Media compels justice

Shruthi B Shetty

Film: No One Killed Jessica

Director: Rajkumar Gupta

Cast: Vidya Balan, Rani Mukherji, Myra Karn

Truth is considered to be the step towards righteousness. But many people have hard time accepting the truth when faced with it. This fact is well shown in the first half of Director Rajkumar Gupta’s film No One Killed Jessica.

The first half of the film shows Sabrina Lal’s relentless battle to get justice for her slain sister.

The way in which most of the witnesses withdraw from truth on being bribed and threatened, builds a tense premise. The extent of corruption and the influence of power is highlighted which delays justice.

Rani Mukherji’s (Meera Gaity) role as a straight forward and fearless journalist seems slightly exaggerated. The attempt to make the latter half more dramatic and the media industry more glamorous makes the film unbelievable.

It gives a completely different dimension to the story, when media enters the frame to take up the Jessica Lal case. Instead of exhibiting media as supporting Sabrina’s cause, director Rajkumar Gupta seems interested in glorifying the media business. The journalist abruptly overtakes all the credits in the fight for justice.

The film No One Killed Jessica is based on a real incidence of the murder of a vivacious and aspiring model Jessica Lal that was plastered all over the news for many years. The director has quite competently brought out the aftermaths of the murder, although it could have been better.

SFI-ASA sweeps UoH students’ union election

The Students Federation of India (SFI) and Ambedkar Student’s Association (ASA) bagged all the major posts in the 2010-2011 students’ union election held on Wednesday. It was a convincing victory as the alliance candidates won all the union office – bearer seats by a margin of more than 900 votes against the candidates of Akhil Bharathiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which won the elections last year. The margin of win, SFI – ASA claimed, was a “record” in the history of the University.

Mukesh Kumar was elected president polling 1761 votes, while Nagesh G. was elected as the general secretary polling 1677 votes. Shyam Krishna won as the joint secretary with 1820 votes, the highest any candidate got in this election. The cultural secretary elect is Indira Priyanka who secured 1603 votes and, Uday Kumar G. polled 1748 votes to win as the sports secretary.

Earlier Ramesh Naik was elected unopposed to the post of vice – president, as the opposing candidate’s nomination got rejected during the scrutiny.

Electioneering into the last lap

Amanda Tariang & Shiva Krishna

Campaigning for the 2010 - 11 UoH Students’ Union elections came to a close on Monday, October 11th with the Open Dais (OD) session that was held between the candidates and the students in the DST Auditorium. The programme started at 7pm and went on till 10. The candidates for the posts of President, Vice-President, General Secretary, Joint Secretary, Cultural Secretary and Sports Secretary put forth their agendas before those present.

The programme was chaired by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), P. Dinesh Babu, who read out the rules and regulations that was to be followed. The contestants for the post of the president were allowed seven minutes to present their agendas, whereas, other candidates were given five. Based on the agenda, students were also allowed to raise two main questions and one sub question each.

There was clear political demarcation among the students present in the auditorium. The Students Federation of India and Ambedkar Students’ Association activists, who are fighting this election in an alliance, occupied the seats towards the left of the hall while Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists sat on the right side with the Telangana Students Association members taking the rest of the seats.

Questions raised were mostly accompanied either by applause or booing, depending on the political affiliation of the candidate taking the question and the individual students. At times, the candidates were not audible due to the shouting. There were also moments of tension between the members of different organisations present on the floor.

A notable omission of this year’s OD session was the absence of presidential debate, in which all the presidential candidates debate with each other in front of the students. “The Presidential Debate was not conducted due to time constraints. Some candidates took more than the stipulated time to present their respective agendas and the Q&A session was prolonged,” said CEC P. Dinesh Babu.

The polling will be held on Wednesday, 13^th October, followed by counting the next day.

Political Science student beaten up by outsiders

http://s795.photobucket.com/albums/yy231/midhunrajalpha/?action=view&current=DSC_7023jpg-2.jpg (Photo)

Midhun Raj.U.R

A second year Political Science student, Vishnu Sasidharan, was brutally beaten up near the Campus School on Wednesday at around 8.30 pm allegedly by a gang of outsiders and some students. The injured was admitted to the University Health Centre.

Vishnu was going to campus school with musical instruments to attend the practice session for the ‘Onam’ celebrations from his hostel (MH-H) when the attack took place. “I saw some people, who were participating in the Ganesh immersion procession in front of my hostel, moving into my way. When I passed the Old SN School canteen, they attacked me with some metal weapons like iron rod,” he said.

He told police that he identified some of them including Sai Krishna and Satpal who got suspension in the last semester. "I couldn’t identify few of them because I have never seen them before in the University,” he added.

His classmates and friends said that he is an active worker of Students Federation of India (SFI). SFI leaders alleged that the attackers belong to Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Vishnu has severe injuries under the left eye and left side of the skull. “The injuries show that the person was attacked with some kind of metallic weapons. He has a contusion on his left part of the head.” Dr. Capt. Ravindra of University Health Centre said UoH Dispatch.

“We will observe the patient for 24 hours and decide about further treatment,” he added.

SFI campus unit president P. Parameswaradu said that they filed a complaint to both Registrar and Circle Inspector of Chandanagar police.

“A Proctorial Committee headed by University Proctor will inquire about the incident.” Chief Warden Prof. Sarraju said.

In response to the accusation on ABVP, M.Venkat, a party spokesperson said, "The allegations are baseless. All of us were in the procession accompanied by more than 15 security guards. If anything happened like they (SFI) are claiming, the security guards would have noticed it."