Nagaland Minister Temjen Imna Along has expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for acknowledging his efforts and liking his social media prowess. The minister tweeted in Hindi, which, when translated to English, reads as "Guruji spoke, I feel blessed."
Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his party leader, Temjen Imna Along, saying his views represent the real Northeast to the world.
PM Modi was addressing a rally in Nagaland, Mr Along's home state, as elections are being held in Northeast. The Nagaland BJP chief is known for his amazing sense of humour and funny posts on social media. He constantly keeps his fans and followers updated with important life advice, his personal life, and the beauty of his state.
Speaking about Mr. Along, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Dimapur, "The things our state BJP president Temna Imna says resonate across the country.They thoroughly enjoy it" amid thunderous applause from the crowd.
"He represents Nagaland and the entire Northeast beautifully on digital platform. I too always try to look at all his posts," the Prime Minister added.
The Nagaland minister tweeted that he is delighted that "guruji" is in the state just hours before the start of PM Modi's speech. The tweet featured a photo of him smiling while donning a BJP scarf.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today that the BJP-led NDA government's top priority is Nagaland's peace, progress, and prosperity.
The Prime Minister said during his first election rally in Nagaland's Agri Expo Center Ground in Dimapur that a large number of cadres from various militant outfits surrendered and joined the mainstream to ensure peace in Nagaland.
"The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act" has already been withdrawn from many parts of Nagaland. The government has been taking steps so that AFSPA is not required in the future in the state," Modi said.
He said that during the past nine years, violent incidents have been reduced by 75 percent, facilitating the speedy development of the state.
Saying that Nagaland's inter-state border problems with the neighbouring states are being resolved, the Prime Minister said that infrastructure development and the welfare of all people are the priorities of the BJP-led NDA government.
Coming down hard on the Congress, Modi stated that during the Congress regime, family welfare was prioritized, which is why the people of the northeast punished them by not voting.
Another day, another throwback picture from Boney Kapoor's album. Of course, it features his late wife, Sridevi. But there is something special about his latest upload. Any guesses? It is his first photo with the actress. In the black and white frame, the two are smiling as they pose for the camera. It was clicked in 1984. Boney Kapoor, in the caption, wrote, “My first picture …… 1984.” FYI: This image also made its way to the recently released Netflix docu-series The Romantics, which celebrates the legacy of Yash Chopra and the impact the filmmaker has had on Hindi cinema in the last five decades.
Now take a look at Boney Kapoor's “first picture” with Sridevi. Fans have flooded the comments section with red hearts and fire emojis.
Sridevi died in February 2018, in Dubai, where she was attending a family wedding. She was 54. The veteran actress featured in several hits like Lamhe, Chandni, Mr India, Judaai, Khuda Gawah, Nagina and Sadma. To mark Sridevi's 5th death anniversary, Boney Kapoor picked a gorgeous picture of the actress and wrote, “You left us 5 years back… Your love and memories will keep us going and will remain with us forever.” Sanjay Kapoor was among the first to drop a comment under the post. He shared a red heart emoji.”
Now, look at the “last picture” Sridevi posed for. It was shared by Boney Kapoor on Instagram. The actress, in the pic, is seen sharing the frame with their daughter Khushi Kapoor, Boney Kapoor's sister Reena Kapoor and some guests.
Earlier this month, Boney Kapoor announced that the publishing rights for Sridevi's biography, Sridevi: The Life of a Legend, has been acquired by Westland Books. The book will be written by Dhiraj Kumar. Boney Kapoor said, “ Dhiraj Kumar is someone she [Sridevi] considered family. He is a researcher, writer and columnist. We are happy that he is writing a book that befits her extraordinary life.”
Remembering his wife, Boney Kapoor added, “Sridevi was a force of nature. She was the happiest when she shared her art on screen with her fans but she was also a fiercely private person.”
Script isn't King in Selfiee. It is an unabashed Akshay Kumar show. The star leaves absolutely nothing to chance. He stamps himself on everything that the vapid film has on offer. The narrative (derived from the late Sachy's screenplay) is tweaked and stretched to make space for an actor in search of a hit. But nothing clicks.
Selfiee is the Hindi remake of the 2019 Malayalam film Driving Licence. The vehicle never fully revs up because the star, to the detriment of the movie, concedes no ground at all to things that might have mattered. The chintzy concoction runs into an obstacle course and finds a way out of it.
A movie megastar desperately seeking a driving licence runs afoul of an inveterate fan, a Regional Transport Office (RTO) inspector in Bhopal. As the fan-turned-foe queers the pitch, the celebrity's grand plans, both personal and professional, are in danger of going into a tailspin. But can the power of a common man be a match for the clout of a movie star?
There is much in Selfiee that goes awry because large swathes of the film are painfully pointless. If the film is meant to be an exploration of fame and adulation and their manifestations or an examination of what happens when a slighted movie fan decides to strike back, it only manages to deliver a blurred picture. As shallow as it is silly, Selfiee does not get its focus right.
