Thousands attend funeral of businessman Khemka; dy CM, Cong neta meet kin
2
3
4
5
Patna: Thousands of people, including businessmen from all over the state, participated in the funeral procession of businessman Gopal Khemka from his residence in Gandhi Maidan area to Gulbi Ghat in Patna, where he was cremated on Sunday.
His younger son Gaurav Khemka, a doctor at IGIMS, lit the funeral pyre.
The family of Khemka, who was shot dead late on Friday night, was waiting for his daughter to come to Patna for the cremation. His daughter Garima Khemka, who had flown down from Scotland, was inconsolable, and was seen breaking into tears, clinging to her father's body.
Meanwhile, deputy CM Samrat Chowdhary visited Khemka's residence and met with the family.
He said that the murder is a challenge for the govt and assured the family that the culprits will not be spared.
Former state Congress president Akhilesh Singh also visited the family and demanded a special session of the assembly to discuss the rising crime in the state. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also posted on social media regarding the murder of the businessman, stating, "BJP-Nitish have turned Bihar into a crime capital".
Bihar Industries Association expressed condolences and concern over the murder of businessman Khemka. President K P S Keshri said that Khemka was a good human being and it is unlikely that he had any dispute or conflict with anyone. "The murder likely had an economic motive. Such an incident will directly impact the state's business and industrial environment," he said.
Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Subhash Kumar Patwari remarked that a murder in a densely populated area like Gandhi Maidan is an open challenge to the police administration. "The chamber demands action against anti-social elements disrupting the state's environment and the arrest of those involved in the murder," he said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
15 minutes ago
- India Today
Pak 'spy' Jyoti Malhotra was invited by Kerala as state tourism influencer: RTI
Jyoti Malhotra, a travel vlogger from Haryana's Sirsa now under arrest on espionage charges, was once hosted by the Kerala government as part of its influencer campaign to promote tourism in the to news agency ANI, a Right to Information (RTI) query revealed that Malhotra was among 41 social media influencers whose trips were fully funded by the state government under an initiative to market Kerala as a global tourist destination. The state bore the cost of their travel, accommodation and food, and even engaged a private agency to assist the influencers with video shoots during their Tourism Minister PA Mohammad Riyas defended the decision, saying the government had no knowledge of Malhotra's alleged espionage links at that time. "We had no clue about any such connections when she was invited. It has all come out only now," Riyas said, questioning whether anyone would believe that the government or the department would have knowingly facilitated her visit if they had known. "People know about it. Do you think the ministers or the government in Kerala would arrange everything for her to carry out espionage? This was a standard practice the tourism department has followed for years," he said. The minister also urged to verify how influencers are shortlisted, stressing that neither the ministers nor the government directly handle such invitations."It's a serious issue and everyone should exercise more caution. Please check the procedure," he the BJP has criticised the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government, questioning why the backgrounds of influencers invited for the campaign were not thoroughly vetted beforehand."RTI reveals Pakistani spy Jyoti Malhotra visited Kerala on Left government invite & was state guest in a sense courtesy Tourism Dept. So Bharat Mata is blocked and Pak Spies are given RED CARPET by Left? Tourism Minister Mohammad Riyas is son in law of Vijayan. He should be sacked.. and investigated," BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said in a post on who was arrested on May 16, just days after Operation Sindoor, was among 41 social media influencers engaged by the Kerala Tourism Department between January 1, 2024, and May 21, 2025, official RTI documents have revealed. During the state-sponsored promotional campaign, she travelled to Kannur, Kozhikode, Kochi, Alappuzha, and Munnar, with the government covering her travel costs and providing her an honorarium for the assignment.- EndsMust Watch
India Today
15 minutes ago
- India Today
Supreme Court agrees to hear pleas against voter roll revision in poll-bound Bihar
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The matter will now be heard on Thursday (July 10).The pleas, filed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress, Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the People's Union for Civil Liberties, sought a pause in the electoral roll revision June 24, the Election Commission issued instructions to carry out an SIR in Bihar, to weed out ineligible names and ensure only eligible citizens are included in the electoral rolls. In a statement, the Election Commission made it clear that while voters were required to "submit their documents anytime before July 25, 2025", those who failed to do so would get an opportunity "during the claims and objections period".Senior advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi sought an urgent hearing into the matter. The Supreme Court then said it would hear the pleas on Thursday and gave time to the parties to file the lawyers for the respective parties said, with the July 25 deadline approaching, the names of lakhs of people "will be deleted from electoral rolls". They said the revision exercise will largely affect women and the this, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who filed the plea, called it Satyameva Jayate (truth alone triumphs). "Bihar SIR petition allowed in Supreme Court... Hearing on Thursday. Satyameva Jayate," she wrote on RJD MP Manoj Jha sought the top court's immediate intervention in the poll body's voter rolls' revision OPPOSITION IS PROTESTING AGAINST POLL BODY'S