Manufacturers and skeptics have long argued that low-nicotine cigarettes would just lead users to smoke more.
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Thursday, February 27, 2020
After HC order, Hubballi bar assoc changes decision on not representing Kashmiri students
The Karnataka High Court had earlier observed that barring advocates from appearing for the accused gives the judiciary a bad name.
A day after the Hubballi Bar Association was rapped by the Karnataka High Court for its resolution stating that its members would not represent three Kashmiri students charged with sedition, the bar association members stated that they had modified the resolution. While the modification of the resolution was not shared with the media, the Karnataka High Court bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Oka accepted the modification but directed the association to issue a fresh resolution and cancel the earlier resolution passed on February 15. The High Court also directed that police protection should be provided for lawyers seeking to file a bail application for the three students. The Karnataka High Court was hearing a petition filed by advocate BT Venkatesh questioning the Hubballi Bar Association's resolution stating that it is against the rights of the accused for a defence counsel. "Barring advocates from appearing for the accused gives a bad name for the judiciary. A lawyer not allowed to approach the filing counter to apply for bail should not happen in this state," Chief Justice Abhay Oka said while hearing the case on Wednesday. Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi informed the court on Thursday that the resolution passed on February 15 was modified. In addition, AG Navadgi stated that a fresh resolution would be passed by the bar association in Hubballi overruling the earlier resolution. Chief Justice Abhay Oka asked the lawyers willing to appear for the accused persons to file a bail application in the magistrate court in Hubballi. He further directed the Dharwad Police Commissioner to collect names and details of advocates who protest or come in the way of lawyers filing bail application for the accused persons. He stated that the court would initiate criminal contempt proceedings against any advocates who shout slogans or prevent their colleagues from filing a bail application for the three students in Hubballi charged with sedition. On February 15, the Hubballi Bar Association passed the resolution barring its members from appearing for three Kashmiri students from KLE Institute of Technology. The students were charged with sedition after a video of them allegedly saying 'Pakistan Zindabad' went viral earlier in the month. However, to file a bail application, lawyers are required to approach the Dharwad Principal Sessions Court after which the case will be allocated to the magistrate court in Hubballi. When three lawyers from Bengaluru approached the registration counter at the Dharwad court on Monday, hundreds of lawyers agitated against them. "They said that they would not let us go in one piece. Such was the abuse, threats and intimidation issued to us before the court...Given the vitiated atmosphere which was worsening by the moment, we could not go to the registration/filing counter and were taken back to our vehicle. Someone threw stones from behind when the three of us and the driver were inside the car, breaking the back window, and the stones came inside the car," one of the lawyers from Bengaluru submitted in an affidavit in the High Court. Read: Karnataka HC raps Dharwad lawyers for heckling colleagues, calls it 'sheer militancy'
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With over 2000 cases every year, how Karnataka is tackling drug-resistant tuberculosis
Access to new drugs remains a problem to tackle drug-resistant tuberculosis, say experts.
