In a recent interview to The Wire, former RAW chief A.S. Dulat suggested that the only way to solve the Kashmir imbroglio is through dialogue, not aggression.

I submit that Mr. Dulat's statements in this context are meaningless clichés and platitudes. They are totally superficial, and reflect little understanding of the realities of the Kashmir problem. Those who think that mere political dialogue can resolve the Kashmir problem are living in a fool's paradise. They do not know what is really happening. So, let me explain.

According to Mr. Dulat, we should open the border with POK and let more militants walk in...

Kashmiri militants are using sophisticated weapons and other supplies. Where are these sophisticated weapons and supplies coming from? Such sophisticated weapons and supplies do not fall from the sky. Obviously, some outside power is supplying them and training the militants to use these weapons. But more on that later.

As for the demand for Azadi, I have already explained why I think it is misguided and reactionary in an article published on HuffPost. Such Azadi will be against the interests of Kashmiris, as it will result in the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and take the Valley back to the Dark Ages. Moreover, Azadi, even if achieved, will not last long. Kashmir will soon thereafter be swallowed up by Pakistan, and come under the Pakistani military jackboot.

The demand that Kashmiris should be making is for the reunification of India and Pakistan (and Bangladesh) under a strong, modern-minded secular state which while guaranteeing freedom of religion to all does not tolerate religious extremism of any sort, whether Hindu or Muslim, and crushes it with an iron hand. This reunited state must then rapidly industrialize the country and ensure a high standard of living to all. Such reunification will not be easy, of course, and will take 15-20 years. Until then the Kashmir pot will keep boiling, however sad and unfortunate that may be.

Now, to return to the points that Mr. Dulat makes in his interview.

1. The Indian government should engage in talks. But with whom?

Mr. Dulat says we should begin with the Hurriyat. But the Hurriyat is a separatist organization which wants Kashmir separated from India, as its leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has repeatedly said. What is the point in talking with them? As for talks with Pakistan, they will keep harping on Azadi for Kashmir. Moreover, Pakistan is a fake, artificial entity (I refuse to call it a country) created by the British on the basis of the bogus two-nation theory to ensure enmity between Hindus and Muslims even after their departure. So what is the point in talking with them either?

The militants demanding Azadi are only brainwashed pawns. The power which is behind these pawns, the real chess player, is China (through Pakistan).

Mr. Dulat completely misses a key point. As I mentioned, militants are using sophisticated weapons that are clearly being supplied by outside powers. Moreover, militants demanding Azadi, such as Burhan Wani, are only brainwashed pawns. The power which is behind these pawns, the real chess player who is using them, is China (through Pakistan), as I have explained in a previous blog. Please do read it in order to understand the real game of China.

2. We should follow "Vajpayee's way", but what exactly is that?

Mr. Dulat says the BJP-PDP alliance has angered the Kashmiris and that we should follow "Vajpayee's way". Again, a meaningless platitude. He says that Vajpayee is revered in the Valley. I have not heard a single Kashmiri of today saying we want to follow "Vajpayee's way" (whatever the expression may mean). And to blame the BJP-PDP alliance for the mess in Kashmir is overlooking the underlying realities. There is a strong foreign power, China, acting through its new surrogate, Pakistan. It's true that a large section of Kashmiris have joined the agitation, but I want to emphasize again that they are being used by China and Pakistan. They are like mindless pawns used by unseen chess players. I've outlined China's motives in this blog.

If Kashmir becomes Azad, will the Kashmiris really be free? No, of course not. The power which has supplied sophisticated weapons, etc to the Kashmiri militants will then demand its pound of flesh, and make the Valley its neo-colony, and exploit it for its own benefit, and not the benefit of Kashmiris.

3. "Insaniyat, jamuriyat and Kashmiriyat"

Mr. Dulat invokes these concepts. But they all are meaningless moral platitudes, conveying nothing, and overlooking the underlying realities, as explained above.

4. The Musharraf "four-point formula"

Mr. Dulat talks favourably of the "Musharraf four-point formula" which, according to him, was acceptable to all the Kashmiris, including the separatists. It was peace on the line of control, with going and coming and open borders and more interaction between the two Kashmirs, trade, armies pulled back.

The demand that Kashmiris should be making is for the reunification of India and Pakistan (and Bangladesh) under a strong, modern-minded secular state...

So according to Mr. Dulat, we should open the border with POK and let more militants walk in. The army should be pulled back so that the militants may have a field day, bringing the entire Valley under their grip, imposing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law, which will drag Kashmir back into the middle ages. Obviously neither Mr. Dulat nor the Kashmiri agitators for Azadi understand this.

Azadi can only be a means to an end, and not an end itself. The end must be raising the standard of living of the people. I have repeatedly said that if it can be demonstrated that Azadi will raise the standard of living of the people of Kashmir -- i.e. provide large scale employment, provide healthcare, tackle poverty -- I will support it. But neither Geelani nor Burhan Wani nor any of their cohorts and associates have ever spoken or even thought of that.

It's now hopefully clear why I say that Mr. Dulat's analysis is totally superficial, and entirely overlooks the realities of the situation in Kashmir.

A version of this post, "Prepare for the long haul in Kashmir", appeared on Justice Katju's blog.

KARKAMIS, Turkey, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Turkey's army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria on Sunday, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.

Turkish warplanes roared into northern Syria at daybreak and its artillery pounded what security sources said were sites held by Kurdish YPG militia, after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce overnight fighting around two villages.

Turkey's military said 25 Kurdish militants were killed in its air strikes. There was no immediate comment from the YPG, but forces aligned with the Kurdish militia have said it withdrew from the area targeted by Turkey before the offensive.

Turkey, which is also battling Kurdish insurgents on its own soil, sent tanks and troops into Syria on Wednesday to support its Syrian rebel allies. The Turkish-backed forces first seized the Syrian border town of Jarablus from Islamic State militants before pushing south into areas held by Kurdish-aligned militias. They have also moved west towards Islamic State areas.

Turkish officials have openly stated that their goal in Syria is as much about ensuring Kurdish forces do not expand the territory they already control along Turkey's border, as it is about driving Islamic State from its strongholds.

However, Turkey's offensive has so far focused mostly on targeting forces allied to the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition that includes YPG, an Observatory source said.

The SDF has support from the United States, which sees the group as an effective Syrian ally against Islamic State. So Turkey's action against SDF-allied forces puts it odds with a fellow NATO member, adding a further twist to Syria's complex war that began in 2011 with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and has drawn in regional states and world powers.

The Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group with a network of sources in Syria, said Turkish-allied forces had seized two villages south of Jarablus, Jub al-Kousa and al-Amarna, that were held by militias loyal to the SDF.

