No Intentions To Join Mainstream Politics: Kanhaiya

Cautioning against any interference in the legal system, JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar today said he had full faith in the country's judiciary and hoped it is not influenced by the RSS. "Those who were burning flags earlier are now standing with the same flags asking people to show their nationalism certificates. I have faith in judiciary and Constituion but what they should do should not be decided in Nagpur at RSS headquarters," Kanhaiya told PTI in an interview.

The 29-year-old research scholar, who walked out of Tihar yesterday on interim bail after being lodged there for 18 days in a sedition case, said his agenda is not to be a politician but to be a teacher. "I am an activist as a student and I will be an activist as a professor as well five years down the line. I do not have any intentions to join mainstream politics. Neither I want to use the kind of support I have got from public at large for petty political gains," he said.
According to Kanhaiya, the entire row about the university being allegedly branded as anti-national has created a particular image of the varsity which is affecting the students.
"I was inside, what was happening outside jail, I was getting to know only from news reports. It's not just Left supporters which stood by me but also those who haven't been able to decide whether they should hold the left flag or the right are also coming out in support of JNU," he said. "I am being told students are finding it difficult travelling in trains if passengers get to know they are from JNU, autowallahs are refusing to ferry them. This is the sad part of this controversy, all the rest is a fight which will go on," he added.
Defining his idea of politics, Kanhaiya said, "Politics has two centres — one in parliament and another on the streets. The former needs struggle while the latter needs strategy. I believe there should be two-way traffic between both".
Asked whether the controversy will affect his relationship with the students on campus who are affiliated to ABVP, Kanhaiya said, "My room in hostel is next to the president of JNU's ABVP unit. This is what is the beauty of JNU. It is a fight between two idelogies and not individuals".
"Those who are bothered about the tax-payers money being spent on anti-nationals should rest assured about their investments. Their money is also being used for developing businesses of a select few, may be it's time to bother about those investments," he said.
Jawaharlal Nehru University is caught in a row over an event on the campus to commemorate the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, where "anti-national" slogans were allegedly raised. Besides Kanhaiya, two other students — Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya are also in custody in connection with the case.
"Our primary focus is to get them released but one thing I am sure of is if I adopt this ideology of raising our voice these trips to prison will become a frequent thing," he said. While the varsity administration has been under criticism from teachers and students over their alleged mishandling of the row, Kanhaiya refused to comment on the issue maintaining he has not been approached by anybody from the authorities.
PTI

Boat Engine Explodes In Bangkok, 60 Hospitalised

Sixty people were hospitalised Saturday, mostly for burns, after the engine on a Bangkok commuter boat exploded and sent passengers leaping to a nearby pier or into the water, officials and reports said.
The crowded boat was ferrying passengers on a major canal in the eastern outskirts of the Thai capital, which boasts an extensive network of waterways that teem with motorised commuter boats during rush hour.
Most of the injured were later released from the hospital with minor injuries, while 14 were still receiving treatment, according to the city's Erawan emergency medical centre.
The centre said three foreigners -- two Myanmar nationals and one Japanese -- were among those injured in the accident.
Bangkok's police commissioner Sanit Mahathavorn said two passengers were seriously hurt by flying debris from the explosion, which shook the wooden boat but largely left its hull intact.
"Most of the injured passengers are suffering from burns," the officer told reporters from the pier on the wide canal where the accident took place shortly after dawn.
An initial police investigation suggested the combustion was caused by a fuel leak onboard, he said. "We found that gas leaked at the boat's rear and caused an explosion in its engine," he said.
Witnesses interviewed on Channel 3 described a loud bang that rang out just as the boat was docking, sending some passengers racing for the pier, while others leapt into the canal's murky waters.
The director of Family Transport, a private company that runs the boat service, told the network he had suspended twenty-five boats that run on liquefied natural gas while the investigation was ongoing.
"We still don't know how it exploded," he said, adding that the boats have been using gas-powered engines for up to eight years.
The shuttle was travelling on Saen Saeb canal, which runs through the heart of the capital and eventually connects to its main river, the Chao Praya.
The canal boats cost no more than $1 to ride and are among the cheapest and swiftest forms of transportation in traffic-choked Bangkok.
They run around 100,000 passenger journeys a day, according to official figures from 2012.

Transgenders Will Vote As The Third Sex In Bengal polls

The closet days are over! The forthcoming assembly elections will see Bengal’s transgender people lining up outside polling booths and exercising their right to vote.
For long consigned to the underbelly and the dregs of society, the state’s transgender people are to be enlisted as voters for the first time since being recognised as the ‘third gender’ by the Supreme Court.
The process of having them registered as voters is already under way in pollbound Bengal. The move would mark a giant leap for the community.