Representative Image
Visits to Bengaluru’s Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases have become a frequent part of 60-year-old Krishnappa’s* routine. The Mysuru native had been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis not once but twice in the past decade, with Krishnappa contracting a particularly aggressive and drug-resistant form of the disease the second time around. “He was being treated for a strain of tuberculosis which was not responsive to the primary choice of drugs usually given to treat the disease. In the past five to ten years or so, we are seeing a drastic rise in the number of resistant cases of TB,” states Dr Nagaraj, director of the institute. According to the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), Karnataka diagnoses around 2000 cases of drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis each year. A combination of first-line drugs such as rifampicin and isoniazid are initially preferred to treat a resistant case of tuberculosis.However, when an individual presents with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), ‘last resort’ drugs such as bedaquiline or delamanid are preferred. Access to either of the two drugs remains limited, with less than 400 people in the last year having been started on either one. With India targeting the complete eradication of tuberculosis by the year 2025, where does Karnataka stand with regards to tackling drug-resistant cases? “If you look at the presence of MDR TB throughout the country, you will see maybe 3% of new cases being resistant forms. However, there are about 10% of cases which are comprised of individuals who have already been diagnosed and treated previously for TB (like Krishnappa),” states one official from the state health department. As per NTEP, there are evaluation and admission facilities called Drug Resistant TB (DRTB) Centres available across the state and several districts particularly for individuals with resistant forms of tuberculosis. However, with only 20 such DRTB centres, experts say that lack of access or “conditional access” to newer drugs such as bedaquiline and delamanid, remains a large problem. According to recent data from the NTEP, 290 patients have been started on bedaquiline and another 48 on delamanid in the state, though the total number of individuals with MDR TB amounts to around 2000. “We will work to expand the number of the DR TB centers to cover each district and ensure that all necessary facilities to treat these cases are made available,” said Union Joint Secretary Vikash Sheel, in charge of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP). At present state health officials do three rounds of case finding, wherein health teams are sent to the field to screen through populations and find how many active cases of TB there are. These screenings are done in January, July and December over a period of two weeks. All the districts in the state are covered during this time. “The importance of this active case finding is that it ensures that people living in even the most remote areas are traced and screened. The state enlists the help of medical colleges to conduct these NTEP activities,” said Vikash Sheel. In addition, officials plan to introduce more campaigns and measures to tackle the issue. “We are emphasising prevention of resistant TB. Several of these resistant cases are known to be individuals who have been non-compliant in following treatment when they initially developed the disease which might be strongly linked to the development of resistance now. By ensuring that people understand the harm of not taking their medications, we hope to send the message across better,” adds the Joint Secretary. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in March 2018 that India would eliminate tuberculosis by the year 2025, five years before the Sustainable Development Goals target deadline for eradication of the disease. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease which is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is transmitted via air droplets from an infected individual to others. The initial symptoms of tuberculosis are fever, cough, cold, loss of weight and appetite, chest pain, as well as chills. *Name changed
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Freedom fighter and one of India's oldest men, Sudhakar Chaturvedi dies in Bengaluru
Sudhakar Chaturvedi was witness to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.
Centenarian freedom fighter, vedic scholar and a former journalist who had witnessed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Sudhakar Krishna Rao died on Thursday in Bengaluru. Known as Pandit Sudhakar “Chaturvedi” as he was well versed in the four vedas, the scholar died at his home in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar, media reports stated. His last rites will be performed after 4 pm in Bengaluru’s Chamarajpet cemetery, Kannada Prabha reported. Sudhakar Krishna Rao was born on Rama Navami in Tumakuru’s Khyatasandra. Unverified reports say that he was born in 1897. When he was in school, Sudhakar Chaturvedi moved to Haridwar under the guidance of his father to join the Arya Samaj. Known as “postman to Gandhi,” several reports claimed that Gandhi fondly called him “Karnataki”. Sudhakar Chaturvedi was deeply influenced by the Vedas and the teachings of Swami Shraddhanand. In his