Latest news with #Bhanu
Hans India
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Hans India
TTD board member accuses YSRCP of plot to tarnish temple's image
Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board Member G Bhanu Prakash Reddy has written to the Director General of Police (DGP) seeking a detailed investigation into what he described as a deliberate and coordinated attempt by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to malign the TTD and destabilise the newly elected State government. In his letter, Bhanu alleged that the YSRCP, unable to accept its defeat in the 2024 Assembly elections, has been engaging in a sustained campaign of misinformation aimed at creating public distrust against the TTD and the government led by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. He claimed that YSRCP leaders were orchestrating a series of incidents and leveraging social media to spread false narratives and provoke unrest. Citing examples, he referred to a recent allegation by former MLA and YSRCP leader Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, who accused TTD of negligence, claiming that hundreds of cows had died in its Goshala due to mismanagement. Bhanu rejected these claims as 'false and baseless.' He also highlighted the circulation of a video showing a Muslim man performing Namaz within Tirumala temple premises, which the board member said was a violation of TTD norms. He alleged that YSRCP leaders had used the video to target the TTD administration and incite public anger. Another incident cited by him involved a YSRCP supporter allegedly raising slogans against the TTD chairman while in a temple queue line. He described this as a 'deliberately staged act' aimed at discrediting the TTD and the ruling NDA government. 'These are not isolated events and form part of a larger, carefully planned conspiracy by the YSRCP leadership to undermine the TTD's reputation and destabilise the state government', he said. Bhanu urged the DGP to initiate a criminal investigation into the matter, alleging that misleading content was being deliberately created and disseminated across social, electronic, and print media platforms to achieve political objectives.
Scroll.in
2 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Two Assam women allegedly pushed out of India towards Bangladesh brought back
Two Bengali-origin Muslim women from Assam, who were allegedly forced into the no man's land between India and Bangladesh by the Border Security Force, have returned to their homes. One of them, Shona Bhanu, a 59-year-old resident of Barpeta district, was dropped on the highway around 11 pm on Saturday, 120 km from her home, her brother Ashraf Ali told Scroll. The second woman, Rahima Begum, from Upper Assam's Golaghat district, was brought home by the police on Friday night, her family said. Only three months ago, Begum had got a favourable ruling from the foreigners' tribunals, her lawyer said. On Friday, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had admitted that Assam has been 'pushing' back to Bangladesh persons who have been declared foreigners by the state's foreigners tribunals. Foreigner tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies unique to Assam, which rule on citizenship cases. They have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor errors in documents. As Scroll has reported, at least three of these expelled from Indian territory, including Bhanu, have their cases pending in the Supreme Court. Neither the Border Security Force nor the Assam police have explained why the two women have returned. Scroll sent questions to BSF and police officials. The story will be updated if they respond. Case in Supreme Court Shona Bhanu was among 14 people, including the Morigaon teacher Khairul Islam, who were allegedly forced out of Indian territory on May 27. She returned home on Saturday night, her brother Ali, said. 'I received a call at 11.30 pm that she had been dropped on the highway. I hired a vehicle and brought her home last night.' Bhanu had been summoned to the Barpeta SP's office on May 25, from where she was taken to the Matia detention centre. Bhanu had been declared a foreigner in 2013 by the foreigners' tribunal in Barpeta. The decision was upheld by the Gauhati High Court in 2016. However, in 2018, the Supreme Court stayed the high court's order, Guwahati-based advocate Sauradeep Dey, who was associated with her challenge to the tribunal ruling, told Scroll. 