The “Great Khali” on Tuesday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue of royalty. Dalip Singh Rana aka Khali moved court following a dispute with an author who penned a book on him. Justice B.S. Walia put the author on notice for 16 October. A Jalandhar court will have jurisdiction in the case. The writer reportedly demanded 30% royalty on a film being made on Khali, following which the dispute reached a Giddarbaha court. Khali, in turn, moved the High Court.
The 47-year-old Rana, better known by the ring name “The Great Khali”, is a professional wrestler, promoter and actor. Before embarking on his professional wrestling career, he was an officer for the Punjab state police. He has appeared in four Hollywood films, two Bollywood films and several television shows.
Bharat Ratna for Bhagat
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation, Pakistan, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to award Bharat Ratna to “Shaheed-e-Azam” Bhagat Singh.
On Wednesday, Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, Foundation Chairman, wrote a letter to Gaurav Ahluwalia, India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, addressing PM Modi, saying that that the Indian government should bestow the highest civilian honour on Bhagat Singh posthumously on his 112th birth anniversary “for his unmatched services for the Indian subcontinent”.
Countless people from both countries, including PM Modi, respected his passion and sacrifice, said Qureshi, who has also made an appeal to Pakistan PM Imran Khan to honour the martyr with “Nishan-e-Pakistan” award.
Sports stars add muscle to BJP in Haryana
The ruling BJP in Haryana is aiming for 75-plus seats in the 90-member Assembly’s 21 October elections. The party has decided to corner some Congress stalwarts by fielding sports celebrities against them. Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and former captain of Indian hockey team and Arjuna awardee Sandeep Singh joined the BJP at its national headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday. The lone Shiromani Akali Dal MLA from Haryana, Balkaur Singh, who represents Kalanwali (reserved) Assembly seat in Sirsa, has also joined the BJP. The state party president, Subhash Barala, told The Sunday Guardian that “The BJP’s mission of ‘75 Plus’ in the Assembly elections would be bolstered by their joining the party.” Barala hinted that they would be getting party tickets in the coming elections. “Ab ki baar, phir Khattar sarkar,” he said.
The buzz is that Dutt will be fielded from Sonepat district and Sandeep will be given a ticket from Pehowa in Kurukshetra. Balkaur Singh could be fielded from Kalanwali. If fielded, Sandeep will face former Assembly Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha in Pehowa. Chatha is a loyalist of former Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Dutt, who has joined the BJP after quitting as DSP, comes from Gohana town of Sonepat district and the ruling party plans to field him from Baroda Assembly seat of this district. Baroda is among two of the nine Assembly segments of Sonepat Lok Sabha seat where Hooda got the lead, the other being Kharkhoda, when he was defeated by BJP’s Ramesh Kaushik in the Lok Sabha polls. If Hooda chooses to field his son from his traditional Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi seat, he may himself contest from either Baroda or Badli seat of Rohtak. Even if Hooda doesn’t contest from Baroda, his trusted lieutenant Sri Krishan Hooda, the sitting MLA from there, will contest the seat.
‘Correct distorted history’
Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu’s utterance on India’s “distorted history” has angered the Congress. On Thursday, Naidu said that there was a need to “correct” Indian history, distorted by the colonial rulers. Speaking at the Punyabhushan award presentation ceremony in Pune, Naidu asked historians, archaeologists, linguists and other scholars in the country to unite in order “to re-create India’s real history before the world.” Hours later, angry Congress slammed the Vice-President over his remarks on “distortions” in history books, and asked him to remain impartial and not subservient to the “BJP’s agenda” of rewriting history.
BJP workers in a dilemma
Every year, during the birth anniversary celebrations of the BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya, the party workers clean his, BJP-RSS leaders’ and Mahatma Gandhi’s statues across the country in their areas. But this time, they are in a dilemma. A circular issued by the BJP president Amit Shah has asked the party workers to undertake cleanliness drives and also clean statues of great leaders and personalities in and around their towns “irrespective of their ideologies”. Many party workers are worried, hoping that they may not be photographed cleaning statues of Congress leaders. “I will cover my face,” a party worker said, jokingly.