India Tales: RSS now blaming Ashoka for fall of Akhand Bharat?

After targeting Mughal emperor Akbar, the Sangh Parivar has raised question marks over the legacy of Ashoka the Great. As per a report published in an English newspaper, it has been claimed in an RSS-affiliated magazine that the reason behind downfall of 'Akhand Bharat' was the policy of non-violence adopted by Ashoka after his conversion to Buddhism, which opened the frontiers for foreign invaders.

As per article, the followers of Ashoka, after their conversion from Hinduism to Buddhism, betrayed the country by helping Greek invaders. These invaders had paved the way for the spread of Buddhism by destroying Vedic religion and culture.

This article was featured in the May issue of a magazine published by the Rashtriya Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, which is affiliated to the Sangh's Adivasi wing. It praised Ashoka's work before his conversion to Buddhism, but criticised him for promoting non-violent policies, which were 'detrimental to the integrity and safety of Bharat'.

The article says that it is a matter of regret that a king who was responsible for downfall of Bharat is called Ashoka the Great, and is idolised. The article further says that it would have been better had Ashoka relinquished the throne, like Gautam Buddha himself, to promote Buddhism.

As the state of Punjab struggles with problems like drug and liquor addiction among its youth, it is also facing charges for involving women in the smuggling of drugs.

Recently, important information came to the fore in an inquiry after the police arrested two women in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar.

Police caught two women hailing from Punjab on the evening of 26 June. Cops claimed that Sona Rani, a resident of Bhiki village in the Mansa district of Punjab, and Chindra Kaur from Joga village of the same district, brought drugs along with them from Jodhpur, in spite of the ban in place in Rajasthan.

The accused women divulged in the interrogation that many such women from Punjab are involved in the business of drug smuggling.

According to police, the women confessed that they already had cases against them in various police stations of Punjab in this regard. It is their 'bread and butter' and helps fulfill basic needs.

The investigatve officer, Ganesh Kumar Bishnoi, said the arrested women requested the cops to keep a portion of the drugs and release them. During interrogation, the women exposed that the Punjab Police keeps the entire stuff, or arrests them and keeps a small portion before releasing them.

Both arrested women belong to the Kehlo gang, which operates near the Rajasthan-Punjab border and is involved in a lot of other crimes.

The holy month of Ramzan fills Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, with the great fragrance of feni, doubling its sweetness.

The sweetmeat is a speciality of the state of Rajasthan and the city of Kanpur, and is unique because it has a set temperature that needs to be maintained during preparation - 10 degrees Celsius.

Feni cooks are specially called in from Rajasthan and Kanpur for a month. They make three varieties of the delicious dish, and the city consumes 15 quintals of it everyday - or about 450 quintals throughout the holy month.

The price of feni ranges from Rs 70 to Rs 120 per kilogram, depending on the ingredients used - with the saffron and almond (badami) varieties being the most expensive.

There are three wholesale businessmen who handle a large chunk of the business, while more than 125 small businessmen who sell it in the streets and bylanes of Khandwa.

The chief wholesaler of feni in the city, Naseer Khan, emphasises the importance of feni in Ramzan. Its rich contents - sugar, maida, saffron and pure ghee - provide much-needed protein and energy to the faithful during the fasts.

From Khandwa, feni goes across the whole of Central India, reaching Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik and many other cities of Maharashtra.

In Alwar, a youth tricked a woman and withdrew Rs 20,000 from the ATM.

The woman, who works at the Alwar depot of the Rajasthan Roadways, had gone to the ATM to withdraw money.

Alka Bharati, who works as a mechanic, walked up to the SBBJ ATM at the bus stop, where the youth was already standing. As she entered the ATM booth, the youth warned her that it was not working, but at the same time, he encouraged her saying, 'try once'.

So she went in, and as soon as she fed in her PIN number, he came in offering to help. He entered another PIN number, but even after processing, when no money came out, she went to another ATM on Manu Marg.

She inserted the card, trying to extract Rs 5,000 but the machine said she had too little cash in her account. The ATM slip informed her that her account balance was just Rs 815, whereas it had been over Rs 20,000 before.

She came back to the bus stop ATM but the youth had disappeared. She reported the matter to the police.