'Caught in a crossfire' Begum, a 50-year-old resident of Village No 2 Padumoni at Sarupather, told Scroll that she was picked up from her home on the morning of May 25 by the police and taken to the Matia detention centre in Lower Assam's Goalpara district, 425 km away. On Tuesday night, Begum told Scroll, those detained along with her were fed khichdi and handed Bangladeshi currency notes. 'The [BSF officials] asked me to go to Bangladesh and asked us to admit that we are Bangladeshi,' she said. Around dawn, they were then separated into groups and 'pushed forward'. 'We did not have any other option but to listen to them,' she said. 'We were pushed across the border by the BSF. As soon as we crossed, villagers on the other side came and asked us where we had come from. The Bangladesh border police came and questioned us and asked us to return the same way. I was also beaten up by the Bangladesh police,' Begum told Scroll. Begum said she did not know where in Bangladesh she had been forced into. When they tried to return to the Indian side, Begum said, they were caught in crossfire between the two border forces. 'We were terrified and stayed in an open field in no man's land the whole day in the scorching heat,' she said. Around 6 pm, BSF officials brought them water. 'Then they asked us to come back to the India border and we were brought to the BSF camp where they gave us food and water. They later asked to return the Bangladeshi money,' Begum said. An Indian citizen Begum is a Sylheti Muslim and she and her husband Malek Uddin Choudhury had migrated from Cachar in Barak Valley to Golaghat. Her advocate Lipika Deb said that Begum was able to satisfy the Jorhat foreigners' tribunal that her family had entered the state before March 24, 1971 but after January 1, 1966. Both those dates are crucial to determining citizenship status in Assam, as laid out in Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The section was enacted in 1985 to implement the Assam Accord, signed between Assamese leaders and the Indian government, which put an end to a popular movement against 'illegal immigrants' from Bangladesh. The law created two categories of citizens: those who entered Assam before January 1, 1966, and those who arrived between January 1966 and March 24, 1971. Both were granted citizenship, but the latter group had to register at the foreigners' regional registration office within 30 days and were denied voting rights for 10 years after being identified as 'foreigners'. 'A Jorhat tribunal on March 26 this year ruled that her family came to the territory of Assam between January 1966 and March 24, 1971,' Deb told Scroll. 'After that I helped her enroll at the foreigners' regional registration office on April 8 within 30 days.' Deb said her family had shown the FRRO order to some officials but they did not 'accept it'. 'They said it was a fake document,' she said. Begum's daughter said her mother is in trauma and questioned the police action. 'The government should do an inquiry before harassing people like this. Not a single Indian should go through this.'
New Indian Express
14-05-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Creepy Crawlies on Your Lids: The Truth About Demodex Mites
Remember the spine-chilling creatures from Stranger Things, The Mist, or A Quiet Place? What if we told you that something just as unsettling might be living right on your eyelids — not your eyelashes, but the skin around them? Sounds gross, right? But it's true. Demodex mites — microscopic, eight-legged intruders that make your eyelids their home. So what exactly are they, and should you be worried? Experts break it down for CE. 'Demodex mites, often called 'eye bugs,' are microscopic parasites that inhabit the sebaceous glands and hair follicles of the eyelids,' explains Dr Bhanu Prakash, senior consultant, cataract, cornea, and refractive surgeon at Yashoda Hospitals, Hitec City. 'Though they're a natural part of the skin's ecosystem, problems begin when their population grows out of control, leading to a condition known as Demodex blepharitis,' says Dr Bhanu. According to Dr Deepti Mehta, senior ophthalmologist at CARE Hospitals, Hitec City, 'These mites feed on dead skin cells and oils around the lashes, which can result in symptoms like redness, itching, watering, a gritty sensation, and crust formation at the lash base. Left untreated, the condition can lead to blocked oil glands, misdirected lashes, eyelash loss, severe dry eyes, and even ulcers on the eye surface.' Dr Bhanu further warns, 'In severe cases, untreated infestations can cause permanent scarring or even vision loss, especially in people with underlying skin conditions like rosacea.'
