Latest news with #Rajan
Indian Express
a day ago
- Science
- Indian Express
Daily Briefing: India onboard ISS
Good morning, India's ambitious campaign to host the 2036 Olympics may have hit a snag. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has 'paused' the selection process for future hosts. The move came after IOC members criticised the current selection process, which involves a 'Future Host Commission', as being opaque and inconsistent. The IOC is expected to set up a working group to review the process. The timing couldn't be more delicate. The decision comes just days before an Indian delegation was to travel to Lausanne to make their pitch for the 2036 Games. While the meeting will proceed as planned, it's noteworthy that the number of countries interested in hosting the 2036 Olympics is in double digits. On that note, let's get to today's edition. A bit more humanity is now onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the permanent research laboratory in space. With a successful docking of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft yesterday, Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to reach the ISS. The Axiom-4 mission is the fourth private mission to the ISS, and its crew will remain onboard for the next two weeks, conducting experiments. Currently, the ISS is hosting 11 people. Shukla, now astronaut number 634 (he is the 634th individual to travel to space), spoke about his experience shortly after the docking process. He said he was 'learning like a baby' to walk, control himself, and eat. 'I was not feeling very great when we got shot into the vacuum. But since yesterday, I have been told that I have been sleeping a lot… that's a great sign.' Zoom in: Docking in space, though a common occurrence now, is a complex procedure. It requires two spacecraft, travelling at speeds of thousands of kilometres per hour, to align their orbits, make contact and join together. Learn all about the process with our explainer. In an ongoing Express series, we spotlight the cases of regime brutality and stories of resistance during the Emergency. One such story is of Rajan Warrier, an engineering student, who is believed to have been picked up by the police on March 1, 1976, over a suspected Naxal attack on a police station. Rajan was not seen again. It wasn't until May 1977 that The Indian Express confirmed Rajan's death due to custodial torture. Thus began a father's fight to ensure Rajan's death wasn't lost in the darkness. We also revisit the 'mainstreaming' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as it became an indelible part of the Janata Parivar. RSS volunteers became the crucial boots on the ground for Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)'s anti-Emergency stir. JP once famously remarked, 'If RSS is fascist, I am a fascist.' 'Double standards': Defence Ministers of the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, who met in China, failed to issue a joint statement on Thursday after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh declined to sign the draft statement, which omitted a reference to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. As per sources, the document mentioned the Balochistan Liberation Army's hijacking of the Jaffar Express in Pakistan. Probe on: A multidisciplinary team is currently analysing data from the Air India AI171 flight's black box, which was recovered after the plane crashed on June 12, at a laboratory in Delhi. Extraction and analysis of the black box data are critical in helping investigators identify the cause of an aircraft accident. In harmony: Music conductor Maria Badstue grew up in a tiny Danish town with a Scandinavian name, but the mirror revealed a different story. She was a brown girl with brown eyes and dark hair — nothing like her White parents and those around her. Adopted from an orphanage in Maharashtra, Badstue has long navigated the politics of her identity, so intricately tied to language and belongingness. Read her story. Walking the tightrope: Conflicts across the world have reared their ugly heads, pointing to a challenge to international law. India stands much to lose with the ongoing crisis in West Asia as it has ties to balance with Iran, Israel and the Gulf states. Former diplomat Pankaj Saran underlines six takeaways from the war-torn West Asia and India's stakes. Who's poor? Earlier this month, the World Bank stated that just 5.75% of Indians now live under abject poverty, significantly down from the 27% in 2011-12. This, however, does not provide a complete picture of India's poor. To begin with, the World Bank raised its poverty line in June to $3 a day. To calculate the Indian rupee equivalent with the market exchange rate would be faulty, as it does not take into account the purchasing power parity (PPP). So, how should one look at the poverty line? What does it say about India's actual poor? I will let my colleague Udit Misra explain. India may have a crisis at hand, going into the second Test against England in Birmingham. The Playing XI will be without the X-factor, Jasprit Bumrah, India's chief wicket-taker. Though Bumrah is expected to return for the third Test in London, Team India now has the tough task of replacing him from a relatively inexperienced team. Who can lead India's pace attack? Read Sandeep Dwivedi's dispatch from England. 🎧 Before you go, tune into the latest '3 Things' podcast episode. Today's lineup: Iran's nuclear programme, AI at Jagannath Rath Yatra and the Udaipur rape case. That's all for today, folks! Happy weekend-ing! Sonal Gupta Sonal Gupta is a senior sub-editor on the news desk. She writes feature stories and explainers on a wide range of topics from art and culture to international affairs. She also curates the Morning Expresso, a daily briefing of top stories of the day, which won gold in the 'best newsletter' category at the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards 2023. She also edits our newly-launched pop culture section, Fresh Take. ... Read More
