Chennai: Tension continued to grip Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore city on Tuesday after the arrest of two Hindu Munnani workers.
The two were arrested on Monday, along with as many others, for allegedly assaulting migrant workers from West Bengal employed in a gold smithery unit.
Surya Prakash,19, and Prakash,23, are active workers of Hindu Munnani and they had picked up a quarrel with Gowtham Siyamel Kattuvam, 39, a native of West Bengal and two of his friends working in Coimbatore.
Two others, Pragadeesh and Velmurugan who were also arrested with the Hindu Munnani activists are college students.
According to Variety Hall police which arrested the accused, the four entered into a quarrel with Govind and two of his other accomplices and later assaulted the migrant workers.
The migrant workers then left the scene and reached their accommodation when two other of their colleagues narrated the assault by the four.
According to police, a case was lodged by the migrant workers at Variety Hall Police station and this led to the arrest of the four people, including two Hindu Munnani activists, on Monday.
Coimbatore is a sensitive area and the arrest of Hindu Munnani activists has upped the ante by the police. Coimbatore police have ordered a strong police contingent to be put in charge to maintain the law and order in the area.
The serial bomb blasts in February 1998 in Coimbatore had left 58 people dead and more than 200 injured. The blasts were carried out by the Islamist organisation Al Umma whose leader SA Basha is still languishing in jail.
This has left Coimbatore a highly sensitive city where police have always been on an alert with stepped-up security.
It may also be noted that the car blast in Ukkadam near the Sangameshwara temple on October 21, 2022, on the eve of Deepavali had left a 29-year-old youth, Jameesha Mubin, charred to death.
On inquiry, police found that it was a botched-up attempt for a massive killing near the temple but the car blasted before reaching a crowded place thus charring the main conspirator, Jameesha Mubin to death.
The police have always been on alert after the February 14, 1998 blasts in Coimbatore, and the arrest of two Hindu Munnani activists has now led to further beefing up of security.
Hyderabad: Tension gripped Kalapather in the Old City here on Thursday after Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) workers staged a dharna demanding action against an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) corporator for preventing them from holding a meeting. Following a complaint, the Kalapather police booked a case against AIMIM corporator under various sections.
The BJP’s local unit was holding a street corner meeting at Mochi Colony under the Kalapather police station limits. On coming to know about it, Ramnaspura corporator Mohd Qader, who is from the AIMIM, along with workers allegedly came and stopped the programme.
Hyderabad: BJP workers staged dharna against AIMIM corporator at Kalapather Police station
Hyderabad: BJP workers staged dharna against AIMIM corporator at Kalapather Police station
The police dispersed both the groups at Mochi colony. BJP party workers later came to the Kalapather police station and sat on a protest demanding police take action against AIMIM workers. They reportedly picked up an argument with the police officials.
As the situation got tense, senior police officials came to the spot with additional forces.
Police pickets are deployed in Kalapather Mochi colony, ITI and surrounding localities as a precautionary measure.
Bhopal: Forced installation of Hanuman’s idol in a Muslim’s house triggered communal tension in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district but prompt police action prevented the violence from escalating.
The state is yet to get over the horror it witnessed last year in Khargone.
According to official reports, the incident was reported on Sunday in a residential colony located near Munshi Chowk area in Khandwa, around 360 km from Bhopal.
The situation was under control, police said on Monday. However, a heavy police force was deployed in the area and Section 144 imposed in nearby areas.
At least four police personnel, including a Chief Superintendent of Police and SHO, were reported injured in stone pelting.
Five alleged perpetrators of the incident have been detained so far, and identification of more was under way, police said on Monday.
“On Sunday, around 8.30 p.m, a group of people barged into the house, installed Hanuman’s idol and chanted mantras. This led to people from both communities gathering outside the house. Both sides pelted stones at each other, but police jumped into action and dispersed the crowd,” a senior police official told IANS on Monday.
As per the police, the house where the incident took place belonged to one Ganesh Jadhav, which was recently sold to a Muslim, Shaikh Asagar.
The agitated people even attacked the police who arrived to control the situation, prompting them to use tear gas to disperse the crowd.
“Three cases under different IPC Sections pertaining to house-trespassing, attempt to murder and rioting lodged and as many as five persons have been detained so far. The prime accused in the entire incident is a self-styled Hindu leader Ravi Awhad,” police officials said.
Notably, last year (on April 10, 2022), a communal clash had broken out in Khandwa’s bordering district – Khargone.
“This is not the House of Parliament. I wish there were more decorum, but it seems like we just keep going further downhill every State of the Union,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who set off a different kind of political storm after telling disgraced Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) that he didn’t “belong” in the chamber for the speech. (Romney later called the serial fabricator’s behavior, including an attempt to shake hands with Biden, “an embarrassment.”)
After McCarthy promised before the speech that his members would avoid “playing childish games,” the State of Union highlighted yet again just how tough it will be for him to corral his fractious Republicans on any given day. And for Biden, the evening demonstrated that his heady days of accomplishment during the last Congress have abruptly come to a close.