RNZ News
05-05-2025
- RNZ News
Missing pieces: A bridge between two nations
A road near Navsari Village in the Indian state of Gujarat. Photo: Supplied The second installment of a four-part series on Indian migration to New Zealand Despite living in New Zealand for decades, some senior Kiwis of Indian origin feel disconnected from their adopted homeland. And yet for their children's generation and beyond, they're able to pass on stories of their South Asian heritage and fill in the gaps of the family's distant past. As Bhanu settles down on the steps of her porch, she's balancing two plates of freshly steamed khaman and a cup of chai in her hands. The ceiling fan is humming softly, stirring the thick evening air as she takes a first, slow sip. In this moment in her home village of Matwad, life feels peaceful - unhurried, familiar and whole. When Bhanu first arrived in Auckland in 1975, it would be nearly 20 years before she returned to India. Recently, however, she has been coming back more often - sometimes for weddings, sometimes for funerals and sometimes "just because". Fifty years have passed since Bhanu left her village and set sail on an adventure that saw her end up in the South Pacific. But even after all these years, she still struggles to call New Zealand home. "I know it's strange … but I feel out of place sometimes," Bhanu says. "My children grew up in New Zealand, their children were born and raised in New Zealand and I myself have been in New Zealand for most of my life, but I still feel like I'm just passing through." Bhanu remembers what it felt like when she finally arrived in Auckland. The sea breeze at Mechanics Bay where she first landed was sharp - much colder than anything she had ever known. She was wearing a cotton saree and almost felt like she'd freeze to death. It took about five seconds to realise there would be a lot to adjust to in New Zealand. In the mid-1970s, the Indian community was small but growing, with a few thousand living in Auckland at the time. Bhanu remembers an aunt taking her to some gatherings at the old Gandhi Hall on Victoria Street. But still, day-to-day life felt lonely. Bhanu's husband was also Indian, but he'd been living in New Zealand long before her. He came from a neighbouring village, Bodali, and shared the same skin colour as her - but appearances aside, he might as well have been an alien. "My husband was completely different to me," she recalls. "I wore sarees and spoke Gujarati. I didn't eat meat, and he didn't even know what non-vegetarian food was. "He had no interest in our religion or culture. He was a rugby boy from New Plymouth and all his friends were European. … It's almost funny to say we had a culture shock. "Sometimes it would feel lonely back then. My husband barely knew how to communicate … but I was lucky because I found a job at Foodtown in Ōtāhuhu, so I talked with different people there and got to practice my English." Bhanu's husband grills corn for tea as she shares her story from their house in Matwad. Photo: Supplied Things have changed a bit since those days. Bhanu and her husband are now inseparable - he's with her in Matwad, grilling coal-charred corn for tea as she shares her story. And in the past 50 years, New Zealand has changed a fair bit as well. Indians now make up the third-largest ethnic group in the country, with more than 340,000 individuals residing in Auckland alone. There's greater integration of culture and community across society, with a significant portion of people proudly calling themselves a new, distinct identity: Indian New Zealander or Kiwi Indian. But with all the benefits of that visibility, Bhanu feels something else is slipping away. "My grandchildren don't really speak Gujarati," she says. "They don't really know much about our traditions, our culture. It's not their fault … their lives are just different from ours. "When they visit my house, I tell them stories about our family and our way of life in India. They've been to our gaam (village), so they've seen some things … but I don't know how much they fully understand." Lately, Bhanu has been sharing stories from her childhood with her grandchildren - stories of village life under British rule and Mahatma Gandhi's fight for India's independence. "When we think about Mahatma Gandhi and all he endured for our people … it's hard to grasp, especially when we look at our lives back in New Zealand," she says. "It's sad to think that, in a few generations, so much of this history could be lost. "My children and grandchildren have had opportunities we never did ... but I sometimes wonder what it cost us." Matwad Village Photo: Supplied Bhanu's village, Matwad, is nestled in the Navsari region of western Gujarat. It's the same region many of New Zealand's earliest Indian migrants once called home. In 1930, Navsari