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
The Emergency, 50 years on: A father's fight to ensure son's death wasn't lost in the darkness
'Let at least my invisible son know that his father never shut the door.' T V Eachara Warrier, who made that plaintive appeal, held true to his word — he never shut the door, and ensured his son Rajan, who died incognito, could not be rendered invisible. Warrier's search for what happened to Rajan, followed by his fight for justice against those responsible for his death in custody during the Emergency, led to the first habeas corpus in such cases after the provision was lifted, the ouster of a chief minister, an award-winning book, and a film that won national and international accolades. Rajan, a final-year student of Regional Engineering College (REC, now NIT), Calicut, is believed to have been picked up by police in the early hours of March 1, 1976, during a manhunt in the wake of a suspected Naxal attack on a police station. Located 40 km from the REC at Kayanna in Kozhikode district, the police station had been attacked in the early hours of February 28, 1976, and the coalition government of the CPI and Congress was desperate to catch the culprits. Active in cultural activities at the REC, Rajan was attending an arts festival at Farook College at the time. He was reportedly arrested just near the entrance of the REC as he made his way back. As per reports that emerged later, Rajan was taken to a camp in Kakkayam set up by the police team probing the Kayanna attack. His hands were tied behind his head, and he was laid out on a bench, and interrogated endlessly. Unsatisfied with his replies, police beat him up and rolled a pestle-like object up and down his thighs, even as senior officers looked on. The authorities admitted later that Rajan did not survive the beating. His body was quietly disposed of, with all evidence of him being brought to the camp removed. On hearing that his son had been taken away by police, Warrier, a professor at Arts and Science College in Kozhikode, rushed to the Kakkayam camp. In his autobiography, Oru Achchante Ormakkurippukal (Memories of a Father), Warrier wrote that he tried to meet DIG Jayaram Padikkal at the camp but could not. (Padikkal later figured as one of the accused in the custodial death of Rajan.) A police personnel told him 'Your son is safe', Warrier wrote. But when he asked to meet Rajan, he was denied permission. Warrier returned, still hopeful Rajan would come back soon. But with no news still of his son, on March 10, he petitioned then home minister K Karunakaran, beginning his battle to find Rajan. When he got no reply from Karunakaran, he wrote to others higher up in the government, including then Chief Minister C Achutha Menon, whom Warrier knew personally. He also wrote to other politicians, MPs and MLAs, and went to several prisons in Kerala, hoping for clues. As the hunt kept hitting a dead end, Rajan's mother Radha slowly lost her mind, while Warrier's daughters Ramadevi and Shanthini fought ineffectually to offer solace. In January 1977, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced Lok Sabha elections, taking the country by surprise. In Kerala, the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls were held simultaneously, and unlike the North where the Congress was routed, the party won both the polls in the state. Karunakaran now became the CM. Still, Warrier did not lose hope. When political prisoners were released after the Emergency was lifted on March 21, 1977, he thought it was a matter of days before Rajan came home. But with no news of Rajan again, on March 26, 1977, Warrier filed a habeas corpus petition in the Kerala High Court, the first such suit after the Emergency ended. Karunakaran was impleaded as he was the home minister when Rajan went missing. On May 24, 1977, The Indian Express carried a front page report confirming Rajan's death in police torture. Quoting from affidavits filed by Karunakaran and Padikkal, among others, before the Kerala High Court, it said that Rajan 'died while in unlawful police custody at the Kayakkam police camp on March 2, 1976, as a result of continuous torture with iron and wooden rollers'. In their affidavits, the respondents also claimed that they had come to know of Rajan's death only a week earlier, when investigating officers submitted a report. Karunakaran had earlier filed an affidavit saying he had no knowledge Rajan was in police custody at any time. Warrier moved another petition in court seeking action against Karunakaran and others, including police officers, for perjury. The court observed that 'it was expedient in the interest of justice to lay a complaint against Karunakaran before (an) appropriate court'. This led to Karunakaran's resignation as CM barely a month after he assumed the post. Police, however, never linked Rajan's arrest to the police station attack. Instead, they claimed he was involved in extremist activities. Warrier now had eight cases filed in