youth, he joined a newspaper named Vijay, which was run by Swami Shraddhanand, TOI reported in 2019. The newspaper focused on covering the freedom movement in the country. Sudhakar Chaturvedi is believed to have been deployed for reporting at Amritsar when he witnessed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on April 13, 1919, which killed 379 Indians. His eyewitness account of the massacre is documented in the Kannada book by N Nagalaxmi, titled Shataayushi Pandita Sudhakara Chaturvedi. Chaturvedi recounted to TOI that Colonel Reginald Dyer announced that if the gathering did not disperse, they would open fire. “As Bachat Singh, the Congress leader from Lahore, who was in-charge for the day climbed up a wall and attempted to address the large gathering, the firing began within three minutes,” TOI quoted him as saying. Sudhakar Chaturvedi then hid in a drain and witnessed people crying and trying to climb the walls of the Bagh. In the book by Nagalaxmi, Sudhakar had recounted that he had helped cremate the unclaimed bodies of the dead after the massacre, the report added. He was residing in the Sabarmati Ashram with Mahatma Gandhi when he was jailed for part taking in the Khilafat Movement, the Kannada Prabha report added. Condoling his death, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said, “I am deeply saddened by the demise of freedom fighter and vedic scholar Pandit Sudhakar Chaturvedi. He witnessed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and fought along with Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle. He has also comiled over 50 books about the Vedas. May his soul rest in peace.” ಸುಧಾಕರ ಚತುರ್ವೇದಿಯವರ ನಿಧನಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಸಂತಾಪ ಶತಾಯುಷಿ, ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ ಹೋರಾಟಗಾರ, ವೇದ ವಿದ್ವಾಂಸ ಸುಧಾಕರ ಚತುರ್ವೇದಿಯವರ ನಿಧನಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಶ್ರೀ @BSYBJP ಅವರು ತೀವ್ರ ಸಂತಾಪ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ತುಮಕೂರಿನ ಕ್ಯಾತಸಂದ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಜನಿಸಿದ ಚತುರ್ವೇದಿಯವರು, ಜಲಿಯನ್ ವಾಲಾಬಾಗ್ ಹತ್ಯಾಕಾಂಡದ ಪ್ರತ್ಯಕ್ಷದರ್ಶಿಗಳು. 1/2 — CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) February 27, 2020 Congress MLA from Jayanagar, Sowmya Reddy offered her condolences following news of his demise. “I extend my deepest condolences to his entire group of friends and family. He will forever be remembered. I pray to God to rest his soul in peace.With utmost pride I would also like to share the fact that he hailed from Namma Bengaluru, a resident of Jayanagar,” she said in a tweet. Today we have lost a man who is believed to be India's oldest man ever to have lived - Sri. Sudhakar Chaturvedi. He was a Vedic scholar and an Indologist. #SowmyaReddy #jayanagar#FreedomFighter 1/6 pic.twitter.com/jQrN8fPBMM — Sowmya Reddy (@Sowmyareddyr) February 27, 2020
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Notorious Bengaluru gangster shot dead after police chase through city
Slum Bharath, involved in murder and extortion cases, escaped police custody, causing a chase through the city.
A notorious Bengaluru gangster was shot dead in an encounter after he allegedly attempted to escape police custody in an early morning chase through the city. Slum Bharat, who has over 50 criminal cases registered against him, died after suffering grievous gunshot wounds on Thursday. Bengaluru north division police shot Slum Bharat at Hesarghatta around 5 am on Thursday after he and his associates allegedly tried to attack the police with guns and machetes. Police Inspector Venkataramanappa shot at Bharat twice. He was rushed to Saptagiri Hospital where he died as he was not responding to treatment. Slum Bharat was involved in several criminal cases, including murder, attempted murder, extortion and assault. Bharat was apprehended by the Bengaluru police in Uttar Pradesh two days ago. He was brought to Bengaluru on Tuesday. Around 11.30 pm on January 30, the Banashankari Police crashed a birthday party organised by Slum Bharat after receiving a tip-off on his location. Bharat and his associates managed to escape the police and remained elusive until the police tracked him down to UP, where he was finally arrested on Tuesday. The police were taking Bharat to various crime scenes as procedure during investigation when he allegedly attempted escape. What happened on Thursday morning? In the late hours of Wednesday, the police had finished conducting the spot mahajar (a process where the accused is taken to various scenes of crime and asked to describe in detail the events that transpired in said areas). The convoy of two vehicles was moving through Rajgopalnagar when Slum Bharat’s associates waylaid the police vehicle. His associates attacked the police vehicle with machetes and even fired shots at the police. One of the bullets hit Rajagopalnagar Police Inspector Dinesh Patil BS on his torso. Since he was wearing a bullet-proof vest, he did not sustain injuries. Another bullet fell on the police vehicle. DCP North Shashikumar said that Slum Bharat’s associates tried to hack one of the policemen in the second vehicle with a machete. They managed to get Bharat onto a Zen car and fled the scene. The police immediately alerted the control room and all police stations across the city and also in its outskirts were alerted of Bharat’s escape. Patrol vehicles were asked to notify the control room if any