Siraj is find of Australia Test series: Ravi Shastri
New Delhi: India head coach Ravi Shastri on Friday described rookie pacer Mohammed Siraj as the find of the Australia tour, hailing him for playing a key role in the historic Test series win despite personal loss and racial abuse from spectators Down Under.
Siraj could not return to India after his father, who was an auto driver, died barely a week after he landed in Australia with the Indian team in November last year. He also faced racial abuse from a section of the crowd in Sydney during the third Test.
Despite all this, Siraj finished the series with 13 wickets -- the most by any Indian bowler -- as the team came from behind to script a memorable 2-1 win.
"Find of the tour for shoring up the bowling attack the way he did - Mohd Siraj. He fought through personal loss, racial remarks and channelised them to find home in the team huddle," Shastri tweeted in appreciation of the 26-year-old pacer.
Siraj turned out to be one of the architects of India's success and successfully stepped into the shoes of his senior pace colleagues after making his debut in the series-turning second Test in Melbourne.
In the fourth Test in Brisbane, Siraj led a young Indian bowling attack, picking up his maiden five-wicket haul in the longest format of the game.
He returned with match figures of seven for 150 as India beat Australia by three wickets in the series-deciding Test at the Gabba.
On Thursday, Siraj revealed that on-field umpires had offered his team the option of leaving the third Test against Australia midway after he was subjected to racial abuse by the crowd in Sydney, a proposal that was turned down by skipper Ajinkya Rahane.
After his arrival in the country, the youngster had driven straight to his father's grave in Hyderabad to pay his respects. He had dedicated each of his wickets in Australia to the departed soul.
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Bill to prevent hate speech and hate crime tabled in Karnataka assembly
Belagavi (Karnataka) (PTI): The Karnataka government on Wednesday tabled the Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crime (Prevention) Bill in the state Assembly.
The bill has a provision for a fine up to Rs one lakh and a jail term up to 10 years.
The bill was cleared by the state cabinet on December 4.
According to the bill, any expression, which is made, published or circulated in words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations or through electronic communication or otherwise, in public view, with an intention to cause injury, disharmony or feelings of enmity or hatred or ill-will against person alive or dead, class or group of persons or community, to meet any prejudicial interest is hate speech.
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Any biases on the grounds of religion, race, caste or community, sex, gender, sexual orientation, place of birth, residence, language, disability, or tribe has also been categorised as hate speech.
The 'Hate Crime' has been defined as communication of hate speech, by making, publishing or circulating or any act of promoting, propagating, inciting or abetting or attempting, such hate speech, to cause disharmony or feelings of enmity or hatred or ill-will against any person dead or alive or group of persons or organisation.
Communicating hate speech has been defined as expression, made in public view, by way of verbal, print, publication, electronic means, or other means to convey such expression.
Whoever commits hate crime will be punished with imprisonment for a term which should not be less than one year, but may extend to seven years with a fine of Rs 50,000.
Further, for any subsequent or repetitive offences the punishment should not be less than two years which may extend to 10 years with fine of Rs one lakh.