The theatrics began midway through Biden’s speech, as he scolded Republicans about their past interest in cutting the nation’s biggest entitlement programs in a bid to set the stakes for the upcoming debt limit battle. As the jeers escalated from the opposition, Biden began battling the GOP in real time — ad-libbing his own prepared remarks to challenge Republicans who were shouting at him from the chamber floor.
“Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” Biden said as the GOP side of the chamber erupted in boos. It was a reference to Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) proposal last year to wind down all laws after five years, an agenda that split Scott’s party and that Biden has attacked repeatedly.
Then, veering from his own remarks, Biden attempted to clarify — “I don’t think it is a majority of you” — though he could barely be heard above the GOP outcry on the floor. “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare, off the books now, right?” Biden said.
Republicans had hoped McCarthy’s Tuesday pledge that the GOP wouldn’t touch the two programs in the debt limit fight would keep the president from hitting them on it, despite the fact that some of them remain broadly interested in changing the popular entitlements. They were livid.
“The president was trying to score political points, despite the fact that Republican leadership has made it clear that Medicare and Social Security benefits are off the table,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.). “Republicans made clear their dissatisfaction with his ploy.”
The tensions only grew from there. Biden’s back-and-forth on the debt battle seemed to embolden his critics — chief among them, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, sitting in the far back row in a stark white, fur-lined jacket. As the Georgia Republican sat, she rarely looked up from her phone except to occasionally shout at Biden.
“Liar!” she shouted at first, in response to Biden’s accusation of GOP cuts to Social Security and Medicare. “Bullshit!” she called later. And when Biden called for action on the deadly drug fentanyl — one of the GOP’s biggest priorities — Greene shouted: “It’s coming from China.”
She was hardly alone: Dozens of other Republicans joined in with chants to “secure our border” as Biden spoke of the need for an immigration overhaul. Several other Republicans called out “liar,” and at least one shouted “it’s your fault” as Biden touted efforts to lower fentanyl deaths.
“That’s just not acceptable in the type of country we are and the leader of the free world,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said of the ruckus. “Might be accepted in a Third World country. But not here.”
But Republicans weren’t done after the speech. Scott fumed of Biden afterward: “He’s been lying about me for a year. He’s a liar.”
The tenor of the speech, at times, clashed with the pomp and circumstance of one of Congress’ biggest nights. Ahead of the address, Capitol hallways were packed with the return of lawmakers’ State of the Union guests — a tradition that got nixed during the height of the pandemic.
Other parts of Biden’s remarks, though, went just as expected.
He received standing ovations on bipartisan issues like support for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits while serving. Republicans cheered when Biden lamented that the U.S. would be “on oil and gas for a while” — a nod to Manchin, who chairs the Energy Committee and hails from a deep-red fossil-fuel state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as well as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), remained seated when Biden mentioned McCarthy’s name for the first time.
But for Democratic leaders, the speech was just what they were looking for: combative at times, heavily focused on economics and not filled with lofty rhetoric. As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) dipped into an elevator to head home for the night, the back-and-forth between Biden and Republicans did little to dampen his good mood.
Americans thought “he’s talking right to me,” Schumer said of the presidential address. “My needs, my dreams, my hopes. It wasn’t high-falutin’, it wasn’t high up in the stratosphere. It was aimed right at them.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Vijayapura: Following the abusive post on historical figure Shivaji, Karnataka town has become tense as Hindu organizations have called for a protest condemning the post on Tuesday in the Vijayapura district of the state.
According to locals, the abusive post on Shivaji Maharaj was posted on social media on Monday late at night and it became viral in no time. The post was condemned by one and all.
According to police, the miscreant is identified as Amin Bandarakavate, a resident of Devaranimbaragi village in Chadachana taluk. The locals have decided to stage a protest in Chadachana town condemning the incident.
The Hindu activists have also urged the police to arrest the accused person immediately. The police have beefed up security in the wake of the protest call to maintain law and order.
The police said that they have not received any complaint regarding the incident so far and are waiting for directions in this regard by the senior officers.
Not long after the Philadelphia Eagles were installed as seven-and-a-half-point favorites over the New York Giants for their NFC divisional playoff game on Saturday night, skepticism began seeping through this passionate-yet-gloomy sports town – as it always does.
Seven-and-a-half points, great. But, wait. Can we beat the Giants three times this year?
The fans had to know. Proper statistics needed to be Googled, stories needed to be chased. The findings looked conclusive: Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, a team that had won two regular-season games over another team has won 15 of 24 playoff games if they met again in the playoffs. San Francisco beat Seattle last Saturday for the third time this season.
All that would seem to be good news for the Eagles (14-3), who manhandled the Giants (10-7-1) on 11 December, 48-22, then held off the Giants three weeks later, 22-16, to break their first losing streak of the season, and earn valuable home-field advantage through the NFC playoffs.
