Hangal challenged Sena’s might

August 27, 2012

Hangal

Mumbai, August 27: In 1998, when German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s birth centenary ceremony was organised by 14 progressive cultural groups and numerous other left, secular individuals in Mumbai, veteran actor and activist AK Hangal inaugurated the programme.

Hangal placed Brecht as an example for artists to fight against fascist powers that encroach on people’s freedom.

“It is Brecht’s work against the fascists in Europe that encourages artists to stand against such forces,” he had said, in the programme which was held in Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan, Prabhadevi.

Hangal was the member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and his association remained till his last breath on August 26.

“Apart from being active in the party’s cultural wing, he had keen interest in other activities as well. His comradely nature and belief in progressive values remained intact till the end,” said AB Bardhan, former general secretary, CPI.

Hangal worked as a tailor in Karachi and came in contact with the Communist movement there. He moved to Mumbai after partition, where he came in contact with other veteran actors like Balraj Sahni and the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA).

It was his secular and progressive ideology for which he suffered a boycott from the entire film industry for two years, after his encounter with Sena chief Bal Thackeray over accepting an honour given by the government of Pakistan. Hangal told Thackeray that he did not need a certificate of patriotism from anyone to prove his love for India. Fearing that casting him will draw the Sena chief’s ire, he was not signed on for any film for two years.

“He was the last of that league of actors, who thought of art as a tool for social change,” said Subodh More, one of the organisers of the programme on Brecht. Prakash Reddy of CPI remembered Hangal as a party member who even at the age of 95 would discuss the party’s activities with the enthusiasm of a youngster.

CM Prithviraj Chavan offered his condolence to Hangal, and said he was a person who never lost faith from secularism and Marxism.

Datta Iswalkar, leader, the mill workers’ union, said, “Hangal walked with us in a number of rallies. He believed that the worker is the real tool of revolution.”


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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curative petition of two death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case on January 14.

A five-judge Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petition filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.

The duo had moved a curative petition in the top court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber.

If it is rejected, they are legally bound to move a mercy petition. It is filed before the President who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.

The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition.

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News Network
January 18,2020

Shirdi, Jan 18: The administrative body of Sai Baba's Samadhi calls for the indefinite closure of the Shirdi temple after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reportedly said Pathri in Parbhani is Sai Baba's birthplace.

"We have announced to close Shirdi against rumours from January 19," said B Wakchaure of Saibaba Sansthan Trust.

"A meeting of villagers will be convened Saturday evening to discuss the issue. Devotees will not face any difficulty if they come to Shirdi," Mr Wakchaure added.

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Agencies
January 8,2020

New Delhi, Jan 8: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh has filed a complaint over the violence that took place at the varsity campus on Sunday.

"I am filing this complaint for the incident in which a mob conspired and acted with common intention to assault, intimidate and attempt to murder me, and request you to register an FIR and apprehend culprits at the earliest," the complaint read.

She said that on January 5, in the afternoon, she received information from students in the campus that some students affiliated to ABVP along with other unidentified men and women had gathered with weapons like rods, sledgehammers and lathis near Ganga Bus Stop.

"I along with Nikhil Mathew (MA Labour Studies) who was also present there, were surrounded by a group of persons of that mob most of whom were wearing masks. The mob of 20-30 persons dragged me behind a car standing near the 24*7 and surrounded me and despite my pleading did not let me go and attacked me with rods while I had fallen down. I remember that one of the people was of medium height wearing a brownish-red sweatshirt with UCLA written on it. I saw his face as he was facing me and did not have a mask on and can identify him if I see him," Ghosh wrote in her complaint.

"I was attacked by the above-mentioned persons collectively and was hit on the head multiple times with iron rods. I fell to the ground and my head started bleeding, and some of them kicked me and hit me with the rod on my hand and rest of the body including my head, chest and back."

"I am attaching with this complaint a copy of the MLC which details my injuries. Nikhil Mathew tried to save me but was also hit with an iron hammer and other weapons on his head and arms. The intention of the group of men and their acts was definitely to murder me and other persons associated with me," she said.

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