As so-called affiliates of fringe right wing groups continued to make public threats towards actress Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, state government authorities, police and political parties failed to reign the thugs in, and watched silently as the protests spiralled out of control.

In a latest bid to gain legitimacy, members of the Akhil Bhartiya Kshatriya Mahasabha (ABKM) announced a Rs 1 crore reward for anyone who burns Padukone alive.

"Deepika should know how it feels like to be burnt alive. The actress will never know the sacrifice of the queen. Any person burning her alive will be given Rs 1 crore. We demand that office- bearers of the organisation be shown the movie before it is released," ABKM's youth wing leader Bhuvneshwar Singh said.

Members of ABKM burnt over a hundred effigies of Padukone, who plays the titular character in the film 'Padmavati', and shouted slogans.

Yesterday, a BJP office bearer from Haryana announced a 10-crore bounty on the heads of Padukone and Bhansali, an inflammatory threat that has shocked people, but failed to attract the attention of lawmakers.

Surajpal Amu, the party's chief media coordinator, has even threatened to "break the legs" of Ranveer Singh, who Alauddin Khilji in the film.

Such has been the violent posturing by fringe groups who are vying with each other to become mainstream by forcing the release date of the film to be postponed that filmmaker Shyam Benegal yesterday questioned the government for its silence.

"Will people ask for heads publicly and offer money for the lives of those who disagree with them, and the state will do nothing to prevent it? The Home department and the police should move in immediately and offer protection. That would be the thing to do. When chief ministers and members of government adopt such an approach, what else will the administration do," Benegal told The Indian Express.

Meanwhile the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, another group protesting the release of the film they claim have distorted historical facts, have deferred their 1 December 'Bharat Bandh' call. "Once the new release date is announced, we will again apply our full strength and force to stop the release of Padmavati," said Lokendra Singh Kalvi, the group's founder.

People reached with disgust, shock and anger on Twitter.

Basically this is a 'supari'
Its a free for all, is there no difference between a gangster & a political leader?
The government is quiet... why?
This is a deep embarrassment for india 😐

Ps- And now I'll be trolled and abused and told my name is 'hydari'
Pps- 🙄 🤦🏻‍♀️🙅 https://t.co/OAJyYL4MYO

— Aditi Rao Hydari (@aditiraohydari) November 20, 2017

Criminal openly threatening to behead people came to a news studio. Someone offered them coffee. Someone mic'ed them up. "Haan sword is fine, I checked" beeped a walk talky. "Sir you're on in 5 minutes :)"

— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) November 19, 2017

The real question is: what is the Padmavati row distracting us from?

— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) November 19, 2017

I love India, where FIRs are filed for tweets and people are arrested within hours for Facebook posts but a guy is threatening to cut off an actresses's nose on camera multiple times and no arrest has been made so far. Don't be fooled, non action is tacit agreement.

— Hardik Rajgor (@Hardism) November 17, 2017

I hope at least now you all can hear the chilling silence. #Padmavati

— Shirish Kunder (@ShirishKunder) November 19, 2017

The real culprits in Padmavati are not the Karni Sena but the govts in Rajasthan, UP and Centre who stay silent instead of ensuring law and order and arresting the criminal mobs: @AzmiShabana tells me @IndiaToday

— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) November 19, 2017

#Padmavati
Approximately 4 weeks from now, I expect one number speech from Modi in which he talks in general terms on how art should be appreciated, and violence has no place in society.
We can all clap then.

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) November 19, 2017

Not even a single leader across all political parties would dare to stand with #Padmavati makers without ifs and buts. That's the clout of the caste in our political system.

— Rofl Gandhi चटनी सेना 🍟🍔🌯 (@RoflGandhi_) November 19, 2017

Padmavati row is easy to handle for the BJP & the media, if compared to #Rafale jet scam. Therefore the hullabaloo. People are easily being swayed to engage in a nonsensical issue related to a movie than talk about losses of billions of dollars to the exchequer. Wah, India!

— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) November 20, 2017

Issue with #ADHM..'Public sentiment against Pakistanis'. #Padmavati..'Public sentiment against x,y,z,1,2,3..' Jab public sentiment par Desh chalana hai to 'Governance' kis chidiya ka Naam hai? Ppl will make or break law at will n news channels will invite murderers on prime time!

— Faridoon Shahryar (@iFaridoon) November 19, 2017

So impressed with bravery of rajputs ready to pay others to behead people over a movie. #Padmavati. Jai hind.

— Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) November 19, 2017

CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi has said "it is disappointing that the film 'Padmavati' is being screened for the media and getting reviewed on national channels without the CBFC having seen or certified the film."

"It's myopic to treat the certification process haphazardly to suit convenience. On one hand, holding the CBFC responsible and pressurizing to accelerate the process. And on the other hand, attempt to subvert the very process, sets an opportunistic precedent," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

If you find headaches more painful and emotionally draining than other body pain, you're not imagining it, according to a new study.

Duke University researchers have found that sensory neurons in the face and head are directly connected to one of the big emotional signalling hubs in the brain.

This explains why pain from your eyes, ears, and teeth can feel that much worse. Sensory neurons in other body parts are indirectly linked to this hub, according to the study.

The researchers found that irritating a mouse's face led to more activity in the parabrachial nucleus, a part of the brain directly connected to the areas responsible for instinct and emotion, compared to irritating its paw.

This knowledge could lead to more effective ways to treat head and facial pain.

"Usually doctors focus on treating the sensation of pain, but this shows we really need to treat the emotional aspects of pain as well," said senior author Fan Wang in a press release.

