Latest news with #Khatik
Time of India
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Union minister Khatik walks off stage after ‘insult' at CM's event
Bhopal: Union minister and Tikamgarh MP Virendra Khatik reportedly walked off the stage after facing alleged humiliation during CM Mohan Yadav's event in Niwari district. The incident occurred at the Devi Ahilyabai Nari Sammelan held on Saturday in Prithvipur town, where Khatik's speech was allegedly interrupted by a community leader. A video of the moment has gone viral on social media, stirring political debate. According to local media reports, as soon as Khatik was called to speak, Pal Samaj National President Shaitan Singh Pal allegedly pulled his hand and stopped him from addressing the gathering. The Union Minister attempted to free himself and briefly spoke for just two minutes. After the exchange, Khatik reportedly walked across the stage to Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, had a brief conversation with him, and then left the stage in visible anger without completing his address. The viral video shows Khatik looking uncomfortable as Pal continues to hold his hand. Local BJP leaders have attempted to downplay the incident. BJP Niwari district president Rajesh told local reporters, "The BJP is a large family. Such minor incidents happen. There's no need to make a big issue of it — we resolve matters internally." MP representative Vivek Chaturvedi described Khatik as "Bundelkhand's Gandhi", and told local media, "He has conducted himself with seriousness and dignity throughout his political career. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Livguard Lithium-X: The Future of Power Backup Livguard Buy Now Undo He doesn't engage in theatrics." On the other hand, Shaitan Singh Pal, while speaking to the media, denied any disrespect. "He is my elder brother and a senior minister. There was no insult. I had only requested him to help in placing a ceremonial turban on the Chief Minister on behalf of Pal Samaj. There was a misunderstanding."
NDTV
14-06-2025
- General
- NDTV
Story Of Payal Khatik, The Happy London-Bound Woman On Plane That Crashed
New Delhi: Payal Khatik was on an adventure. The young woman from Gujarat's Himatnagar, whose father drives a loading rickshaw, was full of excitement Thursday morning as she boarded an aeroplane to travel out of the country for the first time. In fact, relatives said she was the first member of the family to do so. She was travelling to the United Kingdom, to read for a Master's degree in engineering and technology. Ms Khatik's family bid a fond adieu to their beloved daughter a little before 10 am and went home, confident she would reach London's Gatwick Airport safely and excel in her studies. What followed, instead, was the worst aviation disaster in 15 years. Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad. Two hundred and seventy-four people were killed, including Ms Khatik and some on the ground, as the plane fell on a students' hostel. Only one passenger - in seat 11A - survived. READ | Is 11A Safest Seat On Plane? What Expert Said On Lone Survivor For Payal Khatik's family, her father and mother, and several siblings, the 'why' does not, perhaps, matter. All they know is that she is dead, her death confirmed by DNA analysis. "After completing her college, she stayed with us... she wanted to study further in London. So we took out loans to support her education there..." her father, Suresh Khatik, told ANI. #WATCH | Sabarkantha, Gujarat | Relative of a deceased passenger of AI-171 plane crash, Suresh Khatik says, "...After completing her college, she used to stay with us. Then she wanted to study in London. We took out loans to support her education DNA sample has been… — ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2025 He took those loans hoping Ms Khatik's future job would help pay back and support the family, maybe pull them out free of the poverty trap. Now they have no way to pay back the loans. "She was the first member of our family to travel abroad... she was going to London. She completed her BTech from Udaipur and was going for MTech. But this tragic incident happened. Our family is deeply saddened..." her cousin, Bharat Chauhan, told news agency IANS. Sabarkantha, Gujarat: Payal Khatik from Himatnagar was among those who lost their lives in the Ahmedabad-London Air India flight crash. Originally from Gogunda village in Udaipur, Rajasthan, Payal lived in Himatnagar with her brother and two sisters Her relative, Bharat Chauhan… — IANS (@ians_india) June 13, 2025 Hailing from Udaipur in Rajasthan, Payal was loved as "a very good girl", according to Sushila Pathak, a family friend whose son she had been tutoring for the past six years. She studied from Class I to Class X at the Adarsh School in Himatnagar, and completed her Class XI and XII from the Himat High School, sources told NDTV. Payal Khatik and her mother, moments before Payal boarded the ill-fated AI-171 flight. "She was educated. She has brothers and sisters... and her father is a driver. But the financial condition of her family was not good," she said, adding that she had last met Payal Khatik 30 days ago, when she coached her son for the last time before leaving for the UK. The money Ms Khatik earned by coaching the Pathaks' son will leave a big gap in her family's income stream, another relative told ANI, saying, "The financial condition of the family is not good. Payal used to take care of the family by giving tuition to the students..." Why the plane crashed remains unclear; the black box has been recovered and a forensic analysis of the data is ongoing. What is clear is that 36 seconds into the flight the plane failed to gain altitude. In a video widely shared online, a struggling AI-171 falls on a residential area bordering the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport and explodes in a ball of fire.