car bearing the said license plate number as the Zen car was spotted in their jurisdiction. Around 5 am, a patrol vehicle on Hesaraghatta Road alerted the control room that a Zen car with the same license plate number was in the area. A team of police officials rushed to Hesaraghatta Road in Peenya. After chasing Bharat for a few minutes, the police were closing in on the car when Bharat allegedly opened fire at the policemen. Nandini Layout Police Inspector Venkataramanappa fired a shot in the air and asked Bharat to surrender. However, Bharat’s associates allegedly attacked the policemen in the vehicle. Police constable Subhash of Nandini Layout police station sustained a bullet injury to his arm. Venkataramanappa shot two rounds at Bharat. The bullets hit his leg and abdomen, DCP North Shashikumar said. The abdomen injury proved fatal, the police said. Constable Subhash is currently undergoing treatment at Saptagiri hospital and his condition is stable, police said. In March 2019, Bharath was arrested for being part of a gang that hacked to death Gangster Lazmana near ISKCON temple in Bengaluru. At the same time, he was also accused of hiring other rowdies to kill Sandalwood actor Arjun Dev. He was arrested in March 2019 in connection with both these cases.
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Attack on media covering Delhi riots is an act of cowardice: Bengaluru journos protest
Journalists submitted a copy of their resolution to Governor Vajubhai Vala.
Journalists in Bengaluru met in solidarity at the Press Club over the violence meted out to several reporters covering the communal violence in Delhi, which has resulted in the death of at least 34 persons. Mediapersons wore black bands to register their protest on Thursday against the alleged police inaction. They met Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala and handed over a copy of their resolution seeking action against those who attacked media personnel. They also plan to send a copy of their resolution to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The resolution states, “In the last few days, we have seen unprecedented levels of violent attacks on many media professionals in Delhi. These media personnel were only discharging their duty as expected of them by their organisation Attacking them while on the job is an act of cowardice.” Accusing the Delhi police of failing to provide security and safety for the media, the resolution states, “What many fail to see is that as journalists, we try to uncover the truth while putting our lives and families at risk. We are proud patriots and do our job to help society, just as many others do. If we are threatened, heckled, beaten or killed, they are strangling the country's voice and not just ours.” “We appeal to you to kindly look into the matter to ensure that perpetrators of these heinous crimes on media personnel are brought to book and punished for causing grievous injuries to them,” it says. On Tuesday, in a brazen attack against press freedom, Akash, a video journalist working for JK24 news channel who was reporting from Maujpur in north-east Delhi was shot. He was admitted to a hospital in serious condition where he is recovering from bullet injuries. Several journalists reporting on the riots were attacked including NDTV reporters Arvind Gunasekhar and Saurabh Shukla. Another NDTV reporter Mariyam Alavi was also hit by a mob. Many journalists have highlighted the challenges of reporting the violence, with the mob threatening those on the ground, snatching mobile phones of reporters and deleting videos and images. The full text of the resolution: We, the members and representatives of various media organizations in Bengaluru are quite pained with the way media personnel today are being attacked. We have become soft targets while we risk our lives just doing our job. We write to you with the request to kindly ensure the safety concerns of our media colleagues. In the last few days, we have seen unprecedented levels of violent attacks on many media professionals in Delhi. These media personnel were only discharging their duty as expected of them by their organisation Attacking them while on the job is an act of cowardice. Members of the media carry no opinion when on ground and report on the basis of what they see and capture it on cameras. Sir as you are aware that these media personnel were subject to brutal attacks, including firing by bullet in one case apart from being heckled, chased and beaten leading to grievous injuries, mentally and physically. All this while the Delhi Police officials failed to provide any security and safety while discharging their duties. It's not just Delhi, the media faces such situations across the country and Bengaluru's no exception. What many fail to see is that as journalists, we try to uncover the truth while putting our lives and families at risk. We are proud patriots and do our job to help society, just as many others do. If we are threatened, heckled, beaten or killed, they are strangling the country's voice and not just ours. We appeal to you to kindly look into the matter to ensure that perpetrators of these heinous crimes on media personnel are brought to book and punished for causing grievous injuries to them We would also appreciate it if jurisdiction police officers are directed to assure safety and security of the media personnel on the field.
