NEWSMAKERS OF THE WEEK

WHILE INDIAN CRICKET TEAM’S DEFEAT IN THE HANDS OF PAKISTANIS MIGHT HAVE BROKEN MANY HEARTS, RESULTING IN SEVERAL THEORIES FOR THE FIASCO, MINISTER RAMDAS ATHAWALE HAS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT TAKE ON IT: LACK OF DALITS IN THE TEAM Union minister of state for social justice Ramdas Athawale on Saturday blamed the Indian cricket team’s recent lack of success on inadequate representation of dalits and tribals in Indian cricket and demanded reservation to remedy this. Mr Athawale said the way Indian team lost to Pakistan raised doubts of match-fixing. The sister of Pakistani-origin terrorist Khuram Butt, who along with two other accomplices was killed during the terror attack on London Bridge last month, has been sacked from her job as a security officer at Heathrow airport. Ms Butt and her husband, Usman Darr, were suspended soon after the attack on June 4 and questioned by security services. She has now had her employment terminated. Newly-appointed ICSSR chief Braj Bihari Kumar created a fresh controversy by saying that “textbooks today are aimed at creating activists and not educating students”. He added that universities like the JNU a “nurturing ground” for them. Mr Kumar also believes that intolerance are “fringe” phenomena and should not be seen as a reflection of the Indian society as a whole. A circle officer in Lucknow, Shreshta Thakur, was transferred last week, a few days after she fined a BJP leader for not wearing a helmet and arresting five party workers for misbehaving with her. The video of the police official standing up to a group of BJP workers, who were seen arguing with her, had gone viral. Ms Thakur has been transferred to Bahraich near IndiaNepal border. K.K. Venugopal has taken charge as the 15th Attorney General succeeding Mukul Rohatgi. The 86-year-old advocate was appointed the top law officer after Mr Rohatgi stepped down. He is the recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan. His association with the BJP goes back to the Ayodhya movement when he had appeared for the then BJP government in the SC.