Duke University scientists have discovered how the #brain's wiring makes us suffer more from head and #facepain. https://t.co/lYldEKB9GH

— BrainSpineFoundation (@brainspine) November 14, 2017

Some of the most debilitating head pain comes from migraines. According to Statistics Canada, women are twice as likely to experience them than men.

Earlier this year, migraine sufferers on Twitter started to spread the hashtag #notjustaheadache. They aimed to debunk the idea that the pain stems from women not being able to cope with stress.

Study co-author Wolfgang Liedtke said this is the first biological explanation for why headaches feel so terrible.

"This will open the door toward not only a more profound understanding of chronic head and face pain, but also toward translating this insight into treatments that will benefit people," he said.

More from HuffPost Canada:

• 3 Easy Exercises That Can Naturally Cure A Headache
• Pain Management: Ease Your Headaches With These Exercises
• 3 Easy Exercises To Relieve Tension Headaches

The government on Sunday said that it has taken up with authorities in South Africa the case of armed robbery at the Indian Consul General's residence in the city of Durban.

"Ensuring the safety and security of Indian diplomats/officials posted abroad, and their families is a matter of highest priority for us," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a response to queries.

He said that "we have taken up the matter with relevant authorities, and investigations are currently ongoing".

In a shocking case of security lapse, the home of Consul General Shashank Vikram was on Thursday robbed by eight armed men who held his five-year-old son at gunpoint.

According to the Independent Online, the envoy's residence, India House, in the Morningside area of the city, was breached on Thursday afternoon despite protection offered by the South African Police Services' VIP Unit, a private guard company and armed response provider.

Armed response officers, who arrived 15 minutes after the alarm was activated, took away surveillance camera footage.

The robbers burst into the home around 4 p.m. after overpowering and attacking a guard who had gone down to the driveway gate after apparently being summoned.

"Vikram's wife, Megha Singh, and the couple's two young children were home at the time and were subjected to a terrifying 10-minute ordeal during which their five-year-old son was held hostage as the robbers demanded money and gold," it said.

"The little boy, who had been studying in the reception room with a tutor, was carried at gunpoint and ordered to deactivate the alarm that had been set off by the family's domestic helper, who was beaten for her courageous act."

The intruders ransacked the building, smashing open a thick, solid door with crowbars, the report said.

One grabbed the five-year-old and hauled him upstairs, where Singh and her 10-year-old son were watching television.

The envoy's wife slammed the retractable security gate on the upstairs landing shut to call for help but the intruders forced open the gate with a crowbar all the while demanding jewellery and access to a non-existent safe.

Singh and her elder son ran to the main bedroom where she pressed the alarm and called her husband who was in a meeting at the town of uMhlanga north of Durban.

According to the report, Vikram rushed home before the security officers could reach the spot.

The robbers then fled taking a cellphone and a few small items, the Independent Online report said.

Durban is home to around 800,000 people of Indian origin. Kumar said on Sunday that the intruders were expected to be arrested soon.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has also spoken to Vikram and inquired about his family.

The past one month has witnessed a rapid deterioration in Delhi's air quality and people who have lived in Delhi all their lives have complained that they've never been subjected to such terrible air in the city in decades.

The major reason seems to be vehicular pollution along with the burning of agricultural residues on farms in nearby states. The problem has been exacerbated by the arrival of dust- laden air from Middle East and Afghanistan which created a temperature inversion (the cold air is on the top while hot air is near the ground). This did not allow the smog and dust to disperse into higher atmosphere, thereby creating death chamber like conditions on the ground.

The dust storms and other atmospheric phenomena have existed for millions of years but the manmade practices of stubble burning and vehicular pollution are primarily responsible for Delhi's worsening air quality.

If there's adequate political and administrative will, there are various initiatives that can be undertaken to at least minimise the scourge of pollution in the city.

Power from agricultural residues

India produces anything between 600-800 million tons of agricultural residue per year. After harvesting of crops, whatever is left behind on the farm land is considered to be residue. Most farmers in India want their land to ready for the next crop and the easiest way to get rid of the leftover is to burn them. As a result, they end up polluting the environment.

In early 1990s, our NGO, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), had pioneered the concept of using these residues for power generation. Our survey showed that every taluka had enough agricultural residue to meet all the electricity needs of that taluka. This work led to a national policy on taluka energy self-sufficiency in 1996 which was managed by MNRE.

Thus 600-800 million tons/year of agricultural residues can theoretically produce about 80,000 MW of electricity. Besides producing power, the selling of residues to power plants can provide extra income to the farmers. Presently farmers do not make any money from the residues. For country as a whole, this extra income for farmers can amount to about Rs. 3 lakh crores and can create substantial wealth in rural areas.

For country as a whole, this extra income for farmers can amount to about Rs. 3 lakh crores and can create substantial wealth in rural areas.

In 1995 NARI also developed the world's first loose biomass gasifier running on agricultural residue like sugarcane trash, wheat straw and those from other crops. The gas from 500 kW (thermal) gasifier was shown to be useful for producing excellent heat for community kitchens. The gasification process produces syngas (mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) which could be used for producing methanol – a useful liquid fuel for transportation.

Similarly pyrolysis (one step before gasification) of agricultural residues could easily produce pyrolysis oil which is a medium calorific value (CV) fuel with CV of 17 MJ/Kg or nearly 1/3^rd that of diesel. This oil can be used as a cooking fuel in suitably designed cookstoves. Thus both gasification and pyrolysis oil production can supply clean energy for cooking.

