Never expected Anna to react like this to Pawar incident: Digvijaya

Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare has received a lot of flak for his initial reaction on hearing the news of Union minister Sharad Pawar being slapped by a man in Delhi.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday criticised Hazare for his reaction.


Singh tweeted, "Never

expected Anna to react the way he did to Sharad Pawar incident. It certainly was not a Gandhian Reaction."


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On Thursday, many leaders including Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah and Congress leader Manish Tewari had criticised Hazare.

Just days after calling for the public flogging of alcoholics, the social activist created another controversy with his reaction to the assault of Sharad Pawar: "Ek hi mara kya (was he slapped only once)?"

Immediately after making this remark at a press conference, the 72-year-old retreated into his house.

He emerged seconds later and made a complete U-turn: "He (the attacker) may be very angry. This is not good. Anger is not good. Our Constitution does not tell us to be violent with anyone."

As criticism poured in, Hazare clarified: "I was asking them (reporters) if he was only slapped or if anything else happened to him."

"However, if it is perceived that I have said something wrong, I am ready to apologise," he added.

Hazare and Pawar, both from Maharashtra, have been at odds for almost two decades now. In the last assembly election, Hazare had in a public statement accused the union agriculture minister of corruption, land grabbing and use of muscle power.

The last time they tangled was over the Lavasa project, when Hazare accused Pawar of protecting the hill city project near Pune because of a personal interest in it.

Sachin Tendulkar misses 100th international century

MUMBAI: Millions of Sachin Tendulkar fans were left disappointed as the iconic batsman again came very close to his historic 100th international century only to miss it by six runs in the third Test against the West Indies at theWankhede stadium on Friday.

There was a deathly silence at Tendulkar's home ground as pacer Ravi Rampaul turned the "villain" by dismissing their favourite hero.

Interestingly, West Indies captain Darren Sammy's statement on Thursday evening that he intended to "break a few Indian hearts" turned out to be prophetic as he took a sharp catch at the second slip off Rampaul delivery that bounced a trifle more with Tendulkar trying to play a square drive.

The disappointment was writ large on his face as he slowly trudged back to the pavilion with the crowd stunned into silence.

Starting on his overnight score of 67, the legendary batsman was in a mood to get the coveted ton as quickly as possible.

The second new ball taken by rival skipper Sammy didn't pose any problems as Tendulkar was sweetly timing the ball. In fact he reached the 90s hitting a six off Fidel Edwards employing the upper cut over third man.

He also ran a few quick singles with his partner Virat Kohli. His 153-ball knock contained eight boundaries and a couple of sixes hit in an identical manner off Edwards.

Tendulkar's last international century came on March 12 during a World Cup group league match against South Africa at Nagpur. It's been more than eight months that the entire nation has been waiting with bated breath for the elusive century.

Tendulkar scored most of his initial runs on Friday with the flick shot as the West Indian pacers bowled at his pads.

He flicked Rampaul for a two and a four off his legs but then saw overnight partner VVS Laxman perish to the first ball the latter faced, caught at gully trying to drive.

But Virat Kohli, the new batsman in his fourth Test, was looking very confident while Tendulkar at the other end played a glorious straight-drive off Rampaul which streaked to the boundary line even before the bowler could stop in his run up.

Then came the over from Edwards that proved extremely fruitful as Tendulkar took 14 runs that included a classic front-footed off drive and the cut over third man for a six when the bowler pitched short and wide.

That took the right-hander to 93, a single off the bowler in Edwards' next over getting him to one shot short of the landmark century of tons.

Kohli hit a four off Rampaul and then Tendulkar got the strike in the same over which proved to be his last, as he reached for the ball to drive and ended up giving a catch to the slip cordon.

FDI in retail: Retailer shares rally

MUMBAI: Shares in retailers jumped on Friday after the government moved to open up the supermarket sector to global giants, a decision seen prompting a flurry of investments and tie-up opportunities for local players.

The government on Thursday approved 51 percent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, paving the entry of international firms such as Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour into the $450 billion market.

"FDI in multi-brand retail would benefit capital-constrained retailers such as Pantaloon Retail," Wall Street bank JPMorgan said in a research note on Friday.


"Accelerating the pace of investment in the supply chain to meet demands of increasing scale and enhancing efficiencies... besides expertise of foreign retailers."

Shares in Pantaloon Retail (India) jumped as much as 18.2 percent, Shopper's Stop rallied 11.4 percent, and Trent, part of the salt-to-steel Tata Group conglomerate, rose 17.2 percent.

In comparison, the BSE Sensex was down 0.7 percent at 9:35am (0405 GMT).

The government said late on Thursday that would also raise the cap on foreign investment in single-brand retailing to 100 percent from 51 percent.

The new rules may commit supermarkets to strict local sourcing requirements and minimum investment levels aimed at protecting jobs, according to local media.

Bollywood's Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has baby girl

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has given birth to a baby girl, her husband Abhishek Bachchan announced on Twitter on Wednesday.

While the baby's father just said "it's a girl", her proud grandfather Amitabh Bachchan -- a veteran actor and head of Bollywood's most famous family -- could barely contain his joy.

"I AM DADA (grandfather) to the cutest baby girl!!" the 69-year-old Bachchan tweeted.

No further details were immediately available.

Rai, 38, a former Miss World, has been married to actor Abhishek Bachchan for more than four years and the star couple had been fending off baby rumours for months before the pregnancy was confirmed in June.

The Bollywood actress had been expected to give birth to her first child in November, and the Indian media followed her pregnancy obsessively.

She was admitted to a Mumbai hospital on Monday night.

Rai, who often features on "most beautiful" lists, won the Miss World crown in 1994. She went on to build a successful Bollywood career with hits such as "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" and "Devdas".

She has also worked in Hollywood films such as "The Pink Panther 2" and is a regular at the Cannes film festival.

This is the third grandchild for Amitabh Bachchan. His daughter Shweta has two children.