NEWSMAKERS OF THE WEEK
UNION MINISTER ARUN JAITLEY ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMERGENCY SAID IT WAS A PHONEY EMERGENCY ON ACCOUNT OF PROCLAIMED POLICY THAT INDIRA GANDHI WAS INDISPENSABLE TO INDIA AND ALL CONTRARIAN VOICES HAD TO BE CRUSHED. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley compared former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to Hitler, stating that both used the Constitution “to transform democracy into dictatorship”. In the second part of a threepart series which coincided with the 43rd anniversary of the Emergency, he noted that unlike Hitler, Gandhi went ahead to transform India into a ‘ dynastic democracy’. “Both Hitler and Gandhi never abrogated the Constitution. They used a republican Constitution to transform democracy into dictatorship,” he said. Yousaf Saleem became the first blind judge in Pakistan after taking oath of a civil judge. He was among 21 candidates who were sworn in for the post of civil judges. Saleem, was earlier dropped for being blind. The 25- year- old earned top marks in his law exams, conducted at the Lahore High Court ( LHC), and received a gold medal from the University of Punjab in 2014. Actor Dileep who is facing a sexual assault case and was removed from the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists ( AMMA), had his membership. Following this, four core members of the Women in Cinema Collective, including the actress who was abducted and assaulted, resigned from the AMMA. Dileep, in a letter on Thursday to the AMMA said he would not be an active worker of any organisation till his innocence was proved. Breaking his two years of silence, fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Tuesday claimed that he has become ‘ poster boy’ of bank default and lighting rod of public anger and said that he has sought court approval to sell frozen assets worth ` 13,900 crore ($ 2 billion) to settle dues. “I have made and continue to make every effort, in good faith to settle with the Public Sector Banks. If politically motivated extraneous factors interfere, there is nothing that I can do,” said Mr Mallya, who now lives in the UK. A US judge ordered that migrant families separated at the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy be reunited within 30 days. For children under five, reunification must take place within two weeks of the order. The judge also issued an injunction against any more family separations. US federal authorities have 10 days to allow parents to call their children if they are not already in touch with them.