All these technologies show that agricultural residues could easily be converted into useful products (electricity and liquid fuels) and in the process reduce air pollution

No-till agriculture and perennial crops

However, to improve the quality of the soil so that agricultural productivity increases, it is necessary that most of these residues be ploughed back into the field. No-till agriculture (NTA) allows the incorporation of these residues into the soil while minimally disturbing it.

For planting crops holes are drilled into the soil in which seed can be planted and then covered up. This is done by specially designed planters. This way the soil surface remains undisturbed along with the residues from the previous crop.

NTA not only improves the soil but soil erosion is reduced drastically. Since the stubble is not burned, NTA is also one of the best mechanism to reduce air pollution.

No-till agriculture is practiced extensively in other countries with total area of about 160 million ha planted every year. Latin America, North America and Australia/New Zealand have successfully implemented this practice.

Since the stubble is not burned, NTA is also one of the best mechanism to reduce air pollution.

Around 11% of the world's total cropland is under NTA. In India, farmers have started embracing NTA over the last 6-7 years and that too is restricted mostly to about1.5 million hectares in north India. The reasons for such low level penetration of the practice are non-availability of economically priced planters, not enough publicity regarding its advantages and non-availability of low cost weedicides.

There are major industrial players producing agricultural machinery in India but somehow no-till machinery doesn't feature in their scheme of things. The government can ecourage NTA by providing economic incentives to both farmers and agricultural machinery makers.

Another method to reduce production of agricultural residues is to have perennial crops. It is like growing wheat, rice and oilseed crops on trees! Year after year the fruit (grains and oilseeds) can be harvested while the root structure (stubble) keeps on re-sprouting. This drastically reduces the energy in growing and harvesting crops and hence increases the remuneration to farmers. Extensive work is being done in U.S. on perennial crops and there are good indications that in near future, perennial wheat, sorghum and oilseed crops like sunflower, canola etc. can be developed.

In India there is a need to set up a national technology mission for perennial crops so that extensive R&D can be done on them.

Transportation

One of the major causes of air pollution in cities is vehicular traffic. With increase in diesel vehicles in India this pollution has increased manifold. No matter how good the engine is, the stop-start and traffic jam conditions on Indian roads makes it run very inefficiently and hence produces increased pollution.

One of the best solutions for city air pollution is to have mobility based on electric vehicles. Electric cars and buses are becoming very common in Western countries. In fact, all major car companies of the world have electric cars in pipeline.

Tremendous achievements in battery technologies, motors and controllers have made electric vehicles comparable in range and power to fossil fueled vehicles. In India we need to introduce electric vehicles, specially electric motor cycles in a big way.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

President Robert Mugabe stunned Zimbabwe on Sunday by making no mention of resignation in a television address, defying his own ZANU-PF party, which had sacked him hours earlier, and hundreds of thousands of protesters who had already hailed his downfall.

Two sources - one a senior member of the government, the other familiar with talks with leaders of the military - had told Reuters Mugabe would announce his resignation to the nation after ZANU-PF dismissed him as its leader in a move precipitated by an army takeover four days earlier.

But in the speech from his State House office, sitting alongside a row of generals, Mugabe acknowledged criticisms from ZANU-PF, the military and the public but made no mention of his own position.

Instead, he said the events of the week were not "a challenge to my authority as head of state and government", and pledged to preside over the congress scheduled for next month.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was dumbstruck.

"I am baffled. It's not just me, it's the whole nation. He's playing a game," he told Reuters. "He is trying to manipulate everyone. He has let the whole nation down."

ZANU-PF had given the 93-year-old, who has led his country since independence in 1980, less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, an attempt to secure a peaceful end to his tenure after a de facto military coup.

Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of the liberation war veterans who have been spearheading an 18-month campaign to oust Mugabe, said plans to impeach him in parliament, which next sits on Tuesday, would now go ahead, and that there would be mass protests on Wednesday.

He also implied that Mugabe, who spoke with a firm voice but occasionally lost his way in his script during the 20-minute address, was not aware of what had happened just hours earlier.

"BLIND OR DEAF"

"Either somebody within ZANU-PF didn't tell him what had happened within his own party, so he went and addressed that meeting oblivious, or (he was) blind or deaf to what his party has told him," Mutsvangwa said.

ZANU-PF's central committee had earlier named Emmerson Mnangagwa as its new leader. It was Mugabe's sacking of Mnangagwa as his vice-president - to pave the way for his wife Grace to succeed him - that triggered the army's intervention.

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets of the capital Harare to celebrate Mugabe's expected downfall and hail a new era for their country.

In jubilant scenes, men, women and children ran alongside armoured cars and the troops who stepped in to target what the army called "criminals" in Mugabe's inner circle.

Many heralded a "second liberation" and spoke of their dreams for political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship.

They, like the more than 3 million Zimbabweans who have emigrated to neighbouring South Africa in search of a better life, are likely to be bitterly disappointed by Mugabe's defiance.

Speaking from a secret location in South Africa, his nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, had told Reuters that Mugabe and his wife were "ready to die for what is correct" rather than step down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup.

Zhuwao, who was also sanctioned by ZANU-PF, did not answer his phone on Sunday. However, Mugabe's son Chatunga railed against those who had pushed out his father.

"You can't fire a Revolutionary leader!" he wrote on this Facebook page. "ZANU-PF is nothing without President Mugabe."

The huge crowds in Harare have given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army's intervention, backing its assertion that it is merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, rather than a plain coup, which would risk a diplomatic backlash.

But some of Mugabe's opponents are uneasy about the prominent role played by the military, and fear Zimbabwe might be swapping one army-backed autocrat for another, rather than allowing the people to choose their next leader.