The fighting killed 20 civilians in Jub al-Kousa and 15 in al-Amarna, while scores more were wounded, the group said.

HEADING SOUTH

The Observatory said rebels backed by Turkish tanks fought until dawn against rival militias allied to the SDF around al-Amarna. SDF-allied militia damaged three Turkish tanks, it said.

Turkish security sources said warplanes and artillery had hit Kurdish YPG militia sites south of frontier town of Jarablus and towards Manbij, a city captured by Kurdish-aligned SDF this month in a U.S.-backed operation.

Colonel Ahmed Osman, head of the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad rebel group, told Reuters the force was "certainly heading in the direction of Manbij" and hoped to take it days. He also said Turkish-backed rebels were pushing west against Islamic State.

The Ankara government wants to stop Kurdish forces gaining control of an unbroken swathe of Syrian territory on Turkey's frontier, which it fears could embolden the Kurdish militant group PKK that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

A Reuters witness in Karkamis, a Turkish border town, heard jets and artillery bomb Syrian targets. A Turkish official told Reuters even heavier air strikes could follow in coming hours.

Turkey said one of its soldiers was killed on Saturday when a rocket hit a tank that it said came from a YPG-controlled area. It was the first Turkish death reported in the campaign.

Turkey has suffered shock waves from the conflict raging in its southern neighbor, including frequent bomb attacks by Islamic State. The government suspects the jihadist group was behind a blast at a wedding this month that killed 54 people.

President Tayyip Erdogan was expected to visit the site of that wedding attack in Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, later on Sunday to pay his respects to families of the victims.

NEW DELHI -- The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government and senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan over a Bulandshahr rape victims' plea seeking a transfer of the case out of the state.

While issuing a notice, the apex court pulled up both the Samajwadi Party-led state government and Azam Khan for their unwarranted comments.

The Supreme Court said calling an incident of rape a 'conspiracy' cannot be called freedom of speech and defeats principles of constitutional compassion

The apex court said statements issued by political leaders like Azam Khan affect the public and to create mistrust in the investigation and the entire system.

Khan had earlier hinted at a political conspiracy behind the gang-rape of the mother-daughter duo in Bulandshahr.

Khan said that a desperate opposition could stoop to any level to defame and disgrace the government since the state elections are approaching.

However, the Samajwadi Party leader defended his remarks.

"I never said there is a conspiracy by the opposition. I said that as the elections are near, we all should find from where these protests and incidents are coming from. I never said that this was a conspiracy by the opposition," Khan said in Lucknow.

"If we were not sensitive about them, then how can such a quick response have been made. It is because of their pain that we are saying that the accused should be arrested as soon as possible and a proper investigation should be done to find out the truth. This case requires strict action," he added.

The incident took place earlier on the intervening night of 29-30 July when a 35-year-old woman and her daughter were allegedly gang-raped by a group of robbers in Bulandshahr district.

The victims were on their way from Noida to Shahjahanpur with the other family members when their vehicle was stopped near a cycle repairing shop in Dostpur village on NH-9, which connects Noida and Bulandshahr.

Also On HuffPost:

Rap master Baba Sehgal, who set the hip-hop ball rolling in India all those years ago, is still churning out new stuff, rhyming and punning in videos that look like they were made back in the 1980s when he first hit the scene.

The lyrically prolific music star has adapted well to Twitter, never shying from sharing the deep thoughts couched in puns that run through his mind.

Read More: 12 Baba Sehgal Life Lessons To Keep You Thanda Thanda All Day

In his new video, the inimitable "Aa Jaa Meri Gaadi Mein Baith Ja" man who has inspired generations, has a take on America's Trump phenomena. Here is a sample of Baba's views on the Republican Party's nominee for the President of the United States:

Nominee Hai US Ke Rashtrapati Ka

Deewana Hai Fruit Mein Nashpati Ka

Enough said. For more insights, watch the video here.

Or, here:

Also see on HuffPost:

As India celebrates 70 years of Independence, the greatest battle that eludes the nation is the right to dignity for Dalits. From Una to deciphering the late Rohit Vemula's caste, the deep undercurrent of not giving Dalits their rightful place in the public sphere has left deep scars which we as a responsible nation conveniently choose to ignore.

In the pursuit of ensuring basic dignity and respect, it will be prudent to gradually evolve a consensus over integrating Dalits into the mainstream. History has been witness to several key social reformers, who have left an indelible mark in paving the way for empowering Dalits.

Dalits in the state were derided as not just untouchables but 'unseeables' and 'unapproachables'.

A prime example is the advent of Kerala's remarkable social reformer, Ayyankali—a subaltern hero who is forgotten in the annals of history. The social reformer was born in Kerala, which in the 19th century witnessed the despicable treatment of untouchables. Dalits in the state were derided as not just untouchables but 'unseeables' and 'unapproachables'. It is in these circumstances that Ayyankali rose to become the Dalit voice in the social milieu of Kerala.

Ayyankali was a rebel with a cause. He firmly stood rooted in ensuring Dalits had their share of representation. But he did not play the role of a disruptor by going against the State. At a time when there was no space for Dalits in the public sphere, Ayyankali brought in revolutionary steps that sowed the seeds of future Dalit-led empowerment.

First, it is important to recognise that India of the 19th century suffered from rampant caste discrimination. In his book My father Baliah, Y.B. Satyanarayana writes how deep rooted caste divisions were in rural India during those times. One can discern the remnants of such discrimination through the construction of houses in today's Telangana from where Satyanarayana hailed. He writes that in a colony the houses of the upper castes came first, followed by the houses of the lower castes. The book records that the construction of houses was envisioned in such a way that the wind blew from the houses of upper castes to the lower castes as the opposite was considered inauspicious.

In Kerala, Dalits were not allowed to walk on public roads. Dalits were warned to maintain a distance of at least 64 steps away from Nairs and 128 steps away from Namboodiris. In response, Ayyankali chose to do the unthinkable. In his days, a person of Ayankalli's caste (Pulayars) was not allowed to buy bullock carts or walk on roads reserved for the upper castes. But Ayankalli defied these norms and walked on public roads in a bullock cart bought with his own money. With a single notable act, Ayyankali succeeded in subverting the traditional order.

Ayyankali was a rebel with a cause. He firmly stood rooted in ensuring Dalits had their share of representation.

Thoughts shape actions. Ayyankali's actions were deeply influenced by Sadanand Swami a reformist Nair Sannyasi who was against those who put such discrimination into practice. Ayyankali's thoughts and actions mirrored his contemporary Sree Narayana Guru. In 1907, Ayyankali established the Sadhu Jana Paripala Sangam (SJPS). This institution was formed to unite members from depressed communities beyond the traditional strongholds of upper castes. It also encouraged Dalit women. These women went on to play an integral role in raising funds for the Sangam. Ayyankali contributed significantly in ensuring justice to Dalits. He was instrumental in establishing community courts, whose local offices functioned in every branch of the SJPS. Some of the appeals of the lower courts were directed to the Supreme Court of Venganur where Ayyankali was the judge.

