Sunanda Tharoor cremated; doctors say she died a 'sudden, unnatural death'

New Delhi: The mortal remains of Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances at a luxury hotel last night, were consigned to flames today in presence of her family members.

Sunanda's 21-year-old son Shiv Menon lit the pyre. Pushkar's husband Union minister Shashi Tharoor, her father and brother were among the family members present at the Lodhi Road crematorium.

Earlier, her body was taken from AIIMS to Tharoor's residence at Lodhi Estate where a number of prominent political leaders including Defence Minister A K Antony, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit paid tributes to her.

Menon, who performed the last rites, is Sunanda's son from previous marriage.

A three-member panel of doctors headed by Dr Sudhir K Gupta had conducted an autopsy on Sunanda's body in AIIMS and stated that she died a "sudden unnatural death" with her body bearing several injury marks.

52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in a 5-star hotel in South Delhi last night, a day after her twitter spat with a Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with Tharoor. However, Sunanda and Tharoor had issued a joint statement declaring they were happily married.

The three member team of doctors conducted a post-mortem on the body this afternoon in the presence of a magistrate after which head of the panel, Dr Sudhir Gupta, who is the chief of the Forensic Sciences Department at at AIIMS, said it was a case of "sudden, unnatural death".

Dr Adarsh Kumar, Additional Professor Forensic Medicines and one of the doctors who conducted the post-mortem, was asked if poisoning has not been ruled out as cause of the death. "Of course", he replied, indicating that poisoning had not been ruled out.

"If any person is suffering from disease, the terminal event may be something else. It does not matter. Let the investigation be over," he said.

According to a source, Sunanda's body bore injuries in her hand and face but they appear unlikely to be the cause of her death. She appears to have died between 1PM and 7PM yesterday.

Sunanda was known to be suffering from stomach tuberculosis and Lupus, an auto-immune disorder which can lead to rashes or marks.

Dr Kumar confirmed that Sunanda was suffering from these health problems and said that details of her treatment had been sought.

Dr Gupta said Sunanda's body had "certain injuries" butrefused to give details. "I cannot reveal the details of the injuries. Basically, in medico-legal cases, the number of injuries does not matter. Whether these injuries relate to fatality or not matters."

A doctor said that there are cases in which a person may consume excessive alcohol and pass-out thereby losing control over their airways which get blocked leading to gastric aspiration which, in turn, causes acute pneumonia or even death.

However, doctors concerned with the case refused to speculate on the cause of the death in the absence of a complete post-mortem report.

The doctors described these as initial findings and said a clear picture would emerge after couple of days after they receive toxicological analysis and complete a visco- pathological examination. The post-mortem has been videographed.

Senior TV journalist 'joins' Aam Aadmi Party

NEW DELHI: Ashutosh, managing editor of Hindi news channel IBN7, has called it a day. Since Wednesday evening, social networking website Twitter was abuzz with news of a senior journalist quitting his job and joining Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party.

In a series of tweets, Ashutosh announced his resignation on Twitter.

On Jan 8, he tweeted: "Journalism, my passion, IBN7 my baby! When I look back I remember the week I joined profession, Nelson Mandela was released, history changed."

"These are again historic moments, societal churning is on, everybody has to contribute to make the change robust and beautiful."

"Life is beautiful and unpredictability makes it more enchanting. I am living one of those moments."

"Eight years back I changed my course, now there is another time, another call of destiny, have to swim - have to swim."

"IBN7 is my blood. IBN7 is my bones. It's my body, it's my soul. It's me."

On Thursday afternoon, he tweeted, "Yes I have resigned".

While Ashutosh has confirmed his resignation, he has not yet confirmed that he will be joining A

He told ANI, "I have resigned from IBN7, can't say about joining, but I am a great fan of AAP, they are agents of change".

Ashutosh, who has done his MPhil in Soviet Studies and MA in International Studies, has also written a book on anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare's movement.

Prior to joining IBN7, he was the member of Hindi news channel AajTak for more than ten years.

Other former journalists in the AAP include Manish Sisodia, who is presently education minister of Delhi and Shazia Ilmi. Delhi minister Rakhi Birla, too, was an intern at a news channel.

 

BJP condemns attack on AAP

BJP today condemned the attack on Aam Aadmi Party office near New Delhi allegedly carried out by some right-wing activists, saying no one has any right to resort to violence. "We surely condemn the attack on AAP office, because no one has any right to take the law unto their hands. We will never support anyone doing such an act," party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said. She was commenting on an attack on AAP office in Kaushambi in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of Delhi this morning, apparently to protest against its leader Prashant Bhushan's comment that deployment of army in Jammu and Kashmir should be on the basis of opinion of the people of the state. Sitharaman at the same time slammed Bhushan for the comments on Kashmir. "We also should remember Prashant Bhushan's comments on Kashmir, which is an integral part of India. What Prashant Bhushan has said on Kashmir, we condemn that also," she said. Around 40 activists of Hindu Raksha Dal broke flower pots kept outside the AAP's office and tore party posters. Some glass doors were also smashed in the attack. Police said no one was injured in the attack. "We today staged a protest against AAP's stand on Kashmir. AAP leader Prashant Bhushan's remark on Kashmir are very sad for Hindus due to which we staged a protest outside the party office," said Pinky Choudhary, national convenor, Hindu Raksha Dal.

