Rajkumar Hirani denies the charges of sexual assault

Renowned Bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani has been named in the #MeToo allegation row. However, the director has claimed the allegations against him are baseless and he did not assaulted the colleague, who claims that Hirani tried sexual advances for as long as a period of six months.

Hirani is one of the most respected member of the industry and so far the most high-profile personality to be named with the #MeToo movement.

An anonymous woman, who allegedly worked with Rajkumar in his last picture Sanju as an assistant has said that he sexually assaulted her.

The allegations came out when first published in Huff Post India on January 13th.

As per the complainant, Hirani assaulted her first on 9th April at his home and then a number of time during the post-production work of film Sanju. The assault period lasted till September 2018. Rajkumar Hirani’s lawyer has just released a statement, in which, they denied the allegations. The statement reads as below:
"I was completely shocked when these allegations were brought to my notice about two months ago. I had suggested immediately that it is essential to take this matter to any committee or legal body. The complainant has chosen to go to the media instead. I want to very strongly state that this is a false, malicious and mischievous story being spread with the sole intention of destroying my reputation,".

In the Huff post published report, they quoted a mail dated November 2018 which reads, "My mind, body and heart were grossly violated that night and for the next 6 months." The accuser was referring to the April 9th assault.

Hirani is one of the best directors in Bollywood known for his great films such as Munna Bhai MBBS & 3 Idiots.

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PM Modi & Trump discussed the US trade deficit & Afghanistan issue: White House

In a statement, the White House said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the U.S. President Trump had a telephonic call on Monday, wherein, they discussed about lowering the US trade deficit with India and on increasing their cooperation in Afghanistan.

The official White House statement read, "The leaders agreed to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership in 2019 and exchanged perspectives on how to reduce the US trade deficit with India, expand security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, and increase cooperation in Afghanistan,"
Recently, the US Administration raised the tariffs on import of steel and aluminum from India, recently. This was one of the major step taken by the administration, under the Trump’s drive to reduce the U.S. deficit and promote manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

While India threatened the U.S. for a strong retaliation, it also added that the country won’t take any action until the end of this month.

Prime Minister Modi and President Trump also discussed about the two countries cooperating at the Afghanistan issue. As per the records, a U.S. official recently declared that President Trump is planning to withdraw a major segment of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The news suggest that out of 14000 U.S. Troops, Trump will recall 5000. 

The reduced presence of U.S. Military in Afghanistan means that there would be minimization of the mission of training Afghan forces and waging an air campaign against the Taliban and other militant groups. 

On the other hand, Trump seems to be in trouble with his border wall project. Recently, Trump gave a statement wherein he said that the ex-Presidents of America wanted to install the border wall. However, 4 ex-presidents have already declined the statement, claiming it is not true.
"This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me," Trump said. "And they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it."

Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter have said that the statement is false.
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Sachin Tendulkar’s Coach, Ramakant Achrekar Passed Away

When we talk about remarkable performance in cricket we cannot miss on to Sachin Tendulkar who has been a phenomenal player. During his period of the game he was loved by the people and on his last match people cried and give him the title of Sir. The man who is behind the success of this great cricketer is Ramakant Achrekar, his coach who just left for heavenly abode on Wednesday. He was a celebrated cricket coach and all the players respected him like anything.

He was 87 years old and according to a family member, had been suffering from old age-related ailments for the past few days. “He (Archrekar Sir) is no more with us. He passed away this evening,” his kin Rashmi Dalvi said.

Achrekar has battled in just one first-class match in his playing career but open and shaped the biggest batsman in international cricket after Sir Donald Bradman in Tendulkar, who is now retired, is the proud owner of all the batting records that were there for the taking in the game which comprises of the highest runs in Tests (15,921) and ODIs (18,426).

Achrekar is most famous for being his childhood coach and has always been appreciated by the celebrated right-hander for the role he played in making his career as a child. Tendulkar was trained by Achrekar at the Shivaji Park here.

“’Sir never said well-played to me ever, (but) I knew (when) Sir has taken me to eat bhelpuri or paani-puri, Sir is happy, I have done something nice on the field,” Tendulkar had said last year at an event when he was remembering the Achrekar’s involvement in making him the cricketer he became.

Achrekar was also awarded the Padmashri award in 2010. Besides Tendulkar, he also trained other famous players such as Vinod Kambli, Pravin Amre, Sameer Dighe and Balwinder Singh Sandhu.