The social reformer always advocated Dalits to arm themselves with education. In his words, education was a powerful weapon against discrimination. Ayyankali believed that modern education was the passport to enter into the public sphere dominated by the educated upper caste. Towards this Ayyankali led a number of agitations to ensure that Dalits benefit from education. His final objective was to ensure that Dalit children were given the right to education in all schools across the state. This move mirrors the essence of the Bhagavad Geeta.

There is no adequate representation for Dalits in the political realm today. In his times, Ayyankali understood that to effect any change political will is necessary. Thus, he began to earnestly work to see that Dalits were represented in the political realm. P.K. Govinda Pillai was nominated to the Srimoolam Praja Sabha as a representative of the SJPS. In 1911, Ayyankali himself was nominated to the Srimoolam Praja Sabha. In his speeches at the Sabha, he consistently reiterated the point of including at least five members of the Pulayar community into the Sabha. Ayyankali was a pragmatic philosopher and guide. According to him, there are five pillars of success which he laid down to the subaltern. These pillars were, achieve progress through faith in God, modern dressing, cleanliness, obedience, and discipline. In their book "Ayyankali, A Dalit Leader of Organic Protest", Meena Kandaswamy and M. Nisar write that Ayyankali also began to work with the Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha, Kerala Hindu Mission and other social reform groups to achieve his objective of integrating the subaltern into the mainstream.

Dalit issues ranging from atrocities to representation and empowerment have predominant influences on the political narrative. It is often observed that social issues are turned into misguided missiles under the influence of passionate rhetoric and emotional platitudes. In the name of standing up for social justice, one-sided reportage and columns are being written against the Central Government. But it is this government that observed and celebrated the birth anniversary of Ayyankali in 2014. It is imperative to see that the problem of caste is more social than political.

Yes, the Dalit narrative today is replete with stories of agony, victimhood, and protest. But ignoring the positive side of the rise of Dalits through pure effort and merit would be a great disservice to their cause. Taking inspiration from the vision and mission of Ayyankali on August 28, his birth anniversary, India can ensure that the battle for the right to dignity is won, especially for the Dalits.

(Guru Prakash and Sudarshan Ramabadran are Research Fellows at the India Foundation. The views expressed are strictly personal.)

This post was first published on the Millennium Post.

A middle-aged man watches over his two young kids at bedtime, his hand holding theirs with assurance as they nod off. One of them is already asleep, while the other looks at the camera with droopy eyes.

This image is part of Bengaluru-based photographer Mahesh Shantaram's ongoing series called 'The African Portraits', which focuses on the everyday lives of Africans living in India. The man in the photograph is Wandoh, a single father who is originally from Chad but has been living in India for over a decade. This languid scene of fatherhood and domesticity is one that is rarely seen in mainstream reportage on Africans in India.

Shantaram began the series when a Tanzanian woman was stripped and assaulted earlier this year, after a Sudanese man's car accidentally hit and killed a local woman in Bengaluru, the photographer's home city. The incident prompted him to find out more about Africans in the city, and that investigation then took him to Jaipur, Delhi and Manipal.

"Xenophobia begins when you have no understanding of the other," Shantaram told HuffPost India, in the midst of a shoot in Rajpur Khurd, an urban village in South Delhi where a group of Africans was attacked in June. "The portraits are a way of saying that they live like we do. Rather than making them victims, it is to humanise them. They are just average people who we share our city and country with."

"The portraits are a way of saying that they live like we do. Rather than making victims, it is to humanise them."

The contemplative portraits steer clear of stereotypes, instead highlighting individual identities and plural cultural backgrounds. Primarily shot at night, they have been taken inside the subjects' homes or in the neighbourhoods where they live, indicating a certain level of intimacy and comfort between the photographer and the subject. Their posed and formal nature is in contrast to the candid documentary-style wedding and political photographs that Shantaram is known for, but they are also rooted in real-life stories.

After the attack on the Tanzanian woman, Shantaram began reading news reports of Africans living in India, and discovered that they were mostly written about in the aftermath of racially-motivated attacks. He began contacting individuals mentioned in these reports through Facebook, emails, reporters, and friends who could provide an introduction. While some had shifted or moved back to Africa, others wrote back and agreed to speak.

"The attack on the Tanzanian student was in the news for a week, and then the Kanhaiya Kumar episode broke out and we forgot all about it," Shantaram recalled. "I wondered if there was a resolution. I just wanted to meet people and understand what was happening. Then, it became a natural response to photograph them."

When someone agreed to meet for an interview, the photographer spent a few hours just talking to them about their lives in India, their studies and what they had left behind in their home countries. "Nobody has shown much concern for them and they are surprised when someone wants to listen," Shantaram said.

The vibrant portraits are also full of colour, and have been all shot at night using long exposures. The nocturnal setting evokes a picture of isolation and exclusion, that speaks of their real-life experiences in colleges and their locations in the outskirts of the city where the rents are cheaper.

"These are not just portraits of Africans you're looking at, but India, Indians and Indian behaviour."

Many African students who spoke to Shantaram revealed that they had trouble making friends in India in colleges and schools. Other talked of being charged more than Indians by local shopkeepers or being abused by people on the streets for no reason. "Indian students don't want to sit with them and just move away. Colleges want African dollars but don't want Africans themselves. Rarely do they make African students feel welcome," Shantaram recalled. "So racism is not only when someone gets beaten or killed. It can be an untold, invisible, social violence that they face everyday."

The photographer has focused mostly on African students, and plans to work on the project until March, through the duration of one academic year. "Students are an extremely vulnerable group," Shantaram said. "They seem to have no agency in India. It is difficult for them to deal with the government, shopkeepers and police. It seems like a life of everyday racism and injustice everywhere."

During the meetings, Shantaram also discovered what had happened to them in the aftermath of racially-provoked attacks. Wandoh, who Shantaram photographed with his kids at bedtime, was beaten up and verbally abused after asking two bikers to drive properly in 2013. He had lived in the locality for over a decade, but no one had helped him. Since the attack, he has struggled to bring up his kids as a single father, after his wife died in 2014.

"As an artist, my role is not to provide solutions but to hold mirror up to society," Shantaram said. "These are not just portraits of Africans you're looking at, but India, Indians and Indian behaviour."

Mahesh Shantaram's The African Portraits is on display at Tasveer Gallery in Bengaluru until September 23.

