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PETA goes after temple elephant Lakshmi, again

By
The Commune
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In what is being seen as another attempt by PETA to attack Tamil culture, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals had moved the Madras High Court in the first week of August to quash the order issued by Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy that made temple elephant Lakshmi to return to her home in Manakula Vinayagar Temple.

This case had come up for hearing today to the bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice R. Hemalatha. The Commune has received information that there were a large number of advocates who had objected to PETA’s move to oust Lakshmi. As the court (e-court) had come to a halt due to the heated arguments from both sides, the case has now been postponed to September 3, 3030.

Earlier, Lakshmi was displaced from her home in Manakula Vinayagar Temple to be kept at Krishi Vigyan Kendra in a pathetic condition. It was alleged that PETA was behind the move to remove Lakshmi from the temple. Indu Makkal Katchi (IMK) mobilized a campaign to rescue Lakshmi from PETA. Congress’s Americai V. Narayanan, BJP Puducherry’s Ganesan and other members from various Hindu organizations protested the move to remove Lakshmi from the temple.  They had sought the intervention of Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy to bring back Lakshmi home. Following this, Lakshmi was brought back to the Puducherry Manakkula Vinayagar Temple from the Kamaraj Agricultural Science Center in Kurumbapet.

Christian Pastor encroaches lands of Narikorava community to build Church, villagers rise in protest

By
The Commune
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More than 50 members of Narikorava community protested in front of the District Collector’s office at Kanchipuram to take action against a Christian Pastor who had illegally grabbed their lands to build a church.

The district administration on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government had granted free pattas to construct houses to members of the Narikorava community in Kuruvimalai near Kanchipuram.

More than 50 families of the Narikorava community have been living in government constructed residences for the past 15 years.

A Christian pastor named Thangaraj has allegedly encroached 50 cents of these housing lands granted to the Narikorava residents, for building a Church. They say that Pastor Thangaraj is using his men and other anti-social elements who threaten and even attack them very often.

In light of this, around 50 members of the Narikorava families assembled at the District Collectorate and protested. They left the spot after the revenue and police officials assured them of taking action against the pastor.

By 2021, Indian citizens will have e-Passports when they travel

By
Balaji Subramanian
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The Government of India is planning to issue e-passport by the year 2021, a report by The Economic Times said.

If someone applies for a passport in 2021, there is a good chance that you could get an e-passport embedded with an electronic microprocessor chip.

On trial bases, the government first plans to issue 20,000 official and diplomatic e-passports, with such chips.

The government is also on the lookout for selecting an agency that will set up the IT Infrastructure and solution to implement the project.

This project could end up being as important as the Aadhar cards and the new passports will also be very difficult to forge and allow Indians quicker immigration for international passengers.

The agency will set up a dedicated unit and processes for preparing personalised e-passports to enable issuance of 10,000 to 20,000 per hour and IT systems will be set up in Delhi and Chennai to handle this load.

The National Informatics Centre is working in tandem with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) on Wednesday (August 12) to select an agency to set up an IT Infrastructure and solution for e-personalisation of passports, ET accessed this RFP.

So far, e-passports were issued only from CPV Division at MEA headquarters for diplomatic and official passports.

To ensure interoperability between countries, e-passports that will be issued will be based on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard.

The request for proposal (RFP) says “It will require a completely dedicated set-up and processes for e-passport document issuance. The e-passport has international ramifications because of its usage as a credible identity document issued by any sovereign country, it is absolutely necessary to keep track of any security and quality issues”.

At present, the Europian Union and Australia accept e-passports along with a few other countries.

The passports that Indian citizens use are printed on booklets.

The government plans to implement this new initiative without disturbing existing processes.

When the new e-passports will be rolled out, the initial target will output of 10,000 e-passports per hour and 50,000 per day, scalable up to 20,000 per hour and one lakh per day.

NASA finds water on dwarf planet Ceres

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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NASA has claimed the dwarf planet Ceres to be a water-rich world, as opposed to the previous belief that it was a barren space rock. It exists in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The NASA had concluded after analysing data collected by the Dawn spacecraft, that there could be a deep reservoir of brine or salt-enriched water, at a depth of 40 kilometres and hundreds of miles wide.

