News Digest: Tagore May Have Lost His Life to Prostate Cancer

Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India.

1.) Tagore may have lost his life to prostate cancer

Despite the fact that Rabindranath Tagore is one of the most researched figures in Bengal, very little is known about how he died and the ailments that started immobilising him from 1940 onwards. On Sunday, Rabindra Bharati University, which is the custodian of Tagore's ancestral house, decided to re-construct the incidents that led to Tagore's death in 1941, reports The Times of India.

Not only has the flow of events been charted on the basis of historical documentation, but leading doctors have been roped in to examine the medical papers and observations of medical experts who treated Tagore. Till date, Jorasanko Thakurbari, which is also a museum of Tagore memorabilia, did not have any exhibits recording the last days of the poet. The room in which he breathed his last has been maintained, but beyond that, visitors are not told what his ailments were. Initially, the general rhetoric was to worship the poet almost like a god and not dwell on his mortality .

2.) Strikers on The Streets of Kashmir: Four weeks and Burning

Vocabulary in south Kashmir, epicenter of ongoing uprising in Valley, it seems, has reduced to just three words, Pakistan, Freedom and Burhan. All major roads, walls and signboards in most of the villages in Kulgam, Bijbehara and Anantnag have been painted with different forms and expressions of these three words, reports The Economic Times.

Since the killing of Hizb-ulMujahideen commander Burhan Wani, on July 8 evening in Kokernag area, J&K police and paramilitary forces have not entered most of these south Kashmir villages during the day. In night they manage to enter a few, where they have either killed and injured people or arrested few others. The government forces only try to sanitize and secure the National Highway , passing through south Kashmir, which connects Valley with Jammu, for smooth movement of Amarnath Yatra, which has been going on without any hindrance.

3.) Roster Ready for Ministers' I-Day Activities

Ministers will be travelling across the country, picking spots from Siachen Glacier to Port Blair to commemorate Indian freedom struggle heroes while special events like an evening Mashal Yatra (Torch March) on August 14 and a Prabhat Pheri (early morning song march) on August 9 will take place in major cities and villages.

The big 'Yaad Karo Kurbani' celebrations on the 70th Independence Day will be kicked off by PM Narendra Modi on August 9 when he will visit freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad's birthplace in Bhavra in Madhya Pradesh, thereby giving top-most importance to Azad's sacrifice in the freedom struggle. A detailed exercise has been done to draw up a roster of minister visits from August 9-23, reports The Economic Times.

4.) Ego clashes and streetfighting: The lawyers-media standoff in Kerala

An extraordinary standoff between lawyers and the media in Kerala has gone on for three weeks now. The two sides have brawled, the High Court has shut down the media room, and barred reporters from judges’ chambers and the steno pool to obtain details of proceedings. The court has asked for a judicial probe, and the government has ordered that a committee headed by the Advocate General, and comprising representatives from both sides, be set up to investigate the matter. What’s happening?

On July 14 night, Government Pleader Danesh Mathew Manjooran was arrested in Kochi for alleged molestation. But he was granted bail after the complainant gave an affidavit saying it was a case of mistaken identity. But the police still rushed the woman to a magistrate to record her statement under Sec 164 CrPC, after which they allegedly leaked her statement to the media. Manjooran and his supporters have argued they did this to settle scores in a dispute he had with an officer, The Indian Express reported.

5.) JNU withdraws Kanhaiya's private security cover

The Jawaharlal Nehru University administration on Thursday withdrew the private security cover provided to students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar. The university sent a notice to Kumar stating that the security will be continued only after dues of Rs 5 lakh are paid, The Times of India reported.

The decision to withdraw the security cover to Kumar came after JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Kumar also wrote to the vice-chancellor requesting personal security as his “life was under threat“. The letter stated that Kumar had already been provided security cover by Delhi Police on orders from the HC.

6.) J&K pupils got scholarships worth Rs 75 crore this year

HRD minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said the special scholarship scheme for Jammu & Kashmir students was a huge success this year. He said Rs 75 crore worth of higher education scholarships were given out in 2016.

Javadekar ascribed the success of the scholarship scheme to awareness workshops in Kupwara, Anantnag, Srinagar, Pulwama, Jammu, Doda, Rajouri, Kathua, Kargil and Leh in May. More than 5,000 students in J&K had applied for this scholarship, The Times of India reported.

7.) 10-man cell looking to revive Assam terror, extortion industry from Bhutan

Police believe the National Democratic Front of Bo do land (Songbijit) militant group, reduced to 10-12 men operating from adjoining Bhutan, had sent a lone gunman to strike at soft targets for reviving its “extortion industry”.

The outfit, however, denied its hand in Friday’ s killing of 14 people at a weekly market near Kokrajhar, the headquarters of a tribal council, 236km west of Guwahati, The Hindustan Times reports.

8.) IS recruit says 40 jihadis trained at Kerala camp

Anarrested Kabul-bound woman’s disclosure has prompted police surveillance on some 19 people in Kerala and neighbouring Karnataka, after she alleged they attended “jihadi classes” by a suspected Islamic State terrorist group recruiter.

Yasmin Ahmad, a 28-yearold schoolteacher in Kerala, told investigators that Abdul Rashid, a fugitive IS recruiter from Kerala who is now operating from Afghanistan, indoctrinated about 40 people, The Hindustan Times reports.

9.) Law students of Delhi University left in a fix

The Bar Council of India’s new recommendations to Delhi University, stating that they are not following the Legal Education Rules, 2008, has caused concern among students, mostly those awaiting admission to the Faculty of Law, The Hindustan Times reports.

According to the BCI rules, there should be only five sections with 60 students each in the first year of the law faculty. A special exception has been made for Delhi University, which has been allowed not more than eight sections with 60 students each, reads the report.

10.) Battling animal deaths, Delhi zoo bats for animal diplomacy

Jawaharlal Nehru sent a baby elephant named after his daughter Indira to Japan in 1949, former President Shankar Dayal Sharma was gifted an African tusker by Zimbabwe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi a Mongolian horse during his visit to that country, The Hindustan Times reports.

‘Animal diplomacy’ has been an important tool in strengthening relations between countries and the Delhi zoo, battling a spate of animal deaths in the past few months, wants it pursued with renewed zeal.

The zoo, which attracts lakhs of visitors annually, is in dire need of giraffes, ostrich, zebra, kangaroo, white bucks and other exotic varieties of birds and animals.