MNS files FIR against AIB's Tanmay Bhat for video mocking Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar

MNS files FIR against AIB's Tanmay Bhat for video mocking Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar

A video from stand-up comic Tanmay Bhat, who is also co-founder of comic group All India Bakchod (AIB), in which he mimics venerated Bollywood playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has evoked a sharp reaction from the film fraternity as well as the political class.

On Monday, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS filed an FIR against Bhat and pledged to ban his shows in Mumbai.

MNS Chitrapat Sena' president Ameya Khopkar on Monday morning filed the police report in Shivaji Part and has demanded that the video uploaded by Bhatt be removed immediately.

The All India Bakchod (AIB) comedian reportedly posted the video on May 26 on Facebook titled "Sachin vs Lata Civil War" and made jokes about both, along with the disclaimer: "I make such nonsense on my Snapchat."

Using Snapchat’s face swap filter, Bhat first imitated Tendulkar, mocked Virat Kohli, saying who is a better player, Virat or Sachin, and then took a dig at Mangeshkar.

Some of the catch phrases that evoked criticism were:

“No, I’m very respectful for Virat. He is very good with bat and ladies.”

“Lata tai namaskar. Very respectfully I’d like to add that you are 5,000 years old.”

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6 killed, 20 injured in two bomb attacks in Turkey

Six persons, including two police officers, were killed and 20 others were injured in two bomb attacks in Turkey's Sirnak province on Monday, local media reported.

In the first attack, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants placed explosives under manhole cover and detonated it with remote control while a police vehicle was passing, killing four and injuring 19 people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Two police officers were killed and one other was injured in the second attack by the PKK members in Van province. The bomb was detonated with remote control targeting an armoured police car.Read More

20 killed in massive fire at Maharashtra ammunition depot

Two army officers and 18 jawans are feared dead in a massive fire at the Indian Army's central ammunition depot in Pulgaon in easternMaharashtra that houses the biggest stockpile of weapons in the country.

Another 19, including the commanding officer and the deputy commandant, have been injured.

The fire has been raging since 2 a.m Tuesday, reports said. The cause of the fire, however, is yet to be ascertained.

The fire at the ammo dump spread after secondary explosions. Villages in the vicinity have been evacuated.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is reported to be on his way to the site.

According to TV reports, mild explosions are still being heard from the area.

"The main fire at one of the sheds has been extinguished. The situation is being stabilised. Secondary fire and explosions cannot be ruled out now," the Army officer said refusing to go into the reasons of the fire. Read more.

Russia raids on Syria city kill 23 civilians

Russia raids on Syria city kill 23 civilians

Russian warplanes pounded an Al-Qaeda-held city in northwestern Syria before dawn on Tuesday killing 23 civilians in the heaviest strikes in months, a monitoring group said.

Dozens of civilians were also wounded in the raids on Idlib, a provincial capital held by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and its allies since March last year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Al-Nusra is not party to a Russian-and US-brokered ceasefire that went into force on February 27 between Moscow-backed government forces and Washington-backed non-jihadist rebels.

"The air strikes are the most intensive on Idlib since the beginning of the truce," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told.

"Even though Idlib is not covered by the truce, it had been relatively calm with only intermittent raids," he added.

The strikes hit near a hospital and a public garden.

Moscow has been carrying out an air campaign in support of its Damascus ally since September last year.Read More

Swachh Bharat, Digital India score poorly, top rating for Railways

Swachh Bharat, Digital India score poorly, top rating for Railways

The National Democratic Alliance government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kicked off a two-part survey where the people will rate its policies and initiatives as it completes two years in office. Thousands have already joined in to answer the 30 questions covering anything from foreign policy to signature schemes such as Swachh Bharat, Digital India and Make In India, hosted on the citizen engagement platform mygov,in.

While Make in India, ease of doing business and controlling corruption figure somewhere in the middle of the ratings, other schemes such as Swachh Bharat, Digital India and unearthing black money have scored the least.

Initial data captured on the portal will make Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu happy. More than 74 per cent of the people who have participated in the survey so far have given 5 stars to the government effort in modernising Indian Railways, taking it to the top position out of a total of 15 schemes. Only 1.04 per cent of the people have given it 1 star. Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is next with 65.8 per cent people giving 5 stars to government efforts in providing highway connectivity. It is the only sector where nobody has given it the lowest grade of 1.

The NDA's foreign policy has scored high as well with 63.21 per cent giving the initiative 5 stars. It got 1 star from 3.63 per cent of the respondents. The PM himself has mostly been at the forefront of the foreign policy initiatives, though Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is also seen having contributed to the overall effort.Click here to read the full article.

Congress questions the 'achievements' of two years of Modi govt

Congress questions the 'achievements' of two years of Modi govt

On a day when the Bharatiya Janata party-led government completed two years in office, the Congress party questioned the various celebrations, alleging the record was only of “empty talk and hollow promises”.

Dubbing the Narendra Modi government “fraudulently dynamic and dynamically fraudulent”, it fielded senior spokesperson in both Delhi and across state capitals to counter the “government propaganda”.

Unveiling its 'Do saal desh ka bura haal' (two years of dire national straits) campaign, party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “The government is surviving because of newspapers and television channels and its media publicity. It has nothing to show by way of work except bombast.”

Former Union minister and party spokesperson Kapil Sibal challenged the PM or anyone in the government to a Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and Randeep Surjewala during a press conference on completion of two years by Modi government, at party headquarters in New Delhi

public debate on what it had achieved. Contrasting the predecessor government, led by its Manmohan Singh, he said: “Dr Singh did not speak; his work spoke. This prime minister does nothing but speak. He has nothing to show in terms of work.”Read more.