Women activists prepare charter of demand for Women's Day

Women activists prepare charter of demand for Women's Day:

VADODARA: International Women's day on March 8, which is coming on the heels of 'one Billion Rising' movement, is likely to see an impressive turn out of volunteers and activists, who have been demanding violence-free and equitable society for women, since the past few months.

Meanwhile, a charter of demand being prepared for the occasion by various womenorganisations want the state government to take immediate action on the following demands-

1. Sexual Harassment Committees be formed in all government, public offices as well as the educational institutes.

2. Police takes all cases of sexual harassment, sexual violence and assault with due seriousness. And any apathy/negligence on part of police force be punished with strict action.

3. CCTVs be installed in all police stations to monitor police functioning.

4. Instead of imposing bans or restricting movement of girls and women in public places, the Government should ensure safety for them at all times.

5. Fast tract courts be established separately to handle cases of violence against women.

6. The rape victim should be provided interim relief and rehabilitation expense within three weeks. Rest of relief money to be provided without delay to facilitate the victim in her legal fight.

7. Round the clock service on the lines of 108 ambulance service, should be connected with the police stations to ensure all possible support to women/girl victims of all kind of violence. The facility should ensure all kind of medical, legal, psychological and financial support to the victim.

8. A women victim of violence should get priority in availing mental and physical medical help in all government hospitals irrespective of the fact whether police complaint has been lodged or not.

9. Police force in all ranks be gender sensitized and given regular training to ensure proper response to women victims of violence.

10. To ensure transparency as well as accountability in police services across the state, women's group should be made party to the regular review process.

Selectors take the tough calls

Selectors take the tough calls:

There is a common strand to decisions taken by India's current selection panel

Suresh Raina dropped for England Test series; Yuvraj Singh axed for the last Test against England Test; Virender Sehwag excluded from the Pakistan and England limited-overs series; Gautam Gambhir dropped for the Australia Test series; and now Sehwag left out of the last two Tests against Australia.

Sandeep Patil's selection panel has been making tough calls, and there is a common strand to these decisions: the players who are being dropped are effectively being dropped from the playing XI, which takes the potentially unpopular decisions out of the hands of captain and coach.

In the first half of its one-year tenure, the new selection committee seems to have followed the policy: "If you don't want a player in the team, don't include him in the squad."

MS Dhoni and the erstwhile selection panel headed by Kris Srikkanth were hardly on the same page. As a result, R Ashwin, at the start of his career (he played only one of the 18 ODIs when he was a member of the squad then), the two Tiwarys - Manoj and Saurabh, and Rahul Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane were almost always left to carry drinks (and sometimes step in as substitute fielders).

More importantly, whenever the selectors tried to impose their authority - Nagpur 2010, for example - the move backfired. With the selectors keen on S Badrinath getting a game, they didn't name a reserve batsman in the squad. An injury to Rohit Sharma minutes before the toss meant Wriddhiman Saha ended up getting a Test cap as a specialist batsman.

The primary reason for such a lack of co-ordination is the BCCI rule that prevents the captain and the coach from having a say in selection of the squad, and the selectors in finalising the XI. But Patil and Co. seem to have found a workable formula. "This policy minimizes the risk of being at loggerheads with the team management," said a source close to the selectors. "It also increases the possibility of a reserve player getting an opportunity to play a few games."

It is not known what Dhoni feels about this strategy but it would fit in with his reluctance to ask senior pros to warm the bench in a Test match. Had it not been the case, VVS Laxman would have been dropped for the last Test, if not the third Test, in Australia after a poor run with the bat away from home. What happened in early 2012, ESPNcricinfo understands, was that Dhoni and Fletcher decided against provoking public outcry by dropping seniors.

The unconfirmed story is that Patil had a discussion with Dhoni before leaving out Sehwag from the Tests. The captain is believed to have told the chief selector it "won't be prudent" for Sehwag to be in the squad but not in the team.

Leaders arrive for Chavez funeral

Leaders arrive for Chavez funeral:

Leaders from all over the world were in Venezuela Friday for the funeral of Hugo Chavez, joining a nation that continued to mourn.

One of the heads of state that had arrived early Friday was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who had kind words for Chavez as he came off a plane in the capital, Caracas.

"He was a dear friend of all nations worldwide," Ahmadinejad said to the crowd and the Venezuelan state broadcaster VTV there. "He was the emotional pillar for all the revolutionary and freedom-seeking people of the region and the world."

The funeral for Chavez, who died at 58 Tuesday after a battle with cancer, will be held Friday in Caracas. That night Nicolas Maduro, who was the nation's vice president, is scheduled to be sworn in as interim president.

Review: Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns

Review: Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns:

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Soha Ali Khan, Mahie Gill, Raj Babbar, Rajeev Gupta

Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia

IE rating: ***

There is a brilliant sequence in the first half of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns where a small-time politico is wrestling with a laptop he doesn't know how to switch off. His visitor lets the 'chutbhaiya neta' get red-faced at the blue film, and only then reaches across and finds the right button, both for the machine and the man. In this brief joust, Tigmanshu Dhulia shows just how good a director (and writer; the dialogues are his) he can be: here are characters being played to the top of their strengths, speaking in a tongue they own, leaving us smiling with pleasure.

If Dhulia had been able to maintain the pitch and balance of this memorable bit, the sequel to his 2011 Saheb Biwi Aur Gangsterwould have been a triumph. The 'return' is a better film, but it stops short of being excellent. The smooth build-up in the first half leads to a confused, too-crowded second, which lets the film, and us, down.

But while the going is good, it is all most gripping. The sequel starts from where the first film had left off . Saheb ( Sheirgill) is now a cripple, bound to a wheelchair. Biwi ( Gill) spends her time being soused, having become adept at negotiating the curves her bitter spouse throws at her while displaying all hers. And Gangster ( Irrfan) is the interloper who turns up to make things more interesting.

The story-telling in the first half is so seamless that you overlook the things that had been a problem the first time around. This is UP, we are told ( Irrfan's character is even called, ahem, 'Raja Bhaiyya' ) but we never really know where exactly; there's a whiff of several neighbouring states in the 'rajwada' and their polo matches and their parties : the pretty young princess ( Ali Khan), who is adored by Raja Bhaiyya, and who becomes barter in the battle for power between him and his mentor ( Babbar), and Saheb, is generic North Indian. So is the walk-on cast , which includes the superb Rajeev Gupta as the fumbling-watcher-of-porn-on-laptop.

How politics and lost glory and intrigue and the greed for power mesh together, tempting and corrupting everything they touch, is the theme that runs though the film, just like in the earlier one, which was fashioned as a tribute to the classic, `Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam'. Saheb is more concerned about holding on to his seat than tend to his needy wife, nor be mindful of the younger woman's feelings. Both Gill and Ali Khan and their surroundings are sketched with vivid, bold strokes, and Gill is more in control in this than she was in the earlier ( she does a good job with staggering just slightly, the mark of a practising alcoholic ), but the latter comes alive only occasionally.

It is the men who rule. Sheirgill fits his part well, but it is Irrfan who rises above the film in a terrific performance : he is wounded poet and warrior, and passionate lover who is betrayed and betrays. He keeps us with the film in both its highs and lows.