time he has targetted Bhojpuri actress and dancer Sapna Chaudhary. 

Amid speculations of Chaudhary joining the Congress, the MLA from Uttar Pradesh said Rahul Gandhi should accept Chaudhary since she had the same “pesha” (profession) as his mother Sonia Gandhi. 

In a video shared by many on Twitter, Singh can be heard as saying, “Rahul ji bhi apne kul parampara ko aage badhaye yeh achhi baat hai. Unki mata ji bhi Italy mein ishi peshe se thi aur aaj Sapna ko bhi unhone apna bana liya. (It is a good thing that Rahulji is taking forward traditions of his family. His mother was in the same profession in Italy, and now he has accepted Sapna.)

Chaudhary took to Twitter to react to Singhs comments. She said, “Rahul Gandhi ji is like an elder brother. But the remarks of this BJP MLA got me thinking, is insulting women their culture?”

Singh is know for his crass comments, especially on women. He had hit out at Mayawati last week claiming she got facials every day. 

“She gets a facial every day. The person who herself gets a facial daily is telling our leader that he is ‘shaukeen’,” the MLA said, using a Hind word that suggests vanity.

Singh was taking on Mayawati because of her comment on Modi. 

GUWAHATI—Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is a key person for the BJP in the Northeast and is above party chief Amit Shah for the affairs related to the region, its General Secretary Ram Madhav said on Sunday.

Madhav made the statement when asked why Sarma cannot contest despite being responsible for 25 seats, while Shah is the party in-charge of the entire country and still contesting from Gandhinagar.

“That means Himant Biswa Sarma’s burden is much more than Amit Shah’s, probably. Because he has to handle 5-6 governments here. He has to handle the entire election campaign in the Northeast,” he said at a press conference here. 

“That needs a lot of energy and time, so the party cannot confine him to one seat. We needed his time and energy for the larger campaign for all candidates in the Northeast,” he said.

Putting to rest all speculation, Shah on Thursday night said that Sarma will not be offered a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Despite the state unit sending his name unanimously, Sarma was asked to concentrate on developing the state and strengthening the party’s base in the Northeast, Shah said in a series of tweets in Hindi.

Sarma also took to Twitter to say that he accepted the decision “humbly” and the region will not disappoint Shah in making Narendra Modi Prime Minister again. 

Earlier, Sarma himself had said on a number of occasions that he will not contest the Assembly elections in the state in 2021, indicating he was looking for a national role.

BJP sources said he was named as the candidate for the prestigious Tezpur constituency in Assam while preparing the state unit’s panel of names for the elections.

This, however, did not go down well with BJP’s central election committee comprising Modi and Shah, as the party’s sitting Tezpur MP Ram Prasad Sarmah resigned from primary membership immediately after learning about the omission of his name.

The central leadership did not accept Sarmah’s resignation and asked the state unit to reconsider the panel of candidates, which did not include the parliamentarian from Tezpur constituency.

Later, Sarma’s close aide and Assam Tea Tribes Welfare Minister Pallab Lochan Das was given ticket from the Tezpur seat.

Madhav also said the party may consider sending Sarma to the Rajya Sabha from Assam. 

The senior BJP leader also commented that Sarma will convince the party’s youth members and sympathisers, who were upset over denial of ticket to him.

To another question on giving tickets to existing state ministers, Madhav said: “Putting up a state minister is not a new practice. The best face is put forward. We found that our best available candidates are some legislators, so we fielded them. Once they are elected, we will get other best candidates for those legislator’s seats.”

The first trailer for “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” a live-action movie based on the Nickelodeon cartoon “Dora the Explorer,” was released on Saturday and fans have initially given it mixed reviews.

The movie, slated for release on Aug. 2, follows teenage Dora as she embarks on an adventure to save her parents and explore the lost city. The film’s stars include Isabela Moner as Dora, Eva Longoria as her mother, Michael Peña as her father and Benicio del Toro as the voice of Dora’s nemesis, Swiper.

Fans were eager to weigh in as soon as the highly anticipated trailer dropped.

A number of people on Twitter who said they were at Pieces at the time have excitedly recounted the experience at the New York City bar. 

In 2016, Lawrence wrote a tribute to Adele for Time’s 100 Most Influential People List. The Academy Award-winning actress shared that she met Adele at the Oscars three years prior. She praised the Grammy winner for her “undeniable talent and beauty.”

“Adele is a gift, an international treasure, but she’s also sweet, funny, intelligent and beautiful. Bitch,” she wrote in part.  

COIMBATORE — Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) president Kamal Haasan did not figure in the second and final list of candidates for the Lok Sabha election and bypolls to the 18 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu.

Announcing the list of candidates at massive public meeting on Sunday night, Haasan said that name did not figure in it as there were large number of nominations in his name from almost all the constituencies.

He stated that there was no cause for worry since all the candidates were his faces.

Haasan said instead of being in the palanquin, he preferred to shoulder it.

He also assured the public that all the winners would deliver and fulfil the promises they had made during the regime, adding that they would be removed if proved otherwise.

A single complaint against them will be inquired into by a committee and if found guilty, they will be immediately asked to tender their resignation, Haasan said.

The MNM chief also released the party manifesto, which said the party would generate 50 lakh jobs in the state and give 50 per cent reservation for women in them, NDTV reported.

The MNM’s manifesto promised it would permanently solve the drinking water problem, wipe out poverty from the state, ensure slum-free Tamil Nadu, and equal wages for women labourers as men in all sectors.

He vouched to unite the Tamil diaspora across the world, safeguard the human rights of the Tamil workforce across the globe and reform the existing anti-corruption Lokayukta act and appoint a credible ombudsman. 

(With PTI inputs)

An estimated 1 million people flooded the streets of central London on Saturday in favour of a final say on Brexit.

Those in attendance demanded a so-called “People’s Vote”, which would allow voters to choose how the UK exits the European Union together with the option for the country to remain a member.

Organisers People’s Vote said some 1 million demonstrators took part, which they said made it one of the biggest protests in British history. Around 700,000 joined a similar rally in October.