Budget 2018-19

  Internet restored a day after blockage Tens of thousands of people rallied across Myanmar on Sunday to denounce last week’s coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the biggest protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution that helped lead to democratic reforms. In a second day of widespread protests, crowds in the biggest city, Yangon, sported red shirts, red flags and red balloons, the colour of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD). “We don’t want military dictatorship! We want democracy!” they chanted. On Sunday afternoon, the junta ended a day-long blockade of the internet that had further inflamed anger since the coup last Monday that has halted the Southeast Asian nation’s troubled transition to democracy and drawn international outrage. Pope Francis expressed “solidarity with the people” on Sunday and asked Myanmar’s leaders to seek “democratic” harmony. Massive crowds from all corners of Yangon gathered in townships, filling streets a...

  At least two scenes were removed from the controversial web series Tandav, which found itself in more trouble on Wednesday with fresh FIRs against its makers and cast in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. At least two scenes were removed from the controversial web series Tandav, which found itself in more trouble on Wednesday with fresh FIRs against its makers and cast in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. In a sliver of hope, the Bombay High Court granted transit pre-arrest bail to director Ali Abbas Zafar,  Amazon Prime  India head Aparna Purohit, producer Himanshu Mehra and the show’s writer Gaurav Solanki. The relief was granted for three weeks to enable them to approach the concerned court in Lucknow, where an FIR has been registered against them for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. A scene of a play and a conversation between two key characters were snipped from the show’s first episode Tanashah, a day after the cast and crew of the nine-part starry political sag...

  On September 20, the leaders of 11 major Opposition parties announced the formation of the Pakistan Democratic Movement Over 450 workers from Pakistan’s Opposition parties have been booked in Lahore and other areas of the Punjab province ahead of the first grand anti-government rally by an Opposition alliance formed to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan. On September 20, the leaders of 11 major Opposition parties announced the formation of the  Pakistan Democratic Movement  (PDM) and launch of a three-phased anti-government movement under an “action plan” starting with countrywide public meetings, protest demonstrations and rallies before a “decisive long march” towards Islamabad in January 2021. The first anti-government rally is scheduled on Friday in Gujranwala city, some 80 kms from Lahore, followed by another rally on October 18 in Karachi, in Quetta on October 25, Peshawar on November 22, Multan on November 30 and then a rally in Lahore on December 13. The Opposition ...