TMC moves EC over "The Great Khali" campaigning for BJP
Kolkata, Apr 28: After the BJP accused the Trinamool Congress of inviting Bangladeshi actors in its campaign in the state, it is the TMC's turn to move the EC alleging that "American" wrestler "The Great Khali" had taken part in the electioneering of a saffron party nominee here.
The TMC has lodged a complaint with the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer that BJP's candidate for Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, Anupam Hazra, had taken the wrestler along while campaigning on April 26.
Dalip Singh Rana aka "The Great Khali" holds US citizenship and the BJP was trying to influence Indian voters by using his "celebrity status", the complaint said.
"A foreigner should not be allowed to influence the minds of the Indian electors as he has little or no knowledge as to who should be an appropriate MP in India," the complaint lodged by the TMC said.
In an interview to the media, Khali had said, "Whenever he (Hazra) calls me, wherever I am called, I will make it. I have specially come from America to support my younger brother. I want to request everyone to cast their votes for him. Do not waste your votes. Anupam is a learned man, he knows your troubles and will be able to serve you better than anyone else."
The TMC urged the EC to take "strictest possible steps against Khali as well as the candidate".
BJP leader Mukul Roy, however, said Khali holds the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card and can work and live in India.
The OCI is an immigration status permitting a foreigner of Indian origin to live and work in India indefinitely.
"Khali is an Indian citizen and therefore he has done no crime accompanying Anupam (Hazra) while filing nomination for the general elections," Roy, convener of BJP election management committee in West Bengal, told PTI.
The TMC had courted controversy after two Bangladeshi actors Ferdous Ahmed and Gazi Noor were seen participating at rallies of the TMC candidates.
Ferdous was seen at rallies of TMC's Raiganj nominee Kanhaiya Lal Agarwal in Hemtabad and Karandighi near the Indo-Bangladesh border while Noor was found on an open jeep at a roadshow for TMC's Dumdum candidate Sougata Roy.
The central government had expelled Ferdous and asked Noor, who had overstayed in the country, to leave India immediately following complaints lodged by the BJP.
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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.
