When hashtag 'Trevor Noah cancelled his show' became synonymous with #peakbengaluru traffic woes
Bengaluru (PTI): Although Trevor Noah cancelled his show in Bengaluru reportedly due to sound system glitches, Bengalureans grabbed the moment to add another hashtag to their #peakbengaluru angst stories. From funny memes about the pot-holed roads to while-we-wait-for-cars-to-inch-forward anecdotes, Bengalurians's interesting takes on social media, tagging #Noah, have gone viral.
Incidentally, the unprecedented traffic jam on September 27 on the Outer Ring Road stretch, the lifeline for the tech community living there, resulted in a ripple effect all over the city, causing even the stand-up comedian and former talk show host to be late for his own show.
With only an hour to go, many who were heading for Noah's show and were stuck in the traffic were seen trying to sell tickets that cost them Rs 6,500 for Rs 5,000.
The show, however, was cancelled because of some technical glitches in the sound system.
But having an international stand-up comedian in the city was too good an opportunity to let pass for Bengalureans, who never hesitate to roast' the IT hub known for its traffic bottlenecks and civic infrastructure issues.
So, while Bengaluru waited endlessly for the jam to clear up, social media kept buzzing with pictures and updates late into the night, providing an insight into the chaos.
Not surprisingly, even BookMyShow, the organiser of the Noah show, which has come under a lot of flak, and Noah himself, took to social media platform X to put out an apology.
"Bengaluru, we are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused at Trevor Noah's Off The Record show at Manpho Convention Centre on September 27. The Bengaluru leg of the India Tour for both September 27 & 28 stands cancelled. All Customers who purchased tickets for both shows will get a complete refund within 8-10 working days," BookMyShow sent out a message on X, at 1.55am on September 28.
Many, like Anurag Mathur, a senior employee of Amazon, kept themselves busy throughout by live tweeting. Mathur's posts were punctuated with dark humour, as he crawled through the traffic for almost five hours to reach his destination. Here's one for sample: "With a sudden gusto of energy, our cab driver changed to 2nd gear for the first time in 3 hours and sped past another car reaching an ungodly speed of 10/km hour on ORR today. Map still reads 1.5 hours to home."
For what it's worth, tech city's star infrastructure' food and beverage stood by its "service at all cost" promise. When a techie working for Flipkart, also an X user, @Rishivaths, called Dominos, they actually delivered a pizza to his stuck-in-traffic car.
He promptly made a video of the delivery boys on a two-wheeler, snaking their way through the waiting cars, and posted it on X. "They were kind enough to track our live location (a few metres away from our random location added in the traffic) and deliver to us in the traffic jam," he had tweeted.
Of course, this triggered another avalanche of memes and sarcastic comments from other users. Like X user Vibin Babuurajan, who said, "Next time I'm booking a massage from Urban Company."
Another X user, Ritwik Z, listed out places to go from Bengaluru, when one has 4.5-5 hours to spare. "Mysore-Bengaluru-Mysore, Coorg-Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru-Bengaluru," read his post.
Politics came into play too. P C Mohan, BJP LS MP of Bengaluru Central, put in his two pennies worth by blaming the present government. His X post, "The Baiyappanahalli-KR Pura metro link could have eased this, but the state government's inaction, despite CMRS approval, prolongs the suffering," triggered a political debate on who did what.
Although according to @Bnglrweatherman, who tracks Karnataka weather on X, the jam did not ease out even at midnight.
In the morning, Bengaluru appears to have gone back to its "normal" mode. Now, people could get to their destination, literally at a stone's throw away, in less than one hour.
Software developer Ruthvik Ghagarwale, posted on his X account at about 10.42am - " I can practically see my house from my car, but it still took me a whopping 51 mins!".
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Excise policy case: HC gives more time to Kejriwal, Sisodia to respond to ED plea to expunge remarks
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted time till April 2 to former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 21 others to respond to a plea by the Enforcement Directorate to expunge "unwarranted" remarks made against it by the trial court while discharging them in the liquor policy case.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma expressed displeasure over the request for more time by the lawyers appearing for Kejriwal and other accused, and said it would fix a date for final hearing in the matter during the next hearing on April 2.
"I don't know why you are not filing a reply. You should have filed a reply if you think you really needed to file a reply. They are only saying judge should not have written something that he has written."
"By second (of April), you file your reply. Then we will fix a date for final hearing," the judge said.
The Enforcement Directorate's counsel said there was no need to file replies to its petition and that this was an attempt to delay the case.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for ED, contended that the agency's petition has no impact on the accused, as the challenge was limited to the trial court judge's observations against the agency when it discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and others in the CBI case.
The counsel for one of the accused said a brief reply was necessary and time was needed for it as the discharge order was 600 pages long.
Justice Sharma remarked that the ED's case has nothing to do with all 600 pages.
"Here is a prosecuting agency which has stated that the judge exceeded jurisdiction. I told them even I make such observations. I need to deicide it but you said I need to file a reply. Now you say 600 pages have to be read," the judge observed.
Raju also urged the court to direct that the observations of the trial court would not be relied upon by the accused in related proceedings. "It is a short date. Let them reply," the court responded.
On March 10, the court had asked Kejriwal and others to respond to the ED's plea.
In the petition, ED said the trial court's remarks were wholly extraneous to the CBI's case. It said the ED was neither a party in those proceedings nor afforded any opportunity to be heard.
"If such sweeping, unguided, bald observations are permitted to stand ... grave and irreparable prejudice would be caused to the public at large as well as the petitioner," the ED plea said.
"Therefore, the aforesaid paragraphs which concern the investigation independently conducted by the Enforcement Directorate under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) deserve to be expunged as it amounts to a clear case of judicial overreach...," it added.
On February 27, the trial court discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and others in the Delhi liquor policy case, pulling up the CBI by saying that its case was wholly unable to survive judicial scrutiny and stood discredited in its entirety.
The trial court ruled that the alleged conspiracy was nothing more than a speculative construct resting on conjecture and surmise, devoid of any admissible evidence.
To compel the accused to face the rigours of a full-fledged criminal trial in the stark absence of any legally admissible material did not serve the ends of justice, it said.
In its order, the trial court highlighted that a procedure permitting prolonged or indefinite incarceration based on a provisional and untested allegation risked "degenerating into a punitive process" and raised a "concern of considerable constitutional significance" where individual liberty was "imperilled" by invoking the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
It said the issue assumed heightened significance where an accused was arrested for the offence of money laundering and thereafter required to surmount the stringent twin conditions prescribed for the grant of bail, resulting in prolonged incarceration even at the pre-trial stage.
It further said that despite the settled legal position that the offence of money laundering cannot independently subsist and requires the foundational edifice of a legally sustainable predicate offence, the prevailing practice revealed a disturbing inversion.
Underlining that the objective of PMLA was undoubtedly legitimate and compelling, the trial judge mentioned that statutory power, however wide, could not eclipse constitutional safeguards.