“Dawn accomplished far more than we hoped when it embarked on its extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition,” said Mission Director Marc Rayman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “These exciting new discoveries from the end of its long and productive mission are a wonderful tribute to this remarkable interplanetary explorer.”

Ceres is almost one third the mass of the entire asteroid belt, albeit being smaller than the Moon. Long before Dawn arrived at Ceres, scientists had noticed diffuse bright regions with telescopes, but their nature was unknown. By the time the mission ended in October 2018, the orbiter had dipped to less than 35 km above the surface, revealing crisp details of the mysterious bright regions Ceres had become known for. Scientists had figured out that the bright areas were deposits made mostly of sodium carbonate — a compound of sodium, carbon, and oxygen.

It is unknown as to where the water is coming from. Scientists are looking for more proof from the data collected by the spacecraft to substantiate their claims.

Dubai Crown Prince refuses to use BMW after doves build a nest on it

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohamad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is the crown Prince of Dubai, and the Chairman of the Executive Council, refused to use his BMW after he found a couple of doves that had nested on them. He shared a video on social media of the chicks hatching, with the caption, “Sometimes the little things in life are more than enough”.

This video received more than 1 million likes on social media and several hundred people re-shared it, following which it became viral.

The doves had built a nest on the car upon noticing that it had been unused. When he noticed the nest, the Prince had refused to use the car, saying that the birds should peacefully nest. He had said that he had decided not to use the vehicle till the eggs hatched. Moreover, he also placed red tape around the vehicle to ensure their safety. He has been receiving praise from all over the world for this act of his, as well as comments of appreciation.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CDyiYDxpPKb/?utm_source=ig_embed

IIT Madras launches fortnightly webinar series honouring Mahatma Gandhi

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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IIT Madras is set to launch SIDDHI, a webinar series that is to be on a fortnightly basis, commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It is to be scheduled until October 2, which is the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.

SIDDHI, standing for Self Reliant India: Discussions and Dialogues for Humane Innovations, will deal with socially relevant technologies, which are to help India become self-reliant. This has been done in the light of the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme announced by the Government of India. The inaugural session of this webinar series will feature a panel discussion on ‘Food Security: Retrospect and Prospects.’ It is organised by the institute’s Global Engagement wing.

Speaking about this, Professor Raghunathan Rengaswamy, who is the Dean, Global Engagement and Institute Chair, said, “The objective of the SIDDHI webinar Series is to disseminate the science behind technological solutions to societal problems for the general public, while also initiating dialogue to identify socially relevant problems that need to be addressed.

It is to be open to the public, and the participants are required to register to interact with panellists, by registering using the link for the webinar: https://siddhi.iitm.ac.in.

 

Twitter blocks JNU professor Anand Ranganathan citing ‘hateful conduct’ for posting a Quranic verse

By
The Commune
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Anand Ranganathan, a scientist, columnist and professor at Jawaharlal National University, was blocked by Twitter on Wednesday apparently for ‘hateful conduct’.

Professor Ranganathan had posted the English translation of a Quranic Verse in the light of Bengaluru violence and also gave reference to the text.

“Those who abuse Allah and His Messenger, Allah has cursed them in this world and the Hereafter and prepared for them a HUMILIATING punishment” 33:57. Let those Muslims who advocate the contrary have the GUTS to say they don’t believe in this order. https://t.co/7ZHiEsh1Wx”

The original verse and its translation can be found here.

In response to this, Prof. Ranganathan has replied to Twitter if the verse from Holy Koran is hateful and has asked Twitter to clarify its position.

A Muslim mob in Bengaluru went on a rampage on Tuesday night in which it vandalized the KJ Halli police station and the house of Dalit Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy allegedly over a Facebook post on Prophet Mohammad by a relative of the MLA.

Following the incident many Muslims claimed on Twitter that Islam does not advocate violence. In response to this, Dr. Ranganathan had quoted the above verse.

However, the microblogging site blocked Anand Ranganathan claiming that it was a hateful content.

Many called out the selective censorship policy of Twitter and also questioned its neutrality.