Akshay Kumar's home banner, Cape of Good Films, is one of the producers of the film along with Dharma Productions, Prithviraj Productions (the original lead actor's outfit) and Magic Frames (a key backer of the Malayalam film). The film understandably does all it can to not let the spotlight stray away from the protagonist. The effort yields a massive wreck that is beyond salvation.
To be fair, Selfiee, directed by Raj Mehta (Good Newwz, Jugjugg Jeeyo), is certainly not as excruciatingly bad as some of Akshay Kumar's recent releases. But, then, can it ever be easy to be as a godawful as Bachchhan Paandey, Raksha Bandhan and Ram Setu? Selfiee may try your patience, but it does not overly offend one's sensibilities the way his other films tend to.
In Driving Licence, the character of the film producer (who frets over going overbudget and running late) and the superstar's rival (envious of his string of hits) were believable figures. In Selfiee, the former is at best a frisky hanger-on. The latter is worse - a pathetic buffoon whose only job in the film is to make the protagonist look much better than he actually is.
Vijay Kumar (Akshay Kumar), reigning Bollywood superstar who has a passion for fast cars, lands in Bhopal for the shoot of a film. For its climax, he has to furnish a driving licence in order for the film unit to secure the necessary permissions from the authorities. He does not have one.
RTO inspector Om Prakash Agarwal (Emraan Hashmi) and his son are diehard fans of the star. They religiously watch every film of his and dance noisily to his songs much to the chagrin of the inspector's wife (Nushrratt Bharuccha), who adores Vijay Kumar's rival Suraj Diwan (Abhimanyu Singh). When their idol arrives in town, father and son are thrilled to bits.
To fast track the issuance of his driver's licence, Vijay agrees to take time off from his schedule and visit the RTO to pose for a selfie with Om and his wide-eyed son. But matters go horribly wrong and the star gives the unsuspecting inspector a mouthful.
Angered and humiliated, the obdurate policeman decides to settle scores by giving the actor a tough time. The face-off between the two men constitutes the crux of the corny film that, in the garb of examining fandom and celeb entitlement, is mindful never to deviate from the purpose of giving the superstar - a gentleman, a good professional, a model citizen, a caring husband and a do-gooder - the upper hand.
Vijay Kumar is an epitome of perfection. Nothing that is thrown the unflappable man's way can stop him from doing the right thing. The film always seems more about Akshay Kumar than about the character that he plays is on the screen. Vijay Kumar is described as a producer's actor. Akshay Kumar is producer-actor. Therein lies the rub.
Meta elements make their way into the narrative but to no lasting effect. Like everything else in Selfiee, they add up to little beyond varnishing the star's persona. The hero's gummy smile is made the butt of a good-natured joke by his wife (Diana Penty).
A little later in the film, Vijay Kumar (speaking for the fictional figure as well as for Akshay Kumar) cockily reminds the stubborn inspector that he has no time to waste because he has an enormous number of commitments - films, web shows, product endorsements and reality shows.
A broadside at the boycott Bollywood brigade - which goes berserk when the clash between the megastar and a honest inspector catches the attention of the electronic media - falls flat because nothing in Selfiee is allowed to come in the way of the progress of Akshay Kumar.
With none of the characters allowed to evolve, Emraan Hashmi is compelled to struggle to create his space in the film. He does occasionally manage to rise above the din - the ear-splitting background score contributes to the decibel level - despite the odds being heavily loaded against him.
As for the two female actors in Selfiee - Nushrratt Bharuccha and Diana Penty, playing the wives of the two warring men - they are mere adjuncts. They are after all in an Akshay Kumar movie, akin to a two-and-a-half-hour selfie dedicated to a self-obsessed star. Unless you are a fan, it would be best to give Selfiee a miss.
A witness in the murder case of an MLA in Uttar Pradesh was shot dead in Prayagraj today. The attack was caught on multiple CCTV cameras.
Umesh Pal, a key witness in the murder case of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal in 2005, was shot dead by an unidentified man while he was getting out of the backseat of a Hyundai Creta SUV in Prayagraj.
CCTV footage shows Umesh Pal and one of his two police bodyguards getting out of the SUV when suddenly a man came from behind and shot him. The police said some other men used crude bombs during the assault, which exploded in a cloud of smoke, leading to panic and chaos on the road with people running to safety. Many abandoned their vehicles and ran towards shops.
Umesh Pal's bodyguard tried to catch the attacker, but he too was shot. The second bodyguard also caught a bullet.
Umesh Pal, who appeared to be injured, ran towards an alley with the attacker in pursuit while his bodyguards lay injured on the road. The attacker shot him there for a final time before fleeing.
Atiq Ahmed, a don and former Lok Sabha MP serving time in a Gujarat jail, is an accused in the 2005 murder case.
Umesh Pal was taken to a local hospital, where he died during treatment, the police said.
The condition of one of the bodyguards is critical and he has been put on ventilator, while doctors are performing a surgery on the other, the police said.
"The incident happened right outside Umesh Pal's home. So far it has been confirmed that two bombs were thrown and he was fired at by a small firearm," Prayagraj police chief Ramit Sharma told reporters.