transformed from a quiet agricultural town into the center of global attention when one of its villages, Dandi, became the heart of a nationwide civil disobedience movement - Mahatma Gandhi's Salt March. A statue of Mahatma Gandhi depicts the moment he broke British salt laws in Dandi. Photo: RNZ / Jogai Bhatt On 12 March, 1930, Gandhi set out on a 24-day journey from Sabarmati to Dandi to defy a British law that banned Indians from making their own salt. Although the nearby Arabian Sea provided salt in abundance, the British imposed steep taxes, forcing Indians to buy it at inflated prices. Thousands walked alongside Gandhi, covering 385 kilometres and gathering salt from the shore in defiance of colonial rule. It was an act of pure resistance - and one Bhanu reflects on fondly. "Gandhi didn't just fight for us, he lived as we did," Bhanu says. "He saw Indians struggling at the hands of the British and he did something about it. "He saw our people - they didn't have proper clothes, so he abandoned his for a loincloth and shawl. He saw that his people didn't have shoes, so he abandoned his and wore wooden sandals instead. "When I remember Gandhi's history, it makes me a bit emotional." Gosai Patel was just 10 years old when British forces attacked his village. Photo: RNZ / Jogai Bhatt Ninety-four-year-old Gosai Patel, a resident of the neighbouring village of Machhad, carries vivid memories of British rule. Patel's father, Rama Panchia, was a swatantrata senani - a freedom fighter aligned with Mahatma Gandhi - while his grandfather, Nana Lakhu, had once traveled to New Zealand, briefly stepping into a world far removed from the turmoil of colonial India. Patel recalls a 1942 incident when he was just 10 years old. British forces had stormed into Machhad and took hold of the surrounding villages - the only hope for escape lay across the River Purna, where the princely state of Gayakwad still held power beyond British reach. Patel's father, Rama Panchia, was a freedom fighter aligned with Mahatma Gandhi. Photo: RNZ / Jogai Bhatt "The British attacked our gaam in the middle of the night. They would spot young boys and beat them into submission, grabbing them for their military. The villagers had to run. "My grandmother sent me to my mum's gaam, Bodali. My father was there at the time, brushing his teeth, and he said, 'Why have you come so early in the morning, son?' I was young and didn't quite know what was happening. I told him to the best of my ability, and he understood. "My father gathered some people from the village sector and took us to the River Purna. On one side of the river, there was British rule, on the other, Gayakwad rule. The British couldn't reach us there. But my gaam, Machhad, it was empty. … [The British] didn't want to get rid of us, they just wanted to rule us." "The British attacked our gaam in the middle of the night... I was young and didn't quite know what was happening," Patel says. Photo: RNZ / Jogai Bhatt Magan Karadia, a historian and author from Karadi Village in Navsari, has spent his life preserving the stories of India's fight for independence. For him, history isn't just something to be recorded - it's something he lived through. Karadia was just 9 years old when he saw British forces violently crack down on unarmed members of his village. "In 1942, Gandhi had given a call to his people - 'do or die', that is, free India or die in the attempt," Karadia says. "It started with a mass protest, where our people were singing patriotic songs and chanting slogans. … It was a nonviolent protest … and the police took action by baton charge. "I witnessed a lot of raids, beatings and brutal assaults on our villagers by the British at that time." Magan Karadia (third from right) is a historian and author from Karadi Village in Navsari. Photo: RNZ / Jogai Bhatt Karadia says another passive protest later in the month turned violent again and, this time, police fired gunshots into the air to disperse the crowd. "The shots were heard in Karadi, Matwad, Machhad and Bodali. Villagers had rushed to see the conflict and the police started shooting at them," he says. "Many people were wounded and three men died in hospital. One even died during the protest. Then there was a mass arrest of freedom fighters. "British soldiers came to the villages and began a house-to-house search. Many freedom fighters had already fled to villages across the River Purna, but the ones that were captured … many were tortured during their imprisonment." Navsari is situated on the banks of the River Purna. Photo: Supplied Bhanu's own father was a swatantrata senani. She says hearing about his struggles alongside Gandhi gave her both a sense of sadness and deep pride. "My father was just a teenager when the police came around our house and beat him. He stood for something bigger than himself, and he was punished for it. … Sometimes I feel guilty that he went through all of that, and we didn't stay in India long enough to really take it all in. "I'm still processing some of his stories today and trying to teach my grandchildren too. They know they're in New Zealand, but they should understand why." * Jogai Bhatt travelled to India with support from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
