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Congress retains Nagpur South

     Nagpur: Dinanath Padole of Congress won the Nagpur South seat defeating his nearest rival Ashok Mankar of BJP by a margin of 2,227 votes in the by-election, the result of which was declared today. Padole polled 30073 votes while Mankar secured 27846 votes.

Top writer to return award

     New Delhi: Anguished over the treatment meted out to him at Rashtrapati Bhawan, noted Gandhian author Vishnu Prabhakar has decided to return his Padma Bhushan Award to the government. "I have sent a letter today to President A P J Abdul Kalam seeking his permission to return the award (given last year)," he said. The 93-year-old Hindi writer was upset over security personnel stopping him and his son from entering Rashtrapati Bhawan during the President's 'At Home' on Republic Day. Though the invitation was in the name of Prabhakar and his wife, who is no more, he took his son along as he felt it was not wise to move alone at this age. But, since the security personnel did not allow him inside, he returned from the main gate. Prabhakar said he had informed Rashtrapati Bhawan at the time of being invited for the Independence Day function that his wife had died and had also requested the authorities to invite his son or daughter in future so that he could take part in the functions. He had written a similar letter to Rashtrapati Bhawan regarding the Republic Day invitation but there was no response, said Prabhakar, who had earlier declined to accept Padma Shri. He rued that while during the days of first President Rajendra Prasad, writers and litterateurs had an easy access to Rashtrapati Bhawan, these days even letters written by them were not replied to.

Is Dawood's daughter Miandad's son's fiancee? (Go To Top)

    Karachi: Former Pakistan cricket captain Javed Miandad has refused to comment on the media reports that his son has got engaged to the daughter of Dawood Ibrahim, the most wanted criminal in India. Miandad neither denied nor confirmed the media reports when asked for a response by press persons last evening. Replying to a question if he was the said former cricket captain, Miandad angrily said: "I have no comments to make on this issue. I don't understand why people want to interfere in our personal and family life. I don't interfere in anybody else's personal life and we expect them to respect our privacy also." "Talk to me about cricket affairs, I am willing to talk. But I have always kept my family away from the spotlight and their privacy should be respected," The News quoted him as saying. According to the paper, Miandad said he reserved the right to ask newspapers printing stories about his son's engagement to provide proof of such an occasion. To another pointed question that if he was willing to deny such reports, Miandad said he didn't want to discuss such personal matters at all. The paper said that the news report about the engagement has created a lot of speculation and interest in the Indian media since Dawood is a wanted criminal in the country. Since the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, Dawood has been underground, though at times reports suggested that he was seen in Karachi and Islamabad.