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Many languages, one people: The linguistic diversity of Mangaluru
Mangaluru is the largest city in Karnataka where the primary spoken language is not Kannada, the official language of the state.
Mangaluru city
Mostly known for its exquisite seafood and pristine beaches, coastal Karnataka also boasts of some of the richest linguistic diversity in the entire state, something that is immediately apparent to anyone who travels along the coast. No other city exemplifies this - and by extension, Karnataka’s own diversity as a state - better than Mangaluru, the largest city in all of coastal Karnataka, and the fifth largest city in Karnataka as a whole. Mangaluru is the largest city in Karnataka where the primary spoken language is not Kannada, the official language of the state. Mangaluru and Tulu According to the 2011 Census, the most spoken language in Mangaluru at 39.2%, is Tulu, a South Dravidian language, directly related to Kannada, but also Malayalam, Tamil, Kodava, and the languages of the Nilgiris. Tulu, a non-literary language that has been influenced by Kannada for centuries, is spoken by around 1.85 million people along a stretch of coast between the Chandragiri and Suvarna rivers, and west of the ghats. This cultural region, commonly called Tulu Nadu, roughly corresponds to Dakshina Kannada district and most of Udupi district in Karnataka, and the Kasaragod and Manjeshwar taluks of Kasaragod district in Kerala. Mangaluru, its largest city, is the political capital of Dakshina Kannada district, and also the unofficial but de facto cultural and economic capital of Tulu Nadu, from Udupi to Kasaragod. Under the British, Mangaluru was the capital of undivided South Canara district, from Kundapura to Hosdurg (now in Kerala); local economies in the region were oriented towards the bustling port city of Mangaluru, and people would travel from all over for its public institutions and markets. Although Tulu is not a standardised language, the northern dialect of the language, local to Mangaluru, has emerged as the ‘prestige’ variety of Tulu, thanks to the city’s importance and stature. Beyond Tulu However, as much as Mangaluru is identified with Tulu, it would be incomplete to leave it at that. Looking at language data from the 2011 Census paints a fascinating picture. In addition to Tulu, Mangaluru’s linguistic makeup includes Konkani (16.41%), Kannada (15.11%), Malayalam (6.4%), and “others” (13.12%). The “others” category most likely refers to Byari, a language closely related to Malayalam, spoken by most local Muslims. Mangaluru’s many languages form an essential part of its identity; this is reflected in the fact that the city is known by a different name in each of its languages. Kuḍla, the Tulu name for Mangaluru, is used by most of its population, as well as across the whole of Tulu Nadu itself. In addition to Kuḍla, Mangaluru is called Koḍiyāl in Konkani, Maikāla in Byari, Mangaḷūru in Kannada, Mangalāpuram in Malayalam, and Mangalore in English (although the Kannada name was made official in English too, in 2014). Each name reflects its own history of the city, and the ways different communities have inhabited it. For example, Mangaḷūru and Mangalāpuram refer to the city’s medieval era Mangala Devi temple. Both names, along with Mangalāpura in Sanskrit, were used to refer to the city in Vijayanagara inscriptions across Tulu Nadu, and would have been the names known to foreign travelers and merchants as well. The famous Moroccan traveler visited Mangaluru in 1342, and referred to the city as Manjarūr, its name in Arabic records (Arabic lacks the g sound). According to the Tulu Lexicon, Kuḍla means “a confluence of two rivers”, referring to the meeting of the Gurupura and Nētravati rivers near the Mangala Devi temple. Byari Maikāla is likely a reference to the city’s early Buddhist history. As you walk through Mangaluru, from neighborhood to neighborhood, the languages you hear around you change, flowing effortlessly from one into another, often mixing and finding themselves sharing common spaces. People switch from language to language based on who they’re talking to, where they