Arjun Sarja molested 4 more actresses; I wish they come out in open: Sruthi Hariharan

News Network
October 22, 2018

Bengaluru, Oct 22: Dropping another #MeToo bombshell, actress Sruthi Hariharan said on Sunday that four more women from the film industry were sexually harassed by multilingual actor Arjun Sarja.

Addressing a press conference, Sruthi said that after she spoke up about how Sarja had touched her "inappropriately" during the shoot of 'Vismaya', four other actresses had narrated similar experiences but they remained anonymous. "I wish they come out in the open," she said. 

She continued: "I have acted with superstars like Darshan and Sudeep but none of them misbehaved with me. Only this actor (Arjun Sarja) misbehaved with me. I have been collecting evidence to fight him legally, and whenever time permits, I will give those details." 

Sruthi got a flood of support from various quarters, including actor Prakash Rai, but the Kannada film industry remained divided over her explosive accusation. 

Rai wrote on Facebook: "Sruthi Hariharan is indeed a talented actress in Sandalwood. Similarly, we shall not forget that senior actor Arjun Sarja is also our pride. But in the wake of Sruthi's allegation, all of us need to understand the trauma that this woman has undergone. Even though Arjun has denied the charges, he must apologize to her for hurting her on that day." 

Actress Shraddha Srinath tweeted in Sruthi's support. "Sruthi and Taapsee are my heroes of today." Sruthi also got support from actresses Neethu Shetty and Ragini Dwivedi. 

Meanwhile, the Film Industry for Equality and Rights (FIRE) has called on other women to speak up against sexual harassment. The organisation's chairperson, Kavitha Lankesh, and its secretary Chetan Kumar promised to support all such women. 

Sarja, too, found supporters in several producers and actors while his daughter and actress Aishwarya Arjun called Sruthi's allegations "disturbing and false". "I would say it is conniving as this is something least expected of her. I had admired her whenever she stood up against harassment. But now I understand why she stood up for such issues as it is the only stuff that gained momentum over anything else," Aishwarya told.

Aishwarya said her family knew who was behind the accusation but she refused to take names. "How could she presume what my dad's intention was? One just cannot accuse the other based on what they think. In fact, during the premiere of the movie, she was happily speaking to him. No woman, if she was ever harassed, would do so. Now, she is lying," she added.

Comments

Fairman
 - 
Monday, 22 Oct 2018

If romance is allowed in front of the camera, and also it is to the extent of if real married couple enjoying.

then why is it a  big fuss that this action will not adversly effect the life

 off the camera.

 

Our ethics is built on wrong foundation. Watching such a unethical film after paying money is allowed and it is treated as liecensed enjoyment,  but the same can not be done outside the film.

It is a double standard of our society.  As long as such a practice is allowed, expect more such criminal actions. Those harrassed  female actresses are the main reasons to act with actors. These actors are not behaving outside girls than their heroins.

Do not expect these heroes to be free from human tendency to commit such acts.

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News Network
January 1,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 1: On the first day of 2020, Bajpe Police became somewhat of a Guardian Angel for a college student, who was wandering around the city in the wee hours of Wednesday, convincing and escorting him to his home safely, after coming to know about his residence.

According to Bajpe Police Probationary Sub-Inspector Anita Nikkam and Police Officer Devappa Hosamani, they noticed a youth, hailing from Handelu in Todaru and studying in a college at Moodbidri, wandering at around 0245 hrs.

When asked about his whereabouts, the boy did not respond initially. However, police managed to collect his address and his mother's phone number after half an hour of interrogation.

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Media Release
February 14,2020

Veteran journalist P. Sainath has said that the nation is in a crisis. And this crisis is not limited to just the rural area. It has become a national crisis at various areas such as agriculture, education, economy, job creation etc.

He was delivering the endowment lecture on the topic ‘Indian democracy at the post-liberalization and post-truth era’ at Media Manthan 2020 organized by the PG department of journalism and mass communication at St Aloysius College (Autonomous). 

Mr Sainath said that the many policies adopted in the 90s led to India becoming unusually unequal. Referring to the speech Ambedkar had made at the Constituent Assembly while handing over the draft of the Constitution, Mr Sainath said, “Ambedkar had warned about the weakness of Indian democracy that liberty without equality allows the supremacy of a few over the multitude. Liberty, equality and fraternity must be kept together as we cannot have one without the other.” 

