Blogs

In Orissa, teachers can no longer wear what they feel they should. [ Link] The Orissa government in September asked teachers of some state-run and aided high schools to adhere to a uniform attire. This decision came after the dress code in colleges across the state had already been introduced. And the importance of such a decision according to Balmiki Pradhan, circle inspector of schools, Ganjam, is that "it's necessary to maintain discipline in schools and ensure a character." [ Link] Director...

Maharashtra's deputy chief minister RR Patil is the chief moral policeman of his state. After Mumbai's bar dancers, he now wants to book cheerleaders at the recent India-Australia T20 match for flouting obscenity laws. Gyrating cheerleaders in tiny tank tops is a trademark of the new T20 format in cricket and they were at their bootylicious best at the Australia-India match at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. And they have been noticed by Patil for all the wrong reasons. ;) He wants to conduct an...

Students at KJ Somaya College of Engineering in Mumbai were October 23 not allowed to take a test because they came dressed in T shirts, says a CNN-IBN report. The college management, however, contends that the issue has been blown out of proportion. "Some students were suspended and these reports are false," says Principal, K J Somaya College, Raj Kishore Prasad. [ Link] Some recent college-related incidents: In September 2005, Avinash Nahar, a student at a Chennai college was harassed for...

The Kerala High Court has dismissed a public interest petition, challenging the decision of the Guruvayur Devaswom Management Committee to permit women to enter the renowned Sree Krishna Temple in 'churidar' instead of the traditional saree. [ Link] A Division Bench, comprising Justices KS Radhakrishnan and VK Mohanan, in August-end observed that wearing churidar by a devotee could not be said to be objectionable since it was a popular dress worn by women in the country. The court said, ''We are...

Bihar bureaucrats can no longer afford to be casual about what they wear to work. All government officials in the state have been directed to shed their jeans and designer shirts and rely on khadi. Time to go swadeshi, folks. The dress code suggests that IAS officers and other civil servants should dress in formal Indian clothes like dhoti with kurta or shirt or a bush-shirt with trousers (white or some dull shade). A short buttoned-up coat and trousers (white or grey) are also allowed. The...

Members of Uma Bharati's new party blackened the face of a professor in Raipur Medical College for reciting a poem at an Independence Day function in which he allegedly made dishonouring remarks against the goddess Lakshmi. [ Link] According to Bharatiya Janshakti Party state general secretary Rajiv Lochan Shrivastava, some party officebearers came to know about the "derogatory" poem recited by BK Jain the day later and met the professor at the medical college to make him confess regarding the...

The guardians and authorities of one Bakrahat Girls' School in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal have refused to allow entry to teachers. This came a day after eight teachers were locked up in the school, their only fault being that they preferred salwar kameez over saree. [ Link] What triggered off the incident was that a teacher had allegedly beaten up a student when he protested against teachers wearing salwar kameez. Eeeks! The teachers stopped attending school, and instead met the...

Very soon we might see stuff on TV that's fit only for babies. At least, that's what might happen if the information and broadcasting minister heeds the advice of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). [ Link] Sandhya Bajaj, an NCPCR member, wrote to the I&B minister in July, "To protect children from programming with excessive violence and obscenity, I would like to request you to prohibit depicting violence as glamourous or using it to shock or stimulate the audience."...

The Mumbai police are at their wits' end as the number of face blackening incidents keep multiplying in the city. There have been five cases of face blackening in the last four months itself, according to CNN-IBN: The latest incident took place on August 8, when the Shiv Sena's student wing attacked a teacher, for alleged indecency. A week before that, a lecturer from the prestigious JJ School of Arts was attacked by the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, for allegedly molesting a student. In July, a...

Activists of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), led by three legislators, attacked Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad on Thursday while she was releasing the Telugu translation of her Bengali novel Shodh (Revenge). Nasrin escaped unhurt as the organisers pushed back about 100 protesters, including the three bellicose Islamist lawmakers. In the melee, one of the protesters slapped her. A journalist, Innaih Narisetti, was also injured oin the melee. The protesters burst into the...