Bharatiya vidya bhavan

SINGAPORE - Jeremy Monteiro, composer and music director of several National Day songs, was in the recording studio when Count On Me, Singapore - now the song at the centre of plagiarism claims - was written. The song was composed by Canadian Hugh Harrison and arranged by Monteiro in 1986, but Indian composer Joseph Mendoza, who has been accused of copying it, claims he wrote his version, We Can Achieve, three years before in 1983. The songs are near identical, with the lyrics to Count On Me, Singapore changed to "India" or "Mother India" instead of "Singapore" on We Can Achieve. Home-grown jazz stalwart Monteiro vividly recalls the song's writing process. He tells The Straits Times it first kicked off in late 1985, at the now defunct B&J Recording Studios near Ayer Rajah which he owned with radio personality Brian Richmond. "As Hugh Harrison was writing the song, I was sitting right next to him," says the 60-year-old. "He is a lyricist and melodicist, and so I was there ... » Learn More about Count On Me, Singapore saga: Jeremy Monteiro was present when song was written in recording studio

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Voting began in Assam and West Bengal on Saturday in state elections that will show how support for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding up following a coronavirus-stricken year, and months of protests by farmers against his agricultural reforms. Re-elected for a second five-year term in 2019, Modi's grip on power is under no threat, but the elections in the two eastern states are the first since the farmers launched protests that have been mainly in the north, around the capital Delhi. It was the first phase of voting in both states, and the results won't be known for months. For all the concerns over the coronavirus, politicians out on the campaign trail often showed scant regard for social distancing, but as people waited in long queues outside polling centres in West Bengal on Saturday, security personnel and election workers handed out masks, sanitizers and gloves. Modi and his home minister Amit Shah campaigned aggressively for ... » Learn More about India begins voting in two eastern states in key test for Modi

The election in West Bengal is the most important with the BJP pushing hard to win power KOLKATA - One person was killed and a candidate's car attacked Saturday as India's worst hotbed of political violence West Bengal held elections, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to unseat one of his fiercest opponents. Victory in the eastern region of 90 million would be a major achievement for Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as it looks to expand further its power base beyond its Hindi-speaking northern heartlands. But in a state where thousands have died since the 1960s, fresh incidents of violence were reported with police saying that a mob attacked the vehicle of a communist party candidate in one district. The president of the BJP in the state Dilip Ghosh said that one of its supporters were killed by members of the ruling Trinamool Congress party in the same area in the early hours. "His body was found in the compound of his mud hut," he said. Because of ... » Learn More about One dead as restive Indian state votes

Indian police have arrested 514 people for deadly Hindu-Muslim violence that broke out in the capital, the government said, as it faced mounting international criticism for failing to protect minority Muslims. Police said the toll from days of blood-letting stood at 35, but local media, citing unnamed sources, said it was likely to be more than 40 as the full extent of the violence that began on Sunday in a densely-packed locality in northeastern Delhi becomes clear. Police are still searching drains and homes that were burnt down for bodies, officers said. More forces had been deployed at mosques in the area for the weekly Friday prayers, the government said. There had been no new violence since Wednesday morning, it said in a statement late on Thursday. The violence began over a citizenship law that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government introduced in December providing a path to Indian citizenship for six religious groups from neighbouring countries, but ... » Learn More about Indian police arrest over 500 for Delhi sectarian violence