KOLKATA -- The West Bengal state Assembly today passed a resolution to change the name of the state from West Bengal to 'Bangla' in Bengali and 'Bengal' in English. The opposition Congress, BJP and Left Front opposed the move.

The resolution was moved by state Parliamentary Affairs minister Partha Chatterjee under rule 169, which said that the name of the state would be 'Bangla' in Bengali , 'Bengal' in English and 'Bangal' in Hindi.

Speaking on the motion, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said "The name Bangla has a historical and cultural background. I don't have any problem with the name of 'Bango' either. But most of the people want the name 'Bangla'. In English it will be 'Bengal' so that there will be no confusion with the name of neighbouring Bangladesh."

"Whenever we go out of India or to some other state we are known as people from Bengal. In 2011 we had once proposed to change the name of the state, but it was held back by the Centre. There was no decision regarding it. So we decided to bring it once again to change the name of the state to 'Bangla'," Banerjee said.

Later speaking to reporters, Banerjee said "Those who are opposing the name change just for the sake of politics should be ashamed. It is a historic blunder and the history will not forgive them."

She said that the matter would now be sent to the central government and then it will be placed in Parliament.

"I will request the central government to pursue the matter so that it can be placed in Parliament. We want it to be done as early as possible," she said.

Banerjee also criticised state BJP president and MlA Dilip Ghosh for his recent comments that he would not allow it to be passed.

"I will see how he can stop it. I will speak to the Union home minister. Who is he (Dilip Ghosh) to stop it?" Banerjee said.

Also On HuffPost:

While the Censor Board or CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) has earned a notorious reputation for suggesting arbitrary cuts in films, much to the annoyance of the film fraternity, here's case nobody would have anticipated.

The Pahlaj Nihalani-led Board demanded a shot showing a woman's bra to be removed from the upcoming Sidharth Malhotra-Katrina Kaif-starrer time-travel drama Baar Baar Dekho before granting it a 'U/A' certificate, dna reported.

The reason? The Examining Committee found it 'offensive.'

Yes, the EC of CBFC found bras, essential innerwear for women, offensive. Just like that.

The Board also wanted a reference to comic-book porno Savita Bhabi deleted.

Understandably, the makers of Baar Baar Dekho -- producers Karan Johar and Ritesh Sidhwani and debutante director Nitya Mehra were aghast.

But with only a week to go until the film's release, the film's team had no option but to succumb to the Board's senseless diktat.

Quoting a source, dna said, "We don't live in times where women's innerwear is never spoken of in public. In fact, even as late as 1995, there was a scene featuring Kajol in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Moreover, BBD is directed by a woman (Nitya Mehra). To assume she'd use the lingerie scene for titillation is absurd."

This is not the first time the Board has found itself being in the news for the wrong reasons. In June this year, the CBFC imposed as many as 89 cuts on Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab, a decision that was dismissed by the Bombay High Court after a petition was filed there by the producers.

Also see on HuffPost:

NEW DELHI -- It was a celebration of woman power in sports as Olympic stars PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar were today conferred India's highest sporting honour -- the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna -- along with shooter Jitu Rai in a gleaming awards ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.

For the first time in the history of National Sports Awards, four athletes were chosen for the Khel Ratna honour, owing to the three girls' superlative show at the Rio Olympics.

In 2009, three athletes -- boxers Vijender Singh and MC Mary Kom and wrestler Sushil Kumar -- had been given this award together.

Shuttler Sindhu won a historic silver in the women's singles, Sakshi won India's first ever medal (bronze) in women's wrestling while Dipa grabbed a piece of history for herself with a fourth place finish in artistic gymnastics with her now famous Produnova vault.

Shooter Jitu Rai was always a contender after consistently producing medal-winning performances in the last two years, including gold at the Asian and Commonwealth Games along with a silver at the World Championships. The four Khel Ratnas, who were greeted with a loud round of applause when they walked up to receive their awards from President Pranab Mukherjee, received a medal, certificate and cash prize of ₹7.5 lakh each.

Also honoured were 15 Arjuna awardees who received statuettes, certificates and award money of ₹5 lakh each.

Long distance runner Lalita Babar, who finished a creditable 10th in the 3000m steeplechase in the Rio Games, boxer Shiva Thapa, only the third Indian to win a World Championships medal last year, and hockey players VR Raghunath and Rani Rampal were among those who received the Arjuna award.

Cricketer Ajinkya Rahane, who was also selected for the Arjuna Award, missed out on the ceremony as he is in the United States with the Indian team for a Twenty20 series against the West Indies.

Teen Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, the first Indian athlete to become a world champion at any level with a gold medal at the U-20 World Championship, was also among the Arjuna winners this year.

Goalkeeper Subrata Paul was the lone footballer in the list of Arjuna awardees, which also included shooter Apurvi Chandela and wrestler Vinesh Phogat.

Vinesh received her award while seated on wheelchair as she is recovering from a knee injury sustained in her second-round bout during the Rio Olympic Games.

This year's Dronacharya Award was conferred upon six coaches, the most notable among them being Dipa's coach Bishweshwar Nandi and India Test team captain Virat Kohli's mentor Raj Kumar Sharma.

Also On HuffPost:

Women's Equality Day was declared on August 26, 1971, to honor the ratification of the 19th amendment ― the amendment that legalized a woman's right to vote.

Remarkable strides in women's rights have been made in the years since: Access to contraception in the late 1960s meant more and more women rejecting predetermined and increasingly outdated gender roles, and entering the workforce and getting their education. The Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade in 1973, thus granting women constitutionally-protected control over their own bodies.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the terms "sexual harassment" and "acquaintance rape" or "date rape" entered the national lexicon, thus providing women with legal protection for issues that had kept them silent or victimized as they entered more male-dominated industries.

In the aughts (and continuing through the 2000s), the internet has been both good and bad for women ― trolls aside, increasing awareness of feminist issues and women's equality through social media has helped to bring blatant sexism and inequality into the mainstream. Twitter hashtag movements like #YesAllWomen and #MasculinitySoFragile have exposed much of the sexism that women have put up with forever ― only now we have platforms, like Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr, to share our experiences.

And though the advancement of women's rights since and equality since 1971 is absolutely worth celebrating, it's just as important to recognize the ways in which women are still unequal to men.

***

1. The gender wage gap is very, very real.

A 2014 study by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) confirmed that the wage gap is, in fact, real all across the U.S. ― women earn an average of 79 cents to men's dollar. Women of color are affected even more: Latina women earn 54 cents and black women earn 63 cents for every white man's dollar, respectively.

2. There are more CEOs named "John" than there are women CEOs.

As if being paid less weren't enough, a 2015 CNN analysis confirmed that only 14.2 percent of the top five leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies are held by women. There are actually more male CEOs named "John" than there are women CEOs.

