Disagree with Pragya's comments on Karkare, says Union Minister Ramdas Athawale
Bhopal, Apr 28: Union Minister and RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athawale Sunday said he disagreed with BJP Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Singh Thakur's comment on former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, adding that his party would never have given her a ticket.
Thakur had earlier said that Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her while he was probing the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Thakur is an accused in the Malegaon blast case and is currently out on bail.
"Karkare was martyred while fighting terrorists to save people. I do not agree with Sadhvi's statement on Karkare. We condemn it. It is for the court to decide what is right and what is wrong," he told reporters here.
"If left to our party, we would not have fielded her," he added.
Speaking about the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, Athawale, minister of state for social justice and empowerment at the Centre, said the NDA would win 350 seats.
He said, post victory, he hoped Prime Minister Narendra Modi would give him a good ministerial post.
On being asked what his stand would be on Pakistan if he was made defence minister, Athawale said he would attack the neighbouring country if it harboured those who carried out terror attacks against India.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Indian-origin translator Padma Viswanathan shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2026
New Delhi (PTI): Padma Viswanathan, a Canadian-American writer of Indian-origin, has made it to the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist as the English translator of a Portuguese language novella.
"On Earth As It Is Beneath" by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, described by judges as a "brutal, haunting and hypnotic novella set in a remote Brazilian penal colony, where the boundaries between justice and cruelty collapse", is among the six worldwide contenders for the coveted literary honour.
The annual prize worth GBP 50,000, divided equally between the author and translator, was won last year by Kannada writer-activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection "Heart Lamp". Each shortlisted title guarantees a prize of GBP 5,000 -- also split 50-50 between the book’s author and English translator.
"What struck us most is how spare, unflinching, uncompromising and relentless it is. Maia builds an entire moral universe out of very little: a remote prison, a handful of men, and the rituals of punishment that govern their lives.
"The novel reads almost like a dark fable about power, where brutality is ordinary and civilisation feels frighteningly thin," the judging panel, which also include award-winning Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy, said of the work translated by US-based Viswanathan.
The 58-year-old professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville is an accomplished playwright and author, whose novels have been published in eight countries.
The list, announced on Tuesday, is dominated by women, with five of the six authors and four of the six translators being female. The authors and translators represent eight countries -- Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the United States.
"With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising," said author Natasha Brown, chair of this year’s judging panel.
The other books include "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran" by Shida Bazyar and translated from German by Ruth Martin; "She Who Remains" by Rene Karabash and translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel; "The Director" by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from German by Ross Benjamin; "Taiwan Travelogue" by Yáng Shuāng-zi and translated from Taiwanese by Lin King; and "The Witch" by Marie Ndiaye and translated from French by Jordan Stump.
The announcement of the winning book will take place on May 19 at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London.
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single work of fiction -- either a novel or a collection of short stories -- written in another language, translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
According to the organisers, the 2025 winner "Heart Lamp" –- the first collection of short stories to win the prize and the first translated from Kannada –- rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher, And Other Stories, immediately reprinting 40,000 copies.
