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What's in a name?
With the stage set for the February 15 Assembly polls in the Northeast, a surfeit of names crop up that extend from the ordinary to the bizarre. There are namesakes and names for names' sake.
Adolf Hitler, for once, is not a member of the German National Socialist Party. He is not a protagonist of Nazism either for anybody to be alarmed of but just the Congress(I) nominee for the Rangsakona (ST) seat in Meghalaya. Adolf Hitler R Marak is his full name.
The Great Dictator of the Third Reich is not the only fiend to contest in the ensuing elections in the state. The very name of a candidate for the Mendipather (ST) constituency would send a shiver down the spine of one too many. One was told that Mary Shelley's monster did destroy its creator. But Frankenstein is alive and kicking for he (Frankenstein W Momin) is the Congress(I) man out here.
The girl who thrashed a soldier for trying to molest her. Hai jawan!
The history of the Northeast is the history of romantic insurgencies and pyrrhic wars, devastating blasts and brutal carnages, internecine squabbles and ethnic clashes, political chicanery and myopic governance, and what have you. It is also the history of atrocities. By the agents of the State.
When Naga women were raped on church pulpits by the sacrosanct Indian forces, it was something that never coalesced into the form of news. But these days some news do trickle out.
Like that of a gutsy girl in Haflong who took on a group of Army jawans, sometime in the last week of July.
Eyeing New Year revelers
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Assam's moral police found a novel way of saying Happy New Year—Asom Sena activists decided to turn party pooper by keeping a "watch" on parties.
Asom Sena Chief Organiser, Lakshman Das, had this to say to CNN-IBN: "We want to ensure that no damage is caused to our culture and tradition. In the New Year celebrations this year we will make sure that parties are held without any violation of decency and that revelry stays within the moral norms."
BJP men ransack Pune restaurant
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Oh, its happened again.
This time in Pune.
Activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yuva Morcha (BJYM) barged into a popular restaurant in Pune's Kalyaninagar on Saturday night to protest against the “pub culture”. The activists, carrying party flags, entered Soho’s hall where music was being played, shouted slogans and demanded that the restaurant be closed for running an illegal dance floor cum pub and for violating the 11.30 pm deadline.
“The rich culture of the city is being sullied by the pub culture. Youths indulge in illicit activities at these pubs under the garb of freshers’ parties at the beginning of the academic year,” Kale said, adding that his party will target other high-profile clubs and pubs too.
The Indian Express has the full report here.
It's time to raid a Bangalore pub
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So it is.
One was wondering when the self-appointed moral cops would be raiding a pub. One does not have to keep wondering.
Activists of a hitherto unknown Karnataka Yuva Vedike went on a rampage Saturday night at a popular pub to express their protest against the "pub culture." These marauders barged into the Athena pub located in the plush Leela Palace and ordered customers to leave the premises. They then went around damaging property and threatening those seated inside.
These knowledgable activists claimed that the pub culture was foreign (uh, huh) to India and hence had decided to forcibly close down the pub. They had more to say. They argued that the pub was running beyond the closing time and had been serving liquor. They further alleged that there was a lot of indecent dancing taking place within the pub premises, following which they had decided to stop the activities going on within it.
Well, with such moral policemen around, who needs the real policemen?