"The real danger of the current situation is that, having got their new preferred candidate into State House, the military will want to keep him or her there, no matter what the electorate wills," former education minister David Coltart said.

The United States, a longtime Mugabe critic, said it was looking forward to a new era in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of neighbouring Botswana said Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once.

Besides changing its leadership, ZANU-PF said it wanted to change the constitution to reduce the power of the president, a possible sign of a desire to move towards a more pluralistic and inclusive political system.

However, Mnangagwa's history as state security chief during the so-called Gukurahundi crackdown, when an estimated 20,000 people were killed by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland in the early 1980s, suggested that quick, sweeping change was unlikely.

"The deep state that engineered this change of leadership will remain, thwarting any real democratic reform," said Miles Tendi, a Zimbabwean academic at Oxford University.

By Tarun Kanti Bose*, Alwar, Rajasthan

Thekra in Rajasthan has a predominance of Meo Muslims who are believed to have settled in the village 240 years ago. Girls of Thekra have broken taboos and gender biases, and compelled their illiterate parents to enroll them in school.

Literacy among Meo children, especially girls, has been dismally low. Initiatives by a few villagers and constant awareness drives by the functionaries of a local NGO have helped in creating an enabling environment for the girls to study, curbing dropouts and preventing them from other discriminations. Female literacy of Thekra, which was 39% as per the 2011 Census, has risen to 60%.

The village in the Mewat region of Alwar district has a population of over 2,000, where Meo Muslims live amicably with Dalits, who comprise 10% of the population. Nestled in the semi-arid zone of Rajasthan where groundwater level has dropped down to 1,500 ft, villagers grow onion, bajra, mustard and gram. Apart from farming, the villagers are into cattle-rearing.

According to Fakhruddin, a resident, the majority of the boys in the village were busy grazing cattle or taking care of their siblings, shunning studies. "Till 2003, children of our village had to walk a kilometer and cross the railway track to go to school," 53-year-old Ali Sher told VillageSquare.in. "Two boys of a family died in an accident while crossing the track. Then boys of our village dropped out of school as their parents were scared to send them to the school." The literacy status started to change in 2004, when Matsya Mewat Shiksha Evam Vikas Sansthan (MMSVS), a local NGO, persuaded the villagers to open a school.

Adaptive education

"The changes that you see today have been possible due to MMSVS. When they started their work, nobody believed them," recalls Fakhruddin. "Maulana Hanif helped in developing a congenial environment." Maulana Hanif, a progressive cleric and president of MMSVS, agrees that there was a lot of resistance initially. He and his functionaries persisted without losing hope.

"I told the villagers that along with dini talim (religious education), children need buniyadi talim (basic education) and duniyavi talim (formal education) also. It struck a positive chord," Maulana Hanif told VillageSquare.in. While villagers like Ali Sher, Fakhruddin and Ali Mohammad supported the initiative, many opposed it. But gradually they too started supportive, after seeing the results.

Ali Sher provided a room and a veranda to open Dr Ved Kumari Smriti Vidyalaya. Illiterate but articulate, he said, "I was convinced as their focus was more on education of girl children. My eldest daughter, Imrana was among the first batch of learners." When boys started coming to the school, the shift was planned in such a manner that they did not miss the responsibility of grazing their cattle.

The teachers went on a door-to-door campaign. Then girls also started coming. Boys were charged Rs 20 as monthly fee and girls Rs 10. Now girls in the school outnumber boys. The impact of the school being evident, Ali Sher donated 6 biswa (49.17 acre) of land to MMSVS in 2006, to construct a building for the school.

Empowering girls through education

Education has played a big role in the lives of women of Thekra. "The school has changed the lives of many of the girls in our village," said Ali Sher.

"I have always encouraged my daughters to study and build their careers. My husband, a peddler selling clothes never interfered," says 55-year-old Mishri. However, her sons objected to schooling the girls. When Mishri failed to convince them, she snapped all ties with her sons. Such is Mishri's conviction about educating girls. "Not only did I get my daughters educated but I got my granddaughters admitted in the village school," she told VillageSquare.in with pride.

Acknowledging Mishri's role, her 22-year-old daughter Alvida said, "My ammi has been a pillar of strength. We are four girls. Ammi has always encouraged us to study and carve a niche for ourselves." After completing her graduation, she is doing B. Ed. Her older sister 24-year-old Akhtari acknowledges that it was her education that came to her help in her hour of desperation. "When my husband deserted me I could be independent. Since I had completed class 12, I could get a job in Swachh Bharat Mission and earn my livelihood," she told VillageSquare.in.

Vakila was married after she passed class 10 board exams, to a boy much younger and who had studied only up to sixth standard. She rejected her marriage and refused to go to her parents-in-law's house. She continued her studies and now she is a teacher who is financially independent.

Giving wing to dreams

The first batch of learners as well as the successive batches has shown their mettle in different fields. Warisha, who was among the first batch of learners, was selected by Terres Des Hommes, a children's rights organization, to represent India at the World Social Forum in 2007 at Nairobi. But unfortunately, Warisha could not go since she did not have a passport.

Ali Sher recounts the patience with which the teachers handle children, instilling confidence in them. His eldest daughter, one of the first batch of students of the school, passed class 8 in the village. When the government school refused to enroll her, she took the exam and cleared the board exam with good marks.

The school has not only helped girl children but even women who had dropped out of school due to early marriage, as in the case of 30-year-old Farmina, who passed class 8 in 2012 under the bridge course. "Seeing my commitment towards studies, my husband Fakhruddin enrolled me in the center run by MMSVS. My husband, though illiterate has always been supportive," Farmina told VillageSquare.in.