A murder case has been filed.
"We have formed eight teams to investigate every aspect of the incident and arrest those behind the attack," Mr Sharma said.
PV Sindhu's coach Park Tae Sang has parted ways with the Indian badminton star. Park joined hands with Sindhu in 2019. Under Park Tae-Sang, Sindhu won three BWF World Tour tiles – the Syed Modi International, Swiss Open and Singapore Open. She also won the women's singles gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham and the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and then a gold at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Park took responsibility of Sindhu's recent poor form.
"Hello, it's been a while since I said hello. I came back to Hyderabad a few days ago. And I want to say thank you to everyone who worried about my father. To be honest, my father's condition is not good yet. So I felt heavy walking back to India," Park Tae Sang wrote in an Instagram post.
"And I'd like to talk about my relationship with @pvsindhu1 , which many people have asked about. She has made disappointing moves in all recent matches, and as a coach, I feel responsible. So she wanted a change and said she would find a new coach. I decided to respect and follow her decision. I'm sorry that I can't be with her until the next Olympics, but now I'm going to support her from afar. I will remember every moment with her. I would like to thank everyone who has been supporting and encouraging me."
Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu recounted her journey to becoming badminton world champion in 2019 and said that she was waiting for the moment for more than five years. Sindhu won the bronze medal in the 2013 and 2014 editions of the World Championships while in 2017 and 2018, the Indian shuttler was defeated in the final on both occasions. However, in 2019, she finally won the tournament after comprehensively defeating Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in the summit clash.
"It's a really big thing. Being a world champion is...it's after Olympics are what I feel. I won it in 2019. For me it was a different memory altogether because I was waiting for it for five years. I had two bronze, two silver and I wanted that gold desperately. It is definitely one of the biggest tournaments out there after Olympics," Sindhu said in an exclusive interview with NDTV.
Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Susanta Nanda on Friday shared a heartbreaking video of a baby langur weeping while holding on to its dead mother. Sharing the short clip on Twitter, Mr Nanda wrote that the incident took place in Assam. The video showed a golden baby langur sobbing uncontrollably over the lifeless body of its mother after she was killed by a speeding vehicle.
"This will haunt me for a long long time. A Golden langur was assassinated on the road in Assam. The baby is still in its arm not knowing what has befallen him. I am informed that all steps are being taken to save the baby," Mr Nanda wrote in the caption of the post.
Watch the video below:
This will hunt me for a long long time💔💔
A Golden langur assassinated on the road in Assam. The baby still in its arm not knowing what has befallen him.
In the clip, the baby langur is seen weeping, clutching its mother's face and trying to wake her up but to no avail. The two animals are also seen surrounded by several people.
Internet users were quick to react to the video. While some expressed their condolence over the tragic accident, others expressed anger.
"This is so sad! Why can't we care for the co-inhabitants of our planet? Poor Baby!" wrote one user. "Can't bear to watch..... hope the baby recovers from the trauma," said another.
A third user said, "O God! My heart is breaking when I see this accident and the plight of the baby langur. One has to drive carefully keeping other's safety also in mind," while a fourth commented, "Be it be a clear road,it doesn't give the right to anyone to overspeed. Moreover, while we drive, we should always be careful and speed should be moderate."
"Saddest thing!! Brutal! Can't bear to watch. Prayers for the baby to recover from this tragedy," wrote another user. "This is very tragic and heart-wrenching," expressed another.
Mr Nanda's video has accumulated more than 37,000 views and over 1,500 likes.
India needs a culture of honesty, no favouritism, quicker decision making and hassle less transactions to prosper as a country, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy said on Thursday.
Speaking at the Asia Economic Dialogue organised by the Ministry of External Affairs here, N R Narayana Murthy said only a small section works hard in the country and a majority of people have not imbibed the culture which is essential to fulfil the aspirations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We need to build a culture of quick decision making, quick implementation, hassle less transactions, honesty in transactions, no favouritism," Mr Murthy said, adding that the only common aspect joining all the developed countries are such cultural attributes.
He said both India and China were of the same size in the late 1940s, but the northern neighbour has grown to be six times the size of India courtesy the culture it has imbibed.
"There is a small section of India which works hard, which is honest, which has good work ethic, discipline, by and large this is not the predominant nature," Murthy said.
Asking people not to call him an anti-national, he cited an experience of setting up a facility in Shanghai in 2006. He said the mayor of the Chinese city allocated a 25 acre land parcel selected by him the day after it was selected, and such pace of movement is lacking in India.
He said corruption is existent at lower levels and added that those in higher levels are very honest.
"If we want the business people to stay only in India and do everything in India, I think they will be very happy to do. All that we are respectfully requesting is that quick decisions must be taken, they must be implemented quickly and they should be no harassment, no unnecessary hurdle," he said.
He also exhorted youngsters not to indulge in practices like moonlighting or insistence on working from home, saying ethics and laziness need to be given special focus.
"My fervent desire and humble desire to youngsters is please don't fall into this trap of I will moonlight, I will do work from home, I will come to office three days in a week," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