Jalen Hurts, the versatile and imperturbable Eagles’ quarterback, returned from a shoulder injury in the rematch and looked fine, even though Philadelphia thinned the playbook to limit Hurts’s exposure. It helped that New York, who were locked into a playoff berth, rested several starters, including quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley.
However, more Philadelphia fans than you’d think looked at the 15-of-24 stat another way: But those series-winning teams compiled a 1.000 winning percentage in the regular season – but were only .625 in the playoffs! See? Their chances actually decrease! MAYDAY!
Marcus Hayes wrote a column, anyway, that was published on the front page Tuesday of the Philadelphia Inquirer. THE PLAYOFFS ARE LINING UP FOR EAGLES, read the all-uppercase headline. His first paragraph: “The Eagles got lucky on wild-card weekend. They watched an overrated Giants team beat a mirage in Minnesota.”
“The Eagles demolished them early in the season,” Hayes later told the Guardian. “The Giants finished 2-5-1. The Eagles have an advantage at every position. And fans love to fabricate worry. Teams sweep about 70% of the time. Also: Eagles had a bye in the first round of the playoffs.”
The Minnesota Vikings, the Giants’ victims in the first round of the playoffs, were indeed Nordic, Lite: The Vikings won 13 of 17 regular-season games despite being outscored by their opponents by an aggregate 427-424. (The Eagles beat the Vikings during the season.)
And yet, Philadelphia fans are diehard worry-fabricators. They have material. The Eagles won 13 of their first 14 games but have not played well since the first Giants game. Hurts, it turned out, was hurting in the last game against the Giants. Nick Sirianni, the Eagles’ head coach, has never won a playoff game – although, in mitigation, this is only his second year in the role.
“Well, there is that fatalism. It is part of the fabric in the city since 1964,” the longtime Philadelphia sports-talk host Glen Macnow, referring to the Phillies’ epic late-season collapse in that year’s National League pennant race, told the Guardian. “I would have hoped that the World Series win in 2008 and the Super Bowl in 2017 would have washed that away. But it’s back.
“It’s funny. I think Philadelphia fans were much more comfortable being the underdog in 2017 than they are being the favorite this year.”
Eagles fans largely took over MetLife Stadium for Philadelphia’s 48-22 over the Giants in their first meeting last month in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Photograph: Al Bello/Getty Images
In 2017, the Eagles (13-3) won home-field advantage for the NFC playoffs but were made the underdogs in games against Atlanta and Minnesota because quarterback Carson Wentz had torn up his knee in the 13th game of the regular season. The Eagles, behind backup Nick Foles, won both games, then toppled the favored New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
The Eagles got a big kick out of that slight themselves, pulling on Halloween dog masks after the victory over Atlanta. Philadelphia fans scooped up “Philadelphia Underdog” T-shirts after Halloween dog masks disappeared off the shelves of novelty stores in Philadelphia.
The 2022 Philadelphia Phillies, too, became beloved underdogs, claiming the final playoff spot in the 160th of 162 regular-season games, then eliminating three favorites – St Louis, Atlanta and San Diego – before losing in the World Series to the Houston Astros.
Howard Eskin, another longtime sports-talk radio host in Philadelphia, tried to calm down the populace by pointing out on Twitter that playoff teams playing their third straight game on the road, which the Giants will do this weekend, have a 10-37 record since 1990.
Eskin is an accomplished pot-stirrer, though, and he’d earlier mentioned the playoff record of teams that had swept a regular-season opponent. So the first comment on his 10-37 tweet came from someone with a Phillies logo as an avatar: “All the pressure is on the Eagles. No one expects the Giants to win. They have nothing to lose, but to come out and play hard.”
But the Eagles are 2-2 since the first Giants’ game, outscored by six total points. Lane Johnson, the impenetrable Philadelphia right tackle, plans to play Saturday, but he has missed two games with a torn abdominal muscle that will require off-season surgery.
There was just too much to worry about. Then Fox Sports announced that Joe Davis will be providing the play-by-play for Saturday’s game. Davis, the Philadelphia media quickly pointed out, called many of the Phillies’ games in their World Series march.
And then the NFL announced Wednesday that the officiating crew led by Clete Blakeman will call the Eagles-Giants game. The Eagles, it was noted, are 13-1 in games that have been called by crews led by Blakeman – including the 11 December Philadelphia victory.
The horizon was brightening for Philadelphia fans, indeed. But they still need to play the actual football game. The fact that the game starts at 8.15pm gives Eagles fans all day to get lubricated for the game, true. But they also have all day to fret over a cruel downfall, too.
The Inquirer primed the pump by running another front-page story Friday with this teaser: With the Eagles a playoff favorite, Philly finds itself in a weird and wonderful place. Can we handle it?
“By Sunday morning, the answer to CAN NICK SIRIANNI WIN A PLAYOFF GAME??!! needs to be yes, or the entire region will lose its mind,” the veteran Philadelphia sports reporter Les Bowen posted on his Facebook page.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