Undeterred by taunts and derogatory remarks of her extended family, she studied and passed class 8 board exams and plans to appear for class 10board exams too. Besides supporting her, her husband motivates villagers to send their daughters to school. "After passing class 8, my confidence level has increased. I contested the panchayat elections and I became chairperson of the panchayat samiti," she informed VillageSquare.in with pride.

Ali Sher's younger daughter Shabana, studying class 11 at SMD Government Girls' School, Alwar credits her schooling at Ved Kumar Smriti Vidyalaya for her high marks in class 10 exams. She stays in a hostel. She has taken science stream as she aspires to be a doctor. "Though it's difficult to crack the medical entrance exams, if I'm able to, I can serve my community, which has not produced any doctor," she told VillageSquare.in.

Progressive changes

In a conservative milieu, where girls were confined within the walls of the house, now they move freely and travel to Alwar, Jaipur and other cities for studies. Meo girls have started working in Gurgaon, Delhi and Bangalore. But the most important outcome of educating Meo Muslim children is ending child marriages in the village.

The awakening brought among the Meo Muslims has produced desirable results but to make it sustainable it needs support from the Government too, which seems to be passing on its responsibilities to private players.

Tarun Kanti Bose is a New Delhi-based journalist.

This article was first published on VillageSquare.in, a public-interest communications platform focused on rural India.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

In 2017, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) went from distorting history, as it has done many times in the past, to fabricating history in order to advance its divisive ideology of Hindu nationalism.

Ignoring the pleas and protests against manufacturing history, the BJP government in Rajasthan changed fact to fiction in the Social Science textbook for Class 10, this year. The revised textbook says that Akbar lost the Battle of Haldighati to Maharana Pratap, even though historians have established that it was the Mughal emperor who defeated the Rajput king in 1576.

With the BJP shamelessly turning history on its head, its objections about historical inaccuracies in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's movie Padmavati reek of a level of hypocrisy that truly insults a person's intelligence. The ruling party has presented itself as the poster child of double standards, out to promote its Hindutva agenda at the cost of everything else.

'Treason'

The BJP's opposition to the movie about the Rajput queen, which started out with a few lawmakers writing letters, has amplified in the run up to the Gujarat state election. The Hindu nationalist party now appears to be on the same page as the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, the fringe group that has been leading a violent agitation against the multi-crore movie.

Detractors, including royal families from Rajasthan and Rajput women, are angry that the 13-14th century queen's character is seen dancing in the film. They also believe that Bhansali's film has a romantic dream sequence between the Rajput queen and the Muslim sultan Alauddin Khilji.

Even though Bhansali has said that there is no romantic dream sequence in the film, Karni Sena leaders have threatened to behead Bhansali and maim the movie's lead actor Deepika Padukone by chopping off her nose.

BJP leaders have compared distorting history to "treason."

In a letter to the Home Minister Rajnath Singh, a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, Arjun Gupta, wrote, "He (Bhansali) needs to be severely punished by being tried for treason for his attempt to distort history," he said. In a letter to Bhansali, Haryana minister Vipul Goel wrote, "Nobody is allowed to distort history and wrongly present facts."

Gold standard of double standards

Now, let's look at the BJP's treatment of history and facts.

In just the past year, BJP governments in at least two states have distorted history in school textbooks read by millions of students, with more states likely to follow.

The Rajasthan government, for instance, has not only flipped the outcome of the Haldighati battle, it has also portrayed VD Savarkar as a champion of the independence movement, sidelining Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. In reality, Savarkar had a limited role in the freedom struggle and he ended up begging the British to release him from prison.

It is tragic and true that classrooms have always been a battlefield for political parties to promote their ideologies, whether the Congress, the BJP or the Left. Textbooks in Gujarat, a BJP bastion for two decades, have been riddled with falsehoods for a long time. In the recent past, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews were presented as "foreigners" and Hitler, who murdered millions of Jews, was described as someone who lent "dignity and prestige to the German government."

Over the past three years, however, BJP's presence at the Centre and in an unprecedented number of states has bolstered the party's plan to roll back what Hindu nationalists believe to be the domination of the Left and the "secular" thinkers in academics. They have openly declared their plan to "saffronise" history across the country.

On the one hand, BJP is protesting over a rumored dream sequence involving a Rajput queen, who may or may not have even existed. On the other hand, the BJP is not just manufacturing history, but also erasing the history that challenges its linear narrative of the barbaric Muslim invaders who persecuted Hindus and destroyed their temples.

The Maharashtra government, for instance, has removed from the history of the Mughal emperors and the Delhi Sultanate from the Class 8 textbook, with no mention of the monuments they built.

Students in Maharashtra will no longer learn about Muslims rulers like Razia Sultana, the first woman to rule Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughlaq, who circulated coins of copper and brass as token currency, and Sher Shah Suri, who introduced the first "Rupia" and made the highway that would eventually become the Grand Trunk Road.

The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is also planning to write out Mughal emperors from state textbooks. In September, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said the state's syllabus would reflect that "Mughal rulers were not our ancestors but looters."

'Don't tell me that words don't matter'

As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama explained why things like "words", "ideals and inspirations" and "hope" mattered in politics. "Don't tell me words don't matter. 'I have a dream' — just words? 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' — just words? 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself' — just words? Just speeches?" he said

The importance of "words" is seemingly lost on Indian politicians. The BJP leaders don't even need a multi-crore film to distort history. They do it routinely in remarks and statements made to the press and at public functions, without any compunction or accountability.

