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A Village Burnt Overnight: Tears, Loss and Survival in Dhamangaon Blaze

  Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...

Vote for credible party, honest individuals: VHP chief

By Dheeraj Fartode
Steering clear of any political controversy International working president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Dr Pravin Togadia on Sunday urged people to vote for candidates and party which has stature, credibility and morality. At the same time, he took pot-shots at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) without naming it for forgetting the core issues of Ram temple, common civil code and Article 370.  
Addressing a press conference at VHP office, Dr Togadia urged people to check past performance of the parties and select only thouse who honoured their commitments. VHP has no political agenda and the organisation is not supporting anyone, he clarified. 
Dr Pravin Togadia
Dubbing UPA led Government as ‘biased’ on the issue of formation of Minority Development Corporation, Dr Togadia said, why the corporation was formed only for minorities while ignoring other poor and needy Indians and also criticised the government for distributing scholarship to only minority community students. 
VHP leader slammed all parties for ignoring Hindu cause, welfare of majority community and indulging in minority appeasement to grab power. Hindu society must assert itself only then a Ram Temple at Ayodhya will become a reality, he emphatically stated. 
Dr Togadia refused to answer any query about his strained relationship with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and said that as he is leader of VHP, his views are not different than VHP’s agenda.
VHP Vidarbha President Vijayjeet Walia, Vice-president Dr Hemant Jambhekar and secretary Ajay Nildawar were present at the press conference. 

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