India TV's live encounter: Pintu Mishra's killing

India TV's telecast of 'live encounter' stunned other news channels. Pintoo Mishra was killed in broad daylight in Allahabad last year and the footage, either taken by the police force's own video-grapher or some sharp cameraman who was all the way behind the cops, saw TRP ratings soar for the India TV.

No doubt the footage was astonishing. Still, Rajat Sharma didn't grill the DGP Vikram Singh. Those who were questioning why the video tape was not revealed earlier, should be told that the manner in which cops chased and murdered a man in the broad daylight in Civil Lines of Allahabad, and not in Chambal ravines, the person in possession of the tape would think a hundred times before parting with it, as he could be implicated or killed by the same cops.

My Sting Vs Your Sting

The Aj Tak, Start TV and other channels showed the video the next day. And Janmat's recently launched channel 'Live India', in desperation, openly took the side of police. Meanwhile, Star came out with the exclusive video of Abu Salem's narco-analysis test.

This apparently drove Aajtak to show a third-grade sting 'Cocaine and Call Girls' linking prostition with drug-trafficking. It was a poorly made show with Deepak Sharma and Shams Tahir Khan, failing miserably to put it together. They showed a woman craving for cocaine and several blurred faces. The viewers were unsure whether it was a real show or some women actresses (the likes of whom are used to enact scenes for crime capsules) were given the script to read out the dialogues and prepare a 'sting drama' within the studio.

Shiv Sena attacks Outlook office for equating Bal Thackeray and Dawood

On the 60th Independence Day anniversary the weekly magazine Outlook made a list of heroes and villains.

The list of villains included Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, Bal Thackeray, Dawood Ibrahim, Nathuram Godse, Azharuddin, Narendra Modi, Sanjay Gandhi, Jagdish Tytler, HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh.The cartoonists' cadre took offence to Thackeray's caricature that depicts him as Adolf Hitler.

Nearly a dozen Sainiks barged into the Mumbai office of Outlook, asking for the editor and went on rampage. They damaged the office equipments, ransacked it and threatened the staff. The police have registered a case.

Here is the list and brief profiles about these personalities in the Outlook issue which which enraged the Shiv Sainiks.


Meanwhile, the list of heroes includes:

Jawaharlal Nehru
Sardar Patel
BR Ambedkar
Indira Gandhi
Mayawati

EMS Namboodiripad
Sheikh Abdullah
Pu Laldenga
MG Ramachandran
Jyoti Basu

Jayaprakash Narayan
Atal Behari Vajpayee
NT Ramarao
C Annadurai
Manmohan Singh

Maulana Azad
C Rajagopalachari
Salim Ali
Homi J Bhabha
Vikram Sarabhai

MS Swaminathan
Ela Bhatt
Medha Patkar
Kamladevi Chattopadhyaya
Arundhati Roy

Mother Teresa
RK Narayan
RK Laxman
Qurratul Ain Hyder
Amitav Ghosh

Sunil Gangopadhyaya
Khushwant Singh
Shivaram Karanth
Amartya Sen
OV Vijayan

Vijay Tendulkar
Girish Karnad
Verghese Kurien
Dhirubhai Ambani
JRD Tata

NR Narayanamurthy
MF Husain
T Balasaraswati
Birju Maharaj
Bhupen Khakar

Kapil Dev
Sunil Gavaskar
PT Usha
Vishwanathan Anand
Balbir Singh

Bismillah Khan
Raj Kapoor
Satyajit Ray
Amitabh Bachchan
Lata Mangeshkar

Begum Akhtar
MS Subbulakshmi
AR Rahman
Pandit Ravi Shankar
Guru Dutt

The list with profiles can be seen here.