Confidence booster M N Girisha,the high jumper from Karnataka who won India a silver at the London Paralympics,was also the lone Indian medal winner at the 2009 International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports World Games in Bangalore. After winning that bronze,he had lamented the lack of support for athletes like him. Coming from a needy family,Girisha said he had gone against his parents wishes in pursuing sports and had to beg and borrow. At the 2009 event,arrangements were poor and those in wheelchairs struggled to get in and out of the Kanteerva Stadium. Girisha had said that what foreign athletes were facing were part of the everyday struggles of the disabled to fit into life in big Indian cities. On his arrival from the Paralympics,Girisha hoped he could be an example for others struggling with confidence issues. Wrong photograph The arrest of a deputy chancellor attached to the consul general of France in Bangalore on charges of raping his daughter that were brought by his Indian wife triggered a media frenzy for pictures of the French official. One local television channel captured images of a man at a police station and began identifying the images over a couple of days as those of the accused official,Pascal Mazurier. The French authorities were forced to issue a public statement and a letter to the channel stating that the images were not of Pascal Mazurier. His wife had alleged that their daughter had been raped on June 13 and produced a medical report from Bangalores Baptist Hospital to support her complaint. BJP plot in arrests The arrest of 11 youths from Hubli on terrorism charges has been termed a conspiracy of the ruling BJP by the families of many of the arrested. The inability of the Bangalore police to state the exact nature of investigations leading to the arrests has not helped matters. This is the handiwork of the BJP to gain Hindu votes ahead of elections next year. The government has been mired in scams and corruption so this case has been created to divert attention, says the father of one of arrested youths. How could they wage war against the country with two guns? says another parent. One charge is the youths were targeting right-wing journalists. Are these boys stupid to think they can kill everyone with right-wing links? says the brother of one of the accused. Deputy CM vs mayor A simmering battle between deputy chief minister and Home Minister R Ashok and Bangalore mayor Venkatesh Murthy,his one-time protege,is threatening to dethrone the former. It is reported to have started with the mayor,who was handpicked by Ashok,refusing to dance to his mentors tunes. A case was subsequently filed accusing the mayor of obtaining seven acres in Bangalore through falsified claims of being a landless farmer. The mayor hit back stating that he had obtained the land meant for the landless at the behest of Ashok,who was the local legislator and empowered to make recommendations for bagair hukum land. The case has now been stayed in courts. It is,however,threatening to make the deputy chief minister the latest in a line of BJP leaders to fall to corruption charges.