3. There are more women living below the poverty line than men.

Women are much more likely to live in poverty. According to research by the National Women's Law Center, "Poverty is a women's issue. Nearly six in 10 poor adults are women, and nearly six in 10 poor children live in families headed by women." Older women, single mothers, and women of color are particularly vulnerable to things that can lead to poverty ― like the aforementioned wage gap and lack of structural state support for single mothers and the elderly.

4. Women face regular threats to health care access.

This is more than just a debate about abortion access ― with the demonization of abortion providers comes the shuttering of clinics that provide other essential services like breast and cervical cancer screenings, pap smears and STI tests. This year has been a particularly eventful for reproductive rights, with the passing of draconian

This year has been a particularly eventful for reproductive rights, with the passing of draconian TRAP laws across the U.S., and many women's health centers having to close their doors ― including one in Grand Chute, Wisconsin that announced its closure on Monday. And even though the Supreme Court ruled in favor of women's health care access earlier this year with Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, the Texas clinics that were shut down before the decision will likely not be opening anytime soon. And this reduction of funds and access to women's health care is thought to contribute to the rise of maternal death in Texas in particular.

5. Women are more likely to be sexually assaulted.

The statistics for sexual assault are haunting: The CDC reports that 1 in 5 women in the U.S. will be raped in her lifetime, where for men, the likelihood is much smaller at 1 in 71.

Sexual assault has tremendously damning consequences for women ― unplanned pregnancies, STIs, trauma-related mental health issues and physical injuries are just some of them.

And the U.S. justice system is not particularly kind to women who have suffered from sexual assault ― how can we truly reach equality when violently assaulting a woman gets you minimal jail time or only probation?

6. Women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence.

Like sexual assault, when it comes to domestic violence women are much, much more likely to be victims ― 85 percent of domestic violence victims are women, and women are also stalked at a huge rate compared to men: every year, an estimated 1,006,970 women in the U.S. are stalked, compared to 370,990 men. Studies also show that 81 percent of women who are stalked are also physically abused by the male partner who stalks them.

7. Sexualized online harassment plagues women much more than men.

Men and women alike face online trolling and harassment, but women face a particularly brutal and disturbing kind of harassment ― just ask Leslie Jones, who, for months now, has been on the receiving end of racist and sexist harassment on top of having her website hacked. Earlier this summer, prominent feminist writer Jessica Valenti left social media after rape threats were made to her 5-year-old daughter.

Online stalking and rape or other sexually violent threats are a way to get women (and their opinions) offline ― and therefore out of the public discourse completely.

8. Women are still a minority in U.S. Congress.

Many of the above issues are decided upon by a Congress made up of 80 percent men, according to The Washington Post. But a 2015 analysis proved that it's actually women in the Senate who get shit done ― and when there's so much at stake for women in this country, it's not really a surprise, is it?

This article has been adapted from a 2015 piece on Women's Equality Day.

LONDON -- Two hijab-clad Muslim woman were reportedly thrown out of a high-end French restaurant after the owner refused to serve them arguing that "all Muslims are terrorists".

A video of the incident that took place at a restaurant in the Paris suburb of Tremblay-en-France has gone viral and it shows the restaurateur apparently refusing to serve two Muslim women.

In the video, the man tells the hijab-wearing women, "Terrorists are Muslims and all Muslims are terrorists", BBC reported.

The incident took place at Le Cenacle restaurant on Saturday night. However, the man yesterday apologised to a group who had gathered outside.

He said he had "got out of hand" due to the current tensions around the issue of wearing burkinis on French beaches, but also because he had a friend who had died at the Bataclan concert centre attack last November, French newspaper Le Parisien reported.

The local prosecutors' office told the paper that it had opened an investigation into racial discrimination.

The video inside the restaurant appears to have been covertly filmed by one of the women, who were clearly emotional.

"We don't want to be served by racists," one of them said. The man retorted: "Racists don't kill people...I don't want people like you at my place. Full stop."

Government Minister Laurence Rossignol was quoted as saying that she had asked Dilcra, a government anti-racism body, to investigate, describing the behaviour as "intolerable".

The incident comes amid the burkini ban controversy in France. A court ruling on Friday overturned France's controversial burkini ban on civil liberties grounds, but some local authorities have vowed to keep it in place.

French anti-Islamophobia organisation CCIF said it is offering legal and psychological support to the two young women and appealed for no protests outside the restaurant itself.

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Call it a Reliance Jio effect or price wars. Mobile operators across the country have started slashing data rates. The three-month free data preview offer has forced almost all the carriers to cut down their 3G/4G pack rates.

The new offer from Airtel allows the consumers to add 1 GB of 4G data to their pack at just ₹51. But you have to pay ₹1468 for the first 1 GB of data.

Recently, the government directed the telecom companies to increase the data pack validity to 12 months. Following that Airtel will allow the users to recharge any number of times by paying ₹51.

The smaller six-month validity option is also available. For that, the consumers have to pay ₹768 for the first gigabyte of 4G data. All the subsequent packs of 1 GB data will cost you ₹99.

"These prepaid packs are live in Delhi and will get launched across circles by Aug 31, 2016," Airtel said.

In August all the major telecom companies including Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea slashed their data rates by almost 67%.

Reliance Jio has started the open sale of their SIM cards with 90 days of preview offer. Even though every day there new partnerships being launched anyone with a 4G phone can snag a Jio SIM. Although a lot of customers are complaining that the SIM activation is slow and lethargic.

The company has got a lot of praise for the data speeds it is offering. But when the commercial launch takes place, it has to take care of a tremendous amount of consumers. Jio has requested for additional bandwidth but COAI turned down the request.

There are reports suggesting that Mukesh Ambani might launch Jio commercially on September 1.

Always on the move and living out of his car, Merwyn Coutinho has a lifestyle that could confound the best of us. "The idea is to constantly keep moving," Coutinho tells HuffPost India. It was during one such expedition in Arunachal Pradesh with Rajiv Rathod, that the duo came up with the idea for The Batti Project.

The idea was both simple and ambitious -- to light up villages in remote areas by installing solar lighting kits. "We never planned this project. It was an accidental outcome of our trip to Arunachal," Coutinho says.

They have begun with villages in Arunachal Pradesh. "It is about lighting and not electricity. Introducing them to electricity would be intervening too much in their lives," he explains.

So far, the Batti Project has brought light to over 250 houses.

Coutinho and Rathod began going to remote areas and villages in the border state and providing people with 'the Batti kit', that includes a 20-watt solar panel (20 watts), a 20 Ah lead battery, three 3-watt LED tubes, 3 holders and switches, 21 metres of fixed cabling (5, 7 and 9 m respectively), and a charge controller.