Some also questioned if citing Quran amounted to blasphemy and whether Twitter is Islamophobic.

This is not the first time Dr. Ranganathan has been targeted by Twitter. Earlier his tweets were blocked or his account locked over alleged violation of Twitter rules.

Alia Bhatt’s Sadak 2 becomes the most ‘disliked video’ on YouTube amidst nepotism row

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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Mahesh Bhatt directed Sadak 2 is at the centre of controversy even before its release. Its trailer has become the most disliked video on YouTube in less than 24 hours of release, amidst the looming nepotism row. The trailer received 4.5 million dislikes on YouTube and over 15 million views.

This happened following a campaign, which was unveiled by fans of Sushant Singh Rajput, to make this the most disliked video on YouTube. As the insider-outsider debate keeps continuing in the media, several conspiracy theories have been floating surrounding the untimely death of Sushant Singh Rajput, as the plot has gotten thicker in the case.

There have been FIRs filed on Mahesh Bhatt’s name over the case of Sushant’s death. His name has been embroiled in controversy since the director has been rumoured to be associated with Rhea Chakraborty, Sushant’s ex-girlfriend, who is one of the prime suspects in this case.

Sadak 2 is a movie starring Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapoor, as a sequel to Sadak, the movie starring Pooja Bhatt and Sanjay Dutt which was released in 1991. It is scheduled to release on Hotstar. Notably the recent Netflix film Gunjan Saxena the Kargil girl starring Janhvi Kapoor has also been facing the flak for similar reasons.

 

Netflix movie about ‘The Kargil Girl’ faces flak from IAF over negative portrayal

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) has written a letter to the Central Board of Film Certification, against the movie Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, which released on Wednesday on Netflix. It has alleged that the movie has an “undue negative portrayal” of the IAF. It has also sent a copy of this letter to Dharma Productions, which has produced this movie.

The letter alleges that Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions had agreed to represent the IAF in a way that its authenticity was intact, and had said that it would ensure that the film will inspire the next generation of IAF officers. However, upon the release of the movie trailer, it was found that there were certain scenes and dialogues in the movie trailer which had portrayed the Air Force in a negative light.

It further read: “Before the release of the film, the IAF had requested Dharma Productions to modify or delete the objectionable scenes. However, it did not take any action.”Notably, the IAF is one of the first of the defence organisations that provided permanent commission to women officers.

The movie is based on Gunjan Saxena, the first Indian Air force woman pilot who was in combat during the 1999 Kargil conflict. She played an important role in rescuing injured soldiers during the War and was awarded the gallantry Shaurya Vir Award for her courage during the war.

When Pranab Mukherjee broke protocol to meet Tarun Vijay for Tamil

By
The Commune
-

During the Krishna Janmashtami of 2014, the then President Shri Pranab Mukherjee broke protocol to meet Tarun Vijay who was a Rajya Sabha MP at that time, to hear his plea to introduce Tamil in Madras High Court.

The Office of the President is one of the busiest offices especially on festive occasions. Meeting the Head of the State on such days is almost impossible as protocols do not allow for other meetings.

However, the former President broke protocols and met Mr. Tarun Vijay out of his love and respect for both ‘Tamil’ and ‘Tamil Tarun Vijay’ as he is known for his deep passion towards the Thiruvalluvar, Thirukkural and the Tamil language as a whole.

Mr. Pranab Mukherjee had carefully gone through the memorandum of Tarun Vijay to introduce Tamil in Madras High Court.

He had appreciated Mr. Tarun Vijay’s efforts of national integration and assured of early on the matter.

Tamil Nadu has been making requests consistently to introduce Tamil as one of the court languages at the Madras High Court. The Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution in 2006 urging the Centre to get the President’s assent in using Tamil language for court proceedings. However, this proposal made which was referred to the Chief Justice of India for advice was rejected in 2012 after deliberations with the Supreme Court.

The proposal to make Tamil the official language was rejected earlier by the Supreme Court in 1997 and 1999.

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TheCommune
The Commune is a news and views portal focusing on social and political issues of the southern part of India with a focus on Tamil Nadu.
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