Still seeking right to write

The second legal battle to get the ban on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen’s book Dwikhandita lifted has started with a West Bengal h...

The second legal battle to get the ban on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen’s book Dwikhandita lifted has started with a West Bengal human rights organisation, APDR, filing a fresh plea in the high court. The APDR had won its first case against the government on the ban, but the state government had filed a fresh notification keeping the ban in place. Present at court was the controversial writer herself, who these days stays in Kolkata. ‘‘I will carry out my crusade for freedom of expression. I will be present at all hearings of the case,’’ Nasreen, who recently applied to the Union Home Ministry for Indian citizenship, said. The High Court has fixed March 15 for the next hearing. The book, published in 2003 contains certain remarks critical of Prophet Mohammed.

Fire in the mountains, is Ghising running?

Just as fresh trouble is brewing in the Darjeeling hills over elections to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), its chairman Subhas Ghising is leaving on a 15-day tour of Europe on March 3, raising eyebrows in government circles. The term of the present council is coming to an end on March 25 and despite requests by the state government, Ghising has remained recalcitrant on holding elections, demanding more powers for the DGHC. The expense for the entire tour is estimated at Rs 16 lakh and the tab will be borne by the council.

Land Minister finds his ground

West Bengal Minister for Land and Land Reforms Abdul Rezzak Mullah seems to be cracking the whip in his department. Recently he made a delegation of his department officers’ association wait for two hours at his office. And at the start he told the impatient officials: ‘‘Do you know why I made you wait? Because you also make people wait.’’ Later speaking to reporters he said: ‘‘Most of the officials are corrupt. I will not leave anybody.’’ Recently he asked a CPI(M) panchayat pradhan in South 24 Parganas district to resign for giving permission to a real-estate developer to fill up a piece of wetland. How far will he go? That’s another matter.

Sen on sets

Filmmaker Aparna Sen will start shooting the second leg of her film 15, Park Avenue at Kolkata this week. The first leg of the film, featuring Waheeda Rehman, Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma to name a few, had been shot at Bhutan. Incidentally this is the second film of Aparna Sen which has an address as title. Her first film also had an address as title: 36, Chowringhee Lane.

Compiled by Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay

In Odisha, Modi mounts ‘loot tantra-vs-bachat utsav’ attack on Congress over GST

India1 hr ago

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday hailed the revised Goods and Services Tax (GST) structures, saying the era of “double bachat (saving) and double kamai (income)” has arrived under the Bharatiya Janata Party rule. Addressing the ' Namo Yuva Samabesh' in Jharsuguda, Modi accused the Congress of indulging in “loot tantra (tactics)” while in power.

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