Unlike Bhansali, who has no choice but to respond to the agitation against his film, politicians are seemingly answerable to no one, neither the state nor the public, let alone fringe groups like the Shri Rajput Karni Sena.

There is nothing stopping Vinay Katiyar, a BJP lawmaker in the Rajya Sabha, from claiming that Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan destroyed a Shiva temple to build the Taj Mahal, and calling for the world famous monument to be renamed "Tejo Mahal. The BJP leader continued to fib even after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had debunked the temple theory in a court of law.

Before Katiyar, BJP lawmaker from UP, Sangeet Som, said that the Taj Mahal was made by a man who imprisoned his own father. On the contrary, Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife, was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb.

BJP leaders have not only misrepresented the country's political, religious and cultural history, they have distorted scientific history.

In 2015, for instance, Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan said that Algebra and the Pythagoras Theorem originated in India. "Ancient Indian scientists have graciously allowed scientists from other countries to take credit for their findings," he said. While the origins of Algebra are traced back to the Islamic world, the Pythagoras Theorem is named after the Greek mathematician Pythagoras.

Earlier this year, the junior education minister of India, Satya Pal Singh, said that an Indian scholar Shivkar Bapuji Talpade invented the airplane, not the Wright Brothers in 1903. "This person invented the plane eight years before the Wright brothers," he said.

Hindu nationalists have always portrayed ancient India, before the coming of Christianity and Islam, as the golden age of prosperity and learning. They routinely claim that breakthroughs made in modern medicine, science and technology in the last 100 years were known to people living in ancient India.

In 2014, Narendra Modi became the first prime minister to publicly back the Vedic age theory of the Hindu right.

While speaking at a function in Mumbai, Modi said that ancient Indians knew about genetic science and plastic surgery, citing examples of the warrior Karna from the epic Mahabharata and Ganesha, the Hindu god who has the head of an elephant.

"We worship Ganeshji, there must have been a plastic surgeon in that era who put an elephant's head on a human body, plastic surgery must have started then," he said.

Modi has spoken of Ganesha's head and other imagined achievements of ancient India when he was chief minister of Gujarat. In fact, in the run up to the general election in 2014, Modi habitually distorted history, claiming that Biharis defeated Alexander the Great and that Takshashila was in Bihar (it is in Pakistan).

Last week, Yogi Adityanath said, "Distorting history is no lesser crime than sedition."

Is the UP chief minister accusing his colleagues and his boss of sedition?

Also on HuffPost India:

India's nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Dalveer Bhandari was today re-elected to the last seat of the world court after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election.

Bhandari received 183-193 votes in the General Assembly and secured all the 15 votes in the Security Council after separate and simultaneous elections were held at the UN headquarters in New York.

The elections were held after United Kingdom, in a dramatic turn of events, withdrew out of the race for the Hague-based ICJ, thus paving the way for Bhandari's re- election to the prestigious world court.

Bhandari and Britain's Christopher Greenwood were locked in a neck-and-neck fight for re-election to the ICJ.

The permanent members of the Security Council -- the US, Russia, France and China -- were understood to have been throwing their weight behind Greenwood. Britain is the fifth permanent member of the Security Council.

In a dramatic turn of events, the British Permanent Representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, wrote identical letters to the presidents of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, before the two chambers were scheduled to meet at 3 pm (local time) for the 12th round of voting.

Read out simultaneously by both the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council, Rycroft said that its candidate Judge Christopher Greenwood had decided to withdraw from the election to the 15-membered ICJ. He along with Bhandari were seeking re-election for the nine-year term.

In the 11 rounds of voting, Bhandari had got nearly two- thirds of the votes in the General Assembly and in Security Council Greenwood consistently received nine votes as against five for his opponent. This resulted in a stalemate.

As per the letter read out simultaneously in the General Assembly and the Security Council, Rycroft said the current deadlock is unlikely to be broken by further rounds of voting.

As such he announced withdrawal from the race. With Bhandari being the only candidate left in the race, the General Assembly and Security Council still went through the formal motion of voting to complete the formalities.

The voting in the General Assembly which overwhelmingly favours India is reflective of the new global order, which is not pleasant to the world powers.

India has been seeking that the democratic process need to be played its full course in both the Security Council and the General Assembly and there should not be an intervention or adoption of a process that has never been used before or the one that undermines the voice of the majority.

If you've ever lost a car in a shopping centre, count your lucky stars that you can actually find it.

A German man has been reunited with the car that he lost over 20 years ago. The man was completely stumped as to where he had left the car way back in 1997, in Frankfurt, Germany.

Despite reporting the loss to the police, the car was not found until last week -- and only then, it was found because the industrial parking lot it was located in was set to be demolished.

Local German paper Augsberger Allgemein reported that the man, now 76 years old, arrived at the police station with his daughter to collect the car once he heard of the discovery.

Man forgets where he parks his car - then finds it 20 years later https://t.co/TfrYdp6LoC

— The Independent (@Independent) November 17, 2017

But it wasn't all good news for the owner.

The Volkswagen Passat was too dysfunctional to operate and had to be scrapped.

There's no word yet about whether the man will be copping a fee for all those years of parking he managed to get away with!

Little Buddy (or LB for short) is an orphaned koala joey from South Australia, and wow he's adorable.

According to Tourism South Australia, LB was first found "in the mouth of a very gentle (and very caring) dog".