BJP defends Modi, calls PM's tenure 'wasted opportunity'

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remarks that Narendra Modi as Prime Minister will be disastrous for the nation, saying it is unfortunate that such language is used even after a court and SIT have given the BJP leader a clean chit.

The Prime Minister's words did not add to the dignity of the high office he holds, it said.

Attacking Singh for not taking steps to curb inflation, corruption and not create employment oppotunities during his 10 years of prime ministership, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley termed his tenure as a "wasted opportunity" and accused him of not providing any direction to a developing society like India.

BJP president Rajnath Singh while condemning the remarks also said that the Prime Minister had admitted to the dual power centre that existed in the UPA government, a contention that the saffron party has been making for quite some time.

"The use of such language against Narendra Modi does not add to the dignity of Prime Minister's office. The dirty tricks department of the Congress party has carried out certain tricks against Narendra Modi. If the dirty tricks department used such language, it was understandable. I am sure the Prime Minister of India is not a party of that dirty tricks department," Jaitley said.

Rajnath Singh said that the Prime Minister has accepted that the next government is not going to be that of UPA and that is why is has opted himself out for a third term.

"I condemn this statement(on Modi) of the Prime Minister. It is very unfortunate that the Prime Minister is saying this even when the SIT and court have given him a clean chit," he said.

The BJP chief said it was "laughable" to make such a statement even when Modi as chief minister has presented Gujarat as a model state in the country through the development work initiated by him there.

"It is a laughable statement to say that he should not be the Prime Minister as during his tenure riots have taken place in Gujarat. Modi in his tenure as chief minister has presented Gujarat as a model of development and a model state in the country," he said.

"Whatever has happened in 2002 is unfortunate and painful," he added.

Jaitley hit out at the Prime Minister for using the logic of 2009 Congress victory to brush aside charges of corruption during UPA 1 and said this can be used as a logic by criminals after they win elections.

He said Singh's government has failed to deliver on its promise of curbing corruption and inflation and increasing employment opportunities.

"He ( PM) manufactured a new logic. This new logic that electoral sanction of a corrupt government wipes out the allegations of corruption ... The logic of Manmohan Singh can be used by criminals also when they win elections. There is anger in society that criminals are entering politics," he said.

With its failure to tackle corruption, mounting inflation and unemployment, the government has prepared a "perfect recipe for disaster," he said.

Reacting to the statements made by the Prime Minister during his press conference, Rajnath Singh said he has admitted that his government has failed to control rising prices and corruption and could not create enough employment opportunities.

"Instead of listing out his achievements, the Prime Minister has instead listed out the failures... This government has proved a failure on all fronts. The Prime Minister has admitted that there is a dual power centre...

"The Prime Minister has tried to justify whatever BJP has been saying that due to dual power centre you cannot expect anything good from this government. That the freedom to take decisions has been completely eroded," he said.

Lamenting that the Prime Minister did not talk about national security during his press conference, he said this government has also proved a "failure" on the issue of internal and external security.

The BJP president said it was "laughable" to say that UPA has done better than NDA and claimed that India had become current-account deficit, growth rate had reduced and economic disparity had increased and employment opportunities had reduced during this government.

AAP government wins confidence vote in Delhi Assembly

New Delhi: The minority Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government today won a critical trust vote in the Delhi assembly after all eight Congress legislators extended their support to it.

With only 28 legislators in the 70-member house, the AAP needed the backing of the Congress - whose 15-year rule ended in December - to remain in office.

Eventually, the confidence vote moved by AAP leader and Education Minister Manish Sisodia was passed 37-32. The 31-strong Bharatiya Janata Party and the sole Akali Dal legislator voted against the government.

Narendra Modi questions Jharkhand's poverty

Jharkhand is endowed with rich natural and human resources and yet it has remained poor despite 13 years since the new state came into being, Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said on Sunday.

Addressing a public rally in Ranchi, Modi said if a survey report was submitted to the leading economists of the world, they would certainly say that the state would have been among the most prosperous regions in the world, if the resources were properly utilised.

"Why is Jharkhand is still poor and poverty is growing even if it has rich resources?" Modi wondered and then gave the answer himself: "I would say the party in whose Independence should reply."
He said that the people of the region had been demanding a separate state for a long time to determine their own destiny, but the "sultanate" in Delhi did not hear and rejected the demand.

"It was former prime minister A B Vajpayee who understood the aspirations and dreams of the people of the region and created the state along with Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh," Modi said.

"The new state was created accepting that it will be 'progressive', but why has it not happened in 13 years?" Modi wondered, comparing the state with Chhattisgarh which, he said, had "sped away on the path of development".

He attributed Chhattisgarh's "success" to the people's desire for development and for the BJP.

He said the next five years would be crucial for the state.

Referring to a sick PSU in Ranchi, he stated how he had revived Gujarat Fertiliser Corporation which was on the verge of closure by ensuring professionalism and technological upgradation and above all putting a cap on unnecessary expenditure.