It speaks volumes about their efforts that people are now not only approaching them for the kits but also requesting them to build bridges and rope-ways. "Right now, we are looking at products which are simple to execute and can be efficiently used. We don't want to change their life but just assist them in what they do," Coutinho explains.

He saw little point in approaching the government to help those that he and Rathor are providing the kit to. "These places are so cut-off from the mainland that it is an arduous task for even the government to reach here," he says. "Logistics make grid connectivity difficult here and the government will have to spend a lot to get electricity to these places."

The scope of their work has been sharply defined. "We just wanted to give them a unit and enable them to generate as much power as required," Coutinho adds. "If we teach them the basics, they will be able to use and even upgrade the unit according to their need. We want them to get electricity for a couple of hours so that they can wrap up their work for the day easily."

The process of procuring and installing the kits is long. After identifying a village and the number of houses that need lighting, comes fundraising, which is probably the toughest part. "We are trying to come up with different ways of fundraising, like a charity challenge," Coutinho says. "We got people to cycle to these remote parts. One such ride enables 100 houses."

They are also looking at alternative money raising schemes, such as e-waste recycling. The idea is to collect e-waste such as used laptops, phones and other electronic goods, and then sell them to recyclers. "We have started an e-waste campaign in Bengaluru and we are in talks with people in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai," Coutinho says.

After sufficient funds are collected, they procure solar kits and then transport them to distribution points from where the kits are dispatched to villages and houses, and eventually installed. Villagers are then trained to use them.

"The first house we lit belonged to a 90-year-old woman," Coutinho recalls. "She had never seen a switch her entire life and was very hesitant. She told us that she has spent all her life in darkness."

Hesitation soon gave way to enthusiasm. "Her grandson came up to me and said that the unit is proving to be quite troublesome," he continues. "When he asks her to switch it off, she refuses, saying that she has been given this to bring light, so then why does she need to turn it off. So, now, they wait for her to sleep to switch it off."

The Batti Project hopes to light up another 22 houses in Arunachal in the first week of September. The larger plan is to cover 5,000 houses, which Coutinho believes could take up to two to three years. "Meanwhile, we want to venture into different technological products," he says. After Arunachal Pradesh, the Batti Project aims to light up remote areas of Assam.

"We are just the facilitator," Coutinho says. "Without people's support, it won't lead anywhere. As long as we have support, and as long as people contribute -- not only money, but intellectually or even pulling in man-hours -- we are good."

Women's Equality Day was declared on August 26, 1971, to honor the ratification of the 19th amendment ― the amendment that legalized a woman's right to vote.

Remarkable strides in women's rights have been made in the years since: Access to contraception in the late 1960s meant more and more women rejecting predetermined and increasingly outdated gender roles, and entering the workforce and getting their education. The Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade in 1973, thus granting women constitutionally-protected control over their own bodies.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the terms "sexual harassment" and "acquaintance rape" or "date rape" entered the national lexicon, thus providing women with legal protection for issues that had kept them silent or victimized as they entered more male-dominated industries.

In the aughts (and continuing through the 2000s), the internet has been both good and bad for women ― trolls aside, increasing awareness of feminist issues and women's equality through social media has helped to bring blatant sexism and inequality into the mainstream. Twitter hashtag movements like #YesAllWomen and #MasculinitySoFragile have exposed much of the sexism that women have put up with forever ― only now we have platforms, like Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr, to share our experiences.

And though the advancement of women's rights since and equality since 1971 is absolutely worth celebrating, it's just as important to recognize the ways in which women are still unequal to men.

***

1. The gender wage gap is very, very real.

A 2014 study by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) confirmed that the wage gap is, in fact, real all across the U.S. ― women earn an average of 79 cents to men's dollar. Women of color are affected even more: Latina women earn 54 cents and black women earn 63 cents for every white man's dollar, respectively.

2. There are more CEOs named "John" than there are women CEOs.

As if being paid less weren't enough, a 2015 CNN analysis confirmed that only 14.2 percent of the top five leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies are held by women. There are actually more male CEOs named "John" than there are women CEOs.

3. There are more women living below the poverty line than men.

Women are much more likely to live in poverty. According to research by the National Women's Law Center, "Poverty is a women's issue. Nearly six in 10 poor adults are women, and nearly six in 10 poor children live in families headed by women." Older women, single mothers, and women of color are particularly vulnerable to things that can lead to poverty ― like the aforementioned wage gap and lack of structural state support for single mothers and the elderly.

4. Women face regular threats to health care access.

This is more than just a debate about abortion access ― with the demonization of abortion providers comes the shuttering of clinics that provide other essential services like breast and cervical cancer screenings, pap smears and STI tests. This year has been a particularly eventful for reproductive rights, with the passing of draconian

This year has been a particularly eventful for reproductive rights, with the passing of draconian TRAP laws across the U.S., and many women's health centers having to close their doors ― including one in Grand Chute, Wisconsin that announced its closure on Monday. And even though the Supreme Court ruled in favor of women's health care access earlier this year with Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, the Texas clinics that were shut down before the decision will likely not be opening anytime soon. And this reduction of funds and access to women's health care is thought to contribute to the rise of maternal death in Texas in particular.

5. Women are more likely to be sexually assaulted.

The statistics for sexual assault are haunting: The CDC reports that 1 in 5 women in the U.S. will be raped in her lifetime, where for men, the likelihood is much smaller at 1 in 71.

Sexual assault has tremendously damning consequences for women ― unplanned pregnancies, STIs, trauma-related mental health issues and physical injuries are just some of them.

And the U.S. justice system is not particularly kind to women who have suffered from sexual assault ― how can we truly reach equality when violently assaulting a woman gets you minimal jail time or only probation?

6. Women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence.

Like sexual assault, when it comes to domestic violence women are much, much more likely to be victims ― 85 percent of domestic violence victims are women, and women are also stalked at a huge rate compared to men: every year, an estimated 1,006,970 women in the U.S. are stalked, compared to 370,990 men. Studies also show that 81 percent of women who are stalked are also physically abused by the male partner who stalks them.

7. Sexualized online harassment plagues women much more than men.

Men and women alike face online trolling and harassment, but women face a particularly brutal and disturbing kind of harassment ― just ask Leslie Jones, who, for months now, has been on the receiving end of racist and sexist harassment on top of having her website hacked. Earlier this summer, prominent feminist writer Jessica Valenti left social media after rape threats were made to her 5-year-old daughter.

Online stalking and rape or other sexually violent threats are a way to get women (and their opinions) offline ― and therefore out of the public discourse completely.