NDTV
12-06-2025
- General
- NDTV
She Was Flying To London To Pursue Her Dream Course, Died In Ahmedabad Crash
Ahmedabad: Payal Khatik's dream to study in London was just a 9-hour-long flight away. The girl from Rajasthan's Udaipur boarded the Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London's Gatwick on Thursday afternoon, but its crash less than a minute later likely ended her life. While official information is still awaited on the number of deaths, the situation remains grim after the plane plummeted from a height of 625 feet and burst into flames after crashing into a doctor's hostel in Ahmedabad's Meghaninagar. Of the 242 people on board, only one survivor has been named so far. Ms Khatik, who lived with her parents in Gujarat's Himmatnagar, was going to London to take admission for higher education in London. Locals remembered the girl as a school topper since childhood and her promising prospects for the future. Locals said she had dreamt of bringing glory to her family and India. Ms Khatik was among the 242 people on board the fateful Air India AI171 aircraft, which crashed within 59 seconds of taking off at 1.38 pm. Union minister Amit Shah said the temperature in the Air India plane that crashed was so high due to burning fuel that there was no chance to save anyone. "There was 1.25 lakh litre of fuel inside the plane and it caught heat so it was impossible to save anyone," Shah told reporters. "The number of those killed will be officially released by the authorities after DNA test and identification of the victims," Shah said.
Hindustan Times
22-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Review: Worlds within Worlds by Ajay Navaria, translated by Nita Kumar
While Dalit people as a whole are clearly subject to Savarna casteism, the castes within the fold too discriminate against each other with some communities considering themselves superior on the basis of ancestral occupation or present condition. Of course, caste is not limited to Hinduism in the subcontinent and is practised by followers of Islam and Christianity too. This plays out among the narrator's friends who, while being largely Dalit, come from different scheduled caste backgrounds. These differences result in endless spirited discussions and debates during social gatherings. They perfectly illustrate the absence of a single consolidated Dalit identity and underscore contesting voices. The upwardly mobile narrator, Masterji, is a university lecturer. A liberal, he remains distant from these discussions, avoids confrontation, and interrupts to only advocate for harmony while refusing to take sides. A Khatik by caste, he married a Brahmin woman against his family's wishes. The turbulent relationship ended when Vandana died by suicide. Sangita, his second wife, who is Dalit but not Khatik, knew nothing about his first marriage. When she found out, she left him. The novel is set a month or so after her departure. Masterji is trying to reconcile with Sangita, explain his side of the story and persuade her to return. In the midst of all this, he is introduced to Ayesha, an alluring sex worker, by a few friends who regularly avail her services. He becomes infatuated with her though he does not fully act on his desires. One of the three dominant caste characters in the novel, Ayesha has no social standing and her profession may be considered immoral but she maintains a grip on her caste superiority and makes incredibly casteist remarks quite casually. Her dynamic with Masterji is fascinating. She is either oblivious to his Dalitness or his social standing negates it in her eyes. She wants his regard and even ingratiates herself to his family during his younger brother's wedding, enthusiastically participating in it like a relative. One of the novel's strong points is its focus on the socio-cultural aspects of Dalit life with the wedding playing an important part in the narrative. The reader glimpses the inner world of the Khatiks including the haldi rituals, gaari geet (abusive wedding songs) and the bhat ceremony, getting an almost firsthand experience of what holds the community together. Nita Kumar's foreword highlights this aspect beautifully: 'You can fight back the oppressor in many different ways. Of all the different ways, Navaria chooses the following: quietly be yourself. But show that you are as complex and differentiated, as clever and unfathomable, as deep-rooted and interesting, as problematic and political — as anyone out there that you are being, or may be, compared with. There is not a trace of victimhood or pitifulness here.' Worlds within Worlds is a novel dominated largely by men. The three central women characters — Vandana, Sangita and Ayesha — are all connected romantically to Masterji. Other women — his relatives — are at the periphery. Since this is a first-person narrative with Masterji's being the only point of view, his notions about women colour how they are portrayed. Enigmatic ciphers with barely any interiority, they are present so he can muse about their mysterious nature. To his credit, though, he is able to have an epiphany of sorts, at the end. He concludes that, when powerful women control slave-like men, their homes became 'pits of conflict.' He pauses and wonders if he is a male chauvinist: 'Was it not the inability of men to accept women's strength that had made pits of conflict out of the homes where women ruled?' jay Navaria has produced a different kind of 'Dalit literature'; one which asks what next after education and emancipation, and explores how caste is enmeshed with class mobility. Nita Kumar asserts: 'Worlds within Worlds provides an approach to caste mired in globalism and universalism… where older hierarchies of caste are replaced by highly politicised sub-caste identities… within which new battles have emerged, including alliances and cross alliances, conflicts that seem stark and unresolvable, often using the language of religion and always of class divisions.' While the story and the prose in which it is told is simple, the novel works on the level of a discursive exercise. This emerges through the heated but frank conversations between the male characters who are friends, as well as through Masterji's internal trains of thought that frequently interrupt the narrative action. In the end, the novel acts as a lens, refracting multiple lived realities of people as worlds within worlds come together. Areeb Ahmad is a Delhi-based freelance writer and literary critic. He is @Bankrupt_Bookworm on Instagram.
