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India Today
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Men should rule: Kerala actor's sexist rant after film body elects woman head
The Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) recently created history by electing actor Shwetha Menon as its first female president and actor Cuckoo Parameswaran as general secretary. But the landmark moment was swiftly clouded by controversy after veteran actor Kollam Thulasi made shockingly sexist remarks during the Thulasi, the AMMA veteran notorious for pseudoscience rants and incendiary remarks during the Sabarimala row, stirred fresh outrage with his latest comments on women, suggesting their "position" in addressing the media at the association's milestone celebration, he belittled the achievement, saying, 'They say women will rule, we say men will rule. We have to wait and see what happens. Men should rule, right? Women should always be beneath us. Isn't it? Go use that (for views). Men should always be above women. Isn't it?" His remarks, widely slammed as misogynistic, drew flak for undermining the very milestone his organisation was marking. Thulasi later dismissed the statement as a 'joke', saying, "Now they will become my enemies. I was just joking'.However, the backlash has reignited conversations around the alleged deep-rooted sexism in Malayalam remarks come at a time when AMMA is already under scrutiny, following the Justice Hema Committee report that exposed systemic exploitation and discrimination against women in the Malayalam film industry. Alongside Menon and Parameswaran, actors Jayan Cherthala and Lakshmi Priya were elected as vice-presidents, with Ansiba Hasan as joint secretary and Unni Sivapal as treasurer. The executive committee includes actors Sarayu, Vinu Mohan, Tiny Tom, Neena Kurup, Santhosh Keezhattoor, Dr Rony David Raj, Sijoy Varghese, Joy Mathew, Anjaly Nair, and Asha have been tasked with restoring credibility to AMMA after its previous leadership stepped down amid sexual misconduct several members, including actor Asif Ali, hailed the new leadership as a chance for inclusivity and reconciliation, Kollam Thulasi's words have cast a shadow over AMMA's fresh start.- Ends
Sunday World
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Sunday World
Conor McGregor is 'Ireland's shame', says chair of Irish Muslim Council
The MMA fighter had launched a petition to change the process around electing an Irish president. The chair of the Irish Muslim Peace & Integration Council has described Conor McGregor as 'Ireland's shame' following the Dubliner's attempts to seek the Irish presidency. Dr Umar Al-Qadri, who last year ran as an independent in Dublin for last year's European Parliament elections, also stated that the MMA fighter 'undermines' the values of Irish people. On Monday, the former UFC champion launched a petition declaring both his intentions to seek the office of President of Ireland as well as demanding a reform of the nomination process. The move comes a week following the 37-year-old losing his challenge against a High Court jury's finding that he raped Nikita Hand in a Dublin penthouse. Conor McGregor and Dr Umar Al-Qadri. News in 90 Seconds - August 6th After McGregor unveiled his petition on social media, Dr Al-Qadri hit back at the presidential hopeful by calling him 'delusional'. "He genuinely seems to believe that Americans and fans abroad signing an online form will somehow override Ireland's democratic process', the Muslim cleric said on X. 'That's not how Irish political system works. "The Presidency is meant to embody the best of Ireland: decency, integrity, respect for all, especially for women and personal autonomy. "McGregor's history reflects the opposite. He does not represent Irish values; he undermines them. 'He is not Ireland's hope. He is Ireland's shame.' McGregor subsequently responded to Dr Al-Qadri on social media and described the chief imam as a 'leech off the state'. Dr Umar Al-Qadri. He added: 'Nothing or no one will stop me from putting the peace, safety, and prosperity of the people of Ireland first!' McGregor proposed a petition advocating for a modification of the nomination process to allow his name to be included on the presidential ballot for the forthcoming election. Since its publication, that petition has acquired over 11,000 signatures at the time of writing – with no indication if those who have signed up are themselves based in Ireland or included on the voting registry. The petition declares that the 'current constitutional framework however presents a significant barrier to democratic participation' and proposes a 'modification of the nomination process to allow [McGregor's] name be included on the ballot'. While the petition does not state what this modified process would look like, it does state that 'the citizens of Ireland, both at home and abroad, should have the unhindered right to determine the candidates who appear on the presidential ballot'. The current President Michael D Higgins' term will end on November 11, requiring the election is scheduled to take place on or up to 60 days before that date. The current system requires any potential candidate for the presidency is required to either be nominated by at least 20 members of the Oireachtas or at least four local authorities. According to a Sky News survey from March of this year, 134 members of the Oireachtas said they would not nominate the MMA star for the presidency. Of the 234 total members asked – between 174 TDs and 60 senators – every member who responded to the survey said no. In an Irish Times survey that same month, 188 councillors (of the 949 total members of local authorities) were asked whether they would nominate McGregor for the presidency. All but one of those who responded also said no.