"While he's too young to stay at Cleland Wildlife Park, he's being cared for at the home of senior guide Heather and her family. He's doing very well and gaining weight with four feeds per day. He's also extremely attached to 'Huggie' the soft toy -- who acts as his surrogate mother!" Tourism South Australia said in a Facebook post that accompanied the video.

"Like all cheeky koala babies we hear he's very playful at night, and when he's not snuggling up with Huggie, he likes chewing gum leaves and gum flowers. If all goes well, he'll return to the park when he's a little older to meet and greet its visitors," the comment continued.

LB and Huggie proved to be big hits with the followers of Tourism South Australia's Facebook page -- by Monday afternoon the post had received almost 7,000 likes.

And they've got more videos of koalas to top it all off:

Including these two munchkins:

We've all done it... After a BIG night out at the work Christmas party, Kevin and his mate here were spotted feeling a little worse for wear in Adelaide's leafy inner eastern suburb of Burnside! When @markblyth001 wandered onto his verandah, he stumbled on these two old guys re-enacting a scene from Hangover 'Part Tree', with one well and truly down for the count and the other just finding his voice... We're seeing plenty of wildlife around the city right now, with koalas, kangaroos, possums and birds all clambering out for a drink (of water!). While wild animals such as these should never be handled (call Fauna Rescue of SA if they need help), you can always get up close and personal with their cuddly cousins at @gorgewildlifepark in @visitadelaidehills! #SeeSouthAustralia 🐨🎄🍺 [📍Location: just a 2 hr flight from Sydney to #Adelaide in #SouthAustralia ]

A post shared by South Australia (@southaustralia) on Nov 19, 2017 at 12:57am PST

And this cheeky bugger:

"Back in a minute, honey... just ducking down to the shops..." With Spring roaring into life across Adelaide, so is our wildlife! There's been plenty of koala and kangaroo sightings across city suburbs recently, as @divalicious_food can attest! This guy was spotted taking a stroll along Reids Road in Highbury, not too far down the slope from our glorious @visitadelaidehills. If you drive just up the road to @gorgewildlifepark you'll find plenty more of these cuties, including a few that love a good cuddle! Home to a wide range of native and exotic animals, the park is also home kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, wombats, dingoes, Tasmanian Devils, monkeys, meerkats and more. Easily enough to keep the kids busy for the day! #SeeSouthAustralia 🐨🏃‍♀️ [📍Location: just a 2 hr flight from Sydney to #Adelaide in #SouthAustralia ]

A post shared by South Australia (@southaustralia) on Nov 4, 2017 at 2:10am PDT

Parents of the world: which toilet do you use when taking your children for a bathroom break? The one that corresponds with your own sex, or with theirs?

This is the question that has recently caused some controversy online, after a mother admitted her husband takes their four year old daughter to the ladies public toilet as opposed to the men's.

Ada Hopper sought advice on popular parenting site Mumsnet, saying she felt uncomfortable with his actions, but wasn't sure if she was being unreasonable or not.

"Help dh [Darling Husband] and I with a disagreement please," she wrote.

"When dd [Darling Daughter] (4) needs the loo in a public place, he takes her to the ladies' loos. I told him women don't like that and he should take her to the men's loo. Aibu [am I being unreasonable] or is he?"

It's a predicament that has many parents divided, with some stating women would be uncomfortable with a man in their bathroom, while others saying they would prefer their daughter avoid the men's restroom (particularly with regard to the open urinals) if at all possible.

So what's the right answer?

Again, opinions were divided.

Renowned parenting expert and author Dr Justin Coulson said it was inappropriate for an adult man to enter the ladies' restroom, even if it is to escort his daughter.

"Perhaps Dad might think about how women using those bathrooms would feel to have him present," Coulson told HuffPost Australia.

"While some men's bathrooms are pretty gross, using a women's bathroom is inappropriate except in the most unusual circumstances."

For Jen Hamilton, founder of baby app WOTBaby, it really depends on the situation and also the age of the child.

"This really depends on where you are and what facilities are available. If your child is older and toilet trained then, if possible, it would be a better option for Dad to take his daughter to the male toilet," she told HuffPost Australia.

"However, in saying this, some male toilets can be quite unclean and even more importantly men use urinals and this may not be appropriate for an older girl.

"In an ideal situation I think its best that both the male and female toilets are checked out first and then the decision is made. If the male toilet is clean and there are no other men using it at the time then great! If this is not an option then I think it is reasonable and appropriate for Dad to perhaps just announce his presence in the female toilets and explain why he is there.

"I would like to think most women would be okay with this. I think most people with children would be okay with this. Let's face it, in a women's toilet there are separate cubicles provided with locks on the doors! I would feel safe if there was a man in one helping his daughter use the toilet.

"If your child is younger and in nappies then Dad would, in some places have to use the facilities in the ladies toilet if there was no separate changing/parents room. Men's toilets don't have these facilities usually!"

And as for using the disabled toilet as an option? Is that OK to do? In Hamilton's opinion, the answer is 'absolutely'.

"If this was the only option then YES! When children need to use the toilet there is usually not a lot of time to find a toilet. If a disabled toilet was not being used and it was the only option, then after you assessed the situation and there was no one waiting to use the toilet then children can be excused for using it," she said.

"I'm sure most people, both abled and disabled would understand this. Every decision needs to be made with the utmost respect to others and communication is very much needed in these circumstances.

"I think it's important to be polite with everyone involved and communicate clearly why you need to use the facilities. If there is no other option then what else can you do. Also a lot of disabled toilets have nappy changing facilities so it makes sense!"