8. Women are still a minority in U.S. Congress.

Many of the above issues are decided upon by a Congress made up of 80 percent men, according to The Washington Post. But a 2015 analysis proved that it's actually women in the Senate who get shit done ― and when there's so much at stake for women in this country, it's not really a surprise, is it?

This article has been adapted from a 2015 piece on Women's Equality Day.

When Deona Duke woke up from a medically-induced coma to begin recovering from burns that covered almost a third of her body, one of her treatments was hurling snowballs at penguins. The 13-year-old was set on fire when a bonfire exploded on her and her friend. To prevent infection, burn victims need their bandages changed and dead skin scraped away. Sometimes, even morphine isn't enough to make that tolerable.

At the Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston, Duke's doctors gave her a virtual reality headset. Slipping it on, she was immersed in "SnowWorld," an icy landscape where she got to lob snow at snowmen and igloos. The Texas hospital is one of the few trying out virtual reality to relieve pain.

"I'd never heard of it so I was a little surprised," she said. "When I first tried it, it distracted me from what they were doing so it helped with the pain."

It's still a new and experimental approach, but proponents of virtual reality say that it can be an effective treatment for everything from intense pain to Alzheimer's disease to arachnophobia to depression. And as Facebook Inc., Sony Corp., HTC Corp. and others race to build a dominant VR set, the price of hardware has fallen, making the equipment a more affordable option for hospitals looking for alternatives for pain relief.

The idea is that the worst pain can be alleviated by manipulating the way the human mind works: the more you focus on pain, the worse it feels. Swamp the brain with an overload of sensory inputs—such as with the immersion in a virtual world—and its capacity to process pain, to be conscious of it, goes down.

"Pain is our harm alarm and it does a really good job of getting our attention," said Beth Darnall, a clinical associate professor at Stanford Health Care's division of pain medicine. She says VR, which Stanford has done some pilot studies on, is a psychological tool, like meditation, that can "calm the nervous system, and that dampens the pain processing."

In research done at Shriners by psychologists Hunter Hoffman and Walter Meyer, and similar work done by Dave Patterson at Harborview Burn Center in Seattle, patients reported less discomfort. Hoffman examined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of patients' brains, which showed they actually experienced less pain.

"I was very surprised by it. I didn't have the expectation of it working."

At Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Ronald Yarbrough is waiting in a room that overlooks the hospital's landing pad, hoping to see helicopter bring him a donor heart. He needs a transplant after his artificial one failed and is being kept alive by a machine. He has been trying a Samsung Gear VR headset and specially created software from a startup called AppliedVR. It helped take his mind off the fact that he's confined to a small hospital room that can feel like a jail cell. When his muscles relaxed, his pain receded, he said.

"I was on a lot of pain medication and I've been able to whittle that down because I'm not sitting around thinking about it," said the 54-year-old former truck driver. He intends to buy a VR headset when he's discharged. "I was very surprised by it. I didn't have the expectation of it working. When I got into it, I was amazed."

Proponents of VR are quick to point out that it could have a big benefit over drugs, which can lead to tolerance over prolonged use and sometimes addiction. But VR's effectiveness still has to be proven, particularly when trying to combat chronic pain. Does the effect last when the headset comes off?

"We know that relaxation techniques like hypnosis, yoga, and meditation decrease your perception of pain, so VR has a lot of promise, but it's too early for it to be the standard of care," said Houman Danesh, director of integrative pain management at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. "It's a very young technology."

There's a lot more research needed before VR is going to be widely accepted as a pain relief method. Brennan Spiegel, a gastroenterologist at Cedars-Sinai who's also director of health services research at the Los Angeles hospital, is about to begin a study on many more patients. So far he's experienced a range of reactions. Older patients tend to be less open to it than younger ones. One terminal patient refused to even consider it. One woman, who suffered abdominal pain, got such immediate relief that she went home and bought herself a headset.

The price of a headset and software is tiny compared to the expense of keeping a patient in the hospital for an extra day.

"As a scientist, I want to understand rigorously how something like virtual reality can truly improve health outcomes compared to a control population," said Spiegel who said he's seen some amazing results in the 150 or so patients he's tried it on. "Virtual reality undoubtedly has an effect on the human mind."

VR's potential for use in pain management was discovered by accident. Tom Furness is a professor of industrial engineering at the University of Washington and considered to be the godfather of VR by his peers. He started looking into VR 50 years ago when he was in the Air Force, and has spun off more than 20 research projects into companies. One of them was a 1993 consumer headset that relied on a TV tuner and video tapes that sold for $799. It was a commercial flop because of the limited content, but a lot of dentists bought it.

"The dentists loved it because their patients weren't complaining," he said. The experience distracted children from their fear of injections, drilling and fillings.

That aha moment led to more research into the long-known phenomena of distraction and meditation as techniques to relieve pain. But just like Furness' attempt to bring VR to the masses, it was held up by costs. Early VR equipment for medical use cost as much as $35,000 for a headset, said Hunter Hoffman, who studied with Furness at the University of Washington.

That's all set to change this year. VR is graduating from geeky sideshow to big business and equipment prices are dropping. Oculus Rift Headset retails at $599. HTC's Vive costs $799. To get them to work, you'll need a PC that costs about $999 to run the software. The market's going to continue to expand as Sony adds the capability to their game consoles and smartphone makers upgrade their technology to get closer to the kind of performance needed to provide an effective VR experience.

The economics may make VR an attractive experiment for some hospitals. Hospital care takes up to about 30 percent of the U.S.'s annual $3 trillion in health-care spending, making it the most costly category of treatment. The price of a headset and software is tiny compared to the expense of keeping a patient in the hospital for an extra day. So if there's a chance that VR could lead to an early discharge, it may make sense for a hospital to spend on the hardware, said Cedars-Sinai's Spiegel.

Companies such as AppliedVR are already trying to make the distribution and development of the technology into a business. They're supplying hospitals with the headsets and therapeutic software. Another startup, DeepStream VR, is also working on software and systems that help patients with burns and other injuries. Its 'Cool!' software features the adventures of an otter.

They may have some work to do to keep patients interested. The VR made her feel better, but Duke quickly got bored with SnowWorld, and that diminished the painkilling effect.

"For teenagers they should find, like, different games," she said. "That game they were showing me seemed like it was for little kids."

India's economic growth likely lost some momentum in the April-June quarter on cutbacks in domestic and global demand, a Reuters poll showed.

The poll also found that economists expect the newly-passed goods and services tax (GST) will take time to have an impact on gross domestic product growth.

For April-June, the median forecast of 40 economists was for GDP growth of 7.6 percent from a year ago, slower than the 7.9 percent in the previous quarter.

The slower pace would still be rapid, by any standard. China reported 6.7 percent annual growth for April-June, and the Philippines posted 7.0 percent.