New York Post
22-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Curtis Sliwa's controversial candidacy: Letters to the Editor — July 23, 2025
The Issue: Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa's run for mayor of New York City. Finally: Curtis Sliwa is getting some attention ('Sliwa: I have a path,' July 20). Charles Gasparino followed Sliwa for quite some time, and Gasparino knows New Yorkers. Advertisement Sliwa knows the problems of New York; he walked the streets late at night and manned the subways. Our current candidates ride the subway with a crew of reporters for one or two stops. As far as his signature beret, Zohran Mamdani campaigned in the beginning in what looked like pajamas. Maria Musolino Advertisement Staten Island I don't see why Sliwa has to 'kiss the ring' of Kathy Wylde. Judging by the number of empty storefronts, I don't think her NYC Partnership is doing much to support local businesses. Advertisement Plus, she seems to belong to the group that thinks gambling and marijuana revenues are the way to shore up the city's finances. I will vote for Sliwa, particularly, because he seems intent on keeping NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. But, I have some advice, Curtis: Lose the beret now and don't go to the polls in November cradling one of your cats — it makes you look weird and unserious. Ilene Heller Advertisement Manhattan Sliwa is as qualified to be mayor as I am to be pope — and I'm not Catholic. He has never worked as a beat cop or a detective tracking down thugs. Instead, he devoted his life to a glorified neighborhood watch association. He never served in the military, but adopted the beret, a symbol of elite troops. It looks like an attempt to appropriate the prestige of the military. Sliwa never launched a business, hired scads of people and built it into a powerhouse. Does anyone on Wall Street, in state and local government or the police unions take him seriously? Advertisement Yet he vows to stay in the race. His sole accomplishment will be splitting the vote and electing Mamdani. Scott Reeves Manhattan Advertisement Curtis Sliwa is somebody who the people of this city can trust. He is down to earth and cares about New Yorkers. New Yorkers continue to move out of the city because of high crime, high rent and high taxes, and Sliwa will work tirelessly to reduce all of those things. He will work with our wonderful NYPD and FDNY to improve working conditions and salaries for New York City's bravest. Advertisement He will work hard to further improve our public school system for our teachers, principals and students, so that parents will not pull their children out of schools. Sliwa is the right person for the job of mayor, so let's show him support. John Amato Fresh Meadows Advertisement There is definitely a path for Sliwa to win the mayoral election. What he needs most is money. He also needs Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Adams and Jim Walden to stay in the race and split the vote. Tom Gagan Mount Vernon Sliwa refuses to abandon his tough white outer-borough look and goes strutting around sporting his Guardian Angel outfit, replete with red beret and jacket. That image does not appeal to the vast majority of New Yorkers. Democratic candidates will thrash Sliwa. Dennis Middlebrooks Brooklyn Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters The pickings are slim for the New York City mayoral election, but Sliwa truly deserves a shot. Cuomo and Adams have failed track records. Mamdani, an avowed socialist and anti-capitalist, will perpetuate further misery. Meanwhile, Sliwa has literally put his life on the line for New Yorkers and earned our trust. Peter Cooper Bronxville Sliwa is a Republican, which puts him behind the eight-ball in the mayoral race. However, he has been patrolling the streets and protecting New Yorkers for over 40 years. He knows the bad places better than the police themselves. He wasn't responsible for any of the deaths during COVID, or the money we laid out to house thousands of illegals, and he certainly doesn't have Marxist convictions like Zohran Mamdani. Dan Liberati White Plains Want to weigh in on today's stories? Send your thoughts (along with your full name and city of residence) to letters@ Letters are subject to editing for clarity, length, accuracy, and style.
The Hindu
17-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
The parameters of ‘success' in Bihar's poll roll revision
Measuring success is complicated; assessing the impact of one's action can be even more challenging. The desire to be successful is different from the desperation to demonstrate success. Stakeholders have different yardsticks for measuring performance depending on their interest leaving the vital question 'how does one measure one's own success?' The Election Commission of India (ECI) could perhaps be in a trilemma in the wake of its June 24, 2025 announcement of its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in Bihar, caught among political parties, citizens, the judiciary, and its own conscience. Once again, it finds itself in an avoidable imbroglio, responding to the judiciary's questions arising out of the justified anxiety of millions of electors, valid apprehensions of neutral observers and unverified suspicion of political interest groups. The ECI embarked on a seemingly laudable and perfectly legal exercise to purify electoral rolls, declaring its resolve to include all 'eligible' and exclude 'ineligible' persons. The underlying assumption was that some 'ineligible' people had infiltrated the electoral rolls, escaping detection during its due process of documentary and physical scrutiny that Electoral Registration Officers carry out before listing anyone in the electoral rolls. Even the mandatory periodic revisions could not filter them out over the years. No one could possibly object to this effort, however formidable the task. Yet, the ECI found itself facing a barrage of opposition from political parties and civil society organisations for undertaking this mammoth exercise and imposing an impossible demand on clueless citizens in Bihar as they prepare to exercise their most powerful right — of electing their representatives. It is akin to asking for a marriage certificate after years of happy married life with children as proof of a legal union. An institution of repute To be sure, if there is one organisation in the country that is capable of