Indian Express
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
How a video by a woman in Israel, alleging abduction of her family, led to arrest of woman from ‘Godmother' Santokben's clan in Porbandar
Earlier this month, a video uploaded on social media by a Porbandar woman, presently living in Israel, caught the attention of the Gujarat Police. In the video, the woman, Leelu Kuchhadiya, claimed that her father Bhana Odedara, husband Bhanu, and teenaged son Ranjit had been held hostage by Hiralba Jadeja – a member of the powerful political clan of Kutiyana in Porbandar. On April 27, the trio went to the police station and dismissed the allegation made in Leelu's video. On April 30, though, Bhana approached the police again and made a shocking allegation: All the claims made by Leelu in the video were true. He alleged that he, along with his son-in-law and another family member, and later his grandson Ranjit, was picked up from his home and taken to Hiralba's house where they were kept for over two weeks. The 65-year-old man further alleged that they were asked to return the money that Leelu had allegedly borrowed from Hiralba and made to sign several blank cheques. On Thursday, Hiralba was arrested on charges of abduction, extortion and criminal intimidation, among other sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Hiralba is the widow of Bhura Munja Jadeja, the former one-time MLA of the Ranavav-Kutiyana assembly constituency of Porbandar in 1995, which, after delimitation in the late 1990s, became Kutiyana constituency. She is also related to current Kutiyana MLA Kandhal Jadeja, the son of her brother-in-law, gangster Sarman Munja Jadeja, and his wife Santokben who was popularly known as 'Godmother'. The FIR against Hiralba Jadeja, and two others, brothers Hitesh Bhima Odedara and Vijay Bhima Odedara, and 4-5 unknown people, was filed at Harbour Marine police station on Wednesday. The FIR stated that on the intervening night of April 10 and 11, four to five men arrived at the family's home in Kuchhadi village and woke up the complainant, Bhana, who was sleeping on the porch. They asked him to wake up Leelu's husband Bhanu and another relative, Gigi, asking all three to accompany them to Suraj Palace – the home of Hiralba. By the next morning, Gigi had been allowed to return to her own house. Later that afternoon, Hiralba called Bhana and Bhanu to her chambers and alleged that Leelu had borrowed Rs 70 lakh from her. When Bhana denied any knowledge of the matter, the accused made a video call to Leelu and demanded the money, said the FIR. Two days later, the accused picked up Leelu's son Ranjit, 17, and brought him to the bungalow, the FIR stated. According to the FIR, Bhana and his son-in-law Bhanu were thrashed for the next two weeks and made to call up their relatives as well as their sarpanch, asking for the money. The accused then made the complainant and Bhanu sign 11 blank cheques, the FIR said, adding they also took some jewellery from their home. By this time, Leelu had made the video narrating her ordeal and shared it on social media. On April 27, the accused gave Bhana and Bhanu their car and asked them to go to the police station to record their statement, the FIR said. Under duress, the complainant did not divulge any details of what had transpired the past fortnight, the FIR added. After going home, Bhana talked to his relatives and decided to file a formal complaint against Hiralba and other accused persons. At a press conference on Thursday, Porbandar Superintendent of Police (SP) Bhagirathsinh U Jadeja said, 'Leeluben, who is in Israel, had uploaded a video in which she alleged that Hiralba and her men had abducted her husband and son and that she (Hiralba) was attempting to extort them. When the police reached out to Bhanu and Ranjit, they claimed no such abduction had taken place. However, finding their statements suspicious, the police continued the investigation and finally, on April 30, Leeluben's father came forward and filed a complaint against Hiralba and others.' SP Jadeja further made an appeal to the public encouraging other victims, if any, to come forward and file complaint against the accused. Speaking to The Indian Express, the SP said that the police are still looking for the other accused in the case and that they will be arrested shortly. It was not clear yet whether Leelu had borrowed any money from Hiralba or not.