are, what they need, and even just to mutter to themselves. As the primary written language across Tulu Nadu, Kannada serves an important role in the city’s linguistic transactions. When Konkani or Tulu speakers read literature or even write community records, they use Standard Kannada without any inherent sense of contradiction. Different communities - and by extension different languages - occupy different spaces in the city, playing different roles. Mangaluru and modern Kannada print literature As a part of Karnataka, Mangaluru’s primary official language is Kannada, the written language used across Tulu Nadu. Kannada is learned by most locals as an additional language. Kannada print culture was born in Mangaluru, under the aegis of the Basel mission and its missionaries. The most notable of these, Ferninand Kittel, compiled the first Kannada-English dictionary in 1894. The first Kannada newspaper, Mangalura Samachara, was published from Mangaluru in 1843. As the region’s written language, Kannada was the language local intellectuals turned to, to express their dreams for a modern, independent India; a Karnataka that could hold its own in a rapidly changing world. They experimented with new forms and styles in the language, contributing greatly to a rapidly growing corpus of modern Kannada literature, often firmly rooted in Tulu Nadu’s coastal surroundings and its cultural milieu. The first rashtrakavi (national poet) of Kannada, Manjeshwara Govind Pai, grew up in Mangaluru and spent almost all his life in Tulu Nadu. Cosmopolitanism ignored Unfortunately, despite how vital Mangaluru’s linguistic diversity is to its identity and culture, it does not enjoy the level of support it should. Government services are only available in Kannada and English; Tulu, the language of the masses, is conspicuously absent in this sphere. Although it is true that locals speak Kannada anyway, this is hardly reason enough to exclude Tulu. State support for Mangaluru’slanguages is limited to the funding of various Sahitya Akademis, including one each for Tulu, Byari, and Konkani. These Sahitya Akademis publish various books on these languages, in Kannada, English, as well as the source language itself. They also organise literary events and conduct some limited level of outreach to speakers. While encouraging, these institutions only scratch the surface; Mangaluru’s languages deserve a lot more active funding and attention, given how important they are. Mangaluru has contributed eagerly to Kannada and Karnataka, and it deserves the support of the state and local intellectuals in developing its own unique literary and cultural heritage. Mangaluru and multilingualism Mangaluru and its languages offer us an alternative way of looking at diversity in India, showing us how multilingualism can function healthily, without threatening the integrity of a political entity. People can - and do - use multiple languages for different purposes, and institutions should acknowledge, and actively support this. Although most people do not speak the state language as their mother tongue, they choose Kannada as their written language and balance multiple languages in their daily lives. Here, more than arguably anywhere else in south India, multilingualism is a very real aspect of daily life, one that is navigated and negotiated effortlessly. Mangaluru’s many languages deserve official recognition, active state support, and a framework to sustain and expand their linguistic and literary development. Resources and archives can be digitised, and citizens made more aware of their rich linguistic heritage. Likely in an effort to recognise this, the Karnataka government has pushed for Tulu to be made an official Scheduled language. It remains to be seen how this move will fare, however. Mangaluru’s own society can serve as a shining example of how multilingualism, when tended to and cultivated, can expand the boundaries of our cosmopolitanism. Karthik Malli is a Bengaluru-based communications professional with a keen interest in language, history, and travel. He tweets at @SandalBurn, and posts on Indian languages at @TianChengWen.
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