carrying out gigantic exercises, it would, without doubt, be the ECI. From preparing the first electoral rolls in the 1950s in trying circumstances, to updating the rolls necessitated by the reorganisation of States in 1956 when it was suggested that the term of the House be extended to allow the ECI enough time to revise the rolls. The ECI did not want a constitutional amendment because of its inability to complete a mandatory requirement and lived up to the challenge. Since then, it has repeatedly demonstrated its capabilities in handling mega tasks with astounding success. Whether it is enrolling a billion people or setting up a million polling stations, mobilising over 18 lakh polling officials for conducting elections and training them, or dealing with moving 30 lakh electronic voting machines, the ECI has done it with aplomb, ably supported by the government machinery. In the process, it has earned the gratitude of an entire country and the envy of democracies across the world. Countries that may have the spirit but not the systems have often looked upon the ECI as a model in creating standard operating procedures, in galvanising resources, and its effective consultative approach in building consensus among political parties. This has earned the ECI the trust of voters and imparted it a credibility that has been acknowledged by the media, supported by civil society organisations and earned it the respect of the judiciary. Indeed, some have referred to it as 'gold standard', belying the cynics who believe that 'all that glitters is not gold.' The Bihar exercise It is in this backdrop that the sudden announcement by the ECI to carry out a purge of the Bihar electoral rolls has invited unpleasant reactions. As opponents question the ECI's motives of raising the spectre of mass disenfranchisement, the ECI is in overdrive trying to demonstrate the ease with which this apparently unwieldy operation involving nearly eight crore registered electors in Bihar is being completed. Meanwhile, it has eased some stringent procedures, allowing those enrolled after 2003 to use the entries of their parents in the 2003 electoral rolls to support their citizenship claim. It has also allowed Booth Level Officers (BLO) to accept enumeration forms without the prescribed document to prove the eligibility of the post-2003 electors. The relaxations by the ECI obviously ramped up the daily submission of enumeration forms giving the ECI the basis for claiming success of its operations and the 'support' of the affected electors. This, supposedly, would deflate the clamour of the complainants and perhaps convince the higher judiciary that the political sound and fury signifies nothing. It, however, remains unclear how the BLOs will 'recommend' for inclusion in the draft roll such electors whose forms are not accompanied by documents and how the Electoral Registration Officer/Assistant Electoral Registration Officer decides their eligibility in the absence of those documents. Will the ECI ask such electors to provide the proof of their eligibility/citizenship after the draft roll is published on August 1? If it agrees to expand the list of prescribed documents, as suggested by the Supreme Court of India (to consider the Aadhaar card, Electoral Photo Identity Card, or EPIC and ration card), will it not simply amount to verification of identity, and not citizenship? Are we then not back to square one? Will the indicator of the ECI's success be the number of 'duly filled' forms submitted along with 'self-attested documents' and electors readmitted to the rolls that were supposed to be purified? Or, will its success be the number of 'ineligible' electors disenfranchised? Those who are dead, who have migrated or have enrolled twice should have been weeded out in the normal course. Did their exclusion warrant this extraordinary exercise? On presumption of citizenship By ascribing presumption of citizenship to the electors in the 2003 list, is the ECI claiming that after its current SIR, all those in the electoral rolls will be accepted by the government as citizens as in the Citizenship Act and no one's credentials will hereafter be questioned? Is the government willing to accept this presumption? No individual is responsible for being born where she is, nor for creating documentary evidence of the date and place of her birth, parentage or citizenship. The authority empowered by the law is. Like many countries, India too has a law under which it is not the ECI that is designated as the competent authority: at least not as yet. However, broad the ECI's shoulders are, they may not be strong enough to carry someone else's burden. Let us see for whom the bell tolls in Bihar. Ashok Lavasa is former Election Commissioner and Union Finance Secretary of India
New Indian Express
05-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
NGO, ADR move Supreme Court challenging revision of electoral rolls in Bihar
"The SIR order if not set aside, can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of basic structure of the Constitution," said the NGO ADR, in its plea filed in the top court. It added that the documentation process requirements of the directive, lack of due process, as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the said SIR of Electoral Roll in Bihar, further make this exercise bound to result in the removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls, leading to their disenfranchisement. Seeking to quash the direction of ECI's SIR order of 24, June 2025, the ADR said, the ECI, by doing so, has shifted the onus of being on the voters' list from the State to citizens. It has excluded identification documents such as Aadhar or ration cards which further make marginalised communities and the poor more vulnerable to exclusion from voting. "The Declaration as required under the SIR process is violative of Article 326 in so far as it requires a voter to provide documents to prove his/her citizenship and also citizenships of his/her mother or father, failing which his/her name would not be added to the draft electoral roll and can be deleted from the same," the ADR said. Terming the ECI's order as unreasonable and impractical timeline to conduct SIR in Bihar, the petitioner, ADR said that with close proximity to state elections which are due in November 2025, there are lakhs of citizens (whose names did not appear in 2003 ER) who do not possess the documents as required under the SIR order.