connection with his son's disappearance, and moved in and out of courts fighting them. The case registered in connection with the torture and murder of Rajan was tried at a district court in Coimbatore, 200 km from Kozhikode, at the request of the accused officers. Referring to the long hours of trial, Warrier said in his autobiography that the cross-examinations and questions only strengthened his resolve. Eventually, the police officers were convicted of torture and sentenced for a year, but the murder charge against them was not proved. Finally, even in the torture case, the police officers got relief from the high court. In the civil case Warrier lodged, seeking compensation for Rajan's death, he filed a pauper suit (filed by one who cannot pay the court fees). He was awarded Rs 6 lakh as compensation, of which around Rs 1 lakh went as court expenses. Warrier used the rest of the amount to establish a critical care ward at Government General Hospital, Ernakulam, and made endowments at Rajan's REC. CPI(M) Central Committee member and former minister T P Ramakrishnan, who was himself kept at the Kakkayam camp and says he was tortured, recalls hearing about a death at the time. Only later he and the others connected it to Rajan. 'On February 28, when the Kayanna Police Station was attacked, I was already under arrest for protests against the Emergency. Police thought the station attack was in retaliation to our arrest. I was at the camp when Rajan and the others were brought. We were all subjected to third-degree torture,'' says Ramakrishnan, who was already associated with the CPI(M) by then. Calling Rajan 'innocent' and 'a victim of the cruelty of an autocratic system', the CPI(M) leader adds: 'Those who killed him never regretted their actions nor disclosed what happened to his mortal remains. His parents died without getting that answer.' In 1989, acclaimed director Shaji N Karun made the Malayalam-language movie Piravi (The Birth), telling the story of a father's endless wait for his missing son, inspired by the Rajan case. It picked up several awards, including Cannes's Caméra d'Or — Mention Spéciale. In his autobiography, Warrier wrote about spending long hours, while it rained, listening to Rajan's singing on a cassette recorder. 'I am trying to retrieve a lost wave with this tape recorder,' he wrote. 'The good earth is getting filled with songs till now unheard by me, this crude man. My son is standing outside, drenched in the rain… I still have no answer to the question of whether or not I feel vengeance. But I leave a question to the world: why are you making my innocent child stand in the rain even after his death? I don't close the door, let the rain blow inside and drench me. Let at least my invisible son know that his father never shut the door.'' In 2004, Oru Achchante Ormakkurippukal won the Kerala State Award. Two years later, having ensured Rajan an indelible space in one of Indian history's darkest chapters, Warrier passed away at the age of 84. In January this year, Rajan's story again reverberated when students of his institute NIT-Calicut claimed that the authorities had made them drop a video featuring him from a college festival that, ironically, claims to be 'inspired' by him. There was no official word from the NIT-Calicut authorities on the matter.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
B.C. police watchdog calls hearing into officers' ‘racist, sexist' WhatsApp group
British Columbia's Police Complaint Commissioner says he's called a public hearing to probe misconduct allegations against three current and three former Nelson police officers over alleged racist, sexist and inappropriate comments made in a private WhatsApp chat group. Prabhu Rajan says the allegations 'go to the heart of public trust in policing' and the public hearing will also delve into a constitutional challenge filed in court last year by five of the subject officers. A notice of public hearing from Rajan's office says the court case hasn't moved forward since it was filed in August 2024, and a retired judge appointed as an adjudicator will have the power under B.C.'s Police Act 'to decide all necessary questions of fact and law … including constitutional challenges.' The notice says the alleged misconduct dates back to March 2019, when the officers were members of a group chat where they shared 'racist, sexist, or other discriminatory or inappropriate content.' It says a police discipline authority in February 2023 found that the officers 'appeared to have committed discreditable conduct' by participating in the group chat, but Rajan says the case hasn't been resolved due to delays related to the legal challenge. The notice says no dates for the public hearing have been set, but it 'will start on the earliest practicable date.' 'Important issues are at stake in this case,' the notice says. 'Indeed, increasing attention is being paid across Canada and elsewhere to whether police or other professionals commit misconduct if they post or engage with discriminatory or otherwise inappropriate content in chat groups they consider to be private.' Current Officers Adam Sutherland, Nathaniel Holt and Sarah Hannah, as well as former Nelson officers Jason Anstey and Robert Armstrong all say in affidavits filed in B.C. Supreme Court that they 'considered that the WhatsApp group was private and would remain private.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2025.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
No changes needed in LR Act: Min