EXERCISE?The Opposition has vehemently criticised the poll panel's process, which seeks to cover nearly eight crore voters by July 25, questioning the timing of the exercise. They alleged that the move would lead to disenfranchisement of over two crore leader Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar's Leader of Opposition, has questioned why, unlike the previous revision, which took place in 2003 across the country, the current exercise was being carried out only in the of the INDIA bloc, of which the RJD is a part, have also held parleys with Election Commission officials in Delhi and Patna to share their the BJP-led NDA defended the exercise, accusing the Opposition of trying to come up with an "excuse ahead of a certain defeat in elections".According to the Election Commission, the exercise was necessitated by rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal poll panel said that with the exercise, it wanted to ensure the integrity and preparation of error-free electoral which has 243 Assembly seats, is likely to go to the polls in October-November this year.- EndsMust Watch IN THIS STORY#Supreme Court#Bihar
Indian Express
33 minutes ago
- Indian Express
As language politics heats up, looking back at Nagari Pracharini Sabha, which fought for recognition to Hindi
Politics over Hindi and its 'imposition' is heating up again in Maharashtra, with the Thackeray cousins Uddhav and Raj coming together on a pro-Marathi language platform, even as the state government has withdrawn its decision to make Hindi the default third language in primary schools. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has also commented on the row, saying the BJP 'has been forced to back down in Maharashtra, where they govern, due to fear of people's uprising.' More than a century ago, Hindi too had to fight for inclusion in official use, over then-dominant Persian. In this process, an organisation called Nagari Pracharini Sabha played a prominent role. After decades of dormancy, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha is active again, and has begun republishing books from March this year. Here's a brief history of the Sabha. During Mughal rule, Persian was used as the official language in India. With the arrival of the British, the language equation changed. In 1832, the Court of Directors of the East India Company declared that justice should be administered in a language that common people could understand. As a result, Indian languages began to replace Persian. By 1861, in regions such as the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the languages used in courts and government offices had become English, Urdu, and Persian. In some areas, the official languages were English, Persian, and Urdu, along with local scripts. Hindi had not yet emerged clearly, as it lacked a comprehensive vocabulary accessible to all. In the 1890s, the Devanagari script began to replace the Persian script. This shift is credited to British civil servant Antony MacDonnell. Scholar Alok Rai writes in his well-known book Hindi Nationalism that Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh of Darbhanga, Bihar, introduced Hindi as an official language in his region on July 14, 1888. However, his love for Hindi was influenced by the slogan 'Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan.' The Nagri Pracharini Sabha was founded in this milieu, by three Hindi scholars —Shyam Sunder Das, Pandit Ramnarayan Mishra, and Thakur Shivkumar Singh— on January 16, 1893. The organisation decided to throw its weight behind the cause of making Hindi the language of courts and government offices. It was also decided that an authoritative dictionary for Hindi would be compiled. From 1908 onwards, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha began sending people to villages, towns, and cities at its own expense to collect words and their meanings. These collectors documented words, synonyms, and local versions in use on paper. The collected words were then organised systematically and written down. This intense work continued for 21 years. In 1929, the Sabha published a comprehensive Hindi dictionary in 11 volumes, titled Shabd Sagar. The forewords to this dictionary were written by Acharya Ramchandra Shukla and Shyam Sunder Das. Acharya Shukla's 'History of Hindi Literature', published by the Sabha, is regarded as essential reading for understanding Hindi literature. In 1896, the largest Hindi library in the country, the Arya Bhasha Pustakalaya, was founded. At a time when English, Urdu, and Persian dominated the linguistic landscape, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha launched a tireless movement to promote Hindi. Although the movement was apolitical, it gained such influence that prominent freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak also lent support to Hindi. After independence After independence, the Sabha's patron was India's first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The oldest and most authoritative journal on Hindi research, Nagari Pracharini Patrika, has been published since 1896. Under the Sabha's patronage, the iconic Hindi magazine Saraswati, edited by Pandit Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, began publication in 1900. Vyomesh Shukla, the current pradhan mantri (head) of the Sabha, said, 'Initially founded in Banaras, the Nagari Pracharini Sabha expanded to Haridwar and New Delhi. In Haridwar, Swami Satyadev Parivrajak donated land and oversaw the construction of its building. During this period, the Hindi movement spread to various towns, where local units were established and affiliated with the Banaras-based Sabha.' From the 1970s, the organisation's work began to flag as politics came to dominate language and literature. Issues over which management committee was actually in charge of the Sabha eventually reached the Allahabad High Court, which in February last year gave a verdict in favour of the Vyomesh Shukla-led group. Under the new leadership, the Sabha has published a complete reprint of Acharya Ramchandra Shukla's History of Hindi Literature in March this year. It has also published a collection of Hindi poems by Amir Khusrau.