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was contemplating legal action against one of its senior members who publicly offered a reward for anyone who beheaded Bollywood star Deepika Padukone playing the titular role in the film Padmavati, triggering massive outrage, disgust and anger.The party's Rajasthan chief said BJP "won't tolerate any violent remarks from our party members".

The party has also asked Suraj Pal Amu, who offered 10 crore on the weekend to behead both Padukone, and the movie's director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, to apologise publicly.

The movie was due to open on Dec. 1 but its producers postponed the release. Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, both ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP, banned it outright, reported Reuters.

"We will not tolerate any violent remarks from our party members, but we also want the director to respect India's history," said Anil Jain, the head of the BJP's state unit in Haryana, to which Amu belongs. He said the party was considering legal action.

However, the party leader's words ring hollow especially after one of its members from Bihar threatened to maim anyone who "raises a finger" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bihar BJP president and Lok Sabha MP from Ujiyarpur, Nityanand Rai, was addressing a crowd at a function organised by OBC communities when he said: "Unki or uthne waali ungali ko, uthne waale haath ko...hum sub milke...ya to tod dein, zaroorat pari to kaat dein. (We will either break the hand or chop off the finger that is raised against Modi.)"

This language of violence has become the norm since the stir against Padmavati gained momentum. Most of the posturing is for TV cameras covering the protests.

Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Kshatriya Mahasabha (ABKM) announced a Rs 1 crore reward for anyone who burns Padukone alive.

"Deepika should know how it feels like to be burnt alive. The actress will never know the sacrifice of the queen. Any person burning her alive will be given Rs 1 crore. We demand that office- bearers of the organisation be shown the movie before it is released," ABKM's youth wing leader Bhuvneshwar Singh said.

ALSO READ: BJP's Objection Over Distorting History Is The Double Standard Of 2017

Hardline Hindu groups have threatened to burn Padukone alive for starring in a film they claim distorts history because it allegedly shows Delhi Sultnate ruler Alauddin Khilji as Rani Padmavati' "lover". Incidentally, the film has not even been released. Bhansali has repeatedly held that his film contains nothing objectionable.

Keshav Prasad Maurya, deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said he would not permit the movie's release unless scenes showing the queen in a "poor light" were deleted.

"How can a Muslim aggressor be portrayed as the real hero and the Hindu king and queen as victims? This is factually incorrect," said Maurya.

The head of the Central Board of Film Certification, Anurag Srivastava, said Padmavati's producers had applied on Nov. 10 to release the film, but the application was denied because producers did not clarify whether the film was based on fact or fiction.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Many of these women believe they're the only one who can reach the ‘real’ person underneath the monster being falsely portrayed. Oren Amitay, a psychologist in Toronto, Canada

They may even take credit for 'reforming' him, as if their love was all he needed to change, the magical ingredient. Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology

But I aint spending any time on it, because in the meantime every three months a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland.”

Japan Foundation had organized a week-long film festival in Delhi, starting from 10 November, in an endeavor to give the Indian audiences a sense of the contemporary Japanese cinema. As many as 15 films were lined up for screening, including feature films, documentaries as well as anime.

The opening film of the Japanese Film Festival was Takeshi Furusawa's ReLIFE – based on a popular web manga. One of Japanese cinema's exciting young talents, Yuna Taira, who plays the film's lead, spoke about her work in an exclusive interview conducted with the help of a translator. Edited excerpts.

Q. You are quite young and you started acting when you were much younger. Tell us about your journey as an actor in Japan. And the challenges you had to deal with.

A. I started my career at the age of 11. With every new film there are new challenges. There is a new role and a new director each time you start off on a new project. I have been doing that for 5-6 years now and have continued to learn while enjoying the new challenges.

Q. Tell us how you approach your roles. What kind of preparation goes into it?

A. Each role is different. Since ReLIFE is based on a comic strip which is very popular in Japan, I had to first study the comic first and in particular the part of Hishiro that I had to play. Then I tried to match the part in the comic strip with my role in the script in order to study every detail of the character.

Q. Japan has produced legends like Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirô Ozu who have brought global recognition to the country. How are the current filmmakers in Japan carrying that legacy forward?

A. Today Japanese movie world is not operating in terms of the directors' brand anymore. The most important director that I can think of is Takeshi Kitano who is also very popular. Apart from him you can't really identify any particular brand of director in whose name the movies are popular.

Q. The issue of gender pay parity is a major concern in showbiz across the world. Do the female actors have to deal with any disparity in terms of pay?

A. Well, the pay does vary depending upon an actor's reputation and career progression but as far as I know there is no discrimination between male and female actors in terms of pay in Japan.

Q. In the past many Japanese actors have acted in Hollywood movies. Are you open to such an opportunity?

A. Since my childhood it has been my dream to work in Hollywood but I feel that I must first do well and excel in the Japanese world and then think of the other opportunities that may open up in due course of time. Also, I need to master the English language first and so it is definitely a part of my long term plan.

Q. What have you heard about the Indian film industry? Have you watched any Indian films? Are you open to working in Bollywood?

A. I haven't seen any Indian movies yet. And so I have no impressions. But I would love to watch Indian movies as I have heard that they are very good. If I get an opportunity then I would definitely love to work in Bollywood.

Q. Tell us about your influences and people who have inspired you. Also tell us about your upcoming projects.

A. My elder sister is also working as an actor. She has been a great source of inspiration for me. I have always wanted to be an actor right from my childhood and my elder sister has been one great influence on me. I basically want to do movies that leave great emotional impact on people, not only in Japan but also outside of Japan. An upcoming movie of mine that's set to release this year is Tsutomu Hanabusa's Miseinen Dakedo Kodomo Janai.