T'puram: Revenue minister K Rajan on Thursday asserted that there is no need for any major amendments to Kerala's landmark Land Reforms Act, reiterating its enduring relevance and strength in ensuring social justice and equitable land distribution. His remarks come in the wake of state industries department proposing to revise the existing land ceiling limits to facilitate large-scale industrial projects, triggering concerns of possible dilution of Land Reforms Act. The minister inaugurated the representative session of the four-day national conclave on digital resurvey titled 'Bhoomi', organized by state revenue and survey-land records departments at Kovalam. During the session, he stated that while minor amendments and context-driven changes were made to the law in the past, there is currently no need for any major reform. "The Kerala Land Reforms Act laid the foundation for the state's transformative social progress. Though several states emulated our land reforms, none matched the strength and breadth of Kerala's law," Rajan said. "The law ended tenancy and helped actual tillers become landowners. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo It also empowers the govt to assign land for industrial, commercial, educational and charitable purposes," he added. Rajan clarified that reports suggesting Kerala was preparing to alter the land ceiling provisions were "misleading" and stemmed from a superficial understanding of the law's objectives. "Any reading of the Act must be rooted in its core intent of social equity," he said. He pointed out that even as sweeping changes occur across the country in land use and demographics, the governance of land hasn't seen corresponding innovation. Kerala, he said, is now moving towards what can be termed a "Second Land Reform" by modernising land administration through digital resurvey and e-governance. "Revolutionary steps in the revenue and survey sectors have been initiated under this govt, the most important being the statewide digital resurvey. It has helped prepare accurate, transparent land records and resolve boundary disputes," Rajan said. He added that for the first time in India, a unique thandaper (land ownership ID) system was implemented in villages where the digital resurvey was completed. The minister also highlighted the creation of a unified land portal — Ente Bhoomi — that integrates the portals of the revenue, survey and registration departments, offering a seamless interface for all land-related transactions and records. "In villages where the resurvey is complete, authenticated land sketches and ownership details will now be accessible even before registration. This will eliminate fraud and misrepresentation in land transfers," he said. Over 120 delegates, including top officials from 23 states, are participating in the conclave.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
No need for fundamental changes in State's land reforms Act: Rajan
There is no need for fundamental changes in the Kerala Land Reforms Act, Minister for Revenue K. Rajan has said. He was speaking after inaugurating the delegate session of the 'Bhoomi — Digital survey for smart land governance: innovations, integration, and impact' national conclave organised by the Revenue department and the Survey and Land Records department at Kovalam on Thursday. Mr. Rajan said Kerala was the first State to implement land reforms legislation. It was a revolution in the field of land ownership. Tenants who cultivated the land got ownership of it. At the same time, agriculture labourers also got land. There was also sufficient provision in it for giving selling exemption to industrial, commercial, educational, and charitable institutions, he pointed out. Land reforms in the State were based on social justice. Several States in the country followed Kerala's model. Implementation of digital survey marked the second land reform in the State. Its aim was to give accurate measurement and title to a land that an individual legally possessed. 'We are journeying from presumptive title to conclusive title and the Ente Bhoomi Digital Survey Mission was a milestone in this journey,' he said. Land records complaints were very few in the digitally surveyed villages. As pre-mutation sketch and authentic revenue records were provided before registration, land transfer was much more transparent, he said. Kerala, the Minister said, was the first State to implement the unique thandaper in 2022 to identity all those holding land above the ceiling stipulated in the land reforms Act. One of the major achievements of the digital survey was identification of land available for distribution among the landless. It also helped identify people holding land without proper title deed. Efforts were on to assign such land to the eligible. 'We have now distributed around 2.5 lakh title deeds to the landless in the past four years. We consider this a major achievement of our government,' Mr. Rajan said. Himachal Pradesh Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi, in his speech, urged representatives of various States to adopt the Kerala model in land governance. He pointed out that dispute resolution related to land records was easier when people were taken into confidence and Kerala had done a good job through panchayat jagratha samitis. M.G. Rajamanickam, Secretary, Revenue department; K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla, Land Revenue Commissioner; and Seeram Sambasiva Rao, Director, Survey and Land Records, spoke.