Mr Sainath stated that the agrarian crisis was no longer about the loss of productivity, employment or about farmer suicide; it was a societal, civilizational crisis. Commenting on the lopsided policies such as cow-slaughter ban, he explained how cow slaughter ban had adversely affected many industries due to their interdependency. While Muslims who slaughtered cows were rendered helpless, the cattle traders who were mostly OBCs lost their earnings as the cattle prices crashed. An important industry like Kolhapur sandals industry in Maharashtra went bankrupt as a result of the cow slaughter ban in Maharashtra. He said the policymakers had no idea how the rural industries were interconnected. Demonetisation too devastated the rural economy as 98 percent of rural transactions happen through cash. 

Mr Sainath also spoke about the crisis of inequality which affects the Dalits and the Adivasis far more than anyone else as 90 percent of the rural households take home less than Rs 10,000/- per month. “Women are yet another group whose labour is never counted in the gross domestic product. Women and girls globally do unpaid work which amounts to about 12.5 billion working hours per year. Monetarily speaking, this is worth 10.8 trillion dollars,” Mr Sainath added. 

Speaking about the crisis of jobs Mr Sainath said that major companies were laying off employees just to create more profits for the investors and the adoption of artificial intelligence in the industry would further destroy millions of jobs.

Rector of St Aloysius College Institutions Fr Dionysius Vaz SJ, Principal Dr (Fr) Praveen Martis SJ, HOD of Journalism and Mass Communication department Dr (Fr) Melwyn Pinto SJ were present.

‘Veerappan and Vijay Mallya’s business models are interesting!’

Addressing the gathering during his endowment lecture on Friday, Mr Sainath made an interesting comment on the so called ‘revenue model’. “Whenever I visit IIMs and IITs for lectures on my PARI project, the students there ask me what my revenue model for my project is. I tell them that I do not have a revenue model. In fact, journalism does not begin with a revenue model. Gandhiji, Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh were all great journalists. But they did not have a revenue model,” Mr Sainath said.

On a lighter note, he said that the best revenue model that he liked was that of forest brigand Veerappan and liquor baron Vijay Mallya. “Veerappan ruled the forest for forty years and from the top ministers to the villagers he could dictate terms and liver royally. Similarly, Mallya’s revenue model was to steal the banks and run away abroad and live like a king,” Mr Sainath added.

Journalism is not and can never be a business. It is a calling, he opined. While newspaper can be a business, television can be a business, journalism per se cannot be reduced to a business. “Unfortunately today, journalists are recruited on a contract basis and they have no bargaining power; and there are no unions to fight for their cause. Hence, they are at the mercy of the corporate media houses for their survival and are made to write stories that cannot be called journalism,” Mr Sainath said.

Answering a question as to the pressures he faced as a journalist, he said that external pressures from the government or others could be very well handled. It is the internal pressures from once own media house that journalists find it difficult to manage.

 

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News Network
July 13,2020

Bengaluru, July 13: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday made it clear that the government had no plans to extend the lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts beyond July 22.  The two districts will enter a lockdown starting 8 pm on July 14. 

“There is no proposal before the government to extend the lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts. The chief minister requests citizens not to panic and cooperate with the government without paying heed to rumours,” the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. 

“The lockdown is being imposed to control the rising number of Covid-19 cases in these districts. The CM has instructed officials to make all arrangements in a week’s time and make ready whatever is necessary,” the CMO said. 

The clarification came after Yediyurappa chaired a meeting of the Covid-19 task force meeting. Yediyurappa also held a video conference with officials from all districts to review the Covid-19 situation, rainfall and irrigation measures. 

Two more districts - Dakshina Kannada and Dharwad - have decided to impose a lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19 following Yediyurappa’s video conference. Starting July 15, Dakshina Kannada will be under a lockdown for a week whereas it will be a 9-day lockdown in Dharwad. 

During his video conference, Yediyurappa noted that the number of cases was on the rise in Bengaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Dharwad, Ballari, Udupi and Kalaburagi. 

He further noted that Covid-19 fatalities were going up in Bidar, Dharwad, Gadag and Mysuru. He asked authorities to bring this under control. “Bidar is among five districts nationally when it comes to deaths. This has to be controlled,” Yediyurappa said, seeking a report by experts on this. 

Yediyurappa told authorities to prioritize rapid antigen tests. “One lakh test kits have been procured. Use them wisely in emergency cases,” the CM said. He ordered that those aged above 60 years, those with serious illnesses and showing symptoms of influenza-like illness (ILI) have to be identified and subjected to Covid-19 tests.  

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