Much of India's slowdown was attributed to slumping demand. On an annual basis, the country's exports fell for 18 consecutive months until June, when they finally rose. Business surveys have pointed to slowing foreign and domestic demand.

The latest reform from the government, the goods and services tax, should transform the country into a common market and is widely expected to add up to two percentage points to the GDP growth pace after implementation.

But the median forecast of 13 economists who answered an extra question on the tax change was that GST will have no major addition to the country's GDP during the fiscal year starting April 2017, when the measure is slated to take effect.

The standard rate for GST of more than 17-18 percent "could be negative for the services economy, which is more than 60 percent of GDP," said Abhishek Upadhyay, economist at ICICI Securities.

"Net impact may be negative initially, even as medium term impact will be undoubtedly positive," he said.

But in the fiscal year 2018-19, GST is expected to increase the GDP growth rate by 0.75 percentage points.

"Near-term costs may exceed the benefits, though investment ramp-up and streamlining benefits will follow," said Vishnu Varathan, economist at Mizuho.

(Polling by Khushboo Mittal and Shaloo Shrivastava; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

Taking a dig at Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma over his skirt remarks, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said women had greater freedom to wear clothes of their choice during Vedic times as compared to "Modi times".

"Women had greater freedom to wear clothes of their choice in Vedic times than they have in Modi times," Kejriwal said in a tweet.

Women had greater freedom to wear clothes of their choice in Vedic times than they have in Modi times

https://t.co/8nKdRAhXIC

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 29, 2016

The culture minister had stoked a controversy after suggesting that women tourists should not wear skirts in India.

"For their own safety, women foreign tourists should not wear short dresses and skirts... Indian culture is different from the western (culture)," he had told reporters in Agra yesterday.

He had also said that a "welcome card" was being provided to tourists visiting India and the "do's and dont's" on the card advise women not to roam alone at night and not to wear skirts.

The comments also did not go down well with Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chief Swati Maliwal who asked Sharma to focus on governance than clothes of women. She also hit out at drawing parallels between rape and the attire of a woman.

"Rape of [a 2-year-old] is also due to wearing skirts? Improve law and order, [please] stop telling women what to wear or not wear... Can't believe politicians continue to equate rape with wearing skirt. So easy to shirk responsibility and blame a women's attire for rape," she said in a series of tweets.

Following the storm over his comment, Sharma clarified he was only referring to attires worn in places of religious worship and that he had spoken out of concern.

"I am a father of two daughters... I would never tell women what they should wear or not," a report in NDTV quoted him as saying. "Our culture is atithi devobhava (a guest is like god). Such a ban is unimaginable, but it is not a crime to be cautious. Different countries issue advisories from time to time, but I never said change anyone's way of dressing," he added.

(With PTI reports)

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The Allahabad High Court granted a three-week parole today to Nupur Talwar, who is a convict in the Aarushi Talwar murder case, to visit her ailing mother, reports said.

Nupur and her husband Rajesh Talwar were convicted for the killings of their daughter Aarushi and their domestic help, Hemraj, by the CBI court in 2013. Both of them were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.

Aarushi was found dead at the Talwars' Noida home on May 16, 2008. It was initially believed Hemraj had killed her, before Hemraj's body was recovered two days later from the terrace of the same apartment. The case was handed over to the CBI, which, after five years, declared Arushi's parents responsible for the double murder.

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Earlier today, social media was flooded with pictures of Will Smith partying with a whole bunch of Bollywood celebrities.

Ranbir Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Mahotra, Ayan Mukerji, Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Karan Johar, everybody had their fan moment with countless selfies with the Men In Black star last night. (It is quite satisfying to see Bollywood drool over a Hollywood star when usually they're the ones dealing with fans.)

OMG #freshprinceofbelair

A photo posted by Jacqueline Fernandez (@jacquelinef143) on Aug 28, 2016 at 12:20pm PDT

OMG #freshprinceofbelair

A photo posted by Jacqueline Fernandez (@jacquelinef143) on Aug 28, 2016 at 12:20pm PDT

[PICS 📷 28/08/16] HQ: Varun Dhawan at Akshay Kumar's party in honour of Hollywood superstar Will Smith! ❤ pic.twitter.com/ivJHp9kl3E

— Varun Dhawan Daily (@VarunDaily) August 29, 2016

Will Smith is in Mumbai. Nobody Knew, Till He Went to @akshaykumar's Party https://t.co/zmAUXDdaTB pic.twitter.com/bxVOpXLNLR

— NDTV Movies (@moviesndtv) August 29, 2016

When #Bollywood met #WillSmith@imWilISmith @sonakshisinha @akshaykumar @Varun_dvn @aliaa08 @Asli_Jacqueline pic.twitter.com/HM5rAKZZBI

— India Forums (@indiaforums) August 29, 2016

While Bombay Times reported that Smith was in India and "heard there are some yummy kebabs" and headed to Akshay's party to munch on the aforementioned kebabs, that isn't the most tempting reason to gatecrash someone's party, even and especially if you're a Hollywood bigshot.

The paper also said it was a success bash for Rustom, which wasn't the case, as none of the other cast members or people from the crew were present at the bash, other than Esha Gupta.

It was simply a party for Smith.

Reliable sources also told HuffPost India that Akshay and Smith have collaborated on a TV commercial that'll be aired soon. Smith's Indian visit was kept strictly under wraps and the commercial too has been shot very discreetly.

While this couldn't be independently verified either from Akshay or Twinkle (HuffPost reached out through calls and messages to both parties), the source maintained that an ad was indeed in the works.

This isn't Smith's first visit to India.

The actor had come here in 2008 first to launch Sony's Hollywood movie channel, Sony Pix during which he also visited the Taj Mahal.

After being wooed by Akshay and sampling Punjabi food, Filmfare reports that Smith is headed to Panvel to meet Salman Khan.

On contacting, Akshay Kumar's publicist said they didn't know the purpose of the visit but that Smith hadn't just "shown up" at his residence but was invited by Akshay for the party.

Also see on HuffPost:

In a bizarrely tragic incident, a 70-year-old woman was killed in Chennai when a man attempting suicide jumped off the terrace of a third-storey building and fell on her accidentally. The mishap, which took place in the Ashok Nagar area of the city last night, was reported by The Times of India.

Sharadha, 70, was sleeping outside her house when Selvam, 34, tried to kill himself but fell on her instead. Hearing her cries, neighbours rushed over to find both of them with serious injuries and took them to a hospital.

While Selvam, an autorickshaw driver who had taken the plunge after a bitter argument with his wife, is undergoing treatment for his head and leg injuries, Sharadha succumbed to her injuries.

The Kumaran Nagar police are reportedly investigating the incident.

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