Modi critic Bhagawan praises PM for Govt's Kashmir move
Bengaluru: Litterateur and historian K S Bhagawan, a staunch critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has heaped praise on him for government's move to revoke Article 370 giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
The decision has rid the people of Kashmir of their sufferings and brought happiness to the country, Bhagawan said.
"I am proud and happy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave a permanent mark in the history of the country. Jai Narendra Modi," he said in a hand-written press release.
The move has brought the the entire nation under one constitution, Bhagawan said, adding, the entire country was "desperately" waiting for it.
Without elaborating, the rationalist said at least Rs seven crore to Rs eight crore was being "wasted" per day in Kashmir, which can now be utilised for the people's welfare.
Later speaking to PTI, Bhagawan said: "There was a distinction between rest of the country and Kashmir. Modi erased that dichotomy in one go."
Justifying applauding Modi on the issue, Bhagawan said whatever is good for the country should be appreciated. "What former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee could not do, was made possible by Modi, which everyone should welcome," he said.
The controversial author was reportedly in the hit list of a "right wing gang", which was allegedly behind the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh and rationalist M M Kalburgi, following which his security was strengthened.
Bhagawan had drawn flak in February 2015 when he allegedly stated that certain stanzas of the Bhagavad Gita should be burnt as they promote caste-based discrimination against the "Shudras" or the lowest strata of Hindu society.
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2019 mud attack on engineer: Maharashtra court sentences BJP minister Nitesh Rane to one-month jail
Mumbai (PTI): A court in Sindhudurg on Monday convicted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in a 2019 case of pouring mud on an NHAI engineer when he was in opposition, and sentenced him to one-month imprisonment, noting that lawmakers are not supposed to take the law into their hands.
Later, the court suspended Rane's sentence, allowing him time to appeal before a higher court, while acquitting 29 other accused in the case.
"Even though Rane's intention was to raise a voice against the poor quality of work and inconvenience faced by the people, he was not supposed to humiliate or insult a public servant in public," additional sessions court judge V S Deshmukh stated.
"If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity," the judge noted.
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Calling the act "abuse of power", the court held that "it is the demand of time to curb such tendency".
Rane, a son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, was among 30 people charged under various offences, including rioting, assault to deter a public servant, and criminal conspiracy. He was in Congress when the incident occurred.
All the accused, including Nitesh Rane, were acquitted of these offences, as the court found insufficient evidence to support most of these claims.
However, the court found Nitesh Rane guilty of an offence under section 504 (intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of public peace) and sentenced him to one month's jail.
Rane, then a Congress MLA, had called the Sub-Divisional Engineer of the National Highway Authority, Prakash Shedekar, to a bridge over the Gad river in Kankavli on July 4, 2019, for inspecting the work to widen the Mumbai-Goa Highway.
According to the prosecution, Nitesh Rane and his followers, frustrated by the poor quality of the roadwork and waterlogging, confronted the engineer. They poured muddy water on Shedekar and forced him to walk through slush in public.
The court, after perusing the evidence on record, noted that the informant (victim) was holding a high post in the National Highway Authority.
"Despite that, he was made to walk through the muddy water in public. It would have certainly humiliated and insulted him," the court remarked.
The judge held that Rane compelling Shedekar to walk through the muddy water "was nothing but an intentional insult to the informant," and provocation which will cause him to break the public peace.
